Bullet Train Work Blows Past Cost Estimates

This is the biggest scam ever.

It's astounding that the Democrats can pull off these boondoggles, but the "sheeple" continue to vote them back in. Maybe a reckoning's coming? We're seeing some trouble brewing in cities around the state over the sanctuary law. Perhaps change will ripple into other policy areas as well.

At LAT, "High-speed rail project vastly underestimated cost of relocating utility lines beneath Fresno":

High-speed rail project vastly underestimated cost of relocating utility lines beneath Fresno https://t.co/PM2oJxoNVb pic.twitter.com/3GC2qkRVbk

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) April 18, 2018

Another day, another embarrassing headline for the Capitol Democrats' High Speed Fail. It's time to defund #CAHSR and invest in projects that actually provide benefits to ordinary Californians. #CADeservesBetter https://t.co/1SXaNnOCEZ

— CA Assembly GOP (@AssemblyGOP) April 18, 2018

#CAHSR is a national disgrace. With no federal money and no current private sector investment, this project is now California taxpayers’ worst nightmare as they are left holding the bag. https://t.co/a5uHYQDB3C

— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) April 18, 2018

Buried beneath Fresno were some costly surprises for the California bullet train authority, which disclosed Tuesday that the price of utility relocations along a 29-mile section of railway has surged from a 2013 estimate of $69 million to $396 million.

Although it was known that moving gas lines, sewer pipes, water mains and communications wire to make way for the route would be more expensive than originally expected, the magnitude of the increase — nearly a six-fold jump — puts into better focus why the project's costs are rising so sharply.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority board on Friday took up the problem, hearing from its staff that the original estimate contained a number of miscalculations.

The number of linear feet of utilities that have to be moved was underestimated, as was the cost per foot for the job, according to a staff memo. Then, there were utilities that nobody even knew were in the ground. The authority changed its mind about some of the work, as well, the report said.

The original cost estimate was based on work performed by the rail authority's regional consultant, the staff memo said. It did not identify the company, but rail authority records indicate the regional consultant from before 2013 through at least 2015 was Los Angeles-based Aecom. By 2017, the company was no longer on the job. The company did not have an immediate response when contacted.

The history of the utility relocations suggests some turmoil in management decisions — which the rail authority staff said it would not repeat in the future.The original plan was to have AT&T and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. move their own equipment, rather than allow the main construction contractor, Tutor Perini, to do the work.

After getting started, however, the two utilities came back and told the rail authority that they were having trouble meeting the schedule. So, the rail authority handed the job to Tutor Perini in February 2017 and increased the budget to $159 million.

By September 2017, the rail authority arrived at a new cost estimate of $396 million, which was not made public until Tuesday. The price hike is part of the $2.8 billion in cost increases for the Central Valley work that were disclosed in January and were incorporated into the draft 2018 business plan released last month.

The higher costs would deplete the budget for the utility relocations by April, according to the staff memo. So the board approved moving $40 million from a future contract reserved for installing track in the Central Valley to cover the utility work in Fresno. That $40 million will fund the utility work until July, the memo said...

Total waste. This is actually sad. Just a minuscule fraction of that funding could finance 10s of thousands of underserved students at community college, and that'd be just a start.

Disgraceful is right. Sheesh.

ICYMI: Vox Day, SJWs Always Lie

*BUMPED.*

You gotta read this book, dang!

At Amazon, Vox Day, SJWs Always Lie: Taking Down the Thought Police.

John Putnam Demos, Entertaining Satan

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, John Putnam Demos, Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England.

Nancy Houston, Love and Sex

At Amazon, Nancy Houston, Love & Sex: A Christian Guide to Healthy Intimacy.

'They Were Never Going to Let Me Be President'

Heh, this is hilarious.

At the Daily Beast, "Hillary Clinton on Election Night: ‘They Were Never Going to Let Me Be President’":

Hillary Clinton: "They were never going to let me be president." From @GideonResnick: https://t.co/Nv0LnTUu5A

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) April 20, 2018

“No one in modern politics, male or female, has had to withstand more indignities, setbacks and cynicism. She developed protective armor that made the real Hillary Clinton an enigma. But if she was guarded about her feelings and opinions, she believed it was in careful pursuit of a dream for generations of Americans: the election of the country’s first woman president.”

That would have been the nut graf of The New York Times story about Hillary Clinton’s historic victory that would have run under the headline “Madam President” spread across six front-page columns, according to reporter Amy Chozick’s new book, Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling.

Chozick writes that the Clinton campaign, which she covered from the beginning, had reacted furiously to the prospect of a Joe Biden run, as floated first in an August 2015 Maureen Dowd Times column and then in a reported story by Chozick. In the book, she writes that “Biden had confided (off the record) to the White House press corps that he wanted to run, but he added something like ‘You guys don’t understand these people. The Clintons will try to destroy me.’”

Throughout the book, Chozick refers to her fellow journalists in the small pool that flew on the campaign plane as “Travelers,” while referring to many Clinton staffers collectively as “The Guys.”

Asked to comment on the book, a former campaign staffer who’s referred to in it as one of “The Guys” told The Daily Beast: “The challenge on the campaign was that you had a reporter holding the Clintons to a higher standard through a lower standard of reporting. Amy was not always an honest broker, and this book seems to be more of the same. It ridicules people with a smile, contributing little to the public discourse.”

From early on, the Clinton camp saw Trump as an enemy to encourage, Chozick writes. During the campaign, as had been previously reported, there was an effort to elevate Trump into a so-called Pied Piper in order to tie him to the mainstream of the Republican Party.

“An agenda for an upcoming campaign meeting sent by [Campaign Manager] Robby Mook’s office asked, ‘How do we maximize Trump?’” Chozick writes, describing a time when the GOP primary was still crowded...

Sweden's Collapse (VIDEO)

I can't think of a more attractive person --- and I mean "attractive" as literally attracting people to her ideas with so much persuasive, logical, and common sense power --- than Katie Hopkins.

Here's she's interviewed by Mark Steyn at Fox News:

The Authoritarian Right

This is interesting.

From old Pat Buchanan, "Why the Authoritarian Right is Rising":

Why the Authoritarian Right Is Rising - https://t.co/PCKumU3K3N Patrick J. Buchanan - Official WebsiteBy Patrick J. Buchanan

A fortnight ago, Viktor Orban and his Fidesz Party won enough seats in the Hungarian parliament to rewrite his country's constitution.

To progress... pic.twitter.com/SlKrG4pzzI

— Patrick J. Buchanan (@PatrickBuchanan) April 20, 2018

A fortnight ago, Viktor Orban and his Fidesz Party won enough seats in the Hungarian parliament to rewrite his country’s constitution.

To progressives across the West, this was disturbing news.

For the bete noire of Orban’s campaign was uber-globalist George Soros. And Orban’s commitments were to halt any further surrenders of Hungarian sovereignty and independence to the European Union, and to fight any immigrant invasion of Hungary from Africa or the Islamic world.

Why are autocrats like Orban rising and liberal democrats failing in Europe? The autocrats are addressing the primary and existential fear of peoples across the West — the death of the separate and unique tribes into which they were born and to which they belong.

Modern liberals and progressives see nations as transitory — here today, gone tomorrow. The autocrats, however, have plugged into the most powerful currents running in this new century: tribalism and nationalism.

The democracy worshippers of the West cannot compete with the authoritarians in meeting the crisis of our time because they do not see what is happening to the West as a crisis.

They see us as on a steady march into a brave new world, where democracy, diversity and equality will be everywhere celebrated.

To understand the rise of Orban, we need to start seeing Europe and ourselves as so many of these people see us...

More.

Leftist Media Obsessed with Sean Hannity (VIDEO)

Background at the Los Angeles Times, "Judge orders Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to reveal a secret client: Sean Hannity," and "Fox News supports Sean Hannity after just learning he's a client of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen."

And from last night's opening monologue, on Hannity:

Aly Raisman's Empowering Photo Shoot (VIDEO)

She's got a body that won't quit, dang!

At Sports Illustrated:

Soros' Antifa 'Protesters'

Bleedin' anarchist criminals.

At the Other McCain, "Tax-Exempt Terrorism: Cash From Soros Sponsors Communist ‘Antifa’ Group."

Tax-Exempt Terrorism: Cash From Soros Sponsors Communist ‘Antifa’ Group https://t.co/zM5i7F4BTz

cc @vadum @KirbyMcCain @AmPowerBlog @benshapiro pic.twitter.com/ZdPOg9t2Sc

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) April 18, 2018

Hey, Normal Americans, Donˊt Worry About Us Locking Up Your Guns

At Director Blue:

GUN CONTROL FASCISTS: Hey, Normal Americans, Donˊt Worry About Us Locking Up Your Guns https://t.co/EJXni1cQsB pic.twitter.com/e7ov5Zv9t6

— Doug Ross 🔵 (@directorblue) April 18, 2018

Social Justice Standards for Seven-Year-Olds

*Eye-roll.*

Seen on Twitter just now:

Parents of 7-year-old children: How would you feel about your child's teacher using "SOCIAL JUSTICE STANDARDS" to teach your kid that Cinderella is a victim of female stereotyping instead of say MATH. SCIENCE OR READING?

This is what @WCPSS has just imported into our district. pic.twitter.com/jdvIVaHlDY

— A.P. Dillon (@APDillon_) April 18, 2018

ADDED:

Teaching Tolerance is the social justice indoctrination 'education' arm of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
It exists to peddle Leftists narratives on political issues in classrooms nationwide. The entire point is to create little social justice warriors.https://t.co/HiiEGRlxJL

— A.P. Dillon (@APDillon_) April 18, 2018

Mama Gorilla Gives Baby Moke Tender Kisses (VIDEO)

This really is tender. It's almost like the mama gorilla is human. Imagine that.

Moms give the best kisses. The @NationalZoo announced the birth of a baby #gorilla named Moke. https://t.co/0bejzHG8lm pic.twitter.com/fimCXQJPDR

— ABC6 (@wsyx6) April 16, 2018

Megan Parry Wonderful Weather Forecast

It's going to be about 70 today in the O.C. Very pleasant and relaxing.

At ABC News 10 San Diego:

Leftist Sociology Professor at Brookdale Community College Drops F-Bomb on Conservative Student

At Instapundit, "HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE":

Sociology prof swears at conservative student during class. “The student said he had contended that sexual abuse was not a problem exclusively dealt with by women, and that men can be affected too, causing the professor to shout ‘f— your life’ at him.”

There's really no respect in society any longer. I'm not surprised by leftist hatred and disrespect. I'm surprised when I meet and teach nice, well-mannered young people. I'm almost shocked to find out they're usually people of Christian faith.

'The tone of the article is that it's just very funny, but bashing an animal with a shovel isn't a joke...'

Oh my, this is awful.

And Bill de Blasio's the guy that dropped a groundhog.

At Althouse, "'De Blasio’s rat-killing demonstration is a complete disaster'..."

Woman 'Sucked Out' and Killed on Southwest Airlines Flight (VIDEO)

What a freakin' nightmare.

At CBS This Morning, "Southwest victim was partially sucked out of shattered window."

Playboy Playmate Jayde Nicole Flashes

At Drunken Stepfather, "JAYDE NICOLE FLASHING HER TITS OF THE DAY."

BONUS: "JAYDE NICOLE BIKINI OF THE DAY."

Randa Jarrar, English Professor at Fresno State, Cheers Death of Former First Lady Barbara Bush

This is really some hateful spew.

At the Fresno Bee, "Fresno State professor stirs outrage, calls Barbara Bush an 'amazing racist'."

And at Gateway Pundit, "Muslim Professor Cheers Death of Former First Lady Barbara Bush “Happy the Witch is Dead”."

Statement by @Fresno_State President @JosephICastro regarding tweets made today by a faculty member: pic.twitter.com/h3ZbQyMmxd

— Fresno State (@Fresno_State) April 18, 2018

Oh no no no no. This isn't quietly going away with one tweet.

One of their professors wished for the death of Americans. We are demanding to know why Fresno State thinks it's acceptable that one of their professors hates white people and wants Americans dead. https://t.co/2314TY6s9m

— Cristina Laila (@cristinalaila1) April 18, 2018

Iceland's First Black Citizen

I love this story.

Hans Jonathan, a Danish slave from colonial St. Croix, was denied his freedom in Denmark and subsequently escaped to Iceland where he lived out the remainder of his life.

Iceland's really proud of this history. Denmark wants to bury it, the freakin' hypocritical "tolerant" Scandinavian progs.

At NYT, "Iceland’s 1st Black Citizen? An Ex-Slave and War Hero Denmark Now Disregards":

Iceland’s 1st Black Citizen? An Ex-Slave and War Hero Denmark Now Disregards https://t.co/69fWcPWmKF

— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 15, 2018

COPENHAGEN — Long after his death, Hans Jonathan has, at last, gotten some attention. He is the subject of a well-received biography and a groundbreaking genetic study, and is something of a celebrity in Iceland, where he is thought to have been the first black person.

But in Denmark, where Hans Jonathan (he had no surname) was a slave, fought in a war, lost a noted case on slavery, and escaped bondage by fleeing to Iceland, his extraordinary story has not drawn much interest.

An American descendant got a polite rejection when she asked the Danish government to declare him, posthumously, a free man. When people stroll past a five-story mansion that sits less than 100 yards from the royal Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen, there is no historical marker to tell of the Schimmelmann family who owned it, or the slaves they kept there, including Hans Jonathan.

