Richard Slotkin, Regeneration Through Violence

*BUMPED.*

I love this guy's books.

At Amazon, Richard Slotkin, Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600–1860.

And ICYMI, The Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialization, 1800–1890.

The Trump-Hate Weather Vane

It's Olivia Nuzzi.

I tweeted her a while back, asking why she left the Daily Beast. But she didn't respond. Oh well.

At the New Yorker, "Will Anti-Trump Fury Help Flip the Electoral Map for Democrats?":

Will fury and heaps of Democratic cash be enough to get political neophyte Jon Ossoff elected to Congress? https://t.co/yJ3GTKyYKP

— New York Magazine (@NYMag) April 3, 2017

In all senses, the sun was shining on Jon Ossoff. It was early in the evening on a Sunday in late March, and the suddenly very visible 30-year-old Democratic candidate in the first competitive special congressional election of the Trump era was riding shotgun in a sooty-black Chrysler Sebring, hunched over a paper plate of cheese and crackers, while a member of his staff steered toward the next fund-raiser through the hills of suburban Atlanta. The back of the car was piled high with half a dozen Nike shoe boxes, a stuffed owl, and a reporter. Between bites, Ossoff stared ahead at the road, indulging in long pauses as he considered what to say about his new life as the luckiest young man in American politics. “There’s nothing that I would love more than a freewheeling conversation about political philosophy,” he said. “But I’m cautious because, as you know, the knives are out right now.”

That is not exactly how things appeared to most observers of this breakneck two-month campaign to fill the House seat vacated by Tom Price, the new secretary of Health and Human Services. Outside of the Sebring motorcade, Ossoff looks like the poster boy of the resistance, the grassroots opposition to both President Donald Trump and the wave of nationalism that installed him in office. He is a relative neophyte running 20 points ahead of a divided Republican field in a congressional district that hasn’t been blue since Jimmy Carter, also a Georgian, was president; an anonymous congressional aide turned documentary-film producer made into a national political figure mostly by love from readers of the Daily Kos; a pleasant, generic hipster-technocrat vessel into which an entire nation of angry Democrats has poured its electoral hopes (not to mention its millions of dollars — literally millions, a wild haul for a first-time nobody in a two-month race).

In this brave new post-2016 world, the Ossoff campaign is an experiment of sorts, a Trump-backlash trial balloon that might — on April 18, when the first round of voting is held, or on June 20, when the likely runoff will be completed — tell us just how much the president has reshaped the electoral map. It may also tell us that Democrats will have to do a whole lot more than just ride the wave of Trump hate to have a real chance of puncturing House Republicans’ red wall in 2018. Which is where Tom Perez, the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee, tends to come down. “Our mistakes, I think, were not just in 2016,” he told me, sketching out his vision for how the party might win back control of the federal government. “Our mistakes were a number of years in the making. We ignored too many voters. We got away from a 50-state strategy. And we took too many people for granted.” Now, Perez said, he’s focused on making up for lost time, which includes plans to channel resources into Georgia’s Sixth District. “We’re going to work hard down there,” he said, “because underdogs win.”

By March, anti-Trump enthusiasm and the national spotlight had made the Ossoff campaign look considerably less underdog-y; most recent polls put him at 40 percent, within striking distance of a majority (which would win him the seat outright and allow him to avoid a runoff in which a Republican candidate could consolidate conservative voters). The Atlanta suburbs seemed so upended by the race it almost didn’t feel like the South at all; traveling from Trump’s Washington, D.C., to what Ossoff hopes will soon become his Georgia seat is like walking out of the Gathering of Juggalos and into the Metropolitan Opera. “He’s our hope,” Carol Finkelstein, a 71-year-old from Sandy Springs, told me in her placid living room on a recent Saturday, just before Ossoff took to the carpet to address her neighbors. “He can’t stop a runaway train, but I’m hoping he can at least be a voice of reason.” Nearby, Barbara Brown, a 93-year-old who’s also committed to voting for Ossoff, was less diplomatic. “I’m an Independent,” she told me. “My husband was the Republican, but we don’t have to worry about him anymore.”

Well, this oughta be interesting.

Keep reading.

RELATED: Here's the gag me factor to this race, celebrity carpetbaggers flooding suburban Atlanta. At the AJC, "CELEBRITIES AND POLITICS: Alyssa Milano and Christopher Gorham stump for 6th District candidate Jon Ossoff."

Rita Ora Upskirt

At Taxi Driver, "Rita Ora White Pantie Upskirt."

She's a smokin' hot woman.

PREVIOUSLY: "Rita Ora is Topless on New 'Lui' Cover."

'One Nation Under Baseball'

Just out from John Florio, at Amazon, One Nation Under Baseball: How the 1960s Collided with the National Pastime.

Hat Tip: the New York Times.

Stories about free agency, rubbing mud and a pitcher whose name was a lot cooler than yours https://t.co/wm9kz0CDf8

— New York Times Books (@nytimesbooks) April 2, 2017

Julie Henderson Uncovered for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2017 (VIDEO)

She's a sweetie.

Give it up for Sports Illustrated this year, man. They've gone above and beyond the call of babe-blogging duty, lol.

Being Well-Informed on the Reality of Global Jihad is 'Islamophobic'

Pfft.

"Islamphobia" is a meaningless term invented solely to stifle criticism of Islam.

People who read the news are more likely to be Islamophobic, study finds https://t.co/OXUcOIP9eM

— The Independent (@Independent) April 3, 2017

A Final Test for Gonzaga

The moment you've all been waiting for, 6:00pm tonight (Pacific time), on CBS.

Despite a small-conference pedigree, Gonzaga has proven it belongs on NCAA's biggest stage, @marcatracy writes https://t.co/ITleDr7bRY pic.twitter.com/4rWhw6JHn9

— NYT Sports (@NYTSports) April 3, 2017

George Ciccariello-Maher on Tucker Carlson's Show (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Tucker Carlson, Fox News' Unlikely Star."

The Tuck's been hammering leftists on the show, which is one of the reasons for its popularity.

And George Ciccariello-Maher is a literal caricature of the America-hating leftist. He's an idiot, lol.



PREVIOUSLY: "George Ciccariello-Maher."

Tucker Carlson, Fox News' Unlikely Star

I've never cared that much for the guy, but this is a good read. Very sympathetic profile. I like the Tuck a little more now, actually.

At the New Yorker:

Tucker Carlson’s Fighting Words: #TheTuck https://t.co/OO74o7j3mj pic.twitter.com/xqArObuvCe

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) April 3, 2017

Ned Blackhawk, Violence Over the Land

I've got a lot on my list, but this book crops up a lot in all my reading, blogging, and research.

At Amazon, Ned Blackhawk, Violence Over the Land: Indians and Empires in the Early American West.

Hey Republicans, Would You Hump This Woman?

Well, as a married man I'd have to respond in the negative, but if I was single, hmm?

It's Karley Sciortino, via the Other McCain, and on Twitter:

The more important question is, "Would a Republican f--k her?" https://t.co/jBXsS8vqKu pic.twitter.com/KrroVgaYtt

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) April 2, 2017

So proud to have @Slutever's Karley Sciortino as a #MaisonClose Muse ! https://t.co/yI65cPA6bA pic.twitter.com/Ga4PUI60CW

— Maison Close (@Maison_Close_) March 9, 2017

Suspect in Atlanta Freeway Collapse Was Smoking Crack as Fire Broke Out (VIDEO)

At the Other McCain, "Police Say Crackhead Started Fire That Destroyed I-85 Overpass in Atlanta."

And from Dana Loesch on Twitter, as well as ABC News below:

Oh my: "Homeless man was 'smoking crack under overpass when he started blaze' that destroyed Atlanta interstate” https://t.co/mmgpu7SbME

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) April 3, 2017

Giles Milton, Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

Hey, one more for the road!

At Amazon, Giles Milton, Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat.

Tom Clavin, Dodge City

I'm just seeing this one right now!

This is great!

At Amazon, Tom Clavin, Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the Wickedest Town in the American West.

Frank McDonough, The Gestapo

Historian Dagmar Herzog reviews Norman Ohler's, Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich, at today's New York Times book review. (She's highly critical, arguing that the focus on drug abuse throughout the regime serves as an excuse and distraction for the Nazis' larger crimes).

Also, at Thomas Anthony DiMaggio's letter to the book review editor, is the citation for Frank McDonough's, The Gestapo: The Myth and Reality of Hitler's Secret Police, which I didn't know of.

That reminds me of the classic book, from Heinz Höhne, The Order of the Death's Head: The Story of Hitler's SS.

Man Dives in the Water to Retrieve His Hat at Ocean Beach Pier in San Diego, Drowns (VIDEO)

Oh man.

That's not what you want.

At the San Diego Union-Tribune, "Man drowns after jumping off San Diego pier to retrieve items thrown into ocean."

Well, the report indicates that search and rescue efforts were hampered by "8-foot-high waves and thick seaweed," so what can you do?

The Cultural Roots of Campus Rage

The Wall Street Journal has pretty much eliminated access through Google search, which is why I don't link them much any more. They've really "built the wall," the subscription paywall, heh.

But Instapundit's block-quoted most of Jonathan Haidt's op-ed, so this is worth posting.

See, "JONATHAN HAIDT ON THE CULTURAL ROOTS OF CAMPUS RAGE":

At the very moment where higher education is in trouble, it is dominated by a mindset that sets it in opposition to the mainstream culture. This will end well:

“People are sick and tired of being called racist for innocent things they’ve said or done,” Mr. Haidt observes. “The response to being called a racist unfairly is never to say, ‘Gee, what did I do that led to me being called this? I should be more careful.’ The response is almost always, ‘[Expletive] you!’ ”

He offers this real-world example: “I think that the ‘deplorables’ comment could well have changed the course of human history.”

I certainly hope so.

RTWT.

What's Next for Women?

More endless identity politics, for one thing.

From far-left Tina Brown, CEO of "Women in the World," a far-left feminist production of the New York Times, "After a Historic March, What’s Next for Women?":

What's next for the women's movement after a historic march in January? A return to some of its broader issues: https://t.co/saIYyyqD1g

— Tina Brown (@TinaBrownLM) March 31, 2017

Hillary Clinton's loss was a "wake up call for feminism," says @WomenintheWorld founder, Tina Brown https://t.co/P1aK4nCe3b pic.twitter.com/YBN319q8Ul

— CNN (@CNN) April 2, 2017

Last week, we were treated to a news photo that will live in infamy: two dozen white male Republican congressmen (and zero women) around a White House conference table talking about dumping maternity and newborn care as part of their replacement for the Obama health care law.

It instantly went viral: “A rare look inside the GOP’s women’s health caucus,” tweeted Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington State.

Seven days later, the infamy was compounded when Vice President Mike Pence broke a 50-50 tie in the Senate that would allow states to defund Planned Parenthood.

Since the heyday of the women’s movement of the 1960s and ’70s, American women have assumed they were on a rocket to a future of assured gender equality. But even as individual women continued to break records and barriers in recent years, the engine began to stall.

Pay inequity festers. The rolling scandals at Uber remind us that the frat clubs of Silicon Valley are often rife with sexual harassment.

Women in the military are beleaguered by so-called revenge porn and sexual assault.

The United States still ranks with Swaziland, Lesotho and Papua New Guinea as the last countries on earth, “advanced” or not, that don’t mandate paid maternity leave.

In corporations, it’s turned out that the trouble isn’t the glass ceiling; it’s the sticky floor.

Male chief executives of Fortune 500 companies brag at Davos, Switzerland, about their healthy pipeline of women headed for the C-suite. (But the boast is undermined by statistics that show a paltry 4 percent of Fortune 500 companies have women in the top job.)

And a woman who commanded nearly three million more votes than her opponent did not become president...

Oh boy, where to begin?

Well, start with "pay inequity," which is a myth.

And of course the rampant "sexual harassment" we're seeing is found almost exclusively at far-left business concerns such as Uber. Why won't progressives clean up their own messes before foisting off all this bullshit on the rest of the public? And so no one wonders why "a woman who commanded nearly three million votes" failed to win the presidency. People see through the leftist cant.

In any case, more at that top link, if you can stomach it.

Newlyweds Hold Wedding Reception at In-N-Out

That is the best!

At ABC 15 News Phoenix:

Newlywed couple holds wedding reception at In-n-Out in California.https://t.co/MXpyp7xZlE #abc15 pic.twitter.com/6xyvZM0ZbM

— ABC15 Arizona (@abc15) April 2, 2017

Kathryn Gin Lum, Damned Nation

Well, I think we've all feared going to hell at one point or another.

This looks interesting.

At Amazon, Kathryn Gin Lum, Damned Nation: Hell in America from the Revolution to Reconstruction.