7/16/18 “Nobody here is against Americans. They are welcome to come here anytime. It’s just Trump we have a problem with.”
The Blue Wave
Beto O’Rourke’s increasingly successful challenge to Ted Cruz garnered national attention (again) this week in the NYTimes, USA Today, and others—most recently for his new milestone of $10.4 million raised in a single quarter—entirely without PACs and through individual contributions.
Russia
Twelve Russian military officers have been indicted by the Justice Department in conjunction with the 2016 election hacking. If you’re keeping track, so far that’s 32 witches indicted, five witches pleading guilty.
Peter Strozk and House Democrats handed Trey Gowdy and Republicans on the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee their asses, using the most basic of arguments: If, as the GOP charges, he wanted to use the fact that Donald was under investigation to keep him from winning the election, why didn’t he use the fact that Donald was under investigation to keep him from winning the election?
Mueller has asked for 100 more blank subpoenas—about one month after requesting 150 subpoenas. That’s 50 more witnesses…
Republicans Against the Law
Rudy Giuliani, once a respected mayor and now mostly an incontinent-mouthed punch line and possibly a criminal, has been found to have been working with foreign clients while serving as Don John’s attorney—a conflict of interest and possible breach of federal ethics laws.
A federal judge ruled that Donald cannot detain undocumented children longer than 20 days.
Another federal judge refused to extend the deadline for Don’s administration to reunite separated children and their parents. They succeeded in returning only 38 of 102 children by the deadline. Even Dubya is disgusted with this administration’s actions.
Donald’s personal driver for the past 25 years has sued him for unpaid overtime, revealing that he received only two raises in 15 years, and that the scammer-in-chief took back his health insurance, canceling out one of them.
Republicans Finding Their Spines
The Senate voted in support of NATO, 97-2—a mostly symbolic but pointed rebuke of Little Donny’s attacks of the longtime political alliance that is a pillar of global order.
The Senate also held a nonbinding but symbolic motion to give Congress oversight of Donald’s imposition of tariffs, 88-11.
Republican Corruption
Scott Pruitt is enjoying a moment out of the spotlight as former HHS secretary Tom Price moves to the hot seat for a reported $341,000 in taxpayer dollars spent on inappropriate travel (Remember Price…he of the private jet charter). The internal ethics watchdog for the department is conducting an investigation: “We recommend the Office of the Secretary review the lack of compliance with federal requirements and determine appropriate actions to recoup the travel costs,” a spokeswoman for the inspector general’s office said in a statement.
Social and Civil Advances
Like the Parkland survivors in Florida, a group of students in conservative Santa Fe, Texas, have become activists. Along with students from Houston, they have created a nonprofit, the Orange Generation, to reduce gun violence and fight for commonsense gun laws. There’s a whole new generation coming of voting age that’s pissed off about the status quo—and organizing to do something about it.
An aerospace engineer was fired from Northrup Grumman one day after being exposed as a member of a violent white supremacist group.
Activists from several countries stealth-demonstrated during the World Cup, strolling around in their soccer jerseys in rainbow formation to champion gay rights.
Papa John’s founder—he who was asked to step down as CEO after slamming NFL leadership for players’ kneeling to protest racial injustice and police brutality…and who before that schemed to avoid offering health care to his employees—has now resigned from the company altogether after his latest offense: using racial slurs in a conference call. The company immediately rushed to pull his face off all marketing, and Louisville is removing his name from the University of Louisville sports stadium.
The police officer who ignored a woman being harassed for wearing a Puerto Rico T-shirt has resigned and his precinct is investigating the incident, and the man he allowed to verbally harass her is facing hate-crimes charges.
In a backlash against the anti-science stance of the current administration, hundreds of STEM professionals are running for officeacross the country. And women are running for office in record numbers as well.
Your Feel-good Stories of the Week
After a phenomenally successful grassroots fund-raising campaign on Facebook, RAICES is presenting a $20 million bail bond check to the Trump administration to release every single mother from U.S. detention centers.
Nearly 250,000 Brits took to the streets Friday in protest of Don John’s visit, and thousands more in Scotland. One marcher in Glasgow clarified, “Nobody here is against Americans. They are welcome to come here anytime. It’s just Trump we have a problem with.” Us too, friend.
Um…this happened in Germany—a parade float made a rather pointed point about Little Donny’s relationship with Russia.
And Kellyanne Conway’s husband keeps disparaging Donny as strenuously as she tries to defend him.