VANDALIST TOURISM: Some Europeans apparently enjoy visiting the Big Apple in order to deface it:

“Europeans do love to come to NYC and try to get up on a train. Most New York writers don’t, because they know how quickly the trains will get buffed.”

A few years ago, a Daily News report found that 70% of elaborate subway car graffiti is created by Europeans. And at the end of 2011, a 25-year-old French graffiti artist named Maxime Bezat was charged for tagging subway cars and stations in both NYC and Boston.

While Dobkin appreciates their moxie, he has some criticism for their form: “I find it kind of weird that we exported this art form to Europe, and it comes all the way back to write on our trains looking exactly the same. Why can’t Germans come up with their own style of vandalism?”

To be fair, I think you could make the case that a fair amount of the impetus that causes graffiti in the first place was imported into the US by German immigrants from the Frankfurt School, which worked very hard starting in the late 1930s to invert American morals.

Note that this article is from 2011 (I found it last night in the comments section of James Lileks’ latest Bleat); there’s less of a shortage of graffiti and vandalism in Bill de Blasio’s New York than there was in Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg’s era, which should please a subset of both its visitors and its residents.

Such as these chaps: Graffiti Artists Sue Real Estate Developer for Whitewashing Their Murals.

Related: “Why Liberals Identify with Criminals,” as recently explored by Tom Trinko at the American Thinker.

PICTURED: ‘SMILING’ LONER FRESHMAN FAISAL MOHAMMAD, WHO WENT ON CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY STABBING SPREE THAT LEFT FOUR INJURED AND WAS PRAISED BY ISIS: “Police are investigating the contents of a backpack he was carrying at the time, while a witness said a bomb squad detonated one of his possessions near the scene.”

YES, THE OUTCOME OF TURKEY’S ELECTION AND THE FLOOD OF MIGRANTS INTO EUROPE ARE CONNECTED: “Sources in Ankara indicated that the sudden push of the migrants out of Turkish camps was directly the result of an order from [Turkish President] Erdogan. He then portrayed himself, and Turkey, to EU leaders as the only option to stabilize the massive migratory flow.”

THE TRUTH ABOUT GUNS: Armed Citizens and the 1966 University of Texas Sniper Attack.

Read the whole thing. (There’s video, as well.)

LAW ENFORCEMENT: Connecticut Police Announce Plan To Open Unlocked Vehicles And Seize Valuables.

SUSPECT IN UC MERCED STABBING SPREE IDENTIFIED AS FAISAL MOHAMMAD: “The knife-wielding assailant who stabbed four people at the University of California, Merced was Faisal Mohammad, a freshman from Santa Clara who was living on campus and majored in computer science and engineering. He was shot dead by campus police after his violent rampage.”

OOPS: Statins May Dampen Response To Flu Vaccine.

COMEDIANS IN CARS GETTING COFFEE AT INSANELY HIGH SPEEDS: Tour Jay Leno’s Garage, and get a look at both his personal car collection, and other exceedingly rare cars, such as the futuristic-looking 1970 Mercedes-Benz C111-II, one of my favorite cars as a kid, which still looks like it could roll off the assembly line today.

SKYNET APPROACHES: Watch This Massive Drone Launch and Recover Another Drone in Flight.

I’M NOT A SKYDIVER MYSELF, BUT THIS DOES SEEM LIKE SOUND ADVICE: Reminder: always bring a backup chute if you’re planning shoot a flare into yours mid-fall.

ALAN MELTZER: The GOP’s Tea Party Problem. “The conflict between the values championed by the Freedom Caucus and those promoted by the more moderate wing of the party will remain because it reflects fundamental differences in voter attitudes and beliefs. The Tea Party branch of the GOP wants more freedom, less regulation, lower taxes, and a decentralized federal government. The Republican establishment prioritizes finding areas of agreement with the Democrats that result in legislation. The problem of finding a Speaker to lead the House of Representatives raised divisions within the Republican caucus because members defended the interests they were elected to serve. . . . The members of the Freedom Caucus represent frustrated, angry constituents. In 2010, voters sent enough new representatives to Congress to give Republicans control of the House. That failed to stop the President, so in 2014 the voters gave Republicans control of both houses. The Republican majority in the House reached a share not seen since 1927. Although some reforms were made, the major Obama programs, like the unpopular Affordable Care Act remained. At the same time, wages did not increase much, and economic growth remained slow. Instead of reducing regulations, restoring freedom, and increasing economic growth, Congress did not prevent the administration from piling new regulations on top of old ones.”

LOTUS ESPRIT — THE QUINTESSENTIAL 1970s SUPERCAR: “In the mid-1970s, English automaker Lotus replaced the Europa, a boxy, mid-engined pocket-racer for driving enthusiasts, with a now-classic wedge design, and called it the Esprit. With sharp ‘folded paper’ lines and flat surfaces courtesy of legendary designer Giorgetto Guigiaro, the outrageously low and wide Esprit looked like nothing before it – and nothing since…This was only enhanced when it featured in the 1977 James Bond film ‘The Spy Who Loved Me,’ where, among other fictional capabilities, it morphed into a submarine.”

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Advice To The Koch Brothers: Invest in Media, Not Politicians.

THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED: 10 Reasons We Sold Our Television.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 910.

JIM MEIGS: What We Owe The “Mythbusters.”

TRUE: Republican Victories Highlight 2016 Stakes.

The Republican victory in Kentucky underscores the extent to which the ranks of elected Democrats outside of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue have been thinned since 2010. It’s important not to overstate President Obama’s responsibility for these losses—the party that holds the White House has historically suffered setbacks in off-year elections. Yet, there are reasons for Democrats to be worried, over the long term, about the extent of the clobbering in state and local elections they have endured over the past six years.

The Democrats have constructed a political coalition heavily reliant on young people, minorities, and urbanites. As Democrats are fond of repeating, these voters have helped deliver the popular vote in presidential elections to the Democrats in five out of the last six cycles. But this coalition is not nearly as well suited to elections for Congress and state legislatures, because these voters are “inefficiently distributed” (that is, packed around urban areas)—or to off-year elections in general either, because they are less likely to show up when a presidential candidate isn’t on the ballot.

This creates an interesting dynamic. Because the Democrats’ ranks have been eviscerated at lower levels of office, the stakes for winning the White House couldn’t be higher. As we we wrote last month, “if the party loses the White House 2016, it will have almost nothing left.” The prospect of losing everything creates an incentive for Democrats to double down even further on their presidential coalition (see, for example, Hillary Clinton’s full-throated endorsement of the Houston transgender ordinance). But this strategy—of appealing more and more strongly to the national base rather than reaching out to new segments voters—makes them even less competitive in off-year and state-level elections.

I wonder how Hillary’s health is? Matt Drudge seems . . . concerned.