California Gov. Gavin Newsom, "with his impeccable timing," has transformed into "more of an anti-Israel zealot," snarks Commentary's Seth Mandel. REUTERS Conservative: Newsom Disses US Armed Forces California Gov. Gavin Newsom, “with his impeccable timing,” has transformed into “more of an anti-Israel zealot,” snarks Commentary’s Seth Mandel, “mocking Israel’s participation in the regime-change mission in Iran,” even as “Israel’s participation in the conflict saves American lives.”
Newsom, “who has all the empathy of a mannequin slathered in Brylcreem,” is “shockingly disrespectful” to the armed forces “for a guy who wants to be president.” He makes it clear, if he were president, he’d “hinder missions like the one he’s mocking right now” — in the middle of a war “in which Israelis are fighting alongside Americans.”
Though Newsom is nobody’s idea of “an expert in the complexities of geopolitics,” we might “expect him to refrain from such aggressive displays of ignorance.”
With the Iran war at full tilt, international “energy markets are in complete turmoil, with no end in sight,” laments James Woudhuysen at spiked.
The United Kingdom, long dependent “on foreign imports for energy, is in the eye of this storm.” Yet “UK energy secretary Ed Miliband” isn’t doing any “soul-searching about Net Zero” or “his unquenchable drive to abandon fossil fuels” in favor of unreliable renewables. Nor does he “entertain the idea that oil and gas beneath” British “soil and seas could be a solution to the inevitable energy shocks of the future.”
Although “UK prime minister Keir Starmer conceded that fossil fuels would be part of Britain’s energy mix for ‘decades to come,’” he’s yet “to follow through.” “Britain must take energy security seriously.”
Conservative: Two-Tier Justice Paved Way for Murder
Illegal immigrant Abdul Jalloh was “free to kill” a woman in Virginia “likely because he was an illegal immigrant,” fumes Timothy P. Carney at the Washington Examiner. Despite being “arrested on charges of at least 40 crimes over the years,” the local “progressive prosecutor” Steve Descano “dropped the serious charges almost every time” because he “has an explicit policy of going lighter on immigrants — legal and illegal — than on citizens.”
Taking “immigration consequences into account when making charging and plea decisions” led the prosecutor to create a two-tier system of justice in order to, in Descano’s words, “avoid the unnecessary destruction of families and communities.” Ultimately, “the people of Fairfax County cannot expect justice as long as Descano holds his job.”
“When even the French president waves the white flag on ambitious climate action, it marks a real and unignorable turning point,” cheers Bjorn Lomborg at The Free Press: It’s “a clear admission that Europe’s obsession with high-cost green policies has become unsustainable.”
President Emmanuel Macron’s concession came after “a chorus of complaints from heavy industries battered by the EU’s Emissions Trading System, the 20-year-old cap-and-trade mechanism” at the heart of “Europe’s climate policies.”
From Germany to Italy to the Czech Republic, “ETS allowances” are “destroying” industries. Europe’s buyers’ remorse “is the culmination of a growing, broader revolt against climate and environmental policies.” “American states pushing aggressive mandates, from California’s vehicle emissions rules to New York’s fracking bans, should heed Europe’s lesson.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed a “5 percent tax on billionaires’ wealth” that would be imposed “each year” and would use “revenues to expand entitlements beyond a left-leaning European’s wildest fantasies,” marvels Allison Schrager at City Journal.
Yet in addition to being “distortionary,” wealth taxes “are hard to enforce,” leading rich people to invest in “things that are hard to value” instead of “more productive ventures, like new companies.” Countries that have wealth taxes have “failed to raise much revenue,” with the “wealthy fleeing the country.”
The plan “would take money from capital markets” and “fund consumption among the poor, middle, and upper-middle class.” But economies “can’t grow on consumption alone”; they need “investment in risky ventures” to “fund innovation and ensure future growth.”
