What a week. The ongoing feud between Trump and the squad; a resolution of condemnation of Trump’s racist tweets; a failed impeachment vote; a contempt vote for Barr and Ross; newly unsealed evidence in Michael Cohen’s case; even more sex traffickers; tensions in Iran; Hong Kong protests; Puerto Rico protests; the USDA and BLM move across country; and an amazing database of all opioid sales between 2006 and 2012.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending July 21…

Russia:

1. The judge in Roger Stone’s case bans him from all social media because the guy just can’t keep quiet about his case. The judge also limits Stone’s family’s use of social media. But two hours after the hearing, his wife posts a picture of her and Roger at the hearing
2. The former president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, says they knew that Julian Assange was interfering in our 2016 presidential election. He accuses Wikileaks of manipulating the information.
3. The Trump administration is using executive privilege to block House committees from obtaining classified documents from Mueller’s investigation.

Legal Fallout:

1. Texas Democrat Al Green forces a House vote on articles of impeachment against Trump with a focus on Trump’s behavior and moral fitness for office, which the House votes down. This resolution doesn’t cover obstruction, and it’s Green’s third time trying.
2. Trump tells Kellyanne Conway to ignore a subpoena from Congress to testify about her violations of the Hatch Act. (She’s been accused of more Hatch Act violations than any other single person, and others have resigned over their violations.)
3. The judge in Jeffrey Epstein’s child trafficking case denies him bail, ruling that Epstein will remain behind bars while he awaits trial. The judge also says that Epstein’s behavior around young girls seems uncontrollable.
4. While the newly released evidence from Michael Cohen’s case implicate Trump in the conspiracy to pay hush money to women with whom he had affairs, the Southern District of New York announces there won’t be any more charges filed in the case.

• • It’s understandable, since the working theory is that you can’t indict a sitting president; but also confusing, since other people appear to be implicated in the crime as well (including Hope Hicks, Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Keith Davidson, and AMI executive David Pecker).

• • The unsealed evidence shows the impetus to keep the women quiet came from the release of the Access Hollywood tapes where Trumps brags that he can (and does) grab women and do what he wants because he’s rich.
  • The judge ordered the release of the documents because he believes them to be a matter of national importance.
  • As a result of the document release, the House Judiciary Committee has asked Hope Hicks for clarity on the inconsistencies in her testimony.

5. More information comes out about Epstein’s sweetheart deal brokered by Alex Acosta in 2008.

• • The jail supervisor wrote a memo to his staff to let them know that Epstein was a first-time offender “poorly versed in jail routine,” and “his adjustment to incarceration will most likely be atypical.”
  • The supervisor ordered Epstein’s cell to be unlocked with frequent access to the attorney room where they installed a TV for him.
  • Epstein was allowed to leave the jail for 12 hours a day, six days a week under a work release program. At times, he was left unattended.

6. And because you just can’t know enough sex traffickers, the Eastern District of Virginia indicts George Nader on charges of trafficking a 14-year-old boy from Europe to have sex. George Nader worked with the Trump campaign to enable private meetings between the campaign and Russia, and between the campaign and the United Arab Emirates.

Courts/Justice:

1. A court rules that the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, must pay $14 million in damages to a woman against whom they instigated a troll storm. The Daily Stormer launched “an online anti-Semitic harassment and intimidation campaign” against the Montana woman who had complained about her dealings with the mother of white supremacist leader Richard Spencer. This is the second multi-million judgement against the Daily Stormer.
2. While the DOJ is concentrating on prosecuting immigration violations, opioid cases, and violent crimes, white collar prosecutions under Trump are down dramatically, both in the number of cases and the fines imposed.

Healthcare:

1. A federal judge upholds Trump’s extension of bare-bones insurance policies that don’t meet the standards outlined in Obamacare. People can now keep these policies for up to three years.
2. This database is whack. It turns out that the DEA has kept a database of every single oxycodone and hydrocodone transaction from 2006 to 2012. These account for 75% of all opioid drugs shipped to pharmacies. They’ve known all along where the problems were and where doctors and pharmacies were overselling.

• • 76 billion pills were distributed across the country during that time. In the areas hit hardest, that amounted to 150 or more pills per person per year. You can look up different areas of the country for yourself.
  • Six companies sold 75% of the pills tracked: McKesson Corp., Walgreens, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, CVS, and Walmart.
  • SpecGx manufactured 29 million of the pills sold; Actavis Pharma manufactured 26 million. Purdue Pharma, which has taken the brunt of the fight against opioids, manufactured 2.5 million by comparison.

3. DHHS will begin enforcing a new regulation preventing family planning clinics that receive federal funding from performing or referring women for abortions.

International:

1. The BBC agrees not to share information gathered by one of their correspondents in an upcoming trip to Iran with the BBC’s Persian language channel, giving in to the Iranian government’s restrictions on a free press.
2. Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo is arrested under an extradition warrant on corruption charges. Now Peru has arrested all of its living former presidents in connection with bribery charges connected to Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction company.
3. The U.S. drops to 128th in the annual Global Peace Index, largely because of increases in violence and political instability. We’re now between South Africa and Saudi Arabia.
4. Over the past two years under Trump, DHS has gotten rid of or reduced programs that were put in place to detect terrorist threats around weapons of mass destruction. These programs were put in place after the attacks on 9/11. DHS is tasked with domestic security, including identifying these threats.
5. Iran seizes what appears to be a United Arab Emirates tanker carrying what Iran calls “smuggled fuel.”
6. Trump announces that we brought down an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz.
7. Britain officials claim that Iranian authorities seized two British oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, one under the British flag and one under Liberia’s flag.
8. Angela Merkel joins the ranks of foreign leaders who criticize Trump’s racist tweets and comments about four Congresswomen of color. Leaders have also expressed disapproval of the crowds chanting “Send her back!”
9. Trump denies that he gave Rand Paul permission to negotiate with Iran, and then the next day he reverses himself and says he did give Paul permission. Interesting choice, since Paul is an admitted isolationist.
10. The protests in Hong Kong continue—we’re in the fourth month. Protesters vandalize the Chinese government’s liaison office there, and police use tear gas and rubber bullets in response. In a separate incident, masked men with sticks attack protesters in a train station. Even so, the protests have been mostly peaceful, and illustrate how the populace feels about Chinese sovereignty.

Legislation/Congress:

1. Mostly along party-line votes, the House votes to condemn Trump’s racist tweets about the four Congresswomen of color. The resolution “strongly condemns [Trump’s] racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color.” It received high criticism and little support from Republicans (four Republicans and one Independent voted for it). Some members of the GOP object to the use of the word “racist”n on the House floor. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck…
2. The House votes to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt after they ignore subpoenas for information in the investigation into adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.
3. The House passes a bill to increase the minimum wage to $15. This will likely not be taken up in the Senate, and the Congressional Budget Office reports that this could cut jobs and might not result in higher incomes in the long term.
4. Rep. Joaquin Castro introduces legislation to remove words from the federal government‘s vocabulary that describe immigrants in ways that are now considered derogatory.
5. Following the Senate’s approval, the House passes a series of measures to prevent the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Trump is likely to veto this.

Family Separation:

1. Here’s what happening at the border. A family at a Border Patrol holding facility in El Paso was told that one parent would be sent back to Mexico and one parent could stay in the U.S. with their children. The agent then asked their three-year-old daughter to choose whether her Mom or Dad should be the one to stay. The girl said Mom, but cried when they started to take away her Dad. The agent said to the girl, “You said with mom.”

• • By the way, the three-year-old has heart disease and has had open heart surgery.
  • The only reason this family is together right now is because of the hard work of an American doctor who examined the little girl.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. While defending Trump’s racist tweets, Kellyanne Conway asks a Jewish journalist what his ethnicity is. This is in response to the journalist asking which country Trump wants the [mostly U.S.-born] Congresswomen to return to.
2. Trump says he tried to stop the crowd from chanting “Send her back” at his first campaign rally after he made his racist tweets about the Congresswomen of color. He says he started speaking very quickly to cut off the chant, but video shows that he leaned back and soaked it in for about 15-20 seconds before beginning to speak. And 12 minutes later, he says, “If they don’t like it, let them leave… You know what? If they don’t love it, TELL THEM to leave it.”

• • Lara Trump throws Trump’s supporters under the bus, saying they were the ones who started the chant. She says Trump didn’t do anything.

3. The following days, Trump continues his fight against the women, calling them pro-terrorist and anti-Israel and anti-USA. Trump’s aides have been working overtime to get him to stop.
4. But eight days later, Trump is still tweeting about the Congresswoman, accusing them of hating America and Israel. He lies about:

• • Ilhan Omar supporting Al Qaeda (she doesn’t).
  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling the U.S. people garbage (she didn’t).
  • All four women calling Jews evil (they haven’t).

5. The Anti-Defamation League, which was founded to stop defamation of Jewish people, criticizes Trump for using Israel as a shield to defend his racist tweets. They point out how white supremacists across the country are cheering his tweets. The neo-Nazi who runs the Daily Stormer tweeted, “This is the kind of WHITE NATIONALISM we elected him for…”
6. The four Congresswomen hold a press conference condemning the “recent xenophobic, bigoted remarks from the occupant of the White House.” They call this a distraction. They also call for Trump’s impeachment.
7. Now we’re learning that Trump’s attacks on the squad was part of a strategy gone awry, seemingly because he doesn’t understand how racist it was. He meant to drive a wedge between House leadership and the squad, but his words unified the two groups in their condemnation Trump. He’s also trying to make this four women the face of the Democratic party in the run-up to 2020.
8. Upon returning to her home state of Minnesota, Ilhan Omar is welcomed home by cheering supporters at the airport.
9. The DOJ issues a new rule that you can’t seek asylum in the U.S. if you traveled through another country to get here and didn’t request asylum from that country. This is targeted at Central Americans coming through Mexico, but the DOJ is forgetting that Mexico is not safe for many asylum seekers because people they are fleeing follow them there.

• • Unlike Canada, neither Mexico nor Guatemala has a safe third-country agreement with the U.S.
  • That’s OK, though. Trump’s new rule doesn’t require that the third country be deemed as safe for asylum seekers.
  • These rules also apply to minors crossing the border alone.
  • The ACLU files a lawsuit to block the rule, saying “It’s patently unlawful under U.S. law as well as international human rights law.”

10. A federal judge definitively blocks Trump from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. The judge also retains jurisdiction in the case to ensure that the census is processed properly.
11. Trump tells aides that he wants to fire Wilbur Ross after the failure to get the citizenship question on the 2020 Census.
12. Customs and Border Protection open an investigation into 70 current or former Border Patrol employees who belong to the Facebook group that mocked and denigrated both migrants and elected officials.
13. Wanna know how all that funding for border security is being spent? Southwest Key Programs paid six employees at least $1 million in 2017. Southwest Key is a nonprofit agency that provides housing for thousands of migrant children.
14. Catholic sisters, clergy, and parishioners gather in the Russell Senate Office Building in DC to protest Trump’s immigration policies and our treatment of immigrants. 70 are arrested by DC police.
15. Even though you can’t pray away the gay, Amazon is getting flack from House Republicans for no longer carrying books by a leading proponent of gay conversion therapy. Conversion therapy has not only been debunked, it’s also been found to lead to mental problems and even suicide.
16. During a House Oversight and Reform Committee meeting, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asks DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan if he’d seen the photoshopped images of a violent rape of AOC that were being spread by border patrol agents. She then asks whether the people who spread these images are still in charge of taking care of women and children. McAleenan has no answer.

17. Under the Trump administration, undocumented immigrants who serve in the military are being denied citizenship at rates higher than foreign-born immigrants who don’t serve.
18. CBP uses tear gas to stop a group of about 50 migrants who try to rush the barriers on a bridge at the border in Rio Grande City.
19. The Pentagon authorizes 1,100 more troops and 1,000 Texas National Guard soldiers to be deployed to the border.
20. The DOJ announces they won’t bring charges against the police officer who killed Eric Garner because they say they can’t prove the officer acted willfully. Garner was killed five years ago. “I can’t breathe.”
21. Three more white supremacists are sentenced to prison sentences for charges stemming from the violence in Charlottesville where activist Heather Heyer was killed.

Climate:

1. The Trump campaign comes up with a novel way to own the libs. They start selling MAGA plastic straws to get back at environmentalists who have pushed through regulations banning plastic straws.
2. NOAA and NASA say that this past June was the hottest June on record (which goes back to 1880).
3. The EPA announces that they will not ban chlorpyrifos even though the EPA’s own experts have linked the pesticide to serious health problems, especially in children.
4. The USDA blocks the release of their own plan for responding and adapting to the effects of climate change.

Budget/Economy:

1. China’s economic growth continues to slow. Last month, their growth rate was the slowest it’s been in nearly three decades. This is partly from the trade war with the U.S., but their growth rate is still 6.2%.
2. Manufacturing employment shows a slight increase in July, but is still down overall because of a deep dive in June.
3. Retail growth slowed in the first half of the year, largely because of the struggles of brick-and-mortar stores. Online retail sales have also been slowing down over the past
4. Corporate earnings decline for the second quarter in a row.
5. Chinese investment in the U.S. has fallen from $46.5 billion in 2016 to $5.4 billion in 2018.

Elections:

1. The Marine Corps orders Duncan Hunter to stop using their emblem and phrase on his re-election campaign materials.

• • Duncan’s racist mailers tie two of his fellow members of the House to terrorism as well as tying his Democratic opponent to terrorism.
  • The mailer, not surprisingly, does NOT mention that Hunter has been indicted on campaign finance charges. It also doesn’t mention the numerous affairs he had on his wife using said campaign finances.

Miscellaneous:

1. Trump tweets that his administration will take a look into allegations by Peter Thiel that Google is compromised by China.

• • Thiel has no evidence and says he was just raising questions, but he did say they needed to be investigated by the FBI and CIA.
  • Larry Kudlow, Trump’s chief economic advisor, dismissed Thiel’s claims.

2. Trump lets loose with a barrage of lies during his cabinet meeting. He falsely claims:

• • The governments of Guatemala and Honduras are forming and sending migrant caravans.
  • Asylum seekers who are released on their own recognizance don’t show up for hearings (89% do).
  • Human traffickers don’t come through ports of entry (they do).
  • Democrats want open borders (the vast majority do not).
  • He approved the permits for an energy facility in Louisiana (Obama’s administration approved them).
  • The program to repatriate remains of U.S. soldiers who died in North Korea is still going on (it’s been suspended).
  • The renegotiated NAFTA would force auto manufacturers to stay in the U.S. (there’s nothing in the new agreement that would require that).
  • We’re building lots of wall at the southern border (no actual construction has begun on any new fencing).
  • The most China has purchased from famers in a year is $16 billion, and since we’re taking in many times that in tariffs, we can pay the farmers $16 billion to make up for their loss in sales. (I can barely unwind this one. The most China spent in a year is nearly $30 billion, the tariffs have generated about $21 billion (which is not many times $16 billion), and Americans pay those costs, not China or Chinese companies).
  • During the Obama administration, the trade deficit with China was $500 billion (it’s never been that high; in fact, the highest it’s ever been is 2018 when it was $381 billion for goods and services, and $420 billion for just goods (we’re an exporter of services)).
  • The Chinese economy has lost $20 trillion since Trump’s election (China’s GDP continues to go up, and their economy grew by 6.6% last year).
  • The Iran deal cost Obama’s administration $150 billion (it wasn’t U.S. money, it was Iran’s; it wasn’t all held in the U.S. but in financial institutions around the world; and it was closer to $60 billion in Iranian-owned assets that were unfrozen).

3. Trump announces he’ll nominate Eugene Scalia to be Secretary of Labor, replacing Alex Acosta who left over the Epstein scandal. Scalia is the son of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
4. Puerto Rican protestors are out in force trying to oust their governor over leaked misogynistic and homophobic texts exchanged with his top advisors. Anger at the governor has been brewing over his mishandling of the economy, but this put a match to the flame. The governor says he won’t step down, but he won’t seek re-election next year. Protestors say that’s not good enough.
5. The USDA suffers a brain drain, as they move offices from DC to Kansas City and force workers to move there as well if they want to keep their jobs. Less than 2/3 of the researchers asked to relocate have accepted the offer.
6. At the same time, the BLM is moving its headquarters from DC to Grand Junction, CO. Some worry that this means the agency will have less clout in decision making in DC.
7. A Pennsylvania school sends letters to parents threatening to send their kids to foster care if they don’t pay their past-due school lunch debts.
8. Attorney General William Barr donated $51,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee over the five months leading up to his confirmation. Aside from that, he’s given just six times since 2009.

Polls:

1. 68% of Americans polled say Trump’s tweets and comments about the four women in Congress are offensive. 75% of women find the tweets offensive. But only 25% of Republicans find them offensive. And here’s where we have the disconnect in this country. It’s also why you don’t hear Republicans in Congress calling Trump out for racism.
2. A separate poll found Trump’s approval rating among Republican rose 5% after his racist tweets.