Jeff Sessions will be a terrible Attorney General. (I've written about him many times, I'm not spending any more keyboard strokes than I have to on him.)

The Senate passed him through committee today.

These are the views of the man about to become Attorney General (from his grilling of Justice Sotomeyer during her nomination hearing.) His best quote (although the munchkin s too brainless to realize it applies to him):

I want to be clear:

I wil1 not vote for-and no senator should vote for-an individual nominated by any President who is not fully committed to fairness and impartia1ity towru·d every person who appears before them.[More...]

Trump picks 10th Circuit Justice Neil Gorsuch for Supreme Court.

In 5 minutes, Donald Trump will name his nominee to the Supreme Court.

In typical over-the top carnival style, he has asked two of his contenders fly to DC to appear with him, when only one will get the nod. [More...]

Here's a new open thread, all topics welcome.

Are Donald Trump and his team morons or just ignorant? (I give my personal view at the end.)

Trump's immigration order is being celebrated online by ISIS supporters -- it's just what they want the world to believe -- the U.S. is engaged in a war on Muslims. Way to Go, Donald.

First off, Trump couldn't even pick the right countries. The countries included in his order are Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, and Somalia.

Since 9/11, not a single person in the U.S. has been killed by a terrorist who emigrated from these countries or whose family emigrated from these countries. Not one of the 9/11 attackers came from one of these seven countries. [More...]

Rudy Giuliani thinks he's the king of anti-terrorism. So reluctant is he to let anyone forget he was Mayor during 9/11, today he claimed Trump asked him to form a commission to come up with a way to legally ban Muslims from America.

He says he formed the commission with Republican U.S. congressman Peter King and one of Bush's many former Attorney Generals, Michael Mukasey. (Mukasey's son and Rudy Giuliani are law partners.)

Problem is, Peter King denies it and says Rudy is confused: [More...]

Typical Donald Trump. He didn't include Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, the UAE or Jordan in his Executive Order banning Muslims.

Why not? Maybe because Trump Org. has licensed its name to properties in those countries. Wealthy Muslims in those countries helped Donald make money.

In Dubai, Trump International has a golf course and a spa and is building luxury homes and a second golf course.

An American commando has lost his life in a battle with al Qaida in Yemen (not ISIS) in the first authorized military raid of the Trump Administration.

The raid also killed women and children, including the 8 year old daughter of deceased al Qaida preacher Anwar al-Awlaki. (Photo of her vibrant, happy and alive here.)

Donald Trump occupies the oval office but he cannot erase the Constitution. The Constitution protects everyone, including the undocumented and non-citizens.

If you are not a citizen, here are your most basic rights, according to the National Immigration Law Center, which joined with the ACLU and other groups yesterday to hand Donald Trump his first judicial defeat over his outrageous executive order discriminating against Muslims and refugees according to country of origin:

• Officers from any law enforcement agency, including ICE and the Border Patrol, must show you their ID if you ask for it. You have the right to ask them to show you an identity document.

• You have the right to remain silent. You are not required to answer any questions or sign any papers about where you’re from or what your immigration status is.

• You have the right to call and speak with an attorney. Be prepared. Look up the phone number of a lawyer or organization that provides legal help to immigrants. Then memorize their phone number, or write it down and carry it with you wherever you go.

[More...]

The ACLU, National Immigration Law Center, International Refugee Assistance Project and other immigrants' rights groups filed a federal lawsuit suit in the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn)seeking declaratory relief and an emergency stay against Donald Trump's executive immigration order. It also asked the Court to certify the case as a class action.

A hearing was held this afternoon before U.S. District Court Judge Ann M. Donnelly, who granted the motion for stay and issued an order banning the U.S. from deporting anyone nation-wide who lawfully entered the country from Trump's executive order targeting Muslims from 7 countries, and anyone whose refugee application has been approved.

The Court's Order is here.
The Complaint is here. All other documents as of now are under seal. [More...]

Donald Trump sure knows how to make a mess of things. Mexican President Enrique Pena-Nieto has canceled his trip to the White House where they were going to have talks about trade.

It's amateur hour at the Trump White House. Earlier they suggested a tax for imports to fund the wall. Now, they are backtracking.

Donald Trump needs a muzzle so he can stop outraging the world with his outlandish, ill-considered comments. He has the temperment and self-discipline of a 5 year old. I have work to do, I can't be checking the news every 10 minutes to see his latest buffoonery.

The Denver Post minces no words in its editorial yesterday, Lying Donald Trump can’t be trusted, and that needs to stop now.

The president of the United States needs to demand of himself and of his staff that comments presented to the American people can be trusted and supported by legitimate — and not “alternative” — facts.

Without that basic level of trust, the very functioning of our federal government and our nation will be at risk....his actions betray a terrible failing, a deep character flaw within the new president that cannot be excused as campaign bluster.

Americans won’t be led by a man who works through manipulation and falsehood.

The Trump Org needs to reject its latest poppycock idea of opening a Trump hotel in Denver. Not only will it be boycotted, so will properties of local investors in and supporters of the project. Denverites voted overwhelmingly against Trump. Let them try Colorado Springs. Or a bed and breakfast in Alamosa or somewhere similar they can find a few people who won't revolt over the idea.[More...]

Not a good day for Donald Trump or Rex Tillerson, his choice for Secretary of State.

The entire senior staff of the State Department just resigned.

The entire senior level of management officials resigned Wednesday, part of an ongoing mass exodus of senior foreign service officers who don’t want to stick around for the Trump era.

...“It’s the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember, and that’s incredibly difficult to replicate,” said David Wade, who served as State Department chief of staff under Secretary of State John Kerry. “Department expertise in security, management, administrative and consular positions in particular are very difficult to replicate and particularly difficult to find in the private sector.”

Will there be a similar exodus at DOJ when Jeff Sessions takes over?

Update: The Washington Post has two reporters working on the story. The first reported as above. The second, a few hours later, writes that Team Trump requested the resignations of several "senior State Department diplomats."