More Reasons to Disband

Now the Biden administration is actively seeking to undermine our friends and allies on top of destroying our energy industry.

The White House on Friday announced a temporary pause on pending decisions of exports of liquefied natural gas to non-free trade countries, until the Energy Department can factor climate change into its reviews of the projects.

Two changes (for starters) are badly needed, and these changes badly need significant majorities in the House and Senate and a Republican in the White House (which puts a premium on the elections this fall).

One of those changes is enactment of a statute giving the relevant approval authority(s) 10 calendar days in which to approve an export application or to provide a detailed explanation for denial, which explanation must have only concrete, measurable reasons, be devoid of generalities, and be publicly available NLT the 11th day. Absent such a decision, the application must be deemed approved.

The other change is the disbandment of the Department of Energy with all Department personnel returned to the private sector, not reassigned elsewhere in the Federal government. The only functions remotely worth retaining are ARPA-Energy and Science and Innovation, which should be folded into ARPA with circumscribed funding authorities.

Another change, in furtherance of the concept of the second change, is the disbandment of the Environmental Protection Agency, with its personnel also returned to the private sector, rather than reassigned within the Federal government. This agency—the managers in charge of it, along with its employees, have for too long conflated environmental protection with climate “protection,” with its cockamamy decisions exemplified by its ruling that plant food in our atmosphere—CO2—is a pollutant.

GOP Weakness Continues

Aside from the Republican party’s timidity in its Congressional “negotiations” regarding budgeting and border security, here’s another example, laid out in crystalline terms in the lede.

The House subcommittee chairman [Congressman Barry Loudermilk (R, GA)] leading the January 6 investigation is declaring that the Biden White House’s foot-dragging has been “unacceptable” and he is putting both presidential aides and the Georgia county prosecutor pursuing Donald Trump on notice that Congress is prepared to pursue evidence, up to and including subpoenas and contempt.

Stop yapping and issue the subpoenas. Republicans asked once, politely, for the materials and been rebuffed. Stop meekly wasting time, and get on with the investigation. The Biden administration’s own foot-dragging does not need the Republican contribution to delays in the investigation.

Why Donald Trump Shouldn’t Get a Second Term

Or so advise the august Editors of The Wall Street Journal. They only consider one side of the question. My august self considers some additional sides.

Start with the fact that Mr Trump would be an immediate lame duck. He can’t serve more than one more term, and if he does win it will be narrowly with little political capital.

This is a wash. If Biden is reelected, he’ll also be a lame duck with little to no political capital.

If the first term is a guide, Democrats will oppose anything Mr Trump proposes that isn’t one of their priorities.

And if Biden is reelected, he’ll most likely face a similarly split Congress and get nothing passed that isn’t a Conservative/Republican priority. Another wash.

The internal opposition will still be implacable, the leaks unending, the press relentlessly hostile.

It may well be that one of things Trump has learned is how to get rid of the internal opposition that puts their whims ahead of their duties as administration employees—including leakers, who are intrinsically dishonest regardless of which party they claim to favor.

Aside from that, while there are reasons to oppose a Trump Presidency, moving to stop him simply because internal opposition will still be implacable, the leaks unending, the press relentlessly hostile would simply be to vindicate those groups’ dishonesty and encourage further obstructionism.

It also isn’t clear Mr Trump could attract first-rate advisers.

He eventually figured that out in the latter stages of his term. Biden has already demonstrated that he has no first-rate advisors; there’s no reason to believe that he could find any for his second term.

What Comes After the Hamas War in the Gaza Strip?

The Wall Street Journal tried to address this question last Thursday. As you might imagine, I have thoughts.

Biden administration officials say the path toward a more stable Middle East goes through the ruins of Gaza.

That’s not far wrong.

The latest blows to the White House plans are the persistent attacks by Houthi forces in Yemen against international shipping in the Red Sea….

No, the blow here is in Biden’s timid response to the Houthis’ attacks on commercial shipping. The paucity of serious response to the terrorists is empirically demonstrated by the Houthis’ continued attacks on that shipping, escalated by their targeting US Navy ships, also.

US goals for the region require forging a consensus on who will secure and rebuild Gaza after the Israeli invasion.

Biden/Blinken’s goal for a PLA/PA governance of the Gaza strip is dangerously stupid. Aside from the fact that that gang has already failed in the Gaza Strip and was run out on a rail years ago, the PLA/PA is just another terrorist organization.

Gaza Strip governance should be built up from the Abraham Accord nations, less Israel, with Egypt and Jordan joining those Accord nations.