The View from Right Field

Texas - and Illinois

Texas has been getting a lot of bad press lately.  I commented here last Thursday.  But Texas isn’t the only state that is messed up.  Here is a letter to the editor that was published in the Chicago Tribune yesterday:

“Comparing Texas, Illinois

The more I read of the problems in Texas, the more it sounds like Illinois.  Texas could have built a utility system that would have handled the recent cold weather.  We have windmills in Illinois that work in winter, and Manitoba in Canada has water systems that work.

Why Wasn’t Texas Ready for the Cold? Why Weren’t We Ready for Covid-19?

In talking about getting ready for the next coronavirus, etc., last April, I said this in my conclusion:

“Robustness.  Resiliency.  Nimbleness.  These are what we need if we are to be ready for the emergencies and disasters that will happen, though we don’t know which ones or when.” 

The problem is, however, as I said in December:

“Building robustness, resiliency, and nimbleness into our systems and our countries, and maintaining them over time, will cost money, a lot of it.” 

Covid-19 Relief Ought to Be More Than Just Throwing Money Around Randomly

President-Elect Biden is proposing a big Covid-19 stimulus program: $1.9 trillion.¹  The plan includes an additional $1400 per person payment (to bring the total up to the $2,000 Donald Trump proposed in late December), additional unemployment payments of $400 per week (up from $300 in the bill signed in early January), and much more.

The $1400 payment (plus the $600 already approved), is a follow-up on the $1200 per person payment in the first Covid-19 program last spring.  Back then, the idea of giving everybody a lump-sum payment made some sense because (i) we didn’t know what was going to happen and (ii) we needed to get money to people as quickly as possible and we didn’t have time to come up with a more carefully targeted program. 

Making Sure This Week Is Our Last Memory of Donald Trump

Kimberley Strassel said, in Friday’s Wall Street Journal: “A politician has to work hard to destroy a legacy and a future in a single day.  President Donald J. Trump managed it.”  Early Thursday morning, after a mob, urged on and incited by Donald Trump, assaulted and occupied the Capitol, the Senate voted 93 to 6 against his objection to Arizona’s electoral votes.

And that is the way I want Donald Trump to leave Washington.  I want these things to be the final memories his supporters have of him as he leaves office: A President who incited a mob to assault his own Capitol and a man who lost in the Senate 93 to 6.  Because that is how he deserves to be remembered.

A Thought on Using the 25th Amendment to Get Rid of President Trump

If you use the 25th Amendment for a purpose for which it was not intended, even if it is a really good purpose, do not be surprised if you are not happy the next time the 25th Amendment is used for a purpose for which it was not intended.

Getting Ready for the Next Pandemic. Will We?

With vaccines on the way, it looks like we may be able to see the end of the pandemic.  It is still a ways off, but, unlike in April and May, we can see an end coming.  The question is, though: What about the next one?  Will we be prepared for it?  I talked about this in April.  I won’t repeat what I said there, other than to quote from my conclusion:

“Robustness.  Resiliency.  Nimbleness.  These are what we need if we are to be ready for the emergencies and disasters that will happen, though we don’t know which ones or when.” 

A Big Year-End Thank You to Our Internet and Wi-Fi Providers

Before Thanksgiving Megan McArdle wrote about her candidate for less obvious hero of 2020: supply-chain managers and operations chiefs; i.e., the men and women who got the toilet paper and meat and rice from the office buildings and restaurants to the grocery stores and homes.

Well, it’s Christmas now, not Thanksgiving, but Christmas is a good time to give thanks, too, so let me give thanks to another group of people who helped get us through this pandemic so far and who we haven’t thought much about.  My candidate is a dog that didn’t bark; i.e., somebody who did their job and who we didn’t notice because nothing much went wrong, even though things changed entirely: The companies that provide us our wi-fi and internet.

Farewell to Attorney General Barr – And Thank You

Attorney General William Barr is resigning effective December 23.  Who knows why.  You can never tell with Donald Trump, except when the President says so in a nasty tweet.  President Trump’s tweet about Attorney General Barr was nice, so you can’t tell anything from it.  In any case, Attorney General Barr has done an excellent job, and he deserves a thank you as he leaves.

Attorney General Barr was appointed by President Trump in January of 2019.  Early on, the mainstream media began calling him a “Trump loyalist” because of things he did.  For example, when he initiated an investigation into the question of whether the FBI investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign, Democrats and the mainstream media went crazy.  (See my post from back then here.)  After all, President Trump had been complaining about surveillance on his campaign for a long time. 

The Washington 180 – Part Two: Special Counsel

A week and a half ago I wrote about what I called “The Washington 180.”  In that post, I talked about the issuance of nationwide injunctions by federal district courts and how Democrats and Republicans felt about them – and how their opinions might change once Joe Biden is inaugurated.  Democrats who thought it was great when federal district courts issued nationwide injunctions to stop things the Trump administration was trying to do might not like it so much if a federal district court issues a nationwide injunction against something the Biden administration is trying to do.  On the other hand, Republicans who thought it was horrible when nationwide injunctions were issued by federal district courts against Trump administration actions might think it’s great if they are issued against the Biden administration.

Here is another Washington 180 that will be coming: special counsels.  Democrats loved special counsels when Robert Mueller was investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and Russia-Trump collusion.  Democrats thought special counsels were a necessary check.  They warned Republicans – and President Trump – not to interfere with the Mueller investigation.  Republicans didn’t agree, to say the least.

Nothing Is Better Than Too Much; Nothing Is Better Than Too Little

That is the essence of the dispute in Congress on a coronavirus relief bill.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans say that the plan proposed by the Democrats is too big and they won’t approve it.  Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats say that the plan proposed by the Senate Republicans is too small and they won’t approve it.  In other words, both of them are saying that doing nothing is better than passing the bill the other side wants.  And so, nothing is done.

Which sounds familiar to those of us in Illinois who remember the Governor Bruce Rauner/Speaker Michael Madigan disputes in 2015-17.¹
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¹ See here and here.