Each day shot through with the small sharp shards of shrapnel that seem to burst out of me and you

[sovay]

Oh, well, and Trump just fired the acting attorney general and replaced her with someone who is willing to sockpuppet for his unconstitutional executive order.

I was going to post about something completely different, but I think I am just feeling rage. The language of that statement is not like anything I have seen out of the White House before, unless you want to count the Nixon tapes, which I think we are already beyond in terms of damage. It is petulant. It is defensive. It is paranoid. And it is full of lies. I don't care if it's coming straight from Trump's tiny fingers or if Bannon jerked the strings to make him type it, it is the speech of a person in the act of betraying their country. Not the woman who was upholding the law. [edit: Exactly as she said she would at her confirmation hearing.] As for her replacement, I don't know if he sold his soul or if he just started his life without one, but he accepted the appointment: I wish him nothing well from now on. May he also be remembered as a collaborator.

Get these people gone.

Comments

[kore]

....man, last time I take a nap for the next four years WTF

[sovay]

....man, last time I take a nap for the next four years WTF

You should totally take naps! Unlike everything Trump does, they're good for you! Take the advice of activist baby Fox!

[kore]

OMG, that hat!

[sovay]

OMG, that hat!

Likewise, I'm not going to tell you not to wear a knitted hat that looks like an eggplant if it helps.

[tree_and_leaf]

At least Nixon had enough of a sense of shame not to say that stuff in public.

[sovay]

At least Nixon had enough of a sense of shame not to say that stuff in public.

I think if Donald Trump ever had a superego, he fired it years ago.

[gwynnega]

Not really surprising, but argh nonetheless.

[sovay]

Not really surprising, but argh nonetheless.

derspatchel and I had talked about the possibility earlier in the evening, but it is simultaneously so petty and so dangerous that it enrages me. Get this man out of office. Get his enablers and handlers out with him. The number of people in Congress who seem to think it's fine to burn a country's rule of law to the ground—as long as it's theoretically their side that's striking the matches—just stuns me. It isn't their side, anyway. If they don't think they need to move for an impeachment now while they still have the capacity to do it, they're idiots.

[gwynnega]

I assume the GOP in Congress think they can impeach Trump after they've used him to enact as much of their own agenda as they can. They don't seem to understand there might not be anything worth governing left if they wait too long.

[sovay]

I assume the GOP in Congress think they can impeach Trump after they've used him to enact as much of their own agenda as they can.

I am now genuinely concerned there's a closing window.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

It would, honestly, be pretty weird if a President *didn't* fire some defying him like that. Mostly I object heartily, from every pore, to that press release, which was clearly Trump-dictated.

[sovay]

Mostly I object heartily, from every pore, to that press release, which was clearly Trump-dictated.

It's also the fact that he skipped over her successor, presumably to find someone who figured either the constitution was negotiable or his price was right: he had to know it wasn't just a lucky accident dropping the position in his lap. (And calling Yates an "Obama Admistration appointee" as if the name itself is tainting. Guess what? Boente was also appointed by Obama, because that's the administration where most of the people in this government came in. But that is not the point; the point is to discredit by association. We haven't quite hit peak Emmanuel Goldstein, though, since Trump has not yet gone so far as to accuse the ex-President of conspiring against him.) And just now Trump has fired the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whom I hadn't even heard about.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Boente was 4th in line of succession. I assume there were conversations with the other three.

As for ICE: Per WaPo, he was demoted, not fired. https://twitter.com/markberman/status/826270529346756608

(And given as Obama commented today, Trump may well yell about him on Twitter.)

[sovay]

As for ICE: Per WaPo, he was demoted, not fired.

That's a valid distinction and good to know. Thank you for the other information.

(And given as Obama commented today, Trump may well yell about him on Twitter.)

Wheeeee.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

... I mean, I devoutly hope Obama is conspiring against him, in some direction, because somebody who knows the job hopefully has some ideas about how to get a completely unsuitable person out of it. But that still doesn't mean being appointed by the Obama administration is in some way a derogatory status, because our government does not work that way.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

Yes. All of this. Obama may be the most important former president in a very long time. I hope his secret service detail is in top form.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

I am made more afraid by the U.S. Marshals refusing to do their duty under the law. I don't know what happens from here, but it's all pretty scary at the moment.

[sovay]

I am made more afraid by the U.S. Marshals refusing to do their duty under the law.

I hadn't yet heard about that, or it would also have upset me!

[ron_newman]

Do you have a link for that news?

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

I don't. What I saw on FB was a shared post from someone who claimed to be part of a team of lawyers trying to get the U.S. Marshals to serve the CBP with the judicial orders regarding the ban and being stonewalled, much as they have been by CBP itself at various airports. If I see an actual news story, or can find that post again, I will let you know.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

I don't know about US Marshalls, but this was the most horrifying to me
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/29/trump-s-border-patrol-defies-judge-u-s-senator-at-dulles-airport-at-his-first-constitutional-crisis-unfolds.html

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

I keep learning new and interesting things. A number of people, including NPR (briefly), thought that Yates had some protection because she was the only person ON THE PLANET who had the authority to sign Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants, since she actually had congressional approval (she was approved after Obama appointed her). But now NPR said that Boente can do it. Presumably he had congressional approval after Obama appointed him, as well. Still, I am pleased to find out that a warrant is legally required to do spy-stuff, unless I'm misinterpreting it.

[sovay]

Still, I am pleased to find out that a warrant is legally required to do spy-stuff, unless I'm misinterpreting it.

It is useful to hear that warrants are required. I have less faith in them as an actual check on Trump's behavior if he installs someone who'll just rubber-stamp the necessary paperwork for him or goes on with his plan of firing whoever stands up for the Constitution rather than the President's ego.