Economic Patriotism

Bokbluster

 

"President Obama’s favorite billionaire is making a run for the border. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway will finance Burger King’s purchase of Canadian donut dynamo, Tim Hortons.

Economic Patriotism

"As a Canadian operation, Burger King will still have to pay US corporate taxes on earnings inside the United States. But earnings outside the US will only be taxed at the rate of the country where they occur. US companies have to pay taxes in the countries where they operate and also must pay IRS the difference between those rates and the US rate. The Obama administration calls this economic patriotism.
"Burger King’s move is called a tax “inversion”. Matt Levine gives a great explanation in this Bloomberg article.
"The US corporate rate, including state and local taxes comes to about 40%. That’s the highest in the world outside the Islamic State jizya. Roberto A. Ferdman provides a nice chart in the Washington Post showing the tax rates of the 34 OECD countries.

The nominal corporate tax rate in the U.S., which combines national, state, and city-level tax rates, is nearly 40 percent—the highest across all 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries. Canada’s, by comparison, is just over 26 percent

 Have taxes your way: Why Burger King wants to become a Canadian citizen

 

"The highest nominal corporate tax rates

"No OECD member country has a higher nominal corporate tax rate than the U.S.
Graph at the link

 

Two legal guests tell CNN their Brown shooting audio might be a hoax

Hot Air  ... " CNN’s ratings have been phenomenal since the violence in Ferguson erupted, and the network has displayed a tendency in the past to latch onto any development no matter how dubious that keeps a ratings-grabbing story alive. The suspect audio supposedly of the moment when police shot and killed Brown may be another of these moments.

"On Wednesday morning, CNN’s Michaela Pereira invited two former law enforcement officials on the program to discuss the authenticity of the tape.

“ 'I’ve told your producers that for all I know this is one of Howard Stern’s punk people,” former LAPD officer David Klinger said. “It came out, what, two weeks after the event, and so I don’t have a high degree of confidence in it.' ” ...
 

 

... "CNN’s coverage of the events in Ferguson has, for the most part, been both compelling and informative. The ratings the network has earned are deserved. However, if this audio does turn out to be inauthentic, it would be another opportunity for CNN to learn the lessons of their saturation coverage of the missing Malaysian passenger airliner; sacrificing credibility for ratings is never a good tradeoff."

How fracking insulates USA: Our view

It eases security threats emanating from both the Middle East and Vladimir Putin.

 

USA Today   ... "But there are legitimate reasons why things would look relatively good here while so much of the world burns. First among them is a U.S. energy renaissance that has left the nation far less dependent on Mideast oil.

"The Energy Department projects that domestic crude oil production will average 9.3 million barrels a day next year. That's a 43% increase just since 2012, and a near doubling from 2008.
Recent discoveries, meanwhile, have made natural gas so abundant that it could easily last more than a century at today's consumption rates.

"Neither of these fortuitous developments would have happened without new drilling techniques, most notably hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," a process of using pressurized water, chemicals and sand to extract oil and gas from tight rock formations." ...

And Obama will claim credit.

Via Lucianne

A Lump of Coal for the Climatistas

Powerline   "Yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported (“Germany’s Expensive Gamble on Renewable Energy”) on the high cost of the climate-related energy fanaticism of Germany’s green shirts (why not?), which is not starting to take a tangible toll on the country’s economic competitiveness:

Average electricity prices for companies have jumped 60% over the past five years because of costs passed along as part of government subsidies of renewable energy producers. Prices are now more than double those in the U.S. . .
 One government estimate projects the Energiewende by 2040 to cost up to €1 trillion, or about $1.4 trillion, or almost half Germany’s GDP and nearly as much as the country spent on the reunification of East and West Germany. . . 

Yet nearly 75% of Germany’s small- and medium-size industrial businesses say rising energy costs are a major risk, according to a recent survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Federation of German Industry. . .

 

 

Ann Coulter asks: WOULD IT KILL YOU TO HIRE MORE BLACK COPS?

Coulter answers yes and tells us why. The explanation is politically correct government.
You have to read this entire column and not just the excerpts selected by me.

Ann Coulter   ... "In a massive, detailed 2000 study of the effect of court-ordered affirmative action plans on police departments, economist John Lott found that the more minorities on a police force, the higher the rates of murder, manslaughter, violent crime, robbery and aggravated assault will be. Violent crime increased by a minimum of 3.3 percent every year after affirmative action policies went into effect -- and the spike in crime was highest in black neighborhoods.

"    The problem was not with black cops, Lott's study showed, but rather with the lowering of standards across the board, resulting in less-qualified officers of every race. To get more of MSNBC's "voices of oppression" on police forces, requirements are reduced for all recruits. (Just as quality declined at MSNBC when "voices of oppression" had to be added to their lineup.)

    "We end up with cops who are criminals, the Rampart scandal of the 1990s and great movies like "Training Day."

    "About a decade into a federal consent decree requiring the Los Angeles Police Department to hire more minority officers, the LAPD'S Rampart division was employing gang members in uniforms.

...
"Wait -- no applicants failed? That's precisely the point! Everyone gets an "A," every applicant becomes a police officer. "
...

   " The only real advantage to compelling the Ferguson police force to adopt affirmative action hiring policies is that the media will be tickled pink with themselves for striking a blow against "racism." On the other hand, more black people will be murdered, raped and maimed as crime rates rise. I guess it's really just a matter of priorities."

From one of the Obama- friendly unions: EPA Plan: All Pain, No Gain

http://comicallyincorrect.com/2014/06/05/obama-epa-regulations/

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers    "Climate change is a genuine crisis that must be addressed, but the Environmental Protection Agency's recently proposed Clean Power Plan is the wrong approach — for both the environment and the U.S. economy.

"The EPA's rule — issued earlier this summer — will kill more than 150,000 jobs across the United States, while having a minimal effect on global greenhouse emissions.

Edwin D. Hill
International President

"The rule will prematurely close dozens of major power plants in communities throughout the country, devastating local economies in largely rural regions that depend on the energy sector for jobs and growth.

"By the agency's own estimates, this will shutter more than 40 gigawatts of coal-generating power by 2020 — on top of the 50 gigawatts scheduled to be lost by 2017 due to the Mercury and Air Toxics rule put into effect earlier. This puts not only jobs, but the whole electrical grid at risk.

"Despite the growth of renewables like solar and wind, experts predict that it will take decades for alternative energy sources — which make up less than 13 percent of the U.S.'s net electricity generation — to adequately replace coal, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says.

"For years, the IBEW has urged Congress to pass a national energy policy that addresses climate change without putting the reliability of our power grid at risk.

"These regulations do the exact opposite. They threaten our ability to keep the power on during extreme weather, from winter's polar vortex to summer heat waves.

"The U.S.'s share of global carbon emissions has been on steady decline for the last decade as the implementation of technology to capture carbon emissions, and the increased use of natural gas, solar and wind continue to grow. But unless we can bring developing nations like China and India — which are dramatically increasing their share of carbon emissions — to the table, any isolated U.S. effort to cut down on CO2 will be for naught.

"That means the EPA's plan amounts to all pain and no gain. And it's working families and energy consumers who will feel the brunt of it, in the form of lost jobs, higher electricity prices and much greater risk of blackouts.

"For years, we have been right about our estimates about how coal-fired plant shutdowns would negatively impact the grid and jobs — in contrast to the overly-optimistic predictions made by the EPA.

"We, along with other unions representing energy workers, need to have our voice heard. The IBEW stands ready to work with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, along with leaders of the utility industry, to craft a true bipartisan energy plan to grow our economy, renovate our aged energy infrastructure and set a realistic plan for cleaner air and a healthy environment."

CNN Now Worried Ferguson Shooting Audio Is Hoax

Big Journalism   "When CNN first broadcast the unverified audio of the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, it was with all the sturm and drang of breathless breaking news. The audio led almost every hour and was the biggest story of the day. What a difference a day makes. The language coming from "New Day" anchor Michaela Pereira Wednesday morning is much more cautious. "Do you think it's authentic?", she squeaked to two law enforcement experts, both of whom believe it is a hoax:" ...
 

 

... "CNN's timing of the release made perfect sense. The leftwing network dropped the audio the day after treating the funeral of Michael Brown as though he was a head of state. With the death porn concluded and the Ferguson streets quiet, CNN needed to fill the race-baiting vacuum with something.

 

"This is the second time CNN has been unforgivably irresponsible with audio." ...

CNN Hypes Audio Recording of Gunshots

Beware of news reports from a source that is trying not to go broke.

 

Powerline    ... "Various observers, including CNN’s talking heads, have tried to attach great significance to the audio recording. CNN, promoting the recording as if it were a Blowup-type moment, recruited an audio expert who says he hears ten shots on the recording. I think there are pretty clearly eleven. CNN says that the recording “tells a different story” from Michael Brown’s autopsy, which found that he was shot six times. Beyond that, CNN and other observers have laid great emphasis on the fact that there is a “pause” in the shots. Six are fired, then a couple of seconds go by, and four–or five, as I think–additional shots are heard." ...
...
"In short, the audio recording is interesting, but a non-story, at least for now."
Via Lucianne

Call the Islamic State What It Is: Evil

Jonah Goldberg  ... "For most of the Obama years, talk of evil was largely banished from mainstream discourse. An attitude of “goodbye to all that” prevailed, as the War on Terror was rhetorically and legally disassembled and the spare parts put toward building a law-enforcement operation. War was euphemized into “overseas contingency operations” and “kinetic military action.” There was still bloodshed, but the language was often bloodless. Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a protégé of al-Qaeda guru Anwar al-Awlaki, shouted “Allahu Akbar!” as he killed his colleagues at Fort Hood. The military called the incident “workplace violence.' ”...

Obama's disconcerting speech to the American Legion

Thomas Lifson   ... "Obama himself seemed completely disconnected, as if he were doing this speech because he had to, because his staff told him that he had blown off the Legionnaires too often sending Biden or videotaped remarks the past few years, and now that the VA scandal was in the news, it would look terrible for him not to show up in Charlotte. Going through the motions, but without any conviction or heart.

"And the Legionnaires responded in kind. There was no outright booing, but there was also no response, or even worse, a smattering of applause in response to obvious applause lines, which soon went flat or silent. The UK Daily Mail, which is unafraid to violate the American journalistic conventions around coverage of Obama, put it this way:..." 
Read more:

... "I have given enough speeches in my life that I have an auto-empathy response to a speaker flailing as badly as Obama was yesterday. After a few minutes enduring the Great Disconnect, I could watch no more, and I went back to my ordinary nausea. You can watch as much of it as you have the stomach for:" 

In the UK, the Daily Mail reported it this way:   Tepid clapping greets unpopular Obama's VA speech at American Legion convention in his first speech to group since 2011

Not impressed: American Legionnaires only rose to their feet to praise fellow

veterans and  hoot about firing VA miscreants, while they sat on their hands

 for Obama's applause lines about his military strategy

... " 'You know that we should never send America's sons and daughters into harm's way unless it is absolutely necessary and we have a plan and we are resourcing it and prepared to see it through.'

"Tepid clapping followed pregnant seconds of emptiness.

" 'We removed more than 140,000 troops from Iraq and welcomed those troops home. It was the right thing to do.'

 

"Nothing. " ...

From IBD: Obama describes a happy, thriving America to veterans, who know better
... "We've gathered some excerpts with our comments in italics to provide a flavor of the alien land this president sees through his bullet-proof windows. He doesn't seem so much detached as delusional:" ...  Read More At Investor's Business Daily
 

Daggers: Republican US Senator Richard Burr is no fan of Obama and hopes

his flagging numbers drag down Hagan to provide his state with a GOP replacement.

At Michael Brown funeral, Al Sharpton's double-edged eulogy evokes anger; But not all in the way some observers expected.

Washington Examiner  "The shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., has been so heavily politicized that it would have been unreasonable to expect Brown's funeral to be free of politics — especially when it featured a eulogy by the Rev. Al Sharpton. And indeed, the Brown service, held Monday at Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis, was intensely political. But not in the way some observers expected."

Nice to see the different races working together, isn't it?

Hat tip to Don Standlee; Arlington, TX

... "But the middle part of Sharpton's speech was something altogether different, and it fit uneasily into a debate that has been going on about the larger meaning of Ferguson.

"After a demand for broad reforms in American policing, Sharpton changed course to address his black listeners directly. "We've got to be straight up in our community, too," he said. "We have to be outraged at a 9-year-old girl killed in Chicago. We have got to be outraged by our disrespect for each other, our disregard for each other, our killing and shooting and running around gun-toting each other, so that they're justified in trying to come at us because some of us act like the definition of blackness is how low you can go."

Iraq and Syria Follow Lebanon's Precedent

"Lawrence of Arabia" dealt with a bit of this topic.

STRATFOR   "Sykes-Picot, named for French diplomat Francois Georges-Picot and his British counterpart, Sir Mark Sykes, did two things. First, it created a British-dominated Iraq. Second, it divided the Ottoman province of Syria on a line from the Mediterranean Sea east through Mount Hermon. Everything north of this line was French. Everything south of this line was British. The French, who had been involved in the Levant* since the 19th century, had allies among the region's Christians. They carved out part of Syria and created a country for them. Lacking a better name, they called it Lebanon, after the nearby mountain of the same name.
 

Syria's Geographic Challenge

"The British named the area to the west of the Jordan River after the Ottoman administrative district of Filistina, which turned into Palestine on the English tongue. However, the British had a problem. During World War I, while the British were fighting the Ottoman Turks, they had allied with a number of Arabian tribes seeking to expel the Turks. Two major tribes, hostile to each other, were the major British allies. The British had promised postwar power to both. It gave the victorious Sauds the right to rule Arabia -- hence Saudi Arabia. The other tribe, the Hashemites, had already been given the newly invented Iraqi monarchy and, outside of Arabia, a narrow strip of arable ground to the east of the Jordan River. For lack of a better name, it was called Trans-Jordan, or the other side of the Jordan. In due course the "trans" was dropped and it became Jordan."...   Read more:

"*The Levant, also known as the Eastern Mediterranean, is a geographic and cultural region consisting of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt". The Levant today consists of the island of Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and part of southern Turkey (the former Aleppo Vilayet).
"Precise definitions have varied over time, and the term originally had a broader and less well-defined usage. The Levant has been described as the "crossroads of western Asia, the eastern Mediterranean and northeast Africa", and the "northwest of the Arabian plate". "