Rep. Duncan Hunter Blames Wife (VIDEO)

That's pretty scuzzy. (*Shrugs.*)

At the San Diego Union Tribune, "Rep. Duncan Hunter points to his wife and 'whatever she did' in campaign finance scandal":

Duncan Hunter and his wife Margaret entered — and exited — the federal courthouse separately on Thursday.

Rep. Hunter, the Republican congressman from Alpine, rushed to his black suburban as crowds chanted, “Shame. Shame. Shame.”

Margaret left through a different exit. She had her head down. Onlookers said the 43-year-old mother of three looked as if she was about to cry.

A 60-count indictment, filed in federal court in San Diego, accuses the couple of illegally using a quarter of a million dollars in campaign money to fund their lavish lifestyles and filing false campaign finance records with the Federal Election Commission to cover it up.

They pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, falsification of records and aiding and abetting in the prohibited use of campaign contributions.

Congressman Hunter, 41, is well-known in California and on Capitol Hill. His grandfather, Robert Hunter, was a veteran who hosted a popular TV broadcast in Washington D.C. with Republican members of Congress who wanted to give weekly reports on their districts. After moving back to California in the mid-1950s, he developed the Jurupa Hills Country Club and Golf Course, and many surrounding communities in western Riverside, according to news reports.

Hunter’s father, Duncan L. Hunter, held the same congressional seat as his son for 28 years and had a short-lived bid for president in 2008.

By the time the youngest Hunter entered the race for what was then the 52nd District, he had the name recognition of three generations and ties to a massive support network from his father’s previous campaigns...

More.

Previously: "California's 50th District Now Competitive After Duncan Hunter Indictment?"

Ashley Greene in Black Tank Top

At Taxi Driver, "Ashley Greene Braless in See Through Black Tank Top."

Hat Tip: Popoholic: "Daily Addictions – Weekend Edition."

BONUS: at Hollywood Tuna, "Jessica Simpson is Still the Queen."

Patrick Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed

At Amazon, Patrick J. Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed.

Can Democrats Reclaim Patriotism?

No. Next question?

But see the New York Times, FWIW, "Reclaiming Patriotism for the Left":

When the American left abandons any vision of social patriotism because of the racist ugliness it has come to symbolize, it concedes the American story to the voices of exclusion and avarice https://t.co/5woMt6u0t4

— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) August 21, 2018

"I sometimes get pushback on my flag display and I tire of pointing out that the rightwing does not own the flag - it belongs to all of us - and we should not surrender it to them," comments JMartin on the Op-Ed, "Reclaiming Patriotism for the Left." https://t.co/FYv2VDUEd6 pic.twitter.com/nFUVJKuxWW

— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) August 22, 2018

The resurgence of blood-and-soil nationalism around the world seems to prove that appeals to nationhood are too racist, too tribal and too dangerous to be of value. Yet surrendering patriotism to champions of the ethno-state abdicates the fight for the soul and meaning of the American project.

The American left, from the center of the Democratic Party to its insurgent challengers, needs a dose of national vision. One of the core lessons of Trumpian politics is that Americans are starved for a meaningful politics of what it means to be American. Getting rid of the vainglorious Trump administration is only a partial solution. The causes of his rise remain.

Call what is needed a reinvigoration of “civic nationalism” or “civic republicanism” (a reference to the ancient political ideal, not the party). This is a revival of the “bond of common faith,” the “bond of common goal,” as Robert Kennedy once put it, which needs constructive outlets if what is left of American democracy is to survive.

In recent decades, progressive forces in the United States have split between two positions, both of which surrender a robust and hopeful sense of national citizenship. On one track can be found a cosmopolitan economic elite that embrace a multicultural world order shaped largely by the politics of corporate globalization. On the other track are radical critics of the racism and imperialism of the American state who often support local community and transnational solidarity but maintain a deep cynicism, even despair, about the American project. Both groups have abdicated the national story to their shared political enemies. What remains is a fervent hybrid of nationalism and anti-statism, an echo of the rebel yell.

The American past, according to the historian Gary Gerstle in his book “American Crucible,” can be understood as a struggle between “two powerful and contradictory ideals” — a civic and racialized national vision. Yet the dissolution of a progressive civic dimension has left us with an unchallenged ethno-racial nationalism.

Globalization has further complicated the problem. In a dizzying world of oppressive economic and political inequality, global trade, immigration and technological disruption, voters seek grounding not in technocratic detail but in place, in time, in tradition and, above all, in the shared fate, history and meaning of the nation...

This "project" will fail.

As long as Democrats (who are not "centrist") champion and glamorize their most ardent radical factions and agendas, rejection of civil nationalism will remain at the center of their program.

It's a program of self-hatred.

But keep reading.

California's 50th District Now Competitive After Duncan Hunter Indictment?

I don't know?

You'd have to have a pretty mainstream Democrat running, and Democrats aren't mainstream, so there's that.

But see LAT, "Rep. Duncan Hunter's indictment opens door for Democrats in Trump country":

Rep. Duncan Hunter's indictment opens door for Democrats in Trump country https://t.co/wZjS6l3XZB pic.twitter.com/z1zhaIg90Z

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) August 23, 2018

Republican Dale Weidenthaler shook his head in disgust Wednesday when the conversation turned to Rep. Duncan Hunter.

The retired police officer has long distrusted the GOP congressman but voted for him anyway. Now that Hunter has been indicted on campaign corruption charges, Weidenthaler, 61, expects to skip the House race rather than vote for his Democratic rival.

“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and there’s just too much smoke,” said Weidenthaler, who was sipping a Red Bull on a morning visit to a Temecula grocery store.

The Alpine congressman’s indictment Tuesday has suddenly turned this safe Republican House seat into a competitive race in a midterm election that was already looking grim for the GOP.

It threatens to depress Republican turnout in this largely rural district in San Diego and Riverside counties. The party now has to spend resources on a contest that GOP leaders would have normally ignored.

With Democrats across the nation already portraying President Trump’s Republican Party as a swamp of corruption, the charges against Hunter came the same day that Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight felonies and his onetime campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted of bank fraud and other crimes...

More.

Adam Housley, Los Angeles-Based Reporter for Fox News, Quits Network Amid Objections to 'Talking-Head Panels' Focusing More and More on President Trump

I still love Fox News. I just don't watch it that much any more, for these very reasons.

At Politico, "Second Fox News reporter leaves amid objections to network: In the Trump era, hard reporting is being crowded out by opinionated panels, current and former staffers say":

"objections to the Trump-era Fox News are widely shared within the network’s reporting corps, according to current and former employees of the network.” https://t.co/WHFgXzFD0i

— Jon Passantino (@passantino) August 24, 2018

Another on-air reporter is leaving Fox News over frustrations with the direction and tone of the network, the second in the last three weeks to defect for those reasons.

Adam Housley, a Los Angeles-based reporter who joined Fox in 2001, felt there was diminished opportunity at the network for reporters and disapproved of tenor of its on-air discussion, according to two former Fox News employees with knowledge of his situation.

Housley believed that as the network’s focus on Trump has grown — and the number of talking-head panels during news shows proliferated — it had become difficult to get hard reporting on air, according to one of those former employees.

“He’s not doing the type of journalism he wants to be doing,” the former employee said. “And he is unhappy with the tone of the conversation of the channel.”

Housley’s objections to the Trump-era Fox News are widely shared within the network’s reporting corps, according to current and former employees of the network...

Still more.

Kate Upton's Struggles (VIDEO)

Yes, we should all struggle like Kate Upton, lol.

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Wow! Kayleigh McEnany Unloads on Open-Borders Democrats in Wake of Mollie Tibbetts' Murder by Illegal Alien (VIDEO)

Man, she's good!

At Fox News:

American Peter Beinart Detained for Questioning at Ben-Gurion Airport Upon Entering Israel

This was a news story a few weeks back.

But Carolyn Glick's putting the kibosh on this self-serving anti-Israel promotion.

See, "Peter Beinart’s latest publicity stunt":

There has been a lot of hand-wringing in official Israel over the brief questioning of anti-Israel author Peter Beinart at Ben-Gurion Airport this week. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement on the episode calling it “an administrative mistake.”

Netanyahu added, “Israel is an open society which welcomes all – critics and supporters alike.”

Deputy Minister for Public Diplomacy Michael Oren said Beinart’s questioning is grounds “for an immediate examination of all policy towards the entry of political activists.”

Speaking to Israel National News, Oren said, “Detaining American Jewish reporter Peter Beinart is an example of how acting unwisely causes both strategic and PR damage.

“Beinart is a top-rate American media person. Most of his opinions about Israel disgust me, but he does not support BDS, and in fact defines himself as a Zionist.”

Oren’s position is problematic first and foremost because it is factually wrong.

Beinart is a major supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Indeed, he is a central figure in the movement. This mere fact renders Beinart’s protestations of Zionism disingenuous, to put it mildly.

In 2012, Beinart published an oped in The New York Times calling for the boycott, divestment and sanction of all Israeli goods produced by Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria.

His crass insensitivity towards Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria was striking: “If moderate settlers resent being lumped in with their more ideologically driven counterparts deep in occupied territory, they should agitate for a two-state solution that would make possible their incorporation into democratic Israel. Or they should move.”

Beinart described the boycott as part of an overall political warfare strategy that American Jews should undertake against Israel and its American supporters.

“We should lobby to exclude settler-produced goods from America’s free-trade deal with Israel,” Beinart said. “We should push to end Internal Revenue Service policies that allow Americans to make tax-deductible gifts to settler charities. Every time an American newspaper calls Israel a democracy, we should urge it to include the caveat: only within the green line.”

Even Beinart’s most fervent admirers viewed his call for BDS against Jewish products in Judea and Samaria as a transparent means to facilitate BDS against Israel as a whole.

Jane Eisner, editor of the far-left The Forward newspaper wrote, the “optics of Beinart’s proposal” are “dangerous,” because they provide “implicit support for the broader BDS movement.”

But as has since become clear, that was his goal.

Beinart devotes great energy to mainstreaming anti-Israel activists who reject Israel’s right to exist...

Keep reading.

BONUS: Watch, at i24NEWS, "Peter Beinart on His Detainment at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport: Left-wing Jewish American writer Peter Beinart discusses his interrogation by the Shin Bet security services, the latest in a series of such incidents involving leftist personalities, with i24NEWS' Tracy Alexander."

Some Random Woman on Reddit

At Phun, "Reddit User Lucie Fair":

Not much to say here...she's an amateur that posts hot pictures of herself on Reddit. Here are some of her shots!

Hat Tip: Drunken Stepfather, "MORNING HANGOVER DUMP OF THE DAY."

BONUS: "JEWEL’S GOT THEM TITTIES ON OF THE DAY."

Trump's Supporters Don't Care About Cohen and Manafort Convictions

From Salena Zito, at the New York Post:

Right now the value of Trump to the Trump voter is he is all that stands between them and handing the keys to Washington back over to the people inside Washington. That’s it. He’s their only option. You’ve got to pick the insiders or him. https://t.co/uTuDi7HXcp

— SalenaZito (@SalenaZito) August 23, 2018

Kate Morton, The Clockmaker's Daughter

Available October 9th, at Amazon, Kate Morton, The Clockmaker's Daughter: A Novel.

Laura Ingraham, Billionaire at the Barricades

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Laura Ingraham, Billionaire at the Barricades: The Populist Revolution from Reagan to Trump.

Herman Melville, Moby Dick

There are dozens and dozens of different published editions of Herman Melville's Moby Dick.

Someone's selling this Signet version I have for $45.69.

Don't buy that one, unless you're a hard-up collector, lol.

Buy this one, the recent Signet version, for just under $6.00.

And thanks for your support! As you know, I've been having a blast with book blogging (and book reading, of course) over this last year or two. It's what keeps me sane, heh.

Shop at this Amazon link for more. And thanks again!

Megan Parry's Fabulous Thursday Forecast

I was down at the beach yesterday and it was all-star weather. Just perfect. People travel around the world to such beautiful locations. Laguna Beach? It's paradise.

In any case, here's the lovely Ms. Megan, for ABC 10 News San Diego:

Madison Beer Selfies

At Popoholic, "Madison Beer Selfies Her Ginormous Braless Cleavage Like Never Before!"

And at Taxi Driver, "Madison Beer Cleavage & Cameltoe."

Commentator Paris Dennard 'Suspended' All of a Sudden (After Vigorously Defending President Trump) as Leftist CNN Hacks Dredge Up Old Sexual Assault Allegations (VIDEO)

I don't know Paris Dennard. I don't watch much cable television anymore, but it sure seems a convenient coincident that he's being suspended from CNN after making hack Philip Mudd literally lose his mind on live TV in a profanity-laced meltdown.

At the Hollywood Reporter, "CNN Suspends Contributor Paris Dennard Following Sexual Misconduct Report."

And watch the meltdown, which received wide coverage. (For example, at the Washington Examiner, "Trump says ex-CIA, FBI official Philip Mudd 'is in no mental condition' to have security clearance.")

Today's Shopping

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

And especially, Leather Messenger Laptop Briefcase Cross-body Bag by Aaron Leather.

Here, Logitech MK735 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Combo - MK710 Keyboard and Wireless Mouse M510.

Also, Buck Knives 110 Famous Folding Hunter Knife with Genuine Leather Sheath - TOP SELLER.

More here, Military Outdoor Clothing Never Issued U.S. Military Canteen.

Also, CLIF Fruit Smoothie Filled - Organic Energy Bar - 3-Flavor Variety Pack - 1.76 Ounce Protein Snack Bar, 12 Count.

Plus, Nestlé Pure Life Bottled Purified Water, 16.9 oz. Bottles, 24/Case.

Still more, Koffee Kult Dark Roast Coffee Beans - Highest Quality Gourmet - Whole Bean Coffee - Fresh Roasted Coffee Beans, 32oz.

BONUS: John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces.

WaPo Bemoans 'Day Like Any Other' at Right-Wing News Outlets After Cohen and Manafort Convictions (VIDEO)

Hey, it's a good thing we have Fox News to put things in perspective. The Mollie Tibbetts murder, by an illegal alien who's been in the country for years, is a much bigger story, in my opinion. That one should implicate the Democrats in impeachable crimes. But here's the headline at WaPo, via Memeorandum, "In Trump's right-wing media universe, it was a day like any other."

And yes, let's listen to Sean Hannity's monologue. You know he's right:

Megan Parry's Wednesday Weather Forecast

Hey, it's been nice weather --- a little marine layer in the morning, blowing off by early afternoon, with temps in the mid-80s.

What's not to like?

Here's the lovely Ms. Megan:

Manafort Verdict Says Nothing

Check Memeorandum for all the scandal-related news about the Trump administration.

It's over the top. Calls for impeachment are already ramping up, but this morning's headlines are as significant as folks may think.

See Byron York, at the Washington Examiner, "Manafort split verdict says nothing on Trump, Russia, and the 2016 election":

Mueller did not allege any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign, and none were revealed at the trial.

That's not to say the public did not learn anything from the Manafort trial. Indeed, if nothing else, outsiders got a glimpse into what Washington influence peddlers have gotten away with for decades. Manafort was convicted of shady dealing going back a long way. His behavior had been examined by the Obama Justice Department, which took no action against him. It was only because Manafort hooked up with Trump, and Trump then won the White House, and Democrats then pushed a Trump-Russia narrative to hobble the new president, and Trump then fired the director of the FBI -- only through all of those circumstances -- that Manafort got caught and his foreign money schemes exposed.

The importance of the financial crimes case against Manafort was never the financial crimes themselves. It was the prosecutors' hope that, by charging the hell out of the offenses alleged, by playing hardball with the defendant with a guns-drawn-at-dawn search-warrant raid, by jailing him over a debatable obstruction of justice charge that Manafort could be pressured into spilling what prosecutors apparently thought were a lot of beans about the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election.

The big question about that strategy, of course, was whether the beans really existed. Was there a deep, dark secret about Russia collusion, evidence to proved that it occurred, and did Manafort, and only Manafort, know it? If so, then Manafort could be the key to the case. If not, then Mueller could succeed in nailing Manafort's hide to the wall -- and sending a warning to Washington operators who accept huge foreign payments -- but not accomplish the actual goal of the Trump-Russia investigation...

RTWT.

Asia Argento and 17-Year-Old Boy in Bed in Sexual Encounter

She claimed Anthony Bourdain paid off the kid to make problems go away. There was no sexual relationship, according to her statement:

I just received this statement from @AsiaArgento in response to the NYT story published late Sunday evening. pic.twitter.com/jAOo7TAULX

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) August 21, 2018

But TMZ's got the photos to prove that sex did happen. This Asia woman is hypocrite scum. Now I really feel bad for Anthony Bourdain. She broke his heart and then he killed himself. I don't think she was worth it, damn.

Asia Argento and 17-Year-Old Boy in Bed in Sexual Encounter https://t.co/y6EeKOdPT7

— TMZ (@TMZ) August 22, 2018

Eiza Gonzalez Busting Out

At Popoholic:

Eiza Gonzalez Braless And Busting Out Like Bananas… WOW! https://t.co/n5FpP496GF pic.twitter.com/Hixa2x5ixH

— Popoholic (@Popoholic) August 17, 2018

Selena Gomez Bikini

At Popoholic:

Selena Gomez Busting Out Her Massive Cleavage Like Bananas In A Tiny Bikini… WOW! https://t.co/dJnWMf7x46 pic.twitter.com/63NmVpgKcp

— Popoholic (@Popoholic) August 16, 2018

More Ultra Busty Selena Gomez Bikini Pictures? Yes Please! https://t.co/gmeJGwUvC7 pic.twitter.com/a5cSt7fYLM

— Popoholic (@Popoholic) August 20, 2018

Today's Front-Page at the Los Angeles Times

I'm still waiting for my paper. The deliveryman is the worst. We had to call for a replacement paper, and today's one of those days in which I actually want to read the news, sheesh.

Today’s front page. Every story, from Washington to Bell, is about corruption. pic.twitter.com/bALNzwKocT

— Laura J. Nelson 🦅 (@laura_nelson) August 22, 2018

Jennifer Garner on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (VIDEO)

Ms. Garner's in the news. She's hands down one of the most smoking hottest actresses in the business --- and Ben Affleck's an idiot and a loser, man.

At Elle, "Jennifer Garner Is Reportedly ‘Not Pleased’ or 'Surprised' Ben Affleck Is Dating a 22-Year-Old Playboy Model," and at Metro U.K., "Ben Affleck grabs bite to eat with Playboy model Shauna Sexton as he skips ex-wife Jennifer Garner’s Walk of Fame ceremony."

(BONUS: "SHAUNA SEXTON PHOTOGRAPHED BY DOVE SHORE FOR PLAYBOY, MAY 2018." Maybe he's not an idiot after all, shoot! But see, "Jennifer Garner Topless & Ass Pics.")

Also, at People, "All the Cutest Photos From Jennifer Garner's Walk of Fame Ceremony with Her Three Adorable Kids: Jennifer Garner received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday — and made a rare appearance with her three children with ex Ben Affleck."

Anne De Paula on Most Secluded Beach (VIDEO)

Via Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Olivia Culpo Nautical Bikini

Nice.

Olivia Culpo slips into a nautical-inspired ruffle bikini as she poses up a storm for desert shoot in Palm Springs https://t.co/sgcKbrgRz7

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) July 9, 2018

Whimsical

Wow!

WhimsicalLadies pic.twitter.com/6lnG9vfu8P

— Erotic Goddesses 97K (@trozo2015) July 15, 2018

Emily Ratajkowski in New York

At London's Daily Mail:

Emily Ratajkowski shows off a hint of underboob and her extremely svelte torso in a summery crop top https://t.co/FSE6yatPGB

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) July 21, 2018

The U.S. Maintains the Most Generous Immigration Policies in the World (VIDEO)

Here's Michelle Malkin, for Prager University:

Megan Parry's Tuesday Forecast

At 10 News San Diego:

Phoebe Price Bikini Slip

At Drunken Stepfather, "Phoebe Price Nipple Slip of the Day."

Also, at DListed, "Open Post: Hosted By Red, White, Blue and Ginger Elegance," and "It Wouldn’t Be a National Holiday Without Bikini Pics of Phoebe Price!"

Oakland Athletics Tied for First in American League West Division

The A's won again last night, and the Mariners beat the Astros for the fifth time in a row, pushing the Athletics back up to a first place tie with Houston in the American League West.

It's great!

I mean, I'm an Angels fan first and foremost, of course. But I love the Athletics and they're making a serious run for the post-season. Really serious! They were something like twelve games out of first place a while back, but they started racking up the best record in baseball for the last month or so. And here they are, tied for first.

The season's been magical up there in the East Bay too. When they opened up the top level seats --- Mount Davis, the sky-high section that was built to lure the Raiders back to Oakland back in the day --- it was the first time in 13 years, and was one hella phenomenon. You can see across the bay on a clear day. Just spectacular.

In any case, let's hope the Athletics continue to have a hot streak here, that they take the first place spot in the standing outright over the next few days. I just wish I could watch them on TV. The Angels are fading and this is the time I wind down my game viewing until the playoffs.

On Twitter:

Ramon Laureano smacks 2 homers and Khris Davis hits one with young cancer patient's signature on his jersey. Updated story on #Athletics powering their way back into first-place tie in AL West: https://t.co/kCK2Hi0kof

— Ron Kroichick (@ronkroichick) August 21, 2018

41-14 since June 16!

(Best in @MLB in that span 👀)#RootedInOakland pic.twitter.com/FFApT2VYhk

— Oakland Athletics 🌳🐘⚾️ (@Athletics) August 21, 2018

Join us to #PackTheTown.
For the first time in 13 years, we are opening up Mount Davis! Help us break the all-time Coliseum attendance record of 55,989 set in 2004 with $10 Mount Davis tickets for Saturday, July 21. https://t.co/F9skzqsr4r pic.twitter.com/LiPuKbYcuY

— Oakland Athletics 🌳🐘⚾️ (@Athletics) July 16, 2018

Who is going to help us #PackTheTown tomorrow?
$10 Mount Davis seats + $2 hot dogs, nachos, soda, water, and peanuts at the Mount Davis concession stands. 😋 (cash only)
🎟️: https://t.co/F9skzqsr4r pic.twitter.com/Wu2CwwbRLB

— Oakland Athletics 🌳🐘⚾️ (@Athletics) July 20, 2018

This story is especially good:

We famous! 😎📸
A’s, Giants fans go on expedition to dusty Mount Davis https://t.co/0S4RuIdPPP

— Maria Contreras (@Maria_Maria727) July 22, 2018

Leftists Politics Closing In

This is really phenomenal, from John Zmirak, at Pajamas, "The Fences Are Closing In":

The Fences Are Closing In https://t.co/xFm8CVVVan pic.twitter.com/s1V12VxSKr

— PJ Media (@PJMedia_com) August 20, 2018

There’s an old expression, we’ve all used it: “It’s a free country!” Now, sometimes people abuse it. If you catch somebody spraying graffiti on the side of your house, he might just say that. Which, of course, is stupid.

But people only hijack an expression because it’s powerful and true. This is a free country, that’s what defines it. It’s what made America great.

But will America stay free? Or are powerful forces eating away at our freedoms? I won’t say nibbling, because they’re tearing off great big chunks of it at a time. Our freedom of speech, of religion, our right to back political candidates and stand up for what we believe in. All that’s now threatened. I think you know that.

Would you feel comfortable wearing a MAGA hat? Or would you worry you might get assaulted? That happened to 16-year-old Hunter Richard in Austin, Texas, last month. An adult man confronted him, ripped the hat off his head, screamed profanity at him, and threw a drink in his face.

But don’t worry, Austin is on it. They’re getting ready to change the name of the city because Stephen Austin owned slaves. I wonder how long it will be until the Washington, D.C., city council gets around to renaming our capital. Seriously, I think we should start a pool. Ten years? Five? Maybe two? That slope’s getting pretty slippery. If you ever want to see Mount Rushmore while it’s still intact... I think you should book your tickets now. Be sure to take lots of pictures, so you can show your children. The same with the Jefferson Memorial, Monticello, and most of the statues in Richmond. They’re on the List. You know they are.

The Democrats are now embracing “democratic socialism.” Their activists are dressing up in hoods and masks and terrorizing citizens. Assaulting cops and reporters. Trashing government buildings in Portland and occupying them for weeks. Lawmakers are actually having to use old anti-Klan laws to stop the violent radicals of Antifa from terrorizing Americans.

But we’re not supposed to complain about it. It’s getting dangerous to speak your mind. Dangerous to your career, and even to your safety...

Keep reading.

David Horowitz Make the Case Against the #NeverTrump Crowd

At the Other McCain, "David Horowitz Schools Jonah Goldberg: #NeverTrump as Moral Cowardice":

Politics is a team sport. In a two-party system, being a team player often forces us to make difficult choices. After the 2012 GOP primary campaign, when I twice went “all-in” on candidates (first Herman Cain, then Rick Santorum) trying to stop Mitt Romney as the “It’s His Turn” establishment candidate, it was understandably difficult for me to get fired up for Mitt’s fall campaign. And yet, I did. By late September, I’d convinced myself that Mitt had a good chance of beating Obama and, even though Romney was by no means my idea of a conservative, I spent the final weeks of the campaign in cheerleader mode, hoping against hope that Obama could be prevented from getting a second term. Alas, we were “Doomed Beyond All Hope of Redemption,” as I declared after Mitt’s loss.

That experience taught me something, namely that my efforts as a journalist to “make a difference” were futile. The primary voters had their own opinions which I was unable to influence, so I vowed to ignore the 2016 primaries and let the voters hash it out for themselves. This yielded Trump as the nominee and, rather miraculously, he won. Now, however, all the GOP pundit types who’d gone all-in trying to prevent Trump’s nomination are so butthurt about their lack of influence that they can’t get over it. They are like petulant children, ruining a birthday party with a tantrum because they didn’t get the gift they wanted.

Trump is not “my guy.” I have always been for free trade, and oppose protectionism on principle. As for Trump’s tone and temperament, I share many of the concerns of the #NeverTrump crowd, but there is one thing I like very much about Donald Trump: He wins.

Keep reading.

And here's the Horowitz piece, at American Greatness:

Here's my answer to Jonah Goldberg without the restrictions of a tweet:https://t.co/lbweUZUsV0

— David Horowitz (@horowitz39) August 20, 2018

Rose McGowan Backlash After Former 'Charmed' Star Tweets Support for Asia Argento

Althouse had the story, first reported at NYT, "Asia Argento, a #MeToo Leader, Made a Deal With Her Own Accuser."

And Ann's comment there:

"Most 17-year-old boys would consider sex f any kind with a beautiful woman the best day of their life so far."

How old was he when he made the movie in which she played his mother? Then look at the continued psychological hold on him with this "I'm your mother" routine. What if someone did that to your child? It's an appropriation of childhood innocence, very reminiscent of the behavior of the accused Catholic priests. To take a young mind and to shape and manipulate it to serve your sexual interests is truly evil. Everyone who has contact with children has a moral responsibility not to use them that way, even if they are refraining from sexual contact until the age of consent.

And now at CNN, the hypocrisy of Rose McGowan:

Rose McGowan is being criticized for her support of Asia Argentohttps://t.co/LgNUzhAHIW

— Lisa Respers France (@LisaFranceCNN) August 21, 2018

I got to know Asia Argento ten months ago. Our commonality is the shared pain of being assaulted by Harvey Weinstein. My heart is broken. I will continue my work on behalf of victims everywhere.

— rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) August 20, 2018

None of us know the truth of the situation and I’m sure more will be revealed. Be gentle.

— rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) August 20, 2018

Rose got fried for her sick double standard here, at the link.

Last Known Nazi Death Camp Guard Deported to Germany

Good riddance to the fucker.

And ICE deported him. You'd think leftists would celebrate that, right?

At the Guardian U.K., "U.S. deports Nazi war crimes suspect to Germany."

Howard Fast, Freedom Road

I've finished The Human Factor. It was surprisingly good. I was trying to figure out some of the story lines, as I'm not a big spy novel aficionado, but it all came together in the last third of the book, and it was moving, even sad.

In any case, I read Howard Fast's Spartacus last summer, and that book made me a forever fan of Fast, who has a fascinating personal history (or "had" one; he died in 2003).

At Amazon, Howard Fast, Freedom Road (American History Through Literature).

'Think'

Aretha Franklin, the "Queen of Soul," has dead at the age of 76.

At LAT, "Aretha Franklin, who defined an era as the Queen of Soul, dies at 76."

Bella Thorne for GQ Mexico.

At Maxim:

No photoshop, no problem. https://t.co/ZwgousGHyP

— Maxim (@MaximMag) August 16, 2018

Lucy Pinder in Lingerie

On Twitter, "#LucyPinder with sexy #lingerie."

She's a beauty.

Jeremy Corbyn is Too Extreme to Be Prime Minister

From Sohrab Ahmari, at Commentary, "Never Corbyn."

Dear Britons: For the love of all that is good and just, please don't elect Jeremy Corbyn--the Hamas-hugging lunatic from the People's Republic of Islington--to No. 10 Downing Street. https://t.co/KRhvs7j2dT

— Sohrab Ahmari (@SohrabAhmari) August 14, 2018

Coliseum's Ongoing Renovation Means Different USC Game-Day Experience for Fans (VIDEO)

College football season's almost upon us.

And here's this, at LAT, "It will be a season of 'growing pains' for USC fans at the Coliseum":

The Coliseum has come together and is ready for the 2018 season. #FightOn pic.twitter.com/OMhiJDtJAt

— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) August 15, 2018

USC’s 95th football season in the Coliseum will be unlike any other. And that will have nothing to do with what happens on the field.

As the Coliseum undergoes its real-time renovation in preparation for a 2019 unveiling, more will be asked of the Trojans fans in particular. USC and Coliseum officials scheduled a news conference Wednesday morning to address the biggest challenges fans will face and what specifically they can do to make 2018’s temporary game-day experience palatable enough to get through it and onto next season, when the fun can really start.

“It will be a season of change for a lot of fans when they come into the Coliseum,” USC athletic director Lynn Swann said. “Everybody will be going through some kind of adjustment, in terms of where they used to sit and to where they’re going to sit this year and how it’s going to change in 2019. Growing pains, if you will."

USC fans and alumni who would have preferred that the athletic department not touch the venerable stadium have been heard, but that ship sailed long ago. Since the end of the Rams’ 2017 season in January, 12,514 cubic yards of concrete have been poured; 2,131 tons of structural steel have been used; and 46,000 cubic yards of dirt have been exported.

All of this comes in the name of progress — if you are willing to define progress as spending a lot of money now to make a lot more money over the coming decades thanks to new revenue streams created from building luxury boxes — and USC would prefer that the process doesn’t have to be that painful...

More.

California Looks to Block Further Offshore Drilling for Oil

Hey, I say, "Drill baby drill," lol.

But this is California, which has been taken over by far-left progressive nutjobs. It's hard out here, man.

At LAT, "First came the proclamations against Trump's offshore drilling plan. Now comes the legislation":

First came the proclamations against Trump's offshore drilling plan. Now comes the legislation https://t.co/KMoG4CuZd5 pic.twitter.com/IpuxNVTwYh

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) August 16, 2018

When the Trump administration proposed opening California waters to drilling on an unprecedented scale, state leaders said they would do whatever it takes to keep new oil operations at bay.

But promises only go so far.

So some in Sacramento now are trying to lock those pledges into law — safeguarding the coast from offshore drilling no matter the whims of future administrations.

Despite decades of lawsuits and regulations, the state’s ability to block offshore drilling hinges largely on who’s in power in the state Capitol. Even with staunch opposition by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and pledges from both candidates vying to be the next governor, future leaders could still allow new drilling if they choose.

Two bills that could live or die Thursday would close that possibility by barring state land managers from allowing the construction of new pipelines, piers, wharves or other infrastructure necessary to transport the oil and gas from water to land.

In a state where polls show 69% of residents oppose more drilling off their coast, such legislation may seem like a shoo-in. “But unfortunately it’s not,” said Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance), acting chair of the Assembly’s Natural Resources Committee.

A similar Senate bill last year failed amid pressure from powerful oil and business interests that said stripping the state of this decision-making authority could do more harm than good.

Muratsuchi said he agreed to team up with state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) and seven coauthors this year to reintroduce the issue as nearly identical bills in the Assembly and the Senate, and overcome what he said were the key challenges: “Oily Democrats,” a more business-friendly Assembly than in years past, and powerful lobbying alliances in Sacramento.

The stalling of the legislation last year marked an instance in which California, famous for leading the charge on environmental laws, left other states to pave the way. New Jersey and New York picked up and adopted similar legislation this year. Delaware and Maryland are also looking to pass laws that would bar new drilling in state waters.

But with mounting public pushback against the Trump administration’s efforts to upend California’s environmental protections, backers say the bills have a new urgency this year.

“We need to take control of what we can control — and what we can control is our state land and waters,” said Richard Charter, a senior fellow at the Ocean Foundation who has worked on oil issues for 40 years. “I have never seen this level of danger to California’s coastline.”

Bills AB 1775 and SB 834 would prohibit the State Lands Commission, which has jurisdiction over tidelands and waters extending roughly three miles offshore, from granting leases for new pipelines and infrastructure — the most economical way to transport oil and gas to land. The Senate version of the bill goes a step further, banning the commission from renewing an existing lease if that action will result in increased oil or natural gas production from federal waters.

Currently, the commission’s oil decisions are subject to the vote of two elected officials, the lieutenant governor and the state controller, and one appointee of the governor, the director of the state Department of Finance.

Both Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the Democratic candidate for governor, and John Cox, the Republican candidate who has Trump’s backing, have declared that the commission’s current commitment to barring new leases would not change under their leadership...

More.

Graham Greene, The Human Factor

Mr. Greene's classic paperbacks go for prime dollars, lol.

The mass-market is available at Amazon, Graham Greene, The Human Factor (Mass-Market Paperback).

And see also, The Human Factor (Penguin Classics).

We Need More Masculinity

Here's a great Prager University video, featuring Allie Beth Stuckey, "Make Men Masculine Again":

Blanca Blanco in Bathing Suit

At Taxi Driver, "Blanca Blanco Pops Out of her Bathing Suit."

PREVIOUSLY: "Blanca Blanco in White T-Shirt."

Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We?

*BUMPED.*

Following-up, "Progressives Outraged at Laura Ingraham's Opening Segment Slamming Left's Program to Remake America (VIDEO)."

It's not like Ms. Laura was saying anything new. Conservatives have been sound the tocsin for decades. Here's Pat Buchanan's book from 2002, The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization.

And don't forget Jean Raspail's 1973 novel, The Camp of the Saints.

Also, Victor Davis Hanson, Mexifornia: A State of Becoming.

More recently, see Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam.

And my favorite, which was eye-opening at the time (2004), Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity.

Democrats Are Socialists, Duh

The polling is just now catching up to the reality on the ground. Go to any college campus and nearly everyone --- from administrators, faculty, and the students --- will tell they prefer socialism over the free market. I've been saying so for years. Obama ushered in an era where open embrace of radical leftism was cool. Bernie brought the last shy leftist out of the socialist closet. And with the lame brain leftist Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, far-left Democrats can run on an openly Marxist platform and win office.

This is a good development, people. It clarifies the lines of ideological contestation. I love it.

At Gallup, "Democrats More Positive About Socialism Than Capitalism":

Democrats have a more positive image of socialism than they do of capitalism... https://t.co/qSBZ6vkpk2 pic.twitter.com/4XnryzaD9J

— GallupNews (@GallupNews) August 13, 2018

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- For the first time in Gallup's measurement over the past decade, Democrats have a more positive image of socialism than they do of capitalism. Attitudes toward socialism among Democrats have not changed materially since 2010, with 57% today having a positive view. The major change among Democrats has been a less upbeat attitude toward capitalism, dropping to 47% positive this year -- lower than in any of the three previous measures. Republicans remain much more positive about capitalism than about socialism, with little sustained change in their views of either since 2010.

These results are from Gallup interviewing conducted July 30-Aug. 5. Views of socialism among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are particularly important in the current political environment because many observers have claimed the Democratic Party is turning in more of a socialist direction.

Socialist Bernie Sanders competitively challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, and more recently, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a candidate with similar policy views and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, won the Democratic nomination in New York's 14th Congressional District. Several candidates with socialist leanings lost their primary bids in Aug. 7 voting, however, raising doubts about the depth of Democrats' embrace of socialism.

The current survey is the fourth time Gallup has measured Americans' overall views of capitalism and socialism in this format. The question wording does not define "socialism" or "capitalism" but simply asks respondents whether their opinion of each is positive or negative...

Yeah, don't ask any of these idiot leftists to define terms, as you'll get a nonsense regurgitation which is the calling card of Ocasio Cortez (*eye roll*).

But keep reading.

The Realist World of International Politics

From Professor Stephen Kotkin, at Foreign Affairs, "Realist World: The Players Change, but the Game Remains":

Just caught up wth this excellent essay in @ForeignAffairs by Stephen Kotkin: https://t.co/XxAqadRwvh

— Niall Ferguson (@nfergus) August 12, 2018

Geopolitics didn’t return; it never went away. The arc of history bends toward delusion. Every hegemon thinks it is the last; all ages believe they will endure forever. In reality, of course, states rise, fall, and compete with one another along the way. And how they do so determines the world’s fate.

Now as ever, great-power politics will drive events, and international rivalries will be decided by the relative capacities of the competitors—their material and human capital and their ability to govern themselves and their foreign affairs effectively. That means the course of the coming century will largely be determined by how China and the United States manage their power resources and their relationship.

Just as the free-trading United Kingdom allowed its rival, imperial Germany, to grow strong, so the free-trading United States has done the same with China. It was not dangerous for the liberal hegemon to let authoritarian competitors gain ground, the logic ran, because challengers would necessarily face a stark choice: remain authoritarian and stagnate or liberalize to continue to grow. Either way, the hegemon would be fine. It didn’t end well the first time and is looking questionable this time, too.

China will soon have an economy substantially larger than that of the United States. It has not democratized yet, nor will it anytime soon, because communism’s institutional setup does not allow for successful democratization. But authoritarianism has not meant stagnation, because Chinese institutions have managed to mix meritocracy and corruption, competence and incompetence, and they have somehow kept the country moving onward and upward. It might slow down soon, and even implode from its myriad contradictions. But analysts have been predicting exactly that for decades, and they’ve been consistently wrong so far.

Meanwhile, as China has been powering forward largely against expectations, the United States and other advanced democracies have fallen into domestic dysfunction, calling their future power into question. Their elites steered generations of globalization successfully enough to enable vast social mobility and human progress around the world, and they did quite well along the way. But as they gorged themselves at the trough, they overlooked the negative economic and social effects of all of this on citizens in their internal peripheries. That created an opening for demagogues to exploit, which they have done with a vengeance.

The Great Depression ended an earlier age of globalization, one that began in the late nineteenth century. Some thought the global financial crisis of 2008 might do the same for the current wave. The system survived, but the emergency measures implemented to save it—including bailouts for banks, but not for ordinary people—revealed and heightened its internal contradictions. And in the decade following, antiestablishment movements have grown like Topsy.

Today’s competition between China and the United States is a new twist on an old story. Until the onset of the nineteenth century, China was by far the world’s largest economy and most powerful country, with an estimated 40 percent share of global GDP. Then it entered a long decline, ravaged from without and within—around the same time the United States was born and began its long ascent to global dominance. The United States’ rise could not have occurred without China’s weakness, given how important U.S. dominance of Asia has been to American primacy. But nor could China’s revival have occurred without the United States’ provision of security and open markets.

So both countries have dominated the world, each has its own strengths and weaknesses, and for the first time, each confronts the other as a peer. It is too soon to tell how the innings ahead will play out. But we can be confident that the game will continue.

BEWARE OF WHAT YOU WISH FOR

To understand the world of tomorrow, look back to yesterday. In the 1970s, the United States and its allies were rich but disordered and stagnant; the Soviet Union had achieved military parity and was continuing to arm; China was convulsed by internal turmoil and poverty; India was poorer than China; Brazil, ruled by a military junta, had an economy barely larger than India’s; and South Africa was divided into homelands under a regime of institutionalized racism.

Four decades later, the Soviet Union has dissolved, and its successor states have embraced capitalism and private property. China, still politically communist, chose markets over planning and has grown to have the world’s second-largest economy. Once-destitute India now has the sixth-largest economy. Brazil became a democracy, experienced an economic takeoff, and now has the eighth-largest economy. South Africa overturned apartheid and became a multiracial democracy.

The direction of these changes was no accident. After World War II, the United States and its allies worked hard to create an open world with ever-freer trade and ever-greater global integration. Policymakers bet that if they built it, people would come. And they were right. Taken together, the results have been extraordinary. But those same policymakers and their descendants weren’t prepared for success when it happened.

Globalization creates wealth by enticing dynamic urban centers in richer countries to invest abroad rather than in hinterlands at home. This increases economic efficiency and absolute returns, more or less as conventional economic theory suggests. And it has reduced inequality at the global level, by enabling hundreds of millions of people to rise out of grinding poverty.

But at the same time, such redirected economic activity increases domestic inequality of opportunity and feelings of political betrayal inside rich countries. And for some of the losers, the injury is compounded by what feels like cultural insult, as their societies become less familiar...

Keep reading.

New Focus on Denaturalization

Well, this is new ---- and great!

At LAT, "Under Trump, the rare act of denaturalizing U.S. citizens on the rise":

Working a Saturday shift in the stuffy Immigration and Naturalization Service office in downtown Los Angeles in the 1970s, Carl Shusterman came across a rap sheet.

A man recently sworn in as a United States citizen had failed to disclose on his naturalization application that he had been arrested, but not convicted, in California on rape and theft charges.

Shusterman, then a naturalization attorney, embarked on a months-long effort to do something that rarely happened: strip someone of their American citizenship.

“We had to look it up to find out how to do this,” he said. “We’d never even heard of it.”

Forty years later, denaturalization — a complex process once primarily reserved for Nazi war criminals and human rights violators — is on the rise under the Trump administration.

A United States Citizenship and Immigration Services team in Los Angeles has been reviewing more than 2,500 naturalization files for possible denaturalization, focusing on identity fraud and willful misrepresentation. More than 100 cases have been referred to the Department of Justice for possible action.

“We’re receiving cases where [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] believes there is fraud, where our systems have identified that individuals used more than one identity, sometimes more than two or three identities,” said Dan Renaud, the associate director for field operations at the citizenship agency. “Those are the cases we’re pursuing.”

The move comes at a time when Trump and top advisors have made it clear that they want to dramatically reduce immigration, both illegal and legal.

The administration granted fewer visas and accepted fewer refugees in 2017 than in previous years.

Recently, the federal government moved to block victims of gang violence and domestic abuse from claiming asylum. White House senior advisor Stephen Miller — an immigration hawk — is pushing a policy that could make it more difficult for those who have received public benefits, including Obamacare, to become citizens or green card holders, according to multiple news outlets.

Shusterman, now a private immigration attorney in L.A., said he’s concerned denaturalization could be used as another tool to achieve the president’s goals.

“I think they’ll … find people with very minor transgressions,” he said, “and they’ll take away their citizenship.”

Dozens of U.S. mayors, including L.A.’s Eric Garcetti, signed a letter sent to the citizenship agency’s director in late July, criticizing a backlog in naturalization applications and the agency’s commitment of resources to “stripping citizenship from naturalized Americans.”

“The new measure to investigate thousands of cases from almost 30 years ago, under the pretext of the incredibly minimal problem of fraud in citizenship applications, instead of managing resources in a manner that processes the backlogs before them, suggests that the agency is more interested in following an aggressive political agenda rather than its own mission,” the letter stated.

But Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports tighter controls, said “denaturalization, like deportation, is an essential tool to use against those who break the rules.”

“It’s for people who are fraudsters, liars,” he said. “We’ve been lax about this for a long time, and this unit that’s been developed is really just a question of taking the law seriously.”

From 2009 to 2016, an average of 16 civil denaturalization cases were filed each year, Department of Justice data show. Last year, more than 25 cases were filed. Through mid-July of this year, the Justice Department has filed 20 more.

Separately, ICE has a pending budget request for $207.6 million to hire 300 agents to help root out citizenship fraud, as well as to “complement work site enforcement, visa overstay investigations, forensic document examination, outreach programs and other activities,” according to the agency...

More.

At Waverley Station

Here's something nice to start out today, as the regular news is so awful.

Seen on Twitter:

This just now at Waverley Station. pic.twitter.com/qyc9xxo5yC

— Richard Coles (@RevRichardColes) August 13, 2018

Progressives Outraged at Laura Ingraham's Opening Segment Slamming Left's Program to Remake America (VIDEO)

Leftists are currently escalating their war on America, right now with a heightened attack on conservative media, everything from the reprehensible Alex Jones to the mainstream conservative views at Fox News. Laura Ingraham really hit a nerve with her opening monologue Wednesday night on the left's malevolent efforts to remake America in the communist image.

And they're pulling out the big guns. Memeorandum has been covered with outrageous headlines attacking Ms. Laura for her alleged "racism." See, "Laura Ingraham's Anti-Immigrant Rant Was So Racist It Was Endorsed by Ex-KKK Leader David Duke" (the Daily Beast), "White anxiety finds a home at Fox News" (CNN), "Ingraham: 'America We Know and Love Doesn't Exist Anymore' in Some Places Because of ‘Massive Demographic Changes’" (Mediaite), and "Laura Ingraham Doesn't Love Her Country Anymore" (the Atlantic).

She responded with a follow up to her Wednesday opening last night, reiterating her main points and smacking down the idiot race-mongering progs. See, "My commentary was about keeping America safe."

And here's the full video from Wednesday:

Samantha Hoopes' New Sexy Poses (VIDEO)

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Iggy Azalea Twerking

This is cray.

At Billboard, "Iggy Azalea Twerks the Night Away at Miami Yacht Party: Watch."

And Drunken Stepfather, "IGGY AZALEA SLUTTY ASS SHAKE IN THONG FOR INSTAGRAM."

Spending time in miami is always fun & nostalgic.

— IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) August 7, 2018

BONUS: "Iggy Azalea flaunts her enviable hourglass physique in clinging green maxi dress."

Ana Braga

At Taxi Driver, "Ana Braga on the Street."

The New Corporate Censorship

Alex Jones got the boot from four major platforms on Monday. Here's Laura Ingraham's take:

Britain's Labour Party Pushing for Second Brexit

If a second referendum becomes reality it'll signify the death of meaningful democracy in Britain. I mean, the people voted. Normally, in democracies, the losers don't get a do-over, but we're talking about the radical left, and look how well the Democrats have handled 2016 for a reminder.

At Bloomberg:

Pressure is building on Britain's Labour Party to back a second Brexit referendum https://t.co/kQdmbrCHX3 pic.twitter.com/wYyI0hj5dK

— Bloomberg (@business) August 8, 2018

The G.O.P.'s Bad Night

I'm not doing much election analysis these days, so check in with "the man," Sean Trende, at RCP:

My take on last night's elections: bad, bad, bad for the GOP.https://t.co/vg6MmICF5f

— Sean T at RCP (@SeanTrende) August 8, 2018

Peter Høeg, Smilla's Sense of Snow

At Amazon, Peter Høeg, Smilla's Sense of Snow.

Kate Upton in New Campaign for Yamamay Swimwear

At London's Daily Mail, "Kate Upton looks sensational in new bikini photoshoot for Yamamay swimwear campaign."

Kate Upton looks sensational in new bikini photoshoot for Yamamay swimwear campaign https://t.co/YyeRRkOxQs

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) April 20, 2018

Shooting Up Chicago

From Heather Mac Donald, at City Journal, "Thugs terrorize their neighbors in the Windy City":

My latest on the weekend's horrific violence in Chicago, and what police and city leadership need to do. https://t.co/LZgxHaBBmM via @CityJournal

— Heather Mac Donald (@HMDatMI) August 7, 2018

An explosion of drive-by shootings erupted on Chicago’s South and West sides this weekend. At least 74 people were shot, and 12 killed, between 3 p.m. on Friday and 6 a.m. on Monday. In one seven-hour stretch, starting around midnight on Saturday, at least 40 people were shot, four fatally, as gunmen targeted a block party, the aftermath of a funeral, and a front porch, reports the Chicago Tribune. Over two and a half hours that morning, 25 people were shot in five multiple-injury shootings, including a 17-year-old who died after being shot in the face. An 11-year-old boy, a 13-year-old boy, and a 14-year-old girl were also hit over the course of the weekend’s bloodbath. Mt. Sinai’s emergency room shut down for several hours due to the overload of bodies; in May, the entire hospital went into lockdown following a virtual riot in its lobby among gangbangers, reported Tribune columnist John Kass.

Meantime, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and Illinois attorney general Lisa Madigan recently celebrated the issuance of a 232-page draft consent decree for the Chicago Police Department, possibly the longest police consent decree ever written. Among numerous other red-tape-generating provisions, it requires the CPD to revise its protocols regarding “transgender, intersex, and gender non-conforming individuals,” to make sure that the CPD policies properly define these terms and that officers address intersex, transgender, and the gender non-conforming with the “names, pronouns and titles of respect appropriate to that individual’s gender.” Last Thursday, a so-called anti-violence march shut down Lake Shore Drive to demand that the CPD hire more black officers and that City Hall spend more on social programs in the black community. Few voices, in other words, are tackling the actual cause of Chicago’s violence: the breakdown of the black family structure and a demoralized police department...

More.

Kendall Jenner of the Day

At Drunken Stepfather:

While Kendall, the one they positioned as high fashion to cover all their bases, cuz she’s tall and skinny, is equally as bad as the rest of them for the grand scheme of society, but people still like using her for their bullshit, and I guess she’s gotta catch up to Kylie’s make-up fortune, seeing as she’s the hot one…so she’s out there with her tits everywhere, nipples everywhere…

Trump Administration Revives Tough Sanctions on Iran

Good.

At LAT, "Trump administration reviving tough sanctions on Iran in effort to replace nuclear pact":

The Trump administration Monday announced it is reimposing harsh economic sanctions on Tehran as part of a strategy to replace the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with what it hopes will be a stronger agreement to curb the Islamic Republic’s ability to build a nuclear bomb.

The sanctions will target numerous areas of Iranian economic activity, including the automotive and precious metals industries. They go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, senior administration officials said.

In a statement Monday, President Trump called the 2015 pact “a horrible, one-sided deal, [that] failed to achieve the fundamental objective of blocking all paths to an Iranian nuclear bomb, and it threw a lifeline of cash to a murderous dictatorship that has continued to spread bloodshed, violence, and chaos.”

Supporters of the deal say that, while flawed, it has successfully prevented Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon in the medium term. United Nations inspectors, whom Iran agreed to admit regularly, say Iran has largely complied with the deal's restrictions.

The revived sanctions ban most transactions with Iran’s central bank; its network of ports and insurance companies; the purchase of Iranian sovereign debt; and trade in gold, graphite, aluminum and other precious metals.

The hard-fought Iran nuclear deal, signed by the U.S. with China, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany and France, required Iran to dismantle its nuclear-production infrastructure, mothballing centrifuges used to enrich uranium, disabling its plutonium-producing heavy-water reactor and getting rid of nearly its entire stockpile of enriched uranium.

In exchange, crippling U.N. sanctions on Iran were eased and billions of dollars in Iranian assets were unfrozen and returned. Tehran was allowed to rejoin the world economy, trading oil and participating in financial markets.

But Trump disdained the deal, saying it did not do enough to curb Iran’s other “malign behavior,” including support for militant groups in the region and repression of domestic opposition.

In May, Trump withdrew from the deal, despite intense lobbying from Europe not to do so. Europeans and others said they will attempt to keep the deal alive, but they risk being penalized by Washington if their companies continue to do business with Iran.

“Individuals or entities that fail to wind down activities with Iran risk severe consequences,” Trump warned Monday. “We urge all nations to take such steps to make clear that the Iranian regime faces a choice: either change its threatening, destabilizing behavior and reintegrate with the global economy, or continue down a path of economic isolation.”

Administration officials, who briefed reporters Monday on condition of anonymity, rejected the criticism that the revived U.S. sanctions will be less effective than the earlier Obama-era package because other key world leaders like China and the European Union are not onboard...

I don't believe Iran "largely complied" with the agreement. There was no independent outside verification procedures. Iran could cheat.

But keep reading.

And see the Times of Israel, from last month, "Seized archive shows Iran nuke project was larger than thought, had foreign help: Israel showcases to US reporters parts of trove Mossad spirited out of Tehran; 'These guys were working on nuclear bombs,' confirms ex-IAEA inspector on seeing the material.

British Fashion Model Iskra Lawrence

At Taxi Driver, "Fashion Model Iskra Lawrence in White T-Shirt."

Bob Goff, Everybody, Always

I'm picking up a copy for my wife, as an anniversary present.

So good.

At Amazon, Bob Goff, Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People.