Gareth Sampson, Rome Spreads Her Wings

At Amazon, Gareth Sampson, Rome Spreads Her Wings: Territorial Expansion Between the Punic Wars.

Big Sur by Alice Hawkins VIDEO)

"Follow Highway 1 as it traces the edge of the West Coast between Los Angeles and San Francisco – the Santa Lucia mountains rising out of dense redwood forests on one side, the Pacific Ocean crashing against the craggy shore on the other – and you will find Big Sur, where a thousand-strong community lives scattered across the landscape..."

For Love Magazine:

Robert Tombs, The English and Their History

*BUMPED.*

I'm lining up some books on British history. Like Rome, it's a big subject. Besides the general history book here or there, I'll start with the Tudors and work back and forth.

For now, though, check out Robert Tombs, at Amazon, The English and Their History.

Americans Don't Trust the Media, and for Good Reason

From Sharyl Attkisson, at the Hill:

Trust in the mass media is at an all-time low. Two-thirds of Americans believe the mainstream press publishes fake news.

Yes, there’s still much good journalism to be found, if you know where to look. Yet, ask reporters who’ve been around a while,  and many will tell you that a lot of good journalism is being left unpublished. Good journalists hate what’s happening to the news.

We have only ourselves to blame...

RTWT.

David Mattingly, An Imperial Possession

At Amazon, David Mattingly, An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire.

The Left Normalizing Police Hatred (VIDEO)

It's Tomi Lahren.

Look for her to get a gig at Fox News in no time, thanks to Sean Hannity's promotion especially.

Robin Fleming, Britain After Rome

At Amazon, Robin Fleming, Britain After Rome: The Fall and Rise, 400 to 1070.

Dodgers Acquire Curtis Granderson

So I saw Curtis Granderson featured at the Dodgers' Twitter feed, and I thought "Why's he putting on a Dodger jersey? Must be doing cross-team MLB promotions, or something." Then I thought, "Wait, the Dodgers traded for Curtis Granderson?" And I googled it. Yep, they snagged the dude from the Mets. Granderson's got tremendous energy and charisma. I've seen him play clutch baseball here and there, but I've never really followed his game closely. His acquisition by the Dodgers illustrates the team's intent to win the World Series, and of course Granderson's totally stoked.

Here's Bill Plaschke, at LAT, "The Dodgers' front office swings for the fences with acquisition of Curtis Granderson":

Dodger fans, @cgrand3 has a message for you. #LetsGoDodgers pic.twitter.com/Td87uPqoqN

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 19, 2017

.@cgrand3 is PUMPED. 👊 #LetsGoDodgers https://t.co/gOy6Wdwb9T (via MLB Fans) pic.twitter.com/ieCpEC4v1p

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 19, 2017

Each game, I wear my socks high in honor of #JackieRobinson. Today I did it in a @dodgers uniform -and it felt really special #LetsGoDodgers pic.twitter.com/x9xTWcpldp

— Curtis Granderson (@cgrand3) August 19, 2017

It happened again. They did it again.

Late innings, out of nowhere, a screaming line drive, a sprint toward home, dust flies, fans gasp, victory appears.

It happened again. The Dodgers’ front office did it again.

The magic of this wondrous baseball team is nearly being matched, walk-off for walk-off, by the magic of the guys who have assembled it. Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi went deep in extra innings for the second time in less than three weeks Friday night, picking up October-honed outfielder Curtis Granderson from the New York Mets for virtually nothing, and now can there be any question?

In their third season here, Friedman and Zaidi understand Dodgers fans’ anguish. They connect with their desperation. They share their hope. They get it, and they’re going for it.

Even with the team steamrollering to what might be the best regular-season record in baseball history, possibly breaking the fabled 116-victory mark, Friedman and Zaidi are still shaking things up, adding a veteran left-handed hitter, sending down former top prospect Joc Pederson, emphasizing that their only goal is one shared by anyone who has spent the last 29 years going out of their blue minds.

“We’ll take the 11 wins in October over the 116 wins in the regular season any day,” Zaidi, the team’s general manager, said in a phone interview.

Remember when everyone was worried that they were satisfied with building for the future at the expense of today? About five minutes before the July 31 nonwaiver trade deadline, with nothing big happening, folks everywhere were beginning to gripe about two guys who cared more about the process than the present.

Then, boom, they walked it off with the deal for starting pitcher Yu Darvish, who has done just enough to help the team win all three of his starts. And now, wham, they have walked it off again by acquiring Granderson, a great clubhouse guy who has 18 home runs since May 1, who can still work up some serious exit velocity against right-handed pitching, and who has played in a dozen postseason series, including two World Series.

He is a big-swinging starting outfielder against right-handers. He is invaluable bench depth on other days. He is 36, he has seen it all, he batted .389 against the Dodgers in a 2015 division series, hit three homers in the 2015 World Series, and becomes yet another gleaming chess piece that can shine under the lights.

“He has the kind of grinding mentality that plays in October,” Zaidi said...

More.

Courtney Friel Update

Following-up from eight years ago, "Courtney Friel, Political Scientist."

She's updated her Twitter profile photo, plus another pre-broadcast selfie:

#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/wHeyGqLT8T

— Courtney Friel (@courtneyfriel) August 20, 2017

Waiting on set for the Raiders/Rams game to end so that the @KTLA news at 10/11pm can commence! #KeepItFriel pic.twitter.com/G25YrOCcq0

— Courtney Friel (@courtneyfriel) August 20, 2017

New York Times Applauds Far-Left Violence

It's Glenn Reynolds, linking Power Line, at Instapundit, "THEY’RE NOT AGAINST VIOLENCE WHEN IT COMES FROM THEIR SIDE: New York Times Applauds Far-Left Violence."

Have We Crossed a Line in Media Coverage of the Presidency?

My short answer is no. As soon as a Democrat retakes the White House, we'll be back to fawning, far-left news coverage starring journalists with Democrat bylines.

But see the Los Angeles Times, "Has the Trump presidency permanently changed how the media cover the presidency?":

Here's Kate Bolduan shutting down Corey Stewart: "Stop talking. Stop talking. Stop talking for a second. You are the guest on my show." pic.twitter.com/g1GT8bYsSz

— David Mack (@davidmackau) August 17, 2017

Quick quiz: Name just one press secretary who served under President Obama or George W. Bush.

If you’re Googling for answers, congratulations, and condolences: You’re no different than most Americans.

Now ask yourself the same question about President Trump’s administration. It’s likely you’re rattling off names as spontaneously as a freestyle rapper: Spicer, Scaramucci, Huckabee Sanders.


Drop the mike. Take a victory lap. All those hours of flipping among CNN, MSNBC and Fox, watching wall-to-wall coverage of the Trump White House and everything that touches it, have finally proved useful. Addiction has it rewards.

And make no mistake, watching cable news is no longer just a casual pastime or a way to stay informed. It’s an addiction, an American epidemic that started with a gateway drug known as the Trump presidency.

Checking in with first-name commentator anchors like Anderson, Rachel or Tucker for the latest developments, drama and crises emanating from the White House is now habit, like checking your smartphone for messages, after you just checked it two seconds ago, after you just checked it three seconds before that.

And most of what we’re getting is opinion. The phrase “let’s ask the panel” has become the mantra of the 24-hour news cycle — Trump just tweeted threats to North Korea, let’s ask the panel; the Russia probe is looking into Trump family connections with Moscow, let’s ask the panel.

Pundits may argue that President Trump hasn’t accomplished much in his first six months in office (no Obamacare repeal, no Hillary incarceration, no wall other than the one Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions bangs his head on nightly), but the Showman Trump has turned cable news into a must-see spectacle that’s hard to resist.

His lasting influence could very well be altering the way in which we consume politics and news, turning coverage of how the nation is governed into a talk show about an unhinged reality show. To quote a phrase popular with the president: It seems we’ve “crossed the red line” for how we ingest news, and it’s unlikely we’ll ever be able to turn back to simpler times, when Senate hearings were C-Span fodder and press briefings an exercise in protocol.

Americans have come to rely on the continuous feed of wacky, sad and terrifying White House moments for entertainment, even if the ultimate effect jangles nerves and overloads synapses.

When Sean Spicer resigned six months into Trump’s presidency, you could almost hear the collective disappointment — “Awe. Spicey’s out! Who and what are we going to watch next? Will they be as entertaining and outlandish?” Enter Scaramucci. Hooray! Next.

The news machine is hooked on Trump’s superlatives, which are more Barnum & Bailey circus barker (“Like the World Has Never Seen!”), John Wayne (“Locked and Loaded!”) and Cersei Lannister (“They’ll be Met With Fire and Fury”) than presidential.

“What Trump Said” and “Words Matter” were the taglines that flashed on the screen during an hour of panelist prattle devoted to Trump talk last week on prime-time CNN. Everyone from the network’s outspoken star commentator Ana Navarro to former Defense Secretary William Perry to Trump biographer Michael D’Antonio deconstructed POTUS’ ultimatums to Kim Jong Un, Trump’s threat of military intervention in Venezuela, his taunting of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (give this to Trump: He’s an equal opportunity mocker; Republicans feel it as much as Democrats).

Absent from broadcasts: Actual reportage on real news, especially if it doesn’t directly concern Trump or the partisan warfare that’s distorted our world view. Even when there is real news — like the horrific violence spurred by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va. — it’s subsumed by angry debates about what the president should have said and the frightening foothold the alt-right has gained in our nation. Lots of sound and fury to be sure, but not much significance.

All Trump talk, all the time, is a ratings bonanza. Cable’s three major news networks saw double-digit ratings growth in the second quarter of this year. MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” and “Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell” are up 86% in prime-time viewership compared with the same period in 2016.

CNN saw a 39% leap in viewers ages 25 to 54, and that’s after having its most-watched first quarter in 14 years. Even Fox News, which took major hits the last year with the loss of founder Roger Ailes and its star host Bill O’Reilly, saw record numbers for daytime viewership for any cable news network.e highest-rated quarter of total day viewership

So why would they ever go back to old-fashioned “boring” coverage? And would that satisfy the need for our hourly political fix?

The wall-to-wall coverage we’ve come to expect now didn’t start with the inauguration in January. It’s been unprecedented drama all the time for the last two years, ever since Trump threw his hat in the ring for the presidency...

Still more (FWIW).

And, at the video at top, "Watch CNN's Kate Bolduan shut down a Republican Senate candidate for claiming the problem is 'the violent left'."

Let's Get One Thing Clear About #Antifa

"Antifa is an Anarcho-Communist cause."

Note to CNN and the "alt-left" fake news outfits:

Let's get one thing clear. Antifa is an Anarcho-Communist cause. Those on the left who call us "patriots", step the FUCK away. #BostonResist pic.twitter.com/fXV3mgK45j

— Boston Antifa (@AntifaBoston) August 19, 2017

CNN's Hot Take on #Antifa: 'Peace Through Violence'

From John Sexton, at Hot Air.

Fuck you @CNN.
You're done. pic.twitter.com/bmcjPJVbAK

— Patty Politics (@youngblackcon) August 19, 2017

Lol. @cnn "updated" the headline to remove the claim of "peace thru violence." You can still see it on Google. pic.twitter.com/8rUARJHwmA

— Brandon Darby (@brandondarby) August 20, 2017

What the Symbols and Slogans Used by White Nationalists and Their Counterprotesters Mean

From the fake-News Washington Post, "Deconstructing the symbols and slogans spotted in Charlottesville: Each side comes to rallies armed with chants, banners, shields and flags. Here’s a closer look at the political context and history behind the words and the logos":

Deconstructing the symbols and slogans spotted in Charlottesville https://t.co/M4gI3IrCvb

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 20, 2017

As well-coordinated and meticulously organized white nationalists converged to rally in Charlottesville, they brought with them chants, banners, slurs, shields and flags. Counterprotesters, including anti-fascist groups and local residents, church groups and civil rights leaders, had their own symbols and slogans. Each of the icons spotted carried its own political context and history.

Symbols on display ranged from exact replicas of the Confederate flag to altered versions of a National Hockey League team logo. Some date from the Crusades, while others were designed in the wake of President Trump’s election. Those marching with far-right groups were generally well organized, with many wearing group uniforms and carrying shields. Those protesting in opposition were less consistent in their branding. Here’s what was seen on the streets of Charlottesville...

Keep reading.

Harry Turtledove, How Few Remain

Well, I enjoyed American War, but little did I know about Harry Turtledove and his "Southern Victory" saga, an alternative history in which the South wins the Civil War. I swear, this is just what I need right now, lol.

More about these books later.

Meanwhile, at Amazon, Harry Turtledove, How Few Remain (Southern Victory).

Anton Myrer, Once an Eagle

This book's apparently required reading in the Marine Corps, said to be one of the best books ever written on moral leadership.

At Amazon, Anton Myrer, Once an Eagle.

Stephen Kotkin, Stalin

This is one I'm really excited about. It's out on Halloween.

At Amazon, Stephen Kotkin, Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941.

Anna Funder, Stasiland

At Amazon, Anna Funder, Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall.

Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time

At Amazon, Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets.

Shop Today

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BONUS: William Manchester, The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932.