Tag: unemployment

Week 141 in Trump

Posted on October 9, 2019 in Impeachment, Politics, Trump

People attend a march in Causeway Bay in Hong Kong in solidarity with the student protester who got shot by police, October 2, 2019. (PHOTO: REUTERS/Susana Vera)

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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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 25th Amendment. Geez.
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  1. A report shows that Pennsylvania and Wisconsin lost the most manufacturing jobs over the past year.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  1. 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.

Week 108 in Trump

Posted on February 19, 2019 in Politics, Trump

These guys are so going to jail...

It’s a national emergency! I know he’s been threatening it, but I really didn’t think even Trump would declare a national emergency over something he’s been talking about for three years. On top of that, our allies in Europe sent us a clear message about what they think of us now after two years with this administration. At least Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia still like us though!

Here’s what happened last week in politics…

Border Wall/Shutdown:

  1. We started the week with another stalemate on DHS funding, but then negotiators in Congress agree on a deal that:
    • Provides $1.375 billion for 55 miles of new border fencing (Trump wants $5.7 million for over 200 miles).
    • Provides $1.7 billion for border security, including more staff, humanitarian aid, and more modernized technology.
    • Reduces the number of detention beds allowed for unauthorized immigrants to 40,520 beds, but funds over 45,000 beds until September to give ICE time to comply.
  1. Trump says he doesn’t like the deal, but he’ll sign it. Mitch McConnell tells the Senate that Trump plans to declare a national emergency to bypass the bill they agreed upon. This way, Trump can keep the government open and fund his wall. The White House is also looking at other ways to fund the border wall, like redirecting money from flood control projects, disaster relief funds, and DOD funds.
  2. Nancy Pelosi warns the president not to declare a national emergency because it sets a bad president. 

  3. As promised, Trump signs the bill and declares a national emergency so he can build his wall. It was one of the weirdest presidential speeches I’ve ever heard. Especially from 22:08 to 22:48 here.
  1. The DOJ warns Trump that ahead of time that his national emergency would be held up in courts. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) sues over the national emergency declaration. California, New York, and the ACLU (among others) prepare to do the same.
  2. The Trump administration is already being sued over their new policy of forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for a hearing and over their policy of extreme vetting of sponsors (which is basically holding immigrant minors hostage in order to be able to deport some of the sponsors).
  3. The House Judiciary Committee announces an investigation into the emergency declaration based on comments Trump made during his announcement of the national emergency. Trump said that he didn’t need to do this, but that he’d rather do it (build the wall) much faster.
  4. Representative Joaquin Castro (D-TX) says he’ll introduce a resolution to cancel the national emergency. Other House Democrats are on board. If the House passes such a resolution, the Senate has to vote on it as well. Trump says he’ll absolutely veto anything like that.
  5. Trump blocks back pay for contractors who worked during the government shutdown.

Russia:

  1. A federal judge rules that Paul Manafort did intentionally lie to federal prosecutors as alleged by Mueller’s team. He lied about:
    • His contacts with Konstantin Kilimnik, an alleged Russian spy.
    • Certain financial transactions.
    • A business associate with suspected ties to Russian intelligence.
  1. His plea deal is effectively over, prosecutors can now prosecute him for crimes to which he’s already pleaded guilty, he’ll likely serve time for the crimes he already copped to and those he was already convicted of, and he could be charged on the additional crimes of lying to federal prosecutors.
  2. Manafort cannot retract his earlier guilty plea, and he still has to cooperate with prosecutors.
  3. Mueller recommends a sentence of 19.5 to 24.5 years for Manafort, because he “acted for more than a decade as if he were above the law” and deprived the government and banks of millions of dollars.
  4. Court documents show that Paul Manafort and Rick Gates were meeting with Kilimnik in August of 2016. Prosecutors think they talked about Russia as it relates to Trump’s campaign, resolving the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, and Trump campaign internal polling data.
  5. Trump quotes Rush Limbaugh in calling for investigators in the Russia probe, including Robert Mueller, to be put in jail. He says it’s unprecedented that they’re working with Obama intelligence agencies, though intelligence agencies don’t belong to any president.
  6. In a 60 Minutes interview, former FBI director Andrew McCabe says that he launched investigations into the administration’s ties to Russia because he thought there would be an attempted coverup and the case would disappear. He also says:
    • There were conversations about working with Cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment.
    • When intelligence officials told Trump that North Korea has missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, he responded, “I don’t care. I believe Putin.” Putin had apparently told him that North Korea doesn’t have such capabilities.
    • Mueller’s team has McCabe’s memorandums describing his transactions with Trump.
  1. After the interview, Trump accuses both McCabe and Rod Rosenstein of plotting treason against him and says they got caught.
  2. The judge in Roger Stone’s case issues a partial gag order. Attorney’s from both sides can’t talk to the media about the case, and Stone can’t talk to the media in the vicinity of the courthouse.
    • Stone requests a different judge, but is denied. Mueller designated Stone’s case as being related to the case indicting 12 Russian intelligence agents on charges of hacking and leaking Democrats’ emails in the 2016 election. Because these cases are related, they have the same judge.
    • It’s the same judge who oversees one of Paul Manafort’s cases as well.
  1. The chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr (R-NC), says they haven’t discovered evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff (D-CA), says the evidence is obvious and compelling. Maybe they have different definitions of collusion? Schiff does clarify that this does not yet prove criminal conspiracy.
  2. The House Judiciary Committee hires two lawyers to review Mueller’s investigation and allegations against Trump. They’re focused on ethics and corruption issues as well as possible obstruction of justice.

Legal Fallout:

  1. American Media, Inc., owner of the National Enquirer, asked the DOJ last year if they needed to register as a foreign agent for their work with and coverage of Saudi Arabia. Based on the limited information AMI provided the DOJ, they said AMI didn’t need to register.
  2. For the third time, Michael Cohen postpones a Congressional hearing, this time because of a recent surgery.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Jerrold Nadler invites former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker back to clarify his testimony because his previous responses are contradicted by the evidence.
  2. The Senate confirms William Barr as our next Attorney General. Barr is sworn in and takes office. Interesting side notes:
    • Barr’s daughter and a son-in-law both work in the DOJ (which Barr will be heading), but are moving on to different jobs. Another son-in-law works in the National Security Division of the DOJ.
    • His daughter is going from being the director of Opioid Enforcement and Prevention Efforts to working in the Treasury’s financial crimes unit.
    • His son-in-law (married to a different daughter than above) is going from the Virginia U.S. attorney’s office to the White House counsel’s office. It’s not clear yet what his responsibilities will be.
  1. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg returns to the office for the first time since her surgery last December.

Healthcare:

  1. Teen children of parents who refused to vaccinate them are trying to get vaccines on their own without stepping on any parental landmines. This is difficult because parental consent is required in some states. These teens are also concerned for their younger siblings.
  2. Someone starts a fire at a Missouri Planned Parenthood Clinic and the FBI is investigating it as a hate crime.
  3. Even pediatricians who are publicly against vaccinations start to urge people to vaccinate their children in the midst of the latest measles outbreak. Even though these doc’s have long called measles a benign childhood disease, they know it can cause things like blindness, deafness, pneumonia, swelling in the brain, and even death. And new research says it makes you susceptible to other illnesses for years following an infection.
  4. Mississippi lawmakers pass a heartbeat abortion bill that could limit abortion after six weeks. It provides exceptions for cases where the mother’s life or health is threatened, but does not provide exceptions for incest or rape. The governor says he’ll sign it. A federal judge already found Mississippi’s previous 15-week ban from last year unconstitutional, so this is likely to be found the same.

International:

  1. A suicide bomber kills 27 members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Iran blames the U.S. and Israel for the attack, but a militant Sunni Muslim group claims responsibility.
  2. The House passes a resolution to stop funding Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen. This would force the administration to pull U.S. troops out.
  3. The Trump administration misses its deadline to provide Congress with full information about the role the Saudi Crown Prince played in Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. A Republican lawmaker had requested the information under the Magnitsky Act.
  4. The Munich Security Summit highlights the growing split between the U.S. and its European allies.
    • German Chancellor Angela Merkel receives a standing ovation for:
      • Defending multilateral institutions.
      • Pushing back against U.S. demands that Europe pull out of the JCPOA (Iran deal), adding that the agreement is a step toward containing Iran that will lead to more cooperation.
      • Criticizing unilateral moves by the Trump administration.
    • Vice President Mike Pence is greeted with silence during what he expected to be applause lines in his speech. In contrast to Merkel’s message of working together, Pence addressed a list of U.S. demands in our own interest.
    • Joe Biden also speaks at the summit and reassures our allies that this will pass, though allies say that the damage done will not be fixed anytime soon, no matter who succeeds Trump.
      • Allies agree that Trump is more a symptom than a cause of what’s going on in the U.S.
      • Allies also take it as a given that the liberal world order led by the U.S. has collapsed, and they wonder who will pick up the pieces.
  1. Mike Pompeo begins his time in Europe for the summit by visiting the authoritarian leader of Hungary, Viktor Orban. He then moves on to Slovakia, where the journalist who exposed their government corruption was murdered last year. Finally he meets up with Pence in Poland at a forum to rally the EU and MidEast against Iran. Europeans weren’t going for that, so they were forced to add sessions on Syria, Yemen, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
  2. Even though Trump is pulling our own troops out of Syria, he urges our allies to commit to sticking it out.
  3. One of the confusing things in Trump’s declaration of national emergency is when he says the Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace prize for his role is easing North Korea tensions. That turns out to be true, but it leaves out the fact that the U.S. government asked Abe to do so. It turns out that two Norwegian politicians nominated Trump for the same reason.
  4. The Trump administration has been accelerating a no-longer-secret program to cripple Iran’s military by sabotaging their weaponry. The program is also designed to isolate Iran’s economy. This program has been ongoing since the Bush (Jr.) administration.

Family Separation:

  1. The Trump administration still separates families at the border, removing young children from their parents even though a court ruled they could no longer do that. The administration formally ended the policy last summer. Annunciation House, one of many non-profit organizations near the border, receives one or two calls each week about new cases of separations (and that’s just in El Paso).

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. California Governor Gavin Newsom announces a withdrawal of National Reserve troops from the border. He’ll leave a couple hundred there to help CBP with trafficking problems, and the rest will be redeployed to help prevent wildfires.
  2. New Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar makes controversial comments about Israel, specifically around organized boycotts of Israeli companies and AIPAC funding of U.S. politicians. The Democratic House leadership rebukes Omar’s comments and call on her to apologize, which she later does.
    • Note, however, that pro-Israel lobbyists and donors spent more than $22 million on the last U.S. election cycle.
    • Trump calls on Omar to resign, saying we don’t have room for anti-Semitism. Which reminds me of that time when Trump said there were some fine people among the neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville chanting “Jews will not replace us!” and “Blood and soil!”
    • Representative Kevin McCarthy calls Omar out for anti-Semitism. Which reminds me of the that time he deleted a tweet about three Jewish businessmen trying to buy our elections (Soros, Steyer, and Bloomberg).
  1. Trump holds a rally in support of his wall at the border in El Paso, and Beto O’Rourke holds as counter rally down the street. Both draw similar sized crowds, despite Trump’s claims otherwise.
  2. The Senate unanimously passes a bill making lynching a federal crime. They’ve been trying to pass something like this for 100 years. The Senate passed it last year, but the House didn’t take it up.
  3. Tennessee joins the list of states that have introduced bills allowing foster and adoption agencies to discriminate against potential LGBTQ parents and other groups that don’t comply with their closely held religious beliefs.
  4. The ACLU files a lawsuit against CBP on behalf of two American women who say that a border patrol agent detained them in a small town near the Canadian border in Montana because they were speaking Spanish. The agent told them that Spanish is very unheard of up there.
  5. The Supreme Court agrees to hear a case about whether a citizenship question can be added to the 2020 Census.
  6. A white supremacist gets a life sentence for stabbing a black man with a sword in order to start a worldwide race war. Crazy people out there…

Climate/EPA:

  1. California adopts a plan to convert all city buses to electric by 2040 (and hopefully by 2035).
  2. Mitch McConnell says he’ll bring the Green New Deal to a Senate vote. It’s not likely to pass there, where Republicans hold the majority. Both parties think this will force members of the other party to make uncomfortable choices.
  3. The Senate passes a huge land conservation bill that:
    • Designates over a million acres for wilderness preservation in Utah, California, New Mexico, and Oregon.
    • Permanently reauthorizes the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which uses proceeds from offshore oil and gas drilling to fund onshore conservation efforts.
    • Protects millions of acres from mining and drilling.
    • Creates five new national monuments in Mississippi, California, Utah, and Kentucky.
    • Expands national parks in California and Georgia.
    • Protects some national parks in Montana and Washington from mining.
  1. The bill is likely to pass in the House as well. The bill has incredible bipartisan support, which makes me wonder how the administration was so successful at reducing the sizes of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante in order to allow mining and drilling.
    • And in case you were wondering, there are still ongoing lawsuits holding up development in Bears Ears and Grand Staircase.
  1. Trump wants the Tennessee Valley Authority to keep an aging coal plant open. The plant purchases coal from one of Trump’s leading donors, Robert Murray (of Murray Energy). This is one of two underused coal plants that the TVA is considering shutting down.
  2. The resolution that includes some funds for the border wall also creates a new national park: Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan.
  3. A federal judge in North Dakota dismisses a lawsuit brought by Energy Transfer Partners against several DAPL protesters, including Greenpeace. It was a pretty crazy lawsuit, trying to make a RICO case against protesters.

Budget/Economy:

  1. The national debt surpasses $22 trillion for the first time. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it’ll keep growing and that by 2025 it will cost more to service the debt than what we’ll spend on defense.
  2. In evidence of a strong job market, employers posted a record 7.3 million job openings in December. There were just 6.3 million unemployed Americans.
  3. But then… retail sales fell dramatically in December—down 1.2% from November and the worst drop in nine years.
  4. Seven million Americans are delinquent on their car payments by 90 days or more. Previously the highest number was around six million and that was following the Great Recession. Economists say that this is a sign that even with low unemployment and a strong economy, low-income and working-class families are struggling to pay their bills.
  5. Following a series of teacher strikes across the country, teachers in Denver strike for better salaries, an end to exorbitant administrative salaries, and access to professional development.
  6. Ivanka Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announce the creation of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board to help develop job training programs. The board is made up of prominent executive officers of major companies and it will work with the National Council for the American Worker, which was created last year.
  7. The House Finance Committee holds its first hearing of the session. It’s on the growing problem of homelessness in America.
  8. Trump signs an executive order to help increase development and regulation of artificial intelligence to make sure the U.S. stays ahead of the technology. The EO creates a new American Artificial Intelligence initiative that aims to improve education in the field, provide access to needed technology and tools, and promote international cooperation.
  9. As a result of the 2017 tax cuts, corporations spent $770 billion on stock buybacks in 2018. They expect to spend $940 billion on buybacks this year. In 2017, corporations spent about $150 million on employee compensation, mostly in the form of bonuses. No such employee perks have been announced yet for this year.
  10. Amazon had $11.2 billion in profits last year, but won’t pay any federal taxes this year. They didn’t pay last year either, and are actually looking at getting a $129 million rebate. It also looks like Netflix won’t pay any U.S. taxes either.

Elections:

  1. Trump downsizes two federal task forces that help safeguard our elections from foreign interference. The task forces were created in response to Russia’s meddling in our 2016 elections.
  2. A federal judge rules that a State Senate district in Mississippi is unfairly gerrymandered to dilute the African-American vote.
  3. We now have six women in the running for President of the United States. #YearOfTheWoman

Miscellaneous:

  1. Brock Long resigns his position as FEMA administrator. Peter Gaynor will serve as acting administrator.
  2. Sprint and T-Mobile come to Congress to defend their merger, and telecom companies end up getting an earful from lawmakers over spotty cell coverage in the U.S.
  3. The Office of Inspector General for the Department of Education issues a scathing report on the department’s handling of student loans. The report says that inconsistent oversight gives lenders a sense that noncompliance is OK. This lets lenders ignore the rules, cause harm to borrowers, and hold on to money they should be returned to the government.
  4. Remember how Trump’s doctor said last week that he’s in great health and will be healthy for the next two years and beyond? He forgot to mention that Trump also nudged up into the obese category.
  5. A gunman kills five people and wounds five police officers at the Henry Pratt Co. manufacturing plant near Chicago.
  6. Trump’s nomination to replace Nikki Haley as Ambassador to the UN withdraws her name from consideration. Heather Nauert, who IMO has done a bang up job as spokesperson for the State Department, cites concerns about her family as the reason.
  7. This is probably my favorite news tidbit of the week. Trump says he’d like to start a new 4th of July tradition… maybe a parade or gathering at the Capitol building. Except both are already a tradition.
  8. The White House security specialist who raised concerns about security clearance for certain administration officials (ahem, cough cough, Jared Kushner) asks for whistleblower protections.

Polls:

  1. 56% of Americans trust Mueller’s facts vs. 33% who trust Trump’s facts.
  2. 81% of Americans think Mueller’s report should be released in its entirety to the public.
  3. 33% of voters support another government shutdown in order to get Trump’s border wall; 60% oppose it (this was taken before the declaration of national emergency).
  4. The split for support of the wall is pretty even, with 47% of voters supporting it and 47% opposed.
  5. Trump’s approval rating bounced back up to it’s normal (around 41%) shortly after the shutdown ended (it tanked during the shutdown).

Week 106 in Trump

Posted on February 5, 2019 in Politics, Trump

Trump gave two interviews this week, one seemingly spur of the moment to the New York Times and one on Face The Nation the day of the Super Bowl. I’m not going to talk about them here, because I feel we didn’t hear much that was new. Here are links to each, in case you’re interested: New York Times and Face The Nation.

Here’s what happened in politics last week…

Border Wall/Shutdown:

  1. Nancy Pelosi invites Trump to give his State of the Union address on the House floor on Tuesday, February 5, on the floor of the House.
  2. Trump continues to push the wall in public, but is staying out of the congressional negotiations on a border security plan.
  3. Trump says there must be funding for a wall, Pelosi says there won’t be funding for a wall, and the White House is still preparing a declaration of national emergency.
  4. Despite all the work to make the wall sound like a physical barrier or a fence and not a wall, Trump keeps reiterating that a WALL is a WALL.
  5. If you remember, last year the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could bypass environmental and impact studies for the border wall. Now, bulldozers are lined up outside the National Butterfly Center in Texas, waiting to destroy the protected habitat.
    • The habitat is home to 240 varieties of butterflies and 300 species of birds, and most of the areas people come to see will be behind the wall.
    • The wall here is envisioned to be 30 feet tall and made of concrete and steel, with a 150 foot enforcement zone in which all vegetation will be cleared.
    • CBP maps show that the construction would cut through the National Butterfly Center, a state park, and a 100-year-old Catholic church.
    • Legal action is still pending on all this.
  1. Last year, the Republican-held Congress required that CBP not build fencing in the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, but didn’t do the same for the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. So it’s expected that the wall will also cut through there.
  2. You know why the government can override environmental regulations here? Because of laws created after 9/11. The terrorists are winning.

Russia:

  1. Even though Trump canceled a planned meeting with Putin at the G20 in Buenos Aires last year after Russia opened fire on Ukraine naval ships, it turns out they did have a brief meeting with only Melania and Putin’s interpreter in attendance. Regardless of the innocence of this meeting, the lack of White House staff allowed the Russian press to spin it in Russia’s favor.
  2. Roger Stone pleads not guilty to all seven counts on which he’s charged—witness tampering, obstruction, and making false statements.
  3. After sanctions are lifted against Oleg Deripaska’s businesses, one of Deripaska’s companies appoints Christopher Burnham, a member of Trump’s transition team in the State Department, to their board of directors.
  4. A Kremlin-backed scheme to spread disinformation about the Mueller investigation fails because it was too farfetched. They claimed to have obtained all of Mueller’s database regarding the Russia investigation, but had only obtained what was revealed in court through a request for discovery by Russian company Concord. The trove also included fake documents to make it look like Mueller’s team is doing sloppy work.
  5. A district judge considers implementing a gag order on Roger Stone like she did with Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. Her reason: “This is a criminal proceeding and not a public relations campaign.”
  6. The Trump administration announces they’re pulling the U.S. out of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia because Russia isn’t holding up their end of the deal. (Funny. I just realized that’s always the case when Trump pulls out of an agreement. He thinks everyone is using the U.S.)
    • The treaty is regarded as a crucial moment for arms control during the Cold War. It got rid of over 2,600 missiles, and is key to Europe’s security strategy.
    • Putin says that’s fine, and pulls Russia out of the treaty in response. So now Russia can design new previously banned weapons. He also says Russia won’t start any more talks on nuclear arms control.
    • China criticizes the moves saying they’re bad for global security. China also says they wouldn’t join an expanded version of the treaty themselves, so there you are.
  1. Senate investigators conclude that the phone calls Donald Trump, Jr. made to a blocked number before and after the 2016 Trump Tower meeting were not to his father, but instead were to long-time business associates.
  2. The NRA denies they played an official role in a 2015 trip to Moscow to meet with Russian nationals. Emails and photos say otherwise. Maria Butina helped them with their travel arrangements and organized meetings with Kremlin officials.

Legal Fallout:

  1. Mike Pence has said he was unaware of Michael Flynn’s ties to Turkey and working as a foreign lobbyist. Now we learn that Elijah Cummings sent a letter to Pence about Mike Flynn during the transition in November of 2016. Cummings says he received a receipt confirming the transition team received the letter, so either Pence knew about Flynn, or his transition team kept it from him.
  2. Facebook says they’ve removed as many as 2.8 billion fake accounts over the past year.

Courts/Justice:

  1. The Senate Judiciary Committee postpones the hearing for Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, William Barr, because of Democrats’ concerns over how he’ll handle Mueller’s investigation.
  2. A recent poll shows Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the most popular Supreme Court justice currently seated on the bench. Surprisingly—22% of respondents couldn’t name one justice sitting on the court.

Healthcare:

  1. A new VA policy allows veterans to choose a private physician if they have to drive more than a half hour to get to a VA facility. Previously, the rule was 40 miles.

International:

  1. The Trump administration places sanctions against Venezuela to pressure Maduro to step down.
  2. We learn from John Bolton inadvertently exposing notes on a legal pad ON LIVE TV that the administration is thinking about sending 5,000 troops to Colombia (which neighbors Venezuela). Colombia’s government says they don’t know what the note means.
  3. The U.S. government sends humanitarian assistance to Venezuela through USAID.
  4. The U.S. indicts major Chinese tech company Huawei on charges of lying to government officials and to business partners in an alleged scheme to pay employees to steal trade secrets. The indictment claims that:
    • Huawei’s founder and his daughter (the company’s CFO) lied to the FBI about dealing with Iran (to work around sanctions).
    • Employees received bonuses for stealing trade secrets.
  1. The UK’s House of Commons narrowly votes to have Theresa May renegotiate the Irish border issue with the EU as part of the Brexit agreement.
  2. The EU says there’s no more negotiating. Take it or leave it. No pun intended.
  3. Nissan cancels their plans to start production of a new car model in Britain, citing uncertainties around Brexit as a reason.
  4. The Senate passes an amendment to state opposition to Trump’s decision to remove U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan. It passes with bipartisan approval (68 to 23)
  5. U.S. Intelligence officials testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee in their annual worldwide threats hearing. Their testimony contradicts almost everything Trump says about national security. Here’s how:
    • Trump says North Korea isn’t a nuclear threat anymore.
      Intelligence officials say North Korea likely won’t give up their nuclear weapons.
    • Trump says Russia might not have meddled in our 2016 elections.
      Intelligence officials say Russia was so successful at it that they continued it in 2018 and will continue it into 2020.       They say this is our second most pressing challenge right behind cybersecurity.
    • Trump says a wall on our southern border is the most pressing security need (a national emergency even).
      Intelligence officials didn’t even mention that.
    • Trump says ISIS has been defeated.
      Intelligence officials say the group is weakened, but       it’s also returned to its “guerrilla warfare roots.”
    • Trump says Iran is continuing to build nuclear weapons.
      Intelligence officials say Iran is still in compliance with the JPOA, so is not building nuclear weapons.
    • Trump mocks climate change and calls it a hoax.
      Intelligence officials say it’s one of our greatest national and global security threats.
  1. In response, Trump trashes his intelligence leaders in a series of tweets, suggesting they should go back to school. But after they all meet, Trump says they’re more in agreement than it seems.
  2. One area of agreement between Trump and his intelligence officers is China, which both think is a major threat. But Trump thinks the threat is economic (trade) while intelligence officials think the threat is military and corporate espionage. They also say China is using cyber attacks to influence U.S. elections. (Dammit China and Russia! Stay out of our business.)
  3. Senior intelligence briefers say Trump is a danger to American security with his stubborn disregard for their security assessments. Two briefers say they’ve been warned not to give Trump information that contradicts his public stances because it makes him angry.
  4. Trump says that he’s free to ignore his intelligence officials and instead rely on his own beliefs. Which is technically true, but maybe not the most informed path. Trump also says he doesn’t want intelligence officials sharing their views with Congress.
  5. One major thing from the hearings that potentially got lost in all the conflict is the assessment that China and Russia are more closely aligned than at any time since the 1950s.
  6. The UK, France, and Germany form a new company to help them get around Trump’s Iran sanctions. The new company would avoid the U.S. banking system and thus would not be subject to the sanctions.

Family Separation:

  1. In a lawsuit launched by ACLU against ICE over family separations at the border, ICE files documents that not don’t deny that there are probably thousands more separated kids than initially reported. The filings also show that the administration thinks it would take too long to find all the people separated from their families because there was never any tracking system.
    • Of note, I see lawsuit filings over family separations in March of 2018, so family separations were happening long before Jeff Sessions announced it as policy.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Decades ago, Muslims settled in an area they called Holy Islamberg in upstate New York to get away from the dangers and temptations of the city. Now, conspiracy theorists and anti-Muslim groups smear the town as dangerous extremists, a jihadist training camp, a terrorist sleeper cell. Why is this news now? Because this week, police arrest four young men who were plotting an attack on the town. They confiscate 23 guns. This is the second recent threat against the town that police have thwarted in recent years.
  2. While Trump keeps pounding on the need for better border security, CPB and ICE haven’t really hired many new agents. Trump signed an order two years ago calling for 5,000 new CPB agents and 10,000 new ICE officers, but there hasn’t been an increase in numbers (for several reasons—the vetting and training processes, an inability to justify the hiring surge, high attrition rates, and so on).
  3. A Maryland State’s Attorney says her office will stop prosecuting marijuana possession regardless of quantity or prior crimes. If you’re wondering why this falls under “Discrimination,” check out the second paragraph here to see the real reason more African Americans than Caucasians are in jail for marijuana possession when both groups use pot at roughly the same rate.
  4. We’re not the only country arguing over asylum policies. In the Netherlands, police aren’t allowed to enter a church during an ongoing service to carry out police business. So a church there held a 24/7 prayer service for 97 days to protect one family from being deported. The service ends this week when the government agrees to a rule change that gives asylum seekers another chance.
  5. The U.S. flags the passports of at least two activists and two journalists working with the asylum seekers at the border. All four are detained by Mexican authorities and denied entry into the country. One resides in Tijuana, but is a U.S. citizen. She was denied access to her 10-month-old son, who was in Tijuana at the time. Another was separated from her husband and daughter while she was questioned. Her daughter sobbed so hard they let them stay in the interrogation room together.
  6. A day after Virginia Governor Ralph Northam ignites pro-life anger by describing in medical and practical terms what happens with a non-viable birth, his college yearbook page surfaces showing a picture of a man in blackface and a man in a KKK costume.
    • Northam take responsibility and apologizes, and that’s not enough—Democrats call for him to resign. Then he says doesn’t think it’s him and says he won’t resign. He does admit to using shoe polish on his face in a Michael Jackson imitation contest.
    • Should he resign, Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax, who is African American, would become governor. But the same site that published Northam’s yearbook also published information about claims of sexual assault against Fairfax. Fairfax says the sexual encounter in 2004 was consensual.
  1. The Department of Health and Human Services changes its rules so that religious foster-care and adoption agencies can discriminate against people they feel don’t agree with their religious teachings.
    • South Carolina’s governor previously signed an executive order that would allow Miracle Hill Ministries to discriminate, but the HHS rule overrode the governor’s EO. So HHS changed their rules.
    • Miracle Hill has previously refused to work with Jewish people and same-sex couples. This all goes back to the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision that supports exemptions to equality guidelines when they go against an organizations closely held religious beliefs.
  1. The Pentagon plans to send 3,500 additional troops to the southern border to help build and reinforce 160 miles of concertina wire fencing.
  2. Undercover Homeland Security agents end a sting operation where they created a fake university to snare foreign nationals who then enrolled in order to get or maintain student visas. DHS hired people to recruit the foreign citizens to enroll in the university. The sting results in the arrest of eight recruiters and could result in the deportation of dozens of “students.”

Climate/EPA:

  1. Another polar vortex hits the Midwest, and Trump wonders where that global warming is when you need it. Some researchers say global warming causes the polar vortex, but not all are convinced. The important thing to remember here is that weather is not the same thing as climate.
  2. The EPA says they won’t set limits on the amounts of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) allowed in our drinking water. Both are linked to cancer, thyroid disease, and immune issues.
  3. Compared to last year, there are 30 fewer lawmakers who are skeptical of any part of climate change than last year. That includes whether climate change is happening, whether it’s a danger, and whether it’s manmade. Deniers make up nearly 30% of Congress, and between them they’ve averaged around a half million in donations from the fossil fuel industry.
  4. France announces a new goal to double their renewable energy capacity within 10 years.
  5. The Bureau of Land Managements moves forward with their sales of oil and gas leases near sacred Native American sites, including the Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Processing those energy leases is one thing that didn’t slow down during the shutdown.

Budget/Economy:

  1. The government won’t guarantee that over 1,000,000 federal contractors will receive any back pay from the shutdown, and these are already some of the lowest paid government workers (like janitors, guards, cooks, and so on).
  2. The Senate introduces a plan to repeal the estate tax entirely. Currently, no estate tax is paid for the first $22 million of an inherited estate.
  3. Foxconn announces changes to the Wisconsin campus that Paul Ryan worked so hard to secure. They’re moving away from manufacturing and instead will be a research center.
  4. The House passes a 2.6% pay raise for federal civilian workers. In December, Trump froze any raises for non-military federal workers.
  5. Rutger Bregman, who’s written about history, philosophy, and economics, speaks at Davos and lambasts the wealthy audience for not being willing to talk about taxes, which he says is the only way we know to fight the growing inequality. He says “It feels like I’m at a firefighters conference and no one’s allowed to speak about water.”
    • Ken Goldman, former CFO of Yahoo, denounces the speakers on the forum saying it was one-sided and demanding answers besides higher taxes (and sort of proving the point).
    • Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of Oxfam International, counters Goldman by talking about the lack of dignity in certain jobs and the powerlessness of workers, including those in the U.S. that have brought our unemployment so low.
  1. The economy added 304,000 new jobs last month, but the unemployment rate bumped up to 4%. This could be because people who were furloughed at the time might have reported (mistakenly) that they were unemployed.
  2. Government data shows that new orders for U.S. goods dropped in October and November last year, which suggests a slowdown in manufacturing. A new survey indicates things might’ve picked up again a bit in January.

Elections:

  1. Another state lawmaker switches party from Republican to Democrat. This time it’s New Jersey State Senator Dawn Addiego, who says “the party which once echoed the vision of Ronald Reagan no longer exists.”
  2. In recent weeks Texas flagged 95,000 registered voters for citizenship reviews. Now they’re saying that a substantial number of those flagged shouldn’t have been, and they’re working to remove those names. Apparently the Secretary of State neglected to check how many of these people had become citizens since last applying for a driver license as a non-citizen.
    • The list went back to drivers licenses issued in 1996.
    • Most of those flagged are Latino (shocking, I know).
    • The governor of Texas hasn’t stopped the operation from moving forward despite the errors.
    • The media spread headlines supporting Trump’s accusations of massive voter fraud, which has now turned out to not be the case.
  1. Mitch McConnell criticizes the House Democrats’ bills to make Election Day a federal holiday. He calls it a power grab. And he’s right. When everyone can vote, it’s a power grab by the people 😉

Miscellaneous:

  1. The first tornado in 80 years hits Havana, Cuba.
  2. The Pentagon drafts plans to create a space force under the Air Force rather than as a fully independent military branch as initially envisioned.
  3. A jury awards Rand Paul nearly $8,000 in medical costs, $200,000 for pain and suffering, and another $375,000 in punitive damages from when his neighbor attacked him at his home in 2017.
  4. Trump appoints Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson to be his chief medical adviser. Jackson was once Trump’s nominee for VA secretary, but couldn’t get through the confirmation process due to misconduct allegations. Trump also pushes for Jackson to receive his second star, but the previous allegations against him are still under investigation.
  5. There are three more mass shootings this week in Chicago, San Diego, and Houston. In total, they leave four dead and 13 injured.
  6. A White House staffer leaks three months worth of Trump’s schedules, which show an inordinate amount of time for “Executive Time.” I’m not going to report too much here because who knows what Executive Time actually is.
  7. Like another powerful woman before her (who I won’t name), Nikki Haley charges $200,000 to give speeches.

Polls:

  1. The U.S. falls from 16th to 22nd in the Corruption Perceptions Index (meaning we’re perceived as being more corrupt this year than last year).

Things Politicians Say:

“I think God calls all of us to fill different roles at different times and I think that he wanted Donald Trump to become president, and that’s why he’s there.”

~Sarah Huckabee Sanders to CBN’s David Brody and Jennifer Wishon

Week 76 in Trump

Posted on July 9, 2018 in Politics, Trump

Was your Member of Congress in Russia?

Thankfully it was a short news week with the 4th of July holiday falling right in the middle, but that didn’t stop the government from working. GOP Members of Congress traveled to Moscow to meet with Russian officials (over the 4th? weird); Pompeo met with North Korean officials; children are still separated from their parents at the border (surprisingly there was no plan to reunite them); Scott Pruitt retired; and let the trade wars begin.

Here’s what happened last week. I’m sure I missed things, so if you notice something, let me know.

Missed from Last Week:

  1. Paul Manafort’s personal assistant was the person who gave the FBI access to the storage locker where they found evidence in the case against Manafort. Manafort is now trying to have that evidence suppressed, but the assistant was likely within his rights to provide access.

Russia:

  1. Michael Cohen replaces his legal team with Lanny Davis, a former Clinton White House spokesperson and special counsel.
  2. Mueller is looking into whether Russian nationals used the NRA to illegally funnel funds to the Trump campaign.
  3. Mueller expands his team of prosecutors.
  4. Paul Manafort is spending much of his time in custody in solitary confinement for his own safety.
  5. Ahead of Trump’s upcoming visit with Putin, a delegation of GOP Senators and Representatives take a trip to Moscow to meet with Russian leaders.
    • John Neely Kennedy (R-La.)
    • Sen. John Thune (S.D.)
    • Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who denounced our sanctions against Russia when he returned
    • Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.)
    • Steve Daines (Mont.)
    • Jerry Moran (Kan.)
    • John Hoeven (N.D.)
    • Kay Granger (R-Texas)
  1. Coinciding with this visit, the Senate Intelligence Committee releases an interim report on their Russia investigation, concluding that the U.S. intelligence community was correct in its findings that Russia meddled in the 2016 elections to help elect Donald Trump. They also say that Putin ordered this interference.
  2. The committee’s main criticism is that the intelligence community could’ve been more thorough. The committee claims they found a far more extensive effort by the Russians to sow division and disrupt our elections.
  3. Independent journalist Marcy Wheeler becomes an FBI informant after spending more than a decade criticizing the U.S. intelligence community. She went to the FBI once she realized her informant played a part in the Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Chuck Schumer calls Trump to suggest he nominate Merrick Garland to Justice Kennedy’s about-to-be-empty seat. Seems the answer was no.

Healthcare:

  1. Trump halts payments to insurers that cover sicker patient populations, an ACA program to protect such insurers from loss and to spread the risk among all insurance companies. Note that these payments come from insurance companies and not taxpayer dollars.
  2. Insurance companies say to expect premium increases next year because of this.
  3. The U.S. refuses to sponsor a noncontroversial resolution at the World Health Assembly promoting the health benefits of breastfeeding, even threatening to withhold funding to WHO. Not only that, we threaten the country that introduced the resolution, Ecuador, with economic and military punishments. Ecuador withdraws the resolution. Health activists look for a replacement, but other countries are now too afraid to step up. Except Russia, that is, which steps up and saves the resolution. For some reason, we don’t threaten them over it.
  4. Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin (R) plans to cancel dental and vision benefits provided under Medicaid after a judge blocked his Medicaid work requirements.

International:

  1. Denmark now legally classifies low-income immigrants (in what they call “immigrant ghettos”) as “ghetto children” and “ghetto parents.” They also require these children spend 25 hours a week away from their parents starting at age one to get training in “Danish values.”
  2. Protests continue in Iran over water shortages caused by mismanagement and over the economy, now threatened by U.S. sanctions after we withdrew from the Iran deal.
  3. We learn that Trump has asked at least four times why we can’t just invade Venezuela.
  4. After Mike Pompeo’s meeting with North Korean officials, Pompeo says the meetings were productive but North Korea says the attitude of the U.S. team is “regrettable,” “gangster-like,” and “cancerous.”
  5. Over the past few months, North Korea’s been increasing their production of enriched uranium, indicating that they don’t currently have any intentions of denuclearizing. The country is also finishing up an expansion of a ballistic missile factory.
  6. John Bolton says North Korea could denuclearize in about a year, while Mike Pompeo says two and a half years.
  7. Trump threatens NATO allies, saying they must increase defense spending or the U.S. will decrease its military presence around the world.
  8. A British couple is exposed to the toxic nerve agents that was used on a former Russian spy and his daughter in March.
  9. With newly expanded powers, Turkey’s president Erdogan fires over 18,000 state employees because of alleged terrorist ties.

Separating Families:

  1. Groups have been raising money to make bail for mothers separated from their children because that’s the quickest way to reunite them. But now ICE agents are saying that they’ve been told to deny bonds for separated parents.
  2. ICE agents, under administration instructions, are using the separated children to extort asylum seekers into voluntary deportation.
  3. Asylum seekers are not being allowed to reunite with their children while awaiting their asylum hearings (even parents who have passed their initial asylum screening).
  4. A federal judge orders the administration to halt blanket arrests of asylum seekers. The judge also rules that asylum seekers must either be released or granted a hearing.
  5. ICE is reportedly not giving families a chance to officially seek asylum. They’re telling refugees that they can either leave with their children, or seek asylum and have their children taken away.
  6. All of this is increasing the calls to abolish, or at the very least restructure, ICE.
  7. A woman climbs the base of the Statue of Liberty after a protest to abolish ICE, shutting the statue down to the public for several hours while law enforcement brings her down.
  8. Local officials cancel their contracts with ICE to provide facilities to detain immigrants.
  9. The Trump administration requests more time to reunite families. A federal judge says children under 5 must be reunited by July 10, and others by July 26.
  10. Why are they having trouble reuniting these families? Because some records linking families have been misplaced or destroyed. It’s almost like they never intended to bring the families back together. They’re now using DNA testing to find families. Humanitarian issues aside, the zero-tolerance policy is ending up costing us an immense amount of money in the long run.
  11. Meanwhile, toddlers continue to appear before court in immigration hearings, with judges admittedly uncomfortable asking them if they understand the proceedings.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. A federal judges rejects a Trump administration request to block three sanctuary laws in California.
  2. To justify his policy of family separation, Trump says we have a border crisis. But the numbers show that the number of border crossings has plummeted 80% from 2000 to 2017.
  3. Trump says he didn’t push Republicans to pass an immigration bill despite tweeting three days earlier that House Republicans should pass Goodlatte’s bill (while continuing to blame Democrats for the failings of the GOP-led Congress).
  4. The Trump administration plans to rescind Obama-era rules for colleges to consider race in order to diversify their student population. The DOJ says they’ll sue any universities who don’t follow the new policy. This is the seventh affirmative action rule Trump has rescinded.
  5. Trump repeats a lie that seems to have started with a hard-line Iranian cleric by saying that Obama gave citizenship to 2,500 Iranians as part of the Iran deal.
  6. The U.S. Army begins discharging immigrant recruits who were promised a pathway to citizenship at the end of their service. Some aren’t given a reason, some are told that something came up in their background checks, and some are suing the military.
  7. The above could be part of Trump’s new task force that was put in place to review immigrants who have been granted citizenship to find out if there’s anything in their background that we can use to deport them.
  8. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago has applied for 61 H2-B visas to hire temporary workers from abroad.
  9. A judge orders the Trump administration to provide documentation about how they decided to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The judge indicates the administration might have acted in bad faith.

Climate/EPA:

  1. Scott Pruitt and his staff keep secret calendars in order to hide meetings with people representing the very industries the EPA is supposed to watch over.
  2. EPA staffers even modified Pruitt’s official calendar to make sure there weren’t any meetings that might look bad.
  3. Staff members also testify to Congress that Pruitt ignored warnings about ethics violations and tried to use his position for personal gain.
  4. Scott Pruitt finally resigns, and Andrew Wheeler will take over as acting administrator for now. Wheeler was a coal lobbyist for Murray Energy.
  5. Pruitt pens quite the love letter to Trump as his resignation letter.
  6. Ah… but before he leaves, Pruitt gives us one last gift. He enacts a loophole that raises the limit on the number of trucks a manufacturer can produce that use old engines (super polluter trucks). These trucks emit up to 55 times the pollutants that trucks with more modern engines do.
  7. Locations all across the northern hemisphere log record high temperatures this week.

Budget/Economy:

  1. The latest BLS numbers show that while employment increased by 213,000 in June, the unemployment rate rose to 4.0% because of more people, largely college graduates, entering the workforce.
  2. Trump doesn’t like the updated NAFTA deal and says he won’t sign it until after the midterms. Is he really using this as an election campaign tool?
  3. U.S. tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese imports begin, while Chinese tariffs on the same amount of American goods go into effect, including on pork, wheat, rice and dairy products. China will also cancel orders for 1.1 million tons of soybeans.
  4. Canada places retaliatory tariffs on $12.5 billion in American goods.
  5. Mexico implements the second part of their retaliatory tariffs on $3 billion in American goods.
  6. Russia places retaliatory tariffs on American goods.
  7. Ahead of these tariffs, global export growth has slowed to a crawl.
  8. The [conservative] U.S. Chamber of Commerce launches a campaign opposing Trump’s trade policies.
  9. Trump says that Saudi leaders have agreed to his request to increase oil production, but Saudi leaders say they can increase production, not that they will.
  10. The Tax Foundation estimates that the current trade wars will cost us 250,000 jobs.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Leaked copies of Michael Cohen’s shredded documents seem to confirm his hush money payment to a playboy model on behalf of Elliot Broidy.
  2. Maybe this is why Jim Jordan is so mad. Several Ohio State wrestlers have come forward to say that Jordan was aware of alleged sexual abuse by the team doctor during his time there as coach. Jordan is a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, whose members are being urged to stand behind him.
  3. Trump hires Bill Shine to be Communications Director. You might remember that Fox News fired Shine for how he handled sexual harassment claims while there.
  4. Melania Trump has an agreement with Getty Images that not only pays royalties to the Trumps when photos of them are used, but that also says the photos can only be used in positive news stories.
  5. Public confrontations with people affiliated with the Trump administration are growing. Protestors follow Mitch McConnell in a parking lot asking him where the children are, and a woman is kicked out of a bookstore for calling Steve Bannon a piece of trash. A bartender flips off Steven Miller, so Miller throws away the take-out sushi he got there.
  6. Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, says he’ll run for president in 2020 if Trump does, because he alone can beat him. Where’ve we heard that before?

Polls:

  1. 63% of American voters support the Roe v. Wade decision.
  2. 64% of American voters want campaign spending limits for corporations and unions.
  3. 58% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration. I seriously can’t believe that 40% of Americans are OK with treating families this way.

Stupid Things Politicians Say:

Trump holds yet another campaign rally, this time in Montana. Here are a few highlights.

  1. A week after the mass shooting at the Capital Gazette in Maryland, he again makes a point of calling the media “fake news.”
  2. In another assault on our intelligence officers, he accuses them of giving Hillary Clinton special treatment.
  3. He says North Korea signed a denuclearization deal, which they haven’t yet.
  4. He once again hypes the threat of MS-13, saying that if Democrats win, MS-13 members will run free. A) MS-13 makes up .1% of all gang members in the U.S. and B) no one wants them to run free.
  5. He pushes the false theory that we have rampant voter fraud, and this time throws in the misinformation that Republicans have a tougher time winning the electoral vote. Of note, Democrats have won the popular vote in 6 of the last 7 presidential elections, but have only won the electoral vote in 4 of them.
  6. He mocks the #MeToo movement, Elizabeth Warren, Maxine Waters, John McCain, and George Bush Sr. (whose eloquence apparently went over Trump’s head). But Putin? He says Putin’s fine.
  7. He also mocked people who say that Putin was KGB, despite the fact that Putin really was in the KGB for quite some time, rising to the level of directory by the time it became the FSB.
  8. He went into a stream of consciousness comparing his crowd size with Elton John’s:

“I have broken more Elton John records…and I don’t have a musical instrument. I don’t have a guitar or an organ. No organ. Elton has an organ.”

Economic Trends, 1990-Present

Posted on January 29, 2018 in Economy

For those of you who love numbers and charts, I created a few charts to see how the economy has trended under recent administrations. Why did I do this? Because for eight years under Obama, I heard how these numbers were all misleading or wrong, and for some reason I’m not hearing that under the new administration.

If you want to create your own graphs, FRED has seemingly unlimited economic data to chart and it’s really easy. Here’s the link: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/

In the graphs below, the gray lines indicate a recession.

Dow Jones Industrial Average

 

Real Disposable Personal Income

 

 

Unemployment Rate: 20 years and older 

 

Unemployment Rate: Black or African American

 

Number of Employees in Coal Mining

 

Gross Domestic Product

 

 

Housing Starts: New Privately Owned Units Started

 

Corporate Profits After Tax