Tucker Carlson, Ship of Fools

*BUMPED.*

Available on October 2nd, at Amazon, Tucker Carlson, Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution.

And I got a kick out of the piece at CJR, "The Mystery of Tucker Carlson."

Ann Coulter, Resistance Is Futile!

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Ann Coulter, Resistance Is Futile! How the Trump-Hating Left Lost Its Collective Mind.

Hat tip: Tucker Carlson, on Fox News, "Ann Coulter: Left hate deplorables, think Trump is 'icky' (VIDEO)."

'1979'

Smashing Pumpkins, from Thursday morning's drive-time, at 93.1 Jack FM Los Angeles.

Addicted To Love
Robert Palmer
6:49am

Pictures Of You
The Cure
6:44am

Livin' On A Prayer
Bon Jovi
6:40am

True Faith
New Order
6:36am

Highway To Hell
AC/DC
6:32am

It's My Life
No Doubt
6:21am

Free Fallin'
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
6:16am

She Blinded Me With Science
Thomas Dolby
6:13am

1979
The Smashing Pumpkins
6:09

Red Red Wine
UB40
6:05am

Dirty Laundry
Don Henley
5:59am

Adam Tooze, Crashed

*BUMPED.*

This is a really amazing book, totally recommendable.

At Amazon, Adam Tooze, Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World.

The U.S. Financial Crisis, Leading to the Great Recession, Hit Ten Years Ago Today

Here's the story, at LAT, "The financial crisis hit 10 years ago. For some, it feels like yesterday."

And from Adam Tooze, at Foreign Affairs, "The Forgotten History of the Financial Crisis: What the World Should Have Learned in 2008":

The risk of simultaneous implosion on both sides of the Atlantic made 2008 the most dangerous financial crisis ever witnessed.https://t.co/corEXXxIbA

— Foreign Affairs (@ForeignAffairs) September 8, 2018

September and October of 2008 was the worst financial crisis in global history, including the Great Depression.” Ben Bernanke, then the chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, made this remarkable claim in November 2009, just one year after the meltdown. Looking back today, a decade after the crisis, there is every reason to agree with Bernanke’s assessment: 2008 should serve as a warning of the scale and speed with which global financial crises can unfold in the twenty-first century.

The basic story of the financial crisis is familiar enough. The trouble began in 2007 with a downturn in U.S. and European real estate markets; as housing prices plunged from California to Ireland, homeowners fell behind on their mortgage payments, and lenders soon began to feel the heat. Thanks to the deep integration of global banking, securities, and funding markets, the contagion quickly spread to major financial institutions around the world. By late 2008, banks in Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States were all facing existential crises. Many had already collapsed, and many others would before long.

The Great Depression of the 1930s is remembered as the worst economic disaster in modern history—one that resulted in large part from inept policy responses—but it was far less synchronized than the crash in 2008. Although more banks failed during the Depression, these failures were scattered between 1929 and 1933 and involved far smaller balance sheets. In 2008, both the scale and the speed of the implosion were breathtaking. According to data from the Bank for International Settlements, gross capital flows around the world plunged by 90 percent between 2007 and 2008.

As capital flows dried up, the crisis soon morphed into a crushing recession in the real economy. The “great trade collapse” of 2008 was the most severe synchronized contraction in international trade ever recorded. Within nine months of their pre-crisis peak, in April 2008, global exports were down by 22 percent. (During the Great Depression, it took nearly two years for trade to slump by a similar amount.) In the United States between late 2008 and early 2009, 800,000 people were losing their jobs every month. By 2015, over nine million American families would lose their homes to foreclosure—the largest forced population movement in the United States since the Dust Bowl. In Europe, meanwhile, failing banks and fragile public finances created a crisis that nearly split the eurozone.

Ten years later, there is little consensus about the meaning of 2008 and its aftermath. Partial narratives have emerged to highlight this or that aspect of the crisis, even as crucial elements of the story have been forgotten. In the United States, memories have centered on the government recklessness and private criminality that led up to the crash; in Europe, leaders have been content to blame everything on the Americans.

In fact, bankers on both sides of the Atlantic created the system that imploded in 2008. The collapse could easily have devastated both the U.S. and the European economies had it not been for improvisation on the part of U.S. officials at the Federal Reserve, who leveraged trans-atlantic connections they had inherited from the twentieth century to stop the global bank run. That this reality has been obscured speaks both to the contentious politics of managing global finances and to the growing distance between the United States and Europe. More important, it forces a question about the future of financial globalization: How will a multipolar world that has moved beyond the transatlantic structures of the last century cope with the next crisis?

More.

Also, at Amazon, Adam Tooze, Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World.

Julia Salazar Post-Truth

An excellent piece, from Bari Weiss, at NYT, "Julia Salazar, the Left’s Post-Truth Politician: The democratic socialist lied. And lied. And lied. Then she won handily in Brooklyn."

I wrote about Julia Salazar’s victory. https://t.co/1qlvmlNeFx

— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) September 15, 2018

Emily Ratajkowski Hailing a Cab

At the Nip Slip, "Emily Ratajkowski in a See Through Top!"

Katie Holmes at an Event Looking Old

She may be getting older, but still fabulous, IMHO.

At Drunken, "Katie Holmes – Big Tits at an Event Looking Old."

And at Elle:

Chatting with Katie Holmes (on a boat! but not the Dawson's boat!) for @ELLEmagazine... https://t.co/uKWsIxvFcE

— Faran Krentcil (@FaranKrentcil) September 14, 2018

Addded: "Katie Holmes in a Gucci Sneakers Heads to a Business Meeting in NYC 09/14/2018."

A's Riding D-List Starting Rotation Right Into October

The Wild Card spot is nice, and the A's have the second American League spot nailed down, but it'd be a lot better if the Athletics could win the American League West division outright. I remember in the 2014 AL Wildcard, the A's played Kansas City in perhaps the best baseball game I've ever seen. Spectacular play, but heartbreaking for Oakland fans.

At least in the division championship series, it's not all on the line in one single game. Boy, that's rough.

In any case, I'm enjoying watching the A's as much as I can. The Angels are eliminated and are currently 19.5 game backs behind the Houston Astros. It's been one of those seasons.

The Astros lost last night to the Arizona Diamonbacks, and Oakland beat the Tampa Bay Rays. The A's are 2.5 game behind Houston, so it's still down to the wire.

More later.

But see ESPN:

“I've never, ever seen anything that comes close to this as far as the injuries to starting pitching," says Oakland manager Bob Melvin. Thanks to Edwin Jackson and a few friends, the #Athletics figured it out. https://t.co/BFKWFEdVnQ

— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) September 15, 2018

Samanta Lily on Twitter

She's a plus-sized glamour model, and I'm taking PLUS!

See, "Samanta Lily in Her Bra and Panties."

More here (NSFW).

The Left's Despicable 'Sexual-Misconduct Allegations' Against Brett Kavanaugh

Truly evil.

Desperate, despicable, and evil.

At the New Yorker, via Memorandum, "A Sexual-Misconduct Allegation Against the Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh Stirs Tension Among Democrats in Congress."

And on Twitter:

Have you ever seen anything so despicable?!

Sen. Feinstein claims she has a letter about Kavanaugh & a girl from high school.

Nasty leftists then post a pic of Kavanaugh & his daughter in her school uniform.

To make him look like a pedophile.

You. Leftists. Are. Gross. pic.twitter.com/7khNe8Qt7C

— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) September 13, 2018

Totally. But we’re dealing with the left, and leftists are evil. 😠

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) September 14, 2018

New Sophie Mudd Photos

At Drunken Stepfather, "SOPHIE MUDD MASSIVE OF THE DAY":

There are a few girls on social media – who have a bunch of followers on social media…mainly because they are showing off their tits on social media…but unlike every single other girl with her tits out…they have these massive disproportionate tits…that spill out of even the largest bathing suit top….all while living on a small frame…and it excites me…

More.

Previously: "Sophie Mudd: She's Spectacular."

Amber Rose in Lace Lingerie

At Taxi Driver, "Big Amber Rose in Lace Lingerie."

President Donald Trump's Address at 9/11 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania (VIDEO)

I love President Trump.

Watch:

Democrats to Prohibit the Sale of Gasoline-Powered Internal Combustion Vehicles by 2035

I'll move out of state.

At a time when America has gained not only energy independence, but global dominance of the energy industry, which is improving the lives of untold millions upon millions of people, making the cost of living less expensive and improving the quality of life for the nation's poorest and least well-off, California's Democrats are pushing in the exact opposite direction, pushing a fad technology that has not shown to reduce so-called climate emissions.

What a total disaster.

This is the problem with living in a one-party state. The majority becomes diabolically infected with the most ugly hubris, thinking their notions of "what's best" is the only way things should be done. For example, how's that bullet train working out, pfft?

And these freakin' electric vehicles leftists are promoting? People will die driving those human death traps. People will die!

In any case, I swear I'll move.

At LAT, "At Jerry Brown's climate summit, one deadline will overshadow all the others":

California plans to ban sales of internal combustion cars by 2035, outlaw them completely by 2050; assuming anyone will still be living there https://t.co/m0ERMMdZuP

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) September 12, 2018

from my cold dead hands, motherf***ers pic.twitter.com/rfbt7rk4ZS

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) September 12, 2018

The political leaders coming from around the world for Gov. Jerry Brown’s climate action summit this week will grapple with a lot of urgent deadlines to drive down emissions, but one date is especially exasperating.

It is 2035 — the year advocates aim to kill off production of gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles.

Keeping global warming to levels society can tolerate could hinge on meeting that target. But even clean-tech-nology capital California has no clear path for getting there.

The question of whether drivers should be gently persuaded or forced out of their internal combustion engine cars and trucks over the next 17 years will weigh heavily on the landmark summit, which runs from Wednesday through Friday in San Francisco.

States, cities and companies will try to chart a course to carry the country and the world toward meeting the goals in the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change, which President Trump has disavowed.

Transportation is the most vexing problem the summit will confront. The sector sends more greenhouse gases into the air than any other, recently outpacing power plants, which are getting cleaner every year. Internal combustion engine cars need to be off the roads altogether by 2050 to meet the Paris goals. Dealers would need to stop selling new models 15 years earlier.

“Even during the Obama administration, when the country was pushing as hard and fast as it could onclimate policy, it still wasn’t enough” to meet the goals on auto emissions, said Kate Larsen, a director at Rhodium Group, a Bay Area research firm.

Rhodium’s modeling shows that just 8% of U.S. drivers will be in zero-emission cars, pickups or SUVs by 2025, a depressing projection for the climate movement.

The urgency is not lost on Brown. Last year, he directed the state’s chief air regulator, Mary Nichols, to look into stepping up the state’s timetable to phase out gas and diesel vehicles. It gnaws at him that other nations are already catapulting ahead.

Electric vehicles account for 5% of cars sold in California and 1% nationwide. In Norway, they make up 40%. Bans on the sales of new gasoline- and diesel-powered cars are scheduled to take effect there and in several other countries as soon as 2025. China has put automakers on notice that a ban is on the horizon.

But it is a much tougher sell in America, even in California. A state legislative proposal this year to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars and trucks by 2040 went nowhere.

“You want me to issue a press release saying, ‘No more combustion engines’?” Brown said in an interview Monday. “There are 32 million in California. It doesn’t work that way. We have to provide an alternative…. We have to get that in place.”

The shift toward electric vehicles in parts of Europe and Asia is bolstered by government subsidies and tax structures that few American politicians would consider. They include tough gas-guzzler penalties for those who drive high-horsepower, climate-unfriendly pickups and SUVs, and large cash grants and tax breaks for those who buy electric.

The U.S. approach is grounded in requiring automakers to meet steadily more ambitious mileage-per-gallon targets, a process that has gone a long way in cutting carbon emissions...

Still more, if you can stomach the idiocy.

Raw Tensions Over Race and Gender Shape Midterms

No one cares.

The folks at WaPo have no clue.

See, "Raw tensions over race and gender shape midterms, reflecting schism in Trump era":

Democrat Antonio Delgado is a Rhodes Scholar and attorney with a Harvard Law degree running in one of the country’s most hotly contested congressional races.

But Republicans want to instill a different image in the minds of voters in New York’s 19th Congressional District. Their latest ad, released Wednesday, features grainy clips of Delgado, who is African American and made a 2007 rap album. His censored explicit lyrics dominate the ad, along with the album cover, which shows a glaring Delgado in a hoodie.

Raw tensions over race, gender and personal identity are shaping battleground contests from Upstate New York to the Deep South, reflecting the marked schism in the country during the Trump era and the increasingly stark demographic divide between the two political parties.

With just one primary day left, on Thursday, Democrats have set or essentially matched records for the number of female, black and LGBT nominees, a Washington Post analysis shows. Republicans’ diversity statistics have either remained static or declined in each category, leading to a heavily white, male slate of nominees.

Republicans are aggressively trying to cast Democratic candidates as scary, threatening figures with unfamiliar values. A super PAC linked to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) has aired an ad in Ohio tenuously connecting a candidate of Tibetan and Indian descent to Libyan interests and asking if he is “selling out Americans.” In Kentucky, a GOP incumbent released an ad showing his female Democratic opponent declaring that she is a feminist.

Democrats are increasingly calling out the GOP, saying these are sexist, racist attacks that remind them of the divisive tactics that Donald Trump used as a candidate and has reprised as president. Even some Republicans are troubled by the tone.

“The difference between the past and the present is that you have a political actor like the president who makes it okay, who gives license to it, said Michael Steele, who was the first black chairman of the Republican National Committee. “If you don’t speak to that and call it out, it will germinate, it will become an infection and will create the kind of disease in our politics, which I think to some degree, we are already seeing.”

Republicans behind the attacks are making no apologies. They argue that they are informing voters about their rivals...

Still more.

'The Church of Social Justice has more rules than a monastery during Lent and the list grows daily. But unlike traditional morality, there is no path to redemption...'

This is excellent, from Jon Gabriel, at Richochet, "Norm MacDonald, #MeToo, and the Fatal Flaw in the New Morality":

.@normmacdonald is right: the new #MeToo morality needs to offer a path to forgiveness. My latest at @ricochet. https://t.co/mR8oCEIcBs

— jon gabriel (@exjon) September 12, 2018

The ancient Hebrews confessed the community’s sin, placed it onto a scapegoat, and restored the flawed people. Early Christians confessed to their priest or bishop, perhaps did some acts of penance, and were redeemed in the eyes of the church. For especially egregious and public sins, the process could be quite involved. But the model held across time and faith: confess to wrongdoing, repent, and be forgiven.

The new secular church enforces the first and second steps with a vengeance but offers no mechanism for the third and most important step. Louis and Roseanne both confessed and repented. And then … nothing. Perhaps both could have done more. Donating millions to a well-regarded charity. Crawl on their knees to the Hollywood sign and sacrifice an Emmy.

Even if they did, forgiveness, redemption, and restoration were not possible. Instead, they were cast out into weeping and gnashing of teeth with no way to make things right.

This latest faux outrage will be soon forgotten as the Twitter mob lurches after another celebrity’s career tomorrow. As for me, I’ll watch “Norm MacDonald Has a Show” on Netflix and continue to chill. Life’s too short for outrage.

RTWT.

Democrats Still Don't Get It

From Allie Stuckey, at Town Hall, "What Democrats Still Don't Get":

What Democrats Still Don't Get https://t.co/py4yb6eSC9

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 11, 2018

Since the election, there has been ample speculation about how Trump “happened.” Last week, Obama offered his hypothesis: resentment and paranoia on the right. He lamented the destruction of the Republican Party and the ensuing demise of America because of the divisiveness and bigotry propagated by the president and those who support him.

It seems that most on the left agree with Obama’s view. Progressives purport that enthusiasm for Trump is bolstered by “white fragility”— an insecurity that white voices, once dominant, are now being drowned out by increasingly influential minority groups bolstered by demographic changes. Trump is their “white knight,” ushered in to defend their right to power and superiority.

While it may be easy for Trump’s opposition to dismiss him as the personification of white supremacy, it is also ignorant of the meaningful concerns of the Americans who voted for him. Real, significant changes in American culture and morality that have occurred over the past decade have varied the priorities of the populace, and it is unproductive to discount these in favor of blanket accusations of racism and resentment.

As America has moved quickly and drastically to the left, it has abandoned a portion of its citizenry who still hold to what are now considered “traditional” mores. So, while many who voted for Trump may have indeed done so out of insecurity and fear, these feelings were primarily instigated not by changes in demographics but by changes in values.

The progressive revolution has taken on many forms since the turn of the century, successfully shifting opinion on issues like sexuality, gender, race, immigration and welfare. Take gay marriage: In 2001, 31% of Americans favored same-sex unions. In 2009, the percentage had only increased to 37%. By 2017, that number had surged to 62%. In only eight years, public opinion changed by 25 percentage points—more than four times than it had during the previous eight years.

Regarding racism, in 2009, only 26% of Americans viewed it as a “big problem.” By 2017, that number had more than doubled to 58%. Along party lines, 32% of Democrats and 18% of Republicans saw racism as a major issue in 2009. During the eight years of Obama’s presidency, those numbers shot up to 76% for Democrats and 37% for Republicans.

A month after Trump’s election victory, Issie Lapowsky of Wired noted that, despite a Republican win, the country is indeed moving to the left:

“Over the eight years Barack Obama has served as president, public opinion in the United States has shifted decisively leftward. Think about it. When Obama came to office, he still hadn’t publicly supported same sex marriage. Last year, the White House was lit up in rainbow colors to celebrate the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage. Over the last year, bottom line-driven businesses have boycotted entire states over discriminatory policies against LGBT people. A law prohibiting transgender people from using the bathroom of their choice just cost North Carolina’s Pat McCrory the governorship. Undocumented immigrants have come out of hiding, banding together online to discuss their struggles. And in November, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada all voted to make recreational marijuana legal.”

She’s right: the majority of Americans are becoming more progressive, particularly on social issues. This isn’t surprising. Evolving views on things like sexuality, race and immigration are to be expected after eight years of the most progressive presidency in history. Plus, millennials, soon-to-be the largest generation in existence, are extremely left-leaning, and, now in their 20s and 30s, have an influential voice in civic discourse. By nature, progressivism continually advances, conquering new moral, cultural, social and political territory with every step. In recent years, the movement has been extremely successful in gaining ground. Those left behind have barely had time to take it in.

Yes—there is real fear, and, to Obama’s point, perhaps some resentment amongst those who are not on board the progressive train. But, despite what many on the left claim, this has more to do with the changing moral, social landscape than it does racial identity and so-called bigotry. And it is not only the changes themselves that have caused anxiety, it is the attitude of those who promote these changes...

More.

Larry Schweikart's, A Patriot's History of the United States

It seems the anti-American leftists are the most outspoken in my classes this year, and they're literally approaching "deplatforming" territory, challenging every critical (or mildly critical) comment I make about the Democrat Party or leftist ideology. Some of these students have been marinated in Marxist social justice doctrines and they loathe anything dealing with Republicans, including Abraham Lincoln (imagine that *eye roll*).

In any case, perhaps this is a good time to again promote Larry Schweikart's, A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to America's Age of Entitlement.

Leftist students are very outspoken in class, so as to shut down any portions of the lectures that are critical of the radical left agenda. It's hard teaching these days. More often than not, conservative students don't speak up, for they're a minority on campus and I'm sure they don't want to be attacked as politically incorrect and racist.

It's really bad sometimes. It's worth nothing, though, that I'm being approached by more and more conservative students looking for club opportunities and so forth, so the word's getting out that they're not alone.

Racist Serena Williams Cartoon

I've haven't posted on the U.S. Open women's final, although I was watching. Serena Williams was out of control, IMHO. The thing for me is how many people have been defending her, all the more bizarre in that Williams tried to turn it into a gender equality issue. Fact is, she's got a long history of ugly on-court outbursts and disgusting unsportsmanlike behavior. She's basically a thug.

In any case, here's the new controversy over an alleged "racist" cartoon. Australia's Herald Sun, under fire, is not backing down.

See, "Australian newspaper is defending a cartoon of Serena Williams that has been widely condemned as a racist depiction."

Australian newspaper is defending a cartoon of Serena Williams that has been widely condemned as a racist depiction. https://t.co/Br6QP3XY8Y

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) September 12, 2018

And, for the outrage take, see Guardian U.K., "'Repugnant, racist': News Corp cartoon on Serena Williams condemned."

Also, the latest at the National Post:

'Welcome to PC World': Australian newspaper doubles down, reprints controversial cartoon of Serena Williams https://t.co/QR03sgsgsl pic.twitter.com/Zk7Qcx7kHZ

— National Post (@nationalpost) September 12, 2018