Loose Ends (257)

• If we’re going to have lots and lots of batteries and lots of lots of “electrify everything,” then we’re going to need a whole lot more mining. Guess what, mom?

Mining Is Mired in Regulatory Delays. That’s Now a Climate Problem.

Put simply, support for climate action is support for mining. The faster we can build new mines in the U.S., the faster the energy transition will move.

But there’s a major roadblock—permitting delays and associated litigation. The permitting process for major mining and energy infrastructure projects has become extremely difficult to navigate in the decades since the National Environmental Policy Act and other landmark environmental statutes were first passed.

• So, Biden has decided to allow Ukraine to attack Russian territory with American-supplied weapons:

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken left open the possibility on Friday that President Biden could allow Ukraine to use U.S.-made weapons to strike at a broader array of targets inside Russia, going beyond attacks he has approved on launch sites the Russians are using for their current assault on the Kharkiv area.

“Going forward, we’ll continue to do what we’ve been doing, which is: As necessary, adapt and adjust,” Mr. Blinken said at a news conference in Prague at the end of a two-day meeting of top diplomats from member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

First, our secretary of state is approving the specific use of American-supplied weapons? As I argued a year ago in the New York Post, the Biden team seems to be repeating the “calibrated” strategy we used in the Vietnam War to such great effect (/sarc).

Second, what could go wrong? I see our CIA director is in the Middle East again trying to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. But it’s the Ukraine-Russia War that could conceivably go nuclear or widen into a general European war.

Chaser—about that Israel-Gaza peace plan Biden has put out: Looks like the fix is in.

• From all the caterwauling of the left, you’d think the Supreme Court was doing its best to imitate Torquemada’s Inquisition or something. But as Jonathan Adler points out, “Of the 29 SCOTUS opinions issued to date, over 2/3 have been unanimous. In 20 of 29, the justices were unanimous in the judgment. Two decisions were 7-2 and seven were 6-3, but only 3 of the 6-3 decisions split along ideological lines.” 

Note that last week’s unanimous decision holding that New York infringed the NRA’s First Amendment rights was written by Justice Sotomayor, while the 7-2 decision upholding the unusual funding structure of Lizzie Warren’s CFPB was written by Justice Thomas.

This, along with the manufactured Alito flag “controversy,” is just a reminder that the temper tantrum is the most defining characteristic of the left: because they can’t control the Supreme Court, they must destroy it by any means necessary.

P.S. Did you know that Black Lives Matter flew the “Appeal to Heaven” flag back in 2020?

• There are elections for the European Parliament coming up on June 9, and the campaign is in full swing here in Hungary, where the streets are full of posters for candidates advertising the endorsements they have from various parties. The European Parliament is a strange beast (podcast with John O’Sullivan on this topic coming next week). But here’s an attack ad from Victor Orban’s Fidesz Party where, if you watch a couple of times, you can make out references to Soros, Muslim immigrants, prostitution, the risk of nuclear war, and crime.

Populist center-right parties are expected to very well in this election, and this alarms the Financial Times, which let’s the mask slip:

• Jim Geraghty suggests that Trump ought to consider saying, “At least I have some convictions, unlike my opponent.”

I hope Trump will also have the wit to start referring relentlessly to “the Hamas Democrats.”