PrairiePundit

Washington Post: Democratic candidates veer left, ditching successful midterm strategy Embracing liberal positions on immigration, health care, taxes and abortion, the Democratic presidential field has abandoned the strategy that propelled the party to a landslide victory in the 2018 midterms. Taking away Americans healthcare insurance and replacing it with the functional equivalent of the VA is extremism that should not be rewarded.  At the same time promising free healthcare for illegals is also a loser.  BTW, 2018 was not a landslide.  Democrats picked up several seats in close races with what looks like a fraudulent "vote harvesting" scheme, especially in Southern California.  While some candidates ran as moderates they have backed the liberal extremists on key votes making them vulnerable for having practiced the politics of fraud.

Mark Weaver: Sixty-five years ago this month, there was a whiplash-level turning point in history. An exasperated attorney for the Army was tired of hard-charging Communist-exposer Senator Joseph McCarthy outing the names of alleged communists during a televised hearing. That lawyer asked the question many others were thinking: " Have you no sense of decency, sir? " Communism was and is serious business. It was the executioner’s theme for millions murdered in the Soviet Union, China, Cambodia and elsewhere. McCarthy used that specter to punish his enemies and amass political power. Many historians identify that moment as the first stumble in McCarthyism’s downfall. But McCarthy’s true blunder was shaming with too broad a stroke, as some accusations were well-founded. When the Iron Curtain tumbled down, official documentation emerged that verified what many suspected all along: there were Soviet spies in our government . So, if McCarthy was substantively correct, why did...

Dov Zakheim: The crisis over the Iranian downing of an American Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle has cooled somewhat but could flare up at any time. President Trump was right to call off a strike on Iranian facilities, even if his last-minute decision upset the process-oriented Pentagon. It was hardly the first time a president called off a strike just as the military was ready to move: Bill Clinton did exactly the same thing in November 1998, when he called off a missile strike on Iraq. Trump said that he did not want 150 people killed in an operation against Iranian facilities. In any event, Tehran would have responded as it has in the past, not with a direct attack on U.S. forces but, rather, by indirection. Indirect attacks, such as the October 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut — which elements of Hezbollah carried out but which Iran instigated — or the planting of Iranian IEDs by various insurgent groups during the course of the Iraq War, always have be...

Kyle Smith: President Trump must have looked at the Democratic debates the way Bruce Willis looked at the famous wall of weapons in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction.” Should he choose the crossbow or the mace or the samurai sword or the baseball bat or …? It was as if the Democratic Party’s goal was to give Trump objects with which to bash it. Julian Castro says he wants to turn illegal border crossings into a parking ticket. Park yourself in America, get a fine! President Castro probably isn’t going to make you pay that fine, by the way. Kamala Harris wants to abolish private health insurance. Elizabeth Warren wants to forgive student debt. Oh, and everybody in the Thursday debate wants Uncle Sam to buy health insurance for however many Guatemalans, Hondurans and El Salvadorans manage to sneak across the border. One minute Democrats are waxing poetic about the humanitarian crisis down at the border; the next minute they’re proposing to make it 100,000 times worse by issuing e...

The Hill: President Trump's approach to federal regulations will raise real incomes annually by $3,100 per household after five to 10 years, the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) estimated in a report released Friday. “Deregulation is the cornerstone of the president's pro-growth economic policies,” Tomas Philipson, a CEA member, said on a call with reporters. The Trump administration has rolled back regulations issued by previous administrations and has also introduced new regulations at a slower rate than past administrations. CEA focused much of its report on 20 of the administration's deregulatory actions, which it said will save consumers and businesses about $220 billion per year once they fully take effect. The council said that the Trump administration's actions will have a bigger impact than the deregulation of the trucking and airline industries started under former President Jimmy Carter's administration. CEA said that the adminis...

Washington Post: A climate-focused debate? Here’s what moderators should ask. I realize the media and other Democrats will never ask this question because they have no real answer.  But how many times over the last 30 years has the UN and others said we had only 10 years to change the climate or we are doomed.  There have been numerous predictions that the poles will be ice-free by now.  There have also been predictions that New York City would be underwater by now.  None of them have been remotely true. But if liberals are wondering why more people are skeptical of their climate change position, This is it.  It would be interesting to see those who believe in climate change questioned on their failed projections.  As someone who has had to deal with projections in financial documents one of the things you have to realize is that if the projections are not met it is because the underlying data contained invalid assumptions.  With the climate chang...

NY Times Venezuelan Navy Captain Accused of Rebellion Dies After Signs of Torture The death underlined President Nicolás Maduro’s increasingly ferocious repression campaign amid a spiraling economic crisis. Maduro attempts to hide his incompetence by repression of any dissent. But what cannot be hidden is the failure of socialism on a grand scale in a formally wealthy country.

The video captures much of the handshake meeting however the media keeps popping in and out of the scene.  Trump became the first sitting President to set foot in North Korea. The Daily Mail has the story and photos from the meeting.

Powerline: The Rasmussen Survey has two recent polls that shed early light on how voters see President Trump and the Democratic presidential candidates in relation to their own views. A poll of likely voters  released today  found that: …just 25% of Likely U.S. Voters consider most of the announced candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination to be about the same as they are in political terms. Fifty-four percent (54%) say most of these candidates are more liberal than they are, while only 13% think they are more conservative. The survey also asked, “Would it be more accurate to describe the agenda of most of the Democratic presidential hopefuls as mainstream or extreme?” Not being a subscriber, I can’t see the numbers here, but the publicly available summary of the poll says: Voters see most of the Democratic presidential candidates as more liberal than they are and rate their agenda as outside the mainstream. Last month, Rasmussen conducted a sim...

Telegraph: Duke and Duchess of Sussex surprise sports fans with a visit to the baseball The Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees were in London for a game.

The Hill: President Trump agreed to restart trade negotiations with China on Saturday after meeting with the country's leader, Xi Jinping, during a Group of 20 summit in Japan. Trump said during a news conference Saturday afternoon that he would scale back restrictions on Chinese telecom giant Huawei and delay slapping new tariffs on Chinese goods as talks resume between the two countries. “U.S. companies can sell their equipment to Huawei,” Trump said, explaining that the move was aimed at helping American tech companies that had complained about the ban. The company is on an "entity list" that essentially bars it from buying components from American firms without approval from the U.S. government. Trump said China, in turn, had agreed to resume large purchases of American farm products and other goods from U.S. companies, though he did not offer further details. The Trump administration will keep in place the 25 percent tariffs previously levied on roughly ha...

BBC: A baby girl found inside a plastic bag in the US has families across the world "waiting in line" to adopt the "miracle" child, an official says. The baby, nicknamed India, was found on 6 June in Georgia after residents heard her crying and called the police. Police shared heart-rending bodycam footage of an officer tearing open the plastic bag in which she was swaddled. She was taken to hospital but doctors said she was unharmed and is now gaining weight. Three weeks on, baby India is said to be "smiling" and "thriving" in the custody of child services. She will remain there until she a permanent home is found for her. Forsyth County Sheriff's Office is yet to identify the baby's mother or relatives. In a Facebook post, it said it had "no new information to share regarding baby India". But according to Tom Rawlings, the director of Georgia's Division of Family and Children Services, there is no shortage of families wi...

The Democrat's immigration policy has become an attractive nuisance which is getting people killed trying to get into the country.  The term attractive nuisance is "a doctrine of tort law under which a person who creates or permits to exist on his or her land a dangerous condition attractive to children, as an unfenced swimming pool, is liable for their resulting injuries, even though the injured are trespassers." That would apply to the Democrats who do not want a border fence and allow people to try to enter the country by making a dangerous crossing of the Rio Grande.  Thus we had the picture of the father and his toddler daughter who drowned trying to illegally enter the country .  Democrats and the media chose to ignore the attractive nuisance aspect of their deaths and blame Trump for trying to control the border. ... It is a tragic illustration of the crisis we face on the southern border. But for Democrats, it’s an excuse for cheap moralism. Beto O’R...

John Kass: ... During the Thursday debate on left-leaning MSNBC, the Democratic presidential candidates raised their hands in agreement with the idea that illegal immigration should no longer be considered a crime. Later came another question. "This is a show-of-hands question and hold them up so people can see,” said co-moderator Savannah Guthrie. “Raise your hand if your government plan would provide (health care) coverage for undocumented immigrants.” Biden raised his, as did Sanders, Harris, Andrew Yang, Pete Buttigieg, Kirsten Gillibrand, Michael Bennet, the magical Marianne Williamson, John Hickenlooper and Eric Swalwell. Did any of them think how a declaration of open borders policy and free health care for undocumented immigrants who break into the U.S. would play out in a general election? Did any of them pause before engaging in self-destructive pandering? What defines an election isn’t take-down dramas. What defines elections, and political parties, are...

NY Times: American Missiles Found in Libyan Rebel Compound The powerful American missiles had fallen into the hands of rebels fighting a U.S.-backed government. The U.S. appears to have sold the missiles to the U.A.E. Will the UAE be held to account for its failure to safeguard the weapons it has purchased from the US?  The Saudis and others in the Middle East have accused the UAE of having close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist supremacy organization.

Daily Mail: U.S. Navy has been granted a patent on theoretical aircraft resembling recently-reported UFOs that could bend the laws of physics to fly through water, air, and space A technology patented by an aerospace engineer describes a 'hybrid' craft that is capable of flying at breakneck speeds in the air, water, and even space using an electromagnetic propulsion system. If you follow the square in the center of the frame you can see the craft maneuvering quickly.  If the US were capable of building such a craft it would certainly be unique.  This is a drawing of the theoretical spacecraft.

Rush Limbaugh: Slump Hits Big Media — Because They Lied to Their Audience! For over two years they pushed the Russin collusion hoax with a false narrative.  While media fact checkers were constantly accusing Trump of lying they were not doing a good job of keeping up with their own false reporting.   It is also clear at this point that the Democrat campaign is not rebuilding their audience.

NY Times: Trump and Putin Share Joke About Election Meddling, Sparking New Furor At the leaders’ first formal meeting in a year, President Trump again made clear that he does not take Russia’s electoral interference as seriously as others do. As the DOJ has made clear, none of the activity of the Russians impacted the vote or the outcome of the election.  Trump was the victim of their most damaging activity with their disinformation campaign included in the Steele dossier.  There is zero evidence that Russian ads on Facebook impacted the election.  There is zero evidence that Russian hackers changed any ballots.  While there is still a dispute among many on the hacking of the DNC, assuming they were involved, they revealed truthful information about the Democrat primary.  The Democrats bear primary responsibility for their own conduct in rigging the primary.  There is still zero evidence that the hacking effected the vote.

NY Post: This has to be one of the most counterproductive moments in the debate.  The Democrats have been somewhere between incoherent on the border crisis and just plain wrong.  The same can be said for their healthcare promises which would destroy the hospitals of this country and give inferior care.  How many people with healthcare plans would want to give them up for the VA?  How are you going to deter illegal immigration by promising free healthcare to the poor people of the world?  They have an immigration policy with no limiting principle .  There are literally billions of people in this world who would love to come to this country and get free healthcare.  Only an idiot would make this promise.

Jay Sekulow: ... ... the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, under Director James Clapper, eagerly pushed to get new procedures as part of an anti-Trump effort. The procedures increased access to raw signals intelligence before the conclusion of the Obama administration, just days before President Trump was inaugurated. By greatly expanding access to classified information by unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats, the Obama administration paved the way for a shadow government to leak classified information – endangering our national security and severely jeopardizing the integrity and reputation of our critical national security apparatus – in an attempt to undermine President Trump. ... And that is exactly how they leaked information to liberals in the media to attack and undercut the President.  It became a critical part of the coup attempt against the President.

Monica Showalter: ... ... The socialist froth was amazing. Candidates fell all over themselves, each trying to outdo the next on pushing the most socialist ideas, the most political correctness, the biggest virtue-signalling. Each promised to deliver the most of what the late unlamented Hugo Chavez called the "sea of happiness." Nobody would be left unhappy without free stuff, no one's interests would be trampled save for those of the evil corporations. It was groupthink writ large with each candidate pushing the next one more leftward. Any dissenter from this dynamic, any promoter of a spark of real-world common sense, whether on how to pay for mega-mega-mega government programs, or how it was that government bureaucrats with a monopoly grip on health care would be so much more loving and giving to taxpayers, would be met with stony silence. The way to the Democratic nomination, apparently, is all in how to out-left-wing the next guy. But there was one exception, o...

Jack Hellner: The clear goal each day for the Washington Post is to take out Trump, and evidence never matters It has become hard to find an honest story about Trump in the Post .   I get the impression that the staff of the posts sits around and talks about how much they hate the President and what they can do to attack him, his policies and his appointees.

Breitbart: 20 Times Breitbart Reported on Migrant Deaths During Obama-Biden Years and No One Cared The media did not want to hold Obama accountable for what happened on his watch and it lusts for the opportunity to be critical of Trump even though he is trying to stop the border crossings that are leading to the deaths.

Hot Air: When we first learned of the story of Volodymyr Zhukovskyy having killed seven motorcycle riders in New Hampshire, I found the story to be an obvious tragedy, but also likely little more than a tragic accident. Sadly, such things do happen out on our highways from time to time. But the more we learn, the stranger the tale has become. First of all, Zhukovskyy has a history that is more than a bit checkered. In the fairly recent past, he’s run into trouble for drug possession and drunk driving. He also didn’t have the correct commercial driver’s license to be holding the truck driving job he had. Further, the company he worked for had a spotty record (at best) in terms of vehicle inspections and compliance. With all that in mind, should someone have pulled him off his driving assignment before the accident took place? Would that have prevented this tragedy? Perhaps. But now there’s another wrinkle in the story. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is after the guy and they ...

Mark Margolis: Obama Built The ‘Cages’ for Illegals, Not Trump, Says Obama ICE Chief Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson visits the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Nogales Placement Center June 25, 2014 (Barry Bahler/Department of Homeland Security) It was only a few months ago that Democrats were dismissing the crisis at the border as manufactured by Trump , and now they’re comparing migrant detention centers to concentration camps and blaming Trump for “putting kids in cages.” But for those still trying to blame President Trump, Barack Obama’s former ICE chief, Thomas Homan, has a reality check for them. Speaking at a conference hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies, Homan explained that the “cages” Democrats are blaming on Trump were the product of the Obama administration .... ... The dishonesty of Democrat politicians on the border issue is becoming more transparent as they try to justify their current position while ignoring their past ...

Washington Post: Kamala Harris upstages Biden, Sanders with dominating performance As others talked about race, she broke in and changed the evening’s flow by highlighting her candidacy’s defining attributes. I have my doubts that Harris was ever bussed across town to school.  She had successful parents and was raised in California far from the segregationist.  She does know how to put on a show in the courtroom of public opinion and I suspect her actions were scripted beforehand.   What she did is upstage the old guys.

NY Times: Student Journalist Uncovers High School’s Use of Prison Labor Spencer Cliche, a high school senior in Massachusetts, conducted a monthlong investigation into his school’s use of prison labor to reupholster auditorium seats. These programs benefit the prisoners and the schools.   I recall that when I first went to work for the State of Texas as a lawyer, I was given some run down chairs for my office.  I learned that I could send them to the Texas Department of Corrections to be refurbished and they came back in beautiful condition and were the envy of others in the office who had newer furniture.  I thought this was a win-win deal for me and the prisoners who were exhibiting craftmanship that would benefit them when they left prison.  I suspect the same thing applies to those doing the work for the school.  If prison becomes a learning experience for the inmates it is living up to its job of correction. 

Stratfor: Sanctions on Iran's Supreme Leader Go Beyond Symbolism ... An executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump freezes all property subject to U.S. jurisdiction that is held by Iran's supreme leader or the supreme leader's office. In addition, the order allows the U.S. Treasury Department to similarly sanction any person or entity the supreme leader, or his office, appoints, such as a state official or the head of an entity such as a company leader. The order also extends that connection a step further, allowing sanctions to be placed on any appointment made by an appointee of the supreme leader, as well. It also threatens sanctions against anyone who provides support for people or entities sanctioned under those designations. The Treasury Department has yet to designate anyone under those sanctions, although Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif would be sanctioned later this week. There is no shortage of pot...

Fuel Fix: More American crude is pumping through U.S. refineries, helping to boost crude oil distillation capacity rates to a nearly 40-year high earlier this year, according to the Energy Department. Crude oil distillation capacity rates are based on an operator's estimate of the input that a distillation unit can process in a 24-hour period under usual operating conditions, recognizing the effects of both planned and unplanned maintenance. U.S. refineries reached a record high of 18.8 million barrels a day of atmospheric crude oil distillation capacity on January 1 - the highest those rates have been in 38 years. The last time crude oil distillation capacity was that high was in January 1981 at 18.6 million barrels per a day, according to the EIA. Refineries have also increased the amount of crude oil they are inputting into their systems - referred to as refinery runs. Their crude oil production has more than doubled since 2009, hitting an average of 11 million barrels a...

Karen Tumulty: One Texan had a breakout night. The other had the roughest. The one Tumulty thinks had a breakout night looked pretty silly yesterday when he said that transgender "women" could have abortions.   That cemented his status as an intellectual lightweight.  As for Beto, it appears the only way he can attract a majority of Democrats is if he is running against Ted Cruz.  When competing with other Democrats he appears to be largely ignored.  He does have about three times the support of Castro which is not saying much considering Castro is polling less than one percent.

Derek Hunter: There are people in prison right now for bribery. Judges have been removed from the bench for taking bribes, and people sent to cells for extended periods for offering and/or accepting them. So why aren’t the candidates running for the nomination for the Democratic Party for president among them? You name it, and there’s a Democratic candidate out there offering to give it to people if they’d just vote for them. How is that not bribery? Want free college? Done, just vote for candidate X, Y, or Z. Want your student loans “forgiven”? You got it, just vote for one of the candidates promising just that. Sick of paying for rent? Health insurance? Cable? Cell phones? Food? Housing? You can find a Democrat somewhere who’ll swear it’s all yours, and “for free,” if you simply mark their name on your ballot. Hell, there’s even one candidate who says they’ll just give you cash, $1,000 per month, if you elect him. He doesn’t call it a bribe, he calls it a “freedom dividen...

John Solomon: Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power may share an unflattering stage with a text-loving FBI agent and his Donald Trump-hating paramour from the bureau. Fired agent Peter Strzok and ex-FBI lawyer Lisa Page are infamous today for texting on FBI phones their anti-Trump sentiments while allegedly having an affair. They played key roles in the now-debunked Russia collusion investigation. It turns out that Power — the diplomat whose authority inexplicably was used to unmask hundreds of Americans’ names in secret intelligence reports during the 2016 election — engaged in similar Trump-bashing on her official government email, according to documents unearthed by an American Center for Law and Justice lawsuit. The conservative legal group is run by Trump defense attorney Jay Sekulow. The discovery could add a new dimension — a question of political bias — to a long-running congressional investigation into why Power's authority was used to unmask ...

John Podhoretz: Section 1325! Section 1325! For a few crucial minutes in the middle of the first Democratic presidential debate, Julián Castro (polling average: 0.8 percent) took over the proceedings by challenging his fellow candidates to endorse the repeal of Section 1325 of the Immigration and Naturalization Act. What’s it about? Don’t ask. He yelled at Beto O’Rourke about it and expressed his deep disappointment that O’Rourke wasn’t joining him in supporting the repeal of Section 1325. O’Rourke is at 3.3 percent in the Real Clear Politics polling average, so you can see why Castro thought it was so important to nail him. If he really cuts into Beto’s support, Castro might rise to a whole 1.5 percent. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren — poll average 12.8 percent — could barely get a word in edgewise. Later, Tulsi Gabbard (0.8 percent) got into a kerfuffle with Tim Ryan (0.6 percent) on whether we should even have gone into Afghanistan in the first place. Gabbard, who seemed to...

Don Surber: Media rolls out "without evidence" meme — without evidence They usually do this when he says something they don't like and which they choose not to investigate too deeply.

Sara Carter: Censorship of Conservatives: Google and Twitter shadow-banning content and censoring ads They really hate conservatives.  Are they charging them for ads they are not showing?

Washington Post: U.S. asylum officers urge court to end Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy The officers said the policy is threatening migrants’ lives and is “fundamentally contrary to the moral fabric of our Nation.” When 90 percent of the applications for asylum are rejected for cause it is clear that current policy is no deterrence to the bogus claims.  Making people wait in Mexico could be a deterrent which does not allow them to move to the US and no show up for their hearings.  What the asylum officers appear to want is allowing them in and doing nothing about their illegal status after they don't show up for a court hearing.

NY Times: Europeans Race to Establish Trade With Iran With Tehran threatening to breach limits set in the nuclear deal, Europeans are scrambling to restore some of the economic benefits Iran was promised. Why do they want to do business with such despots?  Iran recently sentenced a human rights lawyer who defended women being prosecuted for not covering their hair to prison and to a beating with a whip.  Why do business with such low functioning people whose stated goal is to make the rest of the world as miserable as Iran is by imposing their version of Islam on everyone?  Is it because they think Iran is going to use its nukes on Israel and other Middle Eastern Countries before they use it on them?

NY Times: Supreme Court Says Constitution Does Not Bar Partisan Gerrymandering The court has ruled that racial gerrymanders can violate the Constitution, but it has struggled with voting maps warped by politics. There was a time when Democrats really liked partisan gerrymandering.  It was back when they controlled most statehouses.  Before Republicans eventually took control of the Texas legislature Democrat House districts protected incumbent Democrats despite the fact that Republicans were winning all statewide elections.  When Republicans took control all of a sudden Democrats were concerned about "partisan" gerrymandering.  They whined even though Republicans like Will Hurd were winning Districts specifically drawn for Democrats.

Washington Examiner Editorial: If the premise of an argument is false, what does that tell you about its conclusions? This is the problem facing Elizabeth Warren and other leading Democrats after the first presidential primary debate. Warren, Cory Booker, Beto O'Rourke, and other candidates all apparently believed that in order to sell their socialism, they needed to establish the premise that the Trump-era economy simply isn’t working for anyone besides the filthy rich. Warren says that the U.S. economy is “doing great, for a thinner and thinner slice at the top." O’Rourke and Booker made a similar claim: that the wealthy are pulling away and leaving behind the working class in today’s economy. But this premise is false. Yes, the past 60 years have seen deadly stagnation for the working class. But over the past few years, the U.S. economy has been lifting all boats. It's been a remarkable thing to watch because it is so unusual. Hourly wages have risen by 7% sin...

Warner Todd Huston and Jeff Dunetz: All of a sudden, a group of Google executives deleted their social media presence after a new expose revealed their plans to use their Internet search engine to destroy President Donald Trump’s 2020 election campaign. The sudden disappearance of the Google executive’s social media accounts came on the heels of the latest undercover exposé by Project Veritas that reveals that Google is programming its machine learning algorithms (or AI) to prevent the “next Trump situation.” The Project Veritas video reveals that instead of merely doing its job as the world’s leading Internet search and archiving tool, Google is using its power over what Americans see on the Internet as a partisan political weapon to force extreme, un-American leftism on all of us. Google, which owns YouTube, decided that truth is not an option and pulled the Veritas Video off of YouTube; therefore, Veritas reposted it elsewhere. On the Project Veritas Hidden Cam (see below)...

Fuel Fix: BP said it's investing in a Silicon Valley startup that aims to help feed the world by turning natural gas into food for fish farms and livestock. The British oil and gas major is putting $30 million into Calysta, which aims to meet the growing demand for feed in the aquaculture and agriculture markets - such as farmed fish, crustaceans and livestock - in more environmentally sustainable ways. "By pairing Calysta's exciting technology and entrepreneurial drive with BP's global scale and gas market expertise, this partnership offers the opportunity to improve food security and sustainability for the world's growing population," said Dominic Emery, BP's group head of strategy. Calysta specifically makes the "FeedKind" protein pellets. The company uses a naturally occurring bacteria that it grows in a proprietary fermentation process in which it feeds off of methane - the primary component of natural gas - as its carbon and energy ...

Telegraph: Londoners are leaving the capital in record numbers as property prices drive people to the south coast, official data shows. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) today revealed that 340,498 residents quit London to live in other parts of the UK. It marks the highest rate of people fleeing the capital since the ONS began collecting data in 2012. Experts have blamed the exodus from London on inflated house prices and violent crime rates. Over the same period, just 237,270 people migrated into the city from elsewhere in the UK, meaning that the capital lost a net 103,228 individuals to other parts of the country. The record figure only relates to 2018 and therefore does not account for the recent slump in the market, which is widely attributed to the uncertainty surrounding Brexit. It also only tracks internal migration, and does not account for migration from sources outside the UK. ... For every year since 2012, the south east was consistent...

AFP: President Hassan Rouhani said Iran "never seeks war" with the US, state media reported Wednesday amid a spike in tensions between the two countries. "Iran has no interest to increase tension in the region and it never seeks war with any country, including (the) US," the president said, quoted by state news agency IRNA. Rouhani was speaking by phone to his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, as Tehran and Washington engaged in an escalating war of words following Iran shooting down a US drone last week. "We have always been committed to regional peace and stability and will make efforts in this respect," the Iranian president told Macron. ... What he really means is that he does not want a direct confrontation with the US which he would obviously lose.  Instead, Iran uses its proxy forces to ambush US troops in Iraq and it uses the Houthis in Yemen to attack the government and the Saudis and it uses Hezballah to attack Israelis.  Iran also us...

NY Post Editorial: Democrats are finally acknowledging the border crisis they claimed didn’t exist, yet many still want to deny aid to suffering migrants. It’s beyond cruel. Nearly everyone now agrees border officials are overwhelmed and conditions at facilities used to hold and process migrants are deplorable. Reports describe children having to sleep on floors, without adequate food or necessary provisions. Yet many Dems — who for months insisted the crisis “does not exist” (Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer) and is “fake” (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) — are nonetheless now insisting that any emergency aid comes with tough conditions that risk a veto by President Trump. Indeed, some resist any funding at all, simply because it would pass through Team Trump’s hands. “I will not fund another dime,” vows Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, arguing Trump can’t be trusted. Got that? Border officials are detaining migrants in what the freshman firebrand calls “concentration camps,” ...

Washington Free Beacon: Congress is considering a new measure that would extract millions from frozen Iranian bank accounts in order to subsidize the cost of its recent downing of an American drone in the region, according to congressional sources and a copy of draft legislation viewed by the Free Beacon. The measure, filed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) late Monday, would require the Trump administration to assess the exact cost of the drone, which could be anywhere from $120 million to $220 million, according to sources familiar with the matter. The move comes as congressional hawks and Iran critics seek more ways to penalize Iran for its increasingly flagrant military attacks against the United States and its assets in the Persian Gulf region. While President Donald Trump called off a strike on Iran minutes before it was to take place last week, his administration and allies in Congress continue to seek a financial price from Iran, via economic sanctions and other measures meant...

Byron York: ... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the situation "a fake crisis at the border." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it "a crisis that does not exist." House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said, "There is no crisis at the border." House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries said, "There is no crisis at the border." House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Eliot Engel called the situation "a fake crisis at the border." House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said, "There is no crisis at the border." Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, said, "We don't have a border crisis." Rep. Lloyd Doggett called the situation "a phony border crisis." Rep. Earl Blumenauer called it "a fake crisis at the border." Rep. Sanford Bishop called it "a crisis that does not exist." Reps. Jesus Garcia, ...

Washington Post: Forget peace. Trump and Israel want Palestinian surrender. The White House may seek to ply the Palestinians with economic handouts, but it wants the Palestinians’ political capitulation. What the Palestinians want is Israel's destruction as a Jewish state.  It is what they have wanted since Arabs engaged in the colonialization of Israel from the beginning.  They have created the fiction of "Palestine" as a historical matter, even though it has never existed as such.  Arab's did not really begin migrating in mass to the area until the Jews came back to their historical homeland.  They keep pushing this weird belief that an area once conquered by Muslims can never go back to its original status.  It is why the radical Islamist still lay claim to Spain and parts of Eastern Europe. The so-called Palestinians should agree to the Trump proposal because they are never likely to get a better deal. I suspect that Trump will get support from the ...

Warner Todd Huston and Jeff Dunetz: Google Execs Suddenly Go Into Hiding After Project Veritas Exposes Trump Destruction Plans All of a sudden, a group of Google executives deleted their social media presence after a new expose revealed their plans to use their Internet search engine to destroy President Donald Trump’s 2020 election campaign. The sudden disappearance of the Google executive’s social media accounts came on the heels of the latest undercover exposé by Project Veritas that reveals that Google is programming its machine learning algorithms (or AI) to prevent the “next Trump situation.” The Project Veritas video reveals that instead of merely doing its job as the world’s leading Internet search and archiving tool, Google is using its power over what Americans see on the Internet as a partisan political weapon to force extreme, un-American leftism on all of us. Google, which owns YouTube, decided that truth is not an option and pulled the Veritas Video off of YouTub...

Fuel Fix: A state district court judge has tossed out a lawsuit that sought to stop a Kinder Morgan pipeline from being routed through the Texas Hill Country. In a Tuesday afternoon decision, Judge Lora Livingston with the 261st State District Court in Austin dismissed all claims made against the Permian Highway Pipeline, a $2 billion project to move 2.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from the Permian Basin of West Texsa to the Katy Hub near Houston. Two landowners, a trust, the City of Kyle and Hays County sued Kinder Morgan, one of its subsidiaries, the Railroad Commission of Texas and five agency executives over the 423-mile pipeline in April. Judge Livingston heard testimony from both sides of the case during a two-day hearing in late May. After nearly four weeks of reviewing evidence and testimony, the judge sided with Kinder Morgan and the Railroad Commission. In a statement, Kinder President of Natural Gas Pipelines Tom Martin said the company was pleased with...

Why do Democrats even bother denying that their position is open borders?

NY Times: Migrant Children Moved Back to Troubled Texas Border Facility The Trump administration says it is transferring the children back to a shelter in Clint, Tex., that had seen hundreds of children held in overcrowded and filthy conditions. The Democrats have invited this crisis by their failure to deal with the exploitation of a dysfunctional asylum system.  Then they whine when the Border Patrol is overwhelmed and lacks resources to deal with the mess the Democrats do not want to fix.  The Democrats and the media are as responsible for this mess as the cartels and the traffickers who have brought these people to the border and exploited kids to get into the country.  I find the attitude of the Democrats and their cohorts in the media totally disgusting.

Daily Caller: Home Depot founders Bernie Marcus and Ken Langone had strong words for socialism and the politicians who espouse it, particularly 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, during a Monday interview with Fox News host Neil Cavuto. The wide-ranging interview with the billionaire businessmen included topics like trade , the company’s history and philosophy, and even tax policy, but Cavuto hit a “red flag” for Marcus when he brought up the topic of Sanders and his socialist campaign proposals. “He is the enemy of every entrepreneur that’s ever going to be born in this country and has been born in the past,” Marcus said. “If he became president, what would you guys do?” Cavuto asked. “Probably move to Australia,” the Home Depot founder responded, laughing. “Well what could he do? I mean he can’t do anything to us. He’s going to affect my grandchildren.” Marcus then contrasted Sanders and his socialized medicine proposals with work his foundation is doing with wa...

PJ Media: On Monday, Project Veritas released a powerful video revealing Google's liberal "Machine Learning Fairness" program, which a Google executive admitted defined fairness in terms any supporter of President Donald Trump would disagree with. She also suggested that Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) plan to break up Google is misguided because only Google has the power to prevent "the next Trump situation." She also expressed a goal with Google's algorithms — to prevent 2016 from happening again. "Elizabeth Warren is saying that we should break up Google. And like, I love her but she’s very misguided, like that will not make it better, it will make it worse because now all these smaller companies who don’t have the same resources that we do will be charged with preventing the next Trump situation. It’s like a small company cannot do that," Jen Gennai, head of Responsible Innovation at Google Global Affairs, tells an undercover Project ...