• In December, it was reported that 145,000 jobs were created, unemployment was at 3.5%, and wage growth stood at 2.9%. January job creation was at 225,000, unemployment ticked up to 3.6%, and hourly earnings were up by 3.1% over the past year. Even before the virus outbreak, there were warning signs that the economy was in trouble as manufacturing activity fell to its lowest level in a decade at the end of 2019. In February, 273,000 jobs were created and unemployment dropped to 3.5%., while earnings grew by 3%.
• In the midst of the pandemic, Trump snuck in the cuts to Obama-era fuel efficiency standards to appease the automobile industry.
• Hospitals began threatening termination and making examples out of staff members who publicly expressed concerns about their working conditions in battling the coronavirus. These hospitals claimed that barring public speaking was to protect “patients”.
• The Trump Administration demanded that states stop reporting daily unemployment figures amidst the crisis, and states like Ohio obeyed. He later warned that if state governments feel inclined to criticize the federal response to the virus then they will not be getting help.
• Senate Republicans blocked an emergency bill which would have guaranteed paid sick leaves to workers as a means to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, this bill was later changed and passed with certain perks for industry (perks which corporations have been hoping to see become law for a while).
• In Mid-March, the Stock Market collapsed in reaction to the coronavirus crisis, wiping out all gains made during the tenure of President Trump.
• Trump finally declared a national emergency for the coronavirus after his administration had downplayed it and after he had earlier mocked such as a “hoax”.
• The fears over the coronavirus and the growing instability of the economy contributed to the worst single-day drop in stock market history.
• After initially blocking states from using Medicaid (in his obedience to the narrowminded anti-government philosophy) to enhance their response to the virus, Trump finally caved to the pressure to permit such.
• The Trump Administration banned a top health expert from speaking publicly about the coronavirus after the Doctor – who directs the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases – spoke out to warn citizens about the difficulty in containing the virus.
• As the Coronavirus was beginning to take hold in the United States, Trump’s Administration actually proposed cutting the CDC budget by 9% in the next fiscal year.
• Trump’s Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney urged people to ignore the media reports about the coronavirus. He noted that the panic would spook the markets and suggested that this issues was only getting major coverage because some hope it will be what ultimately brings Trump down.
• After Trump was acquitted by the Senate by the Republicans – which was made easier when the Republicans successfully blocked hearing from any more witnesses (following Senator Rand Paul successfully throwing a tantrum about hearing from new witnesses, as he suggested Republicans would be betraying the Party and as he hinted at calling numerous irrelevant witnesses) -, he condemned the one Senate Republican – Mitt Romney – who voted for his conviction.
• Trump reportedly desires changing the “Foreign Corrupt Practices Act” to allow corporations to bribe foreign entities like governments.
• The Trump Administration presided over the successful negotiation of a deal with the Taliban to bring an end to America’s occupation of Afghanistan over a 14 month period of time, contingent upon Taliban upholding their end of the agreement, including helping to stave off terrorism as well as releasing prisoners.
• Trump suggested that the United States adopt its own propaganda (state-run media) network to compete with the message sent to the world by private-owned media.
• Trump presided over the development of the first new nuclear weapon since the end of the Cold War with a so-called “low yield” warhead which will permit the use of nukes without mass destruction. Many see this as an adequate deterrent to modern development of “tactical nukes” worldwide.
• When Trump was contradicting the National Weather Service’s forecast on Hurricane Dorian, including having the NOAA spokesperson speak on his behalf in spite of the NWS, NOAA itself as an organization was agitated and going as far as sending apologies out for the statements by the spokesperson that they did not approve of.
• The Trump Administration reversed the Obama Administration’s ban on the use of landmines, despite the elevated threat to civilians and American Servicemen and Women.
• After Virginia’s Governor had banned the presence of guns near the Capitol in Richmond preceding a pro-gun rally which was set to oppose action on guns and which was going to feature the widely-condemned participation of white supremacist groups, Trump spoke out against the temporary ban, saying it was an assault on the Constitution.
• Trump issued a threat of crippling tariffs on British-made automobiles – alongside accompanying threats to other nations – if they didn’t agree with the Administration that Iran violated the Iran Nuclear Deal.
• Trump secured the passage of his new NAFTA deal (USMCA), thanks to the help of Democrats in Congress.
• Trump openly talked about selling the services of American soldiers to other countries.
• The 2017 Tax Cut helped America’s Big Banks a great deal, with most of the benefit going to shareholders and as they terminated thousands of employees.
• The Trump USDA set the stage to reverse the healthy school meals program spearheaded by Michelle Obama, allowing for more unhealthy meals.
• The Trump EPA made it easier to pollute America’s waterways by rescinding protective regulations on pouring pesticides, fertilizers, etc. into our waters.
• The Supreme Court gave the Trump Administration the OK to restrict immigration on the basis of economic status.
• Trump commuted the federal sentence of disgraced former Democratic Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich; who was imprisoned after he tried to sell Former President Obama’s Senate Seat.
• It was concluded by a nonpartisan congressional watchdog that Trump violated federal law by threatening to withhold aid from Ukraine lest they help him investigate Biden.
• The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity warned that we have a decade to cut pollution in half and save one third of from exploitation if we hope to save life on Earth.
• Despite Congressional Approval and a series of recent earthquakes, the Trump Administration refused to send all of the emergency funds appropriated for Puerto Rico to help save lives and rebuild. The Administration claimed it was because Puerto Rico’s government had only spent around 1% of the funds they already received and that they were too corrupt.
• Trump’s Administration proposed steep cuts to disability benefits, looking to increase the frequency with which the government checks on the “disabled” to make sure they still qualify for assistance.
• Evidence came out that Trump was seeking to force out the Ambassador to Ukraine for disloyalty, with audio featuring him demanding that someone “take her out”.
• Trump, again, proposed ending the Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Program, which forgives the loans of full-time nonprofit and public workers.
• The Trump Administration violated the 1947 UN Headquarter Agreement when they blocked an Iranian diplomat from entering the country to address the United Nations. Also, the government detained a number of Iranian-Americans returning home from Canada. When the Iraqi Government angrily denounced the drone strike and voted to oust U.S. Troops from the country, Trump retorted that we weren’t leaving until the Iraqis “repaid” us the cost of the base in Iraq.
• The drone strike which killed the Iranian General led a number of leading officials in the Pentagon to resign and led the Iranian Government to officially end its commitments to the Nuclear Deal.
• After the back and forth exchange of airstrikes between Iranian and American forces – which even led to Trump trying to use the crisis to justify demanding that Congress quickly end the impeachment trial against him -, which Iran topped off with an attack on a base in Iraq, Iran concluded the escalating tensions by saying they were done retaliating and sought no further escalation. The Administration’s original justification for the drone strike which caused the escalation – that the Iranian’s leading military figure General Qassem Soleimani was planning an imminent attack against the U.S. – was walked back to point out that the General was deserving of death for prior actions; including a lie told by Vice President Pence, who tried to claim that Soleimani had something to do with 9/11.
• 2020 was kicked off in part by the horrific fires in Australia which slaughtered half a billion animals at its peak.
• Despite an international agreement between the U.S. and Canada to reduce the level of phosphorous in the Great Lakes (which produces the algae bloom from farm runoffs), the United States – and Ohio, specifically – was likely to miss the goal significantly. Moreover, the Ohio Department of Agriculture signaled that they would be issuing more farming permits which would not include any provisions requiring a reduction in pollution.
• Last year, the EPA and local authorities in Philadelphia failed or refused to keep informed about environmental and health threats the residents – many of whom are poor and most of whom are minorities – in a section of the city surrounding what was the largest oil refinery along the East Coast. The benzene (a cancer-causing gas) levels detected by the EPA and other agencies far exceeded the levels recommended by regulations. The refinery exploded last May and now countless citizens are exposed to the risk of cancer, and instead of telling the locals about the danger, the authorities kept quiet and allowed the company to bury the issue as they prepared to sell their interests.
• Pharmaceutical companies significantly raised the prices of hundreds of drugs at the start of the year.

As published in "The Bern Report" (March 30th, 2020), here is what I wrote:

The coronavirus has changed everything, and one wishes that this was an overstatement. From forcing sports leagues to cancel or suspend their seasons of play to shutting down large sections of the economy, the impact of this pandemic has been monumental and earth-shattering. Not since the Spanish Flu of 1918 has a virus posed the possibility of transforming human society in such a radical way, and modern society doesn’t quite know how to cope with it. What’s worse is that the extreme cultural conditions precipitated by this “invisible enemy” has another potential side effect which can’t be diagnosed by a doctor: the potential to help reelect Trump and give American society its final push into the abyss of fascism.

How so, you might ask? Wouldn’t Trump’s terrible mishandling of this crisis be used against him as a shining example of why he is clearly unfit for the office? Didn’t he mock this serious threat as a “hoax” earlier this year, claiming it was an attempt to harm his chances of winning in November? Could the American people honestly be so gullible to ignore his utter incompetence as a leader in such trying times?

While it is painful to say this, Trump is on track to actually win reelection despite these obvious shortcomings, precisely because the American people are in such an exhausted and desperate mindset that they will praise any sign of leadership from this president. Why? Because they want the horror to end. They want the comfort of knowing that someone is fighting for them. They want to know and believe that everything will be alright. If Trump succeeds in presiding over the defeat of a deadly pandemic and manages to simultaneously oversee the phoenix-like resurrection of an economy brought to the brink of destruction by said pandemic, he will be well positioned to be rewarded with a resounding reelection.

Polling numbers released recently for the president have shown that his support on handling the crisis has exceeded half the population polled. This momentum has actually given him some of his best approval numbers to date. His polling against Joe Biden (the media and political establishment’s crowned “presumptive winner” in the Democratic Party’s nomination process) has also significantly improved thanks to the appearance of being a strong leader coupled with the relative absence of his apparent opponent for November. It may seem unthinkable, but this pandemic might actually boost Trump’s chances of securing a second term.

Not only is it giving him a boost, but the pandemic is also kicking open a door to authoritarianism in general. From the postponed primaries (which were the right thing to do in the emergency-based short term, but would be frightening in the long-term if this precedent is abused) to the Trump Administration’s push for Constitutional rights of Habeas Corpus to be suspended for the duration of this crisis, we are seeing more than a single example of how tyranny is beginning to dip its toes into the waters of our dying democracy. Trump has even gone as far as to demand that states not report unemployment figures on a daily basis and even threatened to not extend federal assistance to the state governments which appear to criticize how the Administration has responded to the crisis.

Meanwhile, the Trump Administration has overseen a vicious series of ICE raids on the undocumented, exploiting the fact that everyone is likely to be spending a lot more time at home. This has been coupled with Trump’s team openly suggesting that we amass a troop presence along our border with Canada. While the only way to effectively shut down the virus in lieu of a vaccine is to enforce a nationwide quarantine, this option – which would require the National Guard of every state to be employed – paves the way for nightmarish abuse at a time when we teeter on the edge of fascism finally taking root in this country and destroying liberty for good. While it was the right decision to activate the Defense Production Act and nationalize certain companies to produce ventilators, the encroachment upon the free market in this way can be abused if a leader with dictator-like tendencies learns to love the power they enjoy in the moment.

Trump is not the cause of our problems, but a symptom of a system which has failed. Fascism is the natural result of a crumbling political and economic infrastructure devoid of an option to take the route of true unity for collective progress. If Trump rides into November appearing as the champion who conquered COVID-19 and restored the glory of our economy against a candidate who wants to take us back to the way life was before Trump’s rise then history teaches us that Trump is likely to win…and it may not even be close. None of Trump’s lies – from his empty promises of getting people back to work (EVEN DURING THIS CRISIS) to his earlier claims that this was all a hoax – will harm him if he is met with an unexciting challenger who can barely carry on an important discussion and who disappeared for an inexplicable period of time when this crisis really started captivating the nation.

If Trump wins again, then it really will be very difficult for democracy to survive the next four years. He will see an electoral victory of any sort this November as a permission slip to press forward aggressively with an anti-working class, anti-democracy agenda. The Safety Net will be in serious danger and the Supreme Court will swing so far to the Corporatist Right-Wing that it will drive the final nail in the coffin of the Republic built by our Founding Fathers.

Our darkest days truly lie ahead if we see Trump win this November. People have to see this. Climate Change will get worse. Wars will become far more likely. Education will continue to erode. The numerous health crises will only be exacerbated alongside the rising cost of for-profit care. Atrocities against a slew of minority populations will only get worse and further exploited in the politics of division. Finally, the gap between the wealthy and the poor will only grow wider with soaring homelessness continuing and poverty itself reaching new heights.

The Fascist Revolution co-opted this Era of Populism due to the corruption of the Democratic Party by the Oligarchs, and now the final push into authoritarianism will come as a result of that same political organization which refuses to sacrifice its lucrative connection with the wealthy few in favor of exciting the rebellious working class. There is still time to stop this nightmare from coming to fruition, but the clock is ticking and all the cards are in the hands of the President using the bully pulpit to portray himself as the leader we need to weather the pandemic that his blatant incompetence and corruption permitted to get out of control.

The only hope democracy has to thwart this nightmare from entering its next phase is to give rise to a true populist-infused democratic revolution to counteract the false prophet of a false revolution. Only a genuine champion of the people’s outrage can effectively dismantle the cloak of lies which shields an aspiring autocrat like Trump from accountability. Only someone with a public reputation for true and relatively untarnished integrity can expose the incompetence and corruption of the failed leadership which made this pandemic and our numerous other crises worse than they ever should have been.

Our biggest problem? We find ourselves on a path to put the fascist up against a weak opponent with the backing of corporate America (the same corporate interests enjoying tremendous benefits under Trump, mind you) and whose only real argument for election is that they aren’t as bad as the wannabe dictator. The Democratic Revolution needs to wake up and organize like never before to prevent the nomination of the candidate who hesitates to fight for working people and democracy and instead choose the candidate we know and trust will not flinch when taking the fight to Trump and his enablers in the oligarchy as well as the lapdogs thereof amongst the political and media establishment.

Time is nearly running out. We mustn’t let the symptom of our societal illness create the political pandemic which wipes democracy out for generations to come. Let’s stop the spread now by rising to the occasion in these uncertain times marked by fear over the outcome of an invisible enemy’s assault. We can do this, but we must come together now.

• 136,000 Jobs were reportedly created in September; even so, wage growth slowed to 2.9%, while unemployment fell to 3.5%. Bond yields slipped for a seventh straight month as well. In October, 128,000 jobs were created, wage earnings increased by a mere 3%, and unemployment ticked up to 3.6%. According to the November 2019 jobs report, manufacturing slowed for a fourth consecutive month, but wages rose by 3.1% in November. Labor participation trickled from 63.3% to 63.2%.. Unemployment sat at 3.5% in November and the economy created 266,000 jobs.
• The World Trade Organization found that the European Union has been subsidizing their airline service “Airbus”, which paved the way for a number of American tariffs on EU goods ranging from fruits to textiles and totaling $7.5 Billion.
• In a moment of history, in 2018 billionaires wound up paying less than working class citizens in taxes.
• A report by the Brookings Institute found that almost half of American workers work in low-quality, low-paying jobs, and that most of those workers are in their prime working years, and are not teenagers.
• Congressman Elijah Cummings passed away.
• It seems that the Supreme Court is increasingly less willing to shut up and listen than they used to be, as they are showing more signs of talking over each other as well as the men and women arguing cases before them.
• Religious Leader Ralph Reed called for Evangelicals to be “obedient” in supporting Trump in 2020.
• The electric utility Pacific Gas and Electric sparked some controversy when they hosted a series of planned service shut-offs for hundreds of thousands of customers supposedly to help prevent the spread of forest fires.
• Trump accidentally sent – for a second time – talking points to Congressional Democrats on how to respond to the Ukraine investigation. He also started advocating for the whistleblower to be exposed to the world.
• Through Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Trump Administration – in defiance of international law and the position of the United Nations - announced that it was no longer the position of the United States that the settlements in Palestinian territory by the Israelis was a violation of international law.
• Trump’s long-time political consultant Roger Stone was found guilty of his seven criminal charges which included lying to Congress, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering.
• Nikki Haley – former Ambassador to the UN – claimed that those anonymous subversive forces within the Trump White House tried to recruit her to help them “save the country” from Trump.
• Energy Secretary Rick Perry resigned and promised it had nothing to do with Trump seemingly throwing him under the proverbial bus relative to Ukraine.
• CBS uncovered a potential scandal involving the appointment of Trump’s ambassador to the Bahamas. The nominee had given a million dollars to Trump’s inauguration fund and while his nomination was hung up in the Senate the Republican Party chair emailed him about making a hefty donation, to which the nominee responded that a fast-tracked confirmation would warrant a response from he and his wife.
• Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman – a senior official in the White House charged with handling Ukraine – told Congress that he had no doubt that Trump was trying to use quid pro quo to force Ukraine to help him damage Biden.
• Trump’s Acting Ambassador to Ukraine told Congress that an aide of his overheard the president’s attempts to trade military aid funds for a damning investigation of the Bidens by Ukraine.
• Vice President Pence was implicated in the scandal surrounding Trump’s attempt to use a quid pro quo arrangement of exchanging military aid to Ukraine for dirt on the Bidens. The accusation about Pence being aware of the effort came from the testimony of Ambassador Sondland. Pence denied knowledge of the issue. President Trump dismissed the testimony almost entirely – after initially trying to block said testimony -, saying he didn’t know Ambassador Sondland, but then he cherry-picked parts of the testimony for his own benefit.
• Ohio Republicans proposed forcing doctors to re-implant pregnancies in women who could actually die from said pregnancies. The pregnancies at issue are dangerous as they occur outside of the womb, which typically happens after a woman has had a hysterectomy or otherwise had her tubes manipulated so as to prevent pregnancy. They also proposed a bill which would empower students to not properly do their science homework and to substitute religious views for scientific facts.
• It was reported that the Trump administration wants to reduce regulations for nursing homes, saying that current rules are too strict.
• White House records revealed that Trump regularly communicates with lawyers – including Giuliani – and others on unsecure lines which could be potentially monitored by foreign surveillance agencies.
• A scientific report found that human activity is causing the oxygen in the ocean to deplete at dangerous rates, endangering the current balance of the ecosystem.
• The president openly said on the White House lawn that he would ask the Chinese to do as he wanted Ukraine to do: investigate Vice President Biden and his son.
• Trump’s Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary resigned, which continued a trend of leaving another vacancy in the executive branch and created a fresh scenario – in Trump’s everlasting pursuit of loyalty amongst his Cabinet – wherein he will continue to have “Acting” leaders, instead of official ones.
• Important documents were released which showed the officials from the Bush, Obama, and Trump Administrations – including each of the White House occupants – misled the American people about the necessity for and the conditions in the war and occupation of Afghanistan.
• Education Secretary DeVos – whose career started as a leader in private charter schools, and who was scolded in October by a federal judge for ignoring a court order to stop collecting student loan payments incurred by fraudulent “schools” – refused to allow full loan forgiveness for college students defrauded by private colleges which scammed them into signing up.
• Trump has been rapidly filling – at an historic rate - federal court vacancies which had been left open by the filibustered Senate throughout Obama’s presidency. He recently managed to flip a handful of federal courts to “Republican majority” as a result.
• The House of Representatives impeached Donald Trump on two charges: obstruction of Congress and abuse of power.
• The Trump Administration eliminated an interactive map – called TOXMAP – which had allowed citizens to track pollution activities across the nation (which relied on data provided from various sources), particularly from pollution-producing companies.
• Trump signed a new defense authorization bill which militarized space – by creating a sixth branch of the military, called the “Space Force” -, with 12 weeks of paid family leave for federal workers and a relatively minor pay increase (of 3.1%) for the military servicemembers.
• The Russian Federation revealed that they have developed a new hypersonic weapon which can carry a nuclear weapon to the United States and potentially evade missile defense systems. This is a byproduct of Trump’s unwinding of nuclear agreements and his calls for a new arms race as Russia appears to be hoping for a renewal of the New START treaty negotiated under Obama.
• Anti-US demonstrators protesting recent US airstrikes in Iraq stormed the American Embassy in Baghdad. Iraq has been immersed in scandal in the past few months as their prime minister was recently forced to resign after Iraqi Security Forces killed protestors.

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• The June Jobs Report showed that 224,000 jobs were created in June, Unemployment rose to 3.7%, and wage growth stood at 3.1%. 2^nd Quarter GDP Growth was only at about 2%.  In July, 164,000 jobs were reportedly added, with the unemployment rate remaining stagnant. The August jobs growth showed only 130,000 jobs created – which were predominantly the product of temporary hires for the next Census -, a continuing unemployment rate unchanged at 3.7%, and wage growth at .4% in the month. The slowing growth triggered a second Federal Reserve Interest Rate Cut for the first time in over a decade. The trade war is not helping at all, as the tariffs imposed by Trump reportedly hurt American businesses with a loss of $3.4 Billion.
• It was announced that June 2019 was the hottest ever (up to that point) month ever recorded on this planet.
• Trump argued with his team for about two hours about the effectiveness of his tariffs before eventually compelling them to stop pushing back and then getting their help drafting a tweet announcing an expansion of tariffs to all products.
• According to a recent estimate, we are three decades away from the current rate of how wealth is flowing from the very wealthy have absolute possession of our wealth.
• Trump nominated a former Big Pharma Executive, Alex Azar – a man known for tripling the cost of insulin – to lead the Health Department, claiming on Twitter that the man will “lower drug prices”.
• Labor Secretary Alex Acosta resigned amidst the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal.
• The Justice Department restricted Robert Mueller’s testimony to only what he mentioned in his report, as they explained that they would assume “executive privilege” over any additional information.
• Nissan had to cut over 12,000 jobs, citing a 99% decline in profits.
• The Trump Administration reached an agreement with the Fascist leader of Brazil (Jair Bolsonaro) to allow private development of the Amazon – claiming that it was the only way to protect the vital region – and offered a “biodiversity fund” in part to help reach businesses seemingly stranded in the middle of the rainforest.
• Some Republicans in Congress started floating around a rumor that Trump has indicated he is open to cutting Social Security and Medicare if he wins reelection and if they regain power in Congress.
• The Trump Administration proposed eliminating what they call a “loophole” in the SNAP (Food Stamp) program. This supposed loophole permits families receiving TANF funds (welfare) to be automatically enrolled in the SNAP program. It is estimated that around 3 million people will be cast out of the Food Stamp program as a result of this proposal.
• Trump fired his neocon hyper-warhawk National Security Adviser John Bolton.
• The Trump Administration approved a trophy-killing souvenir of a slain and critically endangered animal to be brought back to the states by a big game-hunting American. The act was supposedly approved to help “preserve” the species.
• Trump recklessly handled classified information (again) by tweeting out a satellite photo of an accident which occurred in Iran accompanied by a statement which offered well-wishes to the Iranian government in getting to the bottom of it while also denying the U.S. government had any role.
• It was reported that since the water crisis began in Flint, Michigan a few years ago, the number of special needs amongst that school district’s students has jumped to 1 in 5.
• A report came out which found that Trump and – in passing – suggested using nuclear weapons to combat hurricanes.
• Forgetting the limitations on his power for a moment during a trade spat with China, Trump issued an “order” via Twitter to U.S. companies, commanding them to not do business with China.
• An American citizen with a Latino name and look was racially profiled and held by authorities three days longer in detention past the date that a judge ordered him freed.
• Trump’s Homeland Security Department announced that they will be changing the Flores Settlement Agreement to permit the indefinite detention of migrant families to be placed in a cell together with their children until their case has been resolved.
• With a temporary victory in the Supreme Court, the Trump Administration revealed a plan to raid funding from the military’s “Blended Retirement System” in order to help pay for the Border Wall.
• It was reported that Trump has come to demand that the Wall be built as quickly as possible, even if it means violating the law and taking private lands against the will of the owners. He suggested that if laws are broken to achieve this goal he will simply pardon those who break said laws.
• The Trump Administration requested that the Supreme Court permit employers to terminate employees on the basis of them being transgender.
• Royal Dutch Shell forced their employees to clock-in and attend a rally of President Trump’s, threatening a loss of pay if they refused to do so.
• The Trump Administration decided it was going to heavily reduce its own authority to protect endangered species.
• While Trump’s national efforts on pollution reflect a rollback on regulations, his pettiness towards California’s stricter policies has led the Environmental Protection Agency head – Andrew Wheeler – to demand that California deal with their “backlog” of pollution cases which apparently number around 130 in order to continue receiving federal funding for highways.
• Trump’s EPA also sought to protect RoundUp – a weedkiller owned by Monsanto – from label requirements which would inform consumers of a potential cancer risk.
• Lowes has become one of the latest companies to exploit the 2017 tax cuts to buy back their own shares for a huge profit while also screwing over their workers with no notice or severance pay upon laying them off.
• The Trump Administration put forward a proposal for changes to immigration rules which would exclude visa consideration for impoverished immigrants.
• In the wake of the shooting in El Paso (where hatred of immigrants inspired that slaughter) and the one in Dayton, Trump half-asked for action to deal with background checks, violent video games, and doubled-down on the need for his version of immigration reform. He also expressed his support for social media companies helping to track down would-be mass shooters.
• The Department of Justice announced that it will be resuming federal executions after a lengthy halt which had been due to the controversy over the lethal injection drugs being cut off.
• Attorney General Barr spoke at an event hosted by the Fraternal Order of Police wherein he proclaimed that “resisting arrest” needed to be a prosecutable crime handled with “zero tolerance”. To emphasize his point, he said that citizens should “comply first…complain later”.
• With the Russians advancing banned nuclear weapons activity, the United Statesformally withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
• It was revealed through an extensive investigation by journalists that the Russian Government facilitated the 2016 Conspiracy Theory about slain DNC member Seth Rich supposedly being murdered by the Clinton Campaign.
• After an attack by “Yemen-based Houthi rebels” on Saudi oil fields, the Trump administration blamed Iran without evidence and announced that American soldiers will be dispatched to protect Saudi interests.
• Trump stood by Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro as the fascist in Brazil rejected international aid meant to help battle the fires in the Amazon.
• The 10^th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of a “faithless elector” from Colorado who cast his Electoral College vote for Kasich instead of Hillary Clinton. This is a decision in keeping with the original intent of the Founding Fathers.
• Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testified before Congress and stated that his report did not exonerate the president of obstruction of justice and that the investigating team had deferred to long-standing Justice Department policy which holds that a president can not be charged while in office.
• Facing the prospect of impeachment over his latest scandal which emerged after a whistleblower revealed that Trump leveraged U.S. military aid to “ask” for a political favor from the Ukrainian Government in getting dirt on Biden’s family, the White House accidentally sent talking points about this to Congressional Democrats via email and then quickly requested the Democrats “send them back”.
• Trump had reportedly dangled a sought-after White House meeting for the new Ukrainian President during their controversial call, and insisted repeatedly that Attorney General Barr help the Ukrainian government investigate the Bidens – for a purported relationship with a natural gas company, something that Trump asked eight times for help in investigating - as well as look for the hacked Democratic Party server.
• The impeachment inquiry soon broadened after Speaker Pelosi formally announced it, with a host of potential targets for public and private inquiry surfacing in the name of getting to the truth.
• While looking for the facts about what was and wasn’t said to the leader of Ukraine, it was discovered that the Trump Administration has been coding a series of international phone calls as “classified” even when the context of the call was not intended to be classified. This permitted the President to converse with leaders like Vladimir Putin and the Saudi Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman without having transcripts forwarded to other officials. Reportedly, the change in handling transcripts began after the embarrassing news about his earlier calls with the Australian and Mexican leaders had surfaced. Additionally, there were reportedly no records of what was said in calls with Putin and with the Saudis – the latter being significant because some of these calls occurred around the time of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi -, and it was even revealed that Trump – back in 2017 – told Russian officials during the controversial oval office visit that he “didn’t mind” the Russian interference.
• An unpaid special envoy to Ukraine – Kurt Volker -, who helped set up a meeting with Rudy Giuliani and the President of Ukraine (at the request of the Ukrainian government) decided to step down.
• Trump reportedly pressured the Australian Prime Minister to help investigate – and discredit - the origins of the Russia probe (with special emphasis on the president’s insistence that there were anti-American spies operating amongst the CIA and FBI) alongside the Attorney General.
• Trump remarked that he would like to find out who leaked information to the whistleblower, calling the person or persons “a spy” and then likened the act of leaking to “treason”, suggesting in veiled language that the perpetrators ought to be put to death. Moreover, he angrily tweeted that House Intelligence Chairman Congressman Adam Schiff is a traitor and that he should be arrested.

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Until next time…

• Two Federal Reserve officials expressed concern that inflation is too weak, which compelled them to consider future rate cuts to alleviate some of the economic tension.
• The economy grew at a 3.2% rate in the first quarter – while simultaneously having the most layoffs in a first quarter in ten years - of 2019. 196,000 jobs were created in March, with the unemployment rate sitting at 3.8%. In April, 263,000 jobs were added, unemployment fell to 3.6%, and wages rose by 3.2%. Only 75,000 jobs were created in May, with just barely more than 20,000 of those being private sector jobs (the worst performance in nine years). Unemployment held at 3.6% and the stock market rallied with the news as they anticipated lowered interest rates. Overall, the economic growth in the counties which voted for Trump grew faster than elsewhere since his election; although, the pay increase has been sluggish, but Baby Boomers started seeing the fastest decline in their employment in 4 years. With the tax rates having changed in 2017, the reduced tax refunds took a chunk out of retail spending this season.
• Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein resigned.
• Trump pulled the United States out of an international arms treaty which was intended to help stop the proliferation of weapons around the world, including into the hands of terrorists.
• The Trump Administration officially banned transgender soldiers.
• An 11 year old child was ordered deported when they were mistakenly left off an immigration court docket.
• David Bernhardt – a man with a past as an executive in fossil fuels - was confirmed by the Senate to be the Secretary of the Interior.
• Trump’s family sued Capital One and Deutsch Bank to try and keep them from complying with Congressional subpoenas.
• Private health insurers are reportedly looking for any loopholes available to escape the requirement to cover mental health, helping to contribute to a rise in suicides. Yet another example for why we need to take profit out of healthcare and adopt a single payer program.
• The United Statesstood alone in rejecting an international binding agreement to reduce plastic waste.
• Climate Change wreaked havoc on the Arctic Ocean – while the measure of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere reached 415 PPM, the highest in human history - as temperatures exceeded 80 degrees in the area earlier this year. It was found that the totality of human behavior in exploiting and abusing the environment, our population growth, and our insatiable consumption, is threatening 1/8^th of the world’s nonhuman animal population with extinction.
• Thanks to automation, the quickening pace of the market’s evolution towards a more “efficient” approach will likely eliminate just under half of all jobs – with a particular focus on part-time, “low-skilled” work – within two decades.
• The Supreme Court reached a compromise on the abortion question pertinent to a law in Indiana where they upheld a provision on burying fetal remains while dismissing a provision which restricted abortion rights. The Court also struck down an attempt to force a non-gerrymandered redrawing of congressional districts in Ohio and Michigan.
• After her failure to fix the Brexit deal debacle, Theresa May stepped down as British Prime Minister.
• After Congress voted to reject arming Saudi Arabia’s war with Yemen, Trump declared an “emergency” – claiming a threat from Iran – so as to circumvent Congress in selling arms to the Saudis.
• It was reported that a North Korean nuclear envoy was executed by the Kim regime after he was charged with spying for the United States – along with four others – following the failed nuclear summit back in March. Still, Trump continues to praise the dictator and even made history becoming the first U.S. President to step foot in North Korea as he and Kim Jong Un experienced a jovial moment wherein they accomplished little beyond a historical photo/video and an agreement to revive the nuclear talks that Trump had abandoned earlier on.
• Trump ordered Hope Hicks and his former White House counsel Don McGahn to ignore a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee.
• Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn revealed that on a number of occasions someone affiliated with the White House or with the Republicans in Congress had reached out to him to try and procure his interference in the Mueller Investigation. Trump was hell bent on controlling the direction of the investigation.
• Former Special Counsel and Former FBI Director Mueller delivered his public remarks about the special investigation. He noted clearly that there was no way that the investigation could lead to an indictment of the sitting president, because of Justice Department policy. He declared that the investigation would have explicitly exonerated Trump if they felt they could. In other words, he was leaving the door wide open for Congress to impeach the president.
• The Trump Administration wants to cut $191 Billion from food stamps over the next decade while also charging retailers a fee for accepting such.
• Neil Gorsuch and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were the only two dissenting Justices in a Supreme Court ruling which upheld the so-called “separate sovereigns” doctrine pertinent to “double jeopardy”. If the dissent had been the successful wing of the ruling, a presidential pardon could have exonerated a citizen from a state charge for the same crime; thereby expanding Trump’s powers at a crucial moment when his team is under legal fire.
• Trump “jokingly” suggested that his supporters might demand that he stay in office past his permitted time.
• Despite the use of children soldiers by Saudi Arabia in the Yemen Civil War, Secretary of State Pompeo has kept Saudi Arabia off of the United States list of countries which recruit children to wage war.
• Trump claimed executive privilege to inhibit congressional attempts to acquire documents pertinent to the administration’s decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Even so, the Supreme Court blocked the implementation of the question – for the time being – out of concern for the process by which the Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross added it to the census form.
• A British General who is helping lead counter-terrorism efforts in the Middle East contradicted claims by the Trump Administration that Iran represents a growing threat in Iraq and Syria.
• After some drama over his personal life started to come to light, the Acting Defense Secretary – former Boeing Executive – Patrick Shanahan withdrew from consideration for the confirmation process. Trump announced that the Army Secretary – who also used to be in the military industrial complex – will be replacing Shanahan. All of this turmoil amidst the rising tensions with Iran; which our own Intel reveals that our government has provoked. In fact, one of the claims made by the U.S. Government was disputed when a Japanese oil tanker reported that one of tankers attacked was reportedly not by a mine, but by a “projectile”.
• Trump ordered and then quickly cancelled an attack on Iran in response to a spy drone that Iran shot down. He claimed – in a tweet wherein he misspelled “site” (using “sight” instead) – that he cancelled out of concern for casualties.
• Walmart got caught attempting to bribe third world country governments to try and secure permits.
• Trump said he would contemplate both reporting to the authorities and seeing or hearing what information offered by a foreign interest about his political opponents.
• The United Statesset a new record by going longer than it has at any other period without increasing the federal minimum wage standard.
• The Justice Department argued before federal court against having to provide a bed, toothbrushes, and soap for detained children. They claimed it was not essential for remaining “clean and sanitary”.
• Press Secretary Sarah Sanders stepped down, apparently contemplating a run for Governor in Arkansas; where her father previously served multiple terms as Governor.
• The five conservatives on the Supreme Court ruled in favor of overtly partisan gerrymandering, saying that the decision on how to draw legislative districts was purely “political” and was thereby out of reach for the courts to intervene.

• Jobs in January jumped by 304,000 and unemployment rose to 4% while wages rose by .1%. A month later, jobs climbed by a mere 20,000 with unemployment falling to 3.8% while wages increased on the year-to-year measure by 3.4%.
• The Trump Administration issued a gun regulation change – which, sadly, had been previously considered by the Obama Administration before the Sandy Hook massacre forced a change of heart - shifting the export of weapons – including semi-automatic weapons, flamethrowers, and grenades – from being handled by the State Department to the Commerce Department. As a result, the fees and “red tape” will be FAR less burdensome and the threat of terrorists getting their hands on more dangerous weapons will increase.
• Within hours of the Trump Administration pulling the United States out of the Cold War-era Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (a decision that was subsequently duplicated by Russia) – which banned nuclear weapons which could be fired from land to anywhere between a few hundred and a few thousand miles -, we, Russia, and France launched nuclear-capable missiles in tests.
• Chief Justice Roberts joined the four left-leaning justices to block a Louisiana anti-abortion law which was written for the purpose of severely limiting the number of clinics by requiring hospital admittance for the doctors performing abortions. This was not a ruling on the law’s constitutionality.
• Many Americans started to see that their tax refund or bill got worse after the 2017 Tax law passed by Republicans.
• The Senate confirmed Trump’s second Attorney General, William Barr, a more sympathetic appointee with respect to the Mueller investigation who had previously served in the role under George H.W. Bush.
• After growing grassroots pressure – driven by concerns over gentrification and the ridiculously high tax breaks offered by state lawmakers -, Amazon decided to withdraw from their previous plans to invest in the construction of a new headquarters in New York City.
• According to the Administration, thousands more immigrants were separated than previously reported and it is now supposedly too much of a “burden” to reunite these families in all as a result of the terrible job Trump officials did in keeping track.
• In violation of the law, U.S. officials reportedly sought to expedite the transfer of nuclear technology information to the Saudi government.
• Trump signed the stop-gap measure to prevent yet another government shutdown, even without funding for the wall. However, he decided to issue a national emergency declaration so as to raid emergency funds so as to build his useless wall. The declaration immediately triggered over a dozen state Attorneys General to file a lawsuit against the Trump Administration. Moreover, in what was widely believed to be political retribution for California’s legal opposition to the declaration, Trump announced plans to withdraw almost a billion dollars in grant funds that had been authorized for the state’s planned high speed rail project.
• Trump’s former personal fixer/lawyer, Michael Cohen testified before Congress again. He clearly said that Trump is a liar, that he is a racist, and that he is a conman. He also noted that the President’s tax returns will be of significant interest, and that the president paid him to help keep people silent about his past. That was only the surface of what Cohen revealed. He also warned that Trump is not likely to give up power without a fight.
• An alarming scientific report came out revealing that insects are dying at an accelerating rate which may well result in their total extinction after a century, which will have a catastrophic cascading effects on the rest of life on our planet. This is a growing feature of Earth’s sixth mass extinction event, which was triggered by human activity.
• Senator Lindsey Graham expressed his belief that Trump’s national emergency declaration is justified, even if it means diverting funds from reconstruction efforts from natural disasters.
• Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas – who has been accused of sexual harassment in the past – broke with precedent recently by openly stating that the Supreme Court should reconsider the 1964 ruling in New York Times v. Sullivan, which sets a higher standard for libel (in protecting the First Amendment) as it pertains to public officials.
• Trump signed a presidential directive which lays the foundation for Congress to create a space force, calling is a “national security priority”.
• The U.S.-recognized Right-Wing aspiring leader of Venezuela, Juan Guaido, signaled an intent to open Venezuela’s oil excavations to private entities (likely multinational corporations headquartered mostly here in the U.S.) should he successfully wrestle control of the government from the current leader, Maduro.
• After learning that President Trump ordered his son-in-law’s security clearance to be granted (following an apparent finding that he should not be granted one), the House Oversight Committee requested specific documents related to Kushner’s clearance, and the White House rejected that request.
• Having done an about-face on his previous position of withdrawing troops from Syria, President Trump suddenly declared that he is now completely in favor of maintaining our troop presence.
• The FDA Commissioner, Scott Gottlieb – who drew surprised reactions when he oversaw a warning against the dangers of e-cigarettes – resigned from his post.
• Republicans managed to pick up their fourth special election victory in a “blue district” in a state legislative race.
• The Housing Market experienced its largest quarterly drop – 3.5% - in home value since the Great Recession.
• Our military is gradually getting pulled – via mission creep – into a bloody and illegal war in Somalia as we have recently killed hundreds in the area.
• Just as she had back in 2006 after that year’s midterm election gave her the gavel for the first time, Speaker Pelosi has again indicated that she opposes impeachment. She claims that Trump is “not worth it”.
• Trump proposed the largest budget in American history, with a 5% increase in military spending (more than the Pentagon wanted) and severe cuts to safety net programs such as Medicaid, Social Security, Food Stamps, Housing Assistance, etc.
• Before deciding to ground the model temporarily himself, Trump tweeted his misgivings about how the latest Boeing 737 model’s recent tragic crashes signaled that computers were taking over the job of flying and how pilots “are no longer needed”.
• Trump issued an executive order which reversed an Obama-era rule that had previously required transparency in civilian deaths in American operations as far as “noncombat areas” are concerned. The end result is that military and drone strikes in regions of the world where we are not in an official military engagement will not have to reflect the civilians harmed as a consequence.
• After the House of Representatives voted as one to make the Mueller Report public and after Senator Lindsey Graham blocked consideration of the bill in the Senate, Trump unleashed hell on Twitter, claiming that the investigation was “illegal”, saying it should not exist, and that “no president” should ever have to endure this again.
• All five of the conservatives on the Supreme Court ruled that immigrants awaiting deportation could be detained indefinitely, and not just when they get out of jail.
• One Republican lawmaker in the Missouri State Legislature proposed a bill which would require every adult citizen to own an AR-15 so long as they don’t have any legal restrictions from such.
• For the first time in his presidency, President Trump vetoed a bill and it was the bill passed to rescind his emergency declaration.
• To make way for the wall, Trump has ordered the clearing of land in a number of national wildlife refuges.
• Trump’s proposed budget offers a 90% cut to the federal funding behind an environmentally-vital Great Lakes Restorative Initiative which was established in 2010 to expedite clean up of the lake and keep out invasive species, among other tasks. Trump later, at a rally, promised to protect the funding.
• To help pay for a proposed increase of $60 Million for charter schools (from which the Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos originates as the leader of the K-12 program), Trump has proposed, as part of a broader 10% cut for the Education Department – with DeVos on the frontlines – for $18 Million to be cut from the Special Olympics, which would amount to a loss of 10% of their budget. Also part of the Department’s cuts is a proposal to eliminate subsidized student loans as well as the student loan forgiveness program, and reducing the loan repayment plans to one wherein the cap for income-based repayments will be raised from 10% of one’s income to 12.5%.
• The Mueller probe finally came to an end, and Mueller himself refused to close it with a press conference, breaking with precedent and maintaining his public silence.
• It was revealed that a number of the dozen-plus Saudi agents who murdered the journalist Jamal Khashoggi had received training in the states prior to the incident.
• After asserting that Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras have helped to create the desperate “caravans” he demonized starting last fall, Trump declared that we will be cutting off aid to those countries.

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• China landed a spacecraft on the side of the moon which never faces the Earth, becoming the first to do so.
• The new Fascist Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro kicked off his first day in office by rapidly winding back numerous progressive policies, from diversity education funding to various diversity programs involving protections for LGBT citizens as well as switching consideration of territory designation for the indigenous from the justice ministry to the agriculture ministry (which effectively makes the decision a matter of profit over people). He then dissolved the Ministry of Culture. Additionally, Bolsonaro has transformed how the country treats its journalists, with a wide array of restrictions placed on their ability to cover government activity.
• The Jobs Report showed a leap of 312,000 jobs created, unemployment at 3.9%, and wage growth at 3%. Home sales plummeted to their worst showing in three years.
• A lower federal court issued a ruling (later upheld by the Supreme Court) which permitted Trump to limit the military service of transgender members.
• In the midst of the longest government shutdown in history – which disrupted vital services such as food inspections by the FDA and forced “essential” federal employees such as federal prison guards to report for work unpaid and even work double shifts to cover call-offs, and which only ended after Trump finally agreed to a short-term reopening wherein he received NOTHING that he was demanding -, Trump floated the idea of abusing his power to declare a national emergency so as to build the wall – which he now claims he never meant Mexico would DIRECTLY pay for - using disaster funds typically reserved for mostly-natural disaster emergencies.  When the shutdown led Speaker Pelosi to force Trump into postponing the State of the Union address – citing security concerns-, the president childishly responded by preventing her from going on an important national security-related foreign trip via military aircraft. The shutdown had also featured the detachment of Trump’s Administration from the plight of the working class, as Trump’s Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, dismissed reports of unpaid federal workers going to food pantries and struggling to pay their bills; saying that those workers should just take out a loan to pay for their needs. Trump had himself displayed his lack of grasp on reality (big surprise, I know) when he claimed that unpaid workers could ask for leniency from grocery stores. In the end, it was the unpaid air traffic controllers effectively shutting down a handful of major airports which tipped the scales and applied the final push required to bring the shutdown to its close.
• The debate over the wall brought up some interesting reports, which covered some facts about what a wall would NOT do: stop most illegal immigration, and put a dent in the trafficking of illegal drugs.
• Republican Congressman Tom Marino resigned just 20 days after being sworn in for a fifth term so that he could pursue a job in the private sector.
• Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected and criticized HR 1 – the For The People Act of 2019 – which would make Election Day a federal holiday, require presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns, require that Super-PACs disclose their donors while incentivizing small donations to campaigns, and which protects voters from being unjustly purged. Mitch considered it to be a “power grab”.
• Trump’s ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen, postponed his public testimony before Congress, citing a series of public “threats” against him and his family by the president and the president’s lawyer-spokesman, Rudy Giuliani.
• Longtime political consultant to Trump, Roger Stone, was arrested in a dramatic FBI late-night raid. He was charged with obstruction for attempting to mislead investigators in the Russian probe.
• There was reportedly a secret transport of nuclear bomb-making, radioactive material by Trump’s government across the country into Nevada without the state government of Nevada’s knowledge.
• As part of the Russia probe, Mueller’s team is prosecuting a Russian firm accused of financing the hacking which interfered with the 2016 election. Russia decided to hire American lawyers and exploit their right to disclosure to obtain the evidence presented against them. After getting those files, the Russian government then took the shared documents and made them public via a hacking twitter account.

• Unemployment for November remained unchanged, the economy added a mere 155,000 jobs, and wages barely rose by 6 cents.
• It was found that Trump’s promise of $4 Trillion in repatriated profits from businesses after the major tax breaks passed last year proved to be a bust as the total repatriated profits reached a mere $514 Billion.
• Trump’s Chief of Staff John Kelly decided to resign.
• The emergence of populism spread further into France, giving rise to the “Yellow Vest” movement which itself is an angry response to higher taxes and fuel proposals to curb global warming by incentivizing the purchase of fuel efficient vehicles. The problem is that President Macron has also launched an assault on working class citizens there with labor reforms and reduced taxes on the wealthy. The result has been a burden shift to the working class.
• Justice Kavanaugh joined with Chief Justice Roberts and the four supposedly liberal Justices to deny the conservatives the four votes they needed to hear a case on Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood. This could have proved to be a crucial case on abortion rights.
• A Russian spy named Maria Butina, who had infiltrated the NRA and influential Republican circles, was revealed to be cooperating with federal investigations as part of a plea deal.

• Trump nominated former Attorney General – under George H.W. Bush – and Mueller critic William Barr to replace Sessions.
• Trump nominated former Fox News personality and State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert to replace Nikki Haley as Ambassador to the United Nations.
• For the first time officially, Trump was connected – via the Justice Department – to a criminal act on the federal level, at it was alleged that he personally ordered the use of money to silence two women who claimed sexual interaction with him.
• Immersed in his own set of scandals, Trump’s Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke stepped down.

• Angry over how he has been portrayed by “Saturday Night Live”, the President openly suggested on Twitter that the legal system should restrict the right to make fun of him.
• Voyager 2 finally entered interstellar space.
• It was discovered that thousands of mailed-in ballots weren’t counted in Florida because they were not delivered by the mandated deadline on Election Day.
• Proving yet again that all that matters to them is power, Senate Republicans confirmed (with the help of Vice President Pence) Jonathan Kobes to a U.S. Circuit Court a nominee rated “unqualified” by the American Bar Association due to the difficulty the Association had in assessing the nominee’s credentials and his failure to meet their criteria.
• The United States joined with Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait to block the acceptance of the damning climate report into the UN’s COP 24 conference.
• Seeing their grip on power slipping away, Wisconsin Republicans rushed through sweeping legislation which reduced early voting to two weeks, eliminated the Solicitor General’s office from the State Department of Justice – which limits the ability of any future Democratic Attorney General from challenging Republican achievements -, and which seriously otherwise limits the authority of future Governors. Also, in North Carolina, Republicans have attempted to put Republicans in charge of overseeing EVERY election in the state from now on.
• The Trump Foundation – a money-laundering scheme masked as a charity – was ordered to be dissolved with all remaining assets to be disbursed to reputable charities preapproved by a New York Court.
• The Justice Department took a surprisingly good move and redefined so-called “bump stocks” to classify them as a machine gun accessory so that they would effectively be banned under federal law.
• The Trump Team released an ad urging voters to call an 800 number to “thank” the president for his supposed “hard work” before being redirected to the campaign.
• The President refused to sign a continuing resolution to fund the government – which also had the effect of permitting the Violence Against Women Act to expire - because it did not have $5.7 Billion in funding for his wall. This was despite the fact that the Republican-controlled Congress had a bill with bipartisan support that they were ready to pass. Trump initially indicated that he would sign until he was faced with immense pressure from conservative media figures which threatened to upset the base. He later threatened to close the entire Southern border (an impractical proposal, but I digress) lest he get said funding for the wall.
• The First Step Act was signed into law which reforms criminal justice and made low-level drug offenders find a pathway back into society, including qualifying for early-release through serving the last portion of their sentence out of prison in half-way houses and in programs meant to curb recidivism.
• The Trump Administration argued that the EPA mercury emission standards for coal plants are no longer “necessary” and that the measures needed to enforce them are too costly for energy companies.
• Trump shocked everyone by announcing withdrawals of forces from Syria and thousands of soldiers from Afghanistan. This triggered the resignation of Defense Secretary Mattis.
• Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was forced by a federal court to cancel the student loan debt of citizens victimized by fraudulent private schools.
• In the lame-duck session, the Republican General Assembly in Ohio overrode Governor Kasich’s veto of a number of bills, including one which included help for safety forces and their families, but which had been tainted with a provision that increased salaries for state elected officials. Then again, Kasich signed a bill which banned – without exception for rape or incest victims – abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy via a process called “dilation and evacuation”.
• Someone who will be sitting as an advisor to the EPA once allowed energy industry interests to edit his science journal.
• President Trump visited our troops in Iraq for the first time and held a campaign-style rally wherein he lied to them, claiming that he secured for them a 10% pay raise.
• It was found that the President’s Inaugural Committee may have been overcharged for services rendered to the Trump Organization via in large part the Trump Hotel in the Capitol. Additionally, Trump’s Businesses have been charging over a million dollars for services rendered to the President’s reelection campaign.
• A Conservative Judge ruled the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional in light of the 2017 tax law which repealed the individual mandate penalty.
• The President used the USDA to change regulations in terms of distributing SNAP funds since the latest Farm Bill did not make it harder to receive benefits. The changes will expand the work requirements and force more states to abide by them.
• As Wells Fargo has been laying off thousands of Americans to reduce their costs by $4 billion they have also been hiring workers from overseas.
• The Supreme Court blocked the Trump Administration’s attempt to deny asylum to people who’ve entered the country illegally. This was done when Chief Justice Roberts proved to be a swing vote as both of Trump’s nominees on the bench sided with the Administration.

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