Ted Cruz Taunts Donald Trump Over His Slipping Lead and Twitter Habits

The big thing just weeks ago was how great these two were getting along.

Not so much now.

At Politico:

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.—Hours before Ted Cruz and Donald Trump were slated to appear here at a tea party gathering, Cruz unloaded on Trump, taunting him over his poll numbers and ratcheting up attacks on his conservative credibility.

“It seems Donald has a lot of nervous energy,” he told reporters earlier Saturday in Fort Mill, S.C. “It seems for whatever reason Donald doesn’t react well when he’s going down in the polls. I imagine he’s very dismayed by the latest Wall Street Journal-NBC poll that shows in a head-to-head…he’d lose to me. Knowing Donald, that’s got to drive him nuts.”

Those remarks were in response to a question about Trump’s Saturday morning tweetstorm, in which he skewered Cruz over his Canadian birthplace (though Cruz and many legal scholars say he qualifies as natural-born citizen) and his failure to properly disclose certain loans in his 2012 Senate race.

“In terms of a commander-in-chief, we ought to have someone who isn’t springing out of bed to tweet in frantic response to the latest polls,” Cruz said.

The Texas senator, who has dismissed Trump’s conservative credibility by accusing him of having “New York values,” unpacked that line in more depth, noting that Trump himself used the phrase in a 1999 interview in which he also described himself as supporting abortion rights and not ruling out partial birth abortion, among other more liberal positions.
“Donald’s explanation, not mine, is because he’s a New Yorker, he’s from New York,” Cruz said...

More.

Also, previously, "Ted Cruz Slammed for Comments Attacking 'New York Values' (VIDEO)."

Kelly Brook Posts Unseen Photos from Playboy 2010 'Retro' Shoot to Instagram

Hmm... I thought Instagram censored nudity?

Perhaps you're allowed to show some skin after all.

At London's Daily Mail, "'What happens when we play': Kelly Brook goes topless wrapped in just red ribbons as she shares unseen snaps from retro Playboy shoot."

She's more full-bodied today.

The 2010 photos are here, "Kelly Brook Launches British Invasion in Playboy Photos."

Alessandra Ambrosio and Cristiano Ronaldo for GQ

Some Rule 5 for the ladies as well.

At London's Daily Mail, "Bikini-clad Alessandra Ambrosio drapes herself around Cristiano Ronaldo's ripped torso as they front sexy GQ cover."

And a fan page, "Cristiano Ronaldo and Alessandra Ambrosio for GQ."

Presenting GQ's latest cover star: @Cristiano Ronaldo https://t.co/MTqzGQ08W2 pic.twitter.com/RfwAdxbgGX

— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) January 16, 2016

Tony Hawk Skates Awesome Helix Loop (VIDEO)

Heh.

He blew out his hip trying. But he finally made it!

The guy's almost 50 years old, lol.

You gotta love it.

Damian Lewis and Paul Giamatti Do Battle in 'Billions' (VIDEO)

The series premieres January 24th, on Showtime.

At the Los Angeles Times, "In 'Billions,' Damian Lewis and Paul Giamatti are alpha males doing battle."

Ted Cruz Slammed for Comments Attacking 'New York Values' (VIDEO)

Donald Trump's response to Ted Cruz's comments on "New York values" were a high point of the debate. And Cruz has now apologized.

Here's video from the Fox Business News Debate, "Trump: Cruz was insulting to New Yorkers."

And see Mike Lupica, at the New York Daily News, via Memeorandum,"Lupica: There's just no ‘value’ to Ted Cruz and his criticism to ‘New York values’."

Also, at the New York Times, "New Yorkers Quickly Unite Against Cruz After ‘New York Values’ Comment."

And watch the local report, at CBS News 2 New York, "New York Values."

Glenn Beck: 'I don't understand the Donald Trump thing...' (VIDEO)

Heh.

Here's Glenn Beck, who wanted folks to go down to Texas last year and welcome Central American refugees, talking about Thursday night's debate, on O'Reilly's show:

Ted Cruz Preps New Attacks on Donald Trump

So much for the Donald and Teddy "bromance."

At Politico, "Cruz plotting new attacks on Trump":

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C.— The Ted Cruz who came out swinging at Donald Trump on Thursday night is here to stay, now willing to not only answer Trump’s criticisms but to eagerly define his rival’s weaknesses as the 2016 race in Iowa becomes a two-man contest.

“Iowa is three weeks away,” Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler said. “People want to know how you’re different. It’s time to tell how we’re different.”

It’s a dramatic shift for Cruz, who until this week either ignored or laughed off Trump’s occasional swipes, instead describing him at every turn as a “friend” whom he “likes and respects,” and appearing deeply reluctant to acknowledge disagreement with even Trump’s most controversial comments.

That kid-glove handling stemmed from Cruz’s desire not to alienate Trump’s many supporters. And aware that the Texas senator remains, for now, the second choice of some of those voters, the Cruz campaign is being careful to stress that the Texas senator is only responding to Trump after he picked a fight first by questioning whether Cruz, born abroad to a U.S. citizen, is eligible to run the country.

"We came prepared,” Tyler said of Cruz’s aggressive response on the “birther” issue, in which he cast Trump’s argument as a desperate gambit to recover lost ground in the polls...

More.

Kenneth Medenbach, Member of Bundy Militia at #Malheur Refuge, Arrested for Stolen Vehicle (VIDEO)

At KOIN News 6 Portland, "Man arrested for stolen Malheur Refuge vehicle."

Authorities should arrest them one by one, as militiamen step away from the refuge. Better to avoid a bloodbath that way.

More at the Portland Oregonian, "Protester arrested in Burns, accused of driving stolen refuge vehicle."

Jackie Johnson's Lovely Weekend Forecast

Via CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Holly Williams Reports on the Crisis in Europe's Refugee Policy (VIDEO)

Watch, via CBS Evening News, "More than a million refugees fled to Europe last year, desperate to escape the turmoil in the Middle East. Thousands more are still making the journey. But Europe's welcome mat is wearing thin."

Jeb Bush Donors Awaiting Orders to Abandon Ship

The bigger they come the harder they fall.

Wasn't Jeb the presumptive GOP nominee?

At Politico, "Bush donors await green light to jump ship":

When Jeb Bush announced a record fundraising haul in July, the Florida Republican rewarded major donors with a two-day celebratory retreat at the family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. They also delivered a message: $114 million was just the beginning of how much cash they would need to win.

Now, seven months later and just 17 days before the first ballots are cast, Bush’s donors are no longer high-fiving or strategizing how to keep funds flowing. Instead, the money spigot is shutting off as the donor class believes it is just a matter of time before the candidate they threw so much money behind drops out of the race...

He's a nice man.

I'm just so pleased he's getting shown the door though.

Still more.

WATCH: Playmates Leisure Day

Via Playboy, "You Don't Have to Tell These Beautiful Women to Relax."

If Hillary Clinton Can't Mobilize Millennial Women, She'll Lose

From Stephen Green, at Instapundit, "FEEL THE BERN: 'Sanders winning millennial women from Clinton'."

PREVIOUSLY: "Hillary Clinton's Sinking Campaign Starting to Freak Out (VIDEO)," and "Bernie Sanders Takes Stand Against Pro-Wall Street Democrats (VIDEO)."

Dow Jones Industrials Fall 391 Points in Global Market Selloff (VIDEO)

Man, folks are losing a lot of money on their investments. I couldn't care less about all the wealthy hedge fund managers and big-wig Wall Street brokers.

What about regular folks who've been socking away wage earnings in IRAs, mutual fund 401(k)s, and the like?

Watch, Alison Kosik reports for CNN, "Oil price fears crush Wall Street stocks."

And at WSJ, "Dow Tumbles 391 Points Amid Global Rout:

Oil slides below $30 a barrel and China’s Shanghai index falls 3.6%.

Plunging markets are harbingers for the larger economy, so the Dems gotta be eyeing all this market turmoil with considerable anxiety. It's been 8 years since the collapse of AIG in 2008, which triggered the Great Recession. The economic crisis helped get Obama elected. Imagine if a similar market wipe-out helps destroy Democrats this year.

Keep an eye on the politics of this. Talk about volatility. And payback's a bitch.

More, at Zero Hedge, "Black Friday."

Sean Penn's 'Terrible Regret' About Rolling Stone El Chapo Article (VIDEO)

He thought he was going to start some big important discussion about the "failed" war on drugs, but instead instigated a media backlash against bogus celebrity journalism (you know, because Rolling Stone's not having credibility problems or anything).

At the Los Angeles Times, "Sean Penn's 'terrible regret' about his 'failed' El Chapo article: No new debate about War on Drugs."

Parts of Charlie Rose's "60 Minutes" interview aired today on CBS This Morning:

Simone Villas Boas Casting Call for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2016

Just counting down the days until the new issue's released, heh.

Via Sports Illustrated:

New Claudia Romani Bikini Pics!

At Egotastic!, "Claudia Romani Thongtastic Purple Bikini In Miami."

Previous Claudia Romani blogging here.

Hillary Clinton's Sinking Campaign Starting to Freak Out (VIDEO)

Not just Hillary's campaign, but top Democrats as well, including influential black Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina (where the crucial Democrat Party primary will be held Saturday, February 27).

Dems are wiggin' out.

Here's Gretchen Carlson with Ed Henry reporting from the campaign trail.

Watch, "Clinton campaign is starting to get nervous."

It's Time for Hollywood to Stop Defining Great Drama as White Men Battling Adversity

Ouch.

Following-up from earlier, "#OscarsSoWhite."

Here's Mary McNamara, at the Los Angeles Times:

The winner of the 2016 Oscar in practically every category is … white men facing adversity.

Just two years after the much-touted breakthrough of "12 Years a Slave," the best picture nominees announced Thursday, with a few notable exceptions, follow a dishearteningly repetitive story line of white men triumphing over enormous odds: The Hollywood blacklist ("Trumbo"), the vagaries of Wall Street ("The Big Short"), Cold War politics ("Bridge of Spies"), life alone on Mars ("The Martian"), a grizzly bear attack, murderous companions and the hostilities of a cruel winter landscape ("The Revenant").

Even "Spotlight," with its supporting actress nomination for Rachel McAdams, showcases a group of mostly male journalists struggling to expose the brutal crimes committed by the Catholic Church. And though there is feminine power aplenty in "Mad Max: Fury Road," the film's titular character is, of course, Max, and its lead actress didn't even get a nomination.

To be clear, these are all good stories, powerful, well told and beautifully acted. But in world filled with billions of people who are not white men, they are certainly not the only good stories, not by a long shot.

Though our demographics and attitudes continue to change, Hollywood's definition of great drama has remained stubbornly attached to standards and expectations set back when men were men (if they were white) and everyone else needed to just shut up and listen.

Obviously, plenty of films have challenged this sensibility, telling a wide variety of stories from many points of view. But when it comes to Oscar bait, the default remains too often set at literal reading of the four essential categories of conflict: Man versus man, man versus nature, man versus society and man versus himself. As many have already pointed out, the characters in the lead actor category were a writer, scientist/astronaut, tracker, inventor and artist. The characters in lead actress? Homemaker, mother/rape survivor, inventor, wife, clerk.

Certainly "Straight Outta Compton," "Creed," "Concussion" and "Beasts of No Nation" fit the "classic" definition of literary conflict. They just didn't fit, apparently, academy voters' ideas of a classic best picture...

Hypocritical, racist Hollywood.

Who woulda thunk it?!!

Still more.

Bernie Sanders Takes Stand Against Pro-Wall Street Democrats (VIDEO)

Sanders is interviewed on CBS This Morning.

He strains to avoid naming Hillary Clinton specifically, but his attacks on the Democrat embrace of Wall Street have her name on them.

Watch, "Sanders on differences with Clinton highlighted in campaign ad."

PREVIOUSLY: "Bernie Sanders' Surge Threatens Dreaded Replay of Hillary Clinton's 2008 Debacle."

Too Late to Stop Donald Trump?

This is the existential question establishment Republicans are asking themselves right now.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Too late to stop Trump? As he glides, other candidates fall back in debate":

Tuesday night’s fractious presidential debate was the long Republican campaign condensed into little more than two hours: Donald Trump sailed above the other candidates, who mostly engaged in round-robin fighting that left each of them wounded and him largely unscathed.

As a result, the debate, the sixth in a nomination contest that has defied predictions, left a GOP establishment that fears disastrous repercussions from a Trump nomination no closer to finding a way to head him off, with the first balloting now a little more than two weeks away.

Trump repeatedly dismissed the nuanced arguments of his peers in favor of the blunt and forceful assertions that have made the billionaire the party’s national front-runner.

Declaring that "I will gladly accept the mantle of anger," he made clear that he understands what many of his establishment foes still seem not to — that much of what they see as weaknesses in his campaign are the wellsprings of its support. But in this debate, he also sanded some of his sharp edges with humor and worked to humanize himself.

His opponents, by contrast, often acting with visible desperation to attract attention as voters start making up their minds, seemed mostly intent on fighting among themselves. That precluded any single candidate from rising above the others.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, tied with Trump in first-voting Iowa, tried to take on the businessman repeatedly, but found his complaints dismissed. He was himself pummeled by other candidates who want to replace him as Trump’s main nemesis.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, in particular, clashed angrily with Cruz over their positions on immigration and taxes.

Back when the campaign started, Rubio offered an upbeat new-generation pitch as the centerpiece of his campaign. But as Thursday night showed, he has stepped away from some of what made him distinctive as he has tried to conform to the GOP electorate’s mood. He now has adopted a much harsher tone and a bleaker assessment of the nation’s standing.

In the course of the conflict, he and Cruz emptied their opposition research files onto each other, with Rubio at one point moving from criticism of Cruz’s positions on immigration, trade, crop insurance and ethanol supports to accuse the Texas senator of having once called Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked U.S. secrets, "a great public servant."

"Edward Snowden is a traitor. And if I am president and we get our hands on him, he is standing trial for treason," Rubio said.

Republicans typically pick as their nominee the person who placed second the last time out, but this race has been nothing the party has seen before. The second-place finisher last time, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, has done so poorly that he was relegated to the three-candidate opening debate, which was held before the seven finalists took the stage.

Instead, it is Trump who has controlled the race...

More.

ADDED: Just saw this, from Jonathan Chait, at New York Magazine, via Memeorandum, "Have Republicans Given Up on Fighting Donald Trump?"

Amanda Carpenter is 'Back on at 8:15am, 10am, and 1pmET today!'

Heh.

She's bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, on Instagram, "Heyo!!"

Frank Luntz Analysis of Fox Business Channel GOP Debate (VIDEO)

Anna Kooiman's taken over for Elisabeth Hasselbeck, at least for now. And she's looking fabulous. She's got the interview with the focus-group man, Frank Luntz.

On Fox & Friends:



Folks liked Ted Cruz.

He may win Iowa. It's going to be really interesting on February 1st, man.

Donald Trump Responds to Nikki Haley's Attack: 'I'm angry because our country is run horribly...' (VIDEO)

A highlight from last night's debate:

#OscarsSoWhite

Yeah, I mean, c'mon.

Watch, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "#OscarsSoWhite Trends on Social Media as Hollywood Diversity Questions Remain."

Donald Trump - Ted Cruz Battle Goes Primetime During Fox Business Debate (VIDEO)

At Politico, "Cruz pounds on Trump in GOP debate free-for-all."

And watch, "Trump to Cruz: Democrats Will Bring Lawsuit Against You If You're Nominee."

Surging Donald Trump Opens Double-Digit Lead in Latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll (VIDEO)

This post is going up simultaneously to the Fox Business News GOP debate in Charleston.

At WSJ, "Poll: Donald Trump Widens His Lead in Republican Presidential Race":

WASHINGTON— Donald Trump has opened a double-digit lead over his next-closest Republican rival, less than three weeks before the first votes of the 2016 presidential race are cast, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds.

A third of people who said they would vote in a Republican primary in the nationwide survey said they favored Mr. Trump to be the GOP nominee, followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 20% support, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 13% and retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 12%.

In December, Mr. Trump had led the No. 2 candidate, Mr. Cruz, by 5 percentage points. In the new poll, his lead widened to 13 points.

The survey casts doubt on the prospect that so-called establishment voters will rally behind an alternative to Messrs. Cruz and Trump, as far more GOP primary voters favor the two outsiders over candidates with more conventional messages and resumés.

As evidence, Mr. Trump preserves his lead when the field is reduced to five candidates in a hypothetical ballot, and again when it is culled to just three.

In a three-way match-up with Messrs. Cruz and Rubio, 40% favor Mr. Trump, while 31% support Mr. Cruz, who has drawn support heavily from social conservatives. Mr. Rubio, a favorite of many centrist, business-friendly Republicans, garners just 26%.

“Trump shows remarkable resiliency with the GOP primary electorate and has even increased his support since December, while Cruz has leveled off,” said Fred Yang, a Democratic pollster at Hart Research who conducts the Journal/NBC poll with Republican Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies...

More.

And at NBC News, via Memeorandum, "Trump More Than Doubles National Lead in NBC/WSJ Poll."

Check back for more political blogging with coverage of the Charleston debate throughout the evening.

Charlotte McKinney Wet T-Shirt for Tyler Kandel Studio Los Angeles (PHOTOS)

At WWTDD, "Charlotte McKinney Feels Topless."

She's not, but that wet t-shirt is something else.

Science of Public Opinion Polling Hits Crisis of Accuracy

I've been thinking about this, considering all the polls we're seeing for the primaries.

At Reason, "Why Polls Don't Work."

Outrage Over Iran Releasing Images of Captured U.S. Sailors on Their Knees (VIDEO)

Watch, via Inside Edition.

A nice clip that should go viral, jeez.

PREVIOUSLY: "WATCH: Humiliating Video Shows U.S. Sailor Apologizing for Vessel Drifting Into Iranian Waters," and "WATCH: Footage Shows U.S. Sailors Being Captured by Iranian Naval Forces (VIDEO)."

Bob Schieffer Returns to CBS News, Talks Politics: Donald Trump is 'Master Showman...' (VIDEO)

A great segment.

I like Schieffer, an old-time liberal who loves America. Not too many like that around any more.

And Schieffer notes that he never underestimated Trump, especially because of the degree of anger across the country. He says he's never seen anything like it, and that's during 50 years of covering politics at the top levels.

'Morning Joe' Slams Hillary Clinton (VIDEO)

Well, yeah.

She's the worst.

Mika can be pretty brutal too, lol.



RELATED: "Bernie Sanders' Surge Threatens Dreaded Replay of Hillary Clinton's 2008 Debacle."

Powerball's Biggest Winner: Government

Heh.

My wife buys tickets.

Not me. I don't like the odds, lol.

From Michelle Malkin:

Ka-ching!

Wednesday’s Powerball jackpot soared to $1.5 billion as get-rich-quick mania seized America this week. But you don’t need to wait for the drawing to know who’ll score the royal payoff.

The biggest winner of the multistate numbers game is — drumroll, please — Uncle Sam.

Powerball is a government-sponsored gambling racket in 44 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The feds automatically skim 25 percent off the top of a lump-sum cash award. Additional state withholding taxes vary depending on residency status. Mega-winners are taxed at the highest federal income tax bracket (nearly 40 percent); those who live in states with personal income taxes could pay up to an additional 9 percent. Local municipal taxes can add another 3-5 percent to the tax burden.

Government lotteries of all kinds raked in a whopping $70 billon in revenue last year, according to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries. Cash-strapped states pitch the rackets as civic enterprises by purporting to earmark a portion of proceeds for public education, economic development and mass transit, senior citizens’ programs, professional sports stadiums and environmental protection.

As I’ve noted during previous, high-stakes lotto crazes, the state bureaucrats who run these schemes for numeracy-challenged consumers are free to ban outside competition — including private slot machines, phone betting, instant pull tabs and card rooms. The feds help out by limiting sweepstakes and Internet gambling, as well as exempting state lottery marketing materials from Federal Trade Commission regulations that guarantee truth in advertising.

That’s right. While cracking down on ads on everything from cereal to toothpaste to cars, Washington protects states that spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year falsely promising “a dollar and a dream,” “everyone is a winner” and “somebody’s gotta win — might as well be you.”

Numeracy challenged!

And ripped off by the permanent political bureaucracy!

Keep reading.

Academy Awards 2016 Nominees

"Son of Saul" was nominated for Best Foreign Film.

And I'm trying to get out to "The Revenant," but a lot's going on on the home front. Maybe tonight, but I prefer going to the bargain matinee. Regal Cinemas at the Tustin Marketplace has a $6.00 showing if you get there before Noon.

Maybe tomorrow, heh.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Oscars 2016: Nominated foreign films weave tales of war, betrayal and youth," and "Oscars 2016: What we learned about the Oscar races from this morning's nominations."

'You're Damn Right I'm Angry...'

Heh.

You're not supposed to be angry. Everyone says don't listen to the angry voices on the far side of the room. That's not who we are. That's not what we're about. That's not what it means to be an American, blah, blah.

Actually, Donald Trump is angry and he's channeling American anger.

Shoot, he could channel it all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, lol!

At Instapundit, "DONALD TRUMP: You’re Damn Right I’m Angry, And You Should Be Too."

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2016 Final Sneak Peak (VIDEO)

The new swimsuit issue will be on newsstands in a couple of weeks!

You gotta love it!

Barack Obama Leaves Behind a Desperate, Broken Country

From Bruce Haynes:

Obama leaves behind a broken and desperate country, once mesmerized by his promises of hope and change but today victimized by his failure and indifference. And his failure drives the presidential politics we are struggling to explain today.

His goals were to unify the country and transform our politics. But today, America remains more deeply divided than ever and largely untransformed economically and compromised internationally...

That pretty much nails it.

Keep reading.

Bernie Sanders' Surge Threatens Dreaded Replay of Hillary Clinton's 2008 Debacle

A dreaded replay for Hillary and Bill, lol.

And the Democrat establishment as well!

And this is the best thing about the Sanders campaign, and the reason I've been getting a kick out of him all along.

This is great!

At Instapundit, "PEOPLE REALLY JUST DON’T LIKE HER: Ed Morrissey: The Sanders Surge Threatens a Replay of 2008 for Clinton."

High-Stakes for Tonight's GOP Debate in South Carolina (VIDEO)

This is going to be great!

Watch, at ABC News, "Republican Presidential Candidates Prepare for Tonight's Debate."

And there's a Ted Cruz scandal brewing. See the New York Times, via Memeorandum, "Ted Cruz Didn't Disclose Loan From Goldman Sachs for His First Senate Campaign."

'13 Hours' — New Benghazi Movie Reignites Debate Over Democrats' 'Stand-Down' Order (TRAILER)

The film opens tonight in the O.C., and I guess in late-night showings nationwide. Then general release tomorrow.

It's gonna be great!

At Politico, "New Benghazi movie reignites ‘stand-down’ order debate":

The creators of a new Hollywood blockbuster about the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack are renewing the politically explosive allegation that commandos called to defend the U.S. compound were told to “stand down” — a claim Democrats say has no basis in fact.

With Michael Bay’s “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” set to premiere Thursday, the five surviving members of the six-man Benghazi security team have blitzed the airwaves to promote the film and renew their assertion that a top CIA officer delayed them from immediately answering State Department distress calls. Three even testified to the same before the House Select Committee on Benghazi last spring, several sources have confirmed to POLITICO.

“There is no sensationalism in that: We were told to ‘stand down,’” said former Special Forces Officer Kris Paronto, one of the CIA contractors who fought that night, in an interview with Politico. “Those words were used verbatim — 100 percent. … If the truth of it affects someone’s political career? Well, I’m sorry. It happens.”

Top Democrats on the Benghazi panel, however, said that’s more movie fantasy than reality.

“If the film portrays them as having ordered a stand-down, it’s clearly at odds with the facts,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), whose district includes Hollywood and who sits on the committee. “If the film portrays those who went to rescue people at the diplomatic facility as doing so in disregard of orders, that’s also plainly at odds with the facts. … It may make for good entertainment; it doesn’t make for a well-informed public.”

Lawmakers have grappled with the question of a stand-down order before, and several bipartisan reports on the attacks have found no evidence of such a command being passed down the chain. Moreover, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the CIA and the Defense Department have long dismissed the idea that anyone would have held back help.

But the renewed allegations have forced lawmakers to wrestle with the issue again, and Republicans in particular may find themselves in an awkward spot. If GOP members of the Benghazi panel dispute Paronto’s assertion, they could look like they’re disparaging Americans who fought and died in service of the country. But if they side with Paronto, investigators would directly contradict some big-name intelligence officials, including former CIA Director David Petraeus, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who say no one was ordered to stand down...

Or course the Dems gave the stand-down order. Just like they lied about the random anti-Muslim video that started it all. They'll do anything to win elections, even sacrifice American lives.

More.

Reports of Muslim Rapes Exacerbate Divisions Over Europe's Migrant Crisis

Well, you think?

At the New York Times, "Sexual Attacks Widen Divisions in European Migrant Crisis":

ROME — In Finland, militia groups are patrolling small towns housing asylum seekers in the name of protecting white Finnish women. In Germany, far-right protesters rampaged through Leipzig on Monday, vandalizing buildings in an “anti-Islamization” demonstration. In Italy on Tuesday, an anti-immigration regional government approved the text of a law making it difficult to construct new mosques as Muslim refugees are settled in the area.

Across Europe, the migrant crisis that has engulfed the Continent since the summer is provoking new levels of public anxiety after the New Year’s Eve sexual assaults in Cologne, Germany, where witnesses and the police described predatory gangs of mostly foreign men, including some refugees, groping and robbing young women. The Cologne police are also investigating allegations of rape.

While the police say the assaults in Cologne were carried out by hundreds of men, even that is a narrow sliver of the more than one million asylum seekers who entered Europe last year. Still, the anxieties provoked by the Cologne attacks quickly spread as reports emerged of similar New Year’s Eve assaults in other German cities, as well as in Finland and Austria.

While the details in some of those reports are sketchy, and none approach what happened in Cologne, they have touched an exceptionally raw nerve as European societies face the challenge of integrating and acculturating the asylum seekers, most of them Muslims, and a majority of those single men.

Far-right political parties, which have long invoked hoary stereotypes of dark-skinned foreigners threatening European identity and security, have pounced on the reports, having already capitalized on the inability of the European Union to secure its external borders while efficiently managing the movement of migrants inside the bloc.

“This has been the elephant in the room that no one is prepared to acknowledge — that the great fear is the fear of Islam,” said Alexander Betts, director of the Refugee Studies Center at Oxford. He argued that most mainstream politicians had failed to directly address these public fears or to provide enough clarity in the migration debate, creating a vacuum that anti-immigrant leaders have rushed to fill.

Mr. Betts warned that unless political leaders could quickly articulate a nuanced argument for migration — one that confronts fears about security and religious differences, especially in the aftermath of the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris — public support for granting asylum to refugees could collapse. “To have attacks in Germany that are of a sexual nature perpetuated by men ostensibly of Muslim origin is symbolically devastating for a public commitment to asylum,” he said...

More.

Israel Slams Swedish Foreign Minister for 'Delusional' Comments on 'Extrajudicial Killings' of Palestinians (VIDEO)

Sweden pfft.

What a terrible country.

At the Guardian UK, "Israel says Swedish foreign minister is 'not welcome' in country":

Margot Wällstrom criticised over ‘incendiary’ demand for investigation into claims that Israeli forces carried out extrajudicial killings of Palestinians.

Israel has said Sweden’s foreign minister is not welcome in the country after she called for an investigation into the deaths of Palestinians involved in a four-month spate of deadly attacks on Israeli troops and civilians.

A foreign ministry spokesman, Emmanuel Nahshon, said on Wednesday that “given the incendiary and aggressive nature” of Margot Wallström’s comments, “we have made it clear that she is not welcome in Israel.”

Nahshon did not elaborate. Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Tzipi Hotovely, also criticised Wallström, calling her comments “a mix of blindness and political stupidity”.

Near-daily Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers have killed 24 people and wounded dozens more in stabbings, shootings and other assaults.

Wallström said last month that she condemned the stabbing attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, but asserted that the Israeli response was “disproportionate”.

“The response cannot be … so that there are extrajudicial executions, or that it becomes disproportionate so the numbers of dead on the other side is greater than the original death toll by several factors,” she said.

At least 141 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. About two-thirds of them were said by Israel to be attackers. The rest were killed in clashes with security forces.

Wallström called on Tuesday for an investigation into allegations that Israeli forces have carried out extrajudicial killings in clashes with Palestinians. She told Swedish MPs: “It is vital that there are thorough, credible investigations into these deaths in order to clarify and bring about possible accountability.”

Al Jazeera to Shut Down American News Channel, Citing Unsustainable Business Model

Heh.

A terrible loss. And just think, Al Gore suckered these idiots out of $500 million for his failed old "Current TV" channel.

Lolz.

From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "SAD NEWS FROM THE MEDIA WORLD; Al Jazeera America to shut down in April, CNN reports...":

In an email to staff on Wednesday, Anstey said that the decision to pull the plug on Al Jazeera America was “driven by the fact that our business model is simply not sustainable in an increasingly digital world, and because of the current global financial challenges.”

Al Jazeera America launched in 2013 after its Doha-based parent company bought Current TV from Al Gore and others for $500 million. The channel was billed as a more sober alternative to the rancor and sensationalism that typifies other cable news outlets.

“Viewers will see a news channel unlike the others, as our programming proves Al Jazeera America will air fact-based, unbiased and in-depth news,” the channel’s former CEO Ehab Al Shihabi said around the time of the launch...

More.

And at Twitchy, "'Demand a refund from Al Gore?' Al Jazeera America shutting down," and "Hillaryous! Flashback: Hillary describes Americans’ appetite for Al Jazeera’s ‘real news’ [Vine]."

WATCH: David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson on Jimmy Kimmel Live! (VIDEO)

This is pretty hilarious.

And I'm really looking forward to the return of "X-Files," which premieres Sunday, January 24th.

San Diego Leaders Express Optimism for Stadium Deal with Chargers (VIDEO)

I don't know.

That new stadium proposal in Inglewood is slated at $2 billion, with no tax money. And it's really prime real estate.

I know San Diegans will be heartbroken if the team relocates.

At the San Diego Union-Tribune, "Local stadium optimism tempered by Inglewood: San Diego leaders upbeat, but Chargers focused mostly on L.A. option."

And watch, at ABC News 10 San Diego, "Chargers' future still uncertain: City officials expressed renewed optimism to keep the team."

Backlash Against South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley's #SOTU Response (VIDEO)

Major Garrett had an excellent report last night, at CBS Evening News, "Gov. Haley calls out Trump in State of the Union rebuttal (VIDEO)."

More at USA Today, via Memeorandum, "Nikki Haley: Donald Trump has contributed to ‘irresponsible talk’."

Also, at Politico, "Nikki Haley walks back attacks on Bush and Rubio."

And she's interviewed by Greta Van Susteren, where she does the walk-back, at Fox News, "Gov. Nikki Haley addresses her swipe at Trump (VIDEO)."

Hillary Clinton's in 'Deep Deep Doo-Doo, and the Clinton People Know It...'

I really miss seeing Michelle Malkin on Fox News, but then, she's got more time to write books.

From Sean Hannity's show:

WATCH: Humiliating Video Shows U.S. Sailor Apologizing for Vessel Drifting Into Iranian Waters

Total humiliation.

This is the treatment we get for giving Iran the nuclear green light, to say nothing of the freed $100 billion in financial assets to be released this week.

Americans are laid down low with this jihad-loving administration. For shame. For stinking shame.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Iranian video shows U.S. sailors kneeling in surrender pose":

U.S. Central Command spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Ben Tisdale said the video "appears to be authentic" but said he had no other information about its contents.

"We cannot speak to the conditions of the situation or what the crew was experiencing at the time," Tisdale said in a statement. "The crew is currently undergoing the reintegration process and we will continue to investigate this incident. What matters most right now, however, is that our sailors are back safely."

The video depicts seized weapons and ammunition laid out on a platform and scenes from inside a boat, including shots of a U.S. Navy uniform, a storage room and racks of equipment, along with a scene of an Iranian officer in a green beret and fatigues examining a document as he sits in a pilot’s chair.

In one part, Americans are seen being served food in a room, while someone flips through a number of U.S. passports, presumably belonging to the sailors.

One of the captives identified as the commander is interviewed and makes a statement that at times is directed straight at the camera.

“It was a mistake that was our fault and we apologize for our mistake," said the U.S sailor, whose name was not given.

"It was a misunderstanding. We did not mean to go into Iranian territorial water," he said. "The Iranian behavior was fantastic while we were here. We thank you very much for your hospitality and your assistance.”

The U.S. State Department says no formal apology was proffered to Iran.

Vice President Joe Biden said there was "nothing to apologize for."

"When you have a problem with the boat, you apologize the boat had a problem? No, and there was no looking for any apology," Biden told "CBS This Morning." "This was just standard nautical practice."

It is still unclear if the stricken boat suffered mechanical or navigational failure. The two vessels, known as riverine command boats, were en route from Kuwait to Bahrain when U.S. authorities lost contact with them, the Pentagon said.

More at WSJ, "Videos Raise Questions About Iran’s Treatment of U.S. Sailors."

'Game of Thrones' Actress Samantha Bentley 'Dying Monkey' Protest Outside Russian Embassy in London (VIDEO)

I guess Russia's taking a monkey to space for scientific research, and that's sent the far-left PETA loons into fits of derangement.

At the PETA homepage, "PHOTOS: ‘Dying Monkey’ Begs Russia Not to Send Primates to Mars":

A striking protest outside the Russian Embassy in London today urged Russia’s space agency to abandon its unethical “monkeys on Mars” mission.

And, watch, at Ruptly, "U.K.: Game of Thrones Actress Strips Naked to Protest Russian Space Monkeys."

#ObamaCare Employer Mandate Worse Than Feared

At IBD, "ObamaCare Employer Mandate Hurts Low-Wage Workers":

Yet another study purporting to show that ObamaCare hasn't caused many people to work fewer hours has set off another round of high fives among the law's boosters.

But they should hold their applause, because there's a strong case that ObamaCare's employer mandate is worse than its critics feared — though not necessarily for the reasons they expected.

While ObamaCare has clearly had a negative impact on work hours, which one serious flaw of the latest study — counting 29.5-hour workers as full-time — and other data limitations help to obscure, it's fair to say that the law hasn't curtailed full-time work in a big way. But that's because employers have figured out how to dodge liability by offering "affordable" coverage that costs much more than their modest-wage workers are likely to pay.

Gaming The System

This gaming of the system, which ObamaCare rules invite, has serious consequences. A few million full-time, modest-wage workers — and their spouses — have remained uninsured, with many liable for ObamaCare individual mandate penalties. Another roughly 1 million low-wage workers have opted for the kind of coverage that ObamaCare was supposed to do away with: skinny plans that won't cover hospitalization or surgery but will let them avoid a penalty.

Many other full-time, modest-wage workers are getting more comprehensive coverage via their employers — but with $5,000-plus deductibles that could easily torpedo their finances in a health emergency.

These are the direct effects of rules that deny full-time workers access to ObamaCare subsidies — and let employers escape a fine — if they offer bronze-level coverage costing a worker close to 10% of wage income for premiums alone. For a full-time worker earning $17,500, paying $1,670 for bronze coverage qualifies as "affordable." That's $1,000 more than someone at the same income level would have to pay for an exchange plan that caps total out-of-pocket expenses at about $550 in 2016.

Then there are the indirect effects of employer mandate rules that leave so many low-wage, full-time workers with coverage that is of little use...

Still more.

$1.58 Billion Powerball Winning Ticket Sold in Chino Hills, California

The Los Angeles Times reports, "Winning Powerball jackpot ticket sold in Chino Hills."

And at London's Daily Mail, "We have a winner! Celebrations outside California 7-Eleven store that sold $1.58BILLION Powerball jackpot... as jokers trick the internet with Photoshopped tickets claiming they scooped prize."

My wife bought about 10 tickets. I don't think we hit anything or obviously I would've heard about it by now, lol.

There may be winners in a few other states, so the Chino Hills guy, who is said to have spent $100 thousand on tickets, won't get the jackpot for himself.

Jackie Johnson's Cold Thursday Forecast

Oh boy's it's been nippy this last couple of nights, and I've been out early in the morning to give my wife a ride to work. Brrrr!!

Via CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

St. Louis Gives Up on NFL After Bitter Loss of Beloved Rams

Bitter's not a strong enough word.

At the Los Angeles Times, "St. Louis giving up on the NFL after loss of Rams":

The NFL may have made its last deal in St. Louis.

Less than 24 hours after the loss of the city's second professional football team in since the 1980s, Mayor Francis Slay said he had no interest in working with the NFL again.

"Their home cities and hometown fans are commodities to be abandoned once they no longer suit the league's purposes," St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay told the Associated Press.

"At this point I'm so frustrated and disappointed with the NFL," Slay said. "Why would anybody want to, in any way, even entertain any suggestions from the NFL after the way they dealt with St. Louis here? I mean, it was dishonest. They were not being truthful with us. There's no appetite that I have to take another run at an NFL team."

That could change, of course, with time, but the wound is still fresh...

Still more.

ADDED: At the Wall Street Journal, "St. Louis Bids Sad, Bitter Goodbye to a Second NFL Team in a Generation."

Venomous Sea Snakes at Coronado Beach (VIDEO)

A lot of strange creatures have been washing up with the El Niño storms.

Watch, at ABC News 10 San Diego, "Unique sea snake washes to shore in Coronado: Marine biologists blame El Niño for the rare occurrence."

Zoey Deutch Poses for Cosmopolitan

At Egotastic!, "ZOEY DEUTCH."

And at Fashion Gone Rogue, "Zoey Deutch Poses in Red-Hot Looks for Cosmopolitan."

Political Parties Look Inward After Obama's Call to 'Fix Our Politics' (VIDEO)

At the New York Times, "Obama’s Plea to ‘Fix Our Politics’ Leaves Both Sides Looking Inward":

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s urgent call on Tuesday for fundamental changes in the nation’s political system — coupled with the angry tone of the Republican presidential primary campaign — represents grim evidence that the bitter partisanship that has defined his tenure has reached deep into American democracy.

Mr. Obama devoted the closing words of his final State of the Union address to a desperate plea to “fix our politics” and allow the public and elected officials to engage in “rational, constructive debates.”

But who is really responsible for the nasty turn in civic life? Democrats and Republicans say both sides are.

“I think there’s probably a lot of us to blame,” Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, said on Wednesday during a breakfast with reporters. “It’s the structure of our campaigns, the structure of our districts, what’s happening in terms of news media, that is to say that you can select your news media the same way that you select your neighborhood or your church.”

“You can end up in an echo chamber unless you aggressively work to get out of that,” Mr. McDonough added.

Just as Mr. Obama on Tuesday acknowledged his own failure in curbing the rancor and distrust between the two parties after entering office with a pledge to do just that, top officials on both sides of the political divide acknowledged culpability in fostering the hostile climate that has left many Americans turned off and cynical about politics even as the country prepares to choose Mr. Obama’s successor.

In the Republican response to the president, Nikki R. Haley, the governor of South Carolina, also conceded that Republicans must try not to point the finger only at Democrats.

“We need to be honest with each other, and with ourselves,” she said. “While Democrats in Washington bear much responsibility for the problems facing America today, they do not bear it alone. There is more than enough blame to go around.

“We as Republicans need to own that truth. We need to recognize our contributions to the erosion of the public trust in America’s leadership. We need to accept that we’ve played a role in how and why our government is broken.”

The two parties have spent much of the Obama era trying to make the other take responsibility for the dysfunction of the government, but both have played roles...

More.

I don't believe the president's sincere. He's been the most deliberately polarizing president in memory. And the Democrats openly practice the politics of personal destruction and have been for decades. The public needs to elect a government capable of sidelining the far-left demons who've implanted deceit and rancor across the land.

WATCH: Footage Shows U.S. Sailors Being Captured by Iranian Naval Forces (VIDEO)

The sailors were forced to apologize before their release.

We grovel to Iran. We just grovel to that tinpot country.

Via CNN:

Bundy Militiamen to Announce #Malheur Exit Plan on Friday (VIDEO)

At the Portland Oregonian, "Oregon standoff: Militants say they'll reveal exit plan Friday."

St. Louis Rams to Return to Los Angeles (VIDEO)

This is the big story in L.A. today.

See, "NFL will return to Los Angeles for 2016 season."

And, "Ram fans kept the faith while team lost it."

And at CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Secretary John Kerry Thanks Iran for 'Quick Release' of U.S. Sailors Held Hostage (VIDEO)

Well, thank goodness they're released.

The U.S. had to get down on bended knee for the mullahs.

At the BBC, "Iran frees US Navy sailors held in Gulf after incursion," and the Los Angeles Times, "Iran releases 10 detained U.S. sailors who strayed into country's waters."

And watch, via CNN:

Hillary's Commanding Lead Nationally Crumbles Under Sanders Insurgency (VIDEO)

Following-up from yesterday, "Hillary Clinton's Campaign is Crashing; Could Lose Both Iowa and New Hampshire (VIDEO)."

At the New York Times, "Hillary Clinton's Lead Over Bernie Sanders Slipping in New Poll":

As the first nominating contest approaches, Hillary Clinton’s commanding lead nationally in the Democratic primary has largely melted away, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

The tightened race between Mrs. Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is revealing a sharp generational divide within the Democratic Party, with primary voters under 45 favoring Mr. Sanders by a roughly 2-to-1 ratio.

Yet more than 7 in 10 Democratic voters — including most supporters of Mr. Sanders — still believe Mrs. Clinton will ultimately win the party’s nomination. Voters expressed deeper confidence in her ability to be an effective commander in chief and more of her supporters say their minds are made up compared with Mr. Sanders’s backers.

Over all, 48 percent of Democratic primary voters across the country support Mrs. Clinton, while 41 percent back Mr. Sanders, the poll found. Just a month ago, she led Mr. Sanders by 20 percentage points nationally.

Mr. Sanders’s shifting fortunes underscore the unsettled state of the presidential race in both parties with just three weeks before the Iowa caucuses. Previous contests have seen candidates rise and fall in the weeks before the first votes are cast, and national polls at this stage of the race are not necessarily predictive of the final outcome of the monthslong nominating battle. But Mr. Sanders’s surge has clearly unnerved the Clinton campaign, and she is responding aggressively.

Two state polls released Tuesday further underscored the stiff competition that Mrs. Clinton is facing from Mr. Sanders. A Quinnipiac University poll found Mr. Sanders rising in Iowa, and a survey by Monmouth University gave Mr. Sanders a double-digit lead in New Hampshire.

“I like Bernie’s sincerity,” Dalton Paget, 27, an insurance agent from Spokane, Wash., said in a follow-up interview. “He’s talking about working towards policies that he’s been championing for a long time.”

In particular, Mr. Paget cited Mr. Sanders’s advocacy of overhauling the campaign finance system. “Honestly, before I heard much about Bernie Sanders and realized he had a decent chance for winning, I might have supported Hillary,” he said.

Mrs. Clinton is no longer treating Mr. Sanders as a distant rival who can be left unmentioned as she looks toward the general election. She is now confronting Mr. Sanders more forcefully, raising doubts about his electability and criticizing him as weak on the issue of gun violence.

In a rare issue on which she can challenge Mr. Sanders from the left, Mrs. Clinton has repeatedly sought to highlight his vote in 2005 for legislation that broadly shields gun manufacturers and dealers from liability lawsuits, portraying him as out of step with her and President Obama. And on Monday, she proposed a tax surcharge on people who earn more than $5 million per year, exploiting an issue that has energized Mr. Sanders’s supporters...

The Clinton machine will utterly destroy Sanders. I bet he watches his back. A lot.

But continue reading.

Democrats Are in Disarray, Not Republicans

From Salena Zito, at RCP, "The Dems, Not the GOP, in Disarray This Election":

Last Tuesday, Bloomberg political reporter Sahil Kapur tweeted from a Donald Trump rally in Massachusetts that an undecided New Hampshire voter said he will likely vote for the Republican businessman.

The man's second choice was Vermont Democrat-Socialist Bernie Sanders.

Tweeted Fox News contributor Michelle Fields the next day: “My cab driver in Iowa says he's an independent. His first choice is Trump. Second choice? Hillary.”

Data provided to The New York Times by Civis Analytics, a Democrat firm, shows Trump's support is strongest among self-identified Republicans, a coalition that uniquely follows the migration and settlement patterns of early Scots-Irish Jacksonian Democrats. That places their concentration across the industrial North, through the Rust Belt, down into Appalachia and the Deep South.

These are Democrats by birth, a legacy of their New Deal-Democrat parents and grandparents, who largely stopped supporting a party that began cutting them loose after winning their support in the 2006 midterm elections.

That explains the odd choices between Trump and Sanders, or Trump and Clinton: They're straddling between one party that used to include them and another that now is trying to fit them in.

Since the 2008 presidential campaign, Democrats have purposefully cut white, traditional-values, working-class, predominantly male voters from their coalition in favor of building an urban- and cosmopolitan-centered coalition of minorities, elites and women.

That move left discarded voters with nowhere to go except toward the Republican Party, for which they turned out in large numbers in the 2010 and 2014 midterms and gave the GOP historic wins in state legislatures, governors' offices and Congress.

The mainstream media's Trump storyline is that his candidacy has fractured the Republican base, according to Keystone College political scientist Jeff Brauer.

“Most of the focus has been on the apparent schism between the establishment candidates — such as Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Chris Christie — and the outsiders, with frontrunner Trump being the most emblematic,” Brauer said. “However, the real story could be more about the eroding support of the Democratic Party throughout large segments of the country.”

For decades — and especially during the Obama presidency — traditional Democrat strongholds in the blue-collar North and in vast areas of the South have shifted, in some cases dramatically, to Republicans, he contends.

Many registered Democrats in those regions now self-identify as Republicans or Republican-leaning independents. Trump has captivated these voters, resulting in his commanding lead in the Republican field.

“In essence, Trump and the other ‘outsiders' haven't as much splintered the Republican Party but, rather, have taken advantage of the splintering of the Democratic Party,” Brauer said...

Keep reading.

Fact-Checking Obama's Final State of the Union

At the Daily Signal.

PREVIOUSLY: "Obama Attacks GOP for 'Anti-Muslim' Rhetoric, Claims Islamic State Just 'Killers and Fanatics' (VIDEO)."

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Demands 'Apology' Before Releasing U.S. Sailors: Dismisses Talk of Prompt Release

I said as much earlier, "DEVELOPING: Tehran Takes 10 U.S. Sailors Captive as Two Small Navy Ships Seized by Iran (VIDEO)."

At the Telegraph UK, "Iran demands apology from US before it releases 10 sailors":

As well as playing down reports of a prompt release of the sailors, Iran is said to be demanding an apology from the US after its sailors were arrested for "violating" Iran's waters.

"Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was in touch with US Secretary of State Kerry," Iran's Revolutionary Guards' naval commander, Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, said in an interview broadcast live on state television.

"Zarif took a firm stance as the sailors had violated Iran's territorial waters and asked the United States for an apology," he added.

Source: Sky News on Twitter.

Reuters: Iran's Revolutionary Guards dismissed talk of the prompt release of 10 U.S. sailors they had arrested as speculation by others

— Sky News Newsdesk (@SkyNewsBreak) January 13, 2016

Update - Reuters: Iran's Revolutionary Guards say Tehran has asked the U.S. for an apology for "violating" Iran's territorial waters

— Sky News Newsdesk (@SkyNewsBreak) January 13, 2016

Previous blogging on Iran's seizure of U.S. naval vessels here.

Jackie Johnson's Wednesday Forecast

We've got some scattered showers expected, but I guess those dramatic El Niño storms aren't coming back for a bit.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Obama Attacks GOP for 'Anti-Muslim' Rhetoric, Claims Islamic State Just 'Killers and Fanatics' (VIDEO)

I sat quietly through most of the speech, but when Hussein once again said Islamic State isn't Islamic, that was about it.

The Wall Street Journal's live blog is here, "Obama’s Final State of the Union Speech — Live Blog."

And at Reuters, "Obama knocks Republicans for anti-Muslim rhetoric, seeks to set 2016 tone":

President Barack Obama knocked Republican presidential candidates for anti-Muslim rhetoric and accused critics on Tuesday of playing into the hands of Islamic State in a speech aimed at setting an optimistic tone for his last year in office.

Obama, delivering his last State of the Union speech to Congress before leaving office next year, said it was fiction to declare the United States was in economic decline or getting weaker on the international stage.

In a direct slap at Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, Obama said insulting Muslims hurt the United States and "betrayed" its identity.

"When politicians insult Muslims ... that doesn’t make us safer," he said, drawing applause from the crowd in the House of Representatives chamber. "It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals."

Also, at Fox News 6 Marquette, Michigan, "State of the Union: Obama calls terrorists 'killers and fanatics' who need to be destroyed":

WASHINGTON (Sinclair Broadcast Group) — Addressing the nation in his final State of the Union speech, President Obama spoke of terror, calling ISIL and other terrorist organizations, "killers and fanatics who have to be rooted out, hunted down, and destroyed."

"We don't need to build them up to show that we're serious, nor do we need to push away vital allies in this fight by echoing the lie that ISIL is representative of one of the world's largest religions," he said...

Here's the key passage from the text of the speech:

Masses of fighters on the back of pickup trucks and twisted souls plotting in apartments or garages pose an enormous danger to civilians and must be stopped. But they do not threaten our national existence. That’s the story ISIL wants to tell; that’s the kind of propaganda they use to recruit. We don’t need to build them up to show that we’re serious, nor do we need to push away vital allies in this fight by echoing the lie that ISIL is representative of one of the world’s largest religions. We just need to call them what they are — killers and fanatics who have to be rooted out, hunted down, and destroyed.

More at Politico, "Obama accuses GOP of fearmongering."

And Memeorandum.

UPDATE: Reports Say Iran Accusing Captured U.S. Navy Vessels of 'Snooping'

At IBT, "Iran-US Navy Dispute Live Updates: Iranian Military Holds 10 American Sailors On Iran’s Farsi Island":

UPDATE: 5:50 p.m. EST — Two small U.S. Navy boats that were stopped by Iran Tuesday may have run out of gas or had mechanical problems when they drifted into Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, the Washington Post reported. The ships were within 12 nautical miles of Iran when they broke down. It was unclear how the American crew and vessels were “picked up” by Iran, according to a Defense Department official. Fars, an Iranian state news agency, said 10 sailors had been arrested and were suspected of “snooping,” the New York Times reported.

The two boats each had several 50. cal guns and were "snooping around" in Iranian waters, Fars News Agency says

— Thomas Erdbrink (@ThomasErdbrink) January 12, 2016

I seriously doubt reports that Iran will be releasing our people shortly:

Iran agreed to return sailors soon, after 2 U.S. Navy boats drifted into territorial waters https://t.co/RHBaiWeQXb

— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) January 13, 2016

German Chancellor Angela Merkel Expressed Sympathy for Victims of Suicide Bombing in Istanbul (VIDEO)

Following-up from earlier, "Islamic State Suicide Bomber Kills 10 in Istanbul's Sultanahmet Square (VIDEO)."

Perhaps as many as nine German tourists were killed in the attack.

Watch, at Euronews, "Germany's Merkel offers condolences to families of Istanbul bomb victims."

Hillary Clinton's Campaign is Crashing; Could Lose Both Iowa and New Hampshire (VIDEO)

From Jon Scott's segment this morning, on Fox News, "Could Hillary Clinton lose both New Hampshire and Iowa." (Democrat pollster Jessica Tarlov nails the comments at the clip.)

And here's all the latest polling:

* "Hillary Clinton's Lead Over Bernie Sanders Slipping in New Poll," at the New York Times (via Memeorandum).

* "Quinnipiac poll: Sanders surges to retake lead in Iowa," at the Hill (via Memeorandum.)

* "Hillary Clinton's trend line in Iowa polling should scare her campaign," at WaPo (via Memeorandum).

And following-up on yesterday's Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, "Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders Even in Early Races, Poll Finds," here's Lester Holt at last night NBC Nightly News:

Donald Trump Confident 'We Can Win Iowa' (VIDEO)

Well, he conceded he might lose Iowa a week or so back, so he must be bucked up by the recent poll numbers showing him ahead of Ted Cruz in the Hawkeye State.

Again, Trump's testing the theory that he can propel undecided voters and couch potatoes to the caucuses.

Neil Cavuto has the interview, on Fox Business Channel, "Trump: We can win Iowa."

WATCH: Dramatic Video Shows Gun Battle During Raid on Mexican Drug Lord Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán

Following-up from yesterday, "Rolling Stone Stirs Controversy with Sean Penn's Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán Interview."

Via Telegraph UK:

Jen Psaki, White House Communications Director, Says Obama Has 'No Plans' to Address Iran Hostages at Tonight's #SOTU

This just in:

Obama has 'no plans" to address new Iranian hostage crisis in tonight's #SOTU, per Jen Psaki, the administration's Baghdad Bob. Via @CNN.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 12, 2016

I'll update with video if it becomes available.

PREVIOUSLY: "CNN's Barbara Starr Reports: Iran Assures U.S. of Safe Return of Sailors (VIDEO)." 

Also, "DEVELOPING: Tehran Takes 10 U.S. Sailors Captive as Two Small Navy Ships Seized by Iran (VIDEO)," and "UPDATE: U.S. Sailors Taken Hostage by Iran Revolutionary Guard, the Gestapo of the Tehran Mullahs!"

Islamic State Suicide Bomber Kills 10 in Istanbul's Sultanahmet Square (VIDEO)

But, watch, Obama will claim ISIS is on the run at tonight's State of the Union Address.

At the New York Times, "Istanbul Suicide Bombing Kills 10; Turkey Blames ISIS."



Plus, more video, at Agence France-Presse, "Terror attack strikes fear in Istanbul tourists."

CNN's Barbara Starr Reports: Iran Assures U.S. of Safe Return of Sailors (VIDEO)

I don't believe a word the Iranians say, although Barbara Starr is a judicious and reputable source.

Watch:



PREVIOUSLY: "DEVELOPING: Tehran Takes 10 U.S. Sailors Captive as Two Small Navy Ships Seized by Iran (VIDEO)," and "UPDATE: U.S. Sailors Taken Hostage by Iran Revolutionary Guard, the Gestapo of the Tehran Mullahs!"

UPDATE: U.S. Sailors Taken Hostage by Iran Revolutionary Guard, the Gestapo of the Tehran Mullahs!

CNN's Jim Sciutto reports:

Key here: Iran's Fars News agency says US sailors picked up by Revolutionary Guard Corps, from hardline camp & v. opposed to nuclear deal

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) January 12, 2016

@jimsciutto @NickKristof if Fars is reporting that Rev Guard is involved suggests this was no Good samaritan rescue mission.

— Aaron David Miller (@aarondmiller2) January 12, 2016

Iranian hardliners have been systematically trying to undermine Rouhani and damage US-Iranian relations. Seizing sailors, that'll do it.

— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) January 12, 2016

PREVIOUSLY: "DEVELOPING: Tehran Takes 10 U.S. Sailors Captive as Two Small Navy Ships Seized by Iran (VIDEO)."

DEVELOPING: Tehran Takes 10 U.S. Sailors Captive as Two Small Navy Ships Seized by Iran (VIDEO)

On the day of the State of the Union Address too.

And the Iranians are supposed to be returning the sailors shortly, according to the Obama Pentagon.

That's, of course, Democrat propaganda! Our relations with the mullahs have never been better!

At the Telegraph UK, "Iran holds two US Navy boats in Persian Gulf":

US military officials say they briefly lost contact with two small Navy craft in the Persian Gulf.

Iranian forces seized two US vessels crossing the Persian Gulf it has been claimed, but later gave American officials assurances that the craft and their crews would be returned unharmed.

The Pentagon has said it briefly lost contact with two small Navy craft in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday but has received assurances from Iran that the crew and vessels will be returned safely and promptly.

A Pentagon spokesman said that the boats were moving between Kuwait and Bahrain when the US lost contact with them.

"We have been in contact with Iran and have received assurances that the crew and the vessels will be returned promptly," he said
Fox News claimed that they strayed into Iranian waters.

"Earlier Tuesday we lost contact with two small U.S. Naval craft en route from Kuwait to Bahrain," a US defence official told the Reuters news agency.

The White House confirmed that it was aware of the situation and is working to get U.S. personnel returned.

Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters at the White House the administration was working to resolve the situation and was hopeful about it.

U.S. officials said that the incident happened near Farsi Island, situated in the middle of the Persian Gulf. They say it stemmed from some type of mechanical trouble with one of the boats, causing them to run aground. The troops were then picked up by Iran.

Secretary of State John Kerry, who has forged a personal relationship with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif through three years of nuclear negotiations, called Zarif immediately on learning of the incident, according to a senior U.S. official...

This is a major slap in the face of the American people.

The sailors should be released within four hours, before the president's address tonight, or we know for a fact this is a hostile act.

Expect updates.

Chronicle of Higher Education Profiles the 'Monkey Cage'

It's the leading political science blog, founded by John Sides and the late Lee Sigelman, of George Washington University.

Here, "How the Monkey Cage Went Ape."

Of course, it's a cocooned far-left blog, although nevertheless interesting.

Model Paige Watkins Loves a Bikini Even When She's Not at Work (VIDEO)

At GQ, "Let Professional Model Paige Watkins Take You for a Swim in the Ocean."

And watch, "Model Paige Watkins Loves a Bikini."

Plus, she's not on Instagram!

Denying the Obvious About Islamist Terror

Following-up, "Philly Mayor Jim Kenney Says Jihadist Police Ambush Shooting 'Had Nothing to Do With Islam' (VIDEO)."

From Dorothy Rabinowitz, at the Wall Street Journal:

It required only half a minute for the mayor of Philadelphia, Democrat Jim Kenney, to achieve national fame. On Friday, an already sensation-crowded day, it fell to the mayor to take part in the official pronouncements on the attempted murder of city police officer Jesse Hartnett, shot and severely wounded as he sat in his patrol car when a would-be assassin emptied his gun at him—13 shots in all.

Police Commissioner Richard Ross Jr., appointed just three days earlier, delivered the details with noteworthy eloquence: The wounded officer, bleeding heavily from three wounds, one arm useless, had gotten himself out of the car, chased the attacker and shot him.

The drama of this recital needed no amplification, but there it was anyway: Clear security video images showed the assailant in his flowing white dishdasha—a robe favored by Muslim men—running toward the patrol car, shooting, sticking his hand in the window, and racing speedily away. Pictures too of the police officer lurching out of the car to give chase.

The wounded shooter, Commissioner Ross revealed, told police after his capture that he had mounted the attack in the name of Islam, that he believes that “the police defend laws that are contrary to Islam.” The man apparently wanted to talk only about his devotion to Islam.

Undaunted by anything he’d heard so far, Mayor Kenny then came to the microphone and declared: “In no way, shape or form does anybody in this room believe that Islam or the teaching of Islam” had anything to do with the attack. “This was a criminal with a stolen gun.”

Mr. Kenny’s tone was fervent. Out of this event—involving a murderous assault on a police officer, and a heroic response by that officer—the mayor, awash in excitation, had divined what was, for him, the most important concern of this day. Namely, persuading citizens that this attack had nothing to do with allegiance to Islam...

The mayor's no different from the president: disgusting PC commandos endangering American lives.

More.

Alabama Crimson Tide Wins College Football National Championship

At the Los Angeles Times, "Alabama defeats Clemson, 45-40, to win College Football Playoff title."

And at the Other McCain, "#RollTide: Alabama Crimson Tide Defeats Clemson 45-40 for National Title."

Alabama wins the #NationalChampionship, 45-40, over Clemson. https://t.co/o6Jkp7BfpK

— Lindsey Thiry (@LindseyThiry) January 12, 2016

https://t.co/0LwXX42bhF @rsmccain appreciates #RollTide defense #NationalChampionship pic.twitter.com/ZMMW6AEKBo

— Evi L. Bloggerlady (@MsEBL) January 12, 2016

Roll Tide Roll! @AlabamaFTBL YOUR 2015 National Champions! #RollTide #NationalChampionship #Sweet16 pic.twitter.com/AWhJFOqNDu

— Alabama Athletics (@UA_Athletics) January 12, 2016

Rand Paul and Carly Fiorina Dumped from Next GOP Presidential Debate (VIDEO)

Rand Paul won't participate in the undercard, and will probably drop out of the race.

Watch, Greta Van Susteren interviews RNC Chair Reince Priebus:



And at Politico, via Memeorandum, "Paul, Fiorina excluded from main stage in Thursday's GOP debate."

Olivia Culpo Casting Call for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2016

Nice:

Jackie Johnson's Tuesday Forecast

For the State of the Union, heh.

Via CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Rolling Stone Stirs Controversy with Sean Penn's Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán Interview

At USA Today, "'Rolling Stone' stirs controversy with drug lord interview":

There almost had to be something wrong with this picture: Rolling Stone magazine, still bruised from erroneous reporting about campus rape, scores an exclusive interview with escaped Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán.

The interview conducted by tough-guy actor Sean Penn and posted on the Rolling Stone website late Saturday fueled several journalistic misgivings. An editor's note said Guzmán was given right of refusal after reading a finished version, and some names had been changed. The magazine said Guzmán, who does not speak English, asked for no changes.

Ceding such control to Guzmán was professionally "inexcusable," wrote Reuters reporter Andrew Seaman, who chairs the ethics committee for the Society of Professional Journalists, in a blog Saturday night. The New York Post cited the same reason in labeling Penn "El Jerko."

Questions remain about whether the magazine's efforts to secure the interview in October helped law enforcement recapture the renowned prison escapee on Friday. An unnamed Mexican federal law enforcement official told the Associated Press that the Penn interview assisted its efforts.

Penn, in the article, makes clear he worked hard to avoid being noticed by police.

Other journalism analysts said the Guzmán interview was a bona fide exclusive or scoop — aside from the ethical issue of giving him the right to change the article — and could help restore the nearly 50-year-old magazine's tarnished image.

"Rolling Stone needed this story," said Samir Husni, professor at the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and director of the Magazine Innovation Center at the school. It was crucial for the magazine to show it remains a major player in journalism, he said.

"They are still a very relevant magazine doing such a great job that very few are actually doing," Husni said Sunday.

He said the decision allowing an actor to conduct the interview was a classic Rolling Stone mix of pop culture and journalism..

Keep reading.

Actually, I think this "good journalism" take is the minority position.

See Hadas Gold, "Rolling Stone has been just a whole study of journalism ethics these past couple years."

The Nation Launches Metered Paywall System, Abandoning Its Commitment to the Utopian Socialist Collective

Well, that whole #ResistCapitalism meme caused a laugh riot on Twitter, so I guess this is par for the course.

Old Man Marx must be spinning in his grave.

At the Nation, "Paying for Journalism That Matters": 

The only way to read everything The Nation publishes (including our 150-year digital archive) has always been to subscribe. Unlike most magazines that rely on advertising to pay their bills, The Nation depends upon the support of our readers and the generosity of our donors. But starting on January 11, 2016, we’re changing to a different model of accessing all of our content online. We think this new metered system will better allow people to read and share our most important work during critical moments (after all, we’re working to help build a movement here), while also asking our regular readers to chip in to support our journalism. Here’s how it will work...

In other words, there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Somebody's gotta pay, heh.

Still more.

Actually, you'll notice they're still committed to the socialist collective, it's just that the people's collective of peasants and workers is going to have to pony-up to get there.

Ammon Bundy Removes Barbed-Wire Fence About Five Miles South of #Malheur Refuge Headquarters

It's just day-to-day now.

Not sure what destroying a fence is supposed to do, but it's being called the "boldest" move yet by the Bundy militiamen.

See the Portland Oregonian, "Oregon standoff: Bundy, militants destroy fence at federal refuge."

Pair of New Republican Primary Polls Shows Donald Trump Surging to Lead in Iowa

I don't know.

Maybe Ted Cruz peaked early in the Hawkeye State. Or, voters there have been won over by Donald Trump's steady inroads on the campaign trail.

Either way, it's basically neck and neck now, with the polling results within the margin of error. One survey's from Quinnipiac, which is quite reputable. The other's out from the American Research Group, of which I'm less familiar. No matter, no doubt it's a merciless horse race right now in Iowa. Indeed, we're nearing the final stretch and it's exciting.

See, the Conservative Treehouse, "Two Iowa Polls Put Donald Trump Back On Top – Ted Cruz a Close Second."

PREVIOUSLY: "Latest Gravis Marketing National Poll Shows Donald Trump with Whopping Lead Over Ted Cruz."

Latest Gravis Marketing National Poll Shows Donald Trump with Whopping Lead Over Ted Cruz

Here's last month's survey, "Huge Lead for Donald Trump in New Gravis Marketing National Poll."

Interesting, but despite all the pundit chatter about Ted Cruz polling lead in the Iowa caucuses, he's made barely a dent in the real estate mogul's national standing.

See, "OANN Gravis Marketing national poll conducted over the weekend."