Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Rose McGowan Backlash After Former 'Charmed' Star Tweets Support for Asia Argento

Althouse had the story, first reported at NYT, "Asia Argento, a #MeToo Leader, Made a Deal With Her Own Accuser."

And Ann's comment there:
"Most 17-year-old boys would consider sex f any kind with a beautiful woman the best day of their life so far."

How old was he when he made the movie in which she played his mother? Then look at the continued psychological hold on him with this "I'm your mother" routine. What if someone did that to your child? It's an appropriation of childhood innocence, very reminiscent of the behavior of the accused Catholic priests. To take a young mind and to shape and manipulate it to serve your sexual interests is truly evil. Everyone who has contact with children has a moral responsibility not to use them that way, even if they are refraining from sexual contact until the age of consent.
And now at CNN, the hypocrisy of Rose McGowan:




Rose got fried for her sick double standard here, at the link.




Last Known Nazi Death Camp Guard Deported to Germany

Good riddance to the fucker.

And ICE deported him. You'd think leftists would celebrate that, right?

At the Guardian U.K., "U.S. deports Nazi war crimes suspect to Germany."



Thursday, August 16, 2018

Howard Fast, Freedom Road

I've finished The Human Factor. It was surprisingly good. I was trying to figure out some of the story lines, as I'm not a big spy novel aficionado, but it all came together in the last third of the book, and it was moving, even sad.

In any case, I read Howard Fast's Spartacus last summer, and that book made me a forever fan of Fast, who has a fascinating personal history (or "had" one; he died in 2003).

At Amazon, Howard Fast, Freedom Road (American History Through Literature).



'Think'

Aretha Franklin, the "Queen of Soul," has dead at the age of 76.

At LAT, "Aretha Franklin, who defined an era as the Queen of Soul, dies at 76."



Bella Thorne for GQ Mexico.

At Maxim:


Lucy Pinder in Lingerie

On Twitter, "#LucyPinder with sexy #lingerie."

She's a beauty.


Jeremy Corbyn is Too Extreme to Be Prime Minister

From Sohrab Ahmari, at Commentary, "Never Corbyn."


Coliseum's Ongoing Renovation Means Different USC Game-Day Experience for Fans (VIDEO)

College football season's almost upon us.

And here's this, at LAT, "It will be a season of 'growing pains' for USC fans at the Coliseum":


USC’s 95th football season in the Coliseum will be unlike any other. And that will have nothing to do with what happens on the field.

As the Coliseum undergoes its real-time renovation in preparation for a 2019 unveiling, more will be asked of the Trojans fans in particular. USC and Coliseum officials scheduled a news conference Wednesday morning to address the biggest challenges fans will face and what specifically they can do to make 2018’s temporary game-day experience palatable enough to get through it and onto next season, when the fun can really start.

“It will be a season of change for a lot of fans when they come into the Coliseum,” USC athletic director Lynn Swann said. “Everybody will be going through some kind of adjustment, in terms of where they used to sit and to where they’re going to sit this year and how it’s going to change in 2019. Growing pains, if you will."

USC fans and alumni who would have preferred that the athletic department not touch the venerable stadium have been heard, but that ship sailed long ago. Since the end of the Rams’ 2017 season in January, 12,514 cubic yards of concrete have been poured; 2,131 tons of structural steel have been used; and 46,000 cubic yards of dirt have been exported.

All of this comes in the name of progress — if you are willing to define progress as spending a lot of money now to make a lot more money over the coming decades thanks to new revenue streams created from building luxury boxes — and USC would prefer that the process doesn’t have to be that painful...
More.


California Looks to Block Further Offshore Drilling for Oil

Hey, I say, "Drill baby drill," lol.

But this is California, which has been taken over by far-left progressive nutjobs. It's hard out here, man.

At LAT, "First came the proclamations against Trump's offshore drilling plan. Now comes the legislation":

When the Trump administration proposed opening California waters to drilling on an unprecedented scale, state leaders said they would do whatever it takes to keep new oil operations at bay.

But promises only go so far.

So some in Sacramento now are trying to lock those pledges into law — safeguarding the coast from offshore drilling no matter the whims of future administrations.

Despite decades of lawsuits and regulations, the state’s ability to block offshore drilling hinges largely on who’s in power in the state Capitol. Even with staunch opposition by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and pledges from both candidates vying to be the next governor, future leaders could still allow new drilling if they choose.

Two bills that could live or die Thursday would close that possibility by barring state land managers from allowing the construction of new pipelines, piers, wharves or other infrastructure necessary to transport the oil and gas from water to land.

In a state where polls show 69% of residents oppose more drilling off their coast, such legislation may seem like a shoo-in. “But unfortunately it’s not,” said Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance), acting chair of the Assembly’s Natural Resources Committee.

A similar Senate bill last year failed amid pressure from powerful oil and business interests that said stripping the state of this decision-making authority could do more harm than good.

Muratsuchi said he agreed to team up with state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) and seven coauthors this year to reintroduce the issue as nearly identical bills in the Assembly and the Senate, and overcome what he said were the key challenges: “Oily Democrats,” a more business-friendly Assembly than in years past, and powerful lobbying alliances in Sacramento.

The stalling of the legislation last year marked an instance in which California, famous for leading the charge on environmental laws, left other states to pave the way. New Jersey and New York picked up and adopted similar legislation this year. Delaware and Maryland are also looking to pass laws that would bar new drilling in state waters.

But with mounting public pushback against the Trump administration’s efforts to upend California’s environmental protections, backers say the bills have a new urgency this year.

“We need to take control of what we can control — and what we can control is our state land and waters,” said Richard Charter, a senior fellow at the Ocean Foundation who has worked on oil issues for 40 years. “I have never seen this level of danger to California’s coastline.”

Bills AB 1775 and SB 834 would prohibit the State Lands Commission, which has jurisdiction over tidelands and waters extending roughly three miles offshore, from granting leases for new pipelines and infrastructure — the most economical way to transport oil and gas to land. The Senate version of the bill goes a step further, banning the commission from renewing an existing lease if that action will result in increased oil or natural gas production from federal waters.

Currently, the commission’s oil decisions are subject to the vote of two elected officials, the lieutenant governor and the state controller, and one appointee of the governor, the director of the state Department of Finance.

Both Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the Democratic candidate for governor, and John Cox, the Republican candidate who has Trump’s backing, have declared that the commission’s current commitment to barring new leases would not change under their leadership...
More.

Monday, August 13, 2018

Graham Greene, The Human Factor

Mr. Greene's classic paperbacks go for prime dollars, lol.

The mass-market is available at Amazon, Graham Greene, The Human Factor (Mass-Market Paperback).

And see also, The Human Factor (Penguin Classics).



We Need More Masculinity

Here's a great Prager University video, featuring Allie Beth Stuckey, "Make Men Masculine Again":



Blanca Blanco in Bathing Suit

At Taxi Driver, "Blanca Blanco Pops Out of her Bathing Suit."

PREVIOUSLY: "Blanca Blanco in White T-Shirt."

Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We?

*BUMPED.*

Following-up, "Progressives Outraged at Laura Ingraham's Opening Segment Slamming Left's Program to Remake America (VIDEO)."

It's not like Ms. Laura was saying anything new. Conservatives have been sound the tocsin for decades. Here's Pat Buchanan's book from 2002, The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization.

And don't forget Jean Raspail's 1973 novel, The Camp of the Saints.

Also, Victor Davis Hanson, Mexifornia: A State of Becoming.

More recently, see Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam.

And my favorite, which was eye-opening at the time (2004), Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity.



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.

And especially, Arlo by NETGEAR Security System - 1 Wire-Free HD Camera - Indoor/Outdoor - Night Vision (VMS3130), Works with Alexa, and Arlo Pro 2 Home Security Camera System (3 pack) with Siren, Wireless, Rechargeable, 1080p HD, Audio, Indoor or Outdoor, Night Vision, Works with Amazon Alexa.

More, in Electronics.

And see, GoPro HERO (2018).

Also, Dyson DC59 Animal Cordless Vacuum Cleaner.

Plus, Buck Knives The 55 Folding Pocket Knife.

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

And, Mountain House Just in Case.Classic Bucket.

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).

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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.