Alessandra Ambrosio for LOVE Magazine (VIDEO)

She's better looking now than ever.

What a fantastic woman.

We Need to Talk About Jacob Zuma

Speaking of South Africa, here's a great piece at Johannesburg's Mail and Guardian, "After 10 years at the helm of the ANC— We need to talk about Jacob Zuma":

"One of the paradoxes of Zuma’s time as ANC president is that a man who came to power largely through the efforts of the SACP and Cosatu was, in the final analysis, the catalyst for the decisive collapse of the tripartite alliance." https://t.co/Osv1TGX1Z2

— Mail & Guardian (@mailandguardian) December 20, 2017

Of all the deleterious aspects of Zuma’s legacy in the ANC, this is perhaps the most significant: in 10 years of disastrous and amoral leadership, the ruling party has lost all capacity for self-examination. This is why most have waited in vain for the start of the party’s mythical and supposedly inevitable “self-correction”. Self-correction is a result of self-criticism, and self-criticism itself results from self-examination. Under Zuma, the ANC has become the hapless victim of malign forces, foreign powers, enemies, fifth columnists, the media, and every other external influence you can think of. Nothing is of its own doing; no problem is ever self-inflicted. This is pretty much Zuma’s personality, which has imprinted on the ANC. And it is not obvious that this unfortunate trait will cease to be a part of the ANC’s DNA when Zuma is gone.

RTWT.

Tamara Holder Claims Rupert Murdoch Ruined Her Life (VIDEO)

This "sex panic" moment seems to be getting more political all the time.

Tamara Holder looks terrible here, so I have to agree this whole thing is ruining her life. I used to think she looked pretty attractive when she was on Hannity's back in the day. Frankly, I'd forgotten all about her, but now, man is she bitter.



And see, coincidentally, see NYT, "Rupert Murdoch and President Trump: A Friendship of Convenience."

(Maybe a lot of leftist sexual assault criminals have to come down to get to the real target: President Trump. Now that's a dialectical idea.)

Martin Meredith, Diamonds, Gold, and War

I'm on a sort of Africa jag right now. It's been off and on, but since teaching South Africa in my comparative politics class this fall, I'm getting excited about further reading.

At Amazon, Martin Meredith, Diamonds, Gold, and War: The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa.

Mika Brzezinski Apologizes

She slammed Mark Halperin's accusers. I for one can't stand Mika. And one of Halperin's accusers, Emily Miller, is one of my biggest heroes.

Here's the whole sequence, via Twitter:

Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski on Friday chastised the women who accused journalist Mark Halperin of sexual misconduct for not wanting to meet face-to-face with her now-disgraced friend to hear him apologize https://t.co/uSNQsMft3W

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) December 22, 2017

Given how many media friends he has, and how ingrained he was into so many parts of media culture, Mark Halperin is a good bet for "First Disgraced Predator to be Restored to his Prior Stature" https://t.co/ncbmG6mAyj

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 23, 2017

"I can't retraumatize myself to be in the same room with him to please Mika Brzezinski and her rich and famous friends," Miller told @CNN - More on @MSNBC Mika public apology to Mark Halperin victims when we fought back. Story by @oliverdarcy https://t.co/VtevoCY9Co

— Emily Miller (@EmilyMiller) December 23, 2017

When i was the first person to go public about these accusations, Mika called me and said Halperin denied it. She said she will "moderate" ON AIR between me and Haperin who sexually assaulted me. I have many people who will vouch for me. https://t.co/ha1UjOEQzA

— Emily Miller (@EmilyMiller) December 23, 2017

"It is disgusting and unethical of Mika to use the power of her show to shame me, a sexual assault victim, into meeting with the man who did that to me." More on my first on the record interview on Mark Halperin here: #MeToo https://t.co/OI3ovOWl0l

— Emily Miller (@EmilyMiller) December 23, 2017

Mika thought she could run over all of the victims-- the "nobodies" in her mind -- to rehabilitate the sexual assault predator Mark Halperin and get him back on TV. We stand united. #MeToo -> #PressForward https://t.co/kg65DY2RM2

— Emily Miller (@EmilyMiller) December 23, 2017

Mika Brzezinski apologizes for her comments on Mark Halperin victims https://t.co/EUC2z0OPji

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) December 22, 2017

'Hostiles'

I took my young son to see this movie yesterday in L.A.

I love Westerns, and this one did not disappoint. Indeed, I have a newfound appreciation for Christian Bale. He deserves some nominations for his performance, as does Rosamond Pike for hers (the woman can put on the most intense emotional expression ever; she's unreal).

At the New York Times, "Review: ‘Hostiles’ Grapples With the Contradictions of the Western."

"Hostiles" reckons with the legacy of plunder and racism that flickers behind the legends in westerns https://t.co/RWCJToAmdh

— New York Times Arts (@nytimesarts) December 22, 2017

And see Kenneth Turan's review, at the Los Angeles Times, "The western springs back to life with 'Hostiles,' a brutal tale of moral survival."

The official trailer is here.

President Trump Has Better Poll Numbers Than Meryl Streep

Lolz.

At Breitbart:

OOF. https://t.co/GHThYjtjIR

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) December 22, 2017

Fighting for Elephants, in One of Africa's Most Dangerous Corners

From today's front-page, at the Los Angeles Times, "'Am I going to get out of here alive?' In one of Africa's most dangerous corners, a fight to the death for the elephants":

The elephant was trumpeting in terror, and bleeding. Kambale Mate wanted desperately to save it from the poachers. But would he make it out alive himself? Part 1 of our look at an alarming spike in killings of environmental activists around the world. https://t.co/BTU4knhSwq pic.twitter.com/KqePLvISpF

— L.A. Times World (@latimesworld) December 22, 2017

Kambale Mate huddled beneath a tangle of grass, looking up at bright stars in a moonless sky, a tumble of chaotic events cascading through his mind.

Where were the other wildlife rangers, Jean de Dieu Matongo and Joel Meriko Ari? Were they alive?

He had been a ranger for only five months at Garamba National Park, the last remaining preserve for disappearing populations of elephants and giraffes in this part of Africa. Yet here he was with two comrades, hiding like small, petrified mammals in the grass. If any of them moved, a large band of poachers nearby could find and kill them.

A hassock of grass cradled his back as he looked up. He couldn’t remember quite how he had escaped the shrieking storm of bullets. What he remembered was the crunch of the crisp, dry leaves as boot steps crept through the dusk.

The world is experiencing an epidemic of environmental killings. Last year 200 environmental defenders — citizens protesting mining, agribusiness, oil and gas development and logging, as well as land rights activists and wildlife rangers — were killed, according to the London-based nonprofit Global Witness. In the first 11 months of this year, the number was 170.

The reasons are many: corruption; rising global demand for natural resources; companies’ growing willingness to exploit new areas; and a dearth of accountability, as governments and corporations increasingly work together on resource development agendas.

“We’ve seen impunity breeding more violence,” said Billy Kyte, a Global Witness official. “Those carrying out those attacks know they can get away with it. We’re seeing more brazen attacks than before.”

Total attacks have doubled from what they were five years ago, and they have been spreading. In 2015, Global Witness recorded killings in 16 countries. Last year, it was 24.

Latin America, in the midst of a boom in resource extraction as billions of dollars in new investments stream in from China and elsewhere, was the deadliest region — 110 were killed through the end of November, with the heaviest toll, 44 dead, in Brazil.

But few places in the world are as consistently dangerous for environmental defenders as Africa’s wildlife preserves. In Garamba National Park, a sprawling UNESCO World Heritage site in a remote corner of northeastern Congo, some of the planet’s last, struggling populations of elephants, white rhinoceroses and giraffes are under assault by poachers seeking to cash in on the millions of dollars the animals can bring in illegal international markets.

Of the 105 park rangers around the world killed over the 12 months that ended in July, most of them were in Africa, according to the nonprofit International Ranger Federation. Garamba saw 21 attacks within a year, leading to five deaths.

