SO MUCH great progress to report this week, but first, this slipped by me for last week’s list: the head of the vigilantes at the border interfering with migrants has been arrested. He looks stable, yes?
The House in da House
The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed former Don John White House counsel Don McGahn, he of the leaky lips in Mueller’s report, to testify before the committee regarding the ten instances of Donny’s possible obstruction of justice laid out in Mueller’s report.
The House Oversight Committee moved to hold former White House personnel security director Carl Kline in contempt of Congress for failing to appear at a hearing investigating the White House security clearance procedures. Then after Rep Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the committee and a vociferously brownnosing Donny toady, pleaded with the White House, Don John relented and stated he would allow Kline to testify.
Meanwhile three House committees are investigating Stephen Miller’s role in the recent Homeland Security findings. (And the commander of cheese has of course ordered Miller not to testify.)
Republicans Against the Law
Donny is suing Congress and his own financial institution to desperately try to block release of his personal financial info. Yes, you read that right—the president of the United States is suing the coequal legislative branch to prevent it from doing its Constitution-provided job.
Desperate Donny is so panicked with every crevice of his life under investigation that he’s frantically picking fights with Congress to stave off the House’s prongs. Here’s a guide to help you keep Donald’s death-throe struggles straight.
The Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General has opened an investigation into whether six of President Trump’s appointees have violated federal ethics rules by engaging with their former employers or clients on department-related business.
A federal judge ordered Donny’s administration to identify within six months all the children it separated from their parents at the border.
The Kansas supreme court ruled that the state’s constitution protects abortion rights, blocking a state law that prohibited second-trimester abortions.
Federal judges ruled that Michigan partisan gerrymandering is illegal, calling it an “extremely grave” violation of the Constitution’s First and Fourteenth amendments “with the specific intent to discriminate against Democratic voters,” and ordered that all election maps be redrawn by 2020.
A federal judge issued a nationwide injunction temporarily blocking a Trump administration rule that would bar organizations that provide abortion referrals from receiving federal family planning money.
Meanwhile, closer to home, the Texas senate voted for a mandatory two-year waiting period before state senators and house reps can serve as special-interest lobbyists.
And in a settlement to a lawsuit partly spearheaded by the ACLU, Texas has agreed to rescind its fallacious list of more than 100K “noncitizen” voters and pay $450K in fines.
Sears is suing its ex-CEO as well as former board, which includes Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, for stripping the retailer of billions of dollars of assets for personal gain and leading it into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Secretary of the Treasury, in case you missed that.
Republicans Reconsidering
Herman Cain, a Donald crony who should never have been in the running for a seat on the Federal Reserve board, is out, thanks to four GOP senators who expressed their lack of support for his nomination.
Andy McKean, Iowa’s longest-serving Republican, announced he is leaving the GOP for the Democratic party after 40 years, blasting the Mentally Deranged Dotard’s “unacceptable behavior”: “If this is the new normal I want no part of it.”
Even FOX News called out FOX News for “sounding like a white supremacist chat room” when two commentators twisted themselves into racist pretzels trying to defend Donald’s renewed defense of the white supremacists at the Charlottesville white supremacist march, several of whom intentionally plowed a car into Heather Heyer and killed her.
Your Feel-good Stories of the Week
Prince Harry has invited an organization that protects transgender kids to join the wellness efforts of his mental health charity.
The NRA appears to be crumbling from the inside. It’s also been named in a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission, one spearheaded by Gabby Giffords’s anti-gun-violence organization, for failing to take action against the NRA for campaign finance violations.
George Conway, Kellyanne’s hubs, a frequent and vocal critic of the Very Stable Genius, dubbed him “Deranged Donald” in a tweet, and boy, did the nickname start trending—to the #2 spot on Twitter worldwide.
John Cornyn picked an ill-advised fight with Patton Oswalt, and the backlash was epic.
Finally, if you haven’t read it, check out Hillary Clinton’s insightful op-ed in the Washington Post.