Category: Politics

Week 134 in Trump

Posted on August 20, 2019 in Politics, Trump

(Credit: Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

This restores my faith in humanity. A man who lost his wife in the El Paso shooting and had no family left opened up her funeral to the entire community. Over 1,000 strangers showed up to comfort the grieving man and pay their respects to his wife. The funeral home was filled to capacity, and people waited outside for hours for their turn to come inside. People from across the globe send flowers, and some people even travel from out of town or out of state to get there.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending August 18…

Shootings This Week:

  1. The week‘s mass shootings (defined as killing or injuring four or more people):
    • A shooter wounds four people behind a grocery store in Greenwood, MS.
    • A shooter in Tacoma, WA, kills two people and injures three.
    • A shooter near the Alabama State University campus in Montgomery, AL, kills two people and injures three.
    • A shooter injures five people in Philadelphia.
    • A shooter injures seven people at a house party in Houston. It was a pop-up party, started by random invitations on Snapchat.
    • A shooter injures four teenagers in the Kansas City Sheraton Plaza hotel.
  1. This was another bad week for LEOs, too.
    • During a traffic stop in Riverside, CA, a shooter kills one police officer and injures two more before the police kill the suspect.
    • Six police officers are shot and injured in an hours-long shootout in Philadelphia during an attempted drug bust. The shooter was firing an AR-15.
  1. Public tips lead to three arrests in three states of men threatening mass shootings.
    • One posted his interest in committing a mass shooting on Facebook.
    • One texted his ex-girlfriend threatening a mass shooting.
    • On threatened to shoot up a Jewish community center.
  1. Prosecutors indict a young man who threatened federal agents. Agents seized 25 guns and around 10,000 rounds of ammunition from his house.
  2. The House Judiciary Committee announces they’ll cut their August recess short in order to move forward three gun safety bills.
  3. A leaked memo shows that Congressional Republicans’ talking points about mass shootings include labeling them “violence from the left.” Left-wing extremism is responsible for 3% of extremist killings as opposed to the right-wing’s 73%. In 2018, all extremist killings were related to right-wing extremism, mostly white supremacy.

Russia:

  1. The nuclear blast that killed five Russians occurred during a failed test of a nuclear-powered missile, likely the one that Putin has called “invincible.”
    • Days after the blast, which caused local radiation levels to spike, Russian officials ordered an evacuation of a small town near the blast for “military drills.” They then cancel the evacuation, saying the drills have been cancelled, leading defense experts to believe they’re suspending more tests for now.
  1. FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub accuses her Republican colleagues of blocking an investigation into a complaint of allegations of Russian money laundering involving the NRA. The complaint stems from a reported FBI investigation.
    • Weintraub claims Republicans on the FEC stopped the General Counsel from even reaching out to the FBI to confirm whether or not this investigation actually exists.

Legal Fallout:

  1. The guards who neglected to check on Jeffrey Epstein before he hanged himself didn’t check on him because they fell asleep. They falsified records to cover it up.
  2. Epstein’s autopsy found broken bones in his neck that can happen in a suicidal hanging, but that are more common in a homicidal strangling. The conspiracy theories grow.
  3. But then, the cause of death is listed as suicide by hanging. And the conspiracy theories continue to grow. *sigh*
  4. Two women file lawsuits against Epstein’s estate under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
  5. The House Judiciary Committee subpoenas Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and former White House official Rick Dearborn to testify September 17. We’ll see if it actually happens this time.
    • The White House wants to invoke executive privilege to restrict Lewandowski’s testimony, but he never worked for the White House.

Courts/Justice:

  1. The DOJ submits a brief asking the Supreme Court to rule that Title VII (which prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of sex, race, color, religion or national origin) does not apply to transgender people.

Healthcare:

  1. Despite the spate of highly restrictive abortion laws passed by states in recent years, draconian restrictions on abortion are extremely unpopular in the U.S., with less than 25% of people supporting total bans. 58% of Americans support legalized abortion in all or most cases.
  2. A Kaiser Family Foundation study shows that support for so-called heartbeat bills, which ban abortions later than six weeks into pregnancy, plummets when people are told what those laws actually do.
  3. Doctors in Congo say they’ve cured two Ebola patients they treated with new Ebola drugs.
  4. A VA inspector general report shows that for a six-month period in 2017, the VA incorrectly denied about 17,400 veterans $53.3 million in medical claims. A bipartisan group of lawmakers pushes for reconsideration of those claims.

International:

  1. Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests continue this week, with flash-mob style protests across the territory.
    • Officials shut down all outgoing flights at the airport, and requested incoming flights not come, for two days due to the number of protestors at the airport.
    • Violence breaks out sporadically, but the largest protest over the weekend is mostly peaceful. Nearly 1.7 million people, or a quarter of the city show up in the pouring rain to protest.
    • Satellite images of the Hong Kong border show over 500 Chinese military vehicles hidden along the border, waiting to be deployed against protestors.
  1. Pro-democracy protests also continue in Russia for the sixth straight week.
  2. Last week, I said that Israel doesn’t let Trump tell them what to do. But it turns out Israel does. They bar Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from entering Israel because they support BDS (and because Trump said to). Israel later says Tlaib can come visit her Palestinian grandmother, but Tlaib declines because of the restriction and conditions place on the visit.
  3. I’m still confused over Trump’s concern over A$AP Rocky, but anyhoo… a Swedish court finds Rocky guilty of assault, but doesn’t give him any more jail time.
  4. Trump floats purchasing Greenland.
  5. A suicide bomber at a wedding reception in Kabul kills 63 people and injures 182 more. The Islamic State claims responsibility; the Taliban denies any responsibility.
  6. Foreign diplomates and officials are already making contingency plans in case they have to deal with Trump for four more years, fearing he’ll win in 2020. 
Countries are holding off on launching new initiatives with the U.S. as a precaution.
  7. It’s kind of telling that the leaders Trump has the most goodwill with right now are those who are gutting democracy in their countries (Hungary, Poland, and Israel).
  8. Trump wants to create a naval blockade along Venezuela’s coast to stop the import and export of goods from the country. Sr. Pentagon officials don’t see the point, think it’s impractical, and say it would stretch them even thinner in the international arena.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

  1. The Trump administration plans to dig up Native American gravesites in order to build the border wall. Democrats in Congress are working to exempt historic cemeteries like this from being part of the wall.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. An American fencer who won bronze and helped Team USA win gold at the Pan Am Games takes a knee during the national anthem to protest racism, gun violence, our horrific treatment of immigrants, and Trump.
    • A hammer thrower who took gold raises her fist in protest at the end of the national anthem.
  1. Last year, Alabama filed a suit against the Commerce Department and the Census Bureau arguing that undocumented immigrants shouldn’t be counted when apportioning federal representation and funding. This would be a major shift away from how we’ve done things in the past.
  2. Families separated at the border by the Trump administration are suing for damages, specifically families with kids who claim they were abused in foster care. As expensive as family separation and endless detention has been for taxpayers, these lawsuit settlements could cost us 100s of millions more.
  3. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reverses a nationwide injunction against Trump’s policy of denying any asylum claims for people who enter the U.S. via a third country. So the policy goes back into effect in Texas and New Mexico, but not California and Arizona.
  4. The Trump administration introduces a new rule that changes how recipients of public assistance are evaluated for U.S. residency and citizenship. The rule adds things like receiving food stamps or medicaid to the things immigration officials can take into consideration.
    • Pros: Fewer people getting public assistance.
    • Cons: People will forego the help they need for fear that they won’t get residency or citizenship (meaning children will go hungry, for a start).
  1. In defending the new rule, Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Ken Cuccinelli rewrites the poem at the base of the statue of liberty. He says:

“Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet, and who will not become a public charge.”

    • Here’s the actual line from the poem. I’ll let you compare the difference. Jeez.

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

    • He later says that the poem only refers to people coming from Europe.
    • In implementing the rule, the DHS ignored a majority of the 266,077 public comments submitted.
    • California seeks an injunction to block the new rule on the basis that it’s intended to discriminate.
  1. On the campaign trail, Trump promised to be a very good friend to the LGBTQ community. Well, a couple bans later (along with with removing protections against discrimination), he proposes a new rule that would let companies doing federal business discriminate against LGBTQ workers based on closely held religious beliefs.
    • The rule also allows discrimination based on race, ethnicity, nation of origin, gender, and more.
    • This is just one in a string of new rules that makes it harder to win a discrimination case in court.
  1. Representative Steve King (R-IA) defends his anti-abortion stance in cases of rape and incest by asking, if we didn’t have rape and incest, would there be any population left?” Makes me wonder what kind of sex this guy is having.
  2. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a lower court’s ruling that DHS must provide immigrant children in detention centers with edible food, clean water, soap, and toothbrushes. The ruling also says that the children cannot be sleep-deprived.
  3. Gavin Grimm finally wins his discrimination case against a Virginia school board over transgender bathroom use. The case was temporarily put on hold when Trump rescinded the bill allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of their gender identity.
  4. The officer who drove into a group of people protesting at an immigrant detention center resigns. One of the protestors suffered a broken leg and internal bleeding, while other were sprayed by other officers with pepper spray.
  5. A new analysis shows that black men are 2.5 times more likely that white men to die during a police encounter. Latino men, black women, and all Native Americans are also killed by police at a higher rate.
  6. Well this is so not good. Experts at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) argue that domestic terrorists, like ISIS, are trying to create dirty bombs (that is, radioactive bombs). This includes white hate groups and neo-Nazis.

Alt-Right vs. Antifa:

  1. While Portland police planned well for a white supremacist rally and the corresponding counter-protests by antifa, several fights broke out and police arrested 13 people and seized several weapons.
  2. Trump says we should designate antifa as a terrorist group (just a reminder that antifa stands for anti-fascist, and it’s not an organized enough group to be considered a terrorist group).
  3. One of the alt-right leaders just turned himself in for charges of felony rioting from a previous fight.
  4. The alt-right organizer says the whole point of the rally is to bring attention to antifa after the beating of far-right journalist Andy Ngo.
  5. If you don’t think that Trump fans the flames of white supremacy, white supremacists would disagree with you. The Proud Boys organizer Joe Biggsold says:

“Go look at President Trump’s Twitter. He talked about Portland, said he’s watching antifa. That’s all we wanted. We wanted national attention, and we got it. Mission success.”

  1. My question here is, if there were no white supremacy groups, would there be any antifa? And does antifa organize protests on their own, or do they just come out to protest white hate groups? The only exception to that that I’ve seen is the inauguration day vandalism.

Climate:

  1. 29 states and cities sue the Trump administration over the new rules attempting to rescind Obama’s Clean Power Plan. The new rules would ease emissions restrictions on coal-burning power plants.
  2. The Interior Department issues new rules to weaken the Endangered Species Act. The act, which was passed by Republicans in 1973, protects hundreds of species. The Secretary of the Interior is a former fossil fuel lobbyists, so the speculation is that this will allow for more drilling. Cue the lawsuits.
  3. The use of neonicotinoid pesticides (neonics, for short) has made our farms around 50 times more toxic to honeybees and likely to other insects as well.
  4. In another testament to the impulsive nature of this administration, the EPA reverses its decision to allow “cyanide bombs” to kill wildlife. Apparently the public outcry over this took them by surprise.
  5. India holds a tree-planting marathon, with students, volunteers, and government officials planting 220 million trees in just one day.
  6. A U.S. Geological Survey study found plastic particles in more than 90% of the rainwater samples they tested in the Denver-Boulder areas and surrounding mountains. It’s raining plastic, folks.
  7. While the globe is still waiting for the fateful day when warming reaches 2 degrees Celsius, several U.S. areas have already reached it and are feeling the effects.
    • New Jersey and other New England states, New York City, and Los Angeles, are among the most rapidly heating areas.
    • Other states feeling the burn include northern parts of Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Michigan. Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Oregon, and Arizona also have some hot spots.
    • The warming affects industries and causes overgrowths of toxic algae and seaweeds.

Budget/Economy:

  1. Seemingly spooked by the market’s reaction to tariff announcements, Trump delays tariffs on Chinese goods that are big-sellers during the holidays. They’ll go into effect in mid-December.
  2. So far this year, tariffs have doubled customs duties to $57 billon.
  3. This fiscal year’s budget deficit grows to $866.8 billion, surpassing last year’s total and we still have two months to go in the fiscal year. The deficit is expected to surpass $1 trillion this year, two years earlier than previously predicted.
  4. GDP growth slowed in fiscal year 2019, indicating that tax cuts and deficit spending aren’t what will boost the economy in the long term. And after all the financial maneuverings, the economy is on pace to keep up the steady growth of the past 10 years.
  5. Analysts attribute the slowing to the GOP tax cuts, increased government spending, and a population that’s getting older. The GOP still says that the tax cuts will boost GDP growth.
  6. In case you thought last week would be the worst for the markets… Stocks took a little rollercoaster ride, dropping nearly 1,000 points in one day. Most indexes drop around 3%. They bounce back up (mostly), but bond yields are still pushing lower.
    • Trump blames his own Fed and pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong.
  1. The 10-year and 2-year bond yield curves invert for the first time since 2007, a fairly predictable indication of recession. But we’re not in predictable times right now. This is what triggered the stock market drop.
    • A yield curve inversion occurs when the yields for short-term bonds is higher than the yields for long-term bonds. If investors think a recession is coming, they’ll settle for those lower yields in long-term bonds.
    • You can look at Treasury bonds as a bet on economic growth. What’s happening now indicates that investors think the damage is done and this market bounce is temporary.
    • We had warnings in March and May, where the 3-year yield curve temporarily inverted.
    • The caveat? Steps the Fed took to get us out of the Great Recession changed some of the fundamentals of the market. So it could be the yield curve isn’t the reliable indicator it’s been in the past. Another caveat? Economists have also made that caveat before previous recessions.
  1. The New York Fed recession indicator issues recession warnings as well.
  2. And more recession jitters. Goldman Sachs expresses concern that a protracted trade war will trigger a recession.
  3. At a rally, Trump says, “I never said China was going to be easy,” directly contradicting what he said in March 2018: trade wars “are easy to win.”
  4. Moody Analytics estimates the trade war has axed 300,000 jobs and blunted GDP growth by 0.3 percentage points.
  5. John Deere and Caterpillar both fall short of investor expectations and Deere lowers its annual earnings forecast as a result of the trade war with China coupled with extreme weather.
  6. The yield curve inversion occurs in the UK as well.
  7. The UK’s economy shrank last quarter for the first time in nearly seven years. The European economy is slowing in general right now, but the UK is facing a possible no-deal Brexit, which would slow them down even further.
  8. Germany‘s economy, the EU’s largest, shrank in the second quarter of fiscal year 2019. Germany has taken a hit in their auto industry because of the trade wars.
  9. The European Central Bank proposes stimulus measures in expectation of a global downturn. Their interest rates are already negative, and they’re considering further cuts.
  10. China’s industrial output growth was at its weakest in 17 years.
  11. Japan buys $22 billion in U.S. Treasuries in June. That’s the most of any country and it makes Japan the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasuries.
  12. Finally for some good news. Retail sales in the U.S. beat expectations in July, and major retailers had their biggest sales increase in four months. Economists raise their GDP growth expectations for the quarter.
  13. Trump says he met with Apple CEO Tim Cook over the weekend to talk about how tariffs affect Apple and how Apple’s major competitor, Samsung, gets around the tariffs. Is that normal for a president to meet with one CEO? I don’t know.
  14. Trump says the stock market will collapse if we don’t vote for him next year. It might collapse either way. He has a 50/50 chance of being right.
  15. Trump’s administration is reviewing unspent funds for foreign programs that were approved by Congress with an eye on redirecting those funds in a process called rescission. But he won’t touch Mike Pence’s or Ivanka’s programs.

Elections:

  1. A Republican group files a lawsuit against the voter-passed citizen redistricting commission in Michigan. They say the commission is unconstitutional. Voters passed similar anti-gerrymandering measures in other states, where the GOP is also trying to circumvent the vote of the people.
  2. At least eight state still use paperless ballots, so there’s no audit trail in the case of a challenge or recount. However, a judge orders Georgia to stop using paperless touchscreen voting machines by 2020.
  3. Trump holds a rally at a Shell plant in Pennsylvania where thousands of union workers are told to show up and to not yell or protest, or they won’t get paid. The rally was held during a time when workers get overtime, so they were looking at a good loss if they didn’t show.
    • Trump tells that group of workers that Shell‘s manufacturing complex never would’ve happened without him, even though Shell announced it under Obama in 2012.
  1. Trump renews his claims of voter fraud in New Hampshire, and receives a quick rebuke from FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub, who says:

“People have studied this. Academics have studied this. Lawyers have studied this. The government has studied this. Democrats have studied this. Republicans have studied this. And no one can find any evidence of rampant voter fraud either historically or particularly in the 2016 elections.”

  1. While both parties have used the recall to try to get rid of elected officials they don’t like, the GOP wields it like a weapon. There have been 45 state-level recall elections in the history of the U.S., and 20 of those were just in the past 10 years.
    • In California, they recalled a state senator to break the Democratic supermajority in 2018.
    • In Nevada, they tried to recall three lawmakers in 2018.
    • In New Jersey, Colorado, Oregon, Nevada, and California, they’re trying or planning to recall the governors.
    • In Colorado they recalled two lawmakers in 2013. This year, they’re trying to recall four lawmakers and are targeting more.
    • In comparison, Democrats tried to recall Scott Walker and his Lt. Governor in Wisconsin in 2012, and are working on a recall of the governor of Alaska.
  1. Trump says he can decide which TV networks air the presidential debates.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Remember that big scandal under Obama where we all found out that the National Security Agency (NSA) was surveilling our phone records? Well, that program has been shut down indefinitely, but Trump wants to reauthorize it and make it permanent.
  2. Trump says being president will cost him $5 billion. Isn’t that all he was worth in the first place?

Polls:

  1. 72% of Americans support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Even 54% of Republicans do, thought that’s down from 59% in March, 2017.

Quote of the Week:

This quote comes from a surprising source: former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci (the Mooch).

“We recognize that the president is a clear and present danger to the American society, the American culture. There are many people inside the White House and in the Cabinet. I would ask the left to let’s create an off-ramp for those people because when you’re trying to deprogram people from a cult, one of the first things you have to do is allow them to change their mind, and you have to allow them to have the space to change their mind.”

Week 133 in Trump

Posted on August 14, 2019 in Politics, Trump

(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

This week, Tucker Carlson calls white supremacy a hoax, just like the Russia thing. Maybe he meant that white supremacy is not a hoax just the way the Russia thing is not a hoax. It is so far past time for ALL of us to take a stand against white supremacy. Any of you who still pretend it’s not a thing need to take a deep look inside about why it’s so important to hold on to the idea that we don’t have a white supremacist problem in this country. Because we do. We really, really do.

Here’s what happened in politics in the week ending August 11…

Shootings This Week:

  1. Here’s a list of the week‘s mass shootings (defined as killing or injuring four or more people):
    • A drive-by shooter in Chicago injures six people.
    • Another drive-by in Chicago injures four people.
    • A drive-by shooter in San Francisco injures four people.
    • A shooter injures four people near Richmond, VA, outside a hotel and bar.
    • Two people are dead and two injured in a shooting connected to a traffic accident in St. Louis.
    • A shooter kills one person and injures three at an altercation following a funeral in Maryland.
    • A shooter or multiple shooters injure four people at a community vigil in Brooklyn.
    • And a near miss in Springfield, MO. After an alert Walmart clerk pulls the fire alarm to get people out of the store, a former firefighter detains a man armed with tactical weapons, body armor, and over 100 rounds of ammunition.
  1. Trump calls for stronger background checks, but earlier he threatened to veto House legislation that strengthened background checks.
  2. Gun rights supporters single out mental health as the big issue in gun violence, but only a small fraction of mass shooters have a previous history of mental illness (and most mentally ill aren’t violent). The most common factors of mass shooters are:
    • Strong sense of resentment
    • Desire for infamy
    • Domestic violence
    • Study of other shooters
    • Narcissism (not to be confused with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which is a mental illness)
    • Misogyny (so if you think the Incel movement is nothing to worry about, think again)
    • Access to firearms
  1. Trump speaks out against white supremacy, bigotry, and hatred, and says we need to do something about gun safety… and that maybe we should tie that together with immigration reform. I’m not sure what the two have to do with each other.
  2. Whoops! Trump refers to Toledo instead of Dayton in his speech. And then Joe Biden refers to Houston instead of El Paso, and to Michigan instead of Ohio.
  3. Trump calls for unity in his speech, but then later that day he and his staff were back to targeting his perceived political opponents, including those affected by the shootings.
  4. Trump tweets that the Dayton shooter supported Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Antifa. Police haven’t determined a political motive for that particular shooting, though violent misogyny seems to have played a part.
  5. None of the El Paso shooting victims are willing to meet with Trump, so they make a photo op by bringing in the baby whose parents were both killed in the shooting.
  6. FBI Director Christopher Wray orders the FBI to conduct a threat assessment to help find and stop possible mass shootings in the future. They’ll work to identify threats similar to the recent shootings and hopefully stop them before they occur.
  7. The FBI has around 850 active domestic terrorism investigations, down from nearly 1,000 a year earlier.
  8. The FBI opens a domestic terrorism investigation into the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting after finding a list of additional targets.
  9. After the recent mass shootings, Trump says “fake news” contributed to the anger and fate that led to these problems. The problem is, most of the recent shooters cited race and immigration, and echoed rhetoric used by Trump and white supremacists. The Dayton shooter was different–a violent misogynist whose motivation in unclear.
  10. Following the recent shootings, the FBI urges Congress to make domestic terrorism a federal crime, as it should be.
    • The gap in the law allows self-radicalized Americans who attack immigrants, Jews, African Americans, etc., to be tried for hate crimes instead of terrorism.
    • Even though both the Gilroy and El Paso shooters are being investigated for domestic terrorism, there’s no law that lets them get charged with that.
  1. The El Paso shooter said he was targeting Mexicans.
  2. Google and Amazon are both found to be selling gun accessories in violation of their own policies.
  3. Ohio’s Governor Mike DeWine listens to his people and rolls out a 17-point gun safety plan that includes expanded background checks, red flag laws, improved access to mental health services, and social media monitoring.
    • These are the same laws Democrats have been trying to pass in the state (and around the country) for 20 years.
    • The state’s GOP legislators are dragging their feet on the bills already.
    • A Republican state representative in Ohio backs a ban on assault weapons and limits on magazine sizes. His change of heart came because his daughter was near the shooting in Dayton.
    • A group of activists is already working to get expanded background checks on the ballot in November 2020 as a voter referendum. If legislators won’t act, the people will.
  1. California Governor Gavin Newsom proposes expanding an existing commission on terrorism to find ways to reduce these kinds of gun violence at schools and at public events.
  2. Foreign journalists covering mass shootings in the U.S. say it’s hard to explain the issues surrounding mass shootings in the U.S.—our gun culture, politics, and extremism. People abroad frankly think Americans are a little nuts.
  3. Amnesty International issues a travel warning for the U.S. due to all the gun violence, as do countries like Japan, Venezuela, and Uruguay. Other countries urge caution when traveling here because of the number of shootings, especially mass shootings.
    • Trump threatens retaliation against these countries.
  1. For over a year, the White House has been blocking requests from the DHS to make fighting domestic terrorism a priority. The White House preferred to concentrate on the jihadist threat… because, you know, brown people and scary Muslims.
    • The majority of domestic terrorist cases involve white supremacy.
  1. A group of Walmart employees walk out in protest of the company continuing to sell guns.
  2. Trump says he’s been tough on guns, but his administration has actually worked to make them easier to obtain over the past 2-1/2 years by:
    • Lifting bans on certain locations.
    • Limiting the capabilities of the background check database.
    • Reversing Obama’s limits on gun ownership by people with certain and severe mental disabilities.
    • Working to make it easier for private sellers to sell weapons to foreign buyers.
  1. He‘s also banned bump stocks, increased penalties for agencies that don’t report information to the background check system, and approved funds to combat violence in schools. So it’s a mixed bag.
  2. Ten new laws loosening up gun regulations in Texas are set to go into effect over the next month. These laws make it easier to carry weapons in churches, on school grounds, in apartments, and following natural disasters, among other things.
  3. Congress calls the owner of the 8chan online message board to testify after the website is linked to the El Paso shooter (and it does seem to be the place to air your white supremacist angst).

Russia:

  1. A blast kills five workers and two military personnel at the Russian nuclear agency during a missile test. Russia’s Defense Ministry says they were testing a liquid jet propulsion system and that there were no dangerous gases released, though local authorities reported a radiation spike.
    • Russia later confirms that there were radioactive materials involved in the blast.
    • Later yet, they confirm that they were testing a nuclear-engine missile.
  1. JU.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman resigns, possibly to run for governor of Utah.
  2. The House Judiciary Committee files a formal lawsuit to force former White House Counsel Don McGahn to testify about Trump’s potential obstruction of justice. So far, the White House has blocked his testimony.
  3. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, says that formal impeachment proceedings have already begun in that they are investigating the allegations of obstruction of justice in Mueller’s report, as well as other potential crimes.

Legal Fallout:

  1. Fired FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok sues for reinstatement, saying he was unfairly terminated for criticizing this president (which we all have a right to do, even in the FBI).
    • He argues that the Trump administration has tolerated and encouraged partisan political speech by federal employees as long as Trump’s in agreement with them.
    • He also alleges that DOJ violated the Privacy Act in releasing the texts and that the DOJ violated Strzok’s Fifth Amendment rights by not allowing him to appeal.
  1. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe sues the DOJ and FBI over his firing, saying it was politically motivated.
    • McCabe was hours from retirement when he was fired.
    • The lawsuit quotes a lot of publicly available material, like Trump’s tweets, so it will be hard to argue against that.
  1. Accused child molester and sex trafficker Jeff Epstein is found dead in his cell by apparent suicide. He had been on suicide watch, but psychologists took him off it over a week ago.
    • The prison guards miss their scheduled cell check on Epstein the night before.
    • And then cue the conspiracy theories. Trump retweets a conspiracy theory that the Clintons killed Epstein (this one’s magnified on the right). Some on the left say it was Trump or Bill Barr (magnified on the left). Others say there are many judges and politicians who wanted him dead.
  1. A federal judge orders the departments of State and Defense to produce thousands of documents related to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
  2. The DOJ urges a federal court to overrule a ruling that requires Trump’s accounting firm to release Trump’s financial records to Congress.
  3. Six major banks comply with a House Judiciary Committee subpoena and turn over documents relating to Trump, his family, Russians who had dealings with Trump, and Trump Organization.
  4. The founder of Students For Trump pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He created a fake persona to run a legal consulting scheme that bilked victims out of $50,000.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Two Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee ask the National Archives for Brett Kavanaugh’s records during his time serving under George Bush, since they were concealed during his hearings.

Healthcare:

  1. A federal judge blocks Arkansas’ 18-week abortion ban as well as a new law preventing women from seeking abortion at any time based on a diagnosis of Down’s Syndrome.
  2. Senator Lindsey Graham says that if Republicans take back the House in 2020, they’ll try to repeal and replace the ACA again. That’s what 2020 is all about, he says.

International:

  1. For the third time in a month, Iran seizes a foreign tanker in nearby waters, this time an Iraqi ship that Iran said was smuggling fuel. The Iraqi oil ministry denies the ship is theirs.
  2. Trump tells advisors that Israel should block Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from entering the country because of their views on BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions). Israel says don’t tell us what to do.
  3. Kim Jong Un supervises a demonstration of North Korea’s newly development short-range missiles.
  4. The protests in Hong Kong continue, having evolved from a protest against an extradition law to a protest against China and for democracy. Though many protests have been peaceful, some protestors escalate the demonstrations, blocking traffic, starting fires, and occupying the airport.
    • China’s reaction is bringing up comparisons to their mishandling of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Two Galveston police officers on horseback arrest a black man for trespassing and, instead of waiting for a transport vehicle, tie a rope to his handcuffs and make him walk alongside them while they ride through town. How did they miss the optics on this one? They say they made a bad decision and they’re very sorry.
  2. A federal judge forces some of the people and groups involved in 2017’s Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville to pay attorney fees for the people who sued them.
  3. The State Department suspends an official who was also a leader in the white nationalist movement. He attended the Charlottesville rally and posted Nazi propaganda online.
  4. Here’s what else has happened to some of the rally attendees, who came from 39 states and represented about 50 different extreme-right groups:
    • Three former Marines were discharged from the corps.
    • More than a dozen attendees have been imprisoned for various crimes.
    • Unite the Right organizers have been hounded by lawsuits, several leaders have left the movement, and some leaders have moved into new roles in the white supremacist movement.
    • Several attendees have been banned from social media platforms or banned from travel. Some have lost their jobs and some have been ostracized by their communities.
    • But most importantly, most attendees are still active in white nationalist, white supremacist, and racist movements, and some are running for office.
  1. John McCollister, a Republican State Representative in Nebraska, says the “Republican Party is COMPLICIT to obvious racist and immoral activity” inside the party, and that Trump “continually stokes racist fears in his base.” After listing some of Trump’s racist rhetoric, he says, “No more. When the history books are written, I refuse to be someone who said nothing. The time is now for us Republicans to be honest with what is happening inside our party. We are better than this and I implore my Republican colleagues to stand up and do the right thing.”
    • He clarifies that he’s not saying all Republican are white supremacists or racists.
    • In response, the Nebraska Republican Party says McCollister should leave the party. A little self reflection might be in order…
  1. In the largest ICE raid in a decade, immigration officials sweep seven Mississippi food processing plants and arrest 680 people. They leave the children of the arrestees to fend for themselves, so neighbors take over the care of the families left behind.
    • The raid occurs just hours before Trump travels to El Paso and Dayton to “unify” the country.
    • The companies involved could be charged. One of the companies raided is Koch Foods, Inc.
  1. A Michigan man who had been deported to Iraq, even though he had never lived in Iraq and doesn’t speak Arabic, is dead (possibly because he was unable to get his insulin).
    • This isn’t new. Investigators followed the lives of asylum seekers we’ve deported, and 62 of them were killed or died after being sent to the country they were born in.
    • Trump’s deportation policies hit the Iraqi Christian population in Michigan particularly hard, even though many family members of these deportees voted for Trump never thinking he would come after their non-citizen family members. We never think they’ll come for us, right?
  1. Police in El Paso arrest an armed man found lurking outside a migrant shelter. The man had been sitting in a truck with a likeness of Trump as Rambo painted on it. Police release him because they found no crime was committed. Wut?
  2. Trump says, “I am concerned about the rise of any group of hate, whether it’s white supremacy, or any other kind of supremacy.” What other kind of supremacy is there?
  3. Trump Organization hires undocumented workers for construction projects, and has been doing it for two decades. New York’s attorney general is investigating allegations that Trump didn’t pay several of them.
    • We already knew they were hiring undocumented workers at their country clubs after some of them came out publicly and eight were fired last year (even though their employers helped them get the necessary documentation to work).
  1. Federal agents arrest an Ohio man who threatened to shoot Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on social media. The man was also stockpiling weapons and says he’s proud of those posts.
  2. The FBI arrests a neo-Nazi in Las Vegas who was plotting to bomb a gay club and a synagogue.
  3. The DOJ files a petition to potentially decertify the union representing federal immigration judges. The union has been critical of Trump’s immigration policies.
  4. The Trump campaign has paid for about $1.25 million in Facebook ads about immigration (over 20% of their Facebook ads). Over 2,000 of those ads refer to immigration as an invasion.

Climate:

  1. The EPA reauthorizes using poison devices called cyanide bombs to kill wild animals like coyotes and foxes in order to protect livestock. This practice was previously considered inhumane, and has injured humans, domestic pets, and endangered species, too. During the public comment period, over 90% of the comments were opposed. I guess the EPA doesn’t really care what you think.

Budget/Economy:

  1. China said to Trump, I see your bet and I raise you. After Trump says he’ll add a 10% tariff to an additional $300 billion of Chinese goods, China lets it’s currency drop to an 11-year low against the dollar, imposes additional tariffs, and suspends the purchase of all agricultural goods from the U.S.
  2. Trump accuses them of currency manipulation, and the Treasury Department officially designates China as a currency manipulator. This is really just symbolic, and according to the IMF, China’s actions don’t technically qualify as that.
  3. Many U.S. farmers lose one of their largest customers with China’s announcement, and after a year of devastating heat waves and floods, too.
    • China bought $19.5 billion in farm goods in 2017; just $9.2 billion in 2018; and so far this year, it’s down 20% more.
  1. As a result of all the above, the Dow Jones has its worst day of the year, dropping 760 points, or nearly 3%. The S&P also fell 3% and Nasdaq fell 3.5%. The Dow was down nearly 1,000 at one point.
  2. The international travel industry continues to lose business, with a loss of 14 million international travelers, $59 billion in income, and 120,000 jobs in the U.S. Forecasters expect the decline to continue at least through 2022.

Elections:

  1. The Trump campaign and the Republican Party sue California over its new law requiring candidates for president to release five years of tax returns in order to be included on the ballot.
  2. Joe Biden joins the ranks of Democratic presidential hopefuls calling Trump out directly for his racist statements. He says:
    • “How far is it from the white supremacists and Neo-Nazis in Charlottesville ― Trump’s ‘very fine people’ ― chanting ‘You will not replace us’ ― to the shooter at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh saying Jews ‘were committing genocide to his people?’ Not far at all. In both clear language and in code, this president has fanned the flames of white supremacy in this nation.”
    • Kamala Harris says it’s no longer debatable that Trump is a white supremacist with no empathy.
    • Even Paul Ryan has said Trump’s remarks are the “textbook definition” of racist.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Puerto Rico gets its third governor in five days. After elected Governor Ricardo Rosselló resigns over homophobic and misogynistic text messages, Secretary of State Pedro Pierluisi is sworn in. But courts say that since Pierluisi wasn’t approved as SoS by both houses of congress, he’s not the legitimate successor. So then Justice Secretary Wanda Vázquez, who’s said she doesn’t want the job, gets sworn in.
  2. Trump says his rhetoric brings people together. Like this tweet, right?
    • “Beto (phony name to indicate Hispanic heritage) O’Rourke, who is embarrassed by my last visit to the Great State of Texas, where I trounced him, and is now even more embarrassed polling at 1% in the Democratic Primary, should respect the victims & law enforcement – & be quiet!”
  1. Mitch McConnell calls the police when a group forms a protest outside his home in Kentucky. He says their actions constitute calls to violence. Frankly, I’m with him on this one. Private homes should be off limits.
    • On the other hand, his campaign tweeted a photo of headstones emblazoned with the names of his political opponents, including Amy McGrath and Merrick Garland.
    • And then a photo of several “Team Mitch” high school boys groping a cardboard cutout of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez goes viral on Twitter. Teach your boys better—this is how we end up with grown men who demean women.
  1. Cesar Sayac, who mailed pipe bombs to several Democratic targets of Trump’s rhetoric, receives a 20-year prison sentence for his crimes. Sayac drove a van covered in pro-Trump stickers. He sent the bombs to Hillary Clinton, Obama, Joe Biden, Eric Holder, George Soros, Maxine Waters, and more.
  2. Criminals are invoking Trump’s name for their defense:
    • Sayac’s lawyers say that he was radicalized by Trump’s rhetoric.
    • A man who slammed a thirteen-year-old’s head to the ground because the kid didn’t take off his hat during the national anthem says he thought he was doing what Trump wanted.
    • Defendants raise objections to people who turn state‘s evidence because Trump says that “flippers” should be illegal.
    • The defendant in a mob killing cited QAnon conspiracies and says he thought his victim was a member of the “deep state” that’s out to get Trump.
  1. Crime rates decreased from 2007 to 2017, and fewer people are in prison compared to 2007.
  2. Intelligence sources say that after he resigned, Dan Coates interrupted a meeting Deputy Director Sue Gordon was running on election security to urge her to resign as well. Trump didn’t follow normal protocol, which would’ve been to make Gordon acting directory.
  3. The White House drafts an executive order that would give the FCC more control over how social media sites curate what is allowed or suppressed on their websites.

Polls:

  1. 54% of Republicans polled support a ban on assault-style weapons.
  2. 85% of Democrats support one.
  3. 70% of registered voters overall support one. (I could’ve tell whether they defined assault-style weapons in the poll.)

Week 132 in Trump

Posted on August 6, 2019 in Politics, Trump, Uncategorized

This week, I’m adding a new news category, sadly out of necessity. Since we’re on mass shooting number 253 for the year (defined as four or more people shot or killed), I think it’s only appropriate to highlight them all in their own section. Jesus. When does his end, folks? When will we actually do something about it?

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending August 4…

Missing From Previous Weeks:

  1. The origins of the Seth Rich conspiracy story were published in early July. It turns out that three days’ after Rich’s murder, Russian Intelligence planted a story that he was the leak of the hacked DNC documents and that he was on his way to the FBI to spill the beans on Clinton’s corruption when Clinton’s hit squad killed him.
    • Jerome Corsi, Fox News (especially Sean Hannity), Steve Bannon, Jay Sekulow, and other right-wing figures ran with the story, even though the police concluded it was a botched robbery and even though Rich’s parents begged them to stop. They didn’t stop until a court forced them to.
    • Russia’s RT and Sputnik media outlets kept boosting this conspiracy theory for two years.
  1. Here are a few other stories that Russian trolls pushed in recent years and that mostly less-than-reliable media outlets picked up:
    • A young German girl claimed she was raped by Middle Eastern immigrants. She recanted—in reality she spent the night with a friend and was scared to tell her parents. But the alt-right pushed an anti-immigrant, anti-police, and anti-media narrative that took hold across the globe.
    • Rumors flew around Twin Falls, ID, that two Syrian refugees aged seven and 10 raped a five-year-old girl at knifepoint and they were later seen high-fiving their dads over it. This also didn’t happen, but exactly what did happen is under seal due to the children’s ages.

