'I was one of the women who tried to stand up to reality TV star and Skinny Girl Vodka founder, Bethenny Frankel, at a women’s entrepreneurial summit over the weekend. And was silenced...'

Wild.

At PuffHo Black Voices:

Bethenny gives lesson in how NOT to empower a room full of women founders -- by @msmarypryor https://t.co/BRrY5cFzGs pic.twitter.com/KaLUZfi66r

— HuffPost BlackVoices (@blackvoices) April 13, 2016

(1) To the organizers of @RenttheRunway #PEIntensive16 and their events this weekend I applaud the diverse room of women thanks to @UBS

— Mary Pryor (@msmarypryor) April 11, 2016

(2) However #PEIntensive16's keynote via @Bethenny was offensive and wrong NOT proper for a room full of female founders

— Mary Pryor (@msmarypryor) April 11, 2016

(3) I along with another ally of color stood up to address how offensive @Bethenny was to not just us but the entire room #PEIntensive16

— Mary Pryor (@msmarypryor) April 11, 2016

(4) For @Bethenny to insist that a young, Black female founder "Find a white guy" to rep her biz is a racial microaggression #PEIntensive16

— Mary Pryor (@msmarypryor) April 11, 2016

(5) For #PEIntensive16 to not issue an apology to the women of color in the room that were offended by her statement bothers me

— Mary Pryor (@msmarypryor) April 11, 2016

(6) I am tired of being asked to be present in the room for female founders events & have my voice SHUT DOWN #PEIntensive16 @RentTheRunway

— Mary Pryor (@msmarypryor) April 11, 2016

Still more tweets at the article.

I don't know how this woman lived to tell her story after those devastating racial microaggressions?

White Male Dominance in Journalism

Um, okay.

Sarah Kendzior tweeted yesterday.

The Guardian study's hidden lesson: trolls reinforce white male dominance in journalism https://t.co/yeAQrDn331 Nice work from @amandataub

— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) April 13, 2016

I saw earlier the Guardian's investigation of their own commenters on their website, and yawned.

Stacey Poole Wishes You Good Morning!

Via Twitter:

@HottestHunnies @GloverWatts @FaShaow @FranceNympho @DrRichardRotten @TheDirtyRichard @Glamour_Elite @LucyPMichelleM pic.twitter.com/65RdjDsazZ

— Stacey Poole fan (@Stacey_poolefan) April 13, 2016

Feeling the Bern of Reality

Heh.

Feel the Bern.

From Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, on LinkedIn, "Feeling the Bern of Reality — The Facts About Verizon and the ‘Moral Economy’" (via Memeorandum):

I read with interest Jeff Immelt’s spirited response to Sen. Bernie Sanders putting GE on his hit-list of big corporations that are “destroying the moral fabric” of America.

In fact, I share his frustration. Verizon is in Sanders’s bull’s-eye, as well. The senator’s uninformed views are, in a word, contemptible. Here’s why.

His first accusation – that Verizon doesn’t pay its fair share of taxes – is just plain wrong. As our financial statements clearly show, we’ve paid more than $15.6 billion in taxes over the last two years – that’s a 35% tax rate in 2015, for anyone who’s counting. We’ve laid out the facts repeatedly and did so again yesterday (see “Sen. Sanders needs to get his facts straight” at Verizon.com/about/news). The senator has started to fudge his language – talking of taxes not paid in some unspecified “given year” – but that doesn’t make his contention any less false.

Sen. Sanders also claims that Verizon doesn’t use its profits to benefit America. Again, a look at the facts says otherwise. In the last two years, Verizon has invested some $35 billion in infrastructure -- virtually all of it in the U.S. -- and paid out more than $16 billion in dividends to the millions of average Americans who invest in our stock. In Sanders’s home state of Vermont alone, Verizon has invested more than $16 million in plant and equipment and pays close to $42 million a year to vendors and suppliers, many of them small and medium-sized businesses. Just yesterday, we announced a $300 million investment to bring fiber to the city of Boston, which will make it one of the most technologically advanced cities in the nation and expand broadband access for its residents. Boston’s Mayor Walsh is partnering with us on this initiative, calling it crucial for providing the foundation for future technology growth. We’re making significant investments in New York City, Philadelphia and other metro areas throughout our wireline footprint.

Verizon is one of the top 3 capital investors in all corporate America. Our investment has built wireless and fiber networks that deliver high-quality services, create high-tech jobs and form the infrastructure for the innovation economy of the 21st century.

I challenge Sen. Sanders to show me a company that’s done more to invest in America than Verizon...

Well, you get the picture, heh.

Still more, in any case.

RELATED: At Memeorandum, "Hillary Clinton rakes in Verizon cash while Bernie Sanders supports company's striking workers."

Corey Lewandowski Will Not Be Prosecuted

This is interesting, and problematic for Michelle Fields and her #NeverTrump enablers.

At Politico, "Trump campaign manager will not be prosecuted, sources say" (via Memeorandum):

Reporter who accused Corey Lewandowski of battery may still pursue defamation case. A Florida prosecutor has decided not to prosecute Donald Trump’s campaign manager for battery after a March run-in with former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, sources with knowledge of the situation told POLITICO.

The decision not to press charges against Corey Lewandowski is scheduled to be announced on Thursday afternoon by Palm Beach County State Attorney David Aronberg.

Fields may still pursue a defamation case against Lewandowski, a source said.

Fields filed a police report last month after Lewandowski grabbed her by the arm and moved her out of Trump’s way following a press conference at Trump National Gold Club in Jupiter. She said he left bruises on her arm. Police later charged Lewandowski with simple battery, releasing video from surveillance cameras that shows Lewandowski reaching for and grabbing Fields.

Aronberg would not comment, but in a POLITICO interview last week, he pointed out that Jupiter police had a low “probable cause” standard to cite Lewandowski for battery. But the responsibility for moving forward with a full-blown prosecution rested with Aronberg’s office, which had to consider whether a crime occurred and whether they believed a jury of Floridians would prosecute...

Translation: The prosecutor doesn't have squat.

Michelle Fields wasn't pleased that the story leaked before she heard back from the relevant parties.

Prosecutor's office told me they would inform me of decision tomorrow. If reports true, guess they decided to leak to reporters first. Ugly.

— Michelle Fields (@MichelleFields) April 14, 2016

For those asking, office of prosecutor asked 2 weeks ago if I'd be ok with an apology from Corey. I said ya but haven't heard back about it

— Michelle Fields (@MichelleFields) April 14, 2016

I think I'll pass on getting legal advice from a Trump shill. Thanks tho. https://t.co/YoPznOC9LB

— Michelle Fields (@MichelleFields) April 14, 2016

Fields was responding to Greta Van Susteren:

Michelle Fields should not bring a civil law suit @piersmorgan

— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) April 14, 2016

anyone who has had ANY experience in criminal courts knew the DA would not prosecute Lewandowski based on that video @CLewandowski_

— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) April 14, 2016

Terrible that some in the media pushed her to this https://t.co/JNoAP4s3bn

— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) April 14, 2016

It was not brilliance that predicted DA would not prosecute Michelle Fields' claims, it was experience

— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) April 14, 2016

Anyone in the media telling Michelle Fields to prosecute that claim was using her;

— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) April 14, 2016

Hadas Gold had the scoop for Politico:

If you cite us, I will love you forever. https://t.co/lNu84WGd3H

— Hadas Gold (@Hadas_Gold) April 13, 2016

Currencies Across Asia Fall Sharply Against U.S. Dollar

At WSJ:

Currencies across Asia including the Chinese yuan dropped sharply against the U.S. dollar Thursday, with markets caught off-guard as the Singapore central bank restrained the appreciation of its currency to stoke growth.

The yuan saw its biggest one-day depreciation since January, and the Singapore dollar fell by the most within a day this year. Meanwhile, the South Korean won weakened after the ruling party lost its parliamentary majority.

Asian currencies had firmed up against the greenback in recent weeks, partly thanks to the Federal Reserve having signaled it would raise interest rates at a slower rate this year than previously expected. Economic policy makers from the Group of 20 nations had pledged at a meeting in February to avoid sparking a currency war through competitive devaluation.

A weakening of the yuan against the U.S. dollar in its daily fix weighed on currencies across the region, after a 0.46% depreciation—the biggest since January.

The region’s currency markets had started the day on the back foot as traders assessed first the impact of South Korea’s elections, followed by Singapore’s surprise easing.

Movements of the yuan fix, which determines the levels at which the currency can trade inside mainland China, have recently been more determined by market forces. Today’s depreciation reflects strength in the U.S. dollar on Wednesday.

Thursday’s yuan depreciation was the biggest since Jan. 7, when markets had speculated that moves to weaken the yuan could trigger a global currency war. Competitive currency devaluation hasn’t materialized among major economies since then, but other central banks in smaller countries in Asia are loosening policy in the meantime.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore became the latest to surprise markets by easing its policy stance as it warned of threats to growth. The Singapore dollar fell as much as 1.1% to 1.3654 against the U.S. dollar, the biggest intraday move since mid-December.

The Korean won weakened 0.7% to 1153.305 to the dollar after South Korea’s ruling party lost its parliamentary majority, raising doubts about the government’s ability to push ahead with economic reforms.

“The Singapore economy is projected to expand at a more modest pace in 2016 than envisaged in the October policy review,” the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in a statement. The central bank also forecast a decline of between 0% and 1% this year in headline consumer price inflation, which has been falling every month since November 2014 as a result of measures intended to cool the economy. It warned, too, that any pickup this year in core inflation, which strips out the cost of private road transport and accommodation, may be less than previously anticipated.

Singapore’s central bank flattened the expected appreciation of the Singapore dollar, setting the rate of appreciation of its nominal effective exchange rate to zero. Previously, it had been set to gradually strengthen to avoid importing inflation from overseas. The Singapore dollar trades in a band against a basket of currencies.

In easing, Singapore’s central bank was following others around Asia. India, New Zealand and Indonesia have all cut interest rates in the past six weeks, and Japan implemented negative interest rates on some deposits earlier this year.

The International Monetary Fund lowered its global growth forecasts for the year ahead to 3.2% this week, down 0.2 percentage point from projections issued in January...

More (and don't miss the cool graphics at the click-through).

Amber Lee's Thursday Forecast

Via CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Deal of the Day: Save on Saucony Running Shoes

At Amazon, 40% Off Saucony Running Shoes.

More, Saucony Men's Guide 9 Running Shoe and Saucony Women's Triumph ISO 2 Running Shoe.

Also, Futurama: The Complete Series on DVD.

More, from Fredrik Logevall, Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam.

And from Neal Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam.

Still more, from Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History.

BONUS: Christian Appy, American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity.

Donald Trump Has Realist Foreign Policy

Well, that's reassuring, lol.

From leftist Rosa Brooks, at Foreign Policy, "Donald Trump Has a Coherent, Realist Foreign Policy":

Despite the bluster, Trump is articulating a bold vision of America’s role in the world. And it demands a serious response — not the snickering of D.C. elites.

Oh, Donald, bless your heart! You keep on saying those wild and crazy things, the media keeps on snickering, and you just keep on blustering. A grateful nation thanks you. If you weren’t around, we’d probably have to talk about Ted Cruz instead, and that would be no fun at all.

But my editors here at Foreign Policy have asked me to get serious and write about what U.S. foreign policy would look like if the White House should ever sprout an enormous gold sign reading, “TRUMP.” This has not been a simple assignment, because there is a Trump for every possible policy position.

Where to start?

Well, if Donald Trump becomes president, we might have a nuclear war — or, then again, we might not. On the one hand, Trump tells us, “It’s a very scary nuclear world. Biggest problem, to me, in the world, is nuclear, and proliferation.” On the other hand, if Japan and South Korea decide to develop their own nuclear weapons, that’s probably fine, and we “may very well be better off.” On the third hand, “nuclear should be off the table,” when it comes to a potential U.S. first use of nuclear weapons. On the fourth hand, you never know: We might need to use nukes inside Europe, which would not be so sad because “Europe is a big place” and can easily afford to lose a few small nations to radioactive fallout.

Anyhoo. Let’s discuss NATO, which, admittedly, is not a very interesting subject. Trump “would support NATO,” but because he too feels that it is not interesting, he “would not care that much” whether or not Ukraine joins the alliance. “I don’t mind NATO per se,” he explains; it’s just “obsolete” and full of free-riders “ripping off the United State.” But que sera, sera! If getting rid of freeloaders “breaks up NATO, it breaks up NATO.” Still, perhaps the treaty organization can be “reconstituted” and “modernized.” He adds, “We need to either transition into terror, or we need something else, because we have to get countries together.” I don’t think Trump meant that NATO should transition into a terrorist organization — on the “fight fire with fire” principle — but who can say?

Moving right along: Under President Trump, the United States would show the terrorists who’s boss by bringing back waterboarding and “a hell of a lot worse.” He would also “bomb the hell out of ISIS,” and if that doesn’t do the trick, he would go after the wives and children of Islamic State fighters, because “with the terrorists, you have to take out their families.” Ordering the U.S. military to use torture or deliberately target civilians would, of course, be illegal, but the military would gladly obey any order coming from President Trump: “I’m a leader. I’ve always been a leader.… If I say do it, they’re going to do it.” On the fifth or sixth hand, maybe not: Trump swears that he’ll be “bound by laws, just like all Americans.”

Regardless, under President Trump, the U.S. military would be very strong, but it would never be used, unless we do use it. Right now, Trump confides, the U.S. military is “a disaster,” decimated and weak...

Keep reading.

Vivian Malauulu Beats Incumbent Irma Archuleta in Race for LBCC District Board Election

This is good news for my faculty union, which has been campaigning hard to elect a pro-faculty majority to the college's elected board of trustees. With Malauulu's election, the college will now have two strongly pro-faculty members of the board

At the Long Beach Press-Telegram, "Long Beach election: Doug Otto, Vivian Malauulu win LBCC races."

Baby Sees Mom's Face for the First Time with Eyeglasses (VIDEO)

I almost started to cry watching this video.

So precious.

Dispatches From the Left's War on Bathrooms

From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit.

Red State and Maggie's Farm linked there.

Jackie's Gorgeous Weather Forecast

Here's Jackie Johnson with today's forecast.

I'm late posting it, as I was catching up on sleep last night. I even missed the Angels game, for the first time this season, lol.

Via CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Donald Trump Blames the System (VIDEO)

At NYT, "Donald Trump, Losing Ground, Tries to Blame the System":

WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump and his allies are engaged in an aggressive effort to undermine the Republican nominating process by framing it as rigged and corrupt, hoping to compensate for organizational deficiencies that have left Mr. Trump with an increasingly precarious path to the nomination.

Their message: The election is being stolen from him.

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump berated the politicians he said were trying to stop his nomination and denounced the Republican Party, which he cast as complicit in the theft.

“Our Republican system is absolutely rigged. It’s a phony deal,” he said, accusing party leaders of maneuvering to cut his supporters out of the process. “They wanted to keep people out. This is a dirty trick.”

His charges built on comments in the last few days by associates, senior advisers and Mr. Trump himself, seeking to cast a shadow of illegitimacy over the local and state contests to select delegates to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July.

