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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!

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 46 (December 2–8)

December 11, 2018 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Well, this week sure happened! It was like three weeks crammed into a one-week bag (again), but at least there was some good mixed in among the bad. So, as is so often true these days, it could have been worse.

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 House committee! — 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 continued to be fast-paced and off-the-wall this week, though at least we had more time to get used to it. Here’s everything that happened, with the caveat that it remains confusing and mostly outside my specialty:

Finalizing Flynn Sentence. Mueller issued sentencing recommendations this week for Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI over a year ago on December 1, 2017. Incredibly, the memo references nineteen different interviews, which I would say definitely counts as “substantial cooperating” with Mueller, and that cooperation plus the memo’s the frequent redactions should have Trump worried. Given the breadth of cooperation, it’s not surprising that Mueller is recommending a sentence “at the low end of the advisory guideline range” — although for Flynn’s sake, I hope the sentence due on December 18 also includes some kind of witness protection.
Cohen Keepaway.* Though Cohen requested a favorable sentence that lacked prison time just like Flynn’s, that wasn’t quite what he got from federal prosecutors recommending a substantial prison sentence on Friday. Mueller himself was a bit more forgiving, noting Cohen’s efforts to cooperate and other mitigating factors. But probably the biggest news about the whole affair was the fact that the forty-page sentencing memorandum directly implicates Donald Trump on issues of campaign finance, which has the potential to be a first step in charges against Trump himself.
Moar Manafort Memos.* Mueller submitted a memorandum on why Manafort breached his plea agreement this week, and though we didn’t get as many details as we had hoped, we did learn the question is less “What did Manafort lie about” and more “What didn’t he try to snow them on?” I can’t get over how incredibly ill-advised it is to lie frequently and often after being convicted of eight counts of fraud, but given his Magical Witness Tampering Tour I probably shouldn’t be surprised — gravely underestimating how toasted he’ll be when inevitably caught is kind of Manafort’s thing.
Comey Questioned by Committees.* While everything else was going on, former FBI Director James Comey was deposed on Friday by two House committees regarding Russia and Hillary Clinton’s emails. Comey complained after that most of the questions were about Clinton, and to his point, her name shows up in the transcript 116 times (and for those of y’all playing the home game, this contrasts with ‘Russia’ coming up 128 times and ‘collusion’ coming up only 16). But of course, that didn’t stop Trump from yelling about the Steele dossier two days later because something something Rigged Fraud.
Trump Is Not, In Fact, Done (Redux). This was not Trump’s best week regarding the Russia investigation, so it’s not surprisingly he was yelling about “a major Counter Report” to respond to Mueller’s investigation and generally degrading it with typo-ridden tweets. (It’s a bit less understandable that he apparently blames Mueller for his low approval rating, and also got into a protracted fight with Rex Tillerson, who doesn’t even work for him anymore, but I guess everyone blows off steam differently?) Of course, if I were him, I’d be most worried about the news that fourteen different associates had contact with Russia during his campaign and transition, the fact that he got accused of committing a felony in Cohen’s sentencing memo, or the fact that House Dems are starting to call for impeachment. But that’s just me.

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

Kelly Speculation. While everyone and their kid sister were watching… everything else on Friday, news also started to float down about John Kelly. Or, more precisely, rumors brewed that Trump and White House chief of staff John Kelly were no longer speaking, and that John Kelly’s job was not long for this world. Then Trump announced that Kelly would be gone by the end of the year, but his preferred pick Nick Ayers refused the job, and now the news cycle is pretty much a free-for-all. Of course, since his new picks for Attorney General and UN Ambassador are such nightmare fuel, I’m a bit afraid to see who ends up tapped — but more on that below.
New Staffing Nightmares. Trump announced at the end of this week that he’ll be selecting Bush-era AG William Barr as the next Attorney General and former Fox anchor Heather Nauert as the next UN Ambassador. And between Barr’s weird fixation on investigating Clinton and Nauert’s… well, Foxnewsiness, these aren’t exactly picks that fill most of us with confidence. (Both Barr and Nauert will need to be approved by the Senate, so this should be an interesting month, to say the least.)

