Tag: ACA

Week 25 in Trump

Posted on July 17, 2017 in Legislation, Politics

(Credit: AP/Kirsty Wigglesworth/Getty/Don Emmert/Peter Muhly)

With Congress spinning their wheels and not able to actually push much through other than undoing some Obama rules, something John Boehner said several weeks ago rings true for several of their bigger goals. He said he doesn’t think tax reform is going to happen this year:

“I was a little more optimistic about it early in the year; now my odds are 60/40. The border adjustment tax is deader than a doornail. Tax reform is just a bunch of happy talk.”

And so once again Russia dominates the week. Here’s what happened…

Russia:

  1. Last week we heard about Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer and the changing stories he gave around it. This week, he releases the entire email thread setting up the meeting. He says he’s just being transparent, but it turns out the New York Times was about to release them and were waiting his response. He scooped them.
  2. The emails show he was looking for compromising information on Clinton and that he was OK working with the Russian effort to discredit her.
  3. We learn the meetings were set up by British publicist Rod Goldstone, who offered to connect Don Jr. with sensitive documents from the Russia government that would be damaging to Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” To which Don Jr. said “I love it.”
  4. Before we get ahead of ourselves, the meeting may have broken federal law, but doesn’t amount to treason. It might be conspiracy, but definitely not treason.
  5. The meeting implicates Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, who didn’t reveal this meeting in his security clearance forms. Since May, Kushner has added over 100 names of foreign officials he had contact with last year. In his defense though, it appears Kushner’s lawyers found the email thread and turned the emails over.
  6. The Russian lawyer they met with says the meeting was always about sanctions, though the emails say otherwise.
  7. We still don’t have a complete list of all who attended the meeting, though the list of Russians keeps growing. We now know a Russian lobbyist and an interpreter were there as well, and possibly two more people.
  8. Trump Sr. says the Secret Service vetted the meeting. The Secret Service says that didn’t happen.
  9. Trump Sr. denies knowledge of this meeting, but after the meeting ended, he tweeted out a dig about Hillary’s emails. Two days before the meeting, he said he’d give a speech the following week that would tell all about the Clintons. That speech didn’t happen.
  10. It turns out that the White House crafted Trump Jr.’s initial statement about the meeting, which turned out to be untrue.
  11. A democratic representative files the first formal articles of impeachment against Trump over obstruction of justice in the firing of Comey.
  12. According to the Wall Street Journal, our intelligence agencies saw evidence of Russians attempting collusion with the Trump campaign in 2015, even before he officially declared his candidacy.
  13. Kushner’s digital campaign program is under investigation to find out if they assisted the Russians in targeting specific voter markets during the election meddling. Intelligence officials are pretty sure they had U.S. help.
  14. Trump backs off on the idea of a joint U.S. and Russia cybersecurity force saying that it can’t happen.
  15. Democratic lawyers from the Obama camp sue Trump over invasion of privacy. They allege that the campaign was involved in what has been seen as a Russian operation, but which now seems to include campaign members. This operation resulted in the dumps of tens of thousands of emails that included private information.
  16. After passing nearly unanimously in the Senate, the Russian sanctions bill stalls in the House while the White House continues pressure to soften the bill.
  17. Mike Pence’s spokesperson refuses three times to answer whether Pence has had any undisclosed meetings with Russians.
  18. According to a coroners report, Peter Smith asphyxiated himself. Smith died 10 days after an interview with the Wall Street Journal where he described his plan to work with Trump’s campaign to get dirt on Clinton. It’s not known whether Trump’s campaign was aware of Smith’s effort.
  19. People start comparing the DNC getting opposition information from Ukraine sources with Trump Jr.’s effort get oppo on Clinton. Right now it looks like comparing a traffic ticket with totaling your car, but more info will come out on both.
  20. Some of the memos Comey wrote summarizing his conversations with Trump contain classified information, but not the one that he leaked to the press. Comey said they were his personal memos, but the FBI now says they are FBI property and Trump accuses Comey of breaking the law. So now we’re looking at an investigation into Comey’s handling of the memos. Full. Circle.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Jeff Sessions takes credit for last week’s Medicare and Medicaid fraud bust saying it’s part of the administration’s effort to get tough on drugs. It turns out Medicare fraud is a huge thing, and all presidents since Clinton have funded task forces to crack down on it. They’ve recovered tens of billions of dollars since the 1990s.
  2. Twitter users blocked by Trump sue, saying that since Sean Spicer said Trump’s tweets are official statements, Twitter users can’t be barred from viewing them.

Healthcare:

  1. The Senate Republicans’ revised health bill increases insurance subsidies and keeps some of the ACA taxes.
  2. This new version allows insurance companies who do sell ACA-compliant policies to sell policies that don’t include all the mandated coverages as well.
  3. It also opens the door to insurance companies being able to deny people with pre-existing conditions access to certain healthcare plans.
  4. The latest version of the bill doesn’t change the cuts to Medicaid and keeps it as a block grant with per capita spending caps. It also includes $1 billion in Medicaid funding that only Alaska qualifies for, largely seen as a bribe for Lisa Murkowski’s support.
  5. With teen pregnancy at its lowest rate in recent history, the Trump administration cut $213.6 million in research and programs aimed at preventing teen pregnancy (this includes funding for Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and Johns Hopkins University, along with almost 80 others).
  6. Governors from both parties come out strongly against the new healthcare bill at their annual summer meeting. They don’t issue a joint statement, though, because they all have different reasons.
  7. Mitch McConnell delays the healthcare vote until John McCain comes back from what was deemed minor surgery. He’s expected to recover in a week, but health experts think it could be more like two weeks. This gives the bill an even slimmer chance of passing.
  8. Lindsay Graham also comes up with a healthcare plan, which basically gives more power to the states.
  9. From Politico’s talks with legislators: “Republicans REALLY want to wrap up the health care discussion. Sure, they want to repeal Obamacare. But the conversation they’re having now is how many people are going to get booted off their insurance. That’s not good politics.” Also it’s kind of heartless.
  10. Burglars break into Senator Dean Heller’s office in Las Vegas. Probably not related, but Heller was among the first Senators to say he wouldn’t approve the healthcare bill.

International:

  1. Trump celebrates Bastille Day in Paris with President Macron.
  2. Rex Tillerson heads to Qatar and then other Mideast countries to try to patch things up. Qatar agrees to stop funding terrorists.
  3. It turns out that the UAE was behind the cyberattacks that planted fake news stories and social media posts about Qatar’s empire, leading to the four-nation boycott and a new quagmire in the Mideast. It was originally thought that Russia was behind it. Now U.S. intelligence thinks it was part of a larger plan by the UAE to destabilize the area.
  4. If Tillerson can fix this, it will be his first major diplomatic accomplishment. If it backfires, it will strengthen Qatar’s relationship with Iran.
  5. Trump appears to support Saudi Arabia over Qatar in this standoff, but Saudi is known for funding terrorists as well.
  6. While Trump takes credit for sparking the Qatar standoff, some allege that this is more on Kushner. Kushner tried and failed to get a $500 million loan from a Qatari businessman, and then allegedly pushed Trump to take a hard stance on Qatar.
  7. Trump delays his state visit to the UK until next year.
  8. Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner look at proposals to use private mercenary firms to fight in Afghanistan.
  9. Iran has been stepping in to fill the void left when U.S. troops departed from Iraq. They’ve been giving aid, working with the government, and shipping food and supplies.
  10. Civilian casualties from U.S. airstrikes in the Mideast are on pace to more than double under Trump.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. The White House wants Congress to take care of these items before the August recess:
    • Repeal the ACA
    • Raise the debt ceiling
    • Agree on a general outline of tax reform
    • Clear remaining nominations

    Note: It’s almost August already.

  2. Mitch McConnell delays the August recess in order to take care of some of the above items. He blames the delay on lack of cooperation from Democrats, but with the Republican majorities in both houses, he doesn’t need Democrats’ cooperation.
  3. The bill to overhaul and privatize air traffic control stalls in the House.
  4. As a part of the effort by Everytown for Gun Safety, six states (Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Tennessee and Utah) pass gun restrictions for domestic abusers, bringing the total number of states with such laws to 23.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. After a huge public outcry, Trump intervenes to grant visas to the all-female Afghanistan robotics team so they can come here and compete. Very cool.
  2. Trump plans to delay or eliminate a rule to let foreign entrepreneurs come here to start companies. Business leaders and organizations are quick to criticize the move.
  3. Jeff Sessions speaks to the Alliance Defending Freedom, a group accused of being an anti-LGBTQ hate group.
  4. In a move to restore some of the protections for workers that one of Trump’s executive orders rescinded, the House unanimously passes a nondiscrimination bill.
  5. A federal judge in Hawaii rules that the administration’s definition of bona fide relationships in regard to the travel ban is too narrow. He ruled that the definition includes broader family ties, like grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins of people in the U.S.
  6. Trump shortens his requirement for the border wall from 2,000 miles to just 900, and says he wants it to be somewhat transparent so we can see people on other side throwing over bags of drugs. We don’t want Americans getting hit on the head by bags of drugs.
  7. The number of bullying incidents where the bully uses Trump’s words and slogans continues to rise in schools. The incidents are primarily based on religious or racial prejudice.
  8. Trump and some of his aides are working with two conservative senators (Tom Cotton and David Perdue) to draft legislation drastically curbing legal immigration. The legislation would cut legal immigration in half. Why is this important? Because economists say that the only way Trump can achieve his predicted economic growth is if the immigrant population doubles.

Climate/EPA:

  1. A chunk of ice nearly the size of Delaware breaks off from Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf. The iceberg’s water volume is about twice Lake Erie’s. I mention it because some attribute this to global warming, but scientists are still looking at whether it’s related.

Budget/Economy:

  1. The White House objects to parts of both the House and Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2018. Specifically they object to a prohibition on the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) process (base closures). They also object to greater private audits of the Pentagon.
  2. In Senate testimony, Janet Yellen says, “I believe we have done a great deal since the financial crisis to strengthen the financial system and to make it more resilient.” She also indicates that some of the recent rollbacks passed by the House could lead to another crisis. She’s willing to consider changes to the regulations though.

Elections:

  1. The DoJ sends a letter to all states requesting information about voter rolls and related processes. States take this to indicate that the DoJ is looking to purge voter rolls and roll back some portions of the National Voter Registration Act, which sought to streamline the process of registering and make it easier for eligible voters.
  2. After running up against a slew of legal challenges, Trump’s voter fraud commission tells states not to send them any of the information they requested for now.
  3. The White House publishes all the comments they’ve received so far on the voter fraud commission’s request for information on a government website. The comments weren’t vetted and the now-public information includes commenters’ names, emails, addresses, and more. Some are pretty profane and some include links to porn.

Miscellaneous:

  1. The spin about Trump’s slow nomination process is giving me whiplash. Democrats have requested cloture on many more Trump nominees than were requested for Obama’s. But Trump is also way behind in nominating candidates, and often sends them over without the correct paperwork.
  2. Trump has an off-the-record talk with reporters on air force one, but then wonders why it wasn’t covered, so it becomes on the record.
  3. Paul Ryan puts the kibosh on holding any more townhalls, saying they’re just becoming screamfests.
  4. The FCC gives phone companies leeway to jack phone rates for prisoners, which were capped under Obama. Prisoners now have to pay more to phone home.
  5. Christopher Wray took questions in the Senate around his confirmation as FBI director to replace Comey.
  6. Trump’s personal attorney responded to an email from a critic with a series of profanity-laced emails.
  7. Both Mike Pence and Justin Trudeau join the governors meeting in Providence, RI. Trudeau is the first foreign head of state to attend, likely because renegotiations for NAFTA are about to begin.
  8. Highlighting the tepid relationship between AZ Senator Jeff Flake’s and the White House, the White House meets with three possible challengers to his seat in next year’s election. Trump isn’t afraid to bring in the big guns against lawmakers who disagree with him.
  9. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, our most powerful lobbying group, is not only losing power, but some of its largest members consider pulling out. Members disagree on a number of issues facing us right now.

Polls:

  1. Since 2015, Republicans who have a positive view of education has dropped from 54% to 36%. 58% of Republican say colleges and universities have a negative effect on the U.S.
  2. 54% of Americans think Trump did something wrong or illegal in regard to Russia. 58% think one of his campaign members did. 67% think Russia’s 2016 hacking poses a future threat.
  3. 82% of Americans say large businesses, lobbyists, the wealthy, and Wall Street have too much power in D.C. 75% say people like themselves don’t have enough power, and another 3% say people like themselves DO have too much power. Who are these altruistic 3%?
  4. An Iowa poll puts Trumps disapproval rating at 59%.

 

Week 24 in Trump

Posted on July 10, 2017 in Politics, Trump

With all eyes on the G20 this week, French Ambassador Gérard Araud says Trump isn’t the leader of the free world and that no one is now.

“This world order, the traditional liberal world order, is more or less undermined, really, or looks injured. Where [is] the United States?… I think it’s impossible to move on without America, and I think also that the United States really can’t let the world move on.”

Araud also points out that President Obama delegated the Ukraine response to Angela Merkel and took a hands-off approach to Syria. ”America First, in a sense, was raised in a discrete way, also under President Obama.”
Here’s what else happened this week…

Russia:

  1. Large U.S. oil companies lobby against the bills passed by the Senate to toughen sanctions against Russia and to make it harder for the president to rescind them.
  2. Investigators look into whether Russia colluded with far-right, pro-Trump sites to spread fake stories smearing Hillary Clinton. There were at least 1,000 paid internet trolls in Russia putting out the information.
  3. Trump meets with Putin at the G20. Before the meeting, Putin criticizes Trump’s trade policies and sanctions in an op-ed, and reaffirms Russia’s commitment to the Paris accord.
  4. Tillerson says that Putin denied meddling in our elections when Trump pushed him on it. Like he would admit it?
  5. Key points from the meeting:
    • Trump is ready to move on from the election hacking with no consequences for Russia.
    • The U.S. and Russia will cooperate on cybersecurity issues. Trump later walks this one back.
    • They agree not to meddle in each other’s domestic issues, making it sound like it was equally bad that we try to spread democracy while they try to undermine it.
    • They agree to a cease-fire in Syria, the fifth such agreement in six years.
    • They discuss the Ukraine, sanctions, and terrorism.
  6. Trump, Tillerson, and Putin all emerge with differing accounts of the meeting.
  7. Trump is reportedly focused on how to move forward in working with Putin.
  8. Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov says that Putin denied involvement in our elections, that Trump said reports of meddling were exaggerated, and that Trump accepted Putin’s denials.
  9. Russian hackers are suspected to be behind a breach of over 12 power plants in the U.S.
  10. After the G20 Trump tweets, “Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded.” Republicans and Democrats alike say ummmm….no. Why don’t we just give them our passwords and be done with it?
  11. New documents show yet another undisclosed meeting between Russians and the Trump campaign. This one occurred two weeks after Trump became the Republican nominee, and was between a Russian lawyer and Kushner, Manafort, and Donald Trump Jr. A spokesperson for Trump’s lawyer says the meeting was a setup.
  12. Trump Jr. first explains the meeting as being about Russian adoptions, and then says it was supposed to be about obtaining dirt on Hillary but it ended up being about adoptions.
  13. Trump says the media lied when they said that all 17 intelligence agencies signed off on the statement that Russia meddled in our elections, saying that only four did. Technically he’s right, but one of those four who signed off, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, includes the remaining agencies.
  14. James Clapper warns that the 2016 meddling in the election was just a practice run for 2018.
  15. The State Department continues to issue temporary visas to suspected Russian operatives.

Courts/Justice:

  1. A Florida judge rules that changes to the stand your ground gun law are unconstitutional. The changes would’ve increased protections for people who kill someone using the stand your ground defense, giving protections even to those who have an opportunity to flee the situation.
  2. Eighteen states and Washington D.C. filed suit against the Department of Education and Betsy DeVos, saying they broke the law by rescinding the Borrower Defense Rule. The rule protects students from fraudulent, for-profit institutions (like Trump University, for example).

Healthcare:

  1. Congress moves toward preventing the IRS from enforcing the penalty for not having insurance, further weakening the ACA.
  2. According to a new report released by Trump’s own Department of Health and Human Services, the ACA is doing better than reported. The report provides evidence that the ACA marketplaces were relatively stable in 2016. The customer base is healthier, the risk pools are stabilizing, and premiums are moderating.
  3. Indiana GOP leaders, in an effort to gather ammunition to support the senate healthcare bill, posted a request on Facebook to “post your Obamacare horror stories here.” With about 1,500 posts, the vast majority were how the ACA had helped, not hurt.
  4. The Washington Post and the New York Times each publish a fact check on healthcare claims and bills. Worth a read if you’re on the fence.
  5. The GOP Twitter account tweets out to Hillary, Bernie, Elizabeth Warren, Bill Clinton, and Joe Manchin asking where their health plans are. Hillary, for one, schools the GOP by pointing to her fully formed plan to fix the ACA and telling them to run with it.
  6. Freedom Works and Club for Growth push McConnell to adopt the more conservative changes to the healthcare bill, but these will likely make passing the bill impossible.
  7. Midweek, Mitch McConnell acknowledges that they might not be able to pass a replacement for the ACA, and in that case, Congress needs to do something to support the insurance markets.
  8. Pat Toomey (R-Pa) sort of explains why Republicans are having trouble with the bill: “I didn’t expect Donald Trump to win. I think most of my colleagues didn’t. So we didn’t expect to be in this situation.” In other words, we weren’t as ready as we said we were.
  9. Ted Cruz says the ACA should be repealed if the Senate vote falls apart again, aligning himself clearly with Trump and against McConnell.
  10. One thing missing from any healthcare discussions is the subsidy given to employers who offer insurance plans to their employees and the employees who receive them. Both employers and employees get a tax break, and employees get a good chunk of their premiums paid.
  11. Senators John Hoeven of North Dakota, Bob Corker of Tennessee, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and John Boozman of Arkansas are the latest Republicans to withhold support for the bill.

International:

  1. North Korea fires another ballistic missile, but this time is more concerning because of the distance it was able to travel.
  2. The U.S. and South Korea stage military drills in the waters off North Korea. Good to know: The missile defense system still can’t reliably stop ICBMs and has failed 3 of 5 tests.
  3. After the launch, Trump sounds like he’s giving up on China. “So much for China working with us.”
  4. Russia and China make a joint proposal that would ban North Korea missile tests and would also ban joint U.S. and South Korea military drills.
  5. Some experts think Russian technology is behind North Korea’s huge advances in missile technology over the past two years.
  6. Trump stops in Poland before the G20 meeting in Hamburg. The government bussed in Trump supporters to hear his speech.
  7. Some hail his speech in Poland as one of his greatest and others say it’s just another one of his “failing dystopia” speeches. He criticizes the free press in a country where President Duda has restricted free press, and then watches Duda explain why he restricted Polish media from covering the parliament.
  8. Trump does state support for article 5 of the NATO agreement, which he failed to do in his NATO speech.
  9. Trump questions whether the West has the will to survive existentialist threats. I don’t know what he’s talking about here, though maybe ISIS?
  10. Leaders from several countries, as well as U.S. states and cities, attend the Global Citizen Festival in Hamburg just before the G20. The festival raises money to support global health, gender equality, and education. Trump isn’t invited.
  11. Trump’s team waited too long to book a hotel for the G20 and by the time they tried, everything was booked. The German government hosts him in Hamburg while his staff stays at the U.S. consulate. The same happened to Tillerson when he attended the G20 ministers meeting in February.
  12. At the G20, Trump’s message is “renegotiate everything.” Other leaders will either go along or forge their own deals without the U.S. (which they already seem to be doing, if that tells you anything).
  13. The G20 highlights a major shift in geopolitical relations, as European nations, China, and Japan navigate through a shifting landscape where the U.S. is no longer a leader. The U.S. typically sets the agenda at the summit, but this time we alienate our allies and are isolated from the rest of the G20 nations on the big issues, including climate change and trade.
  14. Germany and China have their own bilateral meeting, an indication that Xi Jinping wants to move into the widening gap between the U.S. and its longtime allies. He’s ready to move China into the U.S.’s position as the biggest defender of a global, multilateral system.
  15. There is agreement among all nations over cracking down on people who smuggle in illegal immigrants.
  16. Many leaders express concern that our new differences threaten the common good.
  17. Trump meets with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and reminds him that Mexico has to pay for the wall.
  18. Trump tweets from the G20: “Everyone here is talking about why John Podesta refused to give the DNC server to the FBI and the CIA. Disgraceful!” So many things wrong here. Podesta never had anything to do with the DNC server; the CIA didn’t (and probably couldn’t) subpoena it; and the G20 has more pressing matters. Podesta’s twitter response is worth it, though, as is his WaPo op-ed.
  19. Trump is caught daydreaming at a G20 meeting, saved when Theresa May awakens him for a photo-op.
  20. Ivanka Trump sits in for the president during a G20 leaders session for a short period while he steps out of the room.
  21. The final communiqué from the G20 highlights a victory for the G19 and the isolation of the G20. U.S. views on global warming and protectionism are not accepted.
  22. 122 countries in the UN approve a ban on nuclear weapons, a potential start to nuclear disarmament…except that none of the nations that signed on are armed with nuclear weapons.
  23. Iraq declares victory over ISIS in Mosul after a 9-month push.
  24. Rex Tillerson works to personally defuse the situation in the Persian Gulf, which threatens our ability to combat terrorism because of our coordination with Qatar.
  25. A group of senators travel to Afghanistan as part of a diplomatic effort. The ambassador role there has yet to be filled and is currently filled by a chargé d’affaires who was about to retire. This is a critical time for diplomatic relations with the country.
  26. The ban on bringing laptops and other electronic devices on board flights from several Mideast countries was lifted for some countries.
  27. There were large anti-government protests in both Turkey and Venezuela this week, as well as protests at the G20 meetings in Hamburg. But there are always protests at the G20 for a multitude of causes.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The U.S. denies visas for an all-girl robotics team from Afghanistan who were hoping to come here along with groups from other countries to compete. Teams from Iraq, Iran, and Sudan received travel visas.
  2. Businesses in North Carolina get hit hard by cuts to visas for seasonal workers. One business hasn’t opened for the season because they couldn’t get any visas, and not one local applied for their $15/hour positions.
  3. As part of a PR campaign to educate the nation about Sikhs, a group of them chip in to sponsor a town’s fireworks display when the town can’t fund it. Part of the reason Sikhs are doing this is that people in the U.S. mistake them for Muslims and harass them.

Climate/EPA:

  1. A federal appeals court rules that the EPA can’t suspend an Obama-era rule that would restrict methane emissions from new oil and gas wells. They could try rewriting the rule.
  2. California Governor Jerry Brown and New York mayor Bill De Blasio speak at the Global Citizen Festival in Hamburg. Brown invites everyone to a global warming action meeting in San Francisco in 2018, saying Trump doesn’t speak for all of America on global warming.
  3. Volvo announces it will phase out combustion-only engines by 2019. All the cars they make will either be electric or hybrid.
  4. Germany, Japan, and other countries reiterate their commitment to the Paris accord ahead of the G20.
  5. The U.S. stands alone in the G20 summit statement on global warming and the Paris accord.

Budget/Economy/Trade:

  1. At a time when most countries are seeing solid recoveries from the 2008 crash, world leaders warn that nationalistic and protectionist trade policies will hamper global recovery, possibly causing a slide backwards. And this includes the U.S., but #MAGA, right?
  2. The European Union and Japan sign one of the world’s largest trade agreements, calling it ambitious, free, and fair. Unfortunately, the U.S. auto industry will be one of the hardest hit.
  3. And to top it off, the U.S. automobile industry says sales are slowing and jobs are declining. This is the sixth consecutive month of drooping sales.
  4. The U.S. hasn’t even begun to negotiate or renegotiate any meaningful bilateral agreements as promised during the campaign last year.
  5. The European Union and China are working on a broad trade agreement, as are Mexico and China.
  6. Trump threatens new tariffs on steel imports from Europe. The European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, says they’ll retaliate in kind, which could start a trade war.
  7. Stephen Bannon pushes to raise taxes on the wealthy and cut them for middle and low-income earners. His idea would raise the highest bracket above 40%, at odds with Trump’s current plan and the House’s current plan.
  8. Trump touts the latest job numbers, though growth as been a little slower so far this year than last.
  9. Several states are finding themselves in economic trouble or at a budget impasse, including New Jersey, Illinois, Maine, Alaska, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Connecticut, and Kansas.
  10. After a two-year standoff, Illinois lawmakers finally worked together to agree on a budget bill, which Governor Bruce Rauner promptly vetoed because it would raise taxes. Both the house and senate are expected to vote to override his veto.
  11. Trump’s cuts to transportation in his proposed budget could cause 220 cities to lose access to passenger train service and would halt any high-speed rail development. This is the opposite of infrastructure investment.
  12. Trump says he wants to make the U.S. an energy dominator, but his actual policies are pretty much the same as under Obama’s goal to make us energy independent.
  13. Trump proposes eliminating heating aid for low-income Americans, saying the program isn’t needed any longer and it’s being abused. He claims utility companies can’t cut off utilities in the dead of winter, so these people will be just fine…
  14. While domestic gas and oil development has been sluggish over several years due to low prices, Trump tweets, “Gas prices are the lowest in the U.S. in over ten years! I would like to see them go even lower.”

Elections:

  1. So far, 44 states push back on the voter fraud commission’s request for personal voter information. Nine major investigations over 20 years on voter fraud have turned up no evidence of widespread fraud. Most cases were found to not be fraudulent at all. Of the cases found to be actually fraudulent, most result from misunderstandings of the rules or from clerical or administrative errors.
  2. Maryland’s Republican deputy secretary of state, Luis E. Borunda, resigns from the voting commission. In fact, many people appointed to the commission don’t have election experience and don’t understand why they’re there.
  3. Lawmakers who criticize Trump or don’t support him are feeling the political heat of his pressure. Others who have criticized him in the past start to court him to make sure he doesn’t capsize their chances of re-election.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Workers still remaining at the State Department say the department is gutted at all levels of employment and that they can barely get anything done.
  2. In an act of I-just-don’t-care-anymore, Chris Christie and his family are spotted on a private beach on the day that public beaches are closed to the public because of a budget impasse.
  3. Trump signs an executive order aimed at reviving the National Space Council. Mike Pence will lead the effort.
  4. After Trump tweets a GIF of himself taking down CNN WWF-style, CNN finds the originator of the GIF who apologizes and takes all his offensive stuff down. CNN refuses to divulge his identity but for some reason left a bit in the story saying they might if he reneges on his promise. Which leads certain alt-right groups to speculate that he was blackmailed into the apology by CNN, so they dox the CNN group responsible for the story. The reporters and their families have been threatened both online and in person at their homes.
  5. Once again Trump reminds us that he is president and we are not. “The fake media is trying to silence us. But we will not let them. Because the people know the truth. The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House. But I’m president and they’re not.”
  6. Whoa! NPR caught a little blowback on the 4th when it tweeted the entirety of the declaration of independence in 113 tweets. They get accused of partisan politics, using propaganda, and trying to start a revolution.
  7. Steven Scalise is readmitted into ICU on worries of infection.
  8. It looks like an investigation and crackdown on leakers is about to start. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman, Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), releases a report on national security risks from the leaks.
  9. The government ethics chief, Walter Shaub, resigns saying he’s done all he can and criticizing the administration for a lack of transparency and the appearance of profiting from office. After repeatedly reaching out to the administration during the transition period and being ignored, Shaub took to trolling Trump on Twitter to get his attention. That didn’t work either. He’s never spoken with the president.
  10. There’s a power struggle going on between red state governments and their blue city governments, with states cracking down on city legislation. States have tied city’s hands on issues like minimum wage, civil rights, birth control, and sanctuary cities.
  11. The White House staff reveals it’s factional nature, as each has their own PR staffs to push their individual agendas, leaving behind the tradition of keeping a unified message.

Polls:

  1. 54% of Americans believe Trump has done something illegal; 29% think he’s done something unethical.
  2. A Pew survey shows that 56% of Americans have more confidence in Merkel than Trump, while 46% say they have more confidence in Trump.

Stupid Things Politicians Say:

Because this is what a free and open press is all about:

“I just love to sit in my office and make up wasters so [journalists] will write these stupid stories.”

– Maine GOP Gov. Paul LePage bragging that he lies to reporters so they will write misleading “stupid stories” about his governorship.

Week 23 in Trump

Posted on July 3, 2017 in Politics, Trump

With friends like these… as the healthcare battle heats up, Republicans start turning on their own, with a GOP PAC pushing ads against holdout senators and major donors threatening to shut their purses until they start seeing some action.

After the PAC attack on Dean Heller, Josh Holmes, Mr. McConnell’s former chief of staff, said, “That the White House is asking people to take a tough vote and then running ads against members while we’re still in negotiations is so dumb it’s amazing we even have to have the conversation.”

Here’s what happened this week in Trump:

Russia:

  1. Trump remains quiet about what he plans to do to prevent Russian interference in our elections in the future. He has never asked Comey how to stop a future cyber/disinformation attack, and Jeff Sessions has never received a classified briefing on the issue.
  2. Paul Manafort reveals that his firm received over $17 million from the Ukraine’s Party of Regions, which is affiliated with the Kremlin. He didn’t reveal this at the time it happened, which is required by law.
  3. Matt Tait, a security consultant, says that Peter Smith, a Republican opposition researcher, recruited him to authenticate the veracity of some hacked emails that were claimed to come from Clinton’s private server. He never completed the task and the emails seem to have been a hoax, but…
  4. It turns out that Smith claimed to represent Michael Flynn in an effort to find emails that Clinton deleted hoping to use them against her in the election. Smith also supported Flynn in his effort to establish relations with Russian officials. Smith spoke to the Wall Street Journal about this story 10 days before he died on May 14 (at age 81, no foul play suspected). Interesting fact: Smith funded the troopergate investigation into Clinton, bankrolled David Bock to smear Clinton, and tried to find a woman who would initiate a paternity suit against Clinton.
  5. Tait says he received a recruitment document from Smith listing these senior officials of the Trump campaign or staff: Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Sam Clovis, Lt. Gen. Flynn, and Lisa Nelson.
  6. The document also lists a company Smith had set up, KLS Research, to avoid campaign reporting. It’s not clear who all was involved in that.
  7. U.S. intelligence reports that Russian hackers were looking for an intermediary through which they could get emails to Flynn last year, which fits into the role Smith was playing.

Courts/Justice:

  1. The Supreme Court rules that state grants that are available to nonprofits can’t be denied to a church-run school. This ruling applied specifically to playground safety, but it opens the door for taxpayers to provide funds to religious organizations.
  2. The Supreme Court says they’ll hear the gay wedding cake case (the one where some business owners want it to be legal to discriminate against gay couples).
  3. The compliance counsel at the DOJ, Hui Chen, resigns saying that the administration doesn’t live up to the standards she’s supposed to be enforcing in the business world.

Healthcare:

  1. After a group aligned with Trump and Pence went after Nevada Senator Dean Heller last week for his refusal to support the healthcare bill, Mitch McConnell called the White House to complain, calling the attack “beyond stupid.” The group pulls the ad campaign.
  2. The CBO scores the Senate’s healthcare plan. They estimate that 22 million Americans will lose healthcare coverage over the next decade, just slightly better then the 23 million that would lose it under the House plan. The CBO also estimates that premiums would rise before falling to less than under the ACA, out-of-pocket costs would increase, and there would be fewer covered benefits. But hey, we’ll save about $320 billion over 10 years.
  3. Senate republicans add a provision to their bill that would prevent someone with a lapse in coverage from receiving coverage for 6 months.
  4. Kellyanne Conway says people who lose Medicaid should look into getting jobs. Nearly 70% of able recipients already do work, but maybe we could find jobs for some of those folks in nursing homes?
  5. Despite continual promises that, no matter what, a vote will be held on the healthcare bill, Mitch McConnell abruptly announces that he’s postponing the vote until after the July 4 recess. Earlier he had warned that if the repeal doesn’t get done this week, the GOP would lose all leverage and be forced to compromise with Democrats.
  6. Trump invites all Republican senators to the White House for a meeting, during which he says “This will be great if we get it done. And if we don’t get it done, it’s just going to be something that we’re not going to like. And that’s OK, and I understand that very well.”
  7. After the meeting, some senators express that they don’t think Trump understands the bill and that Trump seemed surprised that some are calling it a tax break for the rich.
  8. A bipartisan group of governors who have been conspiring quietly on blocking the healthcare bill come out strongly against it this week. When Republican senators come home for July recess, these governors push back hard.
  9. But never ones to give up hope, GOP senators are working behind the scenes to change the bill enough to bring on more votes. Expect this to continue throughout the recess.
  10. While the hardliners want to cut more money from the healthcare bill, Trump says in a speech this week, “Add some money to it!”
  11. Trump later says they should just repeal the ACA and replace it at a later date. This is concerning because they don’t have anything they can agree on after 6 years of wanting it, and not having a replacement will knock even more people off insurance.
  12. The White House later denies that Trump has changed his mind on this.
  13. Forty economists write a letter to McConnell saying that the healthcare bill is a giant step in the wrong direction.
  14. Educators and school leaders come out against the healthcare bill, especially in depressed areas where the school nurse and therapists are reimbursed through Medicaid and tools are provided for students with special needs.

International:

  1. French President Macron invites Trump to France for Bastille Day.
  2. Trump looks at cracking down on Pakistani militants launching attacks on neighboring Afghanistan, including drone strikes and withholding aid from Pakistan.
  3. Trump is behind on getting foreign ambassadors nominated and confirmed. His are taking an average of 77 days, Obama’s took 26 days, and Bush’s took 11 days. The holdup seems to be in his formal submissions for approval.
  4. The CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation expresses concerns over the massive foreign aid cuts in Trump’s budget (which is less than 1% of our budget). A large amount of global progress in health and development is because of us. Private philanthropy can’t make up for it. The cuts would:
    • Make it harder for NGOs to eradicate diseases (the ebola outbreak is an example of how this affects us at home).
    • Make it harder to help women with reproductive health and choice.
    • Make it harder for President Bush’s PEPFAR program to prevent AIDs. In countries where PEPFAR is established, political instability has dropped 40%.
  5. The House Appropriations Committee approves an amendment that would revoke the president’s war authority, requiring congressional approval. It would repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) bill passed in response to 9/11. Representative Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) has been trying to get this passed for years.
  6. The U.S. plans a $1.42 billion arms deal with Taiwan, sure to invoke a reaction from China.
  7. Tillerson and Mattis continue to work behind the scenes to find a solution to the stand-off in the Mideast between Qatar and four other nations. They are still at odds with Trump and Kushner on this because Qatar is actually a strategic ally for us.
  8. The UN agrees to a $570 million budget cut for its peacekeeping missions. The administration had fought for even larger cuts.

Legislation:

  1. The House passes two bills that target undocumented immigrants. Kate’s Law increases maximum penalties for deported immigrants who repeatedly try to enter the U.S. The No Sanctuary for Criminals Act eliminates federal grants for sanctuary cities and allows victims of crimes by undocumented immigrants sue those cities.
  2. Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin signs HB 128 into law, letting schools teach bible classes. No word on whether the Quran and Bhagavad Gita are also allowed.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The Supreme Court agrees to hear the travel ban in the next session, but reinstates parts of it with strict guidelines. The ban won’t affect anyone with a bona fide relationship with an entity in the U.S. People can come here for family, work, school, and so on. The court agrees to hear it in October, by which point it could be moot. That’s plenty of time for the administration to review it’s vetting policies. For an idea of how the justices feel about immigration and discrimination, Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch all would have reinstated the ban in its entirety.
  2. The administration issues guidelines for implementing the ban. People coming from the banned countries must have work, school, or close family ties—extended family (like grandparents, aunts and uncles, or nieces and nephews) does not count. Anyone with legal documents should be allowed in. Refugees are banned for 120 days. Somehow a step-sibling is defined as closer than a grandparent.
  3. Khaled Almilaji is a renowned Syrian doctor who ran a campaign to vaccinate 1.4 million Syrian children. Because of the ban, he gives up on returning to the U.S., opting for Canada instead.
  4. The Supreme Court overturns an Arkansas court and says that Arkansas discriminated against a lesbian couple by forcing them to go to court to get both women’s names on their child’s birth certificate. Under Arkansas law, a woman’s husband is listed as the father even if he’s not the biological father; gay couples want the same treatment.
  5. About a thousand military recruits are waiting for basic training but had their visas expire during their wait, leaving them undocumented. They were recruited for a fast-track citizenship program for their medical and language skills.
  6. The Texas Supreme Court rules against government-sponsored spousal benefit requirements for same-sex marriages. See you in the Supreme Court, I’m sure.
  7. Trump appoints Bethany Kozma, an anti-transgender activist, to the office of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.
  8. The administration disbands the White House Council on Women and Girls.
  9. Jim Mattis delays a plan to allow transgender recruits in the military.
  10. June ends with no recognition of Pride Month from White House.
  11. White House aide Stephen Miller pushes Rex Tillerson to get tougher on immigration, which just seems to piss Tillerson off.

Climate/EPA:

  1. Emails show that the EPA’s chief of staff pressured one of the agency’s top scientists to change her testimony in a congressional hearing to downplay the firing of 57 scientific advisors. Scientists think the firings are evidence of the weakened role of science in the Trump administration. “The Board of Scientific Counselors had 68 members two months ago. It will have 11 come Sept. 1,” Dr. Swackhamer said. “They’ve essentially suspended scientific activities by ending these terms. We have no meetings scheduled, no bodies to do the work.”
  2. The House Science Committee majority sends daily emails to members and staff. This isn’t new, but now the emails include links to conservative media that deny global warming, including Breitbart, the Daily Mail, and Koch media sources like the Washington Free Beacon and the Daily Caller.
  3. Per Trump’s executive order, Scott Pruitt delivers a proposal to rescind Obama’s Waters of the United States (Wotus) protections. This will likely be a long legal battle. Wotus adds onto the Clean Water Act by protecting not only large bodies of water, but also smaller waterways that feed into them. The reversal removes protections from one-third of U.S. drinking water, and the administration openly admits it’s a business decision.
  4. Less than a month after meeting with the CEO of Dow Chemical, Scott Pruitt announces that the EPA would no longer pursue a ban on a Dow pesticide known to impact the development of brains of fetuses and infants.
  5. It looks like Rick Perry is going to get his wish for a red-team, blue-team climate study, which pits scientists with opposing views against each other basically trying to poke holes in the other’s research. Scott Pruitt plans to launch a critique of climate science with the goal of challenging mainstream climate science. Fingers crossed that they’ll do this right.
  6. Florida Governor Rick Scott sign HB 989, which lets Floridians object to specific teaching tools. This bill is widely regarded to be aimed at global warming and evolution. Anybody can complain, even if they don’t have a child in school, and a hearing officer must review each complaint.
  7. A coal power plant in central Mississippi gives up on it’s efforts to create clean coal power by capturing emissions. The technology isn’t working, so they plan to burn natural gas instead.

Budget/Economy:

  1. Janet Yellen says she doesn’t expect another major financial crisis in her lifetime, thanks to the consumer protections written into the banking reforms under Obama. She adds that unwinding those reforms would be a bad thing. Also that same day I got an email from Paul Ryan touting the House bill that reverses some of those banking reforms…
  2. The fight over tax reform is on in the House, upending a tentative agreement that would’ve initiated the process of tax reform and causing the budget committee to cancel their work this week.
  3. The dollar falls to 12-month low against the euro.
  4. Some Republican-dominated states are starting to approve significant tax increases after working for years under the theory that lower taxes lead to a stronger economy. Notably Kansas, South Carolina, and Tennessee are raising taxes to meet revenue requirements. This could pose a challenge to tax reform at the federal level.

Elections:

  1. Trump’s voter fraud commission asks states to provide detailed information about every voter in their systems, including addresses, 10-year voting histories, party registrations, and the last four digits of SSNs. This commission is headed by Mike Pence and Kris Kobach, who has written some of the harshest and most litigated voter suppression laws.
  2. While some states merely express concern about the request, at least 24 say they will not comply. Primary concerns are constitutionality, privacy, what the commission plans to do with the data, and how the data will be protected from Russian hackers.
  3. Trump wonders what these states are trying to hide.
  4. Kobach tried to implement a smaller version of this database in Kansas, and has been sued repeatedly for it and even fined in the process.
  5. Kobach promises to make some of the collected information public, though not the most sensitive information.
  6. The commission told states to send the information to an unsecured email address.
  7. And finally, Mike Pence’s state of Indiana says they won’t comply, and Kobach announces that his own state, Kansas, won’t comply with the request. WTF??

Miscellaneous:

  1. The AP releases an analysis showing how partisan gerrymandering has benefited the GOP, finding that Republicans widened or retained power because of the district lines they drew. The AP looked at all 435 House races and about 4,700 state seats. Four times as many states have Republican skewed districts than Democratic ones.
  2. Sean Spicer continues to ban live broadcasts and video recordings of the daily briefings.
  3. Europe gets hit with another ransomware attack called Petya.
  4. Time magazine finds that fake covers featuring Trump are hanging in many of his country clubs. They ask the Trump Organization to remove them all.
  5. Trump’s lawyer, Jay Sekalow, is accused of filtering millions from his charity to his family and himself.
  6. Spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders accuses the media of being fake news while telling them to watch a video that might be fake news. In a briefing, she denounced the media (to a room full of the media) for producing fake news, using CNN’s recent retraction as an example AND telling journalists to watch a video by the discredited James O’Keefe as proof, though with the caveat ″whether it’s accurate or not I don’t know…″ Playboy reporter Brian Karem unloaded on her for inflaming a room full of journalists who’re just trying to get the story right while the White House continues to lie to them (and can I say, that was a beautiful moment).
  7. Tillerson blows up—I mean really blows up—at a high-level aide, apparently from building frustration about not being able to staff up his department because of White House oversight.
  8. Trump holds a fundraiser for his re-election campaign in 3 years at his own hotel.
  9. Trump continues to call Democrats on the Hill obstructionists, even though they tried working with him at first and they’ve offered to work together on healthcare. Everyone probably could’ve worked together on an infrastructure bill, but that good will is gone now.
  10. Trump goes on a bizarre Twitter rant where he says Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski (of Morning Joe) tried to get into Mar-a-Lago last winter and that Mika was bleeding from a bad facelift.
  11. This results in a unified, bipartisan chorus of protests that the tweets went too far…from pretty much everybody except Sarah Huckabee Sanders who defended the tweet.
  12. Then Joe and Mika accuse White House staff members of trying to blackmail them by promising to stop a negative story about Mika in the Enquirer if they apologized to Trump for their coverage of him.
  13. While the majority of Democrats are counseling against talk of impeachment, a group of House Democrats push a bill that would create a commission to investigate Trump and, if applicable, use the 25th amendment to remove Trump from office.
  14. Ivanka Trump, senior advisor to the president, says she tries to stay out of politics.
  15. The Inspector General clears the National Park Service of charges that they altered pictures of the sizes of crowds at Trump’s and Obama’s inaugurations. Whew. I was worried.
  16. Trump reportedly watches five hours of TV per day.
  17. The birth rate for teenage girls dropped 67% from 1991 to last year. It’s now at an all-time low and doctors point to knowledge of and access to contraceptives.
  18. Trump sends federal agents to help Chicago deal with its crime problem.
  19. Jason Chaffetz’ last day as a representative is this week. I don’t understand at all why he quit 6 months into his term.
  20. Impeachment marches and counter protests are held across the country.
  21. The last staffers of the science division at the White House leave this week. They were charged with policy issues like STEM education, biotechnology, and crisis response.
  22. Public beaches in New Jersey are closed Sunday due to a budget impasse. Chris Christie takes his family to the beach while all other beach goers are turned away.

Polls:

  1. The annual Pew Research Global Attitudes survey shows that 22% of people outside the U.S. have confidence that Trump will do the right thing, compared with 64% who had confidence in Obama at the same stage of his presidency. Trump rated higher than Obama in only 2 of the 37 countries polled: Russia and Israel.
  2. 74% in the Pew survey don’t trust Trump to do the right thing versus 59% who think the same of Putin.
  3. The survey also finds that U.S. favorability abroad has dropped from 64% to 49% under Trump.

Week 22 in Trump

Posted on June 26, 2017 in Politics, Trump

Russia, Russia, Russia. The Washington Post published a timeline of events in the Russian hacking probe, so this week’s recap is pretty full of all things Russia. But then the Senate finally released their super-secret healthcare bill, so between those two, this week’s post is pretty long.

Russian Investigation:

  1. We now know that Russian hackers launched cyber attacks last year on at least 21 state election servers, that they changed at least one voter roll, and that they stole voter records. Russian military intelligence also hacked a voting software vendor and sent spear-phishing emails to local election officials. Voting systems weren’t affected as far as we know.
  2. Congressional committees are investigating whether any of the hacked data ended up with the Trump campaign.
  3. We also know that even though senior government officials knew that Flynn was a security risk, they continued to give him security briefings.
  4. The Washington Post timeline of events shows that Putin led the Russian meddling op and that his specific goals were to defeat or harm Clinton and help elect Trump.
  5. We learn that partisanship slowed down our reaction at all levels.
    • Obama received intelligence about Russia meddling in a CIA report in August and wrestled with what to do. He didn’t want to be seen as swaying the election, leading Republicans opposed publicizing it, intelligence agencies were slow to move on it.
    • Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson (who also testified to Congress this week) tried to launch an effort to secure systems at a state level. However, he faced resistance from state officials who saw it as a federal takeover.
    • The bipartisan Congressional Gang of 8 was slow to schedule a meeting, though intelligence tried repeatedly.
  6. Here are a few things that were done to address the problem:
    • Obama had a three-point plan: assess Russia’s role and intent, strengthen areas of vulnerability, and get bipartisan support from congressional leaders and states to accept federal help.
    • The Obama administration warned Putin several times, increased sanctions, closed down two Russian facilities in the U.S., and sent dozens of Russian agents packing.
    • Last fall there was a surge in requests for special visas for Russians with highly technical skills to work at Russian facilities. They were denied until after the election.
    • Obama approved planting cyber weapons in Russia’s infrastructure, which could be triggered if things escalate between our countries. It’s up to Trump to decide whether to use this.
  7. Russia’s interference is unprecedented and mostly successful, though they were found out fairly quickly. So far, Russia hasn’t faced consequences proportionate to the damage caused by the attack.
  8. Intelligence officials voice concern that the State Department is being too lax with Russian diplomats and say we should crack down on their travel in the U.S. since the evidence shows the diplomats are taking advantage of lax enforcement to continue running intelligence ops.
  9. Bipartisan lawmakers complain that the administration is trying to delay their efforts to get tough on Russia.
  10. Democratic representatives say Kushner’s security clearance should be suspended. They also criticize the White House for allowing Michael Flynn to have security clearance for three weeks while they knew of his Russian activities.
  11. Jeff Sessions hires outside counsel.
  12. Trump admits he doesn’t have and didn’t make recordings of his conversations with Comey. Ironically, if he never would have brought it up, Comey might not have released the memo and Trump might not be under investigation for obstruction.
  13. Trump indicates that he bluffed about the tapes to influence Comey’s testimony. Note that this is witness tampering even if he was only trying to get Comey to be truthful.
  14. Trump blames Obama for not taking enough steps to protect us from Russia’s meddling. In blaming Obama for not doing more,Trump inadvertently admits that Russia did meddle, something he has until now mostly denied.
  15. Trump blames White House counsel Donald McGahn for letting the Russia probe spin out of control.
  16. Trey Gowdy, who ran something like 8 hearings on Benghazi, says he won’t hold any hearings on Russia’s meddling nor on Jared Kushner’s security clearance. His predecessor on the oversight committee, Jason Chaffetz, held hearings.
  17. The Kremlin calls Ambassador Sergey Kislyak back to Russia and will likely replace him with deputy foreign minister Anatoly Antonov.
  18. It turns out that Europe has been working on ways to fight meddling from the Russians for years. They’ve been using the same tactics—spreading disinformation, hacking, and trolling—across the continent. Europeans feel they have a better handle on it than we do here, and say looking at us is like watching ″House of Cards.″
  19. Spicer says he hasn’t talked to the president about Russia interference in the elections. Seriously?
  20. More troubles for Michael Flynn. He didn’t report a trip to Saudi Arabia where he represented U.S., Russian, and Saudi interests. His former business partner is also under investigation around payments from foreign clients.
  21. Tillerson has a plan for future relations with Russia: warn them about any more aggressive actions, work together on strategic interests, and emphasize stability.
  22. The administration debates withdrawing from the INF treaty with Russia, a disarmament pact that bans a class of nuclear missiles. Welcome to the new arms race.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Last week wasn’t a big week for courts, but this coming week will be. Last week, the Supreme court agrees to hear Wisconsin’s gerrymandering case. This could have long-reaching implications on how district lines can be drawn.

Healthcare:

  1. Senate Democrats invite Senate Republicans to a sit-down over healthcare, “so we can hear your plans and talk about how to make healthcare more affordable and accessible…” Mitch McConnell says that Democrats refuse to participate. Democrats, it seems, just called his bluff.
  2. Democrats hold the Senate floor overnight. At one point, Schumer tried to get McConnell to agree to at least 10 hours of debate, but he didn’t bite. The ACA had about 26 days of debate.
  3. The Senate releases their version of the ACA replacement, The Better Care Reconciliation Act, with a CBO score expected sometime this week. The Senate promised a top-to-bottom rewrite of the House bill, but it’s similar to the House version; and though it’s a little more modest, it’s still mean. Like the House bill, it’s expected to raise premiums, lower coverage, and cut Medicaid.
  4. Here are the basics of the Senate bill:
    • Caps and reduces Medicaid expansion, eliminating the expansion by 2024 (this insured 14 million people under the ACA).
    • States can implement a work requirement for able-bodied Medicaid recipients.
    • Reduces the number of people eligible for healthcare coverage subsidies.
    • Provides $50 billion to states over four years to help offset costs.
    • Provides $62 billion over 10 years to a fund that would help states offset gaps in coverage.
    • Keeps protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
    • Ends employer and individual mandates.
    • Lets states define mandated coverages.
    • Cuts funding to Planned Parenthood (or any other medical facility that provides abortions).
    • Repeals all taxes, but the Cadillac tax on employer plans would return in 2025.
    • Provides $2 billion to help fight the opioid epidemic.
  5. Whether or not there are enough votes, and right now there aren’t, it seems the Senate plans to vote on the bill before the July 4 recess.
  6. Even Republicans complain about the rush to bring this bill to vote and the secrecy in which it was developed.
  7. The AARP and AMA weigh in against the bill, citing concerns about older citizens and the disabled. Even insurance companies hate this bill, predicting a 25% shortfall in covering the actual cost of care.
  8. On the day the new bill is released, protestors outside McConnell’s office are forcibly removed for demonstrating, many of whom were disabled—using wheelchairs and other assistive devices.
  9. The following senators say they won’t vote for the bill in its current form: Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Ron Johnson. A 5th, Dean Heller of Nevada, later comes out against the bill. Others, like Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Ben Sasse, and Bill Cassidy, are on the fence.
  10. Obama makes a rare policy statement and slams the Senate healthcare bill as inhumane.
  11. Sean Spicer says that Trump is “committed to making sure that no one who currently is in the Medicaid program is affected in anyway, which is reflected in the Senate Bill and he’s pleased with that.” This makes me think Trump doesn’t know what’s in the bill.
  12. Trump slams Democrats for opposing the healthcare bills, but it’s his own party really holding this up since they have a majority. Republicans on the Hill know that they now own healthcare as a political issue.
  13. As soon as Dean Heller comes out against the healthcare bill, America First Policies (a group Mike Pence fundraised for), goes after him with an ad campaign. They did this so quickly, they must have been prepared for it. Heller’s seat is one of the least safe Republican seats in 2018, but even so, the campaign aims to punish Heller and to force his vote, an act of retaliation that is making senior Republicans nervous.
  14. California’s bill for single payer is shelved for now. Speaker Anthony Rendon says it needs to be fleshed out before they can pass it.

International:

  1. An armed attacker drove into police on the Champs Elysees, but was killed before he could do much damage. Less that 24 hours later, police foil a suicide bomber attack in a Brussels train station, with the attacker killing only himself.
  2. Saudi security forces disrupt a planned terrorist attack near the Grand Mosque in Mecca, and the suicide bomber ends up blowing himself up, killing only himself and injuring 11.
  3. Canada’s plan to deal with the new administration’s protectionist tendencies is to organize a network of American officials, lawmakers and businesses in order to cultivate relationships beyond the White House. Canadian officials have been speaking with mayors, governors, members of Congress, and business leaders, circumventing the White House.
  4. Talks between the U.S. and Asian countries left delegates more pessimistic than ever about issues with North Korea, with North Korea leaving no room for negotiation.
  5. Turkey bans teaching evolution in schools and police fire rubber bullets into an LGBTQ pride parade there. This is what a burgeoning authoritarian regime looks like.
  6. An oil tanker explodes in Pakistan, leaving at least 148 dead and 50 more in critical condition.
  7. Some Trump advisors push for regime change in Tehran, with war a possibility. Tillerson would like to work with Iran towards a ″peaceful transition of that government.″ Iran is not amused.
  8. Tillerson plans to remove Iraq and Myanmar from the list of worst offenders of the use of child soldiers, and refuses to add Afghanistan. This goes against recommendations of experts and senior diplomats, and indicates human rights is not a big concern.

Legislation:

  1. A draft of an executive order to address drug prices actually doesn’t reduce prices and even allows pharmaceutical companies to charge higher prices abroad and to stop selling to hospitals in need at discount prices.
  2. After the Missouri Senate passed the anti-abortion bill SB 5, the House amended it to be even more misogynistic. It now preempts a St. Louis ordinance that bans landlords from discriminating based on your method of birth control, whether you’re pregnant, or whether you’ve had an abortion.
  3. Trump signs into law a bipartisan bill to reform the VA system. The bill makes it easier to fire and discipline problem employees, and is a result of the problem with wait times for patients.
  4. As the Senate bill imposing harsher sanctions on Iran and Russia goes to the House, the White House lobbies the House to weaken the bill. The bill restricts the president’s ability to weaken Russia sanctions.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Trump has yet to comment on the act of terror committed in London by a white guy against Muslims leaving a mosque.
  2. Following the Philando Castile case, another officer, Dominique Heaggan-Brown, is found not guilty of first-degree reckless homicide. She was on trial for fatally shooting Sylville Smith during a foot chase.
  3. Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin (so far) join together in suing the state of Texas over the recently passed sanctuary cities bill, SB 4.
  4. A federal appeals court lifts an injunction on a Mississippi law that lets individuals and government employees discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community on religious grounds. The law is likely to remain blocked through the appeals process, though.
  5. California restricts state employees from taking business trips to Texas, Alabama, Kentucky, and South Dakota after those states pass bills that allow discrimination against LGBTQ (and other) parents in adoption and foster care cases or that allow school groups to ban LGBTQ members. Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee were already barred for similar reasons.
  6. The State Department restarts the Countering Violent Extremism program, but cancels funding for Life After Hate (whose purpose is to de-radicalize neo-Nazis and stop white extremism). Life After Hate has seen a 20-fold increase in requests for help since the election.

Climate/EPA:

  1. DOE Secretary Rick Perry says he doesn’t believe the primary driver in global warming is CO2 and implies that the oceans might have something to do with it instead. This is refuted by conclusions of the EPA, NASA, and NOAA, to name a few. However, it does match what the head of the EPA, Scott Pruitt, has said.
  2. Scott Pruitt says he won’t renew the contracts of 38 scientists currently on the Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC). He also plans to lay off 1,200 people from the EPA.
  3. Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, plans to cut at least 4,000 jobs in his department.
  4. India joins other members of BRICS (a group including Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) in nudging the U.S. back into the climate agreement and in asking developed countries to fulfill their commitments.
  5. The Trump administration removes the Yellowstone grizzly bear from the endangered species list. Depending on who you talk to, this is either a prime example of how well the endangered species program works or a dangerous step for grizzlies.
  6. OSHA rolls back some Obama-era protections for workers in the maritime and construction industries around exposure to beryllium, a potentially deadly mineral.

Budget/Economy:

  1. Economists say the only way to hit the 3% GDP growth projected in Trump’s budget is to increase the workforce. The only way to do that is to double the immigrant population.
  2. The Department of Labor won’t enforce the Fiduciary Rule created under Obama. This rule would make retirement plan managers provide unbiased investment advice instead of advice that would line their own pockets.
  3. The House Subcommittee on Health, Labor, Employment and Pensions discusses three anti-union bills.
  4. Boeing and Carrier, both companies that Trump previously negotiated with to keep jobs in the U.S., announce layoffs and additional moves to manufacturing abroad.
  5. Trump’s proposed budget would cut HUD programs to shelter the poor and fight homelessness, but the federal housing subsidy that pays him millions of dollars a year wouldn’t be affected.
  6. In a rally, Trump says he’s for the poor people, but that he doesn’t want any poor people in his cabinet. And poor people cheered.

Elections:

  1. Republican Karen Handel defeats Democrat Jon Ossoff in the Representative runoff in Georgia’s 6th (Tom Price’s seat). Republican Ralph Norman also defeats Democrat Archie Parnell in South Carolina’s 5th (Nick Mulvaney’s seat). These lead to much over-analysis and reading too much into it from both sides.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus reject an invitation to meet with Trump, saying they’re pessimistic after their last visit and don’t want to be a part of another photo op.
  2. A man stabs a police officer at the Flint, Michigan, airport while allegedly yelling “God is great!” in Arabic.
  3. Rumor is that Trump hopes to nominate Sam Clovis, a talk show radio host, as Chief Scientist at the Department of Agriculture (USDA). In fairness, Clovis does have a PhD in Public Administration, but he’s no scientist.
  4. Deep Root Analytics, a Republican data analytics firm, accidentally stores personal information on 198 million American voters out in the open on an unsecured server. The ID for each voter exposed enough data points to pull together an incredible amount of private information for each name.
  5. Trump holds his 5th political rally since taking office, this time in Iowa. He makes more misstatements than I can include here, but here are a few.
    • He promises to pass a law that would ban immigrants from getting welfare benefits until they’ve been here five years, which has been law since the 1990s.
    • He criticizes wind energy in a state that gets a third of its energy from wind.
    • He denounces the wars in the Mideast even though he just authorized additional forces to Afghanistan.
    • He calls the Paris agreement binding, though he called it non-binding in his Rose Garden speech a month ago. Hint: it’s non-binding.
    • He derides trade deals, though the Iowa economy partly relies on exports.
    • He says the U.S. is one of the highest taxed nations. We rank 31st in order of highest taxes paid in developed countries (or 4th lowest), and we’re well below the average for developed countries.
  6. Trump selects Jerry Falwell Jr. to head an education reform task force charged with reducing student protections mandated by the Department of Education, including certain Title IX rules on reporting and investigating sexual assault on campus.
  7. Trump appoints lobbyist Richard Hohlt to the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. Hohlt is a registered agent of Saudi Arabia, and was paid nearly a half million dollars to lobby on their behalf.
  8. Jane Sanders (Bernie’s wife) retains a lawyer to represent her in a fraud investigation around the loans she received for the Vermont college she was once president of.
  9. A judge sanctions Kris Kobach for deceptive conduct in a court case brought by the ACLU over voter rights. Kobach withheld subpoenaed documents containing proposed changes to the National Voter Registration Act, saying they weren’t relevant to the case. The judge determined that to be a lie. Kobach is Trump’s pick to head his voter fraud commission.
  10. Mike Pence officiates Steve Mnuchin’s wedding.
  11. The Koch network works to influence the Trump administration after first giving them the cold shoulder, starting with a meeting with Mike Pence. The Kochs announce plans to spend $300-$400 million in the next election cycle with the goals of influencing tax reforms, rolling back protections, and pushing for a more conservative healthcare bill.
  12. An AP analysis concludes that the most recent partisan gerrymandering efforts mostly benefitted the GOP. Redistricting has been so blatant that many states have spent years fighting over their district lines in courts.
  13. Matt Mika, a victim of the baseball practice shooting, is released from the hospital.

Polls:

  1. 81% of Americans don’t want Trump to interfere with Mueller.
  2. Trump’s approval rating in the CBS News Poll is at a new low of 36%, with a 57% disapproval rating.
  3. 18% of Americans support withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, while 70% are concerned that it will hurt the country’s standing in the world.
  4. 64% of Americans disapprove of the administration’s handling of global warming; 34% approve.
  5. Americans believe Comey more than Trump 2-to-1.
  6. 16% of Americans think the House healthcare plan is good; 48% say it’s bad.

Week 21 in Trump

Posted on June 19, 2017 in Politics, Trump

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

The big news this week was, of course, the shooting at the baseball field. Republican or Democrat, those were our elected representatives just out there doing their thing, and suddenly finding themselves sitting ducks at the hands of one lone shooter. Had Scalise not been there, I don’t even want to think about how much worse this could’ve been. It inspired Trump to give a unifying speech, and we saw the best of him and Melania that day.

Maybe we can all just try to be a little bit nicer, to stop believing BS conspiracy theories and propaganda, and to understand the other side better even if we still disagree.

Here’s a little inside look from Politico that gives me hope that things in D.C. aren’t as bad as they sometimes sound:

“Capitol Hill reporters were shaken up [by the shootings], as well. First of all, dozens of reporters work in the Capitol every day. And unlike the White House — which regularly dumps all over reporters and decries their work product as phony — lawmakers on the Hill are generally cordial with journalists in the Capitol and respect the job we do. We spend years covering lawmakers up close and oftentimes develop an easy rapport with people like Scalise — savvy pols who successfully make their way up the leadership ladder. Scalise shows up at off-the-record happy hours for reporters at the annual Republican retreat. His office, like others, throws cocktail receptions to get to become better acquainted with Capitol Hill reporters. That doesn’t mean the relationship isn’t adversarial at times — it most definitely is. It means building a personal relationship — getting to know each other as human beings — is important to both sides. We know Scalise, Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer as politicians, but most of us have had many occasions to talk to them on a personal level, as well.”

Russia:

  1. A district court judge orders Jeff Sessions to make his clearance form public. This is the form that should’ve listed his contacts with Russian officials.
  2. Rumors abound that Trump is considering firing special prosecutor Mueller. Trump’s representatives in the media start discrediting Mueller, even those who previously called Mueller a superb choice (which is most of them, but I’m looking at you, Newt Gingrich). They’re likely just testing the waters while giving Trump plausible deniability.
  3. The investigation into Russian hackers discovers that the hackers tapped 39 states in their hacking efforts. They breached campaign finance data and voter data, and they tried to change or delete information in at least one voter database.
  4. Jeff Sessions testifies in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee, but doesn’t reveal much except for that he has a pretty lousy memory. He defended himself heartily, refused to answer questions about conversations with Trump (citing a non-existent guideline), contradicted himself a few times, and used “I don’t recall” throughout most of the hearing.
  5. An American lobbyist for Russian entities contradicts Sessions’ testimony, saying that he himself attended two dinners with Sessions and Republican foreign policy officials.
  6. Some Democrats call for Sessions to step down, saying that his refusal to appear before the Judiciary Committee indicates that the Russia probe is preventing him from doing his job.
  7. Special Counsel Mueller interviews senior intelligence officials for more information about whether Trump attempted to obstruct justice. His group also starts looking into whether Trump associates committed any financial crimes. The focus of the Russia investigation has been mostly about Russia meddling in our elections; but since Comey’s firing, the focus seems to be expanding.
  8. So to recap, here’s what Mueller’s investigating: 1) Russia meddling in the election, 2) possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, 3) possible obstruction of justice by Trump, and 4) possible financial crimes around any of the above. The House committee might also investigate the obstruction question, but the Senate committee is leaving it to Mueller.
  9. Trump associates who are being investigated for financial and business dealings now include Jared Kushner as well as Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, and Carter Page.
  10. Trump acknowledges in a tweet that he’s under investigation in the Russia probe for firing Comey, and seemed to blame Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein for what he calls a “witch hunt.” Later in the week, one of Trump’s lawyers walks that back, saying Trump is NOT under investigation for obstruction. But that was after he complained that Trump WAS being investigated for firing Comey even though the DOJ had recommended it.
  11. Rosenstein faces pressure to recuse himself from the Russia investigation after the above tweet, and he acknowledges it could happen. This would definitely be unprecedented.
  12. Rosenstein urges caution about believing information coming from unnamed sources.
  13. Trump’s long-time personal attorney, Michael Cohen, retains a lawyer for himself.
  14. Alexis Navalny, Russia’s opposition leader, is arrested just before an anti-corruption protest and receives a 30-day sentence for illegally staging anti-government rallies. Tens of thousands of Russians join the protest across the country. Side note: Navalny will likely run against Putin in the next election.
  15. Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak hosts Washington insiders and diplomats to celebrate Russia Day. He seems to be trying to mend frayed relations between our countries, handing out pamphlets that talk about our close relationship, including this: “As an American, I love Russia because if not for Russia, there may not have been a United States of America.”
  16. Paul Manafort continues to try to lure business partners with promises of access to Trump.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Maryland and D.C. attorneys general sue Trump for his failure to divest sufficiently of his businesses, saying that it violates the emoluments clause.
  2. Almost 200 Democratic members of congress also sue Trump for violations of the emoluments clause.
  3. In a similar case in NY brought by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the DOJ argues that Trump can accept payments from foreign governments and also that CREW has no standing to sue.
  4. The Standing Rock Sioux get a small win in court when a federal judge rules that the Army Corps of Engineers didn’t perform an adequate environmental study. The judge didn’t rule that the pipe be shut down—that decision is pending another hearing—so it’s a mixed result for the tribe.
  5. Preet Bharara, fired NY attorney general, says his initial meetings with Trump were strikingly similar to the meetings described by Comey, and that they made him uncomfortable as well.
  6. Jeff Sessions wants to prosecute medical marijuana providers, and asks leaders in congress to remove federal protections for them.

Healthcare:

  1. Trump calls the House healthcare bill “mean.” The same healthcare bill that he lauded in a Rose Garden ceremony last month. The same healthcare bill that he pushed so hard for the House to pass. This slip will likely undo much of the goodwill between him and the representatives who put themselves on the line to get the bill passed.
  2. Six members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS resign, saying Trump doesn’t care about the issue. The government website on HIV was taken down after the inauguration and has yet to be replaced, and Trump hasn’t appointed anyone to lead the council.
  3. The Senate committee tasked with creating a Senate version of the ACA replacement bill continues to hold the contents of the bill in secrecy, though senators have said it includes about 80% of what the House bill does (yes, the same bill that would drop 23 million Americans from coverage and grant waivers to states so insurance companies don’t have to provide full coverage and so they can charge higher premiums to older people and people with pre-existing conditions).
  4. Even Senate Republicans are critical of the secrecy and lack of transparency in the healthcare bill process, and caution against rushing it to a vote.

International:

  1. After threatening to dump the entire agreement, Trump rolls back two of Obama’s changes to the Cuba policy, reinstating restrictions on travel and on doing business with military-owned companies there. It’s causing confusion and worry on the island, especially in light of the pre-election rhetoric. Even Republicans criticize this decision, though Marco Rubio was pushing for it.
  2. Theresa May apologizes to the U.K.’s members of parliament for the recent election mess.
  3. Trump gives the Pentagon authority to set the number of troops in Afghanistan. They now have this authority in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, and already plan to send 4,000 new troops to Afghanistan.
  4. Officials say the Turkish guards who attacked protestors outside the Turkish embassy in D.C. a few weeks ago will be charged with misdemeanors.
  5. On the heels of last week’s confusion over whether the U.S. approves or disapproves of four Mideast nations cutting off ties with Qatar, US authorizes the sale over $21 billion in US weapons to Qatar.
  6. Another van drives into a crowd of people in London. This time, it’s a man who says he wants to kill Muslims who drives into a group of Muslims as they were leaving a mosque after finishing prayers during their holy month of Ramadan. Ten are injured and one killed. A suspect is arrested and it’s being handled as a terrorist attack.
  7. The U.S. shoots down a Syrian bomber that dropped bombs on a Syrian militia that is helping us fight ISIS, a move Russia condemns as a “flagrant violation of international law.” Russia says they’ll treat our planes and drones as targets if they’re in the area again and is suspending an agreement that minimizes in-flight incidences in Syrian airspace.
  8. Russian forces claim to have killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but the U.S. hasn’t been able to confirm (it’s not the first time he’s been reported dead).
  9. Otto Warmbier, who was detained in North Korea for over a year for allegedly trying to steal a propaganda banner, returns home in a coma. He’s apparently been in that state for over a year. Late Update: Otto passed away this morning.
  10. A Navy warship collides with a Philippine container ship off the shore of Japan killing seven U.S. sailors.
  11. The Australian Prime Minister is caught on tape making fun of Trump, and later apologizes.

Legislation:

  1. With almost complete bipartisan support, the Senate approves a bill on new sanctions for Russia (over their election meddling) and Iran (over human rights violations and support of terrorists). In an indication that lawmakers are concerned about Trump’s relationship with Russia, the bill requires a congressional review to ease any current sanctions against Russia. The bill also penalizes the hackers who have been carrying out cyberattacks for the Russian government.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. In the second such loss, the ninth circuit court rules against Trump’s travel ban, refusing to lift the stay and calling the ban discriminatory.
  2. The 90-day period ending the travel ban would’ve ended this month had the ban been allowed.
  3. The Commerce Department updates its equal opportunity employment statement by removing gender identity and sexual orientation from the list of protected groups.
  4. Trump issues a memorandum to continue Obama-era programs to protect Dreamers from deportation and to continue providing them with work permits. He makes no promises about the long-term fate of the program though, and formally ends the process started by Obama to protect Dreamers’ parents.
  5. Texas Governor Greg Abbott signs HB 3859 into law, which allows child welfare groups, like adoption and foster care agencies, to deny qualified people who want to adopt a child or care for a child in need. Under this law, these agencies can discriminate against LGBTQ couples, interfaith couples, single parents, someone who was previously divorced… basically any reason they can come up with as a religious objection.
  6. In a series of raids, ICE detains dozens of Iraqi Christians who are now at risk of deportation to a country where they will likely be persecuted. The affected communities are angered because Trump promised to protect them from persecution in the Mideast.
  7. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights unanimously approves a two-year investigation into how budget and staffing levels affect civil rights offices and how they affect those offices’ ability to enforce civil rights laws. The bipartisan commission voiced concern that marginalized groups are at greater risk of discrimination. They’re also concerned about Betsy DeVos’s refusal to guarantee civil rights to minority groups in schools.
  8. A jury acquitted the police officer who killed Philando Castile last year, leading to large protests in St. Paul, MN. Castile told the officer he had a gun and a license for it, but the officer shot him anyway.
  9. U.S. Park Rangers find a noose hanging outside the National Gallery of Art in D.C., the third one found in recent weeks. The other two were at the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Hirshhorn Museum.

Climate/EPA:

  1. The Trump administration rescinded rules protecting whales and sea turtles that get caught up in fishing nets off the West Coast. Ironically, the fishing industry proposed the rules in the first place, and didn’t ask for them to be removed.
  2. Michigan’s attorney general charges five Michigan officials with involuntary manslaughter around the Flint water crisis. Over a dozen people have been charged in this investigation.
  3. The Department of Energy closed the Office of International Climate and Technology, which works on climate change abroad and helps provide technical advice to other nations on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
  4. Members from both sides of the aisle of the House Appropriations Committee told Scott Pruitt that Trump’s proposed cuts to the EPA would not be approved. Nearly every member opposed reductions to environmental programs and most agreed that climate change still needs to be addressed. Note: This is a bipartisan, Republican-led committee. And they think climate change needs to be addressed.

Budget/Economy:

  1. The Fed raises interest rates again, a sign that the economy continues to do well. Jobs and wages continue their steady growth, and the economy has grown for eight years straight.
  2. Trump signs an executive order promoting apprenticeships as a way for people to get the skills they need for the new economy. He wants to increase the number to more than 10 times what we have currently, but he’s not allocating much more money toward the effort than Obama did in 2016.
  3. The Department of Agriculture finalizes a China trade deal that has been in process since last year. It allows U.S. beef exports into China, promotes U.S. dairy in China, and allows us to import chickens from China.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Trump starts the week off with a meeting of his cabinet members who douse him in praise… until they start to realize that this is being recorded for posterity. It was a very weird moment. For comparison, here’s a tweet from Chris Lu: “I ran 16 Cabinet meetings during Obama’s 1st term. Our Cabinet was never told to sing Obama’s praises. He wanted candid advice not adulation.”
  2. Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) says the Trump administration is worse than the Obama administration at delivering on congressional requests for documents and information. And if you remember, that was a very big complaint about Obama.
  3. File this under “Why Wasn’t This Done Sooner?” Trump officially orders the government to stop reporting on the Y2K bug… which didn’t live up to it’s apocalyptic expectations 17 years ago. Though the reporting requirement wasn’t removed until now, in practice most offices were ignoring this requirement anyway.
  4. A court sentences Greg Gianforte to community service, anger management, and a small fine for assaulting a reporter the day before he was elected.
  5. Washington is extremely shaken this week after a lone gunman attacks Republican members of congress while they practice for a charity baseball game. The gunman is killed and five others are injured, including House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, who was shot in the hip and has been in critical condition, and lobbyist Matt Mika, who was shot in the chest and has also been in critical condition. Two staffers and a D.C. police officer were also injured. Interestingly, lawmakers had expressed concerns about safety the previous week. They’ve felt fairly safe in Washington until now.
  6. The shooting is followed by creepy email threats to Representatives. One of them read: “One down, 216 to go… You sold your soul.”
  7. The charity game goes on as planned, and draws a bigger crowd than ever.
  8. The shooting spurred a lot of reaching out across the aisle. When they heard of the shooting, Democrats practicing on a different field huddled in the dugout to pray for their colleagues on the other side. Members of Congress did media interviews with members of the other side. When they won the game, the Democrats gave the Republicans the trophy to put in Scalises’s room while he recovers.
  9. And then someone blames Bernie and someone blames Obama, and the back and forth starts up again.
  10. A congressional hearing on gun legislation is postponed in the wake of the above shooting. While the measure in question is primarily about recreational shooting, it would make it easier to buy silencers and to transport guns across state lines, and would also ease restrictions on armor-piercing bullets.
  11. On the same day as the ballpark shooting, a gunman opened fire in a UPS facility, killing three and then himself.
  12. Cindy McCain (John’s wife) accepts a position at the state department after being aggressively recruited by Trump. She’ll focus on stopping human trafficking, refugee issues, and humanitarian aid.
  13. The FDA announces that the “added sugar” requirements for nutritional labels are delayed indefinitely, the third such change to Obama’s labeling requirements. These are the changes championed by Michelle Obama, indicating that the effort to erase the Obama presidency doesn’t end with Barack but also extends to Michelle.
  14. Trump appoints Lynne Patton to lead the HUD department in New York and New Jersey. If you don’t recognize the name, it’s probably because she is an event planner for the Trump organization. She claims to have a law degree from Quinnipiac, but the school says she doesn’t.
  15. Trump blocks a slew of Twitter followers who regularly troll him and make him mad, including a veteran’s group.

Polls:

  1. 45% of Americans polled trust Comey to tell the truth compared to 32% who trust Trump.
  2. 50% of CEOs polled give Trump an F for his performance so far, and 21% give him a D. Just 1% give him an A. Over 65% disapprove of pulling out of the Paris agreement, 75% say his budget isn’t sound, and 86% are worried he’s minimizing the impact of Russian influence.
  3. Trump hits the 60% disapproval mark in the Gallup poll.

Week 20 in Trump

Posted on June 12, 2017 in Politics, Trump

Attribution: Getty Images

Sorry for the long post but a lot happened again this week—though the news was all about Comey, all the time.

“Lordy, I hope there are tapes.” The White House won’t confirm the existence of the tapes Trump tweeted about, but if they do exist we could get through this a lot faster.

Comey:

  1. The Great America Alliance PAC takes out an attack ad against Comey the day before he testifies. The White House tries to undermine Comey and the RNC mobilizes its base by issuing an email: “Talking Points and Digital Packet for Senate Intelligence Committee Hearing.” Tip: This is not a court of public opinion.
  2. Trump’s lawyers urge him not to tweet during Comey’s testimony, and Trump’s staff keeps him busy throughout most of the hearing.
  3. Comey testifies in front of a Senate committee (as if you didn’t know). Half of the committee asks about the Russia probe and alleged interference by Trump while the other half asks about Clinton’s email investigation. Main takeaways:
    • Trump wasn’t personally under investigation at the time of Comey’s firing, though the issue of collusion is being taken up by Special Prosecutor Mueller.
    • Trump asked Comey to take it easy on Flynn in a conversation where he asked everyone but Comey to leave the room. Mueller is looking into this.
    • The day after the above, Comey asked Sessions not to leave him alone with Trump, saying private interactions were inappropriate.
    • After Trump tweeted that he had tapes of their conversations, Comey leaked his own memo about the Flynn conversation in order to force the appointment of a special prosecutor. He has since provided copies of all his memoranda to Mueller. Note that this is not illegal but is also not consistent with FBI employment agreements.
    • Sessions never questioned why Trump kicked everyone but Comey out of the Oval Office for a private meeting.
    • Comey was so worried about misunderstandings and lies in his conversations with Trump, he made copious notes of all of them.
    • Comey suspected beforehand that Sessions would have to recuse himself and also didn’t seem to trust Sessions to keep sensitive information from the White House. The only way Comey would have known this beforehand is if Sessions’ name had come up in the investigation.
    • Comey believes Trump when he says he fired Comey because of the Russia investigation. Comey also accused the administration of defaming both him and the FBI as part of that firing.
    • Neither Sessions nor Rosenstein expressed dissatisfaction with Comey’s job performance prior to the letters they sent to Trump (at Trump’s request).
    • Russia interfered in our elections and will continue to do so.
    • There is still a lot of information Comey can’t talk about.
    • Comey said an article published last February in the NY Times was largely inaccurate, though the NY Times stands by their reporting and much of the substance of the story has already been shown to be true.
  4. Paul Ryan defends Trump’s actions with Comey, saying “he’s new to this.”
  5. Trump basically says Comey lied under oath and that he’d go under oath to dispute Comey’s testimony. But he also says that Comey vindicated him… so either Comey lied under oath or he cleared Trump.
  6. Trump calls Comey’s testimony “an excuse by the Democrats, who lost an election they shouldn’t have lost,” though Comey’s a lifelong Republican. And also Republicans control congress and the committees investigating Russia ties.
  7. In his rebuttal to Comey’s version of events, Trump’s lawyer gets the timeline wrong for what the NY Times reported and when they reported it in relation to the release of Comey’s memo.
  8. Both sides are claiming victory here, or as was heard over the weekend “Comey Poisons Trump: Trump Claims Victory.”
  9. Representative Al Green (D-Texas) begins writing articles of impeachment against Trump for his firing of Comey. #premature

Russia:

  1. A classified document shows that Russian military intelligence ran cyberattacks against voting system software vendors. They used the hacked data to send spear-phishing emails to over 100 local election officials before last year’s elections. They targeted multiple states and got into at least one voter database.
  2. The above information was leaked to The Intercept. The Feds arrest the suspected leaker, Reality Winner, confirming the existence of the document.
  3. It turns out that the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee, which recently issued subpoenas to learn more about the unmasking of names of U.S. citizens, had also themselves asked to unmask the names of organizations and individuals last year. Devin Nunes signed off on all subpoenas.
  4. Putin denies that he has compromising information on Trump.
  5. This was under International last week, but all things come around to Russia. After four nations—Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE, and Bahrain—cut ties with Qatar, the FBI joins the Qatar government in investigating the involvement of Russian hackers. They suspect the hackers planted a false story with Qatar’s state news agency, launching a Mideast crisis.
  6. Trump is smart to get private counsel from outside the White House. When Ken Starr was investigating Clinton, he got attorney/client privilege thrown out when it came to conversations with White House counsel, setting a precedent that could still be used.
  7. Intelligence Director Dan Coats corroborates Comey’s story that Trump requested that he lay off Flynn in the Russia probe. Officials corroborated that story in March. In testimony, though, both Coats and Rogers say they’ve never felt pressured to do something immoral, illegal, or inappropriate. They both refuse to discuss specifics of conversations between them and Trump, and refuse to answer questions directly.
  8. The Kremlin turns its attention to our military members and veterans by ratcheting up hacks, trolling, fake news, and propaganda directed at them. Russians set up fake Facebook accounts posing as attractive young women to friend service members and target the DoD on Twitter for phishing attacks.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Once again, the Supreme Court upholds a lower court ruling that threw out North Carolina state legislative district lines that discriminate against voters based on race. This is the latest in a string of rulings against NC’s highly gerrymandered districts. Literally, NC is the poster child for how not to run a democratic republic.
  2. Trump is frustrated with AG Sessions because Session’s recused himself from the Russia investigations and because Trump thinks that the DOJ should’ve stuck with the first travel ban, not the “watered down, politically correct” [though still unconstitutional] version. Sessions had apparently offered to step down at one point.
  3. The Justice Department considers major changes to the H-1B visa program, including forcing companies to advertise jobs online first and hire U.S. workers first, as well as reducing cap and duration of visas.
  4. Trump nominates Christopher Wray to FBI chief. The law firm where Wray works represents Rosneft, the Russian oil company at the center of the Russia probe.

Healthcare:

  1. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wants a Senate vote on the ACA replacement bill by the July 4 recess. He’s bypassing procedure and trying to schedule a vote without going through committee hearings. Props to Claire McCaskill for calling him out on this. For the ACA, there were committee hearings, amendments, and a public comment period.
  2. Senators don’t sound positive, and word is McConnell just wants this done. It’s possible he’ll bring up the vote whether it can pass or not, just so they can move on to tax reform.
  3. The healthcare committee starts sending the bill piecemeal to the CBO.
  4. McConnell seems optimistic he has the votes needed to pass a replacement, but the bill is still being modified to accommodate various factions, including moves to accommodate moderates that will likely alienate more conservative Republicans.
  5. Meanwhile, five states—California,New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Massachusetts—all have single payer legislation floating around.
  6. The Department of Health and Human Services signals a reversal of an Obama-era rule that prevented nursing homes from forcing tenants to sign an arbitration agreement as a requirement of being admitted.

International:

  1. As we learn of potential Russian hacking in the Qatar/Saudi issue, Trump takes credit for causing the situation, calling it “hard but necessary” (and apparently forgetting they’re a strong ally). He says the nations spoke to him about it before they cut ties, and that he and Tillerson agreed it was time to end funding to Qatar. Just before Trump said that, though, Tillerson asked the four nations involved to ease their blockade because it’s causing humanitarian problems for Qatar and logistics issues on our military base there. Trump later offers to help mediate the conflict.
  2. Trump doubles down on his criticism of London’s mayor after being called out for taking the mayor’s words out of context, tweeting: “Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his ‘no reason to be alarmed’ statement.” Londoners love Khan. This would be like Tony Blair calling Rudy Giuliani pathetic after 9/11.
  3. Mayor Khan suggests that the U.K. should cancel Trump’s state visit.
  4. Trump puts his visit to England on hold amid worries of protests.
  5. A man attacks a police officer with a hammer at Notre Dame. It’s being looked at as a terror attack.
  6. The death toll in the Kabul bombing from the previous week rises to over 150.
  7. Terrorist attacks in the parliament building and Ayatollah’s mausoleum in Iran kill at least 12 and wound dozens. ISIS claims responsibility, though Iran points the finger at Saudi Arabia and the U.S. The White House sends a message of support, but then closes out by blaming Iran for sponsoring terrorism.
  8. It turns out no real deal-making happened on Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia. According to the Brookings Institution, there are no deals or contracts, just letters of interest or intent. The Senate hasn’t received anything to review, and so far all the deals began during the Obama administration.
  9. Theresa May’s Tory party suffered a setback in a snap election, losing their parliamentary majority while the Labour party gained several seats. She called a snap election three years early to bolster her negotiating power with the EU over Brexit, but now it looks like her position is weakened and she’ll have to form a coalition.
  10. Unlike May’s party, French President Macron’s party is about to win a very large majority of parliamentary seats. Round one of votes was this week; candidates who didn’t win outright go on to round two next week.
  11. US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces break into Raqa, an ISIS stronghold in Syria.
  12. The U.S. provides military air assistance to Philippine troops fighting off a Muslim militant siege in Malawi.
  13. The U.S. launches an airstrike in Somalia, killing 8 in an action that was only possible because Trump changed the designation of that part of Somalia to a war zone.
  14. The Senate confirms former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown as Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, who credits former opponent Elizabeth Warren with moving his nomination through Senate.
  15. Romanian President Ioannis contradicts Trump in a joint press conference. When asked about including Romania in our Visa Waiver Program (VWP), Trump says they didn’t talk about it, but Ioannis says they did and that it’s very important to Romanians.

Legislation:

  1. After nearly half a year, the only notable legislative achievements of the administration are rollbacks to existing legislation and regulations.
  2. Congress looks at Trump’s push to privatize air traffic control through a non-profit company, which has bipartisan support and has already been done in several European countries with success. However, this has been around before and not passed Congress.
  3. It’s looking possible that Congress might raise the debt ceiling and continue funding Planned Parenthood without repealing the ACA, reforming taxes, or passing an infrastructure bill.
  4. Senators from both parties push for a vote on harsher sanctions against Russia, making it harder to rollback any current sanctions.
  5. The House votes along partisan lines to roll back parts of Dodd Frank, passing a bill named the Financial Choice Act. They’re calling it a jobs bill, but it really gives banks more freedom to pull the same risky crap that led to the financial crisis. The Senate has a bipartisan effort going to rewrite the regulations as well.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Kellyanne Conway’s husband sends out a series of tweets critical of Trump’s tweets about the travel ban, saying it only hurts his chances of winning the lawsuit.
  2. This isn’t really new news, but it’s in the news this week. School kids often quote Trump to bully classmates, with many reported incidents of white students bullying Latino, Middle Eastern, Asian, black, or Jewish classmates using the same rhetoric as Trump. How do you convince kids that even though the president of the United States does it, it’s not OK?
  3. Anti-Sharia marches around the country are met with counter-protestors of similar sizes. We need better education on what Sharia is and isn’t.
  4. It’s Pride month, but annual parades around the country morph into a mixture of pride and resistance, as hundreds of thousands of marchers show up not to just support LGBTQ rights, but also to resist Trump’s agenda.

Climate/EPA:

  1. While discussing our withdrawal from the Paris agreement, Scott Pruitt, the EPA administrator, says, ”I think the rest of the world applauded what we did in Paris.” First, this is the EPA. And also, no, much of the world chastised us out loud.
  2. The second highest ranking U.S. diplomat at the Beijing embassy resigns in the wake of the Paris agreement withdrawal, refusing to officially notify the Chinese of our withdrawal. He was a 27-year diplomat and was acting ambassador until the new ambassador arrives. The acting ambassador to England and the ambassador to Qatar have also publicly broken with Trump.
  3. California Governor Jerry Brown takes a leadership role by meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping to discuss climate change, highlighting how Trump’s ‘America first’ policy is sidelining him on the world stage.
  4. The United States Climate Alliance expands to include 13 states representing about 35% of our economy. Ten additional governors and the mayor of D.C. express support for the Paris agreement, but have not yet joined the coalition.
  5. I don’t know whether this falls under climate or travel ban, but Trump floats the idea of putting solar panels on the wall to pay for it, since Mexico for some reason still says they won’t.
  6. Hawaii becomes the first state to enact legislation supporting the Paris agreement. Under the new law, Hawaii will measure the sea level rise and set a strategy to reduce greenhouse gases.
  7. Democratic Senators question Betsy DeVos on whether the DOE was behind the recent mailings sent out by the Heartland Institute to 300,000 science teachers about how to teach that climate change is not manmade. Interesting Fact: Heartland Institute tried to convince us smoking doesn’t have adverse health effects.
  8. A federal court gives the EPA until June 15 to justify why they should be able to pause regulations limiting methane emissions while they do a review.

Budget/Economy:

  1. Trump’s infrastructure briefing includes no written plan, not even bullet points.
  2. Scott Pruitt implies that almost 50,000 jobs have been created in coal since Trump took office. The actual number is 1,000; the rest are in mining in general.
  3. Kansas legislators override Governor Brownback’s veto of their tax reform bill. Kansas has been undergoing a failed experiment since 2012, working under the theory that low taxes would result in a thriving economy. But it’s done the opposite and Kansas is in a world of hurt. Even still, the state congress barely pulled enough votes together to override his veto.
  4. In the aftermath of the vote, Kris Kobach launches his run for governor on an anti-immigration platform. Kobach’s the author of the strident and much-litigated voting laws in Kansas, leading many to accuse him of voter suppression. Kobach also serves on Trump’s voter fraud committee.
  5. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin takes his first foreign trip, meeting with Canadian officials on trade, economy, and national security issues.
  6. Trump withdraws Obama-era guidance on how employees are classified; a win for business, a loss for workers being misclassified as independent contractors (which are cheaper for business than actual employees). He also withdraws guidance that made parent companies liable for labor violations by their franchises.
  7. The U.S. and Mexico avert a trade crisis by coming to an agreement over Mexican sugar exports.
  8. The DOJ ends the practice of forcing companies to make payouts to affected groups when settling law suits. For example, when cases against banks for predatory lending practices were settled, the banks had to pay reparations to affected homeowners. No more.
  9. Trump proposes charging retailers a fee for accepting food stamps, a move that will largely affect small grocers but will also generate over $2 billion over the next decade.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Frustrated by Trump’s order to only comply with information requests from Republican congressional leaders, Democratic congressional leaders consider posting all questions publicly. DHS Secretary Kelly says his department will respond to all congressional requests, regardless of who they come from.
  2. Trump blames Democrats for holding up his ambassadorship nominations, even though there aren’t enough Democrats in the Senate to block them. It turns out that while he’s tapped several nominees, he hasn’t officially submitted them to the Senate even though he selected some as far back as April.
  3. Four law firms have turned down requests to represent Trump in the Russia probe amid concerns he wouldn’t listen or wouldn’t pay.
  4. Sean Spicer says we should consider Trump’s tweets to be official statements.
  5. It appears that, while Eric Trump’s foundation started out doing good work, at some point Donald Trump decided the foundation should be billed for everything for events held at a Trump golf course. So Eric ended up funneling charity dollars back into the Trump business. This is under investigation.
  6. Newly elected Montana Congressman Greg Gianforte published an apology to the Guardian reporter he assaulted, saying his actions were unacceptable. He also donated $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists. He still faces legal charges, but there won’t be a civil suit.
  7. Trump headlines the luncheon kick-off event of the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s 2017 Road to Majority gathering in D.C.
  8. For all you Trey Gowdy fans, he’s the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee where he’ll lead oversight of the Trump administration.
  9. Melania and Barron Trump move into the White House.
  10. The Michigan Democratic Party agrees to pay a $500,000 fine for misreporting contributions raised by bingo fundraisers prior to 2014. It’s the largest fine paid for breaking campaign finance laws.
  11. Trump’s approval rating drops to near lows of 36% in the Gallup Poll and to 34% in the Quinnipiac poll.

Week 19 in Trump

Posted on June 5, 2017 in Politics, Trump, Uncategorized

The big news of the week is our withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. At an Asian security forum in Singapore, James Mattis gave a speech reiterating our support for national alliances and institutions in an effort to reassure our allies. When asked whether moves like leaving the Paris accord meant the U.S. is abandoning these alliances and institutions, here was his response (referring to a Winston Churchill quote on democracy):

“To quote a British observer of us from some years back, bear with us. Once we have exhausted all possible alternatives, the Americans will do the right thing…. So, we will still be there, and we will be there with you.”

In other words, once we’re done fucking around, we’ll start doing the right thing again.

Russia:

  1. The Russia investigation expands to include Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who is refusing to cooperate with investigations, former adviser and White House aide Boris Epshteyn, and campaign aide Michael Caputo.
  2. The Kushner investigation includes looking into why Kushner met with Sergey Gorkov, a Russian banker and associate of Putin’s. This is part of finding out why he was setting up a confidential line of communication.
  3. Trump makes moves to reopen two Russian compounds in the U.S. that Obama had closed when he expelled 50 Russian spies last fall. Trump wants to return the compounds to Russia.
  4. Putin changes his tune somewhat and says it’s possible that “patriotically minded” Russians might have been involved in last year’s email and DNC server hack, as well as in meddling in the elections. He still denies that the Russian government was involved, and adds that it could’ve been some kid sitting in their living room.
  5. The house intelligence committee issues seven new subpoenas in the Russia investigation, indicating they are ramping things up. Three of these are about the unmasking, however…
  6. …In an apparent misunderstanding of the word “recuse,” Devon Nunes, the Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee who “recused” himself from the Russia investigation two months ago, issues subpoenas looking for info not about Russian ties or meddling, but about the unmasking of Trump associates caught up in foreign surveillance.
  7. Almost immediately after taking office, Trump officials asked the State Department to work on lifting sanctions with Russia and returning diplomatic compounds in the U.S. to them. State Department officials were so concerned by this they began lobbying Congress to pass legislation to block it.
  8. Special Counsel Mueller’s Russia probe is expanding to include the investigation into Michael Flynn and a criminal investigation into Paul Manafort, and it could be expanded to include the DoJ’s involvement in the Comey firing.
  9. According to Mark Warner, Democrat ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, there are reports that the Kremlin paid over a thousand internet trolls to create fake anti-Clinton news stories and to use botnets to target the stories to key states. He reconfirms the hacking and selective leaks.
  10. The Russia investigations hamper Trump’s ability to fill government jobs. There are hundreds of open positions, but candidates are nervous about coming on to this administration and the people who are doing the hiring are distracted by the probe. They’ve only nominated 117 out of 559 major Senate-confirmed positions.
  11. NBC and CNN report that, according to several U.S. officials, the Russia investigations include a meeting in April of last year at the Mayflower Hotel between Trump, Sessions, Kushner and Kislyak.

Courts/Justice:

  1. A federal judge in D.C. throws out a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton brought by the parents of one of the people who lost their lives in Benghazi. The lawsuit alleges that Clinton’s use of a private email server directly resulted in the deaths, and that Clinton had called the parents liars. The judge ruled against both of these, and said about the latter, “To the contrary, the statements [made by Clinton] portray plaintiffs as normal parents, grieving over the tragic loss of their loved ones.” The parents are expected to appeal.

Healthcare:

  1. Senator John Thune says that their caucus is done with preliminary meetings and is now drafting the base language for their replacement plan for the ACA.
  2. John Cornyn promises there will be a bill by the end of July at the latest.
  3. Governors from both sides are relieved that the House healthcare bill is stalled, and voice concerns about the Senate version, specifically around block grants. Senate Republicans want to solicit governor input for their version of the bill.
  4. Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.) says it’s not likely that they’ll get a healthcare deal at all, and Senator Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) says he doubts they can pass a healthcare bill before the August recess.
  5. The California Senate passes a statewide single-payer healthcare bill, which now moves on to the Assembly for approval. Funding is only partially worked out, so it’ll be up to the Assembly to plan that before approving.
  6. Trump says we should spend more on healthcare to make our system the best, but his budget cuts anywhere from $800 billion to $1.4 trillion from Medicaid and doesn’t request any additional healthcare spending.

International:

  1. A car bomb went off during rush hour in Kabul, killing an estimated 90 people and injuring over 400. This happened in what should be a highly secure area near the embassies.
  2. Concerns about security arise on news that Trump hands out his cell phone number to world leaders and tells them they can call him directly. On an unsecured line. Without the meeting preparation needed to hold an informed discussion.
  3. French President Macron took some hard lines with Putin in their meeting this week, and called him out on Russian interference in the French election (if you remember, there was a last minute document leak after the media blackout). While Macron took a firm stance with Putin, Trump has been taking a softer stance with Putin.
  4. A gunman attempts to rob a Manila resort and casino, leaving 37 dead. This was not a terrorist attack, but a lone gunman, though Trump calls it a terrorist attack in his Paris agreement speech.
  5. Trump announces that the U.S. Embassy in Israel will remain in Tel Aviv for now instead of relocating to Jerusalem.
  6. A group of three assailants drive a van into pedestrians on London Bridge, and then jump out and begin stabbing people, leaving at least seven dead and 48 injured. Police kill all three assailants and neutralize the threat within eight minutes. Later police arrest 12 in connection with the terrorist attacks. This attack comes a week before the elections and is the third recent attack (though the attacks are said to be not connected).
  7. Trump and other world leaders express condolences and support to England, but then Trump criticizes London’s mayor in a tweet, taking his words out of context. He also tries to use this as support for his travel ban.
  8. Putin says that if Sweden becomes a part of NATO, Russia will consider it a threat and will think about how to eliminate that threat.
  9. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain cut diplomatic ties with Qatar for sponsoring terrorist groups, specifically the Muslim Brotherhood. This could make things a little harder for the U.S. in the war against ISIS since our military operations are spread throughout the region.
  10. H.R. McMaster and Gary Cohn pen an op-ed where they claim Trump expressed support for NATO’s article 5, though he never said that in his speech.

Legislation:

  1. Trump calls for changes to senatorial proceedings to allow things like healthcare and tax reform to pass with a simple majority instead of the currently required 60 votes. Senate Republicans are using reconciliation to pass these through, which doesn’t require 60 votes.
  2. The California Senate passes a bill that would require presidential candidates to release their tax returns in order to be allowed on the primary ballot. The bill moves to the Assembly.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The tourism industry estimates that international tourism will drop by an additional 800,000 in Southern California over the next three years. International tourism in Southern California dropped 16% from the first quarter of 2016.
  2. The Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to allow the travel ban to go ahead, filing a petition to overturn the appeals courts rulings blocking the ban.
  3. The administration calls for tougher visa vetting, including social media checks.
  4. A federal court rules that a 17-year-old transgender student can use the men’s bathroom. Earlier in the year, the administration overturned the bathroom rule that allowed students to use the bathroom corresponding to the gender they identify with. This ruling is consistent with the previous administration’s stance that Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination allows students to use the bathroom consistent with their self-identity.

Climate/EPA:

  1. Trump indicates he’s planning to pull out of the Paris agreement, but tries to keep us all in suspense like on a reality TV show. When he does announce the withdrawal, his speech is peppered with much misinformation. Critics say it weakens efforts to combat climate change and weakens our global standing. Proponents say it will save us money and now the world can’t tell us what to do… except this whole thing was our idea.
  2. Trump opts for the withdrawal process laid out in the agreement, which could take nearly four years.
  3. In his statement on the withdrawal, Trump issues a few untruths:
    • He called the attack at the Manila casino a terrorist attack, though it turned out to be a robbery gone very bad.
    • He said the tax bill is progressing through Congress, though there is no tax bill.
    • He uses incorrect statistics about slowing the increase in global temperature with numbers from a draft done before the deal was even signed. The actual reduction was expected to be between 0.6 and 1.1 °C.
    • He says that India could double their coal production, which is technically true. However that also means we could do what we want to since the accord is nonbinding. Also, both India and China are on track to exceed their promises to the agreement.
    • He says we’ll ″begin negotiations to reenter either the Paris Accord or a really entirely new transaction on terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers.″ Uh, Europe says no thanks– not renegotiable. According to Christiana Figueres, a former UN official who worked on the deal, “You cannot renegotiate individually. It’s a multilateral agreement. No one country can unilaterally change the conditions.”
    • Figueres also says Trump shows a lack of understanding of how international agreements work. Apparently we can’t even submit our intention to exit the accord until November 2019, and then the process would take a year.
    • Trump says the agreement puts draconian burdens on the U.S. and that we’ll have massive legal liability if we stay in. But an agreement can’t really be both nonbinding and impose draconian burdens, and a nonbinding agreement can’t have legal implications. The point of the agreement is to use public accountability.
    • He says China and India are the two largest emitters. Actually, China and the U.S. are, but no one tops the U.S. in per capita emissions; China’s are about half ours per capita.
    • There are more misstatements–I can’t get into them all here. Here are a few links: factcheck.org, politifact, WaPo.
  4. Days before Trump announces his decision on the Paris agreement, Russia expresses support for the agreement.
  5. Kimberly Guilfoyle, a Fox News correspondent, says Trump called her the morning of the decision for advice.
  6. Tesla’s Elon Musk and Disney’s Bob Iger leave Trump’s advisory council due to the exit from the climate deal. The CEOs of 25 leading tech companies signed a letter against the withdrawal. Even Exxon Mobile thinks we should keep our seat at that table.
  7. Major companies say the accord would’ve helped create jobs in clean energy fields.
  8. Three states, 80 universities, more than 200 mayors, and more than 100 businesses vow to remain in the Paris agreement and to adopt and uphold the commitments to our original goals by working together to create a clean energy economy.
  9. More Americans say the U.S. should stay in the Paris agreement by a ratio of more than 5 to 1.
  10. Michael Bloomberg says he’ll cover the cost of the U.S. portion of the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change to the tune of about $15 million.
  11. In response to our withdrawal from the agreement, Macron expresses his says his country still supports the American people and our efforts against climate change. He invites scientists to his country if their research is cut here, inviting brain drain from the U.S.
  12. The 2017 hurricane season starts with no one at the helms of FEMA and NOAA. Trump nominated someone to head FEMA a month ago, but is waiting on confirmation. He hasn’t appointed anyone to head NOAA.
  13. A California court rules against Monsanto and says California can label RoundUp weed killer with cancer warnings.
  14. The California state Senate passes a bill guiding the state to get its energy from 100% renewable sources by 2045. The bill moves on to the Assembly.
  15. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke starts a review process on opening the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling. The review should take a month and will include input from locals. The results of opening ANWR are unpredictable, with the high cost of exploration and drilling in the difficult terrain and the low cost of oil with the current glut.
  16. The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) goes live.

Budget/Economy/Trade:

  1. The unemployment rate continues its steady decline to 4.3% last month even though job growth continues to slow, likely because we’re near full employment.
  2. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says he’s open to completing a trade agreement with the EU, called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
  3. It appears that the relationship between corporate American and Trump is cooling off, with fewer CEOs and other executives meeting in the White House and future meetings falling apart. Many business titans criticize the decision to leave the Paris accord saying it will hurt us economically and take us out of a leadership role.

Miscellaneous:

  1. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention this: Trump tweets ″Despite the negative press covfefe…″ Social media hilarity ensues.
  2. The directors of the CIA and National Intelligence worry that because of the casual nature of security briefings, Trump doesn’t retain all the intelligence he gets. Briefings are very visually driven (charts, graphs, pictures) as opposed to data-driven.
  3. Continuing to make violence more acceptable, a Texas legislator threatens to ″put a bullet″ in the head of a colleague after a disagreement over an illegal immigrant rally.
  4. For the first time, a U.S. test of the ground-based system for intercepting ballistic missiles completes successfully.
  5. The White House finally makes public the ethics waivers granted so far to staffers, some of whom were lobbyists and some whose current position overlaps with work they did in the private sector. The waivers exempt them from certain ethics rules. Waivers were granted to Kellyanne Conway, Reince Priebus, and Steve Bannon. The number of waivers granted by the administration so far is equal to the total number granted by Obama’s administration over 8 years.
  6. Bannon’s waiver allows him to maintain his relationship with Breitbart.
  7. The White House is complying with Senator Burr’s request for all copies of the 2014 report on torture. This report is the result of a years-long investigation and it details CIA methods for detention and interrogation, including water boarding and sleep deprivation. Burr’s request has lead some to believe that Congress wants this information to disappear.
  8. The Secret Service is short agents, and in an effort to bulk up their ranks, they’re relaxing their drug policies for new hires. Agents have been working double-duty to keep up with the president’s far-flung, jet-set family.
  9. This is news to me, but not new this week: Richard and Rebekah Mercer pushed for these positions in the Trump campaign: Steve Bannon as CEO, Kellyanne Conway as Manager, and David Bossie as Deputy Manager. This led even William Kristol to dub it the ″merger of the Trump campaign with the kooky right.” Among other things, Mercer is the multi-million dollar investor in Cambridge Analytica, a firm used by both the Trump and Brexit campaigns to pinpoint and target demographics using ″secret psychological methods.″
  10. Jared Kushner gets in own intelligence briefing every morning before Trump gets his.
  11. The White House has been ignoring oversight requests from Democratic legislators, but this week they make it official by telling federal agencies to ignore the requests.
  12. This isn’t newsworthy for any reason other than the hypocrisy of Trump’s (and the right’s) criticism of Obama. Trump goes golfing for the 23rd times in his 19 weeks in office.
  13. Mike Dubke, Trump’s communication director, resigns after just under three months in the job.
  14. Kellyanne Conway’s husband, George T. Conway III, withdraws from consideration to lead the Civil Division of the DoJ.
  15. Tom MacArthur resigns as chair of the Tuesday Group caucus, a group of moderate Republicans in the House, amid his work on the healthcare bill (the waiver amendment).
  16. Polls show that 43% of Americans want Congress to start impeachment proceedings… even though they don’t think Trump is guilty of an impeachable offense? Weird.

Week 18 in Trump

Posted on May 30, 2017 in Politics, Trump

With Trump off on his whirlwind trip abroad, I figured it would be all international news this week. But the chaos and drama at home seem to be never-ending. Here’s what happened last week.

Russia:

  1. The director of national intelligence (Daniel Coats) and the director of the NSA (Adm. Michael Rogers) testify before the House Intelligence Committee. We learn that in March, Trump asked both to deny publicly that there is evidence of collusion between his campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.
  2. The Senate Intelligence Committee announces additional subpoenas to require Michael Flynn to turn over documents. He could be held in contempt of Congress if he refuses.
  3. Joe Lieberman withdraws from consideration for the position of FBI director after Trump retains Marc Kasowitz to represent him on Russia issues. Lieberman cites conflict of interest, since he is currently senior counsel at Kasowitz’s law firm.
  4. Former CIA director John Brennan testifies before the House Intelligence Committee, saying he saw intelligence that showed contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia, and that he is convinced that Russia aggressively tried to interfere in the election.
  5. Brennan says that the CIA intelligence found that Russians discussed how to influence Trump advisors but whether they actually tried to influence either is still being investigated
  6. There are currently at least five probes related to Russia, from ties with Trump campaign staff and associates to James Comey’s firing.
  7. Fox News retracts a story about DNC staffer Seth Rich where they implied that he was the leaker to Wikileaks and that his death was related to the DNC. Sean Hannity refuses to let it go completely, despite all players saying there’s no evidence of either the contact with Wikileaks or the murder being anything other than a robbery gone bad.
  8. Jeff Sessions says he was advised not to disclose his meetings with foreign leaders as a senator on his security clearance application, including meetings with Russian officials. It seems this is standard for legislators, since they meet with many officials, but still… you’d think he’d have thought this one through a little better.
  9. The new person of interest this week in the Russia investigation is Jared Kushner. The Russian ambassador told Moscow that Kushner wanted a back door communication channel to the Kremlin.
  10. The Wall Street Journal publishes a report about Aaron Nevins, a Florida-based Republican who was provided hacked DNC information from Guccifer 2.0 and shared that information with others in the GOP. The info was used by Paul Ryan’s campaign and PAC, among others.
  11. According to Comey, he knew a piece of evidence he was working on in relation to Clinton’s email investigation was false and planted by Russian intelligence. There was a document indicating Loretta Lynch told the Clinton campaign not to worry about the emails–no charges would be brought. This led to Comey overriding Lynch last year when he made the public announcement that the investigation was over.

Courts/Justice:

  1. It’s been a bad couple of weeks for the North Caroline GOP. On May 15, the Supreme Court struck down a voter law designed to depress black voter turnout ″with almost surgical precision.″ The following week, a court also ruled against new maps of congressional districts that were also designed to limit the black vote. The message here is that states need to stop gerrymandering.

Healthcare:

  1. The CBO releases it’s analysis of the healthcare bill passed by the house. Main takeaways:
    • Premiums would vary significantly according to health.
    • People with pre-existing conditions would likely not be able to afford premiums over time.
    • Around 1/6 of Americans live in states that would request waivers, and those markets will be less likely to be stable.
    • Premiums would likely be lower for healthy people.
    • It would likely reduce the deficit by around $120 billion.
    • The 10-year outlook estimates that 23 million more people will be uninsured.
  2. Mitch McConnell says he doesn’t know how he can get to 50 votes. My advice? Come up with a plan that works for all Americans.
  3. Senate Republicans, who are working on their own version of repeal and replace, consider pushing back the repeal of Obamacare to 2020. Hmmm. Election year. Coincidence?

International:

  1. A suicide bomber detonates a bomb at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester England, killing 22 and injuring 58 more. This leads investigators to a network of suspected terrorists and at least 13 people are arrested in connection with the bombing.
  2. And the above continues the ongoing leak saga… apparently the name of the bomber along with crime scene photos were leaked to U.S. news agencies who later published the information.
  3. The Philippines government releases a transcript of Trump’s call with Duterte from last month in which Trump praised Duterte for doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem.” Of note, Duterte started a drug war that sanctioned killing suspects in the streets with no trial. Over 7,000 people have been killed.
  4. In the same tape, Trump mentions “two nuclear submarines” off the coast of North Korea. This info isn’t technically classified, but the Pentagon typically doesn’t talk about nuclear sub locations.
  5. Wilbur Ross expresses surprise that there weren’t any protests against Trump in Saudi Arabia. Protesting isn’t allowed in Saudi Arabia.
  6. Trump continues his trip abroad, meeting with Netanyahu in Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and Pope Francis. Then on to the NATO and G7 summits.
  7. The warmth evident in Trump’s visits with Mid Eastern leaders sits in stark contrast to the icy chill around the summits with our traditional allies.
  8. In the NATO summit, Trump scolds nations not living up to the 2% guideline of military spending to GDP, refuses to reconfirm the ″all for one, one for all″ alliance (specifically the collective defense clause), and criticizes Germany for our trade deficit with them.
  9. At the G7 summit, Trump refuses to commit one way or the other on the Paris agreement, but acquiesces on trade and protectionism.
  10. After the European meetings, Angela Merkel suggests that Europe and U.S. relationship is at a point where they can’t fully rely on each other anymore. While emphasizing maintaining friendly relationships with the U.S., England, and Russia, she also says Europe basically needs to do its own thing.
  11. The Pentagon apologizes to all affected in a botched airstrike on Mosul in March in which over 100 civilians were killed.
  12. Trump calls Korean leader Kim Jung Un a madman with nukes just days before he says he’d be honored to meet with Kim.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rules against the Muslim ban 10-3, saying that taken in context, the executive order “drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination.”
  2. The State Department lifts the restriction on the number of refugees allowed to enter the U.S. Currently around 800 refugees enter each week; it’s estimated that will rise to over 1,500 per month.
  3. Though Tillerson made a statement about Ramadan, he’s breaking with two decades of tradition and declining to host a commemorative event this year.
  4. A white supremacist harangues two teenage girls for being Muslim (only one is, and she was wearing a hijab). Three heroes step in to defend them–two pay for it with their lives and the other with serious injuries. Prosecutors are trying to figure out if they can try this as a hate crime.
  5. In international discrimination, militants opened fire on a bus of Christians, killing at least 26 and wounding 25. This is the fourth attack on Christians in Egypt since December.
  6. And some good news in international discrimination, Tawain’s highest court rules against their marriage law saying that defining marriage as between a man and a women violates equal rights.
  7. Nevada and Connecticut ban conversion therapy for minors, which has been proven not to work. Duh.

Climate/EPA:

  1. A group of 22 Republican senators urge Trump to leave the Paris agreement. They say it will get in the way of legally gutting the Clean Power Plan.
  2. The G7 summit declaration for 2017 includes the following text:
    “The United States of America is in the process of reviewing its policies on climate change and on the Paris Agreement and thus is not in a position to join the consensus on these topics,” the leaders wrote. “Understanding this process, the Heads of State and of Government of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom and the Presidents of the European Council and of the European Commission reaffirm their strong commitment to swiftly implement the Paris Agreement, as previously stated at the Ise-Shima Summit.”

Budget/Economy:

  1. Trump’s budget released this week doesn’t account for the loss in revenue from tax cuts, leading some to say there is a $2 trillion basic math error.
  2. The budget estimates 3% economic growth, something economists are skeptical about.
  3. The new budget would lead to cuts to social security, MediCare, Medicaid, healthcare services, veterans’ benefits, food stamps, NIH, the State Department, CDC, food safety and inspections, education, transportation, agriculture assistance, international funding, the Justice Department, and more. Take a look at the NY Times breakdown for a deeper dive.
  4. The largest cuts (percentage-wise) are to the EPA, State Department, and USDA (including crop insurance, conservation programs, and rural development programs).
  5. In opposition to promises made, this budget cuts Medicare and social security; doesn’t include funding for the wall or police training; doesn’t increase funding for PTSD treatment; and doesn’t defund sanctuary cities;
  6. Carrier announces they’re sending 600 jobs to Mexico and the huge monetary investment they made in their U.S. plant is going into automation, not new jobs.
  7. And in the ″I’m taking this personally″ category, the budget gets rid of federal spending for the earthquake early warning system.
  8. Trump says Germany should stop selling so many cars in the U.S. Even though most of those sold here are made in the U.S.

Elections:

  1. The day Greg Gianforte is charged with misdemeanor assault, Montana elects him in a special election for the House seat left empty by Ryan Zinke’s move to the cabinet. He allegedly knocked over and began punching a reporter who interrupted a meeting with two Fox News reporters.

Miscellaneous:

  1. The OGE rejects a White House request to stop the agency from looking into waivers granted to Trump administration officials that were hired from corporations and lobbying firms. Note that waivers are granted under most administrations, but the OGE has always looked into them. The Obama administration made their waivers public.
  2. It appears that the Trump administration is adopting the Russian strategy of feeding false information. According to NY Times reporters, they have received misinformation from people in the administration on several occasions, but the lies were caught during the news vetting process.
  3. A conservative group of Congress urge Trump to fire NIH director Dr. Francis Collins saying he’s not pro-life enough. They object to stem cell research and using human embryos in research.
  4. John Boehner says Trump is still learning how to be president. Other than getting the House to pass a healthcare bill, he says everything else has been a disaster. (Though I would argue getting Gorsuch confirmed was also a success.)
  5. According to the Wall Street Journal, the administration might get a legal team to review Trump’s tweets to avoid political and legal trouble, especially in light of the special counsel. His tweets have gotten him in trouble in the past, most recently around Comey’s firing and most notably when he accused Obama of wiretapping him.
  6. Chris Christie advises Jared Kushner that the president should lawyer up and keep his mouth shut.
  7. Graduating students at Notre Dame walked out on their graduation in protest of Mike Pence giving the commencement address.
  8. 65% of voters say there’s a lot of fake news in mainstream media. My advice? Stick with reputable news agencies. Here’s a site I find helpful: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com. Click around the categories in the black bar, but mostly avoid the questionable sources!

Stupid Things Politicians Say:

  1. Robert Mulvaney, budget director: “If you’re on food stamps and you’re able-bodied, we need you to go to work. If you’re on disability insurance and you’re not supposed to be — if you’re not truly disabled, we need you to go back to work.” In reality, around half of those relying on SNAP have at least one person in the family working (numbers vary), and an estimated 82% work within a year of receiving SNAP. The budget director should have these numbers.

Week 17 in Trump

Posted on May 22, 2017 in Politics, Trump, Uncategorized

I wasn’t following the news so closely last week, so I might have missed a few things. Here’s what I got–at least the week started off with a bang!

Russia:

  1. Sources say that in Trump’s meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak last week, he described information related to ISIS threats around laptops in airplanes, highly classified information that jeopardizes an intelligence source. The  arrangement with the source is sensitive, and it’s restricted from our allies and within our government. Trump’s revelation endangers future cooperation. In other words, we’ve shared more info with Russia than with our own allies.
  2. McMaster and others state that Trump didn’t disclose anything that wasn’t public to the Russians. Trump’s subsequent tweets indicate that he did.
  3. Some foreign officials suggest they’ll stop sharing secrets with the U.S.
  4. The source of the information Trump disclosed turns out to be based in Israel.
  5. Putin offers to give us a copy of their transcripts of the meeting to prove that classified material wasn’t discussed.
  6. Trump indicates that he records all his conversations, so Congress requests those recordings, especially after his disclosure during his meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak.
  7. Memos written by Comey after his meetings with Trump indicate that Trump had asked him to lay off the Flynn investigation.
  8. The Justice Department names a special counsel, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, to oversee the probe into Russia’s meddling in the election.
  9. During the last seven months of last year’s elections, Trump campaign advisors, including Michael Flynn, had contact with Russian officials and Kremlin ties at least 18 times.
  10. We learn that Flynn had informed the Trump campaign weeks before he was made security advisor that Flynn was under investigation for secretly working as a paid lobbyist for Turkey.
  11. Trump tweets his anger about the appointment of a special prosecutor.
    • “With all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton campaign & Obama Administration, there was never a special councel appointed!”
    • “This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!”
  12. In an interview, Trump says, “I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”
  13. A recording of a discussion between Republican representatives is publicized in which Kevin McCarthy jokes that Trump is being paid by Putin, and Paul Ryan says they should never talk about it.
  14. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), chair of the House Oversight Committee, requests all “memoranda, notes, summaries and recordings” of Trump and Comey’s communications.
  15. Investigators into Russia coordination with the Trump campaign says a current senior White House advisor is a person of interest and is under scrutiny.
  16. White House lawyers begin preparing for an impeachment defense. Note that this is not an admission of wrongdoing; they just want to be ready.
  17. After Rod Rosenstein briefed the Senate on the current state of the Russia investigation, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says that the Russia probe looks more like a criminal investigation than a counter-intelligence investigation.

Courts/Justice:

  1. The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to reverse a lower court’s decision that North Carolina’s voter restriction laws are racially discriminatory. The court didn’t rule on the law itself, but rather refused to reinstate the law on a technicality. Either way, that means voter rights are safe for now. This case was North Carolina’s last-ditch attempt to save the Voter Identification Verification Act, which a previous judge said was blatantly discriminatory and was designed to disenfranchise Black voters with “almost surgical precision.”

Healthcare:

  1. Senate Republicans plan to vote on their version of the healthcare bill by August, with no public debate.
  2. Health insurance companies issue warnings about the uncertainties in the market and say that the administration is threatening to withhold payments to insurance companies unless they back the healthcare reform bill. Insurers are also planning dramatic increases in premiums because of the inconsistent guidance they are receiving. This uncertainty comes just as some markets are stabilizing, according to insurers and state regulators.
  3. The Trump administration cut U.S. aid by about $8.8 billion to international healthcare providers that support abortion rights.

International:

  1. NATO is working on ways to keep their upcoming meeting interesting and simple enough to hold Trump’s attention.
  2. North Korea tests another type of ballistic missile. With this successful test they claim they can reach U.S. bases in the Pacific.
  3. Trump hosts Turkish President Erdogan at the White House.
  4. Erdogan’s security forces and supporters violently attack protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence, while Erdogan watched from the driveway.
  5. The U.S. State Department accuses Syria of killing thousands of prisoners and burning their bodies at a crematorium. Syria denies this.
  6. Trump names Callista Gingrich, Newt’s third wife, as the ambassador to the Vatican.
  7. The US launches airstrikes against pro-Assad forces in southern Syria.
  8. Moderate Iranian President Hassan Rouhani wins his second term in a landslide victory, which comes as a relief to most of the West because his conservative opponent campaigned against the Iran nuclear deal and for closing Iran’s economy off from the world again.
  9. After interacting with Trump and his aides, foreign officials and consultants have come up with meeting guidelines.
    • Keep it short — no 30-minute monologue for a 30-second attention span.
    • Do not assume he knows the history of the country or its major points of contention.
    • Compliment him on his Electoral College victory.
    • Contrast him favorably with President Barack Obama.
    • Do not get hung up on whatever was said during the campaign.
    • Stay in regular touch.
    • Do not go in with a shopping list but bring some sort of deal he can call a victory. (NYT)
  10. UAE and Saudi Arabia pledge $100 million to Ivanka’s charity, even though during the campaign last year, Trump criticized the Clinton Foundation for accepting money from countries that “want women as slaves and to kill gays.”
  11. In his speech to Saudi Arabian officials, Trump claims to have achieved record spending on military, though his budget has not been passed through Congress.
  12. In a reversal of his previous rhetoric on Islam, Trump calls Islam on the of the world’s great faiths in the same speech. A sample of previous statements on Islam:
    • “I think Islam hates us.”
    • He called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims” to the U.S.
    • “There’s a sickness. They’re sick people.”

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The 9th circuit court of appeals again hears Trump’s Muslim ban case.

Budget/Economy:

  1. Trump announces his plan to renegotiate NAFTA. There’s a 90-day period during which Congress and the administration will confer on the plan, and negotiations with Canada and Mexico can begin August 16 of this year.
  2. In trying to balance the budget, Senate Republicans look at cutting over $400 billion in benefits, including Medicaid, food stamps, welfare, and veterans’ benefits. The way they’re planning on implementing the changes avoids a Democratic filibuster.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Trump doesn’t believe in exercising. He thinks our bodies have a finite amount of energy and that exercising too much depletes it.
  2. Mitch McConnell calls for less drama from the White House.
  3. James Clapper thinks that our institutions are under assault from the Trump administration and urges other branches of the government to step up their checks and balances.
  4. Sheriff David Clarke, who is slated to become assistant secretary in the Department of Homeland Security, is accused of plagiarizing his masters thesis, which he denies. Naval Postgraduate School is reviewing it. You might remember Clarke as the guy who once said Black Lives Matter might team up with ISIS.
  5. The family of DNC staffer Seth Rich, who was murdered last year, sends a cease and desist order to Rod Wheeler, a Fox News contributor, after Wheeler alleged that Rich was responsible for leaking DNC emails to Wikileaks. Wheeler also alleged that the murder was related to the leaks despite no evidence of this.
  6. Trump provides North Carolina with less than 1% of the emergency funds they requested for the massive cleanup effort after hurricane Matthew.
  7. Mitch McConnell recommends Merrick Garland to replace Comey as FBI director; Garland would rather stay a judge. <opinion alert> How can he possibly think well enough of Garland to recommend him for this position, but not respect him enough to even give him a hearing for his appointment to the Supreme Court? Blatant partisanship, Mitch.
  8. Misreported from last week: The news media indicated that there was only one photographer in Trump’s meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak. There was actually one Russian and one U.S. photographer allowed.
  9. Under-reported from last week: Trump met with Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin on the same day that he met with Lavrov and Kislyak; a meeting in which Klimkin expressed appreciation for U.S. support of the Ukraine and protection against Russian aggression.
  10. Roger Ailes, former media consultant to Republican presidents and formerly of Fox News, dies.

Week 16 in Trump

Posted on May 15, 2017 in Politics, Trump

Attribution: Getty Images

Last week, the news was absolutely dominated by the firing of FBI director James Comey. So much so that I added a new section just for that. But what should’ve been the big news of the week wasn’t political; it was a world-wide hack of an estimated 200,000 computers by the WannaCry virus. The virus controls files on a computer and the hacker asks for a ransom to give you back control. So here’s a friendly reminder to be careful when clicking links and to do frequent backups of your computer (so if anyone does hold your files for ransom, you can say pffft, I have copies anyway). This is more likely to hit PCs than Macs, but these are good practices for both.

James Comey:

  1. Trump abruptly fires James Comey. The termination letter indicates that the decision is based on recommendations from AG Sessions (supposedly recused from anything Russia related) and Deputy AG Rosenstein.
  2. The White House gives mixed timelines for how long Trump has been considering this, starting anywhere from the day he was elected to a few months to a few weeks to just this week. The firing comes less than a week after Comey’s testimony to a Senate committee.
  3. Despite praising Comey for months, Trump suddenly says he’s not doing a good job.
  4. Comey is the third person investigating the Trump administration that Trump has fired (the other two are acting AG Sally Yates and NY U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara).
  5. White House spokespersons scramble to get the right story out. Sean Spicer literally hides in the bushes for several minutes before finally coming out to speak with reporters.
  6. Sarah Huckabee Sanders says that FBI agents, along with Trump and AG Sessions, had lost confidence in the director (later contradicted by Andy McCabe’s testimony).
  7. Early talking points put Rosenstein’s recommendation front and center as the reason for firing Comey. He pushes back against that and asks the White House to correct the record. He put together a memo at the request of the president, who was looking for a reason to release Comey.
  8. White House sources say that Trump made the decision after watching the Sunday talk shows over the weekend. He told some of his aides that there is something wrong with Comey.
  9. The reasons given for firing Comedy start to unravel. I don’t even know how to put this all in order, so here’s a deep dive from WaPo if you’re interested.
  10. By Friday, in an interview with Lester Holt, Trump calls Comey a “showboat” and “grandstander,” and says that he would’ve fired Comey regardless of the DoJ’ opinion.
  11. In the same interview, Trump says he was thinking about the Russia probe when he decided to fire Comey. “In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.’” This undercut the denials from the White House that Comey’s firing had anything to do with the Russia investigation.
  12. Comey learns he was fired while speaking to a group of FBI employees in California when he sees his image on the TV behind the group of employees. At first he thinks it’s a joke. But nope, he really just got fired on live TV. It appears the termination letter was delivered to the FBI offices in Washington AFTER the news broke on TV.
  13. Days before he was terminated, Comey reportedly met with Rosenstein to ask for additional resources for the Russia investigation. Andy McCabe later said he didn’t know about this.
  14. AG Sessions will be instrumental in hiring a replacement for Comey, which would put him right back in the center of the Russian investigation he is supposed to be recused from.
  15. FBI agents fear that the firing will disrupt the Russia investigation.
  16. FBI morale plummets with many agents angry over Comey’s firing, throwing shade on Trump’s allegations that morale was at a low under Comey.
  17. Trump plans a visit to FBI offices but later cancels when he learns he wouldn’t receive a warm reception there after firing a reportedly popular director.
  18. We learn that Comey had apparently refused to give Trump aides a preview of the testimony he was planning to give to a Senate Judiciary Committee prior to his firing.
  19. Comey’s scheduled testimony in the Senate is canceled, and acting director Andy McCabe testifies in his place. Congress invites Comey to testify next week behind closed doors and he says no thanks, I’d rather testify publicly.
  20. Even Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) is scratching his head over this. He asked the inspector general to add Comey’s firing to the Russia investigation.
  21. Trump suggests in a tweet that there he might have tapes of his conversations with Comey and warns him against “leaking to the press.” Comey says he isn’t worried about what might be on any tapes, if there are any.
  22. Reportedly, Trump had asked Comey to pledge his loyalty to Trump more than once and Comey refused.

 

Russia:

  1. Sally Yates testifies to a Senate Judiciary committee. Here are the main takeaways:
    • Michael Flynn was at risk for being compromised by Russian blackmail.
    • There is overwhelming evidence that Russia meddled to help Trump into office.
    • She indicated that there is evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians (by saying she was unable to answer the question without divulging classified info).
  1. The partisanship of the committee is on display, with Republicans focusing on Yates’ refusal to support the travel ban and Democrats focusing on Flynn and Russia.
  2. After Yates’ testimony, Spicer downplays her warnings and accused her of having an agenda against Trump.
  3. In James Clapper’s testimony, he says he hasn’t seen evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia. Trump jumped on that as vindication, saying Clapper said there is no evidence. Not the same thing.
  4. During his testimony, Comey overstates the amount of email Huma Abedin forwarded to her husband’s server. He also mistakenly says the emails were marked as classified.
  5. The day after he fires Comey, Trump hosts Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Survey Kislyak (Kislyak was the target of last year’s intelligence surveillance). The White House allows only a Russian photographer into the Oval Office and bars U.S. media. The White House is surprised to learn that the photographer, who they thought was Lavrov’s official photographer, also works for the Russian news agency Tass. They claim they were “tricked” when the photographs show up in Russian propaganda and social media.
  6. Henry Kissinger also pays a surprise visit to the White House.
  7. Even after Comey’s firing, Mitch McConnell continues to reject calls for an independent investigation, saying it will impede the current investigations.
  8. Federal prosecutors issue grand jury subpoenas to associates of Michael Flynn, according to CNN. Note: Only CBS has confirmed this story so far.
  9. The Senate Intelligence Committee subpoenas Michael Flynn to obtain documents surrounding interactions with Russians.
  10. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) agrees to share financial information with Senate investigators regarding Russia ties. FinCEN tackles money laundering, and will provide financial records related to Trump or to his associates.
  11. Trump hires a law firm to send a certified letter to Lindsay Graham saying he doesn’t have monetary dealings with Russia (excepting a Miss Universe contest and a real estate deal). The law firm, Morgan and Lewis, won the Russia Law Firm of the Year award in 2016.
  12. Andy McCabe testifies to the Senate committee. The main takeaways from his testimony are:
    • Comey had not lost the support of FBI agents; he is respected and morale was high until his termination.
    • He knows of no attempts by the White House to impede the Russia investigation.
    • The Russia investigation will go on regardless of the change in leadership at the FBI.
    • This investigation is a very large part of what the FBI is working on now.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Attorney General Jeff Sessions reverses Eric Holder’s sentencing policies on low-level drug crimes, and presses federal prosecutors to charge people with the most serious offense they can and to push for the harshest sentencing (for federal offenses only).
  2. The reversal reverts back to the ‘tough on crime’ policies of the 90s that (opinion alert) gave us harsher sentences, overcrowded prisons, and a generation of mostly minority men who were aggressively pursued and prosecuted. These are the policies that were highly criticized during the 2016 election.
  3. The reversal also contradicts bipartisan agreement in Washington and the states that we put too many people behind bars for too long for mild offenses, and that our large prison population is too costly to both communities and the affected families. As a Senator, Sessions backed legislation creating harsh penalties for marijuana offenses, and he stalled bipartisan sentencing reform.
  4. The DoJ won’t say whether AG Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia investigation, will recuse himself from the selection process for Comey’s replacement.
  5. A Senate subcommittee, led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), is looking into breaking up or restructuring the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Though Trump’s threat to break up the court makes this look suspicious, they’re looking at this because the population represented by this court is outsized.

Healthcare:

  1. Nothing new on healthcare this week aside from some raucous townhalls where GOP Representatives were forced to defend their votes. But I have to give kudos to Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ), even though he authored the state waiver amendment that saved the replacement for the ACA. He listened to his constituents argue with, yell at, and boo him for FIVE hours–mostly about healthcare and Russia. Regardless of whether you agree with his politics, that takes some steel balls.

International:

  1. Senior military and foreign policy advisers propose a new Afghanistan strategy that would add more than 3,000 new troops on top of the existing 5,400, stepping up the war with the Taliban again.
  2. Trump approves a plan to arm Syrian Kurds against ISIS. This could put U.S./Turkey relations on ice, and Erdogan does, in fact, register his disapproval later in the week.
  3. Jared Kushner’s family business brings up ethics questions when his sister encourages Chinese investors to invest at least $500,000 in a real estate deal in return for receiving visas through the EB-5 program. This is completely lawful, but bad optics.
  4. North Korea launches yet another missile test that lands near Russia. No wonder Putin’s starting to get a little edgy about North Korea.
  5. Chinese President Xi Jinping holds an infrastructure summit with 29 other heads of state from Asia, Europe, the Mid East, and Africa. China proposes a multibillion dollar plan to boost transportation and power plants throughout the participating countries, increasing their global trade and potentially pushing China past the U.S. as a global power.

Legislation:

  1. Texas Governor Abbott signs SB 4, a racial-profiling law that allows local police offers to ask anyone for proof of citizenship, similar to Arizona’s controversial laws. Some local police departments voice concern that this will further strain relationships with immigrant communities. Some say nothing will change.
  2. Trump signs an executive order creating a commission on voter fraud, specifically Trump’s allegations of massive voter fraud, and to investigate vulnerabilities in our voting systems. To sweeten the deal for Democrats, they’ll also investigate voter suppression. Mike Pence and Kris Kobach head the commission. Kobach instituted the much litigated voter ID laws in Kansas, which studies have shown reduced voter turnout.
  3. Trump signs an executive order on cyber security that builds on Obama’s previous efforts to improve security over government networks. Cyber experts and industry groups praise the order.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. A reporter queries Spicer about Trump’s use of the phrase “Muslim ban” in the campaign, specifically about the page on the campaign website titled “DONALD J. TRUMP STATEMENT ON PREVENTING MUSLIM IMMIGRATION.” Minutes later, that page is gone.
  2. The revised travel ban goes before the 4th circuit court, with hearings in the 9th circuit court scheduled for next week. At issue is whether the ban was intended to discriminate against Muslims.
  3. The Texas legislature proposes a bill similar to the one Alabama signed into law last week that would allow adoption agencies to reject adoptive parents on religious grounds. This opens the door for discrimination against gay couples, couples of multiple faiths, and single parents.
  4. The Supreme Court reverses an Alabama court that ruled Alabama doesn’t have to honor adoptions from other states (specifically, the case was about a lesbian adoption, of course). The Supreme Court ruled that gay adoptions are no exception to the law that all states must honor other states’ agreements.
  5. The Virginia Supreme Court upholds a ruling that crimes against members of the LGBTQ community don’t qualify as hate crimes.

Climate/EPA:

  1. Trump names Ivanka to lead a group to review our policies on climate change, and meetings to start discussions are set for this week. He’s still considering pulling out of the Paris Agreement.
  2. White House advisors postpone the above meetings.
  3. The Senate rejects a Congressional Resolution passed by the House that would repeal limits on methane emissions from oil and gas drilling. This is the first resolution to repeal an Obama-era regulation that has been rejected.
  4. Secretary of State Tillerson signs the Fairbanks Declaration, acknowledging the threat of climate change to the Arctic and also stating that we need to do something about it. Again, at the same time Trump is considering leaving the Paris Agreement.
  5. Two expert EPA advisors resign to protest last week’s firing of members of a science committee, saying “We cannot in good conscience be complicit in our co-chairs’ removal, or in the watering down of credible science, engineering, and methodological rigor that is at the heart of that decision.”
  6. The Department of the Interior suspends over 200 advisory panels pending review.

Budget/Economy:

  1. The administration won’t finish its review of Dodd-Frank within the 120-day deadline. Instead, it’ll get reviewed piece-meal, with information being reported as each piece is completed.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Trump threatens to end White House press briefings because it’s to hard to speak accurately. In other words, being honest is hard.
  2. Reince Priebus warned White House staffers against trying to secretly hand news info to Trump. Apparently a staffer gave Trump a climate change article that turned out to be a hoax. Luckily, someone caught it before Trump could tweet about it. Sometimes aides slip him information to boost their agenda, and sometimes they do it as a game.
  3. Fun fact: Trump has been sued 134 times since his inauguration on a variety of issues. Several of the suits stemmed from the travel ban, and some are frivolous. But this number is 3 times that of the past 3 presidents combined for the first months of their terms.
  4. A new study finds that Wisconsin’s new voter ID requirements suppressed up to 200,000 votes in last year’s election. Trump won Wisconsin by 22,748 votes. Caveat: This study was conducted by the progressive group Priorities USA so the numbers are probably high, but the problem of voter suppression was confirmed in several other studies to a lesser extent.
  5. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) requests info from the Senate Intelligence Committee about whether the Obama administration or the intelligence community surveilled any of members of Congress.
  6. Betsy DeVos gets booed while giving a commencement address at Bethune-Cookman University.

Polls:

  1. The latest Quinnipiac poll shows Trump’s approval dropped back down to 36%. Additional results from the poll include:
    • His disapproval rating is at an all-time high of 58%
    • The percentage of Americans who strongly approve of him is tied for an all-time low at 25 percent.
    • The percentage who strongly disapprove has reached an all-time high of 51 percent.
    • For the first time the numbers are turning in his base. The number of white people without college degrees who approve dropped from 57% to 47%
  1. According to an NBC poll, 48% of Americans say the latest healthcare legislation to pass the House is a bad thing compared to 23% who say it’s good.

Things Politicians Say:

  1. When asked by Time magazine if he feels his administration has been too combative, Trump says, “It could be my fault. I don’t want to necessarily blame, but there’s a great meanness out there that I’m surprised at.” Sorry dude, but if you can’t take it, don’t dish it out in the first place.
  2. Trump calls the Navy’s new electromagnetic catapult to launch planes off aircraft carriers “no good” and says they need to go back to “goddamned steam.” This catches Navy leaders off-guard as the new digital system, though imperfect, has many benefits over the older steam systems. But it’s all part of modernizing and making our military great again.
  3. And I’ll leave you with this, from Rep. Roger Marshall (R-KS): “Just like Jesus said, ‘The poor will always be with us.’ There is a group of people that just don’t want health care and aren’t going to take care of themselves. Just, like, homeless people … I think just morally, spiritually, socially, [some people] just don’t want health care. The Medicaid population, which is [on] a free credit card, as a group, do probably the least preventive medicine and taking care of themselves and eating healthy and exercising. And I’m not judging, I’m just saying socially that’s where they are. So there’s a group of people that even with unlimited access to health care are only going to use the emergency room when their arm is chopped off or when their pneumonia is so bad they get brought [into] the ER.”