“People who speak or write about slave trade and Danish colonialism speak to deaf ears,” said Gisli Palsson, a professor of anthropology at the University of Iceland, and author of “The Man Who Stole Himself: The Slave Odyssey of Hans Jonathan.”

The colonial past has largely disappeared from Danish collective memory. The country has communities of people with historic ties to Greenland and the Faroe Islands, but relatively few residents whose ancestry traces to its former colonies in the Caribbean, Africa and India.

Danes’ long-ago status as slave owners and colonial masters rarely appears as a theme in mainstream culture. Today, Danish views of ethnic minorities are heavily influenced by recent tensions over waves of migration to Europe from the Middle East and Africa.

Other western European countries have had trouble squarely facing such history; many Belgians were unaware of the atrocities in Congo under Belgian rule until the past generation. But Denmark, with less of a colonial record to confront than some countries, has had more trouble confronting it, according to Mr. Palsson.

“Somehow it annoys them more than others knowing about this background,” he said.

Hans Jonathan was born in 1784 in St. Croix, then a Danish possession and now part of the United States Virgin Islands. His mother was a black house slave owned by the Schimmelmanns, a Danish-German family, and his father was a white man.

When he was about 7, the Schimmelmanns took him to Copenhagen. In 1801, he volunteered to fight with the Danish navy, and emerged unharmed from a fierce battle with British ships.

“It was crazy warfare,” said Mr. Palsson, whose biography of Hans Jonathan was published in Icelandic in 2014, and in English in 2016. “The ship was bombarded heavily.”

Hans Jonathan earned the support of his superior officers, who spoke on his behalf to the royal household. Denmark’s crown prince and de facto ruler, the future King Frederik VI, wrote in a letter that Hans Jonathan “is considered free and enjoys rights.”

The French revolution had unleashed new ideas about equality and liberty. Like several other colonial powers, Denmark still allowed slavery in the Caribbean, but abolition movements at home were gaining ground, and the status of slaves brought to Europe from the colonies was murky.

Henrietta Schimmelmann tried to reclaim Hans Jonathan and take him back to St. Croix, and he went to court to assert his freedom, in a case that was famous in its time. But he could not produce the letter from Prince Frederik, for reasons unknown, and in 1802, the court dismissed his claim and ordered him to return to the Schimmelmanns, who wanted to sell him in St. Croix...

More.

Shop Deals

Thanks for your support!

I greatly appreciate it --- it keeps me blogging!

At Amazon, Today's Deals. New deals. Every day. Shop our Deal of the Day, Lightning Deals and more daily deals and limited-time sales.

And especially, Roav by Anker Car Charger with FM Transmitter and Bluetooth 4.2 Receiver, SmartCharge F2 with Car Locator, Dedicated App, 2 USB ports, PowerIQ, AUX Output, and USB Drive to Play MP3 Files.

More, Survivor HK-56142 Series Fixed Blade Survival Knife, 12-Inch Overall.

Here, Rawlings Renegade Series Baseball Gloves.

And, Pioneer Bluetooth Audio Component Receiver Black (SX-10AE).

Plus, Teton Sports Mountain Ultra Tent; 1-4 Person Backpacking Dome Tent Includes Footprint and Rainfly; Quick and Easy Setup; Ready in an Instant When You Want to Get Outdoors; Clip-On Rainfly Included.

Still more, Nestlé Pure Life Bottled Purified Water, 16.9 oz. Bottles, 24/Case.

BONUS: Don Winslow, The Force.

Olivia Jordan in 2018 Debut (VIDEO)

Nice:

Sarah Kendzior, The View from Flyover Country

At Amazon, Sarah Kendzior, The View from Flyover Country: Dispatches from the Forgotten America.

Hannah Arendt, Thinking Without a Banister

At Amazon, Thinking Without a Banister: Essays in Understanding, 1953-1975.

And a review at NYT:

"Almost every essay in this book contains 'pearls' of Arendt’s tonically subversive thinking." https://t.co/QZzaofaVTR

— New York Times Books (@nytimesbooks) April 14, 2018

Britney Spears at the GLAAD Media Awards

At IDLYITW, "Britney Spears Won a Glaad Award."

What an incredibly moving evening celebrating love and acceptance at the #GLAADawards! I'm so proud to be an ally of the LGBTQ community and it was an absolute honor to receive the @GLAAD Vanguard Award last night!! pic.twitter.com/8ELKkOtDc1

— Britney Spears (@britneyspears) April 13, 2018

And on Twitter.

She's happy.

BONUS:

Found my white booty shorts 😉😉😉😉 pic.twitter.com/CLcSChcVsm

— Britney Spears (@britneyspears) March 24, 2018

Since Apartheid Ended, A.N.C. Leaders Have Siphoned Off Tens of Billions of Dollars

Corruption. And pogroms against white Afrikaners.

That's the reality in South Africa today.

At NYT:

In the generation since apartheid ended, tens of billions of dollars in public funds have been siphoned off by leaders of the African National Congress. Will South Africa's new government confront such epic graft? https://t.co/5vUnhRuXCa

— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 16, 2018

Danielle Gersh's Fine Weather Forecast

Well, I don't see the lovely beauty Ms. Jennifer posted at ABC News 10 San Diego this morning, so here's the fabulous Ms. Danielle, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Jennifer Delacruz Back from Vacation

Looking to post her Sunday night weather report but it's not up at the ABC 10 News YouTube page yet.

I'll post it later.

Meanwhile, here's your lovely lady on Twitter:

I’m back from vacation and hanging out in the weather center! I’m tracking a Wind Advisory live right now on @10News #SanDiegoWx pic.twitter.com/ocE97rcTh9

— Jennifer Delacruz (@10NewsJen) April 16, 2018

Glenn Reynolds, The K-12 Implosion

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Glenn Harlan Reynolds, The K-12 Implosion.

Today's Deals

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Today's Deals New deals. Every day. Shop our Deal of the Day, Lightning Deals and more daily deals and limited-time sales.

Also, especially, Blendtec Total Blender Classic with WildSide+ Jar, Black (Certified Refurbished).

More, Pet Neat - Pet Grooming Brush Effectively Reduces Shedding By Up to 95% Professional Deshedding Tool for Dogs and Cats.

And, Samsung Gear VR w/Controller (2017) - Latest Edition - SM-R325NZVAXAR (US Version w/ Warranty).

More, SNAKE EYE TACTICAL - U.S. MARINES Knife Licensed USMC MARINES Assisted Military Knives BLACK Tactical Tanto Knife.

Here, Koffee Kult Dark Roast Coffee Beans - Highest Quality Gourmet - Whole Bean Coffee - Fresh Roasted Coffee Beans, 32oz.

Still more, Samsung UN65MU6300FXZA 65" 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV (2017 Model) Plus Terk Cut-the-Cord HD Digital TV Tuner and Recorder 16GB Hook-Up Bundle.

