The 9th circuit issued a unanimous opinion upholding the suspension of the Muslim ban. Here’s a copy of the ruling:
Hail to the Hairpiece
Open Thread: Jason Chaffetz, Craven Careerist
"The president said, 'no oversight. You can't talk about anything that has to do with oversight.'"
— Untroubled GOP chair of oversight https://t.co/N8GzcYl4Aj
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) February 7, 2017
Chaffetz gets a 30-min mtg with Trump/Priebus in the Oval Office, says Trump insisted on no talk of investigations https://t.co/D0j8zI19Wq
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) February 7, 2017
And the venal little bastid couldn’t wait to run bragging to his Media Village Idiot buddies, because of course he did.
… Chaffetz described an inquisitive, “chit-chatty” president, eager to learn about Postal Service reforms, undoing President Barack Obama’s move to turn Utah’s Bears Ears into a national monument, embassy security and reining in costs associated with the federal workforce. The elephant in the room — Chaffetz’s power to investigate Trump and his administration — never came up, he said. Nor, he added, did his ongoing investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server…
Chaffetz credited Priebus — an ally since the two traveled together during Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign — with arranging the Oval Office sitdown…
Chaffetz said Trump was supportive of him conducting vigorous oversight during their Philadelphia chat.
“He was the one who said proactively, feel free to investigate anything you want. That’s your job, that’s your role,” he said. “He is not going to put a heavy hand in one direction nor the other. We have a job to do and we’re going to do it.”
Sure, investigate the King’s enemies like you were screening for skin cancers. Just never investigate the King, because His Majesty is incapable of error.
Chaffetz says Reince Preibus, of the RNC, put this little confab together. The GOP is happy to let everyone know: IOKIYAR is now official government policy.
Open Thread: Jason Chaffetz, Craven CareeristPost + Comments (157)
Open Thread: AWKward, Judge Gorsuch!
NEW: Supreme Court pick Neil Gorsuch calls Pres. Trump comments on the judiciary "demoralizing" and "disheartening" https://t.co/i3q2sS91B1 pic.twitter.com/FyFq3teSbg
— Good Morning America (@GMA) February 8, 2017
I'd add "corrosive" and "damaging to our civic culture." https://t.co/BI060Smfkx
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) February 8, 2017
Note the senders: happy-chat morning tv show, and a conservative who still thinks Hillary would’ve been a terrible president (although better than the current occupant).
GOOD JOB BREAKING IT, REPUBS!
Trump: “If these judges wanted to, in my opinion, help the court in terms of respect for the court, they’d do what they should be doing” pic.twitter.com/22nnv8jnHz
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) February 8, 2017
“I watched last night in amazement, and I heard things I couldn’t believe!”
This is the way to knock back that "sits in his robe obsessing over cable news" story. https://t.co/3aEm2GtVNZ
— Schooley (@Rschooley) February 8, 2017
Open Thread: <em>AWKward</em>, Judge Gorsuch!Post + Comments (111)
Wednesday Evening Open Thread: The Trump Cabal, On Beyond Shameless
Sean Spicer just now: I can only hope that if Coretta Scott King was still with us, that she would support Senator Sessions's nomination.
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) February 8, 2017
Used to be, an elderly racist like Jefferson Beauregard Sessions would be required to festoon his confirmation hearing with platitudes about ‘youthful indiscretions’ and ‘having learned better since then’. But this gang can’t even permit themselves such rags of hypocrisy, because the official GOP line is that racism is good and honorable — so much so, even discussing racism is an offense against honor. You know what happened, last time that was true for Congressmen?
Let’s be clear on the precedent here: it’s the 1836-44 gag rule that forbade any consideration of abolition in the House. 1/
— James Grimmelmann (@grimmelm) February 8, 2017
All abolitionist petitions would immediately be tabled, and any attempt to introduce them would be prohibited.
— James Grimmelmann (@grimmelm) February 8, 2017
Former president John Quincy Adams, now back in Congress, was outraged, and kept trying to push against the gag rule. 4/
— James Grimmelmann (@grimmelm) February 8, 2017
Southern representatives introduced resolutions to censure JQA, and said that the petition should “be instantly burnt.” 7/
— James Grimmelmann (@grimmelm) February 8, 2017
Southern Congressmen threatened to walk out en masse and quit the Union rather than submit to a _discussion_ of abolition. 11/
— James Grimmelmann (@grimmelm) February 8, 2017
Then, as now, “dignity” and “respect” for the institution trumped open debate on actual issues of urgent importance. 13/
— James Grimmelmann (@grimmelm) February 8, 2017
As I noted last night, tensions escalated over the gag rule to the point where a South Carolina senator attempted to murder a Massachusetts senator on the floor of the Senate chamber. I doubt the current GOP Senators have anyone with that level of conviction in their ranks, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the security teams weren’t being a little extra alert right now.
Wednesday Evening Open Thread: The Trump Cabal, On Beyond ShamelessPost + Comments (95)
Early Morning Open Thread: Trumpstuntin’, Middle Eastern Edition
After the fiasco of its first counter-terror effort, the Trump administration is barred from Yemen. https://t.co/p0h4CeKKsB
— Neil King (@NKingofDC) February 8, 2017
Spicer denies that the target of the Yemen raid was AQAP leader Qassim al-Rimi. Says it was to get intelligence.
— Samuel Oakford (@samueloakford) February 7, 2017
@dandrezner that f***ing laptop better tell us where Luke Skywalker is
— Rogue Rogue One Acct (@ZeddRebel) February 8, 2017
(Or at the very least, Qassim al-Rimi’s pr0n stash… remember the hunt for Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction? Or the very nasty filthy videos said to be found at bin Laden’s compound?)
Trump 'shows true face of US,' says Iran's Supreme Leader https://t.co/cr7fKLaBhP
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 7, 2017
Nah, bro. He couldn’t even win the popular vote. https://t.co/DfJk2wyhBV
— Oliver Griswold (@originalgriz) February 7, 2017
Early Morning Open Thread: Trumpstuntin’, Middle Eastern EditionPost + Comments (20)
Late Night Open Thread: F-Word Trump
Sheriff tells Trump that state senator is doing something he doesn't like
Trump: "Do you want to give his name? We'll destroy his career." pic.twitter.com/75y3t9zc54
— Steve Kopack (@SteveKopack) February 7, 2017
Jesus. Also, the thing the sheriff didn't like? The state senator is trying to end civil asset forfeiture.https://t.co/NQ3tsogvlU
— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) February 7, 2017
… At a listening session with county sheriffs from around the country, Trump invited the sheriffs seated in the White House’s Roosevelt Room to make a statement while reporters were present. Rockwall County, Texas, Sheriff Harold Eavenson spoke up first to discuss asset forfeiture, a practice by which law enforcement can seize the cash and property of individuals suspected of committing a crime without a guilty verdict.
Proponents of the practice argue that allows law enforcement to effectively combat terrorism and the drug trade, while opponents, including some conservatives, argue that it allows police to seize assets without due process. Trump’s predecessor, former President Barack Obama, sought to rein in an asset sharing program by which local law enforcement were given a share of whatever assets they seized…
The president’s remark elicited laughter from those gathered in the Roosevelt Room, although the president did not join in. Eavenson did not offer the Texas state senator’s name, and the public information officer for the Rockwall County sheriff’s office declined to name the lawmaker in question…
Question: You know who else relied on “You don’t look like the sort of person should be allowed to have nice things” as a way to simultaneously reward his followers and intimidate his perceived enemies?
Answer: Every two-bit thug who’s ever been able to wrap his kleptomania in the rags of ‘government’… but for the last hundred years or so, we’ve called them ‘fascists‘.
.@jaketapper: "I'm talking about the President of the US saying things that are not true, demonstrably not true" https://t.co/mPtWanPHoU
— Daniella Diaz (@DaniellaMicaela) February 7, 2017
New post:
Trump is now systematically attacking all the institutions that could limit his power later:https://t.co/38y2hT4mvZ
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) February 7, 2017
…[I]t’s important to step back and appreciate the bigger picture here. Trump — faced with an outpouring of popular opposition to his ban, and a level of institutional pushback to it, that surely caught him and his advisers off guard — is actively experimenting with how far he can go in delegitimizing the institutions that are already signaling they may place serious, meaningful limits on his power…
The travel ban has unleashed a surprisingly robust response from the public and our institutions, making this into a first test case as to whether popular mobilization and those institutions can effectively rein in Trump’s authoritarian and nakedly discriminatory impulses. The question is not just whether this ban can be stopped. It’s also whether Trump can be blocked from extending and expanding this policy and instituting others like it.
But even as that response has arisen, Trump is also testing how far he can go in delegitimizing our institutions — and in telling lies designed to minimize impressions of popular opposition to the scope and nature of his exercise of power — apparently in order to undermine the degree to which those forces will continue to function as a check on that power later. So it’s important to appreciate that this test case flows in two directions.
The thing to watch is how much ideological media goes w him. Fox so far has been all in https://t.co/jFW5sjYSHc
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) February 7, 2017
Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Mark Your Calendars
I need to get tickets! pic.twitter.com/klk2tidNWO
— Kenneth B Morris Jr (@kmorrisjr) February 5, 2017
.
Apart from that, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
I wonder if Trump is sick of all the winning. pic.twitter.com/DRCXt2uw6d
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) February 7, 2017
Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Mark Your CalendarsPost + Comments (75)