Here’s a catch-up post for Christmas week. There isn’t a lot of news, and sadly the biggest news is all the shootings—thirteen this week—plus a stabbing at a Hannukah celebration.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending December 29…

Shootings This Week:

1. There were THIRTEEN mass shootings in the U.S. this week (defined as killing and/or injuring 4 or more people). Shooters kill 6 people and injure 57 more.

• • A drive-by shooter in High Point, NC, injures 6 people.
  • A shooter in Joliet, IN, injures 5 people on Christmas Eve.
  • Multiple shooters in New Orleans, LA, injure 4 people.
  • A shooter opens fire in a bar in Richmond, VA, killing 1 person and injuring 3 more.
  • A shooter in Coralville, IA, kills 1 person and injures 3 others.
  • A shooter at a holiday party in Oakland, CA, injures 4 people.
  • A shooter in St. Petersburg, FL, injures 8 people outside a nightclub following a hit-and-run crash.
  • A shooter in Houston, TX, kills 2 people and injures 7 more at a rap video shoot.
  • A shooter in Kennesaw, GA, injures 5 teenagers at a house party.
  • A shooter in Modesto, CA, kills one person outside a home and injures 3 more.
  • A shooter in Ceres, CA, injures 5 people after they return from a bar in Modesto where they’d had an altercation.
  • A shooter in Buffalo, NY, kills 1 person and injures 3 others during an argument outside a home.
  • A shooter in Danville, IL, injures 5 people.

2. This doesn’t qualify for a mass shooting under the definition above, but a shooter kills 2 people at West Freeway Church in White Settlement, TX, before the church’s volunteer security team shoots him. Apparently, the church has a trained volunteer security force.
3. There were more mass killings in 2019 than in any year since the 1970s.

Russia:

1. Putin calls Trump to thank him for our intelligence officials passing on a tip that likely prevented a terrorist attack aimed at St. Petersburg on New Year’s Eve. We don’t know what else they discussed.
2. Russia’s defense minister announces that they added a new hypersonic weapon with intercontinental range to their artillery.

Impeachment:

All things impeachment are in a separate impeachment post. You can skip right over to it if that’s your focus.

Courts/Justice:

1. The Eighth Circuit of Appeals upholds a lower court ruling that says Americans don’t have a right to film public officials, including police. Six other federal circuit courts say we have a first amendment right to do so.

• • Note that there’s some debate over the meaning of this ruling. The ruling says the photographer involved in the case can’t film “whenever he wants.”

International:

1. The U.S. recalls the Ambassador to Zambia, Daniel Foote, at Zambia’s request after he criticizes the government for jailing a gay couple and accuses the government of corruption.

• • While Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says we abhor violations of human rights, such as with the gay couple, State Department officials say there’s been a rollback of gay rights advocacy under Trump and Pompeo.

2. 41% of Germans think Trump is a greater threat to world peace than Kim Jong-Un, Putin, China’s President XI, and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
3. Satellite images show that North Korea has expanded one of its factories used to produce long-range missiles. U.S. officials express concern that they’re planning an intercontinental ballistic missile test (meaning it could reach the U.S.). 
North Korea asks the U.S. to come back with an acceptable proposal for denuclearization and lift sanctions or expect a “Christmas gift.”
4. John Bolton says that he doesn’t think Trump really means it when he promises to denuclearize North Korea, because if he were serious about it, he’d use a different strategy.
5. The Trump administration says the U.S. will be “very disappointed” if North Korea tests a long-range or nuclear missile.
6. The Taliban agrees to a temporary ceasefire in Afghanistan so a peace agreement can be signed.
7. China, Russia, and Iran hold joint naval drills in the Gulf of Oman.
8. A suicide bomber in the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia, kills at least 85 people and injures more than 140 others. The radical Islamic group Al-Shabaab claims responsibility.
9. The U.S. launches airstrikes against Hezbollah forces in Iraq that are allegedly responsible for the death of an American contractor and for injuring four soldiers.
10. Protests continue in India against a new citizenship law discriminating against Muslims.
11. Hong Kong police arrest 336 protestors over the Christmas holiday.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. An intruder breaks into a rabbi’s home while they’re celebrating Hanukkah and stabs five Hasidic Jews with a machete. Prosecutors charge him with hate crimes.
2. In 2019, nearly twice as many immigration judges left their jobs as in 2017 and 2018. Most say they’re frustrated with the process under Trump’s policy changes.
3. The rise of authoritarian populist leaders around the world has led to an increase in discrimination against minority Muslim groups. Countries like China and Myanmar are committing atrocities against these groups, while countries like India and the U.S. are making laws preventing Muslims from coming here to escape.
4. Rudy Giuliani delivers a series of antisemitic tropes about George Soros in a call with New York Magazine.

• • He says Soros isn’t really a Jew and he’s an enemy of Israel.
  • He accuses Soros of manipulating elections.
  • He says Soros controls our ambassadors to Ukraine.
  • What is the right’s obsession with Soros?

Budget/Economy:

1. A Federal Reserve study shows that Trump’s tariff tiff with China led to job losses, especially in manufacturing, and higher producer prices. Competition created by the tariffs couldn’t make up for the rising costs and tariffs.
2. While the wealth gap grew much wider in the 2010s, the rate of extreme poverty around the world shrank by half (15.7% to 7.7%), and for the first time, more than half the world’s population belongs to the middle class or above.
3. The federal minimum wage is now worth 17% less than in 2009, and 31% less than in 1968.

Elections:

1. Spotify suspends political ads on its platform for 2020.

Miscellaneous:

1. A judge orders Alex Jones and Infowars to pay $100,000 in legal fees for the father of a Sandy Hook victim. The father sued Jones for defamation because Jones has been pushing the lie that the Sandy Hook shooting was a false flag operation and no one really died.
2. In interviews and texts, Navy SEALS criticize Eddie Gallagher, the Chief Petty Officer pardoned for war crimes by Trump. Trump calls Gallagher a hero; the SEALS call him evil and toxic.
3. Christianity Today loses a bunch of subscribers after their pro-impeachment editorial, and they gain a bunch of new ones as well. The magazine bills itself as a centrist evangelical magazine.
4. Total population growth in the U.S. reaches its lowest point since 1918, with the number of births less the number of deaths equaling less than 1 million.
5. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) cuts Trump’s cameo appearance out of their airing of Home Alone 2.

Polls:

1. Trump’s approval drops back down to 42.6% from his 43.4% post-impeachment bump.