The Supreme Court Enrages the American Left

This last week of June 2018 has rivaled the week after the 2016 election for its excitement and dread, its highs and its lows among the American people.

Among the other things happening, some of which I can't even remember now given the volume and speed of events coming at us, the decisions coming out of the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) clearly rank near the top in national and even historical importance.

SCOTUS narrowly upheld Trump's so-called Muslim travel ban in a 5-4 decision, infuriating those on the Left who believed this was a bigoted government action against Muslims.  The decision, appropriately called Trump v. Hawaii, dealt with "Mr. Trump’s order limiting entry to the U.S. of nationals from eight (now seven) countries that are unwilling or unable to cooperate sufficiently in U.S. antiterrorist screening efforts." (WSJ).

According to the decision, the president’s orders are lawful under both the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Constitution, which affirm that the Immigration and Nationality Act’s plain language gives the president the power to deny “any aliens or any class of aliens” entry to the U.S. whenever he finds that letting them in “would be detrimental” to U.S. interests.

I have affirmed Trump's action from the beginning, believing that it made sense from a national security perspective.  In addition, it didn't make any sense to call this a 'Muslim ban', since the executive order only covered about 5 of the 50 Muslim-majority countries around the world.  What kind of 'Muslim ban' is that?  A pretty wimpy one, if that's what it was meant to be!  But there were also two non-Muslim countries included in the order (North Korea and Venezuela) and for the same reasons, so again the notion of it being some kind of bigoted Muslim ban is fairly ludicrous.

The second ruling coming down from SCOTUS that drove the Left crazy dealt with government (aka 'public') unions and their ability to collect fees from governmental employees covered by their contracts who disagree with their policies and don't wish to support the unions.  In the decision Janus v. Afscme, the court decided that "the government may not authorize labor unions to exact fees from public employees who choose not to join."  (WSJ)

Many people believe this will end up hurting the finances of both the Afscme public-sector government unions and their primary political ally, the Democratic Party.  Hence the wailing and gnashing of teeth on the Left, which, I admit, is understandable, since their ideology ultimately believes in most everyone working for the government (or supported by the government) AND they depend on the Democratic Party to pass their collectivist agenda.

But, even after these two decisions threw the Left into a tizzy,  the din from that political quarter rose to even new heights of agony and distress upon news of the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy from SCOTUS.  With the ability of President Trump to appoint a more consistently conservative justice, the Left now fear that their beloved symbols of the sexual revolution, ie Roe v. Wade (abortion) and Obergefell v. Hodges (homosexual marriage), are endangered.  (Whether they actually are in danger is another question.)

Honestly, it felt like the day after the 2016 election, the Left was so outraged and hysterical, sputtering, fainting, crying, and cursing like, like, well, some might say like the dark legion being cast out of the Gerasene demoniac.  And if you don't know what that means, you can look it up in the New Testament of the Holy Bible, Mark 5:1-20.  (Of course, I would never say that.)

The Trump--Kim Jong-un Summit: Some Thoughts

Okay, so what to think about this US--North Korea Summit? Here are a few of my thoughts on the morning after.

It would be very easy to be cynical about all this and to dismiss it as just a big show that won't mean anything down the road. And part of me leans in that direction.

However. Being as old as I am, I remember similar photos of Richard Nixon standing with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and the Chinese Chairman Mao. And I remember Ronald Reagan standing with Soviet leader Gorbachev. All of these meetings were productive and important to keeping the world from blowing itself up. (And incidentally, the elite media hated both Nixon and Reagan almost as much as they now hate Trump.)

No one knows at this point if this meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un will turn out to be as significant as these others. Only time will tell.

But surely we can agree on this: it is certainly better than a military showdown, isn't it? The fact of the matter is that North Korea has, at this very moment, both nuclear weapons and a very large and powerful military. And if turned loose, this military juggernaut could in minutes turn much of South Korea into little more than ashes, not to speak of other nearby countries like Japan and Taiwan. Untold thousands of civilians and soldiers would die, including American military personnel.  And that's not even speaking to the possible Chinese involvement in a war on the Korean peninsula.

That's the situation facing the Trump administration. There is no risk-free or perfect or instant solution to this international problem.  We've been living with this standoff for almost 70 years now, and it isn't going to be resolved in two days.

Using a combination of realistic 'stick and carrot', this administration is trying to push North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-un in a new direction, away from confrontation and toward a more peaceful and productive future, both for its own people and for the entire world. It may work, but it also may fail.

If this doesn't work, then something more drastic and of a military nature might need to utilized. God forbid that day ever comes. In the meantime, let's all hope and pray that this approach bears fruit.

And I'll end with this. Anyone wanting Trump and his aides to fail in this endeavor is nothing but a fool and a moron.