Rudy Giuliani is just melting right on down, stating that he “never said there was no collusion” (after bleating for months that there was no collusion, a lot of times, on the record), desperately backpedaling as Mueller’s noose draws a bit tighter. Expect to see the jackals turn on each other more and more as Mueller closes in.
Republicans Reconsidering
Donny’s former top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, denounced Don John’s shutdown, calling it “completely wrong.”
Although all but 11 Senate Republicans, as is their wont, decided to support Don John in his efforts to curry favor with Vladimir Putin (for surely no nefarious, illegal, or treasonous reason), in the House more than a whopping 130 Republicans joined Dems in a (mostly symbolic) rebuke of Donny’s decision to relax sanctions on one of Daddy Putin’s business cronies.
GOP lawmakers removed Steve King from all Senate committees after his recent racist comments about white nationalism, and King is being encouraged to step down from Congress. House voted to declare white nationalism a “hateful expression of intolerance.” (Watch out, there, Donny…!)
HUD Deputy Secretary Pam Patenaude resigned in the wake of Donald’s GOP administration making moves to cut off aid to still-recovering Puerto Rico and over housing policy disputes.
Republicans against the law
A second federal court halted the GOP administration’s attempt to roll back ACA coverage and allow employers to deny birth control coverage based on religious beliefs.
A federal judge ruled against the illegal citizenship questions Wilbur Ross and Donald’s GOP administration tried to add to the 2020 census, saying Ross “violated public trust.”
The inspector general for the federal General Services Administration found that the agency improperly ignored guidelines for the Emoluments Clause spelled out in the Constitution by allowing Individual 1 to maintain his hotel lease on a former U.S. post office facility.
Republican Corruption
At the direction of the mentally deranged dotard, Michael Cohen paid the owner of a tech services company to doctor poll results for the Very Stable Genius during the 2016 campaign.
The inspector general of the National Credit Union Administration, alerted by a whistleblower, uncovered extravagant expenses claimed by the agency’s head and chief of staff, including claiming alcohol expenses contrary to department rules (like a $45 18-year-old glass of whiskey) and a $250 Uber Black ride (because the head of the department complained about “schlepping around in somebody’s Civic).
Social and Civil Rights Advances
From one of our actions last week: Mohasif Motawakil, the Afghan interpreter who was detained and held by ICE in Houston, had his visa canceled, and was threatened with deportation, despite having risked his life to support U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, has been released after 7 days—thanks in no small part to YOUR efforts from last week’s action, warriors!
James Watson, the scientist famous for his unsubstantiated “studies” that link race to intelligence has been stripped of all his titles by the lab where he worked.
The chancellor of UNC approved the removal of the remnants of a the “Silent Sam” Confederate statue pulled down by protesters last August (for which the university Board of Governors, which had planned to restore the monument, pushed her out of her job months early—way to go, old white men).
Michigan State president resigned in the wake of the Larry Nassar scandal, after accusing the victims of Nassar’s sexual assault of “enjoying” the “spotlight.”
Gillette launched this lovely ad, which made some fragile and defensive folks on the right lose their offended minds at the idea that men should stand up for those who are bullied, not harass women, and be held to the same standards as any other human being. But the ad may tap into a much larger groundswell of support for these notions, like Nike’s Colin Kaepernick ad that generated such outrage on the right–yet “drove a spike in sales, social engagement and online buzz, all of which helped the company emerge from a slump.”
R. Kelly was dropped by his record company, RCA, on the heels of a documentary that explores the many stories of sexual abuse he perpetrated against underage girls over the years that the music industry largely ignored until recently.
Your Feel-good Stories of the Week
In the wake of news that VP Mike Pence’s wife is working at a school that expressly disallows gay students and teachers, John Oliver did this glorious thing.
This is just flat-out hilarious. And SAD!
This group is trying to restore civility to public discourse.