The Schengen Agreement Is Doomed

Background at the BBC, "Q&A: Schengen Agreement," and "Schengen free movement 'may be in danger', says German minister."

And at Stratfor, "Europe Rethinks the Schengen Agreement":

When France, West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg signed the Schengen Agreement in 1985, they envisioned a system in which people and goods could move from one country to another without barriers. This vision was largely realized: Since its implementation in 1995, the Schengen Agreement eliminated border controls between its signatories and created a common visa policy for 26 countries.

The treaty was a key step in the creation of a federal Europe. By eliminating border controls, member states gave up a basic element of national sovereignty. The agreement also required a significant degree of trust among its signatories, because it put the responsibility for checking foreigners' identities and baggage on the country of first entry into the Schengen area. Once people have entered a Schengen country, they can move freely across most of Europe without facing any additional controls.

The Schengen Agreement was implemented in the 1990s, when the end of the Cold War and the prospect of permanent economic prosperity led EU members to give up national sovereignty in many sensitive areas. The creation of the eurozone is probably the most representative agreement of the period. But several things have changed in Europe since then, and member states are beginning to question many of the decisions that were made during the preceding years of optimism.

The most important change of the past six years is probably Europe's economic crisis and its byproduct, the rise of nationalist political parties. Not far behind, though, is the substantial increase in the number of asylum seekers in Europe, which is putting countries on the European Union's external borders (such as Greece and Italy) and countries in the Continent's economic core (such as France and Germany) under significant stress. This is not the first time the Schengen Agreement has been questioned, but the combination of a rising number of asylum seekers, stronger nationalist parties and fragile economic recovery are leading governments and political groups across Europe to request the redesign, and in some cases the abolishment, of the Schengen Agreement...

And at the New York Times, "Migrant Crisis Tests Core European Value: Open Borders."

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban Says Migrant Crisis Is Germany's Problem

Hey don't come. Turkey's a good country. Stay in Turkey. We're trying to preserve our culture here, and don't even mention the Islamist invasion.

At WSJ, "Chaos at Budapest train station as migrants rush trains":

Hundreds of migrants seeking to reach Germany rushed trains at Hungary’s main international rail station on Thursday after police stopped manning the door, as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban blamed Europe’s migration crisis on Berlin.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected the criticism, saying her country is doing what all European Union member states should be by taking in refugees in need of protection. Ms. Merkel said she agreed earlier in the day with French President François Hollande that the EU needs binding quotas to distribute refugees fairly.

Tensions have been rising within the bloc as it struggles to deal with thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa, underlining competing national interests amid warnings that the bloc’s cherished policy of border-free travel is at risk. Hungary—on the bloc’s edge—has emerged as a key transit point for people seeking to reach wealthier states where they believe they will have better prospects.

Mr. Orban took a defiant stance during a news conference at the European Parliament in Brussels, where he was holding a series of meetings with top officials. He said he was abiding by EU rules in seeking to register migrants before allowing them to pass into another EU country and is considering the deployment of the army to protect Hungary’s borders with non-EU member neighbor Serbia. He brushed off calls for Hungary to reconsider its rejection of a fairer redistribution system for refugees across the bloc.

“The problem is not European, it’s German. Nobody would like to stay in Hungary, neither Slovakia, Poland or Estonia,” Mr. Orban said after talks with European Parliament President Martin Schulz. “All of them would like to go to Germany.”

The chaos continued at Budapest’s Keleti station, where Hungary has blocked migrants from traveling farther into the EU, sparking three days of protest and leaving hundreds camped outside. The state-owned rail company MAV said all direct westward-bound services were suspended indefinitely for safety reasons.

Ammar Hamsa, 26, from the Syrian city of Homs, and others said migrants rushed the trains in the station because they saw German language text on the side of the forward engine, even as railway officials announced no international trains that day. Crowds of people struggled amid the crush to get on board, with some pushing their children through open windows.

“The station was closed. Then suddenly without organization or decision, they opened the doors and everybody rushed in, in a disorganized way,” Mr. Hamsa said. “Nothing is clear.”

Two trains were eventually allowed to leave Budapest on Thursday, but instead of crossing the border they halted at the Hungarian town of Bicske, site of an already overcrowded refugee camp. Attempts by police to get the migrants to disembark there led to further scenes of chaos.

Outside Budapest’s station, migrants have spread out blankets, set up tents and washed in temporary facilities. On a wall nearby, someone scrawled in big white letters, “I want go to Germany (please).”

Many migrants see Hungary as the shortest route to Western Europe and safer than the often deadly option of crossing the Mediterranean. In Germany, officials have stressed that the country can handle the influx of people in the short run, but described the migration crisis as Europe’s biggest challenge...

More.

Earlier, "The Hijrah Into Europe: Islam's Jihad Immigration."

Spencer Stone Homecoming (VIDEO)

At the Sacramento Bee, "French train hero Spencer Stone returns to California."

And at KCRA News 3 Sacramento, "Euro train hero Spencer Stone welcomed home at Travis AFB."

The Hijrah Into Europe: Islam's Jihad Immigration

From Robert Spencer, at FrontPage Magazine, "“Refugees” colonize a continent":

Approximately 104,460 asylum seekers arrived in Germany during the month of August, setting a new record. That makes 413,535 registered refugees and migrants coming to Germany in 2015 so far. The country expects a total of around 800,000 people to seek asylum in Germany this year. And that’s just Germany. The entire continent of Europe is being inundated with refugees at a rate unprecedented in world history. This is no longer just a “refugee crisis.” This is a hijrah.

Hijrah, or jihad by emigration, is, according to Islamic tradition, the migration or journey of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Yathrib, later renamed by him to Medina, in the year 622 CE. It was after the hijrah that Muhammad for the first time became not just a preacher of religious ideas, but a political and military leader. That was what occasioned his new “revelations” exhorting his followers to commit violence against unbelievers. Significantly, the Islamic calendar counts the hijrah, not Muhammad’s birth or the occasion of his first “revelation,” as the beginning of Islam, implying that Islam is not fully itself without a political and military component.

To emigrate in the cause of Allah – that is, to move to a new land in order to bring Islam there, is considered in Islam to be a highly meritorious act. “And whoever emigrates for the cause of Allah will find on the earth many locations and abundance,” says the Qur’an. “And whoever leaves his home as an emigrant to Allah and His Messenger and then death overtakes him, his reward has already become incumbent upon Allah. And Allah is ever Forgiving and Merciful.” (4:100) The exalted status of such emigrants led a British jihad group that won notoriety (and a shutdown by the government) a few years ago for celebrating 9/11 to call itself Al-Muhajiroun: The Emigrants.

And now a hijrah of a much greater magnitude is upon us. Evidence that this is a hijrah, not simply a humanitarian crisis, came last February, but was little noted at the time and almost immediately forgotten. The Islamic State published a document entitled, “Libya: The Strategic Gateway for the Islamic State.” Gateway into Europe, that is: the document exhorted Muslims to go to Libya and cross from there as refugees into Europe. This document tells would-be jihadis that weapons from Gaddafi’s arsenal are plentiful and easy to obtain in Libya – and that the country “has a long coast and looks upon the southern Crusader states, which can be reached with ease by even a rudimentary boat.”

The Islamic State did not have in mind just a few jihadis crossing from Libya: it also emerged last February that the jihadis planned to flood Europe with as many as 500,000 refugees. Now the number is shooting well beyond that in Germany alone. Of course, not all of these refugees are Islamic jihadis. Not all are even Muslims, although most are. However, no effort whatsoever is being made to determine the refugees’ adherence to Sharia and desire to bring it to their new land. Any such effort would be “Islamophobic.” Yet there are already hints that the Islamic State is putting its plan into effect: jihadis have already been found among the refugees trying to enter Europe. There will be many more such discoveries.

Eight hundred thousand Muslim refugees in one year alone. This will transform Germany, and Europe, forever, overtaxing the welfare economies of its wealthiest nations and altering the cultural landscape beyond recognition. Yet the serious public discussion that needs to be had about this crisis is shouted down by the usual nonsense: the Washington Post Wednesday published an inflammatory and irresponsible piece likening those concerned about this massive Muslim influx into Europe to 1930s Nazis ready to incinerate Jews by the millions...

