Tag: CollinsKavanaugh

Week 140 in Trump

Posted on October 2, 2019 in Impeachment, Legislation, Trump

Just read the damn transcript and claim already! They're short.

If you’re wondering whether your Members of Congress are really informed about what’s going on, you should know that many of them haven’t read the Mueller report yet. They haven’t even read the summaries. They also, obviously haven’t even bothered to read Trump’s 5-page excerpt from his conversation with the Ukraine president (as evidenced by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s interview on 60 Minutes where he didn’t even know that Trump said, “I would like you to do us a favor though.” It’s not even that far down in the conversation. Don’t let your elected officials be that lazy. Make them take this seriously whether you want Trump exonerated or impeached. Call them and write to them and ask them to be informed and do their jobs.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending September 29…

Shootings This Week:

I’m putting this section on hold this week. There’s too much else to sort out with the whistleblower complaint.

Legal Fallout:

  1. Research by the Senate Finance Committee’s Democratic staff finds that the NRA facilitated political access for Russians Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin to a greater extent than previously thought. New York and DC attorneys general are also investigating this.
  2. Trump meets with NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre to talk about how the NRA can support Trump financially. LaPierre is working to steer Trump away from universal background check legislation.
  3. A federal judge reverses Bijan Kian’s guilty verdict. Kian was Michael Flynn’s lobbying associate working on Turkish issues and was convicted of acting as a foreign agent and conspiring to hide it.
  4. The Southern District of New York drops their case against Tony Podesta and Vin Weber in connection with lobbying for Ukraine without registering as foreign agents.
  5. A judge says Trump must testify in a case from 2015 over a fight between his security guards and protestors. Protestors say Trump’s security guards assaulted them during a protest in the Bronx where they were protesting Trump’s derogatory comments about immigrants.
  6. And just a reminder, Trump now has two whistleblower complaints against him. The Ukraine one I’ll go into below, but there’s also a complaint that Trump tried to influence the IRS audit of his personal tax returns.
  7. The Manhattan District Attorney agrees to wait to enforce his subpoena to obtain eight years of Trump’s tax returns until after a judge rules on whether to dismiss Trump’s request to block the subpoena.
  8. Trump says he brought up the issue of Hunter Biden to his intermediary on the trade talks with China. He alleges that Hunter got China to put $1.5 billion into an investment fund. The dollar amount is vastly exaggerated—it was in the millions.
  9. The Trump administration intensifies their investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, snaring about 130 officials who shared emails with her. The administration is reviewing each email, and in some cases retroactively marking them as classified. The 130 officials received letters saying there are potential security violations from them sharing those emails several years ago. Some of these officials have already retired or moved on to other jobs.

Impeachment/Ukraine:

  1. The background of this story is pretty complex, so I won’t get into it all here. Here are some resources:
  1. In mid-August, the whistleblower made his complaint to Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson. When Atkinson realized that whistleblower protocol wasn’t being followed, he alerted the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.
  2. That same day, three House committees opened investigations into whether Trump and Rudy Giuliani acted improperly in pushing Ukraine to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden and CrowdStrike.
  3. The Chairs of the House Intelligence, Oversight, and Foreign Affairs committees send a letter to the White House counsel demanding the White House give them documents about Trump’s conversations with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky.
  4. The Senate unanimously passes a non-binding resolution demanding that Trump release the whistleblower complaint about pressuring Ukraine. No GOP Senators object to the resolution.
  5. After months of slow-walking an official impeachment inquiry, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces the start of official impeachment inquiries, provoked by the whistleblower complaint. It’s what I like to call an impeachment buffet.
    • She directs the heads of six House committees to proceed with their own inquiries, each focused on a different issue.
    • Democrats debate whether the scope of the impeachment inquiry should focus on the whistleblower complaint about Trump’s dealing with Ukraine or if they should include other potential crimes, like those brought up in the Mueller report, financial transactions, FEC violations, emoluments clause violations, and so on.
  1. Trump and Pelosi have a phone conversation where Trump asks if they can “work something out” about the whistleblower complaint.
  2. Senate Republicans say they’ll quash any articles of impeachment passed by the House, but McConnell has said the Senate will have to hold a trial. As a refresher:
    • The House holds hearings and votes on articles of impeachment.
    • If they pass articles of impeachment, the Senate then holds a trial.
    • If found guilty, Trump would be removed from office (this has never happened, and I can’t imagine it happening here).
    • Otherwise, Trump goes on record has having been impeached by the House but can stay in office.
  1. At least a week before the call, Trump told his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to hold back almost $400 million in military aid for Ukraine. The Office of Management and Budget (which is run by the same Mick Mulvaney) then relayed that info to the State Department and the Pentagon.
    • Legislators realized by mid-August that the OMB had taken over the decision-making process for the funds from the Defense and State Departments.
    • Administration officials were told to give Congress no explanation other than that the funding was delayed because of interagency processes.
  1. Trump released the money only after the whistleblower complaint became known, but administration officials say there’s no link. Congress also pressured the administration to release the funds.
  2. In early September, Ukrainian officials voiced concern about whether aid was cut off because the Ukraine government wasn’t investigating the Bidens.
  3. First Trump says he withheld the money over corruption concerns, but the next day he says it’s because NATO countries aren’t contributing enough money.
    • A letter from the Pentagon disputes the first point.
    • As for the second point, the EU has provided more aid to Ukraine than the U.S.
    • Trump’s defenders say he had to evaluate whether the newly elected Zelensky is pro-Russia or pro-United States and whether he is corrupt.
  1. Trump says that the money was eventually released, so that’s evidence he didn’t do anything wrong.
  2. Trump releases a partial transcript of his call with Ukraine President Zelensky. It corroborates much of the whistleblower complaint. It shows he did ask Zelensky to investigate the Bidens and to investigate CrowdStrike, the company that handled the review of the hacked DNC server. Here’s some background on CrowdStrike and the whole Ukraine conspiracy theory.
  3. Trump thinks the excerpt exonerates him; you can decide for yourself. Here’s the complete excerpt. Below are the highlights I pulled out:
    • Zelensky is either on the Trump train or he knows how to fluff Trump up (I think the latter).
    • They talk about Ukraine obtaining military weapons and then Trump says, “I would like you to do us a favor though…”
    • That favor is for the Ukraine government to investigate CrowdStrike and the DNC server (which, by the way, isn’t missing and isn’t sitting in some basement in Ukraine).
    • Several times, Trump mentions having Zelensky get in touch with Attorney General Barr (five times) and Rudy Giuliani (four times) to work on this.
    • Trump criticizes Mueller’s investigation (this is the day after Mueller testified to Congress).
    • Zelensky says that one of his aides spoke with Giuliani recently. He guarantees open and candid investigations. At this point, it seems he’s only referring to the server.
    • Trump appears to call Ukraine General Prosecutor Shokin a very good prosecutor who got shut down.
      Background: Shokin was voted out of office by the Ukraine Parliament for failing to prosecute corruption cases, which is what Biden was working on. Shokin‘s failure to act included the Burisma investigation, where Hunter Biden worked.
    • Then Trump makes the ask for Zelensky to open an investigation into the Bidens. He says Biden bragged about stopping the prosecution in that case. Just to set the record straight, Biden didn’t stop any prosecution of the Burisma case nor did he say he did. The Bidens were never being prosecuted. (This whole bit is super convoluted. I refer you back to the timeline.)
    • Zelensky assures Trump that the next prosecutor will be 100% Zelensky’s person. The former prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, stepped down in the middle of all this. Now there’s a new prosecutor.
    • Zelensky agrees to investigate Burisma and Biden, and brings up how bad the U.S. Ambassador is.
  1. On the same day Trump releases the rough notes of his conversation with Zelensky, certain members of Congress get access to the whistleblower complaint in a SCIF, which means it contains classified information.
  2. They later release an unclassified version of the complaint to the public without the underlying classified evidence. Here are a few points, but you can read it yourself (it’s concise and well-written).
    • The complaint discusses the phone call, attempts to hide the content of the call, and additional ongoing concerns, like the meetings between Ukraine officials and Giuliani, and between Ukraine officials and our ambassadors.
    • On August 9, Trump told reporters that he thinks Zelensky will make a deal with Putin. (UPDATE: It was just announced publicly that this is happening.)
    • The White House used a super-secure computer system (a codeword-level system) to store details about Trump’s conversation with Ukraine President Zelensky. This is a very unusual use for this computer system, designed for highly classified national security information and not for politically sensitive information. This was at the direction of National Security Council attorneys, so it was serious.
    • Most interesting is the section on all the events leading up to the call, I recommend you all read it.
  1. This isn’t the only time the White House used the codeword-level system to hide conversations with foreign leaders. The White House also took extraordinary efforts to conceal conversations Trump had with Putin and Saudi’s Mohammad bin Salman.
    • The Russian government warns Trump not to release transcripts of any of his calls with Putin.
    • In 2018, the White House asked DoD officials to return transcripts of calls over worries their contents would be disclosed.
    • The White House also cut the number of aides allowed to listen in on secure lines and the number of officials who could review memos about the contents of calls.
  1. The White House accidentally sends out their talking points defending Trump to a number of House Democrats. And then they asked the Democrats to send them back. Here’s a summary of the talking points, along with my take on them.
  2. Republicans defend Trump by pointing out that three Democratic lawmakers sent Ukraine a letter threatening Ukraine if they don’t keep up their investigations into Manafort (those investigations were in conjunction with the current U.S. cases against Manafort). IMO, the letter is more of an inquiry, and not threatening at all. You can read it here.
  3. Trump says Congress should ask about Vice-President Mike Pence’s conversations with Zelensky.
    • Pence advises Trump not to release any of the contents of Trump’s call with Zelensky.
  1. DNI Joseph Maguire testifies before Congress. Some key takeaways:
    • This is unprecedented. All of it.
    • He was concerned about executive privilege in handling the complaint. Once Trump released the transcript, though, executive privilege was gone. Of note, executive privilege doesn’t cover criminal acts.
    • He thinks the whistleblower did the right thing and is acting in good faith, and that he should be able to testify before Congress.
    • He questions whether it is the purview of Congress to investigate this.
    • He doesn’t think he’s the best guy for this job.
  1. The whistleblower tentatively agrees to meet with Members of Congress as long as the whistleblower’s lawyer has the required security clearances.
    • If you’re curious about his credibility, the whistleblower identified several people who can corroborate his report, and the inspector general did his own followup investigation before finding the claim credible and urgent.
  1. A former advisor to Zelensky says that discussing the Biden case was a prerequisite to having a conversation between the two presidents.
  2. It turns out that while former Ukraine prosecutor Shokin wasn’t aggressively investigating Burisma, he was using the threat of investigation to extort the company’s owner and his friends.
  3. Ukrainian officials say that Lutsenko, who at the time was the Ukraine general prosecutor, was trying to give Giuliani the information he wanted earlier this year as a way to get into Trump’s good graces and possibly extricate himself from Ukraine. Lutsenko has since contradicted himself and said the Bidens didn’t violate any Ukrainian laws.
  4. Lutsenko says that the violations being investigated at Burisma occurred two years before Hunter Biden came on board.
  5. Lutsenko closed the investigation into Burisma in 2017, but begin looking at the company again early this year after he started meeting with Giuliani. His office disputes that he ever re-opened an investigation into the company, though.
  6. Lutsenko says he told Giuliani to open his own investigation with the FBI or CIA, but not to drag Ukraine into our politics. He also told him to bring his own court case if he had any evidence.
  7. Lutsenko told Giuliani that former U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch gave him a list of people not to prosecute.
    • Never one to let the chance at a good conspiracy slip by, Giuliani says the list was part of a liberal anti-trump conspiracy (is there any other kind?) that was bankrolled by George Soros (who else?).
    • The US State Department dismisses the list as an “outright fabrication.”
    • Nonetheless, the administration removed Yovanovitch from Ukraine in May.
  1. The number of Democrats in the House who support impeachment has grown to 224, from about 135 before the whistleblower complaint was made public.
  2. Over 300 former national security and foreign policy officials sign on to a statement voicing concern over the phone call with Ukraine and calling for impeachment inquiries to get to the facts. They say Trump’s actions constitute a profound national security risk.
  3. Three House committees issue subpoenas for documents from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and also instruct him to make these department employees available for deposition: former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, former Ambassador Kurt Volker, George Kent, T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, and Ambassador Gordon Sondland.
    • Volker is said to have arranged for Giuliani to meet with Ukrainian officials.
    • Volker resigns the day after the contents of the whistleblower complaint is published (which is also the day after Giuliani goes on the talkshow circuit showing everyone the texts he exchanged with Volker).
    • The whistleblower complaint alleges that the day after Trump’s phone call with Zelensky, Volker and Sondland met with Ukrainian officials to help them navigate Trump’s demands. Whatever that means. Volker will testify next week.
  1. In light of the impeachment announcement, the House Intelligence Committee will work through the two-week recess at the beginning of October.
  2. Trump defenders claim that the Intelligence Community changed the rules requiring whistleblower’s to have firsthand information just so this whistleblower could make a claim. Those rules were never in the code to begin with and the form hasn’t changed.
  3. Fox News reports that DC husband and wife lawyers Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing worked with Giuliani to get dirt on Biden from Ukrainian officials. They all three worked “off the books” and only Trump knew what they were doing. All three lawyers deny this.
  4. Trump and the GOP really push the narrative that Biden intervened in Ukraine to get the prosecutor to stop investigating his son. That’s really not what happened, but there was definitely the appearance of a conflict of interest. Here’s the straight scoop, with links to their sources.
  5. The whistleblower is now under federal protection out of fear for his safety.
  6. In 2018, Trump told the world he takes Putin at his word when he says Russia didn’t meddle in our 2016 elections. This week, we learn that in 2017, Trump did acknowledge that Russia meddled in our elections and that he told Russian officials that he didn’t care.
  7. Trump’s efforts with Ukraine seem to have three parts: 1) discredit his political opponent Biden, and 2) clear Russia of meddling in the 2016 election so we can drop sanctions, and 3) push Ukraine toward a peace agreement with Russia, again so we can drop sanctions.

Courts/Justice:

  1. A Michigan judge strikes down a law that would’ve made it harder for voters to get initiatives on the ballot. This was one of the laws passed by last year’s lame-duck legislature to restrict the new Democratic governor’s ability to enact his agenda.
  2. The day before Nancy Pelosi announces impeachment inquiries into Trump, Rep. Ayanna Pressley files articles of impeachment against Brett Kavanaugh.

Healthcare:

  1. As an example of how we have a “do nothing” Congress who just wants to impeach him, Trump says that Democrats haven’t taken any action to lower drug prices. But just last week he praised the bill they passed and sent to the Senate that would… yes, lower drug prices.
  2. At the UN, Trump’s administration says abortion isn’t an international right, and they push to eliminate terms like sexual and reproductive health from UN documents. Only 19 nations agree, including those bastions of women’s rights, Saudi Arabia and Russia.
  3. Employer health insurance plans have become more expensive over the past decade and they provide less coverage.
  4. The suicide rate in the military hit its highest level in five years.
  5. The FDA delayed regulating vaping products for years, and only started to regulate them in 2016; still, they pushed back critical deadlines until 2022.

International:

  1. In the middle of all the whistleblower kerfuffle, Trump meets with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky at the UN and they hold a joint press conference.
    • Trump talks about having the best employment we’ve ever had and the best economy we’ve ever had.
    • He also resurrects his accusations that NATO countries don’t spend enough money to help Ukraine.
    • Zelensky says there was no pressure during the whistleblower phone call, and also says he doesn’t want to get in the middle of U.S. elections.
    • Trump closes with, “Unfortunately she [Nancy Pelosi] is no longer Speaker of the House.
  1. Trump complains that the press isn’t covering all the great things he did at the UN summit because they’re too busy covering the whistleblower complaint. Here are just a few things they covered:
    • In Trump’s UN speech, he promotes nationalism and criticizes globalists, socialists, and several countries.
    • On the plus side, he says his administration is working to end the criminalization of homosexuality abroad and to empower women.
    • Trump holds a session on ending religious persecution and protecting religious sites and relics.
    • Trump planned to skip the UN Climate Summit, but he makes a brief appearance.
  1. Without a clear winner in Israel’s second elections this year, President Reuven Rivlin gives Netanyahu first dibs at trying to form a government. If Netanyahu can’t form a government, the mandate goes back to the president. Or there could be yet more elections.
  2. Netanyahu and opponent Benny Gantz plan to meet next week to see if they can agree on a unity government. Those talks will be the same day that Netanyahu’s pre-indictment hearing begins.
  3. Parliament resumes in the UK after the Supreme Court rules that Boris Johnson’s suspension of the Parliament was unlawful. Johnson was trying to prevent them from blocking a no-deal Brexit.
  4. Johnson’s opposition in Parliament wants to hold a vote of no confidence in order to replace Johnson with an interim administrator.
  5. Oh, and Johnson is now embroiled in a romantic scandal. He had an affair with an American businesswomen who received money from an agency that Johnson controlled as Mayor of London.
  6. Hong Kong is in its 17th straight week of pro-democracy protests. In an unauthorized march, thousands of protestors clash with police, and the entryways to subway stations are closed. Protestors set one entryway on fire, police arrest more than 100 people, and more than 25 protestors are injured. This was a violent weekend, with police firing water canons, tear gas, and rubber bullets, and with protestors throwing gas bombs, starting fires, and breaking windows. China’s 70th anniversary of Communist Party rule (which the protestors are fighting against) is coming up,
  7. Protestors block streets in Lebanon over the country’s economic crisis. They accuse the ruling class of stealing from the people.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. If you don’t think the House should impeach because you want them passing laws and working for the American people instead, take a look at this. It’s what the House has been doing outside of investigating Trump. Impeachment isn’t taking up all their time.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

  1. For the second time, the Senate approves a resolution to block Trump’s emergency declaration to fund his border wall. The House follows suit, but Trump can still veto it and is likely to do so.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Trump cuts the U.S. refugee program by nearly half. He had already dropped it from 110,000 per year under Obama to 30,000 per year in 2019. In 2020, we’ll only allow 18,000 refugees in.
    • The U.S. takes in less than 1 refugee for everyone 1,000 residents each year. France, Canada, and Israel take in 4 to 5 times what we do per capita. Even Ecuador and Venezuela take in more per capita than we do (around 7 times more). Iran takes in 12 times as many refugees per capita.
  1. A district court judge says she’ll block Trump’s changes to the rules for how long we can detain immigrant children.
  2. Insomniac Events (a music festival company) changes their tents into shelters for around 5,000 Bahamans displaced by Hurricane Dorian.
  3. It’s been four years since Germany took in 1 million + immigrants, mostly from Syria. After initial opposition, these immigrants are integrating and helping to revitalize rural areas.
  4. In 1968, Olympic sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos were expelled for raising their fists on the winners podium in protest of racial injustice. Now they’re being inducted into the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s Hall of Fame. Just another example of how prevailing attitudes change and aren’t always on the right side of history. Hmmm…
  5. Trump calls six non-white Members of Congress “savages.” Two are Jewish, one is Puerto Rican, two are African American, and one is Palestinian.

Climate:

  1. Three Norwegian legislators nominate 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg for the Nobel Peace Prize. While at the same time, Trump makes fun of her in a tweet.
    • Actually, since her speech, Greta has taken a shit-ton of online abuse from adults for her climate activism. What inspires people to be such assholes?
  1. Even Russia formally joins the Paris climate agreement.
  2. Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro says the Amazon rainforest isn’t on fire; it’s brimming with riches that he wants to develop.
  3. A new report based on 7,000 studies says that climate change has heated the oceans and changed the ecosystem so dramatically that seafood supplies are threatened. The warmer ocean waters also fuel cyclones and flooding along coastal areas.
  4. At a meeting of fossil fuel executives, an industry lawyer says it’s time for energy companies to accept their role in fueling climate change. For decades, major oil companies have downplayed the effects of climate change, despite documents showing that their own studies supported the science as far back as the mid-80s.
    • Ironically, Trump’s deregulation efforts are part of what brought the industry to their “Come to Jesus” moment, because while larger companies will keep in place safety and environmental protections, smaller companies might take shortcuts. And that could be bad for the industry as a whole.
  1. Summer’s only been gone a week, but winter’s chomping at the bit. Parts of the West get hit with up to three feet of snow, with record low temps and strong winds. Montana Governor Steve Bullock declares a winter storm emergency.

Budget/Economy:

  1. The oldest travel company in the world, Thomas Cook, collapses, leaving hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded on their vacations. The British government refused to intervene to save the company, but they do say they’ll assist travelers. The collapse puts 21,000 jobs at risk.
  2. Just when the market looks optimistic, Trump addresses the UN and accuses China of not keeping its promises to us and engaging in predatory business practices. Stocks have their worst day of the month.
  3. And then, stocks fall further as more Democrats express support for impeaching Trump. But it ends the week pretty even. There’s no real precedent for how markets react to impeachment proceedings.
  4. The housing market slows a bit, with mortgage applications falling 10.1% and prices remaining steady.
  5. Income inequality is now at its highest level in over 50 years. Inequality is still highest in wealthy coastal states, but states in the middle saw the greatest growth in inequality in 2018 (the latest year for which we have numbers).
  6. The IMF names Kristalina Georgieva to be their managing director. Why is this news? Because, of all things, she’s an economist. Right now, Fed Chair Jerome Power, incoming ECB President Christine Lagarde, and World Bank President David Malpass are all lawyers with no solid backgrounds in economics. Having a lawyer in these positions makes them more agile, but also means they lack the understanding behind economic moves.
  7. The New York Fed continues to provide cash infusions to the repo market, but things continue to worsen. The problem is the decreasing level of liquidity, meaning banks don’t have fast access to cash.
  8. It’s been a while since we’ve heard about a teachers’ strike, but Chicago teachers vote to strike, possibly sometime in October.
  9. The UK economy shrank for the first time in seven years, with the GDP falling by 0.2%. The problem is largely uncertainty over Brexit.

Miscellaneous:

  1. At least 22 people are dead and 700 are injured after a 5.6-magnitude earthquake hits northern Pakistan.
  2. The former Chair of the North Carolina GOP, Robin Hayes, plans to plead guilty to lying to the FBI in a bribery case involving a major political donor. Hayes is also a former Member of Congress.
  3. New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger reveals that in 2017, a U.S. official sent The New York Times an urgent warning that Egypt wanted to arrest the paper’s Cairo reporter, Declan Walsh. The official also said that the Trump administration had tried to keep the warning secret and let the arrest occur.

Polls:

  1. Support for impeaching Trump jumped 13 percentage points among Democrats and 12 points among voters since the whistleblower claim came out.
  2. A majority of Americans approve of moving ahead with impeachment inquiries.
  3. In a Monmouth University Poll, 6 of 10 Republicans don’t think Trump mentioned Biden to Ukraine president Zelensky. Here’s a quote directly from the 5-page excerpt Trump released:
    “There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it… It sounds horrible to me.”
    Moral of the story? READ THE DAMN SOURCE MATERIAL.

Week 138 in Trump

Posted on September 18, 2019 in Trump

In the 60s and 70s, Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River caught on fire — a lot.

Despite all the distractions, much of Trump’s accomplishments so far are around deregulations, and he caps it off this week by reversing Obama’s Clean Water rules. Even members of the industries that pollute say he’s gone too far. I’m happy to live in California, where although we struggle with pollution and greenhouse gases, we also work on and support solutions for it. I remember pictures from when I was young of smog-filled air and brown lakes and streams that sometimes caught on fire. Those should remind us why there’s a reason and a need for some federal regulation.

Here’s what else happened in politics for the week ending September 15…

Shootings This Week:

  1. The week‘s mass shootings (defined as killing or injuring four or more people). There’s not as much information as usual about most of these shootings:
    • A shooter injures four teenage boys in Chicago.
    • A shooting in Albuquerque, NM, leaves four people dead and two more injured.
    • Another shooting in Albuquerque leaves one person dead and three more injured.
    • A shooting in Lagrange, GA, leaves four people injured.
    • A shooting that started outside a bar in Oakland, CA, leaves two people dead and seven more injured.
    • A shooting in St. Louis, MO, leaves one person dead and three more injured.
  1. 145 CEOs send a letter to members of the Senate urging them to move forward on gun control measures. They say that doing nothing at this point is simply unacceptable. They want universal background checks and red flag laws, among other reforms.
  2. During the Democratic presidential primary debates, Beto O’Rourke says, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15’s.” In response, Texas legislator Briscoe Cain tweets, “My AR is ready for you Robert Francis.” (Robert Francis is Beto’s legal name.) Twitter sees it as a threat and removes the tweet, and Cain is reported to the FBI.
  3. Trump honors first responders from Dayton, OH, and El Paso, TX, at a White House event, but excludes first responders from the Gilroy Garlic Festival, where a shooting occurred just days before Dayton and El Paso.

Russia:

  1. The DOJ seeks to block House Democrats from getting the requested unredacted Mueller report along with the underlying evidence, including grand jury testimony.
  2. On the other hand, the DOJ does release parts of Mueller’s conflict-of-interest waiver. The portions released show that a top DOJ ethics official determined that Mueller’s background and reputation would make any reasonable person trust his independence. Despite this, Trump and his allies have tried to portray Mueller as running a team of Democrats executing a vendetta against Trump.

Legal Fallout:

  1. In response to claims that he’s profiting off the presidency, Trump says he’ll release an “extremely complete” report about his financial records. He doesn’t say when, though.
  2. It turns out that Air Force crews have used Trump’s Turnberry resort in Scotland at least 40 times since 2015, more than was previously thought.
  3. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals reinstates a lawsuit that accuses Trump of violating the emoluments clause. The suit was brought by businesses that compete with Trump. A separate emoluments clause brought by two state attorneys general was already dismissed, and another one brought by Democrats in Congress is still in court.
  4. The Director of National Intelligence has neglected to turn over required whistleblower documents to Congress. Intelligence employees can report urgent concerns to the Inspector General, who has 14 days to report those concerns to the Director of National Intelligence. The Director then has 7 days to forward the information to the intelligence committees in Congress.
    • Acting DNI Joseph Maguire has not forwarded the information by the deadline, which was September 2.
    • Maguire did, however, bring the information to the DOJ.
    • The IG alerted House Intelligence Committee heads to let them know about it.
    • Committee Chair Adam Schiff sends two letters to Maguire and finally subpoenas the information.
  1. Michael Flynn’s sentencing is set for December 18th. This has been a long time coming—he pleaded guilty on December 1, 2017.
  2. The House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight committees all open investigations into whether Trump, Giuliani and others tried to manipulate the Ukraine justice system and applied pressure to Ukraine’s government in order to help with Trump’s re-election.
  3. The House Judiciary Committee approves a resolution defining an impeachment roadmap and making changes to their operations to make their hearings similar to Watergate.
    • This gives the chairman, Jerry Nadler, powers to convene hearings more quickly.
    • It gets rid of the questioning format where each member gets 5 minutes to question a witness. The new format will allow committee staff counsels to do the questioning.
    • The committee can now collect information in secret sessions.
    • The committee is looking at the hush money payments to mistresses, allegations of emoluments clause violations, and five areas of obstruction of justice outlined in Robert Mueller’s report.
  1. After the DOJ refuses Andrew McCabe’s request to drop their case against him, the grand jury for the case is called back to DC courthouses. But by the end of the week, they still haven’t indicted McCabe on anything. We don’t know if they rejected the indictment, because the DOJ isn’t talking about it.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor writes a blistering dissent to the ruling that Trump can carry out his “third-country” ban on asylum seekers while the lawsuit is going through the courts. The ban requires refugees who pass through a third country to apply for asylum there before applying in the U.S.
    • The Supreme Court acknowledges that Trump will likely lose the case on legal merits because we don’t have a safe third-country agreement with Mexico.
  1. Two New York Times reporters release an excerpt of a new book about their investigation into the allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh from his high school and college days. They uncover another allegation, but the victim doesn’t remember it happening. A witness says he saw it happen. And now everyone’s talking about impeaching Kavanaugh again.
  2. And what timing. The DOJ gives the lawyers who worked to push through Kavanaugh’s confirmation the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service. It’s the second highest honor in the DOJ.
  3. Trump says “his” DOJ should rescue Kavanaugh. 1) They’re not his DOJ and 2) they don’t represent SCOTUS.

Healthcare:

  1. After six people die and 450 get sick with a vaping-related lung disease, Health and Human Services announces they’ll pull flavored e-cigarettes off the market leaving only tobacco-flavored ones.
  2. The number of uninsured children in the U.S. went up by almost half a million in 2018 from 2017. This is the second year the number increased. One reason is that they’re being dropped from Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
  3. The number of uninsured Americans increases for the first time since the ACA passed in 2010. 27.5 million people now lack health insurance.
  4. A federal court blocks North Dakota’s law that would’ve required doctors to lie to their patients about being able to reverse a medical abortion.
  5. Purdue Pharma reaches a tentative agreement for a $3 billion settlement. But then we find out that the Sackler family, which owns Purdue, is trying to hide a significant amount of wealth in companies, trusts, and offshore accounts.
    • The New York State Attorney General says they found at least $1 billion in wire transfers.
    • Some states reject the proposed agreement and instead want something closer to $12 billion.
  1. An anti-vaccination activist throws a menstrual cup filled with blood at state senators in California as they’re wrapping up their legislative session. They had earlier passed a bill tightening vaccination rules and a bill allowing abortion pills on California college campuses. It’s not clear which one she was protesting.
  2. The House of Representatives passes a bill requiring carbon monoxide detectors in public housing.

International:

  1. Iran acknowledges that they’re breaking their part of the Iran Deal, just like they promised they would when the U.S. made it impossible for all involved parties to keep their parts of the deal.
  2. The Senate confirms Kelly Kraft as UN Ambassador. Kraft was previously the Ambassador to Canada, but didn’t spend much time there. She also thinks there are “good scientists on both sides” of the climate debate.
  3. Trump considers easing up on the pressure on Iran, and gets pushback from John Bolton (who probably would like nothing more than to invade Iran). That might’ve led to his ouster.
  4. In the run-up to the Israeli elections, Prime Minister Netanyahu promises to annex all Israeli settlements (a third of the West Bank) if voters elect him again.
    • Wait. Didn’t Israel just have elections? Yes, but Netanyahu failed to build a coalition government and now they’re having redo.
  1. A court in Scotland rules that Prime Minister Boris Johnson lied to the queen in order to obtain approval to suspend Parliament.
  2. The Wall Street Journal reports that at the G-7 Summit in France last month, Trump loudly asked, “Where’s my favorite dictator?” He was looking for Egyptian President (and real life dictator) Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
  3. Saudi Arabia’s oil industry suffers major losses in a series of drone attacks. Yemeni Houthi rebels take credit, but Mike Pompeo says Iran is behind the attacks. Half of Saudi Arabia’s crude production shuts down for the day, and oil prices spikes.
    • Trump tweets that we’re “locked and loaded” and waiting for further information from Saudi Arabia to determine a plan of action.
    • After the attacks, Trump says he never said he’d meet with Iranian President Rouhani without conditions. It was Trump’s own cabinet who made those claims in the first place (Pompeo and Mnuchin).
  1. A counterterrorism operation results in the death of Osama bin Laden’s son, Hamza Bin Laden.
  2. It turns out that Trump is skeptical of using foreign intelligence from covert sources (aka spies). He says they aren’t credible and undermine his relationships with foreign leaders. This comes out after the kerfuffle about extracting our mole in the Kremlin, where news agencies have all but outed his identity.
  3. Federal agencies, including the FBI, accuse Israel of trying to spy on Trump by putting cell phone surveillance devices called StingRays near the White House. Trump defends Israel, saying he finds it hard to believe the devices were placed by Israeli agents.
  4. The U.S. prepares to send 150 additional troops to Syria despite Trump’s previous announcement of a troop withdrawal.
  5. After demonstrators march in Hong Kong again, violence breaks out between protestors and police and between different protest groups. Protestors throw gasoline bombs toward the Legislative Council Building, while police respond with tear gas and water canons.
    • Protestors also ask Britain and the U.S. to liberate them from China.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. North Carolina politics are our worst example of democracy, and this week is no different. Republicans in the State House have been waiting for the chance to override the governor’s veto of a budget bill passed by both state chambers. Both chambers are held by Republicans, and the governor is a Democrat. They get their chance on 9/11 when Democrats are told they don’t need to be in chambers for a vote and Republicans are told they do need to be in chambers for a vote. Now the State Senate needs to vote to override the veto.
    • Conflicting reports emerge after the public outcry over this, with Republicans saying Democrats knew about this. So we’re stuck in a he-said/she-said moment.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

  1. The U.S. Air Force releases a report describing each of the military projects that will lose their funding because of Trump’s wall. The report says that this plan puts our national security at greater risk.
  2. The defunding affects over 50 military projects, in the U.S. and abroad, all to build 175 miles of fence along the 2,000-mile-long border.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Trump’s xenophobia is on display. He dismisses the idea of letting residents of the hardest hit parts of the Bahamas into the U.S. on humanitarian grounds He thinks they should just go to the “large sections” of their country that weren’t hit, because “bad people” might exploit the refugee process. He then announces that he won’t extend temporary protected status to them either. Despite that, 1,500 Bahamans have come here.
  2. Trump’s African American leaves the GOP. Gregory Cheadle was at a Trump rally when Trump pointed him out and declared him “my African American.” Cheadle’s now running for the House as an Independent. When made aware of this, Trump doesn’t remember who Cheadle is.
  3. Remember how the judge in Brock Turner’s rape case let him off with a six-month sentence because he was a good kid with a promising future? That judge got knocked off the bench but then somehow secured a job as a girls tennis coach. The judge who thinks boys who rape girls don’t need to be punished is coaching… girls. It takes just a day or two of opposition for the school to realize their mistake and fire him.
  4. After John Bolton’s ouster, Trump names Charles M. Kupperman to be acting National Security Director. Kupperman once served on the board of the Center for Security Policy, designated as an anti-Muslim hate group. The center spread unfounded stories about Obama being Muslim, and released a report on how the Muslim Brotherhood is stealthily imposing Sharia law in Western countries.
  5. The Supreme Court ruling that Trump can temporarily enforce his safe third-country asylum rule for refugees who travel through Mexico affects people who started the asylum process earlier this summer who now might not be eligible. They’ll have to start the process all over again.
    • And I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but Mexico has no safe third-country agreement with us, so it’s pretty certain Trump will lose this in court. So all this upending of refugees who are seeking asylum will be a lot of harm for no good reason.
    • Again, Mexico is not a safe country for many people fleeing gangs, because the gangs just follow them there. Refugees waiting to get into the U.S. are routinely kidnapped in Mexico.
  1. We still don’t know the immigration status of people who are getting life-saving medical treatment in the U.S. through special medical visas. They are supposed to self-deport at the end of the week. Administration officials still can’t explain how or why the rules were changed, though we do know that a top official recommends that Citizenship and Immigration Services not be allowed to delay these deportations.
  2. A Muslim mayor in New Jersey says he was stopped by Customs and Border Protection agents at JFK airport, where he was detained for three hours and questioned about his knowledge of terrorists. CPB confiscated his cell phone and held it for 12 days.
  3. Italy loosens its hard stance on taking in refugees, allowing a rescue vessel to bring its 82 refugees ashore. Italy’s new administration is looking to end the previous administration’s hostility toward migrants.
  4. An arsonist destroys a 119-year-old synagogue in Duluth, MN.
  5. California adds Iowa to its travel ban for trips funded by taxpayers. This is the 11th state to be banned by California for perceived violations of civil rights. In Iowa’s case, they removed gender identity protections under Medicaid.
  6. Anti-ICE protestors stage a sit-in at the Microsoft store in New York City, demanding the company end its contracts with ICE. 76 are arrested.
  7. Maybe #MeToo has been more successful than I thought. In 2018 (and for the first time), more CEOs were let go because of ethical lapses than because of financial performance or struggles within the board, and sexual indiscretions were among those ethical lapses.
  8. California upends its private prison industry by banning private prisons, including migrant detention centers.

Climate:

  1. To put a cap on SharpieGate, it turns out that Trump pushed his aides to have NOAA refute weather forecasters about Hurricane Dorian’s path. In response, Mick Mulvaney asked Wilbur Ross to have NOAA spokespeople contradict the forecasters in Alabama who corrected the president on Dorian’s path. NOAA spokespeople did so, even though the forecasters were right.
  2. And then the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology opens an investigation into whether Ross pressured NOAA’s administrator into publicly contradicting their own forecasters. Seems pretty cut and dried.
  3. The Trump administration repeals Obama’s Waters of the US rule that protected drinking water for over 100 million Americans and that extended the federal government’s ability to limit pollution in large bodies of water. The EPA also plans to further restrict what can be defined as protected bodies of water later this year.
  4. In response to all of Trump’s rollbacks of environmental and labor protections, the California legislature passes a bill to reinstate all of those protections in the state. It’s not certain the governor will sign it, though, because some of the water provisions could adversely affect farmers in the Central Valley.
  5. Somalia is in the midst of its worst drought in 8 years.
  6. The House passes a bill to block offshore drilling in Alaska near the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Budget/Economy:

  1. Trump calls on the Fed to reduce interest rates to “ZERO, or less.” Many countries in Europe have done the same to bolster their sluggish economies.
    • If we lower our interest rates too much in an economy that’s still doing well, we won’t be able to lower them again to slow down a recession should one occur.
  1. The Consumer Price Index rose 2.4% in August over the previous year, indicating possible sustained inflation. This could make it harder for the Fed to justify lowering interest rates again.
  2. Trump says the Fed should start refinancing our debt. There’s no precedent for us to do that, but maybe it’s possible? I don’t know.
  3. Trumps postpones his latest tariffs against Chinese imports for two weeks in order to sooth a jumpy stock market. China responds by suspending tariff increases on U.S. pork and soybeans.
  4. Economists say the damage is done, though, and there are clear downturns in fixed investment and capital expenditures, CEO and business confidence, job openings and plans for hiring, consumer spending, and hours worked per week.
    • They blame the trade war for reducing U.S. employment by 300,000 jobs, which is expected to be 450,000 by the end of the year. If nothing changes, it could be 900,000 by the end of 2020.
  1. The deficit passed $1 trillion for the fiscal year, but there’s one month left in the year, and that’s the month that quarterly tax payments come in. So the deficit could narrow.
  2. Corporations paid 7.6% of the total taxes collected by the U.S. government in 2018, nearly a 60-year low.
  3. California passes a statewide rent control bill limiting annual rent increases and tightening rules around evictions. California’s housing costs are soaring, contributing to the problems of homelessness and poverty. Very few states have rent controls, but housing is a problem across the country, so states will be looking to see how rent control succeeds.
  4. At the same time, Trump orders White House officials to address homelessness in California. He’s often attacked California over this problem, placing the blame on Democratic politicians. He calls California’s homelessness problems a “disgrace to our country.”
    • We’ll see what his plans are. It’s a very tough issue to tackle, especially with a weakened social safety net and rising housing costs nationwide.

Elections:

  1. Trump takes time out from presidenting to hold a campaign rally for a Representative seat in North Carolina. The race is super close, but the Republican pulls it out in the end.
  2. A federal judge blocks Tennessee’s latest law restricting paid voter registration drives. The judge says that state officials didn’t offer any basis for the law, which would restrict free speech and intimidate organizers.
  3. Trump posts a “Trump 2024” campaign sign, joking about serving more than two terms. Haha. Ha. Ha. No.
  4. During the Democratic presidential primary debates, ABC airs an ad from the GOP that depicts a fire burning Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s face and then showing dead bodies and skeletons from the Khmer Rouge. Because socialism=Khmer Rouge, right?

Miscellaneous:

  1. John Bolton is out! This makes number 54 gone from Trump’s administration. Trump says he fired him; Bolton says he resigned. Bolton goes so far as to tweet into a live airing of Fox & Friends to correct the record.
  2. I rarely agree with Bolton, but I agree with him when he said meeting the Taliban on U.S. soil so close to 9/11 would be tone deaf. The meeting was Trump’s idea, and Bolton’s objections annoyed him.
  3. Trump calls H.R. McMaster, his second National Security Advisor, to say that he misses him. It turns out that Trump has consulted with McMaster a few times since he fired him by tweet.
  4. Three of Bolton’s aides also resign.