Kingfisher Cove

Feeling…

Sad.

Just finished the final book of the “His Dark Materials” trilogy* (The Amber Spyglass) and we only have ONE MORE EPISODE of “The West Wing” left to watch of the 7-year series that we’ve been bingeing these last few months. I’m on the brink of sobbing!

*I’d read this trilogy before, but it was as if I hadn’t read the final book—literally nothing about it was familiar! Maybe I hadn’t read it?

Plus, dealing with a neurotic dog (Bailey whines and cries and paces All. Day. Long. while John is at the Hydroplane Museum). And then there’s having several disappointments in a row in the glass studio.

Also, have I mentioned how much I hate trump? I’m so weary of the disgust, the outrage, the embarrassment Every. Single Day. The stark contrast between the intelligence and savvy of “The West Wing” and the incompetence and alarming trend toward authoritarianism of this administration is the thing of nightmares. Yes, I have lots of nightmares.

Here’s a contrast for you:

This is, for real, the difference between the Obama and trump White House Christmas decorations. Pretty much sums up everything.

But then, there is this:

Week Fifty-Four

"Fascism counts on you thinking people who notice fascism are suffering from hysteria." -Joy Reid

Compiled by Amy Siskind

This week, Trump's manufactured crises returned, as he sought to seize back the narrative and distract from the increasing instability within the regime, and developments relating to his inner-circle in the Trump-Russia probes.

Trump's deconstructing of the executive branch continues, as agencies go unstaffed or are led by regime members who are revoking regulations and winding down staff. Kleptocracy and insider dealings continue, although Trump's tarnished name and brand is hurting him financially on several fronts. The judicial branch seems to be the only thing holding the regime in check, though Trump has drastic changes underway there too.

1. On Sunday, Trump attacked the father of one of the UCLA basketball players released from prison in China, saying LaVar Ball did not appear grateful for his help, adding of the players, “I should have left them in jail.”
2. On Monday, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump's tweet was a “rhetorical response,” and that Trump does not regret helping the UCLA players.
3. On Sunday, after Sen. Jeff Flake was caught on an open microphone saying “(If we) become the party of Roy Moore and Donald Trump, we are toast,” Trump attacked Flake tweeting, “his political career anyway is “toast.””
4. On Monday, Trump attacked another black athlete, Marshawn Lynch for standing during the Mexican Anthem and sitting for the National Anthem, tweeting, “next time NFL should suspend him for remainder of season.”
5. On Monday, Fox News’ Neil Cavuto shredded Trump saying he is president, “why don’t you act like it?” Cavuto also told Trump he is “running out of friends,” and it’s not “fake news media that’s your problem. It’s you.”
6. Trump continued his attacks on LaVar Ball during the week, calling him a “poor man’s version of Don King, but without the hair,” and an “ungrateful fool.” Ball responded — as separately did Marshawn Lynch’s mother.
7. Additional remains of Sgt. LaDavid Johnson were found in Niger. In Week 49, Myeshia Johnson was denied seeing her husband’s body and was publicly criticized by Trump. The details of his death are still not known.
8. Trump responded to a reporter who tweeted that Trump's “rage-tweets” on Ball were part of a pattern of attacks on high profile African Americans to feed his base, by tweeting “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
9. In another historic first in the string of rebukes to Trump, Democrat LaToya Cantrell won her race to become the first female mayor of New Orleans in the city’s 300-year history. Cantrell is also a woman of color.
10. WAPO reported a sheriff’s deputy in VA was reassigned out of her job in the local school system after attending a Halloween party in blackface as part of her costume to look like Rep. Frederica Wilson.
11. On Monday, acting DHS director Elaine Duke announced the Trump regime would not extend special deportation protection known as Temporary Protected Status for 59K Haitians here since the 2010 earthquake.
12. On Monday, Trump's DOJ asked the Supreme Court to fully reinstate its travel restrictions on six Muslim-majority countries. Trump said he is doing this to protect the US from terrorists and is not targeting Muslims.
13. The DHS inspector general informed lawmakers that Customs and Border Protection agents violated at least two court orders in their zeal to enforce Trump's travel ban by banning passengers from boarding a plane.
14. On Monday, a federal judge permanently blocked Trump's executive order to cut funding from cities that limit cooperation with U.S. immigration authorities — so-called sanctuary cities.
15. On Tuesday, a second federal judge ruled against Trump's transgender military ban, halting the ban and saying active-duty service members are “already suffering harmful consequences.”
16. On Wednesday, the WSJ reported Trump's DOJ has opened an investigation into Harvard’s admission practices, citing similar allegations in a 2014 case, and said the university is not cooperating with the probe.
17. The DOJ is investigating Harvard’s diversity policies under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin for organizations that receive federal funding.
18. Betsy DeVos’ Education Department is considering limiting the scope of civil right investigations at schools, to only look only at the specific incident and not focus on “systemic” or institutional issues.
19. Juli Briskman, the cyclist who got fired by her employer in Week 52 for giving Trump the middle finger, has raised $124K from more than 5.5K sponsors on a GoFundMe page set up by one of her friends.
20. On Monday, during the last press briefing before the Thanksgiving holiday, press secretary Sanders told reporters they would need to say what they were grateful for before asking a question. Most reporters complied.
21. POLITICO reported Corey Lewandowski has a new base for operations, a row house in DC. Although Lewandowski claims to have cut ties with lobbying firm Turnberry, the firm lists the same address as where he resides.
22. Daily Beast reported, based on public records, 20 family members have landed jobs in the Trump regime. Also, not since the Kennedy’s have so many blood-relatives occupied so many prominent roles.
23. On Monday, Reuters reported the DOJ will sue to stop AT&T from buying Time Warner, owner of CNN, which Trump has attacked consistently as fake news. In Week 52, Rupert Murdoch approached AT&T to buy CNN.
24. On Monday, the attorney for Karen Forsenca said she might pursue a civil rights lawsuit against Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls for violating her First Amendment rights.
25. On Monday, Sessions’ DOJ announced it will award $100 million to local police departments that notify federal authorities about undocumented immigrants in local custody, and let immigration officers into their jails.
26. Sessions’ DOJ abruptly announced it is cutting off funding for 16 halfway houses. The cuts come weeks after Sessions’ named Mark Inch to lead the federal prison system as Bureau of Prisons Director.
27. Trump's FCC chair Ajit Pai said he has shared his plan and to fully dismantle the Obama-era net neutrality regulations with his fellow commissioners amid public protest, including from one of his fellow commissioners.
28. CBS News reported the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) under Trump is a ghost town. Staffing is down from 135 under Obama to just 45 under Trump, most of whom do not have a background in science.
29. This is also the longest the agency, a hub of innovation, has gone in its 41-year history without a leader. When asked, a WH official said there are no personnel announcements planned for the OSTP at this time.
30. The Senate voted to confirm David Zatezalo, Trump's pick to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). As a mining executive Zatezalo’s company had with numerous safety complaints from MSHA.
31. POLITICO reported Trump's lead pick to run the Census Bureau, Thomas Brunell, a Texas professor who is the author of a book which claims competitive elections are bad for America, is causing alarm.
32. Slate reported Trump nominee Brett Talley did not reveal his message board posts using a pseudonym in which he said on capital punishment it would be “awesome” to bring back the electric chair and “just shoot them.”
33. POLITICO reported the FEC is probing discrepancies in the most recent campaign finance report at a PAC previously affiliated with Ryan Zinke, including incomplete donor info, a $200K discrepancy, and other issues.
34. WAPO reported on Conservatives’ plan for Trump to pack the courts. The plan calls for Trump to add 650 lifetime members to the federal judiciary in the next 12 months. Obama named 325 members in his eight years.
35. Many positions were open while Obama was in office. The other part of the plan is to dramatically increase the number of judiciary positions, creating 260-447 new positions, a 30-50%, increase under Trump.
36. As Congress has not extended CHIP, which provides healthcare to 9 million low-income children and 370K pregnant women, 12 states are preparing to notify families they will no longer have care at year-end.
37. ProPublica reported Property of the People sued the Trump regime under the FOIA for the visitor records of five federal offices working directly with Trump. Records released have 2,169 redactions for 8,807 meetings.
38. ProPublica reported, according to logs the WH was forced to release under the FOIA, Mick Mulvaney has been meeting with long list of lobbyists, corporate execs and wealthy people with business interests before the government.
39. Visitors include Koch Industries lobbyists, Trump friend Steve Wynn, health care and Wall Street CEOs, numerous officials from the Heritage Foundation, and a prominent member of the Catholic group Opus Dei.
40. Reuters reported a group of a dozen State Department officials took the unusual step of formally accusing Rex Tillerson of violating a federal law designed to stop foreign militaries from enlisting child soldiers in a “dissent” memo.
41. The memo claims Tillerson breached the Child Soldiers Prevention Act by excluding Iraq, Myanmar, and Afghanistan from a list of offenders in order to make it easier to provide the countries with US military assistance.
42. NYT reported diplomats in the State Department are continuing to sound the alarm as they are pushed out in droves in a series of dismissals and early retirements which have decimated the agency’s senior ranks.
43. Bill Miller, chief of security, said Tillerson had turned down his requests to brief him on security needs at US embassies his first nine months. Republicans were highly critical of Hillary on lack of security in Benghazi.
44. Finally Miller, a career Foreign Service officer, cited the requirement that he be allowed to speak to Tillerson. Shortly after, he was fired. This marks a new stage in the contentious relationship between Tillerson and staff.
45. POLITICO reported the KGB has been interested in Trump for decades, citing his first trip to Moscow in 1987 which was arranged by the top level of the Soviet diplomatic service.
46. On Monday, WAPO reported on the mood in the WH as the Mueller probe has entered Trump's inner circle. Ty Cobb has giving assurance the investigation will wrap up quickly and Trump is not under investigation.
47. Trump is reportedly arrogant and views the Mueller probe as “just an annoyance.” Meanwhile almost all have had to hire attorneys. Junior staffers fear legal bills could run three to four times their annual salaries.
48. Per Mueller’s charging documents, at least nine people in the Trump orbit had contact with Russians during the campaign or transition period. One staffer kidded the morning greeting is, “Good morning. Are you wired?’
49. Witnesses questioned by Mueller say investigators are asking about foreign contacts and meetings that are not yet public, and warn to expect a series of new revelations despite Cobb’s assurances that the end is near.
50. On Monday, Bloomberg reported the Trump campaign said it will stop paying Donald Jr.’s legal fees, and is instead setting up a legal fund to pay costs for him and other campaign staffers relating to the Russia probe.
51. Former OGE director Walter Shaub noted the concern that “a mysterious “pooled” legal defense fund” could influence witness testimony unless the fund establishes clear criteria for allocating distributions
52. The yacht of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, a frequent subject in the lists, docked near Mar-A-Lago, where Trump will spend Thanksgiving. A spokesperson told Palm Beach Post that Abramovich is not aboard.
53. ABC News reported Mueller has directed the DOJ to turn over a broad array of documents related the Comey firing and Sessions’ decision to recuse himself. Trump has been publicly critical of Sessions’ recusal.
54. The directive is Mueller’s first record request to the DOJ, the department overseeing his investigation, and signals his team is looking into whether the Trump regime tried to improperly influence an ongoing investigation.
55. CBS News confirmed Donald Jr. met with Alexander Torshin, a man tied to organized crime and with close ties to the Kremlin, at a NRA in May 2016, three weeks before the June 9 meeting at Trump Tower.
56. ABC News reports the House Intel Committee is looking into Carter Page’s travel to meet with senior officials in Hungary in September 2016. The Hungarian prime minister was the first foreign leader to endorse Trump.
57. Page had 45-minute meeting with Jeno Megyesy, a close adviser to Hungarian PM Orban, who has become increasingly aligned with Putin. Experts also consider Budapest a hub for Russian intelligence activity.
58. CNN reported Mueller will be interviewing three Trump insiders in the coming days: Hope Hicks, Don McGahn and Josh Raffel, a PR specialist who had previously worked for Kushner in the private sector.
59. Hicks has been one of Trump's closest confidantes, and joined the campaign in spring 2015. Hicks was always by his side on the campaign trail, and now has a desk just outside the Oval Office.
60. NYT reported in 2012, the FBI told Rep. Dana Rohrabacher that Russia regarded him as an intelligence source. Mueller is interesting meetings Rohrabacher had with Julian Assange in London in August 2016, and with Michael Flynn last year.
61. WSJ reported Mueller is investigating Jared Kushner’s interactions with foreign leaders during the transition period, including a dispute at the UN in December 2016, in a sign Mueller’s probe is expanding.
62. The UN resolution condemning Israel for constructing settlements in disputed territories passed December 23, and the Obama admin declined to block it. Israeli officials then reached out to Kushner and Steve Bannon.
63. Mueller is scrutinizing Kushner for indicating he had no foreign contacts in his initial security clearance forms, then updating the form at least three times to include more than 100 contacts with more than 20 countries.
64. Kushner allegedly urged Trump to fire James Comey in a meeting with other top officials. According to sources, Kushner thought Comey was too unpredictable and that Democrats would cheer for his ouster.
65. Daily Beast reported before the June 9 meeting, Roman Beniaminov, a low-level real estate executive with ties to Russia, let Ike Kaveladze know he heard from Rob Goldstone that “dirt” on Hillary would come up.
66. Reuters reported the Kremlin chief media regulator said it will take action against Google if Sputnik and RT are placed lower in search results.
67. Vanity Fair reported before Trump infamously turned over Israeli secrets to Kislyak and Lavrov in the Oval Office, while Obama was still in office, US Intel warned Israel that Putin had “leverages of pressure” over Trump.
68. Information shared by Trump included the outline of a plot to turn laptop computers into airborne bombs. He shared at least one highly classified op detail not even shared with even Congress or friendly governments.
69. Although he did not name Israel as the US partner that had detected the threat, Trump told Kislyak and Lavrov the ISIS-held territory where Israel had detected the threat.
70. McClatchy reported Paul Manafort took at least 18 trips to Moscow and was in frequent contact with Putin allies for nearly a decade as a consultant in Russia and Ukraine for oligarchs and pro-Kremlin parties.
71. In between 2004–2015, Manafort visited Ukraine at least 138 times. Prosecutors have charged that Manafort and Rick Gates funneled at least $75 million in consulting fees from an array of Kremlin-linked clients.
72. Manafort’s web of connections included Russian oligarchs Deripaska and Firtash, who helped finance Ukraine’s pro-Moscow President Yanukovych, and Viktor Medvedchuk, thought to be a Russian intelligence agent.
73. As a consultant in the Ukraine, including when he was chosen as Trump's campaign manager, Manafort advocated an anti-NATO stance. Trump adopted that stance, and also questioned Obama’s sanctions on Russia.
74. Manafort met with Andrey Artemenko, a pro-Moscow Ukrainian legislator in 2013. Artemenko’s citizenship was revoked this year after disclosure he and Michael Cohen had pitched a peace plan for Ukraine and Russia.
75. In the summer of 2016, both presidential candidates were asked for a letter recognizing Ukraine’s independence. Trump refused. As Manafort resigned, he was to receive $12 million more in off-the-books payments.
76. The New Yorker reported Dimitri Skorobutov, a former editor at Russia’s largest state media company Rossiya, said the Kremlin provided specific pro-Trump, anti-Clinton instructions on how to cover the US election.
77. On Thursday, NYT reported Flynn’s lawyers notified Trump's legal team they could no longer discuss the special counsel investigation, indicating either Flynn is cooperating with Mueller or is negotiating to cooperate.
78. Flynn and his son have significant criminal exposure. The WH has been bracing for charges against Flynn, the closest to Trump of those charged so far, during both the campaign and early days of the regime.
79. Mueller in investigating a private meeting between Flynn, Kushner and Kislyak, and conversations, in late December as Obama was announcing sanction on Russia. Flynn lied saying these were merely holiday greetings.
80. Four days after Trump was sworn in, the FBI interviewed Flynn about the meeting. US Intel and law enforcement were so concerned about Flynn’s false statements, Sally Yates notified the WH that Flynn may be compromised.
81. On Friday, Trump tweeted that he would be speaking to Turkey’s Erdogan, allegedly on the crises in Syria and other issues. As per several weeks’ lists, Flynn has significant ties to Turkey.
82. On Friday, WSJ reported Mueller’s team is probing Flynn’s work on a documentary financed by Turkish interests targeting Fethullah Gulen. The FBI will be interviewing consultants hired by Flynn to work on the film.
83. Mr. Flynn’s consulting firm, the Flynn Intel Group, and Flynn’s business partner Bijan Kian, tried to hide their involvement in, and the backers of the film according to consultants.
84. BuzzFeed reported at a private dinner in July with technology company executives, H.R. McMaster referred to Trump as an “idiot” and a “dope” with the intelligence of a “kindergartner.”
85. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is offering donors the chance to win a trip to Trump Hotel DC. Donors who contribute $10 or more can automatically qualify for the trip.
86. Lawmakers called on the Trump regime to provide additional funding for Puerto Rico, saying the initial request is not enough. If Puerto Rico’s federal Medicaid funding runs out, up to 900K people would likely be cut.
87. A Kaiser Family Foundation found 70% of Americans believe Puerto Rico isn’t getting the help it needs, including a majority of Republicans (52%).
88. Bloomberg reported Whitefish Energy halted work in Puerto Rico early, saying the island’s utility hasn’t paid it $83 million owed. A contract with Fluor was halted by the Army Corps of Engineers citing safety concerns.
89. Two months after Hurricane Maria, only half of Puerto Rico has electricity, and many are still displaced or without drinking water. Trump has stopped talking about the recovery and the government is withdrawing.
90. Telegraph reported room rates have fallen in all but one of Trump's hotels. The biggest drop is at the Trump Las Vegas where rates have fallen by 63%.
91. WAPO reported that after 19 out of 25 charities canceled their annual events at Mar-A-Lago over the summer, Trump cronies like Pat Robertson and the Republican Attorneys General Association have filled in.
92. On Monday, NBC News reported Trump is shuttering his charitable foundation, which last year admitted violating federal rules on “self-dealing” — funneling charity money to their businesses, families or self.
93. The press secretary for the NY AG said the foundation cannot close yet, citing it “is still under investigation by this office, it cannot legally dissolve until that investigation is complete.”
94. WAPO reported Trump National Golf Club in Westchester reimbursed Trump's foundation $158k in March, after the NY AG’s office investigation found the money had been used to settle a lawsuit against the club.
95. Trump wines are being sold at Shenandoah National Park’s gift shop, posing a conflict of interest and possibly violating the emoluments clause.
96. On Wednesday, in another sign of Trump's struggling family businesses, the Trump Organization said it will exit from its struggling SoHo Hotel.
97. WAPO reported that professional sports teams, once reliable patrons are no longer staying at Trump properties. WAPO reached out to 123 sports team and 106 responded: none are still staying at Trump properties.
98. Donald Jr. will campaign for Kris Kobach in Kansas at a $200 per ticket event. Kobach is vice chair of the controversial Election Integrity Committee.
99. Tom Steyer announced Monday that he would run billboards in Times Square as part of his campaign to impeach Trump. Steyer’s online petition has garnered 2.5 million signatures. Steyer has spent $20 million so far.
100. On Tuesday, after wavering, Trump said he would back Roy Moore, the GOP candidate for senate in AL who has been accused of molesting a 14 year-old girl and eight others, citing Moore’s denial of sexual misconduct.
101. Moore was banned from Gadsden Mall because of his predatory behavior towards underage girls. He first noticed his current wife when she was 15 or 16 years-old and he was in his 30s.
102. A retired Alabama police officer said she and her colleagues were told decades ago to keep Moore away from high school cheerleaders.
103. Former OGE director Shaub filed an ethics complaint against Kellyanne Conway for violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from getting involved in elections. Conway advocated for Moore in front of the WH.
104. WAPO reported Trump's DOJ is pushing Iran-connected charges from the HBO hack. The push has caused alarm within the DOJ, as some officials say it comes as the Trump regime wants to impose new sanctions on Iran.
105. The NYT editorial board, in an op-ed titled “Only Morons Pay the Estate Tax,” named after Chief Economic Adviser Gary Cohn’s words in August, cited the hypocrisy and kleptocracy of Trump's tax plan.
106. On Wednesday, Sen. Tom Carper said in a meeting with Democratic senators to discuss tax reform this month, Cohn faked a bad connection to get off the phone with Trump. The WH pushed back on the claim Wednesday.
107. On Tuesday, while granting the typical turkey pardon, Trump joked despite being “very active in overturning” Obama’s executive orders, he would not revoke Obama’s pardon of turkeys Tater and Tot.
108. On Wednesday, in a flurry of tweets, Trump said the NFL’s idea of keeping players in the locker room during the National Anthem is “almost as bad as kneeling!” Trump added, “this issue is killing your league!”
109. On Thanksgiving, the WH forced a pool reporter to make a correction: “The president will NOT have a low-key day and has a full schedule of meetings and phone calls.” An hour later, Trump went golfing.
110. On Thanksgiving, from Mar-A-Lago, Trump addressed the troops, praising them and himself, and suggesting changes since Obama was in office: “We’re not fighting anymore to just walk around, we’re fighting to win,”
111. Trump also took the opportunity to jab at the media, “surrounding me is a lot of press — better me than you, believe me fellas,” before asking the press to leave, “So I’ll ask the press to get out and I’ll say you’re fired.”
112. McClatchy reported top Trump aides, including Bannon and Seb Gorka, failed to file legally required financial reports after they were fired this summer. Reince Priebus filed his reports this week, well after the 30-day deadline.
113. Reports are due for employees for at least six-months. Ezra Cohen-Watnick and Middle East adviser Derek Harvey have also not filed their reports. The reports show if and how employees’ fortunes change while in power.
114. The reports also show if employees took required steps to clear conflicts of interest. Bannon was supposed to sell his stake in Cambridge Analytica, worth $1-5 million, while in office. It is unclear if he did so.
115. POLITICO reported despite the DHS banning government agencies from using Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab’s products in September, government contractors continue to use it, creating a huge potential hole for hackers.
116. On Friday, Trump tweeted from Mar-A-Lago he was “PROBABLY going to be named” TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year, but said he would need to agree to an interview and major photo shoot and so he “took a pass.”
117. TIME issued a statement in response, tweeting Trump “is incorrect about how we choose Person of the Year,” and Time Inc.’s chief content officer, Alan Murray tweeted, “not a speck of truth here.”
118. On Friday, Trump named Mulvaney to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, setting up a legal clash. The announcement came hours after departing chief Cordray appointed chief of staff Leandra English to deputy director.
119. Trump said Mulvaney will serve as Acting Director until a permanent director is confirmed. The Dodd-Frank Act says the deputy director shall “serve as acting Director in the absence or unavailability of the Director.”
120. Vanity Fair reported the aide who has ceded the most influence since Kelly took charge is Kushner, who after initially having a huge portfolio of responsibility, now is confined to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
121. Kelly was upset with Kushner’s trip to Saudi Arabia days before the Saudi Crown Prince made arrests, giving an impression Kushner knew and helped orchestrate it. The business councils Kushner dreamed up are gone.
122. Amid Mueller’s investigation, Trump has also been aggravated with the bad advice Kushner has given, and has advocated for Kushner and Ivanka to return to NY, in part because they are being damaged by the press.
123. NYT reported Trump is also annoyed with Ivanka for her “special place in hell for people who prey on children” comment on Moore. Glenn McConnell fears win or lose, Moore could cost the Republicans the Senate in 2018.

Season Change!

It’s now officially Christmas time, right?

I get to see this little guy December 17th!!

Squeee!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving From an Adorable Little Giblet!

(No, this isn’t the “surprise” photo I mentioned in my previous post, but the kids sent this one to me and it’s just perfect for today! Stay tuned!)

Novembering

With a one- or two-day exception, this month is living up to its status as my LEAST favorite month of the entire year. I loathe November. Dark, wet, windy, cold, and a very long way from spring (let alone summer). It even snowed! Here near the water, it didn’t stick, but it did in higher elevations. Jeeze, what are we in for?

We had a pretty robust wind storm last week that made me wonder if we’d have a chance to test out our new whole-house generator in real life. But, aside from several blinks, the power stayed on. We have actually tested the generator (the truly awesome electrician came by and he and John worked it through its process) and it definitely works! Once power is off, there is a slight delay and then everything comes back on as if the power was restored! Then, when the power does come back on, it’s instantaneous for the the switchover between the generator and the house power. I couldn’t even tell when the actual power came back on! It was seamless. I’m so glad we have it and that it works! Definitely a peace of mind.

I’ve been “inward” lately, mostly reading and putzing. I hung out in the glass studio for a couple of days, but I haven’t been having great successes so I’m not COMPELLED right now. The creativity factor is NADA.

Phillip Pullman, who wrote “His Dark Materials” series (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass) just published a new book that is a prequel to the Golden Compass (apparently the first of another trilogy). I LOVED it, and after I finished it, I just had to re-read the original trilogy. I don’t often re-read books (exceptions have been Lord of the Rings and Dune), and I’m thoroughly enjoying these the second time around.

Good escape from the craptitude of the news these days. In fact, this passage from “The Subtle Knife” is certainly apropos to what godawful shit is happening today:

Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit.

It is such a dark time. A president who has been accused by 16 different women of sexual assault (and who admitted it on the Access Hollywood tape and was elected by morons anyway) is now supporting an Alabama senator candidate with nine women accusing him of sexual assault when they were teenagers—one when she was just 14 years old).

And then today, the 54th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy—and the day before Thanksgiving—trump viciously tweet-stormed a private citizen for not thanking him enough for helping release his son from a China jail for shoplifting a pair of sunglasses. He was relentless. He was savage. He was monstrous.

Not a word commemorating President Kennedy’s anniversary of his death. And he certainly isn’t going to help serve Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless. Nope, he’s golfing at his Florida resort.

I have never hated somebody so purely.

---

We met my brother and sister-in-law today on the Tacoma waterfront for dinner to celebrate Thanksgiving (a day early, mostly because there weren’t many restaurants open on Turkey Day, which is fine because I feel sorry for people having to work on holidays). It turned out that traffic south from Camano was horrendous, so they were on the road for a l-o-n-g time and arrived a bit late, but John and I had an appetizer and a drink (Cosmo for me!) while we waited. It was an astoundingly WARM day. (I swear it had to break records!) When we pulled into the Ram parking lot, it was 72°! It was mostly sunny with rain clouds swirling by from time to time, and we could see multiple rainbows out the window over the Commencement Bay! It was really something.

And, aside from this:

…I didn’t take any pictures! I’m an idiot!

I guess once they arrived, we were busy chatting and ordering and then eating and the table was kind of small so my phone was hidden by my plate and it just didn’t occur to me.

Then, when I did think about it when we were on the sidewalk alongside the parking lot watching the water and chatting, it was too dark. (iPhone doesn’t do well in the dark). So no photos. Except of my Cosmo.

Tomorrow I am posting a picture I’ve been looking so forward to sharing! I wanted to wait until Christmas season kicked off, and I think it officially does on Thanksgiving, right?

Stay tuned.

Week Fifty-Three

Compiled by Amy Siskind

This week the headlines and narrative were dominated by women (and men) sharing their stories of sexual assault and harassment — a historic movement. Stories entered the political domain with accusations against men of both parties, reopening questions about Trump's sordid past. Trump tweeted himself into the sexual assault discussion, almost as if to be part of the zeitgeist, despite the perilous risks. This is the shortest list in many weeks as Trump was largely absent from the narrative and headlines.

This week the Russia probe entered Trump's inner-circle, as more lines of direct and indirect communications surfaced, and efforts at cooperation between the Trump campaign and Russia were revealed. A political backlash against Trump continued as a special election in Oklahoma 37, a district Trump comfortably won by 40 points, went to a Democrat — a 26 year-old lesbian whose wife is African American.

1. Despite messaging during his Asia trip about using diplomacy with N. Korea, late Saturday, Trump tweeted, “Why would Kim Jong-Un insult me by calling me ‘old,’ when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat’?”
2. On Sunday, in response to Trump siding with Putin over US intelligence on Russian interference in Week 52, ex-intelligence chiefs James Clapper and John Brennan said Trump is being “played” by Putin.
3. When asked about why his regime had yet to implement sanctions on Russia after the Senate and House voted almost unanimously to do so, Trump said he would rather have Russia “in a friendly posture.”
4. As Trump returned from his trip, former diplomats and Asia experts said China came out ahead and Trump came home largely empty-handed. The former Australian PM wrote Trump ceded economic leadership to China.
5. During Trump's Asia trip, world leaders from 11 countries reached agreement on the core elements of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, without the US.
6. On Monday, Trump met with controversial leader Duterte. Trump boasted of their “great relationship,” and laughed when Duterte called journalists “spies.” At least 177 Filipino media workers have been killed since 1986.
7. The WH said the two leaders “briefly” discussed human rights, but Duterte’s spokesman denied that the issue was discussed. Tuesday, Trudeau did bring up human rights, which Duterte called an “insult.”
8. On Tuesday evening, as Trump returned from his Asia trip, he tweeted “May God be with the people of Sutherland Springs.” That shooting took place 9 days prior. Tuesday, there was a mass shooting in Northern CA.
9. NYT reported Trump is rapidly reshaping the judiciary, including eight appellate judges, seats Republicans held open during Obama’s final two years in office, with extremist conservative judges.
10. On Monday, WAPO reported Jeff Sessions is considering a second special counsel to investigate GOP concerns, including the Clinton Foundation, Uranium One, and Hillary’s emails. Trump has been encouraging this.
11. NYT reported Sessions is shattering longstanding norms by doing so, and so the credibility of any investigation presumably would be called into question since Trump is publicly going after a political rival.
12. On Saturday, Trump was once again tweeting about his former political rival: “Crooked Hillary Clinton is the worst (and biggest) loser of all time…give it another try in three years!”
13. WAPO reported in Trump's first 298 days, he has made 1,628 false or misleading statements.
14. Despite having no criminal record, a MI woman Zahrija Purovic, 50,who lived in the US for 30 years, worked and paid taxes and raised her three children here, was deported to Montenegro.
15. Seattle Times reported on Pacific County, which voted for Trump but now laments a spike in deportations of their neighbors. There have been 28 ICE arrests this year so far, up from eight last year and zero many years before.
16. NYT reported due to the Post Office unusually long delays of delivering DACA applications, including ones sent by certified mail, at least 74 young immigrants’ applications in NYC and Chicago were rejected for being late.
17. Vox reported the Trump regime has rejected 4,000 “late” DACA renewal applications, some of which were sitting in mailboxes. A lawsuit alleges USCIS is being stricter than usual, and arbitrarily denying applications.
18. On Thursday, in a reversal, acting DHS director Elaine Duke instructed the immigration agency to allow applicants to re-submit their paperwork if they have proof that they mailed their renewal on time.
19. San Francisco Chronicle reported the Trump regime plans to stop granting work permits to spouses of H-1B visa holders, overturning a 2015 rule. Last year, 100K spouses and children of H-1B holders came to the US.
20. AP reported Trump is choosing white men as judges at the highest rate in decades. So far, 91% of Trump's nominees are white, and 81% are male.
21. After nine months of trusting Trump to protect them for living in pro-Trump states, farming groups are moving to fight Trump's effort to withdraw from NAFTA, saying the move would be a disaster for farmers.
22. The Trump administration’s US Fish and Wildlife Service said it plan to reverse an Obama-era ban on bringing elephant trophies back from two African countries. The regime claims Zimbabwe and Zambia support reversing the ban.
23. On Friday, following public backlash, Trump said he would delay the new policy on elephant trophies until he can review “all conservation facts.”
24. ABC News confirmed the Trump regime’s US Fish and Wildlife Service also began issuing permits for lion trophies hunted in Zambia and Zimbabwe about a month ago.
25. The University of SC women’s basketball team declined an invitation from Trump to celebrate their 2017 NCAA championship at the WH.
26. Trump's controversial judicial nominee Brett Talley did not disclose he is married to Donald McGahn’s chief of staff. In Week 52, Talley is also viewed as unqualified to be a federal district judge due to lack of experience.
27. On Wednesday, Richard Cordray announced he would step down as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency created by Sen. Elizabeth Warren after the 2008 financial crisis. Republicans have taken steps under Trump to dismantle the agency.
28. Trump is expected to nominate Mick Mulvaney to acting head of the CFPB, an agency Mulvaney said he wanted to kill. Mulvaney will not require confirmation since he is serving as WH budget director.
29. Jamie Johnson, a Trump DHS appointee, resigned after CNN uncovered tapes of his radio show in which he claimed blacks turned cities into “slums” and Islam’s only contribution to society was “oil and dead bodies.”
30. On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of Senators wrote a letter to Rex Tillerson expressing “deep reservations” about lack of staffing, which threatens “to undermine the long-term health and effectiveness” of US diplomacy.
31. The FCC repealed a 1970s rule put in place to ensure a diversity of voices and opinions by prohibiting ownership of a newspaper and TV-station in the same market. Trump ally Sinclair will be the biggest beneficiary.
32. On Wednesday, 13 Senate Democrats called for the FCC Inspector General to open an investigation into potential quid pro quo between FCC chair Ajit Pai, the Trump regime, and Sinclair Broadcasting.
33. The Koch brothers provided a half-billion dollar equity investments in a Meredith bid for Time Inc., potentially moving another major media company into the hands of conservative billionaires.
34. On Wednesday, Steven Mnuchin and his wife caused a stir by posing for pictures with him holding sheets of money at the Bureau of Engraving, while the Republicans push a tax plan which benefits the rich and corporations.
35. USA Today reported taxpayers are paying the legal costs for at least 10 DOJ lawyers and paralegals to work on four lawsuits related to Trump's unprecedented decision not to divest of his private businesses.
36. WAPO reported the Interior Department’s watchdog Deputy IG Mary Kendall sent a letter to Ryan Zinke’s office saying management of his travel was “deficient” and lacked oversight. Zinke has failed to keep complete records.
37. A federal judge heard arguments Friday on whether Trump's own tweets about the Steele dossier should force the federal government to reveal more information about its efforts to verify the claims in the dossier.
38. On Friday, Bloomberg reported Trump will begin paying his legal bills related to the Russia probe from his own pocket, relieving the Republican Party of future payments.
39. WH lawyer Ty Cobb said the OGE and a tax firm are also working on a mechanism for Trump to contribute to staffers’ legal bills, raising ethical concerns that Trump is doing this to influence staffer testimony.
40. On Monday morning, WAPO released a list of at least 30 known times the Trump campaign was in contact with Russians during the campaign.
41. On Monday, Russian state-funded RT registered with the DOJ as a foreign agent. RT is now required to publicly disclose details about its funding and operations, and mark certain content with labels.
42. Reuters reported, in retaliation, Russia named nine US-government sponsored media outlets likely to be labeled “foreign agents” in a new law that is being rushed through Russian parliament.
43. On Monday, The Atlantic reported on Twitter direct messages between WikiLeaks and Donald Jr. starting September 20, 2016 and through July 2017. The messages have been turned over to Congressional investigators.
44. US intelligence believes WikiLeaks was chosen by Russia to disseminate hacked emails. Donald Jr. forwarded one email to Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Jared Kushner, and Brad Parscale. Kushner in turn forwarded the message to Hope Hicks.
45. Kushner has told congressional investigators he did not communicate with WikiLeaks, and did not recall anyone on the campaign who had.
46. On October 3, 2016, the day after Roger Stone tweeted, “Wednesday @Hillary Clinton is done. #Wikileaks,”Donald Jr. messaged WikiLeaks asking, “What’s behind this Wednesday leak I keep reading about?”
47. On October 12, 2016, WikiLeaks messaged Donald Jr. about the upcoming release of Podesta hacked emails and asked that Trump tweet about it. Trump did in fact tweet about it, fifteen minutes later.
48. In the last 30 days of his presidential campaign, Trump mentioned WikiLeaks 164 times.
49. In a message on Election Day, WikiLeaks encouraged Donald Jr. that if Trump loses he “DOES NOT concede,” and instead focuses on “CHALLENGING the media and other types of rigging.”
50. WikiLeaks suggested they be the means for releasing Trump's tax returns to help them appear impartial. After Trump won, WikiLeaks asked to have Trump suggest “Australia appoint Assange ambassador to DC.”
51. On July 11, 2017, three days after the NYT reported on Donald Jr.’s June 9 Trump Tower meeting and emails, WikiLeaks suggested they make the emails public. Hours later, Donald Jr. tweeted the emails himself.
52. CNN reported the Russia-linked trolls that meddled in US politics posted dozens of pro-Brexit messages on the day of the UK referendum.
53. CNN reported the House Intelligence Committee will interview Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin next week about his involvement in the June 9 Trump Tower meeting.
54. BuzzFeed reported the FBI is investigating 60 money transfers sent through Citibank accounts by the Russian Foreign Ministry, most with a note saying the money was to be used “to finance election campaign of 2016.”
55. On Thursday, NBC News reported Reza Zarrab, a dual Turkish-Iranian national with close ties to Turkey’s Erdogan is cooperating with federal investigators in a money-laundering case.
56. Legal experts say prosecutors may be looking for ties to Mike Flynn. Mueller is investigating whether Erdogan offered Flynn $15 million to use his position as NSA to extradite a cleric and drop charges against Zarrab.
57. In Week 20 in March 2017, the acting US attorney told a judge Rudy Giuliani and Marc Mukasey had joined Zarrab’s defense team to “explore a potential disposition of the criminal charges.” Both met with Erdogan in Turkey.
58. WSJ reported Mueller has subpoenaed more than a dozen top Trump officials seeking documents and emails that reference a set of Russia-related keywords. This is Mueller’s first official order to the campaign.
59. In a letter, the Senate Judiciary Committee said it has uncovered evidence that Kushner was forwarded a document about a “Russian backdoor overture” that he failed to turn over the Congressional investigators.
60. Kushner also failed to turn over a September 2016 email he received about WikiLeaks, and communication with Russian-born businessman Sergei Millian, former head of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce.
61. The letter also criticized Kushner for not turning over a copy of a government document that Mr. Kushner completed to obtain a security clearance, a SF-86, which has been amended at least twice.
62. On Friday, CBS News reported the “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite” to Kushner was requested by Alexander Torshin in May 2016 and his assistant, Maria Butina.
63. Torshin has close ties to Putin. He was a senator and appointed deputy governor of the Bank of Russia. He also is suspected of having ties to organized crime.
64. Torshin and Butina had requested to meet with Trump, and then have Trump travel to Russia to meet Putin. The request was made through an intermediary who was attached to a NRA event in Kentucky.
65. The intermediary forwarded the five-page request to the Trump campaign, including Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. Eventually it was forwarded to Kushner.
66. NBC News reported the two hoped to meet Trump on the sidelines of the NRA convention in Louisville. Torshin also hoped to meet a high-level Trump campaign officials, saying he may have a message from Putin for Trump.
67. Kushner received a lengthy email exchange between the intermediary and Rick Dearborne, who now serves as deputy chief of staff in the WH. Kushner told Dearborne and others in the campaign not to move forward.
68. While Kushner was telling Dearborne and others not to accept, Torshin was seated with Donald Jr. at a private dinner on the sidelines of the NRA event, according to an account Torshin gave to Bloomberg.
69. Yahoo reported the WH abruptly canceled a February meeting between Trump and Torshin after national security discovered Torshin was named by Spanish police as a suspected “godfather” of an organized crime ring.
70. Politico reported Kushner is still operating on interim security clearance ten months in. He continues to work on sensitive foreign policy issues while his application for a permanent clearance remains under review.
71. NYT reported the US Office of Acquisitions has hired Elite Security to guard the Moscow Embassy and consulates in St. Petersburg, after Putin ordered the US to slash their staff by 755 employees in July in retaliation.
72. The contract was no-bid. Elite Security is a company with run by Putin’s former KGB boss, an 82-year-old veteran spy who spent 25 years planting agents and hunting down operatives in Western countries.
73. A new book, Collusion: How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win, quotes Steele as telling friends he believes 70–90% of the dossier is accurate, and his report will be vindicated by the Mueller investigation.
74. On Wednesday, in nearly seven hours of testimony to the House Intel Committee, Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson defended the Steele dossier, saying nothing in it has been disproven and some has been corroborated.
75. Simpson also said Steele did not pay the sources he used to compile the dossier. Simpson is now cooperating with the three congressional committees investigating Russian meddling.
76. CNN reported the DOJ’s probe into Deutsche Bank’s role in a $10 million Russian money laundering scheme has gone dormant. The DOJ and the US attorney for SDNY were investigating how the bank missed red flags.
77. The investigation has been closely watched Democrats, who have asked Deutsche to turn over documents, but the bank has been non-responsive. Trump and Kushner have extensive banking relationships with Deutsche.
78. Judicial Watch filed under the FOIA against the DOJ for all records relating to Veselnitskaya’s immigration parole. At the time she met with Donald Jr. at Trump Tower, Veselnitskaya wasn’t supposed to be in the US.
79. British publicist Roger Goldstone, who helped set up the Trump Tower meeting between Donald Jr. and Veselnitskaya, is ready to come to the US and meet Mueller’s team. Goldstone is currently living in Bangkok.
80. Foreign Policy reported Kushner’s newspaper, The Observer, pursued a relationship with WikiLeaks starting in 2014. During the 2016 election, the newspaper actively published hacked emails shared by WikiLeaks.
81. Although Kushner claimed to keep a distance from his newspaper, he spoke to EIC Ken Kurson daily. Kurson also sat with the Trump family at the RNC.
82. Politico reported in interviews with Greek media last year, George Papadopoulos boasted of a “blank check” for a job in the Trump regime, and to representing Trump in meetings overseas with foreign leaders.
83. AP reported Congressional investigators are looking into a June 2017 meeting between Rinat Akhmetshin and Ike Kaveladze in Moscow. Both had attended the June 9, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with Donald Jr.
84. Congressional investigators want to know if the meeting was to know whether there was some effort to get their stories straight before it became public on July 8, when the NYT broke the story.
85. Mueller is also investigating the June 9 meeting which occurred weeks after Trump clinched the nomination. A grand jury has already heard testimony about the meeting which Kushner and Manafort also attended.
86. NYT reported Whitefish Energy billed PREPA $319 an hour for linemen, 17 times higher than what is typical in Puerto Rico. Senior linemen coming from Florida to work in Puerto Rico were paid $100 or less.
87. Power in Puerto Rico is spotty almost two months after Hurricane Maria. Early in the week, 50% of the island had power, then a major transmission line failed, reducing it to 22%. Whitefish Energy had repaired the line.
88. The USNS Comfort departed Puerto Rico. Since arriving Comfort staff have treated 1,899 patients, performed 191 surgeries, provided 76K liters of oxygen, and ten tons of food and water.
89. On Tuesday, Sessions testified before the House Judiciary Committee. Sessions again revised his account of what he knew about the Trump campaign’s dealing with Russia, despite saying, “my story had never changed.”
90. Asked about Papadopoulos statements placing Sessions in a meeting where Russia was discussed, he answered, “I had no recollection of this meeting until I saw these news reports.”
91. Sessions claimed his memory was refreshed after reading Papadopoulos’ account, and said to the best of his recollection, Papadopoulos “was not authorized to represent the campaign with the Russian government.”
92. The day after Sessions' testimony, Sergey Kislyak told Russia-1, a popular Russia state-owned channel, that it would take him more than 20 minutes to name all of the Trump officials he’s met with or spoken to on the phone.
93. On Friday, Sessions joked before a speech at the Federalist Society, “Is Ambassador Kislyak in the room? … Any Russians?”
94. On Tuesday special elections, Allison Isley-Freeman, a 26 year-old lesbian, won in an Oklahoma district Trump had carried+40. Democrats won the mayor of Albuquerque, NM for the first time in eight years, in a blowout.
95. On Wednesday, six Democrats demanded impeachment hearings citing the Comey firing, violations of the emoluments clause, and Trump's undermining of the federal judiciary and freedom of press.
96. A Texas woman, Karen Fonseca, made news for a pickup truck bumper sticker with an expletive-filled message to Trump and his supporters. Fonseca said she’s been stopped by police, but is exercising free speech.
97. On Wednesday, Sheriff Troy Nehls posted a photo of the truck on Facebook and asked for information on the driver. The post was taken down. On Thursday, Fonseca was picked up for an outstanding warrant from August.
98. Breaking with tradition of nearly two decades, Trump will not meet with the eight American Nobel laureates before they travel to Sweden to receive their prizes. One honoree said he was “relieved.”
99. On Thursday, the Department of Defense’s Twitter account retweeted, then deleted a post calling on Trump to resign. The chief spokesperson tweeted, the account “erroneously retweeted content that would not be endorsed.”
100. On Tuesday, Speaker Paul Ryan announced a new mandatory anti-harassment and discrimination training for all House members and staff.
101. On Thursday, Trump tweeted about Al Franken’s sexual misconduct, saying “The Al Frankenstein picture is really bad […] Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps?……”
102. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a press briefing that the difference between Trump and Franken, she said, is that “Franken has admitted wrongdoing” but Trump has not.
103. In an interview with Mother Jones, Hillary questioned the legitimacy of the 2016 election citing Russian interference and voter suppression. In WI, voter suppression possibly impacted 45K voters, Trump won by 23K votes.
104. Politico reported Trump is obsessed with polls, and decries those that show his popularity falling as fake.Aides in the WH often show him only the polls that make him feel good.
105. Air Force Gen. John Hyten, a top US nuclear commander of the of the Strategic Command (STRATUM), said he would push back against Trump if he ordered a nuclear launch the general believed to be illegal.

Quinn’s Doubled His Weight!!

This Friday, Quinn will be 2 months old, and today was his 2-month checkup.

He now weighs 12 lbs. 4 oz., and he’s 23 inches long! He’s basically twice the weight he was when I was down there in San Diego. (Which is awesome, but also kind of sad. My arms have the muscle memory of holding that tiny little itty bitty thang).

Remember this?

Get a load of his Popeye arms!

 

He’s also become quite the smiler!

                  

The kids attended a local Christmas season event over the weekend (!) and they got some nice photos.

OK, it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, but I have to admit I’m getting excited for the holidays!!

Week Fifty-Two

Compiled by Amy Siskind

This week started and ended in chaos, with a respite in-between as Trump traveled to Asia and stayed on script. The length of this week’s list is a testament to how broad-based the attacks on and the erosion of norms and our democracy have become — well beyond Trump as the sole actor.

The Resistance that started as Trump took office has grown in both impact and power, as evidenced by Tuesday’s elections, which were a wipe-out for Republicans and an amazing display of diversity. A revolution around sexual assault and harassment is gathering steam, with offenders being outed daily.

All the while, the Mueller probe progresses. This week more ties between the Trump campaign and Russia were exposed, and questions surfaced as to the knowledge and engagement of senior people on the campaign, including Trump.

1. WAPO reported as the winter tourism season kicks in, Trump has secured 70 H-2B visas from the Labor Department to hire cooks, maids, and servers to work at Mar-a-Lago, despite urging the country to hire American.
2. Dallas Morning News reported GOP campaigns for Trump, Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Lindsey Graham, Kris Kasich, and John McCain took in $7.35 million in donations from Leonard Blavatnik, a Ukrainian oligarch with ties to Putin.
3. Blavatnik donated $1 million to Trump's Inaugural Committee. Blavatnik also has close relationship with Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch who has ties to Paul Manafort over a decade, and appears frequently in The Weekly List.
4. Saudi Arabia arrested 11 princes, four ministers and tens of former ministers. Trump tweeted his approval, saying he had “great confidence” in Mohammed and his father, King Salman.
5. In Week 51, Jared Kushner returned from a previously undisclosed trip to Saudi Arabia, and Trump tweeted he would appreciate if Saudi Arabia would list the IPO of Aramco on the NYSE.
6. Juli Briskman, the cyclist who flipped off Trump as his motorcade drove by, was fired from Akima LLC, a government contracting firm, under a social media policy, although she wasn’t wearing anything company related.
7. Ironically, Briskman oversaw the firm’s social media presence, and flagged a middle-aged executive man for a violation, writing “You’re a f — — — Libtard a — — — .” He cleaned up the comment and was not fired.
8. Sessions’ DOJ dropped their case against Desiree Fairooz, a retired children’s librarian affiliated with Code Pink, who laughed at Sessions during his Senate confirmation hearing.
9. Republican Reb. Rob Bishop moved closer to his goal of invalidating the Endangered Species Act. Bishop has shepherded five bills out of the House Natural Resources Committee he chairs that would dismantle the law piece by piece.
10. In his most aggressive step yet to reverse Obama’s “war on coal,” Energy Secretary Rick Perry announced a proposal to alter electricity markets, which would provide a huge windfall for coal magnate Bob Murray, a big Trump donor.
11. On Tuesday, Syria joined the Paris Climate Accord, leaving the US as the sole country rejecting the global pact.
12. On Thursday, Trump's EPA proposed reversing an Obama-era regulation which tightened emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks with older engines, part of Obama’s efforts to reduce soot and other pollutants.
13. Carrier Corp., the plant Trump promised to save, announced less than four months after it laid off 340 employees at its Indianapolis factory that the company will terminate an additional 215 employees in January.
14. Rep. Scott Allen, a lawmaker in WI, said women should be forced to give birth to grow the labor force: “Labor force shortages are tied to population declines. Labor force shortages are a limiting factor in economic growth.”
15. On Monday, Trump's DHS announced it would not renew temporary protections which expire January 5 for 5.3K Nicaraguans. The regime gave a six-month reprieve to 86K Hondurans covered by the program.
16. WAPO reported John Kelly tried to pressure acting DHS Secretary Elain Duke to expel Hondurans too. In a call while traveling in Japan, Kelly was “irritated” and admonished her not to “kick the can down the road.”
17. Despite Trump's efforts to derail Obamacare by starving the exchange of sign-ups, ACA registration spiked at open enrollment’s start: over 200K chose a plan on November 1, more than doubling last year.
18. WAPO reported that Betsy DeVos has shrunk the Education Department, shedding 350 workers since December, and buyouts offered to an additional 255 employees. Only 8 of the 15 key roles requiring Senate confirmation have nominees.
19. WAPO reported the US Agency for International Development (USAID) sent letters to 70 foreign service jobs applicants saying the positions had been canceled. This comes amidst a State Department hiring freeze.
20. Foreign Policy reported scores of senior diplomats, including 60% of career ambassadors, have left the State Department since Trump took office. There are 74 key roles at State which are vacant and have no nominee.
21. Top US diplomat, AFSA President Ambassador Barbara Stephenson, blasted the Trump regime in an open-letter, “Time to Ask Why,” citing it’s not just top leadership leaving, but recruitment is falling dramatically too.
22. Newsweek reported Lara Trump has taken on WH duties, hosting high-level meetings on domestic policy initiatives with cabinet members, lawmakers, and Trump advisers.
23. Leaked documents, the “Paradise Papers,” reveal Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross failed to disclose his interest in Navigator Holdings, a shipping company with significant ties to Russia, during his confirmation hearing.
24. Navigator’s most important business relationships is with SIBUR, an energy company controlled by Putin’s son-in-law and Russian oligarchs Timchenko and Michelson, both who are on the Treasury’s sanction list.
25. Penny Young Nance, Trump's likely nominee for ambassador for global women’s issues, is a strong opponent of abortion and gay rights, and said the movie Frozen sends a harmful message about the role of men.
26. Kyle Yunasaka, the brother of Eric Trump's wife, Lara Trump, was named chief of staff at the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Policy. Yunasaka has no education or work experience in energy.
27. Trump's nominee William Wehrum was confirmed to a key post in the EPA despite oil industry ties. As an attorney, Wehrum represented the American Petroleum Institute, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, and the American Chemistry Council.
28. Daily Beast reported Trump appointed David Kautter to become the interim IRS commissioner. Kautter’s firm had to pay $123 million to the US Treasury in 2013 as part of a settlement for a tax shelter scheme.
29. Brett Talley, a blogger nominated by Trump for federal judge in AL, who has never tried a case and was unanimously rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Association, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote.
30. A fourth Trump judicial nominee, Seung Min Kim, was deemed not qualified by American Bar Association. It is highly atypical to have a nominee be deemed not qualified, let alone four already.
31. Politico reported the House Rules Committee, which is controlled by Speaker Paul Ryan, set a record for the most closed rules in a session. Ryan has yet to allow a single piece of legislation to be governed by an open rule.
32. NYT reported there has been a spike in deaths in Puerto Rico, but few are being attributed to Maria. Puerto Rican officials acknowledged 472 more people died this September compared with the same month last year.
33. On Tuesday, Natalie Jaresko, executive director of the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico told Congress nearly 60% of Puerto Rico is without electricity and thousands remain in shelters.
34. NPR reported federal troops have started to leave Puerto Rico, while many are still without a steady supply of food and running water, and while schools remain closed.
35. On Friday, 3 star Army General Jeffrey Buchanan, who coordinated the federal military response in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria, said in a news conference, “we’re out of the crisis” and is leaving next week.
36. Tuesday’s election was a trouncing for the Republican Party, including governor seats in NJ and VA, and 15 legislative seats shifting hands in VA (3 undecided still), and a key race in Westchester County, NY.
37. History was made in many races nationwide as women, people of color and LGBTQ individuals won their races, including numerous “firsts.”
38. In the VA legislature, 11 of the 15 Democrats who won were women — including two who are the first Hispanic women to serve in the state’s legislature. Women candidates racked up victories around the country.
39. Danica Roem was elected in VA as the first openly transgender legislator, defeating Bob Marshall, an outspoken opponent of transgender rights who introduced the controversial transgender “bathroom bill.”
40. Republican John Carman, a NJ politician who joked about the Women’s March asking if it would be “over in time for them to cook dinner,” was defeated by a 32 year-old woman, Ashley Bennett, a first-time candidate.
41. More than two dozen House Republicans have announced they won’t be running again in 2018, well above the average number of House retirements per election cycle. More announcements are expected.
42. Starting with accusations against Harvey Weinstein and the #MeToo campaign, scores of women and men have come forward to share their stories of sexual assault, harassment, and rape as adults and children.
43. Accusations have come against men in Hollywood, academia, sports, corporate America, politics and more. On Thursday, CNN hosted a primetime town hall, “Tipping Point: Sexual Harassment in America.”
44. On Thursday, a Senate resolution introduced by Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Chuck Grassley requiring mandatory harassment training for all senators, officers, employers and interns unanimously passed.
45. On Thursday, WAPO reported AL senate candidate Roy Moore sexually assaulted a 14 year-old girl when he was in his early 30s. Moore denied the allegations, employing a Trump distraction: blame the liberal, fake media.
46. WSJ reported, based on examining 159K deleted tweets, Kremlin-backed support for Trump on Twitter started as early as June 2015. Russian accounts attacked Hillary and Jeb Bush, the GOP frontrunner at the time.
47. In the two weeks ahead the November 2016 election, Russian account activity escalated. Trump campaign insiders like Flynn and conservative pundits like Sean Hannity followed and retweeted these accounts.
48. NYT reported Russian billionaire investor Yuri Milner made major investments in US social media companies Twitter and Facebook using money from state-owned Russian banks VTB and Gazprom Investholding.
49. Milner ultimately owned more than 8% of Facebook and 5% of Twitter, and later sold these stakes, but retains large US technology holdings. He also has investments in real estate partly owned by Kushner.
50. NBC reported Mueller has enough evidence to bring charges against Flynn and his son. Mueller is applying pressure on Flynn after the Manafort indictment, and speaking to witnesses around his lobbying work.
51. Mueller is looking into whether Flynn was behind a request to the FBI in the weeks after Trump's inauguration to conduct a new review of Turkey’s 2016 request to extradite Fethullah Gülen, an elderly Muslim cleric.
52. CNN reported Michael Flynn and his wife Lori are concerned about their son’s legal exposure in the Mueller probe, and this could factor into Flynn’s decision on how to respond to Mueller.
53. On Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sessions needs to return to the Senate Judiciary Committee and answer questions about Trump campaign ties to Russia, after revelations in Week 51 show Sessions’ previous statements were false.
54. Sessions is set to face questions about Russia from the House Judiciary Committee in an open hearing next week as part of DOJ oversight. Sessions will also likely speak to the House Intel Committee in a closed setting.
55. WAPO reported, based on a review of court documents and interviews, at least nine members of the Trump regime had meetings with Russians during the campaign and transition.
56. The nine include: George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort, Jeff Sessions, Donald Jr., Michael Cohen, Jared Kushner, Michael Flynn, Carter Page, and J.D. Gordon. Questions arose as to whether the Kremlin sought to infiltrate the Trump campaign, or if it is a coincidence.
57. On Monday, a transcript of Page’s 6.5 hours of testimony to the House Intel Committee was released. The testimony disputes Page’s initial claims that his visit to Moscow in July 2016 was in a private capacity.
58. Page testified that he sent an email in advance of his trip to Corey Lewandowski, Hope Hicks and Gordon. Page said Lewandowski gave him the okay to go. Page said he also mentioned his trip to Sessions.
59. Gordon told CNN he “discouraged Carter from taking the trip to Moscow because it was a bad idea,” but Page ignored him: “he eventually went around me directly to campaign leadership.”
60. Page met with Russian deputy PM Arkady Dvorkovich. Page reported to the campaign after his trip that Dvorkovich “expressed strong support for Mr. Trump and a desire to work together.”
61. Page also acknowledged meeting with other high-level Russian officials and said they discussed the US presidential election, “in general terms.”
62. Page acknowledged he met with Andrey Baranov, head of investor relations at Rosneft, a Russian state-oil company. He also met with an investor-relations official at energy company Gazprom.
63. Rep. Adam Schiff asked if there was a discussion about the 19% stake in Rosneft in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions on Russia. Page said, “he may have briefly mentioned it,” but the quid pro quo was not discussed directly.
64. Page again met with Baranov in Moscow a month after the election. The Russian government owns a majority stake in Rosneft. The Treasury Depart sanctioned Rosneft after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
65. Page acknowledged he has met with the FBI several times, and answered questions about events described in the Steele dossier. Page said Mueller has not made any indication he will indict him.
66. After the trip, Page offered the Trump campaign a readout. He also spoke to national co-chairman Sam Clovis, whom Page said separately asked him to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
67. Page acknowledged he praised Gordon and five others on the Trump policy team in an email for changing the Republican Party platform on Ukraine, “As for the Ukraine amendment, excellent work.”
68. Page received a text, and then a call from Steve Bannon in January advising him not to appear on MSNBC. He also received a letter from Trump campaign law firm Jones Day imploring him not to say he is part of the campaign.
69. In an interview with Bloomberg, Veselnitskaya said Donald Jr. hinted the Magnitsky Act would be re-examined if Trump won, in exchange for written evidence that illegal proceeds went to Hillary’s campaign.
70. The Intercept reported CIA director Mike Pompeo met with William Binney, an advocate for a fringe DNC hack theory, on October 24. Binney has accused intelligence of subverting the Constitution and violating civil rights.
71. Binney argues that the DNC data was “leaked,” not hacked, “by a person with physical access” to the DNC’s computer system. US Intel official assessment is that Russian intelligence was behind the DNC hack.
72. NBC reported that according to Binney, Pompeo took the meeting at the behest of Trump. It is extremely unusual for a CIA director to meet with someone like Binney, who also makes frequent appearances on RT.
73. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Berman Jackson issued a gag order in the Manafort and Rick Gates criminal cases, directing prosecutors and defense to refrain from making statements to the media or in public settings.
74. CNN reported Joseph Mifsud, the academic suspected of being a link between the Papadopoulos and Russian officials on Hillary’s emails, has vanished. In court documents, Mifsud is referred to as “Foreign Contact 1.”
75. Politico reported Congressional investigators are also probing the GOP platform fight as part of the Russia investigation. Gordon acknowledged being interviewed by lawmakers, but wouldn’t say if he met with Mueller.
76. Papadopoulos, Manafort, and Gates were also involved in the convention. Without naming names, Gordon said others in the Trump campaign involved in pushing the platform change are also being interviewed.
77. AP reported Russian Twitter trolls organized to deflect from Trump's Access Hollywood tapes, instead touting damaging emails hacked and leaked from John Podesta.
78. AP reported on Russia’s cyber-meddling strategy: swiftly react, distort. and distract attention from any negative Trump news. There were spikes in Twitter activity on September 16, October 6, and November 8.
79. Mueller interviewed Stephen Miller, bringing the Russia investigation into Trump's inner-circle. Miller is the highest-level aide still working at the WH known to have talked to Mueller’s team.
80. CNN reported Miller was questioned on his role in the firing of James Comey, and about the March 2016 meeting where Papadopoulos said he could arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin through his connections.
81. Business Insider reported many Trump advisers are facing sky-high legal bills. Roger Stone blasted out a statement asking for help paying the nearly $460K in legal fees he has incurred in the Russia probe.
82. Gordon told Business Insider the RNC is taking care of Trump and Donald Jr., and “the rest of us who aren’t billionaires must fend for ourselves.” Gordon said he has incurred an almost five-figure legal bill.
83. On Thursday, RT said the DOJ has ordered the broadcaster to register as a foreign agent by Monday. RT’s EIC Margarita Simonyan called the timing a “cannibalistic deadline,” and an attempt to “drive [RT] out of the country.”
84. On Friday, WSJ reported that Cambridge Analytica’s outreach to Julian Assange happened as the company was in advanced stages of contract negotiations with the Trump campaign, and had already dispatched employees.
85. In addition to the previously disclosed $9 million  paid by the Trump campaign for providing data, polling and research services, Cambridge Analytica was also paid an additional $6 million routed through Parscale.
86. Cambridge Analytica is partly owned by Rebekah and Robert Mercer, who made his first donation to Trump on June 21. Bannon served on Cambridge Analytica’s board and holds a stake in the company.
87. According to a person with knowledge of the investigation, Papadopoulos initially misled FBI agents out of what he claimed was loyalty to Trump: he didn’t want to contradict Trump's statement of no contact with Russians.
88. Business Insider reported Devin Nunes, who was then chair of the House Intel Committee, attended a breakfast on January 18 that Flynn and the Turkish foreign minister, also attended. Press was excluded.
89. NBC reported Mueller is probing a meeting on September 20 in DC between Flynn and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, set up by Flynn’s lobbying firm, the Flynn Intel Group. Two of Flynn’s business partners and his son also attended.
90. Mueller is reviewing emails sent from Flynn Intel Group to Rohrabacher’s congressional staff thanking them for the meeting as part of the probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
91. On Friday, NYT reported on a meeting in London on March 24, 2016 between Papadopoulos, Mifsud, and Olga Polonskaya, a 30-year-old Russian, who was introduced as Putin’s niece. Putin has no niece.
92. Mueller is interested in interactions between the three and a fourth man with contacts inside Russia’s Foreign Ministry as a central part of the investigation into the Kremlin’s role in the 2016 election.
93. Papadopoulos met Mifsud for breakfast in April. As per Week 51, Mifsud bragged about having “dirt” on Hillary: “thousands of emails.” Mifsud’s outreach began after Papadopoulos joined the Trump campaign.
94. The day before his breakfast, Papadopoulos emailed Stephen Miller, saying Trump has an “open invitation” from Putin to visit Russia. The day after he wrote, “some interesting messages coming in from Moscow.”
95. Together with items involving Page, there is increasing evidence not only of contact between the Trump campaign and Russians, but also that senior campaign officials were aware of the contacts.
96. NBC reported Mueller is probing a possible quid pro quo between Flynn and Turkey during presidential transition. Flynn met with senior Turkish officials in December 2016 at the 21 Club restaurant near Trump Tower.
97. Mueller is looking into whether they discussed orchestrating the return of Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gülen, who lives in Pennsylvania, as well freeing Turkish-Iranian gold trader, Reza Zarrab, who is jailed in the US.
98. Flynn was allegedly offered a $15 million payment if he could orchestrate the deal. Flynn’s son may have also been involved. Trump campaign senior adviser Rudy Giuliani is part of Zarrab’s defense team.
99. Reuters reported Mueller questioned Clovis this week on whether Trump or top aides knew of the extent of the campaign’s contacts with Russia, and who approved and directed the contacts.
100. A WAPO/ABC News survey found just 37% approve, 59% disapprove of the job Trump is doing, lower than any leader in the last seven decades, nine months in. 55% think Trump is not keeping his campaign promises.
101. The poll found just one-third believe Trump is honest and trustworthy, and 65% say he has accomplished “not much” or “little or nothing.”
102. On Thursday, Tom Steyer said he would spend an additional $10 million on his campaign to impeach Trump. Nearly 2 million people have signed his online petition to demand Trump be impeached.
103. On Monday, Trump's DOJ told AT&T that in order for the planned takeover of Time Warner to go through, the company must sell off CNN. As detailed in The Weekly List, Trump has a long-running feud with CNN.
104. On Wednesday, AT&T’s CFO said on a conference call this type of merger hasn’t been blocked for over 40 years. AT&T has signaled it intends to challenge the regime in court over the requirement.
105. On Thursday, AT&T’s CEO told CNBC, “I have never been told that the price of getting the [Time Warner] deal done was selling CNN,” and I have never offered to sell it either.
106. On Friday, Reuters reported Trump ally Rupert Murdoch called AT&T’s CEO on May 16 and August 8 to ask if CNN was for sale.
107. On Friday, a federal judge dismissed, for a second time, a pair of lawsuits seeking to force the State Department to do more to recover Hillary’s emails. As per Week 51, Trump has been tweeting and speaking out to get her emails.
108. The judge cited the FBI’s use of grand jury subpoenas sent not only to Hillary’s provider and accounts, but ones used by people she corresponded with, as satisfying the State Department’s obligation to take reasonable steps.
109. On Wednesday, Sen. Bob Corker announced as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he will hold hearings on Trump's ability to use nuclear weapons. Corker said it has been four decades since Congress looked at the issue.
110. A NBC/WSJ poll found in counties that voted for Trump, a plurality — 41 % — say the country is worse off now than it was when Trump took office. 32% believe the country is better off, and 26% believe the same.
111. After repeatedly bashing China for unfair trade and saying the country was “raping” the US economy during his campaign, while visiting Beijing, Trump praised Xi saying, “I don’t blame China.” The crowd applauded.
112. The two leaders did not take questions from the press, a victory for Xi who oversees an authoritarian system that limits press freedom. Former Democratic and Republican aides called it an “embarrassing capitulation.”
113. Chinese state media approved of the summit, saying Trump “respects our head of state and has repeatedly praised” Xi publicly.
114. On Friday, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there would be no formal meeting between Trump and Putin in Vietnam, but that they might “bump into each other.”
115. After staying mostly on-script during his Asia trip, on Saturday, Trump reverted to lies and dangerous statements in a 26-minute question-and-answer session with reporters aboard Air Force One.
116. On Saturday, Trump had his second private, “sideline” meeting with Putin (in Week 36 it was revealed Trump had a clandestine meeting with Putin at the G20) without media access.
117. Trump told reporters of his conversation with Putin, “He said he didn’t meddle — I asked him again,” adding Putin “means it.” Trump also said, “I think he is very insulted by it, which is not a good thing for our country.”
118. Trump dismissed the Russia probe as an “artificial Democratic hit job,” and said it would put American lives at risk, saying it “gets in the way and that’s a shame because people will die because of it.”
119. Trump attacked US intelligence, saying “I mean, give me a break, they are political hacks…I mean, you have Brennan, you have Clapper and you have Comey.” Trump sided instead with “President Putin, very strong.”
120. Following that statement, Gen. Michael Hayden tweeted, “CIA just told me: The Dir stands by and has always stood by the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment,” and questioning which side Trump is on.

Republicans

• are defending a child molester
• are defending tax cuts for the wealthy
• are defending taking away health care from millions of Americans
• are defending white supremacists
• are defending serial sexual assaulters
• are defending racists

 

This is not hyperbole. They are actually defending all of those things.

Week Fifty-One

Compiled by Amy Siskind

This week Trump made his most aggressive statements against the DOJ, FBI, and court systems for not doing what he thinks they should do. Alarm bells of authoritarianism and not normal were ringing, as were warnings from even some Republicans not to interfere with the Mueller investigation.

1. WAPO reported Donald Jr. and Eric are set to launch two real estate projects in India, despite vows early on that there would be no new foreign deals while Trump was in office to avoid potential conflicts of interest.
2. NBC reported U.S Attorney Dana Boente, who submitted his resignation in Week 50, did so at the behest of Sessions, who said Boente should clear the way so Trump could name his successor.
3. In an NBC News/WSJ poll, Trump's approval dropped to the lowest level yet: 38% approve, 58% disapprove. The drop came from independents (41% in September to 34%) and whites without a college degree (58% to 51%).
4. On Monday, Trump hit his lowest approval and largest net gap on Gallup Daily: 33% approve, 62% disapprove, net -29.
5. Politico reported Kushner took an unannounced trip to Saudi Arabia, his third this year. Days later, Forbes reported Kushner’s plans to save his overleveraged 666 Fifth Avenue property were found to be “not feasible.”
6. On Sunday, ahead of news coming Monday from the Mueller probe, in a series of tweets, Trump assailed Obamacare, Democrats, Hillary, and the “Fake Dossier,” and implored: “DO SOMETHING!”
7. In a seemingly coordinated effort, Murdoch-owned outlets bashed Mueller and called for his firing, including the WSJ Editorial Board and Sunday op-ed, a New York Post op-ed and continuing coverage on Fox News.
8. CNN reported several Fox News employees said they were embarrassed and humiliated by the network’s coverage of the Mueller investigation. One said, “Fox feels like an extension of the Trump White House.”
9. Politico reported Obamacare is about to have its worst open-enrollment season ever, citing numerous steps by the Trump regime to create confusion and end public promotions to raise consumer awareness.
10. In Edison, NJ, an unknown group sent out flyers ahead of the November 7 election which read, ”Make Edison Great Again” and called for the deportation of two Asian school board candidates.
11. A student at the University of Hartford was charged with criminal mischief and expelled after an Instagram post in which she bragged about harassing her black American roommate: “I can finally say goodbye to Jamaican Barbie.”
12. A federal judge temporarily blocked parts of Trump's memo banning transgender people from the military, ruling it was based on “disapproval of transgender people generally.”
13. The judge also blasted Trump's abrupt announcement on Twitter “without any of the formality or deliberative processes” to come up with policy. She ruled the status quo should stay in place for now.
14. On Tuesday, Trump's lawyer again sought the dismissal of Summer Zervos’ defamation lawsuit against him, arguing Trump's expression of his political opinion is protected by the First Amendment.
15. AP reported Betsy DeVos is considering only partially forgiving federal loans for students defrauded by for-profit colleges, reversing an Obama-era policy which entire erased such debt.
16. Sessions told Fox News Sunday he is “disturbed” that Jane Doe, the 17 year-old undocumented immigrant was able to get a legal abortion in Week 50, saying, “I think it’s a serious problem, it should not have happened.”
17. On Friday, Sessions’ DOJ took the unusual step of accusing the ACLU of misconduct for helping “Jane Doe,” an undocumented teenager in government custody, get a safe and legal abortion in Week 50.
18. On Friday, federal officials released Rosa Maria Hernandez, the 10 year-old undocumented immigrant girl with cerebral palsy who was detained in Week 50 after undergoing surgery in Texas.
19. In an op-ed, Sen. Elizabeth Warren argued the Supreme Court needs to adopt an ethics code, citing the conflict of Neil Gorsuch keynoting an event at the Trump Hotel DC on the same day the Supreme Court took on a related case.
20. Papa John’s CEO, John Schnatter, blamed the company’s poor third-quarter performance on NFL anthem protests, tell ESPN: “We are disappointed the NFL and its leadership did not resolve this.”
21. Trump judicial nominee Leonard Steven Grasz, who was nominated in August to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, became the second Trump nominee to be deemed “not qualified” by the American Bar Association.
22. On Tuesday, at an EPA event with Trump by his side, Scott Pruitt announced a new policy which says scientists receiving EPA grants cannot serve on the agency’s advisory boards. Critics called it a move to silence scientists.
23. Pruitt also named the chairmen of each of the three most high-profile panels: Michael Honeycutt, Tony Cox, and Paul Gilman — all who disagree with the scientific basis of major Obama administration policies.
24. On Friday, Pruitt overhauled the EPA’s external advisory boards. Among the new advisers selected are industry players, one who believes air quality is too clean for children, and multiple climate change skeptics.
25. On Thursday, speaking during an energy policy discussion, Rick Perry linked fossil fuel development to preventing sexual assault, saying “when the lights are on….the righteousness, if you will on those types of acts.”
26. The Sierra Club called on Perry to resign over his comments. The Department of Energy said Perry’s comments were meant to highlight the way electricity will improve the lives of people in Africa.
27. On Thursday, the US withdrew as an implementing country from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an international effort to fight corruption in revenues from oil, gas, and mineral extraction.
28. USA Today reported Trump has appointed at least five people who are members of his clubs to senior roles in his administration. He has also given donors and allies prized diplomatic postings in European capitals.
29. This marks the first time in history that a president has awarded government posts to people who pay money to his own companies.
30. On Monday, Mueller’s office announced Paul Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates were indicted by a federal grand jury on 12 charges, including conspiracy against the United States, over the years 2006–2016.
31. Other charges include money laundering, failing to register as a foreign agent, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank accounts.
32. The indictments say both Manafort and Gates generated tens of millions from their lobbying work in Ukraine from 2006–2016, and hid the payments by laundering money. Manafort laundered more than $18 million.
33. Manafort was Trump's campaign manager from April–August 2016. Gates was a top campaign deputy, played a key role in planning Trump's inauguration, and was in and out of the WH during Trump's early days.
34. Both were put under house arrest, and bail was set at $10 million for Manafort and $5 million for Gates. Reports showed Manafort’s wealth fluctuated wildly, and he kept three passports, after submitting 10 passport applications.
35. Bloomberg reported Gates was fired from Colony NorthStar on Monday, where he had been a consultant to Tom Barrack, a longtime friend of Trump. Barrack also was the chairman of Trump's inaugural committee.
36. Also revealed on Monday, former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty to making a false statement to FBI investigators about his contacts with high-level Russian connections.
37. Papadopoulos’ plea agreement describes his extensive efforts to broker connections between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. He has also turned over months of emails.
38. On April 25, he wrote, “The Russian government has an open invitation by Putin for Mr. Trump to meet him when he is ready.” Sam Clovis, Papadopoulos’ supervisor, as well as Corey Lewandowski and Manafort received his emails.
39. Court documents quote one unidentified campaign “supervisor” emailing Papadopoulos in August 2016 that “I would encourage you” to make a trip to Moscow to arrange such a meeting. Yahoo reported this is Clovis.
40. On Monday, Daily Beast reported Bannon encouraged Trump to bring in new lawyers and to take a much more aggressive approach, including considering the possibility of defunding the Mueller probe.
41. WAPO reported on Trump's Monday, saying he spent the morning upstairs watching TV separated from his WH staff, and the entire day visibly angry. The mood in the WH was described as weariness and fear of the unknown.
42. Vanity Fair reported the West Wing is on edge, and for the first time impeachment is being considered as a realistic outcome. Dina Powell and Gary Cohn are leaving the room is Russia comes up.
43. Steve Bannon and Roger Stone are urging Trump to take steps to counter Mueller — Bannon citing Trump's slipping grasp on power. Stone advised appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary’s role in Uranium One.
44. Reportedly, Trump blames Kushner for his decision to fire Michael Flynn and James Comey, which led to Mueller’s appointment. Allegedly Trump said “Jared is the worst political adviser in the White House in modern history.”
45. CNN reported Kushner’s team has turned over documents to Mueller in the special counsel’s investigation of Kushner’s role in the firing of Comey. Sources say Kushner is not a target of the investigation.
46. On Monday night, John Kelly reignited his feud with Rep. Frederica Wilson, telling Fox News of his criticism of her, “I stand by my comments.” In Week 48, a video released by Sun-Sentinel showed Kelly’s accusations were false.
47. Kelly also sparked controversy with a divisive and factually incorrect claims the Civil War was caused by “the lack of an ability to compromise,” and that Confederate Leader Robert E. Lee “was an honorable man.”
48. On Tuesday, several Senate Republicans, including Jeff Flake, Roy Blunt, John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Richard Shelby, and John Kennedy, separately said they would not support any moves to crack down on the Mueller investigation.
49. Bloomberg reported Papadopoulos’ emails show that top Trump campaign officials agreed to a pre-election meeting with representatives of Putin. The email is cited in an FBI agent’s affidavit supporting charges.
50. The Trump regime tried to distance themselves from Papadopoulos. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said he was a mere volunteer. Mike Caputo said Papadopoulos was just a “coffee boy.” Trump called him a “low level volunteer.”
51. In a March 21 interview with the WAPO editorial board, Trump included Papadopoulos among people advising him on matters of national security, referring to Papadopoulos as “an energy and oil consultant. Excellent guy.”
52. On Thursday, NYT reported on court documents describing a March 31 meeting between Trump and his foreign policy team. According to campaign adviser J. D. Gordon, Papadopoulos pitched his Russia idea.
53. Gordon said Trump listened with interest, but Sessions vehemently opposed the idea. Gordon said Sessions also said no one should talk about Papadopoulos’ idea because it might leak.
54. On Tuesday, NBC reported former top Trump campaign official Sam Clovis, who supervised Papadopoulos, was questioned last week by Mueller’s team.
55. On Tuesday, Politico reported Clovis has been a cooperating witness in the Senate Intel Committee’s Russia probe. Clovis is Trump's controversial nominee for the top scientific job at the Department of Agriculture.
56. On Thursday, Clovis withdrew from consideration for the Department of Agriculture post, citing “the political climate inside Washington.” Speculation grew the cause was related to the Russia probe.
57. On Thursday, Carter Page told CNN that during more than six hours of closed-door testimony to the House Intel Committee, Page testified he told Sessions he was traveling to Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.
58. NBC reported Sessions rejected Papadopoulos’ plan to use his Russian contacts to set up a meeting between Trump and Putin. Congressional investigators want to question Sessions about his new recollection.
59. In June, Sessions had told his Senate colleagues under oath that he had “no knowledge” of any conversations by anyone on the Trump campaign about “any type of interference with any campaign” by Russians.
60. On Friday, NBC reported that contrary to the Trump regime’s efforts to downplay Papadopoulos’s role in the campaign, records show he was a prominent figure and frequently acted as a surrogate.
61. Papadopoulos was at the Republican National Convention, and was invited by the American Jewish Committee to speak on a panel along with two Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Sen. Bob Corker.
62. Papadopoulos also acted as a surrogate six weeks before the election, giving an interview to the Russian Interfax News Agency, where he said that Trump will “restore the trust” between the US and Russia.
63. NYT reported Page told the House Intel Committee on Thursday that after his July 2016 trip to Moscow to meet with Russian government officials, he sent an email to at least one Trump campaign aide describing the trip.
64. Details came out during sharp questioning by Rep. Adam Schiff. Page’s email detailed his meetings with government officials, legislators, and business executives in Moscow. The recipient(s) of the email are not yet known.
65. On Thursday, Manafort and Gates were back in court. Both will be confined to their homes and are subject to electronic monitoring devices due to flight risk. The judge is also considering a gag order on attorneys.
66. A WAPO/ABC poll found 58% of Americans approve of Mueller’s handling of the Trump-Russia investigation, just 28% disapprove. Roughly half say it’s likely Trump committed a crime.
67. The American Psychological Association Stress in America Survey found 59% of Americans say this is the lowest point in US history. Two-thirds say the future of the nation is a very or somewhat significant source of stress.
68. Business Insider reported a federal judge in NY has denied Veselnitskaya’s request to enter the US to represent her client, Prevezon, which has not paid the $5.9 million settlement it reached with Sessions’ DOJ in May.
69. The settlement was a fraction of the $230 million amount Preet Bharara had been seeking before he was fired. If Prevezon does not pay the settlement amount, the judge says they will need to go to court without Veselnitskaya.
70. On Wednesday, in a series of tweets, Trump blamed Sen. Schumer for the NYC terror attack, tweeting “Diversity Visa Lottery Program” is a “Chuck Schumer beauty.”
71. Trump's claim is false: the program was passed with bipartisan support in 1990 and signed into law by George H.W. Bush. Trump's invented claim came from a segment running that morning on Fox News.
72. On Wednesday, after a terrorist attack in NYC by a Muslim American, Trump bemoaned our justice system,calling it “a joke” and “a laughingstock,” and saying “no wonder so much of this stuff takes place.”
73. Trump made his comments during a cabinet meeting. Sessions was in the room. Trump also threatened to send the terror suspect to Guantanamo.
74. On Wednesday night, Trump tweeted the suspect had asked to hang the ISIS flag in his hospital room and he “SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!”
75. On Thursday, in tweets, Trump backed away from his threat to send the suspect to Guantanamo, saying the process there takes longer, and again called for the death penalty: “Should move fast. DEATH PENALTY!”
76. Legal experts say Trump's tweets and statements will actually hurt the prosecution, citing defense attorneys will claim that the jury pool has been poisoned by the publicity surrounding his expression of opinion.
77. Trump also told Fox News he was unsure if Rex Tillerson will remain Secretary of State for the balance of his term. Trump said the WH was “not happy” that some State Department staffers were not supporting his agenda.
78. When pressed about filling vacant high-profile roles in the State Department such as assistant Secretary of State, Trump said, “I’m the only one that matters,” adding, “we don’t need all the people that they want.”
79. Reuters reported at a recent meeting, former Secretary of State Colin Powell told H.R. McMaster the regime was gutting State. McMaster reportedly replied that there were people who did not support Trump's agenda.
80. On Friday, Trump criticized the military court for giving Bowe Bergdahl a dishonorable discharge but no jail time, calling the decision “a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military.”
81. Ironically, Trump's speaking out may have, in part, led to the decision. Last week the judge said he would consider Trump's past comments as evidence for a lighter sentence.
82. On Thursday, on a radio show, Trump expressed frustration with not being able to direct the DOJ to investigate his former rival Hillary for the dossier, saying he is “very unhappy” with the DOJ and “very frustrated by it.”
83. On Friday, in a series of tweets, Trump continued, saying “everybody is asking” why the DOJ and FBI isn’t investigating Hillary and the Democrats. Adding, at some point the DOJ and FBI need to do what’s right and proper.
84. On Friday, Trump also left open — for the fourth time — that he may fire Sessions if the DOJ does not investigate Trump's political rivals, saying “a lot of people are disappointed in the Justice Department, including me.”
85. NYT noted in the past four decades, no president has sought to publicly pressure law enforcement as much as Trump.
86. WSJ reported the FBI is investigating the decision by Puerto Rico’s power authority (“PREPA”) to award a $300 million contract to Whitefish Energy.
87. On Sunday, Puerto Rico governor Ricardo Rosselló petitioned the board of PREPA to invoke the cancellation clause for this island’s contract with Whitefish Energy after FEMA flagged “significant concerns.”
88. Business Insider reported the USNS Comfort was anchored offshore of Puerto Rico until last Friday. Now that the Comfort has docked, medical staff attended 700 patients over the weekend, up from nine a day prior.
89. Six weeks after Hurricane Maria, doctor and nurses say Puerto Ricans still face widespread symptoms related to unclean water, including vomiting, diarrhea and asthma, as well as 74 suspected cases of leptospirosis.
90. Rachel Maddow reported Puerto Rican officials refuse to answer how many of the suspected 74 cases of leptospirosis, a disease transmitted by contact with water contaminated by animal urine, have led to death.
91. The Atlantic reported as Puerto Rico ended its contract with Whitefish, there are several investigations into PREPA’s $200 million contract with Mammoth Energy Services’ Cobra Acquisitions, which was awarded on October 19.
92. A letter from the House energy committee said the Cobra contract “would appear to have the effect of preventing government oversight of the agreement.” Questions are also raised about the bidding process.
93. On Friday, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz told CNN the actual death toll from Maria is closer to 500, not 54.
94. On Thursday, Trump's Twitter account was “inadvertently deactivated” by a Twitter employee for 11 minutes at just after 7 p.m. EST. The employee, still unidentified, did this on their last day of work.
95. As of Tuesday, Tom Steyer’s online petition asking Congress to impeach Trump garnered more than 1.1 million signatures in its first week.
96. A Public Policy Polling survey found a record level of support for impeaching Trump: 49% support impeachment, while 41% oppose it.
97. On Tuesday, ahead of Congressional testimony, Facebook admitted Russian influence on their platform had reached 126 million Americans, far greater than what the company had previously disclosed.
98. Lawmakers released 3K Russian ads spread on Facebook. The ads were highly sophisticated and targeted candidates as well as groups and issues like illegal immigration, gun ownership, Black Lives Matter, and Muslims.
99. On Tuesday and Wednesday, general counsel for social media companies Facebook, Twitter, and Google testified before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee, and Senate and House intelligence committees.
100. Sen. Al Franken blasted Facebook for accepting payments in rubles for US election ads. Sen. Diane Feinstein said, “You’ve created these platforms, and now, they’re being misused,” adding “do something about it. Or we will.”
101. Sen. Mark Warner chastised the companies for being unresponsive and slow to investigate. He asked, “do you believe that any of your companies have identified the full scope of Russian active measures?” Facebook said no.
102. Warner said the Facebook ads “are just the tip of a very large iceberg,” and the real story is “the amount of misinformation and divisive content” pushed on Russian-back pages.
103. Sen. Amy Klobuchar pushed executives to weigh in on legislation that would require the companies to report who funds political ads online. In Week 49, Klobuchar and Warner gained bipartisan support of their Honest Ads Act.
104. Twitter identified 2,752 accounts controlled by Russian operatives and more than 36K bots that tweeted 1.4 million times during the election. Weeks ago, Twitter had said it found just 201 accounts linked to Russia.
105. Bloomberg reported Twitter was warned in 2015 by Leslie Miley about a vast amount of accounts with IP addresses in Russia and Ukraine. Miley, the only black engineer in leadership, was dismissed later that year.
106. On Thursday, Robert Mercer resigned as CEO of his giant hedge fund, Renaissance Technologies. In a letter to employees, Mercer said he has “scrutiny from the press” and been unfairly linked to Bannon.
107. Robert Mercer also sold his stake in Breitbart to his daughter Rebekah. In a statement, Mercer tried to distance himself from Milo Yiannopoulos, who, according to BuzzFeed, had cultivated white nationalists while at Breitbart.
108. On Friday, three conservative House Republicans — Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, and Louis Gohmert — said they plan to file a resolution calling on Mueller to recuse himself from his probe of Russian meddling, over conflicts of interest.
109. On Wednesday, Georgia’s AG office announced it will no longer represent the state’s top elections official in an elections integrity lawsuit filed days before a crucial computer server was quietly wiped clean, as per Week 50.
110. Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the main defendant, is running for governor in 2018. The server in question made headlines in June when a security expert disclosed a gaping security hole that wasn’t fixed.
111. The erased hard drives are central to the lawsuit filed in Week 34 because they could have revealed whether the Ossoff-Handel race was compromised by hackers. It is not clear who ordered the data erased.
112. AP obtained Russian hackers’ unpublished digital hit list which had targets around the world: in addition to Hillary’s emails, it includes emails of Ukrainian officers, Russian opposition figures and US defense contractors.
113. The list came from a database of 19K malicious links collected by cybersecurity firm Secureworks, when hacking group Fancy Bear accidentally exposed part of its phishing operation to the internet.
114. The list also provides the most detailed forensic evidence yet of the close alignment between Russian hackers and the Kremlin.
115. On Friday, AP reported on how Russia hacked into Hillary’s campaign starting on March 10, 2016. Through a malicious link, hacker group Fancy Bear was able to enter John Podesta’s email account.
116. On April 26, before the DNC knew, court documents show Papadopoulos says he was told about it by a professor closely connected to the Russian government, “They have dirt on her. They have thousands of emails.”
117. According to AP, Guccifer 2.0 acted as a kind of master of ceremonies during a summer of leaks. He also coordinated with WikiLeaks and wrote, “Together with Assange we’ll make America great again.”
118. AP also reported Guccifer 2.0 had airbrushed at least one of Podesta’s emails to get media attention: the word “CONFIDENTIAL” was not in the original document.
119. CNN reported Trump's long-time bodyguard and close confidante, Keith Schiller will testify to the House Intel Committee next week, as well as Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS.
120. WAPO reported Schiller is expected to be questioned about Trump's 2013 Moscow trip, which is behind some of the most salacious allegations in the dossier, as well as Trump's firing of Comey.
121. This week the committee interviewed Carter Page and Ike Kaveladze, one of the people at the June 9 Trump Tower meeting, as well as former assistant AG at the National Security division, Mary McCord, and Sally Yates.
122. Rachel Maddow noted the sudden rush of witnesses, some of who are central figures and Trump insiders,may indicate the House Intel Committee Republicans are trying to bring its investigation to a close.
123. On Friday, CBS News reported Trump campaign officials in legal jeopardy may be rushing to offer their cooperation to get a better deal from Mueller. One official who is being examined said, “it’s every man for himself.”
124. USA Today reported Trump's Election Integrity Commission may have gone dark. The last public meeting was on September 12, and it’s unclear, even to commission members, when the next meeting will be held.
125. The commission has held two meetings since it was set up in May, and has been sued by numerous civil rights and voting rights groups for lack of transparency and governance.
126. With election day coming next Tuesday, Twitter bots swarmed an important governor’s race in Virginia. Similar to the 2016 election, the bots are focused on fanning racial strife.
127. Joe Ricketts, a Trump supporter, shuttered both DNAinfo and Gothamist, two of NYC’s leading sources of local news which he purchased in March, after employees voted to join a union. Ricketts made no attempt to sell.
128. ProPublica reported two former CIA employees say Christopher Sharpley, Trump's nominee for CIA inspector general, “deliberately misled Congress” by saying he didn’t know about a pending complaint filed against him.
129. Mother Jones reported the Trump Organization experienced a major cyber breach in 2013, likely by Russian hackers. Until the week, the penetration had gone undetected. Information could be compromised.
130. In Week 47, Kushner and Ivanka’s personal emails accounts used for WH business were redirected to Trump Organization servers.
131. On Saturday, Trump solicited the Saudi Arabia government, tweeting to ask them to list their IPO of Aramco on the New York Stock Exchange.
132. On Saturday, en route to his Asia trip on a stop in Hawaii, Trump visited his Trump-branded Hawaii resort. This marks Trump's 97th trip to a Trump-owned property during his time in office.
133. As Trump headed on a trip to Asia, there is a sense that Trump has accelerated China’s rise by being and unsteady leader. Media say Beijing is the “new role model,” and Trump needs to prove his can be “constructive.”