Blowing Smoke, Reviling America

Gavin Newsom and Whoppi Goldberg show how it’s done

Just two sides of the same coin…

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Yesterday, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit ruled unanimously that President Donald Trump’s federalization of part of the California Army National Guard for the purpose of facilitating the enforcement of federal law in Los Angeles was lawful under Title 10 United States Code § 12406. Governor Gavin Newsome sued the Trump Administration over the federalization of the Guard, arguing that the President had exceeded his authority. But though a federal district judge ruled in his favor, the Ninth Circuit begged to differ:

Affording the president that deference, we conclude that it is likely that the president lawfully exercised his statutory authority [which authorizes federalization of the National Guard] when the president is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.

This decision was in the nature of a dog-bites-man story—quite unremarkable. It was obvious to anyone not blinded by ideological rage that the Governor of California was blowing smoke. His arguments were reminiscent of those put forward by nineteenth-century southern successionists and Jim Crow-era Southern segregationists: a perverted variant of state sovereignty. In word and in action, Newsom and other state officials in California have proclaimed that the federal government has not the authority to enforce federal law in their state. This was risible, as was Newsom’s assertion that the President required state permission to federalize the California National Guard.

As to the latter point, The National Guard is a component of the armed forces of the United States, a national asset. The soldiers currently providing security for federal law enforcement agencies and facilities in LA wear on their uniforms a tag inscribed U.S. ARMY. The National Guard is largely funded by the federal government, and its personnel are trained by the active US Army and US Air Force. It’s true that unlike the active military branches and other reserve components, the National Guard has a dual mission, providing military support to state authorities when not in federal service. But the law provides for its federalization by presidential command, and in this instance, President Trump followed the law.

Liberal as it is, the Ninth Circuit proved loathe to go along with Governor Newsom’s ridiculous power grab—if only because if it had, the Supreme Court would have reversed that decision. And judges dislike being reversed.

Newsom’s claim of a state veto over enforcement of federal law was implied rather than baldly stated, but actions speak louder than words. The violent mobs that have been attempting to prevent federal law enforcement officers from doing their job have the support the Governor, the Mayor of Los Angeles, and numerous other state officials. Here again, their claims of illegality and fascist thuggery are specious. And they know it, which is why they haven’t taken the Trump Administration to court over its immigration law enforcement campaign. The Constitution enjoins the president to see to the enforcement of federal law, and federal immigration law provides for the deportation of illegal aliens. Quod erat demonstrandum.

It follows that all the rage, all the charges of an illegal authoritarian power grab, all the demonization of ICE, all the Nazi comparisons, the whole NO KINGS performance, was nothing but b.s. The dauntless defenders of “our democracy” come off like a tribe of rage monkeys, screaming and shouting, rattling the bars of their cage, throwing their night soil against the wall.

A wonderful example of the lunacy that grips the Resistance was provided last Wednesday on The View by Whoopi Goldberg. When fellow panelist Alyssa Farah Griffin noted that the Iranian ayatollahs have a bad habit of executing gay people, Godlberg lost it. “Let’s not do that,” she wailed, “because if we start with that, we have been known in this country to tie gay folks to the car. I’m sorry, they used to just keep hanging Black people.” And then it got worse.

“The year 2025 in the United States is nothing like if I step foot wearing this outfit into Iran right now,” Griffin said. To which Goldberg replied, “It’s the same! Murdering someone for their difference is not good, whoever does it. Life in modern America and the Islamic Republic is not all that different for minorities. Not if you’re black. Not for everybody.” (Emphasis added.)

This blindness to basic reality, born of an irrational animus against America in the age of Trump, is comical if you will, but also rather horrible. Whoopi Goldberg is a woman. She is black. She lives in America as a highly privileged person. But if she lived in the Islamic Republic of Iran, she’d be chattel, liable for condign punishment for the smallest offence against Islamic law, such as showing her face in public. Iranians who violate the law against homosexuality are executed, typically by hanging from a crane. Political dissidents are routinely tortured and executed. In the Islamic Republic, even children are executed for political and religious offences.

There is no comparison to be made between this evil regime and the United States of America. As National Review’s Noah Rothman so very succinctly put it: “There are hate crimes against gays and lesbians in America, but there are none in Iran because hate is not a crime.” Indeed so. In Iran, hate is the law.

Rothman calls Goldberg’s tirade against America an egregious slander, and that it is. She’s a garbage human being. But really, did Goldberg say anything that would bring down on her head the condemnation of her Resistance comrades? Of course not. Many of them agree with her that America is a vile fascistic regime. And those who in their heart of hearts don’t agree would never venture to criticize her. On the Left, ideological solidarity trumps common decency and common sense, every time.

Gavin Newsom, by channeling the political principles of the founders of the Confederate States of America, has raised his profile among Democrats. That along with Whoopi Goldberg’s anti-American meltdown tells you all you need to know about the dystopian mental landscape of the Left in America today.