Monday, August 13, 2018

Democrats Are Socialists, Duh

The polling is just now catching up to the reality on the ground. Go to any college campus and nearly everyone --- from administrators, faculty, and the students --- will tell they prefer socialism over the free market. I've been saying so for years. Obama ushered in an era where open embrace of radical leftism was cool. Bernie brought the last shy leftist out of the socialist closet. And with the lame brain leftist Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, far-left Democrats can run on an openly Marxist platform and win office.

This is a good development, people. It clarifies the lines of ideological contestation. I love it.

At Gallup, "Democrats More Positive About Socialism Than Capitalism":


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- For the first time in Gallup's measurement over the past decade, Democrats have a more positive image of socialism than they do of capitalism. Attitudes toward socialism among Democrats have not changed materially since 2010, with 57% today having a positive view. The major change among Democrats has been a less upbeat attitude toward capitalism, dropping to 47% positive this year -- lower than in any of the three previous measures. Republicans remain much more positive about capitalism than about socialism, with little sustained change in their views of either since 2010.

These results are from Gallup interviewing conducted July 30-Aug. 5. Views of socialism among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are particularly important in the current political environment because many observers have claimed the Democratic Party is turning in more of a socialist direction.

Socialist Bernie Sanders competitively challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, and more recently, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a candidate with similar policy views and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, won the Democratic nomination in New York's 14th Congressional District. Several candidates with socialist leanings lost their primary bids in Aug. 7 voting, however, raising doubts about the depth of Democrats' embrace of socialism.

The current survey is the fourth time Gallup has measured Americans' overall views of capitalism and socialism in this format. The question wording does not define "socialism" or "capitalism" but simply asks respondents whether their opinion of each is positive or negative...
Yeah, don't ask any of these idiot leftists to define terms, as you'll get a nonsense regurgitation which is the calling card of Ocasio Cortez (*eye roll*).

But keep reading.


The Realist World of International Politics

From Professor Stephen Kotkin, at Foreign Affairs, "Realist World: The Players Change, but the Game Remains":


Geopolitics didn’t return; it never went away. The arc of history bends toward delusion. Every hegemon thinks it is the last; all ages believe they will endure forever. In reality, of course, states rise, fall, and compete with one another along the way. And how they do so determines the world’s fate.

Now as ever, great-power politics will drive events, and international rivalries will be decided by the relative capacities of the competitors—their material and human capital and their ability to govern themselves and their foreign affairs effectively. That means the course of the coming century will largely be determined by how China and the United States manage their power resources and their relationship.

Just as the free-trading United Kingdom allowed its rival, imperial Germany, to grow strong, so the free-trading United States has done the same with China. It was not dangerous for the liberal hegemon to let authoritarian competitors gain ground, the logic ran, because challengers would necessarily face a stark choice: remain authoritarian and stagnate or liberalize to continue to grow. Either way, the hegemon would be fine. It didn’t end well the first time and is looking questionable this time, too.

China will soon have an economy substantially larger than that of the United States. It has not democratized yet, nor will it anytime soon, because communism’s institutional setup does not allow for successful democratization. But authoritarianism has not meant stagnation, because Chinese institutions have managed to mix meritocracy and corruption, competence and incompetence, and they have somehow kept the country moving onward and upward. It might slow down soon, and even implode from its myriad contradictions. But analysts have been predicting exactly that for decades, and they’ve been consistently wrong so far.

Meanwhile, as China has been powering forward largely against expectations, the United States and other advanced democracies have fallen into domestic dysfunction, calling their future power into question. Their elites steered generations of globalization successfully enough to enable vast social mobility and human progress around the world, and they did quite well along the way. But as they gorged themselves at the trough, they overlooked the negative economic and social effects of all of this on citizens in their internal peripheries. That created an opening for demagogues to exploit, which they have done with a vengeance.

The Great Depression ended an earlier age of globalization, one that began in the late nineteenth century. Some thought the global financial crisis of 2008 might do the same for the current wave. The system survived, but the emergency measures implemented to save it—including bailouts for banks, but not for ordinary people—revealed and heightened its internal contradictions. And in the decade following, antiestablishment movements have grown like Topsy.

Today’s competition between China and the United States is a new twist on an old story. Until the onset of the nineteenth century, China was by far the world’s largest economy and most powerful country, with an estimated 40 percent share of global GDP. Then it entered a long decline, ravaged from without and within—around the same time the United States was born and began its long ascent to global dominance. The United States’ rise could not have occurred without China’s weakness, given how important U.S. dominance of Asia has been to American primacy. But nor could China’s revival have occurred without the United States’ provision of security and open markets.

So both countries have dominated the world, each has its own strengths and weaknesses, and for the first time, each confronts the other as a peer. It is too soon to tell how the innings ahead will play out. But we can be confident that the game will continue.

BEWARE OF WHAT YOU WISH FOR

To understand the world of tomorrow, look back to yesterday. In the 1970s, the United States and its allies were rich but disordered and stagnant; the Soviet Union had achieved military parity and was continuing to arm; China was convulsed by internal turmoil and poverty; India was poorer than China; Brazil, ruled by a military junta, had an economy barely larger than India’s; and South Africa was divided into homelands under a regime of institutionalized racism.

Four decades later, the Soviet Union has dissolved, and its successor states have embraced capitalism and private property. China, still politically communist, chose markets over planning and has grown to have the world’s second-largest economy. Once-destitute India now has the sixth-largest economy. Brazil became a democracy, experienced an economic takeoff, and now has the eighth-largest economy. South Africa overturned apartheid and became a multiracial democracy.

The direction of these changes was no accident. After World War II, the United States and its allies worked hard to create an open world with ever-freer trade and ever-greater global integration. Policymakers bet that if they built it, people would come. And they were right. Taken together, the results have been extraordinary. But those same policymakers and their descendants weren’t prepared for success when it happened.

Globalization creates wealth by enticing dynamic urban centers in richer countries to invest abroad rather than in hinterlands at home. This increases economic efficiency and absolute returns, more or less as conventional economic theory suggests. And it has reduced inequality at the global level, by enabling hundreds of millions of people to rise out of grinding poverty.

But at the same time, such redirected economic activity increases domestic inequality of opportunity and feelings of political betrayal inside rich countries. And for some of the losers, the injury is compounded by what feels like cultural insult, as their societies become less familiar...
Keep reading.


New Focus on Denaturalization

Well, this is new ---- and great!

At LAT, "Under Trump, the rare act of denaturalizing U.S. citizens on the rise":
Working a Saturday shift in the stuffy Immigration and Naturalization Service office in downtown Los Angeles in the 1970s, Carl Shusterman came across a rap sheet.

A man recently sworn in as a United States citizen had failed to disclose on his naturalization application that he had been arrested, but not convicted, in California on rape and theft charges.

Shusterman, then a naturalization attorney, embarked on a months-long effort to do something that rarely happened: strip someone of their American citizenship.

“We had to look it up to find out how to do this,” he said. “We’d never even heard of it.”

Forty years later, denaturalization — a complex process once primarily reserved for Nazi war criminals and human rights violators — is on the rise under the Trump administration.

A United States Citizenship and Immigration Services team in Los Angeles has been reviewing more than 2,500 naturalization files for possible denaturalization, focusing on identity fraud and willful misrepresentation. More than 100 cases have been referred to the Department of Justice for possible action.

“We’re receiving cases where [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] believes there is fraud, where our systems have identified that individuals used more than one identity, sometimes more than two or three identities,” said Dan Renaud, the associate director for field operations at the citizenship agency. “Those are the cases we’re pursuing.”

The move comes at a time when Trump and top advisors have made it clear that they want to dramatically reduce immigration, both illegal and legal.

The administration granted fewer visas and accepted fewer refugees in 2017 than in previous years.

Recently, the federal government moved to block victims of gang violence and domestic abuse from claiming asylum. White House senior advisor Stephen Miller — an immigration hawk — is pushing a policy that could make it more difficult for those who have received public benefits, including Obamacare, to become citizens or green card holders, according to multiple news outlets.

Shusterman, now a private immigration attorney in L.A., said he’s concerned denaturalization could be used as another tool to achieve the president’s goals.

“I think they’ll … find people with very minor transgressions,” he said, “and they’ll take away their citizenship.”

Dozens of U.S. mayors, including L.A.’s Eric Garcetti, signed a letter sent to the citizenship agency’s director in late July, criticizing a backlog in naturalization applications and the agency’s commitment of resources to “stripping citizenship from naturalized Americans.”

“The new measure to investigate thousands of cases from almost 30 years ago, under the pretext of the incredibly minimal problem of fraud in citizenship applications, instead of managing resources in a manner that processes the backlogs before them, suggests that the agency is more interested in following an aggressive political agenda rather than its own mission,” the letter stated.

But Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports tighter controls, said “denaturalization, like deportation, is an essential tool to use against those who break the rules.”

“It’s for people who are fraudsters, liars,” he said. “We’ve been lax about this for a long time, and this unit that’s been developed is really just a question of taking the law seriously.”

From 2009 to 2016, an average of 16 civil denaturalization cases were filed each year, Department of Justice data show. Last year, more than 25 cases were filed. Through mid-July of this year, the Justice Department has filed 20 more.

Separately, ICE has a pending budget request for $207.6 million to hire 300 agents to help root out citizenship fraud, as well as to “complement work site enforcement, visa overstay investigations, forensic document examination, outreach programs and other activities,” according to the agency...
More.


At Waverley Station

Here's something nice to start out today, as the regular news is so awful.

Seen on Twitter:



Friday, August 10, 2018

Progressives Outraged at Laura Ingraham's Opening Segment Slamming Left's Program to Remake America (VIDEO)

Leftists are currently escalating their war on America, right now with a heightened attack on conservative media, everything from the reprehensible Alex Jones to the mainstream conservative views at Fox News. Laura Ingraham really hit a nerve with her opening monologue Wednesday night on the left's malevolent efforts to remake America in the communist image.

And they're pulling out the big guns. Memeorandum has been covered with outrageous headlines attacking Ms. Laura for her alleged "racism." See, "Laura Ingraham's Anti-Immigrant Rant Was So Racist It Was Endorsed by Ex-KKK Leader David Duke" (the Daily Beast), "White anxiety finds a home at Fox News" (CNN), "Ingraham: 'America We Know and Love Doesn't Exist Anymore' in Some Places Because of ‘Massive Demographic Changes’" (Mediaite), and "Laura Ingraham Doesn't Love Her Country Anymore" (the Atlantic).

She responded with a follow up to her Wednesday opening last night, reiterating her main points and smacking down the idiot race-mongering progs. See, "My commentary was about keeping America safe."