Shootings This Week:

  1. The gun used in the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting last week was purchased legally in Nevada, a state with looser gun regulations than California.
  2. A shooter at a Walmart in Southaven, MS, kills two men and injures an officer. The shooter is also injured.
  3. A gunman opens fire in an El Paso Walmart and nearby shopping mall, killing 20 people and injuring 26.
    • The suspect is taken into custody without the police firing a shot. It turns out he drove 10 hours to stop the “invasion” by immigrants crossing the southern border.
    • He posted a short screed online attacking immigrants and expressing empathy for the Christchurch shooter. He says he wanted to shoot as many Mexicans as he could.
  1. After to the shooting, Texas Lt. Gov Dan Patrick issues this warning to Antifa:

“Stay out of El Paso. Stay out of TX … scratch TX off your map and don’t come in … it is not the time and place for them to come at any time…”

    • He’s referring to a story posted by the Daily Caller about Antifa planning a “siege of El Paso”. Only it turns out Antifa isn’t involved, it’s a training not a siege, and the Daily Caller issued a correction.
    • So the Lt. Governor repeated a conspiracy theory started by a tweet and escalated by a media outlet founded by Tucker Carlson. Reminiscent of the Jade Helm conspiracy, no?
  1. Seven Mexican nationals are among the dead and the Mexican government says they’ll take legal action.
  2. The head of Cloudfare says the company will stop hosting 8chan following the discovery of the shooter’s screed on the site. 8chan is a home for white hate, white supremacy, and terrorist activity.
  3. Less than 24 hours after the El Paso shooting, another shooter attacks an upscale entertainment area in Dayton, Ohio. He kills nine people and injures 29 even though police neutralize him less than a minute after he starts shooting.
    • The motive for the second shooting isn’t yet known, though rumors abound.
  1. Beto O’Rourke is done with the bullshit. He gives an emotional response at a presidential forum, and then cuts his trip short to return to El Paso to be with his family and town. Here’s what he has to say about the El Paso mass shooting:
    • “We’ve got to acknowledge the hatred, the open racism that we’re seeing. There is an environment of it … We see it from our commander-in-chief. He is encouraging this. He doesn’t just tolerate it, he encourages it.”
    • When asked if he thinks Trump is a white nationalist, Beto says yes.
    • And then, as Beto is on his way to meet up with his family a journalist asks if there’s anything Trump can do now to make this better. Beto’s response:

“What do you think? You know the shit he’s been saying. He’s been calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals. I don’t know, like, members of the press, what the fuck?”

  1. A drive-by shooter injures seven people in Chicago. Another shooter kills one person and injures seven in Chicago.
  2. A shooter kills one person and injures three at a gas station in Memphis.
  3. A domestic killing leaves two people dead and three injured in Suffolk, VA.
  4. Five people are injured during a shooting at a party in Columbus, OH.
  5. Trump spent the first hours after the shootings tweeting from his golf course in New Jersey.

Russia:

  1. After Mitch McConnell blocks the election security bills passed by the House, #MoscowMitch and #MoscowMitchMcTreason trend on Twitter. Finally a moniker that actually gets through to him. Trump defends him, calling the Washington Post a Russian asset.
  2. In the months before Dan Coates resigned, the White House had been watering down his warnings about the threats posed by Russia, including interference in our elections, past, present, and future.
  3. A federal judge dismisses a case brought by the DNC against the Trump campaign related to the cyberattacks on their computers and subsequent release of the hacked information.
  4. Trump imposes additional sanctions against Russia for using chemical weapons to poison Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England in 2018.
  5. Trump and Putin hold a phone meeting to talk about Siberian wildfires and a new U.S. ambassador to Russia. They don’t talk about Russia’s meddling in our elections.
  6. Trump formally pulls the U.S. out of the INF arms control treaty, saying Russia isn’t keeping up their end of the deal.
    • The U.S. plans to start testing a new non-nuclear missile, which would’ve been prohibited under the treaty.
    • Leaving the treaty allows the U.S. to counter new developments by both Russia and China.
  1. After the proof presented in Robert Mueller’s report and in the Senate Intelligence Committee report about Russian interference in the 2016 elections, and after Mueller confirmed those findings in his congressional hearings, Trump has this exchange with a reporter:

REPORTER: Mr. President, Robert Mueller said last week that Russia is interfering in the U.S. elections right now. Is that —

TRUMP: “Oh you don’t really believe this. Do you believe this? Ok, fine. We didn’t talk about it. I spoke with President Putin of Russia yesterday.”

  1. Protests continue in Moscow for free elections (the government isn’t letting opposition candidates on the ballot in Moscow city council races). 1,000 people are arrested, on top of the 1,300 arrested the previous week.Putin’s approval is at a low point.

Legal Fallout:

  1. Trump sues to prevent New York from releasing his tax returns, as allowed by a recently passed bill. A federal judge temporarily prevents the state from sharing Trump’s returns while the case moves through the courts.
  2. Support for beginning impeachment hearings is growing in the House, and now more than half of House Democrats support it. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is still hesitant.
  3. State prosecutors in New York subpoena Trump Organization records relevant to the Stormy Daniels hush-money case.

Courts/Justice:

  1. The DOJ declines to prosecute James Comey over the leak of his personal memos that were later determined to contain classified information. The DOJ says there’s no evidence that he intended to violate rules on handling classified information or that he knew he was doing so.
  2. A new FBI bulletin calls fringe domestic terrorism driven by conspiracy theories a growing threat, and specifically mentions QAnon.
    • QAnon believes there’s a deep-state conspiracy against Trump and he’s leading a covert effort to dismantle both that and an international child sex trafficking ring run by global elites.
    • The group also believes that Clinton and Podesta were running a pedophile ring out of the basement of a pizzeria (that doesn’t have a basement).
    • The report says conspiracy-driven violence is likely to increase in the 2020 election cycle. Great.
    • The report lists several conspiracy theories that have already led to violent attacks.
  1. Democrats demand an answer from Attorney General William Barr about why changes were made to funding for victims of trafficking. Trump ended the practice of using federal funds to help victims of sex trafficking clear their criminal records, which often stem from the activities they were forced into doing (like prostitution).
    • People who are trafficked have a very tough time getting their lives back together, and if they have a criminal record, they often can’t get a job, get housing, get loans… you see where this is going.

Healthcare:

  1. A federal judge strikes down Medicaid work requirements in New Hampshire—the third state where the requirements have been blocked.
    • The state had already put the policy on hold after learning that 17,000 residents would lose coverage. (Then why the fuck did they pass it in the first place?)
  1. A new study finds that raising the minimum wage and increasing tax credits decreases the suicide rate. There’s actually a name for what low-wage workers experience — deaths of despair — which include things like overdoses and suicides.

International:

  1. The Senate fails to garner enough support to override Trump’s veto of their bills banning sales of weapons to Saudi Arabia.
  2. New documents show that Trump’s friend Thomas Barrack Jr. and campaign manager Paul Manafort helped officials from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates edit a campaign speech made by Trump in May 2016.
    • This was part of an attempt to have the U.S. share nuclear information with Saudi Arabia, and Barrack planned to finance nuclear power plant construction in the Middle East.
    • Just after journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed, Trump authorized two U.S. companies to share nuclear information with Saudi Arabia.
    • Barrack also lobbied to be appointed as a special envoy to the Middle East.
  1. Trump’s new nominee for Director of National Intelligence has no background in intelligence and is considered by many to be too partisan for the position.
    • Ratcliffe spread the theory of a secret society in the FBI that was out to get Trump.
    • He lied about being appointed special prosecutor in a case against funders of Hamas.
    • He downplayed the issue of Russian interference in our elections during Robert Mueller’s testimony a few weeks ago.
  1. Well that was quick! Ratcliffe withdraws his name from consideration following intense scrutiny over his lack of experience in the area and padding his resume.
    • Trump says Ratcliffe was being slandered in the media. FFS. Since when is vetting an official and bringing up their past slander? If Trump’s team would take the time and effort to vet half of his nominees, we wouldn’t have to vet them in the press. Sheez.
    • And just after I wrote that, Trump says that he White House has a great vetting process. He throws out a name and then the press vets them for the White House. Argh!
    • Trump won’t allow the deputy director, Sue Gordon, to take over as acting director of national intelligence, as per federal statute. Trump refuses to allow her to give the most recent intelligence briefing after she arrived at the White House to deliver it.
  1. The Trump administration opposes sanctions against Iran’s Foreign Minister, their top diplomat. This is retaliation for Iran taking down a drone, seizing a British tanker, and running a missile-test.
  2. The Senate confirms Trump’s pick for ambassador to the UN. Kelly Craft is currently our ambassador to Canada, where she appears to hardly have spent any time. She and her husband have donated millions to Republican candidates, and she’ll be the first in her position to be a major political donor.
  3. Trump sends a special envoy for hostage affairs to Sweden to monitor court proceedings in the case of American rapper A$AP Rocky. Is anyone else confused by Trump’s concern over this case?
  4. The U.S. will withdraw thousands of troops from Afghanistan as part of the negotiated deal with the Taliban. The deal hasn’t been finalized.
  5. After North Korea tests some short-range missiles, Trump praises Kim Jong Un and tells him to “do the right thing.”
  6. Boris Johnson’s party majority in Parliament shrinks to just one seat when a special election moves a rural seat from the Conservative Party to the Liberal Democrat party. Now Johnson can’t lose even one pro-Brexit vote.
  7. Even though the original impetus for the Hong Kong riots has been tabled, the riots continue and worsen, causing businesses to close early and residents to shelter in place. The protestors now want liberation from China.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. The House reintroduces an amendment to overturn Citizens United and get corporate and dark money out of politics.
  2. After three major mass shootings in the span of a week, Democrats ask Mitch McConnell to call the Senate back into a special session to vote on the gun safety bills that the House has already passed.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

  1. Remember last week when SCOTUS said that Trump could use DoD funding to build his wall along the southern border? It turns out that the funds pegged for the job will come out of retirement programs for our military, among other programs.
    • SCOTUS didn’t give Trump a blank check to build a wall, nor did they say that the wall is legal. Their ruling is limited to specific projects.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Trump continues his attacks on Rep. Elijah Cummings, accusing Cummings of stealing funds from the district.
    • Four years ago, Trump said Obama wasn’t doing enough to fix the problems in Baltimore. Trump said he’d fix it fast. He hasn’t, according to his own tweets.
    • Also, Trump’s own eateries in New York have been flagged for vermin infestations.
  1. The House Oversight Committee requests documents related to the private Facebook page for current and former CBP officers, which contains violent, racist, and misogynistic posts. The committee is concerned some of these officers might still be working with migrant women and children.
  2. As part of Trump’s new “third-country” asylum policy, DHS cuts a question for asylum seekers, which was intended to be sure Mexico wasn’t a dangerous place for them. The question asked whether they had a fear of being returned to another country and, if so, which ones.
  3. The Trump administration is still taking children away from their migrant parents—at least 1,000 since a judge ordered them to stop family separations. They’re being separated for minor reasons. 20% of these are children under five years old.
  4. White House advisor Stephen Miller proposes using border patrol agents to screen asylum seekers because they’d be tougher critics.
  5. After someone tries to break into Rep. Elijah Cummings home in Baltimore, Trump tweets a seemingly sarcastic “Too Bad!” but later says he really meant it was too bad.
  6. An NYPD departmental judge recommends that officer Daniel Pantaleo should be fired because of his involvement in Eric Garner’s death.
  7. A federal judge throws out Trump’s policy that immigrants who enter the U.S. in places other than ports of entry cannot apply for asylum. The judge says the policy violates the Immigration and Nationality Act.
  8. Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) says Native American tribes are destroying our western way of life after tribes and environmentalists successfully get the grizzly bear back on the endangered species list. That’s irony, right?
  9. Hours after the FBI releases the report calling out QAnon as one of the originators of conspiracy theories driving domestic terrorism, one of the speakers who warms up the crowd at Trump’s campaign rally casually drops QAnon’s rallying call: “Where we go one, we go all.”
    • QAnon believers have been common at Trump’s rallies, and more recently have been showing up in QAnon gear.

Climate:

  1. California Governor Gavin Newsom signs a bill requiring more environmental impact reviews for the Cadiz water project (which would drain the aquifer under the Mojave National Reserve). The Trump administration has tried to fast-track this project.
  2. The heat wave that hit Europe last week hits Greenland this week, accelerating the melt rate for the Greenland ice sheet, which in July alone poured 197 billion tons a water into the Atlantic. July 31 has the most ice melt of any day in the past seven years.
  3. In general, July was the earth’s hottest month on record (previously that was July 2016).
  4. Ethiopian citizens plant 353 million trees in a single day to help combat climate change. In 2017, volunteers in India planted 66 million trees. In China, users of the Alibaba pay app planted 100 million trees over two years. Conversely, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro ended protections for the Amazon rainforest, opening it to clear-cutting and development.
  5. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt appoints William Pendley as the acting director of the Bureau of Land Management. Pendley is now tasked with managing federal lands, but doesn’t believe there should be federal lands. He says the Founding Fathers intended for all federal land to be sold.

Budget/Economy:

  1. Under Trump’s proposed cuts to the SNAP program, more than 500,000 kids would lose their eligibility for free school lunches. The USDA failed to include this in their assessment when they proposed the new rules, so this is on top of the 3.1 million people expected to be dropped off the program.
  2. Over 50% of the money given to farmers so far to help ease the effects of tariffs went to just 10% of all recipients.
  3. The Federal Reserve cuts interest rates by one quarter of a percentage point. This isn’t a typical move when the economy is booming, and could signal that they’re trying to soften an economic slowdown that could become a recession. Trumps wants it cut a full percentage point and says Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has let him down again.
  4. Trump ends the trade truce with China saying he’ll impose a 10% tariff on the remaining $300 billion of imported Chinese goods. Negotiators for the two sides had just wrapped up a round of talks the day before.
    • China threatens retaliatory tariffs, and companies consider moving up production and shipment of goods to get it done before the tariffs take effect.
    • Experts say this trade war could last years or even decades. So much for “trade wars are easy to win!”
    • The Dow Jones drops 600 points on the news and the S&P drops 45 points.
    • The National Retail Federation refers to the new tariffs as a “tax increase.”
  1. The Senate and House both pass a $2.7 trillion spending bill that also lifts the debt ceiling for two years, or as Trump put it, until after the 2020 election.
  2. Because of the tariffs against imported Chinese goods, manufacturers are moving some production outside of China. But they aren’t bringing it back to the U.S. They’re moving it to factories in Southeast Asia.
  3. The Trump administration considers cutting capital gains taxes, giving the wealthy a $100 billion tax cut (because that first trillion just wasn’t enough). They’d have to bypass Congress to do it.
  4. The economy added 164,000 jobs in July, and the unemployment rate remained at 3.7%.

Elections:

  1. More House Republicans announce they’ll step down from Congress next year, including Rep. Will Hurd (TX). This brings the total to 12, and makes it much harder for Republicans to take back the House next year.
    • Hurd’s district has the longest stretch of the southern border of any U.S. district.
    • He has been a vocal opponent of Trump’s plans to build a wall.
    • He is the only black Republican in the House.
  1. Lawyers file a court brief accusing Georgia election officials of destroying evidence related to a court case that alleges Georgia’s voting systems are outdated and vulnerable to hackers.
  2. If you want to get on the presidential ballot in California, you now have to provide five years of your income tax filings. Lawsuits to follow, I’m sure.
  3. In North Carolina, Leslie Dowless is charged with two felonies related to his ballot fraud activity in the 2018 midterms. The ballot fraud led to the election results being overturned, and the special election is finally being held next month.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Trump orders the Navy to strip the commendations from the Navy prosecutors involved in the war crimes trial of a Navy SEAL who was acquitted.
  2. The DOJ is investigating accusations that Ryan Zinke used a personal email account while he was head of the Interior Department. Ooh.
  3. Despite allegations of sexual assault against Air Force General John Hyten, the Senate Armed Services Committee approves his nomination to be the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The vote now goes to the Senate.
  4. The Intelligence Community’s inspector general won’t investigate how Jared Kushner, Ivanka, and other White House officials were granted security clearances. He says he’ll only conduct the investigation if Trump asks him too.
  5. Oracle’s been complaining about Amazon getting the military’s cloud computing contract, so Trump tells the Secretary of Defense to re-examine the contract. Sounds like a little political favoritism there.
    • Also, the project has a cool name: Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI.
  1. Trump holds his 64th campaign rally on his 923rd day in office (that’s roughly one every two weeks for those of you counting).
  1. Mitch McConnell falls at his Kentucky home and fractures his shoulder.
  2. Trump considers declaring a state of emergency in Baltimore because he says living conditions there are unacceptable. He also floats doing the same in other Democratic-led cities like San Francisco and Detroit.
  3. And just in case you’ve forgotten, Trump got the idea to go after Cummings and Baltimore from an episode Fox & Friends.

Polls:

Here are the results of a new Quinnipiac poll on whether respondents think that Trump is racist:

  • African Americans: 80% yes, 11% no
  • Latinos: 55% yes, 44% no
  • Whites: 46% yes, 50% no
  • Democrats: 86% yes, 9% no
  • Independents: 56% yes, 38% no
  • Republicans: 8% yes, 91% no

Week 131 in Trump

Posted on July 31, 2019 in Politics, Trump

Best Image of the week. Victory is sometimes slow, but it is always sweet. Way to get 'er done, Jon.

In response to SCOTUS shutting down a lawsuit over the use of Pentagon funds to build a wall, Jon Zal has the most appropriate tweet for the week:

“JUST IN: Man who won election by promising voters he’d strengthen the military and force Mexico to pay for his border wall wins court battle that allows him to deplete the military and force his voters to pay for the border wall. #MAGA”

So much winning.

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

Russia:

  1. Ahead of Mueller’s testimony before Congress, the DOJ tells him he must limit his testimony to the public findings in his 448-page report. He said previously he would do this anyway.
  2. Mueller testifies to Congress, coming across a little feeble and off-guard. In fairness, he wears hearing aids (which don’t work well where he was sitting), he wasn’t presented with a portfolio highlighting the sections in his report that were referenced (so he had to search through the doc for every question), and he’s naturally curt and concise. But still, not compelling TV.
    • Probably no minds were changed, but I outlined a few highlights and some conspiracy theories that were new to me.
    • If you’ve read the report, the only thing new in the hearings was the astounding number of conspiracy theories that you would only know about if you watch Fox News.
    • Republicans on the committees didn’t challenge the facts stated in Mueller’s report, but did try to establish bias in the investigation.
    • Mueller definitely sticks to his promise to only testify about what’s in the report.
    • Following Mueller’s testimony, the number of House members endorsing the start of impeachment hearings increases to 107.
    • Also following Mueller’s testimony, House committees step up their requests and subpoenas for evidence. They also plan to petition a judge to unseal the grand jury evidence from Mueller’s investigation.
    • Meanwhile, Trump says the Russia investigations are finally over.
  1. One America News, which Trump promotes in his tweets, hires an anchor who’s still working for Sputnik (Russia’s state-owned media outlet).
  2. Several thousand people protest in Moscow, demanding that opposition candidates be allowed on the ballots for city council races. Around 300 people are arrested, including Putin opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who gets a 30-day sentence for organizing the protests.
  3. The Senate Intelligence Committee releases a (highly redacted) report concluding that Russian cyberactors hacked into election databases in all 50 states in 2016, and that they were in a position to change data in an Illinois database (and also in one other state, which isn’t named). There’s no evidence they did so, though. Here are some highlights:
    • Russia began the attacks as far back as 2014.
    • The committee couldn’t figure out what Russia’s intentions were.
    • Russian diplomats were planning to undermine the results of the election, anticipating that Clinton would win. The committee thinks it’s possible that Russia purposefully left their fingerprints on the databases in order to cast doubt on the validity of the elections.
    • There’s no evidence that any votes or voter tallies were changed.
  1. Following the release of the report and Mueller’s testimony, Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans block three bills passed by the Democrat-led House to increase election security and help prevent attacks such as those described in the report. The bills would:
    • Require internet companies to disclose political ad buyers by internet companies in order to identify foreign influence.
    • Place sanctions on any entity that attacks a U.S. election.
    • Sanction Russia for its cyberattacks.
  1. Full disclosure: McConnell has received donations from lobbyists for four of the major makers of voting equipment, though their donations amount to less than $10,000.

Legal Fallout:

  1. Trump files a lawsuit to block the House Ways and Means Committee from obtaining his tax returns.
    • Trump claims the request from the House Ways and Means Committee for his tax returns is unprecedented. But documents show that when the same committee requested Richard Nixon’s tax returns, they got them within a day.
  1. A federal judge blocks subpoenas issued by Congress to obtain Trump organization financial records in their emoluments lawsuit against Trump. The judge says the suit should make its way through the appeals court first.
  2. And then, ironically, Trump’s Doral country club is listed among the finalists to hold next year’s G7 summit.
  3. Jeffrey Epstein is served court papers in jail in relation to a child rape lawsuit. A few days later, he’s found injured in his cell, semiconscious with marks on his neck.
  4. A judge rules that a class action suit against Trump, Don Jr., Eric, and Ivanka for fraud, false advertising, and unfair competition in multilevel marketing companies they promoted can move forward. The judge dismisses allegations of conspiracy and racketeering.
  5. Michael Flynn’s former business partner Bijan Kian faces up to 15 years in prison after being convicted on foreign-agent felony charges.
  6. The DOJ declines to follow up on contempt of Congress charges against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

Courts/Justice:

  1. The Justice Department announces they’ll resume the federal death penalty, and selects five inmates for whom they’ll schedule executions. Federal executions were largely ended in 1972, when the Supreme Court ruling found that the death penalty was imposed on blacks at a far higher rate than whites. Congress expanded the federal death penalty again in 1988, but there have only been three executions since then.
  2. At the same time, a Philadelphia DA asks the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to rule that the death penalty goes against the state constitution. He cites the inequity and prejudice with which the death penalty is served.
    • There are 45 people on death row in Philadelphia, 41 of whom are minorities.
    • Post-conviction reviews overturned 72% of Philadelphia’s death sentences.

Healthcare:

  1. The Senate finally passes a bill that funds the 9/11 victims fund in perpetuity. First responders no longer have to come back to Congress to plead their case every time funding comes up for a vote.
    • Comedian John Stewart has been fighting for this for nearly a decade.
    • A quick look back at votes and bill sponsorship indicates that this has largely been blocked by Republicans over the past 18 years. I don’t understand why this is.
  1. The Trump administration tells Utah legislators that it won’t approve their request for funding for Medicaid expansion under ACA because their plan leaves out certain income brackets covered by the ACA. The administration would fund full Medicaid expansion.

International:

  1. The Navy warship that brought down an Iranian drone last week brought down a second one in the process, according to CENTCOM Commander General Kenneth McKenzie….
  2. Trump says he could easily wipe Afghanistan off the face of the earth, but he doesn’t want to kill 10 million people. Afghanistan requests clarification.
  3. Trump vetos three bills that would’ve prevented the administration from selling weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Both the House and the Senate passed the bans largely over human rights issues.
  4. The UK selects Boris Johnson to be their next prime minister. Johnson is a populist who led the original Brexit movement and is OK with a no-deal Brexit. Oh how did we get here?
    • Johnson was a journalist who created sensationalist and inaccurate stories. He was an EU skeptic even back in the early 90s.
    • He was fired from the Times of London for making up quotes.
    • He meticulously creates his persona of a bumbling, unkempt buffoon.
    • He was fired from the Parliament before he became the mayor of London.
    • He’s long wanted to be Prime Minister, but he didn’t really want it under the current circumstances and he didn’t really think the Brexit referendum would pass. Now we’ll see what he does with it.
    • His first week in office, he ramps up the Brexit rhetoric and causes the pound to fall.
  1. The Senate confirms Mark Esper as Secretary of Defense, a position that’s been open more than half a year. Esper is a former Raytheon lobbyist. He replaces James Mattis.
  2. After France passes a law taxing big tech companies like Amazon and Google, Trump says he’ll take “substantial reciprocal action.” Ironically, Trump says if anyone’s going to tax American companies it should be America. These companies barely pay any taxes in the U.S., thanks in large part to the GOP’s 2017 tax cuts. France is only taxing the amount these companies make in France.
  3. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates resigns, and Trump nominates Representative John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) to replace him. You might have noticed several GOP Members of Congress auditioning for this role during the Mueller hearing, including Ratcliffe.
  4. It’s been a month since North Korea and the U.S. agreed to start up denuclearization negotiations again, but so far Kim Jong Un hasn’t even named a negotiator.
  5. Speaking of North Korea, they just launched two unidentified objects into the Sea of Japan.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. South Dakota passes a law requiring schools to display the country’s motto, “In God we trust.” State Republicans say it’s about history, but it only became the country’s motto in 1956, when Eisenhower signed it into law.
    • That was around the same time “under God” was added to the pledge of allegiance, and the same time that “In God we trust” was added to currency.
    • The author of the bill says it’s based on religion (Judeo-Christian principles).
    • Over a dozen other states have either passed a similar law or have proposed one.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

  1. The Supreme Court finds that the plaintiffs in a lawsuit attempting to block Trump from using Pentagon money to build his wall don’t have a legal right to bring the case. They didn’t rule that Trump’s use of these funds is constitutional, but the ruling allows him to start using the funds.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The Trump administration announces a deportation process that bypasses immigration judges and allows them to quickly deport undocumented immigrants who’ve been here less than two years. Before, this expedited process was reserved for undocumented migrants caught within 100 miles of the border and who had only been in the country two weeks.
  2. A district judge blocks Trump’s new “third-country” asylum rule that prevents refugees from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they pass through a third country and don’t seek asylum there first. The administration says they’ll fight the decision.
    • The judge says the rule could put people in imminent danger.
    • This could affect refugees who’ve been trying to do this the right way by waiting their turn at ports of entry. They’ve been waiting in Mexico for months, but if this rule goes into effect, they might be required to seek asylum in Mexico first.
    • Trump threatens Guatemala with tariffs if they don’t enter a safe country agreement for asylum seekers. He also threatens a travel ban against Guatemala.
  1. ICE releases a 16-year-old U.S. citizen after 23 days of detention in an immigration center. He says he lost 26 pounds, and described awful conditions there. There were extenuating circumstances, but in the end, a U.S. citizen was unlawfully detained by U.S. officials who refused to accept his birth certificate.
    • In March, ICE detained a nine-year-old girl and her 14-year-old brother, both of whom are U.S. citizens, for 32 hours. Even though they had U.S. passports, officials accused the brother of human trafficking. Their mother had to go through the Mexican consulate to free them.
  1. Remember the high school student made famous for staring down a Native American elder after a March for Life rally in DC last year? He sued the Washington Post for defamation, and a judge just dismissed the case with prejudice (meaning the suit can’t be brought up again). The family still has lawsuits pending against CNN and NBC.
  2. FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before Congress, and he says that domestic terrorism from white hate groups is on the rise. He also says, “A majority of the domestic terrorism cases we’ve investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white supremacist violence.”
  3. Shit rolls downhill… Trump’s racist attacks against The Squad have trickled down.
    • Two New Jersey GOP officials call to eradicate Islam and call a sitting Member of Congress a terrorist on social media. They refuse to apologize.
    • The Republican County Chairmen’s association of Illinois posts and then removes a meme on Facebook that calls the squad “The Jihad Squad.” The meme also has the slogan, “Political Jihad Is Their Game,” and it shows Rep. Ayanna Pressley aiming a gun. The president of the association doesn’t apologize for the content.
  1. Trump’s mad at Elijah Cummings. He tweets that Cummings’ Baltimore district is “far worse and more dangerous” than the border, is the worst district in the U.S., and is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess—a “dangerous and filthy” place.
    • Even members of the GOP think this one went too far, and the Baltimore Sun publishes a scathing retort.
    • And, surprise! It appears that Kushner is a slumlord in that very district. Kushner Companies owns thousands of apartments in the district, which have accrued over 200 code violations in a single year, including mice infestation.
    • If you’re not clear on why these tweets are racist and hurtful, give this a listen.
  1. Active troops are now monitoring migrants at a detention center in Texas.
  2. After ICE traps a man and his 12-year-old son in their van for hours (threatening them with arrest), people in the Tennessee neighborhood provide the two with food and water. After four hours, the neighbors form a human chain around the van to help them get back into their house and prevent ICE agents from taking them into custody.
  3. A federal judge rules against North Carolina’s notorious bathroom bill, saying that the state can’t ban people from using bathrooms that match their identity. Also, the guy who authored that bill is running for the House of Representatives in a special election. Why is there a special election? Because the campaign of the Republican who ran last time committed voter fraud.
  4. Several U.S. Marines are arrested in Southern California for transporting undocumented migrants.

Climate:

  1. A new report shows that temperature variations at the end of the last century were more extreme than any variations over the past 2,000 years. Previous variations were contained to specific areas as opposed to the global variations we see now.
  2. India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are in monsoon season, and have seen over 650 people die so far from the extreme weather and flooding.
  3. Europe is continuing its hot streak, with Paris hitting 108.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest temperature ever recorded there. Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium also hit record highs.
  4. Four of the biggest auto manufacturers side with California in the state’s fight against Trump’s regulatory rollbacks on fuel efficiency. They strike a deal that‘s slightly looser than Obama‘s regulations, but much tougher than Trump’s. They‘ll reach 51 mpg by 2026 instead of 54.5 mpg by 2025. Trump lowered it to 37 mpg.
    • Trump is still likely to revoke California’s right to create its own emissions guidelines, but there are 13 other states who promise to uphold Obama’s tighter standards.
    • Additional automakers are interested in signing on to the deal.
  1. Tidewater glaciers are experiencing underwater melt at a rate 100 times faster than previously thought. Tidewater glaciers are glaciers that end in the ocean.

Budget/Economy:

  1. The White House and Congress reach a two-year budget deal that increases the spending cap by $320 billion and that suspends the debt ceiling until after the next presidential election (because who wants that hanging over an election?).
    • The Freedom Caucus (Tea Party wing) urges Trump to reject the deal.
    • A few months ago, the White House said they would force spending cuts in the budget, but they approved this increase anyway.
    • The deal puts us on track to add another $1 trillion to the deficit this year. Candidate Trump said he’d balance the budget within 5 years. He has an perplexing strategy…
  1. And then the next day, the Trump administration announces a proposed rule that will drop over 3 million Americans off of SNAP.
    • An interesting side effect of that is that share prices for major discount grocery stores dropped.
  1. Bernie Madoff asks Trump to reduce his prison sentence. Madoff is 81, and has about 140 years out of 150 to serve for cheating hundred of people out of their money (for an estimated $64.8 billion in total).
  2. Economic growth in the U.S. slowed to 2.1% last quarter.
  3. 2018’s newly revised economic growth is now 2.5%.
  4. China, which is hardly importing any U.S. soybeans at this point, approves imports of soybeans and wheat from Russia.
  5. The government announces another round of assistance to farmers hurt by the tariffs. Farmers will receive from $15 to $150 per acre, totaling $16 billion.
  6. The DOJ approves the T-Mobile/Sprint merger. States Attorneys Generals launch an antitrust lawsuit.

Elections:

  1. Three House Republicans announce they won’t be running again in 2020. They are: Pete Olson (Texas), Martha Roby (Alabama), and Paul Mitchell (Michigan). Three House Republicans and two House Democrats announced earlier this year that they won’t be running.
  2. Lawyers in Miami-Dade County, FL, say they’ve found a loophole in the state’s recently passed bill that requires ex-felons to pay any fees and fines before they can be eligible to vote. This bill overrode a measure passed overwhelmingly by the voters. The loophole is that fees and fines are not usually listed in the sentencing documents.

Miscellaneous:

  1. In a speech to conservative teens, Trump works them up by repeating his debunked story that undocumented immigrants are voting illegally. They just aren’t. There are so many procedures in place to prevent this. He also tells the kids that Article II of the Constitution gives him the right to do whatever he wants, among other fish tales.
  2. The governor of Puerto Rico finally resigns after weeks of protests.
  3. Trump’s nominee for Ambassador to the UN has spent 7 out of 20 months of her time as Ambassador to Canada at homes she owns in the U.S.
  4. Lawyers for Cesar Sayoc, the MAGA Bomber, claim that Sayoc was influenced by Fox News, Trump’s tweets, and Facebook. His favorites were Fox & Friends and Hannity. Sayoc mailed 16 pipe bombs to Trump’s perceived enemies.
  5. A Pennsylvania school that sent out letters to parents threatening to call child services if they don’t pay their lunch debt rejects a local businessman’s offer to pay off those debts.
  6. Illustrating why Republicans are no longer the party of fiscal responsibility, Mitch McConnell tells Trump that no politician ever lost his seat by approving higher government spending.
  7. A police officer in Louisiana posts on social media that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez needs a round.
  8. Trump calls for opening investigations into Obama’s book deal and reopening investigations into Hillary’s emails and the Clinton Foundation. He later complains about the air conditioning in the White House installed by the Obama’s saying that it worked fine before. Not sure how he’d know.
  9. There are eight mass shootings over the weekend. EIGHT.
    • A shooter kills three people and injures 15 more at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California. The shooter is also killed. He had previously posted a recommendation to read Might is Right, a white supremacist manifesto from the 1800s.
    • That same night, two shooters kill one person and injure 11 at a festival in a Brooklyn, NY, park.
    • The other mass shootings occur in DC, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Washington State,
  1. Dozens of links from major news media outlets online are now being redirected (without their knowledge) to advertising sites. I’m talking major media, like the New York Times, Forbes, BBC, and more.
  2. Brazil’s president threatens journalist Glenn Simpson of the Intercept with jail time over reporting hacked phone conversations involving the justice minister. Greenwald has generated his share of controversy, but he’s still protected by due process.

Mueller Testifies

Posted on July 30, 2019 in Politics, Trump

What you took away from Mueller’s testimony to Congress this week depends on a few things, like whether you already read the full report (or even just the summaries), whether you watched the full testimony, where you get your news from, and what you believed before his testimony.

  1. Here are the highlights if your news source employs a fact checker:
    • Russia is absolutely intent on meddling in our elections. They did it in 2016, they’ll do it in 2020, and they’re probably doing it now.
    • Trump’s campaign members and associates had many contacts with Russian agents and officials, and they pretty much all lied about it to investigators.
    • “Problematic is an understatement in terms of what [Trump’s praise for Wikileaks] displays of giving some hope or some boost to what is and should be illegal behavior.”
    • Trump tried several times to get White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller and then Trump tried to cover that up.
    • Trump tried several times to get Jeff Sessions to unrecuse himself from the investigation so he could limit the scope of the investigation to only future campaigns, thus excluding his own campaign.
    • Trump encouraged witnesses to stay loyal and urged them to not cooperate with prosecutors.
    • The report doesn’t exonerate anyone.
    • Trump tried to get James Comey to stop investigating Michael Flynn.
    • Trump tried to keep emails about the Trump Tower meeting secret.
    • Trump asked staff to falsify records related to the Mueller investigation.
    • Trump’s written answers to Mueller were inadequate, incomplete, and sometimes untruthful.
    • Trump’s associates opened themselves up to counterintelligence risks of blackmail with their behavior during the election.
    • Mueller did not reach a determination of whether Trump committed a crime because DOJ standards say a sitting president can’t be indicted.
    • And finally, collusion is not a legal term.
  1. Here are the highlights if your news sources are Fox:
    • The FISA warrant a) began this whole thing and b) was obtained based on information in the Steele Dossier. The dossier didn’t start it, and the FISA warrant application barely mentions the dossier.
    • The Mueller report debunks the Steele Dossier. The report mostly mentions the dossier as part of the timeline of events, and isn’t used as evidence. The report does say the dossier was wrong about Michael Cohen being in Prague (Volume II, page 139).
    • The Trump Tower meeting was a setup by Fusion GPS’s Glenn Simpson and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. There’s no evidence to indicate this.
    • Simpson provided the information Veselnitskaya brought to the Trump Tower meeting. This one is actually true, but it was research work done as part of a legal case for Prevezon, a client both had in common (see link above).
    • Konstantin Kilimnik is a secret FBI informant. Not really, but he is kind of a mystery.
    • Along those lines, Josef Mifsud, who met with George Papadopoulos, is a Western intelligence agent, not a Russian one. He doesn’t appear to be.
    • The Clinton campaign laundered money through a lawyer to pay a foreign agent (Steele) to get dirt on Trump. And Clinton was the one to collude with Russia, not Trump. First, the campaign‘s lawyer hired Fusion GPS, not Steele. Second, so the Clinton campaign colluded to… lose the election to Trump?
    • Peter Strzok’s and Lisa Page’s texts are evidence that the investigation itself was biased. The DOJ’s inspector general found otherwise. This line of questioning leads to a passionate defense by Mueller of his team. He says he didn’t ask anyone about their politics because they don’t affect a team member’s ability to do their job.

I think I should note here that regardless of whether you do believe the Trump Tower meeting was a setup and regardless of whether you do believe Mifsud and Kilimnik are U.S. intelligence fronts, the Trump campaign was totally interested in sharing information with them while under the impression that they were Russian operatives. Nobody forced them into the decisions they made.

Week 130 in Trump

Posted on July 24, 2019 in Politics, Trump

Can we be done with this already?

What a week. The ongoing feud between Trump and the squad; a resolution of condemnation of Trump’s racist tweets; a failed impeachment vote; a contempt vote for Barr and Ross; newly unsealed evidence in Michael Cohen’s case; even more sex traffickers; tensions in Iran; Hong Kong protests; Puerto Rico protests; the USDA and BLM move across country; and an amazing database of all opioid sales between 2006 and 2012.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending July 21…

Russia:

  1. The judge in Roger Stone’s case bans him from all social media because the guy just can’t keep quiet about his case. The judge also limits Stone’s family’s use of social media. But two hours after the hearing, his wife posts a picture of her and Roger at the hearing
  2. The former president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, says they knew that Julian Assange was interfering in our 2016 presidential election. He accuses Wikileaks of manipulating the information.
  3. The Trump administration is using executive privilege to block House committees from obtaining classified documents from Mueller’s investigation.

Legal Fallout:

  1. Texas Democrat Al Green forces a House vote on articles of impeachment against Trump with a focus on Trump’s behavior and moral fitness for office, which the House votes down. This resolution doesn’t cover obstruction, and it’s Green’s third time trying.
  2. Trump tells Kellyanne Conway to ignore a subpoena from Congress to testify about her violations of the Hatch Act. (She’s been accused of more Hatch Act violations than any other single person, and others have resigned over their violations.)
  3. The judge in Jeffrey Epstein’s child trafficking case denies him bail, ruling that Epstein will remain behind bars while he awaits trial. The judge also says that Epstein’s behavior around young girls seems uncontrollable.
  4. While the newly released evidence from Michael Cohen’s case implicate Trump in the conspiracy to pay hush money to women with whom he had affairs, the Southern District of New York announces there won’t be any more charges filed in the case.
    • It’s understandable, since the working theory is that you can’t indict a sitting president; but also confusing, since other people appear to be implicated in the crime as well (including Hope Hicks, Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Keith Davidson, and AMI executive David Pecker).
    • The unsealed evidence shows the impetus to keep the women quiet came from the release of the Access Hollywood tapes where Trumps brags that he can (and does) grab women and do what he wants because he’s rich.
    • The judge ordered the release of the documents because he believes them to be a matter of national importance.
    • As a result of the document release, the House Judiciary Committee has asked Hope Hicks for clarity on the inconsistencies in her testimony.
  1. More information comes out about Epstein’s sweetheart deal brokered by Alex Acosta in 2008.
    • The jail supervisor wrote a memo to his staff to let them know that Epstein was a first-time offender “poorly versed in jail routine,” and “his adjustment to incarceration will most likely be atypical.”
    • The supervisor ordered Epstein’s cell to be unlocked with frequent access to the attorney room where they installed a TV for him.
    • Epstein was allowed to leave the jail for 12 hours a day, six days a week under a work release program. At times, he was left unattended.
  1. And because you just can’t know enough sex traffickers, the Eastern District of Virginia indicts George Nader on charges of trafficking a 14-year-old boy from Europe to have sex. George Nader worked with the Trump campaign to enable private meetings between the campaign and Russia, and between the campaign and the United Arab Emirates.

Courts/Justice:

  1. A court rules that the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, must pay $14 million in damages to a woman against whom they instigated a troll storm. The Daily Stormer launched “an online anti-Semitic harassment and intimidation campaign” against the Montana woman who had complained about her dealings with the mother of white supremacist leader Richard Spencer. This is the second multi-million judgement against the Daily Stormer.
  2. While the DOJ is concentrating on prosecuting immigration violations, opioid cases, and violent crimes, white collar prosecutions under Trump are down dramatically, both in the number of cases and the fines imposed.

Healthcare:

  1. A federal judge upholds Trump’s extension of bare-bones insurance policies that don’t meet the standards outlined in Obamacare. People can now keep these policies for up to three years.
  2. This database is whack. It turns out that the DEA has kept a database of every single oxycodone and hydrocodone transaction from 2006 to 2012. These account for 75% of all opioid drugs shipped to pharmacies. They’ve known all along where the problems were and where doctors and pharmacies were overselling.
    • 76 billion pills were distributed across the country during that time. In the areas hit hardest, that amounted to 150 or more pills per person per year. You can look up different areas of the country for yourself.
    • Six companies sold 75% of the pills tracked: McKesson Corp., Walgreens, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, CVS, and Walmart.
    • SpecGx manufactured 29 million of the pills sold; Actavis Pharma manufactured 26 million. Purdue Pharma, which has taken the brunt of the fight against opioids, manufactured 2.5 million by comparison.
  1. DHHS will begin enforcing a new regulation preventing family planning clinics that receive federal funding from performing or referring women for abortions.

International:

  1. The BBC agrees not to share information gathered by one of their correspondents in an upcoming trip to Iran with the BBC’s Persian language channel, giving in to the Iranian government’s restrictions on a free press.
  2. Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo is arrested under an extradition warrant on corruption charges. Now Peru has arrested all of its living former presidents in connection with bribery charges connected to Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction company.
  3. The U.S. drops to 128th in the annual Global Peace Index, largely because of increases in violence and political instability. We’re now between South Africa and Saudi Arabia.
  4. Over the past two years under Trump, DHS has gotten rid of or reduced programs that were put in place to detect terrorist threats around weapons of mass destruction. These programs were put in place after the attacks on 9/11. DHS is tasked with domestic security, including identifying these threats.
  5. Iran seizes what appears to be a United Arab Emirates tanker carrying what Iran calls “smuggled fuel.”
  6. Trump announces that we brought down an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz.
  7. Britain officials claim that Iranian authorities seized two British oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, one under the British flag and one under Liberia’s flag.
  8. Angela Merkel joins the ranks of foreign leaders who criticize Trump’s racist tweets and comments about four Congresswomen of color. Leaders have also expressed disapproval of the crowds chanting “Send her back!”
  9. Trump denies that he gave Rand Paul permission to negotiate with Iran, and then the next day he reverses himself and says he did give Paul permission. Interesting choice, since Paul is an admitted isolationist.
  10. The protests in Hong Kong continue—we’re in the fourth month. Protesters vandalize the Chinese government’s liaison office there, and police use tear gas and rubber bullets in response. In a separate incident, masked men with sticks attack protesters in a train station. Even so, the protests have been mostly peaceful, and illustrate how the populace feels about Chinese sovereignty.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. Mostly along party-line votes, the House votes to condemn Trump’s racist tweets about the four Congresswomen of color. The resolution “strongly condemns [Trump’s] racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color.” It received high criticism and little support from Republicans (four Republicans and one Independent voted for it). Some members of the GOP object to the use of the word “racist”n on the House floor. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck…
  2. The House votes to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt after they ignore subpoenas for information in the investigation into adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.
  3. The House passes a bill to increase the minimum wage to $15. This will likely not be taken up in the Senate, and the Congressional Budget Office reports that this could cut jobs and might not result in higher incomes in the long term.
  4. Rep. Joaquin Castro introduces legislation to remove words from the federal government‘s vocabulary that describe immigrants in ways that are now considered derogatory.
  5. Following the Senate’s approval, the House passes a series of measures to prevent the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Trump is likely to veto this.

Family Separation:

  1. Here’s what happening at the border. A family at a Border Patrol holding facility in El Paso was told that one parent would be sent back to Mexico and one parent could stay in the U.S. with their children. The agent then asked their three-year-old daughter to choose whether her Mom or Dad should be the one to stay. The girl said Mom, but cried when they started to take away her Dad. The agent said to the girl, “You said with mom.”
    • By the way, the three-year-old has heart disease and has had open heart surgery.
    • The only reason this family is together right now is because of the hard work of an American doctor who examined the little girl.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. While defending Trump’s racist tweets, Kellyanne Conway asks a Jewish journalist what his ethnicity is. This is in response to the journalist asking which country Trump wants the [mostly U.S.-born] Congresswomen to return to.
  2. Trump says he tried to stop the crowd from chanting “Send her back” at his first campaign rally after he made his racist tweets about the Congresswomen of color. He says he started speaking very quickly to cut off the chant, but video shows that he leaned back and soaked it in for about 15-20 seconds before beginning to speak. And 12 minutes later, he says, “If they don’t like it, let them leave… You know what? If they don’t love it, TELL THEM to leave it.”
    • Lara Trump throws Trump’s supporters under the bus, saying they were the ones who started the chant. She says Trump didn’t do anything.
  1. The following days, Trump continues his fight against the women, calling them pro-terrorist and anti-Israel and anti-USA. Trump’s aides have been working overtime to get him to stop.
  2. But eight days later, Trump is still tweeting about the Congresswoman, accusing them of hating America and Israel. He lies about:
    • Ilhan Omar supporting Al Qaeda (she doesn’t).
    • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling the U.S. people garbage (she didn’t).
    • All four women calling Jews evil (they haven’t).
  1. The Anti-Defamation League, which was founded to stop defamation of Jewish people, criticizes Trump for using Israel as a shield to defend his racist tweets. They point out how white supremacists across the country are cheering his tweets. The neo-Nazi who runs the Daily Stormer tweeted, “This is the kind of WHITE NATIONALISM we elected him for…”
  2. The four Congresswomen hold a press conference condemning the “recent xenophobic, bigoted remarks from the occupant of the White House.” They call this a distraction. They also call for Trump’s impeachment.
  3. Now we’re learning that Trump’s attacks on the squad was part of a strategy gone awry, seemingly because he doesn’t understand how racist it was. He meant to drive a wedge between House leadership and the squad, but his words unified the two groups in their condemnation Trump. He’s also trying to make this four women the face of the Democratic party in the run-up to 2020.
  4. Upon returning to her home state of Minnesota, Ilhan Omar is welcomed home by cheering supporters at the airport.
  5. The DOJ issues a new rule that you can’t seek asylum in the U.S. if you traveled through another country to get here and didn’t request asylum from that country. This is targeted at Central Americans coming through Mexico, but the DOJ is forgetting that Mexico is not safe for many asylum seekers because people they are fleeing follow them there.
    • Unlike Canada, neither Mexico nor Guatemala has a safe third-country agreement with the U.S.
    • That’s OK, though. Trump’s new rule doesn’t require that the third country be deemed as safe for asylum seekers.
    • These rules also apply to minors crossing the border alone.
    • The ACLU files a lawsuit to block the rule, saying “It’s patently unlawful under U.S. law as well as international human rights law.”
  1. A federal judge definitively blocks Trump from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. The judge also retains jurisdiction in the case to ensure that the census is processed properly.
  2. Trump tells aides that he wants to fire Wilbur Ross after the failure to get the citizenship question on the 2020 Census.
  3. Customs and Border Protection open an investigation into 70 current or former Border Patrol employees who belong to the Facebook group that mocked and denigrated both migrants and elected officials.
  4. Wanna know how all that funding for border security is being spent? Southwest Key Programs paid six employees at least $1 million in 2017. Southwest Key is a nonprofit agency that provides housing for thousands of migrant children.
  5. Catholic sisters, clergy, and parishioners gather in the Russell Senate Office Building in DC to protest Trump’s immigration policies and our treatment of immigrants. 70 are arrested by DC police.
  6. Even though you can’t pray away the gay, Amazon is getting flack from House Republicans for no longer carrying books by a leading proponent of gay conversion therapy. Conversion therapy has not only been debunked, it’s also been found to lead to mental problems and even suicide.
  7. During a House Oversight and Reform Committee meeting, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asks DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan if he’d seen the photoshopped images of a violent rape of AOC that were being spread by border patrol agents. She then asks whether the people who spread these images are still in charge of taking care of women and children. McAleenan has no answer.

  8. Under the Trump administration, undocumented immigrants who serve in the military are being denied citizenship at rates higher than foreign-born immigrants who don’t serve.
  9. CBP uses tear gas to stop a group of about 50 migrants who try to rush the barriers on a bridge at the border in Rio Grande City.
  10. The Pentagon authorizes 1,100 more troops and 1,000 Texas National Guard soldiers to be deployed to the border.
  11. The DOJ announces they won’t bring charges against the police officer who killed Eric Garner because they say they can’t prove the officer acted willfully. Garner was killed five years ago. “I can’t breathe.”
  12. Three more white supremacists are sentenced to prison sentences for charges stemming from the violence in Charlottesville where activist Heather Heyer was killed.

Climate:

  1. The Trump campaign comes up with a novel way to own the libs. They start selling MAGA plastic straws to get back at environmentalists who have pushed through regulations banning plastic straws.
  2. NOAA and NASA say that this past June was the hottest June on record (which goes back to 1880).
  3. The EPA announces that they will not ban chlorpyrifos even though the EPA’s own experts have linked the pesticide to serious health problems, especially in children.
  4. The USDA blocks the release of their own plan for responding and adapting to the effects of climate change.

Budget/Economy:

  1. China’s economic growth continues to slow. Last month, their growth rate was the slowest it’s been in nearly three decades. This is partly from the trade war with the U.S., but their growth rate is still 6.2%.
  2. Manufacturing employment shows a slight increase in July, but is still down overall because of a deep dive in June.
  3. Retail growth slowed in the first half of the year, largely because of the struggles of brick-and-mortar stores. Online retail sales have also been slowing down over the past
  4. Corporate earnings decline for the second quarter in a row.
  5. Chinese investment in the U.S. has fallen from $46.5 billion in 2016 to $5.4 billion in 2018.

Elections:

  1. The Marine Corps orders Duncan Hunter to stop using their emblem and phrase on his re-election campaign materials.
    • Duncan’s racist mailers tie two of his fellow members of the House to terrorism as well as tying his Democratic opponent to terrorism.
    • The mailer, not surprisingly, does NOT mention that Hunter has been indicted on campaign finance charges. It also doesn’t mention the numerous affairs he had on his wife using said campaign finances.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Trump tweets that his administration will take a look into allegations by Peter Thiel that Google is compromised by China.
    • Thiel has no evidence and says he was just raising questions, but he did say they needed to be investigated by the FBI and CIA.
    • Larry Kudlow, Trump’s chief economic advisor, dismissed Thiel’s claims.
  1. Trump lets loose with a barrage of lies during his cabinet meeting. He falsely claims:
    • The governments of Guatemala and Honduras are forming and sending migrant caravans.
    • Asylum seekers who are released on their own recognizance don’t show up for hearings (89% do).
    • Human traffickers don’t come through ports of entry (they do).
    • Democrats want open borders (the vast majority do not).
    • He approved the permits for an energy facility in Louisiana (Obama’s administration approved them).
    • The program to repatriate remains of U.S. soldiers who died in North Korea is still going on (it’s been suspended).
    • The renegotiated NAFTA would force auto manufacturers to stay in the U.S. (there’s nothing in the new agreement that would require that).
    • We’re building lots of wall at the southern border (no actual construction has begun on any new fencing).
    • The most China has purchased from famers in a year is $16 billion, and since we’re taking in many times that in tariffs, we can pay the farmers $16 billion to make up for their loss in sales. (I can barely unwind this one. The most China spent in a year is nearly $30 billion, the tariffs have generated about $21 billion (which is not many times $16 billion), and Americans pay those costs, not China or Chinese companies).
    • During the Obama administration, the trade deficit with China was $500 billion (it’s never been that high; in fact, the highest it’s ever been is 2018 when it was $381 billion for goods and services, and $420 billion for just goods (we’re an exporter of services)).
    • The Chinese economy has lost $20 trillion since Trump’s election (China’s GDP continues to go up, and their economy grew by 6.6% last year).
    • The Iran deal cost Obama’s administration $150 billion (it wasn’t U.S. money, it was Iran’s; it wasn’t all held in the U.S. but in financial institutions around the world; and it was closer to $60 billion in Iranian-owned assets that were unfrozen).
  1. Trump announces he’ll nominate Eugene Scalia to be Secretary of Labor, replacing Alex Acosta who left over the Epstein scandal. Scalia is the son of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
  2. Puerto Rican protestors are out in force trying to oust their governor over leaked misogynistic and homophobic texts exchanged with his top advisors. Anger at the governor has been brewing over his mishandling of the economy, but this put a match to the flame. The governor says he won’t step down, but he won’t seek re-election next year. Protestors say that’s not good enough.
  3. The USDA suffers a brain drain, as they move offices from DC to Kansas City and force workers to move there as well if they want to keep their jobs. Less than 2/3 of the researchers asked to relocate have accepted the offer.
  4. At the same time, the BLM is moving its headquarters from DC to Grand Junction, CO. Some worry that this means the agency will have less clout in decision making in DC.
  5. A Pennsylvania school sends letters to parents threatening to send their kids to foster care if they don’t pay their past-due school lunch debts.
  6. Attorney General William Barr donated $51,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee over the five months leading up to his confirmation. Aside from that, he’s given just six times since 2009.

Polls:

  1. 68% of Americans polled say Trump’s tweets and comments about the four women in Congress are offensive. 75% of women find the tweets offensive. But only 25% of Republicans find them offensive. And here’s where we have the disconnect in this country. It’s also why you don’t hear Republicans in Congress calling Trump out for racism.
  2. A separate poll found Trump’s approval rating among Republican rose 5% after his racist tweets.

Week 129 in Trump

Posted on July 17, 2019 in Politics, Trump

This week ended with a bizarre series of racists tweets from the Commander in Chief who was apparently trying to pick a fight with four freshman Representatives who also happen to be women of color. It appears Trump is trying to make them the face of the Democratic party ahead of the 2020 elections so that his base will believe that Democrats = Socialists. For anyone who believes that, I have some recommended reading on socialism.

But the worst thing is that he told them to go back to their countries. He didn’t tell any white male immigrants in Congress to go back to their countries; he told four women of color, all of whom are U.S. citizens and three of whom were born here, to go back to their countries. If you don’t get it, here’s a little background on why “go back to your country” is racist.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending July 14…

Missing From Last Week:

  1. Now that I’m reading last week’s New York Times piece about the conditions in Clint, it turns out that even border agents are broken up about the conditions the kids are being kept in. They have repeatedly reported the conditions to their superiors with no response and no assistance.
    • With all the recent publicity, though, an internal investigation into the facility was ordered last month.
    • It’s a really tough read.

Russia:

  1. The White House blocks Annie Donaldson, Don McGahn’s former chief of staff, from answering over 200 questions from Congress about obstruction of justice. The Mueller report cites Donaldson’s notes dozens of times, and Congress asked her to elaborate.
  2. The DOJ interviewed Christopher Steele, the former British spy who authored the now infamous Steele dossier, for 16 hours last month as part of the inspector general’s investigation into the Russia investigation. At first, the interviews were contentious with interviewers hostile to Steele’s information, but they found his testimony to be both credible and surprising.
    • Reminder #1: The surveillance of Carter Page began after he left the Trump campaign.
    • Reminder #2: The FISA warrant didn’t rely on the Steele dossier, though they did use the dossier as a supporting document.
  1. The House Judiciary votes (along party lines, of course) to authorize subpoenas of a dozen witnesses as part of their obstruction probe: Jared Kushner; Jeff Sessions; Rod Rosenstein; Michael Flynn; John Kelly; Rob Porter; American Media, Inc. executives David Pecker and Dylan Howard; Keith Davidson (Stormy Daniels’ one-time attorney), Corey Lewandowski, Rick Dearborn, and Jody Hunt.
  2. Robert Mueller and House Democrats reach an agreement to delay his testimony by one week and to extend the length of his interview in order to give more members a chance to question him.
  3. The DOJ orders two of Mueller’s investigators not to appear for House interviews. I’m not clear on how anyone can look at this and not realize how obstructive the DOJ is being.

Legal Fallout:

  1. New York State passes a law that allows congressional committees to access state tax returns for any “specified and legitimate legislative purpose.” This opens the door to them getting Trump’s state tax returns, if not his federal returns. Suits to obtain Trumps federal returns are pending against the Treasury and IRS.
  2. Congressional Democrats who are suing Trump for using the presidency to profit from foreign governments issue dozens of subpoenas to Trump Organization and other Trump businesses. The DOJ asks an appeals court to stop the subpoenas. Wait… is it the DOJ’s job to get involved in lawsuits against a sitting president?
  3. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals dismisses a separate emoluments case involving the Trump Hotel in DC. This case was brought by the Attorneys General of Maryland and the District of Columbia.
  4. Labor Secretary Alex Acosta defends the plea deal he brokered with Jeff Epstein a decade ago, which allowed Epstein to plead to soliciting prostitution (a reduced plea for what he actually did). Acosta says it was the best he could do, and blames the state attorney’s office.
    • A Palm Beach County attorney disputes Acosta’s account, saying that a lengthy indictment was prepared but never used after Acosta brokered the plea deal.
    • Though Trump takes Acosta’s side in the controversy, Acosta resigns as Labor Secretary. As with all the questionable characters who’ve fallen from this administration, Trump says he feels very bad for Acosta. I wonder if he also feels bad for the children Epstein hurt?
    • Finally, can we all just call this what it is and stop candy-coating it? Epstein raped these girls over and over again, and he pimped them out to his friends to be raped over and over again.
  1. If you’re feeling sorry for Acosta, he’s never had the interest of children at heart. As Secretary of Labor, he tried to cut the budget allocated to fighting child labor, forced labor, and child trafficking from $68 million to just $18.5 million.
  2. After recusing himself from the Epstein sex trafficking case, Attorney General William Barr unrecuses himself (hey, Jeff Sessions, I guess you can unrecuse!). He will recuse himself from any investigation of Epstein’s previous case in Florida. Barr’s former law firm had represented Epstein.
  3. When federal officials arrested Jeff Epstein last week, they found a trove of nude photos of underage girls locked away in a safe.
  4. Michael Flynn was supposed to testify against his former business partner, Bijan Rafiekian. But prosecutors no longer believe Flynn’s version of events and view Flynn as a co-conspirator. So far, the judge says there isn’t enough evidence of that.
  5. Felix Sater finally sits down with House Intelligence Committee investigators for an interview about Trump Tower Moscow dealings. Sater has delayed his testimony before and missed his previously scheduled testimony.

Courts/Justice:

  1. A unanimous ruling by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a previous ruling that Trump cannot block followers on Twitter because he uses the account for government business. Please remember this before dismissing Trump’s tweets as insignificant.

Healthcare:

  1. A federal judge blocks Trump’s rule that would’ve forced drug companies to include prices in their TV ads. This was part of Trump’s efforts to reduce drug prices.
  2. After that, Trump withdraws a plan to limit drug rebates to middlemen like insurance companies and Medicare.
  3. Republican Senators express hope that the courts do completely gut Obamacare, though they have no plan at this time to fall back on in case the courts do rule that way. They’re awaiting a decision in a Trump-backed lawsuit.
    • If the courts do decimate Obamacare, it would likely cause chaos in the insurance markets.
    • Mitt Romney says he has some ideas. And of course he does. Obamacare was based on the plan Romney instituted in Massachusetts.
    • Susan Collins, on the other hand, thinks it would be very bad if the courts decide to do away with Obamacare. Too bad she didn’t think about that while she was voting to confirm judges who won’t uphold Obamacare.
  1. Trump signs an executive order directing DHHS to develop policies to improve treatments for patients with kidney problems. The goals are to reduce kidney failure, reduce the need for dialysis, and make more kidneys available for transplant.

International:

  1. Massive protests continue in Hong Kong even though the Chinese extradition bill they were protesting has been deemed dead.
    • People! This should be your wakeup call. If you want to effect change you have to get out and protest. You have to call your Members of Congress. Across the world, we’ve seen how effective protests are for the people.
  1. The British ambassador to the U.S. resigns after his cables criticizing President Crazy Train are leaked (and after Trump calls him a pompous fool). Turns out his cables weren’t undiplomatic at all; they’re typical of how ambassadors criticize governments (in private). It also turns out that our own ambassadors to other countries have been behaving worse, and very publicly so.
    • Our ambassador in Berlin regularly and openly criticizes the German government (he started within hours of taking his role).
    • Our ambassador to the Netherlands has lied about their being “no go” zones in the country because of Islamic extremists (though he later admitted he had no idea what he was talking about).
    • Most of the foreign ambassadors in DC share the UK ambassador’s view of Trump.
  1. The former ambassador to the UK reported back to his country that Trump was embarking on “an act of diplomatic vandalism” when he pulled out of the Iran deal, and that the reason Trump pulled out was merely because it was a deal brokered by Barack Obama. The White House failed to produce a “day after” plan for the withdrawal, which is likely why we’re now looking at a uranium-enriched Iran.
  2. After the cables are leaked, Trump criticizes Theresa May for making a mess of Brexit. Two weeks ago, Trump said May had done a very good job handling Brexit.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. The House votes to prevent Trump from launching a strike against Iran without Congressional approval.

Family Separation:

  1. Here are some highlights of the House Oversight Committee report on child separations:
    • In March 2017, the Trump administration announced the child separation policy would be used as a deterrent.
    • In April, Jeff Sessions announced the ‘zero tolerance’ policy. Kirstjen Nielsen approved the policy in April or May.
    • In May, Trump and Nielsen both lied about creating these policies. Trump also lied about the separations being necessary to prosecute the parents on federal criminal charges; most parents were never sent to federal criminal custody. Some who were sent were returned because federal prosecutors declined to prosecute.
    • Parents were deported without their children.
    • At least 18 infants and toddlers under two were removed from their parents for anywhere from 20 days to 6 months due to these baseless policies. Nine of these were under one year old.
    • Hundreds of the children were held for far longer than is legal.
    • And finally, the Trump administration is lying about ending the policy of family separation. They’re still doing it. The report finds that this is contributing to the crisis at the border.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The judge overseeing Trump’s case about getting the citizenship question on the 2020 Census denies the DOJ’s request to change out their entire team of lawyers on the case.
  2. Trump blames the radical left for blocking the citizenship question, even though it was a conservative right SCOTUS that actually blocked it.
  3. The House announces a vote next week on whether to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in criminal contempt regarding their refusal to comply with subpoenas over the citizenship question. Of course, the DOJ will refuse to charge them with a crime (in fact the DOJ urges people not to comply with these subpoenas).
  1. 4chan has always been an online forum for hate speech, but racial, ethnic, religious, sexual, and gender slurs have increased by 40% since 2015.
    • If you think it’s harmless, former users say that the constant exposure to the hate desensitized them to hateful language and even violence in their real lives.
    • The proportion of terrorist attacks carried out by the far-right has tripled in the last five years.
    • Extremists have posted about their terrorist plans on 8chan, which is an even more vitriolic version of 4chan. Other users encouraged their terrorist activities, such as the Christ Church mosque shooting.
  1. Trump invites a group of alt-right online social media personalities to the White House, and announces to them that instead of adding a citizenship question to the White House, he’s issued an executive order to obtain citizenship information from government agencies. Which is actually how it already works.
    • Barr, speaking after Trump’s announcement, essentially says that this is a workaround of the legal system.
    • The invited group of online personalities include discredited videographers from Project Veritas, online conspiracy theorists (especially those who spread the QAnon crazy), and online meme creators.
    • The event ends in Rose Garden chaos as Seb Gorka gets in a screaming match with a journalist.
  1. ICE opens three new detention centers despite being told by Congress not to. Congress also told them to stop detaining people.
  2. We learn that ICE has been using facial recognition software to go through drivers license photos to identify undocumented immigrants. That means they’ve combed through photos of American citizens without their permission.
  3. Migrant children being held at yet another overcrowded Arizona migrant detention facility accuse border patrol officers of sexual abuse.
  4. There are over 800 candlelight vigils across the globe in solidarity with migrants, especially the children, being held at the border in horrible conditions.
  5. President Crazy Train rounds out the week with a series of tweets, several of which are directed at four progressive Democrat women in Congress “who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all)” and that they should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” 
    • The only problem is that all but one of them were born in the U.S., and the one who wasn’t came here as a refugee. The president of the United States should at least know these facts.
    • His tweets unite Democrats and get a firm backlash from Speaker Pelosi.
    • Trump’s feelings are apparently hurt when the four women don’t take it sitting down and instead take to Twitter to defend themselves. He says they should apologize to him for the bad things they say about him.
    • And finally, the media is actually using the term “racist” as opposed to couching it in terms like “racially charged.”
  1. Trump threatens all week that he’ll deport thousands of undocumented immigrants in wide-ranging raids across the country, but for the second time in as many weeks, this threats fail to materialize and a very small number are actually arrested.
    • New Orleans was on the list of cities to be raided, but with the flooding and a tropical storm on the way, ICE cancels that one. They learned something from Katrina.
  1. Apparently unable to grasp the optics here, Trump’s Doral golf club plans to host a charity tournament put on by a strip club where golfers can buy a stripper to be their caddy girl for the day.
    • It’s for a worthwhile charity, but the charity pulls out after seeing the ads touting how you can buy your own caddy girl. The event is ultimately canceled.

Climate:

  1. The DC area gets hit with wide-spread flooding from slow-moving rain storms; even the White House basement is flooded. 
  1. New Orleans was already flooding by the time Hurricane Barry made landfall (and thankfully turned into a tropical storm and then a depression).
  2. An intelligence analyst in the State Department resigns after the White House blocks evidence in his testimony on climate change and its relationship to national security. The military has long understood that climate change is one of our greatest national security threats.

Budget/Economy:

  1. Religious charities and publishers warn that Trump’s newly proposed tariffs on Chinese goods will likely reduce the availability of Bibles in the U.S.
  1. The lowest-paid workers are finally seeing a better increase in wages than their higher paid counterparts. This has been the slowest economic group to recover from the Great Recession. Only the top 10% of earners have recovered fully from the recession.
  2. In response, corporations report a record level of concern about the cost of labor. Investors aren’t concerned about it at all. Corporate earnings are still growing faster than wages.
  3. Even corporations like Walmart and Amazon are lobbying for a $15 minimum wage (likely to put pressure on small competing businesses). But this week, the Congressional Budget Office issues a report saying that while 27 million Americans would get a raise, it would remove 1.3 million jobs and reduce family income by 0.1% by 2025.
  4. Economists forecast very low GDP growth for the second quarter of 2019, coming it at just 1.4%, the weakest since Q4 2015. The reason given is that the impact of the tax cuts has faded. Inventory investment is also expected to be down.
  5. The Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, spearheaded by Ivanka, announces its first grants totaling $27 million for 14 projects in 22 countries. More than half of it is for incentives for private businesses to partner up with them.
  6. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin warns that the U.S. is running out of cash faster than expected, and is concerned that the government might have to default on its debts before Congress returns from summer recess in September. We can’t borrow money because of a congressional debt ceiling, which needs to be raised.
  7. The deficit is also growing quicker than expected, due in part to the tax cuts. The deficit for the first nine months of fiscal year 2019 is 23.1% higher than the year before. Gosh. If only there was a way we could’ve had $1.5 trillion more in tax revenues.
  8. Fed chairman Jerome Powell signals a likely cut in interest rates due to the drag on the economy caused by Trump’s tariffs.

Elections:

  1. Trump asks his aides to look into ways to devalue the dollar in order to boost the economy ahead of the 2020 elections.
    • Trump thinks the high value of the dollar is getting in the way of his America First initiatives
    • This practice is called currency manipulation, a practice Trump has publicly said he hates.
  1. Trump acknowledges that the number one reason for adding the citizenship question to the 2020 Census is to tilt the legislative districts in favor of Republicans.
    • Note that this reason was never used for justification of the question in any previous arguments, though many on the left have alleged that this is the ultimate purpose.

Miscellaneous:

  1. DC Mayor Muriel E. Bowser sends Trump a letter stating that Trump’s 4th of July event bankrupted their emergency security funding, and that the city is still owed $7.1 million from Trump’s inauguration.
  2. Trump has been telling aides he wants to replace Dan Coates as national security director. The last adult in the room. What could go wrong?
  3. There are more open civilian and military positions at the Pentagon than at any other time in history, including the positions of Defense Secretary and Deputy Defense Secretary.
  4. Sunday’s Twitter meltdown over the four Democratic women in Congress wasn’t Trump’s first meltdown of the week. On Thursday, he:
    • Tries to shame the fake news media while misremembering not just the month but also the year he launched his bid for office
    • Says he’ll stay in office for 14 years
    • Tries to insult Mayor Pete Buttigieg by mistakenly tagging someone who is clearly not a Trump fan
    • Body shames Elizabeth Warren while at the same time managing to get in a racial slur (and saying she’s 1000/24 Native American—whoopsies)
    • Criticizes a small Minneapolis suburb
    • Lies about his dealing with Deutsche Bank.

And that was all before 8 AM.

  1. A new book says Paul Ryan couldn’t stomach another two years with Trump and saw retirement as his escape hatch.
    • This, of course, launched a one-sided feud with Trump blasting Ryan’s performance as Speaker of the House.
    • It should be noted that the rhetoric of leaders like Ryan helped lead the Republican party to elect someone like Trump.

Week 128 in Trump

Posted on July 10, 2019 in Politics, Trump

The billionaire most vilified by the right and the billionaire most vilified by the left have joined forces to end what they call “forever war.” Yes, George Soros and Charles Koch are creating a think tank to work on coming up with diplomatic solutions instead of using bombs and threats. That they’re working together on this underscores just how important they think it is, and it’s something most of us can get behind. And if they can come together, maybe the rest of us from opposite ends of the spectrum can start to do the same. Maybe?

Here’s what else happened in politics for the week ending July 7…

Missing From Last Week:

  1. Illinois becomes the 11th state to decriminalize marijuana, and will vacate around 800,000 previous convictions.

Russia:

  1. A new study underscores the success of the Russian disinformation campaign in the 2016 presidential campaigns. The study found a direct correlation between Trump’s popularity and the social media activity of Russian trolls and bots. For every 25,000 retweets, Trump’s popularity moved up 1%. The Russian activity didn’t have much of an effect on Clinton’s popularity.
    • For comparison, Trump won by 0.7% in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and by 0.3% in Michigan.
    • Reminder: Correlation doesn’t equal causation; but given that the election hinged on 75,000 votes across three states, there’s a strong likelihood that there was an effect on our elections.
  1. One of Trump’s campaign consultants is taking a page from the Russian disinformation playbook and now runs several fake websites spoofing Democratic presidential campaigns. He also runs a Republican political consulting firm. Seriously folks. Learn how to discern real websites from fake ones. Your country is depending on you.

Legal Fallout:

  1. The House Ways and Means Committee sues the Treasury and IRS for Trump’s tax returns. The lawsuit alleges that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig “have mounted an extraordinary attack on the authority of Congress to obtain information needed to conduct oversight of Treasury, the IRS, and the tax laws on behalf of the American people who participate in the Nation’s voluntary tax system.”
  2. The House Ethics Committee opens an investigation into Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) essentially for witness tampering. Gaetz threatened Michael Cohen the night before Cohen’s testimony to the House Oversight Committee, saying he was going to release embarrassing personal information about Cohen.
  3. Officials arrest child molester and trafficker Jeff Epstein, charging him with new sex trafficking charges.
    • You might remember that Acting Labor Secretary Alex Acosta gave Epstein a sweet plea deal for similar charges in Florida where Epstein basically ended up pleading out to far lesser counts of soliciting prostitution. Epstein was actually trafficking and molesting underage girls.
    • As part of that deal, Epstein also could pretty much come and go from prison as he pleased during his short sentence.
    • Acosta is now Trump’s nominee to be Labor Secretary.
    • This could have far-reaching implications given the number of high-power, wealth men who hung around with Epstein.

Healthcare:

  1. A federal judge temporarily blocks Ohio’s fetal heartbeat law, which bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
    • The term “fetal heartbeat” is a misnomer, because at six weeks a fetus doesn’t have a formed heart.
    • What is detectable at six weeks is a flurry of electrical impulses in the area where the heart will eventually form.
    • These impulses aren’t audible, even with a stethoscope.
  1. The AMA sues the state of North Dakota over their Compelled Reversal Mandate law. The law forces doctors to tell their patients that a medication-induced abortion is reversible if they don’t finish their course of pills. This is false and unscientific, and it forces doctors to breach their Hippocratic oath.

International:

  1. Iran says they now have more low-enriched uranium than the limit allowed by the JCPOA (the Iran deal). Up until Trump withdrew the U.S. from the deal, and even for a while after, Iran followed the conditions of the deal.
    • Europe has been trying to work around the U.S. sanctions, and now Iran says they’ll restart working toward weapons-grade uranium if Europe doesn’t offer them a deal.
  1. Protests continue in Hong Kong against the Chinese extradition bill, which has since been suspended. Things get more heated this week as protestors ransack and occupy Hong Kong’s Legislative Council chambers, and police end up using tear gas.
  2. Days after Trump paid a “surprise” visit to North Korea to meet briefly with Kim Jong-Un, North Korea accuses Trump of lying. While he’s pushing the public narrative that the two countries have an open dialog, North Korea claims he’s also “hell-bent” on hostile acts.
  3. Brexit party leader Nigel Farage says it’s more important to Brexit from the EU, deal or no deal, than it is to keep the United Kingdom together.
    • Both of Farage’s kids are German citizens and he’s applied for German citizenship himself. If successful, he’ll still be a citizen of the EU. Filing this one under “Hypocrite.”
    • Meanwhile, about 40% of the citizens of the UK are so worried about the aftermath of Brexit that they’re stockpiling food and supplies. Businesses warn of shortages coming up within the next few weeks.
    • The Scottish government pushes for a second referendum on separating from the UK and remaining part of the EU.
  1. When asked about his relationships with dictators, Trump tells reporters, “I get along with everybody. Except you people, actually… I get along with President Putin. I get along with Mohammad from Saudi Arabia. President Erdogan, he’s tough but I get along with him.”
  2. Someone leaks cables from UK’s ambassador to the United States, which reveal that the ambassador has called Trump incompetent, inept, and insecure. He also says conflicts within the White House are like “knife fights.” The White House says they will no longer deal with this ambassador.
  3. We’re not the only country that treats refugees with callousness. European counties have been deporting refugees back to Libyan detention camps, placing them in the middle of a war zone. This week, an airstrike kills 53 migrants being held in Tripoli.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. While the Senate is blocking nearly every piece of legislation put in front of them, here’s a taste of what the House has passed, all while pursuing investigations into Russia, obstruction, and corruption (yes, lawmakers and walk and chew gum at the same time):
    • HR1, For the People Act: One of the most sweeping election reform bills to ensure voting rights and give power back to the people.
    • HR5, Equality Act: A bill to protect the rights of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters in the areas of employment, housing, education, loans, and the jury system, among others.
    • HR6, American Dream and Promise Act: A bill to protect DACA recipients and those with Temporary Protected Status, and to provide them with a pathway to citizenship.
    • HR7, Paycheck Fairness Act: Equal pay for equal work. Note that this doesn’t say that if my husband makes X, I should make X. It says if my colleague who does the same job as me with the same experience and productivity makes X, then I should also make X.
    • HR8, Gun Violence Protection Act: Closes loopholes that allow gun sales without background checks. In other words, mandates universal background checks.
    • HR9, Climate Action Now Act: Requires the president to provide an annual plan for how the U.S. will meet its promises under the Paris Agreement.
    • HR 1644, Save the Internet Act: A bill to restore the FCC’s net neutrality rules, keeping the internet free and open, and preventing internet service providers from price-gouging customers or throttling bandwidth.
    • HR 1585, Violence Against Women Act: This is just a re-authorization of an existing act that improved criminal justice and community responses for victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Why does this even need to be reauthorized? Why isn’t it permanent? And why won’t Republicans reauthorize it?
    • 10 bills to lower healthcare and drug prices.
  1. In fact, the House has passed 180 bills, most of which are dead in the Senate. These include a number of bills to help veterans, to mitigate the effects of climate change, to protect women’s rights, and more.
  2. House Democrats fold in a fight with Senate Republicans over emergency funding for the humanitarian crisis (caused by us) at the border. Republicans refused to approve additional requirements for how CBP treats detainees, along with these requirements for refugees:
    • Basic medical care
    • Basic nutrition, water, and hygiene
    • Translators at ICE, CBP, and Citizenship and Immigration Services
  1. Michigan Representative Justin Amash leaves the Republican Party after resigning from the House Freedom Caucus over lack of motivation to impeach Trump. Amash is one of the more conservatives members of Congress, and is a founding members of the Freedom Caucus. He might run for president as a Libertarian.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. A federal judge orders CBP to allow medical personnel into detention centers holding immigrant minors to ensure the children are in a safe and sanitary environment.
  2. CBP has not been having a great couple of weeks. Last week, a group of immigration lawyers reported on squalid and unhygienic conditions in an immigrant detention facility. This week they try to repair their image by cleaning things up and inviting some journalists for a visit, but they don’t let them talk to the kids.
  3. But then, a disastrous report containing the findings of the DHS inspector general‘s investigation into detention centers is publicized.
    • The report talks about standing-room-only quarters, no access to showers (they were given wet wipes instead), and no hot meals (just bologna sandwiches). Some children were given hot meals once inspectors arrived.
    • The report also warned DHS two months ago that conditions at a specific facility in El Paso had gotten so bad that agents there were gearing up for possible riots. There were four showers available for 756 detainees, more than half of whom were being held outdoors. Inside was five times past capacity, people couldn’t lay down to sleep, and temperatures were above 80 degrees.
    • DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan disputes his own inspector general’s report.
  1. And then, ProPublica releases messages from a Border Patrol Facebook page that are extremely racist and misogynistic.
    • Former and current agents joke about immigrant deaths and photoshop a picture to show Trump forcing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to give him head.
    • There are 9,600 members on the page, and these are the guys who are taking care of vulnerable women and children. Yay.
    • It’s easy to see why the CBP has trouble hiring and retaining female agents.
  1. And then, we find out that CBP has known about this page for years and has dealt with complaints on the posts before.
  2. And then (yes, there’s more), it leaks that Border Patrol agents tried to humiliate a male Honduran migrant by making walk past detainees holding a sign that said “I like men.”
  3. Members of Congress visit detention centers, including the above-mentioned AOC (who said women in detention told her that border patrol officers told them to drink water out of the toilet). Understandably, the congressional members questioned whether they were actually safe visiting the centers. Democratic presidential candidates have also visited facilities.
  4. The Trump administration gives in on adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.
    • But then, the DOJ announces that they’re looking into ways to add it, per Trump’s request. Trump floats the idea of delaying the Census (he can’t), or adding the question through an executive order.
    • This leads the judge in the case to call an emergency meeting with lawyers from both sides of the case. For an uncomfortable read, here’s the laughable transcript of the DOJ lawyers trying to explain the change of plan to the judge, though they don’t have a new plan.
    • And now, the DOJ is trying to replace the current lawyers in the case. So either the current lawyers objected to the new tactics or they’ve just lost credibility because of the chaos from the White House.
    • DOJ lawyers are now scrambling to come up with a legal justification for adding the citizenship question. Attorney General William Barr believes there’s a way. Which tells me he is ignoring a boatload of evidence about the reasons behind the question.
  1. Trump plans to end the practice of having court interpreters for immigrants and asylum seekers at their initial hearings. What could go wrong?
  2. The Trump administration prepares to launch a panel focused on “natural law and natural rights.” The panel will advise Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on human rights. This is an issue because “natural law and natural rights” typically means anti-LGBTQ rights.
  3. A federal judge blocks Trump’s attempt to deny asylum seekers timely bonding hearings and detain them longer. If Trump had been allowed to go forward with this plan, it would’ve meant indefinite detention. Which is crazy when you think of how overcrowded the detention centers already are.
  4. DHS fines some undocumented immigrants nearly $500,000 for failing to leave the U.S. ICE says that under the law they can find people $500 per day for each day they are in violation of an order to leave, and immigration lawyers say they’ve never seen that clause used like this.
  5. Trump again threatens major ICE raids and deportations after July 4th, saying he’ll deport all undocumented immigrants because “that’s what we do.”
  6. A pregnant Alabama woman got in a fight with another woman that resulted in the other woman shooting her in the stomach, causing her to lose the pregnancy. A grand jury refuses to indict the shooter (it seems they thought it was self defense), but they did indict the pregnant woman for putting herself in a position where her fetus could be harmed. So she was arrested. After a boatload of backlash over it, the DA decides not to prosecute and releases here. Talk about personhood laws run amok.
  7. After the American women’s soccer team wins the World Cup, the fans break into echoing chants of “Equal pay! Equal pay!”

Climate:

  1. Anchorage, Alaska, sets an all-time heat record this week, reaching 90 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s five degrees hotter than ever previously recorded there. Other cities across Alaska set their own heat records as well.

Budget/Economy:

  1. As a means to push oil prices back up, OPEC agrees to continue production cuts for 9 more months. They state the following reasons: trade tensions, central bank policies, increased U.S. production, and “geopolitical issues.”
  2. Because of a long-lasting subsidy dispute between Boeing and Airbus, Trump adds more EU products to the list of items to be subject to new tariffs.
  3. 77% of publicly traded companies issue warning ahead of their earnings announcements, saying they won’t make their expected numbers. But it doesn’t seem to hurt their stock prices; U.S. stock markets hit new highs this week.
  4. Morgan Stanley analysts warn of a coming recession, but we’ve been hearing this for more than a year now, so take it with whatever grain of salt you’re comfortable with.
  5. Global manufacturing numbers for June are in. They were weaker; in fact they were at their weakest since October 2012. New orders contracted sharply.
    • This could partly be from the impact of all the newly imposed tariffs, and this could reverse if there’s really a truce.
  1. May’s job numbers were low enough to give economists a little scare (72,000), but June’s numbers bounced back up to 224,000.
  2. People of color are finally starting to reap the benefits of a tight job market, and the unemployment gap between white people and people of color is beginning to shrink.
  3. An analysis of last year’s tax returns finds that around 2/3 of Americans paid less in taxes and 6% paid more (I was one of those lucky ones).
    • Refunds for people making between $100,000 and $250,000 dropped, but rose for people making between $250,000 and $500,000 (which could be from the change in withholding rules).
    • Even though the IRS was more lenient in handing out penalties for underpayment, the penalties they did impose were higher.
    • Note that these numbers don’t include taxpayers who filed for an extension, who tend to be higher-income with more complicated returns.
    • The tax rate dropped for all income brackets, and no income bracket below $500,000 in income reached a 20% rate. And even the average of the highest earners didn’t reach 30%.
    • The number of people using the standard deduction instead of itemizing jumped by 70%.
    • The AMT was essentially removed for households with incomes under $1 million.

Elections:

  1. After Kamala Harris talked about being bussed to desegregated schools, Donald Trump Jr. shared a tweet questioning whether Harris was black enough to talk about the issues facing black Americans. This fits in with the latest right-wing attack on Harris that she isn’t really black because her father is Jamaican and her mother is Indian. Sorry hon, that lady is black.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Trump decides he wants to insert himself into the annual 4th of July celebration on the National Mall in DC. The last time a sitting president spoke on the National Mall on July 4th was nearly 70 years ago, when Truman marked the 175th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
    • So Trump hosts a 4th of July ceremony, a Salute to America, where he gives a speech with military tanks and a military flyover. It looks like it could get rained out, and many are concerned that Trump will make the 4th all about himself, but after a rain delay, he mostly sticks to the teleprompter and doesn’t go too far off the rails.
    • The National Park Service is forced to divert $2.5 million in park fees to help fund Trump’s display.
    • The White House reserves VIP tickets to Trump’s 4th of July event for major Republican donors and political appointees.
  1. The White House hires Breitbart’s White House correspondent to the office of Domestic Policy Council.
  2. California has it’s largest earthquake in years, which is followed up the next day by another quake 11 times stronger than the first one. The earthquakes are centered in Ridgecrest, a town near the China Lake Naval Weapons Center, which is no longer mission capable and is evacuated because of the quakes. There have been thousands of aftershocks, and the quakes left a huge fissure in the Mojave desert. The governor declares a state of emergency.

Tweet of the Week:

This tweet captures the citizenship question chaos:

“The DOJ gave up on this yesterday, but then President Crazy Train issued a tweet that required a federal judge to call the DOJ to the carpet to demand an explanation, and they don’t have one.”

I wish I knew who it was, because that crazy train takes another turn this week.

Week 127 in Trump

Posted on July 3, 2019 in Politics, Trump

Trump likes to say that Obama separated families at the border and locked kids up in cages. Obama didn’t separate families, but he did have a huge influx of migrant children in 2014 and built the makeshift detention centers we still see today. He also had a record number of family units coming across the border. At first the Obama administration released family units with notices to appear. Then they tried to hold them in detention centers together, but human rights activists protested that move and they risked violating the Flores Agreement. So they went back to releasing them. In fact, in 2016, ICE implemented a very successful pilot program, the Family Case Management Program, designed to keep families together, out of detention, and in compliance with immigration laws. The program had a high rate of compliance and helped refugees thrive. In 2017, Trump shut that program down and later that year began his own pilot program, this time mandating the separation and detention of families.

Don’t believe me? Here’s the factsheet for that program. And here’s the AP’s story on ending the program. And here’s Jeff Session’s announcement of the zero tolerance policy (though we now know they were already separating families in fall of 2017). Trump said ending Obama’s program would save money, but it costs us $750 per day per person in private detention centers. That’s a lot of money each day and private companies are making a fortune off the American taxpayers (around $4 billion per year, at the rate we’re going).

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending June 30…

Missing From Last Week:

  1. Jared Kushner travels to Bahrain to describe how he’ll solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He offers an economic development plan, but no pathway to get to an agreement between the two sides nor any way of dealing with the underlying conflicts. No government officials from either side of the conflict show up, and Palestinian officials dismiss it as a “snow job.”
  2. Mike Pompeo says privately that the plan isn’t particularly original and it’s likely not executable.

Russia:

  1. After much discussion, Robert Mueller agrees to testify in public hearings before both the House Intelligence Committee and the House Judiciary Committee. It’s scheduled to happen July 17. Both committees issued subpoenas before coming to this agreement.
    • Members of Mueller’s team will also testify, but not in public hearings.
  1. In response, Trump accuses Mueller of committing a crime (deleting emails from FBI agents involved in the investigation, Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, of which Trump has no evidence). He also calls Page and Strzok “pathetic.”
  2. The White House refuses to tell the House Oversight Committee where the translator notes are from Trump’s private meetings with Putin. Trump took the notes from the translator personally. The House Oversight Committee says these notes must be maintained under our laws for preserving federal records.
  3. When asked what Trump and Putin will talk about at their G20 meeting, Trump tells reporters that what he says to Putin in private isn’t any of their business.
  4. Trump later jokes with Putin and Russian officials about meddling in our elections, telling them not to meddle at a press conference while they all laugh.
    • Mueller’s investigation concluded that Russia ran a “sweeping and systematic” operation to influence voters in the 2016 elections.
    • The last time the two met, Trump sided with Putin over his own intelligence agencies when asked about Russian interference.
  1. Trump then jokes with Putin about “getting rid” of journalists.
  2. The Trump-appointed FBI director, Christopher Wray, maintains that he believes there was no spying on Trump’s 2016 campaign. Trump says he disagrees and also refuses to say that he has confidence in Wray.

Legal Fallout:

  1. Paul Manafort pleads not guilty to state charges on mortgage fraud brought by New York. Manafort’s lawyer intends to fight this case under double-jeopardy rules, but the Supreme Court just ruled that state and federal agencies can bring up the same charges.
  2. In keeping with the tradition of the Trump administration, the Commerce Department orders a former official not to answer any questions from House committees about adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.
  3. The House Oversight and Reform Committee moves to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt after they ignore subpoenas on the topic of the citizenship question.
  4. Play it again, Sam… The White House orders Kellyanne Conway to refuse to testify at the House Oversight Committee’s behest. They want to talk to her about violations of the Hatch Act as outlined in a report from the Office of Special Counsel (reminder, that’s nothing to do with Mueller).
    • The committee subpoenas Conway after she fails to appear.
  1. Nearly 200 Democrats are suing Trump, claiming that his private business dealings violate the emoluments clause. A federal judge rules against Trump this week, saying the lawsuit can proceed.
  2. The Justice Department sues Omarosa Manigualt Newman, a former advisor to Trump. They say she failed to file a financial disclosure report after Trump fired her. Newman argues that she can’t, because the White House didn’t return her personal files to her.

Courts/Justice:

  1. The Supreme Court rules that gerrymandering is out of the scope of federal courts and that it should be handled by legislation.
    • This means that North Carolina, Maryland, Ohio, and Michigan all get a pass on having to redraw their gerrymandered district lines as was previously ordered by lower courts
    • Voters are getting tired of gerrymandering, and voted in five states last year to limit the power of the state houses to gerrymander. That’s on top of states that already have independent redistricting commissions.
  1. The Supreme Court blocks the citizenship question on the 2020 Census for now, saying that the Commerce Department could have a right to reinstate the question but that their reasons were contrived. The case gets kicked back to a lower court.
    • So Trump says he’ll just delay the census. FWIW, he can’t.
    • The Census Bureau estimates that adding the question would cause about 6.5 million people to not be counted (that includes people here legally and not). That equates to a loss of around seven to ten House seats and an unknown number of state seats. It also means those same areas will see a loss of government programs and assistance.
  1. The court agrees to hear arguments about DACA and whether Trump acted illegally in trying to end it.
  2. The court refuses to hear Alabama’s appeal for their stringent abortion law, keeping in place a lower court’s ruling that the law places an undue burden on women.

Healthcare:

  1. The U.S. hits 1,077 measles cases so far this year, making it already the worst year since 1992. If only we had a way to prevent the measles… if only.

International:

  1. Trump signs an executive order to place new “hard-hitting” sanctions on Iran’s Supreme Leader and eight military commanders. The largely symbolic sanctions stem from Iran downing a U.S. drone last week.
  2. Iran’s foreign ministry says the executive orders have closed the door to diplomacy and that they won’t be intimidated. Iran also says they’ll start reducing their commitments to the JCPOA.
  3. Trump threatens to obliterate Iran if they attack. He implies that Kerry and Obama were soft on Iran, even though Iran has followed the guidelines of the JCPOA up until now.
  4. It turns out that when Trump backed down from an actual air attack last week, he also approved a cyberattack, which disabled the computer systems Iran uses to control rocket and missile launches. These attacks were in the works for months.
  5. Trump says he doesn’t need congressional approval to launch a military strike against Iran. He does need their approval, though, unless Pompeo can find evidence to support his assertion that Iran is involved with Al Qaeda.
  6. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) says Trump can launch a strike because we’re already at war with them. Is he talking metaphorically? Because AFAIK, we aren’t at war with Iran.
  7. Trump considers withdrawing from another defense treaty, this time with Japan. Fitting his constant narrative of how everyone’s against us and taking advantage of us, he says the agreement is one-sided. The agreement has been the foundation of a post-war alliance since WWII.
  8. Sean Lawler, Trump’s diplomatic protocol chief, is suspended just before the G20 Summit. Talk about bad timing. He’s under investigation over workplace accusations of intimidation, including carrying a whip around the office.
  9. Trump insults Japan upon arriving in the country for the G20 Summit. He says that if we were attacked, they’d just sit and watch it on TV. He goes on to insult Germany, Britain, and India, and repeats his previous misinformation about NATO. He has nothing bad to say about Putin or Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, though.
  10. At the G20, Trump demands that India pull their latest tariffs on U.S. products.
  11. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gives Trump a colorful diagram to illustrate Japanese investments in the U.S. Abe has him figured out.
  12. Also, what the heck was Ivanka doing a) at the summit and b) getting a front-row seat? Video shows world leaders not very interested in what she has to say, to the point of being dismissive.
  13. Trump pays a surprise visit to North Korea where he meets with Kim Jong Un and becomes the first sitting president to set foot in the country, albeit briefly and at the border with South Korea.
    • The two agree to continue talks.
  1. Trump reverses his ban on U.S. companies supplying software and hardware to Chinese company Huawei. It’s part of an agreement to restart trade negotiations. I’m not sure what this means for the lawsuits against Huawei and its executives.
    • Side note: The restrictions against Huawei were based on national security risks of spying.
  1. Protests in HongKong against an extradition law with mainland China continue, now growing violent as protestor storm the parliament chamber. The mostly peaceful protests have been ongoing for two months.
  2. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson describes how Jared Kushner would bypass the State Department and meet with foreign officials on his own.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. Senate Republicans block a proposal that would’ve restricted Trump’s ability to go to war with Iran without congressional approval. The proposal required congressional approval for funding.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

  1. A district court judge permanently blocks Trump from using the billions of dollars in military funds that he had tapped to build his wall.

Family Separation:

  1. House Democrats cave in and pass the GOP-led Senate version of a bill to provide emergency humanitarian aid at the border. The House had previously passed their own version, which included provisions for improving the condition of detention centers and regulating how migrants can be held in custody. The Senate version includes additional funding for DHS with no strings attached.
  2. McConnell says that no one doubts anymore that this is a humanitarian crisis. Congratulations, GOP, for creating this crisis; not quite the one that you said was there all along, but a crisis nonetheless.
  3. Following last week’s reports from immigration lawyers about squalid conditions in child detention camps, CBP invites journalists to come take a look at those facilities. The conditions seem to rebut the lawyer’s claims of lack of hygiene, food, and supplies, but reporters aren’t allowed to talk to detainees.
  4. A federal judge orders that health experts be allowed to examine migrant children and to inspect their living quarters.
  5. The Department of Health and Human Services is running out of money to provide shelter for migrant children. They expect funds to run out in July, and say they don’t have room for any more. To which I say, then release these kids to their families and stop pretending you aren’t part of the problem.
  6. CBP rejects donations for the children held in their overcrowded detention centers. People are sending toys, soap, toothbrushes, diapers, and medicine, but the law prevents Border Patrol from accepting it. So maybe they shouldn’t be holding on to these kids.
  7. Bank of America announces it’ll end its relationships with companies that run the detention centers.
  8. Illinois bans privately run detention centers.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Ravelry.com, a social site for knitters and crocheters, bans any talk of Trump and his administration. They want to keep the site free from hateful expression, and view support for Trump as support for white supremacy.
  2. The acting Commissioner of CBP, John Sanders, resigns following the release of information about the conditions of border detention centers. It’s not clear the two are related.
  3. Trump picks Mark Morgan to replace Sanders. Trump made Morgan acting director of ICE earlier this month. Morgan was the head of Border Patrol under Obama.
  4. In a move that is predicted to create chaos in the military, Trump moves to remove protections for undocumented family members of active-duty troops. A few things outside of the news here:
    • First, we must treat our military with respect.
    • Second, our troops need to concentrate on their work. I mean they really need to concentrate. It’s an enormous distraction to be scared that your family might be deported while you’re deployed. Is that what we want them thinking about?
    • Third, our troops, documented or not, are out there defending our country. THIS country. If they can’t count on us to treat them humanely, why would they continue to defend this country?
  1. James Fields Jr., the Neo-Nazi who killed protestor Heather Heyer in Charlottesville in 2017, gets life without parole.
  2. Far right hate groups have been planning violence at Drag Queen Story Hours. Just like it sounds, drag queens read children’s books to children. One of the first story hour events had to be protected by a SWAT team, 40 officers, and a marksman. WTF people? This is not OK. There is nothing scare about a drag queen!
  3. The inspector general for the Treasury Department announces an investigation into why Steve Mnuchin really delayed the Harriet Tubman $20 bill. The Trump administration denies they delayed it.
  4. DHS says they think arrests on our southern border will fall by 25% this month for two main reasons:
    • Mexico is cracking down on Central American migrants.
    • Trump is expanding the program for keeping asylum seekers in Mexico while they await their asylum hearings. In case you didn’t know, Mexico isn’t necessarily safe for all asylum seekers because the people they are fleeing from can get to Mexico.
  1. Hours after the Democratic-led House passes the package for humanitarian aid and increased security at the border, Trump complains that Democrats in the House won’t do anything about border security.
  2. Trump wants to delay the Census so he can get his citizenship question on it, “no matter how long” it takes.
  3. The far-right Proud Boys and far-left Antifa clash at rallies over the weekend in Portland. Violence and arrests ensue. The Proud Boys are a white supremacist group. Antifa is a far-left group against far-right hate groups.

Climate:

  1. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue says that climate change is just the weather changing. It’s raining today, it’s sunny tomorrow; that’s just climate change, which goes in long and short increments. Lemme help Sonny out with that:
    • Climate: the weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period.
    • Global: relating to the whole world.
  1. Bill Wehrum resigns as EPA air chief over allegations of ethics violations (shocking for this administration, I know). Wehrum worked to reverse Obama regulations for cutting pollution even before he joined Trump’s administration.

