A federal judge has blocked Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship. Federal District Court judge, John C. Coughenour called Trump’s order “blatantly unconstitutional.”

“Frankly,” he continued, challenging Trump administration lawyers, “I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar would state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order. It just boggles my mind.”

Twenty-two states have challenged the order in court, which suggests that if Congress did try to amend the Constitution in the normal way, it would fall short of the 38 states needed for ratification. I assume Trump will appeal up to the Supreme Court eventually, and then we’ll see how many of the so-called “originalists” are prepared to flush the Constitution down the toilet on Trump’s say-so.

One of the most disturbing thing I’ve seen today is at Washington Monthly,  Three Disturbing Signs of Fourth Estate Failure by Bill Scher. And may I add that fourth estate failure in regard to Trump is hardly new. But, basically, a lot of news outlets are tip-toeing around the current radicalism rather than calling it out plainly, and Scher provides some examples. I’ve seen others. I read today that CNN is laying off many employees and re-working its schedule and news approach, and somehow I doubt any of this will give CNN’s coverage of Trump a spine. CNN’s political coverage has been mostly useless for a long time, as far as I’m concerned.  Possibly now it will be even more useless.

We still have the MSNBC evening lineup, and Trump is vowing to shut the network down. And I bet he will try.

Meanwhile, Trump has begun dismantling the National Institute of Health.

President Donald Trump’s return to the White House is already having a big impact at the $47.4 billion U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), with the new administration imposing a wide range of restrictions, including the abrupt cancellation of meetings including grant review panels. Officials have also ordered a communications pause, a freeze on hiring, and an indefinite ban on travel.

The moves have generated extensive confusion and uncertainty at the nation’s largest research agency, which has become a target for Trump’s political allies. “The impact of the collective executive orders and directives appears devastating,” one senior NIH employee says. …

… Separately, HHS announced a communications ban through 1 February in a memo issued yesterday. (The Washington Post and Associated Press first reported the memo’s existence.) It orders a stop on the publishing of regulations, guidance documents, grant announcements, social media posts, press releases, and other “communications,” and the canceling of speaking engagements. Any exceptions must be applied for and approved through the president’s appointees.

So they’re muzzled, just in time for a bird flu pandemic to slam into us. Also there’s a “hiatus” on medical research funding. This hasn’t been widely reported, but Talking Points Memo is getting it from medical researchers.

And all of this is just the tip of a big iceberg. But we can always lighten it up by laughing at Marjorie Taylor Greene. Today she’s slamming the UK for refusing to comply with the name change of the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America. She is pushing to get Congress to pass a law making the change, because she thinks this will force other countries to comply.