The 1,900-square-mile Garamba park lies at the crossroads of international chaos. Raiders from Sudan and Chad sweep south along a route used centuries ago to traffic slaves and ivory. Soldiers, deserters and armed rebels spill into the park from South Sudan on the other side of the border. An estimated 150 fighters with the Lord’s Resistance Army, which has left a trail of death, mutilation, child sex slavery and kidnapping across a broad swath of central Africa, are believed to roam the hunting preserves bordering the park.

“It’s the Wild West here,” said Naftali Honig, the park’s anti-poaching information coordinator. “They’re coming in from multiple countries and armed groups. We have a porous border and corrupt officials who are in the ivory chain. We also have collapsed states.”

Garamba National Park is jointly managed by the Congolese government and African Parks, a nongovernmental organization based in South Africa that teams up with governments to manage 12 of the continent’s most vulnerable national parks, covering more than 7 million acres.

Days before the April 11 attack that forced Kambale Mate to hide overnight in the grass, African Parks pilot Frank Molteno had spotted five dead elephants from the air, including two youngsters. When Honig investigated the site he was sickened to find the tiny tusks of the young elephants taken.

“The adults had their faces hacked off. There’s almost no ivory in the juveniles. They would have just killed them for nothing,” said Honig.

There were multiple gunmen, from the evidence, and they were not finished. Searching from the air days later, Molteno spotted a fire site. Mate, 24, went out as part of a team of six patrollers, accompanied by four Congolese soldiers...

Keep reading.

Fabulous Britney Spears!

I've been neglecting my hotsy-totsy Ms. Britney, who's looking better than ever.

On Twitter. (Hat Tip: Hollywood Tuna, "Britney Spears’ Hard Work Is Paying Off.")

🍎🍎🍎 pic.twitter.com/txYPEpxIJK

— Britney Spears (@britneyspears) December 21, 2017

Alexis Okeowo, A Moonless, Starless Sky

I'd like to read this.

At Amazon, Alexis Okeowo, A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa.

Slavery and the Legacy of White Supremacy

This is interesting and worth pondering, no matter your ideological inclinations.

From Annette Gordon-Reed‏, at Foreign Affairs, "America’s Original Sin":

America’s Original Sin | Foreign Affairs https://t.co/8wySaAdlnI

— Annette Gordon-Reed (@agordonreed) December 12, 2017

... The most significant fact about American slavery, one it did not share with other prominent ancient slave systems, was its basis in race. Slavery in the United States created a defined, recognizable group of people and placed them outside society. And unlike the indentured servitude of European immigrants to North America, slavery was an inherited condition.

As a result, American slavery was tied inexorably to white dominance. Even people of African descent who were freed for one reason or another suffered under the weight of the white supremacy that racially based slavery entrenched in American society. In the few places where free blacks had some form of state citizenship, their rights were circumscribed in ways that emphasized their inferior status—to them and to all observers. State laws in both the so-called Free States and the slave states served as blueprints for a system of white supremacy. Just as blackness was associated with inferiority and a lack of freedom—in some jurisdictions, black skin created the legal presumption of an enslaved status—whiteness was associated with superiority and freedom.

The historian Edmund Morgan explained what this meant for the development of American attitudes about slavery, freedom, and race—indeed, for American culture overall. Morgan argued that racially based slavery, rather than being a contradiction in a country that prided itself on freedom, made the freedom of white people possible. The system that put black people at the bottom of the social heap tamped down class divisions among whites. Without a large group of people who would always rank below the level of even the poorest, most disaffected white person, white unity could not have persisted. Grappling with the legacy of slavery, therefore, requires grappling with the white supremacy that preceded the founding of the United States and persisted after the end of legalized slavery.

Consider, by contrast, what might have happened had there been Irish chattel slavery in North America. The Irish suffered pervasive discrimination and were subjected to crude and cruel stereotypes about their alleged inferiority, but they were never kept as slaves. Had they been enslaved and then freed, there is every reason to believe that they would have had an easier time assimilating into American culture than have African Americans. Their enslavement would be a major historical fact, but it would likely not have created a legacy so firmly tying the past to the present as did African chattel slavery. Indeed, the descendants of white indentured servants blended into society and today suffer no stigma because of their ancestors’ social condition.

That is because the ability to append enslaved status to a set of generally identifiable physical characteristics—skin color, hair, facial features—made it easy to tell who was eligible for slavery and to maintain a system of social control over the enslaved. It also made it easy to continue organized oppression after the 13th Amendment ended legal slavery in 1865. There was no incentive for whites to change their attitudes about race even when slavery no longer existed. Whiteness still amounted to a value, unmoored from economic or social status. Blackness still had to be devalued to ensure white superiority. This calculus operated in Northern states as well as Southern ones.

CONFEDERATE IDEOLOGY

The framers of the Confederate States of America understood this well. Race played a specific and pivotal role in their conception of the society they wished to create. If members of the revolutionary generation presented themselves as opponents of a doomed system and, in Jefferson’s case, cast baleful views of race as mere “suspicions,” their Confederate grandchildren voiced their full-throated support for slavery as a perpetual institution, based on their openly expressed belief in black inferiority. The founding documents of the Confederacy, under which the purported citizens of that entity lived, just as Americans live under the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, announced that African slavery would form the “cornerstone” of the country they would create after winning the Civil War. In 1861, a few weeks before the war began, Alexander Stephens, the vice president of the Confederacy, put things plainly:

The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution—African slavery as it exists amongst us—the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson in his forecast had anticipated this as the “rock upon which the old Union would split.” He was right. . . . The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. . . . Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error.

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition.

Despite the clarity of Stephens’ words, millions of Americans today are unaware of—or perhaps unwilling to learn about—the aims of those who rallied to the Confederate cause. That ignorance has led many to fall prey to the romantic notion of “the rebels,” ignoring that these rebels had a cause. Modern Americans may fret about the hypocrisy and weakness of the founding generation, but there was no such hesitancy among the leading Confederates on matters of slavery and race. That they were not successful on the battlefield does not mean that their philosophy should be ignored in favor of abstract notions of “duty,” “honor,” and “nobility”; Americans should not engage in the debate that the former Confederates chose after the war ended and slavery, finally, acquired a bad name.

It has taken until well into the twenty-first century for many Americans to begin to reject the idea of erecting statues of men who fought to construct an explicitly white supremacist society. For too long, the United States has postponed a reckoning with the corrosive ideas about race that have destroyed the lives and wasted the talents of millions of people who could have contributed to their country. To confront the legacy of slavery without openly challenging the racial attitudes that created and shaped the institution is to leave the most important variable out of the equation. And yet discussions of race, particularly of one’s own racial attitudes, are among the hardest conversations Americans are called on to have...

RTWT.

Bella Thorne Christmas Lingerie

At Drunken Stepfather, "BELLA THORNE CHRISMAS SPIRIT LINGERIE OF THE DAY."

Alexis Ren in Christmas Bikini

At Hollywood Tuna, "Alexis Ren Gets in the XMAS Bikini Spirit."

Danielle Gersh's Windy Weather Forecast

It was cold and windy as I dropped off my kid for school this morning.

And I've got head back out to buy a few Christmas presents. Now it's getting to be like winter weather around here. Sheesh.

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

Holiday Deals

Keep shopping people, at Amazon, Today's Deals.

And see especially, Nespresso Essenza Mini Espresso Machine by Breville, Piano Black.

Also, Citizen Men's BJ7000-52E Nighthawk Stainless Steel Eco-Drive Watch.

More, Tommy Hilfiger Women's 1781396 Rose Gold-Tone Watch.

Plus, Thunder Bolt Coffee 1 Pound Ground French Roast Colombian Freshly Roasted Restaurant Quality Gourmet Coffee - Ideal for French Press, Drip Coffee from Koffee Kult.

Still more, PowerBar Performance Energy Bar, Chocolate, 2.29 Ounce Bars (Pack of 12).

And, Philips Norelco Electric Shaver 5500 Wet & Dry,S5370/81, with Turbomode and Precision Trimmer.

More here, Beckham Hotel Collection Luxury White Down Feather Pillow (2-Pack) - Premium 100% Cotton Shell - Queen.

BONUS: Heather O'Neill, The Lonely Hearts Hotel: A Novel.

Wildfires Aren't the Only Threat to the So-Called 'California Dream'

It's too expensive to live here.

This is a great piece, at NYT, "Quakes and Fires? It’s the Cost of Living That Californians Can’t Stomach":

https://t.co/8wqjvMvLoC

— Conor Dougherty (@ConorDougherty) December 13, 2017

OAKLAND, Calif. — Russel Lee and his wife spent the past few years going online to do the depressing math of how much less housing costs pretty much everywhere that isn’t California. They looked at Idaho, Arizona, North Carolina and Kentucky, but Mr. Lee, who was born in San Francisco and has lived in the Bay Area his entire life, could never quite make the move. Then the fires came.

In October, as the most destructive wildfire in state history swept through Northern California, Mr. Lee’s three-bedroom home in Santa Rosa was consumed by the flames. He lost everything: his tools, his guns, his childhood report cards. Forced to confront the decision of whether to stay and rebuild or pick up and go somewhere else, Mr. Lee finally decided it was time to go. He used the insurance payment to buy a $150,000 home outside Knoxville, Tenn., and will soon leave California for good.

“It was like ‘Welp, it’s time,’” Mr. Lee said. “It’s kind of like ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ in reverse.”

For the half-century after World War II, California represented the epitome of middle-class America on the move. As people poured into the state in search of good weather and the lure of single-family homes with backyard orange trees, the state embarked on a vast natural engineering project that redirected northern water southward, creating the modern Southern California and making the state the most populous in the nation.

Those days are long gone. For more than three decades, California has seen a net outflow of residents to other states, as less expensive southern cities like Phoenix, Houston and Raleigh supplant those of the Golden State as beacons of opportunity. California still has a hold on the national imagination: It has lots of jobs and great weather, along with the glamour of Hollywood and the inventiveness of Silicon Valley.

Still, for many Californians, the question is always sitting there: Is this worth it? Natural disasters are a moment to take stock and rethink the dream. But in the end, the calculation almost always comes down to cost.

Last Friday was Saul Weinstein’s last day at work, and the start of his last weekend as a Californian. Mr. Weinstein, a 67-year-old commercial banker, retired and moved to Nevada. He has lived through several fires, and the 1994 earthquake that killed 57 people and shook him and millions of other Southern Californians out of bed at 4:30 in the morning.

But what finally sent him packing was money. Mr. Weinstein is selling his 2,000-square-foot house in Baldwin Park, east of Los Angeles, for $570,000. He paid less than half that for a similarly sized place in Pahrump, Nev., about an hour’s drive west of Las Vegas. He moved on Monday.

“When you retire you have to watch your money,” Mr. Weinstein said. “The San Andreas Fault is what they politely call ‘overdue,’ and I will be much more comfortable when I’m away from that. But if it wasn’t for the cost of living I probably would have stuck around and taken my chances.”

California was once a migration magnet, but since 2010 the state has lost more than two million residents 25 and older, including 220,000 who moved to Texas, according to census data. Arizona and Nevada have each welcomed about 180,000 California expatriates since the start of the decade. Next week, as people start decamping for the holidays, airports throughout the South and Southwest will fill up with people who are from California and are now traveling West to see the family they left behind...

In the end, it won't be the astronomical cost of living that drives me out of state. It'll be the soul-crushing radical left-wing politics. It's already intolerable. I'm just not ready for retirement yet.

Keep reading, in any case.

Christmas Shopping

Natasha Oakley and Devin Brugman:

We did the browsing for you! Shop for each person on your list using our Gift Guide here: https://t.co/87J0ht3t5Y pic.twitter.com/ulYvCP2lom

— A Bikini A Day (@ABikiniADay) December 19, 2017

Kendall Jenner in See-Through Black Turtleneck

At Taxi Driver, "Kendall Jenner Nipples in See-Through Black Turtleneck."

Stella Maxwell for LOVE Magazine (VIDEO)

You gotta love these LOVE videos, heh.

Corey R. Lewandowski and David N. Bossie, Let Trump Be Trump

*Bumped.*

This book's flying off the shelves, or off the delivery lines.

At Amazon, Corey R. Lewandowski and David N. Bossie, Let Trump Be Trump: The Inside Story of His Rise to the Presidency.