— Park City, UT

 Judge Not: After President Trump attacked the three-judge panel evaluating the stay on his immigration and refugee ban, the president’s own Supreme Court nominee called Trump’s remarks  “demoralizing” and “disheartening.”

Judge Neil Gorsuch of the federal appeals court in Denver told Sen. Richard Blumenthal in a private meeting that he objected to the president’s criticism of judges handling the immigration case.

An outraged Trump personally attacked Blumenthal on Twitter this morning. “Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who never fought in Vietnam when he said for years he had (major lie),now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him?”

This dustup started when Trump said in a speech yesterday morning, “I don’t ever want to call a court biased, so I won’t call it biased.”  He went on, “And we haven’t had a decision yet.  But courts seem to be so political, and it would be so great for our justice system if they would be able to read a statement and do what’s right.  And that has to do with the security of our country, which is so important.”

Trump said “a bad high school” student could understand the issues at stake, suggesting that the judges and lawyers do not. He said, “I was a good student.  I understand things.  I comprehend very well, okay?  Better than I think almost anybody.”

Trump also said he had wanted to give a month’s notice before imposing his ban on travel from seven Muslim countries, but “law enforcement” wouldn’t let him “because then people are going to pour in before the toughness goes on.”

The president didn’t say what law enforcement agencies he was talking about. The agencies that had to enforce the ban said they didn’t know about it until it was signed.

Writing about the president’s whining over his difficulties, NY Times columnist Andrew Rosenthal wrote, “If Trump loses this case, he’ll pick up his marbles and go home and not try anything else to keep America safe? He’ll hold his breath until he turns blue? Or will he just pass notes around to all the other eighth graders about how mean the teachers are?”

Advice & Consent: Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions was confirmed as Attorney General in a 52-47 vote last night, after a contentious debate over his treatment of race and voting rights during his career.

The debate was highlighted by the silencing of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who violated a 100-year-old rule about trash-mouthing a fellow senator. She was forbidden from speaking again on the Sessions nomination.

Rule XIX was passed 115 years ago when, after delivering some nasty insults, Sen. Benjamin “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman got into a fistfight on the Senate floor with Sen. John McLaurin. Those were the good old days.

Warren expressed shock. “What hit me the hardest was, it is about silence,”  Warren said to a group of civil rights activists yesterday. “It’s about trying to shut people up. It’s about saying, ‘no, no, no, just go ahead and vote.’”

World: A raging and fast-spreading fire in a Manila slum has left 15,000 people homeless. The alleys between homes were too narrow for fire trucks to pass. Dozens of people are reported injured in an evacuation stampede.

Social Notes: Pop star Madonna, 58, has adopted 4-year-old twin sisters from Malawi. She already has two adopted children from African countries. Madonna has a teenage son she once sued to make him come home for Christmas.

Daddy’s Girl: The President of the United States complained on Twitter that his little girl was treated badly by the Nordstrom’s department store, chain, which dropped Ivanka’s clothing line for lack of sales.

Ivanka’s sales have been diving in stores everywhere, in part because of a boycott, but her father singled out Nordstrom’s. Daddy said, “My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person — always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!”

Nordstrom’s stock went up.

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