Day 181: Threats

I'm just going to dive straight into this one...

• Trump is threatening to gut the Affordable Care Act by refusing payments to insurance companies. This would have a severely destabilizing effect on the insurance markets, and the blood would be on Trump's hands alone. The deadline to make these payments is Thursday.
• The CBO has scored Republican's attempt to repeal Obamacare directly, and estimated 32 million people would lose health insurance as a result. That's 10% of the US population. And yet they're still trying? Worse, premiums can be expected to double in ten years. These guys do not care about people at all.
• There was apparently a meeting tonight between key senators who stood in the way of Zombiecare. I imagine it was mostly bluster by Trump, but these guys just won't let it lie, will they? I hope to have an update tomorrow on the details of the meeting.
• Trump has ended a covert CIA program to arm Syrian rebels, something that is sure to please Russia (senior officials described it as a major concession). Because Trump has zero interest in actual policy, it's almost certain that somebody asked him to do so (most likely Putin).
• In a mixed bag, the Supreme Court let the expanded definition of relatives constructed by a Hawaiian judge stand, but limited his ruling on refugees. I'll take it.
• Republicans are trying to undo the 17th amendment to the constitution, so that state legislatures can pick the senators representing their state at the federal level. This would be tantamount to destroying the democracy of the USA.
• You may have heard of Charlie Gard, a terminally ill baby in the UK. A special committee in the US has taken the first steps towards granting Charlie and his parents permanent residency in America, which could sidestep a UK court's ruling to withdraw Gard from life support all together. However, because the amendment is attached to a highly contentious immigration bill, this is merely a cynical attempt to solidify support by bartering the life of this baby.
• Given the strict disclosure requirements to obtain a security clearance, House Democrats have asked the FBI to investigate if various members of the Trump family have violated those requirements (they obviously have).
• The US military is renting space in Trump tower at a cost of $130,000 per month. This, despite the fact that he has not stayed at the place since assuming the mantle of President. This fucker is milking the Presidency for as much money as he possibly can. (Sorry, paywall at WSJ)
• Trump seems to think that only two things are important: that he gets rich, and that other people think he's powerful. In the vein of the latter, he is obsessed with sanctions and tariffs on other countries. Case in point: a day after certifying Iran's compliance with a treaty, he slapped further sanctions on them.
• Kris Kobach continues to be a terrible person.

Day 180: Dinner Secrets

Ugh. The news is no better today than any other day with this administration.

• Trump had another previously-undisclosed hour-long meeting with Putin at the G20, without the presence of any US personnel. The optics on this are so freaking bad, even if they just sat and basked in each other's presence for an hour.
• In the wake of the crumbling Zombiecare plan, Trump demanded a full repeal. This lasted all of a few hours before it was shot down. Trump then declared that he would let the health care system fail, and blame it on democrats. Not how it works, buddy. You're in charge, and the buck stops with you. Letting the health system fail out of fucking spite is so juvenile.
• Trump has gone all in on the "collusion is the new normal!" defense of his son. There is no denying their actions (despite their continuously changing story over the past two weeks), and this is the latest pathetic attempt to cover their sorry asses.
• Trump has declared this week "Made In America" week. Very appropriate, given his status as the king of hypocrisy.
• Another Russian has been identified in Donny Jr's infamous meeting. How many freaking Russians does it take to screw in a lightbulb? (With all apologies to Russians who do not work in the government...)
• House Republicans have proposed completely defunding the Election Assistance Commission, whose sole job is to ensure the integrity of elections. Of course the fuckers have. Why don't these people feel that they can be held accountable any more? (Sorry, paywall at WSJ)
• Tillerson is shuttering the War Crimes Office at the State Department. Moral high ground? We don't need no stinking moral high ground...
• And finally, House Republicans have made their budget proposal for 2018. It contains huge rollbacks and cuts, and goes far beyond tax policy. Are you surprised that it further "sets out special procedures that could ultimately allow Republicans to pass legislation over the objections of Senate Democrats who can normally block bills they oppose"? I didn't think so.

Day 179: Zombiecare is Back in the Grave

Some big news on the zombiecare bill:

• Over the weekend, John McCain had surgery, and said he would be out from the Senate for a week, possibly more. This put McConnell in a bind, as McCain's vote would be critical after two Republican defections. The vote was then postponed.
• Insurance companies came out against the bill, deriding it as completely unworkable.
• Today, news came out of two further defections (from the conservative wing), essentially killing the bill completely. It now appears that Republicans cannot craft a bill that they can pass to replace Obamacare. Trump has repeated his calls for a straight-up repeal; this is essentially guaranteed to be dead on arrival.
• Give yourselves a pat on the back, but don't fool yourself into thinking that this is over.

In the Donny Jr Belongs in Jail narrative:

• Adam Schiff summed up things very well. The administration has completely destroyed their credibility on this one (not that they had any to begin with).
• Donny Jr's lawyer went on the defensive on Sunday, claiming that the Secret Service (who pride themselves on being apolitical) were at fault for not stopping the meeting. Only problem: Donny Jr wasn't under Secret Service protection at that stage. Or was he saying that the Turnip himself was actually present?
• Here's a look at the timeline of that fateful day. It's very possible that Trump was actually in that meeting. Either way, he almost certainly knew about it.
• Donny Jr's attorney was paid $50,000 in June. I wonder what they were worried about.

In other news:

• Trump has once again claimed he's signed more bills than anybody ever. This is wrong by a long shot, and the NY Times has you covered with all the details. The present total is 42 bills, 15 of which were CRA bills to undo Obama regulations, 14 were ceremonial and routine lawmaking, 5 were bureaucratic tweaks, 4 were space and science, and 4 were veteran's affairs. None of these bills constitute major policy.
• Trump has reluctantly signed off on the Iran nuclear deal once again. Apparently this took a lot of convincing from basically everybody.
• The administration has released its agenda for the NAFTA renegotiation talks. I don't know enough about economics to comment meaningfully on this, however.
• A judge has ordered Mar-A-Lago to release their visitor logs, in response to a transparency lawsuit. I seem to recall that their record-keeping was abysmal, so I don't know how much we'll learn.
• Sessions wants police to increase their seizure of property and cash under civil forfeiture laws. This is a terrible idea, because those laws do not require convictions, let alone charges to be brought, to justify the permanent seizure of assets. Because police departments keep the assets they seize, this is a terrible incentive for police to undertake profiling and arbitrary seizures. In short, these laws are terrible, and Sessions wants more of them.
• How do you think the USA's reputation is holding up abroad? Perhaps on issues like anti-corruption and ethics? The resigning ethics chief for the USA claims we're presently a complete laughing stock. But I could have told you that...
• The first section of Trump's wall to be built would completely destroy a wildlife refuge established in 1943. Fucking fantastic.
• The military had a program to recruit soldiers from other countries to make use of their language skills, in exchange for a pathway towards citizenship. Those soldiers are now deportation fodder. This is how we treat our allies. This is disgusting.
• Is election hacking a problem? An analysis from South Carolina suggests 150,000 attempts to hack their registration database on election day last year (sorry, paywall - WSJ).
• This is apparently "Made In America" week, according to Trump at least. Too bad his companies (and his daughter's) don't do that. To add insult to injury, the DHS just added 15,000 visas for low-pay immigrant workers.

Day 176: Soviet Intelligence to the Rescue

I apologize that I'm slow on the uptake of these posts at the moment. I'm presently out of the country on business, and keeping up with the administration's shenanigans is really very time-consuming!

Here's what I've found today.

