The Most Important Book for College Graduates to Read

According to Bill Gates, it's Steven Pinker's, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.

I've been meaning to read it, actually.

Bill Gates says this is the most important book for college grads to read https://t.co/XsKtlp1tGf via @qz

— Michiko Kakutani (@michikokakutani) May 18, 2017

Shop Today

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Today's Deals.

Especially, Military and Tactical Boots.

And, Save on the Hoover FloorMate Deluxe Hard Floor Cleaner.

Also, Esbit CS585HA 3-Piece Lightweight Camping Cook Set for Use with Solid Fuel Tablets.

Plus, Save on Fire Tablets.

More, Lasko 1827 Adjustable Elegance and Performance Pedestal Fan, 18-Inch, Black.

BONUS: Volker Ullrich, Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939.

Robert Mueller Named Special Counsel in Russia Investigation

I guess it was inevitable, although I don't see this as a victory for anyone.

If memory serves, past special prosecutions have been a joke.

Robert S. Mueller III named special prosecutor, dramatically raising stakes for Trump in Russia investigations https://t.co/wiouaQfHVV

— Julie Davis (@juliehdavis) May 17, 2017

Just ask Hillary: The appointment of a special counsel gives Trump short-term relief--and a big long-term risk. https://t.co/sD3RKe9oH0

— Susan Page (@SusanPage) May 18, 2017

Iryna Ivanova in Red Bikini

At Your Daily Girl, "Iryna Ivanova for Knockerz Magazine."

Also at the Daily Star, "Who is Iryna Ivanova? Ukranian Playboy model says ‘boobies’ are the key to success."

Priyanka Chopra on Jimmy Kimmel's (VIDEO)

Watch:

Intelligence Leaks Wound America

From James Dobbins, at USA Today:

#Russia intelligence leaks aim at #DonaldTrump, but wound America: https://t.co/WphFv2QMCU

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 17, 2017

#PresidentTrump's Fans Shrug Off Oval Office Leak.

I'm shrugging, although I'd expect folks at the White House to get their stuff together, and fast. It's a little too exciting over there.

At Politico:

Trump's fans shrug off Oval Office leak https://t.co/cJRfVOZ71M via @POLITICOMag pic.twitter.com/9rhdsV9MWp

— POLITICO (@politico) May 16, 2017

Eric Hinderaker, At the Edge of Empire

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Eric Hinderaker, At the Edge of Empire: The Backcountry in British North America.

Evelyn Taft's Warming Weather Forecast

Sunny but mild all day today. You could've worn a light jacket and been perfectly comfortable.

I prefer it a little warmer myself, but not bad. Not bad.

Here's the lovely Ms. Evelyn, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Trump Administration's Tempers Flare

It's a little off message these days, I'll admit.

It's not what you want, actually.

But, who're you gonna trust?

FWIW, at the New York Times, "At a Besieged White House, Tempers Flare and Confusion Swirls":

One other thing to bear in mind - Trump is dreading the overseas trip https://t.co/FoEfQGlOrZ

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 16, 2017

WASHINGTON — The disclosure that President Trump divulged classified intelligence to two high-ranking Russian officials was a new blow to an already dispirited and besieged White House staff still recovering from the uproar and recriminations from the president’s firing of James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director.

Mr. Trump’s appetite for chaos, coupled with his disregard for the self-protective conventions of the presidency, have left his staff confused and squabbling. And his own mood, according to two advisers who spoke on the condition of anonymity, has become sour and dark, turning against most of his aides — even his son-in-law, Jared Kushner — and describing them in a fury as “incompetent,” according to one of those advisers.

Even before the latest bombshell dropped, reports swirled in the White House that the president was about to embark on a major shake-up, probably starting with the dismissal or reassignment of Sean Spicer, the press secretary.

Mr. Trump’s rattled staff kept close tabs on a meeting early Monday in which the president summoned Mr. Spicer; the deputy press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders; and the communications director, Michael Dubke, to lecture them on the need “to get on the same page,” according to a person briefed on the meeting. Even as Mr. Trump reassured advisers like Mr. Spicer that their jobs were safe at the morning meeting, he told other advisers he knew he needed to make big changes but did not know which direction to go in, or whom to select.

Later, reporters could hear senior aides shouting from behind closed doors as they discussed a defense after Washington Post reporters informed them of an article they were writing that first reported the news about the president’s divulging of intelligence.

As they struggled to limit the fallout on Monday, Mr. Spicer and other Trump aides decided to send Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, the national security adviser, to serve as a surrogate.

They realized that selecting such a high official would in some ways validate the story, but they wanted to establish a credible witness account exonerating the president from wrongdoing — before the barrage of Twitter posts they knew would be coming from Mr. Trump on Tuesday morning.

The White House counsel’s office worked with the Army general on framing language, producing a clipped sound bite: “The story that came out tonight as reported is false.”

As he was working on his statement, General McMaster — a former combat commander who appeared uncomfortable in a civilian suit and black-framed glasses — nearly ran into reporters staking out Mr. Spicer’s office.

“This is the last place in the world I wanted to be,” he said, perhaps in jest.

As the general approached microphones on the blacktop in front of the West Wing, one of his deputies responsible for coping with the fallout, Dina Powell, could be seen peering behind the reporter pack to see how her boss’s statement was being received.

On Capitol Hill, there were signs that Republicans, who mostly held the line after Mr. Comey’s ouster, were growing alarmed by and impatient with Mr. Trump’s White House operation.

“There need to be serious changes at the White House, immediately,” said Senator Patrick J. Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican who wants Mr. Trump to appoint a Democrat to head the F.B.I. The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, called on Mr. Trump to operate with “less drama” on Tuesday....

*****

There is a growing sense that Mr. Trump seems unwilling or unable to do the things necessary to keep himself out of trouble, and that the presidency has done little to tame a shoot-from-the-hip-into-his-own-foot style that characterized his campaign.

There is a fear among some of Mr. Trump’s senior advisers about leaving him alone in meetings with foreign leaders out of concern he might speak out of turn. General McMaster, in particular, has tried to insert caveats or gentle corrections into conversations when he believes the president is straying off topic or onto boggy diplomatic ground.

This has, at times, chafed the president, according to two officials with knowledge of the situation. Mr. Trump, who still openly laments having to dismiss his first national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, has groused that General McMaster talks too much in meetings, and the president has referred to him as “a pain,” according to one of the officials...

Alexa Chung for Vogue U.K. June 2017

Click through for the photos:

Say it with stripes: @Alexa_Chung sports #MichaelKorsCollection on the June cover of @BritishVogue. 📸: @MarioTestino pic.twitter.com/1rHMta4GIN

— Michael Kors (@MichaelKors) May 15, 2017

Vogue UK June 2017 - Alexa Chung By Mario Testino #BritishVogue - photos: https://t.co/NGFgWC3KZY pic.twitter.com/xpIVC6cLkQ

— Kendam (@kendam_com) May 13, 2017

Emily Ratajkowski and Her Hot Mom

At the New York Post (and Ms. Emily's Twitter entry for last year below):

She got it from her mama https://t.co/26enRVFOj8

— Page Six (@PageSix) May 15, 2017

Happy Mother's Day to my beautiful Ma. pic.twitter.com/D7MvhqgZaK

— Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) May 8, 2016

Daniel Drezner, The Ideas Industry

Drezner did a job talk at UCSB about 1996. His blog was the first blog I read, followed by Althouse. He used to be libertarian, even kinda conservative on economics. But increasingly he became a leftist, and appeared on panels (if memory serves me) with the infamous Israel-basher Stephen Walt.

That said, he's an interesting guy who writes quirky books.

Here's his latest, at Amazon, Daniel Drezner, The Ideas Industry: How Pessimists, Partisans, and Plutocrats are Transforming the Marketplace of Ideas.

'Black Magic Woman'

From yesterday afternoon's drive-time, at the Sound L.A.

Note, back then, Gregg Rolie, who later co-founded Journey, was Santana's lead singer.

Magic Man
Heart
4:56 PM

Simple Man
Lynyrd Skynyrd
4:51 PM

Doctor My Eyes
Jackson Browne
4:48 PM

Have a Cigar
Pink Floyd
4:43 PM

Can't You See
The Marshall Tucker Band
4:37 PM

Message In a Bottle
The Police
4:32 PM

Help Me, Rhonda
The Beach Boys
4:29 PM

Bohemian Rhapsody
Queen
4:24 PM

Sweet Emotion
Aerosmith
4:19 PM

One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer (Live)
George Thorogood
4:11 PM

Jet
Paul McCartney & Wings
4:07 PM

I've Seen All Good People: A. Your Move / B. All Good People
Yes
4:00 PM

Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen
Santana
3:54 PM

I Won't Back Down
Tom Petty
3:52 PM

Tush
ZZ Top
3:49 PM

Space Oddity
David Bowie
3:45 PM

You Really Got Me
Van Halen
3:35 PM

Nina Agdal Goes Topless (VIDEO)

Via Sports Illustrated:



Plus, bonus topless at WWTDD.

Our Responsibilities as the Survivor Generation

From Daniella Greenbaum, at Commentary, "A Reminder Not to Forget."

A Reminder Not to Forget - by @DGreenbaum https://t.co/TL382Fy2sc pic.twitter.com/Hap1lanYa6

— Commentary Magazine (@Commentary) April 25, 2017

Bill Nye and Rachel Bloom Demonstrate Why Trump Won

This is from a few weeks back. I've been meaning to post it. First seen on Twitter, at Countermoonbat's feed.

