Category: Uncategorized

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

For The People Act

Posted on March 13, 2019 in Uncategorized

The House passed a signature bill intended to curb corruption and money in our political system, and to make sure that all eligible U.S. citizens are able to vote without any obstruction. H.R. 1, the For The People Act, would make sweeping changes to our election processes if passed into law.

The bill largely focuses on three issues: campaign finance, ethics, and voting rights. Here’s a summary of what the bill would do:

  1. Campaign finance reform:
    • Provide public assistance for funding candidates’ campaigns, giving people without the same means or fundraising ability a chance to run for office.
    • Place stricter limits on foreign lobbying.
    • Require that Super PACs and dark money organizations disclose their donors.
    • Restructure the FEC to reduce partisan gridlock.
    • Support overturning the Citizens United court decision that gave corporations the same rights as people when it comes to campaign spending and speech.
  1. Ethics reform:
    • Require that Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates disclose 10 years of income tax returns.
    • End the use of taxpayer dollars to pay out sexual harassment claims.
    • Create a new ethics code for the Supreme Court (which doesn’t have to adhere to the judicial code of conduct for some reason). Ironically, the courts will likely have to decide whether this one is constitutional.
  1. Voting rights reform:
    • Create a national voter registration program.
    • Make Election Day a holiday.
    • Force states to replace outdated voting equipment with more security and auditable systems.
    • Mandate an independent commission for each state for any future drawing of electoral districts to eliminate gerrymandering.
    • Limit efforts to purge voter rolls.
    • Grant ex-felons who’ve served their time the right to vote.

 

The bill also calls for statehood for Washington, D.C., which has a larger population than some states.

Two legitimate complaints are that it doesn’t cover election fraud like we saw in North Carolina with bullet harvesting, and that it gives the federal government too much say in something that’s supposed to be controlled individually by each state. The issue of state vs. federal control in elections has always been a heated topic, which is why our states have such disparity in the quality of how elections are run.

Republicans call it a power grab by the Democratic party; Democrats call it a power grab by the American people. You decide.

Trump’s Super Rambling Declaration of National Emergency Over the Wall

Posted on February 19, 2019 in Trump, Uncategorized

Trump gives a rambling speech where declares a national emergency so he can build his wall. One of the weirdest presidential speeches I’ve ever heard. I was going to include it in my weekly recap, but it got to be too long.

You can read an annotated version of the full transcript, as delivered, here, but below are some highlights.

  1. My favorite part is from 22:08 to 22:48 here. (And by the way, his Muslim ban as written did not survive the Supreme Court as he says here. The Supreme Court basically told him how he would need to change the ban to make it appear constitutional.)
  2. He says he’ll spend $8 billion on the wall.
  3. He starts out his emergency declaration for the wall by talking about China, trade, tariffs, the UK, Syria, North Korea, and what a great job he’s doing with the military and economy.
  4. He confuses journalists by talking about China and Russia living up to their requirements on the border (the Korean border?). And confuses them again by saying someone’s been taking advantage of the U.S. and billions have been paid to them. I think he might be talking about the UN.
  5. One of the reasons he gives for the national emergency is the influx of drugs, so he plans to siphon off money from existing drug programs.
  6. He says Democrats are lying when they say that drugs mostly come to the U.S. through ports of entry. He’s wrong, according to the DEA’s 2018 National Drug Threat Assessment (heroine, bottom of page 19; cocaine, pages 52-54; marijuana is the one drug that comes in between ports of entry and it’s also grown domestically).
  7. Trump brings up his debunked story of women being trafficked across the border with their mouths taped shut.
  8. He talks about the great job the military is doing at the border putting up concertina wire, ignoring that Nogales, AZ is suing to have it removed; just one border town that opposes it.
  9. Trump also plans to pull money from military construction funds, though they currently have a backlog of over $100 billion. Military families recently provided testimony about the deplorable living conditions on some of our military bases.
  10. He overstates the number of murders in Mexico by about 25%.
  11. And then again with the list of people killed by undocumented immigrants. Did he list the people killed by native-born mass shooters too? Um, no. No he didn’t.
  12. He apparently blames the influx of drugs on our own addictions. Actually, that might be correct.
  13. He seems to be pushing for the death penalty for drug dealers. Just a reminder, President Duterte of the Philippines is doing that, but with no due process.
  14. Then he talks about Japan, China, the stock market, and how the market would’ve tanked if Democrats had won in 2018 (counter to all economic indicators at the time).
  15. Trump sort of says that the reason he didn’t get the wall settled during the two years of Republican control is that he was too new to the job.
  16. He then admits that they haven’t really built any new “wall” but have been renovating existing “wall” (which is really “fence”). But then he later says he’s built a lot of wall. He has a lot of money.
  17. And finally he brings up MS-13, as usual.
  18. Trump repeatedly criticized Obama for executive overreach, but when a journalist calls him out on that after the speech, Trump says he went through Congress for this. Huh?
  19. Trump says this is all about the 2020 elections. So it’s not an emergency or it is?
  20. He blasts the immigration lottery, catch-and-release (another way to phrase it in such a way as to dehumanize migrants) and chain migration (which is how many of us got here).
  21. He admits to getting information on immigration from Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.
  22. Trump brings up a poll by outlier Rasmussen that shows his approval at 52% (his aggregate is just under 41%).
  23. He comments on the large number of undocumented immigrants in our federal prisons, ignoring the fact that just the condition of being here illegally can land you in federal prison. Plus, federal inmates make up a very small percent of our overall prison population.
  24. He ignores a reporter who says this: “I’m asking you to clarify where you get your numbers, because most of the DEA crime reporting statistics that we see show that drugs are coming across at the ports of entry, that illegal immigration is down and that the violence is down.” Refer to the DEA report linked above if you want to find out who’s right.
  25. He says that Obama told him he was close to starting a war with North Korea. This sounds pretty dubious.
  26. Trump says that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work with North Korea. He doesn’t mention that the U.S. asked Abe to do that.

Week 96 in Trump

Posted on November 27, 2018 in Politics, Trump, Uncategorized

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all got past any awkward political discussions and had a wonderful holiday with family. How did Trump spend his Thanksgiving? At Mar-a-Lago confounding our troops and journalists. To journalists, he denies the CIA’s findings on Khashoggi; threatens Mexico, attacks Hillary’s use of her personal email while defending Ivanka’s use of her personal email; says the GDP was going down to “like minus 4” when he took office (which is untrue); and suggests he’ll shut down the government if he doesn’t get his border wall. When asked about what he’s most thankful for, Trump pretty much just says he’s thankful for himself (and his family).

To troops he talks about barbed wire and troop deployment at the border; says we have no good trade deals (which a commander on the other end contradicts); criticizes the Navy for using electromagnetic catapults instead of steam (because EM is too hard to figure out, and which again an officer contradicts); and asks if the troops in Afghanistan are enjoying themselves. And then he goes golfing while former president Obama dishes food at a soup kitchen.

Here’s what else happened this week in politics…

Russia:

  1. New emails show that Steve Bannon and Cambridge Analytica were involved in disinformation campaigns for Brexit. We already knew they were both involved in fostering nationalist populist movements in the U.S. elections in 2016. But now we know that Bannon, who then worked at Cambridge Analytica, was included on emails with Arron Banks, the leader of the Leave.EU campaign. The emails suggest that all three were involved in fundraising and media campaigns for both Brexit and the U.S. elections.
  2. Trump gives Robert Mueller his handwritten answers to the questions from the special counsel in the Russia investigation. He did not answer questions about his actions as president, including about obstruction of justice.
  3. The House Judiciary Committee subpoenas James Comey and Loretta Lynch for closed door hearings about how they handled the investigations into Hillary Clinton’s email server and the investigations into the Trump campaign and Russia.
  4. And speaking of emails, Ivanka used a personal email account to send government documents. Trump says it’s nothing like Hillary because at least she didn’t delete 30,000 of them. Fact of the matter is, we don’t know how many emails Ivanka’s deleted from that account.
  5. And speaking of James Comey and Hillary Clinton, Trump told White House counsel earlier this year that he wanted the DOJ to prosecute both of them. It’s not clear on what charges.
    • White House counsel told Trump he didn’t have the authority to order such a prosecution. He could request an investigation, but that, too, could be impeachable.
    • Trump is considering the appointment of a second special counsel to investigate the Comey and Clinton.
    • Trump thinks FBI Director Christopher Wray is weak for not investigating Clinton more thoroughly.
  1. A judge orders George Papadopoulos to start serving his two-week prison sentence on the Monday after Thanksgiving. Papadopoulos was trying to get his sentence stayed while a court decides whether Mueller has overreached in his investigation.
  2. Russia opened fire on three Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait, a strategic waterway for both countries. Ukrainian military says Russia also seized the three vessels.
    • Ukraine will vote on whether to declare martial law.
    • The UN Security Council calls an emergency meeting to discuss it.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Trump blasts a federal judge for blocking his restrictions on asylum seekers and calls the judge an “Obama judge.” Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts hits back, saying there are no “Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.” Roberts also says we should all be grateful to have independent judiciary.
  2. Trump responds, picking a fight with our Supreme Court Chief Justice. He specifically calls out the Ninth Circuit for their decisions around immigration.
  3. And then Chuck Schumer blows his retort by saying that he doesn’t always agree with Roberts‘ partisan decisions, but he agrees with Roberts that judges aren’t partisan. Whoops.

Healthcare:

  1. Trump’s administration approves Kentucky’s work requirements for Medicaid for a second time. The requirements were modified slightly because they were already struck down in court once.
  2. Ohio considers legislation to criminalize abortion and to redefine personhood to include any unborn human.
  3. A federal judge permanently blocks Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

International:

  1. As you read the following, remember this quote from Trump during a 2015 campaign rally:
    “Saudi Arabia, I like the Saudis. I make a lot of money with them. They buy all sorts of my stuff. All kinds of toys from Trump. They pay me millions and hundreds of millions.”
    • Trump tries to cast doubt on the CIA conclusion that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. This isn’t the first time he’s done this; Trump has also publicly doubted U.S. intelligence findings that Russia, and specifically Putin, meddled in our 2016 elections.
    • Trump says he won’t punish Saudi Arabia for the killing, because the country is a critical ally and that our strategic and economic relationships are too important to derail over a journalist. At issue is primarily oil, military equipment sales, and their partnership with us against Iran.
    • Trump justifies this by bringing up economic deals with Saudi Arabia that either don’t exist or that are inflated.
    • Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announces that Germany will end arm sales to Saudi Arabia. Finland and Denmark follow suit.
    • Congress issues a request to Trump’s administration to investigate the crown prince’s role in Khashoggi’s death.
  1. The U.S. has dropped more bombs in Afghanistan so far in 2018 than it has in any other year of this war. Even though it’s the longest war we’ve fought, the Taliban has retaken half of Afghanistan.
  2. On top of that, a suicide bomber kills at least 50 at a religious gathering in Afghanistan celebrating the birth of the prophet Muhammad.
  3. Syrian officials say that terrorist rebels launched a chemical attack near Aleppo, so they respond with an airstrike. The rebels deny carrying out the chemical attacks. The airstrikes violate the truce brokered by Russia and Turkey.
  4. Demonstrators rally across France all week to protest the gas tax.
  5. European Union leaders formally agree on a deal with the UK for Brexit. It still needs to be approved by Theresa May’s government.
  6. Reports are that talks with North Korea have stalled, and they’ve made no progress on reducing their nuclear arsenal or production.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. House Republicans elect Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to minority leader.

Family Separation:

  1. The number of migrant children in U.S. custody is at an all-time high of 14,030. Largely to blame is the new rule of fingerprinting people who are willing to be sponsors (and who might be family to the minor in question). At least 40 sponsors who don’t have legal status were arrested after the rule took effect. The number of detained children is almost triple what it was last year.
  2. As part of a settlement of three separate lawsuits over the family separation policy, the DOJ agrees to give some parents a second chance to apply for asylum. This includes some parents who were already deported. The lawsuits say that the asylum interview process was skewed by the parents’ distress at being separated from their children.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Now that factions of the migrant caravan are starting to arrive at our southern border, Trump decides to start pulling troops out and letting them go home.
  2. A judge blocks Trump’s effort to make it illegal for immigrants to apply for asylum if they don’t enter the country at a point of entry. Our asylum law only says you have to present yourself for asylum within a year of being physically in the country, which is how Cubans arriving in boats were able to request asylum in Florida.
  3. The Trump administration and Mexico come to an agreement that would allow migrants in the caravans to stay in Mexico while their asylum applications are processed. He then threatens to close the southern border if we have to. Mexico says this isn’t a permanent solution.
  4. Migrants in the caravans who didn’t apply for asylum in Mexico and who make it to Tijuana are staying in makeshift shelters as they are not allowed to enter the U.S. to apply for asylum.
  5. In one presser, Trump says he shut down the border, then says he will shut down the border if he has to, and then says he already did. Turns out, certain entries were shut down along the border for short periods over Thanksgiving week.
  6. Trump authorizes troops to use lethal force against migrants at the border. What could possibly go wrong?
  7. Border Patrol closes the San Ysidro entry point on Sunday (the day vacationers are trying to get back to the U.S.). They also use tear gas on a group of migrants who broke away from a peaceful march to rush the entry point. They say it was because people were throwing rocks, and Mexico says they’ll deport any migrants who did. San Ysidro is one of the world’s busiest international border crossings.
  8. A member of Trump’s administration defends the use of tear gas saying it’s natural; just pepper, water, and alcohol. You can spray it on your nachos. Wow. To that I say, try spraying it on yourself.
  9. Officials in Mexico put immigrants waiting to apply for asylum on wait lists. Some officials demand money in return for letting migrants pass.
  10. Trump revokes Obama’s guidance that protected transgender people in prison from rape and violence. Under Trump’s rules, prisons must use a person’s biological sex to determine where they’re housed.
  11. Trump asks the Supreme Court to hear cases against his transgender ban in the military. This would bypass the legal process, so it’s doubtful they’ll hear it now. He seems to be putting in quite a bit of effort against the transgender community. I’m curious why.
  12. The Mashpee Indian tribe could lose their land’s status as a reservation based on a new court decision involving a casino developer and a group of right-wing activists. This would be the first time in 60 years that reservation land would be removed from trust in the U.S.

Climate/EPA:

  1. The U.S. government tells Taylor Energy Co. that they have to stop an oil spill that’s leaked thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico each day for over 14 years. But it makes sense to open all our waters to more drilling, right?
  2. A new report from Trump’s administration finds that climate change could reduce our GDP by 10% by the end of the century. This is the second part of their findings. The first part, released last fall, found that there’s no other explanation for climate change than humankind. Here are some of the findings:
    • Climate change will have a huge effect on farming, reducing some crops by as much as 75% and reducing the number of hours a day that farm workers can work.
    • It will also hurt the fishing and seafood industry with acidification of our oceans.
    • There will be an increase in insect-spread diseases, like Ebola and Zika virus. Asthma and allergies will also worsen.
    • Food-borne and waterborne diseases will increase.
    • Wildfires could increase by six times, and flooding will also have a dramatic increase.
  1. Another study finds that better landscape management could store enough carbon to offset our output by 21% (this is a huge amount). The top actions include reforestation (and not culling trees in the first place) and planting cover crops for off-years on farms.
  2. Officials recall romaine lettuce across the country and in Canada due to an E. Coli outbreak.
  3. On a related note, after E. Coli outbreaks in 2011, Congress ordered the FDA to create safety rules requiring produce growers to test their water supplies regularly. That would’ve gone into effect this year, but Trump put those regulations on hold for at least four more years. Most California and Arizona growers had volunteered to follow those rules.
  4. Spain announces an energy plan that would require them to reduce carbon emissions by 90% by 2050 (compared to 1990 emissions).

Budget/Economy:

  1. The stock market had another shaky week, with the Dow Jones dropping 551 points in one day, erasing all the gains made in 2018. The five major tech stocks have lost over $1 trillion in two months.
  2. Gas and oil drilling applications in Wyoming are up more than 400% in the past five years, partly due to higher oil prices, better technology, and Trump’s push for U.S. energy dominance.
  3. Some farmers are not only unable to sell their crops to China because of the trade wars, they also can’t find places to store their harvest until it can be used. Most elevators that usually buy and store the crops are full; some are taking advantage of the need and are charging farmers additional fees. Some farmers with damaged crops are just plowing this year’s crops under.
  4. Soybean exports to the EU have risen slightly this year, while exports to China have tanked, as you can see below.

Elections:

  1. At least six major companies request that Mississippi Senate candidate Cindy Hyde-Smith return their campaign contribution because of her recent seemingly racist comments. Tip to politicians: If you apologize right away, these things would be non-issues.
  2. California Republicans work to regroup after losing every House seat in Orange County, a traditionally Republican stronghold.
  3. Democrats won the popular vote in the House by almost 9 million votes, increasing their seats by 39 (with one race yet to be decided, but leaning toward the Democrat). That 8% margin is the largest for either party in a midterm election.
  4. Conversely, Republicans won seats in the Senate. There’s one runoff election yet to go, so they’ll increase their seats by 1 or 3, depending on the outcome of the runoff.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Since a judge ordered Trump to reinstate Jim Acosta’s press pass, the White House says they’ll come up with a code of conduct. If Acosta breaks any of the new rules, he’ll be kicked out again.
  2. A shooter at Chicago Mercy hospital kills three, including a police officer, a doctor, and a recent grad. The gunman himself is also dead.
  3. A shooter in a Kentucky mall opens fire, injuring two. Police kill the gunman. Except that he wasn’t really the gunman; he was just black and licensed to carry. It takes the police a few days to correct the record. Not surprisingly, protests erupt.
  4. A review by Trump’s administration of his regulation rollbacks finds that these rollbacks will result in increased costs in multiple ways: there will be an increase in deaths from pollution, an increase in medical bills, and an increase in student debt.

Polls:

  1. 59% of Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling race relations, with Democrats and African Americans having the highest rates of disapproval. I think African American gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum summed it up when he said:

“I have not called the president a racist, but there are racists in his sympathizers who believe he may be, which is why they go to his aid, which is why he has provided them cover. I believe his cover has led to much of the degradation in our political discourse.”