T.G. Otte, July Crisis

This is great!

T.G. Otte is Professor of Diplomatic History at the University of East Anglia.

Here's his recent book, July Crisis: The World's Descent into War, Summer 1914.

At the video, he name-checks (and calls out) Fritz Fischer's, Germany's Aims in the First World War.

No Apologies: The NRA Stands Up for Truth (VIDEO)

The NRA's been in the eye of the storm for decades, so the latest attack on spokeswoman Dana Loesch is par for the course.

I posted earlier here, "WATCH: Dana Loesch Takes on Critics Who Accuse Her of 'Inciting Violence' in New Video for the NRA," and "Dana Loesch Slams 'Fake Feminists' Behind Anti-NRA Women's March (VIDEO)."

But see Legal Insurrection, "Dana Loesch Slams 'Fake Feminists' Behind Anti-NRA Women's March (VIDEO)."

And here's Grant Stinchfield for the NRA:

Nikki Haley May Be the Best Ambassador to the United Nations in History (VIDEO)

I can't think of another ambassador's who's been more forceful in protecting U.S. and Israeli interests.

I'm really impressed and I hope Ms. Nikki is able to turn her tenure into some presidential capital down the road. She's great.

At this morning's Face the Nation:

Sienna Miller Bikini Photos

She's a cool chick.

At the Superficial, "Brad Pitt Probably Banged Sienna Miller in a Winnebago."

(More at She Knows, "Brad Pitt & Sienna Miller Spotted, Reportedly Dating.")

Mom Defends Sexual Intercourse While Breastfeeding

All in the family, you might say.

At WWTDD, "Mom Defends Getting F***** While Breastfeeding Baby."

Paul M. Kennedy, The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Paul M. Kennedy, The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 1860-1914.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



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

Cartoon Credit: A.F. Branco, "Trump Playing the Media."

Emily Ratajkowski Peek Down Blouse

At Taxi Driver, "Emily Ratajkowski Nipple Peek Down Blouse View."

And at Drunken Stepfather, "Emily Ratajkowski - Photo Shoot on a Balcony in Paris - 7/5/17."

BONUS: At Vogue, "How Emily Ratajkowski and More Stars are Putting a Glamorous New Twist on the Topknot."

Hailey Clauson Sumba Island (VIDEO)

She's lovely.

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Hugh Sebag-Montefiore, Somme

At Amazon, Hugh Sebag-Montefiore, Somme: Into the Breach.

Tomi Lahren on President Trump's Meeting with Vladimir Putin (VIDEO)

I'm not sure what Tomi Lahren's up to: Does she want to be the next Michelle Fields, and ingratiate herself on the left to facilitate ready employment? Or does she want to stay true to her principles and grind it out, working her way up in the media world by paying her dues? Well, if Judge Jeanine's bringing her on the show, I don't know if it's either of these things. Maybe she's still coasting along on whatever remaining capital she has after leaving Glenn Beck's network.

In any case, she's a smokin' hot woman. I dearly hope she sticks to her conservative bona fides.

Danielle Gersh's Record Temperatures Forecast

I was in all day today relaxing, reading, and watching some baseball. While my Angels are struggling, the Dodgers are absolutely on fire, with the best record in the major leagues.

And it was hot. Inland temperatures were in the triple-digits, and it got up to 93 today in Irvine.

So, try to stay cool folks.

Here's the fabulous Ms. Danielle with the forecast, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Just One More Illegal Immigrant Road Sign Left on Interstate 5

These stories are designed to pull at your heartstrings, in classic radical left style, although this is interesting nevertheless.

At LAT (safe link), "With only one left, iconic yellow road sign showing running immigrants now borders on the extinct":

So many immigrants crossing illegally into the United States through California were killed by cars and trucks along the 5 Freeway that John Hood was given an assignment.

In the early 1990s, the Caltrans worker was tasked with creating a road sign to alert drivers to the possible danger.

Silhouetted against a yellow background and the word “CAUTION,” the sign featured a father, waist bent, head down, running hard. Behind him, a mother in a knee-length dress pulls on the slight wrist of a girl — her pigtails flying, her feet barely touching the ground.

Ten signs once dotted the shoulders of the 5 Freeway, just north of the Mexican border. They became iconic markers of the perils of the immigrant journey north. But they began to disappear — victims of crashes, storms, vandalism and the fame conferred on them by popular culture.

Today, one sign remains. And when it’s gone, it won’t be replaced — the result of California’s diminished role as a crossing point for immigrants striving to make it to America....

*****

In the 1980s, more than 100 people were killed as they tried to cross freeway lanes in the San Ysidro area and between San Clemente and Oceanside. Caltrans wanted to do something about the problem and asked [artist John] Hood, a California Department of Transportation employee and Vietnam War veteran who grew up on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico, to come up with a sign that would alert drivers and could reduce the number of deaths.

He eventually settled on using the image of a family in an effort to tug at the heart in a way a typical road sign might not. A little girl with pigtails, he thought, would convey the idea of motion, of running.

The sign was inspired by photographs of people crossing at the time, including those taken by former Los Angeles Times staff photographer Don Bartletti.

Caltrans first installed the signs in late 1990 and early 1991. After workers erected a median fence along the freeway’s trouble spots in 1994, officials decided not to replace any future signs that were lost. Around that time, federal officials launched Operation Gatekeeper, which fenced off the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego — pushing illegal immigration east, toward Arizona and Texas. That helped reduce the number of freeway-crossing deaths, Caltrans officials said.

“You create your work, and that’s the extent of it. You never envision something like that to happen,” Hood said about the sign’s evolution. “It’s become an iconic element. It lives on.”

Estela Dutra, a hairstylist at Selena Estetica Unisex on West San Ysidro Boulevard, said she always found the signs offensive. The image is akin to a cattle crossing, she said.

“It’s sort of humiliating, dehumanizing. It makes us look like animals ... primitive people,” she said.

The 72-year-old, a naturalized U.S. citizen, illegally crossed the border 40 years ago. She entered with ease as a car passenger along the San Ysidro crossing, she said.

“I wasn’t asked for a passport or a visa,” she said. “Can you believe it? Those were different times.”

Dutra said she gets teary-eyed when she sees the remaining sign on her way north from a day trip to Mexico. Her sadness doesn’t stem from her journey so long ago, but for those who continue to make the trip — which has become increasingly treacherous.

“I just feel so much sadness for all the families that have to go through that. Can you imagine how much they suffer?” she said. “The families that cross leave everything behind — the little they have — and risk it all.”

More (FWIW).

The truly big story here is that border enforcement works. California's enforcement at San Ysidro is really aggressive, with layers of militarized fencing and aggressive border patrols, with high-technology as well. We can expand this to the rest of the physically-adaptable border. It's doable, totally. It's a political question. That's all.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Shop Amazon Today

Thanks for supporting the blog!

Here, at Amazon, Today's Deals.

And, Savings in Car Audio.

Plus, Mountain House Just In Case...Essential Bucket.

More, Shop American Flags.

Still more, Banana Boat Ultra Mist Sport Performance Broad Spectrum Sun Care Sunscreen Spray - Twin Pack - SPF 30, 2 count, 6OZ.

Also, Biofreeze Pain Relieving Gel - 4 Ounce Tube - Pack of 4.

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

BONUS: Hew Strachan, The First World War: Volume I: To Arms.

Sailors and Marines Deploy from Naval Base San Diego (VIDEO)

I'm so glad the local network posts these stories. They're so important.

The family sacrifice is profound, but no complaints.

MAGA!

At ABC News 10 San Diego:

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Sailors and Marines in the America Amphibious Ready Group and 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit left San Diego Friday for a regularly scheduled deployment. The naval force is comprised of the amphibious assault ship USS America, amphibious transport dock USS San Diego and amphibious dock landing ship USS Pearl Harbor.

During the deployment, they'll operate with embarked forces of the Camp Pendleton-based 15th MEU, the "Wildcards" of Coronado-based Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23, and various other units...

Doug Ross Reviews, Rediscovering Americanism

At Director Blue, "America’s Last History Teacher: A Review of Rediscovering Americanism, by Mark R. Levin."

Levin's a patriot. I don't always agree with him, but you won't go wrong appreciating his work.

At Amazon, Rediscovering Americanism: And the Tyranny of Progressivism.

Barbara Tuchman, The Zimmermann Telegram

I'm on a kinda pre-World War I reading jag now, thanks to Fritz Fischer's book.

I have this lovely vintage paperback copy of Barbara Tuchman's, The Zimmermann Telegram.

Thanks for your support!

Robert K. Massie, Dreadnought

At Amazon, Robert K. Massie, Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War.

Richard Seymour, Corbyn

At Amazon, Richard Seymour, Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics.

This looks especially interesting in light of that Mark Penn op-ed the other day at the New York Times, and the American left's visceral response to it (at Memeorandum and Twitter).

David Weil, The Fissured Workplace

At Amazon, David Weil, The Fissured Workplace: Why Work Became So Bad for So Many and What Can Be Done to Improve It.

Amber Lee's Hot Temperatures Forecast

Well, the true July summer weather arrived on schedule.

It's been pushing 90 degrees in Irvine this past couple of days.

It's getting humid too.

And that's called the weather, heh.

Here's the lovely Ms. Amber, at KCAL 9 News Los Angeles:

Trump's Defining Speech

At WSJ, "In a presidency-defining speech in Poland, Mr. Trump defends the faith and freedom of the Western tradition":

The White House description of Donald Trump’s speech Thursday in Warsaw was simply, “Remarks by President Trump to the People of Poland.” In truth, Mr. Trump’s remarks were directed at the people of the world. Six months into his first term of office, Mr. Trump finally offered the core of what could become a governing philosophy. It is a determined and affirmative defense of the Western tradition.

To be sure, Mr. Trump’s speech also contained several pointed and welcome foreign-policy statements. He assured Poland it would not be held hostage to a single supplier of energy, meaning Russia. He exhorted Russia to stop destabilizing Ukraine “and elsewhere,” to stop supporting Syria and Iran and “instead join the community of responsible nations.” He explicitly committed to NATO’s Article 5 on mutual defense.

But—and this shocked Washington—the speech aimed higher. Like the best presidential speeches, it contained affirmations of ideas and principles and related them to the current political moment. “Americans, Poles and the nations of Europe value individual freedom and sovereignty,” he said. This was more than a speech, though. It was an argument. One might even call it an apologia for the West.

Mr. Trump built his argument out of Poland’s place in the history of the West, both as a source of its culture—Copernicus, Chopin—and as a physical and spiritual battlefield, especially during World War II. The word Mr. Trump came back to repeatedly to define this experience was “threat.”

During and after the war, Poland survived threats to its existence from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Mr. Trump believes that the West today confronts threats of a different sort, threats both physical and cultural. “This continent,” said Mr. Trump, “no longer confronts the specter of communism. But today we’re in the West, and we have to say there are dire threats to our security and to our way of life.”

He identified the most immediate security threat as an “oppressive ideology.” He was talking about radical Islam, but it is worth noting that he never mentioned radical Islam or Islamic State. Instead, he described the recent commitment by Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations to combat an ideological menace that threatens the world with terrorism. He compared this idea of mutual defense to the alliance of free nations that defeated Nazism and communism.

But the speech’s most provocative argument was about our way of life. It came when he described how a million Poles stood with Pope John Paul II in Victory Square in 1979 to resist Soviet rule by chanting, “We want God!”

“With that powerful declaration of who you are,” Mr. Trump said, “you came to understand what to do and how to live.”

This is a warning to the West and a call to action...

Still more.

And President Trump tweeted, "Thank you!"

Bella Hadid on the Runway

At the Mirror U.K., "Bella Hadid struts her stuff on the catwalk in sheer nipple-baring design before slipping into sexy silver number: The jet-setting beauty made her mark at the Alexandre Vauthier show on Tuesday."

And at Taxi Driver, "Bella Hadid in See-Through Top on the Runway."

Today's Deals

At Amazon, Today's Deals.

Also, GoPro HERO5 Black.

Here, Honeywell HT-900 TurboForce Air Circulator Fan, Black.

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

Glad Tall Kitchen Drawstring Trash Bags, 13 Gallon, 90 Count, (Packaging May Vary).

Here, 2 Pounds Unroasted Coffee Beans, Premium Select from RhoadsRoast Coffees (Brazil Cerrado Arabica - Natural 17/18 Screen Coffee Beans, 2 Pounds Unroasted Green Beans).

Kelloggs Frosted Whole Grain Mini Wheats, 70-Ounce.

More, Franklin Sports Field Master Series Fast-Pitch Softball Glove, Right-Hand Throw.

BONUS: Gordon Prange, At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor.

VIDEO: George Clooney — Hypocrite (and Complete Idiot)

I'm shaking my head at this.

Actions speak louder than words, and Clooney's proving how wrong leftists are, and how hypocritical is the entire leftist establishment.

At London's Daily Mail, "George Clooney 'planning to move Amal and their twins back to LA amid security concerns over $25m English country manor', claims magazine."

And watch, from Paul Joseph Watson:

New Album from Breakout Los Angeles Stars Haim

This is great.

They harken back to classic rock sounds, and it's all girls, heh.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Review: New album from L.A. breakout stars Haim makes you believe rock might have a future":

In the music video for “Want You Back,” the lead single from their long-awaited new album, the three sisters of Haim saunter down a deserted Ventura Boulevard, air-drumming as they pass the sushi joints and car dealerships of their native San Fernando Valley.

The video’s early morning shoot may have been the most alone time they’ve enjoyed since 2013. That’s when Haim released its hit debut, “Days Are Gone,” which after years of hard work around Los Angeles finally launched this crafty family band to stardom — and to highly visible relationships with a diverse array of pop luminaries.

Taylor Swift befriended the sisters and took them on tour. Calvin Harris put them on a thumping EDM track. Morris Day even recruited the trio to help him perform “Jungle Love” on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” Everywhere you turned, Haim was the life of someone’s party.

Now the group is back with “Something to Tell You,” which features contributions by what seems like half of L.A.’s musical community, including producers Ariel Rechtshaid and Rostam Batmanglij and first-call instrumentalists such as Greg Leisz and Lenny Castro.

For all the voices in the mix, though, “Something to Tell You,” due Friday, still feels defined by the unique bond that connects singer-guitarist Danielle Haim, bassist Este Haim and guitarist-keyboardist Alana Haim, who grew up playing music in a family band with their parents. The record makes you believe in the image in the “Want You Back” video of three women sharing a vivid private language.

It also makes you believe that rock might have a future (even if it’s only the genre’s past). On “Days Are Gone,” Haim looked back to the polished sound of vintage Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles, and here the sisters continue to rely on guitars and the like at a moment when many of their peers have little use for them...

More.

Milo Yiannopoulos: An Establishment Conservative's Guide to the Alt-Right

Following-up, "Who is 'Alt-Right'?"

I'm reminded of the May '16 article by Milo Yiannopoulos, at Breitbart, "An Establishment Conservative's Guide to the Alt-Right." (Still worth a read, for sure.)

Also, at Instapundit, "IF YOU STRIKE ME DOWN, I SHALL ONLY BECOME MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE: Milo Yiannopoulos has sold 100,000 copies of his new book, Dangerous in a single day," and "PUNCHING BACK TWICE AS HARD: Milo Yiannopoulos Files $10M Lawsuit Against Simon & Schuster For Pulling His Book."

And check out Milo's book, currently sold out, heh, at Amazon, Dangerous.

Success is the best revenge, as they say.

H.L. Mencken, Prejudices

Years ago my dad bought me a little paperback copy of this book.

I wish I still had it, actually.

Interesting.

At Amazon, H.L. Mencken, Prejudices: The Complete Series.

Who is 'Alt-Right'?

I'm not, that's for sure.

Some of these people are too cozy with legitimate Nazis and white supremacists (here's looking at you, Lauren Southern). (And don't get me going about Cassandra Fairbanks, *eye-roll*.)

But I gotta hand it to 'em in turning the Alinsky tables on the radical left. Seriously, I can't begrudge the alt-right for taking the fight to the enemy. It's long overdue (you can't count on Beltway Republican barnacles to wage ideological warfare).

From Andrew Marantz, at the New Yorker, "The Alt-Right Branding War Has Torn the Movement in Two." (Via Memeorandum and Red State.)

War on Cops

Following-up, "Suspect in Miosotis Familia Execution Had Posted Anti-Cop Diatribes on Social Media — #BlackLivesMatter."

At timely as ever, Heather Mac Donald, at Amazon, The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe.

She's so awesome.

Suspect in Miosotis Familia Execution Had Posted Anti-Cop Diatribes on Social Media — #BlackLivesMatter

The main story's at the New York Times (FWIW), "Police Officer Is Fatally Ambushed at a Bronx Command Post."

Of course, with all the fake news dominating the leftist mass media, folks won't get to the real outrage of this story, which is that suspect hated the police. Where's all the "Black Lives Matter" protests against this abomination? Crickets from the left.

See the Blaze, "Man who allegedly killed NYPD officer Miosotis Familia publicly shared anti-police rant last year":

The man who allegedly killed an New York Police Department officer in an unprovoked attack early Wednesday has a history of negative views about police officers, according to a social media post he wrote last December.

Ex-convict 34-year-old Alexander Bonds posted a video on Facebook last September threatening to “do something” about police officers who he said were killing people.

“I’m not hesitating. It ain’t happening. I wasn’t a b**** in jail and I’m not going to be a b**** in these streets. They don’t f*** with me and I damn sure don’t f*** with them,” Bonds said in a Facebook video last September. “I’m not playing Mr. Officer. I don’t care about 100 police watching this s**t. You see this face or anything, then leave it alone, trust and believe. I got broken ribs for a reason, son. We gonna shake. We gonna do something.

“Don’t think every brother, cousin or uncle you got that get (unintelligible) in jail is because of a Blood or Crip,” Bonds said. “Police be killing and saying an inmate killed them.”

Police say Bonds fatally shot 48-year-old female NYPD officer Miosotis Familia in the head through the passenger window around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday as she sat in a mobile command unit writing in her notebook. The mother of three was a 12-year veteran of the force and was stationed in the area because of a triple shooting that happened in the area in March. Although NYPD patrol cars are equipped with bullet resistant windows, mobile command units do not have the same capabilities.

Authorities say they identified Bonds and caught up to him several blocks from the crime, fatally shooting him after he brandished a revolver at them. Bonds had reportedly had no prior contact with Familia...

And more at CBS News 2 New York:

Dana Loesch Slams 'Fake Feminists' Behind Anti-NRA Women's March (VIDEO)

From Tucker's show last night:

Amy B. Zegart, Spying Blind

At Amazon, Amy B. Zegart, Spying Blind: The CIA, the FBI, and the Origins of 9/11.

Pauline Maier, American Scripture

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence.

Los Angeles Once Teemed with Dozens of Adult Cinemas

Now there's only two porn theaters in town.

At the Los Angeles Times, "The last (porn) picture shows: Once dotted with dozens of adult cinemas, L.A. now has only two":

In 1979, there were an estimated 800 porn theaters across the United States. But video and streaming have rendered them obsolete. The website Cinema Treasures lists fewer than 35 places now operating as adult theaters in the U.S.

In the 1970s, Los Angeles teemed with dozens of porn theaters. Now only two remain: the Studs and the Tiki. They sit at opposite ends of Santa Monica Boulevard — the former in West Hollywood, the latter in East Hollywood, framing the city in an unseen porno-magnetic field. Both beckon with promises of titillation and, in the case of the Studs, a tag line that reads, “Come explore, relax, and take a load off.”

To investigate these last bastions of adult cinema, I enlisted the help of Los Angeles painter Zak Smith.

Smith is a Yale-educated artist who has appeared in more than half a dozen porn films under the name Zak Sabbath. He chronicled his experiences in the 2009 memoir “We Did Porn.” (Original drawings from that project are currently on view at Fabien Castanier Gallery in Culver City.)

He was curious to explore the L.A. theaters, neither of which he had visited.

“They’re vestigial,” he says. “Like with everything else, the old platforms for porn are being phased out. Software adapts fast, hardware adapts slower — and a theater is the ultimate hardware.”

Plus, Smith sees them as symbols of the ways in which sprawling Los Angeles can unwittingly harbor forgotten pockets of history.

“L.A.,” he explains, “is one of those places that always manages to have at least one of something that shouldn’t exist.”

More.

Charles Krauthammer: President Trump's Warsaw Speech Was His Best (VIDEO)

Following-up, "The End of Alliance."

Watch Dr. K's analysis, at Fox News, "Krauthammer: Trump's Warsaw speech was his best, Reaganesque."

Brooklyn Decker in Arizona (VIDEO)

Via Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Robert Kagan, The Return of History

At Amazon, Robert Kagan, The Return of History and the End of Dreams.

