The White House announced today that the decision not to mention Jews or anti-Semitism in its announcement commemorating Holocaust remembrance day was intentional. According to White House spokeswoman Hope Hicks, the statement made no mentions of Jews out of respect for the non-Jews who died in Nazi labor camps and death camps during World War II. Hicks told CNN: "Despite what the media reports, we are an incredibly inclusive group and we took into account all of those who suffered."

President Trump's executive order reorganizing the National Security Council removed the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the Director of National Intelligence as regular members of the principals committee and added former Breitbart News Executive Chairman and now Presidential Counseler Steve Bannon.

Federal Judge Ann Donnelly of the Eastern District of New York has issued a temporary stay on President Trump's immigration executive order. The ruling is in response to a petition by the ACLU on behalf of two individuals at JFK airport. The ruling does not overturn or even stop all aspects of the Executive Order. It applies to people who have already arrived in the United States and prevents them from being deported under the Executive Order. My understanding is that the stay has effect nationwide.

This is a breaking story. This post will be updated.

Trump halts program designed to bring Jewish, Christian and Baha'i refugees from Iran.

For political and moral reasons, it is important to remember that very little of what the President is now doing is possible without a compliant Congress. Executive orders in most cases fill in the blanks that legislation leaves to the President's discretion. So this isn't just a matter of the sway a Congress of the President's party can exercise over him, which is substantial. In many or most cases, Executive Orders and Actions can literally be overruled with new legislation.

I collect pens, particularly fountain pens, and so I always watch closely when a President signs something with a pen. As far as I could tell, Donald Trump was using a A.T. Cross rollerball at his first signing ceremony. I couldn't tell whether it was a Townsend or Century II. CNN has now confirmed that it was the latter. Trump's pens may have been specially made for him in the United States, but most Cross pens, and as far as I know the Century II, are made in China.

Some day soon Republicans will realize they face an election in two years as the standardbearers and enablers of extremely unpopular president. (I also hope Democrats will realize this. Jury is still out.) Recent polls show President Trump's approval rating in the mid- to high 30s. That's just the first week. He's barely started. But this is almost always the high point. And the President's party almost always faces losses in the first mid-term in any case.

US releases joint US-Mexico statement, apparently doesn't tell Mexico.

The CDC was planning an LGBT youth summit this year. But plans for the summit were abruptly postponed indefinitely after President Trump's election.

We got tipped to this story. But we weren't able to confirm it. WaPo did. On the day after his inauguration, the President of the United States personally called the head of the National Park Service to berate him over unflattering tweets from various NPS social media accounts and the pictures that were being used to demonstrate that President Trump's inauguration crowded paled in comparison to President Obama's and later the women's march.

Important report just out from Politico that the Trump administration is pulling the plug on Obamacare enrollment outreach in the critical final days of the open enrollment period.

When Steve Bannon says the press is "humiliated", "opposition party" and should "keep its mouth shut" I really hope people know the proper response is contempt and derision. Like his boss, Steve Bannon is a punk. This is no more than Trumpian dominance politics, drama and threats meant to cow and put people back on their heels. Mockery and derision. The country is against this administration. Just trash talk. Meet it with laughter. Please, people.