WHAT HATH MERKEL WROUGHT: Germany’s Right-Wing AfD Surges in Eastern Elections.
Archive for 2019
September 3, 2019
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Aiming for ‘Condition Yellow:’ A Lesson in Awareness.
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HOPES TO BE EATEN LAST: French President Macron Offers $15 Billion Bailout to Iran to Stick with Nuclear Deal.
MASS. JUDGE TO ANTIFA: “Stay out of Boston.”
Three of the 36 anti-Straight Pride Parade protesters being arraigned today were ordered to “stay out of Boston” by a judge who said he wouldn’t even allow one of them to visit relatives in Jamaica Plain.
All three were accused of assault and battery on police at Saturday’s downtown parade, with two of them also arraigned in Boston Municipal Court on disorderly and resisting arrest charges. Others also arraigned today were told to stay out of downtown.
Judge Thomas Horgan said the three risked being put in jail for 90 days if they didn’t follow his instructions. “Stay out of Boston,” Horgan repeated when the attorney for one of the men asked that his client only be forbidden from downtown Boston so he could visit relatives in Jamaica Plain.
“They’re going to have to go visit him, then,” Horgan said.
Good. Read the whole thing.
HMM: Nickel is surging after Indonesia said it will ban exports of the metal from January. “The move will create a gap in the nickel market of 100,00 tonnes a year, Colin Hamilton, a managing director of commodities research at BMO Capital Markets, told the FT. ‘This cuts off one of the major sources of raw material to the Chinese nickel pig iron industry’.”
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION, ILLINOIS EDITION: Pritzker contract gives AFSCME unfettered access to workers’ private information.
YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Prince Harry Wants You to Stop Flying So Much.
FORGET IT, THEY’RE ROLLING: Socialist Scenario May Pose Risk For Democrats.
NORWAY: Busting The Myth Of The World’s Hottest Electric Car Market.
Norway’s cold weather makes the country one of the least suitable markets for electric cars since freezing temperatures tend to reduce an EV range by up to 40%. This fact alone makes Norway a less likely market for wide EV adoption. EVs high price tag, range limitations, slow charging time and limited second market makes them a niche product in many markets, said another way, EVs practical inferiority to internal combustion engine (ICE) cars has discouraged their adoption at a wide scale. To counter EVs inherent inferiority, the Norwegian government has introduced a host of market distorting – stick and carrot – initiatives to force EVs adoption:
EV Carrots:
• EVs are exempt from VAT and other taxes on car purchases and sales.
• Parking in public parking spaces is free.
• EVs can use most toll roads and several ferry connections free of charge.
• EVs are allowed to use bus and collective traffic lanes.
• The company car tax is 50 per cent lower on EVs, and the annual motor vehicle tax/road tax is also lower.
• Battery charging is free at a rapidly growing number of publicly funded charging stations.ICE Sticks:
• 25% VAT.
• CO2 Tax.
• NOx Tax.
• Weight Tax.
• Exorbitant gasoline and diesel taxes.As result of the above distortions, ICE cars cost more to purchase in Norway and are up to 75% more expensive to operate.
The irony is that Norway can afford all the largess in no small part because of its yuge oil revenues.
HOW THE MEDIA TURNED A TRUMP APPOINTEE WHO MOCKED ALT-RIGHT ANTI-SEMITES INTO AN ANTI-SEMITE:
On August 12, conservative lawyer Leif Olson began work in the Trump administration’s Department of Labor. On September 3, he resigned, after Bloomberg Law published what seemed to be a shocking expose of his anti-Semitism. The only problem: the entire allegation was false. Simply put, poor reporting took Olson’s clear mockery of Breitbart and the alt-right and recast it as support. Here’s how.
Just think of the media as Democratic Party operatives with bylines, and it all makes sense. Read the whole thing.
