Saturday, May 7, 2016

Deal of the Day: KitchenAid PRO 500 Series 5-Quart Lift Style Stand Mixer

That's a nice mixer!

At Amazon, KitchenAid PRO 500 Series 5-Quart Lift Style Stand Mixer All Metal (SILVER).

Also, Hanover Outdoor Strathmere 6-Piece Lounge Set, Silver Lining.

More, Save on Outdoor Patio Furniture by Hanover.

And, Save $15 on Fire TV – Now with 4K Ultra HD and Alexa.

Plus, Fire Tablet, 7" Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB - Includes Special Offers, Black.

And from Kim R. Holmes, The Closing of the Liberal Mind: How Groupthink and Intolerance Define the Left.

More, from Roger Kimball, Tenured Radicals: How Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Education.

And Barry Rubin, Silent Revolution: How the Left Rose to Political Power and Cultural Dominance.

Michael Walsh, The Devil's Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West.

Peter Collier and David Horowitz, Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the Sixties.

From Daniel Flynn, Why the Left Hates America: Exposing the Lies That Have Obscured Our Nation's Greatness.

BONUS: Richard Bernstein, Dictatorship of Virtue: How the Battle over Multiculturalism Is Reshaping Our Schools, Our Country, and Our Lives.

Tomorrow's Mother's Day

It's not too late to pick up some gifts for moms, at Amazon.

See, Mother's Day Gift Guide.

GOP Leaders Fear Party's on Cusp of Epochal Split Between Traditional Conservatism and Atavistic Nationalism (VIDEO)

That's because it is on the cusp of an epochal split. Frankly, the Republican Party's on the verge of a permanent collapse.

From Jonathan Martin, at the New York Times, "Republican Party Unravels Over Donald Trump’s Takeover":


By seizing the Republican presidential nomination for Donald J. Trump on Tuesday night, he and his millions of supporters completed what had seemed unimaginable: a hostile takeover of one of America’s two major political parties.

Just as stunning was how quickly the host tried to reject them. The party’s two living former presidents spurned Mr. Trump, a number of sitting governors and senators expressed opposition or ambivalence toward him, and he drew a forceful rebuke from the single most powerful and popular rival left on the Republican landscape: the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan.

Rarely if ever has a party seemed to come apart so visibly. Rarely, too, has the nation been so on edge about its politics.

Many Americans still cannot believe that the bombastic Mr. Trump, best known as a reality television star, will be on the ballot in November. Plenty are also anxious about what he would do in office.

But for leading Republicans, the dismay is deeper and darker. They fear their party is on the cusp of an epochal split — a historic cleaving between the familiar form of conservatism forged in the 1960s and popularized in the 1980s and a rekindled, atavistic nationalism, with roots as old as the republic, that has not flared up so intensely since the original America First movement before Pearl Harbor.

Some even point to France and other European countries, where far-right parties like the National Front have gained power because of the sort of resentments that are frequently given voice at rallies for Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump, with his steadfast promises to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally and to build a wall with Mexico, may have done irreversible damage to his general election prospects. But he quickly earned the trust that so many of those voters had lost in other fixtures of America — not just in its leaders, but in institutions like Congress, the Federal Reserve and the big-money campaign finance system that Mr. Trump has repudiated, as well as in corporations, the Roman Catholic Church and the news media.

And he has amplified his independent, outsider message in real time, using social media and cable news interviews — and his own celebrity and highly attuned ear for what resonates — to rally voters to his side, using communication strategies similar to those deployed in the Arab Spring uprising or in the attempts by liberals and students to foment a similar revolution in Iran.

“Trump leveraged a perfect storm,” said Steve Case, the founder of AOL, in an email message. “A combo of social media (big following), brand (celebrity figure), creativity (pithy tweets), speed/timeliness (dominating news cycles).”

Mr. Trump is an unlikely spokesman for the grievances of financially struggling, alienated Americans: a high-living Manhattan billionaire who erects skyscrapers for the wealthy and can easily get politicians on the phone. But as a shrewd business tactician, he understood the Republican Party’s customers better than its leaders did and sensed that his brand of populist, pugilistic, anti-establishment politics would meet their needs.

After seething at Washington for so long, hundreds or thousands of miles from the capital, many of these voters now see Mr. Trump as a kind of savior...
That's a surprisingly good analysis, especially for the far-left New York Times, heh.

More:
Mr. Trump now feels so empowered that he does not think he needs the political support of the party establishment to defeat the likely Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. He is confident that his appeal will be broad and deep enough among voters of all stripes that he could win battleground states like Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania without the support of leaders like Mr. Ryan, Mr. Trump said in an interview on Saturday.
That's going to be quite a test, the defining test of this campaign. Can he really win these states without establishment backing, or even some of the establishment? It's going to be an epic campaign! I love this.

Keep reading.

Hatred of Israel and Jews Can't Be Separated

From Melanie Phillips, at the Times of London (via Mick Hartley):

The current uproar over antisemitism is truly a wonder to behold. For the past three decades and more, antisemitism was the prejudice that dared not speak its name. It was deemed to have been stamped out, other than among cranks on the far right.

Anyone rash enough to protest that the anti-Israel animus in progressive circles was a mutation of ancient Jew-hatred was told they were “waving the shroud of the Holocaust” to sanitise the crimes of Israel. There could be no connection. The left was institutionally anti-racist, wasn’t it?

On the contrary, the left is institutionally anti-Israel and the connection is irrefutable. For sure, many who loathe Israel may not be hostile to Jews as people. Nevertheless the narrative of Israel to which they subscribe is inescapably anti-Jew....

Among the educated classes, Israel, the target of decades of Arab exterminatory aggression, is almost universally presented as the villain and the Palestinians as its victims. Israel is held to be responsible for the absence of a Palestine state and thus the obstacle to solving the Middle East conflict.

The fact that the Arabs turned down proposals or offers of a Palestine state alongside Israel in 1937, 1947, 2000 and 2008, responding instead with terrorism or war, is ignored. The repeated statements of the Palestinian leadership that its real aim is to capture all of Israel are also ignored. It is never reported how the Palestinian Authority-controlled media and educational materials routinely incite Palestinian children to hate Jews, murder Israelis and capture every Israeli city.

Instead, Britain is told that the Israelis are child-killers. During the 2014 war in Gaza, when Israel finally responded to years of rocket attacks by launching airstrikes against Hamas, broadcast and print media claimed Israel was recklessly or deliberately killing hundreds of Palestinian children and other civilians.

In fact, as the High Level Military Group of western top brass told the UN last year, the lengths to which Israel went to try to protect Gaza’s civilians far exceeded the requirements of the Geneva Conventions, even at the cost of its own soldiers’ and civilians’ lives, and going further than any other nation’s army would ever do.

Yet the British public had been told, virtually without contradiction, that Israel had wantonly killed hundreds of children. Among those on the left now vowing to root out antisemitism, I didn’t notice any of them rushing to condemn that particular blood libel.

Last year, the Islamic adviser to Mahmoud Abbas taught on Palestinian Authority TV that Jews throughout history have represented “falsehood . . . evil . . . the devils and their supporters . . . the satans and their supporters”. The Palestinian Authority daily published an opinion article claiming that Jews “are thirsty for blood to please their god (against the gentiles), and crave pockets full of money”. Children were shown on TV reciting poems portraying Jews as “most evil among creations”, “barbaric monkeys” and “Satan with a tail”.

Progressive Britain never reports any of this. Instead, it amplifies the hate in its own intellectual, cultural and media echo-chamber.

Denying the legal and historical rights of the Israeli “settlers” to the land, it demonises and dehumanises them. When they are murdered by Palestinians, this is rarely reported on the grounds that they had it coming to them. Dehumanisation of the “settlers” leads inexorably to the dehumanisation of all Jews...
Hat Tip: EOZ.

Friday, May 6, 2016

Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points: Handicapping the Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Presidential Race (VIDEO)

This is interesting, especially the snippet of Glenn Beck going off on Donald Trump included there. He argues that if Hillary Clinton wins in November, Republicans will be shut out of the White House forevermore, since the Democrats will legalize everybody and that'll be the end of the ballgame, heh.

Watch, via Fox News, "Bill O'Reilly Handicapping the Clinton, Trump Race."

Sara Sampaio is Maxim's May 2016 Cover Girl (VIDEO)

She's nice!

Here, "Watch: Sara Sampaio Sizzles Behind the Scenes of Her Maxim Cover Shoot!"

Environmental Wackos Cheer Canada's Fort McMurray Fires (VIDEO)

Following-up from the other day, "Canada's Fort McMurray Engulfed in Flames (VIDEO)."

Here's Ezra Levant:



Fear and Loathing on the 2016 Campaign Trail

Heh.

You gotta love this piece from Professor Larry Sabato, at Sabato's Crystal Ball, "The Fall Outlook: Fear and Loathing on the 2016 Campaign Trail":
Our views on the Electoral College outcome of a Clinton-Trump match-up haven’t changed since we published our “Trumpmare” map a month ago. If anything, we wonder whether our total of 347 EVs for Clinton to 191 EVs for Trump is too generous to the GOP.

Still, party polarization will probably help Trump. In the end, millions of Republicans will hold their nose and vote against Hillary and for Trump, just as millions of Democrats will put aside their hesitations about Clinton to stop Trump. Negative partisanship — casting a ballot mainly against the other party’s nominee rather than for your party’s candidate — will be all the rage in November. This will be especially likely after the vicious scorched-earth campaign on both sides that is coming. Someone could make a fortune at polling places selling clothespins for the nostrils.

However, we do recognize at least some upset potential in Trump. Third terms for the White House party are difficult to secure. President Obama is, more or less, at 50% job approval — pretty good, in fact, for this president. But an unexpected economic plunge, major terrorist success, international crisis, or serious scandal could subtract critical percentage points from Clinton. Voters are not inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt, so intertwined is her fate with Obama’s, and so fixed is her scarred image after decades in the hothouse of politics.

Just as important, Clinton can lose if she and her team smugly take victory for granted. You are halfway to losing when you think you can’t lose. Students of President Lyndon Johnson’s campaign against the doomed Barry Goldwater recognize that LBJ wouldn’t let his lieutenants rest on favorable polls; he ran a superb if brutal effort against Goldwater, and never let up. Much the same was true for President Richard Nixon in 1972. While he and his team schemed to insure George McGovern became his opponent, using dirty tricks against some of McGovern’s Democratic foes, Nixon had tasted defeat and near-defeat too often in his career to rest easy for even a day. Will overconfidence generated by favorable surveys cripple the Clinton campaign?

Trump has forced the political world to ingest a sizable dose of humility. Even many of political science’s much-vaunted statistical models that attempt to predict election results cannot account for a candidate like Trump — either because he overrides or suspends some of the normal “rules” of politics, or because he proves that parties do not always nominate electable candidates...
Interesting.

RTWT.

I think it's advantage Democrats, but I wouldn't count out Donald Trump for a second. It's going to be the most interesting presidential campaign in my lifetime.

Donald Trump Needs Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin to Win the Electoral College Vote (VOTE)

The New York Times had this piece the other day, "Electoral Map Looks Challenging for Trump."

We're going to see lots of different "hot" takes on how the Electoral College will shape up for November, but for now just remember, it's a long way off until the general election. A lot can happen before then.

In any case, here's John King's argument, at CNN:


'When traditional religion is rejected, the odds are pretty good that something cultish will be chosen to replace it...'

Heh. So true.

From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "CALIFORNIA VEGANS ASSEMBLE THE CIRCULAR FIRING SQUAD: Top L.A. Vegan Restaurant Owners Receiving Death Threats for Slaughtering Animals."

Anne De Paula Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Casting Call 2017 (VIDEO)

More, early prep for next year!


Deal of the Day: Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny Desktop Computer

This is pretty cool.

At Amazon, Lenovo ThinkCentre M93p Desktop Computer - Intel Core i5 i5-4570T 2.90 GHz - Tiny - Business Black 10AA002CUS.

Also, Intex Pillow Rest Raised Airbed with Built-in Pillow and Electric Pump, Queen, Bed Height 16 1/2".

More, Yamaha NS-AW570BL Speaker (Black).

Plus, from Yuval Levin, The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left, and The Fractured Republic: Renewing America’s Social Contract in the Age of Individualism.

Daron Acemoglu, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty.

Still more, from Don Watkins and Yaron Brook, Equal Is Unfair: America's Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality.

BONUS: John Micklethwait ane Adrian Wooldridge, The Fourth Revolution: The Global Race to Reinvent the State.

Mother's Day in Home, Garden, and Kitchen

At Amazon, Mother's Day Gift Guide.


Republican Field Began with 17 Candidates, and Trump's Branding of His Opponents Helped Knock Them Out of the Race (VIDEO)

Heh.

This is killer, lol.



 Is the American Party System About to Crack Up?

Here's Danielle Allen, at the Nation, "Communications Breakdown":
In 1999, the libertarian party helped transform American politics by launching a campaign that ultimately sent hundreds of thousands of e-mails to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to protest its proposed “know your customer” banking regulations. The FDIC withdrew the rules, and the era of digital politics was born. Roughly a decade later, social media propelled “birtherism” to the forefront of the national conversation, reinstating nativism as an active ideology in the United States. In 2009 came the Tea Party movement, followed by Occupy Wall Street in 2011, both of which drew on new online organizing mechanisms to build solidarity networks around a particular analysis of social reality. The question for students of American politics now is whether these changes can drive a fundamental realignment of our political parties.

Transformations in communications technology have made it more possible than ever before for dissenters from the Democratic and Republican parties to find one another and to form sizable communities of interest. The result is lowered barriers to entry for the work of political organization, with consequences announced daily in headlines about the 2016 presidential campaign. Insurgent candidates in both parties have drawn on the organizational power that has developed over the past decade within ideologically defined communities: Donald Trump has summoned the anger and xenophobia of the birthers, Bernie Sanders has channeled Occupy’s critique of rampant inequality, and Ted Cruz has marshaled the forces of the Tea Party universe. By attaching other groups of voters to their original, more ideologically concentrated constituencies, these candidates have achieved greater success in their respective primary campaigns than anyone thought possible just one year ago.

Regardless of whether they succeed in taking over their parties, these new coalitions have the potential to remake American politics if either the insurgents or the party faithful are driven to seek refuge in existing third parties or to create entirely new ones. For the 2016 campaign at least, that latter possibility is already foreclosed, so a takeover (hostile or otherwise) of a third party seems more likely—both the Libertarian Party and the Green Party can place candidates on the ballot in a significant number of states. Even so, our first-past-the-post electoral system makes it very hard for third parties to challenge the top two. Barring the emergence of new habits of collaboration and alliance formation among small parties, only a fundamental change to our system of voting—the introduction of proportional representation, for example—would allow for a more fluid political system to develop.

 Speculating on what the future holds for America’s political alignment requires thinking through a complex array of factors: voting rules, political egos, the time horizons of charismatic leaders, questions of succession, the intensity of various ideological commitments, and a famously mutable public opinion. What we are most likely to see is more of the new normal: incredibly bitter fights among plurality-sized groups for total—if temporary—control of one of the major parties. Will this also worsen gridlock at the national level, thereby exacerbating the intensity of those intraparty battles and further destabilizing our political system overall? If these dynamics play out simultaneously in both parties, the most unified side will triumph.
There's more, FWIW, from Rick Perlstein and Daniel Schlozman at the link.

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Jackie Johnson Forecasts Possible Showers and Thunderstorms

Well, it was pretty lovely weather today, mostly overcast but cool and pleasant.

Here's the forecast though, via CBS News 2 Los Angeles:



Elizabeth Hinton, From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime

This looks interesting -- especially as how I really need to get up on the academic debates on mass incarceration. It's all the rage on the left, and the idiot progs are obviously having a significant policy impact (considering how the Obama White House is releasing hardened criminals onto the streets, to say the least).

Out Tuesday, and available at Amazon, Elizabeth Hinton, From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America.

Happy #CincoDeMayo!

From The Donald, on Twitter:



I'm not sure how well that Latino outreach is going, lol. But check Memeorandum, heh.

In the Mail: Matthew Desmond, Evicted

Crown Publishers sent me a copy of Matthew Desmond's fantastic new book, Evicted.

I've read the first couple of chapters and it's amazing. I'm going back to it as soon as I finish The Closing of the Liberal Mind.

Check it out, at Amazon, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City.

Evicted photo 22BOOKDESMOND-blog427-v2_zpstagupjyk.jpg
In this brilliant, heartbreaking book, Matthew Desmond takes us into the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee to tell the story of eight families on the edge. Arleen is a single mother trying to raise her two sons on the $20 a month she has left after paying for their rundown apartment. Scott is a gentle nurse consumed by a heroin addiction. Lamar, a man with no legs and a neighborhood full of boys to look after, tries to work his way out of debt. Vanetta participates in a botched stickup after her hours are cut. All are spending almost everything they have on rent, and all have fallen behind.

The fates of these families are in the hands of two landlords: Sherrena Tarver, a former schoolteacher turned inner-city entrepreneur, and Tobin Charney, who runs one of the worst trailer parks in Milwaukee. They loathe some of their tenants and are fond of others, but as Sherrena puts it, “Love don’t pay the bills.” She moves to evict Arleen and her boys a few days before Christmas.

Even in the most desolate areas of American cities, evictions used to be rare. But today, most poor renting families are spending more than half of their income on housing, and eviction has become ordinary, especially for single mothers. In vivid, intimate prose, Desmond provides a ground-level view of one of the most urgent issues facing America today. As we see families forced into shelters, squalid apartments, or more dangerous neighborhoods, we bear witness to the human cost of America’s vast inequality—and to people’s determination and intelligence in the face of hardship.

Based on years of embedded fieldwork and painstakingly gathered data, this masterful book transforms our understanding of extreme poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving a devastating, uniquely American problem. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.


Rush Limbaugh: Donald Trump Will Crush Hillary Clinton in Landslide (AUDIO)

At Memeorandum, "Rush Limbaugh: My Gut: Trump Beats Hillary in Landslide."


Wednesday, May 4, 2016

How Donald Trump Staged a GOP Takeover

At WSJ, "How Trump Won — and How the GOP Let Him":
With his victory in Indiana, Donald Trump has seized a controlling stake in the Republican Party.

Back when few people took Donald Trump seriously as a potential presidential candidate, the New York businessman asked former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and his wife, Callista, to meet in Iowa. Over breakfast at the Des Moines Marriott Hotel in January 2015, Mr. Trump spent 45 minutes grilling Mr. Gingrich on his experience running for president.

“It was clear to me at the end of the talk that he was seriously considering it,” Mr. Gingrich said.

Yet two months later, in March 2015, three-quarters of Republican primary voters in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll said they couldn’t imagine supporting Mr. Trump for president. He was so marginal that during a candidate cattle call by the National Rifle Association the following month more people stayed to listen to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal than to Mr. Trump.

Most Republican leaders remained oblivious while Mr. Trump plotted the political equivalent of a corporate takeover. With his resounding victory Tuesday in Indiana, he has seized a controlling stake in the Republican Party with the backing of shareholders unhappy with previous management.

Mr. Trump, having driven out the last of his rivals, is now the party’s presumptive nominee—a jaw-dropping outcome that says as much about the GOP, caught in turmoil and transition, as it does about Mr. Trump.

Ever since their bitter 2012 presidential loss, Republican leaders and the party’s grass roots have been at odds, with rank-and-file voters angry at the failure of elites to deliver, and at odds over the issue of immigration. Mr. Trump found opportunity in the rupture.

Party leaders and the other GOP candidates almost unanimously underestimated Mr. Trump’s staying power. His rivals believed his provocative campaign would fail, a presumption that allowed him to run for months in a splintered field of competitors. Most were reluctant to attack, convinced they would scoop up his supporters when Mr. Trump’s campaign finally imploded.

Republicans proved vulnerable to his unconventional campaign style. As a skilled entertainment professional, he made himself ubiquitous. His audience seemed ready to forgive any outrageous comment or slip-up.

Mr. Trump dominated the campaign conversation with a communications-heavy strategy that relied on mass rallies, TV interviews and debates. That meant no polling, no analytics, little paid media, no consultants.

“This election isn’t about the Republican Party, it’s about me,” Mr. Trump said in an interview this week. “I’m very proud I proved an outsider can win by massive victories from the people, not from party elites or state delegates.”

Having dealt the GOP establishment its biggest defeat in decades, Mr. Trump said his mission wasn’t to change the party. He also doesn’t appear interested in whether the GOP can muster the kind of institutional support its presidential nominee normally receives...
Keep reading.

Deal of the Day: Singer 4423 Heavy Duty Sewing Machine

At Amazon, SINGER 4423 Heavy Duty Extra-High Sewing Speed Sewing Machine with Metal Frame and Stainless Steel Bedplate.

More, Up to 70% Off Easy Spirit Women's Shoes.

And for Mother's Day, IGI-Certified 18k White Gold Diamond Studs (1 cttw, H-I Color, SI1-SI2 Clarity).

Also, by Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We?: The Challenges to America's National Identity.

Still more, from Pat Buchanan, The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization.

Plus, from Ann Coulter, ¡Adios, America! The Left's Plan to Turn Our Country Into a Third World Hellhole. (And, Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America.)

From Victor Davis Hanson, Mexifornia: A State of Becoming, and The Decline and Fall of California: From Decadence to Destruction (Kindle Edition).

BONUS: Mark Krikorian, The New Case Against Immigration: Both Legal and Illegal.

Okay, Started Reading, The Closing of the Liberal Mind [BUMPED]

I love Amazon.

I ordered Kim Holmes' new book on Thursday night when I got paid, with free shipping, and the package was delivered on Sunday!

Man, that was fast. And so cool too. I've been plowing through the pages!

I haven't been this excited about a new book for a year or two, and I can't recommend this one enough. It's explains very carefully the precise nature of the ideological threat we're facing, taking the argument right to the top of the Democrat Party hierarchy. Conservatives have a lot of work to do if they hope to reclaim some of the ideological space, and to save American politics from even much more dire straights in the years ahead.

Check it out, The Closing of the Liberal Mind: How Groupthink and Intolerance Define the Left.

The Closing of the Liberal Mind photo 13119012_10209731342423304_6532273431493805090_n_zpsbmxkuoai.jpg

Alexis Ren Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Casting Call 2017 (VIDEO)

Boy, they're getting an early start for next year!



Canada's Fort McMurray Engulfed in Flames (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Uncontrolled Wildfire Burns Near Fort McMurray, in Canada's Oil Sands Region, Force Residents to Flee (VIDEO)."

And at Rebel Media, "Rebuild Fort McMurray."


Uncontrolled Wildfire Burns Near Fort McMurray, in Canada's Oil Sands Region, Force Residents to Flee (VIDEO)

Via Telegraph UK:



Vox Day: 'Why I Support Donald Trump'

One of the better arguments for Trump I've read in recent weeks.

At Heat Street, "Vox Day of #Gamergate: Why I Support Donald Trump":
I am often asked why I, a Christian libertarian and intellectual, would publicly support Donald Trump, a man of no fixed ideology, no apparent religious beliefs, multiple marriages, visible ties to the Clintons, and whose taste and sophistication tends to resemble that of a nouveau riche rhinoceros. It is a reasonable question. After all, how can anyone support a candidate whose public statements are, to put it mildly, inconsistent—when they are not completely self-contradictory.

The answer is as simple as it is conclusive and convincing. Donald Trump is the only candidate in either major party whose personal interests are aligned with those of the American public rather than with the interests of the anti-nationalist elite who see America as nothing more than lines on a map and Americans as nothing more than 300 million economic units in the global economy.

The reason I trust Donald Trump, despite all his rhetorical meanderings, is that he is a traitor to his class. Unlike Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz, both ordinary people who sold their souls in order to be granted a seat at the table of the Great Game, Donald Trump was born a member of the elite and he has always been welcome in the inner circles of both political parties. When I met him in 1988, it was at the Republican National Convention in New Orleans, where he was the personal guest of George Bush in his private suite there. Like the Bushes, like the Clintons, Trump is truly neither Republican nor Democrat. He is a lifetime member of America’s bi-factional ruling party.

So Donald Trump was already a man of great wealth, influence, connections and power. He did not need to run for president in order to make a name for himself or to launch a public speaking career at $200,000 a pop. Nor does it make sense to claim that he is running for president in order to assuage his formidable ego. Quite to the contrary, he has been under furious attack and criticism from the media as well as from the wealthy elites his rivals are most desperate to please, and it is only his tremendous ego that permits him to survive it. He is enduring this relentless, bipartisan assault because the ruling party knows he has chosen the American people over them.

Ask yourself this: why did Donald Trump run for president in the first place? I believe that the real reason is that he, like you, is deeply concerned about the current state of the United States of America, and he, like you, fears for its future...
Still more.

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Donald Trump in Control After Ted Cruz Exits GOP Presidential Race (VIDEO)

Boy, what a night.

My earlier comments on today's developments here, "Charles Krauthammer: The 'Stop Trump' Movement Died in Indiana (VIDEO)."

And here's the Wall Street Journal, "Donald Trump Gains Clear Path to Nomination":

CARMEL, Ind.—Donald Trump rolled to a decisive victory in Indiana’s Republican presidential primary Tuesday and his chief rival, Ted Cruz, dropped out of the race after earlier calling the front-runner a “pathological liar.”

Mr. Trump was on pace to win all of the state’s 57 delegates to the Republican National Convention, leaving him in a position to clinch the party’s nomination when the final primary contests are held June 7. Mr. Cruz finished in second place and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who made a deal with Mr. Cruz to not campaign in the state, was third.

Mr. Cruz told supporters Tuesday night that he was suspending his campaign. “Together we left it all on the field in Indiana. We gave it everything we got but the voters chose another path,” he said.

Earlier in the day, he launched a fusillade of attacks, calling the front-runner “utterly amoral,” a “narcissist,” a “serial philanderer” and a “pathological liar.”

Mr. Trump responded on Twitter: “Lyin’ Ted Cruz really went wacko today. Made all sorts of crazy charges. Can’t function under pressure—not very presidential. Sad!”

The extreme remarks reflected the stakes as the candidates turn to the final laps in a nominating contest that has defied convention, splintered the party, and left nearly two-thirds of all general election voters with a negative view of the likely standard-bearer before an expected showdown with Mrs. Clinton in November.

Nationwide, Mr. Trump is viewed unfavorably by 65% of voters, according to last month’s Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. That is higher than Mrs. Clinton, who is seen unfavorably by 56% of voters.

A sweep of the state’s delegates would leave Mr. Trump just 225 delegates short of the 1,237 required to clinch the party’s nomination. With nine states to go, including Nebraska and West Virginia next week and California on June 7, Mr. Trump would require less than half of the remaining bound delegates to become the nominee.

Katie Packer, who leads an anti-Trump super PAC that spent $1.3 million against Mr. Trump in Indiana, said in a memo that her group will continue to fight against the front-runner. “There is more than a month before the California primary—more time for Trump to continue to disqualify himself in the eyes of voters,” she wrote.

And John Weaver, the chief strategist for Mr. Kasich’s campaign, said the Ohio governor will soldier on. “Gov. Kasich will remain in the race unless a candidate reaches 1,237 bound delegates before the convention,” he said.

For Mr. Cruz, Tuesday’s contest had been his strongest opportunity to change the momentum of the GOP campaign. His team for weeks had pointed to the Midwestern state, comparing it to Wisconsin, where the Texas senator won a convincing victory over Mr. Trump last month.

But Mr. Cruz never gained traction in the state. A series of decisions designed to boost his prospects, including naming Carly Fiorina as his running mate, were seen by many voters more as acts of desperation than smart maneuvers...
Still more.

Republicans Must Stand Up to Political Correctness or Lose

From Daniel Greenfield, at FrontPage Magazine, "FIGHTING POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IN THE AGE OF TRUMP":
When it was announced that Harriet Tubman would displace President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, there were two sets of dramatically different reactions among Republicans on social media.

One group passed around links to a National Review piece celebrating the decision to “tell the story of a deeply-religious, gun-toting Republican who fought for freedom in defiance of the laws of a government that refused to recognize her rights.”

“If it was political correctness that drove this decision, who cares?” it asked.

Much of the Republican base, the other group, cared. Donald Trump noticed and denounced the move as “pure political correctness”.

Political correctness is the defining element of the culture war today. It’s also one of the driving forces of Trump’s candidacy. Republicans and conservatives who ignore the backlash to it do so at their own peril.

When the left exploited the Charleston church shooting to begin a purge of Confederate flags that extended all the way into reruns of the Dukes of Hazzard, Republicans failed to defy the lynch mobs and even cheered the takedowns, some of which took place under Republican governors, as progress. Congresswoman Candice Miller, a Republican, announced recently that state flags in the Capitol featuring confederate insignia will be taken down due to the “controversy surrounding Confederate imagery”. The “controversy” is another term for the left’s manufactured political correctness.

There are legitimate positions on both sides when it comes to the Confederate flag, but the historical debate is not the issue. Just as it doesn’t matter very much that Harriet Tubman was a Republican. It matters far more that both moves were driven by the social media mobs of political correctness.

Culture wars are not about actual historical facts, but a tribal conflict over culture between clashing groups. This is a conflict in which it mattered a great deal that northeastern elites were lining up to get $400 tickets to see Hamilton, a hip-hop musical praised by many of the same Republicans who wouldn’t be caught dead watching reruns of the Dukes of Hazzard. That New York theater trend led to Southerner Andrew Jackson being displaced on the currency instead of New York’s own Alexander Hamilton.

Some conservatives would argue that Andrew Jackson founded the Democratic Party while Hamilton, a longtime foe of its political forebears, would likely have aligned with the modern Republican Party. And like Tubman on the $20 bill, they would be completely missing the forest for the factoid.

Imagine that you live in a world in which the theater tastes of New York elites combined with a media pressure campaign by two obnoxious New Yorkers determines who shows up on American currency? It isn’t nearly as grating if you are a Republican living in New York or Washington D.C. and share much of the culture of the liberal upper class, even if you generally dissent from its economic and social policies.

But it’s a lot more irritating if you live in Alabama or Mississippi and your culture is not only an object of mockery and contempt, but you also have it rubbed in your face that the momentary whims of an entitled elite operating out of a handful of overrated cities matter more than your entire history...
A great essay.

Keep reading.

Charles Krauthammer: The 'Stop Trump' Movement Died in Indiana (VIDEO)

There is no "Stop Trump" movement, or "#NeverTrump" hashtag tantrums, after this.

Ted Cruz dropped out of the GOP race a little while ago. It's very big news, but considering the full-on explosion of vitriol on the campaign trail today (with Donald Trump smearing Raphael Cruz as an alleged Lee Harvey Oswald accomplice), I don't think fences will be mended any time soon, and that might not actually be helpful as far as the general election is concerned. But we'll see. We'll see.

The video's from earlier this afternoon. Krauthammer predicted that the "Stop Trump" movement would die in the case of a Trump win tonight. Well, it's dead as far as Ted Cruz being the movement's main vehicle, that's for sure.



Penélope Cruz 'Reader Finds' at Egotastic!

I haven't blogged Penélope Cruz in quite a while.

At Egotastic!, "READER FINDS: Penélope Cruz, Camille Rowe, Rosanna Arquette and Much Much More..."

Penélope Cruz is a leftist, which is why I haven't blogged her much lately. But now that I think about it, I'll still take Penélope over Ted any day, lol.

Penelope Cruz photo penelope-cruz-picture-2.jpg

Oregon Mill Town Hails Donald Trump as Savior

This is great.

We've already been hearing stories about Trump's deep support among America's economically disenfranchised, especially among working class whites. But so many stories remain to be told, and it's not just blue collar whites by any means.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Inside Trump Nation: In a down-on-its-luck Oregon mill town, the savior they're waiting for is Donald Trump":

With the unemployment rate now exceeding 7.2% in Josephine County, the biggest issue in this year's election here is who can put people back to work. Many are betting it's the businessman in the race, even if he's a brash real estate mogul from New York whose chief previous contact with lumber was the veneered reception desks in his swank hotels.

Southwest Oregon is not a natural fit for a billionaire East Coaster, but neither are any of the other GOP candidates, particularly those running on a religious platform; Oregon is among the nation's least church-going states.

Trump's conviction that global trade deals are selling Americans short plays well with the independent streak that runs through Oregon Republican politics. Trump, many here believe, would never put up with letting the Western timber industry falter to protect endangered birds and owls.

“It's a part of the world that sees itself as having been abandoned,” said Jim Moore, a political scientist at Pacific University outside Portland. “These were not Mitt Romney people; they did not vote for George W. Bush. They've latched on to Trump as they have latched on to other outside candidates. The difference is, he's winning.”
RTWT.

Texas Latino Voters Who Support Donald Trump

We have so many illegal immigrants that the statistic showing "77 percent of Latinos" opposing Donald Trump probably means that 77 percent of Latinos are illegal, or they have immediate family members who are illegal.

Meanwhile, lots of Hispanics support Donald Trump. Frankly, Democrat Party support is likely exclusively concentrated among Latinos looking for a massive illegal alien amnesty program. No wonder some of them have announced they're fighting a "civil war" in this election.

At LAT, "Inside Trump Nation: How Donald Trump scored a win in Texas border country":

Patti Magnon grew up on the other side of the Rio Grande — in the adjacent Mexican city known as Nuevo Laredo.

But the border here has never been a barrier, and Magnon, who has lived on the U.S. side now for years, feels at home in both. “Proud to be an American & a Catholic!” proclaims her bio on Twitter. “Love my Mexican heritage! An immigrant is not the same as an illegal immigrant.”

These days, Magnon sometimes feels she has more in common with Americans elsewhere across the country than with Latino families here in Texas, and that started when she told people she was voting for Donald Trump.

Election 2016 | Live coverage on Trail Guide | April 26 primary election results | Track the delegate race | Sign up for the newsletter

“They bash you,” said Gina Gil, who’s also joined a small but enthusiastic group of people here on the border who like what Trump has to say — especially about immigration, a subject that, here on the banks of the Rio Grande, they feel they know as much about as anybody.

“I find it insulting when people say people who follow Trump are uneducated, unintelligent,” said Magnon.

“Te aventaste!” Gil exclaimed. “You hit it.”

Across the country, only a small minority of Latinos have backed Trump, and even here in Texas, a plurality of Latino Republicans voted for home-grown U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who won the March 1 primary with 44% of the overall vote to Trump’s 27%. Now as ever, most Latinos vote Democratic, and in Texas, where Latinos make up more than a quarter of the electorate, up to 71% of them backed Hillary Clinton, according to exit polls.

It was here on the border that Trump scored his biggest Texas victories, capturing Laredo’s Webb County, which is 95.3% Latino, and Zapata County next door (94%), as well as Terrell County (49 17.4% Latino Hispanic) and Hudspeth County (78%), which are farther west.

“It’s the hardworking people,” said Miriam Cepeda, 24, a history major at the nearby University of Texas-Pan American who is leading Trump’s campaign in the Rio Grande Valley east of Laredo. What she hears, she says, is a lot of resentment aimed at undocumented immigrants who receive government services. “Those that pay the taxes and do what they’re supposed to say, ‘Why do I have to pay?’”

Magnon and Gill voted for Trump in the Texas primary, plan to vote for him in the general election, and are waging their own kind of ad hoc citizens’ campaign, praising him on radio shows and online, recruiting friends and family.

The two women met last summer when Trump came here, to the Southwest border’s third-most populous city, behind El Paso and San Diego.

Magnon drove her 7-year-old daughter, Allie, to the small local airport to see the real estate magnate. They were greeted in this majority Democratic, heavily Mexican American town by a crowd of opponents chanting into megaphones: “Dump Trump!”

Both Magnon, 44, and Gil, 49, are former Democrats — working mothers with community college educations who say they’re alarmed about welfare fraud, illegal immigration and the rising costs of healthcare. Magnon almost lost her health insurance when Obamacare took effect. Gil seethed at paying an $800 penalty under the new federal healthcare law, but insurance would have cost even more.

Trump promised to run the country like a business and repeal Obamacare. They didn’t think he was racist when he promised to build a bigger border wall to keep out Mexican “rapists.” They thought he was right — and were delighted to find that others around town agreed with them.

“I was surprised other people in Laredo think like I do,” Magnon said...
Keep reading.

Donald Trump Rivals Brace for Crippling Loss in Indiana (VIDEO)

Well, let's hope so.

This primary season's dragged on far too long. Hopefully, even more of the GOP establishment will start to coalesce around Trump, and then folks can figure out a way to respond to the left's barrage of smears heading our way before the convention in Cleveland.

Or, that is, in a rational world.

At the New York Times, "Donald Trump's Foes Fear Indiana Primary Could Be Decisive Blow":

The coalition of Republicans opposed to Donald J. Trump’s candidacy braced Monday for a debilitating setback as he appeared poised for a victory in Indiana that would put him on track to seal the Republican nomination by the time primary voting ends next month.

The Indiana vote has emerged as a decisive and perhaps final test for Senator Ted Cruz, who has abandoned hope of overtaking Mr. Trump in the race but still aims to throw the Republican nominating fight to a contested convention in July. Mr. Cruz, of Texas, has pleaded with Indiana voters in recent days not to anoint Mr. Trump as the party’s standard-bearer, and has devised a series of long-shot tactics to derail him in the state.

On Monday, that mission of persuasion took on a vividly literal form for Mr. Cruz during a campaign stop in Marion, Ind. Confronted there by determined hecklers bearing Trump campaign signs, Mr. Cruz insisted to one that he was making a mistake.

“Donald Trump is deceiving you,” he said. “He is playing you for a chump.”

Polls now show that Mr. Trump has a clear advantage in Indiana, where 57 delegates are at stake. A survey conducted by Marist College for NBC News and The Wall Street Journal found Mr. Trump leading Mr. Cruz by 15 points there, and close to capturing an outright majority of the vote. Gov. John Kasich of Ohio was in a distant third place.

Mr. Cruz has signaled that he intends to forge ahead irrespective of the outcome in Indiana in a bid to block Mr. Trump from winning the 1,237 delegates required to claim the nomination. He spent part of the weekend campaigning in California, which is among the last states to vote, on June 7, and collected the endorsement of former Gov. Pete Wilson, who warned that Mr. Trump would doom the party as its nominee.

But Mr. Wilson conceded in an interview on Monday that a defeat in Indiana would imperil Mr. Cruz’s path forward. To win California, Mr. Wilson said, “the first thing he needs to do is win in Indiana.”

Without such a victory, Mr. Wilson said, “I think it’s much more difficult. The nearer that Trump gets to having the magic number, the more difficult it is.”
More.

Stephen Pollard, Jewish Chronicle Editor, on Anti-Semitism Accusations in Britain's Labour Party (VIDEO)

Following-up on Pollard's riventing essay the other day, "The Left's Hatred of Jews Chills Me to the Bone."

At Sky News:



The General Election Starts Now

At great piece, from Amy Walter, at the Cook Political Report:


3. The Northeast Corridor was supposed to be “establishment” country.

It’s one thing for Trump to win his home state of New York by 61 percent. It’s another thing for him to CRUSH his opponents up and down I-95. These are the states where nice, safe, moderate establishment candidates like John McCain and Mitt Romney win. It’s not where a firebrand with unorthodox policy positions and an even more unconventional campaign style should win. Trump’s success in these blue states should also put to rest any idea that Kasich has ANY shot at winning anything in Cleveland. Kasich lost Montgomery Country, Maryland and Greenwich, Connecticut to Trump. If he can’t win in these establishment strongholds, he’s not winning anywhere.

Monday, May 2, 2016

Democrats Plan to Pound Trump Before He’s Nominated

I'm not sure what to think of this.

Donald Trump is not Mitt Romney, and he's not going to take attacks from the despicable Democrats lying down. And as we've seen since Trump entered the race, the more vicious the attacks on him, the more rabid his supporters become. I don't expect that to change once the attacks start coming from Pri­or­it­ies USA Ac­tion, or the DNC for that matter. Will Trump be able to respond in kind before receiving public funding for the general election (assuming he's not "self-funded" after all)? Who knows? Moe Lane seems to expect Trump to get blown out of the water, but he's blogging at Red State, hardly your neutral source for analysis on such issues.

In any case, at National Journal (via Memeorandum):
Super PAC will air $20 million in negative ads before Donald Trump can counter with general-election money, a strategy that defined Mitt Romney in 2012.

Don­ald Trump loves to brag about how he al­ways coun­ter­punches when at­tacked, but he could soon be tak­ing an un­answered, $20 mil­lion pum­mel­ing in those few states that will de­cide the Novem­ber elec­tion.

A series of ads paint­ing him as an un­ser­i­ous, un­ready, and un­scru­pu­lous busi­ness­man who also hap­pens to dis­par­age wo­men and minor­it­ies is to start air­ing June 8, the day after the fi­nal primar­ies in which Trump is likely to clinch the Re­pub­lic­an pres­id­en­tial nom­in­a­tion.

“That’s a good day to start,” said Justin Barasky with Pri­or­it­ies USA Ac­tion, a su­per PAC back­ing Demo­crat Hil­lary Clin­ton. “We’re not go­ing to the make the same mis­take Re­pub­lic­ans did in wait­ing too long [to go on the of­fens­ive].”

For five full weeks, in a lull between the primary sea­son and the GOP con­ven­tion, these mes­sages may have the air­waves to them­selves in sev­en swing states, with the no­tori­ously tight-fis­ted Trump loath to spend tens of mil­lions of his own money to counter the at­tack and the Re­pub­lic­an Party un­able to de­fend him un­til he of­fi­cially be­comes the nom­in­ee.

If Re­pub­lic­ans find this strategy fa­mil­i­ar, they should. It’s ex­actly what Pri­or­it­ies did to 2012 GOP nom­in­ee Mitt Rom­ney in those months after he had se­cured the nom­in­a­tion, fol­low­ing a long and ex­pens­ive primary battle—but be­fore he was of­fi­cially nom­in­ated and al­lowed to use mil­lions in gen­er­al-elec­tion money he had already col­lec­ted.

“Mitt Rom­ney was a fun­da­ment­ally likable guy. Look what they did to Mitt Rom­ney. They turned him in­to his­tory’s greatest mon­ster,” said Rick Wilson, a Re­pub­lic­an strategist and lead­ing “Nev­er Trump” voice who has been warn­ing for months that Demo­crats would start blis­ter­ing Trump the mo­ment he se­cured the nom­in­a­tion.

In 2012, Pri­or­it­ies spent $21.5 mil­lion at­tack­ing Rom­ney between May and the end of Au­gust, when the former Mas­sachu­setts gov­ernor form­ally ac­cep­ted the nom­in­a­tion at the GOP con­ven­tion in Tampa. The ads fo­cused on five swing states, most not­ably Rust Belt Ohio, and por­trayed Rom­ney as a heart­less plu­to­crat who en­riched him­self by shut­ting down factor­ies and ship­ping jobs over­seas. The ads were cred­ited with turn­ing Rom­ney’s busi­ness ex­per­i­ence from an as­set in­to a li­ab­il­ity among many gen­er­al-elec­tion voters. In Ohio, Pres­id­ent Obama re­ceived 2 per­cent more sup­port from white voters and non-col­lege gradu­ates than he did na­tion­ally—a big factor in his 3-point vic­tory there that Novem­ber that sealed his reelec­tion.

Wilson pre­dicted that Pri­or­it­ies would have a much easi­er chal­lenge with Trump than it did with Rom­ney, giv­en Trump’s already high dis­ap­prov­al rat­ings and the host of con­tro­ver­sies in his past, from the de­funct Trump Uni­versity to his mul­tiple bank­ruptcies in At­lantic City.

Pri­or­it­ies will also find its Re­pub­lic­an op­pos­i­tion in a far more pre­cari­ous fin­an­cial con­di­tion. While both Rom­ney’s cam­paign and his su­per PAC were de­pleted by the drawn-out primary, he was non­ethe­less a prodi­gious fun­draiser, ul­ti­mately col­lect­ing $820 mil­lion for him­self and the Re­pub­lic­an Party and an­oth­er $153 mil­lion for his tech­nic­ally in­de­pend­ent su­per PAC.

Trump has no fun­drais­ing op­er­a­tion, has in­sul­ted the tra­di­tion­al GOP donor com­munity, and as of yet has not be­gun rais­ing money for the party. At a re­cent meet­ing, Re­pub­lic­an Na­tion­al Com­mit­tee mem­bers pub­licly ex­pressed con­fid­ence they could raise all the money needed. But privately, some mem­bers wor­ried that Trump as nom­in­ee won’t be able to raise a frac­tion of the $1 bil­lion that Clin­ton and Demo­crats are likely to spend.

Trump has avoided spend­ing money on his cam­paign whenev­er pos­sible, largely re­ly­ing on free cable TV cov­er­age to spread his mes­sage. And it’s un­clear how eas­ily he can write him­self eight-fig­ure checks, even if he wanted to...
Well, that doesn't sound particularly auspicious for the Manhattan mogul, but then, it's been a completely unpredictably election season thus far.

My bet is that Trump will continue to assume the mantle of respectability, and he'll ingratiate himself with the GOP establishment while turning increasingly to a by-the-book mainstream presidential campaign. He's going to have to fork over some of own cash if he's serious about rebutting the left's smears before Cleveland, but we'll see. We're already seeing the Republican establishment warming to a Trump candidacy, and my main hypothesis throughout is the both Republicans and conservatives hate Hillary more than they hate The Donald, so by the time of the general election we should be seeing a full-on battle among the historical constituencies of the two parties.

We're in uncharted territory here, but I'm loving it.

Still more at the link.

Donald Trump Leads Ted Cruz by 34 Points in California

Wow. Talk about a blowout. And the primary's still more than a month away.

From John Sexton, at Hot Air, "Poll: Trump leads Cruz in California by 34 points."

And at ABC 7 News Los Angeles:


Yeah, well, I can understand the voters' resignation, but frankly I'm fired up!

This is going to be such an epic general election matchup. I'm stoked!

Sabine Jemeljanova for Page 3

At the Sun UK, "Such a tease! See Sabine's full gorgeous shoot here."

Olivia Culpo, Vanessa Hudgens, Kate Hudson, and Charlotte McKinney at Opening of Intrigue Nightclub in Las Vegas (PHOTOS)

At Egotastic!, "Kate Hudson and Charlotte McKinney for Opening of Intrigue Nightclub In Las Vegas."

More photos, including shots of Olivia Culpo and Vanessa Hudgens, at the link.

Has the World Learned Anything Since Brussels?

I don't think so.

At Blazing Cat Fur:
It has become alarmingly clear since the Brussels terror attack that the West either doesn’t understand the nature of Islamist terrorism or doesn’t want to. President Obama denies that the Islamic State poses an existential threat, belittles those who disagree, and seems more vested in undermining allies and political opponents than fighting terror. Whether acting out of ideology or naiveté, he refuses to admit the role of religious doctrine and instead blames terrorism on generic criminality, violent extremism, gun violence, or global warming. He fails to address the jihad and genocide being waged against non-Muslims in the Mideast and beyond, does not speak honestly about the Islamist threat, and portrays those who do as hatemongers.
More.

Deal of the Day: Perky-Pet Bird Feeders for Mother's Day

Pretty cool.

At Amazon, Perky Pet 8133-2 Daisy Vase Vintage Glass Hummingbird Feeder.

More, Save on Perky-Pet Bird Feeders.

And here's your Mother's Day Gift Guide.

And thanks to all my readers who've been shopping through my Amazon links. When you do your shopping here, you provide support with no extra cost to yourself. I really appreciate it.

I like posting the book links too!

More, from Katie Pavlich, Assault and Flattery: The Truth About the Left and Their War on Women.

And from Sharyl Attkisson, Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington.

Marybeth Hicks, Don't Let the Kids Drink the Kool-Aid: Confronting the Assault on Our Families, Faith, and Freedom.

Suzanne Venker and Phyllis Schlafly, The Flipside of Feminism: What Conservative Women Know - and Men Can't Say.

BONUS: Phyllis Schlafly, A Choice Not an Echo: Updated and Expanded 50th Anniversary Edition.

May Day Protesters March for Immigrant Rights in San Deigo (VIDEO)

More illegal aliens and communists, via ABC News 10 San Diego:



Indiana: Last Stand for the 'Never Trump' Movement

At the New York Times, via Memeorandum, "Indiana May Be #NeverTrump's Last Stand."

Everybody's talking about the WSJ poll out yesterday, "Donald Trump Holds 15-Point Lead Ahead of Republican Rivals in Indiana Poll."

And here's the Cruz campaign's last gasp, at LAT, "Ted Cruz barnstorms Indiana as state's primary proves pivotal in GOP race."

VIDEO): Greenpeace Leaks Documents on Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)

At the Guardian UK, "Leaked TTIP documents cast doubt on EU-US trade deal":

Talks for a free trade deal between Europe and the US face a serious impasse with “irreconcilable” differences in some areas, according to leaked negotiating texts.

The two sides are also at odds over US demands that would require the EU to break promises it has made on environmental protection.

President Obama said last week he was confident a deal could be reached. But the leaked negotiating drafts and internal positions, which were obtained by Greenpeace and seen by the Guardian, paint a very different picture.

“Discussions on cosmetics remain very difficult and the scope of common objectives fairly limited,” says one internal note by EU trade negotiators. Because of a European ban on animal testing, “the EU and US approaches remain irreconcilable and EU market access problems will therefore remain,” the note says.

Talks on engineering were also “characterised by continuous reluctance on the part of the US to engage in this sector,” the confidential briefing says.

These problems are not mentioned in a separate report on the state of the talks, also leaked, which the European commission has prepared for scrutiny by the European parliament.

These outline the positions exchanged between EU and US negotiators between the 12th and the 13th round of TTIP talks, which took place in New York last week.

The public document offers a robust defence of the EU’s right to regulate and create a court-like system for disputes, unlike the internal note, which does not mention them.

Jorgo Riss, the director of Greenpeace EU, said: “These leaked documents give us an unparalleled look at the scope of US demands to lower or circumvent EU protections for environment and public health as part of TTIP. The EU position is very bad, and the US position is terrible. The prospect of a TTIP compromising within that range is an awful one. The way is being cleared for a race to the bottom in environmental, consumer protection and public health standards.”
Keep reading.

Protesters Pour Into Heavily-Fortified Green Zone in Baghdad (VIDEO)

It's out of control over there.

At LAT, "Iraqi protesters pour into Green Zone, storm parliament."

And at CBS News This Morning:



Illegal Aliens and Communists Protest Donald Trump in Los Angeles for May Day

These are exactly the people Trump warned about. Mexico's not sending its best.



Violent May Day Clash in Seattle (VIDEO)

Gotta love the headline here, "anti-capitalists," heh.

At the Seattle PI, "Anti-capitalists clash with Seattle police on May Day."

They're communists. Is that so hard? They're freakin' communists.



Sunday, May 1, 2016

Mother's Day Gifts

Check out the Mother's Day Gift Guide at Amazon.

Plus, from Katie Pavlich, Assault and Flattery: The Truth About the Left and Their War on Women.

And from Sharyl Attkisson, Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington.

Suzanne Venker and Phyllis Schlafly, The Flipside of Feminism: What Conservative Women Know - and Men Can't Say.

BONUS: Marybeth Hicks, Don't Let the Kids Drink the Kool-Aid: Confronting the Assault on Our Families, Faith, and Freedom.

And thanks to all my readers who've been shopping through my Amazon links.

When you do your shopping here, you provide support with no extra cost to yourself. I really appreciate it. Plus, I always enjoy posting all the book links, heh.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."

 photo Cirque-du-Soleil-600-LA-1_zps24biyaef.jpg

And at Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Round Up..."

Cartoon Credit: A.F. Branco, "Cirque du Soleil Hypocrisy."

British Labour Party's Anti-Semitism Row Deepens (VIDEO)

Following-up, "The Left's Hatred of Jews Chills Me to the Bone."

Now Ken Livingstone won't apologize.

Watch, via Euronews:



The Left's Hatred of Jews Chills Me to the Bone

From Stephen Pollard, at the Telegraph UK.

A great piece. Read it all at the link.


Ted Cruz's Delegate Support Weakens (VIDEO)

You're starting to see the stampede toward Donald Trump, and it's going to be an epic crush following Trump's expected win in the Hoosier State on Tuesday.

At the New York Times, "Ted Cruz’s Support Softens Among the Delegates He Courted" (via Memeorandum):

Even as Donald J. Trump trounced him from New Hampshire to Florida to Arizona, Senator Ted Cruz could reassure himself with one crucial advantage: He was beating Mr. Trump in the obscure, internecine delegate fights that could end up deciding the Republican nomination for president.

“This is how elections are won in America,” Mr. Cruz gloated after walking away with the most delegates in Wyoming.

But it turns out that delegates — like ordinary voters — are susceptible to shifts in public opinion. And as the gravitational pull of Mr. Trump’s recent primary landslides draws more Republicans toward him, Mr. Cruz’s support among the party’s 2,472 convention delegates is softening, threatening his hopes of preventing Mr. Trump’s nomination by overtaking him in a floor fight.

With each delegate Mr. Trump claims, he gets closer to the 1,237 he needs to clinch the nomination outright, and Mr. Cruz’s chances of stopping him — even if he pulls out a victory in Tuesday’s Indiana primary — shrink...
Keep reading.

And tellingly, at Politico, "Inside Cruz's camp, confidence crumbles" (via Memeorandum).

Transgender Hoax Crime in Durham, North Carolina (VIDEO)

Well, it's N.C.

Couldn't be a coincidence, or anything, considering the Tar Heel State's in the news all the time.

At ABC11 WTVD Durham, "CITY OF DURHAM REFUTES TRANSGENDER WOMAN'S CLAIMS" (via Blazing Cat Fur):
On Saturday, ABC11 showed [gender dysphoric Alexis] Adams the surveillance video of her walking out of the women's restroom alone and not by security. Adams response was, "They're not in the shot."

ABC11 showed Adams a different camera angle-this time of her walking out of the transit center with a man that does not appear to be a security guard. Adams response was, "I can't. I guess you just had to be there to witness it. The security did escort-ask me to leave the premises. They may not have dragged me out of the bathroom but they were there."

Adams says she is sticking by her story, and that no one has influenced her to come forward.

What's not clear is if the janitor said something to Adams inside the restroom. The video only shows Adams going in the restroom alone and walking out alone.

The city is asking people to call police if they saw something to support Adams' allegation...
There's video at the link.

Deal of the Day: Sun Joe PSI Electric Pressure Washer

At Amazon, Sun Joe SPX3000 2030 PSI 1.76 GPM Electric Pressure Washer, 14.5-Amp.

And, Mr. Coffee BVMC-DMX85 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker with Integrated Hot Water Dispenser, 16-Ounce, Black/Chrome.

Also, California Umbrella 11-Feet Sunbrella Fabric Fiberglass Rib Crank Lift Collar Tilt Aluminum Market Umbrella with Bronze Pole, Terracotta.

More, Midnight by Carole Hochman Women's Short Modal Robe.

From Justin Vaïsse, Neoconservatism: The Biography of a Movement.

And from Robert Kagan, Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order.

Mark Gerson and James Q. Wilson, The Essential Neoconservative Reader.

Still more, from James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet.

By Jacob Heilbrunn, They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons.

BONUS: Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History.

Donald Trump Holds 15-Point Lead Ahead of Republican Rivals in Indiana Poll

I saw some other polls out, including USA Today, that had Ted Cruz up in Indiana.

I've been discounting those because Donald Trump's got tremendous momentum, and it's Indiana.

At WSJ (via Memeorandum):
Donald Trump holds a 15-point lead in the Republican presidential primary in Indiana, and a majority of GOP voters disapprove of the effort by underdogs Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich to coordinate a strategy to block him, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist Poll finds.

Hillary Clinton holds a narrow, 4-point lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders among likely Democratic voters in Indiana, the poll found.

That gives Mr. Trump a substantial advantage in a state that Mr. Cruz says could be his last, best chance to stop the front-runner from clinching the GOP nomination before the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July.

Mr. Trump has been on a winning streak since his landslide victories in the New York primary two weeks ago and in last week’s five-state round of voting in the Northeast, which some dubbed the “Acela primary.” ...

In the Republican primary, it is still mathematically possible for Mr. Cruz, of Texas, and Mr. Kasich, of Ohio, to pick up enough delegates between now and the end of the primary season on June 7 to keep Mr. Trump from reaching the 1,237 needed to clinch the nomination. But the path to doing so narrows substantially if Mr. Trump sweeps Indiana and wins all of its 57 delegates.

In a last-ditch effort to derail the Trump train, the Cruz and Kasich campaigns last week announced that they would try to coordinate a strategy to block Mr. Trump, a plan that called for Mr. Kasich to stop campaigning in Indiana to give Mr. Cruz a clearer shot at the front-runner.

The poll found that 58% of likely Republican primary voters disapproved of that Cruz-Kasich deal and saw it as “further proof that the Republicans are trying to rig the game against Trump.” One-third of GOP voters approved of the deal and “of doing everything possible to stop Trump from being the Republican nominee.”

It isn’t clear how much the Cruz-Kasich agreement will affect the outcome next Tuesday, as 63% of GOP primary voters said it wasn’t a factor in deciding their votes, including 53% of Kasich voters and 66% of Cruz voters.

The poll also found that not all of Mr. Kasich’s supporters would accrue to Mr. Cruz if Mr. Kasich weren’t in the race.

If the Ohio governor’s support is reallocated according to the second choice of his backers, Mr. Trump still maintains an 11-point lead, with 53% backing him and 42% supporting Mr. Cruz.

Nearly two-thirds of Republican voters said that if no candidate wins a majority of delegates during primary season and the party winds up with a contested convention, then the candidate with the most votes in the primaries should get the nomination...
More.

The Virtual Reality Zombies

Hey, it looks pretty freakin' cool. I can't wait to try VR, heh.

At the New York Post, via Irritated Woman on Twitter: