Timeline of Fucked Up News: January 2018

In 2018 I began keeping a log of fucked up news stories in an effort to avoid becoming accustomed to how fucked up everything is. This is the log for January.

You may also be interested in the log for February.

January 2

• Trump taunts Kim Jong-un on Twitter, bragging that “I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his”.
• Trump takes credit for the fact that 2017 was the safest year on record for the aviation industry.

January 4

• The Trump administration announces plans to allow offshore oil and gas drilling in nearly all US coastal waters, despite strong opposition from state governors.
• Trump ordered White House counsel Don McGahn to stop Attorney General Jeff Sessions from recusing himself in the Russia investigation in March 2017.
• Attorney General Jeff Sessions alters DOJ policy to encourage aggressive enforcement of federal anti-marijuana laws even in states that have legalized marijuana.

January 6

• The SEC launches an investigation into Kushner Companies, Jared Kushner’s family’s real estate company.
• Trump tweets that his two greatest assets “have been mental stability and being, like, really smart”.

January 9

• The Trump administration announces it will end the Temporary Protected Status designation for El Salvador, which means 200,000 El Salvadorans living and working in the US since the 2001 El Salvador earthquakes must leave the country by September 9, 2019.

January 11

• In a bipartisan meeting about immigration in the Oval Office, Trump says “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” and “Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out.” before suggesting the US should instead bring more people from countries such as Norway.
• Trump tweets his opposition to FISA Section 702 while watching Fox and Friends just hours after the White House had officially announced support for Section 702. He later posts a followup tweet to try to walk back his previous statements.

January 12

• Trump tweets a denial of his reported comments about Haiti. Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) confirms that Trump used the term “shithole” and said “things which were hate-filled, vile and racist”.
• The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump’s lawyer paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about a sexual encounter with Trump that took place in 2006.

January 13

• An erroneous early-morning alert warns Hawaiians of an impending ballistic missile attack. It takes the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency nearly 40 minutes to revoke the accidental alert. Their spokesperson explains that “someone clicked the wrong thing on the computer”.

January 14

• Republican senators David Purdue (R-GA) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) say in interviews that they never heard Trump say the word “shithole”, despite initially saying they couldn’t recall what he said. It later emerges that they told the White House they heard Trump say “shithouse”, which they then used as grounds to claim that Senator Durbin was lying about the word “shithole”.

January 16

• Three B-2 bombers were deployed to Guam, joining six B-52s in a show of force against North Korea. The B-2 bomber is the only US bomber capable of carrying nuclear gravity bombs.
• Nine out of 12 members of the National Park System Advisory Board resign, saying that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had refused to meet with them (or even convene a single meeting) in 2017.

January 18

• Trump exercised executive privilege to restrict the testimony of former White House political strategist Steve Bannon before the House Intelligence Committee.
• Porn star Stormy Daniels told a political consultant in 2009 that Trump had her spank him with an issue of Forbes magazine.

January 19

• Deutsche Bank notified regulators of suspicious transactions related to accounts used by Jared Kushner’s family business.

January 20

• The Republican-controlled Senate and White House refuse to pass a short-term spending bill, causing a government shutdown. Democrats want Republicans to extend protections for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients. Most Republicans also say they want to extend DACA, but Congressional Republicans refuse to do so unless Democrats offer concessions including anti-immigration policies and $18 billion for a Mexico border wall.
• Trump tries to take credit for today’s Women’s March, which is in protest of him.
• Trump appointee Taylor Weyeneth, deputy chief of staff of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, is revealed to have provided fraudulent job, education, and volunteer work histories on his résumé. His only professional experience after college was working on the Trump campaign and transition.

January 21

• Trump appointee Carl Higbie, chief of external affairs for the Corporation for National and Community Service, resigns after recordings surfaced in which he made racist and homophobic statements.

January 22

• Attorney General Jeff Sessions reportedly pressured FBI Director Christopher Wray to fire Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, of whom Trump has been critical.
• Trump imposes steep tariffs on imported solar panels and washing machines, despite strong objections from most of the US solar industry. The Solar Energy Industries Association says this could result in the loss of more than 23,000 US jobs and billions of investment dollars.

January 23

• A shooting leaves 2 dead and 18 injured at Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky.
• In a meeting at the White House shortly after he fired FBI Director James Comey, Trump asked acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe who he voted for in the 2016 election.
• Kimberly-Clark says the savings from the Republican tax bill will help them lay off over 5,000 people and sell or close 10 manufacturing facilities.

January 24

• Thawing arctic permafrost may lead to the awakening of ancient carbon dioxide- and methane-producing bacteria, leading to an unstoppable global warming feedback loop. This may already be happening in Alaska.
• Attorney General Jeff Sessions may have instructed federal prosecutors to consider reopening investigations related to Hillary Clinton, despite having recused himself from all such matters.

January 25

• Trump ordered White House counsel Don McGahn to dismiss special counsel Robert Mueller in June of 2017, but backed down after McGahn threatened to resign.

January 26

• Trump launched a campaign to discredit three specific FBI officials who were likely to be witnesses against him in the Mueller investigation.
• Republican National Committee finance chairman Steve Wynn is accused of sexual assault and harassment by dozens of people, going back several decades. Wynn hosted a fundraiser for Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago just a week ago.
• Hillary Clinton refused to fire her campaign’s faith outreach adviser, Burns Strider, after he was repeatedly accused of sexual harassment in 2008.

January 27

• RNC finance chairman Steve Wynn resigns after allegations of decades of sexual misconduct were reported by the Wall Street Journal.
• Trump tweets an admission that the entire purpose of his DACA proposal was to be rejected by Democrats so he could blame them.

January 28

• Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke failed to disclose that he holds shares in a Montana gun company that frequently does business with the government. He has met with company representatives while in office.

January 29

• FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is stepping down and will formally retire in March. The White House claims the president “wasn’t part of this decision-making process”.
• A day after he fired FBI Director James Comey, Trump told McCabe to ask his wife “how it feels to be a loser”.
• The Trump administration announces it will not impose sanctions against companies and countries doing business with blacklisted Russian defense and intelligence entities because it believes sanctions are unnecessary.
• Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee vote to release the controversial “Nunes memo” alleging surveillance abuses by the FBI and Department of Justice, despite warnings from intelligence officials that doing so would harm national security. They vote not to release a rebuttal memo written by Democrats that Democrats say corrects falsehoods and distortions in the Republican memo.
• 59 people who were arrested during protests at Trump’s inauguration are still in limbo, charged with felonies but not yet tried in court.

January 30

• The Hawaii emergency management employee who sent a false missile alert on January 13 thought there really was a missile headed for Hawaii. He misheard a recorded message that was played during an unscheduled drill. The part of the message he did hear included the phrase “this is not a drill”.
• The White House refuses to reveal who writes Trump’s speeches, instead saying that “when President Trump communicates with the American people, his words are his own and come directly from his heart.” Sources say this is because Trump hates the implication that he doesn’t write his own speeches.
• Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) refuses to say whether he worked with the White House in crafting the anti-FBI “Nunes memo” that Republicans voted to release on January 29. Nunes has previously lied about not working with the White House on issues related to the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia inquiry.
• The head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service visited Washington, D.C. despite being on a US government blacklist and met with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and other US intelligence officials.
• Baltimore police officers routinely planted drugs on suspects, stole cash from drug dealers, and carried toy guns to plant in case they shot an unarmed person.
• Trump’s campaign website solicits donations by promising donors their name will be displayed onscreen during the site’s livestream of Trump’s State of the Union speech.

January 31

• Trump asked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein if he was “on my team” in a December meeting at the White House, just before Rosenstein was set to testify to the House Judiciary Committee.
• Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) accuses Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) of sending the White House an altered version of the “Nunes memo” that differs from the version the House Intelligence Committee voted to release.
• Federal cash reserves will run out faster than expected due to the Republican tax plan, leaving the government unable to pay its obligations unless the debt ceiling is raised by March. The new law will lead to a revenue decrease of $136 billion in 2018.
• Trump appointee Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald resigns as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the worst flu epidemic in nearly a decade. She had purchased stock in tobacco and pharmaceutical companies even after becoming head of the CDC.