BONUS: Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure.

Sitting at Starbucks While Black

Now that is messed up.

At CBS News Philadelphia, "‘Internal Investigation’ Underway Following Arrest at Philly Starbucks."

Outside the Starbucks today pic.twitter.com/vcr9QstkRT

— Melissa DePino (@missydepino) April 14, 2018

I'm sorry for anyone who watches this video and it fucks with their anxiety. There's no violence or death–just yet another caught-on-tape moment of black bodies being criminalized simply for being Black and I'm getting so fucking tired of it. https://t.co/qw77GAgaaO

— Elon James White (@elonjames) April 13, 2018

Some will never believe it because it will force them to contend with the reality of systemic injustice, and then a lot of the fallacies their entire self worth is built upon fall apart. Easier to just go on “waiting for all the facts” forever so their world view isn’t shattered.

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy) April 14, 2018

At at the Philadelphia Inquirer, via Memeorandum, "Video of two black men being removed from a Philadelphia Starbucks draws outrage, investigation."

I would have said something. I would've called out the cops. Or, is it the Starbucks staff? They called the cops? Starbucks sucks. I'm more and more inclined to boycott the fuckers, damn.

Lindsey Pelas vs. Abigail Ratchford

At WWTTD, "Lindsey Pelas vs. Abigail Ratchford and Crap Around the Web."

BONUS: SIZZLING LINDSEY PELAS CAN'T STOP POSTING STUNNING TOPLESS SHOTS ON INSTAGRAM.

Haley Kalil Takes Wet T-Shirt

Nice:

Angels Off to Best Start Since 1979

At LAT:

Angels rally for 5-4 win behind Pujols homer https://t.co/gRWCGfnFwo

— L.A. Times Sports (@latimessports) April 14, 2018

#Angels come back to beat Royals, 5-4, on sac fly by Ian Kinsler. Albert Pujols HR and 3 RBI. Kinsler, Cozart three hits each. Ohtani 2 for 4. Middleton gets save. 12-3 record overall, 8-1 on the road. #AngelsMetsWS

— Jeff Miller (@JeffMillerMLB) April 14, 2018

For a team that has been so much about one player, the Angels keep winning as a group.

On Friday, they made it six victories in a row with key offensive contributions from everyone from a first-ballot Hall of Famer, Albert Pujols, to a pinch-hitter, Luis Valbuena. Five relievers strung together four more shutout innings and catcher Rene Rivera gunned down Whit Merrifield attempting to steal second for the final out.

"It's a team win tonight," starting pitcher Andrew Heaney said after a 5-4 triumph over Kansas City. "I put us in a hole early and they came back. Everybody did a great job."

And that included, naturally, Shohei Ohtani, who has dominated the game and the headlines. This time, the rookie had two hits and scored the winning run.

What's more, the legend of Ohtani and his immense popularity swelled again as the Angels apparently requested that a group of his fans at Kauffman Stadium quell its passion, for the good of the star and his team.

"I heard it," Ohtani, through an interpreter, said of the vocal support he received. "I'm thankful for the cheer. But at the plate I try to focus and block out all the noise."

A local reporter, citing security personnel, noted that someone evidently with the Angels contacted authorities to ask that the clamor be tempered.

"I was aware of that," Ohtani said. "But I wasn't the one who asked for it. I think they just did it so everyone could kind of focus at the plate. I was thankful for that."

And so went another night at the ballpark for the Angels, who improved to 12-3, matching the 1979 club for the best record in franchise history after 15 games.

That '79 group then lost four straight, something that seems unlikely for these Angels...

Naomi Schaefer Riley, Be the Parent, Please

*BUMPED.*

Naomi Schaefer Riley, Be the Parent, Please: Stop Banning Seesaws and Start Banning Snapchat: Strategies for Solving the Real Parenting Problems.

Emily Ratajkowski in Clear Rain Jacket

At Taxi Driver, "Emily Ratajkowski Topless in Clear Rain Jacket."

And at Harpers, "Emily Ratajkowski Just Wore Nothing but a See-Through Trench Coat and We Are Shook."

Lara Stone Luigi and Iango

At Snadgy, "Lara Stone Nude by Luigi and Iango."

And at Oh My Celeb, "Lara Stone – Red Sox magazine calendar 2018 by Luigi and Iango."

Sebastian Gorka: President Trump is Not an Interventionist (VIDEO)

I, for one, am happy we're bombing in Syria. It reverses the previous administration's red line and puts Russian and Iran on notice.

I like Sebastian Gorka, in any case. He's a good guy and well spoken.

At Fox & Friends:

U.S. Launches Military Strike on Syria

The leftist hypocrisy on Syria is mind-boggling.

#Trump says U.S. is striking #Syria over its use of chemical weapons https://t.co/jIt6Zz378q

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) April 14, 2018

Congressional Democrats blasted President Trump for circumventing Congress in authorizing U.S. strikes against Syria, calling it "unconstitutional" and questioning the strategy. https://t.co/1rJ1hBJx2S

— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 14, 2018

It's as if 2009-2017 never happened. https://t.co/o5emKk1ly8

— Instapundit.com (@instapundit) April 14, 2018

Far-left conspiracy theorist Rachel Maddow suggests President Donald Trump launched the strike against Syria to divert attention away from a "catastrophic domestic scandal."pic.twitter.com/sr81UnpryL

— Ryan Saavedra 🇺🇸 (@RealSaavedra) April 14, 2018

Ana Navarro Accuses Trump Of Striking Syria To Distract From Comey And Cohen News https://t.co/1lnUfGdLEr pic.twitter.com/mUixObJck2

— The Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 14, 2018

Jonah Goldberg, Suicide of the West

*BUMPED.*

Hmm, I see a lot of really good non-fiction books coming out, which is going to delay my progress on my fiction book list, which is gargantuan.

At Amazon, Jonah Goldberg, Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy.

Bipartisan Senate Bill to Protect Robert Mueller (VIDEO)

Mueller's investigation is out of control, and the Senate's advancing legislation to save his ass? That's messed up.

At Politico, via Memeorandum, "Bipartisan Senate bill to protect Mueller set to advance."

And the new video out today from Republicans for the Rule of Law, a.k.a., "Never Trumpers":

Frustrated Teacher Implores Parents to Stop 'Coddling and Enabling Their Children' (VIDEO)

At London's Daily Mail, "Texas teacher reveals how 'rude parents, disruptive children and poor pay' have forced her to quit her job in viral post - as she shares photos of classroom items 'destroyed' by her students."

And at the Other McCain, "K-12 Implosion Update."

Also at ABC News:

“Parents have become far too disrespectful, and their children are even worse.”

Frustrated teacher urges parents to stop 'coddling and enabling their children' in viral Facebook post. https://t.co/fKxnxc6N1i pic.twitter.com/y0S2y4hDdD

— ABC News (@ABC) April 11, 2018

The Curse of Cultural Marxism

A new video from Pat Condell:

Heidi Klum on Vacation

At Taxi Driver, "Heidi Klum Topless and Wet on Vacation."

Have 1 in 5 College Women Been Raped?

No, "it isn't true."

Mark Zuckerberg Testifies on Capital Hill (VIDEO)

At LAT, "Mark Zuckerberg struggles to put his best Facebook forward during a day in the hot seat."

Sean Hannity Ends Feud with Jimmy Kimmel (VIDEO)

From Monday's night's show:

Laura Ingraham Blasts 'Stalinist' Leftists in Return to Fox News (VIDEO)

A phenomenal "The Angle" segment, from Monday's show:

Among the Abortion Extremists

I don't know if Ross Douthat is the very best newspaper columnist out there. He seems like a quirky weird kind of guy, actually. But this is very good.

At NYT:

Ross is the best columnist working at a major daily and I don’t think the second-best is particularly close. https://t.co/OHYQhpTqED

— Sonny Bunch (@SonnyBunch) April 8, 2018

A few weeks ago, The Washington Post’s deputy editorial page editor, Ruth Marcus, wrote two columns explaining why, had either of her children been diagnosed with Down syndrome in utero, she would have accepted the “ghastly” nature of a second-trimester abortion and terminated the pregnancy. She conceded that people with Down syndrome can be happy and fulfilled, that both they and their parents might be understandably disturbed by the way abortion can effectively cull them from the world. But she concluded with self-acknowledged bluntness: “That was not the child I wanted.”

I know Marcus a little, having chatted with her amiably a few times many years ago. She seemed like a lovely person, like so many of my pro-choice friends; indeed, people who believe firmly in an absolute or near-absolute right to an abortion are effectively my people in a certain tribal way, given that I’m a Connecticut Yankee raised by Bill Clinton-voting boomers and educated in the modern meritocracy. I like these folks; I think they mean well; I try to listen to their arguments with the respect that the sincere and intelligent deserve.

But I also think that they are deceived by a cruel ideology that has licensed the killing of millions of innocents for almost 50 years. In the language that the respectable use to banish views without rebuttal, I regard them — friends and colleagues and faithful readers — as essentially extremists, for whom the distinctive and sometimes awful burdens that pregnancy imposes on women have become an excuse to build a grotesque legal regime in which the most vulnerable human beings can be vacuumed out or dismembered, killed for reasons of eugenics or convenience or any reason at all.

I am sharing these reflections in the context of the latest media war over whether a particular conservative columnist should be hired by a particular establishment publication — in this case Kevin Williamson, a National Review scribe with a brilliant pen and a long paper trail of insults and wild opinions, who was boldly hired by The Atlantic and then quickly jettisoned, after it came to light that he had not only suggested hanging as a penalty for abortion in a since-deleted tweet but also more carefully defended the idea of someday prosecuting women who obtain abortions the way we prosecute other forms of homicide...

Keep reading.

How to Level the College Playing Field

This is interesting, especially for me, a community college political science professor, struggling with low student academic achievement.

See, Harold O. Levy with Peg Tyre, at NYT:

Campuses that are overwhelmingly populated by wealthy students amplify the voices that jeer at our higher education system and energize those who seek to destroy it. It would be a tragedy if they succeeded. https://t.co/SamBMZE8ZC

— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) April 9, 2018

The wealthy spend tens of thousands each year on private school tuition or property taxes to ensure that their children attend schools that provide a rich, deep college preparatory curriculum. On top of that, many of them spend thousands more on application coaches, test-prep tutors and essay editors. They take their children on elaborate college tours so that their children can “find the right fit” at schools with good names and high graduation rates. Enrollment strategists at these same schools seek applicants from areas where the data they buy confirms that income levels and homeownership are high.

The colleges make efforts to open up access to low-income students while at the same time culling applications in ways that give an advantage to the very wealthy — from the persistence of legacy admissions to the back door reserved for young athletes who excel in sports that flourish in rarefied communities like lacrosse, squash, rowing and fencing. Admissions officers don’t talk much about “development” admissions, students whose applications are favored in hopes their parents will eventually endow a new stadium or dorm. Increasing numbers of prospective freshmen apply for early decision, which can give the applicant a stronger chance of getting in but closes doors for middle-income students, who often need to make their college choice by comparing financial aid packages. No wonder, then, that in a group of 38 selective colleges, including five in the Ivy League, more students came from families in the top 1 percent of the income scale than from the entire bottom 60 percent.

Creating a true meritocracy in higher education would require serious, politically daring changes to our housing policies and the tax code, neither of which seems likely in the current climate. Yet people of means (and I include myself here) are complicit in a system that seems unable to stop itself from extending privileges to the privileged. If your late-model car boasts the sticker of a prestigious college in the back window, you are participating in a system that may be good for your child but bad for our country...

RTWT.

Annalisa Blaha

At Drunken Stepfather, "ANNALISA BLAHA TOPLESS SHOOT OF THE DAY."

Gold Box Deals

At Amazon, Today's Deals. New deals. Every day. Shop our Deal of the Day, Lightning Deals and more daily deals and limited-time sales.

And see, especially, Torq TORQX Random Orbital Polisher Kit (9 Items).

Also, TAC FORCE Spring Assisted Opening BLACK Tactical Rescue Folding Pocket Knife NEW.

And, LG 55UJ6300 55-inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV (2017 Model) + HDMI 1080p High Definition DVD Player + Solo X3 Bluetooth Home Theater Sound Bar + 2x HDMI Cable + LED TV Screen Cleaner.

BONUS: Tommy Robinson, Enemy of the State.

Huntington Beach Voting to Sue California Over its Sanctuary City Laws

Here's Amanda Head, for Rebel Media:



And at Fox News, via Memeorandum, "Has the California backlash against liberal craziness finally begun?"

Elizabeth R. Varon, Appomattox

At Amazon, Elizabeth R. Varon, Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War.

Divided Americans Can Unite

Well, it ain't gonna be easy.

But see Salena Zito, at the New York Post, "History Proves America Can Unite Even When Torn in Two":

How the Civil War ended tells us a lot about who we were. https://t.co/o5EfzCfwDN

— SalenaZito (@SalenaZito) April 9, 2018

APPOMATTOX, VA. — On April 9, 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee strode onto the porch of a two-story brick home and stared out at a lawn filled with Union soldiers, his Confederate staff of two, and his horse Traveler.

Still wearing full military dress, Lee raised his gloved hands and punched his left fist into his right palm. The sound of leather meeting leather echoed in the unsteady silence.

Then, as Lee mounted Traveler, Major Gen. Ulysses S. Grant emerged from the house onto the porch.

Now facing each other, Grant raised his hat, as did Lee. It wasn’t a salute, but clearly an acknowledgment of the moment.

As Lee turned towards the dirt road and headed east towards his troops, the 198th Pennsylvania Infantry played “Auld Lang Syne.”

The Civil War was over.

“As the sun rose that morning neither man would know by mid-afternoon the war, for all intents and purposes, would end that day,” explained Ernie Price, a park ranger and director of education at Appomattox National Park.

But by mid-morning, Lee knew the Confederate cause was finished. He sent a message to Grant to meet for the purpose of surrender, and the Appomattox home of grocer Wilmer McLean was chosen for the moment.

When they met, Grant was poorly dressed, his uniform rumpled and covered in mud from the ride the night before. Years later in his memoirs, he admitted that he had no idea what he was going to ask from Lee in the surrender.

Yet, once he sat down at a small spindle desk in McLean’s front parlor, words of reconciliation poured out.

“Grant knew that the Confederate soldiers from that moment on were going to be US citizens again,” said Price. “Instead of placing them in prisons in the North he sends them home. His reasoning is: The sooner the South’s economy rebounds, the sooner the country can reconcile, so he paroles them.”

Grant also allowed Lee’s men to keep their personal sidearms and animals, knowing they would desperately need rations to survive.

This week marks the 153rd anniversary of Appomattox, and tourists from around the world still come to the McLean home to remember this singular moment, which kept our nation whole after a bloody, brutal war. When I visited last month, parents, students and children listened to different park rangers tell the story of the two generals, and were surprised by the emotion they felt.

“I wish more people young and old would understand the gravity of this moment and apply that kind of grace in their daily lives,” said 13-year-old Mathilde Colas, with remarkable clarity, as she visited with her family. “It is certainly easier to bring people together if you are generous with your words and actions. That is what I learned most from our visit today.”

The best and the worst of our country’s past sometimes happens side by side. The journey to understand who we once were isn’t always a road to perdition. Sometimes it’s a path toward inspiration...

More.

Jason Riley, Please Stop Helping Us

At Amazon, Jason Riley, Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed.

Jason Riley, False Black Power?

At Amazon, Jason Riley, False Black Power?

And watch, via Prager U:

Danielle Gersh's Warm Weather Forecast

It's going to be around 90 throughout the Southland today, wonderful warm weather.

Here's the lovely Ms. Danielle, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Tehran's Advantage in a Turbulent Middle East

From Vali Nasr, at Foreign Affairs, "Iran Among the Ruins":

A must read:
Iran among the ruins: @vali_nasr on Iran’s regional strategic calculus. https://t.co/WbZyJ6N0YZ

— Rula Jebreal (@rulajebreal) February 17, 2018

Over the last seven years, social upheavals and civil wars have torn apart the political order that had defined the Middle East ever since World War I. Once solid autocracies have fallen by the wayside, their state institutions battered and broken, and their national borders compromised. Syria and Yemen have descended into bloody civil wars worsened by foreign military interventions. A terrorist group, the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), seized vast areas of Iraq and Syria before being pushed back by an international coalition led by the United States.

In the eyes of the Trump administration, and those of a range of other observers and officials in Washington and the region, there is one overriding culprit behind the chaos: Iran. They point out that the country has funded terrorist groups, propped up Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and aided the anti-Saudi Houthi rebels in Yemen. U.S. President Donald Trump has branded Iran “the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” with a “sinister vision of the future,” and dismissed the nuclear agreement reached by it, the United States, and five other world powers in 2015 as “the worst deal ever” (and refused to certify that Iran is complying with its terms). U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis has described Iran as “the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East.” And Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir has charged that “Iran is on a rampage.”

Washington seems to believe that rolling back Iranian influence would restore order to the Middle East. But that expectation rests on a faulty understanding of what caused it to break down in the first place. Iran did not cause the collapse, and containing Iran will not bring back stability. There is no question that many aspects of Iran’s behavior pose serious challenges to the United States. Nor is there any doubt that Iran has benefited from the collapse of the old order in the Arab world, which used to contain it. Yet its foreign policy is far more pragmatic than many in the West comprehend. As Iran’s willingness to engage with the United States over its nuclear program showed, it is driven by hardheaded calculations of national interest, not a desire to spread its Islamic Revolution abroad. The Middle East will regain stability only if the United States does more to manage conflict and restore balance there. That will require a nuanced approach, including working with Iran, not reflexively confronting it.

You can see why leftists love this article, heh.

More.

Dakota Johnson in Tight Leggings

At Taxi Driver, "Dakota Johnson Cameltoe in Tight Leggings."

BONUS: At the Nip Slip, "Dakota Johnson Topless and See Through Bikini on 'Fifty Shades Darker' Set! (PHOTOS)"

Evelyn Taft's Mild Weather Forecast

Here's the lovely Ms. Evelyn, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Arizona Bobcat Battles Rattlesnake (VIDEO)

This is pretty wild.

At Fox News 10 Phoenix:

Shohei Ohtani Makes History in Angels' 13-9 Comback Victory Over Athletics

The Angels are off to a great start. They're 6-2 so far, and both pitching and hitting are almost unrecognizable from last year.

I'm excited!

At LAT, "Down 6-0, Angels' bats awaken with homer by Ohtani and beat the Athletics 13-9":

Holy Cow. Shohei Ohtani just drove a solo HR to dead-center that splashed the water in the fake rock formation, his third HR of the season. #Angels

— Mike DiGiovanna (@MikeDiGiovanna) April 7, 2018

Shohei Ohtani: 112.4 mph. 449 feet. Incredible. #Angels pic.twitter.com/vxJbBMfdp2

— David Adler (@_dadler) April 7, 2018

This Sho is Certified Fresh💯🍅 pic.twitter.com/GQnAgd3jaN

— Angels (@Angels) April 7, 2018

What a way to end a crazy game! pic.twitter.com/GsY5c6iILa

— Angels (@Angels) April 7, 2018

Robin Holzken Takes You With Her (VIDEO)

She's a beauty!

Kevin Williamson, Thought Criminal

This is really good. So good, I've gained a new appreciation for Jonah Goldberg's writing. He's very thoughtful, articulate, fair, and measured.

At National Review:

The G-File is out. It is lengthy, among other things. https://t.co/nYM74LQvyc

— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) April 6, 2018

An Oral History of the 1968 Columbia Uprising

This is actually pretty fascinating.

At VF:

The @1968CU protests, recalls one participant, came out of a moment in time in which “it was a question of whether the country would survive a civil war” https://t.co/Ku0KhMlDi5

— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) March 30, 2018

In April 1968, hundreds of students at Columbia University took over campus buildings in an uprising that caught the world’s attention. Fifty years later, they reflect on what went right and what went wrong.

