Firehose #130: This Is NOT a Libertarian Podcast, But....

Also: Fifth Column bingo!

What fresh hell is this? TheNuclearBlonde, it would seem, has created a whole-ass Fifth Column bingo game, which we of course do not condone in any way, especially if there’s gambling and booze involved. Which reminds me of a thing listener Matt P. emailed not long ago:

Anyway, we are not at all predictable, so I don’t know what you people are talking about….

* As we have been saying lo these 650+ episodes, this is not a libertarian podcast, though it over-indexes a bit w/ both listenership & POV. However, in those rarified moments when the White House changes political teams, the new guy is slinging E.O.s, and the Red Blob and Blue Blob are transmogrifying their perceptions and opinions on a whole host of issues, that is an excellent time to check in on your friendly neighborhood libertarians for consistent-across-administrations arguments on various controversies in the news. Doesn’t mean they’re/we’re right, but it does mean you’ll be better equipped to argue against them/us!

So, beginning with some of the items discussed in Episode #487, here is some Reason content about pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht: “Why President Trump Should Free Ross Ulbricht” (Zach Weissmueller), “Ulbricht's grossly disproportionate punishment should give pause even to supporters of the war on drugs” (Jacob Sullum), “Ulbricht's Murder-for-Hire Charges Dropped by U.S. Attorney” (Brian Doherty), “Two of the investigating agents, Carl Force of the DEA and Shaun Bridges of the Secret Service, have since Ulbricht's arrest both themselves been arrested for crimes related to their investigation” (Brian Doherty), and “Why Donald Trump Made a Deal To Free Ross Ulbricht” (Zach Weissmueller):

* Moving on to Birthright Citizenship, which we touched upon in the epi but didn’t go deep. Beloved Fif’ legal commentator Damon Root (veteran of #45, #106, #206, Members Only #117, #363, #413 & #462) wrote a cover-story primer on the issue way back in December 2015. Here’s a chunk:

This understanding of the Citizenship Clause is amply supported by the debates surrounding the passage and ratification of the 14th Amendment. For example, the first senator to rise in opposition to [Sen. Jacob] Howard's citizenship proposal was Edgar Cowan of Pennsylvania, a conservative Republican with ties to President Andrew Johnson. "Is the child of a Gypsy born in Pennsylvania a citizen?" Cowan fretted. "Is it proposed that the people of California are to remain quiescent while they are overrun by a flood of immigration of the Mongol race?"

Cowan's concerns were promptly addressed by Republican Sen. John Conness of California. "We are entirely ready to accept the provision proposed in this constitutional amendment," Conness responded, "that the children born here of Mongolian parents shall be declared by the Constitution of the United States to be entitled to civil rights and to equal protection before the law." Even the children of unpopular immigrants, Conness made clear, including the Chinese and the Gypsies, "shall be citizens."

In short, both the supporters and the opponents of the Citizenship Clause understood it to secure birthright citizenship to all but an extremely narrow group of U.S.-born children. The two sides only disagreed about whether this broad grant of birthright citizenship was a good idea to begin with. The original meaning of the Citizenship Clause went unchallenged.

Three decades later, the U.S. Supreme Court gave its stamp of approval to this original understanding in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), in which the Court affirmed the U.S. citizenship of a man born to Chinese immigrant parents in San Francisco who temporarily left the U.S. in order to visit China and was nearly denied re-entry due to the xenophobic Chinese Exclusion Act.

Much like today's undocumented immigrants, Wong Kim Ark's parents were outside the realm of U.S. citizenship. In fact, as persons of Chinese heritage, they were permanently barred from it by the racist terms of the Naturalization Act of 1790, which restricted U.S. citizenship to whites only. Yet despite their status as unwelcome non-citizens, the Supreme Court readily affirmed the birthright citizenship of their U.S.-born son.

Some more recent takes from Jonathan H. Adler (#336), Josh Blackman, and Ilya Somin. Oh hey, and now Justin Amash (#184 & #389).

* And finally, on some of the January 6^th legal cases, and pardons thereof. In reverse chronological order, all from Jacob Sullum: “Biden and Trump Show Presidents How To Abuse Clemency,” “Trump's Blanket Clemency for Capitol Rioters Excuses Political Violence,” “Trump’s January 6 Pardons Could Address Some Real Injustices,” “SCOTUS Rejects a Legal Interpretation Underlying Capitol Riot Charges,” “Stewart Rhodes Gets 18 Years After the DOJ Reiterates a Conspiracy Claim That Jurors Rejected,” and “Do These Seditious Conspiracy Convictions Prove the Capitol Riot 'Was Not Spontaneous'?”

* OK! Enough Reason crapola. Well, almost:

* We also talked in #487, and will certainly discuss again, Trump’s executive orders yanking the rug out underneath both the recent Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) bureaucratic infrastructure and also the post-1960s federal affirmative action superstate. Taking a victory lap for Trump’s colorblind-o-rama is old pal Coleman Hughes (#121, #144, #181, #188, #201, #379, #412 & #442). Excerpt:

Trump’s executive order gets closer to the original intent of the civil rights movement than today’s DEI policies. During the Senate debate over the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the bill’s lead sponsor, Senator Hubert Humphrey, famously promised that if anyone could find any language in the Civil Rights Act that required preferential hiring based on percentages or quotas, he would eat the entire bill page by page. In the twenty-first century, it’s today’s progressives who would be the ones chewing. […]

In one sense, Trump is simply riding an anti-DEI wave that he cannot claim credit for. For instance, he could have done this in his first term, but like every Republican since Nixon, he chose not to.

Yet in another way, Trump is demonstrating one of his strengths as a leader: the ability to stop procrastinating and take calculated risks. We saw him exhibit this quality when he moved the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. And we see it today, with his long-overdue rollback of an unpopular DEI establishment.

While most states still have independent race-based policies that are not directly affected by Trump’s directive, this is an important moment in the history of American race relations, and a special moment in the career of this writer: Regardless of what happens, it is not every day that you get to see your ideals enshrined as the law of the land.

Also victory-lapping was anti-DEI activist Chris Rufo (#322), who then followed up with a more personal post titled “What the Left Did to Me and My Family.”

* Moynihan, or shall I say “podcaster extraordinaire and Lisan al-Gaib of the House Un-American Activities Committee,” went on The Remnant this week with Jonah Goldberg (#182) to “defend Bill Buckley, discuss horseshoe theory as it relates to immigration, and critique cheap radicalism…. Plus: the problems with post-liberalism, the slippery slope of foreign policy obsession, and a neocon apologia session.”

* I went on The Gist’s sub-podcast Not Even Mad with host Mike Pesca (#343, #418, #467) and my left-of-center opinion-journalist neighbor Michael Cohen to talk about “Trump’s inauguration, executive actions, refugee policy, DEI, and the eventful first few days of his second term as POTUS.” Plus the all-important connection between Ichiro! and Fidel Castro.

* Speaking of Pesca, he went on Reason’s Just Asking Questions pod this week “to reflect on Trump's inaugural address, … Elon Musk's appearance at the inauguration and Trump's slate of Day 1 executive orders.”

* And what the hell, since we’re already deep into the stuff, here’s what The Reason Roundtable looks like without me hosting:

* Eli Lake (#52, #65, #141, #174, S.D. #51, #326, #368, #407, M.O. #184, M.O. #224) was everywhere this week, rolling out the debut episode (Andrew Jackson! Donald Trump!) of his new joint Breaking History, doing the day-after inaugural take with the Commentary gang, and debating with Glenn Loury (#121, #188, #366) and John McWhorter (#84, #121, #188 & #366) whether Israel post-Oct. 7 has been committing genocide.

* Comment of the Week comes from South Dakota Flag Pole:

The Silk Road forum posts and message exchanges which were evidence for the murder-for-hire indictment of Ross Ulbricht came from corrupt DEA agent Carl Mark Force who had gained administrative access to the site that would allow him to edit the Silk Road database, including forum posts and message exchanges. The supposed murder-for-hire victim, Ross supporter, and one time Dread Pirate Roberts, Curtis Green, said he read through his old posts and claims the posts were not his words and that someone modified the posts. Admin access also allowed Force and Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges to steal Bitcoin from Silk Road. They both went to prison. So, it is no wonder the murder-for-hire indictment was never prosecuted.

https://freeross.org/false-allegations/

Walkoff music (thanks, McCaffeinated!) salutes a real one we lost this week: