I hope you all had a happy Labor Day weekend! And I hope you were out celebrating all the benefits unions have given workers, like 40-hour workweeks and an 8-hour day; overtime pay; paid holidays and paid vacations; paid and unpaid leave (including military leave); a minimum wage; healthcare insurance; whistle-blower protections; an end to sweatshops; and safety regulations for the workplace. Before unions were gutted by things like right to work laws, they gave workers strong collective bargaining power so they weren’t at the whim of corporate executives. They also gave us higher wages, and one reason wages haven’t been rising lately is that unions don’t have the same power or membership they used to have. You can also see below that the drop in union membership corresponds with an increase in inequality.

So if you see any of these benefits in your own job, thank the unions and don’t take advantage of them by not paying your union dues in right-to-work states.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending September 1…

Missing From Last Week:

1. Last week I wrote, “The Amazon rainforest provides about 1/5 of the oxygen on the planet. So one out of every five breaths you take is thanks to the Amazon.” I have to retract that. Scientists don’t know where that 1/5 number came from and say it’s closer to 6%.
2. Italy’s prime minister resigned, avoiding a no confidence vote from the far right.
3. ICE made it easier to deport crime victims waiting for their U visa, which is a special category for victims who cooperate with law enforcement. Previously, ICE had to request a preliminary judgement from U.S. Customs and Immigrations Services. Now, ICE officers can make the preliminary determination themselves.

Shootings This Week:

1. Here are the week‘s mass shootings (defined as killing or injuring four or more people). There were so many this week (FOURTEEN), I combined some:

• • Baltimore, MD: A drive-by shooter kills one person and injures three more. Another shooter kills one person and injures three more in a dispute at a residence. Yet another shooter injures four people in a domestic dispute in nearby Frederick. And yet another shooter injures four men, with very few details known about this one.
  • Alabama: A teenage shooter injures 10 teenagers at a football game in Mobile. A shooter injures seven people at Fairfax Kindergarten in Valley during a party and over a fight about something that happened at a football game. Also, I can’t tell if this is a real kindergarten or just the name of an event space.
  • Odessa and Midland, TX: A man shoots a police officer during a traffic stop and goes on a random shooting spree that kills eight people and injures 22 others. Police shoot and kill him in a theater parking lot.
  • South Carolina: Four people are injured in a shooting at a bar.
  • North Carolina: A shooter kills one person and injures three more near student housing at UNCC. Another shooter wounds four people outside a fraternal organization (the Moose Lodge).
  • Philadelphia, PA: A shooter kills two people and injures two others.
  • Chicago, IL: A shooter kills two people and injures three more. They were on the patio of a private home.
  • Hartford, CT: A shooter injures four men. The details aren’t known.
  • Toledo, OH: A shooter injures four people. The details aren’t known. 


2. Police arrest a 19-year-old at a North Carolina university for threatening mass violence and for possessing guns in his dorm room.
3. Since the shootings in El Paso and Dayton, over two dozen people have been arrested over threats to commit mass violence.
4. Even as Texas Governor Greg Abbott addresses the Odessa shooting saying that words are inadequate and there must be action, a series of laws go into effect in Texas that make it easier to store, bring, and carry weapons to both private and public places, including school campuses and churches. Abbott also says that the status quo is unacceptable.
5. The FBI says active shooter events are increasing, and that we’re seeing them about every other week right now. They also say people need to report changes in behavior to the authorities, especially when someone becomes darker, more violent, or appears to be distressed.

Russia:

1. Following Russia’s blown (no pun intended) nuclear-propelled missile test, they set their first floating nuclear-power reactor afloat. This ship set off from a northwestern port city and is headed east, where it will power a region around Pevek (near Alaska).
2. A bipartisan congressional delegation is planning a trip to Russia, but Russia denies visas to members of congress who’ve been critical of Russia. This includes Democrats and Republicans alike.
3. Current and former intelligence experts criticize Trump’s defense of Putin and Russia at the G7 Summit. They’re so shocked by the fervency of his defense, they’re once again questioning whether Trump is a Russian asset.

Legal Fallout:

1. The House Judiciary Committee subpoenas Rob Porter, a former administration aide, about his involvement in Trump’s attempts to obstruct justice.
2. The DOJ inspector general releases the results of his investigation into James Comey. The IG finds that Comey broke FBI protocol in handling sensitive information, but the IG doesn’t find that Comey or his friends leaked any classified information. The main criticism is that he took his contemporaneous memos home with him.

• • Note that this report doesn’t address the actual FBI investigations into Hillary Clinton or Trump.
  • The DOJ decides not to prosecute, because there’s no finding he broke the law. What he did might have been unethical, but it wasn’t illegal.
  • You can read the report here.

3. A federal judge dismisses the lawsuit again Jeffrey Epstein following his death by apparent suicide. Sixteen women testified during the hearing, saying that now they’ll never get justice. Several victims file civil suits against Epstein’s large estate.
4. Deutsche Bank says it has some of the tax return information being sought by the House Financial and House Intelligence Committees. We’re not sure if they are Trump’s returns specifically or if they belong to another entity under subpoena.
5. MSNBC’s Lawerence O’Donnell does a piece on how Russian oligarchs had co-signed Trump’s loans from Deutsche Bank, which he retracts the next day after Trump’s attorney threatens a lawsuit. He doesn’t retract because the story is found to be incorrect, but it was insufficiently sourced. So we’ll see what comes of that.

Courts/Justice:

1. The Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to lift an injunction against their rule requiring asylum seekers who pass through a third country on their way here to seek asylum in that country.
2. Trump has requested special consideration from the Supreme Court 21 times in his first 2-1/2 years, compared to Bush and Obama requesting it a total of eight times over 16 years.

Healthcare:

1. A court rules that Johnson & Johnson has to pay $572 million for its part in Oklahoma’s opioid epidemic.

• • Last spring, Purdue Pharma settled a suit with Oklahoma and agreed to pay $270 million.
  • Purdue Pharma is in negotiations to settle the many lawsuits against them. Reports say the payout could be between $10 billion and $12 billion.

2. A judge in Missouri blocks their new law that would ban abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy.
3. 58 immigration detention facilities in 19 states have reported mumps outbreaks over the past year. 898 adult migrants and 22 staff have been sickened, and more migrants are being infected as they are transferred between facilities.

International:

1. While French President Emmanuel Macron was trying to arrange a meeting between Trump and Iran’s foreign minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and his team were scrambling to reach Trump and prevent that meeting. The Israeli government expresses concern about new negotiations between Iran and the U.S.
2. At the same time Rudy Giuliani is pressuring Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political foes (Biden and Clinton), the Trump administration delays paying the promised $250 million in military aid to Ukraine.
3. Trump tweets a satellite image of the aftermath of a space launch explosion in Iran, which analysts immediately speculate came from a classified satellite or drone.
4. Hong Kong’s ongoing protests erupt in violence once more. Protestors start fires and throw petrol bombs at police. The police, in turn, use tear gas and water canons containing dyed water (so they can identify protestors).

Legislation/Congress:

In case you’re wondering why this section has been empty, Congress has been on summer recess.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

1. Even though Trump says the wall is already being built and that some of it is done, none is done and the administration won’t say when they’ll start. Over 60 miles of existing fence have been fixed or replaced.
2. Officials involved with the wall project say that Trump wants the wall done, he wants officials to take the land (from the people, organizations, and tribes that own it), ignore environmental regulations, and fast-track any approvals to start construction. And he’ll pardon any officials who break the law to get it done.
3. With hurricane season upon us and the first hurricane expected to make landfall currently at a Category 5 level, DHS transfers $271 million from FEMA to the border. FEMA says as long as we don’t have any new catastrophic events, they’ll have enough money to operate.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. 19 states plus DC sue the Trump administration to block their new rule overturning the Flores Agreement. The new rule would allow Trump to detain immigrant children indefinitely.
2. The Trump administration starts denying special protections to immigrant families who receive life saving medical care here in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services sends out letters saying they’re not considering requests for medical relief and that people here under those protections have 33 days to leave the U.S.

• • Turns out they transferred that responsibility to ICE, though this was never announced and was not included in the letters. ICE says they don’t know anything about it, nor do they have the resources to handle the change.
  • Many of those affected are kids with diseases like cancer, cystic fibrosis, HIV, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and epilepsy.

3. New video surfaces of Quillette editor Andrew Ngo with the group Patriot Prayer planning attacks against a group of antifa who were gathered at a bar after a protest. Ngo does a lot of reporting on antifa, but he failed to report on the planned attack by Patriot Prayer.

• • If you remember, Ngo published video of his wounds after he was attacked by antifa members earlier this year, but failed to provide information about what led up to the attack.
  • Ngo leaves Quillette after the latest video is released, which Quillette says is just coincidence.

4. The Trump administration announces that some children born to our troops and diplomats abroad will no longer be automatically considered U.S. citizens.

• • For some, this just requires that they apply for citizenship by a certain age. But there are already people who forget this requirement when they adopt children from abroad, which has resulted in deportation of adopted kids when they become adults. I don’t see this working out much better.
  • This rule seems to be designed for others, though; service members who aren’t themselves yet citizens. Their children will have a harder time getting citizenship.
  • Ken Cuccinelli says this doesn’t change who is born a U.S. citizen, but then he’s also the guy who said the poem at the bottom of the Statue of Liberty only welcomed immigrants who can stand on their own two feet.

5. Right-wing hate groups are using video games to recruit youngsters into their ranks. 97% of teen boys play video games, and 83% of teen girls do. The associated chatrooms are a perfect recruitment tool, and it’s where white supremacists befriend the kids and subtly manipulate them into scapegoating their minority peers.

• • Chat logs from the online game Discord show that much of the far-right’s Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville was planned there.

6. The Trump administration wants to run DNA tests on detained undocumented immigrants.
7. The Cherokee Nation says they’ll appoint a delegate to the House of Representatives. They’ve never done this before, even though a 200-year-old treaty says they can. It’s not clear if that Representative would actually have a vote in the House.
8. Migrant girls held in detention are given only limited access to basic needs like sanitary pads and tampons, in some cases given only one tampon per day. Toxic Shock Syndrome anyone?

Climate:

1. Trump says that U.S. wealth is more important than saving the planet from climate change. Not in so many words, but he did say he prioritizes our wealth over climate “dreams” and “windmills.” But we knew this already. It’s the only reason to prioritize dirty energy over clean energy.
2. Because Jakarta is sinking into the sea, Indonesia announces they’ll build a new capital city in another location at a cost of $34 billion.
3. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro demands an apology from French President Emmanuel Macron before he’ll accept the $20 million in international assistance to help fight Amazon rainforest fires. Someone needs to put on their big-boy pants.
4. While climate change is seen to be exacerbating wildfires in Arctic areas like Siberia and Alaska, those fires, along with those intentionally set in the Amazon and Indonesia, are also exacerbating climate change. A vicious cycle.

• • This is especially true with the increase in Arctic fires, which burn peat; peat releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than trees.

5. The latest models coming out of the climate science community are alarming. They show much greater rates of temperature increase than had been previously thought, with the high range increasing from 4.5°C to 5.8°C. The latest reports say we still have the capability to limit the rise to 1.5°C, which is driving climate change scientists crazy. They’re having a hard time dealing with the general public’s inability to grasp how serious this is, and are experiencing stress and and even grief over it.
6. Hurricane Dorian increases to a Category 5 and stalls out over the Bahamas. Five people are dead that we know of so far. Models predict Dorian will skim the east coast of Florida before hitting Georgia and North Carolina.

• • Trump says he doesn’t think he’s even heard of a Category 5 hurricane, even though three have hit U.S. land since he took office. No surprise, though. In the weeks between Hurricane Irma and Maria (both Cat 5s), he said he never knew Cat 5s existed.

7. The EPA proposes a plan to completely eliminate requirements that oil and gas companies install tools to find and fix methane leaks in their wells, pipelines, and storage facilities. Even fossil fuel giants have come out against this plan, partly because this isn’t an expensive fix for an existential problem (costing just 0.01% of their annual revenue) and partly because they’re afraid it will cause some sort of disaster if methane is left unchecked by smaller companies.
8. Trump tells Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue to exempt Alaska’s Tongass National Forest from logging restrictions. The Tongass is the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest. This exemption would open it up to logging, drilling, and mining, and would violate Clinton’s roadless rule barring the construction of roads in certain parts of our national forests.

Budget/Economy:

1. A number of farmers interviewed express frustration with Trump’s trade war and tariffs, and are concerned that it will take decades to rebuild those business relationships. Or they’ll just have to develop relationships with new buyers. At any rate, support for Trump is still pretty high among farmers.
2. Farm bankruptcies have risen 13% so far this year, and more farmers are delinquent on their loans.
3. Trump says trade negotiations with China have restarted, but doesn’t give any details.
4. Trump’s aides later say he lied about trade talks with China in order to boost the markets.
5. While central bank policies have been guiding the global economy, Fed Chair Jerome Powell says that there are no precedents to guide a policy response should we see a recession in our current situation. Interest rates are already low, and government spending doesn’t seem to be boosting the economy.
6. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin proposes selling bonds that mature in 50 to 100 years.
7. Trump reverses his earlier stance on freezing federal employees’ wages and sends a letter endorsing a 2.6% raise across the board.

• • This sounds great, but on further reading, it turns out if he didn’t send that letter, employees would’ve received the 2.6% raise plus cost-of-living increases based on where they work.

8. More Americans see the economy in decline (37%) than see it improving (31%). In this environment, your guess is as good as mine as to which way it’ll go.
9. Trump’s latest round of tariffs against Chinese goods go into effect. Tariffs on popular holiday items are still delayed, but this round of tariffs will increase the cost of some apparel, food products, American flags, tea, sporting goods, shoes, and so on.
10. The tariffs haven’t seemed to dampen consumer spending, but business spending is in a slump.
11. A group of laid-off miners in Kentucky are blocking a train loaded with coal from going to market in protest of the bankruptcy laws that allowed their company not to pay their final salary obligations.

• • After their company declared bankruptcy, paychecks bounced and some that had been deposited in workers’ accounts were pulled back out (leaving some with overdrafts in their accounts because they were already spending their own money).

Elections:

1. After losing their vice chairman, the FEC is close to shutting down, putting the fight against election interference on the back burner. They’re down to three members, and no longer have enough commissioners to legally meet.
2. DHS plans to start a program to protect voter registration databases and election systems from the types of ransomware attacks that have been hitting cities and towns around the country. Finally there’s some action against election interference.

Miscellaneous:

1. Color me shocked. There’s a network of conservatives trying to discredit news organizations that Trump doesn’t like by smearing journalists from those outlets. They’ve already released info on journalists from CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. The group plans to ramp up the smear campaign in 2020 in support of Trump’s re-election campaign.

• • The network is compiling social media posts going back at least a decade.
  • Their efforts include the families of journalists, political activists, and other political opponents of Trump.

2. Trump finally goes after Fox News (it had to happen — he turns on everyone eventually). He says Fox News “isn’t working for us anymore.” What’s that mean? The news isn’t supposed to be working for any part of government. Anyway, he accuses the network of heavily promoting the Democrats, and tells followers to find another news outlet.
3. After passing a law reducing penalties for marijuana possession, New York plans to expunge thousands of marijuana convictions.
4. Trump’s personal assistant spills the Trump family tea during an off-the-record dinner with reporters, and ends up getting fired. Apparently, drinks were involved.
5. Trump formally establishes the U.S. Space Command. This is different from his Space Force, which is still waiting on congressional approval.
6. Trump cancels his trip to Poland in order to monitor Hurricane Dorian, but then he heads to his Virginia golf course where he tweets and golfs over the long weekend.
7. As Puerto Rico readies itself for Hurricane Dorian, Trump calls the territory corrupt and San Juan’s mayor incompetent. OTH, Trump says he’s the best thing to happen to Puerto Rico. Trump says Congress approved $92 billion after Hurricane Maria, but it was actually $42 billion. And not much of that has been spent so far.
8. Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis has been on a book tour, and says he had no choice but to leave after Trump said he’d withdraw troops from Syria. Mattis indirectly criticizes Trump, but doesn’t address specific complaints directly.