Acting Attorney General orders DoJ lawyers not to defend the #muslimban UPDATE: she's fired

Yet, in the article @Garymon posted,

My god the irony here is causing me physical pain.

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That’ll learn them lawyers to try and tell Papa Bannon what’s legal or not.

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i don’t think that’s irony. that’s the same sort of phrase the predator-in-chief used when he said cnn was fake news. i don’t know if there’s a term for it, but it’s the undermining of the language of the “opposition”. a special form of double-speak.

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Be fair: she disobeyed Trump, the superest legal mind this land has ever seen. She should have known her only loyalty lay with him, not with the law.

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Fired for refusing to argue in support of a law that’s been stayed by a federal judge for its unconstitutional illegality. Is this impeachable?

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Surveillance may not be important to people who are not interested in facts and knowledge.

You don’t need a warrant to make shit up.

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Does Paul Ryan care? He’s not missing an opportunity, he’s missing a motive.

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I’m tired of hearing “Trump”. Can we please say “the Republican President”?

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I’ve been thinking about this. I agree that the Republicans need to see how impeachment can help them. I submit that if they move forward with impeachment now they get:

  • A legitimate claim that they are willing to put the nation before the party when holding our leaders accountable in a way that Democrats haven’t yet demonstrated
  • Almost four years (and maybe a second term) of President Pence, who more closely aligns with most of their values
  • A new VP of their choosing
  • A chance to ditch Trump early and rebuild their party’s reputation early enough that they might yet survive the 2018 midterm elections
  • A chance to implement real fiscally conservative policies instead of wasting billions on an ineffective wall that will be almost impossible to build anyway
  • 99% lower chance of World War III
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Impeachement requires 1 vote over 50% in the house? So if the Democrats could just convince the 25 sanest Republicans…? There have to 25 with serious misgivings out of 240?

(Hah! And even if they did, GOP voters would be furious about it)

I’m just going to imagine a sane world where both parties act together to impeach Trump, Pence appoints Kaine as his Veep, Garland is confirmed to the SCOTUS, all of Trump’s cabinet picks are fired, replaced by sane people from both parties and we have a government of national unity for the next four years.

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Video: Jeff Sessions asked Sally Yates a question when she was being confirmed that he probably regrets having asked now


He is the one who is going to replace her.

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This is exactly how dictatorship smells like. What you have here in US now is what is know as Rule by Edict or rule by Decree. In Russian (and universal Slavic) it is known as Rule by Ukaz. It is a time honoured method employed by the likes of Roman Emperors and Russian Tzars. It has nothing to do with the Rule of Law, at least not with rule of law as we know it. What makes this especially dangerous is that mr Trump has the entire force of institutions to fall back through as his party controls now both houses and will likely get control of SCOTUS. Imperial edicts are just a shortcuts for him, not a necessity. He can, and he will, push his decisions through the proper institutions. In the process he will either subvert or undermine these institutions. This is by far the biggest danger of his rule, undermining institutions and people’s trust in institutions. Trust in election process already took the first stab.

Also be very aware of following tactics. He is likely to issue edicts he knows are outrageous but ultimately unless unimforceable. He will however use these decisions as a smokescreen to divert public attention from other less high profile but more profound systemic changes.

Pick your fights very very carefully!

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If an illegal EO is enough, an off-the-record phone call to the relevant TLA shoud be enough, too, and you won’t see it in the news anytime soon.

So, is it only the CIA part of the intelligence community that Trump is “estranged from”? Does the NSA still like him?
Irrational, unfounded Trump-related hope of the day: Maybe he doesn’t trust those TLAs enough to use them for his evil plans.

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Yep, exactly. There’s no GOP member with balls enough to put themselves on the hot seat and risk losing their next election by so pissing off not only Trump voters, but the rest of the GOP base who are willing to hold their nose and suffer this noxious pile of festering goat guts. For them, party is first… as long as that party is the party of Christian pandering, hippy dippy climate hating, fact ignoring, equality destroying GOP.

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OK… let me see if I can run through this… acting attorney general places an order not to uphold the EO as she is ‘unsure’ of its legality (she seems very careful not to state that it is wrong, just that its current wording and implementation needs to be questioned). Instead of moving forward to substantiate or debunk these claims she is immediately removed and replaced - because she is wrong; because Trump.
There are currently two (?) lawsuits challenging the EO. If these are sustained in any way surely this will also bring into question the legality of the EO and prove her position to ‘question’ (not dismiss) the order was correct.
If it turns out she was fired because she refused to rule in favour of a ‘not strictly legitimately legal’ act would she be able to claim a case of wrongful dismissal?

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She serves at the pleasure of the president as a appointed position. She can’t sue for wrongful termination, however she can go on the talkshow/book tour/lecture circuit and be set for life as a “I opposed Trump’s ill concieved executive order” making her the darling for limited government proponents and human rights advocates (deliberately staying away from Repub/Democrat labels to prove a point).

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Shortly afterward (internet fourth-hand rumor-news; treat with caution) there was a report saying Boente can be immediately so empowered, and so there’s no downside from the administration’s perspective in this regard.

Of course, she’d have been fired even if that somehow meant every convicted murderer and rapist in the country automatically went free. She said no to The Donald, which is the most inconceivably vile thing anyone can do, right? Nasty woman! Betrayer! Sad!

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But if they wait until after the recession hits they can get most of that AND:
1.) They can blame Trump for the recession and not the policies that they had him sign. (To be fair, we’re due for another recession no matter who is president, but I wouldn’t put it past Trump to trigger one, and it wouldn’t take much at this point.
2.) They don’t have to fear the people who voted for Trump as much after they have turned on him.

There ARE secret EOs.

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I’m in fear that it’s rapidly reaching the point where he can’t be impeached. Impeachment would rely on his acceptance of actual facts and rules. He’ll just deny that Congress has the right to do what they’re doing, or that they didn’t do it right. And people will believe it.

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Not all of them; if the economy tanks and shit just keeps getting worse… which seems likely.

Some people will support him no matter what, but he wont be able to maintain his hold on voters who held their noses hoping to “shake up the system.”

I fully expect that if he gets impeached (instead of stroking out or stepping down because “its no fun anymore”) it will involve an arrest warrant and handcuffs.

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