LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: Colombia Struggles to Control Border Overrun by Desperate Venezuelans. “Police commander admits stopping refugees is futile: ‘How are you going to control people when the issue is that they are hungry?’”

One of the migrants, 58-year-old Hernan Rodriguez, said the trip, his first outside Venezuela, hadn’t been very dignified. To keep his clothes dry crossing the river, he had stripped to his underwear and carried his small suitcase above his head. His business had gone belly up, he explained, and he was seeking a new life in the Colombian capital.

“I would be finished if I had stayed,” he said, describing how the comfortable life back home had unraveled. “People beg, they eat garbage. You see it all and say, ‘This isn’t Venezuela.’ ”

With a handful of U.S. dollars, he was able to buy a bus ticket to Bogotá.

But the highway leading away from this border region is crowded with Venezuelans who have no bus money. They walk, carrying luggage, bottles of waters, babies, hoofing it sometimes hundreds of miles and at altitudes topping 11,000 feet.

Carlos Eduardo Alvarado, 38, made the illegal crossing into Colombia and, on a recent day, was walking with a small group of friends. They all had come from Barquisimeto, some 350 miles in Venezuela’s interior. They had 360 miles ahead of them before arriving in Medellín, where they hoped to find work.

For Mr. Alvarado, it was imperative—he has four children to feed back home.

But if you’re opposed to socialism, it’s because you’re an uncaring monster.

UH-HUH: CNN Host Says Dems Have Been ‘Fairly Silent’ on Kavanaugh Accusation. “Let’s count Dems who have complained about Kavanaugh, shall we?”

HEY, ALEXA, LOOK UP THE MEANING OF GROUPTHINK: Amazon Employees Donated 90 Percent to Dem PACS, 10 Percent to Republicans.

THAT DOES SEEM EXCESSIVE: Why Does The U.S. Army Need Ten Years To Begin Fielding A New Recon Helicopter?

Having canceled three previous efforts to replace Kiowa, the Army has now launched a fourth attempt. It is called the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA). Considering how much the Army and its contractors have learned from the previous attempts, this should be a snap. After all, it’s just a scout helicopter. Yes, the requirements have changed over time — for instance it needs to be able to jam enemy radar now — but it is still basically a light, agile rotorcraft equipped with sensors and munitions for killing tactical targets.

But even implementing what the Army considers to be a fast development program, it will take ten years before the first FARA reaches the force. A request for design proposals will be issued sometime in the next few weeks, and, voila! — ten years later soldiers finally get their new scout helicopter. Maybe. Imagine all the things that might happen between now and then to the threat environment, to the federal budget, and to the priorities of Army leaders.

I did a little digging and the Army announced its need for the something like the Kiowa in 1960, and didn’t field the first one until 1969. So long lead times are nothing new — but that doesn’t make them right.

HMM: 3D-printed gun pioneer Cody Wilson charged with sexual assault.

A warrant was issued for Cody Wilson but he flew to Taiwan before he could be detained, police in Austin said.

A 16-year-old girl alleged she was paid $500 (£380) to have sex with Mr Wilson at an Austin hotel, they said.

Austin Police Commander Troy Officer told a press briefing that a counsellor who had spoken to the girl informed police on 22 August that “that a juvenile female under the age of 17 had reported having sexual contact with a 30-year-old male”.
The legal age of consent in Texas is 17.

Commander Officer said the girl met Mr Wilson through the sugardaddymeet.com website and had sex with him in a hotel on 15 August.

Police confirmed the girl’s story through “videotape and interviews”, he said.

More to come.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Embattled Democrat bets against Kavanaugh. “Claire McCaskill broke the news last night that she’s not voting for President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. Yes, she’s a Democrat — but she’s running in a state that voted for Trump over Hillary by 18 points. This political move is remarkable, but McCaskill’s reasoning proved even more remarkable. You see, this embattled Democrat senator swears — she swears, mind you — that this decision has nothing — nothing — to do with the sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh.”

Tyler O’Neil is filling in for Liz this morning.

BILL GERTZ: Trump Leaning Against Extending Arms Treaty. “Moscow’s new weapons violate New START, INF treaties, undermine arms control.”

Among the options being considered are withdrawing from New START; re-negotiating inspection and verification provisions as part of treaty extension; or adopting a more limited and simple agreement similar to the 2002 Moscow Treaty that called for significant reductions in strategic offensive arms.

“Among issues to consider will be Russia’s decision to manufacture compliance issues regarding U.S. weapons, and the uncertainty of whether or not Russia’s recently announced strategic nuclear weapons will be held accountable under the treaty,” Thompson explained in her prepared testimony.

In response to U.S. questioning of Russian treaty violations, Moscow has responded with disinformation and false counter charges of U.S. noncompliance.

“Russia’s response to each of these situations is to employ its standard playbook of distraction, misinformation, and counter-accusations,” Thompson said.

David Trachtenberg, deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, also said extension of New START is uncertain.

“Any decision on extending the treaty will, and should be, based on a realistic assessment of whether the New START treaty remains in our national security interests in light of overall Russian arms control behavior,” Trachtenberg testified.

New START had some good provisions, which by and large are the ones Moscow has stopped abiding.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP: McDonald’s customers who hung fake poster in restaurant for 51 days get $25G checks from fast-food chain.

Jehv Maravilla, 21, and his friend Christian Toledo, 25, placed the sign in the Pearland McDonald’s after noticing a lack of Asian representation in the marketing materials.

“We were eating McDonald’s one day and we looked around and saw there were posters around that didn’t have any Asians,” Maravilla told KHOU 11. “They had other races but no Asians so we felt like it was our duty to put ourselves up there.”

The pair concocted a scheme that involved buying McDonald’s uniforms from goodwill and creating fake badges to have their sign placed in the store.

Though the friends were worried about “getting in trouble,” the sign remained in the store unnoticed for 51 days – until the pair posted about their prank on Twitter, where it went viral.

Only in America.

AIR POWER: The mangled myths dogging the joint strike fighter.

The jets have proved very effective in the US Red Flag exercise—the most rigorous air combat contest held in peacetime—which pits forces from the US and allies such as Australia against teams trained to perform as the ‘enemy’ and equipped as much as possible to fight using the tactics of a potential adversary. F-35s achieved kill ratios of over 20 to 1. That’s an impressive empirical proof of capability and performance.

The US company that builds the JSF, Lockheed Martin Corporation, flew Australian journalists, myself included, to its plants in Fort Worth, Texas, and Orlando, Florida, to examine the project. The information I gathered through that trip, including from US Air Force personnel, is helpful in understanding the actual status of the jets and the production program.

So, on to some of the claims.

Are JSF pilots voting with their feet?

No. US Air Force pilots across all aircraft types are being recruited by airlines that can pay more than the US government, but JSF pilots aren’t unique in this situation. The pattern of competitive recruitment from airlines recurs as economic conditions change.

JSF pilots I have spoken to say the stealthy, multi-purpose fifth-generation jet is easy to fly, revolutionary in its capabilities, and very popular with those operating it.

I can attest it’s also very poplar with those not operating it, if the pilots I’ve spoken to still flying F-16s are anything to go by.

ANDREW MALCOLM: What’s really behind Obama’s stealth midterm campaign?

To be candid, Democrats really have no one else of political stature to help. Obama paid no attention to developing a farm team. He chose a non-threatening partner in Joe Biden, who’s nearly 20 years older. Bill Clinton picked a contemporary vice president and partner in Al Gore, who’s just two years younger, setting him up for possible succession.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is out as a current campaigner. The threat of her grabbing back the speaker’s gavel come January, blocking a GOP agenda and launching impeachment proceedings is a major target of numerous GOP campaigns. Democrats can’t send the 78-year-old anywhere but fundraisers with rich loyalists.

The Clintons may seek paid speaking invites, though who’d want their advice after so thoroughly botching the 2016 campaign that hung there for the taking?

Rep. Maxine Waters of California is a guaranteed media magnet, but giving her a podium is like waving a loaded gun in a crowded room. And she only talks Trump impeachment, which the Democratic Party desperately wants to hush until post-election for fear of motivating Republicans to vote.

Perhaps it’s a field of the too-old, the too-weak, and the too-radical because Obama prefers it that way.

NOW THAT’S A STRONG, COURAGEOUS WOMAN: DC McAllister Speaks About Threats Against Her for Anti-Abortion Tweet.

Meanwhile, Cristina King Miranda, who “courageously” came out yesterday in support of classmate Christine Blasey Ford on Twitter yesterday before deleting her supportive tweet, has since deleted her entire Twitter account. I suspect she did so after being unable to dodge questions about how the alleged attack “was spoken about for days afterwords in school,” despite Ford supposedly telling no one about it until her therapist in 2012.

LISTICLE: The 10 Best Country Crossover Hits of the 70s and 80s.

STEPHEN KRUISER: Chevy Chase Goes Off on Lorne Michaels and Current Cast of ‘Saturday Night Live.’

BREAKING: DOJ Gave Socialist Employee an Award AFTER She Assailed DHS Secretary Nielsen.

Update: J. Christian Adams read the date wrong and scratched the article.

TAKE AWAY REASON AND ACCOUNTABILITY: Kirsten Gillibrand Says Republicans Are ‘Bullying’ Kavanaugh Accuser Into Testifying on Monday. “Um… that’s what she asked for.”

SHE SAYS THAT LIKE IT’S A BAD THING: Hillary Clinton: Trump will ‘wholesale fire people’ after midterm election.

NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT: Arizona Dem. David Garcia Made $82,063 For Teaching a Mere Three Classes This Year. “David Garcia, the Democratic candidate in the Arizona governor’s race, has touted his record as a teacher, but he only taught three classes this year, and only one of those in person — and that class lasted only 6 weeks. Garcia also laments that teachers are not paid enough, but he made more than $30,000 more than the average teacher salary in Arizona this year. He has also published less research than his colleagues, and the university where he works has taken down the site for his Arizona Education Policy Initiative.”

To be fair, there doesn’t seem to have been much education going on.

GOLF DIGEST? YES, GOLF DIGEST. With an investigation Golf Digest helped open, an Erie County court vacated Dixon’s murder conviction after he had already served 27 years in jail.

Six years ago, Golf Digest profiled this inmate who grinds colored pencils to their nubs drawing meticulously detailed golf-scapes. Although Dixon has never hit a ball or even stepped foot on a course, the game hooked him when a golfing warden brought in a photograph of Augusta National’s 12th hole for the inmate to render as a favor. In the din and darkness of his stone cell, the placid composition of grass, sky, water and trees spoke to Dixon. And the endless permutations of bunkers and contours gave him a subject he could play with.

“The guys can’t understand,” Dixon has said. “They always say I don’t need to be drawing this golf stuff. I know it makes no sense, but for some reason my spirit is attuned to this game.”

It took about a hundred drawings before Golf Digest noticed, but when we did, we also noticed his conviction seemed flimsy. So we investigated the case and raised the question of his innocence.

Read the whole, seemingly impossible thing.

ON CRISTINA KING MIRANDA: Making serious allegations and then running for cover does seem to be the Left’s modus operandi against Brett Kavanaugh.

THE NEW RULES: Kavanaugh Accuser’s Lawyer Says It’s Not Her Job To Corroborate Her Story.

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Nixing Regulations Saved Taxpayers $1.3 Billion This Year.

That $1.3 billion number is actually double the goal that Trump had set for these savings, according to the Washington Times. Casey Mulligan, chief economist at Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, told the newspaper that the reason the figure wound up being double the administration’s goal was because Barack Obama’s administration had actually far underestimated just how much its regulations were costing Americans.

“President Trump is not getting rid of all regulations by any means,” Mulligan said. “But some of the most problematic ones, he’s getting rid of them.”

The savings are nice, but the ripple effects of increased competition and innovation are the major benefit. So keep cutting that red tape.

BLUE WAVE? Huge Upset for GOP in Texas: State Senate Seat Flips Red for First Time in 139 Years. “Apparently, Beto O’Rourke is sucking all of the oxygen out of the state’s Democratic Party resources.”

J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS: DOJ Resources Used by Socialist DOJ Employee to Target GOP.

BETO MALE: Cruz leading O’Rourke by 9 points.

More than half of likely voters, 54 percent, supported Cruz compared to 45 percent who backed O’Rourke, according to the new poll, a comfortable lead for the first-term incumbent after several recent polls showed O’Rourke trailing narrowly.

Among likely voters, Cruz had a favorability rating of 52 percent compared to 43 percent who viewed him unfavorably. O’Rourke was viewed favorably by 43 percent of likely voters and unfavorably by 42 percent.

O’Rourke’s favorability numbers are almost shocking considering the all-too-friendly press he’s been getting.

IT’S GOOD TO BE THE SULTAN: Turkey’s Erdogan Got a Half-Billion Dollar Gift From Qatar.

Erdogan confirmed receipt of the gift as he hit back at critics who’d been questioning whether it was actually paid for with taxpayer money. Turkey had showed interest in purchasing the aircraft when it was up for sale for around $500 million, Erdogan told reporters over the weekend, according to Hurriyet newspaper. But when Qatar’s ruler found out, he donated it to the Turkish presidency free of charge, Erdogan said.

Turkey’s political, military and economic relations with Qatar have improved dramatically as Ankara sided with the gas-rich Gulf state in its tussle with a regional alliance led by Saudi Arabia. Last month, Qatar’s ruler met Erdogan in Ankara and promised to invest $15 billion in the country to try and pull Turkey back from the brink of a financial crisis.

There’s much more ruin left in Erdogan’s economy than that.