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.

2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.

5. Michael Flynn’s sentencing is set for December 18th. This has been a long time coming—he pleaded guilty on December 1, 2017.
6. 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.
7. 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.

8. 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.

2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.

6. 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.
7. 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.

5. A court in Scotland rules that Prime Minister Boris Johnson lied to the queen in order to obtain approval to suspend Parliament.
6. 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.
7. 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).

8. A counterterrorism operation results in the death of Osama bin Laden’s son, Hamza Bin Laden.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. The U.S. prepares to send 150 additional troops to Syria despite Trump’s previous announcement of a troop withdrawal.
12. 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.

6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. An arsonist destroys a 119-year-old synagogue in Duluth, MN.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. 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.

2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

6. 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.
7. Corporations paid 7.6% of the total taxes collected by the U.S. government in 2018, nearly a 60-year low.
8. 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.
9. 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.