It just seems like it’s one thing after another, between natural disasters and man-made horrors. This week ends with a mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas—the largest mass shooting in the U.S. We’re still working through the horrific aftermath of this, trying to figure out the shooter’s motivation and why he had such a large arsenal. People in Las Vegas are lining up around blocks to give blood and do what they can to help. It’s heartbreaking.

But politics still goes on. Here’s what happened last week.

Russia:

1. The Russian ads and accounts turned over to Congress by Facebook were designed to create and spread divisive messages on hot-button topics like LGBT rights, race, immigration, and guns. They exploited our differences and used them against us.
2. Russian ads on Facebook during the 2016 campaign:
   • Promoted votes for both Jill Stein and Bernie Sanders in the general election after Hillary had won the primary.
   • Started rumors that Clinton created, funded, and armed ISIS, and alternatively that John McCain started ISIS.
   • Criticized Clinton and questioned her authenticity while promoting Trump.
   • Impersonated black lives matter activists.
   • Impersonated a real, but obsolete, Muslim group in the U.S.
   • Seemed more intent on increasing the divide between us than pushing a certain candidate.
3. Facebook reveals that they notified the FBI last summer that they saw what looked like Russian espionage. Later they reported that Russians were feeding the information they stole back into social media.
4. Twitter goes before congress this week. They’ve also found social media accounts linked to Russian Facebook ads. In fact, there’s evidence that Russians used Twitter more extensively than Facebook to sow division.
5. In an indication that Russia is still trying to affect the electorate and amplify division, hundreds of Russia-linked Twitter accounts tweet about the NFL controversy on BOTH SIDES. Pay attention people! Stop feeding Russian propaganda.
6. According to experts, this is Russia’s method of creating chaos and division. They’ve been using similar tactics since the cold war.
7. A member of the Senate Judiciary Committee says he’s 99% sure that Mueller’s investigation will result in criminal indictments. My guess is the most likely to be indicted are Manafort and Flynn.
8. Sean Spicer lawyers up.
9. The IRS criminal division shares information with Mueller’s office in the Russia investigation.
10. The DOJ tells a company that provides services to RT America that they must register as a foreign agent under FARA. Russia warns the U.S. against taking any actions against the state-owned media groups Sputnik and RT.
11. Federal investigators are looking into whether RT and Sputnik were involved in Russia’s propaganda campaign in 2016.

Courts/Justice:

1. 30 House Democrats file an amicus brief claiming that the pardon of Joe Arpaio is unconstitutional and usurps the courts’ authority.

2. The Senate Judiciary Committee approves Trump’s nominee to head the criminal division of the Department of Justice, Brian Benczkowski. This is only important because Brian represented Alfa Bank, one of the Russian organizations with close ties to Putin and one that is part of the Russia probe.

3. The DOJ gets search warrants to force Facebook to turn over information about people who liked, commented on, followed, or reacted to a DisruptJ20 Facebook page and two other anti-Trump pages. This is about the inauguration day violence.

Healthcare:

1. The CBO is unable to do a complete scoring of the Graham-Cassidy healthcare bill because it wasn’t given enough time, though they do estimate millions would lose healthcare and would reduce the deficit some.
2. Susan Collins waits for the CBO report before deciding on the bill. She then says that while the Medicaid bribe means Maine would be OK with the healthcare bill, it would harm most of America and would eventually blow up on Maine as well.
3. The latest ACA repeal effort goes out with a whimper. This takes the GOP-led Congress into October with no major legislative actions.
4. Despite the cancellation of the vote on the ACA repeal bill, Trump says repeal is right on track saying they’d have a vote if Thad Cochran wasn’t in the hospital. Thad is not in the hospital and offered to come in if his vote is needed.
5. Senate Republicans aren’t ready to shut the door on ACA repeal. They’re still looking at combining ACA repeal with tax reform or addressing it in the 2018 or 2019 budget.

International:

1. While North Korea took Trump’s recent words as a declaration of war, North Korean officials are also reaching out to Republican operatives to get a better understanding of Trump.
2. Trump criticizes Rex Tillerson for continuing diplomatic efforts with North Korea.
3. China orders all North Korean businesses in the country to close as part of the UN sanctions.
4. U.S. intelligence says they have no evidence to back up Trump’s Tweet that Iran tested a missile last weekend. Trump based it on an announcement from an Iran news station, but our sensors show no indications of the test.
5. The death toll from the earthquake in Mexico is now over 360.
6. While the U.S. government doesn’t think that Cuba is behind whatever is causing the strange illnesses in U.S. diplomatic personnel in Havana, they plan to pull everyone out for now and warn tourists not to go there.
7. Catalonia votes for independence from Spain, with less than half voting. Spain sends in law enforcement to prevent people from voting, and violence ensues. Spain says the vote is illegal.

Legislation/Congress:

1. Republican Senator Bob Corker announces he won’t run again in 2018.
2. The House plans to vote on a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks, with exceptions for health and incest or rape.
3. Congress works on an aid package for Puerto Rico.
4. Illinois lifts restrictions on using Medicaid to cover abortions and removes language in their law aiming to criminalize abortion if Roe v. Wade is ever overturned.
5. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who’s been out for several months recovering from the baseball field shooting, returns to Congress. Just in time for the upcoming bill to make it easier to buy gun silencers.
6. Congress quietly let funding for the following programs expire (but I assume will revive them?):
   • Healthcare for low-income kids (CHIP)
   • Community health centers
   • Loans for low-income college students

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. The UNC Tarheels national basketball champions join the list of teams who won’t be visiting the White House this year.
2. Three House GOP members propose an alternative to the DREAM Act to make sure DACA kids aren’t deported. For some reason, it cuts off eligibility for those who were brought here after 2012.
3. Homeland Security creates a new rule to let them collect and store social media information in their immigrant files. This includes social media aliases and handles, associated information, and even search results for all immigrants—including permanent residents and naturalized citizens. I can’t tell if this is for new immigrants only or if it’s retroactive.
4. The State Department and Pentagon oppose including Chad in the travel ban, but Trump includes it anyway (possibly on Stephen Miller’s advice). The ban will jeopardize U.S. interests in Chad since they’re one of our more reliable allies in Africa in the fight against terrorism.
5. Trump doesn’t seem to know why Sudan was removed from the travel ban.
6. Trump caps refugee admissions at 45,000; it’s never been below 67,000. The defense and state departments, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the UN recommend allowing at least 50,000. Stephen Miller and John Kelly pushed for a 15,000 limit.
7. Jeff Sessions’ Justice Department argues in court that employers should be allowed to fire people for being gay. This pits them against another federal agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which says that equal employment rules protect against discrimination based on religion, sex, or race, and that sex includes sexual orientation. The court can’t figure out why the DOJ jumped in here, and legal experts predict the DOJ will lose.
8. Trump continues to blast the NFL. He says he started with the NFL comments because owners were calling him asking him to do something and they were afraid of their players. I can’t even with this one. Owners can’t either.
9. In an impromptu press conference five days after Trump started his fight with the NFL, he says they need to change or their business is going to go to hell.
10. It turns out that Trump didn’t like the crowd size when he stumped for Luther Strange, but his comments about the NFL were a hit there. Thus the 5-day Twitter storm about the players’ protest.
11. Trump and his top aides privately admit that this is a culture war he’s waging to rally his base.
12. Alt-right groups appear to be flailing right now amid infighting and splintering. They’ve planned and then cancelled several events, and are struggling to get any traction.
13. Even though a Homeland Security report says the border is more difficult to cross than ever before, Trump moves forward with his wall prototypes between San Diego and Tijuana.
14. In a massive sweep of so-called sanctuary cities, ICE detains nearly 500 undocumented immigrants.
15. ICE deports the father of an autistic son despite not having any criminal record and never missing an ICE meeting. He is now in Tijuana, away from his wife of 23 years (a U.S. citizen) and their two children (also U.S. citizens).
16. Jared Kushner works behind John Kelly’s back on a DACA deal with Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin.

Climate/EPA:

1. Paranoid much? The EPA is building a sound-proof booth for Scott Pruitt to conduct official business so none of the staffers can hear him.
2. A new study shows that an Obama-era effort to ban sales of bottled water at some parks had a significant effect. The rule saved up to 111,743 pounds of plastic, 141 million tons of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gases, and 3.4 billion BTUs of energy. Oh, as part of Trump’s deregulation efforts, the National Park Service rescinded this rule last month.
3. Senate Republicans include wording in a budget resolution to pave the way to open ANWR to oil and gas drilling. The refuge has been protected for more than 50 years.

Budget/Economy:

1. The GOP tax plan, which was drafted behind close doors by six Republicans (apparently the new modus operandi), would be a mixed bag for taxpayers and a tax cut for corporations. Here’s are the main points:
   • It shrinks the number of brackets from 7 to 3, meaning lower taxes for some, higher taxes for others. The tax rate for the lowest income would be higher, and for high-middle income would be lower. The rate for the top money earners would drop by nearly 5 points.
   • It cuts business taxes drastically, but removes certain loopholes.
   • It repeals the estate tax.
   • It gives tax breaks to people who’s income is passed through a closely-held corporation.
   • It removes certain deductions, like the state tax deductions, but doubles the standard deduction.
   • It removes the ATM tax.
2. Polls show the middle class doesn’t necessarily want tax cuts; they just want the government to use their money better.
3. The Tax Policy Center says the proposed tax changes would benefit the wealthiest Americans and businesses most.
4. Gary Cohn, who’s worth about $266 million, says a family of four with $100,000 in income would save around $1,000 a year with the new tax plan—enough to “renovate their kitchen. They can buy a new car. They can take a family vacation. They can increase their lifestyle.” I’m thinking this guy doesn’t do a lot of his own shopping.
5. Cohn also won’t guarantee that the tax plan will help the middle class, but he does say the wealthy won’t get a tax break. That’s a plain out lie.
6. Under the Republicans’ budget proposal, they can increase the deficit up to $1.5 trillion over 10 years, which will help them lower taxes on businesses and the wealthy. They think the tax cuts will cause the economy to soar and make up for any deficits.
7. Every economic level is now officially out of the recession. Minorities and people without high school diplomas have seen the greatest gains since 2013. This didn’t narrow the wealth gap though, since higher income sectors got a jump start on the recovery.
8. Trump dumps his original plan to include private sector funding for his infrastructure program, which leaves state and local governments to pay for it (unless he can get funding through Congress).
9. Trump says that the new tax plan will cause growth to increase up to 6% per year, more than double what most economists say is possible.
10. Trump went to Indiana to stump for the new tax plan, saying that it’s the largest tax cut in history (it isn’t), that cutting the estate tax will help small farmers and businesses (there are only about 80 that qualify), and that we have the highest corporate tax rate of developed countries (what corporations actually pay is below the average). He also says our tax code is ridiculously complicated, and there he’s spot on. But then he says the changes won’t help him out, which OF COURSE they would.
11. Steve Mnuchin says workers benefit most from corporate tax cuts, and then removes a page from the Treasury website that includes a 2012 economic analysis refuting that.
12. The Senate budget resolution removes a requirement that they wait 28 hours after a CBO score to vote on a bill. The requirement was put in place two years ago, so it seems the Republicans put it in place and then removed it.
13. 12% of Americans want to decrease taxes on the wealthy, and 16% want to cut taxes for corporations. The majority want to increase those taxes instead.

Elections:

1. A University of Wisconsin study estimates that the state’s stricter voter ID laws prevented 17,000 registered voters from voting in 2016. It was Wisconsin’s lowest voter turnout since 2000.
2. In Alabama, Bannon-backed Roy Moore defeats Trump-backed Luther Strange. Moore thinks:
   • Homosexuality should be illegal.
   • Homosexuality is no different than beastiality.
   • “Blacks and whites” are fighting, “reds and yellows” are fighting.
   • There’s no such thing as evolution.
   • Sharia law is being enforced in the U.S.
   • Islam is a fake religion.
3. After his candidate lost in Alabama, Trump starts deleting his tweets supporting Luther Strange.

Miscellaneous:

1. Last week, we learned that Jared Kushner uses a private email account for White House business at times. This week, we find out that at least six high-level White House staffers have done the same.
2. Anthony Weiner gets a 21-month sentence for the sexting case that reopened Hillary’s email case the week before the 2016 election.
3. I don’t even know what Ryan Zinke means here. He accuses a third of his staff at the Department of the Interior of not being loyal to the flag or the president. He says this to the National Petroleum Council, so maybe what he really means is that a third of his department isn’t loyal to fossil fuels?
4. Trump at first refuses a congressional request to waive the Jones Act (shipping restrictions) to help get aid to Puerto Rico. He waived the act quickly for Houston and Florida hurricane relief. The DHS cited lack of port availability in Puerto Rico.
5. In an impromptu press conference, Trump says he doesn’t want to lift the Jones Act, even though it would speed up recovery efforts in Puerto Rico, because the shipping industry is against it.
6. The next day, he says he’ll waive the Jones Act.
7. As we start to see the extent of the devastation in Puerto Rico, the Trump administration receives criticism for its slow response. And a Twitter war follows…
8. The acting head of Homeland Security calls Puerto Rico relief efforts a “good news” story; the mayor of San Juan, along with journalists on the ground, disagree.
9. Puerto Rican’s are told to register for FEMA relief via the internet, which most of them don’t even have.
10. Musician Pitbull sends his private jet to Puerto Rico to airlift out chemo patients who can’t get life-saving treatment.
11. General Buchanan, who is now running the relief operation, says they just don’t have the resources to deal with this kind of devastation—neither enough people nor resources.
12. Brock Long, head of FEMA, says they are making good progress.
13. Trump accuses the mayor of San Juan Puerto Rico of being a poor leader and says the Democrats told her she has to be nasty to him. He continues his twitter fight with her through the week, calling her an ingrate. She’s been living in a shelter because her home was destroyed and is trying to hold the city together.
14. Trump also says things were so bad in Puerto Rico even before the storm that they were at their lives end. He says Puerto Rico will have to figure out how to repay the U.S., so it sounds like he still doesn’t understand they are part of the U.S. He hasn’t talked about how Texas or Florida will repay the government.
15. Both Republicans and Democrats launch new committees to influence congressional and state legislative district lines following the next census. IMO, it’s time for independent commissions to take care of drawing up all these lines.
16. A librarian rejects Melania Trump’s gift of Dr. Seuss books in an unnecessarily snarky manner.
17. Jeff Sessions claims that protestors routinely shut down speeches and debates across the U.S. from people who they disagree with, and calls for a renewed commitment to free speech.
18. The acting DEA administrator resigns, saying Trump doesn’t care about the rule of law.
19. Milo Yiannopoulos gives a brief speech at Berkeley in lieu of free speech week (which he couldn’t garner enough support for). Students boo and mock him.
20. Ryan Zinke gets called out for using non-commercial planes at taxpayer expense, along with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, and HHS Secretary Tom Price. In fairness, Obama’s cabinet used private or military flights slightly more frequently during the same period.
21. Tom Price has an ongoing scandal around investments in a medical company at the time he was nominated. Price was also trying to reopen the executive dining room at HHS while gutting his department and cutting spending on healthcare for Americans.
22. And then Tom Price resigns.
23. As of now, Trump has rolled back or delayed around 800 Obama-era regulations.
24. After Hurricane Maria, the State Department evacuated 225 people from Dominica, but made them agree to reimburse the department for travel expenses.

Polls:

1. 57% of Americans don’t think NFL players should be fired for kneeling during the anthem, though most say they themselves stand. Polls show us pretty evenly divided on the protest.
2. 83% of voters would support a path to legal residence for illegal immigrants. 14% say “deport as many as possible.”