Rayne Ivanushka

At Egotastic!, "RAYNE IVANUSHKA BRONZED POOLSIDE TREATS!"

She's on Instagram as well.

Here's the Video of That Charlotte McKinney Photo Shoot for Galore Magazine

I blogged Ms. McKinney here, "Charlotte McKinney Photo Shoot for Galore Magazine."

And watch the video, which must have come out sometime afterwards, "Charlotte McKinney for Galore Mag."

Scott Walker at Iowa State Fair: 'I am not intimidated...' (VIDEO)

Here's the headline at Politico, via Memeorandum, "Scott Walker tries to make hay out of heckling incident."

Watch, "Scott Walker to Protester: 'I Am Not Intimidated'."

Also at Legal Insurrection. "Scott Walker Confronts Union Protesters at Iowa State Fair."

More Migrants Wash Up on Greek Island of Kos (VIDEO)

This really is a huge story, with tremendous implications for Europe. Especially interesting is the horrible treatment the migrants are getting, especially from the Greeks. And across Europe, getting a legal visa is a total long shot. But they keep coming.

Watch, at Euronews, "More Migrants Wash Up on Greek Island of Kos":

From a distance they almost look like holidaymakers.

But Monday morning's dinghy-load brought the latest batch of migrants to wash up on the Greek island of Kos after "crossing from nearby Turkey.

Like many, this particular group said they were from Syria. They want to travel to Hungary...

Illegal Immigrant Brian Omar Hyde Charged in Lehigh Acres Triple Homicide

The suspect's a 19-year-old from Belize, who illegally crossed the Texas-Mexico border, accused of the brutal murders of a 37-year-old woman, her 18-year-old pregnant daughter, and the daughter's 19-year-old boyfriend.

Bill O'Reilly highlighted the case as one more horrendous crime in his campaign for a "Kate's Law" in the U.S. Congress.

This is down in Ft. Myers, Florida.

At Breitbart, "Illegal Immigrant Charged with Murdering 3 Family Members and Unborn Child."

Plus, watch at NBC News 2 Ft. Myers, "Lehigh triple murder suspect in court," and "Lehigh Acres triple murder suspect: Who is Brian Hyde?"

Heinous murders committed by Illegal are happening at almost a daily basis. It's no wonder Donald Trump, whose signature issue is illegal immigration, is surging in the Republican primary campaign.

Public Safety Professor Jordan Omens Disciplined by Miramar College After Carrying Handgun Into Administrative Meeting

Hmm... I don't know.

This guy might be over the line. He unholstered his weapon and placed it on the table facing the district administration. He's a cop, yeah. But that's gotta be provocative.

But then, administrators themselves may have overreacted.

At the San Diego Union-Tribune, "Professor takes gun to meeting, gets disciplined."

'Route 29 Batman' Killed When Hit by Motorist After Car Breaks Down on Interstate 70 (VIDEO)

Sad.

You never know when you're going to go, but for one thing, if you pull over on the highway, you've got to steer way away from traffic coming up from behind.

At the Washington Post, "Route 29 Batman is killed after his Batmobile breaks down along a Md. highway."

And at CBS News 13 Baltimore, "'Baltimore Batman' Fatally Struck By Car Off I-70."

Chelan Fires in Central Washington Destroy More Than 50 Structures

The heat wave has hit all across the Western United States, and the wildfires are out of control in Central Washington.

At the Seattle Times, "Chelan blazes: 900 firefighters, 100,000 acres, no end in sight."

And at KXLY News 4 Spokane:



RELATED: At the Boston Herald, "Western wildfires: Wind, heat, dry land fueling large blazes" (autoplay video warning).

Tony Alva on the Peaceful Warrior Way

I met up with Tony Alva and Christian Hosoi at the Bomb in a Bowl fingerboarding art show in Los Angeles, back in December 2013. It was the highlight of my son's brief fingerboarding career, heh.

I hadn't seen Tony in years, and frankly he seemed way more subdued. Somewhere, on Facebook I think, I'd read something about him overcoming substance abuse. Lord knows there was plenty of that back in the '70s and '80s, but I guess Tony was having some really difficult times.

This is all guesswork, since I haven't spent time with these guys lately. But he talks about it at this video clip from Vans Off the Wall, "Pass the Bucket with Tony Alva: Considered to be one of the the most influential skateboarders of all time, Tony Alva, an original Z-Boy, hit a bottom 4 years ago battling drug addiction and alcoholism."

The video's actually from 2007, so again, I can't confirm where Tony is right now with his life or recovery. I do know that he is perhaps the purest skateboarder ever, and thank goodness he's doing alright. Skated many times with him back in the day. And oh those were the days.

Watch that video. It's good.

Academic Fascism

From Walter Williams, at FrontPage Magazine, "The leftist cancer on our society -- funded by our own tax dollars":

George Orwell said, "There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them." If one wants to discover the truth of Orwell's statement, he need only step upon most college campuses.

Faculty leaders of the University of California consider certain statements racism and feel they should not be used in class. They call it micro-aggression. To them, micro-aggressive racist statements are: "America is the land of opportunity." That is seen as perpetuating the myth of meritocracy. "There is only one race, the human race." Such a statement is seen as denying the individual as a racial/cultural being. "I believe the most qualified person should get the job." That's "racist" because it gives the impression that "people of color are given extra unfair benefits because of their race."

These expressions don't exhaust the list of micro-aggressions. Other seemingly innocuous statements deemed unacceptable are: "Everyone can succeed in this society, if they work hard enough," "When I look at you, I don't see color," or "Affirmative action is racist." Perhaps worst of all is, "Where are you from or where were you born?" For more of this, see a document released by The College Fix (http://tinyurl.com/ne8ckqn) titled "Diversity in the Classroom," UCLA Diversity and Faculty Development.

This micro-aggression nonsense, called micro-totalitarianism by my colleague Dr. Thomas Sowell (http://tinyurl.com/nxulxc), is nothing less than an attack on free speech. From the Nazis to the Stalinists, tyrants have always started out supporting free speech, and why is easy to understand. Speech is vital for the realization of their goals of command, control and confiscation. Free speech is a basic tool for indoctrination, propagandizing, proselytization. Once the leftists gain control, as they have at many universities, free speech becomes a liability and must be suppressed. This is increasingly the case on university campuses...

Keep reading.

College campuses are the beachheads of Marxist radical politicization and agitation. It's going to take a long time to take them back, but it can happen. Folks need to realize this is war.

#Angels Have Lost 17 of Last 23 Games, and Went 1-6 on Latest Road Trip

It's depressing.

The Angels were the hottest time in baseball before the All-Star break. Now it looks like they're heading into an epic post-All Star break collapse.

Last night Kole Calhoun hit a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning, but Huston "Blown Save" Street" couldn't close the deal. Former Angel Kendrys Morales hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the tenth.

Angel Manager Mike Scioscia needs to do something --- anything! --- to get this team back on track. This is ridiculous.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Angels fall to Royals, 4-3, in 10 innings, finish trip 1-6."

Tania Maria Quinones

At Playboy, "Tania Maria Quinones Works It for Playboy (VIDEO)."

At Least 19 Dead as Massive Terror Bombing Rocks Tourist Area in Bangkok (VIDEO)

So far, no one's claimed responsibility, although Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian al-Qaeda affiliate, claimed credit for the 2002 Bali nightclub attack that killed 202.

Watch, at CNN, "Bangkok explosion caught on camera."

Also, at London's Daily Mail, "Devastating Bangkok blast caught on camera: At least 27 dead and dozens injured as motorbike bomber targets tourists at shrine."

The Telegraph UK is reporting 19 people were killed, per police reports, "Bangkok bomb: Explosion close to Erawan shrine 'kills at least 19 people' including three foreigners - latest updates":

Reports of at least 81 injured and 19 killed after a bomb exploded at the Ratchaprasong intersection in central Bangkok. Follow the latest developments here.

More at the Washington Post, "Bomb explodes near busy Bangkok crossroads; at least 19 killed."

U.S. on Pace for Most Highway Traffic Deaths Since 2007

Here's former NTSB chairwoman Deborah Hersman, at CBS This Morning:



FLASHBACK: "Hey, Check Out NTSB's Smokin' Hottie Deborah Hersman."

Monday Afternoon Roundup of the Roundups

Okay, let's get the ball rolling with the Other McCain, "Feminism’s Radical Transvaluation."

He's working on a second edition of his book, but the first edition is going to be collector's item. Get yours here: Sex Trouble: Essays on Radical Feminism and the War Against Human Nature.

Also at the Other McCain, from Wombat Socho, "FMJRA 2.0: Automotive High School."

Now, at Maggie's Farm, "Monday morning links." Also, "Saturday morning links."

More, form Doug Ross at Director Blue, "Larwyn's Linx: The real email question: Did Hillary Clinton sell US secrets?"

Also at Director Blue, "The Top 300 Conservative Websites, August 2015." I've dropped down to 231 in the rankings, for reasons of which I'm not sure. More competition, for one thing, but then Memeorandum rarely links me anymore (I've fallen out of their algorithm), which means I don't get the kind of residual linkage as the old days, say 2008. Besides that, I have no clue. Rule 5 blogging's a niche market, heh.

In any case, at Gateway Pundit, "Environmentalists Post Photo of Scott Walker’s Decapitated Head on Facebook – Think It’s Cute."

And at Mad Jewess Woman, "Hillary Clinton’s Facelifts Will NEVER Change Her Evil Heart."

At Theo Spark's, "Lacking Energy...", and "Hamilton Air Show..."

And at Cold Fury, "I love the smell of desperation in the morning":

Donald Trump went back and forth with NBC host Chuck Todd on Sunday in one of his most combative interviews since announcing his presidential candidacy earlier this summer..."

More at Drunken Stepfather, "CAMILLA FORCHHAMMER CHRISTENSEN FOR LOVE AND LEMONS OF THE DAY."

From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "ACTUAL CNN HEADLINE: ‘HILLARY CLINTON REVIVED AMERICA’S REPUTATION IN WORLD’."

Also at Free Beacon, "Tom Steyer-Funded California Green Jobs Measure Creates Less Than One-Tenth of Promised Jobs."

At Knuckledraggin', "Labrador Retriever – the most destructive breed ever."

From Warner Todd Huston, at Right Wing News, "Investigators Find 60 More Classified Emails Illegally sent From Hillary’s Private Email Server."

And at the College Fix, "College accused of racism for hanging a no-tolerance sign against ‘sagging pants’."

Okay, more blogging throughout the day.

Migrant Crisis Threatens European Union's Cohesion

This is exactly what I blogged about the other day, "Migrant Crisis Raises Existential Questions for Europe."

And now at the Wall Street Journal, "The Migrant Threat to EU Cohesion":

Just as the European Union appears to have resolved one crisis, it risks being overwhelmed by another.

Last week eurozone finance ministers approved Greece’s new bailout, a major step toward ending a crisis that had threatened to tear apart Europe’s single currency. Meanwhile, the European Commission was outlining its latest efforts to address what it called the greatest migration crisis Europe has faced since the end of World War II.

Few believe the measures announced match the scale of the challenge. The EU border agency Frontex estimates that more than 100,000 migrants crossed into the EU in July alone, compared with 270,000 in the whole of 2014.

More than 50,000 turned up in Greece in July, more than in the whole of 2014. Many of them have been washing up in small inflatable boats on four small Greek islands. Similar numbers have been making their way to Italy from Libya, while 35,000 have arrived in July alone at the Hungarian border with Serbia.

Many are fleeing violence in Syria, Afghanistan and Libya; others are traveling from Iraq, Pakistan and the Horn of Africa in search of a better life. Most have paid large sums to traffickers who brazenly advertise their services via social media.

Once in Europe, many are intent on making their way to Northern Europe, where jobs are more plentiful. Germany reckons up to 600,000 migrants have arrived this year. Meanwhile, large numbers have congregated around the French port of Calais, where they have besieged the Channel Tunnel, hoping to smuggle themselves into the U.K.

The migration crisis may yet prove a bigger test of European cohesion than the euro crisis. Both pose fundamental questions about where the balance lies between national responsibility and intra-government solidarity. But whereas the Greek crisis was ultimately a dispute over money, the migration crisis concerns visceral questions of culture and identity.

It also has revealed serious deficiencies in the EU’s institutional and legal setup and exposed rifts between Northern and Southern Europe.

The problem is that national governments have responsibility for controlling their borders and deciding on whom to grant citizenship and asylum. But most countries have abolished border controls within the EU, allowing those inside to move freely between the member states.

That makes each country’s border and migration policies a common EU concern. In response, Brussels has put in place harmonized rules on treatment of asylum seekers. But many doubt how rigorously these rules are being applied, particularly in those countries receiving the bulk of the migrants, some of which have been overwhelmed by the scale of the challenge.

Under EU law, those claiming refugee status—as most migrants do—are entitled to be fed and housed while their cases are investigated, an expensive process. For a country such as Greece, in the midst of a deep financial crisis, the drain on resources has been too much, leading to angry scenes at reception centers on the island of Kos.

There, 12,000 migrants have arrived this summer, equivalent to more than a third of its population. Meanwhile, EU rules also say that refugees must be registered and fingerprinted in the country in which they first arrive, which then becomes responsible for housing them until their status is decided.

This system is now in disarray. Richer Northern European countries accuse Southern European countries of failing to keep track of illegal migrants, passing the problem on to them. This summer, France briefly reopened its border post with Italy. Meanwhile, Southern countries say they are unfairly being forced to take responsibility for migrants whose real objective is to head to the richer north.

This makes forging a common response to the crisis extraordinarily difficult.

Faced with harrowing reports of migrants drowning in the Mediterranean earlier this summer, the member states agreed to provide military assistance for search-and-rescue missions and efforts to disrupt smuggler networks off the coast of Italy and in the Aegean Sea. The EU has also handed out €2.4 billion ($2.66 billion) in emergency assistance to member states to help with the cost of managing the crisis. It also says it will use its diplomatic muscle to tackle the problem at source at a summit with leaders of African countries in November.

But when the commission proposed in June that all 28 members of the EU commit to a plan to resettle 20,000 refugees from outside the EU and relocate 40,000 migrants already inside, several countries—including Eastern European countries with no tradition of accepting refugees and richer countries such as the U.K. and Austria where anti-immigrant sentiment is strong—refused to participate. Some EU officials describe this as the darkest moment in EU history...

That's NIMBY politics at the international level. Not-in-my-backyard. You take care of the problem. It's ugly, but it's the way international politics works, and it's interesting that it's the EU system as a whole that's coming up short in response. That's not how institutional theories of cooperation conceptualize problems. Greater integration of states is supposed to facilitate collective action to mutual problems, but the migration crisis shows how self-interest causes collective action failures, and how institutional cohesion breaks down.

It's pretty fascinating.

Still more at the link.

U.S. Boots on the Ground in Iraq?

Lou Dobbs interviews retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Peters, who's not so pleased with the idea of "embedding" a few U.S. ground forces with Iraqi troops.

Watch: "Should the U.S. Consider Putting Boots on the Ground in Iraq?"

Republican Presidential Hopefuls Split on Sending Ground Troops to Middle East

At the San Bernardino County Sun:

ATLANTA --- Republican presidential candidates are split on whether the U.S. should send ground troops to the Middle East to combat Islamic State forces.

And most of those who would commit troops offer few details on their plans.

“I don’t see anybody on our side coming up with a robust plan that truly would destroy” the Islamic State militants, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Graham stands out among Republicans hawks for his specifics. He has called for 20,000 American troops divided between Iraq and Syria.

“You can’t do this through the air,” Graham said.

Yet several other Republicans want to try — or at least not to get mired in the details beyond casting President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as weak and feckless. Clinton is Democrats’ 2016 favorite.

Businessman Donald Trump, who is leading most surveys of likely Republican primary voters, backed into a commitment of ground troops Sunday during a wide-ranging interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Trump said to cripple Islamic State group he would “take away their wealth” by reclaiming oil fields the group has commandeered. When host Chuck Todd told him that would take ground troops, Trump replied, “That’s OK.” But he sidestepped Todd’s reference to the potential number of troops.

On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Ohio Gov. John Kasich blasted the Islamic State group: “All the religions of the world ought to stand up say, ‘You blow up innocent men, women and children and you think you’re going to paradise? There’s something wrong with you. You’re nuts.’”

But on ground troops, Kasich said he would deploy American forces only as part of an international coalition. “I don’t want to go alone,” he said.

The U.S. currently has about 3,500 troops working as trainers and advisers to Iraqi forces, but those Americans are not intended to engage in direct combat.

Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, blasted Obama and Clinton as “inconsistent” in the region. “We’ve done nothing in Syria,” Fiorina said of another country where Islamic State militants have a foothold.

But, she added, “I disagree that we’re at that point where we need to put tens of thousands of boots on the ground.”

Pressed on the question, Fiorina repeated that “the Jordanians, the Saudis, the Kuwaitis, the Kurds and the Egyptians ... know this is their fight” and that they “need leadership resolve, support and material from us.”

Still more.

Amazon Pushes Employees to the Limit — And They Like It!

This is pretty fascinating.

At the New York Times, "Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace":

The company is conducting an experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers to get them to achieve its ever-expanding ambitions.

Read the whole thing at the link.

And then see the puerile, whiny response from Erick "Lumberjack" Loomis, at Lawyers, Gays, and Marriage, "On Amazon."

Jeff Bezos is a visionary businessman. But I've yet to hear that he forces people to work for his company. It's not Bezos but communists like Loomis who are "terrible, awful human beings."

Four Dead as Two Small Planes Crash Into Each Other Near San Diego's Brown Field (VIDEO)

According to reports, it appeared to be a "very violent crash."

At the San Diego Union-Tribune, "4 dead after planes collide near Brown Field."

And watch, at ABC News 10 San Diego, "Four people killed in mid-air collision," and "Aviation safety consultant talks recent plane crashes."