By blaming the process rather than his own inadequacies as a manager, Mr. Trump is trying to shift focus after Senator Ted Cruz of Texas outmaneuvered him in delegate contests in states like Colorado, North Dakota and Iowa, losses that could end up denying Mr. Trump the nomination.

Asked about the appearance of disorganization, Mr. Trump said in an interview, “You have to remember I’m leading.” He added, “I’m more than 200 delegates ahead, so over all, I’m doing very well.”

But in what sounded like a wink-wink aside, he said, “Don’t forget, I only complain about the ones where we have difficulty.”

The new approach is a tacit admission that Mr. Trump’s campaign, which has been so reliant on national news coverage and mass communication via Twitter, has not been able to compete in the often intimate and personal game that is delegate courtship.

His effort to sow doubt about the system plays into the suspicions and anxieties that many of his most ardent backers have about a political process they believe has intentionally disenfranchised them. And it allows Mr. Trump to divert attention from his recent losses in delegate races occurring all over the country.

Mr. Trump has a pattern of claiming fraud when an election does not go his way. And his critics say this kind of misdirection is his specialty...

More.

Out Today: Kim R. Holmes, The Closing of the Liberal Mind

I blogged Mr. Holmes' YouTube video last Thursday, "Kim R. Holmes: How Liberals Lost Their Way (VIDEO)."

His new book is out today. Actually, I'm pretty excited to read this one. I might shuffle my reading list around a little to boost this one to the top.

At Amazon, The Closing of the Liberal Mind: How Groupthink and Intolerance Define the Left.

Time Magazine Spills the Beans: Establishment Support for Ted Cruz is Solely as a 'Vehicle to Stop Trump on the Convention Floor in Cleveland...'

Well, it's quite interesting, to say the least.

Following-up from last night, "Donald Trump Surrogate Paul Manafort Claims Ted Cruz Campaign Using 'Gestapo Tactics' (VIDEO)."

Here's some juicy tidbits from this week's Time cover story, "Can America Learn to Love Ted Cruz?":

After his loss in Wisconsin, Trump’s only certain path to the nomination is to win 60% of the remaining pledged delegates, an unlikely feat. But Cruz would need to win an even less likely 92%. If neither reaches the 1,237 delegates needed on the first ballot in Cleveland, the process will be thrown open to the crowd, whose names are still largely unknown and motivations subject to dispute. If both Cruz and Trump struggle to get majority support after several ballots, there is even a slim chance that a third person, such as current House Speaker Paul Ryan or also-ran Governor John Kasich of Ohio, could wind up the nominee.

As a result, the unity that Cruz now peddles remains more of a wish than a thing. Many people who openly dislike Cruz have simply chosen him as their vehicle to stop Trump on the convention floor in Cleveland – for now...

In Washington, among the so-called cartel of power brokers and party bosses, Cruz has, for the moment, become the best foil to maintain some control over the party, an irony not lost on either his supporters or detractors. Republican insiders have started to compare Cruz to a parking lot, the safest place to keep your car idling for now. “Are you really for Cruz or are you trying to run up Cruz’s delegates so that Trump doesn’t win on the first ballot?” asks Richard Hohlt, a veteran GOP consultant. “That appears to be what’s going on.”

Cruz, in other words, still has his work cut out for him before he can unify his parking lot. There will be more lurches and jolts before anyone accepts the nomination in Cleveland. “There is an ancient Chinese curse,” Cruz told his supporters in Waukesha. “May you live in interesting times.”

"Cruz has, for the moment, become the best foil to maintain some control over the party" https://t.co/ivDmyeBHB4 pic.twitter.com/sniv2C3hRT

— TIME.com (@TIME) April 7, 2016

The prospect of four days of televised political chaos has led GOP chairman Reince Priebus to move in recent days to take back his party....

Meanwhile, there is little mystery about who has the best operation for wrangling, recruiting and securing delegates. From Tennessee to Colorado, Cruz’s delegate-hunting operation has dominated, with his aides confident that around 200 Trump delegates will swing to Cruz after the first ballot. In Virginia, where Cruz finished a distant third, the campaign is hustling to install supporters in the state’s 13 at-large delegate slots. In Louisiana, Cruz is set to pick up as many as 10 more delegates than Trump, despite losing the Bayou State primary by four points. In a show of organizational muscle, 18 of 25 delegates elected at the North Dakota state convention backed Cruz. In Georgia, where Cruz finished a distant third, his allies have dominated preference polls of the party activists showing up at precinct and county meetings. “We’re going to make sure we get dealt four aces,” says a member of Cruz’s delegate operation. “You don’t just want Cruz supporters. You want fighters. At the national convention, there will be more browbeating and arm twisting than you can imagine.”

Consider what has been happening in Arizona: Trump romped to victory in the state on March 22, crushing Cruz with 47% of the vote. The win netted Trump all 58 of the state’s delegates–but only for the first ballot. Cruz’s operatives in the state have been working for weeks to secure activists who are inclined to support the Texas Senator once they’re no longer bound to Trump. The result is an intimate lobbying campaign, carried out through phone calls and texts, emails and in-person contacts at party gatherings and Tea Party functions, gun shows and forums held by taxpayer groups.

“You’re not trying to move thousands of people,” says Constantin Querard, Cruz’s Arizona state director. “These meetings usually have 30 to 200 people. It’s feasible to contact everyone.” Cruz boosters estimate that anywhere from half to 90% of the Arizona delegates will switch to Cruz after the first ballot.

Cruz has made the shadow campaign a personal priority. While Trump planned his next megarally, Cruz left the campaign trail three days before the critical Wisconsin primary to speak to the North Dakota state convention in Fargo. Cruz also found time to campaign in Wyoming, with only 29 delegates. “It’s good old-fashioned grassroots politics,” says Quin Hillyer, a conservative columnist who is part of a group that has met to discuss how to stop Trump. “Cruz and his team are showing that they’re masters at it.”

At least so far. The result in Wisconsin, where Cruz trounced Trump 48% to 35%, by no means ends the suspense. The coming terrain in the Republican battle will be far friendlier to Trump than the landscape of the past two weeks, and Trump has signaled a retooling of his operation to get back on track. The real estate developer still polls above 50% in his home state of New York, which votes April 19, and has been endorsed by Governor Chris Christie in nearby New Jersey, which votes on June 7, where the popular-vote winner will take home all the delegates...

Dana Loesch : 'Wrist Slaps Do Nothing' (VIDEO)

More from the fabulous Mrs. Loesch!

And don't forget Dana's books, Hands Off My Gun: Defeating the Plot to Disarm America, and Flyover Nation: You Can't Run a Country You've Never Been To.

The Nation Asked Four Prominent Bernie Supporters If They’d Vote for Hillary in November

The four are Doug Henwood, Rania Khalek, Kathleen Geier, and Joshua Holland.

I'm not familiar with most of these folks except Ms. Khalek. She's a female version of Max Blumenthal, and is perhaps even more toxic.

Here, "We Asked 4 Prominent Bernie Supporters if They’d Vote for Hillary in November. Here’s What They Told Us."

And on Twitter:

At @thenation I explain why I can't in good conscience vote 4 Hillary Clinton if she makes it 2 the general election https://t.co/nXMKEjzRjR

— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) April 11, 2016

.@DougHenwood is right, what we do in the long term is more important than Nov. And I totally respect @Kathy__Gee's & @JoshuaHol's position.

— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) April 11, 2016

Hillary Clinton called into question the innocence of dead Palestinian civilians yesterday to attack Bernie Sanders https://t.co/Jd8S1yohjG

— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) April 11, 2016

.@RaniaKhalek eviscerates Hillary Clinton, who blamed Palestinians for their own deathshttps://t.co/duyHoCCuO2 pic.twitter.com/uXUskLhcgt

— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) April 12, 2016

Gary Sernovitz, The Green and the Black

I love this.

The guy's a leftist.

At Amazon, The Green and the Black: The Complete Story of the Shale Revolution, the Fight over Fracking, and the Future of Energy.

Gary Sernovitz leads a double life. A typical New York liberal, he is also an oilman - a fact his left-leaning friends let slide until the word "fracking" entered popular parlance. "How can you frack?" they suddenly demanded, aghast. But for Sernovitz, the real question is, "What happens if we don't?"

Fracking has become a four-letter word to environmentalists. But most people don't know what it means. In his fast-paced, funny, and lively book, Sernovitz explains the reality of fracking: what it is, how it can be made safer, and how the oil business works.

He also tells the bigger story. Fracking was just one part of a shale revolution that shocked our assumptions about fueling America's future. The revolution has transformed the world with consequences for the oil industry, investors, environmentalists, political leaders, and anyone who lives in areas shaped by the shales, uses fossil fuels, or cares about the climate - in short, everyone. Thanks to American engineers' oilfield innovations, the United States is leading the world in reducing carbon emissions, has sparked a potential manufacturing renaissance, and may soon eliminate its dependence on foreign energy. Once again the largest oil and gas producer in the world, America has altered its balance of power with Russia and the Middle East.

Yet the shale revolution has also caused local disruptions and pollution. It has prolonged the world's use of fossil fuels. Is there any way to reconcile the costs with the benefits of fracking?

More.

Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton Hold Strong Leads in New York Ahead of Primary, Poll Finds

Trump holds a 36-point lead over Ted Cruz in New York, according to the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist poll.

At WSJ:

Trump, Clinton hold strong leads in New York ahead of state’s primary, WSJ/NBC/Marist poll finds. https://t.co/UCr1m1SPBo

— Capital Journal (@WSJPolitics) April 12, 2016

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton hold double-digit leads in New York and are poised to regain their footing in their home state’s primaries next Tuesday, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist poll finds.

On the Republican side, Mr. Trump holds a 33-point lead over his closest rival, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, 54% to 21%, while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz trails both, as the top pick of 18% of likely Republican primary voters.

Mrs. Clinton maintains a 14-point lead in the Democratic contest, outpacing Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders 55% to 41% among likely Democratic primary voters. The former secretary of state’s lead is built on strength among women, African-Americans and Democrats age 45 and older.

The survey results will be welcome news to the two front-runners, who have both lost ground in recent weeks. Mr. Trump is looking to bounce back from a decisive loss in last week’s Wisconsin primary, while Mrs. Clinton has lost eight of the last nine Democratic contests.

“Right now, the front-runners look like they will erase recent setbacks and add significantly to their delegate margins,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted the survey. “New York is not likely to enhance the hopes of those trying to close the gap in the delegate hunt.”

Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump remain the clear leaders in their parties nominating contests. Mrs. Clinton has a particularly strong advantage because of her support from her party’s so-called superdelegates, the elected officials and other party leaders who have a say in determining the presidential nominee.

Mr. Trump is in a tougher spot because he is in a race to collect the 1,237 delegates required to clinch the nomination before the party gathers in Cleveland to determine the nominee. He has so far won 743. A big win in New York would help him reset his campaign narrative, after he surrendered delegates to the Cruz camp at a string of recent state party conventions.

On Monday, Mr. Trump, prompted by the result of the Colorado contest in which Mr. Cruz won all 34 delegates, complained that the GOP delegate-selection process, which differs from one state to the next, was established by party bigwigs to prevent political outsiders like him from winning the nomination. “The system is rigged, it’s crooked,” he said in an interview on Fox News.

At the same time, he acknowledged that two of his children won’t be able to vote in the New York primary because they missed the registration deadline. “They feel very, very guilty,” he said.

The Republican contest in New York, like the Democratic race, is limited to voters who have registered with the party.

Mr. Trump leads his two remaining rivals by at least a two-to-one margin among just about every demographic group in the New York electorate, among them women, college graduates and those primary voters who practice a religion—three groups with which he often struggles.

New York will award 95 Republican delegates next Tuesday. A candidate can win all of the delegates from any given congressional district if he eclipses the 50% mark...

And get this:

In the latest poll, New York Republicans were also asked about the biggest question hanging over the GOP contest: What should happen if no candidate enters the convention this summer with a majority of delegates, the threshold for clinching the nomination.

A large majority—64%—thinks Mr. Trump should win the nomination if he has the most delegates, even if he falls short of a majority, the poll found.

If Mr. Trump doesn’t win the nomination, most primary voters also said they would oppose any effort to crown someone who didn’t run for president this year, throwing cold water on speculation that party leaders should nominate House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) or some other Republican who sidestepped the primary. Some 59% said the nominee should be someone who ran in the primaries, while 32% said it would be acceptable to have a nominee who didn’t...

More at that top link.

The party bosses are clueless if they think a "dark horse" nominee at a "brokered" convention is gonna fly.

RELATED: At NY1 News, "NY1/Baruch College Poll: Trump Leads Rivals by 43 Percentage Points."

Sounds a little too big of a margin, but hey, if Trump can clear 50 percent, it'll be winner-take-all for the delegates.

Jackie Johnson's Partly Clearing Forecast

It's pretty normal weather for this time of year, and we've got something of an onshore flow coming tomorrow. Apparently, rainy storm conditions will be pushed north.

It should be nice.

Via CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Donald Trump Surrogate Paul Manafort Claims Ted Cruz Campaign Using 'Gestapo Tactics' (VIDEO)

Manafort's not just any old surrogate. He's an old GOP hand who was "the delegate-hunt coordinator" for Gerald Ford's 1976 convention floor fight in Kansas City, Missouri.

So, Manafort, along with Donald Trump himself, was pushing aggressively today to delegitimize the Colorado Republican state party convention, where Ted Cruz swept all of the state's 34 delegates to the national party convention in Cleveland. Boy, everything's a mess, and it's getting nasty out there.

At Fox News, via Memeorandum, "Trump slams GOP nominating process as top aide accuses Cruz of 'gestapo tactics' to win delegates."

And watch, from Greta's "On the Record" this afternoon:

Deterioration in U.S. Race Relations

You don't say?

At Gallup, "U.S. Worries About Race Relations Reach a New High" (via Memeorandum):

My favorite part about the Obama era is all the racial healing.

— jon gabriel (@exjon) November 24, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- More than a third (35%) of Americans now say they are worried "a great deal" about race relations in the U.S. -- which is higher than at any time since Gallup first asked the question in 2001. The percentage who are worried a great deal rose seven percentage points in the past year and has more than doubled in the past two years.

Concern about race relations in the U.S. has risen during an 18-month period marked by a series of deaths of unarmed blacks at the hands of police officers. These deaths sparked major, sometimes violent, protests and fueled the nationwide rise of the "Black Lives Matter" movement.

Democrats, Liberals More Worried Than Republicans, Conservatives

Concern about race relations over the past two years has increased among Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, and blacks and whites. But the gap between the groups who were already most worried before 2015 -- Democrats, liberals and blacks -- and those less worried has not shrunk, and in some cases has widened. Of particular note is the 53% to 27% "worried" gap between blacks and whites, up from the 31% to 14% gap between blacks and whites in the 2012-2014 combined polls...

More.

Racial healing, heh.

Jered Weaver Comes Through for the Angels

Weaver's been fighting the hate on social media and has been reassuring critics his stuff's back up to 100 percent.

So, he sure proved himself healthy and capable in yesterday's 3-1 victory over Texas.

It was nice.

At the O.C Register, "Weaver and his 84 mph fastball help Angels split series with Rangers":

Weaver threw 84 pitches and used his fastball 19 times. Average velocity was 82 mph. Hit 84 mph four times.

— Joey Kaufman (@joeyrkaufman) April 10, 2016

Jered Weaver on his start: "It makes me look forward to the future in baseball as opposed to maybe it’s going to be about shutting it down."

— Joey Kaufman (@joeyrkaufman) April 10, 2016

ANAHEIM – Jered Weaver heard the same question from the same chorus for most of spring training.

Can a big-league starting pitcher still get outs, even with a fastball that fails to move much past 80 mph?

At least on Sunday afternoon at Angel Stadium, the answered appeared to be yes.

Weaver delivered a gutsy performance in his season debut, giving up six hits and one run over six innings, in the Angels’ 3-1 victory over the Texas Rangers to split a four-game series.

“I can pitch like that for the rest of the season,” Weaver said, “but I only know it’s going to get better.”

The Angels improved to 2-4 and avoided what would have equaled their worst start through six games in franchise history...

Thank goodness, sheesh.

Keep reading.

West Hollywood Councilman John Duran Was Seen at Public Council Meetings 'trolling for men on Grindr...'

Well, there's those Democrat Party values for you.

When I was blogging homosexual marriage all the time back in the day, one of the biggest findings (that went against the left's "marriage equality" mantra), is that homosexual men are plagued with virtually unquenchable rampant sexual urges. They just can't get enough, and they're in no way likely to want to "settle down" monogamously with a "spouse." It's utter hypocrisy to claim that same-sex marriages are equal to, well, regular marriage (which somehow started to be called "opposite sex" marriage, smh). Andrew Sullivan was the personification of the hypocrisy, when his "milky loads" scandal broke wide open, lol.

More of this utter depravity, at LAT, "Sex scandal at West Hollywood City Hall spark calls for less Grindr, more respect":

West Hollywood is not shy about sex.

When city officials held a public forum about anal cancer, they called it "Booty Call to Action." The City Hall lobby offers free condoms. A water conservation campaign encouraged residents to "have a morning quickie" by taking short showers.

But in February, West Hollywood agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit against the city and Councilman John Duran. The suit was brought on behalf of Ian Owens, whom Duran hired as his deputy after meeting him on Grindr, the smartphone dating app for gay and bisexual men, and then having sex with him.

Now, some residents and politicians in this mecca of gay culture and the home of the Sunset Strip counterculture are wondering if City Hall's famously cheeky attitude about sex needs to be checked a little.

Councilman John D'Amico, who like Duran is gay, said he often looked over during public meetings and saw Duran "trolling for men on Grindr."

"This is not gay-life excuse time, or 'This is how we do it because we're gay,'" D'Amico said at a council meeting. "This is we-live-in-the-21st-century time, and treating people with respect and care and following not just the letter of the law but the spirit of the law is ... part of who we are as a city."

As part of the settlement, Duran and West Hollywood admitted no wrongdoing, but a private investigator's report commissioned by the city dinged Duran for openly talking about his sex life and making "inappropriate" comments that "were sexual in nature" in the workplace.

Duran publicly apologized last month for hiring "a friend," but he has repeatedly denied sexual harassment. He conceded in an interview that had the lawsuit against him and the city gone to trial, West Hollywood's "unique culture" might not have translated well with many members of a jury outside of the city.

"I'm not a stuffed-shirt politician," Duran said. "Yes, my humor is bawdy and funny and outrageous, but, you know what, so is everything else in this town. I could not get elected in Downey."

Indeed, West Hollywood council members occasionally engage in the kind of risque talk that in more strait-laced towns could possibly cost politicians voters or get them recalled. Here, residents sometimes playfully join in the banter during council meetings, whether it's a play-by-play about a visit to the gynecologist or riffs on porn collections.

But in an email, Owens said Duran crossed the line...

More.

University of Toronto Gender-Neutral Bathrooms Reduced After Voyeurism Reports

Heh. Leftists don't like it when you question transgender privilege, lol.

But the case for trans restrooms just keeps getting weaker.

At PuffHo:

The University of Toronto (U of T) is temporarily changing its policy on gender-neutral bathrooms after two reports of voyeurism in a student residence.

Two women showering in Whitney Hall, a residence at U of T's University College, reported they saw a cellphone reach over the shower-stall dividers in an attempt to record them, in two different incidents, police Const. Victor Kwong told The Toronto Star.

Melinda Scott, dean of students at University College, told campus newspaper The Varsity that some washrooms in the college's residences will now be separated by gender for "those who identify as men and those who identify as women."

"At the same time, there remains at least one gender-neutral washroom per floor and per house,” Scott said.

“The purpose of this temporary measure is to provide a safe space for the women who have been directly impacted by these events and other students who may feel more comfortable in a single-gender washroom in the wake of these incidents."

A first-year Whitney Hall resident told the Varsity she was disappointed by the voyeurism reports.

“I think it sucks that there are going to be people that don’t feel safe in Whitney now, and that we can’t have an inclusive environment," Melissa Birch said...

More.

Cowardice in the Face of Leftist Jew-Hate

From Daniel Greenfield, at FrontPage Magazine, "How Bernie Sanders and other leftists help whitewash anti-Semitism on the Left":

At a Bernie Sanders event in New York City, a black “community activist” began ranting about “Zionist Jews” running the Federal Reserve and Wall Street. At previous events, Sanders had been quick to condemn what he claimed was bigoted and Islamophobic rhetoric by Republicans. But when confronted with the real thing by a left-wing activist at one of his own events, he couldn’t do it.

There was no condemnation of anti-Semitism. Instead after an initial claim that he was proud to be Jewish, he switched to a rambling speech criticizing Israel and distancing himself from Zionism.

Bernie Sanders had suggested at the same event that President Clinton was racist for defending his crime fighting policies to Black Lives Matter protesters, but would not condemn anti-Semitism. Instead of defying left-wing hatred for Jews, he tried to suggest that he wasn’t one of the “bad Zionists”. He was one of the “good Jews” who had a balanced position on Israel and “Palestine”.

It was a sad and shameful display. And this was not the first time that Bernie saw bigotry and blinked...

Folks should highlight this to the moon.

William Jacobson had a great report back in February, for example, "Anti-Israel activists hating on Bernie Sanders."

And keep reading Greenfield here.

Feminism and Multiculturalism in Western Europe

From Heather Mac Donald, at City Journal, "When Pieties Collide":

Feminists incessantly harp about a phantom “rape culture” in the United States and other Western countries. On New Year’s Eve 2016, Northern European cities experienced an outbreak of the real thing—and the opponents of patriarchy went silent. It turns out that a more powerful force exists on the left than feminist victimology: multiculturalism.

As revelers gathered in the central square of Cologne, Germany, for the traditional New Year’s Silvesternacht celebrations, thousands of North African and Middle Eastern males started throwing firecrackers into the crowd and attacking passersby. They pickpocketed and robbed males and females, but they directed most of their violence against women: grabbing their breasts and buttocks, inserting their fingers into the women’s vaginas, and, in a few instances, raping them, while shouting sexual insults. A total of 653 victims filed reports with the police.

Similar attacks were reported in Munich, Berlin, Nuremberg, Bremen, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, and Bielefeld, among other cities across 12 German states, though not on the same scale. Outbreaks of sexual violence also occurred in France, Greece, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, and Turkey. The assaults appeared to have been planned and coordinated through social media, Germany’s justice minister Heiko Maas later said. In Cologne, some of the suspects had notes in their pockets with scribbled German translations for female body parts. This mass sexual harassment of females recalled similar incidents during the occupation of Cairo’s Tahrir Square from 2012 to 2014.

