Tuesday, October 30, 2018
American Historians Today
American Historians Today
“Our Union rests upon public opinion, and can never be cemented by the blood of its citizens shed in civil war. If it cannot live in the affections of its people, it must one day perish.” President James Buchanan, 1860
“A poll of American historians, not long ago, chose James Buchanan as “the worst” American president. But judgements of “best” and worst” in history are not eternal and indisputable truths. They are matters of perspective and values, even of aesthetics. They can change as the deep consequences of historical events continue to unfold and bring forth new understandings.
These historians show their characteristic failure to pursue balance and their subservience to presentism and state worship. They think Buchanan should have ordered a military suppression of the seceded Southern States during the last months of his term of office in 1861.
Not only do they have no sympathy for a desire to avoid civil war, but they totally fail to understand the context. There was only a small army, most of the best officers of which sympathized with the South, and there were eight States that had not seceded but were averse to the action against the Confederacy.
More importantly, there was an immense and powerful and even predominant States’ rights tradition that had its followers in the North as well as in the South. For most Americans, even many who had voted for Lincoln, coercion of the people of a State was unthinkable until it became a fact. These historians prefer Lincoln as our “greatest” president.
He had less than two-fifths of the popular vote, but he had an aggressive rent-seeking and office-seeking coalition behind him, and he did not hesitate to make war, though he had egregiously miscalculated, expecting an easy victory.
That there was much intelligent and respectable opposition to him in the North is perhaps the biggest untold story of American history. Ex-president [Millard] Fillmore said that Lincoln’s election justified secession. Horatio Seymour, the governor of New York, asked pointedly why Lincoln was killing fellow Americans who, indeed, had always been exemplary citizens and patriots ready to defend the North against foreign attack.
A New York editor wanted to know exactly where Lincoln got the right to steal the possessions and burn the houses of Southern noncombatants. On July 4, 1863, while the battle raged at Gettysburg, Buchanan’s predecessor, former President Franklin Pierce, denounced Lincoln’s war in plain words in an extended oration in the capitol at Concord, New Hampshire.
The predominant American historical perspective among American historians today is that imported by communist refugees from Europe in the 1930s. American history is now Ellis Island, the African diaspora and Greater Mexico, and Old America has almost disappeared from attention except as an object of hatred.
For today’s historians, unlike James Buchanan, Southerners are not fellow countrymen and real people, but class enemies who should have been destroyed.”
(Updike’s Grandfather. A Review of “Buchanan Dying: A Play”; Clyde Wilson, Chronicles, January 2014, excerpts pg. 24. www.chroniclesmagazine.org) (Posted at www.Circa1865.org)
Migrant Caravan: U.S. Military Will Have Up to 14,000 Troops, Many Armed, Ready to Intervene at Mexico Border. Also 7,000 on stand by
Via Dan
The U.S. military will have an actual force of up to 14,000 ready to intervene at the southern border with Mexico, including an additional 7,000 planned deployment in reserves on round-the-clock standby.
The Pentagon announced Monday that it will send up to 5,200 troops to the border ahead of the anticipated arrival of a caravan of Central American migrants that President Donald Trump has warned would not be able to enter the country. These troops, which "are in fact deploying with weapons" will join up to 2,000 National Guards already at the border for a combined force of about 7,200—or about the same amount of U.S. soldiers involved in the battle against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria.
The U.S. military will have an actual force of up to 14,000 ready to intervene at the southern border with Mexico, including an additional 7,000 planned deployment in reserves on round-the-clock standby.
The Pentagon announced Monday that it will send up to 5,200 troops to the border ahead of the anticipated arrival of a caravan of Central American migrants that President Donald Trump has warned would not be able to enter the country. These troops, which "are in fact deploying with weapons" will join up to 2,000 National Guards already at the border for a combined force of about 7,200—or about the same amount of U.S. soldiers involved in the battle against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria.
More @ Newsweek
Goodies from Ol' Remus
As noted for the photo of Jennings, Maryland in Woodpile Report 549, Garret County is where West Virginia, southern Pennsylvania and western Maryland meet.
The stove is branded "New Torch Light" and almost certainly did duty as both cook stove and heating stove.
The nation state has an implicit contract. Pay your taxes and obey the laws even if no cop is watching, and we will do our best to protect you. When they fail to protect you, that is probabilities and strategic issues, as long as they tried. Now they don’t even try, and go beyond even that and actively try to harm you for their own power and profit. You have no moral obligation to uphold your side of the bargain, since they abandoned theirs.
Breitbart - Pope Francis Compares Populists to Hitler, Born of ‘Hate’ ... migrants
must be welcomed with an open heart and open doors Courthouse News - Judge Bolsters Orders on Fast and Furious InvestigationA federal judge tore into the government Monday for trying to vacate court orders that denied privilege over records on the botched gun-running operation known as Fast and Furious.
Urban Survival Site - 18 Tips For Bug Out Vehicles ... a four-wheel drive vehicle and plenty of gas is just the start
Edward Erler at American Mind restates what was once accepted and obvious:
Victor Hanson muses on the contradictions of the "caravan" approaching the southern border through Mexico in his essay at American Greatness. This excerpt stands out even from such rich pickings as Mr. Hanson provides:
Porter at Twitter, via WRA:
Every migrant thus represents a new marginal burden. One more person you must praise and provide for as they insult and demand.
Opposition shouldn't be a surprise.
