THREE CHEERS FOR ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL SALLY YATES

Acting United States Attorney General[edit]

In January 2017, according to a Justice Department spokesman, Yates accepted a request from the incoming administration to serve as Acting Attorney General, beginning on January 20, 2017, and until the successor for Attorney General Loretta Lynch can be confirmed by the United States Senate.^[6] On January 30, President-elect Donald Trump was critical of Democratic members of the Senate, saying they were delaying his cabinet nominees.^[7]

On January 30, 2017, Yates ordered the Justice Department not to defend Trump's Executive Order "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States", saying "At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities [of the Department of Justice], nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful".^[8][9]

TRUMP'S UNAMERICAN VALUES AND EXECUTIVE ORDERS

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  2:46

  Fareed: Trump's Travel Ban 'fear Mongering'

  Angela Jones

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  • 3 hours ago

ARE YOU, LIKE ME, FEELING THE PAIN . . .

. . . of going from having an classy, educated, open-minded, intellectual as president, to having a vulgar, ignorant, closed-minded, anti-intellectual as president? WOE BE US!

HERE'S AN IRONY FOR YOU.

IN MUCH OF THE WORLD, THAT IS, OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, "GLOBALIZATION" HAS PRETTY MUCH MEANT "AMERICANIZATION".  THUS, WHEN THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT TRUMP AND HIS SUPPORTERS ARE AGAINST GLOBALIZATION, THEY ARE AGAINST AMERICANIZATION. SO, AS ALANIS MORISSETTE SANG, "ISN'T THAT IRONIC?"

I KNOW!

YOU ARE NOSTALGIC FOR THE GOOD OLD DAYS WHEN A LIE WAS JUST A LIE, AND NOT AN ALTERNATIVE FACT.

IS THIS BOOK BURNING IN THE DIGITAL AGE?

Trump’s White House Website Takes Down Official Pages on Civil Rights, Climate Change, LGBT Rights

FOOD FOR THOUGHT FROM THE NYT

OPINION

What We’re Seeing at Trump’s Presidential Inauguration

Observations and provocations from our opinion writers in Washington and around the world. 

Photo

Donald Trump raising his fist to applause from the crowd at the inauguration.CreditDamon Winter/The New York Times

A Clenched Fist for Day 1

 By TIMOTHY EGAN

COMMENT2017-01-20T16:54:55-05:004:54 PM ET

There was no poetry in the words delivered to a half-empty National Mall on Inauguration Day. But then, nobody expected a hint of verse or a well-turned phrase from President Donald J. Trump.

There were no historical allusions either — at least not direct ones — from a man who is defiantly truant in his knowledge of history.

And there were no concessions to the other side, the vanquished plurality of voters, the woman who missed her place in history, the outgoing president who kept his dignity to the last minute in office, his place in history intact.

What we got, coinciding with the first rain drops falling while Trump spoke to the nation he now leads, was a clenched fist — his own salute of nationalism and defiance, borrowed from political causes rooted in far different passions. He raised the fist while taking his place at the Capitol steps, and again at the close of a dark, soulless speech introducing himself as the leader of the free world. 

We might be able to ignore the fist had he mentioned liberty, the Constitution, equality for all, some joy note to American values. We might be able to give him a wider berth, an open heart, had he quoted Washington, from that humble first inaugural in 1789, or Lincoln, with his call to our better angels, or Kennedy’s plea for a patriotism of selflessness.

No, what we got was the clenched fist, to go with the rhetorical one: America first to fix American carnage. 

The populist tone, from a man who lost the popular vote — “the day the people became the rulers of this nation again” — would be welcome, had not Trump brought to Washington a cabinet of the very wealthy and the very elite, a predators’ ball. Included among them is a Treasury nominee whose bank foreclosed on some of those Trump proclaims to speak for. And a labor pick who doesn’t believe fast food workers should earn a living wage. The nationalist tone — “buy American, and hire American” — would also be welcome had not Trump done the opposite to enrich himself over the years, from using Chinese steel in his hotels in Las Vegas to employing foreign workers for his properties in Florida. 

The chorus of nationalism in the speech — “From this day forward, it’s going to only be America first. America first” — might even be appealing, had it not those ugly echoes of history. Trump is no doubt ignorant that a similar phrase was used by isolationist, anti-Semitic Americans who aimed to appease Adolf Hitler as it was just becoming clear how much of a monster he would be. 

Take Trump, as I’ve said before, not at his word, but for his actions. What we saw on Inauguration Day of the 45th president was the truest sign of how he will rule: not by extending an open hand, but by raising a clenched fist.

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FROM TODAY'S NYT "FIRST DRAFT"

Donald J. Trump will take the oath of office outside the Capitol today to become the 45th president of the United States. Expect plenty of pomp and a good deal of protest, too, as hundreds of thousands of people descend on Washington to mark the transfer of power.

We’ve put together a guide to the week’s festivities, demonstrations and much more. Here are some highlights:

The Schedule

11:30 a.m. | Swearing-in ceremony

With American officials and other dignitaries gathered on the West Front of the Capitol, the official inauguration ceremony begins. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. will administer the oath of office around noon. Mr. Trump will then deliver his inaugural address.

Afternoon | The Parade

After reviewing the American armed forces, President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will lead the inaugural parade from the Capitol down Pennsylvania Avenue, with the participation of thousands of military personnel representing every branch of the military.

7 p.m. and on | Inaugural balls

There will be two official inaugural balls on separate floors of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, and an Armed Services Ball, which will be at the National Building Museum. Mr. Trump is expected to make remarks and take to the dance floor at all three.

The Political Atmosphere

Mr. Trump will be less popular than any new president in modern American history as he takes the oath of office, according to a series of surveys published in recent days. The numbers suggest that rather than unifying a divided electorate, his transition to power has continued the polarization from the campaign.

Polls released on Tuesday by CNN and ORC and by The Washington Post and ABC News found that just 40 percent of Americans approved of the job Mr. Trump has been doing during the transition.

Protests and Protection

Demonstrators are not unusual at an inauguration, but Mr. Trump’s event is expected to attract many more than usual. Law enforcement officials said they were expecting 99 groups to carry out demonstrations of all sorts over the inaugural period, including 63 on Friday.

A well-armed security bubble will encircle much of downtown Washington, as almost 30,000 local, state and federal officials work to ensure that the transfer of power goes off without a hitch.

— NICHOLAS FANDOS

THIS DAY SUMMED UP IN A WORD:

NUMB

SAD AND DISGUSTING

4 Questioned After Video Shows Racially Charged Beating in Chicago

By MITCH SMITH and NIRAJ CHOKSHI 

A video circulated online shows a white teenager tied up and beaten as a group of black young adults shouted antiwhite messages and insulted Donald J. Trump.

THIS WILL ONLY GIVE TRUMP AND HIS FOLLOWERS ADDITIONAL EXCUSES FOR ADOPTING ANTI-BLACK AUTHORITARIAN POLICIES. I DON'T SUPPOSE THESE INDIVIDUALS HAVE EVEN THE BEGINNINGS OF A CLUE AS TO HOW MUCH DAMAGE, BOtH SOCIAL AND POLITICAL,THEY HAVE DONE AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THEIR ACTIONS.

READING TO HELP YOU BEGIN O UNDERSTAND THE COMNG TRUP YEARS

Michael A. Milburn & Sheree D. Conrad, Raised to Rage: The Politics of Anger and the Roots of Authoritarianism (Cambridge, Massachusetts, & London, England: The MIT Press, 2016), originally published as The Politics of Denial (1996) (From "Introduction to the 2016 Edition": "Twenty years ago . . . we presented our initial search supporting what we now call 'affect displacement theory.' Our results suggest that attitudes toward some political issues might be determined, in part, by emotion rather than reason. We found, specifically, that men with a history of being brutalized in childhood seemed to both deny the pain of their own experience and their anger at the perpetrators, while simultaneously displacing that anger onto political issues that involve an element of punishment--the death penalty, the use of military force, punitive policies towards women seeking abortions, attitude with a large symbolic component of power, toughness, and retribution. Of course, not all conservatives who hold the attitudes have a history of childhood mistreatment, and not all conservative issues attract the same degree of emotion--it is particularly those issues that offer a perceived opportunity for retribution against those seen as transgressing social norms and moral imperatives." "The glorification of toughness is typical of individuals who held the views and displays the traits of authoritarianism, a personality type first identified by researchers studding anti-Semitism following World War II. Authoritarianism develops from rigid, punitive childbearing and involves denial of the reality of harsh, even terrifying parents and of one's own anger toward them coupled with displacement of the anger one disputed minorities in the society. The unforgiving rage toward out-groups grows in times of heightened stress form real social and economic instability." Out model helps to explain a paradox in U.S. public policy: although prevention worlds much better than punitiveness does in solving problems, punitive policies have generally succeed at the polls for the last thirty years. The displacement of anger, in some cases triggered by real economic and social instability, influences public support for punitive policies, and we have seen many politicians who have been willing to exploit punitiveness in their campaign rhetoric and policies, using scapegoating an exaggeration of danger, and leading to support of punitive public policies such as mandatory sentencing, three strikes and you're out, carpet bombing the Middle East, and the targeted killing of the families of terrorists--a war crime." Id. at xi-xii (citations omitted).).