Grassroots

The Progressive-Democratic Party has them.

Violent clashes erupted in Washington, DC, between protesters and police after the conclusion of the Republican National Convention (RNC) on Thursday night.

And

Protesters yelled and threw water bottles at police at the historic St John’s Church….

And

US Senator Rand Paul (R, KY) said he was attacked by a “crazed mob” of more than 100 people after leaving the White House following President Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

And

An elderly couple was confronted as they crossed the street by at least one protester who screamed at them while making an obscene gesture, according to a video.

And the ongoing rioting and looting in Progressive-Democrat-run cities, like Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York City, ….

These are the Progressive-Democratic Party’s grass roots.

This is why no one in Party talked about those rioters and looters Party’s poll numbers started to fall, why Progressive-Democrats were deafeningly silent all through their convention and in the weeks before that.

It’s why, even now, they’re commenting only in empty platitudes, with no concrete intention, much less an actual plan, to act against the violence.

Governance

Holman Jenkins, using the current state of energy deliverance in California as his backdrop, is concerned about the governance of the State.

Which introduces our larger theme. The only hope for the many, many things ailing the Golden State is better governance.

Which introduces the encompassing theme. The citizens of the Golden State keep electing the politicians that deliver the present quality of governance.

It’s not the politicians who are failing the citizens; they’re only doing what they’ve been hired to do.

It’s the California citizens who are failing California’s citizens.

An Urging

New York State’s governor, Andrew Cuomo (D), has taken to asking those who’ve left the State to return—especially the rich and especially to New York City.

New York City’s mayor, Bill de Blasio (D), has taken a more blasé attitude. He’s in the What, Me Worry? camp; folks will come back. Even the rich.

I have to ask, though.

Why would anyone want to return to New York City? De Blasio has made the place unlivable, and the Internet has made the place unnecessary.

They Shouldn’t Let the Door Hit Them

on the way out.

Norway’s largest private money manager, Storebrand Asset Management, excluded and divested itself of more than two dozen listed companies under its new climate change policy, citing concerns with lobbying, coal, and oil sands.

Virtue signaling climate justice is more important than making money for a company’s owners. Which money and associated investment profits are the only means of amassing the wealth necessary to do anything substantive about our environment (which is useful) or about our climate (which need is dubious at best).

Of course, the other alternative, which would be the end game if enough climate justice warriors succeeded en masse, is global impoverishment and the shutdown of modern economies. That, as the now known to be foolish lockdowns have shown, reduced pollution to a significant degree, even if they had little effect on climate.

Luv ya, Storebrand, mean it, buh bye.

Oh, and I won’t be investing my pennies in Storebrand.

Facebook’s Targeted Ads

Facebook is upset with Apple because the latter, with the privacy changes (improvements?) it has made to its upcoming iPhone software, will greatly hinder the former’s ability to generate targeted ads on apps outside of Facebook’s.

Note, though: Facebook can’t deliver targeted ads without first tracking us.

Apple’s move, then, to the extent Facebook’s characterization is accurate, can’t be all bad on two counts: users won’t be limited in what they see regarding specific products or products in general, which is what targeted ads do, and users won’t be tracked as effectively, which is another purpose of ad targeting.

But, Facebook complains, Apple’s software changes

will affect its Audience Network business….

It’ll affect one of Facebook’s business models.

Willy Sutton’s business model was to go where the money is. Go there often. Maybe he should have been left alone, too.