Intimate Emily Ratajkowski for 4th of July

Via Theo Spark.

Watch: "Emily Ratajkowski Gets Intimate | Sports Illustrated Swimsuit."

Greece Deeply Divided on Eve of Referendum

It's gonna be a yes vote. People just can't hang around with no money and nothing to eat.

And recall the prime minister's not well liked at all. Freakin' communist, heh.

At WSJ, "On Bailout Referendum’s Eve, Greeks Are Deeply Divided on Which Course to Take":

ATHENS—At a cafe in an upscale district here, Dimitris Manikis, an anesthesiologist, was downbeat.

“I think ‘yes’ is going to win,” Dr. Manikis said. “Greeks are passive.” It was Saturday evening, the sun still bright in a blue sky. He said would vote “no” tomorrow in a referendum of extraordinary consequence, which will ask Greeks if they agree to a rescue deal with European creditors but may well decide the country’s future in the eurozone.

A few tables away, Alexis Tsirigakis, an interior designer who supports the ‘yes’ camp, was also pessimistic. “Tsipras will win,” he said, referring to Alexis Tsipras, the country’s leftist prime minister, who called the referendum and has vigorously urged a “no” vote. “I don’t know what, but he will win.”

Polls have the two sides evenly balanced. There are no public data that break down the demographics and the inclinations of “yes” and “no,” but conversations around this city depict a populace that is split in two: Haves and have-nots, young and old, those bitten by austerity and those less exposed, those with money in the closed banks and those without.

Whichever side wins and whoever is leading Greece next week, next month or next year, the gulf will be hard to close. Dr. Manikis said he would be happy to see Greece leave the eurozone. He came to this view in 2010, after the first round of austerity hit the country. He works in a public hospital and he saw the suicides and the suicide attempts come in. “It is not just numbers, statistics,” he said. “I have seen this.”

He said a “no” vote was Greece’s best chance to push back against austerity—a position adopted by Mr. Tsipras but roundly dismissed by his European counterparts. “The stronger the ‘no’ is, the better the possibilities for further negotiation,” Dr. Manikis said.

Mr. Tsirigakis said Greece must stay in the euro. “We have to pay,” he said. “Whatever the cost is, it is better to pay than to wake up tomorrow like Macedonia and Albania.”

He said a “no” vote would mean banks would stay closed, deposits would be lost and pensions vaporized. “I think people don’t understand,” he said. “Let’s see how they reopen the banks. How? How?”

A worker at the cafe, Harris Bouros, said he thought the country was split 50-50. He said he planned to vote “yes.” “No is like jumping from a cliff,” he said. “With ‘yes’ there is some hope.”

One apparent gulf in attitude comes with age. Retirees, who are owed pensions, have a big stake in the solvency of the state. The young have less invested in the system, and less money trapped in the banks.

Across the city center in the neighborhood of Koukaki, young Greeks gathered at a bar built in the shell of an old auto-mechanic’s shop. At an outside table were three 26-year-olds. All said they would vote “no.” The debt crisis has run more than five years, a substantial portion of their adult lives...

Donald Trump: 'No one wants to talk about immigration...'

Following-up from my previous entry, "Donald Trump is Right About Mexican Illegals Committing Crimes in Our Country."

Donald Trump is Right About Mexican Illegals Committing Crimes in Our Country

From John Hawkkins, at Town Hall, "Trump Is Right About Mexican Illegals Committing Crimes In Our Country":

"@CNNPolitics: Trump: San Francisco killing shows perils of illegal immigration http://t.co/aiBnAOhYup (via @TeddySchleifer)"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 4, 2015

"We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men." – George Orwell

Despite all the gnashing of teeth from the Left over Donald Trump’s comments about illegal aliens and liberals’ deliberate attempts to distort what he said, his controversial comments about Mexico are absolutely correct.

"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. …They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems to us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

Despite attempts to take his comments out of context, Donald Trump was clearly talking about illegal immigration. So, if you want to say, “My grandfather came here legally from Mexico….” or “I know a legal Mexican immigrant who serves in the military,” it has nothing to do with what Trump said. Even when it comes to illegals, Trump noted that some of them are “good people.”

So what’s really upsetting people on the Left is Trump’s assertion that Mexican illegal aliens are committing a substantial amount of crime in America. That is inarguably true...

Keep reading for all the dreary statistics.

And ICYMI, "Donald Trump Blasts Border Security After Kathryn Steinle Murdered by Illegal Alien."

Kendall Jenner Happy 4th of July

She's a patriot!

Happy 4th Kenny! @KendallJenner pic.twitter.com/vV1UtoHUzt

— Kendall Jenner (@kendalljennrs) July 4, 2015

BONUS: A perky Kendall Jenner selfie on Instagram, "Coffee?"

Lily Aldridge for W's August 2015 Issue

The lovely Lily.

Cheat days, coconut oil and other beauty tips from @LilyAldridge: http://t.co/FfU3dzqdgW pic.twitter.com/rQn6ePSeaG

— W magazine (@wmag) July 2, 2015

PREVIOUSLY: "In Defense of Chrissy Teigen's 'Free the Nipple' Campaign."

'Ring of Fire'

Some holiday music for y'all.

Here's Johnny Cash:

Love is a burning thing
And it makes a fiery ring.
Bound by wild desire
I fell into a ring of fire.

I fell into a burning ring of fire,
I went down, down, down as the flames went higher
And it burns, burns, burns,
The ring of fire, the ring of fire.

The taste of love is sweet
When hearts like ours meet.
I fell for you like a child,
Oh, but the fire went wild.

I fell into a burning ring of fire,
I went down, down, down as the flames went higher
And it burns, burns, burns,
The ring of fire, the ring of fire.

I fell into a burning ring of fire,
I went down, down, down as the flames went higher
And it burns, burns, burns,
The ring of fire, the ring of fire.

And it burns, burns, burns,
The ring of fire, the ring of fire,
The ring of fire, the ring of fire.

America: An Extraordinary Nation and Beacon for All

At IBD:

Ramirez rewind: A beacon of Liberty http://t.co/h3e4RsEytR #tcot #4thofJuly pic.twitter.com/vmk6P3MZ0I

— IBDeditorials (@IBDeditorials) July 4, 2015

What Did Abraham Lincoln Really Think of Thomas Jefferson?

Allen Guelzo's a major scholar of the Civil War era, writing opus-style histories such as Gettysburg: The Last Invasion, and not to mention critical biographies such as Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President.

And here's Guelzo at today's New York Times, "What Did Lincoln Really Think of Jefferson?":

GETTYSBURG, Pa. — “Lincoln hated Thomas Jefferson.” That is not exactly what we expect to hear about the president who spoke of “malice toward none,” referring to the president who wrote that “all men are created equal.”

Presidents have never been immune from criticism by other presidents. But Jefferson and Lincoln? These two stare down at us from Mount Rushmore as heroic, stainless and serene, and any suggestion of disharmony seems somehow a criticism of America itself. Still, Lincoln seems not to have gotten that message.

“Mr. Lincoln hated Thomas Jefferson as a man,” wrote William Henry Herndon, Lincoln’s law partner of 14 years — and “as a politician.” Especially after Lincoln read Theodore F. Dwight’s sensational, slash-all biography of Jefferson in 1839, Herndon believed “Mr. Lincoln never liked Jefferson’s moral character after that reading.”

True enough, Thomas Jefferson had not been easy to love, even in his own time. No one denied that Jefferson was a brilliant writer, a wide reader and a cultured talker. But his contemporaries also found him “a man of sublimated and paradoxical imagination” and “one of the most artful, intriguing, industrious and double-faced politicians in all America.”

Lincoln, who was born less than a month before Jefferson left the presidency in 1809, had his own reasons for loathing Jefferson “as a man.” Lincoln was well aware of Jefferson’s “repulsive” liaison with his slave, Sally Hemings, while “continually puling about liberty, equality and the degrading curse of slavery.” But he was just as disenchanted with Jefferson’s economic policies.

Jefferson believed that the only real wealth was land and that the only true occupation of virtuous and independent citizens in a republic was farming. “Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people,” Jefferson wrote. He despised “the selfish spirit of commerce” for feeling “no passion or principle but that of gain.” And he regarded banks with special suspicion as the source of all commercial evil. “Banks may be considered as the primary source” of “paper speculation,” and only foster “the spirit of gambling in paper, in lands, in canal schemes, town lot schemes, manufacturing schemes and whatever could hit the madness of the day.”

Lincoln, who actually grew up on a backwoods farm, saw little there but drunkenness, rowdyism and endless, mind-numbing labor under the rule of his loutish and illiterate father. He made his escape from the farm as soon as he turned 21, opened a store (which failed) and finally went into law, that great enforcer of commercial contract. “I was once a slave,” he remarked, “but now I am so free that they let me practice law.”

As an Illinois state legislator, Lincoln promoted a state banking system and public funding for canals and bridges. As a lawyer, according to colleagues, Lincoln was never “unwilling to appear in behalf of a great soulless corporation” — especially railroads — and had no compunction about recommending the eviction of squatters who farmed railroad-owned land.

As president, he put into place a national banking system, protective tariffs for American manufacturing and government guarantees for building a transcontinental railroad. Lincoln was Jefferson’s nightmare.

But Jefferson also held out a second example to Lincoln, as the man who, for all his limitations and fixations, still managed to articulate certain universal truths about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Lincoln understood that Jefferson’s words — if not his practice — formed “the definitions and axioms of free society.” When he was urged during the Civil War to ignore the Constitution’s restraints on presidential power, he echoed Jefferson’s warning against taking “possession of a boundless field of power” by asking: “Would I not thus give up all footing upon constitution or law? Would I not thus be in the boundless field of absolutism?”

And so, Lincoln concluded, “All honor to Jefferson,” who “had the coolness, forecast, and capacity” to fix in the Declaration of Independence the “abstract truth” that all men are created equal, so that it would “be a rebuke and a stumbling block” to anyone who planned to reintroduce “tyranny and oppression.”

Still more.

P.S. Stogie hates Lincoln, but he loves Jefferson the slave-holder, unsurprisingly. At Saberpoint, "Declaration of Independence -- Thomas Jefferson."

Harper Lee's 'Go Set a Watchman' May Have Been Found Earlier Than Thought

Early this year, when all the buzz erupted over Harper Lee's new novel, I pulled my old paperback copy of To Kill a Mockingbird off the shelf to finally read it.

I slogged through on and off again, as I was in the middle of the spring semester. I finished the book a week or so ago, right around the time of the Dylann Roof massacre, sadly enough.

In any case, the New York Times writes about Lee's new book:

On the eve of the most anticipated publishing event in years — the release of Harper Lee’s novel “Go Set a Watchman” — there is yet another strange twist to the tale of how the book made its way to publication, a development that further clouds the story of serendipitous discovery that generated both excitement and skepticism in February.

As HarperCollins, the publisher, and Ms. Lee’s lawyer, Tonja B. Carter, have told it, Ms. Carter set out to review an old typescript of “To Kill a Mockingbird” in August and happened upon an entirely different novel — one with the same characters but set 20 years later — attached to it.

“I was so stunned,” Ms. Carter told The New York Times last winter.

But another narrative has emerged that suggests the discovery may have happened years earlier, in October 2011, when Justin Caldwell, a rare books expert from Sotheby’s auction house, flew to Alabama to meet with Ms. Carter and Samuel Pinkus, then Ms. Lee’s literary agent, to appraise a “Mockingbird” manuscript for insurance and other purposes.

The discrepancy between the two accounts raises questions about whether the book was lost and accidentally recovered, and about why Ms. Lee would not have sought to publish it earlier...

Meh.

Tempest in a teapot.

The fact is she's got a "prequel" coming out. I expect it's going to be excellent. To Kill a Mockingbird is nearabouts the perfect novel. Briskly paced, not too long, wonderful characters, heart-tugging tragedy, and bizarre and surprising twists. Harper Lee's a great writer. I'm impressed.

Buy the book at Amazon, Go Set a Watchman: A Novel.

Donald Trump Blasts Border Security After Kathryn Steinle Murdered by Illegal Alien

At the San Francisco Chronicle, "Trump says SF pier killing shows he's right on immigration":

Donald Trump, who ignited a firestorm over comments he made in his Republican presidential campaign announcement calling Mexican immigrants rapists and killers, seized on San Francisco’s Pier 14 killing to rail against illegal immigration and call for stronger border control Friday.

Trump called for building a wall between the United States and Mexico after tweeting his “heartfelt condolences” to the family of 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle, who died after she was shot in the chest Wednesday evening on Pier 14.

Police arrested 45-year-old Francisco Sanchez on suspicion of her slaying. Sanchez has been deported five times and in March was released from San Francisco Jail, despite immigration authorities’ request that he be held...

My heartfelt condolences to the family of Kathryn Steinle. Very, very sad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2015

Left-Wing Anti-Vaccination Protesters March in Santa Monica Against California's SB 277 (VIDEO)

We had a surprising break from the Democrat-leftist insanity in Sacramento last week, when the governor signed into law the state requirement that all children be vaccinated for public schools, ending personal and religious exceptions. Some narrow health exemptions, with doctor's verification, will remain in effect.

Remember, far left-wing nutjobs dominate the ranks of the anti-vaxxers, so amid all the hoopla of recent regressive victories, take strength in this moment when idiot leftists got beaten back and shamed.

At LAT, "Opponents vow to overturn vaccination law at Santa Monica rally":

Three days after Gov. Jerry Brown signed one of the nation's strictest mandatory vaccination bills, several hundred opponents rallied in Santa Monica on Friday and vowed to repeal it.

"I am not going to stop until the truth comes out — this is heinous, this is dangerous," said Silvana Appleman, an Agoura Hills grandmother who marched with the others from the Santa Monica Pier to City Hall, chanting, "parents call the shots" and "we're not going away."

The controversial legislation requires children entering school or day care to be vaccinated against measles, mumps, whooping cough and other diseases. Parents will no longer be able to cite religious or personal beliefs in seeking exemptions.

Children with documented medical conditions, such as allergies or immune system deficiencies, would be excused from immunizations. Parents who decline the vaccinations would have to enroll their children in a home-based private school or public independent study program based off campus.

The bill, prompted by concern about low vaccination rates in some communities and an outbreak of measles last winter at Disneyland that ultimately sickened 150 people, was one of the most contentious measures taken up by the Legislature this year...

More, at L.A. Magazine, "What It's Like to Be Labeled an 'Anti-Vaxxer' in L.A."

And at CBS News San Francisco, "Parents Protest Against Vaccine Law At Golden Gate Bridge; Vow To Overturn It In 2016."

Bay Area tie-died granola-crunching Birkenstock morons protesting science-based health legislation. Yep, that's the unhinged left for you.

In Defense of Chrissy Teigen's 'Free the Nipple' Campaign

The Sports Illustrated model is fighting a public battle against Instagram's censorship of her topless photos. See People Magazine, "Chrissy Teigen Posts Revealing Instagram Photo After Her Topless Photo Was Removed, and the Hollywood Reporter, "CHRISSY TEIGEN WAGES WAR AGAINST INSTAGRAM'S NIPPLE BAN."


Kelsey Harkness takes issue with Teigen at the Federalist, "Chrissy Teigen, FreeTheNipple Doesn’t Fight Discrimination."

Then see Sonny Bunch, at Free Beacon, "The Federalist’s Orwellian Notion of Freedom Is Disconcerting."

Also, from AoSHQ:

I support @chrissyteigen in her noble struggle to show me her nipples. Godspeed, good woman!!!

— TheUltraYachtLife (@AceofSpadesHQ) July 1, 2015

Why It's Still Important for Your Family to Watch Fireworks

Strip away all the non-stop far-left propaganda and hate-based persecution campaigns and Americans still have abundant freedoms to revere. Indeed, it's so good sometimes we take our liberties for granted. All the more reason to clue your kids in on all that's great today, and to educate them about the current leftist campaigns to strip liberties and make America a terrible place to live. They hate this country.

From Maggie Hamilton, at Pajamas:

Anyone who bleeds red, white, and blue knows that unless we teach the next generation of freedom lovers their roots, and what was and is continually sacrificed for their freedoms, it will turn into a holiday that’s good for cookouts but nothing else.

So, buy those flags and wave them high and let your kiddos wave them proudly. Throw a couple sparklers in for good measure. Yeah, they’re hot and dangerous if not supervised — so join in the fun. Show your kids the importance of celebrating their nation’s birthday. Make it personal for them, and don’t be afraid to let them know about some super-cool, ancient guys and gals who persevered for their cause — even though society deemed them wrong — and in the process founded a new world where we are free to create life, enjoy liberty, and pursue happiness. Take time to tell them why we have huge displays in the skies and hot dogs to eat, and why you may get teary at the sound of our National Anthem. Maybe it will spark a conversation; they may even find a new hero. At the very least, they will beg to go see the fireworks in person.

Via Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit.

The Telegraph Tracks Down Three British Schoolgirls Who Joined Islamic State

At the Telegraph UK, "Found: The Bethnal Green schoolgirls who ran away to Syria":

Exclusive: The Telegraph tracks down the three teenage runaways who left London in February to join Islamic State.

The three British schoolgirls who ran away from home to join the Islamic State group in Syria were kept under close watch in a compound for widows and would-be jihadi brides while their loyalty to the movement was tested, The Telegraph has learned.

Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15, who ran away from home in February, spent their first months in Isil’s caliphate under lock and key in an apartment in the jihadists’ stronghold city of Raqqa.

The schoolgirls, from Bethnal Green, east London, were put in the care of a woman handler known as Um Laith – “Mother of the Lion” – tasked with “purifying their Western minds” by instilling the practices of Isil’s hardline version of sharia law.

In their first months in the city the girls were not trusted by Raqqa’s Isil rulers, and were forbidden to leave their apartment without their chaperone, according to activists in the city who have monitored the girls’ movements.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Isil emir (leader) with knowledge of the girls’ whereabouts confirmed to this paper that Isil had been “keeping the girls together” and “testing them”. “Until now we don’t trust them,” he said.

But eight weeks ago, activists from Eye on the Homeland, an anti-Isil opposition movement in the city, shot video footage – given to the Telegraph – that they claim shows at least two of the girls shopping for groceries.

A copy of the video was previously passed around, including to other media outlets, by middle men who did not know the significance of the footage. But this paper was able to speak to the organisation, who then divulged the full story of what it showed and how they obtained it.

“[Our men] were watching the compound when they saw three covered women coming from their apartment,” said Ahmad Abdulkader, the director of Eye on the Homeland. “Only they and Um Laith live in this apartment, and they hadn’t had visitors.”

Three women disguised by the face-covering niqab and black abaya walked down the stairs and left the building. The activists said that, because previously the girls had not been allowed out alone, they believed that one of the three women was Um Laith.

“We don’t know this for sure. It is possible that after more than two months of living with them, they were trusted enough to go out alone together,” Mr Abdulkader said, adding that such behaviour would be out of character.

The activists followed close behind, using a hidden camera to capture the women on film. The two-minute undercover video, passed exclusively to the Telegraph by Eye on the Homeland, follows the girls as they walk through Raqqa’s streets.

One of the girls is wearing trainers similar to those worn by 15-year-old Amira in CCTV footage shot at a Turkish bus station in February as the girls waited to be taken to Syria.

The footage suggests an easy relationship between the three. The trainer-clad girl leads the group, a black shopping bag in her left hand, and a Kalashnikov automatic rifle slung over her right shoulder.

The girl behind her carries a tray of eggs. A third brings up the rear, carrying another heavy black plastic shopping bag of groceries.

Mr Abdulkader said: “It’s normal that they should be carrying a gun. No foreign fighter, not even the women, leaves the house without a weapon. They fear attacks from opposition cells inside the city.”

Lots more at the link.

KTVU News Crew Attacked at Pier 14, Cameraman Pistol Whipped

And this was while the crew was reporting on the Kathryn Steinle murder.

It's getting pretty apocalyptic in California, a bastion of the Democrat Party.

At SFist, "News Crews Robbed at Gunpoint, Camera Man Pistol Whipped While Reporting Live From the Scene of Pier 14 Homicide."

A KTVU reporter and photographer were robbed at gunpoint this morning || http://t.co/cwrydsC69f || pic.twitter.com/KaXSwJo1Q0

— Jacob Wycoff (@4cast4you) July 2, 2015

Democrats Least Likely to Say They're 'Extremely Proud' to Be American

Indeed, just 47 percent of Democrats say they're "extremely proud" to be American, compared to 85 percent of Republicans and even 53 percent of independents.

Less than a majority, Democrats? Maybe you folks should just move and take all your narcissistic cultural Marxism with you.

At Gallup, "Smaller Majority 'Extremely Proud' to Be an American."

BONUS: From Noah Rothman, at Commentary, "Independence Day and the Left's Unseemly Vanity."

The Horrible History of the Racist Democrat Party

Remember how Stogie was all butt-hurt when I argued, "Folks, the Democrats have racism hardwired into their physiological being. It's who they are."

Well here comes another conservative slamming the "racist slave-holding Confederacy," which was of course the bastion of the Democrat Party.

It's Bill Whittle's Afterburner, "Pin the Tale on the Donkey: Democrats' Horrible Racist Past."

This is brutal. Stogie's not going to be pleased. Indeed, I do think Stogie has once again tucked tail, hunkering down in his redoubt of leftist denial. A sad case that one.



And ICYMI, "Alfonzo Rachel: The Confederate Battle Flag Was the Symbol of Southern Democrats (VIDEO)."

Red, White, and Bikinis

Hey, let's get this party started!

Happy Fourth of July!

Vigilance is Patriotic

Following-up on my earlier entry, "Fourth of July Terror Warnings."

From Michelle Malkin:

My fellow Americans: If you see something, say something — even if it means CAIR will threaten to sue you.

Multiple federal agencies and the Department of Defense are on high alert for a possible Islamic terrorist attack on U.S. soil this Independence Day weekend. They’ve increased security at military bases and sent bulletins to law enforcement officials across the country.

The heightened stance comes in the wake of a bloodthirsty ISIS call to arms for Ramadan; multiple jihad outbreaks in Kuwait, France and Tunisia; and the arrest of at least 30 terror plotters in our country radicalized by ISIS over the past year.

“Those who seek to harm this nation and our friends take no holiday,” Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warned at a Pentagon press briefing Wednesday with Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey.

“We continue to encourage all Americans to attend public events and celebrate this country during this summer season, but always remain vigilant,” DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson implored.

“We all have to be vigilant,” former NYPD Detective Sgt. Wally Zeins urged.

“Remain vigilant,” House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul cautioned.

Unfortunately, too much of the nation remains in permanent post-9/11 snooze-button mode. Compounding this collective apathy is political correctness run amok. It’s the ever-present handmaiden of terrorism: reluctance to risk offending, unwillingness to stick out one’s neck, and feckless aversion of the eyes in the face of existential threats.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which was designated by the Justice Department as an unindicted terror co-conspirator in 2007 in the federal prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation and others for providing support to Hamas, has gleefully exploited this cultural weakness — filing intimidation and obstructionist lawsuits left and right against those who have dared to look out and speak up...

Keep reading.

Homosexual Racist George Takei Issues Non-Apology for 'Clown in Blackface' Attack on Justice Clarence Thomas

On Facebook, "On the eve of this Independence Day, I have a renewed sense of what this country stands for..."

Read it at the link. The homo-racist Takei said he misspoke:

I feel Justice Thomas has abdicated and abandoned his African American heritage http://t.co/VYNhCIQQA8 #GeorgeTakei pic.twitter.com/MIZCNpVGRR

— Leopold Stoch (@dmorgan175) July 3, 2015

When asked by a reporter about the [the Court's] opinion, I was still seething, and I referred to him [Justice Thomas] as a “clown in blackface” to suggest that he had abdicated and abandoned his heritage. This was not intended to be racist, but rather to evoke a history of racism in the theatrical arts. While I continue to vehemently disagree with Justice Thomas, the words I chose, said in the heat of anger, were not carefully considered.

Fourth of July Terror Warnings

I just don't expect an attack this weekend, at least not here at home. Overseas? That's another story.

At ABC 10News San Diego, "FBI warns of possible terror threats over July 4th weekend."

Also at CBS News This Morning, "FBI and Homeland Security warn of potential July 4th terror attacks."

Shark Flips Over Fisherman Kayaking in Middle of the Ocean (VIDEO)

Lolz.

This is pretty good. That fisherman was doing the Mark Spitz boogie back to the main boat, heh.

Watch: "Watch shark flip over kayaker in middle of ocean."

Deported 5 Times Previously, Illegal Alien Confesses to Murder of Kathryn Steinle at San Francisco's Pier 14

At KGO-TV San Francisco, "SUSPECT CONFESSES TO FATAL SHOOTING AT PIER 14 IN SAN FRANCISCO":

Francisco Sanchez was deported 5 times to Mexico. Records indicate he has 7 felony convictions, most on drug charges pic.twitter.com/qFlaXDuWXl

— Vic Lee (@vicleeabc7) July 3, 2015

ICE says it turned Sanchez over to SF authorities in March an an outstanding drug warrant. pic.twitter.com/v992yscOcO

— Vic Lee (@vicleeabc7) July 3, 2015

DHS records indicate ICE put a detainer hold on Sanchez if he was released from SF jail but says the detainer was not honored.

— Vic Lee (@vicleeabc7) July 3, 2015

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The suspect in the Pier 14 shooting in San Francisco has signed a confession. Sources tell ABC7 News 45-year-old Francisco Sanchez admitted to firing the fatal shot that killed Kathryn Steinle.

Investigators say he is on probation from Texas and has committed offences in numerous states. They say Sanchez did not know his victim and they still don't have a motive for the killing. Police divers have found a gun in the water near the pier. They are carrying out ballistics tests to see if it was used in the shooting.

Steinle was walking arm-in-arm with her father when she was shot Wednesday night. Her father had come to San Francisco to take her back to Pleasanton for a family party.

PREVIOUSLY: "Kathryn Steinle, Vibrant 32-Year-Old San Francisco Woman, Murdered by Illegal Alien Suspect Francisco Sanchez."

Ann Coulter Book Signing at Barnes and Noble in Costa Mesa, California

Coulter made the front-page of my local teeny-weenie Daily Pilot newspaper, "Coulter's book signing stirs passions of protesters, fans."

.@AnnCoulter stirs thing up at Costa Mesa book signing. Cover story at the local Daily Pilot newspaper. pic.twitter.com/aWShNLcdNi

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 3, 2015

Also at Gateway Pundit, "VIDEO=> VIOLENT IMMIGRANTS Harass Ann Coulter at Book Signing – Rip Up Her Books."

Europe's Crowning Glory Imperils Postwar Project

Monetary union is in fact the apex dream of European economic integration. It's also a leftist Utopian escape from the Hobbesian state of nature.

They've had a good run, at least.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Europe’s Great Project Faces Its Biggest Challenge in Greek Bailout Referendum":

The great project that some hoped would eventually create a European superstate faces the biggest challenge of its 65-year history on Sunday, when Greeks vote in a referendum that could decide whether they crash out of the eurozone—and shift the continent’s destiny.

The European Union, whose precursor brought the region’s nations together after World War II and later helped cement a Western trajectory for countries in the former Soviet bloc, isn’t set to break up. But it has stumbled on the path toward what supporters saw as its future: an ever-closer communion of nations.

What has largely brought this about is the instrument seen as its crowning glory: the euro. The discipline required to tie one’s national currency to that of Germany and its relentless export machine has taken a toll on political systems and politicians across the eurozone, particularly in the south. It has tested Greek democracy to the breaking point.

“The EU is in deep crisis,” Kris Peeters, Belgium’s deputy prime minister, told a conference Thursday. “For the first time in its history, it’s in danger of becoming a less-close union.”

The risk of a Greek exit appeared to grow Thursday as the pivotal vote approached. The International Monetary Fund, whose debt Athens defaulted on earlier in the week, warned that the extended conflict with its creditors had left Greece in even worse financial shape than before, needing an even bigger bailout to remain in the eurozone.

Meanwhile, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras took to the airwaves to insist that voting against the bailout and its conditions would immediately spur a better deal for the country—the opposite of what his counterparts representing the country’s creditors have consistently said.

To be sure, the European idea has been eroded elsewhere. The British have attacked the concept of “ever-closer union” enshrined in the EU treaties and have sought a renegotiation to take powers back to London. Some nationalist politicians, such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, have presented a challenge to the values around which the bloc has been built.

Large-scale immigration—of people inside the bloc and the growing number of desperate refugees from the chaotic regions on its borders—is raising questions about whether the fundamental tenet of freedom of movement is sustainable and is putting pressure on some national welfare systems.

Member states, including Germany and France, are suffering “enlargement fatigue” and are resistant to further outward expansion to new members.

The EU has also been a victim of a generalized backlash against globalization, as many ordinary people see their interests as having been submerged by those of a globalized superelite, of which the well-paid bureaucrats in Brussels are viewed as a prime example.

The long-term rise in unemployment—which in Western Europe in the 1960s averaged below 2%, compared with rates above 20% now in Greece and Spain—is a manifestation of an economic malaise that many voters blame on the EU.

Wolfgang Schüssel, a former federal chancellor of Austria, said the EU is often a scapegoat for more general ills. “Would the results be better without European integration? Would there be more jobs, more investment?” he said in an interview Thursday.

The euro is at once the bloc’s most ambitious project and the one that may most seriously challenge European unity...

Continue reading.

Alfonzo Rachel: The Confederate Battle Flag Was the Symbol of Southern Democrats (VIDEO)

When Dylann Roof murdered the nine black worshipers at the AME church in Charleston, I wrote in one my entries that "Folks, the Democrats have racism hardwired into their physiological being. It's who they are."

Stogie wasn't pleased, and he in essence fired the first shot in the Stogie-Donald debates!

The debates are ongoing, for now. Keep checking back for the latest iterations.

Meanwhile, here's Alfonzo Rachel, "Zo thinks the Confederate battle flag was the symbol of southern Democrats. So why are the Democrats ignoring their association with hate and slavery?"

Alexis Tsipras’ Enemies Try to Use Greek Vote as Referendum Against Him

He hasn't been in office very long either.

At the New York Times, "Alexis Tsipras’s Enemies in Europe See Their Chance in Vote on Greece’s Bailout Terms":

ATHENS — Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras says the referendum in Greece on Sunday is simply about whether to agree to what he sees as a bad deal from the country’s creditors. Many of his opponents say it is actually about whether Greece wants to stay with the euro.

What neither side typically acknowledges is that the vote amounts to a referendum on Mr. Tsipras and whether he should continue to lead his country. And what is playing out now is a largely unacknowledged campaign to oust him, led as much by his critics among other European leaders and top officials as it is by his rivals in Greece.

By long-established diplomatic tradition, leaders and international institutions do not meddle in the domestic politics of other countries. But under cover of a referendum in which the rest of Europe has a clear stake, European leaders who have found Mr. Tsipras difficult to deal with have been clear about the outcome they prefer.

Many are openly opposing him on the referendum, which could very possibly make way for a new government and a new approach to finding a compromise. The situation in Greece, analysts said, is not the first time that European politics have crossed borders, but it is the most open instance and the one with the greatest potential effect so far on European unity.

“People are realizing they have more and more of a stake in each other’s domestic policies,” said Mark Leonard, the director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, “and so you see more interference.”

Martin Schulz, a German who is president of the European Parliament, offered at one point to travel to Greece to campaign for the “yes” forces, those in favor of taking a deal along the lines offered by the creditors.

On Thursday, Mr. Schulz was on television making clear that he had little regard for Mr. Tsipras and his government. “We will help the Greek people but most certainly not the government,” he said.

Even as it backed Greece’s call for a new bailout plan to include debt relief, the International Monetary Fund essentially scolded the Tsipras government on Thursday, suggesting that it had mismanaged the economy in its brief tenure in office this year.

Mr. Tsipras had all but promised to step down if Greeks voted yes. But with three days to go before the vote, he went on television on Thursday and left the issue unclear. He said that in the event of a yes vote, he would remain in his “institutional role” and see that the procedures provided for by the Constitution were followed. He complained bitterly about European interference in the vote.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Tsipras’s finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, said unequivocally that he would resign Monday if the country voted yes.

Hopes that a yes vote will undercut Mr. Tsipras or force his resignation have been behind calls by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and most of the top European officials in Brussels to let the referendum play out before engaging in any further talks, analysts say, even though the European officials were at first furious when Mr. Tsipras asked for a vote on the issue.

Nearly the entire top European leadership in Brussels is backing a yes vote...

More at that top link.

Giant Lizard-Eating Centipede in Texas

Wild.

Have you heard about the giant lizard-eating centipede discovered by @TPWDparks in Texas? http://t.co/9uBO3Roqkx pic.twitter.com/GfnjQTo2oh

— ABC7 News (@abc7newsBayArea) July 3, 2015

George Takei Should Stop Gaysplaining Black History to Clarence Thomas

Lolz.

That's a pretty good headline, from Sean Davis, at the Federalist.

I'm sure Justice Thomas appreciates being lectured on racism by an Asian. http://t.co/9iWTVFWZEc

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) July 2, 2015

Kathryn Steinle, Vibrant 32-Year-Old San Francisco Woman, Murdered by Illegal Alien Suspect Francisco Sanchez

Yeah, because Mexico sends us their very best citizens, or something.

And the suspect was on probation from Texas. Tell Donald Trump to stop telling too much truth!

At the San Jose Mercury News, "'Random' San Francisco shooting kills 32-year-old ex-Pleasanton resident."

And at KGO-TV San Francisco, "FAMILY DEVASTATED AFTER WOMAN SHOT, KILLED IN SAN FRANCISCO":

@Macys Kathryn Steinle, killed last night in S.F. by an illegal alien. @realDonaldTrump http://t.co/16fpc12Xrj pic.twitter.com/yku1N9CD4G

— Lilac Sunday (@LilacSundayBlog) July 3, 2015

#ICYMI: Man arrested in connection with seemingly random shooting death of young SF woman: http://t.co/mGUoNRVed0 pic.twitter.com/uovnryTVNG

— ABC7 News (@abc7newsBayArea) July 3, 2015

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The family of a San Francisco woman who was killed in a seemingly random act of violence is mourning her loss as police continue to search for a motive.

On Thursday, police announced that Texas resident Francisco Sanchez was arrested in connection with the shooting death of 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle, known to friends and family as Kate. The 45-year-old has been formally charged with her murder.

Video taken by a person who lived at a nearby apartment building shows bystanders trying to help Kate, who was mortally wounded. Police say the suspect never exchanged words with her before he shot her.

"The victim said something to her family members to the extent that she didn't feel well," said Sgt. Mike Andraychak. "Like she realized something had taken place with respect to her and she fell to the ground."

A police boat dragging sonar equipment cruised slowly around the pier on Thursday morning, looking for the gun that was used in the shooting. Sources tell ABC7 News that a gun has been found in the water. However, ballistics tests will need to be performed to see if the gun was the one used in the shooting at Pier 14.

Police believe the suspect tossed the weapon into the waters after the shooting.

Kate was fatally shot at around 6:30 p.m. as she strolled the pedestrian pier with her father.

"There does not appear to be any connection between the victim and the suspect," said Andraychak. "At this point, it appears to be a random shooting incident."

At the time, there were about a dozen people on the popular pier where thousands walk and jog every day. Police descended on the area after they received numerous 911 calls.

Investigators quickly emailed other officers some cell photos taken by witnesses of the suspect. Police found Sanchez about an hour after the shooting, hiding in front of a restaurant on the corner of Embarcadero and Townsend.

Bartender Noah Bucoy saw the takedown.

"Well, we just saw a guy on the floor and a cop putting a gun at him, and we're like, 'that's pretty serious,'" he said.

Kate lived across the street from where he was arrested.

Police say Sanchez is on probation in Texas. ABC7 News sources tell us he's been deported to Mexico several times and that his rap sheet includes aggravated assault.

In the meantime, the victim's family is in shock. The victim's brother, Brad Steinle, says his sister loved to make people laugh and smile that he'll miss everything about her.

"We loved Kate, and I will love her till the day I die," he said.

All while trying to find the strength to move on.

"I had the best sister," Brad said. "She was the most wonderful, loving, caring person."

Ima hazard a guess that this story won't be leading the network news reports over the weekend.

Idiots like America Ferrera and Eva Longoria will, but not this evil illegal alien Francisco Sanchez.

Food Terrorism: Pins and Nails Found Inside Prince Edward Island Potatoes

The next big thing in leftist protest movements. Spiking food with pins and nails.

Yeah. That ought to win over a lot of political converts.

At the Guardian UK, "Canadian potato farmers on the hunt for saboteurs: 'These are really evil people'":

Who is inserting pins and nails into Canadian potatoes? Farmers offer $500,000 reward for tips http://t.co/MSiNSQRvQo

— Guardian World (@guardianworld) July 1, 2015

A picturesque corner of rural Canada best known as the idyllic home of Anne of Green Gables is now fighting for its economic life against a mysterious outbreak of alleged “food terrorism”.

The prosperous farmers of Prince Edward Island in the gulf of St Lawrence have offered a reward of CAN$500,000 (US$400,000) for tips leading to the conviction of the person or people who have been inserting pins and nails into potatoes grown on the island. Since the sabotage began last October, tampered Prince Edward Island potatoes have been found in grocery stores in four different Canadian provinces, triggering what has been described as the most serious crisis to hit sleepy PEI since the British conquest of Acadia in 1710.

“It’s food terrorism,” said island potato farmer Alex Docherty. “The people doing this are cowards, lower than a snake wearing snowshoes. These are really evil people.”

The saboteurs are also having a major impact on the local economy, where growing and processing the tubers is a billion-dollar industry, supplemented in the summer by Japanese tourists eager to visit the island’s many shrines devoted to their cherished “red-haired Anne”.

“Farm families all over the world work so hard to produce food and to have something like this happen is really disheartening,” said Docherty, chairman of the Prince Edward Island Potato Board. “We want the cowards caught and dealt with to the full extent of the law.”

Jackie Johnson's Got Your 4th of July Weekend Weather

She's so sweet.

And we're having fabulous moderate temperatures. It's gonna be fantastic weather for Independence Day!

Bloomberg's John Heilemann: Hillary Clinton Should Be Quaking at Massive Rallies Turning Out for Bernie Sanders

Heilemann's the co-author of Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime.

And he's a leftist.

Donald Trump Has a Point

From Rich Lowry, at Politico, "Sorry, Donald Trump Has a Point":

I was skeptical that Trump was really running, but now that the boats are burned behind him, watch out. He is set to be Herman Cain squared — an early-nominating-season phenomenon with a massive media megaphone.

As for his instantly notorious Mexico comments, they did more to insult than to illuminate, yet there was a kernel in them that hit on an important truth that typical politicians either don’t know or simply fear to speak. “When Mexico sends its people,” Trump said, “they’re not sending their best.”

This is obviously correct. We aren’t raiding the top 1 percent of Mexicans and importing them to this country. Instead, we are getting representative Mexicans, who — through no fault of their own, of course — come from a poorly educated country at a time when education is essential to success in an advanced economy.

Trump’s comments made it sound as though Mexico is sending us moral defectives. That’s not the larger problem (although gangs certainly exploit the border and there are criminals in any population). Immigrants are willing to work. Immigrant men aged 18-65 are in the labor force at a higher rate than native men.

It’s just that a lack of education is an anchor around even the hardest-working person in modern America. This is illustrated in an exhaustive report based on government data, by Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors a lower level of immigration. I rely on it for the figures that follow.

Immigrants here from Mexico — which has sent more immigrants than any other country for decades — have the lowest levels of education. Nearly 60 percent of them haven’t graduated from high school. Only about 10 percent have some college and nearly 6 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

By way of comparison, the situation of immigrants from Korea, for instance, is almost exactly reversed. More than 50 percent of them have a bachelor’s degree or higher, and less than 4 percent failed to earn a high school diploma.

This puts Mexican immigrants at an inherent disadvantage, and it shows. Nearly 35 percent of immigrants from Mexico and their U.S.-born children are in poverty; nearly 68 percent are in or near poverty. This is the highest level for immigrants from any country (the Philippines is the lowest, with 5.5 percent in poverty).

Fifty-four percent of immigrants from Mexico lack health insurance. A higher proportion of Mexican immigrants uses means-tested government programs than immigrants from any other country—more than 57 percent. As Camarota notes, this is “even higher than for refugee-sending countries like Russia and Cuba.” By contrast, the lowest percentage is for immigrants from the United Kingdom at just over 6 percent.

Immigrants make progress on almost every indicator over time, but are still far behind natives after two decades. (The exception to the general progress is welfare use, which actually increases among immigrants here for 20 years compared with immigrants here fewer than five years.)

For all its crassness, Trump’s rant on immigration is closer to reality than the gauzy clichés of the immigration romantics unwilling to acknowledge that there might be an issue welcoming large numbers of high school dropouts into a 21st-century economy. If we don’t want to add to the ranks of the poor, the uninsured and the welfare dependent, we should have fewer low-skilled immigrants — assuming saying that is not yet officially considered a hate crime...

That's great, c/o Memeorandum.

Leftist Stogie at Saberpoint Joins Marxists and Radical Libertarians on Civil War Revisionism

If you've been following the Stogie-Donald debates on the origins of the Civil War, one clear pattern you've seen is Stogie's vehement ideological hostility to facts that disprove his cherished yet deranged view that the South stands for all that's good in the world and the North is the epitome of evil. In fact, history does not conform neatly to partisan, ideological debates, and those who want it to must distort the truth to conform to their historical revisionism and partisan blindness.

Frankly, as I've pointed out, Stogie's basically a leftist. He's been deploying classic postmodernist Derridean social constructionist interpretations of the Civil War that are in fact grounded in Marxist and radical libertarian programs. It's pretty sick and disgusting, when you boil down to it. But Stogie's views are based on hatred and unreason. Indeed, he declared me an enemy in the comments at his blog last week --- this after us being good friends online for 8 years!

In any case, Professor Larry Schweikart, the conservative author of the extremely popular anti-revisionist textbook, A Patriot's History of the United States, is an historian of the Civil War who's published widely in peer-reviewed outlets, including the Journal of Southern History, Southern Studies, and Civil War History. Schweikart took his professional training at Arizona State University and the University of California at Santa Barbara, two institutions not widely known as bastions of "Yankee-biased" historical research.

Another popular book Schweikart's published is 48 Liberal Lies About American History: (That You Probably Learned in School). There you'll find a penetrating discussion whereby Professor Schweikart demolishes Stogie's lunatic ravings on the coming of the war. See for yourself at the photos below, "Lie #39: Northern Capitalist Greed --- Not Slavery --- Drove the Civil War":

"It's hard to believe that with all the available evidence a fusion of Marxists and radical libertarians still want to discount the central place of slavery as the causative factor in the Civil War."

Actually, it's not that hard to believe at this point. Stogie's been offering a full repertoire of far-left, radical libertarian fever-swamp talking points that only a tinfoil crackpot could love.

As always, I'll continue to debate in good cheer. So, don't miss future iterations of the Stogie-Donald debates!

Surf's Up with Anastasia Ashley

Anastasia Ashley, the world's sexiest surfer, says FHM.

Majority of Americans See Confederate Flag as Symbol of Southern Pride

At CNN, "Poll: Majority sees Confederate flag as Southern pride symbol, not racist":

Washington (CNN) - American public opinion on the Confederate flag remains about where it was 15 years ago, with most describing the flag as a symbol of Southern pride more than one of racism, according to a new CNN/ORC poll. And questions about how far to go to remove references to the Confederacy from public life prompt broad racial divides.

The poll shows that 57% of Americans see the flag more as a symbol of Southern pride than as a symbol of racism, about the same as in 2000 when 59% said they viewed it as a symbol of pride. Opinions of the flag are sharply divided by race, and among whites, views are split by education.

Among African-Americans, 72% see the Confederate flag as a symbol of racism, just 25% of whites agree. In the South, the racial divide is even broader. While 75% of Southern whites describe the flag as a symbol of pride and 18% call it a symbol of racism, those figures are almost exactly reversed among Southern African-Americans, with just 11% seeing it as a sign of pride and 75% viewing it as a symbol of racism.

Among whites, there's a sharp divide by education, and those with more formal education are less apt to see the flag as a symbol of pride. Among whites with a college degree, 51% say it's a symbol of pride, 41% one of racism. Among those whites who do not have a college degree, 73% say it's a sign of Southern pride, 18% racism.

Efforts to remove the flag or other references to the Confederacy from public places have emerged in the weeks since nine African-American churchgoers were killed by a white man who said he was trying to start a race war in a Charleston church. But the poll shows the public is mixed on how far those efforts should go, and nearly all flag-related questions reveal broad racial divides.

A majority favors removing the Confederate flag from government property that isn't part of a museum: 55% support that while 43% are opposed. And half support private companies choosing not to sell or manufacture items featuring the Confederate flag: 50% are in favor, 47% opposed.

But most oppose other efforts, including redesigning state flags that feature Confederate emblems or symbols to remove references to the Confederacy (57% oppose that), renaming streets and highways named after Confederate leaders (68% oppose that) and removing tributes to those who fought for the Confederacy from public places (71% oppose that)...

The public's quite reasonable on this. Certainly, the flag represents Southern heritage, and it's not inherently racist. But, since it is the flag of the Confederacy, which at base fought the Civil War to protect states' rights to own property in slaves, it's going to be divisive to large numbers of Americans, hurtful especially to blacks, and hence a strong majority of 55 percent say the flag should not fly over government facilities.

I think that's a fair understanding of the issues and that's my position as well. Note that the public sees the efforts to send the Confederate flag down the leftist memory hole as mistaken.

More at Memeorandum.

Arte Moreno's #Angels Have Become the Object of National Ridicule

A brutal commentary, form Bill Plaschke, at the Los Angeles Times, "Angels' Arte Moreno took Mike Scioscia's side, let Jerry Dipoto walk":

Call it the most expensive beer discount in baseball history.

On that fateful May afternoon in 2003 when Arte Moreno was introduced as the third owner in Angels history, he immediately won friends by reducing the price of his stadium's $8.50 bleacher beer.

"I can do that, can't I?" he charmingly asked at the time.

He can, and he did, and everyone loved him for it. Yet in the dozen years since then, Angels fans have paid a steep price for embracing the man whose tenure has been marked not by cheaper booze, but by chaos and dysfunction.

Moreno bought a team that had just won a World Series, yet he has not been to a World Series since, and has mostly made his mark with misguided decisions often based on impulsive emotions marked by anger.

Moreno enraged the Anaheim faithful by adding the name "Los Angeles" to the team name, even though Los Angeles still barely pays attention. He has attempted to bully the city of Anaheim into a better stadium deal at taxpayer expense. He signed Albert Pujols to a 10-year, $240-million contract that prevented the improvement of his roster in other areas and, even with Pujols' big numbers this year, will never be worth the money. He threw away $60 million to angrily dump Josh Hamilton, an admitted alcohol and drug addict, for briefly succumbing to his illness.

And now, in a move Wednesday that was stunning even for what has become The Not-so-Happiest Place on Earth, Moreno allowed a cultural rift between tradition-bound Manager Mike Scioscia and analytics-minded General Manager Jerry Dipoto to escalate into Dipoto's departure in the middle of a potential playoff season.

That's right, the baseball boss of a team that last season finished with the best record in baseball, and this season was 41-37 and only four games out of first place in the American League West, just packed up and bolted this week with three months left on the schedule and one month until the trading deadline.

And Moreno, who has long supported Scioscia, did nothing substantial to stop him.

Seriously? When is the last time this has happened in baseball? In a sport of old-school values and rituals in which warring front-office factions often hunker down for the good of the team, Dipoto's departure was stunning. But then again, this is how it happens with Moreno's Angels, an organization he runs with such impetuousness it has become the object of national ridicule...

Angels baseball is my main break from the national cultural insanity. It's a bummer that Arte Moreno has to constantly remind people that he's kinda insane himself.

I just want these guys to win. They've got so much talent and promise. They probably would've swept the Yankees had it not been for the controversy yesterday, which needless to say was a major distraction.

Continue reading, in any case.

No Truce With the Left

From Daniel Greenfield, at Sultan Knish:

By 2024, the Republican gay and tranny candidates will be dismissed as tokens while the media oohs and aahs over a vocal and charismatic campaigner for some other love that dare not speak its name.

And that's the point. It has always been the point.

The left does not care about gay rights. If you doubt that, consider how many of the left's favorite Muslim countries have gay rights. The left has recently divided its campaign passions between gay marriage and defending Iran. Iran denies the existence of gays and hangs them where it finds them.

The USSR treated homosexuality as a crime even while it was recruiting gay men as spies in the West. Cuba, the darling of the American left, hated both gays and blacks. The ACLU backed the police states of Communism. If the left supports an enemy nation, the odds are excellent that it is also a violently bigoted place that makes a KKK rally look like a hippie hangout.

To understand the left, you need to remember that it does not care about 99 percent of the things it claims to care about. Name a leftist cause and then find a Communist country that actually practiced it. Labor unions? Outlawed. Environmentalism? Chernobyl. The left fights all sorts of social and political battles not because it believes in them, but to radicalize, disrupt and take power.

The left does not care about social justice. It cares about power.

That is why no truce is possible with the left. Not on social issues. Not on any issues...

Hmm.

He's a little too honest about the left, heh!

Keep reading.

Socialist Bernie Sanders Draws 'Massive' Crowd of 10,000 in Wisconsin

Heh, you go Bernie!

The socialist Sanders will pull Hillary even farther left than she already is, and she's been pandering hard to that left fringe of late.

At the Hill, "Sanders draws massive crowd in Wisconsin."

Sanders leaves the stage to a 10,000+ standing ovation. #Sanders2016 #BernieSanders #FeelTheBern

— Wisconsin Defender (@wi_defender) July 2, 2015

Cash Crunch Hits Everyday Life in Greece

At the Wall Street Journal, "Shutdown of Greece’s banking system cripples businesses, makes it hard for people to pay bills; just €1 billion in cash left":

ATHENS—At an automated teller machine underneath the Acropolis, Angeliki Andreaki clutched her debit card with both hands. She pays her bills in cash, and €330 in rent and €39 in telephone bills were due Wednesday.

“Tsipras has turned this country into North Korea,” the 83-year-old Ms. Andreaki said Tuesday, shaking her head about Greece’s prime minister, Alexis Tsipras. “I can’t believe at this age I have to line up to get rationed cash.”

She withdrew as much as she could—just €60 ($66)—and went straight to pay her phone bill. She said she would have to come back for five more days to get enough cash for the rent.

This is everyday life in Greece since it shut down its banking system and imposed controls to prevent money from flooding out of the country.

Greece’s ruling party continued to say it was offering new compromises to its creditors and urged a “no” vote in Sunday’s referendum. European leaders dismissed the overtures as insufficient and said they would hold off on further negotiations until the vote.

The first opinion surveys in Greece since Mr. Tsipras called for the referendum show conflicting results but suggest the outcome could be close.

The freezing of Greece’s banking system is the most dramatic moment of the country’s five-year debt crisis—and perhaps its most pivotal. Since Monday, Greeks can get only €60 a day at cash machines and can’t transfer money abroad.

How long the remaining cash lasts and how unsettled Greeks become will be big factors in Sunday’s referendum on creditors’ demands for more austerity in exchange for more bailout funds. The tighter the squeeze, the more Greeks might vote “yes” to reconcile with creditors, analysts say.

As of Wednesday, Greece’s banking system had about €1 billion in cash left, according to a person familiar with the situation. Even with the €60-a-day limit on ATM withdrawals from Greek’s closed banks, “it’s a matter of a few days” until the money runs out, this person said.

By Wednesday, many ATMs in central Athens had constant lines of people waiting to withdraw their daily limit. The crunch has suffused the economy. Merchants report lower spending. Wholesalers can’t pay for supplies. Importers’ foreign counterparts won’t trade.

Airline Ryanair Holdings PLC, which flies to Athens, Thessaloniki and other Greek cities said Tuesday it would accept cash for tickets at airports because Greek customers have had trouble paying with debit cards. Ryanair is based in Ireland, and electronic payments abroad are prohibited.

The worst nightmare as far as the business community is concerned has come true,” said Constantine Michalos, the president of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Mr. Michalos also has a food wholesaling business, and 65% of his product line is imported. As of this week, his foreign suppliers aren’t sending any more, leaving him with about 20 days of remaining inventory. “I have the ability and necessary funds in my bank account to import,” he said. “I am not allowed to make an electronic transfer.”

Greece’s cash crunch hit small merchants first. They are less able to get credit from their suppliers, especially those dealing in perishable products that are continually imported. Christos Georgiopoulos owns a gourmet supermarket in Plaka, a picturesque Athens neighborhood frequented by tourists. He sells Champagne and Russian crab legs.

Nobody is buying. “I haven’t had a single customer in two days,” he said Wednesday. He is shutting down his shop and says he doesn’t know when he will reopen. He gave some crab legs to his workers and is taking some home. “I haven’t paid my staff and don’t know if and when I will,” he added.

Marie Palandjian-Raxevsky, marketing director at Mini Raxevksy, a Greek children’s clothing brand, depends on Google Inc. advertisements to generate sales from consumers in Greece and elsewhere.

Late Tuesday night, she got an email saying her Greek corporate credit card, which pays for the ads, was declined. “Now our campaign has completely disappeared,” she said.

Who has cash and who doesn’t is often arbitrary. Aspasia Kourana, an 80-year-old retiree, was shopping Tuesday at one of Athens’s many open-air fruit and vegetable markets, a staple in neighborhood life here known as laiki.

She got her monthly pension of €600 last Thursday. Her daughter withdrew it all the next day.

By Monday, Ms. Kourana’s daughter and son-in-law couldn’t get more than €60 of their respective salaries out of the bank. “We’ll use my €600 pension for the next few days,” Ms. Kourana said. “I might even get some cherries for my grandson. He loves them.”...

Still more.

BuzzFeed's Struggles on Homosexual Marriage

From Mollie Hemingway, at the Federalist, "BuzzFeed’s Journalistic Struggles on Same-Sex Marriage, In GIFs."

@MZHemingway I don't know most people's faith/personal views on much. Definitely ppl who disagree on the constitutional q.

— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) June 30, 2015

Germany Faces Billions in Losses If Greece Goes Bust

Well then, I can see why Angela Merkel put the kibosh on further negotiations until after the Greek referendum. Germany's looking to get hammered if Greece goes completely belly up.

At Der Spiegel, "The Bill: Germany Faces Billions in Losses If Greece Goes Bust":

Vast amounts of German money are at stake if Greece goes bankrupt -- with liabilities as high as €84 billion. Even though that figure is a large one, it would be paid over years and dangers to the Berlin budget are limited.

"So far, Germany hasn't had to spend a single euro from the federal budget on Greece." It's a line one has heard dozens of times on German talk shows in recent years. Soon, though, the claim may no longer hold true. A Greek insolvency is now within the realm of possibility and if the country does go bust, it could directly burden the German federal budget.

But how many billions of euros in German money are actually at stake? It may seem like a simple question, but there are no easy answers, because Germany's actual liability for Greek debt depends on a number of factors.

For a simple answer, just scroll to the last graphic in this article, where you will find the maximum burden for the German budget in a worst case scenario. If you're looking for a more nuanced answer, then please continue reading.

In order to determine the maximum possible liability for Germany as of the end of June 2015, you have to consider several factors, including whether …

* Greece becomes insolvent but remains in the euro zone. Then Germany would be held liable for up to €61.5 billion ($68.6 billion) in Greek loans. But these liabilities would be for payments that are planned as far into the future as 2054.
Or whether …

* Greece also withdraws from the euro zone. In the event of a Grexit, Germany's total liabilities would increase to around €84.5 billion.

But how do these numbers fit together?

The important thing here is that these figures represent the maximum conceivable damage to the German budget. They would be incurred if Greece didn't pay a single cent back on its debts over the next four decades -- an extremely unlikely scenario. It's far more likely that Greece would service certain debts, but not others.

In other words, there are varying probabilities of default for Greek loans that Germany has backed...

More.

BONUS: At Zero Hedge, "'Heartbreaking' Scene Unfolds at Greek Banks as Pensioners Clamor for Cash."

Smokin' Hot Kate Mara for Esquire Magazine

At Esquire, "Kate Mara on Life, Death, and Her Devotion to the Giants."

And at Egotastic!, "KATE MARA CRAZY HOT AND BARELY COVERED IN ESQUIRE."

Greece Bailout Offer Falls Short of Demands

Some of the stories of people going hungry are heart-wrenching, no matter what you think of Greece's clusterf-k socialist economy.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Fresh Greek Bailout Proposal Falls Short of Creditors’ Demands":

Eurozone officials dismissed a new Greek proposal for budget cuts and policy overhauls as insufficient and said that the currency bloc’s finance chiefs wouldn’t hold any more talks on a rescue for Athens until the country holds its referendum on creditors’ conditions for aid on Sunday.

Officials in Brussels said the proposal, received Tuesday night by the representatives of Greece’s official lenders, appeared to fall short of creditors’ demands. Greece defaulted on a €1.55 billion ($1.72 billion) repayment to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also reacted coolly to Greece’s new offer, emphasizing that Berlin would maintain its tough stance on bailout terms for Greece and was prepared for a battle. Ms. Merkel and other senior officials have said that Germany would discuss a new bailout request only after Greece’s referendum on the creditors’ conditions for aid had taken place, or if Greece called it off.

“A compromise at any cost would only be a result to get a result, only because one isn’t able to live with a conflict because one is afraid to fight the battle,” Ms. Merkel said.

The eurozone’s finance chiefs also agreed in a Wednesday teleconference to hold off on further negotiations until after the snap Greek referendum, which is set to take place Sunday.

“Given the political situation, the rejection of the previous proposals, the referendum which will take place on Sunday and the ‘no’ advice of the Greek government, we see no ground for further talks at this point,” said Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who presides over meetings of the currency bloc’s finance ministers.

Greece’s finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, though, said that the other finance chiefs had said that “Greece’s proposal is in the right direction, but asked for more details on its fiscal effect.”

In a televised address, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras remained defiant, vowing to push ahead with the referendum and calling Greeks who vote “yes” in Sunday’s vote accomplices to those looking to continue the painful policies of austerity in the crisis-stricken country. The premier has argued that a “no” vote would give Greece leverage in talks with its creditors, while eurozone officials have countered that it would be tantamount to a vote to leave the euro.

“A ‘no’ vote is a decisive step for a better agreement, which we aim to sign straight after the referendum,” Mr. Tsipras said. “ ‘No’ does not mean a rupture with Europe.”

Earlier in the day, Germany’s finance chief, Wolfgang Schäuble said that this week’s turmoil—including the closure of Greek banks, the expiration of the bailout program, and the decision to call a referendum—have changed the circumstances too much for bailout talks to simply be resumed from where they were when negotiations broke down on Friday.

Mr. Schäuble said that Greece’s left-wing government had to provide more clarity on its demands before negotiations about further financial aid could resume. The letter sent Tuesday hadn’t done that, he said.

“This is no basis for serious” negotiations, said Mr. Schäuble during a news conference on the government’s 2016 budget. “First of all, Greece has to declare what it wants.”

Markets were nevertheless cheered by the latest offer as a sign that a deal was still possible. The Stoxx Europe 600 opened higher and extended gains sharply. Bonds yields fell in Italy and Spain, highly indebted countries that in past years were seen as vulnerable to spillover from Greece...

Still more.

And stay with the video at the top. Holly Williams reports and it's emotional.

Kim Kardashian on the Cover of Rolling Stone

Meh.

I don't really love her celebrity shenanigans, but you gotta admit she's rockin' this cover.

At Rolling Stone, "Kim Kardashian Gets Real: 11 Revelations From the New Cover Story."

I'm sure lots of people will love the pictures.

Kim Kardashian: ‘I am so much smarter than I’m portrayed’ http://t.co/XHIH4Yg6sk

— TIME.com (@TIME) July 1, 2015

💯 @RollingStone pic.twitter.com/MIqumSLRJ9

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) July 1, 2015

Kim Kardashian's guide to taking the ultimate beach selfie: http://t.co/Bg6Tep7PC8 pic.twitter.com/M2njo09TbS

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) July 1, 2015

Young Boy Riding Bicycle Hit by Car in Reseda, Driver Leaves the Scene in Suspected Hit-and-Run

The boy's lucky he wasn't killed. I literally can't believe the driver did not stop the car.

Watch, at CBS News Los Angeles: "Footage Shows Young Boy on Bike Being Struck in Suspected Hit-and-Run."

TV Land Yanks 'Dukes of Hazzard'

Hey, America's still "The Land of the Free," right?

Well, maybe not.

At Variety, "TV Land Yanks ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ Amid Confederate Flag Backlash."

And at AceofSpadesHQ, "Viacom Removes "The Dukes of Hazzard" Reruns from TVLand Schedule, Because Urge to Purge":

‘Dukes of Hazzard’ episodes pulled from TV Land schedule in wake of Confederate flag debate: http://t.co/M7rgYa3Hal pic.twitter.com/ZUZMZPNKu9

— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) July 1, 2015

Obviously.

Some time ago, Bill Quick attacked me, claiming, wrongly, that I was inconsistent to support a baker's right to not make a gay wedding cake when of course I would be fighting, racistly angry about a Muslim who insisted on Islamic dress codes in his own store.

I am republishing this essay because it's directly on-point.

America is in a dark chapter of its existence -- we have faced worse external threats, but not worse internal threats.

The threat now comes from within.

There are those who are insistent that we shall all have the same bland gray vanilla corporate non-culture culture, and that we shall all bow to the strange gods of the left.

As Andrew Breitbart once said:

Fuck you. War.

Below, my essay on what America is, and what is not, and how cowards, idiots, weaklings, and cuckolds want to turn America into a dark perversion of itself...

Continue reading.

Is the Breakup of the United States In Our Future?

From AWD:

President @BarackObama has brought dignity back to America pic.twitter.com/kn55zZSDZK

— Steve Goddard (@SteveSGoddard) June 29, 2015

Obama Could Sink the Democrats in 2016

He could.

He's our first homosexual president.

At the Hill:

Brent Budowsky for The Hill: Obama could sink 2016 Dems http://t.co/3rYGQGJQYB pic.twitter.com/KDMRBOoS45

— The Hill (@thehill) July 1, 2015