In the Mail: Brigitte L. Nacos, Terrorism and Counterterrorism [BUMPED]

A new edition is out, from Routledge, Brigitte L. Nacos, Terrorism and Counterterrorism (5th Edition).

Also, from Joby Warrick, Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS.

Fawaz Gerges, ISIS: A History.

Plus, from Daniel Byman, Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the Global Jihadist Movement: What Everyone Needs to Know.

William McCants, The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State.

Erick Stakelbeck, ISIS Exposed: Beheadings, Slavery, and the Hellish Reality of Radical Islam.

Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11.

Islam's Jihad Against Homosexuals

From Ayaan Hirsi Ali, at WSJ, "The rise of modern Islamic extremism has worsened an institutionalized Muslim homophobia":

The Orlando massacre is a hideous reminder to Americans that homophobia is an integral part of Islamic extremism. That isn’t to say that some people of other faiths and ideologies aren’t hostile to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, community. Nor is to say that Islamic extremists don’t target other minorities, in addition to engaging in wholly indiscriminate violence. But it is important to establish why a man like Omar Mateen could be motivated to murder 49 people in a gay nightclub, interrupting the slaughter, as law-enforcement officials reported, to dial 911, proclaim his support for Islamic State and then pray to Allah.

I offer an explanation in the form of four propositions...

These are: "Muslim homophobia is institutionalized"; many Muslim-majority countries criminalize homosexuality; Muslims in Muslim-majority countries are homophobic; and "modern Islamic extremism has worsened the intolerance toward homosexuality."

More at the click-through.

BONUS: From Milo Yiannopoulos, "The Left Chose Islam Over Gays. Now 100 People Are Dead or Maimed In Orlando."

Orlando Jihad: Amanda Marcotte and the Cult Ideology of Feminism

At the Other McCain, "Shorter @AmandaMarcotte: ‘Masculinity Killed Those Gay People in Orlando’":

This is one of the aspects of contemporary feminism that, I think, gets too little scrutiny. To what extent can the “feminism” of Amanda Marcotte, Jessica Valenti, et al., be distinguished from the general political and policy agenda of the Democrat Party? And with Hillary Clinton running for president, this simple-minded “vote your vagina” message is being echoed and amplified by the media to such a deafening level that we can scarcely hear anything else. Propaganda always requires demonizing scapegoats who, according to the political calculus of the Democrat Party in the 21st-century, are always male, always white, and always Christian. Democrats win elections by maximizing their vote among unmarried women, among black and Hispanic voters, and among atheists. This divide-and-conquer tactic of identity politics appeals to utterly irrational impulses, the tribal tendency of people to thinks of themselves in opposition to a hated Other, so that their emotions — including self-pity and envy — overpower their ability to analyze policy and calculate their own actual best interests. Trust me, I used to be a Democrat.

Still more.

Department of Homeland Security Prohibited from Using Words That 'Disrespect' Muslims

Not shocking at all.

All security training procedures have been purged of politically incorrect language that might actually help police personnel from stopping attacks.

No wonder Donald Trump gets so much flak from the leftist press. He's onto something, big time.

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Homeland Security PROHIBITED From Using ‘JIHAD’, ‘SHARIA’ — Words That “DISRESPECT” Muslims."

PREVIOUSLY: "Orlando Jihad — Donald Trump Fingers 'Muslim' Obama: 'He's got something else in mind...' (VIDEO)," and "Americans Permanently Divided Amid National Crises."

Counter-Jihad Divide: Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Diverge on Security After Orlando (VIDEO)

Watch: Nancy Cordes reports for CBS This Morning, "Trump defends Muslim ban, Clinton focuses on gun laws."

And at the Los Angeles Times, "The Trump and Clinton responses to the Orlando shooting just reset the political norm":

The candidates didn’t take the requisite timeout from the presidential campaign trail. They didn’t announce that this week was for healing only. The body count, in fact, was not even final before the massacre in Orlando, Fla., had become as politically charged as it was horrific.

The deadliest mass shooting in American history became the launching point Monday for what was already expected to be one of the country’s nastier presidential campaigns, coming the week that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were set to turn their attention entirely to attacking each other and building their cases in battleground states. Instead, the attack forced them to rewrite planned speeches and confront the anxieties set off by yet another gruesome mass murder – and another perpetrator of Islamic faith.

Trump focused relentlessly on immigration as the root cause of the massacre, saying that “the only reason the killer was in America in the first place was because we allowed his family to come here.” His unrestrained broadsides on immigrants, Muslim nations, even the motivations of President Obama – at one point Trump seemed to question whether the president had terrorist affiliations – defied, as usual, political convention.

Clinton delivered a nuanced speech with multiple policy proposals, emphasizing the need for the country to unite and avoid scapegoating Muslims. “Our open, diverse society is an asset in the struggle against terrorism, not a liability,” she said, while warning that installing an unsteady hand with xenophobic tendencies in the White House is among the most dangerous things voters could do. She mentioned no names...

"Nuanced."

That means extreme care not to offend anyone, least of all leftist Islamic jihad-enablers.

Still more.

Ramadan Terror: Paris Knife Jihadist Broadcast Cop-Murder Live on Facebook (VIDEO)

Grisly.

At the Telegraph UK, "Paris attack: Cop-killer broadcast murder live on Facebook, saying he was answering Isil's call for lone wolf attacks during Ramadan":

A suspected Islamist who stabbed to death a police commander and his wife in France claimed he was following Isil’s call for lone wolf attacks during Ramadan, in a video posted online after the killing.

Larossi Abballa, a 25-year-old known to French security services, pledged allegiance to the leader of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) in a 13-minute live broadcast on his Facebook account before warning that Euro 2016 would become a “graveyard”.

Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, an Isil spokesman, last month released an audio recording in which he told followers in Europe and the US to rise up and carry out attacks in its name during the holy month.

The attacker, who went to jail in 2013 for helping Islamist militants go to Pakistan and had been monitored by security services, repeatedly knifed the 42-year-old commander, named locally as Jean-Baptiste Salvaing, in the stomach late on Monday.

He then barricaded himself inside the house in Magnanville, a suburb some 40 miles west of Paris, taking the policeman's partner and three-year-old son hostage. His partner, 36, an administrative police official, was found dead in the house with knife wounds to her neck.

The boy was unharmed but in a state of shock, officials said. He was taken to a children's hospital.

They found three phones and three knives, including one covered in blood on the table.

In his nearby car, they found a Koran, a white djellaba, and two books - one called "genuine belief" and another "explanation of the three foundations".

The video, posted on his Facebook account as police surrounded the couple’s house, reportedly showed the suspect next to his victims, according to French radio station RFI.

The couple’s son can be seen in the background. “I don’t know what to do with it,” the suspect is heard saying of the boy.

Abballa then calls for more attacks in France, particularly against the Euro 2016 stadiums and a list of police officers, prison guards, and journalists he names.

He was shot dead by members of an elite police unit after negotiations failed...

And watch, at France 24, "France : policeman killer was part of Syria jihad investigation, had ties with jihadi networks," and "France police murder claimed by ISIS: 'a direct link with the Orlando mass shooting'."

Gun Control Didn't Stop Orlando Terrorist Attack

Make sure you're following Dana on Twitter.

She's been a one-woman truth tornado following the Orlando jihad massacre.

And at her blog, "Gun Control Didn’t Stop a Terror Attack In Orlando":

Orlando was a terror attack. It was carried out by a radical Islamist from a radical family with hatred in his heart. To reduce this to nothing more than unaffiliated "gun violence" for the sake of a gun control fetish enables the continuance of such attacks. I don't say this lightly, so I'll repeat it: If you're attacking and blaming law-abiding gun owners for the actions of a terrorist you're protecting the terrorist. There isn't one gun law that would have prevented this atrocity. Total prohibition on access to firearms didn't stop the Bataclan terror attack. It's people and motive that are to blame, not guns.

This is indisputable...

Keep reading.

And Dana's book, Hands Off My Gun: Defeating the Plot to Disarm America.

Donald Trump's Rainbow Coalition

Phoenix LGBT tweeted yesterday:

We wanted you to be the first to know, after this horrific attack, we're officially endorsing Trump. Enough is enough.

— Phoenix LGBT (@Igbtphoenix) June 12, 2016

And at Instapundit, "TRUMP BUILDS A RAINBOW COALITION: Gays rally around Trump after Orlando attacks."

Jackie Johnson's Comfortable Conditions Forecast

It's been mild.

It'll be comfortable early in the week, but a "warm-up is on the way."

Ms. Jackie's back for her Monday forecasting, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Orlando Jihadist Omar Mateen Drank by Himself at Pulse Nightclub Before Attack

This story is getting more and more bizarre by the hour. For one thing, some reports indicate that Mateen was a regular at the club.

Seriously, this man had 101 reasons to hate homosexuals.

At the Orlando Sentinel, "Witness: Omar Mateen drank alone at Pulse before attack":

FORT PIERCE — At least four regular customers at the Orlando gay nightclub where a gunman killed 49 people said Monday that they had seen Omar Mateen there before.

"Sometimes he would go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times he would get so drunk he was loud and belligerent," Ty Smith said.

More details emerged Monday about the 29-year-old gunman and what he did in the days leading up to the massacre, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

He was at Walt Disney World in April, said a Disney manager who requested anonymity.

FBI Director James Comey said his agency was trying to nail down that report and the possibility that Mateen was scouting the amusement park as a potential target, the Associated Press reported.

Smith told the Orlando Sentinel that he saw Mateen inside at least a dozen times.

"We didn't really talk to him a lot, but I remember him saying things about his dad at times," Smith said. "He told us he had a wife and child."

When asked about those sightings, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said he had no information.

Another Pulse regular, Kevin West, told the Los Angeles Times that Mateen messaged him on and off for a year using a gay chat app.

They had never met, West said, but he watched as Mateen entered the club about 1 a.m. Sunday, an hour before the shooting began.

Mateen was the security guard, born in New Hyde Park, NY., who walked into the club about 2 a.m. Sunday with a semiautomatic pistol and an assault rifle. While dance music blared, he opened fire, killing 49 people and injuring 53.

He died three hours later in a shootout with the Orlando Police Department SWAT team when it stormed the building.

Still more.

Donald Trump's Speech Is a Game Changer (VIDEO)

Watch, "Donald Trump speaks after Orlando massacre — Trump responded Monday to the worst terror attack on U.S. soil since 9/11 with a tough call to clamp down on Muslim immigration."

Donald Trump: "I refuse to be politically correct" https://t.co/SiRfPPFojT https://t.co/OU0oRsVhid

— CNN (@CNN) June 13, 2016

And from David Horowitz, at Big Government, "Donald Trump’s speech on national security, which he delivered the day after the terrorist attack in Orlando, Florida, will change the dynamic of this election":

The speech was specific, detailed, and on the money. Trump showed how strategic securing the border is, how important stopping immigration from terror zones like Syria is, and how deadly political correctness has become. Political correctness – which transforms the Islamic world, which has a lot to answer for, from aggressors into innocent victims – functions as a shield for Islamic terrorists, and handcuffs law-abiding citizens prompting them not to report suspicious activities by Muslims for fear of being called racist.

Trump was especially courageous (and politically incorrect) in pointing out that the Muslim communities in which the terrorists operate know what is going on but don’t say anything. What a contrast with Hillary’s speech today, which focused on reinforcing political correctness – attacking so-called assault rifles, as though guns and not fanatics were the problem, and emphasizing the importance of not alienating Muslims by acknowledging that a large and growing segment of the Islamic world is at war with us. What contempt for Muslims who are also victims of Islamic terror!

Does denying reality encourage non-belligerent Muslims to help us? For seven and a half years, the Obama administration has closed its eyes to the Islamic dimensions of the terrorist threat, has refused as long and as much as possible to even use the word “terror.” And what has been the result? Muslims in San Bernardino and St. Lucie – as Trump had the political courage to point out – saw something but said nothing about the atrocities brewing in their communities.

At the same time, the progressive enablers of Islamist terror have been busy blaming Christian conservatives for the anti-gay hatred that is a core belief of the Islamists, rooted not only in their religious texts but relentlessly broadcast through their Imams and mosques.

Donald Trump has shown how dangerous and deadly the PC orthodoxy of the political left is. He has laid out the practical steps that are absolutely necessary to protect Americans but have been missing during the seven and half years of Obama’s appeasement administration. And – it should be said – that have been missing from critiques of Obama by Republicans fearful of being politically incorrect.

The Republican outcries against Trump’s call for a moratorium on Muslim immigration from terror zones are disgraceful and dangerous. The attacks by Republican renegades on Trump as a “trickle down racist” are disgusting and dangerous. They serve only one purpose, which is to cripple the only candidate in this presidential race who will actually defend this country and not facilitate its dismantling and destruction.

Hillary Clinton: Islam 'Has Nothing Whatsoever to Do with Terrorism...'

Clinton wrote last November on Twitter, "Let’s be clear: Islam is not our adversary. Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism."

I'm surprised that tweet's still live.

Here's the screencap:



And at CNN today, via Memeorandum, "Clinton: I'll say the words ‘radical Islamism’."

Now she'll say it, after wrapping up the nomination, and following the worst terrorist massacre since September 11.

And knowing she's going to get hammered by Donald Trump for murderous political correctness.

She'll say anything to get elected. She's a sick bitch.

Heidi Klum Shows Off New Heidi Klum Intimates Collection

Nice bikini!

Loving @HKintimates’ new collection! https://t.co/9btc11zPWB https://t.co/FerXCYzwyP pic.twitter.com/LSvBdv9Wi7

— Heidi Klum (@heidiklum) June 13, 2016

Plus, at Egotastic!, "Heidi Klum Black and White Braless Hotness."

And from April, "Heidi Klum Bikini Photos: Tulum, Mexico."

Orlando Jihad — Donald Trump Fingers 'Muslim' Obama: 'He's got something else in mind...' (VIDEO)

I tell you, Trump is going to fire up his faithful with comments like this. But it remains to be seen how suggestions that Obama's "got something else in mind" is going to play with independents and former Bernie supporters. Either way, Trump's drilling down to the deepest distrust of Americans against this president.

Is Obama Muslim? Not anymore. But he certainly cares more about Muslims, and works more to defend Islam against criticism, than he cares about Christians and Christianity.

I especially like this point that it's possible that Obama knows exactly what he's doing. That's what happening, in my view. Obama's not clueless or ignorant of the threat from Islamic jihad. He knows exactly what he's doing, and that makes his consequent threats to American security that much more nefarious. It's frankly evil, but he's a man of the left, and the leftist agenda for America is evil.

At the Washington Post, "Donald Trump seems to connect President Obama to Orlando shooting" (via Memeorandum):

Donald Trump seemed to repeatedly accuse President Obama on Monday of identifying with radicalized Muslims who have carried out terrorist attacks in the United States and being complicit in the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando over the weekend, the worst the country has ever seen.

"Look, we're led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he's got something else in mind," Trump said in a lengthy interview on Fox News early Monday morning. "And the something else in mind — you know, people can't believe it. People cannot, they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the way he acts and can't even mention the words 'radical Islamic terrorism.' There's something going on. It's inconceivable. There's something going on."

In that same interview, Trump was asked to explain why he called for Obama to resign in light of the shooting and he answered, in part: "He doesn't get it or he gets it better than anybody understands — it's one or the other, and either one is unacceptable."

For months, Trump has slyly suggested that the president is not Christian and has questioned his compassion toward Muslims. Years ago, Trump was a major force in calls for the president to release his birth certificate and prove that he was born in the United States. On the campaign trail, Trump has repeatedly stated as fact conspiracy theories about the president, his rivals and Muslims, often refusing to back down from his assertions even when they are proven to be false.

During an appearance on the "Today" show later Monday morning, Savannah Guthrie pushed Trump to explain what he meant in the earlier interview.

"Well there are a lot of people that think maybe he doesn't want to get it," Trump said. "A lot of people think maybe he doesn't want to know about it. I happen to think that he just doesn't know what he's doing, but there are many people that think maybe he doesn't want to get it. He doesn't want to see what's really happening. And that could be."

Guthrie asked Trump why that would be, and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee responded: "Because Savannah, Savannah, why isn't he addressing the issue? He's not addressing the issue. He's not calling it what it is. This is radical Islamic terrorism. This isn't fighting Germany; this isn't fighting Japan, where they wear uniforms."

Trump's spokeswoman and campaign manager have yet to respond to a request for a fuller explanation of Trump's comments about the president...

Still more.

Americans Permanently Divided Amid National Crises

Okay, I'm just now getting back online.

I attended a retirement brunch for a couple of my colleagues this morning, and I had to swing by the office to pick up a couple of final exams for students who took theirs at the disabled students center. I've recorded those now and posted my final course grades online.

I'm good to go for summer vacation, heh.

Of course, the Orlando attack is dominating the news, as it should be. See Memeorandum.

I'll be updating throughout the day, but one of the better reports I saw yesterday was from Karen Tumulty, at WaPo, "The new norm: When tragedy hits, Americans stand divided" (via Memeorandum):

Not since 9/11 has a moment like this brought the nation together, and that evaporated quickly. Since then, calamity seems only to drive the left and the right further apart, while faith in the nation’s institutions deteriorates further.

Across the ideological and partisan divide, it no longer seems possible to even explore — much less agree upon — causes and solutions. So the response has been muddled, even while the next tragedy looms.

Keep reading.

Chase Strangio, who's a Staff Attorney with the ACLU's LGBT & AIDS Project, really captured all that is wrong with the left's response to the attack. Naturally, for hardline LGBT activists, the problem is right-wing "homophobia" and the conservative "climate of hate."

This stuff is actually hard for me to read, it's so sickening and divorced from what's really going on:

Glad funders think LGBT movement is over. Between this & the anti-trans bills and vitriol I think it's safe to say we have some work to do.

— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) June 12, 2016

I spend my life fighting Christian homophobia while being loved & supported by my Muslim family. Fuck your take on an entire religion.

— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) June 12, 2016

I don't care who shooter claimed allegiance to. We don't have to look beyond the hateful culture right here to understand how this happened

— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) June 12, 2016

From arrests of groups of trans woc for loitering to shootings at gay clubs, survival mechanisms for queers lead to criminalization & death.

— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) June 12, 2016

To my queer Latinx siblings-you are so beautiful. I recommit to fighting for queer & trans people of color. We are all complicit in this.

— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) June 13, 2016

More, from Robert Stacy McCain, "Blame-Shifters: Democrats Use #Orlando to Scapegoat Christians, GOP, NRA."

Another Terror Attack? Yawn

At Cold Fury, "Yawn":

Candlelight vigils, weeping, tearful pleas for mercy, and plaintive versions of John Lennon’s Imagine will begin directly. “Resolute” vows to “bring the terrorists to justice” from pRetend pResident Oshitstain to follow, including a condescending lecture about the paramount importance of not even thinking the word “Islam” to oneself. Then will come the self-righteous demands that Americans disarm themselves and submit to further government intrusion on their freedom in the name of security theater.

And can there be any doubt among staunch “conservatives” that Trump’s racist, xenophobic, white-supremacist hate speech outrageously calling for being a bit more selective about who we allow to cross our borders and live among us are the real cause? Why, the guy was practically defenseless against the onslaught of such naked, fascist bigotry; who can really blame him if it drove him over the edge into the same kind of violence that Trump is constantly demanding from his hateful, slackjawed, trailer-dwelling followers?

In other words, it’s all just more of the same old shit, folks. If you haven’t gotten used to it by now, don’t worry, you will. This is, after all, the New Normal in helpless, gutless, wide-open, politically-correct Liberal Amerika. Just remember: if we fight them at all, in any way, it means the terrorists have already won. Because That’s Not Who We Are™.

The really sad thing is, they’re right: it isn’t.

Still more.

Here's Some Emily Ratajkowski from the Archives

She's nice to look at, for a change.

Islamic terrorism --- and its leftist enablers -- can get to you after a while.

And don't miss the Emily archives, heh.

Mirriam Seddiq Nails It

Wow.

This lady is good!

Via Instapundit:



Here, here, and here.

Disgusting #Orlando Politicization from the New York Daily News

Well, I guess we shouldn't expect anything less.

But still.

Despicable: "NRA’s fight to stop assault weapons ban enables killers behind shootings at Orlando nightclub, Newtown, and San Bernardino to use AR-15 rifle."

A look at tomorrow's front page...

50 dead in Orlando club massacre,
THANKS, @NRA:https://t.co/9Du2YEdzEo pic.twitter.com/hVJvzC351j

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) June 13, 2016

Jihad Denial Kills…Again

From John Schindler, at the Observer, "America just suffered our worst terrorist attack since 9/11. We need to start talking honestly about the enemy that keeps butchering Americans":

How many more Americans have to die before we can have a "national conversation" about radical Islam & jihadism?https://t.co/JDZP9Ja0nB

— John Schindler (@20committee) June 12, 2016

Tonight we burn illusions. A terrorist attack on a popular gay club in Orlando, Florida in the middle of the night ended before the dawn with the violent deaths of at least 50 innocents and the maiming of 53 more. This was the bloodiest terrorist attack on America since 9/11. The Pulse nightclub, something of an icon in Florida LGBT circles, was transformed into a charnel house.

The United States had been lucky, having avoided truly mass casualty terrorist incidents since that awful day 15 years ago, through a combination of luck, inept enemies, and excellent intelligence work. But the Orlando horror demonstrates that attacks on soft targets in public places can cause huge numbers of casualties, here as well as in Europe, like last November’s assaults on Paris that killed 130 people, 89 of them at the Bataclan theater, where a hostage situation resulted in a bloodbath. Something similar has just happened in Florida.

While the Paris attacks were the work of nine terrorists, plus several others providing logistical support, so far only one killer has been identified in the Orlando atrocity. While there are reports of other shooters, these remain unconfirmed, and the sole terrorist definitely involved was Omar Mateen, born in this country in 1986 to immigrant parents from Afghanistan. He was killed by police at the end of the nightmare he inflicted on Orlando.

So far, his story is shaping up as the now-customary list of jihadist clichés. The 29-year-old went from a relatively normal American life towards extremism, winding up on the radar of the FBI more than once for his aggressive beliefs. A brief marriage failed, in part because he frequently beat his wife, she claims, asserting that Mateen “was not a stable person.” A trauma like divorce leading to an embrace of jihadism is as common as can be in extremist circles.

The killer’s family has claimed that their son’s terrible act had “nothing to do with religion” – again, following the script we have come to expect whenever a young person, usually male, brutally murders strangers in the name of Islam. While Omar Mateen’s father claims to be utterly mystified by his son’s actions, that assertion should be examined closely, since Seddique Mateen has publicly praised the Taliban in his home country – the very people the American military has been fighting since late 2001. In a truly bizarre twist, Mateen Senior claims to be the real president of Afghanistan. His statement that his son was triggered by seeing two men kissing in public seems unlikely to endear the family to the American public....

Within hours of the massacre, progressives and jihad apologists were insisting that the Orlando attack was “really” about guns – and certainly not about Islamism or jihadism. The Pulse massacre was about guns the way that the 9/11 attacks were “really” about box cutters and the 2013 Boston bombing was “really” about pressure cookers. There are millions of guns in Florida (the state has issued 1.3 million concealed carry permits alone) plus plenty of people who are not overly fond of gays. Why, then, was Omar Mateen the one who assaulted a gay club and shot dozens of innocent people?

Based on his statement on the atrocity, President Obama won’t be asking that question anytime soon. Although Mr. Obama demurred from some of his customary evasions, actually calling the attack an “act of terrorism,” he quickly defaulted to his usual talking points whenever radical Muslims butcher Americans: “hate” and “guns” were cited frequently by the president, while words such as “Islamism” and “jihad” were notable by their absence. Mr. Obama’s denial of the obvious, perfected during his two terms in the White House, appears unshakeable.

These evasions are met with derision by counterterrorism professionals, who deduced Mr. Obama’s agenda back in 2009 when he dismissed the Fort Hood massacre as “workplace violence.” Spies and cops have gotten used to this president’s persistent inability to call the enemy what he actually is, even though that enemy constantly calls himself such things. “What was he gonna call Orlando,” asked an old FBI friend just hours after the Pulse attack: “gayplace violence?”

It’s not difficult to determine what’s really going on here. Just two months before this attack, an Orlando mosque hosted an Islamic theologian known for pronouncing homosexuals as deserving of death. “Death is the sentence” they merit as an act of “compassion,” the imam stated. While his invitation got some coverage in Orlando media, one wonders what the mainstream media would have to say if a white preacher in Charleston had pronounced blacks as deserving the death sentence only two months before Dylann Roof murdered nine African Americans in a church...

Still more.

Horrible Person Yael Abouhalkah is All That's Wrong with This Country, Along with Leftism and Islam

Dana Loesch tweeted out this depraved leftist asshole earlier:

Sickening. I'm a member. The terrorist pledged to ISIS not the NRA. Shame on you. https://t.co/xWbdFAHvzW

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) June 12, 2016

Here's this horrible person's tweet:

Dear God:
Today I am so sickened by the evilness of the NRA and gun industry. May their leaders be plunged into ever-lasting hell.
Amen

— Yael T. Abouhalkah (@YaelTAbouhalkah) June 12, 2016

Bodies are still warm and this crust of human refuse already posted this, at the Kansas City Star, "Gun industry, NRA leaders and Congress have enabled killers in America."

Additional reactions:

As we all grieve to spew hate is very un-American https://t.co/Hey1MWz4Oi

— SalenaZito (@SalenaZitoTrib) June 12, 2016

At a time Florida and the country come together around the community that was attacked you continue to spew hate https://t.co/VqIfuh3mZs

— SalenaZito (@SalenaZitoTrib) June 12, 2016

Terror excusing @YaelTAbouhalkah decides regular American gun owners are at fault for Orlando shooting. What a scumbag.

— Warner Todd Huston (@warnerthuston) June 12, 2016

President Obama's Statement on Orlando Terrorist Attack (VIDEO)

At Twitchy, "Obama: No definitive judgement on killer’s motives":

During his presser on the Orlando shooting, Obama painfully admitted it was indeed an “act of terror,” but made sure to also include that there is no definitive judgement on the motivations of the killer. Apparently Omar Mateen making a call to 911 to swear allegiance to the Islamic State before massacring 50 innocents in the nightclub isn’t definitive enough for the leader of the free world.

That's despicable.

Barrack Hussein on #OrlandoShooting: No mention of Islamic jihad, but condemns easy access to firearms. #PulseNightclub #Pulse @DLoesch

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 12, 2016

Pink Pistols Statement on Orlando Shooting

This shooting is going to raise all kinds of contradictions for the radical left.

Via Instapundit, "FROM GAY GUN-RIGHTS GROUP THE PINK PISTOLS, a comment on the Orlando shooting":

Gwendolyn Patton, First Speaker of the Pink Pistols, an international GLBT self-defense organization, warns people not to jump immediately to the assailant’s guns as the object of blame, but to concentrate instead on Mateen’s violent acts. “The Pink Pistols gives condolences to all family and friends of those killed and injured at Pulse,” began Patton. “This is exactly the kind of heinous act that justifies our existence. At such a time of tragedy, let us not reach for the low-hanging fruit of blaming the killer’s guns. Let us stay focused on the fact that someone hated gay people so much they were ready to kill or injure so many. A human being did this. The human being’s tools are unimportant when compared to the bleakness of that person’s soul. I say again, GUNS did not do this. A human being did this, a dead human being. Our job now is not to demonize the man’s tools, but to condemn his acts and work to prevent such acts in the future.”

Patton’s concerns are that knee-jerk gun-control efforts may make preventing future events harder rather than easier, as only the law-abiding potential victims will be affected by such laws. “It is difficult, if not impossible, to foresee such an event,” continues Patton, “But if they cannot be prevented, then they must be stopped as fast as someone tries to start them.”

Oh boy.

Leftists will work to destroy this Pink Pistols group. They're in for two-minutes of hate, for an eternity!

Still more.

Kaitlyn Juvik Braless Protest

No bra? No problem.

At Heat Street, "Bra-Less Teen Is ‘Sexually Harassing’ Other Boys And Her Teachers":

This anti-bra high schooler wants to start a national discussion about the body shaming and sexualizing of women. https://t.co/OwERzjpPZU

— Heat Street (@heatstreet) June 12, 2016

The latest edition of People Magazine offers readers a slobbering human interest story about Kaitlyn Juvik, an attention-seeking Montana high-school student and Lena Dunham wanna-be (both in her penchant for showing off her body parts and her misunderstanding of feminism), who is eager to clear a few things up: Boys don’t matter. What does matter—really the only thing that matters—is Juvik and her feelings and personal comfort.

Juvik claims comfort was the main reason she tossed her bra aside and headed to school. She made several people uncomfortable, including, she claims, a teacher. Called to the principal’s office, Juvik was told she was in violation of the dress code (her school’s dress code actually doesn’t mention underwear…because I suspect school administrators thought parents might take the on the role of explaining how civil society works).

And now, Juvik’s crying foul—taking a page from the feminist handbook on first world problems (that only rich, white teenagers…like…totally get) and claiming she’s a victim of leering boys (and even a pervy teacher). Predictably, Juvik says she wants to start a “national discussion” about “the body shaming and sexualizing of women” because we haven’t been having that conversation for decades already.

Yawn. Wouldn’t it be nice if just once, a high-school student wanted to start a conversation about math, or science, great literature or real issues facing women…like the systematic rape of Yazidi women in Iraq and Syria. But no, let’s talk about bras and other nonsense...

More.

She's a high-schooler. High school kids are idiot, lol.

Summer Reading [BUMPED]

I'm off for ten weeks.

I don't go back for the fall semester until August 29th. My oldest son just now said, "That's pretty crazy!"

That is, lol.

I'll be doing a lot of reading, enjoying some beer and baseball, and perhaps taking a couple of smallish trips (maybe Las Vegas, or at least Harrah's Rincon resort, which is fabulous).

In any case, here's some reading material for folks, via Amazon.

See, Wayne Batchis, The Right's First Amendment: The Politics of Free Speech & the Return of Conservative Libertarianism.

And Judy Wajcman, Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism.

More, from Robert Lieber, Retreat and its Consequences: American Foreign Policy and the Problem of World Order.

Newt and Callista Gingrich, Rediscovering God in America: Reflections on the Role of Faith in Our Nation's History and Future.

Know your Marxist enemies, with Danny Katch, Socialism . . . Seriously: A Brief Guide to Human Liberation.

David Boaz, The Libertarian Mind: A Manifesto for Freedom.

I'm currently reading, Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left.

BONUS: Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf, "Most Blessed of the Patriarchs": Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination.

Sebastian Gorka, Defeating Jihad

I posted a link to Gorka's book in April. Now's a good time to give it another plug.

At Amazon, Sebastian Gorka, Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War.

Orlando Nightclub Shooter Called 911 to Pledge Allegiance to ISIS

Following-up from previously, "Jihadist Omar Mateen Massacres Dozens in Orlando: Obama Pushes Gun Control Narrative (VIDEO)."

There's more at Memeorandum, at NBC News.

And from Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "AFTER ORLANDO TERRORIST ATTACK, USUAL SUSPECTS SPOUT USUAL NARRATIVE":

.@Instapundit AFTER #ORLANDO TERRORIST ATTACK, USUAL SUSPECTS SPOUT USUAL NARRATIVE… https://t.co/JidbHRgNpo via @EdDriscoll #PulseNightclub

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 12, 2016

Jihadist Omar Mateen Massacres Dozens in Orlando: Obama Pushes Gun Control Narrative (VIDEO)

I was on Twitter at 5:00am when the news was breaking. Some folks were tweeting suspicions about Islamic jihad, but I wasn't going to speculate. When I woke up at 9:30am, the identity of the killer had been released: Omar Mateen, who called 9/11 during the siege to pledge allegiance to Islamic State.

And still, Barrack Hussien refused to even mention the words "Islam" or "Muslim," only to spew hateful far-left talking points about "easy access" to firearms.

It's a nightmare.

Memeorandum has the big roundup, "Omar Mateen, Terrorist Who Attacked Orlando Gay Club, Had Been Investigated by FBI."

And on Twitter:

Barrack Hussein on #OrlandoShooting: No mention of Islamic jihad, but condemns easy access to firearms. #PulseNightclub #Pulse @DLoesch

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 12, 2016

Obama not clear what the motive was when an Islamic terrorist slaughtered gay Americans and called 911 to pledge to ISIS first.

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) June 12, 2016

Barrack Hussein refused to call out Islamic jihad - again! #OrlandoShooting #Pulse #PulseNightclub @Instapundit https://t.co/0gS7sdo5aG

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 12, 2016

As we all grieve to spew hate is very un-American https://t.co/Hey1MWz4Oi

— SalenaZito (@SalenaZitoTrib) June 12, 2016

#Orlando shooter called 911 before nightclub attack to pledge allegiance to ISIS https://t.co/nCEtIjet6i

— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) June 12, 2016

Obama: "This massacre is a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon." Here we go.

— Caleb Howe (@CalebHowe) June 12, 2016

"We can’t arrest every Muslim who wants to kill us, because ALL Muslims want to kill us." https://t.co/cMl7ojqu9z pic.twitter.com/Y9gvRsVfet

— FreeStacy (@Not_RSMcCain) June 12, 2016

Guy was fully licensed and cleared as security guard. Passed Obama’s background check. Loved ISIS. Was Muslim. D’uh. https://t.co/jicrJIFDVO

— Tully Chickpea (@Schwabcycler) June 12, 2016

Yes, Islamic hate. #OrlandoShooting #Pulse #PulseNightclub https://t.co/rQlW0bnnGv

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 12, 2016

Despicable comments. Americans tired of such rank PC. It's going to be an election issue for sure. #OrlandoShooting https://t.co/L8BRxgM1qH

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 12, 2016

Yeah, the "LGBT angle" exposes how leftist PC puts everyone in danger, even virtue-signaling Dems. @instapundit https://t.co/wbVp7u6JGg

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 12, 2016

Sickening. I'm a member. The terrorist pledged to ISIS not the NRA. Shame on you. https://t.co/xWbdFAHvzW

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) June 12, 2016

The terrorist called 911 and pledged allegiance to ISIS. He was a known entity to the FBI. This is a TERRORIST problem.

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) June 12, 2016

It's gonna boost Trump. https://t.co/ayq5dgSD5q

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 12, 2016

What We Know About Alleged Orlando Shooter Omar Mateen https://t.co/ilsWACjuHR via @heatstreet

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) June 12, 2016

Orwellian. https://t.co/c1T0yGi9DO

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 12, 2016

'Game of Thrones' at Mitt Romney Election Summit in Utah

Romney needs to just go away.

He lost twice already. He's not making a good name for himself here.

At WaPo, "Romney loyalists’ divisions over Trump spill out into the open at Utah summit":

PARK CITY, Utah — Mitt Romney warned that a Donald Trump presidency could normalize racism, misogyny and bigotry in the national conscience. Businesswoman Meg Whitman compared the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to Adolf Hitler. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) was asked, uncomfortably, how he could explain his endorsement of Trump to a young child.

