Peter McPhee, Liberty or Death

*BUMPED.*

Following-up from yesterday eariler, "Lynn Hunt, Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution."

Now here's this book, just out on August 8th, from Peter McPhee, at Amazon, Liberty or Death: The French Revolution.

Angels Acquire Justin Upton and Brandon Phillips

Hey, I can dig it.

I like Cameron Maybin, who was sent to Houston, but if the acquisition of Upton and Phillips helps the Angels make the postseason, it's no problem.

And the front office did some serious business with these acquisitions.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Angels signal they're in it to win it by trading for Justin Upton":

Brandon Phillips and Justin Upton will both be in uniform tonight in Texas. I would like to say, in advance, that I don't make the lineup.

— Pedro Moura (@pedromoura) September 1, 2017

This is bigger than Yu Darvish.

You might have wondered if the Dodgers were trying their hardest to win the World Series, but you never had to wonder whether they were trying to win. The Dodgers were bound for October, with or without Darvish.

The Angels? Mike Trout, some wings and a prayer.

When the July 31 trade deadline came and the Angels were afloat in the wild-card race, they made one move: dumping one of their most reliable relievers for no good reason, and nothing good in return.

With one bold move on Thursday, the Angels announced they were back.

Back to relevance. Back to winning. Back to a commitment to excellence.

No longer will the Angels allow themselves to be held hostage by the ghost of Josh Hamilton. When they agreed to acquire Justin Upton from the Detroit Tigers on Thursday, they finally removed the“vacancy” sign from left field, three years after they exiled Hamilton to Texas.

They could have had Upton two winters ago, or Yoenis Cespedes, Dexter Fowler, Alex Gordon or Jason Heyward. They passed on them all, trying to pass off Craig Gentry and Daniel Nava as a legitimate major league platoon. They still had to pay Hamilton, after all.

The Angels’ left fielders have hit 27 home runs in the three years of the post-Hamilton era, seven this season. Upton has hit 28 home runs this season, 11 in August.

The Angels’ second basemen had a .589 OPS (on-base-plus-slugging percentage), the lowest for any American League club at any position, aside from shortstop for the Kansas City Royals (Alcides Escobar). After two years and zero offense there in the post-Howie Kendrick era, the Angels doubled down on this year and traded for Brandon Phillips on Thursday as well.

Trout has drawn 11 walks in his last eight games, and not just because of his plate discipline. For most of the season, no Angels hitters besides Trout and Andrelton Simmons ranked above league average. They rank last in the AL in OPS. Frankly, with their starting pitching in tatters for most of the season, it’s a miracle they are in contention.

But they awoke Thursday — the last day before organizational rosters are frozen for postseason eligibility — and found themselves one game out of the second AL wild-card spot, two games behind the New York Yankees for the top wild-card spot.

The disabled list is clearing. Andrew Heaney and Tyler Skaggs are back in the starting rotation, with ace Garrett Richards expected to follow any day now. C.J. Cron hit two home runs on Tuesday. Albert Pujols hit two home runs on Wednesday.

The players deserved some help, and owner Arte Moreno gave it to them.

Moreno doesn’t come around the ballpark as often as he used to, and he doesn’t have much to say publicly, leaving fans to wonder whether he remains engaged and interested in his team. He takes pride in running the team as a successful business, with no debt. He could sell the team for 10 times what he paid for it.

On Thursday, he showed he still is in it to win it. The Angels’ lone World Series appearance, remember, came the year before he bought the team.

This is the last year of the Hamilton contract. Moreno will pay about $35 million to left fielders this year — $26 million to Hamilton, the rest to Upton and Cameron Maybin.

It isn’t that the Angels’ payroll is taking a huge jump this year. It’s not. The Angels let the Houston Astros take Maybin on a waiver claim, and the $1.5 million the Angels save there will cover much of the $3.7 million Upton is owed for the rest of this season. The Tigers will pay some of that too. And the Angels’ commitment to the 36-year-old Phillips is less than $1 million; he’s a free agent come fall.

No, the plaudits for Moreno come because Upton has four years and $88.5 million left on his contract after this season. He could opt out, but Moreno assumed that risk — and, really, there’s not much to lose here.

The Angels know they get a month of Upton for a few million bucks, without losing either of their two legitimate prospects in the trade. They just might get four more years of a premium power hitter at a market rate.

Upton, who turned 30 last week, has hit at least 25 home runs five years running. They ought to hope he does not opt out. If he does, they won’t get a draft pick.

The Angels cannot dream of getting anywhere near that production of anyone in their farm system by 2020.

That is the last year of Trout’s contract. The Angels don’t have time for a tank job if they want to persuade him to stay. They need to show him they can win, with him, and soon.

And, as of Thursday, they are two big bats closer to doing something they never have done since baseball’s best player joined the Angels in 2011: winning a postseason game.

Myla Dalbesio Leaves Nothing to the Imagination (VIDEO)

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Bella Thorne Flaunts in a Bikini Top

Yolo.

At Drunken Stepfather, "BELLA THORNE IN A BIKINI TOP OF THE DAY":

Bella Thorne never ending stream of her life because girl is so hooked to fame, attention to herself, being the star of her show, that she runs and directs and stars in like a Mel Gibson movie you can jerk off to, while designed to feed her ego.

🌈🎪🏆 pic.twitter.com/plLEYlbGg7

— bella thorne (@bellathorne) August 27, 2017

Alannah Beirne on the Sidewalk

She's was a finalist for Britain's Next Top Model.

At Taxi Driver, "Alannah Beirne Nipple Slip on the Sidewalk."

Also at Sunday World Magazine and VIP:

Free in today's @sundayworld ... Magazine+ has an exclusive chat with Ireland's @BNTMUK stunner @AlannahBeirne pic.twitter.com/XE6jXWIehX

— SW Magazine+ (@SundayWorldMag) June 25, 2017

‘I was bursting with happiness…’ @AlannahBeirne on making top three on Britain’s Next Top Model. https://t.co/W9kWpmxGE1 pic.twitter.com/HMA6lp4XAK

— VIP Magazine (@VIPmagaz) May 18, 2017

Blistering Heat Continues (VIDEO)

There was an apocalyptic feel last night when I was driving home from work. Temperatures were near 100, but the sky was filled with cumulus storm clouds, while at the same time the acrid smell of smoke told that the heat had brought some fires. You just wanted to be out of it. Man.

Here's more, from Jasmine Viel at CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

President Trump May Drop DACA (VIDEO)

I hate DACA. But will dropping it hurt the GOP?

We'll see.

At LAT, "Speaker Ryan, business groups urge Trump to save DACA program for young immigrants."

A decision's expected over the weekend.

Democrats: The Atheist Anti-American Feminist Gun-Grabber Man-Hating Party

At the Other McCain:

Democrats like Shannon Watts promote the idea that Bible-believing Christians are a greater threat to America than Koran-believing Muslims. Why? Because exit-poll data show that Bible-believing Christians tend to vote Republican, just like a majority of gun owners vote Republican, and most white people vote Republican. If you are a member of any demographic constituency that is aligned with the GOP, Democrats will find a way to demonize you as the epitome of evil, because scapegoating their enemies is what the Democrat Party is all about.

By the way, is anyone surprised that Shannon Watts’ daughter is gay? Aren’t Democrats now basically the anti-heterosexual party? America is still a free country, and you can say what you want, but they can take away my heterosexuality when they pry it from my cold dead hands.

Probably most Americans agree with me, but Democrats hate most Americans. They are fanatically devoted to hating us, and yet can’t seem to understand why we don’t vote for them. Let’s hope they never figure it out, because this is why Hillary Clinton is not president.

Anna Kooiman in South Korea (VIDEO)

I saw her on Twitter this morning.

And here's the video from Fox & Friends:

Identity Politics, Destroying America

From James A. Baker III and Andrew Young, at WSJ, "Identity Politics Are Tearing America Apart":

The two of us have seen this before: a critical point in U.S. history, when political, social and economic upheavals have left too many Americans battling one another rather than working together to build a better country. We lived through the Great Depression, when men armed with bats and clubs went to the streets in violent attempts to resolve labor differences. We also experienced the civil unrest of the 1960s, when inner cities burned with the heat of racial division and authorities killed innocent students peacefully protesting a war.

Somehow, the drumbeat of dissonance seems harsher today. America’s national ideal of “e pluribus unum”—out of many, one—threatens to become a hollow slogan. Jaded Americans are constantly confronted by a deluge of animus from their televisions and smartphones. The U.S. finds itself increasingly divided along lines of race, ethnicity, gender, religion and sexual identity. Countless demagogues stand ready to exploit those differences. When a sports reporter of Asian heritage is removed from his assignment because his name is close to that of a Confederate army general, political correctness has gone too far. Identity politics practiced by both major political parties is eroding a core principle that Americans are, first and foremost, Americans.

The divisions in society are real. So are national legacies of injustice. All can and must be addressed. Those who preach hatred should be called out for their odious beliefs. But even as extremism is condemned, Americans of good will need to keep up lines of civil, constructive conversation.

The country faces a stark choice. Its citizens can continue screaming at each other, sometimes over largely symbolic issues. Or they can again do what the citizens of this country have done best in the past—work together on the real problems that confront everyone.

Both of us have been at the center of heated disputes in this country and around the world. And there’s one thing we’ve learned over the decades: You achieve peace by talking, not yelling. The best way to resolve an argument is to find common ground.

We encourage Congress and the White House to take this approach in the fall. First, they should raise the debt ceiling and fund the government. There is no benefit to shutting down the government simply because one side does not get all it wants from the legislative process. A government shutdown would only fortify most people’s dissatisfaction with a federal government they (often correctly) believe doesn’t work for them. And it would only breed more debilitating cynicism.

We hope that leaders in Washington will also focus on infrastructure projects that can help the U.S. keep pace with its global competitors, particularly China. Floodwaters don’t distinguish between Republicans and Democrats. Nor do rotting bridges discriminate between whites and blacks. This is an important and easy area to emphasize common interests. Political leaders should prioritize and provide tangible policies that benefit Americans. They are long overdue.

We also encourage Washington to focus with laserlike intensity on the federal tax code, which handcuffs American businesses. This country needs to find politically palatable ways to streamline that code and bring corporate taxes in line with those of other countries. As a way to protect the debate from becoming a battle over whose ox gets gored, Congress should make any tax reform revenue-neutral. Legislation should also encourage investors to bring their money back into the U.S., where it can be put into civic projects that improve America.

Congress and the president must do more than just act on these pressing issues. They also need to set an example to all Americans...

Keep reading.

America's Mass Hysteria

Here's Ace, at AoSHQ.

A phenomenal essay. Just read it all at the link. Grab a cup of coffee. It's worth your time.

Media/social media is infected by virally-transmitted hysteria. How to stay sane in the Crazy Years: https://t.co/ujuv3q4Ehs

— Baby Goat Alliance (@AceofSpadesHQ) August 30, 2017

Shop Amazon

Thanks for your support.

Regular blogging's going to pick back up over the long Labor Day weekend. Meanwhile, check out these deals.

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Kate Upton Puts on a Show (VIDEO)

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Colleen McCullough, Morgan's Run

At Amazon, Colleen McCullough, Morgan's Run.

Evelyn Taft's Smothering Heat Forecast

Oh boy was it hot today. I got out to my van at about 4:00pm and near-about melted once I got inside. Sheesh.

And there's more smothering temperatures expected tomorrow.

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

Laura Ingraham Calls Out #Antifa (VIDEO)

Following-up, "The #Antifa Protests Are Helping Donald Trump."

Things really are coming to a head on this. Thanks antifa! Keep it up!

Here's Ms. Laura, with Tucker Carlson tonight:

The #Antifa Protests Are Helping Donald Trump

When left-wing hacks start writing posts like this, you know a line's been crossed.

This makes me happy. I'm just tickled. Nancy Pelosi even issued a denunciation, which is a little shocking, heh.

From Jelani Cobb, at the New Yorker:

The Antifa protests are helping Donald Trump: https://t.co/44i5eZG9hF pic.twitter.com/g2nxfrFRoN

— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) August 29, 2017

Pelosi puts out statement condemning Antifa violence in Berkeley. pic.twitter.com/0RlU6RlWmX

— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) August 30, 2017

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BONUS: Margaret George, The Memoirs of Cleopatra: A Novel.

Lynn Hunt, Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution

Following-up from Monday, "Simon Schama, Citizens."

At Amazon, Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution: With a New Preface, 20th Anniversary Edition (Studies on the History of Society and Culture, No. 1).

Amber Lee's Beach Weather Forecast

It's great down by the water. If you're inland, though, especially if you're out and about, it's gotta be miserable. We're looking at triple-digits inland tomorrow.

I've been teaching this week, so when I head home for my drive-time commute, it's boiling in Long Beach. Shoot, it's supposed to be about 95 tomorrow in Irvine. That's about the hottest it's been all summer, excepting that gnarly heat wave we had back in June.

In any case, I'll be back teaching again on Wednesday. Everything's going fine. I'm getting my classes set up, getting students situated with their syllabi and course materials. Tomorrow's a lecture and discussion section for my American government classes. Let's see how it goes. Hopefully students will remain punctual and attendance is robust.

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

Germanic Barbarians

Remember, I've mentioned a couple of times my fascination with the Roman Legions' war with Germania.

So, I've now got my copy of Steven Ozment, A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People, and you can see from the contents page this stuff's right in my wheelhouse. That's what I love about reading. As you learn more, you find yourself having more questions, and you seek more knowledge. This book's really excellent to boot.

Louise Mensch Hoaxed on 'Lurid' Allegations Into President Trump's Russia Ties

Red State posts the inevitable (hilarious) entry, "Total Shocker as Louise Mensch’s Conspiracy Theories Turn Out to Be Fake News."

Of course, Louise claims she never relied on the hoaxer who punked her co-author Claude Tayler, and is denying all attacks that she's a grifter and a fraud. Apparently, the both of them have been doing heavy-duty fundraising to keep their "Never Trump" conspiracies going.

It's a sad denouement.

At the Guardian U.K., "Lurid Trump allegations made by Louise Mensch and co-writer came from hoaxer."

Guardian: How Clinton WH aide & ex MP who was hired and then dropped by Murdoch were duped on lurid claims vs Trump https://t.co/G0hkO5d6Sk

— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) August 28, 2017

Dear lord. Excellent judgment, @donnabrazile, @tribelaw & @JoyAnnReid in building this up. Honorable mention to NYT & @KeithOlbermann pic.twitter.com/siMmftOEYv

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 28, 2017

Summer's Winding Down

Time to get out there this weekend for some holiday paddle-boarding, lol.

Evelyn Taft's Hot and Humid Forecast

It was at least 90 today in Long Beach and Irvine, and it's supposed to be hotter tomorrow. This is the classic late summer tropical build-up, with those huge cumulus clouds across the sky. It's just boiling when you get in your car for the drive-time commute.

So, more heat tomorrow. I guess that's better than flooding and displacement, like in Texas, so say a beautiful prayer for your fellow Americans.

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

Simon Schama, Citizens

Following-up from last night, "Ruth Scurr, Fatal Purity."

If you're going to read-up on the revolution, Schama's the benchmark standard.

At Amazon, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution.

Ruth Scurr, Fatal Purity

I read William Doyle's, The Oxford History of the French Revolution, last year.

If I wind up on a Jacobin jag, I think I'll pick it up with this Scurr volume below. Maybe next summer. My 2017 summer reading idyll's winding down, heh.

At Amazon, Ruth Scurr: Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution.

Jennifer Delacruz's Record Triple-Digit Forecast

Inland San Diego County could see record temperatures tomorrow.

It was hot in Irvine today but I was in all day with the air conditioning on, so I'm not out in the heat.

And prayers for Texas. I watched a lot of videos on Twitter from the hurricane. And interesting, there was harsh push-back against those trying to push the political climate-change agendas. More on that later.

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

Esbit Lightweight Camping Cook Set

At Amazon, Esbit CS585HA 3-Piece Lightweight Camping Cook Set for Use with Solid Fuel Tablets.

Also, Mountain House Just In Case...Breakfast Bucket.

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FOMO

At Wired, "We Can't Stop Checking the News Either. Welcome to the New FOMO."

It's "Fear of Missing Out."

I've had it before, although not so much lately.

The science behind the regret, shame, and anxiety that comes from constantly monitoring your feeds for news https://t.co/UdEXeUPrxF

— WIRED (@WIRED) August 26, 2017

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."

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

Cartoon Credit: A.F. Branco, "Path of Totalitarianism."

Kelly Brook in Skimpy Red String Bikini

At the Sun U.K., "WIGGLE WIGGLE: Kelly Brook jiggles her boobs in a red bikini as she does a sexy dance to celebrate finishing work on her 2018 calendar - The stunning star showed off her hourglass figure as she posed for the Boomerang video."

Here's the clip.

Also, "'I have thick skin... Literally!' Defiant Kelly Brook responds to vile trolls who fat-shamed her bikini figure... before deleting the sizzling picture."

I have thick skin!! Literally 😂👌🏻😘✌🏻😜 https://t.co/88HyJHsLcQ

— Kelly Brook (@IAMKELLYBROOK) July 31, 2017

Iggy Azalea Leaves Little to the Imagination on Instagram

At London's Daily Mail, "Booty-ful! Rapper Iggy Azalea leaves little to the imagination as she flaunts VERY pert derrière in tiny bikini bottoms."

ADDED: "Iggy Azalea flaunts her flawless makeup free complexion in stunning social media selfie."

Jennifer Delacruz Dangerous Heat Forecast

Well, I've been moaning about how mild it's been, but I guess I shouldn't have been complaining, lol. It's about to get very hot tomorrow and early in the workweek.

You could feel it today in Irvine, where the high was about 85 degrees. But that's nothing compared to the triple-digit inland temperatures expected on Sunday.

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

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Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer

This one's also a winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

At Amazon, The Sympathizer: A Novel.

Leftists Shut Down Bay Area Free Speech Rallies

I don't know?

Folks keep saying the Democrats are forming a circular firing squad, but they keep shutting down free speech events. Will the great silent majority repudiate these brown shirts in 2018 and 2020. Most crucially, can Donald Trump be reelected to continue the fight against America's enemies?

I sure hope so.

Here's some updates from today's Los Angeles Times, "What will happen in the Bay Area? After San Francisco and Berkeley rallies scrapped, peace activists prepare." Also, "Organizer of far-right rally in San Francisco cancels Saturday news conference in park."

And of course, leftists were able to protest, "Hundreds of demonstrators turn out in San Francisco to denounce white supremacist."

For the truth of it all, see Matthew Vadum, at FrontPage Magazine, "THE PERSECUTION OF PATRIOT PRAYER: Democrats green-light violence by smearing mainstream group rallying in San Francisco as neo-Nazis":

Democrat politicians like Nancy Pelosi have given their ultra-violent “antifa” allies permission to use physical violence against the Patriot Prayer group rallying in a San Francisco park on Saturday by smearing them as “Nazi sympathizers.”

The story of Oregon-based Patriot Prayer is a case study in the power of propaganda in generating leftist mass hysteria. It is also a reaffirmation that everyone has First Amendment rights in America, except for non-leftists. Leftists are already planning riots. One of the more cowardly leftists intends to cover the rally site at Crissy Field inside San Francisco’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area near the Golden Gate Bridge in dog feces.

Offering no evidence whatsoever of the Tea Party-ish group’s background or intentions, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who represents San Francisco, said Crissy Field "is not a place for Nazi sympathizers to come and spew their negative message."

Especially since Donald Trump became president, the Left has been deliberately, maliciously, conflating peaceful, pro-Constitution conservative and Tea Party groups with violent, statist neo-Nazis and those affiliated with them.

Pelosi has been bloviating about Patriot Prayer’s rally permit for some time, a permit granted only after the group agreed to ban guns, tiki torches, and other objects that can be used as weapons at the event.

Pelosi trashed the feds on August 15 for granting the permit, making the outrageously defamatory claim that Patriot Prayer is secretly a despicable hate group.

“The National Park Service’s decision to permit a white supremacist rally … raises grave and ongoing concerns about public safety,” the 77-year-old latte leftist said in a statement.

“Free speech does not grant the right to yell fire in a crowded theater, incite violence or endanger the public in any venue,” she said, going on to “wonder” whether the decision to allow the “white supremacist rally” was made “under guidance from the White House?” She also called into question the NPS’s ability “to ensure public safety during a white supremacist rally.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) wrote a letter earlier this month urging the NPS to deny Patriot Prayer a permit rally. “I am alarmed at the prospect that Crissy Field will be used as a venue for Patriot Prayer’s incitement, hate, and intimidation,” wrote the 84-year-old lawmaker who, for what it’s worth, at times seems like an ardent conservative compared to California’s junior senator, Kamala Harris (D).

Conspiracy theorist and congresswoman, Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), said the upcoming rally isn’t about free speech at all.

What they’re really doing is really manipulating. They have small numbers and small resources, and they see this is an opportunity to go to very blue areas where they will not be met with warmth and revelry and try to gin up more support for their organization with numbers and with monies.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), a known Communist sympathizer, seemed to say she won’t be upset if a so-called alt-right event set for Sunday at Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park is shut down.

“Berkeley is the center really of the free speech movement and the peace movement, Lee said. “And so there’s no way that we are not going to say we’re united against hate.”

Pelosi, Feinstein, Speier, Lee and their antifa comrades have been emboldened by Republican politicians like Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio and NeverTrump obsessives like Bill Kristol and Joe Scarborough who joined in the attacks on President Trump after the recent unrest in Charlottesville, Virginia, accusing him of treating the occasionally violent radical rightists as morally equivalent to the always-violent radical leftists.

Thanks to the lies of Pelosi and her colleagues, antifa is already threatening murder and mayhem at the rally.

Twitter user @ibPrinceJordan, who self-identifies as a San Francisco resident, tweeted, “The Patriot Prayer rally is a nazi white supremacist event. I’ll be their [sic] to crush some nazi skulls.”

“Can’t wait!” he added. “Going to bring this nailed bat for some nazi pounding.” That tweet was accompanied by a photo of what appeared to be a baseball bat with long nails driven through it.

Someone on Facebook calling himself Tuffy Tuffington is urging fellow dog owners to “leave a gift for our alt-right friends” by letting their dogs “do their business” at Crissy Field before the Patriot Prayer event.

“I just had this image of alt-right people stomping around in the poop,” Tuffington reportedly said. “It seemed like a little bit of civil disobedience where we didn’t have to engage with them face to face.”

The claim that Patriot Prayer is a so-called hate group is laughable. Not even the extreme left-wingers at the Southern Poverty Law Center, whose website is the go-to reference for aspiring left-wing terrorists wishing to maim and kill conservatives, label Patriot Prayer a hate group.

Nor is its leader, Joey Gibson, considered an extremist by the SPLC which officially supports denying First Amendment rights to anyone to the right of Noam Chomsky. Gibson started Patriot Prayer after several supporters of President Trump were beaten in San Jose, California, on the campaign trail.

Gibson told Fox News the approaching rally is based in “a philosophy about promoting love and peace but doing it in a way that’s respectful. It’s about building bridges.”

He said he wants to educate antifa supporters and “bring them out of the darkness.” Calling his rally white-supremacist in nature is “beyond insane.”

“Nancy Pelosi said it was a white supremacist rally so she could bring out extremists on the right and the left,” Gibson said. “She’s telling white supremacists to come into town.”

The street thugs of antifa-aligned By Any Means Necessary, which California law enforcement blames for inciting violence at protests, say they will be at the rally as a result of Pelosi’s statements.

“San Francisco is not going to be a huge problem (with hate groups) because we have a permit so we can control who can come in,” Gibson said, adding “If anybody shows up with a flag or uses hateful rhetoric they can go stand out with antifa.”

“The politicians like Nancy Pelosi don’t like people coming in talking about freedom,” said Gibson. “At the end of the day they don’t care about racism. They want a revolution in the country.”

Making the case that Gibson, who isn’t Caucasian – he describes himself as “brown” – is some kind of white-supremacist is a hard case to make. The SPLC actually reported that Gibson was observed at a recent rally yelling “Fuck white supremacists!” He has been pepper-sprayed by leftists.

Tucker Carlson and Gibson shared some laughs about the bizarre allegations against him and his group during a TV interview aired August 16.

Previewing the San Francisco rally, Gibson said:

I'm not white. We have about eight speakers and only one speaker is white. We have a couple black speakers, a Hispanic, we have a transsexual speaker, we have a woman speaker. It's very diverse. It’s really just about what’s on the inside. What you believe, your heart, your soul. It has nothing to do with skin color.

Lindsay Grathwohl, daughter of the late American hero Larry Grathwohl, is scheduled to address the rally. Her father was a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran. After fighting Communists abroad, he decided to fight them at home as an FBI informant. He returned to America after serving in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division and took it upon himself to infiltrate the group, joining the Weatherman collective in Cincinnati.

Gibson accused Pelosi of “trying to capitalize” on the current polarized political environment in the nation.

She's making it more difficult for San Francisco. What she’s trying to do is rile up her citizens so that they’ll come down there and they’ll try to chase us out. Her rhetoric is just going to cause more violence.

Patriot Prayer’s Facebook cover page depicts a peaceful rally. Above the group’s logo is a Nazi swastika covered by a red circle and diagonally crossed out. There is also a hammer and sickle symbol covered with a red circle and crossed out. A woman is shown wearing a shirt emblazoned with the "Don't tread on me" logo from the American Revolution. She is also wearing an "I voted" sticker.

Patriot Prayer makes it clear that certain individuals and kinds of people are not welcome at its rally this weekend.

No extremists will be allowed in. No Nazis, Communist, KKK, Antifa, white supremacist, I.E., or white nationalists. This is an opportunity for moderate americans to come in with opposing views. We will not allow the extremists to tear apart this country. Specifically, Richard Spencer and NathanDamigo will not be welcome.

Despite these assurances, it seems clear that the fascist Left and its army of rioters will be on hand, just as they were last weekend in Boston.

Antifa and others on the Left deprived members of another innocuous group of their free speech rights last weekend in Boston with the connivance of the authorities.

As Jeff Jacoby noted,

Participants in the "Boston Free Speech Rally" had been demonized as a troupe of neo-Nazis prepared to reprise the horror that had erupted in Charlottesville. They turned out to be a couple dozen courteous people linked by little more than a commitment to — surprise! — free speech.

One of the organizers of the event last Saturday on Boston Common was “a 23-year-old libertarian named John Medlar, [who] had insisted vigorously that its purpose was not to endorse white supremacy.” As Shiva Ayyadurai, an Indian immigrant seeking the GOP nomination in next year's U.S. Senate race, addressed the small crowd of free speech advocates, his supporters held up signs reading "Black Lives Do Matter."

One line in a news report on Page 1 of the left-leaning Boston Globe demonstrated how ridiculous the hype was: "'Excuse me,' one man in the counter-protest innocently asked a Globe reporter. 'Where are the white supremacists?'"

The event was doomed before it began. Mayor Marty Walsh (D) smeared the organizers as violent racists and extremists and rumors spread. "Boston does not want you here," he said.

This all-American micro-rally was confronted by 40,000 counter-protesters, including violent antifa members. But the people there for the free speech event were denied their First Amendment rights by Boston authorities.

The speakers on the Common bandstand were kept from being heard. They were blocked off with a 225-foot buffer zone, and segregated beyond earshot. Police barred anyone from approaching to hear what the rally speakers had to say. Reporters were excluded, too.

Result: The free-speech rally took place in a virtual cone of silence. Its participants "spoke essentially to themselves for about 50 minutes," the Globe reported. "If any of them said anything provocative, the massive crowd did not hear it."

Police Commissioner Bill Evans was fine with suppressing the rights of the participants who had a permit for the event, implying it was a gathering of neo-Nazis. "You know what," Evans said, "if they didn't get in, that's a good thing, because their message isn't what we want to hear."

The lunatic leftists of San Francisco are also hoping to snuff out the First Amendment rights of Patriot Prayer supporters tomorrow.

Predictably, San Francisco’s hyper-politically correct mayor, Ed Lee (D), has denounced the scheduled rally for, in his words, being designed to “incite hate, bigotry and violence” despite a complete lack of evidence that it is being held to promote hate, bigotry, or violence.

“They will have their rally on federal land because the U.S. Constitution provides all of us the right to freedom of expression,” Lee huffed. “But as mayor of this city, I say: Any message of hate is not welcome.”

Welcome or not, the patriots of Patriot Prayer are coming to San Francisco.

Mark Lilla, The Once and Future Liberal

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Mark Lilla, The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics.

From one of the country’s most admired political thinkers, an urgent wake-up call to American liberals to turn from the divisive politics of identity and develop a vision of our future that can persuade all citizens that they share a common destiny.

In The Once and Future Liberal, Mark Lilla offers an impassioned, tough-minded, and stinging look at the failure of American liberalism over the past two generations. Although there have been Democrats in the White House, and some notable policy achievements, for nearly 40 years the vision that Ronald Reagan offered—small government, lower taxes, and self-reliant individualism—has remained the country’s dominant political ideology. And the Democratic Party has offered no convincing competing vision in response.

Instead, as Lilla argues, American liberalism fell under the spell of identity politics, with disastrous consequences. Driven originally by a sincere desire to protect the most vulnerable Americans, the left has now unwittingly balkanized the electorate, encouraged self-absorption rather than solidarity, and invested its energies in social movements rather than in party politics.

With dire consequences. Lilla goes on to show how the left’s identity-focused individualism insidiously conspired with the amoral economic individualism of the Reaganite right to shape an electorate with little sense of a shared future and near-contempt for the idea of the common good. In the contest for the American imagination, liberals have abdicated.

Now they have an opportunity to reset. The left is motivated, and the Republican Party, led by an unpredictable demagogue, is in ideological disarray. To seize this opportunity, Lilla insists, liberals must concentrate their efforts on recapturing our institutions by winning elections. The time for hectoring is over. It is time to reach out and start persuading people from every walk of life and in every region of the country that liberals will stand up for them. We must appeal to – but also help to rebuild –  a sense of common feeling among Americans, and a sense of duty to each other.

A fiercely-argued, no-nonsense book, enlivened by Lilla’s acerbic wit and erudition, The Once and Future Liberal is essential reading for our momentous times.

Hysteria Over Monuments Metastasizes

Leftist hysteria is like a cancer, so it's spread is tantamount to metastasis of cancer.

At the New York Times, "Far From Dixie, Outcry Grows Over a Wider Array of Monuments" (safe link):

It began with calls to remove Confederate generals.

But since the violence in Charlottesville, Va., two weeks ago, the anger from the left over monuments and public images deemed racist, insensitive or inappropriate has quickly spread to statues of Christopher Columbus and the former Philadelphia tough cop mayor Frank Rizzo, Boston’s landmark Faneuil Hall, a popular Chicago thoroughfare and even Maryland’s state song. An Asian-American sportscaster named Robert Lee was pulled from broadcasting a University of Virginia football game so as not to offend viewers.

The disputes over America’s racial past and public symbols have proliferated with dizzying speed, spreading to states far beyond the Confederacy and inspiring campaigns by minorities and political progressives across the country. But along the way, they have become to some an example of politically correct sentiments gone too far, with the potential to mobilize the right and alienate the center.

Paul Begala, the Democratic strategist, said his party was “driving straight into a trap Trump has set,” because the president seeks to shift the focus away from comments he made about white supremacists to his charge that opponents are trying to “take away our history.”

“While I understand the pain those monuments cause,” said Mr. Begala, who was an adviser to President Bill Clinton, “I just think it in some ways dishonors the debate to allow Trump to hijack it.”

New disputes seem to be springing up daily.

In a Democratic mayoral candidates’ debate in New York on Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio did not rule out removing Manhattan’s 76-foot Columbus Circle monument as the city reviews “symbols of hate.”

Philadelphia placed barricades and guards around a statue of Mr. Rizzo, loathed by some African-Americans for his harsh tactics toward blacks in the city, after protesters surrounded the bronze edifice and a city councilwoman, Helen Gym, wrote on Twitter, “Take the Rizzo statue down.”

Mr. Rizzo, who died in 1991, cultivated a law-and-order image as a police commissioner that included raiding gay clubs and once forcing Black Panthers to strip naked in the street.

“Just because Philadelphia wasn’t a part of the Confederacy doesn’t mean we get a pass,” Ms. Gym said in an interview. She is less concerned about turning off voters who support the president than in rousing members of the Democratic base, including minorities, who did not vote in November.

“My concern is about the number of people who stayed home, who felt government doesn’t speak for them,” she said. “I’m trying to show government can be reflective in a time of anguish.”

In Chicago, a campaign is underway to remove a monument to Italo Balbo, an Italian air marshal, which the Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini presented to the city in 1933. Balbo Drive is a well-known street in the heart of downtown.

In Boston, there are calls for renaming historic Faneuil Hall because Peter Faneuil, who donated the building to the city in 1743, was a slave owner and trader.

Columbus, who, most Americans learn rather innocently, in 1492 sailed the ocean blue until he discovered the New World, has undergone a revisionist treatment in recent decades because of his impact on native peoples...

See that?

It's all about "rousing the Democratic base." Or, it's all about politics.

Leftists care about power. They don't care about the well-being of any of the so-called victims of "racism." They care about raw power and they'll destroy the country --- totally destroy this once-great nation --- in order to get it.

Still more (FWIW).

Critics Slam Taylor Swift's Comeback Single (VIDEO)

Ms. Taylor's really not my generation of music, so I asked my oldest son what he thought of her new song. He said he hadn't listened to it yet, and that in fact he was avoiding the news and the criticism, because he didn't want to be brought down and polluted by the haters, in so many words.

In any case, at USA Today, "Some of the most ruthless digs on #LookWhatYouMadeMeDo (and there were a lot to choose from)."

Halsey for Playboy

She's some new pop star, I guess.

Nice either way.

At Taxi Driver, "Halsey for Playboy Magazine."

And at PuffHo, "Halsey on Why Posing in Playboy Doesn’t Diminish Her Feminism."

Much love to @halsey for this amazing cover for @playboy ✌ pic.twitter.com/5Jvv4ZxjEV

— ✨ARKY DIAZ✨ (@ArkyDiaz) August 17, 2017

'Newsflash. A woman can be multi-dimensional': Halsey defends choice to 'show my t**s' for Playboy - International… https://t.co/QhW3vaTjHy pic.twitter.com/YfhHY0oECx

— Nikolas Moretti (@NikolasMoretti) August 25, 2017

Kylie Jenner for V Magazine

Here, "Kylie Reveals All." (Hat Tip: Taxi Driver.)

I think that's farther than Kendall's ever gone with the "free the nipple" campaign, and frankly, Kylie's got more bodacious breasts.

More here, "Watch the footage of @KylieJenner's Nick Knight photo shoot."

President Trump Pardons Sheriff Joe Arpaio

I met Sheriff Joe in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2010. Everybody loves Sheriff Joe. The only people who don't are the treasonous racist MSM fifth columnists out to destroy our great country!

Here's the headline at NYT, via Memeorandum, "Trump Pardons Joe Arpaio, Who Became Face of Crackdown on Illegal Immigration."

I don't care what these leftist media hacks say. Sheriff Joe's a freakin' patriot.

Here's my report from 2010. I had so much fun! See, "Sheriff Joe Arpaio Headlines 'Stand With Arizona' Rally in Tempe."

Harold Bloom, The Western Canon

"What shall the individual who still desires to read attempt to read, this late in history," writes Professor Bloom, in his first chapter of The Western Canon.

He also writes, "Who reads must choose, since there is not enough time to read everything, even if one does nothing but read," which is true, although I do try.

At Amazon, Harold Bloom, The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages.

Danielle Gersh's Sunny and Warm Forecast

Hey, it's supposed to heat up into the 90s next week, just in time for my first week back to school --- wouldn't you know it?!

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

Italian Americans Rally to Keep Christopher Columbus Statue (VIDEO)

I just don't know anymore.

Watch, at CBS News 2 New York, "Officials Eye Columbus Statue for Chopping Block."

And from Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "“WHEN THE GOING GETS STUPID, THE STUPID TURN PRO”: The Left Opens Fire on Columbus Statues."

Jacques Berlinerblau, Campus Confidential

I'd like to read this.

At Amazon, Jacques Berlinerblau, Campus Confidential: How College Works, or Doesn't, for Professors, Parents, and Students.

Alexandra Fuller, Quiet Until the Thaw

At Amazon, Alexandra Fuller, Quiet Until the Thaw: A Novel.

Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter.

William Gibson, Pattern Recognition

At Amazon, William Gibson, Pattern Recognition.

Douglas E. Schoen and Jessica Tarlov, America in the Age of Trump

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Douglas E. Schoen and Jessica Tarlov, America in the Age of Trump: Opportunities and Oppositions in an Unsettled World.

Nina Agdal, Hannah Jeter, Robyn Lawley, Kate Bock, and Mia Kang (VIDEO)

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Neal Stephenson, Anathem

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Neal Stephenson, Anathem.

Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon.

'Fifty Shades' Star Dakota Johnson Photos Leaked

Here's Gossip Cop, "Dakota Johnson Nude Photos Hacked, Leak Online," and the hilarious concluding paragraph:

Of course, Gossip Cop will not publish any of the photos, nor will we mention the names of the sites that have posted the illegally obtained pictures. We hope other outlets will also not direct visitors to these stolen images.

Oh, right, you freakin' virtuous paragons of slut-shaming gossip porn sites you.

Drunken Stepfather has some, "DAKOTA JOHNSON SHAVING HER FRIENDS LEG INSTAGRAM ARTIST SHOOT OF THE DAY."

And at the Fappening, "Dakota Johnson Leaked (21 Photos)."

Leftist Tech Companies Rely on Discredited SPLC to Demonetize Conservative Critics of Islam (VIDEO)

You know, it's not a lot of money, but my Amazon affiliates blogging has been keeping me interested and returning to the blog day after day. Frankly, the books and intellectual stimulation have been the fun for me this summer. Political blogging has been so-so, and I'd probably be doing a lot less of it if my side gig with the Amazon books were to go away.

I'd been thinking about how compared to Google (AdSense, etc.), Amazon's been pretty hands off. I appreciate it and I think that approach deserves respect and promotion. But now I come to find out that even Amazon's been in on the "demonetizing" attacks against un-PC views. That bums me out. Not because I'm going to lose my side business. But because I was naive to think that the Bezos people were holding themselves to a higher standard, staying above the fray of hateful leftist politics. Boy, not so much it turns out.

Check this mind-boggling story of complete media lack of self-awareness, at ProPublica. Really, these people, and I'm talking now about the journalists writing the story, think they're doing something noble and just when in fact what they're doing is ignorant and evil.

Here's another reason why I hate politics right now.

See, at the safe link, "Despite Disavowals, Leading Tech Companies Help Extremist Sites Monetize Hate":

Most tech companies have policies against working with hate websites. Yet a ProPublica survey found that PayPal, Stripe, Newsmax and others help keep more than half of the most-visited extremist sites in business.

Because of its “extreme hostility toward Muslims,” the website Jihadwatch.org is considered an active hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. The views of the site’s director, Robert Spencer, on Islam led the British Home Office to ban him from entering the country in 2013.

But its designation as a hate site hasn’t stopped tech companies — including PayPal, Amazon and Newsmax — from maintaining partnerships with Jihad Watch that help to sustain it financially. PayPal facilitates donations to the site. Newsmax — the online news network run by President Donald Trump’s close friend Chris Ruddy — pays Jihad Watch in return for users clicking on its headlines. Until recently, Amazon allowed Jihad Watch to participate in a program that promised a cut of any book sales that the site generated. All three companies have policies that say they don’t do business with hate groups.

Jihad Watch is one of many sites that monetize their extremist views through relationships with technology companies. ProPublica surveyed the most visited websites of groups designated as extremist by either the SPLC or the Anti-Defamation League. We found that more than half of them — 39 out of 69 — made money from ads, donations or other revenue streams facilitated by technology companies. At least 10 tech companies played a role directly or indirectly in supporting these sites.

Traditionally, tech companies have justified such relationships by contending that it’s not their role to censor the Internet or to discourage legitimate political expression. Also, their management wasn’t necessarily aware that they were doing business with hate sites because tech services tend to be automated and based on algorithms tied to demographics.

In the wake of last week’s violent protest by alt-right groups in Charlottesville, more tech companies have disavowed relationships with extremist groups. During just the last week, six of the sites on our list were shut down. Even the web services company Cloudflare, which had long defended its laissez-faire approach to political expression, finally ended its relationship with the neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer last week.

“I can’t recall a time where the tech industry was so in step in their response to hate on their platforms,” said Oren Segal, director of the ADL’s Center on Extremism. “Stopping financial support to hate sites seems like a win-win for everyone.”

But ProPublica’s findings indicate that some tech companies with anti-hate policies may have failed to establish the monitoring processes needed to weed out hate sites. PayPal, the payment processor, has a policy against working with sites that use its service for “the promotion of hate, violence, [or] racial intolerance.” Yet it was by far the top tech provider to the hate sites with donation links on 23 sites, or about one-third of those surveyed by ProPublica. In response to ProPublica’s inquiries, PayPal spokesman Justin Higgs said in a statement that the company “strives to conscientiously assess activity and review accounts reported to us.”

After Charlottesville, PayPal stopped accepting payments or donations for several high-profile white nationalist groups that participated in the march. It posted a statement that it would remain “vigilant on hate, violence & intolerance.” It addresses each case individually, and “strives to navigate the balance between freedom of expression” and the “limiting and closing” of hate sites, it said.

After being contacted by ProPublica, Newsmax said it was unaware that the three sites that it had relationships with were considered hateful. “We will review the content of these sites and make any necessary changes after that review,” said Andy Brown, chief operating officer of Newsmax.

Amazon spokeswoman Angie Newman said the company had previously removed Jihad Watch and three other sites identified by ProPublica from its program sharing revenue for book sales, which is called Amazon Associates. When ProPublica pointed out that the sites still carried working links to the program, she said that it was their responsibility to remove the code. “They are no longer paid as an Associate regardless of what links are on their site once we remove them from the Associates Program,” she said...

Still more (FWIW).

(And recall the SPLC has been so widely discredited, even on the left, that's it's beyond logic that these idiots at ProPublica would be so reliant on it.)

And from earlier, "Pamela Geller Banned (Then Restored) by PayPal."

Finally, here's Robert Spencer on Tucker's show the other night:

Margaret George, The Autobiography of Henry VIII

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Margaret George, The Autobiography of Henry VIII - With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers: A Novel.

Margaret George, Mary Queen of Scotland

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Margaret George, Mary Queen of Scotland and The Isles: A Novel.

Violent Leftist Who Attacked Richard Maxwell at Laguna Beach Rally Tried to Flee the State

Following-up from last night, "Black Conservative Richard Maxwell 'Sucker Punched' for Supporting President Trump (VIDEO)."

The L.A. Times picked up on this story, so I'll give them that.

See, "Counter-protester who allegedly 'sucker-punched' Trump supporter at O.C. rally tried to flee state, police say."

Safe Spaces and 'Ze' Badges at College (What a Total Nightmare)

From Maddy Kearns, at the Spectator U.K., "Safe spaces and ‘ze’ badges: My bewildering year at a U.S. university: Fear of causing offence on campus is stifling free thought – as I’ve found to my cost" (cached):

This week's cover: Campus tyranny pic.twitter.com/K9nsg8Ofbb

— The Spectator (@spectator) August 23, 2017

As a child in Glasgow, I learned that sticks and stones might break my bones but words didn’t really hurt. I’m now at New York University studying journalism, where a different mantra seems to apply. Words, it turns out, might cause life-ruining emotional trauma.

During my ‘Welcome Week’, for example, I was presented with a choice of badges indicating my preferred gender pronouns: ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘they’ or ‘ze’?

The student in front of me, an Australian, found this hilarious: ‘Last time I checked, I was a girl.’ Her joke was met with stony silence. Later I realised why: expressing bewilderment at the obsession with pronouns might count as a ‘micro-aggression’. Next stop, ‘transphobia’.

It was soon obvious to my fellow students that I was not quite with the programme. In a class discussion early in my first semester, I made the mistake of mentioning that I believed in objective standards in art. Some art is great, some isn’t, I said; not all artists are equally talented. This was deemed an undemocratic opinion and I was given a nickname: the cultural fascist. I’ve tried to take it affectionately.

