At Drunken Stepfather, "RITA ORA NUDE ON INSTAGRAM OF THE DAY."
(Ms. Rita's hot. Here's a flashback, "Rita Ora for 'Lui' Magazine.")
Monday, January 1, 2018
Now Only 5 Free Articles Per Month at NYTimes.com
Bah!
They think I'm paying for their content? They're freakin' crazy, lol.
(Well, actually, I do pick up a hard copy New York Times once in a while, and I enjoy it. I just don't like paying for stuff online.)
At Bloomberg, "N.Y. Times Scales Back Free Articles to Get More Subscribers":
They think I'm paying for their content? They're freakin' crazy, lol.
(Well, actually, I do pick up a hard copy New York Times once in a while, and I enjoy it. I just don't like paying for stuff online.)
At Bloomberg, "N.Y. Times Scales Back Free Articles to Get More Subscribers":
The New York Times, seeking to amass more paid subscriptions in an era of non-stop, must-read headlines, is halving the number of articles available for free each month.More.
Starting Friday, most non-subscribers will only be able to read five articles rather than 10 before they’re asked to start paying. It’s the first change to the paywall in five years. A basic Times subscription, with unlimited access to the website and all news apps, is $15 every four weeks.
Scoops on the Trump administration’s scandals and sexual-harassment allegations in Hollywood have already contributed to a surge in Times subscriptions, which jumped 60 percent in September from a year earlier to 2.5 million. With demand for journalism “at an all-time high,” the Times decided this was the right moment to experiment with giving away less online content for free, said Meredith Kopit Levien, New York Times Co.’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.
“It’s a very hot news cycle,” Levien said. “We think it’s as good conditions as any to demonstrate to people that high-quality journalism is something to be paid for.”
As Facebook and Google capture a growing share of the online advertising market, publishers from the New York Times to Conde Nast are trying to shift their digital businesses from selling ads to persuading readers to pay for their journalism.
Trump Impact
Fueled in part by demand for news about President Donald Trump, the Times’ subscription business has thrived in the past year. The Times added 154,000 digital-only subscriptions last quarter, a 14 percent increase in new customers from a year earlier, though many signed up through promotional deals and may leave when regular rates kick in.
The subscriber boost has led to a surge in Times Co. shares, which are up 41 percent this year. The stock slipped 1.7 percent to $18.48 as of 9:55 a.m. in New York trading.
But enticing casual readers to open their wallets raises a tricky question: Just how many free articles do you let them sample before requiring them to sign up?
The decision comes with trade-offs. By reducing the number of free articles, the Times will likely see a drop in traffic at the website, which could hurt ad revenue.
Levien said that tightening the Times’ paywall would have a “modest impact” on its digital advertising business, which increased 11 percent last quarter from a year earlier. The increase failed to offset the continued decline in print ad sales, which fell 20 percent...
Jennifer Delacruz's New Year's Day Weather
I'm not going out much today, I don't think. I might make a bagel run in a bit, but that's it. No matter. It's a nice day for watching football. No worries.
Here's the lovely Ms. Jennifer:
Here's the lovely Ms. Jennifer:
Lorde Slammed as a 'Bigot in Washington Post Pro-Israel Advertisement
It's Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who's been posting all the news coverage of his ad attacking Lorde, on Twitter.
Actually, I love this, heh.
At the Guardian U.K, via Memeorandum, "Lorde called a bigot in Washington Post ad over cancelled Israel concert."
Actually, I love this, heh.
At the Guardian U.K, via Memeorandum, "Lorde called a bigot in Washington Post ad over cancelled Israel concert."
Now on the Guardian, where we've published ads before. @Lorde - fallout from her cancelled Tel Aviv concert... https://t.co/rZjmMnoVvF
— Rabbi Shmuley (@RabbiShmuley) January 1, 2018
Wide coverage for our full page ad calling out Lorde for cancelling her Tel Aviv show while keeping two in... https://t.co/3JeHNuJopP
— Rabbi Shmuley (@RabbiShmuley) January 1, 2018
Pick Up Our full page ad against #Lorde & #BDS Today in #WashingtonPost. Last Change to donate! https://t.co/FEzcTDyYg8 pic.twitter.com/90NJLIcqEG
— Rabbi Shmuley (@RabbiShmuley) December 31, 2017
Bookstore Chains Final Shakeout
The night before Christmas Eve I went over to Barnes and Noble in Tustin to pick up a couple of Christmas presents for my wife and oldest son.
I took the car for a car wash before heading over to the store, so I got to Barnes about five minutes past 10:00pm (thinking they'd be open). Four women sales associates were standing by the Nook sales display, looking rather angry, actually. I thought they were getting ready to do a hard sale on one of those Nook readers and I was already shaking my head "no." But then I realized they were guarding the store. They were ready for people to be angry as they announced, in unison, "We're closed!" I'm like, "What huh?" I said to the main lady, who was like an assistant manager or something, "I thought you closed at 11:00pm?" And she just shook her head no. I asked "What time do you open tomorrow?" and she said 9:00am, as I exited the store with a sort of weird chagrin. I looked online later and found this was a corporate policy change, as all the local Barnes stores were closing now at 10:00pm. It just seemed weird, especially the military front these ladies had set up by the door. Maybe they should have just locked the door and put a "We're closed" sign in the window.
In any case, I guess this is part of a trend. Barnes and Noble has been losing money year over year, and corporate policy is to refocus sales orientation to basic items, like books (duh), rather than all the knickknacks and fluff, like toys, calendars, trinkets, coffee mugs, and stupid stuff.
A couple of years ago the local Costa Mesa Barnes and Noble closed down. I met Mitt Romney there, so it felt bittersweet. But I expect more of the local stores to close in the years ahead. I frankly don't shop there much, except to buy a magazine once in a while, or a cup of coffee. Their prices are astronomical. I can buy books at Amazon for almost half price, and of course I go to the local Friends of the Library book sales, where you can find bestsellers for a buck or two.
But check out the New York Times, "Bookstore Chains, Long in Decline, Are Undergoing a Final Shakeout":
I took the car for a car wash before heading over to the store, so I got to Barnes about five minutes past 10:00pm (thinking they'd be open). Four women sales associates were standing by the Nook sales display, looking rather angry, actually. I thought they were getting ready to do a hard sale on one of those Nook readers and I was already shaking my head "no." But then I realized they were guarding the store. They were ready for people to be angry as they announced, in unison, "We're closed!" I'm like, "What huh?" I said to the main lady, who was like an assistant manager or something, "I thought you closed at 11:00pm?" And she just shook her head no. I asked "What time do you open tomorrow?" and she said 9:00am, as I exited the store with a sort of weird chagrin. I looked online later and found this was a corporate policy change, as all the local Barnes stores were closing now at 10:00pm. It just seemed weird, especially the military front these ladies had set up by the door. Maybe they should have just locked the door and put a "We're closed" sign in the window.
In any case, I guess this is part of a trend. Barnes and Noble has been losing money year over year, and corporate policy is to refocus sales orientation to basic items, like books (duh), rather than all the knickknacks and fluff, like toys, calendars, trinkets, coffee mugs, and stupid stuff.
A couple of years ago the local Costa Mesa Barnes and Noble closed down. I met Mitt Romney there, so it felt bittersweet. But I expect more of the local stores to close in the years ahead. I frankly don't shop there much, except to buy a magazine once in a while, or a cup of coffee. Their prices are astronomical. I can buy books at Amazon for almost half price, and of course I go to the local Friends of the Library book sales, where you can find bestsellers for a buck or two.
But check out the New York Times, "Bookstore Chains, Long in Decline, Are Undergoing a Final Shakeout":
Bookstores are undergoing a final shakeout. Book World, the country's fourth-largest bookstore chain, plans to close up shop. https://t.co/o5SK7TDQ8y— New York Times Books (@nytimesbooks) December 31, 2017
APPLETON, Wis. — This fall, at a moment when retailers traditionally look forward to reaping holiday profits, the owner of the fourth-largest bookstore chain in the country surrendered to the forces of e-commerce.Still more.
Book World, founded in 1976, sold hardcovers, paperbacks and sometimes tobacco in malls, downtowns and vacation areas across the Upper Midwest. It had endured recessions, the expansion of superstores like Borders and Barnes & Noble, and then the rise of Amazon. But the 45-store chain could not survive the shifting nature of shopping itself, and so announced its liquidation.
“Sales in our mall stores are down this year from 30 to 60 percent,” said Bill Streur, Book World’s owner. “The internet is killing retail. Bookstores are just the first to go.”
As e-commerce becomes more deeply embedded in the fabric of daily life, including for the first time in rural areas, bookstores are undergoing a final shakeout. Family Christian Stores, which had 240 stores that sold books and other religious merchandise, closed this year, not long after Hastings Entertainment, a retailer of books, music and video games with 123 stores, declared bankruptcy and then shut down.
“Books aren’t going away, but bookstores are,” said Matthew Duket, a Book World sales associate waiting for customers in the West Bend, Wis., store.
Here is one way to measure the upheaval in bookselling: Replacing Book World as the fourth-largest chain, Publishers Weekly says, will be a company that had no physical presence a few years ago. That would be Amazon, which having conquered the virtual world has opened or announced 15 bookshops, including at the Time Warner Center in Manhattan.
In a famous passage in Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises,” a novel that Book World used to sell, a character is asked how he went bust. “Two ways,” he answers. “Gradually and then suddenly.”
That more or less mirrors what happened to Book World and other bookstore chains.
A few years ago, e-books were widely assumed to be driving the physical book — and the physical bookstore — to extinction. Instead, e-book sales leveled off, and the physical book has retained much of its appeal.
But readers are increasingly ordering those books online, getting them delivered with their clothes and peanut butter and diapers. Bookstore sales were $684 million in October, the Census Bureau said this month, off 4.6 percent from a year earlier and down 39 percent from a decade ago.
“There aren’t many businesses that can survive a 20 to 30 percent drop,” said Mr. Streur, 68. “Closing was the last thing in the world I wanted. But reality sets in.”
It was an abrupt decision that surprised even his 300 full- and part-time employees; a few said that at least some of the stores — especially those that catered to tourists — seemed to be holding their own. Book World had opened a store in Jefferson City, Mo., just a few weeks before.
But a search for buyers for the chain or even some of the stores came up short. The chain swung from a profit in 2014 to break-even in 2015 to a loss in 2016, although Mr. Streur declined to provide numbers.
“There was nobody interested in buying us,” he said...
The Trump Rally
The stock market rally. It's great!
“Trump Rally: Stocks put 2017 in the record books” https://t.co/0foQGaFjMh
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017
Death by SWATting
At the Other McCain, "Death by SWATting: A Former Target’s Thoughts About a Deadly ‘Prank’."
In 2012, Andrew Breitbart warned about the "horrifying act" of SWATting. https://t.co/mZOFsw64xe pic.twitter.com/8KGSIpEgJE
— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) December 31, 2017
Californians Can Now Buy Recreational Marijuana (VIDEO)
It was pretty much "recreational" before this anyway, but it least the change in the laws bring the "medical marijuana" fiction to an end.
At LAT, "A 'monumental moment' for fully legal marijuana in California":
At LAT, "A 'monumental moment' for fully legal marijuana in California":
Will Senn has been waiting his whole life for this. Californians can now go to the store and buy marijuana, and his shop is opening its doors at 7 a.m. on New Year's Day.More.
Senn's Urbn Leaf in San Diego was among the first to get a state-issued license to sell pot for medical and recreational uses. He hired 15 more workers to accommodate what he expects to be a crush of new customers to flood into his shop, which had previously specialized in cannabis for medicinal purposes.
"This is what a lot of activists in the industry have been working for since the 1990s when Dennis Peron opened his first marijuana shop for AIDS patients in San Francisco," said Senn, 32. "It's a monumental moment and we are ecstatic to be a part of it."
The KindPeoples Collective in Santa Cruz plans to give out T-shirts to the first 420 people who show up to buy weed Monday.
CEO Khalil Moutawakkil, 33, said the legalization of marijuana for recreational use is a major change that has been too long in coming. "This is essentially going to eliminate prohibition on the plant of the last 400 years and return the plant back to the people," he said.
Still, don't expect pot shops on every corner. In recent weeks, hundreds of businesses have applied for temporary licenses to engage in the marijuana business, but industry officials expect a slow rollout as most cities in California have not yet given their approval, a prerequisite to getting a state license. As of Friday, 49 retail licenses had been issued by the state for businesses to sell recreational pot.
Sales for recreational use are allowed in cities including Los Angeles, West Hollywood, San Francisco, San Diego, Oakland, Santa Cruz and San Jose, but many proposed pot shops in those cities will not have a state license by the start of the year.
The state has not yet issued a retail permit for a store in Los Angeles, which plans to issue local licenses in the coming weeks.
At least 300 other cities, including Riverside, Fresno, Bakersfield, Pasadena and Anaheim, don't allow pot sales for non-medical purposes, according to industry officials.
Voters paved the way for today in November 2016, with Proposition 64 earning 57% approval. The ballot measure made California one of eight states to approve the sale of cannabis for recreational use. Those 21 and older can purchase and possess up to an ounce of marijuana for recreational use and to grow up to six plants in their homes.
Even with greater access, there are still restrictions on when the drug can be used. State regulations prohibit smoking marijuana in many public places, including restaurants and theaters, where cigarettes are barred. And new laws make explicit you can't toke and drive.
Congressional Republicans Face Tough Electoral Prospects for Midterms 2018
As much as I want to disagree with this analysis, I can't: The president's party normally loses seats in midterm election's, and this year we've got polarizing President Trump in the Oval Office. The GOP has a lot of favorable variables, the strong economy and partisan redistricting, for example, but the cultural environment and constant outrage and ideological hatred looks to be the key influence on voting. Trump's a totem for all that good or bad in politics, depending on your perspective.
Good thing we got tax reform. We need to finish up the MAGA agenda this year, especially on immigration, because once the Dems take back one or both chambers of Congress in 2019, all bets are off.
At LAT, "As 2017 ends, Republicans struggle to counter a Democratic wave":
Good thing we got tax reform. We need to finish up the MAGA agenda this year, especially on immigration, because once the Dems take back one or both chambers of Congress in 2019, all bets are off.
At LAT, "As 2017 ends, Republicans struggle to counter a Democratic wave":
Two things equally true about the 2018 midterm outlook: Democrats start out ahead. Republicans still have lots of time to turn it around. https://t.co/HBv0iF6ZsU— David Lauter (@DavidLauter) December 31, 2017
The clock is ticking on the Republican majority in Congress: The GOP has just over 10 months to avoid a rout in 2018.
Republicans could do it. They have time and several important factors on their side: a good economy, low crime rates, achievements of significance to the party's followers.
Nevertheless, as 2017 closes, almost all signs point toward big Democratic gains next year, largely driven by President Trump's widespread unpopularity. And some of the pugnacious instincts that helped the president win election a year ago may now be worsening his party's dilemma.
Midterm elections "are a referendum on the party in power," notes Sean Trende, political analyst for the Real Clear Politics website. During the Obama years, Trende correctly forecast that Democrats had underestimated the potential of a surge of conservative white Americans voting Republican. Now, he says, Republicans are making a mistake in assuming that turnout will once again favor them in an off-year election.
Trump has "terrible numbers," Democrats have a large advantage in polls, and "it all adds up to a really rough midterm" for the GOP, Trende says.
The trouble for Republicans comes despite some of the best economic conditions in years, which normally would boost the party in power. Unfortunately for Republican candidates, a majority of Americans continues to believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, despite the good economic news.
Much of that discontent appears to center on one person — the president.
Throughout the year, opposition to Trump has generated energy among Democrats. But something new has been added to the mix in recent months, said Joe Trippi, the veteran Democratic consultant who served as media strategist for Doug Jones' upset Senate election this month in Alabama.
"The sense of chaos, the constant fight, fight, fight and alarm bells going off all the time" has deeply troubled voters, including many who backed Trump last year, Trippi said. "There's this sense of being on edge," which Alabamians talked about frequently, Trippi said. "That's what they don't want anymore."
Alabama's election had unique aspects, notably the flaws of the Republican candidate, Roy Moore. But that same voter anxiety has come up repeatedly in focus groups around the country.
If a year of Trump has put voters in the mood for less confrontation, that poses a big challenge for Republicans.
"I don't know how you stop Donald Trump from putting people on edge," Trippi said. "That's what he does."
Indeed, even if conflict weren't so deeply ingrained in Trump's personality, political calculation might lead him to continue seeking out battles at every turn. Voters as a whole may not like it, but to Trump's most fervent supporters, his willingness to fight forms a major part of his draw. His former strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, threatens to add to the political tension by backing challengers to several Republican incumbents.
Trump's hard-core supporters remain loyal and probably always will. But for all the attention they get from the White House — and often from the news media — Trump's fervent backers make up only about one-fifth of the public and are outnumbered about 2 to 1 by fervent opponents.
Indeed, the gap between the share of Americans who say they "strongly disapprove" of Trump and those who "strongly approve" has grown significantly this year. In polls by SurveyMonkey, for example, the margin now stands at 26 percentage points, up from 16 points at the start of the year.
Those numbers form just one of several indicators of problems for Republicans. The most basic comes from the so-called generic ballot — a question polls have used for decades that asks which party's candidate a person plans to vote for in the next election. It has long proven among the most reliable forecasting tools in American politics.
For most of the fall, Democrats showed a healthy lead on that question — enough to suggest the midterms would be competitive. This month, the forecast took an abrupt jump in one nonpartisan survey after another — to 13 points in a poll from Marist College, 15 in Quinnipiac University's poll, 15 from a Monmouth University survey and 18 points, a previously unheard-of level, in a poll for CNN.
Exactly why the numbers for the GOP worsened is unknown, although the timing suggests the unpopularity of the Republican tax bill played a role. What is knowable is that even discounting the biggest numbers, the Democrats' lead on the generic ballot surpasses that of any party out of power in decades.
The average size of the Democratic advantage forecasts that if the election were held now, they would gain in the neighborhood of 40 seats in the House — considerably more than the 24 they would need for a majority.
For those who don't trust polls, actual election results point the same way. Some of the contests have gotten wide attention, including the Alabama Senate race and the Virginia election in November, in which Democrats won the governorship and all but wiped out a huge Republican majority in the lower house of the Legislature.
Other, less heralded contests have shown the same pattern of high Democratic turnout, depressed Republican voting and double-digit shifts in partisan outcomes, particularly in suburban areas where Trump fares worse than a typical Republican.
Friday, December 29, 2017
Ben Shapiro on Hollywood's Propaganda Program (VIDEO)
Ben Shapiro's got a new book, at Amazon, Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV.
As you know, I quit watching cable news, and I wasn't much for television sit-coms and talk show as it is. I like movies, but then, I can sort through the leftist clap-trap.
Sadly, most Americans don't really appreciate how powerfully they're being programmed toward leftist issues. And the ones that do, a lot of them Trump voters, are demonized as racist, misogynist, homophobic, transphobic, or what have you.
The culture war is real.
At Prager University:
As you know, I quit watching cable news, and I wasn't much for television sit-coms and talk show as it is. I like movies, but then, I can sort through the leftist clap-trap.
Sadly, most Americans don't really appreciate how powerfully they're being programmed toward leftist issues. And the ones that do, a lot of them Trump voters, are demonized as racist, misogynist, homophobic, transphobic, or what have you.
The culture war is real.
At Prager University:
Jennifer Delacruz's Friday Forecast
This is a woman who could make you happy, heh.
So sweet.
At ABC News 10 San Deigo. It's going to be a nice day:
So sweet.
At ABC News 10 San Deigo. It's going to be a nice day:
So, Totalitarian Leftists Want the Vanity Fair 'Hillary Knitting' Writers Fired?
I hate politics more and more, especially since you can't say anything anymore without risking your entire livelihood, if not your very life.
Elizabeth Bruenig's a radical leftist who's blocked me on Twitter, but I agree with her here.
At WaPo, "No, the Vanity Fair staffers behind the Clinton video shouldn’t be fired."
Elizabeth Bruenig's a radical leftist who's blocked me on Twitter, but I agree with her here.
At WaPo, "No, the Vanity Fair staffers behind the Clinton video shouldn’t be fired."
"The next time you get upset online, keep this in mind: You’re gonna be okay." - @ebruenig with the radical argument that people ought to consider the potential real world consequences of their online rage https://t.co/8olkMQBbe0— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) December 29, 2017
Thursday, December 28, 2017
Humongous Jemma Lucy Pops Out of Her Bikini
Wow!
At Taxi Driver, "Jemma Lucy's Boob Pops Out of Her Bikini Top."
More at London's Daily Mail, "Jemma Lucy flashes her eye-popping assets in Spain."
At Taxi Driver, "Jemma Lucy's Boob Pops Out of Her Bikini Top."
More at London's Daily Mail, "Jemma Lucy flashes her eye-popping assets in Spain."
ICYMI: Omar El Akkad, American War
I didn't rank books in 2017, but American War is one of my top five, for sure.
Don't miss it.
At Amazon, Omar El Akkad, American War.
Don't miss it.
At Amazon, Omar El Akkad, American War.
Post-Christian America?
Look, I think American War is practically non-fiction, so Ima say no.
But check at NRO:
But check at NRO:
Can America Survive as a Post-Christian Nation? https://t.co/nJ68MPcyZg via @DavidAFrench pic.twitter.com/UY63qr9Qud— National Review (@NRO) December 28, 2017
Lena Nersesian
This is the lady who let her best friend bonk her boyfriend, in an "off-Twitter" threesome.
She's sex positive, to say the least.
She's sex positive, to say the least.
China’s Cover-Up
From Orville Schell, at Foreign Affairs, "When Communists Rewrite History":
Even experts on Chinese history find it difficult to keep track of all the lethal “mass movements” that shaped Mao’s revolution. https://t.co/0JqaEyXvY7— Foreign Affairs (@ForeignAffairs) December 26, 2017
The Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong’s “permanent revolution” destroyed tens of millions of lives. From the communist victory in 1949 in the Chinese Civil War, through the upheaval, famine, and bloodletting of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, until Mao’s death in 1976, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) set segments of Chinese society against one another in successive spasms of violent class warfare. As wave after wave of savagery swept China, millions were killed and millions more sent off to “reform through labor” and ruination.More.
Mao had expected this level of brutality. As he once declared: “A revolution is neither a dinner party, nor writing an essay, painting a picture, or doing embroidery. It cannot be so refined, so leisurely, gentle, temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.”
Today, even experts on Chinese history find it difficult to keep track of all the lethal “mass movements” that shaped Mao’s revolution and which the party invariably extolled with various slogans. Mao launched campaigns to “exterminate landlords” after the Communists came to power in 1949; to “suppress counterrevolutionaries” in the early 1950s; to purge “rightists” in the late 1950s; to overthrow “capitalist roaders” during the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s; and to “rectify” young people’s thinking by shipping them off to China’s poorest rural areas during the Down to the Countryside Movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The ideological rhetoric obscured the extremism of these official actions, through which the party permitted the persecution and even the liquidation of myriad varieties of “counterrevolutionary elements.” One of Mao’s most notable sayings was “the party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the party.” Long after his death, his successors carried on in that tradition, most visibly during the Tiananmen Square massacre and the ensuing crackdown that the CCP carried out in response to peaceful protests in 1989, which led to untold numbers of dead and wounded.
Today, China is enjoying a period of relative stability. The party promotes a vision of a “harmonious society” instead of class struggle and extols comfortable prosperity over cathartic violence. Someone unfamiliar with the country might be forgiven for assuming that it had reckoned with its recent past and found a way to heal its wounds and move on.
Far from it. In fact, a visitor wandering the streets of any Chinese city today will find no plaques consecrating the sites of mass arrests, no statues dedicated to the victims of persecution, no monuments erected to honor those who perished after being designated “class enemies.” Despite all the anguish and death the CCP has caused, it has never issued any official admission of guilt, much less allowed any memorialization of its victims. And because any mea culpa would risk undermining the party’s legitimacy and its right to rule unilaterally, nothing of the sort is likely to occur so long as the CCP remains in power...
Josh Meyer Gets an Echo Chamber Beat-Down
This is really good:
Twitter mob attacks by a name-calling scrum of mid-level bureaucrats, “security correspondents” for instant news outfits like Buzzfeed, interns at various NGOs and their self-credentialed “expert” bosses, partisan bot herders, and their Lord of the Flies puppet-masters are part of the price of doing journalism these days. Write something negative, and you’ll get dirtied up—and maybe some of the dirt will stick, who knows. These attacks are intended to be punitive. Brave or foolhardy reporters who deviate from the party line—the party in question being the Democrats, of course, since the representation of conservatives in newsrooms is generally reported to be somewhere in the single digits—and especially their colleagues watching from the sidelines, are meant to absorb a simple but all-important lesson: Get on the team, or else shut up. Watching even seasoned pros succumb to this kind of adolescent pressure game and publicly suck up to bullying flacks while throwing shade on members of their own profession is a depressingly normal occurrence, which shows that the two once-separate professions—partisan flackery, and reporting the news—have merged into a single, mindless borg.
Obama derailed secret fight against Hezbollah for Iran Deal... https://t.co/XZglS6kSNx— DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) December 18, 2017
That's the thing @Tvietor08 your echo chamber keeps saying my @politico piece is wrong but offer zero specifics. I'm gonna take the high road and not respond further until you do. Meantime, happy holidays y'all. Btw, don't you supporters of Iran Deal also have "an obvious POV"? https://t.co/suI1dxnr2G— Josh Meyer (@JoshMeyerDC) December 21, 2017
Why journalists joined a Twittermob of former mid-level Obama bureaucrats and intel officers to attack a journalist for doing journalism @tabletmag https://t.co/sYKeovN7fF— Lee Smith (@LeeSmithDC) December 27, 2017
More Alexis Ren (VIDEO)
She's got over 11 million followers on Instagram. *Eye-roll.*
Nice babe though.
Nice babe though.
Nina Agdal Jumps for Joy
At London's Daily Mail:
BONUS: At WWTDD, "Nina Agdal Topless."
Bikini-clad Nina Agdal jumps for joy as she shows off her toned body during leisurely day on sun-soaked beach https://t.co/Lu6lQz9QDZ— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) December 28, 2017
BONUS: At WWTDD, "Nina Agdal Topless."
Joseph Heller, Catch-22
I'm reading this. It's an amazing book. Kinda like a manifesto for wise guys, heh.
At Amazon, Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (50th Anniversary Edition).
At Amazon, Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (50th Anniversary Edition).
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
President Trump's Political Base Unshaken
Well, it's been almost a year in office. We have the midterms in about 11 months and then we're off to the 2020 races. For the life of me I don't know how President Trump's going to pull off reelection. I thought this immediately upon his election in 2016, with the entire political establishment against him: Democrats, establishment Republicans, the corrupt media, Hollywood, and just about every other cultural institution you can think of. I love what he's doing --- and I believe he's changing this country for the better --- but the odds of beating back all the forces of leftist hatred seem insurmountable.
It'll be a miracle. We need it, though, badly, so I'll pray.
In any case, here's the Associated Press, "In the heart of Trump Country, his base’s faith is unshaken":
It'll be a miracle. We need it, though, badly, so I'll pray.
In any case, here's the Associated Press, "In the heart of Trump Country, his base’s faith is unshaken":
.@AP spent the year traveling to communities that flipped from blue to red and helped propel Donald Trump to the White House. How do they think he's doing? Read today’s story: https://t.co/xki14Uxi8F
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 28, 2017
Find the Trump Country series here: https://t.co/c4f0f1jatD
SANDY HOOK, Ky. — The regulars amble in before dawn and claim their usual table, the one next to an old box television playing the news on mute.More.
Steven Whitt fires up the coffee pot and flips on the fluorescent sign in the window of the Frosty Freeze, his diner that looks and sounds and smells about the same as it did when it opened a half-century ago. Coffee is 50 cents a cup, refills 25 cents. The pot sits on the counter, and payment is based on the honor system.
People like it that way, he thinks. It reminds them of a time before the world seemed to stray away from them, when coal was king and the values of the nation seemed the same as the values here, in God’s Country, in this small county isolated in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
Everyone in town comes to his diner for nostalgia and homestyle cooking. And, recently, news reporters come from all over the world to puzzle over politics — because Elliott County, a blue-collar union stronghold, voted for the Democrat in each and every presidential election for its 147-year existence.
Until Donald Trump came along and promised to wind back the clock.
“He was the hope we were all waiting on, the guy riding up on the white horse. There was a new energy about everybody here,” says Whitt.
“I still see it.”
Despite the president’s dismal approval ratings and lethargic legislative achievements, he remains profoundly popular here in these mountains, a region so badly battered by the collapse of the coal industry it became the symbolic heart of Trump’s white working-class base.
The frenetic churn of the national news, the ceaseless Twitter taunts, the daily declarations of outrage scroll soundlessly across the bottom of the diner’s television screen, rarely registering. When they do, Trump doesn’t shoulder the blame — because the allegiance of those here is as emotional as it is economic.
It means God, guns, patriotism, saying “Merry Christmas” and not Happy Holidays. It means validation of their indignation about a changing nation: gay marriage and immigration and factories moving overseas. It means tearing down the political system that neglected them again and again in favor of the big cities that feel a world away.
On those counts, they believe Trump has delivered, even if his promised blue-collar renaissance has not yet materialized. He’s punching at all the people who let them down for so long — the presidential embodiment of their own discontent.
“He’s already done enough to get my vote again, without a doubt, no question,” Wes Lewis, a retired pipefitter and one of Whitt’s regulars, declares as he deals the day’s first hand of cards.
He thinks the mines and the factories will soon roar back to life, and if they don’t, he believes they would have if Democrats and Republicans and the media — all “crooked as a barrel of fishhooks” — had gotten out of the way. What Lewis has now that he didn’t have before Trump is a belief that his president is pulling for people like him.
“One thing I hear in here a lot is that nobody’s gonna push him into a corner,” says Whitt, 35. “He’s a fighter. I think they like the bluntness of it.”
He plops down at an empty table next to the card game, drops a stack of mail onto his lap and begins flipping through the envelopes...
Danielle Gersh's Wednesday Forecast
Make way for a little sunnier and warmer weather.
Here's the lovely Ms. Danielle:
Here's the lovely Ms. Danielle:
Chrissy Teigen's Flight to Nowhere
Actually, it was LAX to LAX, round-trip, eight hours --- because one passenger was able to board without at ticket.
Ms. Chrissy wasn't pleased, and for good reason.
Ms. Chrissy wasn't pleased, and for good reason.
a flying first for me: 4 hours into an 11 hour flight and we are turning around because we have a passenger who isn’t supposed to be on this plane. Why...why do we all gotta go back, I do not know— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 27, 2017
Chrissy Teigen tweet-storms about surviving her epic 8-hour flight to nowhere. She was supposed to be going to Tokyo, but ended right back in L.A., because of an apparent mix-up. https://t.co/yTOTYCGfMQ pic.twitter.com/mAgkC480lX— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) December 27, 2017
Clare Richards Sexy Photos
At Drunken Stepfather, "INSTA-THOT CLARE RICHARDS LOOKING LIKE A NUDE CORPSE OF THE DAY":
Clare Richards is some instagram nude model who instagram hasn’t deleted for whatever reason…
She promotes some subscription model bullshit where she gets naked for some real fucking desperate dudes who have too much money on their hands…like so many of these naked on instagram girls who take it upon themselves to be entrepreneurial, using their nudity to get fucking paid, and like Cam girls, they get paid for it…as they should, to at least encourage the non nude women to deliver the goods when they realize being a waitress or school teacher is way more hours of work than pulling out their tits…
Shocking Scale of Homelessness in Downtown Los Angeles
At London's Daily Mail:
Shocking scale of homelessness in Downtown LA is exposed in dashcam footage https://t.co/jx8PysE92P
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) December 27, 2017
#LosAngeles is an international disgrace. 😡👎 #Democrats cc. @EricGarcetti https://t.co/rc5eKjPmSZ
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 27, 2017
Holiday Shopping Numbers Illustrate Success of Trump's Policies, Democrats' Difficulties
From John Hinderaker, at Power Line:
I wonder if economic indicators are still the prime variable in elections these days? Perhaps the state of the economy will be important next November, but culture seems to be driving so much politics currently that I have my doubts. Republicans can't be complacent, either way. Watch for President Trump to increasingly mind his comments (and his tweets) as next year's congressional races approach.
The Wall Street Journal reports on holiday shopping:More.
Fueled by high consumer confidence and a robust job market, U.S. retail sales in the holiday period rose at their best pace since 2011, according to MastercardSpendingPulse, which tracks both online and in-store spending.Emphasis added.
Sales, excluding automobiles, rose 4.9% from Nov. 1 through Christmas Eve, compared with a 3.7% gain in the same period last year.
***
Unlike in past years, when spending was driven by high-income shoppers, this holiday a broader swath of the population opened their wallets, encouraged by rising wages and low unemployment, analysts and economists said.
“Fewer people are living paycheck to paycheck,” said Chris Christopher, executive director of economic research firm IHS Markit. “There is a lot more spending from the lower- and middle-income groups, while the upper-income groups are splurging.”
In next November’s elections, the Democrats won’t just be running against Republicans. They will be running against reality. Take the tax cut. I won’t rehash all of the crazy things Democrats have said about it; they have been compiled at many locations. But simply put, it is insane for Democrats to allege that a tax cut will raise most people’s taxes, or that cutting corporate income taxes to an internationally-normal level will destroy the economy...
I wonder if economic indicators are still the prime variable in elections these days? Perhaps the state of the economy will be important next November, but culture seems to be driving so much politics currently that I have my doubts. Republicans can't be complacent, either way. Watch for President Trump to increasingly mind his comments (and his tweets) as next year's congressional races approach.
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
Glenn Frankel, High Noon
At Amazon, Glenn Frankel, High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic Hardcover.
Wilbur Smith, A Falcon Flies
*BUMPED.*
Wilbur Smith is really good!
At Amazon, Wilbur Smith, A Falcon Flies: A Spectacular Epic of a Wild Continent and the Few Who Dared to Tame It.
Wilbur Smith is really good!
At Amazon, Wilbur Smith, A Falcon Flies: A Spectacular Epic of a Wild Continent and the Few Who Dared to Tame It.
Jay Leno's Muscle Cars (VIDEO)
Man, Jay Leno's a fine car collector!
He's got the old 1960s-era Dodge Challenger in there, and it's totally rudimentary. He's got it parked next to the new Dodge Challenger Hell Cat, heh.
He's got the old 1960s-era Dodge Challenger in there, and it's totally rudimentary. He's got it parked next to the new Dodge Challenger Hell Cat, heh.
Danielle Gersh's Day-After-Christmas Forecast
It's mild weather. I don't know, perhaps down to the 40s overnight, if that? Otherwise, a little cool and overcast.
But here's the lovely Ms. Danielle to tell you all about it, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:
But here's the lovely Ms. Danielle to tell you all about it, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:
Insanity Studies Major
That's about the gist of it, sheesh.
At the Other McCain, "How About an ‘Insanity Studies’ Major? UPDATE: ‘Queer’ With ‘Psychotic Episodes’ and ‘Endless Mental Fog’."
At the Other McCain, "How About an ‘Insanity Studies’ Major? UPDATE: ‘Queer’ With ‘Psychotic Episodes’ and ‘Endless Mental Fog’."
It's as if somewhere, there's an advice columnist:
— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) December 25, 2017
Q. My daughter is mentally ill. What should I do?
A. Send her to college to major in Gender Studies.
In all seriousness: Is it really a good idea to spend money to send psychologically disturbed people to college? Because why? The world needs more college-educated lunatics?
— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) December 25, 2017
2017 PARENTS: "My daughter's got PTSD, anorexia, borderline personality disorder and suicidal ideation. Gonna spend $60,000 a year to send her to an elite university."
— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) December 25, 2017
2017 ELITE UNIVERSITY: "She wrote her admissions essay about struggling with eating disorders, self-mutilation and gender dysphoria? Give her a scholarship!"
— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) December 25, 2017
Rhian Sugden Christmas Snaps
She's still fine.
Say cheeeeese in a Santa hat! 🙋🏼♀️🤶🏼
— Rhian Sugden (@Rhianmarie) December 26, 2017
Hope everybody had a happy/food/drink filled day! I DID! 🎄 pic.twitter.com/WXuBTz49dg
Page 3 star Rhian Sugden has already filled her Christmas stockings in sexy snap https://t.co/tgJA2wJ23c
— The Sun North West (@TheSunNW) December 23, 2017
Increase in Border Attacks, Smuggling, and Deaths at Texas’ Big Bend Region
Build the freakin' wall already, sheesh.
At LAT, "Could the Big Bend in Texas be the border's weakest link? Smuggling of drugs and migrants is on the rise":
At LAT, "Could the Big Bend in Texas be the border's weakest link? Smuggling of drugs and migrants is on the rise":
Two Border Patrol agents bent to study the sandy dirt like animal trackers — what they call "cutting for sign."More.
They didn't have to look far.
Just yards from the Rio Grande, Agent Lee Smith pointed to footprints and scraps of carpet. Smugglers tie carpet to their shoes in hopes of covering their tracks, he said. Smith followed the rough trail through thick brush, his fellow agent close behind, wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a long gun.
They saw no one. But the agents sensed smugglers watching, waiting.
"They come right across. What's here to stop them?" Smith said.
Sometimes smuggler scouts cross on horseback: The muddy banks are pocked with human and horse tracks. The river here, about 60 miles east of El Paso, is just a few yards wide, one of the reasons Border Patrol agents in Texas' Big Bend region have seen troubling increases in smuggling, attacks on agents and migrant deaths in recent years.
"There's hundreds of these crossings just in our area of operation," Smith said. "The drug cartels, they own this part of the land. We have conceded large swaths of the border. There are areas where there are not agents for days."
He called the vast Big Bend "the absolute weakest link on the southern border."
The natural barriers beyond the river that made the landscape a stunning backdrop for "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood" and "Giant" were also supposed to protect it. Or at least that was long the assumption of U.S.officials. There's the river. There are mountains — the snow-covered Chinati, Chisos and Davis ranges.
There's the Chihuahuan high desert, the land full of prickly cat claw and temperatures that soar above 100 degrees on summer days and dip to below freezing on winter nights. And for many years, smugglers avoided Big Bend, that part of Texas where the border makes a gentle swoop south before swinging back north.
But smuggling routes shift according to the dictates of criminal organizations, often in response to border enforcement. In the late 1990s, border traffic moved from Southern California to remote desert stretches of Arizona; by 2013, it moved east again to Texas' Rio Grande Valley, the epicenter of migration and enforcement ever since.
But now new routes are opening up to the west, in Big Bend.
"As things in the Rio Grande Valley get tougher to cross, they're looking for other places, and this is a spot that over the past few years has become established for smuggling," said Border Patrol Agent Rush Carter, a spokesman for the agency in Big Bend.
Just as migrants once tried to cross the Arizona desert unprepared, Central Americans are arriving in Big Bend without cold weather gear, abandoned to the elements by smugglers. Migrants tell agents that smugglers advertise the area as an easy crossing, the least patrolled stretch of border.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection divides the southern border into nine sectors. Big Bend is the largest: 135,000 square miles, 510 miles of river, a quarter of the entire southern border.
The sector stretches north to include 118 counties in Texas and all of Oklahoma. Yet it has the smallest staff of any southern border sector, about 500 agents assigned to a dozen stations and several highway checkpoints including one in Sierra Blanca, notorious for large drug busts. That's fewer agents than have been assigned to a single station in the Tucson sector, Smith said.
President Trump has promised to add 5,000 Border Patrol agents, potentially doubling Big Bend staffing, but with high turnover, agents said that they would still be spread thin.
With such a small staff, agents usually patrol alone, with hand-me-down technology from other areas, including radios so spotty agents have erected makeshift cell towers in the brush to boost reception. Sometimes they just yell.
They don't have observation towers along the border as in the Rio Grande Valley, and their single aerostat blimp hovering overhead, unlike those used in the Valley, is not equipped with infrared technology, Smith said...
Gift Wrapped Babes
Seen on Twitter:
🌀#ThrowBackSaturday #SexyXmas#BeautyBared#PicATweet🌀 pic.twitter.com/wJnVBUtXit
— ➰ ExquisiteBeauty ➰ (@breastlvr) December 24, 2017
Monday, December 25, 2017
Cash In Your Amazon Gift Cards at American Power!
Actually, Amazon sales have been rather modest this holiday season, but I absolutely appreciate every bit of support from readers.
Thanks again and Merry Christmas!
At Amazon, Today's Deals.
And see especially, All-new Echo (2nd Generation) with improved sound, powered by Dolby, and a new design – Charcoal Fabric.
Also, Greatest Hits: Billy Idol (Amazon Music).
Plus, Women's Christmas Cute Reindeer Knitted Sweater Girl Pullover.
More, Kidorable Red Christmas Soft Hat/Scarf/Glove Set With Santa, Snowman, Reindeer and More.
Still more, Christmas Is Coming Ugly Christmas Sweater Men's Sweatshirt with Xmas Prop.
Here, Chefman Slow Cooker, All Natural / Chemical-Free / Glaze-Free Pot, Stovetop and Oven Safe Crock; the Only Nonstick Paleo Certified XL 5 Qt Slow Cooker.
Finally, Samsung DM82D/US DM82D, 82'' 1080p Full HD LED-Backlit LCD Flat Panel Display, Black.
BONUS: Mikhail Zygar, The Empire Must Die: Russia's Revolutionary Collapse, 1900-1917.
Thanks again and Merry Christmas!
At Amazon, Today's Deals.
And see especially, All-new Echo (2nd Generation) with improved sound, powered by Dolby, and a new design – Charcoal Fabric.
Also, Greatest Hits: Billy Idol (Amazon Music).
Plus, Women's Christmas Cute Reindeer Knitted Sweater Girl Pullover.
More, Kidorable Red Christmas Soft Hat/Scarf/Glove Set With Santa, Snowman, Reindeer and More.
Still more, Christmas Is Coming Ugly Christmas Sweater Men's Sweatshirt with Xmas Prop.
Here, Chefman Slow Cooker, All Natural / Chemical-Free / Glaze-Free Pot, Stovetop and Oven Safe Crock; the Only Nonstick Paleo Certified XL 5 Qt Slow Cooker.
Finally, Samsung DM82D/US DM82D, 82'' 1080p Full HD LED-Backlit LCD Flat Panel Display, Black.
BONUS: Mikhail Zygar, The Empire Must Die: Russia's Revolutionary Collapse, 1900-1917.
Performance Car of the Year 2018 (VIDEO)
At Road and Track, the whole competitive review of 10 submissions for the year, awesome, "Road & Track Performance Car of the Year 2018."
And the winner is: "The McLaren 720S Is the Future."
And the winner is: "The McLaren 720S Is the Future."
Christmas Is the Perfect Time to Mock Leftists
It is. Indeed, it is.
From Kurt Schlichter, at Town Hall, "Christmas Is the Perfect Time to Mock Liberals, and Other Random Thoughts":
From Kurt Schlichter, at Town Hall, "Christmas Is the Perfect Time to Mock Liberals, and Other Random Thoughts":
Ho ho ho, jerks!
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 25, 2017
|| Christmas Is the Perfect Time to Mock Liberals, and Other Random Thoughts https://t.co/YQUPRqmayD
When we gather together this Christmas, it’s going to be super-awkward since everybody is dead because Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Scam, repealed net neutrality, and cut taxes. The depredations of Genghis Khan, the Black Plague, and the repeal of the Obamacare mandate – these are pretty much the same thing. Santa Claus and all of our dreams are dead too.Keep reading.
On the plus side, since we are all dead there’s no one to make egg nog, which is the worst of all possible nogs.
No. Whoever invented egg nog is the second grossest human being ever who is not Lena Dunham, exceeded in grossness only by the first person being who thought, “Look, an oyster! I know. I’ll put that slimy thing in my mouth.”
The Democrats are the egg nog of American politics. Discuss...
Despite 'Star Wars' Surge, Movie-Going Audiences May Keep Fading
Well, I'm especially not going to see anything affiliated with Harvey Weinstein, and of course I won't see movies featuring any number of leftist stars, like Meryl Streep, George Clooney, or Matt Damon, to name a few.
I did enjoy "Hostiles," so it's not movies per se that are bogus. It's the far left politics for me. For everybody else? Well, who needs the multiplex anymore? Not too many, apparently.
At LAT, "Even with 'Star Wars' surge, moviegoing could hit 22-year low. Blame bad sequels, rising ticket prices and streaming":
I did enjoy "Hostiles," so it's not movies per se that are bogus. It's the far left politics for me. For everybody else? Well, who needs the multiplex anymore? Not too many, apparently.
At LAT, "Even with 'Star Wars' surge, moviegoing could hit 22-year low. Blame bad sequels, rising ticket prices and streaming":
Wow! They failed to recognize that Hollywood hatred toward @POTUS & his supporters had anything to do with the drop in sales. 🙄— Leslie Banks (@LeslieBanksUSA) December 24, 2017
Even with 'Star Wars' surge, moviegoing could hit 22-year low. Blame bad sequels, rising ticket prices and... https://t.co/lhSjZqiqSp
American Conservatives are turning away from the false idols of the @NFL & #Hollywood. #NFL
— occupycorruptDC (@occupycorruptDC) December 24, 2017
"Even with '#StarWars' surge, moviegoing could hit 22-year low. Blame bad sequels, rising ticket prices and streaming"https://t.co/7fNBXcJksc pic.twitter.com/ipSyFDQiAB
Hollywood is celebrating the end of 2017 with astronomical sales from "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," which is on track to soon exceed $1 billion in global ticket sales and eventually become the biggest movie of the year. But that won't be enough to write a happy storyline for the industry.
Although 2017 movie ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada are expected to dip just below last year's record of $11.38 billion, the number of tickets sold is projected to drop 4% to 1.26 billion — the lowest level since 1995, according to preliminary estimates from studio executives.
The falloff in ticket sales can mostly be explained by a handful of movies that flopped, especially during the dreary summer season that posted the worst results in more than two decades. Even such massive hits as "Wonder Woman," "Thor: Ragnarok" and "It" couldn't make up for a lackluster summer lineup populated by rickety franchises ("Alien: Covenant") and poorly reviewed retreads ("The Mummy").
However, the long-term decline in attendance reflects systemic challenges facing the industry. Audiences are spending less time going to the movies and are consuming more entertainment on small screens and through streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon that are spending billions of dollars on original video content.
At the same time, while higher ticket prices have helped to offset attendance declines, they have made consumers pickier about what movies they're willing to go see. And those increasingly discerning consumers turn to social media and Rotten Tomatoes to decide what's worth their time and money.
"You cannot pull a fast one on the audience," said Greg Foster, chief executive of Imax Entertainment. "The tools that are available for consumers to decide how and where to spend entertainment dollars are so vast. Consumers know what works and what doesn't long before the product becomes available."
Challenges at the box office are helping to fuel a wave of media consolidation. Walt Disney Co. this month announced a blockbuster deal to buy entertainment assets from Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion.
Murdoch's surprise decision to sell the bulk of his media empire was at least partly motivated by concerns about the future of the movie business in a world dominated by streaming, analysts said.
Cinema chains also are bulking up to better compete. Regal Entertainment Group, the nation's second-largest theater owner, last month agreed to sell itself to British theater company Cineworld for $3.6 billion.
For studios, the box office has become a land of princes and paupers, with a handful of movies and a couple studios increasingly dominating the business. As of Dec. 17, Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros. accounted for 40% of domestic market share. In 2012, the top two studios (Sony and Warner Bros.) only took up 30% of the industry total.
Of the 165 wide-release movies this year, the top 20 claimed 51% of ticket sales in 2017, representing an increase of two percentage points from last year, according to estimates from distributors. Five years ago, the 20 biggest movies accounted for about 40% of annual grosses.
"It's a really binary business between the haves and the have-nots," said Jeff Goldstein, head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros.
Nowhere was that trend clearer than last weekend, when the animated Fox movie "Ferdinand" opened against Disney's "The Last Jedi."
The $111-million kids' film about a fighting-averse bull opened with a pitiful $13 million, due to a lack of audience interest in the story and competition from Pixar's hit computer-animated movie "Coco." By contrast, the new "Star Wars" opened with $220 million — nearly 17 times "Ferdinand's" debut.
Professor Jordan Peterson on the Lindsay Shepherd Affair
At Blazing Cat Fur, "Pronouns professor Jordan Peterson on the Lindsay Shepherd affair."
And more, at the Rebel:
And more, at the Rebel:
Gift-Wrapped Package of Horse Shit for Steve Mnuchin
Leftists are so disgusting.
At the Los Angeles Times, "Secret Service takes over investigation of package of manure sent to Steve Mnuchin's Bel-Air home."
At the Los Angeles Times, "Secret Service takes over investigation of package of manure sent to Steve Mnuchin's Bel-Air home."
Danielle Gersh's Christmas Forecast
She's a hot weather forecaster.
And it's nice weather for Christmas!
Here's the lovely Ms. Danielle, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles
And it's nice weather for Christmas!
Here's the lovely Ms. Danielle, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles
Sunday, December 24, 2017
Helmand Christmas Tree
Been busy all day running around, finishing shopping, cleaning the kitchen, and watching "Die Hard" with my young son. Not too much blogging, but I'll be back on it over the next few days.
Merry Christmas everybody!
Seen on Twitter:
Merry Christmas everybody!
Seen on Twitter:
Epic sandbag Christmas tree created by Marines deployed to Helmand province, Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/DAnzjiJzO0
— Hope Hodge Seck (@HopeSeck) December 24, 2017
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Wilbur Smith, Men of Men
I gotta say Wilbur Smith's books are irresistible, man.
At Amazon, Wilbur Smith, Men of Men (The Ballantyne Novels).
At Amazon, Wilbur Smith, Men of Men (The Ballantyne Novels).
Dodge Demon
Just was reminded of this monster on Twitter.
The Dodge Challenger Demon is a street-legal dragster. That's it. It's a race car, bottom line.
I've been reading about it at Road and Track and Car and Driver, and will post more later.
But watch the videos. It's seriously as mean as you can get. It's not built for Grand Prix racing. Or for Daytona, even. It's built for the drag strip and will blow your mind. (At the second video below the Demon pops a wheelie.)
The Dodge Challenger Demon is a street-legal dragster. That's it. It's a race car, bottom line.
I've been reading about it at Road and Track and Car and Driver, and will post more later.
But watch the videos. It's seriously as mean as you can get. It's not built for Grand Prix racing. Or for Daytona, even. It's built for the drag strip and will blow your mind. (At the second video below the Demon pops a wheelie.)
Built for the strip. pic.twitter.com/SCW4UCb67u— Dodge (@Dodge) December 22, 2017
Alessandra Ambrosio for LOVE Magazine (VIDEO)
She's better looking now than ever.
What a fantastic woman.
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.)
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.
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:
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."
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.
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.
Friday, December 22, 2017
President Trump Has Better Poll Numbers Than Meryl Streep
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