Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Should We Bring Back 'Big Stick' Dipomacy?

Professor Eliot Cohen's out with a new book, at Amazon, The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force.

And here's his op-ed at LAT from last week, "Should the U.S. still carry a ‘big stick’?":
To the extent that President-elect Donald Trump has articulated a coherent view of foreign affairs, it appears to be that the United States needs to reject most policies of the post-1945 period. NATO is a bad bargain; nuclear proliferation is a good thing; Russian President Vladimir Putin is an admirable fellow; great deals that advantage only us should replace free trade.

In his unique way, Trump is forcing a question that probably should have been up for debate 25 years ago: Should the United States stay a global power that maintains world order — including by force of arms, what Theodore Roosevelt famously called “the big stick”?

Curiously, the death of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War did not immediately occasion that debate. In the 1990s, keeping a global leadership role for the United States looked cheap — other nations, after all, paid for the 1991 Persian Gulf War. In that conflict and America’s succeeding interventions in the former Yugoslavia, costs and casualties were low. Then in the early 2000s, Americans were understandably absorbed by the consequences of 9/11 and the ensuing wars and terror attacks. Now, for better or worse, the debate is upon us.

It is worth keeping some history in mind as we decide whether to reject the posture that the United States has maintained abroad for more than half a century.

*****

President Obama hoped to end the wars he had inherited in 2008. Instead, he launched America’s third war in Iraq, ramped up our deployments in Afghanistan, expanded by an order of magnitude our campaign of counter-terrorist assassination and ordered an air campaign against the Libyan government. He deployed warships near China’s man-made islands and began redeploying American forces to a frightened Eastern Europe. Reality, not ideology, overcame his principled reluctance to exerting American power.

The choice between global engagement and America First is bogus. As in the last century, our choice is whether to lead wisely, firmly and usually peacefully while we can, or to send men and women into harm’s way belatedly and bloodily when we must. Let us hope that the new president comes to understand that we need the “big stick” not “to make America great again,” but to keep a peace that is precious, fragile and worth protecting.
RTWT.

Monday, January 23, 2017

Donald Trump's Jacksonian Foreign Policy

Commenter S.D. (Bob) Plissken took issue with my entry last week on Tony Smith's America's Mission (and liberal internationalism):
Nope.

Let the other countries around the world find their own way to democracy. It's not our job. Our job is #MAGA. Straight up.
That's a common view. I've heard it a lot as a professor, usually from white working-class students, and sometimes ethnic minorities who want more spending on domestic social programs.

Well, at any rate, old S.D. (Bob) just might enjoy Walter Russell Mead's essay from inauguration day, at Foreign Affairs, "The Jacksonian Revolt: American Populism and the Liberal Order":

The distinctively American populism Trump espouses is rooted in the thought and culture of the country’s first populist president, Andrew Jackson. For Jacksonians—who formed the core of Trump’s passionately supportive base—the United States is not a political entity created and defined by a set of intellectual propositions rooted in the Enlightenment and oriented toward the fulfillment of a universal mission. Rather, it is the nation-state of the American people, and its chief business lies at home. Jacksonians see American exceptionalism not as a function of the universal appeal of American ideas, or even as a function of a unique American vocation to transform the world, but rather as rooted in the country’s singular commitment to the equality and dignity of individual American citizens. The role of the U.S. government, Jacksonians believe, is to fulfill the country’s destiny by looking after the physical security and economic well-being of the American people in their national home—and to do that while interfering as little as possible with the individual freedom that makes the country unique.

Jacksonian populism is only intermittently concerned with foreign policy, and indeed it is only intermittently engaged with politics more generally. It took a particular combination of forces and trends to mobilize it this election cycle, and most of those were domestically focused. In seeking to explain the Jacksonian surge, commentators have looked to factors such as wage stagnation, the loss of good jobs for unskilled workers, the hollowing out of civic life, a rise in drug use—conditions many associate with life in blighted inner cities that have spread across much of the country. But this is a partial and incomplete view. Identity and culture have historically played a major role in American politics, and 2016 was no exception. Jacksonian America felt itself to be under siege, with its values under attack and its future under threat. Trump—flawed as many Jacksonians themselves believed him to be—seemed the only candidate willing to help fight for its survival.

For Jacksonian America, certain events galvanize intense interest and political engagement, however brief. One of these is war; when an enemy attacks, Jacksonians spring to the country’s defense. The most powerful driver of Jacksonian political engagement in domestic politics, similarly, is the perception that Jacksonians are being attacked by internal enemies, such as an elite cabal or immigrants from different backgrounds. Jacksonians worry about the U.S. government being taken over by malevolent forces bent on transforming the United States’ essential character. They are not obsessed with corruption, seeing it as an ineradicable part of politics. But they care deeply about what they see as perversion—when politicians try to use the government to oppress the people rather than protect them. And that is what many Jacksonians came to feel was happening in recent years, with powerful forces in the American elite, including the political establishments of both major parties, in cahoots against them.

Many Jacksonians came to believe that the American establishment was no longer reliably patriotic, with “patriotism” defined as an instinctive loyalty to the well-being and values of Jacksonian America. And they were not wholly wrong, by their lights. Many Americans with cosmopolitan sympathies see their main ethical imperative as working for the betterment of humanity in general. Jacksonians locate their moral community closer to home, in fellow citizens who share a common national bond. If the cosmopolitans see Jacksonians as backward and chauvinistic, Jacksonians return the favor by seeing the cosmopolitan elite as near treasonous—people who think it is morally questionable to put their own country, and its citizens, first.

Jacksonian distrust of elite patriotism has been increased by the country’s selective embrace of identity politics in recent decades. The contemporary American scene is filled with civic, political, and academic movements celebrating various ethnic, racial, gender, and religious identities. Elites have gradually welcomed demands for cultural recognition by African Americans, Hispanics, women, the LGBTQ community, Native Americans, Muslim Americans. Yet the situation is more complex for most Jacksonians, who don’t see themselves as fitting neatly into any of those categories...
RTWT.

Record Rainfall Swamps Southern California (VIDEO)

At the Los Angeles Times, "Widespread flooding, mudslides, evacuations as biggest storm in years batters California":


The third in a series of powerful winter storms unleashed a deluge in Southern California on Sunday, flooding numerous roads and freeways, setting new rainfall records and stranding some in dangerously rising waters.

Forecasters had predicted this storm would be the strongest and several years, and it didn't disappoint. While earlier storms produced periods of heavy showers, this one delivered several hours of sustained pounding rain, with damaging results.

Coastal areas of Los Angeles County were among the hardest hit, with Long Beach Airport setting a new all-time rainfall record, 3.87 inches. The intense rain was too much for local roads. Sunday afternoon, both the 110 Freeway in Carson and the 710 Freeway in Long Beach were shutdown due to extreme flooding that left cars stranded like islands in a lake.

In Long Beach and surrounding communities, dozens of intersections were flooded and some residents reported their parked cars were damaged as the rainwater kept rising. Across the region, several people were rescued from their cars and thousands lost power.

Brett Albright, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s office in San Diego, said the storm dumped as much as four inches of rain in some places.

“Today was very intense,” said Albright. “It’s not a normal event. It was definitely a culmination of the perfect circumstances: We had a very intense atmospheric river with a lot of moisture and an area of lift in the atmosphere right over coastal Los Angeles and Orange counties. It forced all of that moisture out.”

“It’s not often we see higher rainfall totals on the coast than in the mountains,” he said.

Southern California has been mired by a 5-year-drought. But this storm is part of a larger shift toward wetter conditions that began last fall. Since October 1, downtown L.A. has received more than 13 inches of rain -- 216% of normal rainfall for this period, which the National Weather Service said was 6.26 inches.

Officials said much of the Southland remains in drought, although recent storms are helping...
Keep reading.

More here, "Storm slams Southern California: Expect more flooding and thunderstorms."

Heh, the Left's Swearing-In' Ceremony

From Ben Garrison:


Leftist Unity Pledge

Communists love the Trump administration.

It gives them a new lease on life. Shoot, leftists should've been cheering the results on November 8th.


Is it Okay to Punch a Nazi?

Well, it's okay if you're a leftists. It's totally cool.

Frankly, I imagine some conservatives or populists are fine with it as well. I hate to defend someone caught on video raising his hand in at "Heil Hitler' salute, but it is what it is. I wouldn't punch him (unless he punched me first.)

See Popehat, "On Punching Nazis."

And at the New York Times, "Attack on Alt-Right Leader Has Internet Asking: Is It O.K. to Punch a Nazi?"

Spencer gets punched at the video.


Sunday, January 22, 2017

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."

Branco Cartoons photo Relay-600-LI_zps9uefckzu.jpg

Also, at Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Roundup..."

Photo Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Short Fuse."

#WomensMarch Rule 5

I'm sure the leftist women's marchers will love some Sunday Rule 5.

At Pirate's Cove, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup," and "If All You See……is a wonderful green space that should be paved over for a solar farm, you might just be a Warmist."

Also, at 90 Miles from Tyranny, "Morning Mistress," and "Hot Pick of the Late Night."

More, at Odie's, "Know That Beaver ~OR~ Rule 5 Woodsterman Style."

At Knuckledraggin', "Your Good Morning Girl."

Goodsturr's, "GOODSTUFFs BLOGGING MAGAZINE (277th Issue) - Burlesque Queen Blaze Starr..."

Bro Bible, "Sexy Big Booty YouTuber Promises to Release Sextape Once She Gets One Million Subscribers," and "Pretty Sure That Kelly Brook’s Bikini Tops Here Are About Three Sizes Too Small for Her.

More, at Political Clown Parade, "Flowing Curves of Beauty."

Still more, at the Hostages, "BBF 2016 Championships."

Egotastic!, "Coco Loco Mamso on the Beach and Other Fine Things to Ogle."

At Drunken Stepfather, "STEPLINKS OF THE DAY," and "EMILY RATAJKOWSKI IN BED IN HER PANTIES OF THE DAY."

At WWTDD, "Sophie Marceau Goes Topless and Shit Around the Web."

And at the Other McCain, "Rule 5 Sunday: Siren (from last Sunday)."

PHOTO CREDIT: MSFW on Twitter.

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Been Offline

I've been offline all day, except for some tweets staring around 1:45pm.

I tweeted from the Crossroads Café earlier. Recall I blogged about it during Christmas break. The restaurant has the "Stronger Together" sign in the front window. It's definitely a safe space for triggered leftists, lol.

I do love the town's rustic feel, especially the Western ghost town storefronts. Is that kitsch Americana? Althouse would have things to say about that, I'm sure.

In any case, I don't care much about the Women's March, although I fully support the protesters' rights to march. Of course I don't love the anarchist black bloc riots, which in fact are intricately related the the Women's March, although MSM clusterfucks pretend there's a hermetically sealed difference between the movements. There's not. The only difference is honesty. At least black bloc leftists are out front about their tendencies. They'll "burn it down" with all eyes upon them. The women's marcher's would also like to burn it down, but if you confronted them with that fact they'd deny it, accusing you of being a PRISON PLANET PYSCHO!!

Plus, it was a fake news day. I mean, the debate was over crowd size and whether Press Spokesman Sean Spicer acknowledged greater attendance today than yesterday, or greater attendance to O's inauguration in '09 than yesterday? I've seen a few tweets to that effect, but Memeorandum has the controversy and it's stupid. (It's especially stupid that MSM hacks have turned whatever comments made into the TOTAL COLLAPSE OF THE REPUBLIC).

It's not just fake news at this point, it's shitty maudlin comedy. I dread following the news for these next few years. Purported experts and media professionals will race one another to the lowest common denominator of imbecility. Mark my words on that.

The biggest fact of reality that folks need to grasp is now Donald Trump's in power. The leftist Democrats are not. For two years that should be powerful rebuttal that anything stupid leftists attempt to snark. They get no Brownie points. Just remind them they're losers. They've been repudiated, and badly. Hundreds of thousand of pink pussy feminist cunts won't change at thing, despite idiot Ashley Judd's unhinged rantings.


Friday, January 20, 2017

'House of Cards' Season 5 Premieres May 30th, 2017

This is the weirdest thing, because my mom was streaming season 2 for a few episodes before dinner. She asked me if I still wanted to watch inauguration coverage on CNN and I said, "No, I'm good. I mostly wanted to see the parade..." So, she says she wanted to "watch her show," and the next thing you know I'm watching that über Machiavellian schemer Frank Underwood. (For those into the series, we just finished the episode where hottie Kate Mara's character gets thrown under the subway, literally.)

In any case, my mom went to bed so I thought I start watching at season 1, episode 1. I know what you're thinking: "Oh my gosh, you haven't watched it yet?!! My word, it's so good, blah, blah..." Well, the fact is, I try not to watch too many shows --- they take up too much time, time I should be spending reading books, which I see as a far more valuable recreational endeavor, considering I'm a professor and all that.

But what the fuck? My mom got me interested. So, I just finished the first episode of season 1, and right now I'm pausing for a few minute to get a refill of wine, take a leak, and check Twitter and the blog. And what do I find online? This teaser tweet from Netflix on the debut of season 5, due 5-30-17.

In any case, more at Variety, "'House of Cards' Season 5 Gets Premiere Date, Teaser."

The full teaser video's at the link.

I got to get back to bingeing. I'll have more blogging later, heh.


Unhinged Anti-Trump Protester Screams 'NO!' as Donald Trump Inaugurated as President (VIDEO)

Seriously, these people are nuts.

At Twitchy, "‘Can’t get enough’! WATCH: This anti-Trump protester’s meltdown is one for the ages."

National Park Service Retweets Far-Left-Wing Inauguration Posts on Twitter

Federal agencies are prohibited from partisan activities, particularly political support or agitation for one party or another (although rules on employee political contributions have been trimmed by court rulings).

So this looks improper, to say the least, via Hadas Gold:


WATCH: Inaugural Address of President Donald J. Trump (VIDEO)

At the Washington Post, via Memeorandum, "Donald Trump's inaugural address: Full text as prepared for delivery."

Leftist heads are exploding at this address. I love it!





Custom Trump-Mobile

That's pretty wicked, heh.


David Horowitz, Big Agenda

*BUMPED*

Horowitz's new book is in bookstores now.

And at Amazon, Big Agenda: President Trump’s Plan to Save America.

See also Truth Revolt, "Newsmax: Horowitz's 'Big Agenda' Reveals Trump's Coming D.C. 'Earthquake' - 'This book is a guide to fighting the opponents of the conservative restoration'."

The H2's Big Boob Friday Semi-Finals

These guys are the craziest.

Here, "BBF Semi-Finals V Redhead Edition."

Radical Leftists Sow Chaos Outside DeploraBall on Eve of Donald Trump's Inauguration

At the Washington Post, "Trump supporters, opponents clash outside ‘DeploraBall’ in downtown D.C.":


Anti-Trump protesters jeered and screamed at supporters of the president-elect outside the “DeploraBall” at the National Press Club on Thursday night, in one case throwing an object that struck a counterprotester in the head.

D.C. police closed the 1300 block of F Street NW to motor vehicles as hundreds of demonstrators filled the roadway. Some protesters raised their middle fingers and shouted obscenities and terms such as “racist” and Nazi” at those attending the celebratory ball on the eve of Trump’s inauguration.

A small group of protesters in hoods and black masks set a fire in the center of the street. Another fire was set in a trash can. A different group used a floodlight and stencil to project the phrases “Bragging about Grabbing a Woman’s Genitals” and “Impeach the Predatory President” onto the side of the Press Club building. Others inflated a 15-foot-tall white elephant with a banner attached that said “racism.”

Officers directed chemical spray at the crowd multiple times, starting around 9 p.m., after protesters began throwing trash at Trump supporters who were leaving the building. During an earlier clash, a man was struck in the back of the head by a thrown object.

About a half-dozen D.C. police officers surrounded him and escorted him behind police lines...
RTWT.

New Regime

A great post, yesterday, from Mark Steyn:


Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East

*BUMPED.*

Okay, I'm well into Alexander Hill's, The Red Army and the Second World War. (I'll have more on it later.)

And from the footnotes, some excellent books on the World War II era.

See, for example, Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War 1941-1945.

#Inauguration Day

The photo's from November 9th at the West Wing.

For some reason, it's just now going viral. But my god, look at those smug sum-bitchs, lol.

Click on the tweet to see the hilarious responses. I swear if Donald Trump's even a one-term president the schadenfreude's going to last a lifetime.


'Don of a New Day'

An unusual symmetry among the New York tabloids.

It's going to be a great day, like a national holiday.


Thursday, January 19, 2017

Ivanka Trump Arrives in Washington

What a day.

I don't think I can stay up all night, heh.

I'm at my mom's house. She's going to wake me up just in case. Festivities begin early for those of us on the West Coast.


Democrats in the Wilderness

Big Fur Hat is pleased as punch with this piece, at Politco, "Inside a decimated party’s not-so-certain revival strategy":

Standing with some 30,000 people in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia the night before the election watching Hillary Clinton speak, exhausted aides were already worrying about what would come next. They expected her to win, of course, but they knew President Clinton was going to get thrashed in the 2018 midterms—the races were tilted in Republicans’ favor, and that’s when they thought the backlash would really hit. Many assumed she’d be a one-term president. They figured she’d get a primary challenge. Some of them had already started gaming out names for who it would be.

“Last night I stood at your doorstep / Trying to figure out what went wrong,” Bruce Springsteen sang quietly to the crowd in what he called “a prayer for post-election.” “It’s gonna be a long walk home.”

What happened the next night shocked even the most pessimistic Democrats. But in another sense, it was the reckoning the party had been expecting for years. They were counting on a Clinton win to paper over a deeper rot they’ve been worrying about—and to buy them some time to start coming up with answers. In other words, it wasn’t just Donald Trump. Or the Russians. Or James Comey. Or all the problems with how Clinton and her aides ran the campaign. Win or lose, Democrats were facing an existential crisis in the years ahead—the result of years of complacency, ignoring the withering of the grass roots and the state parties, sitting by as Republicans racked up local win after local win.

“The patient,” says Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, “was clearly already sick.”

As Trump takes over the GOP and starts remaking its new identity as a nationalist, populist party, creating a new political pole in American politics for the first time in generations, all eyes are on the Democrats.

How will they confront a suddenly awakened, and galvanized, white majority? What’s to stop Trump from doing whatever he wants? Who’s going to pull a coherent new vision together? Worried liberals are watching with trepidation, fearful that Trump is just the beginning of worse to come, desperate for a comeback strategy that can work.

What’s clear from interviews with several dozen top Democratic politicians and operatives at all levels, however, is that there is no comeback strategy—just a collection of half-formed ideas, all of them challenged by reality. And for whatever scheme they come up with, Democrats don’t even have a flag-carrier. Barack Obama? He doesn’t want the job. Hillary Clinton? Too damaged. Bernie Sanders? Too socialist. Joe Biden? Too tied to Obama. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer? Too Washington. Elizabeth Warren? Maybe. And all of them old, old, old.

The Democrats’ desolation is staggering. But part of the problem is that it’s easy to point to signs that maybe things aren’t so bad. After all, Clinton did beat Trump by 2.8 million votes, Obama’s approval rating is nearly 60 percent, polls show Democrats way ahead of the GOP on many issues and demographics suggest that gap will only grow. But they are stuck in the minority in Congress with no end in sight, have only 16 governors left and face 32 state legislatures fully under GOP control. Their top leaders in the House are all over 70. Their top leaders in the Senate are all over 60. Under Obama, Democrats have lost 1,034 seats at the state and federal level—there’s no bench, no bench for a bench, virtually no one able to speak for the party as a whole.

“The fact that our job should be easier just shows how poorly we’re doing the job,” says Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton, an Iraq War veteran seen as one of the party’s rising stars.There are now fewer than 700 days until Election Day 2018, as internal memos circulating among Democratic strategists point out with alarm. They differ in their prescriptions, but all boil down to the same inconvenient truth: If Republicans dominate the 2018 midterms, they will control the Senate (and with it, the Supreme Court) for years, and they will draw district lines in states that will lock in majorities in the House and across state capitals, killing the next generation of Democrats in the crib, setting up the GOP for an even more dominant 2020 and beyond.

Most doubt Democrats have the stamina or the stomach for the kind of cohesive resistance that Republicans perfected over the years. In their guts, they want to say yes to government doing things, and they’re already getting drawn in by promises to work with Trump and the Republican majorities. They’re heading into the next elections with their brains scrambled by Trump’s win, side-eyeing one another over who’s going to sell out the rest, nervous the incoming president will keep outmaneuvering them in the media and throw up more targets than they could ever hope to shoot at—and all of this from an election that was supposed to cement their claim on the future.

Some thinking has started to take shape. Obama is quickly reformatting his post-presidency to have a more political bent than he had planned. Vice President Joe Biden is beginning to structure his own thoughts on mentoring and guiding rising Democrats. (No one seems to be waiting to hear from Clinton.) At the law office of former Attorney General Eric Holder, which is serving as the base for the redistricting reform project he is heading for Obama, they’re getting swarmed with interest and checks. At the Democratic Governors Association, all of a sudden looking like the headquarters of the resistance, they’re sorting through a spike in interested candidates. And everyone from Obama on down is talking about going local, focusing on the kinds of small races and party-building activities Republicans have been dominating for cycle after cycle.

But all that took decades, and Democrats have no time. What are they going to do next? There hasn’t been an American political party in worse shape in living memory. And there may never have been a party less ready to confront it.

“We’re at a space shuttle moment,” says Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, who is widely expected to run statewide soon in Georgia.

“The most vulnerable time for the space shuttle is when it re-enters the environment, so that when it comes back into the environment it doesn’t blow up. The tiles need to be tight. I’m concerned about the tightness of the tiles on the space shuttle right now. We have to get through this heat.”
Still more.

Blake Lively at the People's Choice Awards

At London's Daily Mail, "Blake Lively shows off her incredible post baby body at the #PCAs."

She's fabulous.

Leftists Call for Donald Trump's Assassination on Twitter

This lady's already been reported to law enforcement, and I guess she's wearing her threats (which won't be prosecuted) as a badge of honor.

As of this entry goes live, she's been retweeted 200 times:


PREVIOUSLY: "Assassinating Trump Could Keep Obama in Power (VIDEO)."

ADDED: Scrolling through this woman's feed, she's wished death on Donald Trump before: "I hope he chokes on his chicken."

UPDATE: As you can see, the woman deleted that tweet, but the internet is forever:


Assassinating Trump Could Keep Obama in Power (VIDEO)

I don't like all this talk, and no, "assassinating Trump" wouldn't keep Obama in power. Mike Pence would become president if something happened to him, but why the speculation anyway? It makes me sick.

At Breitbart, "CNN: Assassinating Trump Could Keep Obama Administration in Power."

I seriously don't think we need news reports about designated survivors at this moment. Jeez.




'Trump Is an American Hitler'

He's not, but these "refuse fascism" cadres are dead set on the idea.

I am literally praying my ass off tonight. I've been fearing something untoward happening tomorrow.

I watched the inaugural concert moments ago, and President-Elect Trump and his family were behind bullet proof glass. But then he got up to speak to the crowd! I'm like, he's out in the open! He's vulnerable!

I imagine there's more security in D.C. right now than there's even been in American history, even more on hand than there was for all of Barack Hussein's festivities. Will Trump get out of the presidential limo tomorrow and walk down Pennsylvania Avenue?

I imagine he will. I guess I just need to have confidence that the security is rock solid.

I blogged about the "Refuse Fascism" group earlier. Robert Stacy McCain posts a clear incitation to violence, which I can't see how that's protected speech, but whatever: "Come to D.C. Take to the streets. Do not leave with fascists in office."


The Democrats Love the Dregs of Humanity, and the Dregs of Humanity Love the Dems!

Heh.

It feels like the mother of all holidays today.

Tomorrow's the day we've all been waiting for since Barack Hussein was sworn in, and it can't come a second too soon!

Alas, the dregs of humanity will always be with us, and these particular dregs aren't the ones the Son of Man had in mind.

At the Other McCain, "The Worst People in America: Commie #DisruptJ20 Protests Led by Perverts":

Democrats attract support from The Worst People in America — selfish and dishonest people, criminals and perverts — and not by coincidence. The Democrat Party’s policy agenda and rhetoric are deliberately designed to appeal to the worst impulses of the vile dregs of humanity...
Keep reading.

Lots of information there, including this tidbit: "There are reports that ex-Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta has been photographed meeting with #DisruptJ20, but for some reason the liberal media doesn’t want to pursue the story and connect the dots."

The link goes to a now-deleted Twitter page, which only heightens my interest on this, heh. Ima search around for a while to see if I can find more on that. Indeed, Democrats absolutely love the dregs of humanity!

Transfer of Twitter Presidential Accounts

Following-up from yesterday, "Donald Trump Establishes Twitter as Means of Communication for Future Presidents (VIDEO)."

From Hadas Gold, at Politico:


Tony Smith, America's Mission

Democracy promotion has been our bipartisan foreign policy objective going back to the Wilson administration, according to Tony Smith, in his classic work on U.S. foreign policy history, America's Mission: The United States and the Worldwide Struggle for Democracy.

Frankly, for all of Donald Trump's bluster, I don't expect the U.S. to deviate much from its historic world role, even on democracy promotion.

It'd be great to get our NATO and East Asian allies to pay more of their fare share, but that's not the same as throwing them under the bus, as butt-hurt leftists would have you believe.

More later.

Nikita Coulombe, 'Why Feminism Wants to Dismantle the Family'

Here's Ms. Nikita, at Medium, "Like many isms before it (Communism, religions, cults), feminism seeks to dismantle the traditional family unit for its own gain. Why? To the ism, old loyalties are like bad habits interfering with an individual’s ability to pledge unwavering allegiance. Isms want control, but families tend to put family members and their needs before the demands of the ism, reducing the ism’s power and influence and therefore undermining its control."


Hey Lefitsts, a Little Something for Your Butt-Hurt?

Heh.

Seen on Twitter.


Eliot A. Cohen, The Big Stick

*BUMPED.*

This looks outstanding!

See, Eliot A. Cohen, at Amazon, The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force.

Jackie Johnson's Flood Warning Forecast

The burn areas have flash-flood warnings, but otherwise it doesn't look too bad for my morning travel.

I'm heading out to my mom's later this A.M.

Here's Ms. Jackie:



Obama's Final Press Conference

Well, of course I didn't watch.

I've seen years-worth of corrupt media flacks hailing the great leader.

At NYT, "Obama Vows to Speak Out on ‘Core Values’."


Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Vladimir Putin: Donald Trump's Leftist Attackers 'Worse Than Prostitutes' (VIDEO)

Well, that's for sure.

I don't normally endorse Old Vladdy, but I think he nailed it this time.

At USA Today, Telegraph U.K., and humorous Jeannie Moos CNN video below:




New Kendall Jenner Bikini Photo on Instagram

She posted it here.

Flaunt it while you got it, I always say.

At London's Daily Mail below.

(Hat Tip: WWTDD, "Kendall Jenner Bikinis Because It's What She Does and Shit Around the Web.")


Donald Trump Establishes Twitter as Means of Communication for Future Presidents (VIDEO)

Donald Trump will continue to use his personal Twitter feed after taking office.

See Lifezette, "Trump Will Keep Using His Personal Twitter Account."

Now, the ladies on this morning's "Outnumbered" argued that Trump has (concomitantly) changed expectations for presidential communications in future administrations. Of course, this remains to be seen, especially since it's not clear that Twitter boasts a sustainable business model. Maybe'll the platform'll go out of business before too long.

We'll see, but those arguing that Trump should get off Twitter and "grow up" haven't grasped the fundamental transformation of politics in 2016 (into 2017 and beyond). Trump broke the normative expectations for how to win in modern politics. He not only goes over the heads of traditional media outlets (dead-tree dinosaurs), but he fights back when attacked, or when he's appalled at the terribly biased coverage. Leftists can't stand it. They still haven't grasped how badly they screwed up (and how badly they underestimated Trump's uncanny ability to tap into popular anxieties).

In any case, via Fox News, "How Trump Has Changed Twitter for Future Presidents."


Dinosaur Media Used to Roam the Earth

Heh.

It's Ben Garrison:


Lily Aldridge Intimates Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2017 (VIDEO)

The new issue should be out shortly.

Here's the fabulous Ms. Lily.

It's not too often she goes topless.


Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism

Robert Stacy McCain is constantly citing and linking this book, first published in 1979, when I was a senior in high school.

It's still in print, apparently.

I have an old pulp-paperback copy, but get yours at Amazon.

Here, Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations.

Is Lindsay Lohan Muslim?

I don't think she is, but there's lots of speculation.

See, the Telegraph, Robert Spencer, and Robert Stacy McCain:


Lindsay Lohan is a drug-addled celebrity dimwit from a broken home who was pushed into show business as a child. Like so many other former child stars produced by the Disney movie/cable-TV fame factory — including Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus — Lohan’s young adulthood seemed to be a constant trainwreck of public shame, played out in tabloid headlines.

Lots of teenagers who aren’t rich, famous and beautiful struggle with similar problems — drugs, alcohol, sexual promiscuity, mental illness — but we never read headlines about those troubled youth unless and until they commit some horrible crime. Ordinary adolescent trauma cases don’t fascinate us the way the Troubled Starlet does, because the celebrity trainwreck is so ostentatiously blessed with everything our popular culture values — youth, wealth, beauty and fame.

Here was Lindsay Lohan, who had captured America’s hearts as a wholesome freckle-faced girl in Disney’s 1998 remake of The Parent Trap and who, at age 18, became one of the most promising young actresses in Hollywood when she starred in the hit comedy Mean Girls. She had everything in the world going for her, it seemed, but by the time she was 21, her career and personal life were in disarray. She broke up with her boyfriend, That ’70s Show star Wilmer Valderrama, her movies flopped, and her substance-abuse problems escalated to the point that directors were no longer willing to work with her. Eventually, as it became obvious that she would probably never work again as an actress, the tabloids lost interest in Lindsay Lohan, and her brief stint in a “reality TV” show on Oprah’s network fizzled out in 2014, inspiring me to comment:
It’s wrong to say that Lindsay Lohan ever had a drug and alcohol problem. No, Lindsay Lohan had a Lindsay Lohan problem.
RTWT.

How Donald Trump Came Up with 'Make America Great Again'

From Karen Tumulty, at WaPo:

“Make America Great Again.”

The four words that would help propel Donald Trump to the White House were an inspiration born years before, when hardly anyone but Trump himself could imagine him taking the oath of office as the 45th president of the United States.

It happened on Nov. 7, 2012, the day after Mitt Romney lost what had been presumed to be a winnable race against President Obama. Republicans were spiraling into an identity crisis, one that had some wondering whether a GOP president would ever sit in the Oval Office again.

But on the 26th floor of a golden Manhattan tower that bears his name, Trump was coming to the conclusion that his own moment was at hand.

And in typical fashion, the first thing he thought about was how to brand it.

One after another, phrases popped into his head. “We Will Make America Great.” That one did not have the right ring. Then, “Make America Great.” But that sounded like a slight to the country.

And then, it hit him: “Make America Great Again.”

“I said, ‘That is so good.’ I wrote it down,” Trump recalled in an interview. “I went to my lawyers. I have a lot of lawyers in-house. We have many lawyers. I have got guys that handle this stuff. I said, ‘See if you can have this registered and trademarked.’ ”

Five days later, Trump signed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, in which he asked for exclusive rights to use “Make America Great Again” for “political action committee services, namely, promoting public awareness of political issues and fundraising in the field of politics.” He enclosed a $325 registration fee.

His was a vision that ran against the conventional wisdom of the time — in fact, it was “much the opposite,” Trump said.

“I felt that jobs were hurting,” he said. “I looked at the many types of illness our country had, and whether it’s at the border, whether it’s security, whether it’s law and order or lack of law and order. Then, of course, you get to trade, and I said to myself, ‘What would be good?’ I was sitting at my desk, where I am right now, and I said, ‘Make America Great Again.’ ”

Democrats slammed it.
To save itself, the Republican establishment was convinced, the GOP would have to sand off its edges, become kinder and more inclusive. “Make America Great Again” was divisive and backward-looking. It made no nod to diversity or civility or progress.

It sounded like a death wish.

But Trump had seen something different in the country, and in the daily lives of its struggling citizens...
Of course. Democrats "slam" everything. They're so hateful.

But keep reading.

Laura Ingraham Reacts to Leftist Tantrums Over Trump's Inauguration, Bradley Manning's Commutation (VIDEO)

From Hannity last night:



Flailing Democrats, Still Stunned, Unprepared for the Trump Era

A good piece, from Michelle Cottle, at the Atlantic:


British Prime Minister Theresa May Sets Hard Course for Brexit (VIDEO)

Hey, looks like an excellent plan.

At London's Daily Mail, the Telegraph U.K., and video from Sky News:




Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Jackie Johnson's Heavy Rain Forecast

It's supposed to rain hard on Thursday, although I hope not too hard: I'm heading out to visit my mom in Yucca Valley for the weekend, to watch all the inaugural events, and so forth.

We'll see how the weather's looking Thursday morning, and I'll figure out what time I can get on the road.

Expect updates.

Here's the lovely Ms. Jackie:


Charles Krauthammer on President Obama's Commutation for Bradley Manning (VIDEO)

A great segment.

Dr. K. just nails it.

From this afternoon, with Martha MacCallum:


Protester Sets Himself on Fire Outside Donald Trump Hotel in Washington D.C.

At ABC 7 News - WJLA Washington, and from local witness Michael Shoag


More at Gateway Pundit:


Five Hours to Have the White House Ready for the Incoming President and His Family

The transition team is so meticulous they don't want the current occupant of the White House (Obama) to feel as though he's getting dumped out on the street for the incoming president (Trump).

It's pretty amazing. The best moving company in the world, or something, heh.

At NYT:


D.C. Hairstylist Tells Marla Maples to Shove Off

Ms. Maples wanted free hare-care services (for herself and Tiffany, apparently) in exchange for mentions on Ms. Maples's social media feeds, and what not.

The hairstylist works for money and told her to shove it, heh.

At WaPo:


Holly Sonders

She's nice.

At Egotastic!, "Holly Sonders Golf Hottie of the Year, Again."

And at the Heavy, "Holly Sonders: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know."


Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah al-Ansi, Bodyguard to Osama bin-Laden, Sprung in Obama's Latest Guantánamo Release

I'm shaking my head.

Seriously.

From Thomas Jocelyn, on Twitter:


Obama Commutes Sentence of Puerto Rican Terrorist Oscar López Rivera

I had to look this guy up, at Wikipedia:
Oscar López Rivera (born January 6, 1943) is a Puerto Rican nationalist and one of the leaders of the FALN. In 1981, López Rivera was convicted and sentenced to 55 years in federal prison for seditious conspiracy, use of force to commit robbery, interstate transportation of firearms, and conspiracy to transport explosives with intent to destroy government property. In 1988 he was sentenced to an additional 15 years in prison for conspiring to escape from the Leavenworth federal prison. Lopez solicited unincarcerated supporters to obtain weapons, grenades, and C-4 explosives for use in breaking him and fellow inmates – to whom Lopez had boasted about his leadership role in the FALN – out of prison. President Obama commuted Oscar Lopez Rivera's sentence on January 17, 2017. At the time he was the longest-incracerated member of the FALN.

López Rivera was among the 14 convicted FALN members offered conditional clemency by U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1999, but rejected the offer. His sister, Zenaida López, said he refused the offer because on parole, he would be in "prison outside prison. Resident Commissioner, Pedro Pierluisi, has stated that "the primary reason that López Rivera did not accept the clemency offer extended to him in 1999 was because it had not also been extended to fellow FALN prisoner Carlos Torres and Cordero Nananin." According to New York Times writer John Broder, López Rivera "refused to accept the President's offer to commute their sentences. Mr. Clinton demanded as one of the conditions of their release that the jailed Puerto Ricans renounce the use of terrorism to achieve their aim of independence for the Caribbean commonwealth." Torres and Nananin were subsequently released from prison in July 2010...
And further:
At the time of their arrest, López Rivera and the others declared themselves to be combatants in an anti-colonial war against the United States to liberate Puerto Rico from U.S. domination and invoked prisoner of war status. They stated that U.S. courts did not have jurisdiction to treat them as criminals, and petitioned for their cases to be handed over to an international court that would determine their status. The U.S. Government, however, did not recognize their request...
Well, you can see why the dude's getting sprung. Obama loves terrorists, especially left-wing revolutionary terrorists. O probably idolized this guy. López Rivera has never expressed remorse for his "anti-colonial war against the United States." His terrorist group, the FALN (Armed Forces of National Liberation) was closely allied the Fidel Castro and the Cuban Communist regime. Indeed, Charles Krauthammer suggested on Fox News just now that the release of López Rivera may have been part of a quid pro quo in the Cuban normalization deal. This is a presidential administration that normalizes terrorism.

Thank God we have less than three days until this hated regime, this reviled Obama regime, is driven from office.

Also at the Guardian U.K., FWIW, "Obama commutes sentence for political prisoner Oscar López Rivera: López Rivera, whose commutation was announced with 208 others, has been incarcerated for 35 years for his role in fighting for Puerto Rico’s independence."

Obama Commutes Bradley Manning's Sentence

Well, supposedly it's "Chelsea Manning," but he's a she now, if you're all into the transgender identity thing (and I'm not).

Perhaps because Bradley came out as as woman and attempted suicide while in prison explains the commutation. O's always an advocate for the "oppressed."

This news is breaking.

I saw it first on Mark Knoller's feed:

And Althouse's shock at the president's decision, as well as all the comments there, "Obama frees Chelsea Manning!"

And at the New York Times, via Memeorandum "Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning's Sentence."

Expect updates.

National Teach-In Movement Called 'Teach, Organize, Resist'

This is literally criminal.

In California, the education code prohibits partisan indoctrination in public college instruction. These activities, starting at UCLA, are illegal.

At Campus Reform, "Profs pledge to 'use regular class time' to protest Trump":

A national “teach-in” movement is asking professors to set aside class time between Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the presidential inauguration to “protest” oppression and challenge “Trumpism.”

The movement, known as “Teach, Organize, Resist,” is set to kick-off on January 18, strategically “poised between Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the presidential inauguration” as an explicit means of “challenging Trumpism.”


Academics Plan 'Read In' of Michel Foucault to Protest Inauguration of Donald Trump

These people are insane.

But they're leftists, so you knew that.

At the Other McCain, "Academics Protest Trump With Public Reading of French Homosexual’s Book":
Foucault was a gay French philosopher who died of AIDS in 1984. His postmodern (or poststructural) philosophy was typical of the French Left in the decadent political and intellectual aftermath of World War II. The Communist Party was so powerful in France that, when the Kremlin wished to signal a change in the party line in 1945, the chosen messenger was Jacques Duclos, the Stalinist leader of the French Communist Party. It was the infamous “Duclos letter” that spelled the doom of CPUSA Chairman Earl Browder (who had sought to maintain the old Popular Front line) and ushered in the anti-American stance of Cold War Communism. The extraordinary influence of Communism in post-WWII France helps to explain why French intellectuals like Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir were so consistently anti-American, a tradition to which Foucault was an heir, and which made him a darling of American academics, whose hatred of America is their intellectual raison d’etre...
Robert Stacy McCain should have a second career as a professor of political philosophy, heh.

Still more.


Syria Spotlights Impotence of the United Nations

This is great.

At Der Spiegel, "War and Peace: Disunity and Impotence at the United Nations":
The mandate of the United Nations is to preserve peace in the world, but when it comes to the Syrian crisis, the global body has failed badly. Will the UN's new secretary-general be able to finally introduce necessary reforms?

The UN was not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell.
- Dag Hammarskjöld, UN secretary-general, during a May 1954 speech.

The man who, by simply raising his hand, prevented all efforts to end the war in Syria is sitting in a bunker-like room on 67th Street in Manhattan. Chandeliers are hanging above his head, a pendulum clock is keeping the time behind him and the furniture recalls Soviet-era filmography. "We have had this problem with Syria, of course, and ...… I (have) thought a lot about it," says Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations. An ironic expression on his face, the white-haired diplomat leans back in his leather chair.

Churkin is one of the men charged with saving the world. As absurd as it might sound, that is his job. The 15 members of the UN Security Council, in particular the five permanent members -- China, France, Great Britain, Russia and the United States -- bear "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security," according to Article 24 of the Charter of the United Nations.

It is a heroic task, an idealistic notion that was born out of the ruins of World War II: The peoples of the Earth joining together to protect the only planet we have. Uniting their strength, the world's countries hoped to create a better world, a place where all people can live in dignity. And the prerequisite for doing so is peace.

In 2001, the United Nations and its then-secretary-general, Kofi Annan, received the Nobel Peace Prize "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world." It is also thanks to the UN that nuclear war has thus far been prevented, that war criminals from former Yugoslavia were forced to stand trial and that we now have a Paris Climate Agreement, which is aimed at preventing the destruction of the world.

But what has been happening in Syria for the last five years is the opposite of peace: a proxy world war being fought on Syrian territory. It has called everything into question for which the UN stands. The images and the calls for help that innocent men, women and children have been sending out to the world via Facebook and Twitter are unbearable. And yet the world stands by, watching as though it were all merely part of a particularly long horror movie...
More.

Heh: 'Conservative Black Chick' Asks Rep John Lewis 'What Have You Done Since Selma?'

I love it.

At Instapundit, "A SPLINTERING COALITION? ‘Conservative Black Chick’ Asks Rep John Lewis ‘What Have You Done Since Selma?’"

The fact is, Lewis is a minor figure in the civil rights movement. I'm sorry he was beaten, but he's just been one sad cranky, corrupt and angry man, for so many years. I can't even listen him.

Mom and Daughter Terrorized by Turkey (VIDEO)

Don't run.

Those turkeys will chase you down like a mofo, lol.

At CBS News 2 New York:

Michelle Malkin: Hollywood Snowflakes Boycotting Trump Inauguration (VIDEO)

It's great to see Michelle back on Fox News.

On Hannity last night:



Yeah, Hmm...

Via Allahpundit, "Hmmm: FBI arrests Orlando terrorist’s wife in San Francisco..."

Yeah, that sanctuary city is for more than just illegal immigrants.

Also at the New York Times, via Memeorandum, "F.B.I. Arrests Wife of Killer in Orlando Mass Shooting."

Ruth Malhotra Pens Open Letter to Rep. John Lewis (VIDEO)

From yesterday's Fox & Friends:




And here's the letter, "Dear @repjohnlewis, I humbly request you not to boycott @realDonaldTrump's Inauguration..."

Monday, January 16, 2017

Kenneth N. Waltz, Theory of International Politics

The classic neorealist text on international relations, still in print.

At Amazon, Kenneth N. Waltz, Theory of International Politics.

A Sense of Uncertainty Grips the World

Such drama.

It's just a new administration. We had an election.

You'd think the world was coming to an end, or something.

At the New York Times, "As Trump Era Arrives, a Sense of Uncertainty Grips the World":

LONDON — The Germans are angry. The Chinese are downright furious. Leaders of NATO are nervous, while their counterparts at the European Union are alarmed.

Just days before he is sworn into office, President-elect Donald J. Trump has again focused his penchant for unpredictable disruption on the rest of the world. His remarks in a string of discursive and sometimes contradictory interviews have escalated tensions with China while also infuriating allies and institutions critical to America’s traditional leadership of the West.

No one knows where exactly he is headed — except that the one country he is not criticizing is Russia and its president, Vladimir V. Putin. For now. And that he is an enthusiastic cheerleader of Brexit and an unaffiliated Britain. For now.

Mr. Trump’s unpredictability is perhaps his most predictable characteristic. The world is accustomed to his provocative Twitter messages, but is less clear about whether his remarks represent meaningful new policy guidelines, personal judgments or passing whims. In the interviews, Mr. Trump described the European Union as “basically a vehicle for Germany” and predicted that the bloc would probably see other countries follow Britain’s example and vote to leave.

Mr. Trump also said Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, had made a “catastrophic mistake” in allowing refugees to pour into Europe.

The barrage of inflammatory comments in joint interviews published Sunday and Monday in Britain and Germany elicited alarm and outrage in Europe, even as Ms. Merkel dryly characterized Mr. Trump’s positions as nothing new.

“They have been known for a while — my positions are also known,” Ms. Merkel said Monday in Berlin. “I think we Europeans have control of our destiny.”

Her clipped response came as officials and analysts struggled with how to interpret Mr. Trump’s remarks, as well as how to react to them.

Some argued that the president-elect’s words should be regarded as tactical, intended merely to keep his options open. But nearly everyone agreed that Mr. Trump had made trouble, especially in criticizing Ms. Merkel, given her importance as a figure of stability in Europe and her campaign for re-election later this year.

For good measure, Mr. Trump had also infuriated China by using an interview on Friday with The Wall Street Journal to again question China’s longstanding One China policy. It holds that Taiwan is an inalienable part of the mainland...
So, everybody wants Trump to play by the international system's Marquess of Queensberry Rules.

It ain't happening.

More.

Also, "As Inauguration Nears, Trump Keeps World Leaders on Edge."

Jackie Johnson's Cloudy Skies Forecast

It was perfect weather today.

I went skateboarding, heh.

Here's Ms. Jackie, back in black!