AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD: Apple travesty is a reminder why Britain must leave the lawless EU.

Europe’s Competition Directorate commands the shock troops of the EU power structure. Ensconced in its fortress at Place Madou, it can dispatch swat teams on corporate dawn raids across Europe without a search warrant.

It operates outside the normal judicial control that we take for granted in a developed democracy. The US Justice Department could never dream of acting in such a fashion.

Known as ‘DG Comp’, it acts as judge, jury, and executioner, and can in effect impose fines large enough to constitute criminal sanctions, but without the due process protection of criminal law. It misused evidence so badly in pursuit of the US chipmaker Intel that the company alleged a violation of human rights.

Apple is just the latest of the great US digital companies to face this Star Chamber.

The EU is so mired in laws that it’s practically lawless — which was probably the goal from the start.

LIFE IN THE ERA OF HOPE AND CHANGE: Fear Stalks the Airports — and the 2016 Campaign: America seems more panicky than at any time since the aftermath of 9/11.

I don’t know why people are worried. President Obama says we can easily absorb more terror attacks.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO FALL IN LOVE, YOU JUST HAVE TO FALL IN LINE. Ron Fournier: Forget All My Clinton Criticism, Hillary for President!

(Classical reference in headline.)

YES, BUT: With Impeachment Over, Brazil’s Next Challenge Is Its Flailing Economy.

Mr. Temer first took over the presidency on an interim basis in May, when Ms. Rousseff was suspended to face impeachment charges. But even with broad support in a fractious Congress, the early results of Mr. Temer’s ambitious agenda have been underwhelming, perplexing some who had expressed support for his new economic team.

“Temer’s government is requesting sacrifice from the population, but has pushed for wage increases for public servants who already enjoy job stability,” said Marcos Lisboa, the president of Insper, one of Brazil’s top business schools.

After the move drew criticism from allies seeking to curb public spending, Mr. Temer suspended the wage increases. But some analysts still expect the plan to advance at some point because it enjoys support from many legislators in the president’s Brazilian Democratic Movement Party.

Brazil has gotten rid of a leftist politician, but the country is still steeped in leftist politics.

DEFINITE SHRINKAGE:  While the media swoons over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada’s economy is shrinking.

It’s Deja Barry all over again!

WHY NOT, EVERYBODY ELSE DOES: Did Turkey outmaneuver the US?

Washington can’t overlook the fact that the Turkish military and its allies in the Free Syria Army (FSA) have the potential to deal ISIL a serious blow. It is no secret that it wanted the Turkish military to get actively involved in Syria against ISIL a long time ago.

That is happening now, but not the way it wants.

Meanwhile President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is on record saying the US has to choose who its ally is, Turkey or the [Kurdish] PYD/YPG. This approach is not alien to Washington. Former President George W. Bush used a similar phrase after 9/11 and said “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”

The balance Washington is trying to maintain between Turkey and the PYD/YPG is tantamount to supporting terrorism for the Turkish political and security establishment, as well as most Turks. That is why Washington’s call on Ankara not to move against the PYD/YPG will most likely go unheeded.

All is proceeding exactly as I have foreseen — which makes you wonder why the Obama Administration couldn’t see this coming.

THE HILL: Rick Perry Calls on FBI Director To Resign Over Lack Of Clinton Indictment:

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) on Wednesday called on FBI Director James Comey to resign over his recommendation not to press federal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a personal server while secretary of State.

The demand from Perry, who suggested Comey might have a political motivation for going soft on Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, is a step across a line that no other prominent Republican has so far been willing to take.

“For a man who prided himself on being a top law official in this country, I would suggest the man ought to resign,” the two-time presidential candidate and “Dancing with the Stars” contestant said on Fox News.

“Comey has a lot of explaining to do, because those of us who understand what was going on here — the Clintons were clearly trying to hide this server,” he said. “They did not want that information in, and for Comey to stand up and make excuses for Hillary is absolutely and totally unacceptable.

“I think [Comey] has some skin in the game here somewhere,” Perry said. “To protect the Clintons at this particular juncture is an extraordinary failure on his part.”

Comey is three years into a 10-year term as head of the FBI and is not scheduled to leave office until 2023.

Other prominent Republicans have notably refused to demand that Comey, who himself is a Republican, resign because of his recommendation in July that the Obama administration not file charges for Clinton’s mishandling of classified information through her use of a personal email server. In an unprecedented public announcement, Comey claimed that Clinton and her aides had been “extremely careless” but did not show an intent to break the law.

Intent is not an element of the law. But Clinton’s use of BleachBit to wipe the hard drives suggests that she had it, in spades.

Related: Of Course Hillary Clinton Deleted Those Benghazi Emails On Purpose.

HUGH HEWITT, JONAH GOLDBERG: The “core alt-right” needs to be driven from conservative ranks. Audio at link.

I THOUGHT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO ELIMINATE FRAUD AND WASTE: Obamacare’s Death Spiral of Consumer Choice.

In 2016, 85 percent of all Obamacare enrollees had three insurers from which to choose. In 2017, that number drops to 62 percent. This year, an estimated 300,000 enrollees had only one insurer available to them, which comprised only 2 percent of overall enrollment. Next year, 2017, that number will grow to 2.3 million – an estimated 19 percent of all enrollees, an eightfold increase. The same percentage will only have two choices, up from 12 percent in 2016.

The figures look worse from a geographical perspective. Thirty-six percent of all counties in the United States will have two or fewer insurers for consumers to choose. Many counties in the South and Interior West will have only one insurer for 2017. For those living in rural counties, which already have a provider crisis, the news is particularly harsh.

People in those regions don’t vote for many Democrats.

DIDN’T DONALD TRUMP SAY SOMETHING LIKE THIS? Gallup: Well-being of blacks plummets, up for white GOP under Obama. “The well-being of black Americans, which began to surge at the end of the Bush administration and reached a high in 2010, has plummeted ever since while white Republicans, Asians and Hispanics have thrived, according to a new Gallup index. The survey said that blacks who describe themselves as thriving has dropped from near 60 percent in 2010 to 53.2 percent, the lowest of the four racial categories tested.”

ERIC ZORN ON CHICAGO: Cops taunted, victim disrespected and the violence goes on:

“Black lives matter,” one of the young men said. “You a b—-.”

— A heckler quoted in a Tribune news feature about a group of African-Americans who gathered to taunt the police officers investigating a shooting early Friday in the 7100 block of South Paulina Street.

If black lives didn’t matter, the cops wouldn’t have been out there, hanging the sad bunting of crime scene tape in the West Englewood neighborhood, trying against considerable odds to solve another no-doubt senseless shooting.

If black lives didn’t matter, the men and women in blue would’ve just rolled slowly past the crime scene, shrugged at the persistence of violence in our most ravaged communities and driven off.

If black lives didn’t matter, the officers wouldn’t have spent at least an hour in the middle of the night gathering evidence and attempting to interview witnesses while enduring verbal abuse.

I think the goal of Black Lives Matter is to effectively end policing in black neighborhoods. Meanwhile, remember: In Chicago, it’s the gangs who are doing the killing, and it’s the Democratic politicians who are in bed with the gangs.

HE’S NOT INEFFECTIVE.  HE’S ON THE OTHER SIDE: House Intel Committee Members: Largest-Ever Gitmo Release Endangers U.S. Troops.

RAISES EYEBROW:is there hidden support for Donald Trump that is not showing up in the polls?

NOR SHALL WE FORGET: 9/11 survivors: We were saved by the man with the red bandanna.

OKAY, NOT EVERYTHING HE DID WAS ANATHEMA: Inside FDR’s wartime mission to protect American treasures.

OF COURSE THEY DO: New York cracks down on charities in the name of ‘ethics’.  Nothing outside the state, comrade!

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HEAD START AND THROWING MONEY DOWN A RAT HOLE:  There’s an off chance that money thrown down a rat hole might be found and used for something useful. Putting Head Start’s “Sleeper Effects” to Rest.

WHAT ISN’T FOR SALE IN CLINTON-LAND: Hillary practically promised a pay-to-play State Department.

SOME PARENTAL ASSEMBLY STILL REQUIRED: Screen time is no substitute for real learning.

WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, FREE SPEECH IS CENSORSHIP ALSO SHUT UP: The Left’s Free Speech Quandary at the University of Chicago.

BAH. BOOMERS SAID THE EXACT SAME ABOUT MY GENERATION BEFORE CO-OPTING US: What David Brooks Misses About Millennial Fragility.

WELL, THIS IS A SURPRISE: Ex-Clinton spokesman praises Trump’s speech in Mexico. “A former spokesman for Hillary Clinton on Wednesday offered praise to Donald Trump for his speech in Mexico alongside Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. Howard Wolfson, who worked as Clinton’s communications director in 2008, tweeted following the joint press conference that Trump’s address was a ‘home run.'”

AT AMAZON, deals on Instant Video. Why be bored tonight?

Plus, Game Downloads and Digital Music.

MILO YIANNOPOULOS: The London We’ve Lost:

I first thought my long absence was the source of my malaise. I’ve been feeling this niggling sense of unease, as though either I had changed or London had changed — as though we didn’t really know each other any more. I worked it out in the end. What’s wrong with London is what’s wrong with every major European city now. It’s Islam.

Visiting my tailor on Savile Row I saw nothing but hijabs and burkas. Some of them are from Saudi; rich men’s wives frittering away their afternoons in Mayfair. But the majority were not wealthy. They are women covering up as the British Muslim population becomes more radicalised. Britain now sends more fighters to ISIS than any country besides Belgium. Wander the streets of W1 or SW1 — or anywhere in East London — and that doesn’t strike you as peculiar.

Well, the Labour Party thought that Britain was too British and it’s electorate insufficiently tractable, and decided to make it more diverse. This is the result. More on that here.

IT’S COME TO THIS: “Scientists and the popular media are claiming that women are fallen, and therefore tempted to sin. But Christian theologians know that women are innately good, and if they are ever tempted to sin it is because they don’t have enough self esteem.”