Here's Jennifer Delacruz's Black Friday Forecast

She usually works the holidays, but the video wasn't up last night in time for my blog weather report.

Any time's good for me, though.

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

Kyla Grogan's Black Friday Forecast

Ms. Kyla's the new on-air meteorological talent at CBS News 2 Los Angeles.

It's been record Thanksgiving heat today, not to complain, of course.

Temperatures will be subsiding over the next few days, but it's still going to be lovely.

What It's Like to Be the Only Trump Fan at Thanksgiving

You gotta read this. The best, heh.

From Mark Bauerlein, at Politico:

Heh. This Is What It's Like to Be the Only #Trump Fan at Thanksgiving Dinner. https://t.co/iBBTsZ9Sxu pic.twitter.com/yw3i483L5D

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) November 23, 2017

Thanksgiving Shopping

Well, time to get going on your holiday shopping.

It's a great time of year! Tomorrow's Black Friday. There'll be all kinds of sales.

So get crackin', lol.

At Amazon, Today's Deals.

And see especially, ILIFE A4s Robot Vacuum Cleaner.

Also, GOOLOO 800A Peak 18000mAh Car Jump Starter (Up to 7.0L Gas or 5.5L Diesel Engine) Portable Power Pack Auto Battery Booster Phone Charger Built-in LED Light and Smart Protection.

More, Craftsman 9-31794 Slotted Phillips Screwdriver Set, 17 Piece, and Craftsman 56-piece Universal Mechanics Tool Set.

Plus, Pyramex Cap Style 4 Point Snap Lock Suspension Hard Hat.

And, AmazonBasics AA Performance Alkaline Batteries (48 Count) - Packaging May Vary.

Here, Samsung UN65MU6300FXZA 65" 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV (2017 Model) Plus Terk Cut-the-Cord HD Digital TV Tuner and Recorder 16GB Hook-Up Bundle.

BONUS: Oleg V. Khlevniuk, Stalin: New Biography of a Dictator.

Think Twice

About communism.

From Laura M. Nicolae, at the Harvard Crimson, "100 Years. 100 Million Lives. Think Twice":

"My father left behind his parents, friends, and neighbors in the hope of finding freedom. I know his story because it is my heritage; you now know his story because I have a voice. One hundred million other people were silenced." https://t.co/qgSm47yOMZ @lauramnic pic.twitter.com/AhAhPEvgQf

— Victims of Communism (@VoCommunism) November 21, 2017

In 1988, my twenty-six-year-old father jumped off a train in the middle of Hungary with nothing but the clothes on his back. For the next two years, he fled an oppressive Romanian Communist regime that would kill him if they ever laid hands on him again.

My father ran from a government that beat, tortured, and brainwashed its citizens. His childhood friend disappeared after scrawling an insult about the dictator on the school bathroom wall. His neighbors starved to death from food rations designed to combat “obesity.” As the population dwindled, women were sent to the hospital every month to make sure they were getting pregnant.

My father’s escape journey eventually led him to the United States. He moved to the Midwest and married a Romanian woman who had left for America the minute the regime collapsed. Today, my parents are doctors in quiet, suburban Kansas. Both of their daughters go to Harvard. They are the lucky ones.

Roughly 100 million people died at the hands of the ideology my parents escaped. They cannot tell their story. We owe it to them to recognize that this ideology is not a fad, and their deaths are not a joke.

Last month marked 100 years since the Bolshevik Revolution, though college culture would give you precisely the opposite impression. Depictions of communism on campus paint the ideology as revolutionary or idealistic, overlooking its authoritarian violence. Instead of deepening our understanding of the world, the college experience teaches us to reduce one of the most destructive ideologies in human history to a one-dimensional, sanitized narrative.

Walk around campus, and you’re likely to spot Ché Guevara on a few shirts and button pins. A sophomore jokes that he’s declared a secondary in “communist ideology and implementation.” The new Leftist Club on campus seeks “a modern perspective” on Marx and Lenin to “alleviate the stigma around the concept of Leftism.” An author laments in these pages that it’s too difficult to meet communists here. For many students, casually endorsing communism is a cool, edgy way to gripe about the world.

After spending four years on a campus saturated with Marxist memes and jokes about communist revolutions, my classmates will graduate with the impression that communism represents a light-hearted critique of the status quo, rather than an empirically violent philosophy that destroyed millions of lives.

Statistics show that young Americans are indeed oblivious to communism’s harrowing past. According to a YouGov poll, only half of millennials believe that communism was a problem, and about a third believe that President George W. Bush killed more people than Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who killed 20 million. If you ask millennials how many people communism killed, 75 percent will undershoot.

Perhaps before joking about communist revolutions, we should remember that Stalin’s secret police tortured “traitors” in secret prisons by sticking needles under their fingernails or beating them until their bones were broken. Lenin seized food from the poor, causing a famine in the Soviet Union that induced desperate mothers to eat their own children and peasants to dig up corpses for food. In every country that communism was tried, it resulted in massacres, starvation, and terror.

Communism cannot be separated from oppression; in fact, it depends upon it. In the communist society, the collective is supreme. Personal autonomy is nonexistent. Human beings are simply cogs in a machine tasked with producing utopia; they have no value of their own.

Many in my generation have blurred the reality of communism with the illusion of utopia. I never had that luxury...

Keep reading.

Robert Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt

Just out this month, at Amazon, Robert Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life.

CBS and Dish Network Failed to Reach Agreement on New Carriage Deal

My wife's bummed. She watches a lot of TV, and of course CBS has some good prime time programming. She came to me last night and said, "That's a bummer about the CBS blackout." I'm like, "What blackout?" I thought it related to Charlie Rose's firing from CBS, heh. Don't know why we'd lose access to the entire network because of that perv, lol.

At Deadline, "CBS & Its Stations Go Dark On Dish Network As Deal Deadline Passes."

CBS & Its Stations Go Dark On Dish Network As Deal Deadline Passes https://t.co/48ad1RKEEF pic.twitter.com/O1PXuu6i7m

— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) November 21, 2017

I'm going to watch football today, and CBS has the Chargers on this afternoon, so I'll miss that. Oh well. I'm only now returning to watching pro football, since it looks like the league's going to crack down on the anti-flag protests. The consumer boycotts have definitely had an impact.

LaVar Ball's Big Con

I feel bad for his boys, especially Lonzo, who's on the Lakers now, and a success in his own right. I wonder how long until Lonzo cuts his dad loose. LaVar's already damaged his other two sons' chances of making to the NBA, and that's not counting LiAngelo's shoplifting arrest in China. Troubles in the family, and it's too bad. Of course, it had to turn political with LaVar not thanking President Trump for his help in securing LiAngelo's release.

Here's Bill Plaschke, at the Los Angeles Times, "The big blowhard: LaVar Ball has made a living off the backs of his children":

LaVar Ball has not stayed in his lane; he's become shameless huckster running a con on the backs of his children https://t.co/aw8GMQx7At

— Bill Plaschke (@BillPlaschke) November 22, 2017

Just in time for the holidays, LaVar Ball has been good enough to advise us on one way to obtain a pair of his company's odd $495 sneakers.

The father of UCLA freshman basketball player LiAngelo Ball has spent the last week telling the world his son and fellow Bruins Cody Riley and Jalen Hill didn't really do too much wrong when they were caught shoplifting in three stores during the team's recent trip to China.

They were detained, confined to the country beyond their scheduled departure, released with the help of two presidents, publicly admitted their wrongdoing and are serving an indefinite team suspension.

But according to the family patriarch, a man whose publicity-seeking craziness has been excused because he is a good father, theft isn't that big of a deal.

To ESPN recently, Ball actually said, "It ain't that big of a deal.''