• There were apparently 8 people in Donny Jr's infamous meeting. One of them was a Soviet intelligence officer. What the fuck was this meeting about?
• Kushner is now complaining that somebody hit the wrong button on this security clearance form. Not sure what gives here; apparently you need to enter your password repeatedly to submit the damn thing...
• Finally, we have a formal complaint to the Federal Election Commission about Donny Jr's meeting.
• The administration has turned to the Supreme Court to clarify their ruling on the travel ban. This is in response to a judge undermining everything yesterday by broadly increasing the scope of the ruling.
• The Trump administration is quietly terminating funding to the tune of a quarter of a billion dollars that had been promised for teen pregnancy prevention. I will never understand how Republicans hate abortions, but hate the concept of birth control nearly as much. Abstinence has been shown time and time again to be a dismal failure of a policy. Family planning services are crucial to helping break the cycle of poverty.
• The White House just posted the personal contact information of people who emailed them imploring them not to release their personal information. This is sickening (and as an article pointed out yesterday, all part of the master plan).
• Health groups have come firmly out against the new Senate zombiecare bill. As expected.
• Ugh. More Trump conflicts of interest, this time in the Philippines.

Stay safe this weekend.

Day 175: Zombiecare

While Donny is still in the news today, we also have a zombiecare bill coming back from the dead. Let's see what there is...

• Republicans have unveiled their revised healthcare bill (BBC's hyper-non-partisan analysis). Politico reports that two senators have already defected - from the left and right. The bill continues to be complete and utter garbage.
• Trump is trying to justify his son's treason by calling it "opposition research", saying that "most people would have taken that meeting". No, most people in that situation would be calling the FBI... PSA: Donny Jr is 40 years old. He is not a "young man".
• Trump's lawyers discovered the infamous emails three weeks ago, as a result of amending Kushner's security clearance request. There is no way that Trump only found out about them a couple of days ago.
• A judge has just dramatically expanded the definition of "close relative" for the purpose of Turnip's travel ban (so I'm being juvenile - sue me). This will almost certainly go back to the Supreme Court.
• Trump is on a crusade to slash legal immigration. All of their talking points are demonstrably mendacious garbage.
• Why was a Russian money-laundering case involving more than $230 million dismissed without explanation by the DOJ? Inquiring minds want to know!
• The White House has stated (I almost wrote "honestly believes"!) that it is being as transparent as humanly possible. Also, I'm a unicorn.
• Trump is in France. As far as I can tell, nothing concrete has come out of this visit.
• Here's a deconstruction of Trump's Reuters interview. I think the translation is pretty spot on.
• Pence's press secretary won't say if his boss met with Russians. It's a freaking Russian nesting doll!
• An important read: Why is this administration so dysfunctional? The purpose is to break things. Every thing.
• Holy fuck. Session's speech yesterday? He compared the anti-LGBT "crusade" to the civil rights movement.

Day 174: The world continues to fall apart

Oh boy. Let's just get straight to it...

• The fallout from Donny Jr continues, with headlines such as "White House Under Siege" from the Washington Post. Meanwhile, Trump says the mood in the White House is "fantastic."
• Donny's defense? "Someone sent me an email. I can't help what someone sends me." This is a true statement. However, it is NOT a defense of his response: "I love it! Can we meet next week?"
• Trump Jr's responses to the unfolding calamity? They were scripted by the highest echelons of the administration. "Don Jr.'s false statement Sat. was drafted by WH aides & seen by Trump. This wasn't Jr being dopey. This was an attempted WH cover-up." - Bill Kristol (of all people). 
• Trump is congratulating his son on his "transparency". Oh my. "Yes, you're so good for being transparent, even if that transparency just revealed concrete evidence of collusion with Russia..." Missing the forest for the flying unicorns in your imagination.
• Trump gave an interview to Reuters. This serves to highlight only how terrible he is, and how nothing he says can be believed.
• Trump has been sued for blocking people on twitter. Last month, Mr Spicer said Mr Trump's tweets were considered "official statements by the president of the United States".
• We have concrete evidence of the government pouring money into Trump's pockets: the State Department spent over $15,000 at a Trump hotel in Vancouver.
• Christopher Wray, who was nominated to fill the role of the head of the FBI (replacing Comey), was testifying before the Senate today. People are reporting that he refused to answer when asked if Russia was an enemy of the USA, and seemed to squirm through other Russian and election-related questions, as if Trump was watching... Here is the only report on the hearing that I've found, describing him as coming out "largely unscathed".
• In what bodes well (ie, terribly) for Title IX, DeVos is meeting with men's rights activists to learn about how Title IX treats men terribly. Everything is normal (everything is not normal).
• Sessions is giving a speech to an anti-LGBT hate group at a closed event. WTF?
• The Department of Homeland Security won't commit to defending DACA in court. I am utterly disgusted, and not the least bit surprised. These are people's lives they're playing with, who have done absolutely no wrong other than to be born in the wrong place and brought here by their parents, and know no other life.
• Another lawsuit against the EPA, this time over their attempt to delay regulation regarding ozone pollution...

Can I just say how much I hate this fucking administration? Yes? Well, unfortunately, I lack the vocabulary required to do so...

Day 173: Oh Donny

The explosive revelations from the NY Times continue apace today, as they publish the full email chain as evidence of young Donny's collusion with the Russians. The coverup that the administration was attempting has been blown out of the water, for the umpteenth time.

• Here is the NY Times piece: Donny knew full well he was meeting with Russians who were offering dirt on Clinton, and his response: “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”
• The BBC's analysis: "The pattern has been set. The New York Times runs a story, Trump Jr issues his response, then the noose tightens."
• The Washington Post is now going so far as to report that this is concrete evidence of attempted collusion by the Trump campaign.
• Trump put out a very brief statement defending his son: "My son is a high quality person and I applaud his transparency." Given Trump's usual love of superlatives, that's damn close to a back-handed compliment.
• Donny tried to get ahead of the NY Times story by tweeting the email chain himself. Wow. Talk about implicating himself, Kushner, Manafort and the entire Trump campaign and administration in multiple ways! The narrative is completely out of his control now, and there will be no recovering it.
• Here's a fairly readable summary of where things stand. You just know this is going to get worse before it gets better, too...
• Trump is presently claiming he knew nothing. However... Two days before the now infamous meeting, Trump promised big news about Hillary's crimes the following week.
• Conway, as always, is claiming that nothing underhanded occurred. I automatically choose to believe the opposite of anything that she says, so something was definitely going on.

Meanwhile:

• Russia is holding Trump's feet to the fire, demanding that their seized diplomatic mansions be returned. This makes things quite awkward for him.
• GOP Senators vow to release a new health care bill on Thursday. I bet it will be crap. They are apparently planning one final last blitz to push it through. Cruz is pushing an idea to allow insurers to offer stingy plans (death spiral fodder). For reference, here is an overview of how the GOP has misrepresented and demonized Obamacare. Prepare to resist.
• Two important outcomes from the G20: World leaders push ahead on climate change without the US. And How Putin and Trump cost the G20 its Moral Authority.
• Pruitt is planning to give climate change denial "scientists" an equal platform with actual scientists in a "televised debate". Ugh. This guy is the worst.
• Sessions wants to waste more money on his war against drugs by reintroducing a failed program called "D.A.R.E."
• The election fraud commission has asked states to hold off on sending data, as legal challenges grow and concerns over data security mount.
• An important article discussing the Trump administration's deregulation efforts at agencies. "Most government agencies have declined to disclose information about their deregulation teams and what the appointees are working on." Evidence of conflicts of interest abounds.
• Kushner was seeking half a billion dollars of investment from Qatar, which he apparently didn't receive, months before Trump went on the offensive calling for a blockade of the country. Wow. Conflicts of interest muchly? Businesspeople should not be running our foreign policy.

Day 172: Campaign Laws

Wow, Donald Trump Jr (aka "Donny") has landed himself in some hot water. The NY Times has had a series of articles over the past few days, and the internet has lit up. Let's dive into it!

• Here's the original story, from Saturday night. What's serious about it is that it is the first concrete evidence of collusion (or at least, attempted collusion) with Russia. It involves not only Donny, but also Kushner and Manafort. Here's the follow-up from the next day, where the reason for the meeting was revealed.
• Here's why it's a big deal.
• This rather seriously complicates the Trump family's ever-changing lies. If you need a refresher on how the Russian story has evolved, here's a reasonable article. It's pretty damning.
• Donny has put out a series of statements at this stage, essentially all conflicting with each other, as more and more information gets released. The consensus is that he's digging himself an ever-deeper legal hole. He seems to have realized that too, as has now lawyered up.
• Trump is presently claiming he was unaware of the whole thing. I think I actually believe him, but only because the idiot is unaware of everything.

In other news:

• Pence looks like he's preparing for a Presidential campaign. Ugh.
• Trump's suggestion that a US-Russia cyberwarfare unit be created was met with much derision, and it appears he's backed down after realizing how terrible his idea was.
• The Australian Broadcasting Corporation recently had a go at Trump over his G20 performance. The reporting is a thing of pure beauty.
• Cutting funding to Planned Parenthood would have a devastating effect on the women who use it, according to study one gazillion. Shakesville writes: "If the Republicans can't successfully take away everyone's health insurance, they'll just start finding ways to strip healthcare facilities, procedures, and protocols for populations they don't like, one by one."
• The ACLU has sued the administration over their election integrity sham. Good.

Day 169: Nuclear Hacks

While Trump is off in Europe, our lead story today from back at home is really quite serious and disturbing.

• Hackers have infiltrated at least 12 nuclear power plants in the US. The primary suspect? Russia. Given that Russia has twice been involved in hacking attempts that shut down parts of the Ukranian electricity grid, this does not bode well.
• Trump is at the G-20 meeting in Europe, where he's found he's been sidelined on just about everything. His perspectives do not fit into the present world order.
• While there, Trump met with Putin, in a highly-anticipated meeting. They appeared to be quite chummy, but reportedly made little headway on anything. Of note was that they both agreed that the US should move on from the Russian electoral hacking scandal (which Putin once again denied any involvement with, and Trump seemed to accept). A lot of media reports suggest a competition between the two, without mentioning that there is a serious possibility of collusion between the two, a possibility that is much more concerning. Also note that the meeting had only Trump, Putin, the Russian foreign minister, and Tillerson (who conveniently received the Friend of Russia award?).
• Speaking of denying the Russian involvement, Sally Yates has publicly had a go at Trump for his equivocation also.
• Want an analysis of Trump's Poland speech? Slate has you covered. Cliff notes version: White Nationalism in a nutshell.
• The ACLU has a website cataloguing the responses from every state to the "electoral integrity commission". Basically everybody has told Kobach to piss off.
• This is an interesting read on how diplomats from other countries are now interacting with the US, given that the State Department is essentially defunct. It speaks to the comment I made yesterday about how other countries find themselves needing to play to Trump's insecurities to make any headway whatsoever.
• I'll let this headline speak for itself: Trump's leaks crackdown sends chills through national security world. People's ability to do their jobs is being impeded.
• Worse, it appears somebody is sending forged "top secret" documents to media outlets, ostensibly in order to sow confusion, give credence to the claim that mainstream media is portraying "fake news", and discredit media organizations. There's a reasonable chance that somebody in the administration is responsible. It's also likely that some of the major retractions that we've seen recently (eg, CNN) fell for such a trap. Be very wary, dear readers.
• Well fuck. ICE officers have been told that they should deport all illegal immigrants they encounter on duty. Nothing about "dangerous criminals". Just your run of the mill illegal immigrant grandmother or high school student. This is absolutely inhumane and disgusting.

Day 168: Ethics Calls It Quits

Nothing good in the news today. I'm sorry folks. Most of this is pretty disturbing. Can you believe that last year, it would be typical to get one of these headlines a month, rather than a dozen every fucking day?

• The US Ethics Chief has called it quits, apparently fed up with the administration's unwillingness to cooperate. "The president and his staff are the ones who determine what is and isn't ethical. They're setting their own rules, and they are the only ones holding themselves accountable." Despite us all knowing that this is happening, it is simultaneously seriously disturbing. Can you imagine who the administration is going to nominate for this post? Oh my.
• Trump gave a speech in far-right nationalistic Poland, to an adoring crowd who the government bussed in to listen. From Shakesville: "It was a disturbing speech, juxtaposing a history lesson about the Nazis and Soviets invading Poland with thinly-veiled white supremacist and Christian supremacist rhetoric." Remember Stephen Miller? Apparently he's still around, as he wrote the speech. Trump also broke international decorum by attacking political leaders at home, as well as his national intelligence apparatus. The fact that other countries are approaching Trump by pandering to him is simply disgusting.
• Trump, asked directly about electoral interference, equivocated on who was responsible. As James Clapper (former director of National Intelligence) has pointed out, this is both grossly irresponsible and a complete denial of the US intelligence apparatus, who believe that there is only evidence that Russia was involved. Our idiot-in-chief is a dangerous fool, trying to look good in front of Russia at the G-20 summit.
• A follow-up article from last week, warning that the Department of Justice letter asking states for information on how they purge their voter rolls may be even worse than the electoral commission's request for private data.
• While the Health Care Bill gets all the news, something I've only just read about is how the CHIP program (Children's health insurance program) is due to expire on September 30th, unless Congress refunds it (and they've made no attempt to do so). Republicans, playing more games with people's lives.
• As DeVos attempts to undo Obama-era student protections, she's being sued by 18 states for not living up to her responsibilities. "... Under DeVos, the Education Department has not approved a single fraud request..." Yup, dismantling the department.
• Rick Perry just leaked the secret to the administration's policy on coal: supply and demand. "If you put supply out there, demand will grow!"
• Kushner is in hot water again for failing to disclose his ownership share in a real estate investment company. This whole fucking family is terrible, and they are treating conflicts of interest like they don't matter in the slightest.
• The administration is coming for your nursing home, too, making it easier for abusive nursing homes to secure federal funding by undoing an Obama regulation. There seems to be no point to any of this, other than making rich guys richer.

Day 167: ICBMs

Still behind on last week, alas. Catching up is slow! A slow day today, except for escalating tensions with North Korea.

• Things are sharply heating up with North Korea, following their test of an ICBM. I'm worried, and I don't trust our administration at all. The situation calls for a strong and measured response from the State Department, which has been completely gutted. I would not want to be in South Korea any time soon.
• Trump is at the G20 meeting, where he'll be meeting personally with Putin. He's widely expected to be completely played, but still he refuses to do his homework.
• And the count of states refusing to comply with the administration's request for voter data is up to 44. Go jump in the Gulf of Mexico. Oh, and it looks like the request violated the law anyway...
• The Pro-Choice crowd have completely converted to Trump. I'm utterly, utterly disgusted by just about everything in this article.
• The Indiana GOP asked for Obamacare horror stories. Guess what they got?
• This is one of the best analyses I've read of DeVos's horrific legacy in Detroit, and what she's aiming to do nationwide. Highly recommended reading.

Day 166: 4th July

Happy 4th July, everyone. Due to the holiday, there's not much in the news today. I've found a few pieces of interest, however, including a couple of "taking stock of things" pieces at the end of the list.

• Despite being unable to repeal/replace Obamacare, congress is taking concrete steps to ensure its destruction, by specifically instructing the IRS not to enforce the individual mandate. Coupled with withholding subsidy payments, this is the primary factor responsible for increasing insurance costs that Republicans so desperately claim they wish to reduce. Hypocrisy, muchly?
• The administration's request for voter data has now been rebuffed by 41 states (and counting).
• There are now zero scientists advising the White House on science policy, and it appears that the administration has no plans of hiring any. This bodes very badly for policy decisions across the board.
• Trump has signed 40 pieces of legislation so far. He's really proud of that, despite the fact that the majority of those are regulatory rollbacks, and the rest are incredibly minor. Here's what they all are. 
• We know that the administration has been busy rolling back environmental regulations. Want to see it all in one place? The Guardian has you covered.

Day 165: Long Weekend

Ok, I'm back from my vacation now. The administration looks like it was absolutely terrible in my absence, so I've made some placeholders to document that destruction. I'll try to get to that soon. As for today's news, things were mostly quiet in the lead-up to July 4th.

• Over the weekend, Trump tweeted out a video showing him beating up a CNN-blockhead man. It was very weird, and looked a lot like inspiring violence against journalists. Can you guess where it came from?
• More ethics waivers! The whole fucking administration is on ethics waivers, because they apparently don't need ethics!
• Last week, Trump nominated Eric Dreiband to head up the DoJ Civil Rights division. Here's what the NAACP thinks of this (hint: disgusted), and the ACLU (hint: vomiting).
• In a call with the President of China, Trump has threatened to "go it alone" on North Korea. Great. Just great.
• Defense Secretary Mattis has further delayed the acceptance of transgender troops into the defense forces by another six months. It was due to come into effect early this month, after a year-long delay. There is no readily apparent reason for the further delay. I am sorry for those who this causes anguish.
• We actually got some good news today. The courts upheld an Obama-era regulation on methane, despite Pruitt's best efforts to kill it. The regulation goes into effect immediately. The final line in this article is disgusting: "An EPA spokeswoman said the agency was reviewing the court opinion and its options." Since when does the EPA want to back down on the regulation of greenhouse gases? All I can say is fuck Pruitt, who must be the only one in the entire agency who actually wants this.

Day 162: Mika and Joe

Yesterday, Trump went on the attack against the hosts of the Morning Joe, with a particularly misogynistic set of tweets. Today, he's doubled down completely.

• Here's the original outburst, which has been largely pilloried.
• They have responded by alleging blackmail from the administration. Trump has claimed its all a lie, but it appears that Joe and Mika were thorough about documenting everything and saving records of communication. One of the officials involved in the alleged blackmail has been identified as Kushner. Surprised?
• Even Republicans have rounded on Trump over this series of tweets, although they're got nothing more than talk so far.

The fact that this has dominated the news cycle for two days now is a reflection of the sad, sorry state of affairs we find this country in.

In other news:

• A bombshell of a report from the WSJ (alas, paywall) representing the first signs of collusion with Russia regarding election shenanigans. A further update from one of the sources of the WSJ article. This is interesting, and looks like it bears much deeper investigation.
• We have another incredibly questionable nomination from the White House, this time to head the DoJ's Civil Rights division. Apparently this guy has spent his legal career defending civil rights violations. Great. In another nomination, we have an anti-transgender activist nominated for a gender equality position. Every nomination has been with a view to completely dismantle their purview. It's so disgusting and depressing.
• I'm disgusted to report that Trump's travel ban went into effect today.
• The attack on voting rights has begun. In one action, the DoJ just asked every state for information on how they purge their voter rolls. In another, the House appropriations committee just voted to defund the electoral assistance commission. Otherwise, people with long histories of attempting to suppress the vote have been given positions of power on Trump's "electoral integrity commission".
• In addition, Trump's "Electoral Integrity Commission" has just sent out letters to every state asking for a scary amount of information on registered voters. This is not about electoral integrity, this is about voter suppression, and possibly also a national security risk from assimilating all that data in one place under short notice. Some states have already rightly told them to jump in a lake.
• The White House Council on Women and Girls has been dismantled. Because of course it has.
• We have reports that Trump, ignoring the advice of the vast majority of his cabinet, is hell-bent on imposing tariffs and starting a global trade war. Details soon, I guess?
• Pruitt is trying to find a way to disempower the scientific peer review process and circumvent it completely by setting up a new initiative to give climate deniers a microphone in the EPA. This is what arises when an administration doesn't believe in science. It's really scary.
• Trump has called for a simple repeal of Obamacare. Estimates are that that would cost 18 million their health insurance immediately, and 26 million soon thereafter. This guy doesn't care about good governing. He cares about his headlines and nothing else.
• Trump has started rewriting plans to allow for more off-shore drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic. This is incredibly dangerous, likely to do gross environmental damage, and completely ignores climate change.

Day 161: (Placeholder)

Thursday June 29th

Apologies, I haven't been able to find the time to get this done. Here are some links that I'll write up later on....

• http://www.shakesville.com/2017/06/we-resist-day-161.html
• http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40439552
• http://www.shakesville.com/2017/06/today-in-trumps-contemptible-anti.html
• http://www.shakesville.com/2017/06/donald-trumps-disgusting-attack-on-mika.html
• http://www.shakesville.com/2017/06/one-party-overwhelmingly-believes-in.html
• http://theslot.jezebel.com/the-president-is-making-damn-sure-we-dont-forget-he-is-1796519274
• http://www.shakesville.com/2017/06/this-is-not-nothingburger.html
• http://theslot.jezebel.com/wsj-gop-operative-attempting-to-obtain-hacked-clinton-1796533533
• http://www.shakesville.com/2017/06/but-her-emails-literally.html
• http://theslot.jezebel.com/revised-muslim-ban-excludes-grandparents-and-fiancees-f-1796532604
• http://theslot.jezebel.com/sarah-sanders-americans-knew-what-they-were-getting-1796532291
• https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2017/06/29/Day-161/

Day 160: (Placeholder)

Wednesday June 28th

Apologies, I haven't been able to find the time to get this done. Here are some links that I'll write up later on....

• http://www.shakesville.com/2017/06/we-resist-day-160.html
• http://www.shakesville.com/2017/06/mike-pence-takes-charge-on-senate.html
• http://www.shakesville.com/2017/06/cyberattacks-caused-surgery-delays.html
• http://www.shakesville.com/2017/06/trump-teases-great-surprise-on.html
• http://theslot.jezebel.com/scott-pruitt-met-with-dow-ceo-before-reversing-move-to-1796498074
• http://time.com/4835920/betsy-devos-education-senate-democrats-civil-rights/
• https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2017/06/28/Day-160/

Day 159: (Placeholder)

Tuesday June 27th

Apologies, I haven't been able to find the time to get this done. Here are some links that I'll write up later on....

• http://www.shakesville.com/2017/06/we-resist-day-159.html
• http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40411495
• http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40419512
• http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40424962
• http://www.shakesville.com/2017/06/this-is-what-happens-in-authoritarian.html
• http://www.shakesville.com/2017/06/senate-healthcare-vote-delayed.html
• http://www.shakesville.com/2017/06/so-this-just-happened.html
• http://theslot.jezebel.com/senate-gop-leaders-postpone-vote-on-their-terrible-heal-1796465561
• https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/27/us/politics/trump-campaign-chiefs-firm-got-17-million-from-pro-russia-party.html
• https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2017/06/27/Day-159/

Day 158: (Placeholder)

Monday June 26th

Apologies, I haven't been able to find the time to get this done. Here are some links that I'll write up later on....

• http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/25/kellyanne-conway-those-on-medicaid-who-will-lose-insurance-can-get-jobs.html
• http://www.shakesville.com/2017/06/we-resist-day-158.html
• http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40402211
• http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40409490
• http://www.shakesville.com/2017/06/donald-trumps-soul-is-full-of-greed-and.html
• http://www.shakesville.com/2017/06/cbo-senate-bill-is-hot-trash.html
• http://theslot.jezebel.com/cbo-says-senate-healthcare-bill-would-leave-22-million-1796432097
• http://theslot.jezebel.com/trump-submits-his-fbi-director-nomination-christopher-1796440445
• http://theslot.jezebel.com/supreme-court-partly-lifts-injunction-blocking-trumps-t-1796432978
• http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/26/politics/justice-neil-gorsuch-president-trump-gets-his-man/index.html
• https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2017/06/26/Day-158/