Oroville Dam: Federal and State Officials Ignored Warnings 12 Years Ago

This just sticks in my craw.

At the San Jose Mercury News, and at KCRA News 3 Sacramento below:

Oroville Dam: Feds and state officials ignored warnings 12 years ago https://t.co/cY1pJzRr7c pic.twitter.com/3bhBYsnqhd

— Mercury News (@mercnews) February 13, 2017

Playboy Magazine to Bring Back Nude Women

Well, it turns out the politically correct Playboy didn't make the cut, and the editors decided to go with the tried and true: nude babes.

At Heat Street, "Playboy is Bringing Nudity Back Following Failed No-Nude Experiment."

And at PuffHo, "Playboy Takes Its Identity Back, Puts Nudity In New Issue."

I guess there's hope in the fight against the pathetic anti-nudity social justice feminist left.

Elizabeth Elam is the Playmate of the Month for March/April 2017

Our March/April 2017 cover #NakedIsNormal https://t.co/FhCkcmnV0S pic.twitter.com/WSxMElDa94

— Playboy (@Playboy) February 13, 2017

Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

I'm catching up on my Native American history, and I'll pick up a copy of Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on the 1st of the month.

Until then, at Amazon, Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West.

Deal of the Day: Dyson Ball Multifloor Upright Vacuum

Shop today, at Amazon, Dyson Ball Multifloor Upright Vacuum, Yellow (Certified Refurbished).

And shop all of Today's Deals.

BONUS: Robert Kelley, Battling the Inland Sea: Floods, Public Policy, and the Sacramento Valley.

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America

*BUMPED.*

I just pulled out my old copy in the original hardback.

But it's still available in paper.

At Amazon, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society (Revised and Enlarged Edition).

One of the added sections at the revised edition is "Schlesinger’s Syllabus," an essay on "the thirteen books you must read to understand America."

How awesome. If only more professors steeped their students in these classics.

Updates: #OrovilleSpillway Holds for Now (VIDEO)

Watch, at KCRA, "What a spillway failure would mean downstream," and "Aerial view shows emergency spillway at Lake Oroville."

Also, "Sacramento motels, hotels fill up with evacuees."

More, at the Sacramento Bee, and CBS This Morning below:

Oroville Lake level dropping as heavy releases run over damaged main spillway https://t.co/P6WsuJeRlW pic.twitter.com/lylWRPhesQ

— The Sacramento Bee (@sacbee_news) February 13, 2017

Must watch video: Drone flies over Lake Oroville Auxiliary Spillway https://t.co/8MfVuJWad6

— The Sacramento Bee (@sacbee_news) February 13, 2017

'Moonlight' Snubbed, So Leftists Accuse Baftas of 'Hate Crime'

I hate to say it, but I wish we could just round up leftists and be rid of them.

That won't work, though, so it's best to just to keep crushing them politically.

At Heat Street:

Some people are accusing the Baftas of a 'hate crime.' https://t.co/7RXFsmiIOy

— Heat Street (@heatstreet) February 13, 2017

Fresno State’s Red Wave Turns Into Gray Wave as Bulldogs Struggle to Attract Young Fans

That's weird. Young fans weren't in short supply when I attended Fresno State in the late 1980s.

Indeed, the Bulldogs were the only game in town, and very popular.

Maybe not so much these days.

At the Fresno Bee:

The empty seats at Bulldog Stadium and Save Mart Center for Fresno State football and basketball games are a troubling sign, but declining attendance is only part of a larger problem for an athletic department intending to get bigger and better.

The famed Red Wave, which helped build those venues and has served Fresno State athletic interests so well for so long, is going gray. And as is the case for most of the nation’s Division I schools, the athletic department is struggling to entice younger fans to games and build a sustainable base of season-ticket sales that account for a significant portion of its revenue.

Forty-nine percent of Fresno State football season ticket holders are 56 and older, according to a recent athletic department survey, with 9 percent 35 and younger. In basketball, 75 percent of season ticket holders are 56 and older and 4 percent 35 and younger.

“The math is not that complicated,” Athletic Director Jim Bartko said. “If we lose that revenue and it keeps going down, the budgets for all our sports will go down.”

