Democrat Mania for Single Payer

California's leading the push for nationalized, socialized medicine. Bernie Sanders is lending his name to a nationwide effort.

At LAT:

The push for single-payer healthcare just went national. What does that mean for the California effort? https://t.co/IzhfGCLq2X pic.twitter.com/XMduqLGCkW

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) September 22, 2017

Time's Deep Dive Into the Ever-Shrinking Democrat Party

From Matt Vespa, at Town Hall, "Collapse: Time Magazine's Brutal Deep Dive Into the Ever Shrinking and Regional Democratic Party."

I read the Time piece, a lengthy cover story. It's good.

This week's @TIME cover: A divided Democratic party debates its future https://t.co/qNeN9ZfPQw via @Philip_Elliott pic.twitter.com/jJbVIEMHM6

— TIMEPolitics (@TIMEPolitics) September 21, 2017

Demi Rose Jaw-Dropping Bikini Photos

At London's Daily Mail:

Demi Rose Mawby drops jaws while displaying her bombshell curves during sexy Ibiza bikini shoot https://t.co/DxobxGaiOX

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

TOPLESS Demi Rose covers her ample bosom with her hands as she poses for photoshoot in Ibiza https://t.co/RVWxbDeGUm

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) September 22, 2017

Portuguese Model Locas Diego

At Editorials Fashion Trends, "LOCAS DIEGO BY JOSE LUIS CUNHA."

Also, at Elusive, "Locas Diego by Kid Richards: Portuguese Model Captured by Photographer in Lisbon (PHOTOS)."

Sultry Lais Ribeiro Pictorial

At Editorials Fashion Trends, "LAÍS RIBEIRO BY ADAM FRANZINO."

And at Sports Illustrated:

Get intimate with our girl @Lalaribeiro16... 👀 https://t.co/WF7Qr3YuH2 pic.twitter.com/YgqAIu2GwY

— SI Swimsuit (@SI_Swimsuit) September 17, 2017

Emily Ratajkowski's Hottest and Most Revealing Moments (VIDEO)

At Sports Illustrated Swimwuit:



BONUS: Emily topless here.

Valerie Plame Apologizes for Tweeting Anti-Semitic Article Blaming Jewish Neocons for America's Wars

I'm not linking directly to the vile Unz Review. You can click through at Memeorandum if you want, "America's Jews Are Driving America's Wars."

No one would have seen this except loads of Jew-hating leftists if it weren't for the idiot Valerie Plame tweeting it. She's apologized now, after taking enormous flak.

At the Daily Caller, "Valerie Plame Wants to Warn You About the Jews."

And at Mediaite, "Ex-CIA Officer Valerie Plame Apologizes for Promoting Article Blaming ‘America’s Jews’ for War."

OK folks, look, I messed up. I skimmed this piece, zeroed in on the neocon criticism, and shared it without seeing and considering the rest.

— Valerie Plame Wilson (@ValeriePlame) September 21, 2017

I’m not perfect and make mistakes. This was a doozy. All I can do is admit them, try to be better, and read more thoroughly next time. Ugh.

— Valerie Plame Wilson (@ValeriePlame) September 21, 2017

Apologies all. There is so much there that’s problematic AF and I should have recognized it sooner. Thank you for pushing me to look again.

— Valerie Plame Wilson (@ValeriePlame) September 21, 2017

I missed gross undercurrents to this article & didn’t do my homework on the platform this piece came from. Now that I see it, it’s obvious.

— Valerie Plame Wilson (@ValeriePlame) September 21, 2017

Novelist Alexandra Fuller Accused of Cultural Appropriation

Of course.

I just shake my damn head sometimes.

Here's her book, Quiet Until the Thaw: A Novel.

It's on my wish list, and then now I see this, accusations of "cultural appropriation," at the New York Times (where else?), "Alexandra Fuller’s Novel of Lakota Culture May Stir the Appropriation Debate":

A white writer, born in Britain, raised in colonial Africa and residing for years in Wyoming, writes a novel about the Oglala Lakota of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. In a prefatory note included with advance copies of the book, she cites a three-month visit she made to Pine Ridge in 2011. “For the first time since coming to the United States in the mid-90s, I neither needed to explain myself nor have this world explained to me,” she says. Being on the reservation felt like an “unexpected homecoming, if home is where your soul can settle in recognition.”

The writer is Alexandra Fuller, and from this jolt of recognition she fashioned “Quiet Until the Thaw,” a novel that dives deep into Lakota culture and history. An author of six books of nonfiction who made her name with a searing memoir of her African childhood, Fuller is here a careful inventor: Many of the events she describes, at least one of her central characters and more than a few snippets of dialogue are rooted in fact. The novel is peppered with Lakota words, not all of them easily translatable, and the story she recounts, of a pair of Oglala boys whose lives on the reservation become fatefully entwined, is an impassioned allegory of the long-suffering Lakota people. More subtly, it’s an awed meditation on the lofty conundrums of time and being, and on the ways oppression seeks to blind us to the fundamental interconnectedness of things. Fuller’s novel is like a delicately calibrated tuning fork, resonating at a cosmic pitch.

That she wrests such sweep from a couple of hundred odd pages is itself a bit awe-inspiring. Like Rick Overlooking Horse, one of the two Oglala boys, who speaks only when necessary — by the time he turns 10, “he had uttered, all told, about enough words to fill a pamphlet from the Rezurrection Ministry outfit based out of Dallas, Tex.” — Fuller is terse. She doesn’t narrate so much as poetically distill, into chapters seldom more than a page and a half long, the beauty, violence, poverty, humiliation and resilience that have marked Lakota existence for several hundred years. In one, a young tribal activist travels to Palestine, where she dines on camel with Yasir Arafat and speaks at an event honoring leaders of indigenous groups. “They can rewrite history, and erase our stories. But what my mind hasn’t been allowed to know, my body has always known,” the activist tells her audience. “I am an undeniable, inconvenient body of knowledge. Read me.” She proceeds to stand before the crowd in silence for 15 minutes.

