In other news, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to hand over records that may prove administrator Scott Pruitt has conflicts of interest.
Meanwhile, the White House says Trump was joking when he thanked Vladimir Putin for kicking American diplomats out of the country. I'll buy that for a dollar.
Finally, the Flying Monkey Caucus wants to use a discharge petition to force another vote for full repeal of Obamacare. They need 218 signatures to do it. I don't think they would even have 218 votes if they voted again.
There was an ass-ton of news this week. Here are some other stories I didn't get to:
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is still insisting in court that the long-debunked Planned Parenthood black market fetus videos are justification for defunding the organization.
A judge has also thrown out a lawsuit filed by Ken Paxton that sought to preemptively have the state's anti-immigrant "papers please" law declared constitutional.
Representative Buddy Carter (R-GA) says the government shouldn't provide funding to clear rape kit backlogs in pro-immigrant sanctuary cities.
The Pro-Trump Mercer family is funding a campaign to remove Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) from office.
Right Wing scam artist James O'Keefe may have scammed himself right into legal trouble. Again.
Uber investors are suing to remove former CEO Travis Kalanick from the company's board. Kalanick was ousted after a string of embarrassments, including the revelation that company executives passed around the medical records of a rape victim who sued the company.
Buzzfeed purchased some of the supplements and other pseudo-science products sold by Alex Jones and sent them to a lab for testing. The results won't surprise you.
Mexico and Brazil are reportedly in talks for forming their own defense treaty thanks in part to Trump's insanity. Isn't this part of the plot of Escape From LA?
Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has been fined by the Office of Government Ethics for late reporting of financial transactions.
Speaking of son-in-laws, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's son-in-law is reportedly cooperating with federal investigators.
Trump adviser and anti-immigrant, anti-cosmopolitan, Islamophobic nutcase and Slenderman-cosplayer Stephen Miller apparently lives in an apartment complex that was built in compliance with Sharia Law.
CityCenterDC was built to conform to the principles of Islamic law, or Sharia. According to the New York Times, this means no banks allowed at CityCenterDC–due to Sharia’s prohibition against charging interest–which happened to mesh nicely with the original developers’ vision anyway. Thus, Qatar’s $620 million investment came entirely in the form of equity rather than a loan. Establishments focused on selling alcohol were also a non-starter.
When the rules were initially reported, right-wing blogs went apoplectic and the City Paper itself voiced concerns about how bars–a D.C. necessity–were considered haram by CityCenter’s development group.
Whoops.
Have a good weekend.