On CNN Monday night, he doubled down on the ignorance, saying, "The way I look at it, OK, [LiAngelo] was shoplifting. He wasn't physical. He returned it. He fessed up to it. … Nobody got hurt.''

Nobody got hurt? Nobody except the three shops from which the kids stole the items, his son's now-depleted team and, most of all, his son's shamed university.

When LaVar Ball said nobody got hurt, he meant LaVar Ball didn't get hurt. While his son was confined by the school to his Hangzhou hotel during the investigation, his father was out hawking shoes in cities as far as two hours away. While his son was watching his team's first game against Georgia Tech while sitting in that hotel, his father was actually in the stands, because who needs the kid on the court when you can peddle a branded T-shirt on TV?

LaVar Ball once seemed like a genius salesman worthy of examination, but in recent months the curtain has been drawn to reveal a shallow and shameless huckster. He once enhanced the Los Angeles sports landscape, but now he only infects it by continuing to bleat messages filled with delusion and disrespect. For someone who once epitomized sexism by telling a female sports-talk show announcer to "Stay in your lane,'' Ball has veered far from his original lane...

More.

Lindsay Shepherd

This is really troubling.

Best thing is, she recorded her inquisition, ha!

At Inside Higher Ed, "The Interrogation of a TA: University president apologizes after recording reveals how a graduate student was questioned over use of a video, which offended at least one student, of debate on nontraditional pronouns."

And the National Post, "Wilfrid Laurier University's president apologizes to Lindsay Shepherd for dressing-down over Jordan Peterson clip."

And watch Ezra Levant, at the Rebel, with excerpts from her recording. It's good:



And at tweet from Jordan Peterson on the abuse he's enduring. It's bad. Really bad:

Those who consider themselves my enemies have been posting these all around my home neighbourhood. pic.twitter.com/zF3Mc7Imsy

— Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) October 26, 2017

Leeann Tweeden

Following-up, "New Sexual Assault Allegations Against Al Franken."

Franken didn't assault this woman, Leeann Tweeden, but the photo of his mock-fondling her breasts is heavily damaging. And with more women coming forward, it doesn't look good for the guy. He was considered a 2020 prospect for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination as well.

Heh, too bad.

Ms. Leeann posed on Playboy a while back, and other photos circulating online indicate she's got a huge rack:

New Sexual Assault Allegations Against Al Franken

He's not up for reelection until 2020, but I don't know if he's going to make that long. The pressure for his resignation is significant, and a Morning Consult poll out yesterday found half saying he should resign.

Not good for Al Franken, at Huff Post:

BREAKING: Two more women accuse Al Franken of inappropriate touching https://t.co/TdTJijO8LV pic.twitter.com/BIuhhadviG

— HuffPost (@HuffPost) November 23, 2017

There are some extremely depressing quotes in this story. https://t.co/S3xoM8aMAB pic.twitter.com/abGtO4OWng

— Nick Baumann (@NickBaumann) November 23, 2017

Piers Morgan Chews Out Dating Guru: ‘You Are A Repulsive Individual’

At Huff Post:

Piers Morgan chews out dating guru: "You are a repulsive individual" https://t.co/t2eRoVb5a8 pic.twitter.com/OVH6eOjtps

— HuffPost (@HuffPost) November 23, 2017

This seduction expert thinks British women are 'overweight' and 'entitled'

Watch the full debate: https://t.co/vuw078VG5o @piersmorgan pic.twitter.com/Xfc21gRb6C

— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) November 22, 2017

Republican Congressman Joe Barton Apologizes for Rude Nude Selfie

Well this kind of thing isn't so great for your career.

And, the issue for some is whether the good congressman is a victim of "revenge" porn. See this thread, "Earlier today Texas Tribune posted a story concerning Rep. Joe Barton (R-Ennis) that he issued an apology statement after it was learned a graphic image of him nude (apparently showing his penis), was circulating via social media."

And at the Texas Tribune:

U.S. Rep. Joe Barton has apologized for a graphic nude photo of him that circulated online. https://t.co/6JuABqgUEA pic.twitter.com/mWIOYQJ7S6

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) November 22, 2017

And from Elise Viebeck, of the Washington Post:

Rep. Joe Barton said he would report his lover to the Capitol Police if she exposed his secret sex life, w/ @mikedebonis: https://t.co/e4hcofGnA6

— Elise Viebeck (@eliseviebeck) November 23, 2017

Here's what @RepJoeBarton told his lover when she learned he was involved with other women. He doesn't leave much out. pic.twitter.com/xOyS5BI5qd

— Elise Viebeck (@eliseviebeck) November 23, 2017

Worth noting that the woman says she and Barton would text for hours, including when he was in committee meetings and on the House floor: pic.twitter.com/J359oRdzZY

— Elise Viebeck (@eliseviebeck) November 23, 2017

For those wondering about the revenge porn issue: good question. We listened to the tape. Barton brought up the Capitol Police because he was mad the woman learned about and was making contact with his other lovers. She was mad; he brought up the idea of an investigation.

— Elise Viebeck (@eliseviebeck) November 23, 2017

Here's what Barton had to say about it: pic.twitter.com/4UtoZ4OABt

— Elise Viebeck (@eliseviebeck) November 23, 2017

Finally, to sign off: if you were inappropriately propositioned by Rep. Barton or another member of Congress, we'd like to hear your story. Email us at mike.debonis@washpost.com and elise.viebeck@washpost.com.

— Elise Viebeck (@eliseviebeck) November 23, 2017

Los Angeles 'Travel Crunch' (VIDEO)

Wasn't too bad driving home this afternoon from work, but these videos of the L.A. traffic are murder.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Nice Samantha Hoopes

Ms. Samantha's wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!

We can all be thankful for this new @SamanthaHoopes video! https://t.co/V8woksEWM6 pic.twitter.com/4kmeb1Xfvx

— SI Swimsuit (@SI_Swimsuit) November 21, 2017

The Soft Bigotry of School Discipline Reform

This is an amazing piece, at the Fordham Institute:

Simon Whitehead, a former teacher, gives his take on why not all forms of #school #discipline reform are working: https://t.co/Kw24DiPpih

— Fordham Institute (@educationgadfly) November 22, 2017

I am here today because I am very worried about the direction some of our urban and suburban schools are taking.

Over the past four to five years, there have been strong expectations to discipline students differently depending on their race. We were told that too many students of color were being suspended and this looked bad, especially in the case of African American boys. This was definitely the case in Minneapolis.

However well-intended, this policy actually disrespects a whole class of students by lowering the expectations for their behavior, their work ethic, and inevitably their academic progress. When students walk though my classroom door, I have high expectations for them—no matter what they look like.

Another great area of concern is that students are now increasingly emboldened to get together and collaborate to “get teachers in trouble.” Those teachers can lose their jobs and their entire careers. The teachers who tend to be targets are those who have a more traditional way of teaching. By this I mean holding all students to high expectations—such as punctuality, respectful behavior, teamwork, good work ethic, following school rules, politeness, meeting deadlines—and providing consequences for not reaching those high standards.

This has led, in my opinion, to a generation of teachers who are “walking on eggshells,” trying very hard to not say anything or do anything that might remotely get them reported. I believe that many teachers now turn a blind eye to school policies not popular with students: they inflate grades, ignore dress codes violations, don’t give deadlines for handing work in, and put up with bad behavior that would previously had prompted disciplinary action. It is a culmination of these “little expectations” that has led to an erosion of the overall school climate of academic rigor, as well as an erosion of student and staff safety. In addition, if there’s a student exhibiting significantly bad behavior, many teachers feel helpless because they know that a behavior referral will be fruitless; assistant principals will return that student to the same classroom that day or the next day. Order in the classroom deteriorates, and learning suffers.

When you have given twenty-five years to teaching city kids, it hurts to be called a racist, as I have been many times. It’s upsetting to be verbally abused on a daily or even hourly basis, and in some cases even physically abused.

What other profession has to tolerate this?

This is a key reason why we are losing great teachers.

I like to think I ran a pretty tight ship. I like to think that we got a lot of learning done in fifty minutes. I would teach up to two hundred students a day. I was the head varsity coach of two sports in my school. I was in the hallways every day, passing time, keeping order and greeting students. But under the current conditions, I cannot and will not teach any longer in Minneapolis.

African American students will never reach their full potential when they are getting conflicting messages from radical activists who tell them they are, and will be, victims of discrimination, who promote the ideology of white privilege (code for “you have no chance”), and who get them all riled up and angry in school so that they’re protesting at every opportunity. It is tough to learn when you are angry.

These students need to hear the same strong, uplifting, and positive message from teachers, parents, counselors, principals, and district administrators that they can achieve success with hard work, dedication, and determination...

He's right. This is the main problem with our schools. I deal with these things all the time. I'm lucky I'm not white. Seriously. I hate to do it, but I can turn the race card around on anyone who makes any issue about race. It's too easy for progressives to scream "racism." But I'll throw it back in their faces. Ideology has taken over public education. I'm fighting a tough battle, and sometimes I find myself going too easy on my students, because I get tired of playing campus cop all the time, 24/7. But unless you keep up a unified front, things happen, and it takes a cascade of disruptive behavior to remind you you've got to maintain high standards. You have no idea sometimes. (I'd like to retire, in fact, but it's just not happening any time soon, and it's for precisely these reasons).

More at the link.

Beware the Rape Allegation Bandwagon

Folks have been warning about the radical left's virtue signaling on the sexual harassment allegations train. All aboard! You too --- #MeToo --- can make bogus accusations of sexual assault, and bring down your powerful ideological enemies!

There's obviously a real problem going on right now, but just this afternoon I learned of the progressive journalist Jordan Chariton's firing by Cenk Uygur at the Young Turks. This looks like total scam, a scheme hatched to destroy this guy, with the Young Turks throwing the dude under the bus faster than you can say "perv!" (See Politico, "‘Young Turks’ reporter vows to sue over his firing.")

And this reminds me of Michelle Malkin's piece from last month, "#MeToo May Exaggerate Prevalence of Sex Crimes":

Beware the #MeToo rape allegation bandwagon ==>https://t.co/UDYljqtKXC pic.twitter.com/bdVBSF8E81

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) October 18, 2017

#MeToo" is the social media meme of the moment. In a 24-hour period, the phrase was tweeted nearly a half million times and posted on Facebook 12 million times. Spearheaded by actress Alyssa Milano in the wake of Hollyweird's Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal, women have flooded social media with their own long-buried accounts of being pestered, groped or assaulted by rapacious male predators in the workplace.

Count me out.

It's one thing to break down cultural stigmas constructively, but the #MeToo movement is collectivist virtue signaling of a very perilous sort. The New York Times heralded the phenomenon with multiple articles "to show how commonplace sexual assault and harassment are." The Washington Post credited #MeToo with making "the scale of sexual abuse go viral." And actress Emily Ratajkowski declared at a Marie Claire magazine's women's conference on Monday:

"The most important response to #metoo is 'I believe you.'"

No. I do not believe every woman who is now standing up to "share her story" or "tell her truth." I owe no blind allegiance to any other woman simply because we share the same pronoun. Assertions are not truths until they are established as facts and corroborated with evidence. Timing, context, motives and manner all matter.

Because I reserve the right to vet the claims of individual sexual assault complainants instead of championing them all knee-jerk and wholesale as "victims," I've been scolded as insensitive and inhumane.

"TIMING DOES NOT MATTER," a Twitter user named Meg Yarbrough fumed. "What matters is what is best for EACH INDIVIDUAL victim. You should be ashamed of yourself."

CNN anchor Jake Tapper informed me, "People coming forward should be applauded." But applauding people for "coming forward" is not a journalistic tenet. It's an advocacy tenet. Tapper responded that he was expressing the sentiment as a "human being not as a journalist." Last time I checked, humans have brains. The Weinstein scandal is not an excuse to turn them off and abdicate a basic responsibility to assess the credibility of accusers. It's an incontrovertible fact that not all accusers' claims are equal.

Some number of harrowing encounters described by Weinstein's accusers and the #MeToo hashtag activists no doubt occurred. But experience and scientific literature show us that a significant portion of these allegations will turn out to be half-truths, exaggerations or outright fabrications. That's not victim-blaming. It's reality-checking.

It is irresponsible for news outlets to extrapolate how “commonplace” sexual abuse is based on hashtag trends spread by celebrities, anonymous claimants and bots. The role of the press should be verification, not validation. Instead of interviewing activist actresses, reporters should be interviewing bona fide experts...

Keep reading.

“The most important response to #metoo is ‘I believe you’ 🙏” @emrata @marieclaire #powertrip pic.twitter.com/ftP7yLIF1Z

— meika hollender (@missmeiks) October 17, 2017

Pre-Thanksgiving Shopping

It's that time of year again.

It'll be "Black Friday" day after tomorrow, which officially kicks off the scrambling holiday shopping season. I don't blog for money, but I'd be lying if I didn't say how much I appreciate the reader support over this last year or so of my Amazon book blogging. I'm having a lot of fun. I'm reading more these days than I have since graduate school. Reader purchases help finance my book addiction. It's healthy for me, since I don't get bogged down in all the political and ideological hatred online. I don't watch the news anymore, in any case, as I've noted many times now. So, thanks again. I hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving and a relaxing weekend. Shoot, you might as well watch a little NFL football. All of those Colin Kaepernick protests have hammered the league, so the boycott message has definitely gotten through. Just enjoy. Don't watch the anthem, though, lol. Tune in after the kickoff.

In any case, at Amazon, Today's Deals.

See especially, Atlin Snorkel Mask [Full Face] for Adults, Teens and Kids, GoPro Compatible Snorkeling Swimming & Underwater Mask with 180° Panoramic View Anti-Fog, Anti-Leak with Adjustable Head Straps.

And, Buck Knives 0863BRS SELKIRK Fixed Blade Survival Knife with Fire Striker and Sheath.

More, Car Concealed Seat Back Gun Rack to Hold 3 Rifles. (In stock on November 25, 2017 - Order it now!)

Still more, AmazonBasics AA Performance Alkaline Batteries (48 Count) - Packaging May Vary.

Plus, AmazonBasics Lightning to USB A Cable - Apple MFi Certified - Black - 6 Feet /1.8 Meters.

Also, Samsung UN65MU6300FXZA 65" 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV (2017 Model) Plus Terk Cut-the-Cord HD Digital TV Tuner and Recorder 16GB Hook-Up Bundle.

BONUS: C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.

Masha Gessen Will See Everything Through the Prism of Authoritarianism

I don't have time right now, and will try to watch later, but I'll bet yesterday's Monday's press conference with Sarah Sanders wasn't as bad as Masha Gessen makes out. Gessen's a defector from Putin's Russia, though, and she's also a radical left-wing lesbian, so you can imagine where her ideological affinities lay.

I'll try to follow up, but read this from the perspective of someone who viscerally hates the president and his "minions."

At the New Yorker:

In which the journalists took part in the awfulness. The Degrading Ritual of Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s Pre-Thanksgiving Press Briefing https://t.co/Z7E9xwuJlB

— masha gessen (@mashagessen) November 22, 2017

Rebecca Traister and Ross Douthat Debate the Post-Weinstein Moment

At the Cut, "What Are the Lessons of the Post-Weinstein Moment?"