GAIL TVERBERG: The Biggest Problem With Renewables.

While a change to renewables may, in theory, help save world ecosystems, it will also tend to make the electric grid increasingly unstable. To prevent grid failure, electrical systems will need to pay substantial subsidies to fossil fuel and nuclear electricity providers that can offer backup generation when intermittent generation is not available. Modelers have tended to overlook these difficulties. As a result, the models they provide offer an unrealistically favorable view of the benefit (energy payback) of wind and solar.

If the approach of mandating wind, water, and solar were carried far enough, it might have the unfortunate effect of saving the world’s ecosystem by wiping out most of the people living within the ecosystem.

If you talk to certain environmentalists, that’s a feature not a bug.

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Democratic Presidential Clown Car Update. “Gravel is out, Creepy Porn Lawyer threatens a return, the Biden bunch banks big bucks, Ryan hits the showers, and Michelle says no (yet again).”

NO. We Now Must Become Vegetarians to Save the Planet, New Report Claims.

IT’S THE SAME OLD SONG: Obama Politicizes El Paso and Dayton Shootings, Blames Trump.

EXCLUSIVE: Firearms Expert Says Dayton Shooter’s Weapon Was Illegally Modified.

The weapon, which was obtained legally, was modified illegally.

Any rifle that has a barrel under 16 inches is regulated under the National Firearms Act, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Clearly, the barrel on the rifle used by the shooter is less than 16 inches.

“In order to have that configuration, he would have had to file for an ATF tax stamp, either as the original owner, or as a transferrer,” Maxey said.

The ATF has strict regulations for modifying a stock firearm. The owner has to fill out a 12 page form, and oftentimes submit to a secondary background check, separate from the standard background check completed when originally purchasing a firearm. There is also a $200 fee – known as a “tax stamp” – to modify the weapon.

According to Maxey, it is extremely unlikely that the Dayton shooter when through this process. Maxey said the important question is where or how the shooter obtained the illegally modified short-barreled rifle.

“If more gun control is what they want, how does this get stopped? What’s next? We just ban parts?” Maxey said.

Indeed.

TRAFFICKING: Children at Center of Booming Smuggling Industry.

A 33-year-old Honduran male illegally crossed the U.S. border with his 15-year-old “son” recently.

After an investigation, it was discovered that the man had borrowed the boy from the boy’s mother in Honduras to use in an attempt to be released into the United States quickly as a family unit. He presented a fake birth certificate for the boy.

Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents are uncovering thousands of such stories as smugglers and illegal aliens learn that a child is an adult’s ticket into the United States, due to legal loopholes.

Much more at the link.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: So Many Gun Violence Solutions, So Much Stupidity. “Not out of character for the left and one of their favorite tools to use in service of their tyranny: deplatforming. Time to shut down some websites in the name of public safety. 8chan is already a victim of this plan and others will soon follow. What constitutes dangerous speech? No worries, we can let the left decide what that is, but we should be confident in their abilities they have been well-displayed through their governance of YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. You had better keep your thoughts and words in check or else you will punished by the good Samaritans who want to stop gun violence. It’s for a good cause.”

Sadly, this is Liz’s last day with PJ. She will be missed. Stephen Kruiser will take over Morning Brief duties starting tomorrow.

COLD WAR II: What China’s Defence Paper Tells Us About Beijing’s Regional Ambition.

For all the professed good intention, the white paper’s unilateral declaration that Asia-Pacific countries are “increasingly aware that they are members of a community with shared destiny” is problematic. For all the frequent use of the phrase, China hasn’t ever explained just what is meant, and nor has any Asian country endorsed it. This hints at a deeper contradiction. The paper describes the security condition in the region as generally stable, yet nonetheless points to “major country competition” as fostering uncertainties in regional security.

To be fair, Beijing sounds much nicer when they say “community with shared destiny” instead of “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.”

CORRECTION: The New York Times did not mean to imply anything remotely positive about the President, and we regret the error.

And Jay Caruso notes: “It’s amusing watching people get in a tizzy over a @nytimes headline about Trump’s statements yesterday, but nary a peep about people from news orgs falsely stating Trump ‘rolled back regulations’ that would prevent people with ‘mental illness’ from getting guns.”

To be fair, they’re hacks.

BRIARPATCH: Jerry Nadler Asks How Does Late Fall Look For Impeachment?

Assuming that public opinion swings to impeachment as a result of their hearings, Nadler tells Barnicle that it’ll work out great for Democrats in 2020. “If we show that this president ought to be impeached and the people support it,” Nadler replies, “if the Senate doesn’t [vote to remove], then we’ll defeat a lot of Republican senators next year.”

Er, sure. Democrats have been flogging this same horse for well over two years, and public opinion has sunk on impeachment. Mueller was supposed to stoke a new demand for impeachment, but instead the hearing blew up in Nadler’s face. Nadler’s hearings will produce nothing but the same arguments which have been in play since Mueller’s report got released and which have failed to move the needle on impeachment except to make it even fringier than ever.

Forget it, he’s rolling.

MICHAEL LEDEEN: Trump’s Deals Will Not Be Sufficient to Bring Down Enemy Regimes. “Some of the deals he seeks are not attainable, because his would-be deal counterparts are not the least bit interested in dealing with us. Iran, for example, wants us destroyed or dominated. The small group of fanatics around Ayatollah Ali Khamenei believes that Allah has decreed the triumph of radical Islam over Western godless secularism. They think time, and God, are on their side. Why should they make a deal when their triumph is divinely assured? They are undoubtedly thinking, if he can’t bring down Venezuela’s Maduro, how can he possibly topple us?”

The Mullahs live in their own bubble, which makes them dangerous in unexpected ways, but more vulnerable in others. Hit the weak spots.

MODERN PROBLEMS: Basketball Player Uses Girlfriend’s Urine to Fake Drug Test, Finds Out He’s Pregnant.

FAKE NEWS: These Two Shootings Defy Traditional Political Stereotyping. The Media Is Trying to Squeeze Them In.

The shooter in Ohio is an Elizabeth Warren fan, which means the media will focus far more on the El Paso shooter. But the El Paso shooter, who is very anti-immigration and believes the country is under invasion, also has a significant degree of concern about ecology and the environment. Neither of them fit within standard boxes of politics.

Unfortunately, the media is so used to putting everything in R and D boxes and defaulting to blame Trump stories that reporters are trying to force the stories into standard boxes and are willing to discard or downplay inconvenient facts that prevent standard narrative building.

This is a bad thing for them to do because it makes it way easier to amplify claims of bias against the media. Likewise, it gives both sides partisan talking points to avoid dealing with the larger issues involved.

Perhaps the largest issue is just what a lousy press we have.

FAILURE TO THRIVE: Is Kamala Harris Over Before She Got Going? “When Joe Biden can beat you and only miss a few details, you know you’ve been beat.”

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: We’ve Tracked Down the Rules for the Democratic Socialists of America Convention and They’re AMAZING.

GOOD LORD: Shocking photos show massive fireball caused by explosion at Russian ammo dump said to house tens of thousands of artillery shells.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Liberals have good reason to ditch Obama’s lousy legacy.

This fissure within the Democratic Party is directly tied to Obama’s legacy. The former president inflamed progressives, empowered and normalized them, but never quite delivered on his lofty promises of change. Even as Obama set the stage for his party’s hard-left shift, he was forced — to his endless frustration — to live within the realities of a representative republic.

Even recently, Obama — just like the progressives running against his legacy — praised Medicare for All as a “good new idea,” despite the fact that its success would mean the repeal of his signature achievement, ObamaCare.

If Obama doesn’t believe in his legacy, why should his ideological progeny cling to it?

The Montagnards always turn on the Girondists, to coin an Instaphrase. But it wasn’t that long ago that Obama, now a Girondist in comparison, was one of the Montagnards.

TIT FOR TAT: China to suspend purchases of US farm products in retaliation for ‘serious violation’ of trade deal between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump.

Trade wars aren’t easy to win, but decoupling from China has become a geopolitical necessity.

WORST. WHITE SUPREMACIST. EVER. Donald Trump Condemns White Supremacy in Wake of El Paso Shooting.

THE FIX IS IN: Kamala Harris’s Arrest Reports Are Quietly Disappearing From California’s DOC Website.

GUY BENSON: Identify the Terrorism By Name, But Not Its Perpetrators. “On the issue of guns, I’m a supporter of the Second Amendment and a critic of the “do something” mentality. It’s not fair or right to curtail the rights of law-abiding citizens because of the actions of a tiny fraction of the population. And yes, it’s a tiny fraction. Paradoxically, US crime and murders remain at or near multi-decade lows, even as the number of guns owned in America has exploded. That said, even within that more optimistic context, deadly mass shootings are on the rise.”

Mass shootings shouldn’t be lumped in with regular crime, which generally features some sort of relatable motive — greed, jealousy, anger, turf wars — directed at someone or something specific. But they aren’t quite terrorism, either, which by definition includes a political agenda.

I suppose the confusion helps push the anti-gun agenda, so I wouldn’t expect it to end.

LARRY CORREIA: An Opinion on Gun Control, repost.

From 2012, following Sandy Hook:

Basically for most of my adult life, I have been up to my eyeballs in guns, self-defense instruction, and the laws relating to those things. So believe me when I say that I’ve heard every argument relating to gun control possible. It is pretty rare for me to hear something new, and none of this stuff is new.

So now that there is a new tragedy the president wants to have a “national conversation on guns”. Here’s the thing. Until this national conversation is willing to entertain allowing teachers to carry concealed weapons, then it isn’t a conversation at all, it is a lecture.

Now when I say teachers carrying concealed weapons on Facebook I immediately get a bunch of emotional freak out responses. You can’t mandate teachers be armed! Guns in every classroom! Emotional response! Blood in the streets!

No. Hear me out. The single best way to respond to a mass shooter is with an immediate, violent response. The vast majority of the time, as soon as a mass shooter meets serious resistance, it bursts their fantasy world bubble. Then they kill themselves or surrender. This has happened over and over again.

Plus: “The average number of people shot in a mass shooting event when the shooter is stopped by law enforcement: 14. The average number of people shot in a mass shooting event when the shooter is stopped by civilians: 2.5. The reason is simple. The armed civilians are there when it started.”

(Re-)read the whole thing.

PAULA BOLYARD: Cloudflare Terminates 8chan in the Wake of El Paso Shooting: Slippery Slope or Necessary Evil?

MATT MARGOLIS: No, The United States Doesn’t Lead The World in Mass Shootings.

OH: Kamala Harris Didn’t Send 1500 People To Jail For Pot — It Was More Than That.