Tuesday, August 21, 2018

The U.S. Maintains the Most Generous Immigration Policies in the World (VIDEO)

Here's Michelle Malkin, for Prager University:



Megan Parry's Tuesday Forecast

At 10 News San Diego:



Phoebe Price Bikini Slip

At Drunken Stepfather, "Phoebe Price Nipple Slip of the Day."

Also, at DListed, "Open Post: Hosted By Red, White, Blue and Ginger Elegance," and "It Wouldn’t Be a National Holiday Without Bikini Pics of Phoebe Price!"

Oakland Athletics Tied for First in American League West Division

The A's won again last night, and the Mariners beat the Astros for the fifth time in a row, pushing the Athletics back up to a first place tie with Houston in the American League West.

It's great!

I mean, I'm an Angels fan first and foremost, of course. But I love the Athletics and they're making a serious run for the post-season. Really serious! They were something like twelve games out of first place a while back, but they started racking up the best record in baseball for the last month or so. And here they are, tied for first.

The season's been magical up there in the East Bay too. When they opened up the top level seats --- Mount Davis, the sky-high section that was built to lure the Raiders back to Oakland back in the day --- it was the first time in 13 years, and was one hella phenomenon. You can see across the bay on a clear day. Just spectacular.

In any case, let's hope the Athletics continue to have a hot streak here, that they take the first place spot in the standing outright over the next few days. I just wish I could watch them on TV. The Angels are fading and this is the time I wind down my game viewing until the playoffs.

On Twitter:


This story is especially good:


Leftists Politics Closing In

This is really phenomenal, from John Zmirak, at Pajamas, "The Fences Are Closing In":

There’s an old expression, we’ve all used it: “It’s a free country!” Now, sometimes people abuse it. If you catch somebody spraying graffiti on the side of your house, he might just say that. Which, of course, is stupid.

But people only hijack an expression because it’s powerful and true. This is a free country, that’s what defines it. It’s what made America great.

But will America stay free? Or are powerful forces eating away at our freedoms? I won’t say nibbling, because they’re tearing off great big chunks of it at a time. Our freedom of speech, of religion, our right to back political candidates and stand up for what we believe in. All that’s now threatened. I think you know that.

Would you feel comfortable wearing a MAGA hat? Or would you worry you might get assaulted? That happened to 16-year-old Hunter Richard in Austin, Texas, last month. An adult man confronted him, ripped the hat off his head, screamed profanity at him, and threw a drink in his face.

But don’t worry, Austin is on it. They’re getting ready to change the name of the city because Stephen Austin owned slaves. I wonder how long it will be until the Washington, D.C., city council gets around to renaming our capital. Seriously, I think we should start a pool. Ten years? Five? Maybe two? That slope’s getting pretty slippery. If you ever want to see Mount Rushmore while it’s still intact... I think you should book your tickets now. Be sure to take lots of pictures, so you can show your children. The same with the Jefferson Memorial, Monticello, and most of the statues in Richmond. They’re on the List. You know they are.

The Democrats are now embracing “democratic socialism.” Their activists are dressing up in hoods and masks and terrorizing citizens. Assaulting cops and reporters. Trashing government buildings in Portland and occupying them for weeks. Lawmakers are actually having to use old anti-Klan laws to stop the violent radicals of Antifa from terrorizing Americans.

But we’re not supposed to complain about it. It’s getting dangerous to speak your mind. Dangerous to your career, and even to your safety...
Keep reading.

David Horowitz Make the Case Against the #NeverTrump Crowd

At the Other McCain, "David Horowitz Schools Jonah Goldberg: #NeverTrump as Moral Cowardice":
Politics is a team sport. In a two-party system, being a team player often forces us to make difficult choices. After the 2012 GOP primary campaign, when I twice went “all-in” on candidates (first Herman Cain, then Rick Santorum) trying to stop Mitt Romney as the “It’s His Turn” establishment candidate, it was understandably difficult for me to get fired up for Mitt’s fall campaign. And yet, I did. By late September, I’d convinced myself that Mitt had a good chance of beating Obama and, even though Romney was by no means my idea of a conservative, I spent the final weeks of the campaign in cheerleader mode, hoping against hope that Obama could be prevented from getting a second term. Alas, we were “Doomed Beyond All Hope of Redemption,” as I declared after Mitt’s loss.

That experience taught me something, namely that my efforts as a journalist to “make a difference” were futile. The primary voters had their own opinions which I was unable to influence, so I vowed to ignore the 2016 primaries and let the voters hash it out for themselves. This yielded Trump as the nominee and, rather miraculously, he won. Now, however, all the GOP pundit types who’d gone all-in trying to prevent Trump’s nomination are so butthurt about their lack of influence that they can’t get over it. They are like petulant children, ruining a birthday party with a tantrum because they didn’t get the gift they wanted.

Trump is not “my guy.” I have always been for free trade, and oppose protectionism on principle. As for Trump’s tone and temperament, I share many of the concerns of the #NeverTrump crowd, but there is one thing I like very much about Donald Trump: He wins.
Keep reading.

And here's the Horowitz piece, at American Greatness:


Rose McGowan Backlash After Former 'Charmed' Star Tweets Support for Asia Argento

Althouse had the story, first reported at NYT, "Asia Argento, a #MeToo Leader, Made a Deal With Her Own Accuser."

And Ann's comment there:
"Most 17-year-old boys would consider sex f any kind with a beautiful woman the best day of their life so far."

How old was he when he made the movie in which she played his mother? Then look at the continued psychological hold on him with this "I'm your mother" routine. What if someone did that to your child? It's an appropriation of childhood innocence, very reminiscent of the behavior of the accused Catholic priests. To take a young mind and to shape and manipulate it to serve your sexual interests is truly evil. Everyone who has contact with children has a moral responsibility not to use them that way, even if they are refraining from sexual contact until the age of consent.
And now at CNN, the hypocrisy of Rose McGowan:




Rose got fried for her sick double standard here, at the link.




Last Known Nazi Death Camp Guard Deported to Germany

Good riddance to the fucker.

And ICE deported him. You'd think leftists would celebrate that, right?

At the Guardian U.K., "U.S. deports Nazi war crimes suspect to Germany."



Thursday, August 16, 2018

Howard Fast, Freedom Road

I've finished The Human Factor. It was surprisingly good. I was trying to figure out some of the story lines, as I'm not a big spy novel aficionado, but it all came together in the last third of the book, and it was moving, even sad.

In any case, I read Howard Fast's Spartacus last summer, and that book made me a forever fan of Fast, who has a fascinating personal history (or "had" one; he died in 2003).

At Amazon, Howard Fast, Freedom Road (American History Through Literature).



'Think'

Aretha Franklin, the "Queen of Soul," has dead at the age of 76.

At LAT, "Aretha Franklin, who defined an era as the Queen of Soul, dies at 76."



Bella Thorne for GQ Mexico.

At Maxim:


Lucy Pinder in Lingerie

On Twitter, "#LucyPinder with sexy #lingerie."

She's a beauty.


Jeremy Corbyn is Too Extreme to Be Prime Minister

From Sohrab Ahmari, at Commentary, "Never Corbyn."


Coliseum's Ongoing Renovation Means Different USC Game-Day Experience for Fans (VIDEO)

College football season's almost upon us.

And here's this, at LAT, "It will be a season of 'growing pains' for USC fans at the Coliseum":


USC’s 95th football season in the Coliseum will be unlike any other. And that will have nothing to do with what happens on the field.

As the Coliseum undergoes its real-time renovation in preparation for a 2019 unveiling, more will be asked of the Trojans fans in particular. USC and Coliseum officials scheduled a news conference Wednesday morning to address the biggest challenges fans will face and what specifically they can do to make 2018’s temporary game-day experience palatable enough to get through it and onto next season, when the fun can really start.

“It will be a season of change for a lot of fans when they come into the Coliseum,” USC athletic director Lynn Swann said. “Everybody will be going through some kind of adjustment, in terms of where they used to sit and to where they’re going to sit this year and how it’s going to change in 2019. Growing pains, if you will."

USC fans and alumni who would have preferred that the athletic department not touch the venerable stadium have been heard, but that ship sailed long ago. Since the end of the Rams’ 2017 season in January, 12,514 cubic yards of concrete have been poured; 2,131 tons of structural steel have been used; and 46,000 cubic yards of dirt have been exported.

All of this comes in the name of progress — if you are willing to define progress as spending a lot of money now to make a lot more money over the coming decades thanks to new revenue streams created from building luxury boxes — and USC would prefer that the process doesn’t have to be that painful...
More.


California Looks to Block Further Offshore Drilling for Oil

Hey, I say, "Drill baby drill," lol.

But this is California, which has been taken over by far-left progressive nutjobs. It's hard out here, man.

At LAT, "First came the proclamations against Trump's offshore drilling plan. Now comes the legislation":

When the Trump administration proposed opening California waters to drilling on an unprecedented scale, state leaders said they would do whatever it takes to keep new oil operations at bay.

But promises only go so far.

So some in Sacramento now are trying to lock those pledges into law — safeguarding the coast from offshore drilling no matter the whims of future administrations.

Despite decades of lawsuits and regulations, the state’s ability to block offshore drilling hinges largely on who’s in power in the state Capitol. Even with staunch opposition by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and pledges from both candidates vying to be the next governor, future leaders could still allow new drilling if they choose.

Two bills that could live or die Thursday would close that possibility by barring state land managers from allowing the construction of new pipelines, piers, wharves or other infrastructure necessary to transport the oil and gas from water to land.

In a state where polls show 69% of residents oppose more drilling off their coast, such legislation may seem like a shoo-in. “But unfortunately it’s not,” said Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance), acting chair of the Assembly’s Natural Resources Committee.

A similar Senate bill last year failed amid pressure from powerful oil and business interests that said stripping the state of this decision-making authority could do more harm than good.

Muratsuchi said he agreed to team up with state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) and seven coauthors this year to reintroduce the issue as nearly identical bills in the Assembly and the Senate, and overcome what he said were the key challenges: “Oily Democrats,” a more business-friendly Assembly than in years past, and powerful lobbying alliances in Sacramento.

The stalling of the legislation last year marked an instance in which California, famous for leading the charge on environmental laws, left other states to pave the way. New Jersey and New York picked up and adopted similar legislation this year. Delaware and Maryland are also looking to pass laws that would bar new drilling in state waters.

But with mounting public pushback against the Trump administration’s efforts to upend California’s environmental protections, backers say the bills have a new urgency this year.

“We need to take control of what we can control — and what we can control is our state land and waters,” said Richard Charter, a senior fellow at the Ocean Foundation who has worked on oil issues for 40 years. “I have never seen this level of danger to California’s coastline.”

Bills AB 1775 and SB 834 would prohibit the State Lands Commission, which has jurisdiction over tidelands and waters extending roughly three miles offshore, from granting leases for new pipelines and infrastructure — the most economical way to transport oil and gas to land. The Senate version of the bill goes a step further, banning the commission from renewing an existing lease if that action will result in increased oil or natural gas production from federal waters.

Currently, the commission’s oil decisions are subject to the vote of two elected officials, the lieutenant governor and the state controller, and one appointee of the governor, the director of the state Department of Finance.

Both Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the Democratic candidate for governor, and John Cox, the Republican candidate who has Trump’s backing, have declared that the commission’s current commitment to barring new leases would not change under their leadership...
More.

Monday, August 13, 2018

Graham Greene, The Human Factor

Mr. Greene's classic paperbacks go for prime dollars, lol.

The mass-market is available at Amazon, Graham Greene, The Human Factor (Mass-Market Paperback).

And see also, The Human Factor (Penguin Classics).



We Need More Masculinity

Here's a great Prager University video, featuring Allie Beth Stuckey, "Make Men Masculine Again":



Blanca Blanco in Bathing Suit

At Taxi Driver, "Blanca Blanco Pops Out of her Bathing Suit."

PREVIOUSLY: "Blanca Blanco in White T-Shirt."

Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We?

*BUMPED.*

Following-up, "Progressives Outraged at Laura Ingraham's Opening Segment Slamming Left's Program to Remake America (VIDEO)."

It's not like Ms. Laura was saying anything new. Conservatives have been sound the tocsin for decades. Here's Pat Buchanan's book from 2002, The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization.

And don't forget Jean Raspail's 1973 novel, The Camp of the Saints.

Also, Victor Davis Hanson, Mexifornia: A State of Becoming.

More recently, see Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam.

And my favorite, which was eye-opening at the time (2004), Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity.



Democrats Are Socialists, Duh

The polling is just now catching up to the reality on the ground. Go to any college campus and nearly everyone --- from administrators, faculty, and the students --- will tell they prefer socialism over the free market. I've been saying so for years. Obama ushered in an era where open embrace of radical leftism was cool. Bernie brought the last shy leftist out of the socialist closet. And with the lame brain leftist Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, far-left Democrats can run on an openly Marxist platform and win office.

This is a good development, people. It clarifies the lines of ideological contestation. I love it.

At Gallup, "Democrats More Positive About Socialism Than Capitalism":


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- For the first time in Gallup's measurement over the past decade, Democrats have a more positive image of socialism than they do of capitalism. Attitudes toward socialism among Democrats have not changed materially since 2010, with 57% today having a positive view. The major change among Democrats has been a less upbeat attitude toward capitalism, dropping to 47% positive this year -- lower than in any of the three previous measures. Republicans remain much more positive about capitalism than about socialism, with little sustained change in their views of either since 2010.

These results are from Gallup interviewing conducted July 30-Aug. 5. Views of socialism among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are particularly important in the current political environment because many observers have claimed the Democratic Party is turning in more of a socialist direction.

Socialist Bernie Sanders competitively challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, and more recently, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a candidate with similar policy views and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, won the Democratic nomination in New York's 14th Congressional District. Several candidates with socialist leanings lost their primary bids in Aug. 7 voting, however, raising doubts about the depth of Democrats' embrace of socialism.

The current survey is the fourth time Gallup has measured Americans' overall views of capitalism and socialism in this format. The question wording does not define "socialism" or "capitalism" but simply asks respondents whether their opinion of each is positive or negative...
Yeah, don't ask any of these idiot leftists to define terms, as you'll get a nonsense regurgitation which is the calling card of Ocasio Cortez (*eye roll*).

But keep reading.