The punch Fuller’s book packs is visceral, but it wears its righteousness with tact, its tone more consolation than jeremiad. At its heart is a bifurcation. Orphaned at birth, Rick Overlooking Horse and another parentless boy, You Choose Watson, are raised in a tar-paper lean-to by Rick Overlooking Horse’s grandmother, Mina, the local midwife. Although not prone to chattiness herself, Mina is disposed, especially when high on Wahupta, to recount to her young charges tribal myths and battle tales, and to instill in them an appreciation for key Lakota precepts regarding the “eternal nature of everything.” “They say you’ve been here from the very start, and you’ll be here to the very end,” she tells her stupefied grandson. “Like that breath you just took. In the beginning, a dinosaur breathed that breath. Then a tree. Then an ant. Then you, now me.”

Mina’s teachings suggest a vision of politics as enlightened forbearance — since what goes around comes around — and Rick Overlooking Horse, assisted by some Wahupta experimentation of his own, comes to embrace this view. He gets sent to Vietnam, where he survives the casual racism of his fellow G.I.s, along with a friendly-fire napalm bomb that solders his dog tag to his chest and vaporizes the rest of his squad. He returns to the reservation resolved “never to lay so much as the tip of a single finger on the diseased currency of the White Man,” and installs himself in a tepee on a patch of empty land.

You Choose, meanwhile, channels his rage into violence. He feigns diabetes to escape the draft, and wanders north, dabbling in odd jobs and drug dealing before returning to the reservation and getting himself elected chairman of his increasingly restive tribe. Here, the disparity between the two men comes into sharp relief. Rick Overlooking Horse, acquiring a reputation for spiritual wisdom, is sought out by addicts, wounded veterans and the lovesick, while You Choose becomes a figure of terror. Like Richard (Dick) Wilson, the notorious chairman of the Oglala Lakota from 1972 to 1976, whom he closely resembles, You Choose plunders tribal funds, sidelines opponents and surrounds himself with a private militia, the Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs). There are bloody clashes over purity (like Wilson, You Choose is of mixed blood) and over colonization (tribe members whose lifestyles are regarded as too white are referred to as “Colonized Indian Asses,” or C.I.A.). The murder rate surpasses that of New York and Detroit.

The conflict culminates in the novel as it did in life, with the 1973 siege at Wounded Knee, where Rick Overlooking Horse and hundreds of other protesters demand You Choose’s removal as tribal chairman and the resumption of treaty negotiations with the federal government. United States marshals descend, thousands of rounds are fired, and both Rick Overlooking Horse and You Choose end up doing jail time...

Keep reading (FWIW).

Herta Müller, The Hunger Angel

I'm reading all kinds of good stuff, but I still come across the most amazing, fascinating things sometimes.

At Amazon, Herta Müller, The Hunger Angel: A Novel.

It was an icy morning in January 1945 when the patrol came for seventeen-year-old Leo Auberg to deport him to a camp in the Soviet Union. Leo would spend the next five years in a coke processing plant, shoveling coal, lugging bricks, mixing mortar, and battling the relentless calculus of hunger that governed the labor colony: one shovel load of coal is worth one gram of bread.

In The Hunger Angel, Nobel laureate Herta Müller calls upon her unique combination of poetic intensity and dispassionate precision to conjure the distorted world of the labor camp in all its physical and moral absurdity. She has given Leo the language to express the inexpressible, as hunger sharpens his senses into an acuity that is both hallucinatory and profound. In scene after disorienting scene, the most ordinary objects accrue tender poignancy as they acquire new purpose―a gramophone box serves as a suitcase, a handkerchief becomes a talisman, an enormous piece of casing pipe functions as a lovers' trysting place. The heart is reduced to a pump, the breath mechanized to the rhythm of a swinging shovel, and coal, sand, and snow have a will of their own. Hunger becomes an insatiable angel who haunts the camp, but also a bare-knuckled sparring partner, delivering blows that keep Leo feeling the rawest connection to life.

Müller has distilled Leo's struggle into words of breathtaking intensity that take us on a journey far beyond the Gulag and into the depths of one man's soul.

Rams Beat 49ers 41-39, Kindling Excitement in Los Angeles (VIDEO)

Could this be a breakout season for the Rams?

Hey, they're a lot better than last year.

At LAT, "Jared Goff, Todd Gurley lead Rams to a wild 41-39 victory over the 49ers."

Danielle Gersh's Fall Weather Forecast

It's the first day of fall season.

Here's the lovely Ms. Danielle's forecast from last night, for KCAL 9 Los Angeles:

Mexico Earthquake: Scenes of Desolation and Hope (VIDEO)

At LAT, "In Mexico, scenes of desolation and hope as the death toll reaches 274":

Scenes of desolation and rejoicing unspooled Thursday at the sites of buildings crumbled by Mexico’s deadly earthquake, which killed at least 274 people and galvanized heroic efforts to reach those trapped.

But a parallel drama transpired as the government announced that there were no missing children in the ruins of a collapsed school — after the country was transfixed for a night and a day by reports of a 12-year-old girl feebly signaling to rescuers from under the rubble.

Outrage ensued over what many Mexicans believed was a deliberate deception.

On Thursday afternoon, the Mexican navy reported that there was no sign that any child was missing and alive in the rubble of the Enrique Rebsamen school on Mexico City’s south side, where at least 19 children and six adults had died. One more adult might still be trapped in the rubble, navy Undersecretary Angel Enrique Sarmiento said at a news conference.

“All of the children are unfortunately dead,” he said, “or safe at home.”

Mexico’s larger tragedy continued to unfold as rescuers in three states, battling grinding fatigue and mountains of rubble, raced against time, keenly aware of ever-dwindling odds of finding people alive beneath the debris after Tuesday’s magnitude 7.1 temblor.

The overall confirmed fatality count was expected to climb as more bodies were recovered. Rescuers at sites across the sprawling metropolis of Mexico City used search dogs and calls to the cellphones of those trapped to try to pinpoint the location of anyone who had survived two nights under the remains of damaged buildings.

The harrowing rescue effort at the Enrique Rebsamen school had become a social media sensation when news outlets began reporting intensively about the search for a trapped girl thought to be named “Frida Sofia.”

By Thursday afternoon, authorities said that at least one boy or girl was believed to be alive in the wrecked building but that they were not sure of the child’s name. Then the navy’s announcement dashed any remaining hopes for small survivors.

The confusing Frida Sofia saga took another strange turn Thursday night, when a grim-faced Sarmiento went on live television and sought to explain earlier statements by the navy about the girl. He ended up confusing matters even further.

Earlier Thursday, Sarmiento had insisted that the navy never had any knowledge of a girl who was supposedly trapped in the rubble.

In his evening news conference, however, Sarmiento contradicted the earlier statement, conceding that the navy had distributed reports of a girl surviving inside the school “based on technical reports and the testimony of civilian rescue workers and of this institution.” He offered no explanation for the conflicting accounts, but apologized.

“I offer an apology to Mexicans for the information given this afternoon in which I said that the navy did not have any details about a supposed minor survivor in this tragedy,” Sarmiento, dressed in military fatigues, told reporters at an outdoor news conference.

Sarmiento repeated his earlier assertion that it was possible that someone remained alive in the rubble. But Thursday evening he did not rule out the possibility that it was a child. Mexicans and others following the matter were left perplexed.

“Nonetheless,” Sarmiento added, “the Mexican people should know that as long as the minimum possibility exists that there is someone alive, we will keep on looking with the same determination.”

Both he and a colleague, Maj. Jose Luis Vergara, denied any effort to mislead the public...

More.

Shop Deal of the Day

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'Crazy on You'

At the Sound L.A., from yesterday morning's drive time.

Heart, "Crazy on You":

Starting with an acoustic guitar intro called "Silver Wheels," the song turns into a fast-paced rock song that was the signature sound of the band in their early years. "Crazy on You" attracted attention both for the relatively unusual combination of an acoustic guitar paired with an electric guitar, and the fact that the acoustic guitarist was a woman – a rarity in rock music during that time. According to co-writer/guitarist Nancy Wilson, who discussed it on an episode of In the Studio with Redbeard that devoted an entire episode to the Dreamboat Annie album, the rapid acoustic rhythm part was inspired by The Moody Blues song "Question."

The song's lyrics tell of a person's desire to forget all the problems of the world during one night of passion. During an interview on Private Sessions, Ann Wilson revealed the song was written in response to the stress caused by the Vietnam War and social unrest in the United States in the early seventies.

Wrapped Around Your Finger
The Police
8:37

Paranoid
Black Sabbath
8:34 AM

Don't Stop
Fleetwood Mac
8:31 AM

Sledgehammer
Peter Gabriel
8:26 AM

Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd
8:21 AM

Somebody to Love
Queen
8:16 AM

Highway to Hell
AC/DC
8:12 AM

Crazy On You
Heart
8:08 AM

Light My Fire
The Doors
8:01 AM

Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Pat Benatar
7:58 AM

Cold As Ice
Foreigner
7:54 AM

The Boys of Summer
Don Henley
7:53 AM

Legs (Edit Version)
ZZ Top
7:36 AM

Rock'n Me
Steve Miller Band
7:33 AM

Black Dog
Led Zeppelin
7:28 AM

Jackie Johnson's Chance of Showers Forecast

Ms. Jackie's filling out with her big baby bump.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Big Shopping Today

At Amazon, Today's Deals.

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How to Exploit the Left’s National Nervous Breakdown

Here's Ace, via Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "NEWS YOU CAN USE: The Left’s National Nervous Breakdown, and How to Exploit it Ruthlessly."

Atlanta Falcons Cheerleader Jessica Trainham for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit (VIDEO)

She's a hot chick.

Deadly Earthquake Strikes Mexico

Kate Linthicum was in Mexico City and she's lucky she wasn't killed in the temblor.

Here she is, et al., at LAT, "At least 248 killed as powerful 7.1 earthquake strikes central Mexico":

The earthquake nearly toppled this building across from me in Mexico City. People fled screaming as buildings crumbled. Scary as hell. pic.twitter.com/PDCFm8vh0B

— Kate Linthicum (@katelinthicum) September 19, 2017

A powerful 7.1 earthquake rocked central Mexico on Tuesday, collapsing homes and bridges across hundreds of miles, killing at least 217 people and sending thousands more fleeing into the streets screaming in a country still reeling from a deadly temblor that struck less than two weeks ago.

Entire apartment blocks swayed violently in the center of Mexico City, including in the historic districts of El Centro and Roma, crumbling balconies and causing huge cracks to appear on building facades.

Panic spread through the city's core; rescue vehicles raced toward damaged buildings, and neighbors took on heroic roles as rescuers.

Firefighters and police officers scrambled to pull survivors from a collapsed elementary and secondary school where children died.

"There are 22 bodies here — two are adults — 30 children are missing and eight other adults missing. And workers are continuing rescue efforts," President Enrique Peña Nieto announced Tuesday night.

At least 86 people were reported killed and 44 buildings severely damaged in the capital alone. Twelve other people died in the surrounding state of Mexico, 71 across the state of Morelos, 43 in Puebla state, four in Guerrero state and one in Oaxaca, according to Mexican officials.

The temblor struck 32 years to the day after another powerful earthquake that killed thousands and devastated large parts of Mexico City — a tragedy that Peña Nieto had commemorated earlier Tuesday.

Around 11 a.m., Julian Dominguez heard alarms sounding in the neighborhood of Iztapalapa, part of a citywide drill to mark the anniversary of the magnitude 8.0 quake. Schools and other buildings evacuated, but he kept working at his computer.

About two hours later, Dominguez, 27, started to feel the building move, and alarms sounded again.

"It started really slowly,” he said, but within seconds it was clear that this was no drill.

Dominguez raced down a flight of stairs. Crowds of people already had gathered outside. Parents were crying, worried for their children still in school.

"It was strange that it fell on the same day … as another earthquake that caused so much damage," Dominguez said.

The federal government declared a state of disaster in Mexico City and dispatched 3,428 troops to affected areas there and in nearby states.

"We are facing a new emergency in Mexico City, in the state of Puebla and Morelos, following the 7.1 magnitude earthquake,” Peña Nieto said, adding that he had asked all hospitals to help care for the injured...

More.

Paintsville, Kentucky: When Government Tried to Fix a Coal Town (VIDEO)

Here's the lovely Kelsey Harkness, at the Daily Signal, "Underreported: What Happened When Government Tried to Fix a Coal Town."

Hailey Baldwin London Fashion Week

At London's Daily Mail, "Hailey Baldwin sizzles in TWO barely-there runway looks at London Fashion Week."

Also, "Hailey Baldwin keeps a low profile at Missguided bash during London Fashion Week."

Demi Rose Struggles to Contain Assets During Beach Trip

At London's Daily Mail, "Bikini-clad Demi Rose yet again flaunts her famous curves as she struggles to contain heaving assets during fun-filled Cape Verde beach trip."

Jessica Serfaty Out at Seafood Hotspot in Los Angeles

At London's Daily Mail, "She's a Catch! Ed Westwick's girlfriend Jessica Serfaty flashes some serious sideboob as they enjoy date at seafood hotspot in Los Angeles."

Shop Today

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BONUS: Margaret George, Mary, Called Magdalene.

The U.S. Must Celebrate Unity

From VDH, at the Hoover Institution, "Diversity Can Spell Trouble."

Rose Bertram in Curaçao (VIDEO)

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Punch a Nazi in Seattle

Hey, it's the in thing.

See some idiot riding public transportation with a swastika armband and mobilize your social media army to track him down and knock him out cold.

I hate Nazis, obviously.

But I hate radical leftist antifa ghouls even more.

At BuzzFeed, of all places, "Anti-Fascists Used Twitter to Find a Neo-Nazi Walking Around Seattle and Beat Him Up." (Via Memeorandum.)

Sofia Vergara in Strapless White Gown at the Emmys

At London's Daily Mail, "VA VA VOOM: Sofia Vergara showcases her curves in a strapless white gown at the Emmy Awards."

Also at Drunken Stepfather, "SOFIA VERGARA AT THE EMMYS OF THE DAY."

Alicia Keys at the Rock'n Rio Music Festival

At London's Daily Mail, "She sure has some front! Bra-free Alicia Keys nearly spills out of her plunging outfit as she takes the stage at the Rock'n Rio music festival."

Suki Waterhouse on the Sidewalk

At Taxi Driver, "Suki Waterhouse Out on the Sidewalk."

Today's Deals

Okay, it's a new week, and I'm teaching.

Blogging will continue as usual, although might be a little lighter than my weekend coverage.

Thanks for your support!

Shop at Amazon, Today's Deals.

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Robert Jordan, The Eye of the World

So, it's been a very long time, but during my book hunting shopping trips, I decided to go for it: I'm going to get back into sci-fi fantasy fiction. Heh. I read J.R.R. Tolkien when I was 19. It wasn't the big movie thing back then as it is today, and I'm not so interested in going back and re-reading those novels. But I've never read Robert Jordan, and he's apparently among the very best of the genre, so I'm picking up some copies in his "Wheel of Time" series.

Check it out, at Amazon, Robert Jordan, The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, Book 1).

My repertoire now will be historical fiction, literary fiction, science fiction/fantasy, as well as the classics.

More later...

A Jihad Apologist at the Helm of the New York Review of Books

From Bruce Bawer, at Pajamas, "Ian Buruma: A Jihad Apologist at the Helm of the New York Review of Books."

In The Last Intellectuals (1987), Russell Jaboby described the NYRB as a closed shop that kept publishing the same big-name leftists (Noam Chomsky, Susan Sontag, I.F. Stone, Tony Judt) and that ran so many British professors that it was redolent more of “Oxford teas rather than New York delis.” Also, it had no interest in developing younger talent. (I must have sensed that, because when I left grad school and started writing for New York literary journals, I don't think I even tried the NYRB.) In a 2014 article, Jacoby raised a question: although Silvers, then eighty-four, had been “unwilling or unable to groom successors,” eventually “he will have to give up the reins, but when and who will take over?”

The answer came this year. Silvers died, presenting an opportunity to open the NYRB up to non-academic – and even non-leftist! – writers living on the far side of the Hudson. No such luck: it was soon announced that Silvers's job would be filled by Ian Buruma, a Dutch-born Oxford fellow who is sixty-five and has been a NYRB writer since 1987. For me, above all, he's the man who wrote Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance (2006), pretty much the only book about the Islamization of Europe to receive the imprimatur of the New York literary establishment.

Pfft.

I'm not going to be that down on NYR. I subscribed while in grad school and got a lot out of it. Frankly, the journal offers intellectual material and you can take it or leave it. Lately, I've been leaving it, but I'm not going to rag on it. I don't care about Buruma, of course, but I doubt it's going to make much difference who edits the magazine. It's by definition stodgy. Take what you like and forget the rest.

More, in any case.

Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

At Amazon, Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried.

Jennifer Delacruz's Sunday Forecast

Well, it's been mild, partially cloudy, in the O.C. Not too hot, although it doesn't quite feel like fall yet.

In any case, once again I crashed before I had the chance to post the lovely Ms. Jennifer's weather report last night.

At ABC News 10 San Diego:

M.L. Stedman, The Light Between Oceans

I picked up a copy yesterday.

And at Amazon, M.L. Stedman, The Light Between Oceans.

Neighbors Outraged as Man Kills Deer with Bow and Arrow in Monrovia (VIDEO)

It's not like deer are an endangered species or anything, although I can see why neighbors might be a little upset. Why not just leave the little Bambi alone?

Watch, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Caught on Camera: Hunter Kills Deer with Bow And Arrow to 'Put It Out of Its Misery'."

And at the Pasadena Star-News, "Video: Man shoots deer with arrow in Monrovia neighborhood."

New Deals. Every Day.

Shop Today's Deals, at Amazon.

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#USC Drops to #6 in AP's Top 25 College Football Poll

Both Penn State and Oklahoma State leapfrogged USC in the rankings. USC was #4 last week. I can see why, but sheesh. The Trojans got heart!

At CBS Sports, "Tomorrow's Top 25 Today: Mississippi State jumps in after upset as LSU falls."

Oklahoma State up 21-0 at Pittsburgh, has outscored its opponents 59-0 in first quarter this season (Watch: https://t.co/vJmgCJY0Og). pic.twitter.com/MVHn3dJ7xR

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) September 16, 2017

Jeff Sessions Returns Department of Justice to Rule of Law

From Andrew McCarthy, at NRO, "On Criminal Justice, Sessions iss Returning DOJ to the Rule of Law":

A response to Joyce Vance and Carter Stewart

wo former top Obama-appointed prosecutors co-author a diatribe against Trump attorney general Jeff Sessions for returning the Justice Department to purportedly outdated, too “tough on crime” charging practices. Yawn. After eight years of Justice Department stewardship by Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, and after Obama’s record 1,715 commutations that systematically undermined federal sentencing laws, we know the skewed storyline.

The surprise is to find such an argument in the pages of National Review Online. But there it was on Tuesday: “On Criminal Justice, Sessions Is Returning DOJ to the Failed Policies of the Past,” by Joyce Vance and Carter Stewart, formerly the United States attorneys for, respectively, the Northern District of Alabama and the Southern District of Ohio. Ms. Vance is now lecturing on criminal-justice reform at the University of Alabama School of Law and doing legal commentary at MSNBC. Mr. Stewart has moved on to the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, fresh from what it describes as his “leadership role at DOJ in addressing inequities in the criminal justice system,” focusing on “alternatives to incarceration,” and “reducing racial disparities in the federal system.”

The authors lament that Sessions has reinstituted guidelines requiring prosecutors “to charge the most serious offenses and ask for the lengthiest prison sentences.” This, the authors insist, is a “one-size-fits-all policy” that “doesn’t work.” It marks a return to the supposedly “ineffective and damaging criminal-justice policies that were imposed in 2003,” upsetting the “bipartisan consensus” for “criminal-justice reform” that has supposedly seized “today’s America.”

This is so wrongheaded, it’s tough to decide where to begin.

In reality, what Sessions has done is return the Justice Department to the traditional guidance articulated nearly four decades ago by President Carter’s highly regarded attorney general, Benjamin Civiletti (and memorialized in the U.S. Attorney’s Manual). It instructs prosecutors to charge the most serious, readily provable offense under the circumstances. Doesn’t work? This directive, in effect with little variation until the Obama years, is one of several factors that contributed to historic decreases in crime. When bad guys are prosecuted and incarcerated, they are not preying on our communities. The thrust of the policy Sessions has revived is respect for the Constitution’s bedrock separation-of-powers principle. It requires faithful execution of laws enacted by Congress.

The thrust of the policy Sessions has revived is respect for the Constitution’s bedrock separation-of-powers principle. It requires faithful execution of laws enacted by Congress.

A concrete example makes the point. Congress has prescribed a minimum ten-year sentence for the offense of distributing at least five kilograms of cocaine (see section 841(b)(1)(A)(ii) of the federal narcotics laws). Let’s say a prosecutor is presented with solid evidence that a defendant sold seven kilograms of cocaine. The crime is readily provable. Nevertheless, the prosecutor follows the Obama deviation from traditional Justice Department policy, charging a much less serious offense: a distribution that does not specify an amount of cocaine — as if we were talking about a one-vial street sale. The purpose of this sleight of hand is to evade the controlling statute’s ten-year sentence, inviting the judge to impose little or no jail time.

That is not prosecutorial discretion. It is the prosecutor substituting his own judgment for Congress’s regarding the gravity of the offense. In effect, the prosecutor is decreeing law, not enforcing what is on the books — notwithstanding the wont of prosecutors to admonish that courts must honor Congress’s laws as written. Absent this Justice Department directive that prosecutors must charge the most serious, readily provable offense, the executive branch becomes a law unto itself. Bending congressional statutes to the executive’s policy preferences was the Obama approach to governance, so we should not be surprised that a pair of his appointed prosecutors see it as a model for criminal enforcement, too. But it is not enforcement of the law. It is executive imperialism. It is DACA all over again: “Congress refuses to codify my policy preferences; but I have raw executive power so I shall impose them by will . . . and call it ‘prosecutorial discretion.’” (In truth, it is a distortion of prosecutorial discretion.)

It should not be necessary to point out to accomplished lawyers that, in our system, “bipartisan consensus” is not a comparative handful of Democrats and Republicans clucking their tongues in unison. Yes, between leftist hostility to incarceration and libertarian skepticism about prosecutorial power, there is common ground among some factions of lawmakers when it comes to opposing our allegedly draconian penal code. But these factions are not much of a consensus. The only consensus that matters is one that drums up support sufficient to enact legislation into law. “Criminal-justice reform” is of a piece with “comprehensive immigration reform” and the Obama agenda: If it actually enjoyed broad popularity, resort to executive fiat would be unnecessary — Congress would codify it.

The criminal-justice “reformers” want mandatory-minimum-sentencing provisions eliminated and other sentencing provisions mitigated. Yet, despite the sympathetic airing they get from the “progressive” mainstream media, they are unable to get their “reforms” passed by Congress. How come? Because strong majorities of lawmakers understand themselves to be accountable to commonsense citizens — people who aren’t “evolved” enough to grasp how reducing the number of criminals in prisons will somehow decrease the amount of crime. Most of us benighted types proceed under the quaint assumption that, even in “today’s America,” the streets are safer when the criminals are not on them.

In light of the caterwauling about mandatory-minimum sentencing by people either unfamiliar with or in a state of amnesia about what the federal system was like before it was instituted, it is worth repeating: Such provisions mean that the public, rather than the judge, decides the minimum appropriate term for serious crimes. As a class, judges are elite products of American universities and tend to be more left-leaning than the general public. That is particularly the case with respect to President Obama’s 335 judicial appointees, many of them — like Obama himself, as well as Vance and Stewart — philosophically resistant to incarceration as a response to crime. We can certainly repeal mandatory minimums, but if we do, it will vest those judges with unfettered discretion to mete out punishment...

Sessions is Numero Uno in my book. I was bummed upon hearing the talk of his possible resignation. We really need this guy at the helm over there. He's MAGA.

Keep reading.

Trump Supporters Learn to Be Flexible

At LAT, "Dealing with Democrats? Protecting 'Dreamers'? Here in Arizona that's just fine with these Trump supporters."

Actually, lots of supporters are pissed off by this. Me? Not so much. I want Trump to get some stuff done. I don't love amnesty, but it's not the political killer some think it is.

Face Recognition iPhone 8

Ads are going up.

Katie Hopkins comments below.

iPhone 8. A new generation of iPhone.

— Apple (@Apple) September 15, 2017

Hey, beautiful ladies. What do you think of #iPhoneX #FaceID? pic.twitter.com/lPfLyg4dcR

— Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) September 12, 2017

Dana Loesch: Protestors Bused Into St. Louis After Jason Stockley Verdict (VIDEO)

Following-up from last night, "St. Louis Protests After Acquittal of Officer Jason Stockley."

Watch, at Fox News, "Loesch: Protestors bused in and run St. Louis down - Radio host and NRA spokeswoman sounds off on protests following acquittal of white St. Louis officer in fatal shooting of black motorist."

Chrissy Teigen, Nina Agdal, Anne V, and Alyssa Miller (VIDEO)

In the Seychelles, at Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Alexandra Fuller, Quiet Until the Thaw

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

Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

At Amazon, Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony

At Amazon, Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition).

Shop Today's Deals

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

See especially, Ninja Coffee Bar Brewer with Glass Carafe (CF080Z).

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BONUS: Roxanne Gay, An Untamed State.

St. Louis Protests After Acquittal of Officer Jason Stockley

At the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "Heated protests follow Stockley acquittal," and "2 officers injured by thrown bricks in Central West End, mayor's home damaged by protesters."

The mayor's home wtf?

This is war people. This is freakin' war.

Stunned Brooke Baldwin Ends Segment After Clay Travis Says He Believes in 'First Amendment and Boobs' (VIDEO)

At Althouse, "'I believe in only 2 things completely: the First Amendment and boobs'."

And at Memeorandum.

'Iron Man'

From yesterday morning's drive-time, at the Sound L.A.

Here's Black Sabbath, "Iron Man":

Upon hearing the main guitar riff for the first time, vocalist Ozzy Osbourne remarked that it sounded "like a big iron bloke walking about". The title became "Iron Man", with Geezer Butler writing the lyrics around the title.

Butler wrote the lyrics as the story of a man who time travels into the future, and sees the apocalypse. In the process of returning to the present, he is turned into steel by a magnetic field. He is rendered mute, unable verbally to warn people of his time in the future and of the impending destruction. His attempts to communicate are ignored and mocked. This causes Iron Man to become angry, and drives his revenge on mankind, causing the destruction seen in his vision.

*****

It's Only Rock 'N' Roll (But I Like It)
The Rolling Stones
8:36 AM

Saturday In the Park (Remastered)
Chicago
8:32 AM

Tom Sawyer
Rush
8:28 AM

Fame (2016 Remastered Version)
David Bowie
8:24 AM

Rock'n Me
Steve Miller Band
8:21 AM

Houses of the Holy
Led Zeppelin
8:17 AM

Twilight Zone
Golden Earring
8:09 AM

Iron Man
Black Sabbath
8:03 AM

Brown Eyed Girl
Van Morrison
8:00 AM

L.A. Woman
The Doors
7:54 AM

Jeremy Rabkin and John Yoo, Striking Power

Just out yesterday, at Amazon, Jeremy Rabkin and John Yoo, Striking Power: How Cyber, Robots, and Space Weapons Change the Rules for War.

Teflon Don

This has to infuriate leftists.

I love it!

At Politico, "Teflon Don confounds Democrats":

Democrats have attacked the president every which way, but polling and focus groups show none of it's working.

Democrats tried attacking Donald Trump as unfit for the presidency. They’ve made the case that he’s ineffective, pointing to his failure to sign a single major piece of legislation into law after eight months in the job. They’ve argued that Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself and that his campaign was in cahoots with Russia.

None of it is working.

Data from a range of focus groups and internal polls in swing states paint a difficult picture for the Democratic Party heading into the 2018 midterms and 2020 presidential election. It suggests that Democrats are naive if they believe Trump’s historically low approval numbers mean a landslide is coming. The party is defending 10 Senate seats in states that Trump won and needs to flip 24 House seats to take control of that chamber.
The research, conducted by private firms and for Democratic campaign arms, is rarely made public but was described to POLITICO in interviews with a dozen top operatives who’ve been analyzing the results coming in.

“If that’s the attitude that’s driving the Democratic Party, we’re going to drive right into the ocean,” said Anson Kaye, a strategist at media firm GMMB who worked on the Obama and Clinton campaigns and is in conversations with potential clients for next year.

Worse news, they worry: Many of the ideas party leaders have latched onto in an attempt to appeal to their lost voters — free college tuition, raising the minimum wage to $15, even Medicare for all — test poorly among voters outside the base. The people in these polls and focus groups tend to see those proposals as empty promises, at best.

Pollsters are shocked by how many voters describe themselves as “exhausted” by the constant chaos surrounding Trump, and they find that there’s strong support for a Congress that provides a check on him rather than voting for his agenda most of the time. But he is still viewed as an outsider shaking up the system, which people in the various surveys say they like, and which Democrats don’t stack up well against.

“People do think he’s bringing about change, so it’s hard to say he hasn’t kept his promises,” said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake.

In focus groups, most participants say they’re still impressed with Trump’s business background and tend to give him credit for the improving economy. The window is closing, but they’re still inclined to give him a chance to succeed.

More than that, no single Democratic attack on the president is sticking — not on his temperament, his lack of accomplishments or the deals he’s touted that have turned out to be less than advertised, like the president’s claim that he would keep Carrier from shutting down its Indianapolis plant and moving production to Mexico.

Voters are also generally unimpressed by claims that Trump exaggerates or lies, and they don’t see the ongoing Russia investigation adding up to much.

“There are a number of things that are raising questions in voters’ minds against him,” said Matt Canter, who’s been conducting focus groups for Global Strategy Group in swing states. “They’re all raising questions, but we still have to weave it into one succinct narrative about his presidency.”

