There Is No Voter Fraud [to be seen]

For John, BLUF:  The myth is that voter fraud is a myth.  Depending on good will to keep a system clean is to misunderstand human nature.  Everything else has auditors and audits, because we don't trust people to always do the right thing.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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I have been assured by Friends and Relatives that "voter fraud" is a myth Republicans tell each other.

Thus this story must be a myth, including the City names.  This Powerline report, from Mr John Hinderacker, talks to the campaign for the Democratic Farm Labor Party (DFL) nomination, between incumbent State Representative Phyllis Kahn and challenger Mohamud Noor.

The race first came to widespread attention when a fight broke out between Kahn and Noor supporters at a precinct caucus. Next, in a historic first, a Democrat finally stumbled across voter fraud in Minnesota:  [Extract from the Strib]

The Hennepin County attorney’s office is investigating whether a private mailbox center in Minneapolis’ Cedar-Riverside neighborhood has been improperly used as an address for more than 140 voters.

State records show that 419 Cedar Avenue S. has been used by some of the voters as far back as 2008. [Ed.: In other words, since Al Franken's 2008 campaign.]

No one lives at the address, which is a Somali-dominated commercial building housing several small businesses and a popular mail center.

The reference to Somali voters is not to Somali voters in Somalia, but rather to Somali immigrants living in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  US Citizens, one presumes.

Regards  —  Cliff

Funding Hillary

For John, BLUF:  Everyone looks for the loopholes.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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At The Washington Post today reporters Philip Rucker and Rosalind S Helderman write an article headlined "At time of austerity, eight universities spent top dollar on Hillary Clinton speeches".  The lede plus one:

At least eight universities, including four public institutions, have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for Hillary Rodham Clinton to speak on their campuses over the past year, sparking a backlash from some student groups and teachers at a time of austerity in higher education.

In one previously undisclosed transaction, the University of Connecticut — which just raised tuition by 6.5 percent — paid $251,250 for Clinton to speak on campus in April.  Other examples include $300,000 to address UCLA in March and $225,000 for a speech scheduled to occur in October at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

We are talking hundreds of thousands of dollars.  The InstaPundit said:

IT’S BASICALLY THE ACADEMIC ESTABLISHMENT LAUNDERING CONTRIBUTIONS FOR AN ALLY

If I was as smart as Jack Mitchell I would cruise the Internet and see how Senator E Warren is doing in this area.  Frankly, I wouldn't bother with Senator Ed Markey, from Maryland, since I can't imagine many being willing to offer a penny for his thoughts.  I would be interested in US Rep Niki Tsongas.

Back to Hillary, wasn't she the person who was broke when she and her husband left the White House in January 2001?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Your Local SWAT Charity

For John, BLUF:  Did Lois Lerner know about this?.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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At the blog Arms & The Law Mr David Hardy wrote yesterday, "SWAT Teams as Public Charities?"

I find this story troubling.  ACLU was seeking to compile data on how often SWAT teams are called out in Massachusetts.  It found that about 3/4 of LE agencies in the State organize their SWAT teams under "Law Enforcement Councils," which are entirely funded from LE agency budgets, but insist they are separately incorporated as 501(c) tax-exempt charities, and thus are not subject to public records requirements.

Of course there are some interesting implications, such as SWAT Teams being stripped of the immunity Police Officers normally rely on.

You are a member of the ACLU, and the NRA, aren't you?&nBsp; Don't just count on Congress and the Courts to protect your rights.  Get a public advocate.

Regards  —  Cliff

The People

For John, BLUF:  At the end of the day The People trump the Constitution, or so the Declaation of Independence seems to say.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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This is an item from the Instapundit, which suggests The People are showing their unhappiness in tangible ways (most of this is Southern California):

IT SEEMS TO ME THAT WE’RE SEEING MORE DIRECT POPULAR ACTION AGAINST GOVERNMENT: Protesters force buses carrying undocumented immigrants to leave Murrieta. “A group of 140 Central American migrants who entered the United States illegally were flown from Texas to Lindbergh Field on Tuesday and then bused to a U.S. Border Patrol facility in Murrieta, where crowds of angry protesters prompted authorities to take them instead to San Ysidro.”

From the linked item we have this quote:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lauren Mack declined to disclose where the migrants were being taken, but by late afternoon, the buses were seen pulling into a Customs and Border Protection facility in San Ysidro.

I am bothered that we are bringing fairly large numbers of non-citizens, who are in the United States without the proper paperwork, into various communities and then the Federal Government is declining to disclose where these individuals are going.  Like each of us, these individuals have to be somewhere, and we need to share the burden across our Republic, even Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.  However, planning by local communities requires the sharing of information.  I don't think that information is being shared.

Regards  —  Cliff

Fireworks

For John, BLUF:  When laws make little sense to the People, they tend to ignore them.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From the E W Scripps Florida media operation, T C Palm, we have a fireworks story, "Patriotic Pest Control".

The coming of Independence Day means fireworks season - and the beginning of the institutionalized charade behind their sale in Florida.  In the Sunshine State, one does not buy a bottle rocket for recreation; one buys it to scare birds away from farms and fisheries.

That's right: Explosives for pest control.

Technically speaking, consumer fireworks are illegal in Florida.  But nearly 60 years ago, state lawmakers passed an exception - now the only one of its kind in the United States - for fireworks purchases by farms and fish hatcheries.

That's how vendors, including those in the ubiquitous tents that spring up along Florida roadsides, have gotten around the general fireworks prohibition for years.

They simply ask customers to sign forms saying they're buying under an agricultural or other exemption.

It may not be true, but our experience of Government suggests it could be true.  That is the sad part.

As for The City of Lowell and last Tuesday's Ordnance against fire works, with a $300 fine, I heard fireworks in the neighborhood again Sunday evening.  Someone tried to convince me that those were in Tewksbury.  Maybe.

Regards  —  Cliff

For the Fourth—"We Are All Americans"

For John, BLUF:  What is Citizenship anyway?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From Breitbart House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi dissolves all borders in the Western Hemisphere.

Pelosi explained, "We are all Americans -- north and south in this hemisphere," and urged America to see this as not a crisis but an opportunity "to be helpful."  She also said she wished she could simply "take home" the thousands of children temporarily housed in the overburden facilities.

Ms Pelosi gives us a sort of riff on that famous Rahm Emanuel quip to The Wall Street Journal regarding the financial crisis, back in 2008:

You never let a serious crisis go to waste.  And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.

And the immigration situation at our Southern Border is a crisis.

And as Piven and Cloward point out, a crisis is how you bring the system down.

Regards  —  Cliff

US Intel and ISIL (The New Caliphate)

For John, BLUF:  It takes a brave person to speak truth to power.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Reporter Bill Gertz, of The Washington Free Beacon, had this article on 1 July, "CIA Under Fire for Failure in Iraq".  "Critics say agency did not provide adequate warning of Islamic State attack".

Terminology is changing.  Having learned that it is ISIL vice ISIS (L for Levant).  Now it is just IS, for Islamic State (IS).  The declared Caliphate claims control of territory in Syria and Iraq.

My sense is the article is running toward rubbish.

For example, as per the article, the soon to retire DIA Director, Army LTG Michael Flynn testified back in February that ISIL would be able to take and hold ground.  Where was the White House back then, or the Department of State, not to mention the Press?  What policies were proposed by the various columnists?

Dr Sebastian Gorka, a counterterrorism specialist and professor at the Marine Corps University, said the intelligence failure was partly a result of politicization of intelligence.

“The fundamental failure is a result of politics infecting intelligence analysis,” Gorka said.

“This administration is ideologically wedded to the narrative that Afghanistan was the ‘good’ war and Iraq the ‘bad’ war since that is the platform that got the president elected originally,” he said.  “As a result Iraq, and events occurring inside Iraq, we’re not allowed to be important.”

Gorka also said another problem is the White House’s limiting its anti-terrorism policies to a single organization—al Qaeda—and not the ideology of jihad and its adherents that has prevented accurate understanding of the threat.

And there you have it.  As usual, the answer was out there, but possibly lost in the noise of other intelligence, conflicting policies and political agendas.

Regards  —  Cliff