Winning bigly: SCOTUS upholds POTUS travel ban

"The wheels of justice may grind slow, but they grind exceeding fine." Following President Donald Trump's appointment of Neil Gorsuch to fill the vacancy on the United States Supreme Court created by the death of the late and much-missed Antonin Scalia, we are finally starting to see some sensible (read: constructionist, not activist) rulings coming from that august body. Yesterday, by overturning the injunctions of two lower courts, SCOTUS enabled President Trump's travel ban to largely go back into effect.

The Supreme Court dismissed lawsuits based on earlier, temporary versions of the ban, because those versions had expired. The third, now permanent version, promulgated in September after an interagency review of the dangers posed by the different countries included, goes back into effect while the case on the merits works its way through the court system. The review provided justification, the government argued, for the inclusion of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen, all of which pose threats to the security of the USA.

The orders come in response to filings by the Department of Justice asking the Supreme Court to stay the preliminary injunctions in the two main travel ban cases, Hawaii v. Trump in the Ninth Circuit and International Refugee Assistance Project v. Trump in the Fourth Circuit, which have been bouncing around the federal court system for months. The district courts had repeatedly ruled that the bans must be blocked from going into effect or, at least, be interpreted in such a way as to not discriminate against Muslims. The majority of the countries named in the ban are majority Muslim, and the problem has been how to separate the Islamic terrorists from legitimate travellers.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions called yesterday's ruling "a substantial victory for the safety and security of the American people." He went on to say, "We are pleased to have defended this order and heartened that a clear majority Supreme Court has allowed the President's lawful proclamation protecting our country's national security to go into full effect. The Constitution gives the President the responsibility and power to protect this country from all threats foreign and domestic, and this order remains vital to accomplishing those goals."

Tax reform last week, enhanced border security this week. Slowly but surely, President Trump is winning -- making good his promise to Make America Great Again. Take heart, Americans, there is hope yet!

Muslims cause more trouble in Europe and Middle East

Walt has returned from a long and blissful weekend on an island far removed from the hurly-burly of politics, race riots and Islamic terrorism. (See? Unlike the Prez, I calls it by its name, as I sees it!) I cut myself off from TV and the Internet. It didn't really matter because I knew, even before it happened, what the news would be.

Donald Trump was officially chosen as the Republican candidate for the presidensity. The lamestream media found further "evidence" of his unsuitability in the speech given by his current other half, about 6% of which seems to have been lifted from a speech given by Mrs 0 eight years ago. So what. There's no copyright in ideas, and how many different ways can you say people should work hard, dare to dream, keep their promises -- did Mrs 0 really say that? -- yada yada yada. Big deal.

In Armpitistan this weekend, ISIS claimed responsibility for a "joint suicide bombing" Saturday that killed dozens of people during a peaceful demonstration by a minority group in Kabul. An Afghan freelance journalist told CNN, "I saw tens of people laying [sic] down in blood around me and hundreds of people running away from the scene." So far, 80 corpses and more than 260 wounded people were taken to hospitals in the Afghan capital, according to a spokesthingy for the Afghan Health Ministry. I'm not sure what a "joint suicide bombing" is. Maybe people should stay out of those joints!

And today in Iraq -- pronounced "Ee-rak", please, not "Eye-rak" -- terror struck the streets of Baghdad yet again after a suicide bombing killed at least 21 people in a residential neighbourhood. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack on the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Kadhimiya, which injured more than 35 others. The claim by ISIS was released by the terror group's media wing Amaq and on pro-ISIS social media accounts circulated by its supporters. The attack came just weeks after the deadliest terror attack in war-weary Baghdad in years, when a suicide truck bomb plowed into a busy shopping district killing almost 300, most of whom were co-religionists of the Islamic terrorists.

Muslim troubles continue in Germany too, where terrorists, either inspired by or working with ISIS, continued apparently random attacks. There was the massacre in Munich on Friday, the work of a "German-Iranian", whose motives were, according to the Polizei, "unclear". Then today a 21-year-old Syrian "refugee" was arrested after killing a pregnant woman with a machete. Inspector Katzenjammer said the homicide did not appear to be linked to any militant groups or designated terrorist entities. All the same, that's the second or third -- I've lost count -- killing by Muslims of Middle Eastern descent in the last week.

But, as Vince Offer used to say, wait... there's more.

Word has just reached us via the mojo wire that, in the southern German city of Ansbach, a man was killed when an explosive device he was believed to be carrying went off near an open-air music festival, injuring 10 others. Local police said that just after 10 PM local time on Sunday they were alerted to an explosion in the city centre. "A man — according to our current knowledge, the perpetrator — died" in the blast, they said in the short statement.

The German news agency DPA reported that the nearby open-air concert with some 2,500 in attendance was shut down as a precaution after the explosion. The Bavarian Interior Ministry (responsible for the police and the security of the Vaterland) told DPA that it appeared to possibly be a bombing attack, saying that there was evidence that there was a "deliberate explosion." That's good police work, boys!

So here we are again... or still.... Islamic terrorists keep killing people in Europe and the Middle East. Yet the lamestream media and the Democrats keep saying The Donald is a fascist and a madman for calling for controls on Muslims coming to America. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense, does it? Speaking of which, the Democratic convention is set to start tomorrow in the City of Brotherly Love... well, about six miles from the city centre, actually. Expect a lot more nonsense between now and next weekend. Stay tuned.

Further reading (and viewing): "'It’s the Immigration Problem, Stupid'", on Dr. Rich Swier's blogsite. Includes video of Senator Jeff Sessions speaking at the GOP convention.