'Were Your Children Human Beings' Before They Were Born? Debbie Wasserman Schultz Refuses to Answer (VIDEO)

She's scum.

Of course she refuse to answer the question, but if she had she'd have to admit that abortion is murder.

At the Daily Signal, "How a Pro-Choice Democrat Responded When Asked ‘Were Your Children Human Beings’ Before Birth?"

Watch, "Hey, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Were Your Children Human Beings Before They Were Born?"

Fanatical Palestinian Slams Car Into Bus Stop, Jumps Out and Hacks Israeli to Death (VIDEO)

Leftists support this terrorism and murder in the name of social justice.

At Hot Air, "Video: Palestinian terrorist runs over Israelis, hacks one to death."

The video's here.

Monstrous evil.

But that's the left for you.

Introducing the 'Democratic Socialist' Party

From David Harsanyi, at the Federalist.

PREVIOUSLY: "The S-Word — Socialism — Frightens a Lot of Americans."

Also, "Democrat Debate: America Now Has an Openly Socialist Party."

Palestinian Posing as Journalist Stabs Israeli Soldier with Knife (VIDEO)

At Weasel Zippers, "Palestinian Posing as Journalist With ‘Press’ Logo Stabs Israeli Soldier."

Mets' Daniel Murphy Steals 3rd Base, Sucking the Life Out of Dodgers' World Series Hopes (VIDEO)

I frankly didn't know what the heck happened.

But the Dodgers pulled the defense to the right and nobody covered third base after Zack Greinke walked left-hander Lucas Duda.

The play-by-play announcers noted how the crowd at Dodger Stadium was shocked silent. It was a definite turning point and the Dodgers never recovered.

The New York Times' headline captures it perfectly, "Daniel Murphy's Steal Caps Another Lost Dodgers Season."

And at the Los Angeles Times, "Did the Dodgers outsmart themselves right out of a title?"

The 2015 Coat Guide

At Amazon, Shop Fashion - Women's Coats & Jackets.

Plus, from Marc Thiessen, Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack.

And ICYMI, Sean Naylor, Relentless Strike: The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command.

The S-Word — Socialism — Frightens a Lot of Americans

Not the Democrats. They love socialism.

At USA Today:

If Bernie Sanders were to win the Democratic presidential nomination, his chances of actually making it to the White House are somewhere between zero and nothing.

That, at least, is the view of some political observers. One of the reasons for their pessimism is Sanders’ political ideology: He’s a self-described "Democratic Socialist."

And the S-word frightens a lot of Americans.

A Pew Research Center survey conducted in December 2011, shortly after the Occupy Wall Street protests, which highlighted the growing wealth gap between the rich and the poor, found half of all Americans still had a positive view of capitalism, while 60% had a negative perception of socialism.

“Socialism is a far more divisive word (than capitalism), with wide differences of opinion along racial, generational, socioeconomic and political lines,” Pew said.

“Fully nine-in-ten conservative Republicans (90%) view socialism negatively, while nearly six-in-ten liberal Democrats (59%) react positively. Low-income Americans are twice as likely as higher-income Americans to offer a positive assessment of socialism (43% among those with incomes under $30,000, 22% among those earning $75,000 or more).”

A Gallup survey this summer found similar anti-socialist views among American voters, half of whom said they wouldn't vote for a socialist candidate.

It's not hard to see why this is. For many Americans the word "socialism" still carries the associations with authoritarianism that it acquired during the Cold War. That explains why some opponents of Obama's Affordable Care Act were calling it the same thing Ronald Reagan called Medicare in 1961: "socialized medicine." Combine those negative Cold War associations with the fact that a significant portion of the American electorate wants to shrink government, limit spending, and cut taxes, and you realize that Bernie Sanders has his work cut out for him if he's going to proudly wave the socialist flag...

Keep reading.

PREVIOUSLY: "Democrat Debate: America Now Has an Openly Socialist Party."

Obama Lied, My Health Plan Died…Twice!

From Michelle Malkin:

It’s deja screwed all over again.

In the fall of 2013, our family received notice from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Colorado that we could no longer keep our private health insurance plan because of “changes from health care reform (also called the Affordable Care Act or ACA).”

We liked our high-deductible preferred provider organization plan that allowed us to choose from a wide range of doctors. But Obamacare wouldn’t let us keep it. Reluctantly, and after great bureaucratic difficulty, my hubby and I enrolled in an individual market plan with Rocky Mountain Health, which offered a much narrower provider network than the Anthem PPO plan we had before the feds snuffed it out.

Thanks to “reform,” our two kids’ dental care was no longer covered, and we had our post-Obamacare insurance turned down at an urgent care clinic — something that had never happened before.

This summer came another bombshell.

In August, we were informed of the “discontinuation of your Rocky Mountain Individual and Family plan effective December 31, 2015.”

Over the past month, we have received several bold-faced notices alerting us that “IMPORTANT ACTION IS REQUIRED: YOU MUST CHOOSE A NEW INDIVIDUAL & FAMILY PLAN TO MAINTAIN YOUR HEALTH COVERAGE IN 2016.” The clock is ticking: open enrollment begins Nov. 1.

The coerced choices are pretty damned crummy. Individual market PPOs have evaporated. We are being shoved once again toward the Obamacare government health insurance exchange vortex known as Connect for Health Colorado (which should really be called “DISconnect from Health Colorado). Or into a narrow regional HMO.

So much for “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what,” eh, Mr. President?

Obama lied and our health plan has now died — twice...

Keep reading.

It's a terrible law. ObamaCare has screwed Americans across the board, and for what? The rate of uninsured isn't much better than before the law went into effect, despite the enormous costs and social dislocation. See Fox News, "Despite Health Reform, 32.3 Million Are Uninsured."

PREVIOUSLY: "ObamaCare Deductibles Set to Surge as High as $6,500."

'13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi'

I saw the trailer out a couple of months ago, but never posted. But now here comes the New York Times with an analysis of the film's impact on the presidential race.

See, "Timing of Movie About Benghazi Attack Could Test Clinton in Iowa Caucuses."

The movie's based on the book by Mitchell Zuckoff, 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi.

Behind the Scenes with Bathing Beauty Charlotte McKinney (VIDEO)

Watch, via Vanity Fair.

'Yes Means Yes' Invades High School Campuses in California

I saw something somewhere on the new "yes means yes" law being rammed down the throats of high school students, but now it's at the New York Times.

See, "For Teenagers, Sexual Consent Classes Add Layer of Complexity to Difficult Subject":

SAN FRANCISCO — The classroom of 10th graders had already learned about sexually transmitted diseases and various types of birth control. On this day, the 15- and 16-year-olds gathered around tables to discuss another topic: how and why to make sure each step in a sexual encounter is met with consent.

Consent from the person you are kissing — or more — is not merely silence or a lack of protest, Shafia Zaloom, a health educator at the Urban School of San Francisco, told the students. They listened raptly, but several did not disguise how puzzled they felt.

“What does that mean — you have to say ‘yes’ every 10 minutes?” asked Aidan Ryan, 16, who sat near the front of the room.

“Pretty much,” Ms. Zaloom answered. “It’s not a timing thing, but whoever initiates things to another level has to ask.”

The “no means no” mantra of a generation ago is being eclipsed by “yes means yes” as more young people all over the country are told that they must have explicit permission from the object of their desire before they engage in any touching, kissing or other sexual activity. With Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature on a bill this month, California became the first state to require that all high school health education classes give lessons on affirmative consent, which includes explaining that someone who is drunk or asleep cannot grant consent.

Last year, California led the way in requiring colleges to use affirmative consent as the standard in campus disciplinary decisions, defining how and when people agree to have sex. More than a dozen legislatures in other states, including Maryland, Michigan and Utah, are considering similar legislation for colleges. One goal is to improve the way colleges and universities deal with accusations of rape and sexual assault and another is to reduce the number of young people who feel pressured into unwanted sexual conduct.

Critics say the lawmakers and advocates of affirmative consent are trying to draw a sharp line in what is essentially a gray zone, particularly for children and young adults who are grappling with their first feelings of romantic attraction. In he-said, she-said sexual assault cases, critics of affirmative consent say the policy puts an unfair burden of proof on the accused.

“There’s really no clear standard yet — what we have is a lot of ambiguity on how these standards really work in the court of law,” said John F. Banzhaf III, a professor at George Washington University Law School. “The standard is not logical — nobody really works that way. The problem with teaching this to high school students is that you are only going to sow more confusion. They are getting mixed messages depending where they go afterward.”

But Ms. Zaloom, who has taught high school students about sex for two decades, said she was grateful for the new standard, even as she acknowledged the students’ unease...

Yes, grateful. Because leftists are always grateful for more chances to destroy people's lives.

Still more.

Inside Zimbabwe's Business of Big-Game Hunting (VIDEO)

From CBS News This Morning, "Zimbabwe announced this week it would not charge a Minnesota dentist who hunted a popular lion. But the killing of Cecil the lion has brought worldwide attention to trophy hunting. Critics say the controversial practice is full of corruption."

Philippe Verdier, Top Weatherman at France Télévisions, Fired for Questioning Climate Change

At Telegraph UK, "France's top weatherman sparks storm over book questioning climate change":

Philippe Verdier, weather chief at France Télévisions, the country's state broadcaster, reportedly sent on "forced holiday" for releasing book accusing top climatologists of "taking the world hostage."

Every night, France's chief weatherman has told the nation how much wind, sun or rain they can expect the following day.
Now Philippe Verdier, a household name for his nightly forecasts on France 2, has been taken off air after a more controversial announcement - criticising the world's top climate change experts.

Mr Verdier claims in the book Climat Investigation (Climate Investigation) that leading climatologists and political leaders have “taken the world hostage” with misleading data.

In a promotional video, Mr Verdier said: “Every night I address five million French people to talk to you about the wind, the clouds and the sun. And yet there is something important, very important that I haven’t been able to tell you, because it’s neither the time nor the place to do so.”

He added: “We are hostage to a planetary scandal over climate change – a war machine whose aim is to keep us in fear.”

His outspoken views led France 2 to take him off the air starting this Monday. "I received a letter telling me not to come. I'm in shock," he told RTL radio. "This is a direct extension of what I say in my book, namely that any contrary views must be eliminated."

The book has been released at a particularly sensitive moment as Paris is due to host a crucial UN climate change conference in December...

Still more.

Charles Krauthammer: Bernie Sanders Helped Hillary Clinton Win Democrat Nomination (VIDEO)

Krauthammer makes it sound like Hillary's nomination's a done deal. I have no doubt, but this is interesting, especially in how all the Democrats circled the wagons to protect the party from the Republicans.

From Megyn Kelly's last night:

Blonde Beauty Elle Evans for Playboy

At Egotastic!, "CARL'S JR. BLONDE HOTTIE ELLE EVANS BUTT NAKED FOR PLAYBOY."

She's the beautiful hot babe in the new Carl's Jr. advertisement, "Tex Mex Bacon Thick Burger 'Border War' Video."

Casey Batchelor for Zoo Today (VIDEO)

Watch, "Casey Batchelor's sexy selfie strip shoot!"

Democrat Debate: America Now Has an Openly Socialist Party

From Jim Geraghty, at National Review, "The Debate Lesson: America Now Has an Openly Socialist Party":

Sure, this batch of candidates sounded like a bunch of loons. They contended socialism is mostly about standing up to the richest one percent and promoting entrepreneurs and small business; climate change is the biggest national security threat facing the nation; college educations should be free for everyone; all lives don’t matter, black lives do; Obama is simultaneously an enormously successful president in managing the economy and the middle class is collapsing and there’s a need for a “New New Deal” which is in fact an Old Old Idea, considering how FDR called for a Second New Deal in 1935. The audience in Nevada applauded higher taxes, believes that Hillary Clinton doesn’t need to answer any more questions, supports the complete shutdown of the NSA domestic surveillance program, and that Obamacare benefits should be extended to illegal immigrants. There are kindergarten classes with more realistic assessments of cost-benefit tradeoffs than the crowd watching this debate at the Wynn Las Vegas.

So yes, the candidates sounded like hard-Left, pie-in-the-sky, free-ice-cream-for-everyone, Socialist pander bears. But they do so because that is what the Democratic Party’s primary voters demand. Don’t blame them; blame the party rank-and-file that craves these promises, rhetoric, and worldview...

Keep reading.

Image Credit: The People's Cube.

Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders Dominate First Democrat Debate (VIDEO)

Hardcore progressives, especially measured by social media interaction and Google searches, put Bernie Sanders way out in front. See Politico, "Sanders dominates social media during the debate," and Independent Journal, "Bernie Sanders Just Introduced Himself to America and America is Curious. Hot Damn, That Google Trend on the Right."

The consensus on the collective Obama-media was that Hillary Clinton dominated, which, with the above trends among partisan progs, is the story of this campaign. See the Week, "The most talked about candidate of the debate was Bernie Sanders — by a long shot."

Sanders' discussion of democratic socialism, seen below, really causes social media to explode.

More at the Wall Street Journal, "Hillary Clinton Confronts Critics at First Democratic Debate":

LAS VEGAS—Hillary Clinton on Tuesday went on offense in the first Democratic presidential debate on issues such as gun control, foreign policy and the Republican probe of her email server, while also punching back against a quartet of primary rivals seeking to knock her out of front-runner status.

The Democrats’ first matchup proved to nearly be as rough-and-tumble as the previous Republican debates, though the candidates also found several areas of agreement. Mrs. Clinton even got an assist from her main challenger, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said he wasn’t interested in discussing her private email server, which has bedeviled her campaign for months.

After spending months virtually ignoring her Democratic rivals, Mrs. Clinton aggressively tangled with her opponents, focusing on policy differences and highlighting her depth of experience.

She said Mr. Sanders wasn’t tough enough on guns, noting that he repeatedly opposed the Brady bill, which mandated background checks, and voted to give gun manufacturers immunity from lawsuits. She dismissed his explanation that the immunity bill was “large and complicated.”

“It wasn’t that complicated to me,” said Mrs. Clinton, who was also in the Senate at the time.

While Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders were center stage, the other three candidates—former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chafee, a former governor and senator from Rhode Island—also asserted themselves.

Mr. Chafee used his opening statement to note that he hasn’t suffered a “scandal,” a direct shot at Mrs. Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who faced a series of probes during his administration.

Mrs. Clinton faced fire from all sides as her opponents questioned her judgment and her record in the U.S. Senate and the State Department. The other candidates also took aim at Mrs. Clinton’s vote to go to war in Iraq, the same issue that was a key factor in her loss in the 2008 Democratic primary race.

Mr. Sanders punched first, characterizing the Iraq war as the “worst foreign policy blunder in the history of this country.” Mr. Chafee chimed in, questioning Mrs. Clinton’s “poor judgment calls.”

“If you’re going to make those poor judgment calls at a critical time in our history…that’s an indication of how someone will perform in the future,” Mr. Chafee said.

Mrs. Clinton, who has spent months answering questions about the private email server she used as secretary of state, offered a familiar defense, saying she had made a mistake but did nothing wrong, and quickly pivoted to saying the entire matter was driven by Republicans.

“It is a partisan vehicle, as admitted by the House majority leader…to drive down my poll numbers, big surprise,” she said, referring to a congressional committee investigating the matter. “I am still standing.”

She then got backup from Mr. Sanders, who said he agreed with her and said Americans want to hear about critical issues that affect their lives.

“The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails,” he said, to Mrs. Clinton’s delight. “Enough of the emails! Let’s talk about the real issues facing America.”

Equal Pay in Hollywood's Movie Industry (VIDEO)

At LAT, "With new equal-pay act, will Jennifer Lawrence get paid like Bradley Cooper?":

Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence was paid 7% of the profit on the 2013 ensemble film "American Hustle," a big payday for the A-list actress. But Bradley Cooper and two other male co-stars each earned 9%.

That's the kind of inequity potentially targeted by California's Fair Pay Act, which is aimed at leveling the compensation field between men and women. The bill, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown this week, applies to businesses statewide but has particular resonance in Hollywood, where women have become increasingly vocal critics of the pay gap.

Indeed, the entertainment industry played a key role in pushing the bill forward. Patricia Arquette raised the issue of pay inequality while accepting the best supporting actress Oscar during this year's Academy Awards — a moment that the Fair Pay Act's author, state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), said gave the measure momentum.

Arquette said in an interview with The Times on Wednesday that the lower profit participation paid to Lawrence, which was disclosed in the leak of stolen emails from Sony Pictures Entertainment last year, exposed how women are routinely paid less than men in Hollywood...

Plus, watch at CBS News This Morning, "Oprah: Hollywood gender pay gap conversation has hit critical moment."

Moving the Goalposts: What Feminist 'Rape Culture' Discourse Is About

An epic post, from Robert Stacy McCain, at the Other McCain.

Cited there is Susan Shaw and Janet Lee, eds., Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings.

I have a copy of the third edition, and I tweeted a photo of it to Robert. He asked if I'd just gotten my copy, and I said, "No, the radical lesbian feminist professor two offices down from mine left an old copy out in the hall, in a stack of free books."

And that's not a joke. Professor Rachel Hollenberg, from the Department of Philosophy, is two doors down from me. She's really hardcore, as you can tell, by a quick look at this conference program where she participated, in 2005, at Claremont Graduate School, "Queering the Discourse Conference."

(And notice how she marked up the contents page at the textbook, seen below. Boy, you really gotta highlight all the entries on oppression, lol.)

In any case, buy Robert's book, Sex Trouble: Essays on Radical Feminism and the War Against Human Nature.

I'll have more blogging tonight

Jenifer Van Vleck, Empire of the Air

She's Assistant Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University.

And here's her book, Empire of the Air: Aviation and the American Ascendancy.

Van Vleck’s first book, Empire of the Air: Aviation and the American Ascendancy, was published by Harvard University Press in 2013. It examines how aviation facilitated the United States’ rise as a global power—and transformed American visions of the world—from the Wright brothers through the jet age. Empire of the Air received the Gaddis Smith International Book Prize from Yale’s MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, and it was the runner-up for the Stuart Bernath Prize and the Myra Bernath Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.

CNN Debate Ushers in New Phase of Democrat Party Campaign

The debate's tonight.

And at the Los Angeles Times, "Clinton and Sanders prepare for debate, and a new phase in the Democratic race":

Hillary Rodham Clinton was never going to waltz to the Democratic presidential nomination. The American political system doesn't work that way.

No one, however, expected a 74-year-old senator from tiny Vermont to emerge at this point as her strongest challenger. Not the party's wise men and women, not Clinton strategists. Not even the self-described Democratic socialist himself.

But Bernie Sanders' stunning fundraising success — his $26-million haul nearly matched Clinton's money machine over the summer — and his continuing capacity to draw huge crowds, including 13,000 Friday night in Tucson, seem to ensure he will stick around for months to come and, even if he falls short of the nomination, push Clinton and fellow Democrats in his leftward direction.

In recent weeks, Clinton has staked a number of positions that narrowed the gap between the two: opposing the Keystone XL pipeline, proposing tougher regulation of Wall Street, rejecting a trade deal she helped negotiate with Asian countries and calling for the repeal of a federal tax on high-end healthcare plans.

Clinton may have come to those positions of her own volition, but her timing ahead of Tuesday's first Democratic debate appears to be no accident, just as her increased willingness to take on Sanders, albeit obliquely, hardly seems coincidental.

"Everything that I am proposing, I have a way to pay for it," she said while campaigning last week in Iowa, no doubt mindful that Sanders' platform, which includes a call for universal healthcare coverage and free college tuition, carries a hefty price tag.

"You've got a proposal," Clinton challenged him, "tell us how you're going to pay for it."

Sanders' response has been to welcome Clinton alongside. Professing delight at Clinton's newfound opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, Sanders allowed that "it would have been more helpful to have her aboard a few months ago" when he was one of the loudest and loneliest voices in opposition.

Clinton, 67, remains a solid favorite to win the Democratic nomination, in large part because of her strong support among women, Latinos and African Americans, who make up much of the party base. For all the talk of discontent, 3 in 4 likely Democratic primary voters view Clinton positively, and the same number say they could see voting for her regardless of who they now support, according to the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC poll.

But Sanders' rise and Clinton's struggle with controversies over her family's philanthropic foundation and the use of a private email server as secretary of State have seeded deep doubts about the front-runner and raised questions about both her political durability and personal veracity.

That has encouraged Vice President Joe Biden to seriously weigh a lightning entry into the race, a move that would instantly transform the contest from a race to catch Clinton — pitting Sanders against former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and the also-rans Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb — into a brawl between the party's two top heavyweights.

Many Democrats, perhaps envious of the boisterous GOP contest, are hankering for a fight...

Well, it's going to be interesting, in any case.

Still more.

Playboy Magazine to Stop Publishing Nude Photos of Women in 2016

Wow.

Talk about a changing media landscape.

At the New York Times, "Nudes Are Old News at Playboy":

Last month, Cory Jones, a top editor at Playboy, went to see its founder Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion.

In a wood-paneled dining room, with Picasso and de Kooning prints on the walls, Mr. Jones nervously presented a radical suggestion: the magazine, a leader of the revolution that helped take sex in America from furtive to ubiquitous, should stop publishing images of naked women.

Mr. Hefner, now 89, but still listed as editor in chief, agreed. As part of a redesign that will be unveiled next March, the print edition of Playboy will still feature women in provocative poses. But they will no longer be fully nude.

Its executives admit that Playboy has been overtaken by the changes it pioneered. “That battle has been fought and won,” said Scott Flanders, the company’s chief executive. “You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it’s just passé at this juncture.”

For a generation of American men, reading Playboy was a cultural rite, an illicit thrill consumed by flashlight. Now every teenage boy has an Internet-connected phone instead. Pornographic magazines, even those as storied as Playboy, have lost their shock value, their commercial value and their cultural relevance.

Playboy’s circulation has dropped from 5.6 million in 1975 to about 800,000 now, according to the Alliance for Audited Media. Many of the magazines that followed it have disappeared. Though detailed figures are not kept for adult magazines, many of those that remain exist in severely diminished form, available mostly in specialist stores. Penthouse, perhaps the most famous Playboy competitor, responded to the threat from digital pornography by turning even more explicit. It never recovered.

Previous efforts to revamp Playboy, as recently as three years ago, have never quite stuck. And those who have accused it of exploiting women are unlikely to be assuaged by a modest cover-up. But, according to its own research, Playboy’s logo is one of the most recognizable in the world, along with those of Apple and Nike. This time, as the magazine seeks to compete with younger outlets like Vice, Mr. Flanders said, it sought to answer a key question: “if you take nudity out, what’s left?”

It is difficult, in a media market that has been so fragmented by the web, to imagine the scope of Playboy’s influence at its peak...

Pretty amazing development.

Still more at the link.

Smuggling Refugees Into Europe: The Untold Story

From Hugh Eakin, at the New York Review, "The Terrible Flight from the Killing":

The movement to Europe should not have come as a surprise. According to the UN, in 2014 a record 14 million people were newly forced from their homes in armed conflicts worldwide, and much of the staggering increase was owing to the wars in Syria and Iraq. In Syria, more than half of the total pre-war population of 22 million was now uprooted. With the ravages of barrel-bombing by the Assad regime, the terror of the Islamic State, and the growing inability of the international community to deliver aid inside the country, more Syrians than ever before sought refuge abroad.

In the first four months of 2015 alone, another 700,000 fled, many to nearby countries, the highest rate of any time during the war. Meanwhile, Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey, already overwhelmed with millions of Syrians, have been restricting entry, while the underfunded World Food Program has been drastically reducing food aid.

Other recent developments, though less noticed, had far-reaching effects of their own. Several countries in Africa, including Libya, and also many parts of Afghanistan, traditionally the world’s number one producer of refugees, have become increasingly unstable and violent in the months since international forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2014. At the same time, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey, which had together absorbed more than five million Afghans in recent years, had begun taking aggressive steps to send them home or prevent them from staying; by this summer, tens of thousands of Afghans were joining the Syrians trying to enter Europe.

For the refugees themselves, the journey to Europe—requiring a series of up-front payments to smugglers of human beings, often amounting to several thousand dollars—is enormously costly and fraught with danger. More than 2,800 people have drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean in 2015 alone. Others have fallen sick or died in encampments in Greece or in the backs of trucks in Central Europe.

On August 27, Austrian police found an abandoned Volvo refrigeration truck packed with the bodies of seventy-one refugees who had paid smugglers to drive them from Hungary to Austria but had suffocated en route; a day later, Austrian police stopped another smuggler’s truck containing twenty-six refugees, including three children who had to be hospitalized for severe dehydration. And yet, every day, thousands more have set out from Turkey for the Greek islands, including the young Syrian boy Aylan, whose lifeless body washed up on shore in Turkey after a failed crossing on September 2, shocking the world.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused Europe of turning the Mediterranean into a giant cemetery; Andreas Kamm, the longtime director of the Danish Refugee Council, said that, without major changes, Europe’s incoherent response was headed toward “Armageddon.” For her part, Chancellor Merkel said that, unless other member states were prepared to step up and share the burden, the very basis of the EU and its Schengen system of open internal borders would be at risk of collapse...

An excellent review of the issues I've been blogging about for months.

Keep reading.

And ICYMI, "'The Invasion of Europe'."

So, Looting is Legitimate Political Protest

From Matthew Vadum, at FrontPage Magazine, "Looting: Legitimate Political Protest?":

#BlackLivesMatter "Professor" Deray Mckesson maintains looting serves social and racial justice.

Looting is a great way to advance the increasingly violent, racist Black Lives Matter movement, an agitator is teaching students after being rewarded by the Left with a teaching gig at prestigious Yale University.

The words of Twitter star Deray Mckesson expose for the umpteenth time the lie that Black Lives Matter, whose members idolize unrepentant cop killers Mumia abu Jamal and Assata Shakur, is a law-abiding, peaceful movement and that those who loot and riot in its name are a fringe or unrelated element. Lawless violence and bloody insurrection are how Mckesson and his followers pursue their vision of so-called social justice.

Mckesson led a class that was discussing, "In Defense of Looting," an essay by Willie Osterweil whose bio at the New Inquiry website describes him as "a writer, editor, and member of the punk band Vulture Shit."

Johnetta Elzie (who calls herself ShordeeDooWhop on Twitter and uses the handle @Nettaaaaaaaa), who with Mckesson helped foment unrest in Baltimore, Ferguson, Mo., and other racial hotspots, live-tweeted the Oct. 3 lecture. The tweets suggest the talk was a mixture of black liberation theology, critical race theory, Marxism, and anarchism...

Keep reading.

Martin Luther King, Jr., they're not.

New Palestinian Intifada 'is drenched in the fever of martyrdom and faith-based hate...' (VIDEO)

From Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary, "Clueless About a Religious War":

While the narrative about this latest outbreak of violence from critics of Israel is that it is all about the sins of the “occupation” and Israel denying hope to the Palestinians, what we hearing from them is a very different story. Read any of the accounts of the motivations of the people going into the streets to stab random Jews they encounter or the mobs in the West Bank who are seeking to set off confrontations with Israeli troops, and you don’t hear much about frustration about the peace process. The same applies to clips from Palestinian television that Palestine Media Watch provides. What you do see are accounts of Muslim religious fervor that is drenched in the fever of martyrdom and faith-based hate...

More.

And see, "Why Are Palestinians Doing It?"

Drunk UConn Student Student Who Demanded Mac and Cheese Has Apologized

Heh, what a story.

At USA Today, "UConn student apologizes for mac and cheese tirade."

Dramatic Rescue of Young Girl at Port Hueneme Pier (VIDEO)

Watch, at CBS News 2 Los Angles, "Girl 11, Critical Following Water Rescue at Hueneme Pier."

Jackie Johnson's Got Your Record-Heat Forecast

Well, they say tomorrow's going to be a little cooler, which would be fabulous. It's been hotter than hell this last few days, and today the humidity surged.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles, the fabulous Jackie Johnson:

'Indigenous Peoples Day'

Stupid, spoiled, and entitled leftists.

They should try living the way "indigenous peoples" would be living had not Europeans settled North America.

At Truth Revolt, "Push to Change Columbus Day to 'Indigenous Peoples Day' Continues."

ADDED: At Twitchy, "Christopher Columbus bust in Detroit takes a hatchet to the head; Philly statue hit with profanity."

Leftism is an ideology of hate. Rabid hatred.

USC Fires Steve Sarkisian

Well, it's not like I was expecting him back anytime soon.

But the decision's final now, at the Los Angeles Times, "Steve Sarkisian fired as USC's football coach."

Companies Like BuzzFeed, Vice Media, and Huffington Post Shift Attention to TV

At the Wall Street Journal, "New-Media Companies Shift Attention to TV":

Companies like BuzzFeed, Vice Media and Huffington Post are known as “new-media” specialists—makers of lists, articles and videos designed to go viral online and lure young audiences.

Now, they’re venturing aggressively into a decidedly old-media stronghold: television.

There are a variety of potential models, most of which involve some sort of tie-up with traditional media companies: BuzzFeed says it may create TV shows with Comcast Corp.’s Universal Studios. Vice Media is in talks to take control of a cable channel from A+E Networks.

Complex, a network of websites focused on fashion, music and pop culture, says it may funnel video content into Hearst Corp.’s television properties after receiving an investment from the company. And the Daily Mail is working to develop a syndicated program with daytime TV king Dr. Phil that is set to air next fall.

On one level, it’s a jarring and seemingly illogical shift for companies that have prided themselves on being the opposite of traditional. The TV business is in turmoil, as networks fret over young audiences lost to cord-cutting and the fragmentation of viewing from having so much original content on so many cable channels.

The new-media outlets appear to have been a beneficiary of this: many young viewers have fled in their direction, industry executives say. Why, then, would they want to launch into the TV business?

For one thing, TV offers new—and more predictable—revenue streams for digital-media upstarts that until now have been largely dependent on advertising. The owner of a TV show gets the right to license it in many ways, to TV networks, mobile-phone companies and international media players.

“Even having a little exposure to those platforms can be pretty lucrative for us,” said Jonah Peretti, founder and chief executive of New York-based BuzzFeed, which has a staff of 230 in Los Angeles creating around 75 video segments a week and is working on developing content for television. “The economics of traditional platforms are still so much richer,” he said.

Trying to break into television has become the next logical step for many sites that have watched valuations climb to eye-popping levels in their investment rounds and now have to deliver on those expectations.

Despite its problems, TV is still a bigger business than online advertising: TV ad spending is forecast to be $70 billion this year, compared with $7.8 billion for online video, according to eMarketer, a research firm...

Pretty interesting.

Keep reading.

Donald Trump Drilled on Women's Issues at 'No Labels' Convention (VIDEO)

I'm just now hearing about this "no labels" convention, but then I'm in California, not New Hampshire.

At Politico, "Donald Trump strikes sour note at No Labels."

And I don't see what's so sour about it, at CNN, "Trump pressed on women's health, pay equality."

Looks like some participants are playing "gotcha" with Trump, although I believe him when he says he's given women more opportunity in the construction trades than anyone else in the industry.

'The eight year experiment with the Obama administration will be a cautionary tale on multiple levels concerning America’s socialist elite and their palace guard stenographers...'

From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "SO, THAT DIDN’T WORK OUT WELL..."

Meaning, the Obama-media's nearly 8-year fetish with collectivist leftism hasn't turned out too well. Sadly, it's going to take at least a decade of mainstream, if not conservative, government to unwind the catastrophic damage.

Katelyn Pascavis in Alexandre Abela Photoshoot

She's on Instagram.

And at Egotastic!, "KATELYN PASCAVIS TOPLESS OCEAN DIP."

A very nice babe.

Expectation of Payback Ratchets Up Mets-Dodgers Tension

Well, sensational New York Times stories also "ratchet up" tensions.

Here.

And ICYMI, "Chase Utley's Borderline Legal Slide Might Save Dodgers' Season (VIDEO)."

Focusing on Economic Growth Should Be at Top of Policy Agenda for U.S. Leaders

From David Petraeus and Michael O'Hanlon, at USA Today, "Recipe for American success":

As world leaders gathered and debated each other at the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York, most of the attention seemed to be on hot spots.  Ukraine, Syria and Iraq, conflict zones in Africa and East Asia, and the latest news from Afghanistan got lots of discussion. In many respects, this was inevitable, and necessary. Indeed, our own careers have been largely shaped and dominated by such pressing issues.

In another respect, however, we need to remember that in a world of troubling headlines, less dramatic and more structural developments could determine the future of the global order even more than the latest crises. Many of these concern technology and economics.

While military might was a necessary ingredient in the West's victory in the Cold War, it was more like a moat than a battering ram — it provided time and protection for the inherent strengths of the Western democratic and economic systems to prevail. This is likely to be just as true in the future.

A few basic realities about the modern world need to be remembered. The post-World War II international order set up by U.S. and other key world leaders 70 years ago produced more economic growth in more places on earth, benefiting a far higher percentage of the human race, than had any previous global order in any period in history for which we have data.

As policymakers and leaders establish priorities for 2016 and beyond, attention to economic fundamentals should play as big a role in their thinking as crisis management and domestic political maneuvering.

Indeed, economics can even shape crisis management, if often with a lag effect. Economic sanctions established by Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and many others brought Iran to the table over its nuclear weapons program (an accurate observation whether one likes the actual deal). Sanctions, together with the fall in global oil prices, might not have yet limited assertive (and illegal) Russian interventions, but they could well constrain President Vladimir Putin in the years ahead. China's policies in the East China Sea and South China Sea, even if sometimes more assertive than we would like, have exhibited at least some restraint that might reflect an awareness in Beijing that we could introduce sanctions against China if things got out of hand.

Meanwhile, the North American shale revolution and the North American economic revolution more generally have improved U.S. growth prospects and the fundamental strength of the U.S. economic foundation. They have also helped Mexico provide more jobs to its own workers, reducing demographic pressures and actually making the immigration problem easier to address (even if we have not yet managed to address it appropriately and comprehensively). 

More.

Hillary Clinton Opens Wide Lead in Nevada and South Carolina (VIDEO)

At CNN, via Memeorandum, "South Carolina, Nevada CNN polls find Clinton far ahead."

Hillary Clinton Leads Polls Heading Into Tuesday's Democrat Debate (VIDEO)

The debate's on CNN, but here's Ed Henry at Fox News:



And the CBS News poll is linked at Memeorandum, "Poll: Hillary Clinton still leads Democratic race."

Turkey's 9/11 Divides Nation

At USA Today, "Turkish PM says ISIL is focus of bombing probe":

The Islamic State group is the “No. 1 priority” in the investigation into twin bombings that killed nearly 100 people in the Turkish capital, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Monday.

The premier told private broadcaster NTV that authorities were close to identifying the two suicide bombers who carried out the attacks in Ankara on Saturday. He declined to name the organization behind them, but said the focus is on the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Yeni Safak, a newspaper close to the government, on Monday reported that investigators were testing DNA samples from the families of 20 Turks they believe belong to ISIL.

The Hurriyet newspaper said the type of device and explosives used in Saturday's attacks were the same as those used in a suicide bombing the government says ISIL committed near the town of Suruc, which borders Syria, that killed 33 peace activists in July...

Also, "Thousands of mourners gather near scene of Ankara's bombings":

ANKARA — Thousands of mourners flooded the streets of Turkey's capital on Sunday, a day after twin explosions killed at least 95 people and injured hundreds of others in the deadliest terrorist assault ever carried out on Turkish soil.

The mood was tense during the largely peaceful gathering, as demonstrators alternated between grief for lost loved ones and anger towards Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government, which many believe could have done more to prevent the attacks.

The crowd chanted slogans including “we want justice” and “Erdogan is a thief and a murderer,” as some mourners carried photographs of victims. Riot police and water canon vehicles surrounded the rally, but remained in the distance.

On Sunday, the government, which denies any involvement in the blasts, said it has appointed two chief civil inspectors and two chief police inspectors to investigate the bombings, which also wounded at least 246 people, according to the prime minister’s office.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu suggested that the attack could have been carried out by the extremist Islamic State, Kurdish militants or radical leftist groups.

Earlier in the morning, police used teargas to stop people bearing carnations in memory of those who lost their lives from entering the site of the blasts. About 70 people were eventually allowed to enter the cordoned-off area outside the main train station, the Associated Press reported. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said in a statement that police attacked its leaders and members as they tried to leave flowers at the scene.

Saturday's attack, during a peace rally near Ankara's central train station, sent shockwaves across the country. The blasts, which came just seconds apart shortly after 10 a.m., happened when hundreds of demonstrators — many of them supporters of the HDP — had gathered to protest escalating violence between Turkish security forces and Kurdish separatist insurgents.

“This is as close as it gets to being Turkeys 9/11,” said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish research program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “But whereas most countries would unite after a massacre like this, Turkey has become so polarized between supporters and opponents of Mr. Erdogan that almost immediately the reaction has been a blame game in which  supporters of the government blame the (Kurdish rebels) and opponents blame the government.”

After declaring three days of mourning and calling for national unity against terrorism, the prime minister exchanged barbs with HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas over responsibility for the violence...

More.

Labour's Far-Left Jeremy Corbyn Stripped of 'Right Honorable' Title After Privy Council Snub

The dude's a bleedin' idiot.

At Telegraph UK, "Queen's advisers strip Jeremy Corbyn of 'Right Honourable' title after Privy Council snub":

Exclusive: Mr Corbyn was described on Parliament’s website as “Right Honourable”, which denotes membership of the centuries-old Privy Council, until late last week.

The Queen’s advisers told Parliament to strip Jeremy Corbyn of his “Right Honourable” status after Number 10 wrongly implied the Labour leader had joined the Privy Council, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Mr Corbyn was described on Parliament’s website as “Right Honourable”, which denotes membership of the centuries-old Privy Council, until late last week.

The Labour leader was also described as a “Right Honourable friend” by Prime Minister David Cameron when they faced each other in the Commons last month, days after he was voted in as Labour leader.

However, after Mr Corbyn failed to attend the first meeting of the Privy Council since the summer holidays with the Queen last Thursday, the “Rt Hon” title was removed from Mr Corbyn’s page on Parliament’s website.

The Daily Telegraph understands that this was done under the orders of the Office of the Privy Council, the group of advisers which carry out the Queen’s wishes.

Photographs show that Mr Corbyn was on holiday near Ben Nevis in Scotland when his spokesman said he had been invited to attend a Privy Council meeting with the Queen last Thursday.

Mr Corbyn, a known republican, said last month he was not previously aware that joining the Privy Council meant he had to kneel before the Queen and kiss her hand.

The Cabinet Office confirmed on Sunday that Mr Corbyn is not a member of the Privy Council. He now cannot become one until the next meeting is held, probably next month.

It means that the Labour leader cannot be briefed on security matters until then, which will complicate efforts by ministers to use intelligence to persuade Mr Corbyn on backing British involvement in military action over Syria...

ObamaCare Deductibles Set to Surge as High as $6,500

And Americans are stuck with this godforsaken law. Damn.

At IBD, "Another ObamaCare Shock Is Coming: 2016 Deductibles":

ObamaCare costs will jump next year for exchange customers, one way or the other. Premiums are set to spike by more than 20% in at least 16 states. But, for many, the real sticker shock will be soaring deductibles that mean they'll get few benefits until they've racked up huge bills.

Low-end bronze plans have deductibles hitting $6,850 in 2016. Now insurers are hiking silver-plan deductibles as high as $6,500 as a way to keep a lid on premiums. The downside isn't just more out-of-pocket costs for patients; it also will have a ripple effect of reducing taxpayer subsidies for cheaper plans.

Take Indiana, where average premiums are set to rise just under 1% on average, tied for the lowest in the nation, according to ACASignups.net. The cheapest silver plan in Indianapolis will actually fall by 6%, but that doesn't necessarily mean customers will get a better deal...

More.

Tunisian Tourism Struggles to Survive After Terrorist Attacks

I thought about this as the National Dialogue Quartet was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Good, the Muslim Brotherhood was kept from power in Tunisia, but that's not to say there's no terrorism problem. It's bad there, terrible in fact.

At Der Spiegel, "The True Cost of Terrorism: Tunisia's Tourism Industry Struggles to Survive":

At the end of June, 37 guests of a Tunisian resort hotel died in a hail of terrorist gunfire. Since then, tourists have stayed away, and the tragedy has only just begun.

Above the terrace gate at the Hotel Riu Imperial Marhaba in Port El Kantaoui, a worker on a ladder is filling the last bullet hole left behind by Seifeddine Yacoubi when he killed 37 European tourists at the resort in early summer. Yacoubi walked up from the beach wielding a Kalashnikov and went on a half-hour rampage at the luxury hotel before police shot and killed him. Two-and-a-half months have passed since the massacre. It is the beginning of fall, but the sun is still strong in Tunisia. It is 10 a.m. and the temperature is already 30° Celsius (86°F) under a clear blue sky.

It takes just a few minutes to make the last, small bullet hole disappear. But the memory of the horror, of course, remains.
Manfred Buszkiewicz is sitting in dappled shade next to the hotel manager, watching the repair work and drinking a morning beer. His mobile phone makes a bleating noise whenever it receives a report on his favorite soccer team, 1 FC Cologne (the club's mascot is a Billy goat). Buszkiewicz, who is from the town of Euskirchen, near Cologne, has the club's app on his phone. It's a Tuesday morning in mid-September, the second week of Buszkiewicz's vacation. His wife Fatima is sunbathing on the beach below the hotel. Two waiters in snow-white shirts and black vests are standing behind the terrace door, waiting for him to empty his beer glass. The Riu Marhaba Imperial has 130 employees, including 26 headwaiters. But there are currently only 30 guests. There are 80 wicker chairs on the terrace, but only one of them is occupied -- by Buszkiewicz.

"Welcome," he says, and empties his beer.

One of the two waiters promptly disappears into the deserted hotel lobby. It's the size of a soccer field and 15 meters (50 feet) high, with a glass dome at the top. The marble floor is filled with armchairs, sofas, glass tables, palm trees and a large black concert grand. A guest could sit in the lobby for an hour, pondering life, without seeing a single person. The only discernible movement in the lobby is that of the four glass elevators, as they move rhythmically up and down.

After a minute, the next beer arrives -- with a frothy head, as Buszkiewicz had requested. The staff is primarily accustomed to English guests, who like their beer flat. This is his fifth stay at the Riu Imperial Marhaba, where the personnel call him Manni. He hands the waiter a coin. Although everything is included in the room price at the Imperial Marhaba, the waiters depend on tips, and now that there are few guests, they are especially dependent on Manni.

"There are usually 700 to 800 guests here at this time of the year," says Buszkiewicz. "And now? It's a dance of the dead."

'Perfectly Understandable'

The June 26 massacre destroyed the tourism industry in Tunisia. Many countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium and Great Britain, issued travel warnings in the days following the attack, major tour operators pulled out of Tunisia and most charter flights to Tunisian resorts were cancelled. The changes meant that Buszkiewicz had to fly to Tunisia from Düsseldorf this time instead of Cologne.

He thought long and hard about whether to travel to Tunisia this year. A friend from Düsseldorf, an elderly woman named Gisela, was killed in the massacre. A Belgian woman Buszkiewicz and his wife have known for a long time was shot in the leg. They visited her and her husband at home after the attack.

"Of course, they won't be coming here anymore," Buszkiewicz says of the Belgian couple, "which is perfectly understandable, in a way."

Buszkiewicz and his wife had originally booked their trip for exactly the time when the attack occurred, so that they could see the friends they had made at the hotel on previous visits. But because their daughter was getting married in the summer, they decided to postpone the trip until September. That's why they are still alive, says his wife. When Buszkiewicz went to the travel agency in Euskirchen to cancel the trip, the woman working there said she understood. She talked about Spain and Greece, and Buszkiewicz nodded. He didn't really care where they went.

Buszkiewicz owns a small company that makes conveyor belts. He has eight employees, and there is always plenty to do. In his free time, he drives around the Eifel Mountains on his Honda Gold Wing motorcycle. He only takes a vacation once a year, and when he does, Buszkiewicz wants peace and quiet, sunshine and his beer served with a frothy head. As he was driving home from the travel agency, he felt guilty, as if he had let down the staff at the Imperial Marhaba. Even when the hotel was extremely busy, they always knew that he had ordered a Bacardi and Coke. The Express, a Cologne tabloid, wrote that the hotel employees had formed a human chain to protect their guests from the gunman. Some of them had reportedly shouted: "Shoot me!" But Yacoubi only targeted tourists.

Buszkiewicz sent a fax to Kamel, the head receptionist. "Manni, everything is safe," he wrote back. Buszkiewicz returned to the travel agency and booked a double room at the enchanting Imperial Marhaba. The two-week trip cost €2,500 ($2,820) for him and his wife, including room, board and airfare. He brought Kamel a food processor, a large bottle of Joop! cologne and a handful of company pens. They gave him and his wife Fatima a suite on the fourth floor of the left wing, the only one the hotel is currently using. Buszkiewicz defied the circumstances, as has the Hotel Imperial Marhaba...

Keep reading.

The Challenges of Selling a Hollywood Home

The owners of these early 20th century Hollywood homes think they've got a treasure trove of history, imparting tremendous value to their properties. But prospective buyers just want to tear down the structures and rebuild at more than twice the size.

Heh, this is pretty good.

At WSJ, "In Los Angeles, an abode that has housed generations of Hollywood legends can be the ultimate status symbol, but there are complications when it is time to sell":

It is a classic Hollywood story: In 1909, a broadcasting impresario commissioned noted architects Greene & Greene to design a craftsman-style manse near Los Angeles’s Wilshire Boulevard. Fourteen years later, Norman Kerry, a silent-film star, bought the house and paid to have it moved to Beverly Hills. In 1931, Mr. Kerry rented it to Lorenz Hart, the legendary lyricist of the Rodgers & Hart musical writing team.

Last year, the owners, screenwriter Leslie Dixon and filmmaker Tom Ropelewski, decided to put this 4,600-square-foot piece of Hollywood history on the market for just under $9 million. A crowd of 300 came to the first open house, said their listing agent, Bret Parsons of the architectural division of Coldwell Banker in Beverly Hills, and they all had one idea in mind.

“You could overhear them: ‘Tear down, tear down, tear down,’” Mr. Parsons said.

In Los Angeles, a home that bears the pedigree of generations of Hollywood A-listers can be the ultimate status symbol. Studio heads and film producers love to boast that Katharine Hepburn or Clark Gable roamed the halls.

But homes haunted by the ghosts of Hollywood past can also create challenges when it is time to sell. “Celebrity owned” shows up as frequently in Los Angeles real estate listings as granite countertops, but claims don’t always match the public record. And in today’s market, the well-heeled Los Angles buyer frequently wants something bigger—much bigger—than a Hollywood mansion from the 1930s...

Keep reading.

Cora Keegan for Treats Magazine

She'a fashion model, and on Instagram.

And at Treats, "TREATS! EXCLUSIVE: CORA KEEGAN BY AMANDA PRATT."

Our Wobbly Political-Economic Consensus

From Jay Cost, at the Weekly Standard, "What the Hell Is Going On? The fraying of the national political consensus."

And at the American Interest, "Study: Democrats Moving Left Faster Than Republicans Moving Right."

Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism

Here's one more, for good measure, from Stanley Kurtz, Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism.

Joshua Muravchik, Heaven on Earth

Following-up from earlier today, "The Execution of Che Guevara."

At Amazon, Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism.

 

The Thanksgiving Store - Holiday Essentials at Amazon

Not too soon to get ready for the blessed holiday, at Amazon, Shop Thanksgiving Store - Get All Your Kitchen and Entertaining Essentials.

Bonus, from Martin Gilbert, Israel: A History.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also, at Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES," and Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Round Up..."

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Advantage."

Kendall Jenner Thinks Her Nipple Piercing is 'Sexy'

At London's Daily Mail, "Kendall Jenner admits her sisters were 'shocked' at her nipple piercing but insists she thinks it's 'understated and sexy' - and says sister Kylie 'copied' the idea from her."

Charlotte McKinney Is Our Girl of Summer

Well, it still feels like summer, heh.

Via GQ:

Arts and Crafts with Playboy Playmates (VIDEO)

Watch, "It's Always Nice When Playmates Make You Things: Who said arts and crafts had to be a dull activity? Let Playmates Bryiana Noelle, Britt Linn, Shelby Chesnes and Val Keil show you a thing or two about being creative. Coloring and knitting never looked so good."

Donald Trump Leads Republican Field at 27 Percent in Latest CBS News Poll (VIDEO)

Once again, Trump's support defies predictions of an inevitable collapse.

At CBS News, via Memeorandum, "Poll: Donald Trump still leads, Ben Carson in second."

Added: From Fire Andrea Mitchell, "CBS poll: guess who has strongest leadership qualities."

The End of Pax Americana

From Lee Smith, at the Weekly Standard, "Obama's 'accomplishment'."

USC Head Football Coach Steve Sarkisian Placed on Leave of Absence (VIDEO)

They don't tolerate losing much at USC. If the team had been winning, Sarkisian would still have a job. He's on the way out. Blame health reasons or whatever, but he's on the way out because the team's losing.

At the Los Angeles Times, "USC places Coach Steve Sarkisian on leave; Clay Helton interim coach."

And at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "It's 'very clear to me that he is not healthy' - #USC's Haden on #Sarkisian leave of absence."

The Execution of Che Guevara

The left's communist hero was executed October 9th, 1967, in La Higuera, Bolivia. He cowered like a cornered rat and begged for his life like a child.

At the Washington Post, "New (and disturbing) pictures of Che Guevara right after death resurface."

Foreign Affairs commemorates his death by posting Raymond Garthoff's essay, "Unconventional Warfare in Communist Strategy":

Very simply, "internal," "unconventional," "irregular"-"class"-war is of the essence of Marxist-Leninist theory, hence at least theoretically at the base of Communist strategy. We became so accustomed to Stalin's reliance on the Red Army and the Soviet intelligence services as the most conspicuous elements of force in international politics that it takes a moment to place in focus the older-and newer-more fundamental Communist reliance on man?uvring and manipulating power on an indigenous political fulcrum. This is my first proposition.

Unconventional warfare-our very use of this expression jars one by its contrast to the Marxist-Leninist conception of the conventional nature of internal warfare-may assume various forms, depending on the concrete situation, its opportunities and constraints. Although in other areas the Communists may resort to rigid design or overcentralized planning, when it comes to the application of force they show an acute awareness of the wide range of kinds of unconventional warfare available to them. This is the second proposition I would raise. To rephrase the point: Communists are flexible in waging varied forms of internal war, and irregular warfare is but one of the means.

Not all activity of Soviet, Chinese or indigenous Communists should be considered a form of internal war-though one can define the term broadly enough to encompass most of it. But the Communist leaders do assign a major role to active civil violence at a certain stage of development of the class conflict. For such countries as the United States, that stage may be seen only very dimly-or perhaps merely assumed-in a vague and distant future. But in volatile and unstable societies emerging from colonial rule or undergoing modernization without adequate tools for the job, internal war is expected to have a future-if it is not already present. Thus my third proposition is that the Communists expect, plan and wage internal war as the final stage of class struggle leading to the seizure of power. Internal unconventional war is above all revolutionary war.

III

Bolshevism arose as a revolutionary movement with international pretensions; its fundamental outlook was hostile to the existing international order. None the less, after a number of unsuccessful attempts to wage revolutionary war beyond the borders of the old Russian Empire, in the period from 1918 to 1923, Soviet leaders began to recognize the need to be more selective in choosing the time and place to conduct revolutionary war. Also, as the years went by, they directed their energies increasingly to internal matters. The building of "socialism in one country" marked an indefinite extension of the original compromise by which the Soviet Union proposed to coexist with the outside world. The avowed revolutionary ends have continued unchanged, but means have become increasingly important in themselves. As occasions arose calling for sacrifice either by the Soviet State or by the forces of the Revolution abroad, Moscow's decision has invariably been at the expense of the latter. The subordination to Moscow of Communist Parties everywhere meant that the suitability of local internal war was defined in terms of the prevailing foreign policy objectives of the Soviet Union. And as a consequence, for over two decades Communist "internal war" boasted few campaigns and no victories. Only in China did an active revolutionary war even stay alive, and it did so by liberating itself from Moscow's strategic direction.

World War II brought new opportunities for building undergrounds and waging partisan warfare in many countries occupied by an alien invader. Local Communists (as well as other resistance elements), aided by the Allies, established strong forces in several countries. The Soviets themselves built up sizable guerrilla forces on their own German-occupied territory. At the close of the war, the Jugoslav and Albanian partisans were able to seize power with little opposition. The Chinese Communists were also immeasurably aided by the course and outcome of the war.

In the early postwar period, the sudden shift in the balance of power in areas on the Soviet periphery, and the not accidental projection of the Red Army into many of these areas, led to new opportunities for expansion of Communist rule by various means including internal war. Where Soviet occupation was prolonged, political and subversive techniques were used effectively to establish puppet Communist régimes. But beyond the shadow of the Soviet Army the story was quite different. A wave of attempts at subversion, rebellion and revolution struck in 1948-1949. Success in Czechoslovakia by subversive coup was not matched in Finland, and not even tried in France and Italy. In China, the Communists-against Stalin's advice- pushed on to take all continental China. But the revolutionary guerrilla campaigns in Greece, Malaya, Burma, the Philippines and Indonesia ended in failure; only in Viet Nam did such a campaign drag on to an important partial victory in 1954. Causes of failure varied, but one important general one was that the balance of power in the world had become stabilized anew.

In the current phase, since about 1960, there has been a new wave of Communist guerrilla efforts in Laos and South Viet Nam, a failure in the Congo, and a seizure from within of the successful guerrilla movement in Cuba. Similar efforts to take over other native, non-Communist rebel forces, for example in Angola and Colombia, are at present under way.

In summing up this brief historical review, we reach a fourth proposition: One of the key conditions for resort to revolutionary war, in Communist eyes, is the general world situation (as well as the local situation). And as a related fifth proposition: While the general strategic balance of terror today increases the dangers to the Communist bloc of resorting to direct aggression and creating Soviet-Western military confrontations, it reduces the risks involved in indirect, unconventional war.

IV

Communist strategies for waging revolutionary warfare place a high premium on the political content and context of a campaign. Some strategies, beyond the purview of this article, involve exclusively political action. Others involve infiltration and subversion, where the political vulnerability of the opponent is of cardinal importance. Subversion (which should be distinguished from agitation, propaganda, trouble-making and other overt or underground Communist activities) can be either a substitute for a revolutionary war or a complementary tactic in it, but in general it has not proven nearly as versatile a Communist tool as many of us tend to think. Subversion is usually directed against existing governments, but it may be directed against indigenous revolutionary movements, as in the Cuban case. Infiltration and subversion, political isolation and manipulation, and economic penetration all ultimately should-in the Communist strategy- lay the groundwork for the seizure of power either by coup d'état or by revolutionary war.

As my sixth proposition, I would advance the hypothesis that the Soviet leaders generally prefer the use of subversion, or other non-violent means, to the use of guerrilla war, because the seizure of power by indigenous revolutionary forces tends to make local Communist rulers too independent of Moscow's control. The only countries other than Russia where local Communist forces fought and won their own victories are China, Jugoslavia, Albania and Viet Nam (with Cuba as a quasi-fifth). All, with the uncertain exception of North Viet Nam, are today serious problems for the Soviet Union.

The Chinese-absorbed by their own internal problems and struggles with the Russians, smarting over the frustration of continuing irredentist claims, and "on the make"-have not developed the qualms or subtle calculations which mark the Soviet attitude toward the means of extending Communist power. Maoism as an export item has done well in Indochina; a number of other Communist Parties-especially, but not only, in Asia-are turning to China in the course of the growing division within the Communist movement. The Soviet leaders do not, of course, turn their backs on the theory or even the practice of national-liberation revolutionary war. None the less, my seventh proposition-companion to the sixth-is that the Chinese Communists are likely in the future to be the guiding spirit in most Communist revolutionary guerrilla wars.

Keep reading.

Garthoff continues with quotes from Che Guevara's, Guerrilla Warfare, a "guidebook for thousands of guerrilla fighters in various countries around the world."

And see also, by Jorge Castañeda, Compañero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara.

FLASHBACK: "Che Guevara: Superstar Revolutionary."

Chase Utley's Borderline Legal Slide Might Save Dodgers' Season (VIDEO)

Following-up from last night, "Mets' Ruben Tejada Broken Leg on Chase Utley Dirty Slide in 7th Inning — #MetsVsDodgers."

From Bill Plaschke, at LAT, "Chase Utley's slide was late, high and arguably dirty":

The slide was late. The slide was high. The slide was questionably legal and arguably dirty.

Even if you were watching it through blue-colored glasses, you had to admit that the slide was recklessly dangerous, so much that it broke another man's leg.

But after 27 years of frustration, the Dodgers will accept reckless, embrace dangerous, and so on Saturday night they uncomfortably celebrated a slide that won a game, altered a series and may have saved a season.

Eight outs from essentially being knocked out of a National League division series, the Dodgers were desperate for a hit, and so 36-year-old Chase Utley put one on New York Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada that changed everything.

With one out in the seventh inning, running into second base to break up a double play, Utley threw a late body block into the legs of Tejada, knocking him on his back and breaking his right lower leg.

It was awful, it was ugly, but the Dodgers scored the tying run on the play, and later scored three more runs in the ensuing emotional chaos to take a 5-2 victory to tie the best-of-five series at one game apiece.

The team that has forever fought the reputation for being soft got tough, probably too tough, perhaps cheaply tough, and now they're going to have to fly cross country and defend themselves. The Mets are mad, their fans will be furious, and it's going to be ugly at New York's Citi Field on Monday when the teams meet for Game 3.

It was a costly loss for the Mets, but could wind up being an equally costly victory for the Dodgers....

The slide occurred in the seventh inning with the Dodgers trailing, 2-1. There was one out with Enrique Hernandez on third base and Utley on first after his pinch-hit single.

Out went starter Noah Syndergaard, in came reliever Bartolo Colon, up stepped Howie Kendrick, and here came the fireworks.

Kendrick hit a grounder up the middle that Daniel Murphy flipped to Tejada to start a potential double play. It appeared that Tejada had touched the bag and was preparing to spin to throw to first base even though there was no way he could have thrown out Kendrick. But it turns out, there was no way Utley was going to let him even try.

Utley came into second base sliding high, so high that he essentially threw a block on Tejada's lower body. Utley's head smashed into Tejada's legs. Tejada flipped into the air and landed on his back.

Hernandez scored from third base to tie the score, but the drama wasn't finished. Tejada remained on his back, holding the ball but also unable to move with what was later diagnosed as a broken leg. While a cart was rolling him from the field, the play was reviewed to confirm that Tejada had actually touched second base before the collision. He did not, and Utley remained on second, from where he later scored along with Kendrick on a double by Adrian Gonzalez.

Did Utley's slide cause Tejada's foot to miss the bag? Probably not. But did Utley's hustle force Tejada to rush things? Probably.

"I have a problem with the play on a number of different levels," Mets third baseman David Wright said. "He's running to second base with Ruben's back turned, I don't know what his intent is."

The only thing for certain is that it cost the Mets their starting shortstop and threw a calm Mets ride toward a second consecutive victory into the chaos of a late-inning Dodgers victory.

Federal Student Loan System Reams Borrowers

I just haven't had that many problems, and my loan payments have been quite manageable.

But see the New York Times, "A Student Loan System Stacked Against the Borrower."

President Obama Golfing at Torrey Pines Golf Course (VIDEO)

BUMPED!

Heh, it's all the guy does these days, lol.

At ABC News 10 San Diego, "President Obama Waves from Golf Cart at Torrey Pines Golf Course."

Added: "President Obama Plays Golf at Torrey Pines."

And at Weasel Zippers, "Russian Missiles? Intifada In Israel? Obama Takes to the Golf Course!"

Adult Children Lean on Mom and Dad for Financial Support

At Instapundit, "LIFE IN THE ERA OF HOPE AND CHANGE: Reopening the Bank of Mom and Dad, to Help Adult Children."

Click through to the New York Times.

Economic growth has not been the focus of this administration. "Social justice" has, for all that good that's done:

Parents, of course, want the best for their children from the moment they are born and are used to doing everything they can to help them. Continuing that support into adulthood has spread, experts say, largely because the economy of the last decade has fallen short in generating good job opportunities for their millennial children.

The Most Persistent Hobgoblin of the Last Quarter Century Has Been Global Warming

This is great.

At IBD, "Another Climate Alarmist Lets It Slip: Why They Want to Scare You":

World savers are anything but. They always have an unspoken motive. H.L. Mencken saw the self-appointed saviors for what they were almost a century ago, when he said the "whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

The most persistent hobgoblin of the last quarter-century has been global warming, now called climate change but eventually to be known as extreme weather, or some such other fright-inducing name. The climate activists are constantly bombarding us with warnings, hectoring, hysteria, pleading and threats. Apocalyptic books have been written and shrill movies made, all in an effort to slow man's combustion of fossil fuels.

Included among these is a new documentary "inspired" by Naomi Klein's book "This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate." If the title isn't enough to give away Klein's motives for attacking the climate "crisis," then a comment she makes in the trailer — please forgive: watching the entire documentary would be as agonizing as any medieval torture — should.

"So here's the big question," says Klein. "What if global warming isn't only a crisis? What if it's the best chance we're ever going to get to build a better world?"

Then comes the threat:

"Change, or be changed."

Klein says she "spent six years wandering through the wreckage caused by the carbon in the air and the economic system that put it there." Clearly, it is her goal to shatter the free-market system. The climate? It's just a vehicle, a pretext for uprooting the only economic system in history that has brought prosperity and good health.

Klein's statement is perfectly in line with Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of United Nation's Framework Convention on Climate Change, and in fact is almost an echo. Figueres acknowledged earlier this year that the environmental activists' goal is not to spare the world an ecological disaster, but to destroy capitalism...

Keep reading.

Klein's also the author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. She's got a little fear-mongering industry going there.

Governor Jerry Brown Signs Bill Authorizing Automatic Voter Registration

Despite the leftist hullabaloo, this will have little affect on voter turnout. Even automatic registration won't get malignant pseudo-citizens to vote, especially Latinos.

At LAT, "Gov. Brown approves automatic voter registration for Californians."

And at Twitchy, "Hillary Clinton jazzed over California’s new automatic voter registration at DMV."