Things Will Be Different at the United Nations

Following-up, "Obama Administration Abstains as U.N. Votes to Condemn Israel Over Settlements (VIDEO)."

Less than a month from now.

Things will be different.

As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2016

Hailey Baldwin LOVE Advent 2016 (VIDEO)

I fell behind on my LOVE posting last night.

Here's Hailey Baldwin to catch up:

One-Day Shipping Available Today

I don't know if anyone's that hard up for last minute gifts, but Amazon's got one-day shipping available.

And some suggestions...

Dore Gold, Tower of Babble: How the United Nations Has Fueled Global Chaos, and The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City.

Caroline Glick, The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East.

Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, O Jerusalem!

Joshua Muravchik, Making David into Goliath: How the World Turned Against Israel.

Yossi Klein Halevi, Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation.

Martin Gilbert, Israel: A History.

Jed Babbin and Herbert London, The BDS War Against Israel: The Orwellian Campaign to Destroy Israel Through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement.

Roger Hardy, The Poisoned Well: Empire and Its Legacy in the Middle East.

Pat Condell: The United Nations is an Embarrassing Disgrace and Insult to Humanity (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Obama Administration Abstains as U.N. Votes to Condemn Israel Over Settlements (VIDEO)."

This video's four years old.

Mr. Pat appears a little leaner around the jowls, but his commentary's as biting as ever.

Obama Administration Abstains as U.N. Votes to Condemn Israel Over Settlements (VIDEO)

President Obama and his administration are working feverishly to sow as much evil as they possibly can before leaving office next month. The only consolation --- and it's a big one, thank God --- is that the incoming Trump regime will be like firecrackers in reversing every piece of blasted sod initiatives from this morally regressive refuse-stain of a presidency.

And if I haven't made myself clear enough, well, just get steamed a little yourself at the black-bark piece of human refuse Samantha Power's comments during her speech to the Security Council today. Behold human evil as it erupts in all its wicked hatred and bile:



Here's the story, at WSJ, "U.N. Censures Israeli Settlement Expansion as U.S. Declines to Block."

Benjamin Netanyahu's Christmas Message (VIDEO)

I love Benjamin Netanyahu.

His messages always make me feel so good and proud, and so welcomed in Israel.

I'm planning at trip to Israel, in fact. I'm not sure when. I have two trips on the agenda. I don't know if I can make it one big trip or not. I want to go to France, to Normandy, and I want to visit Auschwitz, in Poland. Then I want to go to Israel. That might be two trips, but we'll see. I'm not sure if my wife wants to go. She's not comfortable traveling outside of the U.S., and I don't blame her. But I'm not worried. Maybe this summer I'll be able to do some traveling. The time is right, financially as well as family-wise. I want my sons to go, especially my young son, who hasn't traveled a lot yet.

In any case, enjoy the prime minister's message, via the Conservative Treehouse:

'Listen children all is not lost, all is not lost. Oh no, no...'

CNN's going to run the Chicago documentary on January 1st. I keep seeing the ads for it, "CHICAGO’S AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY NOW MORE THAN EVER: THE HISTORY OF CHICAGO PREMIERES ON CNN ON JANUARY 1."

As noted at Wikipedia:

Second only to The Beach Boys in Billboard singles and albums chart success among American bands, Chicago is one of the longest-running and most successful rock groups, and one of the world's best-selling groups of all time, having sold more than 100 million records.

According to Billboard, Chicago was the leading US singles charting group during the 1970s. They have sold over 40 million units in the US, with 23 gold, 18 platinum, and 8 multi-platinum albums. Over the course of their career they have had five number-one albums and 21 top-ten singles. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 8, 2016 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York...

"Saturday in the Park" is one of my favorite all-time songs. I don't listen to it enough, come to think of it.

When Native Americans Were Arms Dealers — And Powerful, Formidable Warriors

I posted a bunch of links about the American West and Native Americans last night: "Two-Day Free Shipping Before Christmas."

I didn't know of this book, however, from David Silverman, Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America.

It's reviewed at the Los Angeles Times, "When Native Americans were arms dealers: A history revealed in 'Thundersticks'":

In the years after the American Revolution, Seminole Indians built an arsenal of weapons acquired from Cuban and British traders that allowed them to defend their lands as an alternate and well-armed Underground Railroad in what was then Spanish-controlled Florida. To the horror of Deep South elites, the Seminoles shielded and supplied guns to Panhandle communities of Black Seminoles, small villages peopled by plantation runaways, intermarried tribal members and freed slaves of the tribe themselves.

“Together they resolved to keep white Americans and their slave catchers out of Seminole territory,” historian David Silverman writes in “Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America.” “An alliance of militant Indians and black maroons supported by European resources was the materialization of a nightmare that had haunted white southerners ever since the seventeenth century.” ...

For the most part, Silverman avoids anthropological explanations for Native American tribes’ fascination with guns — save for the book’s title, which comes from a literal translation of the Narragansett word for gun, pésckunk. To explain the indigenous arms race that once gripped the continent, Silverman uses military history and political economy to chip away at Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs, and Steel” narrative, in which Europeans with superior weapons technology marched triumphantly through the Americas.

Instead, Silverman uncovers a history in which Indians quickly cornered a gun market, shocking European and American militaries with the breadth and superiority of their arms, most of them made in Britain or France. This indigenous arsenal explains why the Seminoles were able to repel the U.S. Army over three wars, spanning 1816 to 1858. Unable to best the tribe on the battlefield, the American military resorted to scorched-earth techniques — burning Seminole villages to the ground, destroying cattle herds — to starve the Seminoles and drastically reduce their population.

In contrast to a military that relied on the bureaucracy of purchase orders and shipping caravans to distribute its arms, the Seminoles’ decentralized backwoods armory lay scattered across the humid peninsula in dry, bark-lined underground caches. The tribe made  dugout canoe runs to Cuba to restock guns while raiding Florida sugar plantations for their lead-lined vats, which were melted down for ammunition. As the wars raged on, tribal leaders set up pseudo peace talks with military officials as a ruse to have their younger warriors sneak off into the bushes to buy guns from the opportunistic traders who followed U.S. military campaigns. Most notorious, tribal warriors seized muskets from the battlefield dead.

Among North American tribes of the colonial period, the Seminoles were far from alone in one-upping colonial powers to master a multinational supply network of arms. Silverman calls this phenomenon “a gun frontier,” a nimble, intertribal network of trade that created an arms race on the American continent, often decades before the arrival of sizeable numbers  of Euro-American settlers...

As you'll notice, the Seminoles don't appear to be the weakling victims of which the left always portrays American Indians. The tribe held off and defeated the U.S. army for half a century. While not all tribes had the capabilities and organization, Silverman's not the only one to document the fearsome fighting power of Native Americans. I linked yesterday S.C. Gwynne's, Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History, which also offers a powerful counter-narrative placing Native Americans at the center of hegemony for vast sections of the American frontier. It's important to keep this narrative in mind when you read stories of the "genocide" against American Indians, which is the left's dominant victim's narrative (and which is a lie).

2-Year-Old Boy Found Standing in the Rain Wearing Only a Soiled Diaper, Surrounded by a Pack of Dogs

Actually, the pack of dogs was "protective" of the child.

A policeman found the boy and "scooped" him up, then drove around the neighborhood to find his house with the front door wide open and the dogs in the living room.

What a sordid, even horrific, story.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Toddler in soiled diaper found surrounded by pack of dogs in Victorville park."

I've Finished Shelby Steele's, Shame

A great book and a quick read.

And most heartily recommended, Shelby Steele, Shame: How America’s Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country.

In any event, I started Steven E. Schier and Todd E. Eberly yesterday, Polarized: The Rise of Ideology in American Politics. It's great. Also a small volume, I expect to read it in just a couple of days.

That's not the case with Robert J. Gordon's, The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War. It's a great book but a hefty tome! I'm currently on Chapter 7: "Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Illness and Early Death."

Finally, I still have a ways to go on Exodus. I need to finish that up so I can start another novel. I read more non-fiction nowadays, but I still love a good novel.

I'll have more book blogging later today.

Sasha Abramsky, The American Way of Poverty

I'm just now seeing this.

I used to study U.S. anti-poverty policy in great detail. With the appointment Dr. Ben Carson as H.U.D. Secretary, perhaps we'll have a real discussion of poverty in America.

And of course, many in the white working class suffer from the same pathologies as the black underclass --- a point J.D. Vance raises in his book, Hillbilly Elegy --- so it's all the more vital from a public policy perspective.

In any case, see Sasha Abramsky, The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives.

Lauren Southern: Top 2016 Election Conspiracies (VIDEO)

Be sure to stay with this to the end. I'm not sure how Ms. Lauren can keep a straight face, but it's pretty funny.

And ICYMI, her new book, Barbarians: How The Baby Boomers, Immigration, and Islam Screwed my Generation.

Pipeline to America: Africans, Asians, Haitians — Migrants from Across the Globe Risk Everything to Cross Into the U.S.

Well, the more things develop, the more Donald Trump is proven correct.

Check out this sensational story, from the front page at today's Los Angeles Times, "Africans, Asians, Haitians: The sharp rise in non-Latin American migrants trying to cross into the U.S. from Mexico":

Haitians, Africans, Asians: Mexico’s border cities are getting overwhelmed with migrants headed to America https://t.co/eK7BYGLa85 pic.twitter.com/cdVZ3c3GLU

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) December 22, 2016

One morning in January, five men from Nepal showed up at the Casa del Migrante in Tijuana, looking for a bed for the night.

That’s odd, the shelter’s director, Father Patrick Murphy, remembers thinking.

This border city has been a gateway to generations of migrants fleeing poverty and violence in Mexico and Central America, people dreaming of a better life in the United States.

But Nepal was 8,000 miles away. What were they doing here?

Within months, Tijuana would be teeming with migrants from across the globe — from Haiti, India, Bangladesh and various parts of Africa — all hoping to reach the U.S.

In a surge Mexican officials are calling unprecedented, some 15,000 migrants from outside Latin America passed through Baja California this year — nearly five times the number seen in 2015.

More than a third of the detainees being held in California immigration holding centers in September were from outside Latin America, U.S. officials say.

As they traverse a circuitous and dangerous path up the spine of South America, Central America and Mexico, they have strained resources along the route and presented new challenges for securing America’s southern border.

And here's a personal story:

Emmanuel Ngunyi arrived in Tijuana on a flight from Mexico City, where he had spent a few days recovering from a tortuous journey that began with a flight from Cameroon to Ecuador and continued overland through half a dozen countries.

A member of Cameroon’s English-speaking minority, the 25-year-old had been jailed twice for supporting a banned secessionist movement. The second time was the worst, he said. His jailers tied him from a ceiling and raped him with a candle.

If he could make it to the U.S., he was convinced, “My life will be secure.”

Some countries were easy to get through, even without a visa. Officials were issuing permits to transiting migrants giving them a few days to cross their territory. But other places — Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama — had closed their borders to the migrants. He had to enlist the help of smugglers to cross vast stretches of jungle, swampland and mountains on foot.

In all, it took Ngunyi two months to reach Mexico and cost him nearly $10,000. It was mid-May when he landed in Tijuana, and the early morning chill made him shiver.

He tried to hire a taxi from the airport to the border, but got into an argument with the driver, who he said grabbed his phone and pushed him out of the car. So he decided to walk the last few miles.

There was a long line of people waiting to use the pedestrian crossing at San Ysidro. He walked to the front and told the first police officer he saw: “I want to request asylum in the United States.”

“Do you see people like you here?” the officer barked at him. He was sent to the back of the line.

When he made it to the front, he was escorted into the port of entry to wait for an interview with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The wait lasted most of the day, and he fell asleep on the tile floor.

At last, it was his turn to be questioned. An official asked his name, what country he came from, his address.

Then another official burst into the room. “No, no, no, we don’t have space for them,” he recalled her saying. “Back to Mexico. All of them back to Mexico.”

It was past midnight when Ngunyi found himself once again in Tijuana, the gate to America swinging shut behind him...

Interesting that these migrants are coming here. You know, they could always emigrate to Angela Merkel's Germany, before the Germans pull the welcome mat.

And stories like this are only going to bolster the GOP's case for securing the border. Donald Trump's got the pulse of the nation in this issue. It's why he's taking office on January 20th.

Still more.

Trump Should Quickly Rescind Obama's Drilling Ban

Well, that goes without saying.

But see Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "FASTER, PLEASE. Andrew McCarthy: Trump Should Quickly Rescind Obama’s Drilling Ban."

Background here, "Obama Bans Drilling in Parts of the Atlantic and the Arctic."

You know O's last regulatory rules are mostly out of spite. He's pissing in the ashes of his destruction.

Hannah Ferguson Reveals All During Her Body Painting Shoot (VIDEO)

This is too hot to embed!

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, "Hannah Ferguson Bears All In Body Paint Shoot."

Two-Day Free Shipping Before Christmas

If you're doing last-minute shopping at Amazon, today's your last chance for free two-day shipping.

So, what are you waiting for? Get cracking amigos!

Some suggestions for under the tree...

See Stephen Ambrose, Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West.

William C. Davis, The American Frontier: Pioneers, Settlers, and Cowboys 1800–1899.

Robert Bunting, The Pacific Raincoast: Environment and Culture of an American Eden.

Elliott West, The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story.

Nathaniel Philbrick, The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

S.C. Gwynne, Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History.

Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America.

Bob Drury, The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend.

Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West.

Peter Cozzens, The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West.

Jim Downing, The Other Side of Infamy [BUMPED

Hey, select two-day shipping and have these wonderful books delivered before Christmas.

At Amazon, Jim Downing, The Other Side of Infamy: My Journey through Pearl Harbor and the World of War.

Also, Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, A Matter of Honor: Pearl Harbor: Betrayal, Blame, and a Family's Quest for Justice.

And Donald Stratton, All the Gallant Men: An American Sailor's Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor.

Lauren Southern, Barbarians

Well, I love her videos. I expect her book will be good too. Indeed, she's getting excellent reviews at Amazon.

See Lauren Southern, Barbarians: How The Baby Boomers, Immigration, and Islam Screwed my Generation.

Tomi Lahren: Hey MTV Losers, Donald Trump's a White Male, Get Over It

Here's the irrepressible Tomi Lahren, who's got clips from the childish MTV '2017 Resolutions for White Guys' video.

Watch, "Tomi Lahren - Resolutions from a White Female to MTV - Final Thoughts With Tomi Lahren."

Amazon: A Disrupter of All Things

From Barry Ritholtz, at Bloomberg, "Woe to Those Disrupted by Amazon":

The more I think about what Amazon actually is, the closer I come to this: It’s a self-funding incubator that ruthlessly kills the ventures that don’t work (remember the Fire mobile phone?), while pouring cash into the ones that hold promise. It’s a marketplace for new and used products, a place to hire people for services, a content company, a software maker, a gadget business, a cloud company and so on. Oh, and it’s an online retailer that just happens to be the world’s sixth-biggest company by market value -- about $365 billion.

I still am not sure exactly what Amazon’s core business is or what it will end up being. I just hope it never sees an opportunity in any business I have a vested interest in.

You have to read the whole thing to fully understand the lesson.

I love Amazon though. I'm not worried about it crushing any of my own business ventures, heh.