You have to wonder about The Donald sometimes. He’s the Historic American Nation’s only hope, but he seems bent on self destruction. Consider a man on his short list of nominees for the U.S. Supreme Court, Utah Sen. Mike Lee. He champions handing American jobs to Indian immigrants. He opposes President Trump’s national emergency declaration and voted to block it again last week. Even worse, in 2016, he declared himself a NeverTrumper. But he was, strangely, among Trump’s possible picks to replace retiring justice Anthony Kennedy. Trump, of course, chose Brett Kavanaugh . But given the very strong possibility that Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s career might end soon, it’s worth looking at Lee’s anti-Trump treachery. He might still be possible pick [Sen. Mike Lee and his brother, Utah Supreme Court Justice Thomas Lee, on Trump’s short list to replace Kennedy, by Thomas Burr, Salt Lake Tribune, June 27, 2018].

Extinction Rebellion (XR) members, overwhelmingly young, university-educated and white, recently splashed fake blood on New York’s Charging Bull Sculpture.

Janet Abbey Now this is EXCELLENT STRATEGY! https://t.co/Z8aaCbXYKT

— seymourblogger (@abbeysbooks) October 10, 2019

They began a global “Day of Disobedience” shutting down the center of Berlin (although their camp kept itself warm with a diesel generator) [Extinction Rebellion mocked for ‘trying to hide’ diesel generator in protest camp, by Naomi Adedokun, Express, October 10, 2019,. They wrought particular chaos in London, shutting down the City Airport, occupying Smithfield Market and generally creating havoc, leading to 1000 arrests (although eating at McDonalds [‘McHypocrites’ criticised for ordering McDonald’s during Extinction Rebellion protest, by Joe Roberts & Lucy Middleton, Metro, October 8, 2019,].) When police refused to act, livid London commuters dragged an activist off the roof of a subway train he was holding up [MIND THE SCRAP, by Holly Christodoulou, The Sun, October 17^th, 2019,].

This morning, angry Londoners rebelled against the @ExtinctionR climate change activists who shut down the Tube by climbing on top of a train and unfurling a banner that read: "Business as usual = death." Watch as angry passengers drag them off. #ExtinctionRebellion pic.twitter.com/kCg7JnkyF8

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) October 17, 2019

But what kind of people are behind this “rebellion?

In my podcast this week, I’ve got comments on various kinds of lunacy going on (appointing illegal aliens to state policy-making boards in Gavin Newsom’s California, closing, and presumably emptying onto the streets, a prison in De Blasio’s New York) and general sense that the world is going nuts. But, trying to look on the bight side, there ae signs of resistance to the general lunacy.

I very much enjoyed this news item from the literary world. The actual literary item here is a novel, title Make Your Home Among Strangers. It came out three or four years ago. I regret to say I have not read it, so I can't pass any literary judgment on it.

The author of this novel is a young lady named Jennine Capo Crucet. The book's Amazon page tells us she, quote, "was born to Cuban parents and raised in Miami, Florida,"  and is a graduate of Cornell University. From one of her columns at the New York Times it seems she went to Cornell in 1999 [Did I Choose the Wrong College? April 28, 2018]

As I said, I haven't read the novel and don't plan to. From the reviews quoted on that Amazon page, I gather that it concerns a Cuban-American girl, raised in Miami, entering a high-ranking northeastern university in 1999, struggling with issues of race and class.

So apparently Ms. Crucet [Email her/Tweet her] didn't perform any very strenuous stretching of her imagination when writing the book. It's autobiographical.

Spain’s “Hannibal Lecter,” An African illegal, Dies In Prison. Why Was He In Spain?

Fabrizio Joao Silva, the “Hannibal Lecter” of the Spanish prison system, died in his cell on October 9 after an apparent fall. He was 36.

Silva didn’t eat human flesh, as did the cinematic Hannibal Lecter. Rather, his reputation for Lecter-like violence arose from his vicious attacks on prisoners and jail authorities.

Before detailing Silva’s rap sheet, though, you should know why he gets notice here: He was an African immigrant from Guinea Bissau, a former Portuguese colony nestled on the West African coast between Senegal and Guinea.

Here’s how Silva helped Spain diversify:

In 2004, Silva raped and murdered a woman, stabbing her 25 times. Ten years later, in another prison, he beat his cellmate to death.

In 2016, at a prison in Cadiz, he attacked five jail officials as they searched him. Having hidden a knife in his shoe:

One received a cut in the jugular, another a broken tooth, the third’s nose was broken, the fourth wound up with a wound in his knee ligaments and the fifth suffered a cut on the arm [Se investiga la muerte de Fabrizio Joao Silva, el 'Hannibal Lecter' de las cárceles españolas que sembró el pánico en ellas (“The Death of Fabrizio Joao Silva, the ‘Hannibal Lecter’ of Spanish Prisons Who Sowed Terror in Them, is Under Investigation”), El Cierre Digital, October 11, 2019].

After another attack, Silva landed in solitary at another prison, where he was fed through a metal door.

You see why they called him Hannibal.

The day he died, Silva had ended an eight-day hunger strike to protest his isolation.

When a guard saw Silva on the floor, he didn’t enter the cell until he’d called reinforcements and handcuffed him to make sure he was dead.

So why was he Spain. How did he enrich his new home or its people? Why does Spain need immigrants from Africa?

The Spanish MSM hasn’t asked those questions, and neither has the patriot Vox party, near as I can tell.

But rank-and-file Spaniards have asked … and answered.

The first comment under the story about Silva in El País [literally “The Country”] is from “Alex Delarge”:

Here they give shelter to foreigners who never should set foot in the European Union and it needs to stop…

[Hallado muerto en su celda el ‘Hannibal Lecter’ de las cárceles españolas (“The ‘Hannibal Lecter’ of the Spanish Prisons Found Dead in his Cell”), by Silvia R. Pontevedra and Oscar Lopez-Fonseca, October 11, 2019]

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Angry Africans In Mexico

Speaking of Africans in places where they don’t belong, a large contingent from the Dark Continent is camped in the city of Tapachula, Mexico. Some have threatened to form a caravan and march to the U.S. border. Others threaten a protest march on Mexico City.

Earlier by Patrick J. Buchanan: Is "Invade The World" Over for Good?

“Russia Assumes Mantle of Supreme Power Broker in the Middle East," proclaimed Britain's Telegraph. The article began:

"Russia's status as the undisputed power-broker in the Middle East was cemented as Vladimir Putin continued a triumphant tour of capitals traditionally allied to the US."

"Donald Trump Has Handed Putin the Middle East on a Plate" was the title of a Telegraph column. "Putin Seizes on Trump's Syria Retreat to Cement Middle East Role," said the Financial Times.

The U.S. press parroted the British: Putin is now the new master of the Mideast. And woe is us.

Before concluding that Trump's pullout of the last 1,000 U.S. troops in Syria is America's Dunkirk, some reflection is needed.