Valedictorians with Machetes

by Mark Steyn
Tucker Carlson Tonight
August 9, 2018

https://www.steynonline.com/8752/valedictorians-with-machetes

Programming note: Please join me on Friday, first for three hours of substitute-host level end-of-the-week Open-Line-Friday Excellence in Broadcasting on America's Number One radio show, live across the fruited plain starting at 12 noon Eastern/9am Pacific; and later for a full hour on "Tucker Carlson Tonight", coast to coast at 8pm Eastern.

On Thursday night I guest-hosted for Tucker on a busy evening, starting with the latest stage in the left's embrace of illegal immigration - their rehabilitation of MS-13. Click below to watch:

On the other hand, a Florida Republican candidate was anxious to declare her independence from the Democrats' identity-politics plantation:

Next up came Alan Dershowitz on the supposedly looming Trump-Mueller interview:

Thursday always means Tucker's Final Exam news quiz. This week I chaired a death-match between Geraldo and the Fox Business Network's Susan Li:

We rounded out the show with physicist Michio Kaku and a thoughtful take on President Trump's "Space Force":

We'll post any more video as we get it. You can see the full show here.

~As I've said before, the only thing a guest-host has to do is hold the audience. So I was gratified to see that Wednesday's show was the Number Three cable show and that we helped Fox win the night, more than doubled Anderson Cooper's audience and had half-a-million up on Chris Hayes. I hope you'll join me again on Friday night.

~If you're a member of The Mark Steyn Club please feel free to weigh in below. We have fun in The Mark Steyn Club: for more info, please see here. And, if you know of a wee lad or lassie of a Steynian bent, there's always the perfect birthday present - a Steyn Club Gift Membership - or a stateroom on the inaugural Mark Steyn Club Cruise.

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28 Reader Comments

Josh • Aug 11, 2018 at 05:49

Most gangs prey first on the vulnerable among their own communities. Which is why most MS-13 victims are Latino and why most gunshot victims in Chicago are black. Would the Left care to defend THAT? Talk about "white privilege". You can live on Long Island or in The Loop and know nothing of the carnage and brutality that afflict those who can't escape the tentacles of terror. It is too everyone's shame that we let this "ethnic cleansing" get as far as it has; there must be a VIP room in Hell for those who defend it.

P. Gao • Aug 10, 2018 at 23:31

Still enjoying the slash and burn of M. Mark's nimble commentary... valedictorians with machetes... and that was just the title, there's more!

in idle loose-link chain of thought... valedictorian... says the goodbye speech

David Elliott • Aug 10, 2018 at 16:58

Great to have you back, Mark. Hope the project's mission was accomplished.

Walt Trimmer • Aug 10, 2018 at 12:06

Sometimes I think you need to step back and remember your basic principles and what assumptions you are making to formulate your opinions. The MS-13 "issue" seems to me like political theater designed to distract the masses. Rounding up MS-13 is a minimum performance requirement for an immigration enforcement agency. No one should take notice that you are going after your number 1 enforcement priority. ICE and local police should take about one business week to round them up, after all how hard can it be to identify them? They literally have tattoos on their foreheads. Once rounded up they could be inadvertently deported on banana boats heading back to Central America. Complaining democrats would just move on to another victim group to defend. After MS-13 is out of here we could get on with the enforcement of our laws against the other 11 to 40 million illegal aliens and 700,000 visa overstays every year.

Ray Winchester • Aug 10, 2018 at 11:40

I thought MS13 was a Microsoft update.

Seriously though, the liberals have lost the plot.
I was aboard recently and the hotel had to English speaking channels. CNN and BBC. So no TV for me then as I cannot listen to their fake news agendas.

David Watson

Ray Winchester • Aug 10, 2018 at 12:25

It's worth watching "alternative" media occasionally for several reasons. They're not entirely wrong, just biased, so useful info is available if you understand how to filter it. Ignoring info altogether is a nice respite occasionally, but what you miss might bite you later. Actually, no source is entirely reliable, so practice with your filters is useful everywhere to help us understand our world correctly. CNN isn't the only source that reports incorrectly. We should always be suspicious of all information sources. Nobody has all the answers, especially those who frantically declare their special wisdom How we assemble and validate information determines our success.

Ray Winchester

David Watson • Aug 10, 2018 at 13:29

The BBC do 2 Trump bashes a day and at least 1 brexit bash. They are completely non stories most of the time.CNN is far worse. They are acting like spoiled children. Their illogical arguments make me mad sometimes so I don't watch. We do not have Fox in UK or anything like it. There are some less like the BBC. I will watch them time to time.
The problem with the BBC is we are forced to pay for it. Nearly 70% of the UK no longer trust the MSM.

Ray Winchester

David Watson • Aug 10, 2018 at 13:55

When we are out of the EU we may get our free speech back.
The police got involved because Boris Johnson said burkas look like letter boxes. The head of the London metropolitan police. Supersomething Ms Dick said no crime had been committed. They wouldn't say it though, because they have higher standards.
Everyone has been screaming for him to apologise. He won't.
Nothing about the bullying husband's who make their women wear these ugly garments. I am hoping the hypocrisy stops after brexit.
A lot of that neo-lib rubbish will stop when Trump gets his second term. Boris said he wouldn't ban the burka though. 60% of the UK and I bet at least 50% of Muslims.

David Watson

Ray Winchester • Aug 10, 2018 at 18:41

I don't know that stat for US but it sounds like Brits might be smarter than Yanks. My strategy is don't trust mainstream OR alternate media, but obtain all the information I can and extract what I need. Nobody gets everything right every time. Maybe you can find Fox Mulder in UK. He said "trust no one" but "the truth is out there."

Laura Rosen Cohen • Aug 10, 2018 at 11:27

The left has always fetishized violence. Previously, this was "only" done in print and via politically organizing and demonstrations. Now, the internet helps spread the message and gives it far more reach. Anyone else notice that both of the fans of MS-13 in the video were white women? Nothing to see here. Leftism is a form of nihilism. Ultimately, it leads not just to mass murder and unimaginable violence, but also to suicide of the individual soul and of entire cultures and countries.

David Watson

Laura Rosen Cohen • Aug 10, 2018 at 12:40

It's politically incorrect to notice the breathless fans are white or women or young, or that their love interests are hispanic or male or young. Actually it's considered bad to say so. but what we notice is still up to us, for now. So I can't say I noticed...

If Mark's guest is correct and the gang bangers are losing their noticeable characteristics, that would be a big problem. Being easily noticeable is a good way to avoid them. But that's not how gangs work. Their fans are noticeable too, with about a 10 second conversation. Most of those are usually unarmed, so they're unimportant.

P. Gao

Laura Rosen Cohen • Aug 10, 2018 at 23:39

Aren't they always actors and actresses in these slick production-team absurdities? If they 'volunteered', then they're complete dopes... everyone else writing, directing, producing, filming, editing, got paid for the job. Of course, this crowd loves pushing 'volunteering' on youth so they can dodge paying for other people's labor.

John Shuba • Aug 10, 2018 at 10:52

The attempt to paint MS-13 as a slightly more populous version of a high school chess club must be one of the most bizarre bits of propaganda foisted on a gullible public since the halcyon days of Dr. Goebbels and Pravda. MS-13 was founded by LA street thugs from El Salvador, many of whom had military training. Soon they went from a gang that other gangs held in contempt to be gang that other gangs feared. They have connections to the drug cartels to peddle their product and protect turf in big cities. They have no qualms about killing and killing in a brutal fashion.

The attempt by the fashionable Left to whitewash these cretins is the same thing as if the New Republic described the SA in Weimar Germany as a "spirited organization of athletics and sports enthusiasts who enjoy camping, hiking and parading for the delight of the public - Just another service organization - Sort of like the Shriners."

Laura Rosen Cohen

John Shuba • Aug 10, 2018 at 11:44

"Facts, schmacts."

Roy A Crocker

John Shuba • Aug 10, 2018 at 17:31

John: Occasionally I get to thinking that the left has fallen so far off the deep end that nothing they could possibly come up with could surprise me - and then they go all in for MS-13. Turns out we've misunderstood these young entrepreneurs all along! Who knew? Why it's just a few bad apples in a group of young fellows just trying to make it in America. Makes me wonder how much of the dems base actually buys into this. Republicans may get a good chuckle at this collective insanity but they had better wake up next November or this crowd will be back in control of this country. Ari Fleicher's analysis of the disturbingly close congressional run-off in Ohio - a republican stronghold going way back - show 90% of dems who voted in '16 showed up against 40% of republicans. Even if republicans double this sorry percentage in the mid-terms the democrats will retake the house and Trump will be stopped dead in his tracks.

PK33 • Aug 10, 2018 at 09:46

The recruitment and indoctrination of children is something that gets to me every time. What happened to the story of the Muslims in the filthy trailer in the desert, denying food and water to the children being indoctrinated to commit school shootings? It seemed to be just a blip and then, crickets.

My theory is that because the Left uses the "education system" for their own indoctrination purposes, they don't recognize, or don't want to recognize the damage done to the children. Adults used to be expected to look out for all children and indeed could discipline someone else's child if it was warranted. Of course that is no longer tolerated, an adult would likely find themselves in jail in any case. Children are not considered able to go anywhere on their own now either. I had a paper route when I was young and you can bet my parents weren't supervising me on the deliveries, even though we lived in a fairly rough neighborhood. Children have become political pawns and it does not serve them, nor society well. I suppose that is why so many consider them things and not people. Easier to abort them, easier to allow them to be married off as soon as they hit puberty, easier to program them, if you don't think about them as people with a future and with rights in the present.

OK, went a bit off topic. Rant over.

Laura Rosen Cohen

PK33 • Aug 10, 2018 at 11:37

You can be sure if it was a Christian or Jewish [or insert any other religion except the one that it actually is] it would be cycling 24/7. Also noteworthy is the media omerta on the connection to Women's March leader Linda Sarsour. Ho hum! Nothing to see here.

Wayne Lanham • Aug 10, 2018 at 09:26

That MS13 story truly proves we are delving into madness. As for the Dershowitz story, might there be any chance we could see Mark interview G. Gordon Liddy on the topic of presidential investigations? Lastly, Professor Kaku gave some much needed and much deserved credibility to the establishment of a US Space Force. We are woefully unprepared for precisely the kinds of attacks discussed in that segment.

David Watson

Wayne Lanham • Aug 10, 2018 at 12:54

The organization of military assets boils down to budgets. When they're integrated into another organization, as our current space forces are, their budget gets subjected to whims of bureaucrats further down the line. But elevating them to a separate "force" increases opportunities for political manipulation by civilians who are less likely to know what they're doing. We won't know what's the best approach until the shooting starts. Then we have to rely on the skill and preparation of the warriors.

An old novel "Pentagon" by Drury is an interesting expose of the failures of competing bureaucracies. We had to evict Russians from a Pacific island-turned-fortress but the operation failed because of competition between the services, who all demanded a piece of the action. A fun read, but keep a hankie handy to dab the tears.

Tom Korte • Aug 10, 2018 at 09:24

Great segments!

Steven Payne • Aug 10, 2018 at 05:33

Well durn, I thought I was going to be original and clever by making a joke about space cadets, but I see that Mark has already swatted that down.
So, on a more serious note, we also need to be able to detect and then destroy or divert a rogue asteroid which could impact Earth causing catastrophic damage. We've been lucky so far, but it has happened before and could well happen again.

David Watson

Steven Payne • Aug 10, 2018 at 12:59

NASA is getting better at dealing with asteroids. Probably better to keep the military out of that, unless the asteroids are harboring armed aliens. Identifying feisty aliens nearby would certainly help us focus, globally. Pretty unlikely due to the enormity of the universe.

P. Gao • Aug 9, 2018 at 23:48

whoa. devastating. kudos for giving more exposure to inform the public of this absolutely evil and disgusting media/political travesty. Brutalized child soldiers/gang soldiers groomed to be vicious grown ups and imported into neighborhoods of innocents to attack the citizens. They are what they are, most too late/far gone to save, but worse are the ones who connived to import them and now cover for them.

Fran Lavery

P. Gao • Aug 10, 2018 at 11:42

What is not really shocking to me, after the initial disturbing reports came out earlier in the week is that this is a direct result of following the crumb trails to our horrible immigration policies, except tragically the crumbs are more dead Americans.

Sol Cranfill • Aug 9, 2018 at 23:36

It's time for some tattoo-faced MS-13 gang members to appear with Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street. And today, kids, we learn how to chop other kids into pieces.

Brought to you by the letters "M", "S" and the number 13.

Sounds like a winning campaign theme.

Michael McCallion

Sol Cranfill • Aug 10, 2018 at 09:56

Well put Sol Cranfill; sometimes the adolescent bent of the Hillary residue just seeps out.

Susanna

Sol Cranfill • Aug 10, 2018 at 10:34

Literally lol'd. Maybe Animal from "The Muppets" could be the guest host.

Fran Lavery

Sol Cranfill • Aug 10, 2018 at 10:46

Good one, Sol, and while they're at it, the Leftists who peddle this kind of garbage can have Bert and Ernie explain to the kids why they can't have ICE and straws anymore, too. (That bit repurposed from a funny email circulating today showing a big fat guy's stomach front and center while he's sweating on his porch shirtless trying to find a way to cool off a degree or two in a scorching heat spell with the subtitle about this being the Dems winning platform this November: no ICE and no straws.