No Hot Dogs for the Iranian Regime’s Skullcrackers

I think there's a difference between basij and Iranian diplomats. I know the appearance of it is “unseemly” but we should be smart enough to distinguish between the two.

This isn't about inviting them to the White House, this is about inviting Iranian diplomats working abroad to US Embassy 4th of July celebrations. Having attended many such a celebration growing up (indeed, it was the highlight of the summer), I think your assessment is wrong. It's like this: the local embassy (in my case, in Cairo) sets up a 4th of July celebration. There is American food (hot dogs, sodas, etc) provided for free to all who are invited, which includes any American citizen (you show your passport to get in) and invited guests, which are some business owners that do business with the embassy, and other diplomats from other countries' embassies. Pretty much all of them. At least where I grew up, there was a certain amount of collegiality among diplomats from various embassies–they shared more with each other than they did with the local population (living away from home, beholden to a government far away, trying to raise kids in a foreign country and often sending their kids to the same schools).

For them to now rescind such invitations, to, basically, a cook-out, would be pretty ridiculous and pointlessly belligerent.