THE DEEP STATE STRIKES BACK, THE TRUTH ABOUT QATAR, AND EVERYTHING ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS MORNING: Liz Sheld’s morning brief has it all.
Author Archive: Stephen Green
June 15, 2017
BEN SHAPIRO: All the Rage.
Now, anger is nothing new in politics. Anger has dominated political discourse since the times of the Bible (ask Moses how he felt about a stiff-necked people seemingly ready to throw him overboard every few weeks). And some anger is justified. If you are angry at corruption in Washington, D.C., you have every right to be. If you are angry at a heedless leviathan grasping at your wages, that anger is justified. Even if you channel that emotion in the wrong direction, we can at least understand the anger.
But something new has happened to American politics in the last few years: Politicians have realized that the simplest path to power is to humor everyone’s anger. If you take someone’s anger from them, you’ve emotionally castrated them. More important, you run the risk of driving them into the arms of someone who will feed their anger — an anger that will now turn on you for the sin of having discounted that anger in the first place.
This is deeply unhealthy.
Indeed.
UH-HUH: Group Calls for UN To Ban ‘Cultural Appropriation’
English appropriated “appropriation” from Latin.
EXPERTS AT WORK: More Economic Malpractice at the IMF.
Dan Mitchell:
In a perverse way, though, I admire their brassiness. They’re now arguing that higher taxes are good for growth.
This isn’t a joke. They never offer any evidence, of course, but it’s now routine to find international bureaucrats asserting that there will be more prosperity if more resources are taken out of the private sector and given to politicians (see the 3:30 mark of this video for some evidence).
Christine Lagarde, the lavishly paid head of the IMF, is doubling down on this bizarre idea that higher tax burdens are a way to generate more growth for poor nations.
Read the whole thing. And remember: If they’re brazen, it’s because they expect to get what they want.
I SUPPOSE THAT’S CLEAR ENOUGH:
UPDATE: I’m getting comments that this is a troll account, but haven’t been able to confirm or deny.
I would certainly hope it’s a troll account.
MORE: This exchange sums it up well.
In either case, the photo and the sentiment are both real enough.
SCALISE SHOOTING: Live updates all day long at PJM’s Hot Mic.
(Bumped.)
ROGER L. SIMON: Baseball Shooter a Big Wake-Up Call for the Left.
Just read it.
THE NEW NORMAL? Lousy Pay Raise? That May Be as Good as It Gets.
First, the bad: Unemployment may be at a 16-year low and the economic expansion may be third-longest on record, yet wage growth is miserable, clocking in between 2.5% and 3% for the past year. When unemployment was this low in the late 1990s and the mid-2000s, wages grew 4%.
Now, the worse: If a labor market this tight can’t generate better pay, quite possibly it never will. In Japan and Germany, where unemployment is plumbing generation-lows, wages are moribund. This suggests the problem transcends borders: Minimal corporate pricing power, lackluster productivity growth and an aging workforce have all undercut employers’ ability to pay better.
This threatens to throw a wrench into the Federal Reserve’s plans. It is likely to raise interest rates at its meeting Wednesday and plans to keep doing so gradually over the next two years.
Yet its longstanding assumption that a fully employed economy would eventually nudge prices and wages higher looks shakier by the month.
Our political class is quickly running out of options other than “Get the hell out of my way!” But that’s the one option they’ll never willingly take.
OH: GOP considers keeping ObamaCare taxes.
Republicans are looking to slowly phase out extra federal funds for Medicaid expansion, beef up the new tax credits for buying insurance and add money for opioid abuse treatment — but they’ll have to pay for it to ensure the bill passes muster.
That’s because the Senate healthcare bill must save at least as much money as the House’s legislation. Some senators are interested in additions to the healthcare bill that could cost the government, and savings would have to be found elsewhere, perhaps in some of the taxes, Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the chamber’s No. 3 Republican, said.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who is heavily involved in the healthcare discussions as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said that his preference is to repeal all of the taxes but that senators would “look at everything.”
“We’re not going to ignore anything,” he told reporters Tuesday. “We’re going to have to really look very carefully.”
The full repeal promised in every election since 2010 would sidestep the problem.
ONLY FIVE? Here Are Five Fake Stories CNN Pushed.
