~ Featuring ~
Planting a Seed: Is a Red-Meat
Tax on the Menu?
Michael Swartz
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Wednesday Top News Executive SummaryMedia Editors: Government & Politics
DENMARK VOYAGE CALLED OFF: Yesterday, President Donald Trump intoned, “Denmark is a very special country with incredible people, but based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time.” He continued, “The Prime Minister was able to save a great deal of expense and effort for both the United States and Denmark by being so direct. I thank her for that and look forward to rescheduling sometime in the future!”
MIXED SIGNALS: “The White House pushed back late Tuesday on claims by the National Rifle Association (NRA) that President Trump had purportedly said universal background checks were off the table… Earlier in the day, The Atlantic published an article saying Trump had opted against expanding federal background checks, citing a ‘person briefed on the call.’ But a White House official told Fox News that ‘meaningful’ new background checks remain a legislative option, and denied that Trump said he supported universal background checks.” (Fox News)
MARCH FOR OUR GUNS: The anti-gun group March for Our Lives has introduced “A Peace Plan for a Safer America,” which The Washington Post explains “goes much further than the current debate over universal background checks and ‘red flag’ laws.” In fact, “The Peace Plan would create a national licensing and gun registry, long a nonstarter with gun rights advocates; ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines; implement a mandatory gun buyback program; and install a ‘national director of gun violence prevention’ who would report directly to the president and coordinate the federal response to what advocates call a national public health emergency.” NRA spokeswoman Amy Hunter responded, “The gun-control community is finally being marginally honest about their true wish list. The simple fact remains their proposals and ideas are out of the mainstream, and most people will understand their real intent goes beyond what they publicly state.”
FLORES SETTLEMENT TABLED: “The Trump administration is seeking to terminate the Flores settlement, an immigration-related court order that prevents most migrant family units from being held in detention centers for more than 20 days,” reports The Daily Caller. “Eliminating the Flores settlement would allow the U.S. government to hold migrant children and their families indefinitely while they await court proceedings. … The termination of the Flores Settlement will likely face legal challenges from immigrant activist groups who accuse the administration of detaining immigrants without proper due process.”
SPACE COMMAND LIFTOFF: “The new United States Space Command will officially be up and running by the end of the month, Vice President Mike Pence said [yesterday] … at a meeting of the National Space Council. The U.S. Space Command will be the military’s unified combatant command in charge of the country’s defense operations in space. It will become the Defense Department’s 11th unified combatant command, alongside the U.S. Strategic Command, the U.S. Special Operations Command and other commands that serve specific functions or geographic regions.” (Space.com)
NO PAIN, NO GAIN: “President Donald Trump acknowledged his aggressive China trade policies may mean economic pain for Americans but insisted they’re needed for more important long-term benefits. He contended he does not fear a recession but is nonetheless considering new tax cuts to promote growth.” (Associated Press)
RISKY ENDEAVOR: “Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez plans to hold party fundraising events with the American expatriate community in Mexico City next month. … The registration form on the DNC website require that attendees be U.S. citizens or permanent residents and enter passport or green card numbers. It is illegal for foreigners to contribute to American political campaigns.” (Bloomberg)
Other Notables
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: “Facebook is launching a long-promised tool that lets you limit what the social network can gather about you on outside websites and apps. The company said Tuesday that it is adding a section where you can see the activity that Facebook tracks outside its service via its ‘like’ buttons and other means. You can choose to turn off the tracking; otherwise, tracking will continue the same way it has been.” (Associated Press)
MELTING HEARTS: Iceland holds funeral for first glacier lost to climate change (The Guardian)
Closing Arguments
POLICY: Progressives promote disrespect for cops — at our peril (New York Post)
POLICY: Red-light cameras undermine rule of law (The Hill)
HUMOR: Two million sign up for Facebook event to storm DNC HQ to find secret candidate who isn’t a socialist nutball (IMAO)
~The Patriot Post https://patriotpost.us/articles/64968?mailing_id=4483&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4483&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body .
Harry dinky-Reid rips Dems over
'Medicare-for-all,' border policies:
'Of course' it will hurt us in 2020
By Ronn Blitzer
{ foxnews.com } ~ Former Senate Democratic Leader Harry dinky-Reid had some harsh words for his party's presidential candidates... rejecting some of their health care and immigration policies as too extreme to resonate with voters in a general election. dinky-Reid, during a newly published interview with Vice, specifically took aim at "Medicare-for-all" and calls by many candidates to decriminalize illegal border crossings. The blunt-talking former Nevada senator suggested any Democratic nominee running on these issues could face trouble. “People want a fair immigration system. They don’t want an open-door invitation for everybody to come at once,” dinky-Reid said in the interview with Vice. When asked if supporting decriminalization could be bad for Democrats in 2020, dinky-Reid said, “Of course it is.” dinky-Reid accused Democrats of not having their priorities in order going into the election. “There are so many more important things to do. Decriminalizing border crossings is not something that should be at the top of the list,” he said, stating that “it should be way, way down at the bottom.” dinky-Reid also argued that his party has it wrong when it comes to health care by pushing for drastic new systems like “Medicare-for-all” instead of retooling what voters already use. “I think that we should focus on improving scumbag/liar-nObamaCare,” he said, echoing a point made by former Vice President loose lips liar-Joe Biden. “We can do that – without bringing something that would be much harder to sell.” As with the immigration policies espoused by many 2020 candidates, dinky-Reid said “of course” a platform of single-payer health care would be problematic for any nominee next year...
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worthless-Tlaib Would Rather Bash
Israel Than Visit Grandma
by Cameron Cawthorne
{ freebeacon.com } ~ Rep. worthless-Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) on Friday announced shortly after Israel allowed her to enter the country for "humanitarian purposes" to see her grandmother... that she would not be visiting Israel after all because of its "racist treatment" of her. worthless-Tlaib sent out a full press release outlining her reasons for no longer visiting "Palestine" and Israel, saying, "Being silent and not condemning the human rights violations of the Israeli government is a disservice to all who live there, including my incredibly strong and loving grandmother." Shortly after President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday that Israel would "show great weakness" by allowing worthless-Tlaib and Rep. worthless-Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) to enter into country for a scheduled trip to the West Bank, Israel announced the two congresswomen would not be allowed entry. In response to the ban, worthless-Tlaib appealed the decision late Thursday by writing a letter to the Israeli interior minister, Aryeh Deri, pleading to see her relatives, specifically her grandmother, who lives in Beit Ur al-Fouqa, which is in the West Bank. "I would like to request admittance to Israel in order to visit my relatives, and specifically my grandmother, who is in her 90s and lives in Beit Ur al-Fouqa," worthless-Tlaib wrote. "This could be my last opportunity to see her. I will respect any restrictions and will not promote boycotts against Israel during my visit." Deri's office responded to the letter by allowing worthless-Tlaib to visit on the condition she not use the trip to promote a boycott of Israel. Deri "expressed hope that she would keep her commitment and that the visit would truly be solely for humanitarian purposes," the New York Times reported. worthless-Tlaib responded to the news that she could visit Israel for "humanitarian reasons" by criticizing Israel on Twitter, saying, "I can't allow the State of Israel to take away that light by humiliating me & use my love for my sity to bow down to their oppressive & racist policies."
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Some of the Country’s Worst Prisons
Have Escaped Justice Department Action
by Jerry Mitchell
{ propublica.org } ~ Mississippi has saved a lot of money on its prisons over the past several years. But as the experiences of next-door neighbor Alabama show... rampant violence and understaffing can eventually draw scrutiny from the U.S. Justice Department, with potentially costly consequences. In April, the Justice Department concluded that “there is reasonable cause to believe that the men’s prisons in Alabama fail to protect prisoners from prisoner-on-prisoner violence and prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse, and fail to provide prisoners with safe conditions.” It demanded that the state fix the problems or face possible litigation. Alabama’s prisons are so bad, they violate the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees against cruel and unusual punishment, the Justice Department has said. Mississippi’s prisons may be as bad, or even worse, the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica reported. The ratio of prisoners to guards at South Mississippi Correctional Institution is 23 to 1, several times higher than Alabama’s, which stands at 9.9 to 1. FAMM, a national nonprofit group advocating criminal justice reform, has called on the Justice Department to investigate Mississippi’s prisons. Kevin Ring, president of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, said the conditions remind him of prisons found in third-world nations. “They’re uninhabitable,” he said. “This is why we need the government to step in. “When there is no oversight and accountability, this is what you get.” The Department of Justice did not return an email requesting comment. Rivers Ormon, press secretary for Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican, said public safety remains a prime concern for the governor. She noted that the inmate population in state prisons fell by 11% in the year after the state passed prison reform in 2014. “Certain challenges have made managing the system more difficult,” Ormon said in a statement, adding that Bryant has confidence in his team at the Department of Corrections...
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All Gain for Criminals, All Pain for Motorists: California’s Prop 47 Prompts Catalytic
Converter Thefts
by K. Lloyd Billingsley
{ blog.independent.org } ~ California’s 2014 Proposition 47 brought about some positive criminal justice reforms, but in the summer of 2018 the measure still managed to win the California Golden Fleece Award... As Lawrence McQuillan explains, the law “sparked a surge in automobile break-ins and shopliftings throughout the state.” Under Proposition 47, property worth $950 or less is reduced from a potential felony to a misdemeanor, and the measure “de-prioritizes justice for California residents and businesses, who now are increasingly victims of vandals and thieves operating with near impunity.” The latest surge targets the catalytic converters of automobiles. As Lauren Keene of the Davis Enterprise reported this summer, the Davis police department received 45 reports of catalytic converter thefts in recent months, and nine in one week. A full 38 of the thefts were from Toyota Priuses, whose converters contains precious metals such as platinum, palladium and rhodium, “a popular target in the Sacramento region and beyond for thieves looking to make a quick buck.” In April, Michael McGough of the Sacramento Bee noted “a spike in catalytic converter thefts in the South Natomas area since the start of 2019,” with 18 of the thefts targeting the Toyota Prius. Similar reports chart catalytic converter theft in the Santa Barbara region and Los Angeles County. According to The Impact of Proposition 47 on Crime and Recidivism, a June 2018 study from the Public Policy Institute of California, “Prop 47 may have contributed to a rise in larceny thefts, especially thefts from motor vehicles.” Starting in December, 2014, such thefts jumped from 16,000-17000 to 19,000-20,000. The increase of 35,300 thefts from motor vehicles accounts for “almost two-thirds of the 54,700 increase in the number of property crimes in California.” In a June, 2018, Bob Egelko of the San Francisco Chronicle noted that in San Francisco, “auto break-ins soared, by 24 percent last year to a total of 31,222.” On the other hand, arrests for auto break-ins were down because “state law prohibits officers from arresting people for misdemeanor crimes that an officer did not personally observe.” Reports of arrests for catalytic converter theft are rare, and in Davis thieves targeted one couple three times in four months. As this writer can attest, absent a converter, a four-cylinder Toyota will roar like a Harley Davidson. Replacement of the converters can easily run more than $1,000. All pain for motorists, all gain for criminals. That’s the reality of Proposition 47.
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'Over my dead body': Lindsey Graham rebukes
idea of transforming Supreme Court
and Electoral College
by Mike Brest
{ washingtonexaminer.com } ~ South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham rebuked plans by some Democrats to add seats to the Supreme Court and to do away with the Electoral College... in comments during an interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo on Sunday morning. "At least five Democratic senators are threatening a restructuring of the Supreme Court if they do not get their way in these gun cases. Tell us how you see it," Bartiromo said. "This has been a dream of the Left for decades, is to increase the number of judges on the court," Graham answered. "Pack them with liberal judges so the court can do through the legal system what they can't do through the ballot box. The dream of every leftist is to have a liberal court enacting laws from the bench. The dream of every conservative is to have judges who will interpret the law, not make the law. So when you hear expanding the court, that is code for liberals packing the court. "The idea of expanding the number of judges on the Supreme Court has become an issue in the 2020 presidential election. Democratic presidential candidates Sens. lowlife-Kamala Harris of California, Elizabeth dinky-Warren of Massachusetts, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and former Rep. socialist-Beto O’Rourke have all expressed a willingness to expand the number of seats on the Supreme Court. Conversely, front-runner loose lips liar-Joe Biden argued last month that he's "not prepared" to "pack the courts." "Over my dead body, it's not going to happen," Graham added, before transitioning to the Electoral College. "When they want to do away with the Electoral College, that's telling every rural American to go to hell. That would mean that Los Angeles and New York would decide who's the president, the Electoral College allows rural America to have a say about picking the president," he concluded.
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Planting a Seed: Is a Red-Meat Tax on the Menu?Michael Swartz: This can’t be good news to Americans in the midst of grilling season, with a plethora of family picnics, tailgates, and other gatherings still to come: A European consulting firm is floating the idea of a sin tax targeting red meat.
It was an offhand remark, to be sure, and one not getting a lot of media play. But as a report from Fitch Solutions Macro Research tells us, “The global rise of sugar taxes makes it easy to envisage a similar wave of regulatory measures targeting the meat industry.”
Those who’ve taken the ball and run with it naturally point to the generally ineffective and underperforming taxes on sugary drinks, a pairing Fitch Solutions called “a policy sibling” because “over-consumption is a public health issue.” However, freelance journalist James Murphy connected some additional dots to reveal a more rancid motive: “The climate hysterics and animal-rights activists … want the price to be so high for meat that consumers will seek out other protein options.” As Murphy adds, “They want to social-engineer eating meat out of existence.”
In his piece, Murphy refers to a recent report by the dubious and discredited United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, contending that it “calls for humanity to vastly decrease the amount of meat we eat in order to help forestall the ginned-up menace of anthropogenic climate change.”
Murphy, who is definitely a skeptic on the subject, may be overstating the case, but he has a point. When we consider other consumer products — like alcohol and tobacco — whose consumption governments at all levels have tried to regulate, it’s not a big stretch to imagine significant taxes on red meat. And since we can’t pin the more obvious effects of drunk driving or secondhand smoke on the guy who likes his T-bone steak medium rare, a handy straw man for that argument is “climate change,” which has become a catch-all excuse for government to reach deeper into our pockets and regulate our lives further.
While the Fitch Solutions report also noted the unlikelihood of such a tax being implemented anytime soon in the U.S., it’s worth stating that less than five years have elapsed since the first sugary-drink tax was introduced in Berkeley, California, and these taxes have already spread to several of our largest jurisdictions, including Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Given all this, can a tax on meat really be far behind? ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/64872?mailing_id=4475&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4475&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body
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