Author Archive: Stephen Green
August 1, 2018
CHANGE: Until today, I was a Jewish member of the Labour party.
There has always been anti-Semitism on the far left. As a student, demonstrating during the build-up to the Iraq War, I saw it on protests, at rallies, in political meetings. The way everything would somehow slide towards a debate about Israel, the comments about Jewish influence, about how many Jews were in the media.
It was surreal—but it was a fringe. Since Jeremy Corbyn became leader, the fringe has entered the party’s upper echelons. And the explanations and the excuses have racked up. Don’t worry, nobody even knows who Jackie Walker is. That’s just Ken, he’s being an idiot. That’s just Christine Shawcroft, she’s an idiot too. Look, it’s just a few random councillors. I know, there are loads of #JC4PM-types saying some pretty nasty stuff—but who knows if they’re even party members. The mural comment looks bad, yes, but it was a long time ago and he’s apologised now. The code—well the thing about the code is you have to see both sides…
Until last week I’d never heard of the IHRA code. Being Jewish, I didn’t need a definition of anti-Semitism. I’ve read it now, like most of us have, and there are lines here and there which I might take issue with. Among Jewish friends and family I’d happily debate it. But no, not with you. Not here in public. Not in 280 characters.
Parsing the code is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is this: the Labour party will not allow Jews to define anti-Jewish discrimination.
There are more votes to be won amongst Britain’s (mostly recently imported) antisemites.
BLUE ON BLUE: Sanders, Warren question whether Dem primary is big enough for both of them.
Some Democrats say they don’t think there’s room for both progressives in what is expected to be a wide-open but crowded Democratic contest to take on President Trump.
“If a likely winning strategy is to reconstitute as much of the Obama and Clinton coalitions as possible, it’s unlikely they will be able to do so sharing the same ideological space,” said Democratic strategist Basil Smikle, name-dropping the last two Democratic presidential nominees.
Sanders and Warren have much in common.
Both are heroes to the left, and represent the progressive side of Democratic politics that clearly has momentum within the party.
They have complimented one another and joined forces on common causes, most recently last week on legislation that would provide debt relief to storm-ravaged Puerto Rico.
“They align on almost every issue,” one Sanders ally said. “That’s not an accident.”
As we get closer to 2020, don’t be too surprised if several prominent Democrats re-assess Trump’s vulnerability and decide to “spend more time with their families” rather than run.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: 3D Gun Madness and Much, Much More. “The anti-Second Amendment zealots were screaming that the Trump administration was officially allowing people to make untraceable “ghost” guns. Not so, the plans to print 3D guns have always been out there on the internet, go look for yourself.”
PROCUREMENT: Boeing’s new F-15X may replace an aging fleet of F-15C/D Eagles.
The F-15X reportedly came out of an Air Force inquiry to Boeing and Lockheed Martin about fielding an aircraft that could easily transition into the service’s existing air combat infrastructure, specifically to help counter the Air Force’s shrinking force.
There were some caveats to the solicitation: it needs to be cost-effective, low-risk and not considered an alternative to the larger F-35 procurement program, The War Zone reported. It seems those requirements were met, based on the reported features.
The F-15X seems to make sense logistically, as an evolved version of an older fighter with plenty of trained ground crews, spares, etc. It also probably makes sense as as “second day” jet. That is, the 15X would perform more prosaic missions on the second or third day of a major conflict, after stealthier (but more maintenance-heavy) F-22s and F-35s get done the most dangerous, initial operations. And with more modern avionics than the aging F-15C/D fleet, the F-15X might fill in the gaps left by our too-small fleet of F-22s.
But that’s all conjecture, based on what little is publicly known so far.
THAT AND FIVE MILLION BOLIVARS WILL GET YOU A CUP OF COFFEE IN CARACAS: Venezuela is the clear global leader in oil reserves.
I’m not kidding about the five million bolivars for a cup of coffee. Although with Venezuela’s inflation rate, that month-old figure is just as stale as yesterday’s coffee.
BIG MONEY: Tom Steyer’s $110 million plan to redefine the Democrats. “The billionaire investor is on a collision course with party leaders.”
Unlike the $80 million being spent by Michael Bloomberg on House Democratic races, Steyer will put his cash toward building out NextGen America and Need to Impeach, his two growing political organizations, as well as funding clean-energy ballot initiatives in Arizona and Nevada. Steyer has already doubled his initial $20 million investment in Need to Impeach to $40 million and has not ruled out adding more.
Steyer already dropped over $5 million into his For Our Future PAC, and he is expecting more outlays on behalf of individual candidates — such as the $1 million he put behind Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum — though likely not in any of the remaining primaries.
Between the two organizations, he’ll have close to 1,000 people on staff, in addition to over 2,000 volunteers. The Need to Impeach email list alone has already topped 5.5 million, which its research — anyone who signs up with the effort has their information run through a series of voter files and other databases — shows includes a very exact 697,780 infrequent voters in the 63 most competitive House districts.
All Democrats have to do is act crazy, and Steyer will back them.
More seriously, that’s a formidable operation, but it can be beaten by genuine grassroots activities open to any Instapundit reader.
BLUE WAVE? Toss-Up Senate Races Abandoned by Koch Network Feature Unusually Strong Libertarian Party Contenders. “Neck-and-neck races in Indiana and Nevada could determine the balance of the Senate. Both feature Libertarians who have previously cracked 5% yet aren’t being polled.”
Matt Welch:
Nevada’s Tim Hagan, an engineer and longtime Libertarian activist, has on three occasions trounced the point spread in a swing-district state Senate election, earning 5.1 percent of the vote in 2016 (the Democrat won 47.9 percent to 47.0), 4.8 percent in 2008 (46.5–45.8), and 7.6 percent in 2006 (47.6–44.8). Hagan has never dipped below 3 percent in any of the nine elections he has run in, hitting a high of 23.7 percent in a 2014 race for Clark County assessor (in which no Republican ran).
And yet in this crucial swing-state race between vulnerable Republican incumbent Dean Heller and Democratic challenger Jacky Rosen, who the Real Clear Politics polling average separates by less than a percentage point, Hagan is nowhere to be found in six of the seven publicly available polls that have been conducted since he secured the L.P. nomination in early March. Only a Suffolk University survey of 500 likely voters last week included Hagan’s name, showing him with 2.4 percent. (Heller edged Rosen in the poll, 41–40, while 8.6 percent were undecided and 5.4 percent went for none of the above.)
To reiterate a point I made a month ago about the New York gubernatorial race, not listing Hagan as an option constitutes journalistic malpractice.
Handicapping elections is a tricky business, even with much better polling than this. So why, as Matt puts it, the journalistic malpractice?
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: How legal cannabis actually made things worse for sick people in Oregon.
Ironically, Oregon’s medical marijuana market has been on a downward spiral since the state legalized cannabis for recreational use in 2014. The option of making big money inspired many medical businesses to go recreational, dramatically shifting the focus away from patients to consumers. In 2015, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) took over the recreational industry. Between 2016 and 2018, nine bills were passed that expanded consumer access to marijuana while changing regulatory procedures on growing, processing and packaging.
In the shuffle, recreational marijuana turned into a million-dollar industry in Oregon, while the personalized patient-grower network of the medical program quietly dried up.
Now, sick people are suffering.
“For those patients that would need their medicine in an area that’s opted out of recreational sales, and they don’t have a grower or they’re not growing on their own, it does present a real access issue for those individuals,” said André Ourso, an administrator for the Center for Health Protection at the Oregon Health Authority.
Taxes — and therefore prices — are much lower on medical marijuana, so it doesn’t make much sense to dedicate valuable retail space to it.
“Sin taxes” don’t punish just the sinner.
PAYBACK’S A… YOU KNOW: Acosta Whines That Trump Aide Shouted At Him While He Was Shouting At President Trump.
PERVERSE INCENTIVE: Crypto ‘Assassination Market’ Lets Users Bet on Whether Trump Will Be Killed.
ROBERT SPENCER: Governor Cuomo Likens Trump’s Immigration Policies to ‘Jihad’ “Will CAIR reprimand him for using the term’s violent definition?”
Don’t be silly — they’re occasional allies of convenience.
DOWN BUT NOT OUT: Is Islamic State Making Plans for a Comeback in Iraq? “IS has lost all of its urban strongholds in Iraq, including Mosul, which it occupied in June 2014 and which was reclaimed by Iraqi forces last year with significant U.S. support. However, the recent surge in IS activity indicates that the group is now pursuing its old hit-and-run tactics in Iraq, and serves to illustrate how IS could exploit the divisions that remain among Iraqi factions.”
BUT THE NARRATIVE! 2018 Global Weather-Related Disaster Losses At Record Low (So Far).
BUT OF COURSE: Comics, Reporters Rally to Protect Ocasio Cortez.
HEH: This One Weird Trick Will Save You Trillions on Healthcare!
So the Sanders “Plan” is going to save money. And all we need to do to get to that happy state of affairs is:
• Force every doctor and hospital in America to accept Medicare reimbursement rates for all patients — these are 40 percent lower than the rates paid by private insurance — while assuming that this would have absolutely no effect on their capacity or willingness to provide services
• Raise taxes by 10 percent of GDP — overnight
• Explain to the 150 million people with private insurance that the rules have been changed so dramatically that (a) they can no longer keep their plans, and (b) henceforth, tens of millions among them will be paying more in taxes than they were previously paying in both premiums and out-of-pocket costs
Easy!
To be fair, at least this time no one lies that everyone would get to keep their plan.
RELIGION OF PEACE UPDATE: ISIS Claims Attack on Tajikistan Cycling Tour; 2 Americans Among Those Killed.
ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Is Cory Booker Trying To Out-Crazy Maxine Waters?
If so, you certainly have to admire his ambition.
SNOWFLAKES: Hire of former Trump aide prompts Miller Center resignations.
Imagine, if you will, a world in which people had to work with other people they didn’t entirely agree with or quite like.
DON’T BE UPSET. IT WAS A MERCY KILLING. Comedy is dead.
NEED A RIDE? Uber Takes Regulation Fight to New York City Council with ‘App Takeover.’ “Arriving now: Higher prices and increased wait times.”
OORAH: Marines lead all services in binge drinking, sex partners.
Dr. Sarah Meadows, a senior sociologist at RAND who helped lead the study, said although it is useful in making policy decisions at the Department of Defense, people should be careful when drawing conclusions or casting judgement on one branch or another.
“We’re not trying to blame anyone for this, but the Marine Corps does tend to stand out,” she said. “Each of the services has their own culture.”
Meadows said one of the reasons the Marines stand out is simple demographics.
“Marines tend to be young men,” she said. “Compared to young men on college campuses, it’s pretty similar.”
They’re going to want some of that toxic masculinity, next time they need a beach stormed.