REPORT: 30k Illegal Immigrants Came From Countries of Terrorist Concern.

That’s bound to happen, given that terrorists thrive under the same conditions that produce huge numbers of migrants. The question is whether those tens of thousands are receiving any kind of scrutiny — something their illegal status makes unlikely at best.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Judge Orders Immediate Review of 14,900 Hillary Clinton Emails.

A federal judge prodded the State Department to quickly review a batch of 14,900 recently discovered emails as the controversy over Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s correspondence while she served as America’s top diplomat continued to simmer.

Judge James Boasberg, in an order, set a deadline for the department to complete the email review by Sept. 22 to determine which ones contain sensitive government information and which are strictly personal conversations. That could pave the way for the emails to be released as early as mid-October.

October is always a nice month for surprises.

ALL IN THE FAMILY: Trump’s kids are cashing in on his campaign.

Campaign finance laws on the topic are hazy and contradictory, largely because no candidate for federal office has ever had such a sprawling business empire that could be employed for a campaign. The FEC allows candidates to rent themselves their own office space—as the Trump campaign does at Trump Tower—but bans them from collecting royalties on any memoirs purchased by the campaign. Money ultimately flows back to the candidate in both cases but the FEC has issued divergent rules.

Nevertheless, when it comes to payments to relatives or family-owned companies, the Trump campaign is breaking new ground. “The extent of Mr. Trump’s use of his own companies for goods and services during the campaign is unprecedented,” says Paul S. Ryan, a campaign finance expert and the Deputy Executive Director of The Campaign Legal Center. “It has the potential to transfer donations to himself and his children.”

In July alone, Trump’s campaign paid $169,758.33 in rent to Trump Tower Corporation LLC, $48,239.77 for rent and catering at Trump National Golf Club in Weschester, $1,000 to Trump Restaurants LLC, and $428.53 worth of Trump’s bottled water Trump Ice. In May, Trump’s campaign spent $3,938.58 at the vineyard run by his son Eric. Campaign dollars are also funneled to allies of Trump’s children. Each month, the campaign spends millions on apparel like the “Make America Great Again” trucker hats. The manufacturer, Ace Specialties, is owned by Christl Mahfouz, a board member on Eric Trump’s charitable foundation.

Most of this seems like much ado over nothing, and simplifying our “hazy and contradictory” campaign finance laws would provide some much-needed transparency to every campaign. But it’s still true that Trump’s campaign spending has been at the very least “unorthodox.”

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Through greater trade we can have a greater Britain.

The exact nature of Brexit — hard or soft — remains to be seen, but the minimum requirement should be the removal of the Common Customs Tariff, which will allow the UK to negotiate our own trade deals once again. The EU boasts about the 56 trade agreements signed with non-EU countries.

But of these, only 24 are with countries within the top 100 economies in the world, and only 11 are within the top 50. The total combined GDP in 2015 of these 56 countries in January 2015 was $6.7 trillion — put to shame by the massive achievements of much smaller countries such as Switzerland ($39.8 trillion) and Chile ($58.3 trillion).

Brexit will enable the UK to throw off the shackles which EU membership has bound us with.

The vote to Leave the EU was not a vote to Leave Europe — which would be geographically impossible. Nor was it a vote for isolationism (we are not about to sail off into the Atlantic either)! Rather, it was a vote against the advancing European federal superstate, with an entirely Eurocentric focus.

Free trade doesn’t require an ossifying superstate like the EU, or opaque supertreaties like the TPP.

GANGSTER GOVERNMENT: Inspector General Confirms EPA Broke Law, Failed to Study Environmental Impact of Ethanol.

Those findings, the result of an inspector general audit, confirm what the Associated Press reported back in late 2013, prompting the audit.

In 2007, Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act, which was and signed into law by Pres. George W. Bush. Among other things, the 2007 legislation increased the Renewable Fuel Standard that mandated biofuel production, primarily ethanol, and the blending of at least some of that ethanol into the gasoline supply.

The law also stipulates that the U.S. EPA must conduct studies every three years and report to Congress on the air and water quality benefit, or lack thereof, by adding corn-based ethanol to gasoline. The purpose of that part of the law is to make sure solutions to the country’s energy needs don’t adversely affect the environment.

The 2013 AP investigation characterized the use of ethanol as having a far more negative impact on the environment than the EPA and Dept. of Energy predicted. The AP reported that with corn effectively subsidized, farmers put millions of acres of land formerly devoted to conservation into corn production, destroying animal habitats and polluting water supplies.

For its part, the EPA agreed with the IG that the agency failed to follow the law and produce the studies. The EPA said it will produce a report on the impacts of biofuels by the end of 2017 — seven years late.

Though it’s now complying with that part of the law, apparently the agency feels the triennial requirements in the law are still optional.

Good luck if there are any laws you’d like to treat as “optional.”

THE DEPARTED: Leo ditches Hillary fundraiser under shady circumstances.

The move came just days after the Hollywood Reporter said the star and his eponymous foundation could be linked to a scandal involving a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, at the same time Hillary and Bill Clinton’s own charitable fund is under scrutiny.

Guests attending the Clinton event in LA were notified via e-mail over the weekend that “the production schedule for [DiCaprio’s] climate change film ‘Before the Flood’ has altered . . . which will prevent him from returning to Los Angeles . . . As a result, Leo personally asked his friends Justin Timberlake and wife Jessica Biel to host Tuesday’s lunch with Hillary at their home in the Hollywood Hills.”

But some attendees wondered if the move had more to do with the THR report, which said the US Department of Justice filed an asset-seizure complaint in federal court pertaining to a Malaysian fund that backed Red Granite Pictures — a production company behind the DiCaprio film “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

Pay-to-play works both ways.

CHILDREN’S CRUSADE: Iraq stops would-be child bomber for ISIS.

Dramatic video has emerged of Iraqi police stripping an explosive belt from a child suspected in a suicide bombing attempt for ISIS.

The footage appears to show security personnel restrain a visibly upset boy while they carefully cut the belt from the youth’s torso in Kirkuk. Once the belt has been removed, the boy is scooped up and taken away.

Kurdistan 24, a broadcast news station based out of Irbil, Iraq, aired Sunday’s capture.
Authorities said they believe the 15-year-old came to Kirkuk a week ago from Mosul, ISIS’ most significant stronghold outside Syria.

Good lord.

SOFT MONEY: Ramen is displacing tobacco as most popular US prison currency, study finds.

A new report by Michael Gibson-Light, a doctoral candidate in the University of Arizona’s school of sociology, found the decline in quality and quantity of food available in prisons due to cost-cutting has made ramen noodles a valuable commodity.

“[Ramen] is easy to get and it’s high in calories,” Gibson-Light said. “A lot of them, they spend their days working and exercising and they don’t have enough energy to do these things. From there it became more a story, why ramen in particular.”

Gibson-Light interviewed close to 60 inmates over the course of a year at one state prison as part of a wider study on prison labor. He did not identify the prison to protect the confidentiality of the inmates.

60 inmates at a single prison doesn’t sound like much of a study.

SIGN ME UP: You Can Now Get Paid To Travel Europe And Drink Gin.

Don’t even ask if there are benefits — did you read the job description?

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Massachusetts Will Tax Uber to Subsidize Taxi Industry. That’s Absurd.

The state’s “MassDevelopment” agency—a crony-corporatist sinkhole of misappropriated funds, if ever there was one—will be responsible for figuring out how to spend the money to best help the taxi industry. One idea is to help taxis “adopt new technologies,” which probably means using an app to hail a cab. So Massachusetts is robbing Peter to pay Paul so that Paul can learn how to do the thing Peter already does.

Ride-sharing services have little choice but to accept the fee: indeed, they practically have to thank the government for going easy on them. The new law is apparently some sort of compromise—taxi lobbyists wanted Uber banned outright.

The bill was signed into law by Republican Governor Charlie Baker, who is apparently the kind of blue-state Republican that Democrats can count on to “do the right thing.”

But the question remains: Why are blue state governments so hostile to emerging industries patronized by (and provide jobs to) technologically savvy young people?

20TH CENTURY CRIME: Antlers Hunter S Thompson stole from Hemingway’s home returned to family.

This might be the most Hunter S Thompson story ever.

YES, EVEN IN WEST VIRGINIA: West Virginia University Offers Students Guide On “Using Gender Neutral Pronouns Such As ‘Ve,’ ‘Ver’ And ‘Vis’”

These are Heinlein’s Crazy Years — we just live in them.

CLARIFICATION? Donald Trump: ‘I’m not flip-flopping’ on immigration.

“I’m not flip flopping,” the Republican presidential nominee told Fox News on the issue Monday. “We want to come up with a fair but firm process. Fair but firm.” He did not, however, provide any specifics or elaborate on his position further.

When asked by repeated questioning by CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” on Sunday whether Trump stood behind the idea of a deportation task force, Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s new campaign manager, responded, “to be determined.”

Conway was responding to reports about what was said in a meeting Trump held on Saturday with a Hispanic advisory council. Sources in the room told BuzzFeed that Trump spoke about a “humane and efficient” way to work with undocumented immigrants in the country currently, which was characterized by BuzzFeed as a way to legalize some and let them stay.

A muddled response to an anticipated question on a potential wedge issue is just one reason why solid and consistent messaging is vital to any winning campaign.

WHITE HUNTER, BLACK MARKET: Save the Rhino by Privatizing It.

(Classical reference in the headline; poachers come in all colors.)

QUESTION ASKED: Joe Biden Will Visit Turkey This Week. Does He Have the Courage to Call Out Autocrat Erdogan?

It is unwise to criticize President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: ‘Veto Gunmageddon’ Wants to Pick Off 7 New California Gun Laws.

Veto Gunmageddon launched separate petition drives against each of the seven laws on Aug. 12. The petitions ask for ballot referendums that would ask voters in November to repeal the laws.

Six of the gun control laws in Bahrami’s sights were signed by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) July 1. The seventh was signed July 22. Brown vetoed five others that he felt should be decided by voters.

The new laws that Veto Gunmageddon wants to stop cover assault weapons, ammunition sales and the registration of guns “personally manufactured or assembled,” along with new regulations regarding lost, stolen, or borrowed firearms.

“My goal in signing these bills is to enhance public safety by tightening our existing laws in a responsible and focused manner while protecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners,” Gov. Brown wrote in his signing message.

Amanda Wilcox, a lobbyist with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told the New York Times she especially liked one of the bills. It requires background checks for ammunition purchases.

“It can give us a handle on who has illegal guns in the state, as well as limiting access to ammunition by dangerous people who may have illegal guns,” she said.

Brandon Combs, president of the Firearms Policy Coalition, certainly doesn’t see any of the legislation as being positive.

He described the measures signed by Brown as “constitutionally-illegitimate laws passed by a patently illegitimate government that had the audacity to attack and criminalize millions of its own people in Stalin-esque fashion.”

Read the whole thing.

Absent serious and effective pushback from groups like Veto Gunmageddon, California will soon achieve that Progressive paradise, where everything not compulsory is forbidden.

WHEW! How Clinton Reassured Us That She’ll Be a Good President.

But how much reassuring did Matthew Yglesias and the Vox kids really need?

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: FBI uncovered tens of thousands more documents in Clinton email probe.

The total — confirmed by the Justice Department — was disclosed by a conservative legal group after the State Department said last week that it would hand over the emails. The number to be released is nearly 50 percent more than the 30,000-plus that Clinton’s lawyers deemed work-related and returned to the department in December 2014.

Lawyers for the State Department and Judicial Watch, the legal group, said in an Aug. 12 court filing that they intended to negotiate a plan for the release, part of a civil public records lawsuit before U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of Washington.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton tweeted Monday morning that the “FBI found almost 15,000 new Clinton documents. When will State release them?”

Maybe these are the long-awaited emails concerning yoga routines and wedding cakes.

In any case, October is always a nice month for surprises.

HOPE: Diverse Millennials Are No Voting Monolith.

Millennials’ disdain for traditional party affiliation means that half describe themselves as independents, according to a 2014 Pew Research report – a near-record level of political disaffiliation. They tend to be liberal on social questions such as gay marriage, abortion and marijuana legalization. Yet they skew slightly conservative on fiscal policy and are more in line with other generations on gun control and foreign affairs.

Trip Nistico, a recent Colorado law school graduate, is a gun rights advocate who visits shooting ranges – but also supports in same-sex marriage. He backed President Barack Obama in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012. The 26-year-old is voting for Trump this year.

Still, Trump remains unpopular among millennials and nearly two-thirds of Americans between the ages of 18 and 30 believe the Republican nominee is racist, according to GenForward’s poll. Views of Hillary Clinton also were unfavorable, though not to the same extent.

Democrats have been winning big with Millennials on “culture war” issues, but there’s no reason the GOP couldn’t be winning on a message of economic hope and liberty.

CONFIDENCE: Clinton campaign not planning to air ads in Virginia, Colorado ahead of Election Day.

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign will make their final ad reservations for the fall this week, according to an aide, reserving — in total — $80 millions in ads through Election Day in eight states.

Two states that the Clinton campaign will not air local ads in through September and October: Virginia and Colorado.

With polls showing Clinton up handily over Donald Trump in the two swing states, Clinton’s top aides feel — citing the growth in minority communities and college-educated white voters — confident enough to pull local ads in the two states.

The GOP nominee has won with college-educated white voters in every presidential election going back to 1952.

HOUSE OF CARDS: Companies Build Bonds for European Central Bank to Buy.

The European Central Bank’s corporate-bond-buying program has stirred so much action in credit markets that some investment banks and companies are creating new debt especially for the central bank to buy.

In two instances, the ECB has bought bonds directly from European companies through so-called private placements, in which debt is sold to a tight circle of buyers without the formality of a wider auction.

It is a startling example of how banks and companies are quickly adapting to the extremes of monetary policy in what is an already unconventional age. In the past decade, wide-scale purchases of government bonds—a bid to lower the cost of borrowing in the economy and persuade investors to take more risk—have become commonplace. Central banks more recently have moved to negative interest rates, flipping on their head the ancient customs of money lending. Now, they are all but inviting private actors to concoct specific things for them to buy so they can continue pumping money into the financial system.

Something that can’t go on forever, won’t.

DON’T DO STUPID SH*T: Apparent Army Opsec Brief Lists Hillary Clinton, David Petraeus As Examples Of Insider Security Threats.

A leaked Army operational security brief appears to show Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and former CIA Director David Petraeus listed as two key examples of potential insider threats.

Admins of the Facebook page “U.S. Army W.T.F! moments” told The Daily Caller News Foundation this is the second time they’ve received a picture of this particular slide in the last six months. They posted the slide to their page Sunday.

Admins said the picture came from a servicemember stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.

The brief, marked unclassified, lists servicemembers Nidal Hassan, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden and Aaron Alexis as examples of threats.

On the second row, the brief pictures Clinton and Petraeus. The text of “careless or disgruntled employees” echoes FBI Director James Comey’s description, “extremely careless,” of Clinton’s handling of top secret and classified information when she served as Secretary of State.

Ready to be a fully compromised president from day one.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton aren’t worth losing friends over.

Marriages, either.

WE CAME, WE SAW, A COUNTRY DIED: Libya’s Prime Minister – ‘We Will Not Become Like Somalia’

Perhaps President Hillary Clinton will come up with a plan to save Libya from the ill-considered decisions of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

COLIN POWELL: Clinton ‘trying to pin’ her email use on my advice.

On Sunday, Powell told the New York Post’s Page Six that Clinton was using her private email long before their meeting.

“The truth is she was using it for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did [during my term as Secretary of State],” he said.

“Her people have been trying to pin it on me.”

Why must Hillary Clinton blame her personal failures on a black man?