JOHN MERLINE: Democrats’ promise of Medicare for All is remarkably misguided and unrealistic.

Medicare for All backers say that even though it has never been successfully implemented anywhere and would provide “free” cradle-to-grave coverage, their plan will cut national health spending $2 trillion over the next decade by reducing overhead, cutting drug prices, and slashing payments to doctors and hospitals.

Those promised savings are as unrealistic as everything else about Medicare for All.

Private insurance overhead costs account for less than 7 percent of health costs, so even if you were to eliminate it altogether, without adding new paperwork costs on the government side, you’d save a relative pittance. Plus, it overlooks the fact that Medicare and Medicaid are already big drivers of overhead costs for doctors and hospitals, problems that would likely get worse if Medicare were the only game in town.

It’s like running on a platform of flying pigs

Slashing payments to doctors and hospitals is a sure way to drive providers out and force hospitals to close.

And despite all the hoopla over drug prices, prescription drugs account for less than 10 percent of the nation’s health care bill — the same share as in 1960, according to official government data.

They’ll stifle innovation, drive providers out of business, and increase costs on the surviving providers. When Americans notice that they’re paying more, getting less, and waiting longer, Democrats will scream, “We need wider powers!”

And do read the whole thing — it’s filled with useful numbers.

WRECKERS, HOARDERS, SABOTEURS, TROTSKYITES, KULAKS, YANKEE IMPERIALISTS, COUNTERREVOLUTIONARIES, AND JEWS TO BLAME: Venezuela hit by major blackout, government blames ‘sabotage.’

OF COURSE SHE DID: Ilhan Omar just retweeted an attack on the late Sen. John McCain that calls @MeghanMcCain’s concern about anti-Semitism “faux outrage.”

CHANGE: There’s now only one Blockbuster left on the planet.

The Oregon location has been open for more than 20 years. It offers customers the newest movie releases, but Harding says the classic older titles are the store’s “bread and butter.”

“You can go to Redbox and you can get the new titles, but they don’t have the older ones,” Harding said. “Netflix and Amazon don’t have everything, either.”

After the last couple Blockbusters closed in Alaska in 2018, the Bend store celebrated becoming the sole Blockbuster in America by selling T-shirts and hats, Harding said.

Now, earning the title of the last one on the planet “is not hurting us,” Harding said. In fact, it will probably be good for business and attract more nostalgia-seeking visitors.

There was something fun about cruising the stacks at the corner video store.

PRIVACY: Los Angeles is fighting for e-scooter data.

City officials want to use location data from Uber-owned Jump’s dockless scooters to inform public transit policies. But the company says that could lead to “an unprecedented level of surveillance,” which the city could wield over companies and citizens, Politico reports.

At the moment, it looks like a stalemate. LA city officials claim the data would provide insight into scooters as a growing means of transit, let the city see if scooters end up in the LA River and help ensure scooters are available to lower-income residents. Reportedly, the data would not be shared with police without a warrant, would not contain personal identifiers and would not subject to public records requests.

But privacy experts warn that scooter location data could be enough to reveal a person’s movements and private transactions, especially because scooters don’t stop at docking stations. Instead, they take passengers right up to their homes or businesses.

Creepy.

BLUE ON BLUE: Lesbian Feminist Defends ‘Misgendering;’ It’s Not ‘Inhumane’ to Tell the Truth. “It’s actually inhumane to force women to share intimate spaces with males.”

BUT OF COURSE: Roll Call Hit Piece Uses SPLC Disinformation to Smear Pro-Israel Conservative Groups. “The groups are calling for Rep. Ilhan Omar’s ouster from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.”

GOOD LORD: Is Erdogan’s airport dream turning into nightmare?

Months of delays have prevented the airport from opening, which might be the best possible outcome:

As explained in the official introductory video published Oct. 29, the land chosen for the project was previously the site of coal mines, with uneven surfaces, wetlands and coastal sand dunes. It took 750 million cubic meters (980 million cubic yards) of soil to fill and even it out — something the video portrays as an engineering conquest. Images captured from the sky may impress ordinary observers, but experts are concerned about the site’s durability and safety.

An engineer from the Ministry of Transportation who spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity said, “I would not want any of my family members to even set foot in this airport. The project was started against all warnings and continued without meeting proper standards. For example, initially the recommendation was to [build] at least 105 meters [344 feet] above sea level. Then they reduced it to 90 meters, and finally it ended up at 60 meters. The ground is not stable; it’s built on underground wetlands. There is not enough soil in the world to fill it safely.”

The engineer explained that the 105-meter height from sea level is directly linked to flight safety.

Seriously, I hope they never open this thing — or raze it, either. If the airport really is this unsafe, it should stand empty as a monument to Erdogan’s ego and incompetence.

NEWS YOU CAN USE? The Making of a Limousine Liberal: A 12 Step Program.

FLASHBACK: On Being a Jewish Conservative.

This is Karol Markowicz in 2015:

It was easier for me to be conservative in NYC than it might be for others since my community, Soviet-born Jews, tends to lean right, but it was still wasn’t easy. People who barely knew me were downright hateful to me. I never hid who I was, even when it was difficult or uncomfortable. I was confident in my beliefs, unafraid to be open about them when engaged. If someone didn’t want to be friends with me because I believe in lower taxes or a strong foreign policy, that was their bad.

In the last year, my pride at being a Jewish conservative has been at an all-time high. Last summer, when Israel and Gaza flared up, I watched liberal Jewish friends lose their bearings. Who were they? Who were their friends? I’d watch them get into arguments and see their surprise that their friends thought Israel should just accept a few rockets and kidnapped teenagers. The confusion often turned to despair. They couldn’t believe they had to explain again and again why it was imperative for Israel to defend itself, why the discovery of the tunnels was a huge deal, why the barrage of rockets mattered. They were sad and I truly was sad for them.

Me? I watched my conservative non-Jewish friends change their Twitter avatar and Facebook profile pictures to Israeli flags.

Karol also says, “If you’re an American Jew, you’re not actually on the front-lines of this fight,” but that’s changing.

SUNSHINE IS THE BEST DISINFECTANT: Documents related to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein may be unsealed.

The documents were collected when Virginia Giuffre sued Epstein’s former girlfriend, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, in 2015 for publicly denying that she lured her as an underage girl into Epstein’s harem.

Giuffre and Maxwell settled the case on the eve of the trial in 2017, sealing 167 documents that would have been aired in a courtroom.

At a hearing on Wednesday, a panel of three judges suggested they may rule in favor of unsealing at least some of the documents, which include 29 depositions.

“Is there anything that can be unsealed in this case?” Judge Jose Cabranes asked a lawyer for Maxwell, who was arguing the documents should remain under seal.

“I don’t think,” lawyer Ty Gee responded before being interrupted by Cabranes.

“You can’t possibly be serious?” Cabranes asked.

I suspect that all this secrecy is less to protect Epstein than it is to protect his wide circle of powerful friends.

CASE CLOSED: The great Over or Under question has been definitively answered.

PEACEFUL INDIGENOUS CULTURES: More than 140 children may have had their hearts removed in ancient sacrifice in Peru.

WHAT HAPPENS UNDER VEGAS STAYS UNDER VEGAS: Las Vegas convention authority wants The Boring Company to build 2-mile loop.

UGH: U.K. Jury Convicts Father in Acid Attack on 3-Year-Old Son Amid Custody Battle.

The identities of the man and his five co-conspirators weren’t revealed.

BUT OF COURSE: Democrats’ Antisemitism Rebuke Has Gone From Impotent To Totally Worthless.

VIDEO: CEO Jack Dorsey Defends Twitter’s #LearntoCode Purges.

Dorsey claims that #LearnToCode is coded language for some kind of threat, when in fact it originated with asshole members of the press who somehow didn’t get purged when they used it against ordinary Americans who had lost their jobs to Obama’s anti-coal regulations.

TYLER O’NEIL: Trump Judge Confirmed Despite Dems Weaponizing SPLC ‘Hate Group’ Smears Against Her. “This is a de facto religious test for public office.”

Allison Jones Rushing is also quite young and likely to sit on that bench for a good long time.

What’s that old Klingon proverb about revenge?

HEH: Let Coloradans decide National Popular Vote at the ballot.

So how odd that the disenfranchisement-phobic progressives in charge of the Colorado state legislature are now passing a bill to do what they say they hate — disenfranchise all Colorado voters when it comes to voting for electors to represent Colorado in the Electoral College.

And the cherry on top — they are passing this “National Popular Vote Interstate Compact” without a popular vote of the people of Colorado.

Call it voter suppression.

Should the national popular vote plan become a reality, it would mean Coloradans would not decide to whom our nine (soon to be 10) electoral votes go in a presidential election. Highly populated metro areas like New York City and Los Angeles would dictate how our Colorado electoral votes are cast.

I’d like to get Glenn’s opinion on this, but it seems like there’s an easy equal protection case to be made against state legislators effectively giving away their constituents’ presidential franchise to out-of-state voters.

BADLY: How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former industry execs tell all.

Both Butler and Dahan acknowledged what most consumers have long suspected: that the prices we pay for eyewear in no way reflect the actual cost of making frames and lenses.

When he was in the business, in the 1980s and ’90s, Dahan said it cost him between $10 and $16 to manufacture a pair of quality plastic or metal frames.

Lenses, he said, might cost about $5 a pair to produce. With fancy coatings, that could boost the price all the way to $15.

He said LensCrafters would turn around and charge $99 for completed glasses that cost $20 or $30 to make — and this was well below what many independent opticians charged. Nowadays, he said, those same glasses at LensCrafters might cost hundreds of dollars.

Butler said he recently visited factories in China where many glasses for the U.S. market are manufactured. Improved technology has made prices even lower than what Dahan recalled.

“You can get amazingly good frames, with a Warby Parker level of quality, for $4 to $8,” Butler said. “For $15, you can get designer-quality frames, like what you’d get from Prada.”

And lenses? “You can buy absolutely first-quality lenses for $1.25 apiece,” Butler said.

Yet those same frames and lenses might sell in the United States for $800.
Butler laughed. “I know,” he said. “It’s ridiculous. It’s a complete rip-off.”

With augmented reality a common feature on new smartphones, giving people the ability to try on virtual glasses without leaving home, this is an industry ripe for disruption.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: How hard is it to condemn antisemitism and much, much more. “The same crowd that shrieked about the neo-Nazi’s at Charlottesville and grandstanded about a climate of hate at the Pittsburgh synagogue slaughter are going wobbly on whether they should condemn the compulsive and repeated antisemitic smack coming from Rep. Ilhan Omar.”

That’s different because Democrats.

CHANGE? China’s superrich are losing faith in the country’s economy, with some even worried it will turn into the next Venezuela.

Word of China’s wealthy elites losing faith in the future of China’s runaway economic success story comes with the country at a major crossroads of a trade dispute with the US and a general slowdown in growth.

China’s economic growth, while still very high by the standards of developed economies, is slowing. At the end of 2018, it expanded at its slowest year-on-year pace since the height of the Great Recession.

The Chinese economy grew by 6.6% over a year earlier, down from 2017’s 6.9%, official data suggested in January.

Not only is growth slowing, but many Chinese elites are said to be fearful that the economic liberalization that helped make China the second-largest economy on earth is stuttering.

As I was just saying…

SEE THE ANTISEMITISM INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: Sanders Fills Ranks With Anti-Israel Advocates Tied to Anti-Semitism Scandal.

Sanders, a self-proclaimed Democratic-socialist who has once again thrown his hat into the ring for a 2020 presidential bid, has begun to rely in recent months on two staffers: Foreign policy adviser Matt Duss and campaign manager Faiz Shakir, both of whom faced charges of promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories during their time at the Center for American Progress, or CAP, a liberal think-tank.

Sanders’s dependence on Duss and Shakir has been making waves in the pro-Israel and Jewish community in recent months, given the duo’s prominent role in CAP’s 2012 anti-Semitism row, which saw several staffers at the organization’s Think Progress blog rebuked for invoking age-old canards about Jewish control of money and politics. Duss has faced additional scrutiny in the subsequent years for publishing Nazi-era propaganda posters and steadfastly standing against the U.S.-Israel alliance

As the matter of anti-Jewish bias in prominent D.C. political circles makes its way back into the news following a series of anti-Semitic comments by freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), many in the pro-Israel community are beginning to raise questions about Sanders’ choice to fill his ranks with individuals closely tied to some of the most prominent anti-Israel causes.

In 2012, Duss was CAP’s Middle East director, while Shakir served as editor-in-chief of the group’s Think Progress blog, which has since become regarded as a hotbed for anti-Israel activism.

Every revolution needs its scapegoats.

OH: DNC bars Fox News from hosting presidential primary debates.

IT’S A LITTLE HARD TO BUY THIS GIVEN FACEBOOK’S PAST: Zuckerberg says Facebook’s future is ‘privacy-focused.’