Everybody's 'Far Right' Nowadays

The left smears everybody as a Nazi. It's the default tactic. You'd think it wouldn't work, but the media is an echo-chamber amplifier, and those lies are hard to tamp down once they're widely disseminated.

Even someone like prominent Jewish journalist Jake Tapper can be smeared as a neo-Nazi. Sheesh.

At the Other McCain, "Everybody’s ‘Far Right’ Now."

RELATED: Far-left Israel-hating website Mondoweiss smears Jewish New York Times editor Bari Wiess, for the crime of telling the bald truth about Linda Sarsour. At the safe link, "Ensconced at New York Times, pro-Israel advocate Bari Weiss smears Sarsour as a ‘hater’."

Why Trump Is Right About Immigration

From Mark Krikorian, at the National Interest:

For the past two years, ever since Donald Trump’s escalator ride, the immigration debate has focused on enforcement and illegality. The wall, criminal aliens, deportation, Obama’s lawless executive amnesty—it’s been all illegal immigration, all the time.

And that’s as it should be, at first, because if the rules aren’t enforced, it doesn’t much matter what the rules are.

But in the long run the more important questions are: What are the rules? How many people should the federal immigration program admit each year? How should they be selected? How can we minimize the harm from the program while maximizing the benefits?

Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue have started to answer these questions. They joined President Trump at the White House this morning to unveil legislation to restructure and modernize the federal immigration program. The Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy Act (RAISE Act) resumes the effort undertaken by civil rights icon Barbara Jordan’s U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform in the mid-1990s. Two decades ago, the corporate Right allied with the cultural Left to kill Jordan’s recommended immigration changes. But the logic of those changes didn’t go away. And today’s announcement picks up where she left off.

The Cotton-Perdue bill makes a number of significant changes to the current program. First, it focuses family immigration more narrowly. Currently, two-thirds of the million-plus foreign citizens who get green cards (i.e., permanent residence that can lead to citizenship) each year qualify only because they have relatives already here. This nepotistic system does not screen for skills or education. It also drives chain migration, as each cohort of immigrants sponsors the next one.

The RAISE Act would limit family immigration rights to the actual nuclear family: husbands, wives, and little kids of American citizens and legal residents. The current categories for adult siblings, adult sons and daughters, and parents would be retired. U.S. citizens could still bring in their elderly parents in need of caretaking, but only on renewable nonimmigrant visas (no green cards or citizenship) and only after proving that they’ve paid for health insurance up front.

The second major element in this restructuring addresses the employment-based immigration flow. It is now a jumble of categories and subcategories, the main result of which is to provide steady work for immigration lawyers. The Cotton-Perdue bill would rationalize this mess by creating one, streamlined points system, along the lines of similar schemes in Canada and Australia. Points would be awarded to potential candidates based mainly on education, English-language ability and age, and those who meet a certain benchmark would be in the pool for green cards, with the top scorers being selected first.

The bill would also eliminate the egregious Diversity Visa Lottery and cap refugee admissions at fifty thousand per year, rather than allow the president let in as many as he wants, as is the case today.

The level of immigration—now running at over a million a year—would likely drop by 40 percent, and then drop some more over time, as the number of foreign spouses declined. (Most U.S. citizens marrying foreigners are earlier immigrants, so as they age, and fewer new immigrants come in behind them, the demand for spousal immigration is likely to fall.) That would still mean annual permanent immigration of 500,000–600,000 a year, which is more than any other nation.

The bill isn’t perfect. It leaves the level of skills-based immigration, for instance, at the current 140,000 a year—the world doesn’t generate 140,000 Einsteins annually. It preserves a category for the spouses and minor children of green-card holders, which I don’t think is justified. (That relates to spouses acquired after immigration; if you’re married at the time you get your green card, your spouse automatically gets one too.) And I don’t think there’s any justification for resettling even fifty thousand refugees (as opposed to helping a far greater number at the same cost in the countries where they’ve taken refuge).

Neither does this bill address so-called temporary immigration, where businesses import cheap labor—both higher- and lower-skilled—to make an end-run around the American labor market...

More.

New Rita Ora Bikini Pics

Rita Ora's been on my radar since that spectacular outing for Liu Magazine last year. See, "Rita Ora for 'Lui' Magazine."

And today, at Drunken Stepfather, "RITA ORA IN SOME HOT BIKINI PICS OF THE DAY."

Kamila Hansen for Liu Magazine

From January, Kamila Hansen.

Jean M. Twenge, The Narcissism Epidemic

Following-up, "Jean M. Twenge, iGen."

Here's her 2010 book, at Amazon, The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement.

Jean M. Twenge, iGen

At Amazon, Jean M. Twenge, iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy--and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood--and What That Means for the Rest of Us.

She's got a big excerpt from the book up at the Atlantic, "Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? More comfortable online than out partying, post-Millennials are safer, physically, than adolescents have ever been. But they’re on the brink of a mental-health crisis."

I read it on my iPhone, lol.

Save Up to 25% Off Select Under Armour Apparel, Backpacks, and Shoes

At Amazon, Shop Today's Deals.

Special savings on Under Armour.

