Viceroy Still Trying to Fight Reality

We’ll start with the latest on Operation Epic FUBAR.

From CNBC,

U.S. President Donald Trump has signaled he’s prepared to let economic pressure take its toll on Iran rather than launching further military strikes, as Tehran insists the Strait of Hormuz will only reopen if Washington agrees to several conditions.

So after blowing through most, if not all, of our munitions, the Viceroy is admitting that it was all for naught are we’re back to “economic pressure.”

Meanwhile, Hormuz is still closed.

It’s nice to see Trump accede to reality, for now, while we still have some ammunition left. This being the Viceroy, however, we never know when he’ll decide to fire off another round to make himself feel better.

Meanwhile, there is another birthright citizenship order, theoretically based upon the recent Supreme Court decision on the matter. In practice, the Viceroy was, at best, seeming to ask the Court if they really meant what they said (Kim Wehle).

This time, announcing his executive orders from the Oval Office, Trump said that the Supreme Court had made “a bad decision, very unfair decision . . . and we’re ending in a different way.” An August 6 executive order accordingly “identifies, non-exhaustively, and prescribes action concerning certain categories of children of aliens who do not fall within the rule of birthright citizenship as announced by the Supreme Court.” The problem is that his categories do fall within that ruling. Trump has taken steps to do what the Supreme Court held the Constitution does not permit.

Defending the maneuver, Stephen Miller claimed that the Fourteenth Amendment “was passed exclusively in the aftermath of the Civil War, so as to ensure that the children of slaves would be citizens.” But Chief Justice Roberts rejected that historical reading in his majority opinion in Trump v. Barbara, explaining that the amendment constitutionalized birthright citizenship “without any reference to race or color.”

The order itself takes some of the exceptions long acknowledged and tries to expand them into areas that have never been part of those exceptions. However, Jacksonian the rhetoric, the order language is a lot of envelope pushing rather than open defiance of the Court. Perahps they’re hoping to peel off a justice of two on these narrow matters.

We’d best hope they fail. As noted last week, the Great Patriotic Labor Shortage is already starting to impact the labor force. Any further move in that direction - in addition to being immoral and outrageous - will add to the stupidity to the stagflation.