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Author: Fuzzy Slippers

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Fuzzy Slippers

I am a constitutional conservative, a writer, and an editor.

Follow me on Twitter @fuzislippers

David Wolfe, a California resident, has created a video on his Facebook page showing the results of the Syrian civil war in "before" and "after" images has gone viral. Haaertz reports:

A video produced by Los Angeles resident David Wolfe showing the vast destruction since the outbreak of the civil war in Aleppo, Syria's largest city, has gone viral. Posted on Wolfe's Facebook fan page, it has been viewed more than 11 million times and shared around a quarter million times on Facebook.

The photos used to put the video together are from the Bored Panda website, which noted that vast toll in human lives and the physical damage in Aleppo since 2012, including the city's Old City, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Among the 84 people killed in the Nice terror attack were an American father and son from Austin, Texas. USA Today reports:
The two American fatalities from Thursday's terror attack in Nice, France, were a father and son from this Hill Country enclave who bonded through baseball and were on a family trip through Spain and France. Sean Copeland, 51, was vacationing with his wife, Kim, 39, and their son, Brodie, 11, along with two of Copeland’s children from a previous marriage: Maegan, 29, and Austin, 22.

We've been covering the Nice, France terrorist attack here at LI, including updates as more information becomes available.  Today, ISIS has claimed responsibility for the terror attack that killed 84 people, including two Americans, and wounded hundreds more. The New York Times reports:
The Islamic State claimed on Saturday that the man who attacked the seaside city of Nice, France, was one of the group’s “soldiers.” France’s defense minister promptly blamed the terrorist network for inspiring the assault, while its top law enforcement official said the attacker, who was not previously known to intelligence agencies, may have “radicalized himself very quickly.”

. . . .  The Islamic State had kept silent on the Nice attack until Saturday morning, when it declared, in a bulletin issued in Arabic and in English on its Amaq News Agency channel:

“Executor of the deadly operation in Nice, France, was a soldier of the Islamic State. He executed the operation in response to calls to target citizens of coalition nations, which fight the Islamic State.”

Given what we know about the Dallas sniper, it's clear to most of us what his motive was in shooting and killing five officers.  As Mary noted, not only did he tell the police negotiator that he wanted to kill "white people, especially white police officers," but he was also inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and had a long history of not respecting authority.  He was also noted to have gone "all Black Panther" and to have been hording bomb-making materials and an assortment of weapons, presumably for some future plans he may have had. Nonetheless, one prominent progressive with a history of promoting the Black Lives Matter movement is completely confused by and uncertain about the sniper's motives.

As I've previously noted, Hillary's current email scandal echoes the '90's Project X scandal in which she was also involved in hiding sensitive high level email communications.  That's not the only echo from the past:  prosecutors during the Clinton presidency weighed whether or not to charge Hillary with a crime.  They even went so far as to draw up an indictment. The Washington Post reports:
While history remembers the 1990s probe led by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr for its pursuit of President Bill Clinton over the possibility he had lied under oath about his relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky, internal documents from the inquiry show how close prosecutors came to filing charges at that time against Hillary Clinton. They even drew up a draft indictment for Clinton, which has never been made public. At issue then was legal work Clinton had performed in the 1980s while an attorney at Little Rock’s Rose Law Firm on behalf of Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan, which was owned by a business partner of the Clintons who was later convicted of fraud in connection with bad loans made by the thrift. Clinton said that her legal work was minimal and that she was unaware of the wrongdoing at Madison Guaranty.
Prosecutors, according to WaPo, weighed the likelihood of a conviction based on Hillary's then-status as First Lady.
The released records include a memo, written by Starr’s team, summarizing the evidence against Clinton. The prosecutors noted that she made numerous sworn statements between January 1994 and February 1996 that they thought “reflected and embodied materially inaccurate stories.”

Retired Lt. General Michael Flynn and the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency is reported to be on Trump's short list for the vice presidential slot. General Flynn was forced out of the DIA in 2014 amid rumors that his "management style" was "chaotic." The Washington Post reported at the time:
Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn is expected to end his tenure as DIA director this summer, about a year before he was scheduled to depart, according to officials who said Flynn faced pressure from Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. and others in recent months . . . . . . . . Flynn, who served as a top intelligence adviser to Gen. Stanley McChrystal in Iraq and Afghanistan, arrived at the DIA in July 2012 vowing to accelerate the agency’s overhaul. Asked after a public speech how he would treat employees reluctant to embrace his agenda, Flynn said he would “move them or fire them.” He drafted a blueprint that called for sending more employees overseas, being more responsive to regional U.S. military commanders, and turning analysts’ attention from the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan to a broader array of emerging national security threats.

In the wake of the horrifying and incomprehensible shootings in Dallas that left four police officers and one rapid transit officer dead and another seven people wounded, Heather MacDonald appeared on Rush's radio show. She shared statistics and asserted that the entire Black Lives Matter movement is "based on a lie." MacDonald, you may recall, made similar points on a radio podcast interview that we posted at Legal Insurrection about the Black Lives Matter movement and the threat they pose to our nation’s police officers. In that interview, MacDonald "spoke out against the crippling influence that the “Black Lives Matter” movement is having on the quality of life in the very neighborhoods where the protests are taking place":
I think this is an even more extreme example of the way this country deals with race and policing, which is to talk fanatically about police in order not to talk about the far more difficult problem of black crime.

The horrific Dallas massacre of peace officers has resulted in an amazing outpouring of support not only from celebrities and politicians but from ordinary people all across America who are reaching out to show their support for and appreciation of their local police departments. In Dallas, crowds gathered to hug and say "thank you" to Dallas PD:
Police Chief David Brown received a long and loud round of a applause before he spoke at a midday, citywide prayer service here. Police work is a job where you seldom hear the words “Thank you,” he said. The hundreds of residents who packed Thanks-Giving Square Park in downtown Dallas responded with a resounding, “THANK YOU!” After the service, which featured remarks from faith and civic leaders, musical tributes and prayers, many of those in attendance stood in line to offer their personal thanks to men and women in uniform. Soon, everyone started hugging.
In Alabama, a "thin blue line" initiative has been picked up by Alabamians eager to show their support and respect for local law enforcement:
A Texan has developed the “Safe Harbor Initiative,” using the “thin blue line” as a signal of support to community police officers, and many Alabamians are participating.

The day after Hillary Clinton's "voluntary interview" with the FBI, she appeared this morning on Meet the Press. From the NBC transcript of the interview:
CHUCK TODD: . . . .  Yesterday, the F.B.I. interviewed Hillary Clinton for about three and a half hours at its headquarters right here in Washington D.C. about the use of her private email server while she was secretary of State. I spoke with the former secretary late yesterday on MSNBC, her only interview since meeting with the F.B.I., and asked her whether the description of the interview as "civil and businesslike" was accurate. SEC. HILLARY CLINTON: Well, it was both. It was something I had offered to do since last August. I've been eager to do it and I was pleased to have the opportunity to assist the department in bringing its review to a conclusion.

Governor Andrew Cuomo's "tax-free" plan to bring technology jobs to New York has long been considered a failure, and buried in Friday afternoon's holiday weekend document dump is a report that demonstrates the degree of the latest NY boondoggle's failure. When first launched in 2014, problems with misinformation and unclear advertising that cost New Yorkers million swirled around START-UP NY. Newsmax reported at the time:
New York, rated the worst state in which to set up a business, is trying to lure entrepreneurs with a seductive new TV commercial that promises: "Move here ... and pay no taxes for 10 years." . . . . But critics say the devil is in the details: the plan, which is centered on the creation of tax-free zones, contains many regulations and exceptions that will make it hard to work as promised. . . . . The program doesn't actually guarantee 100 percent tax-free status — and it only applies to a specific segment of the business world. In other words, it's a lot more complicated than 30-second media spots put forth, says a lawyer who has dissected the program.

Elie Wiesel, a beacon of light, died today at age 87 after a prolonged illness. The Times of Israel reports:
Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Holocaust survivor and human rights activist Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel died on Saturday at the age of 87 after a prolonged illness. A survivor of the Auschwitz and Buchenwald Nazi death camps, Wiesel dedicated much of his life to Holocaust education and promoting tolerance around the world. . . . .  Soon after he won the Nobel prize, Wiesel and his wife Marion founded The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity with a mission to “combat indifference, intolerance and injustice through international dialogue and youth-focused programs that promote acceptance, understanding and equality”.

This "privilege" train has officially gone off the rails.  It's one thing for adults to argue that all white people are secretly, even unknowingly, racist and quite another to teach—systematically and purposefully—self-loathing and racist hate to 6-year-olds.  Yet that is what is happening at the progressive Bank School for Children on the Upper West Side of New York City. The New York Post reports:
An elite Manhattan school is teaching white students as young as 6 that they’re born racist and should feel guilty benefiting from “white privilege,” while heaping praise and cupcakes on their black peers. Administrators at the Bank Street School for Children on the Upper West Side claim it’s a novel approach to fighting discrimination, and that several other private New York schools are doing it, but even liberal parents aren’t buying it. They complain the K-8 school of 430 kids is separating whites in classes where they’re made to feel awful about their “whiteness,” and all the “kids of color” in other rooms where they’re taught to feel proud about their race and are rewarded with treats and other privileges.

Hillary's long-awaited date night with the FBI apparently took place this morning in Washington D.C. and lasted for 3 1/2 hours. ABC News reports:
Hillary Clinton gave a "voluntary interview" to the FBI today regarding her email arrangements while she was secretary of state, her campaign says. "Secretary Clinton gave a voluntary interview this morning about her email arrangements while she was Secretary," spokesman Nick Merrill said. "She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion. Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview." The interview occurred at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., and lasted approximately three and a half hours, according to a Clinton aide.

Anxious to shift the national conversation from the worst terror attack on U. S. soil since 9/11, Democrats see an opportunity to accomplish that while simultaneously pushing to disarm law-abiding citizens. Democrats, eager to keep their gun grabbing plans on the front burner, are taking their protest against the Second and Fourth Amendments outside their pillow fort in the House and to town halls, conference tables, and press conferences on Wednesday, June 29th, their designated "day of action." The Hill reports:
Energized by their recent takeover of the House floor, the Democrats are eying a series of tactics and events for members to bring to their home districts through the break, including a "national day of action" designed to remind voters that Republicans have refused to bring the issue on the floor. In a letter sent to all Democrats on Friday, the organizers behind the sit-in urged their colleagues to "build the momentum" created by the protest, in hopes of forcing the Republicans' hands by dint of public pressure.

Between the dust-up over Mia B. Love (R-UT) using taxpayer money ($1,160) to attend the White House Correspondence Dinner and her somewhat high unfavorables, Love is facing a tough reelection bid this November and trails her Democrat opponent Doug Owens 51-45. Recognizing that she has work to do in order to keep her seat, Love  has decided to skip the Republican National Convention. The Salt Lake Tribune reports:

Rep. Mia Love has decided to skip the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, giving up her delegate slot to focus on her re-election bid and to go on a congressional trip to Israel.

She saw no benefit in attending the gathering where Donald Trump is expected to claim the party's presidential nomination.

"I don't see any upsides to it," Love said Friday. "I don't see how this benefits the state."

Governor David Ige of Hawaii has signed into law a bill that requires gun owners in that state to be registered in an FBI database that will automatically notify police if an Hawaii resident is arrested in another state. Fox News reports:
Hawaii signed a bill Thursday to become the first state to enter gun owners into an FBI database that will automatically notify police if an island resident is arrested anywhere else in the country. Gov. David Ige said in a statement that the legislation is about community safety and responsible gun ownership. He said it will help law enforcement agencies protect Hawaii residents and visitors.

Back in 2014, the Obama administration announced its plan to "give up its last remaining authority over the technical management of the internet" by giving "the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an international nonprofit group, control over the database of names and addresses that allows computers around the world to connect to each other." The response in many quarters was less than enthusiastic. The New Republic noted at the time:
A Wall Street Journal columnist described it as “America’s Internet surrender.” Said one member of Congress: “Giving up control of ICANN will allow countries like China and Russia, that don’t place the same value in freedom of speech, to better define how the internet looks and operates.”

Four gun control measures—two sponsored by Democrats, two by Republicans—failed in the Senate on Monday. USA Today provides a brief overview of each amendment (to a DOJ spending bill):
► An amendment by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., would allow the attorney general to deny a gun sale to anyone if she has a "reasonable belief" — a lesser standard than "probable cause" — that the buyer was likely to engage in terrorism. The proposal is popularly known as the "no-fly, no-buy" amendment, but wouldn't just apply to people on the "no fly" terrorist watch list. ► An Republican alternative by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, which would require that law enforcement be alerted when anyone on the terror watch list attempts to buy a weapon from a licensed dealer. If the buyer has been investigated for terrorism within the past five years, the attorney general could block a sale for up to three days while a court reviews the sale. ► An amendment by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, would make it more difficult to add mentally ill people to the background check database, giving people suspected of serious mental illness a process to challenge that determination.