Alessandra Ambrosio in Malibu

She's still one of my faves, and rockin' a nice tan!

At London's Daily Mail:

Alessandra Ambrosio turns up the heat on the beach in Malibu 🔥 🔥 🔥 https://t.co/2QRlivIMFB

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) August 10, 2017

Jessica Simpson Stroll in New York City

Following-up from last week, "Jessica Simpson Shows Off Low-Cut Yellow Top."

At WWTDD, "Jessica Simpson Honey Boo Boo Chic."

Eleven Eleven coming soon... #staytuned pic.twitter.com/EULPA7RPCG

— Jessica Simpson (@JessicaSimpson) August 9, 2017

Gray Whale in Laguna Beach (VIDEO)

At the O.C. Register, "Juvenile gray whale is heading north after a day thrilling onlookers at Dana Point Harbor."

Trumpian Fury on North Korea

At WSJ, "China needs to know that the threat of military action is real":

When Donald Trump threatened North Korea with “fire and fury” Tuesday if it continues to menace the U.S. with nuclear weapons, he provoked almost as much backlash at home as in Pyongyang. The usual diplomatic suspects, including some American lawmakers, claimed his remarks hurt U.S. credibility and were irresponsible.

The President’s point was that the North’s escalating threats are intolerable; he didn’t set any red lines. True to form, Pyongyang responded by putting the U.S. island of Guam in its cross hairs. Mr. Trump may be guilty of hyperbole (quelle surprise), but that is far less damaging to U.S. credibility than Barack Obama’s failure to enforce his prohibition on the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons in Syria. The foreign-policy elite who claim to be shocked also don’t have much credibility after their policy across three Administrations led to the current North Korean danger.

While the President’s words were unusually colorful, the Communist-style language may have been part of the message: Kim Jong Un isn’t the only one who can raise the geopolitical temperature. The U.S. has military options to neutralize the regime’s nuclear threat if it continues to develop long-range missiles, and the U.S. is considering those options.

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said as much in an interview Saturday, explaining that Pyongyang’s nuclear threat is “intolerable from the President’s perspective. So of course, we have to provide all options to do that. And that includes a military option.” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis reinforced that message Wednesday, warning North Korea to stop acting in ways that could “lead to the end of its regime.”

Last week Senator Lindsey Graham told a morning television program, “There is a military option to destroy North Korea’s program and North Korea itself.” The South Carolina Republican revealed that Mr. Trump told him there will be war if the North continues to develop long-range missiles: “He has told me that. I believe him. If I were China, I would believe him, too, and do something about it.”

The China reference is a tip-off that the main audience for this rhetorical theater is in Beijing. Kim Jong Un won’t stop now that he’s so close to his goal of a nuclear deterrent. But China might restrict the flow of oil to the North, for example, if it believes that stronger action on its part could forestall a U.S. pre-emptive strike...

More.

Sharon Stone's 'Basic Instinct' Audition Tape

Well, I guess there's #WaybackWednesday heh.

Watch, at RealClearLife, "Sharon Stone Shares ‘Basic Instinct’ Audition Tape on Twitter."

She's pretty spectacular, for sure.

Thanks to Democrats, President Trump is Facing an Increasingly Dangerous Rogue North Korea (VIDEO)

Following-up here, "Technical Challenges to a Successful Nuclear Strike," and "Richard Smoke, National Security and the Nuclear Dilemma."

Here's Sean Hannity:

Arielle Scarcella's Dating Preferences (VIDEO)

I can't keep up with this crazy stuff. Seriously.

But see the Other McCain, "SJWs Attacking Lesbian @ArielleScarcell for . . . Well, Being a Lesbian, Really."

Richard Smoke, National Security and the Nuclear Dilemma

Following-up from my previous entry, "Technical Challenges to a Successful Nuclear Strike."

This is the must-have introductory textbook on the topic.

At Amazon, Richard Smoke, National Security and the Nuclear Dilemma: An Introduction to the American Experience.

Technical Challenges to a Successful Nuclear Strike

From longtime tech correspondent Ralph Vartabedian, at LAT, "North Korea has made a nuclear weapon small enough to fit on a missile. How worried should the world be?":

Before the age of compact cars, laptop computers and pocket telephones, there were miniature nuclear warheads.

For as long as there have been engineers, they have been working on making complicated things smaller and better. Weapons are no exception.

Now, North Korea apparently has figured out how to make a very big explosive small enough to sit atop one of its mobile-launched missiles, a development that could threaten much of the U.S., according to a U.S. intelligence report that surfaced this week.

North Korea is making progress, showing it can put together competent teams of scientists and solve technical problems, but it is far from proving that it is capable of launching a punishing nuclear strike on the U.S., according to U.S. weapons experts.

Making a miniature nuclear weapon that has a large explosive force involves a lot of scientific and engineering know-how.

The “Little Boy” bomb that the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 9, 1945, weighed as much as two 2017 Cadillac Escalade SUVs, about 9,700 pounds. Three days later, the “Fat Man” bomb, slightly heavier at 10,300 pounds, was dropped on Nagasaki.

Since then, the weight of U.S. atomic bombs has shrunk considerably, as scientists have refined the physics of the devices and streamlined how they are armed.

With the last generation of nuclear weapons designed in the 1980s, engineers at Los Alamos National Laboratory produced the W88, weighing only 800 pounds despite having an explosive force equal to 475,000 tons of TNT — in other words, less than one-tenth the weight of the first atomic bomb, but 400 times more powerful.

What technical capability is necessary to build a missile-ready nuclear bomb?

The first step is understanding how to reduce the amount of conventional high explosives that surround a hollow pit of highly enriched uranium or plutonium. A nuclear detonation occurs when the high explosive implodes the hollow sphere of fissile material next to it to start an uncontrolled chain reaction.

After the war, work progressed on smaller bombs. One of the crucial design steps was to create a small, precisely uniform air gap between the conventional explosives and the sphere of nuclear fuel, amplifying the force of the conventional explosion and reducing the amount needed to trigger a nuclear chain reaction.

It’s unclear that Pyongyang has mastered that precise construction, said Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear weapons analyst with the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, Calif.

What Pyongyang has said so far is that its weapon is a “Korean-style mixed charge” device, indicating “they don’t have a lot of plutonium, so they are mixing it with uranium,” Lewis said.

It is possible the North Koreans are also injecting tritium gas into the hollow sphere to get some fusion energy out of the bomb, as well, he said...

More.

Chris Wickham, The Inheritance of Rome

This looks fantastic!

At Amazon, Chris Wickham, The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages 400-1000.

Glen Campbell, of 'Rhinestone Cowboy' Fame, Dead at 81

At LAT, "Glen Campbell dies at 81; country-pop singer battled Alzheimer's."

Also, "'A shining light in so many ways': Music world remembers country-pop great Glen Campbell":

As news of the death of Glen Campbell spread, celebrities of all kinds took to the Internet to express their grief over the loss of the country music legend, who died Tuesday at 81.

"Had Glen Campbell 'only' played guitar and never voiced a note, he would have spent a lifetime as one of America’s most consequential recording musicians," Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, said in a statement.

"Had he never played guitar and 'only' sung, his voice would rank with American music’s most riveting, expressive, and enduring," Young added. "He left indelible marks as a musician, a singer, and an entertainer, and he bravely shared his incalculable talent with adoring audiences even as he fought a cruel and dread disease. To all of us who heard and loved his soulful music, he was a delight."

Others shared similar sentiments about the singer, songwriter, musician, television host and actor...

More.

Evelyn Taft's Sunny and Warm Forecast

It's not too bad. You'd have gotten a sunburn yesterday if you failed to lube up with liberally with sunscreen. Just about the same weather today. And with the exception of Lake Elsinore and Palm Springs, it's not quite triple-digit temperatures across the Southland.

I've been just chilling today, getting back into my lazy summer routine after some partying this weekend, through yesterday, for some birthday celebrations. About a couple of more weeks until the new semester starts, and then my summer will really be winding down.

In any case, here's the lovely Ms. Evelyn, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Colleen McCullough's 'Masters of Rome' Series

I found a brand new paperback copy of The Grass Crown for 25 cents at the Irvine Public Library. I thought what the heck? I'd procrastinated on picking up any of Colleen McCullough's books, but I'm starting an Ancient Rome jag, and I that one helped me launch it.

But I need to start at the beginning of the series, which is found in The First Man in Rome, so I'll start out with that (maybe today, heh).

The only problem with these books is their length. This one's about 930 pages, not counting a massive glossary!

Beer Beats Tylenol as Pain Reliever

News you can use.

At Instapundit, "THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED: STUDY: BEER IS A BETTER PAIN RELIEVER THAN TYLENOL":

Probably no harder on your liver, either.

The American League Wild Card Race is Getting Insane

Check the standings here.

This is insane.

At Sports on Earth, "SIZING UP THE AL WILD CARD RACE":

There are roughly 50 games left in the Major League Baseball season. Some teams have more, some teams have fewer, but it's pretty much around that number -- and it will go by like that. All you can reasonably hope for, if you are a team that is on the fringes of contention -- particularly with first-place teams owning massive leads like Los Angeles, Houston and Washington -- is to at least have a shot.

This year, plenty of teams still have skin in the game thanks to the American League Wild Card chase, which looks like it's going to be lunacy. From the Wild Card leader (the Yankees) entering Monday's action to the team that's five spots out of the second slot (Minnesota), you have only 5 1/2 games of separation. Texas, a team that just traded away its ace, is closer to a Wild Card spot than the closest Wild Card team in the National League. It is jammed, essentially top to bottom. Keep your eye on these standings!

So let's take a look at every contender, what their chances are and what the stakes are moving forward. We have to cut off the definition of a "contender" at some point, so for the sake of discussion, we'll omit Texas, Toronto and Detroit, all of whom were sellers at the Deadline. We do this even though Texas is only one game behind Minnesota (also sort of a seller, but no matter). It's crazy this year, and we may have to revisit this in a few more weeks if any other teams go on a run. Also, right now, the Red Sox, thanks to a six-game win streak, have opened up a three-game lead over the Yankees in the AL East. That division is far from settled, but for the sake of discussion, we'll include the Yankees but not the Sox. That, like everything else, could change quickly.

Here's the analysis for the Angels, who just can't seem to earn winning consistency. It's maddening!

Los Angeles Angels Record: 55-58, fourth Wild Card runnerup, three games out of second Wild Card spot.

Playoff projections on MLB.com: 9.8 percent.

What's at stake: The last few years of the best player in baseball. The Angels have been trying to cobble together a mediocre team around Mike Trout for a few years now, with no luck. This year has been different in that Trout missed two months and the Angels somehow treaded water. (Andrelton Simmons is quietly having a superstar season -- he's third in the AL in FanGraphs WAR -- which helps.) But the odds are still stacked against them. It would help to get something, anything, out of Albert Pujols. There are 514 American League position players who have enough at-bats to register a WAR rating this season. Pujols is ranked 513th in WAR.

Fans' reasonable optimism level: Realistic. Three more years of Trout left. They are a little closer to the playoffs than they were last year. But that feels like the fighting of gravity.

 Angels play the Orioles tonight, and could move past them with a win. So, root for the rally monkey, heh.

Peter S. Wells, The Battle That Stopped Rome

Here's another on Teutoburg.

From Peter S. Wells, at Amazon, The Battle That Stopped Rome: Emperor Augustus, Arminius, and the Slaughter of the Legions in the Teutoburg Forest.

Disneyland

Here's your humble blogger, yesterday at Disneyland, for my young son's 16th b-day.

A good time was had by all.

Adrian Murdoch, Rome's Greatest Defeat

Reading I, Claudius has gotten me fascinated with Rome's wars with Germania, especially the crushing defeat at Teutoburg.

See, at Amazon, Adrian Murdoch, Rome's Greatest Defeat: Massacre in the Teutoburg Forest.

Disneyland Today

We're celebrating my youngest son's birthday.

I can't remember the last time we went to Disneyland. Weird. I lived for that place when I was a grade-schooler.

In any case, don't know what time we'll be home, and I'll probably be beat anyway. Head over to Instapundit for your blogging and news, the only "principled conservative view at this point." (?)

Is there even a principled conservative view at this point? Who should I be reading?

— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) August 5, 2017

J. Samuel Walker, Prompt and Utter Destruction

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, J. Samuel Walker, Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs Against Japan.

Google Fires James Damore, Engineer Who Wrote 'Anti-Diversity' Memo

Well, you can't have a different opinion about such things. The guy should've known that, of course.

At Bloomberg, "Google Fires Author of Divisive Memo on Gender Differences" (at Memeorandum).

Also at Breitbart, "Google Fires Viewpoint Diversity Manifesto Author James Damore."

PREVIOUSLY: "Google Manifesto."

ADDED: Oh, the drama, at LAT, "Google employee's sexist manifesto is the latest crisis for a tech industry struggling to diversify."

Howard Fast, Spartacus

I've been puttering around all day at used bookstores, and sometimes you find the most serendipitous things.

As noted, I'm plugging along on I, Claudius, which has been a good read, and which has piqued my already not insubstantial interest in Roman history. And while there are many good scholarly works, apparently there's a wealth of really high-quality fiction on Rome as well, many tomes of which come highly recommended by experts of antiquity.

Now, I don't know if Howard Fast qualifies as one of the great novelists of the genre, although reading around and browsing online, I've come across mention of the book, so I was startled to see a cheap copy in excellent condition while out today on my lackadaisical rounds.

There's some used copies available on Amazon as well, if you're so inclined. See, Howard Fast, Spartacus.

And here's another edition, Spartacus (North Castle Books). (Click through for a used edition, as they're so much more affordable.)

In any case, books are my hobby right now. I always read a lot anyway, but since I don't watch news anymore, I've got even more time for it. And thanks for shopping through my Amazon links, as well. It's not a very expensive hobby, but your purchases are helpful in any event. So, thanks again.

Protecting Rhinos in South Africa

This is genuinely sad.

This piece wants to turn you into a nature-protector-enviro-radical, at LAT, "Armed only with her grandmother's shotgun, a South African woman fights to save her rhinos":

Lynne MacTavish lives in a small wooden house on her South African game reserve with a fierce pet emu, a juvenile ostrich, a flock of geese, two Jack Russell terriers and her grandma’s double-barreled shotgun to protect her rhinos.

She keeps an ugly statue at her gate: a tokoloshe, or evil spirit in the local traditional belief, installed by a witch doctor to ward off superstitious rhino poachers.

Every night MacTavish gets up after midnight, grabs her shotgun, clambers into her SUV and patrols for poachers.

She still gets flashbacks of the scene she found one windy October morning in 2014 and still cries telling the story. Poachers had killed two rhinos, including a pregnant cow she had known since the day it was born. Two more died as an indirect result of the attack and a calf, days from being born, was lost.

MacTavish, as tough as the spiky bush on her animal reserve in South Africa’s northwest, struggles to cover the cost of security guards. One local poacher has threatened to kill her.

South Africa is home to 80% of the world’s 25,000 rhinos. Hamstrung by corruption and security lapses, it loses three rhinos a day to poaching, 85% of them in state reserves. Private owners such as MacTavish have become important to the species’ survival, nurturing more than 6,500 rhinos on an estimated 330 private game reserves, spanning 5 million acres, that provide a relative degree of safety.

But security is costly — so much so that many reserves are closing their doors. To help generate revenue, private reserve operators have successfully sued to resume South Africa’s limited trade in rhino horns, which had been banned since 2009. The government is finalizing new regulations that will allow foreigners to export up to two horns apiece for personal use.

The measure has rocked the wildlife preservation world. Most wildlife advocates say opening the door even to “farmed” rhino horn sales could threaten an international effort to wipe out the trade across the globe. About 2,200 horns a year flow into the illegal trade, mostly poached, and opponents of the new trade rules argue that criminals will find ways to funnel poached horns into the new legal market.

“Reopening a domestic trade in rhino horn in South Africa would make it even harder for already overstretched law enforcement agents to tackle rhino crimes,” World Wildlife Fund policy manager Colman O’Criodain said in a statement...

More.

Kate Upton in Cairns, Australia (VIDEO)

Actually, this one's a movie length feature, dang.

At Sports Illustrated:

'As I’m writing this, Etiene Dalcol has protected her Twitter account...'

She sure did.

From Stephen Green, at Instapundit, "SHUT UP, SHE EXPLAINED."

She's a magenta-haired feminist web-programmer, or something, lol.

William R. Keylor, The Twentieth-Century World and Beyond

The best book of international political history.

At Amazon, William R. Keylor, The Twentieth-Century World and Beyond: An International History since 1900.

Lawrence James, Empires in the Sun

At Amazon, Empires in the Sun: The Struggle for the Mastery of Africa.

Tim Butcher, Blood River

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Tim Butcher, Blood River: The Terrifying Journey Through The World's Most Dangerous Country.

Michela Wrong, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Michela Wrong, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu's Congo.

Jason Stearns, Dancing in the Glory of Monsters

At Amazon, Jason Stearns, Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa.

This Vanity Fair Lionization of the Press is Why Everyone Hates the Press

Mary Katharine Ham has been doing much better work since she's moved over to the Federalist from Hot Air.

And I mean much, much better.

She's a fabulous writer.

Here, "The press is constantly saying this president is losing credibility without recognizing it is in the exact same predicament."

Google Manifesto

I wondered what this was when tweeps were tweeting "Google manifesto." I'm like, "huh?"

At Gizmodo, "Exclusive: Here's The Full 10-Page Anti-Diversity Screed Circulating Internally at Google."

And at the Verge, "Not all Google employees disagree with anti-diversity polemic."

Maduro Regime Puts Down Attempted Military Uprising in Venezuela

At the Miami Herald, "Venezuela quells anti-government uprising on military base":

Venezuela squashed a small uprising on a military base Sunday, the first inkling of armed unrest in the beleaguered South American country after a new all-powerful legislative body condemned by the international community began targeting opposition foes.

Though the would-be rebellion, which left at least one man dead, appeared short-lived, it reignited spontaneous anti-government protests that had been absent for days after nearly four months of prolonged street tumult. Security forces once again repressed the demonstrations with tear gas and rubber pellets.

Further clashes loom. The opposition-held parliament intends to convene Monday at the legislative palace, which was taken over Saturday by the new constituent assembly. Its delegates, all ruling socialist party members elected last week in a vote widely seen as fraudulent, face potential sanctions from the U.S. and countries in Latin America and Europe.

The government of President Nicolás Maduro insisted Sunday’s incident was an outside attack staged by civilians hired by his political opponents. While security forces claimed the skirmish was quickly quelled, the defense minister acknowledged an ongoing search for an unknown number of stolen military weapons.

The extended confusion over what took place before dawn Sunday at the Paramacay military base in Valencia, a city in central Venezuela about two hours west of the capital, Caracas, fed opposition calls for dissenting troops to rebel.

They were fueled by the morning release online of a video — the kind used in failed coup attempts against previous Venezuelan governments — showing more than a dozen men dressed in military fatigues and holding assault rifles. They declared themselves in rebellion and urged like-minded security forces to stage a revolt against Maduro.

Without citing the video, socialist party deputy Diosdado Cabello asserted early on, via Twitter, that an irregular situation at the base was under control. But for hours, no government official took to the airwaves, communicating only in Twitter posts and written statements. State-run television replayed an episode of the late Hugo Chávez’s weekly TV show, “Aló Presidente.” The convening of a new “truth commission” was postponed.

When Maduro finally appeared on TV, at 3 p.m., he congratulated military leaders for their swift response but also admitted security forces were still hunting down a group of men from the morning assault who had gotten away.

“We’re going to capture them,” he said. “A week ago we defeated them with votes. Today, we were forced to defeat them with bullets.”

In an incongruous scene, Maduro spoke from a park, standing on a logo with colorful hearts — and surrounded by bodyguards. He admired a naturalist exhibit of animal skulls and skins, and cheered on a little girl standing in the middle of a circle of happy children, whacking a piñata.

According to Maduro, the scuffle at the base began at 3:50 a.m. when the instigators surprised overnight guards and went directly to weapons caches...

More.

Rhian Sugden Goes Brunette

She's been making a big deal out of it, on Twitter.

Stunner @RhianMarie looks VERY different as she shows off new brunette hairdo in Instagram snap https://t.co/KVVaTzGnOI

— The Sun North West (@TheSunNW) August 7, 2017

What's Worse: Trump's Agenda or Deep State Subversion?

From Glenn Greenwald, at the Intercept, "What’s Worse: Trump’s Campaign Agenda or Empowering Generals and CIA Operatives to Subvert it":

DURING HIS SUCCESSFUL 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump, for better and for worse, advocated a slew of policies that attacked the most sacred prongs of long-standing bipartisan Washington consensus. As a result, he was (and continues to be) viewed as uniquely repellent by the neoliberal and neoconservative guardians of that consensus, along with their sprawling network of agencies, think tanks, financial policy organs, and media outlets used to implement their agenda (CIA, NSA, the Brookings/AEI think tank axis, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, etc.).

Whatever else there is to say about Trump, it is simply a fact that the 2016 election saw elite circles in the U.S., with very few exceptions, lining up with remarkable fervor behind his Democratic opponent. Top CIA officials openly declared war on Trump in the nation’s op-ed pages and one of their operatives (now an MSNBC favorite) was tasked with stopping him in Utah, while Time Magazine reported, just a week before the election, that “the banking industry has supported Clinton with buckets of cash . . . . what bankers most like about Clinton is that she is not Donald Trump.”

Hank Paulson, former Goldman Sachs CEO and George W. Bush’s Treasury Secretary, went to the pages of the Washington Post in mid-2016 to shower Clinton with praise and Trump with unbridled scorn, saying what he hated most about Trump was his refusal to consider cuts in entitlement spending (in contrast, presumably, to the Democrat he was endorsing). “It doesn’t surprise me when a socialist such as Bernie Sanders sees no need to fix our entitlement programs,” the former Goldman CEO wrote. “But I find it particularly appalling that Trump, a businessman, tells us he won’t touch Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.”

Some of Trump’s advocated assaults on D.C. orthodoxy aligned with long-standing views of at least some left-wing factions (e.g., his professed opposition to regime change war in Syria, Iraq/Libya-style interventions, global free trade deals, entitlement cuts, greater conflict with Russia, and self-destructive pro-Israel fanaticism), while other Trump positions were horrifying to anyone with a plausible claim to leftism, or basic decency (reaffirming torture, expanding GITMO, killing terrorists’ families, launching Islamophobic crusades, fixation on increasing hostility with Tehran, further unleashing federal and local police forces). Ironically, Trump’s principal policy deviation around which elites have now coalesced in opposition – a desire for better relations with Moscow – was the same one that Obama, to their great bipartisan dismay, also adopted (as evidenced by Obama’s refusal to more aggressively confront the Kremlin-backed Syrian government or arm anti-Russian factions in Ukraine).

It is true that Trump, being Trump, was wildly inconsistent in virtually all of these pronouncements, often contradicting or abandoning them weeks after he made them. And, as many of us pointed out at the time, it was foolish to assume that the campaign vows of any politician, let alone an adept con man like Trump, would be a reliable barometer for what he would do once in office. And, as expected, he has betrayed many of these promises within months of being inaugurated, while the very Wall Street interests he railed against have found a very welcoming embrace in the Oval Office.

Nonetheless, Trump, as a matter of rhetoric, repeatedly affirmed policy positions that were directly contrary to long-standing bipartisan orthodoxy, and his policy and personal instability only compounded elites’ fears that he could not be relied upon to safeguard their lucrative, power-vesting agenda. In so many ways – due to his campaign positions, his outsider status, his unstable personality, his witting and unwitting unmasking of the truth of U.S. hegemony, the embarrassment he causes in western capitals, his reckless unpredictability – Trump posed a threat to their power centers...

More.

Jennifer Delacruz's Coastal Clouds Forecast

A lot of moisture on the coast, but sunny and warmer inland. It's nice weather.

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

'An Inconvenient Ruse'

Liz Wheeler slams Al Gore's new movie, "An Inconvenient Sequel."

Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome

At Amazon, Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization.

Hiroshima Day: 72 Years Since U.S. Dropped Atomic Bomb on Japan

Here's Michael Beschloss below, on Twitter.

Also, at the New York Times (FWIW), "The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima - Daily 360 video: Through modeling and mapping technologies, witness from above the attack on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945."

Hiroshima, today 1945: #NARA pic.twitter.com/iEmTZ4TDuO

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) August 6, 2017

Ta-Nehisi Coates on 'Confederate'

I don't care one way or the other about HBO's possibly upcoming show, "Confederate." To be honest, I'd probably watch just like I've watched "True Detective" and "Westworld," to say nothing of "Game of Thrones." HBO's shows are the only ones I really like, except "Homeland" on Showtime. Other than that, I mostly watch sports. I quit watching cable news earlier this year, and I rarely watch "CBS This Morning" like I used to. Everything's political and I don't want my whole life to be one big attack on President Trump. I have to teach this stuff for a living.

So, if you've been reading news online this past week or so, you've probably heard about the controversy over "Confederate," which hasn't even been produced yet. But just the fact that David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, the creators of "Game of Thrones," are developing the project sent race-baiting leftist into fits.

In any case, here's "black body" boy, Ta-Nehisi Coates, at the Atlantic, "The Lost Cause Rides Again."

But see Kyle Smith, at National Review, "'Confederate' and the Dunces Who Assume It’s Pro-Slavery."

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (Dover Thrift Editions)

Here's my copy, below.

And also available at Amazon, Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (Dover Thrift Editions).

'Something Just Like This'

Hearing this on satellite radio yesterday, driving back from Studio City after visiting with my mom, who turned 82 last Thursday, and my sister's family.

A Slow-Rolling Coup D'état

From the great Derek Hunter, at Town Hall, "We’re Witnessing a Slow-Rolling Coup D'état":

From the moment Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election, a plan was hatched to blame Russia for her historically epic loss and use it to hamstring Donald Trump’s presidency.

Always a hive-mind, Democrats in and out of the media could be counted on to do their parts, and they’ve done just that. But what started out as a few near-riot protests to keep their base angry has morphed into a slow-rolling coup.

The book “Shattered” documented how the Clinton campaign was not interested in an autopsy, it had a plan:

That strategy had been set within twenty-four hours of her concession speech. Mook and Podesta assembled her communications team at the Brooklyn headquarters to engineer the case that the election wasn’t entirely on the up-and-up. For a couple of hours, with Shake Shack containers littering the room, they went over the script they would pitch to the press and the public. Already, Russian hacking was the centerpiece of the argument.

From that, the idea that horrified Democrats during the campaign – that one of the participants would refuse to accept the election results – became an accepted, forgotten fact and the first salvo in what would become a sustained war against the duly-elected president.

Since that meeting, the media dutifully has gone over and above its duty to the cause. After eight years of slumber, print and cable news “journalists” became “woke” to the cause and blew past reporting to a level of propaganda activism that would make Leni Riefenstahl tell them to pump the brakes.

There has been enough embarrassment to go around, but none have beclowned themselves more than CNN’s Jim Acosta. He spent a month whining about not having the cameras on in the press briefing room to capture his antics and add to his sizzle reel so he could get his own show. Then, he showed himself to be the Forrest Gump of the press pool when he equated a poem written to raise money to build the base of the Statue of Liberty with actual law. He then proceeded to congratulate himself, repeatedly, for his performance.

But the media isn’t just a clown show of correspondents fumbling basic facts and shunning logic in its progressive pursuit of a new Nixon. It’s the PR wing of the Democratic Party’s “resistance.” No story is too absurd, no leak too damaging to the nation’s security not to publish. After years of repeating Obama administration spoon-fed talking points, they media now gleefully reports anything that might damage the Trump administration for that sake alone...

More.

Robert Graves, I, Claudius

*BUMPED.*

I'm currently reading this masterpiece. It's been sitting on my bookshelf for almost 30 years.

[Added: I'm almost halfway through this one, and I can say that once you wade through the first few chapters, the book gets fairly lively indeed. I'm enjoying it. And I love how historical dates are appended to the margins, to give accurate temporal context to events. Impressive book.]

At Amazon, Robert Graves, I, Claudius: From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius Born 10 B.C., Murdered and Deified A.D. 54 (Vintage International).

Robert Spencer, Confessions of an Islamophobe

Out November 28th, at Amazon, Robert Spencer, Confessions of an Islamophobe.

Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe

*BUMPED.*

Pre-order at Amazon, Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam.

Raheem Kassam, No Go Zones

This dude's been getting hassled and suspended on Twitter.

Come out with a "diverse" opinion and the left will target you for destruction.

At Amazon, Raheem Kassam, No Go Zones: How Sharia Law Is Coming to a Neighborhood Near You.

Angels Storm Back, Keep Playoff Hopes Alive

The Angels beat the Athletics last night, 8-6 at Anaheim Stadium. They were down 6-2 in the sixth inning, and I thought there for a minute the team would lose. It'd have been the first time they lost while I was in attendance for the last five years or so. Really, when I go to the park, they always win. And they did it again last night. I was pretty magical.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Angels mount comeback to beat A's, stretch winning streak to four and improve to .500":

The Angels are still not healthy, still receiving lackluster seasons from an array of hitters, still struggling to capture the public’s interest, still unlikely to actually qualify for the postseason.

But they are undeniably making this thing interesting. They secured their fourth straight victory and sixth in seven tries Friday, scoring six unanswered runs to come back to beat Oakland 8-6 at Angel Stadium. They are 55-55, and only two games separate them from playoff position.

“Better late than never,” said Ben Revere, who scored Friday’s winning run.

It has become the team’s refrain this summer, enjoyed because of its duality: “We’re still in it.”

Applicable to their 32 comeback victories and to their playoff odds, the Angels cite it in interviews and tell it to their pregame visitors during batting practice, a subtle reminder to one another that they can yet contend in 2017. With each passing week, the idea appears more plausible. They do not have to play particularly good games, especially while hosting Philadelphia, Oakland and Baltimore on this homestand. They can always come back, as they did Friday.

After Mike Trout hit an infield single to short in the first inning, Albert Pujols tapped into an inning-ending double play. It was the 351st double-play groundout of his career, which holds grand significance. It broke Pujols’ tie with Cal Ripken and staked him alone to the all-time record.

Making the first start of his career, the Angels’ Troy Scribner did not give up a hit until the second inning. It was a three-run home run to Matt Chapman — a walk and an error preceded it — that gave the Athletics an early lead. The Angels made it 3-2 with three singles, two errors, a sacrifice fly, and a hit by pitch in their half of the second. With the bases loaded and two out, Trout flied out to left field.

Over the next three innings, they mustered two baserunners — both on doubles, by Trout and Kole Calhoun. Neither man advanced...

More.

The rally monkey did the trick last night. I love that, heh.

Averil Cameron, The Later Roman Empire

At Amazon, Averil Cameron, The Later Roman Empire.

Colin Wells, The Roman Empire

*BUMPED.*

Colin Wells, The Roman Empire: Second Edition.

Michael Crawford, The Roman Republic

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Michael Crawford, The Roman Republic: Second Edition.

Jessica Simpson Shows Off Low-Cut Yellow Top

At London's Daily Mail, "Hello sunshine! Jessica Simpson shows off bountiful cleavage in VERY low-cut crocheted yellow top."

Far-Right YouTubers Dominate

At the New York Times, via Memeorandum, "For the New Far Right, YouTube Has Become the New Talk Radio":

In June, Zack Exley, a political organizer and a fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, published a report on “Black Pigeon Speaks,” a political commentator on YouTube. In Exley’s judgment, B.P.S. is emblematic of a marginal but ascendant sort of YouTube figure — a type that is becoming a meaningful force in the practice of politics online. B.P.S. has, by any objective standard, a significant and engaged audience; at the moment, he has about 215,000 followers, and his uploads have been viewed more than 25 million times. In an introductory video, he describes himself as something like a pundit or an analyst: “I attempt to make sense out of the increasingly nonsensical world we all share,” he says of his channel. “I try and be only as offensive as I need to be.” His videos are unhurried, heavy on explanation and argument, regularly stretching over the 10-minute mark. And, as Exley notes, his politics skew right. Hard right:

He is a traditionalist in many ways, and is positive about Christianity as a cultural force and foundation of Western civilization, but he is not a Christian. He defies the postwar “fusion” of classical libertarianism and evangelical Christianity. B.P.S. believes in a global conspiracy of central bankers led by the Rothschilds who are driving immigration into predominantly white countries to increase the pool of “debt slaves” and to drive down wages; thinks that “cultural Marxism” is a Jewish conspiracy that is undermining Western civilization; and believes that women being allowed to do whatever they want, including choosing their own mates, is the deathblow to Western civilization.

Like its fellow mega-platforms Twitter and Facebook, YouTube is an enormous engine of cultural production and a host for wildly diverse communities. But like the much smaller Tumblr (which has long been dominated by lively and combative left-wing politics) or 4chan (which has become a virulent and effective hard-right meme factory) YouTube is host to just one dominant native political community: the YouTube right. This community takes the form of a loosely associated group of channels and personalities, connected mostly by shared political instincts and aesthetic sensibilities. They are monologuists, essayists, performers and vloggers who publish frequent dispatches from their living rooms, their studios or the field, inveighing vigorously against the political left and mocking the “mainstream media,” against which they are defined and empowered. They deplore “social justice warriors,” whom they credit with ruining popular culture, conspiring against the populace and helping to undermine “the West.” They are fixated on the subjects of immigration, Islam and political correctness. They seem at times more animated by President Trump’s opponents than by the man himself, with whom they share many priorities, if not a style. Some of their leading figures are associated with larger media companies, like Alex Jones’s Infowars or Ezra Levant’s Rebel Media. Others are independent operators who found their voices in the medium....

*****

The YouTube right may be comparatively marginal and ragtag, but it’s also comparatively young. If talk radio primed listeners for Trump’s style and anticipated the American right’s current obsessions, the YouTube right is acquainting viewers with a more international message, attuned to a global revival of explicitly race-and-religion-based, blood-and-soil nationalism. Paul Joseph Watson of Infowars, 35, is perhaps the archetypal YouTube-right vlogger; he has nearly a million followers, and his videos have been viewed more than 215 million times. He has in the last month published videos with titles including “Staged Video Shows ‘Refugee’ Fake Drowning,” “Finsbury Mosque Terror: What They’re NOT Telling You,” “The Truth about Refugees” and “Why Leftists Submit to Terror.” The scripts for these videos are straightforward nativist polemics, with a particular focus on Europe — Watson is from Northern England — delivered in a relentlessly insistent tone, and quite close to the camera. Watson posts extended “roasts” of his political villains, as well as rants that betray a peculiar blend of self-taught reaction: against pop culture, broadly, but also against “modern architecture” and “modern art.” If one video sums up what a receptive viewer might take from subscribing to his channel, it’s “Some Cultures are Better than Others.”

RTWT.

I obviously can do without the rank anti-Semitism. Interestingly, though, Ezra Levant has fired a number of his vloggers who've veered too far over into the outwardly racist right (here's looking at you, Lauren Southern). That said, I like Paul Joseph Watson, and Stephen Molyneux, the latter who nearly breeches the line at times, as well.

Whatever. These kind of people are shaking things up, giving voice to a lot of unconventional and politically unpopular opinions. They're helping to beat back radical leftism, and that's a good thing overall.

Democrats in Crisis

Here's Dana Loesch below, from Fox & Friends this morning.

Related, at WaPo, via Memeorandum, "West Virginia's governor is switching parties. And Democrats just hit a new low."

Michael Korda, Alone

*BUMPED.*

Out next month.

At Amazon, Michael Korda, Alone: Britain, Churchill, and Dunkirk: Defeat Into Victory.

Seems like the publisher would have moved up the release date to coincide with the movie (perhaps there's no corporate tie-in). But still, looks great.

Tourists Go Home! (Refugees Welcome.)

At Theo's, "Socialists in Spain Put Their Twisted Logic on Public Display."

Because It's Never Been Tried!

Following-up from the other day, "Venezuela's Useful Idiots Have Gone Silent."

From Frank Fleming, seen at Instapundit:

Bruce Catton, The Civil War

The basic introductory text.

At Amazon, Bruce Catton, The Civil War (American Heritage Books).

California State University to End Placement Exams and Remedial Classes for Freshmen

Remember my entry from a couple of weeks back, "Eloy Ortiz Oakley, California Community College Chancellor, Calls for End to Algebra Requirement for Non-STEM Majors."

The eradication of high standards for California's public education students continues apace. In a few years, students will be able to enter the university, and then likely graduate with a "four-year degree," without any foundation or completion of rigorous math, sciences, and languages.

Educational officials no doubt are dealing with a wave of unprepared students, thrust into the system by the massive open immigration we've had for the last few decades. It's really reaching critical mass. When I started teaching at Long Beach City College in fall of 2000, fully one-third of students enrolled came from a traditional white working-class background. I thought that was minuscule at the time, but now the number's down to about 13 percent white students.

There's nothing wrong with the diversity. In fact, Latinos at my college are more than half of the student population, and they're totally fine. Many, though not all, are indeed very outstanding. On the other hand, I'm having more and more students ---- including many Asians ---- who literally do not speak English. I don't know how they expect to succeed. But they're here and this is the reality in California.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Cal State will no longer require placement exams and remedial classes for freshmen":

Cal State plans to drop placement exams in math and English as well as the noncredit remedial courses that more than 25,000 freshmen have been required to take each fall — a radical move away from the way public universities traditionally support students who come to college less prepared than their peers.

In an executive order issued late Wednesday, Chancellor Timothy P. White directed the nation’s largest public university system to revamp its approach to remedial education and assess new freshmen for college readiness and course placement by using high school grades, ACT and SAT scores, previous classroom performance and other measures that administrators say provide a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of students’ knowledge.

Cal State will no longer make those students who may need extra help take the entry-level mathematics (ELM) test and the English placement test (EPT).

The new protocol, which will go into effect in fall 2018, “facilitates equitable opportunity for first-year students to succeed through existing and redesigned education models,” White wrote in a memorandum to the system’s 23 campus presidents, who will be responsible for working with faculty to implement the changes.

The executive order comes at a time when educators and policymakers across the nation are questioning the effectiveness of traditional remedial education and placement exams. At Cal State, about 40% of freshman each year are considered not ready for college-level work and required to take remedial classes that do not count toward their degrees.

Currently, students who enter Cal State without demonstrating college readiness in math and/or English are required to take up to three traditional remedial classes before they are allowed to enroll in courses that count toward their degrees. (If students do not pass these remedial courses during the first year, they are removed from university rolls.)

The problem is that these noncredit remedial courses cost the students more money and time, keep many in limbo and often frustrate them to the point that some eventually drop out, administrators said. In a recent study of similar college-prep work at community colleges, the Public Policy Institute of California found that remedial programs — also called developmental education — largely fail to help most students complete their academic or vocational programs.

Under the new system, all Cal State students will be allowed to take courses that count toward their degrees beginning on Day 1. Students who need additional support in math or English, for example, could be placed in “stretch” courses that simultaneously provide remedial help and allow them to complete the general math and English credits required for graduation.

Faculty are also encouraged to explore other innovative ways to embed additional academic support within a college-level course. A few other states have experimented with these approaches, and the results so far are encouraging, administrators said.

“This will have a tremendous effect on the number of units students accumulate in their first year of college,” said James T. Minor, Cal State’s senior strategist for academic success and inclusive excellence. “It will have an enormous effect on college affordability, on the number of semesters that a student is required to be enrolled in before they earn a degree, and it will have a significant impact on the number of students that ultimately cross a commencement stage with a degree in hand, ready to move into the workforce, ready to move into graduate or professional school."

In addition to redesigning remedial requirements systemwide, the executive order instructs campuses to strengthen their summer Early Start programs...

More.

The end result will of course be to exacerbate social inequality, not reduce it. The economically privileged will continue to have access to very high-quality education, in all aspects of rigorous training, especially math and sciences. And these kind of people will float to the top. It's a system of social sorting that's been going on for a while, made more intense by the nature of the high-tech knowledge economy.

Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands

At Amazon, Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin.

America's Car Culture Will Never Die (VIDEO)

As long as Americans value and defend their freedom, they'll continue to want to own and drive their own cars.

The left is trying to change that. Have you seen the push to ban gas-powered cars in Europe? Volvo's phasing out gas-powered vehicles from its lineup.

This trend has really bugged me. I'm in the market for a new car --- I'm currently saving for a substantial down payment --- and I was berated for wanting a muscle car while out to lunch with some of my leftist faculty colleagues earlier this year.

So, I sure hope automotive expert Lauren Fix is right about this. Leftists are tenacious. Even diabolical in their demonization programs.

At Prager University:

Oh Brother: 'Inconvenient' Al Gore Compares Trump Administration to 'Red Wedding' Episode on Game of Thrones (VIDEO)

The video's at the link.

At Twitchy, "Climate change in DC causes Al Gore to compare Trump WH to gruesome ‘Game of Thrones’ scene."

What cracks me up is how "reasonable" the Goracle tries to come off. He's "Mr. I'm-Right-and-You're-Wrong," when it's really the other way around.

Everybody's 'Far Right' Nowadays

The left smears everybody as a Nazi. It's the default tactic. You'd think it wouldn't work, but the media is an echo-chamber amplifier, and those lies are hard to tamp down once they're widely disseminated.

Even someone like prominent Jewish journalist Jake Tapper can be smeared as a neo-Nazi. Sheesh.

At the Other McCain, "Everybody’s ‘Far Right’ Now."

RELATED: Far-left Israel-hating website Mondoweiss smears Jewish New York Times editor Bari Wiess, for the crime of telling the bald truth about Linda Sarsour. At the safe link, "Ensconced at New York Times, pro-Israel advocate Bari Weiss smears Sarsour as a ‘hater’."

Why Trump Is Right About Immigration

From Mark Krikorian, at the National Interest:

For the past two years, ever since Donald Trump’s escalator ride, the immigration debate has focused on enforcement and illegality. The wall, criminal aliens, deportation, Obama’s lawless executive amnesty—it’s been all illegal immigration, all the time.

And that’s as it should be, at first, because if the rules aren’t enforced, it doesn’t much matter what the rules are.

But in the long run the more important questions are: What are the rules? How many people should the federal immigration program admit each year? How should they be selected? How can we minimize the harm from the program while maximizing the benefits?

Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue have started to answer these questions. They joined President Trump at the White House this morning to unveil legislation to restructure and modernize the federal immigration program. The Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy Act (RAISE Act) resumes the effort undertaken by civil rights icon Barbara Jordan’s U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform in the mid-1990s. Two decades ago, the corporate Right allied with the cultural Left to kill Jordan’s recommended immigration changes. But the logic of those changes didn’t go away. And today’s announcement picks up where she left off.

The Cotton-Perdue bill makes a number of significant changes to the current program. First, it focuses family immigration more narrowly. Currently, two-thirds of the million-plus foreign citizens who get green cards (i.e., permanent residence that can lead to citizenship) each year qualify only because they have relatives already here. This nepotistic system does not screen for skills or education. It also drives chain migration, as each cohort of immigrants sponsors the next one.

The RAISE Act would limit family immigration rights to the actual nuclear family: husbands, wives, and little kids of American citizens and legal residents. The current categories for adult siblings, adult sons and daughters, and parents would be retired. U.S. citizens could still bring in their elderly parents in need of caretaking, but only on renewable nonimmigrant visas (no green cards or citizenship) and only after proving that they’ve paid for health insurance up front.

The second major element in this restructuring addresses the employment-based immigration flow. It is now a jumble of categories and subcategories, the main result of which is to provide steady work for immigration lawyers. The Cotton-Perdue bill would rationalize this mess by creating one, streamlined points system, along the lines of similar schemes in Canada and Australia. Points would be awarded to potential candidates based mainly on education, English-language ability and age, and those who meet a certain benchmark would be in the pool for green cards, with the top scorers being selected first.

The bill would also eliminate the egregious Diversity Visa Lottery and cap refugee admissions at fifty thousand per year, rather than allow the president let in as many as he wants, as is the case today.

The level of immigration—now running at over a million a year—would likely drop by 40 percent, and then drop some more over time, as the number of foreign spouses declined. (Most U.S. citizens marrying foreigners are earlier immigrants, so as they age, and fewer new immigrants come in behind them, the demand for spousal immigration is likely to fall.) That would still mean annual permanent immigration of 500,000–600,000 a year, which is more than any other nation.

The bill isn’t perfect. It leaves the level of skills-based immigration, for instance, at the current 140,000 a year—the world doesn’t generate 140,000 Einsteins annually. It preserves a category for the spouses and minor children of green-card holders, which I don’t think is justified. (That relates to spouses acquired after immigration; if you’re married at the time you get your green card, your spouse automatically gets one too.) And I don’t think there’s any justification for resettling even fifty thousand refugees (as opposed to helping a far greater number at the same cost in the countries where they’ve taken refuge).

Neither does this bill address so-called temporary immigration, where businesses import cheap labor—both higher- and lower-skilled—to make an end-run around the American labor market...

More.

New Rita Ora Bikini Pics

Rita Ora's been on my radar since that spectacular outing for Liu Magazine last year. See, "Rita Ora for 'Lui' Magazine."

And today, at Drunken Stepfather, "RITA ORA IN SOME HOT BIKINI PICS OF THE DAY."

Kamila Hansen for Liu Magazine

From January, Kamila Hansen.

Jean M. Twenge, The Narcissism Epidemic

Following-up, "Jean M. Twenge, iGen."

Here's her 2010 book, at Amazon, The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement.

Jean M. Twenge, iGen

At Amazon, Jean M. Twenge, iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy--and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood--and What That Means for the Rest of Us.

She's got a big excerpt from the book up at the Atlantic, "Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? More comfortable online than out partying, post-Millennials are safer, physically, than adolescents have ever been. But they’re on the brink of a mental-health crisis."

I read it on my iPhone, lol.

Save Up to 25% Off Select Under Armour Apparel, Backpacks, and Shoes

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BONUS: Jason Stearns, Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa.

Venice Invaded by 'Low Quality' Tourists

This cracks me up. "Low quality." It's like Trump's attack on his "low energy" Republican rivals in the primaries, heh.

At the New York Times, "Venice, Invaded by Tourists, Risks Becoming ‘Disneyland on the Sea’":

VENICE — “You guys, just say ‘skooozy’ and walk through,” a young American woman commanded her friends, caught in one of the bottlenecks of tourist traffic that clog Venice’s narrow streets, choke its glorious squares and push the locals of this enchanting floating city out and onto drab, dry land. “We don’t have time!”

Neither, the Italian government worries, does Venice.

Don’t look now, but Venice, once a great maritime and mercantile power, risks being conquered by day-trippers.

The soundtrack of the city is now the wheels of rolling luggage thumping up against the steps of footbridges as phalanxes of tourists march over the city’s canals. Snippets of Venetian dialect can still be heard between the gondoliers rowing selfie-snapping couples. But the lingua franca is a foreign mash-up of English, Chinese and whatever other tongue the mega cruise ships and low-cost flights have delivered that morning. Hotels have replaced homes.

Italian government officials, lamenting what they call “low-quality tourism,” are considering limiting the numbers of tourists who can enter the city or its landmark piazzas.

“If you arrive on a big ship, get off, you have two or three hours, follow someone holding a flag to Piazzale Roma, Ponte di Rialto and San Marco and turn around,” said Dario Franceschini, Italy’s culture minister, who lamented what he called an “Eat and Flee” brand of tourism that had brought the sinking city so low.

“The beauty of Italian towns is not only the architecture, it’s also the actual activity of the place, the stores, the workshops,” Mr. Franceschini added. “We need to save its identity.”

The city’s locals, whatever is left of them anyway, feel inundated by the 20 million or so tourists each year. Stores have taken to putting signs on the windows showing the direction to St. Mark’s Square or Ponte di Rialto, so people will stop coming in to ask them where to go...

Heh, I feel the Venetian pain, lol. Maybe they should come hang out in Anaheim for a few days, and see how many Disneyland tourists they hit it off with?

More.

Danielle Gersh's Lightning and Thunderstorms Forecast

It's really trippy weather. It's hot and humid, but it's been totally overcast. I saw no rain in the O.C. today, but who knows? They're spot downpours, and they're stationary. The winds haven't picked up.

In any case, I'm sticking around the house for the rest of the week, and then back to the office next week to finish up work on my course syllabi.

So, here's a midweek weather forecast from the fabulous Danielle, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Gerard Prunier, Africa's World War

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Gerard Prunier, Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe.

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Is Germany a Normal Country?

Good question.

One reason I read so much German history, especially military history, is because, frankly, Germany's not normal historically. The Fischer thesis specifically points to the origins of World War One in aggressive German nationalism and expansionism (shocking, frankly, in its similarities to German expansionism under the Nazi regime).

So, to that effect, here's Jeremy Cliffe, at the New Statesman, "Is Germany a normal country? Its citizens are finding that a painful question":

It needs to seek a balance: neither forgetting its past, nor succumbing to it.

Near my flat in Berlin, six cobblestone-sized plaques glint from the pavement. The first reads: “Here lived Maria Witelson, née Zuckermann. Born 1892. Deported 1942. Murdered in Majdanek.” Each of the others commemorates one of her five teenage children, who also died in that concentration camp near Lublin in Poland.

Along the street are similar plaques recalling the Holz family, deported one by one over a six-week period in 1943. Old Ernst died a week afterwards in Theresienstadt; Herbert and Lieselotte (née Cohn) in Auschwitz on unknown dates; young Willy in January 1945 on the death march to Buchenwald. Such Stolpersteine, or “stumbling stones”, have been sprouting from German streets since 1992.

These monuments to the country’s terrible abnormality – and its admirable determination never to forget it – are not isolated examples. Every synagogue in Germany gets police protection. The mainstream media often boycotts far-right politicians. Every school pupil must visit a concentration camp. The forest of tombstone-like pillars constituting the Holocaust memorial in Berlin takes up an entire block.

This is the context in which Finis Germania (“The End of Germany”) recently appeared. Written by Rolf Peter Sieferle, a Heidelberg-based historian who committed suicide last September, this collection of essays asserts that a guilt-stricken Germany has swallowed the lie of its own abnormality and is determined to dissolve its identity through European federalism and open-border immigration. Most offensively, it compares Germans to the Jews; claiming that the former are now being collectively punished for the Holocaust as the latter were once collectively punished for the Crucifixion.

The book would have made little impact without its inclusion on June’s “non-fiction book of the month”, a list drawn up by a jury of broadcasters and writers. Since then, sales have soared. It is now top of Amazon Germany’s bestseller list. Berlin bookshops are out of copies.

Uproar has ensued. Johannes Saltzwedel, the journalist who proposed its recommendation more as provocation than endorsement, has withdrawn from the “non-fiction book of the month” jury. Finis Germania appears to have been excised from some bestseller lists. Dark rumours swirl that establishment forces have frustrated reprints by its publisher (a fringe outfit based in right-wing Saxony).

The saga tells a bigger story about today’s Germany. The country spent the immediate postwar years concentrating on reconstruction. But then the generation of 1968 radicals (including a then-leftist Sieferle) began to ask their parents about the recent past and upbraid them for smothering it; inspired partly by the 1967 book The Inability to Mourn by Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich. This generation dismantled what the Mitscherlichs called Germany’s “manic defences” against its past. It produced a culture of remembrance and guilt that still dominates the political class.

All of this is as welcome as it is visible on my Berlin street. Yet it also poses an unanswerable question that must nonetheless be answered: is Germany a normal country? That arose most urgently in 1990. The new, reunified Germany would be the largest country in the EU and by far the largest European economy. This begged questions about its military, economic and political role; about whether it should seek to lead or defer to others; about where the limits of its power and responsibilities should lie. Yet Helmut Kohl, the then chancellor, engineered no such debate. The philosopher Jürgen Habermas complained that: “Essential questions of political self-understanding – in particular the question of how we should understand the ‘normality’ of the approaching Berlin Republic – have remained open”.

This all marks German politics today. On Trump and Macron, on the environment and on the euro, the reunified country bequeathed by Kohl to successors such as Angela Merkel is increasingly expected to show leadership. Yet there is no consensus among its elites about what form that leadership should take, if any. Some urge idealism. Some advocate a rigorous focus on national interests. Most are for an ill-defined fudge. Few debate how the various imperatives might be balanced. Germany is as unclear as ever about the scope and limits of its own normalcy...

I'd say keep Germany tied down, just like it was tied down throughout the Cold War by U.S. power and multilateral institutions. Why take any chances, especially in an era like this.

Continue reading, in any case.

Women Surviving in Trump's White House

A good piece, at Politico, "In Trump's WhiteHouse, the women are the survivors."

Camila Romero

She's Argentine.

At Editorials Fashion Trends, "CAMI ROMERO BY ALEJANDRO BAUDUCCO."

Threat of Lightning Shuts Down U.S. Open of Surfing (VIDEO)

I don't blame authorities. There was lots of lightning when I was out with my son yesterday, although I'm sure surfing fans weren't pleased with the evacuation.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Kendall Jenner Frees the Nipple in Completely See-Through Top

One of my loyal readers sent this along yesterday, from the Daily Caller (of all places), "PHOTOS: Kendall Jenner Does it Again, Goes Braless in NYC in Totally See-Through Top."

And at the Sun U.K., "SHEER'S NOT SHY: Kendall Jenner goes wears a see-through top as she goes braless in latest racy outfit."

She's great. Love those long, lean legs, lol.

Emily Ratajkowski in Tropical Kauai (VIDEO)

Well, it's tropical alright, heh.

Here's the lovely Ms. Emily, for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Jackie Johnson's Hot Humid Thunderstorms Forecast

I was out with my young son this afternoon, over to the mall to pick up some video games at Game Stop. Driving through Santa Ana on the way back it started to rain, with some lightning as well. It was intense for a few minutes. Really tropical weather, and my son was cracking up, watching all the people trying to run and get out of the storm. It's unusual for summer.

And boy was it hot and humid. It was in the triple digits in parts of the San Fernando Valley.

What a day!

Here's the lovely Ms. Jackie with tomorrow's forecast, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912.

Charles B. Dew, Apostles of Disunion

Charles B. Dew, Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War.

Robert Leckie, None Died in Vain

At Amazon, Robert Leckie, None Died in Vain: The Saga of the American Civil War.

David M. Potter, The Impending Crisis

At Amazon, David M. Potter, The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861.

Shelby Foote, The Civil War

The classic history, at Amazon, Shelby Foote, The Civil War: A Narrative, a three-volume history of the American Civil War (Volumes 1-3 Box Set).