Egalitarianism Broadens

On this day:

1863
Richmond Bread Riot: Food shortages incite hundreds of angry women to riot in Richmond, Virginia, and demand that the Confederate government release emergency supplies.
1865
American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
1865
American Civil War: The Siege of Petersburg is broken – Union troops capture the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, forcing Confederate General Robert E. Lee to retreat.
2002
Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians had retreated. A siege ensues. Ecumenism.
2004
Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt to bomb the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid. Their attack is thwarted

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A cult is a religion with no political power.--Tom Wolfe

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Obama campaigned on a slogan to "fundamentally change America." What does that mean?

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The Petersburg campaign consisted of nine months of trench warfare in which Union forces commanded by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant assaulted Petersburg unsuccessfully and then constructed trench lines that eventually extended over 30 miles (48 km) from the eastern outskirts of Richmond, Virginia, to around the eastern and southern outskirts of Petersburg. Petersburg was crucial to the supply of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's army and the Confederate capital of Richmond.
Key battles included the Battle of the Crater and the Battle of Fort Stedman.

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Egalitarianism Broadens

The one-worlders in this country, a bit behind an increasingly alarmed Europe (Asia is not participating), hope to improve upon the vision of freedom and man's individual worth and responsibility by randomizing the American population base. Why a nation would earnestly assimilate people who have no interest in its future--and, in some instances, active hostility to it--is unclear. Yet such an effort is underway.

Many of the new breed Americans see the country as a theme park where they can hunt the locals for sport. One such pioneer recently shot a young girl in Chicago, an event that seems at best casual. He likely was uninformed of her right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
He also has a case of open tuberculosis.

Consistent with previous years, in 2025, TB disease disproportionally affected non-U.S.–born persons. Among non-U.S.–born persons, there were 7,858 (77%) provisionally reported TB cases, with a corresponding rate of 15.4 per 100,000 persons. Among U.S.-born persons, there were 2,252 (22%) provisionally reported TB cases with a corresponding rate of 0.8 per 100,000 persons.

This is a serious, communicable illness that American science has been trying to wipe out-- with a lot of success--for 100 years.
One wonders if our eagerness to be unselective in our immigrant population might have some medical limits. 

Maybe they have a misunderstanding of 'white plague.' Or maybe they see third-world illnesses as egalitarian. But seemingly, these people don't feel an obligation to protect Americans medically, either.

Immigration

On this day:

588 BC
Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah’s reign. The siege lasts until July 23, 586 BC.
1493
Christopher Columbus sets sail for Spain from Hispaniola, ending his first voyage to the New World.
1559
Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey, London.
1870
A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the United States Democratic Party with a donkey (“A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion” by Thomas Nast for Harper’s Weekly).
1919
Boston Molasses Disaster: A large molasses tank in Boston, bursts and a wave of molasses rushes through the streets, killing 21 people and injuring 150 others.
1919
Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, are tortured and murdered by the Freikorps.
2004 

Emma is born.

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AOC has introduced a laughable distortion purposefully into a topic that should be beyond debate: insider trading and conflict of interest in Congress. She said the laws under consideration favor the rich lawmakers. So the successful thieves get special treatment? Isn't that the way all governments work?

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NASA’s Crew-11 leaves the International Space Station in the facility’s first medical evacuation after an astronaut suffered a medical episode.

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"White House post nods to racist, far-right subculture, extremism expert says." This is a headline from The Guardian. 

How can there be a jobs problem when someone is hiring 'extremism experts'?

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Germany has sent troops to Greenland, but not to Ukraine.

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Immigration

In December 2023, China announced visa-free entry for citizens of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia. Almost all of Europe has been added since then. Travelers from five Latin American countries and Uzbekistan became eligible last month, followed by four in the Middle East. The total will grow to 75 on July 16 with the addition of Azerbaijan.

About two-thirds of the countries have been granted visa-free entry on a one-year trial basis.

The United States faces a shortage of high-IQ workers, yet instead of treating international talent as resource, every immigrant is cast as a threat. Today, it can take months to years just to get an interview to visit the US. At the same time, we are deporting international students, making them feel unwelcome, cutting research funding, and, as a result, losing ground in the competition for academic talent.

Attracting global talent is not China’s strength—the world’s best would rather join the United States. But if America abandons the openness that has long underpinned its exceptionalism, it will squander one of its biggest advantages and decline into a second-rate power.--Tabarrok

Aside from the obvious outliers who are allowed to roam free, America is the great and successful nation of modern times. We have always needed good people because our demands grow with our vision. 

The special situation of illegal immigration is cluttering the news, but should not be a factor in our national life. Selecting high-quality immigrants should be the easiest thing in the world. Not being able to do so can only imply a betrayal of the nation's founding principles, national vision, and effort.

Immigrant Rights and Wrongs

On this day:

1914
Austria-Hungary issues an ultimatum to Serbia demanding Serbia to allow the Austrians to determine who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Serbia will reject those demands and Austria will declare war on July 28.
1929
The Fascist government in Italy bans the use of foreign words.
1945
The post-war legal processes against Philippe Pétain begin.
1952
General Muhammad Naguib leads the Free Officers Movement (formed by Gamal Abdel Nasser, the real power behind the coup) in overthrowing King Farouk of Egypt.
1967
12th Street Riot: in Detroit, Michigan, one of the worst riots in United States history begins on 12th Street in the predominantly African American inner city. It will leave 43 killed, 342 injured and 1,400 buildings burned.
1968
Glenville Shootout: in Cleveland, Ohio, a violent shootout between a Black Militant organization led by Ahmed Evans and the Cleveland Police Department occurs. During the shootout, a riot begins and lasts for five days.
1972
The United States launch Landsat 1, the first Earth-resources satellite.
1983
The Sri Lankan Civil War begins with the killing of 13 Sri Lanka Army soldiers by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Terrorist group. In the subsequent riots of Black July, about 1,000 Tamils are slaughtered, some 400,000 Tamils flee to neighbouring Tamil Nadu, India and many find refuge in Europe and Canada.
1995
Comet Hale-Bopp is discovered; it will become visible to the naked eye nearly a year later.


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Just weeks after Elon Musk’s xAI raised $10 billion through sales of stock and debt, the startup is working with a trusted financier to secure up to $12 billion more for its ambitious expansion plans.

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The Guardian has an article implying that autocracies may not have the world's interests in mind.

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Families of the four University of Idaho murder victims will get the opportunity to speak directly to their children's admitted killer, Bryan Kohberger, at his sentencing. The confrontation of a criminal by his victims and their families is peculiar. We grope for justice, and closure can not be declared.

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One of the oldest civil rights organizations in the country now warns that the administration's policies have thrust Black Americans — and the entire country — into a "state of emergency."

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Immigrant Rights and Wrongs

"Our children and grandchildren may yet curse the day we began hyping race and ethnicity. There are countries where that has led to slaughters in the streets, but you cannot name a country where it has led to greater harmony.

Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.

One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain.

The old adage about giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish has been updated by a reader: Give a man a fish and he will ask for tartar sauce and French fries! Moreover, some politician who wants his vote will declare all these things to be among his “basic rights.”

Thanksgiving may be our most old-fashioned holiday. Gratitude itself seems out of date at a time when so many people feel “entitled” to whatever they get—and indignant that they didn’t get more.

It is a little much when people come to this country preaching hatred against others and demanding tolerance for themselves."--Sowell

America has always been a refuge from Europe's homicidal fads. But these ancient warriors with their ancient grudges and ridiculous homicidal sociologies always come here because it is safe. You can berate a warlord from the safety of Newark when, back home, that warlord would kill you.

It is debatable whether America should allow itself to be the ground zero for the world's revolutions and bitter harangues. Perhaps we should make sure our visitors understand the house rules. The Constitution does not protect you from us, but us from you. 

That's why we're here.

America the Observant

On this day:
1099
First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of Jerusalem.
1298
Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Falkirk – King Edward I of England and his longbowmen defeat William Wallace and his Scottish schiltrons outside the town of Falkirk.
1706
The Acts of Union 1707 are agreed upon by commissioners from the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, which, when passed by each country’s Parliaments, lead to the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1797
Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Battle between Spanish and British naval forces during the French Revolutionary Wars. During the Battle, Rear-Admiral Nelson is wounded in the arm and the arm had to be partially amputated.
1937
New Deal: the United States Senate votes down President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.
1942
Holocaust: the systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begins.
1946
King David Hotel bombing: a Zionist underground organisation, the Irgun, bombs the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, site of the civil administration and military headquarters for Mandate Palestine, resulting in 91 deaths.
2003
Members of 101st Airborne of the United States, aided by Special Forces, attack a compound in Iraq, killing Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay, along with Mustapha Hussein, Qusay’s 14-year-old son, and a bodyguard.
2005
Jean Charles de Menezes is killed by police as the hunt begins for the London Bombers responsible for the 7 July 2005 London bombings and the 21 July 2005 London bombings.
2011
Norway is the victim of twin terror attacks, the first being a bomb blast which targeted government buildings in central Oslo, the second being a massacre at a youth camp on the island of Utøya.

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Can a society subsidize what opposes it?

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What, exactly, is Gabbard saying about the intel agencies?

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Both the left and the right are collectivist and opposed to the individualism of classical liberalism and libertarianism. This distinction between collective and individual choices seems to be the main line of fracture in modern ideologies.--Lemieux


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Suwinski is hitting .103. Skenes is pitching 1.95

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The French government proposed cutting two public holidays per year to boost economic growth as part of a budget plan that it billed as a “moment of truth” to avoid a financial crisis. But in a country where vacations are sacred, the idea — unsurprisingly — prompted outrage across the political spectrum, suggesting it may have little chance of becoming law.

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America the Observant

For a government so often criticized for its decisions, the American government is slow to take the reins. America evolves over time, often through significant mistakes. Our own 'dialectic.' We mature into things.

Now we are at a historic moment of opportunity—one that offers serious options. The world remains in its traditional chaos: wars, ethnic cleansings, nations pursuing historically disastrous economic policies, and incompetent, grasping masters threatening citizens, their families, and their futures. America's citizenry is protected because its constitution has withstood all the usual foolish and malicious attacks, and it upholds a political philosophy that encourages personal and economic freedom and growth. It is the world's destination for liberty and safety. 

But America has a problem, one unrelated to the usual malice and envy. It needs people to fill in its shrinking population. It needs innovators and workers to maintain its momentum.

Why is this a crisis and not an opportunity? Why are we not advertising and holding lively interviews, looking for people who understand our life and can improve our country, instead of passively watching our borders collapse and our city streets burn?

 

'Disappearence' Shortfalls

On this day:

365
A tsunami devastates the city of Alexandria, Egypt. The tsunami was caused by the Crete earthquake estimated to be 8.0 on the Richter Scale. 5,000 people perished in Alexandria, and 45,000 more died outside the city.
1403
Battle of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeats rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire, England.
1861
American Civil War: First Battle of Bull Run – at Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war begins and ends in a victory for the Confederate army.
1925
Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.
1961
Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 4 Mission – Gus Grissom piloting Liberty Bell 7 becomes the second American to go into space (in a suborbital mission).
1969
Space Race: Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon, during the Apollo 11 mission (July 20 in North America).
1973
In the Lillehammer affair in Norway, Israeli Mossad agents kill a waiter whom they mistakenly thought was involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre.
2005
Four terrorist bombings, occurring exactly two weeks after the similar July 7 bombings, target London’s public transportation system. All four bombs fail to detonate and all four suspected suicide bombers are captured and later convicted and imprisoned for long terms.
2011
NASA’s Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135

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While I have no sympathy for the pompous, posing, insincerity of the "Washington Redskin Debate," I find the president's entrance into the debate terminally wearying.

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Sixteen years after Bitcoin was created, there are still no clear use cases for cryptocurrency that don’t involve illegal activity. Yet at the time of writing the value of crypto assets was approximately $3.3 trillion. . . .--Krugman

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There must be a shift in polling. FOX News is focusing on deporting only illegal immigrants who are rapists and murderers. Yet, legal entry into the U.S. is provided for by law, and illegal entry is illegal, requiring the identification and deportation of the offender by law, regardless of whether the individual is a nice person.

