Last week the failure in Hanoi and Michael Cohen’s triple play certainly kept us occupied. However, there was much, much more. In the following paragraphs I’d like to cover a few other events. Let’s explore.

Probably the most concerning news was that Trump directly intervened in getting his son-in-law Jared Kushner top secret security clearance even after career professionals denied it. Trump’s action was so egregious that then-Chief-of-Staff John Kelly and then-White House Council Don McGahn memorialized their objection for posterity (and to cover their posteriors).

The Israeli Attorney General announced that he would soon indict Benjamin Netanyahu, the sitting Prime Minister of Israel, for crimes committed while in office. The crimes Netanyahu is about to be charged with are very similar to offenses Donald Trump has committed. In his youth, when Netanyahu visited New York City he stayed with Jared Kushner’s family. Most people credit Kushner for getting Chris Christie fired as head of the transition in retaliation for Christie having convicted his father when Christie was a United States Attorney. There are a lot of dots to connect there.

It was reported that the United States was making the parents of children we seized at the border pay for the plane flights to reunite the children with their parents who had already been sent back to their country of origin. In other words, the American government kidnaps your child and then makes you pay a ransom to get them back. I find that not only un-American but disgusting!

One of the “highlight” of Wednesday’s House hearing was when North Carolina Republican Mark Meadows almost had a stroke protesting that he had been called a racist after he used a black woman as a prop. (Yes, I agree with Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib’s analysis of the spectacle.) Does that also mean that Meadows was not being a racist during a 2012 Tea Party rally where he called for sending President Obama back home to Kenya? Meadows, like Trump, may not be a racist (no, I don’t believe that analysis) but they both do a good job of blending in with racists. Do you see a “birds of a feather” theme so far?

Trump claimed to have a great relationship with the family of Otto Warmbier. Warmbier was the American student who was arrested in North Korea, imprisoned, tortured and returned to the United States in a coma only to die in a matter of less than a week. Trump loves to take credit for freeing him from Kim Jung-un’s North Korea. In a post-summit interview Trump contended that he believed Kim when he told him he knew nothing about Warmbier’s imprisonment. He later complained that the media had misinterpreted his remarks. This smacks of his actions in Helsinki with reference to Vladimir Putin. He either has remarkably poor judgement, loves despots or both. Whatever happened to America first?

In a statement over the weekend it seems the Warmbiers have a different opinion on Kim’s culpability in the death of their son. Of course, they don’t have the benefit of having a love affair with the North Korean despot.

The Republican Senate movement to enable Trump and harm America was alive and well again last week. Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, was confirmed as EPA Director by a 52-47 vote. All 52 votes to confirm were cast by Republicans, (Republican Susan Collins voted nay and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema did not vote).

Sometime in the not that distant future Trump will leave the White House but the stain he has blemished America with will remain for decades. (We have never fully recovered from Ronald Reagan.) Trump’s nominee for the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals, Eric Miller was confirmed 53-46 with Collins voting along with the rest of the Republicans and Sinema absent. The problem here is that another norm was broken. Traditionally home state Senators have to turn in a blue slip (a Senate term for a “consent slip”) before a nominee advances to the floor for a confirmation vote. Neither Patty Murray nor Maria Cantwell did so and in fact both voted against Miller. With the filibuster removed the blue slip was the last mechanism that built any type of consensus. This is a lifetime appointment. Is it asking too much for a nominees’ home state Senators agree with advancing to a vote?

Both the summit failure and Cohen’s testimony were important but there was much else of significance that went on while we were watching those shinny objects.

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