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BONUS: From Dana Loesch, out next Tuesday, Flyover Nation: You Can't Run a Country You've Never Been To.

Hillary Clinton Received Secret Memo Stating Obama Administration 'Support' for Islamic State

From Patrick Howley, at Breitbart:

So this is the smoking gun, right? Or will this be glossed over too? https://t.co/aY1hhJakOI

— Wzrthnu (@wzrthnu) June 15, 2016

WASHINGTON, DC — Hillary Clinton received a classified intelligence report stating that the Obama administration was actively supporting Al Qaeda in Iraq, the terrorist group that became the Islamic State.

The memo made clear that Al Qaeda in Iraq was speaking through Muhammad Al Adnani, who is now the senior spokesman for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. Western and Gulf states were supporting the terrorist group to try to overthrow Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad, who was being propped up by the Russians, Iranians, and Chinese.

In August 2012, a “SECRET” classified memo was sent to various top Obama administration officials and agencies, including to the State Department and to Clinton’s office personally.

“The document is an IAR, an intelligence information report,” said Christopher J. Farrell, who serves on the board of directors of Judicial Watch, which obtained the document. “It is produced by somebody within the Defense intelligence agency (DIA). It is reporting from the field by an intelligence agent” who could be a U.S. government agent, a defense attaché, or a source.

“It’s a report from the field back to headquarters with some intelligence that somebody is willing to bet their career on,” Farrell said.

Farrell confirmed that the report was sent to Clinton’s office, based on the recipient marking “RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHINGTON DC.”

The report identifies Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) as being one of the principal elements of the Syrian opposition, which the West was choosing to “support.”

The enormity of the lies and deception of the Obama years have only begun to be unfolded. We're going need and national truth and reconciliation commission under the Trump administration, and that still will only scratch the surface of the left's evil war on the U.S. over these last few years.

The document's at the link.

More at Memeorandum.

Obama's Failed Feadership

From Michael Goodwin, at the New York Post, "Obama's tantrum a striking display of failed leadership."

Obama's speech was a striking display of personal anger and pent-up grievances https://t.co/S0HSvD6bt7

— New York Post (@nypost) June 15, 2016

Political Correctness to Blame for Orlando Massacre

From Kenneth Timmerman, at the Hill:

The FBI placed Orlando shooter Omar Mateen, 29, on its terrorist watch list in 2013 after co-workers reported that he had made “inflammatory comments” they felt showed his sympathies for terrorist groups.

When agents questioned him, they determined that Mateen “had not broken any laws,” and closed the investigation. In Obama’s America, it’s not illegal to declare your sympathies for radical Islamic terrorist groups - even repeatedly and vehemently, as Mateen’s co-workers claim was the case - because radical Islamic terrorism doesn’t exist. So the FBI took him off the watchlist.

In 2014, the FBI came back for a second try. This time, they found that Mateen had been in contact with an American who had traveled to Syria, joined ISIS and volunteered for jihad, blowing himself up in a homicide bombing.

An FBI official told reporters that they closed that investigation “because they concluded the contacts with the suicide bomber had been minimal.” Once again, they took him off the terror watchlist.

Now, obviously no rational American wants the FBI arresting people because of their opinions, even though the Obama Justice Department and several Attorneys General are trying very hard to criminalize as “hate speech” anyone who cites scientific data showing that man-made global warming isn’t happening.

But when the FBI investigates the same individual for suspected terrorist ties twice in two years, you would think they might conduct an undercover investigation to learn more.

Remember: they hadn’t investigated Mateen twice because he was a Muslim. They investigated him because he exhibited behavior that suggested he might pose a potential threat. Despite this, they were not allowed to push that investigation further, because of political correctness.

This is not the first time that innocent Americans have died because of political correctness.

Just days after the San Bernardino shootings last December, we learned that the Department of Homeland Security had shut down an intelligence-based screening program that had identified the mosque shooter Syed Farook attended as a recruitment center for jihadis.

Had DHS been allowed to continue using that screening program and pursue its investigation of the mosque, they would have stumbled upon Syed Farook and arguably could have prevented a massacre of American innocents.

Instead, they fired the intelligence analyst who devised the program, Phil Haney, and ordered all the data he had uncovered about jihadi recruiting centers destroyed because it offended President Obama’s Muslim Brotherhood advisors, who worked hard to eliminate all such law enforcement programs on the pretence they were “offensive” to Muslims.

Political correctness kills.

More.

And ICYMI, from yesterday, "Dana Loesch Comments on the Orlando Terrorist Attack (VIDEO)."

Donald Trump: 'I watched President Obama today and he was more angry at me than the shooter...' (VIDEO)

Polls show that Americans dislike both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's response to the Florida attack. But it's not even close for me. Trump nailed it.

At the Hill, "Trump: Obama ‘more angry at me’ than Orlando shooter."

Trump in Greensboro: "And I watched President Obama today, and he was more angry at me than he was at the shooter."

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) June 14, 2016

Guns Occupy a Critical Space in the Culture Wars

Here's a great piece, from Jason Willick, at the American Interest, "How to Tear a Nation Apart" (via Instapundit):

Guns occupy a critical space in America’s increasingly acerbic culture wars, a manifestation of the broader social convection currents taking place below the surface. For Jacksonians who are losing faith in the ability of established institutions to preserve order, the Second Amendment is a bulwark against totalitarian movements, like Islamism, that would undermine American liberty. Under this deeply held view, attacks by ISIS-enthusiasts strengthen, rather than weaken, the case for gun rights. But for cosmopolitan liberals, gun rights are an anachronism—a symbol of all the wrong-headed views espoused by working class whites. Set these two warring camps against each other in the context of an ongoing terror threat, and you push an already divided society even further down the path of tribalism and fracture.

More.

Obama and Clinton Say Donald Trump is Out to Destroy American Values (VIDEO)

I teach politics, so I'm literally obligated to keep up with the news. But I don't remember a campaign this nasty, and it's not the surrogates who're dragging everything down into the mud. It's the left.

I'm inclined to tune out more than I normally do in the summertime, but it's something that needs to be monitored. We're in a very unusual period of Democrat demonization. Citizens' vigilance is now more vital to freedom than any time in my lifetime.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Obama accuses Trump of 'doing the terrorists' work for them'":

President Obama and Hillary Clinton conducted an extraordinary joint attack on Donald Trump on Tuesday, with the president accusing the presumptive Republican nominee of “doing the terrorists’ work for them” and Clinton excoriating him as a liar and a “pathological” personality who is temperamentally unsuited to be president.

Their remarks, made at simultaneous speeches in Washington and Pittsburgh, came the day after Trump revived insinuations about Obama’s loyalty to the U.S. and vowed that as president he would ban immigration not only by Muslims but people from any country with a “proven history of terrorism against the United States, Europe or our allies.”

The harsh exchanges between the two sides, with the election still five months away, underscored the brutal nature of the campaign to come, with its focus on intertwined issues of race, ethnicity, terrorism and immigration.

In his remarks, delivered after a meeting with national security advisors at the Treasury Department, Obama said that the proposals by Trump, whom he referred to as the “presumptive Republican nominee,” would undermine American values.

“Where does this stop?” Obama demanded, noting that the shooter responsible for the killing of 49 people in Orlando was born in the U.S., as were the attackers in several previous terrorists acts. “Are we going to start treating all Muslim Americans differently” than other citizens? he asked. “Are we going to start discriminating against them because of their faith?”

If the U.S. were to go down that path “we would have betrayed the very things we’re trying to protect,” the president said. “And then the terrorists would have won, and we cannot let that happen. I will not let that happen.”

Groups such as Islamic State want to present themselves as the leaders of a “war between Islam and America,” Obama said. “They want us to validate them.” Proposals such as the ones Trump has offered are “doing the terrorists’ work for them,” he said.

Trump, in a statement emailed to the Associated Press, responded that Obama "continues to prioritize our enemy over our allies, and for that matter, the American people."

"When I am president, it will always be America first," he wrote.

Keep reading.

Alligator Drags 2-Year-Old Boy Into the Water at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort (VIDEO)

It's in Orlando, of course.

What a terrible, terrible story.

At the Orlando Sentinel, "Alligator attacks 2-year-old boy at Disney's Grand Floridian":

[Orange County Sheriff Jerry] Demings said the Nebraska family of five was relaxing on the shoreline when the alligator attacked the boy. The father entered the water and tried to grab the child from the gator, but was not successful. He had scratches on his hands after the ordeal.

Reporter Christal Hayes tweets, "#Orlando has turned into a media circus with all this terrible news lately. This is the scene as we wait for info."

More, at FOX 5 News Atlanta:

Noor Salman, Wife of Orlando Jihadist Omar Mateen, Could Soon Face Federal Charges

Megyn Kelly just announced it on Fox News.

#KellyFile has more at 9p ET on @FoxNews rpt that fed prosecutors have convened a grand jury against Mateen’s wife: https://t.co/me2UwDFBmg

— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) June 15, 2016

And at the website, "WIFE ACCESSORY TO MURDER? Feds convene grand jury to launch probe into Orlando shooter's spouse."

Dana Loesch Comments on the Orlando Terrorist Attack (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Gun Control Didn't Stop Orlando Terrorist Attack."

Ava Sambora Shows Off Enviable Bikini Body in Malibu

It's Heather Locklear's 18-year-old daughter.

At London's Daily Mail, "Ava Sambora puts on an eye-popping display for sizzling photo shoot as she parades her enviable bikini bod in Malibu."

Poll Shows Boost for Donald Trump Over Hillary Clinton After Orlando Jihad Attack

It's the Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted from Friday to Tuesday.

Not a huge bounce, but definitely contradicts the NBC News poll out today saying Clinton's "eating away" at Trump's lead among men and white voters. (Via Memeorandum.)

See, "Trump gains slightly on Clinton after Florida attack: Reuters/Ipsos poll" (via Memeorandum):

Trump gains slightly on Clinton after Florida attack: Reuters/Ipsos poll https://t.co/J5ZK77aLQ6

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) June 14, 2016

Hillary Clinton's lead over Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential race has narrowed since late last week, according to the results of the first Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted since the Orlando shooting rampage on Sunday.

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the Nov. 8 election, has blamed Democratic policies for the worst mass shooting in U.S. history and doubled-down on his pledge to ban Muslim immigration, while Clinton has warned against demonizing Muslim-Americans.

The poll, conducted from Friday to Tuesday, showed Clinton with an 11.6-point lead - 44.6 percent to 33.0 percent - over Trump, down from the 13-point lead she had in the five days that ended Saturday.

The Florida attack, in which a gunman killed 49 people at a gay nightclub and wounded 53 could have a lingering impact on the presidential race, mixing concerns about immigration, gun violence and religious tolerance into what has already been a volatile and sharply negative campaign.

The shooter, Omar Mateen, 29, the U.S.-born son of Afghan immigrant parents, called authorities during the massacre to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State militant group.

Federal investigators have said Mateen, who was killed by police, was likely self-radicalized and there was no evidence he received any instruction or aid from outside groups such as Islamic State.

Trump seized on the attack to accuse Democratic President Barack Obama of failing to address "radical Islamic terrorism," to warn that Clinton's policies on immigration would allow more potential attackers into the country, and to fine-tune his call for a suspension of Muslim immigration.

In a speech on Monday, Trump said he would suspend immigration from countries with a “proven history of terrorism” against the United States, Europe and allied countries "until we fully understand how to end these threats."

Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said Trump's response to the attack was disturbing...

More.

Frankly, Trump's numbers have yet to take off, especially now that the Democrats are playing desperate defense on national security. O's terrorism speech today was an absolute disgrace, attempting to justify his administration's refusal to clearly identify our enemies.

The public's not going to be forgiving. We're having regular jihad attacks, inspired by Islamic State. The blood's on the hands of the Democrats in the White House, and Hillary Clinton too.

FLASHBACK: From last December, "Poll: Heightened Fear of Terrorism is Rippling Through the Electorate."

Somali Muslim Mohammad Moghaddam Killed in Hostage Situation at #Amarillo Walmart (VIDEO)

"Workplace violence."

At Creeping Sharia, "Texas: Muslim employee took hostages at Amarillo Walmart, killed by police."

And Ricochet, "Police Kill Suspect in Apparent Hostage Situation at #Amarillo Walmart."

And watch, at ABC News:

Laura Ingraham Responds to Candidates' Reactions to Orlando Jihad Massacre (VIDEO)

Watch, at Fox News, "Laura Ingraham on Candidates' Reactions to Orlando Shooting."

Roundup of the Roundups

I've gotta head out to the office to wrap up a few loose ends.

Plus, I'll be having lunch with my colleague who just retired.

Back this afternoon.

Meanwhile, check out Maggie's Farm, "Tuesday morning links." Also, from Doug Ross, "Larwyn's Linx: ISIS Terror Shooting at Gay Nightclub Dismantles the Liberal Narrative; Trump's Speech a Game-Changer."

More at Blazing Cat Fur, "NBC: Real Problem with These Tragedies Are Trump’s Tweets or Something."

ICYMI: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Heretic

From last November, at Amazon, Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now.

And from earlier today, "Islam's Jihad Against Homosexuals."

Hannah Ferguson Summer of Swim 2016 (VIDEO)

Talking a break from Orlando blogging.

Via Sports Illustrated:

Nabeel Qureshi, Answering Jihad

Nabeel Qureshi published an outstanding essay -- one of the best on this ever --- following the Belgium jihad attacks in March, at USA Today: "The Quran's deadly role in inspiring Belgian slaughter."

I meant to blog it at the time, but never got the chance.

He's a convert to Christianity, and pulls no punches on Islam. But his family's Muslim, and he worries about them. That's one of the topics in his latest book, Answering Jihad: A Better Way Forward.

I haven't read it yet, but hopefully soon.

Also, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity.

Deal of the Day: Dromida Ominus Drones as Low as $49.99

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More, Father's Day - Chef Works Promotion.

Plus, Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan, ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror.

Joby Warrick, Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS.

Patrick Cockburn, The Rise of Islamic State: ISIS and the New Sunni Revolution.

BONUS: Bruce Bawer, While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within.

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.