Senator Mitch McConnell censured Senator Elizabeth Warren for “Impugning a Senator,” blocking her from speaking on the floor for the rest of the debate. Sen. Warren, complaining about Jeff Sessions, was reading from the Congressional Record, quoting the letter Coretta Scott King (widow of MLK) wrote to Congress in 1986, when the Senate denied a judgeship to then U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions because he was too racist.  She also quoted the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (again, from the Congressional Record), who had referred to Sessions as a ‘throwback to a shameful era’ and a ‘disgrace’ to the Justice Department.

Sen. Mitch McConnell rushed to the chamber to object, citing Senate Rule 19, section 2 against Warren: “No Senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.”

Apparently, Sen. Warren’s words were so severe, Sen. McConnell decided they were over the line. “She was warned,” Mr. McConnell said of Ms. Warren. “She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”

Words to live by.

The rule hasn’t been called much because it’s hard to work.  The offended Senator has to declare the foul at the time, on the floor, and then a majority of Senators have to vote in agreement. Tough to do.

It’s interesting.  This was during a Democratic talk-a-thon. Honestly, very few people were even in the chamber, and almost nobody was listening. Nonetheless, McConnell rushed to attend, and made his motions, insisted on his umbrage, then got a majority of the Senate to vote ‘yes’ on the question. Why, it’s almost like he planned it, got a bunch of Republican Senators to agree in advance, and was waiting for just the right moment.

Interesting trivia: McConnell witnessed Warren reading the King memo, but later said he really objected to the earlier tenor of her speech, which included Warren’s personal comments.  If that’s true, then it doesn’t sound like he witnessed those comments himself. Huh.

Trump and his minions continue to insist that Pres. Barack Obama banned immigration from Syria, which remains a lie. They continue to insist that Obama “approved” the Yemen mission.  They even insist that the Obama USDA decided to remove the animal abuse reports that Trump’s administration pulled today, even though that is also a lie. Yes, they had the option to remove the reports: they didn’t.

Trying to remove public-facing government data has been a theme of the new administration.  They attempted to remove EPA data, climate data, USDA data, and other sites.  Most of these efforts were publicized and the administration insisted they didn’t really mean it, but of course they did.

Betsy DeVoss was confirmed as Secretary of Education, but only after Vice President Pence casting the tie-breaking vote, first time for such a tie-breaking vote on a Senate confirmation.

The Democrats are holding their second all-night talk, this time about Jeff Sessions as Attorney General.  The Trump nominees have been uniformly terrible.  Nearly 450 former Environmental Protection Agency employees Monday urged Congress to reject President Trump’s nominee to run the agency, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt.  He certainly appears to be anti-science to me.

Trump continues to deny any obligation to refugees.  The Administration presented arguments to the Federal Appeals court about why the Muslim Ban should be reinstated immediately.  The arguments about the immediate threats weren’t well received.

In response to the Trump Muslim Ban, Yemen has banned the USA from ground operations there.  The USA uses Yemen actively as a military base.

Senator Sean Duffy (R-Wisconsin) complained there was only one example of white terrorism: the recent shooting at a mosque in Quebec City.  He was reminded about Oklahoma City.  He said that’s only two.  He was reminded about Charleston, SC shooting.  Duffy: “And look at the good things that came from it.  Nikki Haley took down the Confederate flag.  That was great!”

Congressman Steve King (R- Iowa) argued Sunday that Vladimir Putin was not nearly as bad as critics charged, noting that Putin has never murdered Garry Kasparov, one of his prominent critics.  King also said that Putin was not as bad as Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) was making him out to be. “Freedom of the press, dissent, I would say – Garry Kasparov now lives in the United States. He lived a long time in Russia with a very loud megaphone, and he’s still alive and well.”

POLITICO reported that, during a closed-door, Congressional Republicans discussed how to protect themselves and their staff from protesters storming town halls and offices in opposition to repealing Obamacare.  Suggestions included having a physical exit strategy at town halls, especially a backdoor in congressional offices to slip out of; having local police monitor town halls; replacing any glass office door entrances with heavy doors and deadbolts; and setting up intercoms to ensure those entering congressional offices are there for appointments, not to cause chaos.

In Trump’s meeting with the National Sheriff’s Assoc., one Texas sheriff complained that a State Senator had introduced a bill that would require an actual conviction in court before civil assets (cash, cars, etc.) could be forfeited.  Currently, police can seize and liquidate assets without any finding of fault.  Trump’s response was, “Who is the state senator? Do you want to give his name? We’ll destroy his career.”

Update (Feb. 9, 2017) — In response, Senator Daylin Leach (D-Penn) tweeted:

Hey, @realDonaldTrump I oppose civil asset forfeiture too! Why don’t you try to destroy my career you fascist, loofa-faced, shit-gibbon!

Melania Trump continues her lawsuit against the British publication, Daily Mail.  She claims in filings that the Daily Mail story (since withdrawn and corrected) that she did sex work damaged her reputation.  Still, the suit argues, she will not profit from “being one of the most photographed women in the world” to the extent that she’d expected. There were no specific contracts quoted, but the suit stated their expectations that she would have profited from contracts over many years with many commercial relationships.  In other words, that she expected to earn tens of millions from her position as First Lady.

Trump himself declared he was unhappy with the EU because they blocked his Scottish Golf Course from building a high seawall to protect his property from rising sea levels (presumably because of the climate change that isn’t happening).  Most of the press managed not to notice that this was a horrendous conflict of interest.

Where was I?  Oh yeah.

Trump hasn’t released his tax returns.
There was no obvious effort to investigate the Russian interference in the 2016 election.
There is still no replacement for Obamacare.
Trump hasn’t so much as expressed regret for any of his obvious lies.