Stop, Democratic operatives urge voters, assuming that what they think is morally right is the best politics. A case in point is Trump’s response to the violence in Charlottesville. The president’s equivocation on neo-Nazis was not as much of a political problem as his opponents want to believe, Democratic operatives say, and shifting the debate to whether or not to remove Confederate monuments largely worked for him...

Keep reading.

Lara Stone Cowgirl

At Egotastic!, "Lara Stone Topless Cowgirl."

Rita Ora Upskirt Encore

At Taxi Driver, "Rita Ora White Pantie Upskirt."

BONUS: "Rita Ora is Topless on New 'Lui' Cover."

Joanna Krupa Body Paint for PETA

She goes all out for PETA, heh.

At WWTDD, "Joanna Krupa Goes Pussy for PETA."

Dodgers' Epic Season Collapse

At LAT, "How did Dodgers go from possibly the best of all time to, right now, the worst team in the majors?":

How did the Dodgers go from possibly the best of all time to, right now, the worst team in the majors? https://t.co/FAnNoG7vfO pic.twitter.com/8agq2oTLUi

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) September 12, 2017

The first loss felt innocuous. On Aug. 26, a crisp, clear evening out at Chavez Ravine, there was no way Dodgers manager Dave Roberts could have foreseen the avalanche awaiting his team.

After getting shut out by the Milwaukee Brewers, Roberts wore a smile as he pulled up a chair at his postgame news conference.

“You’re going to have those nights,” he said. “We’ve got a good club.”

At that moment, the start of one of the worst stretches in franchise history, Roberts and the Dodgers stood atop the baseball world. The team had already won 91 games — the same number it won in all of 2016 — with a month remaining in the season. Their lead in the National League West was 20 games, and the primary concern was keeping the regulars fresh and settling the roster for an October playoff run.

The team entertained thoughts about making history: Challenging the major league record of 116 wins in the regular season, then snapping a 28-season World Series drought in October.

The best team in baseball. The sobriquet fit. Those were the 2017 Dodgers, the purported team of a lifetime, a group assembled by a high-powered front office, supported with the sport’s largest payroll, aided by strategic innovations, infused with a rare combination of stardom and depth, and imbued with a flair for the dramatic. No lead felt safe when the Dodgers came to the plate. Anything seemed possible.

Everything, except for what happened next. By losing 10 in a row and 15 of 16 heading into Monday night’s game at San Francisco, the Dodgers shattered the confidence of a fan base wary after four consecutive early playoff exits.

The pitchers have been pummeled. The offense has been silent. Yu Darvish and Curtis Granderson, the two stars acquired by president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman in July and August, have flopped. The losing has become constant, a counterpoint to a summer in which the team appeared incapable of it. And the Dodgers have three weeks to resurrect their morale.

With no answers in sight, fans have cast about for solutions. The explanations vary from the illogical (Roberts juggles his lineup too often) to the inconsequential (the arrival of Granderson hurt the team’s chemistry) to the supernatural (the team was cursed by a Sports Illustrated cover proclaiming “Best. Team. Ever?”).

The actual answer is something that cannot be solved by a ritual burning of a magazine or a campfire “Kumbaya” to build unity or a tough-love speech by a manager. The Dodgers have foundered because of diminished performances from the players they relied upon during their historic summer.

“It’s past the point of anger and frustration now,” All-Star shortstop Corey Seager said Sunday afternoon. “We have to go out and play better.”

The skid occurred in stages, building from a nuisance into a puzzle into a source of full-blown dread for fans and a source of lost sleep for team officials. Sometimes at night, Roberts joked over the weekend, he looks up at the ceiling and reminds himself what his team’s record is. He did not always sound this downtrodden.

After the fifth loss, on Aug. 31, which completed a three-game sweep by Arizona in Phoenix, Roberts offered perspective. The Dodgers had not experienced a three-game losing streak all summer. He was disappointed in his starting pitchers, but all teams, he reasoned, go through times like this. “We just have to turn the page,” he said.

After the eighth loss in nine games, Roberts looked resolute. The Dodgers had dropped three of four to the woeful San Diego Padres, but the manager crossed his arms and declined to overreact. “I can assure you, this won’t break us,” he said.

After the 12th loss in 13 games, Roberts bumped into a reporter outside the clubhouse at Dodger Stadium. The losing had gotten so contagious, even ace Clayton Kershaw was affected. Following another sweep by Arizona, Kershaw got pummeled by Colorado. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” Roberts said...

More.

Also, "Dodgers skip the champagne after their playoff-clinching victory they didn't know about."

Vast New Intelligence Haul Fuels Next Phase of Fight Against Islamic State

At LAT:

Vast new intelligence haul fuels the next phase of the fight against Islamic State https://t.co/LZIYajfG6K pic.twitter.com/I5x8Y9WM7p

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) September 11, 2017

Today's Deals

I'm late to this. These Deal of the Day offers end at Midnight.

At Amazon, New deals. Every day. Shop our Deal of the Day.

And see especially, Drill America DWD29J-CO-PC Qualtech 29 Piece Cobalt Steel Jobber Length Drill Bit Set in Plastic Case, Gold Oxide Finish, Round Shank, Spiral Flute, 135 Degrees Split Point, 1/16" to 1/2" Size.

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Here, OFF! Deep Woods Insect Repellent 6 ounce (Pack of 2).

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

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

BONUS: Gail Z. Martin, The Summoner (Chronicles of the Necromancer, Book 1).

Lindsey Pelas Full Motion

On Twitter:

👙 The incredible Lindsey Pelas in glorious full motion. Hit ❤️ if you'd love to wake up to this sight every morning 😮 #sexy #model #dance pic.twitter.com/PjBY9LJun7

— Man On (@ManOnToday) August 13, 2017

A Trump Presidency Damage Report

I don't think these leftist outlets are getting it. They're a major part of the reason why we got Trump. Frankly, this kinda stuff is only boosting his reelection chances.

See, for example, Ta-Nehisi Coates, "The First White President."

Look for our latest issue online Tuesday, featuring cover stories from @jacklgoldsmith @EliotACohen and @tanehisicoates pic.twitter.com/JdffSeEtdk

— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) September 8, 2017

Mexican Pride!

From Lauren Southern:

Posting this here cause FB banned me for 3 days over it 😂 pic.twitter.com/3voHZdHEtL

— Lauren Southern (@Lauren_Southern) September 10, 2017

Erin Heatherton

She's spectacular.

Erin Heatherton always knows how to make us laugh! https://t.co/hTltsQh6p3 pic.twitter.com/nfaz68CgrN

— SI Swimsuit (@SI_Swimsuit) September 10, 2017

Dana Loesch

You should check her out, at DanaRadio.com.

Live now! In your market or stream at https://t.co/AI5fToPM2X. #DanaRadio pic.twitter.com/9v6yrfU9oV

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) September 11, 2017

Hackers Could Program Sex Robots to Kill

At Instapundit, "I DON’T TRUST THE INTERNET OF THINGS."

Is America Still a 'Nation of Ideas'?

From Jedediah Purdy, at Politico, "Is America Still a ‘Nation of Ideas’? Warring tribes or united by principle: Donald Trump’s presidency forces a question we haven’t had to answer in generations."

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of solidarity? Is America Still a ‘Nation of Ideas’? https://t.co/v94Z1DEcUK via @politicomag

— Jed Purdy 🌹🌱🇺🇸 (@JedediahSPurdy) September 5, 2017

Yeehaw!

Chargers at Broncos is on right now, at ESPN.

LAT's Mike DiGiovanna‏ tweeted earlier:

Yeehaw! We have arrived at Sports Authority Field in Denver. pic.twitter.com/5lG3O7Qxg0

— Mike DiGiovanna (@MikeDiGiovanna) September 11, 2017

America, 16 Years After 9/11, More Divided Than Ever

I don't put any particular stock into September 11th being some high time of American unity, although apparently nostalgia for some long-lost comity and togetherness is a thing.

See Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "IN THE LONG RUN, 9/11 DIDN’T BRING US ANY CLOSER TOGETHER."

And see Dana Loesch, on Twitter:

“I wish America could feel united again,” the repeat remark of every caller today. #DanaRadio

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) September 11, 2017

Die-Hards Hang On in the Florida Keys

From Molly Hennessy-Fiske‏, at LAT, "The incredible stories of the die-hards who looked Irma in the face — and stayed":

As Hurricane Irma barreled into Key West, Peter Borch stood atop the oldest guesthouse in the city, a converted Victorian mansion built in 1880, to film the unfolding mayhem.

Storm gusts bent nearby palm trees nearly in half, stripping and scattering fronds down empty streets. The horizon was nearly obscured by a white wall of surf roaring in.

“The eyewall is about to hit here in Key West. No power. Trees down. No flooding,” Borch, 31, shouted to be heard over the wind.

Then he shifted focus to a porch below, where an older man sat, shirtless, sipping coffee from a mug, oblivious to the onslaught.

From initial reports Sunday, it appeared that the Florida Keys had taken a pounding but dodged the sort of catastrophic disaster that had been widely expected as Irma roared north out of the Caribbean. But there were reports of missing people, and fears for what might be found in the light of day on Monday.

Keys residents are a hardy, proudly eccentric bunch, accustomed to surviving storms. Many refused to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Irma, including residents at the tip of the island chain in Key West known as conchs. The keeper of Ernest Hemingway’s historic home stayed put to care for his brood of six-toed cats. Watering holes like the Blue Macaw stayed open, offering a drink special called the “Bloody Irma” (five shots of Tito’s vodka). But as the storm descended Sunday, some denizens reconsidered and headed for shelters of last resort like a school on Sugarloaf Key. Others hunkered down, set up live feeds and promised to stay in touch.

One holdout filmed himself nearly getting washed away by storm surf striking the red and yellow buoy at the southernmost point of U.S. Route 1. Florida snowbirds and other island regulars posted queries online: How were the federally protected Key deer faring? Key West’s roaming roosters? Initial reports were good.

Then the power went out, cell service ceased and with it, the live feeds. Only those with satellite phones and land lines could stay in touch with the outside world.

Those at the Sugarloaf School were among the lucky few with a satellite phone, and used it to report that those sheltering there had survived the storm unscathed. Volunteer rescuers used an app on their cellphones called Zello to report what else they were seeing.

“I’m in Key West and we’re all right down here. I never do run from a storm,” said a man who identified himself as P.J.

Judy Cox searched online for signs of her friend, Borch, one of several Key West neighbors who decided to weather the storm.

She last heard from him at 9 a.m., about an hour after he posted his last video. She said he told her “it was windy and not a lot of flooding. Some trees down and no power since last night.”

Now, she was worried.

She had trouble reaching another friend, a boat captain, who was weathering the storm by Schooner Wharf, she said.

“Last I heard he was on his boat,” Cox said...

More.

How Does Terrorism End?

An excellent piece, from Robin Wright, at the New Yorker, "Sixteen Years After 9/11, How Does Terrorism End?"

On 9/11 anniversary, my @newyorker piece on how terror groups end: average lifespan only 8 yrs, only 5% "succeed." https://t.co/mQP5iaDecM

— Robin Wright (@wrightr) September 11, 2017

Delilah Hamlin

She's the 19-year-old daughter of Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna, at Taxi Driver, "Delilah Hamlin in See-Through Top."

Amazon Deals

Do some shopping, at Amazon, Shop Our Deal of the Day.

See especially, Bosch DDB181-02 18-Volt Lithium-Ion 1/2-Inch Compact Tough Drill/Driver Kit with 2 Batteries, Charger and Contractor Bag w/ Compact Laser Measure and 47-pc Bit Set.

More, AmazonBasics Apple Certified Lightning to USB Cable - 3 Feet (0.9 Meters), Black.

Here, Braun BrewSense 12-Cup Drip Coffee Maker.

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

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BONUS: Robert Spencer, Confessions of an Islamophobe.

September 11 Attacks Marked with Moment of Silence (VIDEO)

Following-up, "The Anniversary of 9/11."