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National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 24 (June 30 — July 6)

July 9, 2019January 12, 2021 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

The immigration news section remains on fire, but the rest of this week was nowhere near the horrorshow of the previous few weeks. Of course, this is rather like walking into a house and saying, “well, only one of these rooms is ablaze” — we can’t just sit and enjoy the mesquite flavor in the next room; we still have to act.

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 subpoena! — 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:

It was actually a pretty quiet week for the Russia Investigation, with the closest news technically being about Trump’s finances. Here’s what happened:

Trump Tax Return Attempts.* House Democrats officially began a lawsuit for Trump’s tax returns this week, hoping to get enforcement for the subpoenas that the administration ignored earlier in the year. In the meantime, New York’s governor has officially signed the bill that allows Congress to access his state tax returns, which are expected to be nearly identical to the federal ones. So either way, we may have more movement on this soon.
Subpoena Party. In apparent response to last week’s decision allowing the emoluments case to proceed, Congress went a little subpoena-happy. It’s a subpoena party, and three dozen of Trump’s closest business friends are invited! (I’ll definitely keep folks posted on this news as it develops.)

In contrast, there was a lot of Disregard of Governing Norms stories this week, and they cover a fair amount of ground. Here’s what happened:

Trump Visits North Korea.* As he left the G20 summit in Osaka, Trump became the first U.S. President to set foot in North Korea — though in true Trump fashion, it was a lot of high drama for only a few minutes before they crossed back into South Korean territory. That said, the whole thing did result in resuming nuclear talks, which created a more positive gloss on an otherwise not very illustrative trip (but more on that below).
Census Fight Cluster. This story has become so weird as the week went on that I honestly wasn’t sure where to put it, but it’s certainly a deviation from government norms. After the administration missed its own printing deadline for the 2020 Census forms, the Department of Justice started out conceding that they couldn’t put a citizenship question on the 2020 census due to the time crunch. However, after Trump tweeted that he wanted to postpone the census to add the question, the judge dragged the DoJ attorneys onto a conference call and told them to explain themselves — prompting the team to say they found a way forward despite the logistical issues. Then Trump started talking about passing an executive order to get the question out, because he apparently failed Civics 101, and the whole legal team was swapped out en masse without a stated reason. So now the DOJ has Consumer Protection staffers as the new set of attorneys, and who even knows where we go from here.
Fourth of July Fervor. The biggest single kleptocracy story this week is definitely Trump’s Fourth of July celebration, which was a bizarre power grab from beginning to end. We began the week with Trump announcing that he wanted tanks for a military Fourth of July parade this year, diverting millions from park funds to pay for it despite still owing millions for his inauguration. Just for added insult, he also set up VIP passes for Republican donors (and only Republican donors), turning the entire thing into a partisan event that likely violated the Hatch Act. Eventually the Pentagon got him to back off of the tank plan, before he could do any damage to either the public safety or the roads. But the event was still very odd, from the torrential rain to Trump’s inexplicable statement that Revolutionary War troops “took over the airports.” Although on the plus side, the latter resulted in some truly great Internet memes.

Your “Normal” Weird:

G20 Lowlights.* I touched on a lot of the Russia investigation implications of Trump’s G20 trip last week, but wanted to spend a few minutes on the other noteworthy happenings today as well. Though the U.S. and China did resume trade talks, Trump also heaped praise on Saudi Arabia, insulted the host country, brought Ivanka along, and refused to back another climate change deal. So not what I’d call a successful summit, all things considered, even if it did have some positive notes.
Amash Announcement. Libertarian representative Justin Amash announced via op ed that he’s leaving the Republican party this week, proclaiming the GOP is “in a partisan death spiral” in the process. (You may recall Amash as that guy from the GOP who was calling to impeach Trump, though he also left the Freedom Caucus over it.) Folks started speculating immediately that he likely planned to run in the 2020 election, which is easier to do if he’s not a member of Trump’s party-and sure enough, he indicated he hasn’t ruled it out.

The Bad:

Even More Hellish Immigration News. Immigration news continues to be the horror nobody wants that just keeps on giving. The day after House reps described horrifying CBP station conditions, the DHS Inspector General issued a detailed report that corroborated many of their statements — and is the second report of this type in three months. (Against that backdrop, it’s not surprising that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has issued a statement of disgust.) News also broke that CBP has known about the secret CBP agent facebook group for years, and that the administration is levying half-million dollar fines against people who evaded deportation by seeking sanctuary — and might also go after people who gave them shelter. To cap off a real banner week, Trump issued more statements that he plans to have additional ICE raids soon, and ICE was in the news for using facial recognition software to mine state drivers’ license databases for data. Because yeah, nothing says “you can trust us to do this responsibly without a warrant” like detaining citizens and another round of papers-please raids.
Iran Tension Update.* Iran continues to violate the 2015 nuclear deal, racking up yet another violation on the heels of last week’s breach. Analysts with far more expertise than me are saying that Iran’s statements are political pressure rather than a true attempt to create a nuclear bomb — it’s an attempt to get the U.S. to back off or to get Europe to step up. Nonetheless, we need to keep watching this carefully.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. There were several great developments on court-related fronts this week, most of which were really encouraging. The charges against Marshae Jones, the woman in Alabama who was indicted for manslaughter when she was shot in the stomach, have officially been dropped as I type this. We also learned that several states are suing the EPA for stricter asbestos regulations. In court order news, a federal judge has blocked indefinite detention for asylum seekers, saying they must have a bond hearing while their case is pending because they have a constitutional right to due process. And the ‘conscientious objection’ medical rule was delayed until at least November due to a pending legal challenge in California. Hooray progress!
Culling the Dem Herd. Democrat Presidential hopeful Eric Swalwell announced he is dropping out of the U.S. 2020 race but will seek re-election to the House, marking the first cull of our 24-person herd. Though he’s the first, he definitely won’t be the last, and it’s encouraging to see candidates returning their attention to other 2020 elections.

So that’s what I have for this week, and it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this close-up view of sand 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!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 23 (June 23–29)

July 2, 2019January 12, 2021 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Despite the conclusion of Pride, this week’s news isn’t exactly rainbows and sunshine — the thunderstorms yesterday felt like appropriate ambiance. Things are pretty grim but we’ll get through this, if we take action and just keep swimming. I’m here if anybody needs anything.

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

We have a bit more than average Russia Investigation news, and most of it is fascinating in one way or another. Here’s what I have for you:

Mueller and Conway Subpoenas.* Both Robert Mueller and Kellyanne Conway were in the news for subpoenas in the past week, with apparently mixed results. Mueller will testify in an open session with several House committees on July 17, having clearly decided to comply once a subpoena was at play — and immediately following this announcement, Trump started accusing him of crimes. Meanwhile, Kellyanne Conway no-showed for a hearing on Wednesday as part of a much larger tug-of-war between the administration and the House, so the House responded by voting to subpoena her. We can expect this to be much messier than the process with Mueller, though Conway has not yet issued a public statement as I write this.
Trump and the Russian Investigation (Again).* Trump brought up all kinds of things relating back to the Russia investigation when he met with Putin at G20, from joking about Putin’s election interference to comments about “getting rid” of journalists. But while he was in Japan joking about it, Jimmy Carter was saying that he thinks Trump didn’t actually win the 2016 election. (For those of you playing the home game, Carter saying this is no joke; the Carter Center has been doing election work for thirty years and he can be considered an expert on this topic.)

We saw a couple of Disregard of Governing Norms stories this week, and they’re about what we’ve come to expect — which is its own problem. Here’s what happened:

Trump Transition Team “Red Flags.” It’s been almost an afterthought, but leaked documents about the Trump transition team were in the news this week. Apparently Pence outsourced vetting to the RNC, who had all kinds of things to say about members of the Trump team — many of whom went on to join the cabinet and were eventually forced out due to scandal. It’s yet another reminder of how many different ways the Trump administration is pushing our boundaries on what is acceptable government behavior.
Trump Assault Conversation Continues. As we mentioned last week, the prominent writer who accused 45 sexually assaulting her noted in the piece that he had already been accused of such acts sixteen times to no effect. After Trump resorted to saying she ‘wasn’t his type’ in an attempt to discredit her as well, friends of Carroll’s came forward with more information about their recollections from the time of the event, and Carroll reiterated her observation that “nothing happens” when people report. And she’s pretty much right; as RollingStone reminds us, none of these women have seen any formal inquiries result from sharing their stories — even though the first allegations happened before he was President. That’s probably why Trump feels comfortable using defenses like “she’s not my type” (as opposed to “I don’t assault people”), and when you stop and think about that, it’s pretty disturbing.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Iran Tensions Simmer on Low Heat.* Tensions with Iran were reduced to a simmer after Trump drew back from the brink of attack, satisfying himself by issuing sanctions instead. That said, the relative calm is not for lack of yelling on Trump’s part, because he sure did post blustering tweets about how he would “obliterate” Iran if they stepped a toe out of line. It’s more likely things have quieted because Europe and China are backing away slowly, ignoring Trump’s sanctions in an effort to encourage deescalation from Iran — which seems to be working, for now at least.
Dem Debates Take 1.* The first two Dem debates happened in the past week, and, well…they happened. Takes on who performed how are all over the map, but early polling suggests that Warren and Harris did particularly well, with Harris’s decision to challenge Biden on busing paying off for her. (A few others performed well in initial polling as well.) Conversely, Biden suffered for his lack of preparedness on the busing issue, or at least for his mention of states’ rights and self-censorship. You can (and should) read fact-checking reports on both debates online, though I’d steer clear of most of the op-eds, and we’ll all know more when we learn who qualifies for the next round at the end of July.
Twitter Gets Upstaged. Twitter announced this week that they’re going to start putting a warning label on Trump tweets (okay, they said ‘tweets in the public interest,’ but we all know what they meant). They also said that tweets so labeled will be downrated so that they circulate less. And all this would be noteworthy, or at least moderately exciting, if they didn’t announce this in the same week that the popular knitting social media site Ravelry announced a straight-up ban of all support of Donald Trump from their platform, saying that supporting him is an open expression of white supremacy and that they cannot truly have an all-inclusive space if they permit said speech. So, y’know, you might want to up your game, Twitter.

The Bad:

Even More Hellish Immigration News. Immigration news remains awful, and this week comes with its own content warning. Members of the House visited a CBP facility in El Paso and observed unsafe living conditions, saying that one woman was told by CBP to drink out of a toilet. Frankly this is kind of easy to believe, because on the same day ProPublica reported excerpts from a secret CBP facebook group so dehumanizing that it’s honestly nauseating, and the Inspector General reported that CBP agents are arming themselves at border stations because they fear riots. News did break that the interim head of CBP is stepping down, but it’s not clear whether anything will actually be done to improve things — Congress passed the worst possible version of a humanitarian aid bill this week, which puts virtually no conditions on the $4.6B they’re handing over to CBP, the Department of Defense, and ICE. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the DACA case next year, and that’s vaguely terrifying given how they handled the past week’s cases (but I’ll get to that below). And ICE arrested a student in apparent retaliation for reading a poem about them in public. About the best thing I can say on this front is that federal judges are still giving the administration hell, with one judge blocking construction on the wall and another ordering CBP to allow medical providers into the camps. There are so many things that we can and should be doing to address all this news, and in particular I want to draw folks’ attention to national #ClosetheCamps protests happening tomorrow. As always, I’m happy to remain a resource on this.
Horrifying Alabama Case.* In addition to the SCOTUS cases mentioned above, Alabama was in the news for indicting a pregnant woman shot in the stomach and charging her with manslaughter. Notably, the actual shooter was not indicted for anything, with prosecutors claiming that “the only true victim in this was the unborn baby.” Reproductive rights advocates are saying that this is an early example of pregnancy criminalization, and they are absolutely right — we knew to predict this type of thing, but that doesn’t make it any easier.
SCOTUS Nightmares. The Supreme Court issued the last decisions of the term this week, and they range from “unfortunate” to “truly horrorshow.” The most coverage has gone to the court punting on issues of gerrymandering, saying it’s a political question and therefore ‘beyond the reach of the federal courts.’ This will leave several states with severe gerrymandering in place (although some have separate challenges at the state level) so it has very real political implications, and it’s understandable that it is receiving this level of attention. And the citizenship question is staying off of the 2020 census (at least for now), which is moderately good news even though the decision is a chaotic mess. But I want to spend a few minutes on a case that got very little attention, but I genuinely think is indicative of serious issues with our system: With very little fanfare, the court shot from the hip to overturn a basic search and seizure protection that was only established in 2013. The decision is legal gibberish that completely abandons several basic principles of law, including the principle that judges don’t rule on things that were waived as arguments — the government in this case literally conceded that the warrant exception created didn’t apply and the court created it anyway. This is a big deal, even though it impacts such a marginalized population — arguably because it impacts such a marginalized population — when it’s a clear sign that the institution’s fidelity to itself is breaking down.

The Good:

Scoring Goals Under Pressure. Soccer midfielder and all-around rockstar Megan Rapinoe announced this week that she would definitely not be going to the White House when her team won their upcoming World Cup quarterfinal match, except her version maybe contained more expletives. She then proceeded to score two amazing goals in the quarterfinals and pose like a purple-haired god at the jeering French crowd, which is the kind of self-possessed big energy I’m here for in 2019. After the game, Rapinoe reiterated that she wouldn’t retract anything she said about Trump — except the expletive, because it made her mom sad. Then just for extra excellence, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez invited Rapinoe to tour the House on Twitter, which Rapinoe accepted. With a party emoji.
Recent Court Resilience. Despite the SCOTUS news above, there were some good federal cases this week as well. In addition to the immigration cases listed, a federal judge allowed the emoluments case against Trump to go forward again, thwarting yet another attempt by this administration to make the unjust enrichment suits go away. I’m sure they’ll try again, but it’s still good to see the courts remain firm on this.

So that’s what I have for this week, and it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this cat in a sailor suit 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!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 22 (June 16–22)

June 25, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Folks, the news is never what I’d call great, but after several weeks of increasingly dispiriting nonsense, this may be the worst week we’ve had so far this year. I’ve restructured this week’s roundup under the Really Bad protocol, so you get your dessert good news first and we’re closing with things you can do to help. Try to hold on to the knowledge that it won’t stay this bad — we will come through the other side. I’m here if anyone needs anything.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m 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 coal emission! — 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:

Recent Congressional Resilience. The Senate voted this week to block Trump’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which is a promising bipartisan step for reining in the administration’s scary foreign policies in general. And the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on a bill that would study potential ways to implement reparations. The hearing took place on Juneteenth, sending a powerful message about the current House’s posture on white supremacy. All told, it was a good week for Congress — especially compared to some state legislatures (but more about that below).
Private Prison Reckoning. This was a good week for challenging private detention facilities. First Elizabeth Warren announced that she wants to end the practice of privatized detention — which apparently the market took seriously, because multiple private prison stocks dropped over 5% in response. Then on Friday, Illinois officially became the first state in the country to ban private immigration detention within its borders. The move is unprecedented, and it’s a really big deal.

Constitutional Crisis Corner

The Russia Investigation was fairly quiet this week, all things considered. Here’s what happened:

Power Move on Russia’s Power Grid.* The U.S. intelligence community was in the news this week for cyber-attacks on Russia’s power grid, which seem intended as a warning to Vladimir Putin (and apparently happened without Trump’s buy-in — can’t think why). Some outlets are also suggesting that it’s odd that this was in the news at all, since it effectively ‘burns’ the attempt. I’ll keep an eye on this to see if there are further developments.
Hope Hicks Testifies (Kind Of).* Hope Hicks was before the House Judiciary Committee this week, and apparently just straight-up refused to answer questions about her time in the White House. She did partially cooperate, however, so Democrats appear split on whether to subpoena her. I’ll keep folks posted on this one as well.

We saw a couple of Disregard of Governing Norms stories this week, and for the first time in a while they’re just all about Trump being horrifying. Here’s what happened:

Trump’s Anti-Press Escalation. Trump has never been what you’d call friendly to reporters, but I believe this week is the first time he threatened a reporter with jail time mid-interview — said reporter, from TIME magazine, apparently hit a nerve on the Russia investigation. Incredibly, you can see in the transcript that the reporter responded by asking, “I’m sorry, Mr. President. Were you threatening me with prison time?” And Trump’s response: “Well, I told you the following [instructions.] You can’t do that stuff.” Note, y’all, that this is not a ‘no,’ and in fact sounds rather like a ‘yes.’
Trump Assault Allegations. A prominent writer published a detailed account of 45 sexually assaulting her in a department store dressing room this week, noting in the piece that he had already been accused of such acts sixteen times to no effect. Trump’s early denials on the topic have ranged from “I don’t know who she is” (probably true, whether Carrol was accurately reporting or not) to “I’ve never met her” (a bold move when the original piece has a photo of them together). By mid-week, he had settled on “she’s not my type,” as his main defense, which… is definitely the grossest thing I’m gonna write this week.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Joe Biden Knows Some Great Segregationists. Joe Biden was in the news this week for playing up his positive relationship with late segregationist senators, noting that they weren’t racist at him personally. Needless to say, several other 2020 candidates were not impressed, and Biden in turn wasn’t impressed with their opinion of the whole thing, but I gotta say “they didn’t call me ‘boy’” doesn’t really grant him the moral high ground here.
Bizarre Harvard Non-Scandal. Harvard was in the news this week for rescinding their acceptance of a Parkland survivor upon learning he went on an n-word spree in the recent past. That’s not the weird part, by the way — the weird part is how offended some people were that Harvard exercised that kind of discretion. Gosh, it’s almost like they’re a private institution concerned about liability if foreseeable malfeasance results in harm to other students!

The Bad:

Gag Rule Upheld in Appeals Court. The Ninth Circuit allowed enforcement of this administration’s Title X gag rule this week, which is pretty dispiriting news on several fronts at once. Just on its surface, the ruling’s not awesome because it set aside injunctions blocking enforcement, which means the administration to keep the rule in effect while the appeal is pending. But as the lower court injunctions suggest, the Ninth Circuit is a jurisdiction that’s not noted for its conservatism — the panel of three judges were all appointed by former Republican presidents. There’s another panel that will hear the case on the merits, and we’ll have to hope that the next luck of the draw is better.
Clean Power Setback.* The Trump administration is moving forward with its plan to roll back the Clean Power Plan, issuing a new rule on coal emissions ironically named the Affordable Clean Energy Rule even though the main goal is to save coal plants. The new rule relaxes emission rules considerably, giving states the option to punt on rolling back emissions entirely, so it’s not surprising that several clean-energy focused states already plan to sue.

**The Very Bad**:

Awful Immigration Updates. The past week has just been an ongoing parade of horrors coming from the border, with particularly awful news about unaccompanied minors — kids without proper medical care; kids without food or water; kids without soap or toothbrushes; kids without a safe place to sleep. Incredibly, the administration argued before a panel of judges this week that a right to ‘safe and sanitary conditions’ did not guarantee any of the above. The circumstances are so systemically awful that some politicians and experts are likening the centers to ‘concentration camps’ and ‘torture facilities.’ But interior news is bad too, because Trump threatened to deport ‘millions of illegal immigrants’ with raids in ten cities at the top of the week. He then claimed it would be postponed two weeks, but we’re waiting to see what happens.
Chaos in Oregon. This entire story is horrifying, and I can’t believe it isn’t getting more attention. After GOP state legislators in Oregon walked off-site to protest a climate change vote, the Democrat governor sent the state police after them — which would seem extreme enough all by itself. But then one of the GOP legislators threatened to shoot the state troopers, and private militias issued threats to the rest of the statehouse. So now the whole state house is shut down, some of the GOP legislators are in Idaho posting pictures of peaceful protest like they’re violent, and holy crap how is this real life.
Terrifying Iran Updates. The situation with Iran continues to be volatile and frightening, though at the time that I type this it has simmered down to Trump simply issuing sanctions. The week started out with Pompeo beating his chest in the general direction of Iran, while Trump initially looked more reticent. But then Trump announced on Twitter that he had readied an attack on Iran and withdrew after the jets were deployed. (It does look like he deployed cyber-strikes, though.) So now the immediate danger is over, but things could flare up again anytime, and I’ll keep folks posted.

What We Can Do:

Immigration Detention Conditions. I put together a list of suggestions for folks who want to help and have no professional or cultural ties to targeted populations. Tl; dr version: 1) Learn about major organizations’ efforts; 2) Talk to your government; 3) Donate time and money; 4) Disseminate information without contributing to panic. For attorneys and other folks with professional ties, there are already many organizing efforts underway, and I recommend checking them out. For impacted populations, many groups have suggestions as well. We’ll get through this, and action can help.
Iran Crisis. This one is down to mostly calling our reps, particularly given the encouraging Senate news from this week. You can find your House rep info here and your Senator info here, and as always, sites like ICalledMyReps and 5Calls have scripts for you.

So that’s what I have for this week, and it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this ridiculous mashup 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 clone army so I can Do All the Things!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 21 (June 9–15)

June 18, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Well, I said last week that the respite wouldn’t last, and sure enough, this week we were back to some truly fetid stuff. I recommend you grab a stuffed animal to cuddle before we begin, because some of this week is pretty nauseating.

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

We have a bit more than average Russia Investigation news, most of it mind-numbing. Here’s what I have for you:

Subpoena Fights Continue.* The House voted to authorize the resolution from last week that would allow them to sue people who ignore subpoenas, because it would be nice to do that to Don McGahn if nothing else. But apparently wanting a backup plan, the House Oversight and Reform Committee also voted to hold Attorney General Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress for refusing to cough up documents related to the 2020 census. (Though, to be fair, that last bit is probably Trump’s fault, because he’s the one who invoked executive privilege on the relevant subject matter.)
Trump Jr. Testifies.* Donald Trump Jr was called to interview with the Senate Intelligence Committee a second time this week, and apparently did not care for the experience. He seems pretty sure this is the end of the Senate’s investigation, and honestly, it’s the Senate so he may be right. But there’s definitely a lot of emergent sketchy stuff since he last interviewed in 2017, so we’ll have to see what the committee does with what they learned this past week.
Foreign Intelligence Admissions.* This week’s “I can’t believe I’m not making this up” award goes to Trump flat-out saying that if offered, he would accept info from foreign governments on political opponents in the 2020 election. Needless to say, this is illegal as well as ignorant, which is probably why he had to backpedal furiously and get Mitch McConnell to do the same. Meanwhile, a Republican Senator blocked an attempt to require candidates to disclose foreign offers to the FBI. And the Justice Department continues to handle all of this by investigating the CIA’s Russia investigation, because we live in the dumpster timeline.

We continue to see Disregard of Governing Norms each week, but this week, not all of them came from Trump. Here’s what happened:

White House Staff Shuffle (Reprise).* Trump announced via tweet this week that Sarah Huckabee Sanders is resigning from her position as White House press secretary, after working for the administration about two and a half years (regardless of what Trump tweets). The news has people speculating about who will replace her, but the answer might be nobody — she limited the role more and more before leaving, and the communications director position has been open since March. But we do know for certain that Kellyanne Conway is not going anywhere, despite recommendations that she be removed due to multiple Hatch Act violations — because something something loyalty to Trump. (Raise your hand if you didn’t see that one coming.)
Pelosi Fuels the Feud. By now, Nancy Pelosi’s reluctance to bring impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump has inspired considerable frustration to those of us watching, but her restraint seems to have its limits. Pelosi has started clapping back to Trump’s insults, attributing them to projection and talking about him like a misbehaving child. There are strategic reasons that Pelosi might be choosing not to impeach, but it’s not entirely clear why she’s antagonizing him so much.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Flint Mulligan. The Internet felt its collective heart stop upon finding out that Michigan authorities have dropped all criminal charges relating to the Flint water crisis. But the full story is that while all charges were dropped and the investigation ended, the AG also plans to start another investigation, because the first one was botched pretty badly. Given the Michigan Attorney General’s record, perhaps people are right to be wary of another investigation from the same department.
Stewart: 9/11 Fund is No Joke. Though most of us think of former comedy news host Jon Stewart as his wisecracking and witty show persona, his response to the House Judiciary Committee’s poor attendance at a hearing for 9/11 first responders’ medical care funds was deadly serious. Referring to the empty seats as an “incredible metaphor” for the Committee’s disregard for the “sick and dying,” Stewart pulled no punches and called the hearing an “embarrassment to this country.” Whether or not Stewart’s impassioned pleas were the tipping point, the Committee voted unanimously to advance a bill to extend the fund.

The Bad:

Tariff Trade-offs (continued). After last week’s tumultuous tariff threat with Mexico, we’ve moved on to a week of tumultuous tariff threats with China — which has fewer immigration implications but still isn’t what I’d call ‘fun.’ Also, for bonus funsies, Trump keeps insisting that there’s a seekrit second deal with the Mexican government. But the Mexican government keeps saying that he’s full of Cheetos, and frankly, I think we can all agree that they’re the more credible party, on account of Trump’s bogus photo evidence and habit of lying twelve times a day.
Other Ill-Advised Immigration Updates.* Immigration circumstances remain really bad at the border — news outlets are now reporting that the administration is holding migrant kids on military bases and holding adults in “human dog pounds” under bridges. (Pro tip: Any time you have to utter the phrase “shower facility use is prioritized for children,” that should maybe be a clue that you are doing something inhumane with your detention practices.) Unsurprisingly, these awful and overcrowded conditions have also resulted in problems with disease vectors, and twenty-four people in total have died in custody since Trump took office. About the only good news on the immigration front is that the administration’s attempt to prosecute humanitarian aid proved unsuccessful; Scott Warren’s trial for providing food and water to migrants resulted in a hung jury.
Black Lives Still Matter. Tensions between police and the public continue to worsen, particularly in cases of white officers policing black neighborhoods. In Memphis, brief but intense unrest erupted after 20-year old Brandon Webber was shot 20 times during a violent altercation with police. Meanwhile, a video from Phoenix hit the Internet showing police threatening to shoot parents in response to a four-year-old’s accidental shoplifting. The incident comes only a few months after a report showing that Phoenix police use the most deadly force in the country.
Iran Tensions Continue.* Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is still being scary about Iran, claiming that its government is behind attacks that happened nowhere near them, that Iran has denied, and that have been claimed by other entities. Needless to say, this standoff is very concerning, particularly when it looks like the Trump administration may be making half of it up. Democrats, unsurprisingly, are continuing to safeguard requirements for congressional approval so that Trump can’t unilaterally drag us into a formal conflict.

The Good:

Recent SCOTUS Resilience. The Supreme Court issued several favorable (if mildly baffling) decisions today. By far, the biggest news is a 5–4 decision to affirm a finding that Virginia must use redrawn district maps in its next election due to impermissible racial gerrymandering. (It’s worth noting that the majority on this case was Ginsburg, Kagan, Gorsuch, Sotomayor, and Thomas, which is a match made in Weirdtown.) But the court also reaffirmed that double jeopardy doesn’t apply to state and federal prosecution, which means Paul Manafort can’t escape punishment with a pardon (although it does have some negative implications for marginalized defendants). And the Supreme Court also refused to hear a second case involving a baker refusing to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. So it was a fairly good week for Supreme Court news.

So that’s what I have for this week, and it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this splashy flamingo chick and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) news, and I hope you will be back as well — but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more hours of sleep!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 20 (June 2–8)

June 11, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

After weeks of nonstop raging dumpster fire, this week feels like a bit of a breather — it’s not full of especially great news, but nor is it especially fetid. I’ll keep watching for dropping shoes, but in the meantime we appear to have… caught a bit of a break? I know, I’m as shocked as you are (but I’ll take it).

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

We do still have some Russia Investigation news, mostly about who is complying with what subpoena. Here’s what I have for you:

Subpoena Cooperation.* As has become his pattern over the past few weeks, Trump ordered former communications director Hope Hicks not to comply with the House documents subpoena she was recently issued. She agreed to hand some documents over anyway, though whether they were helpful remains to be seen. In the meantime, committee chairman Jerry Nadler is deciding whether to subpoena former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, since he believes it’s still possible Mueller will testify willingly. I’ll keep folks posted on what happens there.
Subpoena Subordination.* This week, the House Rules Committee put forward a resolution that would allow the House to sue William Barr to enforce the subpoenas he’s been ignoring for two months, and also planned a vote on Tuesday to hold him in contempt. But just today, they apparently negotiated a deal for documents successfully, making the whole thing go on pause. Since contempt would be enforced by the Department of Justice, it’s very possible that Barr hasn’t truly been scared into anything, and the documents won’t be anything useful. But we’ll have to see what happens.

We continue to see Disregard of Governing Norms each week, but this week, not all of them came from Trump. Here’s what happened:

The DREAM and Promise Act Prelude.* The House passed the DREAM and Promise Act this past week, which is an immigration reform bill that creates many opportunities for Dreamers that Mitch McConnell is gonna refuse to vote on. It says a lot about the strange times we live in that this bill is unlikely to even hit the Senate floor — it’s literally just about two moderate ideas: 1) canceling removal proceedings for a probationary period for people who arrived here as kids; and 2) DHS giving Congress reasons why when it ends existing programs.
Pelosi Impeachment Baiting (Again). Nancy Pelosi is continuing to fight with Dems about impeachment proceedings, saying that she would “[rather see Trump] in prison” and that “an impeachment is an indictment.” Given that Mueller has been extremely clear in his position that a sitting President cannot be indicted, and therefore impeachment must occur in order for him to go to prison, I’m not really sure I understand her argument here? But you do you, Nancy, it’s not like the rest of us have to live with the consequences.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Trump’s Trip to England.* Trump took a trip to England this past week, and it sure was weird! Among the circus: Trump insulting the mayor of London as soon as he landed; a truly impressive protest game put forward by British citizens throughout his trip; a 45 gaffe about NHS; an improbable amount of American focus on his formal attire at the state dinner; pointed comments about a wall in Ireland; weird quotes about Vietnam; and a rumor that the Queen was throwing shade with her tiara while meeting him.
Joe Biden’s Hyde and Seek. Joe Biden had the distinction of coming out both for and against the Hyde Amendment this week. Though he initially stated that he supports the amendment, which limits federal funding to clinics that provide abortions, by the end of the week he had changed his mind. It seems likely that his reversal was related to fierce backlash he experienced, because the Democratic party doesn’t take kindly to forced birth rhetoric — particularly right on the heels of a zillion state heartbeat bills.

The Bad:

Tariff Trade-offs. After a week of ticking clock anxiety, Trump did reach a deal with Mexico over the weekend that made him call off the threat of tariffs. Predictably, the deal is bad news for immigrants; it contains terms about sending the National Guard to the southern border of Mexico and sending asylum seekers back to Mexico to await a decision. That said, the New York Times reported that Mexico had already agreed to most of the final terms that got him to back down, and these provisions also aren’t likely to really drive down immigration rates. So it’s unclear whether the whole thing was a show of force, or foreshadowing, or what, and 45 has already moved on to threaten new tariffs against China. So these tea leaves really might say anything.
Other Ill-Advised Immigration Updates.* There were a handful of other immigration stories this week, and all of them are kind of brain-bleedy. News broke that CBP was relaxing its standards further at the tent cities housing migrant children, cutting education, recreation, and legal services available to kids housed there. This is a likely violation of the Flores settlement and therefore illegal — not that illegality ever stops this administration — and there will likely be another court case. Meanwhile, 45 has military troops stationed at the border to paint the wall there for the next month to “improve its aesthetic appearance,” which I’m sure isn’t a cover for other misuses of military force at all. And ICE was in the news for illegally deporting U.S. veterans, because nothing celebrates D-Day quite like arresting and expelling our own former troops.

The Good:

Disaster Spending Finally Finalized. This week, the House did pass the disaster spending bill that would create relief for natural disaster zones and kept getting stalled last week, and Trump has signed it into law and everything (so it’s definitely happening). It’s embarrassing that this was even a partisan issue, but hopefully this will result in actual disaster relief for places like Puerto Rico, which is still hurting two years after Hurricane Maria.
Proud Pride Moments. June is LGBT Pride month, and though this is a rough time we’ve seen some some encouraging moments in there too. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn raid, and the commissioner of the New York police department publicly acknowledged the oppressive action of the NYPD in a formal apology for the event this week. (Disturbingly, this is literally the first time that anybody on the NYPD has apologized since the event occurred fifty years ago.) And though the Trump administration has rejected requests to fly the pride flag at U.S. embassies, some diplomats are doing it anyway.
Racial Disparity Reduction. Some recent research released on the Affordable Care Act has shown that racial disparities in cancer care have dramatically decreased since the act was passed and Medicaid was expanded, and that in particular early access to treatment has substantially improved for people of color. This is a really big deal, because America has huge issues with racial health disparities across many health issues, and these studies can potentially be used to decrease disparities in other areas as well.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sure it won’t stay this manageable for long! For making it through, you deserve t his story about superhero love and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and probably worse, sorry) news, and I hope you will be back as well — but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more hours of sleep!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 19 (May 26 — June 1)

June 4, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Y’all, this week is so bad that I’m eating ice cream out of the carton with a soup spoon as I type this, and I’m not even sorry. (Then right after I typed that, I dropped the soup spoon. And the dog went after it. It’s that kind of week.)

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 tariff! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corner

Somehow, we still have Russia Investigation news, though none of it is especially optimistic. Here’s what I have for you:

Mueller’s Public Statement.* This was another noteworthy week for news relating to the Russia investigation. Former special prosecutor Robert Mueller issued a public statement for the first time, presumably in response to rumors that he had considered indicting Trump. He reiterated that he believes he may not indict a sitting President, and reminding Congress that they can impeach Trump if they want accountability for his misdeeds. Needless to say, this development has raised even more fervor about impeachment among Democrats, and especially among the 2020 candidates. But Nancy Pelosi continues to maintain that it’s not yet time to impeach Trump, despite increasing pressure otherwise.
Russia Helping and Other Strange Tweets.* Sometime on Thursday morning, Trump tweeted that “I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected.” Then, presumably realizing what he’d just admitted, he deleted it and tweeted “I got me elected!” instead. Given his lengthy history of denying that Russia acted to place him in power, this temporary admission is important — particularly because it underlines Mueller’s conclusions.

We also continue to see Disregard of Governing Norms each week, but this week, not all of them came from Trump. Here’s what happened:

GOP Stall Tactics.* GOP stall tactics were on display in a variety of forms this week, with stories coming out of both the Senate and the House. All told, the House vote on the Senate’s disaster package was stalled out three different times this week, in each instance because the bill contained no additional border wall funding. (They did eventually pass it today, though.) Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell gleefully told a reporter that he would not stall if there were a Supreme Court vacancy in 2020, despite his stated reasons for obstruction when Merrick Garland was nominated in 2016. Both of these things reflect the slow degradation of our system itself in the face of partisan goals, which sadly is not really new but takes on new meaning in 2019.
Trump Sides with Kim. Trump decided to side with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un on several issues this past week, ranging from whether North Korea had fired ballistic missiles to whether Joe Biden has a low IQ. Though Trump has an ongoing love-hate relationship with the dictator, this may be the first time he publicly dissed his own advisers and ignored the U.N. Security Council to ingratiate himself. Needless to say, none of this is acceptable or normal.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Tattling Tax Report.* A study from the Congressional Research Service concluded this week that the 2017 tax return Trump engineered was — pardon the technical terms here — not awesome. More specifically, despite this administration’s claims otherwise, trickling down wasn’t a thing that happened for our economy, because the tax cuts favored corporations instead of humans. What’s weird about this story, of course, isn’t the predictable outcome of terrible tax plan; we’ve known that trickle down economics doesn’t work since the Dubbya era. What is weird, however, is how little attention this report is getting — in any other election cycle, Democrats would be having a field day with this. But since we’re all busy arguing about whether or not to impeach, the report has gone without comment.
I’d Watch That Buddy Cop Movie. Per their agreement on Twitter, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ted Cruz are teaming up to take on a common Congressional retirement plan that invites conflicts of interest. (That’s definitely the most 2019 I’m going to type this week, by the way.) The practice they’re trying to curb is former lawmakers accepting paid lobbying positions upon leaving Congress, which is currently legal but invites good ol’ boy networks that aren’t really in constituent interest. It’s also a practice that is disturbingly common at the moment — nearly two-thirds of incumbents who left after the midterm election in 2018 went on to lobby for pay. I’m tentatively very excited about this even though it’s also very strange!
Full of Freedom Gas.* In this week’s We Straight Up Live in 1984 news, the Department of Energy issued a press release that referred to natural gas as “freedom gas” and “molecules of U.S. freedom.” For folks playing the home game, natural gas is still a fossil fuel, and as such, contributes significantly to climate change problems. Unless we’re talking about all being free to die here in fifty years, this is not exactly an apt pet name for it.

The Bad:

Frightening Foreign Affairs (Immigration Edition).* This week’s immigration news was a new low, and managed to end in a trade standoff. First there was the news coming out of CBP facilities on the border, which mostly involved aggressive overcrowding of families, including children, in tent cities for far longer than is legal to hold them. News also broke that the U.S. is now officially looking at the social media of visa applicants before deciding whether they can visit the country. Then, finally, we all sat and watched Trump’s hate-on for immigration impact world trade, because his new thing is blanket tariffs for Mexico on account of asylum seekers. (You get a tariff! And you get a tariff! He’s like the world’s worst Oprah.) This is gonna mess with our trade agreements on a grand scale, and also isn’t likely to result in fewer asylum seekers, which is probably why he capped off the week by trying to make it harder to claim asylum again. The most recent attempt is denying everybody waiting in Mexico because he made them wait in Mexico, and it’s just as likely to be found illegal as the last three attempts.
Heartbeat Bill Hell Continues. The heartbeat bill trend we’ve been tracking for a few weeks now had further developments this week, and this time the Supreme Court is involved (though thankfully, not in an ‘overturning Roe v. Wade’ kind of way — yet). The court partially punted on Indiana’s abortion law, ignoring the part about not being allowed to get abortions based on the fetus’s sex or disability. But they heard and upheld the part requiring clinics to cremate or bury fetal remains, and Thomas wrote a whole love letter to overturning Roe v. Wade in his concurrence. Meanwhile, Missouri finalized its heartbeat bill, and so did Louisiana. And Missouri was also the site of a bitter battle to keep the last remaining abortion clinic in the state from being forced to close its doors — and that fight isn’t over, so we need to keep an eye on it.
In Shocking Turn of Events, Census Question was Racist. The 2020 census citizenship question was in the news this week after it came out that a famous gerrymandering guru suggested it to the administration and even ghostwrote part of the DOJ request for it. And, because everybody in this administration says the quiet part out loud, he literally said it would benefit white people and Republicans while suggesting it. Needless to say, this news will impact the ongoing legal battle about whether the question was racist, and we should keep an eye on that.
Tragedy in Virginia.* There was another mass shooting this weekend, this time in a municipal office in Virginia Beach. The gunman was a former employee who resigned just before he began shooting, and he left twelve people dead — eleven of whom were former colleagues.

The Good:

Recent State Resilience. The silver alloy lining of the heartbeat bill news above is that several states have taken action to protect reproductive rights in response. In the last couple of weeks, Illinois, Nevada, and Vermont have all passed laws protecting reproductive healthcare, and it’s a relief to see states taking legislation in the opposite direction.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no refunds. For making it through, you deserve this story about history found in a kitchen drawer and this video of otters playing with Labrador retrievers. And also an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less terrible) news, and I hope you will be back as well — but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more hours of sleep!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 17 (May 12–18)

May 21, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

The news seems stuck on a spin cycle for another week, which means a lot of us are waiting for something — anything — to improve, and in the meantime there’s a lot of disappointment. I’m here if anyone needs to talk, and so is my ice cream. (Although the ice cream won’t talk back. It’s rude that way.)

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 tariff! — 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:

This week was a bit quieter on the Russia Investigation front, but there was still a fair amount of movement. Here’s what I have for you:

Ongoing Obvious Obstruction (Again).* The ongoing fight between the White House and Congress continued this week, with the Treasury rejecting a subpoena for Trump’s tax returns and the White House telling Don McGahn that he’s not allowed to testify before Congress. Meanwhile, a federal judge has told the administration to knock it off already, investigators are examining Trump’s odd relationship with Deutsche Bank, and even Republicans are starting to join the general muttering about impeachment proceedings. And given the beginning of this paragraph, I can’t say I blame them.
Panhandle Hacks.* Following a closed-doors meeting with the FBI, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that Russian Intelligence used a spearfishing scheme to gain access to voting records for two counties in Florida in the 2016 election — a scenario that Former Governor Rick Scott openly derided when it was suggested at the time by his opponent. Scott maintains his faith in the election system, even as his colleagues in the House demand better disclosure from government agencies.
Chelsea Manning Held in Contempt. Chelsea Manning was held in contempt of court this week for refusing to testify to a grand jury, and the penalties are unusually high — she’ll be held without bail until either she agrees to testify or the grand jury subpoena ends in a year and a half, and steep fines of $500 per day (and, eventually, $1,000 per day) will kick in after the thirty-day mark. It’s believed that the order is so extreme because they really want her to testify about Julian Assange. But given the contempt ruckus happening with Congress right now, selectively imposing incarceration and steep fines on the transgender veteran — and nobody else — is really seriously not a great look for federal prosecutors.

It’s becoming harder and harder to distinguish Disregard of Governing Norms from the Russia Investigation circus above, but we still do see a couple of power moves each week that stand on their own. Here’s what happened:

Online Extremism Exclusion.* This week, the White House refused to endorse an international call, led by New Zealand in the wake of the Christchurch massacre, to fight online extremism. The White House claimed it was a violation of free speech to follow the terms of the Call, which included such draconian suggestions as — hang on, let me check my notes here — “respect[ing] . . . human rights” and “consider[ing] appropriate action to prevent the use of online services to disseminate terrorism.” (The introduction also stressed the need to act “without compromising human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression.” Although to be fair, the odds are good that Trump didn’t know that, because he didn’t read it.) Despite 45’s embarrassing display, the call did get the support of eighteen governments and five American tech firms — including Twitter, so that will be fun to watch.
This Week’s Trump Trash.* I’m rapidly starting to feel like this is a weekly refrain, but Trump did a bunch of other messed up stuff this week as well. First there was the White House official solicitation for complaints about social media censorship, which just so happens to also ask about everything from your email address to your citizenship status to permission to use your screenshots, you know, Just in Case They Ever Need It. (This from the administration that refuses to try to stop online terrorism because something something free speech, yeesh.) Then Trump pardoned Conrad Black — a buddy of his who wrote a sycophantic biography of him last year — despite Black’s conviction for embezzling $60M from his own company. And presumably because he could, Trump went on to signal that he plans to pardon servicemen accused or convicted of war crimes like murdering civilians and desecrating corpses. He then capped off the week by complaining that nobody warned him about Michael Flynn, even though it’s a matter of public record that he was warned by Obama and his own Justice Department.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Star Ted vs. The Space Pirates. Folks, there are no witticisms I could come up with that are more surprisingly hilarious than this news summary itself, which is that Ted Cruz wants to protect us from Space Pirates. Though quick to reassure us that his xenophobia won’t be extraterrestrial anytime soon, the Internet Did What the Internet Does and held an impromptu roast of the $2 billion proposal. Cruz tried to play off the criticism, but seemed a bit put out that no one was taking him seriously. Sorry Ted, but just think about how smug you can act when the Zebesian Armada arrives on our doorstep and the ISS is crawling with metroids.
Dems by the Dozens. As Montana Governor Steve Bullock and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio enter the race, there are now twenty-three confirmed Democratic hopefuls and two more potentially waiting in the wings. About half of the candidates are polling below 2 percent and every one has a different idea of how to gain an edge, worrying some members of a party that struggles to present a unified front against the GOP. Few of these strategies go outside efforts to be publicly available, visible, and brand aware (and Bullock in particular suggested that reporters plug his website). But Elizabeth Warren has embraced the apparently unlikely tactic of speaking and listening directly to one of the most disenfranchised voting blocs in America: Black women. Expect more news soon, because there sure are enough sources of it.

The Bad:

Additional Extreme Heartbeat Bills. The trend of new heartbeat bills that I documented last week continued for another week, with Alabama’s bill signed into law on Wednesday by the state’s (female) Governor. Then Missouri passed its own bill later in the week (though that one at least doesn’t criminalize undergoing the procedure, only performing it, which makes the bill slightly less scary than other versions). This brings the total number of states with heartbeat bills up to seven, and that is way too high a number when we’re discussing laws that intentionally violate our Constitution — it shows that states don’t expect the Supreme Court to function properly as a check on their overreach. Improbably, several key conservative figures and even televangelist Pat Robertson appear to agree with me, saying that the Alabama bill and others like it go too far.
Frightening Foreign Affairs.* Unfortunately, we also saw a continuation of scary foreign policy. The Trump administration recalled all non-essential personnel from our embassy in Iraq, which doesn’t exactly comfort people about our situation with Iran. Meanwhile, Trump seems confused that John “Are We Bombing Iran Yet” Bolton seems to want a war with Iran, and the rest of the world seems confused about what the heck is happening in the White House. Sadly, the news on China tariffs isn’t much better, because China retaliated and the situation is threatening to destabilize all kinds of things on our end as well as things on theirs. Trump did lift some tariffs on other countries though, so there’s that.
Immigration Updates. There’s more immigration news this week, and as usual, it’s not great. The U.S. military is building six more tent cities at the border, though the tent cities will be managed by ICE. And Trump introduced his legislation proposing “merit-based immigration,” which is a pretty sanitized way of saying “we don’t like immigrants of color and we’re gonna make applicants take a civics exam about it.” (For those folks playing the home game, we do require a civics exam and English proficiency to become a citizen, but that’s after the applicant has lived in the United States for years. This proposed bill would require passing a civics exam just to get permission to travel here.) Thankfully, basically nobody appears to enjoy his warped view of immigration, so we’re not likely to see movement on this. And speaking of lack of movement, apparently the acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan and Resident Jewish Nazi Stephen Miller have been having “an immigration knife fight” in the White House as they duke it out for department dominance. Honestly, this has probably kept them preoccupied over the past few weeks, so I’m not complaining about that part. I am, however, complaining about this administration straight-up lying to a federal judge about the proposed wall, claiming that just because Congress refused to allocate funding for the wall, that didn’t really mean they refused to allocate funding. And it’s not like they put aside their differences to vote down his attempt to seize funding by emergency declaration, am I right? (You know what, this administration observes Opposite Day so often that I’m starting to feel like it’s not a holiday anymore.)

The Good:

San Francisco Software Safety. Making a stand on cybersecurity, San Francisco has banned the use of facial recognition software by police, drawing ire from police and tech organizations. This is a big deal, because cybersecurity is known to be less accurate when used against defendants of color, exacerbating existing problems with false conviction. So now other cities are considering similar bans, and a larger conversation concerning surveillance technology is picking up speed.
Marriage Equality in Taiwan. Two years ago, the Taiwanese Courts struck down a law mandating that marriage was between a man and a woman only, drawing ire from conservative groups. But even with a public referendum indicating that a majority of voters oppose the legalization of same-sex marriage, on May 24th the parliament passed a bill legally recognizing same-sex unions. It’s a landmark decision for the continent that may open the door to more civil rights victories, so it’s very exciting!

So that’s what I have for this week, and boy howdy was that a lot of garbage news. For making it through, you deserve this this If Harry Potter Had Google slideshow and this concern doggo and her butterfly and also an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less confusing) news, and I hope you will be back as well — but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more opportunities to nap!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 16 (May 5–11)

May 15, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Another week, another round of “did this really happen or am I having a fever dream?” I am sad to report, friends, that all of these things really happened. (But on the plus side, that does mean you can eat jalapeno pizza before bed in peace.)

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Y’all, it’s another messed up week of Russia Investigation news — basically, pretty much everyone doubled down at once. I’ll do my best to unpack the confusion; here’s what I have for you:

Obvious Obstruction Assists.* After the mess that was last week, the House Judiciary Committee was pretty displeased with current Attorney General William Barr, and voted to hold him in contempt of Congress along party lines. In apparent response, Barr told Trump to claim the Mueller report was privileged — which is some weaksauce nonsense, but I’ll get to that below — and Trump started talking about having Barr investigate Joe Biden. (I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that Biden is a frontrunning candidate for the Democrats’ Presidential nomination.) Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell was in the news for saying that “[the Mueller] case [was] closed” and people should stop investigating Trump — an idea so laughable, given Trump’s prevention of Mueller’s testimony in real time this week, that SNL made McConnell’s behavior their cold open. Nonetheless, Trump advisers claimed that his behavior wasn’t obstruction because “he just wants this to be over.” (Uh, yeah, wanting proceedings to stop is generally what motivates obstruction. You know, obstruction? The act of trying to impede proceedings?) Needless to say, fed-up Dems are starting to talk about bundling their contempt resolutions and fining uncooperative Cabinet members daily until they comply.
Trump-Related Travesties.* As mentioned above, Trump took a Mulligan this week and decided to block Mueller from testifying, or at least signal he’d make it difficult much like he did (and continues to do) for his former counsel Don McGahn. Mueller’s testimony ended up being postponed as a result. Trump also claimed that he has executive privilege over the unredacted Mueller report and therefore wouldn’t be sharing it with Congress. (Spoiler: He really, really doesn’t; though he might have more of a point with Don McGahn). And news came out that Trump asked Don McGahn to say Trump never obstructed justice — which McGahn quite sensibly declined to do, because he doesn’t work for Trump anymore, Trump keeps badmouthing him, and he was probably still annoyed about last week’s subpoena orders. And speaking of subpoenas, the Senate Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr., which has been an interesting development since it’s not a Dem-led committee. But since Trump is currently blocking over 20 separate Congressional probes, maybe some Republicans have had enough already.
Rap Sheets of the Rich and Famous.* This week, over 800 former prosecutors signed a letter explaining exactly how and why Trump would be criminally charged if he weren’t President. Against that backdrop, it’s not surprising that Trump is again calling to ‘investigate the investigators’ — he’s probably trying to plan for his own future. What’s perhaps more surprising is that Barr appears to be listening, and is starting up said investigation — we need to keep an eye on that.

It’s becoming harder and harder to distinguish Disregard of Governing Norms from the Russia Investigation circus above, but we did see a couple of power moves that stand on their own. Here’s what happened:

Pelosi’s Concerns.* Current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has expressed a lot of concerns about Trump lately, though as far as I know she’s still not calling for impeachment. As I mentioned last week, she warned Democrats that she worried Trump would refuse to leave office if his loss margin was too narrow in 2020. This week, she conceded that the country was in a constitutional crisis. (Just one?) Then she called Trump “almost self-impeaching” because he kept obstructing justice daily. Madame Speaker, self-impeaching isn’t a thing; you still gotta pass those articles.
Tax Return Trials Continue. Welp, another week, another round of arguing about Trump’s tax returns. This week Mnuchin refused to cough up documents (again), and he’s now being subpoenaed alongside the IRS Commissioner. The New York Times ran an article outlining all the money Trump lost between 1985 and 1994, which turned out to total over one billion dollars. Then just today, a federal judge heard arguments on whether Congress can subpoena tax records, and likely will issue a decision sometime after Saturday.
Hard Pass on ‘Hard’ Passes.* The White House revoked a large number of “hard” press passes this week, making it significantly harder for regular visitors to attend press conferences. The purge was so comprehensive, according to journalists who were affected, that almost the entire White House press corps was caught up in it. Now, those still being granted access have “exceptions” to rules that screen out virtually everyone, and that means their passes can be revoked at any time. Needless to say, this kind of reduced access is frightening and unprecedented.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Heartbeat Bill Chaos. Georgia, Alabama, and Ohio were all in the news for heartbeat bill issues this week, and the stories are as strange as they are horrifying. (You may recall that Ohio already has a stringent heartbeat law on the books from last month; this measure would intensify it.) Alabama’s legislature had to push back their vote when senators started shouting at each other, but the bill was voted into law this evening. Meanwhile, Ohio was in the news because a Congressman made up medical procedures to support his anti-abortion bill. And Georgia passed its own heartbeat bill, which won’t go into effect until 2020 but has some of the most stringent provisions in the nation. Folks, these bills are incredibly concerning regardless of your opinion on right to choose, because they are intentionally engineered to be illegal — the whole point is to create laws that violate Roe v Wade so that the issue goes before the Supreme Court and Roe v Wade gets overturned. With so much of our governmental structure under threat, we really do all need to care about intentionally illegal laws.

The Bad:

Colorado Shooting. There was yet another school shooting this past week, this time in Colorado. The shooting resulted in one death and eight injuries, and yet again the death involved a student who likely saved many others’ lives by taking assailants down. This emergent pattern of children forced to engage in threat containment is horrifying, and a measure of just how much prior generations are failing them. Our kids deserve better than this — we all do.
Frightening Foreign Affairs. This was a really rough week for our foreign policy and the resulting repercussions. North Korea tested short-range missiles repeatedly throughout the week, and we seized one of their ships because it carried coal in violation of U.N. sanctions. Meanwhile, our market started tanking right alongside China’s after Trump threatened tariffs again last week, and it didn’t help things when China threatened to retaliate. (Though Trump claimed “farmers would be very happy,” he ended up having to float the idea of a bailout to keep them from rebelling.) And on top of all of that, we issued sanctions against Iran as they threatened to step back from the existing nuclear deal — which, to be fair, Trump withdrew from a year ago. Both sides are saying that they don’t want a war, but this is a very tense time and we’ll need to watch developments carefully.
Immigration Updates. Immigration remained in the news this week, and just like every other week it remained bananapants. News broke that Trump had been pressuring his more moderate DHS staffers to arrest thousands of families in coordinated raids before he eventually fired them all. Meanwhile, conditions are so bad at the border that detainees are being flown to other sites, but despite the severe overcrowding Lindsey Graham wants to introduce a law to hold kids in detention indefinitely. And Ben Carson is moving forward with his plan to evict mixed status families from public housing, so now we officially can leave a public comment telling him how pointlessly mean this proposal is.

The Good:

Public Option Becomes a Reality. This week, Washington State became the first state to offer a public option for health insurance, which will be available to residents of all income levels. Health insurer participation will be optional, but this is nonetheless a groundbreaking development in the health sector. It’s a grand experiment the nation will be watching, and I’m tentatively very excited.
Recent New York Resilience. The New York State Senate passed legislation this week authorizing the state to share Trump’s state tax returns with Congress. The bill still needs to pass through the State Assembly, but would potentially be an alternate route to much of the same information Congress is currently stuck subpoenaing, so it’s a pretty big deal even at this early stage.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can all agree it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve Topiary Cats and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less confusing) news, and I hope you will be back as well — but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more days with sunshine!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 15 (April 28 — May 4)

May 7, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

We had yet another chaotic, weird week this week. The news lately is like watching Salvador Dali paint off-handed after four martinis; it’s a vague, overblown mess I’m already dreading mopping up. (Honestly, after reviewing all of this week’s content, I kind of want four martinis myself. But I’ll have to settle for comfort ice cream, because the roundup isn’t going to draft itself!)

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Y’all, I follow the news closely and even I can barely track the Russia Investigation and its related aftermath this week. I’ll do my best to unpack the confusion; here’s what I have for you:

Barr (and Trump) Battle Mueller.* This story has many messy aspects, so bear with me here — I’m going to try to separate them out by topic and timing. At the top of last week, news began circulating that Mueller had written Barr an angry letter about Barr’s four-page summary of the report. And once that letter came to light, unsurprisingly Congress wanted Mueller to testify as well. Mueller was willing, and at first it looked like Trump would let Barr be the one to make the call. But then once Barr made it clear he’d facilitate, Trump did a take-backsie and decided to block Mueller from testifying, or at least signal he’d make it difficult much like he did for his former counsel Don McGahn. So we’ll have to see where we end up on that.
Barr Battles Congress.* Also last week, and around the same time the Mueller letter leaked, Barr testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee for several hours regarding the Mueller report. This would have been noteworthy enough, but sometime in the middle of the testimony Senator Kamala Harris got him to admit he didn’t actually analyze any evidence to reach his conclusions, and Democrats started calling for Barr to resign. Barr retaliated by refusing to attend the House hearing the next day, which he’d been threatening to do for some time. So now, Speaker of the House Nancy is saying Barr has perjured himself, people are starting to talk about impeaching Barr, and there’s a contempt of Congress vote on Wednesday.
Erik Prince Purgatory.* The House Intelligence Committee formally referred Erik Prince for criminal investigation this week, which may or may not result in consequences for him — after all, they have to refer him to William “I Refuse to Show Up” Barr for further action. We’ll need to keep an eye on this, because it has a number of different potential implications, and many of them are very important.
Looking to 2020.* With all this chaos floating around at the same time folks gear up for the 2020 election, it’s inevitable that we’d eventually start talking about how to keep Russia from interfering in that one too — and equally unsurprising that Trump wants no parts of it. What is surprising is that outgoing Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen was literally told not to talk to Trump about it before she left office, because it wasn’t a welcome topic. (Apparently that’s true even if you’re Putin, because Trump refused to talk to him about it this week either.) Presidential hopeful Julian Castro publicly speculated that Trump wants Russia’s help, but Nancy Pelosi did him one better and said she worried Trump would refuse to leave office if his loss margin was too narrow. And lest anybody think she’s being paranoid, he did tweet this week that he thinks he should get two extra years because “2 years of my term were stollen [sic].” Which is a terrifying tweet on many, many levels, so let’s hope he doesn’t latch onto that one too hard.

Original Flavor Trump Slime.* With his back against a wall, Trump fell back on a lot of his own greatest hits this week. He continued to make news for suing more of his banks to try to keep them from releasing information about his taxes, for one. And he also started calling for investigations into the people who investigated him, because nothing says “probably guilty” like “career prosecutor with a squeaky-clean record that spans decades.”
Emoluments Encore. In good ole fashioned emoluments news,apparently Trump World Tower condos were rented by seven foreign governments in 2017 without approval from Congress. Incredibly, the Trump Organization’s defense was that this was somehow misleading because the Trump World Tower wasn’t really owned by the Trump Organization.
Chatting with Putin about the Russia ‘Hoax’.* Trump may have refused to bring up election meddling with Putin, but that didn’t stop him from talking with the Russian leader for an hour about the Mueller investigation ‘hoax.’ He apparently also discussed the current situation in Venezuela, as well as China and North Korea.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Sanction Sparring. North Korea launched new projectile missiles this week, testing both their arsenal and presumably Trump’s ability to keep claiming he and Kim are BFFs after he refused to remove sanctions in February. Meanwhile, Trump has announced he’s imposing new tariffs on China, leading Chinese social media to compare him to Thanos because he’s wiping out half their stock market. So not a great week for our shaky relationships in Asia.
Baby Beluga Charm Offensive. Okay, fine, there’s no evidence that the friendly whale with a harness stamped ‘Property [of] St Petersburg’ was a juvenile, but ‘the world’s friendliest escaped Russian spy’ was in the news for being adorable nonetheless. Apparently the budding spy has taken it upon itself to defect to Norway, and is now refusing to leave. And bugs the locals for pets on the snout. (As military discharge plans go, I gotta say that one is pretty good.)
Facebook Eats Crow. Facebook made a big show of banning extremists like Alex Jones and Milo Yiannopoulos this week, presumably to distract from last week’s hefty fine fiasco. It’s a big step in the right direction, though “related” content is still allowed because, y’know, we apparently can’t treat white supremacists like they’re actually dangerous.

The Bad:

UNC Shooting. There was yet another school shooting this past week, this time at UNC Charlotte. The shooting resulted in two deaths and four injuries, including the death of a student who likely saved many others’ lives by taking the gunman down. It’s unclear what motivated this shooter, as he left no manifesto and hasn’t issued a statement.
ACA Awfulness (Again). The Trump administration filed a formal request to invalidate the Affordable Care Act this week, despite basically no backing from Congress, because a recent court case created a new opportunity for them to seize. I’ll be honest, it’s hard to get worked up about this Groundhog Day bonanza by the fifty-seventh viewing, but we should still probably track this. If the attempt succeeded, ACA repeal would be devastating for millions.
Your Painfully Regular Bad Immigration Updates. This was another bad week for immigration, which is a phrase I seem to type every week nowadays. At the start of the week, Trump imposed more restrictions on asylum applicants, ordering DHS to impose application fees and bar work authorization. (This is, shall we say, not in the spirit of humanitarian aid, and will almost certainly be challenged in the courts.) Meanwhile, former DHS Secretary John Kelly was in the news for joining the board of the company that runs the largest shelter for migrant kids in the country. And the Trump administration is considering deporting people for lawfully accessing public benefits, because I guess the words ‘public charge’ weren’t sufficiently scaring immigrants anymore.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. In more positive news, a panel of judges in Ohio decided that the state’s congressional map was unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering — their words, not mine! — and therefore impermissible. This is a big deal, both in and of itself and because it’s unusual for courts to consider cases like this when there’s an open Supreme Court case. And California is suing the Trump administration over its ‘conscientious objection’ healthcare rule, which allows healthcare providers to refuse to treat certain patients. So courts are remaining an important way for people to get their rights enforced.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can all agree it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve capybaras making friends with other critters and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less confusing) news, and I hope you will be back as well — but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me the ability to take more naps!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 14 (April 21–27)

April 30, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This week, hoooo boy — I can’t tell if the entire Trump administration did a bunch of mushrooms or somebody snuck some in my cereal and I’m the one that’s high. I’ll do my best to break it down, but this week was pretty much one long, bad trip through Wonderland. And we didn’t even get to meet a dormouse.

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 booster shot! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corner

Somehow, the Russia Investigation and its related aftermath just remain the gift that keeps on giving. Here’s what I have for you this week:

Remember the Russia Bit of ‘Russia Investigation?’* (Apparently nobody in this administration does, if this past week was any indication.) Russian operative Maria Butina was given an eighteen-month sentence this week, but she was credited with significant time already due to being held pretrial, so she’ll be sent back to Russia in only about nine months. Meanwhile, this administration refuses to rule out using hacked info in their reelection campaign, and no serious changes to election practices have been suggested despite news in the Mueller report that Russian operatives successfully targeted and hacked at least one Florida county government in 2016. And Trump called the Russia investigation, not Russian espionage, “an attempted overthrow of the U.S. government” even though Mueller literally found evidence that Russia hacked us to override our election process. The move had former CIA Director, John Brennan, dismissing his statements as “sociopathic ramblings,” and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein just straight-up quit instead. That last bit won’t mean anything good, so I’ll keep folks posted on developments from here.
Further Weird Mueller Aftermath.* Trump’s behavior continued to be all over the place this week, but it took some wild turns on matters Mueller-related in particular. First he tweeted fifty times in a 24-hour period about the investigation, which apparently even Twitter thought was excessive because they removed 5,000 of his best fake followers afterwards. Joke’s on Jack Dorsey, though, because then he was forced to sit through a meeting with Trump where 45 outlined all his complaints, which is definitely how a leader of the free world should spend his time. Then Trump got into some protracted fights with Congress, which I’m outlining separately below, and followed that up by taking to the Twitters again to announce that he’ll sue Congress if they manage to impeach him. That’s… not how it works, in case anyone was curious.

There was only one major story regarding Disregard of Governing Norms, but it’s a new level of egregious. Here’s what happened:

Oversight? More like Over That, Amirite* The White House went obstruction-happy this week in an unprecedented way, ordering first former White House personnel security director Carl Kline not to testify before Congress and then extending that order out to include basically everybody who has ever worked for this administration. Then Congress started threatening to hold everybody in contempt if they refused to comply, which made the White House change its tune. But then after all that, Attorney General Barr started refusing to testify before Congress because they plan to have actual lawyers question him about his treatment of the Mueller report. So now Congress is threatening to subpoena him. After all that, it’s no wonder that Rosenstein threw up his hands and quit, yeesh.

Your “Normal” Weird:

International Ickiness. In gross international news, Benjamin Netanyahu, who against all odds is somehow still Prime Minister of Israel, announced that he wanted to name a settlement in Golan Heights after Donald Trump. And news also broke that North Korea billed the United States $2M for the care of comatose prisoner Otto Warmbier. Trump’s insisting he didn’t pay them, but Trump never pays anybody if he can avoid it so that’s not saying much.
20 Candidates and Counting. Joe Biden announced his presidential candidacy this week, bringing us to an even 20 candidates for the Democratic nomination. Five of those candidates had a televised town hall this past week, and the biggest takeaway was definitely several candidates’ opinions about enfranchisement of incarcerated constituents. (It turns out that Sanders is for enfranchisement, Buttigieg is against it, and Harris isn’t sure. I’m judging you, Pete Buttigieg.)
SCOTUS Scuttlebutt. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the proposed census citizenship question this week, and the conservative majority asked a lot of questions that suggest they will let the citizenship question stand. (That’s not great news for Team Civil Rights, because it’s likely to have all kinds of ill effects for noncitizen denizens.) Against that backdrop, it’s pretty nerve-wracking that they also agreed to hear a case about whether gay and trans people have workplace protections, but we’ll have to see how that one goes.

The Bad:

Awful California Violence.* A gunman entered a synagogue in San Diego during Passover Shabbat services on Saturday and started shooting, killing one person and injuring three more. It’s the second instance of gun violence in a synagogue in about six months, and just like last time, Trump took the uncharacteristic step of actually condemning the shooting. His statements make an odd counterpoint in the same week he announced he stands by his Charlottesville remarks — and for that matter, the same week that Netanyahu announced Golan Heights will be named after him — but highlight 45’s complex relationship with American Jewish people.
Social Media Screwups.* Facebook and Twitter appear to be competing for people’s ill will this week, which has been kind of morbidly fascinating. Facebook is expecting a record-setting $5B fine this week for its many, many privacy violations, though the axe hasn’t yet dropped at the time that I type this. Meanwhile, Twitter is gaining attention for refusing to use the same algorithm to remove white supremacists that it used to weed out ISIS supporters. According to the Motherboard article that first flagged the issue, the source of reluctance was the belief that the algorithm would pick up Republicans. (Well, you know, if it quacks like a Nazi…)
Iffy Medical News. Measles outbreaks are in the news again, with officials saying that we’ve reached a 25-year record high in documented cases. Hundreds of students and staff have been quarantined at UCLA, and officials are saying that people born before 1989 should get a booster shot. Apparently Trump agrees, and I enjoy thinking about what that will do to his voting base.
Your Painfully Regular Bad Immigration Updates. The week in “how am I not making this up” news, the administration apparently considered putting migrant kids in Guantanamo Bay before dismissing the idea as bad optics (gee, you think?). Then Trump issued a memorandum threatening to mess with the visa process of 20 different countries — ostensibly because these countries have people who overstay their visas and fall out of status, but for the most part these countries aren’t the biggest sources of undocumented immigrants; they’re just — big shocker — a bunch of countries with populations of color. (The biggest source of immigrants who overstay visas, by the way, is actually Canada, who sends over about 88,000 people who fall out of status per year.) And a Massachusetts judge and clerk have been federally charged with obstruction of justice for helping a criminal defendant avoid ICE — which is a very big deal, because to my knowledge it’s the first time a public official has been charged this way. We’ll need to keep an eye on this, even though Massachusetts is rallying around the officials.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. In positive court news, the Kansas Supreme Judicial Court found that the Kansas constitution protects women’s right to choose. This is excellent news, because it guarantees that the state will retain the right even if SCOTUS rules otherwise — a state supreme judicial court is the highest authority on that state’s constitution. And on the federal side, an abortion gag rule put in place by the Trump administration was enjoined by a federal judge this week, which means it will be blocked until the case is resolved. So it was a bad week for measles, but a good week for reproductive rights.

So that’s what I have for this week, and some of last as well. For making it through, you deserve this squid checkup poetry and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less confusing) news, and I hope you will be back as well — but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more hours in the day!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

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What We Can Do:

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**The Very Bad**: