The Events: October 2018

Less than a week away from the midterms, and only time for a final edition of The Events, October. What follows are further clarifications of the system and a summary of the past month.

One of the efforts of The Events is to follow continuing developments on particular issues. For instance, the long running effort of the Trump administration to deter immigrants by denigrating them, separating them from their children, and threatening them with gunfire can be cataloged with a clear pattern of self awareness and escalation.

Some of the events clearly connect to President Donald Trump, but readers might find other connections more tenuous. For example, there is the issue of Khashoggi. Trump did nothing to precipitate this man's death (except continually vilify journalists, thereby allowing other more dangerous dictators in more corrupt countries, to use the President of the United State's words to justify their own atrocities), yet Khashoggi does not make the list for this alone. In this case, Trump inserted himself into the conversation, onto the Event list, by absurdly, grotesquely, insisting that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman is innocent until proven guilty (as if he would ever be tried in a courtroom) and that pulling out of the arms deal with would be too punishing to the United States to hold the murderers accountable.

With that explanation, a quick summary of October 2018.

October began with a conclusion; Paul Manafort's trial was wrapped up and put away. Eventually the public may hear his testimony, but not until at least the end of November. Following Manafort was the end of Kavanaugh's time on the hot seat. Flake insisted on a FBI background check (during which the President mocked the accuser at his rallies), but the investigation was limited by the White House, and did not even include an interview with Kavanaugh or Ford. After the short search, the FBI issued a secret report the public did not see, and the Senate confirmed him.

During the middle of the month it was revealed that a Saudi citizen and United States resident (and fiance to a United States citizen), named Jamal Khashoggi, was murdered at the Saudi embassy in Turkey, where he had gone to receive papers for his upcoming marriage. The Saudi's denied it, the President strongly supported their denial. He offered two reasons. The first, they were innocent until proven guilty, and the second, he didn't care, even if they executed the murder.

The middle of the month was punctuated by Mitch McConnell informing the public that government programs for the poor, not the 1.5 trillion dollar tax cut for the wealthy and corporations, was responsible for the ballooning deficit even with a booming economy.

Everything else in the month was overshadowed by the president's continuing migrant crisis, which has festered. Even though news of the massive family separation has receded from view, it has continued. Worse, the president has escalated the issue, as a caravan of desperate people, seeking shelter from abuse and violence, fled their central American countries and started moving north toward the United States. The President has used them to incite hatred and anger. He sent 5,000 soldiers to the border, insisted he could revoke birthright citizenship, and threatened to cut aid to foreign countries.

This concluded in a collection of right-wing attacks (at least partially incited by the President) against current and former Democratic politicians (including two former presidents), African Americans, and Jewish citizens. When questioned by the media, the President refused to shoulder any blame or reduce his rhetoric, and instead blamed the media, as the enemy of the people.

Also during October there were credible accusations of corruption against Zinke, Trump, Kushner, Tillerson, and Wilber Ross.

Two major stories remained largely unremarked upon, and failed to break into the news cycle despite their significance. First, the New York Times revealed a comprehensive examination of how the President made his money. Most of it was gifted from his father in a combination of both legal (but shady) and illegal maneuvers. Two, Politico reported that many days the President works only three hours, with nine hours reserved for unstructured Executive Time, which involves watching TV and composing lying, inciting tweets.

In the last two weeks before the election Trump has done the impossible and increased the quantity and quality of his lies. Particularly galling is Trump's attempts to lie about the Republican position of preexisting conditions. Though Republican policy has been for the last eight years to remove protections, the President and some of his allies are claiming the exact opposite. His increased incitement of hatred against a ragtag group of travelers seeking legal asylum is unprecedented as well.

Here is the link to The Events of October 2018.

We'll see on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning how the citizens of the United States of America respond.

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