Melania Trump's racy photos from 1996. Trump says,

When asked about the photos, Trump told The Post: “Melania was one of the most successful models and she did many photo shoots, including for covers and major magazines. This was a picture taken for a European magazine prior to my knowing Melania. In Europe, pictures like this are very fashionable and common.”

Trump displayed his lack of foreign policy chops today on ABC's This Week when he didn't know that Russian troops were in the Ukraine -- and had been for two years. Russia seized Crimea and annexed it in 2014, resulting in economic sanctions by the U.S. and countries in Europe. He suggested Crimea might prefer Russia. [More...]

Windows 10 free upgrades end tomorrow. I've been dreading installing it on my office computer, because like everything these days, text is an afterthought to graphic icons and video. I have been using Windows 10 on my laptops for 6 months and I still waste far too much time trying to find things. I like text, not pictures. I rarely find the icons intuitive.

Here's the good news. This morning when I got the message "Your computer is ready to upgrade" and it told me all my files would be in the same place and I could switch back if I didn't like Windows 10, I took a deep breath and hit the "OK" button.

For a few hours I worked on documents while it was doing something in the background. Then I left and forgot about it. When I got back around 5 pm, there was a big message on the screen saying I was ready to go. The best part was it asked me if I wanted to use custom settings (like for Groove music and Windows photo program) and had a very small button to click that said "no, use my existing programs to open everything." So I clicked the very small button and lo and behold: My desktop looks just like it did in Windows 7, my photos open with Adobe Photoshop and my music and video is in iTunes. It also gave me the choice to turn off all the notifications to Microsoft and syncing apps and location services, which of course I chose to do. [More...]

Open Thread.

Bill Clinton tonight in the 10 o'clock hour. Also Meryl Streep and Alicia Keys.

At 8 Mothers of the Movement.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

It's hot -- 95 degrees today.

The Late Late Show with James Corden has been nominated for three Emmys -- None for Stephen Colbert or the Daily Show. Corden is so much more entertaining to watch. But I've been saying that for months. I just wish he'd come back to the show -- far too many repeat episodes lately.

The rest of the Emmy list is pretty uninspiring. I'd rather watch Senor de los Cielos or re-runs of La Reina del Sur than suffer through yet another show about O.J. Simpson or drug cops. I'm glad Lily Tomlin got nominated for Grace and Frankie -- Jane Fonda should have been as well.

There seems to be more hand-wringing than buzz about the Republican convention. It will only get worse.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Pence or Newt?

Open Thread.

I'm offline today. Here's a new open thread, all topics welcome.

El Chapo has not escaped from prison in Mexico. The Government posted a photo of him in jail to refute a rumor on Twitter that spread quickly.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Our last open thread is full. Here's a new one, all topics welcome.

Here's a new open thread, all topics welcome. Keep it civil and free of potentially libelous comments please.

Another 4th of July weekend comes to a close. Fireworks here are about to begin (it's not quite dark at 8:00 pm.)

Some thoughts on freedom:

For me, I keep seeing our freedom slip away. As in 2011, the holiday rings a little hollow to me this year.

In TV news, a new female character is introduced tonight on Senor de los Cielos (which has only two weeks left.) She is Emiliana Contreras, the daughter of one of Aurelio's rivals, Lencho Contreras, one of the "old guard" narcos who ended up in prison supposedly because of Aurelio. Her role is to get Aurelio to fall in love with her and then take him down. [More...]

Enjoy the weekend.