Saturday Morning Roundup

I'm going to post a lot of book links today. I've been slacking on my Amazon sales.

Meanwhile, from around the horn.

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Continental Breakfast."

And at the Other McCain, "In The Mailbox: 08.12.16."

Knuckledraggin', "Your Good Morning Girl."

Astute, "POLITICIANS AND PRESS IN TWIN FALLS, IDAHO DEFENDING JUVENILE MUSLIM RAPISTS."

Theo's, "Bike Week Daytona 2016 Bikini Babes..."

At Director Blue, "Larwyn's Linx: Hacker leaks phone numbers, email addresses of every House Democrat; Hillary’s protective wall around Chappaqua estate."

American Digest, "Season 3 of 'This Old Nag': Dragging Her Over the Finish Line."

Power Line, "NYTimes: Another Day, Another Hit Piece Against Donald Trump."

Maggie's Farm, "Maggie's Farm, "Durn Interestin' Roundup":

Roger here. Bird Dog has gone to the spa to take the waters. And by "spa," I mean tavern. And by "waters," I mean single malt. Anyway, he's left me to guard the chicken coop until he can finish his sabbatical, and make bail. I don't know what to talk about. That's because I'm not interesting, the way Bird Dog is...

BONUS: The Hostages, "Big Boob Friday."

Bumped Into Robert Spencer and Michael Finch at the Angels Game Last Week

We were out in the parking lot. I had to do a double-take when I saw Robert in his Athletics jersey. He's normally wearing a suit, heh.

Michael Finch is the president of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a really nice man.

.@lamblock So crazy seeing @JihadWatchRS and @PaleHose67 at last night's #Angels game. #LTBU #GoAngels pic.twitter.com/t0naOERxRk

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 4, 2016

Lissy Cunningham Rule 5

I posted Ms. Lissy for Rule 5 back in April of last year.

Sneak peek of last weekends shoot #silverhair #blonde #commerical pic.twitter.com/wUBNcBVyvb

— Lissy (@LissyC5) July 26, 2016

BONUS: At the Sun U.K., "Lissy from Manchester is a total knockout..."

Thanks to the Reader Who Bought a Lexmark Black Print Toner Cartridge

As I always say, I blog for the fun of it, but certainly it's nice getting the Amazon affiliate fees.

Here's the product, Lexmark X651A11A Return Program Black Toner Cartridge.

Thanks so much for shopping through my links. That affiliate payment alone is almost enough to buy a new book!

And thanks to all my readers for checking in at the blog, sharing my posts, shopping though my links, or just generally lurking around these parts. It's greatly appreciated.

Roundup of the Roundups

I've gotta head out to the office to wrap up a few loose ends.

Plus, I'll be having lunch with my colleague who just retired.

Back this afternoon.

Meanwhile, check out Maggie's Farm, "Tuesday morning links." Also, from Doug Ross, "Larwyn's Linx: ISIS Terror Shooting at Gay Nightclub Dismantles the Liberal Narrative; Trump's Speech a Game-Changer."

More at Blazing Cat Fur, "NBC: Real Problem with These Tragedies Are Trump’s Tweets or Something."

Twitter Genius Trolls the Guardian

Via Louise Mensch, at Heat Street:

Twitter Genius Trolls the Guardian – and It’s Glorious https://t.co/uPTugsjI8M #heatstreet via @LouiseMensch

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) April 30, 2016

Identity of Zero Hedge's 'Tyler Durden' Outed by 'Disgruntled' Ex-Employee

Well, this is interesting.

At Bloomberg, "Unmasking the Men Behind Zero Hedge, Wall Street's Renegade Blog" (via Memeorandum):

Colin Lokey, also known as "Tyler Durden," is breaking the first rule of Fight Club: You do not talk about Fight Club. He’s also breaking the second rule of Fight Club. (See the first rule.)

After more than a year writing for the financial website Zero Hedge under the nom de doom of the cult classic’s anarchic hero, Lokey’s going public. In doing so, he’s answering a question that has bedeviled Wall Street since the site sprang up seven years ago: Just who is Tyler Durden, anyway?

The answer, it turns out, is three people. Following an acrimonious departure this month, in which two-thirds of the trio traded allegations of hypocrisy and mental instability, Lokey, 32, decided to unmask himself and his fellow Durdens.

Lokey said the other two men are Daniel Ivandjiiski, 37, the Bulgarian-born former analyst long reputed to be behind the site, and Tim Backshall, 45, a well-known credit derivatives strategist. (Bloomberg LP competes with Zero Hedge in providing financial news and information.)

In a telephone interview, Ivandjiiski confirmed that the men had been the only Tyler Durdens on the payroll since Lokey came aboard last year, but he criticized his former colleague's decision to come forward.

He called Lokey's parting gift a case of sour grapes. Backshall, meanwhile, declined to comment, referring questions to Ivandjiiski. A political science graduate with an MBA and a Southern twang, Lokey said he had a checkered past before joining Zero Hedge. Earlier this month, overwork landed him in a hospital because he felt a panic attack coming on, he said.

“Ultimately we wish Colin all the best, he’s clearly a troubled individual in many ways, and we are frankly disappointed that he’s decided to take his displeasure with the company in such a public manner,” Ivandjiiski said...

More.

And at Zero Hedge, "The Full Story Behind Bloomberg's Attempt to 'Unmask' Zero Hedge."

Monday Morning Roundup

Some babes, at the Other McCain, "Rule 5 Sunday: The Tax Deadline Cometh."

Some cartoons, at Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Roundup."

And some intellectual linkage, at Maggie's Farm, "Monday morning links."

BONUS: Just scroll around at Instapundit, lol.

Thanks to the Reader Who Bought the Bose SoundTrue Around-Ear Headphones for Apple Devices

As you know, I mostly love the Amazon affiliates sales for the book promotions --- I love books, heh.

The program's not a whole lot of money for me, but of course every little bit helps.

So, thanks to the reader who purchased the Bose SoundTrue around-ear headphones II - Apple devices (a fairly expensive purchase). And also thanks to all my readers for visiting the blog and shopping through my Amazon links.

Veteran Older Reporters Are Being Forced From the Profession — Wahhh!

Heh.

From Robert Stacy McCain, at the Other McCain, "Fear and Loathing: ‘Kazika the Mad Jap’ Could Not Be Reached for Comment":

Here’s a headline:

What Happens to Journalists When No One Wants to Print Their Words Anymore? As newsrooms disappear, veteran older reporters are being forced from the profession. That’s bad for journalism — and democracy.

Please shut up. Nobody feels sorry for you, and probably nobody should. The idea that people are entitled to be employed in whatever field they choose to pursue, and that once they get hired, they then have a “right” to keep that job — that is what’s bad for democracy.

Newspapers were my life for more than 20 years. Deadline after deadline after deadline — from 1986 to 2008, that’s what it was about. From the day I talked myself into a job as a $4.50-an-hour staff writer at a tiny weekly in Austell, Georgia, until the day I quit the Washington Times after a decade as assistant national editor and Culture page editor, my life was all about deadlines. It was a job I loved except for when I hated it, but one scam I never bought into was the lofty illusion cherished by the Professional Journalism types who insisted that the rotten pay and miserable working conditions of the typical newspaper reporter were justified because we were doing What’s Good For Democracy.

Bovine excrement.

We were doing what was good for the advertisers and the publisher, and any benefit to Democracy was strictly incidental. Long before the Internet made it possible to have “metrics,” as they say, of reader interest, I realized that there was a disconnect between (a) the average journalist’s conception of his job, and (b) what most readers actually wanted to read. Two or three decades ago, there was a lot of puffy nonsense — the kind of stuff you’d read in Columbia Journalism Review or the monthly American Society of News Editors (ASNE) bulletin — about “community service” and “investigative journalism” and so forth, all of which amounted to your mother telling you to eat your broccoli.

Every major metro daily in the country was piling manpower into the kind of five-part “investigative” series (or “enterprise journalism”) cynics used to call “Pulitzer bait.” This always seemed to involve a pet liberal crusade — racism, environmentalism, homelessness, etc. — that would appeal to the sensibilities of the Professional Journalism types who think of their jobs as What’s Good For Democracy: “Eat your broccoli.”

Keep reading for "‘Kazika the Mad Jap’."

'Ben Shapiro Betrays Loyal Breitbart Readers in Pursuit of Fox News Contributorship'

That's the now deleted headline at Breitbart, which is now replaced with an apology from editor Joel Pollak, "Statement from Breitbart News Editor-at-Large and In-House Counsel Joel B. Pollak."

Pollak was apparently trying to "make light of" the whole Michelle Fields incident, her resignation, as well as Shapiro's, but it's not turning out too well (via Memeorandum).

More, from Hadas Gold, at Politico, "Breitbart piece mocking editor who resigned was written under father's pseudonym." (Via Memeorandum.)

Here's a cached version of the now-removed piece.

I'm not a huge Breitbart News fan, and probably less so in the future.

Young Reporters, Steeped in Social Media, Accustomed to Digital Speed and Always-On World, Grab Spotlight on U.S. Campaign Trail

This is really fascinating, although, except for Time's Zeke Miller, it's all women.

And it's weird, because when I first really started following politics back in the early 1980s, it was the old-timers who were all the most prolific, and authoritative. That's when shows like "This Week with David Brinkley" were the rage. Even CNN was still catching on back then.

Nowadays, fresh out of college and you're reporting from the presidential campaign trail? Pretty amazing.

At NYT, "Millennial Reporters Grab the Campaign-Trail Spotlight":

Had a total fan girl moment seeing the ever fabulous @katieglueck grace the cover of today's @NYTStyles: pic.twitter.com/jyRE36ojfY

— Caitlin Huey-Burns (@CHueyBurnsRCP) March 6, 2016

When the last presidential race was in its early stages, Katie Glueck was a senior at Northwestern University. Now covering the Ted Cruz campaign for Politico, Ms. Glueck, 26, belongs to a select group of millennial reporters who have a front-row seat to the greatest political show on earth.

While youth is a virtue for those covering the turbulent 2016 campaign, it has been known to get in the way now and then. Caitlin Huey-Burns, 28, who covers primaries and caucuses for the website RealClear Politics, said, “I often get asked by voters if I’m writing for the school paper.”

Rosie Gray, 26, who covers the campaign for BuzzFeed, said that her age is only occasionally a factor. “Honestly, the times I feel the most young is when I’m talking to a voter on the trail and I sound like a pipsqueak saying, ‘Excuse me, ma’am, can I ask you a question?’” she said. “A lot of that had to do with how you present yourself and how you act. You can either act like a young little thing or not.”

And she disputed the notion that her age is much of an issue. “I’m not that young,” she said. “I’m 26. Thirty is staring me down the barrel of a gun.”

But Maralee Schwartz, a former longtime political editor at The Washington Post, said that the rise of these correspondents is new indeed.

“They’ve become much more prominent,” Ms. Schwartz said, adding that 2012 “was the first year that you saw how many younger reporters were on the trail. One veteran reporter called me from the bus, stunned, saying: ‘I am the oldest person here. One of them brought brownies.’ They may lack experience, but they can keep pace with the changes and demands and responsibilities of the web.”

*****

Unlike some of their more experienced colleagues, the reporters under 30 also seem to accept the notion that they are always on the clock, that keeping up a running patter with news-hungry audiences via Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat is as much part of the job as filing a 550-word dispatch.

“There are points where I have to remind myself, ‘You haven’t tweeted all day,’ because it is an important part of building our brands and sharing our work, and that doesn’t come to me naturally,” said MJ Lee, a 29-year-old politics reporter for CNN. “But there’s no going back.

“You have no excuse,” continued Ms. Lee, who is married to Alexander Burns, who covers politics for The New York Times. “You have to be up-to-date on everything, because you can be. You have your iPhone and you have Twitter. Why aren’t you up-to-date on the latest thing that happened two minutes ago? When I get on a plane and it’s a small plane and there’s no Wi-Fi, I get uncomfortable.”

Ms. Lee, a 2009 Georgetown University graduate who majored in government and Chinese, said: “Yesterday, we went to dinner, and for some reason I stopped getting email on my phone. And that made me really nervous. And it was maybe 17 minutes.”

The energy required to maintain a constant online presence is just part of the challenge. To write or broadcast anything connected with politics in 2016 is to be exposed to instant backlash. Even a deeply reported and elegantly written campaign story is likely to draw malicious attack.

Well, I'm getting a kick out of the "always-on" digital culture reference, although I hate it, since to me it implies that these young cub reporters don't really know anything. They don't have a personal wealth of political knowledge, and should they come up short, well, there's always Wikipedia.

But then, I'm online much of the time myself, reading the news, and blogging. So, I can't gripe too much about that without being hypocritical.

So, it's all good.

RTWT.

Pic Dump's Back

Always one of the favorite features at Theo Spark's, "Pic Dump..."

Theo's got his February fundraiser going, so the pic dump might be a limited release.

The #FreeStacy Twitter Exodus Has Begun

At the Federalist.

And see the latest update from R.S. McCain, "#FreeStacy: Have You Mentioned @srhbutts Lately? Perhaps You Should."

Adam Baldwin Sets Record Straight on Quitting Twitter

I like Adam Baldwin. He's a Hollywood actor who's pretty much like a regular guy. I've engaged with him a couple of times on Twitter, and he praised my reporting on the Los Angeles anti-Israel ANSWER protest with a "---> #IAmAndrewBreitbart" tweet. That was cool.

See his Twitter update on the #FreeStacy disaster, at Twitchy, "Adam Baldwin sets the record straight, bids farewell to Twitter."

RELATED: "Update from Robert Stacy McCain."

Update from Robert Stacy McCain

At the Other McCain, "What @FemFreq Didn’t Say."

I haven't tweeted today. I suspect I'll be back on the platform sometime soon, but it's not the same to me with Robert banned. Frankly, it's weird.

PREVIOUSLY: "Fire @Jack Dorsey!"

Fire @Jack Dorsey!

Following-up from yesterday, "Robert Stacy McCain Responds to Twitter Suspension — #FreeStacy."

Adam Baldwin, television star and well-known conservative on social media, quit Twitter once and for all yesterday.

He deleted everything except his final tweet, which links to Robert Tracinski, at the Federalist, "#FreeStacy: The Old Regime and the Twitter Revolution."

It's an excellent piece. I mean, I like Tracinski, but this essay really illustrates his range. And I love this from his concluding five-point plan to rescue the platform:

4) Fire CEO Jack Dorsey.

The “Trust and Safety Council” was Dorsey’s brainchild, and he’s the one who chose to give it over to political hacks with an axe to grind. In other words, while Twitter’s user base has been leveling off and its share price has been going down in flames, he’s been busy hatching a scheme to drive away even more of its users. If Dorsey were sole owner of Twitter, he would have a right to run it into the ground however he likes. But it’s a publicly traded company, and he has shareholders, co-owners of the firm who have a right to complain that he’s crashing their share prices for the sake of his own personal political crusade. The company’s remaining shareholders need to rebel before he sets fire to more of their money.

Other prominent Twitter users are also hanging up their hashtags, most notably Ace at AceofSpadesHQ, who said he's "done with it," except for "promotion" or "to criticize the regime."

I first signed up for Twitter to connect with tea party people and to promote my blog. It's been fun (while it's lasted) to connect with a lot of cool people ("tweeps") from around the country, but I'm seriously upset that Robert's been banned. His old R.S. McCain handle has been removed permanently. See, the Other McCain, "#FreeStacy: @rsmccain ‘Will Not Be Restored’; @SexTroubleBook Suspended."

I don't know about other folks, but these developments make Twitter definitely less fun for me. People keep talking about taking their debates elsewhere, but right now who knows where that's going to be?

.@Jack, Twitter is dead to me if you permanently ban my friend Robert Stacy McCain. @safety @Support cc. @Instapundit #FreeStacy

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 22, 2016

@lamblock Ima 'bout to cry frankly. I tag R.S. McCain in almost everything I tweet. It's not going to be the same. Folks are quitting.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 23, 2016

Well @Jack, the #Twitter time-suck is past its prime, and #TCOTs are bailing out. You might want to #FreeStacy. @safety @Support

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 23, 2016

I Stayed Up 24 Hours Yesterday to Cover the Iowa Caucuses and the Oregon Standoff

I was tired on Sunday night from my continuous blog coverage of all the political developments, and I fell asleep around 9:00pm. When I woke up around 1:00 on Monday morning is was caucus day and I got up and made some coffee. I took my son to school at the regular time and was going to come home and fall back asleep for awhile. I shut my eyes and muted the television, but never really dozed off. So I got back up and started back up with my blog coverage.

Call me crazy.

Blogging's the best way for me to keep up with all the news, which is good for my teaching, which is actually my day job, lol. In fact, the spring semester starts back up next Monday, and I'm excited and ready to go. I love teaching the most during campaign time, because each day brings lots of new stories and developments. It makes for a lot of fun and engagement in the classroom, and it helps me motivate these young people --- sometimes derided as the "Dumbest Generation," not without good cause --- into voting citizens who take their rights and responsibilities seriously. It's actually an honor to do so. It's important work although the feedback is often long in coming. I don't care about that too much. I get to have the dream job of teaching politics, which is more than any political junkie could ask for.

I don't put out a shingle asking for donations. I do this for fun. But if you'd like to support me you can always do your books shopping through my Amazon links (or any other shopping for that matter).

Thanks for reading.

I had on CNN mostly yesterday, only because I've always thought they have the best election coverage. But Fox News is good too. I don't even know what MSNBC's doing, other than when I check out their YouTube page.

Anyway, stay with me!

Hot Shots Calendar 2016 (VIDEO)

Last year some of these babes got some folks in trouble, "'Hot Shots' Calendar Under Fire for Photo Shoot on U.S. Military Base."

But they're still going strong, apparently.

Watch, "Hot Shots Calendar 2016 - Behind the Scenes."

Web Developer Marco Arment Pulls Best-Selling Ad Blocker Off Apple's App Store

At WaPo, "Why the maker of a chart-topping ad blocker just pulled it off the App Store."

This is especially interesting, considering the recent posts at Legal Insurrection, where William Jacobson's trying to work out a fix to the loss of revenue from many readers using ad blockers. See, "You’re killing us – one ad block at a time (Update)," and "Advertising Networks Abuse Their Users."