This is a catch up entry for the week ending 12/30/18. Thankfully it was a slow news week because of the holidays, but unthankfully the holiday week was marred by the government shutdown and ongoing chaos at the border.

Here’s what happened in week 101…

Russia:

1. House committees conclude their investigations into Russia’s meddling in our elections and into the investigations into the investigation. In a letter to the DOJ, Republican committee leaders reiterate their concerns over how the investigations were handled.
2. We learn that when Marine Le Pen needed extra cash for her campaign for president in France, she took out a 9.4-million-euro loan from a Russian bank. The bank has since gone under and now Russian officials are demanding payment.
3. UPDATE: I don’t know how this one slipped under my radar, but a former Mossad chief reiterates that Russia worked to make Trump president, and that their online disinformation campaigns are the greatest threat to democracy and the world order right now.

Legal Fallout:

1. Trump’s lawyers request a delay in the emoluments case against him due to the government shutdown.

Courts/Justice:

1. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg is released from the hospital following surgery to remove tumors from her lungs.

International:

1. Russia sends two Tu-160 bombers to Venezuela. These bombers have nuclear capability.
2. Hot on the heels of an NBC story about how Trump is the first president to not visit any troops over the Christmas holiday, Trump and Melania pay a surprise visit to troops in Iraq.
3. Following his visit, Iraqi officials demand the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from their country. Iraqi government officials are reportedly angry that Trump didn’t visit the Prime Minister while he was there.
4. Trump posted a video following his visit that revealed the identities and location of a SEAL team, traditionally protected information.
5. Israel’s government announces that the Knesset will dissolve and new elections will be held in April. Netanyahu has a narrow majority, and his defense minister resigned recently.
6. The acting secretary of defense, Patrick Shanahan, says he won’t push back against Trump’s ideas the way James Mattis did.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. Merry Christmas, refugees. ICE drops off 200 refugees at a bus stop in El Paso with no assistance two days before Christmas. Because of the government shutdown, the local officials had no warning. ICE drops off another 1,000 by the end of the week.
2. A new lawsuit alleges that in Vermont, ICE placed spies inside migrant activist groups and attempted to hack into their networks. Vermont’s DMV helped them out by passing on drivers permit information about undocumented immigrants. ICE used the information to target activists.
3. A second migrant child dies in DHS custody. Trump blames the deaths on Democrats. Kirstjen Nielsen says there are more sick migrant children coming to the U.S., but doctors who are examining the children dispute that assertion.
4. Trump begins readying Americans for what a barrier at the border might really look like. He starts using terms like “wall system” and “fence”, indicating that he realizes a big wall across the entire border is not achievable or practical.
5. The FBI and state investigators are looking into Trump’s Bedminster golf club for their alleged practice of hiring undocumented workers and helping them to get papers to cover it up.
6. After Mollie Tibbetts’ murderer was arrested, several immigrant workers fled the town. Mollie Tibbetts’ mother adopted one of their children so he could finish out his school years in the town he grew up in. So please stop making political hay about the fact that the murderer was an undocumented immigrant. Her family doesn’t want that.

Climate/EPA:

1. A tugboat pushing 15 coal barges in the Ohio River hits a bridge, causing six of those barges to sink into the river and spilling tons of coal into the water. The cleanup effort is going on 24/7, but workers aren’t getting paid because of the government shutdown.
2. The Trump administration announces a new policy that would loosen limits on pollutants emitted by coal powered plants, including mercury. Under the Obama policy that is being changed, mercury pollution has been reduced by 80%.

Budget/Economy:

1. Trump discusses firing Fed chairman Jerome Powell.
2. Trump says federal employees support his government shutdown over the wall. Federal workers take to Twitter to say otherwise. #ShutdownStories
3. Trump says most of the workers who are furloughed because of the shutdown are Democrats. So not true.
4. On Christmas Day, Trump says he’ll keep the government closed until he gets funding for his wall. Then he says he’ll shutdown the border if Democrats don’t cave in and give him his wall. Shutting down the border would cost an estimated $1 billion per day.
5. Trump suggests that furloughed workers offer to help their landlords with chores in return for reduced rent (because landlords love to use amateur electricians and carpenters). The administration actually sends them a draft letter that they can use to make such an offer. The administration also gives them advice on how to survive financial hardship by negotiating with lenders and utilities.
6. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, says it’s not his job to end the shutdown.
7. Trump institutes a pay freeze for federal civilian employees. Merry Christmas!

Elections:

1. North Carolina’s election board dissolves following a court decision that it was unconstitutional. This throws the one remaining congressional race that the board refused to certify into further chaos.

Miscellaneous:

1. Trump spends most of Christmas Eve attacking his perceived enemies on Twitter, including Democrats, Republican Senators, the fake news, our former envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition, and the Federal Reserve, among others.
2. His tweet storm seemed to be a drag on the stock markets, which fell again on Christmas Eve.
3. Trump tells troops in Iraq that he got them a giant pay raise — 10% — after a decade of no raises. In reality, they’ve received raises of between 1% and 4% each year for the past 10 years, and there is no 10% raise this year.
4. Departing Chief of Staff John Kelly gives an exit interview in which he says:

• • The wall isn’t actually a wall (I’m guessing he means it’s more like a fence). In fact, he says that they gave up on the idea of a wall a long time ago, but Trump still uses it to stir up his base.
  • The family separation coming from the zero-tolerance policy at the border was Jeff Sessions’ fault.
  • Trump surprised Kelly with his Muslim Ban order.

5. An American becomes the first person to complete a solo crossing of Antarctica.
6. A tsunami in Indonesia caused by an underwater volcanic eruption kills over 400 people with many still missing.