German police and political leaders covered up the violence for days. A Cologne police-force press release originally reported that the Silvesternacht celebrations had been peaceful, though officers had witnessed the attacks. Police employees are “afraid of talking about these things in the context of the immigration debate today,” a Stockholm police spokesman told the Guardian, in reference to Sweden’s experience with Muslim sexual attacks on New Year’s Eve and at a music festival in 2014.

Eventually, however, news of the assaults leaked out, and the most surprising cover-up of all began. Leading feminists across the continent and in Great Britain either ignored the incidents entirely or distorted their significance beyond recognition. Silence was justified on the grounds that acknowledging the attacks would encourage opposition to the mass Muslim immigration that had engulfed Europe over the previous year. (German chancellor Angela Merkel accelerated that migration by declaring in August 2015 that her country would accept all Syrian asylum-seekers who made it in to her country.) Feminists were “finding it difficult to speak up about the event because of concerns it might be used to encourage aggression against refugees,” explained British journalist Jessica Abrahams. When feminists were cornered into addressing the violence, they tied themselves into knots trying to change the subject back to their favorite topic: Western white-male patriarchy. “The problem of sexualized violence has already existed here for some time and can’t simply be deported,” said German feminist Anne Wizorek to Der Spiegel. “It cannot be allowed to become the standard in gender debates that only male migrants are considered to be those responsible [for sexual violence].” In other words, the New Year’s assaults were continuous with the routine terror inflicted by German men on German women.

Actually, there was no precedent in Germany or the rest of Europe for mass peacetime sexual assaults, much less ones where the police merely look on. “I have never experienced such a thing in any German city,” a victim told the New York Times. But people who did name the attacks for what they were—a manifestation of Muslim misogyny and an alarm bell regarding mass immigration—were vilified as racists. An old-school German feminist, Alice Schwarzer, denounced the New Year’s assaults as a “gang bang” designed to terrorize women; she found herself condemned by other feminists and “antiracists.” Victims refused to give their names to reporters for fear of being pilloried on social media for xenophobia. Specious moral equivalencies poured forth: not only were the attacks a mere subset of everyday Western antifemale violence, but also ordinary citizens connecting those attacks to the out-of-control migrant situation were no different from the attackers themselves. Ralf Jäger, minister of the interior for the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, announced: “What happens on right-wing platforms and in chat rooms is at least as awful as the acts of those assaulting the women.”

The most dazzling eruption of moral blindness came from a British feminist currently on a fellowship at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society...

She's the best. (Mac Donald that is, heh.)

RTWT.

Esteban Nuñez Released from Prison After Manslaughter Sentence Was Drastically Reduced by Arnold Schwarzenegger

This story really bothers me.

Esteban Nuñez is the son of former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, a close political ally of former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The background is here, at LAT from last year, "Appeals court upholds Schwarzenegger's clemency for Nuñez son."

And here's the latest, "Esteban Nunez is released from prison after his sentence was drastically reduced by Schwarzenegger."

And see especially, "As Esteban Nuñez nears release from prison, victim's family remains outraged":

The slain student’s mother did the math a long time ago, so the news she recently received — that convicted killer Esteban Nuñez would soon go free after less than six years in prison — came as no real surprise.

That makes it no easier, Kathy Santos said, to know that a high-level political favor is sending him home at age 27, as her son lies in a grave.

“It makes you sick that something like this can happen, and you have no power,” said Santos, whose 22-year-old son, Luis, a San Diego Mesa College student, was killed by a knife to the heart.

Prosecutors said Nuñez and a co-defendant, both armed with knives, acted in concert in the attack that killed the unarmed Santos at San Diego State University in October 2008. Charged with murder, the defendants had faced the possibility of life in prison if they went to trial and lost. Instead, they pleaded guilty to lesser charges of voluntary manslaughter and assault. A judge gave them 16 years in prison.

Nuñez had a powerful father, former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, and the father had a powerful ally, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who — on his last day in office in 2011 — announced he was reducing the sentence to seven years. With good behavior, it would turn out to be less than six.

“Of course you help a friend,” Schwarzenegger later said, a remark that deepened widespread outrage over the commutation, which was reflected in editorials and denunciations by Republicans and Democrats alike...

More.

Deal of the Day: 45% Off AR Blue Clean Pressure Washer

At Amazon, AR Blue Clean AR383 1,900 PSI 1.5 GPM 14 Amp Electric Pressure Washer with Hose Reel.

Also, Save 40% on Far Cry Primal.

More, Moen 7594ESRS Arbor With Motionsense One-Handle High Arc Pulldown Kitchen Faucet Featuring Reflex, Spot Resist Stainless.

Plus, Stephen Moore and Kathleen Hartnett White, out on May 23rd, Fueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy.

And from Neela Banerjee, John H. Cushman Jr., David Hasemyer, and Lisa Song, Exxon: The Road Not Taken.

BONUS: From Mark Steyn, "A Disgrace to the Profession": The World's Scientists - in their own words - on Michael E Mann, his Hockey Stick and their Damage to Science - Volume One.

Ernest May, Strange Victory

I'm still plugging along with Nicholas Stargardt, The German War.

Actually I was able to plow through the first couple hundred pages, but this week's been my vacation week, and my repetitive stress injury's getting better. I've been blogging like my old self.

The Stargardt book had a brief section on Nazi Germany's Blitzkrieg invasion of France. Not very long, but the discussion, particularly on early German expectations for a much more difficult campaign, reminded me of Professor Earnest May's classic volume, Strange Victory: Hitler's Conquest of France.

A dramatic narrative-and reinterpretation-of Germany's six-week campaign that swept the Wehrmacht to Paris in spring 1940.

Before the Nazis killed him for his work in the French Resistance, the great historian Marc Bloch wrote a famous short book, Strange Defeat, about the treatment of his nation at the hands of an enemy the French had believed they could easily dispose of. In Strange Victory, the distinguished American historian Ernest R. May asks the opposite question: How was it that Hitler and his generals managed this swift conquest, considering that France and its allies were superior in every measurable dimension and considering the Germans' own skepticism about their chances?

Strange Victory is a riveting narrative of those six crucial weeks in the spring of 1940, weaving together the decisions made by the high commands with the welter of confused responses from exhausted and ill-informed, or ill-advised, officers in the field...

More.

And I'll have more blogging tonight. I think I'll rest my blogging forearms and read for a while.

Deal of the Day: Samsung 65-Inch Smart LED TV [BUMPED]

An amazing deal, at Amazon, Samsung UN65J6300 65-Inch 1080p Smart LED TV (2015 Model).

Plus, Bushnell Tour V3 Jolt Standard Edition Golf Laser Rangefinder.

More, Up to 55% off Wood Outdoor Patio Sets.

Also, out Tuesday, from Kim R. Holmes, The Closing of the Liberal Mind: How Groupthink and Intolerance Define the Left.

And from James Piereson, Shattered Consensus: The Rise and Decline of America's Postwar Political Order.

Still more, James C. Bennett and Michael J. Lotus, America 3.0: Rebooting American Prosperity in the 21st Century — Why America's Greatest Days Are Yet to Come.

BONUS: Out April 19th, from Ryszard Legutko, The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies.

Eliza Cummings for Marie Claire Italy

She's nice.

At Egotastic!, "Eliza Cummings Perfection in Marie Claire Italy."

She's on Instagram.

Two More Colleges Hit by Pro-Trump Chalk Messages (VIDEO)

At USA Today, "'Chalking' officially a problem as pro-Trump messages set off new storms":

If three is officially a trend, chalking is now a trendy — and highly controversial — way for Donald Trump fans to show their love.

This week, two schools — the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga — jumped into the chalking fray, joining the headlines made in March at Emory University with pro-Trump messages scrawled on campus grounds.

Following a now-familiar timeline, the chalked messages appeared and the storms followed. At UTC, it hit the student government.

Hailey Puckett, a member of a UTC student government coalition called Empower UTC who chalked “Trump 2016” on April 5, was asked to resign by fellow coalition members.

Empower’s stance did not go over well with some students, who responded along the lines of this tweet. [Here.]

The next day, EMPOWER UTC members Phillip Stubblefield and Mikayla Long posted apologies. Stubblefield noted that his words had been poorly chosen. “I fully support every individual’s First Amendment rights and the senator-elect has every right to support any candidate of her choosing,” he wrote.

Long apologized and noted that “Hailey was asked by EMPOWER to resign from SGA because she disregarded her responsibility as an elected senator to represent the students that elected her. Her statement, ‘Super proud of our art work, but I have a feeling half of UTCs campus is going to hate it’ does not show that she is currently prepared to represent students effectively. That is the sole reason we asked her to resign.”

More.

That's Hailey Puckett at the clip, appearing on the "Kelly File."

Angels, in Last Place in American League West, Are Already 1 1/2 Games Back

During the post-game show last night, host Alex Curry was talking to analyst Jose Mota, and the latter blew off Manager Mike Scoscia's response to the team's season, that "it's still early." Mota argued that frankly every game matters, even in the first weeks of the season, because each loss puts you further behind your rivals. And when September comes all that matters is the win-loss record.

I have to agree. The Angels are already in the basement of the American League West. They can get out easily, but they need to make the move soon.

Here's Jeff Fletcher, at the O.C. Register, "Escobar's miscue adds to Angels' woes":

An Angels Rite of Spring: the "No one is panicking" speech. https://t.co/8JCCajctyz

— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) April 10, 2016

ANAHEIM – We now bring you what has become a regular feature of an Angels season. …

After the Angels 4-1 loss to the Texas Rangers on Saturday night, their fourth loss in their first five games, Garrett Richards gave an answer that could have applied to most of the Angels recent Aprils.

“We’re a good club,” Richards said. “I truly believe that. I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. I don’t think anybody is panicking in here.”

That’s because, as Richards said, “It’s early in the season. We have a ton of games left to play… We’ve started out slow the last few years, but we’re right in it in the end.”

Sure enough, the Angels have started slowly regularly in recent years, and this seems to fit the mold perfectly. The problem is this team didn’t have quite the high expectations of some of those other clubs that started slowly.

The issue with this team is an offense that may be a little shallow, which has definitely been the case as they’ve scored nine runs in the first five games.

Another issue on Saturday night was the defense, which didn’t figure to be a problem in general but has been a concern – of the analysts, if not the Angels – with third baseman Yunel Escobar.

Richards was sailing along with the Angels best start of the season’s first week, trailing 2-1 when he got Elvis Andrus to hit a routine bouncer to Escobar, who fielded it charging toward the middle of the infield. He was just behind the mound when he nonchalantly flipped the ball to first, except his toss sailed over the head of C.J. Cron. As the ball skipped to the railing, Andrus took second.

Escobar came to the Angels with a reputation as a poor defensive player. The Angels have insisted that Escobar’s tools were better than the defensive metrics gave him credit for.

The Angels have worked with Escobar to alter his release point to make his throws more accurate, but this was not one of those cases. This wasn’t so much a throw as a flip.

“He just stayed open and tried to flip it over there and just threw it a little bit high,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “But when he sets his feet, he’s throwing the ball very well.”

More.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



And at Theo's, "Cartoon Roundup..."

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Blind Ambition."

Unbearable Grief in Iraqi Village of Asriya

Now this does seem pretty senseless, but then again, it's not.

Islam is just death. Death all around, wanton, and without remorse.

From Liz Sly, at WaPo, "‘It was a children’s soccer game. Of course he knew he was going to kill children...’":

The suicide bomber who blew up a youth soccer match late last month left barely a dent in the hard, dry earth, and only a faint scorch on a concrete wall nearby.

But he gouged a chasm of grief in the heart of the small community that lost more than two dozen of its sons in a single moment, at 6:15 on the evening of March 25.

A total of 43 people died in the bombing at the game, according to figures provided by the local government. Of those, 29 were boys younger than 17 who had either been participating in the match or watching their friends play.

The bomber also was a teenager, no more than 15 or 16 years old, judging by the picture of him released by the Islamic State, which asserted responsibility for the bombing, and the accounts of those who saw him at the match. The militants’ statement said the target was a gathering of members of the Shiite paramilitary group known as Hashd al-Shaabi, and the local government said two members of a militia were among the adults who died.

Yet that hardly explains the horror of an attack that inevitably would kill children.

The bomber “was a child, and he came to kill children,” said Mohammed al-Juhaishi, one of the sheiks from the area, who lost five relatives in the blast. “It was a children’s soccer game. Of course he knew he was going to kill children.”

For the boys of the impoverished, mixed Sunni-Shiite village of Asriya, 40 miles south of Baghdad in the area the U.S. military called the Triangle of Death, soccer is not a pastime. It is a passion and a purpose, offering the dream of escape from the grim monotony of life in one of Iraq’s more neglected communities.

One such boy was Mohaned Khazaal, age 10, who lived for the sake of Real Madrid, his favorite team, and his idol, the team’s star forward, Cristiano Ronaldo, said his brother, Ahmed, who is 12. Mohaned hoped one day to play for Iraq, and perhaps even
Real Madrid, said Ahmed, who dreamed of playing for Barcelona and often got into fights with his brother over which of the rival teams was better.

They also both played for a local team, which did not qualify for the final of the youth league tournament. But they attended the match nonetheless, along with an older brother, Farouq, 20, and almost all of the other boys living in the soccer-crazed community.

The final took place between a team called Ahli and a team called Salam, which means peace. The venue was a dusty field in the middle of the village, unmarked except for the goal post at either end. Local officials watched from plastic chairs on a small podium erected at one edge of the field. The spectators, most of them boys, stood around the perimeter of the field.

Hardly anyone seemed to notice that one of the boys watching the game was wearing a thick jacket on a warm spring evening while all the other boys were dressed in T-shirts. Anmar al-Janabi, 12, who was standing near the oddly dressed boy, said he did notice, although he did not think to say anything to the adults at the match.

“He was a little tall with long hair, and he looked different. He was wearing a thick jacket, and it was hot,” Anmar recalled. “He spoke to us. He said, ‘It’s a good game, isn’t it?’ ”

When the match ended, the boy in the jacket joined the scramble of boys converging at the podium to watch the awarding of the trophy and the medals, said Anmar, who attended the match with his 13-year-old brother, Bilal, and a group of friends.

“Then he blew himself up, and I felt a fire hit my face,” Anmar said. “And then I ran away.”

More at that top link.