Your “Normal” Weird:

Shutdown Slowed Down. Congress and Trump officially agreed to push the shutdown deadline back to December 21 due to the passing of former President George H.W. Bush. But since that kicks the can out to only a few days before Christmas, it’s not clear what this will mean in two weeks. Needless to say, things may get even messier once the new House is in session, so we should keep an eye on this.
More Saudi Sketchiness.* News broke this week that Saudi-representing lobbyists booked 500 rooms at a Trump hotel immediately after the 2016 election, which would definitely be an emoluments clause violation if half of Congress weren’t pretending that’s not a thing. (Fortunately for us, judges, the other half of Congress, and a bunch of hacked-off ethics groups keep remembering for them, so we’ll likely see this pop up in court as well.) The news is causing people to pay closer attention to Jared Kushner’s unusually strong ties to the Saudi royal family, and it;’s very possible we’ll see Kushner more directly swept up in one or more of the other investigations, so it behooves us to keep an eye on all of this.
Committee Hacking Ahead of Elections (Again).* Apparently the midterm elections had its very own set of hacked political emails, this time on the Republican end. The main differences are that nobody leaked the content everywhere, and consequently Republican leadership didn’t realize the NRCC had been hacked until Politico told them about it. The investigation is still ongoing as I write this, which is probably for the best.

The Bad:

Election ‘Irregularities.’ The midterm elections may be over, but a bunch of related shenanigans are only beginning. In Texas, GOP leaders are trying to remove their own vice-chair from power for the extremely compelling reason that the dude is Muslim. And in Wisconsin and Michigan, GOP legislators are taking steps to strip power from offices with incoming Democrats in a move very reminiscent of North Carolina’s gubernatorial struggles in 2016. And speaking of North Carolina, the election fraud picture down there just keep getting worse with every new fraud detail that comes out — so it’s hardly surprising that the Dem candidate officially withdrew his concession and investigations are ongoing. We definitely need to be keeping tabs on these stories, for obvious reason.
Climate Change Calamity Causes.* Against the backdrop of recent climate change reports, it’s kind of stunning that the EPA announced plans to relax carbon emissions rules this week — but they are apparently mostly for nonexistent new coal plants, so I guess things even out? On the “more likely to actually impact reality” front, we also have the Trump administration’s plan to drill in Alaska, which has been in the works for a little while but is gaining steam. Neither development is exactly joy-inducing, but nor is either set in stone, so we’ll have to see what happens.
Dow and Meng Turbulence. The Dow had been doing a bit better of late, probably because Trump announced a tentative deal with China. But then Canada arrested a Chinese company’s CFO, Meng Wanzhou, over alleged attempts to circumvent Iran sanctions, and all H-E-double-hockeystick broke loose (for both the Dow and world politics). At the time that I write this, Meng is facing charges, trade talks between China and the US are understandably shaky, China is trying to separate the talks from the arrest, and the market has no idea what is going on. So where we are by this time next week is kind of anybody’s guess.

The Good:

Heather Heyer Case Ends in Conviction. This is less ‘good’ and more ‘grimly satisfying,’ but the man who killed Heather Heyer in Charlottesville last year, James Fields, was convicted of first degree murder this week. He now faces the possibility of life in prison, though he has not yet been sentenced at the time that I write this. Nothing that happened in his trial will bring back the person he killed, but it’s important to see society taking this kind of hate crime seriously.
Pentagon Relents. This last one is actual good news, I promise! A court decision has forced the Pentagon to start sending green card holding recruits to basic training again, ending a form of discrimination that was hurting the military as well as denying opportunities to immigrants. It’s unclear whether this policy will be permanently overturned, becasue it’s another stay via injunction, but it’s nonetheless a step in the right direction.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry there’s no returning it to sender. For making it through, you deserve this video of a bobcat named Mr. Murderbritches enjoying his newfound freedom and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less) 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 timeturner so I have a hope of getting everything done!

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 45 (November 25 — December 1)

December 4, 2018 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Holy crow, there is so much wild Russia investigation news this week I considered creating a new section for it. (An analogy I wrote earlier today, and I stand by: “Mueller is driving a go-cart that runs on biodiesel through a mine field and lucky for us, he’s one of the best go-cart drivers in America.”) The rest of the week’s news is fairly middling, which means it’s mostly overshadowed, but given how difficult some of the past weeks have been that’s not a bad thing.

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 G20 conference! — 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 was fast-paced and absolutely wild this week, so much so that I wondered if some of it was a fever dream upon first hearing it. (In my defense, I did in fact have a fever at the time.) Here’s everything that happened, with the caveat that it’s confusing and some of it is outside my specialty, though I’ll try my best:

Mueller v. Manafort (again).* Mueller alleged this week that Manafort lied to federal officials about a whole bunch of stuff after pleading guilty in September, which is a pretty serious breach of the plea agreement if true — Mueller’s saying it renders the whole deal forfeit, and some outlets are reporting that there may be new charges resulting too. Mueller didn’t disclose how his team knows Manafort is lying, though common sense would suggest they have a singing canary around here somewhere, but that information will probably pop up in the prosecutors’ brief due by December 7. The judge set a sentencing date of March 5, and Manafort may face a decade or more in jail if the judge decides he breached the agreement after reviewing arguments. Meanwhile, Manafort’s attorney was briefing Trump’s legal team on what Mueller was asking Manafort the whole time, which is not strictly illegal but definitely won’t make him look great on the whole “breaching the plea agreement” thing. And on top of all of that, the Guardian is reporting that Manafort met with Julian Assange several times before the 2016 election, which a few other outlets believe is related to Mueller’s allegations. So this is a wild ride that is nowhere near done.
Cohen Joins the Fray.* Russia Investigation news got even more bonkers this week on Thursday when Michael Cohen surprised everybody by entering a plea deal (yes, again), this time on Mueller’s charges of lying to Congress about plans for the Trump Tower in Moscow, which by the way included a penthouse for Putin. The documents made it clear that the the Trump camp’s business negotiations with Russia continued past when Trump won the primary, potentially linking Cohen to the Kremlin during campaign season. Since Mueller waited until after Trump had answered his questions to enter the plea deal, we know that Trump’s story lines up with Cohen’s, but the plea deal still has plenty of implications for Trump on its face, and is inviting further speculation about what the Kremlin might have on him. The details of the plea suggest that Trump Jr lied to Congress as well, though we don’t know the exact contents of his Congressional testimony, and we’re very likely to hear more on that soon one way or another — especially with a new House Committee that is far more interested in a full investigation.
Trump Is Not, In Fact, Done (Redux). So where does all of this leave Trump? Nowhere good, particularly with another plea deal for a former associate and several possible indictments now looming — and at least one of them, Roger Stone, could do major damage to Trump if he decides to cooperate. It does seem as though things are coming to a head, and probably quickly if no legislative protection will be forthcoming. It will be very interesting indeed to see where things lead here.

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

Saudi Arabia Uncertainty (continued).* National security adviser John Bolton made news this week for refusing to watch the tape of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, simply stating “I don’t speak Arabic” when pushed to justify the choice. Gosh, it sure is a shame that the White House can’t provide translation services — oh wait, yes they can, as at least one reporter pointed out, but Bolton doubled down. Meanwhile, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia attended G20 this past weekend, where he was predictably chummy with Trump and drew headlines for his bromance with Vladimir Putin. Needless to say, it’s looking increasingly likely that the Crown Prince is a permanent fixture on the Trump Loves Tyrants roster.
Congressional Chaos.* Congress and Trump are edging towards a shutdown showdown yet again this week despite pushing the deadline back to December 21 due to the passing of former President George H.W. Bush. Though Democrats have backed away from taking a stand over the Dreamers, Trump is revisiting his common threat to let a government shutdown happen if he doesn’t get his border wall funded and Dems are having none of it. Meanwhile, Flake edged towards getting that Mueller bill on the floor by continuing to refuse to vote on judges unless there’s a vote on bipartisan special counsel protection legislation instead. But McConnell blocked the Mueller bill’s vote from happening again, because why would we think his calls for bipartisanship mean that he should support bipartisanship? Flake’s group plans to try again this week, but they’re running out of time (both due to the shutdown date and because Flake himself is retiring at the end of the term), so it will need to happen soon if it happens at all.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Election Endings. Most of the residual election news is resolved by now, with Mississippi’s runoff resulting in one more GOP senator but a closer race than expected. Meanwhile, the Dems duked it out over who will lead the House for an improbably long time, but eventually did nominate Nancy Pelosi despite some early opposition — a choice foreshadowed by the op-ed she wrote in the Washington Post the day before her nomination was finalized. It’s been an unusually long window for figuring out what happened on November 6, but things are settling, and we’re looking at a divided Congress. And after the last two years, that’s a step towards equilibrium.
GM Getting Out of Dodge.* GM announced this week that they are closing seven American factories and pulling 14,000 jobs in the next year, which unsurprisingly has Trump seeing red — after all, it’s kind of hard to argue that manufacturing jobs are coming back when they’re literally disappearing. In a huff, he announced he’s pulling GM subsidies in the coming year. Of course, GM doesn’t actually have any government subsidies right now, but he’s not letting that stop him, and neither is the stock market; GM’s shares have dropped substantially since he made the threat. 2018, y’all.
Roll a G20.* The G20 summit was this past weekend, and a huge amount managed to happen besides the aforementioned dictator bromance. For one thing, Trump managed to meet the President of China there and work out a trade war truce, which is tentatively relieving — though he immediately (and apparently accidentally) tweeted about the Great Leap Forward apparently by accident, so who only knows where we’ll be by the end of the week. Trump also initially signaled he was canceling a meeting with Putin, but then managed to have an ‘informal’ meeting with him anyway, nicely illustrating why he can’t be trusted to accurately report on water’s wetness, let alone actual public policy. Other events of note: Major climate change protests offsite in the city; a joint statement of commitment to combat climate change (signed by literally everybody but us); and Trump canceled the scheduled press conference, citing George H.W. Bush’s death as the reason.
NASA News.* ·This one’s not quiiiite in my lane, but it’s certainly interesting! The new InSight Mars lander has reached its destination, and we’re all very excited to see it start studying marsquakes. But even as this news has scientists doing little happy dances, NASA is also in the news because the next moon landing might be partially privatized, which is pretty unprecedented in this country for good reason (unless we count the same administration’s efforts to privatize the ISS). So it’s been a real mixed week for space stories, all things considered.

The Bad:

Election Fraud (For Real This Time). We finally found evidence of the voter fraud that the GOP keeps insisting is happening this week, and it was perpetuated by… the GOP in North Carolina. Which is particularly bad, because North Carolina often serves as a bellwether for what the next form of GOP shenanigans will be on the national stage. The results have so many irregularities that the elections board refuses to certify the results, instead taking a few weeks to gather evidence on all the malfeasance. Among the incredible things being documented: sitting on absentee ballots; forging absentee ballots; and ballot bundling.
Climate Change Calamities (again).* On the heels of last week’s report, the United Nations issued a climate change report this week as well. It’s pretty much exactly the bad news we heard last week, plus a candid admission that climate change denial from political officials has an impact on attempts to curb its effects. But, of course, this doesn’t stop political officials from continuing to deny that climate change is a thing, because this administration never lets a little thing like ‘facts’ get in the way, and the response is as familiar by now as the report news.
Border Updates. In the wake of last week’s border news, we continue to hear bad things on the immigration front. Mexican officials continue to hint that they might agree to make U.S. asylum seekers remain in Mexico, which would leave many people in danger. Some of the asylum seekers in Tijuana have begun a hunger strike in response, using a form of protest unlikely to jeopardize their legal case. Meanwhile, an independent autopsy report done on a trans asylum seeker who died in ICE custody suggests that she died from intentional custodial abuse. And we also learned that tent cities holding unaccompanied kids have been waiving background checks for staff workers with this administration’s blessing since the tent city opened in June. They nonetheless still require full immigration checks for sponsors who step forward to take unaccompanied kids out of shelters, leaving shelter numbers artificially high, which is why they have a shelter staffing crisis in the first place.

The Good:

Congressional Resilience. The House and the Senate have reached a deal on this year’s farm bill, and the final form does not include work requirements for SNAP benefits. This is excellent news, both because work requirements for food were a terrible idea and because the House GOP won’t have another opportunity to put this in place for at least another two years. And speaking of good news about terrible ideas, despite some touch-and-go offers from Schumer the Senate Dems have conclusively stated they won’t be funding a wall. The House won’t change hands for another few weeks, but we’re already starting to see positive changes.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry there’s no returning it to sender. For making it through, you deserve this video of NASA scientists celebrating the InSight landing 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 plea deal from Roger Stone!

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 44 (November 18–24)

November 27, 2018 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1akzuc_OOc2eEDj0IUyZUhzH_VdMSvUVm

This past week… what can I say, this week had a lot of turkeys. (It’s a fraught time for most of us under the best of circumstances, and in 2018 talking politics with family is a whole new minefield.)

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 chief of Interpol! — 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 some movement on the Russia Investigation this week, though it was still relatively quiet, in the grand scheme of things:

Interpol Intrigue.* A new Interpol chief was selected this week, months after the previous leader was abruptly arrested in China for corruption. Going into the election process, a Russian front-runner was favored, but his candidacy left people (including some U.S. Senators) very nervous that Russia would use Interpol to stomp out its enemies. In the end, the role went to a career policeman from South Korea, Kim Jong-yang, instead.
Trump Is Not, In Fact, Done. Despite Trump bragging early last week that he ‘very easily’ answered Mueller’s questions, it turned out by the end of the week that he hadn’t answered all the questions and Mueller is still considering subpoenaing him. Raise your hand if any of this surprises you.
Whitaker Again.* News broke this week that on top of everything else, over the last few years Matt Whitaker was paid $1.2M by a conservative nonprofit called FACT that accepted money from unknown donors. Organizations like FACT are commonly known as dark money organizations, because it’s impossible to know where the funds are coming from, which means they can be used in ways that are pretty politically sketchy to say the least. And speaking of sketchy, the New York Times notes that Whitaker continued to receive some payments to his 2014 election campaign as recently as this past year, which definitely violates the Hatch Act.

This week also marked the return of what used to be the most common crisis in this section, the Disregard of Governing Norms. Here’s all the weird noise that happened on that front this week:

Saudi Arabia Uncertainty.* By the time that I write this, Trump has made it pretty clear that he’s not gonna punish the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, despite overwhelming evidence that the leader ordered the death of Jamal Khashoggi. But what’s less clear is what will happen with a Saudi nuclear deal in light of the past few weeks — the super-trustworthy Saudi government had requested their own nuclear power, but they had also made it clear they would build nuclear arms if Iran did. I freely admit, my expertise is not in foreign policy, but I’m going to go ahead and assume it’s not normal for a U.S. President to potentially give nuclear arms capabilities to countries at the same time that Congress is deciding on sanctions for them.
But Her Emails.* Ivanka Trump was in the news this week for using her personal email account for government business throughout 2017, which you may recall is exactly what Hillary Clinton did that led Trump to lead chants to “lock her up.” It’s ironic that this story is resurfacing at the same time news breaks that Trump tried to order the Justice Department to prosecute Clinton. But in true White House fashion, they are refusing to comment while Republicans are subpoenaing James Comey and Loretta Lynch on their handling of the same exact topic — because somehow there’s still a House investigation into FBI’s actions in mid-2016, despite it currently being November 2018. On the plus side, that will probably slow to a crawl come January, when the House changes hands. And if you need a score card just to keep all of this straight, I feel you friends; I can barely track it and I write the Roundup!

Your “Normal” Weird:

Election Endings. Most of the residual election news is resolved by now, but the fact that there are two outstanding results at the end of the month is pretty unusual. For the moment, eyes are turning towards Mississippi, where a runoff Senate election will happen tomorrow. Trump is focusing his efforts there today, but his candidate has had a lot of upsets, so it will be interesting to see what happens to say the least. Meanwhile, the Dems duke it out over who will lead the House, but increasingly Nancy Pelosi is looking likely — a fact only underscored by the op-ed she wrote today in the Washington Post.
Proud Boys on the Prowl. News broke this week that the FBI has classified the Proud Boys as an extremist group with ties to white nationalism — which might just seem like a No Duh moment to us, but has potential broader implications. Best case scenario, it might suggest that the FBI is taking stochastic terrorism threats seriously, particularly because the notes link the Proud Boys to escalation of violence on college campuses. But even if we’re not quite that lucky, it’s still kind of fun to watch their founder distance himself.
Romaine Woes.* Per CDC advisory, most of the country is no longer selling or serving Romaine lettuce because it has been connected to over thirty outbreaks of E. coli this week. It’s speculated that this occurred at least in part because Trump rolled back rules that would have required more rigorous water testing to prevent exactly this kind of issue. And on top of the romaine ruckus, several types of prepared foods are experiencing recalls as well. It’s hard out here for a head of lettuce! (And also for your trusty author, who loves Caesar salad and half the prepared foods list — I came out to have a good dine and I’m honestly feeling so attacked right now.)
Get the Heil Out (Redux). A Kansas official who referred to himself as a member of “the master race” last week has been asked to resign on account of Nazism. Incredibly, the guy is insisting he’s not racist, he was just talking about people with gaps in their teeth, and that is definitely the most 2018 sentence I’m going to type this week.

The Bad:

Shooting Tragedies.* We had not one, not two, but three different shootings this past week, and all three resulted in preventable fatalities that sadden me more than I can say. The first was a murder-suicide in Chicago on Monday, where a gunman showed up at a hospital to shoot his former fiancee, who was a doctor there. He also shot an officer who responded and a pharmacy resident who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time before shooting himself in the head. That same day, five people were shot in downtown Denver, apparently due to gang rivalries (although the five people actually shot were all innocent bystanders, and thankfully four of them will recover). And a dispute in an Alabama mall that left two people wounded by gunfire resulted in police fatally shooting a young black man who wasn’t the shooter.
Trump Tries to Trump the 9th Circuit (Again). Trump asked the Supreme Court to leapfrog over the appeals court and intervene in his transgender military ban case this week, which marks the fourth time he’s tried to ignore proper court procedure in the last year or so. I kind of can’t stress enough how much this is not how appeals are supposed to work — the standard for granting this kind of request is “such imperative public importance as to justify deviation from normal appellate practice.” Also, he had just doubled down on pissing off Justice Roberts the day before he requested it. That’s a bold strategy, President T, let’s see if it pays off for you.
Climate Change Calamities.* All right y’all, this one is way out of my lane, so bear with me. A Climate Science Special Report was issued at the end of last week pursuant to the Fourth National Climate Assessment, and its conclusions about climate change were… well, not great, let’s just put it that way. Specifically, the report concluded that climate change would cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars by the end of the century due to severe disruption of American exports and supply chains. It also concluded that climate change was making the fires in California worse and that changing temperatures would prematurely kill thousands each year by the end of the century. So of course Trump’s response was that he “doesn’t believe” the report. I’d pity the fool, but since he’s taking the whole planet with him it’s kind of hard. (Sorry, y’all, there’s really nothing I can say that makes this better so I’ll be relying on President T jokes for the duration.)
Border Updates. This is another rough story that I can’t candy-coat and is still developing. Before the holiday, Trump approved use of force by troops (which, incidentally, probably violates the Posse Comitatus Act) and threatened to close the Mexican border, and by Sunday he had struck a deal with Mexico to make asylee seekers wait there instead of entering the U.S. Between lengthy waits during normal processing and Trump’s constant threats not to take asylees at all, unrest caused about 500 people to protest at the San Ysidro port (at the U.S. southern border between Tijuana and San Diego) on Sunday. The protest started out peaceful, but when people started to evade a police blockade and run towards the border, U.S. border officials began firing tear gas at the crowd of women and children and the border was shut down entirely. Eventually it was reopened later in the day, but Mexico has begun deporting the people at the demonstration. Trump is now calling for Mexico to deport everyone at the border and is back to threatening to close the border permanently. Happy Thanksgiving, pilgrims.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. Only a few days after the administration issued a proclamation refusing to accept asylum applications raised from inside the U.S., a federal judge has forced them to keep accepting the applications — at least for now. In its temporary order, the court reminded the administration that they “may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden.” The bar will remain in place for one month, until another court date scheduled for December 19. Unsurprisingly, Trump threw a wobbly about this, which prompted Chief Justice Roberts to tell him to knock it off already. Which, naturally, Trump handled by doubling down despite conservatives backing the Chief, and then he asked the Supreme Court for a favor the very next day. It’s gonna be some sweet schadenfreude when they tell him no on that last point.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry there’s no returning it to sender. For making it through, you deserve this inexplicable Mr. T Mother’s Day video I found while looking up his catchphrases 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 better news from the border!