LAPD Chief Refuses to Enforce Trump Immigration Law

With sanctuary cities across America furiously defiant over the new administration’s threats to halt Obama’s taxpayer-funded law-breaking, AP reports that President Trump is reviving a program that deputizes local officers to enforce federal immigration law…police leaders across America have already responded with LAPD chief Charlie Beck perhaps the most vocal, saying in November, he has no plans to follow Trump’s demands, “we are not going to engage in law enforcement activities solely based on somebody’s immigration status. We are not going to work in conjunction with Homeland Security on deportation efforts.”

‘Calexit’ supporters can start work to make ballot.

Californians who want their state to secede from the United States can now start collecting signatures to put the initiative on the 2018 ballot. The California secretary of state’s office announced that the group could begin collecting signatures on Thursday. The group needs 585,407 signatures from registered voters over the next 180 days to qualify for the ballot. If the 2018 ballot initiative passes, it would force a 2019 statewide special election asking voters if they want California to become an independent country.

Causes of the Civil War: A Balanced Answer

What caused the American Civil War? It is amazing that even today, nearly 150 years after the Civil War started, there is passionate debate regarding the “cause” of the Civil War. Consider this: it is a fact that when the armies for the North and South were first formed, only a small minority of the soldiers on either side would have declared that the reason they joined the army was to fight either “for” or “against” slavery. However, equally true is the statement: “Had there been no slavery, there would have been no war. Had there been no moral condemnation of slavery, there would have been no war.”

I am a self-taught student of American history. If I substitute “immigration” for “slavery” in the debate of the causes of the War between the States, it gives me a headache. I am not equating chattel slavery with illegal immigration, but I see people vociferously defending “undocumented aliens” and attempting to justify all of the outcomes and consequences, regardless of the apparent illogical aspects of their arguments. The states that became the Confederacy did similar things in the years leading up to the Civil War.  I see the opposing ideologies drawing up on one side and the other, seemingly ready to throw down during these “spontaneous, homegrown” demonstrations we see at airports and on college campi. There is no good ending to this if we keep going down this road.

Do I think we will end up fighting the Second War between the States? No, of course not. But I am at a loss to know what to do, when a duly deputized officer of the law, the top cop in one of America’s largest cities, refuses to uphold the laws he was sworn to uphold.

The storm clouds are out there. Until they get here, perhaps we can enjoy the open thread…