OH SHUT UP: College Student Explains Why Milk Is Racist.

PHIL HAMBURGER responds to a critic.

There is nothing “anti-elite” in explaining the U.S. Constitution’s representative form of government and its guarantees of rights. Nor is there anything anti-elite in studying the role of class in the development of administrative power.

My scholarship (past and forthcoming) argues that administrative power undermines equal voting rights by shifting much lawmaking power out of Congress into the hands of unelected administrators. My work shows, moreover, that this shift occurred when the knowledge class regretted the boisterous sort of politics that came with equal voting rights. Woodrow Wilson candidly explained that “the reformer is bewildered” by the need to persuade “a voting majority of several million heads”—especially when the reformer needed to influence “the mind, not of Americans of the older stocks only, but also of Irishmen, of Germans, of Negroes.” One could go on at length with such quotes, and certainly administrative power has been dominated by whites of a certain class, but the point is not narrowly about racism. Instead, it is about how a class that expected deference to its knowledge was disappointed with the results of equal suffrage in a diverse society. It therefore welcomed a transfer of lawmaking power out of the elected legislature and into the hands of the right sort of people.

The argument, in other words, is not against an elite, but against the administrative dilution of representative government and equal voting rights.

It seems to me indisputable that things took place as he describes, and that change also seems rather difficult to defend. And, frankly, given the sorry performance of our “elites” in recent decades, I don’t think that “anti-elite” should be regarded as a term of opprobrium. . . .

REX TILLERSON: U.S. policy of ‘strategic patience’ with North Korea over.

“Let me be very clear: the policy of strategic patience has ended. We are exploring a new range of security and diplomatic measures. All options are on the table,” Tillerson told a news conference in Seoul.

He said any North Korean actions that threatened the South would be met with “an appropriate response”.

“If they elevate the threat of their weapons program to a level that we believe requires action, that option is on the table,” Tillerson said when asked about military action.

Tillerson also called on China to implement sanctions against North Korea and said there was no need for China to punish South Korea for deploying an advanced U.S. anti-missile system aimed at defending against North Korea.

China says the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system’s powerful radar is a threat to its security.

THAAD gives Seoul the ability to shoot down ballistic missiles aimed at South Korea. The absence of that ability is a curious security need, unless China’s “security” requires that South Korea (and Japan) is under constant threat from Krazy Kim’s Discount Missile Hut.

TAXPROF: The IRS Scandal, Day 1408: Why Won’t The Media Cover It? Because the press approves of abusing state power to attack political enemies, so long as they’re the right political enemies.

ROGER SIMON: Of Course, Trump Was Surveilled — Isn’t Everybody?

HMM: Was Roger Stone Targeted in Hit-and-Run Incident?

OVERKILL: US ally used Patriot missile to shoot down small drone.

Earlier this week Gen. David Perkins told the Association of the United States Army’s Global Force symposium in Huntsville, Ala. that the strike against an Unmanned Aerial System, or drone, was made by a U.S. ally.

“A very close ally of ours was dealing with a adversary that was using the small quadcopter UASes and they shot it down with a Patriot missile,” he said. “Now, that worked, they got it … that quadcopter that cost $200 from Amazon.com did not stand a chance against a Patriot.”

Good to know!

OK, PICTURES OF SHIPS: A couple of commenters thought I should have included links to photos of the various ships mentioned in my latest Creators Syndicate column, “Emerging Threats Drive the Navy’s Frigate Controversy.” The column is distributed to subscribers by the syndicate and distribution doesn’t include pictures. Editors may add them to support the column. (By the way, realcleardefense.com linked to it this week. That’s always nice.)

But I have some time this morning and photos are a good idea. The Navy needs new frigates that work. Taxpayers deserve to get their money’s worth. So here’s a quickie photo gallery:

A Coast Guard Legend-class National Security Cutter intercepts a semi-submersible carrying 7.5 tons of cocaine. (Superb photo.)

A Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) patrols in the South China Sea.

Destroyers are bigger ships. Here’s an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer underway.

Here’s a photo of a Perry-class frigate firing its 76 mm gun. As the column says, the Perry-class ships have been retired.

RELATED: Navy doesn’t want to discuss cost overruns on the USS Milwaukee LCS.

JOSH KRAUSHAAR: Paul Ryan’s Political Blind Spot. “By pushing through an Obamacare replacement that has little support with the public or his caucus, he’s risking a major political backlash against the GOP.”

The emer­ging mess over selling Ry­an’s ver­sion of health care re­form is ex­pos­ing an un­pleas­ant polit­ic­al real­ity for the fisc­ally re­spons­ible wing of the Re­pub­lic­an Party: People like free stuff, and it’s aw­fully dif­fi­cult to take en­ti­tle­ments away after they’re gran­ted. Ry­an’s en­tire ca­reer has been based on the sunny be­lief that well-in­ten­tioned re­forms have a siz­able con­stitu­ency of voters wor­ried about budget-bust­ing gov­ern­ment giveaways. But there’s a long trail of evid­ence that points the oth­er way. Just look at Trump’s win­ning cam­paign mes­sage, unique for a Re­pub­lic­an, pledging to pro­tect en­ti­tle­ments.

Pres­id­ent George W. Bush learned that the hard way when he tackled So­cial Se­cur­ity re­form at the be­gin­ning of his second term. Al­though Bush claimed a man­date from his reelec­tion, many nervous Re­pub­lic­ans quickly de­fec­ted as Demo­crats ef­fect­ively ex­ploited voter anxi­ety about privat­iz­ing a long-stand­ing pub­lic pro­gram. In 2012, when Ry­an was tapped as Mitt Rom­ney’s run­ning mate, Rom­ney dis­tanced him­self from the “Path to Prosper­ity” budget blue­print that Ry­an had cham­pioned in the House. That didn’t stop Demo­crats from slam­ming the tick­et for sup­port­ing cuts to Medi­care—one ma­jor reas­on why the Rom­ney-Ry­an tick­et ran poorly among work­ing-class voters, es­pe­cially in the Mid­west­ern swing states that would go on to sup­port Trump in 2016.

Congress is warped because the American electorate has yet to accept that other people’s money does eventually run out — and that we are all the other people.

DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH: Teacher quits after primary school students threaten to behead her. “She said she was abused by students when she stopped them from hanging a Syrian flag in the classroom. The woman also said she was pushed into a corner by several students who then began marching around her chanting the Koran. . . . Recently, the principal of that school Chris Griffiths was fired for refusing to allow the department of education to run a counter-extremism program there to target students at risk of radicalisation.”

HOWIE CARR: “It’s going to take Donald Trump and his AG Jeff Sessions a long time to get the Obama stench out of the Justice Department, here and everywhere else.”

WELL, IT WAS THE HOME OF WALTER DURANTY, AFTER ALL. The Grey Lady Soft Pedals Richard Falk.

The United Nations has released a report accusing Israel of practicing “apartheid”, the The New York Times reports. . . . In blithely describing him only as someone “critics” have accused of bias, the Times fails to report that the author of the report, Richard Falk, is a 9/11 Truther with a deeply-felt animus toward Israel. . . . In no sense can Falk be called an impartial or fair minded writer. The Times can and should do better than paying lip service to unnamed “critics”.

Here at Via Meadia, we’re used to this crazy UN stuff. Our core criticism isn’t of predictable haters commissioning a predictable hit job, but of the NYT for failing to give its readers a clear understanding of just who it was who produced this piece. The Times‘ incomplete account also makes top UN officials’ response to the apartheid accusation look weak and potentially irresponsible rather than principled. . . .

Falk’s bias and animus are well known at the UN, and UN officials—who know much more about this than the Times decided to share with its readers—understood that this report was an ugly piece of junk and had no desire to be associated with it in any way. This probably wasn’t about appeasing Trump or Israel, but about a sense of professionalism and due caution asserting themselves.

What the Grey Lady’s readers won’t know due to the horrible framing is that what we have here is actually a good news story about the UN: a number of people in the organization have wised up to Richard Falk and want nothing to do with him. Instances of integrity and objectivity at the UN aren’t so common that they should be passed over in silence; the Times’ readers deserve to know that the long process of reform at the UN actually shows some occasional signs of being successful.

Now if we can just get some reform at the New York Times.

SURELY KREMLIN STOOGE DONALD TRUMP WILL BAIL THEM OUT? Russia announces deepest defence budget cuts since 1990s.

CUE WORLD’S SMALLEST VIOLIN: These 80 Programs Would Lose Federal Funding Under Trump’s Proposed Budget.

How did Paul ever get anything done before Washington started robbing Peter to pay for it?

FEDERAL JUDGE IN WASHINGTON STATE DOESN’T EXTEND HIS ORIGINAL INJUNCTION AGAINST TRUMP TRAVEL BAN:

A federal judge in Washington state whose order blocked President Donald Trump’s first so-called “travel ban” last month on Thursday refused to apply that hold to a second, revised order. The second order remains blocked by a different judge’s ruling.

U.S. District Court Judge James Robart in Seattle ruled that the second order temporarily restricting entry to the United States from some predominantly Muslim nations was different enough from the initial order that his injunction shouldn’t carry over.

HUH. YOU’D THINK SHE WOULD HAVE STOLEN BETTER ONES: Amy Schumer Caught Stealing More Jokes for Netflix Stand Up Special.

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