Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II has reiterated a plea to stand down at Standing Rock in the wake of 76 arrests of demonstrators Wednesday. The demonstrators had set up a new camp on private land, which police shut down the same day. Video filmed and distributed by the Morton County Sheriff’s Department shows the arrests, which featured law-enforcement officers giving out hand warmers and refraining from use of pepper spray, rubber bullets, tear gas, freezing sprays of water and other tactics used in the past.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum also traveled to the reservation town of Cannon Ball on Wednesday night to meet with residents and tribal members to hear their concerns. Archambault said the visit was the new governor’s second and marked a “welcome shift” from the previous administration.

In a statement on Facebook after the arrests, Archambault said the demonstrators’ actions “do not represent the tribe nor the original intent of the water protectors … instead of empowering us, it undermines us.” “Those who planned to occupy the new camp are putting all of our work at risk. They also put peoples’ lives at risk. We have seen what brutality law enforcement can inflict with little provocation.”

Archambault urged those who remain at the main camp on Corps of Engineers land near the river to work together to clean and restore the land before floodwaters come. Work has been under way for days to pick up trash, old tents and more left behind from thousands of people who camped by the river during demonstrations that heated up beginning last August, and continued through winter.
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Last week, we brought you the story of the latest unprecedented congressional Republican weapon against the White House: the frivolous lawsuit. Specifically, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is considering legal action to overturn the president's executive orders (EOs) in spite of the fact that every president since George Washington has used executive orders to enact policies and implement congressional legislation, among other things.

Since then, there have been a lot of tweets, memes and online discussions about how President Obama has issued considerably fewer EOs than nearly every president since the second Grover Cleveland administration, and in fact the absolute fewest EOs among all two-term presidents, even if he signs 100 more over the next two years. This is empirically true and, as with many of the GOP attacks against this administration, the reality of what happened prior to January 20, 2009 reveals a cynical double-standard, not to mention the existence of mass hypocrisy on behalf of the opposition party. But the numbers only tell half the story.

On this week's Fox News Sunday, anchor Chris Wallace grilled Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA) over the nature of the Obama EOs, while Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA-real-name) lashed out with the usual nonsense about how the president's constitutional role is merely to "faithfully execute the laws" -- not to "take powers resting in the Congress" or to change "laws that have been passed." Wallace listed four allegedly very serious presidential trespasses against the Constitution, trespasses which the GOP believes are lawsuit worthy:

Ordered DOJ to stop defending DOMA (Feb. 2011)
--Deferred deportations (June 2012)
--Raised min wage for fed contractors (Feb. 2014)
--Dozens of changes to Obamacare (2011-present)
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The Democrats are delaying my cabinet picks for purely political reasons. They have nothing going but to obstruct. Now have an Obama A.G.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the face of widespread criticism, President Donald Trump has staunchly defended his order temporarily banning refugees and nearly all citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries. But in a statement Sunday and tweets Monday, Trump misstated the facts multiple times.
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TRUMP: In a Twitter message Monday, he said “Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage.”


THE FACTS: According to a federal law enforcement official briefed on the implementation of the order, nearly 400 green-card holders actually were delayed after arriving at U.S. airports after the travel ban was signed. As of Sunday afternoon, one legal permanent resident had been denied entry as a result of the order, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person wasn’t allowed to discuss the matter publicly.

Delta Airlines did report a computer problem that forced the cancellation of more than 150 flights on Sunday. The chaos and protests at airports around the country began before that happened and were related to the travel ban, not delayed or cancelled flights. (More)

WASHINGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is citing the Sunday terrorist attack on Muslims at a mosque in Quebec City as an example of why his own anti-terror policies are needed — though those policies have targeted Muslims and though the accused killer is not Muslim.

“We condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms. It’s a terrible reminder of why we must remain vigilant, and why the president is taking steps to be proactive, rather than reactive, when it comes to our nation’s safety and security,” press secretary Sean Spicer said at his daily briefing on Monday....