XPost: alt.politics.republicans, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, or.politics   
   From: noreply@mixmin.net   
      
   Conservative: Dems’ Rising Epstein Desperation   
      
   “Are Democrats getting desperate” about Jeffrey Epstein? wonders the   
   Washington Examiner’s Byron York. They’ve resorted “to tampering with   
   documents and doctoring images to suggest” President Trump is linked to   
   “Epstein’s wrongdoing,” yet have produced no actual evidence. The latest:   
   They released “a tiny number, 19,” pictures (from about 95,000) showing   
   six women whose faces the Dems themselves blacked out. That triggered the   
   hoped-for question: Were the women underage victims? No! They were “adult   
   models” for Hawaiian Tropic who described Trump as gentlemanly. Perhaps   
   “some future discovery” will “give Democrats the incriminating evidence   
   they so desperately want. But it doesn’t seem likely. And until then,   
   Democrats appear to be happy to make things up.”   
      
   Foreign desk: The Anti-Israel Delusion   
      
   Calls in the Arab world “for treating Israel as an international pariah”   
   are standard, but now some leftist Democrats “envision a broad coalition   
   forged around opposition to U.S. support for Israel” that will propel them   
   to power, observes Daniel B. Shapiro at The Atlantic. Though polling   
   “shows a significant decline in Israel’s standing among various sectors of   
   the American public,” Israel-bashing is still a “thin reed” on which to   
   “build a political coalition.” And this approach brings “darker danger”   
   strategically: It would “likely intensify the region’s conflicts” and   
   “undermine” efforts toward “maintaining regional stability” — and   
   also   
   push allies like Egypt and Jordan to “buy weapons from Russia and China.”   
   Sustaining a relationship with Israel “is manifestly more beneficial to   
   U.S. interests than the alternative.”   
      
   From the left: Dems Should Re-embrace Oil & Gas   
      
   One “specific issue” plainly “could both boost Democrats” in   
   GOP-dominated   
   states that they can win “— a position the party embraced in the   
   relatively recent past,” argues Matthew Yglesias in The New York Times:   
   “Liberals should support America’s oil and gas industry.” Barack Obama   
   did; the left-of-center leaders of Mexico and Canada “and the labor   
   parties of Norway and Australia have done it.” And: “It’s not just about   
   votes; it’s also a realistic path toward a cleaner environment.” Fact is,   
   “Insisting on a majority of renewable electricity raises costs   
   dramatically, slows the pace of electrification and ultimately leaves us   
   further from a low-carbon future.” And: “A realistic look at the Senate   
   map makes it clear that Democrats’ hopes hinge on states that have   
   important fossil fuel industries.” Be realistic: Taking climate seriously   
   means adopting politically and economically sustainable approaches to   
   energy economics, and that means a reconciliation with all forms of   
   American energy.”   
      
   Climate war: Ford’s $35.1 Billion Fiasco   
      
   “Electric vehicles are the Next Big Thing” — and “always will be,”   
   snarks   
   Robert Bryce at his substack. Proof came in Ford’s decision to “take a   
   $19.5 billion charge due to its headlong rush to build EVs.” Since 2022,   
   its losses have totaled $15.6 billion; add in this write-down, and the   
   “colossal blunder” totals $35.1 billion. Ford, “which makes money by   
   selling F-150s and other trucks,” just “didn’t understand who its   
   customers are”: EVs appeal to “niche” buyers, “dominated by wealthy,   
   white, male, liberal voters,” not the mass market. Per Gallup, 71% of   
   Republicans say they wouldn’t own one. “Ford’s EV disaster will go down   
   as   
   one of the biggest fiascos in modern automobile history.” Why does CEO Jim   
   Farley “still have a job?”   
      
   Eye on NYC: Rent Laws Deepen Housing Crisis   
      
   “Thousands of units” of housing are “off the market” in New York City   
   largely because their “operating costs exceed legal rents,” warns Adam   
   Lehodey at City Journal. A 2019 state law gave us these 50,000 or so   
   untenanted “ghost apartments” because it “eliminated” landlords’   
   ability   
   “to make improvements profitably and reset the stabilized rent.” An “even   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)