Hot New Releases

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

Also, GoPro HERO5 Black.

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

More, from Adele, "25."

Glad Tall Kitchen Drawstring Trash Bags, 13 Gallon, 90 Count, (Packaging May Vary).

Here, 2 Pounds Unroasted Coffee Beans, Premium Select from RhoadsRoast Coffees (Brazil Cerrado Arabica - Natural 17/18 Screen Coffee Beans, 2 Pounds Unroasted Green Beans).

JanSport Big Student Classics Series Backpack - Forge Grey.

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.

Shop Today's Deals!

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Today's Deals.

And, Amazon Echo - Black.

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

Also, Bernard Bailyn, The Origins of American Politics.

The Most Politically Dangerous Book

It's Nikolai Chernyshevsky, What Is to Be Done?

The most politically dangerous book you’ve never heard of https://t.co/urHQbA9z61 via @POLITICOMag pic.twitter.com/k6hCeijH2A

— POLITICO (@politico) December 12, 2016

Cuirasse du Carabinier — Waterloo

Here's the story, "Cuirass with Cannon-Ball Hole":

Armour of a cuirasse du carabinier holed by a cannonball at the battle of Waterloo pic.twitter.com/TBJ7rGPIVf

— History In Pictures (@historyepics) January 15, 2017

This is a French cuirass, a breastplate worn as body armour by French cavalry. The hole is from a British cannonball that smashed through the unlucky soldier’s chest. The Waterloo campaign was the first occasion that British troops found themselves face to face with Napoleon’s armoured cavalry, whose cuirasses and metal helmets made them a daunting foe.

Yet as the British would discover, even these armoured troopers were by no means invincible as this breastplate brings home with shocking force.

More.

'Alexa, stop!'

At WSJ, "Alexa, Stop Making Life Miserable for Anyone With a Similar Name!":

“I always liked my name, until Amazon gave it to a robot.” https://t.co/w5mG5rsj0A

— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) January 27, 2017

“Alexa, stop!” Joanne Sussman screamed in her living room.

Immediately, the computer living inside her Amazon Echo speaker stopped playing her favorite music station. Simultaneously, Mrs. Sussman’s 24-year-old daughter, Alexa, froze on the stairs.

“What, mom? I’m taking the laundry down,” human Alexa shouted back. “What do you need?”

“I always liked my name, until Amazon gave it to a robot,” says Alexa Sussman, a recent New York University graduate who works in marketing.

The artificial-intelligence invasion is upon us, in the form of disembodied personal assistants we can give orders to, query and, in some cases, try to converse with. In hopes of getting us used to our new artificially intelligent family members, the technology companies behind them have given the machines mostly female names to go with their soothing voices.

Apple Inc. picked “Siri.” Microsoft Corp. chose “Cortana.” ( Alphabet Inc.’s Google opted to keep its software nonhuman, calling it “Assistant.”) Amazon.com Inc.’s choice, as it happens, was the 39th most popular girl’s name in the U.S. in 2006. That means in some homes the plan has backfired: The effort to make a gadget more humanlike has earned it human enemies.

In the Sussmans’ household in Levittown, N.Y., the confusion cuts both ways. Last week, when human Alexa’s father, Dean, asked her to grab some water from the kitchen, Amazon’s Alexa wanted to help, too. “Amazon’s choice for water is Fiji Natural Artesian Water, pack of 24. It’s $27.27, including tax. Would you like to buy it?”

When he told his daughter to move the living-room chair, Amazon’s Alexa yelped, “Ready to pair!” Robo-Alexa had a command for Mr. Sussman himself: “Go to the Bluetooth devices on your mobile device.”

The microphones in the $180 Amazon Echo and the smaller $50 Echo Dot are always listening for “Alexa,” which is their default “wake word,” the phrase causing it to start paying attention to commands. Amazon lets users change the wake word to “Echo,” “Amazon,” or, starting this week, “computer.”

But many users aren’t aware. The Sussmans found out about the setting a year after buying the device. They have decided to keep “Alexa” because they say they find it funny.


Amazon has sold more than 11 million Echos and Dots since 2015, Morgan Stanley estimates, and it is working with partners to put Alexa into other products, including Ford Motor Co. cars and General Electric Co. lamps.

Some human Alexas want nothing to do with her.

“Oh, your name is Alexa, like the Amazon thing?” Alexa Duncan, 33, says she hears all too often these days. She refuses to buy the Echo.

Amazon says it named its Alexa after the ancient Egyptian Library of Alexandria. The company hasn’t offered any formal apologies to the human Alexas.

Michelle Malkin Slams the Media's Thin-Skinned Reaction to Being Called the Enemy (VIDEO)

From Hannity's last night:

ICYMI: Scott Greer, No Campus for White Men

At Amazon, No Campus for White Men: The Transformation of Higher Education into Hateful Indoctrination.

The Screwed Generation Turns Socialist

This is one of the best reasons we have Donald Trump. He repudiates these losers like nothing. Besides, conservatism is the new counter-culture. These idiot socialist progs are uncool.

From Joel Kotkin, at the Daily Beast, "The Depression and WWII shaped the greatest generation, and postwar prosperity shaped the Baby Boomers. Millennials, battered by capitalism, move ever leftward":

Roughly half of Millennials have positive feelings about socialism, twice the rate of the previous generation https://t.co/ofqRdNCJpD

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) February 19, 2017

Increasingly American politics are driven by generational change. The election of Donald Trump was not just a triumph of whiter, heartland America. It also confirmed the still considerable voting power of the older generation. Yet over time, as those of us who have lived long enough well know, generations decline, and die off, and new ones ascend.

In this past election, those over 45 strongly favored Trump, while those younger than that cast their ballots for Clinton. Trump’s improbable victory, and the more significant GOP sweep across the country, demonstrated that the much-ballyhooed millennials simply are not yet sufficiently numerous or united enough to overcome the votes of the older generations.

Yet over time, the millennials—arguably the most progressive generation since the ’30s—could drive our politics not only leftward, but towards an increasingly socialist reality, overturning many of the very things that long have defined American life. This could presage a war of generations over everything from social mores to economics and could well define our politics for the next decade...

Hey, bring it on, lol.

And keep reading.

Playboy Playmate Elizabeth Elam (VIDEO)

Following-up from last week, "Playboy Magazine to Bring Back Nude Women."

Watch, "What Turns on March Playmate Elizabeth Elam?"

Milo Yiannopoulos Crashes

Well, I guess it was inevitable.

Milo's a modern Icarus who tried to fly too high and far, only to meltdown amid the onslaught of the politically correct masses.

Here's the second of his two Facebook posts today, attempting to save face (and save his career). Alas, the fury over his pedophilia comments is just too ferocious. See, "I am a gay man, and a child abuse victim" (at Memeorandum). And his earlier attempt at contrition, "A note for idiots (UPDATED)."

Not only has CPAC disinvited him, but Simon & Schuster cancelled his book contract. And if he gets the boot from Breitbart, which website staffers are pushing, it'll be the fastest fall of a political iconoclast I can remember.

Milo says he does not support pedophilia. https://t.co/8g2Q5klGw9

— Heat Street (@heatstreet) February 20, 2017

Simon & Schuster Cancels Milo Yiannopoulos's Book. Our full story. https://t.co/eDwpnx3qEf

— Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly) February 20, 2017

And believe me, the left's fingerprints are all over this. See, Conservative Treehouse, "It’s Not About Milo – It’s About The Existential Threat That Milo Represents…"

Robert M. Utley, The Indian Frontier, 1846-1890

Here's another traditional historian worth a read.

See Robert M. Utley, at Amazon, The Indian Frontier, 1846-1890.

Also, Robert M. Utley, Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indian, 1866-1891.

Far-Left Michelle Goldberg Says of the Trump Administration: 'It's Bad'

Years ago, I read Michelle Goldberg's book, The Means of Reproduction, and was horrified. She's about as far-left as you can be while still declaiming adherence to communism (as she does). And because of that background, anything of Goldberg's is automatically suspect. She's frankly a nutjob IMHO.

In any case, make what you want of this. Naturally, I think Trump's been about as awesome as you can get, for precisely the actions that have people like Goldberg pulling their hair out. Trump takes it to the left, and for that he's rightly considered a savior of our country.

So, FWIW, at Slate, "The First Month of Trump’s Presidency Has Been More Cruel and Destructive Than the Majority of Americans Feared." (Via Maggie's Farm and Memeorandum.)

https://t.co/ahgP88gDkf #PresidentsDay

— Michelle Goldberg (@michelleinbklyn) February 20, 2017

Allan Eckert, The Frontiersmen

Following-up from my last entry, "Hampton Sides, Blood and Thunder."

This is the kind of "heroism, ingenuity, and perseverance" I was talking about. See Allan Eckert, The Frontiersmen: A Narrative.

Eckert published a whole series of books, called "The Narratives of America."

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

The point here is balance. I actually enjoy reading the radical leftist diatribes against racist, hegemonic "settler colonialism." It's just you need to have the intellectual firepower to fight back against the leftist haters. They're mostly communist who want a revolutionary destruction of the American regime. A lot of them (if not all of them) are simply exploiting the tragic Native American narrative for their own nihilist designs. So, again, just keep an open mind, read widely, and then hammer them back mercilessly when you have to.

(I'm going to read and nap all afternoon now; check back later for more blogging.)

Hampton Sides, Blood and Thunder

Years ago I picked up a copy of William C. Davis', The American Frontier: Pioneers, Settlers, and Cowboys 1800-1899. The book provides the most gung-ho account of the peopling of the West than anything else I've read, and it's a fantastic counterpoint to the dreary leftist academic hatred of racist "settler colonialism."

I'm reminded of the Davis tome as I see Hampton Sides' book, Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West.

I love stories of the West, especially proud, unabashed stories of American heroism, ingenuity, and perseverance. I think those are exactly the things leftists hate most, which makes me thrill to them all the more.

David Garrow, Liberty and Sexuality

Garrow's book is cited at the Los Angeles Times, "Norma McCorvey, once-anonymous plaintiff in landmark Roe vs. Wade abortion case, dies at 69."

The L.A. Times obituary, by the way, is much better, way more honest, than the New York Times's. A key point: McCorvey never had an abortion.

In any case, here's Garrow's book, Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe v. Wade.

How the Southern Poverty Law Center Faked an Islamophobia Crisis

At FrontPage Magazine, "Fake News About Fake Group's Report About Fake 'Hate'":

Look out!  It’s another fake Islamophobia crisis.

“Huge Growth in Anti-Muslim Hate Groups During 2016: SPLC Report,” wails NBC News. “Watchdog: Number of anti-Muslim hate groups tripled since 2015,” FOX News bleats. ABC News vomits up this word salad. “Trump cited in report finding increase in US hate groups for 2nd year in a row.”

The SPLC stands for the Southern Poverty Law Center: an organization with slightly less credibility than Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, and without the academic degree in greasepaint.

And you won’t believe the shameless way the SPLC faked its latest Islamophobia crisis.

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s latest “hate group” sightings claims that the “number of anti-Muslim hate groups increased almost three-fold in 2016.”

That’s a lot of folds.

And there is both bad news and good news from its “Year in Hate and Extremism.”

First the good news.

Casa D’Ice Signs, the sign outside a bar in K-Mart Plaza in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, is no longer listed as a hate group. The sign outside the bar had been listed as a hate group by the SPLC for years. The owner of Casa D’Ice had been known for putting politically incorrect signs outside his bar. So the SPLC listed the “signs” as a hate group. (Even though there was only one sign.) Not the bar. That would have made too much sense.

Since then Casa D’Ice was sold and the SPLC has celebrated the defeat of another hate group. Even if the hate group was just a plastic sign outside a bar.

But the bad news, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, is that anti-Muslim hate groups shot up from only 34 in 2015 to 101 in 2016.

What could possibly account for that growth? Statistical fakery so fake that a Vegas bookie would weep.

President Trump is on the cover of the SPLC’s latest Intelligence Report: a misnomer of a title from an organization whose intelligence gathering led it to list a bar sign as a hate group.

But there’s actually another phenomenon responsible for this startling rise reported by the SPLC.

The SPLC decided to count 45 chapters of Act for America as separate groups.

How do you get a sudden rise from 34 to 101 hate groups? It helps to suddenly add 45 chapters of one group. Act for America isn’t a hate group. It’s also just as obviously not 45 groups.

And it didn’t come into existence last year.

Act for America was only listed as one group in the 2015 list. It shot up to 45 now.

The SPLC this year listed the Los Angeles chapter of Act for America as a separate group. But the chapter has been around for quite a few years.

Furthermore Act for America boasts not 45, but 1,000 chapters across the country. Why list just 45 of them? Look at it from the SPLC’s perspective. Next year, it can add 200 chapters and claim that anti-Muslim hate groups once again tripled. And then it can do the same thing again the year after that.

That way the Southern Poverty Law Center can keep manufacturing an imaginary Islamophobia crisis.

Also added to the list is Altra Firearms: a gun store that ran an ad declaring that it wouldn’t sell firearms to Clinton supporters or Muslims. Like Casa D’Ice, this is another case of the SPLC demonstrating that it has no idea what distinguishes a store whose owner says politically incorrect things from a “group”.

The list has added Bosch Fawstin: an artist who was the target of the first ISIS terror attack in America during the assault on the Draw Mohammed cartoon contest. The SPLC announced that it was adding the Eisner nominated artist to its list of hate groups after he survived the attack.

The SPLC’s actions were obscene.

After the attack, Heidi Beirich, in charge of adding targets to the SPLC’s hate map, announced that she would be adding Bosch to the list because the Center now knows his location.

Indeed the SPLC makes a point of highlighting the locations of likely terrorist targets. And the Southern Poverty Law Center’s map of hate has been used by terrorists before.

Floyd Lee Corkins opened fire at the headquarters of the Family Research Council. The conservative Christian organization had been targeted by Corkins because of its appearance on the SPLC’s list.

"Southern Poverty Law lists anti-gay groups. I found them online,” Corkins later confessed to the FBI.

When Leo Johnson, the building’s African-American manager, attempted to stop Corkins, the SPLC shooter told Johnson that he didn’t like his politics and opened fire. The SPLC gunman had planned to kill everyone in the office, but Johnson’s heroic actions saved their lives. The African-American building manager was forced to undergo painful surgeries because of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate list.

Despite its role in the terror attack, the SPLC continues to target the Family Research Council.

None of the so-called “Anti-Muslim hate groups” listed by the SPLC have shot anyone. The SPLC has...

Still more.

President Trump's Agenda Includes Hitting Back — Hard

From David Horowitz's new book, Big Agenda: President Trump’s Plan to Save America.

Excerpt from Big Agenda in today's Philadelphia Inquirer: https://t.co/ROAQl98P0V

— David Horowitz (@horowitz39) February 19, 2017

Ironically, it was a billionaire businessman who broke the mold in the 2016 presidential campaign and brought a new voice into Republican politics. Donald Trump took up the cause of the forgotten working class, promising to restore America's industrial prowess and bring back the jobs that a corrupt elite with a globalist outlook had negotiated away in reckless trade deals that sent Americans to the back of the bus and squandered the prosperity they had created over generations.

Equally groundbreaking was Trump's bluntness in confronting the corruption of both parties for participating in a rigged system that left their constituencies out in the cold. The failure to secure the borders was a national disgrace in which both parties were complicit. In focusing on the criminal aliens who had not been blocked at the borders and were not deported, he broke the silence imposed by the politically correct party line. In calling Clinton a "crook," a "liar," and the enabler of a sexual predator, he took her off the pedestal on which her gender and the Democrats' fantasy of a Republican "war on women" had placed her. By speaking out against the Democrats' rape of the inner cities and their treatment of their black constituents as second-class citizens, Trump burst a bubble that had protected Democrats from the consequences of their actions and opened the ranks of the Republican Party to "people of color."

Trump's readiness to go for the Democrats' jugular rallied Republican voters frustrated by their leaders' long-running deference to Democratic outrages and their willingness to keep their party on the defensive. It was this rallying of the Republican troops, who turned out in record crowds during the campaign, that led Trump to call what he had created a "movement." It is a movement, first of all, anchored in its opposition to the Democrats' collectivism and in defense of individual liberty. Perhaps Trump's most significant innovation as a Republican candidate was the moral language he used to indict his Democratic opponent. Previously, Republicans would have been too polite to call their opponents liars and crooks - even when the evidence clearly showed that they were. If their opponent was a woman, they would never have dreamed of using such language, so deferential were they to the stringent rules of political correctness. Trump broke free of this constraint. But Republicans need to take this a step further and create a unifying theme that has a moral resonance with which they can characterize their opponents and level the political playing field.

That theme is individual freedom. The economic redistribution that progressives demand is not "fairness," as they maintain. Socialism is theft and a war on individual freedom. Compulsory public schools are not a service to minorities and the poor but are infringements on their freedom to choose an education that will allow them to pursue the American dream. Obamacare is objectionable not only because its mandates drive up the costs and diminish the quality of health care, as Republicans have argued. Far more important is that government-controlled health care takes away the freedom of individuals to manage their own health and secure their life chances. Onerous taxes and massive government debt are not accounting problems; they are a war on the ability of individuals to work for themselves instead of the government and are therefore an attack on individual freedom. This is the moral language Republicans need to use if they are going to defeat the progressive agenda...

Most excellent.

RTWT.

How Bureaucrats Are Fighting Voters for Control of Country

From Matthew Continetti, at Free Beacon, "Who Rules the United States?":

Who Rules the United States?: How bureaucrats are fighting the voters for control of our country https://t.co/FKo760mAiu pic.twitter.com/QxtRlb7Txd

— Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) February 18, 2017

Donald Trump was elected president last November by winning 306 electoral votes. He pledged to "drain the swamp" in Washington, D.C., to overturn the system of politics that had left the nation's capital and major financial and tech centers flourishing but large swaths of the country mired in stagnation and decay. "What truly matters," he said in his Inaugural Address, "is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people."

Is it? By any historical and constitutional standard, "the people" elected Donald Trump and endorsed his program of nation-state populist reform. Yet over the last few weeks America has been in the throes of an unprecedented revolt. Not of the people against the government—that happened last year—but of the government against the people. What this says about the state of American democracy, and what it portends for the future, is incredibly disturbing.

There is, of course, the case of Michael Flynn. He made a lot of enemies inside the government during his career, suffice it to say. And when he exposed himself as vulnerable those enemies pounced. But consider the means: anonymous and possibly illegal leaks of private conversations. Yes, the conversation in question was with a foreign national. And no one doubts we spy on ambassadors. But we aren't supposed to spy on Americans without probable cause. And we most certainly are not supposed to disclose the results of our spying in the pages of the Washington Post because it suits a partisan or personal agenda.

Here was a case of current and former national security officials using their position, their sources, and their methods to crush a political enemy. And no one but supporters of the president seems to be disturbed. Why? Because we are meant to believe that the mysterious, elusive, nefarious, and to date unproven connection between Donald Trump and the Kremlin is more important than the norms of intelligence and the decisions of the voters.

But why should we believe that? And who elected these officials to make this judgment for us?

Nor is Flynn the only example of nameless bureaucrats working to undermine and ultimately overturn the results of last year's election. According to the New York Times, civil servants at the EPA are lobbying Congress to reject Donald Trump's nominee to run the agency. Is it because Scott Pruitt lacks qualifications? No. Is it because he is ethically compromised? Sorry. The reason for the opposition is that Pruitt is a critic of the way the EPA was run during the presidency of Barack Obama. He has a policy difference with the men and women who are soon to be his employees. Up until, oh, this month, the normal course of action was for civil servants to follow the direction of the political appointees who serve as proxies for the elected president.

How quaint. These days an architect of the overreaching and antidemocratic Waters of the U.S. regulation worries that her work will be overturned so she undertakes extraordinary means to defeat her potential boss. But a change in policy is a risk of democratic politics. Nowhere does it say in the Constitution that the decisions of government employees are to be unquestioned and preserved forever. Yet that is precisely the implication of this unprecedented protest. "I can't think of any other time when people in the bureaucracy have done this," a professor of government tells the paper. That sentence does not leave me feeling reassured.

Opposition to this president takes many forms. Senate Democrats have slowed confirmations to the most sluggish pace since George Washington. Much of the New York and Beltway media does really function as a sort of opposition party, to the degree that reporters celebrated the sacking of Flynn as a partisan victory for journalism. Discontent manifests itself in direct actions such as the Women's March.

But here's the difference. Legislative roadblocks, adversarial journalists, and public marches are typical of a constitutional democracy. They are spelled out in our founding documents: the Senate and its rules, and the rights to speech, a free press, and assembly. Where in those documents is it written that regulators have the right not to be questioned, opposed, overturned, or indeed fired, that intelligence analysts can just call up David Ignatius and spill the beans whenever they feel like it?

The last few weeks have confirmed that there are two systems of government in the United States. The first is the system of government outlined in the U.S. Constitution—its checks, its balances, its dispersion of power, its protection of individual rights. Donald Trump was elected to serve four years as the chief executive of this system. Whether you like it or not.

The second system is comprised of those elements not expressly addressed by the Founders. This is the permanent government, the so-called administrative state of bureaucracies, agencies, quasi-public organizations, and regulatory bodies and commissions, of rule-writers and the byzantine network of administrative law courts. This is the government of unelected judges with lifetime appointments who, far from comprising the "least dangerous branch," now presume to think they know more about America's national security interests than the man elected as commander in chief...

More.

PREVIOUSLY: "Obama's Shadow Presidency."