Shooting at Venice Beach Boardwalk Leaves One Dead, One Injured (VIDEO)

The suspect's described as an "Hispanic male," and is apparently still at large. A 20-year-old black man by the name of "Shakespeare" has died.

At LAist, "One Man Killed In Early Morning Shooting On Venice Beach."

And watch, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Man In His 20s Killed In Shooting on Venice Beach Boardwalk, 2nd Man Wounded."

The #BlackLivesMatter Revolution Will Be Televised

From Matthew Vadum at FrontPage Magazine, "Reporters' lives don't matter to a double-minority shooter trying to foment racial violence":

Hoping to start a bloody "race war," a black, gay, in-your-face Obama-supporting former TV reporter horrified Southwest Virginia TV viewers yesterday when he stalked and coolly murdered two white former TV station colleagues and wounded a white interview subject during a live broadcast.

The shooter, Vester Lee Flanagan II, 41, apparently a registered Democrat and former prostitute, said he attacked the three white people during the "standup" report about local tourism from the marina at Smith Mountain Lake as racial payback for white-supremacist Dylann Storm Roof's June 17 attack in Charleston, S.C. that left nine black churchgoers dead. Roof, who reportedly confessed, also said he wanted to start a race war by committing acts of violence.

Flanagan, who used the name Bryce Williams professionally, left behind a lengthy, rambling, written rant explaining his explicitly race-based motive for the murders. Although the full document was sent to ABC News, it has not yet found its way online. Media outlets have provided highlights. ABC News reports that "A man claiming to be Bryce Williams called ABC News over the last few weeks, saying he wanted to pitch a story and wanted to fax information. He never told ABC News what the story was."

Well, now we know.

Using online accounts created only recently, Flanagan promoted the political murders he committed as well as any team of seasoned, high-priced publicists could have. In the process he demonstrated his diabolical mastery of social media for the world to see. He shot his victims early in the morning and made the morning news. He sent out a horrifying video of the cold-blooded killings and caught the noonday news. He died in the afternoon in time to make the evening news. All the saturation coverage on cable TV news and news-on-dead-tree exposure is a bonus, a sort of contribution-in-kind that media outlets are providing to his cause.

Emulating the cost-conscious Muslim terrorists who flew airplanes into buildings on 9/11, Flanagan got perhaps tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in free media worldwide for his evil cause on what must have been a shoestring budget. Perhaps radical leftist public relations outfits Fenton Communications or SKDKnickerbocker of Anita Dunn fame will teach Flanagan's techniques to incoming employees.

In the empowering age of the Internet, fomenting civil unrest and violent revolution is becoming more affordable. Not that the George Soros-funded Black Lives Matter movement needs the money.

The black-nationalist mobs and leftover Occupy Wall Street goons wreaking havoc in Baltimore and other big cities with the encouragement of the Obama administration believe now is the time for decisive action against the country they hate. The desire to concoct a massive racial conflagration in America has been on the Left's laundry list for decades.

Starting a race war in which blacks violently rise up against whites has long been the goal of unrepentant terrorist and Obama pal Bill Ayers and was the reason mass-murderer Charles Manson and his followers went on a homicidal rampage in 1969. Leaders of the racist and increasingly violent Black Lives Matter movement nowadays are also calling for "war." President Obama hasn't called for race-based hostilities specifically but he has helped to craft the Left's false narrative that racist whites kill innocent blacks all the time. Obama, a Marxist community organizer by profession, wants racial groups and everyone else to be at each other's throats because, as the familiar leftist adage goes, "you never want a serious crisis to go to waste."

Flanagan can be seen in his own homemade video he later posted online holding a handgun in front of him as he walked unnoticed towards reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, and interviewee Vicki Gardner, executive director of the Smith Mountain Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Ward's video camera recorded the 6:45 a.m. attack and captured the shooter's image after Ward dropped the still-functioning machine and the live feed from it made it to the airwaves. The perpetrator's hand can be seen in his own video as he takes his time aiming at Parker and then opening fire. Parker, who can be heard screaming in both videos, and Ward succumbed to their wounds at the site of the shooting. Ward was engaged to be married and yesterday was to be his final day at Roanoke-based WDBJ-7 before he started a new job in Charlotte, N.C. Parker had recently moved in with her boyfriend, an anchor at the station. Gardner was in stable condition in hospital at press time.