Seriously, this makes even progressives cringe. It's bad.

I know it's a cliche now but my god, this is why Trump won. pic.twitter.com/xT8co3YZu1

— Jason C. (@CounterMoonbat) April 24, 2017

BONUS: At Pajamas, "Bill Nye the 'Vagina Guy' Indoctrinates Kids Into Gay Sex on Netflix."

UPDATE: Leftists tried to take down the video after the outrage, but the Internet is forever. Here's copy of the clip on YouTube, "My Sex Junk by Rachel Bloom ft. Bill Nye the Science Guy."

Democrats Look to 2020

Well, this oughta be good, heh.

At NYT:

New 2020 names:
- national donors prodding GARCETTI
- MOULTON not ruling it out in private
- and LANDRIEU! https://t.co/aEAUaXtvHC

— Alex Burns (@alexburnsNYT) May 1, 2017

Susan A. Brewer, Why America Fights

At Amazon, Susan A. Brewer, Why America Fights: Patriotism and War Propaganda from the Philippines to Iraq.

On the evening of September 11, 2002, with the Statue of Liberty shimmering in the background, television cameras captured President George W. Bush as he advocated the charge for war against Iraq. This carefully staged performance, writes Susan Brewer, was the culmination of a long tradition of sophisticated wartime propaganda in America.

In Why America Fights, Brewer offers a fascinating history of how successive presidents have conducted what Donald Rumsfeld calls "perception management," from McKinley's war in the Philippines to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Her intriguing account ranges from analyses of wartime messages to descriptions of the actual operations, from the dissemination of patriotic ads and posters to the management of newspaper, radio, and TV media. When Woodrow Wilson carried the nation into World War I, he created the Committee on Public Information, led by George Creel, who called his job "the world's greatest adventure in advertising." In World War II, Roosevelt's Office of War Information avowed a "strategy of truth," though government propaganda still depicted Japanese soldiers as buck-toothed savages. After examining the ultimately failed struggle to cast the Vietnam War in a favorable light, Brewer shows how the Bush White House drew explicit lessons from that history as it engaged in an unprecedented effort to sell a preemptive war in Iraq. Yet the thrust of its message was not much different from McKinley's pronouncements about America's civilizing mission.

Impressively researched and argued, filled with surprising details, Why America Fights shows how presidents have consistently drummed up support for foreign wars by appealing to what Americans want to believe about themselves.

The Syrian Horrorscape

Obama's legacy in Syria.

At the New York Review of Books, "In the Horrorscape of Aleppo":

In the Horrorscape of Aleppo. https://t.co/ifTryoXPRY via @nybooks

— Michiko Kakutani (@michikokakutani) May 2, 2017

Over six years of war, millions of Syrians have suffered; beyond the almost 500,000 killed, many more have been paralyzed, disfigured, blinded, traumatized, and uprooted from their homes and communities. As of January, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had registered nearly five million Syrian refugees, in addition to the six million displaced within the country. The demolished neighborhoods of eastern Aleppo make this brutally clear. They contained more than half of Aleppo’s population, until opposition fighters began seizing the area in 2012. Although measures of population movement are guesses at best, international aid agencies report that at least 50,000 eastern Aleppines fled to the western part of the city to avoid shelling by the regime or chaotic jihadist rule. Thousands more made their way to the government-controlled, war-free coastal cities of Latakia and Tartous, to Lebanon, or to Turkey, which offered visa-free entry, work permits, and, for many months in 2015, a blind eye to any who dared the perilous sea route to Europe.

In December 2016 the Syrian army, with Russian support, conquered the last insurgent strongholds in Aleppo’s east. UNHCR officials believe that about 36,000 people, rebels and their families, departed by bus under Russian protection for the opposition redoubt in Idlib province. What they left behind conjures memories of Dresden, Coventry, and Tokyo in the aftermath of World War II. The multiple forms of destruction testify to the ingenuity of the world’s arms factories. Bombs have transformed Aleppo into an Escher-like vision of six-foot-thick concrete slabs twisted into braids; five-story apartment buildings compressed into piles ten feet high; and collapsed façades of entire streets exposing rooms with ceiling fans eerily intact and revolving in the wind.

This is the horrorscape to which many residents are returning, only to find themselves still homeless. They camp in makeshift tents beside the remains of their homes, sticking close by to deter thieves from seizing unclaimed land at a time when many deeds have been lost or destroyed. Some sleep inside buildings that are exposed to the elements and subject to collapse at any moment. Children die when balconies crumble or they find shiny objects that turn out to be unexploded bombs...

Almost unbelievable, in this day and age.

Keep reading.