• Front National Delivers a Warning in French Elections By Richard C. Young
• America’s Domestic Enemies vs. Donald Trump By Richard C. Young
• Thousands Dead, Tens of Thousands Wounded By Richard C. Young
• No Hope for the Middle Class By Debbie Young
• Rand Paul: Best Debate Yet By E.J. Smith
• The Presidential Debate—Winners and Losers By Richard C. Young
• Rand Paul—No One Even Close By Richard C. Young
• Gun Laws Protect Criminals By E.J. Smith
• Donald Trump: Washington Is Stupid By Debbie Young

Angelique Chrisafis writes for The Guardian in Paris:

Even if the rising tide of the far right Front National (FN) had been held back – temporarily at least – by tactical voting and a leap in turnout, the lessons were clear to see. The nationalist, anti-immigration, anti-European party was here to stay.

There were no winners in an election that consisted of establishment parties running around at the last minute trying desperately to outwit what they warned was a racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic and overwhelmingly dangerous party.

There was no serious examination of the reasons why voters were turning away from the parties of government and flocking to the FN not just as a mere protest vote, but as a political alternative.

When the FN made a historic breakthrough and took nearly 28% of the vote in the first round of the regional elections, it was yet another moment in which the party was ranked as “the most popular in France” after successively topping a series of polls from the European elections onwards in a steady rise.

Even if the FN has failed to win overall control of a region – just as it had failed to win overall control of any smaller local départements earlier this year – its broad trajectory is on the up.

Michael Scheuer, former CIA bin Laden unit chief, writes, “Trump’s suggestion that the national government temporarily ban the entry of non-U.S.-citizen Muslims into the United States can only build the American public’s confidence in Mr. Trump.”

Mr. Trump knows or senses what so many Americans are thinking, feeling, and fearing about the Muslim problem and he speaks clearly and directly to and for those people. Among the things he knows about the citizenry are:

• Americans are sick unto death of Muslims of every shape and location.
• Americans are sick unto death of hearing about how careful they should be not to offend the “valuable Arab allies” of the United States, especially Saudi Arabia
• Americans ought to be sick unto death-and would be if fully informed-of the Committee on American Islamic Relations. (CAIR)

Dr. Scheuer concludes, “So pour it on, Mr. Trump. Teach the self-righteous anti-American bastards who oppose and hate you that the U.S. Constitution is meant to protect only Americans, not to entitle, pamper, and discriminate in favor of foreigners.”

More from Michael Scheuer here on CNN:

Pat Buchanan writes, “It was the elites of both parties who failed to secure our borders and brokered the trade deals that have de-industrialized America and eviscerated our middle class. It was the elites of both parties who got us into these idiotic wars that have blown up the Middle East, cost us trillions of dollars, thousands of dead, and tens of thousands of wounded among our best and bravest.”

Pat discusses here the rising rebellion against what the elites have done to America.

More from Pat:

Western democracies have not figured out how to maintain jobs and earnings for workers with low skill or modest education, writes William A. Galston in the WSJ. In Europe, there is double-digit unemployment, and, in the U.S., the large number of low-wage jobs does not come with the promise of upward mobility.

Beneath the dry statistics of the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we can see that future emerging. Over the next decade, the service sector will provide 95% of all the new jobs. Manufacturing, which shed more than two million jobs between 2004 and 2014, will shrink by an additional 800,000, to only 7% of the workforce. Of the 15 occupations with the most projected job growth, only four ask for a bachelor’s degree; eight require no formal education credentials; nine offer median annual wages under $30,000.

Few Americans know these statistics, but most of them are living the reality they represent. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the economy has ceased to work for households at and below the middle. A recent report from the Pew Research Center finds that the median income for middle-income households is about where it was in 1997. For lower-income households, median income stands where it did in 1996.

There are lessons here for both Republicans and Democrats, warns Mr. Galston. “Economic anxiety, demographic resentment and fears for physical security make a toxic combination.” Read more here.

Embedded here is the Pew Research Center’s tool for identifying where you land on the income spectrum.

Sen. Rand Paul had his best night yet at last night’s CNN debate.

Rand Paul and Donald Trump were winners. Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, and John Kasich all lost ground to Paul and Trump.

In short, had Mr. Trump not been on stage, how many fewer Americans would have watched the debate? And how many would have remained awake until the bitter end?

If you want solid answers to key questions that matter, Dr. Paul is clearly your guy. Paul did a good job in terms of sprucing up his presentation. He also had the line of the night by correctly suggesting that if getting America into WWIII was what is wanted, then Chris Christie is your man.

Mr. Trump played the audience, the moderators, and the other contestants like a violin, with Jeb Bush receiving especially pointed and unpleasant treatment from Trump. Not that Bush did not deserve to be admonished. Yes, Bush was a scooch better than in recent debates, but he was working from a pretty low bar. The man is simply not forceful or convincing where it counts. Jeb appears to have learned little from the failed, neocon co-opted presidency of his brother.

Fiorina was, well, annoying. She repeatedly ran over her allotted time and butted in when others were speaking. And her grasp of sensitive issues, especially Putin, is unnerving.

John Kasich, brimming with enthusiasm and arms flaying, worked hard to convince listeners that his time in the House and as Ohio governor gives him a leg up. John gets a better grade for effort than he does for content.

Ted Cruz most likely irritated as many listeners as he pleased. Challenged by candidates on immigration issues, Cruz came across as petulant and not very convincing. Just not a great Ted night.

Chris Christie managed to spoil a New Jersey tough guy night by stating that he would attack Vladimir Putin’s warplanes that violated a U.S. imposed Syrian no-fly zone. Hard to feel comfortable with such a shoot-from-the-hip approach to foreign policy.

Marco Rubio spoke well and with reserve and confidence. Unfortunately, Rubio is on the wrong side of key issues, especially nation building and, like Jeb, appears to have learned little from the failed presidency of George W. Bush.

Forgetting showmanship, Americans learned something vital in the recent Republican debate. When it comes to the issue of small, constitutional government as intended by our Founders and practiced through the decades by our sister federal republic, Switzerland, no candidate comes close to Rand Paul.

Throughout their political careers, Ron and Rand Paul have been at the forefront of the small central government, limited taxation movement. Both understand the debilitating force that is the Fed. And both have been leaders in the fight against nation building and strongly in favor of protecting our borders.

So, how is it that, until the recent debate, Senator Paul seems to have lost his way in his fight for the Republican nomination? The answer is twofold. Number one is that political elites know, without question, that Rand is the candidate they would least want to win the Republican nomination. As such, the elites will band together to put Senator Paul in as weak a position as is possible. Number two is that Senator Paul has lost his way in delivering a cogent view on foreign policy. In a misguided strategy to grab the Republican nomination, Paul has become a foreign policy fence-sitter, blowing with the foreign policy winds. To his ardent supporters, Paul has given up the non-intervention battle.

Senator Paul climbed back in the race in the recent debate, correctly labeling New Jersey governor Chris Christie the guy you would want for president if your goal were starting WWIII. Now Paul has a chance of lighting a fire under his campaign by coming out with a freshly burnished foreign policy statement that can put him back on track as the only candidate in the race most likely to keep America safe and secure . Paul can achieve his goal by speaking strongly against foreign adventurism, disengagement from the Middle East, sealing our borders against radical Islam and all illegals, and getting America 100% off foreign oil imports from unstable regimes, especially those with any connection to radical Islam. Here I am talking most directly about Saudi Arabia (a Sunni theocracy).

This goal for Senator Paul is achievable.

Gun laws do not protect you from those seeking to do you harm. Terrorists aren’t going to follow the law, for example, if there’s a ban on high capacity magazines. And yet those who might benefit from a high capacity magazine to defend themselves are left out in the lurch as vulnerable prey. “The persons who have the most need for actual high-capacity magazines are those who would have great difficulty changing a magazine—such as elderly persons or persons with disabilities,” writes David Kopel in his Cato Policy Analysis: The Costs and Consequences of Gun Control.

“We have people across this country who are scared to death,” barked Governor Chris Christie during the latest Republican debate. That is no doubt true, writes Jonah Goldberg in NRO, but the fear is not so much of the Islamic State, but a fear that the government, starting with our president, just doesn’t take terrorism seriously.

The whole system seems to have lost its mind. That there’s even a debate about whether security officials should be allowed to look at the social-media posts of immigrants is a sign that our bureaucrats have such open minds their brains have fallen out. We should have seen this coming five years ago, when we learned that Obama told the new head of NASA to make one of his top priorities outreach to the Muslim world. Terrorism is a big concern, but this sense that the political system is unresponsive, unaccountable, and operating on its own self-interested ideological agenda is bigger.

The failure of credible politicians to address the outrage and disgust created by ObamaCare’s passage, illegal immigration, corruption at the IRS and VA, the insanity of the Ex-Im Bank, and countless other “outrages du jour” has fueled Americans’ anxiety.

Yes, terrorism is a big concern. But the sense that the political system is unresponsive, unaccountable, and operating on its own self-interested ideological agenda is bigger. As Mr. Goldberg points out, you might not care for Donald Trump, but at least he is willing to say Washington is stupid. Read more here.

An example of Trump calling out Washington stupidity: