You just can’t make up all the things that get uncovered by investigations surrounding this administration. This week, the guy who was trying to facilitate back-channel meetings between Trump transition staff and foreign officials was also behind a scheme to funnel money from the UAE into Democratic campaigns and PACs in 2016, including millions to Hillary Clinton’s campaign and PACs. And then when Hillary didn’t win, he and his cohorts started funneling money to Trump. This guy is an equal opportunity grifter. I can’t wait to see how this story develops.

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

Shootings This Week:

There were FOUR mass shootings in the U.S. this week (defined as killing and/or injuring 4 or more people). Shooters kill 9 people and injure 17 more. Unfortunately, one is being investigated as an international terrorist attack.

1. A shooter kills 2 people and injures 2 people in Montgomery AL, in what seems to be a drug-related shooting.
2. A shooter kills 2 people and injures 3 more in a home in DeSoto, TX.
3. A shooter kills 1 person and injures 4 outside a bar in New Orleans.
4. A Saudi national who was here for flight training kills 3 people on a Pensacola, Fl, base and injures 8 more. He was in the U.S. as part of a training program that included aviation and English training, and he’d been here since August 2017. He was killed during the shooting. Trump speaks with the King of Saudi Arabia, who expresses his condolences. The program that brings Saudi soldiers here for training is facing heavy scrutiny.

Russia:

1. Lisa Page, the FBI agent whose text messages with Peter Strzok were released as part of the investigation into the Russia investigation, opens up about what it’s been like to stay silent while Trump bullies her over and over again.

• • Trump has tweeted about Page 34 times. He seems obsessed with her affair with Peter Strzok.
  • She breaks her silence after Trump mocks her by faking an orgasm at a rally in Minneapolis, and so he tweets at her again. This was remarkably lewd for a sitting president.

2. Even before the DOJ’s inspector general releases his findings on the FISA warrants for surveilling Carter Page, Attorney General Bill Barr says he disagrees with the findings. The report is expected to state that the FBI was justified in opening the investigation, but that FBI personnel made some missteps.

• • IMO, Barr has kind of backed himself into a corner here by going all-in on conspiracy theories being spread by the administration. If he accepts his IG’s findings, he’s basically saying that everything he’s been saying and pushing for during his time as attorney general is wrong.
  • I’m sure we’ll get a repeat of Barr’s disinformation about the Mueller report when the report is released.
  • One thing the report is expected to show is that Josef Mifsud, the Maltese professor who told George Papadopoulos that Russians had dirt on Hillary, is not a U.S. intelligence asset who was planted as part of a sting operation. U.S. Attorney John Durham, who’s running a second investigation for Barr, says his findings so far back that up.

3. The DOJ releases additional documents from the Mueller investigation as part of a FOIA request. Here are a few things we learn in this week’s release:

• • Rob Rosenstein and Jeff Sessions considered replacing James Comey during the transition. Rosenstein thought Comey’s public comments about the investigation into Hillary’s emails violated DOJ rules.
  • However, Rosenstein was “angry, ashamed, horrified, and embarrassed” by how Comey’s firing went down. He also knew the White House was lying about it.
  • Pence was the one who pushed Trump to fire Michael Flynn for lying to him.
  • Rudy Giuliani turned down the Attorney General position because he wanted to be Secretary of State instead.
  • Jay Sekulow, White House lawyer, told Michael Cohen not to testify about certain details of the Trump Tower meeting set up by Donald Trump Jr. with Russians who said they had dirt on Hillary.
  • Paul Manafort tried to convince Rick Gates not to cooperate with the investigation, saying that Trump was supported Gates. Remember that after being convicted on several counts, Manafort agreed to cooperate, but then lied to Mueller and fed information about the investigation to the White House.
  • John Kelly backs up Don McGahn’s testimony that Trump asked him to fire Mueller. Much of this is redacted, so I don’t know if this is part of an ongoing case.

4. Last summer, Russia state TV ran a special report titled “Ukrainian Interference.” Just in case you’re wondering where that particular conspiracy theory came from. What does Putin have to say about all this?

“Thank God nobody is accusing us any more of interfering in U.S. elections… Now they’re accusing Ukraine. Well, let them sort this out among themselves.”

5. The World Anti-Doping Agency once again bans Russia from competing in the Olympics. Clean Russian athletes can still compete as unaffiliated athletes.

Legal Fallout:

1. Representative Duncan Hunter (R-CA) pleads guilty to conspiracy to use campaign funds for personal use. Hunter has maintained his innocence for a year and a half, and he continued his run for Congress even after he was indicted on 60 counts.

• • If you don’t know what he was indicted on, the court filing is worth the read. Charges include using campaign funds to fly their pet bunny in an airplane seat, falsely claiming donations to veterans organizations, using campaign funds for family vacations (to Italy, Hawaii, Las Vegas, and others), concealing their campaign fund spending, spending campaign funds to date his mistresses, and so much more.
  • He says he’s just taking a plea deal for his family, though he didn’t hesitate to throw his wife under the bus when the indictments dropped.
  • He resigns from Congress, date TBD. The House Ethics Committee instructs him to stop voting in the House. What took so long? He’s been under 60 indictments all year.
  • Hunter appealed his case in July even though his trial hadn’t even begun.

2. A federal appeals court again rules that Congress can see Trump’s banking records as part of their investigations into potential foreign influence and other misconduct. Trump asks the Supreme Court to block the subpoena.
3. George Nader is in the news again (he was a figure in the Mueller investigation). He was part of a scheme with Ahmad Khawaja and others to funnel foreign money into mostly democratic campaigns and organizations during the 2016 elections.

• • They hid the source of $3.5 million in campaign donations (the money came from the United Arab Emirates).
  • But lest you think these guys aren’t mercenaries, they also cultivated Trump campaign contacts and funneled money to Trump and his political organizations. After the election, they made a major pivot from donating to Democratic causes to donating to Republican causes.
  • The indictment implies that Khawaja hosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, but doesn’t say that outright. Khawaja also hosted a reception for an elected official in 2018. There’s also no evidence that the recipients of the funds, Republican or Democrat, were aware of the source.
  • Nader is already in federal custody for other charges. That guy’s bad news.
  • Khawaja has previously been charged with helping other websites launder money. He’s also bad news.

4. Trump is making money off his campaign by renting office space to re-election committees. $1.7 million so far.

Impeachment:

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

Courts/Justice:

1. For the first time in over ten years, the Supreme Court hears arguments on a gun rights case. Gun owners are fighting New York’s strict rules for having a handgun at home. However, this is moot because New York already loosened up the rules.
2. Republicans confirm yet another judge who’s rated as ‘not qualified’ to a permanent seat on a federal court.

Healthcare:

1. State lawmakers from both sides of the aisle got assistance from lobbyists in writing op-eds opposing Medicare for All.

• • I get that we need issues experts to help craft our policies and our laws, but it’s out-of-control, with a handful of groups crafting so much of what goes on at the state level. You can tell by the cookie-cutter legislation that gets passed.

2. With a new Democratic majority in the state House and Senate, Virginia begins to remove the work requirements for Medicaid.

International:

1. A bipartisan group of Senators asks Trump to sanction Turkey before the upcoming NATO meetings. After Turkey purchased Russian technologies that could be used to gather intelligence on our F-35 stealth fighter jets, we removed Turkey from our F-35 program.
2. Trump has a closed-door meeting with Turkish President Erdogan at the NATO leaders meeting.
3. Wow. I guess all you need to do to get Trump to defend your interests is to argue against your own interests. In a sit-down before the NATO leaders meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron gets Trump to defend NATO by criticizing it. It was a pretty amazing thing.

• • Trump is likely still smarting from Macron’s earlier statement about NATO suffering brain death because of American leadership.

4. And speaking of the NATO meetings, it’s not an awesome couple of days for Trump:

• • A group of foreign leaders — Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau, Boris Johnson, Princess Anne, and Mark Rutte — get caught on video at a reception kvetching about Trump and making a little fun of him.
  • Trudeau was defending himself being late for something, and said it was because Trump turned a 10-minute press conference into a 40-minute one (he did that with three press conferences that day).
  • Upon learning of this, Trump calls Trudeau two-faced, cancels a press conference, and leaves the summit early. Then Trump gets caught on audio saying, “That was funny when I said that guy was two-faced.”

5. Iranian President Rouhani calls for the release of innocent, unarmed protestors who were detained during the recent protests.
6. North Korea says that our earlier negotiations were just a “foolish trick,” and we should expect a Christmas present from them, likely in the form of a missile test.
7. After North Korea launches a “successful test of great significance,” Trump warns that Kim Jong Un risks losing everything if they resume hostilities.
8. A gun battle between Mexican law enforcement and cartel members near the southern border leaves 21 people dead. Most of the dead were cartel members.
9. At the request of the White House, Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) blocks an effort to pass a resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide.

• • He’s the third Republican tasked by the White House to block the resolution, so it’s been blocked three times. They all use the same reason… it’s not the right time.
  • Two years ago, Cramer expressed his appreciation to Dean Cain (former Superman) for raising awareness of the Armenian genocide. He was also the sponsor of a similar resolution when he was in the House.

10. China warns the U.S. against passing legislation criticizing their treatment of Uighur Muslims, especially during a trade war.
11. Even though he’s under indictment, Benjamin Netanyahu is gearing up for his next campaign for Prime Minister of Israel. He recently met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to discuss Iran, the Israeli annexation of the Jordan Valley in the West Bank, and a U.S.-Israel defense treaty.
12. Trump considers sending an additional 14,000 troops to the Mideast to counter Iran. He’s already sent 14,000 troops to the Mideast since May.
13. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators turn out to march in Hong Kong for Human Rights Day. The march is mostly peaceful, but peppered with some vandalism.
14. Worker protests continue in France, while anti-government protests continue in Chile. I can’t even stay on top of all the global protests anymore. Even Haitians are protesting systemic corruption in their country.
15. Youth activists fill the street of Madrid as part of a global climate protest during the UN’s COP25 climate change conference.

Legislation/Congress:

1. The Senate passes a bill to permanently fund historically black colleges and universities and other minority-serving institutions. The House has already passed it, so it’ll go to Trump for a signature.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

1. Trump pressured the Army Corps of Engineers to award a contract to a North Dakota company, Fisher Sand and Gravel, whose owner is a frequent Fox News guest. Officials argued against it because the bid did not meet the standards. Fisher got the contract.

• • Fisher was also hired by Build the Wall, the private organization that fundraised to help Trump build his wall.
  • Fisher has a record of environmental and tax violations.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. Trump is the first president since before Reagan who works to decrease the number of refugees we accept rather than expand our very successful programs for resettling refugees. Trump wants to reverse our progress, but the sentiment is different at a local level:

• • After Trump gave states the ability to decline to accept refugees, the Republican governor of Utah wrote to Trump asking for more. He said people in Utah “love giving them a new home and a new life.” He also says refugees become productive and responsible members of their communities.
  • On the flip side, Burleigh County, North Dakota is considering a vote on whether to become the first county in the U.S. to refuse resettled refugees.

2. Attorney General Bill Barr has given some wacky speeches lately. This week he says that if some communities don’t start showing law enforcement a little respect, maybe they won’t get any police protection.
3. George Zimmerman sues the family of Trayvon Martin for defamation. Huh? Zimmerman killed Trayvon as he was walking home one night, and got off on Florida’s Stand Your Ground law (thank you ALEC). Zimmerman’s suing for more than $100 million. Oh, and his lawyer thinks Obama is a secret Muslim who was born in Kenya. Hoo boy.
4. Officials at the southern border confiscate migrant children’s medications, including life-saving ones like asthma inhalers.
5. Video of a boy who died in ICE custody last May shows that he was in pain and distress for hours before dying from the flu. The video also shows that agents lied about some of the facts involved, including who found the body and whether they checked on him.
6. Outside lawyers find that Medicare chief Seema Veerma‘s allegations of sexual discrimination in DHHS are unsubstantiated. They also uncovered a super contentious work relationship between her and her boss, DHHS Secretary Alex Azar.
7. In a speech to the Israeli American Council, Trump lets his antisemite flag fly:

“You’re not nice people at all, but you have to vote for me. You have no choice. You’re not going to vote for Pocahontas, I can tell you that. You’re not going to vote for the wealth tax!”

8. DHS is considering taking pictures of everyone who enters and leaves the country as part of a facial recognition program. This includes U.S. citizens.

Climate:

1. Trump skips the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Madrid, but Nancy Pelosi brings a delegation in his place. Fourteen Democrats accompany her, but none of the Republican lawmakers they invited agreed to come.
2. In a complaint about water conservation bathroom fixtures, Trump says this:

“You turn on the faucet and you don’t get any water. They take a shower and water comes dripping out. Just dripping out, very quietly dripping out. People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once.”

3. And he says this:

“There may be some areas where we’ll go the other route — desert areas — but for the most part you have many states where they have so much water — it comes down, it’s called rain. They don’t know what to do with it.”

4. He says the EPA is looking into this. I’m sorry, but if you have to flush 15 times, either you’re broken or your toilet is.
5. Months after receiving a huge backlash for proposing to authorize the use of “cyanide bombs” to poison coyotes, foxes, and feral dogs, the EPA announces that they’re going forward with their proposal.
6. Spain’s biggest gas and oil company makes a promise to become a net-zero carbon emitter by 2050.

Budget/Economy:

1. AK Steel agrees to be purchased by a mining company in a deal worth around $1 billion. That’s less than half what AK Steel’s value was before the trade wars began.
2. The Dow Jones drops three days in a row after Trump warns that the trade deal with China might not happen until after the elections next year. He says that tariffs will remain until the deal is done.
3. Trump announces tariffs on metals from Brazil and Argentina, and threatens harsher tariffs on French goods. The reason is, unsurprisingly, that he doesn’t think they’re being fair to us (everything’s so unfair!).

• • The unexpected announcement goes against their 2018 agreement, where Brazil and Argentina would accept quotas on their shipments instead of having tariffs imposed.

4. Manufacturing jobs have not only stalled, but are moving into the negative, after receiving a big boost when Trump was elected. The trade war with China undid much of that progress.

• • Typically trade policies pinch either farmers or manufacturing, but current policies are hitting both sectors.
  • The effects of the trade wars are just starting to be seen, so companies are bracing for harder times.

5. Nancy Pelosi is pushing to modify Trump’s updated NAFTA agreement by removing certain legal protections for online content because it prevents Congress from making future changes. Pelosi questions whether that should be in our trade pacts or enshrined in U.S. law. The House is finalizing their changes to Trump’s updated NAFTA agreement (USMCA), and expects a vote next week.
6. Job growth in November was 266,000, getting a little boost from the end of the GM worker strike. The unemployment rate and the numbers of unemployed were little changed.
7. The number of people applying for unemployment benefits decreased to its lowest level in seven months—close to a 50-year low. It’s partly attributable to Thanksgiving.
8. The Trump administration formalizes a new rule for work requirements for SNAP recipients, which could cause up to 700,000 people to lose food assistance.

Elections:

1. After Mike Bloomberg enters the Democratic presidential primary race, his media outlet, Bloomberg News, announces they won’t do any investigative journalism into any of the Democratic primary candidates. Trump’s 2020 campaign then announces that they won’t give Bloomberg News press credentials to cover Trump’s campaign events.
2. I’m sure you noticed that I haven’t been reporting on any Democratic presidential campaign activities. I’m waiting for things to shake out a bit and hopefully narrow down, and then I’ll dive in.
3. The House votes to restore those parts of the Voting Rights Act that were struck down by the Supreme Court. The court’s argument was that we’re in a post-racial society so we don’t need those kinds of rules anymore. The vote was along party lines, and it likely won’t pass the Senate.
4. North Carolina judges rule that the latest version of electoral maps will be used in the 2020 elections. The judges also say there’s not enough time between now and the primaries to determine whether they’re still gerrymandered, so that’s weird.

Miscellaneous:

1. Trump makes an unannounced visit to Dover Air Force Base to receive the remains of two slain soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan.
2. Trump further strains relations with the Pentagon when he brings two of the soldiers he pardoned onto the stage with him at a fundraiser. These guys were convicted of war crimes. Military leaders fear the pardons undermine the rules of military conduct.

Here’s how conspiracy theories start. Fox News airs a segment saying that liberals have launched a war on Thanksgiving and they want to change the name. So Trump, of course, brings it up in a campaign rally shortly after he watches the segment, and he makes a really big deal about it. The next day, on Fox & Friends, they ponder over where on earth Trump could’ve come up with the idea that there’s a war on Thanksgiving. Maybe, they say, it’s because there was a rumor that Obama wanted to change it back in 2015 or so? So not only did the Fox network manage to distance itself from being the source of the rumor, but then they manage to tie it to Obama! And now, a good chunk of Trump’s base thinks that there’s a war on Thanksgiving. Yikes.

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

Shootings This Week:

There were NINE mass shootings in the U.S. this week (defined as killing and/or injuring 4 or more people). Shooters kill 8 people and injure 41 more.

1. In Brownsville, FL, two shooters kill 2 people and injure 2 more in a drive-by shooting.
2. In the Bronx, a shooter fires into a crowd in the middle of the day and injures 5 people (including 2 children).
3. In Amarillo, TX, a shooter injures 7 people at the Hogg Penn nightclub.
4. In Hensley, AR, a shooter injures 5 people, leading to a 7-hour standoff.
5. In New Orleans, LA, a shooter injures 10 people near the French Quarter after the Bayou Classic football game.
6. Hours later, again in New Orleans, a shooter kills 2 people and injures 2 more in the 7th Ward.
7. In Aurora, IL, a shooter kills 1 person and injures 5 more. The young man who died survived a previous gunshot wound when he was just 3 years old.
8. In Cotton Valley, LA, a shooter kills 2 people and injures 3 more at The Vibe nightclub.
9. In Kalamazoo, MI, a shooter holds a family hostage and then kills 1 and injures 3. The injured were all police officers responding at the scene, so I’m not sure if that qualifies as a mass shooting?

Russia:

1. A federal court rules that top presidential advisers cannot ignore congressional subpoenas. This is for Don McGahn’s case where he was subpoenaed to appear before the House, but Trump claimed executive privilege. The court rules that he must testify and that “no one is above the law.” This could affect White House officials who’ve so far refused to cooperate with the impeachment hearings, but it’s also likely to get appealed.

• • The DOJ then asks a federal court to temporarily suspend the ruling through the appeals process.

2. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy releases an ad praising Trump. The ad includes stock Russian footage. McCarthy is infamous for saying that there are two people he knows get paid by the Russians—Trump and former Representative Dana Rohrabacher (D-CA). (And since Lev Parnas‘s indictment, we know McCarthy also got paid by the Russians.)
3. Ohio Secretary of State Frank laRose announces that Ohio elections systems were the target of a cyberattack earlier this month. The attack was tracked back to a Russian-owned firm, and seemed to be looking for soft targets.

Legal Fallout:

1. The Supreme Court grants an emergency stay on a lower court ruling that said Trump’s accounting firm had to share the financial records requested by Congress. This signals that they will hear the case, and could delay the release, if any, of Trump’s tax returns until mid-January.
2. As part of the New York District Attorney’s investigation into the hush money payments to Trump’s mistresses, David Pecker, head of America Media Inc., has been meeting with prosecutors. Michael Cohen is also cooperating with the investigation.
3. Documents regarding Trump Tower in New York show that Trump inflated numbers to make the property look better to lenders, and deflated numbers to make it look worse for tax purposes.
4. People who work for Representative Duncan Hunter (R-CA) testify that his wife was in charge of the finances, and that Duncan was unaware of any misspending of campaign funds. It’s notable that Hunter won re-election in 2018 despite being indicted on 60 counts.

Impeachment:

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

Courts/Justice:

1. Legal cases around Trump’s finances and his disputes with Congress appear to be headed to the Supreme Court, which will clearly test the court’s neutrality. This court wants to appear nonpartisan.

• • The court will hear arguments on December 13 to determine whether to add Trump’s request to block the release of his financial documents to their docket.
  • The court already placed a temporary hold on a court ruling that the House Oversight and Reform Committee has the authority to see Trump’s financial documents.
  • The case over whether Don McGahn can testify to Congress is also likely to make it to the Supreme Court.

Healthcare:

1. Pennsylvania legislators are pushing a poorly-written bill that would force healthcare providers to arrange for burials or cremations of fetal remains. You’d think this would only apply to abortions, but the way it’s written, it also includes fertilized eggs that fail to attach to the uterus and are flushed from the system. Which is about 50% of fertilized eggs. I’m not sure how they’ll enforce that one. Looks like they’re trying to top Ohio for having the least scientific understanding of the birds and the bees.
2. Purdue Pharma asks a Canadian court to put a temporary hold on all court cases against them in Canada while they settle all the cases against them in the U.S. A U.S. bankruptcy judge already granted them a temporary reprieve from cases in the U.S.
3. Trump is working to reverse some of Obama’s regulations on nursing homes. The regulations were put in place to safeguard elderly and dementia patients from abuse and from being over-medicated. The administration says that reversing the rules will save nursing homes around $600 million per year, but the new rules don’t require them to put that money toward improving care.
4. The overall life expectancy in the U.S. has declined for three consecutive years. Death rates for young and middle-aged adults have been rising for a decade from causes like suicide, drug overdoses, liver disease, and more.

• • The highest jump in death rates from 2010 to 2017 was for people age 25 to 34. Their death rate increased by 29%.

• • Along with the causes listed above, obesity is another big cause. Obesity in childhood brings a plethora of health problems as we get older. 40% of Americans are obese. 71.6% are overweight. 20% of American kids are obese.

International:

1. Trump surprises troops in Afghanistan with a Thanksgiving visit. He also announces that he’s resumed peace talks with the Taliban.
2. The Trump administration takes steps to substantially reduce U.S. contributions to NATO. Trumps wants to reduce our share to 15% from 22%. Compare that to Germany, which pays 14.8% despite having a much smaller economy than the U.S. Trump will meet with NATO leaders at the summit at the beginning of December.
3. A terrorist attack in London leaves two people dead and several others injured. The attacker uses a knife, and is shot by police. Two bystanders fight the attacker using a fire extinguisher and a nearby narwhal tusk.
4. Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi announces he’ll tender his resignation the day after 40 Iraqi protestors are killed in an attack against the Iranian consulate there. Mahdi was reportedly handpicked by Iran for his position, and the protestors are fighting against Iran’s influences in Iraq’s government.
5. The Iranian government continues their brutal crackdown on protestors. At least 180 people have been killed after protests rose up against a dramatic increase in gas and oil prices. Some estimate the death toll is as high as 450. At least 2,000 people are wounded and 7,000 detained. This is the worst unrest there since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The government partially restores internet access, and information is finally coming out of the country about what’s going on.
6. Trump signs a bill that authorizes sanctions against Chinese and Hong Kong officials responsible for human rights violations during the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. He also signs a bill banning the sales of tear gas and rubber bullets to the Hong Kong police.
7. Fresh protests break out in Hong Kong after pro-democracy candidates swept local elections. People marched in front of the U.S. consulate there to show gratitude for the U.S. passing the bills supporting their rights.
8. In France, protests break out on Black Friday against Amazon. Activists protest the consumerism represented by Amazon and its cost to the environment.
9. Trump says he’ll designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorists.
10. The White House releases $105 million in military aid to Lebanon, which had been held up over a dispute between members of the National Security Council. Some thought the aid would help Iran-backed members of government. Protests in Lebanon, started over tax reform, have been ongoing since mid-October.

Legislation/Congress:

1. Trump signs a bipartisan bill making animal cruelty a federal felony. The bill bans intentional crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating, impalement or other serious harm to animals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. The law also bans animal cruelty videos and pictures.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

1. Homeland Security endorses We Build The Wall, the group founded by veteran Brian Kolfage to privately build a wall at the southern border. Kolfage is on a mission to save Texas from “illegals.” He says the butterfly “freaks” at the National Butterfly Center are standing in his way, and even accuses them of being part of an international butterfly smuggling ring.

• • Trump signed legislation earlier this year to exempt the refuge from any border wall plans.

2. Trump puts Jared Kushner in charge of building the border wall. Kushner, in turn, is trying to expedite the process of confiscating private property to get it done.

Family Separation:

1. The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general releases a report that finds the DHS didn’t have the technology or necessary systems in place to allow them to track the children they separated from their parents at the southern border.

• • Immigration officials knew they couldn’t track them and yet still went forward with their plans to separate more than 26,000 children.
  • They knew this as early as November 2017.
  • The report also calls the “zero tolerance” policy that led to the separation ineffective. Thousands of detainees were still released into the U.S.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. A review of government websites and archives shows that in the years under Trump, they’ve removed anti-discrimination information along with data and resources for the LGBTQ community.

• • The changes are scattershot over about 57% of agencies, showing a lack of coherent policy.
  • Crucial information for LGBTQ and HIV-positive people was removed from pages for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
  • The changes don’t reflect actual policy, which Trump has had trouble changing.

2. Trump signs an executive order creating a White House task force to address the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW). This comes right as Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) introduces the Republican version of the Violence Against Women Act, which would roll back the 2013 provisions that made it easier for Native law enforcement officers to bring non-Native abusers to justice. Ernst’s version would give those non-Native abusers a way out.

• • Native American women face the highest rate of violence of any other group in the U.S., and 97% of that violence is at the hands of a non-Native person.

3. Alaska state officials have been denying same-sex couple certain marriage benefits even though their ban on same-sex marriage was overturned in 2014.
4. Over the past few months, the DHS has arrested 90 additional students who signed up for the fake university they set up in Detroit. That brings the total arrested to about 250, mostly immigrants from India. The students arrived legally with student visas, but because the university was a fake one created by federal agents, they lost their immigration status.

• • This is just another example of ICE’s egregious tactics being used under all administrations. This sting operation started in 2016, preying upon people who thought they were taking legitimate steps to be in the U.S.

5. This one got past me earlier this year: In 2016, parents of female students at a charter school had to sue to allow their girls to wear pants. The school had a dress code of skirts for girls. IN FREAKING 2016!

• • This spring, the parents won their suit, and now the girls can wear pants or shorts, and they can run around the playground just as freely as the boys without being hindered by obsolete dress codes.

• • The final ruling on the case this week finds that the dress code violates Equal Protection, and permanently blocks the school from establishing or enforcing a similar provision.
  • PS: I thought this was settled decades ago.

6. Private prison company GEO Group could face financial issues after all of the known banks providing loans to the company agree to divest and end ties with GEO. Some of those banks have also committed to not funding the private prison industry altogether, with most cutting ties with CoreCivic as well
7. Trump orders national parks to deploy some of their park rangers to the southern border to patrol for illegal border crossings. This is a way of getting around congressional funding for his efforts there. But this leaves park visitors without the resources they rely on and puts them at more risk. National parks are already underfunded and short-staffed.
8. The House Oversight and Reform Committee brings a lawsuit against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to enforce the subpoenas they filed earlier to get information about the decision to add a citizenship question to the census.

Climate:

1. Exxon Mobile knew as long ago as 1982 that atmospheric CO2 is a major cause of global warming. At that time, they even predicted accurately that atmospheric CO2 would reach 415 parts per million, causing the global temperature to rise about 0.9 degrees Celsius by 2019. CO2 levels reach 415 ppm in May, and the temperature rise crossed 0.9 degrees Celsius this year as well.
2. Climate scientists warn that we might be reaching a tipping point on climate change, meaning that some impacts of global warming will become unstoppable. They also warn of a cascade of tipping points. Some of these potentially irreversible events include:

• • Ice melting in the east and west Antarctic ice sheets, the Greenland ice sheet, and Arctic sea ice
  • Thawing of the permafrost
  • Loss of rainforests
  • Death of coral reefs
  • Changes in the flow of the gulf stream

3. A new UN report on climate change says temperatures could rise by as much as 3.9 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. We’ve already warmed by nearly 1 degree, and the process will speed up because of the cascade of tipping points above.
4. During the Yale Bowl, hundreds of Yale and Harvard students and alumni storm the field to demand the schools divest from fossil fuels, private prisons, and Puerto Rican debt. The protest delays the start of the second half of the game.

Budget/Economy:

1. An analysis of bailout payments made to farmers finds that 10% of recipients received 50% of the money. The payments, of course, went mostly to larger and more wealthy farms.

Elections:

1. Texas Republicans accidentally email Democrats their blueprint for winning in 2020 and their plans for dealing with Trump’s polarizing nature. This gave away their negative ad strategy for 12 target districts and their timeline for rolling out websites that will bash their Democratic opponents.

• • PSA: Reading about their tactics (some of which I’m sure Democrats employ as well) makes me sad about how low the parties stoop to win, and even sadder by how the American public plays right into their hands, not just by letting it happen but by making those ploys succeed.

Miscellaneous:

1. Rick Perry says that Trump was chosen by God to lead this country. To be fair, Perry also thinks Obama was ordained by God for the presidency. Seriously people. Take responsibility for your vote. That’s how presidencies are decided.
2. Even before the departure of Richard Spencer from the DOD, high-ranking Pentagon officials felt Trump had a disregard for the chain of command in the military, and feared that the administration would continue to side with Fox News pundits over experienced military professionals on issues of national security.
3. The RNC denies they made a bulk purchase of Donald Trump Jr.’s new book, Triggered, but FEC records show they spent nearly $100,000 to purchase copies of the book a week before it was released.

• • Other conservative groups also made bulk purchases to help his book debut at #1 on the New York Times best seller list. At least nine conservative groups are helping with the sales of his book.
  • And just to keep it classy, Trump Jr. created a website, Trigger A Lib, where you can purchase copies of the books to send to people like Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, and so on.

Trump calls in to Fox & Friends and talks to them for 53 minutes straight, with no commercial breaks. Trump expresses so many lies on the show that even Fox & Friends hosts push back on some of what he says. He accuses witness David Holmes of lying (though Sondland corroborated Holmes’ story), he repeats his theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 elections (debunked by our intelligence community and State Department), and he says the whistleblower complaint was wrong (though Trump himself and the transcript he released corroborated most of the complaint). He accuses the Obama administration of spying on his campaign in 2016, though the IG report that’s about to come out reportedly disputes that. When Trump says he knows who the whistleblower is—and implies that the F&F hosts do, too—they try to steer him away from the topic.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending November 24…

Shootings This Week:

1. There were NINE mass shootings in the U.S. this week (defined as killing and/or injuring 4 or more people). Short version: shooters kill 5 people and injure 39 more.

Russia:

1. Paul Erickson, the former boyfriend of Russian agent Maria Butina, pleads guilty to money laundering and wire fraud.
2. The day after White House advisor Fiona Hill testifies that the conspiracy theory that Ukraine meddled in our 2016 elections is a “fictional narrative” that helps Russia, Trump promotes said theory on Fox & Friends. Trump says Ukraine did it to frame the Russians. All our intelligence agencies, as well as Trump’s own advisors, agree that Russia meddled in our elections and Ukraine did not. Even Republican Representatives in the impeachment hearings this week say that they know Russia interfered with our elections, and their own investigation bore that out.
3. Also, their CrowdStrike theory is way off the mark. Here’s what Trump said:

• • “They gave the server to CrowdStrike, which is a company owned by a very wealthy Ukrainian… I still want to see that server. The FBI has never gotten that server. That’s a big part of this whole thing.”

4. Here’s the truth (it’s easy to look it up): 


• • CrowdStrike was founded by two Americans and a Russian-born U.S. citizen. One American and the Russian-born U.S. citizen now own it.
  • The Kremlin-backed conspiracy theories about Ukraine have worked out to Russia’s advantage—they deflect the blame away from Russia.
  • By making this a partisan issue in the U.S., Russia has put U.S. support for Ukraine into question.

5. U.S. intelligence just briefed Senators and their aides on Russia’s efforts to reframe the narrative by blaming Ukraine for meddling in the elections. This is a smoke screen to shift the attention away from Russia. This has been going on for years.
6. Despite this, Republicans in the impeachment hearings continue to push this conspiracy theory. They do, however, change their tune about it after Fiona Hill testifies to the intelligence committee.
7. Russia’s strategy is to throw so much confusion into the mix that people don’t know what to believe. They want people to think it’s impossible to figure out who’s behind the misconduct.
8. According to intelligence officials, Russia used Oleg Deripaska to help spread the misinformation. You might remember him as the guy Mitch McConnell just did a big deal with to bring jobs to Kentucky.
9. A draft version of the DOJ inspector general’s report on the FISA warrant to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page shows the IG didn’t find the anti-Trump bias he was looking for at the FBI. Here are some highlights:

• • There were errors and omissions in some of the documents.
  • A low-level employee altered an email to get a renewal of the warrant by adding factual information to the bottom of a thread. The IG didn’t feel that the changes impacted the validity of the application.
  • The FBI had enough evidence to open the Russia investigation.
  • Joseph Mifsud (who told George Papadopoulos he had dirt on Hillary) was not an FBI informant.
  • None of the evidence used to get the FISA warrant came from the CIA or, more importantly, from the Steele dossier.

Legal Fallout:

1. The Supreme Court puts a lower court ruling on hold that would’ve allowed the House to obtain Trump’s financial records. Until they rule on the case, Trump’s accounting firm doesn’t have to release the records.
2. Trump says he’ll release his “financial statement” (whatever that means) before the 2020 elections.
3. We all know there’s been a longstanding practice of appointing big political donors to ambassador posts, but I’m not sure it’s usually this straightforward. As billionaire Doug Manchester was waiting Senate confirmation for his post in the Bahamas, the RNC asked him to donate half a million dollars. Manchester forwarded the message to two Senate staffers indicating he’d be willing to donate more once confirmed.

• • Manchester later withdrew his nomination.

4. The two jail guards who were supposed to check on Jeffrey Epstein the night he committed suicide are charged with falsifying records and conspiring to defraud the U.S.

• • That night they were both browsing the web and spent about two hours sleeping. They were both working overtime shifts.

• • Security cameras show they never checked on Epstein.

5. American Oversight obtains emails under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that show that Nikki Haley used an unsecured system to send classified information because she forgot her password. I only mention this because of the hypocrisy. I doubt anyone got their hands on the info who shouldn’t have.

Impeachment:

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

Healthcare:

1. Two Republican legislators in Ohio introduce a bill that would completely ban all abortions in the state. This is the same state where someone introduced a bill that suggested doctors can re-implant ectopic pregnancies into the uterus (they can’t).
2. Trump delays the ban on flavored e-cigarettes after meeting with advisors and lobbyists. They’re concerned about the political fallout among voters (instead of the health of voters).
3. Meanwhile, nine states are stepping up to ban vaping.

International:

1. Israel’s attorney general indicts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in all three cases against him. The charges are for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. The AG initiates the process of stripping Netanyahu’s parliamentary immunity.

• • Following the recent divided elections, neither Netanyahu nor his opponent Benny Gantz were able to form a government coalition.
  • Netanyahu refuses to step down as Prime Minister. He calls it a coup. Where’ve I heard that before?

2. Flooding and mudslides in Kenya kill 34 people. The region was experiencing a severe drought and is now experiencing heavy rains with flooding.
3. Mike Pence makes a surprise visit to American troops in Iraq ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.
4. Mike Pompeo announces that the U.S. believes that the Israeli settlements in the West Bank are legal according to international law. For decades, the international consensus has been that the settlements are illegal. The Fourth Geneva Convention states it clearly:

• • “The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”

5. French President Emmanuel Macron questions whether the EU should abandon the U.S. and create their own military alliance.
6. Trump has asked both Japan and South Korea to pay more for the U.S. troops we maintain there. Meanwhile, South Korea and China agree to a security alliance, and the U.S. breaks off talks with South Korea over the demands for more money.
7. Britain’s Conservative Party accepted a £200,000 donation from the wife of one of Putin’s former finance ministers.
8. Boris Johnson blocks a report from the Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee about potential Russian interference in Britain’s elections. Remember England has elections coming up again.
9. The Pentagon’s inspector general releases their quarterly report, which concludes that Trump’s order to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria, which allowed Turkey to attack the Kurds there, also allowed ISIS to strengthen its position there.
10. Trump says he stands with the Hong Kong protestors for democracy but he also stands with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Meanwhile, both the House and Senate overwhelmingly (that means in a bipartisan way) pass a bill that would strip Hong Kong of its preferential trade status if China removes the freedoms guaranteed to Hong Kong residents.
11. Hong Kong voters turn out in record numbers to deal a defeat to pro-Beijing politicians in the district council elections. Pro-democracy candidates tripled their previous seats, taking nearly 90%.

Legislation/Congress:

1. Trump signs a bill that will continue funding autism programs to the tune of $1.8 billion over the next five years. The Autism Collaboration, Accountability, Research, Education and Support Act (CARES) will focus on helping people on the spectrum who age out of support programs and will prioritize rural and underserved areas.
2. The House Judiciary Committee moves forward a bill that would legalize marijuana at the federal level.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. Have you ever seen the AIDS quilt? It’s quite something to experience in person. It’s full of grief and sadness and lives cut short. And now the quilt’s paper archive is headed to the Library of Congress and the quilt itself will go back to San Francisco, where it started.
2. A judge blocks the Trump administration’s efforts to start up federal executions again, saying that the lethal injection procedure they want to use isn’t authorized by federal law. The DOJ plans to appeal the ruling.
3. A Manhattan judge denies Trump’s effort to dismiss the defamation case brought by Summer Zervos, opening the possibility that Trump might have to be deposed.
4. The American Medical Association formally opposes conversion therapy for members of the LGBTQ community. The group also urges the federal government to ban the procedure.
5. Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) becomes the first female chair of the House Oversight Committee when she’s elected to the role previously held by Elijah Cummings.
6. We learn that after Lindsey Graham rebuked Turkish President Erdogan at the White House, White House staff asked him to go to the Senate and block the bill recognizing the Armenian genocide, which Graham then did. Graham says he went along just because it was poor timing to pass the bill while Erdogan was in the states.

Climate:

1. California Governor Gavin Newsom will ban all purchases by state agencies of new vehicles from the companies that backed Trump in the emissions dispute. General Motors, Toyota, Fiat Chrysler, and more will be affected by the ban, which will go into effect in January 2020.
2. Newsom also imposed new regulations on fracking, increasing audits for compliance with state law and prohibiting drilling activity near homes, schools, hospitals, and parks.
3. Two of the country’s largest coal plants began the process of shutting down this month. Regulations aren’t what forced the closures; economic pressures did.
4. Australia’s record-breaking drought and fires have killed over 1,000 koalas, putting them at risk of extinction.

Budget/Economy:

1. Hong Kong’s unemployment rate ticked up a bit, from 2.9% to 3.1%, partly attributable to a loss in tourism dollars because of the protests. Hong Kong is also in a recession.
2. The Trump administration is looking at ways to cut taxes again. This time, it’s a proposed 15% tax rate for the middle class, which would give Trump a strong message for the 2020 elections.
3. Amazon didn’t pay any taxes on $11,200,000,000 in profit from 2018.
4. A new study finds that more than two million Americans live without running water or indoor plumbing. They don’t even have wastewater treatment.
5. Trump signs a spending bill to keep the government funded through December 20.

Elections:

1. A federal judge strikes down a Florida law that says candidates from the party that most recently won the governor’s race were listed first on ballots. The judge says this listing gave that party a 5% advantage.

Miscellaneous:

1. Rumors abound that Mike Pompeo is planning to resign to pursue a Senate seat back in Kansas.
2. White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham says that outgoing Obama officials left nasty notes for their successors in the Trump administrations. Obama officials deny this and describe the notes of encouragement they left. Various White House staff have also mentioned the kind notes that Obama officials left for them. I tend to believe the latter since no one has mentioned this in three years.
3. A senior Trump official resigns after it was discovered that she lied multiple times on her resume, including creating a fake Time magazine cover with her face on it, lying about what she was doing on foreign trips, falsely claiming a degree, claiming she addressed the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, and more.
4. Navy Secretary Richard Spencer threatens to resign if Trump actually does pardon and reinstate a Navy Seal convicted of war crimes. Also, it turns out that Trump announced that he would do that on Twitter, not in an official notification. So Spencer says that nothing changes until he gets an official notification.

• • Pentagon Chief Mike Esper asks for the Navy Secretary’s resignation. Apparently Trump gave Esper a direct order to drop disciplinary action against a Navy Seal convicted of war crimes. Navy Secretary Richard Spence tried to negotiate a deal whereby the White House wouldn’t interfere in Naval justice if the Navy allowed Gallagher to keep his trident pin. Trump appeared to back down for a minute, but then we learn that Spencer was basically fired.
  • Spencer at one point said he was proceeding with disciplinary action because he didn’t believe that Trump’s tweets constituted a formal order.
  • Trump’s interference in this matter has raised concerns with the Defense Secretary, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair, and members of the military.

Polls:

1. 52.4% of Americans approve of starting the impeachment process. 42.3% disapprove. That gap is narrower when the question asked is whether to impeach and remove.