At Columbia University in April 1968, about a thousand students forcibly commandeered five campus buildings, effectively igniting the mass student revolts of the 60s. The events that began haphazardly on April 23 soon grew into a public crescendo of awakening that changed the course of the American student protest movement. It was a year when political, racial, sexual, and cultural forces exploded into a “revolutionary volcano,” as novelist Paul Auster, then a junior at Columbia, described it. It was also the year when two widespread movements—civil rights and anti-war—combined forces to stoke a flame of youth rebellion not seen domestically in half a century.

That spring 50 years ago, Columbia’s compact, six-city-block campus on Manhattan’s bohemian Upper West Side became a petri dish, fermenting and fomenting discord that would engulf the nation. By the end of the year, American deaths in Vietnam exceeded 35,000 soldiers. Anti-war protests multiplied, the draft continued to loom like a Sword of Damocles over the lives of 27 million young men, the peaceful civil-rights movement intensified along with the increasingly militant Black Power movement, the sexual revolution and early feminism movement transformed gender roles, and the unstoppable popularity of psychedelic drugs and rock music (the musical Hair opened on Broadway that month) created an unbridgeable chasm of a generation gap. All of these movements for social change—including the conservative counterrevolutionaries—were out in full force on the Columbia campus that April.

University president Grayson Kirk “was a walking anachronism,” says Paul Cronin, editor of the new, definitive book on the Columbia student uprising, A Time to Stir: Columbia ‘68. “He was clueless and unresponsive to the attitudes, needs, and demands of his students.” It turns out that Kirk and his board of trustees, members of New York’s corporate and media elites, were as out of touch with youth culture as President Lyndon Johnson and his F.B.I. director, J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover was so threatened by what he saw at Columbia that, in May, he ordered his agency to initiate a secret counter-intelligence program, 2,000 F.B.I. agents strong, aimed at anti-war demonstrators and the New Left.

Not since the Berkeley Free Speech Movement in 1964–65 had a campus of a major university been shut down by its students. The student rumblings of 1968 started in February, when two black South Carolina State University students, protesting a segregated bowling alley, were shot and killed by state troopers in Orangeburg. (A third young black man, a high school student, was also killed, as he waited to walk his mother home from work.) In March, students at the historically black Howard University, in Washington, D.C., staged a four-day protest and sit-in. But Columbia captured the attention of the nation because of its stature as an Ivy League college situated in the media capital of the world. The protest was so large (720 students arrested), it lasted so long (a week of building occupations, followed by a month-long strike), and the police reaction was so brutal and bloody, that it was seared into the national conscience.

As tens of thousands of high-school students all over the country organize demonstrations demanding gun-control reform from politicians in the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, we may now be witnessing the first full-fledged American student protest movement since the late 60s. “I got chills when I heard Emma González speak about her generation’s fledgling movement to stop gun violence,” said former ‘68 Barnard/Columbia Students for a Democratic Society (S.D.S.) activist Nancy Biberman. A lifelong housing and social-justice advocate in the Bronx, Biberman is heartened by the new wave of protest that has roused high-school students from decades of apathy. “Imagine that a student movement might emerge again and play a catalyzing role in ending the slaughter of innocent people.”

Our young people, in disturbing numbers, appear to reject all forms of authority, from whatever source derived, and they have taken refuge in a turbulent and inchoate nihilism whose sole objectives are destruction. I know of no time in our history when the gap between the generations has been wider or more potentially dangerous.

— Columbia University president Grayson Kirk, April 12, 1968

Dear Grayson, . . . You call for order and respect for authority; we call for justice, freedom, and socialism. There is only one thing left to say. It may sound nihilistic to you, since it is the opening shot in a war of liberation. I’ll use the words of LeRoi Jones, whom I’m sure you don’t like a whole lot: “Up against the wall, motherfucker, this is a stick-up.”

Yours for freedom, Mark [Rudd] April 22, 1968

More.

Citizen's Righteous Rant Defending 2nd Amendment Goes Viral:

From Nice Deb, at Pajamas:

Citizen's Righteous Rant Defending 2nd Amendment Goes Viral https://t.co/LJ6FHzRkv3 #Video via @pjmedia_com

— Debra Heine (@NiceDeb) April 6, 2018

Trump Administration Imposes New Sanctions on Russia

This is all over Memeorandum, from the Treasury Department, "Treasury Designates Russian Oligarchs, Officials, and Entities in Response to Worldwide Malign Activity."

And at LAT, "Trump administration announces Russia sanctions for 'attacks to subvert Western democracies'":

Trump administration announces new Russia sanctions for 'attacks to subvert Western democracies' https://t.co/Af5aAASC3j

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) April 6, 2018

The Trump administration on Friday announced new sanctions against seven Russian oligarchs, 12 companies and 17 senior government officials for a variety of acts, including what one official called “attacks to subvert Western democracies.”

“Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from this corrupt system will no longer be insulated from the consequences of their government’s destabilizing activities.” Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said in a news release.

Mnuchin criticized the Russian government for engaging in “a range of malign activity around the globe, including continuing to occupy Crimea and instigate violence in eastern Ukraine, supplying the Assad regime with material and weaponry as they bomb their own civilians, attempting to subvert Western democracies, and malicious cyber activities.”

President Trump has spoken of his desire to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has at times spoken warmly of him, but he has also insisted his administration has been tough on the regime...

Migration is Baloney

Seen on Twitter:

#Migration is:

• inevitable
• desirable
• necessary

this Easter, let’s not forget those who are caught in crises around the world 🌎 pic.twitter.com/e7fT1FE0D1

— IOM - UN Migration (@UNmigration) April 1, 2018

Bullshit. Send them home. https://t.co/I0aKw4Zyg0

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) April 3, 2018

When Leftists Take Off the Mask

Seen on Twitter. Just wow.

If you are a MAGA or a 2A enthusiast, I legitimately do not care about your life/well-being or the lives/well-being of your family. I don't care if you can't defend yourselves against intruders or whatever. I just don't care if you live or die.

— 🏳️‍🌈Jenny "Lazangia" Trout (@Jenny_Trout) April 3, 2018

John F. Cogan, The High Cost of Good Intentions

At Amazon, John F. Cogan, The High Cost of Good Intentions: A History of U.S. Federal Entitlement Programs.

Nice Legs

Seen on Twitter:

💞💞💞💞 pic.twitter.com/XxheyzKkdl

— 🎀🎀 Miss_Lee 🎀🎀. (@MissLee_) April 5, 2018

Nasim Aghdam Was Angry Over YouTube 'Apocalyspe'

At LAT, "Woman suspected of opening fire at YouTube had battled against platform":

So the San Bruno YouTube HQ shooter was Female, foreign, a Vegan animal activist, off the rails mentally ill, didn't use an AR-15, and shot up a building in the strictest gun control state in America....how fast do you think the mainstream media is going to bury this? pic.twitter.com/oHnkSiolGv

— Mindy Robinson (@iheartmindy) April 4, 2018

The website is a catalog of a woman's passion for animal rights and her anger at YouTube.

