You Guessed It: Knife-Wielding Times Square Stabber Had … A History of Mental Illness. Death Penalty Still on Table in Charlie Kirk Trial. Iran. Vance’s Kingfish Affinity. Oldest Ever Massachusetts Senator Wins His Primary. Did We Win GWOT? More

What an unsafe society we inhabit.  

The Times Square stabbings of two New Yorkers once again show how badly modern society protects the innocent.

The woman who went on a stabbing spree, killing one and wounding another, you will not be surprised to learn, had a history of mental illness:

The crazed knife-wielding woman who went on a sudden stabbing rampage near Times Square — before being shot dead by police — was a mother of three who long struggled with her mental health and had multiple erratic run-ins with police, her family and sources revealed Tuesday.

Pamela Cisneros, 49, battled what her stunned brother described as bipolar disorder, but had been getting treatment in recent years — and showed no sign she’d go murderously berserk as she did during terrifying random attacks Monday, he said.

Cisneros had chillingly posted about “stabbing others for no reason” months before the deadly rampage. “Cruelest Cut: Mom Kills Mom as Mentally Ill Woman Stabs Exec to Death in Times Square” is the New York Post cover. Here is the other mother:

A 32-year-old vice president at Bank of America, Erin Piacenti had just started her first week back on the job. …

She wrote about how grateful she was to have spent the past five months on maternity leave, about how her daughter had recently been baptized. The young family had traveled to Long Beach Island, N.J., Rhode Island and Maine.

She met her husband at Fordham, where she graduated magna cum laude and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. …

The other victim, Tak Kam, 68, a Rhode Island man in New York visiting his son, is expected to recover.  Pamela Cisneros’ history of mental illness and financial woes is recounted in the New York Times. Her father said that in April she ceased to take her medications:

“We tried to help her in every way possible,” he added.

That apparently did not include measures to help blameless citizens in every way possible. “Mentally ill attacks will keep happening around our city without NYPD funding,” says a Manhattan Institute Fellow. Meanwhile, kudos to the NYPD, which did everything right this time, according to Jack Butler of Free Expression.

The Iran War is hot again with Iran claiming that U.S. strikes hit a wedding party where five were killed. Americans will feel worse about this claim, if true, than the regime, for which it is only propaganda. Iran’s president is suddenly extending an olive branch, but President Trump responds that there is no going back to the June “memo of understanding.” Spiked Online, meanwhile, takes us “Inside the Iranian Clampdown“: “The Islamic Republic plans to criminalise even the exchange of ideas with non-Iranian institutions,” according to the story.

Accused Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson will face trial, but the Judge has yet to decide about the death penalty:

Robinson pleaded not guilty to all charges moments after Judge Tony Graf issued the ruling. Graf also ruled that prosecutors may continue seeking the death penalty in the case. He found that the state established probable cause for the victim-targeting allegation, allowing the capital sentencing enhancement to move forward.

No Country for Younger Men. The oldest senator in Massachusetts history, progressive Ed Markey, 80, triumphed over Seth Moulton, 47, in the Massachusetts primary. “Abandoning Core Beliefs Fails To Save Seth Moulton from Humiliating Loss” is the Free Beacon headline. The Beacon has a concise list of core beliefs the malleable Moulton fled. One fan: Hasan Piker celebrated the octogenarian’s win.

Diogenes Finds Lone Democrat Who Tells the Truth about Socialism. “Democrats Must Reject the DSA,” New York Rep. Tom Suozzi urges his fellow Democrats in a Free Press story. When the House yesterday passed a resolution to condemn socialism, Democrats overwhelmingly voted against the measure. Only two Dems voted for it; Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries threatened consequences for them. It is interesting to speculate whether the resolution would have fared better if Republicans hadn’t attached the SAVE America Act.

Vice President JD Vance’s invoking the name of Huey Long in a recent speech at an Ohio steel plant has caused a stir. What did it portend for Vance that he admired Huey Long, Louisiana’s Kingfish, the politician Willie Stark of Robert Penn Warren’s 1946 Pulitzer Prize-winning book “All the King’s Men“?

Nothing good in the eyes of Baton Rouge writer Daniel Erspamer (“From a Hillbilly to a King“):

JD Vance has a new populist muse. Speaking at an Ohio steel plant on Aug. 21, he appealed to Huey Long, Louisiana’s Democratic governor from 1928-32. Long, Mr. Vance said, pursued a policy agenda to make “every man a king.” While the vice president connected this phrase to the importance of public safety, it also seems to reflect his own broader political vision. As a Louisianan, I can attest that every American should be wary of the impossible promises of Long-style populism.

In the Pelican State, we’ve been dealing with consequences of Long’s agenda for nearly a century. Despite his rhetorical promise to make kings of the people, the politician nicknamed “Kingfish” cemented the state government’s king-like power. In the name of empowering the masses, he built a political culture in which patronage crowded out merit, used state regulatory and tax authority to punish or reward companies with no regard for economic growth or job creation, and generally put Baton Rouge at the center of both public- and private-sector decision-making, from roads to pipelines and more.

Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York has also written about Vice President Vance’s penchant for quoting Huey Long.

But We Want to Blame Bobby. “Did Measles Kill Two Pennsylvanians—or Not?” Says Alex Berenson: “The Trump administration has so far declined to accept Pennsylvania’s decision to blame two recent deaths on measles. It’s the right call until we know more.”

Meanwhile, Arthur Herman at City Journal asks, “Did America Win the War on Terror?” It depends on where you look,” writes Herman:

Was the Global War on Terror worth it? When considering that the radical Islamist movement once run remotely from bases in the Middle East or Somalia is now excused or openly celebrated here at home within the ranks of the Democratic Party, a reasonable person could answer: No.

Yet strangely, in the Middle East itself, the terrorist cause has rarely been weaker.

Over the past two decades, we’ve seen al-Qaeda reduced to a shadow of its former self, and likewise its more savage and apocalyptic successor, ISIS. Though the Taliban remains firmly in control of Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal in 2021, and violence by radical Islamist groups has surged in Pakistan, the opportunities for jihadis to export terror beyond their borders have shrunk.

Over the past two years, Israel has essentially destroyed Hamas as a conventional fighting force and steadily reduced Hezbollah from a strategic threat to a diminished one, with little or no pushback from its Arab neighbors.

Iran has long occupied the center of the global terror network—yet its power and influence are at historical lows. …

Love this Headline. “John Galliano Has Paid for His Crimes. Will Anna Wintour?” It’s about the cancelling of the Met Gala exhibition, Wintour’s baby, because of Galliano’s undoubted antisemitism. Michael Goodwin writes about elite acceptance of “Jew hatred,” which he says is “as fashionable as ever.”

Will we receive a verdict in the Lindsay Clancy trial today, or will the jury, which went home early last night, remain deadlocked?