CHANGE: DHS issues sweeping rules for immigration crackdown.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday released details on how it will prosecute undocumented immigrants and criminal immigrants under President Trump.

The two memos from Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly expand immigration raids and the definition of criminal aliens, while diminishing sanctuary areas and enlisting local law enforcement to execute federal immigration policy.

Under the rules, federal officers will no longer consider any category of “removable alien” as exempt from removal, except for those protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program started under President Obama.

In a call to explain the policy changes, officials from DHS insisted that they are not seeking to begin a program of mass deportations in the United States.

“We do not have the personnel, time or resources to go into communities and round up people and do all kinds of mass throwing folks on buses. That’s entirely a figment of folks’ imagination,” said DHS official on a press call, according to the Washington Post.

“This is not intended to produce mass roundups, mass deportations.”

Yet the memos appear designed to set the stage for an aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration, with law enforcement officials granted new powers to carry out deportations.

I wonder if Trump will deport as many people as Obama did?

RICK MORAN: DHS Orders Breathtaking Crackdown on Illegal Immigration.

SOLID ADVICE: Stop Chuck Todd Before He Tweets Again.

Well and good to mock the unfiltered 3 a.m. Trump tweets. But what of the many thousands of tweets by those who cover the president, all launched into the vast Twitterverse without benefit of an editor’s skeptical eye? Often these tweets reveal more about the tweeter than Mr. Trump.

The New York Post recently fired a sportswriter for a tweet likening Mr. Trump’s inauguration to the Pearl Harbor and 9/11 attacks. Before that a Politico contributing writer tweeted out a suggestion the president might be having an incestuous relationship with his daughter Ivanka.

As over-the-top as these may be, they are less damaging than the steady stream of self-indulgence emanating from the Twitter feeds of those covering Mr. Trump. The defining characteristics of such tweets are two: near uniformity on substance and a tone of moral superiority. Even the New York Times public editor admitted certain tweets by her paper’s reporters were “outrageous” and deserving of “some kind of consequence.”

Jake Tapper and Salena Zito’s Twitter feeds are well worth following, but they’re exceptions to the rule.

THAT SEEMS TO BE HOW INSTAPUNDIT READERS SEE IT: Trump’s ‘Warrior-Scholar’ Praised as ‘Fantastic Choice.’

A roundup of reactions:

Politico describes McMaster, author of a 1997 book on America’s mishandling of the Vietnam war, as “one of the military’s leading warrior-scholars” and predicts that he will help Trump build bridges with GOP defense hawks like John McCain, who praised McMaster on Monday as “a man of genuine intellect, character, and ability.”

Retired Lt. Gen. David Barno tells the Washington Post that he knows McMaster well and he believes the general will excel at coordinating policy. “I don’t see HR as director of an orchestra; I see him as someone who is getting all the instruments to play together,” Barno says.

Cosmopolitan rounds up eight things to know about McMaster, including the fact that he “is known for standing up for his beliefs” and was chosen as one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People” in 2014.

National Review reports that Charles Krauthammer, one of Trump’s fiercest conservative critics, described the choice as encouraging, noting that McMaster’s willingness to go against prevailing opinion of the time when planning the Iraq troop surge shows “this is a guy who will say what he thinks and promote what he wants.”

At Business Insider, Paul Szoldra praises McMaster as a “fantastic choice,” not least for the great deal of respect he commands from the troops

The AP notes that McMaster has a “reputation for being willing to speak truth to power”—and he “appears to hold a much dimmer view than Trump of Moscow’s military and political objectives in Europe.”

Cosmopolitan? Really? What’s next, Teen Vogue? Oh, right. . . .

WELL, OK THEN: There Is No American ‘Deep State’

Be wary of any article beginning with “Experts on…”

INSTAPUNDIT READERS HAVE BEEN AWARE OF THIS FOR A WHILE: The Next Financial Crisis Might Be in Your Driveway.

Lured by low interest rates, low gas prices, and a crop of seductive vehicles that are faster, smarter, and more efficient than ever before, American drivers are increasingly riding in style. Don’t be fooled by the curb appeal, though—those swanky machines are heavily leveraged.

The country’s auto debt hit a record in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, when a rush of year-end car shopping pushed vehicle loans to a dubious peak of $1.16 trillion. The combination of new car smell and new credit woes stretches from Subarus in Maine to Teslas in San Francisco.

It’s an alarming number, big enough to incite talk of a bubble. In fact, the pile of debt would cover the cost of 43.4 million Ford F-150 pickups, one for every eight or so people in the country.

Another way to look at: Every licensed driver in the U.S., on average, owes about $6,100 in car payments.

The self-inflicted problem which nearly killed GM and Chrysler a decade ago was a combination of two factors: Relying on subprime borrowers to goose sales, and “channel stuffing” unsold (and often unsalable) inventory. When Detroit ran out of customers and was sitting on top of months worth of inventory, the proverbial stuff hit the fan.

A downturn on lean inventory would hurt, but no worse than any typical recession. A downturn on stuffed channels would be like 2007-08 all over again.

I’ve seen reports that GM may have returned to its bad old habits. IWB reported in December that GM had fleetwide average of 87 days worth of inventory on hand (60 days is the industrywide standard/goal), but with four-to-six months worth of certain Chevy, Buick, and Cadillac models left unsold.

The best thing for GM might be for a recession to come too soon for them to build up much more inventory.

SCOTT ADAMS: “Twitter shadowbans me so I can’t depend on that platform for the long run. We’ll see how Google and Youtube treat me.”

EIGHT YEARS AGO, ON INSTAPUNDIT:

SEEKING ALPHA: Santelli’s Chicago Tea Party: The Quest for Our Nation’s Soul.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

I attended a brunch in the Oakland Hills this morning and, other than me and the children under the age of five, there was not a single person who had not voted for President Obama. Someone asked me what folks thought of the mortgage bailout and while my answer was predictable, the level of distaste for it was enormous. This included a couple (each a state worker) I know to be underwater on their mortgage. “We’re paying our mortgage because we agreed to do it. But maybe we should stop.” was what that couple said and most seemed to agree. A crowd of state workers, college professors, practicing psychologists and the like in up-rent, deep blue Oakland (the precinct went 254-37 Obama over McCain) – and they all thought it was crap.

I think a lot of people feel this way.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Joshua Dixon writes:

I had my “something in the air” moment this weekend.

My father-in-law, a life-long Minnesota Democrat, visited our house for the first time since the election. When he walked into the kitchen he looked sick. After greeting the family, he hesitated and said, “The Democrats are doing everything they can to ruin this country. My grandchildren won’t live long enough to pay off that stimulus bill. I may as well become a Republican, because there’s not going to be another Democrat elected to national office while I’m alive.”

It’s one thing to read blogs or watch videos about a supposed rebellion building among the population. It’s something else to see an old man you’ve known and respected for years be heartsick and broken from the actions of a party he’s supported his whole life.

Well, heartsick, maybe. But instead of “broken,” suggest he try “determined to fix things.” And, you know, it wouldn’t take a lot of Congressional Democrats changing their minds to make a difference.

MORE: Reader Kurtis Fechtmeyer writes:

I can certainly attest to your earlier email report from Oakland Hills, which is where I also live.

The Oakland Hills is the heartland of affluent support for the Obama brand, and yet no one is interested in the least in defending his mortgage plan (or any of his economic policies for that matter).

The problem for the next generation of Republicans if they are to take advantage of this disaffection is: (a) developing simple, yet intelligent, counter-solutions and (b) getting those solutions heard through the left-liberal media fog.

Indeed. But even the Boston Globe is noting the problem.

File under how the Dems blew their chance at a long-term realignment.

INTERESTING: The Problem With Calling Something “Interesting”.  Or maybe “Fascinating.”

FROM KIM DUTOIT: A Reason To Live.
And he’s still trying to recover financially, too.

MEL BROOKS LEAST FUNNY MOVIE: How the inner pain of a circus freak became a surprise hit.

I’VE ALWAYS SAID THIS: Terrific Idea.

GOING, GOING, GONE:  Top 11 [How do you pick? – ed.  With difficulty- Sarah] crazy anti-trump rants from Shia Labeouf.

AND SPEAKING OF COMMITTEES: Sense and Sensitivity.

IN THE EMAIL FROM JOSEPH CALDARA: Bob and the Cyber-Llama.

HE HAS A POINT: Though honestly, I’ve had my pms marked as spam while talking about my cats’ antics.  It’s faceplant.  BUT if they’re following twitter and empowering a committee of the perpetually offended to control content… maybe it’s time we looked elsewhere.  Sinking ships and all that. Big Tech Is Not Your Friend.

AND I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES THE DANGER: The Media Strikes Back: Milo, Lies, and Videotape.

ONE NIGHT IN STOCKHOLM: Overnight Riots In Predominantly Immigrant Stockholm Suburb.

Ann Althouse asks: “What if Trump’s TV is some freaky Twilight-Zone thing and he can see the future?”

Plus, from a friend on Facebook:

One day in Sweden makes the press corps grumble
They thought that Trump was caught in fantasy
One day in Sweden and the migrants rumble
Can’t be too careful with your company
I see Stockholm Syndrome sliding next to me.

Really, quite good. Right up there with One Night In Buckhead.

AT AMAZON, big savings on DVDs. Or, if you can’t wait, Amazon Instant Video.

Plus, save in Arts, Crafts, and Sewing.

WAIT, EVEN WITH PRIME MINISTER ZOOLANDER? Poll: Majority of Canadians distrust government.

NOW UP TO #5 ON AMAZON: H.R. McMaster’s Dereliction Of Duty.

WHEN FREAKOUTRAGE RUNS OUT OF STEAM: “Forty minutes after it began, less than 10 people had attended Monday evening’s ‘Not My Presidents Day’ protest in Market Square in Knoxville. . . . The event consisted of five or six people arguing with a lone Donald Trump supporter.”

UPDATE: Link was bad before. Fixed now. Sorry!

CHANGE: As They Dig Deeper Into Parenting, Fathers Seek Community, Support. It’s been a while, but when the Insta-Daughter was little, as a hands-on dad I felt a degree of . . . well, not quite hostility, but certainly not support from all the moms at playgrounds, dance class, etc.

AT AMAZON, save on bestsellers in Automotive.

Plus, spring deals in Home and Garden.

HMM: Many Physicians, Nurses Want Pain Removed as Fifth Vital Sign. So physicians were undertreating pain, the government and insurance companies got involved, now there’s concern that they’re overtreating pain.