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The worst team in the AL played three games against the Pirates this weekend, scored 27 runs, and allowed 6.

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'Disappearance' Shortfalls

If you've missed a recent decade or two of world events, you can always wait for them to show up again in America.

The end of the nineteenth century was filled with episodes where Eastern European anarchists immigrated to the U.S. and looked for a tsar to blow up. Desperate to participate in the bloody European hangover of WWI, America joined WWII. Trying to catch up on what they missed in the bloody revolutions in imagined class warfare, America joined the Korean War, then the Vietnam War. Having missed literally centuries of pointless combat in the Middle East, the U.S. joined the endless fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Africa.

More recently, violent campus groups opposing the creation of Israel in 1948 have been visited upon us. And, of course, the undead have returned in the person of Mamdani.

When AI recalls falsities, they are called 'hallucinations;' when Americans apply foreign experiences to America, it is called 'journalism.' We are now suffering another flashback completely foreign to us.

The hills are alive with the accusations of American 'disappearings.'

Where, you ask, have I heard that phrase? South America. Up to 30,000 people were “disappeared” by the state during Argentina’s “Dirty War,” a period during which the country’s military dictatorship turned against its own people from the mid-1970s to early 1983. San Salvador picked up the banner early this century. 

Now tens of millions of people are pouring across the U.S. border to safety and freedom, and, when apprehended, have raised the echo of 'disappearing.' They actually have the audacity to accuse America of the crimes of the hellholes they are fleeing.

And, true to the American tsar shortages the anarchists experienced in the past, the 'disappearance' shortages in the U.S. have inspired some illegal immigrants just to make them up.

We will have to see if, like some of the assessments of the anarchist nonsense, these episodes are viewed 'in the proper historic and social context' of the mendacious and angry immigrants and whether their imagined plight is supported by an understanding and charitable Press.

California Burnin'

On this day:

1190
Third Crusade: Frederick I Barbarossa drowns in the river Saleph while leading an army to Jerusalem.
1793
French Revolution: Following the arrests of Girondin leaders, the Jacobins gain control of the Committee of Public Safety installing the revolutionary dictatorship.
2003
The Spirit Rover is launched, beginning NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover mission.

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Is charity with borrowed money superior to self-indulgence with borrowed money?

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California Burnin'

LA is beginning to burn again. Fortunately, the heroes responsible for the brilliant reaction to the wildfires are still in office.

The demonstrations are said to be mostly peaceful. However, a mostly sterile solution is not sterile, as a mostly virtuous woman is not virtuous. There is no Richter Scale for violence, but if there were, burning police cars would probably be pretty high.

The peaceful, police-car-burning demonstrators have support. There are actually politicians and press representatives who think that confrontations with the police, complete with felonies, should be tolerated. Maybe even encouraged--in the name of free expression. Perhaps they long for the days of moral outrage--like those of the Vietnam demonstrations--when there was moral outrage, when the short-memoried public held Nixon responsible for the Asian adventures, when people felt more than manufactured and processed ideas of right and wrong.

But riots are not assembly. Arson will not highlight a wrong. The immigration riots are a mess. People are burning flags of the country they say they want to stay in and waving flags of the countries they say they don't want to return to. To the non-academic eye, that looks stupid at best, subversive at worst. And the Left, which caused this immigration problem in the first place, is now mindlessly doubling down and opposing its solution.

What will the stability-seeking guy who just wants to get to work in the morning think?

It looks like a PR event designed by their enemies.

Underwriting Invasion

CBS--yes, CBS--did a story on 'dark money' inpolitics. It is hair-raising.
Here's a segment:
"Arabella is a dark money juggernaut. Through its constellation of nonprofits, it brought in close to $3 billion in dark money in the 2022 cycle. The behemoth in the Arabella network, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, raised nearly $380 million in that same cycle. In 2020 it steered $410 million to help defeat Donald Trump and win back the Senate for Democrats."

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New data from the National Institutes of Health reveals the agency and its scientists collected $710 million in royalties during the pandemic, from late 2021 through 2023. These are payments made by private companies, like pharmaceuticals, to license medical innovations from government scientists.

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Bill Guan, the chief financial officer of the right-leaning Epoch Times, was indicted Monday on charges of allegedly participating in a massive money laundering scheme.

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Underwriting Invasion


The United Nations has been handing out debit cards and cash vouchers to aspiring illegal border crossers on their way north to the U.S. southern border.

The UN, with the helping hands of 248 named non-governmental organizations, is indeed giving debit cards to illegal migrants — funded, in large part, by US taxpayers.

'Despite the R4V plan title naming Venezuelans as recipients of this aid operation, the document’s fine print says the largesse goes to “all nationalities” and “multiple other nationalities.”
In a nutshell, the UN and its advocacy partners want to spread $372 million in “Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA),” and “Multipurpose Cash Assistance (MCA)” to 624,300 immigrants who in-transit to the United States during 2024.'

In-transit. A new verb.

That money is most often handed out, other UN documents show, as pre-paid, rechargeable debit cards but also hard “cash in envelopes,” bank transfers, and mobile transfers the U.S. border-bound travelers can use for whatever they want.

This is only one part of a much broader UN hemisphere-wide vision that aims to spend $1.59 billion assisting about three million people in 17 countries who emigrated from their home nations.

The U.N. is no bland, distant bureaucracy. It is an active participant in a mostly anti-Western attitude which it shamelessly pursues with Western dollars. Don't forget that at least 12 employees of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees participated in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, including kidnap and murder. U.N. personnel were kidnappers and murderers of U.N. members aided and abetted by non-members. It is America that is the bland, distant bureaucracy, a constant victim of foreign predators and domestic parasites.

The Shieldmaiden

Pittsburgh police said the Walgreens pharmacy in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood was robbed at gunpoint on Thursday night.

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A 2017 paper in the New England Journal of Medicine examining road closures for marathons found a small but significant increase in mortality among people with heart trouble on marathon days, apparently caused in part by ambulance delays.

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An American-funded project, listed as “Gender-inclusive demining for sustainable futures in Ukraine,” has a funding budget of $4 million.

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX has initiated discussions about selling existing shares at a price that could value the closely held company at roughly $200 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

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The Shieldmaiden

A wonderful sobriquet has appeared, applied to the fierce Dutch conservative with the wonderful name,
Eva Vlaardingerbroek.

 

Eva Vlaardingerbroek

She has been nicknamed the "Shieldmaiden of the Far Right."

She is an unashamed Christian Dutch Nationalist and she hates immigration in Europe. She spoke recently at CPAC Hungry and, as usual, drove everyone nuts. (Her speech has been blocked on YouTube. The one place I found the written speech was infected.)

One of her recurrent notions is that nationalism is not inherently bad, dangerous, or a prelude to war-- but expansionism is.

Shieldmaiden!

Eliminating the Middle Man

 

Could our personalized AI companions of the future be subpoenaed to testify against us in court?--Altman

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The (London) Times reports "Nervous drivers pay to be whisked across America’s scariest bridge." 10-30 clients daily, each paying $40 per trip to cross a Maryland bridge.

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Eliminating the Middle Man

Ciudad Juárez’ International Airport has become the main turf fought over by the Sinaloa and the Juarez cartel for being where thousands of migrants arrive every day in hopes of making it across the border into Texas.

But above both criminal organizations is a new cartel: the Mexican Institute of Immigration (INM for its Spanish acronym). The top immigration authority in Mexico is now operating as its own criminal entity extorting, kidnapping and smuggling migrants all across the country.

Although the two main cartels in Juárez are still fighting each other to get full control of the juicy business of human smuggling, the INM is making bigger bucks by selling immigration permits to foreigners to be able to freely travel through Mexico, an advantage Mexican officials have over criminal organizations.

Each permit, according to sources who have acquired one, is being sold for up to 50,000 Mexican pesos, roughly $2,000. Without one of these, migrants are stuck at the Mexican southern border for months and end up having to pay sometimes more as a bribe to the same INM officials to let them out of Mexican southern border towns like Tapachula.

INM officials offer to get them in touch with a human smuggler right outside the airport, for a few extra thousands of pesos. The INM officials are making a circular business by asking migrants for cash in exchange for a “plug” and asking cartels a fee to hand over business to them. --Saga

SatStats/U.S. Census Immigration Numbers

Solar is powering a large share of California’s energy needs during the day and batteries are now powering a significant share at night.
Since 2020, California has installed more giant batteries than anywhere in the world apart from China. They can soak up excess solar power during the day and store it for use when it gets dark.
Those batteries play a pivotal role in California’s electric grid, partially replacing fossil fuels in the evening. Between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. on April 30, for example, batteries supplied more than one-fifth of California’s electricity and, for a few minutes, pumped out 7,046 megawatts of electricity, akin to the output from seven large nuclear reactors.--nyt

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“A pro-Biden coalition does not exist, but an anti-Trump one does.”--a quote appearing in Peggy Noonan

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SatStats/U.S. Census Immigration Numbers 

More than half of the foreign-born population in the United States lives in just four states — California, Texas, Florida, and New York — and they grew older and more educated over the past dozen years, according to a new report released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

In 2022, the foreign-born population was estimated to be 46.2 million people, or almost 14% of the U.S. population, with most states seeing double-digit percentage increases in the last dozen years, according to the figures from the bureau's American Community Survey.

In California, New Jersey, New York, and Florida, foreign-born individuals comprised more than 20% of each state’s population. They constituted 1.8% of West Virginia's population, the smallest rate in the U.S.

Half of the foreign-born residents in the U.S. were from Latin America, although their composition has shifted in the past dozen years, with those from Mexico dropping by about 1 million people and those from South America and Central America increasing by 2.1 million people.

The share of the foreign population from Asia went from more than a quarter to under a third during that time, while the share of African-born went from 4% to 6%.

Of Elephants and Rooms

 

Of Elephants and Rooms

More and more of our examinations are done through a haze of insincerity and self-interest. From pharmaceutical investigations to political surveys to environmental impact studies, we are inundated with information shaped and filtered by outcome and intent.

Illegal immigration is a great example. We debate over the accuracy of "illegal" vs. "undocumented," as if that makes a difference.

An interesting subset is illegal Chinese immigration, which should be easier to distill.

In 2021, 342 illegal Chinese nationals were encountered by U.S. officials at the border. (N.B. "encountered.") In 2022 there were over 2000. In 2023 there were 24,125 illegal Chinese encountered. In 2024, so far, there have been 22,223 illegal Chinese nationals encountered entering the U.S. illegally.

Now, movement in China is scrutinized. Those guys did not end up on the border simply searching for banned books to read.

Another way of putting those numbers is that in the last two years American immigration officials have encountered 45 Chinese battalions. Battalions.

The administration says the border is "secure." Beyond "secure," "illegal," and "undocumented," why would a state allow this?

 

Chinese Immigration

Results from a global recruitment survey:
93% of Gen Zers have stood up an interviewer.
87% managed to charm their way through interviews, secure the job, and sign the contract, only to leave their new job on the very first day.
Their reason for doing so? According to the survey, it makes them “feel in charge of their career."

***

Finland has announced it will open 300 shooting ranges to encourage citizens to take a greater interest in national defense.

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Gutfield's great line about the New York case against Trump: "If you can't identify a victim, then the crime had to be reverse-engineered."

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Chinese Immigration

According to the strangely named U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), since October 2023, almost 16,000 Chinese migrants have attempted to cross the U.S.-Mexico border — more than doubling the previous fiscal year’s total number of Chinese migrants in a matter of months. This makes Chinese nationals the fastest-growing population to cross into the U.S. from Mexico.

CBP data reveals that from January to November of 2023, over 30,000 Chinese people were detained by border agents after crossing illegally. In 2021, meanwhile, there were only 323 crossings.

Chinese citizens now represent the fourth largest nationality to cross the Darién Gap — the dense, mountainous jungle connecting Colombia with Panama. The Darién Gap was once seen as extraordinarily dangerous to traverse, but waves of migrants have established ways to navigate it as they move northward to the U.S. Illegality paves its own way.

In June, China’s unemployment rate for 16-to-24-year-olds reached 21.3%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Fortunately for them, with the decline in their birth rate, unemployment will eventually drop a lot.

More on Illegals

A woman was taken to a hospital after she was hit by a car in Shadyside Friday.
Pittsburgh police said a woman in her 40′s was hit by a car at 5th Avenue and Morewood Avenue just before 10 a.m.
According to police, the woman was in the designated crosswalk and had the right-of-way when the driver tried to make a left turn on a green light.

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Tic Tacs are labeled as sugar free even though they are 94% sugar. As long as there’s less than half a gram of sugar, the FDA permits products to be labeled sugar free. Each Tic Tac has 0.49 grams of sugar.

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More on Illegals

Zacharia has doubled down on From's argument that processing illegals is more reasonable than stopping them first. There is a new red herring in this argument: the Republicans say that processing illegals has been managed by executive orders and should be now, the Democrats say that executive action is inappropriate. So the small government party wants more government and the large government party wants less. The inconsistencies here are paralyzingly overwhelming. (Remember, Biden had a majority in the House and Senate his first two years.)

Note this from Voice of America, Feb. 2, 2021, right after Biden's election: "U.S. President Joe Biden signed executive orders Tuesday to start dismantling former President Donald Trump’s restrictive immigration policies." Biden here was using executive action to overturn Trump's earlier executive action.

The high-minded concern for executive action is an insincere smokescreen. Both parties are happy to use it. (see below) And the aim is to obscure the basic problem: how illegals are viewed. Democrats are happy to have them and want the apparatus to process them after they arrive, Republicans probably don't like them and want them held out of the country while they are processed. The debate as to how they should be evaluated is legitimate but the obscuring of the debate implies these politicians are unwilling--or at least uncomfortable--making their real reasons for their positions known.

Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Joseph R. Biden Jr. issued 131 executive orders between 2021 and 2024.

• 2024 EO 14115 1
• 2023 EO 14091 - EO 14114 24
• 2022 EO 14062 - EO 14090 29
• 2021 EO 13985 - EO 14061 77

Donald Trump

Donald Trump issued 220 executive orders between 2017 and 2021.

• 2021 EO 13971 - EO 13984 14
• 2020 EO 13902 - EO 13970 69
• 2019 EO 13857 - EO 13901 45
• 2018 EO 13820 - EO 13856 37
• 2017 EO 13765 - EO 13819 55

Barack Obama

Barack Obama issued 277 executive orders between 2009 and 2017.

• 2017 EO 13758 - EO 13764 7
• 2016 EO 13716 - EO 13757 42
• 2015 EO 13687 - EO 13715 29
• 2014 EO 13656 - EO 13686 31
• 2013 EO 13636 - EO 13655 20
• 2012 EO 13597 - EO 13635 39
• 2011 EO 13563 - EO 13596 34
• 2010 EO 13528 - EO 13562 35
• 2009 EO 13489 - EO 13527 40

George W. Bush

George W. Bush issued 291 executive orders between 2001 and 2009.

• 2009 EO 13484 - EO 13488 5
• 2008 EO 13454 - EO 13483 30
• 2007 EO 13422 - EO 13453 32
• 2006 EO 13395 - EO 13421 27
• 2005 EO 13369 - EO 13394 26
• 2004 EO 13324 - EO 13368 45
• 2003 EO 13283 - EO 13323 41
• 2002 EO 13252 - EO 13282 31
• 2001 EO 13198 - EO 13251 54

William J. Clinton

William J. Clinton issued 304 executive orders between 1994 and 2001.

• 2001 EO 13186 - EO 13197 12
• 2000 EO 13145 - EO 13185 41
• 1999 EO 13110 - EO 13144 35
• 1998 EO 13072 - EO 13109 38
• 1997 EO 13034 - EO 13071 38
• 1996 EO 12985 - EO 13033 48
• 1995 EO 12945 - EO 12984 39
• 1994 EO 12891 - EO 12944 53