Lindsey Pelas Enormous Cleavage on the Red Carpet - https://t.co/xPJgD5RMFC - pic.twitter.com/2LSXArQwmN
— Taxi Driver (@TaxiDriverMovie) May 29, 2019
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Lindsey Pelas on the Red Carpet
Emma Watson Bikini Photos
At Drunken Stepfather, "Emma Watson - seen in a bikini in Cabo."
And at Taxi Driver:
Emma Watson on Holiday in a White Bikini - https://t.co/xlWZgX1PWL - pic.twitter.com/ep9Mcwkcy3
— Taxi Driver (@TaxiDriverMovie) June 5, 2019
'99 Luftballons'
Starlight
Muse
6:43am
St. Elmo's Fire
John Parr
6:39am
It's My Life
Talk Talk
6:36am
Basketcase
Green Day
6:25am
99 Luftballoons
Nena
6:21am
Wishing You Were Here
Pink Floyd
6:17am
The Middle
Jimmy Eat World
6:14am
Welcome To The Jungle
Guns N Roses
6:10am
People Are People
Depeche Mode
6:06am
Comedown
BUSH
5:53am
Monday, June 3, 2019
Our Existential Struggle
I can dig it.
If you've been reading anything by David Horowitz the last decade or two, you'll know that the left gives no quarter, and if you want to beat them, you need to be just as ruthless and then some.
Sohrab Ahmari had a piece attacking the NeverTrump wussies at National Review (and elsewhere, really), with specific mention to David French (whom I usually ignore).
Boy, Mr. Sohrab sent all kinds of folks into conniptions of apoplexy.
See, "AGAINST DAVID FRENCH-ISM."
And here's the Google link to the responses.
And don't miss Roger Kimball, especially the second half of the essay, at American Greatness, "Sohrab Ahmari and Our Existential Struggle":
Sohrab Ahmari and Our Existential Struggle | @rogerkimball brings his peerless erudition to bear https://t.co/o1ozphUdW7— Sohrab Ahmari (@SohrabAhmari) June 2, 2019
Again, more could be said about all of this, but let me move on briefly to what I think is the other key passage of Sohrab’s essay. It comes at the end. “Progressives,” he writes,
understand that culture war means discrediting their opponents and weakening or destroying their institutions. Conservatives should approach the culture war with a similar realism. Civility and decency are secondary values. They regulate compliance with an established order and orthodoxy. We should seek to use these values to enforce our order and our orthodoxy, not pretend that they could ever be neutral. To recognize that enmity is real is its own kind of moral duty.This passage was Exhibit A for Sohrab’s critics. Imagine, consigning civility and decency to the status of “second values”! Praising “enmity,” endorsing our own values and (dread word) “orthodoxy.”
Some of Sohrab’s critics seem to think that such passages indicated that he was advocating a new theocracy. I think he is advocating realism when it comes to our opponents in the culture war. What they want is not tolerance but full-throated approbation, whether the issue is bringing children to public libraries to be indoctrinated by sexual freaks, unlimited abortion, radical environmentalism, or the smorgasbord of toxins populating the ideology of identity politics. What they offer is not tolerance, not debate, but an invitation to submit to their view of the world.
In such situations, dissent cannot succeed if it proceeds piecemeal. It must recognize that what is at stake is, in the deepest sense, an anthropology, a view of what man is. We are living among the fragments of a shattered inheritance, morally and socially as well as politically. The so-called liberals (so-called because no one is more illiberal) are bent on scattering those fragments and trampling underfoot the values they represent.
Sohrab Ahmari’s essay is certainly not the last word in how to respond to this onslaught. But it has the inestimable virtue of understanding that this battle is not fodder for a debating club but an existential struggle.
Perky Lily Mo Sheen
At Drunken Stepfather, "LILY MO SHEEN TOPLESS OF THE DAY."
And at Celeb Jihad, "LILY MO SHEEN HORNY TITS AND ASS SHOW."
Patriot Anna Timmer Blasts Rep. Justin Amash at Grand Rapids Town Hall (VIDEO)
Thank you all for the love! Unexpected and greatly appreciated. This is a wrap for me for the week, but I'll be back in the Twitter game on Monday!
— Anna Timmer (@VeritasSola) June 2, 2019
Sunday, June 2, 2019
Timothy P. Carney, Alienated America
At Amazon, Timothy P. Carney, Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse.
Since Tiananmen, China Has Never Been the Same
At the Los Angeles Times, "I watched the 1989 Tiananmen uprising. China has never been the same":
Former @latimes bureau chief David Holley covered the Tiananmen massacre 30 years ago. This is his memory of the experience: https://t.co/34chwcuUhp
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) June 1, 2019
In the predawn hours of June 4, 1989, the Chinese army was bringing a bloody end to seven weeks of student-led protests centered on Tiananmen Square, Beijing’s historic center.RTWT.
From the windows of a deserted coffee shop at the Beijing Hotel, a few hundred yards east of Tiananmen, I could look toward the square and see several hundred soldiers forming lines across the capital’s broad main street. In front of the hotel was an angry and brave crowd of a couple thousand Beijing residents. These protesters were furious at the army for shooting its way into the city center, tanks and armored personnel carriers smashing obstacles, soldiers spraying bullets at crowds blocking its advance. Now I watched as the soldiers periodically fired into this crowd.
For me, what the Chinese call simply “June 4” — a date that fundamentally shaped today’s China — had begun the previous evening.
I was the Los Angeles Times Beijing bureau chief then, and had overseen the newspaper’s coverage of the pro-democracy protests since they began in mid-April. The Times’ team had been taking turns staking out the square, and my shift was to begin at midnight. Before leaving home late on June 3, I learned that the army had begun smashing its way through crowds several miles west of Tiananmen.
I grabbed my bicycle and raced toward the square.
As I pedaled, I passed hundreds of Beijing residents fleeing on foot and bicycle away from the square and the main body of troops approaching from the west.
Soon a single armored personnel carrier came hurtling around a corner, headed toward the square. As it clambered over red-and-white concrete traffic barriers placed by protesters, I nearly kept up with it, weaving my own way around the barriers — which might stop trucks and cars but not tanks and bicycles. Finally the driver stopped when he encountered too thick a crowd on a side street at the northeast corner of the square. It seemed he was unwilling to start killing masses of people by running them over. Once the armored vehicle stopped, someone thrust a thick metal bar into its treads.
The furious crowd threw burning blankets and Molotov cocktails onto the vehicle; a few young men got on top and began banging the hatch. They managed an opening and started throwing burning objects inside. Three soldiers jumped out, scattering into the crowd. I followed one, and watched as he ran in a zigzag pattern while being severely beaten with pipes and sticks. Blood dripped down his face, which held a look of terror. Then two or three students grabbed him away from his tormentors, who almost certainly were not students, and put him into a nearby ambulance.
I interviewed students at the center of the square, who planned nonviolent resistance to the end, and nonstudents, more inclined to fight back, who dominated the fringes. I moved from the pedestrian part of the square onto Changan Avenue, which passes the famous portrait of Mao Tse-tung on Tiananmen, the Gate of Heavenly Peace.
Then I realized that I was within bullet range of soldiers.
I decided to telephone the bureau from the Beijing Hotel — mobile phones were still a rarity in Beijing at the time. At the hotel entrance, security searched me for cameras or film. I found a phone in the dark coffee shop, and to my relief the hotel operator put me through to my office. I watched the shooting through the windows and periodically phoned in more notes.
Rumors and unconfirmed reports spread among the international reporters, Chinese and other foreigners in the hotel, and many inside came to believe that the sounds of gunfire audible from the direction of the square meant the students who stayed behind were being killed. I figured that was probably what was happening.
Deng Xiaoping, Mao’s successor as China’s paramount leader, had ordered the army to take the square by dawn — and authorized it to do the killing necessary to achieve this. The slaughter ranged over much of the city, mostly along several miles of the western approach roads to Tiananmen.
The Tiananmen uprising came during a fateful year in which communism was under siege in Eastern Europe. The Berlin Wall would fall that November; two years later, the Soviet Union would cease to exist. Deng’s fateful decision may have been timed in part to a desire to clear the square before a June 4 election that would end communism in Poland. Deng was not seriously afraid of the students, but he did fear a Polish-style Solidarity movement.
The months of protest in China had been triggered by the death of a popular former Communist Party leader, Hu Yaobang, who lost the party’s top post in 1987 partly on charges of being too soft on protesters. In the spring of 1989, students were planning pro-democracy demonstrations for the 70th anniversary of a watershed protest on May 4, 1919. The students moved their plans earlier by bringing wreaths to Tiananmen Square to honor Hu upon his death.
That was an implicit criticism of the surviving leaders. Yet it was difficult for the police to immediately suppress this because superficially it began as mourning for a top Communist.
Officials under Deng divided bitterly over the protests, which gathered momentum during a visit by Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev in mid-May.
When Deng decided to use the army to clear the square, Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, the leading economic reformer who was relatively liberal politically, refused to go along.
Word of Zhao’s opposition leaked, and when troops tried to enter the capital on May 20 massive crowds blocked them. The people of Beijing, supporting the students’ calls for more freedom and an attack on corruption, peacefully held their country’s army at bay for two weeks, as the protests morphed into an attempt to force Deng out and perhaps throw power to Zhao. But by then it was too late: Zhao was under house arrest, and Deng along with the other tough old warriors ruling China had no intention of losing this battle...
Anne F. Hyde, Empires, Nations, and Families
The Cable-Social Media Feedback Loop
Check this tweetstorm for the NYT piece, via Memeorandum, "You Don't Have to Be in Des Moines.' Democrats Expand Primary Map, Spurred by Social Media."
NEW: Morning from San Fran, where 14 (!) Dem candidates have gathered for the Calif Dem convention
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) June 1, 2019
At the same time, Biden is in...Ohio tonight.
How and why the 2020 race went national - and IA & NH have lost their stranglehold >>https://t.co/Sp2Azp600m pic.twitter.com/YLhPIgFXIe
Hope you’ll read the story, but this map from @jsonkao really paints the picture:
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) June 1, 2019
the Dem candidates have already visited over 30 states + territories for non-fundraising events.
And the year isn’t halfway done https://t.co/Sp2Azp600m pic.twitter.com/8qNLXPqzee
It’s not *just* Super Tuesday.
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) June 1, 2019
The nature of Dem coalition & Trump has made ‘20 the mirror of ‘08:
Obama spent 89 days in Iowa and won the nom in part bc he showed there he could win rural whites. Now the candidates must prove they have a message for, and can win, non-whites.
It’s hard to overstate how central the cable-social media feedback loop has become to this primary. Staff judge events in part on if cables went live from venue. And they’re fixated on creating settings& moments that can go viral.
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) June 1, 2019
Warren has won plaudits for her meaty policy proposals, but no candidate besides Biden has benefited as much from Trump. Why?
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) June 1, 2019
Because cable TV drives polling and cable is fixated on Mueller
After Warren called for impeachment her cable mentions soared and polling followed...
...and then Warren helped herself w a good turn at, wait for it, a *cable* town hall just 3 days after calling for impeachment post-Mueller report
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) June 1, 2019
It’s no accident polls show she’s doing best of any non-Biden candidate among the most engaged Dems: they’re glued to cable/social
BUT: The early states still thin the field@davidplouffe warns that campaigns are making a mistake if IA and NH aren’t their “the north star”
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) June 1, 2019
“If you need to come in third but you came in fifth you’ll say, ‘Shit, if only I had spent three or four more days in Iowa.’”
AND:
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) June 2, 2019
the new rules from the DNC on debate access will only incentivize candidates to focus more on breaking thru on TV and spending more on social/TV https://t.co/Sp2Azp600m
Mindy Robinson Patriotic
#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/iFMcBZnWEi
— Mindy Robinson 🇺🇸 (@iheartmindy) May 31, 2019
Stacy Poole
Saturday, June 1, 2019
'Stray Cat Strut'
And I was just thinking about it after hearing "Stray Cat Strut" at 93.1 Jack FM while out to the bank.
Rocket Man"Stray Cat Strut" came on just before Tom Petty, but I'm just now checking the website and the playlist.
Elton John
2:04pm
Seven Nation Army
The White Stripes
1:54pm
You Shook Me All Night Long
AC/DC
1:50pm
Words
Missing Persons
1:46pm
November Rain
Guns N' Roses
1:40pm
Sweet Dreams
EURYTHMICS
1:37pm
Fat Bottomed Girls
Queen
1:32pm
Something Just Like This
Coldplay / The Chainsmokers
1:22pm
Tom Sawyer
Rush
1:17pm
I Will Die 4 U / Baby You're A Star
Prince
1:11pm
Comedown
Bush
1:06pm
If You Leave
O M D
1:01pm
Iron Man
Black Sabbath
12:51pm
Stressed Out
Twenty One Pilots
12:48pm
The Waiting
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
12:44pm.
I saw the band twice at the Roxy in Hollywood back in the day.
The Stray Cats are the only band I can ever remember that botched a song on stage and had to start over. Brian Setzer forgot the lyrics --- it was probably "Rock This Town," now that I think about it --- and drummer Slim Jim Phantom banged his snare drum --- twap, twap!! --- stopped and looked over at Setzer with a look saying, "WTF man" (plus an eye-roll lol).
Woke Los Angeles is the New Typhus Hotbed: Homeless Catastrophe Makes City of Angels Unlivable (VIDEO)
And don't even get me going about San Francisco, where the current California Governor Gavin Newsome left behind a legacy of human feces, heroin junkies shooting up on the sidewalks, and progressive NIMBY losers turning away with indifference.
California really is a lost cause.
At the New American, "“Sky High” Piles of Trash Making Downtown Los Angeles Unlivable."
And the Los Angeles Times, "Rats and other vermin infest LAPD downtown station, sparking anger among officers."
LAPD Officers Diagnosed With Suspected Case of Typhus, Salmonella Typhi: Los Angeles has no formal rat abatement program. But, yay, we have the Olympics. https://t.co/pDVY4eJVtw via @nbcla— Amy Alkon (@amyalkon) June 1, 2019
When state officials inspected the Los Angeles Police Department’s Central Division station last November, they uncovered rodent infestations and other unsanitary conditions at the facilities responsible for protecting skid row and other parts of downtown.What a nightmare.
The conditions have now become the source of growing anger inside the station, with some officers threatening to seek transfers and city leaders scrambling to address the problems.
The issues at the Central Division come amid larger concerns about disease and filth across downtown, notably a vermin infestation at City Hall last year. One city employee was diagnosed with typhus, a disease that can be spread by rodents. City Hall workers said they saw fleas, rodent droppings and plants eaten by vermin in the building.
The California Department of Industrial Relations issued six violations and a $5,425 fine to the LAPD on May 14 and two violations and a $1,910 fine to the Department of General Services, records reviewed by The Times on Thursday show.
On Thursday, Mayor Eric Garcetti and the LAPD said they are working to resolve the problems. The division has 414 sworn officers — the largest number in the city.
“Our officers work hard every day to protect our city, and they deserve the best working conditions,” said Alex Comisar, a Garcetti spokesman. “Whether the issue is bad plumbing or something else, the mayor is working with the department to get to the bottom of this situation — and will take every possible step to protect the health and safety of all our employees.”
The department added: "The state’s report is concerning and we are taking steps to ensure the men and women who work for the Los Angeles Police Department can come to work in a healthy environment.”
The LAPD announced late Wednesday that an employee who fell ill at the downtown LAPD station had contracted the strain of bacteria that causes typhoid fever and was being treated for the condition. The LAPD confirmed that a second employee had a lower intestinal infection, but a specific diagnosis has not been determined...
Still more at the link.