Tomi Lahren's Final Thoughts on Huma Abedin, Hillary's Bribe Broker (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Huma Abedin, Hillary's Bribe Broker (VIDEO)."

Watch, via the Blaze, "Tomi Lahren's Final Thoughts on Huma Abedin and Hillary Clinton's Corruption."

Long Beach Experiences Surge in Crime

Unexpectedly!

And it's not just the Ferguson effect. California's on the leading edge of the "de-incarceration" movement, with predicable results.

And remember, Long Beach is home to some of the most notorious gangstas anywhere in the country. Local hoodlums brag about their Long Beach creds. Snoop Dogg came out with "I'm From Long Beach" last year, apparently trying to capitalize on this city's hoodlum image:

After dark, no hooks, no marks, all Gs
Dip through the Funk House and I graduated with all Cs
So dope and I made bread
Never switching that's some real shit
Stayed down from the playground
And I always represent 20 crip...

In any case, at the Long Beach Press-Telegram, "Crime spike in Long Beach continues":

Police Chief Robert Luna said his department has been concerned about the crime rate since it began rebounding from historic lows in recent years.

In 2014, the number of violent crimes committed in the city was the lowest in 42 years, but violent crime jumped up almost 20 percent in 2015. That included 36 murders, the highest number in six years.

‘KEEPING US UP AT NIGHT’

“To see numbers like this, I’ve got to be honest with you, was keeping us up at night trying to figure out what was going on,” Luna said.

As crime has increased, so have the number of calls the police department has to respond to, according to the chief.

“We’re working more overtime right now to keep up with the workload,” Luna said.

Overtime is often assigned to a specific location and at specific times to tamp down areas where police see crime trends, Luna said.

The chief also said recent changes in California law have made it harder for officers to do their jobs. For example, Proposition 36 softened California’s three-strikes law. Proposition 47 reclassified a swath of felonies, including many drug crimes, as misdemeanors. And AB 109, a prison downsizing bill known as realignment, put local law enforcement in charge of supervising lower-level parolees.

Luna said he couldn’t directly tie the rise in crime to those changes, but he said he’s “highly suspicious” that offenses started trending upward after they went into effect...

And don't forget the war on cops.

Ryan Lochte Might Not Be 'Lyin' Ryan' After All

Is the dude getting a bum rap?

Perhaps.

But I don't feel sorry for him. If you're out drunk "carousing" at 4:00am in a Third World Country, bad things can happen. Very bad things. He's lucky things didn't turn out worse.

In any case, Melissa Clouthier cuts the guys some slack, "Feel Sorry for Ryan Lochte."

And see USA Today, "USA TODAY Sports investigation raises questions about Rio cops, Lochte incident."

One thing for sure: He's at the tail end of his swimming career either way, and thus his sponsors are making a rational decision to cut him loose. He might repair his reputation, but I'd be surprised if he returns to his swimming glory days of yore. Never say never, of course. I'll give the guy due props if he makes it to the 2020 Tokyo games.

Stanford University Bans Hard Alcohol at Undergraduate Campus Parties (VIDEO)

Think about all those tequila shots you'd be missing, heh.

At Legal Insurrection, "Stanford U. Bans Hard Liquor Over Sex Assault Case."

And watch, at CBS News 5 San Francisco, "Stanford Bans Hard Liquor."

Jackie Johnson's Beautiful August Forecast

Below average temperatures will bring beautifully mild summer weather today.

Here's Ms. Jackie, from yesterday's forecast, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Carissa Rosario Jumps Rope (VIDEO)

Following-up from the other day, "Carissa Rosario Working Out (VIDEO)."

Duke Taber: Trump's Changing the Narrative on Illegal Immigration

My last few entries on this are at the "illegal immigration" tag.

But read Duke Taber's comment, at the Conservative Treehouse, "Kellyanne Conway is Not Helping Donald Trump – and Perhaps That’s the Plan…":

With over 600 comments on this issue, obviously a lot of people have strong opinions about KC [Kellyanne Conway]. What I am about to say probably has already been said but here goes anyways. I do not believe for an instance that KC’s [Kellyanne Conway's] comment/s were accidental. I don’t think most of you think so either. So the question is whether or not they were intentional for profitable design or nefarious design. The article has landed on the side of nefarious design. That is understandable considering the clients KC [Kellyanne Conway] has represented in the past. I couldn’t stand “wolf in sheep’s clothing” Cruz.

However, I just don’t see this as something of nefarious design...

Keep reading.

Bruce Dickson, The Dictator's Dilemma [BUMPED]

This book looks awesome!

At Amazon, Bruce Dickson, The Dictator's Dilemma: The Chinese Communist Party's Strategy for Survival.

The Shortest Book Tour Ever? Ann Coulter's, In Trump We Trust

Heh, that's funny.

At Hot Air, "“This could be the shortest book tour ever”: Yes, there’s one Trump fan who’ll be unhappy if he flips on deportation."

Here's the video, "Ann Coulter Makes the Case for Trump - Hardball (MSNBC)."

Yeah, Trump's purported flip on immigration does put Coulter in a bind, but she's consistent, in any case. According to Hot Air, so far she's the only hard-line Trump backer willing to criticize the nominee.

And at Amazon, in any case, Ann Coulter, In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome!

PREVIOUSLY: "Donald Trump Lays Out His Plan to Combat Illegal Immigration (VIDEO)."

Donald Trump Lays Out His Plan to Combat Illegal Immigration (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Can Donald Trump Deport 11 Million Illegal Aliens? (VIDEO)."

From Hannity's town hall last night:

Can Donald Trump Deport 11 Million Illegal Aliens? (VIDEO)

If anyone doubts my bona fides on illegal immigration, just review my archives, or check "Immigrants and Socialists March Against SB 1070 in Phoenix."

I fucking hate illegal immigration.

That out of the way, I'm skeptical that we'd be able to pull off mass deportation. I'm skeptical for a variety of reasons. It's not the cost that bothers me (we can afford it), it's the visuals. Not only would mass deportation take on police state optics on an industrial scale, we'd have the radical left sabotaging efforts to the point of domestic terrorism. It could possibly foment civil war. Just look at the Costa Mesa and Sacramento Donald Trump rallies for an idea of the kind of dregs who'd take to the streets. Ask yourself if you're ready to crush a leftist insurgency, because that's what it'd be like. That's how far things have gone in this country.

In any case, at the Los Angeles Times, "Can Donald Trump really round up and deport 11 million people?":

At rallies and debates over the last year, Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to round up and deport the estimated 11 million people in the country illegally, sometimes saying he would eject them all in two years.

Over the last four days, however, the GOP presidential nominee and his top aides have issued contradictory signals as to whether Trump is backing off that core campaign pledge.

Aides have not said if Trump’s plan is under review because it appears politically unpalatable with moderate Republicans, or because forced deportations of millions of people would be prohibitively expensive and probably logistically impossible.

For now, the campaign has yet to provide specifics on how mass removals would be carried out, who would be targeted, and how much it would cost.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 235,413 people last year, down from a record high of 409,849 in 2012, according to ICE records.

The fall-off followed the Obama administration’s efforts to target individuals who threaten public safety or national security and not deport those with clean records and strong family ties in the U.S.

Independent groups have expressed widespread skepticism that a Trump administration could dramatically ramp up that process without disrupting key sectors of the economy, tearing apart millions of families and violating civil liberties on a mass scale.

In May, a report by the right-leaning think tank American Action Forum estimated that finding, detaining, legally processing and deporting everyone who is in the country illegally would cost up to $300 billion.

To meet Trump’s two-year goal, the report said, Congress would need to appropriate money to hire, train and field about 90,000 immigration apprehension agents — up from 5,000 Enforcement and Removal Operations officers today.

The government also would need to build about 1,250 immigration courts — there now are 57 such courts — and hire thousands more immigration judges and federal attorneys to process the caseload.

The think tank estimates that the lost labor and purchasing power of 11 million people — many of whom work, own businesses and pay taxes — could reduce the nation’s gross domestic product by $1 trillion, equal to about $9,000 per household.

Moreover, finding millions of undocumented migrants almost certainly would entail immigration agents entering homes, raiding businesses and operating roadblocks to check identity papers to separate U.S. citizens and approved immigrants from those in the country illegally, a winnowing-out process that undoubtedly would be challenged in court.

“You will really have to tear up the social fabric to get this done,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, head of the nonprofit think tank...

Still more.

'Killing Me Softly'

Y'all can be bumpin' to this one.

From the Fugees.



BONUS: "Fugees & Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly (Movie Awards)."

'Dough Nation' — New Revelations Show Hillary Clinton Put Access Up for Sale

Following-up, "#CrookedHillary: State Department Access Granted to Clinton Foundation Donors (VIDEO)."

At the New York Post:

Tomorrow's cover story: New revelations show a nation for sale under Hillary https://t.co/lHvTEriC5h pic.twitter.com/8Tb7HShon4

— New York Post (@nypost) August 24, 2016

Huma Abedin, Hillary's Bribe Broker (VIDEO)

Following-up, "#CrookedHillary: State Department Access Granted to Clinton Foundation Donors (VIDEO)."

From Matthew Vadum, at FrontPage Magazine, "Strong evidence of Hillary and Huma’s pay-to-play conspiracy emerges in new email dump."

Kelly Brook Fans Celebrate Her Curves

Well, I used to celebrate her curves. Now I'm lamenting her splurge.

She needs to get back on a diet. At some point, all that heft isn't attractive. Since when has she been selling herself as a plus-size model? Ashley Graham's got that celebrity top-spot nailed down, and she makes no apologies about it.

In any case, at the Sun U.K., "'THEY'RE GETTING BIGGER!' — Kelly Brook fans celebrate her curves as they speculate the buxom stars breasts are larger than ever before: The 36-year-old showed off her assets wearing a skintight striped dress."

PREVIOUSLY: "Wow! Kelly Brook is Packing on the Pounds!", and "Kelly Brook Goes for a Bike Ride."

Bubba Crony James Carville: 'Somebody is Going to Hell' Over Clinton Foundation Attacks (VIDEO)

Following-up, "#CrookedHillary: State Department Access Granted to Clinton Foundation Donors (VIDEO)."

Carville's delusional.

At Politico, "Carville: 'Somebody is going to hell' over Clinton Foundation attacks."

#CrookedHillary: State Department Access Granted to Clinton Foundation Donors (VIDEO)

It's never ending.

Crooked Hillary's email scandal keeps dropping into the news, with new emails coming to light, from new iterations of freedom of information requests.

Here's the big Associated Press story up right now at Memeorandum, "MANY DONORS TO CLINTON FOUNDATION MET WITH HER AT STATE":

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money - either personally or through companies or groups - to the Clinton Foundation. It's an extraordinary proportion indicating her possible ethics challenges if elected president...

A.P.'s Stephen Braun discusses the story at the video here.

Plus, at Washington Free Beacon, "ABC: State Dept Access Given to Clinton Foundation Donors ‘Precisely What She Said She Would Not Do’."

That piece discusses the story by ABC News investigation reporter Brian Ross. Here's the video, "Clinton Foundation: Did Donors Get Special Access?"

More at Memoeorandum.

The Unconscionable Legacy of the 2016 Olympic Games — #ThirdWorldGames

At Vice Sports, "THE RIO GAMES WERE AN UNJUSTIFIABLE HUMAN DISASTER, AND SO ARE THE OLYMPICS." (Hat Tip: Mina Kimes.)

I don't think I watched any more after Tuesday night. Once most of the marquee track events were done, I tuned out. Then of course you had the news of that idiot lyin' Ryan Lochte. I hope he's banned from the sport. He only took one gold anyway, and that was on a team relay. He's washed up, in more ways than one.

And as you recall, my hashtag's been #ThirdWorldGames, and for good reason.

In any case, from the article:

More than anything else, what surprised me during my first Olympics was the sheer scale of the bubble the IOC has made for itself. After arriving at the airport, members and assorted apparatchiks were ushered into private cars, ferried along exclusive highway lanes—look out the window, and there were Rio 2016-branded walls to mask the favelas—and dropped off at their exclusive hotels ringed by security, so only those with credentials could enter. They then took the same private cars to all of their events. Some even got motorcades. Once they got to the various sports venues, they went in the Olympic Family entrances, passed through the Olympic Family security lines, mingled in the Olympic Family club lounges, and watched athletes compete from the Olympic Family seats. When they were hungry, they surely put their $900 per diems to use at the city's most exclusive restaurants and bars, never risking having to interact with anyone who wasn't wealthy. Except, perhaps, for the people serving them.

Yes, the Olympic Bubble is so all-encompassing that the IOC has convinced itself that it doesn't exist. "These games have not been organized in a bubble," IOC President Thomas Bach told reporters on Saturday as he made other demonstrably false claims, such as the Games not using any public money and Brazilians being "united behind these Olympic Games" despite the fact that half of them weren't. Bach ended his press conference by no-commenting almost every question, but adding that if the Olympics can happen in Rio, they can happen anywhere.

Putting aside Bach's sportocrat snobbery, there is a critical lesson here. The Olympic Bubble's comprehensiveness illustrates just how little the IOC is concerned with anyone but themselves—and how blithely, even happily indifferent the entire Olympic "movement" is to the waste and corruption it fosters, and the human wreckage it leaves in its wake...

Rather than bring development and prosperity, the games will increase economic inequality and social division.

More at that top link.

Out Today: Ann Coulter, In Trump We Trust

The moment you've all been waiting for, I'm sure.

At Amazon, Ann Coulter, In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome!

Forget About an Electoral Landslide in 2016

I love going on 270-to-Win in my classes, showing students blowout Electoral College victories, like Richard Nixon's massive destruction of George McGovern in 1972. The map's almost hilariously red.

But then I tell students we don't get those kind of blowouts these days. The country's been pretty clearly divided between party strongholds for almost twenty years. I'll tell you though, unless Donald Trump really makes up some big gains in the key battlegrounds, the Democrats might well expand their map this year.

Still, though, it's not likely to be blowout.

See the New York Times, "Think the Clinton-Trump Race Will Be a Landslide? Hold Your Horses":

Will Trump lose in a landslide? It's been 32 years since a presidential candidate lost by double digits. https://t.co/12skQvayDO

— Jeremy W. Peters (@jwpetersNYT) August 23, 2016

Donald J. Trump, after weeks of self-inflicted damage, has seen support for his candidacy in national polls dip into the 30s — Barry Goldwater and Walter F. Mondale territory — while Hillary Clinton has extended her lead to double digits in several crucial swing states.

Time to declare a landslide, right? Not so fast.

The vote may be more favorable to Mr. Trump than the worst-case-scenario prognosticators suggest for a very simple reason: Landslides do not really happen in presidential elections anymore.

It has been 32 years since a president won the popular vote by a double-digit percentage. That was when Mr. Mondale suffered an 18-point defeat to Ronald Reagan in 1984. It was also the last time there was a landslide among states, with Mr. Mondale winning only Minnesota and the District of Columbia.

There are a variety of factors that are likely to prevent a candidate today from rallying the huge, 60-plus-point majorities that swept Franklin D. Roosevelt into office in 1936, Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and Richard M. Nixon in 1972.

The country is too fragmented and its political temperature too overheated for any single person to emerge as a consensus choice for anything nearing two-thirds of the electorate. And that climate has led the political parties to become far more ideologically uniform than they used to be.

“The biggest difference between today and say, 1936 or 1964, is the composition of the two parties,” said Jonathan Darman, author of the book “Landslide: LBJ and Ronald Reagan at the Dawn of a New America.” Party identification used to be more fluid, making it less difficult for partisan voters to conceive of supporting someone of the opposite affiliation.

“The Republican and Democratic parties were much more heterogeneous than the parties we have today,” Mr. Darman added. “Party identification had a lot more to do with regional ties and family traditions than ideology.”

Keep reading.