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A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. The Second Amendment, U.S. Constitution

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. The Tenth Amendment, U.S. Constitution

The aforementioned amendments are clear, at least to those without an agenda.

We offer these amendments to show the lack of logic regarding the decision this week by the U.S. Supreme Court not to consider a challenge to a law in California which restricts the constitutional rights of Americans to carry a gun. California has what it called a good cause law, which means California residents must convince the state they have a valid reason to carry a concealed weapon.

Here is the problem, which is clearly evident when reading the Second Amendment and the Tenth Amendment. The right to keep and bear arms is a constitutional right. In other words, it is not a right that is left up to individual states to recognize as they see fit.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. The right of Americans to keep and bear arms is specifically a delegated power, which means states do not have the authority to gut the Second Amendment.

Californias law makes little sense anyway, regardless of the U.S. Constitution.

As of February, there were at least 11 states which had passed legislation allowing the carry of concealed weapons without a permit. If the fears of those who want to destroy the Second Amendment are accurate, these 11 states should be a battleground. For the record, the state of Texas has had a concealed carry law for more than 20 years, and has had an open carry law since 2016. The Lone Star State has not returned to the stereotypical days of the wild west, when residents settled disputes with a shootout at high noon on Main Street.

Evidently, Californians cannot be trusted with firearms as much as residents of other states. (Sarcasm noted.)

What states such as California are doing is taking it upon themselves to determine how their residents exercise their constitutional rights contained in the Second Amendment. And a hodgepodge of gun laws based on the whims of the states ignores the Second Amendment.

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Editorial: Target the US Constitution - Amarillo.com

The migration crisis that has been central to the European political drama since 2014 is rapidly changing. You can see signs of change everywhere, from subtle intensifications of bureaucratic language to an increasing frankness about what the migration crisis has done to Europes nations and societies. It also shows up in the numbers. The overall rate of migration into Europe is starting to decline, but the number of migrants who are dying in their attempt is going up. But you can see it most of all in the willingness of European leaders to tell the truth.

Just in the past ten days, you can see a shift. European Council president Donald Tusk admitted that most of the people coming in have no right to do so: In most of the cases, and that is actually the case on the central Mediterranean route, were talking clearly and manifestly about economic migrants. He added, They get to Europe illegally, they do not have any documents which would allow them to enter the European soil. In other words, these primarily arent refugees fleeing war, theyre economic migrants, who are coming in to countries along the southern Mediterranean that already suffer massive unemployment.

The reality is sinking in within the member states as well. Aydan Ozoguz, the German commissioner for immigration, refugees, and integration, admitted this week that three-quarters of the refugees Germany took in recently will still be unemployed in five years.

Just a year ago, pundits were holding out that Europe would find economic salvation in the warm bodies crossing the Mediterranean. It was an argument that never made sense, given the millions of unemployed but educated youth already in the European Union. Instead of a new round of guest workers, Germany has added hundreds of thousands of new dependents on the state, most with few job skills and no language preparation. The latter problem now taxes police departments, which have to find Pashto translators to investigate crimes such as the murder of Muslims for apostasy.

For years, Australias government had told the EU that they would have to look at Australias model for successful border enforcement. EU officials dismissed this, often with criticism of Australias approach. But earlier this year, just as Australian prime minister Tony Abbott had predicted, EU officials came to Australia for help.

On Friday, the European Union member states agreed to restrict visas for foreign countries that refuse to take back their own nationals who do not qualify as refugees.

Germanys deal with Turkey, along with the enforcement position of Viktor Orbans Hungary (which Germany still pretends to deplore) has mostly closed the land route into Europe through the Middle East but now the Libyan coast is the main source of migration. The EUs President Tusk described a 26 percent rise in the number of migrants arriving in Italy from Europe over the Mediterranean.

But it may finally be dawning on Europes elites that their attempts to rescue people at sea are endangering migrants as often as saving them. Migrants hoping for a European rescue are put on inflatable rafts (or worse) and launched off the coast of Tripoli. They make about one-sixth of the journey toward Sicily, and sometimes even less. Once they cross out of Libyan waters they enter what is commonly known as the Search and Rescue Zone or just SAR Zone. They then signal their distress and get European rides the rest of the way or they collapse and capsize and the migrants drown. Over the weekend, the Irish navy, and its ship L Eithne, took more than 700 migrants. The composition tells you the nature of the migration: a score of children, some pregnant women...and over 500 adult males.

The problem is that by running this ferry service, Europeans have created an ugly industry in Libya. The slave trade and human-smuggling enterprises are now among the most important private-sector businesses in the chaotic post-Gaddafi Libya, which is ruled by two rival governments and several other militias and gangs. This is a brutal business, and the stories from it are terrifying. According to the Daily Telegraph, a young Gambian migrant told the International Organization for Migration that he witnessed a sick friend of his buried alive in one of the sordid migrant encampments in Libya, because he wouldnt have survived anyway. If a migrant in Libya is thought to have relatives with money, he is often sold in a human market to gangs that will torture him to extract the cash from his family.

These stories are starting to shock the European conscience just as the photos of drowning migrants shocked it two years ago.

This doesnt mean an end to migration in Europe. Yet another migration route seems to be opening between Morocco and Spain, even as Europe gets a handle on the previous routes. The millions who have come into Europe since 2014 will now become resources to enable their families and friends and others to make their own, less dangerousentrance into Europe. And there will still be continued pressure on European countries to open up and share their wealth with the booming populations in Africa, and the war-weary nationals of the Middle East. There will be more potential waves of immigration coming, and more debates about whether Europe can and should seek to avoid them.

But right now Europes grand experiment in humanitarianism has delivered some results that can be judged. They are the proliferation of human-trafficking gangs in Libya, thousands dying needlessly chasing after Europes grand invitation, terrorist attacks across Europe linked to the migration routes, stress on the Schengen zone, and the rise of a populist backlash that powered Brexit and alternative parties all over Europe. Seeing all this, European leaders are at least open to change. Things that cannot continue going as they are, dont.

READ MORE: Listen to Eastern Europe: Muslim Migration Waves Are a Pressing Problem Viktor Orban on Hungary and the Crisis of Europe Terrorism Is Not Random: We Must Look at Muslim Immigration with Clear Eyes

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

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On Migration, Europe Is Admitting the Truth to Itself - National Review

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The new French presidents call for the greatest humanity in dealing with the escalating refugee crisis appears to have fallen on deaf ears after his interior minister Grard Collomb quickly ruled out creating a welcome centre for migrants on a recent visit to Calais.

Mr Collomb pledged to deploy extra riot police to avoid the area becoming an abscess that would lure migrants in after dismantling the Jungle camp.

His tough comments came just a day after centrist president Emmanuel Macron said he would speed up the asylum request process from more than a year to just six months.

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Local papers have suggested the pair are playing good cop bad cop over the issue, which could spark cracks in the presidents very new cabinet team.

Mr Macron recently hailed German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a European saviour who saved the continents collective dignity with her open-door immigration policy.

And standing next to her during last weeks EU summit, Mr Macron emphasised the importance of solidarity in managing the migrant crisis.

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Mr Macron pointed out that the EU failed to react when the crisis began.

He said: We did not listen to Italy at the beginning announcing the coming wave and then Italy and Greece were severely disturbed.

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Then it was host countries which were disturbed. There was a lack of European solidarity to share the burden. It is a fact.

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Macron facing power struggle as French president undermined over Calais migrant policy - Express.co.uk

ZAWIJA It's been 10 days since we've joined the patrol along the coast with Commander Al Bija of the Libyan Coast Guard. Our 16-meter-long vessel is cruising along the most dangerous border in the world.

According to the German government figures, nearly one million refugees and migrants are currently in Libya, which has become the gateway country-of-choice for people seeking to reach Europe by sea.

The dangers mentioned are not hard to see: in fact, we have been shot at with automatic weapons by smugglers, trying to protect their human merchandise from being rescued by the Libyan Coast Guard when they are in trouble out at sea.

The European Union believes it can stop the flow of refugees from entering by being more active in Libya. At an EU summit in Malta in February, European leaders called on the Libyan Coast Guard to close off the seas, intercept the refugees and take them to reception camps in Libya. But the reality is that the Libyan Coast Guard, in waters west of the capital of Tripoli, where many of the human traffickers have their bases, consists of exactly one single boat and 37 crew members.

Their commanding officer, Commander Al Bija, also happens to be a feared warlord. At the age of 30, Al Bija is a hero to some, a criminal to others and to some, even a murderer. But he is also the only chance for Europe to foil the human traffickers work in Libya, an increasingly unstable country without a central government, army or police.

No one can pass us unseen, says Al Bija in his headquarters in Zawija, west of Tripoli, a few days before we came under fire at sea. We are the only functioning Coast Guard in western Libya.

Al Bija has been working the coastal region with the patrol trawler, called Tileel, a few rubber dinghies and his modest group for two years. Our mission, he says, is to rescue refugees from distress at sea, find human traffickers and, if necessary, kill them.

The crew has taken more than 37,000 people from the Mediterranean back to Libya since August, 2015, says the Libyan Defense Ministry.

The EU decided to train the Libyan Coast Guard in armed border patrols, as well as techniques for dealing with refugees on land, in order to try to end the nefarious business of the traffickers. Brussels provided 200 million euros to the efforts, a commitment matched by the Italian government during the first phase of the plan.

We do not need to be trained, we know how to navigate, fight and kill, Al Bija responds. (But) if we are going to do Europes dirty work then Europe will have to pay us with a boat that can hold up to 1,000 people, speed boats, spare parts, fuel and wages.

But is he really one of the good guys? Or perhaps he's a double agent?

"I know the right people, says the Commander

In any case, Europe does not have much choice other than to trust Al Bija. Six years since the fall of Muammar al-Gaddafi there is very little hope that Libya will become a democracy. The peoples brigades that rose in rebellion against the dictator have formed into plundering militias, occupying old ministry buildings. The government, on which Europes hopes rest, barely exercises any control over Libya. The Prime Minister, appointed by the UN, has not been recognized by the Libyan parliament. Meanwhile, the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) has conquered several cities. Circa 1,700 rival militias fight each other and are in active control of cities, petroleum refineries, oil fields and the million-dollar trade in humans wanting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

It would take hundreds of very well trained men to rid the coast of traffickers, says Al Bija. But who should choose them? The weak government? The EU? Me. I know the right people, says the Commander.

A former student at the Naval Academy in Tripoli had to give up his studies in 2011 due to the revolution. He has been severely wounded several times while fighting Gaddafis troops as a rebel and was flown to Germany to be treated for his wounds. After returning to Libya to fight for his mother, father, family, clan, tribe, in the summer of 2015 Al Bija, his nom de guerre, and his fellow revolutionaries decided to do something great and take the harbor of Zawija from a rival militia. They were successful. Once in control, they renovated the headquarters and fixed up the patrol boat, designed their own coat of arms, assigned military ranks, gave themselves the name the Libyan Coast Guard of Zawija and started to patrol the Mediterranean.

Their enemy: human traffickers. These are assumed to be organized into several groups around one large network along the Libyan coast. Traffickers hold captive refugees and migrants who cannot afford the journey across the Mediterranean immediately, beat them, rape them, torture and murder them in private prisons. An internal report of the German embassy in Niger recently spoke of concentration camp-like conditions.

But why does Al Bija risk his life? I have a good heart. Should I let my brothers drown in the sea? But he also says that the clans [of traffickers] earn millions, buy modern weapons, bulletproof vehicles, tanks. They will control or displace or kill us if we do not attack their business.

And it is in this opaque world of warlords, militias and organized human trafficking that Europe must face down, imposing its border management to stop the migration to Europe. But is a warlord like Al Bija really the right partner for such an enterprise? He forcefully took control of a large territory that was not under state control any longer. His power is not based on political legitimization but his troops firepower.

Gray areas abound along this coast. Italian journalist Nancy Porsia, an expert on emigration out of North Africa, says she is sure that the Coast Guard of the Libyan Navy is involved in human trafficking. Colonel Tarek Shanboor of the Ministry of the Interior in Tripoli, adds: we do have traffickers in our midst, which is a real problem.

Al Bija calls these reports lies spread by traffickers. He and his men take the refugees and migrants that they apprehend at sea to special camps of the UN-solicited government. We visited one of these camps, the Surman womens camp, and saw the misery reigning there with our own eyes. When the militia guards left the hall for a few moments one of the women appealed to us, saying that they were repeatedly raped, showed us her bloodstained clothing and begged us to help them. But there was nothing we could do. The guard returning commented on how happy the women are to be in the camp, but that Europe would have to start paying for their upkeep, for mobile toilets and showers, tampons, pampers.

In the face of this reality, we could see that the more Africans were herded together in these camps and the worse the condition, the stronger the basis of negotiation for the militias with Europe was.

How the EU will respond is still unclear

The Libyan government is operating 24 internment camps for migrants, according to the United Nations. Europe wants to utilize the already existing infrastructure to turn these camps into humane reception camps and close down those that are intolerable. How exactly the EU is planning to force the militias to abandon their camps is unclear.

They leave us here to rot, says a man we see inside a cell cramped with other prisoners in Annasser Camp in Zawija.

At the moment, the journey to Italy costs up to $2,500 per person. If you now take the 181,000 people who fled to Italy in 2016, in addition to the 5,000 people who died in the attempt, Libyan traffickers made approximately $450 million in 2016.

The "Door to Europe" on the Italian island of Lampedusa Photo: Carlo Alfredo Clerici

Although the fee is payable prior to departure, traffickers are not happy if the police boats intercept their freight. Those captured, once they're released, will warn others of their traffickers.

In Libya, where everything is a fight for mere survival, no one puts their cards on the table willingly. Until the very end we were not sure who Al Baji really was. The man who was wounded as a rebel, recuperated in Germany, but returned to Libya to fight for his family, his clan and his tribe with a captured boat and a handful of men to conquer the coastal regions of Libya. One thing, however, is certain. He has managed to carve out a place for himself in war-torn Libya to make a profit from rescuing refugees. When asked how he actually makes his money he says that they seize illegal Egyptian and Tunisian fishing vessels and keep them until the owners can pay the fine. But he adds that he, and all of his men, have normal professions although they spend 300 days a year on sea. He adds, for example, that he is also a horse breeder.

It seems from this vantage point that the most important pillars on which the EU deal with Libya rests are crumbling already. The Coast Guard is littered with dubious staff and the secure reception camps are nothing more than warehouses, occupied by militias and used to house helpless people who are nothing more than a resource in the war for Libya and the millions of euros that Europe is willing to pay.

There are no fast and easy solutions, says Martin Kobler, German Special Envoy to the United Nations for Libya. If that were the case, many would remain in the oil-rich nation and work, just like in Gaddafis days, instead of taking to the boats. And the human traffickers would be short of freight to ferry across the Mediterranean.

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Can A Libyan Warlord Help Europe Solve The Migrant Crisis? - Worldcrunch

It could get noisy. Beginning Wednesday, more than 60 talk radio hosts from around the country will converge on the nations capital for the 11th annual Hold Their Feet to the Fire, a broadcast event sponsored by the Federation for American Immigration Reform or FAIR for short.

The hosts include Lars Larson, Frank Gaffney, Phil Valentine, Mike Siegel, Wayne Dupree, Bruce Elliott, Armstrong Williams, Larry OConnor, Tom Shattuck, Joyce Kaufman and Rick Hamada who journeyed all the way from Hawaii to appear. Every one of the hosts will be broadcasting live from a temporary radio row site just blocks from the U.S. Capitol, their shows aired through nationwide syndication or from their home stations. Michelle Malkin is among the journalists who will cover the big doings.

Guests include lawmakers, administration and law enforcement officials, policy experts and people whose lives have been forever changed by our failed and dangerous immigration policies, organizers say. Border security, vetting protocols, E-Verify and sanctuary policies will all be scrutinized by the hosts and their guests.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is not happy with the event, noting that emboldened FAIR will flood the talk radio airwaves during the two-day event.

The nativist climate in the U.S. is at a fever pitch following an 18-month presidential campaign and six months of nativist polices being enacted by executive decree. FAIRs victory lap later this week will only add to the cacophony, the group noted in a statement Tuesday, referring to the host organization as an anti-immigrant hate group.

FOR THE LEXICON

FNN

Radio host Rush Limbaughs new name for CNN. It stands for Fake News Network, he says, suggesting that his old monicker for the news organization the Clinton News Network is now somewhat passe.

TRUMP-FREE, FOR 24 HOURS

They dont care much for President Trump, and for a 24-hour period, they did without him. That would be Salon, which declared itself to be Trump-free on Tuesday as an experiment in journalism. Or something.

The entire American media has been caught in an endless feedback loop, and we are not immune. But public fascination with his words, deeds and actions has barely ebbed since Election Day or Inauguration Day, if it has ebbed at all. His name and face remain surefire clickbait, for our site and virtually everyone elses, the editors noted in a public message.

Do Salons readers actually want a day without You Know Who? Or a week? Or a lifetime? Or is this the media equivalent of buying three bunches of kale, knowing full well you will let them rot in the veggie drawer? they noted, inviting the inevitable reader feedback.

BROADCASTERS OBSESSED WITH RUSSIA

A new Media Research Center study reveals just how much the broadcast networks are obsessed with President Trump and unproven Russian collusion. Senior analyst Rich Noyes reveals that 55 percent of the stories on Mr. Trump airing on ABC, CBS and NBC centered on the Russia probe. Thats 171 out of 364 evening news stories. A third of these stories were anonymously sourced.

The networks concentrated on the Russia matter at the expense of important policy topics. The three networks collectively spent less than five minutes each on economic policy, trade issues and U.S. relations with Cuba.

The investigation garnered 20 times more attention than the new health care bill, 100 times more attention than the administrations push to improve the nations infrastructure and a stunning 450 times more coverage than the push for comprehensive tax reform, Mr. Noyes said.

ABCs World News Tonight was most enraptured by the Russia story, devoting nearly two-thirds of its Trump news to the subject. On CBS Evening News it was 54 percent; on NBC Nightly News it was 48 percent.

Mr. Noyes pointed to a new Harvard-Harris Poll that found that the majority of voters believe the Russia investigations are damaging to the country and are eager to see Congress shift its focus to health care, terrorism, national security, the economy and jobs. The study was conducted from May 17 to June 20.

BENS SUGGESTIONS

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson had a word or two to say on the health care vote Capitol Hills latest testy cliffhanger. Will there be a consensus made on this GOP legislation?

In the end, there will be consensus here, particularly as people begin to understand that this is a work in process. I would offer to the Democrats: Begin to think about how we can make it work, not how it doesnt work. Thats one of the things that I find here in Washington. More people spend time talking about what cant be done than what can be done. Weve got to get back to the can-do attitude that made America great, Mr. Carson told Fox Business Network host Neil Cavuto on Tuesday.

Should the government still have a role in our health care system?

The government is supposed to facilitate life. That has to do with health care, the pursuit of happiness and liberty. I think all of those are important things. So there is a role for the government. But its not a predominant role, its a facilitating role, Mr. Carson observed.

FOXIFIED

Continuing its dominance as the top-rated news network, Fox News marked 62 consecutive quarters as the highest-rated cable news channel in total viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. Thats over 15 years in first place. Fox also topped basic cable in both prime-time and total daytime viewing, ahead of TNT and Nickelodeon, marking four consecutive quarters as the most-watched basic cable network of all.

The Fox News audience is also up by 27 percent compared to last year; the network also claimed 14 of the top 20 cable news programs.

There is also good news for the FOX Business Network, now the number one rated business network, besting rival CNBC, for three consecutive quarters in business day viewers.

POLL DU JOUR

71 percent of Americans use emojis, GIFs and other visual expressions when they text on phones or mobile messaging apps.

69 percent say these expressions make them feel more connected to people.

65 percent use the symbols to express their personality or emotions.

59 percent are more comfortable expressing emotions with symbols rather then voicing them in a phone conversation.

Source: A Harris/Tenor poll of 2,057 U.S. adults conducted May 24-26 and released Tuesday.

Sullen comments and curious asides to jharper@washingtontimes.com

Originally posted here:
60 talk radio heavyweights take on illegal immigration - Washington Times