More.

Plus, at the New York Times, "Hungarian Leader Rebuked for Saying Muslim Migrants Must Be Blocked ‘to Keep Europe Christian’."

Of course he was rebuked. Radical leftists are traitors to their respective European nation-states, and they're facilitating the destruction of their own countries with an Islamic jihad conquest. Just standing up for state sovereignty and the culture, like Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, will get you branded a racist.

The Populist Revolt Against Brain-Dead Politics

A great post, from Larry Sabato, at Sabato's Crystal Ball.

British Prime Minister David Cameron Bows to Pressure to Accept More Refugees

At the Guardian UK, "Cameron bows to pressure to let in more Syrian refugees."

And at Telegraph UK, "Britain will take in thousands of new Syrian refugees, David Cameron to announce":

Prime Minister understood to be preparing plans to resettle thousands of asylum seekers fleeing Isil jihadists.

Britain will accept thousands more Syrian asylum seekers in response to the migration crisis engulfing Europe, David Cameron will announce in the coming days.

In a marked shift in tone, the Government is preparing plans to resettle the refugees fleeing Isil jihadists in the region in an attempt to fulfil its “moral obligation”.

Officials are working on a “detailed package” to give asylum to Syrians under the “vulnerable persons relocation scheme”, which has so far seen 216 people allowed to come to the UK.

It will be seen as a change of direction by Mr Cameron, who on Wednesday insisted that Britain would not accept “more and more” migrants.

Hours after he made those comments, images emerged of a three-year-old boy lying lifeless on a Turkish beach. Aylan Kurdi died when the boat carrying him and his family from Syria capsized.

The pictures encapsulated the human cost of the crisis and prompted debate over whether Britain was accepting its "fair share" of refugees.

It is understood that Mr Cameron spent much of Thursday in talks with his closest advisers discussing how to respond to the changing public mood.

His decision to accept more refugees to the UK came as the crisis showed no sign of abating...

More.

One Killed, Two Wounded in Shooting at Sacramento City College (VIDEO)

At the Sacramento Bee, "Update: Manhunt for active shooter near Sacramento City College."

And watch, at KCRA News 3 Sacramento:

Whoa! Trump Hits 30 Percent in Latest Monmouth University Poll (VIDEO)

It's a traditional telephone poll, not an Internet panel, so this is pretty important.

Here's the survey from Monmouth, "NATIONAL: Trump Holds Lead, Carson 2nd":

West Long Branch, NJ – Donald Trump has increased his GOP vote share since last month’sdebate. The latest Monmouth University Poll of Republican voters nationwide also finds Ben Carson moving into second place, Jeb Bush slipping to third, and Scott Walker fading into the background. The poll also tested Trump directly against nine opponents in head-to-head match-ups and found that only Carson is able to get the better of him.

When Republicans and Republican-leaning voters are asked who they would support for the GOP nomination for president, Donald Trump leads the pack at 30%, which is up 4 points from early August before the first debate. Ben Carson (18%) has increased his vote share by 13 points and now holds second place. Jeb Bush (8%) has dropped by 4 points and now stands in a tie for third with Ted Cruz (8%). Following behind are Marco Rubio (5%), Carly Fiorina (4%), and Mike Huckabee (4%).

Scott Walker (3%), who held third place in Monmouth’s August poll, has dropped 8 points since then. Chris Christie, John Kasich, and Rand Paul each get 2%. The remaining six candidates included in the poll score no higher than 1% each.

“None of the establishment candidates is having any success in getting an anti-Trump vote to coalesce around them. In fact, any attempt to take on Trump directly only seems to make him stronger,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute in West Long Branch, NJ.

The Monmouth University Poll tested the strength of Donald Trump’s support by presenting Republican voters with nine hypothetical head-to-head match-ups. Trump tops the field in all but one of those contests. If it came down to just two candidates, Trump beats the putative establishment favoriteJeb Bush by a 56% to 37% margin. Trump also gets the better of Chris Christie (63% to 30%), John Kasich (62% to 29%), Rand Paul (60% to 27%), Scott Walker (53% to 38%), Marco Rubio (52% to 38%), Carly Fiorina (50% to 37%), and Ted Cruz (48% to 41%). The only candidate who is able to take on The Donald and win is Ben Carson, who gets 55% support to 36% for Trump in a hypothetical matchup.“

“The fact that the only one who can challenge Trump is the only other candidate who has never held or run for elected office speaks volumes to the low regard GOP voters have for the establishment,” said Murray.

By a more than 2-to-1 margin, Republican voters nationwide say the country needs a president from outside government who can bring a new approach to Washington (67%) rather than someone with government experience who knows how to get things done (26%).

Murray added, “Conservative activists believe the Republican Party has abandoned its principles. Moderates feel their leadership is ineffective. So Republican voters have created their own job description for the next nominee - Wanted: Someone who can shake up Washington; No elected officials need apply.”

Keep reading.

Why America Loves Donald Trump and Why Democrats Are Dumbstruck

From Tomi Lahren, "Tomi's Final Thoughts: Why America Loves Trump Part I," and "Tomi's Final Thoughts: America Loves Trump & Dems are Confused."

Extra 20 Percent Off on Already-Reduced Clothing and More

At Amazon, Shop Fashion - Extra 20% Off Select Fashion.

Plus, don't forget about Ann Coulter's new book, Adios, America: The Left's Plan to Turn Our Country into a Third World Hellhole.

German Benevolence Tested by Unrelenting Influx of Third World Refugees

While often sad, the migrant crisis is utterly fascinating in the end.

And note, this story's from over a month ago. With this last week's news of "biblical" incursions of migrants, German benevolence is being tested even more.

At Der Spiegel, "Testing the Limits: How Many Refugees Can Germany Handle?":

More Germans than ever before are at ease with themselves and their asylum-seekers. But this year the country is expecting to receive around 400,000 new refugees, a figure that raises the painful question: Can Germany's new welcoming culture handle it?

Anyone wondering about the state of the nation in Germany would be well advised to take a ride on the A33 highway and get off at the very last exit in Bielefeld, in northwestern Germany. The state of the nation is now encapsulated in a property in the city's Brackwede neighborhood. A few weeks ago, the name of the street would have been worth mentioning. But now it doesn't seem like a good idea.

The property is the site of a four-story addition with room for 200 asylum-seekers, complete with a dining room with floor-to-ceiling, soundproof windows and white-tiled bathrooms. Everything is state-of-the-art. The building even has the same kind of stand-up toilets made from stainless steel that are so often found in Mediterranean countries -- the kind your typical asylum-seeker from that region is accustomed to.
If ever a building epitomized Germany's architecture of goodwill or its welcoming culture for asylum-seekers, this is it. But it comes at a time when Germans' fears of that welcoming culture are also building. The new wing isn't finished yet. Completion is scheduled for Aug. 1. That's why for the past six weeks, security guards have been patrolling the construction site day and night, on the lookout for anyone trying to burn the place down before the first asylum-seekers can move in.

Jürgen Beier, the facility's manager, couldn't have imagined any of this a year ago, when the foundation was laid for the new addition to the existing refugee hostel. But today, in the summer of 2015, it's a different story with the number of people seeking asylum here rising sharply. It's not like anyone has sprayed graffiti on the walls or sent threatening letters. On the contrary, women from the local parish show up every day to play "Memory" and the beloved boardgame, "Sorry," with the refugee children.

But who knows what could happen now, what with arsonists active elsewhere in Germany and ordinary citizens filing lawsuits against new asylum hostels? Not to mention the good, old acquaintances of Beier's -- no, these people don't have a drop of xenophobic blood in them! -- who are suddenly asking him where all this is heading. Even the new facility, with its 200 beds, is far from enough, they say. What happens when more asylum-seekers turn up?

State of the Nation

This, it seems, is the state of the nation: a plot in Bielefeld where the most wonderful aspects of Germany are concentrated. There are people who are generous, who know they are fortunate -- at least more so than others. These are people who are determined to do everything right and to atone for Germany's sins, even 70 years later. They know that they owe something to their collective conscience, and that whenever they give something up, they also gain something in return. That something is the feeling of doing the right thing, the important thing.

