Image 01 Image 03

September 2017

Yesterday Justice Kennedy issued a temporary stay of the 9th Circuit's ruling as to refugees, whose entry is put on hold under the Trump Travel Order No. 2. Today the full Supreme Court granted the stay:
The application for stay of mandate presented to Justice Kennedy and by him referred to the Court is granted, and the issuance of the mandate of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in case No. 17-16426 is stayed with respect to refugees covered by a formal assurance, pending further order of this Court.

It's been a long time since I've written about former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, affectionately known as Blago. Chicago Magazine has an in-depth and fascinating profile of and interview with Blago in prison, His Life in Prison - BLAGO. You really need to read the whole thing, but the final paragraph sums up the essence of the ever-hopeful Blago:

Houstonians grappling with Harvey damage are not pleased with Mayor Turner's latest proposal -- a 8.9% property tax rate hike to pay for the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey. Turner's rate hike request is temporary (supposedly) and would generate an estimated $113M for the city. But it has to pass city counsel scrutiny first.

India wants to strengthen ties with Israeli start ups, a visiting delegation of Indian IT companies to the Jewish State stressed. The delegation was organised by Nasscom, Indian association representing software companies, and the global consulting firm Accenture. "The Nasscom Product Council and IT consulting major Accenture plan to collaborate with Israel Innovation Authority to help startups from both countries in joint product development, knowledge transfer and in the creation of hardware ecosystem," Indian business daily Economic Times reported.

Hillary Clinton would probably like everyone to forget about her email scandal but she's not out of the woods yet. There are still many unanswered questions. A Maryland judge has ordered an investigation of her lawyers connected to the deletion of emails.

For months Morning Joe has offered up a steady stream of apocalyptic condemnation of President Trump: his mental health has been explicitly questioned and comments on Charlottesville were blistered, with one panelist calling on his aides to resign en masse or be "forever tainted with the stench." Just last week, Mika Brzezinski was calling Trump "unhinged," claiming she couldn't distinguish between Trump and Kim Jong Un. All of which makes the praise for President Trump on today's show all the more remarkable. Joe Scarborough led off by observing that "everywhere I've gone, people have been talking about Donald Trump's sort of shift." He praised the president's "even-keeled" tweets and the "steadier" organization inside the White House.

We previously reported on the Court proceedings after President Trump unconditionally pardoned former Sheriff Joe Arpaio after he was found guilty of criminal contempt of court. There was a lot of speculation that the Judge setting an October 4 hearing on Arpaio's motion to dismiss the case and vacate all prior Orders was a sign the Judge considered the pardon of suspect effectiveness.  I explained why the scheduling of a hearing did not warrant such speculation, Overblown hype about Court scheduling oral argument in dismissal of Arpaio conviction:

One of the many things that has long puzzled me about the leftist agenda is its long-standing, mulit-pronged attack on Judeo-Christianity.  On the one hand, I understand that the left has a reason for wishing to undermine religion.  After all, as assorted totalitarians, fascists, and communists well know, a populace permitted to believe in and publicly worship a power higher than government is anathema to totalitarian central control. Challenging and wiping out all religious references makes perfect sense if your goal is the total subjugation of a people under the all-powerful arm of a government that claims it will provide for all of its citizens' earthly needs.  What has puzzled me is that much of the left's base is Christian and/or Catholic.  I've been waiting at least ten years for the left to grasp this simple fact.

Last season, quarterback Colin Kaepernick decided to kneel for the national anthem before football games, which led to players to do the same and activists lavished him with praise. He is not playing this year, but some players have decided to continue his actions. While Kaepernick's choice gave him a lot of media attention, Cincinnati Bengals tight end Tyler Eifert decided to explain why he still stands for the national anthem.