Lakers Draft Lonzo Ball (VIDEO)

At the Los Angeles Times, "Lakers take ex-UCLA point guard Lonzo Ball with No. 2 pick in draft," and "Lonzo Ball is introduced as a Laker with the highest of expectations."

Also, "A look behind the scenes as the Lakers prepared to draft Lonzo Ball."

And, from Bill Plaschke, "Don't bet against Magic Johnson turning the Lakers around":

Four months ago he walked into a conference room at Lakers headquarters, plopped down at the front of a table occupied by several media members, and emptied his emotional pockets.

“I’m putting it all on the line. . . . I’m a risk taker. . . . If I didn’t think we could turn this around, you think I’d be sitting in this room?” Magic Johnson said on that February day after being named the team’s president of basketball operations.

He sounded like an excitable rookie. He had no proof beyond his charisma. He raised as many eyebrows as expectations. Surely this aging former star didn’t think he could rebuild a basketball team in the same daring, audacious way he once led it on the court, did he?

Well, turns out, he did. And the only thing crazier is, he’s doing it.

Four months later, at the end of a wild week that felt like a franchise rebirth, Magic Johnson met again with a few reporters, and again he was filled with the same bravado, only this time it was backed with new point guard Lonzo Ball, enough salary cap space to add two superstars next summer, and a renewed energy that has the town buzzing about the Lakers again.

“Look at my face, do you see that smile, do you see it?” he said Friday afternoon, lighting up his questioners with his giant trademark grin. “OK then! I’ve always bet on myself, right?”

He shook his head and added solemnly, “The tide has turned.”

So far, it has. And despite early skepticism, he’s turned it...

This reminds me of a few high school dances. pic.twitter.com/ASkbJFITUD

— Lindsey Thiry (@LindseyThiry) June 24, 2017

America First Policies PAC: 'Shaken' (VIDEO)

Following-up from previously, "Senator Dean Heller, Republican of Nevada, Target of America First Policies PAC."

The group's not out with its attack on Senator Heller yet, although I like this one below.

At at A.P, from January, "Trump advisers start ‘America First Policies’ nonprofit":

WASHINGTON (AP) — Six of President Donald Trump’s top campaign aides have banded together to start a nonprofit called “America First Policies” to back the White House agenda.

The group includes Trump’s digital and data director Brad Parscale, onetime deputy campaign manager Rick Gates and two campaign advisers to Vice President Mike Pence, Nick Ayers and Marty Obst.

David Bossie, another Trump deputy campaign manager, and Katrina Pierson, a senior adviser on the campaign communications team, also will be involved, according to a statement announcing the group.

“Some of the same like-minded individuals who put their energy into getting Mr. Trump elected are now going to be part of a grassroots group to go out there and help with the agenda, help the White House be successful,” Parscale said....

*****

America First Policies will conduct research into public policies and promote Trump’s favored causes, such as dismantling and replacing President Barack Obama’s health care law and changing immigration policies.

One of its first tasks is likely to be advocacy for Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, whom the president said he would announce Tuesday night. The group doesn’t have yet have a public website, but its founders said to expect digital and television advertising around issues.

“This goes beyond Trump supporters,” Gates said. “We’re trying to capture all people who believe in the Trump agenda.”

Obama also started a nonprofit group, called Organizing for Action, to back his policies. Some Democrats say that group undercut the Democratic Party by siphoning away donors and keeping separate Obama’s contact list for millions of his supporters.

Many of the details of the new Trump-themed initiative have yet to be finalized.

Senator Dean Heller, Republican of Nevada, Target of America First Policies PAC

I don't even know this Dean Heller dude. He was the junior senator from Nevada, until Harry Reid retired. Now he's up for reelection in 2018, and extremely vulnerable. A Republican, he's afraid to vote for ObamaCare repeal, as apparently the state's poor have been helped by the law.

Of course, the new Senate-bill is expected to improve healthcare outcomes for lower-income Americans, helping more people afford insurance and get off the decrepit government Medicaid dole. But all the Democrats can do is scream, "PEOPLE WILL FUCKING DIE!"

In any case, at NYT, "Health Law Repeal Leaves Nevada Republican Torn Between Lawmakers" (via Memeorandum):

AMERICA FIRST POLICIES, the pro-Trump/Pence outside group that Pence has been raising for, is preparing a seven-figure ad buy against HELLER

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 23, 2017

WASHINGTON — Senator Dean Heller, Republican of Nevada, is the man everyone wants. This has not been a good thing for him.

Brian Sandoval, the governor of Mr. Heller’s home state, is a Republican, but he is counting on Mr. Heller to provide what could be a crucial vote to maintain President Barack Obama’s health care law, which has been a boon for the working poor in Nevada. Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader who this week will be rounding up votes to fulfill his party’s biggest promise of the last decade — repealing the Affordable Care Act — is trying to prevent Mr. Heller from undermining that goal.

Democrats also want Mr. Heller, but in the form of an unemployed senator. As the only Republican who is up for re-election next year in a state that Hillary Clinton won, he may be their only shot at picking up a seat. Democrats and health care interest groups have been unloading on Mr. Heller all spring with no end in sight.

Far-right Republicans in his state — who strongly support President Trump — also have their eyes on Mr. Heller to see if he will abandon the president. Already a group that Vice President Mike Pence has supported is preparing a seven-figure ad campaign against the senator.

On Saturday afternoon, Mr. Trump posted on Twitter, venting about Mr. Heller and other Republicans who are not supporting the Senate bill.

On Friday, Mr. Sandoval acknowledged the obvious. “He’s in the eye of the storm here,” Mr. Sandoval said at a news conference in Nevada as Mr. Heller stood next to him, looking vaguely miserable as Mr. Sandoval announced his opposition to the Senate bill. The legislation could affect 210,000 Nevada residents insured through the health care law’s expansion of Medicaid.

On Friday Mr. Heller said that he, too, was against the bill as it is currently drafted, leaving himself just enough wiggle room to continue his longstanding practice of being the senator in the middle, the man who wants to see the Medicaid program phased out, except when he decides he doesn’t. (Mr. Heller has taken both positions publicly.) He has also voted to take away money from Planned Parenthood, but tells some select audiences that “I have no problems with federal funding for Planned Parenthood.”

Mr. Heller, whose spokeswoman said he was not available for an interview, said at the news conference Friday that “this bill that’s currently in front of the United States Senate is not the answer — it’s simply not the answer.” He said, “It’s going to be very difficult to get me to a yes.”

More.

Daniel Bell, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Daniel Bell, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting.

Piotr Stefan Wandycz, The Twilight of French Eastern Alliances, 1926-1936

At Amazon, Piotr Stefan Wandycz, The Twilight of French Eastern Alliances, 1926-1936: French-Czechoslovak-Polish Relations from Locarno to the Remilitarization of the Rhineland.

Although France, Poland, and Czechoslovakia were in jeopardy from a recovery of German power after World War I and from a potential German hegemony in Europe, France failed in her efforts to maintain a system of alliances with her two imperiled neighbors. Focusing on the period from 1926 to 1936, Piotr Wandycz seeks to explain how and why these three nations, with so much at risk, neglected to act in concert. Wandycz is the author of a well-known study on the series of alliances constructed by France, Poland, and Czechoslovakia in the years following the Treaty of Versailles. In this current volume he picks up the story after the Locarno Pact (1925) and follows the progressive disintegration of the alliance system until the time of Hitler's remilitarization of the Rhineland.

Through an examination of the political, military, and economic relations among France, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, the author provides valuable insights into an era that contained the seeds of the future war and the collapse of the historic European system. By relying on French, Polish, and more selectively Czechoslovak and Western archives, and thanks to his intimate knowledge of Central and East European published sources, he has filled a large gap in the history of prewar diplomacy. He shows how the divergent aims of Czechoslovakia and Poland combined with a decline of French willpower to prevent a real cohesion among the partners.

Jennifer Delacruz's Sunny and Hot Heat Forecast

I'm behind on my weather reports! I've been watching shows this last couple of evenings before bed. Normally, I read for a while, and do some scheduled blog postings.

No matter, here's the lovely Ms. Jennifer with the hot heat forecast. It's nice along the coasts, but scorching inland.

At ABC News 10 San Diego:

Emily Ratajkowski Thong Bikini on Instragram

At London's Daily Mail, "Emily Ratajkowski showcases her pert derriere in a series of sizzling snaps as she enjoys a scorching getaway to Tuscany."

Also at Maxim, "EMILY RATAJKOWSKI DANCING TOPLESS AT A PHOTO SHOOT IS THE HOTTEST THING YOU'LL SEE TODAY."

British Parliament Hit by Massive Cyber Attack

Hmm...

At the Telegraph U.K., "Blackmail fears after Parliament hit by 'sustained and determined' cyber attack leaving MPs unable to access emails":

Parliament hit by 'sustained and determined' cyber attack https://t.co/gcKA3H7lKX

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 24, 2017

Tomorrow's Sunday Telegraph front page today: 'Blackmail fears after MPs hit by cyber attack' pic.twitter.com/Qu9PhfUDS8

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 24, 2017

Parliament has suffered its biggest ever cyber attack as hackers launched a “sustained and determined” attempt to break into MPs email accounts.

The “brute force” assault lasted for more than 12 hours on Friday as unknown hackers repeatedly targeted “weak” passwords of politicians and aides.

Parliamentary officials were forced to lock MPs out of their own email accounts as they scrambled to minimise the damage from the incident.

The network affected is used by every MP including Theresa May, the Prime Minister, and her cabinet ministers for dealing with constituents.

Experts last night warned that politicians could be exposed to blackmail or face a heightened threat of terrorist attack if emails were successfully accessed.

MPs also apologised to their constituents and expressed concerns that sensitive and private information shared with them may have leaked.

Fears were raised by cyber specialists that “state actors” such as Russia, China or North Korea could be behind the attack - thought Government sources said it was too early for conclusions...

More.

These really are acts of war and it's increasingly apparent that Western states are losing.

Miles Teller's Girlfriend Keleigh Sperry Bikini Pics

Heh, and this is just after last week, "Miles Teller Arrested for Being Drunk and Uncooperative in Public."

The dude needs to get it together or he's going to lose his hot girlfriend, lol.

At London's Daily Mail, "Beach babe! Miles Teller's model girlfriend Keleigh Sperry shows off her impressive body in skimpy blue bikini during Miami getaway."

Beach babe! Miles Teller's model girlfriend Keleigh Sperry shows off her body in a bikini during Miami getaway https://t.co/8Jo7kKYtSL

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) June 24, 2017

Instagram Model Rebecca Burger Killed by Exploding Whipped Cream Canister

It's actually not a "freak" accident.

Those lethal whipped cream canisters were taken off the market, but apparently in Ms. Burger's case some rogue containers slipped through the regulatory cracks.

At USA Today below, and at Drunken Stepfather, "DEAD INSTAGRAM MODEL OF THE DAY."

Rebecca Burger was reportedly hit by an exploding whipped cream canister that was withdrawn from the market in 2013. https://t.co/zoCe2dm4yE

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) June 22, 2017

Lookouts and Radar Spotters on the Fitzgerald Should've Seen the Oncoming Cargo Ship

This is good. Click through and RTWT.

Maritime mystery: Why a U.S. destroyer failed to dodge a cargo ship https://t.co/duoPYVY99M

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 24, 2017

Ashley McGuire, Sex Scandal

At Amazon, Ashley McGuire, Sex Scandal: The Drive to Abolish Male and Female.

Aftermath of Alexandria Showed Left-Wing Bullying at its Worst

From Mary Katharine Ham, at the Federalist, "Aftermath of Alexandria Shooting Showed the Left’s Cultural Bullying at its Worst":

Aftermath Of Alexandria Shooting Showed Left's Bullying At Its Worst https://t.co/q5zpFpDUOd

— The Federalist (@FDRLST) June 24, 2017

The behavior of many on the Left this week sent a message that not only do they not 'get' the other half of the country, they don’t want to. That's a recipe for losing elections.

James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Illinois arrived in a D.C. suburb several months ago and lived out of his van next to a small local baseball field, which had recently been reported as the site of Republican congressional baseball practice. He took pictures of this otherwise unremarkable locale, and showed up there last Wednesday with two guns and a list of six elected Republicans on his person. He verified with a member of Congress that they were indeed Republicans on the field before opening fire, attempting to murder a bunch of them.

A week later, one of the victims, Rep. Steve Scalise, had been smeared by one national media figure and told his wound was “self-inflicted” by a nightly news anchor while he was still in the hospital fighting for his life. Republicans had been scolded for not changing their views on the Second Amendment in response to being attacked, and national media had either moved on from the story or moved on to scolding Republicans for their reaction to it.

Rep. Mo Brooks faced the question about his Second Amendment views just minutes after someone literally tried to murder him. Can we take a moment to think about how utterly crass this is? Imagine an abortion bomber blowing up a Planned Parenthood grand opening in Washington DC, injuring members of Congress in attendance. Then imagine most national news coverage including this question for their colleagues who escaped maiming: “Shouldn’t you probably consider changing your views on abortion? Maybe pass some common-sense limits on it?”

Yet Brooks offered a competent, calm civics class on the subject to anyone who was willing to listen.

Media Doesn’t Want to Talk About What Really Happened
National media covered the incident voraciously for several hours, but within a day, most had moved on to another leak in the Russia story. Less than 48 hours after a multiple assassination attempt on members of Congress, there were no media vans or cameras at the Alexandria baseball field where it occurred. Just for perspective, when Republican staffer Elizabeth Lauten committed the offense of writing something critical of President Obama’s daughters on her private Facebook page, news cameras were camped on her parents’ lawn staking her out for the better part of a week.

When the press was covering the shooting, it was mostly a gauzy, imprecise discussion of how “rhetoric” might have caused it, which means we’re in the business of determining whose rhetoric to stifle to prevent further violence. Wouldn’t you know it? The answer was… Donald Trump’s rhetoric, which has the magical power to compel a Bernie volunteer to shoot a long-time Trump-supporting Republican. Way to go on the narrative assist, there, Rep. Mark Sanford.

The New York Times went so far as to repeat a long-debunked lie blaming Sarah Palin’s political speech for the wholly unrelated shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords in an attempt to make Republicans culpable in a scenario in which Republicans were shot. All of its fact-checkers were presumably engaged in checking the statements of Republicans blaming Democratic rhetoric for the shooting, because those are their priorities. (For what it’s worth, I’ve been on record for a long time about how it’s unwise to conflate political speech with violence in a country that values free speech.)

Let’s Talk about How the Victims Responded, Instead
Less than a week after the shooting, there was a high-profile House election in Georgia—the most expensive House race in history. The Republican candidate Karen Handel had been specifically named by Hodgkinson in one of his anti-Republican Facebook rants. When I say named, I mean he called her a “shit” then exhorted his followers to “Vote Blue!” This tidbit got only the briefest of mentions outside local news, as did the threatening letters containing white powder Handel and her neighbors received days before the election. The powder turned out to be non-toxic.

Hodgkinson’s attempted massacre was not part of media coverage of GA-6 despite his act of intimidation having clear implications there. Targeting a specific population for its beliefs usually has a secondary consequence—to cow the members of the community the murderer didn’t succeed in killing. Would Republican voters be intimidated into staying home or emboldened by this attack on elected Republicans? It seems like an interesting question in a special election where turnout is important and unpredictable, yet it was rarely if ever discussed.

Instead, the only time the shooting came up in national media coverage of GA-6 was when an outside group ran a small, ham-handed ad tying Democratic rhetoric to the shooting. The ad was promptly, rightly denounced by Handel, but the scolding coverage of the ad went on for a day. My, how quickly we move in the news cycle from Republicans literally shot to Republican overreach about Republicans being literally shot.

Handel’s win thanks to the turnout of Republicans could and should have been celebrated as a defiant stand by free citizens in the face of an attack meant to scare them out of engaging in democracy. Exercising your right to vote then celebrating an electoral victory are very healthy ways to defy a gunman who tried to kill people who share your beliefs.

Instead, in the wake of Handel’s solid win, which snatched the #Resistance’s longed-for victory, Washington Post writer Dave Weigel scolded Republicans for “dunking” on Democrats despite everyone’s one-day indulgence of “come together” rhetoric, as if four hours of praise-hands emoji and super-hot memes on Twitter is part of the “climate of hate.”

In our hypothetical above about an attack on elected officials at Planned Parenthood, imagine a loudly pro-choice candidate winning an important, high-profile victory less than a week later and the news media tsk-tsking Emily’s List for celebrating that win...

More.

Bruce Bawer, The Victims' Revolution

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Bruce Bawer, The Victims' Revolution: The Rise of Identity Studies and the Closing of the Liberal Mind.

Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism

Robert Stacy McCain regularly cites this book.

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

Public Support for Single-Payer Healthcare

At Pew Research, "Public support for ‘single payer’ health coverage grows, driven by Democrats":

Public support for ‘single payer’ health coverage grows, driven by Democrats https://t.co/RwfANnwRv1 pic.twitter.com/0I1Un1kT1L

— PewResearch FactTank (@FactTank) June 23, 2017

A majority of Americans say it is the federal government’s responsibility to make sure all Americans have health care coverage. And a growing share now supports a “single payer” approach to health insurance, according to a new national survey by Pew Research Center.

Currently, 60% say the federal government is responsible for ensuring health care coverage for all Americans, while 39% say this is not the government’s responsibility. These views are unchanged from January, but the share saying health coverage is a government responsibility remains at its highest level in nearly a decade.

Among those who see a government responsibility to provide health coverage for all, more now say it should be provided through a single health insurance system run by the government, rather than through a mix of private companies and government programs. Overall, 33% of the public now favors such a “single payer” approach to health insurance, up 5 percentage points since January and 12 points since 2014. Democrats – especially liberal Democrats – are much more supportive of this approach than they were even at the start of this year.

Even among those who say the federal government is not responsible for ensuring Americans have health care coverage, there is little public appetite for government withdrawing entirely from involvement in health care coverage. Among the public, 33% say that health care coverage is not the government’s responsibility, but that programs like Medicare and Medicaid should be continued; just 5% of Americans say the government should not be involved at all in providing health insurance.

The issue of the government’s responsibility in ensuring health coverage remains deeply divisive politically, according to the new survey, conducted June 8-18 among 2,504 adults. More than eight-in-ten Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (85%) say that this responsibility falls to the federal government, while about two-thirds of Republicans and Republican leaners (68%) say it does not.

Still, most Republicans (57%) say the government “should continue programs like Medicare and Medicaid for seniors and the very poor.” Just 9% of Republicans say the government should not be involved in providing health insurance at all...

Democrats are socialists, if we didn't know that by now --- and if they had their way, we'd have much worse healthcare outcomes than we already do. Much more healthcare inequality, especially, with the well-off able to afford private medical care, and those less well-off stuck in substandard government-run Cuba-style "healthcare" hellholes.

And don't forget, Venezuala should be a cautionary tale for leftists, but it's not.

Via Memeorandum.

Nina Skye, 21-Year-Old Preschool Teacher in Los Angeles, Fired After Appearing in Pornography Videos

I don't know?

Maybe she can make more money doing porn. She clearly enjoys it. At London's Daily Mail and Heat Street:

'I love teaching, I love sex': Christian kindergarten teacher, 21, who starred in $2,500-a-time PORN films is fired https://t.co/gR6kZIyJ0D pic.twitter.com/RSHodpwA6e

— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) June 23, 2017

TFW society won't let you do porn and teach kids how to read. https://t.co/nCjfgZmYqp

— Heat Street (@heatstreet) June 23, 2017

GOP #ObamaCare Repeal Will Transform American Health Care

From Avik Roy, at Forbes, via Memeorandum, "The New Senate Republican Bill Will Transform American Health Care":

Finished reading the Senate HC bill. Put simply: If it passes, it’ll be the greatest policy achievement by a GOP Congress in my lifetime.

— Avik Roy (@Avik) June 22, 2017

I’m very open to thoughtful critiques of the Senate bill from the left. “MILLIONS WILL DIE” is not it.

— Avik Roy (@Avik) June 23, 2017

The hotly-anticipated Senate Republican health care bill came out on Thursday morning. The airwaves quickly filled up with predictable talking points from both sides. But once the dust settles, it will emerge that the Senate bill will have far-reaching effects on American health care: for the better.

Substantial improvements to the House bill

In March, when House Republicans published their bill to replace Obamacare—the American Health Care Act—I described it in Forbes this way: “GOP’s Obamacare Replacement Will Make Coverage Unaffordable For Millions—Otherwise, It’s Great.” I meant it. There were great things about the House bill, in particular its far-reaching reforms of the Medicaid program.

But Paul Ryan’s bill contained a fatal flaw. Its flat tax credits, which provided identical assistance to the poor and the wealthy, would price millions of near-elderly low-income workers out of the insurance market and trap millions more in poverty.

Fortunately, buried in the House bill was a way out of the morass. Section 202 of the bill contains a transitional schedule of tax credits that was meant to serve as a bridge between the old Obamacare system, ending in 2017, and the new Paul Ryan system, beginning in 2020.

It turns out that if you simply kept that bridge in force, and tossed overboard the Paul Ryan flat tax credit, you’d solve all of these problems with the House bill. By making that change, the near-elderly working poor would be able to afford coverage, and the poverty trap would be eliminated.

And that’s precisely what the Senate bill did! Section 102 of the Senate bill—the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017—closely mirrors Section 202 of the House bill, with age- and means-tested tax credits up to 350 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.

Making this change not only solves the problems I described above. It also makes it easier to reform the Medicaid program.

Real Medicaid reforms

The Senate bill includes and refines the best part of the House bill: its reforms of Medicaid, the dysfunctional government-run health care program for the poor whose enrollees have no better health outcomes than the uninsured.

Because the Senate bill’s tax credits are robustly means-tested and available to those below the poverty line, the bill is able to repeal Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion while offering higher-quality coverage to individuals who signed up for Medicaid under the expansion.

The reason that Medicaid’s health outcomes are so poor is because the outdated 1965 Medicaid law places a laundry list of constraints on states’ ability to manage their Medicaid programs. As a result, the main tool states have to keep Medicaid costs under control is to pay doctors and hospitals less and less each year for the same care. Hence, many doctors don’t take Medicaid, and Medicaid enrollees struggle to gain access to care.

The Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 addresses these problems in several ways.

First, the bill repeals Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, and replaces it with tax credits so that low-income Americans can buy the coverage of their choice at an affordable price.

Second, the bill gives states a new set of tools to make their Medicaid programs. For example, under Obamacare, states are only allowed to check if someone is eligible for Medicaid once a year, even if that enrollee has moved to a different state, or becomes no longer eligible, or is no longer alive. Jonathan Ingram of the Foundation for Government Accountability, in a recent report, recommended allowing states to redetermine eligibility more frequently and thereby culling their rolls of ineligible individuals.

Third, the bill puts the legacy Medicaid program on a long-term per-capita cap tied to medical inflation through 2025, and conventional inflation (CPI-U) thereafter. This change is important, because Medicaid per-enrollee spending is growing at a slightly slower rate than Medical inflation; hence, making the program sustainable requires the use of CPI-U. The fiscal sustainability of Medicaid is essential to making sure that those who depend on the program can know it will be there for them in the future...

Keep reading.

Trevor Noah on the Philando Castile Shooting Video

Leftists think they're on some high horse here?

The cops gunned down this dude. The cops murdered him. It's plain as day. It's not, however, a case for the "Black Lives Matter" movement. That's about cop-killing. We're supposed to be a nation of laws. There was no justice in the Philando Castile case, and that's really sad.

Watch, "Trevor Noah on the Philando Castile Shooting: 'Forget race. Are we all watching the same video?'"



PREVIOUSLY: "Minnesota Officer Acquitted in Killing of Philando Castile."

Democrat Party of Hate and Destruction (VIDEO)

Watch, from this morning's Fox & Friends, at Fox News, "Judge Jeanine: Democrats a party of hate and destruction."

April Playmate Nina Daniele (VIDEO)

Here, "Nina Daniele Sexy Pics (10 Pics)."

'Rainbow Armpit Hair for Pride'

Seen on Twitter:

Rainbow Armpit Hair For Pride Is the Most Amazing Thing You'll See Today https://t.co/VBZuvaHxf9 pic.twitter.com/IF9uADBvJv

— Cosmopolitan (@Cosmopolitan) June 21, 2017

NO IT ISNT https://t.co/4EV7IjoCyh

— Jenna Jameson (@jennajameson) June 23, 2017

Shop Best Sellers in Grocery and Gourmet Food

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Grocery & Gourmet Food.

And, Shop Gourmet Coffee.

BONUS: Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Bananas, Beaches, and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics.

Total Insanity at Evergreen State College (VIDEO)

There's still a couple of things reassuring about the whole mess at Evergreen: One, the leftist totalitarians are still outnumbered by people who oppose them (and who have powerful ways to get the opposition message out); and two, at some point, the Evergreen students will have to go out and make it in the real world. Most of these students will seek jobs at leftist non-profits and radical progressive interest groups and think tanks (if they indeed seek work at all). But if some of them want employment in regular corporate America, they'll find there's a limit at even the most tolerant and progressive firms to the obscenities of social justice extremism.

In any case, watch the video below, and read the commentary and analysis at the Other McCain, "The Catastrophe at Evergreen State":

As has been pointed out, Professor Weinstein “supported Bernie Sanders, admiringly retweets Glenn Greenwald and was an outspoken supporter of the Occupy Wall Street movement” and calls himself “deeply progressive,” but that’s not enough for the thugs at Evergreen.

Out in Paper: Clinton Romesha, Red Platoon

Now available in paperback, at Amazon, Clinton Romesha, Red Platoon: A True Story of American Valor.

Getting an Edge in the Long Afghan Struggle

From David Petraeus and Michael O'Hanlon, at WSJ, "Trump’s early approach holds promise if backed with a sustained, and sustainable, commitment":

Trump's strategy should seek long-term sustainability in Afghanistan, write David Patraeus & Michael O’Hanlon https://t.co/hWUJMhT9NA

— WSJ Editorial Page (@WSJopinion) June 23, 2017

Can the U.S. succeed in Afghanistan? Not without a sustained, and sustainable, commitment. President Trump’s decision to give Defense Secretary Jim Mattis the authority to add several thousand more U.S. troops to the 8,400 currently deployed is encouraging—but only if it is a first step in a comprehensive approach.

Army Gen. John Nicholson, commander of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, should also receive greater leeway in the use of U.S. and NATO air power. And officials should remain open to the possibility of reconciliation with some insurgents, probably just those that break off from the central Taliban.

An intensified military effort could arrest the gradual loss of territory held by the government in recent years—now estimated by U.S. Central Command at only 60% of the country—and to regain battlefield momentum. Congress should enable all this by appropriating the $5 billion or so a year above current levels that such a strategy will require.

America’s leaders should not lose sight of why the U.S. went to, and has stayed in, Afghanistan: It is in our national interest to ensure that country is not once again a sanctuary for transnational extremists, as it was when the 9/11 attacks were planned there. We have been accomplishing that mission since the intervention began in October 2001. Although al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan is diminished, it could rebound if given the opportunity. Islamic State could expand its newfound Afghan foothold as well.

The augmented troop levels Mr. Trump has authorized would be only 12% to 15% of the peak U.S. force levels, in 2010-11. The country can sustain that level of commitment. While all casualties are tragic, our losses in Afghanistan would likely remain far fewer than the losses from another major terrorist attack in the U.S.

Today the U.S. and its coalition partners lack the capacity to train and assist Afghan forces adequately in the field. As recently as 2015, the allied forces did not even have a full-time advisory presence for the main Afghan army corps in Helmand province. Largely as a result, the Taliban gained control of much of the province. Nor did the coalition have adequate advisers to help the smaller Afghan formations near Kunduz before that city fell to the Taliban in 2015. It was later liberated only at high cost, especially to Afghan forces and civilians. Restrictions on coalition air power reduced America’s ability to help Afghan partners.

Adding some 3,000 to 5,000 U.S. and allied troops could provide the capacity for several dozen deployable mentoring teams. That is far from enough to assist each Afghan brigade or battalion. But it could support the units that are engaged in the toughest fights and are most intensively involved in rebuilding their capabilities. Supporting those teams logistically and with air power, and providing quick-reaction forces in several parts of the country to help them if they get in trouble, would drive additional requirements for coalition troops into the low thousands.

On the civilian side, President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah need to continue their efforts against corruption, which have shown gradual, modest results to date. With U.S. help, they need to reform the electoral commissions that will oversee parliamentary and presidential elections over the next two years.

Then there is Pakistan, where the U.S. needs a tougher approach...

More.

PHOTO: Above, "Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in a helicopter over Kabul, April 24."

Caroline Wozniacki for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit (VIDEO)

Well, she was defeated in the French Open quarterfinals, although it looks like she's not taking it too hard, lol.

People Are Dying of AIDS in Venezuela

As bad as it is, AIDS/HIV isn't generally fatal, given access to decent medical care and medications.

I guess just even decent care's no longer the case in Venezuela.

Will this make progressives rethink their utopian schemes? Undoubtedly no.

At Toronto's Globe and Mail, "In Venezuela, a once-leading AIDS program lies in ruins":

People are dying of #AIDS in #Venezuela today in a way and in numbers they die nowhere else in the world https://t.co/HEw10hE5W7

— Stephanie Nolen (@snolen) June 22, 2017

More than a decade ago, the country was lauded for its treatment program. Now, Venezuela is years into a political and economic crisis.

Juan Coronel was so thin that his kneecaps jutted out like tent poles in his sweatpants. He was 39 when I met him a few weeks ago, with reddish-brown hair that clung to his scalp like a baby’s and deep hollows below his cheekbones. His voice was soft and raspy, and he seemed dazed at his own fragility. “I need to go and look for medicine,” he said, “but I’m having trouble getting around.”

I had not seen a person who looked like Mr. Coronel – a person dying of untreated AIDS – since I covered the pandemic in Africa at its height more than a decade ago. In fact, there is nowhere in the world today where people are dying of AIDS at the pace and in the sheer numbers that they are in Venezuela: Even the poorest African countries today have HIV treatment programs. They still don’t reach everyone, and people are still dying, or getting treatment only after they become very ill – they may come to look as Mr. Coronel did when I met him. But in other countries, they are the exception. Today, in Venezuela, his case is the rule...

Keep reading.

Left-Wing Politics Will Be the Demise of Democrats

This is good, from Shermichael Singleton, at the Hill:

You don’t have to be a seasoned political operative to question the logic behind Democrats investing so much money into a congressional district that has gone Republican for nearly 40 years, yet that is exactly what the Democratic Party did.

They believed they could switch moderate Republican voters to vote for a Democratic candidate and mobilize Independents by spouting a progressive message, which is philosophically antithetical to the values held by most voters — such as limited government due to a fear of government encroachment and excessive regulation — as well as utopian ideas about society, which many frankly believe are unrealistic.

Grand visions about the future are typically distrusted by most people regardless of their ideological leanings because people live in reality, and nothing in reality happens overnight. Most Americans want pragmatism that builds toward a better tomorrow, rather than grandiose promises built on unproven ideas.

Maybe the intent of progressive Democrats is good. Maybe it isn’t. However, what is most concerning about progressive ideology is that it maintains the belief that ultimate good comes from a centrally planned state or in essence the government. Similar to socialism, progressivism advocates for a government built on compulsory force.

The government cannot possibly know the needs of every single person today, so that the needs of the individual are met for tomorrow. Any more than a socialist system knows how much of a product to produce. The two are arguably one in the same.

One of the biggest problems with progressivism is that they advocate the importance of a centralized nurturing state with a moral goal, but that has never been the role of government. Government, as advocated by progressives, is impossible because it is impossible for a government to know exactly what each individual need or how much of it that they need.

Democrats foolishly believed that college-educated Republicans would vote for a progressive Democrat over a Republican because of their disdain for President Trump and his many mishaps. The unknown Jon Ossoff ran against the known Karen Handel, who once chaired Fulton County Board of Commissioners from 2003 to 2006. She was then elected and served as Georgia’s secretary of state from 2007 to 2010.

And she even threw her hat in the ring for the highly contested U.S. Senate race in 2014 to replace former Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.). In essence, she isn’t a political newcomer and the fact that Democrats actually believed they could flip a district that has gone Republican for nearly four decades purely because of Trump’s actions shows how out of touch their strategy is.

Handel made the election about issues, pointing out that a vote for Ossoff would be a vote for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is far more unpopular with Republican voters, including those with a disdain for Trump...

More.

Lily Collins, Phil Collins' Daughter, Opens Up About Eating Disorder

I didn't know she was Phil Collins' daughter.

I like Phil Collins. I saw him with Genesis, at the Long Beach Arena, back in the day.

At London's Daily Mail, "'My body's the shape it is because it holds my heart!' Lily Collins is candid about eating disorder battle as she reveals her fab form in swimsuit shoot."

And at Shape, "Lily Collins Shares How Suffering from an Eating Disorder Changed Her Definition of 'Healthy'."

Lily Collins Shares How Suffering from an Eating Disorder Changed Her Definition of 'Healthy' https://t.co/LpOp0k540e pic.twitter.com/PidOaQUjU8

— Shape Magazine (@Shape_Magazine) June 22, 2017

Out in Paper: Nicholas Stargardt, The German War

I zipped through this book when I read it last year.

Now available in paperback, at Amazon, Nicholas Stargardt, The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939–1945.

Today's Deals

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Gold Box Deals.

Also, Handcrafted Indian Wooden Barrel Money Bank for Kids - Brass Accents and Coin Slot - Measures 5.5 Inches.

And, Swiss+Tech ST35060 Polished SS 20-in-1 Bicycle Multitool Kit for Bike Repair, Sports, Camping, Outdoors.

Plus, Mountain House Just In Case...Classic Assortment Bucket.

Here, Cafe Britt Tarrazu Montecielo Ground Coffee, 12-Ounce Bags (Pack of 2).

Still more, Flatware Set - Sterling Quality - Royal Cutlery - Multipurpose Use for Home, Kitchen or Restaurant (20 Pc Flatware Set) - by Utopia Kitchen.

And, Camp Kitchen Utensil Organizer Travel Set - Portable 8 Piece BBQ Camping Cookware Utensils Travel Kit with Water Resistant Case, Cutting Board, Rice Paddle, Tongs, Scissors, Knife and Bottle Opener.

BONUS: Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.

Rep. Kathleen Rice Calls for Leadership Change in the Democratic Party (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Time for Nancy Pelosi to Step Down?"

Pelosi's going to hang to power as if she were Joseph Stalin.

At Morning Joe, this morning:

Britain Sends Man to Prison for Posting His Thoughts About Muslims to Facebook

At the Daily Wire, via Memeorandum, "British Police Just Imprisoned a Man for Posting Mean Things About Muslims on Facebook."

This what leftists want here. Coming to America? #Islam #Jihad #RadicalLeft #ClimateOfHate #Facebook https://t.co/dikJsikdKQ

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 22, 2017

This man used Facebook to express his hatred for muslims & has gone to prison #WeStandTogether against hate crimes https://t.co/Bo7OCDADKu

— Sussex Police (@sussex_police) June 20, 2017

"Hate crimes" are thought crimes. Leftists can't stand independent thought.

Sara Jean Underwood Rule 5

At Taxi Driver, "Sara Jean Underwood Snaps See-Through Selfies."

And she posts straight to Twitter:

Go fetch! pic.twitter.com/M8l8uv2uSr

— Sara Jean Underwood (@SaraUnderwood) June 22, 2017

Instagram: saraunderwood
Snapchat: SjUnderwood
Facebook: SaraJeanUnderwood pic.twitter.com/ljkEUNig4R

— Sara Jean Underwood (@SaraUnderwood) June 18, 2017

Catch me if you can... pic.twitter.com/cl5Al6AaNB

— Sara Jean Underwood (@SaraUnderwood) June 17, 2017

What do you have to say for yourself? pic.twitter.com/K1THI6Maiz

— Sara Jean Underwood (@SaraUnderwood) June 16, 2017

Do you like the glasses?👓 pic.twitter.com/TdTMcj2ayx

— Sara Jean Underwood (@SaraUnderwood) June 14, 2017

👀 pic.twitter.com/Wayr1kAA18

— Sara Jean Underwood (@SaraUnderwood) June 13, 2017

Ocotillo Wells, in San Diego County, Sets New Record-High: 124 Degrees (VIDEO)

It's been totally mild in Irvine, so I guess we're lucky, lol.

At ABC News 10 San Diego:

Bryan Burrough, Days of Rage

At Amazon, Bryan Burrough, Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence.

Antifa Movement and the Roots of Left-Wing Violence

Here's a nice piece that was published at National Review a few weeks ago. It was gated at the time, so I didn't post it. It's available now though.

Certainly timely, if not a bit prophetic, considering.

From Ian Tuttle, "The Roots of Left-Wing Violence":

The Roots of Left-Wing Violence https://t.co/3a6s7h6xr7 via @iptuttle pic.twitter.com/ERulWxAj6Q

— National Review (@NRO) June 5, 2017

Time for Nancy Pelosi to Step Down?

She's defiant.

At Politico:

“I am a master legislator”: A defiant @NancyPelosi says she has no plans to step down from leadership https://t.co/ok0czN4Ogo pic.twitter.com/F8L17DBx6b

— POLITICO (@politico) June 22, 2017

.@NancyPelosi faces growing doubts among Democrats after the loss in the Georgia special election https://t.co/7bBT5smw60 pic.twitter.com/oe56CS4do0

— POLITICO (@politico) June 22, 2017

Lisa Boothe: The Left's Climate of Hate Reaches All-Time High (VIDEO)

From Sunday's Fox News Sunday Panel:

John Pfaff, Locked In

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, John Pfaff, Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration—and How to Achieve Real Reform.

Julian Assange's Nihilism (VIDEO)

From Sue Halpern, at the New York Review, "The Nihilism of Julian Assange":

Sue Halpern reviews ‘Risk,’ Laura Poitras’s documentary portrait of Julian Assange https://t.co/tgEwRkGF1q

— NY Review of Books (@nybooks) June 20, 2017

About forty minutes into Risk, Laura Poitras’s messy documentary portrait of Julian Assange, the filmmaker addresses the viewer from off-camera. “This is not the film I thought I was making,” she says. “I thought I could ignore the contradictions. I thought they were not part of the story. I was so wrong. They are becoming the story.”

By the time she makes this confession, Poitras has been filming Assange, on and off, for six years. He has gone from a bit player on the international stage to one of its dramatic leads. His gleeful interference in the 2016 American presidential election—first with the release of e-mails poached from the Democratic National Committee, timed to coincide with, undermine, and possibly derail Hillary Clinton’s nomination at the Democratic Convention, and then with the publication of the private e-mail correspondence of Clinton’s adviser John Podesta, which was leaked, drip by drip, in the days leading up to the election to maximize the damage it might inflict on Clinton—elevated Assange’s profile and his influence.

And then this spring, it emerged that Nigel Farage, the Trump adviser and former head of the nationalist and anti-immigrant UK Independence Party (UKIP) who is now a person of interest in the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, was meeting with Assange. To those who once saw him as a crusader for truth and accountability, Assange suddenly looked more like a Svengali and a willing tool of Vladimir Putin, and certainly a man with no particular affection for liberal democracy. Yet those tendencies were present all along.

n 2010, when Poitras began work on her film, Assange’s four-year-old website, WikiLeaks, had just become the conduit for hundreds of thousands of classified American documents revealing how we prosecuted the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including a graphic video of American soldiers in an Apache helicopter mowing down a group of unarmed Iraqis, as well as for some 250,000 State Department diplomatic cables. All had been uploaded to the WikiLeaks site by an army private named Bradley—now Chelsea—Manning.

The genius of the WikiLeaks platform was that documents could be leaked anonymously, with all identifiers removed; WikiLeaks itself didn’t know who its sources were unless leakers chose to reveal themselves. This would prevent anyone at WikiLeaks from inadvertently, or under pressure, disclosing a source’s identity. Assange’s goal was to hold power—state power, corporate power, and powerful individuals—accountable by offering a secure and easy way to expose their secrets. He called this “radical transparency.” Manning’s bad luck was to tell a friend about the hack, and the friend then went to the FBI. For a long time, though, Assange pretended not to know who provided the documents, even when there was evidence that he and Manning had been e-mailing before the leaks.

Though the contradictions were not immediately obvious to Poitras as she trained her lens on Assange, they were becoming so to others in his orbit. WikiLeaks’s young spokesperson in those early days, James Ball, has recounted how Assange tried to force him to sign a nondisclosure statement that would result in a £12 million penalty if it were breached. “[I was] woken very early by Assange, sitting on my bed, prodding me in the face with a stuffed giraffe, immediately once again pressuring me to sign,” Ball wrote. Assange continued to pester him like this for two hours. Assange’s “impulse towards free speech,” according to Andrew O’Hagan, the erstwhile ghostwriter of Assange’s failed autobiography, “is only permissible if it adheres to his message. His pursuit of governments and corporations was a ghostly reverse of his own fears for himself. That was the big secret with him: he wanted to cover up everything about himself except his fame.”

Meanwhile, some of the company he was keeping while Poitras was filming also might have given her pause. His association with Farage had already begun in 2011 when Farage was head of UKIP. Assange’s own WikiLeaks Party of Australia was aligned with the white nationalist Australia First Party, itself headed by an avowed neo-Nazi, until political pressure forced it to claim that association to be an “administrative error.”

Most egregious, perhaps, was Assange’s collaboration with Israel Shamir, an unapologetic anti-Semite and Putin ally to whom Assange handed over all State Department diplomatic cables from the Manning leak relating to Belarus (as well as to Russia, Eastern Europe, and Israel). Shamir then shared these documents with members of the regime of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who appeared to use them to imprison and torture members of the opposition. This prompted the human rights group Index on Censorship to ask WikiLeaks to explain its relationship to Shamir, and to look into reports that Shamir’s “access to the WikiLeaks’ US diplomatic cables [aided in] the prosecution of civil society activists within Belarus.” WikiLeaks called these claims rumors and responded that it would not be investigating them. “Most people with principled stances don’t survive for long,” Assange tells Poitras at the beginning of the film. It’s not clear if he’s talking about himself or others...

I've never liked nor respected Assange, who I consider an enemy.

But note how Halpern gets the basic background wrong: That "graphic video of American soldiers in an Apache helicopter mowing down a group of unarmed Iraqis" was actually a video of anti-American journalists embedded with Iraqi insurgents armed with RPGs. The Apache took them out in self-defense, following strict rules of engagement. That story's been totally debunked. But as with most other things in the news, the initial lie becomes the official truth for the radical left. That's why you can never let your guard down.

Keep reading, FWIW.

University of Oregon Professor C.J. Pascoe: 'Trumpism' Is About 'Discourses of Masculinized Dominance'

At the Other McCain, "Feminist Professor: ‘Trumpism’ Is About ‘Discourses of Masculinized Dominance’."

These people are psycho.

Masha Gessen, The Future Is History

*BUMPED.*

Out October 3rd, at Amazon, Masha Gessen, The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia.

Also, The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin.

Marine Le Pen Wins Seat in French National Assembly

Media outlets are playing down the victories of the National Front, but Marine Le Pen can now claim she's got governing experience. This seat is a platform for her national aspirations.

At France 24, "Le Pen wins parliamentary seat but French far-right party stalls."

Also at Astute Bloggers, "MARINE LE PEN WINS 1ST PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION."

George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1 (Mass Market Paperback)

At Amazon, George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1.

I watched reruns last night on HBO, from Season 6, and I just saw copies of the paperback when I was out shopping a little while ago.

Yesterday's Special Report with Bret Baier (VIDEO)

An excellent segment, with Tom Bevan, Charles Krauthammer, Laura Ingraham, and Stephen Hayes.

At Fox News, "The true meaning behind special election victories."

Christopher Knowlton, Cattle Kingdom

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Christopher Knowlton, Cattle Kingdom: The Hidden History of the Cowboy West.

Baby Boomers Aging the Nation

Heh, more power to those old coots, lol.

At the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, "Baby boomers aging the nation, and the region":

Baby boomers aging the nation, and the region https://t.co/MCs88ZUH02

— John Hielscher (@JohnDHielscher) June 22, 2017

Sarasota-Manatee’s median age keeps marching upward

The population of Sarasota and Manatee counties does not rank among the oldest in the United States but, like two-thirds of the nation’s counties, its median age keeps edging upward.

According to updated data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau, as of July 2016, the median age reached 55.6 in Sarasota County and 47.8 in Manatee.

By comparison, the nation’s median age reached 37.9 — up from 35.3 since 2000.

“Our country’s demographic profile is aging and looks a lot different than it did two decades ago,” bureau demographer Lauren Medina said in an announcement.

“The baby-boom generation is largely responsible for this trend,” Peter Borsella, a bureau demographer, added. “Baby boomers began turning 65 in 2011 and will continue to do so for many years to come.”

Residents age 65 and older now account for 15.2 percent of the nation’s population, up from 12.4 percent in 2000.

As of 2016, Maine continued to have the highest median age (44.6) — followed by New Hampshire (43), Vermont (42.7) and West Virginia (42.2). Although better known than those states as a retirement mecca, Florida ranked fifth with a median age of 42.1.

The youngest states or jurisdictions include North Dakota (34.8), Texas (34.5), Alaska (33.9), the District of Columbia (33.9) and Utah (30.8).

The acceleration of the age boom in Florida has compelled more communities here to join the Age-Friendly movement, an initiative sponsored by the World Health Organization and AARP to help populations prepare for the effects of this demographic shift. Kathy Black, a professor at University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee who is instrumental in the Age-Friendly Sarasota effort, said recently that it’s important for people to question their own assumptions about others based on age...

More.

Defund Planned Parenthood

Via Debra Burlingame, on Twitter:

pic.twitter.com/4Xpfr133gT

— Debra Burlingame (@DebraBurlingame) June 22, 2017

Graham Allison, Destined for War

Following-up from previously, "Team Trump's Thucydides Fascination."

At Amazon, Graham Allison, Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?

Team Trump's Thucydides Fascination

A good piece, at Politico:

“What made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta.” https://t.co/1TevEKv7XA

— POLITICO Magazine (@POLITICOMag) June 21, 2017

Republican Karen Handel Wins Special Election in Georgia's 6th Congressional District (VIDEO)

I was on Twitter last night, and it was serious laugh riot after Jon Ossoff's epic defeat.

As readers might have noticed, I wasn't all that invested in this race. I think I posted maybe once on it (I can search the archives, heh). And frankly, I wasn't too worried about Republicans keeping the district. For one thing, I don't trust the polls, and as it turns out, they were wrong again. The other main thing is that Georgia's 6th congressional district is historically Republican, with Handel having something like GOP +10% automatic margin. It was over-hyped, everywhere, and this race once again reflects badly on the Democrats, national radical progressives, and the hopelessly left-wing mainstream media.

Here's the current headline at the New York Times, via Memeorandum, "Democrats Seethe After Georgia Loss: ‘Our Brand Is Worse Than Trump’."

And from Patricia Murphy, who was on the ground in Georgia yesterday, at the Daily Beast, "Jon Ossoff's $23 Million Loss Shows Dems Have No Idea How to Win in the Age of Trump."

Also, at Truth Feed, "LOL: CNN Reacts to Ossoff’s Humiliating Loss - Their Faces SAY IT ALL!", and the Daily Wire, "Everyone's Laughing Their #Ossoff at This CNN Photo."



More, from political scientist Larry Sabato:



The president's party normally loses seats in midterm elections, so the Democrats, as demoralized as they are today, can keep hope alive for some gains in 2018. Whether they can pick off enough seats to retake the majority remains to be seen, and as it's 18 months away, I imagine it doesn't do a lot of good to start handicapping individual races at this point. Let's see what happens during primary season next year. If Democrats wise up and nominate really good candidates, not carpetbaggers and far-left radicals, perhaps we'll see some real competition. But all the normal structural factors remain in play, especially partisan gerrymandering that's helped the GOP and the polarized ideological tribalism that means there's few undecided voters in districts around the country for Democrats to attract.

One thing's for sure: If the Dems don't retake the House next year, the lols are going to be a million more times better than last night, and they were pretty good, heh.

More at Memeorandum.

Frank Dikötter, Mao's Great Famine

At Amazon, Frank Dikötter, Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962.

Gwyneth Paltrow on Holiday in St. Tropez

At London's Daily Mail, "PICTURE EXCLUSIVE: Gwyneth Paltrow shows off her sensational figure in skimpy black bikini while soaking up the sun on luxury yacht in Saint Tropez."

Also at Drunken Stepfather, "GWYNETH PALTROW BIKINI EROTICA OF THE DAY."

Alessandra Ambrosio Steps Out in Santa Monica

She's probably over-the-hill, but I've still got a thing for this woman.

At London's Daily Mail, "Alessandra Ambrosio steps out in thigh-grazing denim playsuit as she enjoys breakfast with daughter Anja in Santa Monica."

Gal Gadot Paid Just $300,000 for 'Wonder Woman'

Well, that does seem kinda low. But folks are comparing her's to Henry Cavill's $14 million payday for 2013's "Man of Steel."

It turns out, though, that Cavill's $14 million figure includes royalty payments and bonuses (or however you calculate the after-market residuals).

Gal Gadot's up-front $300,000 is before royalties and bonuses, and she's in contract renegotiations for her upcoming reprisals as Diana Prince (since "Wonder Wonder" performed spectacularly in theaters).

In any case, at London's Daily Mail and Vanity Fair:

Revealed: Gal Gadot made just $300k for Wonder Woman (while Henry Cavill raked in $14MILLION for Man of Steel) https://t.co/lLLDg2z8a5

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) June 20, 2017

No, Wonder Woman is not making 46 times less than Superman https://t.co/tjXlXlFFST

— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) June 20, 2017

Jill Stein Isn't Sorry

I think she's scum, personally.

But I got a load out of this, heh:

"Democrats have long accused the Green Party of being like a watermelon—green on the outside, red on the inside—and Stein’s closeness to a Kremlin-backed entity like RT has only fueled those suspicions."

“Democrats have long accused the Green Party of being like a watermelon—green on the outside, red on the inside” https://t.co/Mw00k5Afmg

— POLITICO Magazine (@POLITICOMag) June 20, 2017

'Bachelor in Paradise' to Resume Production

Well, I suppose it's a good there wasn't a sexual assault on location, but who're ya gonna believe? A lot of money's at stake.

At NYT and People Magazine (which reports that Ms. Olympios' own attorneys will continue the investigation):

Plot twist: ABC's "Bachelor in Paradise" is happening https://t.co/D5K1yvhNVd

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 20, 2017

Bachelor in Paradise Investigation Over! Warner Bros. Concludes No Misconduct, Filming to Resume, Tapes on Lockdown https://t.co/OLdV2lxDR9

— People Magazine (@people) June 20, 2017

Corinne Olympios' Lawyers: 'Our Own Investigation Will Continue' into #BiP Sex Scandal https://t.co/WCxKtG7AdE

— People Magazine (@people) June 20, 2017

Corinne Olympios joins #BachelorInParadise for its fourth season. https://t.co/f7TyQGluog pic.twitter.com/jfWbXJqCQD

— The Bachelor (@BTV_Bachelor) June 1, 2017

⚡️ “Corinne Olympios breaks her silence on Bachelor in Paradise”https://t.co/o4P2341s8P#CorinneOlympios#WhiteBeauty👸#WhiteGirlsAreMagic pic.twitter.com/lx3MTd2csz

— ⚡Weißhäutig Kaiser⚡ (@KaiserJames) June 15, 2017

Added: At London's Daily Mail:

Corinne Olympios hooked up with THREE hunky contestants the same day she had oral sex with DeMario Jackson https://t.co/7Icpi3EXKL

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) June 19, 2017

Bing West, The March Up

At Amazon, Bing West, The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the United States Marines.

Simple Deluxe Pair of XL Heavy Duty Hammock Tree Straps

At Amazon, Simple Deluxe Pair of XL Heavy Duty Hammock Tree Straps,12 FT 21 Loops each & 100% No Stretch Suspension Kit,Lightweight Portable Camping Hammock Accessories,Carrying Pouch & 2 Carabiners Included.

Plus, keep shopping for more of Today's Deals.

BONUS: Antony Beevor, The Second World War.

Noam Maggor, Brahmin Capitalism

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Noam Maggor, Brahmin Capitalism: Frontiers of Wealth and Populism in America’s First Gilded Age.

Lisa De Pasquale, The Social Justice Warrior Handbook

*BUMPED.*

From Lisa De Pasquale, available September 26th, at Amazon, The Social Justice Warrior Handbook: A Practical Guide for Snowflaks, Millennials, and Generation Z.

The Social Justice Warrior Handbook will unlock the secrets to identifying social injustice and surviving in a world that doesn’t care about your feelings.

Whether you’re a militant feminist, social media activist, workplace warrior, privileged college student, or Hollywood actress desperate to be taken seriously, The Social Justice Warrior Handbook will help you navigate the complex, exciting world of activism with minimal effort.

Discover:

* What to do when someone assumes your gender
* How to infiltrate a right-wing event
* How to fake authentic vintage style
* How to survive a holiday meal that doesn’t follow your food philosophy
* What you need in your SJW bug-out bag
* How to do an epic takedown of someone more successful than you

Remember: The only thing necessary for the triumph of good over evil is to tweet about it.

Amber Lee's Sunny and Even Hotter Forecast

The high-pressure system still hasn't peaked and we're going to see record temperatures Tuesday and Wednesday, with triple-digits in many parts of the Southland.

Luckily, it's been quite enjoyable near the coasts.

Here's the lovely Ms. Amber, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Tucker Carlson Back on Air After Treatment for Emergency Appendicitis (VIDEO)

He looks great!

And I'm so happy and glad for him. He's the main draw at Fox News now, and he looks chipper.

Background here, at IJR, "Tucker Carlson Had to Be Treated for Emergency Appendicitis — And His Critics Wish His Condition Was Much Worse."

And from tonight's show, "How Dr. Marc Siegel Helped Tucker Through Appendicitis."

Newt Gingrich, Understanding Trump

*BUMPED.*

Looks like a good read. Gingrich is a prolific writer, but he knows what he's talking about. He's a hustler, for sure. He hustles the bucks, and in this case he's clearly able to publish a book exploiting his establishment insider creds.

Still, he's helluva lot more trustworthy on this than most.

At Amazon, Newt Gingrich, Understanding Trump.

The Tactics Used by Hecklers Against Megyn Kelly Will Soon Be Used Against Rachel Maddow and Others

I said so much on Twitter the other day. Frankly, I was kind of shocked that NBC caved to the mob.

But see Jack Shafer, at Politico, "Megyn Kelly Pantses Alex Jones":

How, exactly, can you examine a newsworthy subject without giving him some sort of a platform? https://t.co/OpQABsvwIn

— POLITICO Magazine (@POLITICOMag) June 19, 2017

For all the pre-interview fuss, NBC’s new star exposed the Infowars host for what he is. But the controversy was never really about him.

The censorious powers of the heckler’s veto have evolved now to the point that people are willing to call for the banning and shunning of works of journalism not yet published. Former Fox News Channel and current NBC News anchor Megyn Kelly got the treatment this week as news of her Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly interview with Infowars mainspring Alex Jones, well before it was scheduled to air June 18, made the rounds. At least the Ayatollah Khomeini waited for the publication of Satanic Verses before he issued a fatwa ordering the murder of its author, Salman Rushdie.

Sandy Hook Elementary families implored NBC News to dump the segment because Jones has called the Newtown, Connecticut, school killings a hoax—by actors, not real people—designed, Jones said, to encourage new gun control laws. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio concurred, writing, “Pull the segment.” The NBC affiliate in nearby Hartford refused to air the episode because the “wounds of that day that have yet to heal.” Fleeing from the controversy, advertiser JPMorgan Chase dropped its spots from the show, and the usual voices damned Kelly for giving Jones “a platform.”

Not to be outshone, Jones performed some culture jamming of his own, releasing his own secretly recorded audio of the pre-interview in which Kelly buttered him up. “It’s not going to be some gotcha hit piece, I can promise you that,” Kelly told Jones on the tape. Predictably, Jones made his own call for a boycott, tweeting, “I’m calling for @megynkelly to cancel the airing of our interview for misrepresenting my views on Sandy Hook.”

When Kelly’s show finally aired, she took the mendacious Jones apart in such a textbook manner you had to wonder what all the shouting had been about. The Jones pattern, she said at the segment’s top, is making “reckless accusations followed by equivocations and excuses” when questioned. The two best examples of this are his promotion of the “Pizzagate“ lies about a satanic child porn ring and his wild allegation that Chobani was “importing Migrant Rapists,” as Infowars hyped its report on Twitter. In both cases, lawsuits have forced Jones to retract and apologize for airing these dishonest stories, and yet in conversation with Kelly he still hedges and quibbles like a con artist in an effort to have his conspiracy pizza and keep his yogurt, too. Likewise with the pathetic claims about the Sandy Hook killings. He’s still throwing the see-through drapery of devil’s advocacy to blur the fact that on most subjects he’s talking out of his tinfoil hat.

Short of waterboarding him, I don’t know what more Kelly could have done to expose Jones’ dark methods...

*****

Most viewers extend to broadcasters like Anderson Cooper, Chris Wallace, Jake Tapper and Erin Burnett the sort of goodwill they draw on to tackle fraught topics and subjects that will end up upsetting somebody. Due to her Fox background, Kelly doesn’t command that sort of goodwill—the protests against her show are more about her than they are Alex Jones or Sandy Hook. Kelly’s enemies, places like liberal agitprop outfit Media Matters for America, which has been riding this story hard, would likely be raising a ruckus if she went to work as a Today co-host and did celebrity fluff.

Would the calls for a Kelly boycott be so insistent if a similar technique hadn’t succeeded in driving Fox’s Bill O’Reilly off his network? My guess is that they wouldn’t. Kelly won this round, but she wasn’t the only one to pay the price. If you like edgy, truth-telling journalism, the spirited campaign against her has written a heckler’s veto playbook that future activists and scolds will eventually apply to your preferred anchor, be it Rachel Maddow or Sean Hannity. You’ve been warned.

Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe

Out tomorrow, at Amazon, Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam.

Gillian Anderson Bikini Photos

Not something you see everyday!

At Drunken Stepfather, "GILLIAN ANDERSON OF THE DAY."

Harold D. Clarke, Matthew Goodwin, and Paul Whiteley, Brexit

A #1 New Release.

At Amazon, Harold D. Clarke, Matthew Goodwin, and Paul Whiteley, Brexit: Why Britain Voted to Leave the European Union.

Otto Warmbier Has Died

This makes me sad and angry.

I generally don't "hate," but I hate North Korea. I wish the boy never went there in the first place.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Otto Warmbier, the American released by North Korea last week, has died":

Otto Warmbier, an American college student who was in a coma when he was released by North Korea, has died in Ohio. He was 22.

His family said in a statement that Warmbier died Monday afternoon.

The family thanked the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for treating him but said, “Unfortunately, the awful torturous mistreatment our son received at the hands of the North Koreans ensured that no other outcome was possible beyond the sad one we experienced today.”

Otto Warmbier was held for 17+ months in North Korea. Doctors said he returned with severe brain damage https://t.co/fcoM9CVM32 pic.twitter.com/8ZycvYHFeX

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) June 19, 2017

Oh my god. https://t.co/DPevP6UgeV

— Hadas Gold (@Hadas_Gold) June 19, 2017

God damn it, Obama. This is on you. https://t.co/oTMRfRSWmE

— Kim Priestap (@kimpriestap) June 19, 2017

Statement issued by the family of #ottowarmbier on his passing pic.twitter.com/0loUSdBmrM

— Bret Baier (@BretBaier) June 19, 2017