Drumpf betrays base on immigration?

I never expected to have to say this, but if you're a #MAGA person and you continue to make excuses for this sort of behavior, you're just an idiot:

Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, President Trump is abandoning his prior “America First” legal immigration reforms to support increases of legal immigration levels in order to expand profits for businesses and corporations.

For the fourth time in about a month, Trump suggested increasing legal immigration levels. With Apple CEO Tim Cook sitting next to him at the White House on Wednesday, Trump said he not only wanted more legal immigration but that companies needed an expansion of new arrivals to grow their business.

“We’re going to have a lot of people coming into the country. We want a lot of people coming in. And we need it,” Trump said:

MAGA!

Immigration catastrophe

Trump's inexorable transition into Drumpf

Last post, I told you to spit out that black bill: the Trump administration, through a variety of regulatory changes at US Citizenship and Immigration Services, is building an "invisible wall" of policies and mechanisms that make it harder to immigrate. This is, of course, good news for those of us who seek to curb the million-strong horde of foreign nationals who are permitted to settle in the US every year.

Well, that was the good news. There's bad news too... and it's really bad.

The flood of depressing immigration-related commentary this week is pretty overwhelming, so I will just post a small sample:

"New, awful data shows that the border invasion is worse than ever"

If Trump had not signed the disastrous budget bill several weeks ago and we were still operating on a short-term CR with immigration remaining the top issue, today’s news could have strengthened Trump’s leverage. According to CBP’s preliminary figures obtained by the Washington Post, 76,325 illegal aliens were apprehended at the border in February, more than any other month in over a decade since the decline of migration from Mexico. A record 40,325 family units arrived, blowing out the previous records by almost 10,000. Sadly, Trump already signed away his leverage to force a national dialogue over this issue.

As a nation, we are left debating presidential power from an obscure statute that enables the president to obtain a mere $2.5 billion for partial fencing to deal with a policy-driven invasion. The joke is that even if Trump had full unity behind this approach, it would do little to stop this invasion, which is strategically directed toward soft parts of our border. Unless we force a national discussion over the courts and the illegal immigration magnets that are bringing immigrants in, this entire debate is a non-sequitur. Unfortunately, without a budget deadline for another seven months, no matter how bad things get at our border, there is no mechanism through which to pressure Democrats into submission. [...]

It’s gotten so bad that illegal aliens have successfully taken us past our breaking point, creating a self-fulfilling cycle of catch-and-release. We are so overrun with migrants and detention facilities are so full that now, even those not eligible for catch-and-release are being released. We will never hear from them again, but will have to pay for their public charge and crimes committed.

Money chart:

Judge Sabraw, in case you were wondering, is the US District Judge (a Dubya appointee and son of a Japanese immigrant) who ordered the reunification of children separated from their parents or "parents" at the Mexican border, as a direct result of which, apprehensions of "family units" at the border exploded.

Notice a trend? #MAGA drives illegal immigration down. Judges and the absence of #MAGA drive it back up.

The God-Emperor Trump could put a stop to this treasonous judicial usurpation of power by simply ignoring these totally unconstitutional and ridiculous rulings. But he'd rather whine and bluster, apparently:

"Catch and Release, Birthright Citizenship, Sanctuary Cities Continue Unaltered Despite Trump Opposition"

During his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Trump denounced the Catch and Release program where illegal aliens and border crossers are routinely released into the interior of the U.S. after being apprehended by Border Patrol. [...]

The Catch and Release program, though, was expanded by Trump last month when he signed a spending bill approved by Republicans and Democrats in Congress and strongly supported by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, insiders have told Breitbart News.

The bipartisan spending package Trump signed greatly expands the Catch and Release of border crossers and illegal aliens, codifying into law that border crossers be bused into the interior of the U.S. where they are released with the promise that they are monitored.

DRUMPF denounces his own policies, rages impotently at problems that he refuses to solve! His appointee, DHS head Kirstjen Nielsen, all but rolls out the welcome mat for illegal aliens:

"Beltway Class Praises DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen While She Oversees Illegal Immigration Surge"

The Washington, D.C. political establishment and beltway class are praising their close ally, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, as she oversees a surge in illegal immigration and implements an expansion of the Catch and Release program.

In a glowing piece by Politico, Nielsen received repeated praise for “standing strong” and circumventing President Trump’s criticism of her role as DHS secretary, where she has overseen a continued surge in illegal immigration while focusing her agency’s attention on cybersecurity issues and terrorism prevention. [...]

By all measures of border crossing data and Catch and Release levels, Nielsen’s record at DHS has been dismal. For example, when January 2018 illegal border crossings are compared to January 2019 numbers, the level of illegal immigration year-to-year has nearly doubled.

Most recently, for February, illegal immigration at the southern border hit the highest level for the month in 12 years, surpassing every month of February under former President Obama. Now, experts predict there to be up to half a million illegal aliens who successfully cross into the country this year, alone.

Likewise, Nielsen has consistently privately advocated for spending bills that have provided little-to-no funds for Trump’s proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall to stop illegal immigration.

Daniel Horowitz of the Conservative Review is nearly apoplectic:



But he has a good idea:

https://twitter.com/RMConservative/status/1103003714581917It's time to use Article II, 212f, and 215A to categorically shut down all cross border migration

Great! Any takers? Anyone?

Drumpf?...

The invisible wall

This is how it's done. Walls are great, yes – and the US needs a wall. Equally important, America needs to make it harder to immigrate across the board. A Politico report from last September details how Lee Francis Cissna, head of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, is tightening up the system:

• Creation of a “denaturalization task force” to strip away fraudulently obtained citizenship
• Allowing visa officers to deny applications without first requesting more info
• Refugee admissions slashed
• Proposed legislation to prevent immigrants from obtaining green cards if they or their family members have used a public benefit
• Suspension of a fast-track processing program for H-1B visas
• Planned rollback of work authorization for spouses of H-1B visa holders

Horrors!

The man overseeing these reforms isn’t Stephen Miller, the White House aide publicly known as the architect of President Donald Trump’s most restrictionist immigration policies. It’s Lee Francis Cissna, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency that not only facilitates legal immigration, but historically celebrates it. Miller is rightly seen as the mastermind of Trump’s far-reaching immigration crackdown, but Cissna is arguably just as important because he makes it happen.

Much less visible than Miller or Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Cissna has quietly carried out Trump’s policies with a workmanlike dedication. From his perch atop USCIS, he’s issued a steady stream of policy changes and regulations that have transformed his agency into more of an enforcement body and less of a service provider. These changes have generated blowback from immigrant advocates, businesses and even some of his own employees. Leon Rodriguez, who served as USCIS director under President Barack Obama, said the agency is sending a message “that this is a less welcoming environment than it may have been before.” […]

While the travel ban and family separations grabbed headlines, Cissna has waged a quieter war, tightening and reworking regulations and guidance that make it harder to come to the U.S. as an immigrant or temporary worker.

Cissna, one gets the impression, sees himself as a technocratic civil servant who is faithfully upholding the law and the administration's policies, rather than some kind of anti-immigration zealot. It's funny how the people interviewed by Politico seem unable to square Cissna's immigrant parentage with his tough bureaucratic actions, as if they cannot imagine a government official “of color” choosing loyalty to America over his own perceived ethnic self-interest. There's also a weird line about how being Catholic is supposedly incompatible with “splitting up families at the border,” i.e. separating children from illegal alien adults who may or may not be their parents

Cissna gave a good response to a popular, but retarded, immigration canard:

Cissna sees no conflict in shaping policies that could have kept his own family out of the United States if they had been implemented several decades ago. “There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to advocate for a policy that I think is better for the country, even if it might affect or have affected my own family personally,” he told me.

And a recent update on the Trump administration's tightening of the H-1B visa program:

Immigrants with specialized skills are being denied work visas or seeing applications get caught up in lengthy bureaucratic tangles under federal changes that some consider a contradiction to President Donald Trump’s promise of a continued pathway to the U.S. for the most talented foreigners.

Getting what’s known as an H-1B visa has never been a sure thing — the number issued annually is capped at 85,000 and applicants need to enter a lottery to even be considered. But some immigration attorneys, as well as those who hire such workers, say they’ve seen unprecedented disruptions in the approval process since Trump took office in 2017.

Spit out that black pill! Drumpf is far from perfect, but whereas his opponents (Republican and Democrat alike) are feckless traitors who piss on everything you care about, the God-Emperor is at least beginning to move things in the right direction. Let's see how he does over the next year, before the 2020 Republican presidential primaries.