She complains of "close-minded" YouTube employees suppressing her page views and stifling her content. She gripes about a lack of revenue.

"Youtube filtered my channels to keep them from getting views!" she wrote on the site, which includes videos promoting veganism and photos of a woman in an array of outfits, including long gowns and a camouflage unitard. She speaks in Persian and Turkish.

"There is no equal growth opportunity on YOUTUBE or any other video sharing site, your channel will grow if they want to!!!!!"

It's the website investigators are looking at as they try to piece together the motive of a woman — identified as Nasim Najafi Aghdam, 39 — who stormed onto YouTube's sprawling San Bruno, Calif., campus with a 9-millimeter handgun and opened fire in a courtyard during lunchtime, wounding three people before turning the gun on herself.

The eruption of gun violence Tuesday in Silicon Valley hit a nation still reeling from recent mass shootings and gripped by a tense gun control debate.

"This is a terrible day in the United States, when once again we have a multiple-casualty situation," said Dr. Andre Campbell, a trauma surgeon at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, which is treating victims.

The shooting left a 36-year-old man in critical condition, a 32-year-old woman with serious injuries and a 27-year-old woman in fair condition. A fourth person suffered an ankle injury while fleeing.

In a tweet, President Trump thanked law enforcement and first responders, and said: "Our thoughts and prayers are with everybody involved."

Law enforcement sources told The Times they initially believed the shooting was a domestic incident, but San Bruno police said late Tuesday there's "no evidence" the shooter knew the victims or targeted specific people. Investigators are now focusing on the alleged shooter's grudge against YouTube.

The YouTube account tied to the website was shut down "due to multiple or severe violations" of the company's policies against spam, deceptive practices and misleading content. But it's unclear exactly when.

The website investigators are probing, titled "Nasime Sabz," translates in Persian to, "Nasim the green." YouTube videos created by an account of the same name can no longer be viewed, but the site also features videos from other sources criticizing YouTube's policies, as well as clips promoting animal rights and veganism. Instagram and Facebook accounts listed on the website were deactivated Tuesday.

Aghdam was quoted in the Los Angeles Times in 2009, speaking at an animal rights protest outside Camp Pendleton.

"For me animal rights equals human rights," said Aghdam, who at the time worked as a construction company office manager. "Just because they can't talk doesn't mean we should take advantage of them."

About two weeks ago, Aghdam vented to her family that YouTube stopped compensating her for her videos, her father told the Bay Area News Group.

Ismail Aghdam said that the family had called police to report his daughter missing Monday because she hadn't answered her phone for two days. He said he had told police she might be going to YouTube because she "hated" the company.

Police in Mountain View, Calif., say they spotted a woman who went by the name Nasim Aghdam asleep in a car in a city parking lot early Tuesday morning and notified her family.

The first reports of a shooting came in to San Mateo County dispatchers before 1 p.m.

Zach Vorhies, a senior software engineer, was sitting at his desk on YouTube's campus when he heard the fire alarm blaring.

He grabbed his electric skateboard and hurried toward an exit. Outside, he heard yelling. On a patio where tech workers often grab lunch, he saw a man lying motionless on his back, blood staining his shirt. As he stared, a police officer with an assault rifle popped through a nearby gate.

Vorhies skateboarded away.

He was one of hundreds of YouTube employees whose workday was thrown into chaos as panic spread across the technology hub south of San Francisco.

"I thought, 'This is a mass casualty event,'" said Vorhies, 37. "I was terrified."

Some employees in a meeting heard rumbling and thought there had been an earthquake. It seemed serious, not just a standard emergency drill. As they moved toward an exit, they heard that someone had a gun.

"I looked down and saw blood drips on the floor and stairs," Todd Sherman, a product manager for YouTube tweeted. After peeking around for threats, he headed down the stairs and out the front of the building.

Police in tactical vests, helmets and rifles swarmed the campus soon after, coming upon a chaotic scene as workers ran from the area. Television footage showed people filing away with their hands up...

Still more.

Lais Ribeiro Turns Up the Heat (VIDEO)

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

ICYMI: W. August Mayer, Islamic Jihad, Cultural Marxism, and the Transformation of the West

At Amazon, W. August Mayer, Islamic Jihad, Cultural Marxism, and the Transformation of the West.

William J. Murray, Utopian Road to Hell

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, William J. Murray, Utopian Road to Hell: Enslaving America and the World With Central Planning.

Erick Erickson on the Cultural Revolution

At RCP, "The American Cultural Revolution":

Kevin Williamson has been fired by The Atlantic. Williamson is one of the great conservative intellectuals of our times. He has a keen wit and frequently engages in heterodox opinions that make his writing and thinking intriguing. For a decade he wrote at William F. Buckley's National Review until hired away last week by Jeffrey Goldberg, the Editor of The Atlantic.

The Atlantic fancies itself a place of intellectual diversity where the best writers across ideologies can share their views. But Williamson's hire drew burning rage from the left. Williamson's birth came from an unplanned pregnancy. Instead of aborting him, his birth mother gave him up for adoption. As you might imagine, Williamson has strongly held views on the matter of abortion. A week after hiring him, Jeffrey Goldberg bowed to the leftwing mob and fired Williamson for, in part, how he might make the pro-abortion women in the office feel.

Never mind Williamson's feelings on abortion and that he could have been aborted himself, the editor took the brave stand of worrying about the hypothetical feelings of pro-abortion women in the office. The left told us that the purges happening on college campuses were contained to the campus. Yet here we are today with one of the best voices of conservatism fired from a job for his conservative views.

It will only get worse...

Keep reading.

And on Twitter:

More from Goldberg’s memo: pic.twitter.com/gnTi9qpDZG

— Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) April 5, 2018

I've publicly argued with Kevin Williamson (who's a friend) over harsh things he's written, but he is one of the bravest and most talented writers I know. The Atlantic's cutting him loose under left-wing fire is deplorable. But clarifying. Definitely clarifying.

— Rod Dreher (@roddreher) April 5, 2018

If they didn’t know Kevin Williamson could be callous in pursuing his arguments, they didn’t do the most basic due diligence. And I doubt that. They were mau-maued into firing an intellectually honest writer for too much honesty.

— Virginia Postrel (@vpostrel) April 5, 2018

The left & @TheAtlantic are cowards.

They don’t believe in their liberal philosophy enough to think it can withstand opposing views.

Instead, they publicly execute Kevin Williamson as an example of what happens if you DARE challenge progressive ideology.

First Kevin. Then, you

— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) April 5, 2018

The Left is a disaster. SHAME. https://t.co/HVtue8houo

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) April 5, 2018