Those numbers represent only those with season tickets who responded to the survey, and are not far out of line with national trends.

But Fresno State’s overall ticket sales have dropped sharply the past five seasons, a disturbing trend for a department that for years counted gate receipts as its second-largest source of revenue behind university support. In 2016-17, it is fourth behind university support, fundraising and a Mountain West Conference/NCAA distribution...

Still more.

National Security Advisor Michael Flynn: No Plans to Resign (VIDEO)

The Los Angeles Times reports there's an "ominous silence" around the National Security Adviser, a possible sign that he's about to be cut loose by the administration.

But the Hill reports that Flynn's made no plans to resign, and he's got no expectations he'll be fired.

President Trump should give Flynn's critics the finger. It's all politics. Fuck 'em.

More from Margaret Brennan, at CBS News This Morning:

Danielle Gersh's Sunny Skies Forecast

I got out for a brisk 90 minute walk this afternoon. The weather was perfect.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles, the lovely Ms. Danielle:

#OrovilleSpillway Emergency Evacuation

The Sacramento Bee's got great coverage, as well as KCRA News 3 Sacramento:

Water has stopped spilling over #OrovilleDam emergency spillway https://t.co/75LqV9i61n #OrovilleSpillway pic.twitter.com/nClnWlwfLN

— The Sacramento Bee (@sacbee_news) February 13, 2017

Don't Miss Out - Shop Today's Deals!

At Amazon, Today's Deals.

BONUS: Walter A. McDougall, The Tragedy of U.S. Foreign Policy: How America’s Civil Religion Betrayed the National Interest.

Meryl Streep Pledges to Stand Up to 'Brownshirts' in Latest Attack on President Trump

She was never my favorite actress, although I'll be sure to boycott her films now.

What a fucking idiot.

Meryl Streep criticized President Trump on Saturday night, pledging to stand up to "brownshirts" https://t.co/8uaY5iSbLZ pic.twitter.com/MbfmuH9neK

— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 12, 2017

Meryl Streep, a vocal advocate for #LGBTQ equality, was presented with @HRC's National Ally for Equality Award at the @HRCGreaterNY event pic.twitter.com/UcQhPfBHXD

— HumanRightsCampaign (@HRC) February 12, 2017

Abraham Lincoln's Birthday

I love President Lincoln. He's my favorite president. I just wish I could transport back in time and meet him.

He was born 208 years ago today.

In any case, here's Scott Johnson, at Power Line, "REMEMBERING MR. LINCOLN," and "THINKIN’ ABOUT 'LINCOLN' AGAIN."

While only 272 words, the #GettysburgAddress is still one of the most powerful speeches ever given. #PresidentLincoln #LoveLincoln pic.twitter.com/pGELhijcxW

— The National Mall (@TheNationalMall) February 11, 2017

Far-Left California 'Could' Become a Sanctuary State

It's already a "sanctuary state." All the big cities, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Ana, and then some, refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The bill proposed by State Senate Leader Kevin de León would only formalize, at the state level, the reality on the ground.

Far-left California may become a sanctuary state. What that means: https://t.co/IR3wiQj36A

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 11, 2017

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Theo's, "Cartoon Roundup..."

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Hot Bench."

What Comes After Hegemony?

A great piece, from Michael J. Mazarr, at Foreign Affairs, "The Once and Future Order":

What comes after American hegemony? https://t.co/DRA82dsfDF

— Foreign Affairs (@ForeignAffairs) February 7, 2017

The postwar liberal order has proved remarkably stable. But it has always incorporated two distinct and not necessarily reconcilable visions. One is a narrow, cautious view of the UN and the core international financial institutions as guardians of sovereign equality, territorial inviolability, and a limited degree of free trade. The other is a more ambitious agenda: protecting human rights, fostering democratic political systems, promoting free-market economic reforms, and encouraging good governance.

Until recently, the tension between these two visions did not pose a serious problem. For many decades, the Cold War allowed the United States and its allies to gloss over the gap in the name of upholding a unified front against the Soviets. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Washington fully embraced the more ambitious approach by expanding NATO up to Russia’s doorstep; intervening to protect human rights in places such as the Balkans and Libya; supporting uprisings, at least rhetorically, in the name of democracy in countries including Egypt, Georgia, and Myanmar; and applying increasingly sophisticated economic sanctions to illiberal governments. In the newly unipolar international system, Washington often behaved as if the narrower concept of order had been superseded by the more ambitious one.

At the same time, the United States often took advantage of its preeminence to sidestep the order’s rules and institutions when it found them inconvenient. The problem with this approach, of course, is that international orders gain much of their potency by defining the sources of prestige and status within the system, such as participation in and leadership of international institutions. Their stability depends on leading members abiding—and being seen to abide—by key norms of behavior. When the leader of an order consistently appears to others to interpret the rules as it sees fit, the legitimacy of the system is undermined and other countries come to believe that the order offends, rather than sustains, their dignity.

An extreme version of this occurred in the 1930s, when a series of perceived insults convinced Japan—once a strong supporter of the League of Nations—that the system was a racist, Anglo-American cabal designed to emasculate it. Partly as a result, Japan withdrew from the league and signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy before entering World War II. Today, a similar story is playing out as some countries see the United States as applying norms selectively and in its own favor, norms that are already tailored to U.S. interests. This is persuading them that the system’s main function is to validate the United States’ status and prestige at the expense of their own.

For years now, a number of countries, including Brazil, India, South Africa, and Turkey, have found various ways to express their frustration with the current rules. But China and Russia have become the two most important dissenters. These two countries view the order very differently and have divergent ambitions and strategies. Yet their broad complaints have much in common. Both countries feel disenfranchised by a U.S.-dominated system that imposes strict conditions on their participation and, they believe, menaces their regimes by promoting democracy. And both countries have called for fundamental reforms to make the order less imperial and more pluralistic.

Russian officials are particularly disillusioned. They believe that they made an honest effort to join Western-led institutions after the fall of the Soviet Union but were spurned by the West, which subjected them to a long series of insults: NATO’s attacks on Serbia in the Balkan wars of the 1990s; NATO enlargement into eastern Europe; and Western support for “color revolutions” in the early years of the new century, which threatened or in some cases actually overthrew Russian-backed leaders in several eastern European countries. In a June 2016 speech to Russian diplomats, Russian President Vladimir Putin complained that certain Western states “continue stubborn attempts to retain their monopoly on geopolitical domination,” arguing that this was leading to a “confrontation between different visions of how to build the global governance mechanisms in the 21st century.” And Putin hasn’t just limited himself to complaining. In recent years, Russia has taken a number of dramatic, sometimes violent steps—especially in Europe—to weaken the U.S.-led order.

China also feels disrespected. The financial crisis at the end of the last decade convinced many Chinese that the West had entered a period of rapid decline and that China deserved a more powerful voice in the international system. Since then, Beijing has increased its influence in several institutions, including the IMF and the World Bank. But the changes have not gone far enough for many Chinese leaders. They still chafe at Western domination of these bodies, perceive U.S. democracy promotion as a threat, and resent the regional network of U.S. alliances that surrounds China. Beijing has thus undertaken a range of economic initiatives to gain more influence within the current order, including increasing its development aid and founding the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which it clearly intends to compete with the IMF and the World Bank. China has also pursued its interests in defiance of global norms by building islands in contested international waters and harassing U.S. aircraft in the South China Sea.

Worrisome as these developments are, it is important not to exaggerate the threats they represent. Neither China nor Russia has declared itself an enemy of the postwar order (although Russia is certainly moving in that direction). Both continue to praise the core UN system and participate actively in a host of institutions, treaties, and diplomatic processes. Indeed, China has worked hard to embed itself ever more firmly in the current order. In a 2015 speech in Seattle, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that “China has been a participant, builder, and contributor” in, of, and to the system and that it stood “firmly for the international order” based on the purposes and principles outlined in the UN Charter. China and Russia both rely on cross-border trade, international energy markets, and global information networks—all of which depend heavily on international rules and institutions. And at least for the time being, neither country seems anxious to challenge the order militarily.

