Malevolence Only Exceeded By Incompetence, And Vice Versa*

What you might expect from a neo- fascist nitwit Donald "Rump" Trump's Russo- Republican administration -- astounding incompetence:

As President Trump signed a sweeping executive order on Friday, shutting the borders to refugees and others from seven largely Muslim countries, the secretary of homeland security was on a White House conference call getting his first full briefing on the global shift in policy. 

Gen. John F. Kelly, the secretary of homeland security, had dialed in from a Coast Guard plane as he headed back to Washington from Miami. Along with other top officials, he needed guidance from the White House, which had not asked his department for a legal review of the order. 

Halfway into the briefing, someone on the call looked up at a television in his office. “The president is signing the executive order that we’re discussing,” the official said, stunned.  (our emphasis)

When even the Bushie neo- cons desert you:

Former CIA director Michael V. Hayden said that the order and other possible measures have probably forced U.S. diplomats, military commanders and agency station chiefs abroad into damage-control mode. 

“We’ve got good people who will work hard at it, but there is no question that this has already created an irretrievable cost,” Hayden said. The refu­gee order “inarguably has made us less safe. It has taken draconian measures against a threat that was hyped. The byproduct is it feeds the Islamic militant narrative and makes it harder for our allies to side with us.”  (our emphasis)

And, from Eliot A. Cohen:

There was nothing unanticipated in this first disturbing week of the Trump administration. It will not get better. Americans should therefore steel themselves, and hold their representatives to account. Those in a position to take a stand should do so, and those who are not should lay the groundwork for a better day. There is nothing great about the America that Trump thinks he is going to make; but in the end, it is the greatness of America that will stop him.

And, dog help us, even from the fount of evil himself:

"I think this whole notion that somehow we can just say no more Muslims, just ban a whole religion, goes against everything we stand for and believe in. I mean, religious freedom has been a very important part of our history and where we came from," Cheney said [snip] 

Cheney called Trump's plan a "mistaken notion" and said to solve refugee and immigration problems, the U.S. must examine why they need to leave their countries in the first place.

[At which point he combusted in a flaming, sulfurous ball.]

It takes a special level of crazy to get the attention of those folks. That's where we are right now.

* h/t LGM.