URLs du Jour

2021-12-15

  • I'm tired of Senator Karen too, Elon. John Sexton is one among many who noticed: Elon Musk spars with 'Senator Karen' on Twitter. He was triggered by this:

    Here's my favorite:

    Sexton points out that Musk will probably pay around $15 billion-with-a-b in federal taxes for 2021.

    Back in March, Senator Karen made the news for tweet-threatening Amazon, saying she'd 'fight to break up Big Tech so you’re not powerful enough to heckle senators with snotty tweets.' Can you imagine what this narcissistic thug wants to (legislatively, I'm sure) do to Elon?

    And it was only the day before yesterday we linked to a City Journal article that observed why democracy needs the rich:

    The rich can stand up more easily than others to overweening officials and mobs, forming a bulwark against arbitrary or tyrannical rule.

    I didn't expect to see such a clear example of that so soon.


  • Casting about for other scapegoats… Senator Karen (yes, I'm sticking with that) also made a guest appearance in Eric Boehm's article: Biden's Stimulus Bill Subsidized Meat Producers. Now, the White House Blames 'Corporate Greed' for High Meat Prices.

    White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has a theory about why Americans are paying higher prices these days at the grocery store.

    "The president [and] the secretary of agriculture have both spoken to what we've seen as the greed of meat conglomerates," Psaki told reporters at the White House's daily briefing on Tuesday. "The prices are higher. That is, in his view and in the view of our secretary of agriculture, because of—you could call it corporate greed, sure. You could call it jacking up prices during a pandemic."

    Alas, Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D–Mass.) debunked and widely mocked claims about corporate greed being the cause of inflation have apparently made their way into the White House's official talking points.

    The whole idea is patently absurd on its face. Psaki wants Americans to believe that these shadowy "meat conglomerates" were simply not very greedy for the past 30 years—during which time inflation has been relatively low—but now have suddenly become very, very greedy in the past six months.

    Also making the bogus charge is … you guessed it.


  • Some folks are unfamiliar with the good advice in Psalm 146:3. Kevin D. Williamson writes on the American State Cult.

    But there are millions of Americans, tens of millions and maybe more than 100 million, who grieve, lament, and despair when they believe that the wrong man has become president of these United States. Just at the moment, many of those many grieving millions are people who believe themselves to be devout Christians. You’d think that these Bible-reading people would know a golden calf when they see one.

    Here is an example of the sort of thing I am talking about, from Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity physician who is going to run for a Senate seat from Pennsylvania, a state with which he has only the lightest of connections. The good doctor spells out his political agenda thus: “I’m here to promise you one thing: I am going to help reignite the divine spark inside every American and empower us to live better lives.”

    Set aside the comical notion of this ridiculous dork taking over for Pat Toomey — what in hell does that gibberish even hope to mean?

    You should click over and read the rest. You should especially click over if you've been looking for a readable explanation of Swedenborgianism. (And if you need a reminder, here's Psalm 146:3.)


  • When Harvard Econ Prof Mankiw says it's ugly, he's being diplomatic. On BBB's Ugly Fine Print:

    I have long favored a carbon tax to deal with global climate change. But I understand that if our leaders lack the political courage to propose one, targeted subsidies, such an electric vehicle tax credit, can be a substitute, albeit an imperfect one. In today's paper, I learned that, unfortunately, the design of this credit in the so-called Build Back Better bill aims not only at addressing climate change but also at reducing competition in the labor market and impeding international trade:

    The credit is $8,000 if the vehicle is made at a non-union U.S. plant, but rises to $12,500 if it’s made in a union-organized plant. The credit drops $500 if the car’s battery isn’t made in America, and after 2026 only cars assembled in the U.S. would qualify for the basic $7,500 credit.

    So the bill neglects the obvious first-best policy, starts with a second-best policy, and adds various extraneous provisos to make it worse.

    Usually I just post excerpts, but that's the whole thing. Unlike Professor Mankiw, I have next to zero faith that Uncle Stupid could impose a carbon tax that wouldn't make matters worse.


  • Shameless plug. I rarely shell out cash to read websites, even the ones who shamelessly beg me to. I made an exception for the exceptional Jim Treacher; he's funny and insightful. From yesterday's article:

    So there’s more news about what the previous president was doing during the 1/6 riot, and now we’re learning about all the people who tried to convince him to speak up and appeal to his supporters for calm. I’m just exhausted with the whole thing and I don’t care what happens to him. Throw him in jail, elect him again, ignore him and hope he goes away, whatever. It’s all fine with me.

    As for Ashli Babbitt: No, she wasn’t a terrorist. And, also, in addition to that, she shouldn’t have been crawling through a broken window into the House chamber in the middle of a riot. I’m sorry she had to learn that lesson the hard way, but that’s why the building is filled with armed guards.

    If you want to find a reason to be angry with me about it, go ahead, I guess. I will continue to say what I believe.

    Treacher's substack is a bargain, I think. Check it out.