But there is also the fear of being overwhelmed. It is the fear of people who are willing to give, but only to a point, only as long as it doesn't hurt them. People who are willing to share as long as they don't have to make sacrifices. And that, all generosity aside, is why so many people now feel that limits should be imposed on immigration. They may not know where these limits should lie, but they are convinced that they should exist.

So what is the state of the nation really? When it comes to refugees, it's a state of anxiety. In reality, it boils down to a question of how the growing influx of refugees and asylum-seekers adversely affects the Germans' relationship to these newcomers. The 400,000 asylum-seekers predicted to arrive this year will put Germany's new welcoming culture to the test. Can it endure? Can it survive?

Keep reading.

Freddie Gray Protests Erupt as Hearing Held for Indicted Baltimore Police Officers (VIDEO)

Here's the background, at Baltimore Sun, "Judge orders six separate trials for the officers charged in #FreddieGray's death," and "Baltimore Police suit up in tactical gear as protesters gather near Inner Harbor amid Freddie Gray hearing."

And watch, at CBS News 13 Baltimore, "SPECIAL REPORT: Protester Arrested As Demonstrations Begin Downtown," and "1 Officer Injured, 1 Protester Arrested During Demonstration."

And related, at the Guardian UK, "Freddie Gray trial judge denies motion to remove Marilyn Mosby from case."

Czech Police Pull Refugees Off Trains, Mark Identification Numbers on Their Arms in Ink

Now this is something else --- and it's not good.

No small irony there, either, considering how the Czechoslovakia crisis of 1938 (the Munich agreement) helped trigger World War II.

At the Independent UK, "Czech police haul migrants off trains to Germany and 'write numbers on their arms in ink'."

Also at the BBC, "Migrants crisis: Unease as Czech police ink numbers on skin." And at London's Daily Mail, "Fury as Czech police write numbers on arms of migrants 'like concentration camp prisoners' as thousands of refugees are locked in stand-off with police at Budapest station."

Czech police writing numbers on refugees' arms story in @Independent http://t.co/MgyKacrwHz And on @BBCWorld http://t.co/Z5bfeUyLPz

— Andrew Stroehlein (@astroehlein) September 2, 2015

Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan

Following-up from yesterday, "'Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of the U.S. Army in the Pacific, wanted officers to wear their daily service clothes — khaki button-up shirts with open collars and no ties...'"

Here's Herbert Bix's book on postwar Japan, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan.

Hit-and-Run: Toddler on Life Support in San Bernardino (VIDEO)

The most adorable toddler.

Unbearable.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Toddler on Life Support After Hit-and-Run In San Bernardino."

British Prime Minister David Cameron Says Britain Should Not Take More Refugees (VIDEO)

At the Telegraph UK, "David Cameron: Britain should not take more refugees":

The Prime Minister refuses to heed calls for Britain to accept more refugees amid the ongoing Mediterranean migrant crisis.

Yeah, Muslims have turned London into Londonistan as it is. Who needs more asylum seekers from the Middle East, right?

BONUS: "EU migrant crisis: 'Schengen has now hit the buffers of the real world and is falling apart'."

Heh. "Hit the buffers of the real world." That's gotta raise the ideological hackles of Europe's leftist collectivists.

Leftist Media Digs the Dirt on Kim Davis, Kentucky Clerk Refusing to Issue Homosexual Marriage Licenses (VIDEO)

Here's Dana Loesch, on the Kelly File last night.

This lady is an elected official, it turns out. And that changes my thinking a little on the case. Sure, I'd expect her to issue marriage licenses as part of her duties, but it's up to the voters to remove her from office, or for the state legislature to impeach, which is unlikely. And as Dana points out, the woman's a Democrat. You're definitely not getting that tidbit of info from the collectivist press, conveniently.



Plus, at the New York Times, "What’s Next for Kentucky Clerk Who Refuses to Issue Licenses for Gay Marriage."

PREVIOUSLY: "Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis is Sudden Symbol of Recalcitrant Resistance to Depraved Leftist Homosexual Agenda."

Testicles Are Not a Social Construct

Yeah, and the way to prove it is to kick some male "feminist" in the balls to see how he likes it, heh.

The male feminist idiots'll be crying their eyes out like an overtired toddler.

At the Other McCain.

Tip Line Lets California Residents Report Irresponsible Drone Pilots

Yeah, that was a bummer earlier this summer with the Cajon Pass North Fire. Drones hampered firefighting efforts.

See CBS News Sacramento, "Drone Reporting Tip Line: The move comes after more than a dozen instances of firefighting operations being slowed by drones in the air."

Natalie Imbruglia on the Success of 'Torn'

She has a new CD out, "Male."

And below she talks about "Torn."

Dead Syrian Child Washes Up on Shore of Bodrum, Turkey

At the Telegraph UK, "Image of dead Syrian boy captures human tragedy of Europe's migrant crisis."

And at the Independent UK, "If these extraordinarily powerful images of a dead Syrian child washed up on a beach don’t change Europe’s attitude to refugees, what will?"

Sadly, no. A baby washed up on shore isn't going to change public opinion. Europe's overwhelmed by this. And this isn't the first death, by any means. People have been dying all year long. Dying to get to the European lands of prosperity and promise. It's a powerful magnet, especially for people desperate to escape the mortal hell of war and poverty in their homelands.

If these images of a dead child don't change our attitude to refugees, what will? http://t.co/WZUcQsSRrU pic.twitter.com/yJyzL9HtFc

— The Independent (@Independent) September 2, 2015

Bryan Pagliano, Former Aide to Hillary Clinton, Likely to Plead 5th Amendment in Investigation Over Private Email Server

Well, it figures, doesn't it.

At the New York Times, "Clinton Ex-Aide Is Likely To Invoke 5th Amendment in Response to Congressional Questions Over Private Email Server":

A former aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton who helped set up the server that housed Mrs. Clinton’s private email account plans to invoke his Fifth Amendment right in response to congressional questions about the email practices, according to two people who have been briefed on the matter.

The former aide, Bryan Pagliano, was subpoenaed to testify before a House committee, but a lawyer for Mr. Pagliano has told the panel that Mr. Pagliano will decline to answer their questions and will assert his Fifth Amendment right.

The subpoena was issued by the House committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya. As part of its inquiry, the panel is examining Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email account while she was secretary of state, which shielded her correspondences from congressional inquiries.

Mr. Pagliano was the information technology director for Mrs. Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and then worked at the State Department as an adviser and special projects manager for its chief technology officer, according to his LinkedIn page. He left the State Department in February 2013, the same month Mrs. Clinton stepped down as secretary of state.

It is not clear why Mr. Pagliano is refusing to answer questions about the server. The F.B.I. is investigating how classified information was handled in connection with the account, but no evidence has surfaced that Mr. Pagliano had anything to do with those materials.

Mr. Pagliano’s lawyer, Mark MacDougall, declined to comment...

People plead the 5th when they have something to hide, like incriminating evidence. Clearly, Team Clinton has a lot to hide.

Still more.

Playboy Mansion Hosted Special Screening and After-Party for 'The Transporter Refueled'

Well, that would've been fun.

At Playboy, "Watch Playboy's 'The Transporter: Refueled' Party Recap."

On the other hand, the flick's not so great, apparently. At the Hollywood Reporter, "'The Transporter Refueled': Film Review":

If nothing else, the reboot of the Transporter franchise should do wonders for Audi sales, not to mention car safety. Every passenger who sets foot in the tricked-out, gleaming German automobile driven by the titular character is immediately ordered to fasten their seat belt. It's sound advice, because The Transporter Refueled is a cinematic bumpy ride.

Arriving seven years after the final installment of the trilogy originally starring Jason Statham, this latest version, inexplicably set in 2010, features a younger, slighter Frank Martin as played by Ed Skrein (Game of Thrones). It's a real diminishment, and not just in physical terms. Skrein moves well and has the requisite model-ready good looks, beautifully cared-for stubble and gruff, rumbling voice that make him machismo personified. But compared to his predecessor, he's seriously lacking in charisma, and his relentlessly monotonous performance fails to rev up the film's engine...

Russian Troops 'Fighting Alongside Assad's Army Against Syrian Rebels...'

Oh boy.

No red lines there, heh.

Reminds me of the Cold War, frankly.

At Instapundit, "UNEXPECTEDLY: Russian troops ‘fighting alongside Assad’s army against Syrian rebels’."

Bombshell Report! Majority of Immigrants on Welfare, Including 73 Percent of Mexicans and Central Americans

It's from Steven Camarota, at the Center for Immigration Studies, "Welfare Use by Immigrant and Native Households: An Analysis of Medicaid, Cash, Food, and Housing Programs."

And a write-up at USA Today, "Report: More than half of immigrants on welfare":

More than half of the nation's immigrants receive some kind of government welfare, a figure that's far higher than the native-born population's, according to a report to be released Wednesday.

About 51% of immigrant-led households receive at least one kind of welfare benefit, including Medicaid, food stamps, school lunches and housing assistance, compared to 30% for native-led households, according to the report from the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that advocates for lower levels of immigration.

Those numbers increase for households with children, with 76% of immigrant-led households receiving welfare, compared to 52% for the native-born.

The findings are sure to fuel debate on the presidential campaign trail as Republican candidates focus on changing the nation's immigration laws, from calls for mass deportations to ending birthright citizenship.

Steven Camarota, director of research at the center and author of the report, said that's a much-needed conversation to make the country's immigration system more "selective."

"This should not be understood as some kind of defect or moral failing on the part of immigrants," Camarota said about the findings. "Rather, what it represents is a system that allows a lot of less-educated immigrants to settle in the country, who then earn modest wages and are eligible for a very generous welfare system."

Linda Chavez agrees with Camarota that the country's welfare system is too large and too costly. But Chavez, a self-professed conservative who worked in President Reagan's administration, said it's irresponsible to say immigrants are taking advantage of the country's welfare system any more than native-born Americans.

Chavez said today's immigrants, like all other immigrant waves in the country's history, start off poorer and have lower levels of education, making it unfair to compare their welfare use to the long-established native-born population. She said immigrants have larger households, making it more likely that one person in that household will receive some kind of welfare benefit. And she said many benefits counted in the study are going to U.S.-born children of immigrants, skewing the findings even more.

"When you take all of those issues into account, (the report) is less worrisome," she said.

Chavez, president of the Becoming American Institute, a conservative group that advocates for higher levels of legal immigration to reduce illegal immigration, said politicians should be careful about using the data. Rather than focus on the fact that immigrants are initially more dependent on welfare than the U.S.-born, she said they should focus on studies that show what happens to the children of those immigrants.

"These kids who get subsidized school lunches today will go on to graduate high school ... will go on to college and move up to the middle class of America," Chavez said. "Every time we have a nativist backlash in our history, we forget that we see immigrants change very rapidly in the second generation."

Yeah. Sure. And all these immigrants are about to start voting Republican, right Linda Chavez?

The system is out of control, frankly. What happened to the rugged individualist, pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps ethic that immigrants to America used to have? Well, for one thing, we've got Obama, and the welfare system has just gotten more generous and much larger with the hard-left Democrats in office.

It's a national disgrace.

Donald Trump Hammers Jeb Bush: He Should Be Speaking English While in the United States

At the New York Times, "Donald Trump Says Jeb Bush Should Stop Speaking Spanish."

And at Big Government, via Memeorandum, "Exclusive — Donald Trump Fires Back at Jeb Bush: He Should Lead by ‘Speaking English’ While in the United States'."

And watch, at CNN, "Trump to Bush: Set example and speak English."

Nina Kristin Fiutak Big Brother Germany

At Egotastic!, "Nina Kristin Fiutak Takes a Topless Bath In Big Brother Germany Promos," and "More Big Brother Germany Topless Bathing with Nina Kristin Fiutak."

Icelanders Sign Petition Calling on Government to Accept More Syrian Refugees (VIDEO)

Wow!

Iceland?

It's not like it's the biggest country, or anything, heh.

They're definitely radical leftists up that way, though. Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a radical member of Iceland's parliament, refused to cooperate with the FBI when it was investigating WikiLeaks back in 2013.

At the BBC, "Demand to open doors to Syrians spreading online":

More than 12,000 people have shown their support for an Icelandic writer's Facebook plea for her country to take in more refugees. That might not sound like a lot, but bear in mind the total population of Iceland is not much more than 300,000.

Although, unlike some outlets reported, not everyone who joined the group set up by Bryndis Bjorgvinsdottir is offering a refugee a place to stay ("Not everyone in this group is offering their home" the group's description reads), a vibrant debate kicked off on the page itself. The government of Iceland has said it will take in 50 asylum seekers this year.

Not everyone was supportive. "Islam is totally not compatible with Europe," read one comment. But most of the comments were broadly positive about the refugees and about Bjorgvinsdottir's initiative.

The large numbers of supporters in such a small country caught global attention. "Thank you, Icelanders, for again taking the lead as citizens - not only of Iceland, but also of the world," one American commenter said. "You a great country, a great people."

Bernie Sanders: 'Democratic' Socialism Is Good for America (VIDEO)

Yeah, let's just rehabilitate socialism, because, you know, it's as American as apple pie, or something.

Indeed, notice how I put "democratic" in quotation marks at the headline.

Socialism's a Utopian ideology imposed at the barrel of a gun. It's the opposite of democracy, which is why folks call them the "Democrat Party." Sanders is right at home in that regard, the freakin' socialist scum-bucket. Let's hope he wins his party's nomination, so we can spend most of next year rightfully attacking the Democrats as socialist tyrants, and, unlike in 2008 and 2012, this time around the leftist fever swamps and the MSM enablers won't be able to deny shit.

Watch: "Bernie Sanders Explains Why You Shouldn't Be Scared of the Term 'Socialism'."

“What Democratic Socialism is about, is having a government which reflects the interests of the ordinary people, rather than is currently the case, the billionaire class..."

Hat Tip: Legal Insurrection, "Bernie Sanders Explains ‘Democratic Socialism’."

And following the links there, to the stompy-feet New Republic, "Stop Calling Bernie Sanders a Socialist."

Julian Wilson Worst Wipeout, Pipeline, Hawaii (VIDEO)

Via Surfer Magazine:

Governor Nikki Haley Says #BlackLivesMatter Movement Is Endangering Black Lives (VIDEO)

Here's the video, "Nikki Haley to #BlackLivesMatter: Yelling and Screaming Isn’t Gonna Get You Anywhere."

And her full speech from earlier today, "Governor Nikki Haley Speaks at the National Press Club."

At the New York Times:

Gov. Nikki R. Haley of South Carolina, who won accolades for swiftly moving to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the state capitol after the June massacre of nine black churchgoers, sharply criticized the Black Lives Matter movement on Wednesday.

Citing the unrest that followed the police-involved deaths of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, Ms. Haley, a Republican, said the swelling African-American movement protesting police misconduct was imperiling black lives and property.

“Most of the people who now live in terror because local police are too intimidated to do their jobs are black,” Ms. Haley said at a luncheon in Washington. “Black lives do matter, and they have been disgracefully jeopardized by the movement that has laid waste to Ferguson and Baltimore.”

Ms. Haley contrasted the rioting in those communities with what she described as the reconciliation that took place in South Carolina after the death in April of Walter Scott, who was shot in the back as he ran from a police officer, and the killing of nine members of the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston.

She noted that Mr. Scott’s killing prompted South Carolina to mandate that police officers wear body cameras, the first state in the country to do so, and she recalled her effort to build support for taking down the Confederate flag.

“Some people think that you have to yell and scream in order to make a difference,” Ms. Haley said. “That’s not true. Often, the best thing we can do is turn down the volume level.”

For Ms. Haley, at 43 the youngest governor in the country, her address to the National Press Club represented the next phase of what is essentially an audition to be the Republican vice-presidential nominee next year. Her response to the Charleston killings lifted her national profile and prompted many in the party to suggest that Ms. Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, should be on the short list of the eventual presidential nominee.

Ms. Haley did little to dissuade such talk during a question-and-answer session after her remarks, stating that she was focused on her state for now but that if the party standard-bearer next year approached her about joining the ticket, “of course I will sit down and talk.”

Her 28-minute address illustrated how, in positioning herself for higher national prominence, she is trying to balance her conservative views with a more inclusive brand of politics that could make her attractive in a general election...

Still more.

And see the Washington Post, "Gov. Nikki Haley criticizes ‘yell and scream’ strategy of ‘Black Lives Matter,’ but also says GOP needs new tone."

Meh. Don't know about the "new tone" part. I like how Donald Trump just gives the middle fingered salute to talk like that.

Republican Party Loyalty Pledge

Weird.

At Politico, via Memeorandum, "GOP circulates loyalty pledge to box Trump in."

At at the New York Times, "Republican Party Asks Candidates To Sign Loyalty Pledge":

Responding to growing pressure from party donors and officials to dissuade Donald J. Trump from mounting an independent campaign for president, the Republican National Committee on Wednesday asked each of the party’s presidential candidates to sign a statement vowing not to run as a third-party candidate.

With little warning, committee officials called and emailed campaign representatives requesting that they put in writing what every candidate, except for Mr. Trump, has already pledged to do.

“I ______ affirm that if I do not win the 2016 Republican nomination for president of the United States I will endorse the 2016 Republican presidential nominee regardless of who it is,” the document, on R.N.C. letterhead, states. “I further pledge that I will not seek to run as an independent or write-in candidate nor will I seek or accept the nomination for president of any other party.”

The document, first disclosed by Politico, was emailed to the campaigns under the subject line “pledge” and includes a space for the candidates to sign and for the R.N.C.’s chairman, Reince Priebus, to witness...

And I agree with this, at Hot Air:

If I were Trump, I’d feel obliged now to refuse on principle, to show my populist fans that no one tells me what to do. I don’t know why the RNC would try to call his bluff this way unless this whole thing has actually been coordinated with his campaign, i.e. unless today’s news of the loyalty pledge is just priming the pump for the bigger news that Trump’s in the GOP race to stay. In that case, though, why would Trump need any help from the RNC to build anticipation? He’s a media master. He could have made a huge announcement splash without them...

Pretty fascinating.

And yes, Trump should tell the RNC to just fuck off.

More.

Overgrown Sheep Seen Wandering Near Canberra

So, what would sheep do with without their human masters, heh?

At the BBC, "Australia urgent plea to shear overgrown sheep."

The poor sheep couldn't even see, the wool had literally grown over its eyes.

GoPro HERO4 SILVER

A popular item, at Amazon, Fast, Powerful Photo Capture: Captures high-quality 12MP photos at speeds of up to 30 fps - Built-In WiFi PLUS Bluetooth: Delivers enhanced connectivity to the GoPro App, Smart Remote - GoPro HERO4 SILVER.

Plus, don't forget to pick up your copy of Michael Walsh's book, The Devil's Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West.

'Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of the U.S. Army in the Pacific, wanted officers to wear their daily service clothes — khaki button-up shirts with open collars and no ties...'

A cool story, at the Los Angeles Times, "A look inside the WWII surrender ceremony: 'My job was to make sure we did not screw up'":

James L. Starnes, navigator of the battleship Missouri, was 24 years old when he learned he would play a key role in the ceremony to mark the end of World War II.

After the Japanese conceded defeat, President Truman announced that "Mighty Mo," the behemoth 58,000-ton flagship of the 3rd Fleet, would host the signatories of the instrument of surrender in Tokyo Bay.

"My job was to make sure we did not screw up," said Starnes, 94, who performed the role of officer of the deck the morning of Sept. 2, 1945.

A former lieutenant commander in the Navy who now lives in a retirement community in Stone Mountain, east of Atlanta, Starnes is one of the few remaining veterans who organized the ceremony on the Missouri 70 years ago.

Five years after joining the Navy Reserve's officer-training program as a student at Emory University in Atlanta in 1940, Starnes was responsible for working out the logistics of the ceremony to mark the formal end of the six-year war that had killed more than 60 million people.

At first he prepared for an elaborate, formal affair with ceremonial dress and gleaming sabers. "We thought, well, this has never happened before," he said. "We'll have a big celebration, put on the white uniforms and polish up our swords."

Before the ceremony, however, Starnes got word that Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of the U.S. Army in the Pacific, wanted officers to wear their daily service clothes — khaki button-up shirts with open collars and no ties. "We fought them in our khaki uniforms, and we'll accept their surrender in our khaki uniforms," MacArthur was reported to have said...

Keep reading.

Also from Ms. EBL, "Never Forget: 70th Anniversary of the surrender of Imperial Japan."

Disturbing Graffiti of Police Officer at Gunpoint Appears Around Houston

From Nice Deb, at Pajamas, "Needless to say, 'those in uniform say it's incredibly disturbing to see this just days after a deputy was killed while pumping gas'."

Neo-Communism

I took a break from my Civil War reading to wade back into David Horowitz's The Black Book of the American Left.

I particularly enjoy reading his essays on "neo-communism," available at FrontPage Magazine, "Neo-Communism" and "Taking on the Neo-Coms, Part II."

Also, "Are Communists (or Neo-Communists) Dangerous?"

Don't miss all of Horowitz's books at Amazon.

Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis is Sudden Symbol of Recalcitrant Resistance to Depraved Leftist Homosexual Agenda

I'm actually not backing this lady, since she's a government employee. The Supremes ruled in favor of a right to homosexual marriage. I don't like it, but that's the law. She should take her opposition campaign to the private realm. Folks expect to get the marriage licenses in the state, and rightly so.

At the Lexington Herald-Leader, "Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, once a local fixture, is suddenly a national symbol."

And at the Louisville Courier-Journal, "Kim Davis cites God, crowd jeers gay couple," and "Rowan clerk Kim Davis loses Supreme Court fight."

The No-Growth Campaign

At the Wall Street Journal, "Clinton and Trump are offering nothing to improve the economy":

Stocks took another tumble on Tuesday on a weak manufacturing report out of China, and investor shivers about Japan, the oil patch and the U.S. are increasing. The shaky markets and underlying economy seem relevant to the presidential debate—yet the front-runners of both parties have next to no pro-growth ideas to contribute.

Hillary Clinton favors higher taxation, heavier regulation, more political shackling of business, and centralizing more economic control inside the White House. So does Donald Trump—at least as far as we can tell.

Mrs. Clinton is promising Obamanomics Plus: continue the agenda of the last eight years, with bonus corrections toward the left as necessary. She’s proposed to nearly double the top tax rate on some capital gains to 43.4% from 23.8%, for example, up from 15% as recently as 2012.

On energy, one of the few U.S. growth areas of the Obama era, she is even further to the left. The green elites used to tolerate support for the U.S. oil and natural gas boom if gas could be levered as a transition fuel toward a post-carbon future. Now they favor massive subsidies for wind and solar today and no fossil-fuel drilling, and Mrs. Clinton is moving their way.

About the only growth component of Mrs. Clinton’s agenda is immigration, and there she beats Mr. Trump in a romp. A larger workforce adds to GDP, and economists of all political persuasions agree that increasing human capital drives prosperity and offsets an otherwise aging population.

Mr. Trump’s candidacy is more attitude than substance, and his quicksilver positions change day to day, even minute to minute in the same interview. But he has been consistent about rounding up illegal immigrants and deporting them to their home countries—if they have one, in the case of kids born on U.S. soil. He supports “a pause” in legal immigration too.

The real-estate tycoon is also running as the most antitrade candidate since Herbert Hoover. He has assailed the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico and the pending Pacific Rim pact as “disasters” that are “killing us.” Mr. Trump promises to reopen these agreements and do better, though without saying how, apart from his alpha-male negotiating skills. He’s proposing tariffs as high as 30% on imports, and he has already promised to punish Ford and Nabisco for expanding production south of the border.

On taxes, Mr. Trump promises to release a “comprehensive” reform plan soon. So far, though, his only specifics have been some kind of tax relief for the middle class coupled with class warfare. He said in a recent interview that “I would take carried interest out, and I would let people making hundreds of millions of dollars a year pay some tax, because right now they are paying very little tax and I think it’s outrageous.”

Carried interest is the accounting term for a share of profits from investments in general partnerships—private equity, hedge funds, (ahem) real-estate outfits. Congress taxes this at-risk capital at a lower rate than ordinary wages because it only pays out if a fund invests wisely, but this treatment should be reconsidered as part a larger tax reform.

Mr. Trump doesn’t engage these facts, much less anything else that might help the real economy. Carried interest is a sideshow. Much like Mrs. Clinton and President Obama, he’s trying to stoke resentment of the rich, or the merely affluent, or foreigners, people dumber than he is, whoever...

Well, it's telling that the editors speak of Donald Trump as if he's the GOP nominee. And should he win it, I'd trust his business background to restore the economy more than Hilllary's Alinskyite pedigree.

Still more.

"Communists are always deliberate liars, who believe that the 'dictatorship of the proletariat' justifies any deception necessary to advance their cause, and Communists kill without remorse, unrestrained by conscience..."

Heh, here's Robert Stacy McCain going off on an epic rant against the collectivist left.

See, "Godless Commies: The Critical Theory Cult and The Devil’s Pleasure Palace."

He reviews Michael Walsh's new book, The Devil's Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West.

Social Justice Warriors Always Lie

A Kindle book, from Vox Day, SJWs Always Lie: Taking Down the Thought Police.

Hat Tip: Instapundit.

Economic Progress is More Effective Than Protests

From Joel Kotkin, at the Daily Beast:

Ta-Nehisi Coates and the new wave of black nationalists are selling a line that is inimical to real racial progress in America.

The election of Barack Obama promised to inaugurate the dawn of a post-racial America. Instead we seem to be stepping ever deeper into a racial quagmire. The past two month saw the violent commemoration of the Ferguson protests, “the celebration” of the 50th anniversary of the Watts riots, new police shootings in places as distant as Cincinnati and Fort Worth, and renewed disorder, tied to a police-related shooting, in St. Louis last week.

When President Obama was elected, two-thirds of Americans thought race relations were good. Now six in 10 think they are bad, according to a New York Times poll, including some 68 percent of African Americans.

This extreme alienation creates a rich soil for resurgence of a cramped form of black nationalism, as revealed in such widely read books as Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me. Coates, like the black nationalists of the ’60s, is fawned over by today’s progressive gentry. New York Times film critic A.O. Scott gushed that Coates’s writing is “essential, like water or air.” Yet the new nationalists do not, like many previous iterations, look to Africa for salvation, and as a potential place of re-settlement. Instead they may look to Africa for inspiration, but seem content to stew in the American racial cauldron, always apart but also here.

Yet to this reader, it’s hard to regard Coates’s book as anything more than a narrow selfie that holds little hope for any future racial progress. To Coates, America itself seems irredeemable, its very essence tied to racial oppression and brutality. America is not about ideals not yet fulfilled, but a legacy of “pillaging,” the “destruction of families,” “the rape of mothers,” and countless other outrages. Today’s abusive police—and clearly some can be so described—are not outliers who should be punished but “are merely men enforcing the whims of our country, correctly interpreting its heritage and legacy.” His alienation from America is so great that he admits to little sympathy for the victims of 9/11.

Coates is literally a personal cauldron of hatred.

Still more.

And buy Kotkin's book, The New Class Conflict.

The Socialist Dream Will Never Die

From Steven Hayward, at Power Line:

At the end of the day, of course, the socialist impulse is not really rooted in reason or epistemology, but in envy and the desire for authoritarian control. That’s why we’ll never be rid of these people, no matter how many Venezeulas and Cubas you pile up.

Hayward references Friedrich Hayek's "The Use of Knowledge in Society," published at the American Economic Review, in September 1945.

Plus, see "The Socialist Dream Will Never Die (2)." (Linked there is Leszek Kolakowski's, Main Currents of Marxism: The Founders - The Golden Age - The Breakdown.)

Kathryn Steinle Parents File Lawsuit Against San Francisco Sheriff Over 'Sanctuary Cities' (VIDEO)

At the San Jose Mercury News, "Kate Steinle killing: Parents file claim against San Francisco sheriff, feds":

SAN FRANCISCO -- Kate Steinle's mother has a phobia of speaking in front of crowds.

But when her family announced Tuesday that they were taking legal action against the local sheriff and two federal agencies for Steinle's death, Liz Sullivan stepped up on a small stool outside City Hall so she could be seen over the phalanx of TV microphones.

"I don't know what's come over me," Sullivan told dozens of reporters. "I feel as though it's Kate. She has somehow empowered me. I feel her strength, and I know she's proud of what we're doing."

In an emotional news conference Tuesday, Steinle's parents said they want to hold accountable not just the illegal immigrant charged with her killing but also the public officials who failed to keep him off the streets. On July 1, just moments after taking a selfie with her father on Pier 14, Steinle -- a world traveler and social justice activist who had just moved in with her boyfriend in San Francisco -- was shot in the back, allegedly at the hands of an illegal immigrant with a history of seven drug felonies and five deportations.

"It too late to fight for our daughter," Sullivan said, but she hopes their case will ensure the safety of future families and tourists to San Francisco. "This is for humanity, this is for the future, even though ours is gone."

Keep reading.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck Slams #BlackLivesMatter as a 'Hate Group' (VIDEO)

She nails it.

Via NYDN:

Europe's Migrant Crisis Reaches 'Biblical Proportions'

At the Telegraph UK, "EU faces migrant crisis of 'biblical proportions' as Germany registers 3,500 new refugees in just one day - live":

Migrants are arriving in Europe in ever-increasing numbers, with waves of people coming into the EU from Greece, Italy and Hungary. Latest updates here.

For those just joining us this evening as we wind down our live coverage, here is a summary of today's key events:

- Nigel Farage warned this morning that the EU had opened the door to an "exodus of biblical proportions."
- It later emerged that Germany has registered more than 3,500 refugees in the last day alone
- Meanwhile 350,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean since January, IOM figures revealed
- Yvette Cooper this afternoon called on "Britain to be Britain" by taking in 10,000 refugees
- Greece announced it has been forced to move 4,000 migrants onto the mainland as the Aegean islands are "overwhelmed"
- Bulgarian police this afternoon arrested one person in connection with case of an abadoned lorry containing 71 dead migrants
- This evening, Germans welcomed refugees arriving in Munich with food, water, nappies and teddy bears

We continue to cover the latest developments in the migrant crisis...

More.

Manhunt Continues After Police Officer Shot and Killed in Fox Lake, Illinois (VIDEO)

Watch, at CBS News 2 Chicago, "Manhunt in Fox Lake After Police Officer Shot and Killed."

And at the Chicago Tribune, "Slain Fox Lake police officer identified as veteran cop, father of four."

More at Twitchy, "Police officer shot and killed during traffic stop in #FoxLake; Manhunt underway; Update: 3 suspects at large."

Jackie Johnson's Got Your Midweek Forecast

It's been quite reasonable the last couple of days.

Demi Lovato on Jimmy Kimmel Live

At Egotastic!, "DEMI LOVATO CURVY IN TINY SHORTS FOR 'JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE'."

And at Jimmy Kimmel's YouTube page, "Demi Lovato Falls Down a Lot," and "Demi Lovato on Her Birthday and New Album Cover."

Also, "Demi Lovato Performs 'Neon Lights' on Jimmy Kimmel Live."

Missouri High School Protests as Transgender Student Demands to Use Girls Locker Room (VIDEO)

Yeah, the, um, transgender "girl" refused to use a private restroom, no doubt so "she" could scope out all the high school talent in the girls' locker room.

More leftist depravity for you.

Watch, at Progs Today, "High School Students Protest When Transgender Student Who Was BORN MALE Wants to Use GIRLS LOCKER ROOM (VIDEO)."

Ukraine Policeman Killed as Grenade Thrown During Protests Outside Kiev Parliament (VIDEO)

At the BBC, "Ukraine crisis: Deadly anti-autonomy protest outside parliament."

And at the New York Times, "2 More Officers Die in Violent Protest Over Autonomy for East Ukraine":

KIEV, Ukraine — The results of a fiercely contested parliamentary vote over autonomy for eastern Ukraine were counted on Monday, partly in blood: 265 in favor, three major parties opposed and one dead policeman.

