Author Archive: Stephen Green

HE ALSO HELPED GIVE US BIDEN IN 2020:

CHANGE (IT BACK): Germany’s Nuclear Confession Is a Crack in Net‑Zero Pretense. “The green dream was sold as a route to ‘cheap’ renewables, yet the reality for German households and factories has been record‑high electricity prices, complex subsidies for favored businesses and individuals who conform to the climate narrative, and a grid that struggles on windless days or under gray skies.”

HONESTLY, SHE ISN’T ANY BETTER ON PAPER TO ANYONE WHO KNOWS ANYTHING:

DAILY MAIL GOT THIS HEADLINE ALL WRONG: Netanyahu’s shock plot to split with US as Trump’s Iran peace proposal unravels sending oil prices soaring.

Benjamin Netanyahu plans to ‘wean’ Israel off American financial support, just as Donald Trump’s Iran peace proposal unravels and oil prices surge.

The Israeli prime minister was pressed on the financial support his country receives from the US during an interview with CBS News anchor Major Garrett on Sunday.

‘Do you believe it’s time for the state of Israel to reexamine and possibly reset its financial relationship to the United States?’ Garrett asked, to which Netanyahu responded, ‘Absolutely.’

‘And I’ve said this to President Trump. I’ve said it in – to our own people. Their jaws drop,’ the leader continued. ‘I want to draw down to zero the American financial support, the financial component of the military cooperation that we have.’

This isn’t a “split” from the US, but how Israel will maintain freedom of action the next time an anti-Israel Biden or Obama takes office.

ALINSKY’S RULE FIVE REMAINS UNDEFEATED:

BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: Don Lemon Teases Presidential Run.

Former CNN host Don Lemon once again teased a 2028 presidential run during an appearance last week at the Vanity Fair “Truth Tellers” summit in London.

“I’m a man of a certain age,” he said when asked about the possibility of running for president. “Why not?”

The moderator, journalist Kara Swisher, chuckled, according to Vanity Fair.

“You laugh,” Lemon replied. “I’m a self-made millionaire, from a country where my ancestors were enslaved, so I think that’s a pretty big accomplishment. … I made it to the top of my profession.”

Lemon left out that he was dismissed from that top position by CNN in 2023 over accusations he mistreated female co-workers and after making what was seen as a sexist comment that then-GOP candidate Nikki Haley was “past her prime.”

I’d laugh this off, but I can never tell when the Dem base of self-flagellating neurotic women will attach themselves to a candidate.

TIM SCOTT DOESN’T COUNT BECAUSE HE ISN’T A DEMOCRAT:

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The GOP Is Having a Run of Good Luck, Hope It Does Something With It. “That screaming you hear is from all of the higher-ups at the Democratic National Committee as they rush for the Prilosec after seeing their race-based election tampering efforts take another hit.”

YES:

MONEY: However you feel about their creator, TrumpIRAs are sorely needed.

As a progressive economist, I wrote a paper in 2021 with a generally conservative colleague, Kevin Hassett, who now directs the National Economic Council in the Trump White House. We agreed then on the basic arithmetic of the American retirement crisis. We still do. That’s why people like him and people like me can all say: Trump’s executive order establishing TrumpIRAs, signed last month, is simply the right move for American workers.
…
Trump’s executive order targets the most fundamental failure in this system: access. Roughly 56 million American workers have no employer-sponsored retirement plan — no account to contribute to, no match on offer from their employers, no on-ramp to the capital markets that have built wealth for everyone else.

The order establishes a federal retirement account — TrumpIRA.gov — paired with a refundable $1,000 annual government match and automatic enrollment. That last part matters enormously. The research Hassett and I conducted found that automatic enrollment paired with a government match substantially increases participation among low- and moderate-income workers. When saving is the default and the government matches your first dollar, people save. A worker earning $40,000 who contributes $1,000 annually and receives a $1,000 match, over 40 years at a 6% real return, retires with more than $310,000 in today’s dollars. Most of that is compound growth. Getting workers into the market early is the entire intervention.

It’s a good plan — and it’s always nice to see a progressive who doesn’t suffer from TDS. A near-miracle, really.

DOUBLE STANDARDS ARE THE BEST STANDARDS BECAUSE YOU GET TWICE AS MANY:

That should clear things up for you.

IT’S CALVINBALL ALL THE WAY DOWN:

CHANGE: Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice leaves Democratic Party over antisemitism concerns.

Justice David Wecht, who was elected to the court as a Democrat in 2015, said in a statement he is switching his party affiliation to independent due to an “acquiescence to Jew-hatred” becoming “disturbingly common among activists, leaders and even many elected officials in the Democratic Party.”

“I can no longer abide this. So, I won’t,” Wecht said. “I am no longer registered within any political party.”

In his statement, Wecht said he’s long felt antisemitism was most potent on the fringes of the right — especially after the 2018 shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, where Wecht was married and is a former board member. But he said that since 2018, “that same hatred has grown on the left.”

Like kudzu, it’s taken over the left.

THE NEW SPACE RACE:

Still no official word from SpaceX, but NextSpaceFlight has Friday afternoon penciled in.

IT’S NEVER OVER:

PASSING TUCKER OFF AS A CON TO OWN THE CONS:

I miss Norm.

THE NEW SPACE RACE REALLY IS SPACEX VS THE WORLD: