Poor Trump got a three-fer this week. The House and Senate voted to stop supporting the Yemen war and they also voted to overturn the national emergency over the wall. The House then voted 420-0 in support of releasing Robert Mueller’s report to the public. On top of that, he was named as the face of white nationalism in the manifesto by a mass shoot at two mosques in New Zealand. His reaction is to appear to threaten us while minimizing the rise of white hate groups. Here’s what he says: “I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump — I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point and then it would be very bad, very bad.” Who’s they? Who will it be very bad for?


Whatevs. Here’s what else happened this week…

Russia:

1. For some reason, House Republicans leak Bruce Ohr’s and Lisa Page’s full testimony on the investigation into the investigations of Hillary’s emails and Russian interference in our 2016 election. I think they thought it would bolster Trump’s case, but from what I’ve read so far it hasn’t. (I’m working on summarizing that, but that’s a whole other post.)
2. Paul Manafort receives his second prison sentence, this one for 73 months (we expected a maximum of about 10 years). 30 of those months are to be served concurrently with his previous sentence, so he ends up with a total of 7 1/2 years.

• • Some people feel like Manafort got off too easy, but this isn’t over. On the same day of his sentencing, New York state officials indict Manafort on 16 counts, including mortgage fraud, conspiracy, and falsifying business records. So much for an “otherwise blameless life.”
  • In direct contradiction to Judge Ellis’s “blameless life” statement, Judge Jackson says that Manafort “spent a significant portion of his career gaming the system.”
  • Sarah Huckabee Sanders says that Trump will make a decision on whether to pardon Paul Manafort. If Trump does pardon him, it won’t cover New York’s state charges.

3. The House votes nearly unanimously (four voted ’present’) to urge the DOJ to release the final Mueller report to Congress and to the public. Mitch McConnell has blocked similar bills in the Senate, and Lindsay Graham blocks this one.

• • Graham tries to include a provision urging the DOJ to appoint a second special counsel to investigate the investigations into Hillary Clinton’s emails (again) and the FISA warrant obtained by the FBI to surveil Carter Page (again).

4. Chair of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff says that there is already enough evidence to support indicting Trump once he’s out of office.
5. As part of a defamation suit against BuzzFeed, a court unseals documents that show how Russians hacked Democratic Party email accounts in 2016.

• • The suit was filed by Aleksej Gubarev, who sued BuzzFeed for defamation when they published the Steele Dossier.
  • The documents seem to show that the part about Gubarev owning the servers that were used to do the hacking is true.

6. Well, there’s a twist. Oleg Deripaska sues the U.S. Treasury over the sanctions against his companies.
7. Mueller requests a delay in Rick Gates sentencing because he’s still cooperating with several ongoing investigations. Gates already pleaded guilty to conspiracy and to lying to the FBI.
8. Michael Flynn completes his cooperation agreement with Mueller’s investigation. However, Mueller still requests a delay in sentencing because Flynn is still cooperating with the federal investigation into Bijan Rafiekian.
9. If you’re convinced that Democrats are all about impeaching Trump, Nancy Pelosi blows a hole in that by saying it would be too divisive for the country and Trump’s not worth it. There would have to be extremely strong evidence of impeachable activity.

Legal Fallout:

1. Steve Wynn, the former RNC finance chairman, met with Steven Mnuchin about ways to reduce his taxes after he had to sell his stake in his casino business (which he was forced to sell after of 20 years of sexual misconduct accusations came to light).
2. The New York attorney general’s office opens investigations into loans that Deutsche Bank made to the Trump Organization.
3. The DOJ is looking into whether a $100,000 donation to the Trump Victory committee came from a Malaysian business person accused of embezzlement (and now a fugitive).
4. An appellate court in New York rules that Summer Zervos can proceed with her defamation suit against Trump. Zervos was a contestant on The Apprentice who accused Trump of sexual misconduct, and when Trump called her a liar, she filed the suit.

Courts/Justice:

1. A court rules that Betsy DeVos acted illegally when she delayed an Obama rule requiring states to handle racial inequities when it comes to special education. The judge calls her actions “arbitrary and capricious.”
2. Federal judges have ruled against the Trump administration’s policies at least 63 times over the past two years, and largely for being “arbitrary and capricious.” This means they were in such a hurry to implement their policies (mostly to overturn Obama policies) that they didn’t take the time to come up with a good reason or a solid basis for the changes.

Healthcare:

1. Four states pass anti-abortion legislation on the same day.

• • Arkansas and Utah passed bans on abortions after 18 weeks.
  • Kentucky passes a law prohibiting abortion for reasons of “sex, race, color, national origin, or disability.” (I’m so curious why any parent-to-be would give race, color, or national origin as a reason. Especially national origin. I can’t find these reasons listed in any studies so far.)
  • Kansas passes a resolution condemning New York’s new abortion law that codifies the rights given under Roe v. Wade.
  • There are already legal challenges to Kentucky’s latest bill, and a judge just blocked the bill they passed the previous week that banned abortion after six weeks.

2. The Trump administration reduces fines for nursing homes for endangering or injuring their residents. Previously nursing homes were fined for each day they were in violation. Now the administration issues a single fine. The average fine is now to $28,405, down from $41,260.

International:

1. Despite Theresa May getting some concessions from the EU on a Brexit deal, the British Parliament once again defeats the proposal she brings before them. They also vote against holding a second public voter referendum to see if a majority of citizens are still in favor of exiting the EU (this sounds like a timing issue and could be brought up again later).

• • They’ve had two and a half years to work this out, and they can’t. Why? IMO, because it was such an abysmally bad idea.
  • One MP tweets that Theresa May voted against her own proposal.
  • The longer Brexit drags on, the more it drags on the economy; but a hard exit with no deal could be far worse for the UK’s economy.

2. Israel’s Supreme Court overturned a decision by the Central Election Committee and will allow a joint Arab slate and a leftist candidate to run in the April election. The court also blocked a far-right leader of the Otzma Yehudit from running.
3. The U.S. has always referred to Golan Heights as an area under Israeli control. Now, for the first time, a U.S. government agency refers to Golan Heights as occupied territory. Israel has been lobbying the Trump administration to recognize Israel sovereignty over Golan Heights.
4. After two missiles are launched at Tel Aviv, Israeli military responds by striking over 100 targets in Gaza. It is believed that the two rockets were launched by Hamas and by mistake.
5. The Senate passes a resolution to end unauthorized participation by the U.S. in the Yemen war, which is backed by Saudi Arabia. Now the resolution goes back to the House for a vote.
6. A bipartisan group of congressional leaders, including Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell, invite NATO’s secretary general to speak to a joint session of Congress. They’re looking at how they can honor NATO on its 70th anniversary while letting our allies know that the U.S. remains committed.
7. North Korea threatens to withdraw from our ongoing denuclearization talks and resume their nuclear program unless the U.S. gives in to some of their demands. This comes after we found evidence that they rebuilt a supposedly decommissioned missile site.

• • North Korea says John Bolton and Mike Pompeo created an environment of hostility and distrust.

8. Tensions between the Trump administration and the Afghan government intensify when Afghanistan’s national security adviser says that a deal between the U.S. and the Taliban would dishonor the American soldiers who have fought there. The U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan responds by accusing the Afghanis of corruption and misusing the resources we gave them. Notably, the Afghan government has been excluded from negotiations with the Taliban.

• • If you’re wondering which side to take here, remember that the Taliban want to prevent women from getting educations and to force them to wear burqas.

9. Embattled Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro uses paramilitary gangs on motorcycles to keep protestors in line.
10. The U.S. removes all diplomatic personnel from the Venezuelan embassy.
11. Foreign leaders, and especially strongmen like Kim Jong Un, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Vladimir Putin, take advantage of Trump’s preference for personal diplomacy and cut out the diplomatic experts in the middle. They talk directly to Trump, leaving advisers to wonder when he speaks with them and what they talk about. Officials say they never know what he’s agreed to.
12. Intelligence reports show that Saudi Arabia’s plans to silence dissidents went way further than just murdering Khashoggi. They started a secret campaign more than a year before Khashoggi’s murder that included forcible repatriation, detention and abuse, and obviously murder.
13. International hackers are all over the Navy, its contractors, and its partners. The hackers exploit weaknesses in our systems and there have been numerous breaches. The hacks affect other branches of our military as well.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

1. One unintended consequence of the shutdown over the wall is that it delayed the software fix for the Boeing 737 Max airplane fleet.
2. The Senate votes to overturn Trump’s national emergency declaration, but Trump says he’ll veto it. 12 Republicans and every Democrat voted for it, but that’s not enough to override Trump’s veto. This is the first time both houses of Congress has voted to cancel a sitting president’s declaration of national emergency.

• • By the end of the week, Trump vetoes the bill. It’s not likely either house can muster enough votes to override his veto.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. House Democrats introduce the Dream and Promise Act of 2019, which would give immigrants currently protected under DACA and TPS (temporary protected status) a path to citizenship.
2. The Pentagon announces a new directive to implement Trump’s transgender ban in the military. Anyone who joins after it takes effect must serve in the gender assigned at birth.
3. The Trump administration plans to further restrict visas for applicants who they think use too many public services. As a result of Trump’s previous restrictions, visa denials are already up 40% over the past two years.
4. The Trump administration plans to close all the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ international offices. This will likely cause even more slowdowns in family visa applications and foreign adoptions.
5. A federal court halts Trump‘s policy that blocked visas for young immigrants who are fleeing abuse. A government program allows these immigrants to apply for special visas until they become 21 years old. Trump’s administration has been blocking applicants once they turn 18.
6. Mexican officials and cartels are extorting asylum seekers at the border, including those who’ve begun the asylum process but who we now force to wait in Mexico for processing.
7. 2,200 migrant detainees are quarantined because of a mumps outbreak in detention centers across the country. There are almost 240 confirmed cases.
8. The Trump administration considers sending a volunteer force to help stop illegal crossings at the border.
9. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross testifies to the House Oversight Committee about adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. Ross has repeatedly told Congress that the DOJ requested the question, but according to email records, he was the one who made the request to the DOJ.
10. White nationalists open fire in two New Zealand mosques during Friday prayers, and police find bombs attached to one of the shooters’ vehicles. At least 49 people are dead and another 48 injured.

• • This is New Zealand’s first mass shooting since 1997. They move quickly to tighten gun laws.
  • The shooter live-streams part of the shooting on social media and posts a white nationalist manifesto online. He wants to ensure a white future for our children.
  • The title of the manifesto is The Great Replacement, the same words used by white nationalists here in the U.S., most notably Representative Steven King. Also like King, the manifesto complains of the fertility rates of immigrants.
  • While the manifesto criticizes Trump’s leadership and policies, it also says that Trump is a “symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose.” Again, I’m not saying I think Trump’s a bigot, but bigots think he’s a bigot.
  • Even though Trump is specifically named in the manifesto, Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney claims it’s absurd to associate the attacks with Trump.
  • The next day, Trump talks about immigrants at our southern border as an invasion, the same description used in the manifesto and used by white nationalists/supremacists. Words matter.
  • Trump says that white nationalists make up “a small group of people.” I guess that depends on how you define small. The number and membership of white nationalist groups, the number of racist rallies, and the number of hate crimes are all rising sharply.
    • Over the last four years, hate groups increased by 30%. Last year alone, hate crimes grew by 17%.

11. We’re all going to make up our own minds about whether Trump‘s rhetoric somehow contributed to these attacks, but just a reminder that Trump has (and often more than once):

• • Said we should ban all Muslims from the U.S.
  • Touted a debunked story about killing Muslims with bullets dipped in pig’s blood.
  • Proposed creating a registry of Muslims.
  • Shared violent anti-Muslim snuff films.

12. The Center for Investigative Reporting has identified 150 cases of harassment or violence where the perpetrator mentioned Trump.

• • Some of these hardly made a blip on most of our radar—the bombers of an Islamic Center in MN, the beating of a Boston homeless man by men who thought he was undocumented, the stabbing of two people on a train in Oregon, the shooting at a Montreal mosque, the foiled bomber in Oregon who put Obama on his kill list, the foiled bombers planning to bomb a Somali apartment building, and so on and so on.
  • Some of the major recent ones to name him include the terrorist who killed 49 Muslims as they worshipped in New Zealand, the Coast Guard terrorist who stockpiled weapons and planned a massive terror attack, and the Florida man who sent bombs to people conservatives tend to target (funders, journalists, and Democratic politicians).

13. Prosecutors bring terrorism charges against five people who were arrested in New Mexico last year on what was found to be a training compound for would-be terrorists. The group, which was Muslim, isn’t associated with any known terrorist groups.
14. The Supreme Court unanimously overturns an Alabama court’s refusal to recognize an adoption by a same-sex couple. The adoption occurred in Georgia.

Climate/EPA:

1. A new report on the Arctic concludes that regardless of whether we take action to stop climate change, the Arctic is now in a cycle of temperature rise that will continue. The rise is locked in because of greenhouse gases already emitted and because of heat already stored in the ocean.
2. Inspired by Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg, over a million students in over 100 countries walk out of school to push leaders for urgent climate change action.
3. A court of appeals upholds a November decision blocking construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.
4. The Trump administration finalizes plans to loosen environmental protections for the sage grouse and its habitat with the goal of making it easier to drill for oil on those lands.

Budget/Economy:

1. Trump proposes his new budget, which raises military spending, funds the border wall, and decreases domestic discretionary spending. The budget forecasts trillion-dollar deficits for each of the next three years, and expects the debt to reach $31 trillion in a decade.

• • The budget cuts funding for these departments and agencies: agriculture, state, interior, education, justice, energy, labor, health and human services, transportation, NASA, the Treasury, and environmental protection.
  • The budget also cuts social security, Medicaid, and Medicare.
  • The budget increases spending on commerce, national nuclear security, homeland security, the VA, and military.
  • The budget cuts funding for the USDA by 15%, because the administration says that current subsidies to farmers are “overly generous.” This at a time when tariffs and weather are hurting farmers and when we’ve just provided a $12 billion aid package to help them stay afloat.

2. Trump’s economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, says that federal revenues are up about 10%. In fact, revenues were down in fiscal year (FY) 2018 compared to FY 2017, and they’re down so far in FY 2019 compared to the same period in FY 2018.

Elections:

1. Bernie Sanders wife and son suspend the Sanders Institute and will not accept donations as long as Bernie is a presidential candidate. They fell into the same old pitfalls, being accused of blurring financial lines between family, fundraising, and campaigning.
2. Delaware follows 11 other states by signing a bill into law that would give all their electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote. This only goes into effect if enough states sign on to total 270 electoral votes.

Miscellaneous:

1. After the Ethiopian Airlines crash, several countries ground their fleets of Boeing 737 Max 8 and 9 planes. The U.S. does the same a few days later.

• • Afterward, Trump tweets about how planes are too complex for pilots. He’s basically complaining about the company he was just bragging about signing a billion dollar deal with Vietnam (Boeing).
  • Boeing grounds its global fleet of the Max airplanes. There are a total of 371 Max planes.

2. The Kentucky student who became the face of the students accused of mocking a Native American elder in D.C. in January sues CNN. He’s already suing the Washington Post.
3. Connecticut‘s Supreme Court says families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting can sue Remington. The shooter at Sandy Hook used a Remington Bushmaster rifle. The families’ argument is that the rifle was intended for military use and the company allowed civilians to obtain them.
4. California Governor Gavin Newsom places a moratorium on death penalty executions. Most states have the death penalty, but very few states actually carry it out.
5. Audio recordings surface of Tucker Carlson making racist, white nationalist, and blatantly sexist comments in a series of interviews. Carlson doesn’t apologize and doesn’t deny what he said. Instead, he issues a challenge: “Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why.” This explains so much about his show.

Polls:

A Reuters/Ipsos poll finds (among other things):

1. 60% of respondents think that journalists sometimes or often get paid by their sources.
2. 41% of respondents are less likely to trust a story with anonymous sources.
3. People with a college degree have more faith in the press than those without one.
4. People who live in urban areas have more faith in the press than people in rural areas.
5. People who are employed full-time have more faith in the press than retired, self-employed, or unemployed people (that’s a weird split there).
6. Here’s their rankings of which sources are most trusted of the mainstream media (click the image to view a larger version).