Germany Begins to Feel Backlash Over Migrant Policies

Well, news reports yesterday were talking about how the migrants were welcomed with "open arms."

Maybe those arms aren't so open after all.

At WSJ, "Germany Feels Backlash for Welcoming Migrants":

Praise for Germany’s handling of the thousands of refugees pouring into the country is giving way to domestic and international criticism of Berlin’s open-arms policy.

The criticism, though still muted, could spell trouble for German Chancellor Angela Merkel once the outpouring of sympathy that has greeted the migrants since late last week subsides and Berlin resumes its push to distribute them more broadly across Europe.

The chancellor’s decision on Friday night to let thousands of migrants traveling through Hungary into the country “sends a completely wrong signal in Europe,” Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told public television Saturday. “This must be corrected.”

Leaders of the Christian Social Union, Bavaria’s ruling party and an ally of Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats, unanimously criticized the decision as wrongheaded during a telephone conference on Saturday, Andreas Scheuer, the party’s secretary-general said.

Anti-immigration politicians in Germany, France and the U.K. also assailed the policy, saying that it was pulling even more refugees toward the continent and that German plans to divert some to other countries in Europe should be resisted. By Sunday afternoon, some 13,000 migrants had crossed from Hungary into Austria in the 36 hours since German and Austrian authorities bowed to pressure to grant entry to the crowds of asylum seekers stranded in Hungary.

“A welcoming culture is an expression of naive and illusory thinking,” a spokesman for Alfa, a recently founded opposition party in Germany, said Sunday. “What we need, instead, is realism and a sense of proportion. We shouldn’t go beyond providing the basics for asylum seekers, like food and shelter, because it will attract more people.”

In France, far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, speaking at her party’s annual gathering in Marseille on Sunday, said: “Germany has a heavy responsibility for inciting at the level of the European Union a passive acceptance of this crisis. Germany is probably thinking about its declining demography. It is probably looking to lower salaries again and recruit slaves through mass immigration.”

Germany, where federal police said they expected a total 17,000 migrants to arrive from Hungary over the weekend, was working to distribute them across the country. Officials said about 7,000 migrants arrived in Munich on Saturday, followed by another 6,000 people by Sunday afternoon. He said he expected an additional 4,000 people to arrive by day’s end. In addition, some trains carrying migrants have been redirected to other German cities...

To be fair, German culture has changed. But this migrant episode is indeed a test of how far Germany's come from the nightmare of the World War II years.

Still more.

Swimwear Sensation Jessica Gomes Flaunts Spectacular Body on New Cover of Women's Health Australia

She looks great.

At London's Daily Mail, "Scorching hot: Jessica Gomes flaunts incredible figure in busty black and white bikini on cover of Women's Health."

BONUS: "VIDEO: Jessica Gomes Sexy Swimsuit Outtakes - Sports Illustrated Swimsuit."

Kristen Keogh's Got Your Labor Day Forecast

It might just be a tad warmer tomorrow, but still lovely, in the mid-80s.

At ABC News 10 San Diego:

China Navy Operating Off Coast of Alaska

This was a kind of show-of-force for President Obama, who was in Anchorage for his climate change summit earlier in the week.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Five Chinese Navy Ships Are Operating in Bering Sea off Alaska."

Also, "Chinese Navy Ships Came Within 12 Nautical Miles of US Coast":

Chinese navy ships off Alaska in recent days weren’t just operating in the area for the first time: They also came within 12 nautical miles of the coast, making a rare foray into U.S. territorial waters, according to the Pentagon.

Pentagon officials said late Thursday that the five Chinese navy ships had passed through U.S. territorial waters as they transited the Aleutian Islands, but said they had complied with international law and didn’t do anything threatening.

“This was a legal transit of U.S. territorial seas conducted in accordance with the Law of the Sea Convention,” said Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Bill Urban.

U.S. officials said there was no known official communication to the U.S. from the ships.

The passage was seen as significant as Beijing has long objected to U.S. Navy vessels transiting its territorial waters or operating in international waters just outside.

China’s Defense Ministry confirmed that its navy ships had sailed to the Bering Sea for training after joint exercises with Russia in late August, but said the activity was routine and not aimed at any particular country.

U.S. officials said earlier that they were tracking the five ships in the area, where they hadn’t seen the Chinese navy operating before, but they didn’t say how close the ships had come to U.S. territory.

The foray, just as President Barack Obama was visiting Alaska, threw a fresh spotlight on China’s expanding naval power and ambitions on the eve of a lavish military parade in Beijing. It also came just three weeks before China’s President, Xi Jinping, begins a state visit to the U.S. already clouded by tensions over alleged cyberattacks on the U.S. and China’s island-building in the South China Sea.

The flotilla apparently traveled east from somewhere near Russia and entered the Bering Sea, navigating north of the Aleutian Islands before transiting south, where they undertook the “innocent passage” through U.S. waters between two islands, a defense official said.

That principle allows military ships to transit foreign territorial waters if they don’t conduct threatening activity. The Chinese didn’t give prior notification to the U.S. before doing so, but under international law, they don’t need to.

The Chinese don’t always acknowledge those laws, however, according to U.S. defense reports. For example, Beijing claims that U.S. warships should request permission before making their own “innocent passage” in Chinese territorial waters.

During fiscal years 2012 and 2013, the Pentagon challenged this notion, deploying U.S. naval ships through Chinese territorial waters without notifying Beijing first. According to those reports, the U.S. did not make the same challenge during fiscal 2014. There is no data available for the current fiscal year.

U.S. officials believe China is building a “blue-water” navy capable of operating far from its shores, while also developing missiles and other capabilities designed to prevent the U.S. Navy from intervening in a conflict in Asia.

Many of those capabilities, including a new antiship ballistic missile, were put on display for the first time on Thursday during the parade to mark the surrender of Japanese forces at the end of World War II.

Some U.S. military experts saw the Chinese transit through the Aleutians as a positive step, in that they had adhered to the “innocent passage” principle...

Well, China aspires to be the world's dominant power, the hegemon, and to do so it needs to challenge the U.S. All of this maneuvering off U.S. territory is par for the course. We should be really worried, however, when China begins to deploy more and greater military hardware than our side. We're not at that threshold, yet. See, for example, the U.S. Naval Institute, "Report: Chinese Develop Special "Kill Weapon" to Destroy U.S. Aircraft Carriers." And from just this week, at Free Beacon, "China Shows New intermediate-Range Missile Capable of Targeting Ships."

Orange County Prepares for El Niño

We could have massive flooding over the winter rainy season, or so they say.

At the Orange County Register, "Canyon country already busy preparing for winter storms":

Joanne Hubble, unofficial public information officer for Orange County’s canyon country, is in a field helping locals sort stacks of sandbags, bales of rice plants – not hay, mind you, because horses eat hay – and piles of rebar.

Why rebar? The steel bars go deep into the ground and, hopefully, will hold the makeshift dams when storms hit this winter.

That’s right, when – not if – storms hit, according to meteorologists. In an era of climate change, weather is weird.

While most of the county busies itself with drought, Hubble and her canyon neighbors prepare for an onslaught of rain. Even if you simply live near a slope, warn meteorologists, you should be ready for what some call mudslides...

Keep reading.

But see also, "Are we ready for El Niño?"

Alana Blanchard at the Beach in Maldives

Photos from the Maalifushi luxury resort in the Maldives.

Must be nice, heh.

On Instagram, here and here.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



More at Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES," and Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Roundup..."

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Taken For a Ride."

Susan Sarandon, Far-Left Hollywood Moonbat, Carried Timothy Leary's Ashes in Burning Man Ceremony (VIDEO)

I guess you just gotta giggle at the news.

Susan Sarandon's a freak Hollywood hippy moonbat, heh.

At USA Today, "Susan Sarandon carried LSD guru Timothy Leary's ashes in a Burning Man ceremony":

BLACK ROCK DESERT, Nev. — Timothy Leary, the late father of LSD, was memorialized at Burning Man after a fantastic procession and burning of his ashes in the Black Rock Desert.

It was a spectacle that not even he probably could have imagined, as actress Susan Sarandon led a march with his ashes into a temporary church built as an art installation in the desert for the week-long festival.

The church was scheduled to burn as part of the event on Saturday after the "man", a giant wooden structure, burned.

"I think he'd be so happy. I think he would have loved the chaos (of Burning Man). He would have loved it," said Sarandon, one of Leary's closest friends. "And all these people honoring him with LSD."

When Leary died in 1996, several of his friends, including Sarandon, received some of his ashes. His friends sent most of his ashes to outer space in 1997, but Sarandon kept some.

"When I went to Burning Man last time, that's when I thought I'd bring him back here," Sarandon said.

She described him as a creative man, full of ideas. He was also hopeful for youth and "worshipped women," Sarandon said.

This year, Sarandon worked as part of the building crew for Burning Man artist and Northern California-based photographer Michael Garlington, whose work Sarandon admires greatly.

Known best for his "photo chapel" at Burning Man two years ago, Garlington debuted the "Totem of Confessions" at Burning Man last week.

This year's structure was a gothic cathedral-style piece plastered in Kafkaesque photo collages of animals and people. Much of it was gilded in gold.

On Thursday, dozens of participants were standing in line to see the inside of the 60-foot high structure, which had a confession booth and eerie peephole rooms.

When the parade of people surrounding Leary's ashes came through and separated the crowd, everyone turned to watch.

"I feel so privileged to be here. This is a great opportunity," said Orgon Hunter, who built a Burning Man art piece this year, "High Witness Tower 1963," inspired by Leary's time living in Mexico. "Tim is someone I respect a lot. He was a great thinker, just really great, genius. This would have brought him great joy."

Still more.

And at Vanity Fair, "See Susan Sarandon Take On Burning Man."

President Obama Wins Iran Nuclear Deal in Congress as Senator Barbara Mikulski Votes Yes (VIDEO)

The Iranian media is cheering Barbara Mikulski's vote to approve the Obama administration's treasonous nuclear deal. At Tehran's Press TV, "34th Senate vote in favor of JCPOA gives Obama power to veto rejection by Republicans."

Here's the background on the vote in Congress, at the Washington Post, "Obama secures votes to protect Iran nuclear deal." Mikulski's generally been a reliable pro-Israel vote in the Senate, but she's retiring, and no doubt the White House put the screws in to get her capitulation on this evil gift to the tyrannical regime in Iran.

So, watch Dennis Prager demolish the left's arguments for this monstrosity of an agreement, for Prager University:

Here's More Hot Bella Hadid for Your Summertime Pleasures

Following-up, "Bella Hadid's Sexy GQ Photo Shoot."

Here's more from GQ:



BONUS: Did you know Bella Hadid is Gigi Hadid's sister? Previously at American Power, "Gigi Hadid."

Playboy Playmates During a Hot Summer Day

Well, it's still summer, dang!

Via Playboy, "The last days of summer are leaving so Playboy's Playmates Amanda Cerny, Gemma Lee Farrell, Bryiana Noelle, Kennedy Summers, Shelby Chesnes and Crystal Hefner are making sure your nights always stay hot."

Confederate Flags Raised Again in South Carolina

Well, no doubt the Confederate flag debate has simmered down by now. I've personally disassociated with so-called conservatives who champion that symbol of Southern heritage. I appreciate the sentiments of pride, but not the denial of the flag's uglier symbolism. The only people making the hardline "heritage" argument are Marxists and radical libertarians, not true conservative patriots.

Stogie at Saberpoint's backed off his brusque attacks on dissenters from the Marxist/radical libertarian line. I see his last big post on this was from August 18th, "George Zimmeran's [sic] Painting of the Confederate Flag." (But see also from August 14th, "The Civil War Absolutely Was Not About Slavery: Must-Read Book Tells Why.")

It's a stupid, childish lie that the Civil War wasn't about slavery, as I've shown here repeatedly. And all any half-rational person has to do is read Bruce Levine's magnificent book, The Fall of the House of Dixie: The Civil War and the Social Revolution That Transformed the South.

In any case, because there's always going to be disagreement over this, you'll never see the blatant in-your-face displays of the flag go away, especially in the South, and even in South Carolina, where the murders of the nine black Charleston parishioners will forever be a stain on that state's history.

So, here's the New York Times with a reminder of how that culture endures, with NASCAR.

See, "Confederate Flags Crash Nascar’s Plan for a Homecoming":

Confederate flags crash @NASCAR's plan for a homecoming http://t.co/rJ12sqrIUY pic.twitter.com/10jRw5OS71

— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 6, 2015

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Throwback paint schemes on racecars and retro logos and signs welcomed Nascar fans when they arrived at Darlington Raceway this weekend for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 Sprint Cup race. The marketing campaign was designed to make one of the most storied tracks on the circuit look like the early 1970s all over again.

Fans were more than happy to complete the picture, much to Nascar’s dismay. The Confederate flags they raised on R.V.s across the infield and outside the track dotted the sky above Darlington on Friday morning, as they have for decades here. The Southern 500, after all, was long known for playing “Dixie” as its anthem and used to feature a character named Johnny Reb — a man dressed as a Confederate soldier who stood atop the winning car with a rebel flag.

As those Confederate flags waved once more on Friday, Nascar faced its recurring quandary: How could a sport so closely associated with its Southern roots broaden its appeal nationally without alienating that base?

An insightful and occasionally amusing package of the sports journalism you need today, delivered to your inbox by New York Times reporters and editors.

“I’d say we’re always looking to make sure we’re satisfying our core fans and our long-term fan at the same time as we are growing to a new audience,” Jim Cassidy, Nascar’s senior vice president for racing operations, said Thursday during a telephone interview. “It’s a balance.”

And Darlington Raceway, as much as any track on the circuit, epitomizes the struggle Nascar has faced in trying to find that balance with an event that holds a special place in racing history.

The Southern 500 was first held at Darlington on Labor Day weekend in 1950. For 53 years, it was an iconic stop on the schedule, revered by some as much or more than the Daytona 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 among the most important races of the year. That was until 2004, when Nascar changed the schedule to give the Labor Day weekend date to its sister track in Fontana, Calif., in the coveted Los Angeles market.

The Southern 500 was suddenly gone.

“It’s one of those things: Be careful what you wish for,” said Kyle Petty, the longtime driver who is now an NBC broadcaster. “We wished for a bigger sport, we dreamed of a bigger sport. We dreamed of Chicago and Kansas and Dallas, Tex., and L.A., and we dreamed of those markets when we were running North Wilkesboro and Darlington and Rockingham and Martinsville and places like that.

“And then all of the sudden you have those markets, but there’s a sacrifice to be made to be in those markets. And I think Nascar looked at it and said, let’s change some of this stuff around. I give them credit for changing it at the time to try to make something happen. But I give them huge credit for realizing what we had was just as special and coming back to it.”

Darlington retained one race each season, the date shifting on the schedule several times. The Southern 500 name was brought back in 2009 as well. But it was not until after the California experiment failed and the Labor Day event was shifted to Atlanta for four years that Nascar finally gave Darlington back its Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend this year. It was hard to gauge enthusiasm going into the weekend; the race was not a sellout at the 58,000-seat track.

“I think our great race fans in South Carolina support this racetrack,” said the track president, Chip Wile. “Certainly, we want to make a big splash in our return to Labor Day weekend, and I think we’ll do that.”

But officials are determined not to make a scene at the same time with Confederate flags in clear view during the race broadcast. After all, the Nascar chairman, Brian France, had declared that Confederate flags were no longer welcome at tracks after a mass shooting at a church in Charleston in June. When the series shifted to Daytona in July, track officials came up with an exchange program. They offered American flags to replace the Confederate flags there...

Still more.

UCLA's Josh Rosen: 'The Chosen One' (VIDEO)

The Bruins had a great opening day yesterday.

 At LAT, "Josh Rosen's debut is stellar, UCLA defense staunch in 34-16 win over Virginia," and "UCLA defeats Virginia, 34-16, with Josh Rosen in starring role."

Plus, from Bill Plaschke, "Josh Rosen's debut as UCLA quarterback illuminates why he is the chosen one":

It's only one game. He's only 18. The sample size is small. The season is long. Afterward, his coach understandably attempted to slow the buzz by pushing his outstretched palms downward in a suppressing motion.

"Let's just do this, OK?" pleaded Jim Mora, pushing down, down, down. "OK?"

OK ... not. Forget it. Not gonna work. No amount of rationalizing will pick all those jaws off the Rose Bowl floor. No chunks of common sense will stop the rubbing of eyes, the nudging of neighbors, the emptying of lungs that filled the Arroyo Seco with stunned surprise.

Nothing, it seems, can quiet the roaring hope that freshman quarterback Josh Rosen brought to UCLA football Saturday in his debut, season-opening 34-16 victory over Virginia.

Sorry, coach, but the kid was unbelievable, OK?

Rated as one of the nation's best high school quarterbacks, he exceeded even the wildest dreams of Bruins fans. Everyone figured he would be good. Few had any idea that this quickly, he would be this good.

Rosen completed passes over defenders, around defenders, and occasionally just torched the ball through defenders. He threw while on the run, while falling on his back, and sometimes, splendidly, while just standing 6-feet-4 inches tall in the pocket.

While getting hammered in the stomach, he completed a screen pass that led to the first touchdown. With his team leading by a point, he threw an absolutely perfect 30-yard pass over the middle of the Virginia defense for the second touchdown. Finally, while being thrown to the ground, he found an open 310-pound nose guard on a screen pass for a third touchdown.

"Hit me right between the numbers," chortled Kenny Clark.

He was precise. He was powerful. He was inspirational, slapping hands and backs and telling his teammates, "This game is slower than I thought."

"I heard that and I'm like, 'Oh-kay?"' said receiver Eldridge Massington.

In all, Rosen set the UCLA first-year freshman quarterback record with 28 completions in 35 attempts for 351 yards. He tied the record with three touchdown passes.

His debut was at least equal to the brilliant debut of his predecessor, Brett Hundley, and his aura reminded one of Cade McNown, who led UCLA to 20 consecutive victories in the late 1990s. Rosen might have unkempt blond hair and a scraggly kid mustache, but his swagger is solid.

Sorry, coach, but your own players and coaches couldn't help themselves.

"Sometimes we're looking at each other like, 'OK, how did he do that?' " said Thomas Duarte, who caught that 30-yard touchdown pass in traffic...

Keep reading.

Should Offensive Speech Be Banned?

Of course not, but that doesn't stop the radical left from trying.

Here's Greg Lukianoff, for Prager University:

How Apple is Preparing for the End of the iPhone Affair

Pretty interesting.

At Telegraph UK, "The launch of the iPhone 6s, fourth generation Apple TV and iPad Pro is impending, but it's Apple's battles with the likes of Netflix and Spotify which will prove pivotal to the company's future success..."

Syrian Refugees Are Coming to America — Shoot, Right Here in the O.C.!

If you check this Sooper Mexican post, via Instapundit, it turns out all these Syrian "refugees" aren't as wholesome as the establishment media makes them out to be. See, "JOURNALISM: How Mainstream Media and Social Media Present COMPLETELY Different Views of Syrian Immigrant Crisis."

But hey, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

And you migrants and refugees? No fear thee downtrodden masses the world, the O.C. is opening hearts and homes for you!

At the O.C. Register, "Syrian refugees are coming here, too, and aid groups are getting ready":

As hundreds of thousands of Syrians make their way across Europe, some by foot, local agencies are preparing for some of those people to land here.

“We are expecting a wave of Syrian refugees in Orange County,” said Nahla Kayali, founder and executive director of Access California Services, an Anaheim nonprofit that provides services largely to Muslim refugees and immigrants.

“We don’t know when they will come. But we are getting ready to receive them.”

In the past month, Access California Services has helped at least 30 Syrian refugee families moving to Orange County, providing everything from financial aid and school supplies to mental health services.

Kayali said most of those families spent several years in other countries before receiving refugee status from the United Nations and finding their way here.

Kayali and her staff met Friday to discuss the possibility of helping hundreds of Syrian refugees during the next year, or even within the next few months.

She said the agency might hire more caseworkers and mental health professionals to provide trauma counseling and therapy to help those individuals and families heal, integrate and thrive.

“We’re looking to hire members of the local Syrian community,” Kayali said. “We want people who can be culturally sensitive, understand their situation and speak the same language.”

Since the outbreak of Syria’s civil war in 2011, more than 4 million Syrians have fled abroad. The United Nations has described it as the largest refugee crisis in almost 25 years. In addition, 7.6 million people within Syria have been displaced from their homes.

For several months, Turkey and Jordan have borne much of the impact. But in recent weeks, European nations have been grappling with the issue, dealing with refugees who are trying to flee by land and sea. On Friday, Germany and Austria agreed to accept some refugees who are crowding the Hungarian border.

The stories of tragedy and strife continue to bombard media and social media sites.

Aylan Kurdi, the 3-year-old Syrian Kurdish boy whose lifeless body washed ashore at a Turkish resort, has become the symbol of the refugees’ tragic situation.

Aylan, his brother and their mother drowned during a treacherous journey across the Mediterranean Sea. Their goal was to land in Canada. Only Aylan’s father survived.

Glen Peterson, director of World Relief Garden Grove, said the heart-rending image of Aylan reminded him of families with little children that walk into his office daily.

“I read that the boy’s father had great hopes of finding safety for his wife and two children outside Syria,” he said.

In the past year, Peterson said, he has helped hundreds of families relocate in Orange County from unsettled countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. Peterson said motivation is simple – safety and opportunity for their children.

Although Orange County organizations should start preparing to receive incoming refugees, efforts also should be made to prevent refugees from fleeing the country, said Hussam Ayloush, national chairman of the Syrian American Council.

“We’re working with President (Barack) Obama and the Congress to establish no-fly zones in liberated parts of Syria, to protect civilians from airstrikes,” said Ayloush, who is also director of the Los Angeles branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, based in Anaheim.

“That is one of the main reasons millions of refugees are fleeing the country.“

The Syrian American Council also is working to increase the number of Syrians allowed into the United States as refugees. Currently, the U.S. quota for refugees from all countries has been set at 70,000.

Since the war began in Syria in 2011, only about 1,500 refugees from Syria have been resettled in the United States...

Hey, more Muslims coming to the U.S.? That's right down Obama's alley! They can get in line behind all the Hondurans, Guatemalans, and El Salvadorans ... you know, the vulnerable "unaccompanied minors" we were made to feel sorry for last summer. Well, they're all settled in now, with no pressure on them to go back home, despite leftist claims that these were just temporary refugees with no claims to permanent residency in the U.S.

So hey, rejoice!

No more sad stories like Aylan Kurdi. This is America. Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled jihadis!

Bella Hadid's Sexy GQ Photo Shoot

Here: "Go on set with up-and-coming model Bella Hadid as she sends summer off with a bang."

Kate Moss Goes for Vogue Italia

At Egotastic!, "KATE MOSS ARTSY FOR VOGUE ITALIA."

The Political Establishment's Terrified by Donald Trump's 'Tangible American Nationalism'

I don't know if Noah Rothman's a neoconservative, despite his recent move over to Commentary Magazine, the bastion of neocon opinion and onetime home for writers such as Norman Podhoretz, Irving Kristol, and Nathan Glazer, among others. Norman's son John is the current editor at the magazine.

Rothman started slamming Donald Trump earlier this summer, almost as soon as the frontrunner uttered his words about Mexican illegal alien criminals and rapists. And he's been on a campaign against Trump at the magazine ever since.


I'm reminded of all this by Mark Ellis's post at Pajamas, "Trump for Neocons."

It turns out that the Weekly Standard, the other major neoconservative opinion magazine, founded by William Kristol, is out with a new issue offering all kinds of coverage of the "Donald Trump Phenomenon," with much of it glowing. Even William Kristol acknowledges the tipping-point significance of the Trump campaign, even if he can't fully wrap his arms around it. See, "Up from Trumpism."

Ellis at Pajamas is impressed with the wall-to-wall Trump coverage at the new Weekly Standard, which includes an essay by Christopher Caldwell, "What’s the Deal with Trump?" But see the particularly good piece from Julius Krein, "Traitor to His Class":

Donald Trump is not a serious candidate. Donald Trump is not a serious man. The truth of these statements is supposed to be self-evident. But one begins to wonder, are they true?

Trump’s popularity, while beyond doubt, is treated not as a legitimate expression of popular will but as a mass psychosis to be diagnosed. It would seem to be the duty of every American pundit today to explain the inexplicable and problematic rise of Donald Trump. The critical question, however, is not the source of Trump’s popularity but rather the reason his popularity is so shocking to our political culture. Perhaps Trump’s candidacy threatens a larger consensus that governs our political and social life, and perhaps his popularity signifies a profound challenge to elite opinion.

Why is Donald Trump so popular? Explanations range from mere celebrity, to his adoption of extreme positions to capture the most ideologically intense voters, to his explosive rhetoric. These explanations are not entirely wrong, but neither are they entirely right.

To begin with, his positions, as Josh Barro has written in the New York Times, are rather moderate. As Barro points out, Trump is willing to contemplate tax increases to achieve spending cuts. He supports some exceptions to abortion bans and has gone so far as to defend funding Planned Parenthood. He has called for protective tariffs, a position heretical for Republicans, who are typically free traders. Although opposed to Obamacare, he has asserted that single-payer health care works in other countries. Even on the issue of immigration, despite his frequently strident rhetoric, his positions are neither unique—securing the border with some kind of wall is a fairly standard Republican plank by now—nor especially rigid.

With respect to his rhetoric, whether one characterizes his delivery as candid or rude, it is hard to ascribe his popularity to colorful invective alone. Chris Christie, who never misses an opportunity to harangue an opponent, languishes near the bottom of the polls. Or ask Rick Santorum, as well as Mitt “47 percent” Romney, whether outrageous comments offer an infallible way to win friends and influence voters. Trump’s outré style, like his celebrity, helps him gain attention but just as certainly fails to explain his frontrunner status.

Most candidates seek to define themselves by their policies and platforms. What differentiates Trump is not what he says, or how he says it, but why he says it. The unifying thread running through his seemingly incoherent policies, what defines him as a candidate and forms the essence of his appeal, is that he seeks to speak for America. He speaks, that is, not for America as an abstraction but for real, living Americans and for their interests as distinct from those of people in other places. He does not apologize for having interests as an American, and he does not apologize for demanding that the American government vigorously prosecute those interests.

What Trump offers is permission to conceive of an American interest as a national interest separate from the “international community” and permission to wish to see that interest triumph. What makes him popular on immigration is not how extreme his policies are, but the emphasis he puts on the interests of Americans rather than everyone else. His slogan is “Make America Great Again,” and he is not ashamed of the fact that this means making it better than other places, perhaps even at their expense.

His least practical suggestion—making Mexico pay for the border wall—is precisely the most significant: It shows that a President Trump would be willing to take something from someone else in order to give it to the American people. Whether he could achieve this is of secondary importance; the fact that he is willing to say it is everything. Nothing is more terrifying to the business and donor class—as well as the media and the entire elite—than Trump’s embrace of a tangible American nationalism. The fact that Trump should by all rights be a member of this class and is in fact a traitor to it makes him all the more attractive to his supporters and all the more baffling to pundits...

Still more.

And note one more thing about the Bill Kristol piece cited above: He admits that Trump could end up being a flash-in-the-pan, and he notes, "His fall may be sudden or protracted, complete or partial. Conceivably he won’t fall at all."

Vanessa Ruiz, Anchor for NBC 12 News in Phoenix, Defends Spanish Pronunciation of Words (VIDEO)

Heh, you gotta love this.

And she handles it beautifully. Watch: "News Anchor Shuts Down Haters Giving Her Sh*t For Her Spanish Accent."

And at the New York Times (where else?), "Arizona News Anchor Is Drawn Into Debate on Her Accent and the Use of Spanish":

PHOENIX — An Arizona news anchor defended her pronunciation of Spanish words during English broadcasts, saying she delivers them the way the language is intended to be spoken.

In a broadcast on Monday, Vanessa Ruiz, who works for 12 News here, waded into the running debate over the use of Spanish that has divided Americans in different ways for years, and has been percolating on the campaign trail.

Ms. Ruiz, who was raised in a bilingual household, said some viewers had questioned her way of pronouncing Spanish words. Sandra Kotzambasis, the station’s news director, said viewers were asking why Ms. Ruiz “rolled her Rs.”

In the broadcast, Ms. Ruiz said, “Some of you have noticed that I pronounce a couple of things maybe a little bit differently than what you are used to, and I get that, and maybe even tonight you saw a little bit of it.

“I was lucky enough to grow up speaking two languages, and I have lived in other cities, in the U.S., South America, and Europe,” she continued. “So yes, I do like to pronounce certain things the way they are meant to be pronounced. And I know that change can be difficult, but it’s normal and over time I know that everything falls into place.”

The use of Spanish in the United States has been contested in a range of ways over the years, from objections to its use in the Pledge of Allegiance; to casual conversation on school buses, such as in Nevada; and in a New Mexico supermarket accused of having singled out Spanish-speaking employees with an “English-only” policy, according to some of the cases pursued by the American Civil Liberties Union.

It has most recently reached into the political stage among rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, such as when Donald J. Trump said this week that Jeb Bush should “really set the example by speaking English while in the United States.”

The United States has more than 55 million Hispanics and, according to the 2011 American Community Survey, 38 million residents age 5 and older who speak Spanish at home. But questions about the use of Spanish persist.

In Arizona, where the Hispanic population is at 30 percent and is growing, the conversation about language has included questions over the English fluency of candidates for public office. It has surfaced regularly in schools, notably in a state law banning, with some exceptions, b ilingual education.

In July, an appeals court agreed to give challengers a chance to void a state law designed to end an ethnic studies program in Tucson’s school district, where 60 percent of the children enrolled were of Mexican or other Hispanic descent. A former state school superintendent championed the law, taking particular issue at a popular district’s Mexican-American studies program.

Timothy M. Hogan, the executive director of the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, has worked on some state laws involving the use of Spanish in public schools. “My observation is people generally feel threatened by use of communication that they are unfamiliar with,” he said. “Underlying all of that is the implied threat to the vanishing majority.”

Ms. Ruiz was born in Miami, grew up in Colombia, and studied in Spain before a career in journalism that has taken her on international assignments. She joined 12 News in July.

She followed her comments on air with a statement posted on the station’s website: “Let me be clear: My intention has never been to be disrespectful or dismissive, quite the contrary. I actually feel I am paying respect to the way some of Arizona’s first, original settlers intended for some things to be said.”

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