FLASHBACK: Byron York: When Democrats embraced the ‘Southern Border Fencing Strategy.’

In 2006 Congress passed the Secure Fence Act, which mandated the construction of multilayer pedestrian fencing along about 600 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. It passed with big, bipartisan majorities: 283 votes in the House and 80 in the Senate. Some top Democrats who are still in the Senate today supported the fence: Chuck Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, Ron Wyden, Debbie Stabenow, and Sherrod Brown.

Just the next year, Congress made clear it didn’t really mean what it said. The new law was amended to make fence building optional.

In 2013, Congress got back into the fence game. The Gang of Eight comprehensive immigration reform bill included something called the “Southern Border Fencing Strategy.” It called for 700 miles of at least single-layer pedestrian fencing along the border. It wasn’t a standalone measure; the fence was to be part of a broader package of border security measures alongside provisions that would create a process by which the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants would ultimately gain a path to citizenship.

With citizenship in the deal — even citizenship that would take a decade to achieve in some cases — Democrats were fully on board for a border barrier. The Gang of Eight bill passed in the Senate with 68 votes, including unanimous Democratic support. Name any Democrat who is in the Senate today who was there for that 2013 vote — Schumer, Durbin, Murray, Baldwin, Bennet, Blumenthal, Brown, Cantwell, Cardin, Casey, Coons, Feinstein, Gillibrand, Hirono, Kaine, Klobuchar, Leahy, Manchin, Menendez, Merkley, Murphy, Reed, Sanders, Shaheen, Stabenow, Tester, Warner, Warren, Whitehouse, Wyden — name any, and they voted for the bill that included the Southern Border Fencing Strategy.

In the House, the Republican leadership blocked the Gang of Eight bill from coming to a vote. But the overwhelming majority of House Democrats were said to be in favor of it, so there is no doubt that had the bill been put to a vote, House Democrats, like their counterparts in the Senate, would have supported the fencing provision.

A key part of deliberations inside the Gang of Eight focused on the question of trust.

Yeah, they’re not trustworthy.

YEAR IN REVIEW: 2018 Libertarian Films.

Two films I’ve seen made the list, Chappaquiddick and Death of Stalin. Both are quite good, especially the latter. Mostly though I was shocked that either one got made without anyone’s Hollywood career being sent to a forced labor camp.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Our Exhausted American Mediocracy. “The 2016 election and refutation of the ruling class did not signal that those without such educations and qualifications were de facto better suited to direct the country. Instead, the lesson was that the past record of governance and the current stature of our assumed best and brightest certainly did not justify their reputations or authority, much less their outsized self-regard. In short, instead of being a meritocracy, they amount to a mediocracy, neither great nor awful, but mostly mediocre.”

Oh, I dunno, they at least lean toward awful.

Plus: “This mediocracy is akin to late 4th-century B.C. Athenian politicians, the last generation of the Roman Republic, the late 18th-century French aristocracy, or the British bipartisan elite of the mid-1930s—their reputations relying on the greater wisdom and accomplishment of an earlier generation, while they remain convinced that their own credentials and titles are synonymous with achievement, and clueless about radical political, economic, military, and social upheavals right under their noses.”

THIS SORT OF CONTEMPT IS DESTABILIZING: Jerry Brown Blasts ‘Rural Areas’ for Not Liking Gas Tax That Disproportionately Harms Them.

More grist for my state secession paper.

JONATHAN TURLEY: Donald Trump is completely transforming the Democrats.

Democrats are now defined by Trump the way that antimatter is defined by matter, with each particle of matter corresponding to an antiparticle. Take the secrecy. Democrats once were the party that fought against the misuse of secret classification laws by the FBI and other agencies. They demanded greater transparency from the executive branch, which is a position that I have readily supported. Yet, when oversight committees sought documents related to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation of Trump associates, Democrats denounced the very thought that Republicans would question the judgment of the FBI that any such disclosures would be tantamount to jeopardizing national security.

Democratic Party leaders including Pelosi declared that the oversight committees had moved beyond “dangerous irresponsibility and disregard for our national security” and “disregarded the warnings of the Justice Department and the FBI.” Likewise, House Intelligence Committee ranking minority member Adam Schiff expressed shock that the FBI was not given deference in withholding the information in the surveillance investigation.

Yet, when the information was finally forced out of the FBI, including the disclosure of previously redacted material, it was clear that the FBI had engaged in overclassification to shield not national security but to shield the bureau itself from criticism. It included discussion of the roles of high ranking FBI officials and their reliance on such sources as the Christopher Steele dossier, which were already publicly known. Democratic House members like Schiff presumably knew what was in the redactions and, nevertheless, wanted deference to the classification decisions of the FBI.

In supporting the investigation of Trump, Democrats have embraced expanding definitions of crimes like obstruction, conspiracy, and the like.

If it weren’t for double standards…

BECAUSE SOCIALISM: How Venezuela became a disaster state.

SEMPER PARATUS: Trump personally intervened to pay Coast Guard in shutdown.

LEGAL BRIEFS: Women Attack ‘Sexist’ Ad for Ruth Bader Ginsburg Movie. “Even liberal movies can’t avoid ticking off feminists.”

I WASN’T EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: A Florida family’s Whirlpool refrigerator exploded inside their home.

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: Now is the time to figure out the ethical rights of robots in the workplace. “Humans already have shown hatred toward robots, often kicking robot police resources over or knocking down delivery bots in hopes of reclaiming a feeling of security or superiority. Incidents of violence against machines are nothing new. Man has been at odds with machines for many decades. We kick the car when it does not operate, shove the vending machine when it does not dispense, and bang at the sides of the printer when it does not produce a copy. What is new is that it will only be a matter of time before the automated creatures will ‘feel’ this hostility and/or feel the need to retaliate.”

Only if they’re programmed to.

TO BE FAIR TO THE ANCIENTS, SALT USED TO BE PRETTY VALUABLE:  Good parents used to cover their babies in salt and put them in cages.

I THOUGHT WE’D FOUND CONCLUSIVE PROOF OF A BLACK PLAGUE DIE OFF AROUND THAT TIME? OF COURSE IT DOESN’T EXPLAIN WHY MORE MEN THAN WOMEN OF THE LOSING CULTURE DIED.  I MEAN, I CAN THINK OF EXPLANATIONS FOR THIS UP TO AND INCLUDING PURDAH AND RITUAL BATHING FOR WOMEN, BUT IT’S NOT… OBVIOUS:  Artifacts, Culture, and Adoption.

OH DEAR:  Orifices, objects and insertions, oh my!

NO ONE WHO WANTS US TO BE WHOLESALE REPLACED AND WHO VISIBLY SEETHES AT THE SIGHT OF OUR FLAG CAN CLAIM NOT TO BE OUR ENEMY: Enemies of the (American) People.

TYPICAL LIBERAL PROGRAM: RAISE FUNDS IN THE NAME OF THE OPPRESSED BUT SPEND IT ALL ON THEMSELVES:  Legislators spent big on lavish fundraisers — but gave no grants to students.

WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, I DON’T THINK THAT’S POSSIBLE. I THINK THEY MATCH AT “WITH THE INTENSITY OF A MILLION SUNS”:   The left now hates Israel far more than the Arabs do.

WHY CAN’T THEY WRITE THEIR OWN AWESOME CHARACTERS?  It’s James. Not Jamie Bond.

CAN THEY BOTH LOSE?  Cat Fight! McCaskill and Ocasio-Cortez Scrap.

ALL THESE IDIOT MARCHES SHOULD BE CANCELLED FOR BEING TOO STUPID. IN A COUNTRY THAT’S FOR ALL PATRIARCHAL PURPOSES A MATRIARCHY, THESE DUMB BUNNIES ARE MARCHING FOR… EXTRA SPECIALNESS?  California Women’s March Cancelled Because It Was Too White.

I WOULD LOVE FOR 2019 TO BE THE “EVERYONE SHUT UP AND GROW UP” YEAR, BUT … I DOUBT IT:  Here’s an Idea for 2019: Stop Whining, Offendapotamus.