The signs have been there, all along. We haven’t been blind to them, but afraid to go Godwin, we haven’t called it for what it is. But we can’t ignore it anymore. 

1. “White nationalist” in the White House. Whether you want to call Steve Bannon a Nazi or KKK, it’s an irrelevant distinction. This is a guy who believes that “some degree of separation between peoples is necessary for a culture to be preserved." 

2. The Muslim ban. aka “separation between peoples.”

3. Bannon wants chaos, so he cherishes the social upheaval he’s causing. It’s his plan: “Lenin, [...] wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.” 

4. Jewish people are now a target. The GOP is now literally the party of “soft Holocaust denial.” On Holocaust Remembrance Day, the White House statement refused to mention Jews because, pretty much, “all lives matter.” (Blue shirt lives matter?) Reince Priebus today continued to defend that craziness: “Everyone suffered in the Holocaust, including the Jewish people.” 

Senate Democrats are vowing to introduce legislation blocking the President Steve Bannon's popular vote loser Donald Trump's Muslim ban, led by Connecticut's Chris Murphy.

So far, only a handful of Republican members of congress have denounced Trump’s orders. But Murphy says he’ll be pressing his case to the party. “I am going to do my best to shame Republicans into joining us to oppose this measure,” Murphy says. […]
 

This is a Muslim ban. Trump is banning refugees and immigrants from Muslim countries, with an exception for Christians. That's the definition of the kind of Muslim ban that Republicans were quick to reject during the campaign. [...]

I'm going to make the case to them that this is terrible national security policy. This is objectionable from a moral standpoint, but it's also going to get Americans killed.

He’ll be introducing legislation this week to “to immediately overturn this dangerous, hateful order,” but isn’t stopping there. He is also going to press fellow Democrats on slowing down confirmations of Trump's nominees. "We should take every ounce of time that we’re allowed on these nominees, to talk about the disaster that has been the first week of this administration especially when it comes to foreign policy … Many of us gave the president and his Cabinet a little benefit of the doubt last week. I don’t see that there’s any reason that that should continue."

There's no reason at all. Thank you, Sen. Murphy for saying so. 

The Trump team's asinine ban of legal travelers and refugees from Muslim nations was the result of a campaign promise to his overtly racist base. But we should also take yet another moment to, just for the future records, once again point out that it will do absolutely nothing to "protect" the nation from terrorists. It will likely get refugees killed, and is causing agents to refuse entry to students, scientists, and those that assisted U.S. war efforts in the region and are now in danger for having done so, and in unleashing a wave of deserved anger over each individual betrayal it is likely to do more to increase extremism against the United States than prevent it.

[S]ince the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, no one has been killed in the United States in a terrorist attack by anyone who emigrated from or whose parents emigrated from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, the seven countries targeted in the order’s 120-day visa ban, according to Charles Kurzman, a sociology professor at the University of North Carolina. [...]

“In my opinion, this is just a huge mistake in terms of counterterrorism cooperation,” said Daniel Benjamin, formerly the State Department’s top counterterrorism official and now a scholar at Dartmouth. “For the life of me, I don’t see why we would want to alienate the Iraqis when they are the ground force against ISIS.” [...]

“It sends an unmistakable message to the American Muslim community that they are facing discrimination and isolation,” Mr. Benjamin said. That, he said, will “feed the jihadist narrative” that the United States is at war with Islam, potentially encouraging a few more Muslims to plot violence.

It was the policy of even the feckless George W. Bush administration to forever repeat that America was not "at war with" or hostile towards the Muslim religion. The Trump team, culled from the ranks of the paranoid and the incompetent, just broadcast to the entire world that such assurances were meaningless. We will be less safe tomorrow than we were last week, all in service to Donald Trump flattering the white supremacists in his ranks at the expense of our experts, our military, our laws, and basic decency. He understands none of it, and is a puppet to his own whims.

Four federal judges  issued orders Saturday night blocking parts of the Trump regime’s Muslim ban. Judge Ann Donnelly of the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn ruled first, ordering a nationwide block of deportations on those detained in airports on Saturday. Within an hour of that ruling, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, issued a temporary restraining order to block the removal of any green-card holders being detained at Dulles International Airport, for seven days. The judge also ordered that those detained at Dulles have access to an attorney. A third order was handed down in Massachusetts soon after, placing a seven-day stay on implementation of the Trump executive order. Finally, a judge in Seattle stayed the deportation of two people in that state, pending a February 3 hearing.

Reports immediately surfaced of Customs and Border Protection agents refusing to comply with those orders. At Dulles, CPB refused to allow lawyers to talk to the detainees.

As the night wore on, it became increasingly clear that CBP was defying Brinkema’s ruling. Lawyers concluded that that meant someone was in contempt of court. The judge could theoretically send in federal law enforcement officers to force CBP to let the lawyers meet with the detainees. But sending in the U.S. Marshals—who are part of the Department of Justice—to take on Customs and Border Patrol—which is part of the Department of Homeland Security—would have been a bureaucratic clash of the titans. And, like everything else that night, it would have been unprecedented. It didn’t happen. 

Though detainees were slowly being released, lawyers were disturbed that they couldn’t meet with them. What if CBP tried to coerce detainees into signing paperwork that could jeopardize their legal status? Release wasn’t enough. A federal agency was defying a federal judge, and no one was quite sure what to do.

At that point, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) showed up and attempted to get the travelers out of detention, or at least negotiate with CBP to allow them access to attorneys. CBP refused to meet with him, instead answering his written questions, in writing, with airport cops acting as courier. When asked what answer he got out of CBP as to why they were refusing to allow detainees to speak with attorneys, Booker said that they "told me nothing, and it was unacceptable. […] I believe it’s a Constitutional crisis, where the executive branch is not abiding by the law."

As of Sunday morning, according to the ACLU, CBP at Dulles was still refusing to allow lawyers to speak with the detained travelers, and lawyers are seeking a contempt order against the government. Likewise, immigration lawyers are reporting that CBP agents at the San Francisco airport and at Los Angeles are ignoring the Donnelly's national order and moving forward with deportations.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security issued a press release saying at once that DHS "will continue to enforce all of President Trump’s Executive Orders" and at the same time "comply with judicial orders." 

On Saturday, at airports around the country, thousands gathered to protest the unconstitutional, inhumane, hate-inspired Muslim ban ordered by popular vote loser Donald Trump. And according to the White House:

So, are you ready to get “hysterical”? Or as a sane person might put it, stand up for the Constitution and American values? If so, there are protests planned in nearly 30 cities around the country on Sunday, and you can find one near you right here. 

The resistance is now! 

We've got Republicans freaking out over repealing Obamacare. They have nothing to replace it with and little hope of coming up with something. Political disaster looms for them.

So make it worse for them.

It is still the law of the land and you can still sign up for coverage through Tuesday, January 31. If you don't need it, make sure any friends or family who might get signed up.

And while you're at it, retweet this:

Get the word out to everyone you know. The more people signed up, the harder it will be for Republicans to take it away. 

Last Saturday, Jan. 21, we all saw something incredible: millions of people marching in solidarity for women, and in opposition to the Trump regime. The cumulative turnout far outweighed the one at his inauguration, or even Barack Obama’s first inauguration.

We showed everyone around the world that we have the numbers, the commitment, and the passion to fight back against the tide of Trump’s oppressive totalitarian agenda. And yet the struggle goes on. But now we know Saturday was not a bug in our political system—it is now a vital feature of it.

Yes, he will try intimidation and threats, but that doesn’t mean he’ll win.

The resistance started up right away, on the very night of his victory.

Amazing. Check out the statement put out by the White House on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day—the same day, by the way, that Trump issued his cruel ban on refugees fleeing the devastation in Syria. Notice something missing? Any mention whatsoever of the victims of Hitler’s “Final Solution”: the Jews.

Such an omission was, of course, intentional. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks explained that there was no reference to Jewish tragedy “because we are an incredibly inclusive group and we took into account all of those who suffered.” That would be good reason, as New York Times reporter Binyamin Applebaum says, to also name other victims. To name no one at all sends quite a different message.

And the message is that Trump is following the Soviet practice of, as scholar J.H. Swenson puts it, saying “a lot of people suffered” to avoid having to confront anti-Semitism. It’s fitting, of course: Trump’s top strategist is known Jew-hater Steve Bannon, and his regime was installed by Vladimir Putin, so it’s only natural that he’s adopted the Russian line. And Trump’s been responsible for a toxic flowering of anti-Semitism, so obviously he doesn’t want to address it.

There’s also the fact that Jews have been extremely vocal in their hostility toward Trump and his policies, especially his stance on refugees. Jews know all too well what happens when America closes its doors to the displaced, which is why they’ve been at the forefront in embracing Syrians seeking to escape the hell of their country’s civil war. So it’s no surprise that Trump only has disdain for Jews and would seek to denigrate their memory on a sacred day.

Wonder what Ivanka has to say about all this.

Let’s be honest: When everyone is talking about the same thing, it feels like there’s nothing else to say about it. If you’re unfamiliar with the lies that have come out of the mouth of popular vote loser Donald Trump in the past week, you probably haven’t been on this site much—in which case, thanks for reading this post! The headline mentioned a silver lining, and we’ll get to that in a minute.

Generally, I’m a ‘glass half-full’ kind of guy (for example, I actually assumed the FBI director would, you know, follow the government’s policies and guidelines about not commenting on investigations close to Election Day), so feel free to take my silver lining talk in that light.

The lies our 45th president has told were so easily demonstrated to be false that a good portion of the mainstream media—with some exceptions—actually called them what they are. Many of us have long lamented the stenography that too often passes for journalism (“Republicans say earth is flat. Democrats disagree.”) The New York Times this week used the word “lie” when talking about Trump in a front page headline. Consider that progress.

Perhaps some in the media had been thinking that Trump would change when he actually took the oath of office. As Sen. Dick Durbin expressed: “I sincerely hope that the office makes the man.” It’s a safe bet, however, that Durbin isn’t all that optimistic. I was wrong about Trump’s chances at every stage of this campaign, but the one accurate thing I said from the start until now was that after 70 years on this earth, the man is who he is, and that nothing would change him. Whether operating as birther-in-chief or commander-in-chief, Trump will always lie if doing so suits him.

If the media actually absorbs this truth, then here’s the silver lining—it will be that much harder for Trump to do what George W. Bush did: lie us into a war.

On Saturday, as thousands of people across the country rose up against his Muslim ban, Donald Trump did something else worthy of mass protest. He put a white nationalist on his National Security Council:

Trump reorganized the National Security Council to, along with other changes, give [Steve] Bannon a regular seat on the principals committee—the meetings of the most senior national security officials, including the secretaries of defense and state.

That memo also states that the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will sit on the principals committee only when the issues to be discussed pertain to their “responsibilities and expertise.” In the previous two administrations, both were included as regular attendees.

If there was any question whether Bannon or ceremonial chief of staff Reince Priebus would exert more influence on Trump, let that be your answer. No, really, let that be your answer, because on that other matter—the Muslim ban—there was Bannon:

Friday night, DHS arrived at the legal interpretation that the executive order restrictions applying to seven countries—Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen—did not apply to people who with lawful permanent residence, generally referred to as green card holders.

The White House overruled that guidance overnight, according to officials familiar with the rollout. That order came from the President's inner circle, led by Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon. Their decision held that, on a case by case basis, DHS could allow green card holders to enter the US.

Everywhere you looked Saturday, there was Steve Bannon, making this a true Breitbart News regime.

For me, the photo above represents our future. Joining together to fight injustice, hand in hand, with love and compassion, hands clasped in the new fusion movement, we will “march on till victory is won.”

We have just watched millions of women and men march in the United States and around the world to protest not only the election of a racist, misogynist, xenophobic liar to our nation’s highest office, but also take on the right-wing, oppressive, immoral agenda being enacted against us by a Republican-controlled Congress and legislatures across the U.S.

Several years ago, the Rev. Dr. William Barber declared, “We are a movement. This is not a moment.” 

The Moral Mondays Movement in North Carolina has been building—step by step, march by march, arrest by arrest—a broad coalition of people who refuse to accept the political injustices being inflicted upon not only citizens of that state, but across the nation.

Once again, the call has gone out to come to Raleigh, North Carolina, on Feb. 11—to march and take a stand against injustice.

It has taken almost exactly one week to make the specter of Americans marching on the White House to demand the removal of the President of the United States an entirely thinkable event.

The day after Trump’s sparsely attended inaugural ceremony, the largest crowd ever to protest anything in this nation’s history gathered in cities and towns to rally in support for women’s rights, and voice their opposition to Donald Trump and all that he stands for. Incredibly enough, that may have been the high water mark of Trump’s presidency.

Since then Trump has conducted himself so erratically, from his the-media-is-the-real-enemy speech to the CIA, to his midweek Mexico fit, to finishing the week with executive orders so poorly thought out that they generated a fresh round of spontaneous protests that were incredible powerful — and effective. And at all times his absolute fixation on the press, and how he is being covered. His incessant, mosquito-ish whining, whining, whining seems both more sick and more pitiful by the day.

By the end of the week, Jason Chaffetz — that Jason Chaffetz — was wondering if aspirants to the presidency really shouldn’t have an independent medical examination for mental health, and GQ was complaining that it was getting difficult to think up new ways to indicate that Donald Trump was “a dangerous, delusional lunatic.”

Never have so many people spent so much time intently studying the 25th Amendment.

Just remember as we head into week 2 that the question isn’t whether Trump is ever more obviously insane or ever more openly a jackbooted fascist. He can be both.

The only real question is this one: Do Democrats in the House and Senate understand that they should never cooperate with Trump on any issue, or any nominee, on any day. Because the rest of us? We get it.

Come on. Let’s read pundits.