Hillary Clinton Opens Wide Lead in Nevada and South Carolina (VIDEO)

At CNN, via Memeorandum, "South Carolina, Nevada CNN polls find Clinton far ahead."

Hillary Clinton Leads Polls Heading Into Tuesday's Democrat Debate (VIDEO)

The debate's on CNN, but here's Ed Henry at Fox News:



And the CBS News poll is linked at Memeorandum, "Poll: Hillary Clinton still leads Democratic race."

Turkey's 9/11 Divides Nation

At USA Today, "Turkish PM says ISIL is focus of bombing probe":

The Islamic State group is the “No. 1 priority” in the investigation into twin bombings that killed nearly 100 people in the Turkish capital, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Monday.

The premier told private broadcaster NTV that authorities were close to identifying the two suicide bombers who carried out the attacks in Ankara on Saturday. He declined to name the organization behind them, but said the focus is on the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Yeni Safak, a newspaper close to the government, on Monday reported that investigators were testing DNA samples from the families of 20 Turks they believe belong to ISIL.

The Hurriyet newspaper said the type of device and explosives used in Saturday's attacks were the same as those used in a suicide bombing the government says ISIL committed near the town of Suruc, which borders Syria, that killed 33 peace activists in July...

Also, "Thousands of mourners gather near scene of Ankara's bombings":

ANKARA — Thousands of mourners flooded the streets of Turkey's capital on Sunday, a day after twin explosions killed at least 95 people and injured hundreds of others in the deadliest terrorist assault ever carried out on Turkish soil.

The mood was tense during the largely peaceful gathering, as demonstrators alternated between grief for lost loved ones and anger towards Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government, which many believe could have done more to prevent the attacks.

The crowd chanted slogans including “we want justice” and “Erdogan is a thief and a murderer,” as some mourners carried photographs of victims. Riot police and water canon vehicles surrounded the rally, but remained in the distance.

On Sunday, the government, which denies any involvement in the blasts, said it has appointed two chief civil inspectors and two chief police inspectors to investigate the bombings, which also wounded at least 246 people, according to the prime minister’s office.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu suggested that the attack could have been carried out by the extremist Islamic State, Kurdish militants or radical leftist groups.

Earlier in the morning, police used teargas to stop people bearing carnations in memory of those who lost their lives from entering the site of the blasts. About 70 people were eventually allowed to enter the cordoned-off area outside the main train station, the Associated Press reported. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said in a statement that police attacked its leaders and members as they tried to leave flowers at the scene.

Saturday's attack, during a peace rally near Ankara's central train station, sent shockwaves across the country. The blasts, which came just seconds apart shortly after 10 a.m., happened when hundreds of demonstrators — many of them supporters of the HDP — had gathered to protest escalating violence between Turkish security forces and Kurdish separatist insurgents.

“This is as close as it gets to being Turkeys 9/11,” said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish research program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “But whereas most countries would unite after a massacre like this, Turkey has become so polarized between supporters and opponents of Mr. Erdogan that almost immediately the reaction has been a blame game in which  supporters of the government blame the (Kurdish rebels) and opponents blame the government.”

After declaring three days of mourning and calling for national unity against terrorism, the prime minister exchanged barbs with HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas over responsibility for the violence...

More.

Labour's Far-Left Jeremy Corbyn Stripped of 'Right Honorable' Title After Privy Council Snub

The dude's a bleedin' idiot.

At Telegraph UK, "Queen's advisers strip Jeremy Corbyn of 'Right Honourable' title after Privy Council snub":

Exclusive: Mr Corbyn was described on Parliament’s website as “Right Honourable”, which denotes membership of the centuries-old Privy Council, until late last week.

The Queen’s advisers told Parliament to strip Jeremy Corbyn of his “Right Honourable” status after Number 10 wrongly implied the Labour leader had joined the Privy Council, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Mr Corbyn was described on Parliament’s website as “Right Honourable”, which denotes membership of the centuries-old Privy Council, until late last week.

The Labour leader was also described as a “Right Honourable friend” by Prime Minister David Cameron when they faced each other in the Commons last month, days after he was voted in as Labour leader.

However, after Mr Corbyn failed to attend the first meeting of the Privy Council since the summer holidays with the Queen last Thursday, the “Rt Hon” title was removed from Mr Corbyn’s page on Parliament’s website.

The Daily Telegraph understands that this was done under the orders of the Office of the Privy Council, the group of advisers which carry out the Queen’s wishes.

Photographs show that Mr Corbyn was on holiday near Ben Nevis in Scotland when his spokesman said he had been invited to attend a Privy Council meeting with the Queen last Thursday.

Mr Corbyn, a known republican, said last month he was not previously aware that joining the Privy Council meant he had to kneel before the Queen and kiss her hand.

The Cabinet Office confirmed on Sunday that Mr Corbyn is not a member of the Privy Council. He now cannot become one until the next meeting is held, probably next month.

It means that the Labour leader cannot be briefed on security matters until then, which will complicate efforts by ministers to use intelligence to persuade Mr Corbyn on backing British involvement in military action over Syria...

ObamaCare Deductibles Set to Surge as High as $6,500

And Americans are stuck with this godforsaken law. Damn.

At IBD, "Another ObamaCare Shock Is Coming: 2016 Deductibles":

ObamaCare costs will jump next year for exchange customers, one way or the other. Premiums are set to spike by more than 20% in at least 16 states. But, for many, the real sticker shock will be soaring deductibles that mean they'll get few benefits until they've racked up huge bills.

Low-end bronze plans have deductibles hitting $6,850 in 2016. Now insurers are hiking silver-plan deductibles as high as $6,500 as a way to keep a lid on premiums. The downside isn't just more out-of-pocket costs for patients; it also will have a ripple effect of reducing taxpayer subsidies for cheaper plans.

Take Indiana, where average premiums are set to rise just under 1% on average, tied for the lowest in the nation, according to ACASignups.net. The cheapest silver plan in Indianapolis will actually fall by 6%, but that doesn't necessarily mean customers will get a better deal...

More.

Tunisian Tourism Struggles to Survive After Terrorist Attacks

I thought about this as the National Dialogue Quartet was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Good, the Muslim Brotherhood was kept from power in Tunisia, but that's not to say there's no terrorism problem. It's bad there, terrible in fact.

At Der Spiegel, "The True Cost of Terrorism: Tunisia's Tourism Industry Struggles to Survive":

At the end of June, 37 guests of a Tunisian resort hotel died in a hail of terrorist gunfire. Since then, tourists have stayed away, and the tragedy has only just begun.

Above the terrace gate at the Hotel Riu Imperial Marhaba in Port El Kantaoui, a worker on a ladder is filling the last bullet hole left behind by Seifeddine Yacoubi when he killed 37 European tourists at the resort in early summer. Yacoubi walked up from the beach wielding a Kalashnikov and went on a half-hour rampage at the luxury hotel before police shot and killed him. Two-and-a-half months have passed since the massacre. It is the beginning of fall, but the sun is still strong in Tunisia. It is 10 a.m. and the temperature is already 30° Celsius (86°F) under a clear blue sky.

It takes just a few minutes to make the last, small bullet hole disappear. But the memory of the horror, of course, remains.
Manfred Buszkiewicz is sitting in dappled shade next to the hotel manager, watching the repair work and drinking a morning beer. His mobile phone makes a bleating noise whenever it receives a report on his favorite soccer team, 1 FC Cologne (the club's mascot is a Billy goat). Buszkiewicz, who is from the town of Euskirchen, near Cologne, has the club's app on his phone. It's a Tuesday morning in mid-September, the second week of Buszkiewicz's vacation. His wife Fatima is sunbathing on the beach below the hotel. Two waiters in snow-white shirts and black vests are standing behind the terrace door, waiting for him to empty his beer glass. The Riu Marhaba Imperial has 130 employees, including 26 headwaiters. But there are currently only 30 guests. There are 80 wicker chairs on the terrace, but only one of them is occupied -- by Buszkiewicz.

"Welcome," he says, and empties his beer.

One of the two waiters promptly disappears into the deserted hotel lobby. It's the size of a soccer field and 15 meters (50 feet) high, with a glass dome at the top. The marble floor is filled with armchairs, sofas, glass tables, palm trees and a large black concert grand. A guest could sit in the lobby for an hour, pondering life, without seeing a single person. The only discernible movement in the lobby is that of the four glass elevators, as they move rhythmically up and down.

After a minute, the next beer arrives -- with a frothy head, as Buszkiewicz had requested. The staff is primarily accustomed to English guests, who like their beer flat. This is his fifth stay at the Riu Imperial Marhaba, where the personnel call him Manni. He hands the waiter a coin. Although everything is included in the room price at the Imperial Marhaba, the waiters depend on tips, and now that there are few guests, they are especially dependent on Manni.

"There are usually 700 to 800 guests here at this time of the year," says Buszkiewicz. "And now? It's a dance of the dead."

'Perfectly Understandable'

The June 26 massacre destroyed the tourism industry in Tunisia. Many countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium and Great Britain, issued travel warnings in the days following the attack, major tour operators pulled out of Tunisia and most charter flights to Tunisian resorts were cancelled. The changes meant that Buszkiewicz had to fly to Tunisia from Düsseldorf this time instead of Cologne.

He thought long and hard about whether to travel to Tunisia this year. A friend from Düsseldorf, an elderly woman named Gisela, was killed in the massacre. A Belgian woman Buszkiewicz and his wife have known for a long time was shot in the leg. They visited her and her husband at home after the attack.

"Of course, they won't be coming here anymore," Buszkiewicz says of the Belgian couple, "which is perfectly understandable, in a way."

Buszkiewicz and his wife had originally booked their trip for exactly the time when the attack occurred, so that they could see the friends they had made at the hotel on previous visits. But because their daughter was getting married in the summer, they decided to postpone the trip until September. That's why they are still alive, says his wife. When Buszkiewicz went to the travel agency in Euskirchen to cancel the trip, the woman working there said she understood. She talked about Spain and Greece, and Buszkiewicz nodded. He didn't really care where they went.

Buszkiewicz owns a small company that makes conveyor belts. He has eight employees, and there is always plenty to do. In his free time, he drives around the Eifel Mountains on his Honda Gold Wing motorcycle. He only takes a vacation once a year, and when he does, Buszkiewicz wants peace and quiet, sunshine and his beer served with a frothy head. As he was driving home from the travel agency, he felt guilty, as if he had let down the staff at the Imperial Marhaba. Even when the hotel was extremely busy, they always knew that he had ordered a Bacardi and Coke. The Express, a Cologne tabloid, wrote that the hotel employees had formed a human chain to protect their guests from the gunman. Some of them had reportedly shouted: "Shoot me!" But Yacoubi only targeted tourists.

Buszkiewicz sent a fax to Kamel, the head receptionist. "Manni, everything is safe," he wrote back. Buszkiewicz returned to the travel agency and booked a double room at the enchanting Imperial Marhaba. The two-week trip cost €2,500 ($2,820) for him and his wife, including room, board and airfare. He brought Kamel a food processor, a large bottle of Joop! cologne and a handful of company pens. They gave him and his wife Fatima a suite on the fourth floor of the left wing, the only one the hotel is currently using. Buszkiewicz defied the circumstances, as has the Hotel Imperial Marhaba...

Keep reading.

The Challenges of Selling a Hollywood Home

The owners of these early 20th century Hollywood homes think they've got a treasure trove of history, imparting tremendous value to their properties. But prospective buyers just want to tear down the structures and rebuild at more than twice the size.

Heh, this is pretty good.

At WSJ, "In Los Angeles, an abode that has housed generations of Hollywood legends can be the ultimate status symbol, but there are complications when it is time to sell":

It is a classic Hollywood story: In 1909, a broadcasting impresario commissioned noted architects Greene & Greene to design a craftsman-style manse near Los Angeles’s Wilshire Boulevard. Fourteen years later, Norman Kerry, a silent-film star, bought the house and paid to have it moved to Beverly Hills. In 1931, Mr. Kerry rented it to Lorenz Hart, the legendary lyricist of the Rodgers & Hart musical writing team.

Last year, the owners, screenwriter Leslie Dixon and filmmaker Tom Ropelewski, decided to put this 4,600-square-foot piece of Hollywood history on the market for just under $9 million. A crowd of 300 came to the first open house, said their listing agent, Bret Parsons of the architectural division of Coldwell Banker in Beverly Hills, and they all had one idea in mind.

“You could overhear them: ‘Tear down, tear down, tear down,’” Mr. Parsons said.

In Los Angeles, a home that bears the pedigree of generations of Hollywood A-listers can be the ultimate status symbol. Studio heads and film producers love to boast that Katharine Hepburn or Clark Gable roamed the halls.

But homes haunted by the ghosts of Hollywood past can also create challenges when it is time to sell. “Celebrity owned” shows up as frequently in Los Angeles real estate listings as granite countertops, but claims don’t always match the public record. And in today’s market, the well-heeled Los Angles buyer frequently wants something bigger—much bigger—than a Hollywood mansion from the 1930s...

Keep reading.

Cora Keegan for Treats Magazine

She'a fashion model, and on Instagram.

And at Treats, "TREATS! EXCLUSIVE: CORA KEEGAN BY AMANDA PRATT."

Our Wobbly Political-Economic Consensus

From Jay Cost, at the Weekly Standard, "What the Hell Is Going On? The fraying of the national political consensus."

And at the American Interest, "Study: Democrats Moving Left Faster Than Republicans Moving Right."

Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism

Here's one more, for good measure, from Stanley Kurtz, Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism.

Joshua Muravchik, Heaven on Earth

Following-up from earlier today, "The Execution of Che Guevara."

At Amazon, Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism.

 

The Thanksgiving Store - Holiday Essentials at Amazon

Not too soon to get ready for the blessed holiday, at Amazon, Shop Thanksgiving Store - Get All Your Kitchen and Entertaining Essentials.

Bonus, from Martin Gilbert, Israel: A History.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also, at Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES," and Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Round Up..."

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Advantage."

Kendall Jenner Thinks Her Nipple Piercing is 'Sexy'

At London's Daily Mail, "Kendall Jenner admits her sisters were 'shocked' at her nipple piercing but insists she thinks it's 'understated and sexy' - and says sister Kylie 'copied' the idea from her."

Charlotte McKinney Is Our Girl of Summer

Well, it still feels like summer, heh.

Via GQ:

Arts and Crafts with Playboy Playmates (VIDEO)

Watch, "It's Always Nice When Playmates Make You Things: Who said arts and crafts had to be a dull activity? Let Playmates Bryiana Noelle, Britt Linn, Shelby Chesnes and Val Keil show you a thing or two about being creative. Coloring and knitting never looked so good."

Donald Trump Leads Republican Field at 27 Percent in Latest CBS News Poll (VIDEO)

Once again, Trump's support defies predictions of an inevitable collapse.

At CBS News, via Memeorandum, "Poll: Donald Trump still leads, Ben Carson in second."

Added: From Fire Andrea Mitchell, "CBS poll: guess who has strongest leadership qualities."

The End of Pax Americana

From Lee Smith, at the Weekly Standard, "Obama's 'accomplishment'."

USC Head Football Coach Steve Sarkisian Placed on Leave of Absence (VIDEO)

They don't tolerate losing much at USC. If the team had been winning, Sarkisian would still have a job. He's on the way out. Blame health reasons or whatever, but he's on the way out because the team's losing.

At the Los Angeles Times, "USC places Coach Steve Sarkisian on leave; Clay Helton interim coach."

And at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "It's 'very clear to me that he is not healthy' - #USC's Haden on #Sarkisian leave of absence."

The Execution of Che Guevara

The left's communist hero was executed October 9th, 1967, in La Higuera, Bolivia. He cowered like a cornered rat and begged for his life like a child.

At the Washington Post, "New (and disturbing) pictures of Che Guevara right after death resurface."

Foreign Affairs commemorates his death by posting Raymond Garthoff's essay, "Unconventional Warfare in Communist Strategy":

Very simply, "internal," "unconventional," "irregular"-"class"-war is of the essence of Marxist-Leninist theory, hence at least theoretically at the base of Communist strategy. We became so accustomed to Stalin's reliance on the Red Army and the Soviet intelligence services as the most conspicuous elements of force in international politics that it takes a moment to place in focus the older-and newer-more fundamental Communist reliance on man?uvring and manipulating power on an indigenous political fulcrum. This is my first proposition.

Unconventional warfare-our very use of this expression jars one by its contrast to the Marxist-Leninist conception of the conventional nature of internal warfare-may assume various forms, depending on the concrete situation, its opportunities and constraints. Although in other areas the Communists may resort to rigid design or overcentralized planning, when it comes to the application of force they show an acute awareness of the wide range of kinds of unconventional warfare available to them. This is the second proposition I would raise. To rephrase the point: Communists are flexible in waging varied forms of internal war, and irregular warfare is but one of the means.

Not all activity of Soviet, Chinese or indigenous Communists should be considered a form of internal war-though one can define the term broadly enough to encompass most of it. But the Communist leaders do assign a major role to active civil violence at a certain stage of development of the class conflict. For such countries as the United States, that stage may be seen only very dimly-or perhaps merely assumed-in a vague and distant future. But in volatile and unstable societies emerging from colonial rule or undergoing modernization without adequate tools for the job, internal war is expected to have a future-if it is not already present. Thus my third proposition is that the Communists expect, plan and wage internal war as the final stage of class struggle leading to the seizure of power. Internal unconventional war is above all revolutionary war.

III

Bolshevism arose as a revolutionary movement with international pretensions; its fundamental outlook was hostile to the existing international order. None the less, after a number of unsuccessful attempts to wage revolutionary war beyond the borders of the old Russian Empire, in the period from 1918 to 1923, Soviet leaders began to recognize the need to be more selective in choosing the time and place to conduct revolutionary war. Also, as the years went by, they directed their energies increasingly to internal matters. The building of "socialism in one country" marked an indefinite extension of the original compromise by which the Soviet Union proposed to coexist with the outside world. The avowed revolutionary ends have continued unchanged, but means have become increasingly important in themselves. As occasions arose calling for sacrifice either by the Soviet State or by the forces of the Revolution abroad, Moscow's decision has invariably been at the expense of the latter. The subordination to Moscow of Communist Parties everywhere meant that the suitability of local internal war was defined in terms of the prevailing foreign policy objectives of the Soviet Union. And as a consequence, for over two decades Communist "internal war" boasted few campaigns and no victories. Only in China did an active revolutionary war even stay alive, and it did so by liberating itself from Moscow's strategic direction.

World War II brought new opportunities for building undergrounds and waging partisan warfare in many countries occupied by an alien invader. Local Communists (as well as other resistance elements), aided by the Allies, established strong forces in several countries. The Soviets themselves built up sizable guerrilla forces on their own German-occupied territory. At the close of the war, the Jugoslav and Albanian partisans were able to seize power with little opposition. The Chinese Communists were also immeasurably aided by the course and outcome of the war.

In the early postwar period, the sudden shift in the balance of power in areas on the Soviet periphery, and the not accidental projection of the Red Army into many of these areas, led to new opportunities for expansion of Communist rule by various means including internal war. Where Soviet occupation was prolonged, political and subversive techniques were used effectively to establish puppet Communist régimes. But beyond the shadow of the Soviet Army the story was quite different. A wave of attempts at subversion, rebellion and revolution struck in 1948-1949. Success in Czechoslovakia by subversive coup was not matched in Finland, and not even tried in France and Italy. In China, the Communists-against Stalin's advice- pushed on to take all continental China. But the revolutionary guerrilla campaigns in Greece, Malaya, Burma, the Philippines and Indonesia ended in failure; only in Viet Nam did such a campaign drag on to an important partial victory in 1954. Causes of failure varied, but one important general one was that the balance of power in the world had become stabilized anew.

In the current phase, since about 1960, there has been a new wave of Communist guerrilla efforts in Laos and South Viet Nam, a failure in the Congo, and a seizure from within of the successful guerrilla movement in Cuba. Similar efforts to take over other native, non-Communist rebel forces, for example in Angola and Colombia, are at present under way.

In summing up this brief historical review, we reach a fourth proposition: One of the key conditions for resort to revolutionary war, in Communist eyes, is the general world situation (as well as the local situation). And as a related fifth proposition: While the general strategic balance of terror today increases the dangers to the Communist bloc of resorting to direct aggression and creating Soviet-Western military confrontations, it reduces the risks involved in indirect, unconventional war.

IV

Communist strategies for waging revolutionary warfare place a high premium on the political content and context of a campaign. Some strategies, beyond the purview of this article, involve exclusively political action. Others involve infiltration and subversion, where the political vulnerability of the opponent is of cardinal importance. Subversion (which should be distinguished from agitation, propaganda, trouble-making and other overt or underground Communist activities) can be either a substitute for a revolutionary war or a complementary tactic in it, but in general it has not proven nearly as versatile a Communist tool as many of us tend to think. Subversion is usually directed against existing governments, but it may be directed against indigenous revolutionary movements, as in the Cuban case. Infiltration and subversion, political isolation and manipulation, and economic penetration all ultimately should-in the Communist strategy- lay the groundwork for the seizure of power either by coup d'état or by revolutionary war.

As my sixth proposition, I would advance the hypothesis that the Soviet leaders generally prefer the use of subversion, or other non-violent means, to the use of guerrilla war, because the seizure of power by indigenous revolutionary forces tends to make local Communist rulers too independent of Moscow's control. The only countries other than Russia where local Communist forces fought and won their own victories are China, Jugoslavia, Albania and Viet Nam (with Cuba as a quasi-fifth). All, with the uncertain exception of North Viet Nam, are today serious problems for the Soviet Union.

The Chinese-absorbed by their own internal problems and struggles with the Russians, smarting over the frustration of continuing irredentist claims, and "on the make"-have not developed the qualms or subtle calculations which mark the Soviet attitude toward the means of extending Communist power. Maoism as an export item has done well in Indochina; a number of other Communist Parties-especially, but not only, in Asia-are turning to China in the course of the growing division within the Communist movement. The Soviet leaders do not, of course, turn their backs on the theory or even the practice of national-liberation revolutionary war. None the less, my seventh proposition-companion to the sixth-is that the Chinese Communists are likely in the future to be the guiding spirit in most Communist revolutionary guerrilla wars.

Keep reading.

Garthoff continues with quotes from Che Guevara's, Guerrilla Warfare, a "guidebook for thousands of guerrilla fighters in various countries around the world."

And see also, by Jorge Castañeda, Compañero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara.

FLASHBACK: "Che Guevara: Superstar Revolutionary."