Tag: mueller

Week 131 in Trump

Posted on July 31, 2019 in Politics, Trump

Best Image of the week. Victory is sometimes slow, but it is always sweet. Way to get 'er done, Jon.

In response to SCOTUS shutting down a lawsuit over the use of Pentagon funds to build a wall, Jon Zal has the most appropriate tweet for the week:

“JUST IN: Man who won election by promising voters he’d strengthen the military and force Mexico to pay for his border wall wins court battle that allows him to deplete the military and force his voters to pay for the border wall. #MAGA”

So much winning.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending July 27…

Russia:

  1. Ahead of Mueller’s testimony before Congress, the DOJ tells him he must limit his testimony to the public findings in his 448-page report. He said previously he would do this anyway.
  2. Mueller testifies to Congress, coming across a little feeble and off-guard. In fairness, he wears hearing aids (which don’t work well where he was sitting), he wasn’t presented with a portfolio highlighting the sections in his report that were referenced (so he had to search through the doc for every question), and he’s naturally curt and concise. But still, not compelling TV.
    • Probably no minds were changed, but I outlined a few highlights and some conspiracy theories that were new to me.
    • If you’ve read the report, the only thing new in the hearings was the astounding number of conspiracy theories that you would only know about if you watch Fox News.
    • Republicans on the committees didn’t challenge the facts stated in Mueller’s report, but did try to establish bias in the investigation.
    • Mueller definitely sticks to his promise to only testify about what’s in the report.
    • Following Mueller’s testimony, the number of House members endorsing the start of impeachment hearings increases to 107.
    • Also following Mueller’s testimony, House committees step up their requests and subpoenas for evidence. They also plan to petition a judge to unseal the grand jury evidence from Mueller’s investigation.
    • Meanwhile, Trump says the Russia investigations are finally over.
  1. One America News, which Trump promotes in his tweets, hires an anchor who’s still working for Sputnik (Russia’s state-owned media outlet).
  2. Several thousand people protest in Moscow, demanding that opposition candidates be allowed on the ballots for city council races. Around 300 people are arrested, including Putin opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who gets a 30-day sentence for organizing the protests.
  3. The Senate Intelligence Committee releases a (highly redacted) report concluding that Russian cyberactors hacked into election databases in all 50 states in 2016, and that they were in a position to change data in an Illinois database (and also in one other state, which isn’t named). There’s no evidence they did so, though. Here are some highlights:
    • Russia began the attacks as far back as 2014.
    • The committee couldn’t figure out what Russia’s intentions were.
    • Russian diplomats were planning to undermine the results of the election, anticipating that Clinton would win. The committee thinks it’s possible that Russia purposefully left their fingerprints on the databases in order to cast doubt on the validity of the elections.
    • There’s no evidence that any votes or voter tallies were changed.
  1. Following the release of the report and Mueller’s testimony, Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans block three bills passed by the Democrat-led House to increase election security and help prevent attacks such as those described in the report. The bills would:
    • Require internet companies to disclose political ad buyers by internet companies in order to identify foreign influence.
    • Place sanctions on any entity that attacks a U.S. election.
    • Sanction Russia for its cyberattacks.
  1. Full disclosure: McConnell has received donations from lobbyists for four of the major makers of voting equipment, though their donations amount to less than $10,000.

Legal Fallout:

  1. Trump files a lawsuit to block the House Ways and Means Committee from obtaining his tax returns.
    • Trump claims the request from the House Ways and Means Committee for his tax returns is unprecedented. But documents show that when the same committee requested Richard Nixon’s tax returns, they got them within a day.
  1. A federal judge blocks subpoenas issued by Congress to obtain Trump organization financial records in their emoluments lawsuit against Trump. The judge says the suit should make its way through the appeals court first.
  2. And then, ironically, Trump’s Doral country club is listed among the finalists to hold next year’s G7 summit.
  3. Jeffrey Epstein is served court papers in jail in relation to a child rape lawsuit. A few days later, he’s found injured in his cell, semiconscious with marks on his neck.
  4. A judge rules that a class action suit against Trump, Don Jr., Eric, and Ivanka for fraud, false advertising, and unfair competition in multilevel marketing companies they promoted can move forward. The judge dismisses allegations of conspiracy and racketeering.
  5. Michael Flynn’s former business partner Bijan Kian faces up to 15 years in prison after being convicted on foreign-agent felony charges.
  6. The DOJ declines to follow up on contempt of Congress charges against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

Courts/Justice:

  1. The Justice Department announces they’ll resume the federal death penalty, and selects five inmates for whom they’ll schedule executions. Federal executions were largely ended in 1972, when the Supreme Court ruling found that the death penalty was imposed on blacks at a far higher rate than whites. Congress expanded the federal death penalty again in 1988, but there have only been three executions since then.
  2. At the same time, a Philadelphia DA asks the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to rule that the death penalty goes against the state constitution. He cites the inequity and prejudice with which the death penalty is served.
    • There are 45 people on death row in Philadelphia, 41 of whom are minorities.
    • Post-conviction reviews overturned 72% of Philadelphia’s death sentences.

Healthcare:

  1. The Senate finally passes a bill that funds the 9/11 victims fund in perpetuity. First responders no longer have to come back to Congress to plead their case every time funding comes up for a vote.
    • Comedian John Stewart has been fighting for this for nearly a decade.
    • A quick look back at votes and bill sponsorship indicates that this has largely been blocked by Republicans over the past 18 years. I don’t understand why this is.
  1. The Trump administration tells Utah legislators that it won’t approve their request for funding for Medicaid expansion under ACA because their plan leaves out certain income brackets covered by the ACA. The administration would fund full Medicaid expansion.

International:

  1. The Navy warship that brought down an Iranian drone last week brought down a second one in the process, according to CENTCOM Commander General Kenneth McKenzie….
  2. Trump says he could easily wipe Afghanistan off the face of the earth, but he doesn’t want to kill 10 million people. Afghanistan requests clarification.
  3. Trump vetos three bills that would’ve prevented the administration from selling weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Both the House and the Senate passed the bans largely over human rights issues.
  4. The UK selects Boris Johnson to be their next prime minister. Johnson is a populist who led the original Brexit movement and is OK with a no-deal Brexit. Oh how did we get here?
    • Johnson was a journalist who created sensationalist and inaccurate stories. He was an EU skeptic even back in the early 90s.
    • He was fired from the Times of London for making up quotes.
    • He meticulously creates his persona of a bumbling, unkempt buffoon.
    • He was fired from the Parliament before he became the mayor of London.
    • He’s long wanted to be Prime Minister, but he didn’t really want it under the current circumstances and he didn’t really think the Brexit referendum would pass. Now we’ll see what he does with it.
    • His first week in office, he ramps up the Brexit rhetoric and causes the pound to fall.
  1. The Senate confirms Mark Esper as Secretary of Defense, a position that’s been open more than half a year. Esper is a former Raytheon lobbyist. He replaces James Mattis.
  2. After France passes a law taxing big tech companies like Amazon and Google, Trump says he’ll take “substantial reciprocal action.” Ironically, Trump says if anyone’s going to tax American companies it should be America. These companies barely pay any taxes in the U.S., thanks in large part to the GOP’s 2017 tax cuts. France is only taxing the amount these companies make in France.
  3. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates resigns, and Trump nominates Representative John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) to replace him. You might have noticed several GOP Members of Congress auditioning for this role during the Mueller hearing, including Ratcliffe.
  4. It’s been a month since North Korea and the U.S. agreed to start up denuclearization negotiations again, but so far Kim Jong Un hasn’t even named a negotiator.
  5. Speaking of North Korea, they just launched two unidentified objects into the Sea of Japan.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. South Dakota passes a law requiring schools to display the country’s motto, “In God we trust.” State Republicans say it’s about history, but it only became the country’s motto in 1956, when Eisenhower signed it into law.
    • That was around the same time “under God” was added to the pledge of allegiance, and the same time that “In God we trust” was added to currency.
    • The author of the bill says it’s based on religion (Judeo-Christian principles).
    • Over a dozen other states have either passed a similar law or have proposed one.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

  1. The Supreme Court finds that the plaintiffs in a lawsuit attempting to block Trump from using Pentagon money to build his wall don’t have a legal right to bring the case. They didn’t rule that Trump’s use of these funds is constitutional, but the ruling allows him to start using the funds.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The Trump administration announces a deportation process that bypasses immigration judges and allows them to quickly deport undocumented immigrants who’ve been here less than two years. Before, this expedited process was reserved for undocumented migrants caught within 100 miles of the border and who had only been in the country two weeks.
  2. A district judge blocks Trump’s new “third-country” asylum rule that prevents refugees from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they pass through a third country and don’t seek asylum there first. The administration says they’ll fight the decision.
    • The judge says the rule could put people in imminent danger.
    • This could affect refugees who’ve been trying to do this the right way by waiting their turn at ports of entry. They’ve been waiting in Mexico for months, but if this rule goes into effect, they might be required to seek asylum in Mexico first.
    • Trump threatens Guatemala with tariffs if they don’t enter a safe country agreement for asylum seekers. He also threatens a travel ban against Guatemala.
  1. ICE releases a 16-year-old U.S. citizen after 23 days of detention in an immigration center. He says he lost 26 pounds, and described awful conditions there. There were extenuating circumstances, but in the end, a U.S. citizen was unlawfully detained by U.S. officials who refused to accept his birth certificate.
    • In March, ICE detained a nine-year-old girl and her 14-year-old brother, both of whom are U.S. citizens, for 32 hours. Even though they had U.S. passports, officials accused the brother of human trafficking. Their mother had to go through the Mexican consulate to free them.
  1. Remember the high school student made famous for staring down a Native American elder after a March for Life rally in DC last year? He sued the Washington Post for defamation, and a judge just dismissed the case with prejudice (meaning the suit can’t be brought up again). The family still has lawsuits pending against CNN and NBC.
  2. FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before Congress, and he says that domestic terrorism from white hate groups is on the rise. He also says, “A majority of the domestic terrorism cases we’ve investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white supremacist violence.”
  3. Shit rolls downhill… Trump’s racist attacks against The Squad have trickled down.
    • Two New Jersey GOP officials call to eradicate Islam and call a sitting Member of Congress a terrorist on social media. They refuse to apologize.
    • The Republican County Chairmen’s association of Illinois posts and then removes a meme on Facebook that calls the squad “The Jihad Squad.” The meme also has the slogan, “Political Jihad Is Their Game,” and it shows Rep. Ayanna Pressley aiming a gun. The president of the association doesn’t apologize for the content.
  1. Trump’s mad at Elijah Cummings. He tweets that Cummings’ Baltimore district is “far worse and more dangerous” than the border, is the worst district in the U.S., and is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess—a “dangerous and filthy” place.
    • Even members of the GOP think this one went too far, and the Baltimore Sun publishes a scathing retort.
    • And, surprise! It appears that Kushner is a slumlord in that very district. Kushner Companies owns thousands of apartments in the district, which have accrued over 200 code violations in a single year, including mice infestation.
    • If you’re not clear on why these tweets are racist and hurtful, give this a listen.
  1. Active troops are now monitoring migrants at a detention center in Texas.
  2. After ICE traps a man and his 12-year-old son in their van for hours (threatening them with arrest), people in the Tennessee neighborhood provide the two with food and water. After four hours, the neighbors form a human chain around the van to help them get back into their house and prevent ICE agents from taking them into custody.
  3. A federal judge rules against North Carolina’s notorious bathroom bill, saying that the state can’t ban people from using bathrooms that match their identity. Also, the guy who authored that bill is running for the House of Representatives in a special election. Why is there a special election? Because the campaign of the Republican who ran last time committed voter fraud.
  4. Several U.S. Marines are arrested in Southern California for transporting undocumented migrants.

Climate:

  1. A new report shows that temperature variations at the end of the last century were more extreme than any variations over the past 2,000 years. Previous variations were contained to specific areas as opposed to the global variations we see now.
  2. India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are in monsoon season, and have seen over 650 people die so far from the extreme weather and flooding.
  3. Europe is continuing its hot streak, with Paris hitting 108.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest temperature ever recorded there. Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium also hit record highs.
  4. Four of the biggest auto manufacturers side with California in the state’s fight against Trump’s regulatory rollbacks on fuel efficiency. They strike a deal that‘s slightly looser than Obama‘s regulations, but much tougher than Trump’s. They‘ll reach 51 mpg by 2026 instead of 54.5 mpg by 2025. Trump lowered it to 37 mpg.
    • Trump is still likely to revoke California’s right to create its own emissions guidelines, but there are 13 other states who promise to uphold Obama’s tighter standards.
    • Additional automakers are interested in signing on to the deal.
  1. Tidewater glaciers are experiencing underwater melt at a rate 100 times faster than previously thought. Tidewater glaciers are glaciers that end in the ocean.

Budget/Economy:

  1. The White House and Congress reach a two-year budget deal that increases the spending cap by $320 billion and that suspends the debt ceiling until after the next presidential election (because who wants that hanging over an election?).
    • The Freedom Caucus (Tea Party wing) urges Trump to reject the deal.
    • A few months ago, the White House said they would force spending cuts in the budget, but they approved this increase anyway.
    • The deal puts us on track to add another $1 trillion to the deficit this year. Candidate Trump said he’d balance the budget within 5 years. He has an perplexing strategy…
  1. And then the next day, the Trump administration announces a proposed rule that will drop over 3 million Americans off of SNAP.
    • An interesting side effect of that is that share prices for major discount grocery stores dropped.
  1. Bernie Madoff asks Trump to reduce his prison sentence. Madoff is 81, and has about 140 years out of 150 to serve for cheating hundred of people out of their money (for an estimated $64.8 billion in total).
  2. Economic growth in the U.S. slowed to 2.1% last quarter.
  3. 2018’s newly revised economic growth is now 2.5%.
  4. China, which is hardly importing any U.S. soybeans at this point, approves imports of soybeans and wheat from Russia.
  5. The government announces another round of assistance to farmers hurt by the tariffs. Farmers will receive from $15 to $150 per acre, totaling $16 billion.
  6. The DOJ approves the T-Mobile/Sprint merger. States Attorneys Generals launch an antitrust lawsuit.

Elections:

  1. Three House Republicans announce they won’t be running again in 2020. They are: Pete Olson (Texas), Martha Roby (Alabama), and Paul Mitchell (Michigan). Three House Republicans and two House Democrats announced earlier this year that they won’t be running.
  2. Lawyers in Miami-Dade County, FL, say they’ve found a loophole in the state’s recently passed bill that requires ex-felons to pay any fees and fines before they can be eligible to vote. This bill overrode a measure passed overwhelmingly by the voters. The loophole is that fees and fines are not usually listed in the sentencing documents.

Miscellaneous:

  1. In a speech to conservative teens, Trump works them up by repeating his debunked story that undocumented immigrants are voting illegally. They just aren’t. There are so many procedures in place to prevent this. He also tells the kids that Article II of the Constitution gives him the right to do whatever he wants, among other fish tales.
  2. The governor of Puerto Rico finally resigns after weeks of protests.
  3. Trump’s nominee for Ambassador to the UN has spent 7 out of 20 months of her time as Ambassador to Canada at homes she owns in the U.S.
  4. Lawyers for Cesar Sayoc, the MAGA Bomber, claim that Sayoc was influenced by Fox News, Trump’s tweets, and Facebook. His favorites were Fox & Friends and Hannity. Sayoc mailed 16 pipe bombs to Trump’s perceived enemies.
  5. A Pennsylvania school that sent out letters to parents threatening to call child services if they don’t pay their lunch debt rejects a local businessman’s offer to pay off those debts.
  6. Illustrating why Republicans are no longer the party of fiscal responsibility, Mitch McConnell tells Trump that no politician ever lost his seat by approving higher government spending.
  7. A police officer in Louisiana posts on social media that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez needs a round.
  8. Trump calls for opening investigations into Obama’s book deal and reopening investigations into Hillary’s emails and the Clinton Foundation. He later complains about the air conditioning in the White House installed by the Obama’s saying that it worked fine before. Not sure how he’d know.
  9. There are eight mass shootings over the weekend. EIGHT.
    • A shooter kills three people and injures 15 more at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California. The shooter is also killed. He had previously posted a recommendation to read Might is Right, a white supremacist manifesto from the 1800s.
    • That same night, two shooters kill one person and injure 11 at a festival in a Brooklyn, NY, park.
    • The other mass shootings occur in DC, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Washington State,
  1. Dozens of links from major news media outlets online are now being redirected (without their knowledge) to advertising sites. I’m talking major media, like the New York Times, Forbes, BBC, and more.
  2. Brazil’s president threatens journalist Glenn Simpson of the Intercept with jail time over reporting hacked phone conversations involving the justice minister. Greenwald has generated his share of controversy, but he’s still protected by due process.

Week 126 in Trump

Posted on June 30, 2019 in Politics, Trump

Sorry for the long radio silence. I was derailed by family emergency, but now I’m back and trying to catch up on what I missed. Getting back into the news cycle reminds me that there are:

  • 10 federal criminal investigations,
  • 8 state and local investigations, and
  • 11 congressional investigations

into Trump, his family and business, and his associates. It reminds me that indictments continue to come down, trials are coming up, and Trump continues to interfere with witness testimony in ongoing investigations. And it reminds me that we’re still separating families at the border, and keeping kids separated from the U.S. families instead of releasing them into their custody.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending June 23…

Russia:

  1. The House Judiciary Committee questions Hope Hicks, who, under White House orders, refuses to answer any questions about conduct during the presidential transition and about the White House, including minutia, like where her office was located and other publicly available information.
    • Trump accuses House Democrats of putting Hicks “through hell.” For one day of questioning? Really? I refer you to Hillary’s 11-hour hearing.
    • You can read her testimony here.
  1. Felix Sater is scheduled to testify to the House Intelligence Committee about the Trump Tower Moscow project, but he doesn’t show up. So the committee issues him a subpoena.
    • Sater worked with Michael Cohen on the Trump Tower project (he actually worked on two different Trump Tower Moscow projects).
    • Sater says he’s been sick and slept through his alarm. He also says he’ll answer every single question.
  1. Prosecutors accuse Roger Stone of violating his gag order (yet again) through social media posts.
  2. A top aide to former White House Counsel Don McGahn is scheduled to testify to Congress, but the White House is expected to block her from doing so. Annie Donaldson has a special agreement to provide written answers since she’s pregnant.

Legal Fallout:

  1. Federal authorities are investigating Deutsche Bank yet again, this time for violating laws against money laundering. The investigation includes the bank’s handling of suspicious activity reports, and also covers several other banks.
  2. A federal court unseals text messages used as evidence between Paul Manafort and Sean Hannity, revealing a tight and ongoing relationship between the two. There’s legal advice, flattery, and persecution complexes throughout. They show Hannity was giving Manafort news time and credibility all along. Take a look – it’s an interesting read.
  3. Jeffrey Rosen, the top deputy to Attorney General William Barr, intervenes for Paul Manafort to prevent him from being moved to Rikers, where most federal inmates facing state charges are held. He’ll await trial at a federal prison instead.
  4. The Office of Special Counsel (not to be confused with Mueller’s office) just found that Kellyanne Conway violated the Hatch Act multiple times in multiple ways. This week, another watchdog group files a complaint against Ivanka for violating the act.

Courts/Justice:

  1. The Supreme Court rules that you can be tried at both the state and federal levels for the same crimes, and that it doesn’t conflict with the double jeopardy clause in the Constitution, which prevents you from being tried for the same thing twice.
    • This is relevant right now with the idea of pardons being floated by Trump and his associates. Trump can only pardon at the federal level, and this ruling allows states to pick up investigations into crimes that otherwise could’ve been pardoned.
  1. Wisconsin’s Supreme Court rules that the lame duck special session called by outgoing state Republican legislators was constitutional, so the bills they passed in a last-ditch effort to limit the powers of the new Democratic governor will take effect.

Healthcare:

  1. While warming up the crowd at his Dad’s re-election campaign kickoff rally, Donald Trump, Jr., makes fun of Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden for his cancer “moon shot” (Biden’s promise to cure cancer).
  2. And then Trump promises he’ll cure cancer and AIDS if he gets re-elected. He promises he’ll “come up with the cures to many, many problems, to many, many diseases.” It’s worth noting that he’d have to reverse several of his policies to do this.
  3. Once again, Trump takes credit for a veteran’s health care bill that Obama signed into law five years ago, the Veterans Choice program.
  4. A federal appeals courts rules that Trump’s gag rule on women’s reproductive health can take effect immediately across the country. Now any medical facility that provides abortions or referrals to abortions can’t receive Title X funding.
  5. After a few weeks of the state of Missouri forcing doctors to perform unnecessary and invasive medical procedures prior to performing an abortion, doctors fight back and say they won’t do it. So Missouri refuses to renew the license for the state’s last abortion provider. However, a judge’s order allows the facility to remain open.
  6. The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program tracks consumer claims of harm from vaccinations. Out of 126 million vaccinations over the past 12 years, 284 people have made claims of damage, and about half of those claims were dismissed. That’s about a .00011% chance of harm of any kind.

International:

  1. In another example of poor vetting, Patrick Shanahan resigns and withdraws from the confirmation process for Secretary of Defense. His background check showed his family to be involved in multiple counts of domestic violence, with the violence coming from him, his wife, and his son.
  2. The White House then announces that Trump will nominate Army Secretary Mark Esper to be Secretary of Defense.
  3. A UN investigator of the Jamal Khashoggi murder says we need to sanction and freeze assets of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. She says we’re not doing enough in the face of credible evidence that MbS was involved in the killing. Her report gives new details that spread the blame beyond the 11 currently on trial.
  4. The Republican-led Senate passes three measure blocking the sale of $8.1 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia. Trump will likely veto this, because he wants to sell them the weapons regardless of their guilt in the Khashoggi case.
  5. Trump and Republicans have long complained that the JCPOA (Iran deal) wasn’t working. Looking back, Iran never came close to breaking the deal before Trump broke our promise to the JCPOA; but now that we’ve pulled out, Iran is on schedule to pass the JCPOA-defined limits on their uranium stockpile within the next week.
    • Iran says they won’t let that happen if Europe promises to fight Trump’s economic sanctions against Iran.
  1. Trump says he’ll send 1,000 more U.S. troops to the Middle East because of what he calls hostile behavior by Iran and its proxies. The Pentagon backs that up.
  2. Trump tweets about new sanctions added against Iran, but it turns out there weren’t any. But then later sanctions were announced, so maybe it was just a timing thing.
  3. Following recent attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) says we should launch a retaliatory strike against Iran.
  4. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggests that Iran has ties to Al Qaeda. He wants to use this to justify allowing the Trump administration to start a war with Iran (using the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force).
  5. Tucker Carlson, of all people, compares Pompeo’s assertion that Iran attacked the tankers to when Colin Powell claimed erroneously that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
  6. Iran’s military claims responsibility for shooting down an American drone. Iran says the drone violated its territorial airspace, but the U.S. claims it was in international airspace.
  7. Trump approves a military attack against Iran in retaliation for the drone. But then he pulls back at the last minute, because (according to the White House) he had just learned that 150 people might die. I’m sure we all realize that a casualty report is given long before a strike is approved.
    • There’s some dispute over whether the planes were actually already in the air by the time Trump rescinded the order. He claims they weren’t, but military officials say they were.
  1. Trump sent Iran a warning via Oman to warn them that an attack was imminent.
  2. Fox & Friends say it was weak to rescind the order to attack.
  3. Putin says military conflict with Iran would be a catastrophe, and that he believes Iran is complying with the JCPOA. He says this just hours before Trump calls off the retaliatory strike.
  4. The White House didn’t notify the succession to the presidency of the plans to strike Iran (specifically Nancy Pelosi, who’s second in line behind Mike Pence).

Family Separation:

  1. Here’s the winner of the week’s gaslighting award. In an interview with Telemundo, Trump tells us that Obama is responsible for the family separation and Trump is the one who’s fixing it and bringing families together. Seriously. He really said this.
    • In 2018, Jeff Sessions announced the zero tolerance policy in a press conference. In the interview, Trump defends the zero tolerance policy while claiming he’s bringing families together.
    • The program was only ended because the ACLU and other activist groups sued the DHS.
    • The only reason any families were unified at all is that the ACLU and other activist groups sued for it.
    • They are still separating families at the borders! How else do you think we ended up with toddlers in a detainment camp for unaccompanied minors? In fairness, some are the children of minor girls, but not all of them are.
    • More debunking can be found here and here and here and here. I could go on, but I shouldn’t have to.
  1. Immigration lawyers visit a child detention center at the border and interview children who were dirty and sick, living in overcrowded rooms, and sleeping on concrete floors. They had to force the facility to send four toddlers with fevers, coughs, vomiting, and diarrhea to the hospital.
    • The lawyers noticed one little girl had a bracelet with a phone number and “U.S. parent” written on it. They dialed the phone number and found her parents. No one had even bothered to try the number before that.
    • And just a reminder, we’re all paying $750 per day to the businesses that run the private prisons that house each and every one of these children who could be released to family in the U.S.
  1. A federal attorney sets off a shitstorm by arguing in front of incredulous circuit court judges that children in detainment camps are being held in safe and sanitary conditions with no soap, no diapers, no toothpaste, and only a hard concrete floor to sleep on.
  2. And then Alexandria Ocasio Cortez sets off a new shitstorm by calling detainment centers “concentration camps” (which by definition, they are; and holocaust experts agree and agree).
  3. After all this, the Trump administration moves some of the children out of the overcrowded detention centers, but they run out of places to move them to, so some end up returning.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Trump announces that ICE will remove millions of undocumented immigrants over the weekend, spreading panic through immigrant neighborhoods. He then reduces that estimate to thousands of immigrants, with ICE ultimately cancelling the raids altogether because, according to Acting ICE Director Mark Morgan, “someone” leaked information about the raids.
    • Trump says he’ll delay the raids for two weeks so Congress can work out a solution. I’m not sure what solution he’s looking for here.
    • Pelosi called Trump two days before the planned raid to ask him to halt the operation.
  1. BTW, the number of migrant families crossing the southern border is decreasing again, as is the number of arrests. Even though ICE is increasing deportations, they’re still deporting fewer than in the first years under Obama.
  2. Mitch McConnell says that we paid for the sin of slavery by fighting the Civil War, by passing civil rights legislation, and ultimately by electing a black president. He needs to review the generational effects of having property confiscated, running freeways and railways through neighborhoods, being denied the same loans and assistance that are given to white people, forced segregation, and white flight. But, sure. A black president. That makes up for ALL that Jim Crow shit.
  3. The Trump administration announces that they’re permanently cutting off aid to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador; the three countries where most of our asylum seekers come from. The administration says they’ll resume aid when they see these countries taking concrete steps to stop people from leaving those countries for the U.S.
    • Let’s just file that one under “What could possibly go wrong?”
  1. In 1989, Trump took out a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the Central Park Five to be put to death. The Central Park Five were erroneously found guilty of the brutal beating and rape of the central park jogger, but they were exonerated in 2002 after someone else confessed and DNA tests proved it.
    • The five were all 16 or under at the time, and were all convicted on coerced confessions. Four are black and one is Latino.
    • Trump refuses to apologize for taking out the ad, saying you have people on both sides of that. How can there be a good person on the side of wrongful imprisonment?
    • When the city of New York settled with the five for $41 million, Trump called the settlement a disgrace. Watch “When They See Us” on Netflix to understand this whole thing fully.
  1. Journalist E. Jean Carroll releases an excerpt of her new book where she accuses Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf dressing room in the 1990s. Trump denies it, using a defense he’s used before, “she’s not my type.” He also says he doesn’t know Carroll, though photos of them together have surfaced.

Climate:

  1. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announces the Trump administration’s replacement for Obama’s Clean Power Plan. The new plan ends rules put in place by the Obama administration to combat climate change, including:
    • Scaling back tailpipe emission standards.
    • Removing state targets for reducing carbon emissions.
    • Removing regulations for carbon emissions from coal-powered plants.
    • Limiting the federal government’s ability to set carbon emission standards.
  1. Wheeler says the new plan might lead to new coal plants opening in the U.S. He also says that carbon emissions dropped by 14% between 2005 and 2017, but neglects to mention that they started to rise again in 2018.
  2. An EPA report last year claimed that this plan would result in 300 to 1,500 more deaths annually due to climate-related illnesses.
  3. At least seven State Attorney Generals say they’ll try to block the Clean Power Plan changes in court.
  4. Meanwhile, back in real science, the Arctic permafrost isn’t so permanent under climate change. Scientists find that it’s thawing 70 years earlier than they had predicted.
  5. Air quality in the U.S. has been improving over the past few decades, but the past two years both saw more unhealthy air days than the average from 2013 through 2016.
  6. A federal court rules that an environmental review must be performed for Cadiz Inc. to build a pipeline designed to remove water from the Mojave Trails National Park aquifer for city usage. The judge says Trump’s waiver of the review is illegal.
    • Cadiz claimed they could remove the water under an obscure law waiving environmental review if the water is used for railroad purposes. They claimed that some of the water would be used to power a steam engine.
    • Unsurprisingly, the Obama administration rejected that argument and ordered a review. The Trump administration reversed that decision after David Barnhardt was appointed to be Deputy Interior Secretary (he’s now Interior Secretary). Barnhardt was a lobbyist for Cadiz. Draining the swamp, right?
  1. The Department of Agriculture has been burying federal studies that show the impacts of climate change. The studies by the Agricultural Research Service are peer-reviewed. Some of their findings include:
    • Rice loses vitamins in an environment containing too much carbon.
    • Climate change exacerbates allergies.
    • Climate change will reduce the quality of grasses used to feed livestock.
  1. 70 medical and public health organizations call climate change a health emergency, and produce policy recommendations that are in conflict with Trump’s policies.
  2. Mike Pence says that the Trump administration will always follow the science on climate change. Huh? See all the above. He also refuses to acknowledge that climate change is a legitimate national threat (which the military has long been saying).

Budget/Economy:

  1. Mexico becomes the first country to ratify the updated NAFTA (or as Trump calls it, the USMCA).
  2. A bipartisan group of Congressional leaders meet to discuss deals to prevent automatic budget cuts this fall. If they don’t reach an agreement, $125 billion will be cut from Pentagon and domestic spending.
  3. Earlier this year Trump talked about firing Jerome Powell over interest rates, and the White House looking into demoting him. The day before the Fed announces its interest rate decision this week, Trump publicly says he’ll wait to see what Powell does before demoting him. That threat isn’t even thinly veiled. History 101: The Fed supposed to be completely independent from the executive branch.

Elections:

  1. Trump kicks off his re-election campaign in Orlando, FL. Not surprisingly, he gave a campaign speech that was crazy AF, so much so I can’t even track all the lies (I’ll let PBS do it for me). Also, he really, really hates Democrats.
  2. Roy Moore announces, with little Republican support, that he’ll run for Senate in Alabama again to win Democrat Doug Jones’ seat.
  3. The Supreme Court rules against Virginia’s Republican-led House of Delegates, keeping in place the redrawn district lines that fixed the previous lines gerrymandered by the GOP. SCOTUS upholds a lower court’s ruling that the GOP lines were racially gerrymandered. Sadly, SCOTUS once more avoided ruling on the constitutionality of gerrymandering by ruling that the House didn’t have cause to sue.

Miscellaneous:

  1. The father of one of the Sandy Hook victims wins a defamation lawsuit against the author of “Nobody Died at Sandy Hook.” The publisher also pulls the books and apologizes to settle a claim against them. The publisher, Dave Gahary, says his conversations with the father have led him to believe that people actually did die. I’m speechless.
    • Just a reminder that these families have been harassed by Sandy Hook deniers ever since it happened, sometimes moving to get away from it but it never works. That’s why they’ve launched a slew of lawsuits against the offenders, including Alex Jones. And it finally seems to be working.
    • In a separate case against Alex Jones, a Connecticut judge sanctions Jones for a “despicable” tirade against the attorney’s representing Sandy Hook families. Jones accuses them of placing malware on his computer that, in turn, planted child pornography on InfoWars servers. WOW. The child pornography was discovered when InfoWars turned over evidence to the court.
  1. Trump appears to threaten a journalist with imprisonment over a photograph of a letter from Kim Jong Un.
  2. Someone leaks vetting documents from the Trump transition team to Axios. Some of that vetting was outsourced to the Republican National Committee. Here are a few highlights (file them under “Drain That Swamp!”):
    • Trump announced many of his nominees without a full FBI background check or a vetting from the Office of Government Ethics.
    • There’s an entire section of allegations of former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s coziness with big energy companies.
    • Multiple sections on former Health and Human services Secretary Tom Price criticize his management ability and his House Budget Committee leadership (calling it dysfunctional and divisive).
    • Mick Mulvaney said that Trump is not a very good person, among other things.
    • Rudy Giuliani has a whole separate document about his business ties and foreign entanglements.
    • The transition team flagged General David Petraeus because he’s opposed to torture.
    • Rex Tillerson, Trump’s first Secretary of State, has Russia ties that go deep.
    • Kris Kobach, who later headed Trump’s Commission on Election Integrity, has ties to white supremacist groups.
    • Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley once said that Trump is everything we “teach our kids not to do in kindergarten.”
    • Seema Verma, appointed to Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was at one time advising Indiana on how to spend Medicaid funds while at the same time representing a client that received those very funds.
    • Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue has both business and family conflicts of interest.
    • Ryan Zinke once called Trump “undefendable.”
    • Rick Perry called Trumpism “a toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness, and nonsense that will lead the Republican Party to perdition.”
    • People doing the vetting say they didn’t even know what job they were vetting people for.

Polls:

  1. The number of Democrats who want to begin impeachment hearings rose from 59% in April to 67% this week. This just tells me that enough people have still not read the report.

William Barr on the Mueller Report

Posted on April 23, 2019 in Bad Politicians, Politics, Trump

Attorney General William Barr gave a controversial press conference hours before releasing the Mueller report. Like we can’t read the report for ourselves? He’s had nearly a month to put out his own narrative on the report and then embed that narrative in the minds of the American public. Because of this and because of conflicting and overblown media reports, I really do recommend reading the report on your own. If not the full report, at least read the summaries at the beginning of each volume and the conclusions at the end of each volume.

Here are a few highlights from Barr’s take on the report:

  1. Barr uses “collusion” and “coordination” interchangeably in his press conference, which is unusual for a lawyer of his caliber. They’re generally much more careful with terminology, and collusion is not a legal term (Mueller even states that in his report).
  2. While Mueller laid out a pretty solid path to indict on obstruction, Barr says he doesn’t think the evidence is sufficient to charge Trump.
  3. Barr says:
    “As you will see, the Special Counsel’s report states that his “investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.””
    But this leaves out contextual information. Here’s that full sentence from the report:
    “Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”
  4. Barr says, correctly, that we know:
    • The Russian government interfered in our elections through a social media campaign to sow disinformation and discord.
    • The GRU hacked into U.S. servers and stole documents and emails, which they later publicized.
  1. Barr also says Russia didn’t have the knowing or intentional cooperation of Trump or his campaign, or any other American for that matter. However,the report clarifies that to meet the requirements of coordination would require an agreement, tacit or expressed.
  2. Barr says that there’s not enough evidence to establish Trump committed obstruction of justice, despite all the evidence Mueller lays out. According to the report, Mueller actually declined to prosecute based on DOJ norms, and specifically says the evidence does not clear Trump and if it did, he would say so.
    • In neither his letters nor his statement does Barr give the reason Mueller gave for not deciding to prosecute. It wasn’t because he didn’t think there were crimes; it was because of DOJ guidelines around indicting a sitting president.
  1. Barr only mentions the bolded part below, ignoring the remaining supporting information for obstruction of justice:
    • “…the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference. But the evidence does point to a range of other possible personal motives animating the President’s conduct. These include concerns that continued investigation would call into question the legitimacy of his election and potential uncertainty about whether certain events—such as advance notice of WikiLeaks’s release of hacked information or the June 9, 2016 meeting between senior campaign officials and Russians—could be seen as criminal activity by the President, his campaign, or his family.”
  1. In his press conference, Barr goes into a lengthy defense of Trump, and even says if he did obstruct it was because he was frustrated over the investigation (let’s see how that excuse works for your everyday criminal).
  2. Barr also says the White House cooperated with the investigation fully and completely, even though about 182 pages of the Mueller report is about obstructive actions, Trump refused to sit down for an interview, and he said he didn’t recall about 30 times in his written answers.
  3. I‘m not clear if Barr means to say that Trump believes this investigation was propelled by his political enemies and fueled by illegal leaks or if that’s what Barr himself believes. It’s not clear in his speech or his transcript. Either way, it’s a weird thing for an attorney general to say.
  4. Barr makes no mention of the plea deals and convictions that came from the investigation.
  5. Barr implies that because there was no crime of conspiracy or coordination, Trump couldn’t be guilty of obstructing justice. Mueller directly contradicts that in the report, saying:“In addition, the President had a motive to put the FBI’s Russia investigation behind him… But the evidence does indicate that a thorough FBI investigation would uncover facts about the campaign and the President personally that the President could have understood to be crimes or that would give rise to personal and political concerns.”

Week 116 in Trump

Posted on April 15, 2019 in Politics, Trump

This week reminds me again of how we can all interpret the very same occurrence in vastly different ways. Even though we hear the exact same speeches, our reactions vary. Maybe we hear what we want to hear or maybe we actually do just support very different values in those speeches. No, I’m not talking about William Barr’s testimony. I’m talking about Candace Owens, who Republican leaders brought in to testify on the rising problem of white nationalism. Among other things, she said the Southern Strategy never happened (we have the audio to prove it did), that Democrats want black and brown people to live in fear (not any Democrats I know), that the statistics showing the rise in hate crimes are faked (even though the numbers come from Trump’s own government agencies), and the real problem isn’t white nationalism, it’s far-left extremism (even though our intelligence agencies say it’s far-right extremism).

I’m not saying Owens voice isn’t important, it is. But it didn’t add anything but controversy to a hearing with victims of white nationalist hate crimes in attendance. I remember white nationalist groups when I was a kid. I remember when we all took them as a serious threat. We should all take them as a serious threat now.

