Top US general says more troops are needed for war on ISIS.

From Project Syndicate.

From AP.  Relevant sentences: “Serbia’s Interior Ministry says Slovenia will demand valid EU visas at its borders as of midnight Tuesday, effectively closing the main Balkan migration route toward western Europe. 

The ministry says Serbia was informed of the new restrictions by Slovenia and will act accordingly and close its borders with Macedonia and Bulgaria for refugees and other migrants who don’t have valid visas. 

It says “Serbia cannot allow itself to become a collective center for refugees.”

The measure means that thousands of migrants currently stranded in Greece on the border with Macedonia will not be allowed to proceed north toward Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria.”

45 years after the discovery of the FBI’s COINTELPRO operations, the FBI still can’t distinguish between activism and terrorism.  From Common Dreams.

Relevant chunks:

“Though the COINTELPRO revelations stirred widespread outrage and led to the eventual passage of reform legislation, such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, such abuse of activists’ First Amendment rights continues to this day.

More than 60 national and local groups on Tuesday sent a letter (pdf) to the leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees expressing concern over the FBI’s and Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s “abuse of counterterrorism resources to monitor Americans’ First Amendment protected activity.””

“Groups recently targeted by the FBI include SOAW, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and anti-Keystone XL Pipeline activists. Meanwhile DHS and local fusion centers, which operate as local sources of “counter-terrorism” intelligence gathering and sharing, monitored the Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter movements as well.

What’s more, the groups note, “documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the FBI continuously invokes counterterrorism authorities to monitor groups it admits are peaceful and nonviolent.”

“Labeling activism as terrorism criminalizes political dissent,” the letter states. “Given the current  political climate and draconian laws concerning terrorism, individuals may be deterred  from participating in completely lawful speech, such as a protest march, by this stigma.””

Hillary probably won’t be indicted for mishandling classified information.  No surprise there.  From RealClearPolitics.

From The Intercept: “The U.S. used drones and manned aircraft yesterday to drop bombs and missiles on Somalia, ending the lives of at least 150 people. As it virtually always does, the Obama administration instantly claimed that the people killed were “terrorists” and militants — members of the Somali group al Shabaab — but provided no evidence to support that assertion.”

One thing that can be said for US foreign policy is that it’s consistent.

In Venezuela.  Break the thumbs of the Invisible Hand and life gets very bad, very quick.

Obamacare Marketplace approved healthcare subsidies for 92% of fake applicants in an undercover test by the GAO.

Puppycide is the tragically necessary neologism that refers to the ubiquitous phenomenon of police killing household pets that everyone else seems to be able to deal with in a non-violent manner.  “But I was trained that way” was the excuse of the cop who was intent on killing Tiffanie Hupp’s obviously playful, happy canine, until she put herself in between the gun and her pet.  The cop had a badge-induced meltdown, and arrested her.  But just think about that: he appeared more than willing to gun down a family pet, in front of the family, with no hesitation.  What type of person is able to perform such an act?  Would you be comfortable you or your family interacting with someone who is capable of such a thing?

FBI agents who lied about who pulled the trigger now under investigation.  From The Oregonian.  State troopers shot Finicum in the back, not FBI agents, and the video from the article shows that he wasn’t reaching for a weapon when shot.

The State wants you to pick up a gun against them; they’d love nothing more than having an excuse to gun you and your armed coterie of anti-government activists down.  Advancing liberty won’t happen at the point of a gun.  Liberty advances through reading, writing, persuading, organizing, not grabbing your Bushmaster and yelling “charge”!  The State wants activists who are violent or have the appearance of being violent.  Those who can be smeared to the point of being poster children for the growth of government power.  Education and persuasion are our only true weapons, as difficult as they are to wield.