W

June 23, 2018

Week 84

Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things
subtly changing around you, so you’ll remember.

Generations from now will mark this week as the moment Americans realized we were losing our country as we have known it.

This week the world looked on in horror as the atrocity of separating families at our southern border was finally exposed by widespread media coverage. That coverage was limited as the press and even members of Congress were denied access to detention centers and newly constructed tent cities. Other than audio that was leaked to ProPublica of a young child wailing for her mother, there are almost no videos or photos of girls, toddlers or babies. The AP reported on “tender age” shelters — three already built and a fourth coming soon.

Amid harsh condemnation domestically and worldwide, Trump signed an executive order, purportedly ending family separation, but the regime laid out no plan to reunite families already separated at the southern border, and other forms of separation continue to be carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement throughout our country. Curiously, after the order, the regime was still laying out plans to construct temporary housing for another 20,000 migrant children and 119,000 migrant adults.

This week Trump and his regime continued to bold-faced lie to and obscure facts from the American people. The repetition of lies was noted by the WAPO in Trump’s ramped up Twitter activity. Propaganda TV also played a role with disinformation promulgated by Fox News and Sinclair Broadcasting, which backed Trump’s alternative version of reality on immigration.

Although last week Trump was able to garner normalizing, Super Bowl-type coverage of his Singapore summit, this week revealed it was all stagecraft, no substance. The regime also quietly rolled out a government restructuring plan to consolidate power, take away safety nets and sell off government properties en masse.

  1. WAPO reported Trump has ramped up his tweeting to the fastest rate since he took office, posting an average of 11.3 messages per day. Experts say repetition is an effective tool for convincing people of the veracity of false claims.
  2. This week, Trump tweeted false or misleading information on the same topic, repeatedly: as of Wednesday, at least seven times on immigration and at least six times on the Department of Justice inspector general report.
  3. On Saturday, WAPO reported Manuel Padilla Jr., Border Patrol chief for the Rio Grande Valley, overseeing the busiest stretch of the Southwest border, said family separations could double.
  4. Padilla Jr. said his agents separated 568 parents from children as young as five since the zero-tolerance policy was announced, adding, “We are trying to build to 100 percent prosecution of everybody that is eligible.”
  5. NYT reported Stephen Miller, Trump’s senior policy adviser and anti-immigrant hardliner, has been behind the continued push to separate migrant families, even when others in the regime had misgivings.
  6. On Tuesday, NYT was under fire from journalists and watchdogs for acceding to the demands of the White House that their audio interview with Miller not be publicly released.
  7. Intercept reported Border Protection agents in El Paso, Texas are turning away asylum seekers multiple times and for days on end, telling them there is “no room.”
  8. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, immigrants have the right to request asylum and be immediately processed. Reportedly Border Patrol is pushing them to cross illegally, thereby having an excuse to separate families.
  9. On Sunday, WAPO reported in May 2016, Roger Stone met with a man who called himself Henry Greenberg and offered damaging information about Hillary Clinton. The meeting was arranged by Michael Caputo.
  10. The man wore a “Make America Great Again” hat and had a Russian accent. The man wanted $2 million for the dirt. Stone said Trump “doesn’t pay for anything.”
  11. On May 29, in a series of texts, Caputo wrote, “How crazy is the Russian?” Noting that Greenberg wanted “big” money, Stone replied, “waste of time.” The meeting was not previously disclosed by Stone or Caputo.
  12. On Monday, Stone told NBC News he forgot to tell investigators about his contact with the Russian national who goes by Henry Greenberg. He claimed his recollection was refreshed when Caputo mentioned it to him.
  13. On Sunday, Trump encouraged WAPO staffers to strike, saying in a tweet, “because Bezos isn’t paying them enough.” He also repeated his false claim the WAPO is a “registered lobbyist.”
  14. On Sunday, in a series of tweets capping off Father’s Day, Trump asked why the FBI was giving “so much information to the Fake News Media,” repeating his claim that the media is the “enemy of the people.”
  15. Trump also questioned why Peter Strzok, whom he called the “FBI’s sick loser,” was working on the “totally discredited Mueller team of 13 Angry & Conflicted Democrats,” calling it a “Witch Hunt!”
  16. Trump also tweeted that Strzok worked with “Slippery James Comey and that Comey is best friends with Robert Mueller,” adding “A really sick deal, isn’t it?”
  17. Strzok, the FBI agent singled out in the DOJ inspector general report and frequent target of Trump’s ire, said he would testify before Congress without immunity, saying he wants to clear his name and tell his story.
  18. On Monday, FBI director Christopher Wray testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. When asked by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse if a lawyer can obstruct justice on behalf of their client, Wray answered, “Absolutely.”
  19. On Monday, Rudy Giuliani said he was just bluffing last week when he called for the Justice Department, after the inspector general report came out, to suspend Mueller’s investigation within 24 hours.
  20. On Sunday, in a WAPO op-ed titled “Separating children from their parents at the border ‘breaks my heart,’” former First Lady Laura Bush called Trump’s zero-tolerance policy “cruel” and “immoral.”
  21. On Sunday, in a series of tweets, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen denied that a family separation policy existed, claiming “We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period,” and instead blamed the media.
  22. By Monday, all four living first ladies — Rosalynn Carter, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama — had publicly condemned the Trump regime’s practice of separating parents and children.
  23. On Monday, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called Trump’s family separation policy “unconscionable” for deterring parents “by inflicting such abuse on children.”
  24. On Monday, in a series of tweets, Trump falsely claimed “crime in Germany is way up.” Trump tweeted it was a “big mistake” in Europe to let in immigrants “who have so strongly and violently changed their culture!”
  25. Trump also continued to blame Democrats for being “weak and ineffective with Boarder Security and Crime,” and warned about “crime being caused by gangs and thugs, including MS-13.”
  26. On Monday, NBC News reported the Trump regime first discussed the idea of separating migrant mothers from their children as a way to deter asylum seekers at a meeting on February 2, 2017.
  27. On Monday, the WSJ Editorial Board warned the GOP is in danger of losing control of the House and Senate because of “internal feuding” over immigration, citing “separating immigrant children from their parents.”
  28. On Monday, AP reported on an old warehouse in McAllen, Texas, where hundreds of children wait in a series of cages. One cage had 20 children inside. More than 1,100 people were in the dark facility.
  29. A 16 year old said she was helping care for a 2 year old in her cage for three days because the child’s aunt was somewhere else in the facility. The teen said she had to show others how to change the girl’s diaper.
  30. On Monday, ProPublica released shocking audio of children inside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility crying after being separated from their parents, screaming Mami” and “Papá” over and over again.
  31. With little content from within detention facilities publicly available due to the Trump regime’s restricted access, this audio along with Border Patrol-provided photos and videos were looped on most major media.
  32. On Monday, Politico reported Trump aides are planning more crackdowns on immigration before the midterms. Ideas include tightening rules on student visas and limiting visas for temporary agricultural workers.
  33. On Monday, Trump addressed the media on family separation, saying the United States “will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility … not on my watch.”
  34. Trump blamed Democrats and lack of immigrant reform, saying, “What’s happening is so sad.” Democrats accused Trump of using children separated from their families as leverage to pass his immigration agenda.
  35. On Monday, the daily press briefing scheduled to start at 1:15 p.m. was postponed four hours. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not address the press but rather waited for Nielsen to be flown in from Louisiana.
  36. Nielsen repeated the false claim that only Congress could fix family separation, blaming “loopholes in our federal immigration laws” and saying the regime had no choice but to enforce the law.
  37. Nielsen dodged question on photos of children in cages and the lack of photos of girls, instead complaining about false narratives that ignore crime, opioids, smugglers, and people who are killed by gang members.
  38. No other daily press briefings were held by the White House during the week amid the family separation crisis.
  39. On Tuesday, AP reported Trump sees his hard-line immigration stance as a winning issue for midterms, saying “You have to stand for something.” Miller has urged Trump to make immigration his defining issue.
  40. Steve Bannon said of Trump, “I think this is one of his best moments. I think this is a profile in courage. This is why America elected him. He will not back down on core principles.”
  41. On Tuesday, Trump further ramped up the rhetoric, tweeting “Democrats are the problem,” saying they want migrants to “infest our Country,” adding, “so they view them as potential voters!”
  42. On Tuesday, Axios reported Donald Trump Jr. canceled plans to headline a fundraiser in New York for George P. Bush, son of Jeb Bush, due to the Bush family’s opposition to Trump’s policy of separating families.
  43. On Tuesday, in a joint statement by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the regime announced that the U.S. is withdrawing from the U.N. Human Rights Council, blaming anti-Israeli sentiment.
  44. On Wednesday, Israeli officials expressed concern about the U.S. pulling out from the council, saying it will make it harder to block anti-Israeli initiatives, which U.S. membership helped to soften or fend off.
  45. On Tuesday, HHS told Detroit Free Press it has “a network of approximately 100 unaccompanied alien children’s program(s) across 17 states” with 3,280 females in care and 8,506 males.
  46. The hashtag #WhereAretheGirls trended during the week, as photos issued by the government showed only boys. When asked why on Monday, Nielsen answered, “I don’t know.”
  47. MSNBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff tweeted that he asked the HHS to see photos of girls and toddlers and was offered photos from 2016.
  48. On Tuesday, McClatchy reported based on the review of federal data, the Trump regime likely lost track of nearly 6,000 unaccompanied migrant children, not the 1,475 number given to lawmakers last month.
  49. HHS had told reporters 14 percent of calls to sponsors were not returned, but HHS reached out to only 7,635 children and their sponsors. It placed more than 42,497 unaccompanied children with sponsors in fiscal year 2017.
  50. Trump has been watching the coverage on television with increasing anger, saying the media is deliberately highlighting the worst images — the cages and screaming toddlers — to make him look bad.
  51. On Tuesday, WSJ reported the Mexican government criticized Trump’s policy, citing a 10 year old with Down syndrome who was separated from her mother and 10-year-old brother as they attempted to enter the U.S.
  52. On Tuesday, on Fox News, when the topic of the 10-year-old girl came up, Corey Lewandowski mocked her saying, “Womp Womp.”
  53. On Wednesday, Lewandowski was dropped by Leading Authorities, one of Washington DC’s top speakers bureaus.
  54. On Tuesday, governors from at least eight states, including two Republicans, said they would withhold or recall National Guard troops sent to the southern border, citing Trump’s family separation policy.
  55. On Tuesday, The Daily Mail reported Beata Mariana de Jesus Mejia-Mejia, a Guatemalan national seeking asylum in the U.S., sued six federal agencies and 10 top officials, the first legal challenge to the regime’s policy.
  56. Officials “forcibly” separated her from her 7-year-old son after they crossed the border and refused to tell her his whereabouts. Mejia-Mejia was never indicted for illegally entering the country.
  57. On Friday, Mejia-Mejia was reunited with her son at Baltimore Washington International Airport, more than a month after they were detained and separated.
  58. On Tuesday, the former head of ICE told NBC News that despite claims from the Trump regime and allies that family separations would be “temporary,” many will be permanent as parent are deported.
  59. On Tuesday, Nielsen was heckled at a Mexican restaurant by protestors shouting, “Shame!” The restaurant said in a statement, “Our staff, most of whom are Hispanic, have been with our restaurant family for years.”
  60. That evening, Nielsen retweeted a message from Trump saying she did a “fabulous job” at a news conference on Monday. She also tweeted that she would “work tirelessly until our broken immigration system is fixed.”
  61. On Friday, protestors gathered outside Nielsen’s home in Virginia, holding signs and blasting the ProPublica audio of children crying.
  62. On Monday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson called the left the “ruling class” and said it doesn’t really care about migrant families, adding “they care far more about foreigners than their own people.”
  63. On Monday, Fox News host Laura Ingraham compared detention facilities for migrant children to “summer camps,” or, as the San Diego Union-Tribune described them “basically boarding schools.”
  64. Ingraham also hosted Attorney General Jeff Sessions on her show to defend Trump’s policy. He falsely claiming a surge of “15,000 illegal entries to 75,000” immigrants due to Obama policies, saying “this is a huge loophole in our system.”
  65. Sessions also denied that children are being abused or kept in inhumane conditions and rebuked comparisons to Nazi Germany, making the odd assertion of Nazis that “they were keeping the Jews from leaving the country.”
  66. More than 600 United Methodist clergy and church members brought church law charges against Sessions for the zero-tolerance policy of separating migrant families, accusing him of violating the Book of Discipline.
  67. Sessions is charged under church law with child abuse, immorality, racial discrimination and “dissemination of doctrines contrary to the standards of doctrine of the United Methodist Church.”
  68. On Wednesday, longtime Republican strategist Steve Schmidt said he is leaving the GOP, saying it “is fully the party of Trump,” adding the family separation is “connected to the worst abuses of humanity in our history.”
  69. Schmidt encouraged the “repudiation of Trump and his vile enablers in the 2018 election by electing Democratic majorities.” On Friday, conservative George Will penned an op-ed, “Vote against the GOP this November.
  70. On Thursday, a spokesperson for IAC confirmed the media and internet company will no longer run ads for HomeAdvisor or Angie’s List on Ingraham’s show over her migrant comments.
  71. Politico reported that millennials in Washington DC who work or worked for Trump are finding themselves ostracized, heckled on the street and struggling to get a dates. They instead gather in a small social circle.
  72. On Friday, press secretary Sanders was asked to leave Red Hen, a restaurant in Virginia. Sanders tweeted that she was asked, “to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left.”
  73. On Tuesday Brad Parscale called for the firing of Sessions and the end of the Mueller probe, tweeting “You can’t obstruct something that was phony against you The IG report gives @realDonaldTrump the truth to end it all.”
  74. On Wednesday, Trump held a rally in Duluth, Minnesota, reminiscent of his 2016 campaign rallies, including crowd chants of “Build that wall!” and “Lock her up!” and “USA! USA! USA!” and “Drain the swamp!
  75. Trump aired his grievances of being wronged by the media, saying he deserved more credit for a long list of items including the North Korea summit, the size of his crowds and the economy.
  76. According to a NPR fact checks, Trump told false or misleading statements on a number of topics including immigration, North Korea, trade, the economy and the Justice Department inspector general report.
  77. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Kansas tossed out Kris Kobach’s proof-of-citizenship voter laws, saying it is unconstitutional to require people to prove their U.S. citizenship before they can vote.
  78. The judge also sanctioned Kobach, ordering him to take a legal class on the rules of evidence or procedure. Kobach represented his office and was the lead attorney in the case.
  79. On Tuesday, deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin said he is leaving the White House. Hagin has served in every GOP administration since Ronald Reagan’s and played a key role in organizing Trump’s Singapore summit.
  80. On Tuesday, Trump rescinded an Obama-era policy that protected oceans and the Great Lakes, instead putting a new emphasis on “industries” that use the oceans, particularly oil and natural gas drilling.
  81. On Tuesday, the Rhode Island State Senate voted 34–3 for a bill to require candidates on a presidential ticket to release tax returns going back five years. The bill now goes to the House.
  82. On Tuesday, Pompeo abruptly canceled a Senate briefing scheduled for Wednesday on the North Korea deal struck by Trump and Kim Jong-un, which Trump had hailed as a breakthrough.
  83. On Friday, in a letter to Congress, Trump said North Korea’s “provocative, destabilizing, and repressive actions…continue to constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat,” reversing his statements of last week.
  84. AP reported that nine months after Hurricane Maria thousands of people in Puerto Rico are still living under tarps or plastic sheets. FEMA and local agencies do not know how many roofs still need to be replaced.
  85. On Wednesday, Intercept reported that, according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, Environmental Protection Agency Chief Scott Pruitt has spent $4.6 million on security, an increase of $1.1 million from a disclosure one month ago.
  86. On Monday, CNN reported a bus company employee in Maine told passengers they needed to be U.S. citizens in order to ride the bus after Customs and Border Protection agents spoke to bus company employees.
  87. On Sunday, Dallas Morning News reported Jose Nunez of the Bexar County Sheriff’s Department was arrested for sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl and threatening her mother with deportation if she told authorities.
  88. On Tuesday, the DHS said 2,342 children have been separated from their parents since last month. In Friday of Week 83, DHS had given a number of 1,955.
  89. On Tuesday, AP reported the Trump regime is sending babies and young children forcibly separated from their parents to at least three “tender age” shelters in South Texas.
  90. A fourth shelter planned for Houston would house up to 240 children in a warehouse previously used for people displaced by Hurricane Harvey. The shelters are operated by contractor Southwest Key Programs.
  91. Lawyers and medical providers who have visited the shelters described play rooms of crying preschool-age children in crisis. Experts warn separation can cause permanent damage.
  92. Michelle Brane, director at the Women’s Refugee Commission said, “There is no model for how you house tons of little children in cots institutionally in our country. We don’t do orphanages, our child welfare has recognized that is an inappropriate setting for little children.”
  93. On Tuesday, following a tip, NY1 shot video at 12:45 a.m. of five girls, accompanied by two Spanish-speaking women, being led into the building where Cayuga Centers, a foster agency in East Harlem, is housed.
  94. On Wednesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said there are 239 immigrant children separated from their parents now in the custody of Cayuga Centers in East Harlem. The youngest is 9 months old.
  95. De Blasio said the children need mental health assistance and physical help. Some children arrived with lice, bedbugs, chicken pox and other contagious illnesses — and have not been in touch with their families.
  96. On Tuesday, Houston Chronicle reported flight attendants say they were unknowingly transporting migrant children. One observed children ages four to 11 with faces full of fear, confusion, sadness and exhaustion.
  97. Another flight attendant was lied to by an ICE agent who said the children on the flight were part of a soccer team. When pressed, the agent finally admitted that they were being relocated to assigned camps.
  98. On Wednesday, American, Frontier, Southwest and United airlines issued statements saying they refused to fly immigrant childrenseparated from their parents for the federal government.
  99. On Wednesday, Texas Tribune reported children held at the Shiloh Treatment Center, a contractor that houses immigrant minors, described in a lawsuit being held down and forcibly injected with drugs.
  100. On Wednesday, Detroit Free Press reported a foster care program received more than 50 “petrified” migrant children who landed in the middle of the night after being separated from their families.
  101. The average age of the children was 8 years old and included babies. Some have not been able to speak to their parents for more than 30 days. The program has received children since 2017, but since zero-tolerance there are more children and they are younger.
  102. On Wednesday, the Red Cross responded to questions on why it was not helping at the southern border, tweeting the Trump regime has not given the organization “access to places of detention for migrants.”
  103. On Wednesday, Trump told reporters “We have to maintain toughness, or our country will be overrun by people, by crime,” but his wife felt strongly about separating families, saying “Anybody with a heart would feel this way.”
  104. Trump spoke to reporters from a room where he was discussing migrant family separations. Trump drew criticism as reporters shared the photo of all white men at the table (one women was in the room, not at the table).
  105. Later on Wednesday, following a firestorm of protest from opponents and allies, Trump signed an executive order ending his regime’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents.
  106. The executive order was published online at WhiteHouse.gov, then taken down after the public noticed the word ‘separation’ was misspelled: “Affording Congress an Opportunity to Address Family Seperation.”
  107. Trump has previously in Week 83 and this week repeatedly falsely claimed that Democrats were to blame for separating families and said they were separated because of “Congress’s failure to act” and “court orders.”
  108. The executive order requires the detention of whole families together and directs Sessions to file a request to modify the Flores Settlement to allow migrant children to be held longer than 20 days.
  109. On Thursday, reminiscent of Trump’s Muslim ban, confusion ensued as federal agencies were left to interpret the sudden changes in the executive order and to figure out how to implement them.
  110. On Thursday evening, officials held a meeting to grapple with the different understandings of how to proceed. Sources said Trump’s main goal was to lessen the public controversy surrounding separated families.
  111. On Thursday, WAPO reported although government officials say they have given detained parents a flier with a toll-free number for the Office of Refugee Resettlement, lawyers say none of their clients have received one.
  112. Lawyers say they have called the number and often no one answered. When someone did pick up, the person refused to offer details of where children had been taken or offered only vague statements like within the U.S.
  113. Lauren Dasse, an immigration lawyer and advocate, said she saw a five-month-old baby held in immigration detention with three of his siblings. The mother is in a detention center several states away.
  114. On Wednesday, Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland of human rights watchdog Council of Europe, citing events on the U.S. southern border, said Trump is “no longer the moral leader of his country or the world.”
  115. Council of Europe is an international human rights organization with 47 signatory states. Jagland is also one of the five members of the committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize, an award Trump has openly coveted.
  116. On Wednesday, Sen. Bill Nelson accused the Trump regime of trying to hide what’s going on, after he was denied access to a detention facility in his home state of Florida and told he needed to give two weeks’ notice.
  117. On Thursday, at least 10 states led by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said they plan to sue the Trump regime over the separation of migrant children as a result of its zero-tolerance policy.
  118. On Thursday, the governor of Virginia ordered an investigation of abuse claims by children at Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center, an immigration detention facility, after AP reported on a federal lawsuit against the center.
  119. In six sworn statements, Latino youths held for months or years at the said they were beaten while handcuffed, locked up for long periods in solitary confinement, and left nude and shivering in concrete cells.
  120. The children were accused of belonging to violent gangs, including MS-13. A manager told Congress the children did not appear to be gang members and were suffering from mental health issues resulting from trauma endured in their home countries.
  121. On Friday, Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade showed his support from Trump’s zero-tolerance policy, saying “these aren’t our kids,” adding, “it’s not like he’s doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas.”
  122. AP reported after a threat for ransom or his life in El Salvador, Blanca Orantes-Lopez and her 8-year-old son came to the U.S. She is now in a prison in Seattle and he is in the custody of a children’s home in upstate New York.
  123. She did not get to say goodbye and has not been able to talk to or see him. DHS claims they must remove children before they can prosecute the parents, but many like Orantes-Lopez remain separated long after being convicted.
  124. NBC News reported according to HHS, the cost of holding migrant children in newly created “tent cities” is $775 per person per night, more than placing them in permanent structures or keeping them with their parents.
  125. The facility used by ICE in Portland, Oregon was shut down after days of protests and a blockade in response to Trump’s zero-tolerance policy. One person was arrested.
  126. On Tuesday, Vanity Fair reported Michael Cohen hired Guy Petrillo, who served as the chief of the criminal division in the Southern District of New York from 2008 to 2009, to represent him in his criminal case in the Southern District,
  127. On Tuesday, WSJ reported Cohen filed to foreclose on a $3.8 million loan to a French investor who bought him out of a Manhattan condominium transaction on October 18, 2016, two weeks before it was due.
  128. At the time, Cohen was trying to come up with $130,000 to pay Stephanie Clifford for her silence. Cohen was supposed to pay Clifford on October 14. He eventually paid her on October 27 through Essential Consultants.
  129. On Tuesday, WSJ reported Cohen has told associates he wants Trump to pay his legal fees, saying he is frustrated Trump is not and that the fees are “bankrupting” him. Cohen says Trump owes him for his years of loyalty.
  130. On Wednesday, Cohen resigned as deputy finance chair of the Republican National Committee’s Finance Committee, citing not being able to give “attention and dedication” with the Mueller and SDNY investigations.
  131. Cohen also criticized Trump’s policy of separating families, saying, “children should never be used as bargaining chips,” for the first time distancing himself from Trump.
  132. On Wednesday, WSJ reported Manhattan federal prosecutors have subpoenaed American Media Inc., publisher of the National Enquirer for records related to its $150,000 payment to Karen McDougal.
  133. Investigators are probing potential efforts by Cohen to suppress damaging information about Trump during the presidential campaign and whether he coordinated with AMI to not publish her account.
  134. On Thursday, WAPO reported National Enquirer executives sent digital copies of the tabloid’s articles and cover images of Trump and his political opponents to Cohen during the presidential campaign, before publication.
  135. Trump and David Pecker, owner of AMI, are very close. Trump reportedly suggested stories to Pecker on a regular basis, including one about Hillary Clinton’s health. AMI also publishes Us Weekly, the Globe and Star.
  136. On Friday, an order by Judge Gregory Woods in the SDNY said of the 300,000 items reviewed so far, 161 are privileged and seven are communications between Cohen and a client, confirming findings of the special master.
  137. Roughly 3.7 million items seized from Cohen are still under review. Judge Woods ordered Cohen’s lawyers to identify for the special master by June 27 any remaining items they believe are privileged.
  138. Miami Herald and McClatchy reported buyers connected to Russia or former Soviet republics made 86 purchases totaling $109 million at 10 Trump-branded properties in South Florida and New York City,
  139. The purchases were made in cash and almost all were purchased by using shell companies designed to obscure their identities — both factors raising concern of possible money laundering.
  140. On Thursday, Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the US District Court for the District of Columbia denied a request by Manafort to suppress evidence seized by Mueller’s team from a storage unit.
  141. On Friday, Manafort’s attorney asked Judge T.S. Ellis III in Virginia to bar any mentions of Manafort’s ties to Trump, arguing his alleged crimes happened before working for him and that it may influence jurors.
  142. On Friday, Mueller’s team asked the judge to bar Manafort from arguing he’s a victim of vindictive prosecution and from telling jurors that the government investigated Manafort years ago, saying both are false.
  143. Guardian reported Adam Waldman, a U.S. lobbyist for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska since 2009, visited Julian Assange nine times at the Ecuadorian embassy in London during 2017, more than any other visitor.
  144. On Thursday, the White House proposed a radical overhaul of the federal government in a 132-page plan. The Trump regime said it plans to shake up what one official called a “nonsensical” bureaucracy.
  145. Under the plan, the Departments of Education and Labor would merge, other agencies’ responsibilities would consolidate, and there would significantly less regulation of industries.
  146. The plan also proposes to privatize the U.S. Postal Service and Federal Aviation Administration, eliminates more than a third of the U.S. Public Health Corps and would result in a massive sale of government properties.
  147. There would also be a consolidation of safety-net programs, placing every domestic program for poor families and children under a single welfare authority. Foreign aid and development programs would restructured.
  148. On Friday, in a tweet, Trump threatened to impose 20 percent tariffs on all cars imported from the European Union. Trump’s tweet sent shares of BMW, Volkswagen, Fiat Chrysler and Mercedes-maker Daimler all lower.
  149. On Thursday morning, before a vote on a House immigration bill, Trump questioned the purpose of it, tweeting nine Democrats in the Senate would be needed, and “Dems are only looking to Obstruct.”
  150. The House then voted down an immigration hardliner bill by Bob Goodlatte 193–231, which included funding for Trump’s wall but no path to citizenship. There are 42 more Republicans than Democrats in the House.
  151. On Thursday, first lady Melania Trump boarded a plane on her way to Texas to visit a detention center for migrant children, wearing a coat that read, in white capital letters on the back, “I really don’t care. Do U?
  152. In response to the negative reaction, Trump tweeted that the words on the jacket refer “to the Fake News Media. Melania has learned how dishonest they are, and she truly no longer cares!”
  153. On Friday, in a series of tweets, Trump pushed Republicans to delay voting on the second immigration bill, saying “Republicans should stop wasting their time” until after midterms, saying “Dems are just playing games.”
  154. Rep. McCarthy said the House will vote on an immigration compromise bill next week, despite Trump’s tweets. Another member of the House noted Trump “changes his mind often” so it makes sense keep working.
  155. On Friday, Trump also tweeted to buy Fox News host Jeanine Pirro’s new book,  “’Liars, Leakers and Liberals, the Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy,’” which is fantastic. Go get it!”
  156. On Tuesday, in an open letter, more than 100 Microsoft employees said the company should stop working with ICE, which has been separating migrant families, calling the practice “inhumane.”
  157. The National Park Service approved an initial request for a second “Unite the Right” rally to take place across the street from the White House in August. Last year’s rally Charlottesville resulted in a death and injuries.
  158. On Thursday, WAPO reported that according to lawmakers and a Defense Department memo, HHS officials asked the Pentagon whether it can provide housing for up to 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children.
  159. The housing would be on military bases and “for occupancy as early as July through December 31, 2018.” Per the memo, the sites would be run by HHS employees or contractors working with them.
  160. On Friday, TIME reported according to a copy of a draft memo obtained for the Navy Secretary’s approval, the U.S. Navy is preparing plans to construct sprawling detention centers to house migrants.
  161. Housing for roughly 119,000 migrants is proposed, including “temporary and austere” tent cities to house 25,0000 at abandoned airfields just outside the Florida panhandle near Mobile, Alabama.
  162. The memo also proposes a camp for roughly 47,000 people at former naval weapons station near San Francisco, and 47,000 people at Camp Pendleton, the Marines’ largest training facility in Southern California.
  163. On Thursday, Sessions told CBN News “the American people don’t like the idea that we are separating families. We never really intended to do that.” When Sessions announced zero-tolerance on May 8, he promised separation.
  164. Sinclair Broadcasting’s “must run” segment on family separation showed Boris Epshteyn saying the media and Trump opponents are claiming those who “are tough on immigration are somehow monsters.”
  165. Epshteyn told viewers “a lot of it is politically driven by the liberals in politics and the media” and credited Trump’s executive order for ending family separation, without mentioning Trump was responsible for it too.
  166. On Friday, Trump held an event at the White House with Angel Families, his name for “the American victims of illegal immigration,” who stood behind him holding poster-sized photos of their deceased relatives.
  167. Trump told the media, “you never hear this side,” and said, “These are the American citizens permanently separated from their loved ones…Permanently…Because they were killed by criminal illegal aliens.”
  168. After the event, Trump autographed the photos of deceased young people being held up by Angel Families who stood behind him.
  169. Studies of immigration patterns reveal a large majority of areas have many more immigrants today than they did in 1980 and fewer violent crimes.
  170. On Friday, Fox News tweeted “Migrant Children & Gang Membership — Oct 2011-June 2017,” from Border Protection officials citing, “.02% of all children detained (56 out of 250,000) had ties to MS-13.”
  171. On Saturday, Intercept reported on Debora Barrios-Vasquez, who lived in Mamaroneck, New York but took sanctuary in a church in New York City with her 2-year-old daughter for fear of being separated by ICE
  172. Barrios-Vasquez addressed reporters at the church to highlight that ICE is ripping parents away from young children every day all across America at home, in court, while working and at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services marriage-based interviews.
  173. On Friday, the U.N. Human Rights office said Trump’s new executive order, “may lead to indefinite detention of entire families in violation of international human rights standards.”
  174. The office also said the new policy does not go far enough, saying placing immigrant children in detention centers harms their development and “may amount to torture.”

If
The United States of America saw what
The United States of America is doing
The United States of America would invade
The United States of America.

– shared with permission from anonymous, who served in the U.S. Armed Forces for 14 years

The Weekly List podcast is here! You can find more information here by clicking here.

THE LIST — weeks 1–52 of The Weekly List is out as a book! You can order your copy by clicking here.

Copyright Amy Siskind, June 23, 2018

New Tent Camps Go Up In West Texas For Migrant Children Separated From Parents
Children and workers are seen at a tent encampment recently built near the Tornillo Port of Entry on June 19, 2018 in Tornillo, Texas. The Trump regime is using the Tornillo tent facility to house immigrant children separated from their parents after they were caught entering the U.S. under the administration’s zero-tolerance policy.