Santa Ana Seizes the 'Sanctuary City' Label

While seizing the "moment," Santa Ana risks losing the money.

At NYT above, and CBS News 2 Los Angeles at the video below.

"Sanctuary cities" should wear the label proudly https://t.co/ficPkrQCxw

— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) March 7, 2017

Christina Hoff Sommers: What Gender Wage Gap?

She's the "Factual Feminist," and boy is she factual!

A great video, via Prager University:

'The fact that two different speeches triggered violence at two different campuses within the space of a month suggests that we may be entering into a new and more dangerous phase of the anti-free-speech movement...'

Well, you think?

It's Megan McArdle, via Instapundit, "MEGAN MCARDLE OFFERS ADVICE TO STUDENT PROTESTERS: Use Your Words."

Charles Murray, Coming Apart

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Charles Murray, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010.

And from yesterday the other day, ICYMI, "Fanatical Left-Wing Mob Attacks Charles Murrary and Middlebury Professor Allison Stanger."

'Day Without a Woman'

These leftists "protests" get more stupid by the one. I mean, of course no one can go "a day without a woman." Just like no one can go a day without a man. People need people to have commerce, to interact, to keep the wheels of society going. What's the point?

Well, to cause chaos, for one thing. That's what leftists do.

At AL News, "'Day Without a Woman' protest forces schools to close Wednesday." And iOTW Report, "Women’s March Protest Causes ‘Burden on Parents’."

And here's the kicker, at the Seattle Times, "Day Without a Woman protest sparks debate on white privilege":

There are no A Day Without a Woman events planned for Wednesday amid charges of “white privilege.” What may be the only Puget Sound area event is a free yoga open house in Kirkland.

So maybe it wasn’t the best thought-out event, A Day Without a Woman general strike this Wednesday, on International Women’s Day.

“Stupid. That’s what I first thought,” says Angie Beem, the state director of the Women’s March that in Seattle drew tens of thousands of participants on Jan. 21.

“What’s the purpose of a strike when you can’t afford a day to not work? Women who could possibly do this are in an executive-type position. Life will go on for them. Their career is more stable. This screamed …”

Guess the next two words.

“White privilege,” concludes Beem.

Her group is not sponsoring any events associated with A Day Without a Woman, which also coincides with International Women’s Day.

There are strike events promised in New York, Washington, D. C., Boston and even Fairbanks.

Beem remembers a tweet coming a month or so ago from the national Women’s March group.

“It was just two women who decided it was going to happen. They put this out on social media without discussing it,” says Beem.

“Facebook blew up. There were a lot of people like myself saying, ‘This isn’t right.’ ”

She says she had the same misgivings about “A Day Without Immigrants” that took place Feb. 16 — that there’s too much risk. News reports said a number of protesters were fired for not showing up for work that day.

“People are desperate to take some action and some control over their lives,” says Beem. “Then they make the horrible choice of not going to work and their whole career is over.”

While Beem doesn’t agree with the strike, the event was later expanded to include avoiding shopping that day — except for at small women-and-minority owned businesses — and wearing red in solidarity.

About the color red, says the national group, “We have chosen red as a color of signifying revolutionary love and sacrifice. Red is the color of energy and action associated with our will to survive. It signifies a pioneering spirit and leadership qualities, promoting ambition and determination.”

Beem says she will wear red on Wednesday...

Keep reading.

Financial Red Flags at Celerity Charter School Group in Los Angeles

Well, staying on the education beat here, check out the Los Angeles Times, "Inside Celerity charter school network, questionable spending and potential conflicts of interest abound":

By her own account, Vielka McFarlane was an immigrant success story. She had escaped a childhood of poverty in Panama, made her way to Los Angeles and founded a nonprofit network of publicly funded charter schools called the Celerity Educational Group.

In 2013, she earned $471,842, about 35% more than Michelle King, the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, makes today.

McFarlane was prospering, and it showed. She wore Armani suits, ate at expensive restaurants and used a black car service.

Financial records obtained by The Times show that, as Celerity’s CEO, she paid for many of these expenses with a credit card belonging to her charter schools, which receive the bulk of their funding from the state.

It could not be determined whether McFarlane, 54, ever reimbursed the charter schools for her credit card purchases. Neither she nor a lawyer hired by Celerity responded to requests for comment about the transactions.

At a time when charter school advocates are determined to increase the number of such schools in L.A., the story of McFarlane and the Celerity schools offers a case study of the growing difficulty of regulating them. The task of spotting and stamping out risky financial practices in charters largely falls to the school district’s charter schools division, which employs about a dozen people dedicated to monitoring the schools’ fiscal health.

But as the number of L.A. charter schools has grown to more than 220, enrolling about 111,000 students, oversight has become a challenge for district officials, who are at once competitors and regulators...

Well, nice work if you can get it. And a "black car service"? Must be nice.

And I'm a fan of charters too!

Put me down for more regulation, though. Can't trust those Panamanian immigrants, it turns out.

Keep reading.

The U.S. Ranked 7th in 'Best Countries' Survey at U.S. News

Which is bull.

We're behind Switzerland (#1), Canada (#2), the U.K. (#3), Germany (#4), Japan (Japan! #5), Sweden (#6).

What a joke, really.

But there's a silver lining (for the world):

In a global ranking of "best countries," the United States drops to No. 7 https://t.co/Pnd8rB70xp

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 7, 2017

There is one bright spot for the United States: It is still perceived as the most powerful nation on earth, running ahead of Russia, China, the United Kingdom and Germany.

You see, all those countries that are ranked as "better" than us, are also free-riding on the security we're providing. And honestly, Canada, Sweden, and Germany are already gone, turned over to leftists and Islamists.  Switzerland's a nice place for a vacation, but why would it be ranked the best country in the world? And Japan! California's better than Japan, and we're a Democrat Party hell-hole, heh.

Clearly, this survey interviewed a bunch of anti-Americans who hate President Trump (see, "Overall Best Countries Ranking").

Nina Agdal Gets Real (VIDEO)

She's one of my very favorites (but you already knew that, heh).

At Sports Illustrated:

Methods Behind the Campus Madness

Following-up from last night, "Charles Murray and the Flight 93 Election."

See Sumantra Maitra, at Quillette.

Jackie Johnson's Sunny and Warming Forecast

Remember, it's going to heat up midweek.

And Ms. Jackie looks so lovely!

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Nothing Good Comes from Dehumanizing Your Political Enemies

Following-up, from previously, "Charles Murray and the Flight 93 Election."

From Professor Allison Stanger, at Facebook:

When the event ended, and it was time to leave the building, I breathed a sigh of relief. We had made it. I was ready for dinner and conversation with faculty and students in a tranquil setting. What transpired instead felt like a scene from Homeland rather than an evening at an institution of higher learning. We confronted an angry mob as we tried to exit the building. Most of the hatred was focused on Dr. Murray, but when I took his right arm both to shield him from attack and to make sure we stayed together so I could reach the car too, that’s when the hatred turned on me. One thug grabbed me by the hair and another shoved me in a different direction. I noticed signs with expletives and my name on them. There was also an angry human on crutches, and I remember thinking to myself, “What are you doing? That’s so dangerous!” For those of you who marched in Washington the day after the inauguration, imagine being in a crowd like that, only being surrounded by hatred rather than love. I feared for my life...

RTWT.

ADDED: It's an excellent essay, but Professor Stanger unloads on President Trump in the conclusion, which blows it for me. I suppose she's trying to exonerate the left a bit, to justify leftist authoritarianism as a response to the so-called "evil" that President Trump's "unleashed." That's bullshit, and it's too bad. She otherwise offers a fine essay.

Charles Murray and the Flight 93 Election

At AoSHQ.

(Via Instapundit.)

I never did blog it at the time, but I recall some folks talking about it. It's the article, at the Claremont Review, "The Flight 93 Election."

I guess I was sold on this argument even before reading it, because Donald Trump didn't need to be anywhere near conservative for me. I just knew we needed him. We needed to give him a shot. To save the country.

(Ace also links Charles Murray's piece at AEI yesterday, "Reflections on the revolution in Middlebury.")

Craig Steven Wilder, Ebony and Ivy

Following-up from earlier today, "Harvard Confronts Academe's Ties to Slavery."

It turns out there's a nifty book on universities and their slave past, especially those "progressive" Ivy League universities. (I just get a kick out this.)

At Amazon, Craig Steven Wilder, Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America's Universities.

Shop Today's Deals

At Amazon, Today's Deals.

BONUS: David Mamet, The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture.

Frances Townsend Discusses President Trump's Wiretapping Allegations (VIDEO)

At CBS This Morning:



Also, "How FISA plays a role in Trump's wiretapping claim," and "Trump's wiretap claim upends presidential tradition."

BONUS: At WaPo, via Memeorandum, "Inside Trump's fury: The president rages at leaks, setbacks and accusations.

Robert Stacy McCain, 'From John Lennon to Charles Murray'

At the American Spectator, "From John Lennon to Charles Murray: We All Want to Change the World."

"But when you talk about destruction. Don't you know that you can count me out..."

Harvard Confronts Academe's Ties to Slavery

At NYT, "Harvard Confronts the Deep Ties to Slavery in Academia."

Harvard Confronts the Deep Ties to Slavery in Academia.
by @jennyschuessler via @nytimes https://t.co/S71XPsrxt5

— Michiko Kakutani (@michikokakutani) March 6, 2017

#PresidentTrump to Unveil New Travel Ban Today (VIDEO)

At the Chicago Tribune, "President Trump's revised travel ban to apply to those seeking new visas."

Also, at ABC News, via Memeorandum, "President Trump expected to sign new travel ban executive order today."

And here's Mark Steyn:

Jesse Lee Peterson, The Antidote

This guy's way cool.

At Amazon, Jesse Lee Peterson, The Antidote: Healing America From the Poison of Hate, Blame and Victimhood.

Danielle Gersh's Warm-Up Weather Forecast

It's actually been quite pleasant this last few days, but should warm up to the mid-80s by midweek.

Here's the lovely Ms. Danielle, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Nathaniel Philbrick, The Last Stand

If you're studying Indian affairs and the fate of the frontier, it's inevitable you'll read about Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer.

See Nathaniel Philbrick, at Amazon, The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

(I'm continuing with Robert J. Utley, The Indian Frontier of the American West, 1846-1890, which discusses Armstrong beginning in Chapter 4.)

Leaks, Unnamed Sources in Far-Left Media Campaign to Destroy #PresidentTrump

From Michael Goodwin, at the New York Post:

"Separating fact from fake news has never been more essential," writes columnist @mgoodwin_nypost https://t.co/zIegHBFQP0

— New York Post (@nypost) March 5, 2017

Here a Russian story, there a Russian story, everywhere a Russian story — all based on leaks from anonymous sources. You don’t have to be a spook to spot the plan: Destroy Donald Trump by putting him in a bear hug.

To judge by their scattershot approach, the conspirators are fishing for a bombshell. The fallback goal is to inflict death by a thousand cuts.

Already they’ve gotten one scalp and part of another. Gen. Mike Flynn is gone, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions is wounded. Each made a mistake that obscured a larger truth: Somebody in the government has been spying on Trump’s team and giving top secret information to anti-Trump media outlets.

Our president is many things, but dumb he’s not. He recognized the stakes, so yesterday he struck back in a way that dramatically upped the ante in the war over his presidency.

Trump’s early-morning tweets accusing President Barack Obama of having wiretapped him at Trump Tower startled the world. It is a sensational claim, but in light of the tsunami of leaks from intelligence agencies, the president is right to suspect that he’s the target of a dirty game.

To start with, the unprecedented alliance against him clearly includes remnants of the Obama administration, and probably the former president himself. The recent New York Times report that Obama and his team dropped intelligence findings like bread crumbs so they would get wide readership and to prevent the Trump administration from burying them reveals an attempt to undermine if not subvert a legally elected president.

The Times report conveys suspicions that Trump would deep-six the findings if he could while giving a free pass to Obama’s leakers who may have committed crimes. The Times knows who in the Obama camp was involved and what they did. The paper has an ethical obligation to report it.

Yet here’s the rub: What exactly was in those findings? All the public knows is that intelligence officials said they investigated whether the Trump campaign had ties to Russia, and we only know that because it was leaked by anonymous sources.

But that knowledge, while sounding suspicious, raises more questions than it answers.

For example, did investigators looking at Trump’s campaign find anything substantive? The Times has said no but keeps suggesting the probes continue. Publicly, the FBI won’t confirm or deny anything and even Congress is frustrated by the bureau’s behavior.

Yet the fact that there are leaks reveals something important: The investigation involved monitoring phone calls and maybe computers and maybe physical surveillance...

Keep reading.

PREVIOUSLY: "#PresidentTrump Seeks Investigation Into Alleged Obama Administration Wiretapping."

#PresidentTrump Seeks Investigation Into Alleged Obama Administration Wiretapping

I haven't been blogging all this stuff, not because it's unimportant, but because I don't much care. Of course Obama bugged Trump Tower. It'd be nice to have evidence, but to me it's a no brainer.

In any case, here's NYT's headline, at Memeorandum, "Trump Seeks Inquiry Into Allegations That Obama Tapped His Phones." And at Althouse, "'FISA Is Not Law-Enforcement – It’s Not Interference with Justice Department Independence for White House to Ask for FISA Information'":

The invaluable legal analysis of Andrew M. McCarthy, checking the work of the NYT.

And see the roundup at Maggie's Farm, "The Political Warfare Continues."

BONUS: From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS: If It Happened, Trump Wiretapping Makes Watergate ‘Look Like a Joke’."

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."




Also at Theo's, "Cartoon Round Up..."

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Sweet Dreams."

Deportation 'Shockwaves' in Los Angeles

I read these stories shaking my head, wondering what these people were thinking. Personally, I have no idea of how or why someone could live "undocumented" in another country. But that's what happened to this dude, Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez, who was on the ICE radar, surveilled, and arrested a couple of days back. (Avelica-Gonzalez has lived here for 21 years, has a family completely dependent on him, and is now totally screwed.)

At LAT, "Immigrant arrested by ICE after dropping daughter off at school, sending shockwaves through neighborhood."

And note this comment:

The arrest so shook the school, a public charter called Academia Avance, that administrators held an assembly Tuesday afternoon to discuss what happened and to ease fears. The school’s executive director, Ricardo Mireles, has since ordered his teachers to talk to students whose parents are here illegally about creating a family plan in case they are detained or deported.

“It’s unfortunate that we have to have minors now deal with reality,” he said. “You need to be ready. ‘Have you talked to your parents? Do you have power of attorney?’ ”

It's "unfortunate" that illegal immigrant children now have to "deal with reality"?

That is fucked up.

These people, these communities, are in for a whole lotta hurt.

And it's very hard to feel sorry for them.

Paul Chaat Smith, Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong

I'm just coming across Paul Chaat Smith, whose writing looks more worthy than a lot of other authors I've blogged.

At Amazon, Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong.

And previously, Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee.

Shop Lightning Deals

At Amazon, Today's Deals.

Also, GoPro HERO5 Black.

Here, Honeywell HT-900 TurboForce Air Circulator Fan, Black.

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

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).

Kelloggs Frosted Whole Grain Mini Wheats, 70-Ounce.

More, Franklin Sports Field Master Series Fast-Pitch Softball Glove, Right-Hand Throw.

BONUS: Paul Chaat Smith, Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee.

How Much Did the Louisiana Purchase Really Cost?

I'm not the biggest Slate reader, but this piece keeps with my theme on Native Americans. And it's pretty interesting, in any case. Click through for the great animated graphic timeline on payments to Indian tribes for their lands under the purchase, which is claimed to be in the billions of dollars by 2012.

Read at the link:

The true story of the Louisiana Purchase is one of shameful plunder of native lands: https://t.co/EcbSMdAACk pic.twitter.com/jhv0qzuKzT

— Slate (@Slate) March 5, 2017

My President

Seen on Twitter a little while ago.

Now, if you really want to piss off PC leftists, say, "My President is White."

Heh.

RETWEET if @realDonaldTrump is YOUR president! #TeamTrump pic.twitter.com/5sT0KV9ekD

— Eric Spracklen (@EricSpracklen) March 5, 2017

Richard Rothstein, Class and Schools

Following up from yesterday, "Abigail Thernstrom and Stephan Thernstrom, No Excuses." (The book's at Amazon here.)

Be sure to read James Traub's excellent review of the Thernstroms, at the Los Angeles Times, "The academic gap in starkest black and white":

The single most devastating statistic in American life is this: The average black high school senior reads at the level of the average white eighth-grader. This, more than anything else, explains why race remains such an overwhelmingly salient fact in American life. It explains why affirmative action is, or at least appears to be, necessary. It explains to a very large degree why blacks continue to lag so far behind whites in income and socioeconomic status.

And, as Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom demonstrate with remorseless lucidity in "No Excuses," their latest exploration of the causes and consequences of persistent black failure, the gap cannot be explained away by racism, testing bias, inequitable resources or even by poverty itself. The gap is not only an incontrovertible fact but a fact rooted in black experience and behavior. The Thernstroms do not believe that school is the cause of black failure, but they insist that, given the right innovations, school can be the solution to black failure. Readers may find it hard to believe that a problem so deeply rooted can be cured with such a straightforward and inexpensive application of reform.

The Thernstroms have been accused in the past of relishing, rather than ruing, the bad news they deliver on, say, affirmative action or welfare. In their previous book, "America in Black and White," they seemed to take great pleasure in putting liberal noses out of joint. But they deserve at least equal credit for venturing fearlessly where more cautious scholars fear to tread and taking the considerable flak that comes with it. "No Excuses" is also not likely to be welcomed in the hallways of our great foundations or in graduate schools of education.

The essential piece of bad news the Thernstroms deliver here is that none of the conventional explanations for the academic gap hold much water, and thus neither do the conventional solutions. They challenge the view, most fervently advanced by Jonathan Kozol in "Savage Inequalities," that schools with large minority populations are systematically denied resources. This is one of those common-sense perceptions that turns out on close examination, they say, to be false...

Keep reading.

And see also Richard Rothstein, Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic, And Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap.

More later!

Katie Hopkins Visit to Sweden Exposes the Muslim's War on Swedish Women (VIDEO)

Watch, at Blazing Cat Fur, "Swedish Women Living in Fear From Both Immigrants and Extreme Feminist Militants."

'Shut Up, White Women!'

From Robert Stacy McCain, at Medium, "Feminism 2017: ‘Shut Up, White Women’ - Welcome to Your Post-Hillary Gulag of ‘Intersectionality’."

I just published “Feminism 2017: ‘Shut Up, White Women’” https://t.co/X4XsGm17ZB

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) March 3, 2017

Lightning Deals and More

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Today's Deals.

And see especially, Silhouette CAMEO 3 Craft Bundle (#1 Best Seller in Craft Shears).

Here, Amazon Echo - White.

Also, Hugh Thomas, The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440-1870, and Conquest: Cortes, Montezuma, and the Fall of Old Mexico.

More, Rose Marie Beebe, Junípero Serra: California, Indians, and the Transformation of a Missionary.

Daniel Castro, Another Face of Empire: Bartolomé de Las Casas, Indigenous Rights, and Ecclesiastical Imperialism.

And David Roberts, Once They Moved Like The Wind : Cochise, Geronimo, and the Apache Wars.

Plus, Buddy Levy, Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs.

BONUS: Kim MacQuarrie, The Last Days of the Incas.

Former CIA Miltary Analyst Tara Maller (VIDEO)

Ms. Tara has a Ph.D. from MIT.

On with Shepard Smith today, at Fox News.

Robert Leckie, None Died in Vain

The cover blurb says this book gives James McPherson's "Battle Cry" a run for its money.

At Amazon, Robert Leckie, None Died in Vain: The Saga of the American Civil War.

Abigail Thernstrom and Stephan Thernstrom, No Excuses

I assigned an essay exam last week, in addition to my regular multiple choice exam. I need the essay to have students fulfill the college's "critical thinking" requirement. Unfortunately, the majority of students weren't ready to do that kind of critical thinking, even after I gave them the basic question (prompts) in advance.

Anyway, I still have to finish grading the essays, but I'm thinking about the age-old problem of promoting academic success among disadvantaged groups, especially racial minorities.

I'm old school. I think all the progressive "equity" initiatives are a bunch of bull more designed to enrich leftist pockets and administrators' curricula vitae. More and more professional development at my college deals less and less with the problem of student academic unpreparedness. There's lots of talk about civil rights and supporting underrepresented groups, but little in the way of beating back stale leftist pedagogy and dogma. (For example, the idea of strong student discipline in the classroom is virtually out the window, as theories of "restorative justice" have taken over administrative regimes; to truly discipline disruptive, even violent, students is deemed "racist.")

In any case, here's a great book about getting back to basics.

At Amazon, Abigail Thernstrom and Stephan Thernstrom, No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning.

BONUS: Don't miss the indispensable, Annette Lareau, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life (2nd Edition with an Update a Decade Later).

That's a Big Fish!

Heh.

That gator's going to have quite a meal, lol.

Whoa! A woman in Florida captured this crazy sight of a gator carrying a fish across a golf course. https://t.co/Kj4cZjWEVg pic.twitter.com/yeMPoZs6gI

— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 3, 2017

Heh. Fan Mail

Trump Won & Won Big!

Fan mail pic.twitter.com/5lU2DG2YVg

— Mark Z. Barabak (@markzbarabak) March 3, 2017

Fanatical Left-Wing Mob Attacks Charles Murrary and Middlebury Professor Allison Stanger

It's getting worse all the time.

I hate to say it, but conservatives could get killed by these mobs. This is horrific.

At the Daily Caller and Inside Higher Ed:

Leftist Students Physically Assault Conservative Scholar, Professor Over Speech https://t.co/gRj8zpjMvS

— Scott Greer (@ScottMGreer) March 3, 2017

#MiddleburyCollege students shout down lecture by Charles Murray https://t.co/l7umGvRozk #highered pic.twitter.com/1pM4QbPpQ5

— Inside Higher Ed (@insidehighered) March 3, 2017

OMG.This happened after Charles Murray lecture. Female prof assaulted--car mobbed. @splcenter helped incite the hate pic.twitter.com/a6VMclPjxU

— Christina Sommers (@CHSommers) March 3, 2017

ICYMI: Henry Olsen, The Working Class Republican

I'm looking forward to this one.

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

RELATED: Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam, Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream.

Far-Left Journalist Arrested, Charged With Threats Against Jewish Centers

Well, I told you.

This guy, a leftist, along with apparently dozens if not hundreds of calls from outside the country to Jewish centers, are what's causing this so called "wave of anti-Semitism" in the U.S. Honestly, it has nothing to do with the Trump administration and everything to do with Democrat Party and leftist evil.

At My Pet Jawa, "Juan Thompson of St. Louis Arrested for Hate Crimes Against Jewish Targets": "Juan Thompson is a former staff reporter for the Intercept" and "a Black Lives Matter activist."

Via Memeorandum.

DREAMer Daniela Vargas to Be Deported Without Hearing

Radley Balko's all shaken up, the poor thing.

This is gratuitously cruel. She was brought here when she was 7. They're making an example of her. https://t.co/mu4VMoIZiT

— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) March 3, 2017

The utter lack of empathy in some of the responses to this story is depressing. https://t.co/b8vDsZkFnn

— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) March 3, 2017

Obama Officials Waging War on Trump White House

From Noah Rothman, at Commentary, "Revenge of Obama’s ‘Former Officials’":

Revenge of Obama’s ‘Former Officials’ - by @noahcrothman https://t.co/d8z9pZGl8i pic.twitter.com/Fhh6SywFeo

— Commentary Magazine (@Commentary) March 3, 2017

For a president who has a uniquely hostile relationship with the press, positive news cycles are both rare and fleeting. The Trump team displayed remarkable discipline by refusing to step on the president’s well-received address to a joint session of Congress. A lot of good discipline did them. Just 24 hours after Trump’s address, a series of troubling reports involving links among those in Trump’s orbit to Russian officials reset the national discourse. Those stories make for a trend, though, that has little to do with Trump and a lot to do with his predecessor. The Obama administration’s foreign-policy team seems to be campaigning to rehabilitate itself one leak at a time, and the press is helping.

The frenzy on Wednesday night began with a revelation in the New York Times that members of Barack Obama’s administration had left a trail of breadcrumbs for investigators who happen to be looking into the Trump campaign’s contacts with the Russian government. The report revealed that intelligence officials intercepted communications between Russian officials and “Trump associates,” and that the administration worked frantically in the final days to ensure those revelations could not be buried and forgotten after they left office.

More than six “former officials” described efforts to reduce the classification on some reports relating to Trump associates’ contact with Russians so they would be widely distributed. They also revealed their efforts to raise the classification level of some information related to Russia that was so sensitive they feared the Trump administration might leak it to Moscow. Some officials apparently even touted their efforts to ask leading questions during intelligence briefings so their questions would be transcribed and archived, leaving clues for congressional investigators should they ever come looking for them.

The Times report revealed that a “former senior American official” disclosed that Jeff Sessions had met with “Russian officials.” The Washington Post confirmed that Sessions took a private meeting with Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak, appearing to contradict testimony Sessions provided to the Senate. The controversy whipped up around the discrepancy between Sessions’ confirmation-hearing testimony, and these reports have resulted in Democrats calling for his resignation and Republicans running for cover.

Though it received less attention amid the flurry of reports involving Team Trump’s connections to the Kremlin, the Washington Post published another story involving the decision-making process that led up to the Yemen raid. That raid, in which Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens was killed, an Osprey helicopter was lost, and up to 31 Yemeni civilians died, cannot be said to have gone according to plan. This report alleges that the plan might have been the problem.

The report quoted former advisor to Vice President Joe Biden on national security, Colin Kahl, who averred that the raid was the result of an Obama administration-era initiative expediting the approval of partnered ground operations. Yet, this raid was greenlit as a result of “a more abbreviated White House process.” Kahl took particular issue with the revelation that a sub-Cabinet level meeting on the raid—a meeting scheduled after the raid had been approved by the president and following a variety of briefings on the mission—lasted less than an hour. “You can’t cover the complexity of a topic like that in 23 minutes,” he declared. Other “former officials” quoted in that piece criticized the raid for straining relations with the Yemeni government. In sum, the Obama administration deserves all the credit for what went right in Yemen and none of the blame for what went wrong.

At least a few of these “former officials” who so freely offer reporters at the Times and the Post intimate details about the Obama administration’s approach to foreign policy are members of the infamous gang of nine. These officials within the Obama administration’s intelligence apparatus confirmed to the Post that former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn had misled Mike Pence when he said he did not discuss the Obama-era sanctions regime in his phone conversations with Kislyak. As the Times revealed last night, federal officials monitored those calls, transcribed the conversations, and related the substance to the press.

There is an assumption permeating these reports: that those unnamed Obama-era officials are selflessly sacrificing in the effort to prevent the Trump administration from undermining American national security. Some have even dedicated themselves to creating an elaborate Da Vinci Code for future scavenger hunters to decipher. More likely, the Obama administration’s foreign policy professionals are doing their best to retroactively vindicate themselves after leaving office under a cloud of mistrust. In their effort to self-aggrandize at the expense of the current administration, these rogue officials have found willing partners in the press.

The Obama administration was engaged in narrative manipulation surrounding Russia’s intervention into the election process even in its final hours...

Democrats are treasonous scum.

But keep reading, FWIW.

Attoney General Jess Sessions Doing Exactly What He's Supposed to Be Doing (VIDEO

Watch, at RCP, "Greta Van Susteren: Sessions Doing Exactly What He's Supposed To; As a Lawyer, I See Nothing Unusual."

Sharyl Attkisson, The Smear

This lady is the best!

At Amazon, Sharyl Attkisson, The Smear: How Shady Political Operatives and Fake News Control What You See, What You Think, and How You Vote.

Tom Perez, Keith Ellison and the Meaning of Anti-Semitism

From Caroline Glick, at RCP, "Perez, Ellison and the Meaning of Anti-Semitism":

Was former Secretary of labor and assistant attorney-general Tom Perez’s victory over Congressman Keith Ellison over the weekend in the race to serve as the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee a victory of centrist Democrats over radical leftists in the party? That is how the mainstream media is portraying Perez’s victory.

Along these lines, Prof. Allen Dershowitz, a lifelong Democrat who promised to quit the party if Ellison was elected due to his documented history of antisemitism and hostility toward Israel, hailed Perez’s election. Speaking to Fox News, Dershowitz said that Perez’s election over Ellison “is a victory in the war against bigotry, antisemitism, the anti-Israel push of the hard Left within the Democratic Party.”

There are two problems with Dershowitz’s view. First, Perez barely won. Ellison received nearly half the votes in two rounds of voting.

Tipping his hat to Ellison’s massive popularity among the party’s leadership and grassroots, Perez appointed the former Nation of Islam spokesman to serve as deputy DNC chairman as soon as his own victory was announced.

There is a good reason that Perez is so willing to cooperate with Ellison in running the DNC. And this points to the second problem with the claim that Perez’s election signals a move toward the center by Democratic leaders.

Perez is ready to cooperate with Ellison because the two men have the same ideological worldview and the same vision for the Democratic Party. As Mother Jones explained, “There’s truly not much ideological distance between the two.”

Far from being a victory for the centrist forces in the party, Perez’s win marks the solidification of the far Left’s control over the party of Harry Truman. Only hard leftists participated in a meaningful way in the race for leadership of the second largest party in America – a party that less than a decade ago controlled the White House and both houses of Congress.

The implications of this state of affairs are disastrous for the US generally. It is inherently destabilizing for a nation when one of the parties in a two-party political system is taken over by people who have a negative view of the country.

While America as a whole will suffer from the radicalization of the Democratic Party, perhaps no group will suffer more from the far Left’s takeover of the party than the American Jewish community. The vast majority of American Jews give their partisan allegiance to the Democratic Party and their ideological allegiance to the Left.

While Perez made a name for himself by fighting the enforcement of US immigration and naturalization laws against illegal immigrants, and Ellison rose to prominence for his activism in radical African American and Islamic circles, thanks to the so-called intersectionality of the far Left, that makes the cause of one faction the cause of all factions, today Perez is as much an apologist for Israel bashers as Ellison.

Perhaps in response to the danger that the far Left’s takeover of the Democratic Party represents, Malcolm Hoenlein, the long-serving professional head of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations called on Sunday for the convening of a global conference on antisemitism. In a meeting with The Jerusalem Post’s editorial board, Hoenlein said that one of the goals of the proposed conference would be to reach a universally accepted definition of antisemitism...

Keep reading.

PREVIOUSLY: "7,000 Anti-Semitic Incidents Under Obama?"

Today's Deals

Thanks for your support.

At Amazon, Today's Deals.

And, Stanley M. Elkins, Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life.

Plus, Kenneth M. Stampp, Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South.

Ira Berlin, Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves.

More, Leon F. Litwack, North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States, 1790-1860.

Eugene D. Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made.

BONUS: Christina Snyder, Slavery in Indian Country: The Changing Face of Captivity in Early America.

Kristen Stewart for V Magazine

Here, "Free Spirit: Kristen Stewart Covers V106."

And at Drunken Stepfather, "Androgynous Lesbian Gender Bending Kristen Stewart in a Thong and Pantyhose for V Magazine of the Day."

Ray Allen Billington, America's Frontier Heritage

*BUMPED.*

I picked up a copy, to continue my study of the American frontier and the Native American experience.

At Amazon, Ray Allen Billington, America's Frontier Heritage.

7,000 Anti-Semitic Incidents Under Obama?

Man, that's a lot.

And why were they ignored? What an excellent question.

At Algemeiner, "Why Were the 7000 Anti-Semitic Incidents Under Obama Largely Ignored?" (Via Memeorandum.)

The main reason, of course, is that leftists want to destroy Donald Trump. I don't believe there's any real increase in "hate incidents." For example, those vandalizing and terrorizing Jewish cemeteries are probably leftists. We won't know until there are some arrests. And as for the rest of the so-called "hate incidents" against Jews, every year anti-Semitic attacks top the Justice Department's hate crimes statistics. There's no new "increase." They're just being sensationalized for political gain.

We're looking at at leftist double-standard, designed to make President Trump's administration look like the coming of the Third Reich. It's despicable.

Why Were the 7,000 Antisemitic Incidents Under Obama Largely Ignored? by Seth Frantzman https://t.co/vjFkrkBDTd

— Algemeiner (@Algemeiner) March 1, 2017

RELATED: "How the Democrats Became the Anti-Israel Party."

Lightning Deals

At Amazon, Today's Deals.

Thanks for your support.

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

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

Alan Taylor, Colonial America: A Very Short Introduction, and American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804.

More, Kathleen DuVal, The Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart of the Continent.

Michael A. Lofaro, Daniel Boone: An American Life.

And Hampton Sides, Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West.

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

Most Voters Think Trump is Delivering on Promises

Here's Morning Consult's poll from yesterday morning, "Ahead of Joint Address, Most Voters Think Trump Is Delivering on Promises."

And now, post-address, the president's going to get a bounce.

At Hot Air, "Polls: 76% who watched approved of Trump’s speech, 57% were “very positive” about it."

You can see why Dems are freakin'.

European Union Revokes Marine Le Pen Immunity

The Euro-bureaucrats will try to destroy Marine Le Pen. She may win the presidential election this year, and then look out Brussels!

At Blazing Cat Fur, "EU REVOKES Marine Le Pen Immunity Which Could See Her in Court Over ISIS Tweets."

FLASHBACK: The don't-miss interview from last year, at Foreign Affairs, "Marine Le Pen Interview."

'Burnin' for You'

From this morning's school drop off for my young son, who's in 9th grade now.

Led Zeppelin was jammin' on the way over to the school. Blue Oyster Cult on the way back. (I'm an old man, lol.)

At the Sound L.A.:

Pat Benatar
Heartbreaker
7:59 AM

Same Old Song and Dance
Aerosmith
7:55 AM

BURNIN' FOR YOU
B.O.C.
7:51 AM

Let's Go
The Cars
7:47 AM

Stairway to Heaven
Led Zeppelin
7:39 AM

Wanted Dead or Alive
Bon Jovi
7:34 AM

Long Cool Woman
the Hollies
7:31 AM

Jungle Love
Steve Miller Band
7:28 AM

Your Love
The Outfield
7:24 AM

Suffragette City
David Bowie
7:21 AM

All Right Now
Free
7:04 AM

Amazon Web Services Crashing

My proprietary Pearson education REVEL webpage was down for a while yesterday, which sucked because it was exam day.

Don't know if it was related to the Amazon cloud service crash, but not good either way. (And my school's email web application is down at this moment. Again, don't know if it's related, but hundreds of websites were affected by the crash.)

At the Chicago Tribune, "Amazon Web Services goes down, taking swaths of internet with it..."

Anne V Perfect in Brazil

It's Anne Vyalitsyna, for Sports Illustrated:

'New Chapter of American Greatness' (VIDEO)

Following-up, "President Trump's Blockbuster Speech Leaves Democrats Befuddled (VIDEO)."

Here's the analysis from Robert Stacy McCain, at the Other McCain, "Trump: ‘A New Chapter of American Greatness Is Now Beginning’."

President Trump's Blockbuster Speech Leaves Democrats Befuddled (VIDEO)

Van Jones wasn't befuddled. Watch the clip below.

Jones is one of those far-leftists who has his flashes of clarity and brutal honesty, and last night was one of those times. And he's right: That was the moment. It was Trump's supreme moment. When the country saw Carryn Owens, the widow of Navy SEAL William "Ryan" Owens, who was killed in the recent Yemen military raid, this administration's "presidential" moment hit home. And you can't take that away from President Trump. That's what Van Jones says. And if you were watching last night, some of the other best moments were when the cameras panned across the bitter, visceral stone-cold hateful faces of defeated Democrats. Frankly, I think they're still in shock from November, and when Trump clearly stuck to script and hit massively bipartisan points that couldn't not be applauded, the reality of political grimness for the Democrats came into even sharper focus. (It's a glorious time to be conservative, man.)

Van Jones says we may very well have this president for 8 years, and that's what I'm hoping for. That's what I'm praying for. And that's what I'll be working for, to the best and hardest of my ability. President Trump, more than any time I can recall, proved that he's the man we need for this country at this moment in history. It was freakin' beautiful.

From Charles Hurt, at the Washington Times, "Trump speech leaves Democrats befuddled, in ruins, with question marks." (At Memeorandum.)

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

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

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

And, Dirt Devil Vacuum Cleaner Dynamite Plus Corded Bagless Upright Vacuum with Tools - RED.

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

More, Snyder's of Hanover 100 Calorie Pretzel Tray Pack - Variety Sack - 19.8 oz - 22 ct.

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.