Samuel Culper at Forward Observer comments on the "developing relationship between the Democratic Party and militant left wing groups"
What we’re seeing today with regard to the Democratic Party and Leftist militant organizations at times reminds me of the relationships often found during insurgencies.
Steve Schmidt Blames Jews: Breitbart, Rush, Levin for Synagogue Shooting: ‘Blood on Their Hands’
Breitbart News was founded by two Jews — the late Andrew Breitbart and Larry Solov, who is CEO of the company. Many of the editorial and management staff are Jewish (including this author). The site has a devoted Jerusalem bureau, and was the only online media outlet in the U.S., liberal or conservative, to devote special coverage to the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem earlier this year, including an exclusive interview with U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman. Breitbart News has also given special attention to antisemitic attacks; in 2016, the website covered the vandalism of this author’s synagogue, a story that gained national attention.
Mark Levin is also Jewish, reiterating in his show Tuesday — before Schmidt’s remarks — that he is a “proud Jew.” He has received numerous awards from Jewish organizations, including the EMET Speaker of Truth Award in June; he is also being honored this coming Sunday at the annual dinner of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA). Earlier this year, he interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and traveled to Israel for the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.
Piece @ Breitbart
Lindsey Graham to Introduce Bill Ending Birthright Citizenship ‘Magnet’ for Illegal Immigration
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) announced on Tuesday that he plans to introduce legislation ending birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants on American soil, citing it as a “magnet for illegal immigration.”
President Donald J. Trump announced on Tuesday that he plans to draft an executive order to end birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants born in America.Trump told Axios’ Jonathan Swan:
But now they’re saying I can do it with just an executive order. Now, how ridiculous–we are the only country in the world where a person comes in, has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits? It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous–and it has to end.Sen. Graham cheered Trump’s move against birthright citizenship, citing it as a significant “magnet” for illegal immigration.
More @ Breitbart
Mexican Ambassador to U.S.: Some in Migrant Caravan ‘Very Violent’
The leftist media are pushing the narrative that the thousands of migrants from Central America and elsewhere are just people fleeing violence in their homeland, but during an interview with National Public Radio on Monday, Geronimo Gutierrez, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S., described some of them as “very violent.”
“I want to begin with the facts here,” Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep said. “Seven thousand or so people, which is a lot of people – looks like a lot on TV.”“But I do know it’s part of this much larger, somewhat ordinary flow of migrants,” Inskeep said. “So how serious a situation is this in the view of your government?”
Gutierrez called it a “humanitarian crisis” and said the Mexican government is “urging people” to enter the country in accordance with its immigration law and that migrants can seek refugee status in Mexico.
“There was an effort to stop them at the border with Guatemala,” Inskeep said. “And in the end, the government more or less let them in. Is that right?”
More @ Breitbart
West Wing Reads
West Wing Reads
President Trump to Visit Pittsburgh After Synagogue Massacre
“President Trump will visit Pittsburgh on Tuesday to
console victims of the synagogue massacre and their families,” S.A.
Miller reports for The Washington Times. “White House press
secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president, who will be
accompanied by first lady Melania Trump in Pittsburgh, is working to
comfort a country heartbroken by the horrific attack and unify Americans
to confront anti-Semitism everywhere.”
“Anti-Semitism is a plague to humanity,” Sanders said from the White House yesterday.
“The so-called migrant caravan that’s
slowly making its way to the U.S. from Central America is many things to
many people. But one thing seems pretty certain: it’s not about seeking
‘asylum,’ or ‘refugee status.’ It’s about getting to the United States
at all costs,” the Investor’s Business Daily
editorial board writes. “It’s time we take our border seriously, or
we’ll end up like those countries in Europe and the Mideast who find
their nations no longer governable.”
“The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has been one of
the strongest and boldest reforms of President Donald Trump’s first term
in office. According to analysis from The Heritage Foundation, the tax
law will give hardworking Americans tax breaks in every congressional
district and in every state,” Kevin Dayaratna writes in The Daily Signal. See what the average tax cut is in your district here.
“In 2016, President Barack Obama said then-candidate Donald Trump would need a magic wand to deliver on his promise to bring back manufacturing. Turns out, Trump didn’t need a magic wand — all he needed was tax reform,” Abigail Marone writes in the Washington Examiner. “Since President Trump signed the tax cuts, manufacturing has been booming. At least 100 manufacturers have built new facilities, purchased new equipment, hired new employees, and invested in current employees through bonuses and benefit increases.”
Is This Worse Than ’68?
Saturday, in Pittsburgh, a Sabbath celebration at the Tree of Life synagogue became the site of the largest mass murder of Jews in U.S. history. Eleven worshippers were killed by a racist gunman.
Friday, we learned the identity of the crazed criminal who mailed pipe bombs to a dozen leaders of the Democratic Party, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.
From restaurants to Capitol corridors, this campaign season we have seen ugly face-offs between leftist radicals and Republican senators.
Are we more divided than we have ever been? Are our politics more poisoned? Are we living in what Charles Dickens called “the worst of times” in America? Is today worse than 1968?
More @ Patrick J. Buchanan
Special Counsel and Former FBI Director Robert Mueller Accused of Rape By ‘Very Credible Witness ‘
Via Billy
Rreporter Jack Burkman tweeted this out today.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller was accused by a very credible witness today of rape at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City in 2010.
A formal press conference is scheduled for Thursday at noon in Washington DC.
More @ The Gateway Pundit