Citizen Cartwright

Trump’s firing of Acting Attorney General Yates

The Monday night firing of Sally Yates reflects the mounting conflict over Trump’s immigration order, as administration officials have moved to distance themselves from the policy and even some of Trump's top advisers have made clear that they weren't consulted on its implementation, says The Associated Press.

Yates, a holdover from the Obama administration, directed Justice Department attorneys not to defend the order. She said in a memo Monday that she wasn't convinced it was lawful or consistent with the agency's obligation "to stand for what is right.”

Trump named longtime federal prosecutor Dana Boente, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, to replace Yates. Boente was sworn in privately late Monday and rescinded Yates' directive.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement that the “attorney general should be loyal and pledge fidelity to the law, not the White House. The fact that this administration doesn’t understand that is chilling.”

Here is an article from the editors of National Review titled “Why Yates had to go."

Trump’s 2-for-1 order to reduce regulatory burden

The president signed an order on Monday requiring that agencies cut two existing regulations for every new rule introduced and setting an annual cap on the cost of new regulations.

But the policy won't apply to most of the financial reform rules of the Obama administration, says Reuters.

The order doesn’t apply to rules mandated by laws. And it doesn’t cover independent agencies that crafted many of the rules required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial overhaul, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Trump to announce his Supreme Court pick

The president will announce his choice in a TV address at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

The leading finalists are believed to be two federal appeals court judges with strong conservative records: Neil Gorsuch (longtime D.C. types may remember his mother, Anne Gorsuch Burford, who was EPA administrator under Ronald Reagan) of the Denver-based 10th Circuit and Thomas Hardiman of the Third Circuit in Pittsburgh, says The New York Times.

A third appeals court judge, William Pryor Jr. of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit, also has been reported to be in the running.

Also in the news

Trump adds CIA chief back to National Security Council

Trump administration lifts the temporary freeze on EPA grants

Politico: House Judiciary Committee staffers secretly worked on Trump's immigration order

Obama, in a rare move for an ex-president, breaks his silence to criticize Trump on immigration

AP: Trump's voter fraud expert was registered to vote in 3 states

Gingrich, Giuliani to lead group promoting Trump's agenda

How Republicans will use the Congressional Review Act to roll back Obama rules

Boy Scouts, in reversal, will allow transgender boys

Three drugmakers accused of fixing insulin prices

Mind/body ways to lower your stress

Immigration order shows Trump ‘governing by chaos’

The president's temporary halt to the U.S. refugee program shows "that not only does he intend to follow through on his controversial campaign promises, he plans to do so in the spirit of the mandate his advisers believe he has: disrupting Washington and setting fire to the playbook its leaders have long relied on,” says The Associated Press.

“There is a sense that the rush for change has superseded a study of unintended consequences,” says The New York Times.

Iraqi officials were taken aback by the order, which blocks citizens from Iraq and six other predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States for 90 days. The order puts Iraq in company with Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, nations with no strategic alliance with Washington.

Nations where Trump has business interests aren’t affected, The Washington Post and other media note.

A federal judge in Brooklyn on Saturday blocked part of the president’s actions, preventing the government from deporting some arrivals who found themselves ensnared by the presidential order.

Protesters marched against the ban in more than 30 cities on Sunday, says USA Today.

After holding back, a growing number of Republican lawmakers came out Sunday in opposition to Trump’s refugee directive, Politico reports.

Meanwhile, the "relaxed reaction" among the kind of voters who drove Trump’s historic upset victory — working- and middle-class residents of the Midwest and the South — has been a striking contrast to the uproar in major coastal cities, where thousands have protested at airports where immigrants have been detained, reports Reuters.

John Hayward in Breitbart says: "The hysterical reaction to Trump’s order illustrates the very thing that worries advocates of strong immigration security: Americans’ security is the lowest priority, far below progressive ideology, crass political opportunism, and emotional theater.

"We’re being effectively told by the theatrical class to tolerate a certain amount of Islamic terrorism because their feelings would be hurt by the tough measures we need protest [sic] ourselves from a tough enemy," says Hayward. "But this time, President Trump is proving tough enough to push our security up into the top priority.”

Then there’s Steve Bannon’s ‘rapidly amassed power’

Those are the words of Politico.

Time headlines: “Why Twitter is talking about Steve Bannon with the hashtag #StopPresidentBannon."

"Bannon seizes a security role from generals,” headlines The New York Times.

“The defining moment for Mr. Bannon came Saturday night in the form of an executive order giving the rumpled right-wing agitator a full seat on the 'principals committee' of the National Security Council — while downgrading the roles of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of national intelligence, who will now attend only when the council is considering issues in their direct areas of responsibilities,” the Times says.

"It is a startling elevation of a political adviser, to a status alongside the secretaries of state and defense, and over the president’s top military and intelligence advisers,” says the Times.

In terms of real influence, Bannon is above almost everyone except the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in the Trump administration, says the Times, citing interviews with two dozen Trump insiders and current and former national security officials.

“He is a former naval officer,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said of Bannon on ABC’s “This Week.” “He’s got a tremendous understanding of the world and the geopolitical landscape that we have now.”

New record: Most Americans already disapprove of Trump's performance

It took three years for George W. Bush to reach a 51 percent disapproval rating, but President Trump has gotten there in eight days, according to a Gallup poll.

Also in the news

Philippines to suspend drug war to clean up 'corrupt’ police force

Trump, Putin discuss 'mutually beneficial' trade and security, but not sanctions

Trump toughens some aspects of lobbying ban, weakens others

Fact check of Trump’s claim that his refugee policy is similar to Obama’s in 2011

In leaked audio, Republican lawmakers fret about how to repeal Obamacare

Nursing home residents get new protections

Study: Diagnosis of early breast cancer doesn’t lower life expectancy for women over 50

FDA warning: Hyland homeopathic teething aid contains toxic belladonna

Note to readers

Some days, the headlines pretty much say it all and I don’t come across new insights to share with you to help us make sense of our world.

This is one of those days, so I’ll just post the headlines and wish you a relaxing weekend.

In the news

In a corner, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto punches back

In need of allies, Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May to meet

Congressional Republicans now joining Trump on proposals they had opposed

NPR: Trump's suggested import tax would mean Americans pay for the border wall

Trump strategist Steve Bannon says media should ‘keep its mouth shut’

Trump pressured Park Service to find proof for his claims of inauguration crowd size

Rogue tweeters in federal agencies could be prosecuted as hackers

Vox: Leaked drafts of 4 executive orders on Muslim ban, end to DREAMer program, more

AP: Trump choice for labor secretary, Andrew Puzder, outsourced jobs

Calls against education nominee DeVos are jamming Senate phone lines

New prospects for growing in animals transplantable organs for people

‘Textile muscles’ could be used in clothes to help people with impaired mobility to walk