Author Archive: Stephen Green
July 9, 2019
EXIT TAX: France announces ‘eco-tax’ of up to €18 on tickets for all flights leaving country.
France will introduce an “eco-tax” of up to €18 (£16.19) on tickets for all flights leaving the country, the government has announced.
“We have decided to put in place an eco-tax on all flights from France,” transport minister Elisabeth Borne said during a news conference on Tuesday.
She added the tax, which is expected to raise around €180m annually from 2020, would finance daily transport in France.
The new tax will range from €1.50 for short-haul flights and up to €18 for long-haul journeys in business class.
The move comes amid an escalating planetary climate emergency which is disproportionally being caused by the tiny percentage of people who use planes for transport.
They should tax private flights at a punitive rate, since clearly those are the most harmful of all, and enjoyed by the very tiniest percentage.
IF I WERE PRESIDENT I’D DRONE THESE GUYS: The FCC’s robocall offensive: text messages and international ‘spoofed’ calls targeted.
THE IMPORTANT THING IS THAT NOBODY IS WEARING OFFENSIVE THEMED SHIRTS: Four Men Have Died Since An Australian Mining Safety Committee Stopped Meeting Due To Gender Quotas.
MICHAEL LEDEEN: Is Iranian Faith in the 12th Imam Stronger Than America’s Negotiating Patience? “Khamenei et al. are waging a multi-front assault on us and our friends and allies, from attacking shipping in the Gulf to preparing for aggressive acts against the Saudis during the Hajj, to active meddling in American politics. Isn’t that the upshot of the new ‘think tank’ funded by George Soros and Charles Koch, to be headed by the infamous Trita Parsi? Parsi is the pro-Iranian founder of the Council on Iranian-American Relations, and one will get you ten his new operation will work in cahoots with the Tehran mullahcracy.”
Needless to say, read the whole thing.
THIS IS NOT THE 21ST CENTURY HEADLINE I WAS HOPING FOR: Is Russia Creating A Nazi-Style Army of Genetic Supersoldiers?
PART XXIII AND STILL GOING STRONG: The Greatest Scientific Fraud Of All Time — Part XXIII.
Despite what you might think from reading the mainstream press, the past few years in world temperatures have not been particularly good for the continuation of climate alarm. No matter how you measure them (the main methods being ground thermometers, weather balloons, and satellites), world atmospheric temperatures have gone down for more than three years since a peak reached in early 2016. The data set that I consider to be the most reliable — the satellite-based measurements from the University of Alabama at Huntsville — gives the global temperature “anomaly” for the most recent month (June 2019) as +0.47 deg C. That is well down from the peak of +0.88 deg C in early 2016, and represents a decrease of about a third of what had been the entire increase since the satellite record began in 1979.
Read the whole thing. But if you missed Parts I – XXII, you might want to take the day off.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Bill Clinton Don’t Know Nuthin’ About Jeffrey Epstein. “Four trips? Fox News reported back in 2016 that Clinton ‘was a much more frequent flyer on a registered sex offender’s infamous jet than previously reported, with flight logs showing the former president taking at least 26 trips aboard the ‘Lolita Express’ — even apparently ditching his Secret Service detail for at least five of the flights, according to records obtained by FoxNews.com.’ Oh wow. That sounds bad. Was he doing something unsavory?”
JAY CARUSO: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shouldn’t insult Nancy Pelosi. She should learn from her.
The problem is that she’s still behaving like an advocate, not a legislator. The recent comments by Pelosi about AOC and her fellow freshmen Democrats, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, shone a spotlight on the shortcomings of Pelosi’s younger colleagues.
When asked about the recent $4.6 billion emergency border package, which Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, and Tlaib all voted against in the form of a protest vote, Pelosi said, “All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world. But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people, and that’s how many votes they got.”
You can imagine the response. Time magazine editor-at-large, Anand Giridharadas, griped on Twitter, “These are four historic candidates and now members of Congress. And this is the language their boss throws at them? This is why people clamor for generational change. Because it is hard in life’s sunset to learn to see people you are trained to overlook.” Ocasio-Cortez in a tweet, said, “That public ‘whatever’ is called public sentiment. And wielding the power to shift it is how we actually achieve meaningful change in this country.”
I’m not sure Jay realizes it, but he may have just shown why AOC will continue insulting Pelosi. The young congresswoman seems to think she’s learned all she needs to know to become the next Pelosi, and that the more she diminishes the current Speaker, the faster her rise to power.
BUT WAS HE REALLY RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT? REALLY? Swalwell Promised He’d Give Up Seat in Congress if He Ran for President.
“SHUT UP OR ELSE,” THEY EXPLAINED: Left Uses Threats, Violence to Stop Conservative Art.
Productions often wrestle with casting changes, budgetary gaps and scheduling conflicts. That’s maddening, of course, but par for the cinematic course. Savvy filmmakers expect nothing less.“Unplanned” endured much more.
• Music publishers wouldn’t let the filmmakers tap their songs
• Twitter temporarily banned the official “Unplanned” account on opening weekend
• Google briefly labeled the film “propaganda”
That’s just a short list. Now, those problems seem pesky compared to its current woes. The Christian Broadcasting Network is reporting two Canadian theaters canceled plans to show “Unplanned” following serious threats.
Christian Toto has the rest of the details at the link.
YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Democratic Clown Car Update. “Biden is down, Harris is up, Gravel is out, Swallwell is soon to follow, Tom Steyer is getting in, and Williamson sends out a fundraising request…for Gravel.”
NO, THEY AREN’T. Forget man bags: ‘Murses’ are the hot new accessory for men.
SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP: Trump attacks British ambassador, takes swipe at UK PM May. “U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he ‘will no longer deal’ with the British ambassador to the United States, after a weekend news report that the UK diplomat had described Trump’s administration as dysfunctional, clumsy and inept.”
That’s rich, coming from someone who works for Theresa May.
FACT CHECK: Antifa Is for Angry White Fascists. “TMZ has more diversity in their collection of mugshots from New Hampshire’s North Country. You’ll find a better cross-section of intersectionality on Martha Stewart’s mailing list. Or maybe these are just everyone’s headshots from a recent casting call for a reboot of ‘Fargo’.”
GOOD LORD: Guess What We Found At Epstein’s Manhattan Mansion?
Come on, man. No one could be this stupid, right? Right?
Wrooooooooong, at least according to prosecutors announcing the indictment against Jeffrey Epstein. In a search of his Manhattan residence, Epstein allegedly had a trove of photographs that could add child pornography charges to his legal woes.
FLASHBACK: Flight logs show Bill Clinton flew on sex offender’s jet much more than previously known.
#RESIST: Noncompliance Kneecaps New Zealand’s Gun Control Scheme.
As of last week, only around 700 weapons had been turned over. There are an estimated 1.5 million guns—with an unknown number subject to the new prohibition on semiautomatic firearms—in the country overall.
Traditionally relaxed in its approach to firearms regulation, and enjoying a low crime rate, New Zealand has no firearms registration rule. That means authorities have no easy way of knowing what guns are in circulation or who owns them.
“These weapons are unlikely to be confiscated by police because they don’t know of their existence,” Philippa Yasbek of Gun Control NZ admitted.
As it should be.
But: “These will become black-market weapons if their owners choose not to comply with the law and become criminals instead.”
FALLOUT: Boeing Loses MAX Deal to Airbus. “Saudi airline says it will buy up to 50 Airbus jets, worth more than $5.5 billion.”
Saudi Arabia’s flyadeal Sunday said it would buy up to 50 Airbus A320neo planes, the direct rival to Boeing’s MAX that has been idled globally in the wake of two crashes within less than five months.
The deal between the discount arm of flag carrier Saudi Arabian Airlines Corp., or Saudia, has a value of more than $5.5 billion, based on Airbus list prices that don’t include industry-standard discounts.
The airline, which was launched in September 2017 using Airbus A320 single-aisle planes, last December made a commitment to buy the MAX.
Ouch.
MESSAGE: “THEY ‘CARE’.” All 2020 Senate Dems Absent for Vote to Send Humanitarian Relief to Border.