The Jeff Sessions Justice Department looking for way to take authority away from Federal Courts.

Courtesy of Mother Jones: 

Last April, when a federal judge in Hawaii blocked the Trump administration’s effort to ban entry to people from six Muslim-majority nations, Attorney General Jeff Sessions took to conservative talk radio to vent his frustration. “I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the president of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and constitutional power,” he told host Mark Levin. 

Residents of Hawaii pointed out that it was every bit as much a state as the other 49, but Sessions was making a broader legal point, one that the Supreme Court will now consider. The Justice Department wants to permanently remove the ability of federal judges to issue nationwide injunctions—orders that stop a policy from taking effect until the court has officially ruled on its legality. Instead, a Hawaiian judge overseeing a travel ban case brought by the state of Hawaii would be able to block the ban only in that state. The implications, if the Supreme Court agrees with the Justice Department, will be enormous for the future of judicial review and the federal government’s balance of power. 

Federal courts have repeatedly blocked the administration’s efforts to implement a hardline immigration agenda. More than a year into Donald Trump’s presidency, attempts to crack down on sanctuary cities, end Obama-era deportation protections for Dreamers, and block nationals from Muslim-majority countries have been stopped by federal judges enacting nationwide injunctions.

Okay this might actually be the MOST troubling thing we have learned about this administration.

The Founders wanted there to be three co-equal branches of government, executive, legislative, and judicial.

And the Judicial is the one that is tasked with protecting the constitutional rights of American citizens.

If the Trump Administration were actually successful in pulling this off, that would mean that each state's court system would determine what was a constitutionally protected right in their jurisdiction ONLY.

That means that some states could block gay marriage, women's rights, civil rights, equal pay, essentially EVERYTHING.

That would overwhelm the Supreme Court almost overnight, and if Trump gets one more judge on the panel they would be loathe to do anything to challenge a state's right to remain in the dark ages.

California man arrested for planning a terrorist attack on Christmas Day.

Courtesy of NBC News: 

A California man was charged Friday with plotting to aid ISIS by traveling to Syria or staging an attack in San Francisco on Christmas Day, though court documents suggest he later got cold feet. 

Everitt Aaron Jameson, 26, of Modesto was arrested earlier in the day and charged with providing support to a terrorist organization. Law enforcement officials say the FBI began investigating him in September, after a tipster reported that Jameson was making pro-jihadi comments in a Facebook posting. 

Court documents said when undercover FBI informants and employees began communicating with him in October, he praised ISIS and the deadly Oct. 31 truck attack on a New York City bicycle path.

Investigators said he told them he had the money it would take to go to Syria to join ISIS but later he began to talk about carrying out some kind of attack in the U.S., using skills he learned in the Marine Corps. 

The FBI said he eventually began talking about attacking Pier 39 in San Francisco, a popular tourist attraction, because he knew it to be a crowded area. Court documents said he told the undercover operatives that he had no escape plan because he was ready to die.

Does not appear that Trump's Muslim ban would have done a damn thing to keep Americans safe from an attack like this.

Not only is this dude white, but he received his training from America's military.

Certainly does not fit the profile that we are told identifies a terrorist these days.

Well good thing the FBI is still doing its job, despite constant criticism from the new commander-in-chief. 

The "Trump Slump" continues.

Courtesy of Forbes:  

After the announcement of the first two travel bans in January and March, the number of international travelers arriving in the U.S. has dramatically dropped, according to ForwardKeys, a European travel-prediction firm. 

Looking at the number of U.S. inbound arrivals – or the number of international tourists arriving at airports around the country – the firm found that the number of visitors dropped 1.3% following the announcement of the first travel ban on January 27. On June 26, when the second ban was partially re-instated, inbound visitors dropped again by 2.4%. 

Experts expected to see falling arrivals following the first executive announcement in January, when European interest in visiting the U.S. fell 12% but to see the number of arrivals impacted so quickly is startling.

“The confusing and convoluted travel bans have done nothing but worsen the country's reputation around the world,” said Lee Abbamonte, an American travel expert who has been to every country in the world, in an email. Although he believes there should be a vetting process, he says that as it stands now, it is too stringent, and confusing for many international citizens. 

A small percentage drop in arrivals is no small potatoes when translated into a dollar amount. In 2016, the U.S. travel and tourism industry generated over $1.5 trillion in economic output, supporting 7.6 million jobs, according to SelectUSA, an international trade analyst firm. That represents 2.7% of overall GDP.

Estimates are that this slump is costing the American economy billions of dollars.

I reported on this slump back in April, but apparently it has become much worse.

I guess that Trump has made America so great again that nobody wants to visit it anymore.

Good job.

P.S. Oh and by the way, travel to other countries is actually up.

Supreme Court reinstates a portion of Trump's Muslim travel ban before it considers the entire policy in the fall.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to allow a limited version of President Trump’s ban on travelers from six mostly Muslim countries to take effect and will consider in the fall the president’s broad powers in immigration matters in a case that raises fundamental issues of national security and religious discrimination. 

The court made an important exception: It said the ban “may not be enforced against foreign nationals who have a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.” 

In the unsigned opinion, the court said that a foreign national who wants to visit or live with a family member would have such a relationship, and so would students from the designated countries — Libya, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — who were admitted to a U.S. university. 

The court said it would hear the case when it reconvenes in October. But it also indicated in the ruling that things may change dramatically by then. It asked the parties to address whether the case would be moot by the time it hears it; the ban is supposed to be a temporary one while the government reviews its vetting procedures.

This part really concerns me: 

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch would have let the ban take effect as written and objected to what they called the court’s “compromise.”

This means that three of the nine Justices already want to allow this ban to take effect, which also means they only need to convince two more and this clearly unconstitutional policy goes into effect just as it was written by Steve Bannon.

 I almost literally do not recognize the country we are living in anymore.

Second federal appeals court rejects Trump's Muslim ban.

Trump showing off his signature on the Muslim ban that is never going to happen.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

A second federal appeals court has ruled against President Trump’s revised travel ban, delivering on Monday the latest in a string of defeats for the administration’s efforts to limit travel from several predominantly Muslim countries. 

The administration has already sought a Supreme Court review of a similar decision issued last month by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va. Monday’s decision came from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco. 

The two courts employed different reasoning to arrive at the same basic conclusion. The Fourth Circuit said the revised executive order violated the First Amendment’s prohibition of government establishment of religion. 

The Ninth Circuit, by contrast, rested its conclusions on statutory grounds. It said Mr. Trump had exceeded the authority Congress granted him in making national security judgments in the realm of immigration without adequate justification. 

“The order does not offer a sufficient justification to suspend the entry of more than 180 million people on the basis of nationality,” the Ninth Circuit’s opinion said. “National security is not a ‘talismanic incantation’ that, once invoked, can support any and all exercise of executive power.”

This news of course pissed off the Orange Fuhrer.

Well, as predicted, the 9th Circuit did it again - Ruled against the TRAVEL BAN at such a dangerous time in the history of our country. S.C.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2017

"As predicted?" I don't remember Trump ever suggesting that this ban would fail. All I remember is hearing him talk about all of that winning.

I love the fact that not only is Trump under constant fire from the various investigations into his dealings with the Russians, but virtually everything he promised to do during his campaign he is now failing to deliver.

By the way when was the last time anybody even heard any talk about that stupid border wall?

White House spokesperson Sean Spicer calls Sally Yates a "Hillary supporter," and uses that as excuse for why her warnings about Flynn were not taken seriously.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Sally Yates’ warning couldn’t be fully trusted, press secretary Sean Spicer said, because she was “a political opponent” of Trump and a supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. 

“Just because someone comes in and gives you a heads-up about something and says, ‘I want to share some information,’ doesn’t mean that you immediately jump the gun and go take an action,” Spicer said. “I think if you flip this scenario and say, ‘What if we had just dismissed somebody because a political opponent of the president had made an utterance?’ you would argue that it was pretty irrational to act in that matter.” 

Asked how he knew Yates was a Clinton supporter, Spicer said: “She was widely rumored to play a large role in the Justice Department if Hillary Clinton had won.” 

Spicer also repeatedly referred to Yates’ warning as “a heads up” about Flynn – a less urgent description than the one Yates outlined in her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday.

It should be noted that Sally Yates offered evidence to support her allegation that Michael Flynn was compromised, but Trump fired her before he even saw that evidence. 

Dismissing a thirty year professional like Sally Yates, as simply a "Hillary supporter" is not only insulting but I think it smacks of misogyny. 

The facts are that Sally Yates did her job, and if the Trump White House had listened to her on the Michael Flynn matter, as well as the Muslim ban, they would have saved themselves a whole truckload of problems.

But why would they listen to her?

After all she was only a woman.

Trump inaccurately blames the Ninth Circuit for shooting down his order to withhold funds from sanctuary cities, calls for it to be broken up.

Courtesy of the Washington Examiner:  

President Trump said Wednesday that he has "absolutely" considered proposals that would split up the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, where judges have blocked two of his executive actions. 

"Absolutely, I have," Trump said of considering 9th Circuit breakup proposals during a far-ranging interview with the Washington Examiner at the White House. "There are many people that want to break up the 9th Circuit. It's outrageous." 

"Everybody immediately runs to the 9th Circuit. And we have a big country. We have lots of other locations. But they immediately run to the 9th Circuit. Because they know that's like, semi-automatic," Trump said.

Of course as I pointed out yesterday the sanctuary city order was NOT shot down by the Ninth Circuit but rather by a District Court judge in San Francisco.

So not only is Trump's anger misplaced, but he is calling for a complete reorganization of a the largest circuit court in the country simply because they do not agree with his often unconstitutional policy decisions.

Apparently Trump believes they simply do not understand what he is trying to do: 

"The language could not be any clearer. I mean, the language on the ban, it reads so easy that a reasonably good student in the first grade will fully understand it. And they don't even mention the words in their rejection on the ban," Trump said. "And the same thing with this [sanctuary city decision]. I mean, when you have people that are being enabled to commit crime. And in San Francisco, when you look at Kate Steinle being shot and here is the court, you know, right in that same general area. And when you look at a Kate Steinle, when you look at so many other things."

Yes clearly it is an issue of reading comprehension which is causing these judges to reject Trump's admittedly elementary school arguments for why he should be allowed to crap all over the Constitution.

And that Kate Steinle argument is especially weak.

That was one fatal shooting among the thousands of fatal shootings each year, and statistically undocumented immigrants are far LESS likely to engage in violent crime than actual citizens.

But the problem is that these are facts, and in Trumpland facts are the enemy.

So instead of accepting the fact that the policies that he wants to put in place are illegal, unwanted, or just plain wrong, he instead attempts to bully those who will not let him have his way into submission.

Your phrase for the day, the "Trump Slump."

Courtesy of Frommers:  

Though they may differ as to the wisdom of the move, the travel press and most travel experts are of one mind: They are currently drawing attention to an unintended consequence of the Trump-led efforts to stop many Muslims from coming to the U.S., pointing to a sharp drop in foreign tourism to our nation that imperils jobs and touristic income. 

It’s known as the “Trump Slump.” And I know of no reputable travel publication to deny it. 

Thus, the prestigious Travel Weekly magazine (as close to an “official” travel publication as they come) has set the decline in foreign tourism at 6.8%. And the fall-off is not limited to Muslim travelers, but also extends to all incoming foreign tourists. Apparently, an attack on one group of tourists is regarded as an assault on all. 

As far as travel by distinct religious groups, flight passengers from the seven Muslim-majority nations named by Trump were down by 80% in the last week of January and first week of February, according to Forward Keys, a well-known firm of travel statisticians. On the web, flight searches for trips heading to the U.S. out of all international locations was recently down by 17%. 