Related: At Hot Air, Allahpundit adds:
I assume Olson’s resignation will be belatedly unaccepted as this becomes a conservative cause celebre online today. Maybe even you-know-who will weigh in with a tweet or two; a case of the media falsely accusing someone on his side as bigoted to serve its own agenda is political gold for him, a smoking gun that they’re cutthroat and can’t be trusted in their commentary on Trump himself. Coincidentally, this episode is playing out on the same day that Axios is reporting that allies of Trump are raising money to investigate the social-media (and personal?) histories of members of the media, a process that’s already resulted in embarrassment for the New York Times.
“Good luck finding anyone in conservative activism who has a problem with those tactics after episodes like this. Turnabout is fair play,” he concludes.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON ON THE UNIVERSITY: From Icon To Just A Con.
NOW OUT: Roger Simon’s new novel, The GOAT,
Related: The GOAT, Roger Simon’s Latest Work of Fiction, Is Thrilling, Thought-Provoking, and Satisfying.
IT’S THE MASS SHOOTING THAT NEVER ENDS: Chicago’s bloody Labor Day weekend sees at least 35 shot, 7 of them killed.
Related (From Ed): Chicago Mayor Blames Republicans For City’s Violence.
Chicago’s last Republican mayor left office in 1931.
CHANGE: South Dakota Democratic Party Closing Its Last Physical Offices In State: “The South Dakota Democratic Party will no longer have a physical presence in the state. The state party is closing its offices in Sioux Falls and Rapid City at the end of September, and party staff will begin working remotely due to the party’s dwindling finances, according to SDDP Chair Paula Hawks.”
OKAY, THAT’S PRETTY COOL: Bugatti Chiron Passes 300-MPH Barrier with 304-MPH Run, Sets World Record. Plus: “Any Crash at That Sort of Speed Is Likely to Hurt.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Transgender professor defends celebrating deaths of those deemed ‘transphobic.’
WHEN DEMOCRATIC OPERATIVES WITH BYLINES LIE TO HARM THEIR OPPOSITION: The Media Claimed Andy Ngo Was Complicit in a Far-Right Attack on Antifa. But the Video Doesn’t Support That.
DECOUPLING: China’s factories had a surprisingly good month. But there’s trouble ahead for the economy.
The latest data presented some troubling signals. New export orders fell to the lowest level this year — an indication that foreign demand is declining as the US-China trade war rages on, said Zhengsheng Zhong, director of macroeconomic analysis at CEBM Group.
The trade war has shown no signs of abating, and the most recent escalation comes as concerns about slowing global growth are building, and as the fear of recession stalks several major economies. The latest round of tariffs that the United States and China imposed on each other went into effect Sunday.
Zhong pointed out in a note accompanying the Caixin data that there was “no sign of improvement” in business confidence.
“China’s economy showed signs of a short-term recovery, but downward pressure remains a long-term problem,” he wrote.
Plus: “What China is doing now to support its economy may not be enough to stave off problems later this year.”
While China’s military buildup and neoimperialist ambitions are worrisome, Trump is hitting them where it hurts.
DNC-MSM: HOW DARE YOU SEARCH THROUGH OUR OLD TWEETS. ALSO DNC-MSM: Shameful: Trump Labor appointee forced to resign after Bloomberg portrays sarcastic 2016 Facebook post as anti-Semitic.
What’s particularly amazing is that [Bloomberg reporter Ben] Penn, the reporter on the story, is showing no remorse, defending his article as merely having asked questions to the department about it. But he is clearly still stating as a matter of fact that Olson was engaging in anti-Semitism, writing, “This is the latest in a series of mishaps under the Trump administration personnel vetting system. What makes this one remarkable is that Olson’s Facebook page was public to his nonfriends. Any cursory screening of his social media accounts could’ve uncovered the anti-Semitism.”
This is a shameful episode in media bias, no doubt, but the Trump administration shares some of the blame here too. For all of Trump’s attacks on the media and tendency to be unapologetic about his own remarks, [Leif] Olson was largely hung out to dry here. They could have stood by him, fought back by saying that it was clearly sarcastic. Instead, they let somebody be smeared and lose his job and have his life disrupted based on a sick lie.
Read the whole thing, and note that even lefties such as Jonathan Chait and never-Trumpers like John Podhoretz are attacking Penn.