'It’s Okay to Be White'

Well, it should be. It should be okay to be whatever natural color or ethnicity you are.

But not on the left. The left hates whiteness. And it hates anyone who doesn't toe the hateful race-bating white supremacy line.

At Instapundit, "SO I GUESS IT’S NOT OKAY. GOOD TO KNOW. ‘It’s Okay To Be White’ Signs Posted At Harvard Law School, Denounced by Dean."

Journalists Spreading Lies and Degrading Democracy

It's Glenn Greenwald, at the Intercept, "Four Viral Claims Spread by Journalists on Twitter in the Last Week Alone That are False":

Four viral claims spread by journalists on Twitter in the last week alone that are false: https://t.co/KrkOFYztQH by @ggreenwald

— The Intercept (@theintercept) November 5, 2017

There is ample talk, particularly of late, about the threats posed by social media to democracy and political discourse. Yet one of the primary ways that democracy is degraded by platforms such and Facebook and Twitter is, for obvious reasons, typically ignored in such discussions: the way they are used by American journalists to endorse factually false claims that quickly spread and become viral, entrenched into narratives, and thus can never be adequately corrected.

The design of Twitter, where many political journalists spend their time, is in large part responsible for this damage. Its space constraints mean that tweeted headlines or tiny summaries of reporting are often assumed to be true with no critical analysis of their accuracy, and are easily spread. Claims from journalists that people want to believe are shared like wildfire, while less popular, subsequent corrections or nuanced debunking are easily ignored. Whatever one’s views are on the actual impact of Twitter Russian bots, surely the propensity of journalistic falsehoods to spread far and wide is at least as significant.

Just in the last week alone, there have been four major factually false claims that have gone viral because journalists on Twitter endorsed and spread them: three about the controversy involving Donna Brazile and the DNC, and one about documents and emails published by WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign. It’s well worth examining them, both to document what the actual truth is as well as to understand how often and easily this online journalistic misleading occurs...

Keep reading.

Anxiety is High in Hollywood

Rape allegations rocking Tinseltown.

At LAT, "Who's next? High anxiety in Hollywood":

To women and men in the industry, it would be wise of you to not promote Alec Baldwin. Fair warning. #ROSEARMY pic.twitter.com/x1I9Rti3LX

— rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) November 5, 2017

The curtain has been pulled back, and, oh, is it messy.

Hollywood has always reveled in scandal. The rumor. The whisper. The unfortunate photograph. The apology and return to grace. But the recent sex abuse stories have turned into a parade of tawdry violations and twisted passions, the stuff of movies acted out in real lives against the unglamorous air of disgrace, endless transgressions that even Ray Donovan, Showtime's half-shaven mercurial fixer, couldn't clean up with all his hush money and muscle.

The rape and sexual abuse allegations surrounding Harvey Weinstein, Brett Ratner, James Toback and others have shattered the awards-season aplomb in a town that imagines itself bold and freewheeling but prefers the tempered and scripted. The entertainment industry has slipped into a multi-polar catharsis of emboldened women, nervous men, threatening lawyers, broken deals, spoiled careers and the uncertainty that comes when cracks run like lightning through facades.

“I think the industry is forever changed,” said Marcel Pariseau, a publicist whose clients include Scarlett Johansson and Olivia Munn, one of six women who accused Ratner of sexual misconduct in The Times last week. “Every morning we wake up and we don’t know what’s going to be next. You’re almost afraid to get on your gadget to see what the new story is.

"No one is going to be going to a producer or director's hotel suite anymore," he added. "All meetings will be done with somebody else in the room for protection for both sides. It's a defining moment. It's vigilance."

Instagram accounts are being scrubbed, Facebook pages edited, publicists consulted and memories jogged about what might have happened where and with whom on that blurry night years ago. The cocktail circuit is jittery; the Oscar buzz feels a bit listless. Talent agencies are dropping clients and scouring their own houses. Studios are pruning relationships, firing executives hours after an allegation is made public.

In every pitch or development meeting, “people want to talk about it,” said a female television writer who preferred to remain anonymous. “It’s like everyone needs a little bit of therapy. It’s preoccupying people’s minds because they either have a direct connection to it or it’s like driving by a car crash; you’re just riveted. In the way Trump stuff used to lead a lot of things, now this stuff leads every single sit-down.”

This is the new Hollywood. Restless, unsure, demanding justice, looking for cover and wondering how to move beyond a long history of discrimination and sexual harassment and toward the kind of enlightened world it so often supposes in its art.

“We’re all having a conversation now about whether or not we are protecting people in our industry from people committing violent crimes against them,” said comedian and producer Judd Apatow. “I personally would not be comfortable making it a big part of my business trying to keep rapists and people who commit sexual assaults on the street. We all decide how we want to make money. We all decide what’s ethical. I’m well aware that all criminals deserve representation, but at the same time sometimes we’re putting other people in danger.”

It's hard to fix things when even hallowed names are in the headlines: Dustin Hoffman has apologized after being accused of sexually harassing a 17-year-old intern in 1985. Kevin Spacey said he was seeking "evaluation and treatment" after allegations of sexual assault and harassment.

The consequences against the accused have been swift: Netflix canceled Spacey's "House of Cards" and Warner Brothers cut ties with Ratner, who has denied claims of sexual harassment and misconduct from a number of women.

"When the Dustin Hoffman thing broke I was like, my gosh, now there's going to be a library of great movies that I can't watch anymore because of the ick factor. The ick factor is real," said the TV writer.

Audiences and critics have already begun reevaluating Weinstein's films, many of which were nominated for and won Academy Awards, including "Shakespeare in Love," whose star Gwyneth Paltrow says that the producer assaulted her in a hotel suite when she was 22...

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Philip Roth, The Human Stain

At Amazon, Philip Roth, The Human Stain: American Trilogy (3).

Philipp Meyer, American Rust

At Amazon, Philipp Meyer, American Rust: A Novel.

Democrats Poised for Complete Dominance in the West

And what good's it done for us in California? Now I'm afraid to get a blood transfusion, should I ever need one, God forbid, because the state's Democrats have passed legislation allowing AIDS-infected homosexuals to give blood without disclosure. (It doesn't matter if all blood donations are tested; sometimes those tests fail.)

So, all you do is move East, I guess. The West is pretty much fucked.

At NYT (safe link), "Poised for West Coast Dominance, Democrats Eye Grand Agenda":

It's the stuff of liberal fantasies: a vast, defiant territory governed by Democrats resisting Trump at every turn https://t.co/rvaaX90ZlI

— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 4, 2017

SAMMAMISH, Wash. — It is the stuff of liberal fantasies: a vast, defiant territory, sweeping along the country’s Pacific coastline, governed by Democrats and resisting President Trump at every turn.

A single election in a wealthy Seattle suburb on Tuesday could make that scenario a reality, handing the party full control of government in Washington State — and extinguishing Republicans’ last fragile claim on power on the West Coast. The region has been a rare Democratic stronghold on an electoral map now dominated by vast swaths of red, and Republicans’ only toehold on power there has been a one-seat majority in the Washington State Senate.

The prospect of such far-reaching autonomy for Democrats, who already hold all three governors’ offices as well as both houses of the legislatures in Oregon and California, has infused extraordinary energy into what might have been a low-key special election. The race is on track to draw more than $9 million in campaign spending, a record-breaking sum for Washington State. National environmental and abortion rights groups have mobilized, business associations and oil companies have poured in money, and a former vice president, Joseph R. Biden Jr., has intervened on the Democratic side.

Sharon Nelson, the Democratic leader in the Washington State Senate, conveyed the party’s grand aspirations in an almost Trump-like phrase: “A blue wall,” Ms. Nelson enthused, “from the Canadian border to the Mexican border.”

Leading in the polls and anticipating victory, Democrats have sketched an aggressive agenda on issues where strong consensus appears to exist in the party, including new laws on gun control, contraception and environmental regulation. Ms. Nelson said she had met with the speaker of the Oregon Statehouse about enacting policy across state lines. The three states’ Democratic governors have spoken regularly about policy collaboration, and over the summer began coordinated talks on climate change with foreign heads of state.

Perhaps most ambitious of all, Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, harbors dreams of enacting a muscular carbon pricing plan along with California, Oregon and officials in Canada. In an interview, Mr. Inslee said the special election in Eastside Seattle could open the way for broad action, including taxing carbon but also joint initiatives on energy efficiency, research and clean water.

“We intend to make a full-scale effort in the next session of the Legislature if we win,” he said. “It will be a bell in the night, showing hope for the country, rejecting the Trump agenda of denying climate science.”

A coastal alliance, Mr. Inslee added, especially when cities such as Seattle and Portland, Ore., and throughout California are booming economically, would help make the case to a national audience that addressing climate change through energy policy is good for business and job creation.

“The more we can have uniformity in a carbon pricing system or regulatory system, the better,” he said.

Both parties see Democrats as favored to win the district, which voted heavily for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Republicans held the area’s State Senate seat largely because of the personal popularity of an incumbent lawmaker, Andy Hill, who died of lung cancer last fall.

Despite their dominance at the federal level and in most state capitals, West Coast Republicans have been driven to the point of extinction as the party’s standing has plummeted in prosperous cities and suburbs, from San Diego to Seattle. Their candidate in the State Senate race, Jinyoung Lee Englund, a polished former political operative, has strained to set herself apart from the national party, declaring that she did not vote for Mr. Trump in 2016 and pleading with voters to embrace divided government in Olympia.

Ms. Englund, 33, has campaigned explicitly against the “blue wall” scenario, warning that voters should not let Washington “go the way of California” and other one-party states. She expressed deep skepticism of Mr. Inslee’s climate proposals and suggested Democrats were mainly focused on trying to raise general revenue by another name. Republican groups have aired commercials saying that “Seattle liberals” could wreak havoc on the state’s finances if Democrats are allowed to govern unchecked.

“You don’t want to go the way of Oregon,” Ms. Englund said in an interview. “Washingtonians are more independent.”

Ms. Englund rebuked Democrats for what she characterized as using the state government as a partisan bludgeon. “I think that’s wrong,” she said. “The role of a state senator is not to go and lambaste what’s happening nationally.”

But the 45th District, a diverse suburban patchwork that stretches across the high-tech haven of Redmond and into more rural territory beyond — north and east of Bellevue — is emblematic of the territory that has lurched away from the Republican Party over the last year, recoiling from Mr. Trump’s brand of hard nationalism. Manka Dhingra, the Democratic candidate, has led in the polls by a comfortable but not overwhelming margin...

More.

Truth About New York City Terror

Political correctness is literally killing us.

Here's Paul Joseph Watson:

Uma Thurman Too Angry to Talk About Sexual Assault Allegations Right Now

She looks genuinely upset and angry.

She's a good lady. I don't care if she's a leftist. It's leftists who've been raping Hollywood's women for a century.

Uma Thurman's response when asked about the flood of sexual misconduct allegations....wow. pic.twitter.com/Sw5Br1GwFg

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 4, 2017

Peter McLoughlin and Tommy Robinson, Mohammed's Koran

At Amazon, Peter McLoughlin and Tommy Robinson, Mohammed's Koran: Why Muslims Kill for Islam.

Pamela Geller, Fatwa

At Amazon, Pamela Geller, Fatwa: Hunted in America.

Cristina De Stefano, Oriana Fallaci

At Amazon, Cristina De Stefano, Oriana Fallaci: The Journalist, the Agitator, the Legend.

Evelyn Taft's Mostly Cloudy and Cooler Forecast

Well, we're into November now, after that very hot October, and it's nice and cool.

Here's the lovely Ms. Evelyn, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles, from last night:

David Horowitz, Unholy Alliance

At Amazon, David Horowitz, Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam And the American Left.

How Leftists Aid the Jihadis' Deadly Cause

Great, great piece, from Sultan Knish, at FrontPage Magazine, "The Unholy Alliance's central role in the Halloween Massacre":

As Robert Spencer noted, vehicular jihad has come to Manhattan, after stops in Nice, London, Edmonton and other places. The Muslim Sayfullo Saipov killed eight and wounded a dozen innocents by running them over with a rental truck, the first fatalities in that area since other jihadists crashed hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center, claiming some 3,000 lives.

That prompted cheers from Muslims living in New Jersey, also home to Sayfullo Saipov.  The jubilant jihadist, a 29-year-old Uzbek, acted on behalf of the Islamic State, which in turn is part of something much larger. Call it the Islamschluss, a global surge that should put things in perspective.

The West and the United States are dealing with a supremacist, expansionist religion that seeks to annex the entire world by any means necessary, especially violence. As in Austria, which the Nazis took over in 1938, the Islamschluss finds willing collaborators, like the weasely Herr Zeller in The Sound of Music. In America, the collaborators bring in Muslims by any means necessary, such as the “diversity visa” of Sayfullo Saipov.

The Diversity Visa program, launched by New York Senator Chuck Schumer in 1990, makes 50,000 visas available, on a random basis, to people from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Sayfullo Saipov is one of the lottery winners, though what he has to do with “diversity” is a mystery. Uzbekistan is part of the Caucuses region, so he’s a genuine Caucasian, like the Tsarnaev brothers who bombed the Boston Marathon.

Saipov had no skill America needs, but the Diversity Visa program is all about bringing in people America doesn’t need. The United States abounds in truck drivers and cab drivers, and has no need for Uzbek jihadists to perform those tasks.

Likewise, the United States abounds in Information Technology specialists, but congressional Democrats such as Debbie Wasserman Schultz chose to bring in Pakistani-born Muslim Imran Awan. He wasn’t very good at his job but Awan did prove adept at ripping off massive amounts of data from Democrats on the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, and stashing it on a server controlled by Xavier Becerra, once on Hillary Clinton’s short list as a running mate.

Nobody seems to know what became of the data. Even so, the Democrats not only kept paying Imran Awan but brought in other members of his family, not exactly models of competence and propriety. So it’s clear that the Islamschluss has already annexed strategic territory in Congress and also made inroads in the military.

Those who join the United States Army pledge to defend the United States against all enemies. Major Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, openly identified himself as a “Soldier of Allah,” but nobody saw that as a reason to boot him out, even though he was communicating with jihadist Anwar al-Awlaki about killing Americans.

The authorities had his communications with the terrorist but did nothing to stop Hasan from killing 13 and wounding more than 30 at Fort Hood, Texas, on November 5, 2009. Like Sayfullo Saipov, Hasan yelled “Allahu Akbar,” as he killed. Even so, the 44th President of the United States called the mass murder “workplace violence,” not even gun violence. He declined to meet with wounded victims of Hasan’s attack, such as Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford, who took seven bullets from the “Soldier of Allah.” Hasan was sentenced to death in 2013 but still awaits execution.

The President Formerly Known as Barry Soetoro also traded jihadis Khirullah Said Wali Khairkhwa, Mullah Mohammad Fazi, Mullah Norullah Noori, Abdul Haq Wasiq, and Mohammed Nabi Omari, all Taliban commanders, for deserter Bowe Bergdahl. It was like trading Private Slovik for the German high command, but no surprise.

In the ongoing Islamschluss, the previous president shapes up as collaborator-in-chief. He went to a “predominantly Muslim” school in Indonesia and told the world the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. So no surprise he can’t say “Islamic” and “terrorism” in the same sentence.

Likewise, the politically correct lack the guts to criticize Islamic savagery of the kind on display in New York. Their intellectual self-beheading renders them unable to distinguish fact from fiction, friends from enemies, and sensible immigration policies from what amounts to an Islamschluss.

Uzbekistan, a huge former Soviet republic, should be only a destination for Muslims, particularly Muslim refugees. As jihadist Sayfullo Saipov’s murder spree confirms, Uzbekistan is not a good source for immigrants to the United States. For the time being, a good ballpark figure for visas would be zero.

President Trump would do well to toughen vetting and extend the travel ban. The president should also end the Diversity Visa program, the collaborators’ highway for troops of the Islamschluss like Sayfullo Saipov. The time has come to take back the territory they have already annexed in government, the military and on the streets of America.

Epic Police Partnership Ends

This is really cool.

At LAT, "After nearly 30 years patrolling together, these two LAPD officers end an epic partnership":

The cops have patrolled together for more than 28 years, one behind the wheel, the other riding shotgun, scanning the streets of northeast Los Angeles for signs of trouble.

Both are bald with mustaches, as set in their ways as a married couple. Duarte, the smoother talker, is first to approach a suspect or defuse a tense situation. Marinelli, whose "aw shucks" demeanor masks a sly wit, hangs back to stand guard.

They are friendly or fearsome, depending on what they think you deserve. Homeless people and street vendors get a pass. Car thieves do not. Their adversaries call them Los Dobermans, the Doublemint Twins, Heckle and Jeckle.

In the Los Angeles Police Department, partners typically last a year or two in the same car. Sometimes, working styles clash. More often, someone gets transferred or promoted. A decade together is long, three unheard of.

Patrolling in Cypress Park on a late afternoon last fall, they recall the tragedy and mayhem they have seen on these streets. They point to the alley where Marinelli fatally shot an armed man in 1993. Around the corner on Bank Street two years later, a 3-year-old girl was killed by gang members.

This is one of the last days Harold Marinelli and J.C. Duarte will work together. Marinelli is leaving for knee surgery, then retirement.

"I'm always right, and he's always wrong," Marinelli says.

"I always let him think he's right — just like my wife," Duarte responds.

In June 1988, when the two young police officers climbed into a black-and-white for the first time, their chemistry was immediate. They were the same kind of cop, itching for a caper, obsessed with catching car thieves. No need for promotions or to check out other stations. All they wanted was to work Northeast Division together.

Supervisors tried to break them up. They resisted. Once, they joined a vice squad to avoid being paired with novice cops. When they returned to patrol, they took a demotion, losing two stripes and 5% of their pay to stay together.

Spending all day, every day cooped up in a car with the wrong person can be hellish. One officer wants to run after a suspect while the other insists on summoning reinforcements. One may power through a whole shift without a break, while the other gets cranky without his customary burger stop. In a dangerous situation, partners move in an improvised choreography, wordlessly reading each other's intentions.

"If you don't gel, you can hardly wait for that day to get done," says Jack Richter, a sergeant in media relations, whose longest pairing lasted two years.

Like a good marriage, a good police partnership can thrive off differences. Duarte, 53, speaks Spanish and is better at writing reports. Marinelli, 58, is the quiet one who notices the detail others miss — the one that leads to the bad guy.

Duarte is a meticulous record-keeper, jotting down every hour of overtime the partners have worked. A black binder holds mug shots of every person they have arrested — page after page of scowling photographs, a rogues' gallery of northeast Los Angeles.

There was the suspected robber who led them on a car chase in 1998; the woman they arrested almost a dozen times for drug offenses in the early 2000s before she turned her life around; the boxer known as "Eddie the Animal," whose freedom ended when the partners spotted him in Highland Park on Jan. 3, 2006, and arrested him on a burglary and robbery warrant.

At the station, they are the Baldies, who pepper roll calls with jokes and are admired for their old-fashioned "obs skills" — the ability to size up a situation at a glance.

A few years ago, the partners were driving around Cypress Park, looking to pick up some overtime, when they spotted a man molesting his niece in a parked car. They later took the girl to Disneyland...

More.

Disney Bans Los Angeles Times from Film Screenings in Retaliation for Newspaper's Coverage of Disney's Relationship with City of Anaheim

Here's the September story on the Disney Company's cozy relationship with Anaheim, "Is Disney paying its fair share in Anaheim?"

Disney's retaliating against the paper. See, at Deadline, "Disney Putting Hammer Down on Los Angeles Times Writers."

And today, at LAT, "A note to readers":

The annual Holiday Movie Sneaks section published by the Los Angeles Times typically includes features on movies from all major studios, reflecting the diversity of films Hollywood offers during the holidays, one of the busiest box-office periods of the year. This year, Walt Disney Co. studios declined to offer The Times advance screenings, citing what it called unfair coverage of its business ties with Anaheim. The Times will continue to review and cover Disney movies and programs when they are available to the public.

Also at WaPo, via Mediagaze (safe link), "Disney declined to offer LA Times entertainment writers advance film screenings claiming unfair coverage of its ties with Anaheim."

It's hard out there, lol.

Adam Johnson, The Orphan Master's Son

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Adam Johnson, The Orphan Master's Son: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction).

Paul Beatty, The Sellout

At Amazon, Paul Beatty, The Sellout: A Novel.

Shop Deals

At Amazon, Today's Deals.

And especially, AuraGlow Teeth Whitening Kit, LED Light, 35% Carbamide Peroxide, (2) 5ml Gel.

More, Electric Toothbrush, Oral-B Pro 7000 SmartSeries Black Electronic Power Rechargeable Toothbrush with Bluetooth Connectivity.

Also, Black & Decker WP900 6-Inch Random Orbit Waxer/Polisher.

Here, Meguiar's G18216 Ultimate Liquid Wax - 16 oz. Size: 16 Ounce.

Still more, Paul Mitchell Super Strong Daily Shampoo and Conditioner Liter Duo Set 33.8 Oz.

And, Java Planet - Good Morning USDA Organic Coffee Beans, Medium Roast, Arabica Gourmet Coffee Grade A, packaged in two 1 LB bags.

Plus, Sweet Sweat Performance Jump Rope by Sports Research | Adjustable-length rope for fitness and speed training - Includes bonus Sweet Sweat Gel Sample!

More here, Aquafina Water, 16.9 oz (Pack of 24).

BONUS: Victor Sebestyen, Lenin: The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror (out Tuesday).

For the Dodgers, Lots of Talent But No Guarantees

The latest on the loser Dodgers. Oh, what a bummer was Game 7.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Dodgers have decisions to make in quest for World Series return":

Dodgers have decisions to make in quest for World Series return https://t.co/hOqCsqkbIA pic.twitter.com/7edYGvmW3h

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) November 3, 2017

His eyes gleaming, his season over, Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen stood before a crowd of reporters and issued a declaration.

"This team is not going to give up," Jansen said. "We're going to bring a championship back to L.A. I promise you that."

On any day before Wednesday — on Feb. 1 or July 1 or Oct. 1 — the words would have sounded like a pledge. But Jansen spoke on Nov. 1, minutes after his team lost to the Houston Astros in the seventh game of the World Series. In moments like these, all proclamations ring hollow.

The 2017 Dodgers won 104 regular-season games and accumulated enough accolades to fill a trophy case — a fifth National League West title, the best regular-season record since leaving Brooklyn, the team’s first National League pennant since 1988 — yet they headed into the winter without reaching the last goal on their checklist. They stood at the base of the summit, but could not reach the top. As the players packed for the winter, they struggled to acknowledge how difficult it might be to get back.

“I’m not really thinking about next year,” pitcher Clayton Kershaw said. “We all know the team we’re going to have coming back.”
The collection of talent does not guarantee a return to the Fall Classic. Houston assembled a similarly youthful roster. There will be healthy challenges from the Chicago Cubs, Arizona Diamondbacks and Washington Nationals in the National League, while the New York Yankees appear to be a budding force in the American League, along with the Cleveland Indians. And history does not appear to be on the Dodgers’ side.

No team has won back-to-back championships since the Yankees captured three in a row from 1998 to 2000. Since 2000, four teams have appeared in the World Series in consecutive seasons: the 2000-2001 Yankees, 2008-2009 Philadelphia Phillies, 2010-2011 Texas Rangers and the 2014-2015 Kansas City Royals.

Only the Royals won a title in their return engagement — after falling in Game 7 the year before to San Francisco. Kansas City leaned on that agony throughout the following season. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts suggested his players could find similar motivation.

"I know our guys and I know that there won't be a hangover," Roberts said. "They will be more incentivized, and I think they'll be hungrier."

Except baseball does not always reward its best. The Indians blew a 3-1 lead in the World Series to the Cubs last October. Focused on atoning, the Indians raced to the best record in the American League this season. Yet they still fell in the first round to the Yankees.

When the heartache subsides, the Dodgers will still enter the offseason in an enviable position. They support the game's largest payroll and run a well-stocked farm system. The overwhelming majority of their roster can return for 2018, and the front office may choose to make only cosmetic changes to the composition of this group...

More.