Author Archive: Stephen Green
June 23, 2017
DECONFLICTION: Russia Gave Heads-Up About Cruise Missile Strike. “‘The deconfliction line is open and was used to [de-conflict] airspace in advance of the Russian cruise missile strike,’ a spokesperson for the Operation Inherent Resolve headquarters tells U.S. News in an email.”
Well, good.
OREN CASS: No, Obamacare Has Not Saved American Lives.
THE NEW RULES: Nebraska Dem. Official on Scalise: ‘I’m Glad He Got Shot … I Wish He Was F*cking Dead’
Trudy Schuett’s piece on socialism Charles linked to earlier featured a comment which seems relevant here:
The Resistance is political activist porn but there exists in every liberal group a core of [the] deranged who live for violence. The Bill Ayers, the Weatherman Underground, the Symbionese Liberation Army. The Left looks to the 60’s as the base for power and idolizes the loudest voices.
We must ask ourselves though, what happens when the party of Antifa rioters with something-studies degrees working as baristas goes head to head with the party of NRA and Iraq and Afghanistan veterans?
It’s depressing that we have to think about these things here in America, but here we are.
He’s referring of course to North Korea.
SCOTUS: Justices side with government in property rights case.
The Supreme Court on Friday ruled against a Wisconsin family in a property rights case that makes it easier for government officials to restrict development in environmentally sensitive areas.
The 5-3 ruling involved the family’s effort to sell part of its land along the St. Croix River. They planned to use the proceeds from an empty lot to pay for improvements on a cabin that sits on adjacent land.
County officials had barred the sale because conservation rules treat the two lots as a single property that can’t be divided.
The family claimed those rules essentially stripped the land of its value and asked the government for compensation. The government argued that it’s fair to view the property as a whole and said the family is owed nothing.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, joining the court’s liberal members, called the government’s action “a reasonable land-use regulation” meant to preserve the river and surrounding land. He said the property as a whole remains valuable and the family could not claim they expected to sell or develop the lots separately given regulations that existed before they acquired the lots.
Kennedy is rumored to be considering retirement.
YOU MEAN… FOR DEMOCRATS? There’s actually some good news buried in the four special election losses.
So where is the pony? It comes from data provided by election guru David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report, using something called the Partisan Vote Index, basically a way of determining how much any congressional district leans toward one party or the other.
Wasserman looked at the four special congressional elections we have had since Trump became President — the two on Tuesday, along with ones in Kansas and Montana, all four strongly Republican-leaning. Wasserman looked at the generic vote for Democrats in each district, what you would expect without special circumstances. They are 35% in Kansas 4, 39% in Montana, 42% in the Georgia 6th district and 41% in South Carolina 5. The actual results show Democratic candidates in these districts outdistancing the “expected” vote by 12%, 8%, 6% and 7%, respectively — an average outperformance of 8 points.
There are many Republican-held seats without the large cushion that the party had in these four contests — meaning that if those results help up in the next midterm election, Democrats would be in a position to win enough seats to take back a majority in the House. As Wasserman put it, these elections expand the map of possible winnable contests for Democrats in 2018, not contract it.
If $23 million wasn’t enough to beat a milquetoast Republican in a district barely won by Trump, where are the Democrats going to find the money to do better in tougher districts?
ANDREW KLAVAN: Eat The Crap Sandwich.
JOURNOLISTS: They’re wrong about everything.
As I used to say during the previous Administration, you can’t spell “Journolist” without “O.” And I suppose I still could.
WHY ARE WE READING ABOUT THIS? Obama ordered cyber ‘implants’ for Russian network in response to hacking.
BRINKSMANSHIP: North Korea tests rocket engine, possibly for ICBM.
The United States assessed that the test, the latest in a series of engine and missile trials this year, could be for the smallest stage of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) rocket engine, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
A second U.S. official also confirmed the test but did not provide additional details on the type of rocket component that was being tested or whether it fit into the ICBM program.
One official said he believed the test had taken place within the past 24 hours.
North Korea’s state media, which is normally quick to publicize successful missile-related developments, did not carry any reports on the engine test.
I’m not sure whether to breathe a sigh of relief, or wonder if the Norks have progressed far enough that they no longer need to exploit successes for propaganda purposes.
CLAUDIA ROSETT: Of Course Otto Warmbier’s “Confession” Was Coerced.
CORD-CUTTING: YouTube TV expands to ten more US metropolitan markets.
F-35 UNLEASHED: The Paris display may not silence the critics, but it certainly changed the conversation.
Lockheed test pilot Billie Flynn, who flew the much-anticipated F-35 aerial demonstration at the Paris Air Show, showcased the capabilities of the controversial new fighter in a way that has never before been seen. The F-35’s slow-speed maneuverability and the power of Pratt & Whitney’s 40,000-lb.-thrust engine were on full display, with the aircraft climbing vertically into the sky and gently falling into a controlled, 360-deg. pedal turn.
The F-35 is not as agile as the twin-engine, thrust-vectoring F-22 Raptor, which is designed for air-to-air combat. But pilots say when the F-35 is flown in the way it is designed to be flown, it is a formidable dogfighter—far more so than its predecessor, the F-16, or any other fourth-generation fighter.
“This aircraft, down low in this environment, is an absolute monster,” says Flynn. “It is more powerful, it is more aggressive than any of us, including those of us [who] fly the F-35, would have imagined.”
There’s video here if you’re interested.
PRIVACY: Before You Hit ‘Submit,’ This Company Has Already Logged Your Personal Data.
If you’re daydreaming about buying a home or need to lower the payment on the one you already have, you might pay a visit to the Quicken Loans mortgage calculator. You’ll be asked a quick succession of questions that reveal how much cash you have on hand or how much your home is worth and how close you are to paying it off. Then Quicken will tell you how much you’d owe per month if you got a loan from them and asks for your name, email address, and phone number.
You might fill in the contact form, but then have second thoughts. Do you really want to tell this company how much you’re worth or how in debt you are? You change your mind and close the page before clicking the Submit button and agreeing to Quicken’s privacy policy.
But it’s too late. Your email address and phone number have already been sent to a server at “murdoog.com,” which is owned by NaviStone, a company that advertises its ability to unmask anonymous website visitors and figure out their home addresses. NaviStone’s code on Quicken’s site invisibly grabbed each piece of your information as you filled it out, before you could hit the “Submit” button.
During a recent investigation into how a drug-trial recruitment company called Acurian Health tracks down people who look online for information about their medical conditions, we discovered NaviStone’s code on sites run by Acurian, Quicken Loans, a continuing education center, a clothing store for plus-sized women, and a host of other retailers. Using Javascript, those sites were transmitting information from people as soon as they typed or auto-filled it into an online form. That way, the company would have it even if those people immediately changed their minds and closed the page.
I never browse the web without a Javascript blocker extension.
THEY ALSO INCREASED THE CHOCOLATE RATION FROM 30 GRAMS TO 25: San Francisco Nanny-Staters Ban Sale of Flavored Vapor Products.
MONEY: Why Democrats can’t quit Nancy Pelosi.
Democrats would have massive gaps to fill if they were to oust Pelosi.
Chief among those is fundraising. Since 2002, Pelosi has hauled in $568 million for House Democratic campaigns — including $141 million during the 2016 campaign cycle.
Pelosi also has a long history of holding her party together through difficult votes — enabling former President Barack Obama to shepherd into law a series of Democratic-backed measures in 2009 and 2010 and later forcing Republicans to grapple with the politically damaging divisions within their own ranks.
No other Democrat possesses the stature to match those accomplishments.
That reality was the subtext for Pelosi’s taunting remarks Thursday in which she cast her Democratic critics as hungry for attention rather than serious about ousting her.
“When it comes to personal ambition and having fun on TV, have your fun,” Pelosi said. “I love the arena. I thrive on competition.”
Of the political impact of the Republican attacks: “I think I’m worth the trouble,” she said.
Half a billion dollars worth of fundraising is nothing to sneeze at, but even that has gotten Democrats the majority in just two elections — one won on the back of George W. Bush’s implosion, and the other on Barack Obama’s coattails.
BY THE NUMBERS: Four Senate Republicans Say They Can’t Support Health Care Bill Yet.
The four conservative GOP senators — Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Lee of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Ted Cruz of Texas — released a joint statement Thursday afternoon outlining their concerns:
“Currently, for a variety of reasons, we are not ready to vote for this bill, but we are open to negotiation and obtaining more information before it is brought to the floor. There are provisions in this draft that represent an improvement to our current healthcare system but it does not appear this draft as written will accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: to repeal Obamacare and lower their healthcare costs.”
“It looks like a reiteration or a keeping of Obamacare,” Sen. Paul told reporters Thursday afternoon. “I’m a ‘no’ on the bill currently.”
Paul said the group came out together because they’d have more negotiating power to move the bill in a more conservative direction.
Their displeasure includes the amount of subsidies given to people to purchase insurance, the Medicaid expansion continues for another three years and the $15 billion per year to prop up the insurance companies providing insurance in the individual Obamacare market for the next three years.
There may be some kabuki going on here, much like Nancy Pelosi’s mock drama the day her House passed ObamaCare — she’s too sharp an operator to have held the vote if she didn’t already have the votes.
McConnell’s bill still has a few missing items, such as cross-state purchasing, any one of which might be enough to bring Johnson and Lee on board. My gut feeling is that Paul and Cruz will remain holdouts, but McConnell only needs two more votes plus Mike Pence to pass the thing.
But then there’s this from the NYT: McConnell’s Calculation May Be That He Still Wins by Losing.
In his 2016 memoir, “The Long Game,” he noted that, as minority leader, he went out of his way to make sure that one party owned the health care issue. “I wanted a clear line of demarcation — they were for this, and we were against it,” he said. Perhaps he is not excited to let that one party now be his own.
We should have an answer in the next week.
FRAUD: 1.4 Million Illegal Aliens who Pay Taxes Are Using Fraudulent Social Security Numbers. “The IRS is doing virtually nothing to protect taxpayer’s identity.”
LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: One killed as Venezuelan troops fire on protesters. “Shooting outside La Carlota airbase in Caracas brings death toll from near-daily unrest to at least 76 since April.”
More:
At least two soldiers shot long firearms through the fence at protesters from a distance of just a few metres. One man collapsed to the ground and was carried off by other demonstrators, television footage showed. Paramedics took at least two other wounded people to a hospital, a witness told Reuters news agency.
The protesters began attacking the fence outside La Carlota airbase in the wealthy east of Caracas when security forces broke up a march destined for the attorney general’s office.
Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have taken to the streets over the past months to protest against a clampdown on the opposition, shortages of food and medicine, and President Nicolas Maduro’s plan to overhaul the constitution.
Illinois, call your office.
HAVE YOU HUGGED A FRACKER TODAY? OPEC Has Few Escape Routes From Another Bear Market in Oil.
Oil’s back in a bear market and investors remain unmoved by last month’s agreement to prolong supply cuts, leaving OPEC and its allies with few remaining tools to boost prices.
As Saudi Arabia, Russia and their allies reduce output, supply that’s beyond their control keeps rising. Libya and Nigeria — members exempt from the curbs — and U.S. shale producers are resurgent, undermining efforts to tame a global glut. Prices are back below where they were when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries first struck its historic deal last year.
Cutting even deeper — an idea rejected just a month ago — still looks unlikely. For now at least, the Saudi pledge to do “whatever it takes” to stabilize prices looks like not much at all.
Thanks to fracking, OPEC producers can control pricing or they can maintain market share, but they can no longer do both — and even the pricing is getting iffy.