Triumph

It's over.

They threw everything they had at him. They mobilized the entire vast apparatus of the evil establishment for their shameful, lying campaign to take down a good man, a mild-mannered Catholic of impeccable reputation, and they failed. The effort backfired on the Democrats, hideously and spectacularly.

The disgusting and cynical attack on Kavanaugh will not be forgotten. If you come at the king, you best not miss. The Democrats missed, and they will pay the price in the midterms. And they will continue to pay the price in the form of awakened Republican anger, and a newly radicalized Kavanaugh who will, we can hope, exact his revenge from the bench of the highest court in the land.

 

Conservatives are beginning to discover what it means to win. It is an unfamiliar feeling for people on the political Right. We are so used to noble defeat and Pyrrhic victories, to endless, shameless betrayal by the Republican establishment. Fine rhetoric about muh Constitution and muh principles, and perhaps the occasional tax cut and pointless foreign war, while the greatest nation in the history of the world morphs into a continent-sized freak show. "Winning" meant George W Bush in the Oval Office. Now, for the first time in 30 years, under the magnificent God-Emperor, we are starting to win by ACTUALLY FUCKING WINNING.

Make no mistake, this is a landmark victory. We now have possibly the most conservative Supreme Court since 1934; this is real power. The Left is in disarray, but it is also dangerous, like a wounded animal that is still far from dead. Having failed to defeat Kavanaugh through the normal political process, and having failed to ruin his life through their despicable lies and machinations, the Left will now extend and widen the battle to the legitimacy of the Supreme Court itself. They are already laying the groundwork for this next phase of the conflict. "Kavanaugh’s confirmation will have poisoned the foundation of the judiciary’s authority." If they cannot keep the court, they will burn it down.

There is literally no institution, no custom, no tradition, no bedrock American value the Left will not eagerly demolish in its insane, totalizing quest for utopia. Do I exaggerate? Forget limited government, forget guns and border enforcement...  now they're attacking the freakin' presumption of innocence!!!

Mike Cernovich made the astute point that the establishment media has lost any remaining credibility through this fiasco. Even the formerly admired Ronan Farrow has completely jumped the shark, penning not one, but two ludicrous hit pieces against Kavanaugh in The New Yorker. Why would anyone even bother to refute a hit piece anymore? The media is totally, utterly fake and everyone knows it. If you're ever accused of something by the media, all you have to do is say "fake news" and you've won the argument.

But the damage runs deeper than that. As @Instapundit noted, "Trump's greatest gift is getting various institutions to make clear in obvious ways that they're as corrupt as he says they are." This was in reference to the story that hundreds -- ultimately more than 2,400 -- law professors had signed a letter arguing that Kavanaugh should not be confirmed based on his judicial temperament. As if the righteous fury of a good man falsely accused, when defending himself before the Senate and the nation in the capacity of a witness, has any bearing whatsoever on his temperament as a judge! And then there is the contemptible bias displayed by the ACLU and the American Bar Association.

The Democratic party. The media. The legal profession. All severely damaged, if not comprehensively discredited, in a matter of weeks.

The Right has won a huge victory, but there are many more battles to come. The Left will grow crazier, more desperate and more violent as their world continues to fall apart. Our political system will devolve into chaos and our institutions will continue to bleed legitimacy. There is little doubt that the United States is on a greased slope to collapse, but we need to keep winning or what replaces the US will be worse than we can imagine.

Don't worry, it'll get worse

Steve Bannon, Evil Counselor to the God-Emperor of Mankind, weighs in on what the future holds for the administration's war with the establishment:

SCHLAPP: [...] What is it that they keep getting wrong and do you think it ever gets fixed? What does the media keep getting wrong about this Trump phenomena and what's happening out there in the country? And is there any hope that this changes? 

PRIEBUS: I think there's hope that it's going to change. I mean we -- we sit here, every day and -- and the president pumps out all of this work and -- and the executive orders and the punching through of the promises that he made to the American people. So we're hoping that the media would catch up eventually. [...] 

BANNON: The reason Reince and I are good partners is that we can disagree. It's not only not going to get better. It's going to get worse every day. 

(LAUGHTER) 

And here's why. By the way, the internal logic makes sense. They're corporatist, globalist media that are adamantly opposed -- adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda like Donald Trump has. President Trump really laid this out, as Reince said, many years ago at CPAC. It's really CPAC that really originally gave him the springboard. It's the first time at Breitbart we start seeing him, and saw how people, you know, his speeches resonated with people. 

And then he would go out to these smaller town halls later and really he got traction with the same message he's bringing today. Here's the only -- here's why it's going to get worse: Because he's going to continue to press his agenda. And as economic conditions get better, as more jobs get better, they're going to continue to fight. If you think they're going to give you your country back without a fight, you are sadly mistaken. Every day -- every day, it is going to be a fight. And that is what I'm proudest about Donald Trump. All the opportunities he had to waiver off this; all the people who have come to him and said, "oh, you've got to moderate." Every day in the Oval Office, he tells Reince and I, "I committed this to the American people; I promised this when I ran; and I'm going to deliver on this."

Trump will not slow down, and he will not moderate. The battle will intensify. Buckle up.

The education of Donald Trump

Despite his ruthlessness in business, Donald Trump is no sociopath, and it remains to be seen whether he possesses the icy resolve to comprehensively destroy his enemies in Washington. For they are powerful and merciless, and will neuter his presidency, and possibly impeach him and throw him in jail, if he does not act quickly and firmly to crush them all. His skills have brought him unimaginable fame and riches in the private sector, but the government is a different world, and the waters he has waded into run very, very deep. I wonder if he is just beginning to grasp the immensity of what is required of him:

President Trump may have been wounded more badly than he expected by the Flynn affair. Mr. Trump is, after, a rather decent man. He has no military experience, and as far as I know not much familiarity with military history. His instinctual reaction when an enemy is wounded is to stand back and end the fight. This is the civilized way of doing things, and in civil life it is much to be preferred. 

The military know better. Battles may be won by valor; wars are won in the pursuit. When the enemy is down is the time to put the boot in. Relentless pursuit, slaughter of the retreating enemy, kill them all, take no prisoners because prisoners need guarding and care and reduce your strength; wars are won or lost in the pursuit. [...] 

Valor wins battles; wars are won in the pursuit. Mr. Trump’s enemies know that and believe it. Perhaps Mr. Trump is learning it.

Trump will grow in office, I predict. He will learn to give his enemies no quarter, to show them no mercy, to strip them of all power using every legal means at his disposal. He will learn to ignore their lying shows of friendship and their appeals to fair play, "norms" and other abstract concepts they never gave the slightest shit about as he purges them with fire from a vastly corrupt, out-of-control government.

The alternative is Trump in prison or worse; government of, by and for the National Security State; and the extinction of the republic. Simple choice.

This is an encouraging sign. The showdown continues:

President Trump plans to assign a New York billionaire to lead a broad review of American intelligence agencies, according to administration officials, an effort that members of the intelligence community fear could curtail their independence and reduce the flow of information that contradicts the president’s worldview. 

The possible role for Stephen A. Feinberg, a co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management, has met fierce resistance among intelligence officials already on edge because of the criticism the intelligence community has received from Mr. Trump during the campaign and since he became president. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump blamed leaks from the intelligence community for the departure of Michael T. Flynn, his national security adviser, whose resignation he requested.

Take a deep breath

John Podhoretz in Commentary:

I am myself unnerved by the evidence of high-level lawlessness in the Flynn matter, but a “coup d’etat” refers specifically to a military ouster of a leader, not a leak-driven campaign using the press to nail someone. This is sure to persist, though, if the Flynn-Russia matter accelerates—and if the reluctant House and Senate do begin investigating the matter in earnest. If the language surrounding the investigation remains florid and purple, if Democrats try to please their Trump-hating constituents by screaming impeachment and liberal media tries to garner audience by jumping openly and vociferously on the bandwagon, the Trumpians will respond in kind by stirring the pot through their media and their argumentation.

The result might well be violence. Not rhetorical violence. Actual violence. Actual political violence. Actual conflicts between anti-Trumpers and Trumpers. At demonstrations. In the streets. Of our cities. Political violence of a sort we haven’t seen in 50 years, and maybe haven’t really seen in this country in the modern era. Those who believe Trump is a unique menace whose threat to our democratic way of life will be met with those who believe the elites are using illicit means to oust the legitimately elected president of the United States.

Podhoretz is right about this, and right about the amplifying effect of social media on public hysteria. This situation is getting dangerous, folks.

Time for everyone to take a deep breath and relax...

The Flynn affair

Some noteworthy articles about the Flynn affair:

Eli Lake: The Political Assassination of Michael Flynn

Normally intercepts of U.S. officials and citizens are some of the most tightly held government secrets. This is for good reason. Selectively disclosing details of private conversations monitored by the FBI or NSA gives the permanent state the power to destroy reputations from the cloak of anonymity. This is what police states do. 

In the past it was considered scandalous for senior U.S. officials to even request the identities of U.S. officials incidentally monitored by the government (normally they are redacted from intelligence reports). John Bolton's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was derailed in 2006 after the NSA confirmed he had made 10 such requests when he was Undersecretary of State for Arms Control in George W. Bush's first term. The fact that the intercepts of Flynn's conversations with Kislyak appear to have been widely distributed inside the government is a red flag.

Mike Cernovich: What General Flynn’s Resignation Means for America

Tonight the fake news media landed a tactical nuke on America. The line has been broken, and the media now knows Trump is far more sensitive to bad press than he seemed to be during the campaign. [...]

When Trump fires or forces someone to resign, he has given power to the media. [...]

Flynn was always a target because only he, Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, and Stephen Miller are in touch with Trump’s base.

Trump should have disbanded the White House Press Corps, as I advised. This lack of access would have put CNN on the state playing field as an ordinary blog. They’d be starved for ad revenue.

Tonight was a major stategic defeat. The fake news media and so-called #TheResistance are inspired.

Vox Day: National Security Adviser Flynn resigns

That's exactly what I said that he should do [resign] if the reports that he had lied were true. And, as I also mentioned, I don't see it as a loss to the God-Emperor at all, because Flynn was heavily influenced by the neocons, and by Michael Ledeen in particular. With him out, and Eliot Abrams being rejected, I anticipate that some of the pressure to instigate trouble with Iran will be reduced. 

The opposition media will consider this a scalp and will try to make the most of it, and they will fail to recognize what I pointed out before the inauguration, which is that the Trump administration is almost certainly going to have record turnover, as the God-Emperor will quickly remove subordinates in whom he loses confidence or trust. It worked for him during the campaign and it will work for him in office.

Vox Day: Curiouser and curiouser

The Saker: The Neocons and the “Deep State” Have Neutered the Trump Presidency, It’s Over Folks!

The Saker: The Anti-Flynn ‘Deep State’ Coup – Spelling It Out in the Clearest Way Possible

And some tweets from John Robb:

The big reason Flynn was the #1 target of the #deepstate : he was rumored to be the point man on plans to reform the Intel Community.

— John Robb (@johnrobb) February 15, 2017

#Deepstate to @realDonaldTrump

"You will die in jail"

Definitely nuclear. https://t.co/LkYVIhcaAD

— John Robb (@johnrobb) February 15, 2017

All of the things we were worried about re: political use of #deepstate surveillance is proving true. The genie is out of the bottle.

— John Robb (@johnrobb) February 15, 2017

Honestly, I can't make heads or tails of this. The situation is far too complex, fluid, and shrouded in secrecy for all but the most informed observers to have a meaningful opinion on it.

My intuition tells me this is a Bad Thing for us Trump supporters. I liked General Flynn and thought he would do a good job of reforming the intelligence agencies and bringing some measure of sanity back to our foreign policy. Also, this is looking more and more like a Deep State coup against the POTUS, in which case, sayonara, America - you were fun while you lasted.

On the other hand, I wouldn't sell Trump short. He has proven himself to be a lot smarter and more strategic than virtually anyone gave him credit for during the campaign, and it strikes me as premature to second-guess every single decision he makes on a daily basis. Trump is playing a long game, and, as Marco Rubio infamously claimed about Obama, he knows exactly what he's doing...

Our president is fighting an array of extremely powerful enemies in the Deep State, the permanent bureaucracy, Congress, the judiciary, the media, academia, the "international community"... it's basically just him and a half-dozen advisers, and his basket of deplorable supporters... versus THE WORLD. He made it this far - let's have a little faith in his judgment and abilities.

And Flynn is problematic, for the reasons Vox points out. I found his neocon growlings about Russia and other alleged enemies in his book The Field of Fight, co-authored by Michael "[Bomb Iran] Faster, Please" Ledeen, disturbing. Also, Flynn apparently misled Mike Pence about his phone call with the Russian ambassador, an offense that I would not expect the God-Emperor to take lightly, much as he may otherwise value Flynn.

The issue with Flynn may simply be that he is a born rebel. As he wrote in his book:

I was one of those nasty tough kids, hell-bent on breaking rules for the adrenaline rush and hardwired just enough not to care about the consequences. [...] 

My rehabilitation was the fastest in adolescent history. I had it coming, and it taught me that moral rehab is possible. I behaved during my term of probation and stopped all of my criminal activity. But I would always retain my strong impulse to challenge authority and to think and act on my own whenever possible. There is room for such types in America, even in the disciplined confines of the United States Army.

But not, perhaps, in the disciplined court of the God-Emperor.

The undead

From Politico:

Hillary Clinton will run for president. Again. 

No inside information informs this prediction. No argument is advanced as to whether her run is a good or a bad idea—there are many ways to make a case either way. Instead this is just a statement of simple facts (if facts mean anything anymore, that is). And the facts are clear that the former secretary of state is doing everything she needs to do to run for the White House one more time. If she finds a path to do so, she will take it. And I can prove it. [...]

At the moment, of course, the idea of another Clinton presidential campaign—what would be the fifth since 1992—seems outlandish, even exhausting. Who’d want to go through all that mess again? But four years is plenty of time for memories to subside. 

And it’s true that in another era, a candidate Clinton’s age might have been deemed too old for the presidency. But in 2020, Hillary Clinton will be 73, one year younger than the incumbent seeking reelection. 

Also in another era, her political career might have been seen as having passed its expiration date. She’s twice run for the White House—and lost. But Ronald Reagan didn’t think that way. He ran in 1968, and again in 1976, nearly beating the incumbent Gerald Ford for the GOP nomination, before his ultimate victory in 1980.

I think Matt Latimer could well be right about the gruesome prospect of Hillary running again in 2020 - something that had not even occurred to me until now. Whether she could actually win is another matter. I strongly suspect the public will be clamoring for a continuation of the God-Emperor's reign in 2020, and perhaps even a repeal of the 22nd Amendment in time for 2024. On the other hand, Hillary has an opportunity if an open-source revolution such as described by John Robb sweeps the God-Emperor from his throne before then.

Even if that happens, I don't see Hillary as a likely candidate to succeed/replace Trump. She is a political dinosaur with a tin ear for the forces that are remaking our political system. Her abysmal social media campaign in 2016 provided constant, hilarious evidence of that. But who knows, maybe she could learn from her mistakes. Despite her all-around terrible campaigning, she did come close to winning the election, probably with the help of evil behavioral scientists handling her messaging; maybe the second time's the charm. She would need to hire someone with a profound grasp of social media and open-source tactics.

We have entered the realm of chaos, and anything is possible.

"You still don't get it, do you? She'll run for president again! That's what she does! That's ALL she does! You can't stop her!"

Civil war watch

The verdict is in: Political violence is cool!

The major student-run paper of UC Berkeley ran five op-eds Tuesday defending the riots on campus, and arguing that violence was an acceptable response to a speech from Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos. 

The Daily Californian editorial board published five op-eds from five students and former students, who uniformly believed the riot was justified.

I read the op-eds. That is an accurate summary. Here is one example:

In light of recent events, there has been a resurgence of the belief that in order for a protest to be effective, it must also be nonviolent. This belief especially plagues liberals, who are talented in drafting long Facebook posts about how they are down with the cause, but not really because windows were broken and some white nationalists got their asses beat. Here’s looking at you, Berkeley.

I’m here to explain to this particular segment of the “jolted from a coma, but went back to bed” crowd that they are wrong. Listen closely, because if I have to hear this flawed, problematic and deeply cowardly line of reasoning the next time some people invite a violent fascist-endorsing hate monger to UC Berkeley, we’re fighting.

From another op-ed, hilariously titled "Violence helped ensure safety of students":

Arguments on campus, on the other hand, revolve around students defying the acts the AntiFas  —  an anarchist and anti-fascist group that uses black bloc techniques to meet its ends  —  took that night. They want to ensure that there is a distinction between the rioters and the students who were there to protest peacefully. 

Well, I’m here to thank the radical measures the AntiFas took to ensure my safety.

Unfortunately for these psychos, the violent protests at Berkeley (which included such heartwarming acts of anti-fascist street justice as macing a woman wearing a Trump hat) caused pre-order sales of Milo's book to surge 12,740% overnight, making it once again the #1 Amazon bestseller.

Unfortunately for America, the violence and thundering lack of condemnation of it from the Democratic elite - which California-based Scott Adams has correctly described as the Democrats failing to "police their own ranks" - is pushing us closer to the brink of civil war.

Fortunately for America, we have been blessed with a POTUS who has a fucking pair of balls and isn't afraid to call out these vicious animals for what they are - and, it seems likely, TAKE ACTION to roll back their reign of terror:

If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view - NO FEDERAL FUNDS?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2017

It's safe to say that most Americans are behind him on this. Deny funding to the forces of anarchy and terror. Stop supporting and associating with the people who are tearing our country apart. That means you, and the federal government, and everyone who cares about protecting what remains of our sacred liberties.

Iran toning down the hate

IMAGINE MY SURPRISE to discover that the despots of Iran have decided to stage a kinder, gentler anti-America hatefest on this year's national holiday:

Iran marked its national holiday on Friday with nationwide rallies with far less of the usual vitriol for the United States, in what seemed a move calculated to avoid further inciting President Trump.

Many observers had expected Iranian leaders to take aim at Mr. Trump during rallies celebrating the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. 

The stacks of posters handed out by state organizations largely avoided mentions of Mr. Trump. Anti-American slogans, usually printed in English in the past for the international news media to see, were mostly in Persian. Most notably, there were no missiles on display, as had been customary in previous years, to show off Iran’s military capabilities. 

Tensions between the United States and Iran have surged in recent weeks, after Mr. Trump blocked citizens of Iran and six other predominantly Muslim nations from visiting the United States, and he called Iran “#1 in terror.” His national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, put the country “on notice” after it conducted a missile test late last month. 

There were examples of anti-American sentiment on view, however: [...] But given the size of the rally in Tehran, the usual anti-Americanism appeared less noticeable than in previous years. 

“Today’s rally shows that the government does not want any confrontation with the U.S.,” said Farshad Ghorbanpour, an analyst who is close to the government of President Hassan Rouhani. “Don’t be surprised, we have no interest with tensions.”

It's almost as if taking a hard line with avowed enemies, and acting scary and unpredictable... tends to strike the fear of Allah into said enemies, with a salubrious effect on their behavior? Hold on, someone from the Harvard Kennedy School is here to explain why I'm wrong.

As a side note, I love the phrase "to avoid further inciting President Trump." Just smile and nod, and back away slowly...

The punch heard round the world

We'd rather punch him in the face. Because we're "better"

Maybe I've had a few too many, but I'm starting to regard the sucker-punching of Richard Spencer last Friday as an epochal cultural moment. Before I explain what I mean by that (and why it's not completely insane and/or the whiskey talking), here's a bit of background courtesy of the Gray Lady:

Is it O.K. to punch a Nazi? 

That is not a brainteaser or a hypothetical question posed by a magazine on Twitter. It is an actual question bouncing around the internet after an attack on a well-known far-right activist, Richard B. Spencer, in Washington after the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as president on Friday. 

Mr. Spencer, who is credited with coining the term alt-right and describes himself as an “identitarian,” was punched in the head on Inauguration Day by a person clad in black as he was being interviewed by a journalist. At the time of the attack, Mr. Spencer was explaining the meaning of Pepe the Frog, a cartoon figure adopted as a mascot by the alt-right, a racist, far-right fringe movement that is anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic and anti-feminist. Video of the attack shows Mr. Spencer reeling to one side under the force of the blow and his attacker darting through a crowd after landing the punch.

Watch the video, and understand that someone could have been severely injured or even killed by that punch:

Video of @RichardBSpencer getting punched by protester. pic.twitter.com/zx0UAX0Yaj

— The Current Year (@TheeCurrentYear) January 20, 2017

So? Violence happens at large gatherings, especially when politics is involved. It's a part of life, inevitable, like the movement of the tectonic plates. There was plenty of other violence during the inauguration, committed by all shades of the political spectrum.

Conservatives rioting during the inauguration

Victim of angry Republican mob

Trump supporters expressing their dissatisfaction with the police

Right-wing activists attacking symbols of American capitalism

So the punch is par for the course, yawn, nothing to see here. What interests me is the reaction to it all over the internet, namely... laughter. What? Yes.

Ok, the meme is funny. And why should I give a shit about 66,000+ randos on the internet laughing at a guy getting punched in real life? I'll explain, but first this:

I don't care how many different songs you set Richard Spencer being punched to, I'll laugh at every one.

— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) January 21, 2017

Jon Favreau was Barack Obama's speechwriter from 2005 to 2013. In other words, he had the ear of the most powerful man in the world for five years. I'm not sure what he's up to today, but anyway he has a third of a million Twitter followers (a rough proxy measure of social influence). Favreau also made this fascinating comment:

@Cato_of_Utica @ablemansy I also didn't think breaking windows was the gravest problem we faced today or something we should flip out about

— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) January 21, 2017

Meh, just some mild politically motivated violence and property damage, nothing to see here...

And there's this from a journalist for Vulture.com (48K+ followers):

"If we punch Nazis in the face we're no better than they are."

Checking...

Yeah, we're still better.

— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) January 21, 2017

And this.

And this:

Newsweek apologized Tuesday for publishing a story that praised an assault on white nationalist Richard Spencer, who was punched on video on the day of Donald Trump's inauguration.

Newsweek published a since-deleted story titled, "The Infinite Joy of Watching a Nazi Get Punched to Music," by culture editor Joe Veix.

"On a day when many Americans were despairing over what they see as the transition of power to a fascist demagogue, it was a small moment of reprieve. It was possibly the first entertaining day on the internet since the election," Veix wrote.

You get the point, I hope. Now, out of morbid curiosity I read through many of the replies to Favreau's mocking tweet. The majority of them are either laughing along with Favreau, or outright defending the idea that it's cool to punch Nazis. It makes for an amazing study of human moral reasoning. The most common argument goes like this: "Normally I don't condone violence, but I'll make an exception for Nazis." There are a lot of people on the internet who share this exact view.

There is also the popular meme that punching Nazis is a heroic, all-American act. (Should I bother pointing out that the US in 2017 isn't a war zone and Spencer isn't a uniformed soldier of an enemy nation?)

Then you have the people who claim punching him only makes his movement stronger. In other words, it's wrong, but for tactical reasons. Not many people argue that assaulting Spencer is wrong because it's "wrong" or "illegal." Even the world's leading media organ shied away from this position, framing the issue as if there is a reasonable case to be made for sucker-punching Spencer. (Journalistic neutrality!)

This suggests that casual acceptance of extreme violence to make a point has become entrenched among a large segment of educated, liberal America. Ridiculous? Why? Consider if the reverse were true. The video of Spencer getting punched would trigger widespread condemnation, rather than mockery and ambivalence. If you doubt that, consider how Twitter would react to a video of a feminist getting sucker-punched at the Women's Marches. It's entirely possible that I'm drunk right now, but where's the hole in my logic?

Notice, I have not attempted to define, criticize, or defend Richard Spencer's views. Because that's 100% irrelevant. If you're googling Spencer's background to figure out how you feel about him getting slugged, you're already lost, there is nothing I can do for you. The only thing that matters is that Spencer was not breaking any laws, was not hurting anyone, and was not threatening anyone when a masked thug tried to educate him with his fist.

The reason I'm viewing the Punch Heard Round the World as a cultural inflection point is not so much that left-wing violence is a novelty in America. (Q: How many domestic terrorist bombings did the FBI record in 1970-71? A: More than 2,500. No, that's not a typo, see here and here for details. The Seventies were nuts.)

You might say it's as American as apple pie. No, the real game-changer will be the reaction from the right. If Spencer and the various factions and flavors of the right are learning any lesson from his very tactile encounter with the left, it is that the right's traditionally hands-off approach to political disputes may be a non-starter in 2017 and beyond, for the simple reason that it will eventually get them murdered.

So expect politics to start getting a bit crunchier over the next few years. And pour me another one.