Flanagan fled the scene and shortly before 8:30 a.m. reportedly faxed a hateful 23-page manifesto to ABC News. He reportedly told ABC that the police are “after me” and “all over the place,” before hurriedly ending the telephone call. Tweeting as Bryce Williams, Flanagan complained "Adam went to hr [human resources] on me after working with me one time!!!" and "Alison made racist comments[.]" He also boasted "I filmed the shooting see Facebook[.]"

His rental vehicle was later spotted by Virginia State Police who gave chase. Flanagan's car ran off the road on Interstate 66 in Fauquier County and he shot himself at 11:30 a.m. He died in hospital about two hours later.

NBC-4 in the national's capital reports that employees of WDBJ-7 were cautioned about Flanagan two years ago when his employment was terminated. Management was so concerned about his behavior that employees were reportedly made to clear the room as he cleaned out his desk. After he left workers were instructed to "call 911 immediately" if they spotted the former employee on company property.

Flanagan, Parker, and Ward had worked together at the CBS affiliate "[b]ut when Flanagan was fired in February 2013, a 911 call summoned police to remove him from the premises." The report continues...

Keep reading.

Europe's Migration Crisis: Hungary Builds Barbed-Wire Fence as Immigrant Siege Continues (VIDEO)

This is becoming one of the more fascinating spectacles of European politics that I can remember, even more amazing than the recent financial crises.

Watch, via Telegraph UK:



And see Elizabeth Price Foley, at Instapundit, "EUROPE’S BORDER CRISIS: Hundreds of thousands of “refugees” from the Middle East and Africa are crossing the Mediterranean, seeking a better life in Europe."

BONUS: From last week at the New York Times, "Migrants Race North as Hungary Builds a Border Fence," and "Europe's Halting Response to Migrant Crisis Draws Criticism as Toll Mounts."

Socialist Bernie Sanders Slams Iraq War as 'One of the Worst Foreign Policy Blunders' in History' (VIDEO)

Well, at least he voted against it.

Hillary voted for it, so if he's going to ramp up attacks on the Iraq war as basically getting us into the mess we're in now in the Middle East, he's going to have to take it to the former senator for New York, who voted along with the rest of her Democrat Party colleagues to approve the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002.

At ABC News, via Memeorandum, "‘This Week’ Transcript: Sen. Bernie Sanders and Gov. Bobby Jindal."

And Martha Raddatz has Sanders on the hot seat a bit here. It doesn't look like the dude has a clear personal criteria for the use of force. Watch:

Black Leftists Cheer 'Execution-Style' Murder of Harris County Deputy Sheriff Darren Goforth

Following-up, "Black Suspect Shannon J. Miles Facing Capital Murder Charges in Texas Deputy's 'Execution-Style' Killing (VIDEO)."

And at Fire Andrea Mitchell, "Black leftists celebrate assassination of Sheriff Goforth."

And from Stellahassa, on Twitter, "This kind of RAGE is taking this country to a full-blown #RaceWar These people are mindlessly EVIL."

Black Suspect Shannon J. Miles Facing Capital Murder Charges in Texas Deputy's 'Execution-Style' Killing (VIDEO)

Update from the front lines of the left's race war.

Here's video from CNN, "Shannon J Miles Charged in Gas Station Murder of Texas Sheriff's Deputy."

And here, "Police arrest suspect in Texas deputy killing."

@AmPowerBlog I just cannot grasp the ambush, execution-style murder. It's absolutely mind-numbing..the abject HATRED. #ALLLIVESMATTER

— Stellasasha® (@Stellasasha1) August 29, 2015

Shannon Miles is currently in our custody. At this time, we have no motive--appears this was an unprovoked incident. #DarrenGoforth

— HCSOTexas (@HCSOTexas) August 29, 2015

Routine research led our deputies to arresting this suspect, bringing justice and peace to our deputies & community. #HouNews #DarrenGoforth

— HCSOTexas (@HCSOTexas) August 29, 2015

PREVIOUSLY: "Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman Slams #BlackLivesMatter's 'Dangerous Rhetoric' in Deputy's Execution-Style Murder."

Michael Walsh's New Book Is On the Way

I ordered some books, including Walsh's The Devil's Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West.

I'm excited to sink my teeth into it.

Meanwhile, see Roger Kimball, "Thoughts on ‘The Devil’s Pleasure Palace’":

Subversion is Michael Walsh’s primary focus and the battle he describes is nothing less than a battle between good and evil.

And see Micah Mattix, at Free Beacon, "The Real ‘Great Satan’: Review: Michael Walsh, ‘The Devil’s Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West’."

In the Mail: Ed Gogek, Marijuana Debunked: A Handbook for Parents, Pundits, and Politicians Who Want to Know the Case Against Legalization

Leftists and potheads won't be pleased.

Here's the book, out from Chiron Publications, Marijuana Debunked.

Marijuana subtly damages the teenage brain, causing lifelong problems. Yet four million teens in Canada and the United States use the drug, a half million of them daily. For those who have heard only the pro-legalization side, this book presents the case against marijuana on an equal footing. In it, you will learn:

- The scientific research refuting all the pro-marijuana talking points
- Why marijuana is not safe for adolescents, especially those behind the wheel
- How the news media helped to create an epidemic of teenage use
- Why the promise of tax revenue is a mirage
- Why legalization would be an economic burden on society
- The misleading language used by pro-legalization partisans
- Why marijuana laws that prohibit use are good for the public health

Ed Gogek, MD, an addiction psychiatrist for 30 years, has treated more than 10,000 addicts and alcoholics in jails, prisons, homeless clinics, mental health centers and substance abuse treatment programs. His opinion pieces on addiction and mental health have appeared in the New York Times and over a dozen major U.S. newspapers. He received his medical training in Canada and the United States.

I skimmed over the book and some of the promotional materials. I'm excited to have this in my library, and I expect I'll be reading and making reference to it on a regular basis.

More substantive comments later, but meanwhile, here's the author's op-ed at the Philadelphia Inquirer, "Medical marijuana laws dangerous and unnecessary."

Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman Slams #BlackLivesMatter's 'Dangerous Rhetoric' in Deputy's Execution-Style Murder

Here's video, "Sheriff Rails Against ‘Dangerous’ Rhetoric After Deputy Killed: ‘Cop Lives Matter Too’."

And at USA Today, "Sheriff links 'national rhetoric' to killing of deputy in Houston":

"This rhetoric is out of control. I know #BlackLivesMatter, so do our lives. Let's drop this and say '#AllLivesMatter'" @SheriffHickman

— HCSOTexas (@HCSOTexas) August 29, 2015

Sheriff blasts "dangerous national rhetoric" as out of control.

— John Donnelly FOX 26 (@JohnDonnFOX26) August 29, 2015

Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman described the early morning killing of a deputy sheriff at a gas station   "cold-blooded assassination" and angrily condemned the "very dangerous national rhetoric" about police officers that he said was out of control.

Deputy Darren Goforth, 47, was fatally shot while filling his patrol car in northwest Harris County late Friday.

The suspect, whose image was caught on surveillance video, approached Goforth from behind and shot him several times in the back and continued to fire even after the officer had fallen to the ground.

The suspect is depicted in photos as a dark-skinned male wearing a white T-shirt and red shorst and apparently driving a red or maroon-colored Ford pickup.

Rickman said an intense manhunt was underway and that officers were speaking to several people in connecton with the shooting, but that no arrest had yet been made.

Hickman said the killing was unprovoked and that Goforth was apparently singled out only because he was wearing the uniform of a law enforcement officer.

The sheriff made it clear that he felt the shooting was tied to a national backlash over several recent killings of unarmed blacks by police officers.

"When rhetoric ramps up to the point where cold-blooded assassination has happened, this rhetoric has gotten out of control," he said. "We heard 'black lives matter.' All lives matter. Cops' lives matter too, so why don't we drop the qualifier and say all lives matter and take that to the bank."

"Black Lives Matter" is the phrase of a national activist group aimed at addressing shootings by police officers.

Sheriff's office spokesman Deputy Thomas Gilliland said earlier that officials were speaking with a person of interest in connection with the shooting and have obtained a search warrant for the home where the person lives. No arrests have been made, he said.

Sgt. William Kennard of the Texas Department of Public Safety, meanwhile,  tells CNN that the person in police custody is "believed to be the alleged gunman."

Keep reading.

And note that contrary to earlier reports, authorities do not have a suspect in custody. See KHOU News 11 Houston, "Manhunt underway for suspect who fatally shot deputy":

HARRIS COUNTY – Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy Darren Goforth was brutally gunned down while at a northwest Harris County gas station Friday evening, Sheriff Ron Hickman said.

Hickman said in a press conference Saturday that the investigation into the killing of Goforth is ongoing, and a suspect is not in custody. A man was brought in for questioning about the incident earlier Saturday morning, but he was not arrested or charged.

Hickman said there are multiple witnesses in the incident, and he is asking them -- as well as anyone else with information -- to come forward.

"We are reaching out to the community for assistance (in) capturing the violent individual for the senseless death of Deputy Goforth," Hickman said.

More.

PREVIOUSLY: "Race War! Black Male Suspect Arrested in Execution-Style Murder of Texas Sheriff's Deputy Darren Goforth (VIDEO)."

Tia Blanco for Playboy

This is so cool!

At Surfer Magazine, "Tia Blanco Did a Video for Playboy":

Tia Blanco isn’t the next big thing — she’s the next massive thing, or the next huge thing, or the next gargantuan thing. She is the next female surfing sweetheart whose name comes to mind every single time the mainstream feels like bringing a female surfing sweetheart to mind. She’s the name that those guys you knew in college (the ones who wore backwards hats with polo shirts) will reference over Bud Lites at Buffalo Wild Wings. She’s the next star.

And watch, at Playboy, "Tia Blanco Surfs Into Her Playboy Becoming Attractions Shoot."

Donald Trumps Makes His Case to Conservatives at Nashville NFRA 2015 Conference and Straw Poll (VIDEO)

Trump's making the case for the presidential straw poll at the National Federation of Republican Assemblies conference.

At WKRN News 2 Nashville, "Presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks at Nashville event":

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Presidential hopeful Donald Trump will be in Nashville Saturday to speak at the National Federation of Republican Assemblies conference.

The National Federation of Republican Assemblies is a grassroots organization who are meeting in Nashville to endorse a presidential candidate.

The event will be held at Rocketown, a Christian-based entertainment facility, which is located at 601 4th Ave. South.

Louie Gohmert and Dr. Ming Wang  are also scheduled to speak at the event.

Immigrant rights activists are planning to protest Trump’s visit by holding a rally outside the venue.

The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and Workers’ Dignity, two local advocacy organizations, plan to march 200 to 500 immigrant community members, led by a mariachi band, from the Music City Walk of Fame Park to Rocketown beginning at 10:30 a.m.

Prior to the event, a prominent message for Donald Trump was displayed on a sign for a south Nashville immigration lawyer, which reads “Donald Trump, make Nashville great again. Please leave soon.”

Elliott Ozment called the sign a “collaborative effort” with some close friends to come up with the message after learning that Trump was scheduled to speak this weekend in downtown Nashville...

Also at CNN, "Donald Trump courts tea party at Nashville straw poll":

(CNN)Donald Trump took his colorful campaign to Nashville on Saturday, where he courted a constituency that some say he is tailor-made for: the tea party.

He is competing in a presidential straw poll and addressed the National Federation of Republican Assemblies, a group that boasts it was "the tea party before there was a tea party."

Trump's appearance was highly anticipated at the conservative gathering: As a candidate, he's hitting the same notes -- anger at conventional politics, contempt for Washington and distrust of special interests and lobbyists -- that propelled the tea party movement in 2010.

"You have not been treated fairly," Trump told the gathering Saturday. "You know, people talk about the tea party, and you talk about marginalized? At least I have a microphone where I can fight back. You people don't. The tea party people are incredible people. These are people who work hard and love the country and they get beat up all the time by the media."

Keep reading.

Restoring American Exceptionalism

Dick and Liz Cheney's new book is here, Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America.

And they write at today's Wall Street Journal, "President Obama has dangerously surrendered the nation’s global leadership, but it can be ours again — if we choose his successor wisely":

In 1983, as the U.S. confronted the threat posed by the Soviet Union, President Ronald Reagan explained America’s unique responsibility. “It is up to us in our time,” he said, “to choose, and choose wisely, between the hard but necessary task of preserving peace and freedom, and the temptation to ignore our duty and blindly hope for the best while the enemies of freedom grow stronger day by day.” It was up to us then—as it is now—because we are the exceptional nation. America has guaranteed freedom, security and peace for a larger share of humanity than any other nation in all of history. There is no other like us. There never has been.

Born of the revolutionary ideal that we are “endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights,” we were, first, an example to the world of freedom’s possibilities. During World War II, we became freedom’s defender, at the end of the Cold War, the world’s sole superpower. We did not seek the position. It is ours because of our ideals and our power, and the power of our ideals. As British historian Andrew Roberts has observed, “In the debate over whether America was born great, achieved greatness or had greatness thrust upon her, the only possible conclusion must be: all three.”

No other nation, international body or “community of nations” can do what we do. It isn’t just our involvement in world events that has been essential for the triumph of freedom. It is our leadership. For the better part of a century, security and freedom for millions of people around the globe have depended on America’s military, economic, political and diplomatic might. For the most part, until the administration of Barack Obama, we delivered.

Since Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed us the “Arsenal of Democracy” in 1940, Republican and Democratic presidents alike have understood the indispensable nature of American power. Presidents from Truman to Nixon, from Kennedy to Reagan, knew that America’s strength had to be safeguarded, her supremacy maintained. In the 1940s American leadership was essential to victory in World War II, and the liberation of millions from the grip of fascism. In the Cold War American leadership guaranteed the survival of freedom, the liberation of Eastern Europe and the defeat of Soviet totalitarianism. In this century it will be essential for the defeat of militant Islam.

Yet despite the explosive spread of terrorist ideology and organizations, the establishment of an Islamic State caliphate in the heart of the Middle East, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and increasing threats from Iran, China, North Korea and Russia, President Obama has departed from this 75-year, largely bipartisan tradition of ensuring America’s pre-eminence and strength...

Keep reading.

And again, don't miss this essential book, at Amazon, Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America.

Porsche 911 Targa 4 GTS

Heh.

I've always wanted one of these babies. And who knows? There's still time, lol!

At the Los Angeles Times, "Porsche 911 Targa 4 GTS review: Fast, fun and surprisingly comfortable":

Porsche doesn't make any bad cars, even any mediocre cars. It's only a matter of good, better or best.

And the 911 Targa 4 GTS is assuredly among the best all-around cars Porsche makes. Sporty, stylish and super-fast, it handles like a dream and is as competent in a sharp switchback as it is comfortable on a long-haul drive.

The 2016 Targa 4 GTS boasts a 3.8-liter six-cylinder engine that makes 430 horsepower and 324 pound-feet of torque, on a vehicle that weights only 3,400 pounds. It goes from zero to 60 in 4.1 seconds, and hits a top speed of 187 mph.

But the Targa is fun at lower speeds too. Sitting go-kart low and square on the ground, it jets from corner to corner and makes great use of the all-wheel drive, torque vectoring and traction management systems that I loved on the Boxster GTS.

This is a driver's car. The electronic steering is stiff. The suspension is stiff. The seven-speed PDK transmission is so finely tuned — intuiting slowing, braking and cornering with rev-matching downshifts — that paddle-shifting is unnecessary. The "sport" mode sharpens the gearing and adds dramatic tone and volume to the exhaust note.

As befits a performance car, the tachometer is front and center on the dash, with the speedometer off to the side. Other dash readouts measure G-force and record zero-to-60-mph sprints. The braking is firm and effective, making 60 to zero just as pleasant. An automatically deploying rear spoiler is also there to keep the car stuck to the pavement.

None of that is surprising. It's a Porsche. It's a 911. Of course it's fast and handles like a race car.

But the Targa is fun at lower speeds too. Sitting go-kart low and square on the ground, it jets from corner to corner and makes great use of the all-wheel drive, torque vectoring and traction management systems that I loved on the Boxster GTS.

This is a driver's car. The electronic steering is stiff. The suspension is stiff. The seven-speed PDK transmission is so finely tuned — intuiting slowing, braking and cornering with rev-matching downshifts — that paddle-shifting is unnecessary. The "sport" mode sharpens the gearing and adds dramatic tone and volume to the exhaust note.

As befits a performance car, the tachometer is front and center on the dash, with the speedometer off to the side. Other dash readouts measure G-force and record zero-to-60-mph sprints. The braking is firm and effective, making 60 to zero just as pleasant. An automatically deploying rear spoiler is also there to keep the car stuck to the pavement.

None of that is surprising. It's a Porsche. It's a 911. Of course it's fast and handles like a race car...

Still more.

Maybe I'll look around for a pre-owned Targa, heh.

Race War! Black Male Suspect Arrested in Execution-Style Murder of Texas Sheriff's Deputy Darren Goforth (VIDEO)

UPDATED! Here, "Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman Slams #BlackLivesMatter's 'Dangerous Rhetoric' in Deputy's Execution-Style Murder."

The original person taken in for questioning is not a suspect and the manhunt is ongoing.

**********

OMG just wow.

The black mofo shot the sheriff from behind and then stood over him and emptied the gun.

Jesus H. Christ it's a freakin' race war out there!

Deputy Golforth was white!

At Gateway Pundit, "Breaking: SUSPECT ARRESTED in Assassination of Texas Sheriff’s Deputy (Video)."

Also at Twitchy, "Tragic: Deputy killed after being shot from behind while pumping gas in Houston," and "Reports: ‘Person of interest’ in custody after Houston-area ‘execution style’ killing of sheriff’s deputy."

Open Letter to Andy Parker, Father of Alison Parker

From Anna Maria Perez:

Mr. Parker,

I sympathize with you and your family’s tragic loss, as I do for the family of Adam Ward.  Vicki Gardner is also in my prayers and I hope that she recovers quickly and well.

That said, I would kindly like to ask you to get off of my back!  Your new found crusade to attack me, other Virginians, and Americans who had nothing to do with the evil actions of Vester Flanagan, is uncalled for and driven by unchecked emotion and ignorance.  I am sick and tired of you leftists who hate liberty using every tragedy as a soap box to stand on to attack the freedoms that our founding fathers have secured for us and that our men and women in uniform have protected for over two centuries.  You liberals always want to take advantage of every shocking event to catch the public off guard in a moment of despair, so that we will willingly relinquish more of our freedom in the false hope that it will be replaced with more security.

I challenge you sir: how do you expect me to be safer if we pass any new gun control law?  Name one gun control law that will leave the liberty of all free Americans intact while somehow disarming the people who are willing to ignore law to commit murder?  If you can’t answer this question, then you have no business harassing Virginians or other Americans with your impotent agitation.  I have the RIGHT to keep and bear arms and that right shall not be infringed, by you or anyone else...

That's very well-written and gloriously passionate. I love it.

Keep reading.

PREVIOUSLY: "Andy Parker, Father of Murdered Journalist Alison Parker, Pushes for New Gun Control After Virginia Shooting (VIDEO)."

Ariel Meredith, Hannah Ferguson, Sara Sampaio, and Ashley Smith Travel Down Route 66

Watch, at Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, "Route 66 as you've never seen it before."

Black Woman from Los Angeles, 26, Arrested for 'Aggressive' Panhandling in Irvine

I haven't been approached lately, but they are aggressive. The tell you they ran out of gas.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Arrests Made as Death Toll Rises in Migrant Truck Trafficking Atrocity (VIDEO)

At the Wall Street Journal, "Four Arrested in Hungary Over Migrant Truck Deaths":

Hungarian police said Friday they arrested four men in connection with the scores of migrants found dead Thursday in a truck in Austria, a discovery that deepened the debate across Europe about how to accommodate or stem the biggest inflow of migrants in its post-War history.

The men, three Bulgarians and one Afghan, are suspected of being part of a clandestine migrant smuggling network, the Hungarian police said.

Austrian police said earlier Friday that the bodies of 71 migrants had been removed from an abandoned delivery truck on a highway some 20 miles from the Austrian-Hungarian border. The migrants were thought to have suffocated or died of thirst, the police said.

The gruesome discovery in the heart of the continent shocked European Union countries, which have struggled to address the crisis sparked by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Africa and the western Balkans since the start of 2014.

As they scramble to house and process the newcomers, national governments, often under pressure from hostile or fearful electorates, have also sought to stem the influx, beefing up border controls and debating cuts to the handouts some argue have acted as a magnet for economic migrants with unfounded asylum claims.

An EU initiative to distribute migrants, now concentrated in a handful of countries, more broadly across the region has faced stiff resistance in several key countries.

The bodies of 59 men, eight women and four children were discovered in the refrigerator truck on Thursday, Austrian regional police chief Hans Peter Doskozil told a news conference Friday. Based on travel documents found in the truck, the police assume that most of the victims were refugees from Syria.

Police and forensic medical examiners in Vienna are working to ascertain the migrants’ identities, as well as the time and cause of their deaths. Investigators believe the migrants had been dead for at least one-and-a-half to two days when they were discovered.

The highway where the truck was discovered is one of the main migration routes from eastern to western Europe, Austrian police said Thursday.

Many migrants are now traveling from Turkey to Greece and then across the Balkans to Hungary, a course considered less risky than the often deadly sea route across the Mediterranean.

Around 3,000 people a day are currently being moved through the Balkans, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates. The route has been used by roughly 10 times as many migrants so far this year as over the same period in 2014, according to the EU border agency Frontex.

Smuggling has become a lucrative business for criminal rings in Europe as more migrants have converged on the continent and tougher controls at the EU’s borders have made it more difficult to enter the region without outside help. The Austrian police estimate migrants pay between €3,000 ($3,370) and €5,000 for the trip from Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq.

Prosecutors in Italy, which has faced a large inflow of migrants coming by sea, say one of the main challenges is catching the masterminds behind smuggling rings—small groups that operate through a web of contacts mainly in Europe, Libya, Turkey and the countries of origin of the migrants and refugees...

Earlier, "Up to 50 Migrants Found Dead in Refrigerator Truck in Austria (VIDEO)."

Lindhurst High School Students Walk Out to Protest Lack of Air Conditioning

This is way up north in Olivehurst, just south of Yuba City, a mile or two east of Highway 99. It's freakin' boiling up there in the summer.

Sheesh.

At CBS News 13 Sacramento:

Western Balkan Exodus Puts Pressure on Germany and European Union

They won't be allowed to stay.

At Der Spiegel, "Mass Migration: What Is Driving the Balkan Exodus?":

More than a third of all asylum-seekers arriving in Germany come from Albania, Kosovo and Serbia. Young, poor and disillusioned with their home countries, they are searching for a better future. But almost none of them will be allowed to stay.

When Visar Krasniqi reached Berlin and saw the famous image on Bernauer Strasse -- the one of the soldier jumping over barbed wire into the West -- he knew he had arrived. He had entered a different world, one that he wanted to become a part of. What he didn't yet know was that his dream would come to an end 11 months later, on Oct. 5, 2015. By then, he has to leave, as stipulated in the temporary residence permit he received.

Krasniqi is not a war refugee, nor was he persecuted back home. In fact, he has nothing to fear in his native Kosovo. He says that he ran away from something he considers to be even worse than rockets and Kalashnikovs: hopelessness. Before he left, he promised his sick mother in Pristina that he would become an architect, and he promised his fiancée that they would have a good life together. "I'm a nobody where I come from, but I want to be somebody."

But it is difficult to be somebody in Kosovo, unless you have influence or are part of the mafia, which is often the same thing. Taken together, the wealth of all parliamentarians in Kosovo is such that each of them could be a millionaire. But Krasniqi works seven days a week as a bartender, and earns just €200 ($220) a month.

But a lack of prospects is not a recognized reason for asylum, which is why Krasniqi's application was initially denied. The 30,000 Kosovars who have applied for asylum in Germany since the beginning of the year are in similar positions. And the Kosovars are not the only ones. This year, the country has seen the arrival of 5,514 Macedonians, 11,642 Serbians, 29,353 Albanians and 2,425 Montenegrins. Of the 196,000 people who had filed an initial application for asylum in Germany by the end of July, 42 percent are from the former Yugoslavia, a region now known as the Western Balkans.

The exodus shows the wounds of the Balkan wars have not yet healed. Slovenia and Croatia are now members of the European Union, but Kosovo, which split from Serbia and became prematurely independent in 2008, carves out a pariah existence. Serbia is heavily burdened with the unresolved Kosovo question. The political system in Bosnia-Hercegovina is on the brink of collapse, 20 years after the end of the war there. And Macedonia, long the post-Yugoslavia model nation, has spent two decades in the waiting rooms of the EU and NATO, thanks to Greek pressure in response to a dispute over the country's name. The consequences are many: a lack of investment, failing social welfare systems, corruption, organized crime, high unemployment, poverty, frustration and rage...

Keep reading.