Friday, January 6, 2017

USC Football Should Be Ranked in the Top Three Next Season (VIDEO)

My earlier Rose Bowl coverage is here.

Oh my gosh, what a game.

Here's the sports crew from the L.A. Times, with their post-game wrap-up from Monday night. Bill Plaschke argues that right now USC is in the top three nationally, and thus should be ranked in the top three next season.

We'll see. There's some turnover on the team, and some key players may opt for the NFL draft. But QB Sam Darnold's definitely going to be around, and I think that's key.

Watch:


Nine People We're Hoping Will Just Shut Up and Go Away in 2017

Just nine?

I'm sure I could think of a few more, lol.

From Stephen Green (Vodkapundit), at Instapundit, "I’VE GOT A LITTLE LIST, THEY NEVER WOULD BE MISSED." (The link goes to a David Forsmark essay.)

Rules for Righties — a War-Winning Manifesto for 2017

From James Delingpole, at Breitbart London:


Thursday, January 5, 2017

Orange County Saw Another Day of Heavy Rainfall and Cloudy Skies (VIDEO)

It was raining pretty good this morning when I dropped my kid off at school.

I hope there's no flooding, but the rain's good. The more rain, the less we'll be hearing about how climate change is causing the "drought."

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Heavy Rains Blanket Orange County."

Plus, a weather report with Garth Kemp, "Garth Kemp's Weather Forecast (Jan. 5)."

Obama Claims Race Relations Haven't 'Gotten Worse' Under His Administration (VIDEO)

O's living in his own private Idaho.

Asked point-blank, he denies race relations have gotten worse during his administration.

At CBS News 2 Chicago:


However, the president remains hopeful about the future.

“I take these things very seriously.”

“The good news is that the next generation that’s coming behind us … have smarter, better, more thoughtful attitudes about race.

“I think the overall trajectory of race relations in this country is actually very positive. It doesn’t mean that all racial problems have gone away. It means that we have the capacity to get better.”
Actually, public opinion polling consistently finds that race relations have deteriorated during the Obama regime. Indeed, a majority of white Americans say race relations have gotten worse over the past eight years, according to a report at Gallup last August, "In U.S., Obama Effect on Racial Matters Falls Short of Hopes":
Americans' optimism about the effects that Obama's election and presidency would have on race relations has ... declined significantly since he was elected in November 2008. At that time, 70% of Americans expected race relations in the U.S. to get better, while only 10% believed relations would get worse. Now, more say that race relations have gotten worse as a result of his presidency (46%) than say they have gotten better (29%).

Whites, by more than a 2-to-1 margin, now say race relations are worse rather than better. Blacks are more charitable in their evaluation of the effect of Obama's presidency on U.S. race relations, but they are divided on whether things are better or worse. Both blacks' and whites' opinions are more pessimistic than they were in October 2009, nine months into Obama's presidency...
A Pew report last June found Americans only slightly less pessimistic about race relations, with fully one third of whites saying race relations have deteriorated, with another 24 percent saying Obama tried but failed to improve relations between the races during his administration. See, "On Views of Race and Inequality, Blacks and Whites Are Worlds Apart."

And even the far-left New York Times, last July, found a large majority saying race relations are bad. See, "Race Relations Are at Lowest Point in Obama Presidency, Poll Finds":
Sixty-nine percent of Americans say race relations are generally bad, one of the highest levels of discord since the 1992 riots in Los Angeles during the Rodney King case, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

The poll, conducted from Friday, the day after the killing of five Dallas police officers, until Tuesday, found that six in 10 Americans say race relations were growing worse, up from 38 percent a year ago.

Racial discontent is at its highest point in the Obama presidency and at the same level as after the riots touched off by the 1992 acquittal of Los Angeles police officers charged in Mr. King’s beating.

Relations between black Americans and the police have become so brittle that more than half of black people say they were not surprised by the attack that killed five police officers and wounded nine others in Dallas last week. Nearly half of white Americans say that they, too, were unsurprised by the episode, the survey found...
There's been saturation coverage of the Chicago black thug Facebook beating and torture all day, and so expect new polling on race to be at least as bad as last July, when the Dallas police officers were massacred by a Black Lives Matter supporter.

Democrats Consider Another Challenge to Donald Trump's Victory in the Electoral College

Bizarre.

At Twitchy, "House Dems are NOT giving up hope for Hillary (She could lose AGAIN?)."


Here's the Politico piece, "Democratic lawmakers considering challenge to Trump’s Electoral College victory."

Like I said, truly bizarre.

Democrats are literally clinical at this point.


On the Structural Safegaurds of the U.S. Constitution

From James Piereson, at the New Criterion, "Populism, V: A bulwark against tyranny":
The framers of the Constitution did not use the term “populism,” but they were aware of the phenomenon it describes—that is, an uprising by the voters against what they judge to be a corrupt or out-of-touch elite. James Madison, for example, referred to something roughly similar in his extensive discussions in the Federalist of factions and “factious majorities.” To a considerable degree, the challenges posed by “populism” were front and center in the debates that eventually produced the Constitution. For better or worse, the framework Madison was instrumental in creating does not easily allow for the kind of popular referendum through which a majority of voters in Great Britain decided to pull that country out of the European Union, or the more recent referendum in Italy through which voters turned down a package of constitutional reforms. In this sense, the U.S. Constitution operates as an impediment to populism because it substitutes representation and deliberation for national referenda and direct democracy.

In the United States, of course, voters can decide to pull out of a treaty or an alliance or repeal a law, but they must do so indirectly by first electing a willing President and Congress, and then hoping that the two can find enough common ground to enact a program—and then sustain that program through subsequent elections. Under the U.S. Constitution, a populist “moment” is not sufficient to win the long game; the moment must be sustained over a sequence of elections such that a temporary uprising of voters is translated into a durable governing majority, which is a difficult thing to accomplish in a country as large and diverse as the United States, as the Founders well understood.

The populist moment that we seem to be in, here and abroad, is a propitious occasion to reconsider some contemporary assumptions about democracy and majority rule in relation to the arguments advanced by the Founders on those same subjects. Many today are instinctively inclined toward democracy and majority rule but are also worried about the implications of “populism.” Can they have it both ways? After all, populism, to the extent that we use it in a pejorative way, implies that majority rule is not always a good thing, and that, as James Madison argued in the Federalist, there can be “bad” majorities as well as “good” ones. How do we tell the difference? And how does one design a system to deter or to deflect these “bad” majorities? Once we raise such questions, we enter into the political and intellectual world of Madison and the Founders...
One of the key points I made repeatedly last semester, when lots of people were freakin' out about Donald Trump, is that our Constitution is strong enough to handle whatever comes along. We survived the Civil War, the Great Depression, and World War II. I expect we'll survive the Trump regime just fine. Indeed, all this talk about "fascism" on the left is really leftist extremism in defense of favored progressive policy priorities. Seriously, these people are unhinged.

But keep reading.

Kendall Jenner Snake Tattoo for V Magazine

At Drunken Stepfather, "KENDALL JENNER, JOAN SMALLS AND LARA STONE FOR V MAGAZINE OF THE DAY."


Struggling with the Costs of Growing Old: Many Slip Out of Middle Class as Aging Takes Its Toll

A fascinating column, from Steve Lopez, at the Los Angeles Times, "Not rich, not poor, and not ready for the cost of growing old."

I've got a least 10 more years before retirement, and probably quite a few more, if I'm feeling well. I take the winters and summers off. Basically, I'm working eight months out of the year. I can hack it past the traditional retirement age, and meanwhile I can be socking away money into my retirement accounts. My wife's seven years younger, and healthy, so we've got a while to plan for those "drought" years (although, as noted, if things stay as they are, I think my family will avoid the "drought" years, thank goodness).


Boomers are crowding the retirement turnstiles just as safety nets may get a haircut from a Republican Congress fixated on an Obamacare repeal that could whack Medicare and Medicaid. And although President-elect Trump has defended entitlements, a key advisor once called for privatizing Social Security. California has been a national leader in supporting in-home care and expanding medical insurance to wider populations, but federal funding cuts could jeopardize those advances.

“Everything is a wild card right now,” said UCLA professor Steven Wallace, chair of the school’s Department of Community Health Sciences.

Wallace co-authored a report published last year on what he refers to as California’s “hidden poor,” approximately 655,000 older adults who are above the federal poverty level and ineligible for some government programs, but not wealthy enough to live comfortably in a region with such high housing costs.

I know those people. I’ve met many of them and written about some of them.

Doris Tillman comes to mind. She’s the South Los Angeles retiree who went nine months without running water after losing a job and falling behind on a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power bill she disputed.

“I’m going to write a book about how to survive in L.A. without water,” the 71-year-old Tillman told me at the time. She learned to get by on 50 gallons a week of water she purchased, lugging heavy five-gallon jugs into and out of her car and into her home.


Deirdre McCloskey: Economic Growth Saves the Poor

A great essay, at the New York Times:


Playboy Playmates Pick the Best Songs of All Time (VIDEO)

I feel like making love!

Via Playboy:


Nina Agdal Bonus LOVE Advent 2016 (VIDEO)

The lovely Ms. Nina brings us back to some babe blogging for the afternoon.

The news out of Chicago is just too sickening.


Jeff Sessions Faces Onslaught from the Most Ugly and Dishonest Political Activists in America

From J. Christian Adams, at Pajamas, "Pray for Jeff Sessions":

Everyone who believes in prayer should say some for attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions. Senator Sessions is experiencing the full wrath of the worst hateful lies that the modern Left and Democrat Party can conjure. Lies, half-truths, and smears have become the strategy to attack his nomination.

The age of Obama has seen the rise of bricks-and-mortar operations with deep cash reserves designed to permanently transform the nation, and the Justice Department has been ground zero. That's why Jeff Sessions is the perfect pick for attorney general, and that's why the liars on the Left are willing to smear this good man. They've served up all their familiar charges against him from their phobia smorgasbord: homo-, xeno-, Islamo- or trans-.

That's why the NAACP decided to trespass and occupy his Senate office -- an action far worse than the one that landed James O'Keefe in jail (banner photo above). Don't expect Loretta Lynch to do anything. Who commits the crime is sometimes more important than what they did. O'Keefe played for the wrong team.

Sessions' opponents hate that he understands them better than most in Washington, and understands the damage they have done transforming the nation in the last eight years...
Keep reading.

Sessions is perhaps the best pick of the entire cabinet. I can't wait until he gets to work!

FLASHBACK: "Why Jeff Sessions Has Conservatives So Fired Up."

Greta Van Susteren to Join MSNBC

Just now, via Greta's Twitter feed:


And at Politico:


How the Democrats Became the Anti-Israel Party

From Daniel Greenfield, at FrontPage Mag, "The Left can’t stop hating and killing Jews":
Democrats have come down with a wicked virus. Somewhere along the way they caught Nazi fever.

It’s not the Nazi fever of the fevered headlines in which Trump is the new Fuhrer and Republicans are the new Third Reich.

The truth is that there’s only one major political party in this country that supports the murder of Jews.

The Democrats demand the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Jerusalem. They fund the mass murder of Jews by nuclear fire, rocket, bullet, bomb and bloody knife. And they collaborate and defend that terror.

President Clinton was the first to openly fund Islamic terrorists killing Jews. Men, women and children across Israel were shot and blown up by terrorists funded by his administration. And when terror victims sought justice, instead of protecting them from Iran, he protected Iran’s dirty money from them.

