President Trump's Address to Joint Session of Congress (VIDEO)

At the New York Times, "President Softens Tone in Outlining Goals: Hinting at a Shift in Immigration Policy, Before Sticking to Party Line in Speech."

And at Memeorandum, "Trump's Speech to Congress: Video and Transcript."

That address was spectacular. Best #JointAddress I can remember. #PresidentTrump

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) March 1, 2017

Emma Watson for Vanity Fair

At Drunken Stepfather, "EMMA WATSON NAUGHTY SHIRT OF THE DAY."

Feminist icon Emma Watson couldn't care less if she wins an Oscar https://t.co/9cqTM2hpIn

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) March 1, 2017

Back in Print: Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We?

I've blogged this book many times, but it was out of print for a while.

No longer. I guess there's increased demand in the age of making America great again.

At Amazon, Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity.

This is the book to read on American national identity.

America Must Lead

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former Prime Minister of Denmark and former NATO Secretary General, is the author of The Will to Lead: America's Indispensable Role in the Global Fight for Freedom.

He's got a great segment at Prager University:

Owen Wister, The Virginian

I picked up a copy.

Get yours at Amazon, The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains.

Also, The Virginian (Enriched Classics) Mass Market Paperback – Deluxe Edition.

Higher Education's Prejudice Problem

From Professor Glenn Reynolds, at USA Today (via Instapundit), "MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Higher ed’s prejudice problem: It’s bias against conservatives, Republicans and libertarians. But help may be on the way."

How Much Are Americans Willing to Pay for Open Immigration?

From the great George J. Borjas, the Robert W. Scrivner Professor of Economics and Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, at the New York Times:

.@MichelleMalkin The Immigration Debate We Need: #NoAmnesty #StopAmnesty #MAGA https://t.co/ycKkrIXoGT

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 27, 2017

#Oscars Got Fewer Viewers

Following-up, "Didn't Watch the #Oscars."

Well, turns out a lot of people didn't watch the Oscars.

At Bloomberg:

Despite a dramatic ending, the Oscars got fewer viewers than last year https://t.co/6BEX8k1EYk pic.twitter.com/zkKR5Zp8Ga

— Bloomberg (@business) February 27, 2017

That's because the #Oscars are out of touch with everyday, lunch-bucket Americans and traditional values. #BoycottOSCARS #AcademyAwards https://t.co/YyfGVaYd8K

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 27, 2017

Marloes Horst Sets Sail (VIDEO)

Via Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Eliot A. Cohen, Conquered Into Liberty

Okay, back to the frontier genre.

At Amazon, Eliot A. Cohen, Conquered Into Liberty: Two Centuries of Battles along the Great Warpath that Made the American Way of War.

#PresidentTrump: The Oscars 'Were Focused so Hard on Politics' They Could Not Get the Basics of the Ceremony Right

At Memeorandum.

"Trump, in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News in the Oval Office” https://t.co/BsRDltlILh

— Jon Passantino (@passantino) February 27, 2017

Impact Segment: Is Hatred on the Rise in America? (VIDEO)

I don't think so.

But see Roger Simon, via Instapundit, "Who's Behind the Latest Spate of Anti-Semitic Bomb Threats?"

And from Bill O'Reilly's "Impact Segment," featuring Charles Krauthammer:



Bonus Video: At CBS Evening News, "More Jewish Community Centers threats, cemetery vandalism amid FBI investigation."

Megan MacKenzie, Beyond the Band of Brothers

Here's something different to shake things up, heh.

From Professor Megan MacKenzie, Beyond the Band of Brothers: The U.S. Military and the Myth that Women Can't Fight.

the logistical gymnastics of #WomenInCombat trolls trying to discredit #Ranger women is blowing my mind. Band of Bros is over. Get over it.

— Megan H. MacKenzie (@MeganhMackenzie) January 20, 2017

Hot New Releases, Updated Hourly

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Plus, AmazonBasics Apple Certified Lightning to USB Cable - 3 Feet (0.9 Meters) - White.

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Real Good Coffee Co 2LB, Whole Bean Coffee, Donut Shop Medium Roast, 2 Pound Bag.

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Nature Valley Granola Bars, Crunchy, Oats and Honey, 12 Pouches - 1.5 oz, 2-Bars Per Pouch (Pack of 6).

Plus, Elmer's All Purpose School Glue Sticks, Clear, Washable, 4 Pack, 0.24-ounce sticks.

BONUS: Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future.

Backlash at Orange Coast College

Following up from December, "Olga Perez Stable Cox, Orange Coast College Professor, Flees the State After Death Threats (VIDEO)."

Caleb O’Neil, the student who video-d the professor, was disciplined; then came the backlash against the college, and rightly so.

At Instapundit, "BACKLASH CAN BE A GOOD THING: A student was punished for filming professor’s anti-Trump rant. Then came the backlash."

Didn't Watch the #Oscars

And I'm glad I didn't.

What, it was a two-hour Trump-trashing smut show, with a totally FUBAR best picture award mix-up at the end?

These leftist Hollywood elites get what the deserve.

Spoiled brat leftist #MerylStreep slams righteous #KarlLagerfeld. #Oscars #AcademyAwards https://t.co/cPIP7TMbzT

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 27, 2017

I'm not watching the #Oscars. #AcademyAwards https://t.co/qdoRqvXUbL

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 27, 2017

Not watching, for precisely this reason. But thank you Dana. #Oscars #AcademyAwards https://t.co/jp9lYL5ogg

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 27, 2017

Not for me. Not watching: "5 ways politics could steal the show at #Oscars." #AcademyAwards https://t.co/LqWwl9Yy8D

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 27, 2017

Lolz. So glad I tuned out the #Oscars. Looks like I was right: Totally FUBAR. #AcademyAwards https://t.co/Hm2jOUB887

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 27, 2017

The most politically correct movie won for best picture. Who'd have thunk it? #Oscars #AcademyAwards https://t.co/WZWnj8aGdX

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 27, 2017

'You had one job!': #Oscars flub engulfs accounting firm: #PwC https://t.co/BXmQooc1RC

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 27, 2017

#PricewaterhouseCoopers apologizes for #Oscars fail: #PwC https://t.co/IhHvopMkmr

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 27, 2017

This image sums up the end of the 89th Academy Awards pretty well https://t.co/g03MyJxRHT pic.twitter.com/XeQuQ4LuhB

— kcranews (@kcranews) February 27, 2017

Blanca Blanco

At Drunken Stepfather, "BLANCA BLANCO OSCAR NIGHT FLASH OF THE DAY."

Fergus Bordewich, Killing the White Man's Indian

My ultimate goal of all this reading on Native American history and the frontier West is to have a sound basis of rebuttal against the hateful leftists in my department who are expanding the curriculum, quite dramatically, to include Latin American and Indigenous studies. I'm not against that. What I'm against is one-sided indoctrination, which according to more than a few students, is quite rampant on my campus.

So, while I enjoy reading the general histories and more specialized (polemical and leftist) studies, my main hope is to develop my own curriculum and syllabi for courses on race, class, gender, and culture, because these things are coming down the pipeline ready or not. It's best practice to be able to serve all of our student demographics, not just the far-left, non-white constituencies who are being taught leftist revolutionary doctrines and hate-America ideologies.

In any case, here's a wonderful antidote: Fergus Bordewich, Killing the White Man's Indian: Reinventing Native Americans at the End of the Twentieth Century.

I'll have more later.

When America Opened Its Doors

I posted on A. Roger Ekirch on Saturday.

He's the author of American Sanctuary: Mutiny, Martyrdom, and National Identity in the Age of Revolution.

Kathleen DuVal, Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has a review.

At WSJ:

'Refugees were the ideal citizens for a republic." @KathleenADuVal _When America Opened its Doors_ #vastearlyamerica https://t.co/i0QVknRb9J pic.twitter.com/O69zu1svUq

— Karin Wulf (@kawulf) February 18, 2017

America’s founders—both its leaders and those protesting in the streets and fighting the British Army—saw immigrants as vital to the mission of the fledgling nation. The Declaration of Independence accused King George III of “obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners” and refusing “to encourage their migrations” into the colonies. To the Founders, the king’s restrictions on immigration were evidence of his desire to keep the colonies backward and under his thumb. In the newly independent United States, they firmly believed, immigration would accelerate economic development and help the country become a player among the powerful empires of Europe.

As A. Roger Ekirch’s deeply researched and elegantly written “American Sanctuary” reveals, early Americans saw the United States as a sanctuary for people oppressed by the old tyrannical governments of Europe. Refugees were the ideal citizens for a republic: Having fled tyranny, they would be a bulwark against it. And they came. Nearly 100,000 Europeans immigrated to the United States in the 1790s, a dramatic addition to a population that was just under four million at the start of the decade.

But when the French Revolution turned radical in the 1790s, some Americans began to worry. They feared that French as well as Irish immigrants would drag the new, still-fragile country into anarchy. Harrison Otis, a congressman from Massachusetts, gave a speech in which he railed that he did “not wish to invite hoards of wild Irishmen, nor the turbulent and disorderly of all parts of the world, to come here with a view to disturb our tranquility.” South Carolina Rep. Robert Goodloe Harper proposed getting rid of naturalized citizenship altogether. And from the beginning Congress limited naturalized citizenship to any “free white person.”

The war that broke out in 1793 between Britain and revolutionary France sparked the first great divide in American politics. Thomas Jefferson and others supported France, grateful for its help in defeating Britain in the American Revolution and for following the United States into revolution itself. But other Americans, including John Adams and George Washington, were aghast at French revolutionaries’ use of the guillotine and the Bastille. After Washington’s administration negotiated a treaty with the British in 1794 that struck supporters of France as too cozy, New Yorkers threw rocks at Alexander Hamilton. Some congressmen even talked of impeaching Washington.

Into this fractious debate about the place of the United States in the world came the bloodiest mutiny in the history of the British navy—a mutiny that forced Americans to decide if the country was truly a haven for lovers of liberty, even those who had killed for its sake.

Probably half of the HMS Hermione’s diverse crew had been “impressed”—meaning that the British navy had forced them from non-British private merchant ships into British service. On one day alone in 1795, sailors from the Hermione boarded 20 American ships, took nearly 70 crewmen (most of whom claimed American citizenship) and forced them into the British navy. On most ships of the era, impressed sailors grumbled but did not mutiny, but circumstances combined with the revolutionary times and a particularly cruel captain to push the Hermione’s crew over the edge. On the night of Sept. 21, 1797, off the coast of Puerto Rico, several of the crew charged into the captain’s cabin, brandishing swords and axes. After killing him, crew members searched the ship and killed all 10 officers.

Mr. Ekirch’s gripping and timely book both conveys the drama of this long-forgotten mutiny and reveals its importance to the early American republic. The first part of “American Sanctuary” tells the story of the mutiny, and the rest of the book traces the crisis it prompted—specifically when some of the mutineers from the HMS Hermione fled to the United States. Would Americans side with rebels against British tyranny, or with the rule of law on the high seas? Would the United States turn its back on Thomas Paine’s charge in “Common Sense” to be “an asylum for mankind” by extraditing mutineers to Britain?

The man that put all of these questions to the test called himself Jonathan Robbins. A little over a year after the mutiny, an American schooner docked at the port of Charleston with Robbins aboard. He had reportedly bragged to his shipmates that he had been one of the mutineers on the now-infamous Hermione. Charleston officials put him in jail, where an officer who had served on the Hermione prior to the mutiny visited him and declared that the man in the cell was in fact Thomas Nash, one of the mutiny’s leaders. After the British consul in Charleston requested the man’s extradition for court-martial, U.S. Secretary of State Timothy Pickering and President John Adams determined that this was a simple case of mutiny and murder on a British ship. With their approval, the man calling himself Robbins was handed over to British justice.

It was a huge political mistake...

Keep reading.

Robert W. Merry, A Country of Vast Designs

At Amazon, Robert W. Merry, A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent.

George Ciccariello-Maher

Remember how I've been saying that indigenous studies are the hippest of the far-left disciplines right now? Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is a revolutionary Marxist, and I suspect she's pretty much a model for those working in the genre.

Readers might recall how George Ciccariello-Maher got in trouble a while back for tweeting "All I want for Christmas is white genocide."

He's doubling down, it turns out, lol:

pic.twitter.com/jhkpg2W965

— George Ciccariello (@ciccmaher) February 26, 2017

And since I'm researching this stuff, here's his book, at Amazon, Decolonizing Dialectics.

Kristen Keogh's Rainy Forecast

It's raining today.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."




And at Theo's, "Cartoon Roundup..."

Cartoon Credit: A.F. Branco, "Trump Transgender Guidelines."

Lea Michele Rule 5

I'm behind on my Sunday Rule 5 blogging. I think books have been more sexy or something, heh.

Lea Michele In Hawaii (PHOTO GALLERY) https://t.co/YhKBIIPqAv

— TMZ (@TMZ) February 26, 2017

Check the Pirate's Cove, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup," and "If All You See……is a horrible evil world killing from carbon pollution dog, you might just be a Warmist."

Elite Daily, "Bella Hadid’s See-Through Dress Shows Off Her ENTIRE BODY."

Drunken Stepfather, "STEPLINKS OF THE DAY," and "DOVE CAMERON FOR GALORE OF THE DAY."

90 Miles from Tyranny, "Morning Mistress - Two For One!"

Bro-Bible, "Sexy Sara Underwood Strips Down and Gets Naked on Snapchat," and "Milana Vayntrub, the Hottie From the AT&T Commercials, Shows Off Some Excellent Cleavage at Oscars Pre-Party."

Plus, the Hostages, "Big Boob Friday."

From last week, at the Other McCain, "Rule 5 Sunday: Valentine’s Day Pinup Edition."

At Goodstuff's, "GOODSTUFFs BLOGGING MAGAZINE (282nd Issue) - Priscilla Presley."

Bill Paxton Has Died

From complications during surgery, I guess.

The first thing out of my mouth when I saw the headline was, "Oh my God!"

He was so young and vital. Only 61 years old.

I watched him in "Nightcrawler" on Netflix over the Christmas Holiday. He just seems too young.

At Memeorandum, "Bill Paxton — Dead at 61."

And TMZ:

#RIP Bill Paxton Dead at 61 https://t.co/Np1hdE9yZt

— TMZ (@TMZ) February 26, 2017

Candice Millard, Hero of the Empire

Now this is something to which I can relate.

At Amazon, Candice Millard, Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill.

Patrick Phillips, Blood at the Root

I'm just coming across this book.

It's intriguing, to say the least.

At Amazon, Patrick Phillips, Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America.

Forsyth County, Georgia, at the turn of the twentieth century was home to a large African American community that included ministers and teachers, farmers and field hands, tradesmen, servants, and children. Many black residents were poor sharecroppers, but others owned their own farms and the land on which they’d founded the county’s thriving black churches.

But then in September of 1912, three young black laborers were accused of raping and murdering a white girl. One man was dragged from a jail cell and lynched on the town square, two teenagers were hung after a one-day trial, and soon bands of white “night riders” launched a coordinated campaign of arson and terror, driving all 1,098 black citizens out of the county. In the wake of the expulsions, whites harvested the crops and took over the livestock of their former neighbors, and quietly laid claim to “abandoned” land. The charred ruins of homes and churches disappeared into the weeds, until the people and places of black Forsyth were forgotten.

National Book Award finalist Patrick Phillips tells Forsyth’s tragic story in vivid detail and traces its long history of racial violence all the way back to antebellum Georgia. Recalling his own childhood in the 1970s and ’80s, Phillips sheds light on the communal crimes of his hometown and the violent means by which locals kept Forsyth “all white” well into the 1990s.

Blood at the Root is a sweeping American tale that spans the Cherokee removals of the 1830s, the hope and promise of Reconstruction, and the crushing injustice of Forsyth’s racial cleansing. With bold storytelling and lyrical prose, Phillips breaks a century-long silence and uncovers a history of racial terrorism that continues to shape America in the twenty-first century.

ICYMI: Peter Cozzens, The Earth Is Weeping

I can't get to this one yet, but it looks great!

At Amazon, Peter Cozzens, The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West.

Henry Olsen, The Working Class Republican

*BUMPED.*

Excellent, excellent timing.

Available June 27th.

At Amazon, Henry Olsen, The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism.

Hot New Releases

At Amazon, Our Best-Selling New and Future Releases. Updated Hourly.

Also, GoPro HERO5 Black.

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More, from Adele, "25."

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Still more, Cafe Break-Resistant Plastic 20oz Restaurant-Quality Beverage Tumblers | Set of 16 in 4 Assorted Colors.

BONUS: Ellen Meiksins Wood, The Retreat From Class: A New True Socialism, and Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism.

Nigel Farage: 2016 Was the Beginning of a Great Global Revolution #CPAC2017 (VIDEO)

At Breitbart, via Memeorandum, "Farage at CPAC: 2016 Was the Beginning of a Great Global Revolution."

L.A. Kauffman, Direct Action

Not to neglect my radical reading, heh...

Here's L.A. Kauffman, at Amazon, Direct Action: Protest and the Reinvention of American Radicalism.

And check out the excerpt, "In 1971, the People Didn’t Just March on Washington — They Shut It Down."

In 1971, the People Didn’t Just March on Washington — They Shut It Down, from DIRECT ACTION by @LAKauffman https://t.co/SBP8F5Np9O pic.twitter.com/AOCHJkMvZA

— Verso Books (@VersoBooks) February 26, 2017

President Trump Won't Attend White House Correspondents' Dinner (VIDEO)

Hey, sounds like a plan.

In fact, the whole thing's going to be a dud this year. A number of sponsors have cancelled after-parties, and what not -- like Bloomberg.

I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 25, 2017

Added: At NPR, "Trump Will Be First President In 36 Years to Skip White House Correspondents Dinner."

George Rable, Damn Yankees!

Well, it's been a while since I've sparred with Stogie at Saber Point. Frankly, the dude's lost to the conspiracies of the Confederacy.

Heh, that whole Dylann Roof episode certainly was edifying. You see who's on the right side of history and all that.

In any case, I haven't come across this tome before, but it looks interesting. At Amazon, George Rable, Damn Yankees! Demonization and Defiance in the Confederate South.

And ICYMI, see Bruce Levine, The Fall of the House of Dixie: The Civil War and the Social Revolution That Transformed the South.

Natalie Portman's Post-Pregnancy Über Toplines

At Popoholic, "The Blond and Crazy Busty Natalie Portman is Back… Hoochie Mama!"

Shop Deals

*BUMPED."

At Amazon, Today's Deals.

Thanks for your support.

Here, KIND Breakfast Bars, Peanut Butter, Gluten Free, 1.8 Ounce, 32 Count.

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

Plus, Anders Stephanson, Manifest Destiny: American Expansion and the Empire of Right.

And, Amy S. Greenberg, Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion: A Brief History with Documents.

Alan Taylor, Colonial America: A Very Short Introduction.

More, Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848.

Gordon C. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815.

Still more, Robert M. Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1848-1865.

BONUS: Winston Groom, Kearny's March: The Epic Creation of the American West, 1846-1847.

Gregory D. Smithers, Native Diasporas

*BUMPED.*

Okay, keeping the balance between the mainstream frontier historians and the radical leftists, here's Gregory D. Smithers, Native Diasporas: Indigenous Identities and Settler Colonialism in the Americas.

PREVIOUSLY: Audra Simpson, Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States.

Gotta Keep Pluggin' on The Frontiersmen

This book's great!

Allan Eckert, The Frontiersmen: A Narrative.

See also, The Conquerors; Wilderness Empire: A Narrative; The Wilderness War; Gateway to Empire; and Twilight of Empire.

Gonna read for a while.

More blogging later!

Anne F. Hyde, Empires, Nations, and Families

This one's right in the era of interest I've been posting.

At Amazon, Anne F. Hyde, Empires, Nations, and Families: A New History of the North American West, 1800-1860.

Gordon S. Wood, The Idea of America

*BUMPED.*

I love this guy.

At Amazon, Gordon S. Wood, The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States.

Violence Breaks Out in Anaheim as Off-Duty Cop Scuffles with 13-Year-Old Boy (VIDEO)

Everything's going to be videotaped nowadays.

And a single off-duty cop would be having a hard time anyway, surrounded by a gang of young teenage hoodlums.

At the Los Angeles Times, "How an off-duty cop telling teens to stay out of his yard escalated to gunfire, protests and outrage":

⚡️ “Hundreds protest in #Anaheim after officer-teen confrontation” #TheOC https://t.co/ymp5kX8upm

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 23, 2017

The altercation on the tidy, suburban street in Anaheim apparently began with a complaint common in many neighborhoods: a group of teenagers walking through a neighbor’s yard on their way home from school.

But this seemingly mundane dispute spun out of control on West Palais Road on Tuesday when authorities say an off-duty Los Angeles police officer confronted the group. Other teenagers pulled out their cameras, filming the officer as he held a 13-year-old boy by the collar of his sweatshirt, trying to detain him.

The situation quickly escalated from there. At one point, another teen rushed the officer, sending him tumbling over a line of bushes. The officer then reached into his jeans and drew a gun, firing a single shot.

No one was hurt by the gunfire, which Anaheim police said was aimed at the ground. But footage of the encounter stirred uproar across the country, prompting criticism of the off-duty cop’s actions and questions over why investigators arrested two teenagers — but not the officer — at the scene.

As the video went viral Wednesday, more than 300 protesters took to the streets to protest the shooting. Police broke up the demonstration and arrested 23 people, but not before some vandalized the officer’s home.

The tension in Orange County’s largest city comes after several incidents in recent years in which Latino activists have protested police shootings that they felt unfairly targeted the city’s large Latino community. Many of the teens involved in Tuesday’s incident appeared to be Latino, and the officer appears to be white.

On Thursday, officials from both Anaheim and Los Angeles scrambled to calm the public’s concern.

“Like many, I am deeply disturbed and frankly angered by what it shows,” Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait said about the footage of the incident. “The video shows an adult wrestling with a 13-year-old kid and ultimately firing a gun. … It should never have happened.”

Anaheim police are investigating the altercation itself while the Los Angeles Police Department and Inspector General are conducting internal investigations into the officer’s actions.

The Los Angeles Police Commission will ultimately decide whether the officer violated any LAPD rules during the encounter.

“I am very interested in knowing the facts of the incident based on the investigation by the department and the Office of Inspector General that is underway,” said commissioner Cynthia McClain-Hill. “Some of the actions — brief as that exchange caught on video may be — do not properly represent what I believe should be expected and reflected by a member of the Los Angeles Police Department when engaging members of the public, be it on-duty or off-duty.”

The officer, whose name has not been released by authorities, was removed from the field, which is standard protocol after shootings by LAPD officers.

An attorney representing the officer, Larry Hanna, declined to discuss the encounter in detail, citing the ongoing investigations. He also declined to name his client or describe his work with the LAPD, saying he was concerned for his safety.

“All of this will come out,” he said. “I just think that people should let the investigators do their job.”

The union representing rank-and-file LAPD officers came out strongly against those who criticized the officer’s action...

More.

Making America Great Again

*BUMPED.*

From some cool Trump girl, on Inauguration Day:

1/20/2017 "We the People" pic.twitter.com/CDOrl8Cs2P

— 🌸TrumpGirl® (@Girl4Trump_) January 20, 2017

Godswill Forche

The vote for the new Democrat Party chair is due any moment, and my money's on Keith Ellison. What a joy it will be when he's selected. Talk about sealing the party's fate, heh.

This dude Godswill Forche, who's on Twitter, nails it:

#DNCFuture looks disastrous!. See what this African American man has to say about what has become of the Democratic Party. #CPAC2017 💯 👏🏾 pic.twitter.com/A5y8ccUfy9

— Deplorable Melissa (@sweetatertot2) February 24, 2017

President Trump Gets Warm Embrace at #CPAC2017 (VIDEO)

He skipped the conservative conclave last year, suggesting he'd be too radical for the right-wing mobs.

But he was welcomed like the king he is this year. What a blast.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Trump's popularity at CPAC gathering, which he shunned a year ago, shows how he's conquered conservatives":

Conservatives love Trump now b/c 'he has all the right enemies.' But how long this honeymoon? https://t.co/CQ5DoTAYbI @Noahbierman

— Marc Duvoisin (@MarcDuvoisin) February 24, 2017

A year ago, Donald Trump skipped the nation’s preeminent conference of conservatives, underscoring the friction between the populist candidate and many of the warring factions in his party during a heated presidential primary season.

Friday, Trump returned to the Conservative Political Action Conference with the blunt force of a conqueror, planting his brand of nationalist, anti-globalist populism like a flag.

His speech, with rhetoric that even Trump said would have been too controversial at the event even a year ago, marked his takeover of the conservative movement, one of several signs of his dominance throughout the conference, which also featured a rare and well-received speech from his chief intellectual influence and advisor, Stephen K. Bannon.

"There is no such thing as a global anthem, a global currency or a global flag," Trump said to great applause from thousands of conservatives. "I'm not representing the globe. I'm representing your country."

He echoed ideas he has espoused in the past — denouncing trade deals as the antithesis of "economic freedom," warning that Paris and other great cities of Europe have been ruined by mass immigration, criticizing Democratic and Republican presidents for their interventions in the Middle East.

Although many of the words were familiar, the venue and the passion made Friday's speech remarkable.

Trump spoke directly of his ambition to turn the GOP into "the party of the American worker."

"I'm here today to tell you what this movement means for the future of the Republican Party and for the future of America," Trump said. "The core conviction of our movement is that we are a nation that [must] put and will put its own citizens first."

While Trump tried to unite conservatives, the speech made little effort to bridge the country's larger political divide. For example, Trump dismissed people who have shown up at town halls around the country to protest reversal of Obamacare.

"They're not you. They're largely — many of them are the side that lost," he said.

The visuals around the waterfront conference outside Washington were just as striking: the red “Make America Great Again” caps, the throngs of college Republicans surrounding Trump’s aides and allies, the giant Trump-decorated pickup truck at the convention center entrance.

As he has repeatedly done in the last couple of weeks, Trump attacked the media for what he sees as unfair coverage. He also showed how much he remembers the details of how his campaign was described in the press, at one point praising The Times for its election tracking poll that consistently showed him leading.

“I must say Los Angeles Times did a great job — shocking,” he said. “A couple polls got it right.”

In reality, the USC Dornsife/L.A. Times “Daybreak” tracking poll overstated Trump’s support, although it did correctly pick up the backing he was getting from disaffected white voters, many of whom had sat out the 2012 election.

Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist and the former executive chairman of Breitbart News, an outlet that has presented itself as a voice of the white nationalist alt-right movement, joked a day earlier as he sat down for a marquee event about how far he had come.

He used to hold a competing event called “Uninvited” for conservatives whose philosophies were considered too radical for the conference, Bannon said at a panel featuring him and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.

Bannon reveled in his newfound influence as the conference organizer interviewed him in front of thousands of people.

He praised Priebus, the former GOP chairman, another indication of how the mainstream of the party has come into Trump’s fold. But both men made clear that Bannon was the dominant force in shaping Trump’s vision.

Bannon spoke about defending his notion of American culture and lashed out against the “corporatist, globalist media” standing in the way of Trump’s “economic nationalist agenda.”

“If you think they're going to give you your country back without a fight," he said. "You are sadly mistaken.”

“We're at the top of the first inning of this,” Bannon said near the end of his remarks. “We want you to have our back.”

Conference organizers seemed to have gotten the message.

Breitbart News owns the first booth by the entrance of the convention hall, hawking “Border Wall Construction Company” T-shirts...

Keep reading.

The New Nationalism in America

From Matthew Continetti, at Free Beacon:

The New Nationalism in America: How conservatism is changing in the Trump era https://t.co/ytTqhBYbTx via @continetti pic.twitter.com/GtJZRFZkCi

— Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) February 24, 2017

FLASHBACK: "The Political Establishment's Terrified by Donald Trump's 'Tangible American Nationalism'."

Eduardo Kohn, How Forests Think

Put this one on the gift lists for your tree-hugging, vision-quest enviro-leftist family members.

From Eduardo Kohn, How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human.

Jill Lepore, The Name of War

*BUMPED.*

Here's another one I'm gonna pick up.

I can't wait to read it.

At Amazon, The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity.

'TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME: It's Really a Thing...'

Heh.

At Instapundit, "'In her 35 years as a therapist, Arlene Drake has never heard so many clients talking about the same issue. Week after week, they complain of panic attacks and insomnia because of President Trump. They’re too anxious to concentrate at work. One woman’s fear turned into intense, physical pain'."

I think folks should just tune it out, live life. Read a book or something. Go to the movies. Go swimming. Have a glass of wine and talk to your kids. Sheesh. I teach politics for a living. I know there's lots more to life than stressing over the president.

Leftist Democrats Forcibly Remove Republican Sen. Janet Nguyen, a Vietnamese Refugee, from Floor of California Senate Over Tom Hayden Criticism (VIDEO)

Following-up from earlier, as if on cue, "Julie Roginsky Slams Communist and Nazi Slurs (VIDEO)."

It's no enemies on the left for Democrats. The late Tom Hayden was a traitor and Democrat (I repeat myself) who traveled to Hanoi with Jane Fonda to support the Communist North Vietnamese over the the U.S.-backed regime in South Vietnam. California Senate Democrats weren't going to allow an elected Republican, and a refugee from the war, to say a honest word about their comrade.

At the Los Angeles Times, "A state senator is removed from the chamber for her comments about Tom Hayden and Vietnam. (Via Althouse.)

Here's the video and statement, "An Adjournment in Memory of Fallen Vietnamese And Refugees Seeking Freedom and Democracy":

Dear Senators and the People:

I and the children of the former South Vietnam soldiers will never forget the support of former Senator Tom Hayden for the Communist government of Vietnam and the oppression by the Communist Government of Vietnam for the people of Vietnam.

After 40 years, the efforts by people like him have hurt the people of Vietnam and have worked to stop the Vietnamese refugees from coming to the United States, a free country. We will always continue to fight for freedom and human rights for the people of Vietnam.

Members, I recognize today in memory of the million of Vietnamese and the hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees who died seeking freedom and democracy. I recognize that on Tuesday you had an opportunity to honor Senator Tom Hayden. With all due respect, I would like to offer another historical perspective.

On Tuesday, instead of participating, I chose to step out of the chamber out of respect to his family, his friends and to you. In contrast to your comments on Tuesday, I want to share what Senator Hayden meant to me and to the over 500,000 Vietnamese Americans who call California their home, as well as to the over 1 million Vietnamese Americans across the United States.

As you may be aware, Tom Hayden chose to work directly with the Communist North Vietnamese Government to oppose the efforts of United States forces in South Vietnam.

Mr. Hayden sided with a communist government that enslaved and/or killed millions of Vietnamese, including members of my own family. Mr. Hayden’s actions are viewed by many as harmful to democratic values and hateful towards those who sought the very freedoms on which this nation is founded.

Were it not for the efforts of the thousands of men and women who served bravely in the United States military and the South Vietnamese military, as well as the efforts of millions of Vietnamese citizens who resisted the communists, I would not be standing here on this Senate floor humbly representing the residents of the 34th District.

In addition to the sacrifices made during war, the efforts of President Ronald Reagan in the 1980’s allowed many Vietnamese like me to seek refuge in the United States.

In contrast to the great many people who fought to defend freedom and democracy, Mr. Hayden supported a Communist agenda and traveled to North Vietnam during the war.

He believed that those who protested the human-rights violations of the Communists were tools of the CIA. It is known that he believed that the war was a conflict between Imperialism, led by the United States and the “free” people of North Vietnam. Former Senator Hayden was profoundly wrong in his support of the Communists.

Members, to this day, the government of Vietnam continues to violate the basic human rights of its citizens. They systematically continue to oppress freedoms of expression, religion and assembly and incarcerate those who speak out for freedom and democracy.

Thank you for allowing me to make my comments. I proudly stand before you as a Vietnamese-American who appreciates the freedoms that so many around the world do not enjoy.

Today's Shopping

At Amazon, Today's Deals.

Thanks for your support.

Also, Chris Crass, Chris Dixon, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Towards Collective Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building Strategy.

And, S.C. Gwynne, Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History.

More, Vine Deloria, Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto.

Robert M. Utley, High Noon in Lincoln: Violence on the Western Frontier.

Plus, Jolie Anderson Gallagher, A Wild West History of Frontier Colorado: Pioneers, Gunslingers & Cattle Kings on the Eastern Plains.

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

A. Roger Ekirch, American Sanctuary

*BUMPED.*

Just out yesterday, this book looks awesome.

A. Roger Ekirch, American Sanctuary: Mutiny, Martyrdom, and National Identity in the Age of Revolution.

Eugenie Bouchard Hits Back at Trolls After Posing for Sports Illustrated (VIDEO)

At Yahoo, "Eugenie Bouchard brilliantly hits back at trolls."

Also, at WWTDD, "Eugenie Bouchard Unexpected Haters."

Nina Agdal Maxim Cover Girl March 2017 (VIDEO)

She's totally hot.

Following-up, "Nina Agdal is Maxim's Cover Girl for March 2017."



FLASHBACK: At WWTDD, "Nina Agdal Topless."

Hailey Clauson Intimates Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2017 (VIDEO)

At Sports Illustrated:

Julie Roginsky Slams Communist and Nazi Slurs (VIDEO)

This is good, although it'd be important to point out that the left's longtime motto has been "no enemies on the left." The Communist Party USA endorsed Barack Obama, as did Fidel Castro. And there was no outcry in the mass media for Obama to repudiate the endorsements. But OMGosh, if David Duke, or some loser National Socialist fever-swam idiot, says a good word about Donald Trump, we're automatically back in the Third Reich. So, yes. Back off the Communist and Nazi analogies. But be honest when they're also perfectly appropriate when talking about hardcore leftist Democrats, like Bernie Sanders, who ran last year as an unreconstructed Marxist.

What's Behind Russia's Alleged Meddling in the 2016 Election

There's no actual evidence that Russia influences the election. Every New York Times report about this so-called scandal includes a disclaimer that there's no proof of Russian interference. It is, of course, the fact that hammered, heartbroken leftists have had to glom onto something, anything, to give them some kind of excuse for their epic failures. Especially their failure of nominating Crooked Hillary Clinton. And these excuses have been accompanied by the most extreme and fanatical political hatred I've ever seen. Radical leftists are your enemies. They've told you an untold number of times before and after the election. So when you read reports like this, from Evan Osnos, David Remnick, and Joshua Yaffa, at the New Yorker, just consider it counter-intelligence against the bad guys. The bad guy in the "enemedia," as the heroic Pamela Geller has called them.

See, "Annals of Diplomacy: Trump, Putin, and the New Cold War."

Trump, Putin, and the new Cold War: https://t.co/f6B9fbTLXC pic.twitter.com/lEBySWGTpK

— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) February 24, 2017

Thanks to the Reader Who Bought Max Hastings, Overlord

Hey, I appreciate it --- and great book!

Here, Max Hastings, Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy.

Conversation with Stephen Bannon and Reince Priebus, #CPAC2017 (VIDEO)

This was the big story last night, at CBS Evening News, "Steve Bannon attacks media, touts Trump in rare public appearance."

But you can watch it in full, via the American Conservative Union's YouTube page:



President Trump spoke this morning, the first time a sitting president's spoken to the group since President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

More at Pajamas, "Bannon: Trump 'Maniacally Focused' on Executing Campaign Agenda."

Shop

At Amazon, Today's Deals.

Thanks for your support.

I'll be back blogging tonight and throughout the weekend.

BONUS: A.J.P. Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War.

Also, Winston S. Churchill, The Gathering Storm (The Second World War, Vol. 1).

Who Was Paul Revere?

Seems like such a central historical figure, but hey, our culture's messed up, starting with the public education system.

Here's Eric Metaxas, for Prager University:



And ICYMI, buy his book, If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty.

Police Chase Rogue Bull Escaping Slaughterhouse in New York (VIDEO)

Must have been a rough ordeal for the guy.

At Fox News 8 Cleveland, "Bull escapes New York slaughterhouse, but dies en route to animal sanctuary."

David E. Bernstein, Lawless

At Amazon, David E. Bernstein, Lawless: The Obama Administration's Unprecedented Assault on the Constitution and the Rule of Law.

BONUS: Bernstein, Rehabilitating Lochner: Defending Individual Rights against Progressive Reform.

Elizabeth Brown Pryor, Six Encounters with Lincoln

I've been talking up President Lincoln for the last three weeks (in my American government classes).

This book looks great.

At Amazon, Elizabeth Brown Pryor, Six Encounters with Lincoln: A President Confronts Democracy and Its Demons.

President Trump Rolls Back Obama's Perverted 'Transgender' Student Bathroom Regulations

At the Los Angeles Times, "Trump administration rescinds guidelines on protections for transgender students."

Trump administration rescinds guidelines on protections for transgender students https://t.co/v6IGLFsmgx pic.twitter.com/Yb4JNTVmh1

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) February 23, 2017

FLASHBACK: "How Gender Dysphoric Bathroom Access Became the Next Frontier in America's Culture Wars."

Emily Ratajkowski Hacked Nude Photos

Well, it was bound to happen.

And it's not like Ms. Emily didn't know it.

At the Sun U.K., "EM NUDE PICS SCAM: Emily Ratajkowski’s iCloud is ‘targeted again as nude images of the model’ are touted for sale- More private pictures of Emily have allegedly been stolen from her iCloud by hackers."

Emily Ratajkowski’s iCloud is ‘targeted again as personal nude images of the model appear online’ https://t.co/RMOm4PLS2r pic.twitter.com/m58VmleUeJ

— The Scottish Sun (@ScottishSun) February 19, 2017

And at the Adult Blog, "45 Leaked Emily Ratajkowski Nudes Plus 3 Rude Rumors."

Steven F. Hayward, Patriotism Is Not Enough

Out yesterday, at Amazon, Steven F. Hayward, Patriotism Is Not Enough: Harry Jaffa, Walter Berns, and the Arguments that Redefined American Conservatism.

Tom Nichols, The Death of Expertise

*BUMPED.*

He's a professor at the Naval War College.

At Amazon, Tom Nichols, The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters.

Ben Garrison Toasts Marine Le Pen

Following-up from early today, "Marine Le Pen Wins Over Women Voters Who Feel Left Behind in France."

Here's Ben Garrison:

#LePen is Mightier than the Sword -New #BenGarrison #cartoon #frenchelection #Brexit #Islam #Veil #ImWithHer https://t.co/Oj98iIxEAZ pic.twitter.com/ZxdVsj2YA8

— BenGarrison Cartoons (@GrrrGraphics) February 22, 2017

Irvine's Teresa Johnston, 13, in Coma After Tree Falls on Her During Storm (VIDEO)

She needs your prayers.

At the Los Angeles Times, "13-year-old girl in coma after being hit by falling tree during storm."

Douglas A. Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name

The best book on Jim Crow segregation is Leon Litwack, Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow.

But I've been seeing a lot more of Douglas Blackmon's book recently, given the current polarizing environment, so I suspect I should take a look.

At Amazon, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II.

ICYMI: Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns

At Amazon, Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration.

Antony Beevor, Ardennes 1944

He's a prodigious historian.

At Amazon, Antony Beevor, Ardennes 1944: The Battle of the Bulge.

Samantha Hoopes Uncovered for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2017 (VIDEO)

Via Theo Spark:

Westworld's Angela Sarafyan Wears Risqué Sheer Panel Dress Without Underwear for Vanity Fair and L'Oreal's Toast to Young Hollywood Party in Los Angeles

At London's Daily Mail, "You're Sheer-ly Not Serious! Westworld's Angela Sarafyan Goes Without Underwear Beneath See-Through Panel Dress at Hollywood Bash."

Shop Amazon Today

Thanks for supporting the blog!

Here, at Amazon, Today's Deals.

Also, Biofreeze Pain Relieving Gel - 4 Ounce Tube - Pack of 4.

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

BONUS: Nick Adams, Retaking America: Crushing Political Correctness.

Trump Administration Outlines Plans for Sweeping Deportations of Illegal Aliens

Following-up, "Katie Pavlich: #Democrats Use Illegal Immigration to Stoke Fear."

At USA Today, "Homeland Security unveils sweeping plan to deport undocumented immigrants."

Katie Pavlich: #Democrats Use Illegal Immigration to Stoke Fear

Katie's cool.

Marine Le Pen Wins Over Women Voters Who Feel Left Behind in France

She's awesome.

At Bloomberg.

And at Blazing Cat Fur, "Marine Le Pen Refuses to Cover Herself for Muslim Poobah."

Audra Simpson, Mohawk Interruptus

*BUMPED.*

I'm telling you, the literature on Native Americans is among the most radical scholarship you'll find.

FWIW, at Amazon, Audra Simpson, Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States.

Professor Simpson's posted a link to the book's introduction on her faculty homepage.

'Feminist Witchcraft,' Mental Illness and the Demonic Dangers of the Occult

At the Other McCain.

'None Dare Call it Treason'

Actually, the first couple of chapters are chilling. It really hits home. John Stormer might as well have explaining Obama's America and the left's glorification of Islam.

Here, None Dare Call it Treason.

I have a copy. It's not "fake news."

A 1964 book claiming that communists had infiltrated all levels of government was that era's version of fake news https://t.co/V1K2wG4uCp

— NYT Metro Desk (@NYTMetro) January 11, 2017

Iceland, Where Murders Are Rare

But where this woman's disappearance has gripped the nation.

At NYT:

Killing of a young woman grips Iceland https://t.co/zDW0ZJE5w1

— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 24, 2017

Never Trumpers Continue to Subvert Trump's Presidency

I want to get to Milo's resignation from Breitbart, and the debate on its causes, which is mind-boggling. But I'm tired from a long day. I promise to post on it later. (But see David Horowitz for now, in any case, "The Right Throws Milo to the Wolves: Why the Left Dominates the National Culture." Interesting that I wrote yesterday that "the left's fingerprints are all over this." The "right" is morphing into the "left.")

Meanwhile, here's VDH, "Seven Days in February":

Trumps’ critics, left and right, aim to bring about the cataclysm they predicted.

A 1964 political melodrama, Seven Days in May, envisioned a futuristic (1970s) failed military cabal that sought to sideline the president of the United States over his proposed nuclear-disarmament treaty with the Soviets.

Something far less dramatic but perhaps as disturbing as Hollywood fiction played out this February.

The Teeth-Gnashing of Deep Government

Currently, the political and media opponents of Donald Trump are seeking to subvert his presidency in a manner unprecedented in the recent history of American politics. The so-called resistance among EPA federal employees is trying to disrupt Trump administration reform; immigration activists promise to flood the judiciary to render executive orders inoperative.

Intelligence agencies had earlier leaked fake news briefings about the purported escapades of President-elect Trump in Moscow — stories that were quickly exposed as politically driven concoctions. Nearly one-third of House Democrats boycotted the Inauguration. Celebrities such as Ashley Judd and Madonna shouted obscenities to crowds of protesters; Madonna voiced her dreams of Trump’s death by saying she’d been thinking a lot about blowing up the White House.

But all that pushback was merely the clownish preliminary to the full-fledged assault in mid February.

Career intelligence officers leaked their own transcripts of a phone call that National Security Advisor–designate Michael Flynn had made to a Russian official.The media charge against Flynn was that he had nefariously talked to higher-ups in Russia before he took office. Obama-administration officials did much the same, before Inauguration Day 2009, and spoke with Syrian, Iranian, and Russian counterparts. But they faced no interference from the outgoing Bush administration.

No doubt the designated security officials of most incoming administrations do not wait until being sworn in to sound out foreign officials. Most plan to reset the policies of their predecessors. The question, then, arises: Why were former Obama-administration appointees or careerist officials tapping the phone calls of an incoming Trump designate (and Trump himself?) and then leaking the tapes to their pets in the press? For what purpose?

Indeed, Trump’s own proposed outreach to Russia so far is not quite of the magnitude of Obama’s in 2009, when the State Department staged the red-reset-button event to appease Putin; at the time, Russia was getting set to swallow the Crimea and all but absorb Eastern Ukraine. Trump certainly did not approve the sale of some 20 percent of North American uranium holdings to Russian interests, in the quid pro quo fashion that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did, apparently in concert with Bill Clinton and the Clinton Foundation — and to general indifference of both the press and the intelligence community.

In addition, the Wall Street Journal reported last week that career intelligence officers have decided to withhold information from the president, on the apparent premise that he is unfit, in their view, to receive it. If true, that disclosure would mean that elements of the federal government are now actively opposing the duly elected president of the United States. That chilling assessment gains credence from the likelihood that the president’s private calls to Mexican and Australian heads of state were likewise recorded, and selected segments were leaked to suggest that Trump was either trigger-happy or a buffoon.

Oddly, in early January, Senator Charles Schumer had essentially warned Trump that he would pay for his criticism of career intelligence officials. In an astounding shot across his bow, which was followed up by an onslaught in February, Schumer said: “Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you. . . . So even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he’s being really dumb to do this.”

Schumer was evidently not disturbed about rogue intelligence agencies conspiring to destroy a shared political enemy — the president of the United States. What surprised him was how naïve Trump was in not assessing the anti-constitutional forces arrayed against him.

Trump-Removal Chic

The elite efforts to emasculate the president have sometimes taken on an eerie turn. The publisher-editor of the German weekly magazine Zeit raised the topic on German television of killing Trump to end the “Trump catastrophe.” So did British Sunday Times columnist India Knight, who tweeted, “The assassination is taking such a long time.” A former Obama Pentagon official, Rosa Brooks, recently mused about theoretical ways to remove Trump, including a military coup, should other avenues such as impeachment or medically forced removal fail: “The fourth possibility is one that until recently I would have said was unthinkable in the United States of America: a military coup, or at least a refusal by military leaders to obey certain orders.”

The Atlantic now darkly warns that Trump is trying to create an autocracy. Former Weekly Standard editor in chief Bill Kristol suggested in a tweet that if he faced a choice (and under what surreal circumstances would that happen?) between the constitutionally, democratically elected president and career government officials’ efforts to thwart or remove him, he would come down on the side of the revolutionary, anti-democratic “deep state”: “Obviously strongly prefer normal democratic and constitutional politics. But if it comes to it [emphasis added], prefer the deep state to the Trump state.” No doubt some readers interpreted that as a call to side with anti-constitutional forces against an elected U.S. president.

Hollywood stars such as Meryl Streep equate the president with brownshirts and assorted fascists. A CNN reporter announced that Trump was Hitlerian; another mused about his plane’s crashing. Prominent conservative legal scholar Richard Epstein recently called for Trump to resign after less than a month in office, largely on grounds that Trump’s rhetoric is unbridled and indiscreet — although Epstein cited no indictable or impeachable offenses that would justify the dispatch of a constitutionally elected president. Earlier, Republican columnists David Frum and Jennifer Rubin had theorized that the 25th Amendment might provide a way to remove Trump from office as unfit to serve. The New Republic published an unfounded theory, based on no empirical evidence, alleging that Trump suffers from neurosyphilis and thus is mentally not up to his office.

Former president Barack Obama — quite unlike prior presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush, who all refrained from attacking their successors — is now reportedly ready to join the efforts of a well-funded political action committee to undermine the Trump presidency...

It's sickening.

I don't recognize American politics anymore. I don't recognize my country anymore.

But thank goodness for decent, clear-thinking people like VDH.

Keep reading.