Sunday, July 30, 2017

Jennifer Delacruz's Humid Warm Thunderstorms Forecast

Well, tomorrow's the 31st, the last day of the month. I've got to start in on my course syllabi, so I'll be off to the office tomorrow for a while. Should take a couple of days to get most everything revised and ready for the end of the month (when classes start). After I get my materials ready, I'll be just enjoying my last few weeks of lackadaisical summer bliss, lol.

More about that later. Meanwhile, here's the gorgeous Ms. Jennifer, for ABC News 10 San Diego:



Joshua Green, Devil's Bargain

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Joshua Green, Devil's Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency.

Courtney Messerschmidt Today

So, I'm reading this great piece at the National Interest, "Nazi Germany's 5 Most Lethal Weapons of War," which goes on about the Messerschmitt Bf 109 figther plane, which was prominently featured in "Dunkirk."

And the "109" part was interesting especially, since the old Courtney Messerschmidt, of GrEaT sAtAn"S gIrLfRiEnD, uses the handle "courtneyme109." And coincidently, somebody retweeted her the other day, and here she is. It's been six years since "The Courtney Messerschmidt Scam."

Those were the days, lol. Courtney's gotta be about 28-years-old by now. I hope she's matured and mellowed out a bit. You can't go around in life living a lie. Sooner or later people find about about you.


A New California Gold Rush

This will warm your heart a little.

If folks are willing to go panning for gold up in NoCal, maybe there's hope for this lame state after all, lol.

At LAT, "A new gold rush is on, sparked by California’s post-drought snowmelt: The heavy winter rains have stirred echoes of the gold rush in Sierra Nevada foothills":
The state’s historic drought has ended. Riverbeds, once dry, are torrents, and California’s Gold Country is living up to its reputation.

Standing on a narrow bridge over Eagle Creek, weeks before the Detwiler fire ravaged the foothills to the south, Robert Guardiola watches nearly 40 miners spread out. Wearing knee pads and waders, they have begun to organize their equipment — buckets and classifiers, hog pans and cradles — along the edge of the stream.

Some cut into sand bars with their shovels; others adjust their sluices half in and out of the flowing water. A few have begun swirling mud in their gold pans.

“Everything begins and ends with a pan,” says Guardiola, pleased with the activity. He helped organize this outing, a monthly foray for a local prospecting association known as the Delta Gold Diggers.

Settled in a nearby folding lawn chair, Russ Tait is doing his part. A latte-colored slurry circles the perimeter of his emerald-colored pan.

With a floppy hat, ponytail and a white beard that hasn’t been trimmed in 18 years, the 72-year-old looks like a refugee from Knott’s Berry Farm. Even his blue eyes behind silver frames have a bit of a twinkle.

Tait has bone cancer, so getting down to the creek isn’t easy. But even if his days are numbered, he isn’t above dreaming. He peers into the murky solution, hoping to glimpse something shiny.

“I guess you call it gold fever,” he says. “You get out there, and there’s times where you get tired and you don’t want to quit.”

*****

Since first smelted almost 6,000 years ago, Au 79 — one of the 118 elements on the periodic table — has inspired an enduring madness.

Ovid tells the tale of Midas, John Huston of a similar malady in the mountains of Mexico, and television cameras bring home the frenzy on the Bering Sea.

But gold is admired not just for its beauty and worth. In a chaotic world, it speaks with evangelical zeal to values less ephemeral. Populists and politicians champion it as a stabilizer for the dollar. Survivalists see salvation in its worth when civilization collapses.

But on the banks of Eagle Creek, the talk is more about the poison oak, twining its way through the brush, as unwanted as the mining regulations that have come out of Sacramento.

In 2009, the miners complain, a state judge issued an injunction that put a temporary moratorium on the use of motorized equipment near the state’s rivers and streams, putting an end to dredges that suction rocks, sand and pebbles from the bottom of a creek and pumps that circulate water into sluices located high on river banks.

A coalition of tribal, conservation and fisheries representatives said such practices compromise riparian habitat, and the judge ordered the matter to be studied. A final ruling has yet to be made.

But what regulations have prohibited, nature has allowed, and with all the water blasting through these mountains, prospectors have a new kick in their step.

Geological gumshoes, they search for ancient rivers, for rounded boulders tumbled together, for orange soil tainted by rusted iron and veins of quartz hiding gold.

They read streambeds, imagining how the current flowed during floods, hunting for any irregularity — a riffle, a ledge, a waterfall — that could create a backward eddy for the gold to escape the water’s momentum and drop to the floor...
Keep reading.

Garry Kasparov, Winter is Coming

At Amazon, Garry Kasparov, Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped.

Francis Fukuyama, The End of History

At Amazon, Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man.

Out in Paper: Ruchir Sharma, The Rise and Fall of Nations

*BUMPED.*

Out in paperback, at Amazon, Ruchir Sharma, The Rise and Fall of Nations: Forces of Change in the Post-Crisis World.

Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

I've got a couple more books to finish on World War I to finish, as well as one on 19th century European imperialism in Africa, then I'm looking to go on a Roman empire jag. I've got a couple of novels lined up already, but I've had Edward Gibbon's classic tome on my shelf for almost 30 years. I need to wade through that thing and blow it out. I picked it up back at the time when Paul Kennedy's Rise and Fall of the Great Powers was the rage.

Once summer's over I'll switch gears a little. As noted, I'm teaching comparative politics this fall, and the German case plays large in my approach. It's going to be a blast.

In any case, at Amazon, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Saturday, July 29, 2017

Danielle Gersh's Beach Weather Forecast

What do you know? It's almost August already!

I start back at the college August 28th, so I'll be really enjoying these last few weeks of lollygagging around, lol.

Seriously, though, I'm going into the office early next week to work on my syllabi. In addition to U.S. politics, I'm teaching Introduction to Comparative Politics this semester, for the first time in years. It's going to be great!

In any case, here's the lovely Ms. Danielle with the forecast, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:


Thomas E. Ricks, Churchill and Orwell

At Amazon, Thomas E. Ricks, Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Toppled

At LAT, "Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigns after Supreme Court orders his dismissal in corruption case":
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigned Friday after the country's Supreme Court disqualified him from office due to corruption charges he and his family have been battling.

"Following the verdict, Nawaz Sharif has resigned from his responsibilities as prime minister," a spokesman for Sharif's office said in a statement.

The unanimous, five-judge ruling — delivered to a packed courtroom in the nation’s capital — came after an investigation into the family’s finances following the Panama Papers leak in 2015. Documents uncovered during the international media investigation linked Sharif’s children to offshore companies that had not been revealed in financial disclosures.

After the ensuing investigations, Judge Ejaz Afzal Khan said Sharif was no longer "eligible to be an honest member of the parliament.” The court had already recommended anti-corruption cases against Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz, her husband Safdar, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and others...
Also at NYT, "Pakistan, Ousting Leader, Dashes Hopes for Fuller Democracy."

Huntington Beach: U.S. Open of Surfing (VIDEO)

I used to live in Huntington Beach. This event is excellent.

And there's supposed to be big surf this weekend.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles


New White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci Cancels Politicon Appearance

I think he's got enough on his plate, rather than fly out to Pasadena for this cattle call.

You can always go see Ann Coulter's shtick, heh.

At LAT, "Anthony Scaramucci cancels weekend appearances at Politicon convention in Pasadena."

Leftists Freak Out on Twitter Over Trump's 'Police Brutality' Joke

At Blazing Cat Fur.

Watch, here's the comments, "President Trump: Don't be too nice."

Also, "Remarks by President Trump to Law Enforcement Officials on MS-13."

Los Angeles Times Links Priebus' Ouster to #GOP's Failure to Repeal #ObamaCare.

Disingenuous.

See how the placement of these articles implies a close link. Actually, Priebus' ouster and the failure of the health bill aren't closely related, but you'd think it was all of one piece by looking at the cover of this morning's paper.

Here's the article at the top, "Trump ousts Reince Priebus as chief of staff in latest White House shake-up."

And at left, "GOP confronts an inconvenient truth: Americans want a healthcare safety net."

Page placement tells you a lot about the thinking and agenda of the editors at the Times.


Top Brands in Tools and Home Improvement

At Amazon, Shop Wallpaper, Power Tools, Ceiling Fans, Lighting and Everything in Between.

Also, DEWALT DCK590L2 20-Volt MAX Li-Ion 3.0 Ah 5-Tool Combo Kit.

BONUS: Dominic Lieven, The End of Tsarist Russia: The March to World War I and Revolution.

Jeff Grosso’s Favorite Skate Pic (VIDEO)

This is interesting, but pay attention to the second photo he talks about toward the end of the video. That's Steve Alba at the Upland Skatepark "combi-pool" circa 1981. Unbelievable.



Venezuela's Useful Idiots Have Gone Silent

This is great.

At CapX, "Venezuela's Useful Idiots Have Gone Quiet. I Wonder Why":
Socialists like to claim that “real” socialism has never been tried. There is a very simple reason for that: whenever a socialist experiment fails (as they invariably do), socialists, including those who have once endorsed the experiment in question, retroactively declare it “unreal”.
RTWT.

Friday, July 28, 2017

Isabel V. Hull, Absolute Destruction

At Amazon, Isabel V. Hull, Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany.

Jennifer Delacruz's Humid Coastal Clouds Forecast

It's warm inland, with chances of thundershowers.

But otherwise, kinda cool weather for late July.

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