Mark Lilla, The Shipwrecked Mind

At Amazon, Mark Lilla, The Shipwrecked Mind: On Political Reaction.

Challenges for American Workers

At USA Today, "Why does American work feel so bad?"

Mika Brzezinski Responds to President Trump (VIDEO)

I'm not up early enough for Morning Joe, but I doubt I'd be watching it in any case.

Just another wasted far-left broadcast.

Sad.

Following-up, "Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski Say White House Officials Promised That National Enquirer Hit Piece Would Be Spiked if They Apologized to President Trump."

I did watched this clip, however. She's all stoic about it, tut-tutting about how she's "fine" after the terrible ---- terrible! ---- Donald Trump tweets.

What goes around comes around, sweetie.

Jennifer Delacruz's Mild Weather Forecast

It's lovely weather, heading into the 4th of July holiday this week.

Here's the fabulous Ms. Jennifer, for ABC News 10 San Diego:

Shop Deals

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Wireless Security Camera, KAMTRON HD WiFi Security Surveillance IP Camera Home Monitor with Motion Detection Two-Way Audio Night Vision, Black.

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

And, AmazonBasics Apple Certified Lightning to USB Cable - 6 Feet (1.8 Meters) - White.

Plus, JBM Adult Cycling Bike Helmet Specialized for Mens / Womens Safety Protection CPSC Certified - Black / Blue / Red / Yellow.

Still more, Brand44: 90' Eagle Series Seated Zipline Kit (Weather Resistant).

Here, LG Electronics PF1000UA Ultra Short Throw Home Theater Projector (2017 Model).

BONUS: F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents - The Definitive Edition (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek, Volume 2).

Folks Need to Get Busy!

Lol.

At LAT, "Americans keep having fewer babies as U.S. birthrates hit some record lows":

Hey stork, you’ve been slacking off — and U.S. health officials know it.

For the second year in a row, the number of babies delivered in the U.S. fell in 2016, according to a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics. For some groups of women, the birth rate reached record lows.

The provisional figures released Friday include 99.96% of all births in the United States last year. Here’s what they show:

Overall births

The total number of babies born in the U.S. last year was 3,941,109. That’s 37,388 fewer babies than were born in the U.S. in 2015, which represents a 1% decline.

The number of births tends to rise as the population rises, so statisticians like to make historical comparisons by calculating the general fertility rate. This is the number of births per 1,000 women considered to be of childbearing age (between 15 and 44).

In 2016, the U.S. general fertility rate hit a record low of 62.0 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. In 2015, the general fertility rate was 62.5.

Another useful statistic is the total fertility rate. This is an estimate of the total number of babies that 1,000 women would have over their lifetimes, based on the actual birth rates for women in different age groups.

In 2016, the total fertility rate for American women was 1,818 births per 1,000 women. That’s the lowest it has been since 1984.

In order for a generation to exactly replace itself, the total fertility rate needs to be 2,100 births per 1,000 women. The U.S. has been missing that mark since 1971 (though the country’s population has grown due to immigration).

More older mothers

The ages of women giving birth in the U.S. has been skewing older for several years, and that trend continued in 2016.

Birth rates for women 30 and older hit their highest levels since the 1960s, and women in their early 30s had the highest birthrate of any age group.

In 2016, there were 102.6 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 30 and 34. The last time it was that high was 1964.

There were also 52.6 births per 1,000 women ages 35 to 39, the highest that figure has been since 1962...

Teenage birthrates are declining, so that's good news.

But keep reading.

Trump Administration Believes it's Gained Tactical Advantage in War with the Media, Thanks to CNN Resignations and Sarah Palin's Libel Suit Against the New York Times

I think so.

From Hada Gold, at Politico, "Trump seizes the advantage in war with media":

Donald Trump and his allies believe he’s gained a tactical advantage in his war with the media.

As he escalates his attacks on the “failing media,” Trump and his allies are increasingly convinced that recent evidence, including the retracted CNN piece on an aspect of the Russia investigations, will prove to skeptical voters that the mainstream media has a vendetta against the administration.

Many White House staffers were “elated,” a person with knowledge of their conversations said, when they learned that three journalists had resigned over a botched story that claimed newly appointed Export-Import Bank official Anthony Scaramucci was being investigated for his ties to a Russian investment fund.

Trump was quick to publicize the retraction and resignations on his Twitter feed, adding, “What about all the other phony stories they do. FAKE NEWS.” He used the “FAKE NEWS” line again Wednesday morning in claiming that The Washington Post was “guardian of Amazon,” the company of Post owner Jeff Bezos.

Conservative outlets and allies of the president also trumpeted Sarah Palin’s libel suit against The New York Times for suggesting in an editorial that her super PAC played a role in inciting the gunman who shot former Rep. Gabby Giffords. The editorial from May was ultimately corrected, but was nonetheless an embarrassing moment for another media company that’s aggressively reported on the president and received his wrath in return.

The attacks marked an escalation of Trump’s strategy of citing media bias to rally conservatives and undecided voters around the idea that the investigations of Russian influence in the 2016 election are media-driven and politically motivated...

Keep reading.

Maitland Ward Breaks Snapchat

Heh.

At Taxi Driver, "Maitland Ward in Her Shower on Snap Chat."

And she posts to Twitter, commenting, "Here's the Snap Pic that was reported & taken down. If you don't like my SM game please don't follow me. I enjoy having fun and being free."

Also, "So I read the snapchat rules... it says nudity is okay as long as you're not performing any sort of sexual act. Is showering a sex act?"

Summer Reading for Republicans

At Foreign Policy, "What Are Republicans Reading? An Elephants in the Room Summer 2017 Reading List."

Some suggestions cited, in no particular order:

* Garrett Graff, Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself - While the Rest of Us Die.

* Lynne Olson, Last Hope Island: Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War.

* Brian Devereux, Escape to Pagan: The True Story of One Family’s Fight to Survive in World War II Occupied Asia.

* Thomas-Durell Young, Anatomy of Post-Communist European Defense Institutions: The Mirage of Military Modernity.

* Peter Schweitzer, Victory: The Reagan Administration’s Secret Strategy that Hastened the Collapse of the Soviet Union.

* Misagh Parsa, Democracy in Iran: Why It Failed and How It Might Succeed.

* Mark Bowden, Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam.

* Edward Luce, The Retreat of Western Liberalism.

* Sinclair McKay, The Secret Life of Bletchley Park: The WWII Codebreaking Centre and the Men and Women Who Worked There.

* Thomas Wright, All Measures Short of War: The Contest for the Twenty-First Century and the Future of American Power.

Interesting.

Extremely heavy on foreign policy and international relations, and still more at the link.

Tom Wolfe, The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby

At Amazon, Tom Wolfe, The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby.

Niall Ferguson, Empire

At Amazon, Niall Ferguson, Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power.

Genevieve Morton Uncovered for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2017 (VIDEO)

Nice.

Mark Levin, Rediscovering Americanism

*BUMPED.*

See Mark Levin, Rediscovering Americanism: And the Tyranny of Progressivism.

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski Say White House Officials Promised That National Enquirer Hit Piece Would Be Spiked if They Apologized to President Trump

As is usual every day, I woke up to this news in my Twitter feed this morning.

It's like Groundhog's Day of fake news, outrage news.

See, "Statement From The National ENQUIRER."

And the full expose, "AFFAIR GAME! Joe & Mika: TV Couple’s Sleazy Cheating Scandal."

More at Newsweek, via Mediagazer, "'MORNING JOE' HOSTS ACCUSE TRUMP OF BLACKMAILING, THREATENING THEM OVER 'NATIONAL ENQUIRER' STORY."

And from Gabriel Sherman, at New York Magazine, "What Really Happened Between Donald Trump, the Hosts of Morning Joe, and the National Enquirer":

As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump used his close alliance with the National Enquirer to attack his enemies. Now that he’s President, he’s continuing to benefit from the tabloid’s support.

This morning in a Washington Post op-ed, Morning Joe co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski disclosed that White House officials offered to spike an Enquirer story about their romance if the pair apologized to Trump for the show’s critical coverage. In recent months, Scarborough and Brzezinski have questioned Trump’s mental state and fitness for office. They elaborated on the op-ed on MSNBC this morning. Morning Joe regular Donny Deutsch said it was “blackmail” for Trump to use a hit-piece in the Enquirer to extract an apology from media critics. Trump then tweeted a quasi-confirmation of the behind-the-scenes conversations, saying that Scarborough called to enlist his help to kill the story. Scarborough called Trump’s version a “lie,” tweeting that he never spoke to the president.

According to three sources familiar with the private conversations, what happened was this: After the inauguration, Morning Joe’s coverage of Trump turned sharply negative. “This presidency is fake and failed,” Brzezinski said on March 6, for example. Around this time, Scarborough and Brzezinski found out the Enquirer was preparing a story about their affair. While Scarborough and Brzezinski’s relationship had been gossiped about in media circles for some time, it was not yet public, and the tabloid was going to report that they had left their spouses to be together...

Still more.

Brian Merchant, The One Device

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Brian Merchant, The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone.

WATCH: Dana Loesch Takes on Critics Who Accuse Her of 'Inciting Violence' in New Video for the NRA

Following-up from yesterday, "The Clenched Fist of Truth (VIDEO)."

Here's USA Today's MSM take, "NRA video declares war on liberals, critics say."

What a joke. Totally laughable.

Here she is on Tucker's last night:

Small Plane Crashes on I-405 in Irvine (VIDEO)

Well, this is likely to make the national evening news broadcasts, from right here, nearby home.

At the O.C. Register, "Small plane crashes on I-405 freeway at MacArthur, catches fire, 2 hospitalized."

And at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Plane Crashes on NB 405 Freeway in Irvine."

The Krauthammer Conjecture

Here's Charles Krauthammer's regular Friday column (which runs at the loathed WaPo), at the O.C. Register, "Why do they even play the game?":

In mathematics, when you’re convinced of some eternal truth but can’t quite prove it, you offer it as a hypothesis (with a portentous capital H) and invite the world, future generations if need be, to prove you right or wrong. Often, a cash prize is attached.

In that spirit, but without the cash, I offer the Krauthammer Conjecture: In sports, the pleasure of winning is less than the pain of losing. By any Benthamite pleasure/pain calculation, the sum is less than zero. A net negative of suffering. Which makes you wonder why anybody plays at all.

Winning is great. You get to hoot and holler, hoist the trophy, shower in champagne, ride the open parade car and boycott the White House victory ceremony (choose your cause).

But, as most who have engaged in competitive sports know, there’s nothing to match the amplitude of emotion brought by losing. When the Cleveland Cavaliers lost the 2015 NBA Finals to Golden State, LeBron James sat motionless in the locker room, staring straight ahead, still wearing his game jersey, for 45 minutes after the final buzzer.

Here was a guy immensely wealthy, widely admired, at the peak of his powers — yet stricken, inconsolable. So it was for Ralph Branca, who gave up Bobby Thomson’s shot heard ’round the world in 1951. So too for Royals shortstop Freddie Patek, a (literal) picture of dejection sitting alone in the dugout with his head down after his team lost the 1977 pennant to the New York Yankees.

In 1986, the “Today Show” commemorated the 30th anniversary of Don Larsen pitching the only perfect game in World Series history. They invited Larsen and his battery mate, Yogi Berra. And Dale Mitchell, the man who made the last out. Mitchell was not amused. “I ain’t flying 2,000 miles to talk about striking out,” he fumed. And anyway, the called third strike was high and outside. It had been 30 years and Mitchell was still mad. (Justly so. Even the Yankee fielders acknowledged that the final pitch was outside the strike zone.)

For every moment of triumph, there is an unequal and opposite feeling of despair. Take that iconic photograph of Muhammad Ali standing triumphantly over the prostrate, semiconscious wreckage of Sonny Liston. Great photo. Now think of Liston. Do the pleasure/pain calculus.

And we are talking here about professional athletes — not even the legions of Little Leaguers, freshly eliminated from the playoffs, sobbing and sniffling their way home, assuaged only by gallons of Baskin-Robbins...

More.

Pankaj Ghemawat, The Laws of Globalization

At Amazon, Pankaj Ghemawat, The Laws of Globalization and Business Applications.

The Tip of the Iceberg in CNN #FakeNews

See the excellent piece, from Mollie Hemingway, at the Federalist, "CNN’s Latest Retraction Is Just the Tip of the Fake News Iceberg."

Via Ace of Spades HQ, "As the Russia Narrative Implodes Hilariously, Apparently the Next Big Scandal Will Be 'Trump Said Something About Mika'."

(I haven't blogged about Trump's tweets because I don't care; Trump is gonna Trump, but the left's got nothing else so they're playing it up. See Memeorandum, "Trump No Longer Seems Able to Hide His Raw Misogyny. Good.")