Not Gonna Do It

     Just downstream of the Inauguration, the news media has locked themselves into a familiar cycle of "OMG, look what the President has done!"  Thrilled or horrified per their political bent, the coverage is long on generalities but short on specifics, and I find myself having to dig for details on the actions that strike me as significant.*

     I suppose I could turn around and share them with readers, but at that point it only throws a teaspoon of signal into a boiling pot of noise, and there's enough steam and fog already.

     Let it settle.  One of the few in-depth stories I could find sorted the flurry of Executive Orders and related actions into three categories: things unquestionably within Presidential powers; things that are going to take considerable adjustment, changes in rules and possibly Congressional action, and which may be challenged; and things that are most likely unConstitutional and either will be challenged or have already been challenged.  The last two sets aren't going to have much effect for some time, if they ever do.

     Presidents do not operate in a vacuum.  The Executive Branch is just one leg of the Federal tripod.  It happens to be the only one with single individual at the top of it, and the full focus of the Press is on him in a manner impossible with Congress or the U. S. Supreme Court, but that's not the entire show; it's not even close.
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* An example: over 1,500 people were given pardons by the new President; fourteen had their sentences commuted instead, leaving felony convictions on their records.  Can you name the fourteen?  I couldn't find their names in any news story and had to go back to the White House press release instead.  It's an interesting group.