The Boston Herald reports that the government will protect our tender ears from Donald Trump until he recants his thoughtcrime:
“I just don’t agree with him at all,” Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh told the Herald yesterday. “I think his comments are inappropriate. And if he wanted to build a hotel here, he’d have to make some apologies to people in this country.”
“Everything within the state, nothing without the state” – Mussolini.
We have reached the stage of fascism. Only those who are willing to play ball with the state and hold the “correct” opinions can expect to get their building permits, etc. Of course capitalists have asked for this because today if you want to build a big project you ask for all sorts of tax abatements, government help thru condemnation in assembling your land parcel, etc.
Phil,
Although you may have already done so, would you care to predict who will be our next president? You’ve been spot on over the last several elections!
If the mayor of Boston treats Trump anything like he’s treating Steve Wynn, I feel sorry for Trump. (Now that’s saying something!)
Election 2016 prediction? I think that I made it implicitly in https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2015/04/25/why-bother-to-read-news-about-the-2016-presidential-election/ (summary: Republicans can’t win in the current environment where so many more American voters identify as Democrats). So that leaves Hillary Clinton. I am not investing time in following the election because it doesn’t seem like a genuine contest at this point.
Is there really much of a difference between Trump and mayor Walsh (or any other politician) other then their style of communication and tone? Obama, Bush II, Clinton, Bush I, etc. — and very much all other politician — were “sharp” speakers during the run up to the election. Once they get into the office, their tone settles down considerably and become more “presidential”.
Let me tell you what this country needs:
1. Stop all discussions about gays and focus on topics that really matter to all people, gays and straight: revitalize manufacturing, reduce healthcare expenses, education…
2. Stop all immigration except through national interest waiver/outstanding researcher and investment categories. All PhD’s educated in this country should automatically be granted with green card;
3. Massive injection of state fund to revitalize public and private research in science and engineering, China just announced $170B semiconductor state fund, mainly to snap up US companies with core competency in microelectronics. US must stop this buying spree. Otherwise, the foundation of innovation in this country will be gone within one generation;
4. Complete revamp of the patent law. All patent application must be verified with prototypes. The patent system has now become a complete molasses with trolls and squatters who never do anything except preying on real innovators;
5. Stop all manner of unions, but setup universal healthcare; Unions have become complete parasitic; just look at the road construction that drags on for years and the monthly threats from teachers unions;
Peter Thiel said it right, the 50s and 60s were the golden ages of ground-breaking innovation in this country, and we should do everything to recapture that. Don’t become another Europe.
Can the mayor of Boston really stop construction of a hotel in the city on a whim, just because he finds a developer to be annoying? It sounds unlikely. Even if the mayor had such authority, he would face a lot of pressure to relent if the city’s population wanted the hotel to be built and the only reason for the mayor’s’ opposition was some offensive remarks made in the past.
Vince: It sounds as though you know more about the Boston mayor’s power than he himself does.
As far as I am aware, any new development in Boston requires approval from city bureaucrats. So the mayor would not have to “stop construction” of a hotel by someone he did not like. He could simply instruct his subordinates not to approve the plans or applications of someone he did not like.
This is why economic growth in India was lousy as long as they had a Permit Raj – instead of projects with the best economic prospects getting built, it was projects whose sponsors had the best chance of getting the necessary permits (because they were close to those in power).
If a major Hillary Clinton donor was building a hotel in Boston, the mayor would whisper to his aides that he wanted the red carpet to be rolled out and the developer would have no problem getting permits and he would receive all sorts of subsidies – tax abatements for “job creation”, “energy conservation”, etc. This is why the donor is the donor in the 1st place, not because he loves Hillary – a most unlovable person. If you live in a crony capitalist state and you’re not a crony, then it’s not gonna happen for you – the mayor will tell you so without even pretending to hide it.
Found this in a Washington Post article:
“The other thing I promoted was our relationship with politicians, such as Abraham Beame, who was elected mayor of New York in November of 1973,” he wrote in “Trump: The Art of the Deal.” “Like all developers, my father and I contributed money to Beame, and to other politicians. The simple fact is that contributing money to politicians is very standard and accepted for a New York City developer.”
What really shocked me was how open and brazen Walsh was about his political favoritism. In the past, Trump STILL wouldn’t have gotten his permits but publicly the Mayor would maintain that the civil service was apolitical and that the reason Trump couldn’t get his hotel built was that he hadn’t yet met some technical requirement and as soon as he met that one (and the next and the next and the next after that) they would be glad to issue permits to him as they would to any other citizen. Is it better or worse that big city mayors no longer even maintain a pretext that they are administering the law in a non-political way?
The other amazing thing is that politicians have arranged the law so that if you write out a check for $50,000 to “Abe Beame” , that’s a bribe and illegal as it should be, but if you write out a check for $50,000 to “Abe Beame Campaign Fund”, then it’s perfectly fine.