MO’ NUKES: US nuclear is dying, but it produced more electricity in 2018 than ever before.
All I’m asking for is a thorium reactor in every garage.
Author Archive: Stephen Green
March 22, 2019
BLUE ON BLUE: Rep. Ilhan Omar’s ‘anti-Semitic tropes’ prompt Jewish New York Dem to apologize to constituents.
U.S. Rep. Max Rose, a Jewish New York Democrat in his first term in Congress, apologized to visibly frustrated constituents at a town hall in Staten Island on Tuesday for not “protecting them” from fellow freshman Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar’s repeated use of “anti-Semitic tropes.”
Rose’s comments came as Minnesota Democrats are seriously considering the prospect of supporting an unprecedented primary challenge against the 37-year-old Omar in 2020, following bipartisan condemnation of several of her remarks, according to officials and state representatives. Earlier this month, the House passed a bipartisan resolution condemning hate of all kinds in the wake of Omar’s comments. But Democrats kept Omar’s name out of the resolution, which several Republicans opposed as a watered-down, half-hearted effort.
Well, that’s exactly what it was. It was also Nancy Pelosi’s best attempt at keeping a lid on her fractured caucus.
WHAT’S IN A NAME? American Cable Association Changes Name to ACA – America’s Communications Association. “America’s Communications Association announces name change to reflect changing technology and consumer habits.”
But mostly because almost nobody likes their cable company.
CARACAS-BY-THE-LAKE: Chicago’s Democratic socialists on brink of transforming city’s politics.
Eric Lutz says this like it’s a good thing:
Democratic socialist Rossana Rodriguez never thought she would run for office, let alone win.
But the Chicago educator and community activist may be poised to do just that after forcing a runoff in her 33rd ward aldermanic race against incumbent Deb Mell last month, making her one of six democratic socialists who could potentially join city council this year.
That shock number of openly declared socialists set to join Chicago politics comes at a time when socialism is increasingly visible in national US politics, led by the socialist senator Bernie Sanders running for president and socialist New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez becoming one the most high-profile politicians in the House of Representatives.
But the trend is happening at a local level, too, with the emergence of socialists in Chicago politics a reflection of the progressive momentum Rodriguez and other socialist candidates say could “transform” the way this city operates.
The results should prove… instructive.
21ST CENTURY CRIME: Lithuanian Man Bilks Google and Facebook out of $100 Million. “He tricked the companies into wiring him money by sending fake invoices.”
March 21, 2019
WHAT’S THE SPANISH FOR STASI OR CHEKA? Juan Guaido’s chief of staff snatched from his home at 2am.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE PUBLIC’S RIGHT TO KNOW? Anonymous Individuals Fight Possible Unsealing of Details Related to Alleged Epstein Sex Ring.
REMEMBER THIS? Police release more records in Las Vegas massacre.
There were no new revelations among the more than 750 pages of documents, and authorities have not determined a motive for the 2017 carnage that killed 58 people and injured more than 850 others at an outdoor concert.
Police and the FBI have each concluded investigations, saying 64-year-old shooter Stephen Paddock acted alone and was not inspired by any outside group or ideology.
FBI profilers determined Paddock — a high-stakes video poker player and former accountant — might have been seeking infamy and trying to follow in the criminal footsteps of his bank robber father, who made the agency’s most-wanted list in the 1960s.
Police said the 35th batch of material released since May under court order in a public records lawsuit will be the last.
There’s still so little there, there.
BUT CNN IS WORKING HARD TO CATCH UP! Data Show MSNBC Has Been Robert Mueller’s Biggest Fan.
CHANGE? Erdogan’s government in panic over risk of electoral defeats.
The campaign of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government for the March 31 local elections will go down in history as the most polarizing campaign with the most virulent and offensive rhetoric that Turkey has seen under the Justice and Development Party (AKP). In no election before has the government employed religion and religion-based polarization so blatantly. The campaign has been marked also by unprecedented threats to opposition leaders and candidates as well as an apparent intent to not accept election results. Government spokesmen have virtually competed to delegitimize the opposition, seeking to keep their base intact by scaring voters with a demonized portrait of political opponents. The main cause of this extraordinary political syndrome is Turkey’s plunge into economic recession, which, coupled with a rising cost of living and growing unemployment, has raised the specter of the AKP losing the elections in big cities.
Longterm, the religious aspect is the most troubling. Ataturk’s secular Turkey is dying, and an Islamist-fied Turkey might be in the making.
DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY: No, the Electoral College Is Not a ‘Shadow of Slavery’s Power.’
Compromises were made in America’s early years because North and South couldn’t agree on whether to continue the institution. Just as obviously, virtually all Americans today wish that slavery had never existed. It’s a part of America’s heritage that is clearly at odds with America’s founding principles.
That does not mean, however, that the Constitution and its presidential election process are simply a “relic of slavery.” The discussions at the Constitutional Convention were shaped more by the delegates’ study of history and political philosophy, as well as their own experiences with Parliament and the state legislatures. They wanted to avoid the mistakes that had been made in other governments. They sought to establish a better constitution that would stand the test of time.
George Washington expressed this conviction, felt so strongly by the founding generation: “[T]he preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of government,” he concluded, “are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”
His words echoed an argument that James Madison had made about a year and a half earlier. Only a republic, Madison had written, “would be reconcilable with the genius of the people of America; with the fundamental principles of the revolution; or with that honorable determination which animates every votary of freedom to rest all our political experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government.” He thought the experiment worthwhile. The Constitution met these criteria.
Read the whole thing.
ALSO IT DOESN’T TASTE GOOD: Kale is now one of the most pesticide-contaminated vegetables.
SPENGLER: To Protect Muslims Against Terrorism, Stop Muslim Terrorists. “Root out the terrorists who kill other Muslims–starting with the terror state of Iran.”
OH: Top Prosecutors Leave Mueller Team After GOP Reps Complain to AG Barr. “Reps Jordan and Meadows questioned the independence of Zainab Ahmad and Andrew Weissmann as both were involved in discussions with Bruce Ohr in 2016.”
THAT WAS DIFFERENT THEN BECAUSE SHUT UP: Biden Called Court Packing a ‘Bonehead Idea’ During 1983 Hearing.
TEACH WOMEN NOT TO… DO THAT: Preschool Teacher Punished Kids By Making Them Stand Naked In A Closet.
BUT OF COURSE: Bernie hires Hugo Chavez fanboy as campaign Senior Advisor and Speechwriter. “David Sirota penned the now infamous ‘Hugo Chavez’s economic miracle,’ and has been secretly helping Bernie while working as a journalist, then deleted the evidence. Nobody saw that coming.”
Sirota does seem to have a type.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: National conversation on John McCain. “Recently, information has surfaced that McCain was an active participant in the coup against Trump. McCain and his associates were actively circulating a compilation of gossip and RUSSIAN-generated disinformation, alleging Trump and some of his associates were compromised and working for the RUSSIANS. McCain was promoting the idea that Trump was committing espionage. ESPIONAGE. This was after Trump won the election. He was the president-elect. McCain was trying to overthrow the president.”
The media seems to spend much more time covering what Trump said than what McCain did.
RACISM, STRAIGHT UP: Australia to Cut Number of Migrants Under New Population Plan.
BUT OF COURSE: EU gives tentative OK to Brexit deadline extension — with conditions.
I’ve stopped thinking of it as Brexit, as it seems less and less likely to happen. Instead I use “May’s Mess.”
HMM: US Navy’s carrier-based F-35C stealth fighters may not be ready for combat after all.
“The F-35C is ready for operations, ready for combat and ready to win,” Vice Adm. DeWolfe Miller, commander of Naval Air Forces, said last month as the Navy announced that the fighter had achieved initial operating capability. “We are adding an incredible weapon system into the arsenal of our Carrier Strike Groups that significantly enhances the capability of the joint force.”
But the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit government-accountability group, warned Tuesday that despite these claims, the F-35C, like the other variants, “continues to dramatically underperform in crucial areas including availability and reliability, cybervulnerability testing, and life-expectancy testing.”
While still secretary of defense, Jim Mattis demanded last fall that the Navy and the Air Force strive to achieve a fleet-wide mission-capable rate of 80% for their fighters by October 2019. The Navy’s carrier-capable F-35 variant is apparently nowhere close to that target, having consistently achieved unacceptably low fully mission-capable rates.
The Project on Government Oversight began life as The Project on Military Procurement, criticizing the cost and design flaws of the M-1 Abrams — which of course went on to become one of the deadliest and durable tanks in history.
CYBERSECURITY: Why Phone Numbers Stink As Identity Proof.
I don’t give mine out unless I simply must, and even then it’s usually a fake.
JAMES P. PINKERTON: Democrats Set the Wayback Machine to the 1930s. “From court-packing to Weimar Monetary Theory, their new ideas feel distinctly retro.”
We can observe that for most of the 20th century, the specters of war, fascism, and communism had the effect of trapping American capital in the U.S.; that is, money just wasn’t safe in most places. And yet today, thanks, ironically enough, to U.S. victories in various hot and cold wars, easily 20 countries and jurisdictions around the world qualify as not just tax havens, but plausible places to hold citizenship, and perhaps even to inhabit.
So while one can lament the ingratitude of tax exiles, what one can’t do—at least not without an extraordinary amount of effort—is collect money from them. To be sure, it’s possible to imagine an international regime in which enforcement and harmonization make tax exiling and other kinds of tax avoidance more difficult, even dangerous. But as we have learned, it’s hard to get the world to agree on much of anything. Moreover, there’s always the concern about killing the goose that lays the golden egg.
So perhaps the better answer is to set reasonable rates and then seek to truly collect revenues from rich individuals and profitable companies that never seem to pay anything.
Much more at the link. I’d just add that the current push for ultra-high income taxes isn’t about collecting revenue, but about increasing control and creating new opportunities for graft.