Debate Reactions

Honestly, I'd say Hillary Clinton won the first debate, but by decision rather than a knockout.

She was clearly prepped with lots and lots of policy details, memes and attacks against trump on racism and sexism, and she was ready with a couple of zippy one-liners. But for all that, she couldn't put Trump away.

In fact, Trump on a number of occasions made Hillary look bad, awful even. Unfortunately he missed a number chances to deliver a tough blow. For me, most of all, he missed the chance to call her out on her endless "racism" attacks, which as Trump pointed out, are desperately unfounded. Also unfortunately, Trump indulged her, especially on the birther issue, rather than waving away the issue as done and settled. That was a mistake, and he wasted time defending his position, as Laura Ingraham pointed out in the post-debate analysis segment on Fox News.

Charles Krauthammer, also on Fox, called the debate a draw, and a challenger usually gets the benefit of the doubt when it's a draw, hence Trump held his own and beat expectations. Perhaps, although I'm certain Trump left some juice opportunities hanging. He was very strong on trade and international treaties. He was also good on law and order, and stayed consistent on longstanding themes of his campaign. But he looked reactive more than proactive. That hurt him, although not too bad all around. [Added: See Glenn Reynolds here, "SO I’D CALL IT A DRAW. Both Trump and Hillary left key points out. Neither looked awful, but neither looked great. And people I follow on social media seem equally divided.")

One thing not to forget: Trump was respectful, didn't call Hillary names, and avoided so-called sexist attacks, even though Hillary tried to make some sexist hay out of his remarks.

I've got CNN on now and the chyron just flashed saying Hillary won the debate according to a CNN/ORC snap poll. Whatever. That's not going to be a trustworthy poll, considering the tiny number of those sampled. Trump, for example, may have helped himself greatly in the Rust Belt with his consistent attacks on the economy and the offshoring of jobs. We won't know for sure on that until the next round of high-quality polls.

So, Hillary came out on top, but not by much, and only won be a decision.

There's more at WSJ's live blog, "First Presidential Debate: Live Coverage."

Also, at LAT, "Clinton and Trump clash often in ferocious opening debate."

And FWIW, the pro-Hillary spin, at Politico, "Clinton gets under Trump’s skin: The Republican nominee loses his cool as a composed Clinton hits him on his business record, the Iraq war, and his secret Islamic State plan."

The Democrats Are Worried

They are indeed.

From John Hinderaker, at Power Line:

In recent days, it has begun to dawn on a lot of people that Donald Trump really may win the election. (I, of course, have been predicting it all along…) This is causing near-hysteria in some quarters, and louder demands by Democrats for journalists in general, and the debate moderators in particular, to put their thumbs on the scale. As if they weren’t already doing so!

More.

And more from Hind-Rocket, "ELECTORAL COLLEGE MATH, AND WHY I THINK TRUMP WILL WIN."

Wayne Allyn Root, Angry White Male [BUMPED]

This is great!

At Amazon, Wayne Allyn Root, Angry White Male: How the Donald Trump Phenomenon is Changing America—and What We Can All Do to Save the Middle Class.

Clinton and Trump Deadlocked Before the Debate; Leftists Media Goes All Out to Paint Trump as 'Unprecedented Liar'

The number of undecided voters at this point is probably ten percent or less, which makes the left's freak out even more hilarious. Polls show the presidential horse race neck and neck, and leftist are worried.

Here's Bloomberg, via Memeorandum, "Trump, Clinton Deadlocked in Bloomberg Poll Before Key Debate."

And Trump deadlocked in the Keystone State, which I've considered my benchmark state for Trump's turning-point in the Electoral College. I'll need to see a couple more polls out of Pennsylvania, but it's exciting.

And see Larry O'Connor, at Hot Air, for the leftist media's coordination with the Clinton campaign on the Trump "unprecedented liar" meme over the weekend, "Where did all those ‘Trump Lies’ articles come from this weekend? The Clinton campaign, of course."

Amber Lee's Triple-Digit Forecast

It's extremely hot.

I couldn't even go out today it was so hot. Ridiculous. I'm glad the Rams weren't playing at home. The Colosseum would have been miserable, if not downright treacherous.

Via CBS News 2 Los Angeles, the lovely Amber Lee:

Wendy Warren, New England Bound

Back in July, I posted the link to Edmund Morgan's, American Slavery, American Freedom.

I've been thinking about it because when my buddy Greg Joseph retired from the college in June he gave me a bunch of old books that he wasn't going to keep, including his old copy of Morgan's tome.

So it's even more interesting to find Wendy Warren's new and related book, New England Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early America.

You can't read everything, of course. But I like to dapple all over the place, so I'll keep the Warren book in mind.

The Silencing of KrebsOnSecurity

On Techmeme earlier, "Brian Krebs' site hit by record 620Gbps sustained DDos attack, nearly twice as big as any previous attack seen by Akamai..."

Up now, "The Democratization of Censorship: As insecure IoT devices make large-scale DDoS attacks more potent, the Internet community should work to adopt standards and tools to prevent these attacks..."

And at Ars Technica, "Why the silencing of KrebsOnSecurity opens a troubling chapter for the ‘Net":

For the better part of a day, KrebsOnSecurity, arguably the world's most intrepid source of security news, has been silenced, presumably by a handful of individuals who didn't like a recent series of exposés reporter Brian Krebs wrote. The incident, and the record-breaking data assault that brought it on, open a troubling new chapter in the short history of the Internet.

The crippling distributed denial-of-service attacks started shortly after Krebs published stories stemming from the hack of a DDoS-for-hire service known as vDOS. The first article analyzed leaked data that identified some of the previously anonymous people closely tied to vDOS. It documented how they took in more than $600,000 in two years by knocking other sites offline. A few days later, Krebs ran a follow-up piece detailing the arrests of two men who allegedly ran the service. A third post in the series is here.

On Thursday morning, exactly two weeks after Krebs published his first post, he reported that a sustained attack was bombarding his site with as much as 620 gigabits per second of junk data. That staggering amount of data is among the biggest ever recorded. Krebs was able to stay online thanks to the generosity of Akamai, a network provider that supplied DDoS mitigation services to him for free. The attack showed no signs of waning as the day wore on. Some indications suggest it may have grown stronger. At 4 pm, Akamai gave Krebs two hours' notice that it would no longer assume the considerable cost of defending KrebsOnSecurity. Krebs opted to shut down the site to prevent collateral damage hitting his service provider and its customers.

"It's hard to imagine a stronger form of censorship than these DDoS attacks because if nobody wants to take you on then that's pretty effective censorship," Krebs told Ars on Friday. "I've had a couple of big companies offer and then think better of offering to help me. That's been frustrating."

Until recently, a DDoS attack in excess of 600Gb was nearly impossible for all but the most sophisticated and powerful actors to carry out. In 2013, attacks against anti-spam organization Spamhaus generated headlines because the 300Gb torrents were coming uncomfortably close to Internet-threatening size. The assault against KrebsOnSecurity represents a much greater threat for at least two reasons. First, it's twice the size. Second and more significant, unlike the Spamhaus attacks, the staggering volume of bandwidth doesn't rely on misconfigured domain name system servers which, in the big picture, can be remedied with relative ease...

Pretty amazing.

Keep reading.

Deal of the Day: Save Big on Fall Camping with Coleman

At Amazon, Save on Coleman Camping Equipment.

More, Coleman 6201A748 100 Quart Xtreme 5 (Wheeled Cooler).

And, Coleman WeatherMaster 6-Person Screened Tent.

Also, Coleman North Rim 0-Degree Mummy Bag.

Still more, VIZIO SB3821-C6 38-Inch 2.1 Channel Sound Bar with Wireless Subwoofer (Certified Refurbished).

Plus, TriggerPoint GRID Foam Roller with Free Online Instructional Videos, Original (13-inch).

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

BONUS: James Campbell, Polarized: Making Sense of a Divided America.

David Horowitz, Black Book of the American Left, Volume 7: The Left in Power — Clinton to Obama [BUMPED]

Out October 10th, at Amazon, The Black Book of the American Left, Volume 7: The Left in Power — Clinton to Obama.

Arcan Cetin Islamic Jihad Terrorist Arrested in Cascade Mall Massacre (VIDEO)

Boy, the leftist media almost got away with turning this massacre into a run-of-the-mill, more gun-control active shooter situation.

It wasn't. It was jihad.

At Weasel Zippers, "Cascade Mall Shooting Suspect Arcan Cetin Had Tumblr With Chant to Allah, Pic of Ted Bundy, Was Sent Pic of ISIS Leader…"

And at Jihad Watch, "Washington state: Turkish Muslim, Arcan Cetin, arrested for murder of five people inside Cascade Mall," and "Washington state mall shooter: “Say SubhanAllah [Glory to Allah] 10x”."

And from Pamela, "Mall shooter Arcan Cetin supported Hillary Clinton, linked to page supporting ISIS."

Here's the report at ABC News, FWIW:

With Donald Trump's Nomination, College Republicans Face Tensions Nationwide

Don't care, personally.

I was the adviser for the student YAF club last year. I like conservatives. I don't think the GOP is conservative. And it cracks me up that Trump's upended the campus GOP clubs' reputation for great parties.

It's hard out there.

At the New York Times, "College Republicans, Once ‘the Best Party on Campus,’ Endure Taunts Over Trump."

Dangerous Weather Conditions Across Southern California (VIDEO)

Following-up from earlier, "Kristen Keogh Hot Sunday Forecast."

At ABC News 10 Sand Diego, "Dangerous heat and fire risk."

And at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Firefighters on High Alert Due to Dangerous Weather Conditions."

Kristen Keogh Hot Sunday Forecast

It's going to hit triple digits in parts of the Southland today.

Via ABC News 10 Sand Diego:

Protest Thugs and the Real Evil in Charlotte

From Daniel Greenfield, at FrontPage Magazine:

Keith Lamont Scott was scum.

He had been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in two different states and convicted of assault in three states. He had been hit with “assault with intent to kill” charges in the 90s. His record of virtue included “assault on a child under 12” and “assault on a female.”

The media spin; “Family and neighbors call Scott a quiet ‘family man.’”

Nothing says “quiet” like “assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill” and nothing says “family man” like assaulting women and children.

Keith Lamont Scott, the latest martyr of Black Lives Matter and its media propaganda corps, was shot while waving a gun around. He had spent 7 years in jail for “aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.”

This vicious monster’s career of crime ended when he was shot by Brentley Vinson, an African-American police officer, protecting himself from the latest rampage by this “quiet family man.”

Brentley Vinson is everything that Scott isn’t. The son of a police officer, Brentley dreamed of following in his father’s footsteps. He used to organize his football team’s bible studies and mentored younger players. Former teammates describe him as a “great guy” with “good morals.” His former coach calls him a “natural leader” and says that, “We need more Brent Vinsons… in our communities.”

Except that Obama, Black Lives Matter, the media, the NAACP and everyone else going after this bright and decent African-American officer has decided that what we really need are more Keith Lamont Scotts. And the streets of Charlotte are full of “Scotts” throwing rocks at police, assaulting reporters and wrecking everything in sight in marches that are as “peaceful” as Scott was a “quiet family man.”

That’s what Hillary Clinton wanted when she tweeted that, “We have two names to add to a long list of African-Americans killed by police officers. It’s unbearable, and it needs to become intolerable.”

What exactly should be intolerable? An African-American police officer defending his life against a violent criminal who happened to be black? Should black criminals enjoy a special immunity? The greatest victims of black criminals are black communities.

Whom does Hillary Clinton imagine she’s helping here? Instead of standing with heroic African-American police officers like Vinson, she’s championing criminal scum like Scott.

Tim Kaine, Hillary’s No. 2, wants us to think about Scott’s family. We should do that. Scott’s brother announced on camera that all “white people” are “devils.” Timmy should check to see if he can get an exemption from white devildom.  But if there are any white devils, it’s men like Kaine and women like Hillary who enable the worst behavior in a troubled community while punishing those who try to help.

Every time the lie about “peaceful” protests is repeated, another black community becomes unlivable.

Twenty police officers have been injured and National Guard troops have arrived to deal with all those “peaceful” protests. Protesters chanted, “Black Lives Matter” and “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” before throwing things at police and then peacefully shooting each other. Stores had their windows broken and decorated with Black Lives Matter graffiti. A Walmart was peacefully looted and trucks were torched.

A police officer was peacefully hit by a car. Another was peacefully hit in the face with a rock. Mobs besieged and attempted to break into hotels. Reporters were attacked and a photographer was nearly thrown into a fire. White people were targeted by the racist Black Lives Matter mob and assaulted.

But all these peaceful rioters are probably just quiet family men too.

The peaceful protests are as big a lie as the “bookish” Keith Lamont Scott reading a book in his car. Police had no trouble finding a gun. They couldn’t have found Scott anywhere near a book. The only thing he could have done with a book is try to beat someone to death with it. Maybe a child.

Scott wasn’t a quiet family man; he was a violent criminal with a horrifying vicious streak. He and the rest of the Black Lives Matter rioters remind us of the monsters that we need dedicated police officers to protect us from.

The spin on what happened between a deranged black criminal and a courageous black police officer fell apart as fast as the Freddie Gray case, where black police officers were targeted and a city terrorized over conspiracy theories relating to the accidental death of a drug dealer.

The claims of racism are absurd. Not only was Scott shot by an African-American police officer, but Charlotte Police Chief Kerr Putney, who has taken the lead in defending him, is also African-American.

Are we supposed to believe that an African-American police officer and an African-American police chief are racists or that these two black men took the lead in a genocidal conspiracy to kill black men?

That’s the laughable premise of the racist Black Lives Matter hatefest that alternates between “Stop killing us” street theater and violent assaults on police officers, reporters and anyone in the area.

But the truth doesn’t matter. Black Lives Matter rioters are still chanting, “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” long after the Michael Brown lie fell apart. They’re holding up signs reading, “It Was a Book.”  The lie is backed by some of the biggest media corporations in the country, by $130 million from George Soros and the Ford Foundation, by Barack Hussein Obama and by Hillary Clinton.

These are the malign forces destroying Charlotte, as they trashed Baltimore. On the ground there are the vulture community organizers of Black Lives Matter, funded by the left, who parachute in to organize race riots, behind them are the reporters who sell the spin live on the air and the photographers who capture glamor shots of the racist rioters, and after them come the lawyers of the DOJ out to ruin, terrorize and intimidate whatever law enforcement survived the riots.

They did it in Ferguson and a dozen other places. Now they want to do it in Charlotte.

They want to do it because they hate white people and black people. They hate peace and decency. They hate the idea of people getting up in the morning and working for a living. They hate the idea of good officers, white and black men and women, like Brentley Vinson, who genuinely believe in doing the right thing. They want unearned power. They demand unearned wealth. And they thrive on destruction.

This is the real evil in Charlotte. And we need to stand up to it. From the ghetto to the manors of the liberal elite from burning cars to pricey restaurants in exclusive neighborhoods, it plots against us.

It is a lie repeated a million times. Sometimes the lie is simple. Other times it’s sophisticated. But the way to fight it is to begin with the truth.

The truth is that Keith Lamont Scott was a violent criminal who came to a bad end because of his own actions. Just like Michael Brown, Freddie Gray and too many other Black Lives Matter martyrs to count.

The truth is that everything Black Lives Matter does reminds us of why we need police officers.

The truth is that this is not about race, but about those who want to build and those who want to destroy. It’s about the difference between Brentley Vinson and Keith Lamont Scott.

It’s about what kind of country we want to be. Is it a country that celebrates a young black football player who chose to follow in his father’s footsteps, who organized bible study and helped others, who risked his life to keep other people safe. Or is it one that celebrates Keith Lamont Scott, who assaulted a woman, a child and anyone else he could get at, who terrorized three states and died as he lived.

Obama and the left want a nation of Keith Lamont Scotts. But now it’s our turn to choose.

Stanford Crushes UCLA Hopes, Scoring Touchdown With 24 Seconds Left (VIDEO)

I had my hopes up for UCLA, big time.

Frankly, they should've won this game. The Bruins played well throughout, especially on defense. But the Cardinal got fired up for the final drive.

What can you do?

At LAT, "UCLA can't escape its past in stunning loss to No. 7 Stanford, 22-13":

It happened again. How could it happen again?

For all but the final two minutes Saturday night, UCLA did everything in its power to break an eight-game losing streak to a Stanford team that has long occupied its nightmares.

Then it happened again. Somehow, it happened again.

Stanford got tough. UCLA got tentative. Stanford found focus. UCLA lost control.

Stanford celebrated its history, while UCLA wallowed in its history, and everything changed as quickly as Josh Rosen fell into a heap while thousands stood stunned and frozen in the Rose Bowl stands rising around him.

The nightmare is back because, it turns out, the nightmare never left.

Stanford drove down the field in the final two minutes Saturday night to score the go-ahead touchdown on a leaping catch by J.J. Arcega-Whiteside from Ryan Burns with 24 seconds left, then added a fumble return for a touchdown on the final play for a 22-13 victory.

“Obviously that’s about as difficult as it gets,’’ said Bruin Coach Jim Mora...

Keep reading.

Plus, "UCLA suffers cruel loss to No. 7 Stanford, 22-13."

Gennifer Flowers to Attend First Presidential Debate Between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton (VIDEO)

That woman was a blonde bombshell back in the day.

She's accepted Donald Trump's invitation to attend the debate.

Heh, this oughta be interesting.

From Austin Bay, at Instapundit, "AN APT RIPOSTE TO TEAM HILLARY’S MARK CUBAN (NOT FIDEL) GAMBIT: Demonstrating his genius for political theater, Trump is threatening to give Gennifer Flowers a front row seat at his upcoming debate with Hillary Clinton."

And at BuzzFeed, via Memorandum, "Gennifer Flowers Agrees to Join Trump at Presidential Debate."

Obama Administration Has Done Little to Pursue War Crimes Trials Against Islamic State

This should surprise no one.

At A.P. "WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL FOR IS DETAINEES LACKS SUPPORT":

WASHINGTON (AP) -- War crimes investigators collecting evidence of the Islamic State group's elaborate operation to kidnap thousands of women as sex slaves say they have a case to try IS leaders with crimes against humanity but cannot get the global backing to bring current detainees before an international tribunal.

Two years after the IS onslaught in northern Iraq, the investigators, as well as U.S. diplomats, say the Obama administration has done little to pursue prosecution of the crimes that Secretary of State John Kerry has called genocide. Current and former State Department officials say that an attempt in late 2014 to have a legal finding of genocide was blocked by the Defense Department, setting back efforts to prosecute IS members suspected of committing war crimes...

More. (Via Austin Bay at Instapundit.)

Heh. 'It used to be cars were made in Flint...'

This is pretty good, from the Notorious DJT:

Today is the day! Knock on doors and make calls with us on National Day of Action! #TrumpTrain #MAGAhttps://t.co/NQEgRxQN2m pic.twitter.com/4UFXDuj5vy

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2016

Professor Allan Lichtman Says Donald Trump Headed for Win on November 8th

Sounds good to me, heh.

At the Washington Post, "Trump is headed for a win, says professor who has predicted 30 years of presidential outcomes correctly" (via Memeorandum).

Here's Professor Lichtman's book, Predicting the Next President: The Keys to the White House 2016.

RELATED: Professor Helmut Norpoth, who also has an outstanding prediction record, similarly pegs Trump to win in November. At BizPac, "Poll-predicting prof with stellar record says never mind the media, Trump’s going to win."

Ayaan, Heretic

It's a good time to re-up Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

At Amazon, Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now.