See also Kagan, Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order.

The End of Alliance

President Trump's in Europe and he gave a major address on American foreign relations in Poland today.

See LAT, "Trump frames anti-terrorism fight as a clash of civilizations, defending Western culture against enemies."

There's lots more at Memeorandum, for example, at VOX (safe link), "Trump's speech in Poland sounded like an alt-right manifesto."

And at Free Beacon, "President Trump's Remarkable Warsaw Speech."

More on all of that later.

Meanwhile, of related interest, see Michael Lind, at the National Interest, "Blocpolitik":

THE TRANSACTIONAL nationalism of Donald Trump horrifies the bipartisan foreign-policy establishment, because it suggests the president does not realize that bloc maintenance is not merely one of several goals, but the overriding objective, of U.S. strategy. From the elite perspective, asking whether Americans are getting their money’s worth by protecting Japan, South Korea and rich NATO allies is tantamount to asking for a cost-benefit analysis of federal-government protection of the American South or West Coast. Most members of the foreign-policy elite can no more conceive of South Korea or Poland outside of the U.S. military bloc than they can conceive of Virginia or California outside of the United States of America. Their alarm may be premature, because Trump appears more interested in pressuring American allies to contribute more to U.S.-led alliances than in dissolving them.

Like their American counterparts, the foreign-policy establishments in European nations are not dominated by Bismarckian realists, coldly calculating on a day-to-day basis whether the costs of membership in NATO and EU outweigh the benefits, from the point of view of national interests, narrowly defined. In the campaign that culminated in the vote for Brexit last summer, it was the outsider populists who made arguments in favor of the British (or English) national interests. The British elite was almost entirely opposed. Sometimes they argued on pragmatic grounds that the cost of Brexit would be disastrously high. But it was clear that being part of the European Union, like being part of a trans-Atlantic Euro-American system, was a major part of their personal and professional identities. For most elite Britons, a British departure from the EU could only be thought of as a joke or a nightmare.

The mystery that puzzled Rip Van Winkle in our fable is solved, then. The Soviet threat may have been the original stimulus to the formation of NATO and, indirectly, of an integrated Europe. But the trans-Atlantic Euro-American bloc is so integrated, so held together by ties of military cooperation, economic interdependence and shared values, and so fundamental to the personal identity of elites on both sides of the Atlantic that it endures even in the absence of a credible Russian superpower threat, to which Putin’s limited revisionism cannot be compared.

In other regions, like East, Central and South Asia and the Persian Gulf, there is less deep transnational integration and more traditional arm’s-length alliances. And there is nothing like the common, crusading ideology of Marxism-Leninism in the former Communist bloc or the dominant, if not universal, left-liberal variant of democracy in the contemporary European Union. It is in Asia, rather than in the North Atlantic, that something like the traditional realist account of transactional national diplomacy based on calculations of discrete state interests can still be found.

But even there, in the heartland of twenty-first-century realpolitik, conventional American realists are likely to be refuted. The reason is that the offshore-balancing strategy favored by many realists, with the United States as the “holder of the balance” among multiple great powers, is likely to be rendered irrelevant by the long-term growth of Chinese wealth and power and its consequent regional hegemony.

One alternative to shifting balances of power is provided by more or less fixed geographic spheres of influence. Spheres of influence are disliked by both realists and idealists, including neoconservatives and hawkish neoliberals. But this is a relatively recent development in American history. Before the world wars, the United States channeled the Monroe Doctrine and identified its own sphere of influence. The Open Door doctrine promoted by the United States and Britain more than a century ago was compatible with European and Japanese spheres of influence within the territory of a then powerless and divided China. Although Franklin Roosevelt seems to have envisioned his “Four Policemen”—the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and China—policing their regions after World War II, the Cold War quickly became a contest among rival liberal and Communist visions for the loyalties of postcolonial nations and the “captive nations” of Soviet-controlled Europe. In practice, of course, the United States and USSR defended their spheres of influence in Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and Central America. But the idea that the weak neighbors of a regional great power or superpower should defer to the local hegemon fell out of favor. Indeed, in November 2013, Secretary of State John Kerry declared, “The era of the Monroe Doctrine is over.”

One interpretation of this would be that the historic Monroe Doctrine had lost its relevance in the post–Cold War period, in which the United States asserted its exclusive sphere of influence as the world’s only superpower, not only in the Americas but also in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and every other region. Today, however, America’s project of converting hegemony within its Cold War bloc into universal hegemony—turning the entire planet into a single sphere of influence, as it were—has collapsed thanks to Chinese and Russian resistance and the war-weariness of the American public. But the U.S. foreign-policy establishment refuses to acknowledge the failure of America’s recent bid for global hegemony, pretending instead that the so-called “liberal world order” is under unjustified assault by China, Russia and perhaps Iran. Because China and Russia are engaged in moderate pushback against the American bloc in Asia and Europe, they are supposed to be threats to liberalism, the rule of law and global democracy. Meanwhile, America’s illiberal and antidemocratic allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar, responsible for promoting Salafist jihadist proxies in Syria and elsewhere, are supposed to be understood as states that uphold the liberal world order. This is just propaganda, of a particularly Orwellian kind. What the bipartisan U.S. foreign-policy elite and its allies abroad call the liberal world order is nothing more than the contemporary American bloc, like the “Free World” of the Cold War...

Still lots more, at the link.

Émile Zola, Germinal

I just finished this surprisingly good novel.

At Amazon, Émile Zola, Germinal.

I say "surprisingly good" since the book caught me off guard. It was snappy and felt contemporary, despite being published in 1885.

The main thing is that I was hooked after the first chapter. I can go for a hundred pages or so even if I'm not hooked, but then a novel feels like work. If you're sucked in right off the bat, then it's pure pleasure reading. You don't want to put it down. I love that.

And then, of course, it's a fascinating novel of class struggle (French miners fighting labor exploitation by the "bourgeois" ruling class in the Nord). Indeed, I just picked it up at a used book store by chance, although you'd think leftists would be shouting this one to the moon. (Leftists aren't all that bright, especially the social media trolls, heh).

In any case, it's good summer reading if you're so inclined. And you can check off one of those "classic novels" you've been meaning to read, which is important in my case (since I like to think of myself as a cultured, literate person, heh).

Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776.

#NationalBikiniDay: Jessica Gomes Goes Down Under in Sydney (VIDEO)

Following-up, "National Bikini Day."

Via Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

How is CNN Not Embarrassed?

From Melissa Mackenzie, at the American Spectator:

A random person created the silly gif of Trump body-slamming CNN, which President Trump then tweeted. It’s important to remember that this was the precipitating event that lead CNN to use its myriad resources to seek out the random person and threaten exposure and shame …for creating a stupid gif.

CNN’s editorial bias and noxious behavior predates the stupid gif. Chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta got in a shouting match with President Trump. Trump, in turn, called CNN Fake News. Of course, “Fake News” is now, itself, a meme.

There is tension.

But this infantile jostling between press and president is one thing. It’s another to use resources to target those who create the memes, gifs, and parodies, and threaten those people with exposure if they don’t apologize.

Good people are defending the reporters doing the legwork to find the poor Reddit slob who created the gif. Ridiculous! The reporter may be a nice person, but he’s lost his mind.

That’s what’s happening right now. Decent people are losing their minds and doing profoundly destructive, self-harming, and outlandish things in the defense of what?

Pride?

At what cost is the nonsense proceeding? Do the anti-Trump media and mouth-breathers on the left cheering them on (they’re one and the same, but for the sake of argument), know what they’re doing?

Every day that the media continues to act like rage-monster toddlers, they lose credibility and value. No one will believe their reporting, that’s assured. What’s worse, no one will believe anything at all.

This is a terrible crisis of a whole institution. Last week it was the childish Joe and Mika cutting short a vacation to tangle with the President. This week it’s CNN...

More.

#CNNBlackmail: What Fake News Network's Doxing Threat Says About Journalism

From David Harsanyi, at the Federalist, "What CNN’s Threat to Dox a Redditor Tells Us About the State of Journalism."

PREVIOUSLY: "Backlash Against CNN!"

National Bikini Day

At USA Today, "A brief look at the Bikini: National Bikini Day is July 5th."

BONUS: Flashback, "Smokin' Bikini Model Shendelle Schokman at Cardiff State Beach in Encinitas," and "Shendelle Schokman Bikini Beach Stroll."

North Korea Missile Provokes U.S.

Pfft.

NoKo would be destroyed in seconds of it tried to fight a nuclear war with the U.S.

No, the regime should not get nukes, but let's keep things in perspective.

At USA Today, "Analysis: North Korea missile launch raises the stakes in a big way. What now?":

North Korea’s successful launch of a missile that for the first time could reach the U.S. mainland ratchets up the pressure on President Trump and other world leaders to resolve a growing nuclear crisis with no easy solution.

The test launch came on the Fourth of July, and just three days before a Group of 20 summit convenes in Hamburg, Germany. The timing is almost certainly not coincidental. North Korea uses such occasions to call attention to its provocative acts — and its test elevates the urgency with which Trump and U.S. allies may feel compelled to respond. Hours after the North Korean launch, the Eighth U.S. Army and South Korean military fired surface-to-surface missiles into South Korean waters in a demonstration of capability, the U.S. Army said in a statement.

Trump has repeatedly called on China to rein in its neighbor and close ally. China on Tuesday suggested a compromise: North Korea would stop missile tests if the United States and South Korea scaled back military exercises in the region.

Tuesday evening, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson confirmed the intercontinental ballistic missile launch and called it a “new escalation” of the threat. He vowed to bring additional international pressure on the regime.

“The United States seeks only the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the end of threatening actions by North Korea. As we, along with others, have made clear, we will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea,” Tillerson said in a statement. “Global action is required to stop a global threat. Any country that hosts North Korean guest workers, provides any economic or military benefits, or fails to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions is aiding and abetting a dangerous regime. All nations should publicly demonstrate to North Korea that there are consequences to their pursuit of nuclear weapons.”

Trump has said he would be willing to try the diplomatic route, and even agreed to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un face-to-face. Prior diplomatic overtures by two U.S. presidents, Bill Clinton and George W.  Bush, proved failures when the North reneged on the agreements.

North Korea appears intent on developing a nuclear-tipped missile that could hit the United States, saying it needs such a deterrent to prevent a U.S. attack aimed at overthrowing the regime...

More.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, On Death and Dying

Lawrence Meyers cited her in my previous entry.

At Amazon, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy and Their Own Families.

Why the Left Hates Trump So Much

From Lawrence Meyers, at Town Hall.

On Twitter yesterday, once again I noticed how deeply infected leftists are with Trump Derangement Syndrome.

It's war out there.

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, Why Nations Fail

At Amazon, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty.

Backlash Against CNN!

Yesterday CNN published a blackmail threat against the REDDITor who created the CNN smackdown GIF retweeted by President Trump. (See, via Memeorandum [safe link], "How CNN found the Reddit user behind the Trump wrestling GIF.")

The reaction has been furious!

For one thing, I've never seen more intense nor indignant memes on Twitter before this #CNNBlackmail hashtag went viral, my god!

It's brutal!

Even fake news New York Times is on the case, lol. See (safe link), "CNN Story About Source of Trump Wrestling Video Draws Backlash."

And some choice memes on Twitter: here, here, and here.

I'm seriously questioning the financial viability of the network. Jeff Zucker and company better have some deep pockets, man.

Happy 4th of July!

Ms. Jessica's wishing you a happy holiday!

Happy Birthday America 🇺🇸 #ProudToBeAnAmerican pic.twitter.com/CAc7iGa9ZS

— Jessica Simpson (@JessicaSimpson) July 4, 2017

Anthony Summers, The Arrogance of Power

At Amazon, Anthony Summers, The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon.

Danielle Gersh's Fabulous Fourth of July Forecast

It's going to be pleasantly mild tomorrow.

We'll be watching fireworks from Heritage Park in Irvine, which is right next to Irvine High School, where the police association holds an annual fireworks show.

Allen Guelzo, Gettysburg

At Amazon, Allen Guelzo, Gettysburg: The Last Invasion.

Sweden Steps Up Deportation

Sweden's stepping back into the real world.

At Foreign Affairs, "Asylum Is Hard to Find: Most of the unaccompanied minors who made it to Sweden have yet to receive their asylum decisions."

Good I say. Good on Sweden. Boot those "unaccompanied minors."

Holiday Bikinis

At Drunken Stepfather:

* "LEA MICHELE STILL IN A BIKINI OF THE DAY."

* "ARIEL WINTER’S CLEAVAGE FOR AMERICA OF THE DAY."

* "CHRISTIN MILIAN STLL TRYING TO BE A KARDASHIAN FOR AMERICA OF THE DAY."

* "CHANEL IMAN MODEL IN A BIKINI ON THE BEACH OF THE DAY."

* "ALESSANDRA AMBROSIO’S BIKINI OF THE DAY."

* "PARIS JACKSON IS SPENDING HER INHERITANCE RIGHT OF THE DAY."

* "HILARY DUFF IN A BIKINI OF THE DAY."

* "PREGNANT REESE WITHERSPOON BATHING SUIT SHOOT OF THE DAY."

BONUS: "BELLA THORNE IN A BATH FOR AMERICA OF THE DAY."

Danielle Gersh's Holiday Weather Forecast

I just love Ms. Danielle, almost as much as Ms. Jennifer Delacruz.

Great weekend weather-casting talent, so no complaints.

From last night, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

All-Star Game Results No Longer Tied to Home-Field Advantage in World Series

Hmm.

This is interesting.

I guess statistically, the results of the All-Star Game didn't matter that much to the outcomes of the World Series.

But see USA Today, "With All-Star Game result no longer tied to World Series, there's a new incentive to win." (But watch out for those loud auto-play videos.)

President Trump's Tweets on Mika Brzezinski Were 'Fantastic'! (VIDEO)

It's Ann Coulter.

She's fired up on Stuart Varney's show, on Fox Business:

Shop Today's Deals

At Amazon, Today's Deals. New deals. Every day. Shop our Deal of the Day, Lightning Deals and more daily deals and limited-time sales.

And, EasyGo Cabana -Beach & Sports Cabana keeps you Cool and Comfortable. Easy Set-up and Take Down. Large Shade Area. More Elegant & Classier than Beach Umbrella.

Plus, FIJI Natural Artesian Water, 500mL Bottles (Pack of 24).

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

And, Samsung Gear VR W/Controller - Latest Edition (US Version with Warranty).

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Even more, Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575-33BM 15.6-Inch Full HD Notebook (Intel Core i3-7100U Processor 7th Generation , 4GB DDR4, 1TB 5400RPM Hard Drive, Intel HD Graphics 620, Windows 10 Home), Obsidian Black.

BONUS: Lonely Planet Portugal (Travel Guide).

Lyle Denniston Retires from SCOTUS Blog

But he's not retiring altogether.

He's joining the the National Constitution Center.

At Politico, "Lyle Denniston, a lion of the Supreme Court beat, leaves SCOTUSblog."


And his farewell blog post, at the SCOTUS Blog, "One journey over, the quest continues":

With my journey with the blog about to conclude, it will probably surprise no one that my quest continues. Retirement still eludes me, because I want it to. Next, I will be expanding my role in covering the Court for Constitution Daily, the blog of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. My editor there, Scott Bomboy, is as imaginative a leader as I have ever had, and the Center has grown in stature and cultural impact with Jeff Rosen in charge. The Court’s press room, thus, has not seen the last of me. I will always be reachable at lylden at aol.com.

And, through the generosity of the leaders and faculty at the University of Baltimore and its Law School, and my friend, the uniquely talented Garrett Epps, I will take on a role as a lecturer and visiting professor. Since my days with The Baltimore Sun, I have never lost my affection for Charm City, and the University is a dynamic presence in its midst.

And, who knows, I may still have a book or two waiting, inside me, to be written...

Matt Yglesias Achieves Peak Dumbassery

How about $150.00 an hour?

Sounds stupid?

Not to Matt Yglesias.

At Instapundit, "OH, I THINK WE’RE NOWHERE NEAR PEAK YGLESIAS: ‘Hitting the crack pipe?’ Matt Yglesias achieves peak dumbassery with this take on minimum wage."

Girls as Young as 9-Years-Old Seeking Vaginal Surgery in Britain

Girls are getting ideas about their private parts from social media and pornography. Pornography! At 9-year-old!

My dad used to have Playboy magazines lying around when was a kid. I remember laughing when I looked at the "boobies." And I don't think I owned a bona fide porno magazine until I was 15-years-old (and lost my virginity a short time thereafter, heh).

So I'm not too pleased about this development, to say the least. But this is the culture today, so degraded.

At the Telegraph U.K., "Vagina surgery ‘sought by girls as young as nine’ because of pornography, doctors reveal" (via Memeorandum).

U.S. Risks Escalation in the Middle East

I'm not that worried about it. I'd say the paleocon obsession with isolationism is bad for American vital interests.

And I'm pleased by Trump's foreign policy approach thus far, as it's not tied down to alt-right dogmas (to the everlasting condemnation of the alt-right idiots).

At the Los Angeles Times, "'The closer we get, the more complex it gets.' White House struggles on strategy as Islamic State nears defeat in Iraq and Syria":

With American-backed ground forces poised to recapture Mosul in Iraq and Raqqah in Syria, Islamic State’s de facto capitals, U.S. commanders are confident they soon will vanquish the militant group from its self-declared caliphate after three years of fighting.

But the White House has yet to define strategy for the next step in the struggle to restore stability in the region, including key decisions about safe zones, reconstruction, nascent governance, easing sectarian tensions and commitment of U.S. troops.

Nor has the Trump administration set policy for how it will confront forces from Iran and Russia, the two outside powers that arguably gained the most in the bitter conflict — and that now are hoping to collect the spoils and expand their influence.

Iran, in particular, is pushing to secure a land corridor from its western border across Iraq and Syria and up to Lebanon, where it supports Hezbollah militants, giving it a far larger foothold in the turbulent region.

“Right now everyone is positioned” for routing Islamic State “without having the rules of the road,” said Michael Yaffe, a former State Department envoy for the Middle East who is now vice president of the Middle East and Africa center at the U.S. Institute of Peace. “That’s a dangerous situation.”

The risk of a broader confrontation was clear in recent weeks when a U.S. F/A-18 shot down a Syrian fighter jet for the first time in the multi-sided six-year war, provoking an angry response from Russia, which supports Syrian President Bashar Assad.

U.S. warplanes also destroyed two Iranian-made drone aircraft, although it’s not clear who was flying them. The Pentagon said all the attacks were in self-defense as the aircraft approached or fired on American forces or U.S.-backed Syrian fighters.

“What I worry about is the muddled mess scenario,” said Ilan Goldenberg, a former senior State Department official who now heads the Middle East program at the nonpartisan Center for a New American Security. “When you start shooting down planes and running into each other, it quickly goes up the escalation ladder.”

The clashes occurred in eastern Syria, where Russian-backed Syrian and Iranian forces are pushing against U.S. special operations forces and U.S.-backed Syrian opposition fighters trying to break Islamic State’s hold on the Euphrates River valley south of Raqqah and into Iraq.

Except for a few towns, Islamic State still controls the remote area, and U.S. officials fear the militants could regroup there and plan future attacks. Many of the group’s leaders and operatives have taken shelter in Dair Alzour province...

Still more.

Nicole Scherzinger Shows Off Her Fabulous Figure

At London's Daily Mail, "Bikini-clad Nicole Scherzinger shows off her fabulous figure as she plays in the sand and takes a dip in the sea on a sun-drenched holiday in Mykonos: he jetted into Mykonos on Saturday for a sun-soaked holiday with friends. And Nicole Scherzinger looks like she's having a whale of a time on the Greek island as she posed on a beach in a multi-coloured bikini."

J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy

This book's been out for over a year and it's still not available in paperback. Last I checked it was still on the New York Times bestseller list, so the publisher's going to milk it while it's hot.

Well, more power to Mr. Vance. He's going to be financially set for some time.

At Amazon, J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.

Sean McMeekin, The Russian Origins of the First World War

At Amazon, Sean McMeekin, The Russian Origins of the First World War.

The Sleazy, Alcohol-Fueled Environment of 'Bachelor in Paradise'

Alcohol was flowing freely on the set, with producers hoping to liberate their cast members, and drum up some excitement (any kind of excitement, apparently, as ratings are the ultimate ratio).

At LAT, "Alcohol, sex and consent: Add TV cameras and the 'Bachelor in Paradise' party gets complicated":

Before the cameras even started rolling, Chad Johnson was drunk. Not tipsy; hammered. By the time production on “Bachelor in Paradise” kicked off at 11 a.m. in Sayulita, Mexico, the reality star had already taken seven shots of Jack Daniel’s whiskey and downed a whole bottle of wine.

Because, he figured: Why not? He’d agreed to go on the third season of the spinoff of ABC’s “The Bachelor” because it seemed like a paid vacation, replete with bikini-clad women, a private beach and an open bar. Also, alcohol loosened him up — he wanted to be liked by his new cast mates, and when he drank, he felt like he was instantly funnier.

“Plus, when you’re filming the show, you have this adrenaline pump of being on TV, so you can drink more and are still capable of walking and talking,” Johnson, 29, explained. “There are points of time on the show where you’re still conscious, where in the real world, you would have been asleep somewhere 10 hours earlier.”

But no one on the production team put Johnson to bed. Instead, he passed out on the sand, as crabs crawled over his face. The next morning, he learned he engaged in an aggressive make-out session with one female cast member and hurled insults at another who was born with only one full arm. He was also told he’d soiled himself during his sleep.

Johnson’s behavior that night had consequences: Within hours, host Chris Harrison was dispatched to tell him he was no longer welcome on the show.

*****

Heavy drinking is not uncommon on the “Bachelor” shows, with contestants sometimes becoming so intoxicated that they see the extent of their behavior only when it eventually airs on national television. Often, drunken antics are played for humor — there’s usually that one person who gets so sloshed at the “Bachelor” mansion on night one that they do something embarrassing in front of their potential husband or wife. But for the first time in the franchise's 15-year history, an incident fueled by on-set drinking has led to both public scrutiny and reports of internal policy changes regarding alcohol and sexual behavior.

On June 4, the first day of filming on “Paradise’s” fourth season at the Playa Escondida resort, a male and female contestant got drunk and had an encounter in the pool that the male said in a televised interview involved a sexual act.

At first, the incident seemed par for the course in “Paradise.” Contestants regularly get frisky in the open and have sex in bedrooms without doors — though the footage rarely shows anything too raunchy.

A couple of days later, though, the two contestants were pulled aside and told that two producers had filed third-party complaints with Warner Bros., the production company that produces the ABC show, related to the pool encounter. The entire cast was flown back to the U.S. On June 11, Warner Bros. released a statement announcing production had been suspended while it investigated claims of alleged misconduct.

The female contestant, Corinne Olympios, hired a high-profile Hollywood lawyer, Marty Singer, and issued her own statement. “Although I have little memory of that night,” the 24-year-old said, “something bad obviously took place.” The male contestant, 30-year-old DeMario Jackson, retained his own counsel and told his side of the story, including a detailed description of what he says was a consensual encounter, in a televised interview on E! News earlier this week.

On June 20, Warner Bros. announced that its internal investigation did not “support any charge of misconduct” or show that the “safety of any cast member was ever in jeopardy.” Production resumed last weekend with what Warner Bros. described as “certain changes to the show’s policies” to enhance participants’ safety.

Warner Bros. declined to elaborate on those changes, but on Tuesday, TMZ reported that the show had instituted a slew of new rules: Contestants must adhere to a two-drink-per-hour maximum, and before initiating sex, they must check with a producer tasked with making sure both parties are able to give consent.

Olympios said in a statement to The Times on Thursday that she was “happy” about the changes on the show. In the statement, she said her legal team had completed its investigation to her “satisfaction” and that she had no complaints about the production...

Keep reading.

Émile Zola, Germinal

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Émile Zola, Germinal (Penguin Classics).

Jennifer Delacruz's Mild Holiday Forecast

Once again we've got a video of the news highlights at ABC News 10 San Diego. Ms. Jennifer's weather report starts at 5:05 minutes. If you scroll back to the beginning, there's coverage of the San Diego impeachment march and the counter protest. We've got activists protesting all over the country this weekend, a sign of a vigorous healthy democracy, not the totalitarian regime leftists have been warning about since last November.

In any case, here's Ms. Jennifer:

ICYMI: Lidia Yuknavitch, The Book of Joan

This book looks really good.

At Amazon, Lidia Yuknavitch, The Book of Joan: A Novel.

Juliana Barr, Peace Came in the Form of a Woman

At Amazon, Juliana Barr, Peace Came in the Form of a Woman: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands.

Omar El Akkad, American War

*BUMPED.*

I've got this one on order.

Remember, purchases through my Amazon links help fuel my book reading addiction at no additional cost to yourself, and your support is greatly appreciated.

I'm having a lot of fun!

At Amazon, Omar El Akkad, American War: A Novel.

Elizabeth A. Fenn, Encounters at the Heart of the World

At Amazon, Elizabeth A. Fenn, Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People.

Today's Deals

Thanks for your support, as always.

And shop, at Amazon, Today's Deals.

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Also, Save on Kitchen and Dining Items.

More, KIND Breakfast Bars, Peanut Butter, Gluten Free, 1.8 Ounce, 32 Count.

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BONUS: Victor Davis Hanson, A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War.

Holly Williams Reports from Raqqa, Syria (VIDEO)

For CBS "Face the Nation":



Also, at the New York Post, "A series of car bombs rocked the Syrian capital, killing at least eight people and wounding a dozen more."

Nina Agdal Uncovered for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2017 (VIDEO)

As always, she remains one of my favorites.

President Trump Tweets Photoshopped Video of Him Wrestling 'CNN' to the Ground

He's the ultimate troll.

And boy does this piss off the leftist establishment, lol.

Watch, "#FraudNewsCNN #FNN."

Also at the New York Times, via Memeorandum, "Trump Tweets a Video of Him Wrestling ‘CNN’ to the Ground."

Seen on Twitter, ".@AnaNavarro on Trump CNN tweet: “It is an incitement to violence. He is going to get somebody killed in the media”."

Nah.

It's hilarious.

More at Twitchy, "CNN responds to that ‘Trump punches out CNN’ video."

Jennifer Delacruz's Mild Sunny Forecast

For some reason, ABC News 10 posted most of their evening newscast to YouTube. Ms. Jennifer's near the end of the clip, at 10:40 minutes. However, if you scroll back a minute or two, there's a great little segment on the Oceanside 4th of July parade, which was held today. I love the patriotic stuff. There's almost nothing that makes me more happy, considering the youth anti-American culture that seems to be taking over these days.

In any case, here's the lovely Ms. Jennifer in that fantastic tight black dress:

Silicon Valley Women Open-Up About Sexual Harassment

Leftist tech progressives are the biggest hypocrites.

At NYT, "Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment":

Their stories came out slowly, even hesitantly, at first. Then in a rush.

One female entrepreneur recounted how she had been propositioned by a Silicon Valley venture capitalist while seeking a job with him, which she did not land after rebuffing him. Another showed the increasingly suggestive messages she had received from a start-up investor. And one chief executive described how she had faced numerous sexist comments from an investor while raising money for her online community website.

What happened afterward was often just as disturbing, the women told The New York Times. Many times, the investors’ firms and colleagues ignored or played down what had happened when the situations were brought to their attention. Saying anything, the women were warned, might lead to ostracism.

Now some of these female entrepreneurs have decided to take that risk. More than two dozen women in the technology start-up industry spoke to The Times in recent days about being sexually harassed. Ten of them named the investors involved, often providing corroborating messages and emails, and pointed to high-profile venture capitalists such as Chris Sacca of Lowercase Capital and Dave McClure of 500 Startups.

The disclosures came after the tech news site The Information reported that female entrepreneurs had been preyed upon by a venture capitalist, Justin Caldbeck of Binary Capital. The new accounts underscore how sexual harassment in the tech start-up ecosystem goes beyond one firm and is pervasive and ingrained. Now their speaking out suggests a cultural shift in Silicon Valley, where such predatory behavior had often been murmured about but rarely exposed.

The tech industry has long suffered a gender imbalance, with companies such as Google and Facebook acknowledging how few women were in their ranks. Some female engineers have started to speak out on the issue, including a former Uber engineer who detailed a pattern of sexual harassment at the company, setting off internal investigations that spurred the resignation in June of Uber’s chief executive, Travis Kalanick.

Most recently, the revelations about Mr. Caldbeck of Binary Capital have triggered an outcry. The investor has been accused of sexually harassing entrepreneurs while he worked at three different venture firms in the past seven years, often in meetings in which the women were presenting their companies to him.

Several of Silicon Valley’s top venture capitalists and technologists, including Reid Hoffman, a founder of LinkedIn, condemned Mr. Caldbeck’s behavior last week and called for investors to sign a “decency pledge.” Binary has since collapsed, with Mr. Caldbeck leaving the firm and investors pulling money out of its funds.

The chain of events has emboldened more women to talk publicly about the treatment they said they had endured from tech investors...

Keep reading.

Page 3 Model Danielle Sellers in Titillating Pool Photoshoot

At London's Daily Mail, "Glamour model Danielle Sellers goes completely topless in titillating pool photoshoot.... as she 'prepares to cause a stir by entering Love Island'."

And at the Sun U.K., "WET AND WILD - Love Island’s new girl Danielle Sellers poses topless for sexy photoshoot in a pool: The raunchiest contestant ever will be making her way onto our screens and ruffling feathers in the house."

Mark Lilla, The Shipwrecked Mind

At Amazon, Mark Lilla, The Shipwrecked Mind: On Political Reaction.

Challenges for American Workers

At USA Today, "Why does American work feel so bad?"

Mika Brzezinski Responds to President Trump (VIDEO)

I'm not up early enough for Morning Joe, but I doubt I'd be watching it in any case.

Just another wasted far-left broadcast.

Sad.

Following-up, "Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski Say White House Officials Promised That National Enquirer Hit Piece Would Be Spiked if They Apologized to President Trump."

I did watched this clip, however. She's all stoic about it, tut-tutting about how she's "fine" after the terrible ---- terrible! ---- Donald Trump tweets.

What goes around comes around, sweetie.

Jennifer Delacruz's Mild Weather Forecast

It's lovely weather, heading into the 4th of July holiday this week.

Here's the fabulous Ms. Jennifer, for ABC News 10 San Diego:

Shop Deals

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Wireless Security Camera, KAMTRON HD WiFi Security Surveillance IP Camera Home Monitor with Motion Detection Two-Way Audio Night Vision, Black.

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BONUS: F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents - The Definitive Edition (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek, Volume 2).

Folks Need to Get Busy!

Lol.

At LAT, "Americans keep having fewer babies as U.S. birthrates hit some record lows":

Hey stork, you’ve been slacking off — and U.S. health officials know it.

For the second year in a row, the number of babies delivered in the U.S. fell in 2016, according to a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics. For some groups of women, the birth rate reached record lows.

The provisional figures released Friday include 99.96% of all births in the United States last year. Here’s what they show:

Overall births

The total number of babies born in the U.S. last year was 3,941,109. That’s 37,388 fewer babies than were born in the U.S. in 2015, which represents a 1% decline.

The number of births tends to rise as the population rises, so statisticians like to make historical comparisons by calculating the general fertility rate. This is the number of births per 1,000 women considered to be of childbearing age (between 15 and 44).

In 2016, the U.S. general fertility rate hit a record low of 62.0 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. In 2015, the general fertility rate was 62.5.

Another useful statistic is the total fertility rate. This is an estimate of the total number of babies that 1,000 women would have over their lifetimes, based on the actual birth rates for women in different age groups.

In 2016, the total fertility rate for American women was 1,818 births per 1,000 women. That’s the lowest it has been since 1984.

In order for a generation to exactly replace itself, the total fertility rate needs to be 2,100 births per 1,000 women. The U.S. has been missing that mark since 1971 (though the country’s population has grown due to immigration).

More older mothers

The ages of women giving birth in the U.S. has been skewing older for several years, and that trend continued in 2016.

Birth rates for women 30 and older hit their highest levels since the 1960s, and women in their early 30s had the highest birthrate of any age group.

In 2016, there were 102.6 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 30 and 34. The last time it was that high was 1964.

There were also 52.6 births per 1,000 women ages 35 to 39, the highest that figure has been since 1962...

Teenage birthrates are declining, so that's good news.

But keep reading.

Trump Administration Believes it's Gained Tactical Advantage in War with the Media, Thanks to CNN Resignations and Sarah Palin's Libel Suit Against the New York Times

I think so.

From Hada Gold, at Politico, "Trump seizes the advantage in war with media":

Donald Trump and his allies believe he’s gained a tactical advantage in his war with the media.

As he escalates his attacks on the “failing media,” Trump and his allies are increasingly convinced that recent evidence, including the retracted CNN piece on an aspect of the Russia investigations, will prove to skeptical voters that the mainstream media has a vendetta against the administration.

Many White House staffers were “elated,” a person with knowledge of their conversations said, when they learned that three journalists had resigned over a botched story that claimed newly appointed Export-Import Bank official Anthony Scaramucci was being investigated for his ties to a Russian investment fund.

Trump was quick to publicize the retraction and resignations on his Twitter feed, adding, “What about all the other phony stories they do. FAKE NEWS.” He used the “FAKE NEWS” line again Wednesday morning in claiming that The Washington Post was “guardian of Amazon,” the company of Post owner Jeff Bezos.

Conservative outlets and allies of the president also trumpeted Sarah Palin’s libel suit against The New York Times for suggesting in an editorial that her super PAC played a role in inciting the gunman who shot former Rep. Gabby Giffords. The editorial from May was ultimately corrected, but was nonetheless an embarrassing moment for another media company that’s aggressively reported on the president and received his wrath in return.

The attacks marked an escalation of Trump’s strategy of citing media bias to rally conservatives and undecided voters around the idea that the investigations of Russian influence in the 2016 election are media-driven and politically motivated...

Keep reading.

Maitland Ward Breaks Snapchat

Heh.

At Taxi Driver, "Maitland Ward in Her Shower on Snap Chat."

And she posts to Twitter, commenting, "Here's the Snap Pic that was reported & taken down. If you don't like my SM game please don't follow me. I enjoy having fun and being free."

Also, "So I read the snapchat rules... it says nudity is okay as long as you're not performing any sort of sexual act. Is showering a sex act?"