Many major countries, including China and Russia, are groping toward roles appropriate to their growing power in a rapidly evolving international system. If that system is going to persevere, their grievances and ambitions must be accommodated. This will require a more flexible, pluralistic approach to institutions, rules, and norms...

Still more.

Hysteria and Sensationalism Falsely Spread 'Immigration Crackdown' Rumors

Authorities have indicated that the arrest of Guadalupe Garcia was an example of routine enforcement, not a lightning blow spearheading the alleged mass roundups sparked by the Trump administration.

Frankly, I hope we get some mass roundups, some workplace raids, and heightened routine enforcement and arrests. It's just that degenerate leftists have seized on each and every news story to blow everything out of proportion. Think of people SCREAMING AT YOU IN ALL CAPS! IT'S HITLER ROUNDING UP THE JEWS ALL OVER AGAIN!!

Actually, it's not.

At the Dallas Morning News, "Immigration activists dispel panic ignited by Trump orders but warn Dallas residents to be prepared":

Immigration activists dispel panic ignited by Trump orders but warn Dallas residents to be prepared - Dallas News… https://t.co/3SbFoqctnT

— Dallas News daily (@DallasNewsdaily) February 12, 2017

First, they said a new law allowed Carrollton police to ask drivers about their immigration status.

Then, there was a report of an ICE checkpoint in Vickery Meadow, an immigrant-filled neighborhood of Dallas.

Later came a sighting in Irving of federal immigration officials sweeping through a store catering to South Asians.

By the time officials and immigration attorneys could dispel the rumors pinging through group texts and Facebook posts, panic and confusion had gripped Dallas' immigrant communities.

At the root of the rumors was a trio of executive orders on immigration by President Donald Trump.

They greatly expand who can be picked up and include those who "committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense," regardless of the crime's severity and whether or not they've actually been charged.

Immigration lawyer Noaman Azhar said his office was inundated with calls.

"People's concern with the hysteria is not just the executive orders but what's going to come next," Azhar said. "Are there going to be more executive orders on immigration? Are the executive orders going to be even more extreme? Are they going to add more countries to the ban list?"

Perpetuating the panic are Facebook posts and mass texts with misleading information and a call to "copy, paste and spread the word."

But Carl Rusnok, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said on Friday that he knew of no beefed-up operations or deportations as a result of Trump's executive orders. He warned that media reports created panic.

"There are always things going on on a daily basis," the ICE spokesman said. "People don't sit on their hands here. That is nothing new."

Other "target-rich" communities in Texas and elsewhere across the country reported rising detainment and deportations...

Still more.

ICYMI: Stephen Kinzer, The True Flag

At Amazon, Stephen Kinzer, The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire.

'A Sense of Dread' for Civil Servants Shaken by Trump Transition

This is getting to be a thing by now. A stupid thing, though. Extremely stupid.

As I've said before, if you're not happy, quit. Bureaucrats are non-partisan actors. They administer the government regardless of who's in office. Regardless of political party. If leftist bureaucrats don't like the new regime, they should quit. Good riddance. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Boo-Hoo: 'Civil Servants' Upset by Arrival of Trump":

The feel-good story of the year so far:

Across the vast federal bureaucracy, Donald J. Trump’s arrival in the White House has spread anxiety, frustration, fear and resistance among many of the two million nonpolitical civil servants who say they work for the public, not a particular president.

At the Environmental Protection Agency, a group of scientists strategized this past week about how to slow-walk President Trump’s environmental orders without being fired. At the Treasury Department, civil servants are quietly gathering information about whistle-blower protections as they polish their résumés.

At the United States Digital Service — the youthful cadre of employees who left jobs at Google, Facebook or Microsoft to join the Obama administration — workers are debating how to stop Mr. Trump should he want to use the databases they made more efficient to target specific immigrant groups.

Also at Twitchy, "‘Mutiny against democracy’? Trump-induced triggering at EPA escalates."

Civil servants at EPA threaten to "slow-walk" or even ignore orders if Pruitt "abandon[s] EPA's role in the world" https://t.co/kMMgAs2LqO pic.twitter.com/Cm4Ym85jhe

— Josh Blackman (@JoshMBlackman) February 11, 2017