Fascism Watch, February 1

Immigration ban & Constitutional crisis

Another federal judge in LA has issued a nationwide temporary restraining order on the immigration order.

Whether Birotte’s order will have any impact is an open question. A handful of federal judges elsewhere in the country have already issued rulings that blocked aspects of the executive order, but it is unclear whether they have been followed.

After the ACLU filed its lawsuit, the State Department filed an after-hours memo revoking the visas of people from the seven countries listed in the executive order

CNN producer files suit after being detained in Atlanta airport

American Medical Association says  1 in 4 physicians practicing in US are international medical graduates on visas

Trump

Trump administration ‘officially putting Iran on notice’, says Michael Flynn

Flynn did not specify how the new administration would respond. Asked for clarification, the White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, said the president wanted to make sure the Iranians “understood we are not going to sit by and not act on their actions”.

Trump has reportedly threatened to use the military to combat the drug trade along the Mexican border

Reuters: we will cover Trump the same way we do authoritarian regimes

Trump to focus counter-extremism program solely on Islam, ignoring the white supremacists who are responsible for a lot of the US’s mass shootings

Federal workers push back against Trump

“Asked whether federal workers are dissenting in ways that go beyond previous party changes in the White House, Tom Malinow­ski, who was President Barack Obama’s assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, said, sarcastically: “Is it unusual? . . . There’s nothing unusual about the entire national security bureaucracy of the United States feeling like their commander in chief is a threat to U.S. national security. That happens all the time. It’s totally usual. Nothing to worry about.””

On call with Australian prime minister, Trump badgers and brags, then hangs up abruptly

Protesters are suing Trump over his private security force

Donald Trump’s private security lacked basic procedures and policies — including for the use of force — giving guards free rein during the campaign and transition to physically confront protesters and journalists they found objectionable, according to hours of deposition transcripts in a civil lawsuit that were reviewed by POLITICO.

McSweeney’s has published Trump’s Black History Month address, verbatim, as humor. Trump did not seem to be aware that Frederick Douglass was not a living person and spent a large portion of the speech complaining about fake news.

Congress

The House has voted to reverse an Obama rule that forced oil and gas companies to disclose foreign payments. Tillerson says “the provision would make it especially difficult for Exxon to do business in Russia.”

The House also voted to rescind a regulation that prevented coal mining debris from being dumped into nearby streams.

Hawaii Rep. Beth Fukumoto is leaving the Republican Party.

Here is a curated list of Congressmen’s upcoming town halls.

Cabinet & Federal Appointees

Tillerson was confirmed and sworn in today.

Senate Finance Committee Republicans suspended their rules and approved Price and Mnuchin for a full floor vote after Democrats boycotted the votes in protest of the rushed investigations. “Mnuchin acknowledged that his responses to the committee had not, as he had stated, been “true, accurate and complete.”” So he perjured himself then?

Eli Broad, billionaire philanthropist and charter school backer, urges senators to oppose DeVos. With two Republican Senators vowed to oppose her, her confirmation vote tally stands at 50/50.

Protests

Police have raided the Standing Rock camps, arresting protesters and burning the tipis

Milo Yiannopoulos event at UC Berkeley canceled after protests

The March for Science has been scheduled for April 22, Earth Day