Then came Trump’s boosters, awkwardly imploring about 300 business executives and GOP establishment donors and strategists gathered here for Romney’s annual ideas festival to unite for the fall campaign. In a stroke of defiance, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus declared that Trump and the GOP would win in November “with or without you,” according to attendees.

So went the three-day Romney-hosted E2 summit that concluded here Saturday in this luxurious mountaintop resort. The confab put on stark display the Republican Party’s moral and philosophical divisions over its new standard-bearer and underscored the difficulty that Trump and allies such as Priebus will have to consolidate forces at the start of a general election in which Democrat Hillary Clinton is favored.

Anthony Scaramucci, a New York financier who was one of Romney’s top funders in 2012, came to Park City seeking to galvanize his old friends to help him raise money for Trump. He likened the atmosphere here to the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones.”

“I feel like Jon Snow, trying to get the Wildlings to team up with the kings of the castles,” Scaramucci said.

Recalling what he told Romney loyalists, Scaramucci said: “Your father just got slayed by your uncle, whom you don’t really like, and your uncle is now in charge. You’ve got the White Walkers descending from the north and they’re coming to hunt you and all the living. What do you do? Do you fight with your uncle or band together and fight the White Walkers?”

Romney made clear he would rather fight his uncle, figuratively speaking. The 2012 GOP presidential nominee was emotional here Saturday as he delivered an impassioned case against Trump. He said the business mogul’s campaign rhetoric — the latest example being his accusations of bias by a federal judge because of his Mexican American heritage — is so destructive that it is fraying at the nation’s moral fabric and could lead to “trickle-down racism.”

“I love what this country is built upon, and its values — and seeing this is breaking my heart,” Romney told summit attendees, according to the Associated Press.

Trump punched back at Romney at his Saturday rally in Tampa, calling him “poor, sad, Mitt Romney” and a “stone-cold loser.”

Scaramucci and other Romney associates supportive of Trump, including Ron Kaufman, a longtime RNC member from Massachusetts, have pleaded with Romney to tone down his opposition in the interest of party unity.

More.

I blogged Anthony Scaramucci's WSJ op-ed earlier, "Here Are Four Things #NeverTrump Doesn't Get."

English and Russian Soccer Fans Clash on the Streets of Marseille (VIDEO)

At Legal Insurrection, "England, Russia Fans Fight Before Match at Euro 2016."

And via Euronews:

Kristen Keogh's Gloomy Overcast Forecast

It was raining here in Irvine this morning.

And it's still pretty overcast right now, almost 2:00pm in the afternoon.

Via ABC News 10 San Diego:

Deal of the Day: Save $150 On Inflatable Stand Up Paddleboards from Ten Toes

At Amazon, Ten Toes iSUP Inflatable Standup Paddleboard SUP, theWEEKENDER (10'x30''x6'').

Also, Mizuno Men's Wave Enigma 5 Running Shoe, and Mizuno Women's Wave Enigma 5 Running Shoe.

More, Heather Mac Donald, The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe.

Ben Cohen, Some of My Best Friends: A Journey Through Twenty-First Century Antisemitism.

Also, from John Egerton, Speak Now Against the Day: The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South.

Leon F. Litwack, Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow.

Still more, from Kimberlé Crenshaw, On Intersectionality: Essential Writings.

BONUS: Alan Abramowitz, The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy.

Anonymous Superdelegates Declare Clinton the Democrat Nominee Through the Mass Media

Politico had this back in February, "Sanders supporters revolt against superdelegates."

Too bad their revolt didn't come through.

Here's Glenn Greenwald, at the Intercept, "Perfect End to Democratic Primary: Anonymous Superdelegates Declare Winner Through Media":

This is the perfect symbolic ending to Democratic Party primary, run by insiders and funded by corporate interests. https://t.co/OnjtnMxG8X

— The Intercept (@theintercept) June 7, 2016

LAST NIGHT, the Associated Press — on a day when nobody voted — surprised everyone by abruptly declaring the Democratic Party primary over and Hillary Clinton the victor. The decree, issued the night before the California primary in which polls show Clinton and Bernie Sanders in a very close race, was based on the media organization’s survey of “superdelegates”: the Democratic Party’s 720 insiders, corporate donors, and officials whose votes for the presidential nominee count the same as the actually elected delegates. AP claims that superdelegates who had not previously announced their intentions privately told AP reporters that they intend to vote for Clinton, bringing her over the threshold. AP is concealing the identity of the decisive superdelegates who said this.

Although the Sanders campaign rejected the validity of AP’s declaration — on the ground that the superdelegates do not vote until the convention and he intends to try to persuade them to vote for him — most major media outlets followed the projection and declared Clinton the winner.

This is the perfect symbolic ending to the Democratic Party primary: The nomination is consecrated by a media organization, on a day when nobody voted, based on secret discussions with anonymous establishment insiders and donors whose identities the media organization — incredibly — conceals. The decisive edifice of superdelegates is itself anti-democratic and inherently corrupt: designed to prevent actual voters from making choices that the party establishment dislikes. But for a party run by insiders and funded by corporate interests, it’s only fitting that its nomination process ends with such an ignominious, awkward, and undemocratic sputter...

Greenwald's pretty excitable, and never forget he's a regular demonizer of Israel, etc., but he raises a good point nevertheless.

I can't stand the superdelegates. Would Hillary have won the nomination without them? Who knows? But had Bernie Sanders gone for the jugular early in his campaign, holding nothing back, and tearing into every corrupt, scandalous, enabling outrage that is the Clinton political machine, he might well have been crown the Democrat Party standard-bearer. In the end, that's probably the bigger story.

And remember, Donald Trump's under no such constraint. His challenge will be finding the zone while eviscerating the hulk shell cankles Clinton.

RELATED: At Truth Revolt, "Bill Clinton's Ex-Lover Describes Meeting Hillary: 'Lumpy, Thick Calves, Hairy Toes'."

Illegal Alien Valedictorian Larissa Martinez (VIDEO)

She's apparently been accepted to Yale.

Hey, good for her, but one can't help thinking that the so-called "disadvantaged" are nowadays the ones with the most advantages and social prestige.

At PuffHo, "Undocumented Valedictorian Takes Down Trump In Epic Speech."

More at FOX 4 News - Dallas-Fort Worth, "North Texas valedictorian reveals she’s an undocumented immigrant."

And I saw another woman, Mayte Lara, posting about her hot legs and undocumented status on Twitter. She's since deleted her account. No doubt she got death threats, and understandably so. These people are ghouls.

More at the Texas Tribune, "Valedictorians Draw Attention for Saying They're Undocumented (Video)."

Bill Clinton Bagged Millions from World's Largest For-Profit University (VIDEO)

From Professor Jonathan Turley, "The Clinton University Problem: Laureate Education Lawsuits Present Problem For Clintons [Updated]":

While largely ignored by the media, the Clintons have their own university scandal. Donald Trump has been rightfully criticized and sued over his defunct Trump University. There is ample support for claiming that the Trump University was fraudulent in its advertisements and operations. However, the national media has been accused of again sidestepping a scandal involving the Clintons that involves the same type of fraud allegations. The scandal involves a dubious Laureate Education for-profit online college (Walden) and entails many of the common elements with other Clinton scandals: huge sums given to the Clintons and questions of conflicts with Hillary Clinton during her time as Secretary of State. There are distinctions to draw between the two stories, but the virtual radio silence on the Clinton/Laureate story is surprising. [I have updated the original column with some additional thoughts, links, and clarifications for readers).

Keep reading.

Death of Free Speech in Europe (VIDEO)

Via Theo Spark:

Lindsey Pelas Busting Out of Her Bikini

At WWTDD, "Lindsey Pelas in a Bikini."

Kate Upton's Birthday

She's 24-years-old. Still fabulous.

At Sports Illustrated:

Celebrate Kate Upton's birthday in the SEXIEST way possible https://t.co/0dpIVNDTU9 pic.twitter.com/SL65Zb1wVv

— SI Swimsuit (@SI_Swimsuit) June 10, 2016

She doesn't get photographed topless very often, which is a shame.

PREVIOUSLY: "More Kate Upton 'Sexiest Woman'."

Yankees Sweep Angels (VIDEO)

I've pretty much given up on my team. They're 11 games back in the American League West.

There's still hope mathematically, but they've got too many injuries, especially on the pitching staff. Even the hot All-Stars, Mike Trout and Albert Pujols, along with the awesome Kole Calhoun, aren't enough to carry the team into contention.

I'll be tuning in, but once the Angels are eliminated from playoff contention I've got to focus my loyalties elsewhere, probably the Dodgers and the Giants.

In any case, the Yankees pounded the Halos this week. It wasn't even close.

At LAT, "Angels get swept in the Bronx":

All of them silent, the Angels dressed themselves, shoveled in their dinners, loaded their suitcases, signed their checks for the Yankee Stadium clubhouse attendants, and boarded a bus.

If all went according to plan, they’d land at LAX after 2 a.m. PDT, bus back to Orange County, drive home, and then show up to Angel Stadium 10 hours later to play another ballgame.

It is a particularly grueling part of the Major League Baseball schedule that the Angels are occupying now, made worse by their abject struggles during a four-game series against the New York Yankees and, of course, the fact that this season’s result already seems rendered. They lost four straight in the Bronx, including by a 6-3 decision Thursday night.

Jhoulys Chacin pitched wonderfully for four innings and then terribly for one inning, the fifth. That determined the game’s outcome. He walked leadoff man Didi Gregorius, then lamented it later. With one out, Chris Parmelee, a heretofore anonymous man who dominated the Angels this series, singled through to left field to knot the score,1-1.

Jacoby Ellsbury singled, Brett Gardner walked, Angels pitching coach Charles Nagy visited the mound, Carlos Beltran doubled, Alex Rodriguez hit a sacrifice fly, and Brian McCann doubled. The Yankees had five runs in a dozen minutes; Chacin did not have his release point, varying wildly within his normal delivery.

He stayed in to start the sixth inning before the Angels turned to their taxed bullpen.

Closer Huston Street handled the eighth even though the score was the opposite of a save situation...

More.

The hard-copy newspaper article is subtitled on the inside pages, "Angels might be running out of time and options."

How Millennials Can Still #FeelTheBern (VIDEO)

Bernie Sanders won't drop out.

At NYT, "Bernie Sanders Still Presses Battered Campaign Toward Washington Primary."

I suspect some folks on the left are getting pretty angry by now. He's a thorn in the establish Democrat Party's side.

But for a different take, see Jeremy Stern, at WSJ, "How Millennials Can Still Live Bernie’s Dream":

They backed him over Hillary Clinton in greater numbers than they backed Barack Obama over John McCain. But now, millions of millennials are left licking their wounds after the defeat of Bernie Sanders, the greatest progressive hero since the president he wanted to replace.

Many of them recoil at the thought of supporting Mrs. Clinton, a liberal but one with insufficient anticapitalist bona fides. For now, the Bernie-backers’ dream of grafting Scandinavian solutions onto American problems is dead.

Or is it? Despite some recent budgetary setbacks, a long-running American experiment in socialism is still going strong, and yet somehow it remains one of the country’s best-kept secrets.

The federal experiment involves 1.3 million Americans—less than 1% of the population, but 75% of the participants are themselves millennials, so Bernie’s supporters should feel right at home. Unless they feel like they’ve arrived in socialist heaven. Consider:

These lucky few, including their spouses and children, receive free single-payer health care. Pre-existing conditions? No problem. Prescriptions? Generally free.

Bernie only proposed free college for all; that’s already a reality for these young Americans. Local elementary schooling for their children is also tossed in at no cost. Vocational training? When do you want to start? And put your wallet away.

What’s more, the federal government provides these participants with generous living allowances. On top of their normal salaries, they collect a monthly allowance for rent or mortgage payments, an allowance for moving costs incurred when their job location changes, and an allowance for gas consumed when driving for work-related purposes. There’s even a clothing allowance. Oh, none of these allowances is taxable. Did I mention that tax preparation services are also free?

In case you thought it couldn’t get any more Nordic for these chosen few, they get 30 days of paid vacation a year in addition to the usual 10 paid federal holidays. That’s 40 days of paid leave every year—more than in the Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada.

These Americans are also eligible for a lifetime pension. If they enter the program after high school, they can start collecting their retirement—half the dollar amount of their final salary, every year for the rest of their life—at age 38! Not even Bernie thought of that. The amount they collect is calculated annually according to the Consumer Price Index and the effects of inflation, so the pension payments increase each year as the cost of living rises.

Speaking of salaries: No gender pay gap here. A male who occupies the same position with the same experience cannot earn more than his female colleague. That’s the rule, not subject to the whim of a paymaster.

So come on over, disappointed young Bernie fans....

Welcome to the U.S. Armed Forces!

Heh.

You gotta love it!

Now let's see how many Bernie Bros (and Sisters) sign up?

Gawker Media Files for Chapter 11

People are thrilled about this, especially Louise Menshch, lol.

#Gawker fuck you.
Thank you @PeterThiel
Hero

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) June 10, 2016

And from Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED":

Shot: Was It Wrong for Peter Thiel to Fund Hulk Hogan’s Gawker Lawsuit?

Chaser: Gawker Media Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.

More at Mediagazer.

Roger Scruton, Fools, Frauds and Firebrands

I mentioned Scruton's new book previously.

It came by mail today.

See, Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left.

My son "graduated" from middle school today. We attended the promotion ceremony this morning. It was pretty awesome, actually. Especially the pledge of allegiance on the blacktop basketball court, with probably 1,500 people all reciting the pledge together. That felt good. It really did, especially given the nature of the times. I felt for a moment that the old, great patriotic outpouring for the America of our classic political culture was a blast from the past. I felt perhaps focusing on politics so much all the time makes one miss (under-appreciate) those times when we all share out national identity together, in this case while experiencing the joy of our young ones reaching a milestone in life.

It made me feel good.

In any case, the Scruton book's awesome.

I'll have more on it later.

A General Election Focused on Gender (VIDEO)

Clinton's speech the other night was a little much.

I mean, sure, the first woman nominee of a major party in U.S. history. It's a big deal.

But the Democrats just go overboard breaking the civil rights barriers. I just about keeled over in 2008 when Obama was elected. And the media overkill is a nightmare.

In any case, at LAT, "Analysis: Clinton, finally breaking the glass ceiling, ready for a gender battle with Trump":

In a political season filled with promises of revolution, something revolutionary happened: A woman has claimed a major party’s presidential nomination.

That historic occurrence, overshadowed somewhat by everything else that has happened in an election year that has wildly defied expectations, will shape the general election clash to come. It sets up a November battle between presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump that will tread heavily on issues of gender.

Clinton seized on history Tuesday night as she claimed the Democratic nomination during a campaign celebration in New York. She opened with an allusion to what she had memorably called the nation’s “highest, hardest glass ceiling” — the one separating women from the Oval Office.

Clinton seized on history Tuesday night as she claimed the Democratic nomination during a campaign celebration in New York. She opened with an allusion to what she had memorably called the nation’s “highest, hardest glass ceiling” — the one separating women from the Oval Office.

Exactly eight years ago Tuesday, as she departed the 2008 presidential contest, she said her campaign had knocked millions of cracks in that ceiling, one for each vote received in her losing effort.

“It may be hard to see tonight, but we are all standing under a glass ceiling right now,” she said with a grin Tuesday at the refurbished Brooklyn Navy Yard with a ceiling literally made of glass. “But don’t worry, we’re not smashing this one.”

Issues of gender will dominate the general election for at least two reasons. It will be the first time a woman has led a ticket in a presidential general election, and the two candidates already have been jousting over women and their roles.

In recent days, Trump has questioned Clinton’s very presence in the race.

“She doesn’t even look presidential,” he complained via Twitter as Clinton delivered a foreign policy address scathing in its criticism of the Republican.

The primary campaign has been loaded with such allusions to gender, and there’s no reason to think that will change in the months before the general election...

She's a known quantity with super high negatives. I don't think she's going to get as free of a pass as "The One" did in 2008. Still, the media going to boost Hillary and attempt to destroy The Donald as a racist, misogynist Islamophobe. It's just they way journalist operation. They're Democrat operatives with bylines.

More.

Race, Sex, and Ethnicity of Judges Makes a Difference in Judging

Here's the front-page story from the Los Angeles Times a couple of days ago, "Donald Trump's attack on judge and other racial comments stir trouble for the Republican Party."

Apparently, Trump's so-called "racist" attack on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel is the final disqualifying indignity of the 2016 campaign. It's as if Trump hadn't uttered a controversial statement since launching his campaign a year ago. All of a sudden, this is the end of the line. Both left and right, Democrats and Republicans, have now joined hands in a bipartisan denunciation of the GOP nominee. Some folks are even talking about a revived "Never Trump" movement, which includes yet another push to deny the nomination to the New York businessman at the convention.

Normally, a Republican presidential candidate has to run against not just the opposition party's candidate, but the leftist Democrat Media Complex as well. As Glenn Reynolds pointed out today, every four years the GOP nominee's smeared as the second coming of Adolf Hitler. This year's no different in that regard. What's different now is that the GOP nominee's also running against the Republican Party establishment itself. Sure, Reince Priebus backs Trump and has pledged to put the party's full resources toward the general election. The fact is, though, with this Curiel business former establishment Trump supporters are now pulling the rug out.

In any case, it's a tempest in a teapot, frankly. Trump's not doing anything the left doesn't do all the time. Indeed, Trump's just taking a page of the leftist playbook.

See, AoSHQ, "On Race and Judges, Trump Isn't a Racist nor a Conservative — He's a Standard Issue Liberal":

There's no part of a minority that's expected to rule in solidarity with his race?

No particular racial mode of thinking a minority brings to the table?

That would be a shock to these liberals:

"It's impossible not to be disgusted at someone who could benefit so much from affirmative action and then pull up the ladder after himself. "

-- Liberal Maureen Dowd making the standard liberal criticism of Clarence Thomas -- that he's a race traitor insufficiently biased towards members of his own race.
Did Jake Tapper call Maureen Dowd a "textbook racist" for that bit of demagoguery?

Of course not.

Did Paul fucking Ryan?

I doubt it.

He sure didn't remember objecting to it when called upon to comment upon Trump's similar race essentialism. Guess it didn't make much of an impression on him then.

Incidentally, Clarence Thomas is a figure of hate for the left because of his relative uniqueness.

Therefore, in the minds of liberals, most black judges are sufficiently solicitous of the political interests of their own races.

Again-- any upset from the liberals over this liberal idea that judges of color are supposed to "look out for their own"?

None.

This "Thomas pulls the ladders up from other blacks (which most black judges don't do)" critique is of course not original to Dowd -- nothing is original to this tired, sad hag. It's standard issue liberal cant.

None of which is ever objected to by our liberal media masters.

Indeed, Clarence Thomas is attacked for his race quite frequently, on bizarrely unrelated grounds.

The left is renewing its venomous, racist attacks on Thomas in the aftermath of his dissent in the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in favor of gay marriage.

Actor George Takei smeared Thomas as a “clown in blackface.” The Huffington Post called his dissent “beyond ridiculous” and tarred him as a hypocrite for opposing a court-created “right” to gay marriage:

“Clarence Thomas is married to a white woman — something that would be illegal today, if it weren’t for the Supreme Court’s historic Loving v. Virginia ruling.” As if his personal life is fair game.

Last Friday, in another low blow, New York Times reporter Adam Liptak portrayed Thomas as a lightweight whose opinions are cut-and-paste jobs from briefs submitted to the court.

Do Hispanics have a different style of judging than whites -- a different set of inputs leading to a different array of outputs?

Yes indeed they do, says liberal Justice Sandra Sotomayor.

In 2001, Sonia Sotomayor, an appeals court judge, gave a speech declaring that the ethnicity and sex of a judge "may and will make a difference in our judging."
In her speech, Judge Sotomayor questioned the famous notion -- often invoked by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her retired Supreme Court colleague, Sandra Day O’Connor -- that a wise old man and a wise old woman would reach the same conclusion when deciding cases.

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life," said Judge Sotomayor, who is now considered to be near the top of President Obama’s list of potential Supreme Court nominees.

Her remarks, at the annual Judge Mario G. Olmos Law and Cultural Diversity Lecture at the University of California, Berkeley, were not the only instance in which she has publicly described her view of judging in terms that could provoke sharp questioning in a confirmation hearing.

This month, for example, a video surfaced of Judge Sotomayor asserting in 2005 that a “court of appeals is where policy is made.” She then immediately adds: “And I know — I know this is on tape, and I should never say that because we don’t make law. I know. O.K. I know. I’m not promoting it. I’m not advocating it. I’m — you know.”

Indeed, President Obama himself has suggested that minority judges like Sotomayor may bring something to the bench that whites can't bring -- "empathy."

Still more.

Deal of the Day: Save on Select Kingston and HyperX Computer Products

At Amazon, HyperX Cloud II Gaming Headset for PC & PS4 - Gun Metal (KHX-HSCP-GM).

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More, INSANITY Base Kit - DVD Workout.

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And ICYMI, Clinton Romesha, Red Platoon: A True Story of American Valor.

BONUS: Andrew Roberts, The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War.