Freewater Diving Champion Natalia Molchanova Presumed Dead

Oh, this is horrible.

At the Mirror UK, "Natalia Molchanova: Freewater diving champion missing presumed dead following practice session in Ibiza."

And at the Heavy, "Natalia Molchanova Missing: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know."

Dennis Prager on the Nuclear Agreement Between the United States and Iran

He's the best.

Watch, via Prager University, "The Iran Nuclear Deal."

Video Shows the Beginning of Saudi-Led Coalition's Ground War in Yemen

It's from Russia Today, via Foreign Policy.

Watch: "Yemen: Hundreds of Saudi tanks roll out of Aden to bolster Hadi loyalists."

University of New Hampshire's Idiotic Bias Free Language Guide

From Ezra Levant, at Rebel Media.

And see College Insurrection, "U. New Hampshire Language Guide Says the Word ‘American’ is Problematic," and "University of New Hampshire Drops Language Bias Guide."

New Emily Ratajkowski Photo Shoot by Mario Testino

At London's Daily Mail, "‘I was having a lot of fun as a sexual person’: Emily Ratajkowski displays her ample assets in racy GQ shoot as she talks men, nudity and THAT Blurred Lines video."

And at GQ UK, "Instagram's It-girl Emily Ratajkowski on the celebrity iCloud hack and Blurred Lines' similarities to Marvin Gaye."

Plus, watch the video, "Instagram's It-girl Emily Ratajkowski Shot by Mario Testino."

Vans Skateboarding Final Highlights at Huntington Beach U.S. Open of Surfing

This is way cool, although I don't know how these cats can skate without any safety equipment, man.

Outrage as City of Huntington Park Appoints Two Illegal Aliens to Civic Commissions (VIDEO)

The approving hard-copy headline at this Los Angeles Times report reads, "Huntington Park Charts Bold Path for Immigrants."

But actually, it's just one more example of how California has metastasized into one big sanctuary-state monstrosity.

At Twitchy, "Wait, wut? Illegal immigrants appointed to city council in Huntington Park, Calif."

And at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Tempers Flare When Huntington Park Appoints 2 Undocumented Immigrants to City Commissions."

Northern California Rocky Fire Continues to Grow, Threatens Homes

At the Sacramento Bee, "In blaze near Clear Lake, strategy calls for fighting fire with fire":

MIDDLETOWN - Using fire to fight fire, crews ignited controlled burns Monday to sear brush from the path of a ravenous blaze near Clearlake that has devoured more than 62,000 acres of woodlands and forced thousands of residents to flee.

The Rocky fire, spanning parts of Lake, Colusa and Yolo counties, is the largest and most challenging of 20 active wildfires in California. Many broke out amid a week of scorching temperatures and lightning storms that ignited more than 300 blazes in numerous counties.

On Monday, fire officials said the Rocky fire still threatened more than 5,000 houses. Its unpredictability has forced authorities to issue mandatory or advisory evacuation notices for more than 13,000 residents. Twenty-four houses and 26 outbuildings have been destroyed.

Residents of the Lake County community of Spring Valley were the latest to be evacuated, with officials knocking on doors late Sunday.

Pat and Barbara Jiron grabbed important documents, treasured belongings and their beloved Chihuahuas, Little Bear and Coko, and drove to Middletown High School, where the American Red Cross had opened a shelter.

On Monday, as Pat Jiron, 77, worked on a few crossword puzzles and Barbara Jiron, 67, held a book in her lap, they reflected on the adrenaline they felt in escaping the fire.

“We drove up to the top of a hill and could see flames shooting 20, 30, 40 feet high in several spots,” Pat Jiron said. “It was so black – like a thunderhead.”

Firefighting helicopters hovered overhead as he spoke a day later. He looked afar at a growing plume of gray smoke and said, “Oh, God, that doesn’t look good.”

The Rocky fire, which began Wednesday afternoon east of the Lake County town of Lower Lake, has forced the closure of a major intrastate connector, Highway 20 between Interstate 5 in Williams and Highway 53 in Lake County.

On Monday afternoon, several spot fires leaped Highway 20 near the Walker Ridge area of Colusa County as a vast deployment of firefighters and materiel responded. “We’re working feverishly to contain it to that area,” said Steve Swindle, a Ventura County fire official acting as a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

As Cal Fire officials said the blaze was only 12 percent contained Monday, spokesman Daniel Berlant said crews were creating dozens of backfires in the hopes of destroying fuel in the path of the blaze “so the punch of the fire is slowed down enough to allow our crews to get in there and for our air tankers to drop retardant and water.”

Keep reading at that top link.

Father of 9-Year-Old Bat Boy Kaiser Carlile Speaks to Media (VIDEO)

An unbelievably sad story, at the Wichita Eagle, "Chad Carlile spoke about his son Kaiser during a press conference on Monday."

Also, "Kaiser Carlile was the spark plug behind Liberal Bee Jays baseball."

And at Memeorandum, "NBC World Series suspends use of bat boys after death of Kaiser Carlile."

Plus, at KWCH 12 News Wichita, "Teammates remember bat boy killed in on-field accident: Players rallying around Carlile family."

At 26 Percent, Donald Trump Holds 2-to-1 Lead Over Jeb Bush in Latest Monmouth University Poll

Jeez, he's got a 2-to-1 margin over his closest rivals.

Some experts are conceding that Trump could win the nomination.

At Monmouth's page, "NATIONAL: TRUMP WIDENS LEAD: GOP voters prefer two split-field debates over a “Top Ten”":

West Long Branch, NJ – Donald Trump has widened his national lead in the latest Monmouth University Poll of Republican voters and now holds a more than 2-to-1 advantage over his nearest rivals, Jeb Bush and Scott Walker. The poll also found that few GOP voters like the idea of a “Top Ten” debate, with many preferring back-to-back debates with the field randomly split in half.

When Republicans and Republican-leaning voters are asked who they would support for the GOP nomination for president, Donald Trump leads the pack at 26%, with Jeb Bush (12%) and Scott Walker (11%) following behind. The remainder of the “top ten” includes Ted Cruz (6%), Mike Huckabee (6%), Ben Carson (5%), Chris Christie (4%), Rand Paul (4%), Marco Rubio (4%), and John Kasich (3%). Carly Fiorina and Rick Perry each earn 2% and Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, Lindsey Graham, George Pataki, and Jim Gilmore each get 1% or less. Another 10% of GOP voters say they still are unsure who they will support for the party’s nomination.

Compared to the Monmouth University Poll released three weeks ago, Trump’s support has increased by 13 points. Walker’s support has increased by 4, while Bush and Cruz have decreased by 3 points. No other candidate’s support has changed by more than 2 percentage points, but the undecidedvote went down by 8 points...

More.

Also at Politico, "With debate looming, Trump has huge lead in new poll."

Deals on Girls and Boys Fashion

At Amazon, Shop Fashion - Girls' Clothing.

And Shop Fashion - Boys' Clothing.

Plus, I've finished Bruce Levine's, Fall of the House of Dixie, and as noted, I'm starting Robert O'Connell's, Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman.

And thanks again for shopping through my Amazon links.

Enjoy your summer reading!

Ronda Rousey's Fear of Fighting

Well, she sure didn't seem so afraid on Saturday night.

See the Independent UK, "Ronda Rousey used jibe about her father's suicide to defeat Bethe Correia."

And here's a knockout GIF, "FOR RODDY PIPER. ROWDY RONDA KO IN 34 SECONDS! #UFC190."

And watch, at Sports Illustrated:

Joe Biden Said to Be Taking New Look at Presidential Run

There's a lot of buzz on a potential Joe Biden bid for the Democrat nomination.

But we'll see. We'll see.

At Politico, "Hillary Clinton backers skeptical of Joe Biden run."

And at WaPo, "Sorry, folks: Joe Biden is not running for president."

Still more at the Atlantic, "The 2016 U.S. Presidential Race: A Cheat Sheet."

L.A. Supervisors Call to Ban Raves After Two Women OD at HARD Music Summer Festival in Pomona (VIDEO)

The HARD website is here.

And at KTLA News 5 Los Angeles, "Festival in Pomona Spark Debate Over Drug Use at Raves."

Also, at the Los Angeles Times, "Suspected overdose deaths at rave spark call for ban":

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors should consider a temporary ban on raves on county property after the suspected overdose deaths of two young women who collapsed at the Hard Summer music festival at the Los Angeles County fairgrounds, Supervisor Hilda Solis said Monday.

Solis said she will ask the board Tuesday to explore the prohibition until a full investigation into the raves can be done.

While there have been fewer raves in Los Angeles since a series of drug-related problems at events at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the events continue in arenas outside the city where they still draw big crowds.

Both women -- one 18, the other 19 -- were found unresponsive Saturday at the Fairplex in Pomona, which is managed by the nonprofit Los Angeles County Fair Assn. on land mostly owned by Los Angeles County government.

Los Angeles County Supervisors Michael D. Antonovich and Solis said Sunday that they will ask for a full probe to see if the event was properly managed to ensure the safety of patrons.

"I am very concerned about these details and will request a full investigation,” Solis, whose Eastside district includes Pomona, said through a spokeswoman.

The annual two-day Hard Summer musical festival has grown in recent years. Last year, attendance was 40,000 people per day; this year’s event expanded to 65,000 a day. It is considered the biggest music festival of its kind in Los Angeles County. Hard has another event at the Fairplex on Sept. 10.


Last year, 19-year-old Emily Tran of Anaheim was rushed to a South El Monte hospital from the Hard Summer music festival held at Whittier Narrows Recreation Area, a Los Angeles County-managed park. Tran died from acute intoxication of Ecstasy, according to coroner’s officials.

There has been much debate about whether public agencies should rent out space for raves, given the drug problems.

When raves were held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Sports Arena, drug overdoses spiked so much that local emergency rooms were overwhelmed with severely ill attendees, and emergency room doctors urged that such concerts end there. Los Angeles police warned that raves invite widespread Ecstasy use.

A Los Angeles Times investigation in 2013 found that at least 14 people who attended raves run by two major Los Angeles-based rave organizers, Insomniac Inc. and Go Ventures Inc., died from overdoses or in drug-related incidents since 2006.

Since then, five more have died in drug-related incidents, including a UC Irvine graduate, Nicholas Austin Tom, 24, of San Francisco, who collapsed at Insomniac’s Electric Daisy Carnival at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in June.

A sixth person, John Hoang Dinh Vo, 22, a UC Irvine biology senior, died in March after collapsing at Insomniac’s Beyond Wonderland rave at the San Manuel Amphitheater, a venue owned by the San Bernardino County government. The coroner has not yet released a cause of death for him.

Beverly Hills-based Live Nation Entertainment, one of the world’s largest concert and ticketing conglomerates, purchased Los Angeles-based Hard Events in 2012. It did not respond to inquiries about the deaths Sunday.

Fairplex officials said they had prepared for the rave but did not provide specifics....

Both women were stricken Saturday afternoon just minutes apart, just before 5 p.m., county fire inspector David Dantic said.

The 18-year-old was rushed to San Dimas Community Hospital and pronounced dead at 6:04 p.m., and the 19-year-old was sent to Pomona Valley Medical Center and declared dead at 8:40 p.m. Lt. Fred Corral, a coroner’s official, called the deaths “apparent drug overdoses” and said autopsies will be conducted in the next few days.

Officials were still working to notify the families of the women. Their names were not released Sunday.

During the first day of the rave, 32 people were arrested, the majority on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly, said Pomona Police Lt. Hector Rodriguez. On Sunday, by 6 p.m., an additional 13 had been arrested, he said.

The deaths stunned some ravegoers, though many said drugs are fairly common at the event.

Ecstasy, an illegal hallucinogen, enhances the effect of the beat-heavy music and pulsing lights of raves, and is tied to rave culture. The drug is commonly seen as harmless, but doctors say it is dangerous and can cause body temperatures to soar to 108 degrees, causing organ failure, coma and death.

“I am surprised. It is a little shocking when anyone dies. ... But people do drugs out here,” said Jackie Diaz, 19, of Irvine.

Well, people are going to die. That's the culture we have now. Permissiveness and licentiousness, and easy access to drugs. People will die, more people, and younger people.

Patrick Moore: Why I Left Greenpeace

Outstanding!

From Prager University:

States Should Shun the EPA’s New Power Mandate

From Hal Quinn and Peter Glaser, at WSJ:

On Monday President Obama is announcing the final version of his Clean Power Plan, the carbon-emission rules for power plants to secure his climate-change legacy. The plan is designed to hobble electricity generators much as the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2012 rule to reduce mercury and other emissions has harmed the coal industry.

Fortunately for consumers, on June 29 the Supreme Court slapped down the agency’s 2012 rule. In Michigan v. EPA, the court said the agency failed its legal obligation to compare the cost of its mercury standards with the benefits.

Reckless disregard for costs has also guided the agency’s Clean Power Plan. The White House promises Monday’s rule will offer more flexibility to meet emissions targets than an earlier draft, but the targets may be even more difficult to meet. That will force rate payers into steeper cost increases, and concessions the EPA makes to some states and industries will come at the expense of others.

If the EPA succeeds, Americans will be paying for decades. NERA Economic Consulting estimates that the Clean Power Plan will cost $366 billion and bring double-digit electricity-rate increases to 43 states. Regulators including the North American Electric Reliability Corporation warn that the plan could weaken the reliability of the national electric grid by forcing many power plants to close well before new ones can be built. Yet even the administration admits that the EPA plan will have only a trivial impact on the climate.

The Clean Power Plan gives each state an emissions budget and an ultimatum: Give us a plan to cut your carbon emissions using our assumptions about energy-efficiency improvements, green-energy construction, etc.—or we will impose a federal plan on your state. Never mind that most states have objected to the EPA plan.

Governors thus face a dilemma: Accept the EPA’s invitation by developing a state plan and open their states to lawsuits for any perceived breach, or decline to cooperate and take their chances with a federal plan...

Still more.

Baltimore Reports 45 Homicides for July, Deadliest Month of 2015, and August Kicks Off with More Violence (VIDEO)

And here I thought #BlackLivesMatter?

At CBS News Baltimore:

Mary Nichols, Chair of State Air Resources Board, Pushes to Eliminate Gasoline-Powered Cars in California

Another Marxist-collectivist left-wing nutjob working to destroy life as we know it in California.

I don't know how anyone can live in this state anymore. I might have to retire early and get the hell out of here, sheesh.

At Bloomberg, "California Has a Plan to End the Auto Industry as We Know It":

Sergio Marchionne had a funny thing to say about the $32,500 battery-powered Fiat 500e that his company markets in California as “eco-chic.” “I hope you don’t buy it,” he told his audience at a think tank in Washington in May 2014. He said he loses $14,000 on every 500e he sells and only produces the cars because state rules re­quire it. Marchionne, who took over the bailed-out Chrysler in 2009 to form Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, warned that if all he could sell were electric vehicles, he would be right back looking for another govern­ment rescue.

So who’s forcing Marchionne and all the other major automakers to sell mostly money-losing electric vehicles? More than any other person, it’s Mary Nichols. She’s run the California Air Resources Board since 2007, championing the state’s zero-emission-vehicle quotas and backing Pres­ident Barack Obama’s national mandate to double average fuel economy to 55 miles per gallon by 2025. She was chairman of the state air regulator once before, a generation ago, and cleaning up the famously smoggy Los Angeles skies is just one accomplish­ment in a four-decade career.

Nichols really does intend to force au­tomakers to eventually sell nothing but electrics. In an interview in June at her agency’s heavy-duty-truck laboratory in downtown Los Angeles, it becomes clear that Nichols, at age 70, is pushing regula­tions today that could by midcentury all but banish the internal combustion engine from California’s famous highways. “If we’re going to get our transportation system off petroleum,” she says, “we’ve got to get people used to a zero-emissions world, not just a little-bit-better version of the world they have now.”

In that speech in Washington, Mar­chionne was talking up the little-bit-better option. He touted the improved efficiency to be wrung from traditional engines and gasoline-electric hybrids. But Nichols isn’t scared of auto executives and has never ac­cepted their vision of what’s possible. (Gen­eral Motors said catalytic converters, an early advance in tailpipe pollution control that Nichols promoted in the 1970s, could kill the company. They’re commonplace today, and GM’s not dead yet.)

Even if most people outside California have never heard of Mary Nichols, she’s the world’s most influential automotive regu­lator, says Levi Tillemann, author of The Great Race, a book on the future of automo­bile technology. “Under her leadership, the Air Resources Board has been the driving force for electrification,” Tillemann says.

Nichols, who drives a tiny electric Honda Fit, acts as if she’s an unstoppable force. California’s goals for the adoption of elec­tric vehicle technology are the most strin­gent in the nation, but Nichols thinks they need to be even tougher. Regulations on the books in California, set in 2012, require that 2.7 percent of new cars sold in the state this year be, in the regulatory jargon, ZEVs. These are defined as battery-only or fuel-cell cars, and plug-in hybrids. The quota rises every year starting in 2018 and reaches 22 percent in 2025. Nichols wants 100 percent of the new vehicles sold to be zero- or almost-zero-emissions by 2030, in part through greater use of low-carbon fuels that she’s also promoting.

The 2030 target is what’s needed to meet Governor Jerry Brown’s goal, set in an ex­ecutive order, of an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of the century, Nichols says. The conven­tional internal combustion engine needs to be off the road by 2050 and, since cars last many years, on its way out of new-car showrooms around 2030...

Still more.

Most Californians Link Climate Change, Drought; Split is Partisan

Leftists are drunk with climate change hysteria.

It's a psychotic break with reality.

At the San Francisco Chronicle:

SACRAMENTO — Nearly two-thirds of Californians say global warming is contributing to the state’s drought, but there’s a distinct partisan divide, according to a survey released Wednesday.

Seventy-eight percent of Democrats said global warming has contributed to the four-year drought, while 62 percent of Republicans said it has not, according to the poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

Overall, 64 percent of respondents see a link between a changing world climate and a dried-up California, the survey said.

The blue-red divide doesn’t apply just to the drought, the poll found. Asked when the effects of global warming will become apparent, nearly a third of Republicans said never. Just 3 percent of Democrats and 7 percent of independents agreed.

“There has been a very strong partisan divide among several of the last surveys (on global warming), and that continues this year,” said Mark Baldassare, president of PPIC. “That is driven by the national discussion around climate change.”

The divide was also apparent among Californians who say it’s very important for the state to pass regulations and invest in efforts to combat the effects of global warming, such as flooding and wildfires. Statewide, 61 percent of those surveyed said it was very important, but only a minority of Republicans thought so. Among Democrats, the total was 77 percent.

When it comes to drought-fighting measures that hit closer to home, the survey found strong support: More than four-fifths of respondents said Gov. Jerry Brown’s order for a 25 percent cut in statewide water usage was just right or not tough enough.

On the other hand, people are a bit fuzzy on the details of what they’re supposed to do. The state’s order requires communities to cut their 2013 water usage by anywhere from 4 to 36 percent, but nearly two-thirds of respondents told pollsters they didn’t know how much their area was being asked to save.

“That struck me as a big number,” Baldassare said. “If you are asking people to be part of the solution, they need to know what you are asking of them. Many Californians don’t know.”

Manager Mike Scioscia Says Angels Can Turn Things Around After Losing 9 of Last 10 Games

They better turn things around.

It's looking like one of the worst post-All Star Game meltdowns in history.

At the O.C. Register, "Scioscia believes Angels can 'turn the page' on current streak."

And watch, from MLB, "8/2/15: Andre Ethier leads Dodgers to sweep Angels in walk-off win."