This is the first in a series of catch-up blogs over the previous month. It’s the week that the administration finally seems to be taking the coronavirus really seriously, and the onslaught of news ever since has been daunting, to say the least. Trump gives a press conference on the coronavirus this week and says coronavirus is more like the flu than like Ebola. In his words:

Well, because this is a much different problem than Ebola. Ebola, you disintegrated, especially at the beginning. They’ve made a lot of progress now on Ebola. But with Ebola — we were talking about it before — you disintegrated.

Here’s hoping none of us disintegrate, and here’s what happened in politics for the week ending March 1…

Shootings This Week:

I’m reducing this section to a summary until we are past the coronavirus crisis, which I hope is soon. There were 4 mass shootings in the U.S. this week (defined as killing and/or injuring 4 or more people). Shooters kill 8 people and injure 13 more.

Russia:

1. Trump’s re-election campaign files a lawsuit against the New York Times for its coverage of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The campaign claims the NYT falsely accused Trump of making a deal with Putin’s allies to exchange help with his campaign for policies favorable to Russia.
2. Trump’s national security advisor Robert O’Brien contradicts our intelligence agencies, the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the House Intelligence Committee, saying that there’s “no intelligence behind” claims of Russian interference in the 2020 elections and that Russia prefers Trump to the other candidates. He did agree, however, that Russia is meddling to help Bernie Sanders.
3. The House Judiciary Committee wants to interview the four lawyers who resigned from Roger Stone’s case when their sentencing recommendation was reversed by the DOJ.

Legal Fallout:

1. A federal appeals court reverses an earlier court decision and rules that Congress can’t sue in court to enforce its subpoenas of officials in the executive branch. The judges characterize the situation in the case as a political dispute (it was about subpoenaing Don McGahn to testify about some of Mueller’s findings).
2. Trump tells aides his administration is filled with snakes and bad people. He’s had people compiling lists for the past year and a half of people they don’t think are loyal.
3. It’s no secret that Trump has had and continues to have angry reactions to advisors who brief him on inconvenient truths, including firing those advisors. Now current and former officials say that this has caused them to withhold or couch the information they give him. This means that our Commander in Chief is not making decisions based on complete and factual information because it makes him angry.
4. Protestors gather in London ahead of Julian Assange’s extradition hearing to demand that Assange be released. Who still supports this guy? He is a bad actor.
5. Trump accuses Adam Schiff of leaking classified information about Russia’s meddling in our 2020 elections, and he issues a threat that Schiff will be having a very unpleasant experience. Whatever that means.

Impeachment:

1. Trump calls John Bolton a traitor. The White House is working to block publication of Bolton’s book, at least until after the November election.

Courts/Justice:

1. While in India, Trump demands that Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Sonia Sotomayor recuse themselves from any cases involving Trump. Chief Justice John Roberts doesn’t address the statement.
2. The DOJ has a network of U.S. attorneys who are responsible for receiving, processing, and analyzing unsolicited information about Ukraine, including that from Rudy Giuliani. U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue (EDNY) is coordinating this effort.
3. At the 2020 National Religious Broadcasters Convention, Attorney General William Barr says, “Men are far likelier to obey rules that come from god than to abide by the abstract outcome of an ad hoc, utilitarian calculus.” Part of Barr’s job is to ensure religious freedom (including the freedom to be non-religious) and to uphold the separation of church and state.
4. A federal judge rules that Ken Cuccinelli’s appointment to the acting head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was a violation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act because he never did and never will serve as a subordinate to a USCIS official. This means all policies put in place under him are technically void.

Healthcare:

1. According to a whistleblower complaint, the Department of Health and Human Services didn’t train workers for infection control or provide them with adequate gear before sending them to receive evacuees from Wuhan, China. The whistleblower was reassigned after she raised concerns about this.
2. Trump says the coronavirus is “very well under control” in the U.S., and Larry Kudlow says we have it contained (I’m not sure what an economic advisor knows about pandemics, but whatever).
3. The mortality rate for people who are infected with coronavirus is thought to be around 2%, much higher than the flu.
4. Rush Limbaugh says the coronavirus is a bioweapon created by China for the purpose of bringing down Trump.
5. Conservative news outlets and politicians continue to call it “the Chinese coronavirus” or “the China virus” despite the fear and hatred it stokes against all Asians.
6. The CDC says that it’s inevitable that coronavirus will spread in the U.S. Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, says that coronavirus is unprecedented and could be severe. The World Health Organization (WHO) says the world is not ready to combat this.
7. Trump requests Congressional approval for $2.5 billion in emergency funds to combat the virus. Chuck Schumer calls for $8.5 billion instead. To compare, Congress appropriated $5.4 billion for Ebola and $7 billion for H1N1.
8. Trump appoints Mike Pence to lead the administration’s response to coronavirus. And now Azar says that our containment strategy is working.
9. Trump says the U.S. is developing a vaccine rapidly, but the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says it won’t be available for over a year.
10. The U.S. has its first case of community spread coronavirus infection, meaning that person wasn’t in a high-risk group who traveled to a foreign country or had contact with someone known to be infected with it.
11. The White House tells government health experts to get approval from Pence before talking in public about coronavirus. Subsequently, health officials cancel their appearances on Sunday shows.
12. Just in case I haven’t reminded you before, Trump eliminated the pandemic response team set up by Obama’s administration after the Ebola outbreak, merging the responsibilities of three different agencies into one.
13. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney says that coronavirus will likely disrupt our everyday life, but that we should ignore the media’s coverage of the outbreak. He says the media ignored the administration’s initial response because they thought impeachment would bring down Trump, but now they’re all over it because they think coronavirus will bring down Trump. (We’ve been hearing about the administration’s response since January; I’m not sure what the media ignored.)
14. House Republicans walk out of a private briefing on the coronavirus after Democrats criticize the administration’s response to it.
15. Trump says the coronavirus is the Democrats’ new hoax.
16. The death toll in Washington State rises to six, four of whom were residents at the same nursing center. Genetic testing indicates that coronavirus might have been spreading in the U.S. undetected for six weeks.
17. Washington state declares a state of emergency so they can get the assistance they need to handle coronavirus more effectively and quickly.
18. The coronavirus test kits initially sent out by the CDC included a faulty component, so tests have not been accurate. Some experts think the reason our number of confirmed cases isn’t higher is that not enough test kits are available and the government is limiting the testing to people who already have respiratory symptoms and who’ve traveled to certain places or have been in contact with someone who has.
19. Now might be a good time to mention that the CDC has nearly 700 vacant positions due to Trump’s hiring freeze.
20. A U.S. soldier in South Korea tests positive for coronavirus. South Korea has the second-highest number of confirmed cases.
21. China orders a lockdown of the 60 million people in Wuhan province, ordering people to stay at home, and closing down public transportation and entertainment venues across the country.
22. Trump says there’s no reason to panic about the pandemic.
23. Trump bans travel to Iran, a major hotspot for infections, and warns Americans away from traveling to South Korea and Italy.
24. Trump says they’re using “a lot of different elements of medical” to fight coronavirus.
25. The Trump administration bans travel to Iran because of the size of the coronavirus outbreak there. They elevate travel warnings to Italy and South Korea.
26. Trump says the virus is “very much under control.” He says the number of people infected with the virus is “going very substantially down, not up.” He later says that the total number of coronavirus cases will be “close to zero.”
27. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a block on Trump’s “gag rule,” which prevents family planning agencies that receive federal funding from performing abortions or even referring patients for an abortion. The ruling says the HHS rule was not arbitrary and capricious.

International:

1. Trump travels to India and holds a rally at a very large cricket stadium. He announces a weapons deal worth $3 billion but doesn’t mention two controversial moves by India’s President Modi—revoking Kashmir’s statehood and changing the citizenship laws. Both of these discriminate against Muslims.
2. Three days of violence erupt in New Delhi during Trump’s visit, resulting in the death of 20 people with at least 190 more injured.

• • Hindu rioters attack and terrorize Muslims who are protesting a discriminatory new citizenship law. They even break into Muslims’ homes and assault them in their own homes.

• • Hindu rioters damage mosques and set Muslim-owned shops on fire.
  • Muslims huddle in mosques for safety.
  • Trump refuses to discuss the violence with Modi, from one nationalist to another.

3. Violent protests break out in Hong Kong again, resulting in the arrest of 115 people. The threat of the coronavirus had tamped down protests in recent weeks.
4. In Greece, protests intensify over plans to build migrant camps on Lesbos.
5. On Dominican Independence Day, protests arise over the suspension of municipal elections, which officials say was done because of voting system malfunctions.
6. Anti-government protests continue in Chile, France, Lebanon, and Iraq. It’s an angry world out there right now.
7. Trump nominates Rep. John Ratcliffe to be Director of National Intelligence. This is Ratcliffe’s second go at being confirmed by Congress. Last year he withdrew because of resistance from Congress. But this resets the clock for acting DNI Richard Grenell, who can now stay in that position several months longer.
8. The U.S. and the Taliban come to a peace agreement to end the war in Afghanistan. As part of the deal, the US will withdraw all troops within 14 months and the Taliban will not allow terrorists to use Afghan soil to plan attacks against the U.S. and its allies (though they refuse to use the word “terrorist”).

• • The Taliban previously banned girls from attending school and women from public life in general. There are no requirements in the deal to protect their new-found rights.
  • The Taliban has effectively blocked the Afghani government from participating in the peace talks.
  • John Bolton warns about legitimizing the Taliban.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. Greyhound agrees to stop letting Border Patrol board their buses indiscriminately in order to search passengers for undocumented immigrants. The problem with allowing them to board is that it infringes on the rights of American citizens who simply don’t carry around their “papers” every day.
2. A federal appeals court rules that Trump can punish sanctuary cities by withholding grant money for law enforcement agencies who refuse to cooperate with ICE.
3. On the other hand, a federal appeals court blocks Trump’s policy forcing asylum seekers crossing the southern border to remain in Mexico while they await their court hearings. The same court upheld a lower court decision that Trump can’t deny asylum to people who cross the border illegally.
4. Both Republican and Democratic legislators criticize the Pentagon for diverting billions of dollars in defense funding to Trump’s border wall. They say it undermines the arguments for increasing military spending if they don’t need the money that was already appropriated.
5. The Supreme Court rules that the family of a Mexican boy killed by U.S. border patrol while the boy was on the Mexican side of the border cannot sue. The border patrol agent was on U.S. soil when it occurred.
6. The Supreme Court agrees to hear a case about whether a city (Philadelphia) can cancel a contract with an adoption agency that refuses to allow gay couples to take in foster children. Philadelphia says the agencies go against their anti-discrimination policies, but the adoption agency says the city is infringing on their religious beliefs.
7. Trump’s administration finalizes a rule making it harder for non-English speakers to qualify for Social Security disability benefits.
8. The DOJ creates a new office, the Denaturalization Section, tasked with stripping naturalized citizens of their rights. Their initial focus is on people who are believed to obtained their citizenship fraudulently.
9. The DOJ files a statement of interest supporting a photographer who’s suing Louisville, KY, over a city ordinance preventing local businesses from discriminating against gay customers. Because it’s not the job of the DOJ to make sure justice is applied fairly, right?
10. Trump is looking at closing the southern border to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. He does also say that the southern border doesn’t seem like much of a problem at this point, so there’s only one reason I can think he’d want to close down that border.
11. A group of 11 Republicans wants the border closed because they think an outbreak in Central America would cause a rush to our border.
12. In a nearly unanimous vote, the House passes a bill making lynching a federal hate crime. It’s hard to believe they have to pass a bill like this.

Climate:

1. The Fifth District Court of Appeals throws out a Kern County, CA, law that would allow oil producers to use a blanket environmental approval for 72,000 new oil wells. The court says Kern County officials ignored threats to public health and impacts on municipal and agricultural water supplies. If you think there aren’t enough oil wells in Kern…
   
   Oil fields in Kern County.
2. Trump’s administration suddenly halts a program to protect New York City and surrounding areas from flooding. The proposal was a giant sea wall, similar to the one that appears to be going ahead in the Gulf of Mexico to protect oil refineries in Texas from the effects of climate change.
3. A peach farmer in Missouri is awarded over $250 million in damages in a court case accusing Monsanto and BASF of pesticide damage that wiped out orchards, gardens, and organic farm fields. The jury found the chemical companies conspired to create an ecological disaster.
4. JPMorgan Chase announces it will discontinue the financing of several coal-related projects and will not fund oil and gas drilling in the Arctic.
5. Solar tariffs are projected to result in 62,000 lost jobs in the U.S. solar industry by 2021.

Budget/Economy:

1. The Dow Jones drops around 1,000 points 3 different days this week, largely over coronavirus anxieties. The S&P and Nasdaq fall similarly. Trading is volatile, and these are some of the biggest single-day losses in the Dow’s history. It’s the worst decline in one week since the 2008 crisis.

• • Trump blames Tuesday’s drop on the Democratic debate… which happened Tuesday night.

2. Trump warns aides not to talk about the negative impacts of the virus for fear the stock market will continue to slide. He also accuses news agencies of panicking the markets.
3. Larry Kudlow says we should take advantage of these stock market dips by buying in. Because everyone can afford to do that, right?
4. The Trump administration is looking at tax cuts among other things to mitigate the economic effects of the coronavirus outbreak. Trump also pushes the Fed to get involved, indicating he wants another rate cut.
5. Due to the slowdown in manufacturing in China from the outbreak, the FDA is looking for alternative sources for medical devices and drugs.

Elections:

1. A journalist created an online persona to like and follow MAGA-related pages, join groups, and receive messages from Trump supporters.

• • He found that there’s a massive disinformation campaign being disseminated from the campaign to re-elect Trump, partisan media organizations, and pro-Trump political operatives.
  • They work together to spread conspiracy theories, false narratives, and to sow confusion.
  • So please don’t believe what you read on Facebook unless it comes from a trusted source. And no, Tom who lives down the street from you is not a trusted source, and Mary who was your BFF in high school isn’t either.

2. Joe Biden wins most of the delegates in South Carolina’s primaries, and even though Tom Steyer comes in third he drops out of the presidential race.
3. Trump blames the falling stock market on Bernie Sanders because investors are worried he’ll win. He says if he doesn’t win, “you’re going to see a crash like you’ve never seen before.”
4. Trump worries that the coronavirus outbreak could hurt his re-election campaign.