A drop of that magnitude, if continued, would reduce the value of foreign travel within the U.S. by billions of dollars. And the number of jobs supported by foreign tourists and their expenditures in the United States—and thus lost—would easily exceed hundreds of thousands of workers in hotels, restaurants, transportation, stores, tour operations, travel agencies, and the like. 

Apparently this is what the term MAGA means.

Literally everything this asshole touches turns to shit.

Trump's Muslim travel ban banned. Again.

Courtesy of TPM: 

Hours before it was to take effect, President Donald Trump's revised travel ban was put on hold Wednesday by a federal judge in Hawaii after hearing arguments that the executive order discriminates on the basis of nationality. 

The ruling came as opponents renewed their legal challenges across the country, asking judges in three states to block the executive order that targets people from six predominantly Muslim countries. 

More than half a dozen states are trying to stop the ban, and federal courts in Maryland, Washington state and Hawaii heard arguments about whether it should be put into practice early Thursday. 

U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson decision prevents the executive order from going into effect, at least for now. Hawaii had requested a temporary restraining order. 

Hawaii also argued that the ban would prevent residents from receiving visits from relatives in the six countries covered by the order. The state says the ban would harm its tourism industry and the ability to recruit foreign students and workers.

As you might imagine this annoyed Orange Hitler to no end, and so he held another rally where he said this:  

“This ruling makes us look weak ― which, by the way, we no longer are, believe me. Just look at our borders,” Trump told a crowd at a campaign-style rally in Tennessee. “We are going to fight this terrible ruling. We’re going to take our case as far as it needs to go, including all the way up to the Supreme Court. We are going to win.” 

And this:

“It’s a watered-down version of the first one,” Trump said of his new ban. “And let me tell you something: I think we ought to go back to the first one and go all the way, which is what I wanted to do in the first place.” 

That sound you hear is every White House layer slamming their heads into the wall after hearing their client essentially make the case himself that this bill is essentially a watered down version of the first one, which his lawyers had argued it most certainly was not.

And if you remember Rudy Giuliani said this about that first travel ban: 

“When [Mr. Trump] first announced it, he said, ‘Muslim ban.’ He called me up. He said, ‘Put a commission together. Show me the right way to do it legally.’”

And those words were actually cited by the judge in Hawaii when he put the brakes on this latest version. 

I swear it's like watching the Keystone Kops run the White House.

Despite overwhelming opposition Donald Trump prepares to sign executive order that would ban travel from six of the previously named Muslim countries. Update!

Courtesy of the Washington Post: 

President Trump is preparing to sign a new executive order Monday that White House officials hope can withstand legal scrutiny that will ban travelers from six majority-Muslim nations seeking new visas from entering the United States for 90 days, according to a fact sheet the administration sent to Congress. (Update: Trump did actually sign this today.)

In addition, the nation’s refu­gee program will be suspended for 120 days, and it will not accept more than 50,000 refugees in a year, down from the 110,000 accepted last year by the Obama administration. 

The order, which is to go into effect March 16, represents an attempt by the Trump administration to tighten security requirements for travelers from nations that officials said represent a terrorism threat. A more sweeping attempt in January provoked mass protests across the country as travelers en route to the United States were detained at airports after the surprise order was announced.

The new guidelines name six of the seven countries included in the first executive order, but it leaves out Iraq. That nation will increase cooperation with the United States on additional security vetting under separate negotiations and its citizens are not subject to the new order, the fact sheet states. 

The new order provides other exceptions not contained in previous versions: for travelers from those countries who are legal permanent residents of the United States, dual nationals who use a passport from another country, those attending diplomatic missions, and those who have been granted asylum or refu­gee status. 

“The United States has the world’s most generous immigration system, yet it has been repeatedly exploited by terrorists and other malicious actors who seek to do us harm,” the fact sheet stated.

Actually besides the attack on 9-11 America is still relatively untouched by most of the terrorist attacks that take place around the world.

