Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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New York madness reached a peak this week with a corrupt Governor and communist Mayor sparring over riots as both have acted out over the WuFlu and gas.

There is something seriously wrong with New York. It’s a state in a state of decline and the New York madness is getting worse every minute. The state is governed by a self-assured mob boss and the city is in the hands of a communist. They have hated each other for some time but briefly united in dissing President Trump when he implemented a ban on travel from China. They told their constituents they were both better than that and encouraged them to go out and hug Chinese folks (as if that were an issue) and ride the subways; to party on, in other words. That was a disaster that made them the epicenter of the WuFlu here in the US. What’s accounts for this New York madness?

Jefferson, put his finger on the issue, generically speaking, some 200+ years ago when he said  cities were “pestilential to the morals, the health, and the liberties of man.” How unfortunately correct he was, even though he loved cities in many ways. Cities crowd us together and tend accentuate conflicts and create growing areas for disease.

Worst of all, though, they create dependency. Someone else from somewhere else always produces the food. The heat comes through the thermostat and how no one knows. The water comes from a faucet. The toilet flushes to somewhere unknown. The garbage is hauled away. The subway takes one around and elevator takes one to another floor. No car, no steps, no well, no septic system, no garden, no boiler, no snow to shovel. It’s all taken care of by someone else, much of it by government. Thus is dependency and utter stupidity about the facts of life born. Everything is a matter of what someone else is obligated to do for a person. This is the essence of New York madness and that of so many other cities. It’s why corruptocrats and communists both do well in these environments.

Watching the performance of both at a time of crisis is something to behold. No longer able to simply survive on demagoguery alone, they made everything worse with respect to WuFlu. Cuomo pushed WuFlu patients into nursing homes and killed thousands while promoting subway use and simultaneously cutting the number of trains so as to crowd others into disease hothouses. Then, he did an on-again, off-again opening up of Upstate.

Next, comes the riots and one day he’s “standing with the protesters” and giving wink and nod to rioters and the next he is berating DeBlasio and the NYPD for letting things get out of control. Meanwhile, DeBlasio threatened Orthodox Jews for attending a funeral while also encouraging protesters (including his children) to get out there on the streets. This is the New York madness in microcosm.

But, there is another aspect because, in the middle of all of this the Governor of New York, with the support of his archenemy, the Mayor of New York, killed yet another natural gas pipeline; the Northeast Supply Enhancement or NESE project that would have delivered much needed energy to both the state and city. They were responding to those very dependent special interests who imagine someone else is always going to provide their energy for them, thereby freeing them up to oppose anything in their backyard or that offends their sense of green political correctness.

This is still more New York madness and a few brief facts will serve to explain. Consider, for example, which state consumes more natural gas than any other to heat homes:

Bear in mind New York has but 5.9% of the U.S. population, but it takes 9.7% of the natural gas delivered to residential consumers in the nation. And, its leadership at both the state and city level says “don’t you dare even think about building a pipeline to ensure the ability to provide it? This is insane. But, it’s worse because New York also takes 9.4% of U.S. natural gas delivered to commercial consumers:

New York is also ranked sixth among the states for use of natural gas for electric power production and fifth for overall natural gas deliveries (including the above plus industrial use and natural gas use in vehicles):

Finally, here’e how New York natural gas has trended since slightly before the onset of the shale revolution:

But, despite all this, Governor Cuomo chose, during the WuFlu which he mismanaged to a degree not even remotely approached but any other governor, to kill the NESE project. He found time to appease the special interests and posture the Empire State for a natural gas crisis down the road. And, it will come. Closure of the Indian Point nuclear facility, combined with the intermittent nature of the industrial solar and wind facilities he’s shoving down the throats of Upstaters, guarantees it. This is perhaps the worst example of New York madness out there and when it happens we know exactly what the likes of Cuomo and DeBlasio will do: they’ll blame everyone else. New York has gone mad.