Republican Candidates Brace for Volative November Campaign

At the Washington Post, "GOP contenders brace for volatile November after freewheeling debate":

The fight for the 2016 GOP nomination appears to be moving into a new, more fluid phase.

No longer is the question merely whether or how Donald Trump can be stopped.

The recent rise in the polls of retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson — Trump’s low-key stylistic opposite — has shown that the celebrity billionaire may not be the only one who can tap the appetite of many in the party’s angry base for an outsider.

And after Wednesday’s chaotic and freewheeling debate, there also is a new dynamic on the establishment side of the race.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush’s once-formidable campaign appears to be nearing a state of collapse, made worse by his flailing on the stage in Colorado.

That has provided an opening to his one-time ally, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who is getting a new look from the party establishment — an ironic situation, given Rubio’s roots as an insurgent tea party favorite in 2010.

“Marco Rubio now has probably the best shot to emerge as the mainstream alternative to Trump and Carson,” said Ari Fleischer, who was press secretary for President George W. Bush.

More broadly, Fleischer, who is not committed to any of the 2016 candidates, predicted that the GOP is about to enter “a condensed version of where it was four years ago, where the party is volatile and shopping around.”

That could help Ted Cruz, who also made a strong showing in the debate. The firebrand Texas senator, widely despised by the Washington Republican hierarchy, is looking to nudge out Trump and Carson among voters who are looking for a candidate to supplant the old order.

“I don’t think the party is going to nominate anybody who has not been elected before,” said Stuart Stevens, who was a top strategist for 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

Also likely to force some clarity in the coming weeks is the calendar. The first contest in Iowa is barely more than three months away...

More.

U.S. Economy Downshifts to 1.5 Percent GDP Growth in Third Quarter

Lame.

I mean, what, has the economy even managed 2.0 percent average economic growth since Obama took office? This is no doubt the worst economic recovery in American history.

At the Los Angeles Times, "U.S. economic growth slows sharply to 1.5% in the third quarter":

The U.S. economy slowed sharply over the summer, expanding at less than half the rate of the second quarter as the pace of economic activity eased almost across the board.

Total economic output, also known as gross domestic product, increased at a 1.5% annual rate from July through September, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

The economy grew at a 3.9% annual rate from April through June.

Economists had expected growth to slow amid global economic trouble during the third quarter, but the closely watched figure — the first of three government estimates of third-quarter growth — was less than the 1.7% that analysts had forecast.

Solid consumer spending helped keep the economy from slipping further. Still, the 3.2% increase in personal consumption expenditures was down from 3.6% in the second quarter.

Businesses cut back heavily on their inventories, which was a major drag on economic growth. Such a reduction, though, usually is followed by inventory build-up and is a reason why the economy is expected to rebound in the fourth quarter.

Aside from the inventory drop, the report showed that consumer spending and some other indicators were solid, said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. He forecast the economy would bounce back to about 3% growth in the final quarter of the year.

Overall private investment decreased at a 5.6% rate in the third quarter after increasing 5% the previous quarter. The decline was driven by a drop in spending on nonresidential structures, such as oil-drilling rigs.

A measure of business investment increased 2.1%, down from 4.1% in the second quarter. But spending on equipment increased by 5.3% in the third quarter, up significantly from a 0.3% gain the previous quarter.

Hurt by the strong U.S. dollar, exports grew 1.9% in the third quarter. That was down from a 5.1% increase the previous quarter.

The pace of government spending also declined, hurt by a cutback in defense expenditures. Government spending increased 1.7% in the third quarter after a 2.6% increase in the previous quarter.

Continued concern about the health of the U.S. economy led Federal Reserve policymakers on Wednesday to vote to keep their benchmark short-term interest rate near zero, though they hinted a hike could come in December...

Still more.

What Are the Fundamental Qualities of James Bond Movies?

This is really cool, via Britain's Sky News:

Demi Lovato Spotted Leaving Good Morning America in New York City on Thursday

She's a cool chick.

At London's Daily Mail, "Oh so chic Demi Lovato shows off her toned legs as she gears up to perform at AMAs with her Future Now tour partner Nick Jonas."

'Got to Go' — Eva Moskowitz's Success Academy Weeds Out Unwanted Students

The "Success Academies" have these "got to go" lists. If you're screwing up, disruptive, and racking up demerits, you've "got to go." Of course, it's going to be almost exclusively disadvantaged kids who've "got to go," especially racial minorities.

Because leftists are so progressive.

At the New York Times, "At a Success Academy Charter School, Singling Out Pupils Who Have ‘Got to Go’":

From the time Folake Ogundiran’s daughter started kindergarten at a Success Academy charter school in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, the girl struggled to adjust to its strict rules.

She racked up demerits for not following directions or not keeping her hands folded in her lap. Sometimes, after being chastised, she threw tantrums. She was repeatedly suspended for screaming, throwing pencils, running away from school staff members or refusing to go to another classroom for a timeout.

One day last December, the school’s principal, Candido Brown, called Ms. Ogundiran and said her daughter, then 6, was having a bad day. Mr. Brown warned that if she continued to do things that were defiant and unsafe — including, he said, pushing or kicking, moving chairs or tables, or refusing to go to another classroom — he would have to call 911, Ms. Ogundiran recalled. Already feeling that her daughter was treated unfairly, she went to the school and withdrew her on the spot.

Success Academy, the high-performing charter school network in New York City, has long been dogged by accusations that its remarkable accomplishments are due, in part, to a practice of weeding out weak or difficult students. The network has always denied it. But documents obtained by The New York Times and interviews with 10 current and former Success employees at five schools suggest that some administrators in the network have singled out children they would like to see leave.

At Success Academy Fort Greene, the same day that Ms. Ogundiran heard from the principal, her daughter’s name was one of 16 placed on a list drawn up at his direction and shared by school leaders.

The heading on the list was “Got to Go.”

Nine of the students on the list later withdrew from the school. Some of their parents said in interviews that while their children attended Success, their lives were upended by repeated suspensions and frequent demands that they pick up their children early or meet with school or network staff members. Four of the parents said that school or network employees told them explicitly that the school, whose oldest students are now in the third grade, was not right for their children and that they should go elsewhere.

The current and former employees said they had observed similar practices at other Success schools. According to those employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their jobs or their relationships with people still at the network, school leaders and network staff members explicitly talked about suspending students or calling parents into frequent meetings as ways to force parents to fall in line or prompt them to withdraw their children.

Last year, for instance, the principal of Success Academy Harlem 2 Upper, Lavinia Mackall, told teachers not to automatically send annual re-enrollment forms home to certain students, because the school did not want those students to come back, two former members of the school’s staff said. Ms. Mackall said that her comments had been misinterpreted and that she was trying to encourage parents to take the school’s requirements seriously, but that she also did not believe the school was right for all students.

In another example, a current employee said, a network lawyer in a conversation with colleagues described a particularly unruly student’s withdrawal as “a big win” for the school.

In a written response to questions, Success Academy’s spokeswoman, Ann Powell, said that the “Got to Go” list was a mistake and that the network quickly got wind of it and reprimanded Mr. Brown, the principal.

Ms. Powell said that Success schools did not push children out, and that what might look like an effort to nudge students out the door was actually an attempt to help parents find the right environment for their children. Some on the list required special education settings that Success could not offer them, she said.

Mr. Brown said in an email that he thought the disruptive behavior of the students on the list was dragging the whole school down, and “I felt I couldn’t turn the school around if these students remained.”

Well, Mr. Brown's amazingly candid about it. The funny thing is, of course these students were going to drag the whole school down. It's happening all around the country. In the case of the Success Academy, however, those students were dragging down the network's superlative performance rankings, and the "got to go" list was certainly a key method of maintaining high test scores and so forth.

But again, these are New York progressives who're weeding out black students. Can you say "racist"?

Stalin: Paradoxes of Power

My reading right now is alternating between Sean Naylor's, Relentless Strike: The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command, and Simon Sebag Montefiore's, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar.

I'll definitely finish both volumes. They're great.

And after I finish Montefiore I'm going to pick up a copy of Stephen Kotkin's, Stalin: Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928, which is the first volume of a trilogy.

BONUS: Don't forget to pick up some Halloween candy before the trick-or-treaters show up at your door.

Candidates Struggle to Stand Out at #GOPDebate

At WSJ, "GOP Debate: Candidates Fight to Stand Out":

BOULDER, Colo.—The Republican presidential debate Wednesday night exposed deep differences—in both substance and style—between veteran politicians and their less-seasoned rivals who continue to captivate GOP primary voters.

Republicans picked up right where they left off from the last debate when Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tried to jump-start their campaigns by questioning the financial underpinnings of tax proposals offered by the two leaders, celebrity real-estate developer Donald Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

With Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses three months away, Mr. Kasich complained that the other candidates were making outlandish promises that would explode the deficit, and Mr. Bush interrupted Mr. Trump to point out that his tax plan would create “an $8 trillion debt.” Mr. Kasich also questioned the viability of Mr. Trump’s calls to deport millions of illegal immigrants.

“This is fantasy,” Mr. Kasich said, interjecting as Mr. Carson explained his tax plan to the audience. “You just don’t make promises like this. Why don’t we just give a chicken in every pot, while we’re, you know, coming up with these fantasy tax schemes?”

The third GOP debate, sponsored by CNBC, however, seemed unlikely to significantly shift the standings of the candidates.

Mr. Carson, who used his opening statement to say he refused to say “awful things” about his opponents, seemed to blunt any direct attacks on him. He and Mr. Trump largely ignored each other throughout the debate.

Beyond some early fireworks, there were few break-out moments. One of the more personal exchanges came between Mr. Bush and his one-time ally Marco Rubio over the Florida senator’s attendance record in Congress.

The candidates struggling on the bottom rung, including Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, failed to deliver break-out performances. So did former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who stood out much more in the second debate.

Mr. Trump brushed off the early broadsides by attributing Mr. Kasich’s criticism to his recent slide in the polls. The real-estate developer also blamed Mr. Kasich for playing a role in the 2008 financial crisis by noting that he was working at Lehman Brothers, the investment bank whose collapse triggered panic in financial markets.

“This is the man who was a managing general partner at Lehman Brothers when it went down the tubes,” Mr. Trump said, taunting the Ohio governor for his position at the far edge of the stage...

Yeah, well, the biggest loser was the Democrat-Media-Complex.

But keep reading.

'Sentencing Reform' Kills Cops

From Daniel Greenfield, at FrontPage Magazine, "Pro-crime politicians must be held liable for their crimes":

NYPD Officer Randolph Holder was shot and killed last week. But the bullet that murdered him had been fired years ago. And it was the Democrats of the New York State government that took the shot.

The trigger had been pulled in 2009 when New York lawmakers passed drug crime “reforms” that targeted mandatory minimum sentences, a particular obsession of the pro-crime lobby, and allowed drug offenders to bypass jail.

Governor Paterson, who had used cocaine and whose close associate was a former drug dealer whose scandal would play a role in the governor’s downfall, claimed that sentencing reform would “Give judges the discretion to divert non-violent drug addicted individuals to treatment alternatives that are far more successful than prison.”

Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, New York’s first black Temporary President of the Senate, who would later be busted by the FBI on corruption charges, promised that the reforms would “Reverse years of ineffective criminal laws.”

Senator John Sampson, the first black Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who would be indicted for embezzlement, claimed that drug laws had “decimated communities and destroyed lives” by locking up criminals. Assembly Speaker Silver, currently facing trial for mail fraud, said that the reforms would take advantage of “more effective and less costly alternatives than prison.” Senator Shirley Huntley, who would later be sentenced to prison for stealing money from a charity for public school children, praised the law for giving “families and communities a fighting chance.”

Senator Hiram Monserrate, who had already been arrested for slashing his girlfriend in the face with a broken glass, explained his vote in favor of sentencing reform by saying, “If I had to err, ladies and gentlemen, I would err on the side of compassion.”

Senator Kevin Parker, who had gotten away with punching a traffic agent, attacking a female aide and assaulting a photographer, blasted Republicans for using “Fear and diversion to oppose reasonable changes to the law for 40 years.”

They were all lying.

In that same year, Officer Holder’s killer had been arrested in a shooting that wounded an 11-year-old boy and a 77-year-old man. But he wasn’t done yet...

Keep reading.

Sheldon Wolin Has Died

He was an esteemed political theorist and celebrated political scientist at Berkeley, and later Princeton.

See the New York Times, "Sheldon S. Wolin, Theorist Who Shifted Political Science Back to Politics, Dies at 93."

The obituary ends with this, "His last book reflected this dark interpretation of politics in the United States. It bore a sobering title: “Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism”."

And that is dark. So I looked it up, at Amazon, Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism:

Democracy is struggling in America--by now this statement is almost cliché. But what if the country is no longer a democracy at all? In Democracy Incorporated, Sheldon Wolin considers the unthinkable: has America unwittingly morphed into a new and strange kind of political hybrid, one where economic and state powers are conjoined and virtually unbridled? Can the nation check its descent into what the author terms "inverted totalitarianism"?

Wolin portrays a country where citizens are politically uninterested and submissive--and where elites are eager to keep them that way. At best the nation has become a "managed democracy" where the public is shepherded, not sovereign. At worst it is a place where corporate power no longer answers to state controls. Wolin makes clear that today's America is in no way morally or politically comparable to totalitarian states like Nazi Germany, yet he warns that unchecked economic power risks verging on total power and has its own unnerving pathologies. Wolin examines the myths and mythmaking that justify today's politics, the quest for an ever-expanding economy, and the perverse attractions of an endless war on terror. He argues passionately that democracy's best hope lies in citizens themselves learning anew to exercise power at the local level.

Democracy Incorporated is one of the most worrying diagnoses of America's political ills to emerge in decades. It is sure to be a lightning rod for political debate for years to come.

'Something Deeply Disturbing Is Happening All Across America...'

From FBI Director James Comey, speaking at the University of Chicago Law School,  October 23rd, "A chill wind has changed police behavior, and now violent crime is rising. Its victims are almost entirely young black men":

Part of being clear-eyed about reality requires all of us to stare—and stare hard—at what is happening in this country this year. And to ask ourselves what’s going on.

Because something deeply disturbing is happening all across America. I have spoken of 2014 in this speech because something has changed in 2015. Far more people are being killed in America’s cities this year than in many years. And let’s be clear: far more people of color are being killed in America’s cities this year. And it’s not the cops doing the killing.

We are right to focus on violent encounters between law enforcement and civilians. Those incidents can teach all of us to be better. But something much bigger is happening. Most of America’s 50 largest cities have seen an increase in homicides and shootings this year, and many of them have seen a huge increase. These are cities with little in common except being American cities—places like Chicago, Tampa, Minneapolis, Sacramento, Orlando, Cleveland, and Dallas.

In Washington, D.C., we’ve seen an increase in homicides of more than 20% in neighborhoods across the city. Baltimore, a city of 600,000 souls, is averaging more than one homicide a day—a rate higher than that of New York City, which has 13 times the people. Milwaukee’s murder rate has nearly doubled over the past year.

And who’s dying? Police chiefs say the increase is almost entirely among young men of color, at crime scenes in bad neighborhoods where multiple guns are being recovered.

That’s yet another problem that white America can drive around, but if we really believe that all lives matter, as we must, all of us have to understand what is happening. Communities of color need to demand answers. Police and civilian leaders need to demand answers. Academic researchers need to hit this hard...

I'm not holding my breath, but keep reading.

Elizabeth Turner Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Casting Call (VIDEO)

Smokin'.

So, 'Supergirl' Is Pretty Good After All

I tuned-in too late to be a really good judge, but see Hot Air, "Ignore the media maelstrom: “Supergirl” is pretty super."

And ICYMI, "Melissa Benoist."

New York's Affirmative Consent Law Affirmatively Confuses Students (VIDEO)

From the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education:



And ICYMI, "Phony 'Rape Crisis' is Assault on Common Sense."

The Harlem Honeys and Bears Synchronized Swim Team (VIDEO)

Via National Geographic:

Reince Priebus Blasts Far-Left CNBC Moderators After #GOPDebate (VIDEO)

What's so shocking about his outburst is that as chair of the RNC he has complete control over the choice of network venues. Michelle Malkin hammered him on that, indeed.

Via CNN:

Far-Left CNBC Moderators Lose Control of Third GOP Debate (VIDEO)

Linked previously, at Instapundit, "JUDGING FROM WHAT I’M SEEING ON TWITTER, CNBC AND JOHN HARWOOD ARE THE BIG LOSERS OF TONIGHT’S DEBATE."

And now from Hadas Gold, at Politico, "Moderators lose control at third GOP debate":

The CNBC-moderated debate became a debate about CNBC, as various candidates and the audience turned the tables on the network’s three moderators.

The repeated bursts of anger and anarchy were prompted, in part, by questions from the moderators that veered, at times, beyond sharp into contentiousness. By the end of the first hour, the audience seemed to be siding with the candidates, booing when CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla seemed to play gotcha with Ben Carson about his past work for a questionable company.

Taking on the media is a time-honored tradition in Republican debates, from Ronald Reagan in 1980 to Newt Gingrich in 2011. But those were generally one-time outbursts. On Wednesday night, the tension was palpable throughout the encounter, a theme that may have dashed CNBC’s plans to use the night to showcase a broad array of its own anchors and introduce itself to millions of new viewers.

The pattern was established very early by Donald Trump, spurred by a question about his tax plan from CNBC’s John Harwood that suggested the businessman was running a “comic-book” campaign. Trump angrily proclaimed that the network’s own star host, Larry Kudlow, had praised his tax plan.

Soon after, Texas senator Ted Cruz picked up the cudgel declaring, in response to a question from Quintanilla about raising the debt ceiling, “Let me say something at the outset. The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media. This is not a cage match. The questions shouldn’t be getting people to tear into each other.”

Cruz, his voice rising in indignation, cited Harwood’s “comic-book” question to Trump and one from CNBC’s Becky Quick to Carson that declared that his flat-tax plan wouldn’t bring in nearly as much revenue as he claimed. After Cruz waxed on about a double standard between Democratic and Republican debates, Quintanilla seemed visibly irritated, and he and Harwood each refused to give Cruz any extra time to answer the original question.

A few minutes later, they seemed to think better of it and did give Cruz the time. But the spuriousness of the decision left them open to further expressions of outrage by other candidates whenever the moderators tried to cut them off.

The unruly atmosphere was a far cry from what CNBC seemed to want and expect, from a gauzy opening photo montage to a series of promotions emphasizing what Quintanilla, at the outset, called, “CNBC’s top experts in the markets and personal finance” and “the best team in business” journalism.

Earlier, the network's efforts to showcase a large number of personalities during a disjointed pre-debate discussion drew jeers on Twitter from reporters, political operatives and others who couldn’t stand the banter between the anchors, correspondents and pundits filling time between the two events.

"The CNBC anchors are just desperately filling airtime with absolute nonsense to kill time,” conservative writer John Tabin tweeted.

"Please run vertical color bars until the debate starts,” wrote U.S. News and World Report’s managing editor for opinions Robert Schlesinger...

Keep reading.

Most Republican Voters Want Someone from Outside the Political Establishment to Win Their Party's Presidential Nomination

Donald Trump is up 14 points over Ben Carson in YouGov's latest poll of the GOP presidential field.

See, "Trump leads GOP nationally ahead of third debate."



And flashback to still the best thing I've read this year on the Trump phenomenon, "The Political Establishment's Terrified by Donald Trump's 'Tangible American Nationalism'."

Donald Trump Says He 'Carries on Occasion' (VIDEO)

He carries a gun on occasion.

From tonight's debate:



And at Instapundit, "JUDGING FROM WHAT I’M SEEING ON TWITTER, CNBC AND JOHN HARWOOD ARE THE BIG LOSERS OF TONIGHT’S DEBATE." (That's Ted Cruz hammering John Harwood at the link.)

Alcides Escobar Hits Inside-the-Park Home Run in World Series 2015 (VIDEO)

I have baseball on right now. My wife's not thrilled about watching the GOP debate on CNBC, and frankly, neither am I after flipping the channel over there a couple of times during the commercials.

In any case, here's the shocking first-pitch inside-the-park home run from last night. I couldn't believe my eyes:

South Carolina School Arrest Controversy Proves America's Classrooms Are Out of Control

Following-up from the other day, "White Police Officer is Seen Flipping Black Female High School Student on Her Back (VIDEO)."

As always, context matters. And in this case, the officer used force against the student, who was disrupting instruction, after she resisted repeated requests to leave the classroom. Note this key passage from the Los Angeles Times' reports, "Violent South Carolina classroom arrest adds to 'school-to-prison pipeline' debate":

At least three students who were in the classroom at Spring Valley High said the teacher tried to discipline the unidentified student for looking at her phone.

When the student refused to leave class, the teacher called in a vice principal. When the student refused the vice principal's request to leave, officials called in the deputy, Fields, who also helps coach the school's football team.

In one video, the deputy can be seen telling the student sitting at her desk, "You either come with me, or I'm going to make you."

In a second video posted on Instagram, the student can be seen lifting her arm defensively as the deputy physically tries to remove her from her desk.

The deputy then wraps his arm around her neck from behind in a headlock and tries to lift the student by one of her legs. As the deputy struggles with the student, the desk flips backward onto the ground with the student still sitting in it, the video shows.

The desk then crashes into another desk and nearly hits another student, who appears to be shocked at what she is witnessing. The deputy drags the first student, who is still entangled in the desk, and throws her across the classroom, the two videos show.

Lott said there was a third video that showed the student hitting the deputy...

The officer's been fired now, and he may have indeed used excessive force, but without the context, the video itself tells us very little about the situation. What's amazing, although completely unsurprising, is that there's no national outrage over the student's classroom disruptions and her defiance of school authorities. No one cares about the civil rights of all the other students to receive a good education. When one student is held accountable for acting out, then all that student has to do is claim her "civil rights" were violated ... and that's it. Those in charge of enforcing discipline will themselves be disciplined. It's a no win situation for teachers, which is why the teaching profession is totally unattractive as a career for many.

And don't miss this entry from David French, at National Review, "The Spring Valley Arrest Video Isn’t Disturbing: Here’s Why."

Melissa Benoist

She's Supergirl.

I watched it. Or, I watched the last half hour, I guess. I don't know. Not sure if the series is gonna fly, so to speak.

The World Will Blame President Obama If Iraq Falls

At National Journal.

Via Instapundit, "NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: U.S. ‘Direct Action’ Against the Islamic State."

Yes, I keep repeating this stuff. Because it bears repeating. In Iraq, Obama took a war that we had won at a considerable expense in lives and treasure, and threw it away for the callowest of political reasons. In Syria and Libya, he involved us in wars of choice without Congressional authorization, and proceeded to hand victories to the Islamists. Obama’s policy here has been a debacle of the first order, and the press wants to talk about Bush as a way of protecting him. Whenever you see anyone in the media bringing up 2003, you will know that they are serving as palace guard, not as press.

A great post.

Read the whole thing, and click around at the links.

Sexy Gandalf

Crazy.

At BuzzFeed, "Everyone’s Freaking Out Over This Girl’s Amazing “Sexy Gandalf” Costume":

“The absolute best thing though has just been the general thirst for Gandalf I’ve created,” she said. “Honestly, nothing is better than seeing people exclaim ‘I want to fuck Gandalf’ because of me!”

The Central Dynamics of the Republican Race Remain the Same; Only the Lead Has Changed (VIDEO)

Following-up from Sunday, "CBS News 2016 Battleground Tracker Poll: Donald Trump and Ben Carson Tied in Iowa (VIDEO)."

A great segment with Major Garrett, at CBS Evening News:



BONUS: At Hot Air, "Reuters national online tracking poll of likely GOP voters: Carson 33, Trump 26, Rubio 10, Cruz 8."

Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban Rejects Angela Merkel's 'Welcoming' Ideology of Unchecked Immigration Suicide

Well a right-wing party, and apparently anti-immigrant, just won the majority in Poland's parliamentary elections this week, so perhaps we're witnessing a major shift in European politics. Or at least, in East European politics.

From James Traub, at Foreign Policy, "The Fearmonger of Budapest":

BUDAPEST, Hungary — The European response to the refugee crisis that escalated this August has two poles: Germany’s Angela Merkel and Hungary’s Viktor Orban. Merkel has consistently maintained that the immense flow of refugees from Middle Eastern war zones constitutes a collective moral obligation for Europe; Orban has called this view a species of madness. Orban is as powerful a spokesman for nativism and xenophobia as Merkel is for universalism.

And Orban got there first. In mid-January, after attending a mass rally in Paris honoring the victims of the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and at a kosher supermarket, Orban said in an interview, “We should not look at economic immigration as if it had any use, because it only brings trouble and threats to European people. Therefore, immigration must be stopped.” Orban was quite explicit about the kind of immigration he especially opposed. “We do not want to see a significant minority among ourselves that has different cultural characteristics and background,” he said. “We would like to keep Hungary as Hungary.” That was the lesson he took from Charlie Hebdo.

Orban is fully prepared to wade into the darkest pools of the Hungarian psyche. In April, still well before the refugee flood, Orban’s government distributed a questionnaire to all adult Hungarians which stated, among other things, “Some people believe that the mishandling of immigration issues in Brussels and the spread of terrorism are connected.” It then went on to ask, “Do you agree with this opinion?” Citizens were also told, “Some people say that immigrants threaten the jobs and livelihood of Hungarians,” then asked, “Do you agree?” The U.N.’s human rights commission condemned the questionnaire as “extremely biased” and “absolutely shocking.” Nevertheless, most of those who bothered to answer did, of course, agree. Having thus manufactured a show of public support, Orban’s Fidesz party posted billboards around the country with messages like, “If you come to Hungary, you cannot take the jobs of Hungarians.”

Orban had prepared the Hungarian people in advance for the Biblical tide of refugees who began pouring through Hungary on their way to Germany or Sweden. The fences he ordered built at the border with Serbia and then with Croatia; his use of the army to turn back refugees; his scathing rhetoric; his passage of emergency laws that criminalized the very act of seeking asylum — all have been denounced across Europe, but they’ve done wonders for his standing at home. In recent years, support had been steadily draining from Fidesz to the ultranationalist Jobbik party, but by September of this year the trend had begun to reverse.

Why is Hungary different? To be fair, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic have all resisted the idea of accepting Muslim refugees, but unlike Hungary they don’t have to deal with 300,000 refugees crossing their territory and overwhelming their infrastructure. Yet both Croatia and Slovenia, which have had to deal with refugees diverted from Hungary, have behaved and sounded more like Germany than Hungary. In Slovenia, the army fed the refugees and walked them to the Austrian border. Croatia’s interior minister explained his country’s policy by saying, “Nobody can stop this flow without shooting.”

That is not the view I heard in Budapest, including from people otherwise suspicious of Orban. Istvan Gyarmati, a retired diplomat who now runs a democracy promotion institute in Budapest, told me that “now everyone agrees that Orban was right about the refugees.” It would not be long, he predicted, before Merkel realized that she had a policy and political catastrophe on her hands. I asked Gyarmati how he thought the problem should be resolved. That was easy: “The alternative is to keep them out of Europe.” Once they had fled the war zone for the safety of Turkey or Jordan, they no longer needed asylum or could legally claim such status. They were just migrants. I heard the same argument — which does, in fact, correspond to the letter, if not the spirit, of the Geneva Conventions — from several government officials. When I pointed out that this meant building a wall around Europe, they shrugged...

Traub talked to all these people and he still doesn't get it, marinated in his "welcoming" collectivist ideology that both Poland and Hungary are rejecting.

Put a wall around Europe? Yeah, you think?

Still more.

Kelly Brook Slim Figure in Black Satin Play-Suit After Dropping 8 lbs

I love this lady.

At London's Daily Mail, "Kelly Brook showcases slimline figure in black satin playsuit after shedding 8lb by cutting carbs and drinking tea without sugar.

Plus, flashback, "Phenomenal New Kelly Brook Sunbathing Pics From Cancun."

Ted Koppel's New Book Out Today

It looks interesting!

At Amazon, Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath.

Plus, at Time Magazine, "9 Questions With Ted Koppel":

At the heart of the book is the question of whether we have become so fractured in how we digest information that Congress and other institutions aren’t working.

Well, it’s become more difficult because at one end of the spectrum you have MSNBC and at the other end you’ve got Fox, and on all your radio stations you’ve got a variety of highly politicized talk-show hosts who make any kind of movement in the direction of moderation seem like a betrayal.

Could a show like the old Nightline exist today?

Apparently not...

Heh.

Phony 'Rape Crisis' is Assault on Common Sense

From Heather Mac Donald, at the Weekly Standard:

In August 2012, two rapes by unknown assailants were reported at Harvard University, sending the school into crisis. Police cruisers idled around the campus; uniformed and plainclothes officers came out in force. Students were advised not to walk alone. A member of the undergraduate council called for the closing of Harvard Yard. “I thought Cambridge wasn’t a dangerous area,” a freshman told the student newspaper. “It was Harvard—it was supposed to be safe, academic.” (In fact, Harvard still was safe. The campus authorities ultimately deemed at least one of the rape allegations baseless, judging by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports. Since Harvard never disclosed the outcome of either of its investigations, its findings regarding the other supposed incident remain secret.)

In September 2015, Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust announced that Harvard students experience sexual assault with “alarming frequency.” Faust was responding to the results of a sexual assault survey conducted at Harvard and 26 other colleges earlier in the year. According to the survey, spearheaded by the Association of American Universities (AAU), 16 percent of Harvard female seniors had experienced nonconsensual sexual penetration during their time at the college and nearly 40 percent had experienced nonconsensual sexual contact. The “severity of the problem” required “an even more intent focus on the problem of sexual assault,” Faust said. Harvard professor and former provost Steve Hyman decried the “terribly damaging” problem that “profoundly violates the values and undermines the educational goals of this University.”

And yet, apart from Drew Gilpin Faust’s recital of Harvard’s burgeoning rape bureaucracy—50 Title IX coordinators, a new Office for Sexual and Gender-Based Dispute Resolution filled to the brim with “trained investigators,” a doubling of staff at the Office for Sexual Assault Prevention and Response—nothing else happened. No beefed up escort services, no added police presence. Life went on as usual, including the usual drunken parties and hook-ups.

The rhetoric from the other participating schools was similarly alarmist. According to Yale president Peter Salovey, the “profoundly troubling” behavior documented in the AAU survey “threatens individual students, our learning environment, and our sense of community.” But Yale, too, confined itself to denunciations of the “threatening” behavior.

Why the disparity between administrative talk and action? Harvard, after all, is not the only college capable of forcefully responding to alleged rape. In the fall of 2014, the University of Virginia doubled down on security after a student was abducted and presumed raped (the girl was later found to have been killed). If Drew Gilpin Faust and her fellow presidents really believe that they are presiding over a crime scene of what would be unprecedented proportions, they should at the least radically revamp their admissions procedures to prevent sex fiends from joining the student body, if not provide round-the-clock protection to female students.

Nothing of the sort ever happens, however. And that is because there is no such crime wave on college campuses—according to the alleged victims themselves. The vast majority of survey respondents whom the AAU researchers classified as sexual assault victims never reported their alleged assaults to their colleges’ various confidential rape hotlines, sexual assault resource centers, or Title IX offices, much less to campus or city police. And the overwhelming reason why the alleged victims did not report is that they did not think that what happened to them was that serious. At Harvard, over 69 percent of female respondents who checked the box for penetration by use of force did not report the incident to any authority. Most of those non-reporters—65 percent—did not think their experience was serious enough to report. This outcome is inconceivable in the case of real rape. No woman who has actually been raped would think that the rape was not serious enough to report. The White House Council on Women and Girls, echoing campus rape dogma, maintains that colleges are churning out legions of traumatized rape “survivors,” who go on to experience a lifetime of physical and emotional disability. Apparently these victims are so shellshocked that they don’t even realize how disabled they are.

The rate of nonreporting climbs as the sexual assault categories ginned up by the AAU grow ever more distant from the common understanding of rape. Over 78 percent of Harvard female respondents who checked the box for penetration due to “incapacitation” did not report. Three-quarters of them said that what happened to them was not serious enough to report. Over 92 percent of Harvard female respondents who said they were the victim of sexual touching by force did not report; over 81 percent said that what happened to them was not serious enough to report. Over 93 percent of respondents who had been sexually touched due to incapacitation did not report. Over 80 percent of them did not think it serious enough to report.

The picture is identical at every other college in the survey. At Yale, nearly 73 percent of female victims of alleged penetration by force and over 94 percent of female victims of alleged nonconsensual touching by incapacitation did not report to an agency or organization, because they did not think that what happened to them was serious enough.

These are females who since matriculation have been the targets of an escalating “rape culture” propaganda campaign. Yet that campaign has not changed the fundamental disagreement between rape survey respondents and their pollsters. The mother of all campus rape surveys, conducted by feminist researcher Mary Koss and written up in Ms. magazine in 1985, found that 73 percent of respondents whom the study characterized as rape victims said that they hadn’t been raped when asked the question directly. (Not surprisingly, campus rape researchers stopped asking that question. Campus rape researchers also quickly shelved an equally deflating question from the Koss survey: whether the victim had sex with her alleged rapist again. Forty-two percent of Koss’s alleged rape victims said that they had, another inconceivable outcome in the case of actual rape.) Seventy-two percent of female respondents in a 2014 MIT survey who said that they had experienced unwanted sexual behavior said that their experience was not serious enough to report...

Keep reading.

WATCH: Graphic New Video of Horrific Car Crash That Murdered Four People at Oklahoma State University Homecoming Parade

At CBS News, "New video of deadly OSU homecoming tragedy."

The suspect, 25-year-old Adacia Chambers, is likely to plead not guilty by reason of insanity --- which is pissing people right off. At WSJ, "Lawyer Questions Mental Health of Suspect in Deadly Oklahoma Crash."

Why Are Young Feminists So Clueless About Sex?

A fabulous essay, from Margaret Wente, at Toronto's Globe and Mail.

Feds Ready Forced Disclosure of Donors to Conservative Groups

Because politics is total war.

From J. Christian Adams, at Pajamas:

The Federal Election Commission is considering rules which could force non-profit organizations, such as a pro-life organization, to disclose the names of donors.

The speech-regulating Left has long been in favor of forced donor disclosure because it facilitates their most fanatical followers to unleash abuse on them.

That’s what happened to the owner of the Texans when he supported an effort to block a transgender referendum in Houston. Harassment of financial donors to conservative causes has become one of the standard tactics of the militant left...

Keep reading.

Chelsea Ake-Salvacion, 24-Year-Old Las Vegas Salon Worker, Found Dead in Cryotheropy Chamber (VIDEO)

God this is bizarre.

The woman apparently "froze to death within seconds."

At the Washington Post, "Salon worker praised cryotherapy — then ‘froze to death’ during treatment."

Russian Jets Fail to Fly in Syria

At USA Today, "Harsh conditions are foiling Russian jets in Syria":

WASHINGTON – Russian warplanes sent to Syria to back the regime of Bashar Assad are breaking down at a rapid rate that appears to be affecting their ability to strike targets, according to a senior Defense official.

Nearly one-third of Russian attack planes and half of its transport aircraft are grounded at any time as the harsh, desert conditions take a toll on equipment and crews, said the official who was not authorized to speak publicly about sensitive intelligence matters.

The Russians appear to be having difficulty adapting to the dusty conditions, and the number of airstrikes they have conducted seems to have dipped slightly.

"For deployed forces, that's a hideous rate," said Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst at the Teal Group, an aerospace consulting firm.

Russian President Vladimir Putin deployed warplanes, including Russia's advanced Fullback ground-attack jet, helicopters and troops to a base near Latakia, Syria, in September. In addition, at least a dozen transport planes have been stationed there.

"They could have bad operating procedures, inadequate supplies of spare parts and support crews," Aboulafia said.

Russia's inexperience deploying forces at some distance, unlike their military actions in bordering countries such as Ukraine and Georgia, could also account for problems keeping planes in the air, he said.

"An awful lot of expeditionary warfare revolves around logistics," Aboulafia said. "A lot of it comes down to experience. They don't have that much of it."

For U.S. warplanes, readiness rates of less than 80% would attract attention from top brass, said a senior Air Force commander with multiple combat deployments in the Middle East. The officer was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. However, the officer noted that planes break, especially in austere, deployed conditions. He characterized mission-readiness rates of less than 80% as a matter of concern, not alarm.

David Deptula, a retired three-star Air Force general who led planning for the air war in Operation Desert Storm, said the rates for American fighters in combat zones has been above 90%. The readiness rate of 70% for Russian fighters isn't surprising, he said, because they lack experience being deployed and have been flying their jets hard. He called their rates for cargo planes, "pretty low."

"If those rates are accurate, it indicates that their deployed logistics function requires some attention," Deptula said.

U.S. pilots and aircraft have flown combat missions in the Middle East almost continuously since the first Gulf War. They struck Saddam Hussein's forces to push them from Kuwait, patrolled no-fly zones in Iraq for more than a decade, and fought wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last year, they returned to strike Islamic State militants on the ground in Iraq and Syria.

Last week, the Pentagon and Russian military reached an agreement to avoid conflict among pilots flying missions in Syria. Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Friday said the Russian attacks have targeted opponents of Assad in Syria, where the civil war has killed more than 200,000 people...

More.

Feminism Flourishes in the West Because the Patriarchy is Dead

But don't count on it staying that way.

From Glenn Reynolds, at Instapundit, "Before you complain about 'patriarchy'."

Drone Images Show Flow of Migrants Crossing Into Slovenia (VIDEO)

Via France 24:



BONUS: At Atlas Shrugs, "MIGRANT VIDEO: 'They are sitting in our backyards'."

White Police Officer is Seen Flipping Black Female High School Student on Her Back (VIDEO)

At Mother Jones, via Memeorandum, "Disturbing Video Shows School Cop Body Slam and Drag a Black Female Student."

And at NYDN, "VIDEO: SC school officer attacked a girl in a brutal beatdown during an arrest."

Iraqis Live in Constant Fear of Islamic State

The Obama administration doesn't really care. The recent shift to a larger U.S. role in Iraq is the result of political expediency. The White House wants to make it look like it's doing something before handing off its failed Middle East policy to its successor.

At USA Today, "Life under Islamic State rule in Mosul one of constant fear":

DOHUK, Iraq — Journalists are beaten or executed as spies. Children routinely witness executions and no longer go to school. A portion of government workers' salaries are seized.

That is what life is like living under the brutal rule of the Islamic State in Mosul since the extremist group captured Iraq's second largest city in 2014, according to residents lucky enough to escape to this Kurdish enclave about 45 miles to the north.

Yousuf Saba, 41, a former journalist with local news channel Sama al-Mosul, said he fled for his life in recent weeks after the militant group began rounding up journalists suspected of leaking negative information about the Islamic State.

“Anyone who was part of the journalist union in Mosul was taken,” Saba said. “They accused them of spying and threatened to kill their families. Some of my friends ... were interrogated and beaten, even though they had no proof against them.”

In early September, the militants executed 15 local journalists as suspected spies in front of a large crowd in the center of Mosul and forced children to watch, said Saba, who witnessed the killings.

Two weeks after he fled the city, the Islamic State killed his younger brother as an "example for others who were trying to escape," he said. "If more people leave, they will lose their credibility in front of the world."

Mohamma Bakour, 32, a schoolteacher who escaped in September, said the militants initially shut down all the schools. Now, he said, they have revised the courses to be consistent with their radical view of Islam.

“Books that discuss evolution are banned, and (many) science labs in schools have been burned," Bakour said. "'Only God created the world, and you don’t need experiments to tell them the world exists.' That’s their philosophy.”

Bakour said many children have been traumatized by the regime's brutality.

“When they cut a throat in front of the children, some children get psychologically affected and other children accept it as normal," he said. "In more than one year, the Islamic State has created a society where it’s normal for children to watch their elders being murdered by them.”

Most children don’t go to school and could end up joining the militants, Bakour said. Child labor is common. Many children “sell water and snacks on the streets to make $5 a day to support their families. But if they get recruited by (the Islamic State), they make much more money, and many families need that," he said...

Still more.

Hillary Clinton Accuses Bernie Sanders of Sexism (VIDEO)

Oh brother.

Grandma's going after Bernie Sanders for "sexist" attacks. You won't hear the end of this until Hillary quits the scene, and I mean six-feet deep.

At National Review, "2016 Officially Begins: Hillary Clinton Calls Critic Sexist."

The Palestinian Terror Wave and Moral Equivalency

From Joseph Puder, at FrontPage Magazine, "The United Nations and the Obama administration's dual attack on Israel":

Jordan’s ambassador, Dina Kawar, called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) last Friday (October 16, 2015) to deal with the escalating violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  The session was televised on C-SPAN.  The UNSC is expected to issue a statement exhorting both sides “to show restraint.”  State Department spokesperson John Kirby expressed the Obama’s administration’s concern about Israel’s “use of excessive force.” He said, “We have certainly seen some reports of what many would consider excessive use of force.”  Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was quick to respond saying: “What do you think would happen in New York if you saw people rushing into a crowd trying to murder people? What do you think they would do? Do you think they would do anything differently than we are doing?”

When it comes to Jews and Israel, the double standard and hypocrisy were displayed again, this time by the 15 members of the UNSC.  Apparently, they expect Israeli Jews to submit to Arab Palestinian killers to “avoid excessive force.”  That would please the 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and their western lackeys.  It would also fit with the long held role assigned to the Jews as people who do not defend themselves, as was the case for Jews in Europe and the Muslim world.

The speeches by the Permanent Members (U.S., Britain, China, France and Russia) echoed one another.  The essential message from all of them was “both sides must end the violence.”  In order not to anger the Arab-Muslim Bloc, the truth was discarded and replaced by formulaic verbiage that removed the context and the facts on the ground.  Moral equivalency was used instead. The facts are crystal clear.  Incited Arab Palestinians and Arab Israelis are murdering innocent Israeli civilians without provocation of any kind:  old people and young and civilians and soldiers are being targeted for only one reason - because they are Jews. Fortunately, Israeli security forces, and in some cases, individual citizens who were by-standers were close enough to prevent more murders by shooting the killers or incapacitating them. Under any universal law or code of justice, self-defense is permissible, and defending the unarmed and innocent civilians is in fact a civic duty.

Something more insidious occurred at the UNSC emergency session that should concern all people of good will who seek an Arab-Israeli peace.  The ambassadors of Malaysia and Venezuela shamelessly targeted only Israel – ignoring the Arab-Muslim perpetrators of violence.  They compounded anti-Israel bias with unabashed falsehoods, accusing Israel of “70-years of occupation of Palestine.” This has to be a new angle in the attempt to de-legitimize the Jewish state.  It rejects Israel even within the June 4th, 1967 lines, and its very existence when they considered the pre-1967 Israel as “occupied” Palestinian territory.  At the UN though, lies and distortions by dictatorial regimes are fully permissible and encouraged.

U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Taye-Brook Zerihoun (of Ethiopia) provided the briefing prior to the delegates speeches.  He reported on the latest violent incident in which a large group of Palestinians set fire to the compound containing the holy site of Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus.  “Zerihoun said “Fortunately there were no reported injuries but the site sustained major damage.” He added, “There were also three stabbing and ramming attacks on Israelis, leaving 10 Israelis injured and three Palestinian suspects wounded.”  Consistent with the general tenor of the UN, he concluded by saying, “We have seen that the impact of social media and irresponsible rhetoric has played a dramatic role in escalation.  On this count both sides have much to be blamed for, but I welcome efforts by leaders in the past days to tone down their statements. I call on community, religious and political leaders on all sides to calm the language they use in this regard and work together to de-escalate the situation.”

Most of the non-permanent members of the UNSC, (Angola, Chad, Chile, Lithuania, New Zealand, Nigeria, and Spain) employed moral-equivalency in their speeches.  Jordan, (representing the Arab League) presented a one-sided view, while Malaysia and Venezuela displayed downright hostility toward Israel. The most hypocritical statements however, were made by the alleged “friends” of Israel, particularly the ambassadors of Britain and France, and U.S. ambassador Samantha Powers...

Keep reading.

Kelly Rohrbach, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Rookie, Offers Very Sexy Golf Tips (VIDEO)

Via Theo Spark:



BONUS: At London's Daily Mail, "Leonardo DiCaprio's model girlfriend Kelly Rohrbach flashes her derriere as she poses in sexy skirt for college themed magazine shoot."

New Sabine Jemeljanova Photo Shoot for Zoo Today (VIDEO)

One of the most fabulous Page 3 models around.

At Egotastic!, "SABINE JEMELJANOVA LINGERIE STRIPTEASE FOR TINGLES UP AND DOWN THE SPINE."

Candy and Chocolate Just in Time for Halloween

At Amazon, Selections in Candy and Chocolate.

Obama Fuels Flames of Anti-Cop Movement

Following-up from yesterday, "Rise Up October — March Against Police Brutality in New York City (VIDEO)."

From Michael Goodwin, at the New York Post:

At a White House discussion about improving the  relationship between police departments and  black Americans, President Obama declared that “the moment is here.”

He meant a chance for big change, and that’s the problem. The change he and his allies are achieving is like throwing gasoline on a raging fire.

Consider that at about the same time the nation’s first black president was speaking to police chiefs and prosecutors, a group called Black Lives Matter was denouncing police brutality in Times Square, real and imagined. In another sad coincidence of timing, they marched as the city was mourning the murder of NYPD Officer Randolph Holder, the fourth New York City cop killed in 11 months.

Officer Holder was black, as is his alleged killer, but that mattered not a whit to the protesters. One told Fox News that she hopes Holder’s family “realizes that his life is included in the ‘Black Lives Matter’ slogan.”

“We’re talking about black bodies being persecuted across the world,” she added.

This is nonsense on steroids, yet these are the president’s shock troops. Obama and confidante Valerie Jarrett earlier met with the radicals leading the Black Lives Matter movement and encouraged them to keep going, the group has said.

Obama, at last Thursday’s event, praised the group again while also claiming that “everybody understands that all lives matter.

Everybody wants strong, effective law enforcement. Everybody wants their kids to be safe when they are walking across the street. Nobody wants to see police officers who are doing their jobs fairly hurt. Everybody understands it’s a dangerous job.”

His saying so doesn’t make it true. The anti-police movement sweeping urban areas proves that many people actually don’t want strong law enforcement, and don’t have any respect for police work. Many, including those Obama met with, appear to hate all cops.

Yes, they hate them, and they want them dead --- exactly the opposite of Obama's mealy-mouthed words.

But keep reading.

The Highest Backside Air Ever (VIDEO)

It's Danny Way, busting at 25-foot backside air at a custom-built ramp in North San Diego. The highest ever, or so they say.

Via Thrasher Magazine:

VIDEO: Democrats Block 'Kate's Law' — Legislation Would Impose Mandatory Five-Year Sentence for Illegal Immigrants Convicted of Aggravated Felony After Already Being Deported

At Legal Insurrection, "Dems Block Kate’s Law But Effort to Pass Continues."

And here's Bill O'Reilly, who's been pushing for new legislation since Kathryn Steinle's murder. Sharyl Attkisson is interviewed:

WATCH: Rose Bertram, Hailey Clauson, Erin Heatherton, and Genevieve Morton Body Painting Session for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2015

Lovely video:

Tomi Lahren on 'The Blaze' (VIDEO)

Smart and smokin' as ever.

This lady picks herself up and hits the ground running.



And ICYMI, "Islamic 'Clock Boy' Ahmed Mohamed to Move to Qatar."

Reviews of Tonight's 'Homeland'

If you haven't watched it, then don't click this link, at WSJ, "‘Homeland’ Season 5, Episode 4: An Intelligence Expert Weighs In."

It was really good, that's for sure.

More at Variety, "‘Homeland’ Recap: Exit Wounds Abound in ‘Why Is This Night Different?’", and the New York Times, "'Homeland' Season 5, Episode 4 Recap: With One 'Da,' an Enemy Is Revealed."

Rise Up October — March Against Police Brutality in New York City (VIDEO)

Stay classy, progs.

Here's a slideshow, "Rise Up October anti-police brutality protest held in New York City."

And at Twitchy, "‘There’s your racial divide’: Greg Gutfeld notes the irony in New York anti-police rally."

Also at the New York Post, "Protesters flip off NYPD days after cop slay."

Today's cover: Quentin Tarantino rants at "stop police terror" rally https://t.co/ypCCXr4CPb pic.twitter.com/f8XXHWJ3uq

— New York Post (@nypost) October 25, 2015

Flashback: John Nagl, Knife Fights

Well, since special operations are increasingly in the news, here's a reminder of John Nagl's book from last November.

At Amazon, Knife Fights: A Memoir of Modern War in Theory and Practice.

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 – Democratic Socialism Explained."

VIDEO: Two F-35C Lightning II Aircraft Flex Their Sea Legs Aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69)

Via the U.S. Navy:

WATCH: New Video Purportedly Shows U.S.-Kurdish Raid Against Islamic State

I At Instapundit.

And a YouTube clip is here, "The Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq released a video Sunday purportedly showing the joint raid of a prison by U.S. and Kurdish peshmerga forces in which they released 70 hostages held by the Islamic State group."

ADDED: The BBC has the video, which shows some different angles, "'Hostage rescue' footage of US-led raid on IS jail released."

Bernie Sanders Goes on Attack, Throws Jabs at Hillary Clinton in Iowa (VIDEO)

From Glenn Thrush, at Politico, via Memeorandum, "Bernie Sanders goes on the attack at Iowa Democratic dinner."

And at CNN, "Bernie Goes on the Attack."

Don't Miss Last Minute Halloween Deals

Sale ends October 30th, at Amazon, Halloween Deals on Kids Costumes and More.

Plus, pre-order, Goosebumps Retro Scream Collection: Limited Edition Tin.

Go Behind the Scenes with Playboy's Miss October 2015, Ana Cheri! (VIDEO)

Following-up from a couple of weeks ago, "Ana Cheri, Playboy's Miss October 2015."

And here's a new clip:



More at Bro Bible, "Miss October Ana Cheri is Looking Off-the-Charts H-O-T in Her New Playboy Pics." And at Egotastic!, "PLAYMATE OF THE MONTH ANA CHERI LOSES HER TOP, TRUST ME, SHE LOSES IT."

CBS News 2016 Battleground Tracker Poll: Hillary Clinton Leads in Iowa, Gains in New Hampshire

Following-up, "CBS News 2016 Battleground Tracker Poll: Donald Trump and Ben Carson Tied in Iowa (VIDEO)."

Here's the results for the Democrat field, "Clinton on top in Iowa, gains in New Hampshire":

Bolstered by Iowa Democratic caucus-goers who say she won the recent debate, Hillary Clinton now has an edge over Bernie Sanders in Iowa. She's up three points there, after re-allocating the supporters of Vice President Joe Biden. Those caucus-goers were then asked who'd they support if Biden decided not to run.

In Iowa, Sanders' backers remain very enthusiastic about his candidacy, while enthusiasm for Clinton is on the rise among hers: Fifty-eight percent of Clinton's first-choice Iowa voters are enthusiastically supporting her, up from 49 percent a month ago...

It's actually withing the margin of error in Iowa, so the Clinton camp shouldn't get too complacent. Clinton leads sanders 46-43 in the Hawkeye State.

But keep reading.

CBS News 2016 Battleground Tracker Poll: Donald Trump and Ben Carson Tied in Iowa (VIDEO)

This is great.

The Republicans are actually having a race.

At CBS, "Trump, Carson lead GOP in Iowa; Trump keeps big lead in NH, SC":

The Republican nomination fight continues to be dominated by political newcomers Donald Trump and Ben Carson. In Iowa, Carson has moved up to tie Trump.

In South Carolina and New Hampshire, there is Donald Trump with a large lead, and then there is everyone else.

Trump's at 38 percent in New Hampshire. It's a runaway situation, which would give him enormous momentum.

More.

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

Think Kissinger Was the Heartless Grandmaster of Realpolitik? What About Obama?

Remember Ferguson's got the new Kissinger biography out, Kissinger: 1923-1968: The Idealist.

And he's got a great commentary at the Los Angeles Times:

Most Americans still think of Barack Obama as a foreign policy idealist. That is certainly how he presents himself: Just replay the tape of his recent speech to the United Nations General Assembly.

Some argue, he said, "for a return to the rules that applied for most of human history … the belief that power is a zero-sum game; that might makes right; that strong states must impose their will on weaker ones; that the rights of individuals don't matter; and that in a time of rapid change, order must be imposed by force."

The president said he would much rather "work with other nations under the mantle of international norms and principles and law." He prefers "resolving disputes through international law, not the law of force."

Yet that speech ended oddly. Having berated both Russia and Iran for their misdeeds, Obama invited them to work with him to resolve the Syrian civil war. "Realism," he concluded, "dictates that compromise will be required to end the fighting and ultimately stamp out ISIL."

Wait — realism? Isn't that the hard-nosed — not to say amoral — approach to foreign policy commonly associated with Henry Kissinger?

Having spent much of the last decade writing a life of Kissinger, I no longer think of the former secretary of State as the heartless grandmaster of realpolitik. (That's a caricature.) But after reading countless critiques of his record, not least the late Christopher Hitchens' influential "Trial of Henry Kissinger," I also find myself asking another question: Where are the equivalent critiques of Obama?

Hitchens' case against Kissinger, which is as grandiloquent as it is thinly documented, can be summed up as follows: He was implicated in the killing of civilians through the bombing of Cambodia and North Vietnam. He failed to prevent massacres in Bangladesh and East Timor. He fomented a military coup in Chile. Also on Hitchens' charge sheet: the wiretapping of colleagues.

In history, no two cases are alike. The Cold War is over. The technology of the 2010s is a lot more sophisticated than the technology of the 1970s. Still, this president's record makes one itch to read "The Trial of Barack Obama."

Take the administration's enthusiastic use of drones, a key feature of Obama's shift from counterinsurgency to counter-terrorism. According to figures from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, drone strikes authorized by the Obama administration have killed 3,570 to 5,763 people in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan, of whom 400 to 912 were civilians and at least 82 were children.

And those are just the strikes by unmanned aircraft. The Oct. 3 attack on an Afghan hospital run by Doctors Without Borders is a reminder that U.S. pilots also stand accused of killing civilians, not only in Afghanistan but also (since August 2014) in Iraq and Syria. One estimate puts the civilian victims of the U.S.-led air war against Islamic State at 450.

This is a lawyerly administration, so it insists on the legality of its actions, even when drones kill U.S. citizens. But not everyone is convinced. In the words of Amnesty International, "U.S. drone strike policy appears to allow extrajudicial executions in violation of the right to life, virtually anywhere in the world."

Keep reading.

Russian Subs and Spy Ships Operating Near Vital Undersea Internet Cables, Raising U.S. Concerns

How do you say "Unexpectedly!" in Russian?

At the New York Times, "Russian Presence Near Undersea Cables Concerns U.S.":

WASHINGTON — Russian submarines and spy ships are aggressively operating near the vital undersea cables that carry almost all global Internet communications, raising concerns among some American military and intelligence officials that the Russians might be planning to attack those lines in times of conflict.

The issue goes beyond old Cold War worries that the Russians would tap into the cables — a task American intelligence agencies also mastered decades ago. The alarm today is deeper: In times of tension or conflict, the ultimate Russian hack on the United States could involve severing the fiber-optic cables at some of their hardest-to-access locations to halt the instant communications on which the West’s governments, economies and citizens have grown dependent.

Inside the Pentagon and the nation’s intelligence agencies, the assessments of Russia’s increasing activities are highly classified and not publicly discussed in detail. American officials are secretive about what they are doing to both monitor the activity and find ways to recover quickly if cables are cut. But more than half a dozen officials confirmed in broad terms that it had become the source of significant attention in the Pentagon.

“I’m worried every day about what the Russians may be doing,” said Rear Adm. Frederick J. Roegge, commander of the Navy’s submarine fleet in the Pacific, who would not answer questions about potential Russian plans for cutting the undersea cables.

Cmdr. William Marks, a Navy spokesman in Washington, said: “It would be a concern to hear any country was tampering with communication cables; however, due to the classified nature of submarine operations, we do not discuss specifics.”

In private, however, commanders and intelligence officials are far more direct. They report that from the North Sea to Northeast Asia and even in waters closer to American shores, they are monitoring significantly increased Russian activity along the known routes of the cables, which carry the lifeblood of global electronic communications and commerce.

Just last month, the Russian spy ship Yantar, equipped with two self-propelled deep-sea submersible craft, cruised slowly off the East Coast of the United States on its way to Cuba — where one major cable lands near the American naval station at Guantánamo Bay. It was monitored constantly by American spy satellites, ships and planes. Navy officials said the Yantar and the submersible vehicles it can drop off its decks have the capability to cut cables miles down in the sea...

Still more at that top link.

Hey Mr. President, This is How You Create Jobs

A great piece, from Andy Puzder, CEO of Carl Karcher Enterprises, at WSJ, "No Wonder Growth Has Been So Anemic":

Since the problem is too few jobs, it is important to understand who creates jobs. At my company, CKE Restaurants, for example, our franchisees are small business owners who furnish entry-level jobs and management careers every time they open a Carl’s Jr. or Hardee’s. Franchisees generally invest more than $1 million to permit, build and equip restaurants, creating jobs for architects, attorneys and construction workers.

After opening, each store creates about 25 permanent jobs within the restaurant as well as ancillary jobs maintaining, advertising and supplying food and paper products to it.

Our approximately 3,000 domestic restaurants (90% franchised) spend more than $1 billion on food and paper products a year. That creates jobs for everyone from the farmers who plant the seeds to the truck drivers who deliver the ingredients to our restaurants.

CKE also spends about $175 million a year on advertising, great for actors and workers at ad agencies, as well as radio and TV stations. We spend $150 million annually on capital improvements, remodeling restaurants, and purchasing new equipment. This spurs opportunities for construction workers, equipment manufacturers and more. Then there’s the roughly $100 million put toward annual maintenance. That means jobs for window washers, air conditioner repairmen and landscapers.

These workers in turn spend their incomes on food, clothing, housing, health care, education and entertainment—supporting even more jobs. The more restaurants the company builds, the more jobs and the more growth in local economies. Collectively with our franchisees, CKE provides employment for more than 70,000 Americans and supports jobs for tens of thousands of others outside the restaurants.

This engine of economic growth applies to every part of the economy. Whether Ford, Apple, Caterpillar, Wal-Mart or Coca-Cola, the web of job creation is the same. And so if a politician wants to help workers win a raise, he should help businesses add jobs by simplifying the tax code, enacting regulatory reform and replacing ObamaCare with something that works. Republican presidential candidates such as Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio have offered specific plans on these subjects...

The New Very Sexy Push-Up

From Victoria's Secret, via Theo Spark.

U.S. Sees Beefed Up Mission in Iraq and Syria

So much for winding down those wars, Democrats.

At WSJ, "U.S. to Increase Raids Against Islamic State":

WASHINGTON—Defense Secretary Ash Carter signaled a new and more muscular policy in Iraq and Syria, saying the U.S. military would mount more raids and provide more active support to groups, including Kurdish fighters, who can counter Islamic State.

A day after a dramatic, joint rescue with Kurdish forces near Kirkuk resulted in the first American combat death in Iraq since 2011, Mr. Carter on Friday said there would be more such operations. He also said Americans should gird for a dangerous, complicated fight, but expressed confidence the U.S. would ultimately win.

President Barack Obama has been publicly cautious in his policy against Islamic State, repeatedly saying that American troops wouldn’t participate in combat missions as they battle the extremists across Iraq and Syria.

But while Mr. Carter expressed sorrow for the loss of Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler in Thursday’s raid, he indicated the beginning of a deeper, more assertive role for American forces there.

“There will be more raids,” Mr. Carter said at the Pentagon. American forces, he said, “will be in harm’s way, there’s no question about it, and I don’t want anybody to be under any illusions about that.”

The U.S. move is designed in part to blunt criticism of White House policy from Capitol Hill, where Mr. Carter and Marine Gen. Joe Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will appear next week.

The U.S.-led coalition’s campaign against Islamic State also has faced criticism from some allies, while Russia has expanded its engagement across the Middle East. On Friday Moscow announced an agreement with Jordan, a key U.S. ally, to coordinate military operations in Syria.

Some Iraqi Shiite politicians have invited Moscow to start airstrikes in Iraq as well, although U.S. officials insist they have been assured that Iraq’s leaders don't plan to pursue such plans.

The pledge to step up U.S. participation in military raids against Islamic State also comes as U.S. confidence in its Iraqi partners grows, particularly in Kurdish military units. Gen. Dunford, after visiting Iraq this past week, said it was time to begin to “open the aperture” in military operations there.

“To me, it’s all about capabilities,” he said Tuesday. “It may be as simple as methods and timing, and then it might be different ways of doing what we’re doing.”

Military officials didn’t spell out precisely how the U.S. role in Iraq would change. But Mr. Carter said there would be more operations like the one he authorized this week, in which U.S. special-operations forces teamed with Kurdish units known as Peshmerga to rescue Islamic State prisoners.

The plan, U.S. officials said, was to have the Kurdish forces lead the operation, with American forces providing airlift, airstrike support, intelligence and battlefield advice.

The operation took an unexpected turn, however, when Islamic State militants guarding the prison near Hawija, Iraq, fought back and the Kurdish force became pinned down.

Members of the American unit jumped off their helicopters and entered the fray, resulting in the death of Sgt. Wheeler.

In the end, the joint force didn’t find the Peshmerga captives they went in to get, but rescued 70 other prisoners who were to be executed, U.S. officials said, and killed 15 Islamic State fighters.,,

More.

Obama's Tragic Let 'em Out Fantasy

A most excellent analysis, from Heather Mac Donald, at the Wall Street Journal, "The president leads the charge to cut the prison population, but mass incarceration isn’t the problem. Rising crime is."

What Feminism Means in 2015

You can't make this stuff up.

At the Other McCain, "West Hollywood House of Horrors: Radical Lesbian Feminists From Hell."

We Live in a Society That Glamorizes Violence Against Women

So says hardline communist Emma Quangel, on Twitter.

Her evidence in point is Interview Magazine's provocative photo slideshow of Nicole Kidman, "Nicole KIDMAN by Steven Klein."

I must admit, the photos do allude to rape fantasies.

In any case, more Nicole Kidman photos here, "Even when laid totally bare, stripped of any apparatus, clothing, or even much of a character to hide behind—as she was, acting across from her then-husband Tom Cruise in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (1999)—Nicole Kidman is utterly commanding, regal, even."

PREVIOUSLY: Flashback to June, "Emma Quangel, Feminist Who Outed Dylann Roof Manifesto, is Militant Communist Who Wants U.S. 'Eradicated'."

Close Account of Special Operations Rescue Mission in Iraq

This is good.

At McClatchy, "Kurds give account of raid that killed American special operator."

These Women Tried Boudoir Photography for the First Time (VIDEO)

At BuzzFeed, "Women Tried Boudoir Photography for the First Time and Loved Every Second of It."

Hurricane Patricia is Strongest Storm Ever Recorded (VIDEO)

Following-up from earlier, "Kristen Keogh Explains Hurricane Patricia (VIDEO)."

And here's more, from ABC News 10 San Diego, "Local geologist: Patricia is strongest storm ever recorded."

Charleston Law School Files Counterclaims Against Two Fired Tenured Professors

I didn't quite catch the full gist of this report, at the TaxProf Blog.

But then I found this, and it all made sense, at the Charleston Post and Courier, "Charleston School of Law faculty wants to return to founding principle."

'Super Like' with Erin Heatherton and Nina Agdal (VIDEO)

Two of my favorite babes.

Watch, "Tinder Presents Super Like - featuring Erin Heatherton and Nina Agdal."

Smokin' Charlotte McKinney in New Carl’s Jr./Call of Duty Commercial (VIDEO)

She's hot.

Watch, "Carl's Jr. & Call of Duty Black Ops 3 Commercial with Charlotte McKinney."