TRANSPARENCY: FBI confirms special secrecy agreements for agents in Clinton email probe.

A July 1 letter sent by a senior deputy to FBI Director James Comey to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, detailed the restrictions on agents. The letter, reviewed by Fox News, confirmed agents signed a “Case Briefing Acknowledgement” which says the disclosure of information is “strictly prohibited” without prior approval, and those who sign are subject to lie detector tests.

The fix was always in.

A 30-YEAR-OLD ST. LOUIS SUPERFUND SITE POSES “EXTREME HEALTH RISKS” FOR CHILDREN: That’s according to Missouri Republican Rep. Ann Wagner. Unfortunately, as the Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group’s Ethan Barton has exhaustively reported, the Missouri kids are far from alone.

“’The EPA has failed, failed more than 30 years in its cleanup of nuclear waste dating back to the Manhattan Project and World War II,’ she said. The Superfund process ‘and particularly the EPA have failed the people of St. Louis in the most heartless manner possible,’” Barton reports this morning. Her comments came during a House Energy and Commerce Committee panel hearing.

“The EPA’s Superfund program was created in 1980 to clean up America’s most polluted locations, but 329 sites could still threaten humans, according to EPA data. Only about one-third of the 1,328 Superfund sites have been completely cleaned,” according to Barton. Those that have been cleaned took on average 13 years to complete the process.

Illinois Republican Rep. John Shimkus pointed out during the hearing that “Superfund is now some 36 years old and the truth is some cleanup projects that we are working on seem as old as the law itself,” according to Barton. The bureaucratic inefficiencies of the Superfund program are the problem, Shimkus suggested.

Several Democrats on the panel, as well as EPA Assistant Administrator Mathy Stanislaus, agreed that Superfund cleanup delays are harmful and unnecessary. Their solution? Restore a Superfund tax they estimate would generate more than $25 billion by 2026. EPA currently spends $1 billion annually on Superfund.

SWISS ITALIANS SAY NO TO THE BURQA: The prettiest corner of Switzerland wasn’t exactly crawling with Muslim women, so it’s worth asking what happened.

The burqa ban was predictably denounced by the usual suspects, but not many in Ticino seemed to care—not least because it wasn’t initially clear when the new law would actually take effect.

Then it was announced that the anti-burqa law would take effect this July 1, just as the tourist season gets into gear. Although Saudi Arabia warned its citizens visiting Switzerland to respect local laws and not cause trouble, it was widely anticipated that provocateurs would seek to get attention.

On cue, two protestors showed up in Locarno on the very morning the ban took effect. One woman, Nora Illi, a Swiss woman who converted to a radical form of Islam, was wearing a full burqa and was arrested by police. So was her companion, Rachid Nekkaz, an Algerian politician and businessman. They got the global media attention they sought.

Ticino authorities mean business and have announced that Illi will be fined 10,000 Swiss francs ($10,170) and Nekkaz will receive a fine of 200 francs ($204). There’s not much sympathy for them in Ticino. He is a professional provocateur for Islam while she is a public advocate of polygamy.

Read the whole thing.

IN 1968, RICHARD NIXON SUCCESSFULLY CAMPAIGNED AS THE “LAW & ORDER” PRESIDENT. IS IT TOO LATE TO DRAFT CHIEF OF DALLAS POLICE DAVID BROWN?

Chief of Dallas Police David Brown is quickly being recognized as a man who has a lot of wisdom to express on the terrible situation his community has just faced and which other communities around the country are confronting. What I didn’t know was the personal tragedies that he has faced in his own life. His former partner was killed in action. His younger brother was killed by drug dealers. And most startlingly tragic is that his own son who suffered from bipolar disorder went on a rampage and killed a policeman and another man before being killed himself. So this is a man who has true, personal insights on what both the victims and their loved ones feel and what the family of the murderer must be going through. I can’t imagine the strength it takes for someone to carry on and offer wise leadership on a daily basis after suffering such tragedies.

And note this:

We’re asking cops to do too much in this country. We are. We just ask of us to do too much. Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve. Not enough mental-health funding. Let the cop handle it. Not enough drug-addiction funding. Let’s give it to the cops. Here in Dallas, we got a loose-dog problem. Let’s have the cops chase loose dogs. Schools fail, give it to the cops. Seventy percent of the African American community is being raised by single women. Let’s give it to the cops to solve that as well. That’s too much to ask. Policing was never meant to solve all those problems, and I just ask for other parts of our democracy, along with the free press, to help us. . . .

Serve your communities. Don’t be a part of the problem. We’re hiring. We’re hiring. Get off that protest line and put an application in. And we’ll put you in your neighborhood, and we will help you resolve some of the problems you’re protesting about.

I definitely agree that the American left is asking far too much of policemen these days to clean-up the disasters they’ve made of American cities. But “Get off that protest line and put an application in” sounds a little too reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange for my tastes. Recall that after being rendered incapable of violence by the Ludovico technique, Alex is savagely beaten by two of his former droogs, who have been transformed by socialism using more old-fashioned techniques – they’re now London constables. On the other hand, perhaps having some of their own go through police training would go far in impressing the BLM crowd just how dangerous the job of policing is, and how screwed up their narrative is.

WITH DNC IN MIND, CITY BANS CARRYING URINE, FECES: Bernie supporters plan on staging a ‘fart-in’ at DNC.

Yet another reminder that through its long sordid history until today, socialism was never, ever environmentally friendly.

USA TODAY EDITORIALIZES: Ginsburg’s Blooper: Supreme Court justices should keep their political views to themselves.

WHY DONALD TRUMP is a savior for gays. “For the first time in the Republican party’s history its nominee has publicly recognized and stated that members of the lgbt+ community are expressing their love for who they want and expressing their identity as they want and that the “right of every single American to live in peace and safety in their own country” should not be threatened. . . . Although this is a new step of inclusion for many Republican supporters, Donald Trump has never hidden his support for gay civil right laws. While the majority of his fellow Republican leaders rail against any gay anti-discrimination laws, in 2000 he stated emphatically that he supported them as well as supported the repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.'”

Which was a program introduced by Hillary’s husband.

GOVERNMENT: Since 2006, the Feds have lost close to 1,000 firearms. And that’s not counting the ones they deliberately sold to Mexican drug gangs.

IT’S COME TO THIS: Cop accused of trading favors for sex invokes ‘Hillary defense.’

Related: When Leaders Cheat, Followers Follow.

SOCIALISM: Why Venezuela putting its food supply under military control is so chilling.

THIS IS INCONCEIVABLE TO AMERICA’S POLITICAL CLASS: The reason George Bush swayed and smiled during “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” is that he actually believes his religion.

PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: Court Orders Chicago to Pay NRA $1 Million in Legal Fees.

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MICHAEL RAMIREZ, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL.

It reflects a misconception, however. The police aren’t there to protect society from criminals. They’re there to protect criminals from the much rougher justice they’d experience in the absence of police.

IF ONLY THEY TRIED THIS HARD TO GET RID OF AMERICA’S ENEMIES: US funds aided 2015 campaign to oust Netanyahu, Senate probe finds.

COLLION NOIR: Politicians, Media Guilty Of Most Despicable Form Of Racism.

TAR. FEATHERS. 9th Circuit: It’s a federal crime to visit a website after being told not to visit it.

NOBODY TELL NOTORIOUS ROBOPHOBE MATTHEW YGLESIAS ABOUT THIS: Sex With Robots Will Be The Norm Soon, According To A New Study.

WHO ARE FASCISTS IN THE 2016 ELECTION?: The link connects to my conclusion. I begin with a look at the cultural, historical and literary roots then move to the current politics and 2016 election. The roots matter. In early June Tom Sowell examined definitions, historical facts and demonstrated behavior as they relate to contemporary political actors, particularly President Obama.

A few of Dr. Sowell’s essential points:

It bothers me a little when conservatives call Barack Obama a “socialist.” He certainly is an enemy of the free market, and wants politicians and bureaucrats to make the fundamental decisions about the economy. But that does not mean that he wants government ownership of the means of production, which has long been a standard definition of socialism.

What President Obama has been pushing for, and moving toward, is more insidious: government control of the economy, while leaving ownership in private hands. That way, politicians get to call the shots but, when their bright ideas lead to disaster, they can always blame those who own businesses in the private sector.

As for the historical record:

One of the reasons why both pro-Obama and anti-Obama observers may be reluctant to see him as fascist is that both tend to accept the prevailing notion that fascism is on the political right, while it is obvious that Obama is on the political left.

Back in the 1920s, however, when fascism was a new political development, it was widely — and correctly — regarded as being on the political left. Jonah Goldberg’s great book “Liberal Fascism” cites overwhelming evidence of the fascists’ consistent pursuit of the goals of the left, and of the left’s embrace of the fascists as one of their own during the 1920s. Mussolini, the originator of fascism, was lionized by the left, both in Europe and in America, during the 1920s. Even Hitler, who adopted fascist ideas in the 1920s, was seen by some, including W.E.B. Du Bois, as a man of the left.

It was in the 1930s, when ugly internal and international actions by Hitler and Mussolini repelled the world, that the left distanced themselves from fascism and its Nazi offshoot — and verbally transferred these totalitarian dictatorships to the right, saddling their opponents with these pariahs.

Great summary. Now go read the whole thing.

WHAT’S INTERESTING IS THAT IF YOU LOOK AT THIS GRAPHIC, THE IMPACT OF THE TEA PARTY — AND OF ITS NEUTRALIZATION — IS VERY EVIDENT: CBO: In 30 Years, U.S. Will Have Highest Debt-To-GDP Ratio In Our History—141%.

THEY DON’T TRY VERY HARD TO KEEP SECRETS FROM OUR ENEMIES, BUT THEY DO THEIR BEST TO KEEP THEM FROM AMERICANS: China hacked the FDIC – and US officials covered it up, report says.

I THINK I KNOW HOW IT IS FOR ME: For Coffee Drinkers, the Buzz May Be in Your Genes. Honestly, I think that in pre-coffee eras I would have been the village layabout, with people saying He seems smart enough, I guess, but he’s never awake.

HOUSE MOVES TO INDICT IRS KINGPIN: Yes, I’m using “kingpin” in the DEA sense of the word. Here’s the gist of it: House Republicans just “introduced a resolution to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen…”

Even if impeachment fails Koskinen has earned the hassle.

“With two subpoenas and three preservation orders in place, under Mr. Koskinen’s watch the IRS destroyed 422 backup tapes containing potentially 24,000 emails relevant to the IRS targeting of conservative organizations…”

This is one reason Glenn gives President Obama an asterisk (*) for his 2012 election victory.

BILL De BLASIO’S FUNDAMENTAL TRANSFORMATION OF NEW YORK CONTINUING NICELY: ‘It looked like a scene out of the Walking Dead’: Thirty-Three people collapse on the same New York street at 9AM after taking a bad batch of synthetic marijuana ‘K2.’ 

De Blasio takes the notion of the Wayback machine seriously – under his watch, New York is unraveling so fast, it’s shot past such nihilistic dystopian mid-‘70s epics as Death Wish and Taxi Driver and gone all the way back to 1971’s The Panic in Needle Park.

TECH: The Musk Hangs Firm: Tesla Won’t Disable Autopilot Feature in Wake of Fatal Crash.