Garth Kemp's Forecast

For CBS News 2 Los Angeles.

I'm looking forward to a relaxing long weekend.

David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.

Salman Abedi Used Taxpayer-Funded Student Loans and Benefits to Finance Manchester Arena Jihad Attack

British taxpayers literally financed the murder of their own children.

At the Telegraph U.K., "Exclusive: Manchester suicide bomber used student loan and benefits to fund terror plot."

Susan Sleeper-Smith, ed., Rethinking the Fur Trade

At Amazon, Susan Sleeper-Smith, ed., Rethinking the Fur Trade: Cultures of Exchange in an Atlantic World.

Yale Awards Student 'Truthtellers' Who Bullied Faculty

The cultural revolution in America.

We're in bad shape, and it's not just on campus.

Here's Jamie Kirchick, at the Tablet, "YALE CEMENTS ITS LINE IN THE ACADEMIC SAND BY AWARDING THE STUDENT ‘TRUTHTELLERS’ WHO BULLIED FACULTY."

Yale awards racial reconciliation prizes to 2 students who harassed professor over Halloween costumes @tabletmag https://t.co/tjNlfs4wFf

— Jamie Kirchick (@jkirchick) May 26, 2017

Greg Gianforte Wins Montana Special Election

I'd never even heard of the guy until Wednesday night, on Twitter, when I saw the live-tweeting of the alleged "body-slam" assault. Seems like that would have hurt his chances, but a large number of voters (60 percent, apparently) voted by absentee ballot. And besides, it's Montana. I don't see how progressives are going to do well in a conservative rural state in this environment. It's political war at the moment, and frankly. Leftists are trying to nationalize the election, tying it to "the bully" President Trump. It's not working obviously. Everything's about hate nowadays, and no one's more hateful that a radical leftist.

In any case, here's Sean Trende, at RCP, "Four Takeaways From Gianforte's Win in Montana":

Believe it or not, they are still counting votes in the special election held Thursday in Montana. Greg Gianforte, the Republican nominee to replace former congressman and current Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, has been declared the winner over Democrat Rob Quist. Speculation had abounded that the race could tighten -- or even flip to Democrats -- because of Gianforte’s alleged assault of Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs the day before the election. This didn’t pan out, as Gianforte seems headed for a win in the six-to-seven-point range.
Here are four thoughts on the outcome...

RTWT.

And see some of the outlandish left-wing headline at Mememeorandum, from Brian Beutler, "The Republicans Broke American Politics, and Media Elites Are Blind to It"; Karen Tumylty, "The GOP inherits what Trump has wrought"; and from Matt Yglesias, "Republicans' 7-point win in last night's Montana election is great news for Democrats."

That's all fake news.

It's a nightmare these days.

Jackie Johnson's May Gray Forecast

I missed last night's weather forecast post. I just petered out and hit the sack. Worked all day today, but now I have the long weekend off, including Tuesday, when I'm taking a personal day.

Looks like it's going to be overcast through most of the weekend. Meh. I guess it'll be cool and comfortable.

In any case, here's the lovely Ms. Jackie, for CBS News Los Angeles:

Found at the Scene in Manchester

I love the graphics at this piece, especially of the foyer at the Manchester Arena, where Salman Abedi detonated his IED.

Found at the Scene in #Manchester: Shrapnel, a Backpack and a Battery #Islam #Jihad #Muslims #Terror #Leftists https://t.co/tFE5nfoamn

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 25, 2017

ICYMI: Omar El Akkad, American War

*BUMPED.*

Following-up from my previous earlier entry, I'm reminded if this, at Amazon, Omar El Akkad, American War: A Novel.

From 9/11 to Manchester

From Daniel Henninger, at WSJ, "Donald Trump found out something about the presidency and the world on this trip":

From 9/11 to Manchester, by @DanHenninger https://t.co/KdnehMV8Ss via @WSJOpinion

— Daniel Henninger (@DanHenninger) May 25, 2017

Now we have Manchester and its 22 dead, many of them children. Somehow, we always end up back at 9/11, leaving flowers and candles again.

A political constant since 9/11 is that terrorism inevitably changes U.S. presidencies. I think the events this week—the president’s overseas trip and then Manchester—may have a similar effect on Donald Trump.

On Inauguration Day in January 2001, George W. Bush’s mind no doubt was filled with plans for his first term. Months later, his was a war presidency and would remain so.

Several things sit in my memory from the politics of that period. One is President Bush’s face as he addressed Congress on Sept. 20. He was a changed man. Also remembered is the solidarity of national purpose after the attack. The final memory is how quickly that unity dissipated into a standard partisan melee.

The Democratic point of attack became the Patriot Act’s surveillance provisions, a legal and legislative battle that ran the length of the Bush presidency. By the end of his second term, George Bush had become an object of partisan caricature and antipathy equal to anything President Trump endures now.

During Barack Obama’s presidency, four major terrorist attacks took place inside the U.S.: Fort Hood in 2009, the Boston Marathon in 2013, San Bernardino two years later and then Orlando in 2016. During these years, the locus of terror migrated from al Qaeda to Islamic State.

Volumes have been written about Barack Obama and terrorism, much of it about the president’s struggles with vocabulary terms such as war, Islam, extreme and radical. The killing of Osama bin Laden evinced a rare, passing moment of national unity.

With the opposition to the Trump presidency programmed for driverless resistance, there will be no national unity in the war on terrorism. The Democrats have become the Trump-Is-Russia Party, and that may be as good a way as any for them to spend their waking hours.

But even Hillary Clinton couldn’t duck the terrorism problem in the 2016 presidential campaign, and when Mr. Trump said he would “defeat ISIS,” his lack of nuance no doubt won him votes.

Which brings us to Manchester this week and memories of 9/11.

Note the political response to the Manchester murders. Again, total solidarity, such as this from European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker : “These cowardly attacks will only strengthen our commitment to work together to defeat the perpetrators of such vile acts.”

Post-9/11, naturally one expects such commitments to erode like sand castles. But this time, by coincidence, alleged Manchester bomber Salman Abedi murdered concertgoers in the same week Donald Trump was using his first overseas trip to build a coalition to defeat Islamic State.

This was not a routine presidential foreign trip for self-pomp and circumstance. Mr. Trump went to Saudi Arabia to initiate an anti-ISIS policy designed and midwifed by three Trump appointees and Middle East specialists—Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and national security adviser H.R. McMaster.

The policy entails the U.S. sale over 10 years to Saudi Arabia of $450 billion of military equipment—tanks, ships, precision-guided bombs—in return for Saudi leadership of an Arab-state coalition, which is their idea, to fight Islamic terrorists in the region and thwart Iran’s territorial ambitions.

A New York Times online summary of the speech Mr. Trump delivered Sunday in Riyadh called it “a speech about Islam.” I thought it was about something larger than that.

For instance, the Times and Washington Post ran stories about how the Trump foreign policy has demoted human-rights issues. It has not. Implicit in the Trump-Tillerson formulation is that defining the abuse of human rights as oppression by governments, such as Saudi Arabia’s, is too narrow. Now, any discourse over human rights must include the right not to have one’s life ended by acts of organized terrorism.

Grasping at Trumpian straws is a fact of life, but I am going to hazard not much more than a thought, which is that the president who left for Saudi Arabia last Friday will not be the same president who returns here this weekend...

Still more.

James F. Brooks, Captives and Cousins

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, James F. Brooks, Captives and Cousins: Slavery, Kinship, and Community in the Southwest Borderlands.

Salman Abedi's Manchester Bomb Used TATP (Triacetone Triperoxide), Same Explosive Used in 7/7, Brussels, and Paris Attacks

From Rukmini Callimachi, on Twitter:

1. According to this article, a congressman confirmed to @AP that the explosive used in Manchester was TATP. https://t.co/daVo28bpQW

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) May 25, 2017

@AP 2. TATP, or triacetone triperoxide, has become ISIS' signature explosive for attacks in Europe. The 1st attempt was in Cannes in early 2014

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) May 25, 2017

@AP 3. That thwarted attack by French ISIS member Ibrahim Boudina involved packing TATP into three Red Bull soda cans: https://t.co/wDVq91xJp4

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) May 25, 2017

@AP 4. Among his belongings, police recovered a USB stick with a TATP manual in French decorated with the ISIS flag. He brought it from Syria

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) May 25, 2017

@AP 5. It dates to at least 2013, pre-declaration of caliphate. Because it was written in French it suggests they wanted to educate Fr speakers

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) May 25, 2017

@AP 6. A thwarted ISIS plot in the Belgian town of Verviers in the first weeks of 2015 found the precursor ingredients used to make TATP

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) May 25, 2017

@AP 7. That plot was orchestrated by Abdelhamid Abaaoud who fled to Syria and then re infiltrates Europe to carry out the Nov 2015 Paris attacks

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) May 25, 2017

@AP 8. TATP had been sewn into the suicide belts of the Stade de France and Bataclan attackers and into the 1 used to bomb Comptoir Voltaire

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) May 25, 2017

@AP 9. A few months later in Brussels, it was again TATP that was packed into the suitcase bombs that ripped through the airport and metro

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) May 25, 2017

@AP 10. Numerous foiled ISIS plots since then also relied on TATP

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) May 25, 2017

Jennette McCurdy on Snapchat

At Bro Bible, "Jennette McCurdy REALLY Wants You to Know That She Can Twerk and Has Nipples."

Italian Model Bianca Balti 'Birth of Venus' Photoshoot

At London's Daily Mail, "Really coming out of her shell! Italian model Bianca Balti flashes her nipples as she dares to bare all for sexy shoot inspired by Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus painting in Cannes."

And at Taxi Driver, "Bianca Balti Caught on a Photoshoot."

Katie Hopkins on Manchester Jihad Attack

Following-up from yesterday, "Katie Hopkins Under Fire After Calling for 'Final Solution' to the Muslim Problem (VIDEO)."

Here's Katie Hopkins, at London's Daily Mail, "KATIE HOPKINS: Despite all the politicians’ clichés of bravery, there is a sickness in our society - and I fear it’s terminal," and "KATIE HOPKINS: The politicians now have hundreds of troops protecting them while telling the rest of us to Keep Calm, Stay 'United' and Carry On. But who is going to protect OUR kids from the terror THEY let in?"

Nine-Year-Old Ruby and Her Family Were at the Ariana Grande​ Concert During the Manchester Attack (VIDEO)

This is an amazing first-hand account, riveting even.

Via Sky News:

Morrissey’s Response to the Manchester Attack

From Stephen Green, at Instapundit, "BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN: Singer Morrissey’s response to #ManchesterBombing has PC heads exploding."

And from Morrissey:

In modern Britain everyone seems petrified to officially say what we all say in private. Politicians tell us they are unafraid, but they are never the victims. How easy to be unafraid when one is protected from the line of fire. The people have no such protections.

I have a newfound respect for the Smiths, heh.

Amazon's First Bookstore in New York City

At Quartz, "Amazon’s first bookstore in New York City sucks the joy out of buying books":

Amazon’s first bookstore in New York City sucks the joy out of buying books https://t.co/KmCqdYAGuR

— Quartz (@qz) May 24, 2017

“We talk about ourselves as a physical extension of Amazon.com,” said Jennifer Cast, vice president of Amazon Books, on a tour for press. Indeed: Amazon Books heavily promotes its data-driven approach all around the store, just like the site does with its many recommendations—and makes Amazon’s Prime service feel irresistible, just like the site does. But by making the store an extension of Amazon.com, rather than a place in which people really want to spend time and forget their screens in lieu of something quieter, Amazon Books takes away one of the greatest pleasures of a bookstore: escapism. With the entire store blinking like a banner ad for Amazon Prime above your head, you lose the ability to fade away into the printed word...

RTWT.

And if you've got a used bookstore in your community, give it your business.

Enlightened Progressivism Doesn't Protect You from Jihad

Seen at AoSHQ:

"You can ignore reality. But reality will not ignore you."

Tolerance won't protect us. RIP Martyn. pic.twitter.com/qdYI2S9PHp

— The Swog Blog (@TheSwogBlog) May 24, 2017

Michelle Malkin on the Manchester Jihad Attack (VIDEO)

On Fox & Friends yesterday morning: