YOU MIGHT NOT BE INTERESTED IN THE GLEICHSCHALTUNG, BUT THE GLEICHSCHALTUNG IS INTERESTED IN YOU: Red Lobster will no longer advertise on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show after he made controversial comments about women’s pay and immigrants.
Author Archive: Stephen Green
January 8, 2019
COCAINE MITCH IS GOING TO HAVE A LONG TWO YEARS: Dems Eye 33% Corporate Rate Hike.
House Budget Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) has announced that the forthcoming budget blueprint will call for a 33 percent corporate income tax rate increase by hiking the rate from 21 percent to 28 percent. This would make the U.S. a less competitive place to do business and make the U.S. statutory rate higher than many developed competitors.
State corporate taxes average 6 percent across the U.S, so this planned tax hike would give the U.S. an average top corporate rate of 34 percent.
The current combined corporate rate across the 36 member Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) is currently 23.7 percent.
If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, tax it some more. If it stops moving, collect a death tax.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. China should think twice before threatening to attack Americans.
China perceived the lack of strategic focus of the George W. Bush administration and the passive “lead from behind” foreign policy of the Obama administration as American decay and decline. In reality, the foundational aspects of the American economy remain surprisingly strong and the American fighting spirit is not dead — merely sleeping. Those who would believe that the sinking of two aircraft carriers would trigger an impulse toward retreat would do well to make themselves aware of the United States’ history and the impact events such as the sinking of the Lusitania, the attack on Pearl Harbor and the collapse of the World Trade Center had on the national psyche. What some have labeled the Jacksonian impulse could be described as a tendency toward great power rage. To be sure, it burns itself out. After all, the U.S. is considering leaving Afghanistan, 17 years later.
But make no mistake: Any attack upon a single U.S. aircraft carrier by long-range aircraft, cruise missiles or ballistic missiles would surely generate a response against the bases from which those weapons were launched, the sensors associated with them and the command-and-control nodes that directed them, and then the United States would turn its attention on the Chinese naval and merchant fleet.
Before China knew what was happening, it would be cut off from the overseas sources of energy and raw materials that fuel its import/export economy. Within weeks it would be without fuel and its factories would be shuttered. The American economy, established in a nation that has most resources domestically available, would be able to ride out the storm, even if China attempted to climb the escalation ladder and attack targets in North America.
There’s a common misconception that if you strike a “decadent” Western nation hard enough, they’ll fold immediately. But history has proven time and again that free nations enjoy deep resources of political will that more-brittle authoritarian regimes don’t posses. If Beijing’s Communists choose to ignore that lesson, it’s to everyone’s peril — but mostly their own.
Flashback to earlier this morning: USS McCampbell Freedom of Navigation Operation Past Paracel Islands Irks China.
ANYTHING TO WIDEN THE MARGIN OF CHEATING: Virginia governor announces bill to repeal voter ID requirement, allow no-excuse absentee voting.
JEFF DUNETZ: John Bolton In Israel: What A Dramatic Difference Two Years Make. “Whether one agrees or disagrees with President Trump’s policies, one cannot legitimately dispute the fact that this President has executed a dramatic reversal of the anti-Israel policies of the previous administration. This reversal can be substantiated with the actions Netanyahu pointed out, Jerusalem, the Iran deal, and the U.N. but the most significant substantiation was that lack of a qualifying ‘but’ to Israel’s right to self-defense.”
Scrapping the Iran Deal and reimposing sanctions are making a big difference, too.
ROBERT SPENCER: Amazon Removes ‘Offensive’ Qur’an Doormats at CAIR’s Demand.
ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY, GREAT BRITAIN EDITION: Feminist Mom Booted From Bar Over T-Shirt With the Definition of ‘Woman.’ “Rebeka Wershbale, 34 and a mother of one, told Britain’s Daily Mail that her t-shirt — which simply reads ‘Woman/women/noun/adult human female’ — caused her exclusion.”
It occurs to me that biology isn’t very inclusive.
LIGHTNING STRIKES: 31 Air Force Pilots Reveal Why They Love the F-35 Stealth Fighter. “In full production, the F-35A is projected to cost less than the four-plus generation Eurofighter Typhoon, the French Rafale M, or the latest version of the F-15K Strike Eagle. It will outperform those jets and every other four-plus generation fighter in an air-to-surface role, and none of them would fare well against it in an air-to-air engagement.”
The sixth item caught my eye:
A former A-10 instructor pilot said the situational awareness aids associated with the sensor suite of the F-35A allowed pilots to execute close air support missions as well or better than the A-10 in low-threat environments. The F-35A is the only multirole platform capable of conducting close air support in high-threat environments.
The A-10 was designed to crack Soviet armor, and there’s never been a better, pure ground-pounder. But the land-based threat environment has increased radically since the A-10 first flew more than 40 years ago, and stealth is probably the price of admission for this new game.
THAT’S KIND OF THE IDEA: Grandfather of Oklahoma teen killed by homeowner in burglary says AR15 made for ‘unfair’ fight.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Trump to Address Nation Tonight and Much, Much More. “I look forward to it, hope I can stay up that late. As a bonus, Trump’s remarks are never as entertaining as the media’s response. It’s gonna be lit, yo, so I hope I can stay up to watch the following media freak out. What are you expecting from the President?”
NOW GO AWAY OR WE SHALL IRK YOU A SECOND TIME: USS McCampbell Freedom of Navigation Operation Past Paracel Islands Irks China.
Lu Kang, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, was critical of McCampbell’s FONOP during his regularly scheduled briefing with the media.
“The Chinese side immediately sent military vessel and aircraft to conduct verification and identification on the U.S. ship and warned it to leave. We have lodged stern representations with the U.S. side,” Lu said, according to the official English translation of the ministry’s press conference.
Starting in the 1990s, in a move not recognized by international maritime law, China claimed a straight baseline around the entire Paracel Islands archipelago, which it calls the Xisha Islands. The Chinese government wants foreign warships to ask permission before operating near the islands. Vietnam and Taiwan also claim the chain.
In response, U.S. Navy officials stated McCampbell operated within the standards of international maritime law.
A modest proposal: Anyone hostile to freedom of the seas should opt themselves out of maritime-based trading.
A FOOL AND HIS MONEY? Venezuela’s PDVSA inks oil deal with firm part-owned by Florida Republican. “Erepla Services LLC, part-owned by Republican Harry Sargeant III and which Delaware state records show was only registered two months ago, said it plans to invest up to $500 million to increase production at three Venezuelan oil fields in exchange for a portion of the crude produced.”
WELL, GOOD: Tax Refunds Will Be Paid During Shutdown, White House Says. “New policy meant to ‘mitigate the impact’ of shutdown, Vice President Mike Pence says.”
The decision, announced Monday by the White House Office of Management and Budget, would remove one of the biggest potential pains for Americans from the shutdown and allow hundreds of billions of dollars to flow once tax filing opens later this month in the event that the shutdown lasts that long.
The administration is trying to make the shutdown as “painless as possible consistent with the law,” Russell Vought, the acting OMB director, told reporters.
“We’re going to continue to take steps like that to mitigate the impact,” Vice President Mike Pence said of the tax refunds.
The Administration can keep all kinds of things going during a partial shutdown, right down to the national parks. As I wrote at the PJM Live Blog yesterday concerning just that, “We called it ‘Shutdown Theater’ when Obama did it. Obama wanted to inflict maximum pain (well, maximum inconvenience, mostly) on his fellow Americans for political advantage. Trump wants to inflict maximum pressure on his well-heeled political opponents.”
Big difference.
SHOT: Global warming of oceans equivalent to an atomic bomb per second.
CHASER: Deep Pacific Waters Are Cooling Down Due To Centuries-Ago Little Ice Age, New Study Suggests.
The science is… settled?
THE POWER OF GLAMOUR: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a good dancer, clueless on tax policy.
Does the Bernie Sanders-backed U.S. Representative from the Bronx — who wants to abolish ICE — not know there’s seven federal tax brackets in the 2018 U.S. tax code and that the “rich” already pay the lion’s share of taxes? In fact nearly 50% of Americans don’t pay income taxes at all.
It gets worse. In the TV interview, the Democratic National Committee’s “Mini Maduro” —whose social and economic policies are more in-line with Venezuelan Socialist President Nicolas Maduro than JFK — said she wants to tax wealthy Americans 70% to fund a utopian climate crusade she calls a “Green New Deal” where the U.S. exclusively uses renewable energy to achieve zero CO2 emissions.
Clearly she’s unaware of the mass Yellow Vest protests that since November have been fighting French President Macron’s left wing environmental taxes.
Does she realize that in addition to tanking the U.S. economy and destroying millions of tax producing jobs it would mean Democrat one-percenters like Hillary Clinton, former VP Joe Biden and Sanders would all have to stop flying private jets fueled by — gasp — fossil fuels?
She might not know much, but she knows exactly what she’s doing.
OUR DIVERSE AND TOLERANT NEW CONGRESS: Marco Rubio Blasts Rashida Tlaib’s Dual Loyalty Suggestion: ‘Typical Anti-Semitic Line.’ “#BDS isn’t about freedom & equality, it’s about destroying #Israel.”
January 7, 2019
CHRISTIAN TOTO: Why TNT Has ‘No Comment’ on Barkin’s Hate.
Off topic, but I did get to spend some quality drinking time with Christian and his bride on New Year’s, and they really are lovely people.
SHE’S CERTAINLY TAUGHT ME A THING OR TWO ABOUT WHAT PASSES FOR HIGHER EDUCATION: Wikipedia Calls Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez an ‘Educator.’
FOX LEFT OUT OF DEBATE OVER NEW LOCK ON HENHOUSE DOOR: US ices Iran out of Yemen talks.