However I can almost guarantee that actions such as this are likely to result in a significant uptick.

Getting people to murder other people, and likely die themselves, is so much easier if they believe their target is an evil entity bent on the destruction of others like themselves.

And it's not as if the courts are like to allow this new "improved" travel ban to stand.

They rejected the first one, and there is very little doubt they will reject this one as well.

Especially since we know from Rachel Maddow that the Department of Homeland Security itself has determined that terrorists likely to launch attacks in this country are radicalized AFTER living in America for a number of years rather than before they arrive.

This is a waste of time. It is dangerous. And it does NOTHING to actually keep us safe.

Update: Apparently this Muslim travel ban was fast tracked to cheer Trump up after he lost his shit due to the Sessions' recusal.

Courtesy of Vox: 

That night at Mar-a-Lago, Trump had dinner with Sessions, Bannon, Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly and White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, among others. They tried to put Trump in a better mood by going over their implementation plans for the travel ban, according to a White House official.

In other words when Cheeto Hitler gets angry it makes him feel better to punish the most vulnerable and defenseless group he can find. 

Doesn't that make you feel proud to be an American?

Rachel Maddow gets her hands on a DHS intelligence document. There is not going to be any Muslim ban.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

A new U.S. Department of Homeland Security report obtained by MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show" on Thursday finds that most foreign-born U.S. violent extremists are radicalized "several years after" they enter the country. 

"We assess that most foreign-born, U.S.-based violent extremists likely radicalized several years after their entry to the United States ... limiting the ability of screening and vetting officials to prevent their entry because of National Security concerns," read the document, which DHS verified to MSNBC. 

The intelligence assessment is titled “Most foreign-born U.S.-based violent extremists radicalized after entering Homeland; opportunities for tailored CVE programs exist,” and is dated March 1, 2017.

Rachel has been KILLING it lately.

Which just makes the trolls who come here to insult her seem even more laughable. 

REAL journalism is on the upswing and it is kicking the ass of Trump's fake news.

New poll is very bad news for Trump administration.

Courtesy of PPP:

PPP's new national poll finds that Donald Trump's popularity as President has declined precipitously just over the last two weeks. On our first poll of his Presidency voters were evenly divided on Trump, with 44% approving of him and 44% also disapproving. Now his approval rating is 43%, while his disapproval has gone all the way up to 53%. If voters could choose they'd rather have both Barack Obama (52/44) or Hillary Clinton (49/45) instead of Trump.

Ouch!

That is not the only place where Trump is having a hard time.

For instance the Muslim ban:

66% of Americans consider the United States to be a safe country, to only 23% who consider it unsafe. Perhaps as an outgrowth of that sentiment only 45% of voters support Trump's Executive Order on immigration, to 49% who are opposed to it. 

Of course those numbers are higher among Trump voters, who also identify another factor as convincing them of its necessity:

By a 51/23 margin Trump voters say that the Bowling Green Massacre shows why Trump's immigration policy is needed.

Well that certainly explains some things.

Americans are also not terribly thrilled with the people that Trump surrounds himself with:

Betsy DeVos may have been confirmed this week, but she made a horrible impression on the public. Only 27% of voters see her positively to 49% with a negative opinion of her. Clinton voters are almost unanimous in their distaste for her (5/83 favorability), while she doesn't generate nearly an equivalent amount of enthusiasm from Trump voters (53/12 favorability.) Other people close to Trump have come off poorly as well- Steve Bannon has a 22/45 favorability rating, Kellyanne Conway's is 34/47, and Sean Spicer's is 32/41.

They also want to see his taxes:  

58% want him to release his tax returns, to just 31% who don't think he needs to. In fact by a 53/32 spread, voters would support a law requiring that candidates for President release 5 years of their tax returns in order to appear on the ballot.

That of course is exactly the opposite of what Trump believes to be true, which of course is in no way unusual.

However with all of this negative news Americans are still a little ambiguous on whether it is time to start talking impeachment yet:

Just three weeks into his administration, voters are already evenly divided on the issue of impeaching Trump with 46% in favor and 46% opposed. Support for impeaching Trump has crept up from 35% 2 weeks ago, to 40% last week, to its 46% standing this week. 

Unsurprisingly Clinton voters are far less ambiguous:

While Clinton voters initially only supported Trump's impeachment 65/14, after seeing him in office over the last few weeks that's gone up already to 83/6.

I think I would be more on board with these last respondents if it did not mean facing the reality of four years of a Mike Pence presidency.

All in all this is a very bad poll for Donald Trump.

Which of course means that it has now earned the title of "fake news" within the Trump bubble.

Trump's two day Twitter tirade.

I don't know Putin, have no deals in Russia, and the haters are going crazy - yet Obama can make a deal with Iran, #1 in terror, no problem!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 7, 2017

"I don't know Putin." Really?
Remember, the internet knows all.

It is a disgrace that my full Cabinet is still not in place, the longest such delay in the history of our country. Obstruction by Democrats!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2017

Yeah, perhaps if Trump did not pick unqualified, crazy, or racist people for his cabinet things might go a little quicker. Just saying.

If the U.S. does not win this case as it so obviously should, we can never have the security and safety to which we are entitled. Politics!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2017

This pertains to the legal challenge to his Muslim ban.

And as you can see Trump is preparing to blame the courts for the next terrorist attack, despite the fact that the ban itself has given the terrorists plenty of incentive to attack the United States again.

My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2017

"Always pushing me to do the right thing!" Did anybody else pick up on a thinly veiled threat there?

Using the power of the presidency to pressure a business to continue working with your daughter. I guess that's the new normal. #JustTrumpThings.

Such a shame that first his wife can't make money off being the First Lady due to reports on her seedy past as an alleged escort, and now his stand in First Lady cannot make money on her now infamous name because Nordstrom wants to make a profit. 

So unfair.

Big increase in traffic into our country from certain areas, while our people are far more vulnerable, as we wait for what should be EASY D!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2017

I don't speak Trumpian but apparently "Easy D" stands for "easy decision." Just more complaining about the courts not letting him discriminate at will.

So as you can see for the last two days Trump has been a little pissy at the courts for not letting him discriminate against those dirty Mooslims, at allegations that he is Putin's puppet (He totally is!), and  at the fact that his daughter cannot prostitute her name to sell Chinese made clothing.

Gee, I wonder what will happen when he sees this?

 Yep, I predict another late night Twitter tantrum.

Well it appears that the folks in London are just as thrilled with Donald Trump as we are.

Courtesy of ABC News: 

Thousands of protesters have marched on Parliament in London to demand that the British government withdraw its invitation to U.S. President Donald Trump for a state visit. 

Criticism of Conservative British Prime Minister Theresa May has swelled since her Washington visit to meet Trump last month, when she confirmed plans for a return visit by Trump to Britain expected in the summer. 

Saturday's demonstration in the British capital involved a two-mile (3-kilometer) march of several thousand people from the U.S. embassy to the Houses of Parliament. Protesters chanted "Theresa May, shame on you!"

The Parliament is set to debate plans for Trump to visit London, but clearly if he does he can expect just as many protesters there as he constantly see here in the US.

And this is not just happening in English speaking countries either.

Sign at protest in Paris, France.

There are protests happening around the world against Donald Trump and his Muslim ban.

Let's face it, the man is REALLY bringing the world together.

Against him.

Federal judge temporarily blocks Donald Trump's Muslim ban. Trump throws Twitter fit over it.

Courtesy of Politico: 

President Donald Trump's travel ban executive order suffered its most severe legal blow to date Friday, as a federal judge in Seattle blocked the impact of the directive nationwide. 

U.S. District Court Judge James Robart ruled in favor of the attorneys general of Washington state and Minnesota on a lawsuit they brought seeking to overturn the order limiting travel to the U.S. by citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries. 

The ruling prompted a typically combative reaction from the Trump White House Friday night, but in a departure from recent patterns, the most confrontational language was quickly dialed back. 

"At the earliest possible time, the Department of Justice intends to file an emergency stay of this outrageous order and defend the executive order of the President, which we believe is lawful and appropriate," White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in a written statement. "The president’s order is intended to protect the homeland and he has the constitutional authority and responsibility to protect the American people." 

Spicer's statement was reissued about 10 minutes later to remove the word "outrageous." 

Yes well maybe they can go back and edit the White House Press Secretary's statement, but nobody edits Donald Trump.

When a country is no longer able to say who can, and who cannot , come in & out, especially for reasons of safety &.security - big trouble!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 4, 2017

Interesting that certain Middle-Eastern countries agree with the ban. They know if certain people are allowed in it's death & destruction!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 4, 2017

And which Middle Eastern countries would those be Donnie? Countries hoping to NOT be added to the ban perhaps?

The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 4, 2017

For the record this "co-called judge" was appointed by George W. Bush.

And his ruling does NOT take law enforcement away from our country, however it DOES protect our Constitution.

As we know Trump really, really hates being told no.

Which is too bad really since it appears that he is going to be hearing a whole lot of no for the next four years.

More than half of Americans wish that Barack Obama were still our President.

Facts are fake news folks. Never believe the facts.

Courtesy of PPP: 

Less than 2 weeks into Donald Trump's tenure as President, 40% of voters already want to impeach him. That's up from 35% of voters who wanted to impeach him a week ago. Only 48% of voters say that they would be opposed to Trump's impeachment. 

Beyond a significant percentage of voters already thinking that Trump should be removed from office, it hasn't taken long for voters to miss the good old days of Barack Obama...52% say they'd rather Obama was President, to only 43% who are glad Trump is.

According to the polling site Americans think that just about everything Trump is doing is wrong.

On the Muslim ban:  

52% of voters think that the order was intended to be a Muslim ban, to only 41% who don't think that was the intent. And the idea of a Muslim ban is extremely unpopular with the American people- only 26% are in favor of it, to 65% who are against it.

On Steve Bannon:  

Only 19% of voters see Bannon favorably, to 40% who have a negative opinion of him. Only 34% of voters approve of his being given a seat on the principals committee of the National Security Council, to 44% who are opposed to that. What's particularly telling is that only 19% of voters think Bannon belongs in that seat on the National Security Council more than the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence, to 59% who believe those folks are more deserving of that place at the table. Even Trump voters think he's gone too far on that front- by a 40/35 margin they think the more traditional members should have that position rather than Bannon.

On Obamacare:  

Obamacare continues to become more popular the more talk there is about repealing it. 46% of voters now say they support it to just 41% who are opposed. And only 33% of voters think the best course of action is for Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act and start over, to 62% who think it would be better to keep it and fix the parts that need fixing.

As for his trustworthiness Trump loses against just about everybody:

-By a 51/37 spread voters say John McCain has more credibility than Trump. 

-By a 52/41 spread voters say the Washington Post has more credibility than Trump. 

-By a 51/42 spread voters say the New York Times has more credibility than Trump. 

-By a 50/42 spread voters say CNN has more credibility than Trump.

Once again I am struck by how many Americans are still supporting Trump and his policies kind of like that last slow kid in PE who always gets hit in the face by the ball because his reflexes never kick in fast enough to save him. 

For some people it takes getting hit a number of times before they get the hint.

While others are always going to be running around with tape holding their glasses together.

Of course the best thing about these numbers is that you know they will really burn Trump's ass.

Kellyanne Conway invents a terrorist attack to justify Muslim ban.

.@KellyannePolls says that 2 Iraqi refugees "were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre."
(There was no such massacre.) pic.twitter.com/sD3Nnb5xfE

— Joe Sonka (@joesonka) February 3, 2017

If you are right now wondering why you never heard of this "Bowling Green massacre" that is because it never happened.

Here is Vox trying to make some sense out of Conway's bullshit: 

In 2011, two Iraqi refugees, Waad Ramadan Alwan and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, were arrested in Bowling Green, Kentucky, on federal terrorism charges. Allegedly, they had been plotting to send money and weapons back home to Iraqi insurgents. 

During the investigation, the FBI found something worrying: fingerprints from Alwan on a roadside bomb in Iraq. This suggested there was a very specific flaw in America’s refugee screening process: Databases of fingerprints from Iraqi militants were not well-integrated into the broader State Department–run refugee admissions process. As a result, the Obama administration initiated a new review of all roughly 57,000 Iraqi refugees who had been recently admitted into the United States.

See? No massacre.

And also there was never a "ban," just a more intensive vetting of refugees coming from Iraq which resulted in a slowdown that lasted about six months.

This is how Vox summed it up:

No one was killed by refugees in Bowling Green. 

There was never even a plan to kill anyone in Bowling Green. 

There was no ban on Iraqi refugee admissions afterward.

In other words this is fake news. 

Which by the way, the Trump administration seems to create every single day.

Sally Yates, the Attorney General Trump fired for refusing to defend his Muslim ban, has been nominated for the President Kennedy Profile in Courage award.

Just told w/ Sally Yates I've nominated her 4 President Kennedy’s Profile in Courage Award 4 standing 4 the public good #ThankYouSallyYates

— Jackie Speier (@RepSpeier) January 31, 2017

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Sally Yates took a stand for something she believed in, and one of her fellow Americans thanked her by nominating her for a prestigious award for public officials. 

President Donald Trump fired the former acting attorney general on Monday night for refusing to defend his recent executive order suspending refugee resettlement and banning entry of individuals from seven predominantly Muslim countries. 

Yates was fired after she advised Justice Department lawyers also not to defend Trump’s executive order. She wrote them a letter saying she wasn’t “convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities, nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful.” 

People around the country and the internet have come out to show their support for Yates, and the hashtags #ThankYouSally, #ThankYouSallyYates and #SallyYates were all trending on Twitter. 

But one act of appreciation stands out above the rest. 

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) tweeted out Tuesday afternoon that she had nominated Yates for the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.

I love this so much.

And if she were to win it would be the biggest "fuck you" to Donald Trump that I can imagine.

Perhaps we can start a precedent and find away to give an award to EVERYBODY with the balls to stand up to Trump in defense of this country. 

Our friend the Liberal Redneck has something to say about Trump's Muslim ban.

Kind of goes without saying but of course the ban on Muslims is a boon to terrorist organizations.

Courtesy of CNN: 

President Donald Trump's travel ban on seven Muslim-majority nations will be used by ISIS as a recruitment tool, giving the militant group a major propaganda boost, former jihadists have told CNN. 

The executive order, which blocks all immigrants and visa holders who are citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia, reinforces ISIS' narrative, according to former jihadi Abu Abdullah. 

"It can play into their propaganda, to make it clear for anyone who could be in doubt, that it's a war on Islam and all Muslims," Abdullah told CNN over a messaging service. The names of the now-defected foreign fighters in this story have been changed to protect their identities. 

Another former jihadi said the wedge being driven between Muslims living in the West and their governments is exactly what ISIS wants. 

"[Trump's] helped ISIS a lot, he's basically being a tool for them in a way," Abu Obaida, a British former Jabhat al-Nusra fighter in Syria, told CNN via direct message. "On social media right now there's a lot of people quoting Anwar al-Awlaki (the late spokesperson for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) and his last speech when he said that America will turn on the Muslims."

It's really a no-brainer.

The entire point of hating America is the deeply ingrained belief that we are anti-Muslim, which is exacerbated by our numerous conflicts with Middle Eastern counties.

However Donald Trump has now ratcheted that up far more than previous presidents by actually banning immigrants based on the Islamic country from which they come.

And of course saying things like this:

I imagine the next terrorist attacks we suffer will be substantially more costly than the ones that occurred during the Obama administration.