Anaheim Ducks Fall 0-2 Behind Edmonton Oilers

I'm just not into hockey, which to me is a Canadian sport that somehow invaded America, taking hostage American citizens who don't know they've been abducted into an alien ritual.

I used to have Canadian roommates from Calgary, and we used to watch the Flames. I visited Calgary, to spend six weeks with my best friend at the time, in 1984.

I still hate hockey, lol.

But everybody's wearing Ducks shirts and jerseys, and mounting fluttering window flags on their cars.

So, what the heck? Any hockey fans reading this blog?

At the Los Angeles Times, "Ducks fall into 0-2 hole at home with 2-1 loss to Oilers."

From colleague @curtiszupke: Ducks fall into 0-2 hole at home with 2-1 loss to Oilers https://t.co/k0JKWzN8XV

— Helene Elliott (@helenenothelen) April 29, 2017

Tania the Satellite Uplink Lady

Here's my friend Skye in Philadelphia (Tania Gail).

Loving the KU band satellite uplink :) I want one!!! 😄@cbs3_wx @CBSPhilly pic.twitter.com/PStvZlPwpo

— Tania Gail (@TaniaGailPhotos) April 24, 2017

Baby Hippo Fiona

A great story, but notice how all the animal keepers are like granola-crunching enviro-leftists. It's like a religion to these people. Your commitment is to the god of nature. The hippo is divine, a child of the supreme being, Gaia, in this case.

At USA Today:

Baby hippo's keepers learn to live with bruises https://t.co/54OIPyk3Dv

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) April 30, 2017

President Trump's First 100 Days

From Marc Thiessen, at WaPo, "Forget the critics, Mr. President. Your first 100 days have been just fine":

Every 5-4 decision for next 3 decades that goes conservatives’ way is one of Trumps “First 100 Days” accomplishments https://t.co/rJ0m5pEkXX

— Marc Thiessen (@marcthiessen) April 24, 2017

Despite the best efforts of the White House “PR apparatus” to sell the president’s first 100 days as a success, the New York Times declared in an editorial, the new administration has, in fact, been plagued by “many missteps” including a “bungled sales job” on his first major legislative initiative and a “snakebit” confirmation process, all of which have produced “a flurry of articles bemoaning the lack of focus in the White House.” The first 100 days, the Times declared, is a period the president “might prefer to forget.”

The president in question is not Donald Trump. This is how, in April 1993, the Times described the first 100 days of Bill Clinton’s presidency. But not to worry, the Times reassured its readers: “It’s still early, and a hundred days don’t really mean very much.”

The Times is right: The first 100 days really don’t mean very much at all.

Right now, the Trump White House appears to be in a panic over the approaching milestone, looking desperately for last-minute accomplishments. It is pushing the House to vote this week on repealing Obamacare, and it is risking a government shutdown in an effort to make Democrats pay for a border wall with Mexico, instead of just passing a straight extension of current funding levels. And the president announced (to the apparent surprise of his own staff) that he would unveil his tax reform plan on Wednesday, before it is fully baked.

To which I say: Mr. President, slow down. There’s no rush. Ignore the critics. You’re doing just fine.

Trump has accomplished something more significant in his first 100 days than any president in recent memory has done: the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Trump’s predecessors’ early achievements were fleeting. President Barack Obama’s stimulus (with its false promise of “shovel-ready” jobs) is long forgotten. George W. Bush’s tax cuts were not signed until June and were partially repealed by his successor. But Trump’s success in placing the 49-year-old Gorsuch on the Supreme Court will affect the direction of our country for a generation. Indeed, Trump can count every 5-4 decision over the next three decades that goes conservatives’ way as one of his “First 100 Days” accomplishments. No other modern president can claim to have had that kind of lasting impact in so short a time...

More.

PREVIOUSLY: "Donald Trump's First 100 Days" (featuring Salena Zito).

Jennifer Delacruz's Sunny, Breezy, but Cooler Forecast

Here's the lovely Ms. Jennifer, back for the weekend forecasts, at ABC News 10 San Diego.

Complaints Ignored Before Jailbreak at the O.C. Jail

At the Los Angeles Times, "O.C. deputies complained of lax policies before 2016 jail escape, but they were ignored, grand jury finds":

O.C. deputies complained of lax policies before the 2016 jail escape, but they were ignored, grand jury finds https://t.co/uUOu73oreF pic.twitter.com/MFWvatjNJ0

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) April 29, 2017

Deputies at the Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana had long complained of flawed inmate monitoring procedures that allowed three men to escape from the facility last year, but nothing was done to correct the problem, according to a report released by the Orange County Grand Jury this week.

The scathing study listed failures by officials that contributed to the escape, which made national headlines and became a major embarrassment for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

The grand jury cited a flawed inmate counting procedure, the failure of deputies to remove jerry-built tents around the escapees’ bunks that may have concealed their activites and inadequate monitoring of the jail’s plumbing system, which the inmates used to gain access to the roof, as major factors in the escape.

A lack of surveillance cameras and lighting in the plumbing tunnels and on the roof, which the inmates rappelled down from before, were also cited as problematic in the report.

Deputies failed to catch on to an escape plot even though the report found it likely took months of planning and would have involved loud sawing and cutting as the prisoners worked to gain access to the plumbing tunnels.

Authorities have said that Hossein Nayeri, Jonathan Tieu and Bac Duong were able to obtain a cutting tool and saw through several layers of metal and rebar when they broke out of the jail in January 2016, sparking a statewide manhunt that lasted nearly a week, according to the report.

Jail staff did not become aware of the escape until 15 hours after the trio climbed to the roof of the jail and fled, a time lapse that likely helped the fugitives stay well ahead of their pursuers. The men had been jailed on charges including attempted murder and torture.

“After conducting a comprehensive study, problems with both supervision and training became obvious,” the report read. “Lack of compliance with existing policies and procedures by various [Orange County Sheriff’s Department] personnel at all levels was the primary factor responsible for the escape.”

The inmates took a cab driver hostage and traveled as far north as the Bay Area. Their escape plot began unraveling days later, police say, when Duong rejected Nayeri’s plan to kill their hostage and fled to a San Jose motel with the cab driver.

Duong drove back to Orange County and surrendered to authorities on Jan. 29. Nayeri and Tieu were arrested in San Francisco the next day. The men are due in court for preliminary hearings in June, records show...

Brazen AF.

But keep reading.

And flashback to last year, "Experts Question Detention and Security Protocols at Orange County Jail."

Henry Nash Smith, Virgin Land

At Amazon, Henry Nash Smith, Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth.

Eric Jay Dolin, Fur, Fortune, and Empire

At Amazon, Eric Jay Dolin, Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America.

Today's Deals

Thanks for your support.

At Amazon, Today's Deals New deals. Every day. Shop our Deal of the Day, Lightning Deals and more daily deals and limited-time sales.

BONUS: Richard White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815.

Geoffrey Perret, There's a War to Be Won

*BUMPED.*

Here's another great book dealing with the WWII era.

At Amazon, Geoffrey Perret, There's a War to Be Won: The United States Army in World War II.

The L.A. Riots 25 Years Later

At the Los Angeles Times, "Twenty five years later, how did the riots transform L.A.? And has the city changed enough?"

Playboy Playmate Amanda Cerny (VIDEO)

She's nice.

Julie Henderson Lets Loose (VIDEO)

Via Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Free Speech and the Nationalist-Globalist Clash

At the American Interest:

#Berkeley: Free Speech and the Nationalist-Globalist Clash: https://t.co/AgDXJbT0GZ

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) April 29, 2017

'Hannity' is the Fox Brand Right Now

At Bloomberg, "And Then There Was Hannity: Bill O’Reilly. Roger Ailes. Megyn Kelly. One by one, the biggest personalities at Fox News have left the building."

Meteorologist Freaks Out When Giant Spider Appears on TV Station's Sky Camera (VIDEO)

Heh.

That's a little too good to be true, unless the initial fright was the real thing.

Either way, well played.

At USA Today:

A meteorologist freaked out when a giant spider appeared on the stations' sky camera and ate its dinner on live TV. pic.twitter.com/WPeovJTrNn

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) April 27, 2017

Carlo D'Este, Decision in Normandy

I just looked over a copy of this book while I was out shopping this morning. Soon, but not quite yet, I'll be getting back into my WWII reading.

Until then...

At Amazon, Carlo D'Este, Decision in Normandy.

The battle for Normandy was the most complex and daring military operation in the history of modern warfare. Two years of intense, detailed planning reached its successful conclusion when the Allied forces took the beaches on D-Day. But the seventy-six-day campaign that followed, the Allies' crucial bid for a toehold in western Europe, was one of the bloodiest of the war, and its true story has been concealed in myth. Drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished papers, declassified documents, diaries, and personal interviews, Carlo D'Este has written the first full account of what actually happened in Normandy, how the campaign went wrong, and how it was eventually won. Step-by-step the reader is taken through the Normandy campaign from the earliest days after Dunkirk when Churchill first considered the idea of a cross-channel invasion of France, to the key battles that determined that outcome, with maps clearly explaining the strategy and logistics of each battle.

'When Will I See You Again'

I was driving around in my wife's Jeep Liberty this morning, fitted with satellite radio, which I pretty much leave on the "'70s on 7" while I'm in there, heh.

And today I realized how much I love this old song, "When Will I See You Again." It's the Three Degrees, with great vocals.

Enjoy!

Democrats, the Party of Hate

At the Other McCain, "The Party of Hate":

The Democrat Party is the world’s most successful hate group. It attracts poor people who hate rich people, black people who hate white people, gay people who hate straight people, feminists who hate men, environmentalists who hate the internal combustion engine, and a lot of bratty college kids who hate their parents. However, the real secret of the party’s success is that it attracts the support of journalists who hate Republicans, and who therefore work tirelessly to convince the rest of us that we should vote for Democrats. . . . No matter who the Republicans nominate for president, the Organized Forces of Liberal Journalism will paint him as a greedy, cold-hearted, woman-hating racist. If the GOP nominated a Buddhist monk or a Latina lesbian, still the New York Times and NBC News would find a way to convince themselves that the Republican candidate represented everything liberals hate about America — the military, the police, Christianity, capitalism, the internal combustion engine and heterosexual white men who work for a living.

That’s a quote from a post I wrote in February 2016 after watching a debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. A guy emailed me to ask permission to quote it in his book, and when I read the quote, I laughed: “Damn, I forgot how funny that was.” A quick Google search revealed that it’s been quoted all over the place and why?

Because it’s true...

Keep reading.

Vanessa Hudgens Fitness

At Drunken Stepfather, "LOOK AT VANESSA HUDGENS FITNESS OF THE DAY."