Leftists Outraged After Donald Trump Says Russia Should 'Find' Hillary Clinton's 'Missing' Emails

Heh.

I had the press conference on this morning, but I was flipping back and forth between Fox News and CBS This Morning. It turns out we have a new outrage du jour.

See the New York Times, via Memeorandum, "Donald Trump Calls on Russia to Find Hillary Clinton's Missing Emails."

AP's got the comments at the video below.



And at the Los Angeles Times, "Donald Trump invites Russia to hack into Clinton's emails, an extraordinary step for a presidential nominee":

Donald Trump dared a foreign government to commit espionage on the U.S. to hurt his rival on Wednesday, smashing yet another taboo in American political discourse and behavior.

“Russia, if you're listening, I hope you’ll be able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” he said, referring to deleted emails from the private account Hillary Clinton used as secretary of State. “I think you’ll probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

Trump made the taunt during a lengthy and unusual news conference in Doral, Fla., in which he also suggested the Geneva Convention treaties protecting prisoners of war are outdated, told a reporter asking a question to “be quiet” and said the fact that the Democratic National Committee may have been hacked was because foreign leaders lack respect for the U.S. government...

More.

Also, the inevitable allegations of "criminal" statements, at the Daily Beast, via Memeorandum, "Donald Trump's Call for Russia to Hack the U.S. Might Be a Felony."

Heh, still more, at Hot Air, "Today’s liberal hot take: Let’s charge Trump with a crime for asking Russia to find Hillary’s e-mails":

I won’t pretend to know the ins and outs of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act but I will point out to you that Trump didn’t use the word “hack” this morning. He asked Russia to “find” her missing e-mails, which may sound like splitting hairs but would doubtless be flagged by his lawyers in court as proof that he wasn’t necessarily encouraging criminal activity. By “find” he could have meant obtaining them from a third-party who already has them. And he wasn’t talking about a prospective hack; he was assuming that they’d already harvested the contents of her private server years ago. He was encouraging a leak. The hack has, presumably, already happened...

More at that link.

And the last word goes to Katie Pavlich, on Twitter:

1) Outrage over Trump's comments re: Russia is laughable. Hillary had an unsecure, private server to store top secret info for "convenience"

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) July 27, 2016

2) The reality: Russians have already hacked everything on Hillary's private, unsecure server and they're already using it against us

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) July 27, 2016

3) If anyone "encouraged espionage," it was Hillary Clinton

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) July 27, 2016

Père Jacques Hamel — 1930-2016 — Martyr of Islamic Terrorism

From Marine Le Pen's niece, Jean-Marie Le Pen's granddaughter, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen:

Père Jacques Hamel - 1930-2016 - Martyr du terrorisme islamique. pic.twitter.com/W53aOitK4r

— Marion Le Pen (@Marion_M_Le_Pen) July 27, 2016

RELATED: At the Mirror U.K, "Marine Le Pen's niece enrols in the ARMY as she calls on France to 'kill Islamism'," and Breitbart London, "Marion Le Pen: Christians Must Stand Up to Islam; Young Patriots Should Join the Military Like Me."

When Marine makes the presidential runoff next year, you're going to see the European left go into the biggest tizzy since George W. Bush took the U.S. to Iraq. It's going to be seismic. Radical leftists will pull out all the stops to destroy the French National Front.

PREVIOUSLY: "Europe's Terror Storm."

Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee Throw Alan Grayson Under the Bus!

Heh.

Following-up from yesterday, "Alan Grayson Threatens to Have Reporter Arrested After Question About Domestic Abuse Allegations."

He better go easy on those threats. He's not going to have any support on the progressive left, lol.

At WSJ, "Liberal Groups Withdraw Support for Florida Senate Candidate Following Abuse Allegations":

Two prominent liberal groups withdrew their endorsements of Rep. Alan Grayson in the Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat in Florida after his ex-wife disclosed police reports containing allegations of domestic abuse on Tuesday.

Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee said in a joint statement that they were withdrawing their support for Mr. Grayson, the first rescission of an endorsement in the history of either group, after Mr. Grayson’s ex-wife released police reports to Politico alleging the lawmaker had abused her in a series of incidents from 1994 to 2014.

Copies of the police reports couldn’t immediately be independently obtained. A lawyer for Mr. Grayson said the reports were authentic, but didn’t accurately reflect what had occurred.

“This is more of the same nonsense and untrue allegations that we’ve heard for years,” Mark NeJame, an attorney representing Mr. Grayson, said Tuesday.

Mrs. Grayson wasn’t available for comment...

He's a bully and a blowhard. I hope he chokes on his own tears.

Democrats Completely Fumble National Security, Giving Donald Trump Huge Opening

The leftists in Philly have completely ignored national security. They won't even mention Islamic State.

Here's this from yesterday, at Politico, "PolitiFact: Democrats never mentioned terrorism on Day One of DNC."

That's a big mistake. Big. Even the leftist Washington Post is reporting the huge opening this gives Donald Trump.

From Jenna Johnson, "Democrats’ near-silence on national security may give Trump an opening":

PHILADELPHIA — Democrats opened their convention with an emphasis on inclusion and public service, and little mention of law and order or the rise of the Islamic State — a stark contrast to the Republicans’ focus on homeland security at their convention in Cleveland last week.

Hillary Clinton has made a strategic calculation to present an optimistic view of America and its place in the world as she is formally nominated this week. It’s a bet that voters will reject what her campaign calls the inaccurate fear-mongering of Republican nominee Donald Trump.

But some Democrats worry that the contrast could help Trump make up in rhetoric for a lack of traditional national security credentials.

“My hope is that people will see through this,” said Michèle Flournoy, a former senior Pentagon official under President Obama and a Clinton supporter. “It’s policy by bumper sticker. There will be some people who will find the strength of his rhetoric very appealing.”

None of the prime-time speakers on the Democrats’ opening night, Monday, dwelled on security in the traditional sense — either U.S. military readiness or safety on the streets. On Tuesday, many Republicans jumped to say that the threat from the Islamic State went unmentioned.

Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort sent this Twitter message Tuesday morning, using another name for the Islamic State:

“Clinton Mentions at DNC Last Night: 208. Trump Mentions at DNC Last Night: 96. ISIS Mentions at DNC Last Night: 0 (!!!)”

Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta was pressed Tuesday about the silence from Monday night’s lineup of speakers on a major issue in the minds of voters — terrorism.

“This is not a problem that is going away. It needs an intelligent and resourced and fulsome strategy, but the wrong strategy is to split away our alliances and to divide our country,” Podesta said at a Wall Street Journal luncheon here. “We need everyone in this fight together.”

Several Democrats said the structure of the convention is deliberate, with an initial focus on bringing the divisive primary contest to a respectful close, as well as on Clinton’s biography as an advocate for children and families.

Her national security bona fides and an examination of where the country stands after nearly eight years of the Obama presidency are subjects for later in the week, several Democrats said, although there is an effort to avoid much mention of Clinton’s onetime support for the Iraq War.

Clinton’s attempt to offer a sunnier vision of American leadership comes along with a concerted strategy to make the case that she is more knowledgeable and experienced on national security issues...

More.

Democrat Party Operative Spills the Beans on the Left's Totalitarian 'Gun Control' Agenda

Heh.

This is pretty crazy.

It looks like James O'Keefe has pretty much destroyed this lady Mary Bayer's political career.

At the Rebel Media, "“You say sh*t like that and people buy into it” Democratic delegate admits 'gun control' is code for wanting to ban all guns."

The woman's on video saying "you gotta elect Democrats" to pass "common sense" gun control legislation, which is really just a "bait and switch" to get a total "ban" on firearms.

Pretty wild.

More at InforWars, "EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: CLINTON DELEGATE EXPLAINS HOW DEMOCRATS WILL BAN ALL GUNS."

And check this out, lol. Confronted with her own words and picture printed on a placard, she steals the sign and runs into a convenience store, protected by security.

INCREDIBLE video interaction: delegate caught on tape, starts crying , @tombrokaw reacts #ToCatchADelegate #DNCinPHL pic.twitter.com/SqKOYFQFNM

— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) July 25, 2016

Heh. Now that's classic a Democrat Party operative!

Wednesday Cartoon

From A.F. Branco, "DNC Soft Sell."

Islamic Jihad Could Bring the National Right to Power Across Europe

Well, at this point, that's not such a bad idea. And remember, the "far-right" is an epithet used by elites to smear populists whose policies they don't like.

The "far-right" is really the center. It's leftists who've gone so far to the other side that they've had to lie about their socialist extremism.

But see Con Coughlin, at the Telegraph U.K., "Islamic terror could drive Europe into the arms of the far-Right":

In Germany, the government’s failure to grasp the public’s mounting resentment towards Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open door policy in handling the migrant crisis has caused the remarkable rise of the Alternative for Germany party, which won almost 25 per cent of the vote in a state election in Saxony-Anhalt in March, almost beating Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrats.

In France, meanwhile, Front National leader Marine Le Pen has been quick to exploit the wave of anger directed towards President Francois Hollande over his handling of the terror threat. On Tuesday, commenting on the attack at Saint-Etienne-du Rouvray, she accused the entire French establishment, both Left and Right, of sharing “immense responsibility” for creating the circumstances in which Islamist terrorists can operate in France.

The prospect of Right-wing nationalists exercising real political power in France and Germany is one that even the most ardent Brexiteer will view with dismay.

But the longer Isil is able to maintain its terrorist offensive against Europe, then the more likely this becomes, especially if the fanatics continue to attack soft targets like the church selected in Tuesday’s attack.

For all the Republic’s secularist pretensions, Catholicism remains part of France’s national identity, and the murder of an elderly priest is just the kind of attack that could provoke sectarian tensions of the sort we are more used to seeing in the Middle East, as opposed to the heart of Europe.

This is just the kind of political chaos Isil wants to create in Europe, which is why its political leaders must steer clear of this simple but deadly trap.

Um, I think there's enough "political chaos" in Europe right now without worrying about being pushed by Islamic State. Growing "secularist pretensions" aren't the problem. Appeasement is. If it takes a nationalist party to beat back that syndrome, the Europeans will thank their lucky stars they found a recipe for survival.

What Will Barack Hussein Do After He Leaves Office?

Well, I'd like to never hear from him again, but I doubt that's going to happen, unfortunately.

This is an interesting piece, otherwise. Did you know former presidents get a $200,000 annual salary, plus an expense account on top of that? Yep. George W. Bush "received an allowance of nearly $1.1 million in 2015."

Heh. Must be rough.

At USA Today:

What will Obama do after the presidency? Hopefully go away. Far away. https://t.co/HPFvnuj4iw #DemsInPhilly

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 27, 2016

Two Bulls Escape Slaughterhouse in West Baltimore (VIDEO)

Heh.

I would've liked to have seen that.

At CBS News 13 Baltimore:

Was Bill Clinton 'Never Sexually Attracted' to Hillary?

Ann Althouse watched the convention on C-SPAN last night, and I guess she waited until this moment to blog her thoughts about it.

See, "Maybe watching the convention on C-SPAN isn't such a good idea":

The main thing last night — other than the ritual of the roll call (the cut-short ritual) — was a speech from Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton was allowed to do his thing and talk and talk and talk. He went last and so: let Bill be Bill. Some people find him charming. But even those of us who do drift into when-will-it-end mode eventually or we've fallen asleep. Bill's idea for the speech was just to tell the story of his half century of life alongside of Hillary — tell it as if it's the most charming, beautiful tale of a guy from Arkansas who somehow got to weave his story together with the most hard-working do-gooder who ever appeared on Earth.

At Meadhouse, the feed got paused a few times to make comments about his failure to mention how he cheated on her time and again over the decades and how (we think) he's still doing it now. Was he never sexually attracted to her? Did they have an agreement about it and, if so, was it just don't let the public see what you are doing? These were topics of conversation during one of our many pauses.

Oh, he was attracted to her, it's just that Hillary alone wasn't enough to satiate his desires. Bill Clinton's a man of insatiable desires, heh.

Europe's Terror Storm

At WSJ, "François Hollande declares war on Islamic State. Does he mean it?"

I think he wants to mean it. But rescinding the call to strip citizenship from convicted jihadists belies resolve.

But from the editorial:

The proper response to Islamic State is to go on swift and decisive offense, beginning with the eradication of its strongholds in Syria, Iraq and Libya. Mr. Hollande may have declared war on Islamic State, but so far the fight has been more symbolic than strategic. Unless that changes, Tuesday’s attack in Normandy will merely be one more of many horrors to come.

Read the whole thing.

It sounds like WSJ's editors aren't sold on the need for a strong domestic surveillance state apparatus. But it's not that on the home front. France isn't clueless, or lacking the administrative apparatus. The jihadist, Adel Kermiche, had long been known to authorities and was being monitored with an ankle bracelet. He was captured in Turkey trying to make it to Syria to join the Islamic State. He served time behind bars. France should've deported the fucker. That's the problem. Too many Muslims in France. Yeah, destroy Islamic State, but don't neglect the enemy within. Get rid of the vermin.

Julian Assange Timed WikiLeaks Release to Harm Hillary Clinton (VIDEO)

Of course he did.

Assange is interviewed at Democracy Now! below.

And see the New York Times, via Memeorandum, "Assange Timed WikiLeaks Release of Democratic Emails to Harm Hillary Clinton":

WASHINGTON — Six weeks before the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks published an archive of hacked Democratic National Committee emails ahead of the Democratic convention, the organization's founder, Julian Assange, foreshadowed the release — and made it clear that he hoped to harm Hillary Clinton's chances of winning the presidency.

Assange's remarks in a June 12 interview underscored that for all the drama of the discord that the disclosures have sown among supporters of Bernie Sanders — and of the unproven speculation that the Russian government provided the hacked data to WikiLeaks in order to help Donald Trump — the disclosures are also the latest chapter in the long-running tale of Assange's battles with the Obama administration.

In the interview, Assange told a British television host, Robert Peston of the ITV network, that his organization had obtained "emails related to Hillary Clinton which are pending publication," which he pronounced "great." He also suggested that he not only opposed her candidacy on policy grounds but also saw her as a personal foe.

At one point, Peston said: "Plainly, what you are saying, what you are publishing, hurts Hillary Clinton. Would you prefer Trump to be president?"

Assange replied that what Trump would do as president was "completely unpredictable." By contrast, he thought it was predictable that Clinton would wield power in two ways he found problematic.

First, citing his "personal perspective," Assange accused Clinton of having been among those pushing to indict him after WikiLeaks disseminated a quarter of a million diplomatic cables during her tenure as secretary of state.

"We do see her as a bit of a problem for freedom of the press more generally," Assange said.

(The cables, along with archives of military documents, were leaked by Pvt. Chelsea Manning, then known as Bradley Manning, who is serving a 35-year prison sentence. WikiLeaks also provided the documents to news outlets, including The New York Times. Despite a criminal investigation into Assange, he has not been charged; the status of that investigation is murky.)

In addition, Assange criticized Clinton for pushing to intervene in Libya in 2011 when Moammar Gadhafi was cracking down on Arab Spring protesters; he said that the result of the NATO air war was Libya's collapse into anarchy, enabling the Islamic State to flourish.

"She has a long history of being a liberal war hawk, and we presume she is going to proceed" with that approach if elected president, he said.

In February, Assange said in an essay that a vote for Clinton to become president amounted to "a vote for endless, stupid war."

Efforts to reach Assange for comment were unsuccessful, and a Clinton campaign spokesman did not respond to an inquiry. In November 2010, when WikiLeaks and its media partners began publishing the cables, Clinton strongly condemned it...

More.

Democrats Nominate Hillary Clinton (VIDEO)

Again, here's the Wall Street Journal's excellent live blog, "Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright to take the stage."

I'm not watching tonight.

I genuinely can't stand it. I can't stand these people.

Indeed, the only one I find myself minimally sympathetic to is Bernie Sanders, and that's surprising:

Los Angeles County Sand Fire Casts Ominous Pall Over Region (VIDEO)

There's been so much other news I've neglected to post on the Santa Clarita "Sand Fire."

Dave Swindle and Roger Simon tweeted photos. A charred sky is never very welcoming.

More, at LAT, "'The most frightening thing': 10,000 homes evacuated as Sand fire rages in Santa Clarita Valley":

There hung the sun, brazenly aglow in red. The sky around it, tinted a dusty rose. In the stifling air, ashes fluttered like snowflakes.

The effects of the Sand fire over the last few days have cast an ominous yet picturesque pall across the Los Angeles Basin, the sun and the moon eliciting comparisons to J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Eye of Sauron” and apocalyptic films.

But up in the Santa Clarita Valley, the largest blaze in Los Angeles County this year was no photo op. Raging in the steep, rugged mountains and charring more than 35,000 acres, the Sand fire plowed through homes and sent thousands fleeing as it swept through a landscape of desiccated fuel. Explosive and swift, it melted cars, downed power lines and left the air thick with smoke.

“This is a big animal,” said Mike Wakoski, a spokesman for the multi-agency wildfire effort made up of nearly 3,000 firefighters. Wakoski warned that the fire was scorching an average of 10,000 football fields a day and that containment would be slow...

More.

Political Party Divisions: A Tale of Two Feuds (VIDEO)

Interesting, but I don't think comparing the divisions between the Democrats and Republicans works that well.

Even after the booing of Ted Cruz last week, it's clear that the Democrats have been way more divided. Frankly, Monday's convention looked like things were about to blow.

Oh well, see Cathleen Decker in any case, at LAT, "What's at stake in the Democratic and Republican family feuds":

If nothing else, the opening day of the Democratic National Convention showed that family feuds are not solely the province of the Republican Party.

Party stalwarts arrived onstage only to be treated dismissively — loudly so —  by many of the delegates. That followed a second day of protests by supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, the second-place finisher, who was booed by many of his own backers for suggesting they should cast their November ballots for the winner, Hillary Clinton.

That followed Florida delegates yelling at the party’s chairwoman, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, on Monday morning, contributing to her decision to cancel her convention appearances.

“Brothers and sisters, this is the real world that we live in,” Sanders had implored his supporters as they booed.

Real world or not, it should come as no shock after the campaign season America has witnessed that chaos has been visited upon both political parties as they seek to put their best faces forward in four-day television extravaganzas.

But the lines of division are not the same in each party.

Republicans saw last week that their party has been taken over by Donald Trump, the real estate impresario whose improbable campaign defeated more than a dozen candidates who, in more normal times, could have found success.

Trump channeled the economic and cultural concerns of Americans who felt spurned by more traditional Republicans, attracting them with bombastic words and spraying insults across many voter groups.

He succeeded to the point that delegates to his Cleveland convention roundly booed when his second-place finisher, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, failed to endorse Trump, saying that people should vote their consciences.

The Democratic problem is the opposite in many ways: Rather than taking over the party, many supporters of Sanders here remain on the outside, protesting. They do so despite his dramatic successes in winning votes, raising money, successfully liberalizing the party platform and contributing to the deposing of Wasserman Schultz, who will leave her post at the conclusion of the convention, months before her term ended.

Both feuds also look very different outside the convention halls...

More.

Hardee's 'Fantasty' Bacon Three-Way Thickburger (VIDEO)

Heh.

There's a fairly obvious double entendre at this commercial.

At the caption, "With bacon strips, bacon jam, and bacon crumbles, this burger is a bacon lover's fantasy":



Carl's Jr.'s not running this ad on the West Coast, for shame, lol.

One of the Normandy Jihadists Tried to Go to Syria

More on the slaughter of of the innocent French priest.

At WSJ, "French Say One of Priest’s Killers Had Tried to Go to Syria":

The two attackers were killed by police upon exiting the church. Prosecutors said one of them was Adel Kermiche, a young man who was under court order to wear an electronic bracelet after trying to travel to Syria.

Kermiche, a 19-year-old who was born and raised in France, was detained in Turkey in 2015 while trying to reach Islamic State’s stronghold in northern Syria, French authorities said. He was ordered to wear the bracelet in March after French prosecutors placed him under investigation on preliminary terrorism charges.

Henria Bayouki, 19, a friend who attended summer camp with Kermiche, said she spoke to his family, who confirmed he was one of the attackers.

The knife-wielding men, one of whom was carrying fake explosives, entered the 16th-century stone church in this Normandy town and took five hostages, including Rev. Jacques Hamel, the parish’s 85-year-old auxiliary priest.

A nun who fled the scene told French TV she saw the attackers force Father Hamel to kneel before cutting his throat. The attackers recorded the attack and “did a sort of sermon around the altar in Arabic,” she said.

Another person knifed in the church was in stable condition, a prosecutor said.

Police surrounded the church and shot and killed the two men as they exited the building, the spokesman said.

Islamic State said via its media arm, the Amaq news agency, that the attack was carried out by two of its “soldiers” without providing evidence of any direct links to the attackers.

French President François Hollande said the attackers had sworn allegiance to the extremist group.

“We are faced with a group that has declared war on us,” Mr. Hollande said after rushing to the scene.

The gruesome nature of the attack—and the fact that it was carried out in a Catholic church in a predominantly Catholic country—provoked outrage across France, fueling calls for a broader crackdown on Muslim radicals.

“A new low has been reached,” said Marine Le Pen, leader of the anti-immigration National Front party. “The heart of our nation’s cultural identity has been intentionally struck.”

Authorities were also grappling with the possibility of another breakdown in France’s security apparatus as they investigated Kermiche’s involvement in this latest attack...

My prediction is that things do not get better. We will see more jihad terror in France.

And also, Marine Le Pen will make the runoff in the French presidential election next year. I'd like to say she'll be elected, but even that remains an unknown. Leftists would do anything to sabotage a so-called "far-right nationalist" from coming to power.

Sadly, it's a true nationalist that France needs as its savoir, far-right or not.

Terror Attacks In Europe Are Becoming a Daily Occurence

At Heat Street.

It's like I've been saying.

Cuck Conservatives Flock to the Progressives

Remember my post from the other day, "Louise Mensch Implores Me to Come Back to the Light."

I pretty much made my case for Trump at the post, but to reiterate the main point: My vote this November is a vote against the left, and to add to it, those so-called conservative "#NeverTrump" goons are frankly working to get Hillary elected, which would be essentially a third term for Obama.

If you're conservative, you're certainly not going to vote for the Democrats.

In any case, see Bill Quick's post, "Vox Day Eviscerates Andrew Klavan":

Vox Popoli: Conservatism in ruins:

It very much looks to me right now as if Trump is going to lose this election on pure incompetence and mean spirit. That might actually make it easier for conservatives to regroup in the ruins of the Republican Party. If he wins, we may need a new party of our own. But whichever way things go, I think we need to open a discussion about how conservatives can not only remain conservative but also win elections in modern America.

Is he even watching the political conventions? This sort of wishful thinking is why no one should bother paying any attention to a cuckservative like Klavan now or in the future. Conservatism is dying. Its diseased remnants are flocking to the progressives, as we always knew they would. And we watch them go with dry eyes and a grim smile, because we don’t need a bunch of useless cucks and moderates who were always happier shooting at their own side than the enemy.

I have never been a conservative. I will never be a conservative. I am delighted to see the conservative movement crumbling into dust. Conservatives conserve nothing, accomplish nothing, and stand for nothing. They will not defend the Church, they will not defend America, and they will not defend the West.

The Alt Right will. Join us, if you have the steel.

I gave up on the formal “conservative” movement a while back, when I realized that Hot Air was an apt name for what almost all of them were spouting, and than almost none of those politicians they supported ever had any intention of winning the war for America that the Leftists and other Democrats were waging on them...

Still more.

Michael Ramirez on the Normandy Jihad Attack

Here, "Normandy Church Attack 07-26-16":

STANDING w FRANCE on Ramirez website: #tcothttps://t.co/gytrW4qbRh
Facebook:https://t.co/WeX1G9jwDl pic.twitter.com/2rMeS5XMP7

— Michael Ramirez (@Ramireztoons) July 15, 2016

Once again, the vile and wretched refuse of mankind have attacked the innocent.
​
Our prayers go out for the families of Father Jacques Hamel, and the nun who is fighting for her life. We pray. Our prayers go out for the people of ​France and for people everywhere who have fallen victim to these heinous acts of terror.

The terrorists who continue to commit these brutal acts, attacking an 84 year old priest and a nun, demonstrate what they truly are, cowards, who prey on the weak, helpless and defenseless.
​
As I have written before, these tragedies expose "those who subvert religion to justify brutal acts of barbarity. Only when the world can see these animals for what they truly are will the world unite against these emissaries of death and destruction."

But before you can go after evil, you must define it. It goes by many names; ISIS, ISIL, lone wolf, DAESH... but they all share one thing in common, the celebration of death in the name of radical Islam.

We pray for those who have been touched by terror.

More.

Helpless Europe

Following-up, "'Shock' in France as 'Soldier' of Islamic State Murders Priest, Takes Nuns Hostage (VIDEO)."

Yes, Europeans are helpless as long as they refuse to grasp the reality of the situation, and of course socialist France won't do it. Perhaps Marine will be elected to the presidency next year, and they'll have a chance.

Meanwhile, here's Bret Stephens, at WSJ, "Is Europe Helpless?" (via Israel Matzav):

At last count, members of the European Union spent more than $200 billion a year on defense, fielded more than 2,000 jet fighters and 500 naval ships, and employed some 1.4 million military personnel. More than a million police officers also walk Europe’s streets. Yet in the face of an Islamist menace the Continent seems helpless. Is it?

Was France helpless in May 1940?

Let’s stipulate that a van barreling down a seaside promenade isn’t a Panzer division, and that a few thousand ISIS fighters scattered from Mosul to Marseilles aren’t another Wehrmacht. But as in France in 1940, Europe today displays the same combination of doctrinal rigidity and loss of will that allowed an Allied army of 144 divisions to be routed by the Germans in six weeks. The Maginot Line of “European values” won’t prevail over people who recognize none of those values.

So much was made clear by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who remarked after the Nice attack that “France is going to have to live with terrorism.” This may have been intended as a statement of fact but it came across as an admission that his government isn’t about to rally the public to a campaign of blood, toil, tears and sweat against ISIS—another premature capitulation in a country that has known them before.

Mr. Valls was later booed at a memorial service for the Nice victims. It would be heartening to think this was because he and his boss, President François Hollande, have failed to forge a strategy to destroy ISIS. But the public’s objection was that there hadn’t been enough cops along the Promenade des Anglais to stop the attack. In soccer terms, it’s a complaint about the failure of defense, not the lack of a proper offense.

Then there is Germany, site of three terror attacks in a week. It seems almost like a past epoch that Germans welcomed a million Middle Eastern migrants in an ecstasy of moral self-congratulation, led by Angela Merkel’s chant of “We can do it!” Last summer’s slogan now sounds as dated and hollow as Barack Obama’s “Yes we can!”

Now Germany will have to confront a terror threat that will make the Baader-Meinhof gang of the 1970s seem trivial. The German state is stronger and smarter than the French one, but it also surrenders more easily to moral intimidation. The idea of national self-preservation at all costs will always be debatable in a country seeking to expiate an inexpiatable sin.

Thus the question of whether Europe is helpless...

Keep reading.

'Shock' in France as 'Soldier' of Islamic State Murders Priest, Takes Nuns Hostage (VIDEO)

We're almost to one attack a day in Europe alone. It's long been the case that we see daily Islamic attacks around the world.

The sad thing is that people in France are "shocked" that there's now yet another jihadist slaughter of the innocents.

At the leftist Guardian U.K., "France in shock again after Isis murder of priest in Normandy: One of the attackers who killed Father Jacques Hamel during mass has been named as 19-year-old Adel Kermiche."

But see London's Daily Mail, "First picture of one of ISIS knifemen who forced elderly priest, 84, to kneel at altar before they slit his throat on camera after invading Mass - then gave 'Arabic sermon' before they were shot dead by police.

Really, be sure to scroll through at Daily Mail. The picture of President Hollande embracing Mayor Hubert Wulfranc fully encapsulates the current crisis of French politics. How long can a society pledged to tolerance and diversity hold out? I'd say the earlier proposal to strip French citizenship from jihadists needs to be given fresh air. And the prison camp on Devil's Island should be opened as a French Guantánamo.

Robert Spencer comments, at Jihad Watch:

“Allahu akbar” is such a constant of jihad attacks that every time it is shouted, it is bearing witness not only to the fact that the murder in question is being committed in the name of Islam and in accord with its teachings, but also to the fact that Western authorities are resolute in their refusal to acknowledge the motivating ideology of the enemy, and thus are abjectly ill-equipped to deal with it adequately.

And as for Hollande saying that France is at war with the Islamic State, we have heard French and other Western officials say that before. But they don’t act as if they mean it...

Well, as I asked above, what will it take? I suspect it'll take Marine Le Pen's accession to the Élysée Palace in Paris. I have no worry that she'd fail to protect the French national interest.

In any case, more headlines:

* Atlas Shrugs, "Muslims SHOUTED ALLAHU AKBAR as they BEHEADED PRIEST in Normandy CHURCH, Nun fighting for her life, STORMED Morning MASS."

*Bare Naked Islam, "FRANCE: Islamic terrorists shouting “Allahu Akbar” slits throat of 84-year-old priest."

* Blazing Cat Fur, "Islamist Knifemen Forced Priest, 84, To Kneel Before They Slit His Throat On Camera: Jihadists Carry Out Slaughter In Church Then Give ‘Arabic Sermon’… And Now Hollande Says ‘We’re At War With ISIS’."

* iOWNTHEWORLD, "Priest murdered during Mass in terror attack on Catholic church in France."

* Legal Insurrection, "Priest in France murdered by ISIS terrorists."

Expect updates.

WikiLeaks Dismantling of #DNC is Clear Attack by Putin on Clinton

Following-up from yesterday, "Is Donald Trump a Vladimir Putin Plant?"

From John Schindler, at the New York Observer:

EXCLUSIVE: Inside the Kremlin's covert operation via Wikileaks to destroy Hillary + the DNC & elect Donald Trump.https://t.co/ezoTER1v3D

— John Schindler (@20committee) July 25, 2016

The recent Wikileaks dump of 20,000 emails belonging to the Democratic National Committee has caused political sensation and scandal on a grand scale. These internal communications reveal nothing flattering about the DNC or Hillary Clinton, who is set to be anointed as the Democrats’ presidential nominee at their party convention in Philadelphia that gets underway with fanfare today.

Wikileaks has thrown an ugly wrench into Hillary’s coronation. DNC emails reveal a Clinton campaign that’s shady and dishonest, not to mention corrupt. Its secret dealings with Hillary’s opponents—whether Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump—have been distasteful and possibly illegal. To say this is an unflattering portrayal of Team Clinton is like saying the Titanic had issues with ice.

The ramifications of this massive leak are already serious. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the embattled DNC chair, has been forced to tender her resignation in advance of the party conclave in Philadelphia, while Senator Sanders, who’s been revealed as the target of much aggressive DNC attention during the Democratic primary campaign, stated he was “not shocked but I’m disappointed” by the Wikileaks revelations. The Democrats are anything but united now as they prepare to take on Donald Trump and the Republicans.

On the eve of the four-day Democratic convention extravaganza, this data-dump could not have been timed better to damage Hillary and her efforts to move back into the White House this November. Although it’s doubtful that leaked RNC internal emails would make any more pleasant a read for the public, Clinton will emerge from this tarred with the indelible brush of corruption and collusion with her party’s leadership to fix the Democratic presidential nomination.

Wikileaks has delivered as promised on its public threats of damaging Team Clinton with hacked emails. Although the DNC can’t deny that many of the leaked messages appear authentic—they wouldn’t have forced the chair’s resignation if they were fake, obviously—there remains the important question of how the vaunted “privacy organization” got its hands on them.

It turns out there’s hardly any mystery there. It’s no secret that the DNC was recently subject to a major hack, one which independent cybersecurity experts easily assessed as being the work of Russian intelligence through previously known cut-outs. One of them, called COZY BEAR or APT 29, has used spear-phishing to gain illegal access to many private networks in the West, as well as the White House, the State Department, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff last year. Another hacking group involved in the attack on the DNC, called FANCY BEAR or APT 28, is a well-known Russian front, as I’ve previously profiled.

These bears didn’t make much efforts to hide their DNC hack—in one case leaving behind a Russian name in Cyrillic as a signature—and Kremlin attribution has been confirmed by independent analysis by a second cybersecurity firm.

The answer then is simple: Russian hackers working for the Kremlin cyber-pilfered the DNC then passed the purloined data, including thousands of unflattering emails, to Wikileaks, which has shown them to the world...

I'm getting a little more sold on the idea that Russia's behind the hack, although not so much that Trump's a Putin plant.

But keep reading.

Emily Ratajkowski Poses for Harper's Bazaar's August Issue

At Harper's, "EMILY RATAJKOWSKI'S NAKED AMBITION: The actress sits down with the famed feminist author Naomi Wolf to discuss sexuality, shaming, and the notorious Kim Kardashian selfie."

Alan Grayson Threatens to Have Reporter Arrested After Question About Domestic Abuse Allegations

You know, watching all the communist and NoKo sympathizers out there in Philly, I think threats of jail time have now become the default Democrat Party position on uncomfortable press inquiries.

At Twitchy, "Roll tape! Rep. Alan Grayson threatens to have reporter arrested after question about domestic abuse allegations."

Also, "Dana Loesch calls out Florida man *cough Alan Grayson cough* for two DECADES of domestic abuse."

She's tweeting the story out today from Politico:

Florida man accused of beating wife for two decades: https://t.co/gc1nEjKWpx cc @AlanGrayson

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) July 26, 2016

Ireland Baldwin for Treats Magazine

At London's Daily Mail, "Bombshell! Ireland Baldwin shows off her stunning figure as she poses nude in sexy photos for treats! magazine."

And at WWTDD, "Ireland Baldwin Topless."

If the Election Were Held Today Donald Trump Would Likely Win!

Now that's what I'm talking about!

You know, he did get a nice post-convention bounce, heh.

At the Hill, "Nate Silver: Trump would likely win if election were held today" (via Memeorandum).

If the election were today, Trump would likely win. But Clinton's still favored long-term: https://t.co/2uB2oqpXy4 pic.twitter.com/HUTQMaVrBx

— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) July 25, 2016

Finally catching up to the old crook... #CrookedHillary pic.twitter.com/WF3TLMY0hc

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) July 25, 2016

Protesters Proudly Wave North Korean Flag Outside Democrat National Convention in Philly (PHOTO)

Just saw this from Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "CHAOS! COMMUNISTS, ENVIRONMENTALISTS, TRUMP HATERS, BERNIE BACKERS, THOUSANDS PROTEST DNC PHILADELPHIA. JUST ONE GROUP MISSING: HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTERS, claims the London Daily Mail."

And that reminded me of Tania Gail's tweet:

Why the North Korean flag at a Bernie rally? pic.twitter.com/U4qZUl9340

— Tania Gail (@TaniaGailPhotos) July 26, 2016

Leftists love Stalinists. https://t.co/UJccMzLPS0

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 26, 2016

Tania's a Philly native.

She's blogging the convention. See, "Day One: Bernie Rally Meets Mississippi Flag."

U.S. and European Elites Just Not Equipped to Deal With Islam's Insurgency

Well, that's pretty obvious by now.

But see Blazing Cat Fur:

The terror attacks in Nice and Wurzburg are the latest manifestations of what should now be seen as a still fairly low-level Islamist insurgency taking place in a number of west European countries. The fact that this insurgency has been allowed to kindle itself and slowly emerge before now bursting forth represents a profound failure of Western European political culture and of the continent’s elites.

This is not merely a matter of poor police or intelligence work. Rather, it is the culmination of a long process of enfeeblement. The Islamist insurgency is a disease attacking an already weakened body which lacks the means to defend itself...

Trump Stumps the Establishment

Seen on Twitter:

Establishment Trumps People every time; Trump Stumps Establishment, everytime. #DEMSINPHILLY RETWEET #RETWEET pic.twitter.com/iIve2QbBBT

— ⚓ I'm With You ™ (@ImWithYou010) July 25, 2016

Bernie Sanders' Supporters Bawling at #DemConvention #DemsInPhilly #CrookedHillary (VIDEO)

At Heat Street, "Bernie Babies: Sanders Supporters Weep Openly at DNC as Their Candidate Gives His Final Speech."

And watch, at Ruptly, "USA: Cheers and tears as Sanders endorses Clinton at the DNC."

Still more, from Michelle Malkin:

Crying Peter Pan Guy is about to become an Internet Thing.#feelthebern#DemsInPhilly pic.twitter.com/kLxSIHaZuY

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) July 26, 2016

How Democrat Party Staffers Used Anti-Gay Slurs, Mocked the Name of a Black Assistant, and Created Sexist Craigslist Job Post to Shame Donald Trump

Nasty stuff.

At London's Daily Mail, "Revealed: How DNC staffers under Wasserman Schultz used anti-gay slurs, mocked the name of an African-American assistant and created a sexist Craigslist job post to humiliate Donald Trump."

Democrats are terrible people Horrible.

Protesters Chanting 'Off With Her Head' at #DemConvention #DemsInPhilly #CrookedHillary

Hey, it was a pretty rowdy first night, and lord knows you've got some Jacobins out in the streets.

At Vice News:

Outside the convention, protestors are flying a Bernie Sanders flag and chanting "Off with her head"https://t.co/au9SdOWveR

— VICE News (@vicenews) July 26, 2016

Democrat Chaos in Philadelphia!

At the New York Post:

DNC disarray is the foreshadowing of a Clinton administration https://t.co/Lrrd2XX5VH pic.twitter.com/U3Q8VxYQV2

— New York Post (@nypost) July 26, 2016

Jessica Alba Flaunts Toned Bikini Body During Hawaii Vacation

At London's Daily Mail:

Jessica Alba shows off her perfect figure in a pineapple bikini on her family vacation https://t.co/QvdE8W6ReE pic.twitter.com/n3GCSVJjLE

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) July 21, 2016

Democrats Divided as Convention Starts (VIDEO)

The Wall Street Journal's got an excellent live blog, "After email hack, Sanders supporters reluctant to unite."

The Bernie Bros are not pleased their man urged backing for Clinton:

Is Donald Trump a Vladimir Putin Plant?

Heh.

It's Julia Ioffe, at Foreign Policy, "Is Trump a Russian Stooge?":

Is Trump a Putin plant? In short, no.

My latest: https://t.co/0cBeDB7Kjz

— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) July 25, 2016

That blinding flash of light you saw this weekend? That was the byproduct of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the American media’s two greatest obsessions, fusing into a single intoxicating storyline after the Democratic National Committee’s internal emails were hacked and made public with the apparent assistance of Russian hackers, and to the apparent glee of the Republican nominee. The conventional wisdom, after sifting through all the evidence, has reached a verdict, and it’s that Trump is Putin’s stooge, a veritable plant through which Putin plans to take over the United States.

Okay, I exaggerate. But not by much...

RTWT.

Deal of the Day: Hoover WindTunnel 3 Pro Pet Bagless Upright Vacuum

At Amazon, Hoover WindTunnel 3 Pro Pet Bagless Upright Vacuum, UH70931PC - Corded.

Also, KIND Bars, Dark Chocolate Nuts & Sea Salt, Gluten Free, 1.4 Ounce Bars, 12 Count.

And, AmazonBasics Apple Certified Lightning to USB Cable - 6 Feet (1.8 Meters) - White.

Today only, FitDesk Under Desk Elliptical $99.99.

More, from Isabel Hull, Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany.

Also, Tim Snyder, Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning.

Logan Beirne, Blood of Tyrants: George Washington & the Forging of the Presidency.

And, Edmund Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom.

BONUS: Fergus Bordewich, Killing the White Man's Indian: Reinventing Native Americans at the End of the Twentieth Century.

Surge of Terror in Germany

From Noah Rothman, at Commentary, "Germany’s Terror Wave":

Germany’s Terror Wave - by @noahcrothman https://t.co/3AVz0BmqGN pic.twitter.com/0xghjwl7k6

— Commentary Magazine (@Commentary) July 25, 2016

All young men; all of Middle Eastern or South Central Asian descent, with varying but generally modest levels of assimilation into Western society. Each was attracted to death cultism—be it of an Islamist or secular variety. Three of these four attackers were known to members of the psychological community and had at one point sought or received help for mental imbalances. None of it was apparently sufficient to prevent the worst.

What the effects of this new wave of terror will be on German and European political culture are not yet clear, but it is a safe bet that the kind of nationalist political backlash gathering support in France will soon materialize in Germany. And without a will to defeat the forces of radicalization abroad, Europeans will have little recourse but to bar the door and keep a watchful eye on their neighbors through lace curtains. Ultimately, that will only intensify the sense of paranoia that Europeans are already justifiably feeling today. The continent is under attack, and it’s only a matter of time before passivity is no longer an option.

Hillary Clinton Inherits a Far-Left Democrat Party in Philadelphia

Well, the Democrat National Convention is finally underway.

Things didn't start out as smoothly as folks would like, I'm sure. Debbie Wasserman Schultz has been banished from the proceedings and a major anti-Hillary protest was raging earlier today outside the Wells Fargo Center in Philly.

Only the most dishonest partisan hacks would deny that the Democrats today are in fact a far left-wing party pushing an openly socialist, identity-based agenda. I think the only ones now just noting it are the establishment journalists in the mainstream press. And even then, reporters still insist on calling radical leftist ideologues "liberals." It's pretty maddening.

In any case, the Wall Street Journal provides a pretty decent overview on the front page of the paper today.

See, "Hillary Clinton to Take Command of a Changed Democratic Party":

When Hillary Clinton accepts the Democratic nomination on Thursday, she will take command of a party that has little in common with the one she and her husband rode to the White House a quarter-century ago.

The party she will inherit is less white and more liberal. It is better educated and not as willing to compromise with Republicans. Many Democrats today aren’t convinced capitalism is the best economic model or that socialism is taboo.

Nor is the party entirely sold on its new leader. A Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll this month showed 45% of registered Democrats and those who lean in that direction would have preferred a nominee not named Hillary Clinton.

“I’m in the hold-your-nose-and-vote-for-Hillary-Clinton camp,” said Jason Frerichs, a Democratic Party county chairman in southwestern Iowa.

Behind the party’s evolution are seismic shifts that have threatened to sweep aside the pro-business, centrist brand of politics the Clintons long embodied. Those same forces could make it tougher for Mrs. Clinton to govern from the center should she win in November.

Working-class white voters once loyal to the Democratic Party have gravitated to the Republicans over the past two decades, drawn by the GOP’s stance on guns, immigration and other social issues.

Amid the exodus, Democrats have moved left.

Only 30% of Democrats considered themselves liberal in 1994, the second year of Bill Clinton’s presidency. That figure had nearly doubled by 2014, according to a study by the Pew Research Center.

With minorities, 20-somethings and college-educated voters making up a bigger chunk of the party, some Democrats are questioning tenets that once seemed inviolate. Take capitalism. An Iowa poll early this year showed more than four-in-10 likely Democratic caucus-goers in a state with an outsize influence on the nomination battle described themselves as socialist.

Watching these trends, some Democrats are uneasy. They fear the party will continue to lose state and local contests unless it makes an ideological course correction. For all of President Barack Obama’s electoral success, the party lost more than 80 House and Senate seats under his watch.

“The party has moved steadily left because of the surge of liberal populism, and that has caused the party to be in complete free fall at the subpresidential level,” said Jonathan Cowan, president of the centrist Democratic think tank, Third Way.

“The party is going to have to realize that to get and hold a sustained majority and enact solutions that are even remotely politically feasible, it’s going to have to move toward the center,” he said.

The draft party platform that Democrats approved at a two-day meeting in Orlando, Fla., highlights the sharp left turn the party has taken since Mr. Clinton held the White House 20 years ago.

The 1996 Democratic platform celebrated free-trade deals; the proposed new platform says they don’t “live up to the hype.” Bill Clinton’s platform embraced the death penalty; the new one would do away with it. The old platform boasted of building new prison cells; the 2016 version calls for “ending the era of mass incarceration.”

Eyeing the changes over the last generation, Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster who conducts the Journal survey with Democrat Fred Yang, said: “These are two radically different parties.”

Mrs. Clinton’s campaign declined to comment.

She has signaled she isn’t about to govern in accordance with her party’s liberal faction. In naming a running mate, she passed over both Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts for the more moderate Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia.

Speaking to Charlie Rose of CBS News recently, she said: “We are the center-left party.”

Yet, pressed by Mr. Sanders during the presidential primaries, Mrs. Clinton reversed course and came out against a 12-nation Pacific trade deal she promoted back when she was secretary of state. Hoping to win over his young supporters, she recently rolled out new plans to wipe out public-college tuition for millions of families.

When Hillary Clinton accepts the Democratic nomination on Thursday, she will take command of a party that has little in common with the one she and her husband rode to the White House a quarter-century ago.

The party she will inherit is less white and more liberal. It is better educated and not as willing to compromise with Republicans. Many Democrats today aren’t convinced capitalism is the best economic model or that socialism is taboo.

Nor is the party entirely sold on its new leader. A Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll this month showed 45% of registered Democrats and those who lean in that direction would have preferred a nominee not named Hillary Clinton.

“I’m in the hold-your-nose-and-vote-for-Hillary-Clinton camp,” said Jason Frerichs, a Democratic Party county chairman in southwestern Iowa.

Behind the party’s evolution are seismic shifts that have threatened to sweep aside the pro-business, centrist brand of politics the Clintons long embodied. Those same forces could make it tougher for Mrs. Clinton to govern from the center should she win in November.

Working-class white voters once loyal to the Democratic Party have gravitated to the Republicans over the past two decades, drawn by the GOP’s stance on guns, immigration and other social issues.

Amid the exodus, Democrats have moved left.

Only 30% of Democrats considered themselves liberal in 1994, the second year of Bill Clinton’s presidency. That figure had nearly doubled by 2014, according to a study by the Pew Research Center.

With minorities, 20-somethings and college-educated voters making up a bigger chunk of the party, some Democrats are questioning tenets that once seemed inviolate. Take capitalism. An Iowa poll early this year showed more than four-in-10 likely Democratic caucus-goers in a state with an outsize influence on the nomination battle described themselves as socialist.

Watching these trends, some Democrats are uneasy. They fear the party will continue to lose state and local contests unless it makes an ideological course correction. For all of President Barack Obama’s electoral success, the party lost more than 80 House and Senate seats under his watch.

“The party has moved steadily left because of the surge of liberal populism, and that has caused the party to be in complete free fall at the subpresidential level,” said Jonathan Cowan, president of the centrist Democratic think tank, Third Way.

“The party is going to have to realize that to get and hold a sustained majority and enact solutions that are even remotely politically feasible, it’s going to have to move toward the center,” he said.

The draft party platform that Democrats approved at a two-day meeting in Orlando, Fla., highlights the sharp left turn the party has taken since Mr. Clinton held the White House 20 years ago.

The 1996 Democratic platform celebrated free-trade deals; the proposed new platform says they don’t “live up to the hype.” Bill Clinton’s platform embraced the death penalty; the new one would do away with it. The old platform boasted of building new prison cells; the 2016 version calls for “ending the era of mass incarceration.”

Eyeing the changes over the last generation, Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster who conducts the Journal survey with Democrat Fred Yang, said: “These are two radically different parties.”

Mrs. Clinton’s campaign declined to comment.

She has signaled she isn’t about to govern in accordance with her party’s liberal faction. In naming a running mate, she passed over both Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts for the more moderate Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia.

Speaking to Charlie Rose of CBS News recently, she said: “We are the center-left party.”

Yet, pressed by Mr. Sanders during the presidential primaries, Mrs. Clinton reversed course and came out against a 12-nation Pacific trade deal she promoted back when she was secretary of state. Hoping to win over his young supporters, she recently rolled out new plans to wipe out public-college tuition for millions of families...

Still more.

Blake Lively's an Astonishing Babe

I saw this L’Oreal advertisement this morning and it reminded me what a lovely woman she is.

And below is the bonus coverage from London's Daily Mail on Ms. Blake's Elle cover shoot.

Blake Lively wears plunging leather wrap dress in stunning shoot for Elle magazine https://t.co/6thnZsWuK0 pic.twitter.com/DuevNBQXrQ

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) July 25, 2016

Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels, Democracy for Realists

This is a top work of political science by two major scholars of American politics, Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government.

I just finished Chapter 1. The authors take on what they call the "folk theory" of democratic governance, which is the ideal conception of democracy and electoral politics envisioning majority rule and an informed electorate. They're especially critical of the "retrospective theory of elections," which has been one of the more popular explanations of voting behavior in recent years. The approach, however, doesn't tell us much about electoral outcomes, other than a fickleness surrounding current political and economic issues that tend to make the elections akin to a coin flip.

Achen and Bartels argue that rather than government effectiveness and policy preferences, partisanship and social identity more powerfully determine voter choice and democratic outcomes. The book's amazingly jargon-free so far, and is hence well-suited to the general reader while still deeply embedded within the longstanding debates on democratic theory in American political science.

I'm enjoying it.

In any case, check out more at Amazon, Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government.

I'll have more on the book later. I'm gearing up for my fall semester preparations (syllabus writing, class digital supplements, and so forth), so I thought it'd be good to read some real "science-y" type literature before school starts.

Donald Trump Gets Polling Bounce After Republican National Convention (VIDEO)

Actually, it's a pretty solid bounce.

A number of organizations are reporting a Trump bounce after Cleveland.

This is ephemeral, of course, because the Democrats are likely to get a bounce as well following Philadelphia, but it shows that voters are responding to the GOP ticket, despite what the MSM hacks would have you believe.

Here's the Los Angeles Times, for one, "Trump takes lead over Clinton as GOP convention generates a bounce for its nominee."

And at CNN, "Trump bounces into the lead." He's got a six-point lead in the CNN poll.

Also at Morning Consult, "Trump Surges Past Clinton With Post-Convention Bump."

The one possibility here is that the DNC hacking scandal ends up being more damaging than many would believe, and the Democrats fail to get a significant bounce coming out of their convention.

I doubt that though. Frankly, I expect Hillary Clinton to give a rousing speech on Thursday night, and Bernie's speech tonight will make the case for Democrat unity despite being slammed in the horrible DNC emails. He'll argue that Hillary's better than Trump.

So, we'll see. We'll see.

And watch, at Morning Joe:

Ansbach, Germany: Syrian 'Refugee' Suicide Bomber Pledged Allegiance to Islamic State (VIDEO)

Well, this comes as a surprise (eye roll).

At NYT and France 24:

Suicide Bomber in Ansbach, Germany, Pledged Loyalty to ISIS, Officials Say https://t.co/wYNY82WuuD #news pic.twitter.com/EfDpyqUExp

— Santanu Kandar (@santanukandar) July 25, 2016

Previously, "Syrian 'Refugee' Suicide Bomber Blows Himself Up in Jihad Attack in Ansbach, Germany."

How Political Correctness Leads to Indifference About Child Abuse on the Reservations

It's Naomi Schaefer Riley, at Heat Street, "NEW BOOK: How Political Correctness is Leading Us to Ignore Abuse on American Indian Reservations."

I'm a couple of chapters into Schaefer Riley's new book, The New Trail of Tears: How Washington Is Destroying American Indians.

It's excellent and highly recommended.

Jan Crawford at the National Constitution Center (VIDEO)

Watch, an interesting segment, at CBS This Morning, "National Constitution Center tells the story of America":

The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia tells the story of how our founders created a government by the people with an elected president -- and a Constitution that endures and protects us all. Jan Crawford reports.

I don't think the question is whether we can "keep" the Constitution so much as we can preserve the liberty that it was originally designed to protect. The Constitution will be with us for a long time. It's how much the interpretation and practice of our constitutional norms have changed that's troubling.

Glorious: Debbie Wasserman Schultz Booed at Florida Democrat Delegation Breakfast (VIDEO)

Absolutely glorious.

Sally Kohn has the sads, lol, "Heckling of @DWStweets right now during her delegation speech makes me sad. I support protest, but also civility. This just feels mean."

Watch. They booed her right off the stage:



More at Instapundit, "HERE’S VIDEO OF DWS GETTING BOOED OUT OF HER OWN DNC BREAKFAST..."

And at Politico, via Memeorandum, "Bedlam erupts as Wasserman Schultz speaks to Florida delegates."

Previously, "Debbie Wasserman Schultz to Resign Following Explosive Email Leaks."

Cybersecurity Subplot Implicates Russia in Democrat Party Email Hacking Scandal

More on the DNC leaks, a surprisingly tantalizing story of intrigue, at the New York Times.

I'm skeptical, of course. It seems pretty opportunistic for the media to pin this all on Russia, when the world is full of hackers, and frankly China's now considered our biggest cybersecurity enemy.

But what can you do? This fits the meme that Donald Trump is the Putinian candidate.

Democratic leaders and cyberspecialists in the U.S. wonder if Vladimir Putin is meddling in the election https://t.co/tJhvWIMqSF

— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 25, 2016

Researchers conclude two Russian intelligence agencies hacked the DNC/s emails and passed them to @wikileaks. https://t.co/mwo3ZtBPBv

— Steven Lee Myers (@stevenleemyers) July 25, 2016

So, Maybe It's Not the Best Idea to Get Out of Your Car While Touring a Wildlife Park (VIDEO)

Heh.

Not too smart, to put it mildly.

Actually, the woman who was killed tried to save the first woman snatched by the tiger.

And as you can see at the video, that animal wasn't messing around.

At the Telegraph UK, "Family argument in wildlife park leaves woman dead after she leaves car and gets eaten by tiger."

And additional video, via CBS News, "Caught on camera: Woman mauled by tiger after stepping out of car."

Syrian 'Refugee' Suicide Bomber Blows Himself Up in Jihad Attack in Ansbach, Germany

Another attack in Germany.

Looks like the Germans got the jihadi flu, heh.

At Telegraph UK, "Ansbach explosion: Syrian asylum seeker killed by own bomb at German bar."

Jesus. Third attack in Germany in as many days. This is an IED. https://t.co/rwt3mzs4DV

— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) July 24, 2016

What is going on in Germany? Isn't this the fourth attack in about two weeks? (Mall shooting, axe, machete...) https://t.co/68XfhQjMFm

— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) July 25, 2016

BREAKING: BOMBING Near Ansbach, Germany Music Festival – ONE DEAD https://t.co/9mybUxwZtR via @gatewaypundit

— Jim Hoft (@gatewaypundit) July 24, 2016

Detonation occurred at the entrance music festival '#Ansbach Open' in front of wine bar https://t.co/ZsZSAV6DJC pic.twitter.com/2p3qM9rnAO

— RT (@RT_com) July 25, 2016

3. Germany: Attacker was 27 year old Syrian man. #Ansbach

— Veit Medick (@vmedick) July 25, 2016

4. Germany: Attacker was known to local police. Was denied asylum recently but had temporary residence status. Tried to kill himself twice.

— Veit Medick (@vmedick) July 25, 2016

Electoral College Map: Donald Trump More Than Competitive

Tweeted by CNN's master map magician John King:

Click through to look at the map. Trump's been running even with Clinton in some of those battleground toss-up states pictured, Ohio especially (in that Suffolk poll out this last week).

So, just keep an eye on the battleground states. The national horse race polling is interesting, but that's going to be mostly for mass media consumption. It's going to go down to a few key states, and I think Trump could have a good chance. But like I said earlier, he's going to need to go up with advertising, and soon. He'll need to fork over some of his own cash, if nothing else. Sheesh.

Advantage hillaryclinton but @realdonaldtrump more than competitive as we shift from #RNCinCLE 2… https://t.co/QzWKK5ZoKK

— John King (@JohnKingCNN) July 24, 2016

Clinton Campaign Manager Robby Mook: #DNCLeaks a Russian Op to Help Donald Trump Campaign

Someone noted on Twitter earlier that this is in fact part of a broader effort to otherize Donald Trump as a foreign presence, an un-American Putinian-candidate.

Inevitable spin, I guess.

The Democrat convention's not getting off to a particularly auspicious start.

At Althouse, "Clinton Campaign Manager Robby Mook floats the conspiracy theory: Russians hacked the DNC emails for the purpose of helping Trump."

How Donald Trump Broke the Conservative Movement (And My Heart)

It's from Katherine Miller, at BuzzFeed, not my favorite publication.

Still, this is interesting because I feel entrenched coalitions are breaking up, and that's not a bad thing. At the least, whether Trump wins or not, American conservatism's going to have to do a rethink.

How Donald Trump Broke The Conservative Movement (And My Heart) https://t.co/CjWivWs4cq pic.twitter.com/sPbVzLx8Vj

— Katherine Miller (@katherinemiller) July 25, 2016

Deal of the Day: EGO Power+ 20-Inch 56-Volt Lithium-ion Cordless Lawn Mower [BUMPED]

At Amazon, EGO Power+ 20-Inch 56-Volt Lithium-ion Cordless Lawn Mower - 4.0Ah Battery and Charger Kit.

Also, Robert Spitzer, Guns Across America: Reconciling Gun Rules and Rights.

And Jennifer Carlson, Citizen-Protectors: The Everyday Politics of Guns in an Age of Decline.

Firmin DeBrabander, Do Guns Make Us Free? Democracy and the Armed Society.

Les Adams, The Second Amendment Primer: A Citizen's Guidebook to the History, Sources, and Authorities for the Constitutional Guarantee of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

BONUS: Dana Loesch, Hands Off My Gun: Defeating the Plot to Disarm America.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz to Resign Following Explosive Email Leaks

At Heat Street, "DNC Boss Debbie Wasserman Schultz Resigns After Wikileaks Reveals She Burned Bernie Sanders."

And from Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "WASSERMAN SCHULTZ OUT AS DNC LEADER AFTER CONVENTION."

ADDED: At CNN:

#Breaking: DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz says she will step down https://t.co/J0PJ0m2nUG https://t.co/DhTP65GFlU

— CNN (@CNN) July 24, 2016

Machete Attack: Syrian Muslim 'Refugee' Murders Pregnant Woman in Reutlingen, Germany (VIDEO)

Well, authorities won't to be able to spin this one as an Anders Brevik knock off attack.

At Pamela's, "Knife Jihad: MACHETE WIELDING Muslim “refugee” KILLS woman, injuring two others in #Reutlingen #Germany."

At the Telegraph U.K., "Germany machete attack: Syrian asylum seeker murders 'pregnant' woman in Reutlingen":

A Syrian man has attacked and killed a woman he was reportedly in love with, hitting her with a meat cleaver in the southern German town of Reutlingen.

Another woman and a man were also injured in the attack. Local authorities have identified the man as a 21-year-old asylum-seeker from Syria who was known to the police and had previously been charged with causing bodily harm.

He attacked the woman with a meat cleaver taken from the kebab shop where they both worked shortly after 4:30pm on Sunday. The German newspaper Bild reports the woman was pregnant...

Keep reading.

And still more, at London's Daily Mail, "Syrian refugee, 21, hacks PREGNANT woman to death with a machete and injures two others before hero BMW driver runs him over, in latest attack to shock Germany."

ICYMI: Ann Coulter, In Trump We Trust

Out August 23rd.

Pre-order, at Amazon, In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome!

Bernie Sanders Says DNC's Debbie Wasserman Schultz Should Resign (VIDEO)

He's taking it pretty well, heh.

At CNN, via Memeorandum, "Sanders: ‘Awful’ DNC emails should cost party chair her job."

Trump Surrogate Pam Bondi Reacts to Tim Kaine as Democrat Running-Mate (VIDEO)

Following-up from earlier, "Pam Bondi Speech to the Republican National Convention #RNCinCLE (VIDEO)."

Via Fox News: