National Review's Unwise Excommunication of Donald Trump

It's a crisis of conservatism, and the splits are more severe than I've seen since --- well, ever.

I thought it was bad in 2008 when John McCain won the nomination. But folks on Twitter are saying they've never seen anything like this.

Here's Laura Ingraham, who's of course a major figure in movement conservatism, at LifeZette, "National Review’s Unwise Pig Pile on Donald Trump":

I think National Review, in its issue dedicated to taking down GOP front-runner Donald Trump, has made a big mistake. With so much on the line for America, how is it smart to close the door to Trump’s voters and to populism in general?

The folks at NR launched a similar effort to excommunicate conservatives in 2003, with a much-hyped cover story titled “Unpatriotic Conservatives.” Back then it was Pat Buchanan and the now-deceased Bob Novak who were the targets. Former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum, a dear friend, made the case that these men and others who stood against our invasion of Iraq, had “made common cause with the left-wing and Islamist antiwar movements.” In other words, these “disgruntled paleos,” weren’t truly conservative because they opposed the war in Iraq.

As it turned out, of course, that small band of thinkers knew more about what was in the national interest than anyone at National Review or myself, who was also a strong advocate for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“I never received an apology note,” Buchanan told me on my radio show. “They’re Davos conservatives,” he added, referencing the annual meeting of the world’s elites in Switzerland.

Whatever you think of Trump personally, his supporters are pushing for three big things:

* A return to traditional GOP law and order practices when it comes to illegal immigration.
* A return to a more traditional GOP foreign policy that would put the national interest ahead of globalism.
* A return to a more traditional GOP trade policy that would analyze trade deals from the perspective of the country as a whole and not blindly support any deal — even one negotiated by President Obama.

On each of these issues, Trump's voters are calling for a return to policies that were GOP orthodoxy as recently as the late 1990s.

The matriarch of the conservative movement, Phyllis Schlafly, who likes but isn’t endorsing Trump, put it this way: "I’m not going to tell you that Donald Trump is perfect, or right on everything … but immigration is the top issue today, and he’s the one who made it a front-burner issue."

By refusing to make room for these ideas within conservatism, NR risks creating the impression that the revolution brought about by George W. Bush — in particular, his belief in open borders, his effort to create a permanent U.S. military mission in the Middle East, and his notion that trade can never be regulated, no matter how unfair — is now a permanent part of conservatism that can never be questioned. They are also inviting those who disagree with Bush on those points to leave conservatism and start seeking their allies elsewhere.
This is an absolute disaster for conservatism. It is obvious by now that Bushism — however well-intentioned it may appear on paper — does not work for the average American. It is also clear that Bushism has almost no support within the rank and file of the GOP, much less within the country as a whole. Making the tenets of Bushism into an orthodoxy that conservatives cannot question will cripple conservatism for years to come.

If blue-collar Americans are told that their concerns on immigration, trade, and foreign policy cannot be addressed within the conservative movement, they will look elsewhere — just as they looked elsewhere in the late 1960s after they learned that their problems couldn't be addressed within liberalism. National Review Editor Rich Lowry and his people will be left preaching their narrow doctrine to a smaller and smaller audience.

Back in 2008, another populist was running for president, and ended up winning the Iowa caucuses. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who’s running again in 2016, sympathized with Trump in the NR dust-up. Recalling that the publication also took after him during his primary fight with Arizona Sen. John McCain, he said, "This is a fool-hearty effort … [by] the elitists who live in their own little bubble."

NR is "completely out of touch … [and] represents big business, not the American people," he added, noting NR’s support for the 5,500-page Trans-Pacific Partnership. "Out here in Iowa, they are not representative and their views are not representative."

Of course there is ample room to criticize Trump’s approach and his lapse into sloganeering where substance is needed — as I have done on many occasions. But if NR rejects the Trump voters, it will be reversing the decision by Ronald Reagan, William F. Buckley, and others to welcome blue-collar voters, Democrats, and independents into the conservative fold. Whatever that means for the country, it will do major damage to conservatism. If the conservative movement devotes itself to defending the legacy of George W. Bush at all costs, it will become irrelevant to the debate over how to make things better for most Americans...

That's gonna leave a mark.

Still more.

Ammon Bundy Talks to FBI in Effort to End Occupation of #Malheur National Wildlife Reserve (VIDEO)

It's be three weeks since the start of the occupation. Maybe folks would like it to finally wind down.

At the Portland Oregonian, "FBI and Oregon standoff leaders begin negotiations to end refuge occupation":

BURNS – Ammon Bundy, standing in a biting, freezing wind Thursday at the police blockade to the local airport, borrowed a cellphone from an FBI agent.

On the other end was an FBI negotiator who identified himself to Bundy only as "Chris."

And so opened talks between the leader of the refuge occupation and the federal agency in charge of bringing an end to the armed takeover, now in its third week.

For nearly an hour around noontime, the negotiator listened to Bundy's well-practiced litany of complaints against the federal government while probing for what it would take to end his occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

They ended the call with the promise to talk again Friday.

Bundy and Ryan Payne, another takeover organizer, said the FBI reached out by phone and by messenger starting two days ago.

Bundy said he had 14 voice messages Wednesday from the negotiator – the same day that Gov. Kate Brown publicly scolded federal officials for what she said was their slow approach to ending the Harney County standoff...

More.

I'm hoping it all winds down non-violently. Everyone's heavily armed up there.

Rachel Harris, Playmate of the Month November 2015, Carries on the Tradition (VIDEO)

Hey, the centerfold models are almost a thing of the past at Playboy.

Fortunately, Ms. Harris did her duty.

Watch, "Rachel Harris wants you to know she’s not a model — she’s an artist."

More, "Rachel Harris Playboy Playmate of the Month November 2015."

Two Versions of America Emerge in Presidential Campaign

From Ronald Brownstein, at National Journal, "Race, religion, and ethnicity divide the country between what it was and what it is becoming":

The cul­tur­al and demo­graph­ic gulf between the Re­pub­lic­an and Demo­crat­ic elect­or­al co­ali­tions can now be meas­ured not just in space, but time.

Today, the two parties rep­res­ent not only dif­fer­ent sec­tions of the coun­try, but also, in ef­fect, dif­fer­ent edi­tions of the coun­try. Along many key meas­ures, the Re­pub­lic­an co­ali­tion mir­rors what all of Amer­ic­an so­ci­ety looked like dec­ades ago. Across those same meas­ures, the Demo­crat­ic co­ali­tion rep­res­ents what Amer­ica might be­come in dec­ades ahead. The parties’ ever-es­cal­at­ing con­flict rep­res­ents not only an ideo­lo­gic­al and par­tis­an stale­mate. It also en­cap­su­lates our col­lect­ive fail­ure to find com­mon cause between what Amer­ica has been, and what it is be­com­ing.

The two dif­fer­ent Amer­icas em­bod­ied by the parties are out­lined by race.

In 2012, whites ac­coun­ted for about 90 per­cent of both the bal­lots cast in the Re­pub­lic­an pres­id­en­tial primar­ies and the votes Mitt Rom­ney re­ceived in the gen­er­al elec­tion. The last time whites rep­res­en­ted 90 per­cent of the total Amer­ic­an pop­u­la­tion was 1960. Eth­nic groups now equal just over 37 per­cent of Amer­ic­ans. But voters of col­or ac­coun­ted for nearly 45 per­cent of Pres­id­ent Obama’s votes in 2012. Eth­nic minor­it­ies likely won’t equal that much of the total pop­u­la­tion for about an­oth­er 15 years.

Re­li­gion also re­in­forces the parties’ con­trast­ing Amer­icas.

White Chris­ti­ans ac­count for 69 per­cent of all adults who identi­fy as Re­pub­lic­ans, ac­cord­ing to the Pew Re­search Cen­ter’s massive re­li­gious-land­scape sur­vey. The last time white Chris­ti­ans equaled that much of Amer­ica’s total pop­u­la­tion was 1984—the year of Ron­ald Re­agan’s land­slide reelec­tion. Today, white Chris­ti­ans have fallen be­low ma­jor­ity status, to just 46 per­cent of the adult pop­u­la­tion. The change is even more pro­nounced among Demo­crats, less than one-third of whom are white Chris­ti­ans. An­oth­er third of Demo­crats are non­white Chris­ti­ans.

But the party’s largest group (around 35 per­cent) is com­prised of people from all races who identi­fy with non-Chris­ti­an faiths, or in­creas­ingly, with no re­li­gious tra­di­tion. Those non-Chris­ti­ans are grow­ing rap­idly across Amer­ic­an so­ci­ety—but in the en­tire pop­u­la­tion they likely won’t match their cur­rent level among Demo­crats un­til after 2020.

Sim­il­arly, data from Pew’s re­li­gious-land­scape study shows that nearly three-fifths of Re­pub­lic­ans are mar­ried—a level last reached in the over­all adult pop­u­la­tion in 1994. Today just un­der half of Amer­ic­an adults are mar­ried. Among Demo­crats, the num­ber is lower still: barely over two-in-five. Like­wise, the share of Re­pub­lic­ans who live in a house­hold with a gun (54 per­cent) equals the share in so­ci­ety over­all in 1993. Since then, gun own­er­ship among the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion has dropped to about 40 per­cent, while fall­ing even lower (around one-fourth) among Demo­crats.

From these con­trast­ing ex­per­i­ences, the parties now sep­ar­ate, above all, by their at­ti­tude to­ward the grow­ing di­versity and cul­tur­al changes re­mak­ing Amer­ica...

Well, it's interesting, to say the least.

I was thinking just this morning if Donald Trump could build some kind of wall to keep out terrible Chinese drivers. They're everywhere in Irvine and they drive me crazy!

But keep reading.

And ICYMI, "Obscure Pat Buchanan Adviser in 1996 Predicted Wild Donald Trump Campaign of 2016."

Massive Sinkhole on Interstate 8 in San Diego (VIDEO)

Heh.

The East Coast's got nothing on us!

At the San Diego Union-Tribune, "I-8 sinkhole snarls traffic for miles."

And watch, at ABC News 10 San Diego, "Investigation into cause of massive sinkhole on I-8 in College area."

I-8 sinkhole falls into our #PicturesOfTheDay gallery https://t.co/dCkAlVB5SP pic.twitter.com/Du8B0xirdq

— U-T Photography (@sdutPhotography) January 22, 2016

Obscure Pat Buchanan Adviser in 1996 Predicted Wild Donald Trump Campaign of 2016

Via Andrea Tantaros, see Michael Brendan Dougherty, at the Week, "How an obscure adviser to Pat Buchanan predicted the wild Trump campaign in 1996":

[S]ooner or later, as the globalist elites seek to drag the country into conflicts and global commitments, preside over the economic pastoralization of the United States, manage the delegitimization of our own culture, and the dispossession of our people, and disregard or diminish our national interests and national sovereignty, a nationalist reaction is almost inevitable and will probably assume populist form when it arrives. The sooner it comes, the better… [Samuel Francis in Chronicles]

Imagine giving this advice to a Republican presidential candidate: What if you stopped calling yourself a conservative and instead just promised to make America great again?

What if you dropped all this leftover 19th-century piety about the free market and promised to fight the elites who were selling out American jobs? What if you just stopped talking about reforming Medicare and Social Security and instead said that the elites were failing to deliver better health care at a reasonable price? What if, instead of vainly talking about restoring the place of religion in society — something that appeals only to a narrow slice of Middle America — you simply promised to restore the Middle American core — the economic and cultural losers of globalization — to their rightful place in America? What if you said you would restore them as the chief clients of the American state under your watch, being mindful of their interests when regulating the economy or negotiating trade deals?

That's pretty much the advice that columnist Samuel Francis gave to Pat Buchanan in a 1996 essay, "From Household to Nation," in Chronicles magazine. Samuel Francis was a paleo-conservative intellectual who died in 2005. Earlier in his career he helped Senator East of North Carolina oppose the Martin Luther King holiday. He wrote a white paper recommending the Reagan White House use its law enforcement powers to break up and harass left-wing groups. He was an intellectual disciple of James Burnham's political realism, and Francis' political analysis always had a residue of Burnham's Marxist sociology about it. He argued that the political right needed to stop playing defense — the globalist left won the political and cultural war a long time ago — and should instead adopt the insurgent strategy of communist intellectual Antonio Gramsci. Francis eventually turned into a something resembling an all-out white nationalist, penning his most racist material under a pen name. Buchanan didn't take Francis' advice in 1996, not entirely. But 20 years later, "From Household to Nation," reads like a political manifesto from which the Trump campaign springs...

Keep reading.

That's exactly right.

Recall, as I wrote last night when the National Review hit piece went live:

Folks like Trump because they believe he'll fight for their values. They don't care if he can articulate them perfectly well. He's hits the bullseye when he stands up for the working-class downtrodden, to say nothing of the Great White Nationalists. Yep, I said it. You can't understand his success unless you see Trump's rise as a revolt against the politically correct, pro-diversity establishmentarians of both parties. Trump's especially got the GOPe running scared.

All of this is reminding me of the late Samuel Huntington's path-breaking book, Who Are We?: The Challenges to America's National Identity.

At the time (Huntington's book came out in 2004), Who Are We sounded the tocsin but was decidedly a voice in the wilderness. If Huntington were around today, he'd be cheering on Donald Trump and saying to the downtrodden Middle American Proletariat, "what took you so long?"

Republican Establishment Warms to Donald Trump; Remains Cool to Ted Cruz

This seems to be the big trend, despite the hackneyed palpitations of the folks at National Review.

At WaPo, "GOP establishment warms to Trump — and remains cool toward Cruz":

The Republican establishment — once seen as the force that would destroy Donald Trump’s outsider candidacy — is now learning to live with it, with some elected and unelected leaders saying they see an upside to Trump as the nominee.

In the past few days, Trump has received unlikely public praise from GOP luminaries who said they would prefer him to his main rival, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

In private, some veteran conservative Republicans have been reaching out to Trump. And Trump himself called the ultimate establishment figure in Washington, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, for a talk late last year.

“If it came down to Trump or Cruz, there is no question I’d vote for Trump,” said former New York mayor and 2008 presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has not endorsed a candidate. “As a party, we’d have a better chance of winning with him, and I think a lot of Republicans look at it that way.”

This warming toward Trump comes after establishment favorites such as Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida governor Jeb Bush have failed to reach the top tier. It signals that, among the party’s entrenched elites, there is a growing fear that none of those candidates may be able to beat both Trump and Cruz...

More.

Here's That Jackie Johnson Fitness Stretching Video You Were All Eagerly Awaiting!

She's so lovely --- it's nice to see her doing something in addition to the weather.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Fit Tips on 2: How to relax your muscles while under stress. Jackie Johnson reports."

Hillary Clinton Claims It's Bernie Sanders Who's Really the 'Establishment' Candidate (VIDEO)

Heh.

I'd pretty much forgotten about Rachel Maddow, what, with the (further) decline of the far-left hack channel MSNBC.

But here she is from last night, "Bernie Sanders Clarifies 'Establishment' Remarks."

I'll bet Maddow's actually pretty torn between Clinton and Sanders. What's more important? Feminism or socialism?

You be the judge, lol.

Also, at RCP, "Hillary Clinton: I Don't Understand What Bernie Sanders Means by 'Establishment'."

National Review Declares Donald Trump a 'Menace to American Conservatism' (VIDEO)

Here's Chris Stirewalt's analysis of the whole National Review brouhaha, with Bill Hemmer during the opening segment of "America's Newsroom."

Watch, "National Review: Trump a 'Menace to American Conservatism'."

And, ICYMI, "Here's National Review's 'Against Trump' Editorial."

Donald Trump's 'Clear Difference' Campaign Spot Slams Ted Cruz on Amnesty (VIDEO)

Well, if folks were waiting for the negative portion of the presidential campaign, wait no longer, heh.

Everybody's hitting out every which way.

Here's the Donald slamming Ted Cruz on immigration amnesty:

At the Minneapolis Star Tribune, "Trump releases first political attack ad against rival Cruz."

Demi Lovato Campaigns for Hillary Clinton in Iowa (VIDEO)

I guess folks saw some Bernie Sanders supporters at the Clinton rally.

Hey, wouldn't want to miss a chance to meet Demi!

Via Associated Press:

So, Everybody's Loving This Bernie Sander's 'America' Campaign Spot (VIDEO)

Even Ann Althouse, heh.

See, "Wow. That is effective. I've got to turn myself away. That is effective..."



And see the encomiums at Memeorandum.

At Least 42 Migrants Drown in New Migrant Tragedy Near Greece

Maybe if they just stopped coming...

The death toll includes 17 children.

At Reuters, "At Least 42 Migrants Drown as Boats Capsize Off Greek Islands."

'Radical Totalitarian Loons' Launch 'Stop Hate Dump Trump' (VIDEO)

Donald Trump hardly needs defending but Bill O'Reilly provides a rather spirited defense here, slamming far left "loons" like Jane Fonda and Noam Chomsky and the radical attack group "Stop Hate Dump Trump."

From last night's Talking Points Memo:

Loras College Poll Has Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in Dead Heat, 25-24 Percent

I've never heard of the Loras poll, but the methodology looks pretty rigorous.

See, "TRUMP AND CRUZ DEADLOCKED, WITH RUBIO A DISTANT THIRD, LORAS COLLEGE POLL FINDS" (via Jennifer Jacobs):

With 11 days to go before the 2016 Iowa Caucuses, real estate mogul Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz are deadlocked at the top of the latest Loras College Poll. The two candidates have distanced themselves from the rest of the field, with Florida Senator Marco Rubio the only other candidate receiving double-digit support among likely Republican caucus voters.  The statewide live-caller poll was conducted Jan. 13-18.  Trump and Cruz were also at the top of the December Loras Poll.

As the precinct caucuses approach on Feb. 1, the campaigning is reaching a fevered pitch.  “The Trump versus Cruz dynamic has defined the Republican race in the past couple of weeks.  We are certainly seeing that here in Iowa,” said Christopher Budzisz, Ph.D, associate professor of politics and director of the Loras College Poll.  “Iowa voters have surprised in the past, so it is always wise to watch for out for a last-minute push by someone from back in the field.  Senator Rubio is the one most within striking distance at the moment, and 10 days is something of an eternity in caucus politics.”

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad made headlines with his comment Wednesday that he “think[s] it would be a big mistake for Iowa to support him.” The governor focused on Cruz’s opposition to ethanol as a key reason for concern.

“Governor Branstad’s comments were noteworthy as a high profile intervention into the race, and that isn’t something you usually see.  It will be interesting find out how voters respond to this last minute pitch by the state’s influential and popular GOP governor,” Budzisz said...

More.

If these results are accurate, that means the campaign ground games are going to be decisive. I have no clue what'll happen, frankly. Again, Donald Trump's supposed to be mobilizing all kinds of new participants, so his campaign could blow traditional expectations out of the water.

We'll see. We'll see.

Jackie Johnson's Balmy Friday Forecast

I went out without a jacket today. It was probably 70 degrees and sunny, if not warmer.

Via CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

National Review Disinvited from GOP Debate in Houston for Publishing Editorial Hit Piece, 'Against Trump'

It was bound to happen, I guess.

From Jack Fowler, "Houston, We Have a Problem."

Just got a call from top GOP official. @NRO disivinited from Houston debate on Feb. 25th becasue of #AgainstTrump. https://t.co/KrPECb1Mwz

— Jack Fowler (@jackfowler) January 22, 2016

PREVIOUSLY: "National Review's February 15th Issue Goes Nuclear 'Against Trump' as Republican Presidential Nominee!," and "Here's National Review's 'Against Trump' Editorial."

Also, "Here's Rich Lowry on 'The Kelly File' Talking Up National Review's 'Against Trump' Editorial (VIDEO)."

Here's Rich Lowry on 'The Kelly File' Talking Up National Review's 'Against Trump' Editorial (VIDEO)

Following-up, "National Review's February 15th Issue Goes Nuclear 'Against Trump' as Republican Presidential Nominee!," and "Here's National Review's 'Against Trump' Editorial."

I've been blogging like crazy, but Fox News talking heads have been droning on in the background, heh.

Here's Megyn Kelly's lead segment, with Rich Lowry:

Here's National Review's 'Against Trump' Editorial

It wasn't up when I posted a little while ago, "National Review's February 15th Issue Goes Nuclear 'Against Trump' as Republican Presidential Nominee!"

But it's up now, "Trump is a philosophically unmoored political opportunist":

Donald Trump leads the polls nationally and in most states in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. There are understandable reasons for his eminence, and he has shown impressive gut-level skill as a campaigner. But he is not deserving of conservative support in the caucuses and primaries. Trump is a philosophically unmoored political opportunist who would trash the broad conservative ideological consensus within the GOP in favor of a free-floating populism with strong-man overtones.

Trump’s political opinions have wobbled all over the lot. The real-estate mogul and reality-TV star has supported abortion, gun control, single-payer health care à la Canada, and punitive taxes on the wealthy. (He and Bernie Sanders have shared more than funky outer-borough accents.) Since declaring his candidacy he has taken a more conservative line, yet there are great gaping holes in it.

 His signature issue is concern over immigration — from Latin America but also, after Paris and San Bernardino, from the Middle East. He has exploited the yawning gap between elite opinion in both parties and the public on the issue, and feasted on the discontent over a government that can’t be bothered to enforce its own laws no matter how many times it says it will (President Obama has dispensed even with the pretense). But even on immigration, Trump often makes no sense and can’t be relied upon. A few short years ago, he was criticizing Mitt Romney for having the temerity to propose “self-deportation,” or the entirely reasonable policy of reducing the illegal population through attrition while enforcing the nation’s laws. Now, Trump is a hawk’s hawk.

He pledges to build a wall along the southern border and to make Mexico pay for it. We need more fencing at the border, but the promise to make Mexico pay for it is silly bluster. Trump says he will put a big door in his beautiful wall, an implicit endorsement of the dismayingly conventional view that current levels of legal immigration are fine. Trump seems unaware that a major contribution of his own written immigration plan is to question the economic impact of legal immigration and to call for reform of the H-1B–visa program. Indeed, in one Republican debate he clearly had no idea what’s in that plan and advocated increased legal immigration, which is completely at odds with it. These are not the meanderings of someone with well-informed, deeply held views on the topic.

As for illegal immigration, Trump pledges to deport the 11 million illegals here in the United States, a herculean administrative and logistical task beyond the capacity of the federal government. Trump piles on the absurdity by saying he would re-import many of the illegal immigrants once they had been deported, which makes his policy a poorly disguised amnesty (and a version of a similarly idiotic idea that appeared in one of Washington’s periodic “comprehensive immigration” reforms). This plan wouldn’t survive its first contact with reality.

On foreign policy, Trump is a nationalist at sea. Sometimes he wants to let Russia fight ISIS, and at others he wants to “bomb the sh**” out of it. He is fixated on stealing Iraq’s oil and casually suggested a few weeks ago a war crime — killing terrorists’ families — as a tactic in the war on terror. For someone who wants to project strength, he has an astonishing weakness for flattery, falling for Vladimir Putin after a few coquettish bats of the eyelashes from the Russian thug. All in all, Trump knows approximately as much about national security as he does about the nuclear triad — which is to say, almost nothing.

Indeed, Trump’s politics are those of an averagely well-informed businessman: Washington is full of problems; I am a problem-solver; let me at them. But if you have no familiarity with the relevant details and the levers of power, and no clear principles to guide you, you will, like most tenderfeet, get rolled...

Keep reading.

Notice that stompy-feet tone to the editors' screed. They're not wrong so much as pissing in the wind. Folks like Trump because they believe he'll fight for their values. They don't care if he can articulate them perfectly well. He's hits the bullseye when he stands up for the working-class downtrodden, to say nothing of the Great White Nationalists. Yep, I said it. You can't understand his success unless you see Trump's rise as a revolt against the politically correct, pro-diversity establishmentarians of both parties. Trump's especially got the GOPe running scared.

It's all mixed up right now, but things are going to shake out real soon. Ted Cruz has alienated a lot of people on Capital Hill, and elsewhere, and major figures in the party are saying they'd rather have the Manhattan real estate mogul. I'm just getting a kick out of this from an analytical perspective. What a blast this primary's been so far. I can't wait until the Iowa caucuses, heh.

And see Politico, via Memeorandum, "National Review aims to take down Trump."

Still more, at Gateway Pundit.

GOP Senators Warn of Revolt If Ted Cruz Wins Party's Presidential Nomination (VIDEO)

Following-up, "National Review's February 15th Issue Goes Nuclear 'Against Trump' as Republican Presidential Nominee!"

The Old Gray Lady's story spoke of the most significant split in the Republican Party since Barry Goldwater's campaign in 1964. But when folks start mentioning Donald Trump and the John Birch Society in the same breath, you know they're stretching things.

Here's this, from CNN, "The Ted Cruz pile on: GOP senators warn of revolt should he win nomination."

I couldn't find a YouTube clip or I would've embedded it. But there's a nice CNN video at that link.

More at Memeorandum.

National Review's February 15th Issue Goes Nuclear 'Against Trump' as Republican Presidential Nominee!

Newsmax has the lineup of conservatives featured in the forthcoming National Review issue slamming Donald Trump. See, "National Review Urges 'Say No' to Trump."

And the story's at the New York Times, "Donald Trump or Ted Cruz? Republicans Argue Over Who Is Greater Threat":

National Review's new cover: "Against Trump" cc @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/FUrHg9srkF

— Ryan Lovelace (@LovelaceRyanD) January 22, 2016

WASHINGTON — With Donald J. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz battling for the Republican nomination, two powerful factions of their party are now clashing over the question: Which man is more dangerous?

Conservative intellectuals have become convinced that Mr. Trump, with his message of nationalist-infused populism, poses a dire threat to conservatism, and planned to issue a manifesto online Thursday night to try to stop him.

However, the cadre of Republican lobbyists, operatives and elected officials based in Washington is much more unnerved by Mr. Cruz, a go-it-alone, hard-right crusader who campaigns against the political establishment and could curtail their influence and access, building his own Republican machine to essentially replace them.

The division illuminates much about modern Republicanism and the surprising bedfellows brought about when an emerging political force begins to imperil entrenched power.

The Republicans who dominate the right-leaning magazines, journals and political groups can live with Mr. Cruz, believing that his nomination would leave the party divided, but manageably so, extending a longstanding intramural debate over pragmatism versus purity that has been waged since the days of Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller. They say Mr. Trump, on the other hand, poses the most serious peril to the conservative movement since the 1950s-era far-right John Birch Society.

Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review — embracing the role of his predecessor, William F. Buckley, who in the 1960s confronted Birch Society members — reached out to conservative thinkers to lend their names to the manifesto against Mr. Trump. He drew on some of the country’s leading conservatives, including Erick Erickson, William Kristol and Yuval Levin, to write essays buttressing the argument that Mr. Trump had no commitment to restraining the role of government and possessed authoritarian impulses antithetical to conservative principles.

“Donald Trump is a menace to American conservatism who would take the work of generations and trample it underfoot on behalf of a populism as heedless and crude as The Donald himself,” the magazine said in an editorial accompanying the manifesto.

Peter Wehner, a longtime conservative writer, said: “He’s not a conservative, he’s an angry populist. It would be dangerous if the party or movement hands control over to him.”

Yet many members of the Republican influence apparatus, especially lobbyists and political strategists, say they could work with Mr. Trump as the party’s standard-bearer, believing that he would be open to listening to them and cutting deals, and would not try to take over the party.

“He’s got the right personality and he’s kind of a deal-maker,” said Robert J. Dole, the former Republican senator and 1996 presidential candidate.

Of course, this willingness to accommodate Mr. Trump is driven in part by the fact that few among the Republican professional class believe he would win a general election. In their minds, it would be better to effectively rent the party to Mr. Trump for four months this fall, through the general election, than risk turning it over to Mr. Cruz for at least four years, as either the president or the next-in-line leader for the 2020 nomination...

Well, Rich Lowry has a piece up at Politico today, making the distinction between populism and conservatism, of which Donald Trump is the former (not the latter). See, "The Battle for the Soul of the Right."

And at Memeorandum.

Joy Corrigan Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Casting Call (VIDEO)

The swimsuit issue countdown continues.

Here's Joy Corrigan, via Sports Illustrated:

Blizzard Watch: Monster Winter Storm Heads for Washington, D.C., Area (VIDEO)

Here's USA Today, "Major winter storm forecast to slam East Coast."

And at ABC News, "East Coast Braces for Massive Winter Storm."

Just ten years ago scientists were predicting the end of winter whiteout storms on the East Coast. But now this weekend we're expected a storm-of-the-century style blizzard.

Oh boy, it's just a barrel of monkeys with our leftist betters, lol.

In 1995, 97% of climate experts said that global warming was reducing snowfall https://t.co/0kHiGYd4Te pic.twitter.com/2q8ELi5h6q

— Steve Goddard (@SteveSGoddard) January 20, 2016

Donna Brazile, Far-Left Democrat Hack, Attacks Sarah Palin as 'Liar' for Linking Son's Arrest to President Obama (VIDEO)

Ooooh! This is getting juicy.

Once you bring Palin into the mix it's almost like we're back in 2008!

Following-up from yesterday, "Sarah Palin Blames PTSD and Barack Obama for Son Track's Domestic Violence Arrest (VIDEO)."

And watch, at CNN, "Brazile: Palin a "liar" for linking Obama to her son's domestic violence arrest..."

Now, if we could just get Andrew Sullivan to reprise some Trig-trutherism we'll be really cooking baby!

Israel to Seize EU-Funded Land Projects, Demolishes Structures (VIDEO)

At Reuters, "Israel says will seize West Bank land; demolishes EU structures."

More at the Times of Israel, "Israel to announce major land appropriation in Jordan Valley."

And at the Los Angeles Times, "Israel plan could lead to more Jewish settlements in occupied West Bank":

In a move that could lead to construction of more Jewish settlements, Israel plans to annex 370 acres of agricultural land in the occupied West Bank near the city of Jericho.

The land has been under Israeli control since the Six Day War of 1967 and was already being farmed by members of the neighboring Etzion settlements, which are widely considered to be illegal under international law.

Formal annexation would continue a pattern of Israeli expansion that has been condemned by the U.S. and other world powers because it dampens the prospects for creation of a Palestinian state, which they view as the best hope for a lasting peace.

Israeli Army Radio quoted a defense ministry report describing the plan as “a very sensitive issue which will likely garner harsh critique from Europe and the United States, and of course from the Palestinian Authority.”

The Cabinet is expected to quickly approve the plan, which was authorized in a declaration signed Wednesday morning by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, the radio station reported.

The defense ministry and the prime minister’s office declined to comment. But the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories — the Israeli military body that oversees the occupied West Bank — confirmed the plan.

It would be the largest annexation since August 2014, when Israel incorporated nearly 1,000 acres in the West Bank in response to the nearby kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers months earlier.

Palestinian leaders quickly condemned the new plan...

I'm sure they did.

More.

Anti-Tobacco Coalition Launches Signature Petition Drive for Increased Cigarette Taxes (VIDEO)

I hate new taxes. But I especially hate them when they're imposed through the initiative process by far left-wing nut jobs --- like billionaire enviro-wacko Tom Steyer!

I don't smoke. But it's high time to leave smokers alone.

At the Sacramento Bee, "Coalition launches petition to take tobacco tax to November ballot":

Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer and Democratic Sen. Richard Pan spoke about the evils of cigarettes and vaporizers Tuesday at C.K. McClatchy High School as they joined a coalition of medical and labor groups to launch a petition for a ballot measure that would levy a $2 tax on tobacco sales.

“My mother smoked three packs a day of non-filtered cigarettes and died of lung cancer, so I have a personal interest in preventing smoking and preventing young people from starting smoking,” Steyer said to a room of teenagers. Steyer is a former hedge-fund manager turned advocate for legislation to fight climate change.

The ballot measure calls for the state to largely funnel the revenue from a tobacco tax to Medi-Cal, with some money set aside for anti-smoking programs and research on tobacco-related illnesses and diseases. The tax would apply to cigarettes, e-cigarettes and any other products containing or derived from tobacco or nicotine.

Pan, a practicing pediatrician from Sacramento, warned students that despite misconceptions, e-cigarettes are also addictive and contain nicotine...

Still more.

Let Alessandra Ambrosio Take You Behind the Scenes of GQ’s Body Issue Cover Shoot (VIDEO)

Following-up from the other day, "Alessandra Ambrosio and Cristiano Ronaldo for GQ."

Here's the video:

Woman in High-Speed Chase on 710 Freeway Was Banned from Having Animals (VIDEO)

What a story.

Here's the news from a couple of days ago, at LAT, "6 dogs loose on freeway after police pursuit captured."

And here's the update from this morning, "Woman with dogs that ran on freeway after pursuit was banned from having animals, prosecutors say":

[Tiffini Kuuipo ] Tobe had parked her Mercedes-Benz on the shoulder of the 91 Freeway near Buena Park and had fallen asleep when California Highway Patrol officers spotted her car about 8:15 p.m. Monday and attempted to wake her, prosecutors said.

The CHP officers issued orders asking her to get out of the car but she refused. She drove off, leading authorities on a chase that turned onto the 710 Freeway and reached speeds of up to 90 mph, prosecutors said.

At the end of the chase, Tobe opened a car door and six pit bulls hopped out, wagging their tails as they approached a throng of CHP officers.

NEWSLETTER: Get essential California headlines delivered daily >>

A warrant had been issued Friday for Tobe’s arrest after she failed to appear for a court hearing in an animal abuse case, prosecutors said.

In June she was charged with a misdemeanor count of keeping an animal without proper care after a person saw one of her pit bulls with an exposed bone. The dog had chewed off his own leg, prosecutors said.

Investigators later realized the dog’s foot had been missing for several months and because he had several untreatable lesions, veterinarians were forced to euthanize the dog...

Drunk 21-Year-Old Woman Dies of Exposure After Leaving Party in Milwaukee with Temperatures at -6°F (VIDEO)

Folks were making jokes about this woman on Twitter, but I can't laugh. It's just not funny.

She had on just shorts and a tank top. She didn't even make it four blocks before falling into the snow, freezing to death. It was -27°F with the wind chill factor.

She was just 21 and apparently had drinking problems.

Watch, at WISN News 12, "Woman, 21, found frozen outside home identified: Elizabeth Luebke, of Oshkosh, was in subzero temperatures for hours."

Vox's History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is Complete Garbage

Well, anything featuring far-left nutjob Max Fisher is complete garbage, so what can you do, heh?

From David Harsanyi, at the Federalist":

Vox, the Internet’s most popular anti-Israel site, has produced an easily digestible ten-minute history of the entire Arab-Jewish conflict for progressives who find Wikipedia too intellectually demanding. (Fingers crossed for the seven-minute video explaining The Reformation.)

Keep reading.

I'm not linking to Vox.

But here's Max on Twitter if you want to troll around, lol.

Two Men Among First to Be Charged Under L.A.'s New Law Restricting Drones (VIDEO)

I hate the overreaching arm of the state (or the municipality, in this case), but considering last year's El Cajon fire, you gotta do something. (See, "Drones Disrupt Aerial Firefight Drops Over Cajon Pass North Fire (VIDEO).")

Watch, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "2 Men Among First to Be Charged Under LA's New Ordinance Restricting Drone Operations."

Travel Back in Time with Miss July 2003 Marketa Janska (VIDEO)

Way back, heh.

Watch, at Playboy, "Get a Taste of Miss July 2003, Marketa Janska."

Also, "Marketa Janska at the Playboy Blog: Playmate July 2003."

Iranian-Backed Militia Suspected in Kidnapping of 3 Americans in Iraq (VIDEO)

I tweeted that the hostages were probably already in Tehran when this story first broke. The mullahs can act with impunity in the face of the craven Obama administration.

Watch, here's Bill Hemmer, on America's Newsroom.

PREVIOUSLY: "U.S. Pays Steep Ranson for Four Innocent Hostages Held Captive by Iran."

Whopper: EPA Chief Gina McCarthy Says '99% of scientists agree climate change is happening...'

We're ruled by idiots, and the masses are just sheep to the slaughter.

At Twitchy, "Fact check, please: EPA chief @GinaEPA says ‘99% of scientists agree climate change is happening’."

I'm Halfway Through Orlando Figes', A People's Tragedy

My reading volume has dropped significantly this last week or so. I've been blogging a lot, especially the primaries. There's been tons of great news.

In any case, Figes' book is over 800 pages and I'm halfway through. Maybe I'll finish before school starts on February 8th, but I'm not making any promises, heh.

At Amazon, A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924.

Also, LSTN Satellite Zebra Wood Portable Bluetooth Speaker with Built-in Microphone.

More, Shop Amazon - New Year New You.

Dutch Model Lara Stone Puts On Eye-Popping Display in Wet T-Shirt for Vogue Shoot at Bondi Beach, Australia

At London's Daily Mail, "Lara Stone puts on an eye-popping display as she goes braless in a see-through wet T-shirt for steamy Vogue shoot with hunky male model."

Connecticut High School Student Says Pledge of Allegiance to Islamic State, Gets Pulled from School

Well, was the kid Muslim?

Then, yeah, sounds justified to me. These fuckers will kill ya.

At London's Daily Mail:

Student reported for saying 'ISIS' instead of 'United States of America' during pledge of allegiance https://t.co/0pEZ97sf4W

— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) January 21, 2016

We Just Might Get That Trump-Sanders Race

I think so.

From Glenn Reynolds, at USA Today:

Back last summer, I wrote about the prospects for a Trump-Sanders 2016 race. At the time, I thought I was just being cute. Now it looks as if it might happen.

Trump, of course, remains atop all of the polls for the GOP nomination. And now Bernie Sanders is crushing Hillary Clinton in CNN/WMUR's latest New Hampshire poll, 60% to 33%. That’s right, Bernie has a 27-point lead among New Hampshire Democrats.

There’s no question that Hillary is in real trouble. As Peter Wehner noted in Commentary, “Mrs. Clinton is now running as basically the third term of President Obama. She may tweak what he did here and there, but she is fully embracing Mr. Obama. In an election year in which anger and disgust at the political establishment and business as usual are dominant, and in which only a quarter of the American people believe the country is headed in the right direction, that is a dangerous strategy to adopt. In addition, there’s a historical burden Mrs. Clinton faces: Since 1948, a political party has won three straight presidential elections only once, when George H.W. Bush succeeded Ronald Reagan, who was much more popular at the end of his second term than, in all likelihood, Mr. Obama will be.”

With the Middle East on fire and the U.S. economy looking shaky, the “Obama’s third term” strategy isn’t looking very good. But Hillary was part of his administration, so what else can she do?

She also faces increasing legal problems. In particular, as the email story trickles out, it’s now clear that she had beyond top secret material on her secret personal email server. As Politico reports: “In a copy of the Jan. 14 correspondence obtained by Politico, Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III told both the Senate Intelligence and Senate Foreign Relations committees that intelligence agencies found messages relating to what are known as 'special access programs,' or SAP. That’s an even more restricted subcategory of sensitive compartmented information, or SCI, which is top secret national security information derived from sensitive intelligence sources.”

As intelligence experts like to point out, normal federal employees would face career-ending consequences, if not prison, for this sort of mishandling of classified information, which made it easy for foreign nations to learn extremely important secrets about U.S. intelligence — and U.S. methods of gathering intelligence.  In Charles Krauthammer's view, what Hillary did is worse than what Edward Snowden did: “What people have to understand is that there is nothing higher, more secret than an SAP. And that, from some people I’ve talked to, this is worse than what Snowden did, because he didn’t have access to SAP. And that, if this is compromised, this is so sensitive, that the reason — and the reason it is is that, as a result, if it’s compromised, people die. It also means that operations that have been embedded for years and years get destroyed and cannot be reconstituted.”

Still more.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Seeks New Rules on Awards Diversity (VIDEO)

Look, leftists love affirmative action quotas.

If that's their stand for college admissions, it should be no different for movie awards. A fixed share of the nominations should go to minorities. Of course, then the question becomes what if minorities don't win? Naturally, then, you'll have to have quotas for the actually winners as well.

That's the leftist way to do it. Either that, or tell the leftist quota industry to got to hell. (And that ain't gonna happen.)

At LAT, "Academy board will weigh new voting rules to encourage diversity":

For the last three years, the awards body has been in the midst of a push for more diversity, inviting larger and demographically broader groups to join its 6,261 voting members, and in November, Boone Isaacs announced a new imitative, called A2020, intended to diversify the staff of the organization. But given the size of the academy, and the fact that members belong for life, any change to the organization's overall demographics has been incremental...

More.

Donald Trump's Increasing Prospects Stir Fears Within the Republican Party (VIDEO)

I love this.

The GOPe needs to be stirred out of its stupor.

At WSJ, "Republican Party Grapples With Prospect of a Trump Victory":

When it comes to Donald Trump, two strands of thought appear to be strengthening simultaneously in different camps of the Republican Party: He can’t possibly end up as the presidential nominee, and it looks increasingly likely that he may do just that.

On the first front, a series of prominent GOP pundits and strategists in recent days have issued barbed denunciations of the real-estate mogul. Mr. Trump as nominee “would pose a profound threat to the Republican Party,” wrote Peter Wehner, a former adviser to President George W. Bush. A Trump win, said former Bush speech writer Michael Gerson, would mark “a massive ideological and moral revision” of the GOP. Mark Salter, a longtime campaign adviser to Sen. John McCain, hit a more profane note, calling Mr. Trump “a mean-spirited, lying jerk.”

At the same time, if you trust the polls, Mr. Trump is gaining strength in the early states, and lags behind only in Iowa, where voters are set to kick things off in all of 11 days. Since 2000, among GOP candidates, the size and durability of Mr. Trump’s lead in national polls has been topped only by George W. Bush, who went into the Iowa caucuses with the support, on average, of around 60% of likely GOP voters. Mr. Trump now stands at around 35%, according to the Real Clear Politics running tally. His nearest rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, comes in at 19%.

Mr. Trump has his vulnerabilities. A solid third of Republicans say they can’t see themselves supporting him as the nominee, according to the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. (Then again, that is the lowest number of the cycle, and down from 74% last March.) In head-to-head races, according to the same poll, he would lose to Mr. Cruz in the primaries and to both Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders in the general election. In a hypothetical matchup against Mrs. Clinton, just 19% of nonwhite voters support him.

On the other hand, Mr. Trump has shown remarkable staying power, and appears to be assembling a disparate block of supporters that could portend surprises in many states. He continues to draw huge crowds in unlikely places, like Lowell, Mass., this month. In WSJ polling, his support among primary voters is similar to what then-Sen. Barack Obama had at this point in 2008, and stronger than Sen. John McCain that year or Mitt Romney four years later.

Just as importantly, both Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz—as well as Mr. Sanders on the Democratic side—are showing signs they may expand the electorate in meaningful ways...

Frankly, I expect Trump to win the nomination. I'm more certain of it now than I was back in September and October. He's never lost his position as the GOP front-runner, and it's now quite possible he could win in the Hawkeye State. That would be a huge blow to Ted Cruz, who doesn't have a real firewall coming out of Iowa. Trump could go on to win New Hampshire and South Carolina, forcing some of the other candidates from the race. I don't expect a contested convention and never have.

It's less than two weeks until it all starts to unfold. And it's less than a year now until the next president is sworn in. God, I can't wait.

Keep reading.

(And while Florida doesn't voted until March 15th, Trump's got a huge 47 percent lead in the Sunshine State. The poll could be an outlier, but still. See Hot Air, "Florida poll: Trump 48, Cruz 16, Rubio 11, Bush 10; Update: Trump up 20 in new NH poll.")

How Sarah Palin Helps Donald Trump (VIDEO)

A great piece, from Byron York, at the Washington Examiner, "Byron York: What Palin does for Trump, and to Cruz":

Even though she is much diminished from her heyday a few years ago, Palin still has influence among some conservatives. Trump now has that on his side, and just as important, Cruz doesn't....

At the [Oklahoma] rally I talked with Jamie Johnson, a veteran Iowa politico who supported Rick Santorum in 2012 and Rick Perry earlier in this race, but is now unaffiliated. Johnson saw the Palin move entirely in terms of persuading voters at the margins of the Trump vs. Cruz contest.

"I think the Palin endorsement is important for all of the Tea Partiers who were deciding which of the two they were going to vote for," Johnson said.

Does Palin still have clout in Iowa?

"To Tea Partiers, she does."

"How big a part of the electorate is that?"

"Probably 15 to 20 percent of the people who caucus. I'd say 15 to 20 percent would identify themselves as Tea Partiers more than anything else, such as born-again evangelicals."

"And you would expect that some of them are caught on the fence now between Trump and Cruz?"

"I know for a fact that they are," Johnson replied. "I've talked to several people in the last two months who have been on the fence between Trump and Cruz. So if they're on the fence, this might be just enough to push them over."

Indeed, at Trump and Cruz events in the last two weeks, I have met plenty of people who were for Trump, with Cruz as their second choice, or were for Cruz, with Trump as their second choice. For some of them, Palin's seal of approval might make some difference. Before she spoke, I asked several people at the Ames rally whether Palin had worn out her welcome; none thought she had.

"It's a valuable endorsement because people still view her as an anti-establishment outsider who they can also relate to," said Craig Robinson, a former Iowa state GOP political director who founded the Iowa Republican blog. "And if there is any strategy to the Trump campaign, it is to dominate the media coverage of the race, and Palin's endorsement will certainly help with that."

That's an understatement. Palin's appearance with Trump immediately captured nearly all the media's attention. In coming days, it will inspire impassioned debate, make talking heads explode, and cause fevered speculation across cable TV...

Exactly.

Trump's a freakin' master of media manipulation. He keeps sucking up all the oxygen, and the Palin endorsement really is a masterstroke for the age. I love it. Like I said earlier, the Cruz campaign was probably hating it, and it turns out they were. They were freakin' fuming that the Texas senator didn't get the former Alaska governor's support.

Still more.

Ted Cruz's Terrible Tuesday

As I was saying yesterday, it's been a tough week for Ted Cruz.

At Time:

The day began with a harsh swipe from the king of Iowa’s political establishment. It ended with a Tea Party queen crowning his top rival in the Hawkeye State.

Ted Cruz hasn’t suffered too many setbacks lately. But Tuesday was a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day for a candidate hoping to ride a caucus win on Feb. 1 to the Republican presidential nomination...

RTWT.

And ICYMI, "Bob Dole, World War II Veteran, Former U.S. Senator, and 1996 GOP Presidential Nominee, Warns of 'Cataclysmic' Losses with Ted Cruz."

Jackie Johnson's Thursday Forecast

It rained a little early this morning, otherwise is was a nice day. I wasn't out much, actually. Just hanging around, catching up on some sleep, watching the news, and blogging.

Here's Jackie, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Sarah Palin Blames PTSD and Barack Obama for Son Track's Domestic Violence Arrest (VIDEO)

At London's Daily Mail, "Sarah Palin blames son Track's domestic assault arrest on PTSD and Obama's 'disrespectful' treatment of veterans."

Donald Trump More Than Doubles Ted Cruz in New Hampshire, Latest CNN/WMUR Poll Finds (VIDEO)

Trump leads Cruz by more than 20 points in the Granite State, 34-to-14 percent.

At CNN, "CNN/WMUR Poll: Trump leads, Cruz climbs in New Hampshire."



There's a CNN video at that link above.

Bob Dole, World War II Veteran, Former U.S. Senator, and 1996 GOP Presidential Nominee, Warns of 'Cataclysmic' Losses with Ted Cruz

Dole says Donald Trump would do better.

Needless to say, it's been a rough week so far for Senator Cruz.

At the New York Times, "Bob Dole Warns of 'Cataclysmic' Losses With Ted Cruz, and Says Donald Trump Would Do Better":

Bob Dole, the former Kansas senator and 1996 Republican presidential nominee, has never been fond of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. But in an interview Wednesday, Mr. Dole said that the party would suffer “cataclysmic” and “wholesale losses” if Mr. Cruz were the nominee, and that Donald J. Trump would fare better.

“I question his allegiance to the party,” Mr. Dole said of Mr. Cruz. “I don’t know how often you’ve heard him say the word ‘Republican’ — not very often.” Instead, Mr. Cruz uses the word “conservative,” Mr. Dole said, before offering up a different word for Mr. Cruz: “extremist.”

“I don’t know how he’s going to deal with Congress,” he said. “Nobody likes him.”

But Mr. Dole, 92, said he thought Mr. Trump could “probably work with Congress, because he’s, you know, he’s got the right personality and he’s kind of a deal-maker.”

The remarks by Mr. Dole reflect wider unease with Mr. Cruz among members of the Republican establishment, but few leading members of the party have been as candid and cutting.

“If he’s the nominee, we’re going to have wholesale losses in Congress and state offices and governors and legislatures,” said Mr. Dole, who served in the House and Senate for 35 years and won the Iowa caucuses twice. He described Mr. Cruz as having falsely “convinced the Iowa voters that he’s kind of a mainstream conservative.”

The only person who could stop Mr. Cruz from capturing the nomination? “I think it’s Trump,” Mr. Dole said, adding that Mr. Trump was “gaining a little.”

He said he had met Mr. Trump only once, 30 years ago. “But he has toned down his rhetoric,” he added. As for Mr. Cruz, he said: “There’ll be wholesale losses if he’s the nominee. Our party is not that far right.”

Mr. Dole repeatedly said he was strongly supporting Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, although he acknowledged that Mr. Bush has had trouble gaining traction...

Dole's about as establishment as you can get. It's a sign, among others, that the GOPe is coalescing around the Donald.

More at Memerorandum.

Jamie Foxx Saves Man from Burning Truck (VIDEO)

Hey, credit where credit's due.

He did a good thing, and the man's father is forever grateful.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Jamie Foxx on rescuing man from burning truck: 'You just had to do something."

And watch, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Jamie Foxx Saves Driver From Burning Truck Outside His Home."

Demi Lovato for Allure

Here, "See Demi Lovato's February 2016 Allure Cover Shoot."

And watch, "Demi Lovato's February 2016 Allure Cover Shoot."

On Twitter as well.

Kelly Brook Posts Photos of Herself Dressed Up as Wonder Woman to Instagram

She makes a pretty good Wonder Woman.

More at the Mirror UK, "Kelly Brook displays incredible cleavage as she dresses up as Wonder Woman."

BONUS: At Celebslam, "It's Kelly Brook's 2016 Calendar."

Donald Trump Supporters React to Sarah Palin's Endorsement (VIDEO)

Watch, at NBC Nightly News.

If anything, Palin's endorsement is yet again a media masterstroke for Donald Trump. He can't not get himself on the nightly news and he can't not dominate the 24-hour cable channels.

And supporters are really enthusiastic at that clip.

San Diego Chargers Should Stay in San Diego

Argues Bill Plaschke, at the Los Angeles Times, "The San Diego Chargers should stay right where they are":

ICYMI: @BillPlaschke takes a sledgehammer to the idea that the Chargers should move to L.A. https://t.co/2ykB0Ruv0E

— Nathan Fenno (@nathanfenno) January 20, 2016

The Rams haven't even been here a week, and already they are risking a penalty for too many men on the field.

The Chargers need to get out of the their huddle, and stay out.

The Chargers need to remain in San Diego where they belong. The Chargers need to forget sharing Los Angeles with the Rams, because they can't.

To welcome the Chargers back to Los Angeles as a second NFL team would be to ignore climate, dismiss history, and ultimately be doomed by both.

First, the climate. There is none. This isn't a Chargers town. This has never been a Chargers town. The Chargers had 21 years to woo us as an uncontested suitor and still couldn't make it a Chargers town.

Do you know one Chargers fan who lives within 60 miles of the proposed Inglewood stadium? In two decades, have you known one fan from L.A. County who drove to San Diego on a Sunday morning to watch a game who was not rooting for the opposing team?

The Chargers will cite statistical evidence that 25% of their fans come from Los Angeles, Orange County and the Inland Empire. I've never met one.

There are Chargers fans on the southern and eastern outskirts of San Diego County, but the longtime NFL heartbeat in this town beats through the Rams, and the crazy passion comes from a love for the Raiders. There are more Raiders fans here than Chargers fans, and it isn't even close.

Second, the history. The Chargers have tried to share a stadium with the Rams before. It lasted a year. And the Chargers couldn't wait to leave.

In 1960, the Chargers were part of the fledgling American Football League and played in the Coliseum, and nobody knew they were here.

The Rams averaged more than 70,000 fans, the Chargers would barely draw 10,000. Even for their L.A. debut, the Chargers drew just 17,724, and many of those "fans" were employees of team owner and hotel magnate Barron Hilton...

More.

Also, watch, at ABC News 10 San Diego, "Fans launch 'love letters' campaign to save Chargers."

Desperate Hillary Clinton Campaign to Attack Bernie Sanders as 'Fringe' Socialist Candidate (VIDEO)

Hillary's campaign's crashing, and desperate attacks on Sanders' socialism are going to backfire.

His socialism's exactly why he's surging, especially among young people. I mean, shoot, he's up around 80 percent among Millennials in that CNN/WMUR poll out yesterday.

Sanders has the mojo. Hillary, not so much.

At NYT, "Alarmed Clinton Supporters Begin Focusing on Sanders’s Socialist Edge":

Democrats backing Hillary Clinton, nervously eyeing Senator Bernie Sanders’s growing strength in the early nominating states, are turning to a new strategy to raise doubts about his candidacy, highlighting his socialist beliefs to warn that he would be an electoral disaster who would frighten swing voters and send Democrats in tight congressional and governor’s races to defeat.

It is a scenario many Democrats long dismissed as even remotely plausible: the 74-year-old Mr. Sanders, a registered independent who self-identifies as a democratic socialist, as their nominee. But the possibility of his defeating Mrs. Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire next month has prompted some of her prominent supporters to discuss how they could attack Mr. Sanders if his candidacy began to look less like a threat and more like a runaway train: calling him unelectable and warning Republicans would have a field day if he were the Democratic nominee.

“Here in the heartland, we like our politicians in the mainstream, and he is not — he’s a socialist,” said Gov. Jay Nixon of Missouri, who is term-limited and working to elect a Democratic successor. “He’s entitled to his positions, and it’s a big-tent party, but as far as having him at the top of the ticket, it would be a meltdown all the way down the ballot.”

And after months of ignoring Republican cheerleading for Mr. Sanders, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has started aggressively highlighting how much the opposition is openly providing him aid and comfort — mostly recently in a new ad by Karl Rove’s group American Crossroads that echoes Mr. Sanders’s attacks on Mrs. Clinton’s ties to Wall Street.

“Republicans and their ‘super PACs‘ have made clear the candidate they’re actually afraid to face,” said Jennifer Palmieri, Mrs. Clinton’s communications director.

Mr. Sanders, for his part, has taken to highlighting polls that show him faring better than Mrs. Clinton against some of the Republican candidates, and his aides insist that voters will look past labels to consider his record, ideas and proposals.

Yet Mrs. Clinton herself has begun urging activists in Iowa to consider “electability and how we make sure we have a Democrat going back into that White House on Jan. 20, 2017.” And her supporters, with the campaign’s blessing, are aggressively moving to sow doubts about Mr. Sanders’s viability, a tactic aimed at alarming primary voters concerned about retaining the presidency and regaining the Senate.

For all the authorized fear-mongering, though, it is clear that few Democrats seeking re-election this year relish the prospect of running with Mr. Sanders on top of the ticket...

Really?

The only difference between Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama is that the former's not afraid to wear his socialism proudly on his sleeve.

But keep reading.

ADDED: Oh, it turns out it's Hillary hatchet-man David Brock's who's cooked up this scheme. See WSJ, "Clinton Ally Attacks Sanders on Socialism." (Via Memeorandum.)

At Least 30 Slaughtered in Attack at Bacha Khan University in Pakistan (VIDEO)

The number killed keeps going higher depending on the news source.

At the Guardian UK, for example, "Pakistan university attack: at least 30 dead as gunmen storm Bacha Khan campus."

And the death toll's likely to rise.

Plus, watch, at Euronews, "Taliban claim attack on university in NW Pakistan, 21 dead."

'Whiteness History Month' at Portland Community College (VIDEO)

At Campus Reform, "Portland Community College to devote an entire month to 'whiteness'-shaming."

Maybe some of this SJW business will die down once O's out of office. At least, one can hope.

And watch, at KOIN News 6 Portland:

Katrina Pierson, Donald Trump's National Campaign Spokeswoman, Discusses Feud with Ted Cruz (VIDEO)

Newt Gingrich was on Hannity's last night moaning about how Donald Trump was diminishing himself by "beating up" on Ted Cruz.

C'mon, it's politics, and Trump's not one to stick to Marquess of Queensberry rules. Ted Cruz looked a little downcast on the campaign trail yesterday as well. But as they say, if you can't take the heat...

In any case, here's Ms. Pierson:

Jackie Johnson's Wednesday Forecast

It looks like El Niño's taken a vacation, but that's just temporary.

See LAT, "What happened to El Niño? Be patient, L.A., it'll come, expert says."

Either way, it's been quite mild this past few days.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

The Coming GOP Crackup

Maybe I should pose the title with a question mark, like this: "The Coming GOP Crackup?"

Crackup or not, the churning of the party's a good thing, although journalists like Molly Ball, at the Atlantic, are probably more eager to eschew the query form.

Here, "Portrait of a Party on the Verge of Coming Apart":

Perhaps the GOP’s chaos is just normal pre-primary tension, when an active contest naturally creates an air of conflict, and candidates have an incentive to warn against their rivals in urgent terms. But for many Republicans—the ones not living in fantasyland—the current battle for the party, between the nihilistic forces of Trump and Cruz on the one hand and the uninspiring conventional politicians on the other, feels like something deeper. It feels like a duel from which only one participant will walk away. It feels like the party is on the brink of breaking apart.

With just two weeks until the Iowa caucuses, the prospect of Trump or Cruz as the Republican nominee is no longer distant enough to be ignored. “I’m surprised that it’s lasted this long,” says Cheryl Leonard, a 63-year-old elementary-school speech pathologist, here with her husband and a friend. “I thought that the showmanship would have died down and somebody real would come forward. But maybe that won’t happen.” She agrees with some of the things Trump says about immigration—we can’t let everybody in—but she’s horrified by his divisiveness. “It’s dangerous for the party, the way he’s alienating people,” she says.

Leonard’s husband, Gary, is leaning toward Kasich now that Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senator who might have rivaled Kasich as the most liberal candidate in the field, has dropped out. “But I think he’s probably too intelligent to win,” he says ruefully. “If we don’t change right now, there are going to be repercussions.”

On a wall under a high shelf holding shiny amber bottles of bourbon hangs an enormous sign reading “A Strong America Is a Safe America.” The newest Kasich slogan represents his only notable attempt to cater to his party’s fearful mood and lust for machismo. Kasich is introduced by the local state representative, Chip Limehouse, a big, beefy-faced man in a suit, who says: “He’s the adult in the room, and we need an adult running this country!” Among the candidates, only Kasich, Limehouse says, has what it takes to defeat Hillary Clinton in November. “If we nominate the loudest, most outrageous person in the room, we will lose. There’s no two ways about it,” he adds.

Kasich takes the microphone in a blue V-neck sweater and open-collared shirt and does his dorky-dad routine for a few minutes, invoking his mailman father, saying “You’re a doll” to a cherubic 11-year-old girl. He talks about the Ohio budget and bringing people together. “It’s not just about winning an election—it’s about being a uniter, being part of the healing process in our country,” he says. For this crowd, that’s red meat.

Afterwards, standing on the sidewalk outside the bar, I ask Kasich what he thought of Haley’s speech. Trump’s defenders on the far right decried it; which side is Kasich on? He says he didn’t see it—he was out fundraising in California. (Kasich, who has an iPad but not a smartphone and doesn’t use email, doesn’t seem to follow the headlines very closely: A couple of weeks ago, he told reporters he was unaware of the militia standoff in Oregon that was all over the news.) I try again: What does he think about the idea that we should resist the voices of anger? Kasich guffaws and says, sarcastically, “What, we ought to be angrier? Are you kidding me? I don’t think that’s going to fix the problems in our country.”

Kasich has something to add: You may not be able to tell, but he is having the time of his life. “Most people, they get kind of loose and have fun once they lose, and then everybody says, ‘Why didn’t they have fun before they lost?’” he says. “I’m having it right now.” At that, the governor of Ohio turns on his heel and heads for his waiting car.

Trump and Cruz are the outsiders, it’s said, while the other candidates—the ones promoting some version of old-school governance—represent the party establishment. If you’re looking for the establishment, you might expect to find it  at the quarterly meeting of the Republican National Committee, which convened on Thursday in a swank downtown Charleston hotel.

“It’s like the NFL,” says Ron Kaufman, the thin-mustached, Boston-accented committeeman from Massachusetts, a longtime lobbyist and fixer who’s worked for Republicans from Reagan to Romney. (Partisans in each state elect a committeeman and committeewoman to serve on the RNC.) “There are two leagues: the centrist-conservative league, and the right-wing league. We’re in the semifinals to see who’s going to represent each league in the finals.”

Kaufman is for Jeb Bush, who he thinks has an “off chance” to surprise in New Hampshire. The centrist candidate, by his reckoning, has won every Republican primary since 1980; Reagan was only retroactively adopted by the conservative movement, which largely worked against him at the time, according to Kaufman. “I’ve been around since 1865,” he jokes, “so I’m kind of sanguine about the whole thing.” He doesn’t believe that perhaps this year the old rules won’t apply anymore.

If Trump or Cruz does win, he will have laid bare the vacuum where once sat the Republican establishment. Yes, there are the donors, people who give the party a lot of money and think this ought to get them something in return; Trump is running against them. (No less a GOP bigwig than Charles Koch recently lamented his lack of influence on the party.) There are the lobbyists and consultants, but Trump doesn’t listen to them either. There are the elected officials, but they are held hostage by their constituents. There is no smoke-filled room where the poo-bahs could go to work out a deal and end this. In an age of radical disintermediation, parties can’t tell the people what to do...

There's no "off chance" for Jeb. He's through. And Kasich is an also-ran, a footnote in the monstrosity of an anti-establishment realignment.

It's amazing. And exciting!

Still more, FWIW.

Ms. Molly seems wistful at how all the old political firmaments are breaking away.

Edita Vilkevičiūtė for Calvin Klein

She's a smokin' Lithuanian babe.

At Drunken Stepfather, "EDITA VILKEVICIUTE FOR CALVIN KLEIN OF THE DAY."

Kathleen Sorbara Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Casting Call (VIDEO)

Just a couple of weeks now until the big swimsuit issue hits the newsstands!

Ben Carson Campaign Volunteer Killed in Car Crash in Iowa

This is horrible news.

At USA Today, "Carson volunteer dies following wreck in Iowa."

And at the Des Moines Register, "Ben Carson volunteer dies after crash":

Ben Carson chartered a private jet to fly Braden Joplin's family from Texas to Omaha hospital, but he died ~1/2 hour before their arrival.

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) January 20, 2016

BREAKING: Ben Carson campaign volunteer, Braden Joplin, dies of injuries sustained in Iowa car crash today, per hospital. He was 25.

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) January 20, 2016

Here's the crashed van carrying @RealBenCarson staffer & volunteers hospitalized today https://t.co/Rin59yYAxo pic.twitter.com/QgzoSqGuGa

— Timothy Meinch (@timeinch) January 19, 2016

OMAHA — A Ben Carson campaign volunteer died in a hospital here after a car crash in western Iowa Tuesday morning.

The accident prompted the Republican presidential candidate to cancel campaign stops Tuesday and Wednesday.

A van driven by a Carson campaign staffer, carrying three campaign volunteers, lost control and was struck by another vehicle on icy Interstate Highway 80 Tuesday morning near Atlantic.

One volunteer, Braden Joplin, was transported to the University of Nebraska medical center in Omaha with serious injuries. He died in the hospital Tuesday around 4:30 p.m., according to a statement from hospital officials.

The other three people in the van were treated and released at hospital in Atlantic, according to Ryan Rhodes, Carson's Iowa campaign director...

More.

Holy Cow! Bernie Sanders Surges to 'Walloping' 60-33 Point Lead in New Hampshire (VIDEO)

I like, "walloping."

At USA Today, "Poll: Bernie Sanders is walloping Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire."

And at CNN, "CNN/WMUR Poll: Sanders trouncing Clinton in New Hampshire":

(CNN) Bernie Sanders' lead over Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire is on the rise, with the Vermont senator leading the former secretary of state by 27 points, 60% to 33%, a new CNN/WMUR poll has found.

The new poll, mostly conducted before Sunday night's debate, found Sanders' support has grown by 10 points since a late-November/early December CNN/WMUR poll, which found Sanders holding 50% to Clinton's 40%.

New Hampshire Democrats' views on the race are solidifying as well, with 52% saying they have definitely decided who they will support, up from 36% who felt that way in early December. Among those voters, Sanders holds an even broader 64% to 35% lead.

But the Vermont senator's support rests heavily on groups whose participation in New Hampshire primaries is less reliable -- notably younger voters and those who aren't registered Democrats.

There are some signs in the poll that the increasingly contested Democratic race is gaining attention among the state's undeclared voters, who are not registered as members of any party and are able to choose which party's primary they will participate in. In the December poll, 38% of undeclared voters who said they planned to vote said they would likely participate in the Democratic primary, a figure that is up to 48% in the new poll.

Those undeclared voters are critical to Sanders' support: 70% in the new poll say they plan to vote for him, 25% Clinton. Among registered Democrats, it's 50% Sanders to 41% Clinton. Still, that represents an increase for Sanders among registered Democrats. The December poll found him trailing Clinton, 47% to 40%, among that group...

Keep reading (there's more video at the link).

Sarah Palin Endorses Donald Trump for GOP Nomination (VIDEO)

I saw this earlier but was busy at the office working up my syllabi for the spring semester. I think this is a major development. Folks on CNN earlier were dismissing Palin as something of a has-been whose creds on the hustings ain't what they used to be. Actually, I'd beg to differ. I expect she's got millions of loyal supporters around the country who're thrilled by her endorsement, and who're excited to see her "stump for Trump."

It's pretty awesome, frankly. I'll bet Ted Cruz is pretty bummed out about it, in fact, to say nothing of the die hard "constitutional conservatives" bewailing Trump's candidacy.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Sarah Palin endorses Donald Trump's campaign for president":

Sarah Palin, a popular figure among evangelicals and tea party followers, endorsed Donald Trump for president Tuesday, giving the New York billionaire a key source of support as chief rival Ted Cruz tries to undercut his standing among conservatives.

Palin joined Trump at a rally in Ames, Iowa, where she hailed his stand against illegal immigration and his vow to take a tough approach to U.S. adversaries on the world stage.

“Are you ready for a commander in chief who will let our warriors do their job and go kick ISIS’s ass?” Palin asked Trump’s supporters at Iowa State University.

The former governor of Alaska can be a polarizing figure. But her strong following among evangelicals and other conservatives makes her a valuable ally at a time when Cruz, a Texas senator, is casting Trump as liberal on abortion, same-sex marriage and other issues...

Plus, at the New York Times, via Memeorandum, "Sarah Palin Endorses Donald Trump, Rallying Conservatives."

More, at the Des Moines Register, "Sarah Palin endorses Donald Trump for president."

Expect updates.

The 'Black, Queer Liberation Collective' Takes Credit for Shutting Down Oakland's Bay Bridge (VIDEO)

The call themselves the "Black.Seed," although I'm not sure why. Sounds pretty weird. Seems like you wouldn't need too much "black seed" if you're in a queer liberation collective. It's mostly rough-and-ready bare-backing high jinks, NTTAWWT!

From last night, at the Los Angeles Times, "Bay Bridge's westbound lanes reopened after rush hour protest; 25 arrested":

The demonstration was carried out by Black.Seed, which identifies itself as a "Black, queer liberation collective," according to a statement released by the Anti-Police Terror Project.

The collective "shut down the Bay Bridge as a show of resistance to a system that continues to oppress Black, Queer, Brown, Indigenous and other marginalized people throughout the Bay Area," according to the statement...

Here's the group's website, "BLACK QUEER LIBERATION COLLECTIVE BLACK.SEED SHUTS DOWN BAY BRIDGE":

Today, January 18th, Black.Seed has shut down the west-bound span of Bay Bridge. Cars are blocking lanes and individuals are chained across lanes to demand investment in the wellbeing of Black people. Motorists on the Bay Bridge can follow the action by tuning their radio to 107.9, a temporary radio station broadcasting the event. The action can also be followed on Twitter: @APTPaction

Over the last few years, we have seen San Francisco and Oakland destroyed by police murders, rising housing costs, rapid gentrification, and apathetic city officials. Last year, we saw dozens of police murders throughout the Bay Area; since June of 2015 in Oakland alone there have been eight Black men murdered by police.

Today Black.Seed celebrates and honors the radical legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Historically, our people have had to take drastic and dramatic measures to highlight the systemic abuses that harm our communities. 51 years ago, those who came before us participated in direct action in Selma, Alabama, to speak out against the harms of racism and oppression. It is this very spirit of resistance that flows through our lives and actions, in the Black Out Friday, Black Brunches, and highway shutdowns of today.

We are here to move towards an increase in the health and wellbeing of all Black people in Oakland & San Francisco. We stand in solidarity with APTP and demand...

Click through to read the list of demands.

And on Twitter, "Update: All 24 freedom fighters have been released!"

See also the San Francisco Chronicle, "Bay Bridge reopens after protesters chain themselves, shut down span."

When you block traffic on freeways and bridges, you don't bring people over to your side. You piss them off and alienate them. It makes good protest theater, I guess. And virtue signalling.