Reporter Katya Leick Attacked by Cicadas (VIDEO)

This is pretty good, heh.

At KSTN Topeka:

Hey #Dolezal-Supporting Leftists, Even Salon Says She's a Sick Racial Appropriator and Lying Civil Rights Shakedown Artist

Heh, if you've lost Salon ...

See Mary Elizabeth Williams, via Memorandum, "Stop making excuses for Rachel Dolezal: The Spokane NAACP official’s fraud is unforgivable":

"Are you African-American?" "I don't understand the question” Who is supporting #RachelDolezal & who is not? 8p @CNN pic.twitter.com/QJrF7s6LKd

— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) June 12, 2015

Maybe if this story hadn’t blown up at such a unique moment in our cultural history — a moment when transgender rights are gaining unprecedented visibility while we still, tragically, have to say the words “Black lives matter” as if that should ever be up for discussion — Dolezal’s apparent ruse would not be sparking the conversation it has. But social media is already seizing on the debate over whether someone who “identifies as black” can be “transracial.” As a commenter on the Spokesman Review asked, “What’s wrong with identifying as a different race? Obviously she’s probably felt for years that she was black on the inside and denied it all through her childhood. I mean look at her education and profession. She’s obviously ‘transitioned’ and able to share it with the world. I would think since she’s transitioned and identifies herself as black, than we should just let her be and live her life in peace.” Let me help out here. No.

What you do with your hair is totally your business. And Dolezal still has supporters. Spokane NAACP’s Criminal Justice Committee chair Cedric Bradley told Inlander Thursday, “In my opinion, it wouldn’t make a difference to me. It’s not about black and white, it’s about what we can do for the community.”

But based on what is currently known about Dolezal, this is not a case of feeling more comfortable within a different culture. The Chicago Tribune reports that “Rachel Dolezal has said she has biracial parents, was abused by a step-father, and lived in South Africa as a child. Her parents say they are white. They also say she never had a step-father, and though the couple did live in South Africa, it was from 2002 to 2006, it was after Rachel had left the house and married.” And the Washington Post notes that her father told them that “When Rachel applied to Howard University to study art with a portfolio of ‘exclusively African American portraiture,’ the university ‘took her for a black woman’ and gave her a full scholarship.” The family also says that she has claimed that her now 21 year-old adopted brother, who is African American, is her son.

The city of Spokane, meanwhile, is looking into whether she misidentified her race on her Ombudsman Commission application. She also has a lengthy history, going back several years, of claiming she’s been targeted for hate crimes. Just this week, KXLY4′s Melissa Luck reported on Dolezal’s alleged problems, including one in which she told authorities “Someone had threatened her at work about her ethnicity.” She also claimed she’d received hate mail earlier this year. A police report indicates “the initial package Dolezal reported receiving did not bear a date stamp or bar code… it was either very unlikely or impossible that the package could have been processed through the post office, and that the only other alternative was that it had been put there by someone with a key.”

So this isn’t about being an ally, or making the family of your choosing, or even how one feels on the inside. It’s about, apparently, flat out deception. It’s about how one person chose to obtain a college education and jobs and credibility in her community. It about allegedly pretending to speak from a racial experience you simply don’t have. You want to live your truth, that’s not how you go about it. And it’s an insult to anyone honestly trying to do just that to suggest anything otherwise, for even a moment.

I'd add that anyone who is defending Dolezal, and especially those attacking people who've criticized and mocked the Montana-born racial appropriator, is a bad person who needs to take a hard look in the mirror and to check their ideological hatred before decency and common sense. YOU are a terrible human being if you're down with Dolezal's lying civil rights cultural appropriation shakedown scam. Shame on you.

New York Times to Block Employees' Desktop Access to Home Page Next Week

The Old Gray Lady really wants folks to read their paper on smartphones, heh.

At WSJ:

Next week NYT will block access to their homepage on desktop in their entire building. forced to read on mobile https://t.co/hkqat9fxx7

— Hadas Gold (@Hadas_Gold) June 12, 2015

Desk jockeys at the New York Times are about to get a lesson on the importance of mobile — whether they like it or not. Next week, the company will temporarily block access to the nytimes.com homepage on desktop computers at its headquarters, according to an email sent to staff Friday. Employees that try to access the desktop site will receive a message prompting them to switch over to phones or tablets.

“More than half of our traffic to The Times is on mobile. We’re hopeful that this temporary change will help spur us to make mobile an even more central part of everything that we do,” read the email, which was attributed to a handful of top newsroom and company executives, including Publisher and Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Executive Editor Dean Baquet.

The switch will apply to just the homepage on desktops, not all articles across the site.

The Times’s experiment comes as Web publishers reckon with a handful of unnerving shifts in digital media. Mobile traffic is on the rise, but publishers are struggling to monetize that audience. That has made new offerings like Facebook’s Instant Articles — where publishers can post articles directly to the service and take home most of the ad money — more attractive. In some cases, publishers already derive the lion’s share of their traffic from Facebook...

Obama Suffers Stunning Loss as Trade Bill is Defeated by #Pelosi Democrats

Heh, this is big!

At LAT, "Obama suffers big loss as trade bill is defeated at hands of Democrats."

Michelle Malkin has been all over this, hilariously so.

What part of "Stop selling out America?" don't Beltway crapweasels in both parties understand? http://t.co/v2CugIksCc pic.twitter.com/ObWmAlMXwe

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) June 12, 2015

Boehner's transformation into Pelosi is complete: Urges yes vote on Obamatrade...FOR THE KIDS==> https://t.co/7TJBfagNGP

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) June 12, 2015

Yep. @SenatorSessions is RIGHT on raw #tpp #tpa deal. Unfortunately, @SenTedCruz is wrong. #StopObamaTrade https://t.co/nCS16cWfY9

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) June 12, 2015

It's come to this: Boehner and Pelosi cross-dressing on Obamatrade==> https://t.co/aVe0lKccq7

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) June 12, 2015

Hilarious #WrongSkin Twitter Campaign Goes Viral

I guess it goes to show that Twitter truly is the great equalizer!

I mean, when you can knock Caitlyn Jenner out of the news, that's saying something.

Following-up from earlier, "Far-Left White Privilege Racial Appropriators: Stop Stealing My Ethnic Marginalization! — #Dolezal #WrongSkin."

The Mirror UK's got a write up on our hilariously confused "black" leftist Godfrey Elfwick.

#WrongSkin: Twitter campaign by white man who 'identifies as being black' goes viral http://t.co/jJaijt2XyK pic.twitter.com/OYZodfCZT2

— Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) June 12, 2015

Call Me Shaniqua! — #RachelDolezal #WrongSkin

I cannot stop laughing.

This Rachel Dolezal lady was made for Twitter!

Social media just kills me #RachelDolezal pic.twitter.com/SBIJCZK94V

— Jade (@Jaydemwah) June 12, 2015

Far-Left White Privilege Racial Appropriators: Stop Stealing My Ethnic Marginalization! — #Dolezal #WrongSkin

So this happened early this morning:

.@GodfreyElfwick Stop with the racial and cultural appropriation brother.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 12, 2015

.@GodfreyElfwick I'm black you idiot. I don't appreciate white people stealing black identity.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 12, 2015

I don't appreciate you denying my right to choose my cultural heritage. #MyBodyMyRules @AmPowerBlog

— Godfrey Elfwick (@GodfreyElfwick) June 12, 2015

.@GodfreyElfwick You're a despicable person attacking a real black man as a "honky." I'm sick of your shit. pic.twitter.com/fI5Skb83tU

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 12, 2015

.@MrBakunda I'm marginalized you dolt. @GodfreyElfwick stealing my marginalization and I want it back!

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 12, 2015

And man, turns out this is really a thing! A hilarious thing!!

@RoyCalbeck @AmPowerBlog @GodfreyElfwick I'm a black unicorn with a gold horn trapped in European human body.😭

— Bristol Common Sense (@BristolComSense) June 12, 2015

@AmPowerBlog @GodfreyElfwick Don't call him brother! He's not a white brother he's a black brother so don't call him that!

— Amadeus Winqvist (@Ammadillen) June 12, 2015

Sad for poor northern #transracial ppl like @GodfreyElfwick. I get atomic tans but he has to make do with shoe polish #wrongskin #struggle

— Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero) June 12, 2015

#cisblack ppl can be really racist against #transrace folk like me and @GodfreyElfwick but I’m all like pic.twitter.com/3uMLuUzikD

— Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero) June 12, 2015

They legitimately won't be happy until they take everything from us. INCLUDING OUR ACTUAL SKIN COLOR https://t.co/FLFjrwpd2r

— NO JUSTICE NO PEACE (@GrandDuchessRae) June 12, 2015

When you are #transracial, everything changes. pic.twitter.com/MmsN3A8yfo

— Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero) June 12, 2015

If you support transgender rights but deny the lived experience of #transracial #WrongSkin and erase our identities you are a hateful bigot

— Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero) June 12, 2015

You're a dumbfuck and I honestly hate you with all my heart black is not a feeling black is not a state of mind https://t.co/8Dpe67OLu0

— Emma (@SlavetoJackson) June 12, 2015

You're not in the wrong skin your white trash saying a tan is equivalent to knowing the black struggle, get shot https://t.co/ogw8TVAEOy

— Emma (@SlavetoJackson) June 12, 2015

You're a dumbfuck and I honestly hate you with all my heart black is not a feeling black is not a state of mind https://t.co/8Dpe67OLu0

— Emma (@SlavetoJackson) June 12, 2015

I've been experimenting with blackface in my home because society said it was unacceptable in public. Tomorrow we #EndTheStigma #WrongSkin

— Ricky Vaughn (@Ricky_Vaughn99) June 12, 2015

Boeing Dreamliner Near Vertical Take-Off

This is phenomenal.

Video here: "New Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner performs near vertical take-off."

At Telegraph UK:

Pass the sick-bag: Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner lifts off in near-vertical ascent http://t.co/mzH9BI96uB pic.twitter.com/IqorsfMM5Q

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 12, 2015

Legacy of Joseph Stalin Enjoys Resurgence in Putin's Russia

At LAT, "Putin, once critical of Stalin, now embraces Soviet dictator's tactics":

Only six years ago, President Vladimir Putin visited the Polish port of Gdansk, birthplace of the Solidarity movement that threw off Soviet domination, and reassured his Eastern European neighbors that Russia had only friendly intentions.

Putin spoke harshly that day of the notorious World War II-era pact that former Soviet leader Josef Stalin had signed with Adolf Hitler — an agreement that cleared the way for the Nazi occupation of Poland and Soviet domination of the Baltics — calling it a "collusion to solve one's problems at others' expense."

But Putin's view of history appears to have undergone a startling transformation. Last month, the Russian leader praised the 1939 nonaggression accord with Hitler as a clever maneuver that forestalled war with Germany. Stalin's 29-year reign, generally seen by Russians in recent years as a dark and bloody chapter in the nation's history, has lately been applauded by Putin and his supporters as the foundation on which the great Soviet superpower was built.

Across a resurgent Russia, Stalin lives again, at least in the minds and hearts of Russian nationalists who see Putin as heir to the former dictator's model of iron-fisted rule. Recent tributes celebrate Stalin's military command acumen and geopolitical prowess. His ruthless repression of enemies, real and imagined, has been brushed aside by today's Kremlin leader as the cost to be paid for defeating the Nazis.

As Putin has sought to recover territory lost in the 1991 Soviet breakup, his Stalinesque claim to a right to a "sphere of influence" has allowed him to legitimize the seizure of Crimea from Ukraine and declare an obligation to defend Russians and Russian speakers beyond his nation's borders.

On May 9, the 70th anniversary of the Allied war victory was marked and Stalin's image was put on display with glorifying war films, T-shirts, billboards and posters. Framed portraits of the mustachioed generalissimo were carried by marchers in Red Square's Victory Day parade and in the million-strong civic procession that followed to honor all who fell in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War.

Putin's embrace of Stalin's power-play tactics is applauded by many Russians and other former Soviet citizens as the sort of decisive leadership they longed for while watching communism collapse around them. To the proponents of a reinvigorated Russia, reformist Mikhail Gorbachev and his successor, Boris Yeltsin, are seen as having submitted Russia to Western domination.

Stalin "kept us all together, there was a friendship of nations, and without him everything fell apart," said Suliko Megrelidze, a 79-year-old native of Stalin's Georgian birthplace who sells dried fruit and spices at a farmers market. "We need someone like him if we want peace and freedom from those fascists in Europe and America."

Such sentiments are no longer confined to those with actual memories of the Stalin era. A poll this spring by the independent Levada Center found 39% of respondents had a positive opinion of Stalin. As to the millions killed, 45% of those surveyed agreed that the deaths could be justified for the greater accomplishments of winning the war, building modern industries and growing to eventually give their U.S. nemesis a battle for supremacy in the arms race and conquering outer space.

The share of Russians who look back approvingly has been increasing steadily in recent years, and the segment of those who tell pollsters they have no opinion on his place in their history has shot up even more sharply, said Denis Volkov, a sociologist with the Levada Center. He points to this year's massive Victory Day events as the Kremlin's message to ungrateful neighbors that they owe their peace and prosperity to the wartime deaths of more than 20 million Soviet citizens...

American Hegemony Is Here to Stay

Never heard of this Salvatore Babones dude, but this is great.

This is the "BIG ARTICLE" - please read, everyone - "American Hegemony Is Here to Stay" @thenatlinterest http://t.co/nQstPrdSvX

— Salvatore Babones (@sbabones) June 11, 2015

Twitter Chief Stepping Down as Growth Weakens

Maybe we're going to have to pay for Twitter pretty soon, since it appears no one's found a way to grow the company.

At WSJ, "Twitter CEO Dick Costolo Stepping Down":

Dick Costolo is stepping down as Twitter Inc.’s chief executive after five years, as Wall Street began losing faith in him and the social-media company’s future growth.

The move puts a spotlight back on co-founder and Chairman Jack Dorsey, who will serve as interim CEO while he remains chief executive of payments startup Square Inc. Mr. Dorsey was Twitter’s first CEO from May 2007 to October 2008.

Twitter said it would be looking both inside and outside the company for a new chief.

Notably, Mr. Dorsey isn’t part of the search committee, which will include board members Peter Currie, Peter Fenton and co-founder Evan Williams.

Mr. Dorsey declined to comment on whether he would accept the job if it were offered to him. “I’m not going to answer that question because it’s not what I’m focused on,” he said in an interview. He said he already spends his time at both Twitter and Square, which are located on the same block in San Francisco.

Mr. Costolo’s departure July 1 will leave Twitter without a permanent replacement while the company wrestles with mounting questions from investors as to whether it can overcome disappointing user growth, a series of executive changes and flip-flopping on product strategy.

Messrs. Dorsey and Costolo said that the transition is happening only because Mr. Costolo, 51 years old, wanted to move on. Mr. Costolo said he began discussions with the board at the end of last year and continued those talks through last week when he and the board came to an agreement.

“There’s never a perfect time to do these things,” Mr. Costolo said in an interview.

Under Mr. Costolo, Twitter evolved from a scrappy startup to a public company with a market value of some $25 billion. At the same time, the 140-character messaging service gained cultural prominence, becoming a powerful microphone for celebrities, activists and citizen journalists.

Mr. Costolo has been credited with helping the company formulate its business plan in its early days and rallying the troops after a contentious fight between co-founders Messrs. Dorsey and Williams.

But the former improv comedian’s strengths—his ability to make snap decisions—frustrated senior executives as the company faced the scrutiny of Wall Street after it went public in November 2013, according to current and former employees.

During Twitter’s first year as a public company, Mr. Costolo replaced or lost five direct reports, including his chief operating officer Ali Rowghani and chief financial officer Mike Gupta. He also replaced his product chief four times as the company struggled to release critical features to make the product easier to use.

Mr. Costolo has attempted to right the ship in recent months. He elevated veteran executive Kevin Weil to run consumer products, and since then Twitter has rolled out new features at a faster pace. Whereas its private chat feature was left untouched for years, it can now support group chats, users can share photos, and on Thursday, Twitter said it would be getting rid of the 140-character limitation on each message.

Mr. Costolo has sought to get investors to focus on the size of Twitter’s reach—an audience that sees Twitter content but doesn’t use the service—instead of the 302 million users who sign in once a month. That user base only grew 18% in the year through March 31, and remains about one-fifth the size of users who log into Facebook Inc.

Making matters worse for Mr. Costolo, Twitter reported its weakest quarterly revenue growth in April, sending its stock down nearly 20%, throwing into doubt Twitter’s one consistent bright spot. The disappointing earnings report suggested that the company’s advertising strategy might be faltering. Twitter’s revenue, which grew 74% from a year earlier to $435.9 million, fell short of its own projections as well as analysts’ forecasts.

Shares finished Thursday at $35.84 on the New York Stock Exchange, little changed, before rising 4% after hours following the announcement on Mr. Costolo. Since the company’s first day of trading, the shares are down about 20% through Thursday’s close.

“I don’t think Costolo by himself was an impediment to the growth of the business,” said Mark Mahaney, analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “There’s been more C-level turnover at this company than I have ever witnessed in the year-and-half after the IPO of any company.”

In its announcement Thursday, Twitter sought to give confidence to investors. The company reaffirmed its second-quarter outlook, expecting revenue of $470 million to $485 million and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $97 million to $102 million.

Mr. Costolo’s resignation immediately raises the question about who will succeed him...

And go to Techmeme, "Dick Costolo to step down as Twitter CEO, will remain on board; Jack Dorsey to become interim CEO effective July 1."

Rachel Dolezal, Spokane NAACP President, Misrepresented Her Race in Years-Long Cultural Appropriation Scam (VIDEO)

This is truly mind-boggling to me.

At Weasel Zippers, "Unbelievable: Head of Spokane NAACP Falsely Portrays Herself as Black, Family Says…"

And at Gateway Pundit, "NAACP President Is BUSTED as FRAUD – SHE’S ACTUALLY WHITE & BORN IN MONTANA!"

More at KXLY‑TV 4 Spokane, "Did NAACP president lie about her race? City investigates":

SPOKANE, Wash. - The City of Spokane announced Thursday it's investigating whether the president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP violated the city's code of ethics in her application to serve on the citizen police ombudsman commission.

Rachel Dolezal serves as chair of the independent commission, in addition to her work as an adjunct faculty member at Eastern Washington University and president of the NAACP local chapter. On her application to serve on the commission, she identified herself as African-American. But public records, including Dolezal's own birth certificate, list her biological parents as Ruthanne and Lawrence Dolezal of Montana. The Dolezals told KXLY Thursday that Rachel is their biological daughter and that they are both white.

"We are committed to independent citizen oversight and take very seriously the concerns raised regarding the chair of the independent citizen police ombudsman commission," Mayor David Condon and City Council President Ben Stuckart said it a joint statement Thursday. "We are gathering facts to determine if any city policies related to volunteer boards and commissions have been violated. That information will be reviewed by the City Council, which has oversight of city boards and commissions."

On the NAACP Spokane Facebook page, a picture was posted earlier this year showing Dolezal and an African-American man. In the post, he's identified as Dolezal's father. KXLY4's Jeff Humphrey asked Dolezal about that claim Wednesday afternoon.

"Ma'am, I was wondering if your dad really is an African-American man," Humphrey asked.

"I don't understand the question," Dolezal answered. "I did tell you [that man in the picture] is my dad."

"Are your parents white?" Humphrey asked. At that point, Dolezal removed the microphone, ended the interview and walked away....

More

Also at BuzzFeed, "A Civil Rights Leader Has Disguised Herself as Black for Years, Her Parents Say."

This is how far we've come on race relations in America. A white woman born in Montana passes herself off as black American in an obvious cultural appropriation rip off. It's perfectly representative of what's become of "progressivism" today. The truth never matters. Reality is whatever you want it to be. You can paint your skin with faux-mulatto pigmentation and then give community lectures on "Ferguson and Race Relations in America." This scandal proves that racial grievance is a massive industry with tremendous resources to be bilked from a deep well of decent, regular people constantly under assault and made to feel guilty for the color of their skin.

It's so sick and abusive it makes me ashamed for my country.

Added: From Daniel Greenfield, at FrontPage Magazine, "NAACP Leader Exposed as White After Faking Hate Crime."

Jackie Johnson's Got Your Weekend Forecast

It's pretty much classic June gloom right now.

At CBS Los Angeles, "Jackie Johnson's Weather Forecast (June 11)."

Florence and the Machine Streamline Their Sound in 'How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful'

Florence Welch is cool.

She's got a new record out with the band: "How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful [Deluxe Edition]."

See the Los Angeles Times, "Florence Welch says no tricks on new, stripped-down Florence and the Machine album."

To put these songs into the world, you've got to be OK w/them yourself @flo_tweet @MikaelWood http://t.co/KRapD5T0QG pic.twitter.com/YrNWHAR0dh

— Cindy Hively (@cindyhively) May 29, 2015

Some Afternoon Rule 5

At Daley Gator, "Sexy Poses."

At the Other McCain, "Rule 5 Sunday: Welcome to Las Vegas."

Also at Pirate's Cove, "If All You See……is a tree stump, the last remnants of a tree killed by carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist."

And at Knuckledraggin', "Well, a couple of good things came out of Oklahoma."

Photo pic.twitter.com/xltMJh9oaP

— Tacticalpeaks (@tacticalpeaks) June 4, 2015

BONUS: At Drunken Stepfather, "KENDALL JENNER IN A PRINT AD OF THE DAY." Plus, "TAYLOR SWIFT INFLATABLE WITH HER BOYFRIEND OF THE DAY," and "KATY PERRY FASHION MODEL OF THE DAY."

I Give You Anthony Berteaux, Author of 'Open Letter to Jerry Seinfeld' on the Politically Correct Way to Do Comedy

My God, is this kid out of central casting, or what?

This little twerp published his crappy politically correct drivel at PuffHo, "An Open Letter to Jerry Seinfeld from a 'Politically Correct' College Student."

See AoSHQ for the takedown, "College Student to Jerry Seinfeld: Sir, I Shall Now Endeavor to Explain Comedy to You."

I give you Anthony Berteaux:

@AceofSpadesHQ Author of the "That's not funny" piece in Puffho: pic.twitter.com/kFqh7C6G1v

— Gary Crant (@Beefsteak101) June 10, 2015

.@thebasedviking pic.twitter.com/hWbQl5HLHF

— Snark Enlightenment (@jokeocracy) June 10, 2015

Hey Leftists, Time to Stop Saying 'You Guys,' You Hypocritical Sexist Ghouls

Heh, at Althouse, "'Why I’m finally convinced it's time to stop saying 'you guys'.'"

And at Twitchy, "Hey! You g*ys! Vox has proclaimed that ‘you guys’ is totes sexist for reals."

You gotta love the hilarious lack of self-awareness among the sexist ghouls on the radical left.

Shot and chaser: pic.twitter.com/gzAkWKOXZn

— CounterMoonbat (@CounterMoonbat) June 11, 2015

You know what? Vox is right. Saying "you guys" is sexist and wrong and tota... Oops! pic.twitter.com/Dhzg8Sx0dj

— neontaster (@neontaster) June 11, 2015

Honda Enters the Street Legal Superbike Race with Race Replica Retailing for Eye-Popping $184,000

Crazy.

Honda's $184K superbike http://t.co/k6WI0WiBZD Made to order, and street legal

— charles fleming (@misterfleming) June 11, 2015

The College Board’s Sabotage of American History

Here's Daniel Henninger from yesterday's Wall Street Journal, "Bye, Bye, American History: Professors and historians urged opposition to the College Board’s new curriculum for teaching AP U.S. History." (At Memeorandum.)

Comment from Dave Blount, at RWN, "College Board Prepares Cultural Marxist Attack on American History."

And don't miss Michelle Malkin, who wrote on this last week:

Read this key passage from U.S. historians' protest against #apush - Exactly right==> pic.twitter.com/V1EgopERKJ

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) June 2, 2015

A stellar group of American historians and academics released a milestone open letter yesterday in protest of deleterious changes to the advanced placement U.S. history (APUSH) exam. The signatories are bold intellectual bulwarks against increasing progressive attacks in the classroom on America’s unique ideals and institutions.

Moms and dads in my adopted home state of Colorado have been mocked and demonized for helping to lead the fight against the anti-American changes to APUSH. But if there’s any hope at all in salvaging local control over our kids’ curriculum, it lies in the willingness of a broad coalition of educators and parents to join in the front lines for battles exactly like this one.

As the 55 distinguished members of the National Association of Scholars explained this week, the teaching of American history faces “a grave new risk.” So-called “reforms” by the College Board, which holds a virtual monopoly on A.P. testing across the country, “abandon a rigorous insistence on content” in favor of downplaying “American citizenship and American world leadership in favor of a more global and transnational perspective.”

The top-down APUSH framework eschews vivid, content-rich history lessons on the Constitution for “such abstractions as ‘identity,’ ‘peopling,’ ‘work, exchange and technology,’ and ‘human geography’ while downplaying essential subjects, such as the sources, meaning and development of America’s ideals and political institutions.” The scholars, who hail from institutions ranging from Notre Dame and Stanford to the University of Virginia, Baylor, CUNY, Georgetown and Ohio State, decried the aggressive centralization of power over how teachers will be able to teach the story of America.

This is not a bug. It’s a feature, as I’ve been reporting for years on Fed Ed matters. These so-called APUSH reforms by the College Board, after all, are part and parcel of a radical upheaval in testing, textbooks and educational technology. It is no coincidence that the College Board’s president, David Coleman, supervised the Beltway operation that drafted, disseminated and profits from the federal Common Core standards racket.

The social justice warriors of government education have long sought, as the NAS signatories correctly diagnosed it, “to de-center American history and subordinate it to a global and heavily social-scientific perspective.” Their mission is not to impart knowledge, but to instigate racial, social and class divisions. Their mission is not to assimilate new generations of students into the American way of life, but to turn them against capitalism, individualism and American exceptionalism in favor of left-wing activism and poisonous identity politics.

The late far-left historian Howard Zinn has indoctrinated generations of teachers and students who see education as a militant political “counterforce” (an echo of fellow radical academic, domestic terrorist and Hugo Chavez-admirer Bill Ayers’ proclamation of education as the “motor-force of revolution.”) Teachers aim to “empower” student collectivism by emphasizing “the role of working people, women, people of color and organized social movements.” School officials are not facilitators of intellectual inquiry, but leaders of “social struggle.”

The APUSH critics make clear in their protest letter that they champion a “warts and all” pedagogical approach to their U.S. history lessons. But they point out that “elections, wars, diplomacy, inventions, discoveries — all these formerly central subjects tend to dissolve into the vagaries of identity-group conflict” as a result of the APUSH overhaul.

“Gone is the idea that history should provide a fund of compelling stories about exemplary people and events,” the scholars point out. “No longer will students hear about America as a dynamic and exemplary nation, flawed in many respects, but whose citizens have striven through the years toward the more perfect realization of its professed ideals.”

Michelle new book is at Amazon, Who Built That: Awe-Inspiring Stories of American Tinkerpreneurs.

Anti-Slut Walk Video Gets 300,000 Views in Just Over 12 Hours!

At Rebel Media, "'There Is No Rape Culture in the West': She held up that sign at SlutWalk, and this is what happened."

Hat Tip: Five Feet of Fury.

Father's Day Gifts — Get 20 Percent Off

Do some shopping!

Fox Plans Second-Tier Debate in Response to Threat from N.H. Newspaper

At National Journal, "Candidates who don't meet the criteria for the prime-time event will get to make their cases to voters on television earlier the same day."

Also at LAT, "New Hampshire fights to maintain its status in campaign season."

Holly Williams Reports: Local Militias Say #ISIS Advanced 20 Miles Tuesday, Seizing Power Plant Just Outside Sirte

Via CBS News This Morning, "Libyan militias scramble as ISIS seizes territory."

New Video Shows Suspect Getting 'Horrific' Beating by Salinas Police

The never ending story.

We might as well take police off the job in America. They can't win no matter what the circumstances.

Watch, at CBS News San Francisco, "Use of Force by Salinas Police Under Scrutiny."

Also at the Monterey County Herald, "Man’s beating, arrest by Salinas PD caught on video."

Nyjah Huston Wins Gold in Men's Skateboard Street Final at X Games Austin 2015

Nyjah's freakin' incredible.

Delicious Melissa Debling

For Zoo Today, "Melissa Debling strips ready for bed!"

Hannah Davis Super Sexy Outtakes

For Sports Illustrated Swimsuit.

Here, "Fun and Sexy outtakes from Hannah Davis' SI Swimsuit 2015 shoot in Blackberry Farm, TN."

Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points: Back to Iraq

There's no difference between ISIS and the Nazi regime, yet still America dithers under Obama.

O'Reilly keeps hammering President Oppeasement:



PREVIOUSLY: "Obama: No Plan to Stop Islamic State."

Anonymous Baltimore Cops to CNN: Public Asked for 'Softer' Police Force, They Got It (VIDEO)

At Gateway Pundit, "Baltimore Cops: “Public Asked for Softer, Less Aggressive Police Dept. & We’ve Given Them That” (VIDEO)."



BONUS: At Truth Revolt, "Prosecutor Had Asked Cops to Target Area Where Freddie Gray Was Arrested."

Happy Birthday Kate Upton!

The lovely Ms. Upton turned 23 today.

Help us wish two-time #SISwim cover model @KateUpton a happy birthday! We love you, Kate! http://t.co/VdMtT2PtMj pic.twitter.com/jYb3hR6CHv

— SI Swimsuit (@SI_Swimsuit) June 10, 2015

BONUS: "Kate Upton Uncensored Topless Pic Leaks Online."

Obama's Iraq Escalation Needs More Than 450 Advisors

As Charles Krauthammer was saying the other day on O'Reilly's, Obama's just going through the motions, looking to offload the Iraq clusterfuck onto the next presidential administration in 2017.

Hopefully, Islamic State won't use weapons of mass destruction before then.

At WSJ, "Obama’s Latest Iraq Escalation":

President Obama all but admitted on Wednesday that his strategy against the Islamic State is failing by ordering an additional 450 U.S. military advisers to join the 3,500 already in Iraq. Alas, this looks like more of the half-hearted incrementalism that hasn’t worked so far.

The new troops won’t be used as spotters to call in airstrikes against Islamic State, much less join Iraqis at the front lines. Apache helicopters won’t provide air cover for Iraqi soldiers. There won’t be additional special forces to conduct raids against high-value targets. The highest ranking U.S. military officer will remain a mere two-star general.

Instead, the additional advisers will buttress Mr. Obama’s current strategy at the margins by putting Iraqi troops and Sunni tribesmen through a basic training course of between two and four weeks. This may be enough to show recruits how to march in drill and maintain and fire a AK-47.

But as retired four-star Gen. Jack Keane told us Wednesday, while the training is helpful, it “is insufficient to transfer a civilian to the physical, psychological and disciplinary demands of combat. And it doesn’t address the leader issue in terms of quantity or quality.”

That second point is vital, since the Iraqi army suffers from a dearth of competent and courageous leaders, particularly at the tactical levels of command. “We were not deserters,” one soldier told the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Aswat after Mosul fell last June. “Our commanders abandoned us while we were sleeping in the night, and fled by helicopter.”

A similar point concerns the weapons the Administration now wants to rush to the Iraqis, including the Kurdish peshmerga and the Sunni tribes. The Kurds in particular need heavier weapons to deter Islamic State in Iraq’s north. But the danger of delivering stores of American arms to ill-led Iraqi troops has been plain every time they abandoned positions and equipment amid Islamic State advances, most recently during the fall of Ramadi.

Some of these deficiencies could no doubt be addressed by a more robust training program, though 450 more advisers is still too few. General Keane, who was instrumental in devising the surge strategy that saved Iraq in 2007, also makes the case for putting a three-star general in command of the effort—someone with the political clout and organizational pull that made Generals David Petraeus and Raymond Odierno so effective.

Mr. Obama’s mini-escalation includes setting up a new U.S. training base in Anbar province. This is progress, but it would do more good if it became the headquarters of a brigade combat team that would oversee the training and could help the Sunni tribes with medical evacuations, secure travel and force protection. A combat brigade is some 4,000 heavily equipped soldiers.

This kind of deployment would be a show of seriousness of the scale that’s needed to persuade Sunni Arabs to risk their lives against Islamic State. Iraqi soldiers may not have the officers they deserve, but they are still likely to fight if they know there’s an Apache helicopter clearing their advance. That dynamic took hold during the 2007 surge, when American successes emboldened the Iraqis to drive out the Shiite Mahdi Army from the southern city of Basra in 2008.

The fundamental problem with Mr. Obama’s strategy is that he is so determined to show that the U.S. isn’t returning to war in Iraq that he isn’t doing enough to win the war we are fighting...

Yep, that's the fundamental problem. Obama is determined to double down on his abandonment of the Iraqi people and on his betrayal of the American troops who died to secure Iraq when Bush was still in office. This administration is treasonous.

Still more.

NPR's Diane Rehm Smears Socialist Bernie Sanders as 'Dual Citizen' of U.S. and Israel

Sanders was offended.

God, it's like leftists have run out of ideological enemies and have started to eat their own.

At Politico, "Bernie Sanders offended by Diane Rehm's Israeli citizenship question" (via Memeorandum).

North Miami Senior High School Principal Fired for Comments Defending #McKinney Police Officer

Man, this is ominous.

At Gateway Pundit, "BREAKING: Principal LOSES JOB for Defending McKinney Police Officer Casebolt (VIDEO)."

And at the Miami Herald, "Miami-Dade schools remove principal after his post about police controversy":

.@Cameron_Gray Tyranny has descended on this once great nation, big time.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 10, 2015

The principal of North Miami Senior High School inadvertently injected himself into the racially charged national debate over police treatment of blacks with a social media comment — and it wound up costing him his position at the school.

The Miami-Dade County school district announced Wednesday that Alberto Iber had been removed as principal after going online to defend a white Texas police officer who waved a gun at black teens while responding to a call about an unruly pool party.

In a brief statement, the district said employees are required to conduct themselves, both personally and professionally, in a manner that represents the school district’s core values. The district said a replacement would be named shortly and that Iber would be reassigned to administrative duties.

“Judgment is the currency of honesty,” said Superintendent of Schools Alberto Carvalho. “Insensitivity — intentional or perceived — is both unacceptable and inconsistent with our policies, but more importantly with our expectation of common sense behavior that elevates the dignity and humanity of all, beginning with children.”

Cellphone footage from McKinney, Texas, caught white officer David Eric Casebolt throwing a black teenage girl to the ground, then briefly drawing his gun while responding to a call about an raucous pool party. The incident last week was just the latest in a string of encounters that have sparked charges of abusive police treatment of minorities.

Iber — in a brief public post on a story on the Miami Herald’s website — defended the officer’s response.

“He did nothing wrong,” Iber wrote in a comment that showed his Facebook picture, name, school and title. “He was afraid for his life. I commend him for his actions.”

Iber’s stance quickly prompted a passionate online response from Ambrose Sims, a black, retired Miami Beach Police veteran who joined the force at a time of racial strife in Miami in the 1980s. He also came out as gay and led a campaign for equal rights. Sims wrote, in part: “Such a comment reveals to me that you’re a serious part of the problem.”

Iber’s comment — which was removed after a few hours but not before being captured in screen grabs that were circulated in the community — also raised eyebrows in North Miami, a diverse city in northeast Miami-Dade where a majority of residents are black. The student body at his school also is 99 percent minority, according to state records.

Alix Desulme, a recently elected councilman who is Haitian-American and also a school teacher, said he was “appalled.”

“For him to make such a comment is insensitive to the community,” Desulme said.

Iber responded to a reporter’s questions on Tuesday by reading a prepared statement.

“I support law enforcement, and also the community and students that I serve as the proud principal of North Miami Senior High,’’ he said. “The comment I posted was simply made as the result of a short video that I watched and my personal opinion.”

Iber, who just finished his first year as the head of North Miami Senior, said he meant to write the comment anonymously.

“I regret that I posted the comment as it apparently became newsworthy and has apparently upset people,’’ he said. “That was not my intention in any way.”

Fired for stating his opinion. Fired. That's it.

That is a First Amendment violation, big time.

The collectivist-left. Destroying this once-great country one citizen at a time.

The Foolish Socialism of Bernie Sanders

From A. Barton Hinkle, at Reason, "Let the presidential candidate have his way and watch the U.S. economy implode":

A couple of weeks ago, Sanders took an uncompromising stand against deodorant proliferation. A growing economy doesn’t matter to most people if all the benefits of growth are going to the top 1 percent, he told CNBC: “You can’t just continue growth for the sake of growth. ... You don’t necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants or of 18 different pairs of sneakers when children are hungry in this country.”

Sanders doesn’t oppose deodorant per se, thank goodness. Rather, as a writer at Demos put it, Sanders would “gladly cut poverty and inequality even if it meant a reduction in superficial product innovation.”

He objects to “the dizzying (and socially useless) number of products in the deodorant category. ... (C)utting poverty and inequality is worth a reduction in innovation, and oh by the way, the kinds of things we call ‘innovation’ are often little more than new marketing gimmicks with dubious social value.” And that, friends and neighbors, is why “we should distribute the national income more evenly.”

This is superficially appealing. We can all think of products that strike us as stupid and useless (Uggs? Pickle-flavored potato chips? Country music?). And we can all think of better recipients for the money spent on them: Starving children. Endangered elephants. Cancer research. In what kind of universe does Kanye West deserve millions in income while homeless veterans are eating out of garbage cans?

But the superficial appeal quickly fades in the face of two competing considerations—one practical, the other principled.

For a peek at the practical argument, avail yourself of a fine little vignette from The Washington Post: “In an Online World, Cuba Remains a Stand-in-Line Society.” At Havana’s state-run retail hubs, reports Nick Miroff, “Customers with long shopping lists face no fewer than seven places to stand in line. One for butter. Another for cooking oil. A third for toothpaste. And so on.” The caption to a dismal accompanying photograph shows people waiting “hours for their government ration of chicken.”

This is what happens when central planners think they can allocate economic resources better than the unguided hand of individual free choice...

But remember, the left's elitist, know-it-all Marxists will argue that Cuba's "actually existing socialism" is a perversion of the genuine Utopian socialism of the Marxist dialectical ideal. Nothing proves socialism wrong "because it's never been tried."

That's the left's Big Lie of the 20th century --- and increasingly, the 21st.

Road Rage Fight Caught on Tape

Well, dude who was cutting the other guy off got has ass kicked --- and he was nearly knocked into traffic and killed.

Sheesh.

The Obama Administration is Obligating Schools to Deny Students Their Constitutional Rights

At great piece on "rape culture" authoritarianism, at Red Millennial, "The Constitution Does Not Apply When Feminist Goals Are at Stake."

Learn How Title IX Hurts the Accuser and the Accused http://t.co/Yiq6slCbKi #rapeculture #feminism #mattressgirl pic.twitter.com/tuBZTsHeLO

— Red Millennial (@RedMillennial) June 9, 2015

New York Prison Break Manhunt Continues

At CBS News New York, "Manhunt Continues for Escaped Convicted Murderers," and "Investigators Seek Accomplices, Answers In Upstate Prison Escape."

Also at the New York Times, "How 2 Murderers Escaped From a New York Maximum-Security Prison, and the Manhunt That Followed."

In Major Setback for 'Pro-Choice' Ghouls, 5th Circuit Upholds Key Parts of Texas Anti-Abortion Law

Good.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Controversial Texas abortion law upheld by federal appeals court."

And at PuffHo, "Many Clinics Likely to Close as Federal Appeals Court Upholds Texas Abortion Restrictions."

Shut 'em down --- and good riddance to the murderous abortion hell holes.

Court Upholds Texas Pro-Life Law Closing Abortion Clinics, Saving 10,000 From Abortion http://t.co/R8LUPxep2I pic.twitter.com/oXjh9zxaHg

— LifeNews.com (@LifeNewsHQ) June 10, 2015

Federal appeals court upholds strict Texas abortion law, a decision opponents say will shut most clinics in the state http://t.co/vqgf34yiqp

— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) June 10, 2015

Pierre-Luc Gagnon Wins Gold in Skateboard Vert Final at X Games Austin 2015

Way cool.

Vincent Musetto Dies: Wrote New York Post Headline, 'HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR'

At Althouse, "Arguably the greatest headline of all time (especially if greatness is measured by memorability out of proportion to the significance of the news that was reported)."

Marco Rubio's 'Luxury Speedboat' is a Fishing Boat

The Internet was abuzz this morning with the New York Times' smear of Marco Rubio:

The troubled financial history of @MarcoRubio has created particular complications for his presidential campaign http://t.co/pn5YWXzCUk

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 10, 2015

Ace of Spades HQ rips the Old Gray Lady to shreds, "NYT Reveals that Marco Rubio Once Spent $80,000 on a 'Luxury Speedboat'; Update: 'Luxury Speedboat' in Question is a Nice, but Hardly Luxe, Fishing Boat." Also, "Shots Fired: Super-Biased, Error-Ridden NYT Very Defensive About All Its Mistakes and Biases."

Rubio's luxury speedboat....is a fishing boat. http://t.co/Vc5k6jamII pic.twitter.com/jnz7nKSjLa

— Hadas Gold (@Hadas_Gold) June 9, 2015

Rebecca Hall Plunging Cleavage for Harper's

And lots more, at Egotastic!, "READER FINDS: Emily Ratajkowski Topless, Anne Heche Topless, Young Victoria’s Secret Models Topless, and Much Much More…"

Obama: No Plan to Stop Islamic State

O'Reilly hammers President Oppeasement:



More at NewsBusters, "Even CNN Anchors Stunned Obama Still Has No Strategy to Defeat ISIS."

Adios, America! The Left's Plan to Turn Our Country Into a Third World Hellhole

I'm at the college for my last full teaching Tuesday for the semester.

Shop for Ann Coulter's book at Amazon. She's been making quite a splash.

BONUS: Also excellent is Coulter's, Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America.

More blogging tonight and throughout the summer!

Real Bigotry in America

Alyssa Lafage nails it.

Ppl who believe they are entitled to have & share an opinion but scream BIGOT at anyone with a different viewpoint... That's REAL #bigotry

— Alyssa Lafage (@AlyssaLafage) June 7, 2015

I used to have idiot trolls falsely smearing me as a "bigot" all the time.

Truth is, leftists are the real bigots. Hateful, vindictive bigots.

Australian Man Charged with Attempted Murder After Going on Bulldozer Rampage (VIDEO)

Maybe he got tired of all the trans this and trans that.

Sheesh.

At Telegraph UK, "A man in Australia has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly stealing a bulldozer and demolishing a house where a woman and her children lived."

Three Different Futures for America

Peggy Noonan discusses Ian Bremmer's new book, Superpower: Three Choices for America's Role in the World.

See, "Choosing a Path in the World Ahead."

PREVIOUSLY: "What’s the Right Role for America in the World?"

Spanish Bullfighter Marco Galan Gored in Groin, Leaving Testicles 'Eviscerated' (VIDEO)

Man, talk about losing your manhood.

There's video at the link, via the Independent UK:

A Spanish bullfighter has been gored in the testicles http://t.co/5ynaaclyRL pic.twitter.com/iY5q1JXGvd

— The Independent (@Independent) June 9, 2015

Is Social Science a Giant Left-Wing Conspiracy?

No, it's not.

It's really not.

But so many leftists are activists before social scientists the idea that social science isn't in fact a conspiracy might seem counterintuitive.

I could make a list of mainstream --- and even conservative --- political scientists, for example, to bolster the case. But again, it's counterintuitive. And there are so many so-called scholars like LaCour pushing narrative social science it's pretty ridiculous.

That said, I'd be interested to know exactly how much time Jesse Singal has spent in the halls of academe. If you're in the humanities and social sciences at most colleges or universities, it's probably a 10-to-1 ratio between leftists and conservatives. And those ideological predispositions definitely influence research programs and scientific norms. Take the idiots at Lawyers, Guns and Money as fairly representative of what you'll find at most campuses around the country. The rare conservatives or Republicans probably keep a low profile for fear of losing their jobs. It's pretty bad.

In any case, at least Singal's familiar with a lot of interesting research on the question, at New York Magazine, "Is Social Science a Giant Liberal Conspiracy?"

Still, it's indeed counterintuitive to suggest that academe's not a leftist conspiracy.

Previous LaCour blogging is here.

Interview with Ex-Russian Internet Troll Lyudmila Savchuk

At Der Spiegel, "Paid as a Pro-Kremlin Troll: 'The Hatred Spills over into the Real World'."

Paid as a Pro-Kremlin Troll: 'The Hatred Spills over into the Real World' http://t.co/smxPSju2Pe

— SPIEGEL English (@SPIEGEL_English) June 1, 2015

Measuring Gender Identity

It's amazing how much coverage the trans issue gets in the press, especially considering how extremely few people in this country are transgender.

At the New York Times, "The Search for the Best Estimate of the Transgender Population."

#ProgPride As a gesture of solidarity, join in the transinsanity: Post your transgenderqueer name here http://t.co/XHcT0oLnao #TCOT

— The People's Cube (@ThePeoplesCube) June 8, 2015

Hat Tip: Weasel Zippers, "Study Finds Just 0.3% of the U.S. Population Is “Transgender”..."

Separating Fact from Fiction in the McKinney, Texas Story — #McKinneyPoolParty

From Lee Stranahan, at Breitbart Texas.

Facts are the first casualty in McKinney, Texas Story Pool Party Story | my latest http://t.co/ZWoVYvEVyH pic.twitter.com/o1sxjq7cKF

— Lee Stranahan (@stranahan) June 8, 2015

Plus, don't miss Andrew Branca, at Legal Insurrection, "Video Analysis: McKinney Brawl Another Rush to Misjudgment?"

Emma Kuziara Sexier Than Ever!

Courtesy of Zoo Today:

Russia Uses Money and Ideology to Fight Western Sanctions

This is interesting.

Very interesting.

At the New York Times:

WASHINGTON — The war in Ukraine that has pitted Russia against the West is being waged not just with tanks, artillery and troops. Increasingly, Moscow has brought to bear different kinds of weapons, according to American and European officials: money, ideology and disinformation.

Even as the Obama administration and its European allies try to counter Russia’s military intervention across its border, they have found themselves struggling at home against what they see as a concerted drive by Moscow to leverage its economic power, finance European political parties and movements, and spread alternative accounts of the conflict.

The Kremlin’s goal seems to be to sow division, destabilize the European Union and possibly fracture what until now has been a relatively unified, if sometimes fragile, consensus against Russian aggression. At the very least, if Russia can peel off even a single member of the European Union, it could in theory prevent the renewal later this month of economic sanctions that are scheduled to expire absent the unanimous agreement of all member states.

President Obama arrived in Germany on Sunday for a Group of 7 summit meeting at which he plans to rally European allies to stand firm against Russia, especially as violence flares again in eastern Ukraine despite a shaky cease-fire. In the days leading up to his trip, both American and European officials publicly voiced concerns about President Vladimir V. Putin’s subterranean — and sometimes more overt — efforts to win allies in the West.

“As it tries to rattle the cage, the Kremlin is working hard to buy off and co-opt European political forces, funding both right-wing and left-wing anti-systemic parties throughout Europe,” Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said in a speech last month at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “President Putin sees such political forces as useful tools to be manipulated, to create cracks in the European body politic which he can then exploit.”

That is a conclusion shared by Britain’s government.

“On the question of Russian money, yes, of course we are concerned about what is clearly a Kremlin strategy of trying to pick off, shall we say, the brethren who may be less committed or more vulnerable in the run-up to the June decision,” said the British foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, last week. “It will not have escaped the Kremlin’s notice that this is a unanimity process and they only need one.”

Whether the strategy will succeed remains uncertain.

American officials and European diplomats said they were confident for now that the sanctions would be renewed at a European Union summit meeting to be held in Brussels on June 25 and 26. Germany, the union’s most dominant member, supports extending sanctions until next January, and smaller nations may be loath to defy Berlin. But there is no appetite for adding more sanctions, as some American officials would like.

Russia’s efforts to influence the West have taken on different forms.

Russia has traditionally used its status as an energy supplier to sway customers in Europe, and it is now pressing countries in southeastern Europe, including struggling Greece, to support a new natural gas pipeline project with promises of economic benefits. Russian oligarchs have long kept so much of their money in Cypriot banks that the island nation is seen as a financial outpost for Moscow.

For several years, Russia has paid for a government-sponsored insert in newspapers and websites in 26 countries (including in The New York Times). More recently, it has proposed expanding RT, its international television network, which broadcasts in English and three other languages and delights in pointing out the foibles of the West, to French and German.

American and European officials have accused Moscow of financing green movements in Europe to encourage protests against hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a move intended to defend Russia’s gas industry. And a shadowy “troll farm” in St. Petersburg uses Twitter to plant fake stories about chemical spills or Ebola outbreaks in the West.

Since long before the Ukraine crisis, money has been a means for Mr. Putin to try to shape events in the West...

More.

Ezell Ford Protesters Threaten Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti — #BlackLivesMatter

I thought it was going to be a peaceful protest, but not so much.

The videos make it look like a dangerous situation. Very dangerous.

At Big Government, "EZELL FORD PROTESTERS THREATEN L.A. MAYOR ‘BEWARE THE DAY WE CHANGE OUR MINDS’."

And at CBS News Los Angeles, "Ezell Ford Shooting Protesters Confront LA Mayor Outside Home."

Witnesses Speak Out Against Violent Black Thugs at 'Innocent Pool Party' in McKinney, Texas (VIDEO)

At Ace of Spades HQ, "So, This 'Texas Pool Party' Story Seems to be Premised on, Get This, a Huge Lie":

Facts Did Not Matter to McKinney Activists, Threatened to Bring ‘Farrakhan’ http://t.co/Mv8O7mqWXz

— Brandon Darby (@brandondarby) June 8, 2015

Racism and police violence!

Yay! A new distraction to be outraged about!

Here's he real story -- narrated by a black resident of the neighborhood.

Benet Embry just wanted a respite from the heat when he went to his neighborhood pool Friday. Talking to CNN Monday about the national story that rolled out of that simple, mundane summer activity still has him pretty well dismayed.
The 43-year-old African-American has lived in Craig Ranch, a planned community, for eight years. It's a nice place. Racially diverse. People get along there.

Thinking back on the pool party, he might have known it would be crowded. The invite to the party had earlier caught fire on Twitter and social media. Craig Ranch's strict homeowners' association rules prohibit bringing more than two guests to the pool.

So when crowds of teenagers showed up, huddling by the gate and shouting to let them in, things got out of hand. Some kids jumped over the fence, Embry said. A security guard tried to get them to leave but was outnumbered, so the guard called police.

Police would arrive, and one officer seen on a video later posted to YouTube, would be placed on administrative leave. The officer cursed at several black teenagers, yanked a 14-year-old girl wearing only a bikini to the ground and knelt on her back. He also unholstered his firearm and chased teenage boys as they approached him while he was trying to control the girl.

Shortly after the approximately seven minute video hit YouTube, many on social media alleged that the white officer was racist. The Texas NAACP called meetings because members suspected as much, its president, Gary Bledsoe, said on CNN Monday.

Embry disagrees.

"Let me reiterate, the neighbors or the neighborhood did not call the police because this was an African-American party or whatever the situation is," he said. "This was not a racially motivated event -- at all. This whole thing is being blown completely out of proportion."

Embry was more emphatic in a FaceBook posting:

Look, I LIVE in this community and this ENTIRE incident is NOT racial at all. A few THUGS spoiled a COMMUNITY event by fighting, jumping over fences into a PRIVATE pool, harassing and damaging property. Not EVERYTHING is about RACE. WE have other issues that NEED our attention other flights of made up make believe causes.

So, this neighborhood has a pool that's open to residents only. Well, residents, and they can each bring two guests.

So guess what one teenaged resident did? She began advertising for a cookout/party, without clearing this with the other people -- you know, the other people who actually own the pool and have the right to use it on a hot weekend day -- and over a hundred teenagers -- strangers to the other residents -- showed up and took over the pool.

You know, the pool that the other people had paid for.

In fact, some residents say the teenagers began charging a fifteen dollar entry fee to the pool they owned (jointly) and had a right to use in quiet enjoyment.

That's the backstory here -- that 100+ teenagers with no right to be upon other people's property descended on the property, because one (1) resident broke the rules and began advertising widely for a pool party that she decided to hold, without clearing it with anyone.

And, maybe, decided to make some money on, charging $15 a head...

Keep reading.

Turkey Faces Political Uncertainty

At the Wall Street Journal, "Turkey Faces a New Political Reality":

ISTANBUL—The surprisingly weak showing by Turkey’s ruling party in parliamentary elections is raising the specter of protracted uncertainty for a key U.S. ally facing mounting economic and national security challenges.

Sunday’s election upset derailed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s bid to transform Turkey’s government into a strong presidential system with him at its head.

It also left the party he led for more than a decade scrambling to find a coalition partner to form a governing majority from among three parties hostile to his aims, and Mr. Erdogan himself to try to wield power without a majority from a post that technically is largely ceremonial.

“It’s going to be much harder for him to get what he wants,” said Steven Cook, a Turkey analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, noting he is weaker within his own country. “The language he’s used over the past couple of years has alienated Turkish voters.”

Some of Turkey’s Western allies welcomed the brake on Mr. Erdogan’s rapidly growing power; a European official hailed the vote as a check on “the increasing Putinization” of Turkey’s political system.

Diplomats said a more diverse parliament could reverse a deterioration of relations with the U.S. and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization partners as well as the European Union, which Ankara seeks to join.

“Politics will be messy and noisy. There are difficult economic issues, difficult regional issues…but I think the republic is well-poised now to deal with them,” said Francis Ricciardone, a former U.S. ambassador to Ankara now at the Atlantic Council, a think tank. “This will be good for Turkey.”

But the election result also has fed fears that a volatile period of fractious coalition governments could destabilize Turkey at a time of gathering threats including a slowdown in growth, the threat of Islamic State militants across its southern borders and fragile peace talks to end a three-decade Kurdish insurgency that has cost 30,000 lives.

In Washington, the State Department praised the high turnout in Turkey’s elections over the weekend. “The United States looks forward to working with the newly elected parliament and with the future government,” it said.

Current and former U.S. officials said Mr. Erdogan’s setback could force him to moderate his political rule and set a less controversial path on the global stage.

But it was unclear whether that will make him a better partner for Washington, particularly on policies relating to the battle against Islamic State and internal issues like press freedoms.

President Barack Obama signaled on Monday that the U.S.’s priority with Turkey will be that it do more to cut off militant fighters flowing into Syria. The U.S. believes most of the Islamic State’s foreign fighters enter Syria from Turkey.

“If we can cut off some of that foreign fighter flow, then we are able to isolate and wear out [Islamic State] forces that are already there,” Mr. Obama said at the Group of Seven leaders meeting in Germany. Turkey has dramatically boosted intelligence cooperation with its western partners since last summer and has deported some 1,200 suspected foreign fighters seeking to cross into Syria...

Still more.

Does 'Ending the Republican Drama' on Immigration Require Amnesty?

I hate amnesty.

I hate everything about it.

It's the most brutally unfair policy proposal in American politics, but it's more likely to be effected than anything else I can think of. And that's because of decades of bipartisan failure on U.S. immigration policy. But things are at such a critical mass nowadays, especially with the high proportion of Hispanics in the population, the amnesty issue will be the touchiest subject Republicans will face this year and next. It's going to be interesting, even brutal, you might say.

In any case, in an otherwise excellent essay, Carl's Jr. CEO Andrew Puzder argues that "every candidate should support a path to legal status..."

Even if they do, it's a gift to the Democrat Party. I hate it.

See, at WSJ, "Ending the Republican Drama About Immigration."

Leftists Push for Release of Woman and Children from Illegal Alien Detention Centers

So far officials are resisting the depraved leftists, but it won't be long.

Our "sovereign" borders are meaningless nowadays.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Pressure builds to release mothers and children from immigrant detention centers":

Federal officials face increasing pressure to stop detaining immigrant families and release more than 1,300 mothers and children.

At least 600 families — many of whom fled violence in Central America — were being held at three federal detention centers, officials said recently.

As of April, half had stayed there less than a month and 70% for less than two months, according to a law enforcement official who asked not to be identified because the official was unauthorized to speak publicly.

More than 4,500 individuals were in family detention centers from July through April, the official said, with 67% of them released and 664 removed from the country.

The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee became the latest group to call on the government to end family detention. The group's leaders posted a petition on their website Friday demanding that the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement release the children and mothers, including a woman who had attempted suicide and others who were pregnant.

"Neither ICE nor the private owners of its family detention centers are capable of providing the levels of care for vulnerable people like pregnant mothers that are even marginally acceptable by any humane, legal, moral or American standard," said Rachel Gore Freed, a program leader with the group who has visited the Karnes City, Texas, detention center.

Officials said a woman at the Karnes City detention center was under observation after suffering a wrist abrasion, but they denied there had been miscarriages or attempted suicides.

Gillian Christensen, an ICE spokeswoman, said the agency "takes very seriously the health, safety and welfare of those in our care."

The agency "is committed to ensuring that all individuals housed in our family residential centers receive timely and appropriate medical screenings and treatment," including "pregnancy screenings at arrival, onsite prenatal care and education, and remote access to specialists for pregnant women who remain in custody," she said.

Some pregnant women have been released, but decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, she said.

Last month, 136 Democratic members of Congress called on Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to stop confining families. "We cannot continue to hear reports of serious harm to children in custody and do nothing about it," they said. "Detaining mothers and children in jail-like settings is not the answer."

An 18-year-old court settlement is complicating the situation. Flores vs. Meese required the U.S. to release migrant children or house them in the "least restrictive environment."

Immigrant rights advocates have sued, contending that family detention violated the Flores settlement...

More.

The Unitarian Universalists are communists working to destroy the United States. What better way than to organize the invasion of aliens from Latin America, people who don't speak English, who don't share American values, and who will flood the social welfare agencies in a Cloward–Piven attack on the system? And these aliens will vote Democrat eventually, further propelling the Marxist-Leninist evisceration of this once great nation.

Man, we're doomed.

Chalkboards from 1917 Preserved at Emerson High School in Oklahoma City

This is the most amazing story.

At the Washington Post, "Haunting chalkboard drawings, frozen in time for 100 years, discovered in Oklahoma school."

Chalkboards frozen in time in Oklahoma City Public Schools since 1917: http://t.co/Eoi8VTlZBP @USDEducation

— John Barnshaw (@JohnBarnshaw) June 7, 2015

Also at London's Daily Mail, "Lessons from the past: High school renovations reveal students' chalkboard drawings frozen in time at Thanksgiving 1917."

U.S. Navy Fleet at San Diego Pivots to South China Sea

At the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Freedom of passage threats in So. China Sea prompts bigger U.S. presence in the region: http://t.co/vqov5itYav pic.twitter.com/j78GKkZxAh

— The Union-Tribune (@sdut) June 6, 2015