Anyway, off my soapbox. Here’s what else happened this week in politics…

Russia:

  1. Attorney General William Barr testifies before the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. Here are some highlights:
    • Barr says that Mueller declined to review Barr’s initial letter summarizing the main findings of the report.
    • Barr won’t say whether he’s briefed the White House on the report or whether he even showed it to the White House.
    • Barr says he’ll release a redacted version of Mueller’s report to Congress and the public within a week.
    • The redactions will be color coded so we know the reason we can’t see the information. Some information is protected under grand jury rules, some affects ongoing investigations, some is defamatory (does that qualify as protected?), and some is simply classified.
    • Barr says he won’t ask a judge to rule on whether he can release any of the grand jury information.
    • And here we go again. Barr says he formed a team to investigate the investigations into the DOJ and FBI leading up to the federal probe and FISA warrants in the 2016 elections. This is the second IG review of the events, and the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight Committee held year-long hearings on them.
    • Barr tells the Senate Appropriations Committee that the government was spying on Trump’s campaign, but he doesn’t give any evidence supporting that assertion. Barr does add that he didn’t think any rules were violated, and he doesn’t think there was an endemic problem in our intelligence agencies.
  1. Trump says Mueller‘s investigation was an attempted coup to remove him from office.
  2. In rare bipartisan form, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and Ranking Member Devin Nunes send a demand to Barr, FBI Director Chris Wray, and Rod Rosenstein that Mueller must brief them on all materials obtained during his investigation.
  3. Nunes says the Mueller report is a partisan document, even though Mueller’s a Republican and Nunes hasn’t see a single word of the report.
  4. Devin Nunes says he’ll send eight criminal referrals in the Russia investigations to Barr. Most of the referrals are around lying to or misleading Congress, but three involve conspiracy and have to do with the FISA warrant request.

Legal Fallout:

  1. Trump’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, retires as a federal appellate judge. She was under investigation for violating judicial conduct rules based on the tax schemes she and her family were involved in. Stepping down effectively ends the investigation.
  2. Steve Mnuchin says the Treasury will miss the deadline to deliver Trump’s tax returns. It’s OK though, because Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Congress isn’t smart enough to understand his tax returns.
  3. Mnuchin consulted with the White House over releasing the tax returns.
  4. Trump’s attorneys threaten legal action against an accounting firm if they comply with a subpoena to release his financial records.
  5. If federal efforts to obtain Trump’s tax returns fail, New York lawmakers prepare to introduce a bill allowing the New York Department of Taxation and Finance to release state tax returns if requested by a congressional committee.
  6. Officials in the UK arrest Julian Assange, and the U.S. charges him on conspiracy to hack a Pentagon computer. This is related to his 2010 dump of classified documents and his work to help Chelsea Manning crack a password. It’s not related to his actions during the 2016 elections.
    • Ecuador withdrew his asylum, opening the door for the arrest.
    • The U.S. has an extradition warrant for Assange.
    • Trump, who has previously said he loves WikiLeaks, now says he doesn’t know anything about WikiLeaks.
  1. At first, Assange’s arrest starts a major debate over what this means for freedom of the press (though I wouldn’t technically call WikiLeaks the press, some do). But it turns out he’s not being charged for disseminating classified information; just for the commission of a crime in obtaining it.
  2. The DOJ adopts a new and narrower definition of the emoluments clause, which would allows some of Trump’s hotels to accept foreign payments or gifts.
  3. Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) introduces a bill to remove fellow Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) from his role as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. In a play on Trump’s nickname for Schiff, Gaetz calls it the PENCIL Act. He accuses Schiff of slandering the president and also wants Schiff’s security clearance revoked.
  4. U.S. attorneys charge Gregory Craig with lying to officials over whether his work for the Ukrainian government meant he should have registered as a foreign agent. Craig served as White House Counsel during Obama’s first two years, and not surprisingly was working with Paul Manafort when on the Ukraine project.
  5. Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti faces 36 charges of defrauding his clients. This is on top of the charges of attempting to extort Nike.
  6. Devin Nunes has been busy. He’s suing Twitter over two parody accounts that make fun of him and he’s suing McClatchy Company for defamation stemming from an article about a winery of which he is part owner.

Healthcare:

  1. Texas State Rep. Tony Tinderholt introduces a bill that would criminalize all abortion without exception, and possibly give women the death penalty if they do it. Remind me again how this is pro-life?
    • Tinderholt, who’s been married five times, says he just wants to make women more responsible. Don’t get me started. Find me an unwanted pregnancy that a man wasn’t responsible for.
  1. As he does every year, Lindsey Graham sponsors a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks.
  2. The Ohio legislature passes one of the most restrictive “heartbeat” anti-abortion bills in the country, which would outlaw abortion after just five or six weeks, with no exceptions for rape or incest. Former Governor Kasich vetoed such bills, but current Governor Mike DeWine says he’ll sign it.
  3. Representative Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) blames people for being unhealthy and says healthy people shouldn’t have to share in the cost of their insurance. I get what he’s saying; people with unhealthy habits cost us all more. Except that cancer doesn’t care how you lived your life. Neither does MS, Crohn’s, arthritis, or a host of other diseases.
  4. Democrats in the House are trying to investigate prescription drug pricing, but are being thwarted by certain House Republicans who are warning drug companies against providing any information.
  5. New York orders mandatory vaccinations in areas hit hardest by the measles outbreak. They can’t force people to vaccinate, but they’re fining people who don’t $1,000.
  6. The measles outbreak in Madagascar has killed over 1,200 people. They have a vaccination rate of under 60%, but not because people don’t want to vaccinate their kids. They do. The country just doesn’t have the resources to get them all vaccinated.

International:

  1. Trump designates Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist organization. Benjamin Netanyahu says it was his idea. Iran responds by designating the United States Central Command a terrorist organization.
  2. Even though the parties of Benjamin Netanyahu and his opponent, Benny Gantz, nearly tied in this week’s elections, Netanyahu won by courting far-right extremist parties to establish a stronger coalition than Gantz pulled together.
    • Netanyahu is facing possible indictments on bribery and breach of trust. He calls it a witch hunt. Sounds familiar, no?
  1. Great Britain and the European Union agree to delay Brexit until the end of October, largely out of consideration for Ireland. The longer this drags out, the worse the effects are on the UK’s economy.
    • Theresa May and opposition party leader Jeremy Corbyn are now in negotiations.
    • This puts everyone in a weird spot when European parliament elections come up in next month. At first May said the UK wouldn’t participate, but now she says they will. I’m not sure why they should have a voice in the EU at all right now.
    • Residents of Britain are stockpiling their favorite supplies in case they lose access to goods during the Brexit process.
  1. The Trump administration cancels a deal made in December to provide a safe way for Cuban baseball players to come to the U.S. to play in the major league.
  2. Russia’s foreign minister says trust in the U.S. is waning across the globe and that the balance of economic power is shifting from the West to the East.
  3. Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir is ousted in a military coup. He led the genocide in Darfur, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. The House votes to reinstate net neutrality regulations, which were reversed by the FCC in 2017. Net neutrality prohibits service providers from slowing down internet traffic or from charging certain entities extra for service.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

  1. The Pentagon awards almost $1 billion in contracts to build part of Trump’s wall. As it turns out, the contracts are for new fencing.

Family Separation:

  1. Trump repeats the debunked narrative that family separations occurred under Obama and that he (Trump) was the one who stopped it. Let’s go over it again:
    • Under both Bush and Obama, children were separated from their family only when the family member was considered a danger or criminal.
    • The Obama administration did consider family separation, but deemed it too inhumane.
    • The Trump administration began a pilot separation program in the middle of 2017.
    • In April 2018, Jeff Sessions publicly announced their zero tolerance policy that led to widespread family separations (if it was already a thing under Obama, why would he have to announce the change in policy?).
    • The kids in cages that Trump points to under Obama were from an influx of unaccompanied minors (not the same as us separating them with no reunification plans).

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. At a presser, Trump says of people crossing the southern border: They wait at the gate (this seems to be in reference to gates on ranchers’ lands) and then when the gate is open, they kill people. And then they take the truck (because a lot of times they don’t even want to go to the house) so you always go to the gate in doubles. Some are good people and they’re dying on the way.
  2. A judge blocks Trump’s policy of forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico once their asylum application has been accepted. DHS implemented the policy at a few ports of entry, and Kirstjen Nielsen wanted to expand the program further. Migrants forced into Mexico can now come back to the U.S. while they await asylum hearings.
  3. The day after DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigns, Trump tells Mick Mulvaney to ask Secret Service Director Randolph Alles to leave as well. The DHS also lost its FEMA director this year, and when Kevin McAleenan moves over to temporarily replace Nielsen, the position to head the CBP will also be open. Also, under the law, Nielsen’s replacement should automatically be Undersecretary Claire Grady, but she was also asked to leave.
  4. After Trump drops Ron Vitiello from his nomination to head ICE, he replaces him with Matthew Albence, the guy who said that migrant detention centers are like summer camps. He also thinks we should be able to detain minors for as long as we want.
  5. The White House has been complaining that the DHS hasn’t done enough to stem immigration, which is likely the reason for the shakeup.
  6. It turns out that Trump threatened to cut aide to Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala the day after Kirstjen Nielsen signed a major pact with them to address immigration and smuggling.
  7. Five former SOUTHCOM commanders put out a statement condemning Trump’s decision to cut off aid funding for those Central American countries. The generals say cutting funding will increase the flow of refugees, and cite Colombia as an example of where funding has worked. It has also helped stem the flow from El Salvador.
  8. The number of attempted border crossings has ballooned this year, and now Trump is happy that the media is reporting about the crisis at the border. Instead of taking concrete steps to deal with this problem, he helped create the crisis by (according to my own analysis):
    • Detaining everyone who crosses illegally, not just criminals, and filling up detention centers and clogging courts.
    • Separating children from their parents so he can detain the parents longer.
    • Making it harder for sponsors to step forward and claim minors in custody, making sure detention centers stay full.
    • Attempting to overturn the Flores ruling so immigrant families could be detained together indefinitely.
    • Dealing with the now-overcrowded detention centers by forcing refugees to wait in Mexico to apply and by slowing down processing to a trickle, leaving them in cities south of the border that don’t have the resources to assist them.
    • Shifting border agents from ports of entry to border areas between ports (slowing down legal traffic).
    • Threatening to close down the border.
    • Cutting funding to the countries from which the refugees are fleeing.
    • Threatening to start separating every family again.
    • Gutting the top-level officials in the DHS and pulling his nomination to lead ICE.
  1. Trump wants to hand over the credible fear interviews for asylum seekers to CBP agents instead of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services asylum officers who are actually trained in this matter. Stephen Miller says fewer people will pass if CBP handles this.
  2. Trump pressures immigration officials to release asylum seekers to so-called “sanctuary cities” as a way to punish those cities. Those cities, for the most part, say they’d welcome that, since they’re set up with the resources to assist refugees. Top ICE officials warn that this gives the appearance of political retribution.
  3. Trump tells the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection that he’d pardon him if he got sent to jail for breaking the law by stopping asylum seekers from entering the U.S.
  4. The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump told Stephen Miller he’s in charge of immigration, but Trump pushes back saying he’s the only one in charge.
  5. Trump’s ban of transgender troops in the military goes into effect. Troops can no longer transition, and they can be discharged if they don’t present as their gender assigned at birth.
    • The ban has been blocked by the courts, but in January the Supreme Court allowed the ban to be enforced while it goes through the courts.
    • Certain military organizations are working on ways to circumvent the ban.
    • The ban could affect up to 13,700 troops. IMO, we should just let people who are willing and able to serve do so. And we should be grateful for their service.
  1. Massachusetts becomes the 16th state to ban conversion therapy for LGBTQ minors.
  2. Police arrest the suspected arsonist of three black churches in Louisiana. He turns out to be the son of a sheriff. They’re not saying whether it’s a suspected hate crime.
  3. Trump tweets a propaganda video vilifying Representative Ilhan Omar over her comments that seem to undermine the seriousness of 9/11.
    • Omar’s point was that you can’t judge all 1.8 billion Muslims because 20 Muslims carried out the attacks. She did misspeak about the origins of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), though.
    • Omar reports an increase in threats against her and her family after Trump’s tweet (arrests have previously been made for people threatening to kill her).
    • Speaker Nancy Pelosi then meets with the U.S. Capitol Police and sergeant-at-arms, who are now having to put extra work into assessing and protecting the safety of Omar, her family, and her staff.
    • And then Trump doubles down on his comments, accusing Pelosi of protecting Omar.
    • So basically, a statement by the president of the U.S. puts a sitting Representative in danger. And then the president criticizes the Speaker for protecting the Representative. This is just weird. And it’s not OK.
  1. White nationalists meet in Finland for their second annual “Awakening” conference, featuring prominent hate leaders and neo-Nazis from the US, Ukraine, Sweden, and Russia.
  2. The Trump administration proposes a new policy that lets the Social Security Administration monitor people’s social media accounts to make sure they qualify for disability benefits. Because God forbid anyone with a disability is just out there trying to lead a normal life.

Climate/EPA:

  1. Trump signs two executive orders to make it easier to build pipelines and harder for activists to stop or delay construction.
    • One order requests that the EPA review parts of the Clean Water Act that are used to block permits and makes it easier to transport natural gas, among other things.
    • The second order gives the president the power to issue permits for infrastructure projects that cross international borders with the U.S.
  1. The Senate confirms David Bernhardt to be Secretary of Interior. Bernhardt is a former fossil fuel and agribusiness lobbyist.

Budget/Economy:

  1. Herman Cain, Trump’s nominee for the Federal Reserve, says that we don’t have to worry about climate change. God will tell us when to stop using fossil fuels. He also calls the Senate Banking Committee a bunch of yahoos. The Senate Banking Committee has to approve his nomination.
  2. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) becomes the fourth GOP senator to come out against Herman Cain. Cain’s not likely to be confirmed at this point.
  3. The deficit grew to $693 billion in the first half of FY2019. It was $600 billion in the first half of FY2018. Tax revenues were up slightly, likely because people found themselves paying more at the end of the year or receiving smaller refunds (which doesn’t necessarily mean their taxes went up overall).
  4. The tax cuts of 2017 increased the number of companies that pay $0 in taxes from 30 to 60.

Miscellaneous:

  1. The woman who made her way into Mar-a-Lago last week with a variety of electronic devices had even more devices in her hotel room (not at Mar-a-Lago). She had a device to detect hidden cameras, more cell phones, nine USB drives, several SIM cards, thousands of dollars in cash, and several credit cards.
    • In case you’re wondering how they discovered the malware on her thumb drive, a Secret Service agent plugged the device into his computer, which started the installation of the malware on his computer.

Polls:

  1. 51% of voters support the efforts by House Democrats to obtain Trump’s tax returns.
  2. 64% of Americans think Trump should release those returns himself.

Week 114 in Trump

Posted on April 2, 2019 in Politics, Trump

Refugees waiting in a pen under a bridge in El Paso.

Robert Mueller’s work might be done, but there are a bunch of ongoing investigations—more than I realized. If you’re curious about the players, the charges, and evidence requested, check out CNN’s interactive guide. It’s ridiculously thorough, and you can view it by investigations, charges, people, and investigators. Pretty interesting, and something to keep you busy until we see the actual report.

Here’s what else happened this week in politics…

Russia:

  1. After Attorney General William Barr released his summary of the Mueller report, the Trump campaign sends an email to several TV producers demanding they challenge guests who’ve accused his campaign of collusion with Russia. The email goes on to list Democratic politicians, the DNC chair, and former intelligence officers they should challenge.
    • The letter also says there’s no other way to interpret Mueller’s lack of action other than “as a total and complete vindication of President Trump.” Just a reminder that previous special counsels have also declined to decide on charges.
  1. Lawyers and former intelligence officials question Barr’s claim that there can’t be an obstruction case if there was no cooperation between Russia and Trump. According to legal precedent, obstruction is a crime whether or not you can prove an underlying crime.
    • Lawyers also question why Barr included his own legal argument in his summary.
  1. Lindsey Graham says that Barr told him he’ll send Mueller’s report to the White House first so they can make any redactions based on executive privilege.
  2. Barr sends a second letter to Congress saying that his original letter was misinterpreted and that he’ll provide the redacted Mueller report in mid-April. He says Mueller is helping with the redactions, and that he’ll redact:
    • Info that is secret according to the laws about grand juries.
    • Info affecting ongoing investigations.
    • Info that could compromise our intelligence community’s resources and methods.
    • Info that would “infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties” (that sounds pretty broad).
  1. Barr says he will NOT, in fact, submit the report to the White House for review before sending it out.
  2. Barr clarifies that his original letter was never intended to summarize Mueller’s findings.
  3. A federal prosecutor says in court that the grand jury convened by Mueller is still “continuing robustly,” indicating that there could be more developments.
  4. Mitch McConnell again blocks a resolution in the Senate to have the Mueller report be made public.
  5. Democratic chairs of House committees demand the Mueller report and underlying evidence be released in full to those committees by April 2.
  6. Kellyanne Conway says House Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff should resign. Schiff’s Republican colleagues on the House Intelligence Committee give their opening statements in a committee hearing criticizing Schiff and calling on his to resign.
    • Did people call for Devin Nunes to resign when he made his midnight run to the White House? I think they just requested that he recuse himself.
    • I’ve never seen Schiff mad, but his response was epically angry. You can see the Republican accusation at 6:15 and Schiff’s response at 9:30 in this C-SPAN video.
  1. BTA Bank, along with the city of Almaty, Kazakhstan, sues Trump real estate associate Felix Sater, accusing him of planning to launder money stolen from the bank. They say Sater used Trump real estate deals and Trump-branded skyscrapers to launder the money.
    • Sater is a convicted felon turned state’s witness in unrelated cases.
    • The House Intelligence Committee postpones Sater’s planned testimony.
  1. A Swedish bank (Swedbank) is accused of being a conduit to launder money from the former Soviet Union into the West. The bank is also accused of being the pipeline for sending money from Russia to the Trump campaign and Paul Manafort.
  2. In an interview with Sean Hannity, Trump promises to release the complete and unredacted documents used to obtain the FISA warrants in the FBI’s investigation of Russian interference. He’ll also release the FISA warrant itself.
    • Trump calls the FBI treasonous, calls the former director of the CIA mentally ill, and calls Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) a criminal.
    • Trump also says (possibly correctly) that none of this (the Russia investigation) would’ve happened if William Barr would’ve been his Attorney General from the start.
  1. A federal judge orders the release (to the courts) of James Comey’s unredacted memos covering his interactions with Trump. This is part of a lawsuit brought by media organizations to obtain the information.

Legal Fallout:

  1. Newly surfaced documents show how Trump inflated his assets in order to obtain loans. The “Statements of Financial Condition” show he lied about the number of lots available in a golf course development, the size of the vineyard in Virginia, and the number of stories in Trump Tower, among others.
  2. The GOP revs up their own plans for investigations into the 2016 elections, focusing on investigating the investigators of both Russia’s meddling and Hillary’s emails (again), abuses of FISA warrants (again), and former Obama officials.
    • Some claim that the Steele Dossier started the whole Russia investigation, but the GOP-led House Intelligence Committee found in 2018 that the investigation was triggered by George Papadopoulos’s drunken confession to an Australian diplomat.
  1. Here’s a weird one. According to Jeff Bezos’ security consultant, his investigation into the AMI release of Bezos’ private texts found that the Saudi Arabian government hacked into Bezos’ phone. He’s not sure if it’s related to the National Enquirer’s publication of private text messages between Bezos and his mistress.
    • Remember there was an issue a while back about AMI’s relationship with Saudi Arabia surrounding the fluff issue they published on the crown prince.

Courts/Justice:

  1. The Supreme Court refuses to temporarily block the federal ban on bump stocks, so the ban remains in place while the case moves through the justice system.

  2. The ACLU files suit against three South Dakota anti-protest laws, including the Riot Boosting Act, which could fine or criminalize protestors. Two previous laws put similar restrictions on freedom of speech.
  3. A federal judge in San Diego strikes down California’s ban on owning high-capacity gun magazines (defined by the law as holding more than 10 bullets). He based his ruling partly on instances he cited where people ran out of bullets while protecting themselves from home invaders.
    • The judge also claims that the problem of mass shootings is “very small.”
    • California’s ban on purchasing high-capacity magazines is still in place.
    • Also, the fact that a handful of homeowners ran out of bullets might support an argument that we need better training in order to obtain a gun.
  1. Trump told confidants that he’s saving Judge Amy Barrett for Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat. That’s kind of morose, no?

Healthcare:

  1. In a new legal filing, the Department of Justice reverses its previous opinions and says we should strike all of the ACA from the law.
    • Previously, they said that only protections for people with pre-existing conditions needed to be stricken.
    • Striking the ACA would cause an estimated 20 million more Americans to be unable to obtain coverage.
    • Around 129 million Americans would lose coverage for pre-existing conditions or face higher premiums.
    • States’ attorneys are defending the law.
    • Even though Trump has promised a way better plan for three years, neither Republicans in Congress nor the White House have brought up a plan to replace the ACA. There aren’t even plans to make a plan.
    • This directive came straight from Trump, who was convinced by Mick Mulvaney. Attorney General William Barr, VP Mike Pence, and HHS secretary Alex Azar oppose it.
  1. At the same time, Democrats unveil their new plan to strengthen and expand healthcare. Their plan would:
    • Expand insurance subsidies by increasing tax credits and loosening eligibility requirements.
    • Reverse Trump’s changes to the ACA.
    • Create a national reinsurance program to offset high insurer costs and keep premium prices steady.
  1. Parts of the ACA are popular. Voters in several states have passed referendums to force the ACA’s Medicaid expansion after their own elected officials refused to do so. (Carol’s tip of the week: Stop electing those officials.)
  2. A federal judge rejects efforts by the Trump administration to place work requirements on people receiving Medicaid in Kentucky and Arkansas.
    • And yet, Indiana is phasing in work requirements with no plans to stop, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) continues to approve other states’ work requirements.
  1. A federal judge strikes down a law in North Carolina that bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. He gives the state two months to amend the law or appeal his ruling.
    • A bill in 2015 made the 1973 law more restrictive, but the state claims it never intended to enforce it. In that case, I don’t know why they bothered amending the original bill.
  1. This year alone, 14 states have brought up bills banning abortions after six weeks (commonly known as “heartbeat bills”). Most won’t pass, and the courts will strike down those that do. Pro-life advocates hope that one will make it to the Supreme Court and end up overturning Roe vs. Wade.
  2. A federal court strikes down Trump’s changes to the ACA that allowed small businesses to offer insurance policies that don’t fulfill the requirements of the ACA.
  3. Trump names Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) to be the point person on the GOP healthcare plan. Interesting choice, since Scott resigned as CEO from Columbia/HCA after what became the largest case of Medicare fraud in history. The company was fined $1.7 billion.

International:

  1. Palestinians launch a rocket from the Gaza Strip that hits near Tel Aviv and injures seven people. Hamas says it was a mistake. Israel responds with warplane attacks on Hamas targets. Egypt negotiates a cease-fire.
  2. Theresa May promises to resign if the parliament accepts the Brexit deal, and still they can’t agree on it. Now May wants to hold yet another vote (that’ll be the fourth vote on this).
    • So now they vote on a series of options to move forward, like renegotiating (it sounds like the EU is giving this a hard pass), having a new general election, or holding a vote of no confidence. April 12 is the new deadline.
  1. Here’s the most international story of the week: Ten members of a dissident group raid a North Korean embassy in Spain, stealing computers and documents. They flee through Portugal to the U.S. and offer their stolen goods to the FBI. A Mexican national who graduated from Yale and has done time in a Chinese jail is the group leader. They wants to topple the Kim regime.
  2. Slovakia elects their first female president, Zuzana Caputova.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. Representative Mo Brooks (R-AL) reads Mein Kampf on the House floor to scold Democrats.
    • He compares the Russia investigation to Hitler’s “big lie.”
    • He mistakenly calls Hitler a socialist (he was closer to a fascist, though more extreme).
    • He seems to suggest that the Democratic party is repeating the moves of Hitler.
  1. Colorado’s Senate passes a “red flag” gun bill. Red flag laws allow judges to temporarily remove weapons from people deemed to be a risk to themselves or others. Some Colorado sheriffs say they won’t uphold the law.
  2. On the other end of the spectrum, North Dakota’s legislature passes a bill that bans taxpayer-funded gun buyback programs.
  3. The NRA opposes the expansion of the Violence Against Women Act. Specifically, they oppose preventing people who’ve committed domestic violence from obtaining weapons. Over half of the women murdered in the U.S. in a single-victim or single-perpetrator crime were romantic partners with their killer.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

  1. After Trump vetoed a resolution passed by the House and the Senate to block his declaration of national emergency, the House fails to garner enough votes to override his veto. So the national emergency stands.
  2. The Pentagon tells Congress that they’ve authorized $1 billion earmarked for other projects to be used for new border wall construction. Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee lodge a protest against the transfer of funds.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. This story won’t die. Prosecutors drop all charges against Jussie Smollett, saying he’s already paid his penance by doing community service and donating his bond to the city. They do say, however, this doesn’t mean they don’t think he’s guilty; they do.
    • The mayor and chief of police are furious over the decision, so I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about it. Trump says the FBI is opening an investigation into it, but I doubt that.
  1. After conversations with academics and civil rights groups, Facebook expands its policies on hate groups by banning white nationalism and white supremacy.
  2. Trump delays the deportation of Liberians who migrated here under protected status. I don’t know what brought about his change of heart.
  3. Trump says he’ll close down the border with Mexico unless Mexico stops all unauthorized border crossings. DHS says that would be a disaster so it would only be used as a last resort. I’ll miss those delicious avocados and fresh veggies.
    • Over a half-million people cross that border legally each day in Texas alone, many for work (and it goes both ways).
  1. The next day, the State Department announces that Trump is cutting off all direct aid to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador (or as Fox News put it, the “three Mexican countries”). Because that will stop people from wanting to leave those countries for a better life here, right?
  2. CBP holds asylum seekers in El Paso in a makeshift, penned-in encampment under a bridge because there’s no space left for processing.
  3. Kirstjen Nielsen asks Congress for permission to immediately deport unaccompanied minor migrants back to their home countries. Currently, Mexican minors can be deported immediately, but not those from other countries. She also wants to detain migrant families together until their asylum requests are processed.
    • Why should we pay for this detention? It’s soooo much cheaper to release them on their own recognizance or to a sponsor.
    • Halting the previous release program and making it harder for sponsors to come forward are what’s causing most of the overcrowding in the detention centers.
  1. James Fields, the man found guilty of murdering Heather Heyer in the Charlottesville rallies, pleads guilty to 29 hate crimes.
  2. The House passes the Paycheck Fairness Act to strengthen the Equal Pay Act. It lets employees discuss salary, expands collection of pay data, prevents employers from requiring you to divulge your salary history, and helps people fight pay discrimination.
    • Women still make 80 cents to each dollar men make, and only about 27% of that difference can be explained by differences in education, occupation, or experience.
    • The pay gap is smaller for younger women than for older women, so there’s some good news.
    • Men are more likely to negotiate a higher starting salary, and women who do so are still likely to be punished for it.
  1. PR failure for NASA. They cancel their first all-woman spacewalk because they didn’t have enough spacesuits to fit them all. Now one woman and one man will go instead.
  2. Orange County ends its contract with ICE, meaning they won’t hold ICE detainees in their jails. Detainees will likely be sent to other holding facilities where they won’t get as much charitable assistance.
  3. The Supreme Court blocks a Texas execution because the prisoner was denied the presence of a Buddhist spiritual advisor. Compare this to the case in Alabama where the Supreme Court allowed them to execute a man though he was denied having a Muslim imam be there.
  4. Since the beginning of 2018, five white nationalists/supremacists have been convicted after threatening to kill Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA).
    • Prosecutions for death threats against Trump were also high in 2018, but not as high as for Obama in six of his eight years in office, for Bush during any year in office, or for Clinton for his last three years (the only years I have numbers for). In fairness, it depends on how each administration decides to prosecute.
    • Threats against officials overall were up 41% in 2018.
    • Going back to 1990, the perpetrators are 85% white males (almost all are male and U.S. citizens). 75% come from the far right.

Climate/EPA:

  1. House Democrats introduce the Climate Action Now Act to reduce carbon emissions, keep our part of the Paris agreement, and pave the way for more clean energy.
  2. In the Senate, Chuck Schumer announces a Special Committee on the Climate Crisis to help develop policies on energy and the environment.
  3. Mitch McConnell brings the Green New Deal to a Senate vote. He‘s trying to force Senate Democrats to put their support on record, but most simply vote “present.”
  4. Puerto Rico passes a bill requiring the island to be powered by 100% renewable energy sources by 2050.
  5. Two-thirds of Iran’s provinces are either already flooding or facing imminent flooding.
  6. In response to a judge delaying construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, Trump tries to circumvent the court by issuing a new permit for construction.
  7. A federal judge restores Obama’s ban on offshore drilling in parts of the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. She says Trump exceeded his authority when he reversed the bans.
  8. At a rally in Michigan, Trump vows to fund the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative even though he proposed to cut by 90% in his recent budget. Well, actually in his last three budget proposals. The Great Lakes restoration was one of Obama’s campaign promises.
  9. David Bernhardt, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of the Interior, once blocked a report that found the pesticides malathion and chlorpyrifos to be so toxic that they endanger the existence of 1,200 species. No wonder people had so many health problems after they doused Los Angeles in malathion in the late 80s.

Budget/Economy:

  1. Trump’s tariffs cost Americans about $1.4 billion a month in reduced income according to the Fed. That’s if the government offset the cost; if the government didn’t, then the cost is closer to $12.3 billion.
  2. A different economic study says the trade policies of the last two years cost the American economy $7.8 billion.
  3. Betsy DeVos appears before Congress to defend the Trump budget cuts to educational programs, specifically to programs that help people with disabilities and most prominently to the Special Olympics.
    • After a major backlash, Trump takes credit for overriding DeVos and reinstating funding for the Special Olympics even though she just spent three days defending his cuts. He’s cut funding for this in all three of his budgets.
  1. Trump complains about the amount of disaster relief funds earmarked for Puerto Rico, claiming an amount that’s far higher than the actual. He wants to halt funds for their relief and refuses to meet with the governor.
  2. Trump’s economic adviser Larry Kudlow wants the Fed to cut interest rates by 50 basis points (or .5%). Trump blames the Fed’s interest rate increases for slower economic growth.

Elections:

  1. A study finds that in Florida’s 2018 midterm elections, mail-in ballots from college-age voters in Parkland went uncounted at a much higher rate than the statewide average. About 15% of those ballots were rejected or didn’t arrive in time to be counted; the Florida average is 1.2%.
    • Election officials dispute these findings.

Miscellaneous:

  1. The EU votes to eliminate changing time zones during spring and fall (seems to be going around these days).
  2. Because Trump’s tweets are public record, Twitter wants to label any of his tweets that violate their policies instead of deleting them.
  3. Emails surface between NRA official Mark Richardson and Wolfgang Halbig, a Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist, harasser of victims‘ families, and Infowars employee. Richardson tried to get Halbig to push a conspiracy theory that there was more than one shooter at Parkland.
  4. Speaking of Infowars, Alex Jones says in a deposition that he had a form of psychosis when he was tormenting Sandy Hook families and pushing conspiracy theories about the shooting.
  5. Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, is charged in a multi-million-dollar extortion scheme against Nike. He’s already facing charges for bank fraud, tax fraud, and stealing $1.6 million from a client.
  6. Trump holds a campaign rally in Michigan, which I won’t go into. He doesn’t have any new material.
  7. According to a White House security adviser, Trump overrode 25 denials of security clearance in order to give clearance to people in the White House.
  8. Mike Pence talked Dan Coats out of resigning last year after Trump decided to pull troops out of Syria. And this was after Trump pushed Coats to prove that Obama wiretapped him, told Coats to say our intelligence agencies are biased, and accused Coats of leaking info.

Polls:

After William Barr releases his summary/not-summary of the Mueller report:

  1. 29% of Americans think Mueller’s report cleared Trump of wrongdoing.
  2. 40% believe he has not been cleared.
  3. 31% are unsure.

Well played, Mr. Barr. Well played.

Week 109 in Trump

Posted on February 25, 2019 in Politics, Trump

NC Board of Elections video

Last week, rumors about winding down the Mueller investigation proved to be unfounded. I think we’re all ready and maybe a little anxious for it to be done. The Associated Press wrote up a good summary about what we’ve learned so far. It’s a longish read, but pretty interesting. A few things to brace for if you’re looking for impeachment here:

    • It’s not likely to happen.
    • It could be that Trump didn’t do anything knowingly wrong.
    • It could be that he did, but there’s no evidence of it.
    • It could be that he did, but there is evidence of it. And that case, we might find out about it and we might not.
    • All that is to say, don’t get your hopes up too high.

Here’s what else happened last week in politics…

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

  1. At least sixteen states issue a legal challenge to Trump’s use of a national emergency to redirect billions in government funding to build his wall. The lawsuit claims that Trump doesn’t have the authority to override the funding decisions of Congress.
  2. Demonstrators at over 250 rallies across the country join to protest the national emergency declaration and the wall.
  3. Democrats in the House introduce a resolution to put an end to Trump’s national emergency for the wall. They’ll vote on it on Tuesday. If it passes, the Senate must take it up within 18 days.

Russia:

  1. The New York Times learns from documents and interviews that:
    • The Trump administration lied about the circumstances around Michael Flynn leaving.
    • Trump had private discussions with GOP Members of Congress about how to attack the Mueller investigation.
    • Trump called Matthew Whitaker last year when he was acting Attorney General and asked him to put Geoffrey Berman (or as Trump called him, “my guy”) in charge of the investigation into hush money payments to women. Berman is the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and had already recused himself over conflicts of interest.
      • This puts Whitaker at odds with the testimony he gave to a Congressional committee. The chair of the committee gives Whitaker a chance to fix his testimony.
  1. Former FBI director Andrew McCabe says he briefed the bipartisan Gang of Eight congressional leaders on two FBI investigations they were opening into Trump in May of 2017 (one about Comey’s firing and one about campaign ties with Russia). He says none of them objected to it at the time.
  2. After James Comey was fired, the FBI developed a plan to protect evidence in the Russia investigation under concerns that more top-level officials would be fired.
  3. Roger Stone gets called back into court after he posts a picture of the judge in his case next to an image of a crosshairs. The judge places a strict gag order on Stone’s social media, radio, press release, blog, and media activities and says if he violates that order, “I will find it necessary to adjust your environment.”
    • The judge also extends the order to Stone’s spokespersons, family, and volunteers.
    • Stone says he’s having trouble putting food on the table and making rent. His previous income was $47,000 month. That’s $564,000 a year, in case you were wondering. How much does that guy eat?
  1. Rod Rosenstein plans to leave the DOJ in March.
  2. New York state prosecutors are preparing a case against Manafort in the event that Trump issues him a pardon. There is no double jeopardy because these are state charges as opposed to the federal charges he’s already pleaded guilty to or been convicted of. New charges would include state tax evasion and corporate accounting violations, among others.
  3. Mueller files a sentencing memo for Manafort on two charges of conspiracy to which Manafort pled guilty. You can read the memo here and the attachments here.
  4. Mueller is expected to deliver his final report next week and Barr is preparing to announce an end to the investigation… and then whoops! That was premature. It turns out that he’s not; it was just random speculation.
  5. Russia has already launched a coordinated disinformation campaign against 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. Most action so far is against Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Beto O’Rourke.
  6. So far, every 2020 presidential candidate except for Trump has promised not to knowingly use any hacked or illegally obtained materials in the election cycle.

Legal Fallout:

  1. As recently as last week, the Trump administration was considering a proposal to sell nuclear power plants to Saudi Arabia. Several Trump appointees had been pushing for the plan, which would have American companies build the plants. The administration has ignored legal and ethical warnings about the possibilities of spreading nuclear weapons technology in the Mideast.
    • Michael Flynn was one of the appointees pushing for this. He had been working on this for the company promoting it (IP3 International) before he was appointed, and kept at it after he was appointed.
    • Flynn’s successor, H.R. McMaster, tried to put an end to it.
    • One proposal included naming Trump’s friend Tom Barrack as a “special representative” to carry out the plan.
    • Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings brought this to the to the attention of the House Oversight Committee in 2018, but the Republican chair of the committee, Trey Gowdy, refused to follow up.
  1. A judge rules against Trump’s Labor Secretary, Alexander Acosta, saying he violated federal law by not notifying Jeff Epstein’s victims about a plea agreement with Epstein. Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from underage girls.
  2. Trump’s pick to be ambassador to the UN withdraws her name from consideration because of her family after it comes out that she had failed to pay taxes on time and had hired an undocumented nanny.
  3. The Office of Government Ethics finds that Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross violated his ethics agreement and submitted false information on his financial disclosure.
  4. Emails show coordination between Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao’s office and the office of her husband, Mitch McConnell. She held meetings with politicians and business leaders at the request of McConnell, and in some cases, the people she met with received grants and assistance with state funding.
  5. A grand jury has been convened in an investigation into whether Ryan Zinke lied to federal investigators who were looking into whether Zinke did not approve a casino application because of political pressure. Two tribes in Connecticut say that MGM lobbied to oppose the casino.
  6. Democratic lawmakers say they have correspondence that indicates the Education Department tried to influence an investigation into the recognition of ACICS as an accreditor. ACICS accredited two for-profit colleges that were shut down by lawsuits. Under Obama, ACICS was no longer recognized as an accreditor. Documents show that the department wanted to replace their inspector general who was investigating the certification.
  7. A former Trump campaign staffer files a class action lawsuit against Trump’s practice of forcing staffers to sign non-disclosure agreements. The aim is to invalidate all the NDAs. Under the NDAs, staffers can’t criticize Trump or talk about their work with him.

Courts/Justice:

  1. The Supreme Court rules that lower courts in Texas interpreted precedent incorrectly when they ruled that a death row inmate was mentally capable and could thus be executed.
  2. Trump picks Jeff Rosen to be the new deputy attorney general, replacing Rod Rosenstein in March. Rosen is new to the DOJ and has no prosecutorial experience (most deputy AGs work their way up through the department).
  3. Justice Clarence Thomas calls on the Supreme Court to take another look at the New York Times v. Sullivan decision, which he says makes it hard for public officials to win libel suits against news media.

Healthcare:

  1. The Trump administration issues a new rule that blocks any taxpayer-funded family planning clinic from providing abortion referrals. Clinics that provide abortions can’t receive funds from the federal family planning program. Trump will redirect some of that money to religious anti-abortion groups.
    • Just a reminder, these facilities provide general healthcare, STD testing and treatment, preventative treatments, and prenatal care mostly to poor women who don’t otherwise have access to healthcare.
  1. Students in Colorado take the lead in supporting a new bill that would ban abstinence-only sex ed, and would require teaching about safe sex, consent, and sexual orientation. Currently:
    • Eight states require teaching about consent.
    • 37 states require covering or stressing abstinence.
    • Only 13 states require teaching to be medically accurate.
    • Seven states prohibit teachers from showing same-sex relationships in a positive light.
    • Less than half of schools still require sex ed.

International:

  1. Three Conservative Party MPs in the U.K. quit the party over the handling of Brexit. This is on top of two defections from the Labour Party earlier in the week. They join forces and the group grows to 11. They want to see a public vote on a new referendum.
  2. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan (who has said he’ll carry out Trump’s wishes rather than perform the actual duty of his position, which is to advise the president), briefs members of the Senate on Trump’s Syria policy. It gets very contentious when Lindsey Graham presses him for details.
  3. Putin says that Russia will target the U.S. with their new missiles if new missiles are placed in Europe. I’m not sure what spurred that comment.
  4. Though Trump promised a full troop withdrawal from Syria, now he says they’ll leave around 200 troops there to coordinate a safe zone. And then he moves the target again and says they’ll leave 400 troops.
  5. Despite Trump urging European countries to accept back their citizens who left to join ISIS, the U.S. refuses to accept back Hoda Muthana, a woman from the U.S. who joined ISIS. They say her citizenship is in question because her parents were here on a diplomatic mission from Yemen, though she was born in the U.S. after her father was discharged from service and she has a U.S. passport.
  6. Venezuelan soldiers open fire on civilians who were trying to keep part of the border open to receive humanitarian assistance. Two are dead and several injured.
  7. Venezuela cuts diplomatic ties with neighboring Colombia.
  8. Mike Pompeo says that Trump and Kim Jong Un might need to have another summit after their upcoming one because they might not be able to accomplish all they want to at this one. Pompeo also contradicts Trump, saying that North Korea remains a nuclear threat.
  9. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cuts a deal with a racist anti-Arab party, bringing an extremist fringe group into the mainstream. The move draws criticism from liberal Jewish groups like J Street and more conservative ones like AIPAC.

Family Separation:

  1. The practice of separating families, deporting the parents, and keeping the children here has brought the welfare system into the process. Foster parents aren’t supposed to be allowed to adopt these children, but it has happened before and could happen now, separating these families forever.
  2. A judge is deliberating over whether to force the U.S. government to pour over all their records in order to find the thousands of families they’ve separated. Look for a ruling on this soon.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Texts between a police lieutenant and right-wing organizers indicate bias in the handling of an alt-right clash with Antifa. However, the officer says he has similar texts with members of both sides. The mayor calls for an independent investigation.
  2. I can’t even keep up with the developments in the Jussie Smollett hate crime story. It seems right now like he faked the whole thing. Smollett maintains his innocence, but his character was cut from the last few episodes of Empire. We’ll see what happens in trial, if it goes that far.
  3. Trump continues to warn about migrant caravans heading our way. He’s an alarmist, plain and simple. It’s his job to handle things like this without creating pointless fear.
  4. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of hate groups in the U.S. is at an all-time high.
  5. An editorial in an Alabama newspaper calls for a resurgence of the KKK.

Climate/EPA:

  1. Several government reports produced under the Trump administration have found that climate change is for sure one of our biggest national security threats. Our top brass has testified repeatedly that climate change is one of our biggest security threats. Despite this, the White House plans to create a Presidential Committee on Climate Security to assess whether climate change is indeed a threat. It’ll be headed by William Happer, who says carbon emissions are an asset, not a pollutant.
    • Interestingly, the administration says the previous reports weren’t subject to rigorous and independent peer review. In fact, they have been reviewed. The reports that are unable to be replicated under peer review are those that try to disprove climate change.
  1. The EPA announces an effort to restrict perfluoroalkyl and related compounds (PFAS), which have been contaminating water systems across the country, particularly those by military bases.
  2. The EPA has reached out to a scientist who claims that low levels of pollution, toxic chemicals, and radiation are good for us. His suggestions for how the EPA should assess these issues has been added to the Federal Register nearly word for word.
  3. In Tasmania, brush fires that have been burning out of control for a month could wipe out ancient species.
  4. The Trump administration ends talks with California over fuel economy rules for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The administration wants to end Obama’s mileage standards and they’ve threatened to end California’s ability to set its own mileage standards.
  5. Patagonia made an additional $10 million in profits due to the business tax cuts implemented by the GOP. The founder is putting all that money toward fighting climate change.
  6. When asked about climate change, the new U.S. ambassador to Canada says that she believes in both sides of the science. There aren’t two sides. There’s the proven side, and then multiple sides trying to explain away the proven side with a multitude of unprovable hypotheses.
  7. Last week, we learned that Trump pressured the Tennessee Valley Authority to keep open two aging coal plants. This week, the TVA votes to close those plants.

Budget/Economy:

  1. In 2018, retail jobs were cut by their highest number since 2009, largely because of online shopping.
  2. Teachers strike in Oakland, demanding smaller classes, more counselors and full-time nurses, and a 12% raise over three years.
  3. China agrees to buy 10 million additional tons of soybeans from the United States. Since they canceled all orders in December, but did buy around 8 million tons in 2018, I’m not sure if that means they’re buying 10 million tons or 18 million tons in total, but either way it’s much less than what they bought in 2017.
  4. The Trump administration has paid $7.7 billion of the promised $12 billion in relief to farmers affected by the trade war with China.
  5. Trump says they made great progress in trade talks with China, so he delays raising tariffs from 10% to 25% on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.
  6. Most economists expect a recession by 2021 with about half of them expecting one this year or next.
  7. Illinois signs a bill to raise its minimum wage to $15 by 2025.

Elections:

  1. The elections board hearing into election fraud in North Carolina’s 9th district takes a dramatic turn this week:
    • Lisa Britt testifies that McCrae Dowless paid her to illegally collect and complete mail-in ballots and applications for mail-in ballots. Dowless was hired by a consulting group hired by the campaign for Republican candidate Mark Harris. Britt is Dowless’s step-daughter.
    • Harris sobs in court when his son testifies that he warned his dad about the questionable practices employed by Dowless, contradicting Mark Harris’s earlier testimony.
    • The next day, Harris says that North Carolina needs to hold another election to settle this race. It seems his attorneys are eager to put an end to the proceedings as their client is already guilty of perjuring himself on the stand.
    • North Carolina elections officials order a new election, putting an end to the investigation. I’m not clear if any criminal charge will arise from this, but states attorneys and the State Bureau of Investigation are looking into it.
    • Dowless has done work for both Republicans and Democrats in the past, and is also a convicted felon (on unrelated charges of fraud).
  1. Trump says he condemns all election fraud whether it’s Democrat or Republican (good) and then follows that with his unsupported accusations of voter fraud in California, Texas, and Florida (bad). He says they found millions of fraudulent votes in California and offers the late counts that leaned Democrat as proof. Likewise, he says the late counts in Florida prove fraud. He says votes in Texas weren’t properly done, referencing the Secretary of State’s efforts to clean out the voter rolls.
    • There’s never been any kind of indication or proof that people voted illegally in CA.
    • After 2016, I think they found 2 or 3 cases in Texas, at least two of whom voted Republican. This is a separate issue from the 95,000 or so voters the state was looking into for being illegally registered to vote. That number has been drastically reduced because most of the people on the list are actually citizens.
    • And in Florida, they were just counting all the votes; no fraud was found.
    • I think North Carolina has shown that fraud raises red flags and can be proven. Instead, Trump focuses on things he made up to justify his popular vote loss.
  1. New Jersey’s State Senate passes a bill requiring all presidential candidates to release their taxes in order to be included on the ballot. The bill has to get through the Assembly and then the governor.

Miscellaneous:

  1. The Transportation Department cancels nearly $1 billion in funding for California’s troubled high-speed train project. They’re also trying to find ways to make California pay back the $2.5 billion they’ve already received.
    • California Governor Gavin Newsom had previously reduced the scope of the project.
  1. New York City’s transportation department defrauded FEMA out of $5.3 million in claims after Superstorm Sandy. They city agrees to pay it all back.
  2. The latest rumor is that Trump wants to replace his director of National Intelligence Dan Coates because of his testimony before Congress in January. I usually don’t report on rumors, but last fall all the staff turnover rumors came true. So we’ll see.
  3. Police arrest a Coast Guard lieutenant who plotted to kill a laundry list of Democratic politicians and what he considered “leftist” professors, judges, and journalists. He describes himself as a white nationalist and skinhead, and he calls the people on his list traitors.
  4. The NRA posts a picture of Nancy Pelosi and shooting victim Gabby Giffords with the headline “Target Practice.” Oops.

Polls:

  1. 61% of American disapprove of Trump using a national emergency to build his wall. About the same number don’t think there’s a national emergency there.

Week 107 in Trump

Posted on February 12, 2019 in Politics, Trump

In honor of the Green New Deal, let’s talk climate change. 2018 was the fourth hottest year on record, behind 2015, 2016, and 2017. This could lead some to think things are cooling down again; but if you look at the graph above, you’ll see many spikes followed by a few cooler years. But the trend is still up. Here’s some food for thought:

  • There were 14 weather and climate disasters in the U.S. in 2018 that cost $1 billion or more each.
  • Climate change and natural disasters cost the U.S. over $91 billion and 247 human lives in 2018.
  • 73% of Americans believe that climate change is real. That’s up 10 points from just three years ago.
  • The Trump administration concludes in the National Climate Assessment that global warming is “transforming where and how we live and presents growing challenges to human health and quality of life, the economy, and the natural systems that support us.”
  • So climate change is no longer something we have to look forward to. It’s here now.
  • Global emissions are at their highest level.

Will the Green New Deal fix any of this? Time will tell.

Here’s what happened in politics last week…

Missed from Last Week:

  1. Correction: For several weeks I’ve been referring to Trump’s nominee for Attorney General as Andrew Barr. It’s actually William Barr.

State of the Union:

  1. Trump gives his “unifying” State of the Union address, but beforehand he lunches with a group of television anchors where he blasts a host of Democratic politicians.
  2. I won’t get into the whole address, but a few highlights are below. Here’s the full text, with the New York Times annotations.
    • He starts with a unifying message, but moves into some partisan issues like the Mueller investigation, the border wall, and late-term abortion.
    • He starts out fairly truthful, but the false statements increase as he goes on. I find this odd, because there’s no reason to fudge his economic numbers right now.
    • His two main points are the strong economy and the border crisis that he says necessitates the wall.
    • He says the economy will crash if the Russia investigations continue or if Congress blocks the withdrawal of troops from Syria.
    • He says there can’t be any legislation as long as there are also investigations.
    • He says he’ll end the HIV epidemic in the U.S. by 2030 and will include paid family leave in his budget.
    • He notes the increase in women in the workforce and in Congress, which elicits a huge response from the Congressional women, many of whom dressed in suffragette white.
  1. Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Democratic candidate for Governor in Georgia, delivers the Democratic response. Her focus is voter rights.

Border Wall/Shutdown:

  1. The Trump administration continues to issue new waivers on environmental impact reviews to replace and add fencing at the border.
  2. The National Butterfly Center files an emergency restraining order against constructing the wall across their reserve.
  3. Mick Mulvaney blames Democrats for refusing to fund the wall… which Republicans have also refused to do for two years.
  4. Negotiations over border security are close to agreement, with funding for new technology, more border patrol agents, and fencing in certain border areas. Border security would be funded at around $2 billion, which Trump says he’ll accept. There’s no mention of a wall.
  5. And then what happened?? Budget negotiations to avoid another government shutdown are stalled. Again. We have until Friday to come to an agreement.
  6. And now they’re on track again.

Russia:

  1. Congress delays Michael Cohen’s testimony until February 28 “in the interest of the investigation.”
  2. Federal prosecutors in New York subpoena documents from Trump’s inaugural committee. They’re looking for info about donors (including foreign donors), vendors, contractors, payments, and bank accounts.
    • The subpoena includes documents related to fundraising activities. Rick Gates, who’s already pled guilty in a case related to Paul Manafort, headed up Trump’s fundraising operation.
  1. Federal prosecutors in New York request interviews with senior members of the Trump Organization.
  2. Adam Schiff, the new Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, announces new hearings into whether Russia or any other foreign government has leverage over the current administration, potential obstruction into investigations, and whether the administration has tried to influence U.S. policy in favor of foreign interests.
  3. The House Intelligence Committee sends Mueller transcripts of previous committee interviews in the Russia investigation. They had been unable to comply with Mueller’s request until Republicans finally seated all their members on the committee.

Legal Fallout:

  1. The South Dakota U.S. Attorney indicts Paul Erickson on charges of wire fraud and money laundering. Erickson was dating Maria Butina and helped her get access to the NRA and to political operatives in the GOP. These charges are unrelated to Butina’s espionage charges—it seems he was just bilking everyday people out of their money.
  2. The House Ways and Means Committee holds their first hearing on requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns. The committee plans to request Trump’s tax returns under an IRS provision that allows it.
  3. A federal judge orders the DOJ to release redacted versions of the search warrant for Michael Cohen’s home and office.
  4. This story oh-so-weirdly fits in this section. Jeff Bezos accuses American Media, Inc. (parent company of the National Enquirer) of trying to extort and blackmail him.
    • AMI releases texts that show Bezos was cheating on his wife.
    • So Bezos starts his own investigation into how AMI got his texts. He suggests it was politically motivated, but is also looking at his mistress’s brother as the culprit.
    • Bezos says AMI threatened to release nude photos and racy texts between him and his mistress if he didn’t drop his investigation.
  1. Some background:
    • Bezo’s Washington Post not only employed Jamal Khashoggi but has been relentless in reporting on the incident. AMI has been talking with Saudi Arabian financiers to help shore up their business.
    • AMI entered into a plea agreement with federal prosecutors last year in which they agreed to commit “no crimes whatsoever” for three years.
    • So now federal prosecutors are once again investigating AMI, this time to determine whether they violated the cooperation agreement by committing a crime.
  1. Federal prosecutors are investigating three major lobbying firms to determine if they should’ve been registered as foreign agents for their work with Paul Manafort for the former president of Ukraine.
    • This is major because of the high-profile players involved, both Democrat and Republican.
    • It has lobbyists anxious because the investigation underscores the crackdown on lobbyists who have lucrative deals with foreign entities.

Courts/Justice:

  1. The number of federal appeals court judges nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate is more than any other president at this point in their term, with 30 so far.
  2. Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker testifies to the House Judiciary Committee. He says he hasn’t spoken to Trump about Mueller’s investigation. Not surprisingly, it was another nutty hearing with lots of grandstanding.
    • While he’s being questioned by the committee Chair (Jerry Nadler), Whitaker tells the Nadler that his five minutes are up.
    • Whitaker didn’t want to testify without a guarantee that he wouldn’t be subpoenaed. He testified anyway.
  1. Ruth Bader Ginsburg makes her first public appearance after her recovery from surgery.
  2. Missouri’s Supreme Court orders new limits on how long a suspect can be held without a hearing and the amount of cash bail they can be charged. The effects of the cash bail system are onerous and lasting, especially for low-income people.
  3. William Barr makes it through the Senate Judiciary Committee so now the full Senate can vote on his nomination to Attorney General.

Healthcare:

  1. The Supreme Court temporarily blocks a new Louisiana law that placed tight restrictions on clinics that perform abortions. If left in place, the restrictions will close most abortion clinics in Louisiana.
  2. Though Trump pledges to stop the HIV epidemic in the U.S. within ten years, already in his term he’s cut almost $1 billion in global funding to fight HIV/AIDS, he’s rolled back patient protections for people with [the pre-existing condition of] HIV, and has cut health benefits for the LGBTQ community that were put in place under Obama.
  3. Ironically, just this week the Department of Heath and Human Services announces new proposals that would allow medical practitioners to withhold treatment based on closely held religious or moral beliefs, which is likely to affect the LGBTQ community.
  4. Utah’s State Senate passes a bill to override the vote of their residents and replace the Medicaid expansion plan that voters approved last November. According to the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities, the voters’ plan would add coverage for about 150,000 low-income residents; the Senate plan would add coverage for about 100,000 and would cost $50 million more in just the first two years. Idaho’s GOP legislature is trying something similar. Maine’s Governor did the same a year ago.
  5. The Massachusetts lawsuit against Purdue Pharma alleges that the company devised a strategy to become the end-to-end provider of pain relief. The plan, called Project Tango, was that they’d sell both addictive opioids AND the drugs to treat the addiction.
  6. The board members of Purdue Pharma, mostly members of the Sackler family, netted over $4 billion in profits in the process.

International:

  1. Gen. Joseph Votel, head of US Central Command (in the MidEast), testifies that Trump didn’t consult with him before making the decision to pull troops out of Syria and Afghanistan.
  2. A new report from the Pentagon’s Inspector General asserts that ISIS will likely take back lost territory if the US withdraws from Syria. ISIS will also use our withdrawal as part of a PR campaign declaring victory against us.
  3. Trump says that officials will soon announce that we have taken back 100% of the ISIS-claimed lands in Syria and Iraq. ISIS still holds territory in Afghanistan, Libya, Africa, and the Sinai.
    • His plan is to remove all U.S. troops from Syria by the end of April, and to move a couple hundred troops from Syria to Iraq to keep an eye on Iran.
  1. The Trump administration refuses to release a report to Congress on whether Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince was responsible for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
  2. Rep. Michael McCaul (TX), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, releases a statement criticizing the administration’s handling of Saudi Arabia and the Khashoggi murder. He says they failed to meet the requirements of the Magnitsky Act and calls on them to comply.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. The House holds its first gun violence hearing in eight years. What’s happened in those eight years? The Seal Beach salon shooting, Aurora theater shooting, the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting, the Empire State Building shooting, the Sandy Hook shooting, the Washington Navy Yard shooting, the Charleston church shooting, the Waco motorcycle shootout, the Harris County shooting, the Roseburg shooting, the San Bernardino terror attacks, the Pulse nightclub shooting, the Dallas police shooting, the Mississippi shooting, the Plano football shooting, the Las Vegas shooting, the Sutherland Springs church shooting, the Parkland school shooting, the Santa Fe school shooting, the Pittsburg synagogue shooting, and the Thousand Oaks country bar shooting.
    • These are just the ones where eight or more people died (and I think I missed a few).
    • There’ve been 31 mass shootings so far this year (defined as 4 or more people shot in one incident).
    • There were 323 mass shootings in 2018.
  1. During the gun violence hearing, Freedom Caucus member Matt Gaetz (R-FL) tries to switch the conversation to crimes committed by undocumented immigrants. Two fathers of murdered Parkland children protest. So Gaetz tries to have them thrown out of the hearing.
    • For the record, mass shootings by undocumented immigrants are extremely rare. In fact, I haven’t been able to find one conviction yet, but I’m still looking.
  1. The House Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change holds the first hearing on climate change in over five years. During those five years, the military has called climate change one of our greatest national security threats.

Family Separation:

  1. A senior Health and Human Services official tells the House Energy and Commerce Committee that he warned three Trump appointees about the health risks of their plan to separate migrant families at the border. He first learned of the plan in February of 2017.
    • Now the administration says that taking children away from their sponsors to reunite them with their families would be too traumatic. You know what’s really traumatic? Being taken away from your family in the first place!
    • The HHS Deputy Director of Refugee Resettlement says this about why kids shouldn’t be removed from their sponsors:
      “Disrupting the family relationship is not a recommended child welfare practice.”
      I don’t even know how to dissemble that. These people are monsters.
    • The administration says it would be impossible to find all the separated children because it would be too hard and cost too much.
  1. Currently, there are thousands of children separated from their families (we’ll never know exactly how many because they kept no records), and these children might not ever be returned. Can you imagine that? How far would you go to get your child back?

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The governor of New Mexico, Lujan Grisham, orders a withdrawal of most of the National Guard troops deployed at New Mexico’s southern border. She says they’re only here on a “charade of border fear-mongering” by Trump.
  2. Our troops at the border have been stringing concertina wire just along the top of existing fencing, but now they’re also putting it along the entire height in some areas.
    • Nogales, Arizona adopts a resolution that condemns using concertina wire as a deterrent at the border. They say it’s an indiscriminate use of lethal force, and demand that it be removed.
    • The mayor of Nogales sits down with CBP officers to discuss why he wasn’t notified this was going to happen. CBP says there are rapists, murderers, drug dealers, and lots of fence jumpers. This was news to the police chief.
  1. Even though CBP is one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the world, they are only able to process about 10 asylum seekers a day at each port of entry. With 5,100 waiting in Tijuana alone, people could be stuck there until summer.
    • Mexican border cities like Tijuana don’t have the resources to handle the influx, which is creating dangerous conditions. American relief agencies are down there helping out, so no matter how you look at it, Americans are paying for this.
    • In Tijuana, they moved the migrant camps so far from the border that they can’t walk there—it’s a 30-minute drive.
    • Several lawsuits are pending against CBP because they’re illegally turning away asylum seekers at ports of entry.
  1. There are seven lawsuits against the administration for their attempts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. In one case, a federal judge blocked the question and that case is awaiting Supreme Court consideration. In another case, a district judge declined to block the question.
  2. Tennessee legislators introduce the Natural Marriage Defense Act again. It’s failed twice before, and would cost the state around $9 billion. The act would void the Supreme Court decision to allow gay couples to marry.
  3. Tampa has a ban on gay conversion therapy for minors, but a judge rules that it violates the first amendment rights of therapists.
  4. A federal judge says the Trump administration is discriminating against Puerto Ricans and violating their equal protection rights.

Climate/EPA:

  1. Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ed Markey (D-MA) announce the outline for their Green New Deal. It’s vague on details but calls for a 10-year national shift away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy, upgrading buildings to be more energy efficient, working with farmers to reduce methane gases, and overhauling our transportation systems (including more high-speed trains and fewer planes).
  2. Trump nominates David Bernhardt to succeed Ryan Zinke as Secretary of the Interior. Bernhardt is currently the deputy chief, and is a former oil lobbyist.
  3. The EPA appoints several new Science Advisory Board members. One is a climate change denier, one denies the dangers of formaldehyde, one criticizes efforts to minimize radiation leaks at nuclear facilities, and one is skeptical about the dangers of lead to children.
  4. 2018 was the fourth hottest year on record.
  5. A new assessment says that at least a third of the Himalayan ice cap will melt by 2100 if we curb emissions now. If we don’t, two-thirds will melt.
  6. Scientists discover a growing cavity about 2/3 the size of Manhattan in a West Antarctic glacier. Most of that ice has melted in the past three years.
  7. Michigan’s governor becomes the 20th to join the U.S. Climate Alliance (New Mexico and Illinois also recently joined).

Budget/Economy:

  1. Trump nominates David Malpass to lead the World Bank’s board. Malpass is an outspoken critic of the agency who says it creates “mountains of debt without solving problems.”
  2. The GOP promised higher paychecks as a result of their 2017 tax reform bill, so the Trump administration pressured the IRS to change withholding rules so that less was taken out of paychecks rather than more. This was especially important to them in the run-up to the midterm elections. Now, people are surprised to find out they owe more at the end of the year than expected or that they’re getting a smaller refund. Because of all the obfuscation, I can’t tell yet whether taxes went up or down for most people.
  3. The 30-year-old founder and CEO of Quadriga dies, taking his password with him. Around $137 million in cryptocurrencies are frozen and can’t be accessed. The founder’s poor widow has been searching for the password to repay the 115,000 affected people.
  4. Trump tells upstate New York residents who are unhappy with the local economy to move somewhere else.
    • New York officials say tax collections are down about 50%, and that the GOP tax plan hit New York hard because of the limits on SALT deductions.
    • Trump says those limits shouldn’t hurt upstate New York because it only affects the wealthy. Reporters have to clarify for him the effects of limiting SALT deductions.
  1. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposes weakening the rules that protect consumers from payday lenders. Just a reminder, the APR on these loans can end up being more than 1,000%.

Elections:

  1. The Clark County Commission appoints two women to vacant state Assembly seats, making Nevada the first state to have a majority-female legislature.
  2. A federal judiciary panel denies Ohio their request to delay a gerrymandering lawsuit that could force them to redraw their districts by 2020.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Only 54% of Trump’s civilian executive branch nominees have been confirmed. On top of that, these are all only acting positions: Chief of Staff, Attorney General, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of the Interior, Office and Management and Budget director, and EPA Administrator. The administration has yet to fill more than half of the positions in the Departments of Labor, Justice, and Interior.
  2. Ugh. What’s going on in Virginia? We have racist photos of the Governor, two accusations of sexual assault against the Lt. Governor, and the Attorney General said he dressed up as his favorite rap artist in the 80s and darkened his skin. And then it turns out the Majority Leader in the State Senate was the editor of a yearbook that contained a bunch of racist material. No one’s stepped down yet. Calls for Governor Northam’s resignation seem to be waning, calls for Lt. Governor Fairfax to resign are still strong, but I haven’t heard calls for Attorney General Herring’s resignation.
  3. The Trump administration issues new rules on exporting weapons outside the U.S., making it easier to sell semi-automatic weapons, flamethrowers, and grenades, among others. These changes were originally considered under Obama, but were shelved after the Sandy Hook shootings.
  4. A federal court rules against Ajit Pai and the FCC in their attempt to gut the Lifeline program, which brings high-speed internet to rural areas.
  5. Where does Trump find these guys? Trump’s doctor performs a physical and writes a letter that concludes with “I am happy to announce the President of the United States is in very good health and I anticipate he will remain so for the duration of his presidency, and beyond.” This leads doctors across the country to wonder where they can get training in this kind of predictive medicine.
    • Last year his [different] doctor said he has incredible genes.
  1. In the midst of a polar vortex last week, the heat and electricity goes out at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. It doesn’t get turned back on until crowds protest outside the center in the freezing cold for days.
  2. And what’s wrong with sports fans? Police arrest over 30 people for sex trafficking during the Super Bowl in Atlanta. They also rescue four victims.
  3. We receive another leak of Trump’s schedule. Mick Mulvaney is working hard to root out the leaker(s).
  4. So far, Trump has appointed eight people to senior administration positions who are or were members at Mar-a-Lago.

Polls:

  1. 34% of Americans think it’s OK to wear blackface as part of a costume.

Week 104 in Trump

Posted on January 22, 2019 in Politics, Trump

Tijuana, Mexico--where the border wall meets the Pacific Ocean and people sit on the fence and dream. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

I’m so not ready for this… the 2020 campaign season is already starting, with a bunch of Democrats declaring a presidential run. And that means that the disinformation campaigns are already out in force. So please remember to check your facts and don’t believe everything you hear. Here’s some advice for trolls that’s circulating on 4Chan to make Democrats sound conflicted or negative about Elizabeth Warren:

“Pose as a concerned Democrat and criticize her for being white,” one wrote. “Criticize her for being a woman. Do whatever it takes to further divide the left and prevent them from unifying behind a candidate for 2020. If we can manufacture another Bernie/Hillary split, they’ll get crushed in the general election.”

Here’s what really happened last week…

Missed from Last Week:

  1. In late December, Trump signed an executive order that expands logging on public lands. The EO also orders the clearing of underbrush on 4 million acres and treating pests on another 1.5 million acres. Trump says this will help prevent forest fires, but experts say this is only useful when done near homes. The EO could mean a 30% increase for the logging industry.

Border Wall/Shutdown:

  1. Here’s some fallout from the shutdown this week:
    • The Federal Aviation Administration calls back furloughed safety inspectors to work without pay. The IRS does the same with its employees, and the FDA brings back food safety inspectors (without pay). U.S. Fish and Wildlife bring back some workers so people can hunt on wildlife refuges.
    • The Coast Guard becomes the first branch of the armed services to not get paid.
    • FBI agents are now working without pay.
    • The SEC stops processing initial public offerings.
    • The NTSB suspends investigations of fatal accidents.
    • The State Department is calling furloughed diplomats to come back to work without pay.
    • Trump’s economists double their estimation of how much economic growth is being lost each week of the shutdown.
    • Some states begin allowing federal workers who are working but not being paid to receive unemployment benefits. The Trump administration has said these workers don’t qualify for benefits.
    • Over 40,000 immigration hearings have been cancelled due to the shutdown. Immigrants who miss their hearings are being given new dates years from now.
    • Businesses are doing their part to help furloughed workers by helping them to delay payments and reorganize loans, and by providing free services and free food.
    • The NY Met gives free tickets to furloughed workers to see their performances.
  1. A federal judge denies requests from federal employees and unions 1) to require that air traffic controllers be paid, and 2) that employees who are essential shouldn’t be forced to work without pay.
  2. The House passes a package to reopen the government, and, for the third time this year, Mitch McConnell block bills to reopen the government in the Senate.
  3. Sarah Huckabee Sanders says it’s Democrats fault that Trump had to feed the Clemson Tigers champion football team fast food.
  4. Nancy Pelosi sends Trump a letter saying they need to postpone the State of the Union address until after the shutdown ends due to security concerns. The White House asks Mitch McConnell if he can invite them to do it in the Senate instead.
  5. In apparent retaliation, Trump postpones Pelosi’s congressional delegation (codel) trip where Pelosi planned to visit NATO officials in Brussels and then troops in Afghanistan. The codel was already on a bus on the way to the plane and Capitol Police already had their people on the ground in Europe awaiting their arrival.
  6. Trump orders that government officials can’t use military planes until the shutdown is over. Then he sends Melania to Mar-a-Lago on a military plane.
  7. Trump says Pelosi and her group can take a commercial flight if she wants. Recent history note: Trump took an official plane to Iraq during the shutdown.
  8. Pelosi says she’s now postponing even their commercial flight abroad because Trump took divulged the codel’s travel plans to the public.
  9. Nearly 400 immigrants tunneled under a border wall in Arizona and present themselves to border patrol agents for asylum.
  10. While border crossings are down, family units now makes up 80% of apprehensions. And they’re mostly seeking asylum.
  11. Trump starts telling stories about women trafficked over the border who’s mouths are taped with electrical tape. He morphs the story to include multiple kinds of tape and body parts. People who work with anti-trafficking NGOs at the border say it’s possible, but they haven’t seen it.
  12. Trump offers Democrats a three-year reprieve for people currently protected by DACA and TPS, saying he won’t try to deport them during that time if they fund his wall. Soooo he tried to take away DACA and TPS, and now he says he’ll give them back if Democrats give him the wall. Again, the courts have struck down his actions on DACA and TPS, so they’re currently protected by the courts.
    • Conservative pundits call this amnesty. To be clear, this is not what amnesty looks like.
  1. Here’s where Pelosi says Democrats want border funding to go toward:
    • Increased infrastructure investments at our ports of entry including additional ports and roads;
    • Advanced technology to scan for drugs, weapons and contraband and to detect unauthorized crossings;
    • More customs personnel including filling the more than 3,000 customs and border patrol vacancies; and
    • More immigration judges.
  1. The House cancels January recess in order to deal with the shutdown.
  2. The DOJ hires two lawyers likely to deal with issues of eminent domain at the border.

Russia:

  1. Mueller’s team subpoenas three new Jerome Corsi associates to testify before the grand jury. The Senate Intelligence Committee subpoenas Corsi himself.
  2. Both Mueller and Manhattan prosecutors are investigating a breakfast event held at the Trump International Hotel in DC two days before Trump’s inauguration. In attendance were Michael Flynn, Devin Nunes, and several foreign diplomats.
  3. The House votes to overturn the Treasury Department’s decision to lift sanctions on a company that Oleg Deripaska has a stake in. 57 Senators, including 11 Republicans, also vote to keep sanctions, but it falls short of the 60 votes required to overturn the decision.
    • Under the Treasury decision, Deripaska must reduce his stake in two companies and the other sanctions against him remain. But a binding and signed document shows that it allows Deripaska to get rid of $100s of millions in debt and for him and his associates to retain a large share of ownership.
    • The primary company involved is a major aluminum producer, and the sanctions are hurting American companies.
    • With an overwhelming majority, the House passes a resolution of disapproval for rolling back the sanctions.
  1. Last year, I refrained from reporting on Anastasia Vashukevich, who says she was Deripaska’s mistress and that she has tapes of him bragging about how Russia stole our 2016 elections. She was subsequently arrested in Thailand on charges of prostitution. So I was waiting to see what would come of this, if anything. This week, Thailand releases her and deports her to Belarus… with a layover in Moscow where officials there arrest her at the airport in dramatic fashion.
  2. BuzzFeed releases a report that starts out with a bang but quickly fizzles. (Note that I don’t typically use BuzzFeed as a source, but the story generated a lot of buzz, so I figured it was newsworthy.)
    • BuzzFeed reports that Trump personally directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the duration of the Trump Tower Moscow negotiations to hide Trump’s involvement.
    • Trump’s legal team reaches out to Mueller’s office about this.
    • Mueller’s office disputes parts of the reporting, but not the substance. This is important because his office rarely jumps in with statements on news stories. They issue this statement:
      “BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate.”
    • BuzzFeed stands by their story, but they’re also working to learn what specific parts Mueller’s team is disputing.
    • If the reporting turns out to be right, it would mean Donald Jr. perjured himself during his testimony to Congress.
  1. Rudy Giuliani says Trump and Cohen were discussing building a Trump Tower in Moscow throughout 2016, possibly into November.
  2. Giuliani also admits that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, but he maintains that Trump did not. He later says he doesn’t know if there was any collusion.
  3. Cohen’s testimony before Congress next month will be limited so as not to interfere with Mueller’s investigation. So if you were expecting the full scoop, you’re not going to get it.

Legal Fallout:

  1. A new report from the Inspector General for the General Services Administration says that GSA officials chose to ignore the constitution’s anti-corruption clauses when they continued leasing the Old Post Office Building to the Trump International Hotel after Trump took office.
    • An example of why this is an issue: Last year when T-Mobile needed approval from the Trump administration for a merger, nine T-Mobile executives booked rooms at the hotel with one of them staying there at least 10 times.
  1. Michael Cohen confirms that he paid a tech firm to rig online polls in Trump’s favor during the 2016 elections. He also says this was “at the direction of and the sole benefit of” Trump. I don’t think this is illegal, but it is ironic given that Trump kept complaining about how rigged the polls are.
    • Fun fact: Cohen also used this company to promote himself as a sex symbol on Twitter.
  1. Court filings show that Paul Manafort attempted to fill Trump’s administration with his allies, but it’s not clear how successful he was.

Courts/Justice:

  1. William Barr, who’s currently being evaluated for confirmation as Attorney General, once said that the DOJ might need some “political supervision.” He thinks that we went too far in pushing the DOJ to be independent following Watergate.
    • Barr doesn’t say he wouldn’t jail journalists if they report on things that “might hurt the country.”
    • Barr says it’s vitally important that Mueller be able to complete his investigation, but he refuses to recuse himself even though he has expressed opinions on the case previously without full knowledge of the evidence obtained so far.
    • It takes Trump by surprise to learn during Barr’s testimony that Barr has been friends and colleagues with Mueller for 30 years. I would’ve thought that would come out in the vetting process. Was there a vetting process?
    • Unlike Jeff Sessions, Barr says he won’t go after marijuana sales in states where it’s legal.
  1. A district judge says Susan Rice and Ben Rhodes must answer questions for a court case in writing, but denies a request to make them sit for depositions. The conservative group Judicial Watch filed a FOIA lawsuit against the State Department last year over the handling of missing emails. Rice and Rhodes will answer questions about the talking points used after the Benghazi attacks. Because that hasn’t been investigated enough yet.

Healthcare:

  1. A federal judge issues a nationwide injunction against Trump’s attempted rollback of the ACA’s birth-control mandate. Just previous to that, a different judge blocked the rule for several states just hours before it was to take effect.
    • If successful, Trump’s rollback would let employers avoid providing contraceptive coverage as part of the insurance policies they offer to their employees. Under the ACA, they must provide this at no cost.
  1. WHO issues a list of the top 10 most significant health issues facing us today (in no particular order):
    • Air pollution and climate change
    • Noncommunicable diseases (like heart disease, cancer, diabetes)
    • A global flu pandemic
    • Fragile and vulnerable settings (caused by things like drought, famine, and war)
    • Antimicrobial resistance to existing treatments
    • Weak primary healthcare
    • Anti-vaccination movements
    • High-threat pathogens (like Zika, Ebola, and SARS)
    • Dengue fever
    • HIV
  1. An appeals court vacates a previous ruling that stopped Texas from defunding Planned Parenthood. In the original case, Texas tried to oust Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid program based on the videos that purported to show Planned Parenthood workers discussing illegal sales of fetal material. This doesn’t reverse the ruling, but instead throws the ball back into the original judge’s court and forces him to use a different standard to review the case.
  2. The Senate fails to get the 60 votes needed to pass a bill that would permanently ban federal funding for abortions and place new restrictions on abortions.

International:

  1. Trump has privately and repeatedly pushed withdrawing from NATO. At the NATO summit last summer, he told his national security officials that he didn’t see the point of the coalition. Both Jim Mattis and John Bolton spent the summit scrambling to make sure there was no mention of a withdrawal.
  2. Turkish President Erdogan says Trump called him up and said that he’s still going to withdraw troops from Syria.
  3. The UK Parliament fails to pass Theresa May’s Brexit deal with a vote of 432 to 202, a huge defeat for her government.
    • As a result, May faces a vote of no confidence, which she wins.
    • The official Brexit due date is March 29. May can try to ask the EU for more concessions, but they’ve drawn a firm line.
    • It’s possible this will lead to another vote on Brexit, but it’s not clear that if voters decide to NOT Brexit that it wouldn’t happen anyway.
    • Parliament could amend the EU Withdrawal Act to force May to request an Article 50 extension on the Brexit deadline if there is no agreement on an exit plan.
  1. An explosion in Syria kills two U.S. troops and two civilians, with the Islamic State claiming responsibility. Just a few weeks ago, Trump said ISIS was defeated and we’re pulling troops out of Syria.
    • On the day of the explosion, Mike Pence states that “the caliphate has crumbled and ISIS has been defeated.”
    • Brett McGurk, former special envoy to the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS, says that Trump’s choice to withdraw troops is giving IS fighters new life.
  1. Trump plans another North Korea summit with Kim Jong Un in February. A new report claims there are at least 20 previously undisclosed ballistic missile sites in North Korea.
  2. The Trump administration rejects a deal with Russia to keep the Nuclear Forces Treaty, which is intended to contain nuclear arms proliferation. They say there’s no way to verify Russia is keeping their end of the deal. This sets the stage for a six-month withdrawal from the treaty starting next month.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. Three GOP Members of Congress have either had their committee assignments stripped or won’t get any assignments due to misconduct:
    • Steve King: Stripped of assignments due to racist comments.
    • Duncan Hunter: Indicted (when elected)
    • Chris Collins: Indicted (when elected)

Family Separation:

  1. An audit finds that the Trump administration has separated thousands more children than was publicly known. They started separating families over six months before they announced it, and they didn’t track those families. So we don’t know exactly how many, where the parents or children are, or whether they’ve been reunited.
    • The first separations started no later than October of 2017; Jeff Sessions didn’t announce the policy until May of 2018.
    • The separations continued after Trump ended the policy in June of 2018 (largely due to a court order).
    • Amnesty International estimates 8,000 “family units” were separated. I’m not sure what they mean by family unit.
  1. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) asks the FBI to open an investigation into whether Kirstjen Nielsen lied under oath to Congress when she said that the administration never had a policy for family separation.
  2. Merkley gave NBC News a draft of a 2017 memo from the DHS and DOJ that describes plans to separate families, to deport minors and deny them asylum hearings, and to force asylum seekers to wait for their hearings in Mexico instead of the U.S.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. A judge blocks the Commerce Department from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, and rakes Secretary Wilbur Ross over the coals in his ruling. He says Ross and his aides broke a “smorgasbord” of federal rules, cherry-picked facts, twisted evidence, hid their deliberations, and lied under oath.
  2. The Pentagon extends the mission of the troops assisting DHS along the border through September. There are about 2,300 troops still at the border, down from 5,900.
  3. The Virginia Senate ratifies the ERA (yes, this is still a thing). If the GOP-led House of Delegates follows suit, we’ll have enough state ratifications to finally ratify it. Interesting history note: The original draft of the amendment was created almost 100 years ago, in 1921. Can we get this done already? We shouldn’t need to!
  4. The House passes a resolution nearly unanimously condemning white supremacy and white nationalism. Even Steve King, at whom the resolution is directed, voted for it. The lone nay vote, Democrat Bobby Rush, doesn’t think the wording is strong enough.
  5. While Representative Tony Cárdenas was speaking on the House floor, a Republican representative yelled “Go back to Puerto Rico!” The congressman later called Cárdenas to apologize and said he wasn’t addressing him, he was referring to the Democratic contingent that had a retreat in Puerto Rico earlier this year. At the time, the House was trying to pass a continuing resolution to reopen nine departments.
  6. Hundreds of thousands show up across the country for the third annual Women’s March. The marches have gotten smaller each year, and this year the National March in DC was marred by accusations of anti-Semitism.
  7. New York bans gay conversation therapy, and adds gender identity and gender expression to their anti-discrimination laws.
  8. The new Democratic governor of Kansas reinstates protections for LGBTQ state employees.
  9. The Trump Organization received at least 192 visas for foreign workers last year. That’s the highest number since 2008.

Climate/EPA:

  1. On top of learning earlier this month that the oceans are warming waaaay faster than we thought, now we learn that the Antarctic is now losing six times as much ice each year as it was in the 80s. It’s gone from 40 billion tons a year to 252 billion tons.
  2. The U.S. is increasing oil and gas drilling faster than any other nation, even though scientists say we have just 11 years to sort out this whole climate change thing.

Budget/Economy:

  1. Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) becomes the first woman and the first African American to chart the Financial Services Committee in the House.
  2. Los Angeles County teachers strike for higher wages and an increase in staffing levels. They’re trying to bring attention to the needs of public schools.
  3. Our six biggest banks (JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs) made $100 billion in profit last year. That’s a first, it’s expected to grow when 4th quarter numbers come in, and it’s due to the tax cuts.
  4. The Trump administration refuses to extend emergency food assistance to Puerto Rico, calling it “excessive and unnecessary.”
  5. Economists worry that the extended shutdown could push us into a contraction. A contraction starts when there are two consecutive quarters of GDP decline.
  6. Economic growth was already slowing in the last quarter of 2018, with downward pressures including the trade war with China, the fading effects of the $1.5 trillion tax cut, and slower global growth in general. The government shutdown is expected to slow it further.

Elections:

  1. A federal judge blocks parts of the lame duck bills passed in Wisconsin aimed at disenfranchising typically Democratic voters. The judge blocks attempts to curb early voting, to limit the use of student IDs, and to limit the use of receipts for people with exceptional barriers to getting IDs.
  2. McConnell accuses Democrats of encouraging voter fraud and trying to swing elections toward one party with their sweeping election reform bill. His exact words are “power grab” and “naked attempt to change the rules of American politics to benefit one party.”
    • There’s a general summary of the bill here (under Legislation): http://cjrules.com/week-102-in-trump/
    • The point of the bill is to make sure every citizen can vote and none are disenfranchised from their right to vote. So I guess if more people voting swings elections toward one party…
  1. New York passes election reform bills to allow early voting, preregistration of minors (so they’re able to vote upon turning 18), and voting by mail.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Trump officials reverse an Obama-era safety rule (this is so commonplace that it isn’t even news). This rule required trains that carry flammable material (like oil) to install special brakes to reduce the risk of derailment and explosion. The move was proposed just over a year ago, right around the time the Amtrak train derailed in Washington.
  2. A federal judge finds four women guilty after they enter a national park and leave food and water for immigrants crossing the border. The charges include entering a national refuge without a permit, driving a vehicle in a national refuge, and leaving things behind in a national refuge.
  3. Ouch. Betsy DeVos breaks her pelvis and hip socket in a biking accident.

Polls:

  1. 57% of American voters say they’ll definitely vote against Trump in 2020.
    • 30% say they’ll vote for Trump in 2020.
    • 13% say they have no idea who they’ll vote for.
  1. 72% of federal workers oppose the shutdown, with 64% strongly opposed.
    • 21% support the shutdown, with 14% strongly supporting.
  1. 56% of federal workers oppose building the wall, with 45% strongly opposed.
    • 34% support building the wall, with 25% strongly supporting.

Week 100 in Trump

Posted on December 26, 2018 in Politics, Trump

Happy government shutdown! What better way to mark the 100th week under Trump? Just a reminder, he told Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer he’d take ownership of a shutdown, then he said he wouldn’t cause a shutdown, then he caused a shutdown, and then he blamed it on Democrats. Here’s what Trump had to say in 2013 about the shutdown under Obama:

“You have to get everybody in a room. You have to be a leader. The president has to lead. He has to get (the Speaker of the House) and everybody else in a room, and they have to make a deal. You have to be nice and be angry and be wild and cajole and do all sorts of things, but you have to get a deal… And, unfortunately, he has never been a dealmaker. That wasn’t his expertise before he went into politics and it’s obviously not his expertise now. But you have to get the people in a room and you have to get a deal.”

Here’s what else happened in week 100…

Missed from Last Week:

  1. Democratic legislators in New Jersey rethink their plans to essentially make gerrymandering permanent in the state after receiving pushback from Republicans, Democrats, progressives, their Democratic governor, Eric Holder, and others. It’s no secret I’m for independent commissions drawing these lines; lawmakers should never be able to draw their own districts.
  2. The reasoning behind Betsy DeVos’s decision to end the policy of making sure minorities are not disciplined more harshly than white students is that it will help end school shootings. Huh? I don’t think any of the shootings have been perpetrated by a minority student.

Russia:

  1. We’re at the end of Trump’s second year in office, and there are 17 known investigations into Trump and Russia from seven different prosecutors (and not including congressional investigations). Here’s a list with the current status of each (all are still ongoing):
    • Russian government meddling in our elections: 25 indicted, 1 guilty plea, and 1 cooperation agreement.
    • Wikileaks: 2 Trump campaign associates implicated, with 1 of them breaking their plea agreement.
    • MidEast countries seeking to influence the Trump campaign: 2 cooperation agreements, but no public court activity.
    • Paul Manafort: 4 guilty pleas, 1 broken plea agreement, 1 indicted, and 1 convicted.
    • Trump Tower Moscow: 1 guilty plea
    • Trump campaign/transition team contacts with Russian officials: 2 guilty pleas, 16 people are known to have made contact.
    • Obstruction of justice: no public court activity.
    • Campaign involvement with Trump Organization finances: 1 guilty plea, 2 cooperation agreements.
    • Foreign donations to the inaugural committee and to Trump’s super PAC: 1 cooperation agreement, no public court activity.
    • Americans lobbying for foreign governments without registering as foreign agents: 2 charged, 1 cooperation agreement.
    • Russian spy embedded in the NRA: 1 guilty plea (Maria Butina).
    • Internet Research Agency’s election activities: 2 investigations and 2 indictments.
    • Michael Flynn’s activities in regard to Turkey: 1 guilty plea.
    • Tax fraud by Trump and Trump Organization: no indictments yet.
    • Campaign finance fraud and self-dealing by the Trump Foundation: Foundation closed.
    • Violations of the emoluments clause: making its way through court.
  1. Republicans in the House Judiciary and Oversight committees question James Comey again behind closed doors about the investigation into Hillary’s emails, the Steele Dossier, and Russian meddling in our elections. The transcript is made public the next day. There’s not really anything new to learn.
  2. Comey blasts the congressional hearings, saying they’re just wasting time and attacking U.S. intelligence agencies. He says Republican legislators need to stand up for American values and stop fearing their base.
  3. Comey explains his press conference in 2016 about the email investigation, saying he was worried about the leaks coming from the New York FBI office (to Rudy Giuliani) and felt he needed to get out ahead of those leaks.
  4. Comey accuses Trump of lying about the FBI to discredit investigations.
  5. New documents show that Trump had signed a letter of intent for the Trump Tower Moscow project on October 28, 2015. Giuliani previously said no one ever signed a letter of intent.
  6. Donald Trump Jr.’s testimony to Congress contradicted Cohen’s current testimony. Jr. also contradicted the letter of intent when he said all activity on the Trump Tower Moscow project ended in 2014.
  7. The judge for Michael Flynn’s sentencing rips into Flynn for selling out his country and asks the prosecutors if there’s anything else they can charge Flynn with. He asks Flynn if he wants a delay in sentencing in order to cooperate more fully, which Flynn accepts. A few things here:
    • The judge has access to the redacted information in the court documents that we can’t see.
    • Conservative pundits praise the judge in the days leading up to Flynn’s hearing. Not so much in the days after.
    • Flynn supporters demonstrate outside the courthouse for leniency.
    • Flynn seemed to be on the road to getting the lightest possible sentence (if any), but the judge is irked by Flynn’s lawyers’ attempt to blame the FBI for entrapping Flynn when they questioned him. The judge gets Flynn’s lawyers to retract those accusations.
    • The judge says that Flynn worked as a foreign agent while in the White House, which he later corrects. Flynn’s foreign activities had ended by the time he got to the White House.
    • Trump wishes Flynn luck before the hearing.
  1. Two of Michael Flynn’s associates are arrested over their activities on Turkey’s behalf. Prosecutors in Northern Virginia charge Bijan Rafiekian and Ekim Alptekin with conspiracy to “covertly and unlawfully” influence U.S. politicians.
  2. Mueller releases a redacted memo describing the lies Flynn told in his interviews with FBI agents. The two major lies are:
    • He said he didn’t try to sway the UN Security Council’s vote on Israeli settlements during the transition period.
    • He said he didn’t tell Russian Ambassador Kislyak not to retaliate over Obama’s sanctions against Russia during the transition period.
  1. For the third time, Mitch McConnell blocks Jeff Flake’s bill to protect Mueller’s investigation.
  2. It turns out that Russian trolls were behind a campaign to smear Mueller by claiming that he was corrupt, that he had worked with radical Islamic groups, and that Russian interference in our elections is all just conspiracy theories.
  3. The Trump administration plans to lift sanctions against three Russian companies with ties to Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska has had close financial ties to Paul Manafort.
  4. After consulting with ethics officials who tell him to recuse himself from any Russia investigations, Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker refuses to do so.
  5. Putin accuses the U.S. of risking a collapse in the control of nuclear arms because Trump is threatening to pull out of a Cold War treaty limiting missile development. Putin also says the world is underestimating the threat of nuclear war.

Legal Fallout:

  1. The Donald J. Trump Foundation agrees to dissolve as part of an ongoing investigation and lawsuit. The Foundation will also give away its remaining assets. The New York attorney general accuses the foundation of providing money to Trump’s businesses and for his personal use, and of illegally providing campaign funds.
  2. Under the lawsuit, the foundation might have to pay restitution, and Trump, Trump Jr., Ivanka, and Eric could be barred from serving on other charity boards.
  3. Despite emails showing funds from the foundation being used for campaign purposes, Trump signed filings each year saying that the foundation never engaged in political activities.
  4. During the 2016 election cycle, the Trump campaign funded ad buys through groups accused of illegally coordinating between the campaign and the NRA. The groups used a shell company to hide their activities. The Trump campaign stopped funding the groups after the 2016 election, but now Trump’s 2020 campaign is using the same groups and the same shell company.

Courts/Justice:

  1. The federal judges assessing the 83 ethics complaints against Brett Kavanaugh dismiss all complaints, not because they don’t think the complaints are justified but because lower court judges have no authority to discipline Supreme Court justices.
  2. A judge rules that four people who brought a lawsuit against Trump and his organization over sham businesses can stay anonymous. They made the request to use pseudonyms over fear of retaliation, which the judge agreed with; she says “The manner in which the president has used his position and platform to affect the course of pending court cases is really without precedent.”
  3. The Supreme Court refuses to overturn a lower court ruling that Trump can’t immediately deport people who cross the border illegally to seek asylum. The administration argues that they can use the illegal action of crossing to deny asylum. Our law is pretty explicit that the administration is wrong—anyone who comes to the U.S. can apply for asylum no matter how they got here.
    • Not surprisingly, Justices Thomas, Kavanaugh, Alito, and Gorsuch support the administration’s argument. Ruth Bader Ginsberg voted in opposition from her hospital bed as she was recovering from lung surgery.

Healthcare:

  1. Senate Democrat send a letter to the head of the Health and Human Services Department accusing them of violating a federal court order by directing funds toward abstinence-only pregnancy prevention programs. The court order was put in place when a court found that the administration had illegally cancelled a pregnancy prevention program in favor of abstinence-only education.
  2. Ohio Governor Kasich signs a strict abortion bill into law, effectively banning abortions after 12 weeks of gestation. He vetoes a similar, more restrictive heartbeat bill (which would ban abortions after 10 weeks).
    • Ohio legislators say they’ll try to override his heartbeat bill veto.
    • Both bills would face uphill battles in courts.
  1. The VA hasn’t spend millions of dollars that were supposed to be used for suicide prevention for veterans.

International:

  1. Trump orders all U.S. troops out of Syria within 30 days. How’d that all go down? Oy…here’s a breakdown:
    • Trump speaks to Turkey’s President Erdogan on the phone. Erdogan can’t understand why the U.S. still arms Syrian Kurdish fighters (Turkey views the Kurds as a threat).
    • Trump says the Islamic State has been defeated in Syria (they haven’t; there are an estimated 14,500 IS fighters in Syria). Erdogan says their fighters can take care of what’s left.
    • Trump says, “You know what? It’s yours. I’m leaving.” And boom. The deed is done.
  1. Kurdish fighters consider releasing over 3,000 Islamic State prisoners.
  2. General Jim Mattis resigns as Secretary of Defense as of the end of February. Could this be related to Trump totally taking Mattis by surprise with his announcement on Syria? Oh yeah. Turns out it’s related, all right.
    • In his resignation letter, Mattis says he and Trump have different views on how to respect and work with our allies and how to deal with authoritarian leaders. He says Trump deserves a Secretary of State who sees things more closely to the way Trump does. His letter reads as a mild rebuke of Trump’s foreign policies.
    • After tweeting about Mattis’s distinguished service, Trump decides to remove him two months early and says Mattis will be out by the New Year. Trump was apparently unhappy over the news coverage of the implications of the resignation letter.
    • Mattis wanted to stay on long enough to ensure a smooth and informed transition.
    • Trump installs Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan as Acting Defense Secretary. Shanahan has no military, international, or counterterrorism experience.
  1. On the heels of Mattis’s resignation, Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the coalition to fight ISIS, resigns in protest of Trump’s abrupt decision to pull troops out of Syria.
  2. Trump says he’s withdrawing 7,000 troops from Afghanistan—around half of all our troops there. The Taliban then declares victory in Afghanistan.
  3. Trump creates a new “Space Command,” a precursor to the Space Force (a new 6th branch of the military).

Legislation/Congress:

  1. Voter rights groups file lawsuits against the lame duck bills passed by Republicans in the Wisconsin state legislature to cut the power of the incoming Democratic officials, specifically the bill cutting early voting periods.
  2. Congress passes a long-overdue prison reform bill. Here’s what’s in it:
    • Makes the conditions of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 retroactive.
    • Eases mandatory minimum prison sentences.
    • Provides more incentives for good behavior by prisoners.
    • Provides more incentives for prisoners to participate in rehabilitation programs.
  1. Outgoing Representative Bob Goodlatte blocks the Savannah Act from getting out of committee. Outgoing Senator Heidi Heitkamp brought up the bill to address the number of missing and murdered Native American women.
  2. The Senate passes a bill making lynching a federal crime. There have been attempts to pass this legislation for over a century.
  3. Trump urges Mitch McConnell to change the Senate rules to get rid of the filibuster so they can get funding for the wall. McConnell refuses, which could imply there aren’t enough Republican votes to support the wall.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The World Economic Forum estimates that if the gap in economic opportunities between men and women keeps narrowing at its current rate, they will be equal in 202 years. Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland have the most economic equality; the U.S. ranks 51st.
  2. The judge who blocks Jeff Sessions‘ policy removing asylum protection from victims of domestic and gang violence also orders that anyone who was deported based on this policy be returned to the U.S. for a fair hearing. The judge (who is the same one overseeing Michael Flynn’s sentencing) says the policy violates the Immigration and Naturalization Act.
  3. U.S.-based anti-LGBTQ hate groups start working to meet, train, and support anti-LGBTQ groups in Italy. Good job, America—let’s spread the hate.
  4. A GoFundMe campaign raises about $14 million to help build the wall. So they’re about 1/100 of the way to raising enough to build about 1/8 of the wall.
    • The originator of the fundraiser is a triple-amputee Iraq vet.
    • The originator also lost his Facebook page, which trafficked in right-wing conspiracy theories.
    • Republican legislators question whether that money can be used for a wall.
    • What happens to that money if none of the wall gets built?
  1. The Air Force fires two HIV-positive service members despite them both passing the fitness assessments. They were found unfit for duty because of Trump’s policy for “deploy or get out.” The policy removes service members who can’t be deployed abroad for more than 12 months, and HIV-positive members fall into that category.
  2. Video evidence shows that the Proud Boys initiated the violence with protestors when one of their members spoke at a Republican Club in New York City earlier this year.
  3. The Trump administration prevents a Yemeni mother whose child is on life support in Oakland, CA, from coming to the U.S. to say goodbye because she’s from a country included in the Muslim ban. The child has a rare brain disease, and his father (who is a U.S. citizen) brought him here for treatment. After public pressure, the Trump administration relents and allows her to come visit.

Climate/EPA:

  1. The Interior Department takes a step forward in opening the Arctic Refuge for oil exploration and drilling by releasing its draft environmental impact report.

Budget/Economy:

  1. The Senate passes a short-term funding bill to keep the government open until February 8. It still needs to be passed by the House and signed by Trump, but then…
  2. Trump is too chicken to tell us himself right before Christmas that he won’t sign the temporary spending bill to keep the government open until February because it doesn’t fund the wall. So he makes Paul Ryan tell us. We’re looking at a shutdown the weekend before Christmas. Merry Christmas everyone!
  3. A shutdown means that more than 420,000 federal workers will work without pay and 380,000 will be furloughed. This also affects federal programs that help people obtain home and business loans, among other services.
  4. Trump blames Democrats for the shutdown even though when he met with Schumer and Pelosi, we all heard Trump say that he’d take full credit for a shutdown. He said he’d own it; he’d take the mantle.
  5. Because of the shutdown, Trump cancels his holiday trip to Mar-a-Lago and Senators who flew home turn right back around and get on a flight back to D.C.
  6. The Fed raises interest rates for the fourth time this year, but they’re also lowering expectations for the 2019 economy.
  7. The stock market has the worst week in a decade and the worst month since before the Great Depression. The market is on track to close down for the year.
  8. The Dow is up 18% so far under Trump; it was up 45% at this point under Obama. In fairness, Obama was starting from a Dow that was less than half what it was when Trump took over, so 45% was only around a 3,600 point gain under Obama. 18% under Trump is closer to a 3,000 point gain.
  9. Trump says it isn’t his fault that the stock market is down (even though he blamed Obama every time the market dropped under his administration).
  10. There’s a 23% chance of a recession in the next year.
  11. Steven Mnuchin tries to calm the market by making phone calls to certain financial CEOs, which only serves to confuse them. He wanted to reassure them that Trump isn’t planning to fire the Fed chairman as is rumored.
  12. Those CEOs say political noise is making the markets uncertain, including James Mattis’ departure, tariff threats, and the government shutdown.
  13. Trump authorizes the second rounds of bailout payments to farmers to help them get through the fallout from the tariffs, about $4.9 billion. China purchased no soy from the U.S. in November.
    • The USDA says some of the payments will be delayed due to the government shutdown.
  1. The House passes a new tax bill that provides disaster tax relief, delays and repeals some ACA taxes, fixes parts of last year’s tax cuts, improves the IRS, and repeals the Johnson Amendment (which bars nonprofits from endorsing political candidates).
  2. Sonny Perdue, head of the USDA, proposes changes to SNAP that would require “able-bodied” people between 18 and 49 with no dependents to either work or register for a training or education program if they’re on food stamps for three months or more. It’s estimated that this will drop 755,000 people from SNAP benefits.

Elections:

  1. In the 2017 Alabama senate elections where Democrat Doug Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore, a group of social media experts used tactics perfected by Russian trolls to try to sway support for Jones. Even though it was a small-scale operation, Jones calls for an FEC investigation to make sure no laws were violated.
    • The efforts were funded by a LinkedIn cofounder.
    • It was such a small effort that it likely did not effect the outcome of the election.
    • Alabama’s secretary of state says they were aware that groups from both sides were doing this but that they couldn’t get any help from Facebook or Twitter to stop it.
  1. Trump’s re-election committee and the Republican National Committee announce they’ll merge, which will strengthen his hold over the party and form a formidable fundraising machine. This is a first for a presidential campaign.
  2. The Mercers, who were implicated in the Russian social media influence campaigns in our 2016 elections, pull back on financial support to Republicans in opposition to Trump’s policies.

Miscellaneous:

  1. The Trump administration issues a regulation banning bump stocks. Anyone who already owns one has 90 days to turn them in or destroy them.
  2. Trump is already beginning to sour on Mick Mulvaney, who he just appointed as acting chief of staff. Trump’s not happy recently surfaced videos from before the election where we can hear Mulvaney calling Trump a terrible human being and describing Trump’s take on the border wall simplistic, absurd, and childish.

Week 99 in Trump

Posted on December 18, 2018 in Politics, Trump

So much happened last week, but my favorite part of the week was when Trump surprised Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer with a meeting with the press when they thought they were having a closed-door meeting. As far as transparency goes, that was awesome. But things went downhill fast, with a lot of shouting, a lot of misinformation, a bit of man-splaining, and some name-calling; only Nancy Pelosi was trying to talk policy. Pelosi came out of it not only looking like the adult in the room but also firmly pinning any potential government shutdown on Trump. It’s easy to see how she got the votes for Speaker.

Here’s what else happened this week…

Missed from Last Week:

  1. NASA spacecraft OSIRIS-REx arrived in the orbit of an asteroid named Bennu. OSIRIS-REx launched two years ago and will spend the next year surveying and mapping the asteroid and hopefully bring us back some rock samples. Seriously. We sent a spacecraft to an ASTEROID!
  2. The week had some hate:
    • Jehovah’s Witnesses have been targeted with hate crimes 5 times this year in Washington state. The latest attack destroyed a church in a fire.
    • Again in Washington, eight self-professed neo-Nazis assault a black man, yelling racist slurs as they attack him.
    • Someone spreads anti-Semitic pamphlets throughout Pittsburgh, and a student plasters State University of New York’s Purchase College with Nazi-themed posters.

Russia:

  1. Maria Butina pleads guilty to acting as an illegal foreign agent and agrees to cooperate with federal investigators. She’s the first Russian charged to admit trying to influence the 2016 elections.
  2. Here are some highlights:
    • In 2015, Butina began working with Alexander Torshin to establish “unofficial” lines of communication with political leaders for the benefit of the Russian Federation (because official lines weren’t working).
    • Butina targeted Republicans because she thought a Republican would win the presidency in 2016.
    • She worked with her boyfriend, South Dakotan Paul Erickson, on her plan and also to make the contacts she needed.
    • Butina planned to use the NRA to lay the groundwork because of their influence over the Republican party.
    • She received funding from a Russian billionaire.
    • In the middle of all this, Butina obtained a student visa so she could stay in the U.S.
    • She worked to meet with Trump’s advisors once he was elected. Butina and Erickson also tried to set up meetings between Trump advisors and Russian officials.
  1. As of this week, we know through court filings and guilty pleas that at least 16 Trump business and campaign associates had contact with Russians during the 2016 campaign. And every one of them lied about it.
  2. Newspapers and businesses across the country receive bomb threats, suspected to come from Russian hackers. The hackers ask for bitcoin in order to not detonate the (non-existent) bombs.
  3. Everything was going so well for Michael Flynn, who was probably on track to serve no jail time. And then, his lawyers file a court document claiming that the FBI didn’t let him know he maybe needed a lawyer during the interviews where he lied to investigators (which led to the charges against him). They say that the FBI tricked Flynn into lying but still don’t say why Flynn lied.
  4. Mueller says Flynn is an experienced military man in a high-level government position. He should know better than to lie to U.S. intelligence in any situation, and there was no coercion for him to lie.
  5. Two of Flynn’s associates say he was meeting with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 elections to talk about cooperation between Russia and the U.S. Russia would help end the Syrian conflict and the U.S. would ease sanctions.
    • The talks continued even after U.S. intelligence agencies told Trump’s campaign that Russia was behind the DNC hacks and subsequent leaks.
  1. On judge‘s orders, Mueller turns over their documentation of the interviews with Flynn where he is said to have lied.
  2. Texts and emails show that Paul Manafort was advising the Trump administration on ways to discredit Mueller’s investigations. Manafort recommended attacking the FBI, the DOJ, the Steele Dossier (and the Clinton campaign’s involvement) and any Obama officials involved in getting the FISA warrant. He recommended accusing the DNC of colluding with Ukraine.
  3. Studies commissioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee find that clearly all of the messaging coming from Russian entities was designed to benefit the Republican party and later Trump specifically.
    • One report finds that Russians used every major social media platform to influence the elections in 2016.
    • The other report analyzed how the Russian company Internet Research Agency targeted specific demographics for political messaging. IRA targeted blacks and other minorities to either discourage them from voting and turn them against Democrats.
    • Russian trolls and bots put a lot of time into dividing us on gun rights and immigration issues. They’d embed themselves in specific circles using authentic content, and then start posting provocative misinformation.
    • Posts on Instagram generated more than twice the user engagement than other major platforms.

Legal Fallout:

  1. Trump says he never told Cohen to break the law, but didn’t dispute that he told Cohen to pay off his mistresses to keep them quiet about their affairs. Trump says Cohen should’ve known what was legal; Cohen says he was under Trump’s sway.
  2. Sources says that Trump was involved in meetings where Cohen and David Pecker (of American Media Inc. (AMI)) talked about the payments.
  3. In his sentencing hearing, Cohen implies that he has more to talk about than just hush money payments. He gets a three-year sentence plus fines.
    • As a reminder, he pled guilty to: tax evasion, campaign finance violations, lying to banks, and lying to Congress. These are not all his known crimes.
    • Sean Hannity deletes all his tweets linking him to Cohen just before Cohen is sentenced.
  1. AMI is also in a cooperation agreement and has agreed to tell prosecutors everything they know about Trump. If you remember, AMI also has a vault of the negative stories about Trump that they killed in the run-up to the 2016 elections.
  2. David Pecker also admits to the hush money payments. AMI says the payments were to influence the elections, giving even more credence to the allegation that these were illegal campaign donations.
  3. Investigators are looking into donations to Trump’s inaugural committee and to a pro-Trump super PAC. They say foreign agents from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE might have disguised donations to buy influence over U.S. policy. Not surprisingly, Manafort it involved in this.
  4. When Trump and his siblings inflated invoices for their shell company decades ago, they also used those invoices as justification to inflate rent increases in their apartment buildings. This has caused the rent in those buildings to be artificially inflated for decades, even though the Trumps no longer own them.
  5. In a defamation lawsuit, Roger Stone admits to telling lies on InfoWars. Stone says he didn’t do his research and took the word of Sam Nunberg about alleged foreign donations to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. “Didn’t do his research” is how all this BS gets spread around in the first place so do your research!

Courts/Justice:

  1. The Supreme Court refuses to hear cases about blocking funding for Planned Parenthood. This leaves in place the lower court rulings that say states can’t cancel Medicaid contracts with Planned Parenthood offices.
  2. The Senate confirms Jonathan Kobes to a federal appeals court despite the ABA questioning his knowledge of the law and ability to understand complex legal analysis. This is Trump’s second unqualified but confirmed judicial nominee.
  3. The chief justice of California’s Supreme Court changes her party affiliation from Republican to No Party Preference. She says it’s been coming for a while, but Kavanaugh’s confirmation was the nail in the coffin.

Healthcare:

  1. The Trump administration shuts down an HIV research project in Montana because they use fetal tissue to research a cure for HIV/AIDS. Restrictions on the use of fetal tissue have been shutting down research projects across the country.
  2. The Senate votes against a bill that would extend VA benefits for thousands of vets who were exposed to Agent Orange. The House passed this bill unanimously.
  3. A federal judge in Texas rules that without the mandate, certain parts of the ACA are unconstitutional. Trump says that’s great news, but even legislators who tried to kill the ACA aren’t thrilled with this ruling. Many are even confused by it. The White House assures us that the ACA will remain in place through the appeals process. Oh, and the ruling comes the day before open enrollment ends.

International:

  1. Trump rejects the information given by U.S. intelligence agencies in his daily briefings on world events. Specifically, he’s denied that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections, he says North Korea will halt their nuclear weapons program, and he disagrees with them about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, climate change, and the role of the Saudi Crown Prince in Khashoggi’s murder.
  2. Theresa May delays a vote to approve her Brexit deal, and then survives a vote of no confidence. She then returns to Brussels to negotiate once more, but returns empty-handed.
  3. On top of weeks of protests across France, a shooter kills three people and injures 13 at a Christmas market in Strasbourg, putting all Christmas Markets in France on high alert and launching a manhunt. Police later find and shoot the gunman.
  4. A cyber attack on the Marriott earlier this year accessed the personal information of around 500 million guests. Investigators blame the cyber attack on Chinese intelligence.
  5. Trump continues to stand by Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman despite GOP Senators standing against him on this. Interesting side note: Some members of the Saudi royal family would like to stop MbS from being crowned king, but support from the U.S. and Trump could sway them.
  6. The Senate passes a resolution that declares MbS is not only involved in Khashoggi’s murder but is responsible for it.
  7. The Senate passes a recommendation to end support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.
  8. Party members in Hungary that are normally in opposition to one other unite in protest against Prime Minister Viktor Ordan’s authoritarian rule. Rallies and protests have spread across the country, taking the Prime Minister and his Fidesz party by surprise. Ordan has been steadily increasing his power while weakening democratic institutions and processes.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. The Senate reverses a Trump policy that helped hide information about donors to political non-profits. With the Senate bill, donors must be disclosed to the IRS.
  2. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signs a series of lame duck bills into law, curtailing the power of the office he is leaving because the person taking his place is a Democrat. From what I can see, the GOP plan seems to be: 1) Gerrymander districts so the other party can’t ever get a majority (even with a majority of votes statewide); and 2) When the populace finally votes your party out, change all the rules of government to make sure they can’t get anything done. Such a bad precedent.
    • Lawsuits against these bills are already in the works. Several of North Carolina’s attempt at passing bills to weaken incoming Democratic officials two years ago are still stuck in the courts.
    • Republicans in Wisconsin’s state legislature started working on these bills months ago just in case there was a shift in parties.
  1. Florida’s governor-elect Ron DeSantis wants to delay implementation of the voter approved ballot initiative that restored voting rights to felons who’ve served their time (excepting certain violent crimes).
  2. The House passes a bill to prevent states from holding children in adult jails and to ban the practice of shackling pregnant girls. The bill also funds tutoring, mental health assistance, and drug and alcohol programs for juvenile offenders.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The number of migrant minors held in U.S. custody is now nearly 15,000. A big reason for the backlog is that sponsors for these children are afraid to come forward for fear of being deported themselves.
  2. Church leaders form an interfaith protest at the U.S.-Mexico border in support of those seeking asylum. Officials arrest 32 faith leaders and activists at the protest.
  3. Officials in Ohio arrest a man who was plotting to kill people in a Jewish synagogue. Hate crimes against Jews have increased more than any other type of hate crime.
  4. Immigration judges for the most part want to make the right choices and not send people back to their home countries to get killed. The Global Migration Project at Columbia University recently found over 60 people who were killed or harmed after being sent home.
  5. The Trump administration starts working once again to deport refugees from the Vietnam war who’ve lived in the U.S. for decades.
  6. Trump says the updated NAFTA deal means that Mexico will pay for his wall. In case you were wondering, it doesn’t.
  7. A seven-year-old migrant girl dies after getting sick eight hours after being taken into custody. Homeland Security says that she didn’t have anything to eat or drink for days before being detained, but her family says that’s not true. The fastest way to get her medical assistance was a 90-minute bus ride, during which she worsened until she was no longer breathing when they arrived. An investigation is underway.
  8. Trump uses the shooting in Strasbourg as a reason we need to shore up our borders, but it turns out the shooter was born in Strasbourg.
  9. Trump claims that the migrants coming in to this country are spreading contagious diseases. There’s no evidence of this.
  10. Trump says a lot of his wall is already built and that it has decreased illegal migration significantly. He seems to be referring to fencing built or fixed between 1992 and 2016.
  11. Trump says says migrants crossing the border illegally are pouring drugs into the country, but according to the DEA most drugs come in through legal ports of entry.
  12. In referring to illegal immigration over the southern border, Trump says: “We caught 10 terrorists over the last very short period of time. Ten.” I’m not sure what he means by ‘the last very short period of time,’ but most terrorists are blocked from entry into the U.S. at airports. And a State Department study found “no credible information that any member of a terrorist group has traveled through Mexico to gain access to the United States.”
  13. Betsy DeVos moves to rescind Obama-era guidance over school discipline that prevented minority students from receiving harsher punishments than their white classmates.
  14. Miss USA, Miss Columbia and Miss Australia are caught on tape mocking other Miss Universe contestants’ English-speaking skills.

Climate/EPA:

  1. A new study that compares past and future climates suggests that over the past 200 years, human activity has reversed millions of years of cooling. So yes, our climate changes, but generally not as rapidly as now.
  2. At the UN climate talks, Trump’s top climate and energy advisor is greeted with laughter when he gives a talk that includes pitching coal, the fossil fuel largely responsible for climate change. Turns out that most of the audience is there merely to protest; the U.S. couldn’t get enough people who are serious about climate change to attend.
  3. At the same talks, nations discuss the latest IPCC report which calls for dramatic cuts in emissions. Oil producing nations want to keep the report out of the final agreement, and the U.S. backs them. They end up welcoming the “timeliness” of the report as opposed to the content of the report.
  4. Even more interesting, though, is the fact that U.S. officials were working behind the scenes to continue making contributions to the Paris agreement.
  5. The Trump administration wants to reclassify nuclear waste so we don’t have to be so cautious in disposing of it, making disposal cheaper. Though this is the same administration that says a little radiation every day is good for you!
  6. The Trump administration proposes weakening the clean water rules that were created by George H.W. Bush and expanded on under Obama. The changes loosen protections against pollutants, pesticides, and toxic waste in certain waterways.
  7. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke resigns in the middle of more than a dozen ethics investigations into his political activity, travel expenses, and possible conflicts of interest. Zinke used his position roll back environmental protections and to exploit federal lands with the goal of global energy dominance.
  8. Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt will take over for Zinke temporarily. Bernhardt was a fossil fuels and water industry lobbyist before coming to the department (whose mission, by the way, is to be a good steward of our public lands).
  9. The Trump administration auctions off leases that will allow fracking on public lands near Utah’s national parks.
  10. A new study shows that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef might be adapting to the warmer waters caused by climate change. The harm done to the reef this year was less than expected despite warmer waters.

Budget/Economy:

  1. China agrees to cut tariffs on U.S. automobiles to 15%.
  2. Trump says he’ll shut down the government if the spending bill doesn’t fund his border wall. He even says he’ll be proud to shut it down.
  3. Trump signs an executive order to help fund underserved communities known as “opportunity zones.”
  4. Trump wants to get rid of subsidies for electric vehicles, which would give foreign automakers an advantage in EV development.
  5. The budget deficit for the first two months of fiscal year 2019 is double what it was in the first two months of fiscal year 2018. The administration predicts the deficit will be over $1 trillion for three straight years.
  6. In 2010, Wells Fargo incorrectly foreclosed on around 545 homeowners due to a computer glitch. Most of these people lost their homes, their current and future equity, and in some cases their pets because they had to move. To make up for it, Wells Fargo sends the borrowers checks that grossly under-compensated them for their losses.
  7. A few months ago, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau put out a report showing that Wells Fargo was price-gouging student borrowers. The Trump administration has been sitting on that information.
  8. Betsy DeVos loses a court battle and now has to cancel $150 million in federal student loan debt. The loan forgiveness affects 15,000 borrowers who were cheated by for-profit colleges.

Elections:

  1. A federal court in Virginia hands down documents in a case that concluded that 11 of Virginia’s districts are illegally gerrymandered. The case is pending before the Supreme Court, but the legislature must redraw the district lines anyway. One of the documents includes a variety of plans, but none of them redraw less than 21 districts.
  2. Things aren’t looking good for Mark Harris, Republican candidate for Congress in North Carolina’s 9th District. It turns out that he sought to hire Leslie Dowless to help win the 2018 race after losing a race in 2016, knowing Dowless’ reputation for using sketchy means to win elections. Dowless illegally harvested ballots according to witnesses.
  3. George Papadopoulos feels like he’s ready to run for Congress. Now that he’s done his jail time for lying about Russian contacts, that is.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Time Magazine names a group of journalist as their Person of the Year. The group, which Time calls The Guardians, include the slain journalists at the Capital Gazette and Jamal Khashoggi, among others. One of the reasons for this choice is that “manipulation and abuse of truth is really the common thread in so many of this year’s major stories.”
  2. The House Judiciary Committee questions a Google executive for over three hours because Republicans think Google searches bring up results that aren’t fair to conservatives. Both parties are concerned about privacy issues.
  3. Stormy Daniels has to pay Trump nearly $300,000 in legal fees because her defamation suit against him was dismissed.
  4. A Kansas state senator switches party affiliations from Republican to Democrat after being ostracized for supporting the Democratic candidate for governor over Kris Kobach.
  5. The Trumps cancel the White House tradition of a holiday press party. Last year, they held the event but declined the tradition of taking pictures with anyone who wanted one.
  6. After Nick Ayers turns down the chief of staff position, Chris Christie takes himself out of the running as well. Jared Kushner’s in the running, but then Trump picks Mick Mulvaney to be acting chief of staff. Mulvaney is already wearing a couple different hats.
  7. The Trumps plan to take a 16-day trip to Mar-a-Lago over the holidays.
  8. Voyager 2 becomes the second human-made object to leave our solar system (Voyager 1 was the first). Voyager 2 was launched in 1977 and its equipment still functions.

Polls:

  1. Trump’s approval rating in rural areas is 61% compared to 31% in urban areas and 41% in suburban areas.