141 DAYS AND COUNTING…

The slow pace of the Trump government’s response to family reunifications is tragic:

Kids still separated from their families:

As of Sept. 13: 211 — 6 under age five

As of Sept. 20: 182 — 6 under age five

Of those, separated because the US government deported their parents without them:

As of Sept. 13: 165 — 5 are under five

As of Sept. 20: 141 — 5 are under five

Closing the Borders

Last week, Trump launched a new attack on legal immigration to the United States.  From The New York Times:

“President Trump plans to cap the number of refugees that can be resettled in the United States next year at 30,000, his administration announced on Monday, further cutting an already drastically scaled-back program that offers protection to foreigners fleeing violence and persecution…

“The number represents the lowest ceiling a president has placed on the refugee program since its creation in 1980, and a reduction of a third from the 45,000-person limit that Mr. Trump set for 2018.

“The move is the latest in a series of efforts the president has made to clamp down on immigration to the United States, not only through cracking down on those who seek to enter the country illegally, but by making it more difficult to gain legal entry.”

There’s More

Trump is also seeking to add more limitations on otherwise lawful immigration to the US. The Washington Post reports, “[T]the foreign born population uses public benefits at virtually the same rate as native-born Americans.” Nevertheless, “the Trump administration will make it much more difficult for immigrants to come to the United States or remain in the country if they use or are likely to use housing vouchers, food subsidies and other ‘non-cash’ forms of public assistance, under a new proposal announced Saturday by the Department of Homeland Security…

“[T]the proposed changes amount to a broad expansion of the government’s ability to deny visas or residency to immigrants if they or members of their household benefit from subsidies like Medicaid programs, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Section 8 housing vouchers.”

Who gets hurt? Kids and their families:

“’This would force families — including citizen children — to choose between getting the help they need and remaining in their communities,’ said Diane Yentel, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. ‘The last thing the federal government should do is punish families that have fallen on hard times for feeding their children or keeping a roof over their heads and avoiding homelessness.’”

To Stop Stephen Miller, Dethrone Trump

The principal architect of Trump’s immigration policies is Stephen Miller. If his policies had existed in 1903, Miller’s great-grandparents would not have gained entry into the United States: “While Miller has advocated for limiting legal immigration to individuals who speak English and would ‘assimilate’ easily,” according to Business Insider, “his great-grandmother spoke only Yiddish when she arrived in the US.”

As for Miller’s boss: “Trump is the son, and grandson, of immigrants: German on his father’s side, and Scottish on his mother’s. None of his grandparents, and only one of his parents, was born in the United States or spoke English as their mother tongue.”

Calling America as a nation of immigrants isn’t rhetoric. it’s real.

If you blinked, you might have missed the most important Trump-Russia story of last week: Former top Trump adviser K. T. McFarland “revised” her prior statement to federal investigators. McFarland’s revision — acknowledging a prior misstatement only after Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn revealed her earlier lie — could have landed many people in prison. For now, she may have dodged that bullet.

But remember this caveat applicable to any news report about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation: The underlying leaks aren’t coming from Mueller’s team. In other words, the latest report about McFarland’s “revision” — which suggests that she is not a target of Mueller’s investigation — merits just a bit of skepticism.

The Flynn/McFarland Timeline

McFarland’s situation proves that flipping Flynn posed a very big problem for Trump. Here’s a brief summary of highlights that emerge when applying the McFarland and Flynn name filters simultaneously to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

Nov. 25, 2016: Trump names McFarland — a senior member of his transition team — to become deputy national security adviser, reporting to NSA-designate Mike Flynn.

Dec. 28-29, 2016: President Obama imposes new sanctions against Russia for election interference, and Flynn has a series of communications about them with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Flynn tells Kislyak that he hopes Russia will not escalate the situation.

Dec. 30, 2016: Putin announces that he will not retaliate in response to the new sanctions.

Dec. 31, 2016: After speaking with Kislyak, Flynn transmits the good news about Russia’s restraint to “senior members” of Trump’s transition team, most of whom are meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. At the center of those Flynn-transition team communications is K. T. McFarland. McFarland’s contemporaneous email exchanges on the subject go to chief of staff-designate Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, and Sean Spicer.

Jan. 4, 2017: Flynn and his attorney inform transition team counsel and White House counsel-designate Don McGahn that Flynn is under federal investigation.

Jan. 13, 2017: McFarland calls The Washington Post to rebut its story that Flynn had multiple conversations with Kislyak on Dec. 29, 2016 — the day President Obama had announced new sanctions against Russia for interfering with the US election. Her memory of her interactions with Flynn around that time were vivid, she says. And, McFarland insists, Flynn did not discuss the subject of sanctions with Kislyak.

Jan. 13, 2017: Responding to questions about Flynn’s December 28-29, 2016 communications with Kislyak, press secretary-designate Spicer says that Flynn had only one conversation with Kislyak and it related to logistics for a Trump-Putin call after the inauguration.

Jan. 15, 2017: Mike Pence, who chaired Trump’s transition team, tells a national television audience that Mike Flynn’s communications with Kislyak had nothing to do with sanctions.

Jan. 22, 2017: Spicer reiterates that none of Flynn’s December 28-29, 2016 conversations with Kislayk touched on sanctions against Russia.

Jan. 24, 2017: In an interview with the FBI, Flynn denies discussing sanctions with Kislyak on December 28-29, 2016.

Jan. 26, 2017: Acting Attorney General Sally Yates informs White House counsel McGahn that Flynn lied to the FBI about his December 2016 conversations with Kislyak.

Feb. 8, 2017: Flynn again denies talking to Kislyak about sanctions on Dec. 28-29, 2016.

Feb. 9, 2017: Flynn now says he can’t be sure that the subject of sanctions did not come up in his December conversations with Kislyak.

Feb. 13, 2017: Flynn resigns.

Feb. 14, 2017: Trump tells FBI director James Comey that he hopes Comey can see his way clear to “letting Flynn go.”

Now Focus On McFarland

Summer 2017: FBI agents question McFarland about her knowledge of Flynn’s Dec. 28-29, 2016 communications with Kislyak concerning the new sanctions against Russia. McFarland denies ever talking to Flynn about sanctions.

Dec. 1, 2017: Flynn pleads guilty to lying to federal investigators about his conversations with Kislyak regarding sanctions. Not only does Flynn admit to having such discussions on Dec. 28-29, 2016, but he also says that he spoke with a “senior official of the presidential transition team” about them. Reports identify McFarland as that senior official.

Shortly after Dec. 1, 2017: Federal investigators circle back to McFarland about her knowledge of the Flynn-Kislyak sanctions discussions on Dec. 28-29, 2016. This time, rather than reassert her earlier denial of any awareness of such discussions, she says that Flynn’s general statement to her that things were going to be okay could have been a reference to sanctions.

Feb. 2, 2018: After Trump nominates McFarland to become US ambassador to Singapore, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says that she must resolve the discrepancies between her earlier statements denying any awareness of the Flynn-Kislyak discussions with her emails and other facts set forth in Flynn’s guilty plea — all of which suggest she knew that Flynn and Kislyak were discussing sanctions on Dec. 28-29, 2016. McFarland withdraws her nomination.

Potentially prominent catches in McFarland’s tangled web: Reince Priebus, Don McGahn, Steve Bannon (who received copies of forwarded McFarland emails), Mike Pence.

Here’s a complete list of this week’s updates to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

JULY 5, 2016: Steele Contacts FBI About His Trump Findings; They Languish in FBI NY Office for Weeks (revision of previous entry)

JAN. 13, 2017: K. T. McFarland Calls WaPo to Rebut Column on Flynn

SUMMER 2017: FBI Agents Question K.T. McFarland

SHORTLY AFTER DEC. 1, 2017: K.T. McFarland Walks Back Denial

FEB. 2, 2018: McFarland Withdraws Nomination

THROUGHOUT SEPTEMBER 2018: Cohen Talks to Mueller, NY State Authorities

NEW: SEPT. 7, 2018: Credico Appears Before Mueller’s Grand Jury; Corsi Initially Bows Out, But Appears Two Weeks Later (revision of previous entry)

SEPT. 17, 2018: Trump Orders Russia Investigation Material Declassified; Warner Concerned About Trump Pursuing Vendettas, Undermining Russia Investigation, Compromising Intelligence Sources

SEPT. 17, 2018: Flynn Ready for Sentencing Hearing

SEPT. 17, 2018: Trump Tweets About Strzok and Lisa Page

SEPT. 18, 2018: Trump Tweets About FISA Warrants

SEPT. 18, 2018: Trump Blasts Mueller’s Team and Sessions: ‘I Don’t Have an Attorney General’

SEPT. 19, 2018: Stone Associate Declines to Testify Before Senate Intelligence Committee

SEPT. 21, 2018: Trump Tweets Soften His Earlier Declassification Order

SEPT. 21, 2018: NY Times: Rosenstein Wanted To ‘Tape’ Trump; Washington Post,Politico, ABC, NBC, CBS: Rosenstein Was Joking

After Paul Manafort‘s guilty plea, the media’s principal focus was the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting that he attended with Don Jr., Jared Kushner, and Russians promising “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. But Manafort’s insights into what transpired at that meeting could be among his least significant contributions to special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.

To understand the breadth and depth of the problems that Manafort’s cooperation could now pose for Trump, Don Jr., Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Mike Pence, Roger Stone and others, use the Trump-Russia Timeline name filter and click on Manafort’s name. In getting Manafort to flip, Mueller has pulled the thread on a sweater that could leave Trump and his closest loyalists naked.

Rudy Strikes Again

Among this week’s entries relating to Manafort’s deal, my personal favorite is Rudy Giuliani’s statement, followed immediately by his effort to walk it back:

“Once again an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump campaign. The reason: the president did nothing wrong and Paul Manafort will tell the truth.”

Minutes later, Trump’s legal team issued a revised statement, saying, “The President did noting wrong”, deleting the phrase “and Paul Manafort will tell the truth.”

Second place goes to Sarah Huckabee Sanders: “This had absolutely nothing to do with the president or his victorious 2016 presidential campaign. It is totally unrelated.”

Earlier in the week, Giuliani said that the Trump and Manafort legal teams had a joint defense agreement whereby they shared information about Mueller’s probe. If Rudy used that communication line to dangle the prospect of pardoning Manafort, things could get far more interesting for Giuliani — and not in a good way.

In Watergate, more than two dozen lawyers learned the hard way that obstruction of justice laws apply to them, too.

Here are the latest updates to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

JULY 9, 2015: Butina Tries to Meet Trump

JULY 11, 2015: Butina Asks Trump About Sanctions at Rally (revision of previous entry)

 JULY 14, 2015: Torshin Asks Butina for Info about ‘Political Candidate 1’ (revision of previous entry)

JUNE 22, 2016: ‘US Person 1’ Suggests Language for Butina Report to Torshin

SEPT. 11 2018: Trump Tweets ‘Zero’ Collusion (Except For Clinton’s Collusion With Russia, ‘Foreign Spies’, FBI, and DOJ); Attacks Strzok, Page, Comey, DOJ, Russia Investigation

SEPT. 11-12, 2018: Judge Postpones Manafort Pretrial Hearing; Trump Lawyers Talking to Manafort Lawyers

SEPT. 12, 2018: Trump Tweets He Engaged in No Wrongdoing, No Collusion

SEPT. 12, 2018: Trump Signs Executive Order on Sanctions; Generates Immediate Bipartisan Criticism

SEPT. 14, 2018: Manafort Pleads Guilty, Agrees to Cooperate with Mueller

SEPT. 14, 2018: Giuliani Responds – Then Revises Response – to Manafort Plea

SEPT. 15-16, 2018: Trump Tweets: ‘Rigged Russian Witch Hunt’, ‘Highly Conflicted Bob Mueller’, ’17 Angry Democrats’, ‘Russian Hoax’, ‘Illegal Mueller Witch Hunt’

Paul Manafort’s plea deal, Hurricane Florence’s destruction, and the controversy surrounding US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh are displacing coverage of what may be the defining tragedy of the Trump administration: America has created orphans.

Here’s the latest report on the families that Trump separated at the border and that a federal court ordered reunited more than two months ago.

Kids still separated from their families:

As of Sept. 13: 211 — 6 under age five

Of the 211, the number of kids still separated because the US government deported their parents without them:

As of Sept. 13: 165 — 5 are under five

Even when the government makes little or no substantive progress toward reunification, the passage of time appears to help its performance metrics. For example, as children turn 18, they age out of the “child” category and move to Justice Department detention centers. Likewise, as kids reach their fifth birthdays, the “under age five” group shrinks.

While holding the government’s feet to the fire, the ACLU is doing what it can to help solve the problem that Trump created.

Trump’s Counterproductive Immigration Policy

The law of unintended consequences is also taking its toll. From The New York Times last week:

“Even though hundreds of children separated from their families after crossing the border have been released under court order, the overall number of detained migrant children has exploded to the highest ever recorded — a significant counternarrative to the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the number of undocumented families coming to the United States.

“Population levels at federally contracted shelters for migrant children have quietly shot up more than fivefold since last summer, according to data obtained by The New York Times, reaching a total of 12,800 this month. There were 2,400 such children in custody in May 2017.

“The huge increases, which have placed the federal shelter system near capacity, are due not to an influx of children entering the country, but a reduction in the number being released to live with families and other sponsors, the data collected by the Department of Health and Human Services suggests. Some of those who work in the migrant shelter network say the bottleneck is straining both the children and the system that cares for them.”

As Trump’s policy deters relatives and family friends in America from sponsoring children, the kids remain in federal custody.

Welcome to Trump’s America.

In the clamor over Bob Woodward’s new book, an anonymous op-ed in The New York Times, and George Papadopoulos’s media tour following his 14-day sentence for lying to the FBI about his 2016 contacts with Russia while a member of the Trump campaign, an important Trump-Russia story got lost: the continuing saga of Maria Butina.

In a brief objecting to Butina’s request to review her bond (and get out of jail pending trial), federal prosecutors provided more details about her efforts to use the NRA and conservative religious organizations as vehicles for pushing pro-Russia policies to particular Republican presidential candidates and the party generally.

Here’s the punchline: In the seven weeks since Butina’s detention hearing on July 18, 2018, the Russian government has conducted six consular visits with Butina and passed four diplomatic notes in her favor to the US Department of State (more notes than for any other Russian citizen imprisoned in the US in the past year). Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has spoken to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo twice to complain about Butina’s prosecution, the Kremlin Twitter account has changed its avatar to Butina’s face, and RT, Russia’s government-funded television network has published numerous articles on its website criticizing Butina’s prosecution and detention.

The 29-year-old former owner of a Siberian furniture store is generating a lot of interest from Russians in high places. Watch this space.

Here’s a complete list of this week’s update to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

JULY 14, 2015: Torshin Asks Butina for Info about Trump

APRIL 23-28, 2016: Torshin Gives Butina Another Task

SEPT. 1-3, 2018: Trump’s Anger Turns to Wray

SEPT. 4, 2018: Trump Denies Calling Sessions ‘Mentally Retarded’ and a ‘Dumb Southerner’

SEPT. 5, 2018: Anonymous Insider Pens Op-Ed on Trump’s Danger

SEPT. 5, 2018: UK Charges Two Russians in Poisoning

SEPT. 7, 2018: Credico Appears Before Mueller’s Grand Jury; Corsi Bows Out

SEPT. 7, 2018: Papadopoulos Sentenced; Trump Reacts

SEPT. 7, 2018: Papadopoulos Breaks Silence; Implicates Sessions

SEPT. 7, 2018: Russia Wants Butina Released

SEPT. 9, 2018: Papadopoulos Says Sessions Was ‘Quite Enthusiastic’ About Trump-Putin Meeting, Kept Campaign Informed

Kids still separated from their families:

As of Aug. 16: 565

As of Aug. 23: 528 — 23 are under age of five

As of Aug. 30: 497 — 22 are under age five

As of Sept. 4: 416 — 14 are under age five

Kids separated because the US government deported their parents without them:

As of Aug. 16: 366

As of Aug. 23: 343 — six are under five

As of Aug. 30: 322 — six are under five

As of Sept. 4:  304 — six are under five

The government now says 199 parents have “indicated desire against reunification,” but it’s becoming clearer that many of those parents were coerced or misled into such “indications.”

Consider this short video clip that puts a name with one of the 199 parents who gave up their kids. It’s the story of a Guatemalan detainee who signed the paper that the government gave him. He hasn’t seen his 15-year-old son in months. But now that he’s armed with a lawyer, he’s headed toward a court hearing on his asylum claim.

You Thought It Couldn’t Get Worse?

A decades-old consent order settling the Flores case imposed time limits for detaining children of undocumented immigrants. That created a problem for Trump’s new zero-tolerance policy.

As The New York Times reports, “The big dilemma facing the administration is what to do about adults who illegally cross the border with children. Families in such cases are typically placed in federally run detention centers that are outfitted to house children and adults together, but [under the Flores order], they can only be held there for up to 20 days.”

Here’s the rub: hearings for the adults facing deportation can take months. Trump’s zero-tolerance policy addressed the Flores dilemma by separating families. Parents went into Justice Department detention centers (jails); kids went into the care of the Department of Health and Human Services.

When public uproar caused Trump to rescind his zero-tolerance policy, he required Attorney General Jeff Sessions to ask the Flores judge to remove the 20-day time limit for detaining children. That effort failed, so now Trump is doing an end run around the Flores order.

On Sept. 6, 2018, the government proposed new rules that would allow it to detain families indefinitely. The Times continues, “The government said it would develop a network of licensed facilities that can humanely shelter migrant families in the months or longer it takes for their deportation or asylum cases to be heard. But it provided scant details on how the facilities would operate, or why the new plan might pass muster with the court when previous attempts to ease limits on migrant children detention have not.”

A Sad Refrain for America

Ironically, in June 2018, the US Supreme Court repudiated the notorious Korematsu decision, which upheld World War II Japanese internment camps. History may not repeat itself, but it may be on the way to rhyming again.

Trump’s newest target is Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Bob Woodward. But for the last month, he focused his ire on a distinguished but relatively unknown 27-year career attorney at the Justice Department. And Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) has aided and abetted the assault.

The attorney is Bruce Ohr, and this week’s update to the Trump-Russia Timeline adds him to the Timeline’s name filter, along with a descriptive “pop-up” bubble. The Ohr filter reveals method in Trump’s apparent madness as he seeks to neutralize yet another important player in the Trump-Russia picture.

As for Nunes, clicking on his Timeline name filter produces entries that reveal why he has tried to kill the Trump-Russia investigation from the outset. With respect to Ohr, Nunes recently went to London seeking help on the Steele-Ohr front from British intelligence heads. Fortunately for the US, they didn’t oblige him.

Why Ohr? The Bottom Line 

When Trump and complicit Republican members of Congress first dragged Bruce Ohr into their assault on the Justice Department and the FBI, it looked like just another distraction aimed at discrediting special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. In fact, far more could be at stake for Trump.

Ohr’s investigative experience makes him an interesting resource on the connections between the Russian mob, Vladimir Putin, and the 2016 election. And Craig Unger’s new best-seller, House of Trump, House of Putin, puts many of those connections dangerously close to Trump’s doorstep.

Roll the tape

The current Trump-GOP narrative is that Bruce Ohr’s contacts with Christopher Steele were part of a vast conspiracy to undermine Trump’s presidential candidacy. The undisputed facts now refute that narrative. They also reveal why Trump has a special interest in squelching Ohr.

1991: Ohr becomes an assistant US attorney in Manhattan. Coincidentally, the office’s jurisdiction includes the Trump Organization, which is headquartered there. In 1999, Ohr moves to the Justice Department headquarters in Washington where he specializes in combating the growing influence of the Russian mob internationally. Among Ohr’s special topics of concern: organized crime and money laundering.

2007: For the first time, Ohr meets Christopher Steele, who runs the MI6 Russia desk for British intelligence. Like Ohr, Steele is concerned about the growing international impact of the Russian mob. For years, they continue working together on that common enemy. Their common pursuit has nothing to do with Trump’s presidential campaign, which didn’t begin for another eight years.

NOVEMBER 2014: Ohr and Steele (who now heads his own private investigation firm) discuss the possibility of persuading Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska to become an informant on Russian organized crime. Again, that is before Trump announces his presidential bid in June 2015.

SEPTEMBER 2015: Ohr and other American officials meet with Deripaska, who rebuffs their recruiting effort.

JULY 2016: Steele tells Ohr that his sources say Russian intelligence has Trump “over a barrel,” presumably meaning that the Russians have compromising material on Trump. But Ohr doesn’t pass along that information to his supervisors, including Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, because Ohr regards it as inflammatory raw source material. Meanwhile, wholly apart from anything Steele has provided, the FBI has already opened a counterintelligence investigation into contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. George Papadopoulos’ statements to an Australian diplomat in May had started that ball rolling.

SEPTEMBER 2016: The FBi again tries unsuccessfully to persuade Deripaska to become an informant — this time on the connections between Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and Putin.

AFTER THANKSGIVING 2016: On Oct. 31, 2016, The New York Times runs a story with this headline: “Investigating Donald Trump, FBI Sees No Clear Link to Russia.” It causes Steele to become concerned that the FBI has not taken his research seriously. After turning first to the press, which breaks the story on what would become the “Steele dossier,” Steele meets with Ohr to discuss his troublesome findings on Trump and Russia.

DEC. 9, 2016: Sen, John McCain (R-AZ) personally delivers a copy of the “Steele dossier” to FBI director James Comey.

Flash forward to August 2018:

— Deripaska is personally subject to US sanctions against Russia.

— Manafort is convicted, faces a second Mueller trial on even more charges, and Trump dangles prospect of pardoning him.

— Ohr becomes Trump’s newest target and the subject of his relentless personal attacks. Trump’s most faithful congressional servant, Nunes, is traveling to London, trying to dig up what he can on Steele and Ohr. Craig Unger releases his new book that outlines the decades-long connections among Trump, Putin’s government, the Russian mob, and Russian money laundering through US real estate.

Something worth remembering about the “Steele dossier”: Many of its most significant findings have now been corroborated. Whether, as the dossier suggests, Putin has a “pee tape” may be the least of Trump’s concerns.

One More Thing…

The biggest underreported story of the week is a line in the Aug. 31, 2018 sentencing memo that George Papadopoulos‘ attorneys submitted on his behalf. At the March 31, 2016 meeting of Trump’s national security team, Papadopoulos said he could arrange a direct meeting between Trump and Vladimir Putin:

“Trump nodded with approval and deferred to [Jeff] Sessions who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it.”

That’s not what Trump has been telling the country for two years. And it’s not what Sessions told the Congress. But the country needs Sessions to remain in place. His recusal put Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in charge of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Rosenstein is committed to protecting the probe; Trump wants to kill it.

There’s no way to overstate the perilous position of American democracy at this moment. Before things get better, they will get worse. Bigly.

Here are the latest updates to the Trump-Russia Timeline:

2007: Steele Meets Ohr

NOV. 21, 2014: Steele and Ohr Discuss Cultivating Deripaska

SUMMER 2015: Papadopoulos Seeks Position in Trump Campaign

SEPTEMBER 2015: Ohr Meets With Deripaska

JANUARY TO MARCH 2016: Carson Campaign Ends; Papadopoulos Renews Request to Work on Trump Campaign

FEBRUARY 2016: Steele Emails Ohr About Deripaska

REVISED: MARCH 31, 2016: Trump Meets With Foreign Policy Advisers (revision of previous entry)

DELETED ENTRY: SPRING 2016: Papadopoulos Presents His Trump Credentials to Foreign Leaders [Superseded by new May 4, 2016 and May 27, 2016 entries below]

MAY 4, 2016: Papadopoulos Tells British Prime Minister to Apologize

MAY 27, 2016: When Putin Arrives in Athens, Papadopoulos Is Already There (revision of previous entry)

JULY 30, 2016: Steele Tells Ohr: Russia Has Trump ‘Over a Barrel’; Carter Page Not Being Candid

SEPTEMBER 2016: FBI Agents Ask Deripaska About Manafort

SOMETIME IN AUGUST 2018: Nunes Seeks British Intelligence Info on Steele and Ohr

AUG. 16, 2018: Manafort Jury Deliberations Begin, Along with Negotiations to Resolve Charges in His Upcoming Trial

AUG. 21, 2018: Manafort Convicted; Cohen Pleads Guilty, Implicates Trump, Has More to Say on Russia (revision of previous entry)

AUG. 27, 2018: Trump Continues to Raise Possibility of Pardon

AUG. 28, 2018: Manafort’s 2^ndTrial Delayed

AUG. 28, 2018: Trump Attacks Brennan and Comey

AUG. 28, 2018: Ohr Testifies in Closed-Door Session

AUG. 28-29, 2018: Trump Repeats False Story About China Hacks Into Clinton’s Private Email Server; FBI Responds

AUG. 29, 2018: Trump Attacks Clinton, Obama, DNC

AUG. 29, 2018: Trump Tweets McGahn’s Departure Without Telling McGahn

AUG. 29, 2018: Manafort Seeks to Move 2^ndTrial to Roanoke, VA

AUG. 29, 2018: Trump Attacks Ohr

AUG. 29, 2018: Trump Attacks CNN; Bernstein Pushes Back

AUG. 29, 2018: Trump Continues to Attack Ohr, ‘Steele Dossier’

AUG. 30, 2018: Trump Blasts CNN, Launches False Accusation Against NBC’s Lester Holt

AUG. 30, 2018: Trump Responds to Reports About McGahn’s Departure, ‘Rigged Russia Witch Hunt’

AUG. 30, 2018: Trump Attacks Comey, Ohr

AUG. 30, 2018: Trump Calls Mueller’s Investigation “Illegal”; Blasts Ohr, Strzok, Lisa Page, Comey, FBI; Implies Sessions’ Days May Be Numbered

AUG. 31, 2018: Ex-Kilimnik Associate Pleads Guilty

SEPT. 1 2018: Trump Attacks DOJ, FBI , ‘Steele Dossier’, Mueller, and More

The latest development in Trump’s immigration policy involves Hispanic citizens whose birth records show they were born in the US decades ago. The Washington Post reports: “[U]nder President Trump, the passport denials and revocations [for individuals delivered by certain midwives and physicians along the US-Mexico border] appear to be surging, becoming part of a broader interrogation into the citizenship of people who have lived, voted and worked in the United States for their entire lives.”

At first, the State Department refused to comment, The Post continues.

“‘The State Department’s domestic passport denials are at the lowest rate in six years for midwife cases,’ said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert in a statement after the story was published.

“But those numbers appear to leave out key data. The State Department declined repeated requests from The Post for additional information.”

Where Are The Kids?

Meanwhile, on Kids Held Hostage Day 120, the US government is making dismal progress in dealing with a Trump-created tragedy that continues to inflict pain on innocent children.

Kids still separated from their families:

As of Aug. 16: 565

As of Aug. 23: 528 — 23 are under age of five

As of Aug. 30: 497 — 22 are under age five

Kids separated because the US government deported their parents without them:

As of Aug. 16: 366

As of Aug. 23: 343 — six are under five

As of Aug. 30: 322 — six are under five

Behind every child separation number is a face and what was once a family. And to the world, the face responsible for this ongoing humanitarian crisis belongs to every citizen of the the United States of America. The ugly image of this self-inflicted wound will shadow all of us for a long time. Other countries don’t allow a miscreant nation and its people to forget this sort of travesty.

And they shouldn’t.