And he was not the last.

Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Adviser Susan Rice collaborated with the leaders of a terrorist organization, with American and Israeli blood on its hands, on a UN attack on Israel that demands that Jews be banned from moving into neighborhoods and areas claimed by Islamic terrorists.

A leaked transcript showed Kerry conspiring with Saeb Erekat, who has praised the mass murderers of Jews and spewed anti-Semitism. Erekat is called a “negotiator”, a strange term considering that the PLO and its various front groups, including the Palestinian Authority, refuse to negotiate with Israel.

Erekat has made his position on the Jewish State quite clear. “We cannot accept the Jewish state – Israel as a Jewish state – not today, not tomorrow and not in a hundred years.”

Instead of reproving Erekat, Susan Rice warned him about Trump. Rice, like the rest of Obama’s team, was not only closer to the terrorists than to Israel, but was closer to the terrorists than to Trump.

Obama praised PLO boss Abbas despite the terrorist leader’s own admission, “There is no difference between our policies and those of Hamas.” The terror organization headed by Obama’s pal had honored a monster who butchered a 13-year-old Jewish girl in her own bedroom as a “martyr”.

The White House backed the Muslim Brotherhood whose “spiritual” witch doctor had praised Hitler and expressed a wish that Muslims would be able to finish the Holocaust.

Sheikh Rashid Ghannouchi, another beneficiary of Obama's Jihadist Spring, endorsed genocide. "There are no civilians in Israel. The population—males, females and children... can be killed.”

When this monster, who had called for the extermination of the Jews, visited the United States, he was honored at a dinner whose speakers included Obama’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.

If the left really wants to find Hitler and Nazism, it ought to look in the mirror. The Democrats have become a political movement that aids and celebrates the mass murderers of Jews.

And they keep playing the victim...
Keep reading.

Black Chicago Thugs in Facebook Live Beating Charged with Hate Crimes (VIDEO)

The Chicago press conference is live on television right now. More on that later.

Meanwhile, at the Chicago Tribune, "Hate crime, kidnapping charges filed in West Side attack streamed on Facebook Live":


Hate crime charges have been filed against four people shown in a Facebook video attacking a mentally disabled man, cutting his scalp with a knife and punching him while yelling obscenities about Donald Trump and "white people."

Jordan Hill, 18, of Carpentersville, Tesfaye Cooper, 18, of Chicago, Brittany Covington, 18, of Chicago, and Tanishia Covington, 24,  of Chicago were charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

Hill also was charged with robbery, possession of a stolen motor vehicle and residential burglary, while Cooper and Brittany Covington were charged with residential burglary.

The victim, an 18-year-old man reported missing by his parents in Crystal Lake this week, is shown crouching in a corner on a video carried on Facebook Live.  His wrists are bound and his mouth is taped shut.

As a woman shoots the video, two men cut the man's shirt with knives, then take turns punching him and stomping his head.  One of the men cuts the victim’s hair and scalp with a knife, and it appears the man is bleeding.

As the man crouches against a wall, someone shouts, “F‑‑‑ Donald Trump” and “F‑‑‑ white people.”

The attackers on the video appear to be black and the man appears to be white, though police declined at a news conference Wednesday evening to give the race of the attackers or the victim. The attack appears to have taken place on the West Side...
Still more.

And at Memeorandum.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Chicago Teens Post Racially-Motivated Hate Crime Against Special Needs Man on Facebook (VIDEO)

It's black Chicago teens. This is the real racism in America today, not the alleged racist fascist Nazi violence of Donald Trump supporters.

This is the logical result of the left's cancerous politics of hatred and division.

Dana Loesch is sickened and angry, plus the CBS News 2 Chicago report below:




More at World Star Hip Hop, "Chicago Teens Allegedly Kidnapped a Man and Beat Him on Facebook Live!"

Full video here.


Refuse Fascism

Following-up from previously, "Fascism vs. Right-Wing Populism."

I think it's important to nail down exactly what we're talking about. Professor Sheri Berman is right that Donald Trump and right-wing populist movements are not fascist. She's wrong when she demonizes Trump and right-wing populists as threat to current democratic norms and institutions.

Getting these things right is particularly important, since the smear of "fascism" is being thrown around like so much confetti on New Year's Eve.

Here's this big push by the leftist interested group "Refuse Fascism," which published a full-page advertisement in today's New York Times.

As I've said, Trump's not fascist. But if leftists keep pushing and pushing, publishing these smears in all the "correct" outlets, then even your non-political teenybopper down at the mall with be denouncing Trump supporters as "fascist" threats to the "democratic order."

Talk about fake news. Sheesh.

See, "Call to Action to STOP Trump and Pence BEFORE they Come to Power."


(Frankly, since the election, the most significant threats to democratic norms --- like the legitimacy of the Electoral College --- have come from the left. But that doesn't matter to all the "correct" people at the "correct" outlets and institutions, like the MSM and academe. Frankly, the truth doesn't matter to the left, unless it's a truth that advances their agenda. We're in for a wild ride.)

Fascism vs. Right-Wing Populism

Sheri Berman is an excellent political scientist. I like her work a lot. But in two recent pieces on the surge in populism she can't resolve some key inconsistencies in her writing. The main thing is (1) she wants to argue Donald Trump (and right-wing populists in Europe) are not fascist, but (2) this same surging "right-wing [populist] extremism," in Berman's terminology, is still a threat to democracy.

I don't think you can have it both ways. For Berman, if the structural variables that were present in the Interwar period in Europe --- countries in physical ruin after WWI, extreme economic crisis, including the Great Depression, the breakdown of traditional hierarchy, especially aristocracy, absent the consolidation of democratic regimes --- were present today, we'd see the return of fascism.

She doesn't say in so many words, though. She only goes so far as to say that Trump and European "right-wing extremists" threaten current democratic norms and should be challenged, lest they threaten the democratic order.

See for example, Berman's piece from the November/December issue of Foreign Affairs, "Populism Is Not Fascism," and especially the conclusion:
The best way to ensure that the [Marine] Le Pens and Trumps of the world go down in history as also-rans rather than as real threats is to make democratic institutions, parties, and politicians more responsive to the needs of all citizens. In the United States, for example, rising inequality, stagnating wages, deteriorating communities, congressional gridlock, and the flow of big money to campaigns have played a bigger role in fueling support for Trump than his purported charisma or the supposed authoritarian leanings of his supporters. Tackling those problems would no doubt help prevent the rise of the next Trump.

History also shows that conservatives should be particularly wary of embracing right-wing populists. Mainstream Republicans who make bogus claims about voter fraud, rigged elections, and the questionable patriotism and nationality of President Barack Obama in order to appeal to the extremist fringes are playing an extremely dangerous game, since such rhetoric fans citizens’ fear and distrust of their politicians and institutions, thus undermining their faith in democracy itself. And just like their interwar counter­parts, these conservatives are also likely enhancing the appeal of politicians who have little loyalty to the conservatives’ own policies, constituencies, or institutions.

Right-wing populism—indeed, populism of any kind—is a symptom of democracy in trouble; fascism and other revolutionary movements are the consequence of democracy in crisis. But if governments do not do more to address the many social and economic problems the United States and Europe currently face, if mainstream politicians and parties don’t do a better job reaching out to all citizens, and if conservatives continue to fan fear and turn a blind eye to extremism, then the West could quickly find itself moving from the former to the latter.
Actually, democracy is not in trouble.

Donald Trump is not an "also-ran" but the president-elect who will take office as the 45th president of the U.S. on January 20th.

Berman's problem, I would argue, is that she sees populist rejection of left-wing policies as threats to democracy. They are not.

Her other piece, which specifies the nature of fascism much better than at Foreign Affairs, is at Vox, "Donald Trump isn’t a fascist."


It's good, but like I said, Berman fails to persuasively explain why so called "extreme" right-wing populist movements threaten democracy.

These movements, at least in the U.S., don't even threaten democratic norms, and her examples (like Trump's rejection of intelligence findings on Russian hacking) aren't in fact cases of deviations from such norms. And of course, the same things that Berman claims right-wing populist are doing, like rejecting election results, are exactly what Democrats and leftists have done since the election. So, why aren't far-left movements, socialism, neo-communism, and anti-neo-liberalism, in fact threats to democracy? The reason is that leftists have double-standards, and for them threats to democratic norms are only seen when populists reject leftist policies.

Until Berman and others can offer an even-handed argument for fascism vs. right-wing populism (or left-wing populism, for that matter), their commentary and research will be rejected as nothing more than partisan hackery.

'Pink Houses'

From yesterday's driving-around time, at the Sound L.A. (I picked up my son from school and then made a Walmart run for some groceries.)

John Mellencamp:

Lola (Mono 'Cherry Cola' Single Version)
The Kinks
3:51 PM

Dancing in the Dark
Bruce Springsteen
3:47 PM

Can't You See
The Marshall Tucker Band
3:41 PM

Let's Dance
David Bowie
3:37 PM

Fat Bottomed Girls
Queen
3:33 PM

Pinball Wizard
The Who
3:26 PM

Go Your Own Way
Fleetwood Mac
3:23 PM

Shake It Up
The Cars
3:19 PM

I Shot the Sheriff
Eric Clapton
3:15 PM

Pink Houses
John Mellencamp
3:10 PM

Stairway to Heaven
Led Zeppelin
3:02 PM

'Thanks for not Photoshopping my thighs...'

I think, as a matter of public service, Glamour really needed to Photoshop Lena Dunham's thighs.

My god, is this the new standard of Glamour for today's young women? How sickening.

Via Ms. Rachel on Twitter, "If the average and the drab can achieve Glamour without effort, then the magazine is obsolete."

At Newser, "Lena Dunham to Glamour: Thanks for Not Photoshopping."


Deaf Baby Boy Hears Mom's Voice for the First Time (VIDEO)

I wasn't born deaf, but I have a hearing impairment from a head injury when I was 21.

I wear a hearing aid. Most people don't realize I have an impairment when I'm talking to them. I read lips. My voice is a bit muffled, creating something of a Mr. Magoo effect, but most people never remark on it.

But because if this, I always see these "baby hears" videos with a special joy. Sometimes I used to think I'd rather be blind than deaf. You never really know how cherished are your senses until you've lost one of them, or more.

In any case, seen on Twitter just now (and this isn't the first clip like this I've posted):

Senate Moves to Repeal ObamaCare (VIDEO)

Senators were actually working on this yesterday, their first day back on the Hill.

At Roll Call, "Senate Republicans Start Obamacare Repeal Process":

Senate Republicans wasted no time Tuesday setting in motion their plan to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.

GOP senators intend to strike large portions of the law while avoiding the threat of a Democratic filibuster through a procedural gambit that expedites Senate consideration of the repeal bill.

But Democrats aren’t going down without a fight.

On Tuesday, Senate Budget Chairman Michael B. Enzi started the process known as reconciliation. A fiscal 2017 budget resolution the Wyoming Republican unveiled on the first day of the 115th Congress includes instructions to two House and two Senate committees to craft legislation reducing the deficit by $1 billion over the next ten years.

To do so, those committees will draft bills repealing portions of the health care law. Senate debate is not subject to cloture, meaning 60 votes are not required to end debate. Republicans, with their 52-seat majority, will be able to advance the repeal without needing any Democratic defections.

One of the committees with jurisdiction is Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and the panel’s chairman, GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee said Tuesday that any repeal bill will be crafted “carefully.” Lawmakers have until Jan. 27 to draft the measures.

But before then, Democrats plan to put Republicans on the record regarding certain provisions of the 2010 health care law.

Senate Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin said Democrats plan to offer health-related provisions when the Senate votes on amendments to the budget resolution. A marathon vote series known as a vote-a-rama is expected next week...
More.

Not sure why she mentions the cloture rule isn't in effect, mainly because the filibuster still applies to legislation (despite this whole debate over killing the filibuster). Normally floor debate is held when a bill is ready to be sent to conference, and thus it would be defeated in the Senate before that if there wasn't a 60-vote level of support. I've tweeted to Bridget Bowman for an answer.

The Wages of Trump Derangement Syndrome

From Roger Kimball, at Pajamas:
There will continue to be a lot of flailing [after Trump's election], a lot of wailing and abuse. But among the many things that changed during the early hours of November 9 was a cultural dispensation that had been with us since at least the 1960s, the smug, "progressive" (don't call it "liberal") dispensation that had insinuated itself like a toxic fog throughout our cultural institutions — our media, our universities, our think tanks and beyond. So well established was this set of cultural assumptions, cultural presumptions, that it seemed to many like the state of nature: just there as is a mountain or an expanse of ocean.  But it turns out it was just a human, all-too-human fabrication whose tawdriness is now as obvious as its fragility.

What we are witnessing is its dissolution. It won't happen all at once and there are bound to be pockets of resistance. But they will become ever more irrelevant even if they become ever shriller and more histrionic. The anti-Trump establishment is correct that what is taking place is a sea change in our country. But they are wrong about its purport.  It is rendering them utterly irrelevant even as it is boosting the confidence, strength, and competence of the country as a whole. Glad tidings indeed...
RTWT.

Hat Tip: James Taranto, at his final entry for the "Best of the Web" column at WSJ, "Finale." (I read that on my iPhone. My normal Google workaround for the subscription paywall didn't work. I'm thinking about subscribing to the newspaper this year, perhaps as part of a new change for my reading habits.)

An Embarrassing Start for the New GOP Congress

Actually, maybe House Republicans shouldn't have caved to the pressure, from Trump or elsewhere.

Following-up from yesterday, "House Republicans Retreat from Ethics Change Following Backlash."

See the Wall Street Journal editorial board, "Fake Ethics Reform Fiasco":
The burning question in the media has been whether Mr. Trump or public outcry deserve credit for the GOP’s about-face. In any case, House Republicans will pay a political price for trying, then failing, to rush through ethics changes—after running on draining the D.C. swamp. By caving so precipitously at the first sign of opposition, they’ve also invited more such pressure campaigns.

The upshot is an embarrassing start for a new GOP Congress that is supposed to be stalwart for pursuing conservative reform no matter the opposition. Progressives are elated that their Trump “resistance” project notched a victory and will continue the fact-free outrage campaigns. If you think the political pressure is intense on ethics rules, wait until the left completes its nationwide talent search for the person most harmed by the GOP’s health-care proposals. Mr. Trump will also figure he can rout any opposition with a tweet, not that he’s known for restraint.

The shame is that a review of the ethics office is overdue, much as due-process rights have suffered under the Obama Administration—from college campus show trials to bankrupting legal companies. Maybe Congress can restore its own due-process guarantees after it does something for everyone else’s.
RTWT.

ICYMI: Heather Mac Donald's, The War on Cops

Year-end statistics are putting the war on cops back in the news.

Following-up from last night, "As Cops Retreat Under Political Pressure, Chicago Homicides Rise 57 Percent."

So, check out Heather Mac Donald, The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe.

She's so awesome.

 photo BC_TheWarOnCops_zpslfj0gilp.jpg

George Hawley, Right-Wing Critics of American Conservatism

This looks interesting.

At Amazon, Right-Wing Critics of American Conservatism.

Rose Bertram's Tahitian Paradise (VIDEO)

Via Sports Illustrated Swimsuit: