NEXT IN THE RUSH TO FEDERALIZE EVERYTHING: My colleague Marc Scribner on why a Federal ban on texting-while-driving doesn’t make a lick of sense. For instance,

Earlier government studies have repeatedly found other distractions pose a far more serious problem than phone-related distraction. According to 2010 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data, cellphone distraction has barely budged as a fatal crash factor, ranked behind drivers being “lost in thought.” This has not led to calls for nationwide prohibitions on daydreaming while driving.

Give them time…

IT’S ALL ABOUT TRANSACTION COSTS: How Obamacare and other regulations are leading to the demise of the independent doctor and the corporatization of healthcare. But I thought the left hated corporations? Oh, wait…

HONEST SOCIALISM AND DISHONEST SOCIALISM: I’ve always regarded the Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyns of the world as honest socialists – they are upfront about wanting workers’ control of the means of production, commodity, and exchange. Elizabeth Warren, on the other hand, appears to me to be a dishonest socialist – claiming that she believes in markets while actually wanting to control them. Peter Suderman has more on that theme.

POOR ECONOMICS: The left is trying to muddy the waters on global poverty (free registration may be required). Apparently capitalism lifting billions out of poverty is incompatible with their narrative, so it can’t have happened.

PETA 0 BALTIMORE 1: PETA put up a billboard in Baltimore urging Charm City residents not to eat crab. It didn’t go down too well.

My favorite reaction: “You evolved a shell and claws to protect your meat. I have hands and a mallet. LET’S DO THIS.” 

QTWTAIN: Manhattan Contrarian asks, “Can the New York Attorney General’s office be rescued?“

INIGO MONTOYA ON THE USE OF THE WORD “MONOPOLY”: One of the leading AGs in the case against Microsoft for monopoly abuse of power looks at whether the same is true of Google’s Android:

To succeed in a Section 2 case, a plaintiff must first establish that the defendant possesses monopoly power in a relevant market. Second, a plaintiff must show that the defendant has willfully acquired or maintained its monopoly power by unlawful means rather than as a consequence of “a superior product, business acumen or historic accident.”…

In a properly defined market, Google does not have monopoly power, much less the large stable market shares enjoyed by Windows…

The advent of Android has dramatically increased consumer choice and created downward pressure on prices. As the D.C. Circuit stressed, there is nothing inherently wrong with bundling software and, to the extent Google has done so, a court is likely to consider it procompetitive not anticompetitive because it promotes interbrand competition, increases product stability, and does not foreclose use of rival applications. Bottom line, Google’s conduct bears little relationship to Microsoft’s in kind or effect.

And I don’t think the case against Microsoft was particularly strong either…

LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND THINGS YOU AGREE WITH: A helpful reminder from Coyote Blog – be skeptical of statistics even when they support your view.

MORE SWAMP-DRAINING NEEDED: For some reason, the administration is considering reappointing Obama holdout Mark Pearce to the National Labor Relations Board. Pearce helped author some blatant give-aways to labor unions under the Democrat majority, including one a court found simply “legally unsupportable.” A group of free market organizations, including mine, has urged the President to stop this reappointment. You can see our letter here.

WAR ON PAIN: The state of Oregon is considering cutting off Medicaid recipients from access to painkillers, directing them to chiropractors and the like instead. As my old colleague Greg Conko said back in 2008, “Pain patients aren’t drug abusers looking for a prescription fix.”

SHOOT, SHOVEL, AND SHUT UP: My colleague Rob Gordon has a new paper out that makes the simple point – “whatever the cost” of the Endangered Species Act, it’s huge.

OUTRAGEOUS: Remy’s latest is a pretty accurate commentary on the state of CNN

Omarosa could not be reached for comment

I’LL DRINK TO THAT: My colleague Michelle Minton looks at the coverage surrounding a single Lancet study and concludes the science reporters got it wrong – moderate alcohol consumption isn’t dangerous.

STEALING YOU BLIND: The GAO finds that a quarter of federal employees suspended from their job had been suspended before. [UPDATE: Link is quirky. Here’s a direct link to the report.]

Shill alert: If you want to read more about the ways in which bureaucrats bilk you, my book Stealing You Blind is still available in Kindle and hardcover.

HOW ABOUT THAT: Americans value good reviews and higher safety levels over gas mileage when buying a car.

DAS KAPITALISM: Elizabeth Warren has a plan for capitalism, and it’s terrifying:

Warren’s “Accountable Capitalism Act” would require that corporations that earn more than $1 billion in revenue a year (note “revenue,” not “profits”) would need a federal “charter” in order to operate. This charter would obligate these companies to consider all “stakeholders,” not just shareholders, when making decisions. The bill would also require these corporations to permit employees to elect 40 percent of the company’s board of directors; a super majority of 75 percent of directors and shareholders would have to approve political donations. (Gee, I wonder if somebody will propose something similar for unions?) Shareholders would be permitted to sue the company if they felt its actions were driven purely by profit and did not reflect the desires of its many “stakeholders.”

Eat your heart out, Ralph Nader.

WHEN YOU PUT IT THAT WAY…: Newspapers team up to tell Trump they aren’t colluding against him

BOOM TOWN: Retail sales easily beat expectations in July.

JUNTAS GONNA GENOCIDE: Mike Pompeo is due to draw attention to what the Myanmar (you may remember it as Burma) military junta is doing to the minority Rohingyan people. Of course, the State Department apparatchiks have concerns:

As unbelievable as it may be, there’s an argument over the tea cups in Foggy Bottom over what name to put on what has happened to the Rohingyans. An early draft of his remarks circulating through Foggy Bottom and at the White House includes the bracketed phrase [“hold for determination] in the passage of the speech to describe what happened.

There’s a name for it, and we’re happy to supply it for the timid folk at the State Department. It’s correctly called “genocide.” An aspiring wordsmith can search his thesaurus all day to find a gentle euphemism or artful phrase, but as the poet would say, by any other name, what happened still stinks.

I’m sure you can guess which Secretary of State started appeasing the dictators.

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (IN THE IMPERATIVE SENSE): My colleague Angela Logomasini tells the story of New York businessman Eli Amsel.

Despite the growing economy, Amsel says his business is down by 20 percent because New York’s regulatory environment is crushing him. In particular, during the past several years, the regulatory state has delivered a triple whammy: an insanely high minimum wage hike, bag taxes, and now a possible ban on his key product—plastic bags.

Goodbye American dream; hello regulatory nightmare.

This is all too typical of the problems faced by small businessmen these days.

IT WAS GENOCIDE, NOT ECOCIDE: New evidence suggests that Easter Island was still a cohesive society before the arrival of the Dutch explorers, contradicting the Jared Diamond-popularized view that the Easter Islanders committed ecological suicide, or “ecocide.” Of course, those of us who read Benny Peiser’s exhaustive critique over a decade ago already knew this.

THE ERDOGAN CLOWN SHOW CONTINUES: Stephen’s right that this joker has no understanding of basic economics. Latest example: he has threatened a Turkish boycott of the iPhone. That’ll show ’em. All those young Turks with money in their pocket are sure not to want the latest and best technology. Note – Turkey cannot raise retaliatory tariffs on the US because it is inside the EU’s customs union, hence the feeble call for a boycott instead.

IT’D BE A START: Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy says that overturning the Chevron doctrine would not gut the Administrative State—but it would strengthen the Rule of Law.

A NEW CLIMATE: Rupert Darwall notes that things are changing internationally in regards to the global warming alarmist consensus. Germany is rejecting tougher renewable energy targets, Nigeria and other developed nations want to use coal, and people are twigging that the World Bank is pandering to China. At the center of this new awakening:

Trump is breaking the spell of inevitability of the transition to renewable energy. The impression of irresistible momentum has been one of the most potent tools in enforcing compliance with the climate catechism. Like socialism, the clean-energy transition will fail because it doesn’t work. But it requires strong leadership to avoid the ruin that will disprove the false promise of cost-free decarbonization.

RTWT.

I’M SHOCKED, SHOCKED: In his latest Bear’s Lair column, Martin Hutchinson takes a look at the official statistics underpinning China’s claim of economic plenitude, and finds they don’t add up. His advice to the President? Imitate Lord Liverpool and Ronald Reagan. Admittedly, this is pretty good advice about most things.