Border Politics and the Use and Abuse of History

victorhanson

Victor Davis Hanson // National Review

Much has been written — some of it either inaccurate or designed to obfuscate the issue ahead of the midterms for political purposes — about the border fiasco and the unfortunate separation of children from parents. Rich Lowry’s brief analysis is the most insightful.

The media outrage usually does not include examination of why the Trump administration is enforcing existing laws that it inherited from the Bush and Obama administrations that at any time could have been changed by both Democratic and Republican majorities in Congress; of the use of often dubious asylum claims as a way of obtaining entry otherwise denied to those without legal authorization — a gambit that injures or at least hampers thousands with legitimate claims of political persecution; of the seeming unconcern for the safety of children by some would-be asylum seekers who illegally cross the border, rather than first applying legally at a U.S. consulate abroad; of the fact that many children are deliberately sent ahead, unescorted on such dangerous treks to help facilitate their own parents’ later entrance; of the cynicism of the cartels that urge and facilitate such mass rushes to the border to overwhelm general enforcement; and of the selective outrage of the media in 2018 in a fashion not known under similar policies and detentions of the past.

Read the full article here.

The Dream and the Nightmare of Globalization

victorhanson

Victor Davis Hanson // American Greatness

After World War II, only the United States possessed the capital, the military, freedom, and the international good will to arrest the spread of global Stalinism. To save the fragile postwar West, America was soon willing to rebuild and rearm war-torn former democracies. Over seven decades, it intervened in proxy wars against Soviet and Chinese clients, and radical rogue regimes. It accepted asymmetrical and unfavorable trade as the price of leading and saving the West. America became the sole patron for dozens of needy clients—with no time limit on such asymmetry.

Yet what would become the globalized project was predicated on lots of flawed, but unquestioned assumptions:

Read the full article here.

‘Future Pres’ Hillary — the Font of all the Scandals

victorhanson

Victor Davis Hanson // National Review

The investigators assumed their new boss would reward them for going to extremes to help her.

Review the Clinton email scandal, the Steele dossier, the insertion of at least one FBI informant into the Trump campaign, the misleading of the FISA court by FBI and DOJ officials intent on monitoring U.S. citizens, and, now, the inspector general’s report. There emerges a common denominator: the surety by all involved that Hillary Clinton would be president, and the need to prepare for that fact.

Examine the IG’s transcript of a random, pre-election series of electronic chitchat between high-ranking FBI employees:

Read the full article here.

The IG Hall of Mirrors

victorhanson

Victor Davis Hanson // National Review

The professionally written and admirably researched IG report is in some sense a hall of mirrors, with all sorts of reflections that are contorted and warped, and into which all parties claim to see reality.

Often the euphemistic conclusions are not supported by the data produced. The only constant to Obama-era FBI and DOJ behavior is the universal assumption that Hillary Clinton would be president, and what might be assumed as improper or illegal conduct in the present, would likely in the future be excused or rewarded.

On the question of “bias,” the report exhaustively catalogues communications in which government investigators and attorneys systematically deprecate Trump, and the Trump voter, and in explicit terms boast about stopping him.

Read the full article here.

The Silencing of the Inspectors General

victorhanson
Impartial watchdogs are useless if the government stonewalls them and ignores their findings of wrongdoing.Department of Justice inspector general Michael Horowitz, an Obama administration appointee, is scheduled to deliver a report this week on DOJ and FBI abuses during the 2016 campaign cycle. Remember: His last investigation of FBI misconduct advised a criminal referral for fired former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, who allegedly lied to federal investigators.

McCabe and at least a half-dozen other FBI employees quit, retired, were fired, or were reassigned as a result of fallout from the politicization of the FBI. Yet, as Barack Obama left office, his chief of staff, Denis McDonough, strangely boasted that the Obama administration “has been historically free of scandal.” Obama himself recently concluded of his eight-year tenure, “I didn’t have scandals.”

Read the full article here.

The Bad Iranian Deal Was Always Going to Get Worse

victorhanson

Victor Davis Hanson // National Review

The more we learn about it — as Iranian and Obama-administration deceptions are uncovered — the more we know it was a disaster from the start.

When Donald Trump withdrew from the so-called Iran deal in early May, almost all conventional wisdom in Washington was aghast.

The Left thought nullification would fast-track Iranian proliferation, incite more Iranian terrorism and adventurism, estrange our allies, and alienate a possible new friend.

Many on the conservative side (aside from Never Trumpers who are against anything Trump is for, including their own prior policies) thought it would have been wiser to back out slowly, or at least to have waited first for the duplicitous Iranians to get caught in clear violations, or to coordinate a joint withdrawal with the Europeans.

Read the full article here.

06-11-2018 Angry Reader

victorhanson

From An Angry Reader:

Subject: 1972 REDUX….The carnivores of civil liberties.

“You talk like a man with a paper ass”. Someone needs to enlighten you about the need to cite examples.

How did you ever get your job at Stanford?

Gary Seager

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Dear Angry Reader Gary Seager,

In such a brief note, you still warrant an Angry Reader score of 2—given vulgarity and ad hominem attack in lieu of an idea or argument.

How odd you demand “examples” in a 750 word syndicated column nevertheless full of examples of officials such as Brennan, Clapper, and Comey who have all three, as I wrote, lied to Congress; Clapper and Brennan have admitted to such and apologized. I noted the FISA court and the flawed email investigations. What examples in fact are you citing for your crude assertions?

As to your last inquiry about how one gets a job at Stanford:

One gets a job at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, by both outside audit and internal review of one’s publications, teaching, public commentary, and prior conduct as a professor and academic, all a matter of record. Anyone is welcome to apply, you included.

So simply send an application to the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford CA 94305. Be sure to include a vita with your education and terminal degree, teaching record, list of scholarly books and articles, public op-eds, and list of scholars in your field willing to offer candid and confidential assessments.

Then your application with be examined by:

1) the director,

2) a select committee of Hoover senior fellows,

3) a vote by all the senior fellows,

4) the relevant academic department in which you would teach if a full professor at Stanford,

5) an outside assessment conducted by that department, based on evaluations of your work by those in your field at other universities,

6) and a final decision by the provost at Stanford whether you meet Stanford University tenure and promotion standards for full professor.

The entire process can take only a year or so, is professionally conducted, and I certainly urge you to apply if interested.

Sincerely, Victor Hanson

A Reply to Ronald Radosh’s Smear

victorhanson

Victor Davis Hanson // National Review

In a strange attack on my criticism of former CIA director John Brennan’s lack of veracity, Ron Radosh alleges that I have engaged in a sort of conspiracy theory about the deep state. He quotes me in an article largely devoted to Jerome Corsi’s new book, which I have not read and whom I have never met, under the Daily Beast scare title, “Pro-Trump Author Says CIA Has Plan to Kill the President.”

Radosh apparently puts me in conspiratorial company for believing the following:

The distinguished historian Victor Davis Hanson, writes that “If there is such a thing as a dangerous ‘deep state’ of elite but unelected federal officials who feel that they are untouchable and unaccountable, then John Brennan is the poster boy.” He adds that “Brennan is typical of the careerist deep state.” They operate [sic] “the psychological tactic known as ‘projection.’ To square their own circles of lying, our so-called best and brightest loudly accuse others of precisely the sins that they themselves commit as a matter of habit.”

Read the full article here.

Ten Paradoxes Of Our Age

victorhanson

Victor Davis Hanson // Hoover Institution

The 21st century is reminding of us of some uncomfortable truths. Abroad, recent controversies over the rise of Chinese mercantilism, the specter of Iranian and North Korean nuclear weapons, tensions in the European Union, the calcified Palestinian question, mass migrations, and the resurgence of Islamic terrorism all offer a number of lessons. At home, just as instructive is the strange juxtaposition between Obama’s suave progressivism and Trump’s coarse conservatism. Here are 10 takeaways from our current controversies.

  1. The prosperity of consumer capitalism does not necessarily lead to constitutional government. China’s haphazard embrace of quasi-market capitalism simply made Beijing richer, more regionally aggressive, and more internally authoritarian once the state allowed its elite and those who were well connected to make all the money they wanted. In the long term, more economic growth may enhance greater personal freedom, but there likely must be preexisting conditions or ongoing political reforms to benefit from economic liberalization.

Read the full article here.

Europe’s Vanishing Calm

victorhanson

Victor Davis Hanson // National Review

Europeans claim to be building a new democratic culture but the governing elites of the European Union consider voters little more than members of reckless mobs.

AVIGNON, France — The Rhone River Valley in southern France is a storybook marriage of high technology, traditional vineyards, and ancestral villages. High-speed trains and well-designed toll roads crisscross majestic cathedrals, castles, and chateaus.

Traveling in a Europe at peace these days evokes both historical and literary allusions. As with the infrastructure and engineering of the late Roman Empire right before its erosion, the Continent rests at its pinnacle of technological achievement.

Read the full article here.