WTF Just Happened Today

Friday, January 29, 2021

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1/ Trump’s first defeat. The immigration order creates an international mess and a political embarrassment. The hastily crafted order was temporarily and partially blocked by a U.S. District Court Judge. (Politico)

UPDATE: Trump doubles down on his executive order barring refugees and some legal immigrants from entering the United States, even as one of his top aides walked back one major element of the order, signaling a growing sense of confusion and fissures within the 10-day-old administration. (Politico)

Bannon’s longtime suspicion of successful immigrants is the key to this weekend’s chaos. (Vox)

2/ Despite growing dissent, Trump gives no sign of backing down from travel ban even as lawmakers from both parties spoke out against the action and federal judges ruled against parts of it. Judicial rulings in several cities across the country overnight immediately blocked enforcement of the ban to various degrees, but the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement early Sunday indicating it would continue to implement President Trump’s action. (Washington Post)

UPDATE: 271 Republicans in Congress have taken no position on Trump’s refugee ban. (Vox)

Trump approval rating: 42% (Gallup)

3/ A clarifying moment in American history. There should be nothing surprising about what the Donald Trump has done in his first week, but he had underestimated the resilience of Americans and their institutions. (The Atlantic)

4/ Donald Trump, the refugee ban, and the triumph of cruelty. The reasons for Trump’s ban on refugees could not be more feeble, and could not be more petty. It serves no actual security purpose. You have a better chance of getting killed by a train, or by your own clothes catching on fire, than by an immigrant terrorist attack. The odds of a refugee killing you in a terrorist strike are about 1 in 3.6 billion. That’s about four hundred times less likely than being hit by lightning twice. If you look back at significant terrorist attacks in the US like San Bernardino or the Pulse nightclub shooting or 9/11, exactly none of them would have been prevented by this policy. (Vox)

5/ Trump puts Bannon on security council, dropping joint chiefs. The reshuffling of the National Security Council downgrades the military chiefs and gives a regular seat to his chief strategist Steve Bannon. The director of national intelligence and the joint chiefs will attend when discussions pertain to their areas. (BBC)

Trump chief-of-staff Reince Priebus will also have a seat in the meetings. (The Guardian)

UPDATE: McCain blasts Bannon placement on National Security Council,calling the move “radical” because it minimizes the role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (