The Next French Revolution

I don't love the Economist so much these days, with its steady move to the left, but this is a great cover leader.

See, "France’s next revolution: The vote that could wreck the European Union - Why the French presidential election will have consequences far beyond its borders."

The implications of France's political insurgencies are hard to exaggerate https://t.co/tB5vTJrZH4

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) March 4, 2017

I'll credit them with a fair and decent discussion of Marine Le Pen, who I hope and pray becomes the next president of France.

RELATED: "France’s Next Revolution? A Conversation With Marine Le Pen."

Opens Today: 'Kong: Skull Island — Rise of the King'

I need to see "Logan" if I'm going to the flicks, and besides, "King Kong" movies are so tragically sad.

Pretty spectacular trailer, in any case:

On March 10, witness the rise of the King. Watch the NEW trailer for #kongskullisland! Get tickets now: https://t.co/ujrlGZAy5Y pic.twitter.com/YZ1b4rUxFB

— Kong: Skull Island (@kongskullisland) February 27, 2017

And see Kenneth Turan, at LAT, "Review: Big cast, big budget, not enough big ape in 'Kong: Skull Island'."

Rex Tillerson: Weakest Secretary of State Ever?

We're at 50 days in, so perhaps this analysis is a bit premature.

That said, it's Robert Jervis, eminent political scientist at Columbia University, and he makes some good points.

Of course, Tillerson could be the victim of a massive Democrat-leftist-bureaucrat sabotage campaign, designed to damage the entire administration. So, again, we'll see.

At Foreign Policy:

Here's why Rex Tillerson might be the weakest @StateDept Head ever. Robert Jervis explains: https://t.co/9t3KY34htr pic.twitter.com/tC4hPxkpp7

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) March 10, 2017

President Trump Fires 46 Obama Administration Holdovers at the Justice Department

Hey, right on!

At the New York Times, via Memeorandum, "Trump Abruptly Orders 46 Obama-Era Prosecutors to Resign."

Also at Twitchy:

YOU'RE FIRED: Donald Trump just told all 46 Obama-era US Attorneys to resign and Dems are LOSING IT https://t.co/OO3M34Nz6u

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) March 10, 2017

BONUS: At FrontPage Magazine, "David Horowitz on Hannity: 'Purging the Deep State' (VIDEO)."

Dana Loesch: Congressional Republicans Endangering the Trump Administration (VIDEO)

Via RCP, "Dana Loesch: Paul Ryan ObamaCare Plan a 'Middle Finger' to the American People, Trump Administration":

DANA LOESCH: I think there's a lot of danger there [with the House Republican health plan], Shannon. I want to reiterate what Senator Paul said, but I want to take it a step further. I think it's an insult. It's an insult to the American people and it's an insult to the Trump administration for Republicans, Congressional Republicans to deliver this bill to his desk.

They are the ones who are endangering this new administration and I can't bold, italicized, underline that anymore...

Also, at Breitbart, via Memeorandum, "7 Reasons Why ObamaCare 2.0 is All But Guaranteed to Impose Crushing Costs on Voters, Hurt Trump's Base, and Hand Power Back to the Democrats."

New Releases, Updated Hourly

At Amazon, Our Best-Selling New and Future Releases. Updated Hourly.

BONUS: Vine Deloria, Jr., Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto.

I'm off for interviews with the political science hiring committee all day.

Thanks for your support!

Scott Weidensaul, The First Frontier

*BUMPED.*

I'm almost 100 300 pages into Allan Eckert's, The Frontiersmen, which I'm loving.

For additional reading, see Scott Weidensaul, at Amazon, The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America.

U.S. Marines Have Landed in Syria

Well, you know what they say: Send in the Marines!

And they have.

At the Washington Post, "Marines have arrived in Syria to fire artillery in the fight for Raqqa":

Marines from an amphibious task force have left their ships in the Middle East and deployed to Syria, establishing an outpost from which they can fire artillery guns in support of the fight to oust the Islamic State from the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, defense officials said.

The deployment marks a new escalation in the U.S. war in Syria, and puts more conventional U.S. troops in the battle. Several hundred Special Operations troops have advised local forces there for months, but the Pentagon has mostly shied away from using conventional forces in Syria. The new mission comes as the Trump administration weighs a plan to help Syrian rebels take back Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State. The plan also includes more Special Operations troops and attack helicopters.

The force is part of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which left San Diego on Navy ships in October. The Marines on the ground include part of an artillery battery that can fire powerful 155-millimeter shells from M-777 Howitzers, two officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the deployment.

The expeditionary unit’s ground force, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, will man the guns and deliver fire support for U.S.-backed local forces who are preparing an assault on the city. Additional infantrymen from the unit will provide security, while resupplies will be handled by part of the expeditionary force’s combat logistics element. For this deployment, the Marines were flown from Djibouti to Kuwait and then into Syria, said another defense official with direct knowledge of the operation.

The official added that the Marines’ movement into Syria was not the byproduct of President Trump’s request for a new plan to take on the Islamic State...

Keep reading.

Thanks to the Readers Who Bought Allen Eckert's, The Frontiersmen

I'm still plugging away on this book, but it's one of those you actually don't want to rush through. I know there's not too many books like the ones from Eckert's series, the "Narratives of America." I want them to last a bit.

At Amazon, Allan Eckert, The Frontiersmen: A Narrative.

A couple of readers picked up copies. It's appreciated.

See also, Wilderness Empire: A Narrative; The Conquerors; The Wilderness War; Gateway to Empire; and Twilight of Empire.

Long day today with the committee for the new political science position at my college. But I'll update with something later tonight.

Thanks for your support.

Washington D.C. — One of America's 'Most Beautiful Cities'

I love D.C. A little chilly, otherwise I could fully hang.

At the Telegraph U.K.:

Tracy Chevalier: 'Washington DC is one of America's most beautiful cities'https://t.co/naF3vBoqQd pic.twitter.com/zgBlsbnH6r

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 7, 2017

Laura Hunter Files Lawsuit Against Right-Wing Website 'Conservative Post' (VIDEO)

The real Laura Hunter (a former Ms. World-winning beauty contestant) posted on Facebook to warn against the fake one, I think, heh.

See, "Before you all see it in the news, I'm involved in a stolen identity lawsuit and it's been picked up by the media."

And from CBS Evening News, last night:

Jackie Johnson's Continued Warm Forecast

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

MacKinlay Kantor, Andersonville

*BUMPED.*

Frankly, I'd never heard of this book, but I picked up a copy yesterday. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1956.

At Amazon, MacKinlay Kantor, Andersonville.

The novel's supposedly "the most powerful ever written about our nation’s bloodiest conflict," the Civil War.

Massive WikiLeaks C.I.A. Hacking Dump Reveals Spy Secrets, Possible Espionage on Americans (VIDEO)

I just don't know what to think anymore.

Absolutely nothing is safe these days from cyberhacking, and what's worse, the C.I.A. may well have been involved in domestic espionage, which is prohibited by statute. Either that, or other operators using the same technology.

In any case, at the New York Times, "WikiLeaks Releases Trove of Alleged C.I.A. Hacking Documents":

WASHINGTON — WikiLeaks on Tuesday released thousands of documents that it said described sophisticated software tools used by the Central Intelligence Agency to break into smartphones, computers and even Internet-connected televisions.

If the documents are authentic, as appeared likely at first review, the release would be the latest coup for the anti-secrecy organization and a serious blow to the C.I.A., which maintains its own hacking capabilities to be used for espionage.

The initial release, which WikiLeaks said was only the first part of the document collection, included 7,818 web pages with 943 attachments, the group said. The entire archive of C.I.A. material consists of several hundred million lines of computer code, it said.

Among other disclosures that, if confirmed, would rock the technology world, the WikiLeaks release said that the C.I.A. and allied intelligence services had managed to bypass encryption on popular phone and messaging services such as Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram. According to the statement from WikiLeaks, government hackers can penetrate Android phones and collect “audio and message traffic before encryption is applied.”

The source of the documents was not named. WikiLeaks said the documents, which it called Vault 7, had been “circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive.”

WikiLeaks said the source, in a statement, set out policy questions that “urgently need to be debated in public, including whether the C.I.A.’s hacking capabilities exceed its mandated powers and the problem of public oversight of the agency.” The source, the group said, “wishes to initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons.”

The documents, from the C.I.A’s Center for Cyber Intelligence, are dated from 2013 to 2016, and WikiLeaks described them as “the largest ever publication of confidential documents on the agency.” One former intelligence officer who briefly reviewed the documents on Tuesday morning said some of the code names for C.I.A. programs, an organization chart and the description of a C.I.A. hacking base appeared to be genuine.

A C.I.A. spokesman, Dean Boyd, said, “We do not comment on the authenticity or content of purported intelligence documents.”

WikiLeaks, which has sometimes been accused of recklessly leaking information that could do harm, said it had redacted names and other identifying information from the collection. It said it was not releasing the computer code for actual, usable cyberweapons “until a consensus emerges on the technical and political nature of the C.I.A.’s program and how such ‘weapons’ should be analyzed, disarmed and published.”

Some of the details of the C.I.A. programs might have come from the plot of a spy novel for the cyberage, revealing numerous highly classified — and in some cases, exotic — hacking programs. One, code-named Weeping Angel, uses Samsung “smart” televisions as covert listening devices. According to the WikiLeaks news release, even when it appears to be turned off, the television “operates as a bug, recording conversations in the room and sending them over the internet to a covert C.I.A. server.”

The release said the program was developed in cooperation with British intelligence...

Keep reading.

And watch, at CNN:

Tough Resistance to GOP's #ObamaCare Overhaul

Ann Coulter's pretty tough, and she hates it!

Heh.

But see the Los Angeles Times, "Obamacare overhaul faces resistance in Congress from right and left":

Who wrote this piece of crap Obamacare replacement bill? Please be specific.

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) March 7, 2017

I have to give full identifying info as each health ins co goes bankrupt. What are names of the brain trust that wrote this piece of crap?

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) March 7, 2017

Also, I would like every person involved in the writing of this Obamacare replacement POS to take a ten-minute IQ test. Transparency!

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) March 7, 2017

House GOP leadership faced mounting opposition Tuesday after introducing an Obamacare repeal and replace bill that was rejected by small government conservatives, panned by Republican moderates and given only lukewarm support from President Trump.

One day after unveiling the GOP’s long-promised effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and replace it with something better, the new American Health Care Act already appears to be on life support, unlikely to survive the onslaught of friendly fire unless Trump personally rallies his party.

But Trump’s intervention looks uncertain. While the president embraced “our wonderful new healthcare bill” in an early morning tweet, he also suggested it’s just a starting point “for review and negotiation” — opening the floodgates to alternative ideas and proposals that could take weeks to sort out.

Later, in a White House meeting with House Republicans, he offered a stronger endorsement, saying he was "proud to support" their plan and expected it to pass “very quickly.”

At the same time, though Trump is also accepting back-channel calls from conservative Republican opponents — including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — who are warning him off legislation they view as nothing more than a revamped federal entitlement program. Conservative lawmakers are being backed by the Koch network, whose supporters rallied outside the Capitol on Tuesday, and other influential groups including Heritage Action and Club for Growth. They dismiss the GOP leadership’s bill as “Obamacare 2.0” or “Obamacare lite.”

“This is not the Obamacare repeal bill we’ve been waiting for,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who is leading the GOP opposition with Paul and the House Freedom Caucus. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has also raised objections.“We promised the American people we would drain the swamp and end business as usual in Washington. This bill does not do that,” Lee said. “This is exactly the type of backroom dealing and rushed process that we criticized Democrats for, and it is not what we promised the American people.”

For seven years Republicans have promised to end Obamacare, and after winning repeated congressional elections on their promise to repeal and replace the law, they were confident Democrats would have no choice but to join them.

But Democrats have shown no interest in the GOP bill, saying it would drop millions of Americans from healthcare coverage without offering them viable alternatives. Rather than being spooked by their November election losses, Democrats have been buoyed by the outpouring of support for Obamacare by constituents and protesters flocking to lawmakers’ town hall meetings across the country...

Time to Shine Light on Obama Administration's Election Activities

From Professor Glenn Reynolds, at USA Today, "Did Obama spy on Trump?":

It isn't out of the question. The former president's administration wiretapped journalists and spied on Congress.

So President Trump set off a firestorm over the weekend with a series of tweets alleging that Obama had tapped Trump Tower. But getting hung up on imprecise language in the president's tweets isn't the right way to look at things. What seems to be at true is that the Obama administration spied on some of Trump's associates and we don't know exactly how much information was collected under what authority and who was targeted.

As former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy summarizes in National Review, the Obama Justice Department considered a criminal investigation aimed at a number of Trump’s associates. When they didn’t find anything criminal, they converted the investigation into an intelligence probe under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Elements of that story have been confirmed by The New York Times, the BBC and McClatchy newspapers.

FISA surveillance has to be approved by a special court, which almost always allows the government to spy on people when asked. But when the Justice Department asked to spy on several of Trump's associates, the court refused permission, according to the BBC. As McCarthy writes, this is notable because “the FISA court is notoriously solicitous of government requests to conduct national security surveillance.”

Not taking no for an answer, the Obama administration came back during the final weeks of the election with a narrower request that didn’t specifically mention Trump. That narrower request was granted by the court, but reports from the Guardian and the BBC don't mention the tapping of phones..

Former Obama officials issued denials that the former president had anything to do with it, which McCarthy calls “disingenuous on several levels.” Others have characterized them as a "non-denial denial.”

Of course Obama spied on Trump.

It's a no brainer.

But keep reading.

PREVIOUSLY: "NSA Whistleblower Backs Trump Up on Wiretap Claims."

NSA Whistleblower Backs Trump Up on Wiretap Claims

At Instapundit, "BILL BINNEY’S NOT JUST ANY WHISTLEBLOWER: NSA Whistleblower Backs Trump Up on Wiretap Claims":

President Donald Trump is “absolutely right” to claim he was wiretapped and monitored, a former NSA official claimed Monday, adding that the administration risks falling victim to further leaks if it continues to run afoul of the intelligence community...

Keep reading.

Shop Today

Thanks so much for the support.

I have a long Tuesday today. More blogging tonight, although I'll be with the hiring committee on my campus all day Wednesday and Thursday (conducting interviews), so I'm not sure how much blogging I'll be able to do.

It's a big week. I'll be looking forward to the weekend, heh.

In any case, at Amazon, Today's Deals.

BONUS: Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism.

'Turn The Beat Around'

Miami Sound Machine aluma, Gloria Estefan:

Santa Ana Seizes the 'Sanctuary City' Label

While seizing the "moment," Santa Ana risks losing the money.

At NYT above, and CBS News 2 Los Angeles at the video below.

"Sanctuary cities" should wear the label proudly https://t.co/ficPkrQCxw

— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) March 7, 2017