Samantha Hoopes Bae Watch (VIDEO)

Via Sports Illustrated:



PREVIOUSLY: "Samantha Hoopes Summer of Swim Beach Body Workout (VIDEO)."

Thanks to the Reader Who Bought Heather Mac Donald's The War on Cops [BUMPED]

It's a great book.

I love how it's packed with statistics, which come on handy when you're beating back the leftist liars and their lying cop-hating narrative.

Thanks for the reader who picked up a copy! And thanks to all of my readers who've been shopping through my Amazon links.

It helps out with my book budget.

So keep shopping, heh.

Here, The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe.

ADDED: Trump's also talking about law and order in his economic speech right now.

Here's Robert J. Gordon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth

More on economics, considering Trump's big speech on the economy right now.

At Amazon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War.

Reupping Ian Fletcher's, Free Trade Doesn't Work

Donald Trump's speaking right now on economic policy. He was saying "free has big benefits," while at the same time talking about how he was going to bring "trillions of dollars" back home, heh.

Good times.

Here's Fletcher's book, at Amazon, Free Trade Doesn't Work: What Should Replace It and Why."

Trump Nation Losing Faith?

Nope.

But I don't think there was any question. It's what's going to happen to independent and so-called swing voters?

But see LAT, "Are all those Trump controversies raising doubts in Trump Nation? Not really":

Donald Trump has dominated the airwaves for much of the 2016 presidential campaign, but the Republican presidential nominee has faltered in recent polls.

His campaign has been dogged by a series of controversies, including Trump’s sparring with the family of a Muslim soldier killed in Iraq, his invitation to Russian hackers to look into Hillary Clinton’s emails, and his initial hesitancy in endorsing House Speaker Paul D. Ryan.

Are those issues causing second thoughts among his most ardent supporters? Earlier this year, we profiled several voters around the country — a personal trainer in Virginia, a retired car salesman in Las Vegas and a Latina immigrant in Texas, among others. All had become, for different reasons, enthusiastic citizens of Trump Nation.

What’s behind Trump’s slipping poll numbers? Have the latest controversies caused these voters to reconsider? We checked back with some of them, and the answer is: not really. The things that made Trump appealing to them to begin with — his willingness to take on the status quo, his calls for building American strength and clamping down on immigration — still hold true, they said...

Keep reading.

Two 'Super Scoopers' Arrive in Van Nuys to Help Fight Seasonal Wildfires (VIDEO)

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles.

This is cool:

Belgium Launches Terror Investigation as Islamic State Claims Machete Attack

Following-up from Saturday, "Machete Suspect Screams 'Allahu Akbar' in Latest Belgian Jihad Attack (VIDEO)."

At WSJ, "Belgium Launches Terror Probe as ISIS Claims Machete Attack":

BRUSSELS — Belgian authorities have opened a terrorism probe following a weekend machete attack on two police officers in the city of Charleroi, the latest assault in what has become a relentless summer-long barrage.

The assailant, who was fatally shot during the attack, was identified Sunday by the authorities as a 33-year-old Algerian man who had been living in Belgium illegally since 2012.

Authorities didn’t disclose any indications of accomplices or large-scale planning behind Saturday’s attack, which left one of the officers with serious injuries to her face and neck. The assailant wasn’t carrying explosives or any other weapon, and while he was known to authorities because of his illegal status in the country, he wasn’t known to have any terror links, federal authorities said. They released his initials, K.B., but not his name.

Islamic State’s news agency Amaq claimed the attack was carried out by one of the group’s “soldiers” in response to strikes by the U.S.-led coalition fighting against it in Iraq and Syria.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said federal prosecutors had opened a probe into “attempted terrorist murders,” assigning an investigative judge specialized in terrorism cases.

“The terrorist track is the possibility which is under analysis at this point,” Mr. Michel said, adding that at this early stage it was important to be “extremely prudent” in drawing any conclusions.

The slashing was the most recent in a string of attacks claimed by the Sunni Muslim extremist group that have left scores dead, in what Mr. Michel described as a “new reality” in Europe.

In addition to orchestrating large-scale attacks, directed at least in part from abroad, Islamic State has also encouraged sympathizers to carry out lone-wolf attacks targeting civilians, which authorities have acknowledged are much harder to prevent. In some cases, authorities haven’t been able to corroborate claims of responsibility by the group.

Some of the more recent attacks linked to Islamic State in Europe have been carried out away from the more heavily guarded capitals—including the July 14 attack in Nice, in southern France; the July 24 suicide bombing in Ansbach, Germany, and the July 26 killing of a French priest in Normandy...

More.

Belgium's national elections are scheduled for 2019. Still a ways off, and thus plenty of time for Islamic invaders to launch further rounds of jihad attacks.

Brussels is the capital of European jihad. It's out of control.

How Brazil's Lula Conned the World — #ThirdWorldGames

From Mary Anastasia O'Grady, at WSJ:

The 2016 Olympic Games kicked off in Rio de Janeiro on the weekend without major incidents. That seemed a near miracle after weeks of grim reports about shoddy construction, an unprepared security detail and monstrous traffic jams. Whether the athletes, visitors and Cariocas (as Rio residents are known) can get through the next two weeks without a catastrophe remains an open question.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Then again, when Rio won the competition in 2009 to host these games, Brazil wasn’t forecast to look like it does today—with a budget deficit equal to some 8% of gross domestic product, inflation near 10%, two years of economic contraction and a cesspool of corruption scandals.

In 2009, President Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party (PT) had been at the helm for more than six years and was somewhat of a world rock star. His hip rhetoric denigrated the economic liberalism of the 1990s while hyping a new and improved brand of socialism with a samba twist.

Much of the region bought Lula’s 2.0 version of big government. Concerns about the return of left-wing Latin populism and its potential damage to entrepreneurship and economic growth were met with assurances that this time would be different.

Lula was a man of the left but he wasn’t Hugo Chávez, conventional wisdom explained. A November 2009 Economist magazine cover story was titled “Brazil takes off.” It cited a forecast by the consulting firm PwC that by 2025 São Paulo would be the world’s fifth-wealthiest city. Most of punditry agreed: Brazil was on course to take its rightful place as a world economic superpower.

Lula stepped down after two terms in 2011, handing power to his PT successor, President Dilma Rousseff. The 2016 Olympics were supposed to showcase the socialist paradise he had cultivated: an urban utopia mixing affordable housing, national industrial champions and orderly public-transportation networks to provide a tranquil—and environmentally approved—living experience.

Instead, at the Olympic Village, just weeks before the opening, sinks fell off the walls and there were various other plumbing disasters. The Australian national team fled from its quarters upon arrival because it found, among other things, exposed electrical wires next to indoor puddles of water. Guanabara Bay, the venue for open-water swimming and sailing races, is a giant petri dish of bacteria. A new metro line that was supposed to take visitors to the games ends eight miles short of its promised destination.

The Rio security company that was hired to screen spectators was fired 10 days ago for noncompliance with its contract. Organizers scrambled last week to hire and train a replacement team.

The world seems stunned. It shouldn’t be. Rio is a microcosm of Lula’s Brazil, where bureaucracy runs things from the top down and human beings are an afterthought. The only thing missing in this Rio analogy—so far—is the corruption that flourished at the federal level during 14 years of PT government...

Still more.

Germany Jihadists Directed by Islamic State Network in Saudi Arabia

At CNBC, "German attackers directed by Isis contacts in Saudi":

The two refugees who launched terror attacks in Germany last month were in contact with suspected members of the militant group Isis, including one with a Saudi phone number, according to reports in the German media on Saturday.

Records of internet communication now in the hands of German investigators show both men, the Afghan teenager Riaz Khan Ahmadzai, and Mohammed Daleel, a 27-year-old Syrian, were advised and directed by Isis, which provided tips on ensuring the maximum number of casualties.

Ahmadzai was shot dead by police after going on the rampage with an axe and a knife near the Bavarian town of Würzburg on July 18, wounding five people, while Daleel died after blowing himself up outside a wine bar in Ansbach, also in Bavaria, six days later, injuring 15 people.

Germany is still reeling from the attacks, the first committed by Muslim refugees who were part of the big wave of migrants that has entered the country over the past few years.

They have become a problem for Angela Merkel, Germany's long-serving chancellor, whose popularity has taken a big knock in the wake of the attacks...

Still more.

Remember, these are the same attackers who leftists declared had nothing to do with Islam. And even when it's clear, from the get go, that they do have something to do with Islam, those facts are always scrubbed.

See, "Syrian Migrant Denied Asylum Died When Bomb in His Backpack Exploded Mysteriously in Ansbach, Germany."

Trump and Clinton Swap Voters in Ohio

From Cathleen Decker, at LAT, "In complicated Ohio, Trump and Clinton swap voters as they vie for a key state":

No state this year does Republican dysfunction like Ohio.

The popular Republican Gov. John Kasich stiffed Donald Trump at the home-state convention and now regularly dismisses him on Twitter. Trump has threatened to retaliate by raising money to squash Kasich’s future ambitions.

The state’s Republican Sen. Rob Portman, running for re-election, has stuck with his endorsement of the party’s nominee but has yet to appear in public with him. Instead, Portman has upbraided Trump repeatedly, and his campaign recently sent aides to search for potential supporters at Hillary Clinton rallies.

All that would be merely familial squabbling if not for Ohio’s frequent role as the decider in presidential contests. It is a must-win state for Trump; a loss here would almost certainly deny him the presidency and secure the White House for Clinton.

It is also a high-profile test of the contours of the national campaign, as both Trump and Clinton have a good chance here of stealing from the other party’s usual voters.

Clinton is going after Republican-leaning suburbanites put off by Trump’s demeanor and is trying to persuade blue-collar white voters that Trump is a hypocrite on trade and business issues.

Trump has set his sights on those blue-collar Democrats with a campaign heavy on expressions of grievance for decades of manufacturing declines. He’s also courting Republicans eager for change after two Democratic White House terms.

“Both campaigns are probably spending time watching some of their traditional voters run away and watching others run to them,” said Doug Preisse, a Columbus-based Kasich confidant who heads the Republican Party in Franklin County, which includes Columbus.

The most recent public polling has the race dead even in the state — but that survey was conducted weeks ago, during the Republican convention. Even Republicans suggest that Clinton has likely pulled ahead here, as she has in nearby industrial states and nationally since the end of her convention.

But few expect Ohio to deviate in November from its recent record of close contests.

“It’s winnable for both candidates. The question is who has the superior ground game and strategy,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, whose July poll had Clinton and Trump deadlocked at 44% each. “It’s going to be fought in hand-to-hand combat in a lot of these counties.”

If so, Trump could be hard-pressed. Organizationally, Clinton has the upper hand. Her team barely left after the March primary; the candidate and her running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, have been regular visitors.

Clinton is building on multiple winning streaks: former President Bill Clinton’s wins here in the 1990s, President Obama’s two general election wins, and her own primary victories in 2008 and this spring.

Her team has hundreds of workers in the state, and in her visit here Sunday, Clinton advertised more openings for organizers. The campaign is canvassing supporters and registering voters in communities across the state this weekend.

Trump’s campaign has been slower to form, a danger in a state where early ballots can be cast starting Oct. 12 — just a little more than two months away. The campaign’s new state director began work on June 23, well after Clinton’s chief strategist set up shop; only last week he was moving into an office in Columbus...

Keep reading.

Vote Yes! Keep the Rangers!

I'm not a big fan of public financing of professional sports stadiums. I think the fans get burned in the end.

But see the Fort Worth Star-Telegram‎, "PAC set to kick off campaign for $1 billion Rangers ballpark Sunday."

While the team was battling Houston, @CityOfArlington voters were saying "Yes" to @KeepTheRangers. #KeepTheRangers pic.twitter.com/Yt4UoQBMeS

— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) August 7, 2016

Photos Reveal Hillary Clinton Needs Help Climbing Stairs

It's at American Mirror, "SHOCK PHOTO: Multiple staffers help unstable Hillary up stairs."

That got Drudged, heh.

Good for over 8,000 comments.

ADDED: Instalanched too, "HILLARY’S HEALTH STATUS IS IFFY: Drudge is on it, too. Check out the photos and her difficult trip up the stairs. When will the media question Hillary’s health status? Hey, back off, man. She has Media Privilege. (And this is an example of it.).

The Produnova Vault

This is interesting.

It's called the "vault of death."

At WSJ:

The Produnova vault is a gamble only a handful of women’s gymnasts are willing to make https://t.co/fX092NX1GJ #Rio2016

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 7, 2016

And there's more about India's Dipa Karmakar here, "Assignment Asia: Conquering the 'vault of death'."

Donald Trump Campaign Reboot

He just needs to be disciplined, although not too much so, or he'll lose his signature appeal.

Mostly, though, he needs to stay focused on the key issues, hammering on the economy and Hillary Clinton-Democrat Party corruption.

But see the Wall Street Journal, "Donald Trump Tries a Campaign Reboot":

Donald Trump is trying to quickly reset his presidential campaign to address worsening poll numbers and growing isolation from influential members of the Republican Party.

At weekend rallies, the GOP nominee read from a hand-held script and offered endorsements for the re-elections of a trio of Capitol Hill Republicans whom he had toyed with rebuffing. On Monday, he will head to Detroit to deliver an economic policy address that is expected to draw contrasts with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Many in Mr. Trump’s party have been clamoring for weeks to see these kinds of adjustments. If he is to persuade Republican skeptics to buy back into his campaign, just weeks before the crucial post-Labor Day stage, the unorthodox, first-time candidate now must show he can make the changes stick.

Part of the issue for the New York businessman is that he has run his campaign much like his family business, with his grown children as his top counselors and surrogates. That has meant he hasn’t developed a strong connective tissue to party stalwarts and activists that can sustain a candidate through difficult times.

Reports of Republicans leaving the party, lining up behind Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson or even backing Mrs. Clinton gained momentum last week, after the nominee’ criticized the parents of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq.

“The friendly fire within the Republican Party over the last week has been extremely counterproductive,” said veteran GOP strategist Dave Carney, who isn’t involved in the Trump campaign but says he will vote for him. “In modern presidential politics, this election is an outlier in terms of deterioration of support.”


Mr. Trump hopes for a reboot with his Detroit speech, which will talk about “the tepid economy under Obama and Clinton, versus the kind of growth economy that Mr. Trump wants to build,” Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort said Sunday on Fox News.

“We’re comfortable we’ll get the agenda and the narrative of the campaign back on where it belongs,” Mr. Manafort added.

Mr. Trump in his speech is expected to give broad strokes about his economic plan, particularly to underscore his support for tax cuts. He is also likely to reiterate his plan to create a single top business tax rate that would apply to corporations and to businesses that pay taxes through their owners’ individual returns.

The candidate isn’t likely to offer a detailed revision of his previously announced plan for big tax cuts. Advisers have been working on an overhaul of that plan to address criticism it would rapidly expand the federal deficit, but that revision isn’t yet ready, advisers said.

Mr. Trump has shown an ability to survive rough patches, and he and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, have stressed party unity in recent days. At a rally in New Hampshire Saturday night, Mr. Trump largely stuck to lines of attack against Mrs. Clinton that bind most Republicans together.

Still, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, both of whom are facing election challenges, didn’t appear on stage with their party’s nominee during weekend rallies in their respective states...

More.

Concessions at the Coliseum for Los Angeles Rams

Via Lindsay Thiry:

Beer returns to the Coliseum with the Rams. pic.twitter.com/GK6jDQRGxY

— Lindsey Thiry (@LindseyThiry) August 6, 2016

Here's a look at concession prices for Rams in the Coliseum. pic.twitter.com/tNAbpZjs2M

— Lindsey Thiry (@LindseyThiry) August 6, 2016

A king can of Coors Light will set you back $10. pic.twitter.com/4iLwvWS7G0

— Lindsey Thiry (@LindseyThiry) August 6, 2016

And for premium beer - a king can of St. Archers - that'll be $13 at the Coliseum. pic.twitter.com/VFfDLAD31L

— Lindsey Thiry (@LindseyThiry) August 6, 2016

Randy's Donuts at the Coliseum for the Rams. pic.twitter.com/Vyh4FAEuB2

— Lindsey Thiry (@LindseyThiry) August 6, 2016

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Cartoons."



And at Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Roundup..."

Cartoon Credit: A.F. Branco, "Iranian Stimulus Package."

Studs Terkel, Hard Times

I picked up an old copy of this yesterday.

It turns out it's still in print.

A great read.

At Amazon, Studs Terkel, Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression.

Dutch Cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten in Intensive Care After Monster Crash in Women's Road Race at Rio 2016 (VIDEO)

Watch, at NBC Sports, "Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten suffers a horrific crash while in the lead and nearing the end of the road race on Sunday."

And at the Mirror U.K., "Annemiek van Vleuten in intensive care with three spinal fractures after horror crash."

Deal of the Day: LED Flashlight Outdoor Handheld Zoomable Flash Torch with 5 Light Modes

At Amazon, LED Flashlight, Juslink 900 Lumens CREE XML T6 Tactical Flashlight Outdoor Handheld Zoomable Flash Torch with 5 Light Modes , Ultra Bright, Adjustable Focus, Water Resistant Metal Flash Light.

Also, iSunMoon Outdoor Solar Powered LED Gutter Light Fence Roof Gutter Garden Yard Wall Lamp.

And, Mary Katharine Ham, End of Discussion: How the Left's Outrage Industry Shuts Down Debate, Manipulates Voters, and Makes America Less Free (and Fun).

Bruce Levine, The Fall of the House of Dixie: The Civil War and the Social Revolution That Transformed the South.

Still more, from Leon Litwack, Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery.

Clint Romesha, Red Platoon: A True Story of American Valor.

And John Nagl, Knife Fights: A Memoir of Modern War in Theory and Practice.

BONUS: Dexter Filkins, The Forever War.

More Trending Headphones [BUMPED]

At Amazon, Philips SHQ1200/28 ActionFit Sports In-Ear Headphones.