TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1132.
Archive for 2016
June 14, 2016
MARK STEYN: The fact is a radical Muslim killed 49 in a terror attack and the Left doesn’t know how to cope with the “internal contradictions of the rainbow coalition.”
Related: The Party at the End of the World.
FRACK AWAY: Resilient Shale Producers Get Their Second Wind.
Oil prices creeped above $50 per barrel recently, and already we’re seeing encouraging signs in the American shale industry. Fracking shale rock is a relatively expensive process, so when crude prices tumbled from a high of more than $110 per barrel two years ago to a nadir of under $28 per barrel this past January, America’s oil output correspondingly flagged as companies were forced to halt production, awaiting an uptick in the market. Thanks to supply disruptions abroad that have helped to ease the glut that precipitated oil’s price collapse, the market has somewhat rebounded, and as the FT reports U.S. companies are taking advantage. . . .
That last bit gets to the heart of one of shale production’s greatest strengths: the fact that the size of fracking projects are tiny relative to most conventional operations, and the relatively quick decline in output that necessitates continual re-drilling, both make for an environment that fosters innovation and encourages companies to discover new ways to adapt to today’s difficult market conditions.
American oil production has been down recently, but you’d be a fool to count it out. If demand grows—as OPEC predicts will happen in the second half of this year—or supply contracts further on more disruptions like the ones we’ve seen in Nigeria or Canada, prices could spike higher to $60 per barrel. That seems to be the price point most U.S. shale firms are hoping for, and if we see that the shale boom would once again hit its stride. That effectively puts a soft cap on today’s oil market, because the higher prices rise, the more American crude we’ll see.
And finally, keep this in mind: $60 may be the desired price for shale today, but that will continue to come down with time. In October 2014 the majority of shale production was believed to require an oil price of $75 to profit, but innovative new techniques and more streamlined operations have brought that breakeven price down significantly and, in true American fashion, will continue to do so.
Thank goodness.
This thought is not original to me, but bears repeating just now: if you like historical election cycle analogies, we’re going through 1968 all over again, with Trump in the Nixon/Wallace role. The 1968 election was much less about the economy that usual. Though there were some worrying signs in the economy, it was still doing reasonably well, with the trouble being stored up (especially inflation) not becoming apparent for a few more years. The economy today, while not great, is doing okay. The 1968 election was much more a cultural election—a reaction against the irresponsibility and chaos of the Great Society, along with a reaction against a botched foreign policy. Do these factors sounds familiar? Nixon and Wallace together utterly shattered the old Democratic Party electoral coalition.
Read the whole thing.
(Classical reference in headline.)
“ISLAMISM IS THE GREAT EVIL OF OUR AGE,” Andrew Klavan writes, “and the great question of our age is whether this foulness is the natural child of Islam itself or a cancer on its body.”
JAYVEE CONTINUES TO RACK UP THE SCOREBOARD: ISIS Takes Credit for Stabbing Police Commander, Wife Near Paris.
WHY SO ABLEIST, HILLARY? A Clinton Ad Full of Disability Stereotypes.
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AGING REALITY TV STAR WITH BIZARRE FREEZE-DRIED COIFFURE UTTERS EXTREMIST RHETORIC AGAINST POLITICAL OPPONENT. Ken Burns trashes Trump at Stanford graduation, calls on ‘Vichy Republicans’ to reconsider: “That’s a comparison to the French government that cooperated with the Nazis during World War II. In essence, Burns is calling Trump a Nazi. Immediately after shaming Republicans as Nazi-sympathizers, Burns added, ‘We must remain committed to the kindness and community that are the hallmarks of civilization and reject the troubling, unfiltered Tourettes of his tribalism.’”
BLAME KATIE COURIC FOR DONALD TRUMP: Countless journalists have taken a subject’s words out of context. But Couric deliberately took her subjects’ silence out of context. And it was all to aggrandize herself, make ideological enemies look bad, and make her own questioning seem so incisive as to stump all comers. So when Trump says the media lies, is it any wonder people believe him? And it’s dangerous to give Trump credibility on this.”
Choose the form of your destructor.
KYLE SMITH: There’s one thing dividing New Yorkers: Bill de Blasio.
Here’s the Bill de Blasio arithmetic for New York City: 2-1+1=2. The story of New York is “A Tale of Two Cities,” he said in his 2013 mayoral campaign.
No, make that one, he said in his many “One City” speeches in which he promised to unite us. Scratch that, he says now that he’s preparing next year’s re-election campaign: It’s still two cities.
In other words, de Blasio’s grand re-election campaign theme is: It’s Us Against Them. Call in some pitchforks and fire up the torches. The mob forms to the left. The reason for the new strategy is obvious, but I’ll come back to that.
An innuendo-laden piece of nudge-nudge appeared in The New York Times this week under the headline, “De Blasio Shifts Away from His Re-Election Message of ‘One City.’ ” The “One City” motif has been used on banners hoisted behind de Blasio at public events, in policy platforms and frequently in the mayor’s speeches.
Saying something doesn’t make it true, however. The Times reporter wrote, “The notion that Mr. de Blasio has brought about a unified city . . . appears to have all but vanished as an argument for his re-election in 2017.”
Pursued by such a broad range of investigators that things are starting to look like a reenactment of the climactic chase scene in “The Blues Brothers,” the mayor is said to feel “sapped” of the “ability to court new voters . . . especially skeptical whites who have mostly shunned the mayor’s agenda.”
He’s a debacle.
OBVIOUSLY, HILLARY SHOULD VOLUNTARILY RESIGN FROM THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE: Hillary: People Under FBI Investigation Should Lose Constitutional Rights.
Will any journalists ask Hillary or Obama about her statement? (A rhetorical question, I know, I know.)
CLAIM: Saudi Arabia Has Funded 20% Of Hillary’s Presidential Campaign, Saudi Crown Prince Claims.
On the plus side, maybe this means as President she’ll undo the Iran Deal.
YOU STAY CLASSY, MSM. NBC: Real Problem with These Tragedies Are Trump’s Tweets or Something.
WHY ARE DEMOCRAT-RUN INDUSTRIES SUCH CESSPITS OF SEXUAL PREDATION? Goldman Sachs hired prostitutes to win Libyan business, court told.
Will any journalists ask President Goldman Sachs or his designated successor about this story? (A rhetorical question, I know, I know.)
QUESTIONS ASKED: Chick Fil A Did WHAT After Gay Club Shooting? Why Isn’t This Viral?
In a shocking move, the Orlando location at University and Rouse Road fired up its grills on Sunday. The chain is notorious for not being open, ever, on the first day of the week. Employees cooked up hundreds of their famous chicken sandwiches. They brewed dozens of gallons of sweet tea.
Then, instead of making a single dime, they crated the product of their labor to the One Blood donation center. The food and drinks were handed out, free of charge, to all the people who had lined up to donate blood.
So far, the only mentions of the incident have been from individuals on Facebook. They have posted photos thanking the restaurant for their thoughtfulness and generosity.
This story doesn’t fit The Narrative and must be ignored.
UPDATE: Meanwhile, on the tolerant Left…
FINGER TO THE WIND: In Wake of Orlando Shooting, Clinton Tacks to the Center on Terror.
YOU STAY CLASSY, MSM: CBS affiliate reporter Suzanne Boyd decided it was a good idea to post a smiling selfie from Orlando scene yesterday.
CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Maine senators King and Collins back gun sale ban based on terror ‘watch lists’
Perhaps the Senators’ Fourth Amendment rights should be subject to ill-defined “good behavior” rules.
NO WONDER OBAMA AND HILLARY’S OPERATIVES WITH BYLINES ARE SO EAGER TO CHANGE THE TOPIC: The Islamist War on Gays Comes to America.
The French aren’t deflecting blame with euphemisms like “homegrown extremism.”
REMEMBER THAT CIVILITY BULLSHIT THE DEMOCRATS WERE PEDDLING FOR ABOUT THREE DAYS AFTER TUCSON? Hillary-supporting website selling severed Trump head T-shirts.
THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Orlando shooter was on, then off watch list.
The man who police say killed 49 people in a brutal rampage in Orlando, Fla., early on Sunday morning was on a federal watch list for roughly 10 months in 2013 and 2014, while he was the subject of an FBI probe.
But then Omar Mateen was taken off the list soon after the investigation ended in March of 2014, FBI Director James Comey said on Monday
“He was watch-listed with the opening of the preliminary investigation and he was taken off the watch list when the investigation was closed,” Comey told reporters.
That preliminary investigation was launched after coworkers complained that Mateen, who at the time was the guard at a Florida courthouse, reported that he had boasted about having connections to al Qaeda and other extremist groups. As part of the investigation, the FBI followed Mateen and had confidential sources meet with him, but the results were not enough to press forward, Comey said.
Had Mateen remained on the list, federal officials would have received a flag when he purchased two guns earlier this month, but he would not have been banned from making the purchase.
Democrats in Congress have fought to change the rules for purchases firearms and enact restrictions against people on various government databases from buying the weapons. Those calls have returned in the wake of the shooting in Orlando, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
This whole “watch list” thing is sketchy.