A. James McAdams

At Amazon, A. James McAdams, Vanguard of the Revolution: The Global Idea of the Communist Party.

Stephen Kotkin, Stalin

This is volume two of Kotkin's magisterial biography.

At Amazon, Stephen Kotkin, Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941.

Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Putin

From Professor Michael Curtis, at the New English Review:

Are the Tsars out tonight? High in the sky the Tsars climb. For policy makers in Washington it is useful to compare two individuals who have risen in the Russian sky. On May  7, 2018 the 65 year old Vladimir V. Putin was sworn in as President of Russia for another six year term, his fourth term of office, having been elected with 77% of the vote.  He was not crowned Tsar in a relatively low key ceremomy that was attended by about 6,000 including sundry personalities, Gerhard Schroeder, former German Chancellor and critic of sanctions against Russia, Steven Seagal, Hollywood black belt in aikido and citizen of Russia since November 2016, and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill who gave Putin an 18th century icon. After the inauguration ceremony the secular Putin attended a prayer service at the Cathedral of the Annunciation.

 Vladimir Putin has been in power, as president or as prime minister since the last day of 1999. According to polls conducted by the independent Moscow Levanda Center in 2017, his popularity remains high, partly because there is no obvious alternative, no candidate from political parties, or social organizations, or trade unions, who can be regarded as a possible alternative.

Yet, Putin is not the most renowned or revered Russian. A poll in June 2017 on which Russian was the national symbol and biggest hero revealed that Joseph Stalin was the "most outstanding person in history." Stalin got 38% approval, while Putin tied with writer Alexander Pushkin at 34%. Stalin, probably seen as the hero of World War II rather than a cruel ruler, was even much more favorably regarded than Lenin, Bolshevik founder of the Soviet Union.

For the U.S. and indeed the rest of the democratic world a vital question is raised. Can Putin be seen as the heir of Stalin and the continuator of his policies? First, how to define Stalinism? Was it a perversion of the Bolshevism launched by Lenin, or was it the Revolution betrayed, or was it the embodiment of historic Russian nationalism using palatable language?

The showing recently of the black comedy film The Death of Stalin is a reminder of the crimes, the power struggles, counter plots, cult of personality, rewriting of history, the shifting truths in the Soviet Union. Central to most of that regime is the story of Stalin's reign of terror, a "total river of blood" in Leon Trotsky's words, during which more than 1.6 million party officials, military officers, intelligence agents, were murdered on fake charges of treason. In one year 1937-38, more than 700,000 were executed and millions of others were exiled or imprisoned.

It is arguable whether Stalin's brutality towards Ukraine 1932-3 can be called Holodomor, the deliberate attempt at genocide, the death of  millions, some estimates go as high as seven million, of Ukrainians on ethnic grounds, and the elimination of the Ukraininan independence movement, or whether the catastophe was an act of nature, a  genuine result of crop failure. Either way, it was a state engineered mass murder of the peasantry. It was part of Stalin's emphasis on the collectivization of agriculture. Every action of Stalin, other than the maintenance of his own power, was subordinated to "socialism in one country" and thus to a near permanent state of emergency. For Stalin, the Soviet Union was encircled by external enemies, and therefore a massive security organization was vital.

But Stalin's paranoia embodied internal enemies for which the main instruments were the political police and the Gulag system of forced labor camps...

More.

NRA Darling Sensation 'Alpha Addy'

At the Los Angeles Times, "She's a YouTube sensation and NRA darling: Meet 9-year-old sharpshooter 'Alpha Addy'":

Nine-year-old Addysson "Addy" Soltau became a YouTube sensation after learning to shoot three years ago. Now she's the darling of the NRA https://t.co/C46BKEDEm5 pic.twitter.com/sW3pFPTgch

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) May 6, 2018

The gap-toothed 9-year-old girl walked the floor of her first National Rifle Assn. convention, her blond ponytail bobbing above earrings fashioned from bullet casings.

When Addysson "Addy" Soltau arrived at the Smith & Wesson booth, she gravitated to a sleek silver .22 semiautomatic Victory pistol, a James Bond-style gun with a silencer attached. It was just out of reach. So her godfather lifted it from the wall and handed it to the girl, who gripped and sighted along the gun like a pro. She already shoots an M&P 15-22 rifle hanging nearby.

"That's actually your next gun," her godfather, Johnny Campos, said of the pistol. Addy gaped, overjoyed.

"Alpha Addy" became a YouTube sensation and NRA darling after she started shooting three years ago, one of many competitive girl shooters who buck not only gun culture stereotypes, but the youth-driven gun control movement that sprung up after the deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., this year.

The NRA doesn't track the number of young female shooters, a spokesman said, but as the number of women with guns has grown, they are inspiring their daughters. The National Shooting Sports Foundation says there's been a 77% increase in female gun ownership since 2005, with 5.4 million women participating in target shooting.

All of the youth celebrities at this weekend's annual NRA convention in Dallas, which was expected to draw more than 80,000 people, were female. Keystone Sporting Arms, which sold the Crickett and Chipmunk starter rifles at the convention under the banner "Never too young to understand freedom," sells as many pink and turquoise guns as the traditional colors, staff said. On Sunday, families with children flocked to the Dallas convention center for NRA Youth Day.

Many who stopped at the JM4 Tactical booth where Addy was greeting fans Sunday were parents and girl shooters who recognized her from her videos. A video of her rapidly reloading at home has more than 30 million views; she has 14,000 Facebook followers, 5,600 on Instagram and nearly 300 subscribers on YouTube, where the lead video shows her target shooting to the tune of Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball."

Addy was inspired by 17-year-old Katelyn Francis, a female competitive shooter she saw featured on NRATV while her godfather was babysitting her in San Antonio. Then she found the YouTube channel of Faith and Jenna Collier, sisters in nearby Austin who were about her age, and asked if she could shoot too.

Campos, 28, a retired Marine, agreed to coach her.

"She had never been around firearms. I didn't own any. Her parents didn't. This all started because she showed an interest," he said.

Addy's parents, who work at an education company, had their doubts.

Keep reading.

Random Girl Emily Seller

At Drunken Stepfather, "EMILY SELLER BUSH OF THE DAY":

Emily Seller is some random girl showing her bush on the internet. We looked for her social media, and found nothing, but we didn’t look too hard, and I find it very hard to believe that someone going out there and putting her bush on the internet doesn’t have social media…unless she’s just so fucking hipster, she’s moved to Detroit hipster, to be an artist hipster and deleted her social media as some hipster statement, and has got herself a flip phone with no data plan….because that’s the way hipsters do it if they can’t find a long enough string to use the old can and string form of communication you know at least one unicycle riding weirdo with a waxed moustache out there uses as the only way to contact him…

BONUS: "IGGY AZALEA HARD NIPPLES OF THE DAY."

Today's Shopping

At Amazon, Today's Deals.

And especially, Anne Klein Women's AK/1362RGRG Rose Gold-Tone Diamond-Accented Bracelet Watch, and Anne Klein Women's AK/1931SVTT Diamond-Accented Dial Two-Tone Bracelet Watch.

More, 1/2 Carat 14K White Gold Round Cut Solitaire Diamond Engagement Ring (0.5 Carat K-L Color I2 Clarity).

Also, Kenmore 50043 25 Cu. Ft. Side-by-Side Refrigerator with Water and Ice Dispenser in Stainless Steel, includes delivery and hookup.

Here, Yamaha RX-V383BL 5.1-Channel 4K Ultra HD AV Receiver with Bluetooth.

More here, BLACK+DECKER 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker, Black, CM1160B.

Plus, Koffee Kult Dark Roast Coffee Beans - Highest Quality Gourmet - Whole Bean Coffee - Fresh Roasted Coffee Beans, 32oz.

BONUS: Michael Kazin, The Populist Persuasion: An American History.

Salena Zito and Brad Todd on Fox & Friends (VIDEO)

Their new book is out tomorrow, The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics.

President Trump gave them a huge shout-out on Twitter as well!

“The Great Revolt” by Salena Zito and Brad Todd does much to tell the story of our great Election victory. The Forgotten Men & Women are forgotten no longer!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 7, 2018

Tetyana Veryovkina Beach Photo Shoot

At Taxi Driver, "Tetyana Veryovkina Topless on a Beach Photoshoot."

Also at the Fappening, "Tetyana Veryovkina Sexy."

San Diego Charter School Depicts President Trump's Severed Head on a Pike

Just imagine the hysterical outrage had it been President Obama's severed head on a pike. (*Eye-roll*.)

At Breitbart:

CA School mural artist says they were forced to change mural depicting an Aztec spearing Trump’s severed head because “white supremacists” complained https://t.co/wRojMKRp1A

— Amanda House (@AmandaLeeHouse) May 7, 2018

Political Scientist Richard Ned Lebow Won’t Apologize for Lingerie Joke

At the Chronicle of Higher Education, "He Makes a Joke. She Isn't Laughing: ‘Lingerie’ Comment in Elevator Leads to Uproar Among Scholars."

This is really too much. And good for him, Professor Lebow isn't backing down.

No jokes, please. We are fainting-couch feminists. https://t.co/nb0mlP5bjV

— Christina Sommers (@CHSommers) May 7, 2018

Today's Deals

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

And especially, Philips Sonicare Healthy White Electric Toothbrush.

Also, ILIFE V3s Pro Robotic Vacuum, Newer Version of V3s, Pet Hair Care, Powerful Suction Tangle-free, Slim Design, Auto Charge, Daily Planning, Good For Hard Floor and Low Pile Carpet.

More, Bissell ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Pro Full-Size Carpet Cleaner, 1986.

Plus, Craftsman 6 Drawer Heavy Duty Top Tool Chest, All Steel Construction & Smooth Glide Drawers, and Craftsman 450-Piece Mechanic's Tool Set.

Still more, SONGMICS 9 Cube DIY Storage Shelves Open Bookshelf Closet Organizer Rack Cabinet Black ULSN45BK.

Also, LG 65UJ6300-65 Super UHD 4K HDR Smart LED TV (2017 Model) w/Accessories Bundle Includes, SurgePro 6-Outlet Surge Adapter with Night Light, 2 x 6ft. HDMI Cable & Screen Cleaner For LED TVs.

BONUS: David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.

The Totalitarian Transgender Menace

There's not a bit of hyperbole in the blog post at the Other McCain. These she-male "transgender women" are menacing thugs and very dangerous actors.

Robert Stacy McCain is always exhorting folks to wake the hell up, and I've gotta say, time is of the essence.

Read the whole thing at the link, "Transgender Supremacy: Understanding the Ideology of a Totalitarian Menace."

Transgender Supremacy: Understanding the Ideology of a Totalitarian Menace https://t.co/5WmkzJK9DM pic.twitter.com/9wDPgcUXQ2

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) May 5, 2018

Natasha Oakley Spicy Margarita Time (PHOTOS)

On Twitter:

Spicy margarita time 🇲🇽♥️ @mondayswimwear pic.twitter.com/5KqthfL7kY

— Natasha Oakley (@Tashoakley) May 4, 2018

Plus:

Today's #BOTD is @MONDAYSWIMWEAR's most popular new print: https://t.co/0v0M71Q8vm pic.twitter.com/fZMo5aZZBY

— A Bikini A Day (@ABikiniADay) May 2, 2018

BIKINI OF THE DAY! Tash in @MONDAYSWIMWEAR https://t.co/VPXdipTL0o pic.twitter.com/elHMP7xRUT

— A Bikini A Day (@ABikiniADay) May 1, 2018

Min Jin Lee, Pachinko

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Min Jin Lee, Pachinko.

Samantha Hoopes Invites You to Explore (VIDEO)

I can think of something I'd like to explore with Samantha Hoopes (IYKWIMAITYD).

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Chloë Sevigny on Why She Chose Not to Add Her Voice to #MeToo

At the Guardian U.K., "Chloë Sevigny: ‘I didn’t want to name names. I think they’re commonly known as assholes anyway’ - More than 20 years ago, the actor was anointed ‘the coolest girl in the world’. As her new film opens, she talks about A-list movie stars hogging the best TV roles and why she chose not to add her voice to #MeToo":

Last year, Ronan Farrow, who broke some of the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault allegations in the New Yorker, approached Sevigny and asked if she’d be interviewed by him about her experiences of Hollywood. She turned him down. “I didn’t really have anything to say to him,” she says. “I’ve had experiences that are kind of common, verbal experiences, or innuendos. But I didn’t feel they offended me to such a degree that I wanted to name the names. I think they’re commonly known as assholes anyway. Do you know what I mean? I felt it would draw attention to myself, in a way. Which I know is the wrong thing to say, because we have to be vocal for people who don’t have a voice… ” She trails off, then starts up again. “For someone to say ‘What are you doing after?’ during a casting session is not so unheard of. Yeah, it shouldn’t be done and lots of girls might feel vulnerable and not know what to do in that situation. For me it was like: really?” She laughs. “I do feel like what Harvey Weinstein did compared to Al Franken [the former senator of Minnesota] – there has to be some delineation. Instead they’re all grouped together.”

Was she just naturally buoyant enough to push back against casual propositions?

“I think maybe growing up around some men in my life who were a little chauvinistic [helped]; I don’t know. I can’t even remember now who said it to me, but a female casting director said, in a room full of people: ‘You have to make the men want to fuck you and the women want to be you.’”

Ew.

“Yeah. I almost wish I could remember who she was. Not that I want to call her out, but I feel like that was almost more damaging in a way. To think to myself, that’s really what I have to be? And then trying to figure out how to be that. This was from a casting person who was like, this is how you’re going to get the jobs and then that permeating through how I thought about myself, and the commodity I was. That was more damaging than the guy asking me what are you doing after or saying you should take your clothes off more. Shocker.”

It makes sense that Sevigny, while sensitive to all the nuances surrounding #MeToo, held back when approached by Farrow; to be in a room with her is to be reminded that Sevigny, while friendly and charming, is a non-conformist who makes up her own mind, thinking long and hard before she answers some questions and doubling back to qualify them once she has. She is politically at odds with her family, a situation she finds depressing, but is well used to by now. Sevigny grew up in Darien, Connecticut, the US equivalent of the conservative Home Counties, but after moving to New York at 19 and falling in with a fashionable art crowd, rapidly moved away from the opinions she’d grown up around. Her family watch Fox News, she says, “which I try to zone out whenever I go home. It’s a losing battle. They’re at an age when – now it’s just the sad undercurrent of tension, and me having to block it out or ignore.”

More.

Paris Hilton Does Cosplay Photo Shoot

At Drunken Stepfather, "Paris Hilton Does a Photoshoot in Cosplay of the Day."

Bicentennial of Birth of Karl Marx, the Man Whose Ideas Killed Untold Millions

From Paul Kengor, at WSJ, "Marx’s Apologists Should Be Red in the Face":

Opinion: Marx’s apologists should be red in the face, writes @DrPaulKengor https://t.co/diNstXSF9T

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) May 5, 2018

May 5 marks the bicentennial of Karl Marx, who set the stage with his philosophy for the greatest ideological massacres in history. Or did he?

He did, but deniers still remain. “Only a fool could hold Marx responsible for the Gulag,” writes Francis Wheen in “Karl Marx: A Life” (1999). Stalin, Mao and Kim Il Sung, Mr. Wheen insists, created “bastard creeds,” “wrenched out of context” from Marx’s writings.

Marx has been accused of ambiguity in his writings. That critique is often justified, but not always. In “The Communist Manifesto,” he and Friedrich Engels were quite clear that “the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: abolition of private property.”

“You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property,” they wrote. “But in your existing society, private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population.” And this: “In one word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your property. Precisely so; that is just what we intend.”

Marx and Engels acknowledged that their views stood undeniably contrary to the “social and political order of things.” Communism seeks to “abolish the present state of things” and represents “the most radical rupture in traditional relations.”

Toward that end, the manifesto offers a 10-point program, including “abolition of property in land,” “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax,” “abolition of all right of inheritance,” “centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly,” “centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state” and the “gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equitable distribution of the population over the country.”

In a preface to their 10 points, Marx and Engels acknowledged their coercive nature: “Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads.” In the close of the Manifesto, Marx said, “The Communists . . . openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.”

They were right about that. Human beings would not give up fundamental liberties without resistance. Seizing property would require a terrible fight, including the use of guns and gulags. Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and a long line of revolutionaries and dictators candidly admitted that force and violence would be necessary...

More.

Obama Trump Swing Voters

At the New York Times, "They Voted for Obama, Then Went for Trump. Can Democrats Win Them Back?":

I interviewed 38 Obama-Trump voters. Takeaway: Most Americans are not thinking very much about politics. They have busy lives. They don't have time for Twitter. https://t.co/KAFHZqVKTB

— Sabrina Tavernise (@stavernise) May 4, 2018

RITTMAN, Ohio — In the daily race that is her life, Sharla Baker does not think about politics very much.

She rises early, drives to the gas station to buy coffee, feeds her baby, dresses her two other children, ages 3 and 2, and hustles them all off to day care. By 9:30 a.m. she pulls into a hair salon 45 minutes away, where she is training to be a cosmetologist. She waxes and cuts all day long, making only the money she earns in tips, which on a recent day last month was $8.41.

But Ms. Baker does vote. She picked Barack Obama for president in 2008 and 2012. He seemed sincere and looked like a happy family man. But most important, he was a Democrat. Her great-grandmother, who grew up poor in Pennsylvania, always said that Democrats look out for the poor people.

In 2016, though, she voted for Donald J. Trump. Yes, he was rich and seemed mean on his TV show, “The Apprentice.” But she liked how he talked about jobs and wages and people being left out of the economy.

Now, more than a year later, she is wavering.

“I voted for Trump because I wanted some change going on,” said Ms. Baker, 28. “But then again, maybe he’s going to do the wrong change.”

The swing of Obama voters to Mr. Trump proved a decisive factor in the 2016 presidential election. Of the more than 650 counties that chose Mr. Obama twice, about a third flipped to Mr. Trump. Many were in states critical to Mr. Trump’s win, like Iowa, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.

John Sides, a political-science professor at George Washington University, has estimated that 9 percent of voters who cast ballots for Mr. Obama ended up voting for Mr. Trump. Among white voters who had never been to college, it was 22 percent.

Now, as the country lurches into another election season — this time the prize is control of Congress — a crucial question for Democrats is whether the party will be able to lure these voters back. Democrats have had some early successes. Wins in Alabama, Pennsylvania and Virginia have given Democrats hope that voters might be souring on Mr. Trump — to the point that the party might flip control of the House and possibly even the Senate. Next week’s primary races in Ohio and West Virginia, both states that went for Mr. Trump in 2016, will also serve as tests of voter enthusiasm for Democrats.

We recently asked people who cast ballots for both Mr. Obama and Mr. Trump to describe how they felt about the president and the Democratic Party ahead of the midterms. In interviews with 38 voters in 14 states across four months, a clear pattern emerged. Voters said they did not like Mr. Trump as a person and did not consider themselves die-hard supporters. Some were even embarrassed by him.

But many were basically satisfied with his policies. The tax bill was mildly positive, they said. Several had a bit of extra money in their paycheck. They liked that he was trying to address illegal immigration. Only a few regretted their vote...

More.

Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

At Amazon, Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.