Also, ECOOPRO Warm Weather Sleeping Bag - Outdoor Camping, Backpacking & Hiking - Fit for Kids, Teens and Adults - Spring, Summer & Fall - Lightweight, Waterproof & Compact.

More, Tough Headwear: Outdoor Boonie Sun Hat - UPF 50 Protection for Men & Women. Wide Brim Summer Hat. Waterproof for Fishing, Hiking, Camping, Boating & Outdoor Adventures. Breathable Nylon & Mesh.

Plus, Survivor HK-56142 Series Fixed Blade Survival Knife, 12-Inch Overall.

Still more, A2S Survival - A2S Paracord Bracelet K2-Peak – Survival Gear Kit with Embedded Compass, Fire Starter, Emergency Knife & Whistle – Pack of 2 - Slim Buckle Design.

And, Champion Sports Rubber Cover Volleyball.

Here, Gatorade G2 Thirst Quencher Variety Pack, 20 Ounce Bottles (Pack of 12).

Even more, Mountain House Just In Case...Essential Bucket.

BONUS: Jason Stearns, Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa.

Venice Invaded by 'Low Quality' Tourists

This cracks me up. "Low quality." It's like Trump's attack on his "low energy" Republican rivals in the primaries, heh.

At the New York Times, "Venice, Invaded by Tourists, Risks Becoming ‘Disneyland on the Sea’":

VENICE — “You guys, just say ‘skooozy’ and walk through,” a young American woman commanded her friends, caught in one of the bottlenecks of tourist traffic that clog Venice’s narrow streets, choke its glorious squares and push the locals of this enchanting floating city out and onto drab, dry land. “We don’t have time!”

Neither, the Italian government worries, does Venice.

Don’t look now, but Venice, once a great maritime and mercantile power, risks being conquered by day-trippers.

The soundtrack of the city is now the wheels of rolling luggage thumping up against the steps of footbridges as phalanxes of tourists march over the city’s canals. Snippets of Venetian dialect can still be heard between the gondoliers rowing selfie-snapping couples. But the lingua franca is a foreign mash-up of English, Chinese and whatever other tongue the mega cruise ships and low-cost flights have delivered that morning. Hotels have replaced homes.

Italian government officials, lamenting what they call “low-quality tourism,” are considering limiting the numbers of tourists who can enter the city or its landmark piazzas.

“If you arrive on a big ship, get off, you have two or three hours, follow someone holding a flag to Piazzale Roma, Ponte di Rialto and San Marco and turn around,” said Dario Franceschini, Italy’s culture minister, who lamented what he called an “Eat and Flee” brand of tourism that had brought the sinking city so low.

“The beauty of Italian towns is not only the architecture, it’s also the actual activity of the place, the stores, the workshops,” Mr. Franceschini added. “We need to save its identity.”

The city’s locals, whatever is left of them anyway, feel inundated by the 20 million or so tourists each year. Stores have taken to putting signs on the windows showing the direction to St. Mark’s Square or Ponte di Rialto, so people will stop coming in to ask them where to go...

Heh, I feel the Venetian pain, lol. Maybe they should come hang out in Anaheim for a few days, and see how many Disneyland tourists they hit it off with?

More.

Danielle Gersh's Lightning and Thunderstorms Forecast

It's really trippy weather. It's hot and humid, but it's been totally overcast. I saw no rain in the O.C. today, but who knows? They're spot downpours, and they're stationary. The winds haven't picked up.

In any case, I'm sticking around the house for the rest of the week, and then back to the office next week to finish up work on my course syllabi.

So, here's a midweek weather forecast from the fabulous Danielle, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Gerard Prunier, Africa's World War

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Gerard Prunier, Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe.

Shop Today

At Amazon, Today's Deals.

See especially, Lenox 880075 Butterfly Meadow 12-Piece Bowl Set, Multicolor.

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

Still more, KIND Breakfast Bars, Peanut Butter, Gluten Free, 1.8 Ounce, 32 Count.

Also, Black & Decker BDCD120VA 20V Lithium Drill/Driver Project Kit.

More here, Defender Xtreme: 12" Tactical Bowie Survival Hunting Knife w/ Sheath Military Combat Fixed Blade + MULTI-TOOL."

Plus, Honeywell HT-900 TurboForce Air Circulator Fan, Black.

BONUS: Christopher R. Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland.

Is Germany a Normal Country?

Good question.

One reason I read so much German history, especially military history, is because, frankly, Germany's not normal historically. The Fischer thesis specifically points to the origins of World War One in aggressive German nationalism and expansionism (shocking, frankly, in its similarities to German expansionism under the Nazi regime).

So, to that effect, here's Jeremy Cliffe, at the New Statesman, "Is Germany a normal country? Its citizens are finding that a painful question":

It needs to seek a balance: neither forgetting its past, nor succumbing to it.

Near my flat in Berlin, six cobblestone-sized plaques glint from the pavement. The first reads: “Here lived Maria Witelson, née Zuckermann. Born 1892. Deported 1942. Murdered in Majdanek.” Each of the others commemorates one of her five teenage children, who also died in that concentration camp near Lublin in Poland.

Along the street are similar plaques recalling the Holz family, deported one by one over a six-week period in 1943. Old Ernst died a week afterwards in Theresienstadt; Herbert and Lieselotte (née Cohn) in Auschwitz on unknown dates; young Willy in January 1945 on the death march to Buchenwald. Such Stolpersteine, or “stumbling stones”, have been sprouting from German streets since 1992.

These monuments to the country’s terrible abnormality – and its admirable determination never to forget it – are not isolated examples. Every synagogue in Germany gets police protection. The mainstream media often boycotts far-right politicians. Every school pupil must visit a concentration camp. The forest of tombstone-like pillars constituting the Holocaust memorial in Berlin takes up an entire block.

This is the context in which Finis Germania (“The End of Germany”) recently appeared. Written by Rolf Peter Sieferle, a Heidelberg-based historian who committed suicide last September, this collection of essays asserts that a guilt-stricken Germany has swallowed the lie of its own abnormality and is determined to dissolve its identity through European federalism and open-border immigration. Most offensively, it compares Germans to the Jews; claiming that the former are now being collectively punished for the Holocaust as the latter were once collectively punished for the Crucifixion.

The book would have made little impact without its inclusion on June’s “non-fiction book of the month”, a list drawn up by a jury of broadcasters and writers. Since then, sales have soared. It is now top of Amazon Germany’s bestseller list. Berlin bookshops are out of copies.

Uproar has ensued. Johannes Saltzwedel, the journalist who proposed its recommendation more as provocation than endorsement, has withdrawn from the “non-fiction book of the month” jury. Finis Germania appears to have been excised from some bestseller lists. Dark rumours swirl that establishment forces have frustrated reprints by its publisher (a fringe outfit based in right-wing Saxony).

The saga tells a bigger story about today’s Germany. The country spent the immediate postwar years concentrating on reconstruction. But then the generation of 1968 radicals (including a then-leftist Sieferle) began to ask their parents about the recent past and upbraid them for smothering it; inspired partly by the 1967 book The Inability to Mourn by Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich. This generation dismantled what the Mitscherlichs called Germany’s “manic defences” against its past. It produced a culture of remembrance and guilt that still dominates the political class.

All of this is as welcome as it is visible on my Berlin street. Yet it also poses an unanswerable question that must nonetheless be answered: is Germany a normal country? That arose most urgently in 1990. The new, reunified Germany would be the largest country in the EU and by far the largest European economy. This begged questions about its military, economic and political role; about whether it should seek to lead or defer to others; about where the limits of its power and responsibilities should lie. Yet Helmut Kohl, the then chancellor, engineered no such debate. The philosopher Jürgen Habermas complained that: “Essential questions of political self-understanding – in particular the question of how we should understand the ‘normality’ of the approaching Berlin Republic – have remained open”.

This all marks German politics today. On Trump and Macron, on the environment and on the euro, the reunified country bequeathed by Kohl to successors such as Angela Merkel is increasingly expected to show leadership. Yet there is no consensus among its elites about what form that leadership should take, if any. Some urge idealism. Some advocate a rigorous focus on national interests. Most are for an ill-defined fudge. Few debate how the various imperatives might be balanced. Germany is as unclear as ever about the scope and limits of its own normalcy...

I'd say keep Germany tied down, just like it was tied down throughout the Cold War by U.S. power and multilateral institutions. Why take any chances, especially in an era like this.

Continue reading, in any case.

Women Surviving in Trump's White House

A good piece, at Politico, "In Trump's WhiteHouse, the women are the survivors."

Camila Romero

She's Argentine.

At Editorials Fashion Trends, "CAMI ROMERO BY ALEJANDRO BAUDUCCO."

Threat of Lightning Shuts Down U.S. Open of Surfing (VIDEO)

I don't blame authorities. There was lots of lightning when I was out with my son yesterday, although I'm sure surfing fans weren't pleased with the evacuation.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Kendall Jenner Frees the Nipple in Completely See-Through Top

One of my loyal readers sent this along yesterday, from the Daily Caller (of all places), "PHOTOS: Kendall Jenner Does it Again, Goes Braless in NYC in Totally See-Through Top."

And at the Sun U.K., "SHEER'S NOT SHY: Kendall Jenner goes wears a see-through top as she goes braless in latest racy outfit."

She's great. Love those long, lean legs, lol.

Emily Ratajkowski in Tropical Kauai (VIDEO)

Well, it's tropical alright, heh.

Here's the lovely Ms. Emily, for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Jackie Johnson's Hot Humid Thunderstorms Forecast

I was out with my young son this afternoon, over to the mall to pick up some video games at Game Stop. Driving through Santa Ana on the way back it started to rain, with some lightning as well. It was intense for a few minutes. Really tropical weather, and my son was cracking up, watching all the people trying to run and get out of the storm. It's unusual for summer.

And boy was it hot and humid. It was in the triple digits in parts of the San Fernando Valley.

What a day!

Here's the lovely Ms. Jackie with tomorrow's forecast, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912.

Charles B. Dew, Apostles of Disunion

Charles B. Dew, Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War.