Friends, I won’t lie to you – it was very, very hard for me to synthesize the news this cycle. This is a rough time for many Americans, between present horrors and the specter of next year’s election, and I don’t see that improving anytime soon. But I am here, and I will continue to try to make it bearable, and I will continue to call for us to exercise our humanity. As Elie Wiesel said, “I continue to cling to words because it is up to us to transform them into instruments of comprehension rather than contempt.”
Standard standing reminders still apply: I may be rounding out my seventh year of journalism, but I summarize news within my areas of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a continuance!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!
Cleanup in Aisle 45:
We continue to run 45 stories on the Election Rejection front, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Here’s what has happened since last time:
- 45 Court Cases. Trump’s court cases and 2024 campaign continue to co-exist, which is graduating from entertaining to terrifying. He may have managed to get the Mar-a-Lago document case delayed, though I don’t believe that has been finalized as I type this. (Of course, several colleagues have already taken deals in the Georgia election case, so I’m not sure how much time this will buy him.) We also saw the reappearance of his gag order in the January 6 case, and yet another violation of a different gag order in the New York civil case. But probably the most sensationalized 45 case story is the Trump family testimony in the New York fraud case, which went about as well as you might expect. Meanwhile, lawsuits to bar Trump from the 2024 ballots due to any of the above sank in Minnesota and are ongoing in Colorado, so we likely will still have to deal with his election campaign. Which is not great, because he is leading in the polls in several places and what passes for his platform is truly disturbing.
Meanwhile, the Biden Rebuilding front is really more the Why Is the House Like This front this cycle. Here’s what I have for you:
- A House (and Senate) Divided. Though we do have a House speaker again (and he sure is a piece of work), things are still a mess over there. Perhaps due to his gladhandling the Freedom Caucus, there are still no tenable funding bills as we near the end of our 45-day stopgap, and it seems shutdown is a real possibility again. Meanwhile, the Senate spent this cycle stalling out military promotions (Republicans) and highlighting all of Clarence Thomas’s rampant corruption (Democrats), which led to SCOTUS issuing a hollow ethics code. Finally, Joe Manchin announced that he was retiring but possibly also running for President? (Your guess is as good as mine on that one.)
Your New Normal:
- More Normal Election News. We did have a federal election this past Tuesday, which was something of a mixed bag. In Mississippi, several majority Black districts apparently ran out of ballots during the gubernatorial race, which may have contributed to the Republican incumbent’s victory. Meanwhile, several secretaries of state were sent sketchy substances via mail. In more positive news, abortion rights were preserved in several states, including through a ballot initiative in Ohio. We also saw an exonerated Central Park Five member win a seat on city council, the first Black RI federal Senator, and the first openly trans Southern state senator.
The Bad:
- Watching the War Fallout. As Israel continues its assault on Gaza, with both the UN and WHO expressing concern about civilian casualties and the effect on hospitals, the U.S. sees ripple effects. in both foreign policy and domestic issues. Though Biden has called for humanitarian pauses several times, this has mostly been both ineffective and criticized by other world leaders. (That said, we did see four-hour pauses last week, which has allowed some refugees to get out.) Here in the U.S., in Chicago, a six-year-old was fatally stabbed because he was Palestinian, and in Indianapolis a woman drove her car into a building because she believed it was an Israeli school. Several college campuses have reported a rise in antisemitism, while several academics have also reported losing their jobs because they posted support for Palestine. And our nation’s only Palestinian-American elected official, Rashida Tlaib, was censured by the House this week after multiple calls to vote. The first call, incredibly, came because Marjorie Taylor Greene decided that Tlaib’s support of Jewish calls for a cease-fire constituted an antisemitic “insurrection.” The second and successful call was due to Tlaib sharing protest footage with the chant “from the river to the sea,” which Jewish Americans commonly regard as a call for a single Palestinian state. In her defense on the House floor, she noted, “The cries of the Palestinian and Israeli children sound no different to me. Why? What I don’t understand is why the cries of Palestinians sound different to you all.” Needless to say, this is an incredibly difficult and frightening time to be Palestinian or Jewish in America.
The Good:
- Recent Labor Wins. We had several additional favorable strike settlements this cycle. The UAW reached a deal with GM, ending a six-week auto strike with record wage increases. And SAG-AFTRA reached a deal last Thursday, marking the end of an incredible 118-day strike with protections against AI and another significant wage increase. Progress!
So that’s what I have for you, and I think we can agree it was more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this porcupette guitar solo and a more functional government. I’ll be back next time with more restructured and improved news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more hours in the day!
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