About 130 other officers were wounded, the authorities said Tuesday, in an attack during a protest that intensified after Parliament approved a measure on constitutional changes that could grant autonomy to parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

The authorities said a man later identified as a member of a nationalist party had thrown a grenade at the police lines, killing one police officer. On Tuesday, two more officers died of their injuries while hospitalized, and the Interior Ministry reported that 10 protesters had also been wounded.

The violence underscored the tensions over a vote that many here see as a concession to Russia in exchange for peace...

More at that top link.

Dick and Liz Cheney's New Book is Out Today!

I'm looking forward to diving in.

Get your copy, at Amazon, Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America.

And ICYMI, "Restoring American Exceptionalism."

Iowa Poll: Sanders Within Striking Distance of Clinton in Iowa

I love this.

At Bloomberg, "The latest Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll shows concerns about Clinton, enthusiasm for Sanders, and the possibility of Biden roiling the Democratic field":

Hillary Clinton’s once-prohibitive advantage in Iowa has slipped enough to jeopardize her front-runner status and Bernie Sanders has moved to within striking distance, revealing a Democratic presidential field in unexpected flux as Vice President Joe Biden mulls whether to make a late entrance into the race.

The results of the latest Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll, released Saturday, show Clinton is now the first choice of 37 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers in the state where the first ballots of the presidential contest will be cast early in 2016. She's followed by Sanders at 30 percent and Biden at 14 percent. It’s the first time the poll has had Clinton's support under 50 percent.

In May, the Iowa Poll put Clinton, a former secretary of state, U.S. senator and first lady, at 57 percent, Sanders at 16 percent, and Biden at 8 percent.

"It looks like what people call the era of inevitability is over," said J. Ann Selzer, president of West Des Moines, Iowa-based Selzer & Co., which conducted the poll. "She has lost a third of the support that she had in May, so any time you lose that much that quickly, it’s a wake-up call."

The decline in Clinton's rating in the poll comes despite her dominance of the local broadcast airwaves. During the past month, she was the only Democratic candidate or political action committee advertising on Iowa broadcast television stations. The heavy Clinton buy, which aired in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, focused on her biography and her record as a champion of American families. According to Kantar/CMAG data, the Clinton campaign was not only unopposed on the Democratic side, but had more than twice as many spots in the markets where it bought, than all Republican advertising combined.

Biden, who is expected to make a decision about whether to enter the race by the end of September, placed ahead of several declared candidates. If Biden is not in the race, the poll shows Clinton leading Sanders by 43 percent to 35 percent. The margin of error on the full sample of likely Democratic caucus-goers is plus or minus 4.9 percentage points

The biggest surprise is Sanders. Unlike his recent strong showing in New Hampshire polls, his performance here cannot be dismissed as a result of the Vermont lawmaker’s regional appeal...

Keep reading.

Plus, "Gaining Speed: On Sunday Shows, Bernie Sanders Reflects on Iowa Poll Momentum."

Professor William C. Bradford Resigns His Position at U.S. Military Academy at West Point

Bradford, at controversial law professor, published "Trahison des Professeurs: The Critical Law of Armed Conflict as an Islamist Fifth Column," at the National Security Law Journal, out of Georgetown University. The article is available in here in PDF.

The journal's editors repudiated the article, lamenting that they couldn't unpublish that which was already published, and apologed profusely for their errors, pledging never to let it happen again. The website was overloaded the other day when I tried to access the site, but I was able to read the apology at the cached version.

The law article is something like 100 pages long, and frankly I have no desire to wade through it.

That said, Jeremy Rabkin wrote a critical response (very critical), "A BETRAYAL OF RATIONAL ARGUMENT."

And Ilya Somin wrote about the controversy yesterday, at the Washington Post, "Student-edited “National Security Law Journal” repudiates article that advocates targeting legal scholars as “enemy combatants” in the War on Terror."

Plus, at the Chronicle of Higher Education, "Academics Who Criticize War on Terror Are ‘Lawful Targets,’ West Point Professor Says."

And now he's resigned, at the Guardian, via Memeoradum, "West Point law professor who called for attacks on ‘Islamic holy sites’ resigns."

So, wade in and you be the judge.

Personally, I agree these leftist law professors are traitors who deserve a nice healthy predator drone strike. But alas, freedom of speech protects us all, even treasonous progs, and Professor Bradford apparently crossed a line for too many on the PC left.

ICYMI, Marijuana Debunked

Here's my earlier post, "In the Mail: Ed Gogek, Marijuana Debunked: A Handbook for Parents, Pundits, and Politicians Who Want to Know the Case Against Legalization."

And the book link is here, Marijuana Debunked.

Satellite Images Show the Extent of Islamic State's Destruction of Palmyra

At the Independent UK, "Satellite images confirm that Isis have destroyed the ancient Temple of Bel in Palmyra":

A satellite image of the Syrian city of Palmyra confirms that the ancient Temple of Bel has been destroyed, according to the United Nations.

There have previously been unconfirmed reports that the Temple of Bel in Palmyra had been destroyed, but solid reports could not make it out of the Isis-controlled city.

Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of the Syrian Department of Antiquities, said that although he believed there had been a large explosion at the temple, most of the site remained intact.

However, UN satellite analysts have now said that almost nothing remains of the 2,000-year-old temple...

More.

Bidding Wars Become the Norm as Orange County Rental Market Goes Off the Chain

Bidding wars for rentals?

No wonder my lease keeps going up.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "It is not uncommon in the rental frenzy for renters to offer a year's rent up front."

From May, 'In just a few short weeks, a newly-united rebel coalition has captured almost all of northwest Syria's Idlib province from government forces, overturning assumptions over the war's course, and threatening the regime's ability to defend its heartland...'

Following-up, "A New Kind of Bomb Is Being Used in Syria and It's a Humanitarian Nightmare."

Here's video from Vice, from earlier this year, "Jihadists vs. the Assad Regime: Syria's Rebel Advance."

Migrant Crackdown Sows Chaos in Europe

At WSJ, "European Efforts to Stem Migrant Tide Sow Chaos on Austrian-Hungarian Border":

German chancellor warns of need to share burden across EU; Austria steps up border, highway checks.

Austrian and Hungarian efforts to stem a growing tide of migrants sowed chaos along their frontier on Monday as Germany’s chancellor warned that Europe’s open-border policy was in danger unless it united in its response to the crisis.

In Austria, police toughened controls on the border, triggering miles of traffic jams as they checked cars and trucks for evidence of people smuggling. They said they were compelled to conduct the highway searches after discovering the decomposed bodies of 71 people, most of them believed to be Syrian refugees, in an abandoned truck last week.

Authorities also stopped and boarded several Germany-bound trains overcrowded with hundreds of migrants, refusing entry into Austria until some of them got off. Migrants had packed into the trains in Hungary earlier in the day after officials in Budapest abruptly lifted rules barring them from traveling further into the European Union without visas.

Such temporary checks remain in accord with the Schengen Agreement, which allows people to travel freely across the borders of 26 European countries that have signed onto the treaty. But in Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel cautioned that some countries could move to reintroduce systematic passport controls at their borders—unless EU governments agreed to more equally bear the burden of the bloc’s escalating crisis, “Europe must move,” she told reporters in Berlin. “Some will certainly put Schengen on the agenda if we don’t succeed in achieving a fair distribution of refugees within Europe.”

Ms. Merkel’s warning—aimed at governments in the bloc’s east that have resisted taking on a greater number of migrants—marked her most direct intervention in the fraught debate between those European countries, such as Germany, Italy and France, that have called for a fairer distribution of migrants across the bloc, and those that have opposed binding quotas.

The comments also came as a rebuttal to opposition politicians and some members of the chancellor’s ruling coalition who have accused her of being slow to address the crisis. Echoing comments she made last week in a German town shaken by three days of antimigrant riots, Ms. Merkel urged her compatriots to welcome those fleeing war or persecution while warning that economic migrants, namely those from Southeastern Europe, couldn’t expect to settle in Germany.

“If Europe fails on the question of refugees, then [Europe’s] close link with universal civil rights will be destroyed and it won’t be the Europe we wished for,” she said.

The warning from the Continent’s most powerful leader has weight: The chancellor has repeatedly described free movement in Europe as a core value of the bloc. Her comments underline the pressure that the record wave of migrants arriving on European soil is putting on the region’s most exposed member states—mainly countries at its periphery, such as Hungary, Italy and Greece, as well as Germany and Sweden, which have received the bulk of migrants since the crisis started early last year.

Schengen rules have been contested before amid rising migrant numbers. In 2011, France and Italy called on the EU to impose tighter border controls in an effort to stop the influx of migrants unleashed by North African unrest. But the EU failed to reach a concrete agreement over how Europe should handle the wave.

Germany, which was the destination for 40% of asylum seekers in Europe last year, has repeatedly said the bloc must agree on binding quotas for the redistribution of refugees across the EU. The number of arrivals has soared over the summer months, forcing the government to nearly double its forecast for migrants this year to 800,000 from 450,000—equal to almost 1% of Germany’s population.

“We face a huge national challenge that concerns all of us, it will be a central challenge not only for days or months but as far as we can tell for a longer period of time,” Ms. Merkel said.

Germany said last week that it would allow Syrian refugees to stay in the country regardless of where they first entered the EU—both for humanitarian reasons and in an attempt to speed up the review of asylum claims filed by Syrians.

Still, Ms. Merkel said the German government had been in touch with Hungary over what she called Budapest’s misunderstanding that all Syrians could travel to Germany without having to register in Hungary. The chancellor insisted Hungary should register migrants who arrive there and review their asylum applications.

Still more.

Arizona Woman Drowns 2-Year-Old Twin Boys in Bathtub (VIDEO)

It's just incomprehensible to me.

And she was going kill the twins' baby brother. Horrible.

At the Arizona Republic, "Avondale woman says she drowned twin boys, police say."

And at ABC News 15 Phoenix:



More at London's Daily Mail, "Mother charged with murder after drowning her two 2-year-old twin sons in the bath at their Arizona family home."

Hey, Thanks to the Reader Who Bought Carhartt Men's Canvas Work Dungarees

You know, I don't blog for money, but it's always nice to have readers purchase a few items through my Amazon links. I appreciate it, and frankly, I'm fascinated by the goods some folks have been picking up, like these pants, Carhartt Men's Canvas Work Dungaree.

Another reader bought a Philips Norelco PT724/46 Shaver 3100, which is also very cool.

Thanks again!

Donald Trump Will Change Denali's Name Back to Mt. McKinley

Following-up from yesterday, "Kenyan Marxist Interloper Renames Mount McKinley 'Denali', Outrage Ensues (VIDEO)."

And dang is Trump like hermetically tuned into the pulse of the people.

President Obama wants to change the name of Mt. McKinley to Denali after more than 100 years. Great insult to Ohio. I will change back!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2015

Donald Trump Is Setting the GOP Agenda

Well, fine by me.

Let the RINO establishment party hacks figure it out. Trump's throwing the political system up in the air.

At Politico, "Every Republican presidential contender is playing Trump’s game. And losing at it":

Remember way back to two weeks ago when the Donald Trump candidacy was the best thing to ever happen to Jeb Bush?

The billionaire business mogul would distract the other contenders for the nomination, the Bush team assured pundits all over Washington. Trump is “other people’s problem,” declared Mike Murphy, chief strategist of the pro-Bush Super PAC Right to Rise. The Donald would allow Jeb to just keep on chugging along. Bush would become the safe and responsible brand—the Honda Odyssey of 2016—to which panicked Republicans would eventually flock.

That didn’t last long. A week after boasting that it would ignore Trump, with its usual Clouseau-like finesse, JebWorld decided to hit Trump every day. Which means every GOP candidate is now playing Donald Trump’s game instead of their own—and doing about as well as you’d expect.

The decision to engage him has outsized consequences for the GOP “brand,” whatever that is these days. Not since Joan Collins sauntered onto the set of “Dynasty” or Gary Coleman uttered his first “Whatch talkin’ about, Willis,” has anyone so dominated a universe as Donald Trump has the GOP. Trump single-handedly has moved the GOP to the right on immigration, to the left on free trade and in circles on pretty much everything else. He has the other candidates so confused that they are stepping all over their own messages. After all, how else can one explain Bush’s latest effort to show he is not an establishment loser by going [sic] flaunting an endorsement from Eric Cantor, the most notorious establishment loser in history?

Keep reading.

Can Americans Still Take a Joke?

Well, Americans can take a joke, but the market nowadays contains a significant number of anti-American leftists. They can't take a joke, to the consternation of comedians.

Washington State Professors Will Punish Students Who Use the Wrong Words

At the Lonely Conservative.

And following the links, at Campus Reform, "Professors threaten bad grades for saying ‘illegal alien,’ ‘male,’ ‘female’."

Support for Hillary Erodes

Dick Brennan reports, for CBS News 2 New York:

The Off-Grid Administration

"The many ways Obama officials have ducked public accountability."

You think?

At the Wall Street Journal:

In a famous remark two years ago during a Google Plus Hangout, President Obama boasted that “this is the most transparent administration in history.” This is belied by Administration officials, from Hillary Clinton on down, who have run their communications off the government grid.

A bipartisan consensus has long held that a healthy democracy requires a significant measure of government transparency. That is why since 1950 Washington has operated under the Federal Records Act, which requires the government to preserve documents about its decisions.

Since the 1960s the government has been subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), giving citizens the right to view those records. In 2009 the National Archives issued rules requiring agencies to preserve employee work on nonofficial accounts in a government record-keeping system.

Then came the Obama Administration, whose modus operandi has been to hide from this legal regime. This year the world learned that Hillary Clinton conducted most of her correspondence as Secretary of State on a private, homemade email system that she failed to disclose and kept away from the federal government.

We have since learned that at least one of her aides, Huma Abedin, also had an account on that private system. When the press exposed the system, Mrs. Clinton deemed herself the arbiter of what she would allow the American people to see. Mrs. Abedin still hasn’t bothered to deliver her government records to State. In late July another Clinton aide, Philippe Reines, gave State 20 boxes of work-related emails, taken in part from his private email account.

In August the Competitive Enterprise Institute filed a motion in court to gain access to the private email account of White House science czar John Holdren, who may have used it for government work. Some years ago CEI helped bring to light that then-EPA Chief Lisa Jackson used a secret alias, “ Richard Windsor,” when emailing on the EPA system. This seemed designed to thwart FOIA requests for her conversations, since “Lisa Jackson” appeared nowhere on her emails.

In 2013 an Associated Press report revealed the practice was rampant among Administration officials, including the Secretaries of Agriculture, Labor, and Health & Human Services. All had secret government email accounts that neither Congress nor the public knew about.

Last Monday the IRS was forced to acknowledge to a federal court that it recently discovered that Lois Lerner (of political targeting fame) used a second, private email to conduct government work. The account was set up under the name “ Toby Miles,” and the IRS still can’t account for its contents.

It has been two years since Congress first subpoenaed Ms. Lerner’s emails. In 2013 when Mrs. Lerner was still directing the IRS’s Exempt Organizations unit, she cautioned colleagues to be careful what they said on email; then she inquired whether the agency’s instant-messaging system was archived. Told it wasn’t, she responded by email: “Perfect.”

Last week a federal court subpoenaed former EPA official Phillip North after a complaint by a mining concern called the Pebble Partnership. Mr. North worked from inside the EPA with outside activists to scuttle Pebble’s proposed Alaskan mining project, and he did so on private email.

The Lerner and North cases also highlight the Administration’s sloppy, or willfully obstructionist, approach to recordkeeping. Recall the crash of Ms. Lerner’s hard drive, and the IRS’s claim for months it had no backup of her work. Treasury’s Inspector General would later find some. Mr. North’s hard drive also crashed, and Pebble claims that key North emails and documents have gone missing from EPA’s official record.

In 2012 the Gawker website filed a FOIA request for documents involving Mr. Reines, the Clinton adviser. State said in 2013 it couldn’t find any such documents. In mid-August this year, the department declared in a court filing that it had suddenly found close to 18,000 after all. Watchdog groups report similar behavior across nearly every department and agency—processing delays, missing records, and a tendency to redact information that ought to be made public...

Still more.