HOW WE’LL LIVE ON MARS: Elon Musk: The Popular Mechanics Interview.
Archive for 2019
February 26, 2019
RICHARD COHEN: Democrats Are Wrapping a Gift for Trump.
Democratic socialist ideas appear to be making significant headway in the party. The Democratic part is fine, the socialism part is not. It suggests a massive government intrusion in the economy that has not worked elsewhere — post-war Great Britain or that contemporary mess called Venezuela — and that, in a cultural sense, is un-American. Time and time again, the American people have shown they want nothing to do with socialism. While socialist movements have at times been politically strong in Europe, such has not been the case in America. This, in fact, is one of the original meanings of the phrase “American exceptionalism.”
If Americans are not about to embrace socialism, they certainly are not about to support reparations. This proposal, which seems to have come out of nowhere, has the support of Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Julian Castro and Marianne Williamson. This supposed redress for slavery — nothing can redress slavery — polls abysmally. Sixty-eight percent of Americans oppose making payments to descendants of slaves, and 72 percent oppose paying reparations to African-Americans in general. Among whites, 81 percent oppose payments to descendants of slaves.
At the moment, these proposals are reassuringly vague: Who would benefit? Just the descendants of slaves? All African-Americans? What about the very rich? As you can see, this can get a bit complicated.
It can also can get dangerously divisive.
They can’t help themselves; modern leftism has zero limiting principles. None.
Yet this is the kind of Democrat which some NeverTrump dead-enders are perfectly happy to help elect.
#FIGHTFOR15: Minimum Wage Boosts Are Great—For Robots.
The real minimum wage is always zero.™
TO BE FAIR, BRITAIN HAS ALWAYS HAD A STATE RELIGION: British Museum Exhibit titled: “Islam and Europe.”
IT’S ALL FUN AND GAMES UNTIL THE ROBOTS TOSS YOUR TEA INTO THE HARBOR: Don’t Fight The Robots. Tax Them.
TRUE COLORS: Plan B for rebel Republicans: Wound Trump so he’ll lose to a Democrat in general election.
In 2020, that is the sort of primary challenge some “Never Trump” Republicans envision pursuing against this president if their favored option — running a contender strong enough to win — doesn’t come to fruition. For Republicans committed to dislodging Trump at all costs, wounding him in a primary would be adequate. No president challenged for renomination in the modern era has won a second term.
“For a number of people I’ve spoken to, putting a torpedo into Trump’s operation would suffice for them — if they could mortally wound him in a primary,” said a Republican insider involved in the effort.
Outright defeating a sitting president in a primary is nearly impossible, and Trump’s intraparty opponents are realistic about their prospects.
That they’d rather help elect what is likely to be the most extreme Democratic nominee in decades than deal with a successful but “distasteful” Republican shows that their far more interested in Not-Our-Kind-Dear snobbery than in a single damn conservative principle.
BRUCE BAWER: Sweeney Agonistes: Tommy Robinson Turns the Tables on the BBC.
Tommy Robinson’s courageous truth-telling about Islam has not only resulted in years of harassment by the British authorities, an endless cascade of death threats, and, last year, a thoroughly unjust prison term that might have spelled his demise, but also, of course, a pattern of coverage by the mainstream media that has been almost uniformly deceitful and poisonous. When he heard that the BBC series Panorama, which is the UK’s answer to 60 Minutes, was planning a story on him with the working title “Tommy Takedown,” and that its producers were collaborating with the vile group Hope Not Hate (HNH), which is Britain’s version of the Southern Poverty Law Center — i.e., a shady far-left smear machine masquerading as a noble monitor of bigots, fascists, and hate groups — he decided to go on the offensive.
You’ll want to read the whole thing.
QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED BY DENNIS PRAGER: Why Do Some People Wish the Attack on Jussie Smollett Happened? The Left needs Americans to believe the lie that this is a racist country.
Even in Chicago, the adopted hometown of former President Obama and his majordomo, Rahm Emanuel, which hasn’t had a Republican mayor since 1931.
SHE’LL MAKE THE HIGH-SPEED TRAINS RUN ON TIME: AOC Pounces after Misunderstood Mussolini Tweet by Sen. John Cornyn. “No, the senior senator from Texas is not a fan of fascism.”
MICHAEL WALSH ON OPENING UP SELECTIVE SERVICE TO WOMEN: You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby — or Have You?
YOU CAN COMPLAIN ABOUT THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION, YOU JUST HAVE TO BE SURE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THE RIGHT RELIGION: Student booted from university after complaining about ‘Islamization’ of Britain.
HOTEL EUROFORNIA: U.K.’s Theresa May to Consider Delay to Brexit Date.
I HAVE A CONSCIOUS BIAS AGAINST UNC, BASED ON THEIR HISTORY OF ACADEMIC FRAUD: UNC pushes diversity, inclusion with ‘check your bias’ pledge.
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BACKGROUND TO THE TRUMP-KIM HANOI SUMMIT: From last week but still current.
No one is astonished that North Korea’s criminal regime still has nuclear weapons. In many respects, nukes and ICBMs are Kim’s only bargaining chips.
Many, however, are warily amazed that the diplomatic process continues.
RELATED: Some thoughts from The Hill on implementing denuclearization.
VERY RELATED: For the deep background, read Chapter 2 of Cocktails from Hell. Recommended by Glenn Reynolds!
JIM JORDAN & MARK MEADOWS: Democrats put out welcome mat for a liar. We can’t trust Michael Cohen.
STILL #1 ON SSRN: My piece, written with Peter W. Morgan, Crime Follies: Overcriminalization, Independent Prosecutors, and the Rule of Law.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: The vote to overrule Trump emergency declaration and much, much more. “Even if the House and the Senate pass their resolution, Trump can veto it and the Dems do not have the votes to override his veto. This is all a show exercise so that the Democrats and the sleazy Republicans can show their appropriate constituents the requisite #resistance.”
THE FIX WAS IN: DOJ Prevented FBI From Pursuing Gross Negligence Charges Against Clinton.
The Justice Department (DOJ), under then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, decided to set an unusually high threshold for prosecution of Clinton, effectively ensuring from the outset that she would not be charged.
In order for Clinton to be prosecuted, the DOJ required the FBI to establish evidence of intent—even though the gross negligence statute explicitly does not require this.
This meant that the FBI would have needed to find a smoking gun, such as an email or an admission made during FBI questioning, revealing Clinton or her aides knowingly set up the private email server to send classified information.
This is what we ought to be investigating.
SWIMMING IN THE GULF OF THAILAND: A USMC assault amphibious vehicle (AAV) assigned to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) departs the well deck of the amphibious transport dock ship USS Green Bay. The USN amphibious ready group is participating in a regional security and crisis contingency exercise with Thai forces.
TO BE FAIR, HE HAS KIND OF DRIVEN THEM CRAZY: Liberal Media Scream: It’s Trump’s fault liberals fell for Smollett hoax.