HAVE YOU HUGGED A FRACKER TODAY? Oil Falls as U.S. Stockpiles Rise and IEA Sees 2018 Supply Surge.
The American Petroleum Institute signaled U.S. crude inventories probably climbed a second week, ahead of data from the Energy Information Administration forecast to show a decline. New supplies from OPEC’s rivals will be more than enough to meet growth in demand next year, the IEA said in a report Wednesday.
Oil is extending its slump below $50 a barrel amid speculation increasing U.S. supplies will counter production curbs by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including non-OPEC member Russia. Output at major American shale fields will reach a record in July, according to the EIA.
“The market tightening intended by OPEC has thus failed to materialize,” Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commmerzbank AG in Frankfurt, said in a report. “OPEC will therefore have to cut production further next year to ensure that the oil market is not oversupplied.”
Well. We seem to have drilled our way out of that problem.
WINNING: ISIS Captures Tora Bora, Once bin Laden’s Afghan Fortress.
Taliban fighters who had previously controlled the extensive cave and tunnel complex fled overnight after a determined, weeklong assault by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, according to villagers fleeing the area on Wednesday.
A local Afghan police official confirmed that the fortress had fallen. “ISIS has captured Tora Bora and areas around it,” he said. “The tribal elders are here in my office. They all escaped the area last night.” He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media.
Related: Mattis Under Pressure to Deliver “Winning” War Plan.
CHARLIE MARTIN, ADDICT: Intellectual Crack for Information Junkies.
BERNIE SANDERS: How Democrats Can Stop Losing Elections.
For the sake of our country and the world, the Democratic Party, in a very fundamental way, must change direction. It has got to open its doors wide to working people and young people. It must become less dependent on wealthy contributors, and it must make clear to the working families of this country that, in these difficult times, it is prepared to stand up and fight for their rights. Without hesitation, it must take on the powerful corporate interests that dominate the economic and political life of the country.
Sanders has never won an election as a Democrat, and his message is unlikely to be heeded by a Democratic Party which is rigged against outsiders like himself.
BECAUSE A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME WOULD STILL STINK? Dem Congresswoman to Activists: Don’t Say ‘Control’ When Talking Gun Laws.
The tweet has been confirmed, but so far no news outlets have revealed any more details.
Good lord.
MORE FROM CHAD PERGRAM: “#BREAKING Shooting at Congressional baseball practice. Scalise hit. Other staffers hit. Gunmen with rifle.”
Gunmen?
FROM FOX NEWS: Claim that single gunman shot dead by Scalise security team.
OH: Obama Had His Own ‘Back Channel’ To Moscow.
The news comes after Trump White House aide Jared Kushner was criticized for allegedly trying to open a back channel line of communications with Russian officials during the transition last year.
Former intelligence officials called Kushner’s alleged back channel “dangerous,” but now Bloomberg reports the Obama administration had its own back channel to Moscow.
The White House contacted the Kremlin on what Bloomberg described as a “modern-day red phone” after Russian operatives tried to infiltrate software and databases used by state election officials.
It’s different when they do it, because unlike a naif such as Kushner, Obama knew exactly how to handle the Russians.
CHIACAGO’S WAR ON THE POOR: Poor Neighborhoods Hit Hardest by Asset Forfeiture in Chicago, Data Shows.
Law enforcement in Cook County, which includes Chicago, seized items from residents ranging from a cashier’s check for 34 cents to a 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost with an estimated value of more than $200,000. They also seized Xbox controllers, televisions, nunchucks, 12 cans of peas, a pair of rhinestone cufflinks, and a bayonet.
Altogether, police in Cook County performed 23,065 seizures between 2012 and 2017 using asset forfeiture, including 5,939 vehicles. Chevrolet Impalas, among the most popular rental cars in the U.S., were the model most often seized. About three-quarters of all seizures occurred in Chicago. The average estimated value of a seizure was $4,553, while the median value was $1,049. About three-quarters of all seizures were cash, not property.
Lucy Parsons Labs, a police accountability nonprofit in Chicago, obtained the data from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office (CCSAO) through a public records request and provided them to Reason. The data are unique because they include not just when and what police seized, but addresses of where those seizures occurred.
Civil liberties groups have often claimed asset forfeiture disproportionately impacts poor and minority communities.
Why are Democrat-run cities such cesspits of predation against those who are least able to fight back?