Dutch Shoes And Dutch Ovens. Wonkagenda For Tues., July 3, 2018

The Muslim ban gets worse, Trump's not winning his trade war, and Scott Pruitt does more awful things. Your morning news brief.

Morning Wonketariat! Here's some of the things wemaybe talking about today.

Trump'sMuslim ban  travel restriction on Muslim majority countriesnow includes a reduction in visas granted to people from Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and India, but it does increase visas from Europe.

A federal judge slapped ICE for refusing to follow a 2009 decree that forces asylum decisions to be handled on a case by case basis. Thanks, Obama.

HHS officials in the Office of Refugee Resettlement have no idea what they're doing due to a lack of guidance and support from top Trump officials who don't at all care about meeting a federal court deadline to reunite families separated by the "zero tolerance" policy.

Grumpy old men in the Senate are mulling over plans to "kill" Trump's trade war, creating new rivalries among conservatives forced to consider which principles to sacrifice.

 Corporate America is getting ready to go to war against Trump as his trade war threatens to damage their delicate profit margins. Strange bedfellows, indeed.

During an Oval Office press scrum the Dutch PM bluntly rebuked Trump's suggestion that tariffs would be good for both nations.

This morning Trump has been up and shitposting about MS-13 and North Korea . Meh.

While digging into Scott Pruitt's corruption, investigators in the the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee heard how Pruitt used a minion to find his wife a $200k gig, used senior EPA officials to get that sweetheart deal on rent, and even asked aides to puthishotel reservations ontheirpersonal credit cards. And even Oklahoma Republicans were trying to stop him.

A former EPA official set to testify before Congress says that Pruitt and his aides kept "secret" calendars to hide his controversial meetings, and regularly "scrub" the official records so Pruitt doesn't "look bad."

A young family noticed Scott Pruitt at a DC area restaurant, so the mother grabbed her infant and ruined his meal by complaining about animals and clean water. The nerve of some people! [ Video ]

Someone in charge of the White House Twitter account spent yesterday afternoon shitposting about Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren.

 The National Economic Council is getting shaken up (again) as minions move up the chain of command, and top officials bail out for better gigs down the street.

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott will recommend Rep. Trey Gowdy for SCOTUS. Here's a kitten. 

 Trump will meet with more potential SCOTUS nominees today. None of them are Trey Gowdy.

 The lawyer representing almost all of the Charlottesville Nazis looks and acts like the steamboat captain from a rejected 1930s Disney cartoon. [Rage Warning!]

 Our election systems are pretty fucked as we've neglected to heed the dire warnings of geeks who preached about the need for redundant backup systems.

 Chuck Schumer is under fire (again) after he wasn't able to make a long awaited town hall full of pissed off progressives. Instead, Schumer held a teleconference and urged activists to calm the fuck down, to which activists (more or less) replied, "Say it to our fucking faces."

Arizona's US Senate race is going to be a scorcher this summer as GOP Rep. Martha McSally continues to dodge a barrage of flak in the primary from former state Sen. "Chemtrail" Kelli Ward and ex-con former Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Let them fight! 

Arizona Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Kyrsten Sinema is throwing Chuck Schumer under the bus and forging her own path in her bid to defeat Rep. Martha McSally.

Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan's berating of Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein last week appears to have backfired as his Democratic opponent, retired teacher Janet Garrett, reports a surge in donations immediately following the hearing. [ Donate ]

 The Rhode Island Democratic Party appears to have endorsed a pro-Trump "alt-right" nutcase over a young progressive state rep who pissed off her colleagues by talking about all the boozy shenanigans in the state House.

 Trump has denied a request by Annapolis mayor Gavin Buckley to lower the American flag to half-staff in honor of the five journalists brutally murdered last week. CBS reports that the Capital Gazette has continued to receive death threats in the days following the mass shooting, some of which were from the suspect. 

 A 3-year-old refugee girl in Idaho has died after being attacked at a birthday party by a crazed knife-wielding man who went on a stabbing spree, injuring multiple children. Last night 1,500 people turned out to a vigil honoring the families of the victims. (No, it doesn't seem to have been anti-refugee motivated, just ... ugh.)

After a black family accidentally knocked over a chalice during funeral services the Catholic priest told them to GTFO, and take the body with them. #WWJD?

Awful sex monster Harvey Weinstein is facing MORE charges in New York after a grand jury charged him with an additional count of Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree, and two counts of Predatory Sexual Assault. LOCK HIM UP!

Last month Trump sent nastygrams to NATO allies complaining about their lack of spending on defense, and threatened to "readjust" the US military pressence.

In a bid to keep her government from collapsing amidst a growing nationalist wave, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has caved to immigration hardliners bitching about all theMexicansrefugees pouring into their borders.

New records show Paul Manafort's former colleague Konstantin Kilimnik is suspected of helping Manafort concoct his scheme to brief Russian oligarchs and spies.

New legal filings from Robert Mueller have prompted a judge to haul Michael Flynn in for a court appearance next Tuesday in relation to Flynn's pre-sentencing agreement.

The USPS has been ordered to pay an artist $3.5 million after the USPS stole his "sultry" and "sexier" image of the Statue of Liberty and put it on stamps.

GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE! Using data from a large UK genetics study, The National Cancer Institute thinks drinking more coffee could prolong your life, and it may not matter how you drink it! COFFEE! 

And here's your morning Nice Time! KITTENS!

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