Tag: EPA

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.

Week 97 in Trump

Posted on December 4, 2018 in Politics, Trump

Former President George H.W. Bush lying in state in the Rotunda. (Morry Gash/Pool/Getty Images)

George H.W. Bush passed away at 94 years old; just 7 months after his wife, Barbara, passed away. He’ll lie in state, and December 5 will be a national day of mourning for him. And even over this, we were so fast to divide ourselves. One group is wistful for a president with his grace and character; the other group thinks he was just plain awful. Can’t we just, for a short period, let people eulogize and remember a man who’s long and full life just came to an end? Give the family some time to grieve, and then go ahead and point out his policy flaws. We don’t have to hate at every turn. It makes me tired…

And you know what else makes me tired? Everything else that happened last week in politics…

Missed from Last Week:

  1. In his first year, Trump ordered a complete and independent audit of the Pentagon. Now the auditors say the job is impossible to complete. The Pentagon fudges their numbers and documents in order to justify increases to the Pentagon budget (whether or not the money gets used–a common business practice). Their records have irregularities and errors, and lack the needed information. The Pentagon’s defense? “We didn’t expect to pass it.”
  2. A federal judges rules that a lawsuit against the Trump Foundation can proceed. The suit accuses Trump of misusing funds from the charity for political and personal gain. Trump’s legal team says he can’t be sued because he’s president; the judge says he can.

Russia:

  1. Robert Mueller drops Paul Manafort’s plea deal, saying Manafort breached their agreement by continually lying to investigators. On top of that, Manafort’s lawyers were keeping Trump’s legal team abreast of their discussions with Mueller’s team.
    • Mueller considers filing additional charges against Manafort, and will file a report on what Manafort lied about.
    • Since Manafort already pleaded guilty, he’s now on the hook for those crimes… and also probably for conspiring to defraud the U.S. and obstruct justice.
    • According to The Guardian, Manafort met with WikiLeak’s Julian Assange around the same time he joined Trump’s campaign, and the two had met a few times before that. Both deny they ever met and no other media outlet has confirmed this story, so I’m taking this report with a grain of salt.
    • After Mueller pulls Manafort’s plea deal, Trump says Mueller’s gone rogue and is forcing witnesses to lie.
    • Rudy Giuliani brags about the arrangement with Manafort’s lawyers. He says it was a valuable source of information about the investigation of which his client is a subject.
    • Trump doesn’t rule out a pardon for Manafort.
  1. Michael Cohen enters a new plea agreement with Mueller, pleading guilty to lying about when talks with Russia about a Trump property ended. Cohen told Congress that the talks ended in January 2016, but they were still going on until June 2016. We have the texts to prove it. 
Cohen is the 33rd person charged by Mueller in the Russia probe.
  2. Cohen says he spoke with Trump and his family about the Trump Tower negotiations during that time; previously Cohen said they didn’t talk about it.
  3. The new court filings show that:
    • Cohen, Trump, Felix Sater, and Russian officials were in negotiations from January through June of 2016 for Trump to travel to Russia to meet with Putin.
    • They discussed Cohen going to Russia to negotiate the details of the visit before the Republican National Convention, and Trump going to Russia after.
    • In early to mid-June of 2016, Cohen told Sater that the trips were cancelled and that the Trump property deal was also cancelled.
    • Cohen says he lied to Congress to limit the Russia investigation and to support Trump.
    • Trump Organization offered to give Putin a $50 million penthouse in the tower.
    • Trump lied to us all when he said he didn’t have any interests in Russia.
    • Trump Jr.’s testimony to Congress contradicts Michael Cohen’s testimony.
    • Trump was kept abreast of his campaign members who were contacting both Russia and Wikileaks, and they subsequently tried to hide those activities.
  1. Rudy Giuliani first says Cohen is a liar, and then says that Trump’s written answers match Cohen’s version. So either Trump is a liar, or Cohen is telling the truth.
  2. Trump says Cohen is a liar and a weak person who’s just trying to save himself from receiving a prison sentence for unrelated charges.
  3. The revelations about Trump Tower Moscow aren’t necessarily criminal or impeachable. Trump says there was nothing wrong with him continuing to do business as a candidate. Which is technically true. However, the American public have a right to know where a presidential candidate’s financial interests stand.
  4. We now know that the final House committee reports submitted by the majority Republicans include the lies from Cohen’s and Trump Jr.’s original testimony. Committee reports submitted by minority Democrats include snippets of emails that contradict those lies. Democrats want to call Cohen back in to correct the record.
  5. As a results of this plea deal, Senate committees begin reviewing the testimony given to them.
  6. The Trump Tower Moscow deal was dissolved right around the time the Washington Post published the first article detailing the Russian hacking of the DNC servers.
  7. Republican Senator Jeff Flake demands a vote on a bill to protect Mueller, or he’ll stop voting to advance Trump’s judicial nominations to a full Senate vote. Republican Senator Mike Lee blocked a bipartisan effort to force a vote on the bill.
  8. An email trail between Roger Stone and Jerome Corsi, who pulled back on his plea deal with Mueller, shows that two months before WikiLeaks dumped Clinton campaign emails, they were discussing details about an October dump that would be damaging to Clinton.
  9. Mueller investigates call logs from the 2016 campaign where Trump made several late-night calls from a blocked number to Roger Stone.
  10. Trump cancels his meeting with Putin at the G-20 summit over Russia’s attack on Ukraine, and then says he’ll meet with Putin one-on-one. They ended up having an informal meeting.
  11. James Comey asks a federal judge to block a request from Republicans in the House that he testify in private. In the end, Comey agrees to testify behind closed doors, but a transcript of his testimony will be made public.
  12. British intelligence say that Putin was likely behind the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter on UK soil.
  13. Democrats in the House start making a list of targets to investigate when they take back over the House next year. They’ll likely revisit the 64 subpoenas that Republicans blocked over the past year and a half.

Legal Fallout:

  1. German police raid Deutsche Bank headquarters as part of a money laundering investigation spawned by the Panama Papers. The bank was previously fined for helping to launder Russian money.
  2. The raid has no apparent ties to Trump, but after an internal investigation earlier this year, Deutsche Bank found questionable transactions by Jared Kushner, which they shared with Mueller. They were also one of the few banks willing to loan money to Trump after his financial collapses.
  3. Federal agents raid the Chicago offices of Ed Burke, who previously did tax work for Trump. We don’t know if the raid is related to Trump at all.
  4. It was a mystery to me why Facebook would launch a smear campaign against George Soros when defending themselves over personal data breaches. It turns out that Soros criticized the company at the World Economic Forum, so Sheryl Sandberg asked for information on whether Soros had something to gain from that. This led her staff to hire a GOP opposition research firm.
  5. House Judiciary Committee Chair Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) says that Ivanka’s use of personal email is OK because it’s just really hard to comply when you’re dealing with so many emails and so many rules. He says it’s nothing like Hillary’s use of a personal email server.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Mike Pence casts the tie-breaking vote when Jeff Flake refuses to advance Trump’s judicial nominee, Thomas Farr, out of committee for a floor vote. Flake didn’t refuse to advance Farr because of Farr’s long and sordid history of working to suppress the Black vote in North Carolina; Flake refused to advance him because he wants McConnell to bring the Mueller bill to the floor for a vote.
  2. Farr might have made it out of committee, but he wasn’t confirmed in the Senate. It turns out that the Black Republican in the Senate isn’t fond of judges who work to disenfranchise Black voters, so he joined Jeff Flake in voting against him.
  3. Christine Blasey Ford announces she’ll donate the remaining money raised from a GoFundMe campaign to organizations that support survivors of sexual assault. Up till now, the money went to securing and relocating her family multiple times due to threats of death and violence.
  4. New reports allege that Acting Attorney General Matt Whittaker continued his support of a patent company that was engaged in fraud while at the same time hindering an FTC investigation into that company.
  5. Whittaker is also under investigation by the Office of the Special Counsel (not to be confused with Robert Mueller) for possible Hatch Act violations for accepting political contributions while employed by the government.
  6. Bill Shine, the White House deputy communications chief, will receive about $15 million from Fox News over the next two years as severance pay and bonus. At the same time, he gets a U.S. government salary and he’s in a position to show favoritism to Fox News.

Healthcare:

  1. New enrollments for health insurance through the ACA is down 13% from last year at this time. The administration isn’t providing marketing or education for help with signing up (again).
  2. Drug overdoses reached a record high of 70,237 in 2017, largely due to fentanyl.
  3. Bloomberg’s foundation plans to donate $50 million to fight the opioid epidemic. They’ll start with a limited number of states and find out which programs are the most effective. Then they’ll put more money towards those programs in other states.
  4. The number of uninsured children increased in 2017 for the first time in a decade. Texas has the largest number of uninsured children, partly because they’re one of the states that refused to expand Medicaid under the ACA.

International:

  1. Just before Jamal Khashoggi was murdered, the Saudi Crown Prince exchanged several messages with the senior aide accused of overseeing the murder. These messages are part of what led our intelligence agencies to conclude that the Crown Prince likely ordered the killing.
  2. Even Mitch McConnell is pushing for a congressional response against Saudi Arabia in the Khashoggi case.
  3. The White House prevents CIA director Gina Haspel from briefing the Senate on Saudi Arabia. Instead, Mike Pompeo and James Mattis handle the briefing.
  4. Not only is the arms deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia non-binding (meaning either party can back out), but the dollar amount of the deal was inflated at Jared Kushner’s direction from $14.5 billion to $110 billion.
  5. Paris has its worst riots in 50 years. The riots started two weeks ago over a gas tax coupled with anti-Macron sentiment.
  6. Activists call Obama the ‘Drone President,‘ but Trump relaxed requirements for targets of drone strikes and has launched 30% more than Obama did in his first two years (238 drone strikes to Obama’s 186).

Legislation/Congress:

  1. House Democrats nominate Nancy Pelosi to be House Speaker.
  2. The Senate advances a resolution to stop providing military help to Saudi Arabia in the Yemen. Fourteen Republicans vote for the resolution, and 19 switch their votes from their previous vote because of an inadequate briefing by Mattis and Pompeo and because of Khashoggi’s murder.
  3. Congress reaches a deal on a farm bill that does not include work requirements for SNAP recipients. Trump and House Republicans were pushing for those requirements.

Family Separation:

  1. There are still around 60 children in custody who were separated from their (now-deported) parents. Almost all of these children have sponsors they could be released to in the U.S. In total, 140 children who were separated from their parents or guardian are still in custody.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Trump tweets that Mexico should just send back everyone in the migrant caravan to whatever country they came from and by any means possible. He says again (and without evidence) that many of them are stone cold criminals.
  2. A review of global terrorism shows that violent acts motivated by far right-wing ideologies far outnumber acts of domestic terrorism acts in any other category over the past decade.
  3. A memo from the Department of Health and Human Services shows that the Trump administration said it’s OK to not thoroughly vet staff at detention camps for migrant minors.
  4. Instead of releasing government documents on actual costs/benefits of undocumented immigrants, Trump retweets a false rumor that they receive $3,874 per month in assistance.
  5. The number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. in 2016 hit the lowest number in over a decade, with an estimated 10.7 million.
  6. The head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media apologizes to George Soros after they aired a program smearing Soros and using anti-Semitic tropes. The program called Soros a “non-practicing Jew of flexible morals” and said he was involved in “clandestine operations that led to the dismantling of the Soviet Union.” It also said he architected the 2008 financial collapse. The program got most of it’s information from Judicial Watch, which has long sought to pin some kind of wrongdoing on Soros.
  7. Deteriorating conditions at migrant camps near the border are leading more immigrants to attempt illegal crossings so they can seek asylum. This is what the Trump administration was trying to avoid, but by trapping them at the border, the administration created the conditions that are now worsening the problem.
  8. The ACLU files a lawsuit against a Florida Sheriff’s Office that detained a U.S. citizen on ICE’s request. The man was arrested in the Keys and detained for weeks despite having a U.S. birth certificate. He was finally transported to ICE, who released him once they looked up his birth certificate. In Miami. With no money or transportation to get back to the Keys. Interesting side note: ICE has an agreement with this Sheriff’s Office to pay them $50 per detainee.
  9. The police officer who shot her black neighbor when she mistakenly walked into his apartment thinking it was her own is charged with murder.
  10. One more reason we need #MeToo. Seven hospitals agree to a settlement after they illegally billed sexual assault victims for their own forensic rape exams.

Climate/EPA:

  1. Fox News disciplines employees who were involved in crafting topics and questions with the EPA for an interview with Scott Pruitt. Fox & Friends coordinated the entire interview with Pruitt (or his aides) and Pruitt lied about the number of Superfund sites cleaned up under Obama versus under Trump.
  2. Who knew all you had to do to get out of fraud charges is to quit? The inspector general of the EPA closes two investigations into Scott Pruitt’s conduct during his time as head of the EPA because he doesn’t work there anymore.
  3. At the G20 summit in Brazil, 19 world leaders reaffirm the Paris agreement with one leader abstaining. Trump reiterates our decision to withdraw. Yay us. We affirm our strong commitment to not deal with climate change.
  4. Exxon plans to use renewable energy—wind and solar—to help power up their gas and oil drilling in Texas’s Permian Basin, an area with extensive fracking operations.
  5. Washington, D.C.’s city council votes unanimously to adopt 100% clean electricity by 2032.
  6. Patagonia announces they’ll give $10 million of what they received in corporate tax cuts this year to grassroots organizations supporting the environment.
  7. Andrew Wheeler, the acting head of the EPA, gives Trump the credit for a 2.5% reduction in carbon emissions in 2016… before Trump took office. He also says carbon emissions are down 14% since 2005. This is in no small part due to the Obama regulations this administration has worked to reverse.
  8. Wheeler can’t name three Trump rules that contributed to the decrease in emissions, (unless you include the proposed reversals of Obama emissions-reducing rules that he named).
  9. Trump approves company requests to run seismic tests in the Atlantic Ocean, which could kill tens of thousands of marine animals. Underwater seismic tests are used to locate gas and oil.

Budget/Economy:

  1. The VA has been behind on GI Bill payments to vets because of a computer glitch, and now they’re saying they won’t reimburse vets who weren’t paid the full amount owed them.
  2. Auto companies warned us last summer that the tariffs would have negative economic effects on the industry. This week, GM announces they’ll stop production at five plants and layoff over 14,000 people. They offered buyout packages to 18,000 employees in October.
    • The reasons for the cutbacks include changing their lineup to align with Americans’ changing tastes, the decimation of unions (unions used to train employees on the new skills they need to adapt), and costs related to the trade war and tariffs.
  1. Trump threatens to eliminate GM’s subsidies if they go ahead with the closures. Trump also blames the declining stock market and the Fed for the closures and layoffs.
  2. Over 40% of companies say they’ll raise prices due to the higher costs they’re incurring as a result of the trade war. 10% say the tariffs are pushing them to move jobs offshore.
  3. Even though Paul Ryan oversaw legislation that will add trillions to our debt, he says his biggest regret is that he didn’t address our federal debt.
  4. Just before the start of the G20 summit, Trump, Trudeau, and Peña Nieto sign the updated NAFTA deal. Trump says it’s the biggest trade deal ever. But of course it is.
  5. Also at the G20, Trump and Chinese President Xi come to a verbal agreement on tariffs. They basically agreed that Trump won’t add any new tariffs, China will start buying our stuff again, and the two countries will begin talks.
  6. Qatar announces it’s leaving OPEC next year so they can develop their liquified natural gas.

Elections:

  1. Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith wins the Mississippi Senate race, showing once and for all why Mississippi is so far behind the rest of the country in race relations. But since it was the closest race there in 30 years, maybe that means they’re a little less racist than before. I can hope.
    • With her election, Republicans have picked up a total of three Senate seats in the midterms.
  1. Paul Ryan calls the ballot process in California bizarre and loosey-goosey after seven GOP House seats shifted to Democrats as mail-in and provisional ballots were counted. Ryan says he doesn’t question the validity of the results, though, so I guess he just wanted to be sure he planted that question mark in everyone’ heads.
  2. The Office of Special Counsel (again, not to be confused with Mueller’s office) says six Trump administration officials tweeted support for Republicans or for Trump on their government Twitter accounts. This is a violation of the Hatch Act, but not enough for disciplinary action.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Representative Raul Grijalva wrote an op-ed criticizing Ryan Zinke over his ethical scandals and saying Zinke should resign. Zinke’s response from his official Interior Department Twitter account? “It’s hard for him to think straight from the bottom of the bottle.” This country is being run by children.
  2. Trump threatens House Democrats, saying that if they play tough with him when they become the majority, he’ll declassify documents that will be “devastating” to them. He says he could’ve used those documents against them already, but he’s saving them for when he really needs to use them. A) I think that’s called extortion, and B) he doesn’t have a great track record so far of declassifying information to further his cause.
  3. Making good on a promise he made after the Las Vegas shooting, Trump says he’ll approve a federal rule banning bump stocks. Current owners will either have to destroy their bump stocks or turn them in.
  4. Eric Bauman, the chair of the California Democratic Party, resigns after accusations of sexual misconduct are publicized. An investigation is ongoing.
  5. NASA and JPL land another successful spacecraft on Mars. InSight will investigate the planet’s interior and measure Mars-quakes.
  6. And speaking of quakes, Anchorage experiences a huge earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale (with 1,000 aftershocks). We still don’t know the extent of the damage; there are collapsed roads, buckled bridges, cracked buildings, power outages, and people are still boiling water.

Week 89 in Trump

Posted on October 8, 2018 in Politics, Trump

One of these voted their conscience; two of them pretended to.

I’m so tired. I’m so tired of the Kavanaugh nomination sucking up all the air in the room and igniting everyone’s emotions. I’ve never seen people on both sides so emotionally vested in getting their way on a Supreme Court Nomination. It’s possibly because there’s more at stake right now, and none of our leaders made any effort to quiet down the vitriol. Voters from both sides ended up feeling unheard. Victims ended up feeling unheard. What was really painful was to have friends share their sex abuse stories with me, which was made all the more painful by friends who dismiss the claims of victims. It’s time to take a step back, regroup, and look at what we really believe in. Can we continue to let boys be boys while slut shaming the women those boys take advantage of? I just don’t think that’s gonna fly anymore.

Anyway, I’ll get off my soapbox. Here’s what happened last week in politics…

Missed from Last Week:

  1. Here’s a sad statement of the current politics of partisanship. When Jeff Flake was asked if he could’ve requested an FBI investigation and delay in Kavanaugh’s hearing if he was running again, he said “Of course not!”
  2. In case you were wondering if there’s any traction on making Trump’s tax returns or financial statements public, last week 21 Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee voted against releasing any of that information. That’s OK, because this week the New York Times beat them to the punch. More later.

Russia:

  1. Before the 2016 elections, several Republican Trump critics were victims of attempted hacking by Russian operatives. The FBI now says that the scope of that investigation has become greater than just computer intrusion, and they refer the case to Robert Mueller’s team.
  2. The DOJ indicts seven members of the Russian military, charging that they hacked into drug tests for Olympic athletes and leaked the information. This seems to have been in retaliation for all the investigations into Russian doping that resulted in several Russian athletes being unable to compete.
  3. Paul Manafort starts meeting with Mueller’s team as part of his plea agreement.
  4. Randy Credico, who was Roger Stone’s middleman between him and Julian Assange, says he’ll plead the fifth in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
  5. Two money laundering experts from Mueller’s team have left and gone back to their regular practices. Mueller team now has 13 staffers.
  6. Russian trolls and Russian TV have been supporting the Kavanaugh confirmation.

Legal Fallout:

  1. The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump told Michael Cohen to get a restraining order to prevent Stormy Daniels from talking to the press. Trump told Cohen to coordinate this with his son, Eric, who then asked a Trump Organization lawyer to draw up the papers.
  2. The New York Times publishes a lengthy article detailing the alleged methods, both legal and not so much, that the Trump family used to avoid paying hundreds of millions in taxes. Note: I haven’t read the full article yet, and I know there are some sketchy loopholes that blur the lines between legal and illegal tax avoidance.
  3. Here are some claims in the article:
    • Trump’s father gave him today’s equivalent of $413 million over the decades. Only a big deal because Trump says he’s a self-made billionaire, having only received $1 million in startup money from his father.
    • The Trumps transferred over $1 billion to their children, and paid a tax rate of about 5% on that.
    • Trump started earning $20,000 a year from his father’s company at age 3 in 1950.
    • After college, he received around $200,000 per year. This increased to about $2.5 million a year in his 40s. (Note: The NYT converted the numbers to today’s dollars; I converted them back for a little reality check. So these are approximations.)
    • Fred Trump also lent Donald Trump $60.7 million, most of which was never paid back. Fred bailed Donald out of a few potential bankruptcies, including making an illegal loan under New Jersey gaming laws. Fred provided the collateral for bank loans to Donald when he got into financial trouble.
    • When Fred Trump was ailing, Donald Trump tried to get him to change his will and to make him sole executor of the estate. At this point, it seems Fred no longer trusted Trump not to bankrupt the company and refused the changes.
    • The Trump children created a shell company to siphon money from Fred Trump’s estate into their own estates to avoid taxes. Family companies for managing family estates are not unusual, and they come with their own legal tax loopholes. But this company used questionable tactics like padded invoices to justify expenditures.
    • The family created a grantor-retained annuity trust, or GRAT, to transfer assets. Also completely legal, but in this case they severely undervalued the assets that were transferred in order to avoid taxes.
  1. After publication of the above article, New York Tax Department considers opening an investigation into the allegations. Even if the statute of limitations has expired, civil fines can still be levied for uncollected taxes.
  2. A lawyer for Trump says there was no “fraud or tax evasion” and that any actions taken were on the advice of financial professionals.
  3. Fun fact: If you’re wondering what led to the New York Times’ report, the story opened up when a reporter came across a filing from Maryanne Trump Barry, Trump’s sister. When she was being confirmed by the Senate to her judgeship, she included a document in her filing that showed a $1 million dollar contribution from what turned out to be a shell company.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Tom Cotton says they’re opening an investigation into Dianne Feinstein’s handling of Christine Blasey Ford’s letter and into Blasey Ford’s lawyers. Mitch McConnell echoes the call for investigation.
  2. Harvard cancels the classes taught by Kavanaugh. Then we hear that he withdrew from teaching, so I’m not sure exactly how that all shook out. Students were circulating a petition against him teaching there.
  3. McConnell says they’ll vote this week on Kavanaugh’s confirmation no matter the results of the investigation, and they do.
  4. At the opening of the FBI investigation into accusations against Kavanaugh, Trump tweets that the FBI can interview anybody they want, but at the time of the tweet, the FBI was still under the limits reported last week (with limits on who they can talk to and which allegations they can investigate). It sounds like Trump did want to give FBI free reign, but White House counsel said that would be disastrous.
    • The FBI didn’t interview either Blasey Ford or Kavanaugh.
    • Several accusers and witnesses request that the FBI interview them and try to get information to the FBI, including texts sent before some accusations came out. None of these are included in the investigation.
    • The above referenced text messages show that Kavanaugh was contacting classmates asking them to deny Ramirez’s accusations before those accusations were made public.
  1. Lindsey Graham tells Trump that if Kavanaugh’s nomination fails, he should renominate him.
  2. Two ethics complaints against Kavanaugh come before the DC District Court, which ironically is overseen by blocked Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. The complaints center around perjury (filed prior to his testimony about sexual misconduct) and partisanship (filed after that testimony).
  3. The DC Court has already forwarded more than a dozen complaints against Kavanaugh to Justice Roberts on the Supreme Court. The DC Court had already dismissed some of the complaints as frivolous, forwarding only those thought to have substance.
  4. It turns out the ABA had questions about Kavanaugh in his 2006 confirmation hearings as well. They downgraded his rating from “well qualified” to just “qualified,” which is still positive. Their change was based on evaluations of Kavanaugh’s temperament, where he was called “unprepared” and “sanctimonious,” and where his ability to be balanced and fair was questioned.
  5. Kavanaugh’s testimony this week even turned some of his long-time friends and colleagues (both Republican and Democrat) against his nomination.
  6. Trump mocks Christine Blasey Ford IN A CAMPAIGN RALLY. I don’t know what’s worse, the way he mocked her or the way the crowd cheered and then yelled “Lock her up!” At any rate, Trump lied about what Blasey Ford could and could not remember, and the crowd ate it up.
  7. Both Jeff Flake and Susan Collins denounce Trump for mocking Blasey Ford.
  8. The GOP accuses Democrats of using and dumping Blasey Ford. Meanwhile, Republicans have been following Trump’s lead by discrediting and mocking her.
  9. Sarah Huckabee Sanders defends Trump in a press briefing the next day, saying that he was only stating the facts.
  10. And then Trump mocks Al Franken for folding like a wet rag when accused of grabbing several women’s butts. This is how Trump feels about people who take responsibility.
  11. 2,400 law professors sign a letter outlining why Kavanaugh shouldn’t be confirmed.
  12. Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens says Kavanaugh shouldn’t be confirmed. Stevens first supported Kavanaugh, but changed his mind after Kavanaugh’s partisan statements during his testimony this week.
  13. The National Council of Churches calls on Kavanaugh to withdraw.
  14. Senator Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) says Trump should’ve nominated someone else, gave an impassioned speech about the #MeToo movement and sexual assault, and then voted to confirm Kavanaugh.
  15. Kavanaugh writes an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal apologizing for his behavior in front of the Senate. He claims he was overcome, even though he read a planned opening statement.
  16. Senators are allowed to view the FBI reports in a sealed room, one at a time and then in groups.
  17. Chuck Grassley releases an executive summary of the FBI report (though I don’t know who wrote the summary). The summary says their interviews provided no corroborating evidence, but Republicans start saying that the interviews refuted Blasey Ford’s account. Tip: Not corroborating something is not the same as refuting it.
  18. Eight Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee ask Chuck Grassley to correct the record when he says that there was no sign of any inappropriate sexual behavior or alcohol abuse in any of the six FBI reports on him. Those Democrats say that information is not accurate. But we’ll never know unless the information becomes public.
  19. Republicans say the FBI report was thorough; Democrats say it was incomplete.
  20. Emotions continue to escalate (I didn’t think they could get much higher than the previous week), and both pro- and anti-Kavanaugh protests pop up across the country. Hundreds of anti-Kavanaugh protestors are arrested in DC. My favorite protest is the kegger they throw outside of Mitch McConnell’s office. I like beer.
  21. Susan Collins and Joe Manchin, who are two of the key votes, say they’ll vote to confirm Kavanaugh. Heidi Heitkamp says she’ll vote no, and Jeff Flake, despite all his reservations, votes yes.
  22. The ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary revisits it’s evaluation of Kavanaugh’s rating based on his temperamental testimony this week.
  23. Trump threatens Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski’s re-election chances, saying that she’ll never recover from her “no” vote (which was actually a “present” vote). Trumps adds that he’s very popular in Alaska.
  24. Trump says it’s a scary time for men and boys right now because of all these accusations. I guess it’s a scary time if you have something to hide.
  25. And after all that turmoil, Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court by the narrowest margin for a Supreme Court Justice in over 130 years. The vote was 50-48. If Manchin would’ve voted no, Mike Pence would’ve come in to cast the deciding vote.
  26. There’s already an effort to drum up support to impeach Kavanaugh, so now’s a good time to remind everyone how hard that is. Even if it gets through the House, it would never pass the threshold in the Senate.
  27. And just a reminder, Blasey Ford still has been unable to return to her home due to threats. Remind me again why victims don’t come forward?

Healthcare:

  1. The EPA proposes loosening restrictions on radiation. Their announcement includes assessments from scientific outliers who say a little radiation could be good for human health. Even though very small amounts of radiation are known to cause cancer.

International:

  1. Mike Pompeo announces that the U.S. is ending the Treaty of Amity, a 1955 treaty with Iran, after the UN tries to use the treaty as a basis for ordering the U.S. to ease up on sanctions for humanitarian goods.
  2. John Bolton later says that the U.S. will also pull out of a dispute resolution protocol from the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. He bases this move on a challenge from the Palestinian Authority of our decision to move our Israel embassy to Jerusalem.
  3. Mike Pence gives a speech at the Hudson institute designed to move American public sentiment against China and to support the idea that they’re trying to meddle in our elections using economics because they don’t like Trump and want a different American president.
  4. The U.S. accuses Russia of building a missile system that could launch nuclear weapons to Europe and Alaska. The development of such a system was banned under a Cold War treaty.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. California has now passed over 1,000 new laws this year, including several aimed at recovering some of the regulations Trump has dissolved at the federal level around issues like net neutrality, energy and climate, gun control, and #MeToo.

Family Separation:

  1. An investigation by the Inspector General of the DHS finds that they never had a centralized database to track the immigrant families that they separated earlier this year. Instead, they were using spreadsheets that they compiled manually from emailed Word documents. That sure explains why they were unable to find family members in their computer system.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The Trump administration begins denying visas to same-sex partners of foreign diplomats, saying they must be married in order to receive a visa. Some of these diplomats come from countries where gay marriage is illegal, so they’re unable to get married.
  2. Federal prosecutors charge and arrest four members of the California-based Rise Above Movement for their intent to incite a riot and commit violence at the white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville last year. This group is small but violent, calling themselves an alt-right fight club.
  3. Federal inspectors at the Adelanto detention center in San Bernardino County, CA, find dismal conditions. They find 15 nooses made out of bed sheets hanging in cells, and they find health and dental care severely lacking. Adelanto is part of the GEO Group, a private, for-profit prison company.
  4. I’ve talked before about steps taken by the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from Sudan, Haiti, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nigeria. This week, a federal judge grants a preliminary injunction that blocks any deportations for now. TPS protections will continue while a legal case is decided, giving temporary relief to over 300,000 people who were threatened with deportation.
  5. Even though Congress placed a hold on the funds, the Trump administration moved forward with plans to give Mexico $20 million to deport immigrants so they can’t make it to our borders. Despite the hold, Trump transferred the funds anyway. Mexico says they never approved of this plan.

Climate/EPA:

  1. A federal court holds that the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument is in compliance with the law. Obama created the massive monument off of the New England coast in the Atlantic Ocean.
  2. Denmark says they’ll ban the sale of new fossil-fueled cars by 2030.
  3. California allocates $800 million to be able to store energy generated by solar panels to have more electricity available from solar in the nighttime hours.
  4. The EPA rewrites its rules about what scientific studies can be used in making public health policy against the wishes of its scientific advisors. Proprietary information can no longer be used, which will exclude findings from patients participating in private-sector studies.
  5. William Nordhaus and Paul Romer win the Nobel Prize for Economics. Nordhaus has been working in climate change’s effects on economy since the 1970s, and his model is widely used to show the relationship between the climate and the economy.
  6. A UN report on climate change expects an increase in global temperatures of 2.7 degrees F much sooner than previously thought. This would intensify sea level rise, droughts, wildfires, and poverty. They call for a 45% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and for halting them by 2050. Trump has said he’ll increase greenhouse gas emissions, though we’re already halfway to that 2.7 degree rise.

Budget/Economy:

  1. Amazon announces that they’ll start paying all of their employees at least $15 per hour.
  2. It turns out that most of the changes to NAFTA were already included in TPP. Trump and Republicans in Congress have repeatedly denounced those trade deals as two of the worst deals ever, but they’re calling the USMCA, basically a mashup of the NAFTA and TPP, one of the best deals ever. The dairy concessions from Canada are probably the biggest difference.
    • That means we could’ve pretty much gotten the same deal without alienating many of our trading partners and without giving China the extra trading power they obtained from the hole we left behind by cancelling the TPP.
  1. Unemployment hits record lows at 3.7%.
  2. The U.S. trade deficit expanded to 6.4% in August. Despite all the tariffs, the deficit was $53.2 billion, the highest level in six months.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Wikipedia says its authors shouldn’t use Breitbart and InfoWars as news sources on its pages. They call Breitbart unreliable, and say InfoWars is a “conspiracy theorist and fake news website.”
  2. In a press conference, Trump tells a female reporter “I know you’re not thinking. You never do,” while a group of men behind him chuckle and smirk.
  3. In the official White House transcript of the event, they change the word “thinking” to “thanking.” Mm-hmm…
  4. The Pentagon screening facility finds two envelopes suspected of contain ricin, and the Secret Service says that another suspicious envelope was addressed to Trump. A man was arrested in Utah in relation to the envelopes.
  5. The death toll in Indonesia from the earthquake and resulting tsunami reaches 2,000. Thousands are still missing.
  6. Trump falls back on that old tired narrative, claiming that Kavanaugh protestors are being paid by Soros. To which I say “Where’s my damn check, George ?”

Polls:

  1. Worldwide, 7 in 10 people have no confidence in Trump. Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron, Xi Jinping, and even Vladimir Putin all received higher confidence ratings.
  2. 37% of Americans have confidence in the Supreme Court, down from 60% in the 80s.
  3. This Quinnipiac poll on support for Kavanaugh’s confirmation is hard to distill, so here’s a link to the results, broken down by demographics. It’s pretty interesting.
  4. 41% of Americans oppose Kavanaugh’s nomination, with 33% supporting it.
  5. 45% of Americans believe Blasey Ford; 33% believe Kavanaugh.
  6. 56% of Republicans would still consider voting for a candidate accused of sexual harassment; 81% of Democrats say they’d definitely not.

Week 84 in Trump

Posted on September 10, 2018 in Politics, Trump

This week was all about saying goodbye to Senator John McCain. I don’t remember politics without him being in the thick of it. In planning his services, he gave Trump some parting shots, excluding him from the memorials and final funeral and enlisting politicians from all sides in a final show of working both sides of the aisle.

Here’s what else happened this week in politics…

Missed from Last Week:

  1. 16 states filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to rule that the 1964 Civil Rights Act doesn’t cover rights for the LGBTQ community and therefore you can fire someone based on their sexual orientation or their gender identity. Or deny them housing. Or refuse to serve them. Or…

Russia:

  1. The judge grants a brief delay in Paul Manafort’s second trial because his lawyers haven’t had time to recover from his first trial. Remember, they could have done this all in one trial, but Manafort chose to have two trials instead.
  2. Manafort’s legal team was in negotiations with Mueller to avoid a second trial, but those negotiations fell apart.
  3. Earlier this month, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes travelled to the UK to dig up dirt on Christopher Steele. Nunes tried to meet with leaders of British intelligence agencies, but they were wary of Nunes’ intentions; so he ended up meeting with the deputy national security advisor, Madeline Alessandri.
  4. Trump tweets that China hacked Clinton’s emails and that they got classified info. That was just little false info he picked up from the Daily Caller.
  5. Trump accuses NBC of editing interviews with him. He’s specifically pointing at his interview with Lester Holt when he admitted that he had the Russia investigation in mind when he fired Comey. If there were any merit to the accusation, you’d think he would’ve brought it up when the interview aired.
  6. Now we know why Trump is working so hard to discredit DOJ lawyer Bruce Ohr. Ohr told lawmakers that two years ago, he met with Christopher Steele who told him that he thought Russia had leverage over Trump (or in his words, Russia had him over a barrel).
  7. Michael Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, is backing down from his claim that Cohen knows that Trump Sr. knew ahead of time about Trump Jr.’s meeting with Russian lawyers in 2016.
  8. George Papadopoulos accepts his plea deal and pleads guilty to lying to the FBI. He had previously been considering backing out of the deal.
  9. Sam Patten, a former associate of Paul Manafort and a former employee of Cambridge Analytica, agrees to a plea deal and to cooperating with Mueller’s investigation. He pleads guilty to failing to register as a foreign agent and lying to a Senate committee.
  10. Trump says that the Supreme Court Chief Justice should tell the FISA court to investigate the DOJ and FBI over their FISA requests during the 2016 campaign.
  11. Trump says he should get personally involved if the FBI and DOJ don’t do their job, accusing them of being biased against Republicans. Even though many of them are themselves Republicans.
  12. We’re coming up to 60 days before the election, so Rudy Giuliani says Mueller has to stop investigating. Which isn’t true since this isn’t a hard and fast rule. Even if it were a hard rule, Mueller could continue his investigation behind closed doors right up through the election as long as he doesn’t publicize information.
  13. Mueller says he’ll accept some answers from Trump in writing. Giuliani says they won’t be providing any answers to questions about obstruction of justice.

Legal Fallout:

  1. GOP Members of Congress circulate a spreadsheet itemizing the things they think Democrats might investigate if they win the House in November. Those things include:
    • Trump’s tax returns
    • Trump Organization, specifically around the emoluments clause.
    • Trump’s dealings with Russia and his preparation for the meeting with Putin
    • The Stormy Daniels payment
    • Trump’s firings of James Comey and of U.S. attorneys
    • The transgender ban in the military
    • Steven Mnuchin’s business dealings
    • The use of personal email by White House staff
    • Abused perks, mostly by cabinet members like Scott Pruitt, Ben Carson, and Ryan Zinke
    • That time he discussed classified information at a public dinner at Mar-a-Lago
    • Whether Jared Kushner is in compliance with ethics laws
    • Firing the EPA board of scientific counselors
    • The Muslim ban
    • The family separation policy and the failure to reunite separated families
    • The response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico
    • Election security and hacking attempts
    • Security clearances
  1. New York City fines Jared Kushner’s family business once again. This time, the fine is $210,000 for falsifying building permits. This brings the total the company’s been fined over the past few years to over $500,000.
  2. The above leads to the DCCC issuing warnings to other Democratic candidates about being doxxed.
  3. Lawyers for GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter accuse federal prosecutors of rushing to indict his client. Interesting tact, since they’ve been accusing prosecutors of dragging out this investigation over two years.
  4. Trump blames the DOJ for allowing the indictment of both Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins, two “very popular Republican Congressman” (according to Trump). He complained that these would’ve been two easy GOP wins. I guess it doesn’t matter if they might be criminals.
  5. An inspector general reports that Trump participated in a decision to cancel a 10-year effort to develop a new FBI headquarters in the suburbs of Maryland or Virginia. The plan now is to develop the headquarters right across the street from Trump’s hotel in DC, which turns out to be more expensive. Government employees were told not to talk about anything Trump said about this.
  6. According to a recorded conversation, Michael Cohen and Trump tried to buy up all the damaging information the National Enquirer had on him and was storing in their vaults.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Chuck Schumer makes a deal with Mitch McConnell to fast-track 15 of Trump’s lower court judicial nominees. We don’t know yet what he got in return, if anything. Unless he did it just so his Senators could have some time to campaign.
  2. A judge in Texas allows a defamation lawsuit against Infowars’ Alex Jones to move forward. The suit was brought by parents of Sandy Hook victims who’ve been harassed and further victimized by Jones’ supporters.
  3. Trump refuses to release over 100,000 pages of Brett Kavanaugh’s records during the time he worked in the White House under George W. Bush. Trump cites executive privilege as a reason.
  4. Marches and protests against Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court continue this week. 7 in 10 Americans are pro-choice, and don’t want him confirmed.
  5. Trump reconsiders firing Jeff Sessions. Again.

Healthcare:

  1. An appeals court rules that Alabama can’t ban “dilation & evacuation” abortions after 15 weeks. Note that over 90% of abortions do occur before 15 weeks so don’t use that method.
  2. Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) introduces legislation with 13 other Democrats aimed at reducing the racial disparities in maternity care and deaths in the U.S. Currently there are about 40 deaths out of 100,000 live births for black women versus 12 for white women.

International:

  1. The Trump administration announces plans to cut all U.S. funding for the UN program that provides aid to Palestinian refugees. It’s pretty amazing that there have been Palestinian refugees for over 50 years now.
  2. We learn that Trump’s last meeting with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe turned sour when Trump said he remembers Pearl Harbor and then criticized Japan’s economy and our trade deficit with them. Up to now, the two seemed to have a good working relationship.
  3. Trump blames China for the lack of progress in the negotiations with North Korea. He says China is applying pressure on North Korea.
  4. Trump announces that joint U.S. – South Korea military exercises will be temporarily suspended as a gesture of goodwill toward North Korea.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. California’s legislature passes a bill raising the age for buying assault weapons from 18 to 21. The bill also limits gun purchases to one per month per person.
  2. California passes net neutrality laws. The bill brings back the FCC guidelines put in place under Obama, but only for California.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Will the ways in which we can push Hispanics out of the country never end? Now the U.S. is denying passports to people with U.S. birth certificates, or even revoking them for people who already have them. The problem arises from cases in the 1990’s where some midwives admitted to falsifying birth documents, and now anyone born to a midwife is suspect. Some have been detained and some are in deportation proceedings. Even though there is no proof that they were NOT born here.
  2. Some passports were denied under Bush and Obama for the same reason, but a lawsuit ended the practice in Obama’s first year as president.
  3. California signs a bill into law overhauling its money bail system. The bill mostly gets rid of money bail and instead would use a system of probation departments to analyze flight risk and risks to the community. Opponents of money bail say this still won’t fix the problem.
  4. We’re on day 14 of the 19-day prison strike. Prisoners have stopped eating and working to protest unsafe and unjust conditions. Some immigrant detainees have joined in on the strike.
  5. The mother of a toddler who died after being separated and then reunited files a lawsuit against the city where her daughter was detained. Allegedly, the child became ill at the detention center, wasn’t given adequate medial care, and was released with a clean bill of health by a nurse who didn’t have the authority. Once reunited, the mother tried to see a doctor but was turned away several times.
  6. And finally some justice. A jury convicts a police officer in Texas of killing Jordan Edwards, an unarmed, 15-year-old black teen. The officer gets a 15-year sentence.
  7. A judge rules against Texas and other states trying to end DACA, saying they waited too long to file suit. The ruling doesn’t protect DACA long term, though, and the judge leaves an opening for the states to file again, saying that DACA is likely illegal.
  8. The backlog is growing for immigrants who have applied for citizenship and are still being processed. Part of the slowdown is a longer questionnaire created under Obama, and part is longer delays for getting interview appointments. Part of it could also be an increase in the number people trying to get their citizenship.
  9. The family of Mollie Tibbetts, who was allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant, asks people to stop politicizing her death. Specifically, they say Mollie would be against using this as an excuse to hate undocumented immigrants.
  10. Ron DeSantis, who is the Republican nominee for governor of Florida, was an administrator of a Facebook page that features conspiracy theories as well as racist and anti-Muslim rhetoric. The page also attacks Parkland shooting survivors. Remember, this is the guy who said “we don’t want to monkey this up” by electing a black governor.
  11. 16 states have introduced legislation to restrict the use of non-disclosure agreements in sexual harassment cases.

Climate/EPA

  1. The California legislature passes a bill that would require the state to get its energy from 100% carbon-free sources by 2045. Several other states are considering the same, and Hawaii has already passed it into law. Orlando, FL, has the same goal for 2050.
  2. The BLM publishes a notice of intent to open 1.6 million acres of publicly held land in California to fracking and oil drilling. There’s been a moratorium on leasing federal land in California to oil companies.
  3. Despite the governor of Puerto Rico recently raising the official Hurricane Maria death toll to 2,975 (up from the previous 64), Trump says the administration’s response to the disaster was fantastic.
  4. The EPA considers reversing Obama-era limits on mercury emissions from coal power plants. The health effects of mercury exposure can include tremors, neurological damage, emotional changes, headaches, impaired mental performance, and muscle weakness, among others.
  5. According to a new study, hotter temperatures caused by climate change will make insects hungrier, causing diseases to spread faster and ruining crops.
  6. Over 100 schools in Detroit don’t have drinking water after tests find elevated levels of lead.

Budget/Economy:

  1. The U.S. and Mexico reach a preliminary agreement to update NAFTA, possibly without Canada. Trump wants to drop the name NAFTA because he calls it the worst trade deal in history and says it has a bad connotation.
  2. The TPP, the Obama trade pact that Trump disbanded, was basically a renegotiation of NAFTA but with nine additional countries. TPP and Trump’s renegotiated NAFTA are very similar with the exception of the North American auto industry. The updated NAFTA has tighter restrictions and better worker protections than TPP.
  3. Trump says the deal will be good for farmers and for manufacturers. (Note: I haven’t found a good analysis to verify this yet.)
  4. Stocks jump on Trump’s announcement that we’ve reached a trade deal with Mexico, calming down some of the uncertainty over trade. The NASDAQ hits an all-time high on the news.
  5. Mexico is a little more subdued about the agreement, saying that we’re continuing to make progress.
  6. Canada misses Trump’s Friday deadline to agree to the new terms of NAFTA. Both sides say negotiations are ongoing, though. Trump says he won’t give in to any of Canada’s requests and that this will all be on our terms.
  7. Seth Frotman, the student loan ombudsman at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, resigns in protest. He says that the bureau has lost sight of its mission to protect consumers, and specifically that they no longer protect students’ financial futures and are openly hostile to protecting student borrowers.
  8. The USDA announces it’s ready to accept applications from farmers who’ve been hurt by the tariffs. They play to make payments totaling $4.7 billion, their first installment of the $12 billion bailout.
  9. Trump cancels a planned cost-of-living pay raise for federal employees citing budget constraints. This is not something you do during a booming economy. Unless, of course, you already created a $1 trillion deficit by giving out big tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy.
  10. Trump also wants to get rid of locality adjustments for federal worker wages. These are cost-of-living adjustments based on the standard of living in the city in which a worker resides. Most large companies adjust wages this way.
  11. The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) blocks the Trump administration’s tariff on newsprint. They say there’s no sign of any unfair competition from Canadian imports.
  12. Trump wants to impose the additional $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods next week.
  13. Trump also threatens to pull out of the World Trade Organization, saying they’ve treated the U.S. very badly and that it’s all very unfair. How did the biggest economy in the world get such a persecution complex?
  14. Did you know that many restaurant chains have policies where they don’t allow employees to try for higher-paying jobs at other locations of the same chain? Now 15 chains have ended that policy. But that businesses continue to do things like this is why we still need unions.

Elections:

  1. The DNC voted to limit the powers of their superdelegates for the 2020 primaries.
  2. For a second time, a North Carolina court rules that the state’s congressional districts are unconstitutionally gerrymandered. The first time, the lines were deemed to be racially motivated; this time they were seen as politically motivated to benefit Republicans. They might have to redraw the lines, just 9 weeks before the midterm elections.
  3. The lawmaker responsible for the congressional districts lines said they were designed to maintain Republican dominance because “electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats.”
  4. The USPS accidentally releases security clearance paperwork for an ex-CIA operative who is now running as a Democratic candidate for Congress (Abigail Spanberger). The Congressional Leadership Fund, a GOP PAC closely linked to Paul Ryan, then uses some of the sensitive information in those papers against Spanberger’s campaign.
  5. I’m not sure whether this should go under elections or discrimination, but Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was pardoned by Trump last year, lost bigly in the Republican primary for Senate in Arizona. Arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt of court for refusing to stop racially profiling Arizona residents.
  6. Trump meets with evangelical leaders and urges them to campaign for Republicans from the pulpit. He also says that if Democrats take over, there will be violence. Though he seems to be saying the Democrats will be violent. I’m not sure why the winner would be violent.
    • Just for the record, Trump did not overturn the Johnson Amendment as he’s claimed, and religious organizations still can’t endorse a political candidate.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Last week, Trump refused to sign off on the full White House statement commemorating John McCain. This week, he raises the flags back up to full mast. After blowback from that, Trump places the flag back at half mast and issues a full statement on McCain.
  2. Even the American Legion felt they had to write a letter to Trump urging him to follow protocol and to honor McCain.
  3. As the Senate reconvenes, Senators each take some time to honor McCain on the Senate floor. McCain will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda until his interment.
  4. There are a number of memorials for McCain, including one in Arizona, one in the Capitol Rotunda, and the final one at the Washington National Cathedral.
    • Joe Biden is among the speakers at the service in Arizona.
    • Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, and Mike Pence speak in the Capitol Rotunda.
    • McCain had requested former presidents Bush (Jr.) and Obama to deliver eulogies, as well as Joe Lieberman. A Republican, a Democrat, and an Independent. A quaint throwback to bipartisanship.
    • McCain’s daughter Meghan gives an emotional eulogy, crediting her father for making her tough and criticizing the divisive politics of today.
    • Many of the speakers at the events take the opportunity to support reaching across the aisle and to take jabs at the current administration.
  1. McCain is buried at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.
  2. Republicans bury Chuck Schumer’s proposal to rename the Russell Senate Building after John McCain.
  3. Senator James Inhofe says McCain is partly to blame for Trump bungling how McCain was honored because McCain was too outspoken and criticized Trump. That’s not how this works.
  4. Trump was not invited to McCain’s funeral, but Ivanka and Jared Kushner did attend at Lindsey Graham’s invitation.
  5. Trump claims that Google’s search results are rigged against him to only show bad news about him. Looks like he got this from a PJ Media article that was covered by Lou Dobbs on Fox.
  6. Larry Kudlow says the administration is looking at whether the government should regulate Google search results (can you say ‘state run media’?). This largely came about because of social media’s efforts to stop the spread of fake stories and lies, which often come from sources Trump relies on.
  7. Don’t mess with Google. After Trump’s accusations, Google adds his picture next to the definition of imbecile.
  8. Trump announces that White House Counsel Don McGahn will leave in the fall. It’s not clear if it’s by choice or if he was fired.
  9. Robert Chain calls the Boston Globe to tell them they are the enemy of the people and says “we’re going to kill every fucking one of you.” The FBI arrests Chain, who owns several guns and a recently purchased rifle.
  10. A judge sentences two Reuters journalists in Myanmar to seven years each for possessing confidential documents. The two were investigating the killings of Rohingya Muslims in the country.

Polls:

  1. Trump’s approval rating dips back down below 40%.

Week 82 in Trump

Posted on August 20, 2018 in Politics, Trump

Rudy Giuliani makes Chuck Todd crack up on air when he says (true quote) “truth isn’t truth.” This is just an example of why hundreds of newspapers across the country issue op-eds this week in support of a free press. The op-eds defend the role of the press while denouncing attacks on the press, specifically the “fake news” attacks. Upon the release of the editorials, Trump accuses the papers of collusion (collusion to defend a free press, I guess?). So the senate unanimously votes to “reaffirm the vital and indispensable role the free press serves.” You can’t make this Orwellian shit up.

Anyway, here’s what happened last week in politics…

Missed From Last Week:

  1. At DEFCON, an 11-year-old hacked into a replica of Florida’s election website and changed the voting results. In less than 10 minutes. Yep, we’re safe.

Russia:

  1. Here are some highlights from the Manafort Trial:
    • After delays from the previous week, the prosecution produces email evidence that Manafort participated in the alleged bank and tax fraud that Rick Gates admitted to being party to.
    • One email implicates Jared Kushner in bribing a bank CEO with the promise of a cabinet position.
    • The prosecution rests.
    • The defense requests that Manafort be acquitted, which the judge denies (duh).
    • The defense rests its case without calling a single witness to refute the prosecution’s case.
    • Manafort’s defense is basically that it doesn’t matter that he lied on his loan applications because the bank was going to give him the money anyway because he was bribing the CEO of said bank with a cabinet position in return for the loans. So we’re all good, right?
    • Trump says Manafort is a very good man and that his trial is a sad day for our country. Which hopefully won’t influence the non-sequestered jury. The judge himself is under U.S. Marshall protection due to death threats.
    • Just a heads up for the next Manafort trial, Mueller reportedly has three times the evidence against Manafort for that trial.
  1. White House counsel Don McGahn has had at least three interviews with investigators in Mueller’s Russia probe, and is reportedly being very forthcoming.
  2. A federal judge once again upholds the constitutionality of Mueller’s investigation, this time as part of an effort by Russian company Concord Management to invalidate the investigation. This is the fourth time a federal judge has ruled for the legitimacy of the investigation.
  3. Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly said that Mueller has to wrap things up by September in order to avoid violations of a Justice Department rule regarding elections. Both current and former officials disagree, however, and say Mueller can still continue his closed-door investigation and issue subpoenas. Trump wasn’t singing this tune when Comey openly announced an investigation into his opponent 11 days before the 2016 election.
  4. FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich fires Peter Strzok, despite the office that handles disciplinary actions recommending a demotion and suspension. Trump takes credit for firing him in a tweet.
  5. So far, the following notable intelligence or law enforcement agency members have been fired under Trump: Sally Yates, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, H.R. McMaster, Michael Anton, Tom Bossert, Derek Harvey, and Nadia Schadlow. Trump has also repeatedly threatened Jeff Sessions, Rod Rosenstein, and Robert Mueller. That pretty much covers most of the senior officials involved in the Russia investigation.
  6. In a move that seems more petty than strategic, Trump revokes John Brennan’s security clearance, likely because Brennan has been very outspoken about the dangers of Russian interference and critical of the administration’s lack of handling it. Trump is also looking at revoking security clearance for James Clapper, James Comey, Michael Hayden, Sally Yates, Susan Rice, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr. This is highly irregular since intelligence agencies rely on consultations with previous employees who require clearance in order to consult, and sometimes they need to review their old work for testimony.
  7. Just a few weeks before Trump announced Brennan’s clearance being revoked, Russian Artem Klyushin tweeted: “Ex-CIA directors John Brennan and Michael Hayden, ex-FBI director James Komi and his deputy Andrew McCabe, ex-director of the National Intelligence Service James Clapper, ex-national security adviser Susan Rice say goodbye to access to classified materials.” Who told him whose security clearance Trump is reviewing? Or did Russia tell Trump who’s clearance to revoke? So sketchy.
  8. In a scathing op-ed, retired Navy admiral William McRaven, who led the raid on Osama bin Laden, asks Trump to revoke his security clearance, too.
  9. The Treasury hasn’t been forthcoming with the Senate Intelligence Committee’s requests for information that would allow them to follow the money trail in the Russia investigation.
  10. Thirteen former U.S. intelligence heads write a letter in support of Brennan, rebuking Trump for revoking his security clearance. They call it inappropriate and deeply regrettable. By the end of the week, 70 former intelligence officers sign on.
    UPDATE: By Monday, over 175 members of the intelligence community have signed on.
  11. And in case you’re wondering why all this security clearance info is in the “Russia” category, it’s because Trump and Sarah Huckabee Sanders both connect revoking the security clearance to the Russia investigation. Trump said it in a quick Q&A on the way to his helicopter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders said it in her White House press briefing, Trump again said it in a Wall Street Journal interview, and then he implied it in a tweet. He also said he’s doing it because they’re “bad people.”
  12. Mueller recommends a jail sentence of 0-6 months for George Papadopoulos.
  13. Rand Paul plans to ask Trump to lift sanctions against certain Russian officials so they can come visit the U.S. later this year.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Jeff Sessions says the Justice Department will “vigorously enforce” the law against creating 3D-printed guns “to the fullest extent.”
  2. The West Virginia GOP takes over the state’s Supreme Court by impeaching four justices just after a deadline that would’ve required the justices to be replaced by election in November. Waiting until after that deadline lets the GOP governor appoint all new (presumably GOP) justices. One judge resigned before the deadline, to be replaced by a judge to be elected in November. Not that the judges were behaving, though; they are accused of lavish spending on their offices.
  3. Brett Kavanaugh has the lowest public support of nearly any nominee from the last four administrations. Only 37% support him, while 40% don’t think he should be confirmed.

Healthcare:

  1. Three Arkansas residents file a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the new work requirements for Medicaid in Arkansas.
  2. The CDC is monitoring a measles outbreak across 21 states. With 107 cases reported so far this year, it’s on track to be the worst measles outbreak in a decade. Vaccinate your kids and help save those who are can’t be vaccinated (like infants, the elderly, and people with cancer).
  3. One in six hospital patients is now treated at a Catholic-run hospital, where certain procedures might be limited or prohibited based on religious beliefs. So one in six patients isn’t getting complete care, and I’m not just talking abortions here either.

International:

  1. ISIS is rebounding in Syria and Iraq, with more than 30,000 fighters in those areas.
  2. A 29-year-old Sudanese immigrant in the UK hits pedestrians with his vehicle before ramming it into the barriers at the Palace of Westminster. He didn’t kill anyone, but they’re looking at it as a terrorist incident.
  3. After a bridge collapses in Genoa, Italy, killing at over 40 people, Italy’s deputy prime minister blames the European Union’s budget rules for the lack of maintenance. Even so, Italy’s European allies offer assistance.
  4. Blackwater founder Erik Prince has long been proposing that we privatize military operations in Afghanistan, which both Trump and John Bolton are now considering. Military contractors would report directly to Trump. So we’re looking at a group of mercenaries accountable only to Trump. What could go wrong?
    Background: You might remember Blackwater from the 2007 Nisour Square massacre in Iraq where their mercenaries killed innocent civilians and then lied about being fired on first. Even one of their own allegedly pointed his gun at his fellow mercenaries in an attempt to get them to stop shooting. Five of these operatives have since been convicted or pleaded guilty, and just recently got their charges reduced.
  5. The White House is trying to use an obscure budget rule to cancel $3 billion in foreign aid.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The DHS Inspector General opens an investigation into the department’s Quiet Skies program. Under this 2010 TSA program, DHS surveils travelers in airports whether or not they’re suspected of a crime or on a watch list.
  2. A class-action lawsuit brought by the ACLU reveals that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has been conspiring with ICE in bait-and-switch stings. At least 17 people thought they were going to routine green-card interviews at CIS, but were instead greeted by, and subsequently arrested by, ICE.
  3. Los Angeles turns down hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from the Department of Homeland Security that would’ve helped target extremism. The problem with the money is that DHS wants the funds to go toward fighting Muslim extremism, which isn’t a problem in Los Angeles. Los Angeles wants to target white supremacist extremism, which actually is a problem.
  4. The White House fires Darren Beattie, a speech writer, for his connections with white supremacists and his writings in support of white supremacy.
  5. Steven Miller’s uncle writes an op-ed denouncing Miller’s views on race and immigration, calling him a hypocrite because their family came to the U.S. using family-based immigration. Miller is the architect behind some of Trump’s most restrictive and cruel immigration policies.

Climate/EPA:

  1. Trump plans to further weaken Obama’s Clean Power Plan by allowing states to set their own standards for coal-burning power plants. More to come on this next week.
  2. A federal court orders a full environmental review of the Keystone XL pipeline project before the project can continue across Nebraska. Nebraskan landowners and tribal members have joined together to fight the pipeline.
  3. Despite scientific evidence otherwise, Ryan Zinke says that the role of humans in climate change is unknown. In a separate interview, Zinke blames California’s wildfires on environmental terrorist groups and says climate change isn’t to blame.
  4. And speaking of Zinke, he’s hired one of his high-school football teammates, Steve Howke, to oversee the review process for climate change research funding. Howke has been holding up funding, forcing these projects to undergo unprecedented review processes. He also has no background in science or climate issues, and holds only a degree in business administration.
  5. The Fish and Wildlife Service adds the once-common rusty patched bumblebee to the endangered species list. It’s the first bumblebee species to officially be endangered.
  6. A judge orders the Trump administration to immediately implement the Obama-era Chemical Disaster Rule, which was created in response to an explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas.
  7. Newly released documents show that the EPA ignored its own scientific research when the agency claimed that freezing fuel efficiency standards in automobiles would save lives. Their reasoning was based on flawed models, which will help states when they fight back against freezing standards.

Budget/Economy:

  1. After making a BFD of his signing of the defense authorization bill this week, Trump signs a statement saying several (around 50) of the statutes in the bill are unconstitutional limits on his presidential powers. One of those statutes bans military funding for anything supporting Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
  2. Turkey raises tariffs on U.S. imports.
  3. Trump asks the SEC to look into reducing companies’ required reporting from quarterly to half-yearly. He says business leaders told him that would reduce pressure on them and give them more flexibility. Economists say maybe, but less transparency into business operations is not good for consumers or investors.
  4. Over the past 40 years, CEO compensation for major corporations has grown 1070%. Average worker compensation, by comparison, has grown 11%.
  5. The U.S. and Mexico are reportedly close to an agreement on NAFTA. Maybe.
  6. The U.S. and China plan to come back to the negotiating table after walking away amid trade wars. However, the U.S. delegation doesn’t have a unified message or goal, and there’s doubt that Trump has a specific goal in mind. There is no one point person who has the authorization to speak for Trump even if he did have a goal.
    Background: Trump fixates on trade deficits, which he doesn’t seem to fully grasp. Trade deficits are a reflection of countries’ growth rates, currency values, and investments, among other things. It’s not a straight-up win/lose equation, but sometimes a trade deficit means you’re winning.
  7. Sarah Huckabee Sanders apologizes for saying that Trump has created three times as many jobs for African Americans in 20 months as Obama did in eight years. She said 195,000 black workers found employment under Obama when it was actually 3 million. 700,000 black workers found work in the first 20 months under Trump.

Elections:

  1. Bobby Goodlatte, the son of House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), is working to get a Democrat elected to his father’s seat. Bobby tweets, “I’m deeply embarrassed that Peter Strzok’s career was ruined by my father’s political grandstanding. That committee hearing was a low point for Congress.”
  2. Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer concedes the GOP gubernatorial primary to Kris Kobach. Kobach has instituted several voter ID laws that were struck down by the court. In fact, his court showing is so poor that a judge ordered him to go back to lawyer school.
  3. Voting rights organizations sue Arizona’s secretary of state over violations of the National Voter Registration Act. The secretary hasn’t been updating addresses in accordance with the federal “motor voter” requirements, which say each state must update a voter’s address information whenever their address on their driver’s license changes. This has resulted in thousands of votes being discarded.
  4. Whoopsies! The Treasury accidentally violates federal campaign laws by retweeting Trump’s tweet predicting a “red wave” for November’s midterms. It’s a violation of the Hatch Act, which says federal employees can’t engage in political activity while serving in an official capacity. I’m not clear, then, why it’s OK for Trump to tweet about it.
  5. A Georgia county plans to close 3/4 of their polling locations, mostly in black communities. The same thing happened in Alabama just before last year’s Senate elections, and it took a huge effort to make sure black voters were able get to the polls.
  6. Dr. Hans Keirstead, one of the democratic candidates running against Dana Rohrabacher for Congress, was hacked during the primaries. Keirstead lost out on the second position in the top-two primary to another democratic candidate by 125 votes. Law enforcement doesn’t know where the hacks came from.
  7. And the political ads are back. GOP super PACs are gearing up for the November midterms by unleashing a series of ads against several Democrats in tight districts. I’m sure it won’t be long before Democratic PACs do the same, so now’s a good time for my reminder that ALL POLITICAL ADS ARE LIES DESIGNED TO MANIPULATE YOU. DO NOT BASE YOUR VOTE ON ADS.
  8. And speaking of ads, Google posts a searchable library of political ads along with information about who funded the ads and who the ads target. They’ll update this weekly so you’ll have ready information about who is saying what.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Omarosa Manigault-Newman releases another taped conversation about her firing, this one with Trump where he professes to not know she was being fired and where he sounds perplexed that she might be leaving.
  2. Omarosa releases a taped conversation where Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, offered her hush money after she left the White House. Lara told her the money would come from political donations.
  3. Trump sues Omarosa for violating her nondisclosure agreement, which many legal experts say isn’t enforceable in this case anyway. Oh. And he also calls her a dog.
  4. Omarosa claims to have over 200 recorded conversations, and she’s trickling them out one at a time (to sell her book of course).
  5. Trump has forced several of his White House staff into signing non-disclosure agreements, but most legal experts say they can’t be enforced.
  6. Trump signs a defense bill named in honor of John McCain and refuses to mention McCain’s name during the signing. But he criticizes McCain just hours later at a fundraiser.
  7. This isn’t political, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it. Over 300 Catholic clergy in Pennsylvania are accused of molesting over 1,000 child victims. The church has been involved in a massive coverup of the whole thing for 70 years. There’s another scandal like this bubbling up in Chile as well.
  8. Twitter still won’t go all in with a ban on Alex Jones, but it did suspend him for a week over a recent post.
  9. The FCC shuts down Alex Jones‘ radio station and fines it $15,000. I wish they could shut him down for being a liar, conspiracy nut, and provoker of violence, but they shut him down for operating without a license.
  10. In their first execution in over 20 years, Nebraska becomes the first state to use fentanyl for a death penalty lethal injection.
  11. Trump cancels his military parade due to the high costs. Even though local officials have been trying to explain the costs to him, he blames them for inflating costs.
  12. The National Park Service, under Ryan Zinke’s direction, wants to charge protestors for demonstrating in our capital. AFAIK, cities don’t charge demonstrators because it’s a violation of their first amendment rights. If you have an opinion on this, you can comment here: https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=NPS-2018-0007

Week 79 in Trump

Posted on July 30, 2018 in Politics, Trump

Credit: gguy/Shutterstock

Despite Trump’s spectacular tweet storm on Sunday, it was a relatively quiet week as far as political news. Maybe we’ll get a little summer break from political chaos for the next few weeks. Here’s what happened last week…

Missed from Last Week:

  1. Four members of the Homeland Security Advisory Committee resign, saying that they can no longer be associated with Trump’s immigration policies and calling the practice of family separation “morally repugnant.”

Russia:

  1. Even though Robert Mueller’s investigation has so far resulted in 32 indictments, 5 guilty pleas, and over 100 charges, this happens:
    • Sarah Huckabee Sanders calls Robert Mueller’s investigation a “hoax and a waste or time.”
    • Trump tweets that Russia’s interference in the election was “all a big hoax” (though last week he said that he concurs with our intelligence community’s assessment of Russian interference in our election).
    • Then, even though it’s all a big hoax, Trump blames Obama for letting Russian interference in our election happen. He also wonders why Obama didn’t tell his campaign, though both the Clinton and Trump campaigns were warned about it.
  1. Carter Page has been downplaying his ties with Russian officials, but in a 2013 letter, he says he worked as an informal advisor to Kremlin staff.
  2. The judge in Paul Manafort’s trial grants immunity to five witnesses as requested by Mueller. The judge also orders that all witness names be made public (there are 30 prospective witnesses). The trial begins at the end of the month.
  3. Trump says that he thinks Russia will meddle in our midterm elections, but this time to help get Democrats elected because Trump’s been so tough on Russia. Despite his soft stance toward Putin, he has taken more actions against Russia than previous administrations (albeit grudgingly in many cases).
  4. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies to a senate committee about our Russia policy, including the actions taken by the administration (213 sanctions, weapons sales to Ukraine, 60 diplomats expelled, and Russian facilities closed). Pompeo refuses to discuss what was said in Trump’s meeting with Putin.
  5. Just before Pompeo’s testimony, the State Department restated their non-recognition of Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
  6. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Banking Committee schedule hearings to find out what was agreed upon in the Trump and Putin summit.
  7. Trump postpones Putin’s visit in the fall, blaming the Russia “witch hunt.” Soon after, Putin invites Trump to Moscow.
  8. The White House releases an edited transcript of the summit, omitting key questions. The Kremlin releases yet a different edited version that also omits key information. The White House later corrects their record.
  9. Eleven GOP members of the House, including Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows, bring articles of impeachment against Rod Rosenstein, demanding a vote. House leadership and other members criticize this action, and the sponsors end up pulling their demand for a vote.
  10. According to “sources,” Michael Cohen says that Trump knew about the Russian offer that led to the meeting with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower before the 2016 elections. Cohen also says that Trump approved the meeting. Steve Bannon and Sam Nunberg have both said they think Trump knew about the meeting.
  11. Trump says he did not know about the meeting; Cohen says he’s willing to testify otherwise.
  12. Newly surfaced emails show that the Russian lawyer from the above meeting, Natalia Veselnitskaya, is more closely linked to Russian government officials than she has let on.
  13. Russian hackers have been hacking into electric utility companies in the U.S.
  14. Elliot Broidy and Tom Barrack (a Trump friend and business associate) paid Rick Gates over $300,000 for help navigating Trump’s administration. Gates has plead guilty to fraud and lying to investigators.
  15. Senate Intelligence Committee chair Richard Burr (R-NC) contradicts his counterpart in the House, Devin Nunes, saying that the Carter Page warrant was based on solid intel.
  16. After Maria Butina’s arrest for espionage, Democratic senators on the Senate Intelligence Committee request an investigation into whether the NRA knew Russia was trying to funnel money through them to Trump’s campaign.
  17. Representative Dana Rohrabacher (D-Calif.) had dinner last year with Butina. Two years before that, Butina arranged a meeting between Rohrabacher and Alexander Torshin.
  18. Russian hackers are already at work in the 2018 midterm election. In August 2017, they attempted to hack into Claire McCaskill’s servers after Trump visited her state and encouraged crowds to vote her out of office.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Jeff Sessions addresses a high school leadership summit, and joins in with the students in chanting “Lock her up!” He later says that in retrospect, he should’ve taken that moment to talk to the students about due process instead.
  2. A circuit court rules that the 2nd amendment does give us the right to open carry firearms for self defense. A previous ruling found that the 2nd amendment does NOT protect concealed carry.
  3. For the second time, a federal judge refuses to dismiss an emoluments lawsuit against Trump.

Healthcare:

  1. Kentucky reinstates the dental and vision benefits that the state took away from a half million Medicaid recipients several weeks ago. Outrage from local Democrats and local media pushed them to reverse their decision.
  2. Two things this week will affect privatization of veterans’ healthcare:
    • Trump creates a commission to review Veterans Administration facilities with the possible end goal of shutting down several. The commission will be able to make final decisions on this without congressional approval.
    • Congress provides more funding for the Veteran’s Choice Program, which is a vehicle to privatized healthcare. Putting more money there takes it away from the VA and starts a vicious cycle of underfunding VA facilities which could lead the above commission to shut them down.
  1. On rumors of pretty massive increases in premiums next year, the Trump administration will resume paying the risk adjustment payments to health insurers that he canceled just a few weeks ago.

International:

  1. After Iran’s President Rouhani warns the U.S. about starting any conflict, Trump threatens Iran in a tweet with “CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED.”
  2. The Pentagon plans to send another $200 million to help the Ukraine fight off pro-Russian separatists. This is seen as a reaction to the Trump/Putin press conference in Helsinki.
  3. A recent review of international agreements concludes that countries are in compliance with these agreements about 77% of the time. So it seems these agreements do actually work.
  4. Keeping Kim Jong Un’s word to Trump, North Korea returns the remains of 55 people believed to be American soldiers from the Korean War. The country still hasn’t slowed down it’s nuclear activity though.
  5. The White House says they won’t publish conversations between Trump and other world leaders anymore.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. Four Republican representatives accuse Twitter of “shadow banning” them, which is when either their posts don’t show up on other people’s newsfeeds or don’t show up in searches. Twitter says they don’t do that. Note that all four have posted incendiary or false stories.

Family Separation:

  1. While the administration scrambles to meet their court-ordered deadline to reunite families they separated at the border, they say over 700 families can’t be reunited. They also say that 463 of the parents were likely deported without their children.
  2. For these 463, the administration failed to document consent for most of them, so there’s no way that they can prove that any documents were signed consenting to being deported without their children.
  3. And as an example of what makes a family ineligible to be reunited, the administration refuses to reunite a child with her grandmother because the grandmother isn’t the child’s parent. Please.
  4. United Airlines donates flights to help reunite families that were separated at the border and who are now being forced to pay reunification costs incurred by the administration.
  5. A judge orders the Trump administration to provide assistance and information to lawyers who are working to reunite these families.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Documents released as part of a lawsuit show that Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross lied about the origin of the new citizenship question on the 2020 census. Ross says the DOJ initially requested the question, but the documents show that it was Ross who was pushing for it.
  2. A judge rules that a lawsuit against the administration for adding the citizenship question to the census can move forward.
  3. A group of 36 people sue the Trump administration over the recently upheld Muslim ban saying that the waiver process is a sham. The 36 people represent all five of the Muslim-majority countries included in the ban.

Climate/EPA:

  1. While working to decrease the size of our national monuments, the Trump administration suppressed research that shows that national monuments boost both tourism and archaeological finds. Instead, Ryan Zinke emphasized ranch, logging, and energy development.
  2. A federal appeals court blocks the administration’s second try at stopping a climate change lawsuit. This lawsuit was brought by a group of children who say that the government is endangering their future by not doing enough about climate change.
  3. A federal appeals court also blocks one of Scott Pruitt’s last policy changes that would have lifted limits of sales of so-called super-polluting semi trucks.
  4. Democrats and conservationists in the House block the GOP’s attempt to suspend endangered species protections for certain birds and insects.

Budget/Economy:

  1. It sounds like Russia is giving up on the American economy. They’ve been buying gold and selling off U.S. Treasury bonds. Their bond ownership is around 1/6 what it used to be.
  2. Unexplainable, right? Whirlpool’s stock takes a dive. Whirlpool initially pushed Trump into harsher tariffs, but they’re blaming their stock drop on the resulting high prices of aluminum and steel. Their CEO says the high prices are unexplainable.
  3. According to the North Dakota Trade office, all of China’s firm orders for food-grade soybeans have been cancelled due to tariffs. Farmers won’t see effects from this immediately, but future harvests will be hit.
  4. The economy grew 4.1% in the second quarter of this year, the highest rate of growth since 2014 when it hit 5.2% under Obama. Economists think that the growth is due in part to the tax stimulus and in part to increased spending before the tariffs went into effect. (And in case you think this proves Trump is better for the economy, growth hit 4% under Obama four times.)
  5. Don Jr. says economic growth never passed 2% under Obama. Except that it did. 15 times.
  6. Facebook stock tanks on the low number of active users, and Twitter stock tanks after they purge thousands of fake accounts.
  7. Trump considers 25% tariffs on $200 billion of foreign-made cars, and when even Republicans criticize the idea, he says we just need to trust his business acumen.
  8. Trump meets with European Commission President Juncker where they agree to work toward zero tariffs on trade, reduce barriers to trade, and increase trade in certain sectors. They also agree to establish a working group to figure out the details.
  9. Trump backs away from this tariff threats against the EU, and the EU backs down from threats of retaliatory tariffs.
  10. There are reports that Juncker used colorful flashcards as a way to simplify complex issues and to explain global trade policy to Trump.
  11. Trump says he’s willing to force a government shutdown ahead of the September spending bill deadline if he doesn’t get what he wants on immigration, including funding for the border wall.
  12. Right after tweeting that tariffs are the greatest, the Trump administration announces a $12 billion assistance package to help farmers who might be hurt by the tariffs. Trump tells farmers to be patient, and not to believe what they see and hear right now.
  13. Representative Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) says this bailout shows that Trump has too much power and that Congress needs to reassert its power. He also says that tariffs are a tax paid by the American people, and Trump is using that tax to bail out farmers.
  14. Coca-Cola says they’ll increase prices due to rising costs from the tariffs.
  15. Current measures indicate that the price changes caused by the trade war are temporary and should return to close to normal in a year or two.

Elections:

  1. Here’s an illustration of why we need to end gerrymandering. In emails disclosed as part of a lawsuit, Republican officials in Michigan brag about gerrymandering and celebrate sticking it to Democrats. The emails talk about concentrating “Dem garbage” into certain Democrat controlled districts, and about concentrating African Americans into a specific House district in Detroit. They even describe one of the oddly shaped districts as being like a finger, essentially flipping off that district’s Democratic representative.
  2. States purged 16 million voters from their rolls from 2014 to 2016, an increase from previous periods. The greatest rates of increase were in areas that were under federal watch for having previously violated the Voting Rights Act. In at least eight states, the purges violated the Voting Rights Act or were otherwise not legal.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Trump weighs stripping former officials who criticize him of their security clearances. This is an unusual move by any administration, and could hamper their ability to do consulting work on classified projects. It seems Rand Paul pushed him on this one.
  2. The Senate confirms Robert Wilkes to head the VA.
  3. Someone leaks a tape of a conversation between Michael Cohen and Trump where they discuss purchasing Karen McDougal’s story about her affair with Trump from American Media to prevent the story from getting out before the 2016 election.
  4. New York’s Department of Taxation and Finance opens an investigation into Trump’s foundation over whether it violated state tax laws.
  5. Ivanka shuts down her clothing line to focus on her work in Washington and also because conflicts of interest between her business and her government work are getting in the way.
  6. Apparently there’s a standing rule on Air Force One that all TVs be tuned to Fox News while Trump’s on board. He has a little tantrum when Melania’s TV is on CNN.
  7. Betsy DeVos eliminates Obama-era regulations that required for-profit colleges to be able to show proof that their claims of graduate employment are accurate. This rule protected students from being tricked into thinking that graduates of a school are more employable than they actually are.
  8. Vandals untie one of DeVos’s 10 yachts, releasing it from it’s dock in Ohio. Which is how we learn that her yacht is registered under the Cayman Island flag. Why is that?
  9. Trump criticizes the FCC for slowing down the merge between Sinclair Broadcasting and Tribune Media.
  10. Someone vandalizes Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a pickaxe for the second time.
  11. Fox News fires The Five host Kimberly Guilfoyle for sexual misconduct and abusive conduct. Side note: Guilfoyle is dating Don Jr.
  12. Karma bitches. Facebook suspends Alex Jones for bullying and hate speech.YouTube removes four of his videos and suspends him from live-streaming for three months.
  13. Emails surface that show that police in Ohio had been planning to arrest Stormy Daniels for months before her scheduled performance.
  14. After a meeting with the publisher of the New York Times, A.G. Sulzberger, Trump tweets that they had a very good meeting and talked about the high volume of fake news put out by the mainstream media. Sulzberger’s response: “I told the president directly that I thought that his language was not just divisive but increasingly dangerous.” “
  15. So then Trump accuses the media of having “Trump derangement syndrome.”

Polls:

  1. 71% of voters think Roe v. Wade should not be overturned.
  2. 51% think Russia has something on Trump, with Republicans being the only category of voter that doesn’t think so (categories include things like gender, party, education, age, race, and so on).
  3. 52% say Trump’s summit with Putin was a failure for Trump; 27% say it was a success.
  4. 73% say the summit was a success for Putin.
  5. 78% say Trump should defend all our NATO allies.
  6. 68% are concerned about Trump’s relationship with Russia.
  7. Trump’s approval rating fell to 38% after the Russia summit.
  8. Two groups give Trump clear support: Republicans at 82%, and white evangelical Christians at 71%.
  9. 58% of voters disapprove of Trump’s foreign policy, with 51% saying that he‘s weakened our position as leader of the free world.

 

Week 68 in Trump

Posted on May 14, 2018 in Politics, Trump

This week, House Democrats released some of the propaganda and ads posted by Russian trolls during the 2016 campaigns. If you want to see them yourselves, you can download them here. If you want to know if you actually liked one of those ads, Facebook has a tool that lets you check.

Here’s what happened last week in politics…

Missed from Last Week:

  1. Seattle puts the wheels in motion to vacate all marijuana possession charges dating back to the 90s.
  2. Thomas Homan, Trump’s temporary appointee to head ICE, resigns. Trump finally nominated Homan to head the department permanently, but his confirmation has been held up in Congress over his aggressive immigration enforcement tactics.

Russia:

  1. We find out that Michael Cohen (Trump’s personal lawyer) used a shell company, Essential Consultants, for business activities. This in itself is not unusual… but then…
    • The shell company was created just before Trump was elected.
    • The shell company made the payment to keep Stormy Daniels quiet.
    • The shell company made the payments to keep Elliot Broidy’s affair with a playboy model quiet. He allegedly got the model pregnant.
    • And this is where the Stormy Daniels affair collides with the Russia investigation. The shell company received a half million dollars from Columbus Nova, whose biggest client is Renova Group, owned by Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Their contract with Cohen was for $1 million.
    • Other clients of the shell company include AT&T, Novartis, and Korea Aerospace Industries, among others. Cohen also approached Ford Motor Cars, but they declined.
    • All of the above companies backpedal hard to distance themselves from Cohen as information changes over the week about how much they paid him and the reasons. Novartis has the best reason; they say they paid him $1.2 million for nothing.
    • Basically Cohen raked in millions of dollar for companies to have insider access to the Trump administration. Novartis was afraid to cancel their contract with Cohen because it might anger Trump.
    • Columbus Nova says Renova is their biggest client, but that they were never owned by a foreign company. However, Columbus Nova listed Renova on their website through 2017, and Renova listed Columbus Nova on theirs. That information is now gone. Also, SEC filings say it’s a U.S. affiliate of Renova.
    • In 2016 and 2017, Columbus Nova registered at least eight websites for white supremacists and alt-right groups. They also registered cnnjournal.com, which is a standard format for fake news sites (the URL looks like it comes from a real news source).
  1. Important notes here:
    • AT&T was lobbying for a merger with Time Warner. Trump opposed the merger during the campaign, and the DOJ blocked it in November.
    • Shortly after Novartis made their last payment to Cohen, Trump met with company leaders in Davos.
    • Korea Aerospace Industries is competing for a multi-billion dollar defense contract.
    • Renova Group is a target of U.S. sanctions.
    • Four years ago, the FBI warned that a foundation controlled by Vekselberg was working for Russian intelligence, spying to collect U.S. science and technology advances.
    • Vekselberg is one of the oligarchs the FBI detained and questioned at the airport as he entered the country.
  1. And as always, we’re four steps behind Mueller, who’s been aware of all this since last year.
  2. Here’s how the House fight against the Mueller investigation is going:
    • House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) has been subpoenaing documents from the DOJ that could potentially expose a top-secret intelligence source and put the Russia investigation at risk. The source is a U.S. citizen who has provided intelligence to the CIA and FBI. The White House backs the DOJ in withholding this information.
    • Devin Nunes and Trey Gowdy meet with DOJ officials to go over the request for classified documents, which seems to quiet things down for now.
    • Paul Ryan backs Devin Nunes in his attempt to obtain the classified documents. Ryan says it’s in the scope of the committee’s investigation, though they ended their investigation last month so I’m not sure what investigation he’s talking about.
    • And also, Nunes is still supposed to be recused from the Russia investigation.
    • House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-NC) requests a financial audit of Mueller’s investigation.
  1. When asked whether the Senate findings would differ from the House findings released last month, the Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman, Richard Burr (R-NC), says “I’m not sure that the House was required to substantiate every conclusion with facts.”
  2. A Senate Intelligence Committee report says the election systems in at least 18, and maybe 21, states were targeted by Russian hackers in the 2016 elections. The report also says that Russia launched an unprecedented cyber campaign to make voters lose confidence in the elections, and provides recommendations for security.
  3. This report is the first of four planned to be released to address different aspects of the Russia investigation.
  4. The lawyers representing the Russian companies and trolls charged by Mueller in the Russia investigation try to bury Mueller’s team with an avalanche of discovery requests, including non-public information going back as far as the 1940s. A court denies Mueller’s request for a delay.
  5. Alex van der Zwaan begins his 30-day prison sentence for lying to federal agents, the first to serve time related to the Mueller investigation.
  6. House Democrats release 3,500 of the more than 200,000 Russian social media ads. The ads were aimed at creating divisiveness in the American electorate, and targeted issues like Black Lives Matter, immigration, gun rights, Muslims, Texas secession, and, of course, Hillary Clinton.
  7. These 3,500 ads alone reached over 33 million people.
  8. Mike Pence says it’s time for Mueller to start wrapping up his year-long investigation. Apparently he forgot that the special investigation into Bill Clinton went on for 5 years, despite not finding him guilty of anything except lying about an affair. Clinton’s investigation only resulted in the indictment of the McDougals. Mueller’s already obtained several guilty pleas.
  9. Mueller interviews Blackwater founder, Erik Prince.
  10. U.S. jets intercept two Russian bombers off the coast of Alaska.
  11. A public records request shows that Russian officials started courting conservatives in the U.S. as early as 2009, establishing and cultivating common political interests.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley urges any sitting supreme court justice who’s thinking of retiring to do it ASAP so he can rush through confirmation of a new Trump appointee. Seems he’s worried Democrats might take back the Senate and House in November and stall any new appointments kinda like the Republicans did to Merrick Garland. And Victoria Nourse. And Linda Walker. And Cassandra Butts. And…
  2. Senate Republicans once again ignore the blue slip tradition of allowing Senators to veto judicial nominees from their own state. They’re pushing through the nomination of Ryan Bounds, who as a student wrote about his racist views and recommended not expelling men accused of rape from school.
  3. The Senate votes along party lines to confirm Michael Brennan to a seat on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals that Republicans prevented Obama from filling for SIX YEARS.

Healthcare:

  1. Anti-abortion violence is increasing again, doubling in 2017 over 2016. Instances of trespassing and obstruction have more than tripled.
  2. John Bolton disbands the global health security team, which was responsible for our response to deadly pandemics. Timothy Ziemer, the top official responsible for the group, resigned, leaving us with no one focused on global health security.
  3. Tom Bossert, the White House homeland security advisor, also left after Bolton started. Bossert advised that we need a comprehensive defense strategy for pandemics and biological attacks.
  4. Trump announces a strategy to reduce drug prices, including promoting generics, creating incentives, improving negotiations, and forcing companies to list prices. He stops short of his campaign promise to allow Medicare work directly with manufacturers to lower prices, which is something his HHS secretary (who also used to head Eli Lilly) opposes.
  5. Instead of raising taxes to make up for the state’s shortfall, the Louisiana state House votes largely along party lines to slash Medicaid eligibility by nearly two-thirds. They are currently planning for the evictions of over 30,000 elderly or disabled assisted living and group home residents.

International:

  1. Trump pulls the U.S. out of the Iran deal against the advice of the EU, Russia, China, hundreds of foreign relations experts and military leaders, and pretty much everyone except the GOP…
  2. Well, actually even members of Congress who voted against the Iran deal under Obama expressed disappointment in Trump’s decision. And I’m talking both Democrat and Republican members.
  3. All signatories on the deal vow to stay in and find a way to work around the U.S. withdrawal, which could weaken our position. They’ve all gone back to the bargaining table to discuss how to move forward without the U.S.
  4. Trump promises tougher sanctions on Iran that will be phased in over six months, which could possibly allow enough time to negotiate new terms.
  5. Trump is betting that Iran will be willing to renegotiate once they start to feel the sanctions, but he also admits he has no plan B, saying “But they’ll negotiate, or something will happen.” Who knows what that something is?
  6. By the way, the sanctions office in the State Department was closed by Rex Tillerson, and the head of the sanctions department at the Treasury quit.
  7. Estimates are that Iranian oil exports would be cut by 200,000 to 300,000 barrels per day. As a comparison, Obama cut them by 1 million to 1.5 million barrels a day in the five-year lead-up that forced Iran to the negotiating table.
  8. John Bolton predicts that Iran will cave in under pressure, but Obama put them under pressure for five years and at five times the level that Trump plans to do
  9. As a result of us pulling out of the Iran deal, Boeing and Airbus each lose contracts worth $20 billion to sell jets to Iranian airlines.
  10. European leaders say they’ll work to protect their businesses from the sanctions, and will probably try to create a financial system that can circumvent around the U.S. dollar.
  11. China and Russia should have a fairly easy time getting around any sanctions we implement against Iran, but our European allies will have a harder time navigating around the finances.
  12. European oil companies will lose out if they can’t find a way to save the deal.
  13. Whaaat? Even though the U.S. has now violated the Iran deal, Trumps says that he expects Iran to continue to comply with it. If the deal falls apart, Iran has no reason not to start up their nuclear weapons program again.
  14. Iranian president Rouhani says they’ll decide in a few weeks whether to ramp up uranium enrichment. Rouhani is a moderating force who believes in diplomacy with the West.
  15. And then Saudi Arabia says that if Iran tries to make nuclear weapons, Saudi will as well.
  16. After Trump’s announcement, hardliners in the Iranian government burn American flags chanting “Death to America!” This could weaken the more moderate influences in the Iranian government as hardliners are already pushing to get out of the deal.
  17. Cyber warfare analysts at the Pentagon predict a new surge of cyber attacks out of Iran. Within 24 hours of Trump withdrawing from the Iran deal, they noticed a marked uptick in cyber activity from Iran.
  18. Oh, and also John Bolton wants to eliminate the top cybersecurity job at the White House.
  19. After Trump announces the withdrawal, Iran and Israel engage in military attacks against each other in Syria. The two have been fighting a shadow war in Syria that is coming out into the open with the heightened tensions there. Even Russia, which has close ties to both governments, calls for restraint.
  20. The U.S. finally sends an ambassador to Germany after leaving the post empty for a year. Within hours of assuming the post, he tweets that “German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately.” This draws rebukes from officials, one of whom says, “It’s not my task to teach people about the fine art of diplomacy, especially not the U.S. ambassador.” German businesses perceive it as a threat.
  21. Mike Pompeo meets with Kim Jong Un and sets a date for Trump to meet. They secure the release of the three U.S. prisoners from North Korea.
  22. An upswing in activity between North Korea and China points to China holding leverage in the Korean peace talks.
  23. Mike Pompeo’s initial remarks to State Department employees indicate that he will work to build our diplomatic ranks back up throughout the world.
  24. Our actions with the Paris climate accord, tariffs and trade spats, the U.S. embassy in Israel, and the Iran deal have created a rift with our traditionally closest allies.
    • The president of the European Commission says that the U.S. is turning its back on allies and cooperation with ferocity. He also says we’ve lost out vigor and influence.
    • A former French ambassador to Washington concurs, saying they can’t work with a U.S. leadership that doesn’t want to be a leader. European leaders are mulling ways to move forward without U.S. leadership.
  1. The Pentagon concludes that the special ops mission in Niger that killed four American soldiers was the fault of numerous planning failures. They also dispute the rumor that one of the soldiers was captured alive.
  2. Iraqi and U.S. intelligence capture five top ISIS leaders in a three-month operation between Washington and Baghdad.
  3. Twenty people who were beaten by Turkish security guards outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in DC last year file a lawsuit against the Turkish government.
  4. Australia sees its worse mass killing since they passed strict gun control laws in 1996. While gun violence has dropped 47% in Australia since the laws passed, they can’t prevent every shooting.
  5. We learn that Paul Ryan spoke in March to the Czech Parliament where, in a split from Trump talking points, he admitted Russian election hacking, praised NATO, and accused Russia of subversive tactics and aggressive action against our allies. He also negotiated for a Russian hacker to be extradited to the U.S. instead of Russia.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. While the FCC says that net neutrality will be repealed next month, Senate Democrats are one vote short of passing a bill to make net neutrality the law.
  2. Connecticut bans bump stocks, the ninth state to do so.
  3. Delaware bans child marriage. How is this not a federal law??
  4. Cory Booker puts forth legislation to remove marijuana from the controlled substances list, making it legal at the federal level.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Sessions speaks on immigration at the border. He announces crackdowns on illegal border crossings, saying it will be our policy going forward to separate children from their parents at the border.
  2. Sessions also says he might eliminate political asylum for victims of domestic abuse. So far, he’s set aside four decisions by the Board of Immigration Appeals on this subject.
  3. Fair housing groups sue HUD and Secretary Ben Carson over suspending an Obama-era rule that required communities receiving HUD funds to work to desegregate their communities. Carson’s actions would let communities receive full funding without complying with the 1968 Fair Housing Act.
  4. Senate Democrats refer the Trump administration to the Government Accountability Office over their actions against immigrants with Temporary Protected Status. The investigation exposed warnings from several senior diplomats last year that deporting these immigrants would destabilize the regions and lead to an increase in illegal immigration. Apparently former Secretary of State Tillerson ignored their cables.
  5. New Hampshire passes a law protecting transgender residents from discrimination in employment, housing, and public spaces.
  6. Even Pakistan passes legislation to protect their transgender citizens.
  7. The House passes a resolution to repeal a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule that protects consumers from discrimination when getting a car loan. Because they use the Congressional Review Act to repeal the rule, it blocks the CFPB from creating a similar rule in the future. The bill heads to Trump for signing into law.
  8. Far-right political parties across Europe are playing on anti-Jewish stereotypes like the Nazis used to. Muslim immigrants contribute to the anti-Jewish sentiment, but it’s mostly coming from Christian anti-Zionist factions that have grown because of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment.
  9. Trump, furious that border crossings are on the rise again, unleashes a 30-minute tirade against Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen during a cabinet meeting. He blames the increase on her, though her policies have been pretty darn tight. Many attendees were taken aback by the tirade.
  10. There’s a bipartisan push to force a vote on immigration bills, and Paul Ryan is working to halt it. He says he’d like to take up an immigration bill, but not at this time. Or ever, it seems.
  11. John Kelly takes heat for his comments that undocumented immigrants don’t assimilate well because they have little education, they’re rural, they don’t speak English, and don’t have skills. These assertions don’t hold up in real life studies. Also, what does being rural have to do with assimilating in the U.S.? Does he have something against rural Americas? Even the right-leaning Cato Institute disagrees with Kelly.
  12. If you thought the FBI’s push to prosecute black identity “extremists” was a myth, it turns out that they arrested a black activist, held him without bail for five months, and didn’t have anything to prosecute him on. He lost his house, and to top it off, it turns out that the FBI was using conspiracy site Infowars to get information.
  13. A New Hampshire court rules that a Border Patrol checkpoint set up last year was illegal. Turns out they set up a drug checkpoint framed as an immigration checkpoint, and illegally searched thousands of cars.

Climate/EPA:

  1. The Trump administration ends NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System (CMS), which uses satellite and aircraft instruments to monitor the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane remotely. These measurements are invaluable to climate research and high-res models of the earth’s carbon flows.
  2. India’s Supreme Court upholds a ruling that Monsanto can’t patent its genetically modified cotton seeds in India.
  3. Studies link climate change to the increasing severity of hurricanes. Climate change causes the oceans to trap more heat, and that heat is released as energy during a hurricane. So the more heat in the ocean, the more powerful the storm. Ocean temperatures were at record highs last year before Hurricane Harvey.
  4. When automobile executives lobbied the Trump administration to loosen emissions standards, they didn’t expect the administration to go as far as they did or to attack California’s long-standing ability to set their own standards. This week, the executives meet again with the White House, saying the regulation was taken over by anti-regulatory members of the administration who pushed it way too far. They’re asking Trump to let California keep its own standards; they don’t want to pick a fight.

Budget/Economy:

  1. Trump tries to make up for the ballooning deficit by asking for $15 billion in cuts to spending previously approved by Congress. Almost most half the cuts would come from children’s health programs. Most of the rest would come from money earmarked for the ACA. The cuts amount to 0.4% of this year’s spending.
  2. After touting his infrastructure plan in March, Trump’s administration now says there likely won’t be an infrastructure plan this year. Last month, the top infrastructure advisor resigned.
  3. According to Paul Ryan, we have a shortage of workers. Seems like a bad time to remove nearly a million Dreamers from the work place, deport around a half million TPS immigrants, and cut back on legal immigration (which the administration has been pushing for).
  4. Continuing on with the teachers’ strikes, University of California workers strike for better wages, benefits, and job security.
  5. The Trump administration wants to freeze federal workers’ salaries and cut their retirement benefits.
  6. Trump tweets that he’s working with Chinese president Xi Jingping to save Chinese company ZTE, which largely shutdown after last month’s sanctions prevented them from getting the needed parts for their electronics. ZTE is known to pirate U.S. intellectual property, which Trump counted as a reason for China sanctions. Trump says there were too many jobs lost in China… which is kind of how sanctions work.
  7. Chinese custom inspections are holding up automobiles, soybeans, and other agricultural projects, earmarking them for deeper inspection over trade uncertainty.

Elections:

  1. Ohio votes to end gerrymandering.
  2. Connecticut passes a bill to commit their electoral votes in the presidential election to the winner of the national popular vote. It joins 10 other states and DC in this effort.
  3. A Dallas judge dismisses a case brought by Republicans to drop over 80 Democrats off the midterm ballot.

Miscellaneous:

  1. New York Attorney General Eric Schneidermann resigns amid multiple accusations of sexual violence.
  2. Around 5 years ago, two women contacted attorney Peter Gleason about sex abuse complaints against Schneidermann. Gleason then shared information about those complaints with Michael Cohen in case it could be used against Schneidermann if he brought a lawsuit against Trump University. Gleason recently filed to have those records remain sealed after they were seized from Cohen’s home. Trump appears to have known about it. In 2013, he tweeted about Schneidermann, “Wait and see, worse than Spitzer or Weiner.”
  3. As part of Melania Trump’s new program “Be Best” the White House reissues an Obama-era pamphlet rebranded for Melania’s program. The White House says it’s written by Melania, immediately undermining her credibility. Also, the DOJ could’ve waited to announce their family separation policy instead of doing it within an hour of Melania announcing her children’s program.
  4. A group of governors joins to study gun violence since the federal government is failing to make any progress on it.
  5. Kansas passes a law to make it illegal for domestic abusers to own guns.
  6. Gina Haspel appears before the Senate in her confirmation hearing to head the CIA. Her confirmation is in trouble due to her connection with the torture of detainees. She also participated in destroying evidence of the torture.
  7. A little respect please? In response to John McCain speaking out again Gina Haspel’s use of torture, White House staffer Kelly Sadler says McCain is irrelevant because he’s dying. Later, a retired three-star general says on Fox News that torture worked on John, propagating the pants-on-fire lie that McCain told his torturers what they wanted to know.
  8. Mick Mulvaney and others in the White House say that it’s worse Sadler’s words were leaked than that she said it in the first place. Can they not just apologize and move on? They just make everything worse.
  9. New NRA president Oliver North says that Parkland activists are criminals, and he compares threats and vandalism against NRA officials to the Jim Crow era. North knows a thing or two about being a criminal, but apparently not much about Jim Crow.
  10. Last week, Rudy Giuliani said it’s common for lawyers to make payoffs for their wealthy clients without telling them, so common that it’s even done at the law firm he works at. In response, the law firm he works at says Giuliani no longer works there and that’s not the kind of law we practice.
  11. An email sent out to FDA staff says that the TV monitors at one of their campuses can’t be changed from Fox News per a directive from the administration.
  12. Democrats are forcing a vote on net neutrality in the coming week.

Polls:

  1. 63% of American think we should stay in the Iran accord; 29% think we should withdraw.
  2. 57% of young Arabs see the U.S. as an enemy; 35% see us as an ally. That’s a reversal of the numbers from 2016.

Week 66 in Trump

Posted on April 30, 2018 in Politics, Trump

If you’re unsure of why we need to put an end to Citizen’s United, here’s my quote of the week; a confession from Mick Mulvaney, former Congressman and current head of the Office of Management and Budget and the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.


“If you’re a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you. If you’re a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you.”

He was speaking to bankers and lobbyists about how they can help weaken the CFPB—the very agency he runs and the very agency that is supposed to be a watchdog over bankers. This guy is not looking out for the best interests of the people. And we need to get money out of politics.

Here’s what else happened this week in politics…

Fox & Friends

I don’t usually report much on Trump’s rallies or speeches, but this stream of consciousness earned its own category this week.

  1. Trump phones in to Fox & Friends and talks for nearly half an hour non-stop devolving into a rant by the end. The anchors could barely get a word in, even though they tried to ask him questions, steer him away from legal danger, and stop the conversation. I’m not even sure I can summarize it all, but here goes:
    • He criticizes the Iran deal and says we gave them $1.8 billion dollars. (Background: Hardly any of this money was controlled by the U.S. or U.S. banks—it was mostly held overseas and much of the payment was in Euros. Some of it was frozen assets, and some of it was from a military hardware agreement that they paid for but that we never delivered on because of the revolution.)
    • He says he’s having a hard time getting things done because of the obstructionist Democrats. Except that the Republicans hold the House, the Senate, and the presidency. Democrats don’t have much power to obstruct.
    • He defends Dr. Ronny Jackson and says Montana Senator Jon Tester will pay in the midterms for publicizing criticism against Jackson. (Tip: If you vet your candidates before presenting them to Congress, you can also stop their dirty laundry from being aired in public.)
    • He (again) says James Comey is a leaker and a liar, and accuses him of crimes. He then threatens to intervene with the DOJ.
    • He (again) says the FBI was unfair to search Manafort’s and Cohen’s offices and homes.
    • He says Michael Cohen represented him in the Stormy Daniels affair, something he previously denied knowledge of.
    • He says Michael Cohen barely represented him (just a “tiny, little fraction”), opening the door to getting client/attorney privilege thrown out.
    • They talk Kanye West. I’m not sure how this is news. Even Kanye felt compelled to tweet he doesn’t agree with Trump 100%.
    • He says that Democrats outspent Republicans on a recent special election in Arizona that the Republican won by 5 points.
      Reality check: Republicans outspent Democrats 8.4 to 1, and they should’ve won that seat easily by 20-25 points.
    • He talks about the upcoming North Korea summit, saying he’s not giving up much in the negotiations.
    • He says he got more done in one year than any president. Historians have already debunked that one.
    • He (again) brings up his electoral win.
    • He criticizes Mueller’s team of attorney’s for being all Democrats (they are, but Mueller isn’t, and we don’t know the party affiliation or identities of DOJ and FBI staff doing the actual investigation).
    • He also says Mueller’s attorneys are all “Hillary people.”
    • He confirms that he spent a night in Moscow during the Miss America pageant, despite previous denials.
    • He ends with an almost unintelligible rant about Andy McCabe, Hillary money, Comey crimes, and Terry McAuliffe.
  1. Within an hour of the above, DOJ prosecutors file a statement with the courts saying that Trump said Cohen represented him just a “tiny, little fraction.” This, along with Sean Hannity claiming Cohen didn’t represent him, blows up the argument by Trump’s legal team that the documents seized from Michael Cohen are covered under client/attorney privilege.
  2. Also, Kellyanne Conway says Trump would like to appear regularly on Fox & Friends, but I’m guessing his legal team will work very hard to not let that happen.

Russia:

  1. The Senate Judiciary Committee advances a vote on legislation to protect Robert Mueller.
  2. House Intelligence Committee Republicans and Democrats each release very different reports on their conclusions in their Russia investigation. This whole thing seems like an enormous waste of time and energy, and only proves that Trey Gowdy was absolutely correct when he said:

“Congressional investigations unfortunately are usually overtly political investigations, where it is to one side’s advantage to drag things out. The notion that one side is playing the part of defense attorney and that the other side is just these white-hat defenders of the truth is laughable … This is politics.”

  1. One main difference between the two reports is that Republicans say it was out of their scope of investigation to look into whether Trump colluded with Russia (though they concluded he didn’t). The Democrat’s report says the committee refused to follow up on leads about possible collusion.
  2. Another main difference is that the Republican report accuses our federal law enforcement agencies of doing shoddy work.

  3. Likely the differences between the two reports are things that Mueller’s investigation is already looking into.
  4. Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with key Trump campaign members in 2016, turns out to have closer ties to the Russian government than she’s previously admitted to. She was an informant for the prosecutor general.
  5. The contact to whom James Comey leaked his memos used to be a special government employee for the FBI.
  6. A federal judge throws out Paul Manafort’s lawsuit accusing Robert Mueller of going outside the scope of his investigation.
  7. A new court filing indicates that the purpose of the search warrant on Paul Manafort’s properties last year was to obtain information about the Trump Tower meeting between members of Trump’s campaign and Russian lobbyists.

Courts/Justice:

  1. The Supreme Court hears arguments about the third iteration of Trump’s Muslim ban. Early signs point to them not overturning it.
  2. Federal district judges vote unanimously to appoint Geoffrey Berman as U.S. attorney for New York’s southern district. Jeff Sessions appointed Berman as interim attorney, and the judges have taken the decision out of Trump’s hands for the time being by making the appointment.

Healthcare:

  1. A federal judge blocks Trump’s attempts to cut funding to a Planned Parenthood program to prevent teen pregnancy across the nation. This is on top of last week’s ruling that he couldn’t cut funding for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program.
  2. Step away from the romaine! E-coli outbreaks related to romaine lettuce are reported in 22 states.

International:

  1. Mike Pompeo gets through his first round of confirmation votes, even though Rand Paul swore he would block Pompeo. That is, until Paul received several calls from Trump on the day of the vote.
  2. Senator Tom Cotton says that Democrats are involved in shameful political behavior for opposing Mike Pompeo’s nomination.
    Reality check: Cotton held back the confirmation of three of Obama’s appointees, including one, Cassandra Butts, who’s nomination he dragged out for two years. We’ll never know how much longer he would’ve dragged it out because she died of leukemia before he had a chance.
  3. Pompeo ends up getting confirmed by the end of the week, and flies right off to Brussels to meet with NATO allies.
  4. In Kabul, a suicide bomber bombs the gate of a voter registration center, injuring over 100 and killing at least 57. ISIS claims responsibility.
  5. Melania and Donald Trump host their first state dinner in honor of French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte. Breaking from the bipartisan tradition, they didn’t invite any Democrats or members of the press.
  6. Of note, the main purpose of Macron’s visit is to convince Trump to stay in the Iran deal, despite likely pressure from John Bolton to pull out.
  7. If we pull out of the Iran denuclearization deal so close to the North Korea denuclearization meetings, North Korea might not think we’re negotiating in good faith.
  8. In his speech to the joint Congress, French President Macron addresses #MeToo, climate change, the U.S. rejoining the Paris climate accord, fake news, democracy and the post-WWII democratic order, white nationalism, terrorist propaganda, North Korean denuclearization, stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons (while also calling for respect for Iran), and Mideast peace. He pushed for support of the JCPA (Iran agreement), saying France won’t leave it and Trump needs to take responsibility for his own actions around that.
  9. After Trump threatens economic sanctions against Iran unless our EU allies fix the JCPA, Iran says maybe they’ll just withdraw, freeing them to start up their nuclear program again.
  10. Ahead of Trump’s meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in meet and agree to work to remove nuclear weapons from their respective countries. They also agree to officially end the Korean war.
  11. Police arrest the Waffle House shooter. He has a history of mental illness, at one time saying Taylor Swift was stalking him and at another showing up at the White House to set up a meeting with Trump.
  12. Trump threatens countries who might oppose the U.S.’s bid to hold the FIFA World Cup in 2026, saying we won’t support them if they don’t support us.
  13. Thousands of protestors come out in Germany to protest anti-Semitism. There’s been a rise in anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic incidents across Europe, with Germany averaging about four a day right now.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. Tennessee’s state Senate passes a bill to erect a monument to the victims of abortion. The state House already passed a similar bill, so it looks like it’ll be up to the governor to pass or veto it.
  2. The chaplain of the House of Representatives resigns, indicating in his resignation letter that it was at Paul Ryan’s request. Ryan later said that the House members’ pastoral needs weren’t being met.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. We find out that National Security Advisor John Bolton chaired the non-profit Gatestone Institute, which promotes false and misleading anti-Muslim stories (some of which were picked up and spread by Russian trolls in 2016). The group also warns of the coming jihad, warns against mixing Europeans with Muslims, and blames several national problems on immigrants.
  2. A federal judge orders the Trump administration to continue with the DACA program, this time forcing the administration to start processing new applications. Trump has 90 days to provide stronger legal justification for ending the program.
  3. Mississippi and Alabama state governments took a holiday on Monday to observe Confederate Memorial Day.
  4. The Department of Homeland Security prepares to end temporary protected status for over 9,000 immigrants from Nepal who came here after their country had a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. I’m losing count… we’re getting rid of Haitians, Sudanese, Nicaraguans, Salvadorans, Syrians, Hondurans, Somalis, Yemenis, and now Nepalis. That’s over a half million displaced people.
  5. Montgomery, Alabama opens the nation’s first memorial for victims of lynching, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. It features 800 steel columns hanging from a roof, each with the name of a county and the people who were lynched there.
  6. The Oklahoma state House passes a bill that would allow adoption agencies to discriminate against adoptive couples based on religious beliefs. This, of course, lets agencies halt adoptions to a variety of couples who offend their morals, but is most likely to affect gay and lesbian couples.

Climate/EPA:

  1. A federal judge rules against Trump’s attempt to delay a rule that would increase fines for automakers whose cars violate fuel efficient standards.
  2. Trump’s latest plans for EPA fuel economy standards is to freeze them at 2020 levels through 2026. California has long been able to create their own rules on auto emissions, and the latest plan would revoke that.
  3. Scott Pruitt signs the proposal mentioned last week that would force the raw data behind any EPA scientific studies to be released to the public. As a reminder, much of this data is personal medical data covered by privacy standards, so not all studies can legally follow Pruitt’s rule.
  4. Also, it turns out that internal EPA staff has been working on the above proposal in collaboration with Representative Lamar Smith, who authored a similar piece of legislation that passed the House. They want the proposal to be as close as possible to Smith’s bill.
  5. On top of forcing anchors to read propaganda pieces, Sinclair Broadcast Group fires a local reporter who refused to present global warming denier views in a piece on global warming.
  6. Scott Pruitt appears before two congressional committees to answer questions about his questionable expenses and his conflicts of interest.
  7. Ryan Zinke’s Department of Interior proposes cutting parts of the Well Control Rule. The Obama administration created this rule after the BP oil spill to provide safety standards to prevent blowouts and enact emergency response to offshore drilling disasters. Two things rankle me about this:
    • Zinke continues to protect his own state of Montana while disregarding the safety and health of other states.
    • Regulations don’t come out of a vacuum. They are largely in response to health and environmental disasters to prevent them from happening again.

Budget/Economy:

  1. A CBO report says that because of the GOP tax reform, owners of pass-through businesses will receive over $40 billion in tax breaks this year.
    • $17.4 billion will go to around 200,000 owners who make over $1 million a year (averaging to an $87,000 tax break per owner).
    • $3.6 billion will go to around 200,000 owners who make $500,000 to $1 million (averaging to an $18,000 tax break per owner).
    • $15.7 billion will go to around 9.2 million owners who make $100,000 to $500,000 (averaging to an $1,700 tax break per owner).

So yes, this is definitely a tax break for the rich.

  1. Ben Carson proposes a rent increase for people living in subsidized housing. Right now they pay 30% of their income; he wants to increase it to 35%.
  2. In the first quarter under the new tax plan, the economy grew at 2.3%, just above the yearly average since the recession ended nine years ago. It falls below the 2.9% from the previous quarter and below Trump’s expectation of 3%.
  3. Economists think we can’t extend this growth for more than a year or two because of our national debt (over $21 trillion now), which is expected to grow by around $1 trillion per year. If the Fed continues to raise interest rates, the cost of that debt will also increase.
  4. Both the Fed and the CBO expect growth to fall to 1.8%.
  5. Sprint and T-Mobile agree to a $27 billion merger. Verizon will be the only larger mobile provider.

Elections:

  1. Democrats in Arizona block a Republican effort to change how vacant Senate seats are filled. The GOP was trying to make sure that should John McCain have to give up his seat because of his health issues, his seat wouldn’t be up for election this year. If the bill passed, the governor would appoint a replacement who would hold that seat for two full years if a seat becomes vacation within 150 days of a primary election.

Miscellaneous:

  1. The day after Barbara Bush’s funeral, George Bush Sr. ends up in the ICU with an infection.
  2. A van drives down a Toronto sidewalk, killing 10 and injuring 15 more. The driver turns out to be kind of a social outcast belonging to a group called Incel (involuntary celibates). He tries to commit suicide by cop, but the officer involved refuses to shoot him and takes him in to custody.
  3. Accusations of impropriety mount against Dr. Ronny Jackson, Trump’s pick to run the Department of Veterans affairs. Allegations include over-prescribing drugs (uppers and downers), being drunk on the job, and creating a hostile work environment.
  4. An inspector general report from 2012 recommended terminating him for bad leadership of his department.
  5. And what the heck? The White House releases the inspector general report expecting it to exonerate Jackson, but it mostly backs up the accusations. Maybe they didn’t read it?
  6. Jackson denies all allegations, but the White House ends up withdrawing his nomination.
  7. The Presidential Personnel Staff, which is responsible for vetting candidates for government positions, has only 30 employees—less than a third of previous administrations. Most employees are young campaign workers, family members of staff, or more senior officials transitioning to other posts. Most also have no vetting experience.
  8. The Department of Education under Betsy DeVos has closed dozens of investigations into school disciplinary actions, most of which are civil rights issues. Blacks are 4 times as likely to receive suspensions as whites, and they are twice as likely to be arrested. And this starts at the freaking preschool level.
  9. In a joint press conference with French President Macron, Trump again accuses Democrats of being obstructionists. So I’ll remind everyone again that Democrats barely have enough power to obstruct. Republicans hold all branches of power.
  10. Michael Cohen says he’ll plead the fifth in court in order to avoid being deposed.
  11. A former federal judge will review the materials seized from Cohen’s home and offices to determine what falls under attorney/client privilege.
  12. Irony alert. Eric Greitens is the keynote speaker at a law enforcement prayer breakfast. He’s accused of two felonies, one around sexual blackmail and the other around computer tampering to gain a charity’s donor information.
  13. A jury finds Bill Cosby guilty on three charges of sexual misconduct.
  14. Reporters Without Borders drops the U.S. to 45th out of 180 countries in its ranking of press freedom. It was 41 in 2016 and 43 in 2017. I’m not clear how much credence to give this ranking.
  15. The FBI says they told the Trump administration about the spousal abuse allegations against Rob Porter in March of 2017, contradicting what the White House has been saying.
  16. Michelle Wolf doesn’t hold back at the White House Press Correspondence dinner, and gets raked over the coals by some and lauded by others. She called people out on their political BS without apology.

Polls:

  1. 74% of voters don’t want Trump to fire Mueller, but 71% think he will before this is over.
  2. 56% of voters think that Mueller will find that Trump did something criminal or impeachable.

Week 65 in Trump

Posted on April 24, 2018 in Politics, Trump

DRAKETOWN, GA - APRIL 21: Members of the National Socialist Party burn a Swastika (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

To me, the biggest news this week is that after decades of rule – longer than my entire lifetime – the Castro family is ceding leadership of Cuba. However, the new president, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, is Raúl Castro’s handpicked successor and Castro will remain party leader until 2021. I wouldn’t expect much to change, at least not any time soon. At any rate, it will be interesting to watch.

Here’s what else happened last week…

Missed from Last Week:

  1. April 10th was Equal Pay Day. That’s how far into this year white women had to work to make as much as their male counterparts did last year. For African-American women, this day doesn’t come until August 7th; for Native American women, it comes on September 7th; and for Latina women, it comes on November 1st. It’s a good time to remember that the administration stopped forcing companies to provide data on wages by race and gender, making it harder to close this wage gap.

Russia:

  1. So far this year, Trump’s reelection campaign has spent over $1 out of every $5 on legal fees.
  2. A judge rejects Trump’s request to review material seized from Michael Cohen before it can be allowed as evidence.
  3. We learn that Trump was surprised when he found out that the U.S. had expelled far more diplomats than our ally countries, and he was pretty pissed off about that.
  4. UN Ambassador Nikki Haley says new sanctions will be coming down on Russia. Trump says nope, not happening. And then, instead of the White House taking responsibility, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow says Haley must’ve been confused. And Haley says “I don’t get confused.” Kudlow says maybe he was the one who got confused. Haley, who was was repeating official White House talking points, wins the round but Trump still overrides her.
  5. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, is recused from the Michael Cohen case due to potential conflicts. He’s a temporary appointee and Trump could nominate him to a permanent position or not.
  6. Trump contradicts himself again on why he fired Comey, saying it wasn’t because of Russia. Last year, he said he was thinking about the Russia thing when he decided to fire Comey.
  7. Rudy Giuliani joins Trump’s legal team, saying he’ll get this Mueller thing wrapped up in two weeks.
  8. The DNC files a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the Russian government, the GRU, several members of the Trump campaign, Russian nationals, and Wikileaks. The suit alleges a conspiracy to disrupt our presidential elections, and to favor Trump and harm Clinton in the election.
    • Defendants in the suit also include Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Roger Stone, Julian Assange, George Papadopoulos, Josef Mifsud (who leaked the email information to Papadopoulos), Aras and Emin Agalarov (Russian oligarchs who hosted the Miss Universe Pageant), the GRU, Russian hackers, and the Russian known as Guccifer 2.0.
    • The suit says that due to the nature of the crimes, Russia isn’t entitled to sovereign immunity.
    • The suit gives us some previously unknown dates. Russians first breached the DNC computer system on July 27, 2015. They breached it again on April 18, 2016, and began downloading documents on April 22. Four days later, Mifsud told Papadopoulos that Russians had emails that could harm Hillary’s campaign.
    • Analysts say the primary purpose of this suit is for the evidentiary discovery it will prompt.
  1. The DOJ finally releases Comey’s redacted memos to the House Republicans who then immediately turn around and release them to the public. House GOP had been threatening to hold DOJ officials in contempt if they didn’t turn the memos over, though it isn’t typical for the DOJ to release evidence relevant to an ongoing investigation.
  2. I haven’t read a lot that’s news in the memos, except maybe that:
    • Trump lied about whether he stayed overnight in Moscow, which his bodyguard already said he did. (Also, new news is that flight records confirm he stayed there.)
    • The administration (including Trump) had their doubts about Michael Flynn, which seem for Trump to stem from Flynn not telling him about a call from Vladimir Putin.
    • Trump wondered if Andrew McCabe had it in for him from the start.
    • Trump refused to criticize Putin even in private.
  1. We learn that House Republicans threatened Rosenstein with impeachment if he didn’t release information about the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails and the Russia meddling. Sources say they’re trying to build a case against Rosenstein.
  2. We also learn that Trump pushed Jeff Sessions and Christopher Wray to investigate Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, two investigators removed from the Russia case. He doesn’t understand why they still have jobs at the FBI, and wants Sessions and Wray to find information to discredit them.
  3. Rod Rosenstein tells Trump he’s not the target of an investigation, which seems to give Mueller a little breathing room and lifts the threat of being fired.
  4. We learn that Sessions told White House Counsel that if Trump fires Rod Rosenstein, Sessions might quit in protest. Not that there seems to be much love lost between Trump and Sessions, but an attorney general resigning could lead to a string of resignations.

Courts/Justice:

  1. While Trump’s been suggesting he might fire Mueller, the Supreme Court is set to hear a case on how SEC judges are appointed. Trump’s Solicitor General is urging the courts to make this case about the president’s power to fire all “officers of the United States” who “exercise significant authority” instead of limiting the scope to firing SEC judges.
  2. With Neil Gorsuch siding with the liberal judges, the Supreme Court invalidates part of a federal law that mandates deportation of immigrants convicted of certain “crimes of violence.” They say the law is too vague.
  3. Parents of Sandy Hook shooting victims finally bring Alex Jones to court for his repeated lies and conspiracy theories intended to convince the public that the parents are crisis actors and it was a “false flag” operation.
    • At least three lawsuits have been filed against him recently for defamation.
    • The parents have been receiving death threats from people who believe Alex Jones’ dangerous lies.
  1. A court holds Kris Kobach in contempt. Kobach led Trump’s voter fraud commission, and has been tied up in courts over his voter suppression efforts as Secretary of State in Kansas. The judge says Kobach disobeyed orders to let thousands of disenfranchised voters in Kansas know that they actually were registered to vote in 2016.
  2. Three federal judges rule that the Trump administration cannot withhold funds from so-called sanctuary cities, a decision roundly criticized by the DOJ. In case you think the judges are activist judges, they were appointed by Reagan, Bush Sr., and Ford.
  3. In response, Trump tweets that sanctuary cities released 142 gang members back into the streets in 2017. In reality, 142 detainer requests for suspected gang members failed for various reasons and not all in sanctuary areas. Reasons include administrative errors, ICE issuing the detainer request too late, ICE being unable to arrange custody transfer, and, yes, non-cooperation by local officials. (You can see the report here). 


Healthcare:

  1. Attorneys general in sixteen states file a motion to intervene in a lawsuit filed by several red states to overturn the ACA.
  2. Anti-abortion laws are on the rise. In 2017, 19 states passed 63 laws restricting abortions, some even trying to ban all abortions without regard for the mother’s life. Thirty-three states have placed restrictions on abortions since 2011.
  3. The ACLU and Education Law Center win a lawsuit requiring that kids in Flint, MI, get health checks to make sure they haven’t been harmed by the lead in their water supply. They’ll also get special health or education services if needed.
  4. A federal judge rules that the Trump administration can’t cut funding to the successful Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. The administration was trying to cut the program’s five-year grants down to three years.

International:

  1. Trump gives North and South Korea his blessing to talk about formally ending the Korean War. North Korea also drops it’s decades-long requirement that U.S. troops leave South Korea in order for North Korea to denuclearize.
  2. Ahead of the planned meeting with Trump, North Korea says it will suspend their nuclear tests and shut down a test site. Likely, the test site is degraded—nuclear test sites can only be used for so long. Kim Jong Un says there’s no more need for the sites, but it’s not clear if that’s because the country has advanced their weaponry as far as they need to or because they’re focused on peace.
  3. Trump meets with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe again at Mar-a-Lago, nearly a year from their first visit there. Both leaders are under investigation this time around.
  4. The White House says that Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jung Un over Easter weekend. We only learn about it now because Trump thinks it will help Pompeo get confirmed as Secretary of State.
  5. We learn that Jim Mattis pushed Trump to obtain congressional support before launching an attack on Syria. He was overruled, obviously.
  6. Anti-government protests break out across Nicaragua, spurred by changes to their social security system (but discontent against the Ortega government has been simmering for a while). After days of violence and at least 10 deaths, Ortega agrees to reverse the changes.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. The Senate Judiciary Committee finally considers bipartisan legislation to prevent Trump from firing Mueller. Mitch McConnell says that even if the committee passes the legislation, he won’t bring it to a floor vote in the Senate. The committee says they’ll vote on it anyway
  2. A group of House Republicans ask the Justice Department to prosecute Hillary Clinton, James Comey, Dana Boente, Loretta Lynch, and other perceived enemies, largely for activities surrounding the Steele dossier.
  3. Trump recently signed a law to protect victims of online sex trafficking, but it could have some unintended consequences. The way the new law is written, entities that host a website could now be held responsible for content that other people put on the site. Some sites are already doing damage control by closing down sections like personal ads and by rewriting the terms of service.
  4. Chuck Schumer introduces a bill to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level. This comes not long after we learn that John Boehner will be lobbying for the marijuana industry.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. A Starbucks manager calls the police on two black men who ask to use the facilities while waiting for someone to join them and before they order coffee. The men decide to wait for their friend instead of ordering, and the police arrest them and detain them for 8 hours.
  2. The manager no longer works for the company, and Starbucks will close all stores on May 29 in order to train staff on racial bias.
  3. Trump says sanctuary cities are places where undocumented immigrants “breed.” I’m not sure what he means by that, but it’s dog-whistle language that plays on people’s fears of immigrants while at the same time dehumanizing them.
  4. Trump tweets that he won’t fund California’s national guard at the border after Governor Brown says they can only be used to fight drug smuggling and other illegal activities (and that they can’t be used for immigration enforcement).
  5. A jury convicts three men in Kansas of plotting to bomb an apartment complex largely populated by Somali immigrants. The men, part of a militia group called the Kansas Security Force, said their attack would wake people up. This is a good example of why anti-Muslim sentiment is so dangerous.
  6. GOP members of the Senate whip out their new favorite weapon, the Congressional Review Act, to overturn rules laid out by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that mandate fairness in auto loans. Studies find that lenders charges minorities more for auto loans than whites, so the CFPB was trying to level the playing field.
  7. Instead of dealing with actual problems facing Tennesseans, the Tennessee House of Representatives has been working on bills to punish Memphis for removing confederate statues. Nothing has passed, but now they voted to strip $250,000 from the city in next year’s budget. The money was for the city’s bicentennial event.
  8. Six children in California’s central valley are orphans after an ICE chase results in a car crash that leaves their parents dead. The people in the car weren’t even ICE targets. People in the area blame ICE and Trump’s immigration policies; ICE blames California’s sanctuary policies.
  9. The city councils in several Orange County cities have voted to fight California’s sanctuary policies against the wishes of many of their constituents. Now they’re starting to get sued over those decisions.
  10. While women and Democratic men in the Senate have signed on to a letter pushing an overhaul of their harassment rules, not one Republican man has signed on to it yet.
  11. Dozens of demonstrators surround a school in Michigan with pickups flying the confederate flag, which eventually forces the school to cancel classes. Despite racial bullying that accompanies the demonstration, the mayor says “people in this country have to start realizing we have to tolerate all peoples’ views.” Um no, sorry. #NoH8
  12. ICE has reportedly been targeting immigration activists, and this week a judge rules that activist Alejandra Pablos be released.
  13. Neo-nazis take to the streets in Newnan, Georgia, to commemorate Hitler’s birthday. Counter-protestors wrote messages of peace and love in chalk on the sidewalks, while Antifa protestors were a little less touchy-feely.
    • Speeches were largely about white power and taking our country back from “illegal immigrants.”
    • Here’s a telling quote: “We need to round them up and put them in camps if need be, like we did the Italians, Germans and Japanese. We are at war with the illegals.”
    • It was mostly non-violent, and the only arrests were for counter-protestors wearing masks.
    • Supporters later gather further away from Newnan to burn a swastika and othala rune.

Climate/EPA:

  1. New information about Scott Pruitt’s paranoia and overspending keeps popping up. It turns out he upgraded his official car to a larger SUV with bullet-resistant seat covers.
  2. 170 Members of Congress sign on to a resolution requesting Pruitt’s immediate resignation from the EPA. They say they have no confidence in his ability to run the agency.
  3. GOP Representative Jim Bridenstein is just barely confirmed as administrator of NASA in a vote along party lines. Jeff Flake was a holdout until he got concessions on an unrelated issue. Bridenstein is not a scientist, lacks aeronautical expertise, and denies climate change.
  4. Just a note on Earth Day. The environmental movement started nearly 50 years ago because of real disasters like burning rivers, thick smog, oil spills, toxic waste leaching into neighborhoods, and poisoned lakes. The movement led to Earth Day and these disasters led to the creation of the EPA and the regulations that helped us clean up the mess we made. And now Scott Pruitt’s EPA, along with the Republican-led Congress, is working to remove the protections that gave us clean air and water and that stopped businesses from dumping toxic wastes. Fortunately, the courts are ruling against most of these changes.
  5. Trump marks Earth Day by promising to reverse even more regulations. He says that a market-driven economy is what will protect the environment and give us clean air, land, and water. (See above explanation of Earth Day.)
  6. Just like the previous few years, this year is predicted to be the worst so far for allergies. Why? Blame climate change for higher concentrations of pollen for longer periods of time.

Budget/Economy:

  1. On tax day, the IRS’s online system for filing taxes failed. They gave everyone an extra day to file their taxes.
  2. Crude oil prices are on the rise again, with our stockpile shrinking and OPEC keeping their supply tight.
  3. Trump criticizes OPEC for rising gas prices. So I see how this works. Now high oil prices AREN’T the president’s fault? (For the record, they aren’t, and they weren’t under Obama either.)
  4. Trump tweets that Japan and South Korea want us to get back in to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but South Korea was never part of it.
  5. Marijuana is a big money-maker in states where it’s now legal, but sellers generally deal in cash because banks can’t get around federal law. California legislators are pushing a bill to let the state license banks especially to handle money generated by marijuana sales.
  6. Paul Ryan wants to pass another major tax cut this year. Republicans hope it will generate some enthusiasm with their GOP base and help out in the midterms.
  7. While some are benefiting from the new tariffs, they’re pushing up the cost of newsprint. The Tampa Bay Times announces dozens of job cuts.
  8. Arizona’s teachers vote to strike, even though their governor promised a phased in 20% raise by 2020. Teachers say the money to fund the raises will come out of necessary programs, and the raises don’t apply to support staff.
  9. It’s spreading like a virus. Teachers in Colorado march on the statehouse for higher salaries and retirement fund guarantees, causing school closures in the state.
  10. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to fine Wells Fargo $1 billion over lending abuses. The bank is still struggling to recover from last year’s scandal where account reps signed up customers for fake accounts.
  11. Trump’s tax cuts pay big dividends for our six largest banks (JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and so on). They made $3.6 billion off the tax cuts in just three months this year.

Elections:

  1. Representative Charlie Dent (R-PA) announces he’ll resign in the coming weeks, opening another GOP seat in Congress.
  2. The White House legislative director says that Mitch McConnell plans to make the Senate workweek longer to hurt vulnerable Democrats. By making them work longer hours, they have less time to campaign.
  3. Oh man… this is just wrong. Luke Messer is a Republican candidate for the Indiana state legislature where he’s running to fill a seat previously filled by someone who was killed by a drunk driver. Messer chose not to tell party leaders that he had two DUI convictions.

Miscellaneous:

  1. It turns out that Cohen’s mystery third client is none other than Sean Hannity. Hannity’s been reporting on Trump and Cohen, even interviewing Cohen, without giving us any disclosure. He also fought to have the courts keep his name out of it.
  2. Hannity shares the services of other Trump lawyers too, including Jay Sekulow and Victoria Toensing.
  3. Hannity owns several real estate properties under shell companies, some of which he purchased with the assistance of HUD. He also purchased some of those properties through Jeff Brock, who plead guilty to rigging foreclosure auctions from 2007 to 2012.
  4. Cohen requests a 90-day delay in the Stormy Daniels lawsuit, but the judge says he would have to plead the 5th to get that.
  5. Now that Michael Cohen is under criminal investigation, the White House says Cohen is just one of the several lawyers Trump has on retainer.
  6. Amid his fight to keep seized documents secret, Cohen drops his libel suits against BuzzFeed and Fusion GPS. He was suing over allegations in the Steele dossier, and likely wants to avoid being questioned by Fusion GPS lawyers or being forced to present evidence.
  7. Karen McDougall reaches a settlement with the parent company of the National Enquirer, freeing her to talk about her alleged affair with Trump.
  8. Students across the country stage another walkout, this time to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting, to protest gun violence, and to push for gun law reform.
  9. Missouri Governor Eric Greitens (R) faces a new scandal and is charged with a felony for misusing a charity donor list. He’s the same guy facing felony charges from taking a nonconsensual sexual picture of his mistress and then blackmailing her with it.
  10. Barbara Bush passes away at 92. While members of both parties praise her, Roger Stone calls her a “vindictive drunk” and we find out where the GOP draws the line at supporting Trump’s friends.
  11. The Washington post wins a Pulitzer for reporting on the Alabama Senate race (specifically the Roy Moore scandal). The New York Times in conjunction with the New Yorker, wins a Pulitzer, for work on breaking the Harvey Weinstein sex-abuse story. Both the Washington Post and New York Times win Pulitzers for their work on Russian interference in our elections.
  12. Electricity goes out across Puerto Rico, which still hadn’t restored electricity to all residents.
  13. A Southwest jet blows an engine, killing one passenger who was partially sucked out and apparently hit by shrapnel. The pilot shows nerves of steel, and turns out to be one of the Navy’s first female fighter pilots.
  14. The DOJ’s inspector general referred his findings on Andrew McCabe to the top federal prosecutor, who could file charges against McCabe.
  15. McCabe’s lawyers say that McCabe will sue Trump for defamation.
  16. A man shoots up a Waffle House in Tennessee, killing four people. Authorities had revoked his firearms license and seized his weapons last year, giving the weapons to the shooter’s father who then turned around and gave the guns back. The big hero of the day is James Shaw Jr., who charged the shooter, grabbed the weapon, and threw it to the other side of the counter.
  17. Ugh. Another data breach. SunTrust Banks announces that one of their employees might have stolen the personal data of 1.5 million customers. Not only that, but the employee likely gave that info to a “criminal third party.”
  18. After years of calling the parents of Sandy Hook shooting victims “crisis actors” in a false flag shooting, Alex Jones now says he believes the shooting really did happen. I’m guessing that’s because some of the parents are suing him for defamation. Of note, Alex Jones also recently lost custody of his children. His defense during that trial was that his decades of spreading conspiracy theories and lies is “performance art.”

Polls:

  1. Mueller’s favorability drops 11 points over the past month, likely a result of the Trump and GOP campaigns to attack his credibility. 32% see him favorably, 30% unfavorably, and 38% have no opinion.
  2. Mueller has a 19% unfavorability rating with Democrats, but almost half of Republicans view him unfavorably (up nearly 20 points from last month).
  3. Trump’s approval rating with white Evangelical Protestants hits a new high, reaching 75%. I wonder what he’s done that’s made them think more highly of him.

Week 64 in Trump

Posted on April 16, 2018 in Politics, Trump

I open this week with a quote from Trump on how a trade war might affect farmers:

“But if we do a deal with China, if, during the course of a negotiation they want to hit the farmers because they think that hits me, I wouldn’t say that’s nice. But I tell you, our farmers are great patriots… They understand that they’re doing this for the country. And we’ll make it up to them. And in the end, they’re going to be much stronger than they are right now.”

He also said that farm income has been trending downward over the last eight years (it’s actually the last four) and said that because of his actions on NAFTA and China, “farmers will be better off than they ever were.” I hope he’s right but if he’s not, then thanks, farmers, for taking a hit for the rest of us.

Anyway, here’s what happened last week in politics…

Russia:

  1. The FBI raids Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s office and hotel room, seizing emails, tax records, and business documents. Which seriously enraged Trump, based on his subsequent comments. As a reminder, Cohen paid off Stormy Daniels and at least one other woman who allegedly had an affair with Trump.
  2. Reportedly, Cohen made recordings of meetings and conversations, which the FBI also seized.
  3. The raids were based on a referral from Robert Mueller, so Trump calls Mueller’s team “the most biased group of people” and says they’re mostly Democrats with a few Obama-appointed Republicans. Though they are actually mostly Republicans.
  4. Trump calls Cohen just to check in and see how he’s doing.
  5. We learn that Cohen is being investigated for bank fraud, wire fraud, and campaign finance violations. Mueller handed this investigation off to a New York attorney likely because it was out of his jurisdiction. Rod Rosenstein signed off on the search warrant.
  6. Most legal experts say that this warrant must have been bullet-proof in order for the FBI to get it, because it’s extraordinary to serve a warrant on a lawyer like this.
  7. Trump isn’t the only guy Cohen negotiates hush deals for. He also negotiated one for major RNC fundraiser and RNC deputy finance chairman Elliott Broidy. This makes Broidy the third RNC official to be caught up in scandal in the past year and the second to step down from his position.
  8. Trump requests an emergency order preventing prosecutors from looking at the seized material, saying he should be able to review them first because of client/attorney privilege.
  9. In response to the raid, Lou Dobbs (who has apparently been advising Trump all along) tells Trump he should fire Mueller. Trump mulls it over in the middle of a publicized meeting with military brass while they were supposed to be talking about a response to Syria’s chemical weapons attack.
  10. Trump calls it an attack on the country and says the FBI “broke in” to Cohen’s office. His rants attack the usual suspects: Jeff Sessions, the FBI, Hillary Clinton, Rod Rosenstein, Andrew McCabe. He even steps up his Twitter game for this one.
  11. Politicians from both sides step in to support Mueller, including Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) who confirms widespread respect for Mueller in Washington and warns Trump against firing him.
  12. While many legal minds have said Trump doesn’t have the power to fire Mueller, he and his press secretary both say he does.
  13. The White House says they aren’t sure if Cohen still represents Trump. Also, Trump isn’t so sure he wants to sit down with Mueller anymore.
  14. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York recuses himself from the Cohen investigation because of his ties with donors to the Trump campaign.
  15. We learn that Trump tried to have Mueller fired last December, but his lawyers talked him out of it.
  16. Mueller is looking at a $150,000 donation to the Trump Organization from a Ukrainian billionaire (Victor Punchuk). In return for the donation, Trump appeared in a 20-minute video for a conference in Kiev.
  17. Mark Zuckerberg submits written testimony and then testifies before Congress for two days about data privacy (fully illustrating the technology gap between the generations).
  18. Paul Manafort’s lawyers file another motion to suppress evidence. This time it’s the evidence found in a storage unit and they say the employee didn’t have the authority to open the unit for the FBI.
  19. A judge denies Manafort’s request for bail. He’s been denied bail multiple times now. His trial is scheduled to start in July.
  20. The NRA admits to receiving money from almost two dozen Russians (or Americans living in Russia) over the past two years.
  21. Veteran Republicans form a group, Republicans for the Rule of Law, to help protect Mueller from being fired. Also, a bipartisan group of Senators introduce a bill to protect Mueller. Mitch McConnell agrees that Mueller should continue his work, but he doesn’t think Mueller needs to be protected.
  22. Steve Bannon floats a plan to put an end to the Mueller investigation:
    • Fire Rosenstein.
    • Stop cooperating with Mueller.
    • Assert executive privilege and make all White House interviews with Mueller over the past year null and void.
  1. Excerpts leak from James Comey’s soon-to-be-released book, and it becomes an immediate best seller almost a week before its scheduled release. Trump does not respond well. I’m not going to go into what Comey says on his media blitz nor what’s in the book, because it’s not really confirmable.
  2. The RNC actively works to discredit Comey ahead of his book release. They create a website called “Lyin’ Comey” that features quotes of Democrats criticizing him. Their campaign plan includes: digital ads, monitoring Comey’s appearances, a rapid response team to provide rebuttals, and coordinating surrogates to fan out and defend Trump. I don’t know if I’m more bothered that such a campaign exists or that they don’t mind making it public knowledge.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Judge Curiel finalizes the $25 million Trump University settlement. Curiel’s the guy who Trump said couldn’t be unbiased in the case because he’s Mexican.
  2. The Justice Department’s inspector general releases their report on Andy McCabe. (Caveat: I have yet to read the full report.) It doesn’t sound like there’s much that we haven’t already heard, and the report doesn’t include McCabe’s rebuttal. The dispute centers around a Wall Street Journal article in which McCabe authorized staff to rebut the allegations made in the article. McCabe, who first denied giving permission until he was served a reminder, says he authorized it to preserve the reputation of the FBI; the OIG says he did it to preserve his own reputation.

Healthcare:

  1. Voters in Utah, Nebraska, and Idaho are working to get Medicaid expansion on the ballot since their governors refused the federal money they could have received under the ACA to do it.
  2. An appeals court in Maryland rules that a law preventing price gouging by pharmaceutical companies is unconstitutional.

International:

  1. Trump calls out Putin, Russia, and Iran for backing “Animal Assad” in Syria in a barrage of tweets. Russia responds that they don’t do Twitter diplomacy.
  2. Russia says great Britain staged the chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
  3. Trump, along with Great Britain and France, orders airstrikes on chemical weapons facilities in Syria in retaliation for the regime’s chemical weapon attack. Putin calls this an act of aggression and calls for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
  4. After the missile strike, Trump tweets those ill-fated words, “Mission accomplished!” Also, Russia says Syrian air defenses shot down most of our missiles. Doubtful, but impossible to verify.
  5. Russia also vetoes a UN resolution to set up an independent investigation into Syria’s use of chemical weapons.
  6. Tom Bossert, Homeland Security adviser, resigns at the request of the new National Security Adviser, John Bolton. Bolton appears to be cleaning house.
  7. Trump cancels his trip to South America to respond to Syria’s chemical weapons attack. Mike Pence takes his place on the trip to South America.
  8. Mike Pompeo prepares for his confirmation hearing for Secretary of State by calling Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, among other former secretaries. If you remember, Pompeo helped keep Benghazi in the news and called Clinton‘s response “morally reprehensible.” He also liked a tweet calling Kerry a traitor. So either he didn’t mean those things, or he’s looking for some morally reprehensible and traitorous advice. For her part, Clinton has been willing to talk with him and help him out.
  9. Pompeo’s confirmation will be tough, as he failed to sway any of his opponents in his hearing.
  10. We learn that Russia has been thwarting our efforts in Syria by jamming our drone’s reception of GPS satellite signals.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. Trump signs legislation to crack down on online companies that aid and abet sex trafficking of minors. The bill establishes punishments, including jail time, for people who run these sites.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The Justice Department removes questions on crime surveys about sexual orientation and gender identity, effectively preventing the monitoring of hate crimes against the LGBTQ community.
  2. Maryland bans conversion therapy on minors (that is, therapy that attempts to change someone’s sexual orientation). Both the American Psychological Association and the American Counseling Association find the practice harmful and ineffective. Hawaii will likely follow suit.
  3. A large number of Americans don’t believe 6 million Jews were killed in the holocaust. They think the number is much, much smaller. They also didn’t know that Auschwitz was a notorious concentration camp. Are our schools really that bad?
  4. Facebook bans white nationalist Richard Spencer, but he still has Twitter accounts. Last month, Facebook banned the anti-Muslim hate group Britain First.
  5. On top of sending tens of thousands of Nicaraguans, Haitians, Nigerians, and Syrians back to countries they haven’t been to in the decades since they received temporary protected status, Trump also wants to send Vietnamese immigrants who are protected by a bilateral treaty back to communist-led Vietnam.
  6. All states that border Mexico agree to provide National Guard troops to help CBP per Trump’s request.
  7. Hungarian journalists at state-run media outlets say they pushed an anti-immigrant message before the elections to create animosity toward immigrants and increase nationalist sentiment. They also pushed lies about George Soros influencing the election.

Climate/EPA:

  1. EPA chief of staff Ryan Jackson takes responsibility for the questionable pay raises for Scott Pruitt’s friends, though an email from one of the people who got a questionable raise contradicts this.
  2. News breaks that Scott Pruitt fired his former deputy chief of staff for refusing to retroactively approve Pruitt’s travel demands. Apparently, he asked the employee to come up with justification for a trip.
  3. Trump signs an executive order that would loosen air pollution standards and sideline science in setting pollution regulations in individual states.
  4. The Government Accountability Office says that Scott Pruitt broke the law by installing a $43,000 sound proof phone booth. Spending more than $5,000 requires him to notify Congress first.
  5. The non-profit Environmental Defense Fund plans to launch a satellite that can monitor methane releases and pinpoint the biggest offenders.

Budget/Economy:

  1. After all of Trump’s criticism of Amazon for not collecting state taxes (which it mostly does), we learn that the Trump Organization’s online store only collects taxes in two states.
  2. According to the CBO, the budget deficit is on track to surpass $1 trillion again sooner than expected (by 2020). They raised the expected deficit for this year to $804 billion and for 2019 to $981 billion. And this is under a forecast with an upgraded GDP growth rate of 3.1%.
  3. Trump tells his top officials to look into getting back in to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which he pulled out of last year because it was such a “disaster.” In February, nearly half the Senate Republicans urged him to rejoin.
  4. TPP member countries express an unwillingness to reopen TPP negotiations to include the U.S., and then Trump reverses course and says he’d only consider rejoining if the term were substantially better for the U.S.
    Background: Joining the TPP would’ve given us a trade advantage against China with Pacific Rim countries, but China has been moving in to fill that gap.
  5. Jobless rates continue to fall, marking the 162nd week that claims have been below 300,000. That’s since March of 2015.
  6. Both Oklahoma and Arizona teachers wind their protests down. Arizona’s governor promises a phased 20% raise for teachers by 2020.
  7. The White House proposes large cuts to public assistance programs along with work requirements. They request a $17 billion cut to SNAP that would affect around 23,000 military families. Which again begs the question “Why aren’t we paying our men and women in the military enough to live on?”
  8. They also propose to expand the definition of welfare to include SNAP, Medicaid, and other safety-net programs. This is part of their effort to overhaul public assistance, which also includes work requirements.
  9. Republicans in Congress unveil a new farm bill that would require SNAP recipients to either work or attend school or training for 20 hours a week. The plan does not include Trump’s idea of providing some of the food to SNAP recipients in the form of government rations. The CBO estimates that this could remove 1 million people from SNAP over 10 years.
  10. Good news for people who eat organic, though. The farm bill cracks down on inspections of imported products that are labeled organic.
  11. Trump orders an audit of the US postal service.
  12. Trump wants to try to rescind billions of dollars in spending that he signed into law last month. Mick Mulvaney is developing the plan, even though Republican lawmakers don’t want these negotiations to start up again.
  13. On the other hand, House Majority leader is working in tandem to get this through the House, and Mitch McConnell seems open to getting it done in the Senate. This is being done alongside a Balanced Budget Amendment to the constitution, which has very little chance of passing.
  14. The Department of the Interior walks back its plans to drastically raise entrance fees at national parks, and will instead raise prices $5 across the board.
  15. Federal appeal judges seem to think that it’s a conflict of interest that Mick Mulvaney heads both the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of Management and Budget.

Elections:

  1. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan announces he won’t seek reelection, bringing the total number of House Republicans not seeking reelection to 46.
  2. There are two Republicans vying for his Wisconsin seat, the most prominent of which is a white supremacist who got banned from Twitter.
  3. Ryan endorses California Representative Kevin McCarthy to replace him as Speaker of the House. If you’ll remember, Kevin lost out on his initial bid to become speaker when he admitted that the Benghazi hearings were dragged out in order to smear Hillary Clinton.
  4. The New Jersey legislature passes an automatic voter registration bill. It will be the 13th state to implement this, and Nevada has it on the ballot this year.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Trump met with the chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group to talk about a new broadcasting standard that Sinclair is invested in. It would let authorities broadcast to any American’s phone.
  2. Sinclair’s chairman says that during the 2016 campaign, he told Trump: “We are here to deliver your message.”
  3. Several senators request that the FCC investigate Sinclair after complaints arose about Sinclair forcing anchors at local stations to read propaganda pieces. Ajit Pai, FCC chairman, refuses.
  4. Since the Parkland shootings, several cities and states have begun implementing gun regulations, and there’ve even been some changes at the federal level, like allowing the CDC to study gun violence.
  5. On the other hand, a school district in Pennsylvania opts to arm their teachers with miniature baseball bats.
  6. Senator Tammy Duckworth gives birth to her daughter, becoming the first sitting senator have a baby.
  7. Trump issues a full pardon to Scooter Libby, who was Dick Cheney’s chief of staff.
    Background: Libby was convicted of perjury, making false statements to the FBI, and obstruction of justice in the investigation into the information leak that lead to exposing the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson. The leak appeared to be in retribution for criticism of the Bush administration by Valerie’s husband.

  8. Marches across the country this week include the March for Science, the Tax March (to protest the new tax bill), and gun rights marches. Of note, gun rights groups encouraged people to carry unloaded weapons, which many did. At least I assume they were unloaded.

Polls:

  1. Just over half of Americans now support a single-payer healthcare system.

Stupid Things Politicians Say:

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, who tried to stop bills to expand the state’s education funding, says that children were physically harmed during the teacher strikes because they were left at home alone.

“I guarantee you somewhere in Kentucky today a child was sexually assaulted that was left at home because there was nobody there to watch them.”