• Yeah, yeah, I know—I haven’t posted anything yet on AOC’s beloved “Green New Deal,” but that’s because I can’t stop laughing. I’m sure a “Green” New Deal will be just as effective as the original New Deal, which prolonged rather than ended the Great Depression, though it did succeed in vastly expanding the permanent power and reach of government, which was its real goal of course.
• As a general matter, left-of-center parties are in retreat in most advanced democracies, and populist, anti-establishment parties are continuing to surge. There are a couple of notable exceptions. Britain is just one banana-peel slip away from having the most radical government in Western Europe since France in 1789, in the form of Jeremy Corbyn. In fact, it is Corbyn’s unacceptable radicalism that has helped the mediocre Theresa May remain in power. But that banana-peel slip is sitting in plain view for everyone to see: the Brexit problem. (And banana-peel slip is the correct metaphor, as proposed EU regulations on the size and curvature of bananas in retail grocers helped propel the Brexit vote—the bureaucratic presumption being that consumers are incapable of choosing bananas for themselves.)
This ought to serve as a warning for the U.S. Right now the best thing Donald Trump has going for his re-election prospects in 2020 is the high likelihood that Democrats will have another “McGovern Moment,” and nominate a left-wing loon. But they might not. Or, they might still nominate a left-wing loon, but with a bad economy, or a mishandled foreign crisis, a left-wing loon could slip past Trump anyway. I don’t expect Trump’s popularity rating is going to improve much from its present range in the mid-40s, and while he can win with numbers in that range, it is asking a lot of chance to deliver another candidate as bad as Hillary Clinton to make it happen.
• This oral history of the movie Office Space is worth taking in. I’m sure if enough people read the piece, someone will say, “That’d be great.”
• We enjoy making fun of the length of CVS receipts as much as the next person, but having banned plastic straws, guess what California liberals want to ban next? Reason has the story:
Emboldened by successfully restricting access to plastic straws, California’s busybody legislators are now mulling a crackdown on another ubiquitous feature of our consumer society: the paper receipt.
On Monday, Assemblyman Phil Ting (D–San Francisco) introduced a bill that would require businesses to provide their customers with an electronic receipt unless they specifically requested a paper one, in an effort to both cut down on waste and protect human health from the deadly chemicals found on paper receipts.
• And now it is time for football. Go Chargers!
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