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You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / The Firings Have Begun

The Firings Have Begun

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Per the Washington Post:

… Earlier on Monday, Yates ordered Justice Department not to defend President Trump’s immigration order temporarily banning entry into the United States for citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries and refugees from around the world, declaring in a memo that she is not convinced the order is lawful.

Yates wrote that, as the leader of the Justice Department, she must ensure that the department’s position is “legally defensible” and “consistent with this institution’s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right.”…

What will happen next is unclear. A Justice Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said those who would normally defend the order under Yates’s authority can no longer do so. Yates will probably be replaced soon by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Trump’s attorney general nominee, who could be confirmed as early as Thursday or Friday. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider his nomination Tuesday, and the entire Senate must wait one day before voting…

The President-Asterisk goes full RMNixon. Now, more than ever:

From the Washington Post, “Trump’s hard-line actions have an intellectual godfather: Jeff Sessions” —

… The early days of the Trump presidency have rushed a nationalist agenda long on the fringes of American life into action — and Sessions, the quiet Alabam­ian who long cultivated those ideas as a Senate backbencher, has become a singular power in this new Washington.

Sessions’s ideology is driven by a visceral aversion to what he calls “soulless globalism,” a term used on the extreme right to convey a perceived threat to the United States from free trade, international alliances and the immigration of nonwhites.

And despite many reservations among Republicans about that worldview, Sessions — whose 1986 nomination for a federal judgeship was doomed by accusations of racism that he denied — is finding little resistance in Congress to his proposed role as Trump’s attorney general….

The author of many of Trump’s executive orders is senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, a Sessions confidant who was mentored by him and who spent the weekend overseeing the government’s implementation of the refu­gee ban. The tactician turning Trump’s agenda into law is deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn, Sessions’s longtime chief of staff in the Senate. The mastermind behind Trump’s incendiary brand of populism is chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who, as chairman of the Breitbart website, promoted Sessions for years.

Then there is Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, who considers Sessions a savant and forged a bond with the senator while orchestrating Trump’s trip last summer to Mexico City and during the darkest days of the campaign.

In an email in response to a request from The Washington Post, Bannon described Sessions as “the clearinghouse for policy and philosophy” in Trump’s administration, saying he and the senator are at the center of Trump’s “pro-America movement” and the global nationalist phenomenon…

Sessions helped devise the president’s first-week strategy, in which Trump signed a blizzard of executive orders that begin to fulfill his signature campaign promises — although Sessions had advocated going even faster.

The senator lobbied for a “shock-and-awe” period of executive action that would rattle Congress, impress Trump’s base and catch his critics unaware, according to two officials involved in the transition planning. Trump opted for a slightly slower pace, these officials said, because he wanted to maximize news coverage by spreading out his directives over several weeks.

Trump makes his own decisions, but Sessions was one of the rare lawmakers who shared his impulses.

“Sessions brings heft to the president’s gut instincts,” said Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser. He compared Sessions to John Mitchell, who was attorney general under Richard M. Nixon but served a more intimate role as a counselor to the president on just about everything. “Nixon is not a guy given to taking advice, but Mitchell was probably Nixon’s closest adviser,” Stone said…

With such a rogues’ gallery supporting him, you don’t even need to know about Jefferson Beauregard Sessions’ long history defending racism and voter disenfranchisement to realize he is NOT a good man, or a trustworthy judge.

Reader Interactions

280Comments

  1. 1.

    Adam L Silverman

    Only Senate confirmed DOJ officials are allowed by law to sign off on FISA warrants. As of now, no more can be issued until someone is confirmed by the Senate to a DOJ leadership position.

  2. 2.

    Mnemosyne

    I guess this was a good week for the Girl Scouts to wheel a wagon full of cookies directly to my door …

    (I managed to buy only 3 boxes. For now.)

  8. 8.

    philpm

    Can someone enlighten me as to when the OLC approved the EO? I thought they cut the DOJ out completely before it was issued.

  9. 9.

    Lee Hartmann

    Yates was a career DOJ official with support from both parties.

    interesting times (by which I mean, terrible)

  14. 14.

    hilts

    @Carolina Dave:

    Oppose everyone and everything

    Absolutely, yes. There’s no other option.

    Trump is a raging, malevolent Neanderthal and Democrats must do everything humanly possible to limit the damage he can inflict on this planet over the next 4 years.

  16. 16.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Shrillhouse: Let’s put it this way. If the NSA gets SIGINT or ELINT indicating an imminent threat with high value targets who are already in the US or are communicating with someone within the US, they have to push that to the FBI and the FBI has to request a FISA warrant to go forward. Without a Senate confirmed leader at the DOJ the FISA Court will not proceed with such a request. From a national security perspective, this is very, very bad.

  17. 17.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Matthew Yglesias ‏@ mattyglesias 9m9 minutes ago
    Yates was an Obama appointee as DAG, but she’s a career federal prosecutor first hired by Bob Barr back in 1989 not a political hack.

    Bob Freakin’ Barr…..

  18. 18.

    Adam L Silverman

    @philpm: They didn’t. None of these have been run past OLC, the actual departments and agencies effected/involved, and/or Congress.

  19. 19.

    clay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Only Senate confirmed DOJ officials are allowed by law to sign off on FISA warrants. As of now, no more can be issued until someone is confirmed by the Senate to a DOJ leadership position.

    Is Trump making us safer yet?

    As for Yates, I admire her integrity. She had to know this was coming, and sooner rather than later. But she put her job on the line to do the right thing.

  20. 20.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    This is what we’re fed — ‘he’s so dangerous, he’s so dangerous,’ she said. Seriously, I’m not worried about a wall being built and Mexico paying for it.

    He’s not going to get rid of every Muslim living in this country. Has he made it the norm to be racist and vent these kinds of things? Yes. But seriously, I don’t know what his policies are.

    Susan Sarandon

    .
    If she had any self awareness and honor, she’s apologize for being so stooopid, get into a convertible and drive off a cliff.

  22. 22.

    Aleta

    not hard to tell which paragraphs of this statement, from office of the White House press secretary, were dictated directly by the president

    Have to say reading that mean 5th grader prose was a stunner.

  23. 23.

    Central Planning

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Without a Senate confirmed leader at the DOJ the FISA Court will not proceed with such a request.

    Really? NSA determines there is a clear and present danger, and you think the FISA court will stop a request to wiretap (or more)?

  24. 24.

    ? Martin

    Worth noting that the announcement goes out of its way to say the following:

    Ms. Yates is an Obama Administration appointee who is weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration.

    She was not Acting Atty General under Obama. Trump appointed her to that position. She’s been in the job for 10 days. He can’t blame Obama for her being there. There’s no reason to even include that sentence except to soothe Trumps ego.

  26. 26.

    CaseyL

    Anyone know anything about Dana Boente, who’s been named as Yates’ replacement? Her (?) initial statement about being honored to serve Trump isn’t promising.

  31. 31.

    NotMax

    For those not around at the time, during the Nixon administration John Mitchell was indicted and acquitted on an obstruction of justice charge (Robert Vesco affair) and then later, post-Nixon resignation, convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice and conspiracy involving Watergate.

    Naming him as some kind of role model is ultra bizarre.

  33. 33.

    JPL

    From the AJC twitter feed
    “Phone calls and texts have already started to draft Sally Yates for gov.”

  36. 36.

    clay

    @Aleta: I can easily picture the scenario in my mind.

    “Mr. President, we have the statement on the firing of the Attorney General.”

    “You didn’t say she was weak on borders. I told you to say it.”

    “Uh, Mr. President, I don’t really think –”

    “NO! Put in that she is WEAK ON BORDERS and VERY WEAK ON IMMIGRATION!”

  37. 37.

    dmsilev

    @Adam L Silverman: Good for him, even if it took a couple of days longer than it really should have. Still, I’ll take it. Are there any Democrats who are still on the sidelines on this?

  38. 38.

    philpm

    The plot thickens (this is from Politico, but I copied this from the GOS):

    Senior staffers on the House Judiciary Committee helped Donald Trump’s top aides draft the executive order curbing immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations, but the Republican committee chairman and party leadership were not informed, according to multiple sources involved in the process.

    The news of their involvement helps unlock the mystery of whether the White House consulted Capitol Hill about the executive order, one of many questions raised in the days after it was unveiled on Friday. It confirms that the small group of staffers were among the only people on Capitol Hill who knew of the looming controversial policy. […]

    The work of the committee aides began during the transition period after the election and before Donald Trump was sworn in. The staffers signed nondisclosure agreements, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Trump’s transition operation forced its staff to sign these agreements, but it would be unusual to extend that requirement to congressional employees. Rexrode declined to comment on the nondisclosure pacts.

  39. 39.

    Ocotillo

    A little off topic, I was passing by a television today that had Good Morning America on and KellyAnne was looking particularly haggard this morning. Pressure?

  41. 41.

    CaseyL

    What little I’m learning about Boente via google and twitter isn’t good, but then I hardly expected the current regime to name someone who isn’t dreadful.

    I want Dems to hold fast against Sessions, regardless.

  43. 43.

    Adam L Silverman

    @clay: He okayed such a badly planned op in Yemen that we have a CPO member of SeAL Team 6 and an 8 year old American girl dead from the failed raid. SecDef Mattis had to leave the Alfalfa Club dinner to go and deal with the fallout.

  44. 44.

    dmsilev

    @Adam L Silverman: Re FISA, TPM has this:

    According to a White House pool report, senior assistant press secretary Michael Short told the pool reporter that Boente had been sworn in around 9 p.m. and that he had the authority to sign foreign surveillance warrants.

    So, actual legalities aside, the assistant Mouth of Orange thinks that the replacement acting AG can sign the warrants.

  45. 45.

    bluehill

    @? Martin:

    There’s no reason to even include that sentence except to soothe Trumps ego.

    Or to convince the rubes that she was an loyalist to Obama, whom they obviously despise, and she was putting her loyalty to Obama over the good of the country. They’ll eat it up and use this as an example that Trump is shaking up the establishment. I guess they are right in that respect.

  48. 48.

    clay

    @philpm:

    The staffers signed nondisclosure agreements

    WT-everlovin’-F?!? A NDA… against their own Congressional Members?!??? Jiminy H. Crickets, if I were the Rep whose staff member did that to me, I would fire the whole lot of them.

  49. 49.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Central Planning: The warrant request will not be sent over. It requires the signature of a Senate confirmed DOJ official. I am just telling you what the law requires.

  50. 50.

    Major Major Major Major

    @bluehill: ding ding ding. His plan is to use every disruption, stumbling block, and fuck-up to fuel his ‘I alone can fix it’ strongman narrative. The protests, Saturday’s injunction, everything. I’m not saying it’s going to work but it’s the plan.

  53. 53.

    clay

    @Adam L Silverman: On NPR (I think), they were saying that while Trump okayed the raid, it was planned under Obama. Is this the real story, or is it more BS?

    EDIT: Can you imagine Trump making the call to the family of the SEAL? Ugh, they’ve suffered enough.

  55. 55.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    I guess this was a good week for the Girl Scouts to wheel a wagon full of cookies directly to my door … (I managed to buy only 3 boxes. For now.)

    Heh. I have a friend whose daughter sells me GS cookies (Thin Mints, as if you had any doubt) every year. She does little 15-second videos, personalised: “Thank you, Miss (Siubhan), for ordering Girl Scout cookies last year. if you would like to order again this year, please let me or my mom know. Thank you.” With the most winsome gap-toothed smile.

    This little girl and her sister, BTW, are daughters of a Filipino man, my friend’s ex-husband, and they are both on the tawny side. They are scared to death that Trump or his Trumpists will come for them and either kick them out of the country or make their lives miserable here.

    They are 7 and 10 years old. That just chews me up.

  59. 59.

    bluehill

    Well, the White House has lost Joe Manchin

    Wait until the DOJ opens an investigation into his daughter’s company and its Epipen pricing.

  66. 66.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    I don’t know much about Boente but his wiki bio doesn’t sound like a typical Dolt 45 appointee. I mean he’s a lawyer and been doing it for a while and qualified. And he was appointed by Obama and he sentenced Bob McDonnell.

  67. 67.

    JMG

    You are right, Mr. Silverman, but they can poison the well. They can break Senatorial courtesy and read into the record what a miserable racist Fascist he is. Make the Republicans own this. Then, when he comes for voting rights, they can start making sure every Republican Senator’s office is occupied by protesters every day.

  72. 72.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Final numbers in Louisville in the vicinity of 6000, which may be light.

    They were overflowing big time – I was close to the dais (assisted writing one speech so I wanted to encourage the speaker from up front). They filled the plaza, spilled out on the steps, up both sides of the walk and then to my office half a block away. I stood with a lawyer I work with (a Bosnian refugee who is a damn fine lawyer), her initial immigration local contact, and a guy I go to church with whose grandfather was a German Jew that escaped the Nazis. On the stage was the daughter of another lawyer I work with, a Pakistani who is now a citizen.

    The mayor is married to a Greek daughter of a couple who escaped to this country from the Greek civil war. He was just plain pissed. So uplifting.

    Tomorrow, Yertle’s office gets protested.

  73. 73.

    PsiFighter37

    Reading at a couple sources that the acting head of ICE was also canned about 10 minutes ago. Not sure they are accurate, though.

  75. 75.

    Adam L Silverman

    @dmsilev: I think they’re going to split the hair that because Boente was confirmed by the Senate for the US Attorney position, that that counts for the Acting Attorney General spot.

  76. 76.

    Central Planning

    @Adam L Silverman: Oh, I believe what you say is true. I wasn’t doubting that. I doubt the people who are supposed to follow those laws and rules. The executive branch doesn’t appear to be bounded by anything. Nothing like a silly signature on a piece of paper would stop them either.

  78. 78.

    Adam L Silverman

    @amk: Me! I’ve been arguing for several years that they were in need of a lot of TLC. That they weren’t aging well and had grown sclerotic.

  82. 82.

    hilts

    @? Martin:

    To soothe Trump’s ego

    Given that Trump has the emotional maturity of a 7 year old child, we can look forward to a lot more of this behavior over the next 4 years.

  84. 84.

    Adam L Silverman

    @clay: My guess is that Chairman Grassley and the other GOP members of the committee will be asking some very uncomfortable questions of some very uncomfortable staffers. Remember, that the former Communications Director on that staff is Stephen Miller.

  88. 88.

    Steve in the ATL

    @JPL:

    From the AJC twitter feed
    “Phone calls and texts have already started to draft Sally Yates for gov.”

    She would be our first non-embarrassing governor since Roy Barnes, as Barnes was our first non-embarrassing governor since…Jimmy Carter? Not sure–I moved here during the glorious reign of Joe Frank Harris, followed by Zell Miller. God help us.

  89. 89.

    Adam L Silverman

    @clay: It was not a holdover op. According to the NBC report linked to in the tweet I posted the target selection, concept of operations, planning, and approval all occurred under the Trump Administration.

  92. 92.

    Paula

    Good for Yates doing the right thing and accepting the — entirely predictable — consequences. May there be more like her.

    The more they do this kind of stuff, the sooner DT will go down. Especially if he keeps being crazy while there’s a lot of energy available for pushback.

    I think a BIG collision of some kind is inevitable — Dems trying to work this one appointment at a time, one piece of legislation at a time — it’s not going to work. They are going to have to unite and say Trump has to go, and keep saying it until everything grinds to a halt or they’re all in jail and the protests turn into wide scale strikes, or whatever. I think the top people need to be prosecuted: Pence, Bannon, Priebus, and anyone else who’s fingerprints are on any of Trump’s illegal activities as President. Probably won’t get that, and won’t be happy if Trump is impeached or whatever and Pence steps in. But one step at a time. Trump will have to be removed.

  93. 93.

    bluehill

    Despite all this, I hope the Bannon and NSC appointment doesn’t get buried under. On a relative basis, this seems like one decision that could have the most significant consequences in terms wars and repression of dissent. Let’s march about that. He needs to be in the spotlight.

  95. 95.

    PsiFighter37

    @patroclus: 51 points on the Dow is not all that much. But as these actions get put into place, methinks the stock market may not react as cheerily as it has been over the past couple of months.

  98. 98.

    Adam L Silverman

    @JMG: Yes, they can. The question is whether they will decide to use jiu-jitsu on this stuff as necessary.

  99. 99.

    PeakVT

    Calling this administration a clusterfuck does not come close to describing the depth of the disaster. Omnishambles? Omnifuck? Shambolic omniclusterfuck?

  100. 100.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    WaPo article by Robert Costa, who has lots of Republican sources, and others

    Privately, the president seethed, venting about what he saw as unfair news coverage on a second straight weekend of mass protests, and quizzing confidants about their impressions of how his senior staffers were performing.

    Sounds like Trumpland is dividing into Bannon vs Priebus. So I hope Reince still has his house in Kenosha. The Establishmentarians are trying to influence hair furor through the TeeVee machines

    The infighting spilled into public view Monday morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Host Joe Scarborough, who spent part of Sunday visiting Trump at the White House, looked into the camera and directly challenged Miller.
    “This weekend was a disgrace and it’s all on your shoulders,” Scarborough intoned.
    His commentary was all but certain to be noticed by the president himself; Trump is such an avid watcher of the show that when Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) recently appeared, he received a congratulatory call from Trump just moments later.

    Scarborough so desperately wants to work for Trump….

  101. 101.

    Skepticat

    I vividly and painfully remember the Saturday Night Massacre of 1973 and how horrified I was by Nixon’s blatant actions. I also went through years of protests against the Vietnam war. What does it say that I’m almost nostalgic for something that now by comparison doesn’t seem as quite as hideous as today’s nightmares?

  104. 104.

    Seth Owen

    @Adam L Silverman: It appears that Trump plans to ignore that law. Who will make him observe it? The FISA court? Will that depend on which FISA judge gets it? Can Trump judge shop to get a compliant one?

    I’m just doubtful these institutional safeguards are strong enough to resist a ruthless administration.

  106. 106.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: and speaking of Scarborough…

    Michael Grunwald ‏@ MikeGrunwald 14h14 hours ago
    Obama saw Morning Joe as everything wrong with politics; his shorthand for “idiots” was “Morning Joe watchers.” Trump watches religiously.

  110. 110.

    TS

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Only Senate confirmed DOJ officials are allowed by law to sign off on FISA warrants. As of now, no more can be issued until someone is confirmed by the Senate to a DOJ leadership position.

    What is, or isn’t allowed doesn’t appear to be of importance to the current administration.

    (I’m late to the thread – this has probably already been noted)

  111. 111.

    tobie

    @clay: The article you linked to says explicitly that Trump approved the raid. This is NOT a holdover operation from Obama’s time.

    EDIT: Oops, you didn’t link…sorry for the mistaken attribution.

  115. 115.

    Gin & Tonic

    Has the US Gov’t, as is customary, expressed its sympathy to the Canadian Gov’t concerning yesterday’s mass murder?

  119. 119.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TS: I had heard something about this previously…//

    I do not disagree with you. But my role around here is to provide correct information. This is the correct information.

  123. 123.

    Renie

    today’s NYT editorial board has an opinion piece entitled “President Bannon” can we hope Trump sees this, gets humiliated and gets rid of Bannon?

  125. 125.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m probably over-weighing this, but daaaannng…even Manchin is like, “this is a mess and I’m not signing on to it”

    Storm clouds comin’, Mr. Trump…

  129. 129.

    Adam L Silverman

    @amk: Unfortunately. Basically Gingrich broke the House to facilitate his rise to power. McConnell has now broken the Senate in an attempt to gain a majority. The new President seems determined to break the Executive.

  131. 131.

    Mary G

    @patroclus: All the headlines on CNN Money right now are Trump-negative:
    Trump’s isolationism is bad for business
    Will Trump kill the Trump rally?
    Is Trump’s behavior authoritarian?
    Ha ha. The worms are beginning to turn.

  136. 136.

    Gian

    @Central Planning:
    My question is why would Trump think they need a warrant at all? And if Verizon won’t do as told … Well he can threaten to tax them or whatever.
    I mean denial of entry to green card holders who were already en route?
    Lawless President

  137. 137.

    Anne Laurie

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Has the US Gov’t, as is customary, expressed its sympathy to the Canadian Gov’t concerning yesterday’s mass murder?

    Does it count that Press Secretary Sean Spicer used the blue-eyed Quebec-born shooter as a “good reason” for his master’s “extreme vetting” of foreigners?

    (Not the Onion, either.)

  138. 138.

    Lizzy L

    @Adam L Silverman: Yes, she has strongly condemned the EO. But there are strong local rumors that she’s going to vote for Sessions. Her phones here and in DC have been busy or “mailbox full” for days. Emails are meh effective. Protesters have been sitting in at the SF office, but she’s in DC. She might surprise us. I remember calling and calling about Sam Alito, and damned if she didn’t vote NO. But Sessions is a fellow Senator. I’m not hopeful.

  142. 142.

    hilts

    @Renie:

    Can we hope Trump sees this, gets humiliated

    Trump has many character flaws and among those is he’s incapable of feeling shame. I just wish that he could be compelled to get a psych evaluation because I think he’s delusional and lacks the mental capacity to do this fucking job for the next 4 years.

  149. 149.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @philpm:

    Wait, whut? The staffers not only knew but helped draft the EO, yet the Reps they report to were completely out of the loop? What the everloving blue-eyed FUCK?

  152. 152.

    patroclus

    @Mary G: It was really the end of the Obama rally – from below 8000 to just below 20,000 in 8 years. The brief “Trump rally” was really just an unrealistic bubble. The Nikkei is down 331 and all the Asian markets are similarly down (although attributing market action to political events is always problematic). The traders thought they were going to get lower taxes and less regulation – they might get some of that this Spring or Summer but they’re also going to get mass chaos and incompetent bumbling and destabilizing political events along with it.

  154. 154.

    Jeffro

    @Mary G:

    Sally Yates was such a wild-eyed liberal radical that John Lewis opposed recommending her for the position.

    Nickel bet that she turns up being supported by Evan McMullin and his @StandUpRepublic crowd tomorrow morning…

    You have to give it to Trumpov and Bannon, they most certainly are forcing a realignment of the parties and powers in America…it’s getting quite “Empire” vs. “Rebellion” these days…

  156. 156.

    jl

    The incompetence and confusion is so hard to keep up with, having a hard time keeping up with the bigotry and meanness.
    So, I read that Bannon over ruled DHS on green card holders. The vicious ass bigot and xenophobe Bannon got his way to ban green card holders on the first executive order? Or did they not bother to think about it?. Now I read that DHS says green card holders not in ban. Was that before Bannon intervened? Or are they changing the order so as not look like complete idiots? I can’t keep track.

    And how many times has Price lied about getting corrupt special deals so far? Is it twice or three times? I’ve lost track. Can that guy still get confirmed?

  157. 157.

    philpm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Great, isn’t it? Congressional staffers are now turning on their bosses.

    Now, the $64 question is: will the Judiciary Committee ‘pubs have balls enough to actually fire some people post-haste, or will they cave like they do on everything else that’s the right thing to do?

  158. 158.

    hovercraft

    I gave up watching cable back on 11/9/2016, but unfortunately I can’t get my mother to quit CNN, tonight it’s been kind of funny listening to her yell and curse at the TV. She just called the Shitgibbon a bloody shit, and yelled that he’s going to get us all killed. I’d go ask, but then I’d be exposed to the stupidity. I’m concerned about her, she has high blood pressure.

  160. 160.

    ? Martin

    @SiubhanDuinne: I can’t envision any scenario where an NDA would be upheld between members of government agencies. I mean, the federal government is going to sue other members of the federal government in civil court for telling government information to yet other members of the federal government? I would have laughed in their face if they pushed that NDA toward me.

  161. 161.

    GregB

    This whole nightmare is making Trump’s choice of inaugural songs all the more horrifying.

    My Way.

  163. 163.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jeffro: He’s already there, Mindy Finn, too

    Evan Mcmullen ‏@ Evan_McMullin 4h4 hours ago
    I salute the courage of @ SallyQYates. May other Americans in the government have the same resolve when required.

  165. 165.

    Paula

    @hilts: @hilts: @hilts: He may not feel shame but he certainly feels miffed/humiliated when his ego is challenged. And that’s good because it makes him even crazier and it is his craziness and lack of self-control that will be his undoing.

  166. 166.

    Adam L Silverman

    @clay: As long as I do the work I do and am potentially deployable: never. As long as I’m willing, able, and could be sent into harm’s way I will not put anyone else through having to wait and see if I come back. Even if they’re willing to be put through it. This, of course, obviously doesn’t apply to my blood relations. But I’m not willing to bring anyone else into this.

  168. 168.

    Yarrow

    @Mary G:

    All the headlines on CNN Money right now are Trump-negative:

    Very good news. However…

    Is Trump’s behavior authoritarian?

    Really? They don’t know? I mean, duh! You could go down a checklist for authoritarian behavior and tick all the boxes. I guess they figure they need to ease the general public into the concept or something.

  169. 169.

    Peale

    @jl: Kelly did not say green card holders are excluded. The ones overseas are still stuck there. They will be processed again under the new extreme vetting process. They will be allowed to come home if nothing is revealed against them. So still, the terms of the visa have been changed. On Thursday, they were free to travel outside the country. On Friday, being outside the country meant that they needed to be treated to an investigation. No matter where they were. Their visa allowed them to come and go, now, not so much. When the new process will be in place, I don’t know. When will these “case by case” reviews start? Your guess is as good as mine. I hope they have someone looking after their pets.

  170. 170.

    TS

    @Adam L Silverman:

    But my role around here is to provide correct information. This is the correct information.

    And I am very grateful for the information you provide. It is horrifying that I even think about the administration ignoring the rules and the laws, let alone see that they are doing same.

  171. 171.

    japa21

    In regards to the botched raid, I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump pushed for it to be done despite some concerns over the planning. He wanted to make a big splash, even bigger and greater than Obama getting bin Laden.

  173. 173.

    jl

    @Yarrow: So far, for good or ill (we will be the lucky ones who will find out sooner or later) Trump is a very incompetent authoritarian. Does that happen very often? Seems like historically places where authoritarians can rise to power and rule long enough to make the history books, are also places where incompetent would-be authoritarians get weeded out early in the game.

    So, a totally incompetent authoritarian might need to be explained to people.

    Ahh… the wonders our electoral college can accomplish!

  174. 174.

    NYCMT

    Given his actions over the last forty-eight hours, isn’t there a strong rhetorical and political point that he cannot be allowed to fill any judicial vacancies whatsoever?

  176. 176.

    mdblanche

    The DNC statement is shrill:

    Donald Trump can try to silence heroic patriots like Sally Yates who dare to speak truth to power about his illegal anti-Muslim ban that emboldens terrorists around the globe. But he cannot silence the growing voices of an American people now wide awake to his tyrannical presidency.

  179. 179.

    elm

    @Peale: Green card holders are effected. Whatever they say now, they changed the terms on Friday at 6PM EST.

    It used to be that permanent resident status granted you the presumption of being allowed entry into the US and a legal claim to exercise that right. Now the US Presidency claims otherwise and has directed its staff to presume the opposite.

    Even if they say they have changed their minds now, that is enormous.

  180. 180.

    Mnemosyne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    It didn’t hurt that they brought their very handsome dad along to seal the deal (and help with the math). He looked kind of like the guy who used to do the Old Spice commercials, Isaiah Mustafa. I may be married, but I’m not dead. ?

  181. 181.

    NotMax

    Kee-rist, at this point am half-expecting Dolt 45 to nominate Michele Bachmann to SCOTUS tomorrow.

  182. 182.

    jl

    @NYCMT:

    ” Given his actions over the last forty-eight hours, isn’t there a strong rhetorical and political point that he cannot be allowed to fill any judicial vacancies whatsoever? ”

    GOP Congress will let Trump do as he damn pleases until they get scared enough, either by encroachment on their turf, or they get scared about midterms. That is why I think demonstrations and very frequent calls, letters and visits to local Congressional offices important. Especially in GOP districts.

  183. 183.

    danielx

    “Sessions brings heft to the president’s gut instincts,” said Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser. He compared Sessions to John Mitchell, who was attorney general under Richard M. Nixon but served a more intimate role as a counselor to the president on just about everything. “Nixon is not a guy given to taking advice, but Mitchell was probably Nixon’s closest adviser,” Stone said…

    I ask you: with predecessors like that, what could possibly go wrong?

  185. 185.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mary G: There’s not much to that article. Dems are saying they won’t do to Trump’s pick what the Rs did to Garland (and probably wouldn’t if they could, true). The Dems can’t do it, so they might as well say they’re acting nobly.

  186. 186.

    dogwood

    @Lizzy L:
    Can all the DiFi haters please clue me in on specific examples in her record where she’s condoned racism? She said she hadn’t heard from constituents about Sessions, but she didn’t say she was voting for him. Sounded like she was asking for some ammunition.

  187. 187.

    Millard Filmore

    @bluehill:

    I hope the Bannon and NSC appointment doesn’t get buried under. On a relative basis, this seems like one decision that could have the most significant consequences in terms wars and repression of dissent.

    The first tripwire for things going catastrophically wrong (which most of us will not see) is when the spooks move their families out of the country. The time to really panic is when the spooks start defecting to Germany or France.

  189. 189.

    jl

    @danielx: Well, Trump has two gut instincts that I can see: die hard old white man bigotry of almost infinite variety, and swindling. So, it makes sense. Sessions will certainly add heft to Trump’s policy turds. No doubt about it.

  192. 192.

    Peale

    @NotMax: I’m still pulling for Newt. If it’s newt, vote him in. Sadly I think it will be someone 28 years old who we will have to live with for 60 years.

  193. 193.

    NotMax

    @SiubhanDuinne

    I must be in a very select minority in that have never seen a Girl Scout cookie, never eaten a Girl Scout cookie and never encountered anyone selling them.

  196. 196.

    Peale

    @elm: it is. And so we have a visa that is different for people depending on what country they came from. today, Iraq. Tomorrow someone beheads someone in Minando and all the Filipino nurses are called to account for it.

  197. 197.

    NYCMT

    @jl – just more arms in the Democratic campaign basket, I guess. Every judicial appointment is tainted from now on.

  198. 198.

    dm

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m not sure that isn’t a feature. Steve Bannon will do his Jack Bauer routine and save us all. Alternatively, Reichstag fire.

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: “hair furor”. That’s a keeper. Someone tell Bonnie.

    I’ve begun to think that we need to update the 25th Amendment with something that allows a President to be removed by a simple “no confidence” vote in Congress (perhaps a 2/3 vote). Impeachment requires “high crimes and misdemeanors”, but maybe just “being an incredible fuck-up” should be an acceptable criterion for removal.

  200. 200.

    danielx

    @philpm:

    You SO had to put that particular thought in my head, didn’t you? Jeebus, it’s like having the Oscar Meyer Wiener song for an earworm. Or maybe Snowbilly Snookie, I don’t think it’s required to be an actual living breathing lawyer as chief justice, or is it?

  201. 201.

    elm

    @Peale: Correct, the details of today’s list are immaterial. Today the list has 7 countries and they claim that they will not apply it to green card holders. How many countries will be on the list tomorrow? What will the rules be for people who board a flight back to the US in 2 months?

  202. 202.

    dogwood

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    That’s how I interpreted it too. They are going to hold hearings on the pick and fulfill their senate duty. Republicans were too chicken shit to let Garland get in front of the camera because they knew he was a qualified, exemplary pick. I guarantee Dems are gonna want Trump’s pick to get a lot of air time.

  204. 204.

    debit

    @Mary G: I called Amy Klobuchar’s DC office and had a mini meltdown on her poor staffer. The phone were busy; it took a good ten minutes to be answered, so keep calling everyone.

  205. 205.

    philpm

    @danielx: I was going to reply that you had to be at least above vegetable level until I remembered Clarence Thomas is a Supreme Court justice.

  206. 206.

    hilts

    @Paula:

    it is his craziness and lack of self-control that will be his undoing.

    I sure as Hell hope so and hopefully before his 4 years are up. I know Pence is horrible, but I truly think Trump is mentally ill and is medically unfit to serve.

  208. 208.

    Millard Filmore

    @? Martin:

    I mean, the federal government is going to sue other members of the federal government in civil court for telling government information to yet other members of the federal government? I would have laughed in their face if they pushed that NDA toward me.

    Your action simply means you will not be participating in drafting the EO.

  209. 209.

    hovercraft

    @mdblanche:
    They are starting to realize that they will have to go full eleventy to have any chance at galvanizing the country against this shit. But only just starting to if this shit is true.

    Democrats consider backing off big battle over Trump’s Supreme Court pick

    @Mary G: If this is true, the ones who go along must be inundated with calls, they must understand we will not stand for this.

  210. 210.

    Lurking Canadian

    @Renie: NYT editorial board are getting the side-eye from me until they publish, “Oh my God we are so sorry we did this!” and ritually disembowel themselves on live TV.

    @dm: They already have that. Yes impeachment says “High crimes and misdemeanors” but there is no higher authority. If enough members of Congress say he has to go, he goes. Even if they say it’s just because they don’t like the color of his tie.

  212. 212.

    jl

    @dogwood:

    ” I guarantee Dems are gonna want Trump’s pick to get a lot of air time. ”

    If Trump had a brain in his head, he would pick somebody with a plausible case for confirmation. I won’t take sides on that bet, though.
    If there are hearings, and nominee is so extreme they generate some public demonstrations, and Dems can filibuster, Trump will be in a real state of melt down.

  215. 215.

    Peale

    @elm: why would you board a flight? They’ll just change their minds before you get home.

    My guess is that they wait six months and when the interviews take place, they’ll accuse the visa holder of a violation for being outside the country too long.

  216. 216.

    hilts

    @Mary G:
    @Yarrow:

    Is Trump’s behavior authoritarian?

    Personally, I prefer to use the term totalitarian and my answer is yes. Trump is a racist, sexist totalitarian.

  218. 218.

    Percysowner

    @Lizzy L: I suspect Yates’ firing has changed the geography of voting for Sessions. DiFi may now be inclined to vote against.

  219. 219.

    TriassicSands

    not hard to tell which paragraphs of this statement, from office of the White House press secretary, were dictated directly by the president

    That was exactly what I thought when I read through the statement. This sounds like a petulant adolescent with severe anti-social tendencies. Hmm. Who could that be?

    I’ve never seen anything like this before. Everything Trump does is completely unpresidential.

  220. 220.

    Mnemosyne

    @jl:

    Yep, hearings first — lots and lots and lots of hearings, with plenty of airtime for nominee to blather on — followed by a filibuster. Don’t let Trump claim that the nominee was totally qualified and the Democrats blocked him/her. Let the whole world see what Trump’s folks coughed up as their answer to Garland’s nomination before we block that shit.

  222. 222.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @dogwood: I guarantee Dems are gonna want Trump’s pick to get a lot of air time.

    Yup. I gather the one who called Roe the greatest abomination (or something like that) in US history has withdrawn his name (Pryor?), but the other speculated nominees are some real beauties, according to the NPR story I heard earlier today

  224. 224.

    danielx

    @tpherald:

    Three gets you five that Sally Yates has a job tomorrow, probably making more money than she did as a supergrade civil servant. If she wants it, that is.

  225. 225.

    Mnemosyne

    @TriassicSands:

    This sounds like a petulant adolescent with severe anti-social tendencies. Hmm. Who could that be?

    To be fair, I can think of multiple candidates, with Bannon, Spicer and Conway among the front-runners. It’s not like there’s a shortage of immature, petulant sociopaths here.

  226. 226.

    jl

    @BillinGlendaleCA: The most likely High Crimes and Misdemeanors that comes to my mind is that Trump gets so toxic to the public that GOP gets scared about the midterms.

    And Pence is VP. I’m sure many GOPer Cognresspeople would like an excuse to promote him somehow.

    If it comes to that, I hope they put in the bill of impeachment: “Trump committed treason by screwing up the midterms and threatening our big majority’

  232. 232.

    NotMax

    @jl

    As of right now, looks more and more as if Pence will have to hustle his butt up the hill to cast a tiebreaker for Sessions.

  233. 233.

    Karen

    @clay:

    Is this the real story, or is it more BS?

    I’ve reached the point where I’m waiting for the fake story which will say Muslims killed a bunch of people as a way they can turn and provide “reasons” for the ban.

    I can’t believe anything when they lie so blatantly.

  234. 234.

    Lizzy L

    @dogwood: Excuse me? GFY, sweet pea. I’m not a DiFi hater. And she’s not racist that I know of. But she’s disappointed me many times by not stepping up to the hard votes. I frankly don’t see why, given her seniority in the Senate, that she hasn’t announced already that she’s not voting for Sessions. But as I said, he’s a fellow Senator and she has a tendency to want to be pushed to the wall by her constituents in these sorts of votes. She’s reliably staunch on gun control issues, for obvious reasons, but she’s by nature conservative. So we have to push.

  235. 235.

    El Caganer

    @dm: I thought he was mostly impeached for being a dick that everybody hated – they were looking for an excuse to either unload him or bring him back under control. Very different now – if Trump signs all the bills they want, the Republican congresspeople will keep him there forever.

  236. 236.

    Philbert

    I only occasionally post, but am a years-long lurker and my compliments to everyone for keeping me in the shallow end, it’s hard to really add anything very often, given the qualities here.

    That said, back to the firings, these are not ‘firings’, this is a SYSTEMATIC PURGE of any who resist Trump, and is just getting started. If a vacancy means some NatSec emergency can’t be addressed due to lack of approval, fine, that works to eliminate the approval process and concentrate more power to the Trump Triumvirate or Politburo or whatever we’ll call it. I hope civil service people stay as long as they can, if they quit on principle they will replaced by toadies that much sooner. um, cheers!

    Re the AG dept and FISA, this should kill the Russia investigation.

  237. 237.

    Darkrose

    @Adam L Silverman: She wrote the Senate version of the bill to rescind the EO. Also, she asked for a delay on the Sessions nomination in order to “review the data”. Her office has asked for constituent feedback on why people marched in order to present to the committee.

    I have a lot of problems with DiFi, not least of which is her love of process and Senate comity over what’s right, but she seems to be stepping up now.

  239. 239.

    El Caganer

    @Karen: Can’t we all just get along and agree that there are a number of alternative facts floating around? My RW FB friends are very concerned about civility. Human rights, not so much, but civility…that’s the ticket.

  240. 240.

    Suffragete City elftx

    Speaking of Newt (never met a dictator he didn’t like) Gingrich:

    Trump practiced “you’re fired for years”. Today he applied it to an insubordinate acting atty general. Congratulations.

    what a pos

  241. 241.

    danielx

    @TriassicSands:

    Everything Trump does is completely unpresidential.

    Truth. Look in the dictionary under “presidential” and you may well find a picture of the trumpenfuhrer labelled “not him”. Every other president in my memory has at least known how to act in a presidential manner when it was called for (okay, stretching a point for Dubya). But at the very least they were surrounded and supported by reasonably competent and knowledgeable staff. The policies those staffers carried out might have been detestable, as would those of (god save us!) Ted Cruz, or Marco Rubio, or come to think of it, all of the other Republican candidates this past season. But at least I would had a sense that some thought had been put into those policies whether I agreed with them or not; there was at least a consistent world view and there would be a hope of some amount of competence displayed in carrying them out. Such is not the case at the present time…

    Trump is a walking collection of personality disorders, and his temperament and character guarantee incoherent and damaging policies, incompetently executed. His whims and priorities have already affected many lives for the worse, and I suspect a lot of people are going to die before this crisis is finished, for crisis I believe it to be.

  243. 243.

    sdhays

    @Mnemosyne: If they’re trying to pass a doomed Supreme Court judge, they have less time for other mischief. As long as he’s doomed to a filibuster, they can have as full a process as they can manage, as far as I’m concerned.

  250. 250.

    El Caganer

    @philpm: There is an incredible amount of faux-comity: “Sure, we all voted differently, and had our personal opinions. But he’s the President now, and we all have to pull together!” Marvelously amusing, considering the folks who were so righteously defensive of “You lie!” as legitimate response to a newly elected President. It’s a great time to move to Belize…..Canada’s just too cold.

  254. 254.

    El Caganer

    @philpm: Yo – so does Florida. I live in Bradenton, and Tampa ain’t gonna make me want to stay (OK, I come from PA, so I don’t expect Pens/Flyers here).

  258. 258.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @? Martin:

    She was not Acting Atty General under Obama. Trump appointed her to that position. She’s been in the job for 10 days. He can’t blame Obama for her being there. There’s no reason to even include that sentence except to soothe Trumps ego.

    What, wait, he canned his own appointee and pretended she as from Obama?

  259. 259.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Adam L Silverman:

    You can reliably reproduce it by putting a link at the end of a comment and leaving off the “close link” command. There may be other ways to do it, but that one is documented.

  265. 265.

    jl

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Yes. And a more straightforward meaning of ‘ to soothe Trumps ego ‘ is ‘ misdirection amounting to a lie in order to cover Trujmp’s miserable ass ‘.

    I think we already have some honest counts in an honest bill of impeachment. GOP Congress won’d do anything unless they get scared enough.

  271. 271.

    Captain C

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I suspect the real crime in the eyes of most of those who voted to impeach was that it wasn’t them getting their knob polished in the Oval Office*.

    *or environs

  274. 274.

    Brachiator

    @clay:

    WT-everlovin’-F?!? A NDA… against their own Congressional Members?!??? J..

    Congressional members had to have been in on it. You have a blurring of the lines between the executive and legislative branches to provide assistance to Trump.

  276. 276.

    Chet Murthy

    @NotMax: I used to be addicted to Samoas. Which are basically chewy/chewy/chewy chocolate macaroons. But then, one day, I found a grocery that stocks …. the real thing. A little pricier, but then, dayyyum, so good.. The Arguelle Market at the corner of Arguello and Cabrillo (in San Francisco). Sorry, Girl Scouts. You’ve been out-cookied.

    But it was a good run of …. 40yr.

  277. 277.

    Chet Murthy

    @danielx: Right. Right. We could detest,despise, *hate* Cheney and his pet Addington, but they were competent (at least, at the bureaucracy, the lawyering, etc).

    These guys make the Mayberry Machiavellis look like …. Machiavalli.

  278. 278.

    TriassicSands

    @Mnemosyne:

    It’s not like there’s a shortage of immature, petulant sociopaths here.

    True, but I think Trump stands out. Still, I wouldn’t argue that Trump is scarier than Bannon. Assuming Bannon was behind the snub to Jewish Holocaust victims, I wonder how he and Jared Kushner are going to get along.

    Conway and Spicer may fail the formal criteria for sociopathy. They qualify as truly horrible people. In Spicer’s case, he’s given us one of the most striking looks at hypocrisy and dishonesty I’ve ever seen. And that’s really saying something with the likes of Ryan, McConnell, and all the other Republicans running around today.

    If you haven’t seen it, find and watch Spicer’s recent interview with David Axelrod. He claims — absolutely — he would and could never lie in his job as press secretary. Fast forward to his very first meeting with the press in which he gave us one of the most dishonest performances ever. It would be jaw-dropping if the Republicans hadn’t been preparing us for the Trump administration for so many years. Worse, that performance was just an introduction to what his entire tenure as press secretary would be like. Of course, that isn’t a surprise, since he’s fronting for the most dishonest person ever to occupy the White House.

  279. 279.

    Ian

    @dm:
    Impeachment requires no more than 2/3 vote of senate and majority of house. In theory, they could impeach the president for forgetting to feed the white house dog.

  280. 280.

    Barry

    @clay: @clay: @clay: “WT-everlovin’-F?!? A NDA… against their own Congressional Members?!??? Jiminy H. Crickets, if I were the Rep whose staff member did that to me, I would fire the whole lot of them.”

    I would find out what I could do beyond that. If the GOP Senators are smart, they’d fire those guys, subpoena them to appear before the committee, and blackball the sh*t out of them in the entire GOP DC system.

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