Tag: ambassador

Week 129 in Trump

Posted on July 17, 2019 in Politics, Trump

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

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

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

Missing From Last Week:

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

Russia:

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

Legal Fallout:

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

Courts/Justice:

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

Healthcare:

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

International:

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

Legislation/Congress:

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

Family Separation:

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

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

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

Climate:

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

Budget/Economy:

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

Elections:

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

Miscellaneous:

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

And that was all before 8 AM.

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

Week 78 in Trump

Posted on July 23, 2018 in Politics, Trump

At least one of these guys looks happy.

Confused about all the Russia kerfuffle and whether Trump believes our intelligence agencies over Putin? John Hartzell’s tweet pretty much sums up the cleanup process after the joint press conference:

“Today, Trump lied, lied about lying, changed his mind, lied about changing his mind, changed his mind about lying, blamed someone else for something he did, lied about blaming someone else, took a breath, and lied.”

Even though intelligence agencies presented Trump with proof of Russian interference from the start, he has always muddied the waters to make sure that people continue to question the findings of our own intelligence agencies. It’s the reason he can never come up with a clear and cogent response to questions about it.

Russia:

There’s so much Russia news this week that I have to break it out into sub-sections. So here goes.

Trump/Putin Summit:

  1. Trump and Putin hold a two-hour summit, followed by a controversial press conference that sets off a worldwide firestorm. I’ll just start by saying that Russian officials call the summit and press conference major success for Putin, while Trump receives massive criticism back at home.
  2. What did they discuss at the summit? Trump says war and peace, Syria, Ukraine, and Israel (Putin loves Bibi, apparently). But no one really knows for sure.
  3. There was no one in attendance in the Trump/Putin summit except translators, so we have no official record of what happened. There was no joint statement so we don’t know what they agreed on.
  4. Here are some press conference highlights of what Trump says (remember this is just days after the indictment of 12 Russian intelligence agents for hacking the DNC and after Dan Coates told us that there are warning signs of more hacking):
    • When asked about Russian interference in the 2016 elections, Trump refuses to support our own intelligence agencies, and instead says Putin’s denials were forceful and credible.
    • He denies collusion and calls the Russia investigation a disaster for the U.S. Even though the Russia investigation has spawned state investigations and resulted in 32 indictments, 5 guilty pleas, and over 100 charges.
    • Trump suggests that our intelligence agencies (specifically Dan Coates) are not credible and are conspiring against him. Even though Coates told him that Russia was behind the hacking of the DNC servers, Trump doesn’t see any reason why Russia would do that and it could be anybody else.
    • Trump blames the U.S. for our current relationship with Russia, calling the U.S. foolish (and ignoring Russia’s attacks on Georgia, Crimea, and Ukraine; their actions in Syria; the poisonings in England; and the downing of the Malaysian passenger jet). Trump sees the U.S. and Russia as morally equivalent.
    • Trump brings up his electoral win, claiming incorrectly that it’s harder for a Republican to win the electoral college than a Democrat. In reality, Democrats need an extra margin of about 11% of the popular vote.
    • He brings up Hillary’s emails again, along with a debunked conspiracy theory about a Pakistani DNC staffer who was arrested. He adds that Russia would never let this happen in their country.
    • Trump calls Putin a good competitor, not an adversary… just after he called the EU one of our biggest foes.
    • He is impressed by Putin’s offer to have Mueller share his evidence on the 12 indicted Russian officials if we allow Russia to interrogate U.S. officials. This would give Russia a view into how our intelligence agencies work and what their capabilities are.
    • Trump also considers handing over Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, and Bill Browder for questioning. Putin has long wanted Bill Browder, who exposed the corruption in the Russian government that led to the Magnitsky Act. Side note: Browder is no longer a U.S. citizen, so we can’t really hand him over anyway.
  1. Here‘s some of what Putin says:
    • Russia has never interfered in a U.S. election and they never will.
    • Putin supports Trump in his assertion that there was no collusion.
    • Putin says he knows nothing about any kompromat, claiming he didn’t even know Trump was in town during the Miss Universe pageant. Uh-huh. Even though he cancelled a meeting with Trump during that time.
  1. Later, in an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, Putin says that our efforts to isolate Russia have failed.
  2. Putin also says he misspoke when he said that Clinton received $400 million from associates of Bill Browder and that it was $400,000 (the actual number is closer to $18,000).
  3. A member of Russia’s parliament says that Russian intelligence stole the 2016 presidential election right out from under the noses of U.S. intelligence.
  4. In a follow-up interview with Sean Hannity, Trump reiterates that Putin says there’s no collusion and that Putin is very, very strong on that. Trump also says Mueller’s Russia investigation is a “phony, witch hunt deal” and that Putin thinks it’s a shame.

Press Conference Fallout:

  1. Reaction is swift, harsh, and bipartisan. Politicians from both sides reiterate that Russia isn’t our friend, there‘s no doubt that Russia interfered in our 2016 elections, and the interference campaign was organized by the Russian government.
  2. Even Fox News is highly critical, with the exception of Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson.
  3. GOP critics use these words to describe the conference: tragic, disgraceful, bizarre, flat-out wrong, shameful, a propaganda win for Putin, and a missed opportunity to hold Russia accountable. Critics on the left call Trump’s response dangerous and weak.
  4. So Trump and the White House attempt some backpedaling… and then forward pedaling… and then backpedaling again:
    • Trump says he misspoke when he said he couldn’t see why Russia WOULD interfere, and says he meant to say WOULDN’T.
    • He accepts intelligence assessments that Russia interfered in our 2016 elections, but then adds that it could also be other people.
    • The next day Trump responds “no” to questions of whether Russia is still interfering, contradicting all of our intelligence agencies and the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee.
    • The White House tries to clarify by saying that Trump was saying “no” to answering any more questions, not “no” to whether Russia is still meddling. This could actually be true; it’s hard to tell.
    • Trump says he was very strong when admonishing Putin that he can’t interfere in our elections.
    • On Monday, Trump thinks Putin made an incredible offer to collaborate on investigations. On Wednesday, Trump says he’ll meet with his advisors to discuss handing over Browder, McFaul, and other government agents to Russia for questioning. And then on Thursday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Trump disagrees with the offer.
    • Trump says he believes Putin when he says he didn’t interfere, but then he says Putin must have known about the interference because he’s in charge of the country.
  1. Even Paul Ryan, who just the week before said we shouldn’t criticize Trump while he’s overseas (in reference to his NATO meetings), criticizes Trump’s words. Mitch McConnell reiterates that Russia is not our friend.
  2. European officials call Trump weak and say he can’t be counted on, though some NATO members do try to smooth things over.
  3. Democrats demand that Republican leaders (like they’re in a position to demand anything):
    • Strengthen sanctions against Russia
    • Force the security team that went to Helsinki with Trump to testify before Congress so we can learn about what was agreed
    • End their attacks on our intelligence agencies and Mueller
    • Extradite the 12 indicted Russian hackers.
  1. McConnell and Ryan consider additional Russia sanctions.
  2. The Russian Ambassador to the U.S. says the summit produced important verbal agreements. Russian officials and the Russian press start talking about all the agreements that were made, yet the American people have no idea what those are.
  3. The Russian Ministry of Defense says that they’re ready to implement all the summit agreements around global security.
  4. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says the summit was fabulous, “better than super.”
  5. In contrast, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo refuses to talk to the press about it.
  6. House Intelligence Committee Democrats request a subpoena for the American interpreter, who was the only other American in the room at the meeting between Trump and Putin. The GOP leadership rejects that request.
  7. The whole thing incites protests in Washington, DC, including at the White House. These have been ongoing for a week now.
  8. Weeks before Trump’s inauguration, intelligence agencies presented him with proof that Putin personally directed the 2016 election interference. This proof included emails and texts from Russian military officers. Sources say Trump was “grudgingly” convinced.
  9. While Dan Coates is being interviewed by Andrea Mitchell, he finds out by tweet that Trump is inviting Putin to the White House in the fall. He appears to laugh at Trump at this point.
  10. At the same forum, Kirstjen Nielsen refuses to say she agrees with our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia, specifically Putin, was behind the election interference. She’s the Secretary of HOMELAND SECURITY. Come on!
  11. Trump tries to blame Obama for Russian interference. Obama probably could’ve done more but in reality he was blocked by Mitch McConnell.
    • McConnell received the same intelligence briefing, so he knew what was going on leading up to the 2016 elections.
    • When Obama asked him to sign on to a bipartisan public statement about it, McConnell refused.
    • McConnell told Obama not to release the information and that he [McConnell] would consider any efforts to publicly challenge Russia “an act of partisan politics.”
    • Well played, Mitch; well played.

Other Russia News:

  1. The head of the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command says he’s directed both agencies to coordinate to fight any future interference in our elections by foreign powers. But they’re on their own; he hasn’t received any White House guidance on this.
  2. Federal agents arrest Maria Butina, a gun rights advocate who is charged with being an unregistered foreign agent (aka “spy”). She allegedly infiltrated the NRA and cozied up to GOP politicians to influence U.S. politics in the interest of Russia.
    • According to prosecutors, Butina tried to exchange sex for influence. She’s been living with Paul Erickson, a conservative political operative from South Dakota who is under investigation for fraud.
    • Her alleged co-conspirator in Russia is Alexander Torshin, who is currently under U.S. sanctions. They were trying to develop back-channel lines of communication between Russian and American officials.
    • Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif) calls the indictment against Butina bogus. Does he protest too much? The affidavit implies that Butina was setting up a meeting between Rohrabacher and Torshin when Rohrabacher visited Russia in 2015.
    • The FBI has a proposal authored by Butina talking about how they can take power away from the Democrats in 2016 and give it to a (not named) party that will be more friendly to Russian interests. The influence campaign started with the NRA and CPAC.
    • It was Butina who secured invitations for Russian officials to attend the National Prayer Breakfast.
    • The affidavit also suggests that Russia had some influence on Trump’s selection for Secretary of State.
    • Butina was arrested when it appeared she was preparing to leave the country. She’s deemed a flight risk, so is being held without bail.
    • Russia’s foreign minister demands Butina’s immediate release.
  1. Twitter suspends the accounts of Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks after last week’s indictment of the Russian hackers.
  2. Trey Gowdy says there’s no good reason to impeach Rod Rosenstein.
  3. Mueller requests immunity for five witnesses in the Paul Manafort trial. He also releases over 500 pieces of evidence being used in the trial.
  4. Remember those Macedonian trolls who pushed pro-Trump, anti-Hillary, and conservative fake stories and conspiracy theories before the 2016 elections? It turns out the effort was started by a Macedonian attorney with the assistance of two American conservatives, Ben Goldman and Paris Wade (you might remember a profile done on them in 2016 describing them writing fake news stories out of their Long Beach apartment). Paris Wade is running for Nevada State Assembly.
  5. The data that Cambridge Analytica mined off Facebook was accessed by a server in Russia.
  6. Christopher Wray, head of the FBI, says Russia is very aggressive in election interference and that they’re actively creating discord and divisiveness in the U.S. right now.
  7. The DOJ releases highly redacted documents that were used to support the Carter Page FISA warrant application. This type of information is typically not made public.
  8. Trump claims that the redacted documents show that his campaign really was being illegally spied on, even though there’s nothing in the released documents that imply that.

Courts/Justice:

  1. I guess we’re cool with the FBI again? Jeff Sessions delivers an address to students at Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC). These are members of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Sessions says, “You and your brothers and sisters are in every corner of America, working 24 hours a day to courageously and faithfully protect this nation and our people. We are proud of you.”
  2. Republicans in the Senate pull Trump’s nomination for the 9th circuit court of appeals, Ryan Bounds, not because of Bounds’ racist writings, but because they don’t have enough votes to confirm him.
  3. Mitch McConnell says that if Democrats keep pushing for documentation around Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, he’ll delay the confirmation hearings until right before the midterms to hurt vulnerable Democrats in their re-election efforts.

Healthcare:

  1. A district court judge rules in Trump’s favor on changes to Title X regarding family planning grants. The changes move the emphasis from contraception and safe sex to abstinence and natural family planning (whatever that is). Because we all know that when you tell youngsters to abstain from sex, that’s what they do, right?

International:

  1. Trumps says that NATO members agreed to pony up way more money because he was so assertive. NATO members say, not. They’re just meeting the conditions of their 2014 agreement with the Obama administration.
  2. During the NATO summit, Trump reportedly praised authoritarian Turkish president Erdogan while criticizing our allies in Europe for needing to consult with their respective legislative branches before making policy decisions.
  3. Trump questions why we would come to the defense of a small country like NATO member Montenegro.
  4. While Trump meets with Putin, leaders from the EU and China meet and agree on a joint resolution as well as a commitment to keep the global system strong.
  5. Trump tells diplomats to initiate negotiations directly with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Previously, we’ve worked to include the Afghanistan government in these talks, but the Taliban only wants to talk to the U.S. government.
  6. Israel’s parliament passes a bill that defines Israel as the Jewish nation-state, where Hebrew is the official language and Jerusalem is the capital.
  7. And speaking of Israel, moving our embassy to Jerusalem will cost us $21.2 million instead of the $250,000 Trump said it would.
  8. So far Brexit is costing the UK Treasury 440 million pounds a week; more than the EU ever cost them. Brexit was sold as an economic boon for the country.
  9. North Korean officials have been cancelling meetings and demanded more money. They don’t seem to be slowing down their nuclear program any either. Trump is frustrated by the slow pace and obstacles.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. Senate Democrats put forth a resolution to prevent the president from turning over American citizens to hostile foreign powers. It passes unanimously.
  2. The House passes the BUILD Act, which will encourage private investment in countries with lower income economies to help fight extreme poverty.
  3. The GOP blocks Democratic legislation to question the translator at the Trump/Putin summit, to investigate NRA ties to Russian money, and to back our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections.
  4. Democrats continue to request a vote on an amendment that would provide funding to states for election security, but the GOP leadership continues to refuse the vote.

Separating Families:

  1. A judge blocks the government from deporting newly reunited families to make sure none are improperly deported.
  2. A court orders counseling for children who are victims of family separation at the border. They court calls it a constitutional injury, and in some cases may require treatment for PTSD.
  3. So far, only 364 of the more than 2,500 children taken at the border have been reunited with their parents. Of 1,600 parents waiting to be reunited, almost half are slated for deportation.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. More than 100 elected officials from 20 states sign on to an open letter arguing that we should abolish ICE, the agency created after 9/11 to keep our borders secure. They say ICE is too broken to be reformed and should be abolished. They don’t have an alternative yet.
  2. A district judge in Pennsylvania rules that religious adoption agencies do not have the right to discriminate against prospective parents based on religious beliefs while at the same time accepting taxpayer money.
  3. The NFL puts its new kneeling-during-the-anthem policy on hold while they negotiate the terms with the teams. So Trump tweets a call for extreme punishments for players who kneel.
  4. A federal appeals court rejects the Trump administration’s efforts to reinstate the ban on transgender troops while the his original ban makes its way through the courts.

Climate/EPA:

  1. The Department of the Interior issues a proposal to overhaul the endangered species act to make it more friendly to economic development (or as it’s better known, drilling and mining projects). This is the act that saved the Yellowstone grizzly and the BALD FREAKING EAGLE from extinction, among others.
  2. California just reached their goal of reducing their carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020—two years ahead of time.

Budget/Economy:

  1. The EU and Japan sign a major trade agreement that gets rid of most of the tariffs on goods imported between the two.
  2. Trump criticizes the Feds‘ decision to raise interest rates again, saying it’ll slow down our booming economy. Which is kind of the point of interest rate hikes.
  3. A group of major U.S. companies signs on to a new jobs training initiative by the Trump administration.
  4. China files a complaint with the World Trade Organization over Trump’s proposed tariffs, saying they fall under protectionism.
  5. The Congressional Budget Office updates its estimates, and now says our deficit will hit $1 trillion next year.
  6. Trump threatens even higher tariffs against China, saying he’ll go up to $500 billion if he has to.
  7. Republicans in Congress back off from making sure the sanctions against Chinese company ZTE stick, and instead allow Trump to make this a personal favor to China president Xi Jinping.

Elections:

  1. A lawyer for one of Roy Moore’s accusers has recorded conversations of two of Moore’s supporters offering him $10,000 to drop the case and discredit the victim before the Senate election that Democrat Doug Jones won.
  2. No dark money in politics, you say? The Trump administration ends IRS disclosure requirements for certain nonprofits, allowing donors to give money without any scrutiny. How many ways can we make Citizens United worse?
  3. Some states’ voter registration systems operate on systems owned by Russian-backed companies.
  4. A top voting machine manufacturer admits they issued a few of those servers with the remote sharing application pcAnywhere installed.
  5. The reason the FBI took so long to announce the reopening of Hillary Clinton’s email investigation (which is why it happened just nine days before the election) is that the bureau was so overwhelmed with the investigation into the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia.

Miscellaneous:

  1. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai pushes back on Sinclair Broadcasting Group’s merger with Tribune Media. There’s concern that even with the changes Sinclair is willing to make, they would still control too many stations.
  2. Also on the Sinclair front, the company recently announced that they’ll release a streaming app later this year to compete with other agencies, such as Fox News.
  3. A recent court filing indicates that the secret service has been blocking attempts to serve a subpoena to Jared Kushner.
  4. The inspector general for the Interior Department opens an investigation into a real estate deal between Ryan Zinke’s foundation and certain developers (including Halliburton).
  5. In the material seized from Michael Cohen, there’s a recorded conversation between him and Trump discussing payments to Karen McDougal, the Playboy model who says she had an affair with Trump. The conversation took place a few months before the election.
  6. Oddly enough, Trump’s lawyers waived attorney-client privilege around this recording.
  7. In the middle of a signing ceremony for work training and apprenticeships, Trump realizes that his reality show, The Apprentice, was about apprenticeships.
  8. Obama gives the 2018 Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in South Africa, where he alludes to Trump without calling him out by name. He says these are strange and uncertain times, with the rise of strongman politics around the globe.
  9. Starting August 1, people can download plans for 3-D printable guns. None of which will be traceable because they don’t have a serial number. Yay us.

Polls:

The only thing I’ll say about polls is that Trump’s approval numbers should’ve changed this week, but they didn’t. ‘Nuff said.