9/11 Ceremony in New York City Marks 14th Anniversary of Attacks (VIDEO)

At the Wall Street Journal, "Victims’ families observe moments of silence, read names of lives lost."

And this is beautiful:



More from CBS News 2 New York, "Remembering 9/11."

Hillary Clinton's Disastrous Drop in Public Opinion (VIDEO)

I can't keep up with all the public opinion polls showing Hillary's drastic decline in support.

Here's the New York Times from yesterday, "Hillary Clinton’s Support Erodes in National Poll."

And just this morning, at CNN, "Clinton's lead over Sanders shrinks as her edge over GOP vanishes." (And check the raw internals here.)

Still more, from the new Monmouth University poll, "NATIONAL: CLINTON LEAD SHRINKS: While non-candidate Biden makes gains."

And it keeps coming, at Quinnipiac, "SANDERS 41 TO CLINTON 40 IN IOWA DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS,QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY POLL FINDS; DEMS SAY SANDERS IS MORE HONEST AND CARING." (And see the write-up at Politico, "Bernie Sanders overtakes Hillary Clinton in Iowa: People close to Clinton's camp have recently been warning that the Vermont senator could win Iowa and New Hampshire.")

And at NBC News, "Sanders leads Clinton by 9 points in NH, gains ground in IA." (And check the raw internals here.)



BONUS: From Chris Cillizza, at WaPo, "It might be time for Hillary Clinton to start panicking."

#BlackLives Matter Calls to Burn U.S. Flags on September 11 — #FYF911 (VIDEO)

#FYF911 is the hashtag for the #BlackLivesMatter September 11 protest, "F*ck Your Flag 9/11."

See Lee Stranahan, at Big Government, "#FukYoFlag Movement Calls For Black Lives Matter Violence On 9/11."

And here's the video shout out for #BlackLivesMatter activists to burn American flags today, the anniversary of the September 11 attacks: "King Noble Reveals the Secret Location of #FYF911."

And from the video's caption:

We, the people, are psychologically and physically breaking free of the imperialist, colonialist, and racist empires by burning representations starting on September 11th 2015. Why September 11th? We recognize that these imperial powers attacked their own citizens on 9/11 in an attempt to gain more power from its people. We are not disrespecting any citizen that may have died during these attacks on this day,instead we are acknowledging that, from this day forward, we are holding ALL imperial nations responsible for their needless deaths! On 9/11 we will be burning American flags, confederate flags, police uniforms, and ALL representations of organized evil and oppressive nations. We also will be raising the Liberation flag and building on a new nation for the people. This is an INTERNATIONAL movement and a day of unity, progressive action, and liberation. To all OPPRESSIVE AND ORGANIZED EVIL after #FYF911 the people will not be bound to you any longer!! F*** YOUR FLAG!!

Hat Tip: Truth Revolt, "Flag Burnings Scheduled on 9/11: Because Black Lives Matter."

Behind the Scenes with Meg Turney (VIDEO)

She's an Internet personality, cosplayer, model, and vlogger.

On Twitter here.

And watch, at Playboy, "Meg Turney's Behind the Scenes with Playboy."

Caroline Kelley Casting Call for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2016

She's lovely.

USA Today Calls for Ground Troops in Iraq on Anniversary of September 11 Attacks

They're not mincing words.

From the editors, at USA Today, "ISIL haunts 9/11 anniversary: Our view":

Fourteen years ago, the United States suffered a shockingly successful surprise attack by a little known Islamic extremist group based 7,000 miles away in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Since then, a U.S. invasion chased al-Qaeda out of its haven, and targeted strikes eventually eliminated most of its senior leaders, including Osama bin Laden in 2011. The danger from the group that killed nearly 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11, 2001, has waned.

Its influence lives on, however, through offshoot extremist groups that have eclipsed al-Qaeda — none more so than the Islamic State, the lightning spread of which through Syria and Iraq has been marked by medieval barbarity, adapted to the Internet age....

ISIL represents the embodiment of evil in the modern world, and it mustn't be allowed to establish a foothold from which to plot attacks against the United States or to inspire so-called lone wolf sympathizers to do so. But the U.S.-led effort to "degrade and ultimately defeat" ISIL has shown underwhelming results....

The administration asks for patience, insisting that with U.S. and allied airstrikes, and with the U.S. and its allies painstakingly rebuilding an effective Iraqi army, the tide will turn. Indeed, some metrics hint at progress; the administration says ISIL's movements have been effectively limited in nearly a third of the areas in Iraq it used to control. The U.S. has assembled a coalition of 62 nations and international organizations to counter ISIL, almost double the 34 nations that rallied behind then-President George H.W. Bush to push Iraqi forces out of Kuwait in 1991.

The struggle against ISIL is likely to be long, one that will be won not just by driving the group out of the territory it claims as its caliphate but also by countering the ideology that has brought the group so many followers despite its depravity. Unless the current approach starts to show better results soon, America should prepare to take more aggressive actions, including the use of Apache helicopter gunships to assist ground fights, and deployment of U.S. forces to act as spotters for airstrikes and to bolster Iraqi units.

If there’s one lesson the nation should have learned from that awful day 14 years ago, it’s that the United States cannot afford to ignore a rabidly anti-American terrorist group that has established a haven in a faraway place.

U.S. forces on the ground, "to bolster Iraqi units."

This should happen. But it probably won't. And that's a shame, particularly on this day, 14 years after the worst attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor.

RTWT at the link.

New 9/11 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania

At the Washington Post, "A new 9/11 memorial to Flight 93: ‘Our loved ones left a legacy for all of us’."

And watch, at the PBS News Hour, "Once a quiet field in Shanksville, transformed into somber memorial."

Free Community College

Community college isn't free. Someone has to pay for it.

When I first went to Santa Ana College in 1979, I paid just $5.00 for the health fee, plus whatever nominal cost for books.

But, while the cost of college was virtually free to me, the student, it's the taxpayers who finance the education, because it costs a lot of money to pay for all the teachers, bricks and mortar, and all the other expenses. And in fact, I'm not against free community college. If the state promises to provide public education for all who might profit from it, at public expense, then the state should keep its promise. California and other states haven't kept their promise for free community college for decades. But they haven't renounced the promise.

Indeed, President Obama has been campaigning for free community college for some time now, and yesterday the White House released a new report on the initiative, "America’s College Promise: Progress Report on Free Community College."

Long Beach City College is cited at the report:

Long Beach College Promise: Long Beach City College (LBCC), California StateUniversity-Long Beach (CSULB), Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) and the City of Long Beach have collaborated to provide a free semester of tuition to all localhigh school graduates, with guaranteed transfer admission to CSULB for those interested in completing a bachelor’s degree program. To date, the program has provided a free semester for more than 7,000 local students. This month the Long Beach College Promise will announce that it will extend the free tuition scholarship to one full academic year at LBCC. The success of the program has become a model for other California schools. In 2013, Cuesta College announced that it would eliminate the first semester of tuition for incoming San Luis Obispo County students.

Plus, lots about this in the news.

At the Washington Post, "Obama on free community colleges: 'This isn't rocket science'."

And at the PBS News Hour, "The free community college experiment everyone is watching."

But see Reason, "Obama's Grandiose Plan Will Give Community College Administrators the Last Laugh at Our Expense," and the Daily Signal, "Five Caveats to Obama’s ‘Free’ Community College Proposal."

Evelyn Taft's Got Your September 11 Forecast

Clear and bright, just like that fateful day 14 years ago.

A few degree cooler than earlier this week as well.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake Will Not Seek Reelection (VIDEO)

She's toast.

Probably the worst mayor in America.

She creates safe zones for criminals, not citizens.

At the Baltimore Sun, "Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to announce she won't seek re-election."

Student Charged with Felony Assault After Punching Substitute Teacher at Fresno's Roosevelt High (VIDEO)

It's a black girl.

A freshman apparently.

She's a big kid too, just waling on the substitute, a white man who tries to walk away, but is followed out into the hallway, to be punched some more. The teacher took the student's cellphone away after trying to restore order.

A total nightmare.

I saw this first at the Los Angeles Times, and it's shocking, "Video shows Fresno student punching teacher in cellphone dispute."

And at KSEE News 24 Fresno, "Student arrested for attack on teacher: 15-year-old student at Roosevelt High School faces three criminal charges," and "Roosevelt High School Student Attacks Teacher, Arrested."

That's terrible quality video, unfortunately. (There's a YouTube clip here, "Student punches teacher repeatedly.)

Also at the Fresno Bee, "Roosevelt High student arrested after videos show her punching teacher."

In the Mail: Morton Kondracke and Fred Barnes, Jack Kemp: The Bleeding-Heart Conservative Who Changed America

Boy, I've had more books shipped this last week or so than I've had in a long time.

I've got a lot of reading to do this weekend!

Here's the new book, in the mail yesterday, and it looks great: Jack Kemp: The Bleeding-Heart Conservative Who Changed America.

Obama the Villain in Exceptional

Here's the book, which I hope to start reading as soon as this weekend, Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America.

And at the New York Times, "Review: In ‘Exceptional,’ the Cheneys Make Obama the Villain":

Former presidents may keep quiet about those who occupy the White House once they leave, but the code clearly does not extend to vice presidents. Nearly seven years after leaving office, Dick Cheney has produced a book that amounts to a stinging indictment of President Obama as an ineffectual, America-hating, military-destroying, soft-on-terrorism appeaser whose tenure has damaged the country.

It is a case he prosecutes relentlessly. To the witness stand, Mr. Cheney and his daughter and co-author, Liz Cheney, summon the ghosts of presidents past, including Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Reagan, to testify to the greatness of America and what they call the bipartisan postwar tradition of muscular leadership on the world stage.

This is a tradition Mr. Obama has shirked, the writers argue, making him a modern-day Neville Chamberlain. “The damage that Barack Obama has done to our ability to defend ourselves is appalling,” they write in “Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America.” “It is without historical precedent. He has set us on a path of decline so steep that reversing direction will not be easy.”

But while styled as a condemnation of Mr. Obama, this book — appearing just as the Republican primary contest is getting underway in earnest — is actually a prod to the Republicans seeking to succeed him. Although Mr. Cheney noted during a speech in Washington this week that he is no longer running for office, he clearly is seeking to influence those who are.

The Cheneys are championing a strain of national security conservatism that waned even within their own party because of the flawed intelligence leading to the Iraq invasion in 2003 and the later travails of the occupation. Even Mr. Bush’s brother Jeb Bush has said that if he had been president, he would not have authorized the invasion had he known then what he knows now, a position shared by other Republican candidates.

And yet, the post-Iraq isolationist streak that seemed on the ascendance for a while has also begun to fade with the rise of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) in Syria and Iraq and Russia’s intervention in Ukraine. Although today’s candidates are not showcasing the unpopular Mr. Cheney in their campaigns, they are, to some extent, voicing a more hawkish message on foreign policy, especially amid the debate over Mr. Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran.

Whether Mr. Cheney is the right messenger for the moment is open to question. While even some Democrats agree with his criticisms of Mr. Obama — that he has given away too much to Iran, that he has not done enough to help Ukraine against Russia, that his withdrawal from Iraq paved the way for the Islamic State — Mr. Cheney all but invites the “well, what-about-you” counterargument...

Okay, yeah, what about you?

The Bush administration's foreign policy looks better with each passing day. For example, see Glenn Reynolds, "SO THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION DID ALL THE STUFF THEY ACCUSED BUSH OF DOING. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS, BUSH WON THE WAR, AND THEY LOST IT."

They lost it alright.

But back to the New York Times.

ICYMI, Ed Gojek, Marijuana Debunked

I need to plug this book again, especially since I haven't had time to finish it and write a review. And I don't when I'm going to get the time, shoot!

Check it out: Marijuana Debunked: A Handbook for Parents, Pundits, and Politicians Who Want to Know the Case Against Legalization.

Pharmacy Records from 1888 Found at Watson's Drugstore in Orange

Watson's Drugstore is a kind of local institution. Located on the Circle of Orange, they boast a soda fountain and sidewalk dining. It's a real cool place.

And now an historic find in the basement of the establishment, at the O.C. Register, "Found in Watson's Drug & Soda Fountain's basement: Hidden 1888 pharmacy records and more."

There's No Limit to a Radical Lesbian Blogger's Absolute Hatred of Motherhood

From Robert Stacy McCain, at the Other McCain, "‘Feminist Motherhood Has Failed’."

Robert digs down deep into the demonic belly of radical feminism, and the results aren't pretty.

Read it all at the link.

BONUS: At the Lonely Conservative, "Feminism Today: Throw Men in Prison Camps & Scrap Heterosexuality."

Two Texas Football Players Kicked Off Team, Suspended from School, After Assaulting Referee

They blindsided the dude. It's horrible!

Watch, at CBS Evening News, "School investigates assistant coach in referee tacklegate."

Green Marxist 'Gas Restriction Act' Pulled from California Climate Change Bill

This legislation was so whacked that even Democrats bailed out on the proposal.

The background is here, "Green Marxist Nutjobs Push Radical California Gas Restriction Act of 2015 (VIDEO)."

And from yesterday, at the Los Angeles Times, "Gas reduction dropped from California climate change bill."

Is the West Dead Yet?

From VDH, at National Review, "The West - Is the Decline Cyclical?":

The West is paradoxically dominant on the global stage and eroding from within.

Never has Western culture seemed so all-powerful.

Look at the 30 top-ranked universities in the world; they are all American, British, or European — albeit these rankings are based largely on the excellence of their science, engineering, medicine, and computer departments rather than their English and sociology departments.

The American West Coast changed the world’s daily lifestyle with Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Yahoo.

The worldwide reach of schlock American pop culture is frightening. Hollywood psychodramas, rap vulgarity, reality TV, crude body tattooing and piercing, and the sorry, unhinged Miley Cyrus find their way up the Nile and around Cape Horn.

The United States, even with recent defense cuts, has more conventional military power than nearly the rest of the globe combined. American oil entrepreneurs have changed the global energy calculus.

Millions flee their homes to enter Europe — not Russia, China, or India. Ten percent of Mexico lives in the United States. Polls in Mexico suggest that half the remaining Mexican population would prefer to head north into the U.S., a nation to which, polls also suggest, they of course are hostile.

Immigration is a one-way Western street. Those who, in the abstract, damn the West — as much as elite Westerners themselves do — want very much to live inside it. The loudest anti-Western voices in the Middle East are usually housed in Western universities, not in Gaza. Jorge Ramos is a fierce critic of supposed American cruelty to illegal immigrants — so much so that he fled Mexico for America, became a citizen (how is that possible, given American bias against immigrants?), landed a multimillion-dollar salary working for the non-Latino-owned Spanish-language network Univision, and then put his kids in private school to shield them from hoi polloi of the sort he champions each evening. Now that’s the power of the West.

The alternatives are uninviting. Mohammad Javad Zarif, Pervez Musharraf, and Mohamed Morsi all resided in the West for long periods of time until political power beckoned at home. Putin’s Russia is a geriatric and unhealthy kleptocracy. China will never square the circle of free-market capitalist consumerism and Communist state autocracy. India, like Brazil, is always corrupt and always said to be full of potential. Neo-Communism has all but wrecked Latin America. The African nations are still tribal societies beneath a thin statist veneer. The Middle East is now mostly pre-civilized. (The Asian Tigers have escaped these fates by becoming mostly Westernized.) And, in our wired age, the maladies of the Third World are all instantly known and contrasted with the civilized alternative in the West.

But as in mid-fifth-century Athens and late-republican Rome, there are signs that the West is eroding — and fast. The common Western malady is age-old and cyclical. It was long ago described, over some thousand years of decline, by an array of Classical scolds, from Thucydides and Aristophanes to Tacitus, Petronius, Plutarch, Suetonius, and Procopius. In the case of modern America, Britain, and Europe, the sheer material bounty spawned by free-market capitalism and legally protected private property, combined with the freedom of the individual, creates a sort of ennui. Boredom is the logical result of that lethal mix of affluence and leisure.

It is not just that Westerners forget who gave them their bounty, but they tend to damn anonymous ancestors who worked so hard, but without a modern sense of taste and politically correct deference. Of course, so far, Western civilization presses on, despite the periodic sky-is-falling warnings that echo the likes of Friedrich Nietzsche, Oswald Spengler, and H. G. Wells. But does it press on as it did before?

 Still more.

Nina Agdal on Instagram!

I thought Instagram cracked down on nudity at their site.

Perhaps, although bare backsides must be perfectly fine, by the looks of this Nina Agdal post from the other day.

She's one of my favorites.

Has the New York Times Dismissed Bernie Sanders?

But of course.

The Old Gray Lady's in the tank for Hillary.

But see ombudswoman Margaret Sullivan, "Has the Times Dismissed Bernie Sanders?":

First, some numbers. Mr. Sanders, since his announcement on April 30 until the end of August, has been the subject of 59 Times articles (opinion pieces are not included here, nor are wire-service reports). This includes not only those on the news pages of the paper but also those in such mainly online homes as The Upshot and First Draft. Of those, 12 have been straight news coverage. And five Sanders articles have been on the front page since he declared.

How does this compare with the coverage of some of the other candidates, particularly Mrs. Clinton? Looking at August alone, The Times ran 14 articles on Mr. Sanders, compared with 54 on Mrs. Clinton. Donald Trump – like Mr. Sanders, also considered by many an extreme long shot for his party’s nomination – got the most coverage last month: 63 articles. Other Republican candidates received far less ink than Trump: Jeb Bush was the subject of 18 articles in August, and Marco Rubio, 10. (Of course, not all press is good press for any of the candidates. In Mrs. Clinton’s case, for example, many of the August articles dealt with her questionable email practices as secretary of state.)

So, in terms of numbers alone, The Times certainly has not ignored Mr. Sanders. The Times did get off to a very slow start with its Sanders coverage but has responded as the crowds at his events have grown...

Huh?

Fourteen to 54? Well, if they're not ignoring him, he's sure got a ways to go before catching up to Hillary's wall-to-wall saturation coverage. Sheesh. And remember, I like Bernie Sanders for the lulz. I mean, the guy's an out-in-the-open socialist and he's leading the polls in both Iowa and New Hampshire? You'd think that would be leading the news. But, Hillary Clinton partisans with bylines. You know the story.

Jackie Johnson's Tropical Heatwave Forecast

This weather has been downright unreal.

One hundred degree heat with torrential downpours. It's wild.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Obama Administration Under Increasing Pressure to Change Syria Strategy

Well, yeah.

The refugee crisis is the product of the administration's global appeasement policies, and particularly this clusterfuck president's abandonment of the Middle East.

At the Los Angeles Times, "U.S. faces pressure to change its strategy in Syria":

The Obama administration is under increasing pressure from allied leaders to expand military action in Syria, as Russia funnels in more arms and troops, Islamic State militants seize new ground and waves of Syrian refugees fleeing the bloody conflict head toward European cities.

The pressure to change the United States' approach comes one year after President Obama said at a White House news conference that the U.S. did not yet have a fully developed strategy for dealing with the Syrian war. Obama has been repeatedly criticized for failing to set a clear strategy to deal with Islamic State militants who have taken control of large swaths of Syria and Iraq. But so far, he has resisted calls to commit American forces to the front lines in another prolonged war.

European officials have grown pessimistic about the U.S. strategy amid the daily influx of tens of thousands of migrants, many fleeing the Syrian fighting, and the failure of the U.S.-led coalition to dislodge Islamic State, the Sunni extremist group also known as ISIS or ISIL.

"We are not winning this at the moment," a senior Western diplomat told reporters in Washington on Wednesday. "We need to redouble our efforts collectively to see whether there isn't more that we can do to solve these dual problems: the humanitarian crisis and the growth of ISIL terrorism."

The advances by Islamic State and other opposition groups have rattled the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, causing him to rely increasingly on support from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russia has sent a detachment of marines to Syria, U.S. officials say, adding to an escalating military presence that includes increased flights of Russian cargo planes into an airport in western Syria, stepped-up deliveries of armored fighting vehicles and other weapons and the construction of housing for further Russian forces.

U.S. officials and allies do not yet know what Russia's intentions are in Syria, but fear its involvement could extend Assad's military capabilities and prolong a civil war that has killed more than 300,000 people over the last four years...

More at that top link.

And flashback: "Obama's Pathetic Bombing Campaign Hasn't Stopped Expansion of Islamic State in Syria."

Jeb Bush Gun Control Question Edited from Stephen Colbert's Late Show Premiere

It's not just that it's politically corrupt, it takes the actual good stuff out of TV.

From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "VIDEO: Mangled Response by Jeb! to Gun Control Question was Edited from Late Show Premiere."

Madeleine Behr, USA Today Reporter Covering Scott Walker Campaign, Signed Recall Petition in 2011

Democrat Party activists with bylines.

From Kimberlee Kaye, at Legal Insurrection, "USA Today Reporter Covering Scott Walker Campaign Signed Recall Petition."

Cool Off with This Lasko 2551 Wind Curve Platinum Tower Fan with Remote Control and Fresh Air Ionizer

Sounds pretty snappy, and goodness it's hot out there. Pump up your cooling devices!

At Amazon, Imported 3-Speed Oscillating Tower Fan: Lasko 2551 Wind Curve Platinum With Remote Control and Fresh Air Ionizer.

Plus, here's Donald Trump's new book, Time to Get Tough: Make America Great Again!

Lindsey Pelas Hilarious Bikini Blooper Video at Playboy

This is a follow-up to Playboy's, "Keep Your BBQ's Going With Lindsey Pelas."

Watch: "Lindsey Pelas' Behind the Scenes and Bloopers of Her Playboy Shoot."

'Black Lives Matter' Movement Based on a Lie

This is from Jason Riley, at the Wall Street Journal, "‘Black Lives Matter’—but Reality, Not So Much."

It's not a new argument, but it's updated, and most excellent:

It’s the black poor—the primary victims of violent crimes and thus the people most in need of effective policing—who must live with the effects of these falsehoods. As the Black Lives Matter movement has spread, murder rates have climbed in cities across the country, from New Orleans to Baltimore to St. Louis and Chicago. The Washington, D.C., homicide rate is 43% higher than it was a year ago. By the end of August, Milwaukee and New Haven, Conn., both had already seen more murders than in all of 2014.

Publicly, law-enforcement officials have been reluctant to link the movement’s antipolice rhetoric to the spike in violent crime. Privately, they have been echoing South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who said in a speech last week that the movement was harming the very people whose interests it claims to represent. “Most of the people who now live in terror because local police are too intimidated to do their jobs are black,” the governor said. “Black lives do matter, and they have been disgracefully jeopardized by the movement that has laid waste to Ferguson and Baltimore.”

More.

Man Dies After Being Swept Away in Flash Flood While Hiking Near Mill Creek Crossing in Forest Falls

It's in San Bernardino.

Watch, from yesterday, at ABC News 7 Los Angeles, "MAN SWEPT AWAY IN FLASH FLOOD WHILE HIKING IN FOREST FALLS."

Sad. The dude was on a first date.

We had a tropical downpour just a few minutes ago in Irvine. It happens so fast. You can see how dangerous it would be in mountainous areas.

Olympics 2024 in Los Angeles? What About Those Busted Sidewalks and Retiree Pension Costs?

At IBD, "Olympics? L.A. Already Faces Herculean Budget Woes."

No, it's not the best idea.

See the letters to the editor at the Los Angeles Times, "L.A. can't fill all its potholes, but it wants the Olympics. That's insane":

To the editor: I don't live in Los Angeles anymore, but I still have an affinity for the city where I grew up, so I have to ask: Did anyone see the irony or humor in the juxtaposition of the headlines on Sunday's front page? ("Inequity is 'baked in' when it comes to L.A. city services; where you live matters," Aug. 28)

According to one article, the city will be on the hook for billions if it is selected to host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, but according to another piece, it can't consistently provide basic services. Graffiti removal can take days, depending on where you live. Potholes and trash may go unaddressed for weeks after a complaint.

This particular story does not even take into consideration the sidewalks, which are on a 30-year repair plan, and the water system, which breaks regularly. And all the billions to be spent on the Olympics are supposed to turn a profit of less than 3%. The mayor must have a very sharp pencil and a crystal ball. Good luck.

Steven L. Rice, Thousand Oaks

California Braces for Lower Standardized Test Results for Students

But no worries. The tests are new and the scoring system is more difficult than previous tests. As if that's going to alleviate testing anxiety, or something.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Don't panic, officials say as California braces for lower student test results."

Well, no worries. The state's getting rid of the high school exit exam anyway. These standardized tests are just for show, something to wave before outside regulators to prove bureaucrats are going through the motions. See, "Governor signs bill dropping high school exit exam requirement for class of 2015."

Keep Cool in San Diego

Hit the beach!

At ABC News 10 San Diego:

Special Offers in Fine Arts

At Amazon, Shop Special Offers - 40% Off Fine Art .

Plus, from Mark Bauerlein, ed., The State of the American Mind: 16 Leading Critics on the New Anti-Intellectualism.

European Union Proposes Distribution of 160,000 Refugees

Yeah, that oughta work.

Shoot, Juncker was heckled.

And 120,000? 160,000? What's another 40 thousand or so asylum seekers, meh? We've got room to spare!

At WSJ, "EU’s Juncker Proposes New Refugee Quota Plan as Bloc Struggles to Respond to Migrant Wave":

STRASBOURG, France—A top European Union official on Wednesday proposed redistributing 160,000 refugees across the bloc, but acknowledged that wouldn’t go far enough to address the largest flow of migrants to the continent since the aftermath of World War II.

The EU has sputtered in its attempts to craft a coherent approach to the crisis amid competing national interests and insistence by some countries—particularly in the poorer east—that taking in refugees must be voluntary.

The new plan, which has to be approved by a majority of EU governments, is the second attempt by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to help Greece, Italy and Hungary, the three countries on the front line of the crisis. The plan also seeks to speed up procedures across the bloc to send back migrants who don’t qualify for asylum.

“I do believe that given the gravity of the situation we face, this proposal is quite modest,” Mr. Juncker acknowledged at a news conference, adding that nearly 500,000 people have made their way to Europe in the past year.

But he pointed out that earlier even more modest plans were rejected by EU leaders and that if “we had taken decisions back then, perhaps we would have saved a lot of lives.”

Over the next two years, most EU countries—excluding the U.K., Denmark and Ireland, who have opt-outs from Europe’s common asylum system—would be required to take in a total of 160,000 refugees in hard-hit Italy, Greece and Hungary.

Germany, which is the main destination for migrants entering from those EU border states, is one of the architects of the proposal and hopes to diffuse the stream of people who would try to seek asylum there.

Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated her call Wednesday for the EU to agree to binding rules, saying Mr. Juncker’s proposal was a “first step of a fair distribution” but more is needed.

According to German government estimates, some 800,000 people are expected to apply for asylum there this year alone.

“It’s not possible to set a limit and to say ‘We don’t care beyond that and it is then an issue for two or three or four countries,” she said. “This must be a European responsibility and only then will all member states care about the causes of migration” and help address conflicts driving people to flee to Europe...

More.

Plus, at Der Spiegel, "A Continent Adrift: Juncker Proposes Fixes to EU's Broken Asylum Policies."

Hot Summer Babe Blogging Rule 5

Summer's not quite done yet, by no means, considering these triple-digit temperatures we're having. Time to get in the pool with some hot bikini babes!

Maybe they'll go skinny dipping with you, heh.

At Egotastic!, "HOLLY! ROSIE! KELLY! AND RHIAN! HOT END OF SUMMER SEXTASTIC SHOWDOWN!"

San Pedro Residents Protest Donald Trump Visit to Battleship Iowa

Sounds like Trump's still working on Latino engagement in the Los Angeles harbor area.

At the Long Beach Press-Telegram, "San Pedro not happy about Donald Trump’s event at Battleship Iowa":

San Pedro is not reacting kindly to Donald Trump’s scheduled national security speech at the Battleship Iowa next week.

In fact, some serious name-calling has erupted in an online petition, signed by nearly 3,000 people, that encourages cancellation of the celebrity presidential candidate’s visit.

“Donald Trump is an arrogant, racist, misogynist buffoon,” said one resident who signed an online petition titled “Tell the USS Iowa: We Don’t Want Trump in San Pedro, CA.”

Other petitioners were just as blunt in their rhetoric about the celebrity presidential candidate’s Tuesday appearance, sponsored by a veterans group.

• “We do not need discrimination of any type, San Pedro is a humble town and does not need Trump to come and mix waters.”

• “San Pedro is a melting pot of different cultures — Donald Trump has already made his intolerance clear; he has no place in our community.”

• “He’s a buffoon. He’s a racist. It is a city built on blue-collar labor. Does Trump know what that is? And much of that labor comes from immigrants. They are welcome here in Pedro. You, Trump, are not.”

Gabriela Lopez of San Pedro, a 25-year-old aspiring physician, started the petition that asks Los Angeles Councilman Joe Buscaino to send Trump packing before he arrives in the port union stronghold.

“It was shocking to me that he would be speaking (at) the battleship,” Lopez said.

The ship, she said, should be neutral political territory.

And it is, said Jonathan Williams, CEO and president of the Battleship Iowa, the floating museum that has been in San Pedro since 2012.

“As a 501(c)(3), we are nonpolitical and apolitical. We can’t endorse or promote any political candidate,” Williams said. “We provide a community platform to all groups and organizations, regardless of political affiliation.”

More at that top link.

Marine Corps' Women-in-Combat Experiment Yields Breakdown of Unit Cohesion

Hmm... Not the kinda meme we usually hear about. Unexpectedly!

At WaPo, "Both the men and women in the nine-month exercise reported a breakdown in unit cohesion":

Over the past nine months, the Marine Corps tested a gender-integrated task force in both Twentynine Palms, Calif. and Camp Lejeune, N.C. in an attempt to gauge what the Marine Corps might look like with women in combat roles.

According to a recent report in the Marine Corps Times, only a small number of women were left by the experiment’s conclusion — two of the roughly two dozen that started — mostly in part because of the physical and mental stress that comes with combat roles. Both the men and women in the task force also reported a breakdown in unit cohesion with some voicing  a perceived unequal treatment from their peers.

The experiment comes as all branches of the military face a Jan. 1, 2016 deadline to open all combat positions to women — from basic infantry battalions to elite special operations units such as U.S. Navy SEALs. While branches like the Air Force and Navy have relatively small communities where women are currently barred from serving — namely special operations detachments — the U.S. Army and Marine Corps have a host of units and jobs closed to woman. These jobs, known as combat arms, include infantry, artillery and armored divisions.

The gender-integrated Ground Combat Element Task Force served as a snapshot of sorts of what the Marine Corps might look like if women were a staple in combat positions. Each closed position was represented: infantry, artillery and mechanized units, such as tank platoons and light armored reconnaissance detachments, all operated in tandem with one another. The women were spread among them in ratios that would be expected in an integrated Marine Corps, with roughly 90 percent of the branch  made up of men.

The nine-month exercise was broken down into two parts. Initially there was a four-month training period, or “work-up,” at Camp Lejeune, followed by a five month “deployment” to the Mojave Desert in Twentynine Palms. Certain elements of the task force also participated in training at Camp Pendleton, and mountain warfare in Bridgeport, Calif.  This two semester cycle was common over the past 15 years. During the height of the Iraq War, it was common that Marine units would train for six to eight months and then deploy for a similar amount of time.

During both phases of the training, the Marines were hooked up to heart monitors and equipment that monitored their shooting abilities. According to the report, the data will be sent to Marine Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford in order to better tailor his approach to integrating women into Marine combat positions and help establish a baseline for gender-neutral standards that the Marines can possibly apply in the future.

Yet for all the monitoring technology in the field, most of the feedback, both negative and positive, has thus far been anecdotal.

“[The Marine Corps] hope[s] to provide transparency to our research and findings soonest,” Marine spokesman Maj. Christian Devine wrote in an email.

The Marine Corps Times report cites a number of instances where women had a difficult time completing physical tasks, like moving 200 pound dummies off the battlefield or from the turret of a “damaged” vehicle. Peer assessments were also mixed.

Lance Cpl. Chris Augello, a reservist who prior to the experiment was pro-integration, submitted a 13-page essay—which he shared with the Marine Corps Times—on why he had changed his mind.  “The female variable in this social experiment has wrought a fundamental change in the way male [non-commissioned officers] think, act and lead,” he wrote, referring to the female presence and its effect on how Marine Corps small-unit leaders do their job.

Augello, according to the report, also noted that relationships between the female and male Marines in his platoon sometimes turned romantic and in turn became a distraction. Integration, Augello wrote, is “a change that is sadly for the worse, not the better.”

Still more.

Hopefully few lives will be lost from the real-world combat results of gender integration.

Everything's all about equality nowadays, so what can you do?

Greek Coast Guard Allegedly Sabotaging Refugee Rubber Boats, Cutting Fuel Lines, Leaving Migrants Adrift at Sea (VIDEO)

Remember, the Greeks locked refugees inside a stadium without food and water for days. They're really compassionate over there, being communists and all.

Holly Williams reports, for CBS News, "Uniformed men accost refugees, leave them adrift at sea."

Element Capital Buys Billions of Dollars of Treasury Securities

Hmm... This is pretty interesting.

At WSJ, "An Obscure Hedge Fund Is Buying Tens of Billions of Dollars of U.S. Treasurys":

A little-known New York hedge fund run by a former Yale University math whiz has been buying tens of billions of dollars of U.S. Treasury debt at recent auctions, drawing attention from the Treasury Department and Wall Street.

Element Capital Management LLC, led by trader Jeffrey Talpins, has been the largest purchaser in dozens of government-bond auctions over the past 10 months, people familiar with the matter said. The buying is part of an apparent effort by the fund to use borrowed money to exploit small inefficiencies in the world’s most liquid securities market, a strategy that is delivering sizable profits, said people close to the matter.

Mr. Talpins is an intense and reserved trader formerly at Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. He is known for a tenacious style that can grate on rivals and once tested the patience of former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Element has been the largest bidder in many of the 62 Treasury note and bond auctions between last November and July, these people said. At many recent auctions, some of which involved sales of more than $30 billion of debt, Element purchased about 10% of the issue, these people said. That is an unusually large figure, analysts said.

Element’s activity has raised questions because the cumulative purchases far exceed the hedge fund’s $6 billion in assets under management. Treasury officials, who frequently meet with large auction participants, have asked Element about its activity, said someone close to the matter.

“Their buying is eyebrow-raising,” said a trader who once worked for a firm that deals in government securities and witnessed Element’s bidding. These primary dealers often know the identity of other auction bidders. Element “never shared its strategy, but we often asked,” the trader said.

Treasury likes to know who is buying its bonds and why, partly because it prefers long-term holders such as pension funds, insurance companies and central banks. Treasury officials fear purchases by trading-oriented funds could result in sales that increase market swings and potentially drive up borrowing costs.

“If you’re issuing debt, your preference is those ‘sticky investors,’” said Scott Skyrm, a managing director at Wedbush Securities.

“Consistent with our policy, Treasury does not comment on individual investors in Treasury auctions or conversations with market participants,” a Treasury representative said.

Element is a “macro” fund, or one that wagers on global macroeconomic trends in bond, stock and currency markets. The firm uses a “unique probabilistic approach,” according to a presentation the firm made last year at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Element had been shorting, or betting against, bonds in anticipation of higher interest rates but has been exiting from that wager, according to someone close to the matter. That is one reason the fund has been a big buyer of Treasurys lately.

But people who have worked with the firm or are close to Mr. Talpins said there is another reason: Element is among the last to embrace “bond-auction strategies,” trading maneuvers that have become less popular since the financial crisis.

These trades aim to take advantage of the effects of supply and demand in the $12.8 trillion Treasury market. Demand for these bonds often fluctuates based on factors including investor perceptions of economic growth and market risk, while supply can be affected by regular auctions of different-maturity Treasury securities. A burst of new supply tends to slightly depress prices for short periods, sometimes for less than an hour...

More at the link.

This is so slick it reminds of "Bonfire of the Vanities."

British Airways Plane Catches Fire on Las Vegas Runway (VIDEO)

It's a miracle no one was killed. Initial reports had passengers jumping down the emergency chutes and running for their lives.

Watch, at KTNV News 13 Las Vegas, "British Airways plane reportedly catches fire at Las Vegas airport."

More, "Live at McCarran after fire," and "Victims in McCarran fire."

Participants at German Homeopathy Conference Accidentally Take Hallucinogenic Drug

The question is, how do you "accidentally" take hallucinogens at a homeopathy conference?

Now that's a trip!

At the Independent UK, "Homeopathy conference ends in chaos after delegates take hallucinogenic drug":

Police are reportedly looking into possibilities including the drug being taken as a joint experiment, or it being furtively given to conference participants as a prank.

No arrests have yet been made as the investigation continues into a possible violation of Germany’s Narcotics Act.

A "furtive prank"?

Well okay. If you say so.

That'd be last homeopathy conference I'd be attending, that's for sure. What a bunch of sleazebags and losers.

If anyone kicks the bucket perhaps they can get Susan Sarandon to carry their ashes at Burning Man next year.

Dick Cheney Discusses Iran Nuclear Deal at American Enterprise Institute (VIDEO)

Well, Cheney slams the Iran nuclear deal at the American Enterprise Institute.

Watch the full video, at AEI, "The nuclear deal with Iran and the implications for U.S. security."



And see the New York Times, "Dick Cheney Denounces Nuclear Deal With Iran as 'Madness'," and Politico, "Cheney: Deal would allow Iran to nuke U.S."

Hungarian Camerawoman Petra László Caught on Tape Tripping Refugee Children (VIDEO)

She's a "right-wing nationalist"?

Watch, "Hungarian Camerawoman Fired for Tripping Refugees Trying to Escape Police."

At the Guardian UK, "Hungarian nationalist TV camera operator filmed kicking refugee children."

And at London's Daily Mail, "Pictured: Astonishing moment a Hungarian camerawoman deliberately TRIPPED migrants who were fleeing police - including a father carrying his terrified young child."

She's been fired.

State Department 'Transparency Czar'

This is actually bizarre.

Watch, at CNN, "The State Department has tapped Janice Jacobs as an 'email czar' to assist Secretary of State John Kerry."

Europe's Migration Crisis is America's Too — Thanks to Obama Administration's Foreign Policy Failures (VIDEO)

From Ambassador John Bolton, at AEI, "Migrant crisis isn’t just Europe’s problem; it’s our problem, too":

While Americans may believe that Europe, long disdainful of our own intense debate over border-security problems, is getting what it deserves, we should nonetheless focus on both the potential threats and lessons applicable to us. One critical cause of Europe’s illegal-immigration spike is the growing chaos across the greater Middle East. This spreading anarchy derives, in substantial part, from Barack Obama’s deliberate policy of “leading from behind” by reducing U.S. attention to and involvement in the region. When America’s presence diminishes anywhere in the world, whatever minimal order and stability existed there can rapidly evaporate...

And watch, from Greta's "On the Record," yesterday afternoon, "Migration Crisis In Europe Rooted In Obama Failures."

Unending Flow of Migrants Cross the Greece-Macedonia Border (VIDEO)

A refugee crisis can't go on forever, and frankly, it won't. There'll be a political backlash, sooner rather than later.

Watch, at AFP, "Hundreds of migrants were pouring over the frontier between Greece and Macedonia on Tuesday as they made their way towards the European Union following a day of tensions with police."

Also, at NBC News, "Thousands of Migrants Still Streaming Into Hungary Despite Maltreatment."

BONUS: At Moonbattery, "End Times: Europe Crumbles Under the Devastating Impact of Mass Immigration."

Triple-Digit Temperatures in San Francisco Bay Area (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Jackie Johnson's Got Your Extreme Weather Forecast."

It's all over the state, man.

At CBS News 5 San Francisco, "Heat Wave Brings Triple-Digit Temperatures to Bay Area."

Triple-Digit Temperatures in San Diego (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Jackie Johnson's Got Your Extreme Weather Forecast."

Watch this report at ABC News 10 San Diego, "Areas of San Diego County saw triple digit heat."

Jackie Johnson's Got Your Extreme Weather Forecast

Following-up from earlier, "Triple-Digit Days Ahead," and "SoCal Heat Wave."

And at CBS News 2 Los Angeles:



More from Ms. Jackie on Twitter, "LA you are beautiful tonight."

And at the Riverside Press-Enterprise, "INLAND WEATHER: Storms move into the region as heat, flash flood advisories remain in effect (UPDATE 2)."

SoCal Heat Wave

Following-up from earlier, "Triple-Digit Days Ahead."

It's really hot. Dangerously hot.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Extreme California weather: Heat, floods and thunderstorms."

And watch, at ABC News 7 Los Angeles, "HEAT WAVE BRINGS SIZZLING TEMPS TO SOUTHLAND."

Hillary Clinton Says She's Sorry for Private Email (VIDEO)

Remember, folks also call her "Granny Clinton."

Watch, at ABC News, "Hillary Clinton 'Sorry' Her Use of Private E-Mail Has Raised Questions."

And Julie Pace has a report at AP, "Clinton Says She's Sorry for Private Email."

Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Blamed as Bomb Blast Kills at Least 15 Turkish Policemen (VIDEO)

Reuters is reporting at least 15 police officers were killed in the blast. See, "Bombs kill 15 Turkish police officers as jets strike PKK in Iraq."

Plus, at the New York Times, "Turkey Says Troops Pursued Fighters From Kurdistan Workers' Party Into Iraq."

And watch, at Euronews, "14 police officers killed by PKK bomb attack in eastern Turkey," and France 24, "Turkey: Ankara confirms 'short-term' incursion into Iraq after violent clashes with PKK."

BONUS: From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "BREAKING: TURKEY EXPLODES IN POLITICAL VIOLENCE AS OBAMA ALLY ERDOGAN UNLEASHES SHOCK TROOPS."

Triple-Digit Days Ahead

Here's Tamara Berg, at KCRA News 3 Sacramento:



I'll have more on the SoCal heatwave later. It was 98 degrees in North Long Beach when I left work a little after 1:00pm today. And it's supposed stay hot through the week.

Rachel Weisz – Video Animation: How Did the United Nations Get So Big?

This is actually pretty good.

And keep in mind, Weisz is Jewish. Her parents fled interwar Austria to escape the Nazis. She's as good as anyone to narrate a video on the growth of the U.N., despite that institution's flaws.

At the Guardian UK, "How did the UN get so big, asks Rachel Weisz – video animation":

The United Nations began with 51 member states and an annual budget of $19m. Seventy years on the UN has 193 member nations and spends $40bn a year. Actor Rachel Weisz looks back at its history and asks: how did the UN get so big? And – as the UN marks its 70th birthday – has it stayed true to its founding principles of spreading human rights, social progress and upholding international justice?

Also on YouTube, here.

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis Released from Jail (VIDEO)

I'm not all that passionate about this story. It's hardly the hill to die on, IMHO.

She's a public official, an elected one at that, and it seems like her responsibility would be to respect the recent Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage. Sure, her religious liberties are implicated, but cases in which it's a private party seeking religious exceptions are certainly on firmer ground.

In any case, at the Louisville Courier-Journal, "Kim Davis released from jail; she must allow licenses":

Ending a constitutional standoff, at least for now, a federal judge Monday ordered Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis released from jail – but on the condition she doesn’t interfere with her deputies issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents four couples who sued her, said its goal has been achieved.

“This case was brought to ensure that all residents of Rowan County, gay and straight, could obtain marriage licenses,” William Sharp, legal director for the ACLU of Kentucky, said in a news release.

But Davis’ lawyers at Liberty Counsel declined to say if she would comply with U.S. District Judge David Bunning’s order that she shall not meddle, “directly or indirectly,” with giving licenses to “all legally eligible couples.”

Roger Gannam, one of her lawyers, said she will still seek an accommodation from Gov. Steve Beshear and the courts to protect her religious liberty, and Mat Staver, the founder and chairman of the Orlando-based Christian legal ministry, said i it would continue to pursue the multiple appeals she has filed.

“Be assured that Kim Davis hasn’t changed her mind and hasn’t changed her conscience,” Gannam told Yahoo News in a live interview.

Staver, in a statement, said: “We are pleased that Kim Davis has been ordered released” but "she can never recover the past six days of her life spent in an isolated jail cell like a common criminal because of her conscience and religious convictions.”

Bunning, who jailed Davis Thursday for refusing to comply with his order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, said in a two-page order that he was letting her out because he’d been assured her deputies were doing so.

"The court is therefore satisfied that the Rowan County Clerk’s Office is fulfilling its obligation to issue marriage licenses…consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s holding in Obergefell and this court’s August 12 order,” he wrote. “For these reasons, the Court’s prior contempt sanction against Defendant Davis is hereby lifted."

More.

And at Althouse, where she has the link to Rasmussen's poll, "'Voters Show Little Sympathy for Jailed Clerk in Gay Marriage Spat'." (Via Memeorandum.)

Three Books Came Yesterday

Following-up, "Whoo Hoo! Michael Walsh's New Book Came Today, The Devil's Pleasure Palace."

Actually, three books arrived. I tweeted my excitement, here and here.

I also picked up Dick and Liz Cheney, Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America, which I've mentioned numerous times. It's bound to be a classic.

Also, from Mark Bauerlein, ed., The State of the American Mind: 16 Leading Critics on the New Anti-Intellectualism.

I'm starting with The Devil's Pleasure Palace, which is not a long book, so perhaps I can finish it before the end of the week. I'm looking forward to getting into the others ASAP.

More blogging tonight.

Ann Coulter Interview at Pajamas Media (VIDEO)

It's a 20-minute interview, so you might as well grab a cup of coffee, heh.

Here, "PJTV Exclusive: Ann Coulter Takes on Bill O'Reilly and Fox News."

And her new book's here, Adios, America: The Left's Plan to Turn Our Country into a Third World Hellhole.

And ICYMI, "The Left is Turning the U.S. into a Hellhole."

Splits Plague Parties as Fall Campaign Starts

Ho hum.

I can see that the summer upheavals are still being reported in "plague-like" terms.

At WSJ, "Splits Plague Both Parties as Fall Primary Campaign Starts":

HOOKSETT, N.H.—The 2016 White House race barrels into the fall feeling at times more like a reality-television spectacle than a presidential campaign, with a crop of unconventional candidates upstaging their politically pedigreed rivals.

This split between the outsiders and their more traditional counterparts reflects a deeper rift in the country between those who continue to trust government and the elected officials who run it, and the ever-growing share of Americans who don’t and pine for someone new.

Both parties enter the post-Labor Day phase of their primaries with lineups that have taken on an unexpected shape. The 2016 field was billed as one of the most accomplished in a generation, particularly on the Republican side, so the rise of celebrity real-estate mogul Donald Trump in the GOP contest and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic race have come as a surprise to some party insiders and voters.

Yet the underlying dynamics spurring some form of a voter revolt took root years ago and they continue to spread through a dissatisfied electorate. The outsider candidates dominated the summer; this fall will test whether the political veterans can sell voters on the benefits of their experience or succumb to the exasperation fueling their rivals.

Gallup polling shows a steady erosion of confidence in government institutions. The last time more Americans thought the country was headed in the right direction rather than the wrong one was January 2004, according to Wall Street Journal/NBC News surveys. In the latest survey, Americans who were pessimistic about the future of the country outnumbered optimists by 2-to-1.

“I have no trust in the government,” said Keith Whigham, a 68-year-old retired insurance-claims adjuster in Greensboro, N.C., who listed Mr. Trump as his top GOP pick in a Journal poll conducted at the end of July. “The little guy has no shot. Everything is rigged for the big shots.”

A year ago, bipartisan majorities said they would replace every single member of Congress, including their own, if they could, according to a Journal poll weeks before the 2014 elections. The same share of voters said they would rather support a first-time candidate over one with experience. Independents were particularly resistant to veteran politicians.

This anti-insider bias is weighing on the once-presumed front-runners, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for Democrats and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for Republicans...

Still more.

Jeb Bush is washed up, as far as I can tell. Hillary's looking flaccid as hell, but I think she's got so much of the establishment lined up it's going to be hard for Sanders to really shake loose the detritus. But we'll see. We'll see.

Orange County Beach News That Made National Headlines This Summer

This is really cool.

At the O.C. Register, "Shark selfies, dolphin attack and red crabs: Here are 5 weird things that happened at the beach this summer" (via Twitter):

Summer at the beach is one thing, usually an excellent thing.

But summer at the beach involving wayward sharks, and stinky crabs, and a dolphin jumping into a boat, and lightning - lightning? in July? -- keeping people off the sand?

That’s something only seen during summer at the beach, 2015.

So, today, as summer unofficially signs off, here’s a look at five of the beach events that made us scared, shocked, or even smile...

Keep reading.

PEGIDA Anti-Refugee March in Munich (VIDEO)

I wrote about this movement last December, "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West."

Their warnings seem kind of ominous now.

Via Ruptly:

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Tested at Top Speed (VIDEO)

At CNN:

Is the American Century Over?

Harvard political scientist Joseph Nye published Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power back in 1991.

It was a something of a response to Paul Kennedy's immensely popular 1987 book, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000.

In the end it was Nye, not Kennedy, who turned out to be the more prescient analyst, although he probably didn't make as much money.

So now here comes Nye with a new book on America's enduring hegemony, Is the American Century Over? 


Take a look at some of the material at the sample pages at the link. Gideon Rachman has a review at the Financial Times, "‘Is the American Century Over?’, by Joseph Nye."

I need to pick up a copy as material for my World Politics course. Maybe next month. I just got a shipment of books in the mail yesterday, heh.

Islamic State Reveals It Has Smuggled Thousands of Jihadists Into Europe

Well, that's no surprise.

Over 100,000 refugees made it to Europe in August. Certainly a good number of those are going to be ISIS jihadists. That's the plan.

At Atlas Shrugs, "‘Just wait…’ Islamic State reveals it has smuggled THOUSANDS of jihadis into Europe."

Richard Engel Speaks Too Much Truth to Obama's Failed War on Islamic State

I've seen a number of folks blame George W. Bush for Islamic State, and thus the refugee crisis. But that's one partisan attack that ain't gonna wash.

And NBC's Richard Engel's not buying it either.

On Twitter:

If the US led war on #ISIS was working, people wouldn't be going to such great lengths to escape #Syria & #Iraq http://t.co/Hf5PTFLTge #MTP

— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) September 6, 2015

Britain's 'Unprecedented Assassination' of Two of Its Own Citizens in Syria Drone Attack After Plot to Kill Queen Elizabeth

At the Telegraph UK, "British jihadist killed after plot to kill the Queen."

There's video here, "David Cameron reveals RAF drone strike killed Cardiff jihadi in Syria."

And the inevitable Glenn Greenwald-style "civil liberties" push back on the left. At the Guardian UK, "David Cameron faces scrutiny over drone strikes against Britons in Syria":

Prime minister justifies ‘act of self-defence’ in which UK citizens fighting alongside Isis were targeted by an unmanned aerial drone outside formal conflict.

They're enemy combatants. Kill the fuckers.

Natalie Portman is Wrong, Scarlett Johansson Right on Boycotts of Israel

Well, I used to have Ms. Portman down as a hot neocon, but she's become too much of an Obama-cultist these last few years.

Not so with Scarlett Johansson. She's been a voice of moral clarity on Israel.

See the report at Truth Revolt.

Canadian Tory Candidate Jerry Bance Pees in Homeowner's Coffee Cup, Drops Out of Race (VIDEO)

Heh, I'm not embedding this one.

But you can watch at the CBC, "Tory candidate caught urinating in homeowner's coffee mug."

Such a bizarre story. I can't imagine someone ever doing something like that, but the amazing thing is he was caught on video. And this is part of some reality show sting operation, or something.

More here, "Jerry Bance, Conservative caught peeing in mug, no longer candidate, party says."

Also at Toronto's National Post, "Tories drop two candidates after videos show one peeing in cup, the other making prank calls."

Hundreds of Thousands in Las Vegas for Labor Day Weekend (VIDEO)

Wow. America's playground?

Sure looks like a lot of fun. I wish I could've made it out there with my family this weekend, but then I've been chilling pretty nice.

Maybe later.

At ABC News 13 Las Vegas:

U.S. Builds Up Arctic Spy Network as Russia and China Increase Presence

That's what I'm talking about!

At LAT.

Why the U.S. is amassing an Arctic spy network http://t.co/PI89v54Y71 pic.twitter.com/c9aR9UxVLa

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) September 7, 2015

Worlds Collide! Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Paul Krugman Endorses Donald Trump's Economics!

Stranger things have happened, I suppose.

But this is hilarious!

Paul Krugman likes Donald Trump. He really likes him!

At the New York Times, "Trump Is Right on Economics" (via Memeorandum):

So Jeb Bush is finally going after Donald Trump. Over the past couple of weeks the man who was supposed to be the front-runner has made a series of attacks on the man who is. Strange to say, however, Mr. Bush hasn’t focused on what’s truly vicious and absurd — viciously absurd? — about Mr. Trump’s platform, his implicit racism and his insistence that he would somehow round up 11 million undocumented immigrants and remove them from our soil.

Instead, Mr. Bush has chosen to attack Mr. Trump as a false conservative, a proposition that is supposedly demonstrated by his deviations from current Republican economic orthodoxy: his willingness to raise taxes on the rich, his positive words about universal health care. And that tells you a lot about the dire state of the G.O.P. For the issues the Bush campaign is using to attack its unexpected nemesis are precisely the issues on which Mr. Trump happens to be right, and the Republican establishment has been proved utterly wrong.

To see what I mean, consider what was at stake in the last presidential election, and how things turned out after Mitt Romney lost.

More at the link.

Krugman slams Trump as racist and then endorses his policies in the next breath! "World's Are Colliding!"

PREVIOUSLY: "The Political Establishment's Terrified by Donald Trump's 'Tangible American Nationalism'."

Lissy Cunningham for Zoo Today (VIDEO)

Somehow I missed this from back in March.

Watch, at Zoo, "Lissy Cunningham: Page 3 babe strips off in her ZOO debut!"

Plus, "Lissy Cunningham's topless pictures and video from her hot ZOO debut!"

Also at Twitter.

Charlotte McKinney Finds Black Lingerie Sexy

Hmm... I'l bet.

At Sports Illustrated:

Hillary Misses Mark With Millennials

From Selena Zito, at RCP. You have to sign a loyalty pledge to attend, a lot of good that did:

Hillary Has Millennials sign commitment pledge in order to attend #cleveland event http://t.co/NJshGnYt4p pic.twitter.com/P8SUYJzP1L

— SalenaZito (@SalenaZitoTrib) September 7, 2015

From a distance, the visual of students lining up along Bellflower Road in this Rust Belt city's University Circle neighborhood was good B-roll for Hillary Clinton's campaign, seemingly showcasing her appeal to young people.

It also was an opportunity to claim she was building a firewall of supporters for Ohio's March primary, should Joe Biden step in or Bernie Sanders catch up in a meaningful way.

That initial impression was quickly dispelled.

What looked like a block-long line turned out to be a crowd that could barely fill one-fourth of a football field. And the students in attendance? Well, they weren't exactly there to support the former secretary of State.

“I am sort of a Bernie (Sanders) fan. I also had nothing else to do at 10 in the morning,” said Brian Miller, a chemical engineering student from Pittsburgh, waiting with more than a dozen friends for the event to start.

David Lituchy of Morgantown, W.Va., was there on the off-chance he'd see a different Clinton: “I am here for Bill. He would definitely liven things up here.”

He said he's leaning toward Sanders, too.

Such sentiment wasn't anecdotal; scores of students expressed it, and you didn't need to interview anyone to know that Clinton has political problems beyond her email controversy.

The event here wasn't just a failure to connect with millennials, but a fundamental inability to read her audience and adjust her speech — or perhaps laziness, or a sense of entitlement that she shouldn't have to work this hard for support.

Perhaps it was all of that...

At bad omen all around. She might not make to the nomination, or if she does, she's going to be an extremely weak candidate.

More at that top link.

Whoo Hoo! Michael Walsh's New Book Came Today, The Devil's Pleasure Palace

Wow!

I wasn't expecting a book delivery on Labor Day. This is great!

I blogged about here: "Michael Walsh's New Book Is On the Way," and "'Communists are always deliberate liars, who believe that the 'dictatorship of the proletariat' justifies any deception necessary to advance their cause, and Communists kill without remorse, unrestrained by conscience...'"

Here's the Amazon link, The Devil's Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West.

So, what a great day of reading and watching baseball today!

More blogging in a little while too. I'm going to start reading the first couple of chapters right now!

New Poll Has Bernie Sanders Leading Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire

At WSJ, "Poll: Bernie Sanders Leads Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire."

The Democrats are actually a sad lot this year. Old and feeble, pushing an even more feeble collectivist ideology. Socialism, the ideology destroys.

Via Woodsterman.



PREVIOUSLY: "Poll: Democrats Shift to Extreme Far-Left of Political Spectrum — Bernie Sanders Leads the Way!"

The Complete Infidel's Guide to ISIS

Robert Spencer's got a new book out, and the title makes me giggle, The Complete Infidel's Guide to ISIS.

Daniel Greenfield has a write-up, at FrontPage Magazine, "Robert Spencer Looks Squarely at ISIS:

'The Complete Infidel's Guide to ISIS' reveals what the West is really up against.

Robert spoke in Mission Viego, in March, "Islamic State: Is It Islamic? And Why It Matters."

I got a signed copy of his earlier book, Arab Winter Comes to America: The Truth About the War We're In.

Robert's so good, so expert at this, that often times Muslim imams refuse to debate him. He's the authority on Islam and global jihad.

I look forward to picking up a copy of his new book on Islamic State.

White Racist Lesbian Leftist Loses Lawsuit After Being Impregnated with Black Man's Sperm (VIDEO)

I saw headlines earlier about this lawsuit, but I never clicked the links, because the story sounded so typically racist and backwards, and sadly we still have ugly dregs like that circling the bottom of America's social barrel.

But, ahem, it turns out that this woman's homosexual. She and her partner got pregnant with a sperm donor, and then sued after having a mixed-race child. Weasel Zippers links to this Washington Post article, where you can see that the woman's grievances are the kinds of racist statements you'd see back in pre-civil rights Jim Crow America.

As I always say, and regressives always prove, leftists are f-king biggest racists.

See, "White woman accidentally impregnated with black man’s sperm loses legal battle":

A white woman who sued after she was accidentally impregnated with the sperm of an African American man will be forced to refile the lawsuit after an Illinois judge tossed out her claim against the sperm bank.

Jennifer Cramblett filed suit against Midwest Sperm Bank in 2014 because she was artificially inseminated with sperm from the wrong donor and gave birth to a mixed-race daughter.

The sperm bank apologized and refunded part of the cost to Cramblett and her partner Amanda Zinkon. But Cramblett’s suit alleged that the mistake caused her and her family stress, pain, suffering and medical expenses. And, the suit said, in Cramblett’s predominantly white community, she feared that her daughter, Payton, now 3, would grow up feeling like an “outcast.”

But DuPage County judge Ronald Sutter threw out the lawsuit Thursday, agreeing with attorneys for the sperm bank who argued that it lacked legal merit, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Attorneys for the sperm bank had argued that “wrongful birth” suits typically apply to cases where the child is born with a birth defect that doctors should have warned parents about; in this case, the child was healthy. Cramblett had also sought damages for a “breach of warranty.” The judge rejected both claims but said that Cramblett could refile the suit as a “negligence claim,” the Tribune reported.

At the heart of the lawsuit was Cramblett’s claim that she was unprepared to raise an African American child and that her community and her “unconsciously insensitive” family members might not be accepting of a child of a different race.

“Getting a young daughter’s hair cut is not particularly stressful for most mothers, but to Jennifer it is not a routine matter, because Payton has hair typical of an African American girl,” the lawsuit said. “To get a decent cut, Jennifer must travel to a black neighborhood, far from where she lives, where she is obviously different in appearance, and not overtly welcome.”

According to the suit, the couple chose sperm from donor No. 380, a white man; instead, they were given sperm from donor No. 330, a black man. They blame a paper records system that allegedly caused an employee to misread the numbers.

Keep reading. It's pretty funny.

It turns out the family "moved to Uniontown from racially diverse Akron, because the schools were better and to be closer to family.” In other words, they moved from a minority neighborhood with minority schools to a predominantly white neighborhood where their daughter will attend an "all-white school."

All-white. That's not promoting racial healing and integration. That's white supremacist separatism.

And she was complaining about it so she could win a lawsuit!

Just a tad bit short on social and political awareness? Or, perhaps that's just this racist woman's white privilege breaking through

Either way, racism today is primarily a phenomenon on the left. Remember, Dylann Roof was a leftist emo-prog loser who murdered nine black Americans. Indeed, the Democrats are and have always been the party of racist white supremacy and murderous racial eliminationism.

More video, "Woman Impregnated With Black Man's Sperm Has Legal Case Dismissed."

'Hillary is a doddering old addlebrain who cannot accomplish the simplest task on her own behalf but instead depends on a 24-7 staff of Wellness Workers to maintain her...'

Heh.

That's from the hilarious Ace at AoSHQ, "Hillary Clinton: Invalid."

Following the links takes us to Stephen Miller, at National Review, "Hillary’s E-mails Reveal a Startling Amount of Dependency."