Even those casually following immigration are likely aware of the active role Trump's attorneys general played.

This participation entailed unprecedented use of "referral & review"... a power with a problematic & twisted journey beyond Trump...

More in my report out today⬇️

Referral & review dates back to a time when the immigration bureaucracy was housed within the Justice Department.

The power helped the attorney general to manage this system - knitting adjudications, rulemaking, & other decisions into one coherent immigration policy framework.

That's not to say it wasn't without its issues!

Allowing the attorney general—the country’s chief law enforcement officer—to intercede in individual immigration cases has raised questions about the true independence of the immigration adjudication system.

Plus, the attorney general can issue referral & reviews without transparency or briefings, which has negative implications for the legal and policy soundness of the decisions and their acceptance.

But then! 2003 happens.

Under the government restructuring following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, most of the immigration system was moved out of the Justice Department.

The attorney general was left with the immigration court system and...referral & review.

This weeks “AMERICA THIS WEEK With Eric Bolling” monologue:

WELCOME TO AMERICA THIS WEEK... 
THERE'S NO SUGAR-COATING IT... LAST WEEK WAS TOUGH TO SEE...
TOUGH TO HEAR...
AND TOUGH TO RE-LIVE AS MORE AND MORE DETAILS EMERGED ABOUT THE ATTACK ON THE CAPITOL AND THE LIVES LOST...

LOST. 
BUT WE AS A COUNTRY HAVE TO FACE THIS HEAD-ON... 
THERE'S NO GOING BACK TO THE WAY WE USED TO BE. 
THIS MORNING, I REALIZED THAT EVERYTHING IS ABOUT TO CHANGE.
  NO MATTER HOW I VOTE, NO MATTER WHAT I SAY, AMERICA IS NEVER GOING TO BE THE SAME...

I'VE BEEN COVERING POLITICS FOR ALMOST TWO DECADES.. 
AND THIS MOMENT IN TIME... WE ARE FURTHER APART AS A NATION THAN EVER BEFORE.. 
AT LEAST, IN MY LIFETIME..
MY FRIENDS ARE SPLIT.. 
THE LIBERAL ONES WON'T TALK TO THE CONSERVATIVE FRIENDS...

"SEE I TOLD YOU IT WAS GOING TO END THIS WAY"...
YA KNOW WHAT..? 
THEY WERE RIGHT. 
THEY HAVE BEEN SAYING THIS WOULD HAPPEN.
MY CONSERVATIVE FRIENDS ARE STILL SHAKING THEIR COLLECTIVE HEADS.. 
WOW.. THINGS WERE GOING GREAT FOR FOUR YEARS..
  WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?...

THEY ARE RIGHT TOO...
THINGS WERE GOING GREAT FOR CONSERVATIVES.. 
THEY GOT THREE SUPREME COURT JUSTICES SEATED.. 
TAXES WERE LOWERED…
REGULATIONS WERE ROLLED BACK LIKE NEVER BEFORE SEEN.
  SO WHAT HAPPENED?
AS A LIBERTARIAN, I SHOULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING....

.@SteveSisolak, you state you support schools reopening.

Well, educators do also. We support schools reopening SAFELY!

Here is how you, our Governor, can support us in CCSD. 1/9

1️⃣ Ensure that there are enough vaccines for teaches to receive two doses in the preferred timeframe.
2️⃣ Encourage Superintendent Jara to make this a priority, as well as send out a statement to district employees of his plan to ensure we will not open schools until all 2/9

If you’re frustrated by this lockdown it is worth remembering that there is an alternative. Our country has had a year to build an effective system for testing to identify cases & isolate them & those they have exposed. We are all paying the price for the failure to do this.

The deaths that are occurring now were largely preventable. The people dying didn’t simply want a big family bash over the holidays nor have they all been breaking the rules. They are not all old or medically vulnerable.

They are key workers and people’s whose jobs and lives expose them to crowds. The situation is so desperately tragic it’s much easier to blame them. But really important not to blame them. None of us can reduce our risk to zero and all of us rely on people taking risks.

The deaths, suffering & long term problems caused by the repeated lockdowns are an equal tragedy. It is appallingly difficult for many people right now.

It is not beyond a wealthy state like ours to control the spread of the virus without simply shutting everyone at home but at the moment this is the only alternative we have.

National Guard Gearing Up At Washington D.C. Capitol

#WashingtonDC

The GovLab's Stefaan Verhulst will be testifying on smart city oversight before the NYC Council's Committee on Technology at 1:00 PM. You can watch him and the other witnesses live in Virtual Room 2 at:

Chair Holden opens the meeting. by speaking to the promise and potential that smart city technology offers, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

He notes how big data, the internet of things, and other innovative solutions could help New Yorkers address real challenges.

However, he stresses, these come with privacy and security risks. The chair talks about the need to mitigate these challenges and ensure the benefits provided by smart city technologies outweigh costs.

Following the Chair's opening statement, John Paul Farmer, Chief Technology Officer of New York, offers testimony from the Administration.

He notes his focus will be on the city's work in Internet of Things, where NYC leads nationally and internationally.

"The Mayor's Office of the CTO has focused on improving the connectivity infrastructure needed to operate as a smart city," says Farmer

"Equitable connectivity is a foundation of the smart city. Widespread broadband is needed to connect the tools and sensors that make up IoT."

To: @senatemajld, @LindseyGrahamSC, et al. I know you and your colleagues have been able to overlook things like:

1. The Central Park Five
2. Birtherism
3. Mocking a disabled reporter
4. Mexicans are rapists
5. Two dozen accusations of sexual assault
6. Lock her up

1/

And the GOP was okay with:

7. Hush payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal
8. No commitment to accept the 2016 election results
9. Grab ‘em by the pussy
10. Trump University fraud
11. Manafort, Steven Bannon, Roger Stone, Stephen Miller
12. The Muslim ban

2/

And you didn't balk at:

13. Separating families and keeping kids in cages
14. Siding with Putin over US intelligence agencies
15. The firing of the FBI director
16. Very fine people on both sides
17. Corruption in (and dissolution of) the Trump foundation
18. Jamal Khashoggi

3/

And you didn't say much about:

19. The free press being labeled the enemy of the people
20. The trans ban in the military
21. The Kim-Jong Un handshake in the DMZ
22. Pressuring the president of Ukraine to interfere in an American election
23. Only $750 paid in income taxes

4/

And you mostly blew off or made excuses for:

24. Coronavirus is a democrat hoax
25. Coronavirus will disappear on its own
26. Injecting bleach
27. Mocking mask wearing
28. Super-spreader rallies in the midst of a pandemic
29. Nearly 400,000 Americans dead from Coronavirus

5/

On the death of #SheldonAdelson - a brief thread.

Sheldon Adelson - the megadonor to the GOP who received the genuflection of virtually all hopefuls on the Republican national stage - is dead. 1/

Adelson pumped money into the very GOP machinery that has enabled Trumpism, facilitated policies that have torn children from their parents, cultivated racism, antisemitism, and white supremacy, and that has now led to the deaths of 350,000+ Americans from COVID. 2/

Some people who appreciated the money he threw at Israeli groups and initiatives are going to be angry if I celebrate the demise of this merchant of corruption and death. "Jews don't celebrate death", right? Wrong. 3/

The "Song of the Sea" (Exodus 15:1-18) is the oldest text in the Hebrew Bible, the foundation of Israelite religious belief, and it is nothing but a celebration of a mass death of Egyptians at the Red Sea during the Exodus. 4/

1 Samuel 18 preserves an old song that tells us that both David and Saul were celebrated for slaughtering "thousands" and "myriads". 5/

@realmajordan @gheliason @RichHiggins_DC @tobeycakes @1GigiSims1 Wanna bet the UK govt wants to use the "Base" to smear the Pro Brexit populists in their country? Let's see if they use them as an excuse to persecute them once Boris thorough destroys their economy.

An update on my Green Homes Grant odyssey...

**WARNING** contains many hoops...

1/16

Knowing the scheme was coming I used the government website links and started my research in September.

I reckoned solar hot water was the best next step to reduce my carbon footprint.

2/16

I have basic double-glazing that needs upgrading before a new heating system but double glazing was out of scope unless you have single glazing.

I'm adding even more insulation to my loft at my own cost.

3/16

So, anyway, researching 'local' providers for solar water heating installation that are on the website list as allowed to do it under GHG: Three potentials.

First didn't respond and suspect was the wrong contact information was on the website.

4/16

Second couldn't do a quote without a visit and the next time they could would be weeks and weeks after the scheme was meant to open for applications.

5/16

Trump acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, allowed the National Guard deployment to be delayed by more than 4 hours, despite desperate please from the head of the Capitol Police and the Gov of Maryland

By the time the NG arrived, four people lay dead. Why did Miller and Lt. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, director of the Army Staff, block the deployment?

Piatt said “I don’t like the visual of the National Guard standing a police line with the Capitol in the background." But officials were pleading. The Capitol mob was inside, attacking...

We don't know what conversations they might have had with Trump et al. But let's look at SecDef Miller's background for a bit

Miller, who took office just a few weeks ago, after the Nov. election, served as a Green Beret in Iraq and Afghanistan. There's no indication that he served with anything other than distinction. But since helming the Pentagon, he gives signs of bring a devoted Trumpist

This is the UK’s internal “who won the negotiations scorecard”, apparently. (via

On rules of origin, suggests that compromise found on batteries and electric vehicles (woo!)

But I have questions about the cumulation “Win” ... as the UK opening position was much more expansive than written here, and win looks like what we knew EU was offering.

That’s quite the spin, lads.

Would that win be rejecting be the ‘investor’ category proposed ... in the UK’s draft FTA text?

This is simultaneously both incredibly useful AND hilarious.