Margaret MacMillan, The War That Ended Peace

At Amazon, Margaret MacMillan, The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914.

Sally Marks, The Illusion of Peace

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Sally Marks, The Illusion of Peace: International Relations in Europe, 1918-1933.

Barry Rubin, Silent Revolution

*BUMPED.*

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

President Trump Was Good-Humored with Reporters on Air Force One for an Hour, in Stark Contrast to How He Treats the News Media in Public

Following-up from Thursday, where I mentioned, "President Trump is killing it in Paris!"

When he gets away from the leftist siege of D.C., he loosens up. Has a good time. And then you find him as a raconteur with the media correspondents. They're not used to it, so it becomes a story.

President Trump is a nice guy. You'd definitively like to have a Big Mac with him, lol.

See the New York Times, at Memeorandum, "Dropping the Bluster, Trump Revives Banter With Reporters":

WASHINGTON — The Donald J. Trump who turned up in the press cabin of Air Force One on Wednesday evening, as his plane crossed the Atlantic Ocean on the way to Paris, was starkly different from the one who publicly pillories the news media but surprisingly familiar to reporters who know him well.

The president had taken off his tie but kept on his jacket — a wardrobe change that for him qualifies as casual Friday — and he was in a happy-hour frame of mind. Expansive, engaging, even at times ebullient, Mr. Trump held forth for an hour, addressing reporters by name and alighting on topics as different as Chinese history and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

It was a loose, good-humored side of Mr. Trump that the public rarely sees amid the fusillade of angry speeches and venomous tweets that have characterized the president’s first six months in the White House. And it came to light only because he retroactively put the session on the record, asking a reporter the next morning why she had not quoted his remarks.

White House aides say they see more of this side in the Oval Office, where the president has debated advisers about issues like sending more troops to Afghanistan. Diplomats say their bosses see more of it in meetings, where Mr. Trump has engaged even those who are deeply skeptical of his views, like Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.

But this is hardly the view most people have of a president who built his populist appeal on contempt for the mainstream media; who thundered on Inauguration Day, “This American carnage stops right here”; and who told supporters on his 100th day in office, “If the media’s job is to be honest and tell the truth, the media deserves a very, very big fat failing grade.”

In some ways, Mr. Trump has reversed the usual dichotomy between the public and private president.

“One of the great differences between Trump and more successful politicians, like J.F.K. and F.D.R., is that they would vent their spleen in private, but in public, they would project a more humorous and civilized face,” said Robert Dallek, a presidential historian.

John F. Kennedy, he said, canceled the White House’s subscriptions to The New York Herald Tribune out of pique at its coverage, even as he wooed and won over reporters. Mr. Trump has publicly tarred reporters, like Jim Acosta of CNN, while continuing to watch their networks.

The White House’s antagonism toward the news media is born of genuine grievance and a calculated strategy that it plays well with Mr. Trump’s political base. But his hunger for press — which he nourished over 40 years of cultivating reporters, taking their calls on virtually any subject and calling them out of the blue to chat — remains undiminished.

When Mr. Trump came to the back of Air Force One, his deputy press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, stipulated that the conversation would be off the record. Despite suffering one of the worst weeks of his political career, he was in a buoyant mood. He fended off Ms. Sanders when she interrupted him to suggest he should return to his cabin so the reporters could get some sleep (they assured him they were not tired)...

More.

Also at Althouse, "'Expansive, engaging, even at times ebullient...a loose, good-humored side of Mr. Trump" — described in the NYT today."

And still more at JustOneMinute, "Now Who Wants to Be Liked?"

City of Anaheim Removes Bus Benches Near Disneyland, So the Homeless Have One Less Place to Sleep

I have no recommended solution here.

After reading about homelessness, you find there are some people who don't want to be institutionalized. They don't want all the fancy rehab treatments and shelters. They want to be free, even with psychiatric problems. So, at some level you'll always have street-people. What to do? Well, for the City of Anaheim, remove more and more of the bus benches near Disneyland, lest you give the homeless too comfortable a shelter for the night.

I guess this is just one of those shake your head stories. I don't know.

At the Los Angeles Times, "While homelessness surges in Disneyland's shadow, Anaheim removes bus benches":

Sweat rolled down Ron Jackson’s face as he pondered, as he does every day just steps from “the Happiest Place on Earth,” where he would sleep.

The homeless man’s hangout in Anaheim had until recently been a grimy bus bench across the street from Disneyland.

Then, one day, the benches around the amusement park — including his regular spot outside of a 7-Eleven at Harbor Boulevard and Katella Avenue — disappeared.

Soon, people were competing for pavement.

“No more sleeping spot. Just concrete,” Jackson, 47, said on a sweltering day. “There were already people claiming the space.”

The vanishing benches were Anaheim’s response to complaints about the homeless population around Disneyland. Public work crews removed 20 benches from bus shelters after callers alerted City Hall to reports of vagrants drinking, defecating or smoking pot in the neighborhood near the amusement park’s entrance, officials said.

The situation is part of a larger struggle by Orange County to deal with a rising homeless population. A survey last year placed the number of those without shelter at 15,300 people, compared with 12,700 two years earlier.

Desperation amid Orange County’s riches

In a wealthy county known for suburban living and sun-dotted beaches, the signs of the homeless crisis are getting harder to ignore.

At the county’s civic center in Santa Ana, homeless encampments — complete with tents and furniture and flooring made from cardboard boxes — block walkways and unnerve some visitors. Along the Santa Ana River near Angel Stadium, whole communities marked by blue tarp have sprung up. In Laguna Beach, a shelter this summer is testing an outreach program in which volunteers walk the streets offering support and housing assistance to homeless people.

Cities across California — notably Los Angeles and San Francisco — are dealing with swelling ranks of the homeless. But officials in Orange County said most suburban communities simply don’t have the resources and experience to keep up.

Susan Price, Orange County's director of care coordination, said officials are trying to build a coordinated approach involving all of the more than 30 disparate cities that takes into account the different causes of homelessness, including economic woes, a lack of healthcare and recent reforms in the criminal justice system.

Most cities "don't have capacity to respond to all the issues of homelessness effectively. That's why we need a regional strategy,” Price said. "Every city has been grappling with this issue and not all cities are full-service so that means we need to find out what each other is doing and figure out how to combine resources.”

The homeless problem often stands in stark contrast to the perceptions many have about Orange County...

Come to think of it, though, sounds like some of the people, just drinking and smoking pot, maybe need to just get cleaned up and find a job. You can't just be bumming for handouts all the time, panhandling and causing "broken windows" style crimes. If that's so, perhaps a city crackdown is indeed a remedy.

But it's like I said, I'm not sure what to do about this. Seems like homelessness took off in the O.C. after the Great Recession hit, and it hasn't subsided much with the so-called economic recovery.

Blame the Democrats, I guess.

Still more at the link.

Thanks to the Reader Who Bought Extra Strength Horny Goat Weed Extract with Muira Puama, Maca Root, and L Arginine — All Natural Boost for Men and Women!

Heh.

Maybe I'll pick up a couple of bottles for myself, lol.

At Amazon, Extra Strength Horny Goat Weed Extract with Muira Puama, Maca Root, L Arginine, 1000mg Epimedium, Icariins - for Men & Women - All Natural Boost (Havasu Nutrition).

Thanks again!

And thanks to all of my readers who're shopping through my Amazon links.

As you know, I don't blog for money, but I'm having more fun than ever blogging about books, and linking my great finds through the Amazon webpage. All your purchases fund an associate's commission, at no extra cost to yourself.

It's really appreciated!

Sean Hannity: Democrats and Leftist Media Seek to Delegitimize and Destroy President Trump (VIDEO)

I don't check these things, but I'll bet Hannity's ratings are through the roof. I do know leftists tune in. I mentioned it the other day.

In any case, here's last night's monologue, at Fox News, "Hannity: Real collusion is between Democrats and the media (VIDEO)."

Michael A. Barnhart, Japan Prepares for Total War

At Amazon, Michael A. Barnhart, Japan Prepares for Total War: The Search for Economic Security, 1919–1941.

Akira Iriye, Origins of the Second World War in Asia and the Pacific

At Amazon, Akira Iriye, The Origins of the Second World War in Asia and the Pacific.

Edward Vose Gulick, Europe's Classical Balance of Power

At Amazon, Edward Vose Gulick, Europe's Classical Balance of Power: A Case History of the Theory and Practice of One of the Great Concepts of European Statecraft.

Evelyn Taft's Heat Advisory Forecast

That high pressure's coming on strong this weekend.

It'll be pushing 90 degrees in the L.A./O.C. metro areas, and double-digits in the valleys. Palm Spring's expecting 113 degrees.

So, stay cool if you're in the area.

Here's the lovely Ms. Evelyn, who's looking great!

For CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Martin Gilbert, The First World War

At Amazon, Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History.

Gerhard L. Weinberg, A World at Arms

At the time, back in 1994, this book was considered one of the best ever published on the war.

At Amazon, A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II.

Nina Agdal's Vajazzle (VIDEO)

Via Theo Spark:

New Demi Rose Bikini Pics

She's really spectacular.

At London's Daily Mail, "Busty Demi Rose Mawby leaves VERY little to the imagination as she flaunts her assets and eye-popping derriere in a scanty bikini while sunning in Ibiza."

Also, "Sun's out, buns out! Demi Rose Mawby flaunts her eye-popping peachy derriere in skimpy thong-cut swimsuit during Ibiza getaway."

She calls Ibiza her "second home."

BONUS: At the Sun U.K., "GOD DEM! Demi Rose and glamour model Abigail Ratchford go topless in VERY racy underwear in sizzling new photo shoot: Glamour model shows off her incredible bum in sexy undies and suspenders in mansion shoot with her equally sexy American pal."

Duke University Historian Nancy MacLean Lashes Out at Critics of Her Book, Democracy in Chains

I blogged about the book a couple of weeks ago, when I noticed it was catching quite a buzz, "Nancy MacLean, Democracy in Chains." Now Professor MacLean's catching a lot of flak for her seriously shoddy scholarship.

Instapundit's been on the case for a while now. See, "NANCY MACLEAN’S DEMOCRACY IN CHAINS: Yet another devastating critique," and "IF YOU CAN’T CRITICIZE LIBERTARIANS WITHOUT LYING ABOUT THEM, MAYBE YOU CAN’T CRITICIZE THEM AT ALL: Some dubious claims in Nancy MacLean’s ‘Democracy in Chains,’ continued." (Check Glenn's search for "Nancy MacLean" for even more hits.)

And here's Inside Higher Ed from a couple of days ago, "Stealth Attack on Liberal Scholar?" She's not "liberal," of course. She'a radical leftist.

And a little blog literature review of the debate, at Cafe Hayek, "Nancy MacLean Unraveled."

Finally, even leftists have taken issue with MacLean. See Henry Farrell and Steven Teles, at Vox, "Even the intellectual left is drawn to conspiracy theories about the right. Resist them" (safe link):

A deep, historical study of public choice would be welcome, and [James] Buchanan’s role in the development of the thought and organizational infrastructure of the right has generally been overlooked. Unfortunately, the book is an example of precisely the kind of work on the right that we do not need, and the intellectuals of the left who have praised it are doing their side no favors...

Ouch.

I'm sure there'll be more outrage surrounding this story, so expect updates.

Niall Ferguson, The Pity of War

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Niall Ferguson, The Pity of War: Explaining World War I.

David Fromkin, Europe's Last Summer

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, David Fromkin, Europe's Last Summer: Who Started the Great War in 1914?

'I'm Bored'

It was the funniest thing: Early this morning, checking Twitter, I see this NBC fake news piece in my feed, "Former Soviet Counter Intelligence Officer at Meeting With Donald Trump Jr. and Russian Lawyer," and then all of a sudden I start singing Iggy Pop's "I'm Bored" in my head, lol.

That's a safe link at Memeorandum. No need to give the idiots at NBC any traffic from my blog.

I'm really bored with the Russia fake news story.

In any case, "I'm Bored" appeared as Track 4, on Side 1, of Iggy's 1979 album "New Values." I saw him in concert at least twice, at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and at the Hollywood Palladium. He's everything that you've ever heard about him. I think some of his teeth were knocked out at the time. So fun.

'Smooth'

From yesterday afternoon, when I was out to CVS and the bagel shop.

Santana, at the Sound L.A.:

Jungle Love
Steve Miller Band
2:35 PM

Rock'n Me
Steve Miller Band
2:32 PM

Abracadabra
Steve Miller Band
2:29 PM

Tush
ZZ Top
2:26 PM

Sharp Dressed Man
ZZ Top
2:22 PM

Legs (Edit Version)
ZZ Top
2:18 PM

Smooth
Santana
2:07 PM

Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen
Santana
2:02 PM

Evil Ways
Santana
1:58 PM

Bye Bye Love
The Cars
1:54 PM

Let's Go
The Cars
1:51 PM

Just What I Needed
The Cars
1:47 PM

Good Times Bad Times
Led Zeppelin
1:37 PM

Rock and Roll
Led Zeppelin
1:33 PM

D'yer Mak'er
Led Zeppelin
1:29 PM

Purple Haze
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
1:26 PM

All Along the Watchtower
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
1:22 PM

Fire
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
1:20 PM

Eric Raymond, 'Gramscian Damage'

Glenn Reynolds links to this post every now and then, and since I've been blogging about cultural Marxism today, now's as good a time as any to post it. At Raymond's "Armed and Dangerous" blog, "Gramscian Damage":

Americans have never really understood ideological warfare. Our gut-level assumption is that everybody in the world really wants the same comfortable material success we have. We use “extremist” as a negative epithet. Even the few fanatics and revolutionary idealists we have, whatever their political flavor, expect everybody else to behave like a bourgeois.

We don’t expect ideas to matter — or, when they do, we expect them to matter only because people have been flipped into a vulnerable mode by repression or poverty. Thus all our divagation about the “root causes” of Islamic terrorism, as if the terrorists’ very clear and very ideological account of their own theory and motivations is somehow not to be believed.

By contrast, ideological and memetic warfare has been a favored tactic for all of America’s three great adversaries of the last hundred years — Nazis, Communists, and Islamists. All three put substantial effort into cultivating American proxies to influence U.S. domestic policy and foreign policy in favorable directions. Yes, the Nazis did this, through organizations like the “German-American Bund” that was outlawed when World War II went hot. Today, the Islamists are having some success at manipulating our politics through fairly transparent front organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

But it was the Soviet Union, in its day, that was the master of this game. They made dezinformatsiya (disinformation) a central weapon of their war against “the main adversary”, the U.S. They conducted memetic subversion against the U.S. on many levels at a scale that is only now becoming clear as historians burrow through their archives and ex-KGB officers sell their memoirs.


The Soviets had an entire “active measures” department devoted to churning out anti-American dezinformatsiya. A classic example is the rumor that AIDS was the result of research aimed at building a ‘race bomb’ that would selectively kill black people.

On a different level, in the 1930s members of CPUSA (the Communist Party of the USA) got instructions from Moscow to promote non-representational art so that the US’s public spaces would become arid and ugly.

Americans hearing that last one tend to laugh. But the Soviets, following the lead of Marxist theoreticians like Antonio Gramsci, took very seriously the idea that by blighting the U.S.’s intellectual and esthetic life, they could sap Americans’ will to resist Communist ideology and an eventual Communist takeover. The explicit goal was to erode the confidence of America’s ruling class and create an ideological vacuum to be filled by Marxism-Leninism.

Accordingly, the Soviet espionage apparat actually ran two different kinds of network: one of spies, and one of agents of influence. The agents of influence had the minor function of recruiting spies (as, for example, when Kim Philby was brought in by one of his tutors at Cambridge), but their major function was to spread dezinformatsiya, to launch memetic weapons that would damage and weaken the West.

In a previous post on Suicidalism, I identified some of the most important of the Soviet Union’s memetic weapons. Here is that list again:

* There is no truth, only competing agendas.
* All Western (and especially American) claims to moral superiority over Communism/Fascism/Islam are vitiated by the West’s history of racism and colonialism.
* There are no objective standards by which we may judge one culture to be better than another. Anyone who claims that there are such standards is an evil oppressor.
* The prosperity of the West is built on ruthless exploitation of the Third World; therefore Westerners actually deserve to be impoverished and miserable.
* Crime is the fault of society, not the individual criminal. Poor criminals are entitled to what they take. Submitting to criminal predation is more virtuous than resisting it.
* The poor are victims. Criminals are victims. And only victims are virtuous. Therefore only the poor and criminals are virtuous. (Rich people can borrow some virtue by identifying with poor people and criminals.)
* For a virtuous person, violence and war are never justified. It is always better to be a victim than to fight, or even to defend oneself. But ‘oppressed’ people are allowed to use violence anyway; they are merely reflecting the evil of their oppressors.
* When confronted with terror, the only moral course for a Westerner is to apologize for past sins, understand the terrorist’s point of view, and make concessions...

Keep reading.

PREVIOUSLY: "How Deep is the Left's System of Ideological Indoctrination?", and "Linda Kimball, 'Exposing America's Enemies: The Social Justice Seeking Communist Left'."

Jackie Johnson's Hot Weekend Forecast

It was very mild today, about average temperatures for the L.A./O.C. metro areas, but it's warming up. There's a high pressure system pushing westward that's going to beat back the monsoonal moisture that's been keeping it cool these last couple of days.

As usual, I'm just chillin'. Been reading Fritz Fischer and ordering a few more books on Amazon. I'll start Omar El Akkad, American War, over the weekend.

In any case, here's the lovely Ms. Jackie. You can barely see her baby bump in that beautiful yellow dress. I'm so happy for her!

VIDEO: President Trump Teases Emmanuel Macron on French Security: 'You'd better do a good job...'

President Trump is killing it in Paris!

Watch:



And at Free Beacon, "Trump Teases Macron on Security of France: ‘You’d Better Do a Good Job’."

Mark Hewitson, Germany and the Causes of the First World War

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Mark Hewitson, Germany and the Causes of the First World War.

Emily Ratajkowski St. Lucia (VIDEO)

Following-up from Tuesday, "Emily Ratajkowski for Harper's Bazaar Australia: 'My boobs are too big...'"

At Sports Illustrated:

Linda Kimball, 'Exposing America's Enemies: The Social Justice Seeking Communist Left'

At his post this morning, Robert Stacy McCain linked Linda Kimball's piece on "Cultural Marxism" at American Thinker. It's an old piece, which I've read before, but I googled some of the articles linked there. One of these is, "Exposing America's Enemies: The 'Social Justice Seeking' Communist Left," originally posted at the American Daily, but now dead.

I'm posting here some excerpts I've found at various other cites. Ms. Kimball apparently aroused some strong passions on this issue, at Democrat Underground, for example, and this was back in 2006.

Free Republic also posted it at the time:

On one hand, Americans were outraged and appalled by the May 1 immigrant demonstrations that clogged streets and virtually closed down some cities. Law-abiding citizens saw lawbreakers who not only seemed to feel justified in their criminal behavior, but also believed they ought to be rewarded for it.

On the other hand, Americans are more infuriated and disgusted with their duly elected government officials in both legislative and administrative branches for not enforcing the law and protecting the rights of citizens. President Bush and the weak-kneed GOP have deservedly come under fire. If our sovereign nation is to survive, however, it is of paramount importance that the harsh light of truth be focused upon the subversive element responsible for creating an atmosphere conducive to lawlessness and tyrannical militants brazenly declaring their intentions to ''conquer'' the Southwest and to throw Americans out of their homes and off of their land.

The subversive element--a motley collection of Marxists, Stalinists, Trotskyists, Maoists, anarchists, and malcontents--organized themselves in the 1960’s and became known as the New Left. For over forty years the New Left has been waging a Gramscian ''quiet'' revolution for the overthrow of the America of our founders. Today these subversives call themselves liberals, progressives, and Democrats. Even though there yet remain good, decent Democrats such as Zell Miller, the majority, as David Horowitz attested to, are social-justice seeking communists: “The Democratic Party is very close to being the (Communist-controlled Progressive) party of Henry Wallace…The vast bulk of the American left is a Communist left and they’ve introduced some fascist ideas like “identity politics,” which is straight out of Mussolini.” (How Marxism Dominates the Left, Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com, June 1, 2005)

America’s Communist Left operates in a vast interconnected matrix of revolutionary groups disguised as respectable civil rights and legal organizations. These front groups have consistently worked towards the transformation of America through subversion of America’s Rule of Law, Constitution, judiciary, and all institutions necessary to the longevity and health of our nation and civilization. These groups attack all national security measures, subvert immigration laws and procedures, lobby on behalf of terrorist and enemy combatants, and engage in propagandistic apologetics for the most brutal dictatorships in the world even as they constantly vilify and demean America and Americans. As they do these things to destroy America and shame Americans, they hypocritically portray themselves as defenders of democracy and humanity.

The purpose of this article is to expose, at least in part, some of the principal communist groups responsible for undermining and weakening America and who likewise serve as a power source, not only for the militant Marxist organizers of the recent demonstrations, but for Islamic jihadists as well.

The Quiet Revolution

In 1984, “The Power to Lead” was published. In it, author James McGregor Burns admitted: “The Framers of the US Constitution have simply been too shrewd for us. They have outwitted us. They designed separate institutions that cannot be unified by mechanical linkages, frail bridges, tinkering. If we are to ‘turn the Founders upside down’…we must directly confront the constitutional structure they erected.” (A Chronological History: The New World Order by D.L. Cuddy PhD)

Turning the ''Founders upside down'' and directly confronting the ''constitutional structure'' are what the American Civil Liberties Union, National Lawyers Guild, and The Center for Constitutional Rights are committed to doing. Together, these three communist front groups comprise the “legal left,” and they slash and rip at the fabric of the constitutional framework.

The ACLU was established in 1920 by Roger Baldwin, a Stalinist who candidly admitted: “I am for socialism, disarmament, and ultimately, for abolishing the state itself.” On the Communist Party USA website, the ACLU can be found at this link: go here. http://www.cpusa.org/link/category/22/

When not working with and defending terrorists like Sami al-Arian, the ACLU terrorizes towns into removing Ten Commandments monuments and crosses and persecutes and intimidates Boy Scouts and law abiding Christians. The ACLU’s Immigrant Task Force and Immigrant Rights Project are a dual driving force in the Open Borders Lobby. Among current projects: dissolving America’s borders, erasing all evidence of Christianity and God, and requiring the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to provide free legal counsel to illegals while simultaneously demanding that illegals be provided with full welfare benefits.

The ACLU and its partner groups receive funding from a large assortment of subversive leftist funders. Among them: Arca Foundation, Ford Foundation, George Soros Open Society Institute, Rockefeller Foundation, Woods Fund of Chicago (Source: www.DiscoverTheNetwork.org)

The National Lawyers Guild was founded in 1936 by the Communist Party USA. The NLG is an active affiliate of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, which served as a Soviet front group during the Cold War. The NLG defines its mission as an effort to: “unite lawyers, law students, legal workers, and jailhouse lawyers of America (to) function as an effective political and social force…to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests.” In other words, its mission is to ''deKulakize'' America in the name of social justice.

In 1999, NLG member Chip Berlet described a Guild ''communist debate'' session: “The cacophony at some meetings (arises from) debates featuring…Leninist, Trotskyite, Stalinists…Maoist…Marxist, anarchists, libertarians and progressive independents…with multiple identities as lawyers, legal workers, labor organizers, tribal sovereignty activists, civil liberties and civil rights advocates, environmentalists, feminists, gay men and lesbians, and people of color.” Chip Berlet is an activist with Morris Dees Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), another communist front group and Open Borders member.

Not coincidentally, it was the SPLC that ''redistributed''--in the name of social justice--an Arizona ranchers’ property to some illegal aliens. This incident was detailed in an article entitled: “Two Illegal Immigrants Win Arizona Ranch in Court,” (New York Times, 8/19/05). Dees was quoted as saying, “…it’s poetic justice that these undocumented workers own this land”

Like the ACLU, the NLG is a key member of the Open Borders Lobby. Its National Immigration Project consists of a network of lawyers, law students, and legal workers committed to “full democratic rights for all non-citizens”--in the name of social justice. The NLG receives funding from, among others, the George Soros Open Society Institute and the Ford Foundation. (Source: www.DiscoverTheNetwork.org)

The last of the trio is the Center for Constitutional Rights. It was founded in 1966 by pro-Castro attorneys Morton Stavis, Ben Smith, Arthur Kinoy, and William Kuntsler. The CCR prides itself on using “litigation proactively to advance the law in a positive direction to guarantee the rights of those with the fewest protections.” This is communist code for: “We subvert America’s laws.” Among those deemed by the CCR to be in need of protection are terrorist organizations, enemy combatants, and illegal immigrants.

The CCR receives funding from the Ford Foundation and George Soros Open Society Institute. (Source: www.DiscoverTheNetwork.org )

Two principal front groups, both of whom disguise their treachery as ‘civil rights,” are United for Peace and Justice and Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride.

The UFPJ is a rabidly anti-American, anti-war coalition co-chaired by committed communist Leslie Cagan. Cagan, who worships upon Fidel Castro’s altar, was an original founder of the Committees of Correspondence, a splinter group of the Communist Party USA. The UFPJ was created Oct. 25, 2002 in the Washington D.C. offices of People for the American Way, which played a key role in forming UFPJ. UFPJ is a sponsoring organization of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride. UFPJ’s social justice agenda extends well beyond anti-war activism as it is also a pro-abortion, pro-open borders advocate that condemns nearly every aspect of American culture and our government’s foreign policy. (Source: www.DiscoverTheNetwork.org)

The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride (IWFR), another key player in the Open Borders Lobby, is supported by the ACLU and Communist Party USA. Additionally, it has the backing of Dennis Kucinich, Howard Dean, and Joe Lieberman. Among other groups listed as members of the IWFRC’s national sponsoring committee are ACORN, National Council of La Raza, National Immigration Forum, and United for Peace and Justice.

At the link below are literally hundreds of sponsors of IWFR, such as: Democratic senators, representatives, county board supervisors, governors, town council members, radical organizations, liberalized Christian and non-Christian churches, and political parties (including CPUSA and Democratic Socialists of America: go here).

Many thousands of Americans have been taken in by a myth. The myth states that communism died when the Soviet Union imploded. It further says that in these ''enlightened progressive times,'' only superstition-believing McCarthyite rednecks still believe in the communist boogieman. The myth, of course, was created by New Left communists to whom seduction, deception, and psychological manipulation are the ''rules of the game.'' Gramsci’s transformational revolution is very much alive. It’s spreading the cancer of godless communism--the ideology from Hell--throughout the length and breadth of our culture, and corrupting and decaying everything it touches.

President Ronald Reagan cautioned that: “…without God, there is no virtue because there’s no prompting of the conscience. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”

Americans---awaken and remember!

And here's more, from "Exposing America's Enemies, Part 2: Communist Progressive Democrats":

Social Justice is Communism

Judging from the adolescent name-calling and howls of protest which my previous article elicited from Progressive groups such as the Democratic Underground, it is obvious that the enraged howlers have no idea of what it really means for one to be a seeker of social justice. Either that or they really do know but are deceivers of the first magnitude.

Be that as it may, some clarification and definition of the terms social justice and communism is in order before proceeding on to the issue of Progressive Democrats.

To most Americans, communism means the Kremlin, gulags, killing fields, and Mao's brutal Red Guard. These things though were not the essence of communism. They were the visible manifestations of inhumane power and its consequences, all of which resulted when social justice seekers acquired total control to remake society and man.

The essence of communism is social justice, or justice in the social sphere. This is code for the elimination of poverty, of suffering, and of all differences between humans that erect walls between people. Fundamentally, social justice is a process of elimination that results in sameness (egalitarianism). When social justice seekers speak of the need for equality, what they're really calling for is sameness.

However, the attributes which make people different from each other and which social justice seekers are determined to eliminate, are the product of human nature and of freely made choices. For instance, some people are ambitious and hard-working while others are indolent and lazy and may willfully choose to live out of the pockets of the former.

It's the positive aspects of human nature that make a society dynamic. Dynamism is the animating force behind America's greatness -- her productivity, excellence, creativity, free markets, etc. In eliminating human differences, social justice seekers kill all of this, and as they did in the former Soviet Union, leave behind a smoking ruin haunted by despairing cookie-cutter claymation beings.

In speaking of the social justice process of elimination, Balint Vazsonyi remarked, prophets of socialjustice communists, whether by that name or any other name, focus on who should have less. Because they have nothing to give, they can only take away. First, they take away opportunity. Next, they take away possessions. In the end, they have to take away life itself. (America's 30 Years War, Balint Vazsonyi, p. 59)

The America of our Founders simply cannot coexist with the Search for Social Justice. For instance, as designed by our Founders, the Rule of Law exists to guarantee that unequal (different) people can have individual liberty, rights and possessions—including land ownership, which social justice seekers view as the original sin. Social justice demands that those who possess more of anything have it taken away from those who earned it and redistributed to those who did nothing to earn it.

Social Justice Seeking Democratic Progressive Caucus

The Democratic Progressive Caucus (DPC) is an organization comprised of about sixty Members of Congress. It was founded in 1991 by Rep. Bernie Sanders, former socialist mayor of Burlington, VT, and member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). The DSA describes itself as the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International. (www.DiscoverTheNetwork.org)

The DPC advances its communist agenda behind innocuous sounding phrases such as social and economic justice. The three core principles of The Progressive Promise are:

1. Fighting for economic justice and security for all. (Code for: We’re going to ‘eliminate poverty and suffering’ by taking away all of your possessions and redistributing them.)

2. Protecting and preserving our civil rights and civil liberties. (Code for: We’re going to ‘eliminate’ all differences and pound everyone down to the lowest common denominator).

3. Promoting global peace and security. (Code for: We—your Superiors—will finally feel secure and at peace once agendas 1-2 have been carried out to completion.) (Source: http://www.bernie.house.gov/document_display_text.asp?FileToConvert=/pc/index.asp)

In “Pelosi Leader of Progressive Caucus,” it was revealed: “Until 1999, the website of the Progressive Caucus was hosted by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Following an expose of the link between the two organizations in World Net Daily, the Progressive Caucus established its own website.” (WorldNetDaily.com, Nov 11, 2002)

On the website of the DSA it boldly declares: “We are socialists…Democracy and socialism go hand in hand…wherever…democracy has taken root, the vision of socialism has taken root as well.” ( www.DiscoverTheNetwork.org ) The DSA increases its influence and power by networking with the Democratic Party to advance social justice programs and policies such as affirmative action and Stalinist hate crime laws. “Like our friends and allies in the feminist, labor, civil rights, religious, and community movements, many of us have been active in the Democratic Party.” (ibid)

Following are brief descriptions of some of the social justice seeking subversives in the Democratic Progressive Caucus whose words and actions embrace the tenets of communism:

1. Barbara Lee (D-CA): “former agent of the Black Panther leader and convicted killer, Huey Newton. Lee conspired with fellow communist, Cong. Ron Dellums, who used his authority to impede US foreign policy with regard to the Communist dictatorship of Grenada.” ( www.DiscoverTheNetWork.org ) “anti-American Communist who supports America’s enemies and has actively collaborated with them.” (Radical Road Map, James H. Hansen, p.189)

2. Jim McDermott (D-WA): “In 2002, McDermott and fellow Progressive Caucus member Rep. David Bonoir (D-Mich) and Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) traveled to Baghdad, where they publicly embraced Saddam Hussein and created propaganda on his behalf.” ( www.DiscoverTheNetWork.org )

3. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill), who has accepted an award from the DSA once told one of its writers: “The American people are not ideological; therefore, the way to go is to attack private power.” (ibid)

4. John Conyers (D-MI): “In 1981 Conyers co-hosted a delegation from the Soviet front World Peace Council, giving that group a forum in Congress. Conyers endorsed a Communist-led antiwar demonstration in Washington in 1983 and…spoke at another Washington demonstration led by ANSWER in 2003.” (Radical Road Map’s, James H. Hansen, p 189)

5. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) “has taken part in…CAIR (a radical group with ties to Mideast terrorist organizations) events…including a Ramadan iftar…hosted (on Capitol Hill) by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), and Barbara Lee (D-CA).” (Kucinich Headlines Muslim Fundraiser, WorldNetDaily.com, Nov. 30, 2003)

The Constitution requires that members of Congress “shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation to support this constitution.” The Oath of Office sworn to by US Senators reads:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the U.S…that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

Very simply, if Democratic Progressive Caucus members truthfully believed in the Christian-Judeo God and likewise in our Constitution--the document conceived of by our Founders and not the Lefts living document nonsense—they wouldn’t be social justice seeking communists. Rather, they would be Conservative Constitutionalists. That they are social justice seekers tells us that when they took their oath before God, they lied. Quite simply—they lied.

In Noah Webster’s 1828 edition of the American Dictionary of the English Language we find the correct term to apply to treacherous Democratic Progressives. That word is “traitor,” and the following definition is the one most likely referred to by our Founders. “Traitor: One who violates allegiance and betrays his country; one guilty of treason…who, in breach of trust, delivers his country to its enemy…who aids an enemy in conquering his country.”

Through use of Stalinist psycho-politics, America’s Communist Left imprisoned the consciences of Americans within psychic strait-jackets of political correctness. As long as we allow ourselves to be chained by political correctness, we will not be able to identify and speak openly about our enemies--those without, and those within. In the absence of freedom of conscience and of clear and honest speaking, we can neither formulate strategies for our safety nor deal appropriately with the treacherous deceivers operating amongst us who are colluding with our enemies and plotting to destroy our nation from within. The first order of business then, is for all Americans to break out of the psychic strait jackets of political correctness, thus allowing Truth to expose the treachery and treason at work in our nation.

Truth will set us free: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32.

How Deep is the Left's System of Ideological Indoctrination?

Blogging about cultural Marxism today, prompted by Robert Stacy McCain, had me reading around and following links. I came across this old interview with David Horowitz at Newsmax, reposted at FrontaPage Magazine, "How Marxism Dominates the Left":

The Democratic party has never been such a left wing party and I think that comes directly out of the campuses. The whole Howard Dean campaign is what shifted the Democratic party to the far left. You had three Democratic front-runners - Kerry, Edwards and Gephardt - who were all supporters of the war until the Deaniacs came along. And who were the Deaniacs? They were the campus Communists.

The reason you have a blacklist and the reason you have indoctrination, which you've never had before on such a scale, is that you have the generation of the 1960s radicals who to avoid the draft and keep organizing against the war stayed in school and got student deferments and went on to became professors.

They are not academics, they're political activists. Do you think the woman who invited Susan Rosenberg, a convicted bomber, to be a visiting professor at Hamilton and followed that by inviting Ward Churchill – the closest thing to a campus terrorist guerilla – is an academic? Do you think she's a scholar? She's actually the daughter of a Communist lawyer, Victor Rabinowitz, whose closest friend is Leonard Boudin, another Communist whose daughter Cathy was a Weather Underground terrorist.

These people have infiltrated the academic world and converted it and largely captured the Democratic party in the process...

More.

Plus, at Amazon, David Horowtiz, The Black Book of the American Left Volume 7 — The Left in Power: Clinton to Obama.

Rise of the 'Dirtbag Left'

I just posted on Angela Nagle's, Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars From 4Chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right.

I first read about the book at this interesting piece, at Maclean's, "The rise of the internet's 'dirtbag left'."

Roger Kimball, The Long March

Following-up on my previous entry, I've got Kimball's book on order.

Get yours at Amazon, Roger Kimball, The Long March: How the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s Changed America.

Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks

Robert Stacy McCain got me going on posting all this Marxist and Marxist-related literature. (See, "It All Comes Back to Hungary: Soros, Cultural Marxism, Lukacs and Bela Kun.")

I expect to keep reading a lot on the origins of World War One, and I'm well caught up on contemporary communism and related genres. But I've never read Gramsci.

That might change soon.

At Amazon, Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks.

Jon Halliday and Jung Chang, Mao

At Amazon, Jon Halliday and Jung Chang, Mao: The Unknown Story.

'Totalitarians cannot tolerate rival sources of authority, which is why all totalitarian regimes seek to destroy religion and the family as independent institutions...'

The headline's from Robert Stacy McCain's new essay, at the Other McCain, "It All Comes Back to Hungary: Soros, Cultural Marxism, Lukacs and Bela Kun":

What we are actually witnessing — in Hungary, in the United States and in many other countries in recent years — is a populist reaction against the elite “progressive” consensus of which [George] Soros is a prominent symbol. There is an international clique of influential people and organizations who share certain ideas about the future direction of political, social and economic policies, and who don’t want to be bothered with debating the merits of these policies. The ordinary people whose lives would be affected by the agenda of the elite aren’t being asked for their approval, and popular opposition to the elite agenda (e.g., the Brexit vote, Trump’s election, Hungary’s anti-“refugee” referendum) is treated by the elite media as evidence of incipient fascism. Never does it seem to have occurred to George Soros, or to anyone else in the international elite, that perhaps their policy ideas are wrong, that they have gone too far in their utopian “social justice” schemes. Unable to admit error, the progressive elite therefore resort to cheap insults and sloppy accusations of “fascism” to stigmatize opposition to the Left’s agenda. Why is Viktor Orban under attack by Soros-funded organizations? Why is the Left trying to depict Hungary as a fascist state?

RTWT.

David Priestland, The Red Flag

At Amazon, David Priestland, The Red Flag: A History of Communism.

ICYMI: W. August Mayer, Islamic Jihad, Cultural Marxism, and the Transformation of the West

*BUMPED.*

This is a surprisingly good book. Mr. Mayer deserves a wider audience. I'd never heard of him before and literally came across him by chance, through a random Amazon search that just popped into my head.

He's very well read and makes incisive, original arguments.

At Amazon, W. August Mayer, Islamic Jihad, Cultural Marxism, and the Transformation of the West.

Keystone Kops Collusion

At WSJ, "Don Trump Jr.'s Problem is Donald Trump Sr.'s Credibility":

President Trump’s critics claim to have uncovered proof, finally, of 2016 collusion between the campaign and the Kremlin. Another reading of the meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a well-connected Russian lawyer is, well, political farce.

In June 2016, Mr. Trump Jr. arranged an appointment in Trump Tower with the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya. He said in a statement that he hoped to acquire opposition research about Hillary Clinton, and he even pulled in Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and then campaign manager Paul Manafort. By Mr. Trump Jr.’s account, Ms. Veselnitskaya relayed nothing to compromise Mrs. Clinton and then lobbied him about the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 U.S. law that sanctions Russian human-rights abusers.

According to the emails that Mr. Trump Jr. released Tuesday, Mr. Trump Jr. agreed to meet with Ms. Veselnitskaya after he was approached by Rob Goldstone, a publicist who offered to pass along “some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.” He wrote that this information “is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

The appropriate response from a political competent would have been to alert the FBI if a cut-out promised material supplied by a foreign government. Mr. Trump Jr. instead replied that “if it’s what you say I love it.”

Then again, the Trumps knew Mr. Goldstone through the Russian pop star Emin, aka Emin Agalarov, whose father partnered with Donald Trump Sr. in bringing the Miss Universe beauty pageant to Moscow in 2013. Mr. Trump Sr. appeared in a music video with Emin the same year. Mr. Goldstone said that “Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting”—info his father got from the “Crown prosecutor of Russia.” Russia’s “Crown prosecutor” doesn’t exist.

Mr. Trump Jr. responded that “perhaps I just speak to Emin first.” Mr. Goldstone brokered the call, reporting that “Ok he’s on stage in Moscow but should be off within 20 Minutes so I am sure can call.” Subsequent messages show Emin asked Mr. Trump Jr. to meet with Ms. Veselnitskaya, who was well-known as an anti-Magnitsky operative at the time. Mr. Goldstone publicly checked into Trump Tower on Facebook during the meeting, which isn’t how a KGB man would normally conceal the handoff of state secrets.

In the daisy chain from Russian oligarch to singer to PR go-between to lawyer to Trump scion, which is more plausible? That Don Jr. was canny enough to coordinate a global plot to rig the election but not canny enough to notice that this plot was detailed in his personal emails? Or that some Russians took advantage of a political naif named Trump in an unsuccessful bid to undermine the Magnitsky law they hated?

Still more.

Contrast WSJ's to Krauthammer's analysis, "Charles Krauthammer on Donald Trump, Jr.: 'I Love It' Are 'Fatal Words' (VIDEO)."

Greg King and Sue Woolmans, The Assassination of the Archduke

At Amazon, Greg King and Sue Woolmans, The Assassination of the Archduke: Sarajevo 1914 and the Romance That Changed the World.

Charles Krauthammer on Donald Trump, Jr.: 'I Love It' Are 'Fatal Words' (VIDEO)

Lots of conservatives hate Charles Krauthammer, seeing him as a Beltway hack because he doesn't always toe the right's political memes du jour.

I get it.

I like Krauthammer because he's so smart. He's very conservative, but he doesn't let an agenda get in the way of facts. He calls it like he sees it. In this case, (1) in Donald Jr's emails we have clear factual evidence that gives fuel to leftist claims of "collusion." But it's not just that, (2) it's that we're talking about a "foreign power," Russia, probably America's greatest adversary right now, a country that opposes American interests at every turn and which has been the headlines for years with foreign invasions, attacks on civilian aircraft, and great power hostility at the U.N. All of this makes recent developments very grave for the White House.

Watch, from Martha MacCallum's segment yesterday, at Fox News, "Krauthammer on Trump Jr.: 'I love it' are the fatal words."

PREVIOUSLY: "Donald Trump, Jr.: 'For Me, This Was Opposition Research...' (VIDEO)."

Donald Trump, Jr.: 'For Me, This Was Opposition Research...' (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Russia Story Has Become the 'Brier Patch' from Which the Trump Administration Cannot Escape."

I was watching the All-Star Game last night, tweeting baseball, when I see all kinds of establishment types, like Professor Daniel Drezner and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times, posting tweets about Donald Trump, Jr.'s, interview on Sean Hannity.

Give me a break!

Don't these people take time off from their campaign of attacks?

This is after 8:00pm on the East Coast, so the Beltway blowhards have been at it all day finding ways to take down the administration. And funny thing? There's no "there" there. There's nothing. Donald Jr. had this meeting in June 2016. Donald Sr. had barely wrapped up the nomination by then and we hadn't had the GOP national convention. This is way early in the campaign season and most establishment hacks thought the Trump presidential bid was a joke. Now Russia's become all-consuming, since this is the one shot leftists have at destroying the president. The New York Times is right: This so-called scandal has emerged as a "brier patch," but more for the partisan hacks in the press than for the Trump administration. President Trump will continue to have an easy target for his rancor and tweet-storms, and rightly so. The genuine problem for Republicans will be the failure to advance their policy goals in the Congress, a failure which the Democrat-Media-Complex is working to bring about. The end result will be more anger at Washington, policy debilitation, and political polarization. Who this helps in 2018 remains to be seen.

In any case, listen for yourself. This is this most I've ever heard Donald, Jr. He's a fine man. I hope he's got as much fortitude and Teflon as his dad, because the attacks are just heating up.

At Fox News:



And at Fox, via Memeorandum, "Donald Trump Jr. tells Sean Hannity: ‘In retrospect I probably would have done things a little differently’."

Russia Story Has Become the 'Brier Patch' from Which the Trump Administration Cannot Escape

Since Maggie Haberman, et al., are attempting to become the next Woodward and Bernstein, I thought I'd actually read their partisan attacks on the White House.

If there's any glee going around, it's found among the radical left's mass-media attack dogs.

In any case, at the New York Time (FWIW), "Rancor at White House as Russia Story Refuses to Let the Page Turn" (safe link):

WASHINGTON — If President Trump emerged from his meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia last week hoping he had begun to “move forward” from the controversy over the Kremlin’s election meddling, as advisers put it, his flight home the next day made clear just how overly optimistic that was.

As Air Force One jetted back from Europe on Saturday, a small cadre of Mr. Trump’s advisers huddled in a cabin helping to craft a statement for the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., to give to The New York Times explaining why he met last summer with a lawyer connected to the Russian government. Participants on the plane and back in the United States debated how transparent to be in the statement, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Ultimately, the people said, the president signed off on a statement from Donald Trump Jr. for The Times that was so incomplete that it required day after day of follow-up statements, each more revealing than the last. It culminated on Tuesday with a release of emails making clear that Mr. Trump’s son believed the Russian lawyer was seeking to meet with him to provide incriminating information about Hillary Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

The Russia story has become the brier patch from which the president seemingly cannot escape. It dominated his trip to Europe last week and, after he leaves on Wednesday night for a couple of days in France, it may dominate that trip as well. Every time Mr. Trump tries to put the furor behind him, more disclosures thrust it back onto the Washington agenda...

Keep reading.

Also, at Memeorandum, "‘Category 5 hurricane’: White House under siege by Trump Jr.'s Russia revelations."

Garth Kemp's Monsoon Moisture Forecast

I watched the All-Star Game, and then read books until bedtime, and thus never got around to posting my evening weather entry.

So, it's been a lot cooler, about 10 degrees cooler than Sunday and Monday, which was a relief. We finally got our air-conditioning up and running again as well, so that was extra nice.

More tonight on the weather, but meanwhile, here's Garth Kemp at CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

A.J.P. Taylor, Struggle for Mastery in Europe

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, A.J.P. Taylor, The Struggle for Mastery in Europe: 1848-1918.

Max Hastings, Catastrophe 1914

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Max Hastings, Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War.

Is it 'America First'? Or, America in Isolation?

Following-up from this morning, "Emmanuel Macron Pushed Brusquely to the Front of G20 Group Photo, So He Could Stand Next to President Trump (VIDEO)."

This article, below, at the Los Angeles Times, is what I was talking about. 19 nation-states against 1, the United States, most emphatically on the issue of "climate change." It occurred to me last night that all of these other nations are literally leading the world community off a cliff into non-survival and oblivion. There's not enough windmills and solar panels in the world to power the energy needs of the real people of the global community. This, among the most important things, is why Trump's presidency is so brilliant.

See, "Trump's 'America first' approach receives a cold reception at global summit" (safe link):

President Trump's signature slogan — “America first” — has been tweaked recently by administration aides eager to show that his nationalism is not at odds with the United States' traditional global leadership role. Their new version: "America first does not mean America alone."

Yet America was undeniably alone as Trump on Saturday departed the annual summit of the so-called Group of 20 leaders here. With the leaders' final statement, it was evident that Trump's prioritization of American self-interest — on environmental agreements, trade, migration and more — left him, and thus America, often in unfamiliar isolation.

After two days of cordial smiles, handshakes and back-slapping, Trump expressed satisfaction with the summit. Even so, he was alone among leaders of the world’s major economic powers in dissenting from its resolution affirming the Paris climate accord. And while he has threatened to abandon existing trade deals and penalize countries for what he sees as unfair trade practices, particularly on steel exports, the summit’s closing declaration affirmed support for open markets and fighting protectionism.

After the more exclusive Group of 7 summit in May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had described the meeting as “six against one” — the one being the United States. As she closed the G-20 gathering that she hosted this week, Merkel again singled out the United States.

In a news conference, Merkel said she “deplores” America’s decision to walk away from the Paris climate agreement and, despite Trump’s comments, does not believe the administration is open to renegotiating the terms agreed to among more than 190 nations to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Merkel, as she has before, called on European countries to step into the vacuum that Trump is leaving on the world stage.

"We as Europeans have to take our fate into our own hands," she said.

The new French president, Emmanuel Macron, who will host Trump next week in Paris to mark Bastille Day, echoed his ally Merkel. “The world has never been so divided,” he said.

In another break from past decades, the United States seemed closer to Russia — in goodwill if not on many issues — than with traditional allies such as Germany and France after Trump’s genial tete-a-tete with President Vladimir Putin, which was the presidents’ first meeting since Trump took office.

Trump’s meeting with Putin, lasting more than two hours, was his longest with any leader. He raised Americans’ concerns over Russian election meddling, according to aides, but the two presidents decided to put the matter behind them and move on to discuss how they can address their differences over Syria, Ukraine and North Korea.

Unlike many other leaders, including Putin, Trump didn’t hold a news conference at the conclusion as American presidents typically have. Putin, in his meeting with reporters, denied again — as he did to Trump on Friday — that Russia interfered in the U.S. election, and said he thinks that Trump accepted his face-to-face denials.

Putin also said that Trump asked him many questions about Russia’s alleged meddling, which Trump has called “a hoax” despite the consensus of American intelligence agencies that Russia did try to sway the election to Trump. FBI and congressional investigations also are probing whether Trump associates colluded with Russia.

White House officials declined to challenge Putin’s view that Trump accepted his denials when questioned by reporters aboard Air Force One en route back to Washington.

Trump "will be happy to make statements himself" about his meeting with Putin, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said...

More.

Christina Ionno for PSM Magazine for Men

Ooh!

Seductive, "Christina Ionno by Tony Ellis."

Keilani Asmus for Treats! Magazine

At Editorials Fashion Trends, "KEILANI ASMUS FOR TREATS! #12."

Behind the Scenes with Lada Kravchenko (VIDEO)

Following-up from May, "Playboy Playmate Lada Kravchenko May 2017 (VIDEO)."

Watch, at Playboy's YouTube channel, "Behind the Scenes with May Playmate Lada Kravchenko."

Trump the Traditionalist

From arch neocon Elliott Abrams, at Foreign Affairs, "Trump the Traditionalist: A Surprisingly Standard Foreign Policy":

Imagine two U.S. foreign policy analysts plucked from their Washington think tanks and marooned on desert islands, one just before Donald Trump announced his presidential candidacy and the other just before the 2016 election itself. After the election, both are told that the Republican candidate won and are asked to predict the new administration’s foreign policy. Whose predictions would have been more accurate?

At times this spring, the second analyst’s forecasts would have been on the money. Having followed the bitter election, he or she would have foretold the nature of the transition and the early weeks of the new administration as a logical continuation of the campaign. The starkly nationalist rhetoric of Trump’s inaugural address; the president’s unpredictable tweets; the departure of Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, after only 25 days in office; and a whole host of other developments solidified many professionals’ sense that Trump would break dramatically with long-standing traditions and with recent policy. As the months passed, however, the analyst’s predictions would have been increasingly off base as the administration’s foreign policy became more conventional.

Meanwhile, the other desert-island refugee, who would have missed Trump’s surprising ascent and the bizarre campaign that followed, would likely have predicted that no matter who won the GOP nomination and despite any idiosyncrasies that emerged during election season, the realities of governing and of leading in a complex world would ultimately produce a fairly familiar Republican approach to foreign policy. And on balance, this analyst would have been right.

The Trump administration has been in office for less than six months, and most jobs below the cabinet level still remain unfilled, so one must tread carefully when making judgments about its approach or predictions about its future. But it is already clear that this is not a revolutionary administration. The broad lines of its policy fit easily within those of the last few decades. Trump might not be a conventional president, but so far, his foreign policy has been remarkably unremarkable.

A BREITBART PRESIDENCY?

This is a far cry from what many observers expected (and what some continue to worry about): a radical departure from tradition and the emergence of what might be called a Bannonite administration, after Steve Bannon, the populist-nationalist provocateur who chaired Trump’s campaign and was later named his chief White House strategist. Before joining the Trump team, Bannon had led Breitbart News, the online publishing company that he described as “the platform for the alt-right” and that regularly railed against “globalists” in the foreign policy establishment...

Keep reading.

Young Japanese People Are Not Having Sex

That's not good, heh.

At the Independent U.K., "Nearly half of Japanese people are entering their 30s without any sexual experience, leaving the country facing a steep population decline":

The country is facing a steep population decline as a growing number of youngsters abstain from sex and avoid romantic relationships.

Some men claimed they "find women scary" as a poll found that 43 per cent of people aged 18 to 34 from the island nation say they are virgins.

One woman, when asked why they think 64 per cent of people in the same age group are not in relationships, said she thought men "cannot be bothered" to ask the opposite sex on dates because it was easier to watch internet porn.

The number of births dropped below one million in Japan for the first time last year, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Japan's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research predicts that the country's current population of 127 million will decline by nearly 40 million by 2065.

The fertility crisis has left politicians scratching their heads as to why youngsters are not having more sex...

Plus, more from Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "IT’S A TRICK QUESTION: THEY’RE NOT COMING FROM ANYWHERE. Question: Where do Japanese babies come from?":

Who knew how prescient the Vapors were in 1980, when they warned, “No sex, no drug, no wine, no women?”

Democrats Continue to Beat a Dead Horse

Following-up, "Donald Trump, Jr., Email Allegedly Specifies Tie to Moscow in Effort to 'Incriminate Hillary'."

From Wesley Pruden, at the Washington Times, "Another dead horse, another beating":

We’re finally getting somewhere. Dead horses are useless to most folks, but Democrats, rendering plants and certain newspapers are determined to follow the stink.
The latest scoop by the intrepid horse-hunters of The New York Times has led to a meeting by Donald Trump with Russians who were said to have savory secrets about Hillary Clinton for sale. This was at a meeting during what the newspaper called “an inflection point” in the late, lamented presidential campaign of 2016.

Too bad for the crack scoop artists of The New York Times, it wasn’t actually Donald Trump, but Donald Trump Jr., who manages the family real-estate interests, and what they talked about was American adoptions of Russian babies and a Miss Universe Contest, a franchise owned by the Trump interests, for Moscow. Whether they discussed shoe and bra sizes of contestants, whether the Russians promised contestants with the perfect 38-24-36 measurements so prized by beauty-contest judges, The New York Times did not say. Perhaps the newspaper is saving that for further scoops in the coming days.

It’s not clear what The New York Times was looking for in this particular dead-horse account, perhaps proof that Mr. Trump had sent a campaign team bearing a hollowed-out watermelon with microfilmed specifications for the next generation of the H-Bomb inside. After months of huffing, puffing and promising the real goods, we still haven’t seen a smoking gun, or whatever cliche we’re using this month to describe the evidence that would overturn the election results, cancel the Gorsuch appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, and install Hillary Clinton in the White House at last. Or something like that.

In the Times account, it was “unclear whether the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, actually produced the promised compromising information about Mrs. Clinton.” But with smoke like that — a Russian spy named “Natalia” with an unpronounceable surname is all John le Carre would need to spin a dark tale of intrigue, with or without microfilm in a hollowed-out watermelon. Who needs fire?

*****

So far, the story was another of the nothingburgers served up as appetizers for the promised porterhouse about Russian collusion with Donald Trump, senior not junior, for so long expected from the magpie media. For the record, the account noted that the president’s lawyers said, “The president was not aware of and did not attend the meeting.” But if any reader wanted to think he had, that was OK by the newspaper. If it wasn’t true, it could have been.

Still more.

Hailey Clauson in Sumba Island (VIDEO)

Via Sports Illustrated Swimsuit.

Donald Trump, Jr., Email Allegedly Specifies Tie to Moscow in Effort to 'Incriminate Hillary'

It's still a nothing-burger to me, but everybody's over the moon about this latest development, so here you go.

At NYT, "Russian Dirt on Clinton? 'I Love It,' Donald Trump Jr. Said." (Safe link.)

But see Joel Pollack, at Breitbart, "Donald Trump Jr. Releases 'Russia Email' Chain":

The Times reported the existence of the introductory email on Monday evening, though it had not seen the email, did not possess the email, did not verify the email, and relied on second-hand descriptions from “three people with knowledge of the email,” presumably from the intelligence community or from one of the intelligence committees in Congress.

(On Tuesday morning, it proclaimed: “The Times now has the email to Donald Trump Jr. offering Russian aid to ‘incriminate Hillary’,” after Donald Trump, Jr. had made the email available to the general public.)

Donald Trump, Jr. accompanied the release of the email chain with a statement in which he stated that he thought the lawyer had “Political Opposition Research” on Clinton, and that the meeting had taken place “before the current Russian fever was in vogue.” He reiterated that the lawyer “had no information to provide and wanted to talk about adoption policy and the Magnitsky Act.” He did not comment on the publicist’s statement that the information was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

The email does not refer to any cooperation, coordination or collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

Honesty, it's not much.

I don't blog about Russia that much because it's a faux scandal created by the faux news media and perpetuated by faux political experts.

Everything's fake. It's the one time in my life in which I don't really enjoy following politics. I haven't watched television news in weeks. I read my books and click around for memes on Twitter, as well as reading a few so-called "hard news" stories on my iPhone apps.

In any case, more at Memeorandum, "Russian Government Sought to Aid Trump's Candidacy, According to Email."

Emmanuel Macron Pushed Brusquely to the Front of G20 Group Photo, So He Could Stand Next to President Trump (VIDEO)

You know, this one story puts the lie to all the leftist media establishment hit pieces claiming how the U.S. was weakened and belittled at the G20 summit (because of President Trump).

Actually, it's a joke. None of those countries at the conference --- not one --- could manage effectively without close economic, military, and diplomatic relations with the U.S.

At the Telegraph U.K, "Emmanuel Macron 'did not breach protocol by pushing to front of G20,' say the French":

Emmanuel Macron was merely following protocol when he elbowed his way to the front of G20 leaders to stand beside Donald Trump for a group photograph, French media claimed on Sunday.

Le Parisien newspaper said: “As shown in a video by the British daily, The Telegraph, the president of the [French] Republic treated himself to a little stroll before taking his place beside his American counterpart.”

Initially placed towards the back of the group for the “family photograph” of leaders attending the Hamburg summit, Mr Macron is shown in the footage pushing to the front.

After surprising Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, as he jostled past him, Mr Macron paused briefly to embrace the Norwegian premier, Erna Soldberg, on both cheeks.

“All this [happened] as Angela Merkel looked on, astonished or even annoyed,” Le Parisien reported.

The newspaper, reputed for its accurate and fair coverage, commented: “Despite condemnation by some media, especially the British, who considered that the French president moved of his own accord to be closer to Donald Trump, in reality the placement follows a strict diplomatic rule.”

You don't "elbow your way" to the front unless you're scared someone else is going to be photographed next to the President of the U.S. and you're not. Good on Macron. His actions show he's not as hare-brained as I'd thought.

Also at American Thinker, "French president Macron pushed his way to stand next to President Trump at G-20 group photo."

Anna Faris Bikini Pics

At Drunken Stepfather, "ANNA FARIS LOOKING GOOD IN A BIKINI OF THE DAY."

Emily Ratajkowski for Harper's Bazaar Australia: 'My boobs are too big...'

Heh.

And who's complaining?!

Here, "EMILY RATAJKOWSKI IS OUR AUGUST COVER STAR":

She ... addressed backlash she has garnered, including her now-famous topless selfie with Kim Kardashian and her unapologetic belief that being sexual and being a feminist are not mutually exclusive. "There's this thing that happens to me: 'Oh, she's too sexy'," she says. "It's like an anti-woman thing, that people don't want to work with me because my boobs are too big. What's wrong with boobs? They're a beautiful feminine thing that needs to be celebrated. Like, who cares? They are great big, they are great small. Why should that be an issue?"

Here, a sneak peek at the August issue before it goes on sale Monday, August 3rd...

Click through for the photos.

Hat Tip: WWTDD, "Emily Ratajkowski Boobs Prevent Her From Getting Work."

Hannah Jeter Revealing Mexico Shoot (VIDEO)

Via Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Hal McRae Ain't Buying 'Your Wussy Modern Sliding Rules...'

Heh.

This is great, on Twitter, "Super B-Day to Hal McRae, who isn't buying your wussy modern sliding rules."

Happy B-Day, brother.

Ellie Goulding Italian Bikini Vacation

At London's Daily Mail, "Good as Gould-ing: Ellie showcases her athletic figure in skimpy black two-piece as she smooches her boyfriend Caspar Jopling on a boat in Capri."

And at WWTDD, "Ellie Goulding Italian Bikini Vacay and Stuff Around the Web."

Jackie Johnson's Very Warm Forecast

We're going to have slightly lower temperatures, but if you're inland, it won't be that much relief.

It's July folks. Wonderful weather if you're down by the beach or out at the pool. Otherwise, stay inside and pump your air conditioning.

Here's the lovely Ms. Jackie, who debuted her baby bump for tonight's forecast.

Trump's Alt-Right, White Nationalist Speech in Poland

Gawd, I'd completely forgotten about Amanda Marcotte!

She blocked me on Twitter years ago, and since she's had no recent meltdowns, she's totally escaped my mind (phew!).

But here she is, gurgling back up from the demonic depths, at Salon (wouldn't you know it?), "Trump’s alt-right Poland speech: Time to call his white nationalist rhetoric what it is." (Safe link.)

Actually, I think Vox beat her to this meme, but at least she's clinging to the ideological hatred, heh.

Today's Deals

At Amazon, Gold Box Deals.

See, especially, Onkyo TX-RZ610 7.2 Channel Network A/V Receiver.

Also, Shop American Flags.

And, Cutter Backwoods Insect Repellent (Aerosol) (HG-26283) (Twin Pack) (11 oz.).

Plus, Shop Camping Equipment.

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

More, Shop Kitchen & Housewares.

Still more, Haribo Gummi Candy, Original Gold-Bears, 5-Ounce Bags (Pack of 12).

BONUS: Ernst Jünger, Storm of Steel.

Eugene B. Sledge, With the Old Breed

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, E.B. Sledge, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa.

Sharyl Attkisson, The Smear

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Sharyl Attkisson, The Smear: How Shady Political Operatives and Fake News Control What You See, What You Think, and How You Vote.

Mia Kang Leaves Nothing to the Imagination in Mexico (VIDEO)

Watch, "Mia Kang's 'Vajazzle' Leaves Nothing To The Imagination in Mexico - Sports Illustrated Swimsuit."

California Democrats Plunge Into 'Civil War'

Heh.

I love this.

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

At Politico, "In the wake of Donald Trump's election, progressives are demanding the party move more aggressively on a variety of issues":

LOS ANGELES — Long-standing tensions between the Democratic Party’s moderate and liberal wings have ignited in California, where progressive activists are redirecting their anger over Donald Trump and congressional Republicans toward Democratic leaders at home.

Stoked by a contested race for state Democratic Party chair and the failure of a single-payer health care bill, activists are staging protests at the capitol. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon reported receiving death threats after shelving the health care legislation late last month, and security was tightened at the statehouse after activists disrupted a floor session last week.

The rancor, a spillover from the contentious Democratic presidential primary last year, is aggravating divisions in a state regarded nationally as a lodestar for the liberal cause. Establishment Democrats fear the rhetoric and appetite for new spending could go too far, jeopardizing the party’s across-the-board dominance of state politics.

All of it has taken on new significance as California embraces its role as the focal point of the anti-Trump resistance.

“We’re on the same team,” said Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, chairman of the Assembly’s progressive caucus. “We should not be fighting one another. We should argue with one another. … It should not devolve into something where it could tear the party apart.”

California established itself as a fortress of the opposition immediately after Trump’s election, with Democrats advancing high-profile legislation to defy the new president on climate change and immigration.

But progressives who have long agitated for more spending on social services and for stricter environmental and campaign finance rules believed that they might seize the post-Trump moment for other causes, too. Despite victories on a range of issues here in recent years, liberal activists have fallen short in other areas, unsettling progressives across the country who view California as a state in which they should be racking up wins...

This is especially interesting since Governor Brown has tacked to the hard left, positioning himself as the progressive left's main antagonist to President Trump, especially on, ahem, "climate change." See, "As Trump Steps Back, Jerry Brown Talks Climate Change in China," and "Jerry Brown Announces a Climate Summit Meeting in California."

The revolution inevitable eats its own. Governor Brown can't stop the anarcho-communist hoards agitating for the revolution.

Linda Sarsour Denies Call to Take 'Vaginas Away' From Brigitte Gabriel and Ayaan Ali Hirsi

I saw folks retweeting this Legal Insurrection post last night, "Linda Sarsour’s Little Lie about her vile attack on Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Big Deal."

Sarsour's vile. Extremely nasty.




She published an op-ed yesterday at WaPo, "Islamophobes are attacking me because I’m their worst nightmare."

I responded on Twitter, here and here.

See also, Lee Smith, at the Tablet, "Linda Sarsour’s Jihad."