This is so unbelievably bizarre.  Esquire even calls it “the dumbest response to the Virginia TV shooting”.  Shaprio (and Breitbart.com, which posted this — Shapiro is the Editor) argues this:  After the Charleston shootings, he says, the “entire political and media establishment” blamed the Confederate flag.  So if they were consistent, he goes on, then we should blame Black Lives Matter and gay pride.

How do you break down lies so compactly mashed together?  No, nobody blamed the Confederate flag in the Charleston shootings.  In fact, there was no mention of the Confederate flag in the mainstream media for about a week afterwards (Shapiro seems to forget that we were all alive when the Charleston shootings happened a few months ago so his attempts to spin it are embarrassing).  However, to the extent that everyone attributed to the Charleston shooting to racism — well, the shooter himself said that was the reason (and the only reason)

And finally, we don’t blame the gun.  This is perhaps the most disingenuous argument coming from the right.  It is this stupid notion that the left blames the thing.  We don’t blame heroin when someone uses heroin, but we still ban it.  Because it is dangerous and some people will use it.  We control it because it is inherently dangerous in the wrong hands.  Is that so complicated?

They are sniffing glue or something at Breitbart.

RELATED ASS-DOM:  Peggy Noonan writes this in the Wall Street Journal — for real:

Something is going on, some tectonic plates are moving in interesting ways. My friend Cesar works the deli counter at my neighborhood grocery store. He is Dominican, an immigrant, early 50s, and listens most mornings to a local Hispanic radio station, La Mega, on 97.9 FM. Their morning show is the popular “El Vacilón de la Mañana,” and after the first GOP debate, Cesar told me, they opened the lines to call-ins, asking listeners (mostly Puerto Rican, Dominican, Mexican) for their impressions. More than half called in to say they were for Mr. Trump. Their praise, Cesar told me a few weeks ago, dumbfounded the hosts. I later spoke to one of them, who identified himself as D.J. New Era. He backed Cesar’s story. “We were very surprised,” at the Trump support, he said. Why? “It’s a Latin-based market!”

Stop the presses.  Peggy Noonan knows a guy who works at a deli who heard a radio show where some Latin people said they liked Trump.  MUST be a tectonic plate shift, right?

On Earth, however….

A new Gallup poll released Monday evening found that 65 percent of Hispanic voters say they have an unfavorable view of Trump, compared with 14 percent who view him favorably— yielding him a net favorable score of -51, well below any other presidential candidate.

UPDATE #2:  From the same Peggy Noonan article, there’s more evidence other than the Dominican Deli focus group…..

I’ve written before about an acquaintance—late 60s, northern Georgia, lives on Social Security, voted Obama in ’08, not partisan, watches Fox News, hates Wall Street and “the GOP establishment.” She continues to be so ardent for Mr. Trump that she not only watched his speech in Mobile, Ala., on live TV, she watched while excitedly texting with family members—middle-class, white, independent-minded—who were in the audience cheering. Is that “the Republican base”? I guess maybe it is, because she texted me Wednesday to say she’d just registered Republican. I asked if she’d ever been one before. Reply: “No, never!!!”

That’s interesting, Peggy.  One problem: there is no party registration in Georgia.  Make stuff up much?

Steve Benen weighs in:

And 43 years ago, everyone Pauline Kael knew just couldn’t wait to vote for McGovern.

Look, I’m willing to take Noonan at her word. Let’s say she really does have occasional chats with the guy behind her local deli counter. Let’s also say her – and Cesar’s – characterization of the callers to the local radio station are accurate. While we’re at it, let’s go ahead and assume that the conservative pundit just happens to keep meeting immigrants out in the world who share her ideology.

Even if we concede all of this, the mistake is assuming it matters. Noonan is extrapolating from her personal experiences, which may feel persuasive on an individual level, but which is a poor way of understanding Americans’ attitudes in general.

A more sensible approach requires more reliable research methods. As luck would have it, we have these things called “polls,” and the independent polling of late suggests Noonan’s personal experiences are inconsistent with broad national trends.

Trump is many things, but increasingly popular with Latino voters and immigrant communities isn’t one of them.