Foreign desk: Putin’s Hidden Weakness
Reading news coverage of Vladimir Putin these days, says Politico’s Susan Glasser, “you’d think he’s 10 feet tall, a puppet master” an “unfettered colossus at home prepared to challenge the United States on many fronts abroad.” Except that “virtually all of the smartest Russia hands” she knows “disagree with” that characterization. Indeed, she says those building up Putin have given him “exactly the fearsome geopolitical reputation he craves.” He may be authoritarian and heavy-handed, but “close Kremlin watchers” say he and his clique “have a much weaker hand to play” and “often run Russia defensively.” Even Mikhail Khodorkovsky, jailed and exiled by Putin, says he “does not run Russia outside the inner beltway of Moscow.”
Culture critic: Yes, You Have Options on Harassment
Susanne Venker at PJ Media agrees that women who have dealt with workplace sexual harassment “are the ones who know best what’s really going on.” But she rejects the notion that the issue is one-sided: Hollywood and the media are “infested with men and women who are equally enamored with power.” And while “no woman . . . is responsible for being sexually harassed,” they do have options. Like Ashley Judd, who has told of being sent to Harvey Weinstein’s hotel room for a business meeting: “She could have let Weinstein know she’d be happy to meet him in the lobby (or some other public place), knowing he would probably refuse, and accept the consequences, or she could play his game.” But “she chose to play his game,” presumably “because she wanted something from him.”
From the right: Andrew Cuomo’s Dubious War on E-Cigs
Gov. Cuomo has just signed a bill banning electronic cigarettes from public indoor spaces, citing “long-term risks to the health of users and those around them.” But Andrew Stuttaford at National Review insists any risks are “very small . . . compared with smoking the real thing.” And it ignores the “strong evidence” that e-cigs are more of “an exit ramp away from tobacco than a gateway to it.” Moreover, he questions Cuomo’s concern over “long-term risks” when “e-cigarettes have been around for a relatively short time.” Not to mention the findings of Britain’s Royal College of Physicians that “there is no direct evidence” that mere exposure to e-cigs “is likely to cause significant harm.” In short, he says, Cuomo “doesn’t do #science.”
Conservative: Soaring Premiums Mean Soaring Risk
Those buying health insurance on the ObamaCare exchanges should “prepare to see [their] bills rise by about a third,” warns Bloomberg’s Megan McArdle. And it’s happening for the usual reasons: “lower-than-anticipated enrollment in the marketplace and limited insurer participation,” along with uncertainty over ObamaCare’s future and the cutoff in subsidies on cost-sharing reduction plans. So “unsubsidized purchasers are in for a nasty shock. In only four states can they look forward to anything below a double-digit increase in the cost of their insurance.” That presents two dangers: “More insurers will decide that the political and economic risks are too big and exit the exchanges,” and unsubsidized folks “will end up uninsured,” skewing the market even further to the old and sick.
Political scribe: Yes, the Rich Pay Their Fair Tax Share
Of “all the tall tales told about taxes,” maintains Ari Fleischer at Fox News, “the tallest is that the rich don’t pay their fair share.” That’s reinforced by the latest IRS figures, which show that “not only do the rich, along with the middle-class, pay the most in income taxes, but their burden has been going up, not down.” Moreover, “not only are these people paying their fair share, they’re picking up other people’s shares as well.” Because “roughly half” of those with taxable income “pay no income taxes. As a practical matter, most taxpayers need to make around $39,000 before they’re hit by the income tax.” Fact is, when critics bemoan tax cuts for the rich, it’s “because it’s only middle-income and upper-income people who pay income taxes. And it’s been that way for a long time.”
— Compiled by Eric Fettmann