Category: Politics

Week 146 in Trump

Posted on November 18, 2019 in Politics, Trump

And here you have it, folks. This explains why we’re in the situation we’re in. CNN hosted an all-female panel of Pennsylvania voters, and several members of the panel said they’d still vote for Trump “if he shot someone on 5th Avenue.” Because “you’d have to know why he shot him.”

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending November 10… Sorry, I’m a week behind still!

Missing From Previous Weeks:

  1. The U.S. refused to issue visas to members of an Iranian delegation coming to Washington for the annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Iran’s economic minister canceled his trip in protest.
  2. The USDA’s inspector general opened an investigation into whether the USDA was burying its own scientists’ research on climate change. Farmers and ranchers are feeling the effects of climate change firsthand, and can’t really mitigate it without access to the scientific information.

Shootings This Week:

There were SIX mass shootings in the U.S. this week (defined as killing and/or injuring 4 or more people). Shooters kill 1 person and injure 24 more.

  1. A shooter injures 4 people outside a nightclub in Kansas City, MO.
  2. A shooter kills 1 person and injures 4 more outside a strip club in Memphis, TN.
  3. A shooter injures 4 people filming a rap video in Little Rock, AK. The victims are 12, 12, 13, and 30 years old.
  4. A shooter injures 4 people in Vidalia, GA.
  5. A drive-by shooter injures 4 men in Detroit, MI.
  6. A shooter injures 4 people outside a nightclub in Toledo, OH.

Russia:

  1. Roger Stone’s trial begins. As a reminder, he was indicted on obstruction of justice, five counts of making false statements (including to Congress), and witness tampering.
  2. Stone is in hot water over his relationship with WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential campaign.
  3. Stone’s indictment says a Trump campaign official was told to contact Stone after Wikileaks released DNC emails. They wanted information from Stone about when the next releases would come out and what other damaging information they had.
  4. Steve Bannon testifies, and says the campaign was willing to try “dirty tricks” in order to win.
  5. Court documents show that Manafort was spreading the Ukraine conspiracy theories months before the elections.

Legal Fallout:

  1. A federal judge upholds a ruling that Trump’s tax returns must be handed over to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. This is part of the investigation into the hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.
  2. After being threatened with fines and jail time, Betsy DeVos announces that the Department of Education will cancel the debt of about 1,500 students who attended schools that went belly-up before they completed their educations.
    • The loans should’ve been forgiven under the “closed school discharge” guidelines.
    • But this one is a mess. The schools in question were purchased by a Christian non-profit group in 2017, when they were already in distress. The non-profit, Dream Center Education Holdings, closed a few schools within months. To top off their problems, the schools lost their accreditation with the Higher Learning Commission, and the whole chain shut down within a year of the purchase.
  1. A New York State judge orders Trump to personally pay $2 million to various nonprofit organizations as part of a settlement involving the Trump Foundation. The foundation held a fundraiser in 2016 ostensibly for veterans’ organizations, but none of those organizations saw any of the $3 million raised. The court finds that the Trump family misused charitable contributions to the foundation for personal, business, and political gain.
  2. According to Trump advisors, around September 25, Trump asked Attorney General William Barr to hold a press conference to say that Trump didn’t break any laws in his call with Zelensky. Barr declined. Both men deny this happened.
  3. Two Twitter employees are accused of helping Saudi Arabia spy on its critics. The Saudis recruited the two to obtain data, including email addresses and IP addresses, of people who criticize the country and its leaders.

Impeachment:

Including all this info just makes this blog too long, so I moved it out into its own post. You can skip right over to it if that’s your focus.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Every Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee votes to advance White House legal aide Steve Menashi’s nomination to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
    • Menashi is inexperienced.
    • His writings show him to oppose women and to support racist ideas. He opposes diversity programs and gay rights and has expressed anti-Muslim sentiments.
    • Menashi worked with Betsy DeVos to roll back rights for victims of sexual assaults on campuses.
    • He also worked with DeVos to help create the plan to use Social Security data to deny debt relief to students cheated out of money by for-profit colleges. A judge found this plan to be illegal.
    • He’s being accused of being part of the Ukraine coverup, having been Trump’s legal adviser for over a year (though I haven’t seen any evidence of this).

Healthcare:

  1. A federal judge overrules Trump’s rule allowing healthcare workers to refuse care based on religious beliefs. The judge says DHHS exceeded its authority, acted arbitrarily and capriciously, and lied about their justification for making the changes.
  2. Global warming is causing an exponential increase in Dengue Fever infections (boo), but scientists announce they‘re finalizing a vaccine (yay) to prevent the disease. In tests, the vaccine is 95% effective in preventing serious illness; 80% effective in preventing it altogether.

International:

  1. Iran announces new violations of the JCPOA (Iran Deal) on the 40th anniversary of the student takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, which started the 444-day-long hostage crisis. Iran is operating 60 IR-6 advanced centrifuges, which produce enriched uranium ten times faster than what the JCPOA allows. Gosh, if only we could’ve had some sort of agreement that would prevent this. Oh, wait…
  2. The BBC reports that one of the U.S.’s demands in their post-Brexit trade negotiations with the UK is that the UK must privatize their National Health System.
  3. Working-class communities in Northern Ireland see an uptick in violence over fears that Brexit will create a hard border between them and Ireland again.
  4. Yemen’s government signs a power-sharing peace agreement with separatists, a move backed by the Saudi crown prince. This civil war is in its fifth year.
  5. The two had banded together previously to fight the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, but then rebels backed by the United Arab Emirates seized the capital city from the government, which is support by Saudi Arabia.
  6. The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen is still obtaining U.S. weapons, despite bipartisan congressional disapproval.
  7. Violent protests continue in the Bolivian capital of La Paz. People across the country have been protesting since the elections four weeks ago, after the results couldn’t be validated because of “serious irregularities.”
    • Protestors kidnap a small-town mayor, cut her hair, douse her in red paint, and march her barefoot through the streets.
    • Bolivian President Evo Morales resigns. Morales, who has served for 14 years, is Bolivia’s first indigenous president.
    • The successors to the presidency all resign as well, so it’s unclear who will take over.
  1. Trump tweets Turkish President Erdogan’s praises and confirms Erdogan will visit the White House this month. It’s just a month since Erdogan attacked the Syrian Kurds who were our allies.
  2. A student dies in Hong Kong from falling from a parking garage during a clash between protestors and police. This is the first death in the 23 weeks of protest there.
    • A pro-Beijing politician is stabbed while out canvassing for votes. He isn’t seriously injured.
    • China warns that they’ll bring in national security forces to quash the protests.
  1. Protests continue in Chile despite all the concessions made by the Chilean government.
  2. Iraq uses security forces to stop anti-government demonstrators. At least 300 people have died so far in the protests. This unrest is, in part, due to resentment of Iran’s influence in Iraq.
  3. A drug cartel ambushes a group of Mormons living in Mexico, killing nine U.S. citizens.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

  1. (Missed from last week) At a White House Halloween party, children were encouraged to help “Build the wall!” Teaching intolerance at a young age.
  2. And speaking of walls, Germany commemorates the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which divided East and West Germany. They say history repeats itself…

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The Trump administration quietly launches a pilot program in El Paso aimed at reducing the amount of time immigrants have to organize their cases to be allowed into the country. This allows the U.S. to deport asylum seekers more quickly and without a thorough vetting.
  2. U.S.-backed loans are being used to fund the smugglers who bring Guatemalans here illegally. The loans were intended to boost rural communities’ economies.

Climate:

  1. Ryan Jackson, EPA chief of staff, refuses to tell the EPA’s inspector general how he obtained advance information about a witness’s testimony. The IG is investigating whether Jackson tried to influence an agency scientist ahead of her testimony before Congress.
  2. Trump takes formal steps to remove the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement.
  3. Top economists say we’re beginning to feel the economic effects of climate change, and that those effects are likely to snowball soon.
    • The Federal Reserve held its first climate change conference to discuss it.
    • Per capita global GDP could fall by 7% by 2100, but if all countries stick to the Paris accord, that could be minimized to 1%.
    • Extreme weather, but specifically extreme heat, affects productivity.
  1. Over 11,000 scientists sign on to a declaration saying we’re facing a climate emergency. The authors express frustration over our lack of action over the past four decades, during which the science has been showing that we can do something.
  2. Italy makes classes in climate change compulsory in schools.
  3. Global sea-level rise is unstoppable, at least to 2050. It threatens 40 million people. That number rises to 200 million by 2100 if we do nothing.

Budget/Economy:

  1. Goldman Sachs reports that they think tariffs on Chinese goods have likely peaked. They’re basing this on the possible first-phase trade/tariff agreement.
    • Economists still don’t think China will implement any real structural change, but they think we can avoid further escalation
    • Economists posit that Trump won’t push for China to address systemic trade issues that will affect U.S. businesses in the long term because he wants this settled before the 2020 elections.
  1. Manufacturing in China has expanded for three straight months, while U.S. manufacturing has contracted each of those months. October had the largest U.S. manufacturing deficit with China in at least eight years (which is how long they’ve been using this particular survey).
  2. China announces that the U.S. and China have both agreed to cancel certain tariffs on one another’s goods. The news triggered a stock market rally with new record highs in the U.S.
  3. Trump won’t impose new tariffs on European cars this week as he had previously promised (he’s said that imports of European cars somehow pose a national security threat).
  4. Farm income is expected to hit its highest level since 2014, but 40% of that income comes from the taxpayer bailout, disaster assistance, insurance, and the farm bill.

Elections:

  1. Trump campaigns in Kentucky for unpopular Governor Matt Bevin (why does Kentucky keep electing officials they hate?). In a very close race, Democrat Andy Beshear later beats Bevin by fewer than 6,000 votes.
    • Trump makes the rally about him: “If you lose, they’re going to say, ‘Trump suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world.’ You can’t let that happen to ME!”
    • Bevin calls for a re-canvassing of the ballots.
    • Some Republican State Representatives seem to indicate it might fall to them to decide the winner based on an old rule regarding election irregularities. Bevin has already made accusations of irregularities, so that could be where this is headed. Bevin hasn’t cited any evidence, though.
  1. In other state elections this week, Democrats took over both the Senate and the House of Delegates in Virginia, giving them a trifecta in the state.
  2. In Mississippi, Republican Lt. Governor Tate Reeves defeated Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood to take the governor’s seat.
  3. Facebook and Google are under pressure to limit political ads, or at least to not publish lies. Twitter has already banned political ads.

Miscellaneous:

  1. In Nikki Haley’s new book, she claims that former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly tried to get her to subvert Trump with them. According to Haley, both men said they weren’t being insubordinate; they were trying to save the country.
  2. The DOJ is trying to intimidate and expose the author who anonymously penned the upcoming book “The Warning.” Anonymous wrote an infamous op-ed in the New York Times claiming to be a White House official and describing the chaotic atmosphere of Trump’s White House.
    • Excerpts of the book are leaking out, and I’m trying to decide whether to repeat them here. It seems to me that if you’re unwilling to put your name on something, then I have no way of determining how credible your book is.
  1. Trump far outpaces his three most recent predecessors in staff turnover at this point in his presidency.
  2. AT&T agrees to a $60 million settlement with its unlimited data customers for misleading them about slowing down their speeds. This is called throttling. And this would be illegal if we still had net neutrality rules.
  3. An ABC news anchor is caught on a hot mic saying that NBC executives quashed a bombshell sex-trafficking story about Jeffrey Epstein.

Polls:

  1. 64% of Americans say their finances are no better under Trump. 35% say they’re doing better.
  2. A Fox News poll shows that more voters want Trump impeached (53%) than oppose impeachment (41%).

Week 145 in Trump

Posted on November 15, 2019 in Politics, Trump

Super-redacted Mueller interview notes, released this week.

Trump just can’t go anywhere anymore. On top of getting booed at the World Series last week, this week he gets booed at the Ultimate Fighting Championship at Madison Square Garden. You’d think the UFC crowd would be a little more Trump-friendly. But then Trump, a life-long New Yorker, just changed his residence to Florida because New York officials are mean to him. Or so he says.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending November 3…

Shootings This Week:

  1. There were ELEVEN mass shootings in the U.S. this week (defined as killing and/or injuring 4 or more people). Shooters kill 16 people and injure 39 more. Here are the most deadly:
    • A shooter (or shooters) kills 3 people and injures 9 at a Halloween party in a park in Long Beach, CA.
    • A shooter kills 4 family members in a home in West Philadelphia, PA. The shooter is the oldest son of the woman he killed.
    • A shooter kills 5 people and injures 3 more in Orinda, CA, on Halloween. The shooting could be related to another quadruple murder that happened in 2015.

Russia:

  1. A judge rules in favor of a FOIA request for the release of Robert Mueller’s witness interview notes. The DOJ must continue to release the notes, and will do so monthly to CNN and Buzzfeed, the agencies that filed the FOIA request. Here are a few things we learn from the notes:
    • Caveat: I didn’t read the handwritten notes very closely because they’re pretty hard to decipher.
    • Trump and Trump campaign officials repeatedly discussed how they could get access to the hacked DNC emails that they knew were stolen.
    • According to Rick Gates, the campaign was “very happy” that a foreign government helped to release the hacked DNC emails. After the emails were hacked, Trump told Gates that more leaks were coming.
    • Michael Flynn offered to use his intelligence sources to get the emails.
    • Along with Trump, these guys also expressed interest in getting the emails: Michael Flynn, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, Corey Lewandowski, Jeff Sessions, Sam Clovis, Donald Trump Jr., and someone whose name is redacted.
    • Sean Hannity was an integral part of the campaign.
    • The RNC worked to amplify the WikiLeaks releases of the stolen documents, and appeared to be aware of the timing of those releases.
    • The conspiracy theory that Ukraine hacked the DNC and not Russia (like all our intelligence agencies found) appears to have originated with Konstantin Kilimnik. Paul Manafort was pushing that conspiracy theory back in 2016. Michael Flynn was also adamant that Russia wasn’t behind the DNC hack. All this mucking around in conspiracy theories is how Trump ended up in this impeachment process—he repeated uncorroborated rumors from a pro-Russian agent instead of trusting our own intelligence.
    • Steve Bannon was pushing the Uranium One conspiracy theory and was convinced that’s what Hillary’s “missing” 33,000 emails were about.
    • Trump wants an Attorney General who will protect him. He finally got that in William Barr, that’s for sure.
    • Erik Prince advised the campaign on the East and Mideast. He also questioned Russia’s involvement in the 2016 elections.
    • The notes are highly redacted. In fact, they’re so redacted that it’s hard to get much that’s new from them. Since much of this document relates to Rick Gates’ testimony, I would assume much of the redacted information relates to Roger Stone’s upcoming court case.
  1. The Trump administration appeals a ruling requiring that the DOJ give the House Judiciary Committee material related to Mueller’s report.
    • A federal appeals court places a temporary hold on that material until it can be determined whether to block the release during the entire appeals process.

Legal Fallout:

  1. Bob Menendez calls for an investigation into whether Mike Pompeo’s trips to Kansas involve campaign activities and are thus a violation of the Hatch Act, which limits such activities for federal employees.
  2. Trump uses his large network of donors to raise funds for GOP Senators facing tough races. Normally not a big deal, unless you’re facing a possible impeachment trial in the Senate. Richard Painter, a former ethics lawyer for the White House, says that this looks like “felony bribery.” All of the Senators in question signed on to a resolution condemning the impeachment inquiry.

Impeachment:

Including all this info just makes this too long, so I moved it out into its own post. You can skip right over to it if that’s your focus.

Courts/Justice:

  1. In Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan’s confirmation hearing to become Ambassador to Russia, he agrees that it’s not appropriate for the president to use his office to solicit investigations into his domestic political opponents. “I don’t think that would be in accord with our values.”
    • However, he also expresses a lack of curiosity or care about the current policies on Ukraine.
    • He also generally agrees with the threat from Russia in the realms of cybersecurity and their expansion in the Mideast.
  1. The American Bar Association rated Trump’s judicial nominee Lawrence VanDyke not qualified. In a particularly harsh assessment, their report says he’s “arrogant, lazy, an ideologue, and lacking in knowledge of the day-to-day practice.” He breaks down over it during the hearing.

Healthcare:

  1. A judge temporarily blocks Alabama’s latest restrictions on abortion, which would’ve made it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion in almost all circumstances. The law was designed to push the limits of Roe v. Wade in order to get it pushed to the Supreme Court. It’s notable that Alabama has tried to pass several abortion restrictions this year, but courts have blocked them all.
  2. Missouri’s Health Director was keeping tabs on the menstrual cycles of women who were patients at a Planned Parenthood. He claimed to be tracking failed abortions (he thought there were four of them).
  3. Missouri requires pelvic exams before medication abortions, so Planned Parenthood doesn’t offer medication abortions.
  4. The Senate rejects a resolution that would’ve overturned a Trump administration rule that allows states to ignore parts of the ACA. Trump’s rule makes it easier for states to prioritize “junk” insurance policies that don’t meet ACA requirements.

International:

  1. Russia replaces the U.S. flag at a Syrian military base with the Russian flag.
  2. Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney didn’t know about the raid on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi until after it was underway. The chief of staff is generally front and center to any major presidential actions.
  3. Protests in Chile continue despite President Sebastián Piñera reversing the subway fare increase that started the whole thing. He also reversed an increase in electricity charges, raised minimum wages and pension benefits, raised taxes on the rich, and made changes to his cabinet. Chile is normally a stable country.
    • Because of the protests, Chile’s President Piñera cancels the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in November and the UN Climate Summit in December. Trump had hoped to sign his phase 1 trade agreement with China at APEC.
  1. Protests also continue in Hong Kong, where protestors are asking for U.S. help. They think the U.S. can save Hong Kong from losing their democratic rights.
  2. Governments in Iraq and Lebanon agree to resign as a result of the protests in those countries. In Lebanon, they’re protesting corruption and a stagnant economy.
  3. Trump withholds $105 million in security aid for Lebanon two days after the country’s prime minister resigns. This could be completely legit, but because we can’t trust Trump with foreign relations anymore, it comes off as suspect. The State Department says that the White House budget office and National Security Council made the decision, but doesn’t give a reason for it. Congress, the Pentagon, and the State Department oppose the move. Gosh, this all sounds so familiar…
  4. Catalonian protestors start up again in Spain, calling for Catalan independence.
  5. Remember the Turkish cleric that Michael Flynn was trying to help Erdogan extradite to Turkey? Well, this week we learned that Trump looked into cutting funding for the schools he runs.
  6. British Parliament gives Boris Johnson the December election he asked for.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

  1. Using commercially available reciprocating saws, smugglers in Mexico have sawed through new sections of Trump’s border wall, leaving openings big enough for people to pass through (and obviously big enough for drugs to pass through). Reciprocating saws can be bought for as little as $100. According to engineers, it’s the new design of the fences that make it so easy to breach.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. A federal judge changes his previous ruling and reopens part of Nicholas Sandmann’s lawsuit against The Washington Post for misrepresenting the situation over his confrontation with a Native American protestor. Sandmann was wearing a “Make American Great Again” cap at the time of the confrontation. I have a feeling that this case might initiate some changes to video journalism.
  2. The Trump administration announces they’ll no longer enforce an Obama-era rule that required child welfare providers who accept federal funds to not discriminate against people based on religion.
    • Obama’s rule prevented faith-based organizations in the foster system from discriminating against prospective adopters because of closely held religious beliefs.
    • Trump’s ruling reduces the pool of accepting parents who will be allowed to foster through certain organizations.
  1. Trump appoints the current undersecretary of strategy and policy at DHS to be the new acting head of DHS… to replace his previous acting head of DHS.
  2. Attorney General William Barr limits the options immigrants have to fight deportation by getting rid of existing paths to legal immigration for people with minor or old criminal convictions.
  3. October will end with no refugees admitted to the U.S. for the month. Trump placed a moratorium on refugees and delayed it twice, canceling around 500 flights at taxpayer expense.

Climate:

  1. The government of the U.K. halts fracking in England.
  2. The Keystone Pipeline spills over 380,000 gallons of sludgy tar sands oil in a wetland area in North Dakota. The pipeline transports a mixture of clay, water, bitumen (a think oil), and a combination of chemicals that help it flow. The chemicals disperse fairly quickly, but unlike regular oil, the tar sands oil sinks. The wetlands will likely be unable to be completely restored.
  3. Jane Fonda is arrested for the fourth consecutive week for protesting inaction on climate change.
  4. Taking a page from their U.S. counterparts, 15 young Canadians file a lawsuit against their government for not taking acting against climate change.
  5. The Ocean Cleanup project starts cleaning plastic out of rivers to stop it from draining into the ocean in the first place.
  6. The International Energy Agency publishes the results of a study that they say shows that offshore wind turbines could power every home and every business on the planet.
  7. Murray Energy files for bankruptcy, becoming the eighth coal mining company to file for it in the past year.
  8. General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, and Toyota side with the Trump administration in the battle for California to retain its waiver over federal fuel emission standards. Other automakers, including Ford, Honda, Volkswagen, and BMW, have already reached a deal with California.
  9. The EPA announces they’ll weaken limits on coal-power plant releases of heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and mercury.

Budget/Economy:

  1. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, is considering moving his company’s Manhattan headquarters to U.S. cities with cheaper costs and better tax benefits. Just another victim of the 2017 tax reform.
    • Dimon does say the reason is partly to protect the company from a looming economic downturn, and JPMorgan is just one of several companies rolling back spending over fears of a global recession (though economists don’t see this in our near future).
    • More companies are also stocking up on their cash reserves instead of making risky bets.
  1. While expressing optimism in general about the economy, high net worth individuals and business owners also have more of their assets in cash than is typically recommended. Globally, investors have 27% of their holdings in cash.
    • This could help cushion the effects of a recession for them, should it happen.
  1. The Federal Reserve cuts interest rates by a quarter point for the third straight quarter, so they’re still protecting the economy from risks created by the trade wars, a slowing housing market, and sluggish manufacturing numbers. Feds suggest that this is likely the last reduction for a while.
  2. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had planned to sign their Phase 1 agreement at the APEC Summit in Chile this month. With Chile canceling APEC, they have to look at a different venue.
  3. The stock market pops on the 3-month extension for Brexit, a possible first-phase agreement in the U.S.-China trade war, and the Fed’s interest rate cut.
  4. The U.S. economy added 128,000 jobs in October and unemployment ticked up just a bit to 3.6%. The jobs numbers beat expectations, but they were set pretty low.
  5. Senator Chuck Grassley says he’s worried Trump will shut down the government again, this time over the impeachment process.
  6. Trump threatens to end federal aid to California in no less than twelve tweets in one day. Maybe California should stop sending funds to the federal government?
  7. The UAW comes to an agreement with GM and Ford, ending the six-week-long workers’ strike. Both sides agree to a 4-year labor plan.
  8. The Senate passes four spending bills to keep up operations at the departments of Agriculture, Transportation, and Interior. The majority of funding, which runs out on November 21, is being held up in a fight over the border wall.
  9. The White House considers another set of tax cuts to be announced during the 2020 presidential campaign. It’s designed to help Republicans run on a message of a strong economy.

Elections:

  1. Freshman Congresswoman Katie Hill (D-CA) resigns over rumors of an affair with a congressional staffer (which is against the rules of Congress and which she denies), an affair with a campaign staffer (which she confirms but which isn’t against the rules), and the publication of intimate and nude photos.
    • Her reason for not fighting this is that she was warned there are 700 pictures that would be released bit by bit to keep it in the news.
    • Also, her political competitors made posters out of some of the pictures and posted them around Hill’s parent’s town.
    • One of the leakers worked for the campaign of the Republican incumbent that Hill beat in 2018. That incumbent, Steve Knight, is running for her seat now.
    • George Papadopoulos, the guy who started the whole Russia investigation, also files to run. Somehow I don’t think he’ll get the RNC’s backing.
  1. A court hands North Carolina Republicans another gerrymandering defeat, ruling that the current congressional districts cannot be used for the 2020 elections. Likely, they’ll need to redraw the districts to be less discriminatory. I have literally lost count of the number of times these districts have been ruled unconstitutional. A previous ruling on gerrymandering in the state said the lines targeted African Americans with surgical precision.
  2. Twitter announces they’ll stop accepting any political ads across their platform.
  3. The top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee says he won’t run for reelection next year. Greg Walden is the 22nd House Republican to retire, resign, or run for another office.
  4. Upon the impeachment vote, the National Republican Congressional Committee sends boxes to the offices of vulnerable Democrats in purple/red districts. Apparently, they didn’t think through government security procedures and got called in for questioning.
    • Democrats tell them that when they get done with being questioned, let us put those boxes to good use by using them for our canned food drive for Thanksgiving.
  1. Georgia plans to purge around 315,000 voters from the voter rolls before the 2020 elections if they don’t return their cancellation notices. This is about 4% of registered voters.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Trump changes his legal residence from New York to Florida. People say it’s because of his tax reform and reduction of SALT deductions, but property taxes will still be the same no matter where he lives.
  2. After Joe Biden criticizes Trump for appointing Ivanka and Jared Kushner to White House positions, Kushner says that most of his job has been cleaning up Biden’s messes.
  3. Trump adds his personal pastor to the administration in an official capacity. Paula White is a televangelist who will oversee outreach and advise the Faith and Opportunity Initiative. The initiative is designed to give religious groups a bigger voice in government. I wonder if it includes Muslim voices? Buddhist? Bahai?
  4. Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook won’t police political speech, even if it’s blatantly false.
  5. Thousands of protestors gather at Trump Tower in Chicago during a fundraiser for Trump and Pence.

Polls:

  1. 55% of Americans think what Trump did regarding Ukraine is out of line, but only 49% say he should be impeached and removed from office.
  2. 78% of Fox News watchers agree that the impeachment inquiry is like a lynching. 66% of voters overall think the White House should comply with House subpoenas.
  3. 54% of Americans think Trump has made us less respected globally; 28% say he’s made us more respected.

Week 144 in Trump

Posted on October 29, 2019 in Politics, Trump

My fellow Americans. We have just broken into the SCIF that we already had access to...wait, what? We could already come in here? Put those cell phones down!

It was a no good, very bad week for Trump on the impeachment front. The big news should’ve been that we killed the leader of ISIS. But Republican Representatives storm the SCIF where the depositions are taking place to protest that they aren’t allowed in the room. Except that about half of the people protesting actually are allowed in the room. And then William Taylor provides the most damning and wide-reaching testimony so far. And then to top his week off, he gets booed at a Nationals World Series game. It’s lonely at the top.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending October 27…

Missed From Last Week:

  1. Miami Beach passes a resolution declaring a climate emergency, thanks to local youth climate strikes. This is the second bit of good climate news from a state where the phrase “climate change” is still forbidden in official documents.

Shootings This Week:

  1. There were five mass shootings in the U.S. this week (defined as killing or injuring four or more people):
    • A shooter injures four people in Sumter, SC. The shootings are random.
    • A shooter (or possibly multiple shooters) kills one person and injures three more at an apartment complex in Midwest City, OK.
    • In a separate shooting in Oklahoma City, OK, a shooter kills two people and injures two people.
    • A shooter at a crowded college homecoming party for Texas A&M University-Commerce kills two people and injures six more. Additionally, six people suffered injuries trying to get away.
    • A shooter kills one person and injures four more at a party in Lansing, MI.
  1. A court awards the father of a boy killed in the Sandy Hook school $450,000 in a lawsuit against conspiracy theorist James Fetzer, who wrote the book “Nobody Died at Sandy Hook” with co-author Mike Palacek.
    • Palacek settled for an undisclosed sum last month.
    • Despite the loss, Fetzer still claims his book to be true. Are these folks delusional or just assholes? It’s hard to tell.

Russia:

  1. The Turla group is a group of Russian cyber actors who disguise themselves as Iranian spies to orchestrate attacks on countries around the world. They attacked military organizations, government departments, scientific agencies, and universities in 35 countries, including the U.S. and U.K.
  2. Attorney General Andrew Barr kicks his investigations into the origins of the Russia investigation up a notch. He opens a criminal inquiry into how the investigation began.
  3. This gives John Durham, the U.S. prosecutor handling the investigation, subpoena power, the ability to convene a grand jury, and the power to file criminal charges.
    • To be clear, the DoJ has launched a criminal investigation into itself.
    • Durham only needs a reasonable indication that a crime was committed to open the criminal inquiry, which is a lower standard than the probable cause requirement for a typical criminal case.
    • The FISA warrant for surveilling Carter Page is a big part of this investigation, though several judges found the evidence sufficient to continue reissuing the FISA warrant.
    • The DOJ inspector general, Michael Horowitz, is conducting his own investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation. His report should be complete long before Durham concludes his investigation.
  1. Russian agent Maria Butina completes her sentence and is deported back to Russia.

Legal Fallout:

  1. A federal judge holds Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in contempt because she continued to collect student debt for loans for Corinthian College in violation of a previous court order. Corinthian is a defunct for-profit college that was found to be defrauding students. The judge fines the Department of Education $100,000.
  2. Trump’s lawyers take their “you can’t investigate a sitting president” a step too far when a judge gets them to argue that this is the case even if Trump does shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue. The judge asks, “Local authorities… couldn’t do anything about it?” To which Trump’s lawyer replies, “That is correct.”
  3. The National Archives opens an investigation into Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s use of private email for official business.
  4. Trump once again files an appeal to prevent the release of his financial statements and taxes by Mazars USA, his accounting firm.

Impeachment:

Including all this info just makes this too long, so I moved it out into its own post. You can skip right over to it if that’s your focus.

Healthcare:

  1. Just in time for World Polio Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) says another strain of the poliovirus is eradicated worldwide. This leaves one more strain to go and is thanks to a global vaccination effort. Polio was once a leading killer of children.
  2. Since the Trump administration stopped funding medical facilities that refer patients for abortion services, nearly 900 clinics have lost Title X family planning funding. Five states don’t have any Title X clinics.
  3. A judge in Oklahoma temporarily blocks a new law that would require medical practitioners to let their patients who are receiving medical abortions know that the procedure is reversible. Except that it isn’t reversible, so they’re forcing doctors to lie. Oklahoma isn’t the only state that passed this law.
  4. Northern Ireland decriminalizes abortion.
  5. Between December 2017 and June 2019, more than 1 million children were dropped from Medicaid and CHIP (the Children’s Health Insurance Program).

International:

Syria/Kurds:

  1. As the cease-fire brokered by the U.S. in Syria comes to an end, Putin meets with Turkish President Erdogan to discuss how Russia, Turkey, and other Mideast players will divide control of Syria.
    • The two countries will take over northeastern Syria, which was previously held by Kurds.
    • Erdogan opposes Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but Putin supports Assad.
    • Russia is filling the vacuum we left behind, and Putin is solidifying Russia’s power in the Mideast.
  1. Russia deploys military police in Syria’s northeast border to help Turkey drive out Kurdish fighters. Assad’s military forces will be allowed back to the area for the first time in years.
  2. Trump ends the economic sanctions against Turkey that were just placed on the country a week ago for their attacks on Kurdish Syrians. He declares success in the region and says the cease-fire is permanent (though it was a five-day cease-fire). Foreign policy experts and even Republican lawmakers say it’s a success for Turkey and Russia.
  3. Erdogan says Trump’s recent letter to him departed from “diplomatic and political courtesy.” He won’t forget Trump’s “lack of respect.”
  4. U.S. forces report seeing evidence of war crimes during Turkey’s attacks on Syrian Kurds, though they didn’t see evidence of ethnic cleansing. Turkey allegedly used white phosphorus against civilians in northern Syria. Images surface of civilians, including children, with gruesome burns like those caused by the chemical.
    • The UN, the U.S., and WHO are all looking into whether Turkey actually did air-drop white phosphorus on civilians.
  1. Iraq says U.S. troops who crossed the border into Iraq as they retreated from northern Syria cannot stay there longterm.
  2. Trump says a small number of troops will stay in Syria “to protect the oilfields.”
  3. Trump announces that a U.S. military operation led to the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. According to Trump, Baghdadi used a suicide vest, resulting in his death as well as the death of three of his children.
    • Trump says he went out whimpering and screaming, though Trump’s generals say they didn’t see any evidence of that. Trump also says al-Baghdadi is “dead as a doornail.”
    • Trump says that he didn’t give Democratic House leaders forewarning of the attack because he was afraid they would leak it.
    • He did, however, tell their corresponding Republican Senate leaders.
    • He also notified Russia in advance.
    • Typically, the Gang of Eight gets notified of national security and intelligence operations.
    • Multiple countries claim to have assisted with this raid, mostly through intelligence gathering.
    • Trump knew that we were zeroing in on al-Baghdadi’s location when he decided to withdraw U.S. troops from the region. Trump’s withdrawal of troops from Syria forced us to move this operation up. It also started dismantling the infrastructure that made the raid possible.
    • U.S. officials say Trump gave away classified information during his briefing on al-Baghdadi’s death and that he gave inaccurate information. There’s a reason presidents usually keep their statements on these matters short.
    • State officials say that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) played a key role in carrying out this mission.
    • As with Osama bin Laden, al-Baghdadi’s remains are buried at sea.
    • U.S. and Kurdish forces kill al-Baghdadi’s righthand man hours later.
  1. Mitch McConnell says he’ll come up with his own resolution to urge Trump to end the troop withdrawal from Syria.

Other International:

  1. Israeli President Rueven Rivlin gives Benny Gantz a shot at forming a governing coalition after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unable to do so. If Gantz is successful at getting 61 supporters in the Knesset to support him, he’ll become the new prime minister.
    • Netanyahu continues his racist warnings that Arab lawmakers might back Gantz.
  1. Justin Trudeau barely wins re-election in Canada’s elections, illustrating another country with a rural vs. urban split. Politicians there also adopted some of our less savory political ploys in a fairly ugly race.
  2. The European Union agrees to delay Brexit by three months after the British Parliament fails to approve Boris Johnson’s negotiated deal. Johnson calls for a December 12 election, which he thinks will bolster his position.
  3. The Treasury designates Iran as a “jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern” and places additional restrictions on foreign banks where Iranian financial institutions maintain their accounts. At the same time, the Treasury says they’re trying to make it easier to get humanitarian aid into the country.
  4. Iraq’s pro-American President Barham Salih says he’s not sure Iraq can still rely on the U.S. and is open to resetting relations with other countries, including Russia and Iran. He says Trump‘s policies are making it hard to honor our alliance. Salih is Kurdish, so Trump’s abandonment of the Syrian Kurds makes him concerned.
  5. Trump says he’s trying to get us out of wars, but that we might have to get into wars, too.
  6. After millions of Chileans take to the streets to protest inequality, Chile’s President Sebastion Piñera dismisses his entire cabinet in order to form a new government. Over the week, 17 people are killed in marches and 100s more are injured.
    • The unrest started over an increase in metro fares, which is now suspended.
    • Santiago is still under a state of emergency.
  1. Amid an economic crisis, Argentina elects a new, center-left president, Alberto Fernandez. 80.0% of voters turn out (that’s a WAY higher turnout rate than we ever have in the U.S.).
  2. It’s week 21 of the protests in Hong Kong, and they don’t seem to be abating at all. Protestors continue to set fire to shops, throw Molotov cocktails, and vandalize property. Police continue to use tear gas, rubber bullets, and water cannons to disperse the crowds.
    • Now the activists are protesting police brutality during the past four months of demonstrations.
  1. Not wanting to be caught off guard again like they were with Syria, the Pentagon starts coming up with plans for an abrupt withdrawal from Afghanistan just in case Trump impulsively decides to order one there, too.
  2. Trump bans all flights to Cuba except to Havana.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. President Obama, President Clinton, Speaker Pelosi, and Hillary Clinton are among the speakers at Elijah Cummings’ funeral, held at the church he attended in Baltimore, MD. Everyone speaks of Cummings’ kindness and his fight for the oppressed. Trump does not attend.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

  1. Trump says he’s building a wall in Colorado. Everyone else in the country is wondering what he’s trying to protect Colorado from. Nebraskans? Utahns? Those pesky Wyomingites?

Family Separation:

  1. An ACLU lawsuit finds that Trump’s zero tolerance policy separated 1,556 more migrant families than were previously known. 207 of the children are under five years old, and five are under one year old.
    • This means we have to spend time and resources investigating across the globe to locate parents and find out whether they are reunited yet.
    • We could’ve saved all of this money if the government had either not separated families in the first place or, at the very least, kept track of the families they split up.
    • Trump’s cruelty is costing billions just on reunification alone. So much winning.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Here’s why even undocumented immigrants need legal protection. A lawsuit brought by a Honduran woman living in Connecticut alleges that an ICE agent threatened her with deportation unless she had sex with him.
    • He then raped her several times a week for seven years, even getting her pregnant three times.
    • She aborted all three pregnancies, and the ICE agent paid for one of those abortions.
    • The woman had previously cooperated with law enforcement to help indict three undocumented immigrants who had stabbed her husband.
  1. The U.S. deports a Marine Corps combat veteran to El Salvador without notifying him so he could put everything in order. He hasn’t lived there since he was a toddler.
    • The veteran came back from his last tour in Iraq with a brain injury and PTSD, which landed him in legal trouble.
    • So not only did we not give him the support he needs here, but now he’s in a country where he’ll never get the help he needs.
  1. Northern Ireland legalizes same-sex marriage.
  2. Tanzania’s Supreme Court of Appeal upholds a law banning child marriage. Before you judge, remember several areas of the U.S. still allow child marriage.
  3. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services modifies how they determine whether to waive filing fees for immigrants who can’t afford the fees. They previously considered certain benefits, like Medicaid and SNAP, as income when considering their poverty level.
  4. Trump has to fill the now-open Secretary of Homeland Security position, but his top-two picks aren’t eligible under federal law. That’s because he hasn’t had any confirmed appointments in so long, and both his picks are already in an acting (and unconfirmed) capacity.
  5. Kris Kobach enters a diversion agreement over complaints about his conduct during federal court proceedings over the past few years. The court cases were about his signature legislation making it harder for Kansas residents to register to vote.
    • He was disciplined and fined throughout the hearings, and was even ordered to take online classes in civil court proceedings (he is a lawyer).
    • The terms of the diversion agreement are undisclosed.

Climate:

  1. New data show that air pollution in the U.S., measured as fine particulate air pollution, started increasing in 2016 after years of national decline.
    • Likely contributors are thought to be increases in driving and burning more natural gas. Wildfires are also to blame in certain areas.
    • The greatest increases are in the West and Midwest, with the Northeast and Southeast slightly decreasing.

Budget/Economy:

  1. A. Wayne Johnson, a senior official in the Education Department appointed by Betsy DeVos, resigns and calls the student loan system broken. He calls for billions of dollars of debt forgiveness. Johnson says the majority of student debt will never be repaid in the current system.
  2. Trump’s tax reform of 2017 included a 1.4% tax on schools with more than $500,000 in endowments per student. This affects some of our most well-known private schools, like Harvard, MIT, Yale, and Princeton, and will cost them millions to tens of millions in annual taxes.
    • It’s interesting that big business and the wealthy got a huge tax break, but that private universities got dinged with a surtax.
  1. According to James Mattis’s new book, Trump ordered him to screw Amazon in a Pentagon contract. That contract was awarded to Microsoft this week, much to the confusion of anyone who knows anything about cloud computing.

Elections:

  1. The Republican Speaker of the Texas House announces he’ll step down after his term is up. Earlier this summer he was caught on tape disparaging fellow Republicans and Democrats alike and making plans to target them in coming elections.
  2. Students across the country are becoming more and more politically active, leading several states to put up roadblocks to college-age voters. Roadblocks include outlawing pop-up voting booths, preventing students from outside of the district from voting (even if they currently live in the district for school), creating laws about parking spaces that schools can’t accommodate, creating hard-to-implement voter ID rules, and more.
    • New Hampshire has set up enormous hurdles for out-of-state students to vote. The words of the state’s Republican House speaker explains it all. He calls them “kids voting liberal, voting their feelings, with no life experience.”
  1. Once again, Republican Senators block a vote on three election security bills passed by the House. This time, Marsha Blackburn steps up to block it.
  2. Trump says he’ll veto a bill that would require federal election campaigns to report any offers from foreign governments or agents for campaign assistance.
  3. The FEC only has three sitting members, not enough for a quorum, heading into the 2020 elections. Trump could still appoint members, but it doesn’t look promising.

Miscellaneous:

  1. White House computer security Chief Dimitrios Vistakis resigns, calling White House policies absurd and claiming that officials put Trump‘s comfort over actual computer security. Here’s a quote from his resignation letter:

“Unfortunately given all of the changes I’ve seen in the past three months, I foresee the White House is posturing itself to be electronically compromised once again. Allowing for a large portion of institutional knowledge to concurrently walk right out the front door seems contrary to the best of interests of the mission and organization as a whole.”

  1. Trump holds a meeting of his Cabinet where he lectures reporters with a series of falsehoods.
    • He says Obama tried to call Kim Jong Un 11 times, but Kim didn’t respect him enough to take the call.
    • Trump says he made a deal between Turkey and the Syrian Kurds that people have been trying to make for years. I guess, if you call giving Turkey what they want and letting them attack the Kurds a deal. I’m pretty sure no one else was trying to make that deal.
    • He takes credit for a drug buyback program that was implemented in 2010.
    • He claims most of the people testifying in the impeachment hearings were put in their positions by past administrations. Seven of the nine were appointed by his own administration.
    • He suggests that Rep. Adam Schiff was the whistleblower’s informant. I’m not sure how Schiff would’ve even known about a call between Trump and the Ukraine president.
    • He claims Obama getting a book deal was like running a business while he was in office. Obama got the deal after he left office.
  1. Trump cancels his subscription to The New York Times, and the White House urges all federal agencies to cancel subscriptions to the Washington Post and The New York Times. You know, from what I hear from people who’ve visited The Hill, Republican lawmakers have Fox News on 24/7. So this seems meaningless; they’re already getting their news from one source.
    • Ironically, while having a political discussion on Facebook this week, I was told to get my news from more sources than just ABC, CBS, NBC, AP, NYT, WaPo, Reuters, and CNN (for the record, I don’t watch CNN). I guess she was saying I should get my news from Fox News (I do read Fox News daily).
    • All this is to say that if you support Trump’s request here, you might need to expand your news bubble.
  1. An inspector general report into Trump’s VA Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection finds the office to have significant deficiencies. Instead of protecting whistleblowers, they stifled claims and retaliated against employees.
  2. The Trump Organization is looking into selling its lease on the Trump International Hotel in DC.
  3. Trump is surprised to be overwhelmingly booed when he attends the fifth game of the world series. Not surprising when you consider his public outings are largely to places he owns and crowds he controls.

Week 143 in Trump

Posted on October 25, 2019 in Politics, Trump

Representative Elijah Cummings passed away this week after along illiness. He was an icon and he will be missed.

This was a sad week in Congress, with Representative Elijah Cummings passing away. I was hoping the House could put aside the acrimony between the parties for a little while to mourn his passing, but really it just continues to intensify. Even if the House can’t do it, maybe we can all take a little time to remember that some things are more important than politics.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending October 20…

Shootings This Week:

  1. How sad is it that it’s a good sign that there were only four mass shootings in the U.S. this week (defined as killing or injuring four or more people)? Condensed version: Shooters kill two people and injure 18.

Russia:

  1. The Justice Department confirms that neither Donald Trump Jr. nor former White House Counsel Don McGahn were even called to testify before Robert Mueller’s grand jury. The federal judge who revealed the information as part of an ongoing case finds it perplexing because both men were significant to the investigation.
    • Lawyers involved in the probe say that Trump Jr. likely said he’d claim the Fifth anyway, and Mueller elected not to grant him immunity to force his testimony.
  1. Russia is already working on influencing the 2020 elections by creating a network of social media accounts designed to look like political groups in swing states. Seriously folks. Don’t fall for this again. If you don’t recognize a group, either learn about it or ignore it.

Legal Fallout:

  1. Oh so quietly, the State Department closes its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server without delivering any criminal charges.
    • They found 38 current or former employees might have violated security procedures with possible instances of classified information being inappropriately transmitted.
    • They also found that these employees did their best to implement security policies.
    • Even though none of these employees were sanctioned, each can appeal and provide explanations for what they did.
    • Much of the information in question was classified after the fact, which makes the job of determining violations that much more difficult.
    • The report concludes that “there was no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information.”
  1. New York State passes a law that allows state prosecutors to bring charges against people who receive presidential pardons for related crimes.
  2. Trump’s lawyers argue once against that he can’t be investigated by any prosecutor because he is president.
  3. Trump’s reluctance to release his taxes goes back to his 2013 presidential bid, where he was ready to release his taxes until an advisor warned him against it.
  4. Deutsche Bank tells a court that they don’t have any of Trump’s personal tax returns.
  5. ProPublica obtains additional financial documents for Trump’s businesses that bolster accusations that the organization reported expenses, profits, and occupancy differently depending on the purpose of the documents. For example, they inflated profit and occupancy on things like loan documents, but deflated them for New York tax purposes. They manipulated expenses in the reverse.
  6. In the middle of accusing the Bidens of benefiting from foreign governments, Trump announces next year’s G-7 Summit will be at his Doral resort in Miami. After leaders on both sides criticize this for being self dealing, Trump reverses that plan. But he blames the media and Democrats.
  7. Remember when it came out two years ago (though it seems like a decade) that the National Enquirer had a vault of stories about Trump that they didn’t publish but held on to just in case? Ronan Farrow says that the Editor in Chief at the time shredded a bunch of that information.

Impeachment:

Including all this info just makes this too long, so I moved it out into its own post. You can skip right over to it if that’s your focus.

International:

Syria/Kurds:

  1. Trump announces sanctions against Turkey in response to their attacks on Syria. He’ll also end negotiations on a trade deal and double tariffs on Turkish steel imports.
  2. The negative consequences of Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria were immediate. Within a week:
    • Turkey started bombing the Kurds.
    • Tens of thousands of Kurdish families were forced to flee.
    • The Kurds switched sides to work with Assad.
    • Hundreds of ISIS prisoners detained in Kurdish camps escaped.
    • American troops were not only fired at by Turkish forces, they were also trapped by Turkey’s roadblocks.
    • Turkey has control of around 50 U.S. nuclear weapons at an airbase in Turkey. If we remove them, we pretty much end our alliance with Turkey; if we leave them, Turkey could use them. Erdogan recently said it’s unacceptable that Turkey isn’t allowed to have nuclear weapons.
    • Turkey pushed more than 20 miles into Syria, and Russia moved in to fill the void left by our troops.
  1. The move handed a win to four of our adversaries—Russia, Iran, Assad’s government, and ISIS. Both Russia and Iran support the Assad regime.
  2. Erdogan asks for international support in fighting the Kurds.
  3. The House votes 354 to 60 for a resolution opposing Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria.
  4. Trump says he was right to let Turkey attack the Kurdish fighters, because sometimes like two kids you have to let them fight and pull them apart. Tell that to the families mourning their dead children. Tell that to the tens of thousands who’ve been forced to flee their homes.
  5. As U.S. troops pull out of Syria, the Air Force conducts an airstrike on a U.S. munitions bunker to prevent the munitions from falling into the hands of combatants.
  6. Kurdish forces likewise destroyed their facilities and equipment before vacating the area.
  7. The U.S. and Turkey agree to a cease-fire at the Syrian border. The Turkish military is allowed to remain there, basically giving Turkey’s President Erdogan what he wants.
    • Even so, just hours later, there were gunfire and shelling at the border.
    • A condition of the cease-fire is that the U.S. withdraw the threat to impose sanctions on Turkey.
    • The agreement gives Erdogan things he hasn’t been able to get during years of negotiations with the U.S., including the removal of Kurdish forces from the border and a buffer zone at the border of Turkey and Syria.
    • A Turkish official says they were surprised by how easy the negotiations were. “We got everything we wanted,” he said, also indicating that the U.S. just wanted to save face.
    • Trump brags about Mike Pence getting the cease-fire… which we wouldn’t have had to get if Trump wouldn’t have abandoned he Kurds in the first place.
  1. Trump sends a childish letter to Erdogan, warning him against slaughtering the Kurds. He ends with, “Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool! I will call you later.”
  1. Here’s the kicker. Sources in Turkey say that Erdogan was bluffing—asking for much more than he wanted while expecting to get only a small piece of it. But he got it all, and now he might be in over his head with a 20-mile buffer zone, international condemnation, and potential sanctions.

Other International:

  1. Chinese President Xi Jinping says those seeking to divide China (referring to Hong Kong protestors, I would guess) will be smashed to pieces. Protestors hold U.S.-themed protests after a violent series of weekend rallies.
    • Police again use tear gas and water cannons filled with a blue dye that stings, but also hit innocent bystanders with it. Protestors continue to vandalize businesses and public property.
    • Protestors attend a rally in support of the U.S. Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which is awaiting congressional approval in the U.S. The act would require the State Department to provide an annual assessment of whether “China has eroded Hong Kong’s civil liberties and rule of law.”
    • The U.S. is looking at legislation that would restrict certain exports, such as the tear gas officers use on protestors in Hong Kong.
  1. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson secures a withdrawal agreement with the EU, which he now has to sell to Parliament.
    • And then Parliament delays the vote for three months, and requires Parliament to pass legislation implementing Johnson’s plan before the vote to approve. I’m confused about that one.
    • Johnson sends the EU an unsigned letter requesting an extension, but he also sends a second signed letter disapproving of an extension.
    • Brexit is still scheduled for Halloween.
    • Meanwhile, protestors have been marching in London in support of a second Brexit referendum.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. After the House votes to rebuke Trump’s Syria decision, Democratic leadership meets with Trump and some Cabinet members. The meeting is at Trump’s behest, but then he says Democrats wanted the meeting.
    • Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer push Trump to reveal his strategy for Syria. At one point, Trump says that we don’t need to worry about terrorists 7,000 miles away.
    • As things get heated, Trump says to Pelosi, “You’re just a politician. A third-grade politician.”
    • Pelosi asks Trump why he withdrew troops from Syria, which gave Putin a toehold in northern Syria. She ends by asking, “why do all roads lead to Putin?” And then she walks out, and Schumer follows.
    • Both Trump and Pelosi assert the other one had a meltdown, though he looks pretty melty in the picture.
  1. INSERT PHOTO HERE
  2. Rand Paul blocks a vote in the Senate on the House-passed resolution condemning Trump’s abandonment of our Kurdish allies in Syria. Mitch McConnell says he wants the Senate to pass an even stronger resolution than the one passed in the House.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

  1. For the second time, Trump vetos a bill that passed both houses of Congress that would put an end to his declaration of national emergency to build the wall at the border. He vetoed a similar bill seven months ago. Seven months. Some emergency.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. A British family traveling through Canada accidentally entered the U.S. on an unmarked road a few months ago. ICE detains them for more than a week in “frigid” and “filthy” conditions according to a complaint they filed with DHS. DHS says the family entered the U.S. on purpose.
  2. Two HUD officials say they knowingly delayed hurricane relief funds for Puerto Rico despite missing a legally mandated deadline. Of the 18 states hit by natural disasters whose funding deadline was the same, only Puerto Rico’s was delayed.
    • The officials (and Trump) defend the delay saying there were financial irregularities and corruption in Puerto Rico. In other words, the same old trope that they can’t manage their money.

Climate:

  1. For the first time in 10 years, a Florida Senate committee is scheduled to meet to talk about climate change and its impact on the state. They conclude that they lost a decade where they could’ve prepared for climate change.
    • One Republican attendee says he understands why there haven’t been a lot of conversations around this, but doesn’t mention that for most of Governor Rick Scott’s term, the words “climate change” were banned.
    • Sea level rise has been and continues to be a major issue for Florida, with sunny-day flooding a regular occurrence.
  1. 2019 is the second hottest year on record through September. It will likely end up being the second hottest year right behind 2016.
  2. The Trump administration proposes opening up more than half of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to logging. This would require a reversal or waiver of Bill Clinton’s roadless rule.

Budget/Economy:

  1. Last week, we heard that the U.S. and China had come to an interim trade agreement, but now China wants to hold more negotiations before they’ll sign on to it.
  2. U.S. and European trade negotiators fail to reach a deal, so the Trump administration imposes new tariffs on $7.5 billion worth of EU products.
  3. The numbers are in, and U.S. manufacturing has shrunk over two consecutive quarters. September’s contraction was the sharpest since the Great Recession.

Elections:

  1. A judge issues an emergency injunction to restore 165,000 Kentucky residents to the active voter rolls. They were placed on the inactive rolls after fewer than two cycles of federal elections. This comes just in time for next month’s elections!
  2. A Florida judge rules that the state cannot force ex-felons to pay all their fines and fees before being able to vote if they are too poor to pay.
    • Last year, Florida residents overwhelmingly passed Amendment 4, giving felons who have served their time automatic voting privileges. The Florida legislature tried to weaken the amendment by passing a law saying they have to pay their fines and fees before they can vote.
  1. A pro-Trump group called American Priority holds an event at Trump’s Doral resort in Miami. At the event, they play a video on a loop of a fake Trump killing journalists and Trump’s political opponents. If you’re wondering why people are wary of Trump supporters, look no further.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Retired four-star admiral Bill McRaven writes an op-ed, the gist of which is that Trump is attacking and destroying our republic from within. Here’s a quote:
    • “We are not the most powerful nation in the world because of our aircraft carriers, our economy, or our seat at the United Nations Security Council. We are the most powerful nation in the world because we try to be the good guys. … But, if we don’t care about our values, if we don’t care about duty and honor, if we don’t help the weak and stand up against oppression and injustice — what will happen to the Kurds, the Iraqis, the Afghans, the Syrians, the Rohingyas, the South Sudanese and the millions of people under the boot of tyranny or left abandoned by their failing states?”
    • He says another four-star general told him last week, “I don’t like the Democrats, but Trump is destroying the Republic!”
    • Here’s the full op-ed.
  1. Trump’s former Secretary of Defense James Mattis jokes that he’s the Meryl Streep of generals after Trump called him the “world’s most overrated general.” As we know, Trump says Meryl Streep is the world’s most overrated actor.
    • Mattis also pokes fun at Trump’s bone spurs and his love for fast food.
    • He also laments the tone of politics today, saying, “We have scorched our opponents with language that precludes compromise and we have brushed aside the possibility that the person with whom we disagree might actually sometimes be right.”
    • He also refers to our Kurdish allies and the U.S. troops working by their sides.
  1. Retired four-star Marine general John Allen says Trump has blood on his hands “for abandoning our Kurdish allies.” He also says that the crisis at the Syrian border was completely foreseeable. Allen is the one who warned there would be blood if Trump were elected.
  2. Retired four-star Army general Joseph Votel says the decision to abandon the Kurds threatens our other partnerships around the globe when we need them the most because our enemies are more sophisticated and determined than ever.
  3. Following yet another sting video by Project Veritas (I thought these guys were in jail?), Trump threatens to sue CNN.
    • CNN says none of the people in the video are CNN journalists, and the guy who took the video and says he’s a CNN insider, Cary Poarch, was actually a freelance satellite truck operator who was contracted by CNN.
    • Some of the people in the video were media coordinators, which is a very junior position. Cary had drinks with them, they didn’t always know they were being filmed, and they thought they were just talking with a work friend. And that could ruin their careers. Super shady.
  1. Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan resigns after just six months on the job. He’s the fourth DHS secretary to serve under Trump. McAleenan complained about the tone, message, and approach of Trump’s immigration policies.
  2. One out of every 14 political appointments made by Trump is a lobbyist. There are four times as many lobbyists working for Trump than worked for Obama.

Week 142 in Trump

Posted on October 23, 2019 in Politics, Trump

How do you burst the bubble of conspiracy theories? How do you unmuddy the waters stirred up by innuendos and lies and fake news? Seriously folks, we all need to be using our powers of rational thinking and logic. There was a time I would’ve said that if something sounds too outrageous to be true, it probably isn’t. But you can’t make up the shit we’re learning about right now. You just can’t.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending October 13…

Missing From Last Week:

  1. A federal judge says that lawsuits brought by Native Americans to prevent Trump from shrinking the Bears Ears National Monument have legal standing and can move forward.

Shootings This Week:

  1. There are ELEVEN mass shootings in the U.S. this week (defined as killing or injuring four or more people). Condensed version: Shooters kill 20 people and injure 34.
  2. A shooter at a Jewish synagogue in Germany is foiled when he can’t get in through the doors of the synagogue. He pushes on the doors, shoots at the locks, and even tries a small explosive to force the doors open. Still, he kills two people outside the synagogue, but the 51 people inside are unharmed.
  3. Gunmen kill 15 people as they’re worshipping in a mosque in Burkina Faso.

Russia:

  1. The DOJ argues that the grand-jury materials from Robert Mueller’s investigation shouldn’t be given to Congress, arguing that Congress shouldn’t have been able to obtain information from the Watergate grand jury either.
    • The judge’s response to that argument? “Wow. OK….the department is taking extraordinary positions in this case.”
    • She says Trump administration lawyers have given her several extreme arguments in their attempts to prevent the release of information.
  1. The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee releases its second volume of findings in their investigations into Russian interference in our 2016 elections. This volume focuses on the social media disinformation campaign by the Internet Research Agency (IRA). The much-redacted report finds pretty much the same as all previous investigations:
    • Russia meddled in our elections.
    • The IRA, backed by the Kremlin, set out to harm Hillary’s chances of winning and assist Trump in winning.
    • The IRA’s purpose was to sow discord in the U.S. and they strongly aimed to stoke racial divisions. Russia continues to do this long after the 2016 elections, including exploiting Colin Kaepernick’s decision to kneel for the anthem.
    • The IRA’s activity increased after the 2016 election.
    • Russia’s targeting of the 2016 election is part of a larger, sophisticated, and ongoing disinformation campaign.
    • We need sweeping changes to protect ourselves from foreign interference, and we need them now.
  1. Here’s an excerpt of a communication obtained by the committee detailing an IRA employee’s description of election day:
    • “On November 9, 2016, a sleepless night was ahead of us. And when around 8 a.m. the most important result of our work arrived, we uncorked a tiny bottle of champagne…took one gulp each and looked into each other’s eyes…. We uttered almost in unison: ‘We made America great.’” Welcome to Russia 2.0, comrades. Wake up.
  1. And in the midst of this, Facebook announces they won’t remove debunked political ads from their platform, citing the right to free speech. So if you believe what you read on Facebook, don’t say I didn’t warn you that you’re reading a bunch of lies.
  2. Also in the midst of this, Mitch McConnell still refuses to take up House bills addressing election fraud, voter suppression, and election security.

Legal Fallout:

  1. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says that Trump once asked him to try to get the DOJ to drop a case against an Iranian-Turkish gold trader.
    • Why on earth would Trump be interested in this case? Maybe because Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wanted the case dismissed.
    • The trader, Reza Zarrab, has since agreed to cooperate with the prosecution in the case, which centered on efforts to help Iran evade sanctions by hiding money transfers in gold sales.
    • A Turkish official from state bank Halkbank was found guilty in the case, and Zarrab also implicated Erdogan.
    • Zarrab was Rudy Giuliani’s client at the time.
    • Can we just take a moment to remember that the reason Michael Flynn is in trouble is from his work for Erdogan?
  1. It’s an up and down week for Trump’s attempts to keep his finances private.
    • At the beginning of the week, a federal judge rules that Trump’s accounting firm must release eight years of his tax returns.
    • Then a federal court grants Trump a temporary stay on releasing those returns to the Manhattan D.A.
    • But by the end of the week, a federal appeals court rules that the accounting firm must release Trump’s financial records to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. I’m not sure what the implications are for the Manhattan D.A.’s case.
    • Even the lone dissenting judge says that impeachment is the only valid way to get the records (though she doesn’t actually say that would work).
    • In case you’re wondering, the judges rejected the argument that sitting presidents can’t be criminally investigated.
  1. A judge rules that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been violating a court order by continuing to collect student debts for a college that has folded. The judge threatens her with jail time.
  2. Attorney General William Barr meets with Rupert Murdoch. Who knows what they talk about, but two days later, Shepherd Smith announces his last day at Fox News.
  3. Trump Organization refuses to pay the Scottish government’s legal costs in Trump’s failed lawsuit to block a wind farm near his golf course.

Impeachment:

Including all this info just makes this too long, so I moved it out into its own post. You can skip right over to it if that’s your focus.

Courts/Justice:

  1. The Supreme Court Justices decide on what they’ll hear in the next session. Jumping right into the political fray, they’ll hear cases about abortion, guns, LGBTQ rights, separation of church and state, immigration, congressional oversight, and presidential power.

International:

Syria/Kurds:

  1. Trump’s surprise announcement about abandoning our Kurdish allies in Syria alarms the rest of our allies for its sheer impulsiveness.
  2. U.S. troops begin to withdraw from the area.
  3. The Pentagon, the State Department, soldiers on the ground in Syria, and even Republican Members of Congress harshly criticize Trump’s decision, and Trump seems surprised by this.
  4. Trump defends the move, saying it’s time to get out of these endless wars. But he’s just moving those troops to Iraq; he’s not bringing them home. He also defends himself by saying that the Kurds didn’t help us with Normandy, a line he got from a Fox contributor (and since when is that how we measure our allies?).
  5. Trump invites Turkish President Erdogan to the White House.
  6. Turkey says they want to combat Kurdish soldiers in the border area and create a safe zone for Syrian refugees now living in Turkey.
  7. The White House says we’ve defeated the ISIS caliphate, but experts say ISIS is regrouping already. They also say this is the most destabilizing move we could’ve made.
  8. Trump threatens Turkey if they do anything Trump thinks is off-limits. But Turkey immediately mobilizes their forces at the border and begins their assault against the Kurds, launching airstrikes and firing artillery. In other words, they’re bombing the Kurds.
  9. The White House says that Turkey will take over control of over 12,000 suspected ISIS fighters captured and held by Kurdish allies. The U.S. takes custody of two ISIS militants known for beheading their enemies. Some ISIS militants escape after Turkish forces start shelling nearby areas.
  10. Kurdish civilians begin to flee, and some soldiers begin to leave their posts to go home and protect their families. These are people who were forced to flee ISIS fighters just a few years ago. International Rescue Committee estimates 64,000 people have already fled, and that number could end up being more than 300,000.
  11. Turkey strikes at least six towns along the border, killing at least two dozen people and critically injuring 19, mostly civilians and several children.
  12. The fighting escalates on the second day after Trump’s announcement, and Saudi-backed Syrian fighters join in, killing Kurdish captives. A Kurdish politician is also killed. This whole thing has just tossed fuel on Syria’s 8-year-long war.
  13. To be clear, Turkey, a NATO nation, bombed an area where hundreds of U.S. troops were stationed. What could go wrong? Maybe this: A contingent of U.S. Special Forces is caught in Turkish artillery fire, and they withdraw instead of firing back. Because we’re not at war. Right? Are we?
    • The U.S. forces say Turkey targeted them.
  1. Even with this, the order to withdraw all U.S. troops from the area doesn’t come until the end of the week.
  2. A National Security Council member says Trump got rolled and out-negotiated by Erdogan.
  3. The Secretary of Defense and the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff both call their counterparts in Turkey to try to get them to back down.
  4. Even Russia blames the U.S. for the chaos at the Syrian border.
  5. Trump says he’ll move some troops from Syria to Saudi Arabia. Also, the Pentagon says they’re sending 1,800 troops to Saudi Arabia to protect their oil fields from alleged attacks from Iran. One Saudi prince admits they really don’t know where the U.S. stands on Syria.
  6. Trump has two towers in Turkey, one residential and the other offices, in a single complex with a shopping mall and theaters.
  7. The UN calls an emergency meeting of the Security Council to condemn Turkey’s attack on our Kurdish allies. Russia opposed the condemnation, as did the U.S. (despite Trump’s claims that he’d hold Turkey in check).
  8. The bombing of four Syrian hospitals within a 12-hour period in May has been traced back to the Russian Air Force.

Other International:

  1. Trump says he’s thinking about withdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty, which is seen as a cornerstone of global defense. The treaty lets us monitor Russian military deployments and lets them monitor ours. The treaty has 34 signatory countries.
  2. The State Department announces they’ll impose visa restrictions on certain Chinese government officials believed to be responsible for the detention and surveillance of Uighurs and other Muslim minority groups.
  3. Military generals agree on a few things about Trump’s military leadership:
    • He isn’t interested in policy details and disdains expertise and process, and thus he makes ill-informed decisions.
    • He thinks his own gut feelings are genius, and only trusts his own instincts.
    • He’d rather keep perceived enemies confused than stick to a strategy, increasing the risk of a miscalculation.
    • He likes others to agree with him but is himself a contrarian.
    • His ideas of the military are simplistic and outdated.
    • He’s risked unnecessary wars and created major problems for his field commanders in combat operations. They’re saving his hide right now.
  1. A U.S. peace envoy meets with the Taliban for the first time since Trump canceled the Labor Day weekend peace talks with the Taliban and Afghan government.
  2. Violent protests continue in Ecuador until the president comes to an agreement with protestors to end austerity measures. Protestors and officials both help clean up the residual mess.
  3. The Hong Kong protests have been ongoing since March, and protesters just upped their game by using flash mob tactics to avoid arrest. I don’t mean to make light of it; the protests have been violent and destructive at times, and many of the citizens are tired of it.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

  1. Yet another federal judge rules that Trump’s emergency declaration to fund his border wall is unlawful. The complainants argued that the wall didn’t qualify as an emergency and Trump overstepped his authority.

Family Separation:

  1. Loopholes in our immigration laws let judges grant custody of migrant children to American parents without notifying the deported parents of those children. In some cases, foster families ignore requests from the Department of Homeland Security to return the children. This isn’t new to the Trump administration.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. A white police officer called to investigate a home late at night because the front door was open shoots the black women inside playing video games with her nephew. The woman, Atatiana Jefferson, heard noises outside so she stood up and got her handgun. That’s when the officer shot her through the window, without announcing himself and without warning. He’s charged with murder. He also resigns.
  2. Contradicting all medical science, a Florida judge rejects a Tampa ordinance banning conversion therapy for LGTBQ minors because he says it limits parental rights to make healthcare choices for their kids.
  3. Over 100 activists are arrested at a protest outside the Supreme Court while they heard arguments for three LGBTQ employment cases.
  4. Two towns in Alabama—Montgomery and Talladega—elect their first black mayors.
  5. Three separate courts block Trump’s efforts to keep low-income immigrants out of the country (his “public charge” rule).

Climate:

  1. The climate change activist group Extinction Rebellion holds demonstrations and die-ins across the globe, closing down streets and at times vandalizing public property. The group says the demonstrations will last for two weeks.
  2. Almost 600 former EPA officials call for an investigation into the Trump administration’s treatment of California. They accuse the administration of abusing their authority by retaliating against California officials for not following Trump’s political agenda.
  3. The House Science Committee finds that Commerce Department officials, not NOAA staff, were responsible for issuing the statement rebuking National Weather Service staff in Alabama who contradicted Trump’s warning that Hurricane Dorian would hit Alabama hard.
  4. Typhoon Hagibis is the largest to hit Japan in decades. It causes widespread flooding, leaves at least 35 dead, and injures 166 people.
  5. Arctic ice melt has started a power struggle in the area because it’s opened up access to oil and gas reserves. Every country wants a piece of it.

Budget/Economy:

  1. Employment grew more in Obama’s first 31 months than it did in Trump’s first 31 months (1.5 million more). In fairness, Obama started out with a lot more room to grow than Trump did.
  2. According to Pro Publica, the new limits on state and local taxes and to mortgage interest deductions resulted in a reduction or plateau in home values in some areas. Areas in the Northeast and Chicago saw the biggest drops.
  3. In 2018, for the first time on record, the 400 wealthiest Americans paid the lowest tax rate of all income groups. People who’re making more than $1 million per year paid a lower tax rate than all of us. Is that how anybody really thinks this should work?
  4. The U.S. and China announce an interim trade deal, a truce if you will. China will buy more agricultural products and start to open its economy, and the U.S. won’t implement the planned tariff hikes.
  5. The Treasury Department considers rolling back a rule designed to prevent American companies from moving money offshore in order to avoid taxes.

Elections:

  1. In response to Facebook refusing to remove an ad from the Trump campaign smearing Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren takes out a Facebook ad claiming that Mark Zuckerberg endorsed Trump. She then goes on to explain that it’s a lie, but Facebook wouldn’t take the ad down even knowing it was full of lies.
    • Several media outlets refuse to air Trump’s ad because it’s full of misinformation.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Trump awards former Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese with the Medal of Freedom, one of our highest civilian honors. Meese was directly implicated in three scandals under Reagan, including the Iran-Contra affair.
  2. The Oath Keepers say they’ll protect Trump supporters at his rally in Minneapolis, which draws an enormous protest outside the arena. Several neighboring businesses donate their proceeds for the day to groups like Planned Parenthood.
  3. Trump is mad at the rally, under pressure from impeachment hearings. And it shows. As one person put it, his words “were stunning in ugliness & tone.”
    • He targets Representative Ilhan Omar and Somali refugees in the city with the largest concentration of Somali refugees. He says he’d protect cities like Minneapolis from refugees they don’t want.
    • He as much as says that Somalis bring violent ideologies to our shores. He calls Omar an “America-hating Socialist.”
    • He says the Bidens got rich off Americans, though there’s no evidence of that. Also, with his kids making international deals left and right, he shouldn’t be pointing any fingers.
    • He says Biden “was only a good vice president because he knew how to kiss Barack Obama’s ass.”
    • He calls Speaker Nancy Pelosi “really stupid.”
  1. One of the few voices of truth on Fox News, Shepherd Smith, announces his sudden departure from the network to explore “another chapter.” This comes at a time when tensions between the opinion division (Carlson, Hannity, Perry, Ingraham, etc.) and the news division (Smith, Baier, Wallace, etc.) are at a peak. Do you suppose this is what Barr and Rupert Murdoch met about the other night? If I were Brett Baier or Chris Wallace, I’d be polishing my resume.
  2. Mark Zuckerberg has been having informal meetings with conservative politicians and journalists. He’s discussing free speech and partnerships.

Polls:

  1. A Fox poll indicates a record high level of support for impeachment.
    • 51% want Trump impeached and removed from office.
    • 4% want him impeached by not removed from office.
    • 40% are opposed to impeachment.

Week 141 in Trump

Posted on October 9, 2019 in Impeachment, Politics, Trump

People attend a march in Causeway Bay in Hong Kong in solidarity with the student protester who got shot by police, October 2, 2019. (PHOTO: REUTERS/Susana Vera)

The U.S. isn’t the only country feeling the turmoil right now. There are massive ongoing protests all around the world, mostly against governments. It’s like we’re going through a whole cosmic shift or something. Here’s hoping the turmoil is short-lived and we land in the right place.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending October 5…

Shootings This Week:

  1. There are NINE mass shootings this week (defined as killing or injuring four or more people). Condensed version: Shooters kill seven people and injure 30.

Russia:

  1. Iranian hackers, with their government’s backing, have launched cyberattacks with the purpose of disrupting our 2020 elections. Rumor has it that it’s Trump’s campaign being attacked this time. Is foreign interference still OK?
  2. Russia takes advantage of our current turmoil by telling the rest of the world that we’re an unreliable ally and we can’t be trusted.
  3. Lawyers for the House of Representatives make a court filing alleging that Trump lied about whether he knew about his campaign’s contacts with WikiLeaks and that the grand-jury redactions in the Mueller report show it.

Legal Fallout:

  1. A federal judge (appointed by Bush II) orders the DOJ to either file charges against former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe by November 15 or drop the investigation completely. At that time, the judge will order the release of FBI documents around McCabe’s firing per a FOIA request.
  2. Matt Whittaker, who was the acting Attorney General for a hot minute, stumps for a Trump-supporting candidate in Kosovo’s elections. The U.S. embassy there quickly distances itself, saying Washington is completely, 100% neutral in the upcoming election.
    • Whittaker’s candidate loses, with the left nationalist party taking a surprise win.
  1. Representative Chris Collins (R-NY) resigns before pleading guilty to charges of insider trading. He was caught on video making the call that led to the charges.

Impeachment/Ukraine:

Including all this info just makes this too long, so I moved it out into its own post. You can skip right over to it if that’s your focus.

Courts/Justice:

  1. A federal court upholds the FCC’s right in repealing Obama’s net neutrality protections, but they also rule that the FCC can’t limit the states’ ability to create their own rules. That’s not likely to lead to any confusion at all, right?
  2. Protestors gather in front of Mitch McConnell’s house calling for Brett Kavanaugh’s impeachment. I’m a big supporter of protest, but not at someone’s private home.

Healthcare:

  1. The president’s schedule for Thursday includes this event — “THE PRESIDENT delivers remarks and signs an Executive Order Protecting Medicare from Socialist Destruction in The Villages, FL.”
    • Trump signs that EO, which he says will preserve and protect Medicare against Medicare for All. But part of the plan is to make the prices paid by Medicare closer to the prices paid by private insurance, which would shoot costs up enough to bankrupt the system.
  1. A growing number of rural Texas towns are declaring themselves “sanctuary cities for the unborn” and calling abortion “murder with malice.” The towns outlaw emergency contraceptives, criminalize groups that work for reproductive rights, and fine doctors for performing an abortion. Meanwhile, other towns are pushing ordinances that help women in those restrictive towns travel to have their reproductive health taken care of.
  2. The Supreme Court agrees to take up a Louisiana law that restricts abortions by forcing doctors who perform them to have admitting privileges nearby. The court struck down a similar law in Texas, but that was with a more balanced court.
  3. Trump decides to eliminate the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria.

International:

  1. Austria defeats the far-right nationalist party in their national elections, and the People’s party’s Sebastian Kurz reclaims his role as Chancellor (he was removed by a no-confidence vote earlier this year). The far-right was brought down by corruption. I’m sensing a global pattern.
  2. One day after North Korea agrees to meet to discuss nuclear weapons with U.S. officials, they conduct missile tests off their coast, launching missiles into the Sea of Japan.
  3. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman takes responsibility for journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, but says he didn’t order it. It’s the one-year anniversary of Khashoggi’s death.
  4. Hong Kong bans face masks at protests, motivating thousands of masked protestors to turn out in opposition. At one protest, an officer shoots a man in the thigh after protestors surround his car. Protestors then beat him and throw a gas bomb at him.
  5. On China’s celebration of 70 years of Communist Party rule, Hong Kong protests increase in violence. A police officer shoots a teenage protestor at point-blank range, luckily only injuring him.
    • Police exonerate the officer, who says the protestor was charging him. They instead charge the protestor.
  1. Nationwide protests in Iraq grow violent, with police firing tear gas and then live rounds into crowds. Five people are dead and around 300 wounded. The Prime Minister declares a curfew in Baghdad.
  2. Taking the State Department and Pentagon completely by surprise, Trump endorses a plan for the Turkish military to sweep away the American-backed Kurdish forces near the border with Syria. This happens on a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to one official on the call, Trump got rolled.
    • The Kurds have been our allies in the fight against ISIS, but Turkey sees them as terrorists. Turkey has also killed tens of thousands of Kurds.
    • The U.S. had already persuaded the Kurds to dismantle their defenses that served as a deterrent to Turkey based on guarantees that the U.S. would help keep them secure. So now the Kurds have few options to stop Turkey.
  1. Several of Trump’s GOP allies harshly criticize Trump over this move, including Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Kevin McCarthy, Nikki Haley, and Mike Huckabee.

Global Protests:

It seems like there’s a pervasive restlessness across the globe. There are a dozen major protests happening right now, and they all have the common thread of dissatisfaction with government. Here are the big ones (and this doesn’t include ongoing protests at our southern border or global climate protests):

  1. Hong Kong: These were parked by a Chinese extradition law, but morphed into a desire to protect their democratic freedoms.
  2. Jakarta: A new austere criminal code that criminalizes sex and cohabitation out of wedlock sparked protests.
  3. Netherlands: Farmers protest parliament members’ claim that farming has high emissions and some farms should be shut down.
  4. France: Did you know the yellow vests are still protesting?! It’s been 45 consecutive weeks. Farmers and police officers are also protesting.
  5. Russia: Protests are still going on there, even though the elections that sparked the initial protests are over and protestors won. Now they’re protesting for the release of protestors who were arrested.
  6. Peru: The dissolution of the congress sparks mass protests over the uncertainty.
  7. Haiti: Protestors want President Jovenel Moïse to resign over allegations of corruption and attempting to end subsidies.
  8. Egypt: Protestors want President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (Trump’s favorite dictator) to step down over his authoritarian policies.
  9. Lebanon: A worsening economy sparked these protests.
  10. Syria: Kurds are protesting being excluded from a UN committee that will rewrite the Syrian constitution.
  11. Iraq: Protestors are unhappy with Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, specifically around a lack of public services and high unemployment, but they have several complaints.
  12. Jerusalem: Palestinians protest Israeli forces for hospitalizing a Palestinian detainee during interrogation (they accuse the forces of torturing him). The detainee is accused of killing an Israeli teen in a bombing.
  13. United States: UAW workers at GM have been striking for three weeks, with nearly 50,000 workers walking off the job.

Family Separation:

  1. The ACLU launches a new lawsuit against the Trump administration, seeking damages for families affected by its family separation policies. Here are some allegations:
    • When DHS was ordered to reunite families, some kids were too young to communicate so were asked to point to the flag of their country so DHS could narrow down the search for their parents.
    • Some kids were taken in the middle of the night while they were sleeping.
    • Parents were told they were signing papers to reunite them with their children or to help with their asylum cases, but they were actually signing voluntary deportation papers.
    • Many children were separated from their families for more than a year. Some of the youngest have forgotten their native languages.
    • Some are still separated.
    • Some of the children were beaten.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. While discussing the arrest of a black suspect, a New Jersey police officer says that Trump is the “last hope for white people.” He says if Hillary were elected, all those minorities would get a vote. Oh, the horror! The officer is on trial for hate crime assault and lying to the FBI.
  2. A jury finds former police officer Amber Guyger guilty of murder for shooting Jean Botham, a black man who she thought was in her apartment. It turned out she had entered his apartment thinking it was hers. Amazingly, Botham’s brother pleads for mercy for Guyger during the sentencing hearing and asks if he can hug her.
  3. Trump says his administration will deny visas to anyone who can’t prove they can pay for their own healthcare. I’d argue that most Americans can’t even prove that.
    • Trump argues that immigrants are three times more likely than American citizens to lack health insurance. So suddenly having health insurance is important to Republicans?
    • It turns out this is mostly directed at family migration. So it’s all about keeping families apart. Again.
  1. We learn that Trump has floated ideas for slowing down illegal border crossings like building a moat filled with alligators and snakes, putting spikes on the tops of our fences at the border, shooting border crossers in the legs (you know, to slow them down), and electrifying our fences, among other things. This was the same meeting where he told DHS to close down the southern border completely.
    • And this is telling. According to people at the meeting, Trump couldn’t be placated and “the president’s advisers left the meeting in a near panic.” This might’ve been a good time to reassess the administration and take a look at the 25th Amendment. Geez.
  1. DHS announces they’ll collect DNA from immigrant detainees to enter into the criminal database. I guess it still needs to be said…being an asylum seeker doesn’t make you a criminal.
  2. Journalist Ben Watson files a civil rights complaint with DHS after a CBP officer held his passport upon learning Watson is a journalist. The officer said, “So you write propaganda, right?” The officer withheld the passport until Watson agreed to the propaganda question. Several journalists are making similar reports of harassment.
  3. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals grants a stay of relief in the execution of a Jewish defendant whose trial was presided over by an antisemitic judge. How do we know he’s antisemitic? He referred to the defendant as “a goddamn Kike” and “That fuckin’ Jew.”

Climate:

  1. After California pushes back on Trump’s plan to push more water through the Delta, the Trump administration backs off. A rare moment of compromise between Trump and California.
  2. Trump plans to disband two environmental advisory boards, one on marine life run by NOAA and one on invasive species run by the Department of the Interior. We don’t need no stinking experts.
  3. When a far-right activist trolls AOC at a town hall by saying she loves the Green New Deal but it doesn’t go far enough and that we should start eating babies, AOC, out of concern that the woman was having a mental break, doesn’t argue but instead tries to deflect. Trump and his family don’t get the trolling and tweet about how this is normal for AOC and her supporters to want to eat babies. Turns out it was a Trump-loving baby-eating troll.
  4. Trump ends a 5-year-old moratorium on oil and gas drilling on 750,000 acres in California.
  5. The non-profit group Ocean Cleanup successfully implements a plastic-catching floating device to clean up our oceans.

Budget/Economy:

  1. You might remember a while back, the USDA uprooted all its DC employees and moved to Kansas City? Well, that move has delayed the publication of nearly 40 research reports, ended newer studies, and stopped the release of funding. Staff is down about 75% since the move.
  2. Trump has threatened for a year to leave the Universal Postal Union, the UN agency that links postal systems across the globe. The agency finally comes to an agreement with the U.S. about restructuring fees, fending off what would’ve been a fiasco for Americans who send and receive international mail. Expect to pay increasing fees on international mail over the next five years.
  3. The economy is super weird right now. You’d expect every western country’s economy to be chugging right along with record low unemployment, but everyone’s economy is a little sluggish and wages aren’t keeping up.
    • Unemployment in the U.S. falls to a 50-year low of 3.5%, but U.S. manufacturing slows for the second month in a row and wages stagnate. Manufacturing has been in recession all year and hit a 10-year low. It’s all part of a global manufacturing slowdown.
    • The U.S. only added 136,000 jobs in September.
    • Likewise, unemployment in the eurozone falls to it’s lowest rate in over a decade and manufacturing in the eurozone has it’s weakest month in seven years.
    • Export orders for the U.S. also dip to their lowest level in a decade.
  1. A report shows that Pennsylvania and Wisconsin lost the most manufacturing jobs over the past year.
  2. Cattle ranchers in Nebraska rally in Omaha to let Trump know that they think he’s backed out of promises by not changing labeling requirements for beef. I agree with them here. Labeling laws under Obama allow beef to be labeled as “Product of the USA” if it’s processed and packaged here even if it wasn’t raised here.
  3. After the World Trade Organization rules in favor of it, the Trump administration announces tariffs on European imports, including airplanes, agricultural products, whiskey, cheese, and wine.
  4. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says that maybe small dairy farmers can’t survive this economy, but that’s OK because the big get bigger and the small go out of business.
  5. This is the third week of the GM strike, and both GM and workers are feeling the hit. GM temporarily lays of 6,000 workers in Mexico as a result. Here are the sticking points:
    • GM’s use of temporary workers
    • Bringing jobs back from Mexico
    • Four plants that are slated for closure
  1. The Dow Jones closes out fiscal year 2019 up about 360 points over the beginning of the fiscal year, but then loses almost 1,000 points in the first two days of the next quarter. Analysts point to the ongoing trade war.
  2. In June, Trump privately made a promise to President Xi Jinping that the U.S. wouldn’t say anything about the protests in Hong Kong as trade talks continued. This conversation, like calls with Ukraine, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, was also placed in the codeword-level secure system.
  3. For the third time, the Trump administration moves to cut SNAP benefits, this time by $4.5 billion. This would cut benefits for almost 20% of recipients.
  4. Trump signs a trade deal with Japan aimed at helping farmers get what they lost when Trump pulled the U.S. out of the TPP. Dairy products (except cheese), rice, and some grains would’ve done better under TPP, but are now looking to do worse. But beef, pork, barley, wheat, and wine get a better deal. The deal doesn’t include major trading products, like automobiles, aircraft, propane, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

Elections:

  1. Bernie Sanders suffers a mild heart attack and is briefly hospitalized after getting two stents inserted. He cancels his upcoming campaign stops. Speedy recovery.
  2. California’s Secretary of State says he’ll appeal a federal judge’s order blocking the state’s new law that presidential candidates must provide their tax returns in order to be on the primary ballot. He’s arguing for transparency in financial dealings.
  3. A sixth Texas Representative announces he won’t seek reelection next year. Mac Thornberry is currently the top-ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, a position that he’d term out of next year anyway.
  4. Politicians are fundraising off impeachment on both sides. Republicans pull in $15 million in donations in the days after the impeachment announcement, according to Eric Trump. I don’t have the exact numbers for Democrats, though ActBlue showed $8.8 million in just the first two days after the announcement, and that doesn’t include all donations.
    • Here’s my PSA: It’s way past time to get money out of our elections. The taxpayers carry the burden for every single candidate that runs anywhere in this county.
  1. The RNC in Montana uses forms that resemble the official U.S. Census Forms to solicit donations for Trump’s reelection. They’re even labeled “2019 Congressional District Census.” State officials issue a warning to Montana residents that these are not official census documents and that the census never asks for money.

Week 139 in Trump

Posted on September 25, 2019 in Politics, Trump

Leila Navidi, leila.navidi@startribune.com

Corey Lewandowski makes a spectacle of his hearing; details about the whistleblower complaint come out, and yes, it’s about Trump; huge Youth Climate Strikes span the globe; Boris Johnson might have illegally suspended Parliament; Israel holds new elections (yet again); costs stall Trump’s border wall; DHS reinstates medically protected status; Trump waives more tariffs; and will we go to war with Iran? It was a big week, and it’s already totally eclipsed by the news from the following week.

Here what happened in politics for the week ending September 22…

Shootings This Week:

  1. Here are this week’s mass shootings (defined as killing or injuring four or more people):
    • A shooter kills two adults and injures two teenagers in Cheyenne, WY. It was apparently a drug deal gone wrong.
    • A shooter in Wilmington, CA, walks up to a group of people and kills two of them and injures two others.
    • A drive-by shooter kills three people and injures one more in Chicago.
    • A shooter kills one person and injures five others in Washington, DC.
    • A shooter kills one person and injures five others in New Orleans.
    • A shooter in a nightclub in Lancaster, SC, kills two people and injures eight others.
    • Four people are found dead from gunshot wounds in an abandoned house in Cleveland, OH.
    • A shooting between two cars in New Orleans leaves four people injured.
    • A nightclub shooting in Kansas City, MO, leaves five people injured.
    • Two people are dead and two are injured in Gary, IN, after someone shoots at a car and the driver swerves into a tree.
    • A shooter kills one teenage boy and injures three others as they’re walking down a street in Chicago.
  1. Almost 230,000 people have experienced a school shooting since the Columbine shootings.
  2. Colt announces that they’ll suspend production of the AR-15 for civilian use. They say it’s because they’ve reached market capacity, not that they don’t think civilians should have the weapons.
    • Colt’s competitors sell similar guns for less than what Colt charges for theirs.

Russia:

  1. Corey Lewandowski “testifies” to the House Judiciary Committee. He says the White House told him not to provide any answers that can’t already be found in the Mueller report, and as such he is combative.
    • Lewandowski does confirm that everything in the report about Trump asking him to fire Jeff Sessions is accurate.
    • Lewandowski says the investigation is an attempt to “take down a duly elected President of the United States.” But then he says he never questioned the validity of the Mueller report.
    • Lewandowski appears to be using the hearing to make a splash in New Hampshire, where he plans a Senate run.
  1. The hearing is chaotic until the staff counsel starts asking the questions (as opposed to Members of Congress). Counsel gets Lewandowski to admit:
    • He lied to the American people multiple times on TV. Lewandowski says he doesn’t have to tell the media, and by extension the American people, the truth.
    • He took the Fifth and asked for immunity before meeting with Mueller’s team. Lewandowski has also said publicly that you only take the Fifth when you’ve done something wrong.
    • Before Trump asked him to fire Sessions, he brought up the possibility of giving Lewandowski a job in the White House.
    • He wanted to meet in private with Sessions so there would be no record.
  1. Trump tweets his appreciation of Lewandowski’s performance.
  2. Committee Chair Jerry Nadler is considering holding Lewandowski in contempt.
  3. There’s an explosion in Russia at the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology, which is one of two locations in the world where live smallpox viruses are stored. Russia says there’s no threat from the virus, just like they said there was no radiation released from the explosion of their nuclear-propelled missile.

Legal Fallout:

  1. The Manhattan district attorney subpoenas eight years of tax returns from Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA. This is related to the Stormy Daniels case. Mazars says they’ll comply.
    • I feel like I just keep writing the same stories over and over again, but yet again, Trump sues his accounting firm to stop them from complying with the subpoena.
    • In attempting to block the subpoena, Trump’s lawyers argue that a sitting president can’t be subject to the criminal process, suggesting that Trump can’t be investigated or tried.
  1. Senator Chris Coons says he told the FBI last year about the allegations of more bad behavior by Brett Kavanaugh while in school, but the FBI doesn’t appear to have followed up on it.
  2. In addition to the Air Force sometimes housing their crew at Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, Turnberry gifts high-ranking officials with special pins on their visits, and some of the visits last for up to five days. Sometimes the crew gets stranded due to bad weather, and some complain that their per diem is barely enough to get by at the expensive resort.
    • In the past two years, Air Force spending at Trump’s Turnberry golf course has nearly tripled from the previous two years.
  1. It’s still in question whether the DOJ will prosecute former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe for allegedly lying about a media leak, but his lawyers say Trump’s attacks on McCabe have made a fair prosecution impossible.
  2. A federal court of appeals reinstates the lawsuit filed by Seth Rich’s parents against Fox News. Rich was a DNC staffer who was murdered in a botched robbery, and Fox repeatedly pushed the conspiracy theory that he was murdered because he was behind the leak of DNC documents in 2016.
  3. Last week we learned about a whistleblower report that wasn’t turned over to Congress as required. Per the Wall Street Journal, the complaint revolves around the Ukraine. During a phone call in July, Trump repeatedly pressured Ukraine’s new president to investigate Joe Biden’s son, and asked him several times to work with Rudy Giuliani on this. Giuliani met with top Ukrainian officials in June and August about it.
    • Trump doesn’t deny asking Ukraine’s president about Joe Biden and says he didn’t do anything wrong. He also says someone should look into Biden’s efforts force out Ukraine’s prosecutor general as it relates to Biden’s son, Hunter, being on the board of Burisma Holdings, which at one point was under investigation by Ukraine’s prosecutor.
    • A Ukrainian prosecutor has already found there was no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden or by his son.
    • Background: This has been fully investigated in Ukraine, and neither Joe Biden nor his son Hunter were found to have done anything wrong. The investigation into Burisma Holdings didn’t involve Hunter and was over a deal that occurred before Hunter joined the board. Around that time, Biden threatened to withhold aid from Ukraine in order to battle the corruption of the government (which, in a strange way of coming full circle, Paul Manafort helped into power). Joe Biden’s actions to remove Ukraine prosecutor Viktor Shokin were coordinated with our allies, and the recommendation to do so came from our embassy in Kiev. In fact, the IMF had threatened to withhold money for the same reason a month earlier.
    • Trump says the complaint was filed by a partisan whistleblower. Does that mean he knows the identity of the whistleblower? He says he doesn’t, which means he’s just making that partisan bit up.
    • Trump says it doesn’t matter what he discussed with foreign leaders.
    • Three House committees are already investigating Rudy Giuliani over this matter, and committee chairs and Nancy Pelosi threaten additional legal actions if the whistleblower complaint isn’t turned over as mandated by law.
    • Rudy Giuliani goes on the press circuit to try to get ahead of the Ukraine story. He says he didn’t ask Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden, but literally less than 30 seconds later he says that of course he did.
    • The news of the whistleblower story causes growing support in the Democratic House caucus for impeachment.
    • Both Representative Adam Schiff and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi say that impeachment might be the only way forward now. This is notable because both have been reticent to fully commit to impeachment.

Healthcare:

  1. You might remember that a while back, Trump loosened up the laws on temporary healthcare plans that don’t meet the standards of the ACA by expanding their coverage from three months to one year. Well, now those plans have flooded the market, and people are finding out that their healthcare costs aren’t being covered. Just one success in the GOP’s efforts to gut the ACA.
  2. Two bills expanding access to abortions go into effect in Maine after anti-abortion activists fail to get the necessary signatures to fight them. One bill requires insurance plans covering prenatal care to also cover abortion care, and the other overturns a ban on nurse practitioners providing abortion care.
  3. A federal judge denies Missouri’s request to put into effect their ban on abortions after 20 weeks while the case against it moves through the courts. The original law bans abortions after 8 weeks, but includes triggers to ban abortions at 14, 18, and 20 weeks if the 8-week ban is found unconstitutional.
  4. The House passes a bill designed to help lower prescription drug prices by increasing the ability to negotiate prices. Trump praises the bill right after Mitch McConnell says the bill is dead on arrival in the Senate because it’s “socialist.”
  5. Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin, files for bankruptcy.

International:

  1. The Trump administration releases satellite images that appear to implicate Iran in the attacks on Saudi oil plants. The images show 19 strikes at two facilities, which Trump officials say couldn’t be carried out with 10 drones, as claimed by the Yemeni rebels. Iran continues to deny involvement.
    • Officials say that our surveillance satellites caught Iran preparing for the attacks, but are calling the evidence circumstantial.
    • Trump and Rouhani were working on setting up a meeting at the UN summit, but now Iran is ruling that out completely.
    • Mike Pompeo heads over to Saudi Arabia to discuss a response to the attacks. Pompeo says the administration wants a peaceful resolution, but defense officials present a list of potential targets should we decide to retaliate alongside Saudi Arabia.
    • Iran’s foreign minister threatens an all-out war if the U.S. or Saudi Arabia strikes Iran.
    • Trump deploys 500 additional U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia.
    • Trump announces additional sanctions on Iran, which target their national bank.
  1. Two suicide bombings in Afghanistan kill nearly 50 people. One was near the U.S. embassy and NATO compound.
  2. A Scottish court finds that Boris Johnson illegally suspended Parliament last month, pushing the case up to Britain’s Supreme Court.
  3. Does this sound familiar? Close to the Israeli election, Netanyahu and his party accuse minority Arab citizens of voter fraud and they send out racist robocalls warning about high Arab turnout.
    • The Israeli vote is too close to call. Netanyahu’s Likud party trails the centrist Blue and White party by two seats. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin will consult with party leaders and decide whether Netanyahu or Gantz gets a first shot at forming a government. In a first, Arab parties have said they’d be open to forming a government with Blue and White.
    • With his lead, Gantz declares victory, but Netanyahu says they should share power. Gantz rejects the power sharing offer, and says he’ll lead a coalition of parties from across the political spectrum.
  1. Trump names Robert O’Brien to be the new National Security Advisor. O’Brien is the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (aka a hostage negotiator) who recently made news when Trump sent him to Sweden to monitor the trial of A$AP Rocky.
  2. In the middle of the whistleblower controversy, Trump says he’ll meet with the Ukraine president at next week’s UN summit.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. House Democrats hold hearings on DC statehood.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

  1. Trump starts to discuss sensors in the fences going up at the border, which is apparently sensitive technology. When he asks the General in charge to describe the technology, the General says, “Sir, there could be some merit in not discussing that.”
  2. At the same visit, Trump says that the world’s best mountain climbers have tested his wall and couldn’t scale it. I think rock climbers would be better testers, but regardless, world-class mountain climbers have no idea what he’s talking about.
  3. The Department of Defense says they won’t go forward with three projects to build border wall in Arizona and California because it’s too expensive. So far 60 miles of fencing have been updated.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. A new study finds that one in 16 women say their first sexual experience was rape, and those women tend to have higher rates of unwanted first pregnancies, abortions, and subsequent physical and mental health problems. 75% were younger than 17 when it happened, and nearly half of those were younger than 14.
  2. After Trump says the DOJ should rescue Brett Kavanaugh, Attorney General William Barr’s past skepticism over rape claims comes to light. Barr has accused Obama of “fanning the false narrative of rape culture” (um, see above study, Mr. Barr). He also endorsed a book that accuses schools of treating people accused of rape unfairly.
  3. Immigration services reverses their new policy of deporting people who are here under medical protected status (the deferred action program) after a huge public outcry and a House hearing about it.
  4. The Pentagon is the group in the Trump administration still fighting against Stephen Miller’s plans to drastically cut the number of refugees allowed in the U.S. The Pentagon argues that bringing in refugees is in our national security interest, and they’re specifically arguing for visas for Iraqis who’ve helped out U.S. troops.
  5. Trump plans to skip the UN summit on climate change next week and instead will chair a session on worldwide religious persecution.
  6. Due to the recent mass shootings, the Department of Homeland Security finally adds White Supremacy to its list of terrorist threats. The DHS was formed as a reaction to the 9/11 attacks, so their focus was on Muslim extremists, rightly or wrongly so. They unbelievably expanded to include minority groups before they included the White Supremacists attacking those groups.
    • This victory rings hollow to me. Six of the victims of the El Paso shooting were family members of DHS employees. So this is another instance of “it’s not a problem until it affects me.”

Climate:

  1. EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler threatens to cut U.S. highway funds to California, saying that our air is too polluted.
    • Why is this ironic? At the same time, Trump formally revokes California’s waiver on federal emission standards. The waiver allows the state to set stricter emissions limits than what the federal government mandates so that we can reduce our air pollution.
    • But whatevs. Ford, Honda, BMW and Volkswagen all say they’ll stick to their agreement with California on stricter emissions standards. Industry leaders say that Trump’s anti-trust lawsuit against them is causing other automakers to think twice about joining them, though.
  1. Tropical Depression Imelda drops over 40 inches of rain on parts of Texas, causing massive flooding and killing three people. This is the same area hit by Hurricane Harvey.
  2. Before the upcoming UN summit on climate change, millions of people march in the Youth Climate Strike in over 150 countries. An estimated 4 million people in thousands of cities participate.
  3. The bird population in the U.S. and Canada has fallen by almost a third since 1970, partly due to our encroachment on their habitats and the growing use of pesticides.
  4. In order to justify cutting aid to Guatemala, the Trump administration had to ignore its own evidence of climate change being a major factor in the current migration from Guatemala. Part of the aid Trump froze was supposed to go to help small farmers mitigate the effects of climate change. From a DHS official:
    • “Everyone knows [White House adviser Stephen] Miller isn’t interested in hearing about climate change,”
  1. Three Mile Island, the site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history, finally shuts down for good. Because of the nature of nuclear energy, it will take decades to completely decommission the plant—it should be complete in 2078.

Budget/Economy:

  1. In the first auto workers strike in 12 years, about 46,000 members of the United Auto Workers’ (UAW) at GM walk off the job. At issue is GM’s idling of five plants, wages, healthcare, and permanent positions for temporary employees.
    • There’s also a scandal within the union right now regarding misappropriation of funds. Bad timing there.
  1. All market indicators seem to be weird right now. The inverted bond yield might or might not be predicting a recession. The consumer price index might or might not be predicting inflation. Your guess is as good as anybody’s at this point.
  2. Trump complains that homeless people live in “our best highways, our best streets, our best entrances to buildings.” He says he’s speaking to tenants who “want to leave the country,” whatever that means. He also says homelessness started two years ago, and that he ended it in DC already.
  3. CEO confidence is at its lowest level since before Trump took office, and they’re downgrading their expectations for hiring and growth.
  4. The Fed cuts interest rates by 1/4 point for the second consecutive quarter with three dissenting votes from the board, reflecting 1) concerns about an economic downturn and 2) conflict within the Fed over whether the action is warranted.
  5. For the first time since 2007, the Fed injects money into the short-term money market due to a spiking “repo” rate. The repo rate is the price at which securities like U.S. government bonds can be temporarily swapped for cash. The Fed pumps up the market with $128 billion in cash.
  6. Trump waives tariffs on over 400 items imported from China. He says he’s having a little spat with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
  7. The farm bailout reaches $28 billion, which is more than twice what the automaker bailout cost us after they paid everything back (the auto bailout ended up costing U.S. taxpayers around $12 billion).
  8. Saudi Arabia says their oil output and production will return to normal by the end of the month.
  9. Amid hopes that Britain will avoid a no-deal Brexit, the British pound rises to a 2-month high against the dollar. Which isn’t saying much. In August, the pound was at its lowest rate against the dollar since 1985.
  10. The Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to hear a case that could allow them to fire the head of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, the agency created by Elizabeth Warren to be a watchdog against the kind of corporate malfeasance that played such a big role in the Great Recession.

Elections:

  1. Republicans in four states have cancelled their GOP primary elections, but Michigan Republicans aren’t able to. So instead they change the rules to ensure Trump gets all their delegates.
  2. The Alaska Republican Party cancels its 2020 presidential primary, becoming the fifth state to do so.
  3. Hate those coastal elites? Well, Trump just fundraised about $15 million off of them in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
  4. Finally Mitch McConnell puts his support behind $250 million in funding to harden our election security.

Miscellaneous:

  1. With Trump’s current nominee to head up FEMA being held up for personal issues, Trump will nominate Peter Gaynor to head up FEMA. He’s the current deputy director of FEMA.
  2. Police finally arrest Democratic donor Ed Buck after a third victim nearly dies at his home, which police are calling a drug house. This is a super bizarre story, and I don’t know how he wasn’t arrested sooner.
  3. Darrell Issa’s FBI file is holding up his nomination for director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. No word on what specifically is in that file, but Issa’s already looking into running for the House again in California’s 50th district where the current representative, Duncan Hunter, is indicted on 60 felony counts.
  4. Mike Pence brings his motorcade (eight SUVs) to Mackinac Island, MI, a national historic site that typically doesn’t allow non-emergency vehicular traffic. Pence is the first government official to break with the island’s tradition of not allowing cars. His trek from the airport to the Grand Hotel, host of the Republican Party conference, is all of one mile.
  5. Trump’s administration has one of the highest levels of turnover, with change in 78% of the positions. 31% of those have turned over multiple times.

Polls:

  1. A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that 69% of registered voters do not like Trump, even if they like his policies. That makes him the most disliked out of his five most recent predecessors.

Week 137 in Trump

Posted on September 12, 2019 in Politics, Trump

That crucial moment where everything went terribly awry.

Every week under this administration is a little weird, but this week was surreal. SharpieGate sucked up all the air in the room for nearly the entire freaking week. Any normal president would’ve just said ‘sorry, I made a mistake,’ thanked the weather service for the correction, and gotten on with the business of presidenting. But this isn’t a normal president, and so now we all know what a spaghetti graph is and why none of us can interpret one. We also know that our scientific federal agencies have now been compromised by politics and that we can’t rely on the president to give us truthful information during a disaster.

Here’s what else happened in politics for the week ending September 8…

Shootings This Week:

  1. The week‘s mass shootings (defined as killing or injuring four or more people):
    • Two shooters injure four men in Chicago’s Washington Park neighborhood.
    • Four people are injured in a shooting in Jacksonville, FL. The details aren’t known.
    • A shooter kills two people and injures two more, including an infant (who DOES that?), in Greensboro, NC.
    • A fourteen-year-old shooter kills his entire family of five in Elkmont, AL. This shooting includes another infant.
    • Two shooters kill two people, including a 7-year-old girl, and injure two others in Marrero, LA.
    • Shooters kill a family of three, including a 5-year-old boy, and injure one other in Whiteville, NC.
    • A female shooter kills one person and injures three more after an ongoing altercation in Alexandria, LA. This is the first known female mass shooter since I’ve been recording shootings.
    • A gang-related shooting in Sumter, SC, leaves two people dead and three others wounded.
    • A shooter injures four people in Chicago, IL.
  1. Walmart halts sales of all handgun ammunition, and while they don’t end their policy of allowing guns in the stores, they do request customers not openly carry weapons in Walmart and Sam’s Club stores.
  2. A federal judge rules that victims can sue the government when shooters obtain guns through background check loopholes. The suit stems from the 2015 shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, where the shooter obtained a weapon despite a prior drug offense. This ruling could make the federal government responsible for such loopholes in the law.
  3. In other background check loophole news, the Odessa, TX, shooter obtained his weapon from a private seller, which didn’t require a background check. The shooter had failed a previous background check for mental health issues. Close those damn loopholes, Congress!
  4. We find out that Texas Attorney General received more than 100 pages of racist letters filled with violence, threatening to kill undocumented immigrants. The letters poured in over the past year, and the Attorney General didn’t do or say anything about it. In the same period, police responded to 911 calls about the man who sent them at least 35 times. They didn’t do anything about it either.

Russia:

  1. A jury acquits former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig on charges of misleading the DOJ about the lobbying work he did for Ukraine. Craig is the only Democrat to be charged so far in Mueller’s investigation.
  2. Russians vote in local elections following months of opposition protests, which led to the biggest crackdown on dissenters in the country in years. Before the elections, Putin’s party, United Russia, held 40 out of 45 seats on the Moscow city council. They lost 15 of those seats in the elections to hold on to 25. Center-left and far-left parties took the remaining seats.
  3. Investigators in Congress find that Deutsche Bank had several points of failure in their money-laundering controls while handling financial dealings with Russian oligarchs.
  4. We learn that in 2017, the CIA extracted one of their most valuable assets in the Kremlin over fears that media scrutiny would give the spy away. This person is how the CIA found out that Putin was directly involved in our 2016 election interference.
    • At first, some media outlets (I’m looking at you, CNN) report that the extraction was over fears that Trump’s carelessness would give the spy away, but that is corrected by later New York Times reporting (always read your news; don’t watch it!).
  1. Michael Flynn refuses to cooperate with House Intelligence Committee subpoenas for testimony and documents. The committee gives him a deadline of September 25 for testimony and September 18 for documents.

Legal Fallout:

  1. The House Judiciary Committee is investigating Trump’s involvement with the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. He’s already named as a co-conspirator in the legal case in which Michael Cohen pleaded guilty.
  2. Mike Pence stays at Trump’s country club in Doonbeg, Ireland while attending meetings with Irish officials (including the Prime Minister). Pence flies back and forth an hour each way for the meetings instead of just staying closer to where the meetings are held.
  3. It comes to light that in 2014, Trump entered a partnership with a struggling airport near his Turnberry golf course in Scotland. In 2015, when Trump was running for president, the Pentagon started using that airport for flight refueling, requiring flight crews to use local accommodations for overnight stays. This sometimes means that flight crews end up staying at Trump Turnberry.
    • Trump tweets that he has nothing to do with the airport (which is demonstrably not true, but might not actually be relevant in this case).
    • This is a weird intersection of two separate things (Trump entering a partnership with the airport and the Pentagon entering a partnership with the airport). However, 180 Air Force planes stopped there in 2017, 257 stopped there in 2018, and 259 have already stopped there this year.
  1. The House Oversight Committee and the House Judiciary Committee open investigations into the self-dealing around Trump’s properties, including things like Pence’s stay in Doonbeg, the airport deal, and Trump’s announcement that next year’s G-7 will be held at his Doral property (you know, the one with the bedbugs).
  2. The House Judiciary Committee prepares a vote to define impeachment hearings.

International:

  1. It’s U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week.
    • Parliament hands Johnson four straight defeats, opposing him on his first four votes as PM.
    • Johnson loses his first Brexit vote, despite his threats that if any of his Members of Parliament (MPs) oppose him, he’ll kick them out of the party. 20 of his MPs defy him. In fact, Parliament votes to seize control from Johnson in order to debate a bill that would prevent a no-deal Brexit (which the House of Commons later passes).
    • This means Johnson loses his majority in Parliament. Actually, he lost his majority when one of his MPs got up in the middle of his speech to cross over to the other side.
    • And then Parliament votes to scrap Johnson’s no-deal Brexit and to ask the EU for a delay, effectively rendering Johnson’s reasons for suspending Parliament moot.
    • Boris Johnson’s brother quits his positions as a Member of Parliament and Minister over his disagreements with his brother over Brexit.
    • Johnson calls for new elections, but it doesn’t pass the House of Commons with the two-thirds vote it needs. (It’s pretty inevitable that elections will happen, though; it’s just a matter of timing.)
  1. Demonstrators across the U.K. gather to protest Brexit; counter-protestors come out to defend Brexit. Things get violent between the two, and 16 are arrested.
  2. Pro-democracy protests pick back up again in Hong Kong this week, despite the withdrawal of the Chinese extradition bill they were protesting in the first place.
  3. France proposes offering credit lines worth $15 billion to Iran if they’ll come back into compliance with the JCPOA (aka the Iran Deal). This relies on Trump not blocking it.
  4. Conservatives defend Trump tweeting what appeared to be an image from a classified satellite of an explosion in Iran by saying he’s just showing them that we’re watching them closely. However, the satellite has been identified online, and now it’s possible that Iran can evade its surveillance.
  5. The top U.S. negotiator with Afghanistan and the Taliban announces there’s a peace deal in principal between the parties.
    • But then Trump announces that he cancelled a secret meeting at Camp David with senior Taliban leaders and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani because the Taliban took responsibility for an attack that killed a U.S. soldier.
    • Also, the week of 9/11 might not be the best week for a meeting at Camp David.
    • This pretty much puts an end to a year of peace negotiations, in which it was agreed that the U.S. would dramatically pull back on troops in Afghanistan.
  1. Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s chief negotiator in the Mideast peace process, steps down, putting a damper on any prospects for a peace deal there. The deal stalled after Trump moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem in 2017, recognizing it as Israel’s legit capital. Palestinians walked away at that point, and haven’t been seriously negotiating since.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. The Cherokee Nation names Kimberly Teehee as their first delegate to the House of Representatives, finally exercising their 200-year-old right. Their Representative doesn’t get a vote in Congress.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

  1. Defense Secretary Mark Esper agrees to release $3.6 billion for Trump’s border wall, as requested in Trump’s emergency declaration. He’s defunding 127 military projects to do it.
    • The affected projects include new cyber ops facilities, training facilities, hazardous materials warehouses and cargo pads, new and expanded weapons ranges, munition storage facilities, aircraft maintenance hangars, schools, power substations, SATCOM facilities, NORTHCOM alert facilities, flight simulators, rescue stations, security improvements, housing maintenance, and more.
    • Funds will be diverted from over 125 military projects in three U.S. territories, 23 states, and 21 countries.
  1. Several of these projects are modernization projects and future-looking technical projects, all being scuttled to go toward the wall, which is (IMO) a medieval solution.
  2. The Pentagon says that if Congress re-funds those projects, they won’t be delayed or canceled. So they’re asking Congress to fund these projects twice. That sounds so blackmaily to me.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Trump says he’ll reconsider his administration’s rule that would deny life-saving healthcare visas to immigrants. He doesn’t fully reverse the decision, which has received strong criticism, and he doesn’t say whether we’ll continue to grant these visas. Meanwhile, people who are alive here today because they’re receiving these services have one more week to leave the country or become in violation of immigration law.
  2. The State Department has dramatically reduced the number of foreign student visas issued each year. This year, 20 Chinese students returning to Arizona State University were denied entry into the U.S. They’re currently taking their classes online.
  3. Following the Hurricane Dorian disaster in the Bahamas, Trump claims we can’t provide refuge for Bahamans because the islands are filled with “very bad gang members” and “very, very bad drug dealers.” He says they have “tremendous problems” with people who “weren’t supposed to be there.” What does that even mean?? 45 people have died, and the Abaco Islands are largely uninhabitable.
  4. Meanwhile, politicians from both parties urge Trump to suspend visa requirements for Bahamans at this time to allow more refugees into the U.S.
  5. While Charles Koch is trying to rehabilitate his reputation by supporting immigrants and criticizing the way Trump scapegoats immigrants, his network is also mining data to rile up conservatives with dehumanizing messages about immigrants. His data analytics company, i360, pushes the image of immigrants as invading criminals and terrorists.
  6. A judge rules that the terrorist watch list violates our constitutional rights because the standards for inclusion are too vague. Being on the watchlist makes it harder to travel and puts you under extra police scrutiny, among other things.
  7. Trump is considering two options to drastically reduce how many refugees fleeing war and violence the U.S. allows in. One option would cut the number by half—to 10,000 to 15,000 refugees per year. Another option reduces the number to ZERO, at the advice of a “top level official” (I wonder who that could be, Steven Miller). Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis was a huge proponent in the administration for allowing refugees (it actually does make the world a safer place), but Mike Esper, who took over from Mattis, isn’t as strong-willed.

Climate:

  1. At least 45 are dead in the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian stalled over the islands, decimating at least one of the islands. 70,000 people are homeless.
  2. Cruise ships begin evacuating refugees.
  3. Trump spends Labor Day fighting with meteorologists over the path of Dorian after several news outlets (and the National Weather Service) contradict his claim that Dorian would hit Alabama much harder than expected. And thus begins SharpieGate. Holy smokes.
    • The NWS was obligated to dispute Trump’s claim immediately in order to prevent panic in Alabama. At the time of Trump‘s claim, NWS forecast maps have Alabama at about a 5% chance of winds above 40 mph. The National Hurricane Center’s forecast at the same time show the path skimming the East Coast and missing Alabama completely.
    • Trump was looking at an outdated map of the hurricane (and it was also a spaghetti map, which show numerous possibilities and probabilities, and are notoriously impossible for laypeople to translate).
    • Trump can’t let it go, so he brings a Fox News correspondent into the Oval Office to vouch for him and holds up an official NOAA map that he had doctored by adding an extension to the hurricane path in black Sharpie to make it look like the official map includes Alabama.
    • And then, NOAA, damaging its own credibility, issues an unsigned statement that Trump was correct. The statement criticized the NWS (part of NOAA) for contradicting Trump. So we have NOAA contradicting its own scientific forecast which, by the way, was completely correct.
    • It just keeps getting worse… NOAA instructs its staff (including scientists and meteorologists) to not provide any opinion in response to Trump’s incorrect tweets about Alabama. So now we’re at a point where our scientific agencies would rather freak people out needlessly about a disaster that isn’t going to happen than contradict the president. This does not bode well if we can’t trust their forecasts.
    • And then, NOAA’s acting chief scientist says he’s investigating NOAA’s response and whether it’s in violation of NOAA policies and ethics. The Commerce Department’s Office of Inspector General opens an investigation.
    • And then, NWS Director Louis Uccellini contradicts his bosses at NOAA and defends the his agency’s forecasters at a weather industry conference.
    • And then, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross threatens to fire the top employees responsible for the forecast that contradicted Trump’s claim EVEN THOUGH THEIR FORECAST WAS CORRECT. This would be comical at this point if it wasn’t actually so very serious.
    • Is SharpieGate over? I don’t know.
  1. It might be important to note that altering a weather map is illegal.
  2. Trump plans to weaken George Bush’s light bulb efficiency rules, which would’ve forced us to use more efficient bulbs. They’re also more expensive but they last a ton longer.
    • The rules would save the equivalent of the energy output of 25 large power plants.
    • My guess is that Trump thinks he’s reversing an Obama rule, since Obama gets blamed for this one all the time.
  1. Joe Balash leaves his job at the Department of the Interior to join a foreign oil company that’s expanding their drilling operations in Alaska. As assistant secretary, Balash oversaw drilling on federal lands.
    • Balash is at least the third high-level administration official to join up with a fossil fuel company after leaving (the other two are Scott Pruitt of the EPA and Vincent DeVito of the Interior).
  1. The DOJ opens an antitrust investigation into four of the automakers that joined with California to keep Obama’s emissions standards in place. They say Ford, Honda, VW, and BMW broke federal competition laws.

Budget/Economy:

  1. The president of the AFL-CIO workers union says that Trump has done more to hurt workers than to help them. He cites rising healthcare costs, rising housing costs, and the trade war, as well as GOP opposition to raising the minimum wage.
  2. The five U.S. industries expected to be hit hardest by the latest round of tariffs include: Food and agribusiness, retail, manufacturers and supplies, tech and telecom, and clothing and footwear. That doesn’t leave much out.
  3. Even though Congress expanded the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program last year, around 99% of applications for forgiveness are still denied. The program is designed for people who are employed by government or certain non-profit organizations providing a public service.
  4. The Trump administration releases a proposed overhaul of the U.S. housing market that would end government control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These two companies back half of all our nation’s mortgages.
    • Fannie and Freddie have been under federal control since the housing market collapse, and they’re the last loose string left from the Great Recession.
  1. Trump touts job numbers before they’re officially released (again). Despite lower-than-expected job growth numbers for August, we hit another record number of people employed (157,878,000). Of course, our population is also at a record high, so the unemployment rate is still unchanged.
    • The rise in government employment came largely from temporary workers hired to help out with the 2020 Census.
    • Employment growth is slowing down from a high of 250,000 jobs added per month in 2015 to 143,000 so far in 2019 (there were 187,000 new jobs per month in 2016, 182,000 in 2017, and 192,000 in 2018).
  1. Analysts think that tariffs will cost American households an average of $2,031 per year starting in 2020, erasing any economic gains brought by deregulation efforts.

Elections:

  1. A court rules that North Carolina must redraw their gerrymandered districting laws in time for the 2020 elections, and Republicans (finally) say they won’t appeal the ruling. This has been in the courts for ages, with one judge accusing them of drawing the lines to discriminate with surgical precision.
    • Curious about the inner workings of GOP gerrymandering? Check this out. (Note: I in no way believe that this only happens on the right; they‘ve just mastered the art since 2010.)
  1. Another Texas GOP Congressman announces he’ll retire. Bill Flores becomes the fifth Texas GOP Representative to retire.
  2. Four states plan to cancel their GOP presidential primaries, which isn’t unheard of when an incumbent president is running. But usually they wait to see how successful the challengers are before scrapping the primaries.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Trump says that we should have a state-run news outlet to counter CNN’s “fake news.” You know who else has state-run news agencies? Russia, China, Iran, petty dictators…

Week 136 in Trump

Posted on September 3, 2019 in Politics, Trump

Wages have decreased as union membership has decreased.

I hope you all had a happy Labor Day weekend! And I hope you were out celebrating all the benefits unions have given workers, like 40-hour workweeks and an 8-hour day; overtime pay; paid holidays and paid vacations; paid and unpaid leave (including military leave); a minimum wage; healthcare insurance; whistle-blower protections; an end to sweatshops; and safety regulations for the workplace. Before unions were gutted by things like right to work laws, they gave workers strong collective bargaining power so they weren’t at the whim of corporate executives. They also gave us higher wages, and one reason wages haven’t been rising lately is that unions don’t have the same power or membership they used to have. You can also see below that the drop in union membership corresponds with an increase in inequality.

Union membership compared with wealth inequality.

So if you see any of these benefits in your own job, thank the unions and don’t take advantage of them by not paying your union dues in right-to-work states.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending September 1…

Missing From Last Week:

  1. Last week I wrote, “The Amazon rainforest provides about 1/5 of the oxygen on the planet. So one out of every five breaths you take is thanks to the Amazon.” I have to retract that. Scientists don’t know where that 1/5 number came from and say it’s closer to 6%.
  2. Italy’s prime minister resigned, avoiding a no confidence vote from the far right.
  3. ICE made it easier to deport crime victims waiting for their U visa, which is a special category for victims who cooperate with law enforcement. Previously, ICE had to request a preliminary judgement from U.S. Customs and Immigrations Services. Now, ICE officers can make the preliminary determination themselves.

Shootings This Week:

  1. Here are the week‘s mass shootings (defined as killing or injuring four or more people). There were so many this week (FOURTEEN), I combined some:
    • Baltimore, MD: A drive-by shooter kills one person and injures three more. Another shooter kills one person and injures three more in a dispute at a residence. Yet another shooter injures four people in a domestic dispute in nearby Frederick. And yet another shooter injures four men, with very few details known about this one.
    • Alabama: A teenage shooter injures 10 teenagers at a football game in Mobile. A shooter injures seven people at Fairfax Kindergarten in Valley during a party and over a fight about something that happened at a football game. Also, I can’t tell if this is a real kindergarten or just the name of an event space.
    • Odessa and Midland, TX: A man shoots a police officer during a traffic stop and goes on a random shooting spree that kills eight people and injures 22 others. Police shoot and kill him in a theater parking lot.
    • South Carolina: Four people are injured in a shooting at a bar.
    • North Carolina: A shooter kills one person and injures three more near student housing at UNCC. Another shooter wounds four people outside a fraternal organization (the Moose Lodge).
    • Philadelphia, PA: A shooter kills two people and injures two others.
    • Chicago, IL: A shooter kills two people and injures three more. They were on the patio of a private home.
    • Hartford, CT: A shooter injures four men. The details aren’t known.
    • Toledo, OH: A shooter injures four people. The details aren’t known. 

  1. Police arrest a 19-year-old at a North Carolina university for threatening mass violence and for possessing guns in his dorm room.
  2. Since the shootings in El Paso and Dayton, over two dozen people have been arrested over threats to commit mass violence.
  3. Even as Texas Governor Greg Abbott addresses the Odessa shooting saying that words are inadequate and there must be action, a series of laws go into effect in Texas that make it easier to store, bring, and carry weapons to both private and public places, including school campuses and churches. Abbott also says that the status quo is unacceptable.
  4. The FBI says active shooter events are increasing, and that we’re seeing them about every other week right now. They also say people need to report changes in behavior to the authorities, especially when someone becomes darker, more violent, or appears to be distressed.

Russia:

  1. Following Russia’s blown (no pun intended) nuclear-propelled missile test, they set their first floating nuclear-power reactor afloat. This ship set off from a northwestern port city and is headed east, where it will power a region around Pevek (near Alaska).
  2. A bipartisan congressional delegation is planning a trip to Russia, but Russia denies visas to members of congress who’ve been critical of Russia. This includes Democrats and Republicans alike.
  3. Current and former intelligence experts criticize Trump’s defense of Putin and Russia at the G7 Summit. They’re so shocked by the fervency of his defense, they’re once again questioning whether Trump is a Russian asset.

Legal Fallout:

  1. The House Judiciary Committee subpoenas Rob Porter, a former administration aide, about his involvement in Trump’s attempts to obstruct justice.
  2. The DOJ inspector general releases the results of his investigation into James Comey. The IG finds that Comey broke FBI protocol in handling sensitive information, but the IG doesn’t find that Comey or his friends leaked any classified information. The main criticism is that he took his contemporaneous memos home with him.
    • Note that this report doesn’t address the actual FBI investigations into Hillary Clinton or Trump.
    • The DOJ decides not to prosecute, because there’s no finding he broke the law. What he did might have been unethical, but it wasn’t illegal.
    • You can read the report here.
  1. A federal judge dismisses the lawsuit again Jeffrey Epstein following his death by apparent suicide. Sixteen women testified during the hearing, saying that now they’ll never get justice. Several victims file civil suits against Epstein’s large estate.
  2. Deutsche Bank says it has some of the tax return information being sought by the House Financial and House Intelligence Committees. We’re not sure if they are Trump’s returns specifically or if they belong to another entity under subpoena.
  3. MSNBC’s Lawerence O’Donnell does a piece on how Russian oligarchs had co-signed Trump’s loans from Deutsche Bank, which he retracts the next day after Trump’s attorney threatens a lawsuit. He doesn’t retract because the story is found to be incorrect, but it was insufficiently sourced. So we’ll see what comes of that.

Courts/Justice:

  1. The Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to lift an injunction against their rule requiring asylum seekers who pass through a third country on their way here to seek asylum in that country.
  2. Trump has requested special consideration from the Supreme Court 21 times in his first 2-1/2 years, compared to Bush and Obama requesting it a total of eight times over 16 years.

Healthcare:

  1. A court rules that Johnson & Johnson has to pay $572 million for its part in Oklahoma’s opioid epidemic.
    • Last spring, Purdue Pharma settled a suit with Oklahoma and agreed to pay $270 million.
    • Purdue Pharma is in negotiations to settle the many lawsuits against them. Reports say the payout could be between $10 billion and $12 billion.
  1. A judge in Missouri blocks their new law that would ban abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy.
  2. 58 immigration detention facilities in 19 states have reported mumps outbreaks over the past year. 898 adult migrants and 22 staff have been sickened, and more migrants are being infected as they are transferred between facilities.

International:

  1. While French President Emmanuel Macron was trying to arrange a meeting between Trump and Iran’s foreign minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and his team were scrambling to reach Trump and prevent that meeting. The Israeli government expresses concern about new negotiations between Iran and the U.S.
  2. At the same time Rudy Giuliani is pressuring Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political foes (Biden and Clinton), the Trump administration delays paying the promised $250 million in military aid to Ukraine.
  3. Trump tweets a satellite image of the aftermath of a space launch explosion in Iran, which analysts immediately speculate came from a classified satellite or drone.
  4. Hong Kong’s ongoing protests erupt in violence once more. Protestors start fires and throw petrol bombs at police. The police, in turn, use tear gas and water canons containing dyed water (so they can identify protestors).

Legislation/Congress:

In case you’re wondering why this section has been empty, Congress has been on summer recess.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

  1. Even though Trump says the wall is already being built and that some of it is done, none is done and the administration won’t say when they’ll start. Over 60 miles of existing fence have been fixed or replaced.
  2. Officials involved with the wall project say that Trump wants the wall done, he wants officials to take the land (from the people, organizations, and tribes that own it), ignore environmental regulations, and fast-track any approvals to start construction. And he’ll pardon any officials who break the law to get it done.
  3. With hurricane season upon us and the first hurricane expected to make landfall currently at a Category 5 level, DHS transfers $271 million from FEMA to the border. FEMA says as long as we don’t have any new catastrophic events, they’ll have enough money to operate.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. 19 states plus DC sue the Trump administration to block their new rule overturning the Flores Agreement. The new rule would allow Trump to detain immigrant children indefinitely.
  2. The Trump administration starts denying special protections to immigrant families who receive life saving medical care here in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services sends out letters saying they’re not considering requests for medical relief and that people here under those protections have 33 days to leave the U.S.
    • Turns out they transferred that responsibility to ICE, though this was never announced and was not included in the letters. ICE says they don’t know anything about it, nor do they have the resources to handle the change.
    • Many of those affected are kids with diseases like cancer, cystic fibrosis, HIV, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and epilepsy.
  1. New video surfaces of Quillette editor Andrew Ngo with the group Patriot Prayer planning attacks against a group of antifa who were gathered at a bar after a protest. Ngo does a lot of reporting on antifa, but he failed to report on the planned attack by Patriot Prayer.
    • If you remember, Ngo published video of his wounds after he was attacked by antifa members earlier this year, but failed to provide information about what led up to the attack.
    • Ngo leaves Quillette after the latest video is released, which Quillette says is just coincidence.
  1. The Trump administration announces that some children born to our troops and diplomats abroad will no longer be automatically considered U.S. citizens.
    • For some, this just requires that they apply for citizenship by a certain age. But there are already people who forget this requirement when they adopt children from abroad, which has resulted in deportation of adopted kids when they become adults. I don’t see this working out much better.
    • This rule seems to be designed for others, though; service members who aren’t themselves yet citizens. Their children will have a harder time getting citizenship.
    • Ken Cuccinelli says this doesn’t change who is born a U.S. citizen, but then he’s also the guy who said the poem at the bottom of the Statue of Liberty only welcomed immigrants who can stand on their own two feet.
  1. Right-wing hate groups are using video games to recruit youngsters into their ranks. 97% of teen boys play video games, and 83% of teen girls do. The associated chatrooms are a perfect recruitment tool, and it’s where white supremacists befriend the kids and subtly manipulate them into scapegoating their minority peers.
    • Chat logs from the online game Discord show that much of the far-right’s Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville was planned there.
  1. The Trump administration wants to run DNA tests on detained undocumented immigrants.
  2. The Cherokee Nation says they’ll appoint a delegate to the House of Representatives. They’ve never done this before, even though a 200-year-old treaty says they can. It’s not clear if that Representative would actually have a vote in the House.
  3. Migrant girls held in detention are given only limited access to basic needs like sanitary pads and tampons, in some cases given only one tampon per day. Toxic Shock Syndrome anyone?

Climate:

  1. Trump says that U.S. wealth is more important than saving the planet from climate change. Not in so many words, but he did say he prioritizes our wealth over climate “dreams” and “windmills.” But we knew this already. It’s the only reason to prioritize dirty energy over clean energy.
  2. Because Jakarta is sinking into the sea, Indonesia announces they’ll build a new capital city in another location at a cost of $34 billion.
  3. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro demands an apology from French President Emmanuel Macron before he’ll accept the $20 million in international assistance to help fight Amazon rainforest fires. Someone needs to put on their big-boy pants.
  4. While climate change is seen to be exacerbating wildfires in Arctic areas like Siberia and Alaska, those fires, along with those intentionally set in the Amazon and Indonesia, are also exacerbating climate change. A vicious cycle.
    • This is especially true with the increase in Arctic fires, which burn peat; peat releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than trees.
  1. The latest models coming out of the climate science community are alarming. They show much greater rates of temperature increase than had been previously thought, with the high range increasing from 4.5°C to 5.8°C. The latest reports say we still have the capability to limit the rise to 1.5°C, which is driving climate change scientists crazy. They’re having a hard time dealing with the general public’s inability to grasp how serious this is, and are experiencing stress and and even grief over it.
  2. Hurricane Dorian increases to a Category 5 and stalls out over the Bahamas. Five people are dead that we know of so far. Models predict Dorian will skim the east coast of Florida before hitting Georgia and North Carolina.
    • Trump says he doesn’t think he’s even heard of a Category 5 hurricane, even though three have hit U.S. land since he took office. No surprise, though. In the weeks between Hurricane Irma and Maria (both Cat 5s), he said he never knew Cat 5s existed.
  1. The EPA proposes a plan to completely eliminate requirements that oil and gas companies install tools to find and fix methane leaks in their wells, pipelines, and storage facilities. Even fossil fuel giants have come out against this plan, partly because this isn’t an expensive fix for an existential problem (costing just 0.01% of their annual revenue) and partly because they’re afraid it will cause some sort of disaster if methane is left unchecked by smaller companies.
  2. Trump tells Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue to exempt Alaska’s Tongass National Forest from logging restrictions. The Tongass is the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest. This exemption would open it up to logging, drilling, and mining, and would violate Clinton’s roadless rule barring the construction of roads in certain parts of our national forests.

Budget/Economy:

  1. A number of farmers interviewed express frustration with Trump’s trade war and tariffs, and are concerned that it will take decades to rebuild those business relationships. Or they’ll just have to develop relationships with new buyers. At any rate, support for Trump is still pretty high among farmers.
  2. Farm bankruptcies have risen 13% so far this year, and more farmers are delinquent on their loans.
  3. Trump says trade negotiations with China have restarted, but doesn’t give any details.
  4. Trump’s aides later say he lied about trade talks with China in order to boost the markets.
  5. While central bank policies have been guiding the global economy, Fed Chair Jerome Powell says that there are no precedents to guide a policy response should we see a recession in our current situation. Interest rates are already low, and government spending doesn’t seem to be boosting the economy.
  6. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin proposes selling bonds that mature in 50 to 100 years.
  7. Trump reverses his earlier stance on freezing federal employees’ wages and sends a letter endorsing a 2.6% raise across the board.
    • This sounds great, but on further reading, it turns out if he didn’t send that letter, employees would’ve received the 2.6% raise plus cost-of-living increases based on where they work.
  1. More Americans see the economy in decline (37%) than see it improving (31%). In this environment, your guess is as good as mine as to which way it’ll go.
  2. Trump’s latest round of tariffs against Chinese goods go into effect. Tariffs on popular holiday items are still delayed, but this round of tariffs will increase the cost of some apparel, food products, American flags, tea, sporting goods, shoes, and so on.
  3. The tariffs haven’t seemed to dampen consumer spending, but business spending is in a slump.
  4. A group of laid-off miners in Kentucky are blocking a train loaded with coal from going to market in protest of the bankruptcy laws that allowed their company not to pay their final salary obligations.
    • After their company declared bankruptcy, paychecks bounced and some that had been deposited in workers’ accounts were pulled back out (leaving some with overdrafts in their accounts because they were already spending their own money).

Elections:

  1. After losing their vice chairman, the FEC is close to shutting down, putting the fight against election interference on the back burner. They’re down to three members, and no longer have enough commissioners to legally meet.
  2. DHS plans to start a program to protect voter registration databases and election systems from the types of ransomware attacks that have been hitting cities and towns around the country. Finally there’s some action against election interference.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Color me shocked. There’s a network of conservatives trying to discredit news organizations that Trump doesn’t like by smearing journalists from those outlets. They’ve already released info on journalists from CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. The group plans to ramp up the smear campaign in 2020 in support of Trump’s re-election campaign.
    • The network is compiling social media posts going back at least a decade.
    • Their efforts include the families of journalists, political activists, and other political opponents of Trump.
  1. Trump finally goes after Fox News (it had to happen — he turns on everyone eventually). He says Fox News “isn’t working for us anymore.” What’s that mean? The news isn’t supposed to be working for any part of government. Anyway, he accuses the network of heavily promoting the Democrats, and tells followers to find another news outlet.
  2. After passing a law reducing penalties for marijuana possession, New York plans to expunge thousands of marijuana convictions.
  3. Trump’s personal assistant spills the Trump family tea during an off-the-record dinner with reporters, and ends up getting fired. Apparently, drinks were involved.
  4. Trump formally establishes the U.S. Space Command. This is different from his Space Force, which is still waiting on congressional approval.
  5. Trump cancels his trip to Poland in order to monitor Hurricane Dorian, but then he heads to his Virginia golf course where he tweets and golfs over the long weekend.
  6. As Puerto Rico readies itself for Hurricane Dorian, Trump calls the territory corrupt and San Juan’s mayor incompetent. OTH, Trump says he’s the best thing to happen to Puerto Rico. Trump says Congress approved $92 billion after Hurricane Maria, but it was actually $42 billion. And not much of that has been spent so far.
  7. Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis has been on a book tour, and says he had no choice but to leave after Trump said he’d withdraw troops from Syria. Mattis indirectly criticizes Trump, but doesn’t address specific complaints directly.

Week 135 in Trump

Posted on August 27, 2019 in Politics, Trump

Even though the stock market did well under Obama, I would still argue that the president doesn’t have that much control over the markets. But in this new world where everything’s upside down, you can see by the image above that yes, the president does have some control over the markets. I’ve lost count of how many times the market has dumped because of Trump’s careless speech and tweets, and then perked back up because he announced something that didn’t come to fruition. Maybe he has more power over the markets because he’s the chosen one, the King of Israel, and the second coming. And yes, he did say he was all that…

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending August 25…

Missing From Last Week:

  1. In July, Trump expanded his policy of making asylum seekers wait in Mexico to two additional cities, more than doubling the number of refugees ordered to wait out their time in Mexico.
  2. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue cracks jokes about whiny farmers two days after China says they’ll stop buying all U.S. agricultural products. Farmers are already hurting because of the trade wars, and the bailout isn’t paying them anything close to what they’d make if they could actually sell their products.

Shootings This Week:

  1. The week‘s mass shootings (defined as killing or injuring four or more people):
    • A shooter injures four people at a block party near the campus of Clark Atlanta University.
    • A shooter injures four people, including a social worker and a security guard, near Skid Row in Los Angeles.
    • A shooter kills two people and injures two more outside a bar in Columbia, South Carolina.
    • A shooter kills an eight-year-old and injures three people after a football jamboree in St. Louis.
    • A shooter kills three people and injures two more in Houston. Police think it’s gang-related.
    • A shooter injures seven people at a toddler’s birthday party in Maryland.
    • A shooter kills one person and injures three more at a playground in Massachusetts. That asshole also kills the dog of one of the victims.
    • A teenager in New Mexico kills three people and injures four more.
    • Someone fires shots into a crowd in Chicago killing one and injuring three.
  1. After Trump lays the blame for mass shootings on mental illness, DHHS warned federal health officials not to post anything on social media about it, fearing the experts would contradict Trump.
    • What were they afraid they’d say? They’d say that mental illness is not a predictor in mass shootings and the vast majority of mass shooters have no diagnosed mental illness.
  1. The Parkland students release an ambitious gun control plan that includes expanding background checks, increasing wait periods, raising the minimum purchase age, instituting red flag laws, creating a national licensing and gun registry, banning assault weapons (which still need to be defined) and high capacity magazines, and creating a new director role to coordinate the federal response.
  2. Trump says he’s in favor of expanding background checks, and then after a call with NRA head Wayne LaPierre he says he’s not for it. And then later he says he might be for it.
  3. Dick’s Sporting Goods has a strong quarter despite their decision to reduce gun sales.
  4. The day before the El Paso shooting, Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent out a fundraising mailer calling on Republicans to “DEFEND TEXAS NOW” and to take matters into their own hands. The mailer referenced the number of immigrants caught crossing the border illegally the previous month.

Russia:

  1. Since the explosion of the nuclear-propelled missile Russia was testing, four of the nearby nuclear monitoring stations have gone silent. The monitoring stations are part of a global network created to verify everyone is complying with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
  2. Like Russia, China gets into the disinformation game. Twitter removes nearly 1,000 accounts and suspends around 200,000 because a state-backed disinformation campaign has been targeting the pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong.
  3. Trump says he’ll invite Putin to next year’s G-7 Summit, which will likely be hosted at a Trump property. He just can’t let this one go.

Legal Fallout:

  1. An IRS whistle blower reports to the House Ways and Means Committee that there has been potentially inappropriate interference with the process of auditing Trump’s tax returns.
  2. Trump’s financial disclosure statements conflict with his filings with the United Kingdom regarding the value and income of his golf courses in Scotland. This is a violation of the Ethics in Government Act.
  3. Rudy Giuliani confirms that the State Department helped him push Ukraine to open investigations into former Vice President Biden and into the Democratic National Committee, which Ukraine is now doing. Giuliani thinks possible crimes might include “bribery, extortion, fraud, money laundering and illegal interference in 2016 election.”
    • The current Ukrainian prosecutor general says they’ve already looked into Biden and there’s nothing there.

Healthcare:

  1. Because of Trump’s changes to the rules, Planned Parenthood withdraws from the Title X family planning program, which provides funding for healthcare services for low-income and underserved communities. Trump’s rule prohibits Title X recipients from providing abortions or referring patients for abortions except in the case of rape, incest, or medical emergency.
    • Planned Parenthood serves about 40% of all Title X recipients, providing preventive care, contraception, and yes, abortions.
    • Maine’s sole Title X provider also withdraws.
    • Title X has had a huge influence in reducing unintended pregnancies and thus reducing abortions. Without it, the number of unintended pregnancies is estimated to double for poor women.
    • IMO, now we’ll have more babies on welfare and we’ll bitch about that too.
  1. At least three children held in migrant detention centers have died, in part from the flu; yet the government won’t be giving any detainees a flu shot. It’s like they’re hoping to cause a pandemic or something.
    • Fun fact: Prior to Trump, no child had died in U.S. immigration custody in nearly a decade.
  1. Five years into the ACA, it’s eliminated 44% of the gap between insured wealthy and insured poor, and 27% of the gap between whites and minorities. Also, Lindsey Graham says Republicans will run on trying to repeal the ACA again in 2020.

International:

  1. The Pentagon’s inspector general reports their findings that ISIS is growing again in Syria and Iraq. The report blames Trump for the instability caused by drawing down troops in Syria too quickly and pulling all diplomatic personnel out of Iraq, which allowed a space for the militants to regroup.
    • Brett McGurk, the Special Envoy who resigned following Trump’s drawdown announcement, says he warned of this repeatedly at the time.
  1. After Trump floats buying Greenland from Denmark, the prime minister of Denmark says that’s absurd. So Trump calls her nasty (all strong women are nasty, right?). And since the world laughs at him, Trump decides to cancel his state visit to Denmark. He had been invited by Queen Margrethe II for a state visit the first week in September.
    • Why does Trump want to buy Greenland? Likely to exploit its fossil fuel reserves and to have a strategic military base location.
  1. Leaders in the European Union reject UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s request to restart Brexit negotiations.
  2. The British government announces they’ll halt all free movement between the UK and EU countries on day one of Brexit, even though there are no systems in place to support this. Experts say there’s no way that can be done because it can’t be enforced.
    • There are 3 million EU citizens in the UK. It’s unknown yet what will happen to the 1.3 million Brits living abroad in EU countries.
    • Immigration to Britain is at a five-year low, but that’s mostly from the EU. Migrants from other countries, which appeared to be what concerned Brexiters the most, is still high.
  1. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells the World Zionist Congress that Hitler only wanted to expel Jews, he didn’t want to exterminate them. He repeats a widely debunked conspiracy theory laying the blame for the holocaust on a Muslim leader named Haj Amin al-Husseini. I did not expect him to be a Hitler apologist.
  2. Trump heads off to the G-7 Summit, which is typically a time when some of the world’s major economies come together to work toward global solutions. But this time, the U.S. is an outlier in terms of trade, climate change, and Iran, and that throws a wrench in the typical agreements made here.
    • Instead of endorsing the standard communique (which reflects the G-7’s shared values), they end by endorsing a one-page document of issues they’ll continue to work on. This is only the second time since 1975 a communique hasn’t been endorsed.
    • Trump says these deals are unfair to the U.S. But of course he does. We’re always the victim in his mind.
    • Trump says Melania has gotten to know Kim Jong Un well. Not sure when they would’ve met? Turns out they have never met.
    • As far as Iran goes, Trump says, “The biggest part of the conclusion, they can’t have nuclear weapons.” Just a little history lesson. The reason conservatives gave for calling the Iran deal the worst deal ever is that it only dealt with nuclear weapons and didn’t deal with state-sponsored violence and terrorism. The deal was by all accounts tremendously successful in curtailing Iran’s nuclear capabilities. And now that Trump has scrapped that deal, all he wants is to curb their nuclear weapons? WTAF?
    • French President Macron invites the Iranian foreign minister to come by the G-7. He’s hoping to get Trump to meet with him eventually.
  1. Protests in Hong Kong escalate after a police officer shoots a live round into the air while police armed with water canons to disperse crowd. Demonstrators barricade streets and try to dismantle monitoring cameras installed around the city.
  2. Russia’s protests also continue. Several students have been arrested, and the opposition leader is finally released from a month-long stay in prison for starting the protests.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The NYPD fires the officer who killed Eric Garner.
  2. A federal judge allows a lawsuit against Trump’s transgender military ban to move forward because transgender service members’ claim is constitutionally valid. However, only transgender troops who were forced to leave the military can file suit.
  3. A school board in Virginia that recently lost its court battle to defend its transgender bathroom bill says they’ll continue to fight the ruling. Don’t they have anything more productive to throw their energy behind?
  4. Trump accuses Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats of being disloyal, or if not disloyal, ignorant. Maybe I should send him a copy of “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”
    • This is the same Jewish trope that Ilhan Omar got called out for. Omar met with Jewish people, educated herself on why it was wrong, and apologized. I wonder if Trump will do the same?
    • Also, IKYMI, Jewish Americans overwhelmingly vote Democratic (by about 75% to 25%).
  1. The Trump administration issues a rule that allows them to indefinitely detain people who cross the border illegally, including families.
    • The change will also take away state’s licensing authority and give it to ICE.
    • I’m not sure how they’re getting around the Flores agreement, which limits the length of time we can detain minors.
    • Just a reminder, releasing them with papers allowing them to work costs us far, far less than detaining them. Detaining them costs around $750 per day, or nearly $274,000 per year. Given an average of 40,000 detainees, that’s close to $11 billion year. Do we hate them so much we’re willing to pay that price for their pain?
  1. The top aide to Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan resigns, frustrated with how the White House handles major policy rollouts.
    • The White House is mad that McAleenan undersold the rollout of the change in policy allowing indefinite detention.
  1. The Army lowers its recruitment expectations for 2019 after missing its goals in 2018. This is in no small part due to how immigrant and minority soldiers have been treated under this administration. They previously had certain protections, but now have to deal with fears of being deported, fears of their families being deported, and other soldiers who wear MAGA hats and patches. If you don’t know why that sparks fear in minorities, it‘s because white hate groups have embraced those hats and changed what was once just random campaign swag to a symbol of hate.
  2. North Carolina’s governor vetoes a bill that would have required sheriffs to work closely with ICE on immigration enforcement.
  3. Trump wants to end birthright citizenship, granted in the 14th Amendment, for children of immigrants.
  4. Trump also wants to reduce the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. each year. That number is already down to 30,000 from 85,000 in 2016.
  5. The DOJ sends an email to all immigration employees that includes a link to a white nationalist article that attacks immigration judges and uses racial slurs. The DOJ says the email is compiled by a third-party vendor and that they don’t review it before it goes out.
  6. New York, Connecticut, and Vermont sue to block Trump’s rule that could put immigrants’ legal residency or citizenship in jeopardy if they use any social welfare programs.

Climate:

  1. 16 of the past 17 years have been the hottest ever recorded, according to the National Climate Assessment. This heat correlates with an increase in intense and heavy precipitation.
  2. Mercedes-Benz joins VW, Ford, BMW, and Honda in their agreement with California on emissions limitations, which is in opposition to Trump’s recent reversal of Obama’s emissions regulations.
    • Last month, Trump summoned leaders of Toyota, General Motors, Chrysler, and Fiat to pressure them not to join in.
  1. Trump suggests in a meeting that we should drop nuclear bombs into the eyes of hurricanes to weaken them before they hit the U.S. This has been floated before, but it’s been known for decades that it wouldn’t work. There’s the obvious problem of radiation fallout, but also, a nuclear blast wouldn’t be strong enough to significantly affect the storm. My favorite description of the meeting so far? “You could hear a gnat fart in that meeting.”
  2. Trump skips the G-7 meeting on climate change, saying he had to deal with issues with Germany and India, but those leaders are actually in attendance at the meeting on climate change.
  3. At the end of the G-7, Trump says he‘s the greatest environmentalist to be president. Confusing, since most of his changes to regulations open us up to more pollution, worsening climate change, and exploitation by the fossil fuel industry. But then he addresses that by saying he cares more about keeping the U.S. wealthy. Ah… so greed is better than doing what’s right?
  4. At the G-7, leaders approve providing aide to help Brazil combat fires in the Amazon rainforest.
  5. The rainforest has been on fire for three weeks, with the number of fires up 85% from last year to more than 80,000 fires.
    • Brazil declared a state of emergency, but it seems that most of these fires were set by farmers, miners, and loggers who were encouraged by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
    • Bolsonaro says non-governmental organizations (NGOs) started the fires, but shows no evidence. He also fires the scientist who heads the agency that discovered the steep rise in deforestation.
  1. Why is this fire such a big deal?
    • The Amazon rainforest provides about 1/5 of the oxygen on the planet. So one out of every five breaths you take is thanks to the Amazon.
      UPDATE: I have to retract the above statement. Scientists don’t know where that 1/5 number came from and say it’s closer to 6%.
    • The fires release plumes of carbon monoxide, which cause smog and can exacerbate climate change.
    • The Amazon absorbs excess carbon dioxide, helping to stave off climate change.
    • Scientists predict that losing too much of the rainforest will change rainfall patterns around the globe, including in the U.S. Midwest, which would see a decline in rainfall.

Budget/Economy:

  1. J.P. Morgan predicts that tariffs will cost American families up to $1,000 per year.
  2. U.S. Steel plans to lay off 200 Michigan workers. This comes after their announcement that they’ll idle two blast furnaces due to declining steel prices and lower demand.
  3. Business analysts say the economic boost from the GOP tax cuts have dwindled, and they expect the economy to shrink by the second quarter of next year. Looks like that tax cut was just a quick sugar fix after all…
  4. Trump, along with two senior economic advisers, brush off concerns about an impending recession. Larry Kudlow and Peter Navarro both say the trade war isn’t hurting the economy, contradicting Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s words from the previous week. This is in response to economic indicators flashing recession warnings starting last week.
  5. Trump wants the Fed to cut interest rates by a full percentage point. Interest rates are already relatively low, and cutting them too much right now doesn’t give the Fed much wiggle room in case a slowing economy necessitates further cuts.
  6. The White House floats a temporary payroll tax cut to boost the economy and encourage spending. This could 1) cut into Social Security and Medicare funds and 2) increase the already-ballooning deficit.
  7. But then, Trump takes tax cuts off the table for now, because “we have a strong economy.” Mixed messages.
  8. Trump’s trade wars and tax changes are having a negative effect on the ability of truck drivers to make a living. About 75% of truck drivers supported Trump.
  9. Trump signs an executive order that forgives all student loan debt for permanently disabled veterans.
  10. The mayors of 70 cities send a letter to the SNAP administrator complaining about Trump’s proposed changes to the SNAP program, which would dump millions off the program.
  11. The week ends with Trump calling China’s President Xi Jinping his enemy and announcing that he would increase his planned tariffs by 5% on $550 million worth of goods. China says they’ll increase tariffs on vehicles to 25% plus other retaliatory tariffs. Trump calls China an enemy of the U.S.
  12. The Dow Jones drops over 600 points (around 2.4%), the Nasdaq drops 3%, and the S&P drops 2.6%. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says it’s because of trade policy uncertainty, so Trump calls him an enemy of the U.S. Ya know, just like China.
  13. And after China announces their retaliatory tariffs, Trump tweets, “Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA.” Pretty sure he can’t do that, even though he’s the chosen one.
  14. He also orders all shipping carriers to search for and refuse any Fentanyl deliveries.
  15. The BLS revises its estimate of total jobs created from March 2018 to March 2019 downward by 501,000. This type of revision isn’t unusual once the actual numbers are reported, though the revisions are usually in 10s of thousands, not 100s of thousands.
  16. At the G-7, Trump says we’re working on trade deals with multiple countries, including Japan. That’s not what Japan says.
  17. Trump also says that we’re back in trade talks with China, and that calls were made over the weekend. That’s not what China says. When he gets called out for making conflicting statements about trade with China, he says it’s just how he negotiates.
  18. Trump expresses regret at the hard line he’s taken on the trade war with China, but his aides are quick to clarify that he meant he should’ve been harsher.
  19. Trump says next year’s G-7 summit will be held at one of his country clubs. No conflict of interest there.
  20. The number of Americans who think current economic conditions are good dropped 5 points from 70% in May to 65% now.

Elections:

  1. Trump tweets that Google gave Hillary anywhere from 2.6 million to 16 million votes in 2016. In fairness, he was taking (and exaggerating) the word of Dr. Robert Epstein, a researcher who testified to Congress; but further inspection of the study doesn’t bear out his conclusions.
    • Epstein himself says that there’s no evidence Google manipulated search results to favor Clinton. Also, the number of voters he alleges were influenced is not much more than a guess.
    • Epstein has tangled with Google since 2012, when they tagged his website for spreading malware. He then spent four years claiming their search results could influence elections. And then amazingly, the conclusions from his research (which included studying a grand total of 95 people) matched his predictions exactly.
  1. I’ve been staying out of the presidential elections because there are so many Democratic candidates, I was waiting until a few of them got weeded out. But now we have a new candidate, Joe Walsh, trying to primary Trump. You might remember him as the member of congress who yelled out “You lie!” during one of the Barack Obama’s state of the union addresses. Or you might remember him as a birther and a conspiracy theorist. But he’s apologized for all that and thinks he should be president.