Our Poisoned Information System

From Charlie Warzel, at the New York Times, "Epstein Suicide Conspiracies Show How Our Information System Is Poisoned." (Via Memeorandum.)

The system is poisoned all right, but it's not like the Old Gray Lady is completely innocent here. Dan Gainor points out the two-year long Russia conspiracy hoax as an example.

In any case, FWIW:

Strong column by @cwarzel. Begs the question: would things improve if all journalists got off Twitter? https://t.co/qEptXGel4X

— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) August 11, 2019

Imagine the dystopia that is a country divided in a hashtag battle accusing a former president and the current president of staging the suicide of a pedophile emperor to cover up their child molestation.#TrumpBodyCount#ClintonBodyCount

— Cameron Kasky (@cameron_kasky) August 10, 2019

This creates big incentives to game trending. Either:
1) press will cover it & amplify
2) press will debunk & still amplify, while creating controversy
3) press will very occasionally ignore,then conspiracy press will cover to ask why 🤔

if you make it trend, you make it true.

— Renee DiResta (@noUpside) August 10, 2019

Mr. Epstein’s apparent suicide is, in many ways, the post-truth nightmare scenario. The sordid story contains almost all the hallmarks of stereotypical conspiratorial fodder: child sex-trafficking, powerful global political leaders, shadowy private jet flights, billionaires whose wealth cannot be explained. As a tale of corruption, it is so deeply intertwined with our current cultural and political rot that it feels, at times, almost too on-the-nose. The Epstein saga provides ammunition for everyone, leading one researcher to refer to Saturday’s news as the “Disinformation World Cup.”

At the heart of Saturday’s fiasco is Twitter, which has come to largely program the political conversation and much of the press. Twitter is magnetic during massive breaking stories; news junkies flock to it for up-to-the-second information. But early on, there’s often a vast discrepancy between the attention that is directed at the platform and the available information about the developing story. That gap is filled by speculation and, via its worst users, rumor-mongering and conspiracy theories.

On Saturday, Twitter’s trending algorithms hoovered up the worst of this detritus, curating, ranking and then placing it in the trending module on the right side of its website. Despite being a highly arbitrary and mostly “worthless metric,” trending topics on Twitter are often interpreted as a vague signal of the importance of a given subject.

There’s a decent chance that President Trump was using Twitter’s trending module when he retweeted a conspiratorial tweet tying the Clintons to Epstein’s death. At the time of Mr. Trump’s retweet, “Clintons” was the third trending topic in the United States. The specific tweet amplified by the president to his more than 60 million followers was prominently featured in the “Clintons” trending topic. And as Ashley Feinberg at Slate pointed out in June, the president appears to have a history of using trending to find and interact with tweets.

On Saturday afternoon, computational propaganda researcher Renée DiResta noted that the media’s close relationship with Twitter creates an incentive for propagandists and partisans to artificially inflate given hashtags. Almost as soon as #ClintonBodyCount began trending on Saturday, journalists took note and began lamenting the spread of this conspiracy theory — effectively turning it into a news story, and further amplifying the trend. “Any wayward tweet … can be elevated to an opinion worth paying attention to,” Ms. DiResta wrote. “If you make it trend, you make it true.”

That our public conversation has been uploaded onto tech platforms governed by opaque algorithms adds even more fodder for the conspiratorial minded. Anti-Trump Twitter pundits with hundreds of thousands of followers blamed “Russian bots” for the Clinton trending topic. On the far-right, pro-Trump sites like the Gateway Pundit (with a long track record of amplifying conspiracy theories) suggested that Twitter was suppressing and censoring the Clinton hashtags.

Where does this leave us? Nowhere good.

Sarah Snyder

At Drunken Stepfather, "SARAH SNYDER SLUTTY BIKINI PORNO OF THE DAY."

Democrat 'Talking Points' on Jeffrey Epstein Suicide

The most telling line is point three, "Do not link to the current court documents regarding Epstein or use them in constructing your argument," because that would clearly implicate the degenerate Democrat Party and exonerate President Trump, and we can't have that.

Via Conservative Treehouse, "Far-Left Panic Over Epstein’s “Suicide” – Shareblue Dispatches Urgent Talking Points For On-Line Activists…"

Orange County Stabbing Rampage (VIDEO)

Where are the left's calls for knife control?

At LAT, "Suspect in Orange County knife rampage charged with four counts of murder."

Police said they were stunned by the cycle of events, which began at an apartment building in Garden Grove and then spread to businesses. https://t.co/2FuKcTET0g

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) August 8, 2019

Jeffrey Epstein's Suicide is 'Unfathomable'

Following-up, "#ClintonBodyCount."

At Instapundit, "OH, I DUNNO, I THINK I CAN FATHOM IT."

How does one commit suicide while on suicide watch...or was it not suicide? https://t.co/7PX3iHG9Ri

— ColorMeRed 🇺🇸 📌 (@ColorMeRed) August 10, 2019

That is difficult to believe. Epstein already made one suicide attempt and everyone knows that pedos are not very popular with the prison population. How many inmates could implicate several Presidents as well as a Prince of England not to mention many other high powered names?

— ColorMeRed 🇺🇸 📌 (@ColorMeRed) August 10, 2019

#ClintonBodyCount

It should be #ClintonBodyCount trending, not #TrumpBodyCount, but this is the duplicitous left we're dealing with.

On Twitter:

My God, they’re already covering it up. Twitter has completely replaced the hashtag #ClintonBodyCount with #TrumpBodyCount on the trending newsfeed even though the numbers were higher.

The media bias is UNREAL at this point. pic.twitter.com/38QBO7HBIB

— Mindy Robinson 🇺🇸 (@iheartmindy) August 10, 2019

People close to Epstein fear he was murdered...as Epstein told authorities someone tried to kill him in a previous incident weeks earlier. He was described as being in good spirits in recent days... https://t.co/J9QNSo1N2v

— Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig) August 10, 2019

The New Nativists: Rise of Far-Right Nationalism

You gotta read this at the link. It's long. Of course you know the New York Times does everything to demonize the "far right," while completely minimizing real and serious threats from unlimited migration to Europe's traditionally homogeneous societies, especially Sweden.

It's all a Russia-back plot to spread disinformation, you see.

At the Old Gray Lady, FWIW:

Sweden views itself as a moral and progressive superpower, but an anti-immigration backlash has allowed right-wing populism to take hold. Aiding the rise in far-right, national sentiment: a global disinformation machine. https://t.co/YD1jn8oU3S

— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 10, 2019

Brooke Baldwin Breaks Down

This is performative leftism.

If you cry enough maybe something will be done, right?

At CNN:

Jeffrey Epstein Dead

Well, let the conspiracy theories begin.

Epstein was actually not on suicide watch when he died. But folks on Twitter are already alleging he was murdered. #EpsteinMurder and #TrumpBodyCount are among the almost exclusively Jeffrey Epstein trending topics.

And at the New York Times, via Memeoranum, "Jeffrey Epstein Dead in Suicide at Manhattan Jail, Officials Say."

And those trending topics weren't favorable to Democrats earlier today. What happened?

Funny how it always goes against conservatives.

it took the conspiracy people no time to go overdrive on peddling that the clintons killed epstein pic.twitter.com/MhJKPFoJQm

— Ali Breland (@alibreland) August 10, 2019

Megan Parry's Wednesday Forecast

The marine layer appears to be just now burning off. It's been in the high 80s in the O.C., not too bad actually.

Here's the lovely Ms. Megan, for ABC News 10 San Diego:

The Lie That Latinos Are 'Living in Fear' After El Paso Shooting

The New York Times had this up yesterday:

“It’s quite a transition from being invisible to being visible in a lethal way. It’s something new to my community. We are used to the basic darkness of racism, not this.” https://t.co/Dap8EGaIWe

— Patricia Mazzei (@PatriciaMazzei) August 7, 2019

And at the Los Angeles Times from earlier as well:

For Latinos, the El Paso slaughter & its bigoted motive have marked a devastating new low in the Trump era. Stay tuned for coverage of the candidates later today. /4 https://t.co/wFv1f4IXO6

— Michael Finnegan (@finneganLAT) August 5, 2019

Yet, see this morning's piece at LAT, "Migrants say El Paso shooting won’t deter them from seeking new lives in the U.S.":

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico —  The massacre at an El Paso Walmart store on Saturday hasn’t diminished Silvia Ivania’s desire to move to the United States — even if the killer of 22 people was apparently motivated by hatred of Latino immigrants.

“That’s something that can happen anywhere,” said Ivania, 37, a citizen of Honduras, speaking at the Good Samaritan migrant shelter in this border city across the Rio Grande from El Paso. “The violence in Honduras is a lot worse than in the United States.”

She and several other migrants interviewed Tuesday at the shelter — temporary home to about 100, mostly Central Americans, but including U.S.-bound Cubans, Africans and others — agreed that the mass killing would not dissuade them.

“If anything, I want to go to the United States even more than before,” said Danieska Del Toro, 34, from Havana. “They arrested the guy, right? Maybe he was crazy. In Cuba we have violence too, even if the regime says there is none.”


Along the nearby Rio Grande, which separates the U.S. and Mexico, scattered groups of migrants could be seen Tuesday scampering across the river — which, at the moment, has been reduced to a few scattered puddles amid a narrow ribbon of green, and easy to traverse on foot. Its shallow depths seem to mock signs warning people of the danger of drowning.

At midday, amid 100-degree-plus temperatures, about 20 people — some holding their children’s hands — surrendered to U.S. Border Patrol vans waiting on the other side. As is usually the case, the migrants didn’t attempt to evade U.S. immigration authorities, but sought them out.

Mexican National Guard troops posted on the south side said they urged border crossers not to proceed, but didn’t prevent their passage.

“That’s their decision; we just tell them of the risks,” said one Mexican National Guard officer, who declined to be named because she wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.

Tucker Carlson: White Supremacy is a 'Hoax' (VIDEO)

Well, we do have some white supremacists. But these are not conservatives and Republicans. They're Nazis, and leftists will use the few examples of genuinely evil people to destroy the Trump administration an elect a Democrat-controlled national government in 2020. That's what this is really all about. It's politics. Neither of the suspects in this week's shooting were Strormfront KKK Nazis calling for mass genocide. El Paso's shooter was an environmental leftist who hated immigrants. And the Dayton shooter was a far-left Elizabeth Warren supporter. But the media's got its meme and they're going with it.

Here's Tucker from last night:



Via the leftist Daily Beast, "Tucker Carlson: White Supremacy Is a ‘Hoax’ and ‘Not a Real Problem in America’."

Joaquin Castro Doxxing Trump-Supporting Constituents (VIDEO)

It's bad. I mean think about it: This is a Member of Congress, posting information to his personal Twitter page, calling for the open harassment of American citizens exercising their First Amendment rights. Everybody gives money. It's public information so as to prevent campaign finance violations. It's not public to shame and threaten people for participating in the political process. Weaponizing information like this only serves to suppress speech and demonize political opponents. You are literally putting a target on the back of your political opponents. This is where we are in this country. Who's really dividing this country?

See David Harsanyi, at the Federalist, "Joaquin Castro’s Doxxing of Voters is Un-American."

Sad to see so many San Antonians as 2019 maximum donors to Donald Trump — the owner of ⁦@BillMillerBarBQ⁩, owner of the ⁦@HistoricPearl, realtor Phyllis Browning, etc⁩.

Their contributions are fueling a campaign of hate that labels Hispanic immigrants as ‘invaders.’ pic.twitter.com/YT85IBF19u

— Joaquin Castro (@Castro4Congress) August 6, 2019

MSNBC's Willie Geist to Joaquin Castro after he doxxed @realDonaldTrump supporters:

"These people are undoubtedly are already being harassed ... they will be because you put their names in public."

Castro later responds: "I didn't create the graphic."

Give me a break Castro. pic.twitter.com/XgBw8fkevA

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) August 7, 2019

President Trump's Statement on the Mass Shootings in Texas and Ohio (VIDEO)

He makes a perfectly sober and heartfelt statement, denouncing the killings and repudiating racist hatred and "white supremacy." Of course, it's never enough for the evil left.

At the White House page, "Remarks by President Trump on the Mass Shootings in Texas and Ohio."

What's Really Behind the 'White Supremacy' Terrorism Scare

It's Julie Kelly, at American Greatness:

Julie Kelly today at American Greatness with What’s Really Behind the ‘White Supremacy’ Terrorism Scare https://t.co/AAGEOGmfii pic.twitter.com/73L20945u9

— American Greatness (@theamgreatness) August 6, 2019

The anti-Trump forces, now stripped of their Russian collusion ammunition, have invented another imaginary threat they hope to weaponize against the president: The public menace posed by “white supremacist” terrorism.

Much like the collusion conspiracy theory—which relied on random incidents, fictional villains, unconvincing evidence, and the Bad Orange Man in the White House—there is little substance to this purported danger.

Unironically, the whole ruse is being pushed by the same people who foisted the Russian collusion hoax on the American people for three years in the hopes of prompting President Trump’s impeachment and removal. The political agenda behind this manufactured white supremacy crisis is equally sinister because its specific purpose is to influence and undermine the 2020 elections.

The “white supremacy” canard is intended to further demonize Trump; falsely defame his supporters as white supremacists; and pressure nervous voters into defeating Trump and Republican candidates next year. The strategy is as cynical as it is pernicious...

Heidi Klum

At Celeb Jihad, "HEIDI KLUM TOPLESS AGAIN ON A NUDE BEACH."

Courtney Stodden

She looks good.

At Drunken Stepfather, "COURTNEY STODDEN STILL ALIVE OF THE DAY."

Kate Upton's Quick Peek

At Hollywood Tuna, "Kate Upton’s Cleavage Peek."

Also, "Kate Upton Topless."

8chan Founder Says 'Shut It Down'

I don't care about 8chan. I've never visited any of the troll message boards, although I don't think they should be regulated by government. Preventive action is key. If it's not 8chan it'll be something else. There's unlimited outlets for shitposting trolls to gather, spew, and foment nihilist racist propaganda.

Following-up, "El Paso Shooting Suspect Posted Online 'Manifesto' Decrying 'Ethnic Replacement' in the U.S. (VIDEO)," and "'Shitposting Nihilist Trolls' and the Lolz of the El Paso Shooting Massacre."

At the New York Times, "8chan Is a Megaphone for Gunmen. ‘Shut the Site Down,’ Says Its Creator":

I talked to the founder and former admin of 8chan this morning. He told me he wants the site to be shut down, after being involved in 3 mass shootings this year. https://t.co/tewgBEqYeF

— Kevin Roose (@kevinroose) August 4, 2019

Fredrick Brennan was getting ready for church at his home in the Philippines when the news of a mass shooting in El Paso arrived. His response was immediate and instinctive.

“Whenever I hear about a mass shooting, I say, ‘All right, we have to research if there’s an 8chan connection,’” he said.

Mr. Brennan started the online message board 8chan in 2013, as a spinoff of 4chan, the better-known message board. In its early years, the site was known as an unmoderated free-for-all site populated by anonymous posters, where shocking and offensive humor reigned.

Now, 8chan is known as something else: a megaphone for mass shooters, and a recruiting platform for violent white nationalists. And Mr. Brennan, who stopped working with the site’s current owner last year, is calling for it to be taken offline before it leads to further violence.

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“Shut the site down,” Mr. Brennan said in an interview on Sunday. “It’s not doing the world any good. It’s a complete negative to everybody except the users that are there. And you know what? It’s a negative to them, too. They just don’t realize it.”

So far this year, three mass shootings — El Paso, the mosque killings in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the synagogue shooting in Poway, Calif. — have been announced in advance on 8chan, often accompanied by racist writings that seem engineered to go viral on the internet.

Moments before the El Paso shooting on Saturday, a four-page message whose author identified himself as the suspected shooter appeared on 8chan’s politics board, known as /pol/. The person who posted the message encouraged his 8chan “brothers” to spread its contents far and wide.

Given its repeated involvement in mass shootings, 8chan has become a focal point for those seeking to disrupt the pathways of online extremism.

“8chan is almost like a bulletin board where the worst offenders go to share their terrible ideas,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League. “It’s become a sounding board where people share ideas, and where these kinds of ideologies are amplified and expanded on, and ultimately, people are radicalized as a result.”

8chan has been run out of the Philippines by Jim Watkins, a United States Army veteran, since 2015, when Mr. Brennan gave up control of the site.

The site remains nearly completely unmoderated, and its commitment to keeping up even the most violent speech has made it a venue for extremists to test out ideas, share violent literature and cheer on the perpetrators of mass killings. Users on 8chan frequently lionize mass shooters using jokey internet vernacular, referring to their body counts as “high scores” and creating memes praising the killers.

Mr. Brennan, who has a condition known as brittle-bone disease and uses a wheelchair, has tried to distance himself from 8chan and its current owners. In a March interview with The Wall Street Journal, he expressed his regrets over his role in the site’s creation, and warned that the violent culture that had taken root on 8chan’s boards could lead to more mass shootings.

After the El Paso shooting, he seemed resigned to the fact that it had.

“Another 8chan shooting?” he tweeted on Saturday. “Am I ever going to be able to move on with my life?”

Mr. Watkins, who runs 8chan along with his son, Ronald, has remained defiant in the face of criticism, and has resisted calls to moderate or shut down the site. On Sunday, a banner at the top of 8chan’s home page read, “Welcome to 8chan, the Darkest Reaches of the Internet.”

“I’ve tried to understand so many times why he keeps it going, and I just don’t get it,” Mr. Brennan said. “After Christchurch, after the Tree of Life shooting, and now after this shooting, they think this is all really funny.”

Mr. Watkins did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

In the early days of 8chan, Mr. Brennan defended the right of 8chan users to post anonymously, without censorship. And he dismissed incidents of harassment or violence by users of the site as the price of being an open forum...

Jennifer Delacruz's Sunday Forecast

And now for something different, and much more pleasant. It's been very hot weather. I went to Pechanga last night and didn't even know the shooter was an alleged "white nationalist" until I got home at 1:00am. If you stay off social media your life is enriched. Sure, we need to keep up with the news. What we don't need is the constant attacks on people with whom ones disagrees. The NRA is not responsible for the actions of mentally ill shitposting trolls.

In any case, get out and enjoy your day. If you're in SoCal, stay cool indoors or go out to the pool with a cold drink. It's going to be a beautiful day.

And here's the beautiful Ms. Jennifer, for ABC News 10 San Diego:

Neera Tanden Trounced for Dancing on Graves, Campaigning for #Dems, After Mass Shootings

This is really, really bad.

At Twitchy:

Never let a crisis go to WASTE --> Neera Tanden TROUNCED for dancing on El Paso/Dayton graves to campaign for Dems https://t.co/DYa5JklEoB

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 4, 2019

Never let a crisis go to waste, eh Neera? Instead of an intelligent conversation about what’s driving these shootings, who’s responsible, and how to stop them, why not attack your ideological opponents to score points?
You don’t care about lives, you only care about power.

— Tryx™️🌪 (@Tryxt3rocks) August 4, 2019

'Shitposting Nihilist Trolls' and the Lolz of the El Paso Shooting Masscre

Actually, I suspect one can be a little more scientific when trying to identify root causes, but he's not entirely wrong. It's Brian Cates with a tweetstorm from earlier, via Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, at Twitchy:

‘Media and politicians DON’T get it’: Brian Cates’ thread on the gunman’s alleged ‘manifesto’ is a must read https://t.co/rSDkI6aykT

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 4, 2019

We’re now facing something new.

Before, a person intensely motivated by politics would write a manifesto to explain their reasons for resorting to violence.

Shitposting trolls on the chans aren’t trying to affect real political change.

The manifesto is PART of the trolling.

— Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) August 4, 2019

The **Antifa** guy from three weeks ago, now THAT was an old style attempt at a mass murder.

He left behind a rambling, disjointed manifesto enumerating political reasons for his attack on the ICE facility. https://t.co/ZDA16zeYhT

— Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) August 4, 2019

But something new has been added into the mix in the last year and we have to recognize it:

Mass shootings done for **fun** as the ultimate troll where these shitposters write confusing manifestos and then sit back & watch the fun as both sides claim he belongs to the other.

— Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) August 4, 2019

Trump Must Condemn 'White Nationalist Terrorism'

Sure, he can denounce it, but that never satisfies the left. Democrats would do well to bone up on the policy and legislative efforts the Obama administration launched after the Newtown massacre What new guns laws were effected? Bupkes.

I’m going to agree here. But, if Trump denounces “White nationalist terrorism” blood thirsty #Democrats won’t be satisfied. That’s the problem when it all gets politicized. Double standards will get more people killed. 🤷‍♂️ #ElPaso #CieloVista #MassShooting #Walmart https://t.co/noG9uWz0jY

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 4, 2019

#Democrat Pete Buttigieg Warns Against the 'Domestic White Nationalist Terror' Threat (VIDEO)

Democrats didn't wait long.

Following-up, "Democrat Beto O'Rourke Politicizes Mass Slaughter at #CieloVista #Walmart in #ElPaso (VIDEO)."

Buttigieg, who otherwise often sounds reasonable, is pathetic and desperate here.

#Democrats in a race to demonize law-abiding citizens for the actions of an evil individual filled with racist hatred. STFU and fix your #Democrat thug-controlled cities before blaming #Republicans for this evil act. #ElPaso #CieloVista #MassShooting 🙏🤷‍♂️ https://t.co/zK4fypY6YJ

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 4, 2019

El Paso Shooting Suspect Posted Online 'Manifesto' Decrying 'Ethnic Replacement' in the U.S. (VIDEO)

Bellingcat has an investigative report, "The El Paso Shooting and the Gamification of Terror." (Via Memeorandum.)

And click through at Gateway Pundit to read the shooter's racist screed, which cites the New Zealand Christchurch massacre as inspiration: "El Paso Walmart Shooter Patrick Crusius Admits in Manifesto That he Chose a Gun-Free Zone for Obvious Reasons."

And at Russia Today (with the obvious caveats):

El Paso Shooting Suspect Could Face Death Penalty (VIDEO)

I hope the dude fries. Let's so leftists launch an anti-death penalty campaign to free this guy from death row. I mean, it helps to be politically consistent, right? (*Eye-roll.*)

At the El Paso Times, "Capital murder charge filed, death penalty sought against man arrested in El Paso Walmart mass shooting."

Democrat Beto O'Rourke Politicizes Mass Slaughter at #CieloVista #Walmart in #ElPaso (VIDEO)

I'm shocked, horrified, sick, and angry with all the mass shootings, whatever the background of the shooter. And obviously, politically-motivated hate crimes must be denounced and prevented. But let's work as a team. Not tear each other apart. Beto's not helping. And he's especially not helping the #Democrat Party, which will not win a battle to secure even more regressive and confiscatory guns laws.

#Beto is really hitting the “blame Trump” talking points hard. Politicizing #ElPaso won’t turn out well for #Democrats, especially when the left’s inevitable gun confiscation propaganda goes into overdrive. #FakeNewsCNN #Dems #CieloVista #massShooting 🤷‍♂️

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 4, 2019

This is what I’m talking about. 🙄 #Beto https://t.co/vz1rjdWN7V #ElPasoShooting #CieloVista #MassShooting https://t.co/u1PLugKNXv

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 4, 2019

A tragedy like this is not an opportunity to reboot your failing presidential campaign.

This is disgusting and wrong.https://t.co/gHfPHx1Oet

— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) August 4, 2019

House Republicans Head for the Exits (VIDEO)

At the New York Times, "Deprived of Power, House Republicans Head for the Exits":

WASHINGTON — Imagine being swept out of power in Congress and relegated to the role of spectator and naysayer as your political opponents dictate the terms of legislative debate. Add in the specter of a painful slog to re-election, sharing the ticket with President Trump and being asked to answer daily for his every tweet and incendiary statement.

Now picture doing all of that only to risk landing in the minority again, possibly under the other party’s president.

Such is the plight of House Republicans contemplating whether to seek re-election in 2020, and the bleak outlook is taking its toll. A half-dozen Republican members of Congress have announced over the past two weeks that they will retire rather than face voters again next year, and more are expected to follow in the coming weeks, dealing an early setback to the party’s uphill battle to win back the House.

The rush for the exits is also providing evidence about how difficult the House Republican Conference is becoming for the few women and people of color who remain in it.

Among the retirements announced in the past week are Representatives Will Hurd of Texas, the only African-American Republican in the House, and Martha Roby of Alabama, one of only 13 Republican congresswomen. Representative Susan Brooks of Indiana, the head of recruitment for the party’s campaign committee, had been tasked with replenishing the ravaged ranks of Republican women; she announced in June that she would retire, an indication of the long odds of that effort.

“It’s a reflection of the pessimism Republicans feel about regaining the majority in 2020,” said David Wasserman, the House editor of the Cook Political Report, which tracks congressional races...

Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Fleishman Is in Trouble

At Amazon, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Fleishman Is in Trouble: A Novel.

Bella Hadid

At Taxi Driver, "Bella Hadid in a Tiny Brown String Bikini."

She looks great!

Olivia Brower Intimates (VIDEO)

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Danielle Gersh's Saturday Forecast

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

Marianne Williamson (VIDEO)

She was trending the other night.

At CNN and Real Time with Bill Maher:





BONUS: At Hot Air, "Bill Maher: All Democrats Need To Do To Win Is Not Be Crazy, And They Can’t Do It."

Georgia Police Officer Dragged (VIDEO)

He's lucky to be alive. I'm not sure how he got stuck on the window. He must have reached in for something and the suspect sped off. Either way, it's horrifying.

At ABC World News Tonight:

Trump Targets Cities as Bastions of Crime, Poverty, and Corruption

Democrat crime, corruption, and poverty. If leftists stick with Democrats on this issue, you know politics isn't about improving the lives of people. It's only about stroking your fellow ideologues and tribalists.

At LAT, "It’s not just Baltimore; Trump is running against America’s cities":

.@Michael_Nutter told me efforts to demotivate black voters may do the opposite.

“In 2016, people just couldn’t believe that this kind of bizarro character had any possible chance.. Now, I think that folks’ eyes are wide open. People are fully woke.”https://t.co/2ZXkJb1JpQ

— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) August 3, 2019

WASHINGTON —  He was born in Queens and lives on Fifth Avenue. His skyscrapers dot city skylines on several continents. But President Trump is increasingly intent on disparaging urban areas, depicting them as blighted and overrun by criminals and homelessness — all part of a divisive reelection strategy heading into 2020.

Trump’s denigration of cities is part of an effort to animate a base of rural, mostly white supporters while depressing minority turnout in places like Milwaukee, Detroit and Philadelphia — a repeat of the two-pronged strategy that helped him to a surprising electoral college victory in 2016 and could be determinative again four years later.

“No one has paid a higher price for the far-left destructive agenda than Americans living in our nation’s inner cities,” Trump said Thursday night at a rally in Cincinnati, drawing cheers from the mostly white crowd. “We send billions and billions and billions for years and years, and it’s stolen money, and it’s wasted money.”

“For 100 years it’s been one party control, and look at them,” he continued. “We can name one after another, but I won’t do that because I don’t want to be controversial.”

In reality, the country’s largest urban areas are major engines of the national economy and generate more tax money than they receive from the federal government. By contrast, most rural areas receive more from Washington than they generate.

The president singled out California and two of its largest cities, commenting on a homelessness problem that he laid at the feet of the state’s leaders.

“Nearly half of all the homeless people living in the streets in America happen to live in the state of California. What they are doing to our beautiful California is a disgrace to our country. It’s a shame,” he said.

“Look at Los Angeles with the tents, and the horrible, horrible disgusting conditions. Look at San Francisco, look at some of your other cities,” Trump added.

Trump’s administration has not made homelessness a priority and has offered no new policy ideas for dealing with the problem.

After a skirmish in the crowd, as Trump supporters swarmed around a small group of protesters who had unfurled a sign that read “Immigrants Built America,” the president took the opportunity to punctuate his chosen message.

“Cincinnati, do you have a Democrat mayor?” Trump asked the crowd. “Well, that’s what happens.”

Last weekend, Trump tweeted more than 30 times about Baltimore, the nation’s 30th largest city, calling it a “very dangerous & filthy place” where “no human being would want to live.”

He blamed Rep. Elijah Cummings, the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight Committee that is investigating the administration on multiple fronts, and described his district, which includes parts of Baltimore as well as its suburbs, as a “disgusting, rat- and rodent-infested mess.”

A Trump campaign aide defended the president against critics who called those statements racist.

“It’s notable that no one has challenged the President’s descriptions of the problems in Baltimore and other cities. Critics would rather focus on the word ‘infested,’ which is the very same word Congressman Cummings used to describe his own city’s drug problems in a congressional hearing 20 years ago,” said Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for Trump’s reelection campaign.

“After all this time, why hasn’t it gotten better? It’s completely legitimate to call out the leadership in cities where conditions haven’t improved decade after decade.”

“When the nation and our economy are clearly on the right track, why would we turn the country over to the same political party whose ideas have failed so many of our city residents?” Murtaugh added, noting, as the president often does, that African-American unemployment is dropping.

While Trump avoided mentioning Cummings by name at the rally Thursday night, he did assert that Baltimore’s homicide rate was higher than several Central American countries...

Three Killed in #Encinitas Cliff Collapse (VIDEO)

What a way to go, man.

At the San Diego Union-Tribune, "‘Normal beach day gone awry': 3 killed in Encinitas bluff collapse."

Laura Loomer to Run for Congress

Good for her.

The one real way to effect change is to get into the arena yourself. Even if you don't win, you raise the profile of the things that matter. You can effect change and move the agenda. Sometimes you don't win the first time, but House elections are every two years, and a lot changes.

At Washington Examiner, "Laura Loomer announces bid for Congress."

Laura Loomer (yes, Laura Loomer) announces her bid for Congress in Florida, challenging incumbent Democrat @RepLoisFrankel who ran unopposed in 2018. https://t.co/Eics3HDCWR

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) August 2, 2019

BREAKING: Laura Loomer is running for Congress in Florida's 21st Congressional district.

If elected, she will likely be a very strong fighter against tech censorship on Capital Hill. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/ZwHo8mKUdX

— Michael Coudrey (@MichaelCoudrey) August 2, 2019

Citizenship and American Identity

We can't take in everybody.

At City Journal, "If We Extend American Citizenship to Everyone in the World, Can We Still Be a Country?":

Citizenship and American Identity: If we extend the designation to everyone in the world, how can we still be a country? https://t.co/uAYlbsWsEe pic.twitter.com/Gs3kyMiyu3

— City Journal (@CityJournal) August 2, 2019

And ICYMI, Andrew Sullivan's must read on Democrat immigration proposals, "Democrats Offering a Great Deal to People Who Aren't Americans."

Megan Parry's Friday Forecast

Great weather.

You should be at the beach!

Here's the wonderful Ms. Megan, for ABC News 10 San Diego:

Saoirse Kennedy Hill, Robert F. Kennedy Granddaughter, Dead of Drug Overdose (VIDEO)

She was just 22.

It's indeed a curse on the Kennedy family, man.

At the New York Post, "Saoirse Kennedy Hill is latest victim of the ‘Kennedy curse’."

And NYT:

Some sad news:

RFK’s granddaughter, Saoirse Hill, overdosed today on Cape Cod. She was 22.

Her death comes 50 years after Chappaquidick and 20 years after JFK Jr died in a plane crash. https://t.co/7X1BlNrItp

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) August 2, 2019

“Our hearts are shattered by the loss of our beloved Saoirse,” the family of Saoirse Kennedy Hill, who died on Thursday, said in a statement. “Her life was filled with hope, promise and love.” https://t.co/cTgMMJYzku

— NYT National News (@NYTNational) August 2, 2019

New Nina Agdal Bikini Photos

At Hollywood Tuna, "Nina Agdal’s Booty Plays in the Pool."

Kourtney Kardashian Posing in a Pool

At Taxi Driver, "Kourtney Kardashian Butt Naked Posing in a Pool."

Democrats Put Private Health Insurance Up for 'Debate'

Really, I hope Dems talk about obliterating private and employer-based health insurance right up to November 2020. It's going to be too easy, dang.

At LAT, "News Analysis: Democrats ask if Americans are ready to give up job-based health coverage":

Voters have repeatedly punished both Democrats and Republicans who've threatened to take away their health coverage, no matter how flawed it is. Are Dems ready to risk trying again? https://t.co/thjrXEdzsB

— Noam Levey (@NoamLevey) August 2, 2019

WASHINGTON —  Sharp disagreements among the presidential hopefuls at this week’s debates have crystallized a critical and explosive political question: Are Democrats willing to upend health coverage for tens of millions of their fellow Americans?
The party is closer than it’s been in decades to embracing a healthcare platform that would move all Americans out of their current insurance and into a single government-run plan.

Plans pushed by three of the four leading candidates — Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala Harris of California — differ in their particulars but would all end the job-based system that provides coverage to more than 150 million people.

That’s a hugely risky strategy, as more-centrist rivals reminded the three senators during the two nights of heated, sometimes confusing, debates.

Sweeping healthcare plans have never fared well in American politics.

For decades, voters repeatedly have punished presidents and Congresses — Democratic and Republican alike — who have threatened to take away existing health plans, no matter how flawed.

Just last year, the GOP suffered historic losses in the House of Representatives after the party’s unsuccessful effort to roll back the 2010 Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

But at a time when rising insurance deductibles and medical bills are crippling growing numbers of American families, many Democrats on the party’s left believe public discontent with the current system has changed that dynamic.

“It’s time that we separate employers from the kind of healthcare people get,” Harris said Wednesday night, acknowledging that her “Medicare for all” plan would, after a lengthy phase-in period, end job-based insurance.

Harris, Sanders and Warren have made Medicare for all a central plank of their campaigns, riding a wave of discontent over rising medical costs to call for a historic expansion of government insurance.

Their more-moderate rivals say the three have misjudged the public mood and that by overreaching, they would squander an opportunity to enact significant, if incremental, reforms.

A survey earlier this year by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation found that support for a single government plan fell from 56% to 37% when respondents were told that it might involve eliminating private insurance companies or requiring more taxes.

“It doesn’t make sense for us to take away insurance from half the people in this room,” warned Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, who is among many Democratic presidential candidates, including former Vice President Joe Biden, who back more limited approaches.

The more-centrist Democrats would preserve the current employer-based system, as well as state Medicaid programs and the insurance marketplaces created by the 2010 healthcare law.

They would add an additional choice to allow Americans to buy into a Medicare-like government plan, often called a “public option.”

“Every single person in America would be able to buy into that option if they didn’t like their employer plan,” Biden said Wednesday.

Critics on the left say that approach would ultimately cost more and would preserve an outsized role for private insurance companies.

“We have tried this experiment with the insurance companies,” Warren said from the debate stage Tuesday. “And what they’ve done is they’ve sucked billions of dollars out of our healthcare system. And they force people to have to fight to try to get the healthcare coverage that their doctors and nurses say that they need.”

But threatening Americans’ current health coverage has proved disastrous for previous Democratic efforts to expand protections, including President Clinton’s doomed initiative in the early 1990s.

The 2010 healthcare law was almost sunk by labor unions angry about a new tax on the kind of generous health plans many of their members enjoy.

And even though the law was designed to have minimal impact on the existing insurance system, President Obama faced a firestorm when a few million people found their health plans canceled after new rules took effect requiring plans to offer more-comprehensive benefits.

“Traditionally, fear of losing benefits — however flawed they may be — trumps hope of getting something better,” said Chris Jennings, an influential Washington health policy advisor who worked for Clinton and Obama...

Still more.

Kamala's Rough Night (VIDEO)

Tulsi Gabbard destroyed Kamala Harris last night. It was devastating.

At the Washington Examiner:

NEW FROM ME: Tulsi Gabbard just humiliated Kamala Harris in front of 10 million peoplehttps://t.co/Che1czChA1

— Brad Polumbo (@brad_polumbo) August 1, 2019

Fossil Fuels Are Not an Existential Threat (VIDEO)

Here's Alex Epstein, the author of the The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, for Prager University:

Muscle Cars Top List of Most Stolen Vehicles (VIDEO)

I was visiting my mom out in Yucca Valley earlier this year, and I was wiping down my Challenger after the rain in the parking lot at Walmart. Some guy pulls up in a pickup, and admiring my car, blurts out, "That thing is going to get broken into!"

I'm like thanks a lot, buddy.

I haven't had a problem with breakins or attempted theft, but then my car is the six-cylinder SXT model, of which there are thousands and thousands on the road.

Now when I upgrade in a couple of years to the new Challenger widebody Scat Pack, with 485 horsepower and line-lock launch mode, I'll be a little more worried.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

John Ratcliffe Attacked

At AoSHQ, "Fusion GPS and Deep State Activated to Attack John Ratcliffe."

Click through for the deep state tweet attacks.

'Complete Chaos' at Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee

Not enough "diversity" at the DCCC.

At Politico, "DCCC in 'complete chaos' as uproar over diversity intensifies: Cheri Bustos, chairwoman of the campaign arm, is set to make a surprise return to D.C. on Monday in an attempt to calm protests," and "Top DCCC staffer out amid diversity uproar":

The executive director of House Democrats’ campaign arm is stepping down amid an outcry from Democratic lawmakers over the lack of diversity in the committee’s senior ranks.

Executive Director Allison Jaslow, a close confidante of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Cheri Bustos, announced her resignation at an all-staff meeting Monday, according to multiple sources. Jaslow said her resignation is effective immediately.

Jaslow’s sudden departure comes as Bustos tries to contain the fury from Democratic lawmakers and aides that she has done little to address the lack of diversity in the upper ranks of the campaign arm since winning the chairmanship late last year.

Two Hispanic lawmakers, Reps. Vicente González and Filemon Vela, called for Jaslow’s resignation in a statement to POLITICO on [S]unday."

2020 is going to be a hoot. Democrat circular firings squads all the way.

Via Memeorandum.

Charles Manson Murders 50 Years Later

Pretty fascinating reading.

At LAT, "Charles Manson’s murderous imprint on L.A. endures as other killers have come and gone":

We’re fascinated still, even as time passes and the landmarks disappear and the players die. My story with @ErikHW1 @latimes .... Charles Manson's murderous imprint on L.A. endures as other killers have come and gone https://t.co/ej6jtCDcmS

— Maria La Ganga (@marialaganga) July 28, 2019

Hearing the retired prosecutor recount the bloody crimes that scarred Los Angeles, it is easy to forget that the savage murders happened half a century ago.

Stephen Kay runs one hand slowly down his cheek, describing the mark a thick rope scraped along actress Sharon Tate’s face. The rope was tied around her neck and looped over a living room beam in her rented Benedict Canyon home. She was 8 ½ months pregnant. Clad in just a white bra and panties. Still alive, though not for long.

He recounts, as if it were yesterday, how Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were tied up and dragged into separate rooms in their Los Feliz home, where they too died at the hands of Charles Manson’s brutal “family.”

“When Rosemary heard Leno getting stabbed, she cried out,” Kay says. He leans forward, hands splayed on knees, his voice rising like a terrified woman’s. “ ‘Leno! Leno!’ ”

Kay is slender, avid and 76. His white hair fluffs out above his tanned face. He helped put Manson family members behind bars for the 1969 slayings of nine people and has since attended 60 parole hearings to make sure they stayed there. He still recalls every awful detail of the murders, at times closing his eyes as if to block the images.

The slaughter and its aftermath “left the biggest imprint on Los Angeles, [on] all of Southern California,” Kay says. And also, it seems, on the prosecutor himself. “It’s the case that just never goes away.”

The Tate-LaBianca murders rocked California, drew international attention and came to symbolize the city of Los Angeles. And they continue to fascinate to this day, as their 50th anniversary nears.

“Helter Skelter” tours that follow the family’s bloody footsteps regularly sell out. Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” — fiction wound around Manson family fact — opened Thursday night. Chief prosecutor Vincent T. Bugliosi’s 1974 book, “Helter Skelter,” has never gone out of print; it is joined on a regular basis by new entries into the Manson canon, at least two this summer alone.

Other killers have come and gone. Other crimes since have accounted for more deaths. People more famous than Tate, hairdresser-to-the-stars Jay Sebring and coffee heiress Abigail Folger have been slain. Still, the memory of Manson and the men and women he persuaded his followers to murder has not faded.

The question, which persists to this day, is why?

“It’s a story that still baffles,” says Linda Deutsch, who covered the Manson case for the Associated Press. “Manson had a streak of pure evil…. It persists now that he’s dead — finally. It’s as if the curse has not disappeared; it hangs over everyone who was ever involved with him.”

L.A. in the 1960s

Pamela Des Barres’ San Fernando Valley home is a shrine to the 1950s and ’60s — to rock ’n’ roll, spiritual quests and her life as a proud and prolific groupie. An oil painting of Walt Whitman (“my God,” she calls him) shares wall space with a portrait of Elvis. There’s a picture of James Dean, all leather jacket and motorcycle, on the hearth behind a bust of Jesus.

“Sixty-nine was my year,” says the author of “I’m With the Band” and member of the GTOs (Girls Together Outrageously). “That’s when the GTOs’ album came out. I was dating Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Waylon Jennings.… It was like anything could happen, and it was all good.”

The “greatest music was being made” in Los Angeles, says the onetime flower child from Reseda, who sports blond braids and an off-the-shoulder peasant blouse that shows off her tattoos — Elvis’ signature snuggling up against Jesus’ face. She is 70. “Pre-Altamont and pre-Manson, it really felt like the most magical place to live.”

That was before the Tate-LaBianca murders began grabbing headlines that August. Before a member of the Hells Angels stabbed a man to death at a free concert headlined by the Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway in Northern California in December. Before everything changed.

Los Angeles in the late 1960s was a place where someone like Manson could share a table at the Whisky a Go Go with someone like record producer Terry Melcher, Doris Day’s son. Where members of the Beach Boys could hang with members of the “family,” who, in turn, rubbed shoulders with the Straight Satans biker gang. Where beautiful people could throw parties and have no idea who was taking LSD by the pool. Where everyone was looking for a guru, no background checks required.

Hollywood gossip queen Rona Barrett says the entertainment industry and those in its orbit operated under “a caste system” — until they didn’t. In the late ’60s, the change was swift and equalizing.

That’s when Manson showed up.

Designs on musical fame

Charles Milles Maddox, who would later take his stepfather’s last name, was born in 1934 to a desperately poor single mother in Ohio who cycled in and out of prison. She dragged her son around the Midwest and sent him off to reform school because he was out of control and her new husband didn’t like him. He was 12 years old and would go on to spend most of his life in one institution or another.

Prison was where Manson learned to play guitar. He was obsessed with the Beatles and their emerging fame, which prompted him to try songwriting so he too could become an international star. Prison was also where he learned the art of pimping and where he took a four-month Dale Carnegie course, with “How to Win Friends and Influence People” as required reading.

And it was where he met a fellow prisoner named Phil Kaufman, who had contacts in Hollywood. Kaufman told the aspiring musician that, when he was released from federal prison on Terminal Island, he should polish up some songs and go play for a guy he knew at Universal Studios.

That meeting, in late 1967, did not go well, but Manson was not deterred.

Soon he was seeking a musical sponsor to help him get a recording contract. The “girls” of Manson’s family were deputized to aid in the search, scouring the Sunset Strip and Topanga Canyon. They came through with Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, who picked a pair of them up while hitchhiking.

Wilson introduced Manson to his songwriting partner Gregg Jakobson and Melcher, who lived for a time with girlfriend Candice Bergen at 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, a house that was later rented to a prominent movie director and his actress wife.

It helped that Manson had a certain strange charm and at least a little musical talent. Jakobson says he could strum his guitar and make up a song on the spot about the flies that happened to land on his arm. He could talk for hours about his odd philosophies. And he had drugs and girls to spare.

Manson saw Wilson, Jakobson and Melcher as his tickets to fame and fortune. He auditioned for Melcher. He made several demos. The Beach Boys recorded his song “Cease to Exist,” but they changed the title and the words and didn’t give him a writing credit. Melcher eventually told Manson, “I don’t know what to do with you in the studio.”

Manson did not respond well. He had told the family that a contract was imminent. His future and his pride were riding on it.

Morbid curiosity

The voices are spectral and chilling, broadcast from speakers inside the white van with the black funeral wreath on its grille. On a recent summer morning, Scott Michaels, founder of Hollywood-based Dearly Departed Tours, prepares his passengers as he heads toward Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon.

“This is the story of the Tate murders told by the killers.”

But it is still unsettling to hear the disembodied voices of Charles “Tex” Watson, Linda Kasabian, Patricia Krenwinkel and Susan Atkins describe that awful night 50 years ago — Aug. 9, 1969. They were Manson family stalwarts, 20 to 23 years old at the time. The recordings were taken from parole hearings and old media interviews.

Watson, with a slight twang, describing Manson’s instructions: “ ‘I want you all to go together and go up to Terry Melcher’s old house. And I want you to kill everyone in there.’ Terry Melcher was Doris Day’s son. And we had previously met him and had been in that house before.”

Kasabian: “I was told to get a change of clothing and a knife and my driver’s license.”

Atkins, sounding like a breathy little girl: “We drove to the house with instructions to kill everyone in the house, and not just that, but we were instructed to go all the way down, every house, hit every street and kill all the people.”

Keep reading.

President Trump's Newspaper Habits

He's a voracious newspaper reader, getting four papers delivered daily: The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post.

Donald Trump's staff adds newspaper clippings into his daily reading folder. Some aides have used the system to flatter, manipulate or influence him. https://t.co/xonluJXFZu

— POLITICO (@politico) July 29, 2019

Nice Surprise

At Entensity, "Didn't Expect Those (Big Honkers)."

Bernie Slides in New L.A. Times Poll

He's sliding downhill, that is.

Of the top candidates, Bernie's fortunes have been hurt the most this last few months.

At LAT, "Democratic 2020 race up for grabs: Half of voters have changed their minds since spring, poll shows":

Democratic 2020 race up for grabs: Half of voters have changed their minds since spring, poll shows https://t.co/gSqcytnysh

— L.A. Times Politics (@latimespolitics) July 29, 2019

WASHINGTON  —  As Democratic presidential hopefuls prepare for their second round of debates this week, a new poll finds that half of likely primary voters have changed their minds since the spring, highlighting how unsettled the contest remains.
Former Vice President Joe Biden continues to lead in the latest USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times nationwide poll, while three senators, Kamala Harris of California, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, are essentially tied for second place. That marks an improvement for Harris and Warren and a decline for Sanders since April, when the poll last tested the Democratic race.

More notably, about half of the voters in the poll have changed their preferences since the April survey -- a reminder that at this point of the campaign, most voters don’t have firm commitments.

Voters at this stage of the campaign are “corks on the water floating around,” said Mike Murphy, the longtime Republican strategist who is co-director of USC Dornsife’s Center for the Political Future, one of the sponsors of the poll. That’s particularly true for voters nationwide, who have less exposure to the candidates than voters in states with early primaries.

The volatility has a limit, however. The vast majority of voters who switched since April moved among the top four candidates or between them and undecided status. The mass of candidates languishing at 1% or lower hasn’t benefited.

Biden continues to lead the poll, with 28%. Harris was at 10%, putting her in an effective tie with Warren, also at 10% and Sanders, at 11%. An additional 25% said they were undecided when presented with a list of 25 people who have declared they are running.

Beyond the top candidates, the poll found only Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas having more than 1% support. Buttigieg’s support has grown since April and now stands at 5%, while O’Rourke’s has shrunk to 3% -- all shifts within the poll’s margin of error.

“When your front-runner is at 28% and undecided is at 25%, it’s a pretty fluid race,” said Jill Darling, the poll director.

Unlike some other public opinion samples, the USC/L.A. Times poll surveys a panel of more than 7,000 members, tracking their views over time. Polls using the panel can look at how and when specific voters have changed their preferences.

In the primary contest so far, the first round of debates in June appears to have played a big role in changing minds. Harris, in particular, gained support among people who watched the debate, during which she forcefully challenged Biden over his nostalgia about working with segregationist senators early in his career. The exchange appears to have boosted Harris without doing long-term damage to Biden, who gained roughly as many supporters as he lost.

People who reported that they watched the debate -- about 3 in 10 of those who said they planned to vote in a Democratic primary -- were more likely to have switched than others. But even many voters who did not watch the debate changed their minds.

That churn has affected candidates in different ways. Biden and Sanders do best among voters who have backed the same candidate all along, while Harris and Warren, who each gained lots of new followers, do better among those who have changed their minds. About 7 in 10 of those backing Harris and 8 in 10 backing Warren were converts since April, the poll found.

Sanders sits at the opposite extreme -- about 8 in 10 of those backing him now also backed him in April. That’s both a strength for him and a weakness.

The Vermont senator has a solid core of supporters, many of whom grew attached to him in 2016 when he ran against Hillary Clinton. One indication of that: He did best among the roughly 1 in 4 voters who neither watched the June debate nor heard or read about it.

Outside of his core support, Sanders has been losing backers, and unlike other candidates, he has picked up relatively few new ones. Almost half the supporters he had in April have moved elsewhere.

About 1 in 10 former Sanders backers now say they’re undecided. Twice as many, however, now back Biden.

That’s a reminder of another important fact: Voters aren’t as ideological as analysts sometimes make them out to be.

Sanders has staked out the left-most position in the contest. Warren shares many of his policy views. Biden has defined himself as a centrist. But nearly three times as many former Sanders backers moved to Biden as moved to Warren.

Biden and Sanders both do better with non-college educated voters than with those who have graduated from college...

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BONUS:  Ann Coulter, Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism.

Ron Formisano, American Oligarchy

At Amazon, Ron Formisano, American Oligarchy: The Permanent Political Class.

Max Hastings, Armageddon

At Amazon, Max Hastings, Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-1945.

Antony Beevor, The Second World War

At Amazon, Antony Beevor, The Second World War.

E.B. Sledge, With the Old Breed

I love those old Bantam book covers!

And available at Amazon, E.B. Sledge, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa.

Former Anchor Krystal Ball Slams MSNBC's Lurch to the Left (VIDEO)

Ms. Ball's at the Hill TV now, and she's not pleased with MSNBC, her former network, especially conspiracy theorist Rachel Maddow.

Watch:

Freeze Pipes

At Drunken Stepfather, "FREEZE PIPES FOR THE FUCKING WIN OF THE DAY."

India Reynolds on the Beach (PHOTOS)

At Taxi Driver, "India Reynolds Topless on the Beach Suntanning."

Mackenzie Maynard's Saturday Forecast

The fabulous Ms. Mackenzie, at ABC 10 News San Deigo:

Oildale Offer Life Beyond Califonia's Leftist Bubble

It's Robin Abcarian, at LAT, "Column: In tiny Oildale, the local barber, a Trump fan, has had it with California":

OILDALE, Calif.  —  Chris Vaughn was wiping shaving cream off the tops of an older man’s ears when I arrived at his Oildale barbershop on Wednesday morning.
On a big TV along the back wall of the shop, former special counsel Robert S. Mueller was stumbling through his testimony to the House Intelligence Committee.

Vaughn wore a red baseball cap that said “red hat Mafia” on the front and “MAGA” on the back. His customer, a plumbing shop owner in his early 80s, stood up and removed the barber cape, revealing suspenders with an American flag motif.

“Why don’t they spend time fixing our country?” Vaughn said. “This attempt to make people not like Trump is a waste. Mueller looks like he has Alzheimer’s.”

The freshly shaven man paid Vaughn. “Y’all enjoy this crap!” he said cheerfully, gesturing to the TV as he walked outside into the already blistering heat.

As Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of Tulare, Calif., welcomed viewers to “the last gasp of the Russia collusion conspiracy theory,” Vaughn and I ducked into a back room, away from the sound of the TV and blasts from the compressed air nozzles his barbers use to blow snippets of hair from customers’ necks.

I was tired of the liberal bubble. I know what people are going to say before they open their mouths. I wanted to spend time in a conservative one, and maybe be surprised.

Vaughn and I chatted about politics, and what it’s like to live in Oildale, an unincorporated community in Kern County just north of Bakersfield that is overwhelmingly white and pro-Trump in deep blue, increasingly diverse California.

Oildale, with a population of about 32,000, is famous for being the birthplace of Merle Haggard and for the massive oil patch that drew Dust Bowl migrants west. It is also known for its intractable poverty, drug problems and a legacy of racism against blacks. Its population is 86.7% white. (Bakersfield’s white population is 67.5%.)

“I have a very clear view of politics,” said Vaughn, who is a Republican. “Either you are moral or you are not.” He hesitated. “Moral — meaning what you do in office. Personally, I don’t care about Donald Trump’s personal life.”

Vaughn opened Norris Barbershop, named for the street it sits on, nine years ago. Before that, he’d spent eight years in the U.S. Coast Guard and had a good job selling ads for Yellowbook, the local directory, until the economy cratered in 2008 and he was let go.

“I ran right to the Bakersfield Barber College,” he said. He attended school from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., then went to work in a wrecking yard from 1 to 7 a.m.

Turns out, an interest in cosmetology runs in his family; a handful of relatives do nails or style hair. “I didn’t realize how artistic I was until I started cutting hair,” he told me. “I am good at fixing really bad haircuts.”

He began advertising his shop on a local right-wing talk radio station, a big expense for a small business that charges only $16 per haircut. But he feels it paid off. “Conservative radio built this business,” he said. Not only did his shop get a boost, but sometimes the hosts would put him on the air to talk politics.

“There are not that many conservative shops in Bakersfield anymore,” he said. “You won’t come in here and find people with sagging pants, smoking dope, drinking alcohol. You can send your wife in and I guarantee no one is going to bother her or make her feel uncomfortable. I’m a family shop.”

When I asked him if there was a racial undertone to that comment, he insisted there was not. “I am talking about culture, not race,” he said. “Culture is not skin tone. My generation is the Beastie Boys generation. That started the whole big clothing thing. I had enough respect not to show my underwear or my butt walking down the street.”

Like a lot of people, Vaughn uses his own lack of personal animus to ignore or deny the reality and effects of systemic racism. He welcomes all races to his shop, and recently hired a barber who also speaks Spanish. The Muslim man who runs the vape store next door is a friend.

But when I pointed out that research shows black and brown students can sometimes receive harsher punishment than white kids, he scoffed...

More.

Boris Johnson Becomes U.K. Prime Minister, Replacing Theresa May (VIDEO)

At LAT, "Boris Johnson takes over as U.K. prime minister, vows to push Brexit through ‘no ifs, ands or buts’," and "New U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s agenda hints at a snap election."

SJWs Ruined Twitter

I'm trying to adjust to the new Twitter layout, but it's hard. One can go back to "legacy" Twitter, which I'm thinking about. We'll see. We'll see.

At the Other McCain, "Meet the Women Who Ruined Twitter."

#SJWs: Meet the Women Who Ruined #Twitter: https://t.co/n10nZECdQF Via @PatriarchTree pic.twitter.com/mXLviqB679

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 27, 2019

Supreme Courts Clears Pentagon Border Wall Funding (VIDEO)

At LAT, "Supreme Court rules for Trump in border wall funding dispute."

Megan Parry's Friday Forecast

It's a beautiful day.

And here's the beautiful Ms. Megan, at ABC News 10 San Diego:

Brooke Shields Bikini Photos

She's looking good!

At Egotastic!, "Brooke Shields Just Got MILFy as Hell in a Yummy Lands’ End Bikini."

Orioles Beat Angels in 16 Innings: Outfielder Stevie Wilkerson, Pitching 55 MPH, Records the Save (VIDEO)

What a game!

Second longest in Angels history, and also in Orioles history.

At the L.A. Times, "Angels use 10 pitchers in a 16-inning marathon but lose to Orioles."

My mouth was hanging open watching this guy Stevie Wilkerson pitch. He was throwing up softballs, but it was so late in the game, players were clearly tired, and no one could adjust to the lobs. It was freaky.

Orioles utility man Stevie Wilkerson has taken the mound three times this season. He notched the first save for a position player with an average pitch speed below the limit for cars on the Beltway. https://t.co/ipmCFj0DGC

— The Baltimore Sun (@baltimoresun) July 26, 2019

Mueller Debacle: President Trump Beats the Elites Again (VIDEO)

Laura Ingraham, from last night: