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National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 26 (July 15–21)

July 24, 2018 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This week I have ten stories in Constitutional Crisis Corner, two stories in the Weird, and one story each in The Bad and The Good. This is where we live now, folks; it’s just All Constitutional Crisis All the Time. I tried changing the country’s channel, but it didn’t do anything, so much like my current back issues I guess we’re stuck with it for now.

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 Putin visit — 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:

There’s been so much wild news about Trump and Putin this week that I’m a creating a new section for it just to keep track of it all. Folks, I won’t candy-coat this; it’s looking like there are some serious issues of compromise at play. Here are the main things to know:

Helsinki Aftermath Summary.* After the world’s weirdest joint press conference in Helsinki (which my calendar assures me was only six days ago, though I would swear it’s been a year), the rest of the week didn’t really improve much. First Trump attempted to walk back some of his more pro-Russia statements, saying that he meant to say he “[didn’t] see any reason why it wouldn’t be” Russia that hacked our election, as opposed to that he didn’t see any reason why it would be (which is what he actually said, and no, we weren’t at war with Eurasia last week). But in the same press conference where he tried to smooth things over, he continued to insult the intelligence community and insisted that he had done nothing wrong — and news broke immediately after that he has been briefed about Russia’s interference in our election since before he was even President, making the whole thing even more insulting and alarming. The very next day he started trying to set up another meeting with Putin for the fall, and later that week he made it clear that he might hand over U.S. officials for Russian interrogation (but more on that below). And he capped the week off by arguing that we need to end the Mueller investigation and calling the collusion allegations a hoax again, which definitely seems legit after a whole week of blatantly colluding with Russia. All in all, it was a confusing week that was, frankly, very difficult to watch.
‘Interrogation’ Exchange.* In their two-hour meeting, Putin apparently floated the idea of letting Russia interrogate Bill Browder, Michael McFaul, and several other American people on Russia’s bad side in exchange for extraditing the twelve Russians charged with tampering with our elections. Rather than telling the scary dude who is noted for making people turn up dead where to stick it, Trump called the proposition “an interesting idea” and “an incredible offer.” Americans were understandably horrified by the suggestion that Trump might turn citizens over to die, and even Congress found the idea so outrageous that the Senate managed to unite itself to unanimously vote against it. But despite public outrage, it still took nearly twenty-four hours before the administration finally rejected the idea out of hand. So, uh, that was a terrifying twenty-four hours.
Dan Coates is Done Folks. This has not been a great week to be Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates. First he was forced to issue a press release about the investigation into Russian interference in the election after Trump publicly supported Putin over Coates’s agency — a fact made even more insulting given the recent warning that Russia is likely to interfere in the midterms. Then he learned that Trump wanted Putin to visit the White House in the middle of a live interview, prompting him to speak for all of us by noting, “That’s going to be special.” His response is amusing, but it also highlights how strange it is that the Director of National Intelligence didn’t know about a sitting President’s request to host a hostile dignitary — we’re heading pretty far outside our governing norms, folks, and it’s not looking like we’re going to detour back to familiar ground anytime soon.
Congress Responds. In the wake of all the off-the-wall horrifying news above, Congress has started to respond. In addition to the unanimous Senate vote on Russian interrogation, Democrats are calling for Trump’s interpreter to testify. And while Mitch McConnell doesn’t want to go that far, even he wants a hearing on further Russia sanctions. So on the plus side, Congress appears at least somewhat poised to act, which is a refreshing change of pace.

There was also still some Casual Disregard of Governing Norms this week, many of which appear related to Trump and Russia but are worth examining on their own. Here’s what happened:

We’re Nae Yer Foe.* Just before he went to Helsinki to play nice with Putin, Trump was asked during an interview in Scotland to name the United States’s current biggest global foes. His response? Ignoring North Korea, Iran, and China, he went ahead and named the European Union as his very first answer. Folks, it’s a whole week later and I still can’t get over how bananas this is; he literally told a reporter, while sitting on European Union soil, that the biggest threat he could think of was the allied country he was currently golfing in. (He did go on to name Russia, but immediately softened his statement by calling Russia “a foe in certain respects . . . but that doesn’t mean they’re bad.”) You know, you’d think he’d have more respect for the people who invented golf.
IRS Walks Back Accountability.* The Treasury announced this week that the IRS will no longer compel tax-exempt 501(c)(4) lobbying groups such as Americans for Prosperity and the National Rifle Association to disclose their donors. Though proponents of the policy say that this will protect privacy rights of donors, it will also make it easier for foreign powers to donate anonymously. But I’m sure it’s fine; it’s not like a Russian operative was indicted this week for trying to infiltrate the NRA, right? (Spoiler: As you’ve probably already guessed, that did indeed absolutely happen right before this policy rolled out.)
Cohen Recordings. Among the wilder not-Russia-related news this week was the reveal of a secret recording Michael Cohen made of his own phone call with then-client Donald Trump, which was apparently only one of twelve such recordings. The recording centers on a discussion about AMI, the parent company of the National Inquirer, buying and burying the rights to Trump’s affair with Karen McDougal — which both shows Trump knew this was happening and also potentially lands the National Inquirer in hot water. That said, it also potentially lands Cohen in hot water, both because Trump is likely to retaliate and because recording your conversations with your own client isn’t exactly ethical attorney behavior.

