Russia Gets Nervous?

Posted on 19 June 2019 by eehines

That’s the thesis of James Marson and Thomas Grove in their recent Wall Street Journal article. It seems the US and allies have been running a number of training exercises in the Baltic Sea and in eastern Europe, and we’ve agreed to plus up (trivially) the number of soldiers we station in Poland—at Poland’s request. This is making Russia nervous.

Mikhail Barabanov, of the Moscow-based Center for the Analysis of Systems and Technologies:

Russia sees the exercise as a preparation to deploy large NATO forces across the Baltic region[.]

This is a preview of Russia Gets Nervous?. Read the full post (239 words, estimated 57 secs reading time)

(Partially) Self-Driving Cars

Posted on 19 June 2019 by eehines

Christopher Mims had an article in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal that talked about the technology involved in controlling self-driving cars is slowing the introduction of production-ready self-driving cars. Aspects of that technology are making their way into human-driven cars, obviating the need for computer-run cars.

I have some thoughts on that. Because opinions are my jam.

Mims led off his piece with this about that technology in a more current car that remains fundamentally human-driven:

It will take over when it thinks you’re making a mistake.

This is a preview of (Partially) Self-Driving Cars. Read the full post (452 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Votes or Humans?

Posted on 18 June 2019 by eehines

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren proposed legislation Friday that would allocate $7 billion in federal grants to help minority entrepreneurs start businesses.

This is just more of the soft bigotry of low expectations inherent in Progressive-Democrats. They simply don’t believe that minorities can compete without special treatment, so they regulate the hell out of our economy and then generate handouts to prop up those most damaged by their regulations.

On the other hand, it’s a way to keep minorities trapped in Progressive-Democrats’ welfare cages, because votes.

This is a preview of Votes or Humans?. Read the full post (144 words, estimated 35 secs reading time)

No Fair

Posted on 18 June 2019 by eehines

The United Auto Workers lost another attempt to “organize” Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, TN, factory; its latest move was voted down last Friday 833-776. Tennessee is a right-to-work State, and those factory workers rudely exercised their right to work free of union interference.

Naturally, the UAW has its collective panties in a collective twist. The loss is unfair, you see, because it’s always unfair when a union (or any faction of the Left, come to that) loses a contest. Brian Rothenberg, a UAW spokesman, made this nonsense plain:

Our labor laws are broken[.]

Well, they must be—they don’t guarantee a union victory.

This is a preview of No Fair. Read the full post (256 words, estimated 1:01 mins reading time)

“Radical-Right” and the Left

Posted on 17 June 2019 by eehines

The Washington Post ran a panic-mongering op-ed about the Supreme Court last week.

Last month, the new conservative majority—being driven by Justices Neil M Gorsuch and Brett M Kavanaugh—signaled that this change is coming. In overruling a 40-year-old precedent governing how state governments can be sued, the new court majority, all of whom pledged reverence for precedent during their Senate confirmation hearings—sang a different song: “stare decisis is ‘not an inexorable command,’ … and is ‘at its weakest’ when interpreting the Constitution.” This was the second time in less than a year that the conservative majority has tossed aside decades-old precedent.

This is a preview of “Radical-Right” and the Left. Read the full post (472 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Socialism

Posted on 17 June 2019 by eehines

It seems Amazon has teamed with another company to create and issue a credit card that would be issuable to Amazon’s Prime members. It doesn’t matter what the purpose and parameters of the card are—they’re legal under existing law.

But none of that matters. Senator and Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I, VT) and his trophy BFF, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D, NY), object to the card because it doesn’t suit their requirements. And since they object, they’ve vowed to destroy the card, should Sanders be elected President.

This is a preview of Socialism. Read the full post (211 words, estimated 51 secs reading time)

Appeals to Courts Vice Voters Vice….

Posted on 16 June 2019 by eehines

Wisconsin’s Progressive-Democrats failed at the polls, for all that they won the Governor’s and Attorney General’s chairs in 2018, so they tried to get the courts to impose their policies by judicial fiat. That failed, too, so now what? How can these Know Betters get their plans imposed on the unwashed citizenry?

It seems that the duly elected State legislature and duly elected State governor had passed a number of laws that limited the power of the Governor and the State Attorney General. The fact that these laws were enacted after those 2018 elections and before the new Governor and Attorney General took office was somehow supposed to delegitimize those laws. Or so the Progressive-Democrat Governor and AG insisted. The people were still speaking, but they should not be listened to.

This is a preview of Appeals to Courts Vice Voters Vice….. Read the full post (298 words, estimated 1:12 mins reading time)

It’s a Start

Posted on 15 June 2019 by eehines

Germany has shown, with its welching on its commitment to spend 2% of its GDP on bolstering NATO, that it has no interest in Europe’s mutual defense. That, though, does not alter the threat to European security represented by Russia other than to increase it.

I’m reminded of a remark President Abraham Lincoln made about General George McClellan and the army the latter commanded: If McClellan does not want to use the army, I should like to borrow it a while. Since Germany isn’t interested in Europe’s defense, isn’t even interested in getting up a serious defense establishment of any sort (McClellan was strongly interested in this much), our forces are better placed elsewhere.

This is a preview of It’s a Start. Read the full post (268 words, estimated 1:04 mins reading time)

Surprise Medical Billing

Posted on 14 June 2019 by eehines

The Wall Street Journal recounted one such example and a (partial, I say) solution in Benedic Ippolito’s (of the American Enterprise Institute) Tuesday op-ed.

The example was a man with a broken jaw who was transported, unconscious, to a hospital ER for treatment. The hospital turned out to be in his medical insurance network, but the treating surgeon turned out not to be. The latter’s bill was for $8,000, which the insurer refused to pay. The man was unaware of that fee until after the treatment had been effected.

This is a preview of Surprise Medical Billing. Read the full post (318 words, estimated 1:16 mins reading time)

A Misunderstanding

Posted on 13 June 2019 by eehines

…and why a Labour Party government would be a disaster for Great Britain (and not just because of Jeremy Corbyn’s blatant socialism bent). In a Deutsche Welle piece about Boris Johnson’s move to replace Theresa May as party head (and presumably as Prime Minister, at least until the next general election), the news outlet quoted Labour Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer:

The debate on Brexit in the Tory leadership contest…[n]one of the likely candidates for the top job has a credible plan for how to break the deadlock before the end of October.

This is a preview of A Misunderstanding. Read the full post (297 words, estimated 1:11 mins reading time)

A Plebe's Site

Quam bene vivas referre, non quam diu.

Category Archives: politics