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Year 4, Week 10 (March 22-28)

March 30, 2020March 31, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

We’ve officially reached the point where the news is All COVID-19, All the Time, and I don’t mind admitting that I’m already heartily sick of it. That said, there’s still a lot of news that definitely needs to be closely tracked, so here we are. I’ll keep folks posted, and I hope everybody is staying safe. I’ve got a stockpile of memes if anybody needs them.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a voice vote!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

With another week of COVID-19 crisis under our belts, it’s unsurprising that the Attorney General Overreach this week involves the crisis directly. Here are the details:

Attorney General Overreach (Again). Improbably, this week’s installment of Attorney General Overreach is actually not about William Barr! Executive branches in Texas, Ohio, and Mississippi all ordered abortion services to cease, claiming the procedure is a “nonessential medical surgery.” Needless to say, women’s health providers didn’t agree, and Planned Parenthood and the ACLU brought a lawsuit on the subject. Today, that lawsuit resulted in an order to keep the clinics open while the merits of the case are decided–an early signal that the District Court judge presiding over the case thinks that Planned Parenthood and the ACLU have a point. Hopefully, this will mean no one’s access is actually removed while the case is decided.

We also saw a bit of other Disregard of Governing Norms crop up during the crisis, though mostly in terms of sheer incompetence. Here’s what I have for you:

Trump’s Wild COVID-19 Adventures. In the face of the current crisis, trying to predict what 45’s policy plans has become even more of an arcane art than usual. Early in the week, he was still asserting that we should end stay-at-home protocols by Easter, for no better reason than–and I quote–he “just thought it [would be] a beautiful time.” He also stated that he will only aid states if they “treat us well” and “are appreciative” of basic federal response, withholding disaster funding from the three states hit hardest. Then he did a 180 from that cavalier position and started threatening to quarantine New York, but then walked that back the same day. Eventually his leading expert got him to wander into the middle and order another month of social distancing, which will last at least through April 30. (The CDC still urges citizens living in NY and NJ not to travel though.)

The Blame Game. With everything else going on, you might expect our federal government to be too busy to sling blame at an entire country, but you’d expect wrong! Two House representatives introduced a resolution to blame China for COVID-19 in general, piggy-backing on Trump’s repeated insistence on racism as a crisis strategy. Meanwhile, the administration itself continued the blame game at a United Nations meeting later that week, insisting that China was responsible for the virus. The end result was a stalled U.N. declaration and increased violence against against Asian-Americans, neither of which are a welcome addition to the current crisis.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Goodbye, 2020 Olympics. Japan officially announced this week that it is postponing the 2020 Olympics, given the uncertainty created by the current pandemic. The event is rescheduled to begin July 23, 2021. Though this is an understandable move, it’s also unprecedented, and nobody’s quite sure what it will mean for the next year.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19. More states issued stay-at-home orders this week, bringing the total up to 30 states and one district. At the time that I type this, the U.S. leads the world in coronavirus cases, with nearly half of those cases located in New York, and nearly 3,000 people in this country have lost their lives to the pandemic. The FDA has given emergency approval to use antimalarial meds to treat COVID-19 as health centers struggle to get enough personal protective equipment and ventilators in place. Trump has ordered General Motors to start producing the latter–more on that below–and Pornhub has donated 50,000 masks to NYC first responders. Meanwhile, more and more attention is being drawn to the seriously unsafe conditions created for incarcerated populations, who frequently cannot observe any best practices for slowing infection spread. We’re also showing more concern about anticipated increase of domestic violence during stay-at-home orders, which is a very real risk right now.

Unpacking the CARES Act. Before everything shut down in D.C. area, Congress managed to pass the CARES Act, and Trump signed it into law on Friday evening. (The bill was stalled for quite some time, but it impacts a lot of Americans, and it’s the third in a three-part legislative series.) Steptoe put out a pretty good summary of the whole bill, but the parts that impact most people are likely the individual payments to taxpayers, the expanded unemployment payments (including to independent contractors), the paid family leave, and the small business loans.

Market Volatility Continues.* Once again, we had a scary week of market volatility, though hopefully the CARES Act will quell some of the storm. The biggest new piece is that over three million Americans have filed for unemployment in the past week, which is a wildly unprecedented number for claims filed–the previous record was 700,000 claims in one week in 1982. The Dow, for its part, had a jump after the Senate passed the CARES Act but dropped again by the end of the week, continuing its overall slump.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. We do have a couple of good news stories this week! On the court resilience front, the Second Circuit affirmed that Trump cannot block people on Twitter who annoy him. And on the organizing essential workers front, Amazon workers in We had some good court cases this week. In addition to the injunctive relief for Planned Parenthood mentioned above, another District Court judge struck down permits for the Dakota Access Pipeline, concluding that their issuance violated the National Environmental Policy Act. And the First Circuit held that the administration cannot withhold crime prevention funding because it dislikes a jurisdiction’s immigration enforcement practices.

Workers Strike for Common Good.This week also saw a lot of worker solidarity in the face of extreme circumstances. Both Instacart and Amazon employees have initiated a strike to get hazard pay and safer work conditions. Meanwhile, as General Motors suspends production and cuts paychecks, its workers are trying to persuade the company to comply with Trump’s order and make ventilators to address national shortages. The NNR stands with workers and supports all three of these movements.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this stylin’ hamster pad 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 pita chips because I keep eating them all!

Year 4, Week 9 (March 15-21)

March 23, 2020March 24, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Okay, folks. At the time that I type this, most of us have been cooped up in our homes for over a week, and many of us live in places with stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders by this point in time–needless to say, not ideal circumstances for anybody. Most of the news is COVID-flavored, and that doesn’t go down easy, but we’ll get through this. I’m here if anyone needs anything.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a public gathering!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

With another week of COVID-19 crisis under our belts, it’s unsurprising that the Attorney General Overreach this week involves the crisis directly. Here are the details:

Attorney General Overreach (Again). Attorney General and apparent aspiring fascist William Barr has asked Congress for permission to hold people indefinitely without trial during the COVID-19 crisis at all stages of procedure, including pre-arrest. Folks, speaking as an attorney who has a background in both criminal law and health law, I cannot stress enough how inappropriate this request is. We do sometimes curtail civil rights in times of war, generally due to either limited capacity for process or higher risk of quick-moving problems that damaging domestic war efforts, like espionage. That said, the COVID-19 crisis is not an actual war, and we cannot jail the virus to keep it from spying on us. In fact, high concentrations of people in detention is such a significant risk factor for this type of pandemic that many organizations are actively calling for controlled decarceration. And more to the point, Barr’s request wasn’t limited to the COVID-19 crisis; he asked for this authority “whenever the district court is fully or partially closed by virtue of any natural disaster, civil disobedience, or other emergency situation.” In other words, “let’s just suspend habeas corpus when we have a global pandemic or, y’know, when somebody I don’t like protests something.” This is straight up fascist nightmare fuel, and I can’t imagine the Democrat-controlled House will agree to it.

We also saw a bit of other Disregard of Governing Norms crop up during the crisis, though nothing as serious as the above. Here’s what I have for you:

Trump’s COVID-19 Grab Bag. Though it’s hard to top Barr’s incredible request, we do have a few other weird, questionable bits and bobs from Trump over the past week. First there’s his bizarre relationship with the Defense Production Act, a law to force production of materials: he said he was invoking it to increase production of masks and ventilators but then dithered, insulted state governors, and simply outsourced to FEMA while Jared Kushner formed a shadow team. Then there’s the hostile answer he gave NBC’s simple journalistic question on Friday, “What do you say to Americans who are feeling scared?”–apparently in Trumpland, the correct response is “you are a terrible reporter.” And last but not least, we have the press conferences and tweets promoting unproven treatments for COVID-19 that are in high demand for other ailments, such as Lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

Senate Insider Trading. The other big story about sketchy government times this week is the major bombshell about the Senate Intelligence Committee–apparently current Chairperson Richard Burr and several other Senators were first briefed about first briefed about the coming crisis in January and responded by selling their stocks. (This would be bad even if Burr hadn’t downplayed the risk posed by COVID-19 for weeks, but he most assuredly did that last thing also.) Burr says he has asked the Senate ethics committee to review his stock sales, but in the meantime even Fox News talking head Tucker Carson is calling for Burr’s resignation.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Election Infection Watch. A few states did try to have primaries as scheduled on Tuesday, and by all accounts it was something of a hot mess–prompting officials to begin discussing other options for subsequent voting days. Biden did sweep Florida, Illinois, and Arizona despite the pandemic, creating a lead so wide that centrist outlets are speculating that Sanders may drop out. And in all the chaos, Tulsi Gabbard did drop out and endorsed Joe Biden on Thursday.

The Bad:

Governing in the Time of Coronavirus. This week, ho boy. By the time that I type this, most experts are acknowledging that the pandemic is accelerating and we’re running out of time to flatten the curve, which has officials taking all kinds of steps. Some hard-hit locations are triaging testing, several politicians are urging mobilization of the Army Corps of Engineers, and Congress managed to pass another emergency response bill that provides more paid leave and expands unemployment insurance. (Trump signed the bill into law on Wednesday evening.) That said, progress on the third bill of the set has been stalled for two days. The process is not improved by Senator Rand Paul testing positive for COVID-19, which forced several other Senators to quarantine after contact with him. A Seattle study has also begun testing on a vaccine, though it’s unlikely to become available for another year.

Hunkering Down. With everything going on right now to try to contain COVID-19, and the inconsistent federal response involved, both state and federal systems have focused on closing down borders or urging people to stay in place. California has issued a shelter in place for several counties, and at this point many other states have followed suit with stay at home orders. The State Department has issued a Level 4 travel advisory for Americans considering going abroad, and both the northern and southern U.S. border are now closed, with imports dropping as well. In part due to that last bit, many places are still struggling to obtain materials and get testing in place.

Market Volatility.* Though Trump is hoping that Congress will pass its third response bill soon, market volatility remains a really serious problem as the pandemic progresses. Experts say the market is now on pace for the worst month since the Great Depression, and projected unemployment rates reflect that as well. The federal government is attempting all sorts of things to stem the flow–federal taxes are now due in July; they’re permitting unlimited bond purchases; borrowers are allowed to suspend student loan payments for two months; and foreclosures are paused for federal mortgages. But the administration is beginning to mutter about reopening everything despite the health risk, and we’ll need to watch that carefully. Meanwhile, mutual aid efforts are popping up all over, and many nonprofits are seeking donations as well.

The Good:

Recent Resilience Grab Bag.We do have a couple of good news stories this week! On the court resilience front, the Second Circuit affirmed that Trump cannot block people on Twitter who annoy him. And on the organizing essential workers front, Amazon workers in Chicago are reporting that paid time off has become a reality for workers around the globe after several sites organized in Chicago and California. This is great news, especially given how much people are relying on Amazon while staying at home.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve these new twenty-second Broadway hits 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 the willpower to stop touching my face!

Year 4, Week 8 (March 8-14)

March 16, 2020March 17, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

After weeks of deflection from leadership, we’re officially experiencing a national emergency and (global) pandemic as I write this–and the resulting week was so rough and fast-paced that somebody wrote a We Didn’t Start the Fire verse by Wednesday evening. There’s a lot to track, but we’ll get through it, and I’m here if anybody needs anything.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a public gathering!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

We somehow still have Attorney General Overreach this week, despite our continuing state of emergency in most states, which really tells you a lot about this administration’s priorities. Here’s what I have for you this week:

Attorney General Overreach (Again). Technically William Barr is allowed to do this one, but I’m mad about it anyway: He pulled Jeff Sessions and decided to override immigration court precedent to make judges narrow their definition of ‘torture‘ in immigration cases. As the Washington Post article notes, this particular power is supposed to be a sometimes food, and the Trump administration keep using it over and over to bias precedent against immigrants–especially against immigrants seeking asylum or other forms of humanitarian aid. It’s a concerning pattern, especially against the backdrop of everything else the Department of Justice has been doing.

We also saw a bit of Disregard of Governing Norms, though less than might be expected given the everything going on. Here’s what has happened so far:

White House Revolving Door. Several more officials have left the White House in the last week or two, including the now-former deputy communications director, Adam Kennedy, and the now-former chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney–though the latter is leaving to become the U.S. special envoy for Northern Ireland. Additionally, more than a third of all Senate-confirmed civilian positions at the Department of Defense are vacant, which is a new high (or a new low, depending on your perspective).

Tax on Guarding Trump. Trump’s bills to Secret Service officials who stayed in his properties made a resurgence in the news this week. Apparently, the bills were even $157,000 higher than previously reported, totaling more than $628,000 since he took office–much higher rates than other entities were paying for the same rooms, and definitely not the gratis amount the Secret Service is traditionally charged. In other words, Trump dramatically overcharged his own bodyguards for room rentals–people who were only staying at his property in the first place so that they could potentially take a bullet for him–which brings new meaning to the phrase “job dissatisfaction.”

Your “Normal” Weird:

Super Tuesday (Twice). Boy howdy, a lot has happened since our last update. Though I can’t cover it all, here are the most important highlights to know: Mike Bloomberg did pick up some delegates on Super Tuesday The First, but his performance was very poor overall, and Bloomberg opted to suspend his campaign and endorse Joe Biden by Wednesday morning. Elizabeth Warren snagged some as well, though she did not carry any states, but by Thursday she had opted to drop out as well. The vast majority of delegates went to clear winners Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders; Biden gained 252 and Sanders gained 183. Then several more prominent Democrats endorsed Joe Biden, including Kamala Harris (but notably, not Elizabeth Warren, who declined to endorse any candidate) as we geared up for the following Tuesday’s primaries, which covered six states in a Super Tuesday the Second. With those endorsements, it’s not surprising that Biden took four out of six states to vote. Bernie Sanders did win North Dakota, and Washington has not yet issued an official call. Then on Sunday we had our first two-person debate, since Tulsi Gabbard did not meet standards to qualify, which mostly featured coronavirus discussion but did include Biden’s intent to pick a female Vice President.

Governing in the Time of Coronavirus. We’re already starting to see changes in the election process as a result of the pandemic, and many of them are quite striking. Both Ohio and Georgia have already postponed their presidential primaries, which were scheduled for mid- and late March. The debate on Sunday was also the first to lack a live audience, with only only moderators and candidates in attendance. The Supreme Court also postponed oral arguments for the first time in over a hundred years, creating uncertainty about the schedule for the year’s cases. In contrast, most federal government workers are still expected at their offices as I type this on Monday.

The Bad:

Coronavirus Crisis Lead-In. It’s very surreal to realize the gap between our last NNR, when the U.S. first saw community transmission, and today, when we now have documented cases in 49 states. Suffice to say the watched pot definitely boiled, though it took a while for anybody to act on it. Trump initially continued to deny anything was truly wrong, shaking hands publicly and ordering officials to classify all meetings discussing coronavirus privately. Though an initial coronavirus bill authorizing $8.3B in state emergency spending did make it through legislative process, a subsequent coronavirus response bill stalled out in part because the GOP wanted more abortion restrictions added to the bill (and I seriously cannot make this stuff up). We also continued to have major issues with access to tests, especially as compared to other affected countries, so it was hard to get accurate numbers of infection. By Wednesday, the World Health Organization had officially classified COVID-19 as a pandemic, the market was beginning to tank, and action was no longer avoidable.

Going the Social Distance. When Trump started acknowledging things were wrong, it was almost worse than his denial–his first decisive action on COVID-19 was to declare another travel ban, causing considerable panic. (In true 45 fashion, it turned out he also incorrectly summarized his own order, leaving his acting Secretary of Homeland Security to correct the record.) By Friday, he declared a national emergency, a necessary step to free up funds in many states and expedite testing (which did indeed appear to improve after that). By the time that I type this on Monday evening, most experts as well as the administration are encouraging social distancing and discouraging public gatherings. No matter where you live, it’s a good idea to read up on preventing spread of infection and responding to an existing case of COVID-19.

Market Volatility.* In apparent response to the coronavirus crisis, the stock market continued to fluctuate throughout the week, temporarily appearing to recover only to plunge again on Wednesday when coronavirus was declared a pandemic. From there, stocks continued to fall, and the economic impact of social distancing will likely cause ripple effects throughout our country as well. The Federal Reserve has slashed interest rates to zero in an attempt to combat some of the worst of it, but we’ll need to continue to watch this as the pandemic develops.

The Good:

Harvey Weinstein Sentenced. The Harvey Weinstein trial came to a close this week, with a judge sentencing him to 23 years in prison for multiple counts of forcible rape. The sentence was issued despite his apparent attempt to leverage connections to mitigate his exposure, which is a striking statement about the momentum the #MeToo movement has gained since its inception.

Recent Resilience Grab Bag. It’s a bit of a bleak week all told, but I do have a few minor tales from the resistance for you. A federal judge took an opportunity to publicly criticize William Barr this week, calling his public statements about the Mueller report “distorted” and “misleading.” Social media began pushing back against Trump’s posts, as Twitter flagged a video as ‘manipulated media’ and Facebook removed Trump re-election ads because they created confusion around the official U.S. census. And finally, House Democrats asked the D.C. circuit to reconsider its recent decision about enforcing subpoenas, noting that the current situation may force them to arrest high-level officials.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this modern (cat-based) take on famous paintings 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 less confusing national news!

Year 4, Week 6 (February 23-29)

March 2, 2020March 3, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This week seems to have been mostly about coronavirus and primary election process, prompting Saturday Night Live to create one mashup cold open with them both. (The real-life results of the week are significantly less hilarious, but nonetheless here we are.)

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a case dismissal!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Much of the Attorney General Overreach this week involves Trump again, implying that maybe this corner needs a new name. But nonetheless, here’s what I have for you this week:

Stone Cold Testimony. In ironic inception news, we have Jerry Nadler’s announcement that the House Judiciary Committee is beginning an investigation into the Stone matter, which was itself about a Congressional investigation (and Stone’s decision to lie his face off for the duration). As part of this process, Nadler wants Barr to permit testimony from the four career prosecutors who quit the Roger Stone case before sentencing. William Barr is called to testify as well, which is currently scheduled for March 31. Given the last few weeks, I’m very curious to see what he says.

SCOTUS POTUS. This has been a weird and vaguely disappointing week for Supreme Court news. At the top of the week we had Trump insisting that Sotomayor and Ginsburg recuse themselves from cases involving him, apparently because Sotomayor wrote a dissent pointing out that Trump keeps trying to ignore judicial process and this shouldn’t be encouraged. Trump’s blatant bid for bias came as the Supreme Court announced it will consider yet anotherAffordable Care Act challenge in the upcoming term, which will be the third one this court has heard. If the case follows ordinary process, they’re likely hearing oral arguments in the fall and reaching a decision in the spring. Many Democrats are happy about this development, both because a ruling will create more certainty about the fate of the program and because it will keep healthcare in the public spotlight as we near the 2020 election in November. I personally find it hard to rejoice about the Obamacare Challenge That Never Ends, but to each their own I guess.

McGahn Case Crush. The DC Circuit court essentially punted this week on the question of whether the administration can just say “nah we good” to House committee subpoenas to testify, at least in the case of White House attorney Don McGahn. Though some outlets are reporting that Don McGahn “does not have to testify,” the court specifically held that it had no jurisdiction to hear the case and dismissed accordingly, so Congressional contempt is certainly still an option. Basically, this was the judicial equivalent of a kid doing crosswords in the kitchen while siblings have a drag-out fight in the living room–it’s not clear which kid is will end up with fewer teeth, but it sure won’t be the one who refused to enter the fray.

We also saw a bit of Disregard of Governing Norms, though less than might be expected given the larger news cycle. Here’s what has happened so far:

Trump Sues the New York Times. Trump’s reelection campaign filed a lawsuit against the New York Times for libel this week, seeking millions in damages and claiming the Times has “extreme bias against and animosity toward the campaign.” This appears to be a SLAPP suit brought by the White House in real time, especially given Trump’s ominous comments to White House press corps that “They did a bad thing and there’ll be more coming.” This is unprecedented and horrifying, and is yet another step towards authoritarianism.

Taliban Treaty?* We reached something of a peace deal with the Taliban over the weekend, with the U.S. agreeing to withdraw over the next 14 months and the Taliban agreeing to negotiate with the Afghan government after a prisoner exchange. Unfortunately, within a couple of days the Taliban had already violated the agreement, ignoring a week-long cease-fire and killing three people. Needless to say, it’s not clear where this leaves us, though hopefully we won’t end up worse than we started.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Working for Boiled Peanuts. This week featured a Saturday primary in South Carolina, which turned out to be something of a game-changer. First, the candidates prepped with a debate on Tuesday night–which most of them spent dissing Bernie Sanders, although Elizabeth Warren continued dissing Mike Bloomberg. The vote itself was a major victory for Joe Biden, who carried every single county and won almost 50% of the vote total. Bernie Sanders also picked up some delegates, and we’re going into Super Tuesday with a surprisingly close race for frontrunner.

And Then There Were Five.* Within forty-eight hours of Biden’s strong showing in South Carolina, Pete Buttigieg, Tom Steyer and Amy Klobuchar had all suspended their campaigns in the 2020 election. This means we only have five total remaining candidates as we head into Super Tuesday, and two of them (looking at you, Tulsi Gabbard and Mike Bloomberg) haven’t yet received a single delegate. This sudden consolidation of the moderate candidates has left some people worried that we’re facing a brokered convention, where no single candidate has a plurality of delegates.

The Bad:

Corona Virus Creep (continued).* Coronavirus was all over the news this week, and none of the news was good. DHHS was in the news because a whistleblower alleges that staff were sent to help American evacuees from Wuhan withouttraining or protective gear. Gene sequencing in Washington, the state that had the first case, suggests that the illness was spreading in the state for weeks, punctuating the CDC warning that spreading “seems inevitable.” We also saw our first community transmission case in California and the first U.S. deaths from the illness. Case numbers are also growing in several other countries, particularly Italy and Iran.

Administrative Response to Covid-19. Since the coronavirus has started to tank the stock market, Trump has been oscillating back and forth between ‘nothing to see here‘ and ‘this is a travesty for Trump.’ Eventually, he stuck Mike Pence in charge of managing the official White House response and media appearances, which is pretty hair-raising given Pence’s epidemic-related decisions in Indiana. As I type this, Pence is starting to limit what officials say on public media, so it’s helpful to read about safety precautions and keep track of vector spread through sources other than the government.

Immigration Updates. The Second Circuit held this week that the Justice Department can withhold funds from cities and states that they deem to be ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions–ironically, around the same time that the administration indefinitely postponed a sea wall in New York due to apparent animosity against the state. The Justice Department also announced that they are creating more infrastructure to denaturalize citizens, which I will definitely track as more news develops.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. We did see some decent court cases this week. The Ninth Circuit held that the M.P.P program, which forces asylum seekers to wait for their applications to be processed in Mexico, violates federal law. (They unfortunately stayed their injunction later in the day, but the Supreme Court is expected to hear the case next week.) And a federal district judge in D.C. held that the administration violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act by appointing acting USCIS director Ken Cuccinelli, which also voids policies he set in the role. And a federal judge in Idaho has voided nearly 1 million acres of oil and gas leases because the process was arbitrary and capricious.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this doggo rocking out in a cardboard box 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 better bedtime!

Year 4, Week 5 (February 16-22)

February 24, 2020February 25, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

It has been three weeks since the death knell of impeachment articles, and the news cycle is settling into new routines. Unfortunately, the routines kind of stink. But nevertheless we persist, yes?

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not an acting Director of National Intelligence!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

We saw yet another active week for Attorney General Overreach, and Trump’s insinuation that he’s actually in charge of law enforcement was a whole new form of looking glass logic. Here’s what I have for you this week:

No Holds Barred. The week started off with more dog-and-pony show between 45 and Attorney General William Barr, with Barr claiming he was thinking of resigning and then walking it back. Meanwhile, Trump claimed “total confidence” in him and continued to tweet about retaliatory firings. Then he pardoned eleven people, which we’ll talk about more below, and declared himself “the chief law enforcement officer” of the entire country. And then his buddy and election manager Roger Stone’s sentencing hearing happened, and he started yelling about that too.

Roger Stone Spectacle. Roger Stone’s sentencing hearing went about as well as you might expect, given that all the trial prosecutors walked out instead of offering the sentence Trump wanted. Stone ended up with about forty months to serve and two years of probation for his repeated lying to Congress and witness tampering, and Judge Jackson is still considering a motion for a retrial. Stone also filed a motion demanding that Jackson recuse herself because she said the jurors had acted with integrity during the sentencing hearing, a move which has all the legal merit of a week-old tuna sandwich. Unsurprisingly, Jackson has already denied the request.

Pardonpalooza. As mentioned above, Trump issued eleven grants of clemency this week, almost all of whom were convicted of white-collar and corruption-based crimes and many of whom are pretty famously terrible human beings. (One wonders why he bothered to pardon Crystal Munoz, the sole recipient with no connections and an actual meritorious clemency claim.) Then at the end of the week, Trump started insinuating that Stone would just get pardoned too if he wasn’t acquitted in a new trial–a move that is technically legal, but definitely very corrupt, and probably designed to inch us closer to accepting a self-pardon if necessary.

We also saw some interrelated Disregard of Governing Norms, which will likely continue to ramp up in the coming weeks. Here’s what has happened so far:

Wikileaks Witness Lines. Wikileaks founder and real piece of work Julian Assange claimed this week that a Trump representative offered him a pardon back in 2017–all he had to do was say that Russia wasn’t involved in the hack job that leaked countless DNC emails. Naturally, 45’s spokeswoman denied this allegation and claimed that Trump hardly knows the person who allegedly made the offer, Representative Dana Rohrabacher. I’m gonna level with you, both Assange and Trump are sufficiently sketchy that it’s pretty hard to say who is more credible, but we may see more about this in the coming weeks.

Administrative Ousters (Again). We’re back on the firing staffers bandwagon in the White House this week, though it’s unclear if any of the firings are based on impeachment. Most noteworthy is Trump’s decision to replace his acting Director of National Intelligence, Joseph MacGuire, with current ambassador to Germany and complete intelligence novice Richard Grenell. Several outlets say this came about because MacGuire briefed Congress on Putin’s apparent desire to see Trump reelected, but others are reporting it’s simply because of the time limit for acting officials. Pentagon policy chief Jon Rood was forced out as well, for reasons that may or may not be impeachment-related. Their replacements seem selected more for perceived loyalty than any credentials, which is definitely normal and a good way to run a complex government.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Feats of Loathing in Las Vegas. On Wednesday, Nevada hosted the most recent 2020 Democratic Candidate debate, and it marked the first time that former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg participated in a debate. Given all of the negative things about him in the news this week, it’s no surprise that the debate was also a giant Bloomberg dogpile, with several candidates taking well-crafted potshots. Elizabeth Warren was particularly on fire, enjoying heavy coverage on a media platform that recently erased her and a massive uptick in campaign donations. But Bernie Sanders had a good night too, especially because the Bloomberg boxing makes it easier for him to preserve his Nevada lead. All told, it was an interesting lead-in to the caucus on Saturday, which Sanders did indeed carry by a wide margin (though Buttigieg and Biden both picked up delegates too). The next primary will be in South Carolina on Saturday, and we have the next debate tomorrow.

Other Election Oddities.* There has been plenty of other election noise this week, and a lot of it is pretty weird. As mentioned above, the acting head of intelligence reported that Russia favors Trump in the 2020 election, which set 45 off something fierce if his resulting outburst is any indication. Officials said Bernie Sanders is favored by Putin for the Dem nomination as well, though I’m not sure I believe that with Tulsi Gabbard still running around. Meanwhile, Buttigieg clapped back when Limbaugh dissed his marriage, Bloomberg offered to release some women from their NDAs about him (but not all), and Chris Matthews came under fire because he compared Bernie Sanders, whose parents were Holocaust survivors, to Adolf Hitler.

The Bad:

Immigration Updates. Another week, another set of bad immigration news. The Public Charge rule went into effect across the country today, with the final injunction in Illinois removed by Supreme Court decision on Friday. Ironically, Mick Mulvaney was also in the news for saying the U.S. needs more legal immigrants–you know, the very status this administration just made harder for most applicants to obtain because they created draconian public charge rules. The New York Times also reported unsafe health conditions for asylees under the M.P.P. program, which forces applicants to wait in Mexico instead of accessing healthcare in America while their application is pending. And ICE was in the news for using therapy notes to try to deport migrant children–a practice which is not new, but definitely deserves attention.

Corona Virus Creep (continued).* Corona virus continues to be in the news for another week. We’re seeing a rapid uptick in cases again in South Korea, Iran, and Italy, and the stock market is plummeting accordingly. Trump appears rattled as well, worried that a major outbreak might impact his 2020 campaign. (Heaven forfend he actually care about the people getting sick and dying.) Needless to say, this can have a lot of other political implications as well, and I will continue to track it.

The Good:

Greyhound Protection. Greyhound announced this week that it will no longer allow immigration checks on its buses, after a leaked CBP memo confirmed that they had no legal obligation to do so without a warrant. Needless to say, the ACLU is pretty happy about this development, and so am I–the new policy is in pretty much everyone’s interests except CBP’s.

Re-enfranchisement and Felony Re-entry. A panel of 11th Circuit judges upheld an injunction this week that prevents Florida from enforcing a new law that would make people to pay all legal fees before they are allowed to vote. More specifically, they found that the contested law, which responded to a referendum from 2018 that re-enfranchised people upon reentry, was counter to the spirit of the referendum and violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution. This is a pretty major victory, even though it’s not a decision on the merits, because it recognizes the role that economic class plays in enforcement of the rule. I’m hoping we’re able to keep the injunction in place until the November election, but we’ll have to see what happens.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve bumblebees falling asleep face-first in flowers and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me a better Attorney General!

Year 4, Week 4 (February 9-15)

February 17, 2020February 18, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Welp, the impeachment process has been over for about a week and a half, and I definitely think it’s fair to say we have a new constitutional crisis corner. Funny how Trump never closes one investigation door without opening a new crimetimes window, amirite?

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a dubious budget proposal!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Well folks, after a week and a half of this nonsense it is my sincere displeasure to introduce you to yet another form of Constitutional Crisis Corner, which I’m tentatively calling Attorney General Overreach. Here’s what has been happening:

DOJ Turmoil. Shortly after all of Attorney General Barr’s candidate investigation nonsense last week, all of the prosecutors on Roger Stone’s criminal case either asked to be reassigned or straight-up quit because they didn’t want to change their sentencing recommendations. It turned out that Barr was forcing them to offer more leniency to Roger Stone because he’s a Trump ally, apparently based on pressure from Trump himself. Eventually Barr just announced he was taking control of the Stone sentence along with every other Trump-related legal matter. Needless to say, all of this blatant political interference has caused massive unrest in both current and former Department of Justice employees, who generally pride themselves on their integrity. At the time that I type this, over a thousand former DOJ attorneys and 9 Senators have called for Barr’s resignation, and Chuck Schumer has called for an investigation into the entire Roger Stone debacle.

A Quick Note About Fake Fighting. When people started calling for Barr’s resignation, he went on television and complained about how Trump’s tweets were undermining him, trying to argue that he’s making his own decisions independent of the President. This entire thing is belied, however, by Trump’s complete non-response to this announcement; it’s hard to imagine him saying that anybody “has the right . . . to publicly express their opinion” if they truly hold an ill opinion of him. Barr’s actions on the Stone investigation also immediately followed Trump’s tweets about the matter. So, basically, I encourage folks to view this story with healthy skepticism.

Parnas Implications.It would already be hard to know what all of the above means for the ongoing investigation into Lev Parnas, who is a Rudy Giuliani associate–it’s being led by DOJ officials in New York while Barr accepts Giuliani info on potentially related matters in PA, and that’s kind of an inherent conflict. But news also broke that the NY branch is considering adding new charges that would impact Giuliani, and that just throws gasoline on a department already on fire. The potential for misconduct here is really high, so we should keep an eye on this.

We also have a final few death rattles of Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo, which I think still deserve a separate section. Here’s the mop-up of the old scandal:

Whistleblowing Winds Down. We’re pretty much going out not with a bang, but with a whimper. Some Utah lawmakers tried to get Mitt Romney censured for, uh, voting with Democrats, but that doesn’t appear to be going anywhere. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote letters trying to get inspectors general to investigate Trump’s retaliatory firings from last week, but at least as I type this, that doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere either. Now that the investigation is over, Trump has basically admitted that he sent Giuliani to Ukraine. And last but not least, Trump has also started trying to get the military to publicly discipline Vindman for his testimony.

Your “Normal” Weird

Bloomberg Schmoomberg. In the last week or two, we suddenly started to see outlets reporting favorably on Mike Bloomberg’s candidacy, despite his incomplete participation in the DNC campaign process, which means we’ve also been treated to a parade of public records illustrating why this is not a great idea. First was the recording of Bloomberg talking about his stop and frisk policies, which included such charming quotes as “95% of murderers . . . are male minorities” and “you can just Xerox” suspect descriptions. (Spoiler: This is statistically untrue in New York and elsewhere, as a cursory review of the past two years’ mass shootings would illustrate.) Then people dug up his statements about redlining from 2008, when he said that it was a mistake to end the practice of freezing people of color out of neighborhoods by refusing loans for mortgages because it caused the 2008 housing crisis. Then we started talking about the numerous accounts of sexual harassment and his practice of making women sign NDAs as part of civil settlements. Then, with no apparent irony, Bloomberg released some ads complaining about “slanderous attacks” on him because people were talking about all of the above. I honestly can’t even make this stuff up.

New Hampshire and Nevada. Despite its iffy lead-up, New Hampshire was nonetheless a straightforward and successful primary, especially compared to the Iowa adventures. It even had a clear winner–Bernie Sanders, by a margin of about 1.3%. It also featured Pete Buttigieg as a close second and Amy Klobuchar in third, so both of them gained delegates for the upcoming race. Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden lagged behind, at least for now, but it seems likely that both of them will have stronger performances in other states. The next primary is the Nevada caucus, which happens on Saturday, and hopefully will prove less messy than Iowa.

The Bad:

Coronavirus Creep.* The new coronavirus now has an official name–Covid-19–and is still making the news for making problems. The most recent bout of news is about a cruise ship in Japan that was evacuated due to Covid 19 outbreak, only to discover that 14 passengers with the illness were evacuated to the United States alongside 314 other passengers because they were asymptomatic at the time of testing. (There were also an additional 44 American passengers who tested positive for the illness, who were brought to Japan.) Needless to say, everyone involved is being quarantined.

Budget Nightmare.* Trump released his by-now-signature nightmare budget this week,which includes old favorites like ‘who funds children’s health insurance,’ ‘why are we wasting money on loan forgiveness,’ and ‘I’m ordering Congress to end the National Endowment for the Humanities.’ Congress usually gives this stuff the due consideration it deserves (which is to say, even the Senate gives it none), but we should keep an eye on it anyway. This is a strange time in American politics, even for Trump.

Immigration Updates. Another week of painful immigration updates, I’m afraid. ICE was in the news for shooting a bystander in the face in Brooklyn when he interrupted an arrest, apparently not knowing that the plainclothes agents were officers. Unsurprisingly, the administration turned this into a fight about sanctuary practices, and it likely spurred their announcement on Friday that they would be sending ‘elite tactical agents’ to New York and other cities they deemed to be ‘sanctuary jurisdictions.’ Then, just to round out the week, they began disrupting native burial sites in Arizona, blowing them up to make room for their border wall.

The Good:

Recent Legislative Resilience. The House and the Senate both had a good week in terms of legislative action, which is always nice to see. The Senate passed a bill limiting Trump’s authority to declare war on Iran, which did not quite make it to a veto-proof majority but did show significant bipartisan support at 55-45. Since the bill was distinct from the version the House passed last month, the bill moves to the House next. And in other House news, they voted this week to eliminate the ERA’s deadline for ratification. The measure would effectively allow the amendment’s revival, since we have the requisite number of state ratifications already–which would be pretty awesome, though it’s not likely to gain traction in the current Senate.

Clearing the Playing Field. In the wake of the New Hampshire results, we have a new crop of 2020 hopefuls with low numbers who have decided to drop out. It’s bittersweet for the strongest of the contenders (you had a good run, Andrew Yang), but less so for candidates like Michael Bennet and Deval Patrick, who never broke 1% in the early primaries. And whatever your opinion, it furthers consolidation and coalition-building at a time when we really need it. So it’s certainly far from terrible to have a smaller playing field as we head into the Nevada caucuses on February 22.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this hedgehog being enticed by a snack 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 hot cocoa for bedtime!

Year 4, Week 3 (February 2-8)

February 10, 2020February 12, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This week, ho boy–we saw the end of impeachment, a mess in Iowa, and a whole bunch of other stressful, inconclusive stories. Somehow the week doesn’t feel as dire as some of the weeks immediately preceding it despite all of this, but that might just be the exhaustion talking.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a primary!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

As the paragraph above suggests, it’s only a few days after the impeachment vote and we’re already seeing a smorgasbord of Disregard of Governing Norms. Here’s what has been happening:

Frustrating Finale. In the few days leading up to the final vote, Trump’s State of the Union address made it clear that he knew he’d already won; he awarded bigoted blowhard Rush Limbaugh the Medal of Freedom and started calling sitting Congresspeople ‘socialists’ halfway through his speech. He wasn’t wrong, sadly; the first article of impeachment, abuse of power, failed by 48-52 vote. (That said, that exact number was apparently a surprise, as the team didn’t expect Republican senator and improbable support guy Mitt Romney to vote to convict.) The second article of impeachment, obstruction of justice, failed entirely along party lines by 47-53 vote. This sets a very concerning precedent about checks and balances, and barely a day passed before Trump celebrated with an hour-long speech full of bananas rhetoric and personalized attacks. He also immediately started abusing more powers, which are outlined below, despite the fact that the Supreme Court has another case about his abuse of power on the docket this season. Oh, and by the way, Ukraine still doesn’t have its full aid as I type this.

As the paragraph above suggests, it’s only a few days after the impeachment vote and we’re already seeing a smorgasbord of Disregard of Governing Norms. Here’s what has been happening:

Friday Night Massacre. The single biggest (and most obvious) abuse of power since impeachment ended has been Trump’s version of the Saturday Night Massacre, which happened this Friday. In one day, he removed both Lt Col Alexander and Lt Col Yevgeny Vindman from the National Security Council and recalled Gordon Sondland from his role as EU Ambassador. Then he immediately tweeted about Vindman’s testimony, in case we were all confused about why the man was fired–though to be fair, the other Lt Col Vindman hadn’t testified at all, so some confusion would be understandable. Needless to say, this type of retaliation is super illegal, and Chuck Schumer is already trying to get inspectors general involved. But Kellyanne Conway has signaled nonetheless signaled that there may be more retaliatory firings to come.

Super Legit Biden Hunter.* On the tails of the retaliation mess above, the Justice Department also announced that they’ll go ahead and review sketchy malpractice man Rudy Giuliani’s intel on the Bidens. For bonus authoritarianism, Attorney General Barr also announced this week that nobody in the FBI is allowed to conduct investigations on 2020 Presidential election candidates now unless they get his permission, even though he’s literally conducting a backdoor investigation on a Presidential candidate while he announces that. This also happened in the same week that Rand Paul read a whistleblower’s name on the Senate floor with GOP support, which tells you how much integrity we can expect here all around.

Emoluments Nightmare State.We saw some emoluments news this week too, and none of it was good. The Washington Post ran a story about the exorbitant rates the secret service is charged every time he travels to Mar-A-Lago and other Trump properties, which is pretty much literally just pouring taxpayer money into the Trump empire. They likely ran this story in response to an appeals court decision this week to reject the emoluments case brought by Congressional Democrats on the theory that they lack standing. This decision, and I cannot stress this enough, does not touch the merits of the case; it was made on a procedural technicality and is not a comment on whether Trump is violating the Emoluments clause of the Constitution (which, in my opinion, he super is).

Your “Normal” Weird:

Iowant My Money Back.* All eyes were on the Iowa caucus on Monday–which has an imperfect record, but nonetheless usually represents the first real primary results we see in election season. But apparently not this year! The process is always a bit complicated, but it was confounded by an issue with a new app used to tally votes which caused voter inconsistencies. Of course, this didn’t stop Pete Buttigieg from declaring himself the winner even before we had official results–and now that 100% of precincts have reported in and the final results backing him up, several officials and news outlets are refusing to call it. So it’s not clear what we’ll do from here or what even happened (other than Biden’s underperformance). And now everybody’s kind of a hot mess as we move into New Hampshire’s primary tomorrow.

New Hampshire Watch. After a relatively uneventful but nicely parodied Democratic primary debate on Friday night, everybody’s kind of a hot mess as we move into New Hampshire’s primary tomorrow. So far the lead-up appears to be mostly white guys taking swipes at each other and local polled voters saying they’d take a meteor crash over four more years of Trump, but at least New Hampshire is supposed to be an ordinary primary lacking the vulunerabilities unique to the caucus format, so we have that going for us. (And on the caucus front, Nevada has said it won’t use the infamous app in its own primary.)

The Bad:

Coronavirus Creep.* The coronavirus situation is still worsening, with the death toll now over a thousand people, surpassing the SARS mortality rate in the early 2000s. We’ve also seen the first death of a U.S. citizen (though that person died in Wuhan), and the whistleblowing doctor who first tried to report the new coronavirus passed away this week as well. This epidemic remains primarily centered in China, and it’s still true that the flu is a much more serious virus in the U.S. at this time–and we should be thinking carefully about whether our responses are borne of racism rather than true public health concern. But we still might see transmission in the U.S. increase, and I will continue to track this epidemic.

Immigration Updates. Unsurprisingly, we saw bad immigration news start to ramp up again as soon as the impeachment inquiry was over. CBP was in the news, first because a new policy will shield them from FOIA requests moving forward. Then they were in the news again because a 32-year-old who was a U.S. citizen has died in their custody this week, and there are so many different things wrong with that sentence that I don’t even know where to start. Similarly, ICE was in the news for shooting a man in the face as he tried to intervene in an arrest. And the Trump administration announced they are blocking New York residents from the Global Entry airport program because they are mad about a new policy called the Green Light Law which precludes sharing license databases with ICE. Unsurprisingly, New York is already suing over the policy.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. A federal judge found this week that the criminal conviction of four humanitarian workers in Arizona with the humanitarian group No More Deaths should be overturned. The decision was made pursuant to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, with the court finding that it was an expression of their sincerely-held religious beliefs to help prevent deaths in the desert despite the administration’s “deterrence by death” policy. The decision cites the Hobby Lobby case of 2017 while articulating its reasoning, which is legally noteworthy but also just extremely edifying.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this Beluga whale returning a lady’s iPhone 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 impeachment articles!

Year 4, Week 2 (January 26–February 2)

February 3, 2020February 4, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Another week, another set of messed-up impeachment proceedings. On the plus side, the rest of this week’s news looks a bit less dire, so that’s something–but I recommend comfort food nonetheless.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a caucus!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

At the time that I type this, Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo is winding down in the Senate, which is not to anybody’s benefit except maybe Trump’s. Here’s what has happened since last week:

Q&A Quagmire. After two short days of opening statements from the President’s team, we moved into a question-and-answer phase on Wednesday–and it was, to use a technical term, a hot mess. Alan Dershowitz created new nightmare fuel by claiming that if Trump “does something he believes will get him elected in the public’s interest,” then “that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.” His colleague whom he cited, unsurprisingly, did not agree with his analysis. But many GOP Senators found it exactly the kind of cover they needed; by the end of the week they were arguing that Trump’s actions were bad but not impeachable. This in turn prompted the New York Times to run a thinkpiece entitled “L’Etat, C’est Trump,” and also prompted Democratic senator Joe Manchin to begin calling for a censure, since the GOP did concede the overall not-awesomeness of Trump’s actions.

Witnesses Fall Through. By far, the most disappointing point of this past week’s proceedings was the witness vote on Friday. The week started out with Mitch McConnell indicating that he didn’t have the votes to block Bolton’s testimony, and at least one Republican senator also asked for the manuscript of John Bolton’s book. But then more moderate GOP Senator Lamar Alexander indicated that he would not vote for witnesses, possibly in response to public pressure from Trump, and Lisa Murkowski followed suit. And that was all she wrote–we needed four Republicans, and we only got two. The final vote was 49-51, which means no witnesses will be called in this trial despite the high likely value of John Bolton’s testimony–in fact, all four of the Democrat’s amendments failed along party lines. This, in turn, makes acquittal likely when the Senate votes on Wednesday, which is extra disturbing given the information outlined below.

Bonkers Impeachment Updates.* A lot of completely bananas impeachment stuff happened this past week, and I would be remiss if I didn’t list it here: 1) More Lev Parnas evidence turned up as he sent McConnell an entire laundry list for testimony consideration; 2) The Administration admitted that it’s blocking release of twenty-four different emails that document Trump’s role in withholding aid to Ukraine; 3)McConnell openly coordinated the date of the final vote with Trump; and 4) Rand Paul outed an alleged whistleblower in a press conference because John Roberts wouldn’t let him do it in open impeachment proceedings.

Your “Normal” Weird:

2020 Election Weirdness.* Since it’s Monday, all eyes are on the Iowa caucus as I write this–which has an imperfect record, but nonetheless represents the first real primary results we’ll see this season. Since the process is a bit complicated, and I am by no means an expert on Iowan process, I decided to wait for final results to dive into how it went down–but rest assured, I will give a full summary next week!

Confounding Policy Updates.We saw a number of odd policy changes this week, some of which are standard issue Trumpian poor policy and one of which is odd simply because I’m suspicious of how non-terrible it appears. First up, Trump undid Obama’s restrictions on land mine use, presumably because he believes killing civilians is a selling point. And in enraging policy news, we have the Medicaid funding overhaul proposed this week, which takes a major step towards a block grant structure for the entitlement program. It’s a move that experts and even Congress pretty uniformly regard to be demonstrably bad policy–the weird thing here is that we’re still stuck in this Groundhog Day ACA repeal hell after literally years of failed attempts. Finally, there’s a new process for public loan forgiveness that is designed to make it simpler to apply–and on its face, appears to actually do the thing it sets out to do! Nobody check whether Betsy DeVos is now a pod person, please, because we could all use a break this week.

The Bad:

Coronavirus Creep.* The coronavirus situation continues to get worse, with the death toll in China now up to 425 and approximately 20,000 people diagnosed globally. We’ve also seen the first death outside of China and the first person-to-person transmission in the U.S. The World Health Organization has declared a public health emergency, and airlines all around the country are suspending flights to China. Experts note that the flu is a much more serious virus in the U.S. at this time, and that’s definitely true–and we should be thinking carefully about whether our responses are borne of racism rather than true public health concern. That said, we are underprepared for any pandemic in this country, and this is worth tracking.

Immigration Update. In addition to the public charge changes outlined last week–which we now know go into effect on February 24, by the way–the administration added six new countries to their travel ban list this week. Folks from Nigeria, Eritrea, Sudan, Tanzania, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar now have restricted travel as well, particularly when it comes to getting visas issued for temporary travel. Though I’ve seen at least one think piece calling this change a win for China, we’re also now restricting banning the return of foreign nationals who have set foot in China in the past fortnight due to the coronavirus’s origins in Wuhan. When this is added to the proposed visa restrictions based on health insurance and the proposed visa restrictions based on pregnancy, a picture emerges of pretty restricted temporary travel.

Prison Condition Fatalities. Mississippi made the news this week due to its high number of inmate deaths since 2020 began, with thirteen total people passing away in a five-week period. The Southern Poverty Law Center has requested a federal investigation, and several rappers are suing. In separate but related news, a video taken in an Oklahoma jail showing an inmate begging for medical care while the staff mocked him made an appearance in the federal lawsuit over that inmate’s death. This is a major systemic issue in our penal system that definitely deserves our attention.

The Good:

Recent State Resilience.We have an odd array of good news on the state level this week, but I’m certainly not complaining! Virginia has repealed a law requiring mandatory ultrasounds for abortions which has been on the books for several years, and along with two other states also brought a lawsuit demanding the Equal Rights Act be added to the constitution. (It’s a good week to be Virginian, apparently!) And in New York, a state park in Brooklyn is being named after famous trans activist Marsha Johnson, which is an exciting milestone for LGBTQ representation in New York and elsewhere.

Border Wall Bluster. In schadenfreude news, parts of the border wall keep getting blown over by wind, requiring large storm gates to be kept open indefinitely. Needless to say, this somewhat limits the effectiveness of said barrier, since it will have giant gaping holes in it for the foreseeable future. Gosh, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer wall.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this day in the life of a baby bat 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!

Year 4, Week 1 (January 19-25)

January 27, 2020January 28, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This week was mostly taken up by Senate trial proceedings, but there was some other pretty painful news as well. At this point, honestly, I’m starting to think we’d be better off being governed by the group of monkeys that accidentally wrote Hamlet. At least there would be less feces thrown everywhere.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a book promotion!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

At the time that I type this, Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo has had a whole bombastic week of proceedings, and we’re nowhere near finished. It’s going to be a long summary this week, because it’s hard to boil down this many hours, but here’s my best stab at it:

The Process for Process. Since Senate Democrats were justifiably unimpressed with Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s proposed kangaroo court rules, the week started with intense fighting about trial process. In the end, Dems gained some significant concessions: Opening arguments would be more spread out, and the full record from the House would be admitted. But on the most important topics, the GOP held firm: They refused to subpoena the White House for documents, and the entire question of witnesses got punted to sometime much later in the proceedings. So basically, the final ground rules will likely result in a weeks-long process that leaves nobody happy–but on the plus side, that includes Mitch McConnell.

The House’s Opening Arguments. Adam Schiff’s opening arguments on behalf of the House started out along tried-and-true lines, pointing to highlights in the existing body of evidence to argue that Trump was trying to cheat in the 2020 election. But as the House’s three days of opening argument progressed, they got increasingly colorful and creative, folding in video clips to bring in ‘testimony’ and eventually referencing apparent threats to GOP Senators who strayed from the party line. Unsurprisingly, Republicans grew increasingly contemptuous–with more than a third leaving the room at some points, and fidget spinners apparently distributed for use during the remarks. (The closest thing the Senate has to moderate Republicans, incidentally, criticized Schiff for referencing apparent threat to them, but it remains to be seen whether their votes will reflect their displeasure.)

The President’s Opening Arguments. The President’s opening statements began in earnest today after a brief preview on Saturday, and they’re as full of credibility and integrity as you might expect. Among the highlights: 1)Kennith Starr, who was instrumental in advancing the Clinton impeachment, complaining that ‘we live in the age of impeachment’ without a trace of apparent irony; 2)Lengthy diversions into the Bidens and Burisma to distract from the actual trial; 3) Calling Giuliani a ‘colorful distraction’; and 4) Scrambling to handle the Bolton bombshell that we’ll talk more about below.

Bonkers Parnas Evidence (Again).* While all of the above was going on, even more damning news about the Ukraine affair managed to come out through unrelated means, which is kind of a neat trick by this point. More specifically, video surfaced of Donald Trump at a state dinner with Lev Parnas–you know, the Lev Parnas he doesn’t know, that Lev Parnas?–telling staff to ‘get rid’ of then-ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. Outlets are assuming he was ordering underlings to fire her, which would be bad enough, but, uh… he concludes by saying “Take her out. Okay? Do it.” Having seen the text messages from last week, which more-or-less document stalking her, I’m… not convinced they stuck to the firing part.

The lines are pretty blurry between Ukraine and Disregard of Governing Norms this week, because so many stories are both. That said, these are the stories that I thought really highlighted our step back from recognizing norms on the Ukraine front:

Mike Pompeo Erupts.* After NPR interviewer Mary Louise Kelly aired an interview with Mike Pompeo that asked him about Ukraine, she disclosed that he launched into a profanity-laced tirade immediately after taping, at one point demanding that she point to Ukraine on a map. Secretary Pompeo responded by calling Kelly ‘unhinged,’ and Trump asked why NPR exists–which in our current atmosphere, can definitely be read as a threat, even before the administration started predictably limiting NPR journalists’ access to State Department affairs. The entire thing prompted NPR CEO John Lansing to come onto All Things Considered to defend Kelly, noting on-record: “We will not be intimidated.”

John Bolton’s Book Promo Testimony.* As John Bolton began his promotional tour of his new book, “The Room Where It Happened,” a leaked manuscript revealed that it undercuts a major pillar of Trump’s impeachment defense strategy, because the book claims that Trump told Bolton personally not to release funds to Ukraine until the Bidens were investigated. Incredibly, the White House was sent a copy of the book for review in December, which means that the team had notice that Bolton was about to say this publicly when they crafted the defense. For those of y’all playing the home game, intentionally lying to a tribunal is a huge no-no for attorneys, and Trump’s attorneys basically say the opposite in their arguments, which means Dershowitz and others could face some pretty serious censure if they know Bolton to be telling the truth. Naturally, Democrats are clamoring for his testimony again upon learning this, and since we haven’t settled the question of witnesses yet they might still get their wish. And all of this has been placed in the ‘Disregard of Government Norms’ bucket rather than the ‘Ukraine Biden Bingo’ one because nobody got any version of this information from Bolton until he published it in a book, and that’s so broken that I’m still not over it by the end of this paragraph.

Your “Normal” Weird:

2020 Election Weirdness. This was another weird week on the election circuit. Hillary Clinton made news for ripping into Bernie Sanders, reaffirming her earlier assessment that “nobody likes” him and noting that he “seems to be very much supporting” the toxicity of his followers. (Thanks, Hillary, now there will be no living with Bernie Bros on the Internet). That said, she did follow up to say that she’d still support him if he becomes the nominee. In more actual news, the Iowa caucuses are almost upon us, which is probably why the New York Times issued an endorsement this week. That said, that doesn’t explain why they endorsed both Klobuchar and Warren–but it’s a pretty good metaphor for 2020, so I’ll give them that.

Star Trek Space Force. This administration news isn’t so dire, but it’s plenty weird, so I figured we might as well touch on it: 45 tweeted a reveal of the proposed logo for his new Space Force this week via Twitter, and it looks suspiciously like that of Starfleet Command from Star Trek. George Takei had a lot to say about it, and certainly has more grounds to complain than I do, so I urge folks to just read his op-ed for more info on the irony here.

The Bad:

Immigration Update. We all got an unpleasant jolt today when the Supreme Court suddenly released an opinion on public charge in the middle of impeachment proceedings. The decision lifts an injunction put in place by district courts, reaffirmed only a few weeks ago by the Second Circuit, and allows the administration to go forward with a plan to dramatically reshape how they grant permission to immigrate. I’m seeing a lot of outlets call this a ‘wealth test,’ and I cannot overstate how accurate that is; though on its face, the policy is supposed to be about public benefits, it’s really just a back-door way to implement ‘merit-based immigration’ that looks at applicants’ age, wealth, and able-bodiedness (among other things). It also disproportionately punishes applicants of color, and leaves applicants afraid to access things they need to be healthy such as nutritional supports and health insurance. As if to punctuate the point, the decision was issued on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, highlighting that most survivors would be systemically blocked from entry under enforcement of this policy.

Forcible Birth Insult to Injury. Though the big immigration news is public charge, Trump sure did a lot of gross things involving women and pregnancy this week, and one of them was a new ban on visas for pregnant women if they are suspected of ‘birth tourism.’ Notably, the administration published this as a final rule with no comment period, which is counter to required process–presumably because they wanted to release it while Trump addressed the Pro Life March in a grotesque mockery of actual piety. And to add to the publicity, he also threatened to withhold funds from California at the same time because they have laws requiring insurance coverage for abortions. All told, the whole stunt is so malignantly asinine that my brain tried to escape out my ears as I wrote this paragraph.

Coronavirus Creep.* Many people, including myself, are watching the advance of a new coronavirus that is spreading from China to other locations. A coronovirus is broad classification and this one isn’t on the far-serious end of the spectrum; it’s generally nonfatal to healthy adults and there are only five documented cases in the U.S.. That said, the virus has claimed over a hundred lives worldwide due to particular risk to children, elderly, and those with weakened immune systems, and any epidemic under this administration would be an nightmare and a half. Since we’re already seeing a frightening lack of medical care for folks held in detention, I worry about vulnerable populations and am keeping an eye on this.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. This one is only borderline good, but it’s what I’ve got, so let’s roll with it: The Supreme Court declined to fast-track a challenge to the Affordable Care Act this week, meaning that the challenge will remain in place throughout the upcoming year until a decision is reached next term. This, of course, means that the question will still be unresolved during the 2020 election, but it also means the ACA won’t get immediately gutted by a Supreme Court that’s frankly not making awesome decisions of late, so I’ll take it.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve these two golden retrievers’ veggie test trials 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!

Year 3, Week 52 (January 12-18)

January 20, 2020January 21, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This week marks the pomp and circumstance leading into the Senate trial, and tomorrow we see the beginning of the Senate trial itself. I’m still not sure what kind of ride we will see, but we’re watching the GOP set up a circus and the House set up a courtroom, so there’s bound to be some clashing genres and a whole lot of inanity.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a manager!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

At the time that I type this, Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo is transitioning into the trial stage of proceedings, which is going about as well as you might expect. Here’s a quick summary of the uncertainty:

Senate Trial Prep.The House voted to send along the articles of impeachment on Wednesday, and Nancy Pelosi picked House managers to prosecute–all legislators with legal experience, noting that her metric was “comfort in the court room.” Trump picked his team as well, which included…famous lawyers, I guess? Among the confusing picks: Kennith Starr, who famously prosecuted Clinton’s impeachment so hard that people compared him to Javert, and Alan Dershowitz, who was probably just ecstatic that someone believes he’s still relevant.) The Senate then took oaths of impartiality, even though several GOP Senators have informed us that they have zero intent to remain impartial, and appears to have agreed to Kamala Harris’s call for a halt in judicial review while the impeachment is pending. Today, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell released his proposed trial rules, which can more-or-less be summarized as “Who needs evidence, witnesses, or time to respond to motions? Let’s just get this over with in forty-eight hours, shall we?” All of this is particularly galling when you consider that the Government Accountability Office also released a report this week stating that the White House definitely broke federal laws when it withheld funds from Ukraine for a policy reason.

Bonkers Parnas Evidence.* As hinted above, the House released a bunch more information gleaned from Lev Parnas this week in waves, and most of it is incredibly damning–the documents hint at everything from stalking Ambassador Yovanovitch to the involvement of Devin Nunes. Rachel Maddow also had a completely bonkers interview with Parnas where he reiterated that “everybody was in the loop” (including Trump, Pence and William Barr) about all of the above. And information also leaked that Giuliani had requested a private meeting with President Zelensky, using Parnas as a broker.

We still have some Iran updates this week under Disregard of Governing Norms, but there are some new contenders as well. These are the updates:

Iran Updates.* Iran news is dying down, but we did get a few updates. Namely, the White House story shifted yet again, with Attorney General William Barr saying that the DOJ declared Soleimani a legitimate target when consulted before the bombing, and that said bombing was part of a larger strategey of ‘deterrence’ (which, frankly, is terrifying if true and terrifying if false, so we lose either way). Unsurprisingly, we also heard news that as many as ten GOP Senators may vote to limit this administration’s war powers with regards to Iran, because the White House clearly has abused the privilege.

Legalizing Bribery.* This week’s “I can’t believe I’m not making this up” award is something of a twofer, and to be fair involves news from 2017. First the Washington Post ran a story adapted from a new book about the administration titled ‘A Very Stable Genius,’ noting that Trump called our military brass “a bunch of dopes and babies” because they wouldn’t farm out our troops for money. Then other outlets took that torch and ran with it, noting that he also wanted to change laws to allow bribery of foreign officials overseas, which is kind of a fascinating precursor to the current Ukraine controversy.

Your “Normal” Weird:

2020 Election Weirdness.After Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders were in the news for an apparent rift about the electability of women in 2020, there was much to-do about how this played out on Tuesday’s debate–namely, with Elizabeth Warren pointing out that she and Klobuchar both have the most successful campaign histories of the six contenders, and with a declined handshake that everybody yelled about for way too long, given that Sanders is researching whether he could give her multiple positions in his hypothetical administration. The Iowa caucuses are coming upon us, which is probably why the New York Times issued an endorsement today–of Klobuchar and Warren, though many outlets seem to be forgetting the Warren part.

Fraught Russia With Love.* Current Russian President and all-around scary guy Vladimir Putin made some significant changes to how Russian politics work this week–namely, he replaced his resigning Prime Minister as he simultaneously changed the Russian Constitution to allow him to stay in power instead of running into a term limit in 2024. Some outlets are calling the one-two combination a January revolution, as it might allow Putin to remain in power for life, and nobody’s quite sure what his game is. That said, it definitely means nothing good for the United States.

The Bad:

Administration Attempts Governing. The administration did do some actual governing this week, and most of it was no great shakes. The biggest news as I type this is that Trump signed a partial trade deal with China, which doesn’t do everything he wanted but he’s calling it “a monumental step” anyway because the man literally lies fifteen times a day. (It does relax some sanctions, though several remain in place, and hopefully it will provide some relief for farmers and the manufacturing sector.) The administration also proposed relaxing rules about nutrition in school menus, Michelle Obama’s most significant achievement, so that fewer vegetables were required and more fast food was permitted. They did this on this past Friday, which just so happens to also be Michelle Obama’s birthday, because apparently we’re being governed by middle schoolers.

Gun Rally Rodeo. Virginia was in the news this week for a pro-gun rally to protest recently-proposed gun reform laws that caused a lot of fear and chaos before it even began. In the week leading up to the rally, the governor declared a state of emergency and the FBI arrested several men with ties to white supremacist militias who were planning to attend (some of whom were coming in from outside the country). The rally itself drew 22,000 people, many of whom were armed despite the governor’s instructions, though only one twenty-one-year-old unarmed woman was arrested.

The Good:

Equal Rights Amendment Resilience.Virginia ratified the Equal Rights Amendment this week, making it the thirty-eighth state to ratify since the legislation was passed in 1972. In fact, since the original proposal was so long ago, experts aren’t certain what happens next–we’ve reached the magic number for ratification, but there’s some disagreement about whether there was a time limit and this administration is trying to block it. We should definitely continue to watch this, but even just reaching the number for ratification is very exciting.

Recent Court Resilience.The Fifth Circuit declined to hear a case that would have reopened the question of whether fifteen-week abortions are legal in the state of Mississippi, which means the decision to strike down the law in the lower courts stands (at least for now). It’s not clear why the court declined to hear the case, but the outcome is a win, so I’m counting it nonetheless.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sure next week will be bonkers. For making it through, you deserve this elephant’s impromptu gentle hotel tour 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 good health for our household!