2/10/17. The Dude abides; Warren persists.

-The leader of the Republican party was uncharacteristically reserved in his Tweetstorming after the administration was given a set-back and a scolding by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  He did use capital letters, however.  "SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE."  The remarkable thing is he made it through the entire tweet without a misspelling.  That's certainly better than his staff has been able to do.  I should point out that he did manage to write a run-on sentence.  I have this feeling that Trump will be even more upset by the Supreme's ruling.  First of all, without a ninth member the court will probably tie, meaning the stay will remain in force.  I would even go so far as to say that Kennedy might be reasonable--he often is--and vote with the liberals to give the administration a 5 to 3 drubbing.

-I enjoyed reading about the grilling of Jason Chaffetz (leader of the House Oversight Committee) in a town hall meeting in Utah of all places.  The mob was loudly asking him why his committee has not started an investigation of Trump's plethora of conflicts of interest.  There was a chant of "Do your job."

-To be fair, that same Jason Chaffetz, acting in his role as head of the Oversight Committee, said loudly and clearly that Kellyanne Conway's recent television"ad" for Ivanka Trump's clothing line was "unacceptable and over the line."  I don't know if anything else will happen behind that (Trump is ecstatic about Conway's behavior), but it is a start, an example of a Republican showing courage.

-To borrow a Republican term, the leader of the Republican Party has flip-flopped on China.  He campaigned with great bluster about how he was going to make China think twice about bullying the U.S.  One of his first calls after the inauguration was to Taiwan, a clear message to China that its "One China Policy" was not going to wash with the new sheriff in town.  Yesterday, he called the bossman in China and told him he was all in favor of "One China."  I wonder if the leader of the Republican Party was embarrassed by his turn about?  Probably not.  I'm sure he had no memory of any other position he may or may not have held on the issue.

-Finally, Ken Starr (Watergate prosecutor and recent Baylor president who had to step down due to wide spread sex scandals at that ostensibly Christian school) is on the short list to head the Office of International Religious Freedom.  That must refer to the freedom to look the other way when prosecuting sexual predators on campus might end up hurting the football program.