National News Roundup

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 5 (February 17–23)

February 26, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This week’s news was more of a sine wave than we’ve been seeing of late — there was some good news mixed in among the bad, along with a whole lot of weird. I’ll keep folks up to date on all the twists and turns!

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a report! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corner

Just like last week, there was a flurry of activity on the Russia Investigation — it’s by far the busiest section of the CCC, possibly because it’s supposedly winding down. Here are the main things to know:

Trump’s Grab Bag of Malfeasance (Russia Investigation Edition).* Trump news was a veritable cornucopia of malfeasance this week. Towards the beginning of the week, the New York Times published an article outlining Trump’s many forms of obstruction in the Russia investigation (which prompted him to lash out at them, but more on that below). The report revealed that Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker probably perjured himself in front of Congress by downplaying Trump’s attempts to intervene in his own investigation into the Stormy Daniels matter. In apparent response to this and McCabe’s book tour, Trump repeated a call by Rush Limbaugh to jail members of the Mueller investigation and called his own current Deputy Attorney General as well as McCabe “treasonous” for their discussions after he fired Comey. Then, just to punctuate the point, like five minutes before I typed this a former campaign staffer came forward to say he forcibly kissed her without her consent on the campaign trail.
Manafort Sentencing.* Manafort’s sentencing hearing for his Virginia matters begins next week, and Mueller partially released an 800-page memo today ahead of the hearing and the related DC deliberations. What we can read of the report is not complimentary, decrying Manafort for ‘repeatedly and brazenly violat[ing] the law’ and for showing ‘a hardened adherence to committing crimes and lack of remorse.’ Needless to say, this will be an interesting set of sentencing hearings.
Goodbye, Rosenstein.* Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein officially announced that he is resigning sometime in March, probably mid-month. We’ll have him for a few more weeks, and in the interim I’m taking bets on whether the resignation is because he trusts Attorney General Barr, because Mueller is allegedly winding down, or because he’s mad he was accused of treason.
Throwing Roger Stone. Roger Stone definitely paid for his outburst on Instagram over last weekend, and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Turns out, his judge wasn’t amused by the photo of her with crosshairs he posted, and she ended up issuing a full gag order about his case. I’m fairly sure “Won’t Someone Rid Me of this Turbulent Judge” posts are on the short list of Things That Will Definitely Get You A Gag Order, so this isn’t exactly a surprise. Frankly, Stone should consider himself lucky she didn’t revoke his bail.
Mueller Investigation Speculation.* As referenced above, we’re still in a “this may be the week, wait no it isn’t” holding pattern regarding when Mueller’s investigation wraps, with rumors early in the week of its impending end fading away before the week gave out. But the nearness of conclusion is creating all kinds of speculation, recaps, and think pieces about what we can expect once it comes. Congress is beginning to gear up as well, with Democrats beginning their push for the full report or at least a chance to subpoena Mueller to testify once it’s out.

At this point, I think it’s safe to say that Threats to the First Amendment deserves its own section, at least for this week. Here’s what is happening:

Trump’s Grab Bag of Malfeasance (Free Press Edition). In response to the stuff listed above, last week’s trend of Trump antagonizing the press definitely continued. He slammed the New York Times for recently publishing the report I mentioned above, calling them “a TRUE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE” — which you may remember is exactly what he called NBC at the beginning of the week. He also tweeted that the press doesn’t verify stories (they do) and claimed that in six years they’ll “all go bust” (they won’t). The tweets are having real-life effects on journalists — a few were assaulted at one of his rallies last week — and the Times is rightfully identifying this speech as dangerous for them. Unsurprisingly, we’re starting to see op-eds that cite Trump’s tweeting tantrums as their own grounds to find him unfit for office.
Thomas’s Libel Opinion Adventures. Meanwhile, while all of this was going on, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas issued an unnecessary solo opinion on a case that was denied writ of certiorari and therefore not even heard by the court — and though it’s completely nonbinding, his rhetoric should concern us. The opinion called for overturning a seminal libel law case from the 1960s, New York Times v. Sullivan; in particular, Thomas had beef with the stricter standards we use for cases alleging libel of public figures. It’s really strange that Thomas suddenly thinks we should make it easier to sue if you’re famous, and in his circuitous route to “we should overturn” he uses legal analysis which contradicts his own writings from as recently as four years ago. I seriously cannot stress enough that this whole thing should have your spidey-senses tingling, especially given Trump’s pledge to get libel laws changed and Kennedy’s abrupt departure from the bench last year.

The majority of this week’s Disregard of Governing Norms is aftermath from the shutdown, which thankfully is proving immediate and promising. Here’s what I have for you:

National Emergency Resolution Update. Nancy Pelosi has indicatedthat the House is gearing up to vote tomorrow on a resolution blocking Trump’s national emergency declaration. Trump, unsurprisingly, promises to veto the measure and tweeted a warning to the GOP on the topic today. But on the plus side, he probably did the latter because Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth publicly speculated that the Senate had the votes to pass the bill, and 538 thinks she might be right. And as I mentioned last week, McConnell is required to hold a vote in the Senate if this passes in the House, and a thumbs up from the House is looking very likely — so the biggest question is probably what will happen in the Senate.
A Farewell to Coats? Rumors are growing that Trump is about to fire his current Director of National Intelligence, Daniel Coats, which given the latter’s recent public appearances seems entirely possible. So far, we’re still just at the rumors stage, but we’ll want to keep an eye on this nonetheless. I’ll definitely keep folks posted.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Cov Cath Further Chaos.* Remember that kid from Covington Catholic who was in the news a bunch a week or two ago for standing in the way of the Indigenous People’s March? Yeah, he’s suing the Washington Post to the tune of $250 million dollars in damages for writing about him, claiming that they ‘defamed’ him when they reported on it. Needless to say, that’s going to be nearly impossible to prove — how does a sixteen-year-old kid even show damage to his livelihood, let alone $250M in said damage? It’s worth noting that the complaint accuses the Post of having bias against Donald Trump and uses that to seek further damages, nicely illustrating another reason why a free press remains important.
Tariff Delays. Trump went ahead and delayed his own deadline for whether he’s increasing tariffs on China this week, claiming that they’ve made good progress without them. But he likely wants a good result in his summit with North Korea this week, and given that Kim Jong-un is traveling there by way of China to make a point, he could be hoping this paves the way for negotiation. Or he could have some kind of deal in the works that would be hindered by increased tariffs. Or he could have changed his mind because it’s Tuesday. It’s Trump, so it’s kind of hard to say.

The Bad:

Jussie Smollet’s Strange Saga. Actor Jussie Smolett was arrested on Wednesday based on claims by the Chicago Police Department that he staged the attack against him that he reported last month. So now Smolett’s waiting on bond of $100,000 to face his charge of felony disorderly conduct (side note: it’s really strange to me that Illinois makes disorderly conduct a felony in the first place). Predictably, conservative pundits and politicians have drawn as much attention to this news as possible, and most news outlets are treating the charge as credible. Some media press venues, however, are claiming that an FBI source says CPD may have ‘overstated’ their case, and that CPD Superintendent Eddie Johnson “went too far” by claiming to have determined Smolett’s connection to the threatening letter he received. Given the twists this case has already taken and the spotted history of the Chicago Police Department, it’s unlikely that we’ve seen the last of this story in the Roundup.
Oscars So Green. The 2019 Oscars managed to be even more politically-charged than usual, starting with its complete lack of host following news of intended host Kevin Hart’s history of racist tweets. The hostless ceremony announced its winners perfectly well, it turns out, but where those awards went was more of a mixed bag. When Green Book won best picture, negative reactions to the choice poured in immediately — most notably from Spike Lee, who tried to leave the ceremony following the announcement. Oscar detractors had lambasted Green Book as another example of Hollywood’s love for “racial reconciliation” films that receive awards for their white directors. It wasn’t all bad news, though; Hannah Beachler and Ruth E. Carter became the first black women in over thirty years to win non-acting-role Oscars for their work on Black Panther. Domee Shi, the first woman to helm a Pixar short, shared the Best Animated Short award with producer Becky Neiman-Cobb for Bao. Clapbacks featured as well: Trevor Noah pranked the audience beautifully in Xhosa, Spike Lee hoped for the USA to “regain our humanity,” and the creator of the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag stuck to her guns.

The Good:

North Carolina News. In a turn of events that probably shocked even North Carolina, their election board threw out the House results contested for fraud and ordered a new election this week. The decision came in part because the candidate accused of ballot-harvesting, Mark Harris, said he wanted a new election after several instances of potential perjury during the proceedings. (Harris claims that he was suffering from a stroke which made him give misinformation.) Though there’s no guarantee that the next election will be a clean one, the fact that we’re getting one does seem like progress.
Recent Court Resilience. The Supreme Court issued a benchmark decision this week when it concluded that rules against excessive fines apply to state police as well as the federal government under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments when they engage in civil asset forfeiture. (Civil asset forfeiture is the practice by police of seizing assets that they claim were involved in a crime.) As several articles covering the case note, this practice is rife with abuses because it can be used as a revenue stream and because it’s often not subject to significant oversight. The decision to apply federal law to states is a major win on this issue that may significantly curtail abuses, and the case is even more unusual because it was unanimously decided. That said, the facts of this case were particularly egregious — Indiana state police confiscated a man’s $40,000 value SUV, which he purchased with life insurance policy money, because he was convicted of selling a small amount of heroin which carried a maximum $10,000 fine. So it’s possible we’ll see a distinguishing case on this soon.

So that’s what I have for this week, and it’s more than enough! For making it through, you deserve frogs wearing tiny hats 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 hours in the day!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 4 (February 10–16)

February 19, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

[Note: The National News Roundup ongoing audio link has officially graduated to A Real Life Podcast with an RSS feed!

Check out the whole feed, or click here to hear Year 3, Week 3 specifically.]

This week has been quite a trial — most of it actually isn’t that awful, but the bits that are truly pack a punch. Also, the CCC is basically an entire zero-star novel. You who are about to read this week’s news, I salute you! And offer cookies.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a dietary supplement! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corner

There’s only one major story this week regarding Disregard of Governing Norms, but it’s a bit like saying the sinking Titanic was “only one ship,” so that’s not much comfort. Bear with me because this will be long and important, which in this administration are never two great tastes that go great together.

What Happened with the Shutdown? By midweek last week, Trump was indicating that he’d sign the proposed legislation to avoid shutdown, but also signaled that he wasn’t happy with it. So on Thursday, the Senate voted on the package right after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that Trump would be declaring a national emergency to get his wall funding. And sure enough, on Friday Trump stood up in the Rose Garden and launched an incoherent mess that passed for a press conference declaring just that, which he followed with a coinciding executive order. Though the entire announcement was dotted with blatant lies, that’s not the biggest piece to analyze here; I’m glad we don’t have another shutdown, but the press conference spotlighted several different constitutional crises which I’ve outlined below.
Constitutional Overreach. The emergency declaration is a major overreach of executive authority — though these declarations have been used many times before, it’s incredibly rare for a President to use them to give Congress the finger regarding issue on which they’ve already voted on. But Trump didn’t seem at all concerned about that, because he candidly announced that he didn’t have an actual emergency on his hands, noting that “I could do the wall over a longer period of time. I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster . . . I just wanted to get it done faster, that’s all.” He also said that he knew he would lose lawsuits on this at the lower level but “would get a fair shake” at the Supreme Court “just like the ban.” He’s right that the Supreme Court supported him on Trump v. Hawaii in an opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts, but that was before Chief Justice Roberts began aligning with liberal judges on issues of overreach, so either Trump’s being overconfident or he knows something we don’t.
First Amendment Threats. This administration doesn’t have press conferences often anymore, in part due to Trump’s well-documented hatred of the press, which was on full display on Friday — he spent time ranking media outlets, praising Rush Limbaugh and telling CNN “you’re fake news” to Jim Acosta’s face. When SNL mercilessly lampooned this in their cold open a few days later, he began pushing for ‘retribution’ against them — noting, incidentally, that the network that runs the show is “Fake News NBC” while he did so and calling the whole thing “the real Collusion.” Then he followed up that tweet by railing against “THE RIGGED AND CORRUPT MEDIA,” whom he yet again called “THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE.” Needless to say, this continues to be its own constitutional crisis, albeit a fairly quiet one (if you can call Trump’s caps lock cataclysms ‘quiet’).
Criminal Justice and Immigration Implications. It’s no surprise that Trump praised the leaders of several authoritarian regimes in his press conference on Friday, given the paragraph above. But while falsely claiming that China has no drug problem because it executes drug dealers, he took it to a whole other level, and one we’ve gotta talk about. Trump seemed to apply capital punishment for drug dealing to America, saying, “[The U.S.] can end the drug problem — can end it a lot faster than you think.” He’s has suggested execution of drug dealers before, but his years of work to paint all immigrants who arrive through the Southern border as an “invasion” of “drug dealers and criminals” — rhetoric he continued in this very press conference — force us to assume he’s applying the concept to all unauthorized immigration at the Mexican border. Effectively, in this context, he’s issuing a dogwhistle for genocide.
So What Happens Next? About the only good news I can give on this whole thing is that the declaration already has more lawsuits than you can shake a stick at and even Fox News got testy with the administration over it. Congress also seems likely to pass a resolution condemning the declaration at least in the House, and since McConnell is forced to allow a vote within 18 days if one passes in the House, he can’t block the House’s legislation (though Trump potentially could veto it). And to encourage Congress to act, protests were held all over the country on President’s Day. So while it’s not fully clear what happens next, there are a lot of likely outcomes that involve pitching the declaration overboard and sailing onward. I will definitely keep folks posted!

Ho boy, you deserve a cookie just for reading all of that! And I’m sad to report that your CCC slog is not done, because just like last week there was a flurry of activity on the Russia Investigation as well. Here are the things to know:

Manafort Updates (with Special Guest Stars Gates and Stone). Manafort’s legal journey took another turn this week, when D.C. District Court judge Amy Berman Jackson concluded that he did breach his plea agreement by lying repeatedly to prosecutors. Needless to say, this put his sentence back in question, and Mueller is recommending up to 24 years of incarceration and up to $24,000,000 in fines. Meanwhile, some of the lies in question became public, such as the fact that Manafort and his second-rate Watson Rick Gates met with a Russian operative in August 2016 to exchange polling data regarding Trump’s Presidential bid. And Roger Stone popped up in the news for posting a photo of Judge Jackson, who is his judge too, with crosshairs above her head as he complained about having her for a judge. Which, naturally, he did only days after she issued a partial gag order compelling him not to talk about his case. (As Popehat noted today, no, you can’t antagonize a judge and then claim she’s biased against you as a basis for recusal.)
Senate Committee Activities.* Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr stated this week that “we don’t have anything that would suggest there was collusion” between Trump and Russia, though the investigation is not yet complete. Naturally, Trump immediately took to the Twitters with this information, because the man never misses an opportunity to yell in caps lock. But the ranking Democrat on the committee, Mark Warner, says Trump’s Twitter party is premature, noting the unusual number of ties between the campaign and Russia. House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff agrees, commenting that “you can see the evidence [of collusion] in plain sight.”
McCabe Makes Waves.* Former FBI director Andrew McCabe made news this week over several things he disclosed as he made the media rounds to promote his new book. First, there’s the book itself, which has all kinds of disturbing things to say about working under Jeff Sessions and about Trump’s many ties to Russia. In one interview aired Thursday, he mentioned that former deputy AG Rod Rosenstein had discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, Then he disclosed in a 60 Minutes interview on Sunday that he believes he was fired for opening an investigation against Trump, which may have been illegal if true. He also reiterated that Trump once told him, “I don’t care, I believe Putin” on the question of North Korea’s missile capacity.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Tax Return Hoopla.* The IRS announced this week that the average tax refund is down 8% from previous years. For the most part, this is due to reduced withholding, which simply means that people are receiving their income throughout the year, leaving no surplus at the end. But this can be a rough thing to realize if you were counting on a refund and instead owe the IRS money — and the news can be particularly annoying given the IRS’s belated timeline after a month of shutdown. Between all these factors, there are a lot of cranky filers out there this year. (In related news, adjust your withholding amounts to account for the new tax code if you haven’t already, so that you won’t be one of them next year!)
Ilhan vs AIPAC. Ilhan Omar, one of the first Muslim Congresswomen, made headlines this week for tweeting about Republican Minority leader Kevin McCarthy — more specifically, saying his move to formally sanction her for statements against Israel was “all about the Benjamins, baby.” And, okay, here’s the thing, y’all. The tweet was a reference to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a powerful lobbying organization that represents Israeli interests in American politics. But there’s a very old and tenacious antisemitic trope that Jews control the world and are money-obsessed little goblins living in a Gringotts vault. Those stereotypes are super damaging, and it was extremely necessary that Omar apologize. But at the same time, I urge you to read Jewish writings about the nuances of these subjects, because this stuff is complicated and frankly Omar probably had a valid point somewhere in there. In particular, I recommend this account by Ady Barkan on problems with AIPAC; this account by David Rothkopf on distinguishing Netanyahu from Israel generally; and this account from an anonymous Jewish blog about how to criticize Israel without being antisemitic.

The Bad:

Farewell, FEMA. FEMA administrator Brock Long announced that he was resigning this week, which in Trump land usually means there was a scandal involved — and true to form, Long’s resignation appears to be tied to improper use of government vehicles in addition to, you know, basically everything involving Hurricane Maria. For now, the Deputy Administrator will be in charge, but I’m sure we’ll hear more soon.
Aurora (IL) Mass Shooting. There was an office mass shooting in Aurora, Illinois this week, when a man being fired took out a gun and shot five people at his workplace, including a college intern on his first day there. Five police officers responding to the scene were shot as well, and ultimately killed the shooter in the returned fire. As is so common among these assailants, the Washington Post notes that the shooter had a prior conviction for domestic violence. (Also, a note to those wondering if this is the second mass shooting in Aurora — the 2012 shooting was in Aurora, Colorado).
Barr Is Not Barred.* Per expectation, the Senate confirmed William Barr this week as our next U.S. Attorney General, by 54–45 vote. (Though the vote was mostly along party lines, Rand Paul voted against confirmation, and three Democrats voted for it.) While Barr isn’t expected to be as much of a hardliner as Sessions was, it remains to be seen what he’ll do with the Mueller investigation, and we need to keep an eye on this.

The Good:

FDA Finally Stepping Forward. The FDA announced this week that they’re going to strengthen review of dietary supplements moving forward. Incredibly, we’re already seeing this take effect, as the FDA takes action against 17 companies illegally claiming to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Between the FDA’s historical laissez-faire approach to this type of issue and Trump’s general bizarre love of deregulation, it’s something of a miracle that we’re seeing this much positive movement on a dangerous issue, and I’m here for it.
Land Conservation Win. The Senate passed a public lands conservation bill by 92–8 vote this week, creating a landmark number of new environmental protections. This is the biggest reform on the topic in a decade, which would be exciting all on its own, but it’s particularly thrilling when the EPA is constantly gunning for Most Likely To Be a Captain Planet Villain. This kind of bipartisan work is rare, and truly in the public interest, and it’s a nice bit of news all around.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I promise I edited for length! For making it through, you deserve this doggy music video 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 snow plower for our driveway!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 3 (February 3–9)

February 12, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This week was an explosion of activity, especially on Friday (which figures, cause I always send stories to my most excellent volunteer researcher on Thursday evenings). There’s a lot to catch up on this time, and I’m happy to walk you through it all! Though I make no guarantees that you will enjoy it as much as SNL did — it is the news, after all.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a sarcastic clap! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

With a week until the continuing resolution that ended the shutdown expires, the big Will They Won’t They of Disregard of Governing Norms is whether we’ll actually manage to get another deal in place before Friday. As I type this on Sunday, I’m honestly not sure what is going to happen this week, because reports are still all over the place. Here’s what I have for you:

Shutdown Showdown Shuffle. As I noted above, the CR that ended January’s shutdown will only last until February 15 — by which point, we’ll either have a new deal or we’ll have another shutdown. It’s currently unclear whether Congress can reach a deal with Trump, who is still talking about declaring a national emergency if he doesn’t get funding for a wall (and went ahead and saw contractors about it this past week). For that matter, it’s unclear whether Congress can reach a deal with itself — Democrats and Republicans are currently battling over the Democrats’ attempt to impose limits on overaggressive ICE detention. The end result is like watching a three-legged race to a bomb diffusal manual; the stakes are high, but who knows if we’ll get there before the economy explodes again. Obviously, we’ll all know more by this time next week, for better or worse, and I will keep folks posted.

After a few weeks of quiet, it was pretty jarring to suddenly have an explosion of news on the Russia Investigation. Here are the things to know:

Bezos vs Pecker. Jeff Bezos made the extraordinary announcement this past week that the owner of the National Enquirer, Richard Pecker, tried to blackmail him in response to the Washington Post’s coverage of several stories that relate back to Trump. Trump’s relationship with Pecker is well-trod ground, and in fact indirectly led to a plea agreement requiring Pecker’s parent company to keep its nose clean for three years — which he probably violated by threatening Bezos. Needless to say, the parent company is investigating, which has uncovered that another journalist has a similar story to Bezos’s, and the whole thing is a bizarre mess worth tracking.
House Committee Activities.* This was a very active week for the House Intelligence Committee, which met for the first time under Democrat leadership on Wednesday. They officially voted to send transcripts of over fifty interviews in the House Russia probe to Robert Mueller, signaling that they intend to resurrect the investigation under less compromised leadership. They also postponed Michael Cohen’s scheduled testimony, saying it was “in the interest of the investigation” (which is either ominous or exciting, and it’s impossible to know which until they tip more of their hand). And the House Ways and Means Committee has begun the slow process of obtaining Trump’s tax returns. But the biggest news of the week involved the House Judiciary Committee, who questioned a belligerent Attorney General Whitaker in a bizarrely combative hearing. His refusal to answer questions practically guarantees that we’ll see another hearing, and highlights how ill-equipped he is to serve as Attorney General in the first place.
What Mueller Is Up To.* Mueller continues to go toe-to-toe with Paul Manafort as his investigation winds down, alleging that Manafort lied in interviews to increase his likelihood of a pardon and that he worked on Ukranian political matters as late as 2018. This is, in turn, furthering an investigation into the campaign’s potential collusion with Russia, because discussions involving Russia’s invasion of Ukraine played a role in his work as a Ukrainian agent.
Inaugural Committee Blues.* While all of this is going on, New York federal prosecutors are busy investigating the Trump inaugural committee, ordering the committee to turn over documents related to donors. The subpoena is just the latest in an ongoing investigation into financial misconduct, which the administration somehow claims “doesn’t have anything to do” with the White House despite a literal allegation of pay-to-play.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Green Green New Deal. Freshman congressperson and millennial superhero Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced a climate change framework to the House this week, with Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey introducing its counterpart in the Senate. The framework is called the Green New Deal, and it’s very ambitious in scope; it aims to revitalize our train infrastructure and transition to entirely renewable resources within a ten-year period. Predictably, Trump hates it, which is worth the price of admission all on its own.
State of the Union Happened. As we mentioned last week, with the shutdown over, Nancy Pelosi issued another invitation to Trump to give a State of the Union on 2/5, which he accepted, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also invited former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams to give the Democrats’ official response. So the State of the Union happened this week, and it sure… happened. The early sections of the address talked a considerable amount about unity, but eventually Trump’s ordinary brand showed up to the party. Highlights include: Toasting new law that creates fairer criminal sentencing, a shoutout to historic achievements for women in Congress, Nancy Pelosi’s sarcastic clap, and a promise to end the AIDS/HIV epidemic in the next decade. Lowlights include: Complaining about “ridiculous partisan investigations”, lying repeatedly about immigration, and claiming that if he weren’t elected we’d be at war with North Korea. Eventually, Stacey Abrams gave the official Democrat response, which was very focused (and though she stressed she wanted the country to succeed, she pulled no punches). Then the Internet collected all the great reaction faces from people forced to sit through the whole thing on camera.
Virginia Imbroglio. Immediately on the coattails of last week’s Governor Northam blackface horrorshow in Virginia, his lieutenant governor was accused of sexual assault on Monday. Though it was murky at first, the whole thing gained specificity as his accuser came forward with a detailed and credible account. Then a second accusation of sexual assault became public by the end of the week, killing any lingering hope that This Was All Just A Misunderstanding. But Lieutenant Governor Fairfax is refusing to step down, despite growing calls to do so, and Virginia is considering impeachment proceedings. Meanwhile, because all this wasn’t enough of an executive crisis, Attorney General Mark Herring admitted he too had Done the Blackface in 1980 when he was in college, though at least there was no KKK involved. If Herring also resigned, it would leave the current very Republican Speaker of the House as the new governor — which would be a disaster for the Democrats, and that’s probably why the state is now split on whether Northam should resign. Which, to be fair, is a moot point because Northam still refuses to step down anyway, and on his apology tour called Virginian slaves “indentured servants” to a Black journalist’s face. (If you want the historical difference between the two, I recommend reading some literature about it and then appreciating the restraint shown in King’s response.) Needless to say, things in Virginia are even messier than they were a week ago.

The Bad:

Scary Appointments. The GOP-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee approved William Barr’s nomination for Attorney General along party lines, which means his next stop is a full Senate vote. (Psst! Call your Senators!) And the Senate Judiciary Committee also pushed through 44 Trumpian judicial nominees, including approving Neomi “Date Rape and Dwarf Tossing” Rao to take over Kavanaugh’s old seat on the D.C. Court of Appeals. (Calling takes five minutes!) And the Senate GOP is moving to reduce debate time on appointments on the Senate floor, presumably because every time someone says “dwarf tossing” another Senator loses five polling points. (Here is a thread with scripts you can use!)
Trump’s “Consumer” Protection. Faced with a month-long shutdown that forced 800,000 people to live hand-to-mouth, and the possibility of another shutdown looming, Trump’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau decided to change things for the real victims here: Predatory payday loan vendors. No, seriously, the CPFB is rolling back regulations on predatory lending practices, because apparently in Trump Opposite Land the real consumers to protect are the bottom-feeders of the loan industry. The rule wasn’t even supposed to go into effect until August, but loan practices were starting to change in anticipation of the new regulations — and naturally, that’s a lost opportunity to exploit a million federal employees next week.

The Good:

Supreme Court (Quasi) Wins. The Supreme Court decided by 5–4 vote to stay enforcement of a Louisiana law that would have dramatically curtailed legal access to abortions. The stay is not permanent, but keeps the law from going into effect while it is being challenged in the lower courts. The swing vote in question was Chief Justice Roberts, who appears to be pivoting on some issues in response his court being on fire. But lest we think he has changed too much, he also voted with the conservative bloc to let an execution of a Muslim prisoner go forward without equal access to last rites. So who only knows what he’ll do if the Louisiana case comes across his desk again as a final appeal.
Immigration Updates. Though this was a fairly quiet week, we did see a few immigration updates — and notably, most of them were net positive. California and New Mexico are withdrawing their National Guard troops from the border, and at least one border town in Arizona that federal troops covered in razor wire is formally requesting that it be removed, saying that the wire is “nothing more than a spectacle by the Trump administration.”

So that’s what I have for this week, which definitely was more than enough! For making it through, you deserve this video of elephant orthopedics 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 tweets about calling your Senators!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 2 (January 27 — February 2)

February 5, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

I missed the Superb Owl’s great flight over everyone’s televisions yesterday to draft, which I’m a touch sad about. But it turns out even the Superbowl involved the news this week (which, by the way, is definitely the most 2019 thing I’m going to type today). So I like to think I was at everybody’s Superbowl parties in spirit, reminding people to resist and stealing too many nachos.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a Senator! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Now that the shutdown is over, this was a fairly quiet week regarding Disregard of Governing Norms, but there is still some aftermath from the month of partial shutdown to wade through. Here is the latest:

Shutdown Aftermath. In the week after the shutdown, we’re still seeing a number of repercussions, though other things are bouncing back faster than expected. There’s a bill going around the Senate that would give back pay to contractors, but Republicans other than Susan Collins aren’t touching it — they’re too busy working on repealing the estate tax, because we are all being governed by Ebenezer Scrooge. And early reports suggest the shutdown cost the economy $11B in total, and $3B of that will never be recovered. That said, the economy also added 304,000 jobs in January, which hopefully will mitigate the damage. Nonetheless, the Fed isn’t going to be raising interest rates again anytime soon.

It was also a fairly quiet week on the Russia Investigation front, but there were still some significant developments. Here are the main things to know:

Bar on Barr Voting. The Senate opted this week to postpone the confirmation vote of Attorney General hopeful William Barr, kicking it out for another week while they process whether or not Barr would let Mueller do his thing. Since Trump was also recently quoted as saying it’s “totally up to the attorney general” whether the Mueller report ever sees the light of day, the Democrats’ hesitation seems pretty fair from where I’m sitting. The delay has given two senators, Chuck Grassley and Richard Blumenthal, an opportunity to introduce bipartisan legislation that would compel Robert Mueller to release a summary of his report to Congress and the public — which would obviate concern that Barr might bury any findings. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has blocked this type of legislation before, so we’ll need to see if it reaches the Senate floor (and call regularly if it doesn’t).
Trump Putin Rendezvous (Again).* News broke this week that Donald Trump met with Putin at G7 in November without any U.S. staff present (although Melanie was there). And if that sounds familiar, it’s probably because this is the second year running that he has done this with a dude literally charged with interfering in our election. So that’s super fun and in no way disturbing, particularly in light of the two stories below.
Trump-Cued Fighting. Given his recent mystery meeting with Putin, it sure is comforting that Trump is getting along with his own intelligence staff and political party! Wait, no, I’m informed that I have that backwards — he’s actually been increasingly fighting with his own intelligence experts, and is knee-deep in a public tiff with Mitch McConnell, my bad! Predictably, the Trump narrative is that he’s right and all the people he’s fighting with are wrong, which is pretty concerning — we’ll talk a bit more about what specifically everybody is fighting about below.
Bye Russia, No Love.* The U.S. is officially leaving a 1987 nuclear arms treaty with Russia called the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, with our Secretary of State saying that Russia has been in violation for at least five years. But Russia has been saying the same thing about us, and it definitely seems true that Trump is frustrated by China’s lack of restriction under similar treaty, so it’s kind of hard to know what’s going on in general. And at minimum, Trump keeps leaving or threatening to leave various treaties, which is concerning all on its own. So basically, there’s a lot to watch here.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Polar Vortex Blues. Much of the country experienced extreme cold this week, as a polar vortex brought temperatures as low as -31 degrees Farenheit for several days. The Midwest was definitely hit the hardest, claiming the majority of twenty-one people deaths and fifty-one cases of frostbite while the vortex was occurring. But eyes also turned east to Brooklyn, where several inmates were held without heat or electricity in single-digit temperatures for several days. Thankfully, temperatures rose again fairly abruptly, and it is a lovely 50 degree day here in Boston as I type this.
Northam Not Gonna Resign. News broke over the weekend that current Virginia governor and terrible Democrat Ralph Northam had photos in his med school yearbook that featured him either in blackface or wearing a KKK hood (it’s kind of unclear which). Though Northam initially apologized, he then refused to step down and shared another anecdote about his adventures in blackface, somehow believing that overt racism isn’t a disqualifying in a party whose main platform by now is We Aren’t The Racist Ones 2019. To their credit, Democrats are livid, and increasingly calling for his resignation. So it’s basically chaos down there, and we’ll have to see what ends up happening.
Fighting About Afghanistan. News broke this week that we had reached a peace deal in Afghanistan, and will be likely withdrawing troops stationed there soon as a result. Between that and Syria, the GOP is pretty unified in their anger, and passed a Senate resolution rebuking Trump over it. Democrats are more divided on whether withdrawal is a good idea, particularly if they’ve thrown their hat in the 2020 ring, though I doubt anybody enjoys agreeing with Trump about whether the sky is blue, let alone his plan to end a 17-year war.
State of the State of the Union. Since the shutdown is now over, Nancy Pelosi has issued another invitation to Trump to give a State of the Union on February 5th. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has also invited former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams to give the Democrats’ official response. And Trump is gearing up to talk about immigration at said address, which I’m sure will be full of factual information and complete sentences. So this will be an interesting State of the Union, to say the least.

The Bad:

Jussie Smollet Assaulted. Empire actor Jussie Smollet was brutally attacked in Chicago this past week. The attack definitely appears to be a hate crime; Smollet reported that his assailants were yelling racist and homophobic things as they threw an “unidentified chemical substance” on him and put a noose around his neck. Needless to say, this type of attack is becoming horrifyingly common in the era of Trump, but it never stops being terrible.
Mitch McConnell vs H.R.1. Mitch McConnell went on a major tear this week about House legislation designed to reduce corruption in government, quite tellingly referring to it as “a power grab.” (Uh, yes? It makes the American public have more power Mitch, that’s literally how anti-corruption legislation works.) The statements were a follow-up to an op-ed he had already published about said legislation, because I guess he felt like he hadn’t complained about the new House enough yet. But to be fair to McConnell (which isn’t a phrase I type very often), he’s also had his hands full trying to convince Trump not to declare a national emergency at the border — a threat Trump seems increasingly ready to carry out and which would definitely not end well for anybody involved, except possibly Nancy Pelosi’s approval rating.
Immigration Updates. Given the lack of movement during the shutdown and lack of a permanent funding solution, it is truly impressive how much awful immigration news happened in the past week. We learned that the Pentagon is sending 3,750 more troops to the Mexican border, joining the 2,400 troops already there and extending the mission all the way to September. (Hopefully I don’t have to explain why this is both unnecessary bullying and a shameful waste of resources.) And news broke that ICE created a fake university as a sting operation, telling international students that the fake university was on their approved list of accredited schools and then arresting people who went there. Meanwhile, people in ICE custody on a hunger strike are being force-fed through invasive nasal tubes, and DHS refuses to reunify families they tore apart at the border because they say it might be ‘traumatic’ for kids to see their actual parents again, and does this planet have an exit ramp because weeks like this make me want to use it.

The Good:

White Supremacy is Terrorism. The white supremacist who murdered Timothy Caughman in 2017 pleaded guilty to terrorism and murder as a hate crime this week. It is hard to imagine a more textbook case of white supremacy as terrorism — the man literally murdered a random denizen going about his business in the hopes of sparking a racial war — but this is one of the first documented instances of a white supremacy terrorism conviction in the country. It’s grimly satisfying rather than ‘good’ to realize that we’re finally calling a spade a spade in a legal sense, but it’s still an important step for navigating the increase of hate crimes in a Trump-run America.

So that’s what I have for this week, which definitely was more than enough! For making it through, you deserve this video of otter pups 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 photos of Superb Owls!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 1 (January 20–26)

January 29, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Well, folks, we’re officially past the halfway point of Trump’s first term (assuming he serves a whole one, though I suspect everybody reading this hopes he does not). And true to the last two years, this past week was a wild roller coaster ride; I think more than a few of us were a little green by the time it ended. But at least we got some good news as we cruised to a stop.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a Presidential candidate! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Half the news this week involves Disregard of Governing Norms, though at least we got some positive shutdown news in the end. (I’m separating the shutdown news into two sections, by the way, in the hopes that it will make the whole thing less confusing.) Here are the main things to know from this week:

Shutdown Roller Coaster Ends (For Now). Mitch McConnell finally allowed a vote on legislation to reopen government this past week, after the House had passed ten different bills on the subject. Since he’s Mitch McConnell, and therefore terrible, he scheduled two votes: One for House legislation that had already passed, and one for Trump’s bonkers bad-faith bill from last week. Unsurprisingly, neither bill passed; what was surprising was the minor mutiny McConnell found on his hands between the six GOP Senators that voted for the Dem bill and the GOP lunchroom fight the same day (to say nothing of all the protests that happened outside his offices). Eventually, and improbably, Trump agreed to the House version the next day, so a continuing resolution that lasts until February 15th was signed into law by the end of the evening, and federal employees ostensibly are receiving back pay by the end of the week.
Wait, What? After over a month of truculent Trump times, I think his abrupt about-face on Friday was pretty bewildering — so I wanted to write a bit more about the factors at play. As I noted above, the shutdown was deeply unpopular and pretty widely regarded as his fault, which was in turn impacting his ability to set up a State of the Union address. The shutdown also was disrupting border security process and his deportation machine, which isn’t a problem from where I’m sitting but Trump likely thought it was. But likely the largest factor was a shortage of air traffic controllers on Friday, which caused flight disruptions at LaGuardia and other airports for over an hour. Since Trump pretty immediately went back to talking about his wall, he might still be considering declaring an emergency or starting another shutdown — which is prompting legislators to start pushing back on the concept of shutdowns altogether. We need to keep an eye on all of this despite Nancy Pelosi’s adept handling of the original shutdown, because February 15 will be here before we know it.
State of the Union Showdown. This week also continued the surreal back-and-forth between the Speaker of the House and the “Dealmaker” In Chief that began last week with Pelosi’s strongly-worded letter. Although it initially looked like 45 would content himself with petty airplane power moves, he announced by letter midweek that he planned to come to the House to give his State of the Union despite being uninvited. Without Pelosi’s invitation, however, he doesn’t have the legal right to take the podium, and she made it clear that no invitation was forthcoming while the shutdown was ongoing. By midweek, Trump was the one to blink first, which probably impacted some of the shutdown news above. Since the shutdown is now over, Pelosi has issued another invitation for February 5.

It was a quieter week on the Russia Investigation front, but there were still some significant developments. Here are the main things to know:

Further Cohen Circus.* Michael Cohen’s attorney announced this week that Cohen would not be testifying in front of Congress after all, because he had received threats from Trump that his family would face consequences if Cohen testified. (It’s hard not to view this story as related to last week’s Cohen news one way or another, though it’s anybody’s guess exactly how.) Unsurprisingly, the Senate Intelligence Committee responded by simply subpoenaing Cohen, so he’s now again due to testify on February 7.
Moar Giuliani ‘Help’.* Giuliani gave another truly wild New Yorker interview this week, saying that he knew last week’s Buzzfeed article about the Trump Tower project in Moscow wasn’t true because “[he’d] been through all the tapes.” This was, incidentally, how we learned that there were tapes to be discussing, which is probably why Giuliani immediately pulled a Hagrid afterwards and said “I shouldn’t have said tapes.” Needless to say, this is not normal behavior for legal counsel, and some outlets are saying Trump is livid, but I’ve seen other people speculate that Giuliani’s behavior is Trump’s own strategy. Frankly, I have no idea what to believe, but it sure seems more likely now that Trump did keep working on a deal in Moscow through November.
Stone Cold Indictment. Roger Stone was arrested and taken into custody before dawn on Friday morning, charged with several counts of lying, witness tampering and obstruction of justice. Though the actual charges are fairly mild, the facts of the indictments are anything but; they essentially connect Stone directly to both Wikileaks and the Trump campaign ahead of the 2016 DNC Russian hack. By the time that I write t his on Monday, Stone is already out on a personal bond and giving interviews. Needless to say, the connections between Trump, his associates, and Russia are getting so convoluted and numerous that many of us need a road map.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Let Them Eat Loans. Commerce secretary and jackass billionaire Wilbur Ross was in the news this week for saying that he “d[oesn’t] quite understand” why furloughed federal workers seeking assistance from food banks didn’t just take out loans to make ends meet. To be fair, I don’t quite understand why his agency is charging 9% on the emergency loans they made available, so I guess that makes us even.
2020 Campaign Ring. As we move forward into 2019, it’s unsurprising that Democrat candidates are beginning to throw their hats into the ring for 2020 — in addition to Senator Elizabeth Warren and Hawaii rep Tulsi Gabbard, who declared their intent to run last week, we’ve now also got Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris and San Antonio mayor Julián Castro stepping forward. (Perhaps more surprisingly, former Starbucks CEO and fellow billionaire jackass Howard Schultz has started to mutter about running as well on an independent ticket, because what this country needs is definitely a split vote.) At any rate, all six join candidates who announced prior to 2019, of course, and several major outlets are keeping track of all the current contenders as well as those likely to add their names. All told, it’s going to be a pretty crowded ring, but there will be an unprecedented four women running this election. (Hilariously, the Hill reports that Trump is already trailing several of them in polls.)

The Bad:

Trans Military Ban Reinstated. The Supreme Court issued a 5–4 holding this week agreeing to reinstate Trump’s ban on trans military service while review of the case is pending. They simultaneously declined to let the administration fast-track the case, which means lower appeals courts will hear the case first. Incredibly, the administration’s winning argument was that preliminary injunctions were a ‘growing trend’ that denied them “the ability to implement significant policy measures .” (This view, I feel the need to note, blithely ignores the fact that preliminary injunctions are only issued if there’s a high likelihood of prevailing on the merits of the larger case — in other words, the administration isn’t being discriminated against; they just keep trying to do things that are illegal.)
Immigration Updates. On the same day the shutdown ended, the Trump administration started sending asylum seekers back to Mexico per the agreement they negotiated with the Mexican government. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen called the move “unprecedented,” and she’s probably right about that, because it’s also illegal as well as ill-advised. Mexico is only grudgingly on board, calling the new policy “a unilateral move by the United States that we have to respond to,” so we might see pushback on that front. And on top of everything else, as Vox notes, the whole thing is basically on countdown to a lawsuit. I’ll definitely keep folks posted on developments as they happen.

The Good:

LA Teacher’s Strike Successfully Concludes. The LA teacher’s union strike successfully concluded this week, winning terms such as classroom size caps and nurses at every school. The superintendent noted that though “40 years of under-investment [can’t be fixed] in a week,” the strike settlement represented a good start. Between this and the air traffic controllers’ impact on the government shutdown, this week had some powerful messages about the value of organizing.
Trans Rights Twitch Stream. Last weekend, UK Youtuber Hbomberguy began a spontaneous twitch stream of Donkey Kong 64 to support Mermaids, a trans rights organization that under funding threat due to moral panic caused by ‘faulty’ reporting. Incredibly, the stream went on for 57 straight hours, during which time it raised over $340,000 and drew cameo calls from everybody from Lindsay Ellis to Chelsea Manning to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. As Hbomberguy himself noted on the twitch stream, the sheer success of the event highlights how many people believe trans rights are human rights — which is particularly welcome timing given the news above.

So that’s what I have for this week, which definitely was more than enough! For making it through, you deserve these portraits of an artist’s hamster 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 an extra few hours in the day!

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 52 (January 13–19)

January 22, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This was a really weird week even by our ordinary standards, but it was also rage inducing; MLK Day under this administration is a special Bad Place and the shutdown has hit the one-month mark. (I don’t mind admitting that I may have yelled things several times while drafting. I regret nothing, although my dog may feel otherwise.)

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a shutdown! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

We’re nearing the point of a full month of shutdown, which means Disregard of Governing Norms was out in full force again this week. Here are the main things to know:

Two Branches Duke It Out. The shutdown is turning basic concepts of government into something of a free-for-all, and I can’t say we’re enjoying the results. Though it was pretty edifying when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi politely gave Trump a choice about the State of the Union — either do it in writing or postpone it, because nobody wants to see your MAGA face during the shutdown — it didn’t take him long to start retaliating. (At the time that I write this, he has graduated from canceling her trip to misogynistic Twitter attacks.) Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell kept refusing to vote on resolution after resolution to reopen the government, which eventually prompted thirty members of the freshman House class to bring a protest letter to all of his offices.
This Week’s Consequences of Shutdown. Another week of shutdown means more mess to untangle — although in this case, it sure feels like more than a week’s worth. The most obvious and immediate effect is that airport checkpoints are becoming dicey, because more and more TSA employees are (understandably) refusing to come in and it’s forcing security lanes to close. But we’re also seeing trickle-down effects in our domestic violence shelter system, and our firefighting and cybersecurity systems are suffering as well. If this continues, we can expect our federal court system and diplomacy structures to start malfunctioning as well, because they will run out of money soon. And it’s looking likely to continue, because Trump is recalling over 50,000 furloughed workers without pay, and signaled he might be recalling even more workers in the near future. Meanwhile, his latest ‘offer’ for the wall money he’s demanding was protection for Dreamers that he’s legally obligated to give anyway because the Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the matter (which means injunctions preventing him from ending the program are still in effect). Against this backdrop, it’s little wonder even Cardi B had things to say on the subject.
Emoluments Events. News broke this week that T-Mobile executives had immediately booked Trump Hotel rooms after announcing a merger that needs approval from the Trump administration. Needless to say, this put the emoluments clause back on people’s radars even before a government watchdog agency issued a report on the topic. (The report found that this administration violated the emoluments clause a bunch of times with its use of the Trump Hotel specifically — shocking, I know.)

This was another very strange week for the Russia Investigation, so there’s still a lot to process. Here are the main bits to know:

Michael Cohen’s Sock Puppet Theater.* We heard a lot about Michael Cohen this week. First news came out that Cohen paid an IT firm to rig Trump polls in 2015 and to set up a sock puppet Twitter account to call him sexy (no, really). Cohen went ahead and confirmed both stories himself, noting he did at Trump’s instruction. And speaking of Trump’s instruction, Buzzfeed also ran a story that Trump instructed Cohen to lie to Congress about the Moscow Tower project. The Mueller investigation discredited the report, but it’s clear that at least some of it lines up with court documents, and Buzzfeed refused to retract the story. And then Giuliani disclosed some stuff that makes the whole thing sound even more credible — but more on that below.
Collusion and Giuliani’s ‘Help.’* In true Giuliani fashion, after the man toured a couple of press circuits Trump now looks even more guilty of collusion. The latest is that he admitted Trump worked on the Moscow Tower project until October or November 2016, which is far, far later than anybody had previously admitted. He also acknowledged that Trump talked to Cohen about his testimony on the subject beforehand, calling it “perfectly normal” for them to discuss what Cohen was going to say to Congress ahead of time. There was also some back-and-forth about whether aides had been guilty of collusion, which he contextualized by saying “I never said there was no collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia. (Yikes.) Meanwhile, we still don’t know what Trump said to Putin in their five meetings, the Senate couldn’t stop the administration from lifting sanctions against one of Putin’s buddies, and McConnell is trying to get the current Secretary of State to become a Senator. So that’s all fine and normal.
Barr Confirmation Hearing. Amid everything else, Trump’s pick for Attorney General, William Barr, sat through his confirmation hearing this past week. He fielded a lot of questions about the Russia investigation, his likely relationship with Trump, and his views of executive power, which have been (rightfully) viewed by some columnists as a referendum on Mueller. His answers were mixed, which made some Senators apprehensive, but it seems likely he will be confirmed.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Clemson and Hamberders.* In light of the shutdown, Trump doesn’t have a personal chef right now, so he served the Clemson Tigers fast food when hosting them to celebrate their national title. Though some NFL athletes were offended by the menu, I personally find it weirder that people created fake quotes from the Clemson quarterback to praise Trump. Also, Trump’s estimate of how many ‘hamberders’ he ordered grew by 700 over the course of a day, which SNL clearly enjoyed lampooning.
White Supremacy On Parade. This was a weird, bad week for white supremacist ideas, which sadly makes sense because it’s Martin Luther King Day in 2019. First the House decided to pass a resolution condemning white supremacy instead of, y’know, actually censuring or even mentioning Steve King in any way (despite his direct role in making the resolution necessary). Then footage went viral of a teen from Covington Catholic High School blocking the path of Nathan Phillips, a Vietnam vet and Omaha elder, as the latter tries to lead a small group through during the Indigenous People’s March. The teen eventually issued a statement that he was ‘trying to diffuse the situation’ and that he was ‘provoked’. A longer video does show that the students were being taunted by a group of four or five adults, but shows Phillips lead a small group forward to de-escalate, much as he originally described in his Saturday CNN interview. Some short videos also illustrate that the students completely surrounded the group of indigenous people. (Needless to say, if you redirect aggression towards a second group, I’m not sure that counts as ‘diffusing the situation.’) And then, just to cap off a real banner week in white supremacy, Mike Pence insinuated Trump was the new Martin Luther King. And for an encore, Sarah Sanders said Martin Luther King ‘gave his life to right the wrong of racial inequality,’ and there’s so much wrong with that sentence that I don’t even know where to start.
The Best A Man Can Get. Gillette made headlines this week by airing an ad suggesting that perhaps toxic masculinity isn’t awesome for men. The ad received a wild amount of backlash, given its central message; one particularly angry gent tweeted himself throwing his razor in the toilet. But recent research backs Gillette up — the American Psychology Association issued Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Men and Boys, which doesn’t pull punches addressing exactly how toxic masculinity is bad for men’s health. And apparently bad for men’s plumbers too, good gravy.

The Bad:

ISIS attack in Syria. In light of the messy withdrawal from Syria beginning, it’s disheartening but foreseeable that a suicide blast claimed by ISIS killed four Americans in the area this week. Needless to say, this makes the withdrawal plans even more complicated, despite the official White House story that ISIS has been ‘crushed.’ We’ll need to keep an eye on this in the coming weeks.
Immigration Updates. This was another bad, bad week in immigration news, y’all. An inspector general report issued this week in an attempt to fix the zero tolerance policy mess admitted that the number of children separated from their parents under the policy may be thousands higher than initially believed, because the administration began the practice almost a year before they publicly acknowledged it. The report also acknowledged that we don’t have exact numbers, only rough estimates, because the administration didn’t bother to track the families they separated at all. Investigators also found that, under the Trump administration, percentages of separated children in custody increased more than tenfold over the past two years. And though DACA recipients got a bit of good news when the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal on the subject, four volunteers from No More Deaths were not so lucky — a federal judge convicted them of misdemeanors for leaving food and water for migrants crossing an Arizona wildlife refuge. The women could face up to six months in federal prison for their relief work, and there’s some speculation that the arrests were retaliatory, because they occurred shortly after No More Deaths filmed CBP agents dumping water. For those of you less familiar with that stretch of the border, I cannot stress enough that it is notorious for killing many, many people who attempt to cross through it — Humane Borders estimates over 3,200 people have died in the region while attempting to cross it over the past twenty years. These are the first convictions for this type of humanitarian work in more than a decade.

The Good:

Citizenship Census Resilience. A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from adding a question about citizenship to the 2020 census this week, calling it “a veritable smorgasbord of classic, clear-cut” violations that were “unlawful for a multitude of reasons.” Unsurprisingly, the Trump administration plans to appeal the decision, which is probably why congressional Democrats are attempting to introduce legislation that would serve as a bar to reintroducing the question.

So that’s what I have for this week, which definitely was more than enough! For making it through, you deserve this video of a porcupine getting a boost in the snow 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 an extra few hours in the day!

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 51 (January 6–12)

January 15, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Another week of shutdown, which by now is the U.S. longest government shutdown in modern history, and between that and an intense week of Russia investigation developments, it feels like the entire country is holding its breath. But any doctor can tell you that it’s not good for people to hold their breath indefinitely, and countries are no different. We’re starting to see real consequences, so here’s hoping we see some kind of shutdown solution soon.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a Russia investigation! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

With the ongoing shutdown, we’re of course seeing one big, long Disregard of Governing Norms this week — but there are a lot of subtleties to unpack. Here are the main things to know from this past week:

How’d We Get Here? As I mentioned above, at the time that I write this, we’re officially into the longest shutdown in forty years — which means it’s helpful to talk a bit about how and why we’re stuck here. For such a complicated set of repercussions, the background is actually pretty straightforward. Simply put: Trump still wants a fiscally irresponsible and ineffectual wall, and Democrats still don’t, and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell keeps refusing to have the Senate vote on the bill that passed in the House. And after Mike Pence’s television circuit, Trump’s big prime time “humanitarian crisis” circus, and White House meetings that Trump then turned around and walked out of… we’re still at an impasse.
‘National Emergency’ Stuff Explained.* The other thing that’s been fraught and confusing this week has been Trump’s repeated allusion to declaring a national emergency as a way around the shutdown stalemate. A bit of context for those of y’all playing the home game: Trump keeps threatening to declare an emergency (and used rhetoric about a “crisis” at the border to lay groundwork) on the theory that it would allow him to unilaterally divert funds for his wall. This has been a surprisingly common tactic in American history since it was authorized by legislation in the 1970 — at least, for certain types of foreign affair issues that traditionally, admittedly, aren’t “people trying to claim asylum.” But that doesn’t make it a good plan — and in fact, both the GOP and prominent Democrats are dubious that this would be viable. So Trump has walked that back for now, though Lindsey Graham is encouraging him to keep it in his back pocket anyway.
Consequences of Shutdown.* On Day 22 of the shutdown, we’re already starting to see a variety of consequences — and we can expect them to keep getting worse. Right now, the federal employees and contract workers who have been furloughed or forced to work for no pay have it worst; some of these folks are starting GoFundMe drives just to pay their February rent. But we’re already seeing trickle down consequences for the rest of us as Joshua Tree National Park gets trashed, FBI investigations are compromised, and food inspections are curtailed. Though a TSA revolt was quelled for now with an interim payment for workers, we can expect to see consequences for airlines in the future if this shutdown continues. And the benefit colloquially known as ‘food stamps’ (which is actually called SNAP now, tell your friends!) is being issued several weeks early due to anticipated funding issues later in the month, and school lunches and WIC as well as many forms of housing assistance are likely to feel the effects in the near future too. And in the long term, the entire economy might be impacted by a lengthy shutdown — so it would behoove us to find a way out of this, but the damage might be the entire point (and more on that below).

This was an incredibly wild week for the Russia Investigation and there’s definitely a lot to process. Here are the main bits to know:

Russian Lawyer Indicted. The Russian lawyer involved in the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting has now been charged in New York — though her charges have nothing to do with the Trump meeting; they relate back to money laundering and the Kremlin. But the charges are still relevant to the Russia investigation specifically because they show that she was acting as an agent of Russian officials during the Trump Tower meeting in 2016.
Paul Manafort Admits Treason By Accident. This one is so wild I honestly can’t believe I’m typing it: Paul Manafort’s attorneys accidentally revealed by improper redaction that he shared Trump campaign polling data with a Russian associate during the 2016 campaign. Needless to say, since Manafort was Trump’s campaign manager at the time, this is a really big deal, and we will almost certainly see follow-up about it.
Trump Called Directly Into Question.* There were several big headlines about Donald Trump himself this week, and all of them are as surreal as they are predictable. First the New York Times reported that the FBI opened an inquiry into Trump when he fired Comey and straight-up said it was because of Russia (which, in retrospect, of course they did). Then the next day, the Washington Post reported on Trump’s attempts to conceal the contents of his conversations with Putin from his own staff. And everybody started to realize that actually, the idea that Trump was a Russian asset seemed pretty plausible, and Fox News just straight-up asked him if he was a Russian agent — and y’all, when first asked, he didn’t say ‘no.’ (He did eventually deny it, after like ten toxic tweets about the FBI.) Against this backdrop, we’re all left wondering what exactly Michael Cohen is going to say when he testifies about Trump to Congress next month, and the whole thing is just another way the country is holding its breath.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Threatening FEMA Funding.* Early in the week, Trump threatened by tweet to pull FEMA funding for the California fires, claiming that it was “a disgrace of lives and money.” And while at first it seemed like he was just being a jerk for funsies, it became clear a few days later that he was considering diverting disaster funding to pay for his vanity wall, so probably that was some preliminary foundational lying on display. (By the end of the week, that plan was looking unlikely, because he had graduated to saying that he “shouldn’t have to.”)
Steve King’s White Supremacy Stuff. Steve King shocked… people who hadn’t been paying attention to him, I guess, by asking how ‘white supremacist’ became an offensive term. This woke House GOP leadership from their torpor after like half a week of outcry, and they removed him from all of his committees today (though Democrats are moving for a full censure). Meanwhile, King is still a member of the House, and of course, everybody’s pointedly ignoring that Trump called himself a ‘nationalist’ months beforehand.

The Bad:

Syria Withdrawal Begins. Though we’re leaving troops in place for now, the U.S. has begun the process of withdrawing equipment from Syria this week — literally a week after John Bolton said we wouldn’t. The whole thing is messy and confusing, and made even more so by Trump’s unnecessary tweeting and the contradictory official accounts. Needless to say, it’s worth keeping an eye on this mess as we move forward into the new year.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. There was a lot of good court-related news in the past few days. First a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from expanding exemptions to employers who don’t want to cover hormonal medications. Though this first decision only applied to thirteen states, the decision was expanded by another federal judge to cover the entire nation the following day. And continuing the access to justice theme, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association has joined the shutdown lawsuit party, suing the federal government for depriving its workers of pay without due process.

So that’s what I have for this week, and ho boy did it feel like a lot! For making it through, you deserve this raccoon at a ballgame 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 an extra few hours in the day!

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 50 (December 27-January 5)

January 8, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Improbably, the news was almost… quiet this past week and a half? Although there was another week of government shutdown, a new Congress, and a lot of Trump yelling, so it might be more accurate to call the news was ‘stabilized.’ Honestly, given how incredibly volatile the previous week had been, I can’t say I’m sad to get a bit of a breather; at least it gives me a chance to catch up!

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a shutdown! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

We saw a huge amount of Disregard of Governing Norms this week — between a new, Dem-controlled House in session and the ongoing shutdown, this section is the real meat and potatoes of the week’s news. Here are the main things to know from this past week:

New House Weirdnesses.* There’s a new House in town, and while that can only be a good thing, it’s certainly kicking off with a lot of weirdness. To start with, the Dems are refusing to seat a Republican from North Carolina — yup, you guessed it, the guy with a giant pile of ballot fraud allegations — because he’s still under investigation for said giant pile of allegations. But this is an unprecedented Congress even without the extra bonus fraud, because the breadth of representation is a new national record. And continuing the “new but improved” theme, the Dems in the House immediately kicked off the new session by introducing an anti-corruption bill that would limit gerrymandering and create automatic voter registration, among other changes. Meanwhile, new Speaker Nancy Pelosi has her hands full between Republicans’ weird hate-on for freshman members and said freshman members’ sustained interest in impeaching the mothburglar-in-chief.
Government Shutdown Sure Is (Still) Happening.* We’re now on track for one of the longest shutdowns of the past forty years as the partial shutdown enters its third week. Though the House passed a bill to reopen government on its first day in session, Mitch McTurtle refused to let the Senate vote on it, and meetings with the White House proved less than fruitful. So now Trump has resorted to flavor-of-the-day wheedling to try to get some semblance of a wall funded, leading to gems like these: “[You] don’t like concrete, so we’ll give [you] steel.” “I’ll keep the government closed for months or even years!” “The Shutdown is only because of the 2020 Presidential Election.” And 800,000 government workers remain along for the ride.

After such a frenetic few weeks, things feel creepy-quiet on the Russia Investigation front, but given that Mueller just extended his grand jury another six months it’s likely to be the quiet before a storm. Here is the main thing to know this week:

An (Alleged) American Spy in Russia. A U.S. citizen, Paul Whelan, was arrested on espionage charges in Russia at the end of 2018. Though his family says he was only there for a vacation, he apparently had passports from three other countries and a checkered past with the Marines, so by this point it’s anybody’s guess what is going on.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Panderer-in-Chief and the Military.* Literally the day after Trump visited our troops in Iraq and lied to them about getting a pay raise, he was back in the news for posting a video of Navy SEALs from the same trip, which reveals classified information and could potentially endanger them further. But on the plus side, his blatant incompetence apparently broke up some kind of logjam on the topic of Syria, because national security advisor Michael Bolton has announced that “the timetable flows from the policy decisions” because there are “objectives . . . that condition the withdraw” — among them, that we wouldn’t be pulling out of Syria until we know Turkey won’t attack Kurdish allies.
Pay Freezes and Trump Breezes. It turns out the middle of a government shutdown is the perfect time to order a pay freeze for federal employees if you’re Donald Trump, so he went ahead and did that this week. And he announced at the end of the week that he’s going to make a Big Announcement about the shutdown during prime time tomorrow, which may or may not be that he’s planning to declare a national emergency. So it’s been a fun week all around, really.

The Bad:

Immigration News. Though things were quiet on a lot of fronts, immigration is the 45 misery engine that just keeps churning. Among the lowlights was another CBP use of tear gas against migrants at the border in Tijuana, some of whom have probably been camped waiting there since the last incident in November. But there was also a fun moment when Trump blamed Democrats for the death of two migrant children in custody — deaths which, I cannot stress enough, were entirely under executive branch control at every stage; this one really isn’t a “blame on both sides” kind of situation at all. Needless to say, I might have more to focus on after tomorrow’s announcement, though I’m hoping it will be more sound and fury signifying nothing.
Bernie Sanders Suspicions.* Bernie Sanders was in the news this week because more than two dozen campaign staffers alleged ‘sexual harassment and violence’ in his 2016 campaign, citing everything from classic quid pro quo harassment to dramatic pay disparities. Though Sanders himself wasn’t cited as perpetuating abuse, his response was pretty concerning; he noted he was “a little bit busy” and said he apologized “to any woman who feels like she was not treated appropriately.” Seriously, that’s the apology that you give when your Aunt Cynthia is mad that she has to sit next to your Great Aunt Hortense at Thanksgiving; it’s not what you say when you learn people high up in your organization were penalized for refusing to sleep with their supervisors.

The Good:

ACA Silver Lining. We received judicial clarity this week that the ACA ruling out of Texas from a few weeks ago — which I’m still mad about, by the way — definitely won’t impact the law while an appeal is pending. And an appeal is almost certainly pending, because that was the whole reason the states asked for the clarification, so this was not an academic exercise. It will definitely help a lot of people keep coverage while this is sorted.
Union Shutdown Suits. A federal employee union is suing Trump over the shutdown, alleging (probably correctly) that it’s illegal to force 400,000 workers to continue performing duties indefinitely without compensation. Needless to say, it will be very interesting to see what happens with this suit, particularly as we watch the shutdown drag on.
Clemency for Cyntoia Brown. This week, some belated clemency reached Cyntoia Brown, an inmate in Tennessee serving a life sentence for shooting her sex trafficker as a juvenile. As he stepped down, her state governor commuted her life sentence, which will make her eligible for parole in August. Brown’s statement is, frankly, way more gracious than I probably be in her shoes, but that’s not surprising; she sounds like an extraordinary person all around.

So that’s what I have for this week, and it was a good amount for me! For making it through, you deserve this San Jose councilman getting sworn in over Captain America’s shield 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 lungs that enjoy human existence!

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 48.5 (December 16–26)

December 27, 2018 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Still life — Boot on newspaper, by Ernest Blaikley [Public domain]

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1X1ruUXNnpSufbkxYOSdb84N_ERsWKZft

This week was a dumpster fire for everyone, including the Trump administration — there are no real winners with a government shutdown and half the administration on its way out the door. And while it’s nice to at least see some collateral damage, I still recommend grabbing a comfort food before you dig into this week’s news — it’s definitely not The Most Wonderful News of the Year, y’all. (I delayed a couple of days to give everyone a holiday break, and also have moved the Good to the beginning of this draft accordingly.)

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a shutdown! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

The Good:

Asylum Assist. It’s just after Christmas, and a lot of things are going wrong, but I can at least bring you good news for those seeking refuge in this country. Jeff Sessions’s changes to asylum law from this summer, which blocked asylum claims due to gang violence or interpersonal violence, were successfully challenged in federal district court this week. The judge based his holding on the idea that Sessions ignored checks and balances, which might be a starting place for larger precedent on the topic. And on a separate asylum issue, the Supreme Court held by 5–4 decision to deny the federal government a stay that would allow them to block interior asylum applications. Among the people to vote in the majority: Chief Justice Roberts, who has been moving to a more centrist posture to preserve the Supreme Court as an institution, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who voted from a hospital bed because she had just undergone surgery.
Bump Stock Ban. Proving that even a stopped clock is right twice a day, the Trump administration passed regulations banning bump stocks, which were the gun modification that made the Las Vegas shooting possible. It would still be a good idea for Congress to pass a bill banning them, but this is definitely progress.

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

We’re inching ever-closer to a reckoning with the Russia Investigation, but several things are going on pause for the holiday before resolution. Here are the things to know and track while we’re paused:

Russian Attempts at Influence (Redux).* A new report prepared for the Senate this past week shows that we grossly underestimated the scope of Russia’s media campaign, which spanned Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube. We also learned that Russia targeted Mueller with a disinformation campaign after his appointment in 2017, tweeting about him over 500 times. With the Senate adjourned until Thursday at the earliest (and more on that below), it’s not clear what, precisely, the Senate will do with that news in the meantime. But at least they (and by extension we) have it, which is better than what was happening before.
Trump Foundation and Other 45 Fiascoes.* The Trump Foundation was ordered disbanded this week, with all remaining assets being donated to actual charities, as part of the ongoing New York investigation into the foundation’s many, many illegal actions. (The New York Attorney General called the Foundation’s pattern of behavior ‘shocking,’ which is definitely fake news, because nothing 45 does shocks us anymore.) She also noted that the investigation will continue after the organization disbands, and she’s seeking millions in restitution. And speaking of seeking millions, we also learned that the 2016 Trump campaign may have illegally coordinated ads with the NRA, with the latter ponying up about $25M for said ads — and that funding, in case you were curious, was about five thousand times the legal limit for funding coordinated ads, and frankly may have come from Russian donors. This bit of news makes it extra exciting that Trump is taking the unprecedented step of merging his 2020 campaign — which by the way, is likely also illegally coordinating with the NRA — with the Republican National Committee. We also learned this week that Trump signed a letter of intent for the Moscow Trump Tower in late 2015, despite Rudy Giuliani’s claims to the contrary — and counter to his follow-up opinion, it isn’t a meaningless development. But given everything else in this paragraph, it kind of feels like one by contrast.
Mueller Investigation Miscellany.* There’s so much Mueller news this week that it’s tough to catch all the odds and ends, but here’s a quick dive through the remaining action: Michael Flynn attempted a sentencing colloquy this week, but wasn’t able to complete it due to the judge’s insistence that he prove he deserved to skip the jail sentence. (As my researcher notes, it’s never a good sign when the judge wants to confirm the prosecutors are really extra sure they don’t want to charge the guy with treason.) Meanwhile, Mueller is getting a copy of Roger Stone’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker is refusing to recuse himself despite ethics official advice to the contrary because Trump-era advisers told him not to, and Senate Republicans blocked a Mueller protection bill for a third time.

We also saw a few stories on the Disregard of Governing Norms front. Here are the main things to know from this past week:

Staff Shuffle Circus (Redux).* On the heels of all of the last few weeks’ departures, we also saw a rapidly-escalating Department of Defense meltdown this week. First Secretary of Defense Jim “Mad Dog” Mattis threw down a resignation letter over developments in Syria (which caused our envoy to countering ISIS to quit also, though it received less publicity). His resignation was supposed to be effective February 28, but after Trump actually read the letter and noted to aides that the resignation letter “was not positive to him,” he forced Mattis out two months early. And this story just keeps getting better, because the interim replacement will be Patrick Shanahan, who has deep ties to Boeing but no defense (or even prior government) experience. So now the Pentagon (and the rest of us) are stuck sailing without a rudder, and we’re already seeing repercussions of that — which we’ll talk about below.
Government Shutdown Sure Is Happening.* Despite a successfully-passed Senate resolution that would have funded the government through February 8, combined House and Trump shenanigans launched us into a government shutdown on Friday night (because something something wall funding). It’s looking like the absolute earliest it may end is Thursday of this upcoming week, which is when the Senate will convene again. In reality, it may last much longer than that, particularly because Trump keeps insisting he’ll refuse to sign unless there’s at least $2.5B in “border security” funding. The shutdown has a lot of repercussions, from unpaid federal workers to the Violence Against Women Act expiring to world market implications, but Trump has spent the shutdown so far dodging blame, complaining that he’s ‘all alone’ at the White House, and asking a seven-year-old child who called NORAD if she still believes in Santa. It’s super fun being governed by Krampus, let me tell you.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Unsinkable AZ Candidate.* Temporary Arizona Senate appointee John Kyl announced he was stepping down this week, clearing the path for former GOP candidate Martha McSally to be appointed — which means she’s going to have to work with the Democrat who beat her in the election for the Senate seat she was seeking. In another week, this kind of “too bad you lost your bid for the Senate, here, have the Senate seat that belonged to a dead guy you alienated” would probably fall under the purview of Casual Disregard of Governing Norms. But let’s be honest, it’s crowded enough up there already, and either way, it’s plenty weird, so into the Weird column it goes.
Bipartisan Criminal Reform? Okay, so a bill passed with bipartisan support through the Senate by 87–12 vote and the House by 358–36 this week, and Trump signed it into law on Friday. All by itself, that’s a little weird these days, but that’s not the part that is really confusing me — it’s that it’s a reasonable bill on criminal justice reform that was architected by Jared Kushner and even Fox News likes it. I haven’t had a chance to review the bill in depth yet, and that means I’m not yet sure what the deal is, though enough people adjacent to the Trumps lose money on this that I’m not sure why they’ve set this up. I’m hoping to review it in more depth soon, and I will definitely report back once I have a better idea.

The Bad:

Dow Drops Like a Stone.* The stock market is having a rough, rough time right now, likely from of all the instability created by our illustrious leader’s excellent decisions, and closed on one of the worst Christmas Eves ever. Unsurprisingly, people are getting nervous that we may be heading towards another recession, and White House methods of coping seem to mostly involve either scaring people further or looking for scapegoats. But Trump eventually remembered he can’t actually fire the federal reserve guy, and somehow the market recovered a bit, managing to climb back out of the previous week’s pit in an unprecedented recovery on Wednesday. So things are looking up, at least a bit, as I write this.
Kavanaugh Complaints Tossed. With Brett Kavanaugh officially sitting on the SCOTUS bench, and therefore a member of the highest court in the land, his appellate level complaints were thrown out without being assessed this week. As far as I can tell, it is in fact true that this move was procedurally necessary, because the Tenth Circuit has no authority to censure a sitting Supreme Court Justice. But these complaints really could (and should!) have been addressed before he was sitting on the bench. I know I personally plan to die mad about this, though I can’t speak for other members of the bar.
Withdrawal from Syria and Afghanistan.* Trump ordered troops withdrawn from Syria this week, abandoning Kurdish allies there and falsely claiming we’ve “won against ISIS”. This move is so ill-advised that it made our envoy on the subject rage quit and our Secretary of Defense wasn’t far behind, but hey, I hear Russia’s pretty happy. Trump eventually walked back the claim that we had won, but not the decision to leave, which is frankly a pretty good summary of the Trump presidency all around.
Immigration Updates. Quelle surprise, this was another rough week for immigration (although we did see some silver linings, which are outlined below). First it was confirmed that a deal was definitely reached with Mexico to force asylum seekers to wait there pending their applications, which as I mentioned in earlier roundups can have serious safety risks for people fleeing dangerous situations further south. News also broke that ICE dropped off 400 asylum seekers at a bus depot in El Paso with no money and no shelter just before Christmas, and another young Guatemalan child died in CBP custody on Christmas Day. The boy had arrived at the border on December 18, which means he had been in CBP custody for over twice the intended length of time when he died. CBP has ordered medical checks on all the children in its custody, but they would be better served by examining their illegal detention practices.

What We Can Do:

Shutdown Shouting. Celeste Pewter continues to be an excellent resource on who to call about what; in particular, she recommends calling both sets of reps to say no money should be given to the wall, and she recommends you also call House reps about back pay for furloughed government workers. For both sets of calls, you can check the #ShutdownStories hashtag for inspiration as well. This is an issue where calling reps really, really matters, because our reps have a huge amount of ability to decide what happens next. So it’s worth a call or three!

And that’s what I have for this week, which was twice more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this United States of Pop 2018 mashup and an eventual better government. I’ll be back soon 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 peace on Earth and goodwill towards humans!

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 47 (December 9–15)

December 18, 2018 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

With the comparative quiet on the border, I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop for a couple of weeks now, and, well… a child-sized shoe definitely has. The border news is a sobering reminder that while things like the chief of staff circus may make Trump’s administration seem comically ineffectual, they are capable of a great deal of damage — and we need to track these things for a reason.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a Russian spy! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

The Russia Investigation somehow picked up even more steam this week — if life were a television series, we would definitely be hurtling towards the season finale. Here’s everything that happened, in all its bizarre glory:

Russian Attempts at Influence.* Strictly speaking, these two stories aren’t part of Mueller’s investigation, but they’re both sufficiently adjacent that I think it still makes sense to stick them here. Story the first: Russian professional Maria Butina pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as a foreign agent for Russia — and sure enough, the plea admitted that the NRA was a primary target for infiltration. Butina agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as part of her plea deal, which may have interesting implications in the near future. Meanwhile, and relatedly, a conservative anti-kleptocracy organization run by the Hudson Institute was in the news for accepting a major donation from Russian oligarch Leonard Blavanik.
Cohen Convicted.* Though Cohen requested a favorable sentence without prison time, that wasn’t quite what he got from federal prosecutors recommending a substantial prison sentence (though Mueller himself was a bit more forgiving, noting Cohen’s efforts to cooperate and other mitigating factors). Ultimately, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison and nearly $2 million in fees the following Wednesday, suggesting the judge listened to both Mueller and the other prosecutors. Cohen’s sentence begins on March 6, which leaves him plenty of time to go on interview circuits to refute Trump’s various crackerjack claims. And there have been a lot of those on Twitter — among my favorites: invoking advice of counsel despite the possibility that waives attorney-client privilege; claiming Cohen was ‘a part-time lawyer’ who didn’t handle anything serious; and speculating that his charges weren’t illegal.
Additional Campaign Finance Violations.* In other Trump-related news, info started trickling in about Trump’s presence in the room when American Media Inc decided to pay Karen McDougal hush money, which was a transfer of money the company confirmed did occur in light of the Cohen plea in the past week. News that Trump was present for the discussions definitely supports Cohen’s claim that Trump knew about the deal ahead of time, and does nothing to make Trump look more credible as he continues his twitter screeds.
Other Noted Trump Scandals. In addition to the campaign inquiries noted above, the Trump inaugural committee and a related super PAC are also now under investigation for misspending donations and accepting pay-to-play bribes. This marks at least six separate investigations into Trump-related misconduct — as the Washington Post gleefully notes, nearly every organization Trump has led in the past decade is currently being scrutinized. It’s not surprising, against this backdrop, that Rudy Giuliani is now refusing to let Trump speak with Mueller, saying the interview will happen “over [his] dead body.” But he was quick to note, “But, you know, I could be dead,” implying that Team Trump wonders if they’ve died and gone to the Bad Place just like the rest of us do.

We also saw a few stories on the Disregard of Governing Norms front. Here are the main things to know from this past week:

Staff Shuffle Circus.* Despite announcing last week that Chief of Staff John Kelly will be out by the end of the year, Trump seems to be having a tough time finding a replacement — when even Chris Christie turns you down, you know things are looking pretty dire. Eventually he ended up making his current budget director, Mick Mulvaney, start doing the job until he can get somebody else to do it — -and in case anyone is curious, no, it’s not normal to make a budget director start taking on chief of staff duties a week before a government shutdown. Meanwhile, Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke resigned this week — by tweet, because 2018 — to spend more time with his remaining scandals. And Ben Carson’s deputy at HUD resigned as well. Needless to say, this kind of turnover remains unprecedented, and I can only imagine how hellish conditions must be inside the White House.
Khashoggi Fallout Continues.* The Trump administration may not be willing to make a statement against Saudi Arabia, but many other American entities are. TIME magazine announced this week that this year’s Person of the Year is Journalists Fighting the War on Truth, including Jamal Khashoggi — making the first time a deceased person has been granted the title. And the Senate passed a unanimous resolution naming Saudi Arabia responsible for killing Khashoggi, as well as passing by majority approval a related bill to end military aid to Saudi Arabia in Yemen.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Because Trump’s an Idiot, Madam Congresswoman. Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai testified before the House Judiciary Committee for hours this week, and it went… well, it went. Congress rep Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif) made Weird News this week when she asked said CEO why Trump comes up when you google ‘idiot’ (and then tried to get him to confirm there isn’t “some little man sitting behind the curtain” impacting results). Eventually, Ted Lieu told recalcitrant Republicans to “consider blaming yourself” for any bad search results that occur, and Steve King yelled at Pichai about King’s granddaughter’s iPhone, forcing Pichai to utter the phrase “Congressman, iPhone is made by a different company.” So all told, this probably was not the most productive use of the committee’s time, although on the plus side reading about it is pretty hilarious.
Government Showdown Shade.* In other ridiculous government news, Trump keeps insisting on a border wall, leading to inevitable fights with Pelosi and Schumer as they attempt to negotiate to avoid shutdown. Eventually, Trump stormed out of a meeting, prompting Pelosi to comment that it’s “like a manhood thing for him — as if manhood could ever be associated with him.” (Since most adult men don’t throw temper tantrums, I’m not inclined to say she’s wrong.) At the time that I write this, both sides expect a shutdown, in part because the rest of the GOP doesn’t have room to maneuver and in part because some of the lame duck legislators aren’t bothering to show up to vote. So this should be fun week, y’all.

The Bad:

Water Regulations on the Chopping Block.* After weeks of going after carbon emissions regulations, climate science research, and, inexplicably, forest rangers, the Trump administration is now turning its piercing Eye towards the Clean Water Act. More specifically, the administration is going after Bush-era wetlands protections and Obama-era protection for ephemeral streams, presumably as part of a larger master plan to eradicate all charmingly-named water tributaries.
ACA Attacks (Again). A federal judge in Texas concluded this week that the entire Affordable Care Act should be thrown out because it found the individual mandate to be unconstitutional after Congress reduced the penalty to $0 in 2017. On the plus side, there is no injunction attached, which means the ACA stays in effect while this is inevitably appealed, and the ruling does not affect 2019 enrollment coverage. But nonetheless, these Groundhog Day attempts at undoing Obama’s incredibly popular landmark legislation are beyond frustrating, and potentially can have very real consequences if appeals aren’t favorable to the law. Needless to say, I’ll be keeping a very careful eye on this, but for now we’re all ambling forward.
Immigration Updates. After a couple of weeks of relative quiet, there was a lot of immigration news this past week, and some of it is really upsetting. At the beginning of the week, a third protest regarding the backlog of people waiting for entry in Tijuana, Mexico, this time on the U.S. side in San Diego, resulted in 31 arrests for trespassing. Shortly after, Trump announced that he wants to deport Vietnam War refugees despite a 2008 treaty protecting them, which has House members immediately pushing back. News also broke that the tent city shelter in Tornillo is doubling its capacity to 3,000 beds, which is particularly upsetting because kids housed there apparently don’t have access to education or counseling and we recently learned that the administration has been waiving background checks for staff there since the shelter was opened. But the most horrifying news came in at the end of the week, when the Washington Post first reported that a seven-year-old Guatemalan girl died at a CBP checkpoint a full week ago without any acknowledgement or investigation from the administration. Eventually the administration released a statement that blamed the dangerous trip up, the girl’s father released a statement that she was healthy before arriving and that she waited over 90 minutes for any medical care, and the DHS inspector general began an investigation.

The Good:

Investigation Immolation. This is pretty wild time for investigations into Trump and/or government corruption, and all things considered it’s good to see Team Trump put on the defensive. Among the highlights: New York’s new attorney general, Letitia James, announced this week that she plans to investigate several different Trump-clan-related issues, ranging from real estate holdings in NYC to the infamous Trump Tower meeting to management of the Trump Foundation. Meanwhile, Mueller’s investigation looks like it will end up being funded in full from Manafort and Cohen’s tax evasion fees, and acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker’s appointment is being examined as part of an ongoing asylum federal case. And if you feel like you need a score card just to keep track of all of the investigations of public officials happening right now, Wired has your back with a complete guide to all seventeen (known) Trump and Russia investigations. We’re spinning towards something, folks; here’s hoping it’s positive change.
Happier Environmental Updates. Despite this week’s unpleasant water news, I do have good news to share about carbon emissions! Though we were conspicuously absent at the table, the rest of the climate change diplomats from 200 countries met in Poland and negotiated a deal to keep the Paris Treaty moving forward this week. And in similarly positive and literally lukewarm environmental news, scientists have begun to notice that coral reefs that survive warm periods remain resilient in subsequent warm periods, suggesting that coral bleaching may be slowly addressed by natural selection. Good job, Mother Nature!

So that’s what I have for this week, and quite a week it was. For making it through, you deserve this video of Terry Crews emulating Bob Ross at Christmastime 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 Fifth Circuit repeal of the recent ACA decision!