Tuesday roundup

 Ted Cruz calls for the Senate to forego an August recess and work on the repeal plan for the "A"CA.

Very thoughtful piece at NRO by Nicholas Gallagher on the tension between the two key notions of what America is: an idea (namely, that liberty is an essential condition for human well-being) and a blood-and-soil geographically identifiable location populated by particular demographics.

North Korea has been supplying everything from arms to construction labor to a number of African nations for decades, and they are quite pleased with the partnership.

Identity politics madness in San Francisco prevents BART from releasing videos of criminals beating people up and robbing them on public transit:

The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) authority is refusing to release surveillance videos involving a recent spate of robberies committed at BART stations in the last three months. Their reasoning?

They don’t want to perpetuate negative stereotypes of minorities.

 The CBS affiliate in San Francisco says in the last three months “there have been at least three robberies on BART involving groups of teenagers.”

April 22: Forty to sixty kids boarded a train at the Coliseum stop and robbed seven passengers, beating up two;

June 28: A group of four kids assaulted a passenger and made off with a cell phone at Dublin; and

June 30: A woman on a train with about a dozen teenagers had her phone snatched by one them before the group got off at the Coliseum stop. Thankfully, a good Samaritan was on hand to retrieve the phone.

Despite the heightened threat to the public, BART authorities continue to withhold video of the attacks from the press, citing concerns that they would be aiding negativity towards minorities, although they failed to identify which minorities are in question.

You knew this was coming: transgendered dolls.

There's been a lot of hype in recent times about China being poised to become a genuine world-stage leader. Don't buy it, says Rich Lowry.