The fascists at work:

Vice President Pence and Defense Secretary James Mattis stood directly behind their boss Friday, one man on each side, as President Trump announced an order that will ban half the world’s Shiite Muslims from entering the country for months.

“I’m establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States,” Trump said from his podium at the Pentagon. “We don’t want ’em here.”

Malevolent imbecile. Immigrants are already vetted. Nobody’s flinging the doors open to Islamist terrorists.

Pence nodded along to the words. It was just over a year earlier when he had called Trump’s proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the United States “offensive and unconstitutional.” That was before

Jon Finer in Foreign Policy on how Trump is already disabling the State Department.

It’s no surprise that political appointees are asked to leave, he says.

But what is happening these days at the State Department — where a slew of senior career diplomats and management professionals have been given the non-choice between resigning effective Friday and being summarily relieved of their duties and where several others have retired voluntarily — is different and could be damaging. These are not, for the most part, people who have any role in implementing signature Obama administration policies on which the new team has signaled a different direction, like the Iran nuclear deal, fighting climate change, addressing women’s issues globally, or managing

Funny thing: Trump’s hot new immigration ban is illegal. It’s kind of odd that no one managed to tell him that before he announced it.

The Times explains how it’s against the law:

President Trump signed an executive order on Friday that purports to bar for at least 90 days almost all permanent immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries, including Syria and Iraq, and asserts the power to extend the ban indefinitely.

But the order is illegal. More than 50 years ago, Congress outlawed such discrimination against immigrants based on national origin.

That decision came after a long and shameful history in this country of barring immigrants based on where they came from. Starting in the late 19th century, laws

Trump’s way of observing Holocaust Remembrance Day:

President Trump on Friday closed the nation’s borders to refugees from around the world, ordering that families fleeing the slaughter in Syria be indefinitely blocked from entering the United States, and temporarily suspending immigration from several predominantly Muslim countries.

In an executive order that he said was part of an extreme vetting plan to keep out “radical Islamic terrorists,” Mr. Trump also established a religious test for refugees from Muslim nations: He ordered that Christians and others from minority religions be granted priority over Muslims.

On Holocaust Remembrance Day. Nice timing.

The executive order suspends the entry of refugees into the United States for 120 days and directs officials to determine additional

No.

… Read the rest

Yesterday Trump outdid himself. First he put his name to a bombastic but empty statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day that made no mention of Jews or Roma or leftists or lesbians and gays or disabled people – and then later in the day he slammed the door on refugees.

President Trump on Friday closed the nation’s borders to refugees from around the world, ordering that families fleeing the slaughter in Syria be indefinitely blocked from entering the United States, and temporarily suspending immigration from several predominantly Muslim countries.

Also yesterday, a new Twitter account appeared: St Louis Manifest. The St Louis was a ship – this ship:

On May 13, 1939, the German transatlantic liner St. Louis

Chris Cillizza at the Post wonders how long it will take for Trump to lose it over all these leaks that show what a chaotic childish fool he is.

I’ve never seen so much leaking so quickly — and with such disdain for the president — as I have in the first six days of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Two recent examples:

1. This from the New York Times today on Trump’s impulsiveness:

Mr. Trump’s advisers say that his frenzied if admittedly impulsive approach appeals to voters because it shows that he is a man of action. Those complaining about his fixation with fictional voter fraud or crowd counts at his inauguration, in their view, are simply seeking ways to undercut

It’s taken me all day to catch up with the story about Trump going whining to the Park Service demanding new photos that showed 10 billion people on the Mall for his inauguration.

On the morning after Donald Trump’s inauguration, acting National Park Service director Michael T. Reynolds received an extraordinary summons: The new president wanted to talk to him.

In a Saturday phone call, Trump personally ordered Reynolds to produce additional photographs of the previous day’s crowds on the Mall, according to three individuals who have knowledge of the conversation. The president believed that the photos might prove that the media had lied in reporting that attendance had been no better than average.

Trump also expressed anger over a

Trump says more bad shit.

President Donald Trump said in a new interview Friday that persecuted Christians will be given priority over other refugees seeking to enter the United States, saying they have been “horribly treated.”

Speaking with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Trump said that it had been “impossible, or at least very tough” for Syrian Christians to enter the United States.

“If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible and the reason that was so unfair — everybody was persecuted, in all fairness — but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians. And I thought  it was very, very unfair. So

The theocrats marching to demand a restoration of forced pregnancy got a boost from the Trumpists today.

Abortion opponents gathered on Friday in Washington for their annual march, which has taken place every year since 1974 to protest the Supreme Court’s 44-year-old Roe v. Wade decision from 1973.

■ Vice President Mike Pence, the highest-ranking official to ever speak in person at the march, told the crowd that “life is winning.”

■ Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, also addressed the crowd.

■ The march drew thousands of activists.

They want to make sure women go back to being victims of their own bodies.

In previous years, no president or vice president has ever addressed the march in person. This

The Trump-May meeting from the BBC’s point of view.

Prime Minister Theresa May is holding talks at the White House with US President Donald Trump.

They posed for photographs in front of a bust of Sir Winston Churchill – which Mr Trump pointed to, saying it was “a great honour” to have it back.

The new president had the bust restored to the Oval Office after it was removed by former president Barack Obama.

Mrs May smiled and told him: “Thank you, we were very pleased that you accepted it back.”

Sigh. A Fox News talking point. That whole fraudulent fuss about Churchill’s bust was a racist dogwhistle back in the early days of Obama’s tenure. Oh oh oh, … Read the rest

The White House has put out a statement in the name of Trump that’s titled On International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

It is with a heavy heart and somber mind that we remember and honor the victims, survivors, heroes of the Holocaust. It is impossible to fully fathom the depravity and horror inflicted on innocent people by Nazi terror.

Yet, we know that in the darkest hours of humanity, light shines the brightest.‎ As we remember those who died, we are deeply grateful to those who risked their lives to save the innocent.

In the name of the perished, I pledge to do everything in my power throughout my Presidency, and my life, to ensure that the forces of evil never

More on the silencing of the EPA:

The Trump administration is examining the website of the Environmental Protection Agency to determine which information will remain, underscoring concerns that climate change and other scientific data might be removed.

EPA employees have also been instructed not to release press releases, publish blog posts or post anything on social media. It’s part of a crackdown by the new administration that seems to be especially felt at the EPA and the Interior Department, leaving some employees “terrified.”

EPA spokesperson Doug Erickson said the objective of the website review is to have an agency page that reflects the new administration’s policies.

But the science is what it is, regardless of policies.

Asked if climate

Obviously I can’t vouch for this, because it’s anonymous, so keep that in mind – but for what it’s worth, this is being passed around on Facebook:

From an EPA staffer:
“So I work at the EPA and yeah it’s as bad as you are hearing:
The entire agency is under lockdown, the website, facebook, twitter, you name it is static and can’t be updated. All reports, findings, permits and studies are frozen and not to be released. No presentations or meetings with outside groups are to be scheduled.
Any Press contacting us are to be directed to the Press Office which is also silenced and will give no response.
All grants and contracts are frozen from the

One of the little items he’s trying to hustle through while no one is looking –

[T]he draft of a Trump administration executive order that spilled into public view early Wednesday — a document that raised the prospect of reviving C.I.A. “black site” prisons like those where terrorism suspects were once detained and tortured — has the potential to further fracture a national security team already divided over one of the most controversial policies of the post-9/11 era.

The White House disclaimed the document, which was leaked to The New York Times and other news organizations, but three administration officials said the White House had circulated it among National Security Council staff members for review on Tuesday morning. And many

Trump complains that the media choose unflattering photos of him – he complained about it in that interview with David Muir of ABC – yet he chose this photo to tweet:

"@romoabcnews: .@DavidMuir first @POTUS interview since taking office. Tonight on @ABCWorldNews @ABC2020 tonight. pic.twitter.com/I4Vz1mRdBK"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2017

 … Read the rest

You know how tv news shows use a photo to signal a break for commercials, right? Last night CNN used this one for the purpose, causing me to laugh myself breathless:

Well chosen.… Read the rest

Aaron Blake at the Post does another annotated transcript, this time of the interview Trump did yesterday with ABC News, his first interview from Inside The House. It is, of course, astonishing. I saw a few clips of it last night, and was duly astonished.

This is one choice bit:

DAVID MUIR: Let me just ask you, you did win. You’re the president. You’re sitting …

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s true.

DAVID MUIR: … across from me right now.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s true.

DAVID MUIR: Do you think that your words matter more now?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes, very much.

DAVID MUIR: Do you think that that talking about millions of illegal votes is dangerous to this country without presenting the evidence?

Breaking news – senior people flee the State Department leaving it empty at the top.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s job running the State Department just got considerably more difficult. 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.

Tillerson was actually inside the State Department’s headquarters in Foggy Bottom on Wednesday, taking meetings and getting the lay of the land. I reported Wednesday morning that the Trump team was narrowing its search for his No. 2, and that it was looking to replace the State Department’s long-serving undersecretary for management, Patrick Kennedy. Kennedy, who has been in that