Hillary Clinton: Imagine if Trump had the IRS to go after his critics and opponents

Yeah, imagine.

China's vice foreign minister Liu Zhenmin declares most of South China Sea "China's territory"

Reported here:

Mr Liu insisted that most of the South China Sea, including the Spratly and Paracel island chains, were China’s "inherent territory". He added: "We hope that other countries will not take this opportunity to threaten China and work with China to protect the peace and stability of the South China Sea, and not let it become the origin of a war.”

Jonathan Turley rips Justice Ruth "Buzzi" Ginsburg, agrees with Trump that her statements are unethical and undermine the Supreme Court

Here:

[Trump] is right. What she did is not just wrong ethically. It undermines the integrity of the Supreme Court. it's a very serious blow to that court.

A proposed definition of "transvestite" for The Devil's Dictionary

TRANSVESTITE, noun: An utopian; an infantile person for whom the irreducible distinctions of reality are unacceptable and can readily be exchanged in a closet.

The Devil's Dictionary definition of a republic aptly captures the growing absence of law and order in America

In a republic the foundation of public order is the ever lessening habit of submission inherited from ancestors who, being truly governed, submitted because they had to. There are as many kinds of republics as there are gradations between the despotism whence they came and the anarchy whither they lead.

Are millions in America experiencing economic crisis?

If you lost your full-time middle class job in 2008 at the age of 51 and now by the age of 59 have only been able to find part-time work paying you one fifth of that, well yeah, it's a crisis.

Or maybe it's more like being slowly strangled to death because you saved enough before that to last this long, because you wouldn't still be alive to read this had you not. It's the real life version of "the continuing crisis" that used to be mocked in a monthly column at The American Spectator.

Hence our rage. Hence Trump. 

But otherwise, no, everything's just fine, sweetie.

The issue is briefly discussed here and here.

Hague Tribunal rules in favor of Philippines in South China Sea, saying China has never exercised exclusive authority over the waters

China doesn't give a damn.

Story here.

Andrea Leadsom withdraws in Britain, Theresa May to become Conservative Leader and PM by Wednesday

Cynical Brits torpedoed Leadsom by portraying her as someone who thought her traditional role as a mother gave her a leg up over her childless opponent.

Can't have that in queer-friendly England now can we?

Story here.

And yet, 71% think the economy is "rigged"

Discussed here:

 

No wonder the "rigged economy" has become one of the biggest talking points on the 2016 campaign trail. Bernie Sanders may have started it, but Donald Trump now uses that exact term and Hillary Clinton talks often about how she'll help those "left behind."

Americans have good reason to think this way. The typical middle class family is earning about the same amount of money -- just under $54,000 -- as they did in 1996, once you adjust for inflation.

Gallup: When fooling half the people all the time is good enough

50% of Americans still say Obama deserves little or no blame for the country's CURRENT economic troubles. 64% still blame Bush outright or somewhat.

Gallup, here.

On Sunday nights Drudge pays illegal aliens to write the headlines

It's hundreds, not thousands, of fringe bad actors organized by Black Lives Matter in major cities committing violence and calling for violent revolution

From the NBC story here:

Around 100 protesters were taken into custody in Saint Paul, while more than 100 people were arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police in both cities said. ... In Saint Paul, protesters blocked Interstate 94 ... Authorities used smoke bombs when 200 protesters refused to leave the roadway just after midnight. ...

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, hundreds of protesters gathered ...

Several hundred protesters took to the streets of San Francisco, blocking several roads and ramps to get on and off the Bay Bridge. ...

In central California, several hundred protesters blocked several intersections as they marched against police brutality in central Fresno. ...

In Chicago, hundreds of protesters held demonstrations downtown Saturday, and a group attempted to disrupt the a city-sponsored food and music festival. ...

Hundreds of people also marched in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale Saturday as part of the Black Lives Matter movement ....

A protest march was also held in Philadelphia. "Clearly this is REVOLUTION time. We know this," an organizer wrote on Facebook. Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, several hundred people broke off from Pittsburgh's 200th anniversary parade and marched to a courthouse to denounce the shootings of black men. ...

More than 150 people also gathered in downtown Newport, Rhode Island, in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The current very strong El Nino is now 15 months long, averaging 1.45 on the index, and looks about done

This El Nino looks about done, with the last running 3-month mean value coming to just 0.7 on the index. Anything below 0.5 next time will mean we are truly finished with it. 

Five months after peak, the fall-off has come to almost 70% of peak value, a little less impressive than the fall-off of over 78% similarly measured for the 1997-98 episode.

The 1997-98 very strong El Nino was 13 months long and averaged 1.56 on the index.

The 1982-83 VSE was 15 months long and averaged 1.33.

The weather will be a changin'.

Flashback Hillary Clinton 1996: Not just gangs of kids but superpredators who must be brought to heel

Here.

Now she's excusing their violence.

Blacks commit homicides at a rate 8x higher than whites, but Hillary says it's whites who need to change

Hillary quoted here:

“I’m going to be talking to white people, we’re the ones who have to start listening to the legitimate cries coming from our African-American fellow citizens,” she said.

US Department of Justice here, reporting on the period 1980-2008:

The offending rate for blacks (34.4 per 100,000) was almost 8 times higher than the rate for whites (4.5 per 100,000).

Loretta Lynch would never say to the Tea Party what she said to her precious protesters: "Don't be discouraged"

Here:

[S]he urged peaceful protesters not to give up.

“I want you to know that your voice is important,” Lynch said Friday during a news conference at the Justice Department. “Do not be discouraged by those who would use your lawful actions as cover for their heinous violence. We will continue to safeguard your constitutional rights and to work with you in the difficult mission of building a better nation and a brighter future.”

Why term limits for political offices in Michigan is wrong-headed

In short because it's harder to hit a moving target. By the time the voters catch on, they're gone.

Hillary Clinton's seven perjuries before Congress: Clinton v Comey July 2016

Clinton: "I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email”.

Comey: “There was classified material emailed".

Clinton: “There was nothing marked classified on my emails, either sent or received”.

Comey: “There were a small number of portion markings on, I think, three of the documents. I don't think that our investigation established she was actually particularly sophisticated with respect to classified information and the levels and treatment. Even if information is not marked ‘classified’ in an email, participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it".

Clinton: “It [her private e-mail set up] was allowed, but it was not a good choice”.

Comey: “You could be walked out [for that at the FBI] or, depending on the nature of the facts, you could be reprimanded".

Clinton: “I provided the department … with all of my work-related emails, all that I had”.

Comey:  "The FBI also discovered several thousand work-related e-mails that were not in the group of 30,000 that were returned by Secretary Clinton to State in 2014."

Clinton: “I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and for my personal emails instead of two”.

Comey: "[She] used multiple devices during the four years of her term as secretary of state".

Clinton: "“The FBI has the server that was used during the tenure of my State Department service”.

Comey: "Secretary Clinton used several different servers and administrators of those servers during her four years at the State Department, and used numerous mobile devices to view and send e-mail on that personal domain. As new servers and equipment were employed, older servers were taken out of service, stored, and decommissioned in various ways." 

Clinton: “There were no security breaches”.

Comey: "[W]e assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal email account".

Read the whole thing here at The Hill.

The communist "Party for Socialism and Liberation" infiltrated the protests this week against police brutality

The PSL advocates a revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and introduction of socialism where profit from labor is prohibited.

Has anyone asked whether its violent rhetoric had anything to do with the sniper attacks on the police in Dallas?

Probably not Loretta Lynch.

John Kass declares himself a Clinton loather because being a Clinton hater is just irrational

Here:

Instead, I'm probably something of a Clinton-Loather. Hate is about the loss of control, like the barking of a dog or someone who shrieks into the wind or at a crowd. Loathing takes time and consideration. And I've had years of watching the Clintons lie and dissemble and tell partial truths and get away with it, and take advantage of the principles of honorable men such as James Comey.