United in Hate

I just went back and reread Jamie Glazov's chapter on Cuba's totalitarian regime, in United in Hate: The Left's Romance with Tyranny and Terror, mainly in light of the Pope's visit with Fidel last week.

It's essential reading.

Man Faces 11 Years in Prison If Convicted of Punching 78-Year-Old Over Nutella Samples

Nutella samples?

Well that wasn't too smart.

KTLA's got a report, at Memeorandum.

And watch, at CBS News, "78-Year-Old Man Punched In Face Over Nutella Waffle Samples Recounts Ordeal."

Don Henley: Donald Trump is 'Over the Line'

Don Henley's one of my favorite rockers, but don't let his comments on Donald Trump fool you: You'd be hard pressed to find anyone more hardcore on the protection of property rights, so Don Henley actually coming at Donald Trump from the right.

Watch, "Don Henley: Trump went over fine line between pride and arrogance."

And buy Henley's new country music CD, at Amazon, "Cass Country."

Majority of Americans Reject Pope Francis' Position on 'Climate Change'

It's a 56 percent majority, in fact.

At Bloomberg, "America Loves Pope Francis, But Not His Stance on Climate Change: Bloomberg Poll."

Meanwhile, the Democrat-controlled Senate is pushing a big climate change bill, because priorities!

At PuffHo, "Senate Democrats Stage Major Climate Change Push."

Say It Ain't So! Baseball Legend Yogi Berra Has Died

What a guy.

See the obituary at the New York Times, "Yogi Berra, Hall of Fame Catcher for the Yankees, Dies at 90."

Ann Coulter Broke My Heart

Well, Ann Coulter's not going to break my heart, because I can't take her that seriously.

She's got a shtick.

But see Sarah Rumpf, at the Daily Beast, "As a young conservative, Ann Coulter was one of my heroes. And then she went off the deep end."

And Coulter's book from 2012, Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America. It's good!

Steven Crowder Strips Down to His BVD's for Grand Rapids Feminist Film Festival (VIDEO)

All in good fun, my friends.

You've got to be a happy warrior out there to keep your sanity.

Watch, at Five Feet of Fury, "Steven Crowder goes to feminist film festival, strips down to his shorts (video)."

Bill and Hillary Clinton Paid at Least $1.6 Million for Speeches to Drug Companies

Well, nice work if you can get it.

At Free Beacon, "Clintons Paid at Least $1.6M for Speeches to Drug Companies."

Florida Suspect Fidel Lopez Charged in 'Rough Sex' Murder

Yeah, "rough sex" so rough that the guy ripped the living shit out this woman when she screamed her ex-husband's name in the middle of it. The demon Lopez disemboweled her.

At the Other McCain, "Florida Woman Disemboweled During Tequila-Fueled ‘Rough Sex’ Rage."

Vafru 2 Port 3.1A USB Car Charger

At Amazon, [CE&FCC Certified] Vafru 2 Port 3.1A USB Car Charger + IQ Technology - Best Car Charger for Cell Phone, Tablet & Other USB Electronic Devices - iPhone 6+ 6 5 5S 5C, iPad, iPod, Android, Samsung Galaxy S6 S5 S4 S3 S2 Note, Tablet and most USB devices (Black).

Plus, from Brent Schlender, Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader.

Green Illusions Fell an Auto CEO

Following-up from earlier, "U.S. Taxpayers Duped Out of $51 Million in Green Subsidies for Volkswagen 'Clean' Cars (VIDEO)."

Now here's Holman Jenkins, at WSJ, "Volkswagen bet its U.S. future on curing American drivers of their aversion to diesel":

What puzzled a business columnist five years ago remains puzzling today. Martin Winterkorn, the now-embattled Volkswagen chief, grandly pronounced a goal to make VW the world’s biggest car maker by sales. Shouldn’t a business manager care about whether capital is productively deployed to maximize returns, not about generating sales volume for its own sake?

Mr. Winterkorn might have noticed, for one thing, that the sales crown had been associated with catastrophe for its two most recent wearers, Toyota and GM. Mr. Winterkorn would need to find a bigger place for VW in the U.S. market—and bowdlerized a car that had earned a small but devoted fandom in the U.S., the Jetta, cheapening it into a Corolla wannabe. His U.S.-tailored Passat landed with a thud just as fuel prices were falling and American families were turning to small SUVs instead.

VW at least had learned something from a previous foray in the U.S. market. In the late 1970s, the company tried to recover its plummeting market share by opening a UAW-staffed factory in New Stanton, Pa. That plant was a disaster from day one and closed a few years later. This time, VW built its plant in Tennessee in pursuit of well-behaved, nonunion labor. Yet there followed an attempt at self-sabotage of the sort that inspires feature stories in women’s magazines: To appease labor back in Germany, VW tried to slip the UAW into the factory through the backdoor anyway, only to be prevented by its own U.S. workers.

All this now becomes preamble to the scandal that completes the disaster of Mr. Winterkorn’s tenure: His admission that VW used a software trick to fool U.S. emissions tests even while its diesel-engined Volkswagens on U.S. roads put out many times the allowable limit of nitrogen oxides.

Any chief executive can have bad luck, but these were poor decisions: To alienate the company’s residual U.S. fans by downgrading the Jetta with a cheap rear axle. To blithely insert the company in the partisan fault-line that divides the union-dominated northern U.S. auto industry and the nonunion south, and to do so directly in the wake of the inflammatory GM and Chrysler bailouts.

But beggaring belief is the latest scandal, committed in the service of a dubious marketing strategy from the get-go. This was VW’s bet that it could cure Americans of their aversion to diesel by flogging the car’s supposed “green” credentials. Unpropitiously, the company launched its bet as gasoline engines were catching up with diesel engines in efficiency, and when diesel fuel is pricier than gasoline and harder to find.

Yet Mr. Winterkorn was reconfirmed in his control as recently as April, when a board fight prompted the exit of VW’s eminence grise, Chairman Ferdinand Piëch, who built the modern company and had begun to criticize Mr. Winterkorn’s American endeavors. Mr. Winterkorn’s key ally in ejecting Mr. Piëch was labor representative Bernd Osterloh, also his partner in the UAW fiasco. That should tell you something.

Mr. Winterkorn may be on his way out but not before he all but pleaded guilty on the company’s behalf to the emissions-cheating charges, which, coming from the EPA, might normally deserve skepticism...

Keep reading, and remember, leftism is built on a lie. And the dues for doing the devil's work keep coming due.

Baby Boy Born on the Sidewalk in Irvine

At the O.C. Register, "Mother delivers baby on Irvine sidewalk."

And watch, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "After Rush Out the Front Door, Baby Born on Irvine Sidewalk":

Benjamin Paul Grindstaff arrived a couple of weeks later than expected, but when he finally decided it was time to come into the world, he didn’t waste any time.

U.S. Taxpayers Duped Out of $51 Million in Green Subsidies for Volkswagen 'Clean' Cars (VIDEO)

A lovely story, emblematic of our crony capitalism during the Obama interregnum.

At the Los Angeles Times, "U.S. taxpayers duped into shelling out $51 million in green subsidies for 'clean' VW vehicles."

Also, "Volkswagen emissions scandal expands to 11 million vehicles":

The expanding Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal now includes 11 million vehicles worldwide, and threatens to destroy the credibility and market value of a global behemoth that was already showing signs of instability.

The world's largest automobile manufacturer, Volkswagen Group was experiencing weakening sales in the U.S. and China, its two most promising areas of growth. As of the Friday before the emissions story broke, the company's stock had already fallen to $162 a share, from a March 2015 high of $255.  Midday Tuesday, the stock traded at $106.

Volkswagen has confirmed Environmental Protection Agency charges that it installed software "defeat devices" in versions of its 2009-2015 Jetta, Beetle, Golf, Passat and Audi A3 passenger cars fitted with 2.0-liter, 4-cylinder engines.

The company on Tuesday said the same software was present in as many as 11 million vehicles sold worldwide. The company said in a statement it was working "at full speed" to come into regulatory compliance.

Facing up to as much as $18 billion in U.S. fines alone -- and liable for fines and punishments in other countries -- Volkswagen said it would also set aside $7.2 billion to cover the cost of recalls and “other efforts to win back the trust of our customers.”

That broken trust may prove equally problematic for Volkswagen's bottom line. Many buyers feel duped into having bought a polluting car with a green marketing campaign for the "clean diesels."

In California, which has the nation's toughest emissions standards, outraged consumers used social media to air their anger at the company. Many said they were angry enough at the company to turn away from the brand permanently.

Owner Bob Merlis, an independent music industry publicist, said he was looking to add a second Volkswagen diesel last week.

"I went shopping for a new one, the Golf Sportwagen, but that's so off the table now," Merlis said. "I don't want to do business with those criminals."

Still more.

Also at ABC News, "Volkswagen - World's Largest Automaker Apologizes."

The Kate Upton File

At Maxim, "She is rather beautiful, isn't she? But there's so much more to Kate Upton than meets the eye."

Ahmed Mohamed’s Family Blocking Release of Records

Yeah, the oh-so virtuous Ahmed Mohamed. Cry "Islamphobia" and you get a first-class ticket to the Obama White House.

But the family's got stuff to hide. Not only has the father pulled the kids out of the Irving School District, they're fleeing to Mecca after the visit with Barack Hussein, better to get out from under the media spotlight, no doubt.

And now there's news that Ahmed's loved ones have stonewalled requests for the release of records. Hmm... Just a matter of privacy, I'm sure. Nothing to hide.

At IOTW Repot, "Irving Mayor: Ahmed Mohamed’s Family Blocking Release of Records."

ICYMI: "Ahmed Mohamed's Clock 'Sure sure doesn't look like any clock I've seen...'"

NewsBusted — 69 Percent of Americans Say Country Headed in the Wrong Direction...

Here's Jodie Miller, via Theo Spark:



And here's the poll, at Rasmussen, "Right Direction or Wrong Track: 25% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction."

Vote to Approve Migrant Relocation Tests Limits of European Unity (VIDEO)

Things are coming to a head.

At the New York Times, "Plan on Migrants Strains the Limits of Europe’s Unity":

LONDON — After weeks of indecision, the European Union voted on Tuesday to distribute 120,000 asylum seekers among member states, a plan meant to display unity in the face of the largest movement of refugees on the Continent since World War II.

Instead, the decision — forced through by a majority vote, over the bitter objections of four eastern members — did as much to underline the bloc’s widening divisions, even over a modest step that barely addresses the crisis.

Nearly half a million migrants and refugees have arrived in Europe this year, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, a number that is only expected to rise.

The crisis has tested the limits of Europe’s ability to forge consensus on one of the most divisive issues to confront the union since the fall of Communism. It has set right-wing nationalist and populist politicians against Pan-European humanitarians, who have portrayed the crisis in stark moral terms.

“We would have preferred to have adoption by consensus, but we did not manage to achieve that,” Jean Asselborn, the foreign minister of Luxembourg, said after a meeting of home affairs and interior ministers.

Leaders from across the 28-member bloc will meet in Brussels on Wednesday for further discussions on how to respond to the crisis.

Mr. Asselborn said even countries that voted against the distribution of asylum seekers — the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia — must comply. “I have no doubt they will implement these decisions fully,” he said.

But with the prime minister of Slovakia immediately threatening to defy the plan, the outcome was more than an example of the bloc’s inability to coordinate its policies — formidable enough through the long crisis over the euro and Greece’s debt.

The response to the refugee crisis so far has also raised profound questions about a failure of European principles, a trembling of the pillars on which the bloc was founded more than 20 years ago.

The European Union’s reputation, and its faith in Brussels, have suffered in the past few months, with sharp and vocal divisions among member states and continuing doubts about Greek economic sustainability.

The migrant crisis “risks bursting the E.U. at its weak seams,” said Stefano Stefanini, a former senior Italian ambassador now based in Brussels. “It’s more dangerous than the Greek drama and more serious than the euro, because it challenges fundamental European accomplishments and beliefs.”

With Tuesday’s vote, he said, “the cleavages only get deeper.”

Keep reading.

BONUS: At the Los Angeles Times, "Refugee crisis exposes a deep divide in European Union."

Jackie Johnson's Got Your Last Day of Summer Forecast

Last day of summer today and the heat makes a comeback!

Here's the lovely Ms. Johnson, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Roman Catholic Church Rises and Falls on Tides of Immigration

This is fascinating.

At the New York Times, "Pope Francis to Find a Church in Upheaval":

MERCED, Calif. — More than 5,000 parishioners packed the pews, the choir loft and the vestibule on a recent weekend at Sacred Heart Church here in California’s Central Valley for five Masses — four of them in Spanish. Young Hispanic families spilled outside onto the steps, straining to hear the homily over the roar of an elevated freeway across the street.

Across the country in Philadelphia, there is only one weekend Mass now at Our Lady Help of Christians, a church built by and for German immigrants in 1898. The clock in its tower has stopped. The parochial school next door is closed. Only 53 worshipers, most of them with white hair, gathered for Mass on a recent Sunday in the soaring Gothic sanctuary.

The Roman Catholic Church that Pope Francis will encounter on his first visit to the United States is being buffeted by immense change, and it is struggling — with integrating a new generation of immigrants, with conflicts over buildings and resources, with recruiting priests and with retaining congregants. The denomination is still the largest in the United States, but its power base is shifting.

On the East Coast and in the Midwest, bishops are closing or merging parishes and shuttering parochial schools built on the dimes and sweat of generations of European immigrants. In many parishes, worshipers are sparse, funerals outnumber baptisms, and Sunday collections are not enough to maintain even beloved houses of worship.

In the West and the South, and in some other unexpected pockets all over the country, the church is bursting at the seams with immigrants, mostly from Mexico and Latin America, but also from Asia and Africa. Hispanic parents put their children on waiting lists for religious education classes and crowd into makeshift worship spaces, but avoid predominantly Anglo parishes because they do not always feel welcome there.

“The ethnic face of the church is changing, and the center of gravity and influence in the church is shifting from the East to the West, and from the North to the South,” Archbishop José H. Gómez of Los Angeles said...

More.

RELATED: At the Los Angeles Times, "Latino influence on Catholic Church is a backdrop to Pope Francis' visit."

Best Sellers in Politics and Social Sciences

At Amazon, Best Sellers in Politics & Social Sciences.

Listed there is David Horowitz, Take No Prisoners: The Battle Plan for Defeating the Left.