IN PURSUIT OF E.B. WHITE ANDREW FERGUSON SEPTEMBER 11, 2017 $5.99 A BEATING IN BERKELEY MATT LABASH on antifa mayhem and malice A photographer being attacked by masked demonstrators, August 27 WEEKLYSTANDARD.COM Contents September 11, 2017 • Volume 23, Number 1 2 The Scrapbook Hillary’s book tour, distracted walking, & more 5 Casual Joseph Epstein on the reign of shabby chic 6 Editorial The Law Is King 14 Articles 9 It Can’t Happen Here BY BARTON SWAIM Trump and fascism 11 The Merit System BY CANDICE MALCOLM What America can learn from Canada’s immigration policies 13 Evangelist to the Press Corps BY FRED BARNES Michael Cromartie, 1950-2017 14 Pyongyang’s Playbook BY ANTHONY RUGGIERO Tehran has studied it well 15 Bringing the Senate to Heel BY JAY COST Many presidents have tried; many have failed 17 Feeding the Crocodile BY PHILIP TERZIAN Remember Kim Jong-un? Features 18 A Beating in Berkeley BY MATT LABASH Antifa mayhem and malice in Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park 27 Regulatory Rollback BY ADAM J. WHITE Paging the attorney general: the administrative state won’t deconstruct itself Books & Arts 18 30 Writer’s Seat BY ANDREW FERGUSON HELENA ZEMANEK A walk through the home that inspired E. B. White’s essays and stories 35 Mutiny and Identity BY JAMES M. BANNER JR. A forgotten episode that rocked American politics 38 Paper, Plastic—or Prime? BY VICTORINO MATUS The past and future of the American supermarket 40 Terror and Slow Justice BY ANN MARLOWE Dragging Libya to court for a deadly 1989 hijacking 42 Poetry and Prayer BY JAMES MATTHEW WILSON Two new collections that grapple with grief, hope, and faith 42 44 Parody Category 4 Trump COVER: STEPHEN LAM / REUTERS / NEWSCOM THE SCRAPBOOK Tragical Herstory Tour illary Clinton is hitting the road in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and performance remain empty. It’s a book H (or more likely the chartered Michigan, respectively.) tour as electoral map. skies) to promote her new memoir, These are not exactly arena-rocker The prices for tickets vary. None due out September 12. It’s a book venues. Typical is Jackson Hall on the of them will leave the featured whose title might have better cap- campus of the University of California, speaker dead broke. The cheap seats tured the author’s state of mind if it Davis, a place with just 1,801 seats. As in Florida start at $50. But that bar- had included a question gain price isn’t really mark: What Happened. the Clinton style. More In a bold prediction, in keeping with Bill her publisher says of the and Hillary’s money- upcoming book tour, making habits are the “She’ll connect with audi- “VIP Platinum Tickets” ences” with “a story that’s available for the Cana- personal, raw, detailed, dian shows, tickets that and surprisingly funny.” include: “Front Row Indeed, the tour’s title, Seating, Admission for “Hillary Clinton: Live,” Two, Back Stage Meet makes it sound like a foray and Greet with photo and into late-night comedy. signed Book.” All for a Or better yet, a folk mere $3,000 (Canadian). artist on a comeback The woman who lost tour: Clinton is hitting to Trump promises she’s at least 15 concert halls ready to let it all hang in the United States and out: “In the past, for rea- Canada, places such as the Riverside we go to press, three of the American sons I try to explain, I’ve often felt I Theater, Kimmel Center Academy of dates had gone on sale: those in New had to be careful in public, like I was Music, and, appropriately, Hill Au- York City, Washington, D.C., and Fort up on a wire without a net,” Hillary ditorium. (She might have thought Lauderdale. Those first two sold out laments. “Now I’m letting my guard about visiting those particular places quickly. But as of this writing, some down.” That’s doubtless easier for her last fall instead of this one: They’re half the seats for the Sunshine State to do with no blue wall to defend. ♦ in a culturally accurate to a living, terrestrial In a Handbasket Dept. way holds significance human—Harbour— ctor Ed Skrein (don’t worry if for people, and that to rather than an honest- A you’ve never heard of him, THE neglect this responsi- to-goodness denizen SCRAPBOOK hadn’t either) was re- bility would continue of the Inferno. “Bloody cently hired for a supporting role in a worrying tendency to typical,” Malacoda, an a new movie adaptation of the Hellboy obscure ethnic minor- activist in the Eighth comic book franchise. He was to play ity stories and voices Circle of Hell, posted a military man named Major Ben in the Arts.” on Facebook. “It’s a Daimio. Unbeknownst to the hapless David Harbour, the measure of prejudice young Skrein, however, in the origi- actor chosen to play against demons that nal comic books, Daimio is an Asian the lead in the movie, Hollywood takes a character. A Twitter mob descended applauded the mob: “Hey internet. white actor and paints him a ridicu- on the actor, who is not Asian, accus- Thank you for your voices,” he tweet- lous shade of red, when any number ing him of being an accessory to the ed. “An injustice was done and will of infernal actors of natural cochineal crime of “whitewashing.” be corrected.” hue would kill—well, at least eternally Knowing what was good for him, Overlooked in the controversy torment—to get that role. And they Skrein skedaddled. He announced were social media posts from various wouldn’t even need CGI batwings.” he was leaving the production: “It is demons angry that the prime role in On Twitter, an outraged goblin clear that representing this character Hellboy has once again been awarded named Farfarello added, “Just like DEMON, BIGSTOCK COMMISSION; FIGURE, BIGSTOCK. BELOW: CTBTO PREP. SEATS, TOP: 2 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 11, 2017 Potter series—goblins played by non- goblins in ludicrous makeup. SAD!” The Malebranche branch of Ac- tors’ Equity is joining forces with organizers in the Lowerarchy, no- tably a “senior tempter” named Screwtape. “Mine has been one of the truly authentic voices in the underworld,” he said in a statement issued by his spokesman, Toadpipe. “And yet time and again when my words have been adapted, the actors hired have been sinners, yes—some of them admirably robust sinners— but not real demons. For shame.” ♦ Book ’Em, Danno! merican cities are discovering A a new public health threat. But don’t worry: They are passing laws against it—and will soon start collect- ing fines that go into city coffers. The scourge in question is “dis- tracted walking.” It turns out that many pedestrians crossing streets are so glued to their smartphones that they fail to pay attention to traf- fic signals and passing cars. In their wisdom, cities are concluding that if the prospect of being flattened by a speeding vehicle doesn’t encourage phone addicts from watching where they walk, perhaps a small fine will. In July, Honolulu became the first city in the country to pass such an ordi- nance. It bans “texting or anything else requiring the pedestrian to look at the device, including using laptop comput- ers, video gaming devices and pagers, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertis- That said, the whole issue brings while crossing a city street or highway,” er. Fines start at $15. Stamford, Conn., to mind the old joke: Why did the is considering a similar law. chicken cross the road? It can’t re- We at THE SCRAPBOOK are no ex- member—it was too busy posting a perts on Charles Darwin, but if mem- selfie on Instagram. ♦ ory serves, we believe On the Origin of Species contains an extended section Do Do That Voodoo on the adaptation habits of cell phone addicts who cross busy intersections. That You Do So Well It’s between the chapters on the wool- ow’s this for irony: Dawn Ben- ly mammoth and the dodo. H nett, who used to host a radio In fairness, pedestrian traffic show called “Financial Myth Busting” deaths are on the rise. But that in- (italics ours), allegedly attempted to use crease could just as easily spring from a voodoo curse to hobble investigators distracted drivers as from distracted who were pursuing her on allegations walkers. We’ll be sure to look up the of running a Ponzi scheme. relevant statistics while driving home Reuters reports that prosecu- this evening. tors “disclosed the discovery in an TRUCK AND FIGURE, BIGSTOCK SEPTEMBER 11, 2017 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 3 Aug. 2 search of Bennett’s penthouse Washingtonian reports that Quinn in Chevy Chase, Maryland, of two “reveals that, in her less mellow days, freezers containing sealed Mason jars she put hexes on three people who bearing the initials of U.S. Securities promptly wound up having their lives and Exchange Commission lawyers, ruined, or ended.” www.weeklystandard.com on whom Bennett may have hoped So maybe voodoo does work after Stephen F. Hayes, Editor in Chief to cast a ‘hoodoo spell.’ ” (Though no all—it just depends on the voodoo- Richard Starr, Editor ista. Two-bit con-artist radio hosts? Fred Barnes, Robert Messenger, Executive Editors Eric Felten, Managing Editor Nah. But exalted longtime religion Christopher Caldwell, Andrew Ferguson, columnists for one of the nation’s Lee Smith, Philip Terzian, Senior Editors Peter J. Boyer, National Correspondent leading newspapers? Now there’s a Barton Swaim, Opinion Editor woman with the magic touch! ♦ Adam Keiper, Books & Arts Editor Kelly Jane Torrance, Deputy Managing Editor Jay Cost, Mark Hemingway, Matt Labash, John McCormack, Theme Park Bards Tony Mecia, Michael Warren, Senior Writers Jonathan V.