Budget/Economy:

  1. For 2018, farm income ended up half as high as the all-time high in 2013 and the debt held by farmers has increased to almost $427 billion. In the first calendar-year quarter of 2019, the default rate hit its highest level in seven years. Farm income is projected to go up slightly in 2019.
    • Trump blames Obama and says he’s turned it around, but the slight increase in 2019 barely makes a dent in the 2018 decrease.
  1. With no changes to policy, the Congressional Budget Office predicts that the national debt will rise from 78% of GDP now to 92% in 2029 and then to 144% in 2049. Spending is outpacing tax collections (surprise, surprise).
  2. Mnuchin says we’re close to a trade deal with China, about 90% of the way. Trump, meanwhile, threatens to raise tariffs on the remaining Chinese imports if things don’t work out at the G20 summit.
  3. The White House is working on a plan to bypass Congress and cut taxes on capital gains by indexing capital gains to inflation. The top 1% of earners would receive 86% of the benefit of this plan. Just a reminder that capital gains are money we earn by doing absolutely nothing but watching our money grow. We don’t work for capital gains—we can earn them in our sleep.

Elections:

  1. Florida governor Ron DeSantis signs a bill forcing felons who’ve served their sentences to pay any fines before they can register to vote. An overwhelming majority of voters voted to give ex-felons the right to vote, and the GOP state legislature and governor are overriding the will of the people. Lawsuits to block the law are already filed.
  2. The Democratic Presidential candidates participate in their first round of debates. I won’t say much about them, since it’s pretty subjective. But here are a few fact-checks:

Miscellaneous:

  1. Fake news? An advisor for the New York Post orders a story about Trump raping writer E. Jean Carroll to be scrubbed from the website. He apparently forgot that you can’t really delete anything from the web. The advisor, Col Allan, was once an editor at the paper and was brought back earlier this year to make the paper more Trump-friendly.
  2. Two women step forward to corroborate E. Jean Carroll’s allegation that Trump raped her (interestingly, Carroll refuses to call it a rape, even though she says Trump forced himself on her and there was penetration). Both women advised Carroll on what to do when it happened.
  3. Trump names Melania’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, to be the next communications director and press secretary. Grisham replaces outgoing press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and former communications director Bill Shine, who left in March.

Polls:

  1. 65% of voters approve Trump’s decision to rescind the orders to attack Iran.

Week 126 in Trump

Posted on June 30, 2019 in Politics, Trump

Sorry for the long radio silence. I was derailed by family emergency, but now I’m back and trying to catch up on what I missed. Getting back into the news cycle reminds me that there are:

  • 10 federal criminal investigations,
  • 8 state and local investigations, and
  • 11 congressional investigations

into Trump, his family and business, and his associates. It reminds me that indictments continue to come down, trials are coming up, and Trump continues to interfere with witness testimony in ongoing investigations. And it reminds me that we’re still separating families at the border, and keeping kids separated from the U.S. families instead of releasing them into their custody.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending June 23…

Russia:

  1. The House Judiciary Committee questions Hope Hicks, who, under White House orders, refuses to answer any questions about conduct during the presidential transition and about the White House, including minutia, like where her office was located and other publicly available information.
    • Trump accuses House Democrats of putting Hicks “through hell.” For one day of questioning? Really? I refer you to Hillary’s 11-hour hearing.
    • You can read her testimony here.
  1. Felix Sater is scheduled to testify to the House Intelligence Committee about the Trump Tower Moscow project, but he doesn’t show up. So the committee issues him a subpoena.
    • Sater worked with Michael Cohen on the Trump Tower project (he actually worked on two different Trump Tower Moscow projects).
    • Sater says he’s been sick and slept through his alarm. He also says he’ll answer every single question.
  1. Prosecutors accuse Roger Stone of violating his gag order (yet again) through social media posts.
  2. A top aide to former White House Counsel Don McGahn is scheduled to testify to Congress, but the White House is expected to block her from doing so. Annie Donaldson has a special agreement to provide written answers since she’s pregnant.

Legal Fallout:

  1. Federal authorities are investigating Deutsche Bank yet again, this time for violating laws against money laundering. The investigation includes the bank’s handling of suspicious activity reports, and also covers several other banks.
  2. A federal court unseals text messages used as evidence between Paul Manafort and Sean Hannity, revealing a tight and ongoing relationship between the two. There’s legal advice, flattery, and persecution complexes throughout. They show Hannity was giving Manafort news time and credibility all along. Take a look – it’s an interesting read.
  3. Jeffrey Rosen, the top deputy to Attorney General William Barr, intervenes for Paul Manafort to prevent him from being moved to Rikers, where most federal inmates facing state charges are held. He’ll await trial at a federal prison instead.
  4. The Office of Special Counsel (not to be confused with Mueller’s office) just found that Kellyanne Conway violated the Hatch Act multiple times in multiple ways. This week, another watchdog group files a complaint against Ivanka for violating the act.

Courts/Justice:

  1. The Supreme Court rules that you can be tried at both the state and federal levels for the same crimes, and that it doesn’t conflict with the double jeopardy clause in the Constitution, which prevents you from being tried for the same thing twice.
    • This is relevant right now with the idea of pardons being floated by Trump and his associates. Trump can only pardon at the federal level, and this ruling allows states to pick up investigations into crimes that otherwise could’ve been pardoned.
  1. Wisconsin’s Supreme Court rules that the lame duck special session called by outgoing state Republican legislators was constitutional, so the bills they passed in a last-ditch effort to limit the powers of the new Democratic governor will take effect.

Healthcare:

  1. While warming up the crowd at his Dad’s re-election campaign kickoff rally, Donald Trump, Jr., makes fun of Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden for his cancer “moon shot” (Biden’s promise to cure cancer).
  2. And then Trump promises he’ll cure cancer and AIDS if he gets re-elected. He promises he’ll “come up with the cures to many, many problems, to many, many diseases.” It’s worth noting that he’d have to reverse several of his policies to do this.
  3. Once again, Trump takes credit for a veteran’s health care bill that Obama signed into law five years ago, the Veterans Choice program.
  4. A federal appeals courts rules that Trump’s gag rule on women’s reproductive health can take effect immediately across the country. Now any medical facility that provides abortions or referrals to abortions can’t receive Title X funding.
  5. After a few weeks of the state of Missouri forcing doctors to perform unnecessary and invasive medical procedures prior to performing an abortion, doctors fight back and say they won’t do it. So Missouri refuses to renew the license for the state’s last abortion provider. However, a judge’s order allows the facility to remain open.
  6. The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program tracks consumer claims of harm from vaccinations. Out of 126 million vaccinations over the past 12 years, 284 people have made claims of damage, and about half of those claims were dismissed. That’s about a .00011% chance of harm of any kind.

International:

  1. In another example of poor vetting, Patrick Shanahan resigns and withdraws from the confirmation process for Secretary of Defense. His background check showed his family to be involved in multiple counts of domestic violence, with the violence coming from him, his wife, and his son.
  2. The White House then announces that Trump will nominate Army Secretary Mark Esper to be Secretary of Defense.
  3. A UN investigator of the Jamal Khashoggi murder says we need to sanction and freeze assets of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. She says we’re not doing enough in the face of credible evidence that MbS was involved in the killing. Her report gives new details that spread the blame beyond the 11 currently on trial.
  4. The Republican-led Senate passes three measure blocking the sale of $8.1 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia. Trump will likely veto this, because he wants to sell them the weapons regardless of their guilt in the Khashoggi case.
  5. Trump and Republicans have long complained that the JCPOA (Iran deal) wasn’t working. Looking back, Iran never came close to breaking the deal before Trump broke our promise to the JCPOA; but now that we’ve pulled out, Iran is on schedule to pass the JCPOA-defined limits on their uranium stockpile within the next week.
    • Iran says they won’t let that happen if Europe promises to fight Trump’s economic sanctions against Iran.
  1. Trump says he’ll send 1,000 more U.S. troops to the Middle East because of what he calls hostile behavior by Iran and its proxies. The Pentagon backs that up.
  2. Trump tweets about new sanctions added against Iran, but it turns out there weren’t any. But then later sanctions were announced, so maybe it was just a timing thing.
  3. Following recent attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) says we should launch a retaliatory strike against Iran.
  4. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggests that Iran has ties to Al Qaeda. He wants to use this to justify allowing the Trump administration to start a war with Iran (using the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force).
  5. Tucker Carlson, of all people, compares Pompeo’s assertion that Iran attacked the tankers to when Colin Powell claimed erroneously that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
  6. Iran’s military claims responsibility for shooting down an American drone. Iran says the drone violated its territorial airspace, but the U.S. claims it was in international airspace.
  7. Trump approves a military attack against Iran in retaliation for the drone. But then he pulls back at the last minute, because (according to the White House) he had just learned that 150 people might die. I’m sure we all realize that a casualty report is given long before a strike is approved.
    • There’s some dispute over whether the planes were actually already in the air by the time Trump rescinded the order. He claims they weren’t, but military officials say they were.
  1. Trump sent Iran a warning via Oman to warn them that an attack was imminent.
  2. Fox & Friends say it was weak to rescind the order to attack.
  3. Putin says military conflict with Iran would be a catastrophe, and that he believes Iran is complying with the JCPOA. He says this just hours before Trump calls off the retaliatory strike.
  4. The White House didn’t notify the succession to the presidency of the plans to strike Iran (specifically Nancy Pelosi, who’s second in line behind Mike Pence).

Family Separation:

  1. Here’s the winner of the week’s gaslighting award. In an interview with Telemundo, Trump tells us that Obama is responsible for the family separation and Trump is the one who’s fixing it and bringing families together. Seriously. He really said this.
    • In 2018, Jeff Sessions announced the zero tolerance policy in a press conference. In the interview, Trump defends the zero tolerance policy while claiming he’s bringing families together.
    • The program was only ended because the ACLU and other activist groups sued the DHS.
    • The only reason any families were unified at all is that the ACLU and other activist groups sued for it.
    • They are still separating families at the borders! How else do you think we ended up with toddlers in a detainment camp for unaccompanied minors? In fairness, some are the children of minor girls, but not all of them are.
    • More debunking can be found here and here and here and here. I could go on, but I shouldn’t have to.
  1. Immigration lawyers visit a child detention center at the border and interview children who were dirty and sick, living in overcrowded rooms, and sleeping on concrete floors. They had to force the facility to send four toddlers with fevers, coughs, vomiting, and diarrhea to the hospital.
    • The lawyers noticed one little girl had a bracelet with a phone number and “U.S. parent” written on it. They dialed the phone number and found her parents. No one had even bothered to try the number before that.
    • And just a reminder, we’re all paying $750 per day to the businesses that run the private prisons that house each and every one of these children who could be released to family in the U.S.
  1. A federal attorney sets off a shitstorm by arguing in front of incredulous circuit court judges that children in detainment camps are being held in safe and sanitary conditions with no soap, no diapers, no toothpaste, and only a hard concrete floor to sleep on.
  2. And then Alexandria Ocasio Cortez sets off a new shitstorm by calling detainment centers “concentration camps” (which by definition, they are; and holocaust experts agree and agree).
  3. After all this, the Trump administration moves some of the children out of the overcrowded detention centers, but they run out of places to move them to, so some end up returning.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Trump announces that ICE will remove millions of undocumented immigrants over the weekend, spreading panic through immigrant neighborhoods. He then reduces that estimate to thousands of immigrants, with ICE ultimately cancelling the raids altogether because, according to Acting ICE Director Mark Morgan, “someone” leaked information about the raids.
    • Trump says he’ll delay the raids for two weeks so Congress can work out a solution. I’m not sure what solution he’s looking for here.
    • Pelosi called Trump two days before the planned raid to ask him to halt the operation.
  1. BTW, the number of migrant families crossing the southern border is decreasing again, as is the number of arrests. Even though ICE is increasing deportations, they’re still deporting fewer than in the first years under Obama.
  2. Mitch McConnell says that we paid for the sin of slavery by fighting the Civil War, by passing civil rights legislation, and ultimately by electing a black president. He needs to review the generational effects of having property confiscated, running freeways and railways through neighborhoods, being denied the same loans and assistance that are given to white people, forced segregation, and white flight. But, sure. A black president. That makes up for ALL that Jim Crow shit.
  3. The Trump administration announces that they’re permanently cutting off aid to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador; the three countries where most of our asylum seekers come from. The administration says they’ll resume aid when they see these countries taking concrete steps to stop people from leaving those countries for the U.S.
    • Let’s just file that one under “What could possibly go wrong?”
  1. In 1989, Trump took out a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the Central Park Five to be put to death. The Central Park Five were erroneously found guilty of the brutal beating and rape of the central park jogger, but they were exonerated in 2002 after someone else confessed and DNA tests proved it.
    • The five were all 16 or under at the time, and were all convicted on coerced confessions. Four are black and one is Latino.
    • Trump refuses to apologize for taking out the ad, saying you have people on both sides of that. How can there be a good person on the side of wrongful imprisonment?
    • When the city of New York settled with the five for $41 million, Trump called the settlement a disgrace. Watch “When They See Us” on Netflix to understand this whole thing fully.
  1. Journalist E. Jean Carroll releases an excerpt of her new book where she accuses Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf dressing room in the 1990s. Trump denies it, using a defense he’s used before, “she’s not my type.” He also says he doesn’t know Carroll, though photos of them together have surfaced.

Climate:

  1. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announces the Trump administration’s replacement for Obama’s Clean Power Plan. The new plan ends rules put in place by the Obama administration to combat climate change, including:
    • Scaling back tailpipe emission standards.
    • Removing state targets for reducing carbon emissions.
    • Removing regulations for carbon emissions from coal-powered plants.
    • Limiting the federal government’s ability to set carbon emission standards.
  1. Wheeler says the new plan might lead to new coal plants opening in the U.S. He also says that carbon emissions dropped by 14% between 2005 and 2017, but neglects to mention that they started to rise again in 2018.
  2. An EPA report last year claimed that this plan would result in 300 to 1,500 more deaths annually due to climate-related illnesses.
  3. At least seven State Attorney Generals say they’ll try to block the Clean Power Plan changes in court.
  4. Meanwhile, back in real science, the Arctic permafrost isn’t so permanent under climate change. Scientists find that it’s thawing 70 years earlier than they had predicted.
  5. Air quality in the U.S. has been improving over the past few decades, but the past two years both saw more unhealthy air days than the average from 2013 through 2016.
  6. A federal court rules that an environmental review must be performed for Cadiz Inc. to build a pipeline designed to remove water from the Mojave Trails National Park aquifer for city usage. The judge says Trump’s waiver of the review is illegal.
    • Cadiz claimed they could remove the water under an obscure law waiving environmental review if the water is used for railroad purposes. They claimed that some of the water would be used to power a steam engine.
    • Unsurprisingly, the Obama administration rejected that argument and ordered a review. The Trump administration reversed that decision after David Barnhardt was appointed to be Deputy Interior Secretary (he’s now Interior Secretary). Barnhardt was a lobbyist for Cadiz. Draining the swamp, right?
  1. The Department of Agriculture has been burying federal studies that show the impacts of climate change. The studies by the Agricultural Research Service are peer-reviewed. Some of their findings include:
    • Rice loses vitamins in an environment containing too much carbon.
    • Climate change exacerbates allergies.
    • Climate change will reduce the quality of grasses used to feed livestock.
  1. 70 medical and public health organizations call climate change a health emergency, and produce policy recommendations that are in conflict with Trump’s policies.
  2. Mike Pence says that the Trump administration will always follow the science on climate change. Huh? See all the above. He also refuses to acknowledge that climate change is a legitimate national threat (which the military has long been saying).

Budget/Economy:

  1. Mexico becomes the first country to ratify the updated NAFTA (or as Trump calls it, the USMCA).
  2. A bipartisan group of Congressional leaders meet to discuss deals to prevent automatic budget cuts this fall. If they don’t reach an agreement, $125 billion will be cut from Pentagon and domestic spending.
  3. Earlier this year Trump talked about firing Jerome Powell over interest rates, and the White House looking into demoting him. The day before the Fed announces its interest rate decision this week, Trump publicly says he’ll wait to see what Powell does before demoting him. That threat isn’t even thinly veiled. History 101: The Fed supposed to be completely independent from the executive branch.

Elections:

  1. Trump kicks off his re-election campaign in Orlando, FL. Not surprisingly, he gave a campaign speech that was crazy AF, so much so I can’t even track all the lies (I’ll let PBS do it for me). Also, he really, really hates Democrats.
  2. Roy Moore announces, with little Republican support, that he’ll run for Senate in Alabama again to win Democrat Doug Jones’ seat.
  3. The Supreme Court rules against Virginia’s Republican-led House of Delegates, keeping in place the redrawn district lines that fixed the previous lines gerrymandered by the GOP. SCOTUS upholds a lower court’s ruling that the GOP lines were racially gerrymandered. Sadly, SCOTUS once more avoided ruling on the constitutionality of gerrymandering by ruling that the House didn’t have cause to sue.

Miscellaneous:

  1. The father of one of the Sandy Hook victims wins a defamation lawsuit against the author of “Nobody Died at Sandy Hook.” The publisher also pulls the books and apologizes to settle a claim against them. The publisher, Dave Gahary, says his conversations with the father have led him to believe that people actually did die. I’m speechless.
    • Just a reminder that these families have been harassed by Sandy Hook deniers ever since it happened, sometimes moving to get away from it but it never works. That’s why they’ve launched a slew of lawsuits against the offenders, including Alex Jones. And it finally seems to be working.
    • In a separate case against Alex Jones, a Connecticut judge sanctions Jones for a “despicable” tirade against the attorney’s representing Sandy Hook families. Jones accuses them of placing malware on his computer that, in turn, planted child pornography on InfoWars servers. WOW. The child pornography was discovered when InfoWars turned over evidence to the court.
  1. Trump appears to threaten a journalist with imprisonment over a photograph of a letter from Kim Jong Un.
  2. Someone leaks vetting documents from the Trump transition team to Axios. Some of that vetting was outsourced to the Republican National Committee. Here are a few highlights (file them under “Drain That Swamp!”):
    • Trump announced many of his nominees without a full FBI background check or a vetting from the Office of Government Ethics.
    • There’s an entire section of allegations of former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s coziness with big energy companies.
    • Multiple sections on former Health and Human services Secretary Tom Price criticize his management ability and his House Budget Committee leadership (calling it dysfunctional and divisive).
    • Mick Mulvaney said that Trump is not a very good person, among other things.
    • Rudy Giuliani has a whole separate document about his business ties and foreign entanglements.
    • The transition team flagged General David Petraeus because he’s opposed to torture.
    • Rex Tillerson, Trump’s first Secretary of State, has Russia ties that go deep.
    • Kris Kobach, who later headed Trump’s Commission on Election Integrity, has ties to white supremacist groups.
    • Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley once said that Trump is everything we “teach our kids not to do in kindergarten.”
    • Seema Verma, appointed to Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was at one time advising Indiana on how to spend Medicaid funds while at the same time representing a client that received those very funds.
    • Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue has both business and family conflicts of interest.
    • Ryan Zinke once called Trump “undefendable.”
    • Rick Perry called Trumpism “a toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness, and nonsense that will lead the Republican Party to perdition.”
    • People doing the vetting say they didn’t even know what job they were vetting people for.

Polls:

  1. The number of Democrats who want to begin impeachment hearings rose from 59% in April to 67% this week. This just tells me that enough people have still not read the report.