Charlotte McKinney LOVE Advent (VIDEO)

More babe blogging.

I'm getting reading for the Sunday roundups and need to make sure I've got some Rule 5 posted for the reciprocal linkage, especially from William Teach at Pirate's Cove.

Two Minutes with Emily Ratajkowski (VIDEO)

I'm behind on babe blogging.

So, enjoy Ms. Emily. She's got a great personality!



Previous Emily blogging is here.

Buy It: Heather Mac Donald, The War on Cops [BUMPED]

Ms. Mac Donald's book is having an impact.

Bill Whittle gives her a huge shout out at his latest "Firewall" video, "BLACK LIVES MATTER KILLS PEOPLE."

Be sure to get your copy, at Amazon, The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe.

Donald Trump's Immigration Speech Threatens Republican Party's Future

I don't really care about the future of the GOP, particularly if the party continues to morph into a mirror image of the Democrats.

The job of the opposition party is to oppose. Might the Republicans need to spend a few years in the political wilderness? Fine with me. Frankly, we could use a party realignment that shakes up the entire party system.

But see Cathleen Decker, at LAT, "In immigration speech, Donald Trump spurns softened tone and threatens Republican future":

Donald Trump’s aggressively tough speech on immigration buried the notion that he planned to pivot away from the posture that got him the Republican nomination to a gentler position tailored for more moderate general election voters, Republicans included.

It also may have buried his party’s strategy for long-term survival: the effort to appeal to the Latino and Asian voters who are replacing the waning numbers of white voters on whom the GOP has long depended.

Trump’s Wednesday night remarks made clear that he intends to try to win the presidency with the group that won him the nomination — mostly male, white voters who feel stressed by the economy, the rapid changes in American society or both — in defiance of fears even among other Republicans that such a base is not big enough to secure the White House.

Nothing in his speech served to expand his reach among minority Americans. For some Republicans who have worked for decades to diversify their party, the result felt apocalyptic.

Mike Madrid, a California GOP strategist who has sought to broaden the party’s reach among Latinos and other nonwhite voters, declared himself “stunned” at Trump’s approach.

“We’re witnessing the end of the party,” he said. “I now know what my father meant in 1980 when he told me the party he grew up with” — in that case, the Democrats’ — “was no longer the party he felt comfortable in.”

Republicans for decades have debated what was required to attract the minority voters who grow more influential each presidential cycle: Was it a softening of policy on immigration, or merely a softened tone toward immigrants?

Few considered what Trump delivered Wednesday night: a speech that was hardened in both policy and tone.

Trump reiterated his call for a giant wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. He said that his immediate priority as president would be deporting those undocumented immigrants involved in crimes, but also asserted that no one in the country without proper documents would be outside the reach of deportation officers.

He said that even those brought here illegally as babies would be subject to being deported, and that all immigrants here without legal authorization would have to return to their country of origin to seek future return.

He also expanded on a plan to curb legal immigration and said he would set in motion a system by which future applicants would be judged by unspecified accomplishments — a standard that could be unattainable by many current immigrants.

Dividing immigrant families, while unfortunate, might be necessary, he suggested, because “our greatest compassion must be for our American citizens.”

Trump referred repeatedly to “criminal aliens” — words that are taken as a slap by many Latinos — and painted a world in which violent hordes were streaming over the border to target Americans. (Both crime and immigration levels remain near historic lows.)

Earlier in the day, during a quick visit with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, Trump had praised Latino immigrants as “spectacular” and “hard-working.” But by Wednesday night he was casting them and other immigrants as something more akin to a blight.

“No one will be exempt. … Anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation,” Trump said. He added later, with a sharp edge, that “people will know that you can’t just smuggle in, hunker down and wait to be legalized. Not gonna work that way. Those days are over.”

The views Trump expressed have an intense appeal among his most loyal supporters, but not among a majority of rank-and-file Republicans.

Still more at that top link.

MAGA!

F.B.I. Releases Files on Clinton Email Server Investigation (VIDEO)

If Americans elect her it'll be the day truth dies in America. It'll be the day that partisan tribalism triumphs over basic basic decency and right and wrong.

At the New York Times, "F.B.I. Papers Offer Closer Look at Hillary Clinton Email Inquiry":

WASHINGTON — F.B.I. officials questioned Hillary Clinton extensively about her judgment in using her private email system to discuss classified drone strikes and in allowing aides to destroy large numbers of emails, before ultimately deciding she should not face criminal charges, according to investigative documents released Friday.

The documents provided a number of new details about Mrs. Clinton’s private server, including what appeared to be a frantic effort by a computer specialist to delete an archive of her emails even after a congressional committee had requested they be preserved.

In a 3½-hour interview with the Justice Department’s top counterintelligence officials on July 2, Mrs. Clinton defended her handling of the private email system by repeatedly saying she had deferred to the judgment of her aides, an F.B.I. summary of the interview showed.

Mrs. Clinton’s use of the private server has shadowed her presidential campaign for a year. And the newly disclosed records, while largely reinforcing what had already been known about the F.B.I. investigation, provided Republicans more ammunition to attack the Democratic nominee’s judgment and honesty as she heads into the final, post-Labor Day phase of the campaign.

Among the other key findings in the F.B.I. documents:

■ Mrs. Clinton regarded emails containing classified discussions about planned drone strikes as “routine.”

■ She said she was either unaware of or misunderstood some classification procedures.

■ Colin L. Powell, a former secretary of state, had advised her to “be very careful” in how she used email.

The F.B.I. documents show that an unnamed computer specialist deleted the archive of Mrs. Clinton’s emails weeks after the existence of the private server became public in March 2015...

Yeah, the dude just deleted everything. How convenient.

'You're Going to Have Taco Trucks on Every Corner...' (VIDIO)

I don't know what the big deal is. I'm personally not too worried about food trucks.

But the "Latinos for Trump" dude put out the warning, at RWN, "'Latinos For Trump' Founder, Issues Anti- Immigration Warning: “Taco Trucks On Every Corner."

As you can see at the post, it's not so much taco trucks but rule of law that's at issue. But pull up a chair, grab a cerveza, and get a good laugh out of MSNBC's coverage of the so-called "taco truck" gaffe:

Michele Bachmann: This Will Be 'Last Election' If Hillary Wins Presidency (VIDEO)

I love Michele Bachmann.

I always have.

Via CBN (via Memeorandum):

Deal of the Day: Under Armour Tech Clothing

At Amazon, Deals in Under Armour Tech Clothing.

More, Under Armour Men's Tech Short Sleeve T-Shirt, and Under Armour Boys' Tech Big Logo T-Shirt.

Also, Apple EarPods 827 In-Ear Stereo Headphones with Remote and Mic - White.

Plus, KIND Bars, Dark Chocolate Nuts & Sea Salt, Gluten Free, 1.4 Ounce Bars, 12 Count.

And, GoPro HERO4 Silver.

BONUS: J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts 1 & 2, Special Rehearsal Edition Script.

J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy [BUMPED]

Has anyone read it?

I think I saw this guy Vance on Fox News a while back, but I've been noticing the book a bit more.

I'd like to check it out.

At Amazon, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.

Hillary Clinton's 'Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy'

At the Washington Post, "Hillary Clinton was right about the vast right-wing conspiracy. Here’s why it exists" (via Memeorandum):

The epic battles between the Clintons and their tormentors on the right have shaped American politics for nearly a quarter century.

But there was a moment early on when the toxic course of that history might have been changed, had it not been for Hillary Clinton’s impulses toward secrecy.

It came one weekend near the end of Bill Clinton’s first year as president, and pitted the first lady against her husband’s advisers.

“If a genie offered me the chance to turn back time and undo a single decision from my White House tenure, I’d head straight to the Oval Office dining room on Saturday morning, December 11, 1993,” ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, then a top aide to the president, wrote in his memoir “All Too Human.”

There was an urgent meeting that day to discuss a request by The Washington Post for documents relating to the Whitewater Development Corp., a failed Arkansas real estate investment the Clintons had made.

Whitewater had been an issue in the 1992 presidential campaign. More recently, questions had arisen whether the land deal and the Clintons might be linked to the collapse of a savings and loan.

Stephanopoulos and David Gergen, another senior adviser, were internal rivals at the time, who agreed on almost nothing. But both argued for full disclosure of the records. After a few days of rough coverage, they confidently predicted, the story would go away as the press corps discovered there was nothing sinister to the land deal and turned its attention elsewhere.

The president would not budge — and both of them knew why.

“Hillary Clinton is a woman of many strengths and virtues, but like all of us, she also has some blind spots,” Gergen said in a recent interview. “She does not see the world in the same way that others do, when it comes to transparency and accountability.”

She was not in the room, but the aides felt her presence.

“You could usually tell when Clinton was making Hillary’s argument: Even if he was yelling, his voice had a flat quality, as if he were a high school debater speeding through a series of memorized facts,” Stephanopoulos wrote. “Gergen and I didn’t know what was in the Whitewater documents, but whatever it was, Hillary didn’t want it out — and she had a veto.”

The fallout from that decision to stonewall would be enormous. Pressure built for the appointment of a prosecutor, first Robert B. Fiske Jr., and then Kenneth W. Starr, who had been solicitor general under former president George Bush.

Starr’s far-ranging investigation ultimately uncovered Bill Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, which led to his impeachment for perjury and obstruction of justice.

Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, would have the dark distinction of becoming the only first lady in history ever called before a federal grand jury. In 1996, she testified for four hours, mostly to answer questions about subpoenaed Whitewater-related documents that had vanished and then suddenly reappeared in the White House living quarters.

Gergen, Stephanopoulos and other top Clinton aides from that era — some of whom ended up with huge legal bills of their own — contend that none of this might have happened, had Hillary Clinton been more open in the first place.

“I believe that decision against disclosure was the decisive turning point. If they had turned over the Whitewater documents to The Washington Post in December 1993, their seven-year-old land deal would have soon disappeared as an issue and the story of the next seven years would have been entirely different,” Gergen wrote in his book about his time working for four presidents, from Nixon to Clinton....

Industry of scandal

Since then, an entire industry has grown up around Clinton scandals, pseudo scandals and conspiracy theories.

Countless millions have been raised and spent, both by their adversaries and their defenders. Republican-led congressional investigations have been launched, and lawsuits filed by conservative watchdog groups. The two sides wage constant war on the Internet, talk radio and cable news channels.

A search of Amazon.com finds more than 40 anti-Hillary books, with titles like “American Evita” and “Can She Be Stopped?” At the moment, three of the top 10 on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestseller list are volumes bashing the Clintons.

So Hillary Clinton had it right when she made her famous declaration that a “vast right-wing conspiracy” was out to get her and her husband. The opposition was and is passionate. It is well financed. It sees dark — sometimes preposterous — motives in nearly everything the Clintons do.

By the time Barack Obama took office, what she had called a conspiracy had grown into a permanent institution. On an ideological and political level, it fought Obama’s expansive view of government through legislation, lawsuits and grass-roots movements like the tea party. In its darker corners, it spread sinister rumors about his patriotism, his religious beliefs and even his citizenship.

More.

This story reminds me why I don't like the Clintons. I voted for him twice, but by the time of the impeachment I was deeply disappointed in Bill Clinton. Having Hillary in the Oval Office would just be the replay of an epic nightmare.

Heather Mac Donald: Does the Truth Matter?

At Prager University:



And buy Ms Mac Donald's book, The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe.

Robert C. O'Brien, While America Slept

Available September 6th.

Pre-order, at Amazon, While America Slept: Restoring American Leadership to a World in Crisis.

Ilan Berman, Iran’s Deadly Ambition

At Amazon, Iran’s Deadly Ambition: The Islamic Republic’s Quest for Global Power.

Milan Chatterjee, Graduate Student President, Quits UCLA After Being Harassed by Anti-Israel BDS Operatives

This is pretty mind-boggling, but not surprising in the end.

At the Daily Wire, "UCLA Student President Leaves Due to Anti-Israel Harassment."

Read it all at the link.

The dude's letter to the university left me shaking my head.

Enemies of Irvine PTA Mom Yearn for Revenge

Following-up from yesterday, "The Irvine PTA Mom's Enemies."

At LAT, "Framed: Secret lovers, legal maneuvering and a fictional blueprint for 'the perfect crime'."

I'm actually kinda hooked on this series, heh.

Jackie Johnson's Cooling Holiday Forecast

Well, it was pretty much boiling today.

I was sweating like a mofo earlier, running around campus.

Here's Ms. Jackie, via CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Donald Trump Delivers Tough Immigration Speech in Phoenix (VIDEO)

At the Arizona Republic, "Trump in Phoenix: Watch immigration speech live":

7:15 p.m.: Trump vows to build the wall

Donald Trump began laying out his immigration plan, asking the crowd, “Are you ready? Are you ready?”

His first step: “We will build a great wall along the southern border," he said.

The crowd chanted, “Build the wall.”

“And Mexico will pay for the wall. They don’t know it yet, but they’re going to pay for the wall. Great people and great leaders, but they’re going to pay for the wall."

Trump said he would build a wall that was tall, impenetrable and beautiful.

“We will use the best technology,” he said, “including above and below-ground sensors, towers, aerial surveillance, to supplement the wall.”

Trump said he believed Mexico would help with his plan because it would stop criminal cartels.

“Especially after meeting with their wonderful, wonderful president today,” Trump said, “they want to solve this problem along with us, and I’m sure they will.”

More at LAT, "Campaign 2016 updates: Donald Trump vows that Mexico will pay for a wall along southern border."

Plus, more video, "Donald Trump says Illegal Immigrants will be out within the 1st hour he's President - AGAIN," and "Donald Trump says maybe ICE will deport Hillary Clinton - Phoenix, Arizona."

And, "Donald Trump lays out three steps of his immigration policy."

Trump Secures Major Victory in Mexico Visit (VIDEO)

TPM's Josh Marshall had an essay up yesterday asking, "Can Trump Be This Stupid? (Not a Trick Question)."

I thought "Can Josh Marshal Be This Stupid?"

The Mexico visit was a brilliant idea. It surprised everyone and actually opened a dialog with Mexico on building the wall. Trump beats expectations and appears diplomatic. Pretty smart, I thought.

So here's Byron York with the confirmation, at the Washington Examiner, "Mexico gamble a huge win for Trump":

About an hour before Donald Trump made his joint statement with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, a strategist in Trump's extended circle saw success on the horizon.

"I bet they have a nice meeting where they both explain their positions and promise to talk further — it doesn't have to be any more complicated than that," the strategist explained. "If [Trump] just has a calm, behind-closed-doors meeting, has a photo taken, looks presidential, and gets out of town, that's a big win."

Indeed, it was a big win — a very big win — for Trump. Going into a meeting with the potential for disaster — who knew how Pena Nieto would receive the world's most controversial presidential candidate or what embarrassments might lie ahead? — Trump came out of the meeting looking very much like a potential President of the United States. Standing beside the Mexican leader in front of a green-gray granite wall reminiscent of the United Nations, Trump presented the picture of a statesman.

Less than 24 hours earlier, Trump was reciting "The Snake" before a rowdy audience in Everett, Washington. In Mexico, he looked like a world leader.

Before the meeting, some in the Trump circle saw a win virtually no matter what happened. "It's a great gesture," another adviser said. "Frankly, the outcome doesn't matter. It's the fact that he did it. He took the guy up on his invitation, and even if there's no substance, at least the gesture was made, and it absolutely, totally overshadows anything Hillary Clinton is going to do for the next 48 hours."

After the hour-long session, Trump benefited enormously from the conventions and practices of international relations. There they were, the president at one podium and the candidate at another, translators translating, the assembled international press watching. When it came time to talk, Pena Nieto observed the niceties of diplomacy, treating Trump as a quasi-president already...

Keep reading (via Memeorandum).

Previously, "Donald Trump to Visit Mexico to Meet with President Enrique Peña Nieto."

ADDED: Still more at Instapundit.

Deal of the Day: Samsung Virtual Reality Gear

At Amazon, Samsung Gear VR - Virtual Reality Headset (U.S. Version with Warranty).

Also, Save on Skechers Shoes.

More, Apple EarPods 827 In-Ear Stereo Headphones with Remote and Mic - White.

Plus, KIND Bars, Dark Chocolate Nuts & Sea Salt, Gluten Free, 1.4 Ounce Bars, 12 Count.

BONUS: John Prados, Storm Over Leyte: The Philippine Invasion and the Destruction of the Japanese Navy.

Islamic State's Abu Muhammad al-Adnani Killed in Syria (VIDEO)

Holly Williams reports, for CBS This Morning: