Author: Kara Hurvitz

Hi there! If you're reading this, you're probably wondering who I am and why you should listen to me. (It's a fair cop.) So here's a little about me: I'm an advocate, educator, and activist with degrees in law and social work. By day, I help people access needed health care and health care coverage. By night, I fight crime--nah, just kidding; I write the NNR and related essays. Why the NNR? Well, I want to do everything I can to help folks stay informed, connected, and empowered during this difficult time, and this project lets me put work I already do to good use. Plus, I get to snark about the news and current administration. Everyone wins!

Year 3, Week 44 (November 17-23)

November 25, 2019November 26, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This week’s public hearings were absolutely bonkers, and the fallout created was no better. The next few weeks are likely to be a wild ride that requires our careful attention–I’ll keep folks posted to the extent that I’m able. And for readers who want to go over the news with a fine-toothed comb, the Impeachment Inquiry page on the WTFJHT forum remains a great resource.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not an ethics probe!–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!

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

Somehow, Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo news was even more bombastic than last week, with a similarly full hearing schedule and some truly game-changing testimony. It’s a lot, so bear with me:

Tuesday: Fourteen Hours Thus.* Tuesday was a very full day, with Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, Vice Presidential adviser Jennifer Williams, former U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, and former NSC official Tim Morrison all on the roster. There were some important moments of testimony–in particular, Volker changed his testimony to say there was quid pro quo and he now sees that the Burisma Holdings investigations were really looking into Hunter Biden, which feels like foreshadowing for the rest of the week. Similarly, Vindman provided important information despite some pretty personalized antagonism.

Wednesday: Thrown Under the Bus.* Early testimony was quickly overshadowed on Wednesday when U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland shoved half the Trump administration into the path of the oncoming Impeach Express. Most notably, Sondland added Vice President Mike Pence to the list of public officials that were “in the loop” about an intentional quid pro quo campaign–and that will likely have lasting inquiry implications. Wednesday afternoon also saw testimony from Defense Department official Laura Cooper and State Department official David Hale; though less sensational, the testimony confirmed more about the timing of Ukraine receiving the quid pro quo request.

Thursday: Ukraine’s Not After Us.* On Thursday, NSC member Fiona Hill and State Department official David Holmes testified. Hill in particular took no prisoners, taking the GOP to task for advancing Russian narratives and portraying Ukraine as an enemy. Additionally, both witnesses further clarified the timeline of events and provided more evidence that Trump was in on the entire thing. Less urgently, Thursday also featured an amusing live C-SPAN call that isn’t breaking news but is worth watching anyway.

It’s Friday, Drafting Slog.* At the end of the week, the impeachment inquiry had crystallized into an extremely strong case for several impeachable offenses, and the Intelligence panel has chosen to move forward with drafting the final report despite stonewalling from several would-be witnesses. Once the Intelligence Committee findings have been summarized, the resulting report will go to the House Judiciary Committee, which will begin drafting articles of impeachment. (Intelligence Committee head Adam Schiff has indicated he expects this to happen shortly after Thanksgiving.) Meanwhile, chaos abounds as everybody tries to prep for the inevitable articles–in the Senate, both sides of the aisle are thinking about how to plan the trial, which has the White House weirdly jazzed because they hope to turn it into a kangaroo court and make Joe Biden testify.

Unsurprisingly, this week’s Disregard of Governing Norms has a lot of ties to the impeachment circus itself, but there was at least one big, unrelated story that should really be getting more press. Here’s what I have for you:

Administrative Anger Response. There were a number of eye-raising activities from the Trump camp as the week wore on, but some particular lowlights stood out: 1) Lindsey Graham appears to have launched a probe into the Bidens, presumably at Team Trump’s request; 2) Trump entertained the two moderate Republicans most likely to waver at the White House (though at least it wasn’t Camp David); 3) Trump held a scattered press conference with his new bestest bud Magic Marker Notes, prompting this Internet Ramones video and a lot of raised eyebrows; and 4) News trickled out about Pompeo’s plan to run for the Senate, which is particularly wild given the news below.

Nunes News and Pompeo Press. Giuliani associate and all-around sketchball Lev Parnas flipped to the side of impeachment this week. In the process, he disclosed that ranking Intelligence Committee member Devin Nunes was apparently involved in the Ukraine scandal his committee’s been investigating–so that was a quick trip to an ethics investigation. As one Twitter user put it, “So through weeks of hearings, while Rep Nunes sat there getting increasingly sullen and cranky and sad sack in his public statements he in fact was part of the effort the committee was investigating.” Meanwhile, an ethics group released documents further implicating Mike Pompeo, who apparently had repeated direct contact with Rudy Giuliani during the whole affair.

War Crime Pardon Party (cont). Trump’s sketchy war crimes pardon party from last week continues to pay miserable dividends, with Trump insisting that the Navy cannot remove SEAL qualification from one of the men who was pardoned. Since the Navy isn’t especially noted for being chill about pictures with corpses, and they’re also supposed to be in charge of their own qualification system, they did not take kindly to this interference. Eventually this standoff culminated in Secretary of Defense Mark Esper firing his own Navy Secretary because the man wouldn’t cede the call to Trump.

Your “Normal” Weird:

2020 Election Chaos. Well, 2020 election news remains chaotic and strange, but at least it makes good SNL fodder. Wednesday’s debate came and went, with no obvious upsets afterwards (though of course that could change at any time). In other predictable news, Mike Bloomberg finally announced his candidacy, giving people from New York yet another embarrassing politician on the national stage.

Stopgap Shuffle. Congress passed another stopgap bill via CR this week, funding our federal systems and staving off a government shutdown for now. Since Trump signed the bill on Friday, that’s November sorted. Unfortunately, the bill only lasts until 12/20, so we’ll be back here again this time next month. If this year goes anything like last year, we’re not out of the woods just yet; I’ll keep folks posted on what happens when the next deadline rolls around.

The Bad:

Corruption in the Middle East.Current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement this week saying that Israeli settlements in the West Bank somehow don’t violate international law, which reverses over four decades of official U.S. policy. Several outlets are referring to this statement as “a gift to Netanyahu,” which is both accurate and particularly galling when Netanyahu became the first sitting Prime Minister to be indicted for corruption in the same week. So essentially, we have a guy under investigation for corruption reversing four decades of established policy to give another guy under investigation for corruption the green light to continue violating an international peace treaty. Regardless of your opinion of Palestinian occupation, this type of lawlessness erodes our institutions on a very fundamental level, and it’s not okay.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. We had some awesome court cases this week, I’m happy to report. The retrial of Scott Warren, who faced criminal charges for giving food and water to migrants at the southern border, ended in another not guilty verdict–gosh, can’t imagine why juries keep refusing to convict this guy for his humanitarian aid. And just today, a federal judge issued an emphatic opinion that White House attorney Don McGahn must be compelled to testify, noting that “absolute immunity . . . simply does not exist” and “Presidents are not Kings.” (She also compared the administration’s logic to that in the George Orwell book Animal Farm, which tells you how Extremely Done this district court judge was.) And on the subpoena end, Rudy Giuliani’s firm is being investigated as part of a much broader corruption probe in Manhattan.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can all agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve these foxes chillaxin‘ and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) 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 reprieve from the cruelty of linear time!

Year 3, Week 43 (November 10-16)

November 18, 2019November 26, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Impeachment public hearings began this week, and I could easily write ten pages of analysis just on those two hearings alone–increasingly, it looks like Democrats are playing Battleship while Republicans are playing Deuces Wild. We’re due for a lot more of the same this upcoming week, so we’ll have to see what kind of impact the hearings have over time. In the meantime, there’s already a lot to puzzle over.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a women’s soccer team!–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!

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

Another week, another very full card of Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo, which continues to dominate the news cycle. Since we had three days of testimony and six witnesses, it’s getting a bit crowded down there, so this week’s news is separated out by day:

Wednesday: Witness Back-to-Back.* The first open impeachment hearings took off at a full gallop; Ambassador William Taylor and deputy assistant to the State Department George Kent definitely did not disappoint. Taylor disclosed new information–a second phone call overheard by his aide that directly tied Trump to the push to politically pressure Ukraine–apparently brought to us by Sondland continuing the Team Trump tradition of making sensitive phone calls in crowded restaurants. (Though Taylor’s info was second-hand, a second staffer came forward and corroborated with a firsthand account the next day.) Taylor also confirmed that Trump prioritized a Biden investigation over aiding Ukraine. Meanwhile, Kent confirmed that Giuliani led a smear campaign against ousted ambassador Marie Yovanovitch as part of a larger effort to ‘gin up’ investigations. The testimony was so credible and damning that Nancy Pelosi started referring to the Ukraine push as ‘bribery’ by the next day.

Friday: Sudden Tweet Attack.* Yovanovitch testified directly in Friday’s public hearing while the aide Taylor identified, David Holmes, was in a closed door deposition doing the same. Holmes apparently gave credible enough testimony behind closed doors that he may be added to the public hearing roster, so we should keep an eye on that. In the public hot seat, Yovanovitch described experiencing a smear campaign as Trump smeared her on Twitter in real time–highlighting the difficulties faced by career staffers under Trump and making Schiff mutter about witness intimidation. All told, it was a day so bizarre and grueling for Yovanovitch that it ended with Congress applauding her when she stepped down.

Saturday: Deposition Track.* Saturday was another closed deposition, but it featured the first budget official who actually showed up to testify, and he agreed that withholding aid from Ukraine sure seemed sketchy to him. The House also released transcripts of several more depositions ahead of next week’s public hearings, which will be another packed schedule–but the whistleblower remains excused for now, despite significant GOP efforts to the contrary.

As in previous weeks, Disregard of Governing Norms somehow continues on despite the impeachment circus also happening. Here’s what I have for you:

Like a Lying Stone (cont). Professional sleazeball Roger Stone was found guilty of all seven counts at the end of his trial this week, with charges ranging from witness tampering to lying to Congress to obstruction of justice. Stone makes the sixth Trump associate convicted of actions related to the Mueller investigation, and he faces up to 50 years in prison if the sentences are consecutive–let me tell you, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer oligarch. Now that the Stone trial has rolled on by, the tea leaves are suggesting that the next Trump associate to be prosecuted will be Rudy Giuliani, and I’ll keep folks posted on that.

Stephen Miller vs SPLC. The Southern Poverty Law Center issued a report this week that analyzed emails from Stephen Miller to discuss his ties to white nationalism. The White House countered by claiming that it’s antisemitic to say that Miller is a white nationalist because he’s Jewish. It is this Jewish author’s considered opinion that it is more antisemitic to be a white nationalist, and Stephen Miller’s own emails suggest he quite clearly qualifies. So, y’know, takes one to know one.

War Crime Pardon Party. Despite everything else going on this week, Trump still found time to pardon two service men who were charged with murdering unarmed people and a third convicted of posing with a corpse. The pardons went against the advice of the Pentagon, which wanted to maintain accountability and preserve chain of command–for some reason, they thought it was important to have ‘functional military tribunals’ with ‘predictable outcomes’ that ‘prevent rampant war crimes.’ All three of the men pardoned, incidentally, were white men originally charged with murdering people of color, and in other breaking news water is wet.

Your “Normal” Weird:

2020 Election Chaos. 2020 election news continues, and continues to be weird. Bloomberg still hasn’t officially entered the race as I type this, but he sure did just so happen to apologize for his extremely unpopular stop-and-frisk policies as mayor of New York in the early 2000s. Meanwhile, Deval Patrick did formally announce he plans to run, and speaking as an MA resident who lived through the Patrick era, I cannot overstress how much this is the solution nobody needed. Completing the bland candidate trifecta, and illustrating why neither of these rich dudes’ services are required, a poll in Iowa suggests Pete Buttigieg is now leading in the primary.

Your Semi-Annual Trump Physical Nonsense. Trump visited the Walter Reed Medical Center this week, which he is passing off as part of his yearly physical–but the trip didn’t follow protocol and was several months ahead of schedule. (Good luck getting your insurance company to cover two annual physicals in a nine-month period if you’re as healthy as Trump claims to be.) Some outlets have begun opining that we need a second opinion on his health–which is probably true for a lot of reasons, honestly–but with this administration, his head could be falling off and we’d still just get an announcement that “the President is in perfect health.” So we’re unlikely to see more on the matter.

The Bad:

Immigration Updates. This wasn’t exactly a great week for immigration. ICE was in the news for holding a record number of unaccompanied minors in detention–almost 70,000, to be precise. (I don’t even know where to begin on how horrifying that is; kids aren’t supposed to be in custody long-term at all, which means ICE basically failed to do its job nearly 70,000 times in 2019.) The administration also proposed dramatic fee hikes for immigration paperwork, including the country’s first-ever asylum fees. Though the proposed asylum fee is deplorable–freedom from persecution should not have a price tag–the naturalization fee increase of 83% is also particularly noteworthy, because it would force residents to pay over a thousand dollars to experience full safety from deportation. And speaking of deportation, the DACA case went before the Supreme Court, where conservative justices appeared to signal they plan to end the program (though we’ll know more when the order issues).

Senate and School Shootings. In a stunning display of poor governing and worse timing, Senate Republicans stalled out a responsible gun law on Thursday as yet another school shooting in California killed two people and wounded four more. The proposed legislation would have required universal background checks for private gun sales, and passed in the House earlier this year. Needless to say, this remains an excellent time to call your reps and tell them to ask the Wizard for a heart and/or a brain.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. There were a fair number of good court cases again this week. A federal district court found that the U.S. violated the Fourth Amendment by searching people’s phones for no reason at U.S. ports of entry. The DC appeals court reiterated that Trump has to turn over his financial records to Congress, refusing to rehear the case, though Trump is appealing to SCOTUS on that one. Speaking of SCOTUS, they refused to dismiss a case brought by Sandy Hook parents against gun manufacturers. And in the sports world, the U.S. women’s national soccer team was also granted class status in their gender discrimination lawsuit this week, which will significantly broaden the scope of the suit. So that’s pretty exciting as well!

2019 Election Aftermath (cont). In the final gubernatorial election of the season, Louisiana’s election went to the Democratic incumbent, who threw traditional Southern shade at Trump in his victory speech (saying “As for the President, God bless his heart”). Louisiana is the second red state this month to ignore Trump’s strong endorsement and elect a blue governor–officially, even, since Kentucky’s GOP candidate conceded this week. Some analysts are supposing that these victories will cause Republicans to stop mindlessly backing him during impeachment proceedings, and we can only hope.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can all agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve these beautiful portraits of fruit and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) 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 reprieve from the cruelty of linear time!

Year 3, Week 42 (November 3-9)

November 11, 2019November 13, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Somehow, it simultaneously feels like the impeachment inquiry has been going for ten years and five minutes–and so far we’ve only been climbing to the top of that first roller coaster drop. This week marks a turning point in the investigation nonetheless, as we transition from closed-door testimony to public hearings and start that wild freefall chaos. I’ll do my best to keep us all hanging on, though I make no promises about how stomach-turning it’s about to become. If you want to drink from the info fire hose, I also strongly recommend the impeachment archive run by the WTFJHT community!

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a public hearing–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!

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

Another week, another full card of Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo–but this week both sides are beginning to take things public, which does change some dynamics. Here are the latest updates:

Impeachment Inquiry Updates.* A number of transcripts of Congressional hearings became available this week, and they are about as damning as you might expect: 1) Former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch‘s testimony outlined efforts to oust her with more specificity than her opening statement; 2)Former AmbassadorKurt Volker‘s testimony indicated that the prosecutor Biden pushed to remove never even investigated Hunter Biden; 3) Former EU Ambassador Gordan Sondham‘s initial testimony was joined by a “supplemental declaration” that reversed his earlier claim and admitted to quid pro quo, claiming prior testimony had “refreshed his recollection”; 4) National Security Council member Alexander Vindman‘s testimony further implicated Mick Mulvaney when read in full; and 5) Former John Bolton aide Fiona Hill‘s 400-page testimony revisited Bolton’s wariness of quid-pro-quo and featured a blow-by-blow of the GOP gatecrashers. The next step of the official inquiry is open Congressional hearings, which are scheduled to begin on November 13–and if the last few weeks are any indication, they will prove fascinating viewing.

Administrative Anger Synopsis.* As the House investigation pushes for more transparency, the GOP has mostly responded with varying levels of “you can’t make me.” First there’s Lindsey Graham, who has decided to deal with the transcripts above by refusing to read them. We also saw John Bolton semi-politely decline to show up for a deposition, reiterating that he’ll need a court to say it’s legal (or at least a subpoena). Meanwhile, current chief of staff Mick Mulvaney chose to hide behind the lawsuit as well, dodging a subpoena and ticking off Bolton in the process. Trump failed to talk his attorney general into holding a press conference to announce he broke no laws. And Senate Republicans want to use the impeachment inquiry to investigate the Biden family and the whistleblower, because clearly that’s the real scandal here.

As in previous weeks, Disregard of Governing Norms somehow continues on despite the impeachment circus also happening. Here’s what I have for you:

Like a Lying Stone. Roger Stone’s trial on whether he lied to Congress kicked off this week, marking the last legal moments of the Mueller era. Though it has been flying somewhat under the radar amid all the impeachment hoopla, it doesn’t appear off to a great start for Stone–he got food poisoning during jury selection and asked to be excused. Then Steve Bannon and beleaguered radio host Randy Credico testified, and Stone probably started missing the food poisoning. Oh, and poor Judge Jackson, who has already had to deal with quite a lot on this case, had to order the jury not to watch the Godfather because Credico referenced it too many times.

Trump Court Cases. Speaking of court cases, 45 currently has enough lawsuits going on for 45 people, and we saw news on a bunch of them this week. He announced his plan to appeal last week’s 2nd Circuit decision that requires him to cough up tax returns, because a case described by the ruling judge as “repugnant to the nation’s fundamental structure and constitutional values” is definitely worth the Supreme Court’s time and attention. Of course, even as he announced this, a DC federal judge dismissed his lawsuit about how he didn’t wanna cough up said tax returns and told him to go file it in New York. Meanwhile, he was personally fined $2.8M after admitting that he used Trump Foundation donations–which were supposed to go to veterans, I might add–to fund his 2016 political campaign. And E Jean Caroll, who alleges that Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room, is now suing him for defamation due to the insults he lobbed while denying her allegations.

Trump Bad Book Tour. There also has been a lot of wild news this week about how the people working directly with Trump think he’s 25th Amendment bonkers. A new book by “Anonymous,” apparently the same Anonymous who wrote an op-ed about resisting inside the Trump administration, details cabinet members desperately trying to sew the Emperor some clothes. Anonymous even claims they contemplated a mass protest resignation (though, as the news cycle would suggest, this didn’t happen). At the same time, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N Nikki Hadley promoted her own book by noting senior cabinet officials asked her to “undermine” the President for the country’s own good. Though it’s not exactly news that Trump is volatile and makes bad decisions, it does seem noteworthy that multiple people are literally on book tours about it the year before an election cycle.

Your “Normal” Weird:

2020 Election Chaos. Presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke dropped out of the 2020 election this week, conceding that he lacked momentum (and hopefully redirecting his energies towards another Senate bid). Apparently former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg decided this meant there was a vacancy, because he’s now rumored to be planning to run. Meanwhile, former Alabama senator Jeff Sessions is making a bid for his old seat, airing a Trump-friendly political ad that some pundits found painful after Sessions’s years of mistreatment as Attorney General. (I would be remiss if I did not note that Jeff Sessions, who penned some extremely appalling policy during his tenure as AG, gets very little sympathy from me personally.)

The Bad:

Climate Policy Polarization.* Trump began the process this week of formally leaving the Paris climate accords, a move which is deeply frustrating even though the withdrawal won’t be finalized for at least a year (and a subsequent President could undo it fairly quickly). The move feels particularly aggravating given a warning issued by over 11,000 scientists that our planet is facing a growing climate emergency. The scientists cautioned that policy must reflect our changing global needs in order to stave off catastrophic results, suggesting positive changes to carbon emission, population stabilization, and ecosystem disruption. So, basically, all the changes that this administration hates.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. A lot of this week’s federal court news somehow involved Trump, and thus has already been covered, but we did a few other highlights. Most notably, a federal judge blocked a ‘conscience rule’ that would have permitted medical discrimination for religious reasons–a significant victory for those of us who just want to get medical treatment in peace. In the sports world, the U.S. women’s national soccer team was also granted class status in their gender discrimination lawsuit this week, which will significantly broaden the scope of the suit. So that’s pretty exciting as well!

2019 Election Aftermath. Tuesday brought elections many places on the local and state level, and we saw some pretty interesting results! One of the biggest changes happened in Virginia, where Democrats now control all three state branches of government for the first time in over twenty years. In state elections in general, suburbs went much more blue than is traditional in many parts of the country. We also had two gubernatorial elections: Kentucky elected a Democrat governor, though the current governor is refusing to concede, and Mississippi stuck with a Republican ticketfor their own gubernatorial race. The influx of blue makes some speculate that the Equal Rights Amendment may be back on the table, since we were previously only one state shy and Virginia just painted itself blue. Needless to say, this is worth watching.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can all agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this beluga playing fetch and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) 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 impeachment ice cream!

Year 3, Week 41 (October 27–November 2)

November 4, 2019November 5, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

It was Halloween this week, and most of the news was appropriately scary to mark the occasion. Also, like that one type of Halloween candy you hate, impeachment news is turning up on every corner. (Seriously, there has been so much impeachment news that I had to triple-check to make sure I wasn’t somehow missing some regular news. It’s impeachment turtles and decoy policies all the way down.)

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a Twitter ban!–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!

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

This was another incredible week for Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo, which by this point is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the news cycle. Here are the latest updates:

Impeachment Inquiry Updates.* The top of the week featured damning firsthand testimony by Alexander Vindman, a military official who was on the infamous Ukraine call–most notably, Vindman was adamant that the official ‘transcript’ left things out and added things, and that his attempts to correct it were unsuccessful. We also received confirmation from him that the phone call was improperly moved to a highly restricted server. Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi did indeed hold the first impeachment floor vote this upcoming Thursday–which, predictably, passed the resolution put forward along party lines. The House is also trying to get John Bolton to testify, but he indicated this week that he won’t do it without a subpoena. And Tim Morrison, who was a top Russia official of the National Security Council, stepped down ahead of his own testimony, which corroborated much of Taylor and Vindman’s.

Administrative Anger Synopsis.* This week saw yet more poor behavior on the GOP side, and it’s getting hard to separate the misconduct of the administration from the bad behavior it causes in others. The early lowlight was definitely a smear campaign against Vindman, which insinuated that he was a double-agent due to his familial ties to Ukraine. But that got overshadowed quickly by bonkers Nunes news, which featured one of his aides feeding Trump Ukraine-related information without authorization, another aide trying to out the whistleblower, and Nunes himself calling reporters ‘assassins.’ Meanwhile, a canny aide to John Bolton filed a lawsuit asking the court to tell him whether to answer House subpoenas, and several more White House officials just straight-up refused to testify. Then Trump accused Schiff of altering transcripts, following his playbook of accusing other people of things he himself does. Finally, a number of Senate Republicans have started taking the demonstrably false stance that quid pro quo isn’t illegal, which is probably because Trump started bribing GOP senators with campaign funds contingent on their impeachment messaging.

As in previous weeks, Disregard of Governing Norms somehow continues on despite the impeachment circus also happening. Here’s what I have for you:

Goodbye, New York. Trump went ahead and declared himself a resident of Florida this week, saying the quiet part out loud as he did so and insinuating that it was for tax reasons. New York’s governor responded by publicly tweeting, “He’s all yours, Florida” and noting that it was “not like [Trump] paid taxes here anyway.” As if to punctuate the point, the Second Circuit decided today that yes, Trump does have to surrender tax documents to Manhattan’s District Attorney. So that will be a fun jurisdiction argument next week.

Your “Normal” Weird

Twitterpated. Jack Dorsey, the owner of Twitter, announced this week that he wants to ban all political ads from the platform during the 2020 election. This would probably be more noteworthy if Dorsey didn’t routinely let Trump treat Twitter like his own propaganda service, unleashing about 11,000 belligerent tweets in the past three years–though disturbingly, the proposal is still more than Facebook is doing to curb the destructive role social media plays in misinformation spread. It’s hard not to be frustrated with both platforms right now; Twitter is like that aunt at Thanksgiving dinner who keeps feeding her husband beers but still remains marginally better than your uncle, who has been yelling slurs all night.

The Bad

California Wildfires Rage. Trying to stay ahead of the dangerous dry season, California planned electricity shut-offs for a million of its residents. Unfortunately, this didn’t prevent massive wildfires, which firefighters are struggling to contain particularly in the northern part of the state. Throwing, well, gasoline on the fire, Trump is now threatening to cut federal aid to the state–because when there’s a natural disaster, you can definitely fix things by just refusing to do anything to fix it. Not one to take that sitting down, California’s governor promptly replied: “You don’t believe in climate change. You are excused from this conversation.”

Immigration Updates. Immigration news was a bit quieter than average this week, but there was still badness for the books: namely, the administration appears to have extended temporary protected status for El Salvador in exchange for an agreement that curtails asylum claims. Ordinarily, this would be good news, but the administration was responsible for ending the program in the first place, TPS provides less protection than asylum does, and there’s no guarantee the administration won’t be Lucy with the football again in a year. About the best thing I can say is that other vulnerable TPS populations got pulled along for the ride, resulting in a new January 2021 termination date for Haiti, Sudan, Honduras, and Nicaragua as well.

Adoption Discrimination Rule. The Trump administration released a proposed rule this week that would permit adoption agencies to refuse to serve LGBT families, effectively rolling back protections put in place by the Obama administration. The proposal has already been implemented in South Carolina, which got a waiver granted back in the spring, and the ACLU filed a lawsuit around the same time. Since the proposed rule will be subject to a comment period once it officially publishes, which could be as early as next week, now seems a fine time to remind folks that anybody can submit public comments and we’ve seen them have a real effect on other policies in the past year.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. It may have been a strange week, but it was a decent one for court cases. The ACLU successfully curtailed an Alabama law that would fully ban abortion this week, making the procedure again legal in all 50 states. (This is a mixed blessing, since the pro-life strategy at play involves getting the case before the Supreme Court, but it’s still better than leaving the law in effect.) A North Carolina court ruled that the gerrymandered maps cannot be used in the 2020 election, following the blueprint set by Justice Kagan in her SCOTUS dissent as they did so. And a federal court blocked the Trump rule that predicated visas on health insurance, forcing the administration to pause implementation of the new rule for at least a month.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can all agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve studies about rats driving tiny cars and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) 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 court injunctions of 45’s policies!

Year 3, Week 40 (October 20-26)

October 28, 2019October 29, 2019 Kara Hurvitz2 Comments

After a long stretch of weird weeks, the phrase “the news was super weird” begins to lose meaning. But nonetheless, the news was super weird yet again this week–in particular, the impeachment inquiry continues to turn our government into a kindergarten playground. (And I didn’t even get a juice box. I feel so cheated.)

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a fake news!–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!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

This was another incredible week for Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo, which keeps escalating on all sides. Here are the latest updates:

Impeachment Inquiry Updates.* The first volley of the week came when acting ambassador William Taylor, who you may remember as the voice of reason from those texts released a few weeks ago, gave an incredibly damning deposition about a clear quid pro quo that was created with Trump’s explicit buy-in. (By the way, testimony of national security officials is expected to continue into next week.) Meanwhile, in response to White House and GOP shenanigans that we’ll talk more about below, Nancy Pelosi decided to hold the first impeachment floor vote this upcoming Thursday. News also came out that when he resigned, former Chief of Staff John Kelly flat-out told Trump he’d end up impeached if nobody kept him in line. And a judge has just declared the impeachment legal, in case anybody was unclear on that point, and said the Department of Justice has to turn over documents Mueller compiled during his investigation.

Administrative Anger Synopsis.* Trump’s team, predictably, responded to the events above with nonsense of their own. First there was Trump’s statement referring to the ongoing impeachment efforts as “a lynching” in an attempt to divert attention from Taylor’s deposition–and when that didn’t work, Trump simply insulted Taylor instead. Then he called the emoluments clause ‘phony’ even as he withdrew his bid to host G-20. For an encore, his lawyer claimed in appeals court that Trump could shoot someone without punishment, because he’s the President–and I sure hope that isn’t the new impeachment defense strategy. Meanwhile, Giuliani butt-dialed a NBC reporter and talked about Biden and needing cash on his voicemail. And the Justice Department announced that they were handling everything by opening a criminal investigation into their own Russia probe, for… reasons? (I have no idea what they’re even claiming was illegal, to be honest.) Yeesh, after all that, it’s no surprise that Trump got booed at the World Series.

Congressional Assists.* In addition to everything else, Trump has started leaning on the GOP to do something about the whole impeachment thing, which means we now officially have three rings of circus. On Wednesday, a giant passel of Republicans stormed a closed door impeachment deposition, delaying the testimony of Pentagon staffer Laura Cooper for over five hours. The Republicans brought phones with them into a classified room, and at least one of them shared audio, trying to spin the whole event as a Government in the Sunshine reckoning because Democrats won’t let them attend, etc etc. This argument was somewhat undercut, however, by the fact that about half of them were invited to the meeting as members of the committees deposing Cooper–and the phone thing was a serious threat to national security. Meanwhile, Lindsey Graham introduced a resolution condemning the House impeachment investigation, which probably contributed to Nancy Pelosi’s decision to hold a floor vote.

As in previous weeks, Disregard of Governing Norms somehow continues on despite the impeachment circus also happening. Here’s what I have for you:

Shameful Withdrawal from Syria (cont).* As predicted, Trump lifted the sanctions against Turkey this week–because yeah, they’ve only been in place about a week, but everything is cool now that we have a cease-fire that Turkey says isn’t a cease-fire. The changes also mean that Russia is consolidating power in the Middle East, which frankly may have been the plan all along. And Texas senator John Cornyn punctuated the point by noting that Turkey’s planned ethnic cleansing of Kurds means it’s “not . . . a bad idea” to remove American troops. Honestly, every time I think these people can’t get more mustache-twirly, they invent a bigger mustache.

Baghdadi Raid. Trump’s big patriotic moment this week, other than showing up to a Nats game, was a raid in the Middle East that took out a guy we think was ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. A strike against ISIS like this would ordinarily be good news, but Trump is using it to distract from withdrawal from Syria (not great) and he also confirmed with Putin before he even told Congress (really not great or normal). Plus, Baghdadi has allegedly been taken out three times already, so I’m not putting great odds on a Trump triumph here even though he was golfing while it happened.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Congress As Usual. Even if we ignore the impeachment antics above, there was a lot of weird Congress this week. Among the chaos: 1) Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg testified on Capitol Hill, allegedly about a new proposed cryptocurrency but people kept bringing up fake news issues that he handled by saying lying is bad; 2) Multi-term rep Tulsi Gabbard announced that she won’t run for House re-election, despite low polling as a Presidential candidate–which is fueling further speculation that she may be planning to run as a GOP-backed third party spoiler Presidential candidate; 3) Senator Kamala Harris refused to go along with a criminal justice forum that was giving Trump a ‘Bipartisan Justice Award,’ though she eventually attended after the group giving the award was removed; and 4) Freshman rep Katie Hill announced she is resigning amid allegations of relations with her staff and a revenge porn campaign launched by her abusive ex-husband.

The Bad:

Immigration Updates. After a few weeks’ respite, bad immigration news is back with a vengeance. ICE was in the news for deleting surveillance footage of a trans detainee’s death in custody, because nothing says “we have done nothing wrong” quite like “don’t look at our video tapes.” Somehow, the number of children displaced by the Zero Tolerance policy continues to go up, with the ACLU now estimating that about 5,400 children were separated from their parents since summer 2017. And the Trump administration has begun a pilot program that makes asylum determinations in 10 days, and I seriously cannot overstate how irresponsible that window is–the process is supposed to take months or even years. It’s like reading the back of a book and then using that to tell people how good the book was, except if you decide you don’t like the book, the author might gettortured or murdered.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. As in previous weeks, our bonkers news at least included some good court decisions. Betsy DeVos didn’t have a good week, because she was fined $100,000 for collecting on fraudulent loans–and then a senior official in her department quit and called for mass loan forgiveness on his way out the door. There was also a major opiate settlement in Ohio just as four drug companies were supposed to go to trial, which resulted in a $260M payment.

Fake ‘Fake News’. The Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists is attempting to trademark the term ‘fake news’. That’s going to be a tough application to get approved, but apparently success isn’t the point–as a member explains to Teen Vogue: “It’s uncertain that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will grant our request, but as long as this trademark’s pending, we’ll use this opportunity to send cease and desist letters to frequent abusers of the term.” So basically, heads they troll Trump, tails people have to stop using the term to complain about valid reporting. Frankly, there are worse legal strategies.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can all agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this tiny possum in a snuggy and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) 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 fewer accidental naps!

Year 3, Week 39 (October 13-19)

October 21, 2019October 22, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Well folks, by this point the shark has gone home, having performed several weeks of jumping support and concluded he’s not making enough overtime. But there is some new badness to know, and impeachment remains a persistent, high-stakes tug-of-war we all have to keep watching. So here we all are.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not Pierre Delecto!–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!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

With everything else going on, Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo took a bit of a backseat compared to the past few weeks, but there was still plenty of bananas news nonetheless. Here are the latest updates:

Impeachment Inquiry Updates.* This was a very active week for the House, y’all. After intense testimony from an aide about John Bolton’s disgust with the whole Ukraine business, House Democrats are considering bringing him in to get the story straight from the subpoenaed horse’s mouth. In the meantime, they spoke with Mike Pompeo’s adviser Michael McKinley, who confirmed that he resigned over the Ukraine shenanigans too–pushing a few Republicans to begin muttering impeachment support sentiment. Also, yet another Giuliani associate was arrested in an airport. And exiting Secretary of Energy Rick Perry joined Rudy Giuliani, Mike Pence, and half the OMB in the Refusing Subpoenas Club, which probably has seven yachts and won’t let Ben Carson in.

Administrative Anger Synopsis. White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney just went ahead and said the quiet part out loud in a press conference this week, straight-up telling reporters that the White House withheld aid to Ukraine until they agreed to investigate the hacking of DNC servers in 2016, but to “get over it” because “there is going to be political influence in foreign policy.” He later walked back his incredible remarks, but given that we all watched him open the bag and unceremoniously dump the cat out on camera, I doubt it will be very effective. Apparently Trump agrees, because he started pressing Republicans anew a few days later.

Between Syria and the G-7 scandal that unfolded in real time, Disregard of Governing Norms had another miserably active week as well. Here’s what I have for you:

Shameful Withdrawal from Syria (cont).* News involving Syria continues for a third week and also continues to be awful. As news trickled in about war crimes committed by Turkey during the aggression, Trump defended the actions with ethnic cleansing rhetoric at a Dallas rally. We also learned that a few weeks ago, Trump sent a negotiation letter to Turkey that was so bad that people thought it was fake, and one author staged a dramatic reading with his cat. We did see marginally more success from Mike Pence’s negotiations, which resulted in a ‘ceasefire’ that Turkey claims is no such thing ordering Kurdish forces to leave the region or face consequences. While Kurdish sources report that Turkey is already violating the agreement, whatever you choose to call it, the White House is withdrawing threat of sanctions despite Senate opposition to the move on the theory that the cease-fire has the situation covered. An unimpressed Congress passed a resolution condemning the withdrawal of troops, and Dems who tried to meet with the White House on the issue ended up walking out in disgust before the meeting even ended.

Impressive Emoluments Attempt. In the most blatant emoluments violation we’ve seen to date, Trump tried to award himself the 2020 G-7 contract this past week, announcing that the international summit would be hosted at his own resort. He did eventually walk this back amid bipartisan backlash, but I seriously cannot overstress what a big deal it is that he even tried. Seriously y’all, back in the 1970s Jimmy Carter had to give up his family peanut farm to be President–this type of personal enrichment is not normal or acceptable, regardless of Trump’s gaslighting tweets otherwise.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Pierre Flagrante Delecto. An intrepid reporter at the Atlantic this week managed to track down Mitt Romney’s secret twitter account, which he…mostly used to read about politics and occasionally respond to tweets as a relatively polite Internet rando. Given how benign this story is, it’s a bit fascinating that Twitter went totally bonkers over it–though to be fair, ‘Pierre Delecto’ is a pretty excellent nom de tweet.

The Bad:

Black Lives Still Matter. Twenty-eight-year-old Fort Worth denizen Atatiana Jefferson was fatally shot by police in her own home while she was playing video games with her nephew, continuing a disturbing trend of police shootings during wellness checks. The shooting also occurred only a few weeks after a cop in nearby Dallas was convicted of murder for shooting a neighbor in his home while off-duty. The police officer in this case has been charged with murder as well, and has resigned from the force, but we need to be taking more proactive steps to address these completely preventable atrocities.

Losing Elijah Cummings. This week also saw the passing of twelve-term Congressional rep Elijah Cummings, who led the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Despite the health issues which ultimately took his life, Cummings apparently spent his last hours signing subpoenas for an investigation into ICE practices from his hospital bed, which seems very in keeping with the congressman’s legacy. We lost a compassionate legislator with true integrity this week, and much of the country mourns with Maryland.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. We did see one promising court case this week, specifically about the ongoing modern poll tax fight in Florida between Republican legislators and civil rights advocates. A federal judge ruled that while the case is pending, people convicted of felonies must be allowed to vote even if they owe court fees–poverty is not supposed to be a bar to civic engagement. The attempted legislation impacts nearly 1.5 million disenfranchised people, so this is a pretty big deal even though the case is still pending.

One Giant Step for Womankind. NASA saw its first all-female spacewalk this week, which is pretty exciting! Women have been strolling through space since 1984, and there have been fifteen total female spacewalkers in modern history–contrary to Trump’s apparent belief–but we didn’t have the equipment for simultaneous trips until very recently. (Fourteen of those women have been American, by the way, so that’s a nice thing about our country we can hold onto while we stare at the rest of 2019.)

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can all agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve a visit from this desert tortoise and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) 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 fewer accidental naps!

Year 3, Week 38 (October 6–12)

October 15, 2019October 21, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Another week, another mess of chaos passing for government. The news continues to be dominated by bizarre dog-and-pony nonsense and impeachment horrorshow, but we’ve also added tragedy in Syria to the fray — and all stories are rapid-cycling at a rate that makes September look positively sedate. (I like a good Tilt-a-Whirl, but this is ridiculous.)

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not Captain Kangaroo! — 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!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Okay, we have yet another wild round of Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo, which is the gift that just keeps on giving:

Impeachment Inquiry Updates.* The House committees have been very busy in the past week after the White House made it abundantly clear that they were not going to ‘play ball,’ as it were. Democrats subpoenaed both the Secretary of Defense and head of the Office of Management and Budget, frustrated by the White House’s snitches-get-stitches attitude, and it made underlings start talking — within a few days they had some really useful testimony. And to cap off the week, two sketchy Giuliani associates were arrested at the airport holding one-way tickets to not-here — I hope Rudy collected that $500K from them upfront. And though it’s not actually House-related, I thought y’all might want to know that Penzy’s Spices has spent over $90K on Facebook impeachment ads, making it (as Washington Post notes) the highest spender not named Trump and the official NNR spice brand. (They didn’t pay us to say that, though, because they already spent that money calling for impeachment.)

Dirt Excavation Synopsis.* As mentioned above, House reps and reporters have been busy, and there has been a lot of new information this week. Here’s what we learned: 1) Giuliani tried to get Tillerson to kill prosecution of his client in 2017, because hey, not like he prosecuted people for a decade or anything; 2a) Deutsche bank doesn’t have any Trump financial records, because 2b) Deusche bank may have destroyed said Trump financial records; 3) Former Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch believes she was let go because Trump didn’t like her anti-corruption policies; and 4) Then-current national security adviser John Bolton didn’t like Giuliani’s approach to Ukraine, calling the troll himself “a hand grenade [who would] blow everybody up” and the general approach “a drug deal.”

Administrative Anger Synopsis. Just like every other week, the administration and allies are full of dangerous nonsense about the impeachment inquiry, which is starting to branch out in both scope and speakers. Among the lowlights: 1) A GOP lawmaker calling the entire thing a ‘malicious kangaroo court’ and assuming that Captain Kangaroo presides over said court; 2) Trump sharing a fake video that showed him shooting members of the media at a Florida resort; 3) Trump holding a horrifying rally in Minneapolis that featured slagging on Somali refugees, spread baseless rumors about Ilhan Omar, and some new lies about Syria; 4) the Trump administration calling the entire inquiry ‘a seditious conspiracy’; and 5) Mike Pence, Rudy Giuliani, and the OBM all refusing to answer subpoenas pursuant to the inquiry.

As the situation in Syria worsens, Disregard of Governing Norms has become its own mushroom cloud of misery — it’s definitely back to a fully-blown subsection. Here are this week’s developments, with the caveat that military aid is pretty far outside my wheelhouse:

Shameful Withdrawal from Syria (cont).* The situation in Syria is chaotic and unpredictable after Trump went ahead and withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, just as he forecast, while Turkey went on to strike the hell out of our Kurdish allies, also forecast. Experts warned that this action could lead to a resurgence of ISIS, and we definitely did see hundreds of ISIS prisoners escape in the chaos (to say nothing of the solid we’re currently doing the terrorist group in terms of recruitment fodder). But we also watched desperate Kurdish fighters handle border protection by allying with Assad forces, which gives the Russia-backed Syrian government free rein in a region that had successfully held them back for seven years. And, of course, none of this even touches on the horrifying conditions that were created by the strike, which Trump initially justified with false and distracting claim that Kurdish people didn’t fight at Normandy. While people expressed disapproval and frustration at the horrorshow above, Trump announced he was ordering a full withdrawal from Syria, because Murrica. But almost immediately after, he decided to also sanction Turkey, ordering a fifty percent increase tariff on steel and a suspension of trade negotiations while he withdraws said troops. (Go ahead, try to find a coherent foreign policy in this paragraph. I dare you.)

Christian ‘Leadership.’ It’s nowhere near the same caliber of bonkers as the above paragraph, but Pompeo also made minor headlines this week for being allergic to the Establishment clause and giving a speech on being a Christian leader. This is a pretty disturbing disruption of separation of church and state, which is never popular with the evangelical set but is, in fact, in the Constitution.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Saudi Arabia Troop Shuffle.* In what I’m sure is just a wacky coincidence, on the same week that Trump announced full withdrawal from Syria he also announced that the United States is sending a comparable number of troops to Saudi Arabia. Since they’re ostensibly helping hold off Iran, this wouldn’t be that strange, except that his whole justification for the Syrian removal was getting troops out of the Middle East, and also Saudi Arabia is apparently paying us. So… uh… that’s a thing that’s happening.

The Bad:

Your Weekly Immigration Hell. No matter what else is going on, the Trump administration finds time to be terrible to immigrants. As he forecast in Minneapolis, Trump’s newest thing is that he wants to give cities the ability to refuse to house refugees. (He actually wrote an executive order on this a couple of weeks ago, around the same time that he announced the U.S. would only accept 18,000 refugees in FY2020.) This is likely to face challenges just like the ones I’m outlining below, so we’ll want to keep an eye on it; the rest of the immigration news is thankfully much better this week.

Power Outages in CA.* Northern California experienced widespread planned blackouts this week in an effort to avoid wildfires caused by high winds, leaving 2.5 million people without power in total. This is an unprecedented planned outage that seems likely to become a new normal under global warming, and therefore deserves our attention. Though nobody enjoys being without power, the blackouts are particularly hard on people living with disability, who often need electricity for medical reasons. It’s the state’s hope that this is better than another raging fire, but we’ll have to see how everyone is doing when the outages end.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. This week has been a chaotic nightmare, but at least we’ve had some really good court results. At the time that I type this, eight different courts have issued injunctions pausing new rules that would penalize indigent immigrants, with one judge calling the rules “repugnant to the American dream.” This new rule set was supposed to go into effect today, and the injunctions are a major advocacy win on this issue. A federal court also held this week that Trump couldn’t divert military funding for his vanity wall, because this was an illegal appropriation of funds. And a federal appeals court also ordered Trump to turn over financial records, which is how we learned that Deutsche didn’t have them in the first place.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can all agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this intrepid pupper and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) 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 stability in Syria!

Year 3, Week 37 (September 29–October 5)

October 8, 2019October 21, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Y’all, it hasn’t even been a full week since I last sent you an update, and yet we have three weeks’ worth of news. Much of it is venal nonsense, but that doesn’t mean it’s unimportant — unfortunately for us, we have to keep paying attention.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a text message! — 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!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

The main contents of the CCC this week are another wild round of Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo, which is the gift that just keeps on giving. (I’ve summarized as best I can since this story keeps on growing new heads, and have folded things relating back to the Russia investigation into this section.) Here’s what I have for you, and I’m sorry about the mess:

Impeachment Inquiry Updates.* As the House committees proceeded forward with their inquiries, the impeachment process just gets more and more bonkers — and none of the malfeasance is the committees’ doing. Several committees subpoenaed Rick Perry, wanting to know about his May trip to Ukraine, and subpoenaed Mike Pence while they were at it. On Thursday, the Intelligence Committee released a cache of internal administration text messages that all but yelled ‘WE ARE SETTING UP SOME QUID PRO QUO NOW.’ (Seriously, one text literally says, “As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign” and the recipient replies, among other things, “I suggest we stop the back and forth by text.”) We also saw at least one more Ukraine whistleblower entered the scene, and they are being represented by the same legal team. By the end of the week, a federal judge had ordered Trump not to destroy evidence in a mostly-unrelated case; I guess she just watched this week’s news and figured she might as well.

Dirt Excavation Synopsis.* Just like last week, a whole lot of (new) dirt shook out when Democrats and reporters started picking up rugs. Here are some of the things we learned: 1) Trump apparently may have asked Boris Johnson for help discrediting the Mueller report; 2) Mike Pence was definitely involved in some form, though it’s unclear whether he knew exactly what Trump was having him do; and 3) Trump is now fighting with Italy because he thinks without evidence that they spied on him in 2016.

Dirt Excavation Synopsis.* Just like last week, a whole lot of (new) dirt shook out when Democrats and reporters started picking up rugs. Here are some of the things we learned: 1) Trump apparently may have asked Boris Johnson for help discrediting the Mueller report; 2) Mike Pence was definitely involved in some form, though it’s unclear whether he knew exactly what Trump was having him do; and 3) Trump is now fighting with Italy because he thinks without evidence that they spied on him in 2016.

Administrative Anger Synopsis. I think Trump is starting to lose it, y’all (if he ever had it to begin with). Among this week’s impeachment lowlights: 1) The Trump administration continuing to refuse subpoenas, despite warning that it would be treated as obstruction of justice; 2) Trump losing his entire business at Reuters journalist Jeff Mason and threatening to sue several people in front of the poor President of Finland, who didn’t get much of a press conference but sure did get the meme treatment; 3) Nickelback demanding Trump stop using their copyrighted material to bag on Biden; 4) The State Department inspector general requesting ‘urgent’ briefing to Congressional staffers, which turned out to be weirdo deep state paranoia; 5) A brief disappearance of a firm website tied to Giuliani’s Ukraine work (which is fair, actually — I wouldn’t want to be linked to Rudy Giuliani either); and 6) Rick Perry getting thrown under the Ukraine bus because he’s leaving anyway so screw him, amirite?

Brand New Additional Articles? In addition to everything else happening this week, there’s some question of whether we’ll have additional articles of impeachment after some of the week’s events. For one thing, Trump said the quiet part out loud on the White House lawn this week, telling reporters that China and Ukraine should both investigate Biden and removing literally all doubt about whether he had done that particular crime. But there are also updates with the IRS whistleblower I mentioned last week, because the Treasury’s inspector general is now investigating the complaint. So we’ll need to keep an eye on both of these.

This week also saw the return of Disregard of Governing Norms separate from the impeachment inquiry, because nothing actually keeps this government from diversifying its own corruption very long — and we had some really bad news on this front today. Here’s what happened:

DOJ’s The Puppet.* The Washington Post ran a story this past week reminding us that the Department of Justice has intervened in at least three cases where Trump is suing somebody, and most recently intervened in the lawsuit about releasing his taxes. I honestly cannot overstate how very corrupted bananas this is — the Department of Justice is really not supposed to be the President’s personal law force, and ‘intervene’ is a fancy legal way of saying “showed up and demanded to be let in on the action.” This is a wild form of embezzlement that involves co-opting lawyers instead of state funds, and I can’t believe it’s not getting more press.

Shameful Withdrawal from Syria.* Trump’s administration announced late last night that he plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, despite the fact that they have been stationed there to protect Kurdish allies fighting ISIS for years and Turkey has announced a massive strike is pending in the area. Many outlets have commented on the timing of this decision, which was issued shortly after Trump spoke with the Turkish President on Sunday night. Even Republicans are rebuking Trump on this, because it could have major consequences for the fight against ISIS as well as our Kurdish allies. Trump sort-of-maybe wavered today in response to the outcry, posting creepy dictator tweets about how he’ll “totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey” etc etc, but the withdrawal had already began when he said this. We’ll have to see what he does next, unfortunately.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Elizabeth Cougar Warrencamp.* We all had a moment of zen this week when Jacob Wohl decided to host one of his famous driveway press conferences again, which are always a bastion of journalistic integrity. This one featured a 24-year-old veteran who couldn’t give his statement with a straight face claiming that Elizabeth Warren started a BDSM relationship with him. Nobody would blame her for just ignoring this non-story, but of course Elizabeth Warren had a plan for that nonsense. Her single elegant tweet trolled Wohl, promoted a signature policy platform, and reminded us why we stan.

The Bad:

Your Weekly Immigration Hell. This was another bad week for immigration, and I honestly don’t know how the administration even had the time for it. First they announced that they are going to start collecting DNA from detained immigrants, because that is super legal and definitely not a search and seizure violation of the 4th Amendment. Then they followed that news with an announcement that the State Department would start denying visas to immigrants who can’t show they will cover their own healthcare while visiting — which, for those of you playing the home game, is probably not legal and will definitely face a lawsuit.

Guyger Scales Aftermath. Though it was validating when Amber Guyger was convicted of murder last week, many folks were frustrated by her very light sentence, which the judge on the case punctuated when she gave Guyger a hug and a gifted bible. Then, as an additional highlight of the systemic issues faced by Black Americans, a key witness on the case was fatally shot immediately after the trial concluded. Despite Guyger’s conviction, we have many, many issues of racism to address within our criminal justice system.

The Good:

Impeachment Tipping Point. The incredible outpouring of impeachment data has been overwhelming, but Americans are starting to respond to it. According to several polling organizations, public opinion now supports impeachment by a simple majority, with 74% of Democrats now supporting the endeavor. This is a promising sign, and it will encourage the House to keep issuing subpoenas to a recalcitrant White House.

Recent Court Resilience. We did see one major symbolic court win earlier today — a federal District Court judge ruled that Trump must turn over his tax returns on the Manhattan lawsuit, rejecting the argument that his current position gives him criminal immunity. The administration immediately appealed, surprising no one, but the case is still a valuable data point in the ongoing debate about Presidential immunity.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, but there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve John Scalzi’s beautiful photos of flowers and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) 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 a Time Turner; I promise I’ll use it responsibly!

Year 3, Week 36 (September 22-28)

October 1, 2019June 7, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This upcoming week in the Jewish calendar marks the Ten Days of Repentance, a window of time between the Jewish New Year and the Day of Atonement. Jewish people consider this a time of reflection and renewal — an opportunity to think about how individuals and communities have done wrong in the past year, and how to rectify past misdeeds. So, given the news of the past week, this must be a weird time in Jared and Ivanka’s house.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a subpoena! — 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!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

The main contents of the CCC this week are another wild round of Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo, with everything even more dialed up to 11 than before. Here’s what I have for you, and I’m sorry about the mess:

Impeachment Inquiry Imparted.* Since two thirds of House Democrats were calling for impeachment by the time the Democrat Caucus had an emergency meeting, it was exciting (but not surprising) when Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry on Tuesday evening. Support for the movement continued to grow after the announcement, until 223 members out of the 235 member caucus were supporting the inquiry. With such broad-based support, the House Intelligence Committee was also able to issue a subpoena for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as well as Rudy Giuliani and several additional State Department employees. Around the same time, the House and Senate successfully got the whistleblower complaint released, unimpressed by the White House’s ‘transcript’ of the call (which was really just a memorandum trying to recreate it). Before a two-week recess begin, the Senate and the House intelligence committees also began setting up interviews with the whistleblower, and acting intelligence chief Joseph Maguire testified for hours before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday. (The House Intelligence Committee is working through the recess, by the way, so they will continue to do things while everyone is gone.) We also saw the resignation of our first official — Kurt Volker, special envoy to Ukraine — who is still planning to testify even though (perhaps because?) he resigned. It’s clear the impeachment train has left the station, even if we don’t fully understand where it’s going yet.

Dirt Excavation Synopsis. Between Maguire’s testimony, the publication of the whistleblower complaint, administrative gaffes, and good ole’ investigative journalism, we learned a number of new sketchy things in the past week — much of it so confusing that the Washington Post has made you a flowchart. Here’s a handy summary of the lowlights: 1) The administration definitely froze funds to Ukraine before the July phone call, and Ukraine in turn understood that they had to deal with the Biden thing to get the funds unfrozen; 2) Rudy Giuliani did inexplicably interface with Ukraine (and muck it up in the process), despite having no official position within government; 3) Records of the phone call were moved to a secret server in an explicit cover-up attempt, which is like ten times worse than the whole But Her Emails thing (and more on that last bit below); 4) Mike Pompeo was present on the line for the infamous July phone call with Ukraine; and 5) we might be about to do this again because there’s also an IRS whistleblowing complaint.

Administrative Anger Synopsis. The administration continued to escalate to new heights of dangerous nonsense this week as the impeachment walls closed in around them. Among the lowlights: 1) The Trump administration accidentally sending Democrats the White House talking points; 2) Trump’s early attempts at damage control, which included hinting that Mike Pence was involved and asking Nancy Pelosi if they could work something out; 3) The subsequent Trump Administration Threatens Everybody phase, which included threatening the life of the whistleblower as well as the people who gave information to them, threatening a civil war if impeachment is pursued, threatening to charge Adam Schiff with treason, and threatening to ignore subpoenas issued to Mike Pompeo and five other State department staffers; and 4) the current stage of proceedings, which appears to be Administration Investigations for Everybody — or at least, William Barr has been bugging Australia and a bunch of other countries to help him investigate our own FBI and CIA (but more on that below).

As forecast above, we also had a wild resurgence of the Russia Investigation, by which I mean this administration is investigating the Mueller investigation. I guess the best defense is a “good” unrelated offense, at least if you’re playing MAGA LSD Five Dimensional Chess. Here’s what they’ve been up to:

Trump and Barr Bother Australia et al. Both Barr and Trump were in the news over the past few days for trying to get Australia to help him investigate the tip that led to the Mueller investigation. Though conservative outlets note that it’s not unusual to ask for outside help with investigations, it is unusual to use external countries to help discredit a political opponent. When that fact is combined with the same super-secret storage process that was used for the call to Ukraine, this starts to look an awful lot like another illegal form of interference. Incredibly, Barr followed this up with outreach to multiple other countries, including outreach to Italy as recently as last week, which means they were still doing this after impeachment was announced.

But Her Emails (Reprise). Speaking of Butter Emails, the Trump administration has reopened the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server for a zillionth time — I guess nothing says “our actions are defensible” quite like throwing an old kernel about a political enemy into the nonsense blender and seeing what kind of soup it makes. I can’t imagine this will go anywhere, but we should keep an eye on it just the same.

Somehow More Mueller Investigation. Politico broke a story in the last day or two that Trump lied under oath to special counsel Robert Mueller when discussing his knowledge of Wikileaks’ plans to leak Dem information during the 2016 campaign — which I guess is a nice complement to all the news above about the Mueller investigation itself. I legitimately don’t understand how the Ukraine-related impeachment inquiry keeps turning up Russia investigation news, but it clearly is, and here we are.

NRA as a Russian Asset.* There was also a lot of information released this week about the relationship between the NRA and Russia, which was revisited this week as the result of a Senate Finance Committee report. And, of course, it’s not surprising that the NRA was also in the news for offering to help Trump fight off impeachment — if he ‘drop[ped] the games’ about supporting responsible gun legislation. Nothing says ‘definitely not guilty of colluding with Russia’ quite like ‘financially bailed out by their asset,’ amirite?

Your “Normal” Weird:

Universal Postal Union Scare.* We had a brief scare this week when it looked like the U.S. might withdraw from the international postal scene, because Something Something Importing Fees (although it looks like it was really about China). Eventually we were able to reach a deal with the U.N. postal union, saving us from an embarrassing USPexit. Yeesh.

The Bad:

Your Weekly Immigration Hell. Immigration news continues to be bad, although we did see some non-executive pushback this week. The Senate and House both voted to kill the emergency declaration along the southern border, which is a polite way of saying that they told Trump that his wall is bad and he should feel bad. (Of course, since he can just turn around and veto it, it’s really more of a symbolic move.) While they were doing that, the Trump administration announced they’ll let only in 18,000 refugees during FY2020, which for those of you playing the home game is the lowest refugee cap in our history, and just slightly above 10% of Obama’s number in FY2017. For an encore, the New York Times reported on Trump’s myriad violent proposals for border ‘security,’ which apparently included shooting migrants in the legs, electrocuting them, and siccing snakes and alligators on them.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. For all that we had obnoxious immigration news this week, we had some good court cases as well. The administration’s bid to get to hold migrant kids indefinitely was unceremoniously shot down, though I’m sure they’ll appeal that in a hot second. Many people were brought grave satisfaction when Amber Guyger, the police officer who came into a neighbor’s house and shot him, was found guilty of murder for said shooting. And though there was an appellate court case that partially upheld the revocation of net neutrality rules, it did overturn the ban on state regulation to keep net neutrality in place.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, but there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this doggo employing hug therapy and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) 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 ice cream, cause we still need it!

Year 3, Week 35 (September 15-21)

September 23, 2019October 20, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Okay folks, I suggest that you brace yourself now — this week’s Constitutional Crisis Corner is on a whole new level, and I don’t mean that in the “oh hey I progressed in Donkey Kong Country” way. (Although Trump’s Kremlin(g) impression keeps getting more transparent. Watch out for those barrels of dynamite! I’ll be under the bed.)

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a tax return! — 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!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

The Constitutional Crisis Corner now has a brand new subsection, and I suggest we all grow to love it because it’s going to be here a while. So let me be the first to welcome you to Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo, the game we all hate and will likely be stuck playing for the next month or more:

What Whistleblowing?* Let’s start with the lead-in to the current crisis. News broke at the top of last week that the director of national intelligence was refusing to hand over a whistleblowing complaint filed on August 12 to the House Intelligence Committee, and apparently reached this conclusion after talking with the Justice Department and the White House about it. This would have been bad no matter what, but was extra terrible because the complaint had already been flagged an “urgent concern” by the Inspector General and said acting director had a legal obligation to cough it up under statute. Eventually he did agree to testify after the House Intelligence Committee threatened to sue, but by then everybody wanted to know what was up with his hinky behavior. Then the thing that was up turned out to be Trump, who was apparently speaking to the newly-elected President of Ukraine. Then we learned it was about a promise made on said phone call, which happened the day after Mueller testified. Then we learned the exact topic was investigating Joe Biden’s son, which he pushed for several times this summer and sent Giuliani abroad to set up, incentivizing the whole thing with U.S. military aid. And with that last revelation, the three rings of this month’s circus were officially in place.

The Trump Response(tm). Trump and his team handled these allegations about as well as you might expect, which is to say not well at all. First Trump went the denial route, saying that the complaint came from a “partisan whistleblower” (despite not knowing who filed it) and tweet-ranting that the whole thing was a “Ukraine witch-hunt.” Then Giuliani admitted his role in the whole thing on national television, so Trump pivoted to say that yeah, the July 25 phone call happened, but it was “perfectly fine and routine” despite also confirming the content of the discussion, and insisted that “someone ought to look into Joe Biden.” Then today he declared that he should get a Nobel peace prize and followed by insinuating that Joe Biden should be electrocuted, and I honestly can’t believe I’m not making any of that up.

So Are We Impeaching, Or What?* Most analyses I’m seeing are (correctly) noting that what Trump has admitted to is definitely an impeachable offense, and in fact exactly the type of offense that the entire impeachment system is designed to address (regardless of whatever turns out to be going on with Hunter and Joe Biden). At the time that I draft this, at least 138 House Democrats are calling for impeachment, including multiple reps from centrist districts. And while Adam Schiff appears to be climbing off the fence on the topic, Nancy Pelosi is still dragging her feet. In her Sunday letter, she called the whole thing a “grave new chapter of lawlessness” and referenced a “whole new stage of investigation,” but merely demanded Congress get to see the complaint and speak to the whistleblower. (Just to remind the folks at home, under federal law Congress is supposed to see the complaint no matter what else is happening, so this isn’t much of a demand.) Pelosi is meeting with officials tomorrow, and here’s hoping she moves closer to the general vicinity of the impeachment bandwagon as a result.

Despite all of the above, we do still have some Russia Investigation news, though it sort of pales in comparison. Here’s what I have right now:

Lewandowski Testimony. Former Trump campaign staffer Corey Lewandowski at least ostensibly attempted to testify before the House Judiciary Committee this past week, in what is widely regarded as their first official impeachment hearing on obstruction of justice — and by all accounts, he was a real peach about it. Among the lowlights: Refusing to answer questions; mocking sitting Senators; and announcing his own 2020 Senate campaign.

Just like every week, there was also a fair amount of Disregard of Governing Norms outside of the whole whistleblowing parade. Here’s what I have for you:

Air Emission What Now.* In the latest escalation of the ongoing air emission argument Trump is having with half the automative industry, the administration is moving to revoke California’s agreement with these automakers to adhere to stricter emission standards. The state’s authority to set stricter standards dates back to 1968 and is comes from the Clean Air Act itself, which is one of many reasons this bonkers move likely isn’t legal. The revocation also impacts the thirteen other states that agreed to follow the stricter standards, so it’s not surprising that 23 states are suing in response.

Tax Return Fight Redux.* At the top of the week,the Manhattan District Attorney subpoenaed eight years of Trump tax documents pursuant to an investigation of the Stormy Daniels payment. Ordinarily this would be good news, but Trump responded by suing the DA right back, saying that he can’t be investigated while he’s President. And a federal judge also granted an injunction to stop California from requiring tax disclosure of all 2020 Presidential candidates, setting back the tax issue even further (though it will almost certainly be appealed).

Elaine Chao Investigation. Transportation secretary Elaine Chao is being investigated for alleged ethics violations — and for those of you playing the home game, yes, you are correctly remembering that this is Mitch McConnell’s wife. She’s supposed to turn over internal documents by September 30, so we should know more one way or the other by the time we reach that deadline.

Your “Normal” Weird:

New National Security Adviser? Against the backdrop of everything else, it’s pretty easy to forget that John Bolton just got resign-fired, but we now have a named candidate to replace him — hostage negotiator Robert O’Brien. Apparently O’Brien has some bipartisan support, with a former Obama staffer describing him as “a good person [who] will certainly be [in] a challenging role.” The weird thing here is that Trump wants someone with bipartisan support in the first place, but hopefully O’Brien will be a tempering influence.

The Bad:

Your Weekly Immigration Hell. Despite the chaotic nature of the week, the Trump administration still found time to make things worse for migrant families. The biggest news is that they reached a deal to send asylum seekers to El Salvador, which is incredibly ill-advised because conditions there are so unsafe that a huge number of credible asylum claims come from El Salvador. ICE was also in the news for announcing that they expect to re-up the number of detained families again this summer, rededicating some facilities to family use — although maybe we’ll get lucky, and this administration will be too distracted to follow through on that.

The Jungle 2019. Just over a hundred years after Upton Sinclair published ‘The Jungle,’ apparently we forgot everything, because Trump’s new USDA rules allow pork slaughterhouses to essentially self-police. Though the administration says it’s an attempt to “modernize” standards, which haven’t been adjusted in over 50 years, the changes would reduce the number of food inspectors onsite by over 40%. It’s hard to see that as a good thing, particularly when this administration is so fond of deregulating first and considering safety later — I have a feeling I’ll gain some company on Team Eating No Pork Products when these changes go into effect.

The Good:

Climate Strikes Again.* Teen climate change activist Greta Thunberg testified before Congress this past week, and definitely took no prisoners, reminding Congress to listen to experts on this incredibly important issue. Thunberg’s testimony was timed alongside an international climate strike on Friday, which she also helped organize, with millions of people participating in over 150 countries. In New York and many other places, students successfully petitioned for amnesty from truancy, and a huge number of businesses either closed shop or gave their employees paid time off so that they could participate. Then Thunberg filed a legal complaint with the U.N. and read the entire assemblage for filth, passionately outlining their history of inaction. The massive action here illustrates just how much societies around the world care about making real changes, and I really hope our world leaders are listening.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, but there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this lil big cat playing with autumn leaves and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) 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 ice cream, cause we still need it!