Trump fires head of immigration and customs enforcement

Bannon consolidating power.

See THIS about there being no paper trail generated by the NSC and Bannon's Shadow NSC.

And THIS about congressional aides drafting EO's without the knowledge of their congressional bosses.

All loyalty tests run through Bannon.

If this ain't a coup, I don't know what is.

ElaineA said:

Bannon consolidating power.

See THIS about there being no paper trail generated by the NSC and Bannon's Shadow NSC.

And THIS about congressional aides drafting EO's without the knowledge of their congressional bosses.

All loyalty tests run through Bannon.

If this ain't a coup, I don't know what is.

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Yep. Looked like one when this atrocity started. Looks even more like one now.

Is there any realistic course of action left?

This took me a double-take, at first I missed that it wasn't about the D o J Acting Director.

Frankly I'm shocked that the former host of the Apprentice would be so haphazard about firing people.

I don't think it's haphazard at all.

It's part of a grand plan: get rid of everyone opposing him, insert supporters, rule absolutely. It'll come clear soon enough, but by then it'll be too late to do anything about.

Cmalone said:

Not as long as Congressional Republicans sit on their asses because they think they can control Trump a little bit longer and are refusing to see what's really going on. ....

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It's interesting watching the different train cars as they try to make the world fit into their preexisting world view.

Chris Mathews yesterday (or maybe a couple days ago) called someone on referring to Trump as mentally ill. He said that was just partisan, Matthews wasn't buying it, and he compared it to the Goldwater incident which actually resulted in a psychiatric ethics rule: it's not ethical to diagnose a person without seeing them in person.

But there are valid reasons why psychiatrists have indeed diagnosed Trump as having a pathologic narcissistic personality disorder (as opposed to a narcissistic personality trait) without seeing him in person. Trump's symptoms are on display in an open book. Matthews will figure it out after Trump's outrageous behavior finally convinces Matthews that Trump is ill, not an evil genius.

You can see Trump supporters in various stages of coming to their senses or not, some still believing in the magic man, some already disillusioned.

Then there are the GOP legislators. Some like McCain and Graham figured it out long ago and are acting accordingly.

Speculating/guessing(me): Priebus thinks he's in on the gravy train, hasn't yet awoken to see he's circling the drain with the Trump team. Paul Ryan believes he's in control, he can get what he wants by manipulating his GOP POTUS. Ain't gonna happen. The train is on its way over the cliff.

Snitchcat said:

I don't think it's haphazard at all.

It's part of a grand plan: get rid of everyone opposing him, insert supporters, rule absolutely. It'll come clear soon enough, but by then it'll be too late to do anything about.

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Or not.

MaeZe said:

Matthews will figure it out after Trump's outrageous behavior finally convinces Matthews that Trump is ill, not an evil genius.

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Trump is irrelevant. Bannon is in charge.

MaeZe said:

Speculating/guessing(me): Priebus thinks he's in on the gravy train, hasn't yet awoken to see he's circling the drain with the Trump team. Paul Ryan believes he's in control, he can get what he wants by manipulating his GOP POTUS. Ain't gonna happen. The train is on its way over the cliff.

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Priebus has been thrown under the bus via a WAPO interview with a source granted anonymity to speak candidly. He's done. Paul Ryan knows Bannon is in charge. He's just laying low until he gets his sliver of whatever Bannon throws on the floor to him.

MaeZe said:

Chris Mathews yesterday (or maybe a couple days ago) called someone on referring to Trump as mentally ill.

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To be fair, Trump admitted that he was mentally ill.

Gotta love The Onion.

Well, George "nukilar" Bush also had his Rasputin, and also lashed out at anyone BUT the countries implicated in mass terrorism against the US, so Mr. Trump is actually being quite the traditionalist in this sense.

Brightdreamer said:

Yep. Looked like one when this atrocity started. Looks even more like one now.

Is there any realistic course of action left?

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Dig up dirt on Bannon. Everyone is focusing on rump while he toils away. I think that's intentional, Trump is the cover.

Eh, he's headed the way of Nixon.

Someone and I were just discussing this. They brought up a good point: ICE is basically a police force. Police forces are typically very fraternal. Firing the boss, especially one the members like, can cause major rifts.

This is exactly what his supporters meant when they said they wanted someone to "drain the swamp."

Do we still think the everyday Trump supporter is just a poor chump who wanted him to save their job? I heard some call ins on a pubic radio show last night, from people who are negatively impacted by his immigration freeze and people who supported it. It was heartbreaking to hear the stories by people who have been separated from spouses or children, people who are stuck in limbo, and from communities that hoped taking in refugees would be a source of revitalization. It was also chilling to hear the rationalizations from the people who support this policy.

One of these was a former serviceman (served in Iraq) who said he knew there were good Muslims, but there were lots of bad ones too, he'd seen them. And we have to admit that Islam is a problem in the world today, and America has to show it's strength and send a message that we're not playing along anymore. This might "hurt some feelings," he said, but we have a chain of command, and we need to trust our glorious elected leader to make decisions about things we don't understand.

I'm sure this man isn't a "bad" person who kicks puppies or spits on Muslims on the street, but he's clearly very prejudiced (and afraid), and his willingness to trade the Constitution for a little false security is pretty appalling. The idea that we are supposed to just blindly trust in our leaders is completely antithetical to what I was taught citizens in democratic states are supposed to do.

The question, as always, is how to reach the people like this in our own lives. Fear really does seem to be at the root of a lot of this, but how can we convince people not to be afraid? Or how do we convince people that there are different, more constructive, ways to deal with fear than turning to authoritarian leaders and throwing the Constitution under the bus.

ElaineA said:

Priebus has been thrown under the bus via a WAPO interview with a source granted anonymity to speak candidly. He's done. Paul Ryan knows Bannon is in charge. He's just laying low until he gets his sliver of whatever Bannon throws on the floor to him.

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Elaine, could I get a link to the interview please? Missed that one somehow.