This is one of the most deeply disturbing stories I have ever reported. I knew it was bad but I had no idea how bad. https://t.co/Jgg59jq9Yy

— Liz Sly (@LizSly) April 8, 2016

Just stepping onto the soccer field & seeing this memorial to the boys who died was overwhelming. pic.twitter.com/2Vg7f43UDv

— Liz Sly (@LizSly) April 8, 2016

This was the trophy that was to be given to the winning team when the bomb went off. The team was called Peace pic.twitter.com/rP5u1tKqAt

— Liz Sly (@LizSly) April 8, 2016

Karrar Idani,13, who died in the soccer bomb. His Dad arrived too late to give him the goalie gloves above the photo pic.twitter.com/mCoZwlAHfx

— Liz Sly (@LizSly) April 8, 2016

And this is Mohaned Khazaal, 10, the youngest victim of the soccer bomb. He dreamed of playing for @realmadrid pic.twitter.com/Hu5BipE4Py

— Liz Sly (@LizSly) April 8, 2016

This is Ahmed,12. His brother Mohaned died beside him. He's nicknamed @Neymarjr because he looks like his Barca hero pic.twitter.com/U3RlyetT9g

— Liz Sly (@LizSly) April 8, 2016

This photo of Walid,16, is on the wall of his parents' home. He failed exams because he was always playing soccer pic.twitter.com/sKiqLnEBvz

— Liz Sly (@LizSly) April 8, 2016

This is Abdullah Najah Nouri. I don't know his age. We didn't have time to meet all 29 families of the dead boys pic.twitter.com/y3tQCgQg0Z

— Liz Sly (@LizSly) April 8, 2016

This is Ahmed Khudair al-Shujairi, another of the 29 boys who died in the soccer game suicide bomb in Asriya pic.twitter.com/T9GYWAV9P8

— Liz Sly (@LizSly) April 8, 2016

Crushing story by @LizSly on the soccer game in Iraq where 43 people died in a suicide bombing, including 29 teens https://t.co/NlXdlkJl3S

— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) April 8, 2016

Las Vegas Democrat Joe Cervantes, Two-Time Obama Voter, Backs Donald Trump in 2016

Heh.

I'm getting a kick out of this.

At LAT, "'We need an outsider like Trump,' says this two-time Obama voter":

On the vacant, sun-blasted streets southwest of the Strip, Joe Cervantes sees an America on the decline.

Sporting a fedora and a Jimi Hendrix T-shirt as he walks his chow chow, the 67-year-old retired car salesman grumbles when he passes a neighbor’s house with weeds in the rocks. Three cars with no license plates are parked outside.

Asians bought the place in foreclosure and didn’t care who they rented to, he says. Next door to him, he adds, low-income black renters tore up the place so badly the tile floors needed to be replaced. At a house around the corner, he says he’s noticed a Middle Eastern man always outside talking on his cellphone in a foreign language: Cervantes wonders whether he should call the police.

For Cervantes, life in these sand-blown suburbs has come to look like much that has gone wrong with the rest of the country. The homes are cheap and falling apart, he says, because “illegals” did the work and contractors were able to bribe the building inspectors. Foreclosures swept through the neighborhood and he almost lost his own home in the Great Recession because politicians stopped protecting the interests of regular Americans. He blames the same politicians for letting his factory job back in Wisconsin go to Mexico in 1982.

The way Cervantes sees it, the government is a high-stakes card game at which he and most Americans never get a seat. He voted for President Obama but has twice been disappointed. This election, the name he is betting on is emblazoned in gold on the Vegas skyline: Trump.

“The middle class is done in this country. I think we need an outsider like [Donald] Trump to come in and upset the establishment and make them help the middle class,” Cervantes says.

In some ways, Cervantes is like many Americans, of different stripes and widely varying locales, who have found themselves unexpectedly drawn to the real estate tycoon. The retiree lost his factory job to the pitfalls of free trade; he gets angry about illegal immigration; he resents having worked his whole life when others got a free ride.

Conversely, though, Trump's talk about closing the border and keeping out Muslim immigrants doesn't ring true with Cervantes, who is Latino and counts blacks and Arabs among his close friends. He looks forward to one friend’s annual Ramadan feast. And he is disturbed by Trump’s belligerent talk about pummeling protesters. Cervantes won’t swat a spider he finds in his house — he takes them outside — much less a person.

Nevada has always been a state of people who resist easy categorization — people who moved here, in some cases, to escape the categories they were born with elsewhere. As a lot, Nevada Republicans are less religious, less educated and less bound by tradition. They don’t care deeply about issues like abortion or gay marriage. Many own small businesses, often in construction or catering to the gaming industry. They have strong libertarian and anti-establishment streaks, with little tolerance for Washington politics.

Many other Western states have tended to support U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a strong social conservative from Texas. But Republicans here are planting a solid flag that says Trump country...

Heh.

Notice how Cervantes isn't too pleased with Trump's comments on Latinos and Muslism, but is still going to vote for him nevertheless.

Give you an idea just how bad things are in this country, and about the paucity of attractive alternatives in either party. Says a lot.

Keep reading.

No, California's Drought Not Over (VIDEO)

Well, leftists say the drought's not over.

Of course, dams and spillways are so full the state's mandated releasing water. Folsom Lake's water level is 10 feet higher than last month, with more high levels expected with the snow melt.

Still, it's been four years of drought, so apparently we're not out of the woods. CBS Evening News has the video report below.

And at LAT, "Sierra snowpack shows improvement, but not enough to declare California's drought over":

In a symbolic moment in California's slow but steady drought recovery, a state surveyor on Wednesday found several feet of snow in the same Sierra Nevada meadow that was bare and brown just a year ago.

The depth of the snowpack was declared to be just below average, a huge improvement from last year, but still far from enough to declare the drought over.

Around 11 a.m., Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, thrust a long silver tube into Phillips Station’s renewed, robust snowpack and, minutes later, told gathered reporters that there was more than 58 inches of snow on the ground.

That snow held 26 inches of water content, he said, just short of average for the date.

“A big improvement compared to last year,” Gehrke said, “but not what we had hoped for.”

The Phillips Station measurement — which officials said was 97% of average — provides data for just one location and therefore is considered more symbolic than definitive. The results from the station about 90 miles east of Sacramento are not necessarily representative of statewide conditions, officials say.

Water officials prefer to use the electronic readings taken remotely at about 100 stations across the Sierra Nevada for a more accurate assessment. The latest readings, taken Wednesday around 8:30 a.m. showed that the water content held by the state’s snowpack was about 24 inches, or 87% of normal...

Still more.

Plus, more video from KCRA News 3 Sacramento, "Disappointing results from Wednesday’s Sierra snow survey."

Boston Globe Publishes Fake Front Page to Attack Donald Trump

The so-called fake front page is supposedly "satirical," and runs as the first page of the Globe's Sunday editorial section.

Hadas Gold reports, at Politico, "Boston Globe to publish fake front page on Trump presidency" (via Memeorandum). And see PuffHo, "Boston Globe Hammers Trump With Fake Front Page."

There's a pdf of the entire page here, and the Globe's got an editorial smearing Trump, via Memeorandum, "The GOP Must Stop Trump."

It's a rank smear. A classic leftist, politically-correct globalist establishment smear. The Globe selectively highlights Trump's statements, and caricatures the nature of his "movement" as "un-American" (when in fact huge majorities support Trump's proposal on mass deportation, for example, to say nothing of his call to halt Muslim immigration to the U.S.).

The fringe ideologues with "un-American" views aren't folks who favor Donald Trump. It's the collectivist, politically-correct globalists, and the more they demonize The Donald, the more they work to bring about the very things they purportedly reject.

Erin Heatherton Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Sport Illustrated Swimsuit Video 2016

Following-up from yesterday, "Erin Heatherton Quit Victoria's Secret Fashion Show After Being Told to Lose Weight."

She's a little heavier than when she first walked the runway for the VS Fashion Show in 2008 --- and she looks a lot better, much healthier.

Like I said earlier, she's a freakin' dream goddess of a babe.

Via Sports Illustrated:

Amber Lee's Rainy Weekend Forecast

Not too bad, but it's been consistently wet this weekend. And there's flood warnings for burn areas on Sunday.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles: