Monmouth University Poll Shows Donald Trump with Yuge! Lead in New York (VIDEO)

At NYT, "Donald Trump Maintains Strong Lead in Latest New York Poll."

And at WSJ, "Poll Shows Donald Trump Above 50% in New York State":

More than half of the likely Republican primary voters in New York favor Donald Trump, according to a new Monmouth University poll, potentially allowing the celebrity businessman to sweep the state’s 95 delegates on April 19.

Mr. Trump won 52% support in the poll, while Ohio Gov. John Kasich got 25% and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz got 17%.

“If this result holds in every single congressional district, Trump will walk away with nearly all of New York state’s delegates,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.

The poll concludes that about one-third of the state’s GOP vote will come from the 16 congressional districts encompassing New York City and Long Island, though this populated region will produce most of the state’s 95 delegates. Any candidate who wins more than 50% in any district wins all three delegates, forcing Mr. Trump’s challengers to micro-target areas where they might be able to hold his support below a majority.

Most New York Republicans said they were not influenced by Mr. Trump’s recent statements that he favored punishing women who have abortions and allowing Japan and South Korea to make nuclear weapons. But 29% said those controversial statements make them less likely to support him...

Black Trump Supporter Denounces Open-Borders Policies: 'We can't work because the Mexicans have taken all the jobs..." (VIDEO)

Via Gateway Pundit, "Black Trump Supporter: Blacks Are Out of Work Due to Mexican Immigration, “Vote Trump!” (VIDEO)."

Mark Levin Slams #NeverTrump 'Buffoons' (VIDEO)

Heh, via Mediaite, at Memeorandum, "Mark Levin Rips #NeverTrump 'Buffoons': You Would 'Passively' Help Hillary Win?"

And watch on YouTube.

Jackie Johnson's Overcast Weather Forecast

Ah, a low pressure system's moved in to the Southland, and along with it much cooler temperatures.

It's still nice. Cool and relaxing.

Via CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Eurasia's Coming Anarchy

From Robert Kaplan, at Foreign Affairs, "The Risks of Chinese and Russian Weakness":

As China asserts itself in its nearby seas and Russia wages war in Syria and Ukraine, it is easy to assume that Eurasia’s two great land powers are showing signs of newfound strength. But the opposite is true: increasingly, China and Russia flex their muscles not because they are powerful but because they are weak. Unlike Nazi Germany, whose power at home in the 1930s fueled its military aggression abroad, today’s revisionist powers are experiencing the reverse phenomenon. In China and Russia, it is domestic insecurity that is breeding belligerence. This marks a historical turning point: for the first time since the Berlin Wall fell, the United States finds itself in a competition among great powers.

Economic conditions in both China and Russia are steadily worsening. Ever since energy prices collapsed in 2014, Russia has been caught in a serious recession. China, meanwhile, has entered the early stages of what promises to be a tumultuous transition away from double-digit annual GDP growth; the stock market crashes it experienced in the summer of 2015 and January 2016 will likely prove a mere foretaste of the financial disruptions to come.

Given the likelihood of increasing economic turmoil in both countries, their internal political stability can no longer be taken for granted. In the age of social media and incessant polling, even autocrats such as Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin feel the need for public approval. Already, these leaders no doubt suffer from a profound sense of insecurity, as their homelands have long been virtually surrounded by enemies, with flatlands open to invaders. And already, they are finding it harder to exert control over their countries’ immense territories, with potential rebellions brewing in their far-flung regions.

The world has seen the kind of anarchy that ethnic, political, and sectarian conflict can cause in small and medium-size states. But the prospect of quasi anarchy in two economically struggling giants is far more worrisome. As conditions worsen at home, China and Russia are likely to increasingly export their troubles in the hope that nationalism will distract their disgruntled citizens and mobilize their populations. This type of belligerence presents an especially difficult problem for Western countries. Whereas aggression driven by domestic strength often follows a methodical, well-developed strategy—one that can be interpreted by other states, which can then react appropriately—that fueled by domestic crisis can result in daring, reactive, and impulsive behavior, which is much harder to forecast and counter.

As U.S. policymakers contemplate their response to the growing hostility of Beijing and Moscow, their first task should be to avoid needlessly provoking these extremely sensitive and domestically declining powers. That said, they cannot afford to stand idly by as China and Russia redraw international borders and maritime boundaries. The answer? Washington needs to set clear redlines, quietly communicated—and be ready to back them up with military power if necessary...

Keep reading.

Juliette Kayyem, Security Mom

Her new book was just released yesterday.

See, Security Mom: An Unclassified Guide to Protecting Our Homeland and Your Home.

It’s time to put the “home” back into our homeland. Part prescription and part memoir, this exceptional view of America’s security concerns by a leading government Homeland Security advisor, Pulitzer Prize–finalist columnist, CNN analyst and mother of three delivers a message and a plan: security begins at home.

“Soccer Moms” are so last decade. Juliette Kayyem is a “Security Mom.” A national security expert who worked at the highest levels of government, and also a mom of three, she’s lived it all—from the fears of being a target of an anthrax hoax, to the challenges of managing the BP Oil spill, to the more intimate challenges of defeating lice in her children’s hair—and now she tells it all. Weaving her personal story of marriage and motherhood into a fast-paced account of managing the nation’s most compelling disasters, Juliette recounts the milestones that mark the path of her unpredictable, daring, funny, and ultimately relatable life....

Security Mom is an utterly modern tale about the highs and lows of having-it-all parenthood and a candid, sometimes shocking, behind-the-scenes look inside the high-stakes world of national security. Unlike so many in her field who seem invested on terrifying citizens into paralysis, Juliette’s motto has always been “don’t scare, prepare!” In her signature refreshing style, Juliette reveals how she came to learn that homeland security is not simply about tragedy and terror; it is about what we can do every day to keep each other strong and safe.

Officer Joshua Hilling Showed 'Incredible Restraint' Against Knife-Weilding Murder Suspect (VIDEO)

Two thoughts: (1) This is an outstanding example of why police officers to wear bodycams, and (2) I sure wouldn't want to be a policeman (they've got really difficult jobs).

Via CNN:

Thanks to the Reader Who Bought the Bose SoundTrue Around-Ear Headphones for Apple Devices

As you know, I mostly love the Amazon affiliates sales for the book promotions --- I love books, heh.

The program's not a whole lot of money for me, but of course every little bit helps.

So, thanks to the reader who purchased the Bose SoundTrue around-ear headphones II - Apple devices (a fairly expensive purchase). And also thanks to all my readers for visiting the blog and shopping through my Amazon links.

Following the Hidden Money in the #PanamaPapers

A great piece, at LAT, "'My God. We've done this': Meet the reporters who probed the Panama Papers":

'My God. We've done this': Meet the reporters who probed the Panama Papers: When Gerard Ryle saw a photograph ... https://t.co/YAtmo8PHRR

— Social N Chicago (@SocialInChicago) April 6, 2016

When Gerard Ryle saw a photograph of thousands of protesters gathered outside Iceland's Parliament this week, a thought flickered through his mind: "My God. We've done this."

It was true. Iceland's prime minister stepped down from office Tuesday — the most significant fallout so far of the work by journalists collaborating with Ryle's International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

Over the weekend, hundreds of reporters in more than 70 countries unveiled a nearly yearlong global investigation and began publishing a series of articles on millions of leaked financial documents they dubbed the "Panama Papers," a trove of information bigger than anything WikiLeaks or Edward Snowden ever obtained.

The effect has been like shining a flashlight into a series of dark rooms packed with money and lies. The documents leaked from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca — and examined by journalists at outlets including the Guardian, the BBC and the Miami Herald — have forced global leaders and public figures to answer for the massive amounts of wealth they had hidden in offshore tax havens, outside the scrutiny of auditors and voters.

But the story started small, with an anonymous writer's message to the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung in early 2015: "Hello. This is John Doe. Interested in data?"

The newspaper was interested, of course. But the source said there were conditions: "My life is in danger. We will only chat over encrypted files. No meeting, ever."

"Why are you doing this?" a journalist at the newspaper asked the source, according to an account published this weekend.

"I want to make these crimes public."

The documents sent to the newspaper stretched back decades and were unwieldy. They included bank records, emails, phone numbers and photocopies of passports held by Mossack Fonseca to track its clients. But there was no road map to show what they all meant.

It was like trying to read an MRI without a doctor.

Seeking help, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung reached out to Ryle's consortium, a global network of journalists that had handled document leaks from the HSBC bank and the tiny European nation of Luxembourg.

The network is overseen by the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit known for its muckraking journalism in the United States. The two share offices on different floors of the same building...

Keep reading.

Scott L. Montgomery and Daniel Chirot, The Shape of the New

Hey, get your heavy-duty intellectual juices flowing!

This looks really interesting (be sure to click on the preview for the contents page).

At Amazon, The Shape of the New: Four Big Ideas and How They Made the Modern World.

'Would You Rather: NYC Edition' with Mia Kang (VIDEO)

She's really sweet.

Ted Cruz's Wisconsin Win Complicates Donald Trump's Path to GOP Nomination (VIDEO)

Well, I expect we're closer to an open convention now than we've ever been.

At the video below, Andrea Tantaros introduces the "Outnumbered" panel discussion of last night Wisconsin results.

And see LAT, "Cruz wins Wisconsin, complicating Trump's path to the nomination":

Depending on the final outcome, Trump will need to capture close to 60% of the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination without a convention fight, said David Wasserman, who is tracking the GOP race for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. “Right now,” Wasserman said, “it looks like a 50-50 chance he gets there.”

Heading into the Wisconsin primary Trump suffered one of the rockiest stretches of his campaign, and that raised the hopes of opponents — including many rallying behind Cruz grudgingly as part of a stop-Trump effort — that the New York businessman's controversies may have finally caught up with him.

Exit polls found a strong aversion to the GOP front-runner, who heads to much friendlier territory Wednesday, starting with a rally on New York's Long Island.

Nearly 4 in 10 of the Republican voters interviewed Tuesday said they would be scared of what Trump would do if elected president, much higher than the levels of concern expressed about Cruz or Kasich.

About 6 in 10 said they were excited or optimistic about a Cruz presidency, and about half said that about Kasich, compared with just over 4 in 10 for Trump.

Additionally, the level of discontent with Washington and the percentage of voters favoring a political outsider for president, while considerable, was much lower than in states where Trump ran strongly.

Wisconsin at first seemed tailored to Trump's advantage. The state has a large population of working-class white voters and allows independents to cast ballots in the GOP primary; both groups have undergirded Trump's political success across the country.

Wisconsin is also more secular and less ideological than states where Cruz, running as a staunch social conservative, has performed well.

But almost immediately Trump ran into difficulties, owing to a series of tactical miscues.

He criticized the state's two most popular Republicans, Gov. Scott Walker, a onetime presidential rival, and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, and turned off many by insulting the looks of Cruz's wife, Heidi, in a posting on social media.

“That stung him badly,” said Rep. Reid Ribble, who represents Appleton and Green Bay in Congress and endorsed Cruz days ahead of the primary. “There's a real strong sense of family. The idea that somebody would attack anybody's wife, based on just physical appearance, was just so insulting to the typical father, to the typical husband and to the typical woman.”

Trump also faced a relentless battering from Wisconsin's conservative talk radio hosts, a key ally in Walker's pitched battles against organized labor and the political left.

Walker endorsed Cruz and, in effect, turned the primary into a referendum on his performance, telling Republicans to support the senator over Trump “if you liked what we've done” in Wisconsin.

Trump's difficulties were compounded by a series of controversies, including the arrest of his campaign manager on allegations of manhandling a reporter in Florida, and a statement — which Trump quickly revised — that the candidate would support punishing women who have an abortion if the procedure were banned.

Some voters, like Pam Gruettner, said they had backed Trump at first, only to be turned off by his behavior and outlandish statements, especially in the raucous GOP debates.

“I wanted someone to kick butt and get stuff done in the White House,” said Gruettner, a retired saleswoman, pausing after she cast her ballot for Cruz in Waukesha, a conservative stronghold. “I think his ego got the best of him.”

For some, though, Trump's penchant for unpredictability and blithe disregard for most social and political niceties were precisely the reason to support him.

“Trump is the right person to put in here, because we need somebody who everyone thinks is nuts,” said Tom Podziemski, 67, who cast his ballot in Greenfield, a Milwaukee suburb. “Cruz is just saying what the establishment wants him to say. He's a puppet.”

Cruz ran harder in Wisconsin than any state since Iowa, where he won the first 2016 contest. He faced a two-front battle, against Trump as well as Kasich, who tried to pick off a handful of delegates in friendly pockets of the state, including the university town of Madison.

For Trump, the good news is the balloting now moves to less hostile political terrain, starting in two weeks with a primary in his home state of New York, where he is an overwhelming favorite to capture a substantial chunk of its 95 delegates.

A string of contests follows on April 26 in Pennsylvania and several Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states, where GOP voters tend to be less religious and conservative, which could also play to Trump's advantage...

And see Politico, "Wisconsin meltdown puts Trump on track for convention fight."

Occidental College Professor Caroline Heldman Predicts Clinton-Trump Matchup in the General Election (VIDEO)

This clip's from a couple of weeks ago, but Professor Heldman's prediction was questionable even at that time. Now it's even more so, given the results from last night in Wisconsin.



Longtime readers will note that I've blogged about Professor Heldman for quite sometime, dating back at least to when she used to appear on "The O'Reilly Factor" years ago. She's been a major agitator in the local "campus rape" hysteria discussed here, "Paranoid Rape-Culture Harpies Running Wild at Occidental College."

Angels Have Been Outscored by 14 Points in First Two Games of the Season

Well, it's not very encouraging, although we've still got 160 more games to play, so no worries, lol.

At the O.C. Register, "Angels handcuffed again in 6-1 loss to Cubs":

Mike Scioscia sends you to the dictionary after the Angels 6-1 loss. https://t.co/vBQbjzKkFA

— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) April 6, 2016

ANAHEIM – The best thing you can say about the Angels’ season-opening two losses is that they are only two losses.

“It doesn’t count as three losses because you gave up a bunch of runs,” Manager Mike Scioscia said after his team dropped a 6-1 game to the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday night.

In their first two games, including a 9-0 loss on opening day Monday, the Angels have been outscored by 14 runs. That’s the worst two-game start in franchise history.

Again, though, just two games. Just a blink of an eye in a season.

“If you look up the definition of a small sample in the dictionary,” Scioscia said, “you’re going to find these two games are a small sample.”

To prove the point, the Angels’ previous worst two-game start came in 2014, when they were outscored by 12 runs in the first two games against the Seattle Mariners. They came back to win a major-league best 98 of their last 160 games that season.

That bit of meaningless trivia aside, the Angels certainly didn’t leave themselves much to feel good about heading into the season’s first off day...

More.

Deal of the Day: DEWALT Brushless 20V MAX XR Combo Kit

At Amazon, DEWALT DCK281D2 20V Max XR Lithium Ion Brushless Compact Drill/Driver & Impact Driver Combo Kit.

Also, today only, 40% or More Off Citizen Watches for Men & Women.

Plus, more spring cleaning supplies, BISSELL 1940 Powerfresh Steam Mop, Blue.

More, from Thomas C. Leonard, Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era.

And from Edwin Black, War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race.

BONUS: Robert Zubrin, Merchants of Despair: Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo-Scientists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism.

The New Republic Deletes Tricia Lockwood 'F*** Me Daddy'Tweet to Donald Trump

The bitch did it on purpose, to gin up interest in her essay at the New Rag-public.

See Twitchy, "The @NewRepublic Deletes ‘F*** Me Daddy’ Tweet To @RealDonaldTrump [Screenshot]; Update." (Via Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit.)

In her Twitter Q&A, @TriciaLockwood made a reference to her essay that we decided to delete. https://t.co/TW1FolejCZ pic.twitter.com/j9DflPWLYZ

— New Republic (@NewRepublic) April 5, 2016

Imagine the enormous amount of trust it must require for an established journalistic institution to allow me to hijack their twitter account

— Patricia Lockwood (@TriciaLockwood) April 5, 2016

god forgive me on this day for using an unironic hashtag

— Patricia Lockwood (@TriciaLockwood) April 5, 2016

well that was fun while it lasted

— Patricia Lockwood (@TriciaLockwood) April 5, 2016

love means never having to say you're making a reference to your essay https://t.co/jk8PRNAgf9

— Patricia Lockwood (@TriciaLockwood) April 5, 2016

Pre-Order Dana Loesch's New Book, Flyover Nation

Blogging about Andrea Tantaros' new book reminded me that Dana Loesch's second book is out in June.

Pre-order, at Amazon, Flyover Nation: You Can't Run a Country You've Never Been To.

Charity Funded by the U.N. Honors Palestinian Terrorists Who Murdered an American, Israelis

Unreal, but this is the (un)reality that we live in these days.

Sad.

From Katie Pavlich, at Town Hall.

Colorado Preschoolers Indoctrinated with Homosexual Marriage Curriculum

At iOWNTHEWORLD Report, "Four-year-old preschooler expelled in the name of LGBT tolerance":

A 4-year-old Aurora girl was kicked out of a preschool last month when her parents raised questions about books read in her class, including ones that told the stories about same-sex couples and worms unsure about their gender.

Her mother, R.B. Sinclair, sees it as sex education and wanted to opt her daughter out of those discussions.

Instead, school officials from Montview Community Preschool & Kindergarten in Aurora — run as a private, parent cooperative — explained the stories were part of the school's anti-bias curriculum, and because the discussions are embedded through the day, they told her that opting out was not possible.

Sickening.

It's bad enough in grade school. But they keep pushing depraved leftist indoctrination down to the younger ages.

Lila Kagedan, the First Orthodox Jewish Woman to Take the Title of Rabbi (VIDEO)

Via CNN: