Mar
10
2025

Shoulda Listened to Friedrich, Maura

Readers, the current governor of Massachusetts:

It's a brief clip, no context, maybe a cheap shot. But I found this article from 2015, back when Gov. Maura was MA Attorney General: Healey study: No new pipelines needed.

A STUDY COMMISSIONED BY ATTORNEY GENERAL MAURA HEALEY indicates new natural gas pipelines are not needed because the region’s power grid will face no “reliability deficiency” through 2030.

[…]

But the report nevertheless compared the status-quo to a series of options being considered by policymakers to address any potential shortfall that might occur if more power plants than expected shut down over the next 15 years. The report concluded the best approach, in terms of ratepayer cost and environmental impact, would be to invest in programs that entice homeowners and businesses to reduce their consumption of electricity and voluntarily curb power usage during high-demand periods. The report said $101 million spent on these programs would yield savings of $247 million and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 1.86 million tons.

By contrast, expanding the region’s natural gas pipeline capacity to meet the potential power shortfall would cost $66 million and yield savings of $127 million, while increasing greenhouse gas emissions by 80,000 tons.

I'm sure this sounded perfectly reasonable at the time: just nag "homeowners and businesses" to stop using so many electrons. Just sit there in the dark, citizen! Maybe take a nap!

I'm also sure a few people down in Massachusetts at the time waved their copies of Hayek's The Road to Serfdom, pointing out the fatal conceit of central planning. Especially when those central planning "studies" confidently predicted spending, savings, and reductions over 15 years with three significant figures.

Maybe Massachusetts residents can keep warm by burning copies of that 2015 study?

Also of note:

  • On the weaponizing watch. Joe Lancaster says Trump is weaponizing the DOJ just like he accused Democrats of doing.

    Throughout the 2024 presidential campaign season, Donald Trump accused his Democratic opponents—President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris—of using the levers of power against him.

    "The Biden regime's weaponization of our system of justice is straight out of the Stalinist Russia horror show," he told rallygoers in March 2023 after being indicted in Manhattan for violating election law. In a September 2024 debate against Harris, Trump even blamed Democrats' rhetoric for the assassination attempt he survived weeks earlier, saying "I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me."

    But now that Trump is firmly ensconced back in office, his administration seems to have no interest in stopping government weaponization. Rather, it seems keen to wield that power for itself. Looking back now on Trump's complaints, it appears less that he was upset than that he was jealous.

    Joe goes on to cite the Trump DOJ's desire to drop the bribery and wire fraud cases against NYC Mayor Eric Adams, in an apparent quid pro quo for Adams' help with implementing Trump's immigration policies. And a couple instances where Trump's political enemies have been threatened with DOJ investigations. Fun!

  • Just fill in the blanks for your instant post: "Trump’s        is wrong about       ". Today's example comes from Daniel Ortner and Brennen VanderVeen at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE): Trump’s border czar is wrong about AOC. And, yes, it turns out to be another case of "weaponization".

    Last week, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote a letter asking Attorney General Pam Bondi if she is now under investigation for telling people their constitutional rights when interacting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

    She asked because President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said he recently asked the Department of Justice whether Ocasio-Cortez is “impeding our law enforcement efforts” by putting out a webinar and a flyer in which she reminded anyone interacting with ICE that they need not open the door, speak, or sign anything, among other basic rights.

    Informing people about their constitutional rights is plainly lawful and any effort to punish Ocasio-Cortez for doing so would unquestionably violate the First Amendment.

    Anyone have that on their "Reasons to Impeach Trump" bingo card?

  • It's a remarkably short, straight-line distance. Robert Graboyes and David Patterson collaborate on tracing the ideological descent: From Hitler to Hamas (and Hezbollah)

    It is impossible to understand Hamas without knowing its historical pedigree. Today, Bastiat’s Window is honored to offer a powerful resource for understanding that history—a downloadable chapter (“Islamic Jihadism: The Legacy of Nazi Antisemitism”) from Professor David Patterson’s book, Judaism, Antisemitism, and Holocaust: Making the Connections (Cambridge University Press, 2022)—referred to hereafter as JA&H. This chapter is the most compact, sweeping account I’ve found of the historical, organizational, and philosophical connections between 1930s Nazism and contemporary Jihadism. Once you’ve read it, please pass the link to this post along to others so they might also read Professor Patterson’s account.

    In brief, Hamas is as an especially fervent local chapter of an organization whose early funding, rituals, and philosophy came directly from Nazi Germany. Hamas’s spiritual mentor was a cleric employed by Hitler to organize Jihadist SS squads to murder Jews in Europe. Hamas’s 1987 founding charter maintained the Nazi/Jihadist goal of exterminating Jews worldwide. Hezbollah’s pedigree differs somewhat from Hamas’s, but they share goals and forebears.

    Knowing this history also reveals the naïveté of those who presume Hamas can be or wishes to be a reliable negotiating partner or peaceful neighbor to Israel. It suggests why Gaza grew more impoverished and depraved after Israel forcibly removed every single Jew from Gaza in 2005. And it speaks worlds of the Western students chanting “we are Hamas,” flying the flag of Hezbollah, telling Jews on campuses “the 7th of October is going to be every day for you,” and spray-painting “Hamas is coming” on monuments.

    It's strong stuff. Wish our local Hamas cheering squad might read it with an open mind.

  • It was a dark and stormy contest. Via Slashdot, I note that the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is ending its annual run. 'Twas truly the Super Bowl of hilariously bad writing. A sample, from the 2024 Winners:

    Mrs. Higgins’ body was found in the pantry, bludgeoned with a potato ricer and lying atop a fifty-pound sack of Yukon golds, her favorite for making gnocchi, though some people consider them too moist for this purpose.

    Any comparable prose you see here is entirely unintentional.