Donald Trump's Movement is Here to Stay

And this is to the great regret of leftists, like Sarah Kendzior.

At WaPo:

GOP establishment has hoped Trumpism is a passing storm. But it could be climate change. My latest w/ @ktumulty: https://t.co/oXis9vvkwJ

— Robert Costa (@costareports) August 19, 2016

Daisy Lowe in Lingerie

At Egotastic!, "Daisy Lowe Lingerie Hottie."

Also, at Love Magazine, "Daisy Lowe's Best LOVE Advent Moment (VIDEO)."

Deal of the Day: Save on Lenovo ThinkPad T450 14-Inch Laptop

At Amazon, Lenovo ThinkPad T450 20BV000CUS 14-inch Laptop (2.30 GHz Intel Core i5-5300U Processor, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD, Windows 7 Pro).

Also, E-Z UP Swift Instant Shelter Pop-Up Canopy, 12 x 12 ft Blue, and E-Z UP Envoy Instant Shelter Canopy, 10 by 10', Blue.

More, Amazon Back to School Event.

And, Kindle 6-Inch Back to School.

Still more, Books - K-12 Teaching Resources.

Plus, Books for Summer Reading.

Here, AmazonBasics USB 2.0 Cable - A-Male to B-Male - 16 Feet (4.8 Meters).

BONUS: From Glenn Reynolds, The Education Apocalypse: How It Happened and How to Survive It.

Germany Also Question Islamic Veiling: #Jihad

Following-up from yesterday, "Extreme Veiling is Misogynist Hate Speech."

I don't like Muslims.

Sorry, not sorry.

At NYT:

Germany, Like France, Questions Place of Islamic Veils in Its Society, via @nytimes https://t.co/vAKR048GdZ

— Qeaus (@Qansje) August 19, 2016

AmazonBasics USB 2.0 Cable - 16 Feet [BUMPED]

Pick up some basic tech supplies at Amazon.

Here, AmazonBasics USB 2.0 Cable - A-Male to B-Male - 16 Feet (4.8 Meters).

Also, AmazonBasics Apple Certified Lightning to USB Cable - 6 Feet (1.8 Meters) - White.

BONUS: All-New Kindle E-reader - Black, 6" Glare-Free Touchscreen Display, Wi-Fi - Includes Special Offers.

Deal of the Day: 20% Off - Arlo Smart Home Security Camera System

At Amazon, Arlo Smart Home Security Camera System - Five-Camera Bundle: One Camera with Base Station and Four Add-on Cameras.

Also, Deals on Handbags.

And, Energetic Lighting ELYSL-5001C-DS 4' LED Shoplight Fixture, and Energetic Lighting HG84207A 4' LED Shop Light Fixture.

More, Save on Apple Products.

BONUS: From Jeremy Scahill, The Assassination Complex: Inside the Government's Secret Drone Warfare Program.

Lavishly Decorated Ole Miss Dorm Rooms

What's not to like?

Well, for leftists, if someone else is happy, that's a civil rights violation, or something.

At Truth Revolt, "Progressives Offended by College Girls Who Don't Want to Live in Festering Piles of Trash and Slime."

Martin Dorm Ole Miss - https://t.co/TJBVmziKRf #interiordesign #homedecor pic.twitter.com/hk2skoFgW0

— InteriorDesign Today (@InteriorDsgnTod) May 29, 2016

Paul Manafort Resigns

Just a little while ago.

At LAT, "Donald Trump's embattled campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, resigns."

Ryan Lochte Apology

Here's Christine Brennan from yesterday:

Does Ryan Lochte owe Rio and the #Olympics an apology? @cbrennansports says yes! https://t.co/RMYsuxtK8J pic.twitter.com/TWaZIx57VK

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) August 19, 2016

And here's Locthe's apology:

Here’s #RyanLochte statement on Twitter pic.twitter.com/LWIvrLQf2e

— Ryan Smith (@ryansmithtv) August 19, 2016

Hillary Clinton's America

Here's Donald Trump ad spot that's going up in key battleground states today. The ad "will run in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania through Aug. 29..."

Jackie Johnson's Forecast — From the O.C.

It's perfect summer weather.

And it was Los Angeles Rams' Family Day at U.C. Irvine.

Jackie Johnson reports. She says there's a low pressure system coming in over the weekend, which should cool it down a bit.

I'm sure fire-fighters will appreciate that.

Via CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Extreme Veiling is Misogynist Hate Speech

From Louise Mensch, at Heat Street, "France is Right to Ban the Burkini."

Read it all at the link. It's a transcript of Ms. Louise's appearance on Fox News earlier this week with Stuart Varney. (I looked for the video, but couldn't find it.)

UPDATE: Scrolling Ms. Louise's Twitter feed, I see Media Matter's has the video, naturally.

Here, "Fox Guest: Burkinis Are 'Hate Speech' and Promote 'Honor Killings' - Louise Mensch: 'It's Basically Hate Speech in a Piece of Clothing'."

Yep, all true. All true, chaps.

Van Morrison, 'Too Late' (VIDEO)

Here's Van Morrison's new single, off his new album, due out September 30th, Keep Me Singing.

Blue Cut Fire Update: I-15 Reopened in Cajon Pass (VIDEO)

Following-up from yesterday, "Blue Cut Fire Updates (VIDEO)."

At the Riverside Press-Enterprise, "Blue Cut fire burns into 3rd day, 15 Freeway fully reopening":

The southbound 15 Freeway through the Cajon Pass is in the process of re-opening, the California Highway Patrol reported shortly before 10 a.m. Thursday, after the massive Blue Cut fire forced it closed for the last two days.

The southbound lanes were closed Tuesday at Ranchero Road in Hesperia.

All off-ramps will remain closed, the CHP said in a tweet.

The northbound lanes of the 15 Freeway were reopened late Wednesday night.

For the third day, firefighters continued to battle back the flames of the enormous Blue Cut fire, which has ravaged nearly 30,000 acres of land and destroying about a dozen homes since Tuesday.

The latest numbers released Thursday morning have the fire at 31,689 acres and 4 percent containment, according to the San Bernardino National Forest Service. More than 1,500 firefighters are working to get the wildfire under control...

Also at the Los Angeles Times, "'Erratic' Blue Cut fire in the Cajon Pass more than 31,000 acres."

And at ABC News 7 Los Angeles, "SOME EVACUATIONS LIFTED AS FIREFIGHTERS MAKE PROGRESS ON 31,600-ACRE BLUE CUT FIRE."

John Prados, Storm Over Leyte

I'm overloaded with reading right now, and my fall semester's starting on the 29th, but this book looks excellent.

At Amazon, John Prados, Storm Over Leyte: The Philippine Invasion and the Destruction of the Japanese Navy.

I've Finished Robert J. Lieber's, Retreat and its Consequences

Following-up from previously, "A Defense Strategy for the New Administration."

Thornberry and Krepinevich reminded me that I've finished Robert Lieber's excellent new book, Retreat and its Consequences: American Foreign Policy and the Problem of World Order.

I particularly enjoyed Lieber's discussion of Europe, which is found in chapter 2, "Burden sharing with Europe: problems of capability and will." Lieber has a comparativist's grasp of the internal politics of the leading European nation-states, and his analysis of Germany's role, and Germany's realpolitik within the E.U., is both perceptive and troubling. Berlin advances a very hard-line against weaker E.U. members, like Greece, while at the same time pushing utopian schemes like Merkel's refugee policy, that end up forcing a second blow against the peripheral states, poorer regimes that must bear the extreme costs of the central E.U.'s "enlightened humanitarianism."

The chapters on Middle East politics and the BRICS are also excellent, especially the latter's discussion of BRIC free-riding off America's hegemonic leadership in power politics and international institutions. You'll find yourself infuriated at times as you plow through this chapter, especially because current U.S. leadership --- folks so committed to their own idealistic policies, like the Obama administration's climate change agenda --- is getting thrown under the bus of the world system's multilateral collective action problem.

It's a stunning eye-opener for those worried about the direction of U.S. foreign policy and America's continued primacy.

But like I said previously, "America will lead again, in both word and power. It's just a matter of the political dynamics." My hope, of course, is that the pendulum of preponderance swings back to favor American interests sooner rather than later.

In any case, Lieber's Retreat and its Consequences is a crackling good offering by a master of sweeping foreign policy analysis. The book would do well in either graduate or undergraduate courses in international politics or U.S. foreign policy. And frankly, it's just a good summer sparkler for the general reader as well.

A Defense Strategy for the New Administration

From Mac Thornberry and Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jr., at Foreign Affairs, "Preserving Primacy":

Should the United States fail to protect the global commons, no like-minded power will take its place. https://t.co/Kdh1RRWAIX

— Foreign Affairs (@ForeignAffairs) August 18, 2016

The next U.S. president will inherit a security environment in which the United States con­fronts mounting threats with increasingly constrained resources, diminished stature, and growing uncertainty both at home and abroad over its willingness to protect its friends and its interests. Revisionist powers in Europe, the western Pacific, and the Persian Gulf—three regions long considered by both Democratic and Republican administrations to be vital to U.S. national security—are seeking to overturn the rules-based international order. In Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin has seized Crimea, waged proxy warfare in eastern Ukraine, and threatened NATO allies on Russia’s periphery. Further demonstrating its newfound assertiveness, Russia has dispatched forces to Syria and strength­ened its nuclear arsenal. After a failed attempt to “reset” relations with Moscow, U.S. President Barack Obama has issued stern warnings and imposed economic sanctions, but these have done little to deter Putin.

Nor has the administration’s “pivot” to Asia, now five years on, been matched by effective action. China continues to ramp up its military spending, investing heavily in weapons systems designed to threaten U.S. forces in the western Pacific. As a result, it is proving increas­ingly willing and able to advance its expansive territorial claims in the East China and South China Seas. Not content to resolve its disputes through diplomacy, Beijing has militarized them, building bases on natural and artificially created islands. The United States has failed to respond vigorously to these provocations, causing allies to question its willingness to meet its long-standing security commitments.

The lack of U.S. leadership is also fueling instability in the Middle East. In Iraq, the Obama administration forfeited hard-won gains by withdrawing all U.S. forces, creating a security vacuum that enabled the rise of both Iranian influence and the Islamic State, or ISIS. Adding to its strategic missteps, the administration fundamentally misread the character of the Arab Spring, failing to appreciate that the uprisings would provide opportunities for radical Islamist elements rather than lead to a new democratic order. The administration also failed to learn from the previous administration’s experience in Iraq when it chose to “lead from behind” in Libya, intervening to over­throw Muammar al-Qaddafi, only to declare victory and abandon the country to internal disorder. It then drew a “redline” over President Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons in Syria but failed to act to enforce it. The result is growing instability in the Middle East and a decline in U.S. influence.

The threat of Islamist terrorism has grown on the Obama administration’s watch. Al Qaeda and ISIS, both Sunni groups, have gained new footholds in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and even West Africa. Obama’s negotiations with Iran, the home of radical Shiite Islamism, have not curbed the country’s involvement in proxy wars in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen or its support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories. What the talks did produce—the nuclear deal—may slow Tehran’s march to ob­taining a nuclear weapon, but it also gives the regime access to tens of billions of dollars in formerly frozen assets. The ink on the agreement was barely dry when, in March, Tehran tested ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, in blatant defiance of a UN Security Council resolution. Adding to all this instability, military competition has expanded into the relatively new domains of outer space and cyberspace—and will eventually extend to undersea economic infrastructure, as well.

With the current approach failing, the next president will need to formulate a new defense strategy. It should include three basic elements: a clear statement of what the United States seeks to achieve, an understanding of the resources available for those goals, and guidance as to how those resources will be used. The strategy laid out here, if properly implemented, will allow the United States to preclude the rise of a hegemonic power along the Eurasian periphery and preserve access to the global commons—without bankrupting the country in the process...

Sounds great.

Frankly, I'm not worried about the U.S. maintaining its material preponderance, even with China supposedly "catching up."

It's that we need robust, non-politically correct leadership. Global preponderance is a state of mind as well as an objective reality. I'd argue that President Barack Hussein wanted to chop the U.S. down to size, to attack U.S. global hegemony at home, for ideological reasons. He's still doing with his appeasement and apology tours.

America will lead again, in both word and power. It's just a matter of the political dynamics. A Hillary Clinton administration's just going to be four more years of Obama's failed policies. But the pendulum is going to swing back to American exceptionalism at some point. Of that I remain optimistic.

But keep reading, in any case.

Dafne Schippers, the Great White Hope

This woman is seriously bad-ass.

She beats all the black-African runners, which is mind-boggling to me.

Well, she almost beat Elaine Thompson last night, but she stumbled out of the blocks, then stumbled and rolled over the finish line after pushing enormous exertion to finish just a 10th of a second behind the winning time, taking the silver in the 200 meters. It was astonishing.

Either she's amped up on 'roids or the black chicks now have slower times because effective PED regulations and enforcement.

Either way, Schippers is the new Great White Hope of humanity.

At the Netherlands Times, "DUTCH SPRINTER DAFNE SCHIPPERS DISPLEASED WITH 200-METER SILVER MEDAL":

Dafne Schippers
Netherlands 🇳🇱
Sprinter
Twitter: @dafneschippers
Insta: dafne_schippers#Rio2016 #OnesToWatch pic.twitter.com/aTGCp8lLnP

— Telly Lad (@TellyLad) August 5, 2016

The Dutch athlete is disappointed in second place. “I hate this very much. I came here to get gold, and I didn’t do that”, she said to broadcaster NOS after the race. “I can’t enjoy this. Horrible.”

Thompson finished with a time of 21.78 seconds, Schippers finished at 21.88 seconds. Third place went to American Tori Bowie.

Also, from last week, at USA Today, "New kid in blocks: Dutch sprinter Dafne Schippers eyes gold."

The 'Bitch' Presidency

Radical feminists are worked up in a lather over the coming wave of "misogynist" attacks on Hillary Clinton as she (if she) assumes the presidency.

The argument's basically suggesting all the racist Islamophobic truther attacks on Obama squared.

See Michelle Cottle, at the Atlantic, for some epic lulz:

I'm thinking a Trump-Ailes union bodes ill for the ladies in general. Unless you happen to like dirty old men https://t.co/XlfLiOfcOO

— Michelle Cottle (@mcottle) August 17, 2016

Thanks to the Reader Who Bought Roger Scruton's, Fools, Frauds and Firebrands

It's a great book.

Scruton's a treasure.

Thanks so much to the reader who picked up a copy, and thanks to all of my readers for shopping through my Amazon links. It's much appreciated.

See, Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left.