Monthly Archives: April 2016

The Obama Legacy

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Peabody Energy Corp on Wednesday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from its creditors just weeks after warning that it could do so, the latest in a string of bankruptcies that have ricocheted through the US coal-mining industry.

The move by St Louis-based Peabody, the largest US coal mining company, follows on the heels of similar moves by Arch Coal Inc, Alpha Natural Resources, Inc, Patriot Coal Corp and Walter Energy, Inc.

Certainly, Peabody’s debt and competing energy sources have weighed, as has reduced steel production along with the Obama Recovery’s drag on our economy.  However, “environmental” regulations, designed by President Barack Obama to destroy the industry have contributed both to the reduction in steel production and to Peabody’s reduced ability to function.

The destruction of an industry.  Something only a Progressive could be proud of.  And something Democratic Party Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has said repeatedly that she will continue—in spades.

Is This Person a Fit Leader?

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Some of you may have heard about the little to-do involving New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), Democratic Party Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and a crack about CP time, which of course means Cautious Politician time.  The thing is textbook much ado about nothing, but that just emphasizes the failure of Clinton’s response to the flap:

Well, look, it was Mayor de Blasio’s skit.  He has addressed it, and I will really defer to him because it is something that he’s already talked about.

Yeah, just cut and run.  Do we really need such a one in the White House?

Pseudo-Science and Democrat Suppression of Dissent

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Attorneys General from California, Connecticut, District Of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington State, and the US Virgin Islands are banding together to push their witch hunt against science that refutes their lucrative climatista industry.  Now they’re planning on criminal and civil charges against companies that impudently disagree with the Party Line, cynically likening their case to the

Justice Department’s landmark case against “Big Tobacco[.]”

The truth of their cynicism, though, is exposed by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey:

Fossil fuel companies that deceived investors and consumers about the dangers of climate change should be held accountable.  That’s why we have joined in investigating ExxonMobil[.]

Healey’s own words demonstrate that these Democrats already have determined the outcome; they’re just after carefully selected data to support her claim.  This isn’t an investigation; it’s a dishonest witch hunt, designed to protect Democrat votes and crony pseudo-science funding streams.

Full stop.

Leadership Regarding Tax Avoidance

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Large multinationals operating in the European Union will have to publish details of profits and tax bills generated in countries considered to be “tax havens,” the bloc’s executive arm said on Tuesday as it toughened up proposals for fighting tax avoidance following the “Panama Papers” leak.

And

“By adopting this proposal, Europe is demonstrating its leadership in the fight against tax avoidance,” said Valdis Dombrovskis [European Commissioner for the Euro and Social Dialogue](!).

Never let a crisis go to waste, eh, guys?  Never pass up an excuse to increase Government intrusion and control.

Here’s a thought.  Work with me on this, it’s an unfamiliar concept for you Big Government aficionados.  How about showing leadership on tax avoidance by reducing the incentive to avoid paying taxes?  Lower your tax rates.

You haven’t demonstrated a need for all that money, anyway, and certainly you haven’t demonstrated a greater need for that money than the folks who’ve actually earned it: private citizens and their private enterprises.  All of you should be “tax havens.”

Continuing Veterans Administration Failure

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Kyndra Rotunda, ex-Army JAG and currently Professor of Military & International Law and Executive Director of the Military and Veterans Law Institute at Chapman University, had some comments in her Wall Street Journal op-ed [emphasis in original].

When Congress enacted the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014 in the wake of revelations about bureaucratic dysfunction at the Veterans Affairs Department, the plan was to reduce wait times at VA hospitals, give veterans access to outside health care and allow the VA to quickly terminate problem employees.

How is the VA doing? For starters, government statistics show that hospital wait times are 50% longer than two years ago.

And

The law allows the firing of top-level VA officials with less notice and fewer appellate rights than government employees enjoy. The fired VA worker must appeal within seven days of the discipline; administrative judges must hear and decide the case within 21 days, or the department’s discipline stands; judges cannot mitigate penalties; and decisions are final.
…
Over the past month alone, judges at the Merit Systems Protection Board, which hears appeals by federal employees, sided with three VA officials who challenged their disciplining. The MSPB reinstated all three.

Time to get out the axe.

But then Rotunda strayed.

[W]hat’s the harm in allowing judges to mitigate penalties?

In response to which, I ask, “What’s the harm in requiring these administrative judges simply to uphold or set aside the penalty?”  Either the person did the deed, or he did not.  The penalty is not for a third party to decide; the employer—even this wholly mendacious VA of an employer—is the one to determine whether the person’s services are needed any further.

Full stop.

Veteranos Administratio delende est.