Donald Trump today (apparently parroting his favorite right wing website) accused President Obama of wiretapping his phones.

A spokesman for Obama said the accusation was “simply false”.

The unprecedented attack by a president on his predecessor, made in a series of early morning tweets, stoked speculation that Trump’s remarks were prompted by stories circulating in rightwing media, including one that claimed Obama is attempting a “silent coup” against Trump.

Trump's baseless claim shows his ignorance of electronic surveillance laws and procedures, both as to criminal investigations (under Title III) and foreign intelligence/ national security investigations (under FISA.) [More...]

Like a punching bag, Attorney General Jeff Sessions took hit after hit yesterday, ultimately holding a press conference to announce he would recuse himself from any FBI investigation into Russia's alleged attempts to influence the election. Several Democrats are not satisfied with that. Here's who is calling for AG Jeff Sessions to resign:

• Nancy Pelosi
• Bernie Sanders
• Kamala Harris
• Chuck Schumer

The ACLU is calling for a perjury investigation.

Last night, Sessions seemed to change his tune a bit. [More...]

Not surprisingly, Donald Trump is once again promoting the politics of fear and prejudice.

Now he wants to spend our dollars on a new office to help American victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants. He wants to call it the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office.

Once again, Donald Trump works off of false facts. His demagoguery encourages fear, prejudice and bigotry. In his attempt to be viewed as tough on the undocumented, he fosters inaccurate stereotypes.

Immigration does not breed crime. Our prisons are not overflowing because of crimes by the undocumented. They are overflowing because of our failed criminal justice policies and over reliance on incarceration versus treatment and rehabilitation with respect to our nonviolent homegrown offenders.

Trump remains intent on pushing everyone's buttons and causing rampant fear in our communities. Yesterday he issued two new implementation orders on immigration to effectuate his prior executive orders, which are already under attack in the courts.

The orders are here and here.

His orders lack teeth and he knows it. The first order, authorizing the hiring of 5,000 more Border agents and 500 Air & Marine Agents/Officers" states such hiring is "subject to the availability of resources." [More...]

Former CIA analyst and NSC spokesman Edward Price has an op-ed in the Washington Post on why he left the CIA after Donald Trump took the oval office:

Trump’s actions in office have been even more disturbing. His visit to CIA headquarters on his first full day in office, an overture designed to repair relations, was undone by his ego and bluster. Standing in front of a memorial to the CIA’s fallen officers, he seemed to be addressing the cameras and reporters in the room, rather than the agency personnel in front of them, bragging about his inauguration crowd the previous day. Whether delusional or deceitful, these were not the remarks many of my former colleagues and I wanted to hear from our new commander in chief.

The final straw for him was: [More....]

Donald Trump just keeps coming up with bad ideas. This one's a non-starter unless he wants violence in the streets.

The Trump administration is considering a proposal to mobilize as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants, including millions living nowhere near the Mexico border, according to a draft memo obtained by The Associated Press.

The 11-page document calls for the unprecedented militarization of immigration enforcement as far north as Portland, Oregon, and as far east as New Orleans, Louisiana.

If this idea originated with his advisers, they are morons. But we knew that already.

I suspect Trump is trying to stay in the news and making sh*t up to draw big headlines. Otherwise, no one would care enough to write or read about him.

Here is Michael Flynn's resignation letter. The NY Times reports Trump was told weeks ago he lied about his contacts with Russia.

The Trump administration is in turmoil, a rudderless ship facing constant upheavals. Trump is bad for the nation and bad for the world. He should just admit the job is over his head and resign, taking his unimportant, ill-equipped counselors with him.

First, I don't believe the NBC News story that Russia intends to gift Edward Snowden to the U.S. The whole story seems to emanate from a suggestion former CIA deputy director Mike Morrell made last month:

What better way for President Putin to cement the personal tie than to give the President-Elect a high-profile gift -- Snowden. At the same time, what better way for President Putin to poke his finger in the eye of his adversary Barack Obama than to put Snowden on a plane at the very moment Mr. Obama is no longer president?

The New York Times reported on Morrell's suggestion and mentioned that Russia recently extended Snowden's residency for a few years. According to the New York Times, Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, addressed Morrell directly on Facebook:

“You spoke, Mr. Morrell, and now it’s clear to everybody that in your office, it’s normal to bring gifts in the form of people, and to hand over those who seek defense.”

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Typical Trumpicide -- quote a phrase successfully used against you by your opponents and get ridiculed. Donald Trump has responded to the 9th Circuit decision by tweeting "See You In Court."

What a moronic thing to say, considering that's where he has been and he's been losing. Does he even realize he's channeling the ACLU? The ACLU has been using this graphic for three months . When the ACLU first posted it along with a request for donations in November, it had its biggest fundraising day ever -- more than $15 million. (That's now been surpassed by $24 million in donations received just during the weekend he tried to enforce his Muslim ban.)

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The last terrorist attack in Atlanta was in 1996 -- it was committed by homegrown terrorist Eric Rudolph. But don't tell Sean Spicer, who mentioned Atlanta attacks three times in two press statements in two days. Now he says he obviously meant Orlando when he said Atlanta.

Loose lips sink ships. The Trump Administration is filled with dangerous neophytes, from the occupant of the Oval office on down, who don't know their as* from their elbow (as my grandmother used to say).

I'm purposely ignoring his counselor who got counseled yesterday because in my view, she is now officially the most unimportant person in America and I refuse to expend keystrokes on her.

The Senate just confirmed Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. Vote talley here.

One Dem, Joe Manchin of W Va voted for him.
No Republican voted against him.
Two independents joined with Dems and voted no.

Final vote: 52 to 47. (Sessions didn't vote.)

The clapping sounded like a toilet flushing (I only have audio here.)

How demoralizing, to quote Neil Gorsuch, about Trump's comments on the 9th Circuit judges.

Tom Price, who reportedly wants to gut Medicare, is up for a Cloture vote now.

Trump now wants to put any future ISIS detainees at Gitmo.

Here is the draft of his proposed executive order.

Sec. 2. Continuing State of Armed Conflict With Terrorist Groups. The United States remains engaged in an armed conflict with al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces, including individuals and networks associated with the Islamic State.

Sec.3. Military Detention of Aliens at Naval Station Guøntanamo Bay. (a) Subject to further direction from the President and consistent with the requirements of law, the Secretary of Defense shall maintain and continue to use the detention facilities at the U.S. Naval Station Guantánamo Bay, for the detention of enemy combatants captured in the armed conflict described in section 2 of this order, including such individuals captured after the effective date of this order.

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