The U.S. isn’t the only country feeling the turmoil right now. There are massive ongoing protests all around the world, mostly against governments. It’s like we’re going through a whole cosmic shift or something. Here’s hoping the turmoil is short-lived and we land in the right place.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending October 5…

Shootings This Week:

1. There are NINE mass shootings this week (defined as killing or injuring four or more people). Condensed version: Shooters kill seven people and injure 30.

Russia:

1. Iranian hackers, with their government’s backing, have launched cyberattacks with the purpose of disrupting our 2020 elections. Rumor has it that it’s Trump’s campaign being attacked this time. Is foreign interference still OK?
2. Russia takes advantage of our current turmoil by telling the rest of the world that we’re an unreliable ally and we can’t be trusted.
3. Lawyers for the House of Representatives make a court filing alleging that Trump lied about whether he knew about his campaign’s contacts with WikiLeaks and that the grand-jury redactions in the Mueller report show it.

Legal Fallout:

1. A federal judge (appointed by Bush II) orders the DOJ to either file charges against former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe by November 15 or drop the investigation completely. At that time, the judge will order the release of FBI documents around McCabe’s firing per a FOIA request.
2. Matt Whittaker, who was the acting Attorney General for a hot minute, stumps for a Trump-supporting candidate in Kosovo’s elections. The U.S. embassy there quickly distances itself, saying Washington is completely, 100% neutral in the upcoming election.

• • Whittaker’s candidate loses, with the left nationalist party taking a surprise win.

3. Representative Chris Collins (R-NY) resigns before pleading guilty to charges of insider trading. He was caught on video making the call that led to the charges.

Impeachment/Ukraine:

Including all this info just makes this too long, so I moved it out into its own post. You can skip right over to it if that’s your focus.

Courts/Justice:

1. A federal court upholds the FCC’s right in repealing Obama’s net neutrality protections, but they also rule that the FCC can’t limit the states’ ability to create their own rules. That’s not likely to lead to any confusion at all, right?
2. Protestors gather in front of Mitch McConnell’s house calling for Brett Kavanaugh’s impeachment. I’m a big supporter of protest, but not at someone’s private home.

Healthcare:

1. The president’s schedule for Thursday includes this event — “THE PRESIDENT delivers remarks and signs an Executive Order Protecting Medicare from Socialist Destruction in The Villages, FL.”

• • Trump signs that EO, which he says will preserve and protect Medicare against Medicare for All. But part of the plan is to make the prices paid by Medicare closer to the prices paid by private insurance, which would shoot costs up enough to bankrupt the system.

2. A growing number of rural Texas towns are declaring themselves “sanctuary cities for the unborn” and calling abortion “murder with malice.” The towns outlaw emergency contraceptives, criminalize groups that work for reproductive rights, and fine doctors for performing an abortion. Meanwhile, other towns are pushing ordinances that help women in those restrictive towns travel to have their reproductive health taken care of.
3. The Supreme Court agrees to take up a Louisiana law that restricts abortions by forcing doctors who perform them to have admitting privileges nearby. The court struck down a similar law in Texas, but that was with a more balanced court.
4. Trump decides to eliminate the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria.

International:

1. Austria defeats the far-right nationalist party in their national elections, and the People’s party’s Sebastian Kurz reclaims his role as Chancellor (he was removed by a no-confidence vote earlier this year). The far-right was brought down by corruption. I’m sensing a global pattern.
2. One day after North Korea agrees to meet to discuss nuclear weapons with U.S. officials, they conduct missile tests off their coast, launching missiles into the Sea of Japan.
3. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman takes responsibility for journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, but says he didn’t order it. It’s the one-year anniversary of Khashoggi’s death.
4. Hong Kong bans face masks at protests, motivating thousands of masked protestors to turn out in opposition. At one protest, an officer shoots a man in the thigh after protestors surround his car. Protestors then beat him and throw a gas bomb at him.
5. On China’s celebration of 70 years of Communist Party rule, Hong Kong protests increase in violence. A police officer shoots a teenage protestor at point-blank range, luckily only injuring him.

• • Police exonerate the officer, who says the protestor was charging him. They instead charge the protestor.

6. Nationwide protests in Iraq grow violent, with police firing tear gas and then live rounds into crowds. Five people are dead and around 300 wounded. The Prime Minister declares a curfew in Baghdad.
7. Taking the State Department and Pentagon completely by surprise, Trump endorses a plan for the Turkish military to sweep away the American-backed Kurdish forces near the border with Syria. This happens on a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to one official on the call, Trump got rolled.

• • The Kurds have been our allies in the fight against ISIS, but Turkey sees them as terrorists. Turkey has also killed tens of thousands of Kurds.
  • The U.S. had already persuaded the Kurds to dismantle their defenses that served as a deterrent to Turkey based on guarantees that the U.S. would help keep them secure. So now the Kurds have few options to stop Turkey.

8. Several of Trump’s GOP allies harshly criticize Trump over this move, including Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Kevin McCarthy, Nikki Haley, and Mike Huckabee.

Global Protests:

It seems like there’s a pervasive restlessness across the globe. There are a dozen major protests happening right now, and they all have the common thread of dissatisfaction with government. Here are the big ones (and this doesn’t include ongoing protests at our southern border or global climate protests):

1. Hong Kong: These were parked by a Chinese extradition law, but morphed into a desire to protect their democratic freedoms.
2. Jakarta: A new austere criminal code that criminalizes sex and cohabitation out of wedlock sparked protests.
3. Netherlands: Farmers protest parliament members’ claim that farming has high emissions and some farms should be shut down.
4. France: Did you know the yellow vests are still protesting?! It’s been 45 consecutive weeks. Farmers and police officers are also protesting.
5. Russia: Protests are still going on there, even though the elections that sparked the initial protests are over and protestors won. Now they’re protesting for the release of protestors who were arrested.
6. Peru: The dissolution of the congress sparks mass protests over the uncertainty.
7. Haiti: Protestors want President Jovenel Moïse to resign over allegations of corruption and attempting to end subsidies.
8. Egypt: Protestors want President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (Trump’s favorite dictator) to step down over his authoritarian policies.
9. Lebanon: A worsening economy sparked these protests.
10. Syria: Kurds are protesting being excluded from a UN committee that will rewrite the Syrian constitution.
11. Iraq: Protestors are unhappy with Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, specifically around a lack of public services and high unemployment, but they have several complaints.
12. Jerusalem: Palestinians protest Israeli forces for hospitalizing a Palestinian detainee during interrogation (they accuse the forces of torturing him). The detainee is accused of killing an Israeli teen in a bombing.
13. United States: UAW workers at GM have been striking for three weeks, with nearly 50,000 workers walking off the job.

Family Separation:

1. The ACLU launches a new lawsuit against the Trump administration, seeking damages for families affected by its family separation policies. Here are some allegations:

• • When DHS was ordered to reunite families, some kids were too young to communicate so were asked to point to the flag of their country so DHS could narrow down the search for their parents.
  • Some kids were taken in the middle of the night while they were sleeping.
  • Parents were told they were signing papers to reunite them with their children or to help with their asylum cases, but they were actually signing voluntary deportation papers.
  • Many children were separated from their families for more than a year. Some of the youngest have forgotten their native languages.
  • Some are still separated.
  • Some of the children were beaten.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. While discussing the arrest of a black suspect, a New Jersey police officer says that Trump is the “last hope for white people.” He says if Hillary were elected, all those minorities would get a vote. Oh, the horror! The officer is on trial for hate crime assault and lying to the FBI.
2. A jury finds former police officer Amber Guyger guilty of murder for shooting Jean Botham, a black man who she thought was in her apartment. It turned out she had entered his apartment thinking it was hers. Amazingly, Botham’s brother pleads for mercy for Guyger during the sentencing hearing and asks if he can hug her.
3. Trump says his administration will deny visas to anyone who can’t prove they can pay for their own healthcare. I’d argue that most Americans can’t even prove that.

• • Trump argues that immigrants are three times more likely than American citizens to lack health insurance. So suddenly having health insurance is important to Republicans?
  • It turns out this is mostly directed at family migration. So it’s all about keeping families apart. Again.

4. We learn that Trump has floated ideas for slowing down illegal border crossings like building a moat filled with alligators and snakes, putting spikes on the tops of our fences at the border, shooting border crossers in the legs (you know, to slow them down), and electrifying our fences, among other things. This was the same meeting where he told DHS to close down the southern border completely.

• • And this is telling. According to people at the meeting, Trump couldn’t be placated and “the president’s advisers left the meeting in a near panic.” This might’ve been a good time to reassess the administration and take a look at the 25^th Amendment. Geez.

5. DHS announces they’ll collect DNA from immigrant detainees to enter into the criminal database. I guess it still needs to be said…being an asylum seeker doesn’t make you a criminal.
6. Journalist Ben Watson files a civil rights complaint with DHS after a CBP officer held his passport upon learning Watson is a journalist. The officer said, “So you write propaganda, right?” The officer withheld the passport until Watson agreed to the propaganda question. Several journalists are making similar reports of harassment.
7. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals grants a stay of relief in the execution of a Jewish defendant whose trial was presided over by an antisemitic judge. How do we know he’s antisemitic? He referred to the defendant as “a goddamn Kike” and “That fuckin’ Jew.”

Climate:

1. After California pushes back on Trump’s plan to push more water through the Delta, the Trump administration backs off. A rare moment of compromise between Trump and California.
2. Trump plans to disband two environmental advisory boards, one on marine life run by NOAA and one on invasive species run by the Department of the Interior. We don’t need no stinking experts.
3. When a far-right activist trolls AOC at a town hall by saying she loves the Green New Deal but it doesn’t go far enough and that we should start eating babies, AOC, out of concern that the woman was having a mental break, doesn’t argue but instead tries to deflect. Trump and his family don’t get the trolling and tweet about how this is normal for AOC and her supporters to want to eat babies. Turns out it was a Trump-loving baby-eating troll.
4. Trump ends a 5-year-old moratorium on oil and gas drilling on 750,000 acres in California.
5. The non-profit group Ocean Cleanup successfully implements a plastic-catching floating device to clean up our oceans.

Budget/Economy:

1. You might remember a while back, the USDA uprooted all its DC employees and moved to Kansas City? Well, that move has delayed the publication of nearly 40 research reports, ended newer studies, and stopped the release of funding. Staff is down about 75% since the move.
2. Trump has threatened for a year to leave the Universal Postal Union, the UN agency that links postal systems across the globe. The agency finally comes to an agreement with the U.S. about restructuring fees, fending off what would’ve been a fiasco for Americans who send and receive international mail. Expect to pay increasing fees on international mail over the next five years.
3. The economy is super weird right now. You’d expect every western country’s economy to be chugging right along with record low unemployment, but everyone’s economy is a little sluggish and wages aren’t keeping up.

• • Unemployment in the U.S. falls to a 50-year low of 3.5%, but U.S. manufacturing slows for the second month in a row and wages stagnate. Manufacturing has been in recession all year and hit a 10-year low. It’s all part of a global manufacturing slowdown.
  • The U.S. only added 136,000 jobs in September.
  • Likewise, unemployment in the eurozone falls to it’s lowest rate in over a decade and manufacturing in the eurozone has it’s weakest month in seven years.
  • Export orders for the U.S. also dip to their lowest level in a decade.

4. A report shows that Pennsylvania and Wisconsin lost the most manufacturing jobs over the past year.
5. Cattle ranchers in Nebraska rally in Omaha to let Trump know that they think he’s backed out of promises by not changing labeling requirements for beef. I agree with them here. Labeling laws under Obama allow beef to be labeled as “Product of the USA” if it’s processed and packaged here even if it wasn’t raised here.
6. After the World Trade Organization rules in favor of it, the Trump administration announces tariffs on European imports, including airplanes, agricultural products, whiskey, cheese, and wine.
7. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says that maybe small dairy farmers can’t survive this economy, but that’s OK because the big get bigger and the small go out of business.
8. This is the third week of the GM strike, and both GM and workers are feeling the hit. GM temporarily lays of 6,000 workers in Mexico as a result. Here are the sticking points:

• • GM’s use of temporary workers
  • Bringing jobs back from Mexico
  • Four plants that are slated for closure

9. The Dow Jones closes out fiscal year 2019 up about 360 points over the beginning of the fiscal year, but then loses almost 1,000 points in the first two days of the next quarter. Analysts point to the ongoing trade war.
10. In June, Trump privately made a promise to President Xi Jinping that the U.S. wouldn’t say anything about the protests in Hong Kong as trade talks continued. This conversation, like calls with Ukraine, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, was also placed in the codeword-level secure system.
11. For the third time, the Trump administration moves to cut SNAP benefits, this time by $4.5 billion. This would cut benefits for almost 20% of recipients.
12. Trump signs a trade deal with Japan aimed at helping farmers get what they lost when Trump pulled the U.S. out of the TPP. Dairy products (except cheese), rice, and some grains would’ve done better under TPP, but are now looking to do worse. But beef, pork, barley, wheat, and wine get a better deal. The deal doesn’t include major trading products, like automobiles, aircraft, propane, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

Elections:

1. Bernie Sanders suffers a mild heart attack and is briefly hospitalized after getting two stents inserted. He cancels his upcoming campaign stops. Speedy recovery.
2. California’s Secretary of State says he’ll appeal a federal judge’s order blocking the state’s new law that presidential candidates must provide their tax returns in order to be on the primary ballot. He’s arguing for transparency in financial dealings.
3. A sixth Texas Representative announces he won’t seek reelection next year. Mac Thornberry is currently the top-ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, a position that he’d term out of next year anyway.
4. Politicians are fundraising off impeachment on both sides. Republicans pull in $15 million in donations in the days after the impeachment announcement, according to Eric Trump. I don’t have the exact numbers for Democrats, though ActBlue showed $8.8 million in just the first two days after the announcement, and that doesn’t include all donations.

• • Here’s my PSA: It’s way past time to get money out of our elections. The taxpayers carry the burden for every single candidate that runs anywhere in this county.

5. The RNC in Montana uses forms that resemble the official U.S. Census Forms to solicit donations for Trump’s reelection. They’re even labeled “2019 Congressional District Census.” State officials issue a warning to Montana residents that these are not official census documents and that the census never asks for money.