Tag: NASA

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 97 in Trump

Posted on December 4, 2018 in Politics, Trump

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

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

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

Missed from Last Week:

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

Russia:

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

Legal Fallout:

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

Courts/Justice:

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

Healthcare:

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

International:

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

Legislation/Congress:

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

Family Separation:

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

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

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

Climate/EPA:

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

Budget/Economy:

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

Elections:

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

Miscellaneous:

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

Week 81 in Trump

Posted on August 13, 2018 in Politics, Trump

You can see the constant growth of GDP over the past 10 years, with a few blips. The biggest change has been our perception of growth.

I came across an article in the New York Times that reinforced for me how quirky our perceptions of the economy are. We don’t look so much at actual income, taxes, spending, or the stock market, and we give way too much credit (or blame) to the president. From the article:

“In the 18 months before Mr. Trump moved into the White House, 3.7 million jobs were created, seven in 10 Americans said they were doing fine or living comfortably and the economy grew. In the 18 months since, 3.4 million jobs were created, seven in 10 Americans said they were doing fine or living comfortably and the economy grew. Stubbornly slow wage growth and wide income gaps have spanned both periods.”

So people who complained under Obama suddenly think everything has changed for the better, while those who were praising Obama are now wary of the booming economy. We’re living in a weird time when economic successes don’t improve the popularity of a president from either party.

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

Missed from Last Week:

  1. Trump goes to Ohio to stump for the Republican candidate in a special election, and gets mad at LeBron James and calls him stupid in a tweet. In OHIO. Trump goes on to tweet how great it was that his candidate won by a landslide. Except that he didn’t. It should’ve been a landslide Republican victory in this district, but it’s so close ballots are still being counted.

Russia:

  1. Here are this week’s highlights in the Manafort Trial:
    • Rick Gates takes the stand, and testifies that both he and Manafort were involved in tax evasion schemes, bank fraud, and hiding money abroad. He also admits to embezzlement from Manafort.
    • Gates admits to filing false tax statements on Manafort’s behalf, and to giving accountants false information at Manafort’s request.
    • Gates says that Manafort used a network of offshore accounts to receive money from Ukrainian businessmen.
    • Gates also says that Manafort was shocked when he had to pay $215,000 in taxes, and complained that Gates was supposed to protect him from that.
    • Evidence shows that Manafort tried to cash in on his influence with Trump to help fix his financial problems. Also, Trump’s relationship with Manafort goes back to at least 2013.
    • The defense tries to portray Gates as a serial liar—not surprising.
    • When a defense attorney questioning Rick Gates asked a question about his time at the Trump campaign, prosecutors object. Prosecutors argue they need to protect the secrecy of an ongoing investigation and limit disclosure of new information, implying that Gates is also cooperating with Mueller in the Russia investigation. The judge seals the transcript for that discussion.
    • Witnesses testify that Manafort promised a Chicago bank CEO various positions in the Trump administration in return for loans. The CEO had even called government officials to get information to prepare himself for running the Army.
    • The judge in the case has been pretty critical of both parties, but especially toward the prosecution. At one point the judge did say that he himself was out of line and that the jury should ignore what he said.
    • The prosecution was supposed to wrap up on Friday, but due to delays in the court, prosecution will likely wrap up on Monday.
    • One of the accountants who testified last week is fired when her current company learns of her questionable activities for Manafort.
  1. A judge holds Andrew Miller in contempt of court for refusing to testify before the grand jury. Miller is a former aide to Trump associate Roger Stone who has already lost his appeal to block the subpoena to testify. Miller’s lawyer says that their appeal is designed to challenge the constitutionality of Mueller’s appointment.
  2. Kristin Davis, the Manhattan Madame, is scheduled to testify before the grand jury in the Russia investigation. Rumor is it’s because of her ties to Roger Stone.
  3. The Democratic National Committee obtains court approval to serve a summons to Wikileaks through Twitter! Some background:
    • The DNC filed a lawsuit against the Trump campaign, the Russian government, and Wikileaks alleging a conspiracy to influence the 2016 election.
    • The lawsuit is likely a way to obtain and expose evidence and information that otherwise would be kept secret.
    • This isn’t the first problem they’ve had serving a subpoena. They also can’t get past Jared Kushner’s Secret Service to serve him and they judge denied their request to serve him by mail.
  1. Florida Senator Bill Nelson says that Russian hackers have breached some of Florida’s election servers and he requests resources for additional security. Nelson and Marco Rubio wrote to local elections officials to warn them of the threat.
  2. Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) meets with Russian officials in Moscow, and then invites some Russian lawmakers to visit Washington.
  3. The Trump administration adds new sanctions against Russia for the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter living in England.
  4. A leaked Russian document shows that during their summit, Putin lobbied Trump on nuclear arms control, particularly in space.
  5. Representative Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) is caught on tape at a GOP fundraiser where he talks about the GOP strategy to impeach Rod Rosenstein and implores attendees to help make sure Democrats don’t win in November because then the whole impeachment of Rosenstein will go away. The reason the House has to wait to impeach, he says, is that if they impeach now the Senate will have to drop the Kavanaugh hearing to take up the Rosenstein impeachment. He also says that Republicans in the House are the only ones protecting Trump from the Mueller investigation.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Despite not getting the full set of requested records on Brett Kavanaugh, the Senate schedules his confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court Justice seat to start on September 4. Even if his full record is disclosed, it will be impossible for Senators or the public to review it by then. But this keeps with McConnell’s plans to get him confirmed before the midterms.
  2. Kavanaugh once argued that it’s OK for the president to ignore laws that they don’t think are constitutional, at least until a court declares otherwise.

International:

  1. Trump signs an executive order to reimpose the sanctions on Iran that were ended when we entered into the JCPA with them. He threatens any countries who try to work around the sanctions.
  2. As the Turkish Finance Minister announces a new plan to help the Turkish economy, Trump tweets that he’ll double the tariffs on steel and aluminum coming from Turkey. And the lira tumbles, reaching a new low against the dollar. President Erdogan asks supporters to save the lira by cashing in their U.S. dollars and euros.
  3. A little background on what’s going on here:
    • We froze assets of certain Turkish officials because Turkey’s detaining an American pastor.
    • Turkey has a plan to buy advanced missile systems from Russia.
    • One of Turkey’s biggest banks is implicated in working to get around American sanctions against Iran.
    • Turkey is mad at us for using a Kurdish group to help fight ISIS.
  1. A Saudi-led airstrike in Yemen hits a school bus, killing dozens of children. Saudi Arabia denies this, saying they targeted and killed the people who executed an attack on civilians.
  2. We learn that senior national security officials urged NATO ambassadors last month to complete their joint communiqué before the NATO summit actually began. They thought this might prevent Trump from upending any agreements. Trump still asked whether an attack on one NATO country was really an attack on us all. I’m sure that wouldn’t even be a question if we were the one attacked.
  3. Tens of thousands of Jewish and Arab demonstrators march in the streets in Israel to protest Netanyahu’s new “Jewish State Law.” Some say the law gives non-Jews second-class status. Others say the move goes against democracy.
  4. Oh, and by the way, Saudi Arabia is now feuding with Canada over Canadian tweets in support of human rights aimed at Saudi Arabia. Seriously. Who fights with Canada? But this one’s getting intense. Ambassadors have been expelled or recalled, and Saudi Arabia stopped flights to Toronto and they’re recalling Saudi students studying in Canada.

Family Separation:

  1. The Trump administration gives the ACLU over 400 phone numbers of parents who haven’t been reunited with their children yet. The ACLU accuses the government of deliberately withholding the numbers to prolong the reunification.
  2. An ICE truck carrying mothers separated from their children at the border crashed into a pickup on July 17. ICE denied the incident for three weeks even though there is an accident report.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The Government Accountability Office releases a report showing that Customs and Border Patrol’s plan to build the wall is lacking in information, will run into cost overruns, and will take longer than expected. The current plan fails to take into account things like logistics, terrain, and ownership of border lands. CBP also didn’t think about where barriers would actually be useful.
  2. A furious judge orders the plane carrying a deported mother and child back to their country to turn around and bring them back. They were in the middle of the pair’s deportation hearing. The judge threatens Jeff Sessions with contempt of court if this continues.
  3. Melania Trump’s parents get their U.S. citizenship through family-based migration. Or as Trump calls it, chain migration (and which he wants to eliminate for everyone else).
  4. Melania’s attorney criticizes Trump’s position on family-based migration, calling the attacks unconscionable. This is the same attorney that represented Melania’s parents.
  5. For the second time, a court rules that Trump can’t bar certain transgender people from serving in the military.
  6. Trump tries to get ahead of the white nationalist rally in DC by tweeting out condemnation of all kinds of racism. Again he fails to mention white supremacy or Nazis by name, and he also implies that other kinds of racism are a problem in the U.S.
  7. Steven Miller has come up with yet another way to prevent people from becoming U.S. citizens. He’s working with Trump to change the rules to prevent someone from getting a green card or citizenship if they’ve ever received any kind of assistance, like ACA or CHIP healthcare benefits or SNAP food benefits. This would affect people who have already been here for years and are currently going through the approval process. Now’s probably a good time to remember that J.K. Rowling was once on food stamps.
  8. White nationalists hold a Unite the Right rally in Washington D.C. to mark the one-year anniversary of their march in Charlottesville where counter-protestor Heather Heyer was killed by a self-proclaimed Nazi sympathizer. Charlottesville denied them a permit this year.
  9. Rally organizer Jason Kessler expected 400 people, but it was closer to 40.
  10. In contrast, over a thousand counter-protestors (some peaceful, some not) showed up to stand up against racist hate.
  11. The white supremacist and white nationalist movements have splintered over the past year. Instead of Charlottesville being pivotal in elevating those movements in the U.S. dialog, the rally backfired and has caused many members to be outed, ostracized, and even fired. It also backfired in that it increased the enthusiasm on the other side to fight racism and discrimination.
  12. At the first preseason NFL games, players continue to protest by taking a knee, raising a fist, or staying off the field during the anthem. Also, as it turns out, the courts decided long ago that you can’t force a patriotic act on anyone, ruling that it’s better for them to choose to do it.

Climate/EPA:

  1. In response to Trump blaming California’s fires on the state’s own water policies, Daniel Berlant, assistant deputy director of Cal Fire, says: “We have plenty of water to fight these wildfires, but let’s be clear: It’s our changing climate that is leading to more severe and destructive fires.”
  2. The EPA is planning to start allowing the use of asbestos in manufacturing again. Remember the story a few weeks ago about how a Russian asbestos company started putting Trump’s face on their packaging? Well now you know why. There are nearly 40,000 asbestos-related deaths each year.
  3. The Trump administration defends its move to reverse Obama’s fuel efficiency standards by saying fuel efficiency is dangerous for drivers. How you might ask? Because if we get better mileage, we’ll drive more. Which I guess is more dangerous...
  4. Puerto Rico finally admits that the death toll from Hurricane Maria is most likely over 1,400, way higher than the original claim of 64.
  5. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rules that the EPA must act on its own research and finalize the ban on chlorpyrifos within 60 days. The court says the findings are undisputed that the chemical is unsafe.
  6. A court awards $290 million to a groundskeeper who says his cancer came from Monsanto’s Roundup pesticide.
  7. Bayer might be regretting their recent takeover of Monsanto; their stock drops 11% after the above decision, and there are at least 800 other cases pending.
  8. Monsanto denies the harmful effects of Roundup and says they’ll appeal.
  9. The Bureau of Land Management says it’s looking at opening up oil and gas leases on BLM land in California. There’s been a moratorium on drilling in these areas for the past five years. In one county, residents are trying to pass a ballot measure that would ban fracking and exploration in San Luis Obispo County.

  10. A toxic algae bloom, called the red tide, is moving up the west coast of Florida and killing off fish and other sea creatures (like dolphins, manatees, and turtles). This happens every year, but this year is particularly bad. Governor Rick Scott has slashed the budget for fighting pollution and climate change and has reduced statewide oversight of polluters. Polluted discharge from lakes and streams can cause or worsen algae blooms.

Budget/Economy:

  1. When Betsy DeVos’s yacht was vandalized a few weeks ago, we learned that it’s registered in the Cayman Islands to avoid taxes. Here are just a few other current and past officials doing a little offshoring: Elaine Chao, Wilbur Ross, Jay Clayton, Gary Cohn, Rex Tillerson, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Steve Mnuchin, Randy Quarles, Tom Barrack, and of course, Carl Icahn.
  2. And speaking of Wilbur Ross, he’s being accused of siphoning over $120 million from business associates.
  3. Trump posits that the revenue made from his new tariffs will help pay down our $21 trillion debt. In order to do this, tariffs would have to generate at least $800 billion this year, and they’re expected to generate $40 billion.
  4. Missouri voters reject the “right to work” laws that were passed last year. Right to Work laws weaken unions and give workers fewer options to ensure they’re being treated fairly.
  5. Element Electronics, one of the last companies left in the U.S. that assembles general-use TVs, announces they will shut down because of Trump’s tariffs on Chinese parts. Their VP says he hopes the shutdown is temporary.
  6. Trump threatens Canadian officials with tariffs on Canadian cars if they won’t give us the trade deal we want. He also seems to be playing Canada against Mexico by saying that negotiations with Mexico are coming along.
  7. China announces additional tariffs of 25% on $16 billion of American goods.
  8. A cargo ship carrying $20 million worth of soybeans has been drifting around the Pacific Ocean since the trade war started. They got caught right in the middle, having launched the ship before the tariffs were announced, but not arriving in China in time to beat the tariffs. Soybean prices haven’t rebounded since the tariffs went into effect.
  9. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will no longer routinely check up on lenders for violations of the Military Lending Act. This act protects military service members from being taking advantage of by lenders in numerous ways, including predatory lending and price gouging.
  10. Trump cuts staff for the Office of Financial Research, a group created after the Great Recession for the purpose of identifying future financial risks.

Elections:

  1. Trump endorses Kris Kobach in the Republican primary for governor of Kansas. The race is so close, they have to do a recount, which is normally overseen by the Secretary of State. Who actually IS Kobach. He only recuses himself from the recount once public pressure builds.
  2. Kobach’s opponent and current governor of Kansas accuses Kobach of telling counties not to count ballots that were in the mail, which must be counted under Kansas law.
  3. A group of attorneys and politicians is suing Massachusetts, Texas, South Carolina, and California over their electoral college votes. The group says that the winner-take-all system (which most states have) disenfranchises millions of voters.
  4. Michael Avenatti says he might run for president. You didn’t think he was doing all this publicity out of the goodness of his heart, did you?
  5. Massachusetts passes an automatic voter registration bill. Six states have done the same this legislative season, making a total of thirteen states plus Washington DC that have automatic voter registration.
  6. Representative Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) is arrested on insider trading charges, and is forced to suspend his re-election campaign for Congress. I have lost count of all the scandals in the past two years at this point.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Federal prosecutors are investigating Trump’s one-time attorney, Michael Cohen, for tax and bank fraud, largely having to do with his taxi medallion business.
  2. Tribune Media ends merger talks with Sinclair Broadcasting and is suing them over the failure of the merger. Tribune accuses Sinclair of not holding up their contractual responsibilities to move the merger through FCC approval.
  3. After Alex Jones is banned from numerous social media sites, his supporters launch a harassment campaign against verified Twitter users, including several journalists.
  4. NASA launches the Parker Solar Probe, which will get closer to the sun than any manmade object ever has before. The purposes are to study how energy and heat move through the sun’s corona and to look at the movement of solar wind and energetic solar particles.
  5. Mike Pence officially announces the formation of a sixth branch of the military, the Space Force, by 2020. First the Pentagon will create a Space Command, with the ultimate goal of developing space technologies for military purposes.
    • Pence says we must have American dominance in space!
    • Last year, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis opposed the creation of a new branch of the military, but now he seems to be all in.
    • Critics say that space development is a peaceful collaboration between countries, and that there’s no reason to militarize it.
    • The Russian Embassy makes fun of the announcement with a tweet: “Good Morning, Space Forces!” with a picture of a rocket with a Russian flag. Not so funny, though, is that Russia also threatens to cut off the supply of rocket engines that we need for our existing space program.
  1. A Kentucky district judge who worked on Trump’s campaign is sentenced to 20 years for human trafficking involving minors.
  2. Omarosa Manigault-Newman releases a tell-all book about the Trump administration. She calls him a racist who uses the n-word and she says she has the tapes to prove it. Trump, in turn, calls her a lowlife.
  3. It turns out she does have some tapes, though their legality is questionable. But she releases one of Chief of Staff John Kelly firing her.
  4. An airport worker at Seattle’s Sea-Tac airport hijacks a passenger plane with no passengers, and then flies around for a bit doing some crazy stunts before crashing it into a sparsely populated island.
  5. Someone who worked at the New York Observer when Jared Kushner was in charge there says that Kushner used to have him remove articles that were critical of Kushner or his friends.
  6. We learn that three Mar-a-Lago members with no official government roles speak daily with Veterans Affairs officials and exert influence over policy and decisions.
  7. Media companies begin employing security for their journalists at Trump rallies.

Polls:

  1. Donald Trump Jr. shares an image of a poll that was faked to make Trump Sr.’s approval rating look 10 points higher than it actually is. Junior says it’s amazing what his dad can do. The original image shows Trump’s 40% approval compared to Obama’s 45% at the same time in his term. The doctored image inflates Trump’s rating to 50%.

Week 67 in Trump

Posted on May 7, 2018 in Politics, Trump

Here’s how fast things change from week to week. From Peter Baker of the New York Times:

“As of last week, the American public had been told that President Trump’s doctor had certified he would be the “the healthiest individual ever elected.” That the president was happy with his legal team and would not hire a new lawyer. That he did not know about the $130,000 payment to a former pornographic film actress who claimed to have had an affair with him.

As of this week, it turns out that the statement about his health was not actually from the doctor but had been dictated by Mr. Trump himself. That the president has split with the leaders of his legal team and hired the same new lawyer he had denied recruiting. And that Mr. Trump himself financed the $130,000 payment intended to buy the silence of the actress known as Stormy Daniels.”

Also, ICYMI, you should change your Twitter password.

Here’s what happened last week in politics…

Russia:

  1. The New York Time obtains a list of questions that Mueller supposedly wants to ask the president. The questions turn out to be written by Trump’s legal team (specifically Jay Sekulow) after Mueller gave them the topics he wants to talk about.
  2. But still, Trump tries to use the questions as proof that Mueller isn’t looking into collusion… even though several of the questions are about collusion.
  3. The leaked questions apparently came from the Trump team, who is blaming the leak on Mueller, which is unlikely because Mueller’s team has probably never seen this list.
  4. At any rate, the president’s team says this proves that Mueller has overreached the scope of his investigation even though they aren’t Mueller’s questions.
  5. Trump’s lead attorney John Dowd (now resigned) says that Mueller recently brought up the idea of subpoenaing Trump if he refuses to appear. In response, Trump says Mueller is trying to set him up and trap him.
  6. Ty Cobb announces his retirement as White House Counsel, and Emmet Flood will replace him. Flood was an impeachment lawyer for Bill Clinton in the 90s.
  7. No one in Trump’s current legal team has the security clearances needed to discuss sensitive issues should Trump meet with Mueller. John Dowd, who left in March, was the only one on the team who had the needed clearance.
  8. Cambridge Analytica closes its operations after losing clients and facing steep legal fees. The company is accused of misusing Facebook data to influence the 2016 elections in the U.S. and to influence the Brexit vote in the UK.
  9. But then we learn that Rebekah and Jennifer Mercer have already joined a new data company, Emerdata, as directors. The Mercers were the money behind Cambridge Analytica, and Emerdata is owned by Cambridge Analytica’s parent company. The CEO and other members of Cambridge Analytica have also moved over to Emerdata. It seems they’re just rebranding Cambridge Analytica as Emerdata.
  10. UK regulators order Cambridge Analytica to release the information they scraped about a U.S. voter along with details on how they obtained the data and what they did with it. The voter requested the information under UK laws, getting around the U.S. system that doesn’t provide the means to obtain this data. It’s possible we could all force Cambridge Analytica to give us this information about our own data.
  11. In a round of media interviews, Rudy Giuliani says:
    • Trump is immune from being subpoenaed in a criminal proceeding (something the Supreme Court has not yet supported—the court tends to reject efforts to protect the president this way).
    • Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein should redeem themselves by ending the special counsel’s investigation.
    • FBI agents are like Nazi stormtroopers.
  1. The judge in Paul Manafort’s trial questions why Mueller’s investigation into Manafort falls under his jurisdiction but the investigation into Michael Cohen doesn’t. He wonders if Mueller is just trying to squeeze Manafort for information about Trump.
  2. None of the above means the judge thinks Manafort isn’t guilty; he just raises the possibility of sending the case down to a state prosecutor.
  3. Mueller puts in a request for 70 blank subpoenas in the Manafort case.
  4. Mueller also requests a 60-day postponement in Michael Flynn’s sentencing.
  5. Devin Nunes didn’t bother to read a document turned over to him by the DOJ after Nunes threatened impeachment against Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray. The 2-page document contains the evidence used by the DOJ and FBI to open the Russia investigation (not the same as the Steele dossier, BTW).
  6. And now Nunes wants to hold Jeff Sessions in contempt of Congress for not releasing classified documents to Nunes‘ committee, which is investigating FISA abuses.
  7. Rod Rosenstein responds to the articles of impeachment drawn up against him by the House Freedom Caucus by saying that the DOJ won’t be extorted and that threats won’t stop him from doing his job.
  8. We learn that after Trump agreed to sell the Ukraine missiles to help in their fight against Russia last year, the Ukraine stopped cooperating with the Mueller investigation and they halted their own investigation into Paul Manafort.
  9. Demonstrators across Russia rally to protest Vladimir Putin’s inauguration. Nearly 1,600 protesters are arrested, including Putin’s most prominent opponent, Alexei Navalny.

Courts/Justice:

Apparently the Justice Department has been too busy fighting congressional subpoenas to get anything done this week.

Healthcare:

  1. Tom Price, former Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, says that last year’s tax reform will raise health insurance costs because it repealed the individual mandate. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) agrees, saying average premiums will increase by around 10% per year more than if the mandate remained in place. This will amount to about an 18% increase this year, according to the Urban Institute.
  2. Whoops! Tom Price later walks those statements back, saying repealing the mandate was absolutely the right thing to do.
  3. The Urban Institute also predicts that getting rid of the mandate, along with other changes like allowing substandard policies, will cost the federal government $33 billion per year MORE to insure 6.4 million FEWER people.
  4. Four million fewer people are already uninsured compared to this time in 2016.
  5. Iowa passes the “Fetal Heartbeat” bill, making most abortions illegal after about 6 weeks (or once a heartbeat is detected). Many women don’t even know they’re pregnant at this point.
  6. Because it’s not enough that fentanyl added to heroine led to a massive increase in overdoses, dealers are also adding fentanyl to cocaine. Cocaine deaths have been rising as dealers target drug users who are trying to avoid opiates. Many states don’t keep record of this kind of drug combination, but in Connecticut where they do track it, cocaine+fentanyl deaths rose 420% over the past three years.
  7. Trump says he’ll appoint Dr. Mehmet Oz to the Sport, Fitness, and Nutrition council.

International:

  1. In a public presentation to the Israeli Defense Ministry, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims that Iran has lied about its nuclear weapons program. The information he presents is from 1999-2003, a time when we pretty much knew Iran was lying about their program, but the presentation seems aimed at making us think they’ve broken the Iran deal, which Netanyahu wants Trump to dump.
    My 2 cents? Leaving the agreement frees up Iran to develop whatever nuclear program they want, and we will have given them back $1.7 billion worth of previously frozen assets to do it. What kind of deal is that?
  2. We learn that Trump aides hired Israeli private investigators last year to find dirt on key members of the Obama administration who were responsible for negotiating the Iran deal, including national security advisors Ben Rhodes and Colin Kahl. One thing they were trying to find is whether either Rhodes or Kahl had benefited personally or professionally from the deal (which IMO reveals more about Trump than it does about Rhodes or Kahl).
  3. Kahl reveals a mysterious attempt from a UK company last year to contact his wife about a school she volunteers with. The company’s website has since been taken down, and Kahl thinks it was part of the above investigation.
  4. The Israeli investigators hired by Trump’s aides were also hired by Harvey Weinstein to go after his accusers and stop the publicity around his sexual harassment and abuse.
  5. After Netanyahu’s presentation, the White House issues a statement that Iran has a robust, clandestine nuclear program that it hides from the world and Iranian citizens. This alarms many people because of its similarities to the accusations that pushed us into the Iraq war. The White House later updates the statement to say Iran HAD not HAS such a program. They blame the error on a typo.
  6. John Kerry has been working behind the scenes to save the Iran deal, meeting with UN and foreign officials to find ways to keep the deal in place.
  7. Trumps says that withdrawing from the Iran deal sends North Korea the right message in the lead up to our negotiations with them. I guess that could be true if the right message is that we don’t hold up our agreements.
  8. If the U.S. pulls out of the Iran deal, it would leave the rest of the world to navigate a very complicated web of sanctions on international businesses.
  9. The Trump administration is working to get three U.S. hostages held in North Korea released. I wish him success, but two things: 1) Rudy Giuliani claims that their release has already been obtained (it hasn’t), and 2) Trump says that the past administration tried to get them released with no success (two of the three were imprisoned last year, so it’s highly doubtful Obama was involved).
  10. North Korea accuses Trump of provoking them with his tough talk on military might. They also warn us not to mistake their willingness to talk for weakness.
  11. Ahead of his meeting with North Korea, Trump orders the Pentagon to prepare for pulling troops out of South Korea.
  12. Trump freezes funding for Syria‘s main humanitarian group, the White Helmets. If you don’t know who they are, check out the short documentary about them.
  13. Suicide bombers in Kabul kill at least 31 people.

Legislation/Congress:

  1. The House chaplain, who Paul Ryan forced to resign last week, rescinds his resignation, forcing Ryan to either fire him or keep him on. Ryan decides to keep him, leaving us all wondering what the heck happened there.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Seven states, including Texas, file a lawsuit against the Trump administration to end DACA, even though Trump has already attempted to do this and the courts stopped him.
    • Here are the states involved in the suit, along with the number of people with DACA status: Texas (121,000), South Carolina (6,400), Arkansas (5,100), Alabama (4,300), Nebraska (3,400), Louisiana (2,000), and West Virginia (100).
    • Compare that to California (223,000), Illinois (42,000), New York (42,000), and Florida (33,000). It seems the states least affect by DACA (with the exception of Texas) are the ones that want to end it.
  1. An all-black, all-female team of three was named a finalist in NASA’s high school competition, but NASA had to end public voting early when racists on 4chan launched a racially-based social media campaign against them.
  2. Kirstjen Nielsen, Homeland Security Secretary, ends temporary protected status for the Hondurans who came hear nearly two decades ago as refugees after Hurricane Mitch devastated their country. That’s nearly 86,000 people who have called the U.S. their home for 20 years.
  3. They may not call it a Muslim ban, but actions speak louder than words. So far this fiscal year, Christians refugees admitted into the U.S. outnumber Muslims by more almost four times. 1,800 Muslims have been allowed compared to 6,700 Christians, and the number of Muslims has shrunk by more than any other religious group, right in line with Trump having said he’ll prioritize Christian refugees.
  4. Several U.S. citizens get caught up each year in ICE detainments, some of whom have been detained for over three years. The average time U.S. citizens are detained is 180 days; that’s a half a year these people lose. Citizens have also been deported, and had to have an embassy intervene for their return.
    Side note: It’s illegal for ICE to detain U.S. citizens. Where’s the accountability here?
  5. About 250 members of the caravan of asylum seekers marching across Mexico reach the U.S. border, where most are turned away by border patrol. 49 have been admitted to the U.S. while the rest are living in a tent city south of the border.
  6. Mike Pence calls Joe Arpaio a tireless champion for the rule of law. In case you forgot, Arpaio’s lost countless civil suits for his treatment of prisoners and is also a convict himself, though he was pardoned by Trump.
  7. 2017 saw a 17% drop in international students coming to the U.S. Why is this important? Foreign students contribute about $37 billion to the U.S. economy each year.
  8. In 44 states, a majority of residents support the right for same-sex couples to marry. The states that don’t support it: Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, West Virginia, Louisiana, and North Carolina. Alabama is the only state where a majority oppose that right.

Climate/EPA:

  1. Eighteen states, including California, sue the Trump administration over its attempts to roll back Obama-era fuel efficiency goals.
  2. The sea ice cover in the Bering Sea this winter hit a record low, and a striking low at that. It was just half the cover of the previous record low.
  3. Scott Pruitt’s questionable foreign travel has been facilitated by lobbyists and wealthy donors, including Richard Smotkin, who arranged Pruitt’s trip to Morocco was later awarded a $40,000/month contract to lobby for the Moroccan government. Sheldon Adelson helped him with his trip to Israel. And former lobbyist Matthew Freedman worked to line up a trip to Australia.
  4. Three top-level officials part ways with the EPA after Pruitt testified to Congress the previous week. Pruitt blamed subordinates for his own ethical lapses.
  5. Under Ryan Zinke, the Fish and Wildlife Service removes Yellowstone grizzlies from the endangered species list. At the same time they’re working on solutions to diversify this small group of bears by importing bears from other areas. So they’ll take bears from areas where they’re still considered endangered, and move them to an area where they are not considered endangered?
  6. There are rumors of a power struggle between Pruitt and Zinke, which could be why so many negative stories about both of them are coming out.

Budget/Economy:

  1. The unemployment rate drops to 3.9%, and wages rise slightly, though not as much as economists expect in such a tight labor market. One reason could be increasing inflation or fears of it.
  2. California moves up to fifth in the world economies, behind the U.S., China, Japan, and Germany. The state is 12% of the U.S. population (nearing 40 million) and provides 14.2% of the U.S. economy.
  3. Marco Rubio criticizes the GOP tax reform, saying, “There’s no evidence whatsoever that the money’s been massively poured back into the American worker.”
  4. Whoops again! He later walks that statement back (just like Tom Price did on healthcare).
  5. Arizona teachers end their walkout after getting most, but not all, of what they were protesting for.
  6. Here’s a new one for corporations. They’ve started creating response plans just in case Trump targets them or their industry in one of his Twitter rants.
  7. The Purdue University Ag Economy Barometer, which shot up on Trump’s election, falls for the second month in a row. The barometer is an indicator of how the agricultural industry is doing as a whole.

Elections:

  1. All four Federal Election Commission (FEC) commissioners have held their jobs well past their intended terms. They’ve stayed on 11, 9, 7, and 5 years past the end of their terms. Also, there are supposed to be six commissioners, not four. The Senate majority and minority leaders are supposed to recommend replacements, but they haven’t.
  2. The DOJ updates its policy manual, removing a reference to maintaining a free press and expanding their policy on whistleblowers.
  3. Paul Ryan warns that if Democrats win in the November midterms, they could make it impossible to get anything done and would be more aggressive in congressional oversight of the administration. Well if that’s not the pot calling the kettle black…
  4. Since not enough has been done to ensure the security of our midterm elections from foreign interference, Democrats in Congress pledge to NOT exploit any stolen materials in their campaigns. Republicans have so far refused to do the same, leaving us open to continued interference.
  5. Dianne Feinstein is the frontrunner in California’s senate race, but the second place runner is an anti-Semite running on the Republican ticket. The GOP just kicked him out of their convention and plan to vote to kick him out of the party. But how is this guy second?!

Miscellaneous:

  1. Thousands of demonstrators in Puerto Rico protest over austerity measures, which come at a horrible time as they try to rebuild. Police shut the protests down using tear gas.
  2. The Department of Education is sending $600 million in disaster assistance to Puerto Rico.
  3. Trump’s previous personal physician, Harold Bornstein, who before the 2016 election purportedly wrote a glowing letter about Trump’s health in hyperbolic terms, now says that Trump dictated that letter. You’re shocked, I know. I was shocked too.
  4. Bornstein also says that Trump aides, including his personal bodyguard, raided Bornstein’s office and took all of Trump’s medical records. The White House says that was just part of the transition into office.
  5. With both Trump and Pence slated to speak at the NRA convention, parts of the convention have ironically been designated gun-free zones. Good thing the bad guy with a gun didn’t find out there were no good guys with a gun there.
  6. During his NRA speech (and also full of irony), Trump reads an article from “fake news” CNN as proof that Mueller overreached in his investigation (though the article didn’t really say that).
  7. Also in his speech, Trump criticized both France’s and the UK’s gun laws, saying those laws failed to prevent the 2015 terrorist attack in France and the knife violence in the UK. To bring his point home, Trump mimed shooting a gun at one victim at a time in reference to the Paris attacks. France and the UK are both pretty pissed.
  8. At the NRA convention, you can buy pistols that look like cell phones. This come just one month after Sacramento police killed an unarmed man because they mistook his cell phone for a gun.
  9. Rudy Giuliani tries to clear Trump of one crime by insinuating he committed another—and on a Hannity interview no less. He says Trump reimbursed Michael Cohen for the Stormy Daniels payment, inferring that Trump knew about the hush money despite his claims otherwise.
  10. Giuliani also says it’s possible Trump paid hush money to additional women, but later walks that back.
  11. Trump, or more likely someone more speaking for Trump, tweets an explanation for what Giuliani said, but basically confirms that he reimbursed Cohen.
  12. Trump himself excuses Giuliani saying that he’s the new guy and he’ll get his facts straight. Well then what was he doing touring national TV talk shows?
  13. In another less than helpful moment, Giuliani says it would be OK if Mueller went after Jared Kushner, but not Ivanka. Apparently Kushner is disposable.
  14. Giuliani later says that Trump didn’t realize until just last week that his payments to Michael Cohen were to cover the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels.
  15. Kellyanne Conway’s husband, George Conway, tweets the relevant FEC rules, which suggest that no matter how the payment went down, election rules were violated.
  16. Trump signs an executive order to expand grants and partnerships with faith-based groups in an effort to reduce separation of church and state. Every agency is ordered to work on faith-based partnerships.
  17. Even the Nobel prize runs up against #MeToo. There will be no prize in literature awarded this year because of a sex scandal. They’ll name two winners next year instead.
  18. And speaking of the Nobel prize, several House Republicans nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for the work he’s doing with North Korea.
  19. In John McCain’s new book, he says he regrets not picking Joe Lieberman as his 2008 running mate instead of Sarah Palin. Even if they still wouldn’t have been elected, I would argue that picking Lieberman would’ve drastically changed our current political climate.
  20. Gina Haspel offers to withdraw her name from the nomination for CIA director, but the White House says they’ll continue to back her.
  21. Rick Perry supports ending the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) because he thinks applied research belongs in the private sector (I guess so someone can profit off it). ARPA-E advances innovative energy research, often resuscitating research that stalled in the private sector. George W. Bush created ARPA-E, but it was first funded by Obama, so that could be why Trump wants to kill it.
  22. You remember that lobbyist’s condo that Scott Pruitt was paying submarket rents for? Well it turns out that Mike Crapo (R-ID), the Senate Banking Committee chair, held 78 campaign events there.
  23. NASA launches a new mission to Mars. The InSight robotic lander will send a probe into the layers of Mars’ surface and study the structure. It’s scheduled to land on Mars on November 26.
  24. And in nonpolitical news, Mt. Kilauea erupts on Hawaii’s big island, opening multiple fissures in Leilani Estates, causing evacuations, and destroying homes, cars, and structures. The eruption caused several earthquakes, including one 6.9 in magnitude. The smaller island of Kauai had it’s own national disaster a few weeks ago, with severe flooding on the north side after receiving 50 inches of rain in 24 hours.