Sunday, August 26, 2018
John McCain, 'Maverick' War Hero, Senator, and Presidential Candidate, Dies at 81
By now you've heard the sad news.
I never met John McCain, but during the 2008 presidential campaign, he was my personal hero. My longtime blog readers will know why. "American Power" was among the very first of conservative blogw to come out in support of McCain's bid for the GOP nomination in 2007. That's when I basically went into full-time politics blog mode, and when McCain won the nomination I felt a sense of euphoria and accomplishment. I hope in some small way that I contributed to his success. That, of course, can't be said of the general election campaign in 2008. When the Kenyan interloper won the election I was in a funk not unlike the one that afflicted leftists after Shrillary's loss in 2016. I know the feeling.
In any case, at the New York Times, via Memorandum, "John McCain, War Hero, Senator, Presidential Contender, Dies at 81," and "John McCain to Lie in State at Capitols in Washington and Arizona."
And do read Mark Barabak's excellent obituary, at the Los Angeles Times:
I never met John McCain, but during the 2008 presidential campaign, he was my personal hero. My longtime blog readers will know why. "American Power" was among the very first of conservative blogw to come out in support of McCain's bid for the GOP nomination in 2007. That's when I basically went into full-time politics blog mode, and when McCain won the nomination I felt a sense of euphoria and accomplishment. I hope in some small way that I contributed to his success. That, of course, can't be said of the general election campaign in 2008. When the Kenyan interloper won the election I was in a funk not unlike the one that afflicted leftists after Shrillary's loss in 2016. I know the feeling.
In any case, at the New York Times, via Memorandum, "John McCain, War Hero, Senator, Presidential Contender, Dies at 81," and "John McCain to Lie in State at Capitols in Washington and Arizona."
And do read Mark Barabak's excellent obituary, at the Los Angeles Times:
He was described (and described himself) as a charmer, a wise guy, an underachiever, a warrior, a hero, a coward, a straight-talker, a shape-shifter and, perhaps more than any label, a maverick. John McCain dead at age 81. https://t.co/GEnDLAB80F— Mark Z. Barabak (@markzbarabak) August 26, 2018
I’ve covered a lot of campaigns, but some of my best memories go back to 2000 and John McCain’s first run for president. Riding on the Straight Talk Express was unlike anything I’ve experienced, before or since…1/— Mark Z. Barabak (@markzbarabak) August 24, 2018
Mecum's 2018 Dodge SRT Demon Offering
This is fantastic!
A hammer price of $240,000 takes home the 2018 @Dodge SRT Demon Offering!
— Mecum Auctions (@mecum) August 24, 2018
Both cars had under 80 miles with the dealer plastic still intact. Click the link for all the details: https://t.co/T7OyhBndse#MecumMonterey #Monterey #CarWeek #Mecum #ThatsMyDodge #WhereTheCarsAre pic.twitter.com/pue0PXWsMo
'Lady Justice does not wear a blindfold over only one eye...'
From the inimitable Kim Strassel, at WSJ, "When Justice Is Partial" (and here):
"Prosecutors can claim all they want that they are applying the law equally, but if they only apply it to half the suspects, justice is not served. . . .Lady Justice does not wear a blindfold over only one eye."— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) August 24, 2018
https://t.co/UNrzX1Avi5 via @WSJOpinion
The country has watched the FBI treat one presidential campaign with kid gloves, the other with informants, warrants and eavesdropping. They’ve seen the Justice Department resist all efforts at accountability, even as it fails to hold its own accountable. And don’t get them started on the one-sided media.Keep reading.
And they are now witnessing unequal treatment in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. Yes, the former FBI director deserves credit for smoking out the Russian trolls who interfered in 2016. And one can argue he is obliged to pursue any evidence of criminal acts, even those unrelated to Russia. But what cannot be justified is the one-sided nature of his probe.
Consider Mr. Cohen, the former Trump lawyer who this week pleaded guilty to eight felony charges. Six related to his personal business dealings; the other two involved campaign-finance violations arising from payments to women claiming affairs with Donald Trump. The criminal prosecution of campaign-finance offenses is exceptionally rare (most charges are civil), but let’s take Mr. Khuzami’s word for it when he says Mr. Cohen’s crimes are “particularly significant” because he’s a lawyer who should know better, and also because the payments were for the purpose of “influencing an election” and undermining its “integrity.”
If there is only “one set of rules,” where is Mr. Mueller’s referral of a case against Hillary for America? Federal law requires campaigns to disclose the recipient and purpose of any payments. The Clinton campaign paid Fusion GPS to compile a dossier against Mr. Trump, a document that became the basis of the Russia narrative Mr. Mueller now investigates. But the campaign funneled the money to law firm Perkins Coie, which in turn paid Fusion. The campaign falsely described the money as payment for “legal services.” The Democratic National Committee did the same. A Perkins Coie spokesperson has claimed that neither the Clinton campaign nor the DNC was aware that Fusion GPS had been hired to conduct the research, and maybe so. But a lot of lawyers here seemed to have been ignoring a clear statute, presumably with the intent of influencing an election.
Prosecutions under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) are also exceptionally rare, though Mr. Mueller is getting media kudos for hammering the likes of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates for failing to register as lobbyists for foreign entities. The law is the law.
But under this standard, where are the charges against the principals of Fusion GPS, who Sen. Chuck Grassley has said look to have been lobbying on behalf of powerful Russians against a U.S. sanctions law, with its payment again funneled through a law firm? This was a sideline to its dossier work, but Mr. Mueller usually has no issue with sideline charges.
Or what about an evenhanded look at dossier author Christopher Steele?
Saturday, August 25, 2018
What Happened to the Liberal Arts?
Heather Mac Donald's new book is out on September 4th, at Amazon, The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture.
And see the roundup on Ms. Mac Donald at AoSHQ, "Late Summer Saturday Open Thread August 25."
And at Prager University:
And see the roundup on Ms. Mac Donald at AoSHQ, "Late Summer Saturday Open Thread August 25."
And at Prager University:
Rep. Duncan Hunter Blames Wife (VIDEO)
That's pretty scuzzy. (*Shrugs.*)
At the San Diego Union Tribune, "Rep. Duncan Hunter points to his wife and 'whatever she did' in campaign finance scandal":
Previously: "California's 50th District Now Competitive After Duncan Hunter Indictment?"
At the San Diego Union Tribune, "Rep. Duncan Hunter points to his wife and 'whatever she did' in campaign finance scandal":
Duncan Hunter and his wife Margaret entered — and exited — the federal courthouse separately on Thursday.More.
Rep. Hunter, the Republican congressman from Alpine, rushed to his black suburban as crowds chanted, “Shame. Shame. Shame.”
Margaret left through a different exit. She had her head down. Onlookers said the 43-year-old mother of three looked as if she was about to cry.
A 60-count indictment, filed in federal court in San Diego, accuses the couple of illegally using a quarter of a million dollars in campaign money to fund their lavish lifestyles and filing false campaign finance records with the Federal Election Commission to cover it up.
They pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, falsification of records and aiding and abetting in the prohibited use of campaign contributions.
Congressman Hunter, 41, is well-known in California and on Capitol Hill. His grandfather, Robert Hunter, was a veteran who hosted a popular TV broadcast in Washington D.C. with Republican members of Congress who wanted to give weekly reports on their districts. After moving back to California in the mid-1950s, he developed the Jurupa Hills Country Club and Golf Course, and many surrounding communities in western Riverside, according to news reports.
Hunter’s father, Duncan L. Hunter, held the same congressional seat as his son for 28 years and had a short-lived bid for president in 2008.
By the time the youngest Hunter entered the race for what was then the 52nd District, he had the name recognition of three generations and ties to a massive support network from his father’s previous campaigns...
Previously: "California's 50th District Now Competitive After Duncan Hunter Indictment?"
Friday, August 24, 2018
Ashley Greene in Black Tank Top
At Taxi Driver, "Ashley Greene Braless in See Through Black Tank Top."
Hat Tip: Popoholic: "Daily Addictions – Weekend Edition."
BONUS: at Hollywood Tuna, "Jessica Simpson is Still the Queen."
Hat Tip: Popoholic: "Daily Addictions – Weekend Edition."
BONUS: at Hollywood Tuna, "Jessica Simpson is Still the Queen."
Can Democrats Reclaim Patriotism?
No. Next question?
But see the New York Times, FWIW, "Reclaiming Patriotism for the Left":
As long as Democrats (who are not "centrist") champion and glamorize their most ardent radical factions and agendas, rejection of civil nationalism will remain at the center of their program.
It's a program of self-hatred.
But keep reading.
But see the New York Times, FWIW, "Reclaiming Patriotism for the Left":
When the American left abandons any vision of social patriotism because of the racist ugliness it has come to symbolize, it concedes the American story to the voices of exclusion and avarice https://t.co/5woMt6u0t4
— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) August 21, 2018
"I sometimes get pushback on my flag display and I tire of pointing out that the rightwing does not own the flag - it belongs to all of us - and we should not surrender it to them," comments JMartin on the Op-Ed, "Reclaiming Patriotism for the Left." https://t.co/FYv2VDUEd6 pic.twitter.com/nFUVJKuxWW
— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) August 22, 2018
The resurgence of blood-and-soil nationalism around the world seems to prove that appeals to nationhood are too racist, too tribal and too dangerous to be of value. Yet surrendering patriotism to champions of the ethno-state abdicates the fight for the soul and meaning of the American project.This "project" will fail.
The American left, from the center of the Democratic Party to its insurgent challengers, needs a dose of national vision. One of the core lessons of Trumpian politics is that Americans are starved for a meaningful politics of what it means to be American. Getting rid of the vainglorious Trump administration is only a partial solution. The causes of his rise remain.
Call what is needed a reinvigoration of “civic nationalism” or “civic republicanism” (a reference to the ancient political ideal, not the party). This is a revival of the “bond of common faith,” the “bond of common goal,” as Robert Kennedy once put it, which needs constructive outlets if what is left of American democracy is to survive.
In recent decades, progressive forces in the United States have split between two positions, both of which surrender a robust and hopeful sense of national citizenship. On one track can be found a cosmopolitan economic elite that embrace a multicultural world order shaped largely by the politics of corporate globalization. On the other track are radical critics of the racism and imperialism of the American state who often support local community and transnational solidarity but maintain a deep cynicism, even despair, about the American project. Both groups have abdicated the national story to their shared political enemies. What remains is a fervent hybrid of nationalism and anti-statism, an echo of the rebel yell.
The American past, according to the historian Gary Gerstle in his book “American Crucible,” can be understood as a struggle between “two powerful and contradictory ideals” — a civic and racialized national vision. Yet the dissolution of a progressive civic dimension has left us with an unchallenged ethno-racial nationalism.
Globalization has further complicated the problem. In a dizzying world of oppressive economic and political inequality, global trade, immigration and technological disruption, voters seek grounding not in technocratic detail but in place, in time, in tradition and, above all, in the shared fate, history and meaning of the nation...
As long as Democrats (who are not "centrist") champion and glamorize their most ardent radical factions and agendas, rejection of civil nationalism will remain at the center of their program.
It's a program of self-hatred.
But keep reading.
California's 50th District Now Competitive After Duncan Hunter Indictment?
I don't know?
You'd have to have a pretty mainstream Democrat running, and Democrats aren't mainstream, so there's that.
But see LAT, "Rep. Duncan Hunter's indictment opens door for Democrats in Trump country":
You'd have to have a pretty mainstream Democrat running, and Democrats aren't mainstream, so there's that.
But see LAT, "Rep. Duncan Hunter's indictment opens door for Democrats in Trump country":
Rep. Duncan Hunter's indictment opens door for Democrats in Trump country https://t.co/wZjS6l3XZB pic.twitter.com/z1zhaIg90Z— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) August 23, 2018
Republican Dale Weidenthaler shook his head in disgust Wednesday when the conversation turned to Rep. Duncan Hunter.More.
The retired police officer has long distrusted the GOP congressman but voted for him anyway. Now that Hunter has been indicted on campaign corruption charges, Weidenthaler, 61, expects to skip the House race rather than vote for his Democratic rival.
“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and there’s just too much smoke,” said Weidenthaler, who was sipping a Red Bull on a morning visit to a Temecula grocery store.
The Alpine congressman’s indictment Tuesday has suddenly turned this safe Republican House seat into a competitive race in a midterm election that was already looking grim for the GOP.
It threatens to depress Republican turnout in this largely rural district in San Diego and Riverside counties. The party now has to spend resources on a contest that GOP leaders would have normally ignored.
With Democrats across the nation already portraying President Trump’s Republican Party as a swamp of corruption, the charges against Hunter came the same day that Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight felonies and his onetime campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted of bank fraud and other crimes...
Thursday, August 23, 2018
Adam Housley, Los Angeles-Based Reporter for Fox News, Quits Network Amid Objections to 'Talking-Head Panels' Focusing More and More on President Trump
I still love Fox News. I just don't watch it that much any more, for these very reasons.
At Politico, "Second Fox News reporter leaves amid objections to network: In the Trump era, hard reporting is being crowded out by opinionated panels, current and former staffers say":
At Politico, "Second Fox News reporter leaves amid objections to network: In the Trump era, hard reporting is being crowded out by opinionated panels, current and former staffers say":
"objections to the Trump-era Fox News are widely shared within the network’s reporting corps, according to current and former employees of the network.” https://t.co/WHFgXzFD0i— Jon Passantino (@passantino) August 24, 2018
Another on-air reporter is leaving Fox News over frustrations with the direction and tone of the network, the second in the last three weeks to defect for those reasons.Still more.
Adam Housley, a Los Angeles-based reporter who joined Fox in 2001, felt there was diminished opportunity at the network for reporters and disapproved of tenor of its on-air discussion, according to two former Fox News employees with knowledge of his situation.
Housley believed that as the network’s focus on Trump has grown — and the number of talking-head panels during news shows proliferated — it had become difficult to get hard reporting on air, according to one of those former employees.
“He’s not doing the type of journalism he wants to be doing,” the former employee said. “And he is unhappy with the tone of the conversation of the channel.”
Housley’s objections to the Trump-era Fox News are widely shared within the network’s reporting corps, according to current and former employees of the network...
Kate Upton's Struggles (VIDEO)
Yes, we should all struggle like Kate Upton, lol.
At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:
At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:
American Peter Beinart Detained for Questioning at Ben-Gurion Airport Upon Entering Israel
This was a news story a few weeks back.
But Carolyn Glick's putting the kibosh on this self-serving anti-Israel promotion.
See, "Peter Beinart’s latest publicity stunt":
BONUS: Watch, at i24NEWS, "Peter Beinart on His Detainment at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport: Left-wing Jewish American writer Peter Beinart discusses his interrogation by the Shin Bet security services, the latest in a series of such incidents involving leftist personalities, with i24NEWS' Tracy Alexander."
But Carolyn Glick's putting the kibosh on this self-serving anti-Israel promotion.
See, "Peter Beinart’s latest publicity stunt":
There has been a lot of hand-wringing in official Israel over the brief questioning of anti-Israel author Peter Beinart at Ben-Gurion Airport this week. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement on the episode calling it “an administrative mistake.”Keep reading.
Netanyahu added, “Israel is an open society which welcomes all – critics and supporters alike.”
Deputy Minister for Public Diplomacy Michael Oren said Beinart’s questioning is grounds “for an immediate examination of all policy towards the entry of political activists.”
Speaking to Israel National News, Oren said, “Detaining American Jewish reporter Peter Beinart is an example of how acting unwisely causes both strategic and PR damage.
“Beinart is a top-rate American media person. Most of his opinions about Israel disgust me, but he does not support BDS, and in fact defines himself as a Zionist.”
Oren’s position is problematic first and foremost because it is factually wrong.
Beinart is a major supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Indeed, he is a central figure in the movement. This mere fact renders Beinart’s protestations of Zionism disingenuous, to put it mildly.
In 2012, Beinart published an oped in The New York Times calling for the boycott, divestment and sanction of all Israeli goods produced by Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria.
His crass insensitivity towards Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria was striking: “If moderate settlers resent being lumped in with their more ideologically driven counterparts deep in occupied territory, they should agitate for a two-state solution that would make possible their incorporation into democratic Israel. Or they should move.”
Beinart described the boycott as part of an overall political warfare strategy that American Jews should undertake against Israel and its American supporters.
“We should lobby to exclude settler-produced goods from America’s free-trade deal with Israel,” Beinart said. “We should push to end Internal Revenue Service policies that allow Americans to make tax-deductible gifts to settler charities. Every time an American newspaper calls Israel a democracy, we should urge it to include the caveat: only within the green line.”
Even Beinart’s most fervent admirers viewed his call for BDS against Jewish products in Judea and Samaria as a transparent means to facilitate BDS against Israel as a whole.
Jane Eisner, editor of the far-left The Forward newspaper wrote, the “optics of Beinart’s proposal” are “dangerous,” because they provide “implicit support for the broader BDS movement.”
But as has since become clear, that was his goal.
Beinart devotes great energy to mainstreaming anti-Israel activists who reject Israel’s right to exist...
BONUS: Watch, at i24NEWS, "Peter Beinart on His Detainment at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport: Left-wing Jewish American writer Peter Beinart discusses his interrogation by the Shin Bet security services, the latest in a series of such incidents involving leftist personalities, with i24NEWS' Tracy Alexander."
Some Random Woman on Reddit
At Phun, "Reddit User Lucie Fair":
BONUS: "JEWEL’S GOT THEM TITTIES ON OF THE DAY."
Not much to say here...she's an amateur that posts hot pictures of herself on Reddit. Here are some of her shots!Hat Tip: Drunken Stepfather, "MORNING HANGOVER DUMP OF THE DAY."
BONUS: "JEWEL’S GOT THEM TITTIES ON OF THE DAY."
Trump's Supporters Don't Care About Cohen and Manafort Convictions
From Salena Zito, at the New York Post:
Right now the value of Trump to the Trump voter is he is all that stands between them and handing the keys to Washington back over to the people inside Washington. That’s it. He’s their only option. You’ve got to pick the insiders or him. https://t.co/uTuDi7HXcp
— SalenaZito (@SalenaZito) August 23, 2018
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