So new border tsar Tom Homan is actually doing a great job.
The border has seen illegal traffic plummet – by about 96% - deportation of criminal illegals have continued apace, and, presumably, the number of calls back home to tell relatives to come on up has evaporated.
But that does not mean Homan is perfect – his take on the arrest of awful awful human/Columbia University pro-Hamas protest “leader” (or instigator or guy who helped funnel money to it or whatever – this person is not a mere innocent) Mahmoud Khalil is problematic, to say the least.
Again, Khalil is, shall we say, terrorist-adjacent and is in the country on a green card (student visa, got married, you do the math) and a 30-year-old grad student who lives in university-owned housing (a sweet deal in Manhattan.)
So he was arrested and is facing deportation and if he committed any overt act that’s fine – clang, bang, see ya’, ya’ ingrate.
But at least part of Homan’s public justification of the arrest has included the concept of not being able to yell “fire in a crowded theater” and that is worrisome.
Because it is actually an oversimplification of the issue of free speech and false to boot and typically used by people who wish to quash the free speech rights of others simply because they do not agree with what is being said.
Putting aside the specifics of the Khalil case, Homan and his staff should know that that phrase has no legal standing and that precedent created in 1919 by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.– the particular case involved a guy was handling out socialist leaflets and got arrested for it – has been long overturned.
While misusing the term is understandable in certain cases, one must guard against the same inclinations of the true totalitarianism of the left.
Short of the “clear and present danger” standard, free speech must remain paramount if this new administration is to continue advancing its agenda without losing its way, without giving its opponents “see – we told you Trump’s a dictator!” ammunition.
Well, usually…
Trump’s wrecking DOGE continues smashing through DC, much to the horror of, um, well, people who work for and with the government and pretty much exactly no one else.
Imagine anyone in their right mind thinking this paragraph should be taken in the same heart-wrenchingly emotional way as a story headlined “My kitten died in a woodchipper.” Well, CNN does:
“Another current IRS employee, who works outside Washington and is a local union leader, said it’s now routine to see people crying in the office and managers going around apologizing for firings they had no decision in.”
IRS employees crying about being laid off…with pay… is not the moral equivalent of the. Homestead strike.
And that is where the blob (blob is legacy + mainstream + government paid for + deep state + dependent QUANGOs + the people who are married to the people who work for them) media is missing the point and continuing to damage its credibility with the general public.
No one – except for their relatives – feels bad for a bureaucrat who gets fired…. ever.
And that’s why the DOGE effort is popular and will remain so – it’s because they are doing stuff.
And we all know doing stuff is annoying – that’s why government reform efforts tend to fall flat.
Once in a position to actually change things, most efforts just peter out. It becomes tiresome, self-doubt – fueled by the media – creeps in and you want to be popular at DC cocktail parties.
And that’s why speed is so important, because even the Mountain Dew-mainlining DOGEkids will eventually get burned out or distracted or get a better offer.
That’s because, eventually, doing things becomes annoying, hence this from the good people at History Matters:
This week’s epigram is an epigram – wow!
A clear conscience is the sign of a bad memory.
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