Trying to keep up with the conflict and chaos in Donald Trump's swampy Washington is like trying to get a drink of water from a fire hose.
He began dishing bleak and dark threats to the Washington establishment in the second sentence of his inaugural speech, and the establishment is now talking back. More than a million took to the streets in protests in Washington and thousands more protested in other cities across the nation - including Chattanooga.
More than 1,000 people in the State Department signed a letter saying the travel ban will not make the nation safer. A Trump spokesman has suggested they quit. On Monday, Sally Yates, the acting attorney general said she would not order the Justice Department to defend the administration's executive order on immigration that was blocking hundreds and thousands of people in airports and bringing protesters out again. Yates said she made the decision because she is not "convinced that the executive order is lawful."
Within minutes, Trump accused her of having "betrayed" the Justice Department and fired her, along with the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Daniel Ragsdale.
On Tuesday Democrats boycotted Senate confirmation hearings to prevent votes on cabinet nominees.
All of this conflict makes Ted Cruz's filibuster reading of Green Eggs and Ham look like a day in kindergarten.
And Trump had only been in office for 12 days.
Yet, despite a growing number of bowed and shaking GOP heads, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan broke his days of silence and stood by President Trump's executive order closing the nation's borders to refugees and people from predominantly Muslim countries. Ryan's comment? "Regrettably, the rollout was confusing."
Regrettably, Ryan is sticking his head in the sand.