CHANGE: Despite Federal Return, Capital Punishment Dying Out.

Twenty-one U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia, have totally abolished the death penalty for all crimes. Seven of those states abolished the practice in my lifetime. New Hampshire just officially abolished it in 2019.

In many U.S. states where executions are still legal, none have been carried out for years and the law is mainly symbolic. Kansas, for example, has not executed any prisoners in over forty years. The U.S. federal government, similarly, never officially abolished the death penalty but has had a moratorium on the practice since 2004 – a moratorium ended by the new policy ordered by Attorney General William Barr.

Harvard University’s Steven Pinker has chronicled the decline of capital punishment in his 2011 book, The Better Angels of Our Nature. He estimated that the execution rate in the United States has been falling for four centuries, from nearly 3.5 executions per 100,000 people in the 17th century.

Despite more “headline”-style shootings and terrorist acts, violent crime has been on a longterm decline in this country for a quarter century. If the return of the death penalty had anything much to do with that, I guess we’ll find out as more states outlaw or abandon the practice.

HMM: New Immigration Pact Likely to Spur More Single Migrants to U.S. Border. “Individuals from Honduras and El Salvador, especially men, are increasingly expected to try to enter undetected following the U.S.-Guatemala deal.”

More:

Under the “safe third country” agreement, Hondurans and Salvadorans would be required to apply for asylum in Guatemala instead of in the U.S. Asylum seekers from those countries apprehended at the U.S. southern border, mostly families, would be returned to Guatemala, U.S. and Guatemalan officials say.

The agreement faces legal and political hurdles in Guatemala, where it is widely unpopular and the subject of protests this past weekend. The country’s top court is expected to soon rule on two injunctions filed against the deal. It will clarify if the pact must be approved by Congress—where it faces opposition—and whether it was signed legally by the Interior Minister.

If the accord is implemented, it would likely deter migrant families from Honduras and El Salvador, said the manager of a migrant shelter in Guatemala City. Instead, it would revive old patterns in which migrants are predominantly single adults, mainly men, as the journey becomes more perilous and costly.

Well, then build the damn wall.

WELL, TO BE FAIR, LEFTISTS HAVE TO LIE ABOUT THEIR POLICIES OR NOBODY WOULD SUPPORT THEM: Taking a cue from Obama, Elizabeth Warren’s single-payer strategy involves not telling voters the truth.

VICTORY GIRLS: In Case You Were Wondering, Terrorism is Still a Thing.

JOSH BLACKMAN & SETH BARRETT TILLMAN: What is the Plaintiffs’ Cause of Action in the Wall Litigation?

ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS: Slotkin (D): GOP Only Opposes Anti-Semitism for Money; Michigan rep refused to condemn Omar, Tlaib.

ROGER KIMBALL WATCHED LAST NIGHT’S DEBATE SO YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO: The biggest loser in Wednesday’s Detroit debate was sanity — the insuperable obstacle the candidates faced was the stunning success of Donald Trump’s first three years.

JAMES FREEMAN: Do Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders Like You? Beyond the radical agenda, they also share a contempt for many of their fellow citizens.

The sight of Sen. Warren happily rubbing her hands together at the prospect of illegally seizing wealth from rival John Delaney was worth more than a thousand words about her unconstitutional tax scheme. But Sen. Warren and the author of her health care plan, Sen. Sanders, made it clear that highly successful entrepreneurs aren’t the only targets of their ire. . . .

Yes, the white lawyer who claimed to be “American Indian” and then snagged an Ivy League professorship is now complaining about the impact of a “corrupt, rigged system” on Native Americans.

Hypocrisy and hate: What powers the left.

WAIT… WHAT? Ann Arbor Could Fine Conservatives $500 Per Day for Not Parroting Left-Wing Talking Points.

RAKIB EHSAN: How Boris and his cabinet broke the left: The response to Johnson’s appointment of ethnic-minority ministers has been ugly and undignified.

The left’s reaction to Boris Johnson’s first week in office, and to the appointment of his new cabinet, has been unhinged.

Since becoming PM, Johnson has been called a ‘fascist’ and has been accused of leading a ‘far-right’ administration. Calling Johnson a ‘fascist’ and labelling his new cabinet ‘far-right’ doesn’t only trivialise the suffering of those who experienced the brutality of fascist regimes — it is also an odd way to describe a liberal Tory like Johnson. While fascist dictators of the past systematically oppressed and brutalised minority groups, Johnson has long supported an amnesty for long-term illegal immigrants and has just removed the government’s cap on new migrant arrivals.

He has also handed two of the great offices of state to ethnic-minority ministers: Sajid Javid is now chancellor and Priti Patel is home secretary. Javid, of Pakistani-Muslim origin, and Patel, of Gujarati-Hindu stock, are part of a diverse cabinet which also includes Alok Sharma as international development secretary and Rishi Sunak as chief secretary to the treasury.

But this development was also greeted with rage. Had Johnson selected an all-white, all-male cabinet, he would have been absolutely hammered by the left. But his appointment of non-white cabinet members was also derided. It was dismissed by the likes of Kehinde Andrews, a commentator and professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University, as ‘window dressing’. According to Kerry-Anne Mendoza, editor-in-chief of the Canary, the black and Asian MPs serving in Johnson’s cabinet are ‘turncoats of colour’. By being Tories with non-white skin, they are legitimising ‘oppression’, she argues.

This is nothing but vile bigotry.

Vile bigotry, and the usual accusations of fascism is the Left’s only response to being out of power. The Left should remain out of power, and stewing in its own vile juices, until it learns better.

AS ZHOU ENLAI NEVER SAID ABOUT THE IMPACT OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, “TOO EARLY TO SAY:”  The biggest loser of tonight’s Dem debate? Barack Obama.

HEH: De Blasio Appealing To Rural Voters By Touting Destruction Of New York City Under His Watch.

This is the Onion, so curiously, Snopes will give their satire a pass.

MY WASHINGTON TIMES OP-ED:  Threatening Teachers’ Ability to Control Their Classrooms.

(The full-length dissenting opinion here.  Update: It’s now the 3rd most downloaded article on SSRN for the week.)

IT WON’T TAKE A LOT OF PROSECUTIONS LIKE THIS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE: Slaughterhouse owner who used illegal immigrants sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.

DEMOCRATIC HATE FOR MARIANNE WILLIAMSON: The self-help guru’s supposedly empowering rhetoric masks a mean-spirited individualism that would lead to harmful policies if she were somehow elected. So is this blue-on-blue internecine violence — or is it a clever effort to make people on the right like her more?

THEY FORGET A LOT OF INCONVENIENT STUFF: Democrats Forget the Flint Water Crisis Was Caused by a Bold New Infrastructure Plan. “Michigan and Flint authorities thought switching water providers would be a great job stimulus program.”

SPARTACUS SNARLS: Booker Stuns Audience By Torching Biden on Criminal Justice Reform: You ‘Destroyed Communities Like Mine.’

Biden was 24 and attending the Syracuse University College of Law when the 1967 Newark riots occurred.

DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH: Somali Refugees Living in Tucson Started Hitting the Gym to Get Stronger…for Beheadings.

DIVERSITY’S RICH PAGEANT: Man ‘who pushed boy, 8, under train’ was used in campaign to promote integration.

Habte Araya, 40, originally from Eritrea but living in Switzerland, was arrested after he allegedly shoved the child and his mother, 40, onto the tracks of platform seven at Frankfurt Central Station. The father-of-three is also accused of pushing another woman, 78, who managed to stop herself from falling in front of the incoming ICE train. He then fled the scene, but was stopped by other passengers who held him until he was arrested. In 2017, Araya was pictured in an advertising brochure from the Swiss Workers Relief Agency and quoted as saying he liked ‘almost everything about Switzerland’.

I’m seeing a lot of ingratitude from this latest crop of “refugees.”

WALL STREET JOURNAL: The 99% Get a Bigger Raise: New data show much faster growth in wages and incomes.

Political discourse nowadays is enough to depress anyone, and the media don’t help by ignoring good economic news. But buck up, Americans: Worker wages are growing much faster than previously reported.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) on Tuesday published its annual revisions to personal income data, and the surprise was the huge jump in disposable income and employee compensation.

The revisions show that employee compensation rose 4.5% in 2017 and 5% in 2018—some $4.4 billion and $87.1 billion more than previously reported. The trend has continued into 2019, with compensation increasing $378 billion or 3.4% in the first six months alone. Wages and salaries were revised upward to 5.3% from 3.6% in May year over year. And in June wages and salaries grew at an annual rate of 5.5%, which is a rocking 4.1% after adjusting for inflation. . . .

The BEA also revised overall personal income up by 1.7% for 2017 and 2018 and transfer receipts down 0.7%. In sum, Americans are earning more and relying less on government. Personal savings estimates were also increased by $217 billion for the last two years and are now $1.3 trillion, which means Americans are socking away more of their earnings.

The personal savings rate was revised upward to 8.1% from 6.1% in May, which is much higher than the roughly 5% before the last two recessions. This should make the current economic expansion more durable since consumption isn’t being pumped up largely by increased household debt. Instead consumer spending has increased as wage growth has accelerated amid a tight labor market.

Recall how liberals blamed “secular stagnation” as the reason worker incomes weren’t growing faster during the latter years of Barack Obama’s Presidency. Yet employee compensation has increased by $150 billion more in the first six months of 2019 than all of 2016. Compensation increased 42% more during the first two years of the Trump Presidency than in 2015 and 2016. This refutes the claim by liberals that the economy has merely continued on the same trajectory since 2017 as it was before.

The economy barely skirted recession in the final Obama years, and economic policy changed in 2017. Deregulation has unleashed repressed animal spirits, especially in energy. Tax reform has also spurred business investment in new facilities and equipment, which over time should translate into higher worker productivity and wages.

Are you tired of winning yet?

THE HILL: James Comey’s next reckoning is imminent — this time for leaking.

WHEN NARRATIVES FAIL:

And, of course, the inevitable followup:

WELL, WELL: Hillary Wasn’t the Only One: FBI Seized Unsecured Classified Memos From Comey’s Home.

GET WOKE, GO BROKE: Gillette’s ‘Toxic Masculinity’ Ad Haunts Procter & Gamble as Shaving Giant Takes $8 Billion Writedown.