Ayn Rand, Capitalism

At Amazon, Ayn Rand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (Mass Market Paperback).

Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, Machine, Platform, Crowd

Out today, at Amazon, Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future.

America First Policies Pulls Spot Attacking Sen. Dean Heller (VIDEO)

Following-up from the other day, "Senator Dean Heller, Republican of Nevada, Target of America First Policies PAC."

At Politico:

Pro-Trump group pulls ads criticizing Heller over Obamacare https://t.co/LgDvwVcI4A pic.twitter.com/agT4rB3et7

— POLITICO (@politico) June 27, 2017

Sarah Palin Sues New York Times for Defamation

Righteous.

At Instapundit, "ANNALS OF FAKE NEWS: Sarah Palin Suing New York Times for Defamation."

ICYMI: Henry Olsen, The Working Class Republican

At Amazon, Henry Olsen, The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism.

Abigail Ratchford's Hottest Social Media Posts

At Maxim, "Instababe Abigail Ratchford celebrated #NationalSelfieDay by posting her hottest shots ever."

And directly from Ms. Abigail:

Some like it hot 🔥 pic.twitter.com/LVbDEosSxQ

— Abigail Ratchford (@AbiRatchford) June 18, 2017

Splish splashhhhhh 💦💧 pic.twitter.com/c76LsnXTjh

— Abigail Ratchford (@AbiRatchford) June 19, 2017

Sunday views ☀️ pic.twitter.com/rdbFRZoNPI

— Abigail Ratchford (@AbiRatchford) June 26, 2017

BONUS: "Abigail Ratchford Huge Tits."

Lisa Delpit, Other People's Children

At Amazon, Lisa Delpit, Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom.

Sabine Jemeljanova Rule 5

Seen on Twitter:

#DailySabine @you_kiki https://t.co/UQAJxzaOLp #SabineJemeljanova #Page3 #Boobs #Busty #Brunette #Beauty #Cleavage #Lingerie #Glamour #Model pic.twitter.com/jgcBD1o1h2

— RosieJonesArchive (@CopperMailman) June 18, 2017

Woman Cliff Dives in Swiss Alps Wearing Nothing But a Parachute (VIDEO)

Well, this makes you wanna go cliff diving, lol.

At London's Daily Mail, "Adrenaline junkie throws herself off a cliff completely NAKED for her first ever base jump (good job she was wearing a parachute): Annelise Temple threw herself off the drop in Lauterbrunnen, in the Swiss Alps."

Road Rage in California (VIDEO)

At the Sacramento Bee, "Who caused the California road rage crash captured in viral video? CHP weighs in":

Apparent case of road rage triggers horrifying chain-reaction crash in California. At least one person was injured. https://t.co/ECVmH8RTIk pic.twitter.com/NwSYP35Buw

— ABC News (@ABC) June 23, 2017

California Highway Patrol officers on Monday were still searching for the motorcyclist involved in a shocking Southern California freeway crash that went viral on video last week.

The video, taken on a Santa Clarita freeway shows a motorcyclist at high speed kicking a car in the carpool lane, causing the car to swerve and smash into the center divider in flames, then careen into a truck, knocking the truck upside down, causing moderate injuries.

We talked with CHP Officer Eric Priessman about what the video shows and who might be at fault. Here are his answers, paraphrased...

Keep reading.

Heresy Speech

A very perceptive analysis from Jonah Goldberg, at the Commentary symposium, "Is Free Speech Under Threat in the United States?":

Contemporary social justice activism is a quasi religion and dissent is heresy | @JonahNRO https://t.co/iWSwWs1lD2 pic.twitter.com/UtdPBgxYlU

— Claire Lehmann (@clairlemon) June 23, 2017

In the past, threats to free speech have taken many forms—nationalist passion, Comstockery (both good and bad), political suppression, etc.—but the threat to free speech today is different. It is less top-down and more bottom-up. We are cultivating a generation of young people to reject free speech as an important value.

One could mark the beginning of the self-esteem movement with Nathaniel Branden’s 1969 paper, “The Psychology of Self-Esteem,” which claimed that “feelings of self-esteem were the key to success in life.” This understandable idea ran amok in our schools and in our culture. When I was a kid, Saturday-morning cartoons were punctuated with public-service announcements telling kids: “The most important person in the whole wide world is you, and you hardly even know you!”

The self-esteem craze was just part of the cocktail of educational fads. Other ingredients included multiculturalism, the anti-bullying crusade, and, of course, that broad phenomenon known as “political correctness.” Combined, they’ve produced a generation that rejects the old adage “sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never harm me” in favor of the notion that “words hurt.” What we call political correctness has been on college campuses for decades. But it lacked a critical mass of young people who were sufficiently receptive to it to make it a fully successful ideology. The campus commissars welcomed the new “snowflakes” with open arms; truly, these are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

“Words hurt” is a fashionable concept in psychology today. (See Psychology Today: “Why Words Can Hurt at Least as Much as Sticks and Stones.”) But it’s actually a much older idea than the “sticks and stones” aphorism. For most of human history, it was a crime to say insulting or “injurious” things about aristocrats, rulers, the Church, etc. That tendency didn’t evaporate with the Divine Right of Kings. Jonathan Haidt has written at book length about our natural capacity to create zones of sanctity, immune from reason.

And that is the threat free speech faces today. Those who inveigh against “hate speech” are in reality fighting “heresy speech”—ideas that do “violence” to sacred notions of self-esteem, racial or gender equality, climate change, and so on. Put whatever label you want on it, contemporary “social justice” progressivism acts as a religion, and it has no patience for blasphemy...

Far-Left Democrats Can't Count on Trump's 'Toxicity' in 2018

Put me on record for Republicans retaining congressional control next year. Things could change, and midterm elections are usually bad for the president's party, but I'm skeptical far-left Democrats can retake control, especially of the House.

I could be wrong, so I'm not betting money on it.

But see Cathleen Decker, at LAT, "There's only one Trump — that's a key challenge for Democrats targeting GOP seats in 2018":

Today's analysis: Atop 2017 losses, a sobering challenge for Democrats aiming at Trump next year https://t.co/wmrSSrNh2V

— Cathleen Decker (@cathleendecker) June 25, 2017

Democrats have hoped that President Trump’s deep unpopularity would propel them to gains in next year’s midterm election as they fight to take control of the House and improve their position in the Senate.

But last year’s contests and this year’s special elections suggest a complication: Trump is so distinctive a politician that it’s hard to persuade voters that other Republican candidates are carbon copies of the president. Trump’s outsized persona makes even those Republicans who share his views seem more moderate, an important attribute to swing voters.

That presents a problem for the party out of power.

Midterm elections traditionally serve as referendums on the president, but voters’ complicated views of Trump may give Republicans more running room than his popularity figures suggest. The votes cast by individual Republican incumbents may be more important to their survival than any linkage with the president.

The first of those key votes is scheduled for this week, as senators confront the GOP healthcare measure, which closely resembles a House-passed bill that is widely unpopular.

In an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Friday, only 16% of adults supported the House plan. Three times that percentage thought it was a bad idea. Yet it is far from clear how powerful the issue will be in 2018, given the fast pace of political events.

Warning signs emerged for both parties after the spring series of special elections. Four of the races picked successors to Republicans elevated to senior positions in Trump’s administration; Republicans won all four. A fifth race, to replace California Democrat Xavier Becerra, the state’s new attorney general, was won by Democrat Jimmy Gomez.

In each of the four races in GOP districts, Democratic candidates came far closer to the Republicans than their party has in the recent past — but they did not succeed.

Implicit in the contests was a Democratic effort to repudiate Trump. Yet in the races which attracted more attention and money, Democrats may have suffered from a backlash as the virulence of their opposition pushed more Republicans to the polls.

In the aftermath, Democrats have offered as a partial excuse the Republican voting strength in those districts. But winning next year will require succeeding in Senate races in states that voted for Trump and in House contests where Republicans have the power of incumbency, something they did not enjoy in the special elections this year.

Tuesday’s results in the 6th Congressional District in Georgia, the most expensive House race in history, demonstrated what candidates next year face. There, as elsewhere, Trump loomed over the race even though the candidates seldom talked about him directly.

Republican Karen Handel barely mentioned the president, although members of his administration served as reinforcements for her. Her campaign spent much of its time casting Democrat Jon Ossoff as in league with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and “San Francisco values.” Handel won by just under 4 percentage points.

Ossoff backed away from criticism of Trump in the latter part of the race, but began it by contending that his victory would “make Trump furious.”

Connecting the Republican president and Republican candidate did not work there, suggesting it may not work elsewhere, Republican and Democratic strategists said.

“Voters have very complex feelings about Donald Trump,” said California-based strategist Katie Merrill, citing polling from swing districts around the country. “He’s wildly unpopular, but they still want Congress to try to work with him — and Congress is more unpopular than he is.”

“Simply going into the district and trying to tie them to Trump is not going to be enough to defeat them,” said Merrill, who is working for a super PAC seeking to defeat seven Republican House incumbents in California districts won last year by Hillary Clinton...

Chaim Herzog, The Arab-Israeli Wars

*BUMPED.*

This is the updated edition, essential reading.

At Amazon, Chaim Herzog (updated by Shlomo Gazit), The Arab-Israeli Wars: War and Peace in the Middle East.

Adam Greenfield, Radical Technologies

Just out last week, at Amazon, Adam Greenfield, Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life.

Everywhere we turn, a startling new device promises to transfigure our lives. But at what cost? In this urgent and revelatory excavation of our Information Age, leading technology thinker Adam Greenfield forces us to reconsider our relationship with the networked objects, services and spaces that define us. It is time to re-evaluate the Silicon Valley consensus determining the future.

We already depend on the smartphone to navigate every aspect of our existence. We’re told that innovations—from augmented-reality interfaces and virtual assistants to autonomous delivery drones and self-driving cars—will make life easier, more convenient and more productive. 3D printing promises unprecedented control over the form and distribution of matter, while the blockchain stands to revolutionize everything from the recording and exchange of value to the way we organize the mundane realities of the day to day. And, all the while, fiendishly complex algorithms are operating quietly in the background, reshaping the economy, transforming the fundamental terms of our politics and even redefining what it means to be human.

Having successfully colonized everyday life, these radical technologies are now conditioning the choices available to us in the years to come. How do they work? What challenges do they present to us, as individuals and societies? Who benefits from their adoption? In answering these questions, Greenfield’s timely guide clarifies the scale and nature of the crisis we now confront —and offers ways to reclaim our stake in the future.

New Gillian Anderson Perky Photos

Following-up from last week, "Gillian Anderson Bikini Photos."

Now, at London's Daily Mail, "It's Gil-lean Anderson! Braless X-Files actress, 48, shows off her perky chest and enviably taut stomach as she peers over her balcony in Portofino."

And at Taxi Driver, "Gillian Anderson Boobs in See-Through Top."

Deal of the Day

At Amazon, Samsung 4245243 U28E590D 28-Inch 4K LED-Lit Monitor, Black/Silver, (Refurbished).

Plus, New Deals. All Day.

And, Panasonic RF-2400 AM / FM Radio, Silver.

Here, Women's Swimsuits.

More, Deals in Laptops.

Plus, Shop Gourmet Food.

Still more, Large Beach Towel, Pool Towel, in Cabana Stripe - (Variety, 4 pack, 30x60 inches) - Cotton - by Utopia Towel.

Again, Koffee Kult DARK ROAST COFFEE BEANS (Whole Bean 5 Lbs) - Highest Quality Delicious Organically Sourced Fair Trade - Whole Bean Coffee - Fresh Gourmet Aromatic.

BONUS: Tyler Cowen, Average Is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation.

Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station

Following-up from last night, "The New York Times Shills for Communism — Again."

At Amazon, Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station: A Study in the Acting and Writing of History.

Project Veritas: #CNN Producer John Bonifield Confesses: Russia Conspiracy is 'Bullshit' (VIDEO)

At Breitbart, "Project Veritas Undercover Investigation: CNN Producer Admits Network Hyping 'Mostly Bullsh*t." (Via Memeorandum.):

James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas has struck again: This time, a senior CNN producer was caught on camera by one of O’Keefe’s investigators admitting that the network’s relentless bashing of President Donald Trump with the Russia scandal lacks proof.

“Could be bullshit. I mean, it’s mostly bullshit right now,” the CNN producer, John Bonifield, said in a video O’Keefe’s Project Veritas released on Tuesday, when asked about his thoughts on the Russia investigation. “Like, we don’t have any giant proof. Then they say, well there’s still an investigation going on. And you’re like, yeah, I don’t know. If they were finding something we would know about it. The way these leaks happen, they would leak it. They’d leak. If it was something really good, it would leak…. The leaks keep leaking and there’s so many great leaks, and it’s amazing. I just refuse to believe that if they had something really good like that that wouldn’t leak because we’ve been getting all these other leaks. So, I just feel like they don’t really have it but they want to keep digging. And so I think the president is probably right to say, like, look you are witch hunting me. You have no smoking gun. You have no real proof.”

More.

Also at Gateway Pundit, "O’Keefe Undercover Bombshell: CNN Producer Admits Trump-Russia Story is “Bullsh*t” (Video)."

It's pretty good, but my first question is did they buy this guy off, John Bonifield? How did Project Veritas gain access to the CNN studios?

More at the Heavy, "John Bonifield: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know":

You can watch the video that James O’Keefe posted on YouTube above. Be aware, though, that it’s not clear whether more raw footage exists or whether the video has been selectively edited. The video is titled, “American Pravda.”

In it, O’Keefe identifies the man captured by the hidden video as John Bonifield, a CNN producer. It’s not clear whom the other man was (he’s identified as a “PV journalist”) or why Bonifield would have spoken with him so openly. The man says, “Then why is CNN constantly like, Russia this, Russia that?”

In the video posted by O’Keefe, the man he identifies as Bonifield responds, “Because it’s ratings.”

“Because it’s ratings?” the man, identified as a “PV journalist,” queries further. “Our ratings are incredible right now,” says the man O’Keefe identifies as Bonifield.

At another point in the video, the “PV journalist” says, “But honestly, you think the whole Russia sh*t is just like bullsh*t?” The man said to be Bonifield responds, “Could be bullsh*t. I mean, it’s mostly bullsh*t right now. Like, we don’t have any big giant proof.”

He also says, “I just feel like they don’t really have it but they want to keep digging” and “And so I think the President is probably right to say like, look, you are witch hunting me.”

Project Veritas also claims that Bonifield brought up CNN head Jeff Zucker, saying, “Just to give you some context, President Trump pulled out of the climate accords and for a day and a half we covered the climate accords. And the CEO of CNN (Jeff Zucker) said in our internal meeting, he said good job everybody covering the climate accords, but we’re done with that, let’s get back to Russia.”

It’s been a bad week for CNN. The O’Keefe video comes on the heels of the resignations of three CNN journalists after the network retracted and deleted a story on Russia...

More at Memeorandum and Twitchy.

Peter Collier and David Horowitz, Destructive Generation

At Amazon, Peter Collier and David Horowitz, Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the Sixties.

BONUS: David Horowitz, Radical Son: A Journey Through Our Times from Left to Right.

Seattle's Lesson on the the $15 Minimum Wage - #FightFor15

From Megan McArdle, at Bloomberg, "Seattle's Painful Lesson on the Road to a $15 Minimum Wage: The experiment has hurt low-wage workers, cutting their earnings by $125 a month."

Leftist economists were naturally shooting down the new report, which says low-income workers are harmed by the minimum wage hikes.

ADDED: At Legal Insurrection, "Seattle Minimum Wage Hike Backfires Hurting Low Income Workers."