Here’s how conspiracy theories start. Fox News airs a segment saying that liberals have launched a war on Thanksgiving and they want to change the name. So Trump, of course, brings it up in a campaign rally shortly after he watches the segment, and he makes a really big deal about it. The next day, on Fox & Friends, they ponder over where on earth Trump could’ve come up with the idea that there’s a war on Thanksgiving. Maybe, they say, it’s because there was a rumor that Obama wanted to change it back in 2015 or so? So not only did the Fox network manage to distance itself from being the source of the rumor, but then they manage to tie it to Obama! And now, a good chunk of Trump’s base thinks that there’s a war on Thanksgiving. Yikes.

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

Shootings This Week:

There were NINE mass shootings in the U.S. this week (defined as killing and/or injuring 4 or more people). Shooters kill 8 people and injure 41 more.

1. In Brownsville, FL, two shooters kill 2 people and injure 2 more in a drive-by shooting.
2. In the Bronx, a shooter fires into a crowd in the middle of the day and injures 5 people (including 2 children).
3. In Amarillo, TX, a shooter injures 7 people at the Hogg Penn nightclub.
4. In Hensley, AR, a shooter injures 5 people, leading to a 7-hour standoff.
5. In New Orleans, LA, a shooter injures 10 people near the French Quarter after the Bayou Classic football game.
6. Hours later, again in New Orleans, a shooter kills 2 people and injures 2 more in the 7th Ward.
7. In Aurora, IL, a shooter kills 1 person and injures 5 more. The young man who died survived a previous gunshot wound when he was just 3 years old.
8. In Cotton Valley, LA, a shooter kills 2 people and injures 3 more at The Vibe nightclub.
9. In Kalamazoo, MI, a shooter holds a family hostage and then kills 1 and injures 3. The injured were all police officers responding at the scene, so I’m not sure if that qualifies as a mass shooting?

Russia:

1. A federal court rules that top presidential advisers cannot ignore congressional subpoenas. This is for Don McGahn’s case where he was subpoenaed to appear before the House, but Trump claimed executive privilege. The court rules that he must testify and that “no one is above the law.” This could affect White House officials who’ve so far refused to cooperate with the impeachment hearings, but it’s also likely to get appealed.

• • The DOJ then asks a federal court to temporarily suspend the ruling through the appeals process.

2. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy releases an ad praising Trump. The ad includes stock Russian footage. McCarthy is infamous for saying that there are two people he knows get paid by the Russians—Trump and former Representative Dana Rohrabacher (D-CA). (And since Lev Parnas‘s indictment, we know McCarthy also got paid by the Russians.)
3. Ohio Secretary of State Frank laRose announces that Ohio elections systems were the target of a cyberattack earlier this month. The attack was tracked back to a Russian-owned firm, and seemed to be looking for soft targets.

Legal Fallout:

1. The Supreme Court grants an emergency stay on a lower court ruling that said Trump’s accounting firm had to share the financial records requested by Congress. This signals that they will hear the case, and could delay the release, if any, of Trump’s tax returns until mid-January.
2. As part of the New York District Attorney’s investigation into the hush money payments to Trump’s mistresses, David Pecker, head of America Media Inc., has been meeting with prosecutors. Michael Cohen is also cooperating with the investigation.
3. Documents regarding Trump Tower in New York show that Trump inflated numbers to make the property look better to lenders, and deflated numbers to make it look worse for tax purposes.
4. People who work for Representative Duncan Hunter (R-CA) testify that his wife was in charge of the finances, and that Duncan was unaware of any misspending of campaign funds. It’s notable that Hunter won re-election in 2018 despite being indicted on 60 counts.

Impeachment:

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. Legal cases around Trump’s finances and his disputes with Congress appear to be headed to the Supreme Court, which will clearly test the court’s neutrality. This court wants to appear nonpartisan.

• • The court will hear arguments on December 13 to determine whether to add Trump’s request to block the release of his financial documents to their docket.
  • The court already placed a temporary hold on a court ruling that the House Oversight and Reform Committee has the authority to see Trump’s financial documents.
  • The case over whether Don McGahn can testify to Congress is also likely to make it to the Supreme Court.

Healthcare:

1. Pennsylvania legislators are pushing a poorly-written bill that would force healthcare providers to arrange for burials or cremations of fetal remains. You’d think this would only apply to abortions, but the way it’s written, it also includes fertilized eggs that fail to attach to the uterus and are flushed from the system. Which is about 50% of fertilized eggs. I’m not sure how they’ll enforce that one. Looks like they’re trying to top Ohio for having the least scientific understanding of the birds and the bees.
2. Purdue Pharma asks a Canadian court to put a temporary hold on all court cases against them in Canada while they settle all the cases against them in the U.S. A U.S. bankruptcy judge already granted them a temporary reprieve from cases in the U.S.
3. Trump is working to reverse some of Obama’s regulations on nursing homes. The regulations were put in place to safeguard elderly and dementia patients from abuse and from being over-medicated. The administration says that reversing the rules will save nursing homes around $600 million per year, but the new rules don’t require them to put that money toward improving care.
4. The overall life expectancy in the U.S. has declined for three consecutive years. Death rates for young and middle-aged adults have been rising for a decade from causes like suicide, drug overdoses, liver disease, and more.

• • The highest jump in death rates from 2010 to 2017 was for people age 25 to 34. Their death rate increased by 29%.

• • Along with the causes listed above, obesity is another big cause. Obesity in childhood brings a plethora of health problems as we get older. 40% of Americans are obese. 71.6% are overweight. 20% of American kids are obese.

International:

1. Trump surprises troops in Afghanistan with a Thanksgiving visit. He also announces that he’s resumed peace talks with the Taliban.
2. The Trump administration takes steps to substantially reduce U.S. contributions to NATO. Trumps wants to reduce our share to 15% from 22%. Compare that to Germany, which pays 14.8% despite having a much smaller economy than the U.S. Trump will meet with NATO leaders at the summit at the beginning of December.
3. A terrorist attack in London leaves two people dead and several others injured. The attacker uses a knife, and is shot by police. Two bystanders fight the attacker using a fire extinguisher and a nearby narwhal tusk.
4. Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi announces he’ll tender his resignation the day after 40 Iraqi protestors are killed in an attack against the Iranian consulate there. Mahdi was reportedly handpicked by Iran for his position, and the protestors are fighting against Iran’s influences in Iraq’s government.
5. The Iranian government continues their brutal crackdown on protestors. At least 180 people have been killed after protests rose up against a dramatic increase in gas and oil prices. Some estimate the death toll is as high as 450. At least 2,000 people are wounded and 7,000 detained. This is the worst unrest there since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The government partially restores internet access, and information is finally coming out of the country about what’s going on.
6. Trump signs a bill that authorizes sanctions against Chinese and Hong Kong officials responsible for human rights violations during the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. He also signs a bill banning the sales of tear gas and rubber bullets to the Hong Kong police.
7. Fresh protests break out in Hong Kong after pro-democracy candidates swept local elections. People marched in front of the U.S. consulate there to show gratitude for the U.S. passing the bills supporting their rights.
8. In France, protests break out on Black Friday against Amazon. Activists protest the consumerism represented by Amazon and its cost to the environment.
9. Trump says he’ll designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorists.
10. The White House releases $105 million in military aid to Lebanon, which had been held up over a dispute between members of the National Security Council. Some thought the aid would help Iran-backed members of government. Protests in Lebanon, started over tax reform, have been ongoing since mid-October.

Legislation/Congress:

1. Trump signs a bipartisan bill making animal cruelty a federal felony. The bill bans intentional crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating, impalement or other serious harm to animals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. The law also bans animal cruelty videos and pictures.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

1. Homeland Security endorses We Build The Wall, the group founded by veteran Brian Kolfage to privately build a wall at the southern border. Kolfage is on a mission to save Texas from “illegals.” He says the butterfly “freaks” at the National Butterfly Center are standing in his way, and even accuses them of being part of an international butterfly smuggling ring.

• • Trump signed legislation earlier this year to exempt the refuge from any border wall plans.

2. Trump puts Jared Kushner in charge of building the border wall. Kushner, in turn, is trying to expedite the process of confiscating private property to get it done.

Family Separation:

1. The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general releases a report that finds the DHS didn’t have the technology or necessary systems in place to allow them to track the children they separated from their parents at the southern border.

• • Immigration officials knew they couldn’t track them and yet still went forward with their plans to separate more than 26,000 children.
  • They knew this as early as November 2017.
  • The report also calls the “zero tolerance” policy that led to the separation ineffective. Thousands of detainees were still released into the U.S.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. A review of government websites and archives shows that in the years under Trump, they’ve removed anti-discrimination information along with data and resources for the LGBTQ community.

• • The changes are scattershot over about 57% of agencies, showing a lack of coherent policy.
  • Crucial information for LGBTQ and HIV-positive people was removed from pages for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
  • The changes don’t reflect actual policy, which Trump has had trouble changing.

2. Trump signs an executive order creating a White House task force to address the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW). This comes right as Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) introduces the Republican version of the Violence Against Women Act, which would roll back the 2013 provisions that made it easier for Native law enforcement officers to bring non-Native abusers to justice. Ernst’s version would give those non-Native abusers a way out.

• • Native American women face the highest rate of violence of any other group in the U.S., and 97% of that violence is at the hands of a non-Native person.

3. Alaska state officials have been denying same-sex couple certain marriage benefits even though their ban on same-sex marriage was overturned in 2014.
4. Over the past few months, the DHS has arrested 90 additional students who signed up for the fake university they set up in Detroit. That brings the total arrested to about 250, mostly immigrants from India. The students arrived legally with student visas, but because the university was a fake one created by federal agents, they lost their immigration status.

• • This is just another example of ICE’s egregious tactics being used under all administrations. This sting operation started in 2016, preying upon people who thought they were taking legitimate steps to be in the U.S.

5. This one got past me earlier this year: In 2016, parents of female students at a charter school had to sue to allow their girls to wear pants. The school had a dress code of skirts for girls. IN FREAKING 2016!

• • This spring, the parents won their suit, and now the girls can wear pants or shorts, and they can run around the playground just as freely as the boys without being hindered by obsolete dress codes.

• • The final ruling on the case this week finds that the dress code violates Equal Protection, and permanently blocks the school from establishing or enforcing a similar provision.
  • PS: I thought this was settled decades ago.

6. Private prison company GEO Group could face financial issues after all of the known banks providing loans to the company agree to divest and end ties with GEO. Some of those banks have also committed to not funding the private prison industry altogether, with most cutting ties with CoreCivic as well
7. Trump orders national parks to deploy some of their park rangers to the southern border to patrol for illegal border crossings. This is a way of getting around congressional funding for his efforts there. But this leaves park visitors without the resources they rely on and puts them at more risk. National parks are already underfunded and short-staffed.
8. The House Oversight and Reform Committee brings a lawsuit against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to enforce the subpoenas they filed earlier to get information about the decision to add a citizenship question to the census.

Climate:

1. Exxon Mobile knew as long ago as 1982 that atmospheric CO2 is a major cause of global warming. At that time, they even predicted accurately that atmospheric CO2 would reach 415 parts per million, causing the global temperature to rise about 0.9 degrees Celsius by 2019. CO2 levels reach 415 ppm in May, and the temperature rise crossed 0.9 degrees Celsius this year as well.
2. Climate scientists warn that we might be reaching a tipping point on climate change, meaning that some impacts of global warming will become unstoppable. They also warn of a cascade of tipping points. Some of these potentially irreversible events include:

• • Ice melting in the east and west Antarctic ice sheets, the Greenland ice sheet, and Arctic sea ice
  • Thawing of the permafrost
  • Loss of rainforests
  • Death of coral reefs
  • Changes in the flow of the gulf stream

3. A new UN report on climate change says temperatures could rise by as much as 3.9 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. We’ve already warmed by nearly 1 degree, and the process will speed up because of the cascade of tipping points above.
4. During the Yale Bowl, hundreds of Yale and Harvard students and alumni storm the field to demand the schools divest from fossil fuels, private prisons, and Puerto Rican debt. The protest delays the start of the second half of the game.

Budget/Economy:

1. An analysis of bailout payments made to farmers finds that 10% of recipients received 50% of the money. The payments, of course, went mostly to larger and more wealthy farms.

Elections:

1. Texas Republicans accidentally email Democrats their blueprint for winning in 2020 and their plans for dealing with Trump’s polarizing nature. This gave away their negative ad strategy for 12 target districts and their timeline for rolling out websites that will bash their Democratic opponents.

• • PSA: Reading about their tactics (some of which I’m sure Democrats employ as well) makes me sad about how low the parties stoop to win, and even sadder by how the American public plays right into their hands, not just by letting it happen but by making those ploys succeed.

Miscellaneous:

1. Rick Perry says that Trump was chosen by God to lead this country. To be fair, Perry also thinks Obama was ordained by God for the presidency. Seriously people. Take responsibility for your vote. That’s how presidencies are decided.
2. Even before the departure of Richard Spencer from the DOD, high-ranking Pentagon officials felt Trump had a disregard for the chain of command in the military, and feared that the administration would continue to side with Fox News pundits over experienced military professionals on issues of national security.
3. The RNC denies they made a bulk purchase of Donald Trump Jr.’s new book, Triggered, but FEC records show they spent nearly $100,000 to purchase copies of the book a week before it was released.

• • Other conservative groups also made bulk purchases to help his book debut at #1 on the New York Times best seller list. At least nine conservative groups are helping with the sales of his book.
  • And just to keep it classy, Trump Jr. created a website, Trigger A Lib, where you can purchase copies of the books to send to people like Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, and so on.