And here you have it, folks. This explains why we’re in the situation we’re in. CNN hosted an all-female panel of Pennsylvania voters, and several members of the panel said they’d still vote for Trump “if he shot someone on 5^th Avenue.” Because “you’d have to know why he shot him.”

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending November 10… Sorry, I’m a week behind still!

Missing From Previous Weeks:

1. The U.S. refused to issue visas to members of an Iranian delegation coming to Washington for the annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Iran’s economic minister canceled his trip in protest.
2. The USDA’s inspector general opened an investigation into whether the USDA was burying its own scientists’ research on climate change. Farmers and ranchers are feeling the effects of climate change firsthand, and can’t really mitigate it without access to the scientific information.

Shootings This Week:

There were SIX mass shootings in the U.S. this week (defined as killing and/or injuring 4 or more people). Shooters kill 1 person and injure 24 more.

1. A shooter injures 4 people outside a nightclub in Kansas City, MO.
2. A shooter kills 1 person and injures 4 more outside a strip club in Memphis, TN.
3. A shooter injures 4 people filming a rap video in Little Rock, AK. The victims are 12, 12, 13, and 30 years old.
4. A shooter injures 4 people in Vidalia, GA.
5. A drive-by shooter injures 4 men in Detroit, MI.
6. A shooter injures 4 people outside a nightclub in Toledo, OH.

Russia:

1. Roger Stone’s trial begins. As a reminder, he was indicted on obstruction of justice, five counts of making false statements (including to Congress), and witness tampering.
2. Stone is in hot water over his relationship with WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential campaign.
3. Stone’s indictment says a Trump campaign official was told to contact Stone after Wikileaks released DNC emails. They wanted information from Stone about when the next releases would come out and what other damaging information they had.
4. Steve Bannon testifies, and says the campaign was willing to try “dirty tricks” in order to win.
5. Court documents show that Manafort was spreading the Ukraine conspiracy theories months before the elections.

Legal Fallout:

1. A federal judge upholds a ruling that Trump’s tax returns must be handed over to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. This is part of the investigation into the hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.
2. After being threatened with fines and jail time, Betsy DeVos announces that the Department of Education will cancel the debt of about 1,500 students who attended schools that went belly-up before they completed their educations.

• • The loans should’ve been forgiven under the “closed school discharge” guidelines.
  • But this one is a mess. The schools in question were purchased by a Christian non-profit group in 2017, when they were already in distress. The non-profit, Dream Center Education Holdings, closed a few schools within months. To top off their problems, the schools lost their accreditation with the Higher Learning Commission, and the whole chain shut down within a year of the purchase.

3. A New York State judge orders Trump to personally pay $2 million to various nonprofit organizations as part of a settlement involving the Trump Foundation. The foundation held a fundraiser in 2016 ostensibly for veterans’ organizations, but none of those organizations saw any of the $3 million raised. The court finds that the Trump family misused charitable contributions to the foundation for personal, business, and political gain.
4. According to Trump advisors, around September 25, Trump asked Attorney General William Barr to hold a press conference to say that Trump didn’t break any laws in his call with Zelensky. Barr declined. Both men deny this happened.
5. Two Twitter employees are accused of helping Saudi Arabia spy on its critics. The Saudis recruited the two to obtain data, including email addresses and IP addresses, of people who criticize the country and its leaders.

Impeachment:

Including all this info just makes this blog 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. Every Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee votes to advance White House legal aide Steve Menashi’s nomination to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

• • Menashi is inexperienced.
  • His writings show him to oppose women and to support racist ideas. He opposes diversity programs and gay rights and has expressed anti-Muslim sentiments.
  • Menashi worked with Betsy DeVos to roll back rights for victims of sexual assaults on campuses.
  • He also worked with DeVos to help create the plan to use Social Security data to deny debt relief to students cheated out of money by for-profit colleges. A judge found this plan to be illegal.
  • He’s being accused of being part of the Ukraine coverup, having been Trump’s legal adviser for over a year (though I haven’t seen any evidence of this).

Healthcare:

1. A federal judge overrules Trump’s rule allowing healthcare workers to refuse care based on religious beliefs. The judge says DHHS exceeded its authority, acted arbitrarily and capriciously, and lied about their justification for making the changes.
2. Global warming is causing an exponential increase in Dengue Fever infections (boo), but scientists announce they‘re finalizing a vaccine (yay) to prevent the disease. In tests, the vaccine is 95% effective in preventing serious illness; 80% effective in preventing it altogether.

International:

1. Iran announces new violations of the JCPOA (Iran Deal) on the 40th anniversary of the student takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, which started the 444-day-long hostage crisis. Iran is operating 60 IR-6 advanced centrifuges, which produce enriched uranium ten times faster than what the JCPOA allows. Gosh, if only we could’ve had some sort of agreement that would prevent this. Oh, wait…
2. The BBC reports that one of the U.S.’s demands in their post-Brexit trade negotiations with the UK is that the UK must privatize their National Health System.
3. Working-class communities in Northern Ireland see an uptick in violence over fears that Brexit will create a hard border between them and Ireland again.
4. Yemen’s government signs a power-sharing peace agreement with separatists, a move backed by the Saudi crown prince. This civil war is in its fifth year.
5. The two had banded together previously to fight the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, but then rebels backed by the United Arab Emirates seized the capital city from the government, which is support by Saudi Arabia.
6. The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen is still obtaining U.S. weapons, despite bipartisan congressional disapproval.
7. Violent protests continue in the Bolivian capital of La Paz. People across the country have been protesting since the elections four weeks ago, after the results couldn’t be validated because of “serious irregularities.”

• • Protestors kidnap a small-town mayor, cut her hair, douse her in red paint, and march her barefoot through the streets.
  • Bolivian President Evo Morales resigns. Morales, who has served for 14 years, is Bolivia’s first indigenous president.
  • The successors to the presidency all resign as well, so it’s unclear who will take over.

8. Trump tweets Turkish President Erdogan’s praises and confirms Erdogan will visit the White House this month. It’s just a month since Erdogan attacked the Syrian Kurds who were our allies.
9. A student dies in Hong Kong from falling from a parking garage during a clash between protestors and police. This is the first death in the 23 weeks of protest there.

• • A pro-Beijing politician is stabbed while out canvassing for votes. He isn’t seriously injured.
  • China warns that they’ll bring in national security forces to quash the protests.

10. Protests continue in Chile despite all the concessions made by the Chilean government.
11. Iraq uses security forces to stop anti-government demonstrators. At least 300 people have died so far in the protests. This unrest is, in part, due to resentment of Iran’s influence in Iraq.
12. A drug cartel ambushes a group of Mormons living in Mexico, killing nine U.S. citizens.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

1. (Missed from last week) At a White House Halloween party, children were encouraged to help “Build the wall!” Teaching intolerance at a young age.
2. And speaking of walls, Germany commemorates the 30^th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which divided East and West Germany. They say history repeats itself…

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. The Trump administration quietly launches a pilot program in El Paso aimed at reducing the amount of time immigrants have to organize their cases to be allowed into the country. This allows the U.S. to deport asylum seekers more quickly and without a thorough vetting.
2. U.S.-backed loans are being used to fund the smugglers who bring Guatemalans here illegally. The loans were intended to boost rural communities’ economies.

Climate:

1. Ryan Jackson, EPA chief of staff, refuses to tell the EPA’s inspector general how he obtained advance information about a witness’s testimony. The IG is investigating whether Jackson tried to influence an agency scientist ahead of her testimony before Congress.
2. Trump takes formal steps to remove the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement.
3. Top economists say we’re beginning to feel the economic effects of climate change, and that those effects are likely to snowball soon.

• • The Federal Reserve held its first climate change conference to discuss it.
  • Per capita global GDP could fall by 7% by 2100, but if all countries stick to the Paris accord, that could be minimized to 1%.
  • Extreme weather, but specifically extreme heat, affects productivity.

4. Over 11,000 scientists sign on to a declaration saying we’re facing a climate emergency. The authors express frustration over our lack of action over the past four decades, during which the science has been showing that we can do something.
5. Italy makes classes in climate change compulsory in schools.
6. Global sea-level rise is unstoppable, at least to 2050. It threatens 40 million people. That number rises to 200 million by 2100 if we do nothing.

Budget/Economy:

1. Goldman Sachs reports that they think tariffs on Chinese goods have likely peaked. They’re basing this on the possible first-phase trade/tariff agreement.

• • Economists still don’t think China will implement any real structural change, but they think we can avoid further escalation
  • Economists posit that Trump won’t push for China to address systemic trade issues that will affect U.S. businesses in the long term because he wants this settled before the 2020 elections.

2. Manufacturing in China has expanded for three straight months, while U.S. manufacturing has contracted each of those months. October had the largest U.S. manufacturing deficit with China in at least eight years (which is how long they’ve been using this particular survey).
3. China announces that the U.S. and China have both agreed to cancel certain tariffs on one another’s goods. The news triggered a stock market rally with new record highs in the U.S.
4. Trump won’t impose new tariffs on European cars this week as he had previously promised (he’s said that imports of European cars somehow pose a national security threat).
5. Farm income is expected to hit its highest level since 2014, but 40% of that income comes from the taxpayer bailout, disaster assistance, insurance, and the farm bill.

Elections:

1. Trump campaigns in Kentucky for unpopular Governor Matt Bevin (why does Kentucky keep electing officials they hate?). In a very close race, Democrat Andy Beshear later beats Bevin by fewer than 6,000 votes.

• • Trump makes the rally about him: “If you lose, they’re going to say, ‘Trump suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world.’ You can’t let that happen to ME!”
  • Bevin calls for a re-canvassing of the ballots.
  • Some Republican State Representatives seem to indicate it might fall to them to decide the winner based on an old rule regarding election irregularities. Bevin has already made accusations of irregularities, so that could be where this is headed. Bevin hasn’t cited any evidence, though.

2. In other state elections this week, Democrats took over both the Senate and the House of Delegates in Virginia, giving them a trifecta in the state.
3. In Mississippi, Republican Lt. Governor Tate Reeves defeated Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood to take the governor’s seat.
4. Facebook and Google are under pressure to limit political ads, or at least to not publish lies. Twitter has already banned political ads.

Miscellaneous:

1. In Nikki Haley’s new book, she claims that former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly tried to get her to subvert Trump with them. According to Haley, both men said they weren’t being insubordinate; they were trying to save the country.
2. The DOJ is trying to intimidate and expose the author who anonymously penned the upcoming book “The Warning.” Anonymous wrote an infamous op-ed in the New York Times claiming to be a White House official and describing the chaotic atmosphere of Trump’s White House.

• • Excerpts of the book are leaking out, and I’m trying to decide whether to repeat them here. It seems to me that if you’re unwilling to put your name on something, then I have no way of determining how credible your book is.

3. Trump far outpaces his three most recent predecessors in staff turnover at this point in his presidency.
4. AT&T agrees to a $60 million settlement with its unlimited data customers for misleading them about slowing down their speeds. This is called throttling. And this would be illegal if we still had net neutrality rules.
5. An ABC news anchor is caught on a hot mic saying that NBC executives quashed a bombshell sex-trafficking story about Jeffrey Epstein.

Polls:

1. 64% of Americans say their finances are no better under Trump. 35% say they’re doing better.
2. A Fox News poll shows that more voters want Trump impeached (53%) than oppose impeachment (41%).