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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.

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:

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 18 (May 19–25)

May 28, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This was another highly surreal and chaotic week — I feel like I wandered over to the other side of the looking glass, and now everything is distorted and backwards. (But I’ve reached the point where this is a comforting thought, because maybe if I can find Dinah we all have a portal out of here.)

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 spending bill! — 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 was another fairly quiet week 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).* Just like last week, and the weeks before that, we saw a bunch of back-and-forth between the White House and the regular House about ongoing investigation. At the top of the week, Trump ordered former counsel Don McGahn not to testify before the House (an escalation from last week, when he just ordered him not to cough up documents). And sure enough, Don McGahn did not show up, so I guess we’ll see if there are consequences for that. Meanwhile, subpoenas have also been issued for former counsel Annie Donaldson and ex-staffer Hope Hicks. Perhaps most disturbingly, Trump also gave Attorney General Barr broad authority to investigate the Russia investigation staffers for proof of “treason” and ordered the intelligence community to cooperate with him. So, yay, all of that is normal and not fascist at all.
Assange Indictments.* Despite (or perhaps because of) Chelsea Manning’s refusal to testify, the case against Julian Assange took some turns this past week when he was indicted on seventeen counts of violating the Espionage Act. Each of these charges carries up to ten years in prison, so he’s potentially looking at a life sentence if he’s convicted on all counts — way longer than he would have faced under the Obama administration (which only charged him with conspiracy to hack government servers). But the charges are big deal for more of us than just Assange because of their potential implications for the First Amendment — it’s currently common practice for journalists to seek classified sources of information in their reporting duties. And if anybody who complies is looking at a life sentence, that’s going to make accountability for this administration that much harder.

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:

Pelosi and Trump Throw Down.* This was a truly extraordinary week to watch the ongoing cage match between Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump. In one corner, we had Donald Trump tweeting Fox News’s heavily edited videos of Pelosi, which slowed down her speech to make her look drunk. (Facebook and several other social media sites refused to take the videos down, by the way.) And in the other, somewhat less fetid corner, we had Pelosi’s increasingly obnoxious ‘I’m Not Gonna Impeach Trump, But I’m Sure Gonna Talk Incessantly About How Somebody Should’ campaign. The week culminated in Trump sitting down with Pelosi and Schumer to discuss infrastructure for — and I cannot stress enough that this is not exaggeration — all of three minutes before refusing to talk to them until all investigation of him stopped. Y’all, given the incredibly disturbing ways Trump has been wielding power this week — between the Russia investigation notes above and things we’ll talk about below — I don’t think we can go on like this forever.
Bribery: Still Illegal.* The chairman and CEO of Federal Savings Bank, Stephen Calk, was in the news this week — for, ironically, trying to federally spend the bank’s savings. More specifically, he’s accused of loaning Paul Manafort $16M in exchange for a cabinet appointment. Obviously, this did not pan out for Mr. Calk — or for Mr. Manafort, for that matter — because bribery is, in fact, still illegal. So we’ll see where this set of charges goes.
Jackson Not Jettisoned.* The Trump administration announced this week that it would be pushing back an Obama initiative to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill until at least 2028 — effectively canceling it, because this means they won’t make the change while they’re in office. In the course of defending Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Trump suggested putting Tubman on the $2 bill instead, because he’s racist and terrible. Meanwhile, a New York designer has created a 3-D stamp that will superimpose Harriet Tubman onto existing $20 bills in circulation, which may or may not be illegal — but to be fair, so’s half of Trump’s domestic policy.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Senate Spending Bill. The Senate passed a disaster-relief spending bill this week for the first time in fifteen months — a staggeringly long pause, given how many natural disasters we’ve experienced this year, but at least in time to respond to the tornadoes that touched down in three states this week. Unfortunately, the bill has not yet passed in the House because a single rep objected to the lack of extra border wall funding and consequently blocked the entire vote. And incidentally, “there’s no disaster relief for Puerto Rico because one guy in Texas wanted a wall” is definitely the most 2019 thing I’m going to type this week.
Weird Week for Britain. Conservative Briton and all-around jerk Nigel Farage got a milkshake to the Armani this week, highlighting an a growing movement in the U.K. of people throwing milkshakes at the alt-right as they make their Brexit tours. Eventually Farage started refusing to leave his bus, McDonald’s stopped selling shakes, and Burger King clearly enjoyed the whole thing. Then in the wake of all of that chaos, Theresa May announced her resignation date (which will be June 7, by the way). But it’s a bit early to celebrate the implications for Brexit, because some analysts are saying that Brexit might happen without any agreement — though that’s only one of several possible outcomes from here.

The Bad:

Frightening Foreign Affairs (Again).* This was another bad week for foreign affairs, y’all. After signaling all week that this might happen, Trump went ahead and used the situation with Iran to declare a national emergency and send more troops to the Middle East. As far as I can tell, he did this so that he could sell arms to Saudi Arabia and the UAE without congressional approval. Needless to say, Congress isn’t best pleased by this development, and it’s possible we’ll see another resolution like the one on the border wall. (Here’s hoping they get a veto-proof vote this time.)
Bad Week with Ben Carson. This was a bad week for basically everyone who had to interact with HUD Secretary Ben Carson, including Ben Carson. At the top of the week, he alienated members of the House Financial Services Committee with condescending nonsense like mistaking real estate owned by banks (“REO”) for Nabisco cookies and claiming a proposed rule to evict immigrants would somehow fix our housing crisis. (As someone who does housing policy work professionally, I really cannot overstate how little Carson appears to know on the topic.) This would be bad enough, but in the course of his testimony, he was asked about a rumored new HUD policy revoking protections for transgender homeless populations — a policy he said he “is not currently anticipating changing.” Then the very next day, the new policy was published, directly contradicting him. It’s not currently clear whether he lied or just honestly knows that little about his own department — if I worked at HUD, I sure wouldn’t let him touch anything — but the letter he sent the committee doesn’t really help matters. At any rate, now we have more formal comments to write.
License to Discriminate. In addition to the homelessness policy referenced above, the Trump administration also announced this week that they plan to roll back protections for transgender patients in healthcare settings. Though the administration argues that they’re simply making the regulations confirm with the “plain text” of relevant law, the proposed regulations will make it easier for healthcare providers to deny treatment to patients on the basis of gender identity. Needless to say, this will have major implications for health equity and access to health care over time, and not in a good way. I plan to submit a public comment on this once we have a docket number, and I’m happy to help other people draft one too.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. Given everything listed above, it’s always comforting to see any branch try to put the brakes on this presidency, and there were several encouraging bits of news involving checks and balances this week. Two different federal judges rejected Trump’s attempts to block subpoenas from Congress about his taxes, which is probably why Wells Fargo and T.D. Bank have both just handed over documents without fanfare. Another federal judge also blocked part of Trump’s attempt to divert funds to build a border wall, quite sensibly noting that a need is not “unforeseen” if you talk about it for literally years beforehand.
Recent New York Resilience. There was also good news on the state side this week! New York did indeed pass that legislation authorizing the state to share Trump’s state tax returns with Congress. But more importantly, they also passed legislation that allows the state to prosecute crimes occurring in the state that have been federally pardoned.
Good Access to Insulin News. In light of the discrimination news above, I’m particularly glad to have good health news this week as well. Colorado became the first state to put a cap on insulin copays, making sure the treatment stays affordable to insured residents who need it. It’s only a first step towards fixing skyrocketing insulin prices, but it’s a promising one.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no refunds. For making it through, you deserve this pangolin piggyback ride and 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.

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 13 (April 14–20)

April 23, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This week was full of dark, strange freaky funhouse mirror news — and the Mueller report’s release took it to a whole new level. There’s a lot of abyss to look into this week, but we’ll get through it all.

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

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Okay, this was a big week for the Russia Investigation both before and after the Mueller report was released (albeit in redacted form). Here’s what I have for you:

Mueller Report Rumblings.* Before the report was even released, the circus had several attractions — of particular note are Trump’s insistence that someone should “investigate the investigators” and Attorney General William Barr’s wild press conference bonanza on the morning the report was released. Against that backdrop, it’s no surprise that the House was immediately making it rain subpoenas — for both the full unredacted report and related underlying evidence. Then everybody had time to actually read and analyze the 400-page redacted report, and all heck broke loose.
(Redacted) Mueller Report Released.* Okay bear with me y’all, because this is going to be incredibly long — 400 pages is a lot of stuff. The report is separated out into two volumes; the first volume deals with Russian interference (and the question of collusion) in the 2016 Presidential election, and the second volume deals with Trump’s obstruction of the first investigation. Everybody and their kid sister has written a takeaway piece, and a few outlets have also outlined how much was redacted (Spoiler: A lot, particularly relating to prosecutorial decisions, but not as much of the obstruction section as we’d feared). There were some noteworthy things about collusion, but the real meat of the report is in the obstruction section, where Mueller looked at ten different incidents to determine if any of them were obstruction of justice. And the report makes clear that the answer is complicated, or at least more complicated than Barr depicted in his summary, in part because Mueller uncovered a lot of evidence but believed he couldn’t indict a sitting President. As a result, some outlets describe him as “punting [the issue] to Congress” or “[writing] a road map to impeachment.” In short: Trump did a bunch of bad stuff, y’all, but Mueller thought his hands were tied.
Mueller Report Reverberations.* Needless to say, we’re seeing a lot of stuff in the wake of the information above. One obvious and predictable outcome is that Trump’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest rate of 2019, hanging out at 37%. But Democrats are also divided on whether to impeach Trump, given what we’ve learned about his conduct, and in the meantime they plan to conduct further investigations as they hash that out. Sarah Sanders is catching flak for obviously lying in press briefings, Betsy DeVos’s brother Erik Prince is back on the radar, we learned at least one voting county was successfully hacked in 2016, and the pee tapes might be real. More attention is also being paid by both sides to the eight people who refused to obstruct justice for Trump — in everything from angry 45 Twitter rants to House subpoenas to testify. And Rudy Giuliani is publicly announcing that “there’s nothing wrong with taking information from Russia.” So this is definitely not the end of the story, and I’ll keep y’all posted.

Ironically, it was a fairly quiet week for Disregard of Governing Norms, simply because all eyes were on the Russia investigation. But we did see a bit of tax return balderdash. Here’s what I have for you:

Tax Return Fight.* In this week’s installment of As The Tax ReTurns, the House Democrats subpoenaed nine banks, Trump’s accounting firm, and various financial records. Trump responded by — no joke, y’all — suing his own accounting firm as well as the House Oversight Committee Chairman, Elijah Cummings, and the Oversight Committee’s investigative counsel. As said House committee chairman notes, there is no valid legal basis to this suit as far as I can tell. But this is pretty obviously just another skirmish in what’s going to be a loooong war.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Bill Weld Joins the 2020 Fray. Former Mass Governor Bill Weld announced he’s joining the 2020 primary this week — on the GOP side. Given his oddly progressive stances, his current position as a partner at Mintz Levin, and the general…everything of the current GOP, this is an odd choice. But who am I to look a gift party-divide in the mouth?

The Bad:

Awful International Violence.* On Easter Sunday, a coordinated terrorist attack on three churches and two hotels in Sri Lanka resulted in almost 300 deaths and another 500 people injured. Though the country has a lengthy history of civil war, this is the deadliest attack in over a decade. The Sri Lankan government has blocked social media and imposed a curfew in response. Meanwhile, this week also saw violent protests in Paris and riots in Londonderry.
Trump’s Stellar Foreign Policy.* Trump’s foreign policy was embarrassingly scattered this week, which is nothing new but did have some repercussions. First he praised the Libyan insurgents marching on Trinidad, even though we installed the government they’re marching on, and ultimately spoke with the insurgent general. He also vetoed a Congressional bill to end U.S. involvement in the Yemen war, and imposed sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. And just to top everything off, North Korea announced that it tested a new weapon.
Iffy Medical News. In horrifying opiate news, 60 people in seven states were charged this week with trading sex and cash for opioid prescriptions as the Department of Justice brings a giant suit for opioid malfeasance. The charges allege that over 32 million pills illegally changed hands. And in other iffy legality medical news, Ohio became the sixth state this week to pass a “heartbeat” law, a type of anti-abortion law commonly understood to be illegal but which conservatives are hoping will result in a challenge to Roe v. Wade.
Your Painfully Regular Bad Immigration Updates. Immigration news this week is particularly godawful, which for this administration and the past month is saying something. Attorney General William Barr ordered immigration courts this week to withhold bail from asylum seekers who have already passed a credible fear interview — in other words, who have shown evidence of valid asylum claims — because he figures rotting in jail will deter people from coming here and claiming asylum. Meanwhile, Trump has ordered even more troops to the border and is considering travel restrictions for several more African countries as well as Cuba. He also wants to make it harder for immigrants to live in public housing and wants legal work in the marijuana industry to indicate ‘a lack of moral character’ for citizen applicants. And a vigilante group in New Mexico kidnapped 200 migrants at gunpoint near the border, claiming that they were ‘detaining’ them until CBP could arrive. Eventually the FBI arrested the head of the group for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. And the Trump administration is now temporarily allowed to again ship asylum applicants to Mexico to await the results of their application due to a stay of the injunction at the appeal stage. (Although I’m not sure if they plan to bother, since apparently the new plan is to just keep asylees in jails.)

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. A federal judge held that the Trump administration can’t go forward on their plan to overturn an Obama-era prohibition on mining coal in public spaces. With all of the mess above, it’s nice to see the courts continue to challenge Trump on things, though I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of it in the coming weeks.
Warren Lights Up The Campaign Trail. This week, Elizabeth Warren has impressed a lot of people — and raised a lot of money — by insisting on impeaching Trump and revealing a plan to ease the costs of higher education. Her campaign plan would be complex and interesting enough, given its ambitious scope. But her call for impeachment kept the conversation going and likely contributed to the House’s deliberations on its next steps.

So that’s what I have for this week, and some of last as well. For making it through, you deserve this review of the Mueller report on GoodReads 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 better immigration news!

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 12 (April 7–13)

April 16, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Jeez, I leave the country for like five days and everything goes bananas — the news over the past week or two has been utterly wild. I’m including some news from the previous week, when the NNR was dark, to create further context. Sadly, none of it makes any of this make more sense.

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 an indictment! — 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:

For what feels like the zillionth week in a row, the Russia Investigation continues to be an incredible tug-of-war between Trump’s camp and Congressional Democrats. Here’s what has happened over the past week and a half or so:

Where’s the Report (Redux)? This past week has been an absolute bonanza on the William-Barr-Mueller-Report front. Barr represented in his testimony on Tuesday that he would release a redacted report ‘within a week,’ but Mueller’s team started expressing frustration with his summary and the House started asking him to release summaries Mueller had drafted. Now the word on the street is that a redacted copy will be out on Thursday, and Trump is already planning to ignore it. The whole thing is so bananas that we’ll have to keep watching it closely because it’s anybody’s guess where we go from here.
Nonspecific Spying Allegations (Maybe).* As alluded to above, William Barr testified in front of Congress for two days this past week, but most attention has gone to him telling Congress that the government “spied” on the Trump campaign in 2016. Though he didn’t particularly give any specifics, he did follow up by putting a team together to look into it, saying he “wasn’t putting a panel together,” and walking the whole thing back. So… that happened.
Assange and Avenetti Arrests. Julian Assange was unceremoniously arrested this week when the Ecuadoran embassy in London kicked him out, apparently because he was a truly insufferable tenant who didn’t clean up after his cat or himself. Trump, predictably, has responded to the news with “New indictment, who wikileaks?” Meanwhile, in other Trump-adjacent news, Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenetti was charged with 36 new counts of embezzlement, fraud, and generally being a sketchy dude. So it’s been something of a strange week on the arrest and indictment front.

This was a similarly weird week for Disregard of Governing Norms stories, unfortunately. Here’s what I have for you:

Tax Return Fight.* The tax return fight happening between Congress and the Trump administration has been pretty wild as well, taking all kinds of twists and turns over the past couple of weeks. First Trump’s lawyer asserted presidential privilege at the top of last week, saying the IRS shouldn’t respond because he’s the President. Then the administration said they wouldn’t respond while Trump was under audit. When that didn’t keep Congress at bay, Trump’s lawyer also told the Treasury not to respond until it received a legal opinion from the Justice Department (and the IRS did indeed miss a deadline last Wednesday). Then news broke that White House attorneys had already illegally consulted with the Treasury before the request was even made, and at that point the administration got more openly belligerent. By the time that I write this, Trump’s acting chief of staff had announced that Congress will “never” see the tax returns that they weren’t “smart enough” to see anyway, Congress has subpoenaed Trump’s accounting firm, and eighteen states have passed legislation keeping 45 off the ballot if he doesn’t cough up some tax information.
Ilhan Omar Attacks. The other incredible thing to happen this week was yet another round of Ilhan Omar attacks, this time because she correctly called Stephen Miller a white nationalist and her month-old quote about 9/11 was taken out of context. (I feel the need to note, incidentally, that it’s not inherently antisemitic to call a xenophobic spade a spade, even if he happens to also be The Country’s Worst Jew.) This ultimately culminated in a pinned tweet from 45 that “we will never forget,” an apparently successful appeal to Islamophobia that several people cited as they made threats on Omar’s life. (To be fair to 45, Twitter immediately proved that we won’t ever forget his actual real-time response to 9/11, which involved bragging that he now has the tallest tower in Lower Manhattan — a claim that, by the way, wasn’t even true).

Your “Normal” Weird:

Measles and Mandatory Vaccination.* As more and more measles outbreaks are reported nationally, New York City fields an outbreak so severe that the city has ordered mandatory vaccinations. It’s likely the strictest rule regarding measles vaccines in three decades, and was implemented in part due to an uptick in “measles parties” in the area. Unsurprisingly, some parents are already suing the city over the mandate. We’ll have to see if other cities follow suit, and also keep an eye on the unusually high outbreak numbers.
Fires in Two National Treasures.* The famous Notre Dame cathedral in Paris suffered a very serious fire today, resulting in the total collapse of the main spire and roof and severe damage to the wooden interior. As of this evening, outlets were reporting that the bell towers and exterior frame were saved along with several major pieces of art, and French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault has already stepped forward to pledge €100m towards rebuilding. In an odd coincidence, Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque suffered a fire on the same day, though thankfully with much less extensive damage to the structure. Authorities are still not sure what caused either fire.

The Bad:

Problematic Pipelines.* In literal pipeline news, Trump signed an executive order this week designed to make it easier to build oil and gas pipes in the United States. In figurative pipeline news, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell changed appointment rules to get conservative judges approved after only two hours of debate. Neither of these are especially welcome news, for obvious reason.
Immigration Updates. Immigration news is reaching new heights of “how is this our government” this week, which by this point is saying something. Trump started out by walking back his threat to close the Mexican border, swapping instead to car tariff threats — but by midweek he had decided to withdraw a nomination for ICE head because he thought his pick was too moderate. Then he followed that up by forcing out current Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielson, putting the head of CBP in charge of DHS and the white nationalist who engineered the Zero Tolerance policy, Stephen Miller, in charge of immigration policy generally. It’s looking like these changes are part of a larger plan to purge DHS staffers who were associated with John Kelly. And once he’d gotten rid of the moderating influence, all kinds of bananas rumors about asylum started cropping up (which I’ve outlined below).
Harebrained Asylum Ideas. Per several news outlets and also the White House, here are several things that this administration is considering telling CBP to do: 1) evaluate asylum claims directly (instead of having, y’know, the people trained to do this do it; 2) send all asylees to sanctuary cities as a way to punish local governments that don’t cooperate; or 3) refuse admittance to asylees entirely by closing the entire border (which I bet you’re all shocked to know is super illegal). On that latter point, by the way, Trump allegedly told the head of CBP — who as I noted above, is also now in charge of the whole Department of Homeland Security — that if he was sent to jail for illegally refusing entry to asylees, Trump would simply pardon him. Absolutely no reason to suspect this guy of obstruction of justice, amirite?

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. Despite the bevy of bad immigration news above, we did see some good court cases this week. A third federal court in Maryland blocked the Trump administration’s plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, and another federal judge blocked the Trump administration from requiring asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while they wait for their cases to be heard.
Black Hole Pics.* We saw a major scientific breakthrough recently when the first-ever photos were taken of a supermassive black hole. (This has historically been difficult to do due to the nature of black holes, which is why it’s a big deal.) The black hole photographed, now named Powehi, was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope project. Yay science!
Recent House Resilience. The House passed a bill renewing the Violence Against Women Act this week, which was originally passed in 2009 but expired in February of this year. The new version incorporates gun control provisions that are unpopular with the GOP, so we’ll need to see what happens in the Senate from here. (They also passed a bill that would revive net neutrality, which is an important symbolic measure even though this one is considerably less likely to actually see the Senate floor.)

So that’s what I have for this week, and some of last as well. For making it through, you deserve this video of a cat letting its dog friend into the house 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 better immigration news!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 10 (March 24–30)

April 2, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Over years of doing this Roundup, I’ve noticed certain trends — nothing as certain as death or tax cuts, because this administration is bananas, but the tea leaves do tend to have some patterns. Unfortunately, this week reflects a pattern further on the “I live in the desk fort now” spectrum than I would like: Whenever this administration has had a “major win” recently, something awful happens on a policy front. You will not enjoy the immigration updates this week, but I have room in my desk fort if you’d like to join me. We have cookies.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a whistleblower! — 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:

After Mueller turned in his report, the Russia Investigation had many rounds about releasing the report but no knockouts on either side. Here’s what happened:

So… About That Report? After Barr released his four-page memo, six House committee chairs let him know that wasn’t going to cut it and demanded a copy of the Mueller report be made available to them by April 2. Needless to say, as I type this Barr has a day left, and it’s not looking likely that he’ll deliver. This may admittedly be because the report itself is over 300 pages long, and some of it will definitely need to be redacted — Barr did announce he’ll have a public version by mid-April. Meanwhile, in the Senate, McConnell’s refusing to even hold a vote on making the Mueller report public.
What’s Still Going? Despite a final version of the Mueller report dropping, on at least one case his grand jury investigation is continuing and that’s creating quite a rumor mill. But no matter what else is going on, we do know that Mueller has been handing off investigations all over the country, which means this isn’t the last we’ll hear of his work. Meanwhile, Trump and various House Republicans have been calling for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff to resign all week because his committee is still investigating collusion with Russia, which is definitely a totally normal thing to do in a free Democratic Republic. Schiff (and various other Democrats) have all made it quite clear that he isn’t going anywhere.
House Probe and Budget Blues. Faced with an obnoxiously obstructionist White House, the other House is considering using the budget process to make them cooperate. Meanwhile, in more mundane budget news, Betsy DeVos and Donald Trump spent the week playing hot potato with unpopular proposed Special Olympics cuts.

We also saw much of the same Disregard of Governing Norms stories as last week, although the specifics look a bit different. Here’s what I have for you:

Congressional Weirdness. Between McConnell’s refusal to hold a vote on making the Mueller report public, his op-ed about how following normal process is obstruction, and a sketch phony ‘vote’ on the Green New Deal, it wasn’t a great week for governing norms in the Senate. The House unfortunately wasn’t faring much better; it failed to overturn the national emergency veto and the Department of Defense is starting to divert funds for a border wall. (Though as I noted above, six committee heads did demand a copy of the Mueller report by April 2.) That said, the Senate will need to vote on the veto override in the near future, and it could still pass there — which would potentially send it back to the House. So we may see less of a stalemate in the near future.
Clearance Clearing House. A White House whistleblower came forward today and disclosed that the Trump administration has overturned no fewer than 25 security clearance denials over a window of months against ordinary procedure. She also noted that the denials were generally issued for major concerns such as foreign influence or criminal conduct, and that when she raised concerns about this she was demoted. Needless to say, the House Oversight Committee is definitely folding this into their clearance investigation, and has already subpoenaed more information.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Jussie Smolett Story Gets Weirder. The Jussie Smolett story got even weirder this week when all his charges were dismissed — and then his record was sealed, making it impossible to really know what had even happened. Trump complained about it on Twitter, but this appears to be the end of the strange saga at least for now — if there are further developments I’ll definitely let you know.
WTF NASA. NASA canceled its first planned all-female spacewalk this week because apparently they didn’t have two spacesuits that could fit women. I… don’t even know what to say to this, NASA. Your inclusivity is bad and you should feel bad.

The Bad:

ACA Saga Continues. The Trump administration asked the Fifth Circuit to completely invalidate the ACA after a court found it unconstitutional a few months ago, which is kind of weird since the ACA is so popular and we’ve already gone through this a zillion times. Unsurprisingly, Democrats are making this a priority, and Trump is insisting he’ll replace it with something better (gosh, where have we heard that one before?). Meanwhile, the House Democrats are introducing a healthcare bill to protect the ACA, the Senate Republicans are refusing to draft any new replacement legislation, and another federal judge held that the administration can’t do an ACA run-around. So there’s almost certainly yet another ACA fight ahead; here’s hoping this one resolves the same way the last ones did.
Immigration Updates. With the threat of a Mueller report on the horizon, we enjoyed something of a respite from new immigration horrors (although Original Flavor still was more than enough). Now that Mueller has released his report and Trump thinks he has been ‘totally exonerated,’ that break is definitely over — and I can’t believe half the crap I’m typing this week. To start with, Trump is threatening to just straight-up completely close off the Mexican border, which is a phenomenally bad plan he’s been threatening for months — but this time seems to be a more credible threat, because ICE has been forced to release people and Trump is imposing a deadline. He’s also cutting off aid to El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala — countries Fox News called ‘three Mexican countries,’ by the way — because he thinks too many asylees are coming to our border from those locations. (Folks, I can’t stress enough how Opposite Day this logic is, because asylees flee countries that have major problems and the aid he’s denying is designed to fix those problems.) Meanwhile, CBP is holding asylum seekers in a pen under a bridge and the migrant parents who returned to the U.S. for reunification with their kids are being detained again.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. A federal judge this week blocked the Medicaid work requirement being pioneered in Arkansas and Kentucky, which is promising in light of the ACA fight happening in general. And another federal judge in Alaska blocked the administration from drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. In Supreme Court news, the court recently protected an inmate’s right to last rites after doing the opposite last month, and Gorsuch sided with Ginsburg to preserve tribal rights in a separate case (which is weird, but I’ll take it). So there were some judicial bright spots this week, at least.

So that’s what I have for this week, and it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this bear in a hot tub 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 better immigration news!