Rudy Giuliani thinks he's the king of anti-terrorism. So reluctant is he to let anyone forget he was Mayor during 9/11, today he claimed Trump asked him to form a commission to come up with a way to legally ban Muslims from America.

He says he formed the commission with Republican U.S. congressman Peter King and one of Bush's many former Attorney Generals, Michael Mukasey. (Mukasey's son and Rudy Giuliani are law partners.)

Problem is, Peter King denies it and says Rudy is confused: [More...]

Typical Donald Trump. He didn't include Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, the UAE or Jordan in his Executive Order banning Muslims.

Why not? Maybe because Trump Org. has licensed its name to properties in those countries. Wealthy Muslims in those countries helped Donald make money.

In Dubai, Trump International has a golf course and a spa and is building luxury homes and a second golf course.

An American commando has lost his life in a battle with al Qaida in Yemen (not ISIS) in the first authorized military raid of the Trump Administration.

The raid also killed women and children, including the 8 year old daughter of deceased al Qaida preacher Anwar al-Awlaki. (Photo of her vibrant, happy and alive here.)

Donald Trump occupies the oval office but he cannot erase the Constitution. The Constitution protects everyone, including the undocumented and non-citizens.

If you are not a citizen, here are your most basic rights, according to the National Immigration Law Center, which joined with the ACLU and other groups yesterday to hand Donald Trump his first judicial defeat over his outrageous executive order discriminating against Muslims and refugees according to country of origin:

• Officers from any law enforcement agency, including ICE and the Border Patrol, must show you their ID if you ask for it. You have the right to ask them to show you an identity document.

• You have the right to remain silent. You are not required to answer any questions or sign any papers about where you’re from or what your immigration status is.

• You have the right to call and speak with an attorney. Be prepared. Look up the phone number of a lawyer or organization that provides legal help to immigrants. Then memorize their phone number, or write it down and carry it with you wherever you go.

[More...]

The ACLU, National Immigration Law Center, International Refugee Assistance Project and other immigrants' rights groups filed a federal lawsuit suit in the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn)seeking declaratory relief and an emergency stay against Donald Trump's executive immigration order. It also asked the Court to certify the case as a class action.

A hearing was held this afternoon before U.S. District Court Judge Ann M. Donnelly, who granted the motion for stay and issued an order banning the U.S. from deporting anyone nation-wide who lawfully entered the country from Trump's executive order targeting Muslims from 7 countries, and anyone whose refugee application has been approved.

The Court's Order is here.
The Complaint is here. All other documents as of now are under seal. [More...]

Donald Trump sure knows how to make a mess of things. Mexican President Enrique Pena-Nieto has canceled his trip to the White House where they were going to have talks about trade.

It's amateur hour at the Trump White House. Earlier they suggested a tax for imports to fund the wall. Now, they are backtracking.

Donald Trump needs a muzzle so he can stop outraging the world with his outlandish, ill-considered comments. He has the temperment and self-discipline of a 5 year old. I have work to do, I can't be checking the news every 10 minutes to see his latest buffoonery.

The Denver Post minces no words in its editorial yesterday, Lying Donald Trump can’t be trusted, and that needs to stop now.

The president of the United States needs to demand of himself and of his staff that comments presented to the American people can be trusted and supported by legitimate — and not “alternative” — facts.

Without that basic level of trust, the very functioning of our federal government and our nation will be at risk....his actions betray a terrible failing, a deep character flaw within the new president that cannot be excused as campaign bluster.

Americans won’t be led by a man who works through manipulation and falsehood.

The Trump Org needs to reject its latest poppycock idea of opening a Trump hotel in Denver. Not only will it be boycotted, so will properties of local investors in and supporters of the project. Denverites voted overwhelmingly against Trump. Let them try Colorado Springs. Or a bed and breakfast in Alamosa or somewhere similar they can find a few people who won't revolt over the idea.[More...]

Not a good day for Donald Trump or Rex Tillerson, his choice for Secretary of State.

The entire senior staff of the State Department just resigned.

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.

...“It’s the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember, and that’s incredibly difficult to replicate,” said David Wade, who served as State Department chief of staff under Secretary of State John Kerry. “Department expertise in security, management, administrative and consular positions in particular are very difficult to replicate and particularly difficult to find in the private sector.”

Will there be a similar exodus at DOJ when Jeff Sessions takes over?

Update: The Washington Post has two reporters working on the story. The first reported as above. The second, a few hours later, writes that Team Trump requested the resignations of several "senior State Department diplomats."

Donald Trump's plans are already generating fear and loathing, resulting in violence.

In Pittsburgh, PA, a Mexican college student who is legally in the U.S. listened to Trump on TV (while drinking beer) and got in an argument with his roommate, biting off his ear and breaking his finger. It seems the assaultive roommate feared being deported. Luckily, the assaulted roommate made his way to a gas station to call police. His ear was recovered in the room and stitched back on. The assaulting roommate is gone. Both come form Mexico.

To paraphrase Trump's probable response: "What did you expect? People are angy."

Germany has repealed a law allowing prosecution of those who criticize foreign leaders. It takes effect 1/1/2018.

The Washington Posts suggests it's just in time for Donald Trump.

In related news, the Netherlands is proposing to start a fund for international groups offering abortion counseling, to circumvent Trump's plan: [More...]

Donald Trump and his incendiary but essentially meaningless border wall talk and executive order do nothing but push people's buttons.

Mexican President Pena Nieto today posted a video message to the Mexican people today on Twitter, saying "As I've said again and again, Mexico will not pay for any wall." (México no pagará por ningún muro".) (Article here.)[More...]

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, aka the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has written an open letter to Donald Trump. It was published today on Twitter, and released to journalists.

Here is the English version (I'm not sure how long it will remain up, so if you're interested, read it soon.)

He makes some good points as to why we should get out of Afghanistan for once and for all. Not surprisingly for a man of supreme incompetence and an extraordinarily limited vocabulary, Trump sent the opposite message to U.S. troops in Afghanistan today: [More...]