And here's the full video from Wednesday:


Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Samantha Hoopes' New Sexy Poses (VIDEO)

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:



Iggy Azalea Twerking

This is cray.

At Billboard, "Iggy Azalea Twerks the Night Away at Miami Yacht Party: Watch."

And Drunken Stepfather, "IGGY AZALEA SLUTTY ASS SHAKE IN THONG FOR INSTAGRAM."



BONUS: "Iggy Azalea flaunts her enviable hourglass physique in clinging green maxi dress."


Ana Braga

At Taxi Driver, "Ana Braga on the Street."

The New Corporate Censorship

Alex Jones got the boot from four major platforms on Monday. Here's Laura Ingraham's take:



Britain's Labour Party Pushing for Second Brexit

If a second referendum becomes reality it'll signify the death of meaningful democracy in Britain. I mean, the people voted. Normally, in democracies, the losers don't get a do-over, but we're talking about the radical left, and look how well the Democrats have handled 2016 for a reminder.

At Bloomberg:


The G.O.P.'s Bad Night

I'm not doing much election analysis these days, so check in with "the man," Sean Trende, at RCP:



Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Peter Høeg, Smilla's Sense of Snow

At Amazon, Peter Høeg, Smilla's Sense of Snow.



Kate Upton in New Campaign for Yamamay Swimwear

At London's Daily Mail, "Kate Upton looks sensational in new bikini photoshoot for Yamamay swimwear campaign."


Shooting Up Chicago

From Heather Mac Donald, at City Journal, "Thugs terrorize their neighbors in the Windy City":


An explosion of drive-by shootings erupted on Chicago’s South and West sides this weekend. At least 74 people were shot, and 12 killed, between 3 p.m. on Friday and 6 a.m. on Monday. In one seven-hour stretch, starting around midnight on Saturday, at least 40 people were shot, four fatally, as gunmen targeted a block party, the aftermath of a funeral, and a front porch, reports the Chicago Tribune. Over two and a half hours that morning, 25 people were shot in five multiple-injury shootings, including a 17-year-old who died after being shot in the face. An 11-year-old boy, a 13-year-old boy, and a 14-year-old girl were also hit over the course of the weekend’s bloodbath. Mt. Sinai’s emergency room shut down for several hours due to the overload of bodies; in May, the entire hospital went into lockdown following a virtual riot in its lobby among gangbangers, reported Tribune columnist John Kass.

Meantime, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and Illinois attorney general Lisa Madigan recently celebrated the issuance of a 232-page draft consent decree for the Chicago Police Department, possibly the longest police consent decree ever written. Among numerous other red-tape-generating provisions, it requires the CPD to revise its protocols regarding “transgender, intersex, and gender non-conforming individuals,” to make sure that the CPD policies properly define these terms and that officers address intersex, transgender, and the gender non-conforming with the “names, pronouns and titles of respect appropriate to that individual’s gender.” Last Thursday, a so-called anti-violence march shut down Lake Shore Drive to demand that the CPD hire more black officers and that City Hall spend more on social programs in the black community. Few voices, in other words, are tackling the actual cause of Chicago’s violence: the breakdown of the black family structure and a demoralized police department...
More.


Kendall Jenner of the Day

At Drunken Stepfather:
While Kendall, the one they positioned as high fashion to cover all their bases, cuz she’s tall and skinny, is equally as bad as the rest of them for the grand scheme of society, but people still like using her for their bullshit, and I guess she’s gotta catch up to Kylie’s make-up fortune, seeing as she’s the hot one…so she’s out there with her tits everywhere, nipples everywhere…

Monday, August 6, 2018

Trump Administration Revives Tough Sanctions on Iran

Good.

At LAT, "Trump administration reviving tough sanctions on Iran in effort to replace nuclear pact":
The Trump administration Monday announced it is reimposing harsh economic sanctions on Tehran as part of a strategy to replace the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with what it hopes will be a stronger agreement to curb the Islamic Republic’s ability to build a nuclear bomb.

The sanctions will target numerous areas of Iranian economic activity, including the automotive and precious metals industries. They go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, senior administration officials said.

In a statement Monday, President Trump called the 2015 pact “a horrible, one-sided deal, [that] failed to achieve the fundamental objective of blocking all paths to an Iranian nuclear bomb, and it threw a lifeline of cash to a murderous dictatorship that has continued to spread bloodshed, violence, and chaos.”

Supporters of the deal say that, while flawed, it has successfully prevented Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon in the medium term. United Nations inspectors, whom Iran agreed to admit regularly, say Iran has largely complied with the deal's restrictions.

The revived sanctions ban most transactions with Iran’s central bank; its network of ports and insurance companies; the purchase of Iranian sovereign debt; and trade in gold, graphite, aluminum and other precious metals.

The hard-fought Iran nuclear deal, signed by the U.S. with China, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany and France, required Iran to dismantle its nuclear-production infrastructure, mothballing centrifuges used to enrich uranium, disabling its plutonium-producing heavy-water reactor and getting rid of nearly its entire stockpile of enriched uranium.

In exchange, crippling U.N. sanctions on Iran were eased and billions of dollars in Iranian assets were unfrozen and returned. Tehran was allowed to rejoin the world economy, trading oil and participating in financial markets.

But Trump disdained the deal, saying it did not do enough to curb Iran’s other “malign behavior,” including support for militant groups in the region and repression of domestic opposition.

In May, Trump withdrew from the deal, despite intense lobbying from Europe not to do so. Europeans and others said they will attempt to keep the deal alive, but they risk being penalized by Washington if their companies continue to do business with Iran.

“Individuals or entities that fail to wind down activities with Iran risk severe consequences,” Trump warned Monday. “We urge all nations to take such steps to make clear that the Iranian regime faces a choice: either change its threatening, destabilizing behavior and reintegrate with the global economy, or continue down a path of economic isolation.”

Administration officials, who briefed reporters Monday on condition of anonymity, rejected the criticism that the revived U.S. sanctions will be less effective than the earlier Obama-era package because other key world leaders like China and the European Union are not onboard...
I don't believe Iran "largely complied" with the agreement. There was no independent outside verification procedures. Iran could cheat.

But keep reading.

And see the Times of Israel, from last month, "Seized archive shows Iran nuke project was larger than thought, had foreign help: Israel showcases to US reporters parts of trove Mossad spirited out of Tehran; 'These guys were working on nuclear bombs,' confirms ex-IAEA inspector on seeing the material.

British Fashion Model Iskra Lawrence

At Taxi Driver, "Fashion Model Iskra Lawrence in White T-Shirt."

Bob Goff, Everybody, Always

I'm picking up a copy for my wife, as an anniversary present.

So good.

At Amazon, Bob Goff, Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People.



Ericka Andersen, Leaving Cloud 9

At Amazon, Ericka Andersen, Leaving Cloud 9: The True Story of a Life Resurrected from the Ashes of Poverty, Trauma, and Mental Illness.



Shopping

At Amazon, Today's Deals, New deals. Every day. Shop our Deal of the Day, Lightning Deals and more daily deals and limited-time sales.

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More, in Electronics.

And see, GoPro HERO (2018).

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Still more, #1 Bestseller: Snake Eye Tactical Spring Assisted Opening EMT EMS Orange Folding Pocket Knife.

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BONUS: Siva Vaidhyanathan, Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy.

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Jessica Simpson

At Drunken Stepfather, "JESSICA SIMPSON OF THE DAY."


Amber Rose Photoshoot

At Taxi Driver, "Amber Rose in Photoshoot."

Sarah Jeong

Heh.

There's usually a new social media outrage every morning when I log on to Twitter, but there's something about this one that seems like a turning point. Sarah Jeong has a long and extremely vile record of online hatred toward white people. It's not just one tweet, in response to trolls, as she falsely claims. It's a pattern of burning SJW anti-white racism that's not only characteristic of today's left, but actively promoted and defended from the top down. NYT's hiring committee and editorial board was aware of the woman's racist screeds before bringing her on board. It's disgusting, double-dealing political hypocrisy and ideological warfare. But hey, if the Old Gray Lady wants a culture war, the MAGA crowd just says "bring it."

On Twitter, of course:


Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

Melissa Mackenzie tweeted her all-time most important books, and it was glorious. See the thread, "Books where I'd feel that my life is incomplete if I hadn't read them."

Included there is Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning.



Bob Woodward, Fear

At Amazon, Bob Woodward, Fear: Trump in the White House.

And from Stephen Green, at Instapundit, "HEH: Woodward Denies Writing ‘Fear’ Book to Help Trump."



Oksana Shachko Has Died

At the Cut, "Oksana Shachko, Co-founder of Femen, Found Dead in Paris," and Daily Mail, "Co-founder of Femen, the feminist topless protest group, is found dead alongside a suicide note in her Paris apartment."

At Femen USA, "#OksanaShachko may have left us, but her courage, her dedication and her passion will always live on and be with us, now and forever."

And on Twitter, "So #OksanaShachko is no more and most guys will be wondering if #Femen will still continue their protests with pretty naked women."



Argentinian Actress Camila Morrone in White Bikini

At Drunken Stepfather, "Camila Morrone in a Bikini of the Day."


Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Ellen Alexander Photoshoot

At Taxi Driver, "Ellen Alexander in a See-Through Nightie on a Photoshoot."

The Democratic Party No Longer Believes in Hard Work

From Betsy McCaughey, at the Post:


Would you rather show up at work on time or stretch out on the sofa and watch TV? Stupid question. Most people punch a clock out of necessity. But progressive Democrats want to make work optional, and to guarantee a slew of benefits to everyone, whether they get off the couch or not. It's a slap in the face to America's workforce.

Some 70 Democrats in the House of Representatives -- more than one-third of the party's representatives -- endorsed a plan on Thursday to outlaw private health insurance and force all Americans into a government-run system. Let's be clear. This plan is not about helping the needy. The plan would rip away medical coverage from half of all Americans, including the 157 million who get their insurance the old-fashioned way -- earning it through a job. The plan, dubbed "Medicare for All," would prohibit employers -- even giant companies that self-insure -- from covering workers, retirees or their families.

Union workers with gold-plated health benefits would have to give them up and settle for the same coverage as people who refuse to work at all. Why work?

Apparently, the Democratic Party no longer believes in work.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is taking the opposite route -- beefing up work incentives. Last Thursday, the president's Council of Economic Advisers revealed that about half of able-bodied adults who collect benefits, such as food stamps, housing aid or Medicaid, work zero hours, while the nation's working stiffs pay the tab.

Why should people toil if they can get take it easy and get freebies instead? No wonder nearly 1 out of every 5 working-age adults collects these benefits. Dependence soared during the Obama administration, while workforce participation plummeted.


Nice Catch!

Country girls on Twitter:


Long List for the Man Booker Award

At the New York Times, and more authors at the Guardian U.K. below:


Very Patriotic!

Seen on Twitter:


#CarrFire Mow Most Destructive in County History

This was at USA Today yesterday, "Amid 'apocalyptic' Carr Fire, local newspaper informs Redding community."

And at the Redding Record Searchlight today, "UPDATE: Carr Fire now most destructive in Shasta County history."

Newspapers are dying, so I'll highlight interesting legacy media stories when I see them. There's still little as enjoyable and worthwhile than sitting down to a cup of coffee and the newspaper in the morning. Just relax, wake up to some coffee and victuals, and learn about what happening in the world. (Those are the days, and they may be the days in the past. See Megan McArdle, "the Daily News tweetstorm you've all been waiting for. Safe to exhale now.")

Megan Parry's Tuesday Forecast

It's nice weather. I can't complain.



When Will #Dems Condemn the Left's Growing Turn to Violence?

From Karol Markowicz, at the New York Post:


Monday, July 30, 2018

'Saving Private Ryan' Premiered 20 Years Ago This Week

Here's an excellent, I mean really excellent piece, at LAT, "'Saving Private Ryan' at 20: How Spielberg's vivid D-Day story changed war movies forever":


The Omaha Beach sequence was naturally the most challenging scene in the film. Baby boomer audiences had previously seen the 1962 version of the battle in Darryl F. Zanuck’s “The Longest Day.” However, it was shot from a distance, and Spielberg was determined to put his cameras right in the surf as the men came ashore.

Before shooting began, the director spoke with author Stephen E. Ambrose, considered one of the top World War II historians in the country. Says Spielberg, “Stephen Ambrose gave me contact information for some of the veterans who had actually stormed Omaha and Utah Beach on June 6th — he had interviewed a lot of them for his book ‘Citizen Soldiers’ — and I met with a couple of them.

“I remember one of the guys telling me the entire charge up the beach was a blur — not a blur to his memory, because he still remembered every single grain of sand when he had his face buried in it from that fusillade raining down on them from above. But he described how everything was not in focus for him. And he described the sounds, and he described the vibrations of every concussion of every 88 shell that hit the beach, which gave some of them bloody noses, rattled their ears. The ground would come up and slam into their faces from the concussions.”
RTWT.

Also, Kenneth Turan's original movie review, "Review: Spielberg's 'Saving Private Ryan' is a raw and powerful work that overcomes a conventional script."

Woman Attacked in Walmart Parking Lot (VIDEO)

I sent this to my wife and she texted me back, "OMG!"



#Democrats 'Outside the Mainstream' (VIDEO)

Actually, the findings in this poll aren't that dramatic,and they don't shine a particularly good light on Republicans. I wrote about it here, "Majority of Americans Believes #Democrats Are 'Outside The Mainstream' of Acceptable Politics."

And now at Fox News:



Saturday, July 28, 2018

Megan Abundis' Central Coast Weather Forecast

She's a sweetie.

For KSBY News 6 San Luis Obispo:



Shopping Today

At Amazon, Today's Deals, New deals. Every day. Shop our Deal of the Day, Lightning Deals and more daily deals and limited-time sales.

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BONUS: Jerome R. Corsi, Killing the Deep State: The Fight to Save President Trump.

Natasha Oakley and Devin Brugman at Miami Swim Week (PHOTOS)

At London's Daily Mail, "Natasha Oakley and Devin Brugman flaunt their sun-kissed curves as they sandwich themselves between some bikini-clad babes at Miami Swim Week."


Alex Jones and Infowars Fight Radical Left's Campaign of Censorship (VIDEO)

I don't care about Alex Jones, although I think he's hilarious. I generally won't pay attention to anyone who claims September 11 was an inside job. I hate that. It's insidious, and it actually aligns with the radical left's agenda (which I saw first hand in my coverage of ANSWER protests in Los Angeles.)

But this is interesting, nevertheless.

At London's Daily Mail, "YouTube ditches videos from Infowars founder and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones as part of its latest bid to 'remove hate speech' from the site."

And at CNET, "YouTube is playing whack-a-mole, but Infowars keeps streaming."



Roseanne Hannity Interview (VIDEO)

At USA Today, "Roseanne Barr finally apologizes to Valerie Jarrett on 'Hannity' — and then tells her she needs to get a haircut":

Hannity asked Barr several times what she would say to Jarrett if she were watching. It took her a while to get around to something, but eventually Barr said:
Let’s talk about it. Let’s really turn this into a teachable moment. We need to talk about race and everything that’s connected to it. Her skin tone is like mine, and I’m brown. I didn’t know she was African-American. I assumed because she was from Iran and she lived in Iran for such a long time. If she’s watching, I’m so sorry you thought I was racist and you thought that my tweet was racist because it wasn’t. It was political. I’m sorry for the misunderstanding that caused my ill-worded tweet. I’m sorry that you feel harmed and hurt. I never meant that.
"For that, I apologize. I never meant to hurt anybody or say anything negative about an entire race of people. My 30 years of work can attest to that,” she added.

And then: "Plus, I'd tell her she needs to get a new haircut."

If the last part sounds insensitive, well, sure, but it also speaks to what made the interview so bizarre and unsatisfying: Barr is a comic, first and foremost, and she could not stop being one Thursday night...

Blood Moon

Going around on Twitter.

Amazing:


Two Killed in #CarrFire in California (VIDEO)

At the San Francisco Chronicle, "Carr Fire kills two firefighters near Redding, destroys 500 structures":

REDDING — The ferocious Carr Fire that ripped into this city of 90,000 after winds blew it over the Sacramento River has taken the life of a second firefighter, destroyed 500 structures and prompted authorities to expand evacuations Friday.

The intensity of the heat created fire whirlwinds that uprooted trees and turned over cars as 37,000 residents fled for their lives after the fire entered the northwest side of the city late Thursday night.

Three people were missing — two young children and their great-grandmother, who were last known to be at a home that was leveled by the fire, a family friend said.

“This fire is a long way from being done,” Cal Fire Chief Ken Pimlott said at a news conference. “We’re seeing fire whirls — literally what can be described as a tornado. ... These are extreme conditions. This is how fires are burning in California. We need to take heed. Evacuate. Evacuate. Evacuate.”

By Friday night, 48,000 acres had burned and only 5 percent of the blaze was contained. Five hundred structures were destroyed and 75 damaged, Cal Fire Shasta-Trinity Unit officials said...
More.

Thursday, July 26, 2018

Majority of Americans Believes #Democrats Are 'Outside The Mainstream' of Acceptable Politics

This was the finding in this week's new WSJ/NBC News poll.

At Free Beacon, "Poll: Majority Say Dem Candidates 'Out of Step' With Most Americans’ Thinking."

The catch here is that in July 2016, when Obama was still in office, a plurality of 48 percent thought the Democrats were outside the mainstream. That's the change. Now respondents see both parties outside the mainstream, but the GOP has ticked down a couple of points while the number for the Dems has increased 8 points. That's important, especially in this election year.

And see Joseph Curl, "More Americans than ever find Democrats out of the mainstream."

Today's Gold Box and Lightning Deals

At Amazon, Today's Deals, New deals. Every day. Shop our Deal of the Day, Lightning Deals and more daily deals and limited-time sales.

And see, Comfee 2.6Qt Die Cast 7-in-1 Multi Function Tilt-Head Stand Mixer with SUS Mixing Bowl, Whisk, Hook, Beater, Splash Guard.4 Outlets, 7 Speeds & Pulse, 15 Minutes Timer Planetary Mixer (Silver).

Plus, PARWIN PRO 7 in 1 Curling Iron Wand Set with 7 Interchangeable Diamond Tourmaline Ceramic Curl Iron.

More, Horny Goat Weed Herbal Complex Extract for Men & Women - Ginseng, 100% Maca Root, Tongkat Ali Powder - 60 1000mg Optimum Dosage Capsules - Energy, Stamina, Performance - USA Made by Natures Design.

And, Mountain House Just in Case Essential Bucket.

Also, Buck Knives The 55 Folding Pocket Knife.

Still more, Koffee Kult Dark Roast Coffee Beans - Highest Quality Gourmet - Whole Bean Coffee - Fresh Roasted Coffee Beans, 32oz.

Even more, AmazonBasics Lightning to USB A Cable, Apple MFi Certified, White, 6 Feet/1.8 Meters, 2-Pack.

BONUS: Jamie Glazov, Jihadist Psychopath: How He Is Charming, Seducing, and Devouring Us.

Swedish Student Blocks Afghani's Deportation by Refusing to Sit Down Until Man Was Removed from Flight (VIDEO)

Oh, the "woke" Scandinavian progressives. Notice how the woman was the "lone" activist on the plane. No doubt all the other passengers were glad the jihidist-in-waiting was getting the boot.

And woke journalists at the Guardian were all over it, with video too. See, "Swedish student's plane protest stops Afghan man's deportation 'to hell'":


A lone student activist on board a plane at Gothenburg airport has prevented the deportation of an Afghan asylum seeker from Sweden by refusing to sit down until the man was removed from the flight.

Her successful protest, footage of which spread rapidly across the internet, shines a spotlight on domestic opposition to Sweden’s tough asylum regime, at a time when immigration and asylum are topping the agenda of a general election campaign in which the far right is polling strongly.

“I hope that people start questioning how their country treats refugees,” Elin Ersson, 21, told the Guardian in an interview. “We need to start seeing the people whose lives our immigration [policies] are destroying.”

The social work student at Gothenburg University bought a ticket for the flight from Gothenburg to Turkey on Monday morning, after she and other asylum activists found out that a young Afghan was due to be deported on it. In fact he was not on the plane but activists discovered another Afghan man in his 50s was onboard for deportation.

As she entered the plane, Ersson started to livestream her protest in English. The video received more than 4m hits on Tuesday.

Facing both sympathy and hostility from passengers, the footage shows Ersson struggling to keep her composure. “I don’t want a man’s life to be taken away just because you don’t want to miss your flight,” she says. “I am not going to sit down until the person is off the plane.”
Yes. Hostility. Watch the video and you can see some pissed off passengers. She should've gotten the boot and the Afghani jihadist should have stayed for the ride back to his s***hole country.

Still more.


CNN's Smirking Gimp Kaitlan Collins Booted from Rose Garden Press Event (VIDEO)

She smirks. The corners of her lips curve upward in the most unbecoming look. She's nasty looking even.

At Politico:



Fat Activism

A great post at the Other McCain, "You Need Some ‘Fat Positive Activism’?"



Customer Claims Otay Ranch ARCO Double Charged (VIDEO)

What a total scam. I don't doubt this for a minute.

At ABC 10 News San Diego:



Graham Greene, The Human Factor

At Amazon, Graham Greene, The Human Factor (Penguin Classics).



Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Georgia Gibbs Wet T-Shirt (VIDEO)

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit.



Facebook Shares Tumble; Mark Zuckerberg Hardest Hit

Hehe.

I haven't checked my Facebook feed all summer. I don't care about it anymore.

And I certainly don't care about Mark Zuckerberg. He lost $16 billion in personal market value today? Well, that's just too bad. I'm all torn up about it.

At Bloomberg, "Zuckerberg Loses $16.8 Billion in a Snap as Facebook Plunges."



Amazing Lindsey Pelas

She's incredible.


More here and here.

Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

At Amazon, Bernard Malamud, The Fixer: A Novel.



Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Penitent

At Amazon, Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Penitent: A Novel.



Nice Photos

At Theo's, "Pic Dump..."

Megan Parry's Heat Advisory Forecast

It's more humid than a couple weeks ago, but still doesn't seem as hot as that one day when it was 109. That was a nightmare. The power went out on us.

At ABC News 10 San Diego:



Breannah Black Bikini Curves

At Egotastic, "Breannah Black’s Ridiculous Bikini Curves Are the Perfect Thing."

Jennifer Aniston Sunbathing

At Taxi Driver, "Jennifer Aniston Sunbathing in Blue Bikini."

Allie Beth Stuckey Will Not Apologize for Hilarious Satirical Interview with Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Allie Beth Stuckey's Satirical Interview with Alexandria Ocasio Cortez Gets Over One Million Views on Facebook -- and Leftists Are Furious!"

Here she is:


LAPD Releases Video of Trader Joe's Firefight

The police department was already taken heat for engage the suspect even before it was known whether a police officer's weapon killed the store manager.

Now it's confirmed, and oh boy, what a nightmare public relations scenario.

At LAT, "A wild chase, a gun battle, then tragedy as officer's bullet kills Trader Joe's employee":

Two Los Angeles police officers tore through traffic on Rowena Avenue on Saturday afternoon in a high-speed pursuit of an attempted murder suspect driving a Toyota Camry.

Suddenly, the back window of the Camry shattered.

Forty-five seconds later, the Camry veered into a utility pole in front of a Trader Joe’s and the driver bolted for the entrance, firing his gun wildly from his hip, according to dashboard and body-cam footage released by the Los Angeles Police Department on Tuesday.

The officers had less than two seconds to react before the gunman fled into a store full of shoppers. But a bad shot could hit a bystander. The video showed a man by the entrance and another behind the wreck, but not who was behind the glass front doors.

The officers opened fire. The suspect was hit in the arm but made it into the store, shooting at least three times at police from inside. A beloved Trader Joe’s manager, Melyda Corado, 27, died in the shootout.

On Tuesday, the police chief announced that one of the officers’ bullets had killed her.

“On behalf of myself and the rest of the department, I want to express my deepest condolences and sympathy to her family and everyone that knew her,” Chief Michel Moore said of Corado. “I know that it’s every officer’s worst nightmare to hurt an innocent bystander during a violent engagement. I spoke with the officers this morning — they’re devastated. They were devastated in the immediate aftermath of this event.”

Moore said she was coming out of the market and was close to the suspect. Gene Atkins, who allegedly had shot his grandmother earlier Saturday, survived the gunshot wound and surrendered to authorities hours later. No one else was injured...
More.

Heatwave Stokes Fear of Power Outages

That's a legitimate fear, considering that the power went out a couple of weeks ago when the mercury hit 109.

(As for wildfires, we've always had them in California, because we've always had the Santa Anas.)

At LAT, "'This is what the future looks like': Heat wave stokes fears of power outages and fires":


When a blistering heat wave struck the Southland earlier this month, the region’s electric grid was so overwhelmed that more than 100,000 customers in Los Angeles had at some point lost power. Some went days without electricity.

Now, as Southern California endures another round of scorching heat that forecasters expect will shatter daily records in some areas on Wednesday, utility officials are hoping to avoid similar chaos by staffing extra workers and imploring residents to ease up on their thermostats to give the aging power system a chance to cool down.

“It’s similar to running your car at 100 mph, nonstop,” said Los Angeles Department of Water and Power spokesman Joe Ramallo, referring to those who blast their air conditioning day and night. “Eventually, you’re going to have some problems. Distribution equipment is like that — it needs a break.”

Southern California Edison, which brings power to much of the region, is also urging people to reduce their electricity use during peak hours. State officials have issued a Flex Alert, calling on the public to turn off unnecessary lights and hold off on running major appliances until late in the evening Wednesday.

Forecasters predict daytime highs will reach between 90 and 102 degrees in the coastal plains and between 98 and 108 in the valleys. Desert areas could hover around 110 degrees, said Stuart Seto, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service.

Public health officials in Riverside County reported six heat-related deaths this month. Most of those who died were elderly, including a 91-year-old from Riverside who died of prolonged heat exposure in a home without cooling measures, said Jose Arballo Jr., spokesman with the Riverside University Health System.

“Plan somewhere to go if you have to go, if you lose power,” Seto said.

As temperatures spiked Monday, about 3,800 customers — most in Beverly Grove — temporarily lost power. By midday Tuesday, Ramallo said only a few dozen people were reporting problems.

While additional DWP crews will be available Wednesday to jump on any outages, the utility is also taking steps to address the grid problems in the long term, which could involve planned power outages in residential neighborhoods...
More.

Rep. Jim Clyburn Signals That Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Will Have to Wait Her Turn for Leadership

This is excellent.

At Buzzfeed, of all places:


Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Shop Deals

At Amazon, Today's Deals, New deals. Every day. Shop our Deal of the Day, Lightning Deals and more daily deals and limited-time sales.

See especially, Blendtec TB-621-20 Total Blender Classic, with FourSide Jar, Black.

Also, Energy 5.1 Take Classic Home Theater System (Set of Six, Black).

And, LUCID 3-inch Gel Memory Foam Mattress Topper - Queen.

Plus, Yuneec Q500 4K Typhoon Quadcopter Drone RTF w/CGO3 Camera, ST10+ & Steady Grip (Certified Refurbished).

More, Spring Assisted Knife - Pocket Folding Knife - Military Style - Boy Scouts Knife - Tactical Knife - Good for Camping, Indoor and Outdoor Activities (Medium, Black).

Also, REEBOW GEAR Military Tactical Backpack Large 3 Day Assault Pack Army Molle Bug Out Bag Backpacks.

Plus, DASANI, 16.9 fl oz, 24 Pack.

BONUS: Laura Ingraham, Billionaire at the Barricades: The Populist Revolution from Reagan to Trump.


Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack 1320

1320 feet is a quarter mile, so that's a cool number for the new Dodge Challenger Scat Pack, which is essentially a dragster.

At Road and Track, "The Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack 1320 Takes a Page From Porsche":


Today, Dodge announced the new 2019 Challenger R/T Scat Pack 1320, a lightweight, dragstrip-oriented version of the Challenger R/T. In essence, it's a naturally aspirated, narrow-body version of the Challenger Demon, named "1320" for the number of feet in a quarter-mile. With a 485-horsepower, 6.4-liter V8, a zero-to-60 time of 3.8 seconds, and a quarter-mile of 11.7 seconds, Dodge says it's the quickest naturally aspirated muscle car on sale today. It's also the result of a brilliant strategy that reminds us of one of our other favorite performance-car brands, Porsche. And no, we haven't lost our minds.

Much of the cool stuff from the Challenger Demon has slowly trickled down into the rest of the Challenger lineup. The 840-horsepower Demon’s bolt-on fender flares soon found a new home on the 707-horse Hellcat Widebody for 2018. The huge 2.7-liter supercharger from the Demon, along with some supporting engine mods, help give the 2019 Hellcat Redeye its 797-horsepower rating. And the 2019 R/T Scat Pack Widebody is basically a Hellcat Widebody without the supercharger. Plus, there's the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, which borrows its 707-horsepower engine from the Hellcat and receives the Demon's clever Torque Fill system for quick dragstrip launches. Basically, Fiat-Chrysler has been spreading the Demon's best bits all around the SRT family.

The new R/T Scat Pack 1320 joins that list. From the Demon, the 1320 gets adaptive dampers with a special mode to help transfer weight to the rear axle during launches; a TransBrake that locks the output shaft of the eight-speed automatic to build revs at a standstill at the starting line; and Torque Reserve, a computer-controlled ignition timing system designed to maximize the power the engine's kicking out as the car is straining to leave the starting line.

There's also a line-lock function so you can preheat the tires with a big smoky burnout, and systems to minimize wheelspin and axle-hop on hard drag launches. For hardware, the 1320 gets upgraded half-shafts from the Demon, plus sticky, 275-mm wide Nexen street-legal drag radials, a super-sticky summer-only tire. And like the Demon, the 1320 comes standard with only a driver's seat, for maximum weight saving—though you can option a front passenger seat and rear seats for $1 each. Equipped with only a driver's seat, the 1320 weighs 4127 lbs—87 lbs lighter than a regular R/T Scat Pack. In terms of looks, the 1320 is closer to a narrow-body Hellcat—it has that car's vent-and-scoop hood and large trunk spoiler—though the split grille and the "1320" bumblebee logo give it away as a non-supercharged Challenger...
More.

Added: Lots more details at PR Newswire, "2019 Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack 1320: Beware of the Angry Bee at the Drag Strip."

Justice Department Wants Refund from Georgia Sheriff Who Bought Dodge Muscle Car

This Georgia sheriff's department bought a Hellcat with asset forfeiture funds, heh.

At Instapundit, "YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK — AND PLAY: Justice Department Wants Refund from Sheriff Who Bought a Dodge Charger Hellcat."

Hey, "That's My Dodge," lol.



Allie Beth Stuckey's Satirical Interview with Alexandria Ocasio Cortez Gets Over One Million Views on Facebook -- and Leftists Are Furious!

This is really just too precious.

On Twitter:


Taylor Swift in Mini Skirt

At Popaholic, "Taylor Swift Flashing All of Her Insanely Sexy Legs in a Kinky Short Skirt… WOW!"

Also at Taxi Driver, "Taylor Swift Pantie Peek Upskirt in Mini Skirt."

Do You Fly Coach?

If you do, and I do, you're sucked.

CEOs defend packing 'em in like sardines on the major airlines coach sections.

At WSJ, "When Airline CEOs Try the Cheap Seats."