After a year on campus, on a course entitled ‘Cultural Reporting and Criticism’, I still feel unable to speak freely, let alone critically. Although it doesn’t apply to my own course, friends have told me about ‘trigger warnings’ that caution they are about to be exposed to certain ideas; the threat of micro-aggressions (i.e. unintended insults) makes frank discourse impossible. Then there is the infamous ‘safe space’ — a massage-circle, Play-Doh-making haven — where students are protected from offence (and, therefore, intellectual challenge).

During class discussions, I’ve learned to discreetly scan my classmates’ faces for signs that they might be fellow free-thinkers. A slight head tilt at the mention of Islamophobia, a gentle questioning of what exactly is meant by ‘toxic masculinity’. I was thrilled to see a scribbled note — ‘This is utter shit’ — on someone’s copy of one of the reading requirements, Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts (an introduction to queer theory). In this way, I found the members of my secret non-conformist book club.

We met in a disused convent in Hell’s Kitchen and discussed campus-censored ideas. We read Douglas Murray’s The Strange Death of Europe, Laura Kipnis’s Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus and Walter Benn Michaels’s The Trouble With Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality. We were a diverse group: a Catholic woman, a black conservative man, an anti-theist neoconservative, a Protestant libertarian, and a quick-witted Spanish contrarian. We were united in agreeing that we should be free to disagree. We made our own unsafe space, and at the end of each meeting, we were invigorated and parted on good terms.

It seemed to the members of my book club that academia is losing its way. It is riddled with paradox: safe spaces which are dangerously insular; the idea of ‘no absolutes’ (as an absolute); aggressive intolerance for anything perceived as intolerant; and censorship of ideas deemed too offensive for expression. It’s a form of totalitarianism and it’s beginning to infect British universities, too.

The morning after the US election, New York was bluer than ever. My classmates were in tears, including one professor. Protesters chanting ‘Not my President’ took to the streets as cries of ‘How did this happen?’ ‘What will we tell our children?’ and ‘What a terrible day for [insert identity group]!’ echoed down NYU’s hallways.

Two weeks later, I spent a slightly surreal Thanksgiving with my friend’s family in the DC area. My friend’s father is the former Republican senator and twice presidential candidate Rick Santorum. As I stuffed my face with turkey, I couldn’t believe my luck. Santorum’s insights into the new administration were as close to an insider’s scoop as any student journalist could hope for.

I was sure that, despite their differences in outlook, my classmates would be fascinated to hear about what he had to say. But before I had mustered the courage to share my experience, I received the following email from a professor: ‘Dear all, hope you are all recovering well from any encounters with Trump-supporting relatives over Thanksgiving. I should be all right myself in a day or so.’ Naturally, when this professor asked me, ‘How was your first Thanksgiving?’ I chose to speak exclusively about marshmallow yams.

This is daft, certainly. Even funny, in a macabre way. But it also raises a serious point: the university experience in America is now not one that will adequately prepare students for real life. In real-life democracy, people disagree — and normally they don’t die or suffer emotional injury because of it. In normal life, there’s no reason not to like someone with whom you disagree politically. On campus, opinions are often ontology: you are what you think. But this is dangerous logic: if I hate what you think, I must hate what you are...

Still more.

And welcome to my world, Ms. Maddy, my leftist campus nightmare. (I'm going back to my campus nightmare tomorrow, with our school's "College Days" return orientation and department meetings, oh joy.)

Peaceful Confederate Guy Has to Be Escorted Away by Police to Literally Save His Life After Angry Leftist Sticks Two Middle-Fingers in His Face for Half-an-Hour. Who's the Villain?

Of course, the Confederate guy's the villain. But he's actually the way more sympathetic figure here. Seriously. Unless you're a race-obsessed leftist MSM "journalist." Then the angry profane leftist bitch sticking the finger in the guy's face for 30 minutes non-stop is the hero.

We are seriously f*cked up in this country. Just wow.

At WaPo, "He wore Confederate dress to Charlottesville. He got two middle fingers and possible expulsion from college."

It's not "possible expulsion." He got to boot from his so-called "Christian" college. Peaceful protester standing up for his ancestors' heritage. Said his stand wasn't about race at all. And look what happened to him.

If any city is tearing down statues of racists, might I suggest you use this figure study for erecting their replacements? pic.twitter.com/Ddp4n4TdfU

— (((David Lytle))) (@davitydave) August 19, 2017

Danielle Gersh's Increasing Temperatures Forecast

Tomorrow's my last full day of summer down time. I have "College Days" at LBCC on Friday, and then the new semester starts Monday.

Well, it's been nice, heh.

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

Adam Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Adam Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa.

Black Conservative Richard Maxwell 'Sucker Punched' for Supporting President Trump (VIDEO)

This should be on #FakeNews CNN.

Maxwell is black, so no. Doesn't fit the narrative.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Steven Press, Rogue Empires

At Amazon, Steven Press, Rogue Empires: Contracts and Conmen in Europe’s Scramble for Africa.

ICYMI: Omar El Akkad, American War

I personally feel like we're in a civil war.

And the conditions are so ripe for hot war, not a cold war of cultural enemies.

It's worth posting this once again.

At Amazon, Omar El Akkad, American War.

Trump Supporters in Their Own Words

Melissa McEwan is not pleased:

Enough already. These people made a terrible, destructive, dangerous decision in voting for Donald Trump. And now the media wants to continually give them a platform to talk about that decision, as if they might have made it out of ignorance about who Trump is (nope!) or as if there is some value to letting them speak endlessly about their choice to cast a vote for a corrupt, bigoted, serial sex predator (also nope!) or as if there is something to be gleaned from mining the thoughts of people who insistently support an authoritarian bully who they have convinced themselves doesn't hold them in utter contempt (a third time nope).

There is no value in any of it. Enough.

She blocked me on Twitter years ago, of course.

But see the Guardian, "'He's anti-left, anti-PC, anti-stupid': Trump supporters in their own words."

CNN's Ana Navaro Angrily Defends Tweet Claiming President Trump Has Dementia (VIDEO)

Click through to watch, at Free Beacon, "Ana Navaro Angrily Defends Tweet Suggesting Trump Has Dementia: ‘I Didn’t Say He Has It’."

Actually, she tweeted that "he has it":

Only possible defensible explanation for Trump's disgusting, unpresidential, narcissistic behavior, would be early-on-set dementia. Maybe.

— Ana Navarro (@ananavarro) August 23, 2017