Last Call For Trump Cards, Con't

And finally we end the week with Donald Trump being caught in what should be yet another scandal large enough to force his immediate resignation, but that America is so broken and lawless now that it's just "Friday".

President Donald Trump told Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan he would grant McAleenan a pardon if he were sent to jail for having border agents block asylum seekers from entering the US in defiance of US law, senior administration officials tell CNN.

Trump reportedly made the comment during a visit to the border at Calexico, California, a week ago. It was not clear if the comment was a joke.

Two officials briefed on the exchange say the President told McAleenan, since named the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, that he "would pardon him if he ever went to jail for denying US entry to migrants," as one of the officials paraphrased.

The White House referred CNN to the Department of Homeland Security. A DHS spokesman told CNN, "At no time has the President indicated, asked, directed or pressured the Acting Secretary to do anything illegal. Nor would the Acting Secretary take actions that are not in accordance with our responsibility to enforce the law."

Donald Trump is telling people he will pardon them if they break the law in his service.

Not one goddamn person who could do anything about it cares.

Nobody cares, least of all the Senate Republicans who should be demanding that Trump step down, because the simple fact of the matter is they've figured out that they can do whatever they want and nobody in this country will lift a finger to stop them.

We should have been in the streets years ago.

We should have been organizing crippling national strikes years ago.

It never should have gotten this far.  They're getting away with it because every day we let them.

Sudan got rid of their dictator this week after 30 years.

But hey, the P'Zone is back at Pizza Hut, so America's fine.

Immigration Nation, Con't

The Trump regime is turning to Bill Barr on not only on burying the Mueller report, but Trump's plan to end all immigration in the US as well by all but removing judges from the immigration process and giving summary judgment power on asylum cases to the White House.

Attorney General William Barr is making his first major moves on immigration policy since his confirmation, setting up big changes for the courts that decide whether immigrants will stay in the U.S. or be deported. 

The Justice Department is on the verge of issuing rule changes that would make it easier for a handful of appellate immigration judges to declare their rulings binding on the entire immigration system, The Chronicle has learned. The changes could also expand the use of single-judge, cursory decisions at the appellate level — all at the same time as a hiring spree that could reshape the court. 

The Trump administration bills the moves as efficiency measures to help fix a delay-plagued immigration court system, at a time it is being inundated by asylum seekers at the southern border. Asylum cases can take years to complete, even those that are relatively straightforward. 

But advocates for immigrants and attorneys who work in the system fear the efficiency tools could be used to dramatically reshape immigration law to fit President Trump’s political goals.

Trump has repeatedly railed against the immigration court system and suggested doing away with it entirely. 

“Congress has to ... get rid of the whole asylum system because it doesn’t work,” Trump said this month. “And frankly, we should get rid of judges. You can’t have a court case every time somebody steps their foot on our ground.”

Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions frequently cited the immigration-case backlog as dire and made reducing it a central focus of his tenure, though it grew by more than 100,000 cases in that time to its current total of more than 800,000. Recently ousted Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen complained that migrants with weak asylum cases were clogging the system, slowing immigration judges from handling legitimate claims. 

Last week, the Justice Department revived a proposed regulation originally initiated during the George W. Bush administration to allow the 21-judge appeals court system that hears immigration cases more latitude to issue cursory opinions without explanation.  

It would also allow the court to set precedents with only a small minority of appeals judges participating, which could sharply accelerate the administration’s ability to make changes to immigration law that wouldn’t require congressional action. 

The proposed regulation has been sent to the White House for review before being made final, according to a government database. The Justice Department declined to comment other than to confirm that it hopes to finalize the rule this year.

The coming mass deportation regime won't end with pending asylum cases either.  ICE will be coming for immigrants already here.

And soon.

StupidiNews!

• Four Republican senators have come out against Donald Trump's nomination of Herman Cain to the Federal Reserve, meaning his confirmation is all but dead and Cain is expected to withdraw.
• Texas is refusing a House Oversight Committee letter to hand over information on the state's attempts to purge millions from voter rolls in 2016, saying it reserves to right to deny a public information request.
• House Democrats plan to introduce a $2 trillion infrastructure bill, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying they will meet with the White House.
• Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been ousted from power and arrested by the country's army as a military coup deposed him on Thursday, a transitional council will rule for the next two years.
• Disney's new streaming service, Disney+, will launch November 12 for $6.99 a month with movies and new shows set in the Star Wars and Marvel universes as well as Fox's entire Simpsons library.