Bernie Sanders doesn’t seem to know what ‘profit’ is, other commentary

Libertarian: Bernie Doesn’t Seem To Know What ‘Profit’ Is

Sen. Bernie Sanders embarrassed himself Wednesday, Reason’s Scott Shackford points out, with a tweet that “made it clear he doesn’t always grasp basic economics.” In support of unionization efforts, Sanders tweeted, “The video game industry made $43 billion in revenue last year. The workers responsible for that profit deserve to collectively bargain as part of a union.” That confused the revenues with its profits. Shackford explains, “Revenue is the money a company brings in before deducting its expenses, like, for example, workers’ wages.” And while the error may be “common in reporting about large American corporations,” it’s still worth adding to Sanders’ “long history of failing to grasp the basics of market economics.”

Security beat: A Huge 2020 Challenge for the Secret Service

The “scale and emotion” of the coming campaign season will make it tough on the Secret Service, notes the Washington Examiner’s Tom Rogan. Even minor candidates “require around 15 agents in order to provide shifts over a 24 hour, 7-day week period.” Major ones like Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders “will have details two to three times that size” as will Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg due to “identity-driven threats.” Especially high-risk are campaign rallies, where “we see democracy in action, [but] the Secret Service see a thin line between managed chaos and disaster.” Rogan concludes: “Whatever your political views, spare a thought today for some great patriots” who “won’t be enjoying the next year and a half.”

Culture critic: Taylor Swift Needs To Calm Down

Taylor Swift’s video for “You Need To Calm Down” is an elitist anthem that “belongs to the dark era of shrieking keyboard warfare it rebukes, despite a blindingly bright aesthetic,” argues The Federalist’s Emily Jashinsky. Meant to show LGBT pride, it shows Swift and her “glitterati” friends rubbing their glamour in the faces of protesters, who are toothless and badly dressed “caricatures.” Set in a trailer park, the video mocks people with less money while “appropriating” a poor lifestyle “for three minutes of breezy, colorful fun.” Jashinsky reads Swift’s message as, “We’re beautiful and right; you’re poor and dumb.” You’d think that a woman with roots as a naïve country singer would still “have more respect for people from different backgrounds.”

Neocon: The Welcome Death of GMO Hysteria

Panic over the supposed dangers of genetically modified foods used to be a mainstay of American environmentalism, but is fast dissipating: “an amazing — and rare — triumph of reason and science over public hysteria and political posturing,” observes Commentary’s Abe Greenwald. One sign of this triumph: a recent New York Times story on recent advances in GMO development contained not “a single word about potential health dangers or environmental concerns.” The article even suggested GMOs can help humanity deal with climate change, by making plants resistant to warming temperatures. The shift, he suggests, came because “the gap between [hysterics’] frightening claims and any evidence to support them became too great to sustain.” The lesson: “All public panics die out at some point.”

Opioid watch: Sanction China for Fentanyl Trafficking

China is the world’s largest producer of the fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, note Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Tom cotton (R-Ark.) at USA Today, and much of it winds up in America. In 2017, the drug led to 32,000 US overdose deaths here. Which is why the two are pushing bipartisan legislation to “get tougher on drug traffickers” and give law enforcement “the tools it needs to combat opioid trafficking,” particularly from China. Their bill, they say, would slap “sanctions on criminal organizations” that channel opioids into the country — and on those who aid them. It belongs in the upcoming defense bill, they write, since “Strong drug enforcement is a critical part of homeland security.”

— Compiled by Ashley Allen and Mark Cunningham