It’s Wednesday, May 31st, 2017…and here’s The Gouge!

First up, the WSJ analyzes the utter unconstitutionality…not to mention legal absurdity…of…

The Fourth Circuit Presidency

The word ‘Trump’ isn’t an excuse for usurping core presidential power.

 

“What…like you can’t read minds?!?”

“…On Thursday the full 13-member Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held 10-3 that Mr. Trump’s executive order to limit U.S. entry from six nations associated with heightened terror risks was the product of bigotry and thus violates the First Amendment’s establishment clause. Judge Roger Gregory’s 205-page ruling claims the ban “drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination” against Muslims.

The problem is that both the Constitution and statutes passed by Congress endow the Presidentany President—with broad authority to deny admission to foreign nationals to protect U.S. interests. The courts can narrowly engage, but the Constitution gives the political branches dominant authority on immigration and foreign policy.

Under decades of Supreme Court precedent, the government only needs to show that some immigration action has a “facially legitimate and bona fide” justification. The Trump Administration argues the ban is a temporary pause to improve security vetting, and Congress and even President Obama singled out the six nations in 2016 as countries of concern for exporting terror and increased visa scrutiny.

The courts aren’t allowed to look beyond the four corners of the official rationale laid out in the executive order, but Judge Gregory circumvents these limits by deputizing himself as a mind reader. He rehearses Mr. Trump’s various campaign statements about a “Muslim ban,” and even statements from political operatives who didn’t join the Administration, to infer motives of “a primarily religious purpose.”

Psychoanalysis of elected officials is a mug’s game, especially for one as improvisational as Mr. Trump. Which re-education camp does he have to graduate from to make foreign-policy decisions about Muslim-majority nations without the courts deducing bias? Does Judge Gregory have an opinion about Mr. Trump’s recent Saudi Arabia trip, or the President’s vision of new alliances in the Middle East?

This impulse leads judges to self-appoint as the supervisors of executive power in foreign affairs, and Judge Gregory even dismisses evidence of real terror plots by aliens because “we remain unconvinced” that the order “has more to do with national security than it does with effectuating the President’s promised Muslim ban.” Whatever happened to analyzing legal texts and Supreme Court precedents?…”

Which brings to mind this rather appropriately pointed meme:

Any question absent Trump’s triumph and his subsequent elevation of Neil Gorsuch to the SCOTUS such a move would have been at the top of Hillary’s agenda?!?

Since we’re on the subject of a federal government run amok, the WSJ‘s Kim Strassel offers an amazingly accurate…

Anatomy of a Deep State

The EPA’s ‘Science Integrity Official’ is plotting to undermine Trump’s agenda.

 

On May 8 a woman few Americans have heard of, working in a federal post that even fewer know exists, summoned a select group of 45 people to a June meeting in Washington. They were almost exclusively representatives of liberal activist groups. The invitation explained they were invited to develop “future plans for scientific integrity” at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Meet the deep state. That’s what conservatives call it now, though it goes by other names. The administrative state. The entrenched governing elite. Lois Lerner. The federal bureaucracy. Whatever the description, what’s pertinent to today’s Washington is that this cadre of federal employees, accountable to no one, is actively working from within to thwart Donald Trump’s agenda.

There are few better examples than the EPA post of Scientific Integrity Official. (Yes, that is an actual job title.) The position is a legacy of Barack Obama, who at his 2009 inaugural promised to “restore science to its rightful place”—his way of warning Republicans that there’d be no more debate on climate change or other liberal environmental priorities.

In 2013 the EPA hired Francesca Grifo, longtime activist at the far-left Union of Concerned Scientists. Ms. Grifo had long complained that EPA scientists were “under siege”—according to a report she helped write—by Republican “political appointees” and “industry lobbyists” who had “manipulated” science on everything from “mercury pollution to groundwater contamination to climate science.”

As Scientific Integrity Official, Ms. Grifo would have the awesome power to root out all these meddlesome science deniers. A 2013 Science magazine story reported she would lead an entire Scientific Integrity Committee, write an annual report documenting science “incidents” at the agency, and even “investigate” science problems—alongside no less than the agency’s inspector general.

“We’re from the EPA…and we’re here to help you!”

And get this: “Her job is not a political appointment,” the Science article continues, “so it comes with civil service protections.” Here was a bureaucrat with the authority to define science and shut down those who disagreed, and she could not be easily fired, even under a new administration.

Messrs. Pruitt and Trump should take the story as a hint of the fight they face to reform government. It’s hard enough to overcome a vast bureaucracy that ideologically opposes their efforts. But add to the challenge the powerful, formalized resistance of posts, all across the government, like the Scientific Integrity Official. Mr. Obama worked hard to embed his agenda within government to ensure its survival. Today it is the source of leaks, bogus whistleblower complaints, internal sabotage.

Pitched battle with these folks is no way to govern. The better answer is dramatic agency staff cutsmaybe start with the post of Scientific Integrity Official?—as well as greater care in hiring true professionals for key bureaucratic posts. The sooner department heads recognize and take action against that deep state, the sooner this administration might begin to drain the swamp.

However, as detailed in this forward from It Makes Sense Blog via Balls Cotton, we need to remember draining a swamp can be a very messy business:

“…The mud is becoming visible as all the creatures who live in the swamp are fighting for their lives.  Government employees at the IRS, EPA and Education are flapping in the mud like dying fish.  The lobbyists are slithering here and there looking for government funds like the snakes in the mud … especially those who wrote Obamacare.  The liberal media cartel is chirping and croaking all the time like frogs trying to reverse the draining.  The tax and spend politicians are dying off like the blood sucking mosquitoes.  The political appointees of Obama are fleeing DC for other jobs like the birds who lost their meal tickets.  And the information leakers like Comey and Lynch are looking for new places to nest like the rats that left the swamp.  Soon, all that will remain will be the dying institutions like public education as the dying cypress trees of our society.

Everyone who lived off the swamp is praying for rain.  Election rain so Democrats might win some elections from Republicans since the Democrats suffered such horrible defeats during the 8 years of Obama.  Impeachment rain so the professional politicians can get rid of Trump as the swamp drainer.  Low approval rating rain so the media can claim they were correct about Trump.  Virtual rain, fake rain, so pundits can claim that Trump is not making any progress even though the results say the opposite.

Draining the swamp is messy, muddy.  But the mud will soon dry…”

Though until it does, the lower the water level, the angrier the inhabitants!  And right about now, they’re…

pretty pissed off…on both sides of the aisle!

Meanwhile, in an item closely related to the anger and actions of Progressives scorned, consider this bit of Dimocratic duplicity:

Durbin to Senate Republicans: ‘Let’s sit down together’ on ObamaCare overhaul

 

En Espanol, “Dick Durbin” translates as “Ricardo Cabesa”

Why the sudden burst of bipartisanship?  Only because…

“…Durbin spoke after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday released a final audit on the GOP-led House’s ObamaCare overhaul bill.

Though the report found that 23 million Americans would lose health insurance by 2026 and that premium costs would increase under the chamber’s American Health Care Act, it also concluded the plan would reduce the federal budget by $119 billion over 10 years.

That’s more than enough savings to allow the GOP-led Senate to pass its overhaul version under special budget rules that prevent Democrats from stopping passage with a filibuster….”

Here’s a three-part riddle for the aptly-named “Dick” Durbin: uno, what letter follows “A”?  Dos, what’s the opposite of “high”?  Tres, what, at least according to Julie Andrews, is “a note I call myself”?  Put ’em all together and that’s what Dick can do!

For those a little slow on the uptake, here’s a clue:

And for anyone still questioning our contention Liberals are, quite literally…

…with this forward from Heat Street, we rest our case:

Student Mob Shrieks at Professor Who Objected to Event That Kicks White People Off Campus for a Day

 

First, check out the actual event: you don’t really need to listen past about the 3:00 mark, as that should give you a flavor for the tenuous grasp of reality these tender little snowflakes hold.

Then view Professor Weinstein’s interview with Tucker Carlson…

…along with his own words as recounted by the WSJ.  As Professor Weinstein so eloquently recounts:

“…Evergreen has slipped into madness. You don’t need the news to tell you that—the protesters’ own videos will do. But those clips reveal neither the path that led to this psychosis, nor the cautionary nature of the tale for other campuses…”

These people are seriously

By the way, it’s worth pointing out this is the same Institution of Devolutionary Learning which, as we reported back in 2012, allowed a…

Transgender Man to Expose Himself to Young Girls

 

Hell’s bells, even friggin’ Fareed Zakaria gets it…

…which means it must be as obvious as the ears on Barry Soetoro’s head!  And while we agree with Zakaria’s assertion neither side has a monopoly on right or virtue, The Left is DEFinitely wrong on every issue…every time!

Oh, and the Heroine of Bosnia…

Hillary Says Voter Suppression Cost Her the Election

At the same time, real evidence of illegal-alien voting surfaces.

 

…has yet another explanation for the inexcusable!

Speaking of those dispossessed of reality, as CNBC reports…

Mark Zuckerberg joins Silicon Valley bigwigs in calling for government to give everybody free money

 

Yeah…that’s the job of Liberal Dimocrats like him!

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called on the need to consider universal basic income for Americans during his Harvard Commencement Speech. Zuckerberg’s comments reflect those of other Silicon Valley bigwigs, including Sam Altman, the president of venture capital firm Y Combinator.

“Every generation expands its definition of equality. Now it’s time for our generation to define a new social contract,” Zuckerberg said during his speech. “We should have a society that measures progress not by economic metrics like GDP but by how many of us have a role we find meaningful. We should explore ideas like universal basic income to make sure everyone has a cushion to try new ideas.”

Zuckerberg said that, because he knew he had a safety net if projects like Facebook had failed, he was confident enough to continue on without fear of failing. Others, he said, such as children who need to support households instead of poking away on computers learning how to code, don’t have the foundation Zuckerberg had. Universal basic income would provide that sort of cushion, Zuckerberg argued…”

This is the contemporary Progressivism’s equivalent of…

And we all know how well welfare’s worked!

Meanwhile, Zero Hedge offers the REAL reason Zuckerberg supports a universal basic incomeand it has nothing to do with a personal sense of philanthropy.

Seriously; though incredibly wealthy, Mark Zuckerberg’s as appropriate a guide of national welfare policy as Jared Kushner is a foreign policy expert.

Moving to today’s installment of the Muslim Minute, writing at Townhall.com, Mike Brown suggests the mayor of Manchester wake up and smell the Quranic coffee:

To the Mayor of Manchester: The Suicide Bomber Was a Muslim

 

“In the aftermath of the horrific suicide bombing, the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, wanted to make one thing perfectly clear. The man who blew himself was a terrorist, not a Muslim. To quote him directly, “The message that I would want to get over – and this is how the vast majority of people feel – (Editor’s note: we doubt it!) this man was a terrorist, not a Muslim.”

Mr. Burnham, with all respect to the pain your community is experiencing, and with full recognition of your desire to unite your people, you are terribly wrong. Dead wrong. The suicide bomber was a terrorist because of his Muslim faith. Until you acknowledge that and until the people of your community acknowledge that, you will not be able to combat the terror.

I imagine that most of the Muslims in Manchester are aghast at this atrocity. (Editor’s note: Uhhh…maybe!) And I imagine most of them look at this as a perversion of their faith.

But many others do not. For them, this is what Islam does. It fights the unbelievers wherever it finds them, especially at a worldly concert attended by young people. Infidels!

I understand, Mr. Burnham, that your point was that Salman Abedi was not a true Muslim, since true Muslims do not commit such acts. In that case, neither Osama bin Laden nor any members of Al-Qaeda were (or are) true Muslims.

And neither Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder of ISIS, who holds a Ph.D. in Quranic Studies from Iraq’s Saddam University for Islamic Studies, nor any members of ISIS are true Muslims

See our Quote of the Day and featured cartoon at the top of the page.

Turning now to The Lighter Side

Finally, we’ll call it a day with another sordid story straight from the pages of The Crime Blotter:

Denver Decriminalizes Public Defecation To Make Life Easier For Migrants, Homeless

 

Hells bells, we’d be willing to bet not even Sodom and Gomorrah went this far; though it should come as no surprise…

…San Francisco has!

Magoo



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