The Russia Investigation is still overclocked and going strong, too — no quieter than it was last week, which is really saying something:

Maria Butina Bruhaha.* A Russian operative was indicted this week for conspiracy and acting as a foreign agent on the immediate coattails of the GRU operatives. She appears to be part of a larger Russian effort to infiltrate U.S. organizations — she had the backing of a Kremlin-linked Russian billionaire and apparently met with the U.S. treasury in addition to using sex to infiltrate the NRA. Unlike the GRU operatives, Butina was still in the United States when charged, and is awaiting trial in custody. (And speaking of the GRU operatives, a Russian firm being charged in that matter cited Judge Kavanaugh in their argument that the charges should be dismissed.)
Manafort Evidence List. Mueller released all the Manafort evidence in advance of his trial, which likely starts next week, and in total it was a staggering 500 pieces of evidence — I don’t even want to think about how long document review must have taken for this case. Because there are tax fraud charges, some of the evidence relates to things Manafort bought and shouldn’t have been able to afford — so the evidence includes photos of a putting green and Yankees tickets, among other things. And, disturbingly and inexplicably, Bernie Sanders’s campaign strategist comes up sixteen times. This will be an interesting trial, to say the least.
Carter Page Documents.* The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court documents used to obtain a warrant to wiretap Carter Page, a former Trump associate charged with coordinating with the Kremlin, were released this week — and if anything, they make the GOP brouhaha about the warrant from February look even more sketchy and ridiculous, because it blatantly contradicts most of the February memo’s claims. Carter Page, of course, is still denying being an agent of the Kremlin, and Trump is inexplicably claiming the release discredits the Mueller investigation (by showing further evidence that he has close ties to Russia, I guess?). On the one hand, I kind of can’t believe we’re still arguing about this, but on the other hand Trump just invited Putin to the White House — so actually, yeah, I definitely can.

Your “Normal” Weird:

NATO Nastiness.* As his ‘foe’ comment forecasts, Trump did more messing with NATO this week, questioning the mutual defense doctrine in Article 5 of the treaty (which says we have to come to the aid of countries that are attacked, because an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all of them). I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that Putin criticized NATO on the same day, and over an issue he says he discussed with Trump at that.
Obamas in Johannesburg. While Trump was criticizing NATO, America’s favorite ex was speaking in Johannesburg about how busted Trump’s methods are — he used polite phrases like “politics of fear and resentment” and “barely hidden racial nationalism” but I think we all knew who he was subspeeching about. In case anyone was curious, Obama is still excellent at giving speeches, and that juxtaposition is made even more striking when you realize that Trump has never even been to sub-Saharan Africa since assuming office. His full Trump-related remarks are available online, so you can watch him go and mourn our current lack of adult supervision in the Oval Office — but I recommend first grabbing a pint of Ben & Jerry’s so that you can numb your misery with brain freeze.

The Bad:

Iranian Aggression.* Not content to be fighting with China, North Korea, and half of Europe, Trump also picked a fight with Iran this week in apparent response to Iran trash-talking us on Sunday — but since even that appears to be in response to us withdrawing from the Iran Deal, I’m not sure we get to say they started it. At any rate, Trump took to Twitter to claim that the country would face “CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED” if Irani President Hassan Rouhani continued to threaten the United States. It’s unclear what he meant by that, and frankly, I’m not sure I want to find out, but I’ll keep an eye on this all the same.

The Good:

Medicaid Restored in Kentucky. I actually do have one small oasis of good news for you this week! Only a few weeks after Kentucky governor Matt Bevin canceled vision and dental coverage for thousands of Medicaid recipients in a fit of pique, he abruptly changed course and reinstated the benefits for all 500,000 recipients. I have no idea what made him change his mind, but I’m not about to look a gift horse in the newly-insured mouth.

And that’s the news this week, and good job and my condolences for making it through the whole thing; your reward is Kate the Chemist teaching Steven Colbert how to Do Science and hopefully an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week, and I hope you will be too. In the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me a better-functioning lower back!

National News Roundup: Truncated Holiday Special! (Part 1)

December 26, 2017 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

I promised myself I would still do the news over the break, because I want y’all to stay informed. But it’s the holidays, and we all want to take a little time to dream about a world that’s less of a trash fire than this one — and besides, loved ones have convinced me that Perhaps It is Good Activism to Take Some Time Off. So we’re doing a Holiday Special this week as a compromise: Brief bullets with the best, the worst, and the weirdest. I promise it’ll be better than Star Wars!*

Standard standing reminders still apply, though: 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 an ambassador! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the Special!

The Weirdest:

Voting by Fish Bowl.* A Virginia election initially went to a Democrat by literally one vote early last week, which would have given them a seat in the lower chamber of their House and eleven additional votes. But then the Republican incumbent convinced three judges that a random uncounted vote should go to him, we were back to a tie. Then they were planning to decide who wins by drawing names out of a hat, but the Democratic candidate announced that she is filing a motion to reconsider the uncounted ballot decision. I would be too, frankly, and I hope she’s successful.
I Guess We’re Fighting with the United Nations Again?* The United Nations collectively and overwhelmingly told Trump where to stuff his Jerusalem resolution this past week, voting 128–9 on a nonbinding resolution of their own to overrule it. Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, handled this by telling the United Nations — a group we founded in 1942 — that she and Trump would be “taking names.” (Oh, and she said it on Twitter, because that’s the platform of choice for issuing international threats nowadays.) But 128 nations is a lot of names, so I’m not convinced the administration plans to follow up on that.
Congress Punts on (Almost) Everything. After the tax bill happened (and there’s more on that below) Congress basically agreed to punt everything else until next year, putting a stopgap in place that funds the government until mid-January. That said, though, the stopgap bill also provides emergency funding for CHIP and community health centers until March, and they did “lay groundwork” for a DREAM Act bill sometime in the new year. So a few things got done, though not very much, before Congress began a ten-day break.

The Worst:

Tax Reform Remix.* After some intrepid Democrat staffer found several Byrd Rule violations in the House bill after the House voted on it on Tuesday, it became clear that last-minute changes would need to be made to the bill. The Senate passed the cleaned-up version on Tuesday night, and the House vote went through a second time on Wednesday. Trump signed the bill on Friday, so this is now a done deal, and my header isn’t lying; it’s the actual worst. We’ll get it repealed in the new year.
Mueller Mutterings.* Conservative criticism of special counsel Robert Mueller is reaching something of a fever pitch, prompting the top Democrat in the Senate Intelligence Committee to make a Senate speech warning against firing him. (I’m still holding out hope that Trump wouldn’t be foolish enough to try that, because it won’t be great for him either if he does, but that doesn’t always stop this administration.) On the plus side, the House Judiciary Committee Democrats voted in experienced NY Rep Jerry Nadler to replace the resigning John Conyer; Nadler has served on the committee for twenty-five years, and is an extremely solid choice for handling anything that comes up.

The Best:

A Very Mnuchin Christmas (and Other Petty Slights). Here at Schadenfreude Central, you can enjoy the fact that a guy sent Steve Mnuchin a gift-wrapped box of horse manure for Christmas this year, along with a note observing that he was returning the favor for the tax reform bill. Meanwhile, the UK government is trying to talk Prince Harry out of inviting the Obamas to his wedding, for the simple reason that he’s most emphatically not inviting the Trumps and they don’t want to deal with an orange-hued Twitter tirade. But since Prince Harry bonded with the Obamas at the Invictis Games this past year and appears to be actually friends with them — and his wedding is not an official state event — I hope he gets his way on this. The Trumps, by the way, are definitely not getting an invite, and nobody is acting like that option is even on the table.
Some Actual Good News. The six J20 protesters charged with felonies for protesting on Inauguration Day were found not guilty this week, ending a four-week trial and a nearly year-long process. Incredibly, the prosecutor conceded in its trial arguments that there was no evidence that these six people committed any of the violent actions charged — two were street medics, and one was a photojournalist covering the protests — but argued that they participated in a protest where other people did, so they should be held accountable. (Quick editorial note from your resident attorney author: While it’s true in many jurisdictions that people who conspire to commit a felony can be charged for anything that happens during the commission of that felony — including murder if it goes horrible awry — it’s pretty disturbing both philosophically and legally to argue that a plan to protest is a conspiracy to commit a felony.) With all sincerity, these verdicts are an important bastion against the criminalization of ordinary protest, for the simple reason that there was no evidence any of defendants had done literally any rioting. If any of these convictions had stuck, they could be used to convict people simply pinned in the wrong spot when a protest goes south — an experience that happens to many, many peaceable protesters if someone in the crowd starts a riot.

And that’s the Holiday Special, folks! We’ll do A Very News New Year next week, probably on the ordinary release date, and then we’ll be back to our regular routine by 1/9. Until then, keep on keepin’ on!

*The Christmas Special, that is. No promises about Last Jedi; I still haven’t even seen it.

National News Roundup: Week 15 (April 30-May 6)

May 9, 2017 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Last week was like the sun finally emerging from behind clouds — blissfully good news gently warmed us and heralded spring. Then this week happened, and we were back to the frozen fascism tundra. I guess you win some, you lose some.

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. I may touch on news I think folks should know that is outside my area as a legal generalist, but if we undertake any offroad adventures I’ll do my best to signal that for you upfront by giving that headline an asterisk. Onward to the news!

The Weird:

‘Religious’ Discrimination Fake Out. The Trump Administration did a real number on a lot of people this past week regarding LGBTQ rights — and though the ultimate result was a tale told by an idiot, there was a lot of sound and fury in the lead-up. Early in the week, the administration signaled that they planned to sign a notorious ‘Religious Liberty’ Executive Order on Thursday. This particular executive order was first leaked in February, and in its original form it allowed some pretty nasty discrimination in the name of ‘religious freedom,’ so people understandably were very concerned by this. But then he about-faced, and the version Trump ultimately signed on Thursday looked very little like that leaked draft — in fact, it changed so little existing law that the ACLU doesn’t plan to sue over it — but it comes at the same time that Section 1557 of the ACA, which prevented medical discrimination based on gender identity, is being quietly rolled back. Overall, the executive order still reflects a general tenor of hostility and discrimination; it also highlights a tactic commonly used by this administration to terrorize marginalized populations, which is to threaten really frightening changes by executive order just to keep people off-balance and uncertain.
History with Grunkle Donny. Though this week was a bit light on boneheaded-on-first-glance, fascist-on-second-glance gems from the leader of the free world, Trump did have one real winner this week: He claimed Andrew Jackson “was unhappy about what was happening” during the Civil War. For those of you playing the home game, Jackson died in 1845, which was sixteen years before the Civil War began. Also, Jackson was a documented slave-owner and trader from the Carolinas, so if he had been around to have an opinion on the Civil War, it’s unlikely he would have agreed with the Union. I guess you don’t actually have to want to back America in conflicts to lead it these days.
James Comey Makes Us Mildly Nauseous. James Comey testified this past week before the Intelligence Committee, famously noting that it ‘made him feel mildly nauseous’ to consider that he may have impacted the 2016 election. And, to be fair, that’s how we feel when we hear him talk about it. The whole thing was about as fruitful as you might expect; Sally Yates gave much more interesting testimony today on the topic, and it will be interesting to see where we go from here.

The Bad:

AHCA Attack. The biggest story of the week is that despite all good sense to the contrary, the American Health Care Act managed to squeak through the House with a mere four vote margin on Thursday. The bill changes a lot of things about the Affordable Care Act, and the change we’re all yelling about most is that it revives ‘pre-existing conditions.’ It’s a rough bill that will drive up health costs and put them disproportionately on aging, disabled, and indigent populations, so it’s not surprising that both the medical community and the Senate appear to barely want to touch it with a ten-foot pole. Also, the Senate has already indicated that it won’t do anything until the CBO has reviewed the bill and estimated costs, so who only knows what will happen when they pick it back up in a couple of weeks.
Laughing Will Get You A Year. Activist Desiree Fairooz was criminally convicted this week for laughing during Jeff Sessions’s confirmation hearing; the official charges brought were disorderly conduct and “parading or demonstrating on Capitol grounds.” Also, in case you were curious, the thing that made her laugh was the claim that Jeff Sessions’s record of “treating all Americans equally under the law is clear and well-documented,” so her response is still politer than the one I would have been tempted to give. Fairooz may face up to a year in jail, but the exact sentence will be determined at a hearing in June. The whole thing is so overtly Orwellian that there is a Snopes article about it, and it signals a pretty blatant erosion of first amendment rights of expression.
Black Lives Do Matter. This was an incredibly rough week for police fatalities in the black community, between the decision not to charge the officer who shot Alton Sterling and the news of the fatal shooting of Jordan Edwards. News of the latter hits particularly hard because Edwards was a fifteen-year-old boy who was simply leaving a party by car with his brothers when shot. Unlike the Sterling case, however, the officer who shot Edwards has been charged with murder, which is presumably cold comfort for his family.
Flint Wins This Week’s Cartoon Villain Award. Apparently Flint, Michigan’s habit of poisoning the drinkable water supply isn’t going to stop the city for billing for its residents for it, which is a sentence I can’t believe I’m even typing. The latest news out of the area is that Flint government put 8,000 people on notice for tax liens for unpaid water bills. If the residents don’t pay a collective $5.8 million in unpaid bills — which, again, they didn’t pay for because the water was so full of lead it was poisonous — the city will begin the process of foreclosing on their homes. There’s so much wrong with that I’m gonna run out of colorful expletives if I start to unpack it, so we’ll move on, but suffice to say that nothing about this is good governing.
Autocratic State of the Nation. Amy Siskind’s weekly authoritarianism watch is a miserable, scary slog this week, which is exactly why you should read it — she covers a lot of things very thoroughly that we all need to know.

The Good:

Election Rejection Conjecture. The Cook Political Report estimates that as many as 20 House districts have changed likely voting patterns in 2018 as a result of voter displeasure with the AHCA vote. Several other analysts have similar predictions, citing the number of the representatives who voted in favor of the AHCA in districts carried by Hillary Clinton, as well as ordinary voting patterns in midterm elections. Some strategists are going even further, believing that such an unpopular healthcare bill may shape elections generally for the next few years. Which is as it should be, because that bill was fetid garbage with no budget report attached, no commentary period, and some House members are saying they didn’t even read it. People who voted for the thing seriously do not deserve to keep their seats.
Bipartisan Budget. Congress negotiated a budgetary plan on Sunday, which successfully passed in both the House and the Senate during the week. The plan looks… well, normal for a Congressional budget plan, which is news all by itself with this administration. There’s no funding for the wall, domestic spending increased, Planned Parenthood funding remains, the EPA’s funding goes down only 1%, and military spending fell far short of Trump’s proposal. Technically Trump could refuse to sign, but it’s not expected at this juncture.

And one last bit of news that defies categorization: Tomorrow marks the (probable) launch of a new project I think is really exciting! It’s designed to help people stay informed, energized, and engaged in civic action, and is being spearheaded by Pat Rothfuss. I’m helping Storm DiCostanzo write the news piece of the puzzle, and there will be a section with suggested actions as well. I think we’re going to put together something great! You can sign up for the newsletter if so inclined at the link.

(Also, this project will have a different focus than the roundup — it’s intended to translate energy into action, and will have more of an overt activism focus than the roundup — so fear not; I am still doing the roundup as well!)

National News Roundup: Week 14 (April 23–29)

May 2, 2017 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

My friends, we have seen a very elusive creature this past week — the fabled good news cycle. In particular, we saw some significant strides on both the investigation into collusion and protecting vulnerable immigrant populations. Although we also saw a lot of deeply weird stuff. I guess that’s what happens when you drink unicorn frappuccinos for good luck.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I generally only summarize news in my area of expertise. This week does contain a few headlines outside my expertise, but all my off-road adventures will be marked with asterisks. Onto the news!

The Weird:

Visit Historic National Treasure Mar-A-Lago. The state Department took it upon itself to promote Mar-a-Lago this week in a blog post. While the implication that Mar-a-Lago is an embassy to a foreign state is amusing, yet another official government endorsement of a Trump product really, really isn’t, and the State Department was forced to take it down. At least one ethics complaint has also been filed.
Ivanka’s Adventures in Germany. Ivanka took a trip to Berlin this week, and it did not go well for her. While Germans booing her opinion of her father isn’t exactly surprising — they’ve been letting us know their opinion of the Trumps for months now — I do want to know why she was visiting in the first place. What is her title again (besides Walking Conflict of Interests #2)? And what was she doing there? Was this some kind of weird Send the Blonde Jew to Germany ambassador program?
The Flynn Story Somehow Got Sketchier.* I know, I know, I didn’t think that was possible either. But it did! He apparently was informed that he was not permitted to receive foreign moneys years ago, which he obviously decided was optional, and the Oversight Committee is now saying he may have broken the law. A Pentagon investigation has been launched on the topic, and Sessions has said he is going nowhere near it (which I think we can all agree is for the best).
Dog and Warhawk Show.* Trump called the entire Senate to the White House to discuss North Korea this week, but rumors of a war briefing were greatly exaggerated. Also, apparently Trump himself was only present for about 14 minutes, which gives you some idea of how important he finds the whole thing. Despite this, a North Korean missile test later in the week ended in failure. All in all, there’s been a lot of sound and fury but not a lot of movement on this front, which is probably the best we can hope for right now.
Correspondence Dinner Without Correspondence. Well, okay, that’s not fully true, strictly speaking — comedian Hasan Minhaj had plenty to say. But he had to say it without Trump present, because Trump was busy deriding the media in Pennsylvania instead of attending. In fact, the entire White House staff skipped the event, which is unprecedented (and Trump’s absence marks the first time a President has declined to attend in almost fifty years). This kind of petty snubbing reflects the administration’s extreme derision for the press in general, and is both unsurprising and unsettling.

The Bad:

Obstructionist White House Blues.* In true Uncooperative Jackass form, the White House is refusing to cooperate with the Oversight Committee’s request for documents on Flynn. The committee is being careful not to call it obstruction (even though it totally is, and pretty blatantly at that), which is not exactly encouraging. I’ve heard some people claiming this means the investigation is dead in the water, but I think that’s an overstatement — especially with testimony scheduled regarding Flynn’s ties to Russia next week.
There is a VOICE And I Must Scream. This week Kelly went ahead and rolled out VOICE, the office for victims of crimes committed by immigrants that is mentioned in one of the executive orders. Democrats are uniformly (and correctly) noting that the office is invasive garbage, and lots of citizens are venting their spleens in the most creative way possible — more on that below.
Death of Taxes. Trump released a mess of papers he generously calls a tax plan this week, and it’s exactly as terrible as you expected it to be. Seriously, imagine the worst tax plan you possibly can. Okay, are you holding that half-formed tangle of bad policy in your mind? Congratulations, it’s still better than this tax plan. About the best thing I can say about it is that it’s probably not especially relevant, for reasons I’ll discuss below.

The Good:

Sanctuary Preserved (For Now). In what I would characterize as the biggest news of the week, a federal district court judge issued an injunction against the government regarding its threat to cut funding for sanctuary jurisdictions. Just like with the other two court cases, it’s a temporary injunction rather than a permanent ban, and just like in the other two, the court cited public statements made by officials in its rationale. That said, the judge did make perfectly clear that there are serious potential constitutional problems with the order. The decision is extra exciting because it marks the fourth piece of the immigration executive orders to go into limbo indefinitely, following the travel ban, funding for the wall, and the reports that would identify sanctuary jurisdictions in the first place.
I’d Like To Report a UFO. Fed up with VOICE’s role within the propaganda machine, activists have started calling the hotline number to report criminal aliens like Darth Maul and Invader Zim. The effort was apparently sufficiently successful to jam up the phone lines, which are no longer working properly. Though this is a particularly clever form of activism, it goes in the ‘good’ column because the VOICE program is exploitative and dangerous, and gumming up its wheels for any length of time should be celebrated.
No One Likes AHCA, Apparently Including Congress. Attempts to revive the AHCA this week failed miserably, in part because it’s still a fetid cesspool of a policy and in part because it became known that Congress was exempting itself from having to follow it. It remains to be seen whether they’ll try to revive this bill a third time. I doubt it will give the policy any charm.
Bizarrely Productive Voting Happened: Despite threats to the contrary, Congress managed to vote to avoid shutdown on Friday. Then they voted on a more long-term budgetary plan on Sunday, and it was deeply impressive just how much the King of Negotiation failed to successfully negotiate. There’s no funding for the wall, domestic spending increased, Planned Parenthood funding remains, the EPA’s funding goes down only 1%, and military spending fell far short of Trump’s proposal. The whole thing was so unapologetically against Trump’s agenda that I’m honestly kind of wondering where they put the hidden catch. But for now, I’m going to turn off that part of my brain and celebrate how uncannily non-damaging this week has turned out to be! I encourage you to do the same, but save some of the ice cream in the freezer — I suspect we’re going to need it later.

National News Roundup Week 2 (January 29-February 4)

February 6, 2017October 21, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Hello again, friends! Buckle in, because this has been a weird, long, confusing, roller coaster of a week even by last week’s standards. We are living in Interesting Times, distinguished guests, and trying to guess where we go from here is like trying to read Keurig machine herbal tea leaves, so your guess is as good as mine.

Some preliminary reminders before we take off, because a vague disclaimer is nobody’s friend: 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. I may touch on news I think folks should know that is outside my area as a legal generalist, but if we undertake any offroad adventures I’ll do my best to signal that for you upfront by giving that headline an asterisk. Okay, warning label over. Onward to the news!

The Weird

Immigration Tug-of-war: Courts are Mostly Winning, Unless Maybe They Aren’t? The most important confusing thing to happen this week has been an ongoing battle of branches of government, occasionally with extra bonus infighting within the Executive Branch. Bear with me, because this is lengthy and confusing and I barely understand half of it despite studying law for a living: After Trump passed his extreme immigration executive order last Friday, federal judges around the country were happy to oblige the advocates launching into action. This resulted in holdings legally prohibiting first the practice of detaining lawful permanent residents, then the practice of denying detained people access to attorneys, and then ultimately almost all the provisions of the executive order. You would think that all of these holdings would make executive staff change their practices, and in some cases, you would be right; Homeland Security officially exempted lawful permanent residents after the first court holding. But in some cases, you would be fascinatingly, disturbingly wrong. Customs and Border Protections agents have continued to deny people access to attorneys (which eventually prompted the Virginia AG to file a motion to hold them in contempt, though the judge declined to grant it), and reports also began trickling in that CBP agents were coercing people to sign paperwork giving up their LPR status so that they could then be legally deported. This mixed posture can be partially explained by an apparent disagreement between Secretary Kelly and Steve Bannon, which thankfully did not end particularly well for Bannon, as well as some Department of State action that may or may not have been following the Executive pied piper. It was presumably not approved by Donald Trump himself, who largely handled this by tweeting about how the Seattle judge will be overturned (showing that he should give up his new career in fortunetelling, because the Ninth Circuit immediately proved him wrong). Oh, but he also did fire the acting Attorney General over all of this, after she declined to enforce the unlawful provisions of the Executive Order, saying that she “betrayed” the country over the (already found not to be lawful) “legal” order she didn’t enforce. So, you know. That’s happening. And will presumably be an ongoing saga for a while, especially if Trump’s continuous statements are any indication.
I Said Good Day, Mate! (and Other Phone Mishaps) Moving from the sublime to the ridiculous, apparently we hung up on Australia this week because Donald Trump did not appreciate Prime Minister Turnbull reminding him that the U.S. had agreed to take 1250 refugees from an Australian detention center. This is in addition to President Trump threatening to invade Mexico over the ‘bad hombres down there’ (which presumably would be kind of hard with that wall in the way). Senator McCain took point on damage control, though presumably after this week that will be a Tillerson duty.
Never Forget what We Cannot Remember (because It Never Happened): Kellyanne Conroy continued to model what ‘alternative facts’ look like this week, this time citing a non-existent massacre to justify an unpopular immigration ban executive order. She later called it ‘an honest mistake,’ showing that in addition to not knowing what the word ‘fact’ means, she also does not know what the word ‘honest’ means. But by this point, the Internet had already had a glorious meme party, so the damage was more-or-less done.
Grunkle Donny’s Regulation Emporium. Continuing the general theme of “what even is happening in this administration,” President Trump kicked off the week with an executive order about regulations that was a little… baffling, to say the least. The basic theme is that agencies now need to repeal two regulations for every new regulation issued, although there are a bunch of reasons why this regulation was mostly symbolic, which is presumably why he also signed another executive order later in the week (and that one was not weird, it was just bad, so it’s discussed below).
You’re Hired! (Maybe) True to his reality television roots, Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nomination was rolled out with a dramatic prime-time announcement on Tuesday. I’ve heard several people call the nominee, Neil Gorsuch, a Scalia clone, which appears about accurate — much like the late judge he would be replacing, this judge is socially conservative, an Originalist, protective of fourth Amendment search and seizure requirements, and, most shockingly for the Trump administration, an actual federal judge with basic qualifications. The Democratic party appears fairly split about how to handle this nomination, which seems to be something of a Xanatos gambit — either the Democrats boycott a la the Garland nomination, in which case Trump gets to nominate somebody way less palatable and qualified while bad-mouthing the Democratic base, or they play nice, in which case the Republican party has learned that sheer bloody-minded obstructionism lands them Supreme Court seats. Schumer has indicated that the Democrats might also take Secret Door #3 and filibuster the nomination, especially in light of Trump’s recent anti-Judiciary tweetfest — which was last tried (unsuccessfully) with the Alito nomination. So I guess there are plenty of potential not-so-great options.
The Betsy DeVos Heisenstate: In addition to being my Negativland cover band, this is as good a descriptor as any for the neck-and-neck scramble happening on DeVos’s nomination. DeVos barely squeaked through her committee vote this week, which landed 12–11 along party lines. The plot thickened when Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski publicly announced that they would not support the DeVos nomination, bucking the expectation of a Republican party voting bloc. From there, it became a centrist Republican telethon free-for-all, with liberals calling all kind of Republican politicians looking for a third nay voter. If these efforts are unsuccessful, the Senate will be evenly split, which means the Vice President will cast a tie-breaking vote affirming — but if one more politician is persuaded to vote nay, DeVos will not be confirmed. This vote is scheduled to happen tomorrow, though it might be pushed back as far as Tuesday. So watch this space, I guess?
Rep Payee Proxy Debate: Speaking of confusing divides and strange bedfellows, both the NRA and disability rights groups celebrated a narrow House vote this week to repeal a measure involving gun background checks. The measure required Social Security to disclose when a person has a representative handling their money for them as part of the background checking process for gun purchase. The ACLU and other disability advocates disliked the measure because it exacerbated mental health diagnosis stigma, had no due process protection, and was overly broad, points which even the NRA respectfully raised.

The Bad

Nobody Likes Bannon’s Gross Seat*: Leading this week’s disturbing news is the fact that President Trump signed an presidential memorandum giving Steve Bannon a full seat on the National Security Council, a move which liberals and more centrist Republicans are describing with things like “radical,” “a profound shift,” and “stone cold crazy.” This is presumably because it’s a dramatic change from precedent — usually that seat is reserved for generals — and because it gives a confirmed white nationalist official authority over national security. House Democrats have already introduced a bill trying to kick him off.
It’s Hard Out Here for Goldman Sachs*: Also on the disturbing Presidential action front, Donald Trump signed an executive order authorizing a review of the Dodd-Frank regulatory body, a move that even a public sector attorney such as myself can tell is — and I’m going to use extremely technical terms here — probably not good. The provisions being reviewed were designed to curtail excessive risk-taking among “too big to fail” banks, and were passed in response to the Great Recession of 2008. Given Trump’s statements about intending to scale the entire provision back, this review is likely an opening salvo, though we’ll see if he manages to follow through with everything else also going on.
Checking the Cabinet: A flurry of Cabinet activity also happened this week, some of which honestly had to be seen to be believed. As mentioned above, Betsy DeVos received committee confirmation, as did Jeff Sessions (who was similarly split along party lines and is now similarly paused). Rick Perry and Ryan Zinke proceeded forward as well. Tillerson was confirmed as Secretary of State. When Democrats tried to boycott Price and Mnuchin’s committee votes, Republican committee members simply suspended the rules requiring a quorum and voted without them — so those two nominations are proceeding to full vote as well.
Violence in Quebec City (that is Likely America’s Fault) Six people were killed in a mosque in Quebec City this past week, in a fatal shooting that some American authorities are linking to similar violence in Texas. The Quebec government is investigating the tragedy as an act of terrorism.
JCC Bomb Threat Chicken, Round 3: Jewish community centers around the country got yet another round of bomb threats this past week, which makes three coordinated threat incidents in the past few weeks. Just like the other two rounds, the threats were later determined not to be credible, though Jewish organizations are working with the FBI.
Nineties Cartoon Villain Parade (Congress Edition)* In “I can’t believe I’m not making this up” news, a Republican representative from Florida has introduced a bill to terminate the Environmental Protection Agency. This comes on the heels of the House also voting to repeal a rule prohibiting coal companies from dumping waste into water sources. I never realized Captain Planet was a documentary, but I’m hoping to get my magical ring in the mail any day now.
Botched Yemen Raid Debrief* Among the tragedies of this week was a botched Yemen raid that killed 30 civilians, including an eight-year-old-girl who was an American citizen, and launched a military investigation. Trump apparently was not briefed in the Situation Room, and military personnel have suggested the mission was ill-advised because they went in compromised in their descriptions of what went wrong.
Authoritarian State of the Nation. Amy Siskind keeps a weekly tab of authoritarian acts in the United States, and has her own set of news from this week. Some of that work is reproduced here, but it’s worth checking out her summary as well — she has a broader scope of political expertise than I do by far.

The Good

(All) Boys Will Be Boys: In a rare bright spot of news this week, the Boy Scouts of America have announced they’ll be accepting transgender boys into their ranks for the first time in a century. As the article notes, this comes four years after accepting openly gay scouts and two years after accepting openly gay adult leaders. Progress!
Woah: The Merriam Webster Dictionary gave the ACLU a somewhat adorable spelling lesson this week, with some help from songwriter and genial pedant Jonathan Coulton.
Dressing Like a (Name-Taking) Woman: In response to leaked commentary about President Trump noting that he “likes the women who work for him to ‘dress like a woman,’” professional women all over the country responded by being awesome and photographing it. They captured sartorial choices from hospital scrubs to judicial robes to military fatigues to space suits to… basically everything that a woman might wear while kicking butt and taking names.
This Land is (Still) Your Land, This Land is (Still) My Land* A bill introduced by a Utah Congressman which would have authorized the sale of federal lands to private businesses got yanked this week, by the same congressman who originally introduced it. He explained this by noting, “I’m a proud gun owner, hunter and love our public lands . . . Groups I support and care about fear it sends the wrong message. I hear you and HR621 dies tomorrow.” …you know what, I’ll take it; at this point good news is good news.

And that’s it for this week — hopefully next week will be a little less interesting, though I’ll also accept “full of good news” as an option. Catch you all next Sunday, if not sooner!

Grunkle Donny’s Bargain Emporium: An Early Analysis of the “Reducing Regulation and Controlling…

January 31, 2017October 21, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

“Step right up to Grunkle Donny’s Bargain Emporium! We give one unit of credit for every two credits sold! All regulations must go!

Oh, sorry folks, read the teleprompter wrong. I meant to say ‘Grunkle Donny’s Bargain System of Governance.’”

Welcome to the fourth installment of the ever-growing executive order series — though this one is outside my area of expertise, so we’re all sailing without sonar today. But my handy-dandy secondary sources and I are still here to help! Buckle in, friends, because this latest order takes us even further into Wonderland — and just like the Wonderland T stop, we fall asleep for five minutes and end up cranky that we landed here.

Can you just tell us what this thing says?

The majority of the provision can be summarized with one pullquote, taken from Section 1: “[I]t is important that for every one new regulation issued, at least two prior regulations be identified for elimination, and that the cost of planned regulations be prudently managed and controlled through a budgeting process.” Nope, not a joke. We’re literally applying the same technique we use to clean our closets to federal regulation of government agencies.

There is more to the executive order, of course, because it goes on for four more sections, but it’s mostly just fleshing out this central idea. Though I do enjoy the part where the order says that “the total incremental cost of all new regulations, including repealed regulations, to be finalized this year shall be no greater than zero.” I can only imagine this is because we’re spending every last cent on that thrice-cursed wall nobody wants. (The following year is slightly gentler, allowing the director of the Office of Management and Budget to issue a maximum total cost for each agency, though I suppose he could just set all of them at zero again.)

Of course, none of this goes into effect until the regulations freeze currently in place ends, which means the soonest we could be seeing any of this play out will be late March. Oh, also, the executive order specifically exempts the following government agencies, because of course it does:

(a) regulations issued with respect to a military, national security, or foreign affairs function of the United States;
(b) regulations related to agency organization, management, or personnel; or
(c) any other category of regulations exempted by the Director.

So just like everything else, if Grunkle Donny likes you, you’ll probably be fine.

**Okay… why did he do this?**

So that he can cut taxes, presumably, without creating a giant deficit. Also so that he could maintain the illusion of being tough on big government. Of course, as several news articles note, this whole thing is pretty toothless (their word, not mine) because it doesn’t cover independent agencies that were created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. So it’s… a symbolic middle finger, I guess? It manages to be rude and stressful without actually doing much of anything useful, at any rate.

But would this theoretically actually work to lower our deficit?

I guess technically it wouldn’t raise it? But this provision specifically exempts a lot of expensive government programs, such as the military and Our Fuhrer’s asinine wall and anything, y’know, required by law to stay in place. So it’s sort of like sticking a carbon-emitting band-aid on a gaping economic flesh wound. (All right, I can own it; that metaphor got away from me.) At the end of the day, this regulation appears to be much like our President himself: Full of sound and fury, and terrible at saving money.

And that’s about it for today, I fervently hope, though I’m sure we’ll have more executive orders to unpack soon. If you’re looking to catch up on all the other executive orders, may I recommend checking out this excellent list maintained by Politico? Or, of course, you can check out the three in-depth summaries I wrote last week. Or catch up on the news. So many options to ruin any chance of a good mood.

But this stuff is important, and onward we steadily march. Keep on keeping on until we meet again!