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August 2015

The murder of Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Darren Goforth in Texas, sent shock waves around that community and around the police community at large due to the senseless nature of the crime. Goforth was merely filling his cruiser up with gas when Shannon Miles (allegedly) came up behind Goforth, shot in the head and then proceeded to continue shooting him when Goforth was on the ground. Sheriff Ron Hickman has been pretty bold in stating he believes the motive was in part based on all of the police bashing that has been going on as of late, particularly in the #BlackLivesMatter movement:
"This rhetoric has gotten out of control," said Goforth's boss, Harris County, Texas, Sheriff Ron Hickman. "We've heard 'Black lives matter,' 'All lives matter.' Well, cops' lives matter, too. So why don't we just drop the qualifier, and just say 'Lives matter,' and take that to the bank?"
Critics were quick to point out that no such connection could be determined: "There's no evidence that there's a connection between this rhetoric, or this sort of national discourse ... and what happened," CNN political commentator Marc Lamont Hill said. "It's an awful tragedy, but I don't think it's connected."

Though the media vultures circle, Governor Rick Perry's campaign is not dead. Saturday, Perry joined Fox News to discuss among other things, the state of his presidential campaign. Shannon Bream asked, "Let's talk about where you go from here. There've been chatter about staffers leaving, payroll not being met. Where do you stand right now, how do you plan to move forward in key places like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina?" "Well I tell people I've been broke before, whether it's in my personal life or whether it's as the Governor of Texas. We had a $10 billion budget shortfall in 2003. You cut back, you make the reductions that you need to make and you move ahead and that's what we're doing," said Perry.

Tonight at or around 9:00 pm EST, the State Department will release another batch of Hillary Clinton's emails, including 150 (redacted) messages that the agency has "upgraded" to classified status. The batch is expected to contain around 7000 messages total. In an effort to pad the landing for this latest release, State Department spokesman Mark Toner emphasized today during a press briefing that "the information we've upgraded was not marked classified at the time the emails were sent." More from the Wall Street Journal:
The latest set of emails is the fourth release of documents from Mrs. Clinton’s time in office. Previously, the State Department released records pertaining to the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi Libya, as well as thousands of pages of emails from her time in office. The release of Mrs. Clinton’s records has been delayed by a controversy over the presence of classified information on her server—with multiple government agencies seemingly at odds over what should properly be considered classified.

In early August, Europe's migrant crisis was thrown into full relief when the French port city of Calais became overrun by migrants hoping to cross the English Channel into the United Kingdom. Thousands of migrants, coming mostly from Syria, Eritrea, Somalia and Afghanistan, crowded the port, and things quickly became dangerous. Statistically, it is easier to remain in the UK as a refugee than it is to remain in France under the same status. Migrants from non-EU countries who stay in places like France still have access to benefits and services, but run a much higher risk of being denied permanent asylum. Some countries, like Hungary, have taken a hard line approach to controlling how many migrants they allow within their borders. Western Eurozone leaders recently lashed out at Hungary over its continuing work to erect a fence along its southern border with Serbia, even over the demands of the Hungarian people that something---anything---be done to control the influx. Greece is having a similar problem; the flow of migrants into the already-struggling country has increased by 750% over last year's count.

Donald Trump has surged to the top of the Republican field based not only on outsider status, but immigration. Specifically, frustration and anger regarding illegal alien criminals. Early in his surge I wrote:
But something happened on the way to the denunciations and purges [of Trump]. Kate Steinle was murdered in San Francisco, a sanctuary city. Steinle was killed in broad daylight on a popular pedestrian pier in a business and tourist district, by an illegal immigrant with a long criminal record who had been deported five times and recently was released from custody…. In the wake of the murder of Kate Steinle, many Republican candidates have denounced the sanctuary-cities agenda. There is talk of withholding funding from cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. But who among the Republican candidates has stood side by side with the families who have lost loved ones to illegal-immigrant criminals? Trump did….”
Now Trump is thumping his favorite target, Jeb Bush, with the issue in a brutal new Instagram Ad:

It appears likely that Democrats will have enough votes in the Senate to preserve an Obama veto of legislation disapproving of the Iran Nuclear Deal. Democrats may even have enough votes to filibuster to prevent a vote, though that is more uncertain. What is crystal clear is that the Iran nuclear deal is wildly unpopular among the American public. Quinnipiac just released its latest poll on the Iranian nuclear deal. I trust this poll more than others because it doesn't try to describe the deal in terms that would influence the result. So if you ask a question such as "Do you support the Iranian nuclear deal that will prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons and avoid war" ... you have gamed the question by presuming a positive result of the deal. This mid-August CNN poll which showed even support/opposition, is a prime example of biased wording designed to increase supportive answers: http://www.pollingreport.com/iran.htm Quinnipiac simply asks if people support the deal or not, without characterization. And the results show that Americans oppose the deal by more than 2-1 (55-25-20). There isn't a single group (by party, age, race) in which there is majority support for the deal. Even Democrats only support it 46-25-28.

Bernie Sanders is getting hit from his left on gun control. Vermont is a very blue state, but it's also rural and has plenty of gun owners. Yesterday on CNN, he assured Jake Tapper and, by extension, progressive Democratic primary voters that he strongly believes in greater gun control:
Bernie Sanders says he's 'strong' on gun control Bernie Sanders says he favors gun control measures just as strongly as his Democratic presidential rivals, touting his rural-state roots as key to his chances of enacting "real, constructive" legislation. In an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper Sunday on "State of the Union," the Vermont senator touted his career "D-" rating from the National Rifle Association. Sanders also played up his differences on policy issues with Hillary Clinton and hit national Democrats for a debate calendar he said is too restrictive during the interview.

Scott Walker joined Chuck Todd on Meet the Press Sunday. The Wisconsin Governor answered questions ranging from foreign policy to securing the border. Following the interview, numerous headlines suggested Scott Walker was gung-ho about making our northern border a little more pronounced. An Associated Press wire story written by Kevin Freking reported, "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is putting a new twist on the topic of securing the border, a staple among the GOP candidates running for president, by pointing north." Written to imply Walker introduced the idea of a Canadian border wall as part of a discussion on immigration enforcement, that's simply not the case. Chuck Todd introduced the idea and asked Walker if he'd build a northern wall. "Why are we always talking about the southern border and building a fence there, we don't talk about our northern border," said Chuck Todd. "If this is about securing the border from Mus-- securing the border from potentially terrorists coming over, do you want to build a wall north of the border too?"

The title of this post is from a Facebook comment I saw about an article by Stephen Daisley at STV News (Scotland), Analysis: Jeremy Corbyn is not an anti-Semite. It’s so much worse than that. Jeremy Corbyn is the likely new leader of the British Labour Party, someone I addressed in Likely British Labour leader’s creepy associations. The Daisley article title addresses Corbyn, but the issue of how Israel hatred has become a polite-society way of expressing anti-Semitism is of much broader implication. It's why ostensibly "pro-Palestinian" rallies so often express blatant anti-Jewish verbiage, why Jews are harassed on the streets of Europe in the name of anti-Zionism, and why the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement was birthed at the anti-Semitic 2001 Durban conference as Nazi-like caricatures of Jews were passed around. It's also why American Jewish musician Matisyahu was, alone among dozens of musicians, singled out by the BDS movement for a special political litmus test. Here is an excerpt from the Daisley article, which explains much better than I can how centuries of Jew hatred now finds its expression and acceptance through the anti-Israel movement:

In an electorate demanding a dismantling of the status quo, Scott Walker should be a natural favorite. There is no candidate in the Republican field who has delivered the institutional-level blow to the left-wing that Walker did by passing collective bargaining reform in Wisconsin. It wasn't an easy fight, and it would have been easy just to compromise to get the howling crowds to go away. It was what I called Wisconsin’s long, strange trip:
Police insurrections.  Palace guardsCatch a Senator contests.  Doctors behaving badly.  Massive national solidarity protests which weren’tIdentity theft as political theater.  Shark jumping.  Legislators who run away to other states.  Bus bang bangs.  Protesters locking their heads to metal railings and pretending to walk like EgyptiansBeer attacksCanoe flotillas.  (alleged) Judicial chokeholds.  Tears falling on Che Guevara t-shirts at midnight.  Endless recalls.  And recounts.  Communications Directors making threats.   Judges who think they are legislators (well, I’ll grant you that one is common).  V-K DayHole-y warriors.  Cities named Speculation and Conjecture.
But in a quiet way, he just kept on keeping on. And the result, including surviving a recall election, dealt a body-blow to Democrats unlike anything any other Republican presidential candidate can claim. Walker also had other, though less obvious, conservative reforms. And he did all this as the conservative movement in Wisconsin was under full-blown assault by the John Doe prosecutors, seeking to isolate Walker and bring him up on charges. After several years of investigation and ruined lives, they never got nothing on Walker.

This weekend, Glenn Beck is leading his annual "Restoring" rally.  This year's focus is "Restoring Unity," and to that end, he organized an #AllLivesMatter march in Birmingham, Alabama. Greg Garrison reports:
Led by conservative activist and talk show host Glenn Beck, more than 20,000 people chanting "All Lives Matter" marched the historic civil rights route from Kelly Ingram Park to Birmingham City Hall this morning. "It's about taking our church out in the streets," Beck said. He said marchers came from as far away as China, Dubai and the Netherlands. Actor Chuck Norris, a conservative activist known for his martial arts, action movies and TV show "Walker, Texas Ranger," marched about two rows behind Beck. Alveda King, a niece of civil rights activist the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., marched in the front row. Bishop Jim Lowe, pastor of the predominantly black Guiding Light Church in Birmingham, co-organized the march with Beck and marched with him at the front. As a child, Lowe attended Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, where the march started, a headquarters church for the civil rights movement in Birmingham. Lowe and his sisters were in the church when a KKK bomb blew up the church and killed four little girls on Sept. 15, 1963. "Love is the answer," Lowe said as he marched. "God is the answer." Some Birmingham police officers said the crowd could have been as large as 25,000 to 30,000. It may have been the largest march in Birmingham since the civil rights marches of 1963.
Watch:

In a press conference yesterday, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said that he didn't want the Iranian legislature to approve the nuclear deal (known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA) the Associated Press reported Saturday.
Rouhani told a news conference that the deal was a political understanding reached with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, not a pact requiring parliamentary approval. The deal also says Iran would implement the terms voluntarily, he said. ... "If the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is sent to (and passed by) parliament, it will create an obligation for the government . it will mean the president, who has not signed it so far, will have to sign it," Rouhani said. "Why should we place an unnecessary legal restriction on the Iranian people?" ... The president said a parliamentary vote would benefit the U.S. and its allies, not Iran.
Similarly, Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported, "President Rouhani underlined that the submission of the JCPOA to the Parliament would mean that the president would have to sign the JCPOA, an extra legal commitment that the administration has already avoided." So Iran doesn't want to be bound legally by the JCPOA.

Donald Trump may be at war with the mainstream media, but he seems to have found safe harbor with a smaller, conservative base-oriented network. The One America News Network has about a tenth of the viewership of major mainstream outlets like Fox or CNN, but leading presidential contender Donald Trump made a point to stop by their "On Point" program, guest hosted by Sarah Palin, for ten minutes of conversation on everything from taxes to caring for veterans, and his troubles with the mainstream media. Watch: Seems a little...toned down, no?

Hillary Clinton stirred up a hornets nest with her comparison of her GOP rivals to terrorists:
“Now, extreme views about women, we expect that from some of the terrorist groups, we expect that from people who don’t want to live in the modern world—but it’s a little hard to take from Republicans who want to be the president of the United States,” Clinton said.
On Morning Joe today, the panel discussed Hillary's comments: 
Host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe Joe Scarborough lambasted Hillary Clinton for comparing her GOP rivals to terrorists, calling the remarks “gutter politics at its worst” designed to distract from her email scandal. “It was disgusting. It was absolutely disgusting,” Scarborough said. “Hillary Clinton saying that somebody who is pro-life– I mean, let’s tell the truth; she wanted us to talk about this. She wanted to throw a bright shiny object out there, so they don’t talk about the email scandal.”

I recently reported that EPA regulations that were poised to go into effect at the end of last week, broadening the scope of the agency's power under the "Waters of the United States" Act. A federal judge has blocked its implementation hours before it was due to take effect:
Yesterday, a federal district court in North Dakota granted a preliminary injunction blocking implementation of a new Environmental Protection Agency rule defining “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act. This rule is important because many of the CWA’s regulatory prohibitions, including the prohibition on developing wetlands without a federal permit, apply only in “waters of the United States” (WOTUS). The Supreme Court rebuked the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers for applying an unduly expansive WOTUS definition (see SWANCC v. U.S. Army Corps and Rapanos v. United States), and this rule is an effort to reassert and clarify the scope of federal regulatory jurisdiction under the CWA.

It's safe to say that former Vice President Dick Cheney is not a fan of Obama, especially with regard to foreign policy. While Obama is pushing congress to approve his Iran Deal, Cheney is ringing alarm bells. Rebecca Shabad of The Hill:
Cheney: Obama has 'surrendered' America's global power Former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, Liz Cheney, say President Obama has “dangerously surrendered” U.S. global leadership during his time in office. In an adapted excerpt published by The Wall Street Journal from their upcoming book, "Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America," the two write that until Obama became president, Republican and Democratic presidents understood the “indispensable nature of American power.” “For the most part, until the administration of Barack Obama, we delivered,” they wrote, arguing that Obama has “departed from this 75-year, largely bipartisan tradition of ensuring America’s pre-eminence and strength.” The Cheneys said Obama has “abandoned Iraq” and is “on course” to do the same in Afghanistan.
The Wall Street Journal piece by Dick and Liz Cheney can be read here. In case you missed it, Cheney appeared on the Hannity show earlier this month to discuss the Iran Deal. Needless to say, he doesn't approve: