Tag: Russia

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 5 (February 18–24)

Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Ernest Blaikley, via Wikimedia Commons

Folks, you seriously don’t even wanna know how many articles I have combed through on the topic of Parkland and/or gun control this week. I’m afraid most of it is a flaming trash heap — I particularly loathe the part where we apparently dox and threaten teen shooting survivors now — but I’ll try to give you the ten cent tour anyway. Bear with me and bare your teeth, because we have a long road ahead of us.

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 Simpsons writer! — 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:

So much positive change happened on the Russia Investigation in one week that I’m tempted to wonder whether Trump’s gun control antics are an attempt to distract us — although Occam’s razor suggests that he just really is that terrible. At any rate, here are the Russia-hued highlights:

  • The Nunes Memo: Somehow Still Topical. The House Democrats released a version of their counter to the Nunes memo this week, after substantial redaction at Trump’s direction. The report, at minimum, confirms that the Steele dossier wasn’t the basis for the Russia investigation; it does not, however, clear up the arguments over McCabe statements very much. All told, it’s minor support for the idea that Nunes is an jackass with a selective memory, but we basically knew that already.
  • Skadden Lawyer Pleads Guilty. On Tuesday, Mueller finalized a guilty plea and cooperation from Alex van der Zwaan, an attorney who spoke regularly with Manafort and Gates in fall 2016. Though this is far from the most interesting or important thing to happen in the past week, it probably did serve as a stepping stone to some of the later activity in the week, particularly when the Gates plea did not finalize as early as expected.
  • The Increasingly Elaborate Manafort-Gates Saga. The real meat and potatoes of this week’s Russia Investigation news is all of the news on Robert Manafort and Rick Gates, two sketchy dudes who worked on and headed the Trump campaign (respectively). Despite expectations, Gates had not yet plead guilty by the beginning of the week (though, as I noted above, van der Zwaan did). But then Mueller released new, additional indictments for both Gates and Manafort mid-week, significantly broadening the risk of exposure if they don’t cooperate. Having read the indictments, I can personally confirm the new indictments are wild, y’all — it’s a zany tour of how many different ways two people can commit tax and bank fraud to the tune of millions upon millions of dollars. The indictments also have a surprisingly complete account of wrong-doing for the incredible reason that Manafort made Gates convert all his Word documents to PDF, resulting in a paper trail for every fraudulent record created. Against that backdrop, it’s not surprising that Gates did ultimately plead guilty in exchange for cooperation and a reduced sentence by the end of the week. I hope his defection flips Manafort like a day-old pancake.

Your “Normal” Weird:

  • Ted Cruz vs the Simpsons. Ted Cruz won the undying animosity of Simpsons showrunner Al Jean this week by announcing that “the Democrats are the party of Lisa Simpson, and Republicans are happily the party of Homer and Bart and Maggie and Marge.” How Maggie has a political party as a canonical infant was not explored in the statement, though Al Jean had a lot to say about it. Meanwhile, liberals are proud to align with Lisa Simpson, who I’m not ashamed to admit was a role model for me when I was her age. (I was six when The Simpsons premiered, and now that I’ve pointed this out you get to feel as old as I do. You’re welcome.)
  • Thank Goodness Trump Created the Rating System. This week’s subtheme of Incredibly Weird Comments about Pop Culture continues with some statements Trump made proposing a rating system for movies and video games as a solution for mass shootings. Which, in Trumpland, we apparently don’t already have, and apparently didn’t first adopt in 1968. Seriously, the movie rating system is so old that it has been in place Trump’s entire adult life, and even the video game rating system has been in place for twenty-four years. And, of course, this doesn’t even consider the fact that there’s no documented evidence for the link between movie violence and real-life violence. So, in basic summary: Yeesh.
  • White House Shenanigans. There was a fair amount of ridiculous White House shenanigans this week, which basically makes it like any other week since January 2017 but here we are. First in the queue, Trump pressured Sessions to do his first sanctioned investigation relating to Russian election interference — but not on Russia; that would make way too much sense. Instead, Trump is badgering Sessions to investigate Obama. (Fun fact: The reason Obama couldn’t do more about Russian interference is well-documented, and it rhymes with ‘SchmcConnell.’) As though to punctuate the White House dysfunction, while all this is going on there has also been an epic standoff between chief of staff John Kelly and local son-in-law Jared Kushner about Kushner’s security clearance, which still hasn’t been finalized after a year of investigation. My bet is that this will keep happening in the background of everything else this administration does right up until Trump is impeached or Kelly is fired. Whee, nepotism!

The Bad:

The Good:

  • Recent Court Wins. The Supreme Court declined to subvert ordinary judicial process today, refusing to hear the DACA injunction case before the 9th Circuit did. This was the expected outcome, but it’s still very relieving to hear; the court would not have been signaling anything good if it had met the Trump Administration’s demands and heard arguments. And in other good legal news, the Second Circuit held that federal discrimination laws also prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, making them the second circuit in the United States to do so. As a bonus, this court ignored a Trump memorandum stating the direct opposite in order to reach its conclusion — and it’s not even one of the two circuits that are known for thwarting him. Between the two decisions, it’s a happy day in Legal Schadenfreude Land.
  • Kentucky Special Election Results. A deeply red district elected a Democrat to the Kentucky House in a special election by a landslide 49 points this week, though the House itself will still be GOP-controlled. This is exciting because it’s such a huge change from the area’s traditional voting patterns, potentially forecasting the extreme landscape change we might see later this year in midterm elections and beyond. (Admittedly nothing is set in stone, but I’m daring to dream here.)
  • Parkland Organizing Continues Too. The flip side to the horrorshow outlined above is that some good advocacy and organizing have happened in the past week, too. Many, many companies have cut ties with the NRA in the past week, particularly after the NRA started expressing nasty sentiments about Parkland teens. And the teens themselves have continued to advocate in town hall meetings, interviews, and sessions with legislators, and a town hall hosted by CNN resulted in some deeply satisfying (and completely deserved) Marco Rubio savagery. My favorite, incidentally, is the teen who observed that we should call AR-15s ‘Marco Rubios’ because they’re both “so easy to buy.” Yikes.

And that’s all the news that’s fit to print this week, though much of it barely merits that kind of dignity. If you made it all the way through, my ice cream and I salute you. Here’s hoping next week is less terrible.

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 3 (February 4–10)

Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Ernest Blaikley [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The news this week is an exercise in information overload, and most of it is utterly inane and/or terrible. There’s so much information, in fact, that I’m bending my rules slightly and kicking some of the more minor stories out a week in an effort to make this a more manageable maze. I’ll do my best to guide you through it, but bear with me folks; this will be a long one.

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 color guard! — 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 week with a metric ton of news on All Things Russia, and most of it is absolutely wild in one way or another. Here’s a nuts-and-bolts summary:

Your “Normal” Weird:

The Bad:

The Good:

  • Nancy Pelosi Podium Adventures.* House minority leader Nancy Pelosi spoke for over eight hours on the House floor this week, using her position to create a makeshift filibuster over the lack of DACA progress. In the end, she ran out of things to say, but she did apparently set a new record for time on the House floor — and more importantly, she signaled to all of us that she was keeping Dreamers on her radar. Here’s hoping that translates to some kind of action in the next few weeks.
  • New Obama Portraits.* Continuing a contemporary tradition, the National Portrait Gallery unveiled portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama this week. Both of the Obamas picked their own artist for their respective works, resulting in striking and complementary but distinct styles for each portrait. Kehinde Wiley, who created Barack Obama’s portrait, set him in a garden scene full of flowers symbolizing his birthplace, his ancestry, and his political home. Amy Sherald, who created Michelle Obama’s portrait, painted her in abstracted form on linen instead of canvas. Both portraits are beautiful examples of African-American artistry.
  • Teamster Sanctuary. About 120,000 Teamsters in New York are organizing to become a “sanctuary union,” giving its members complex training designed to make them certified immigration badasses who know both their rights and everybody else’s. The decision follows an earlier resolution not to assist ICE in rounding up their members, but reflects a decision to escalate after one of their members was deported with no criminal history and green card applications pending.

For once, that isn’t all the news I have for now, but there was just too much of it for me to dump over your heads, Dear Readers. Here’s hoping next week is better, or at least quieter, though with this administration it’s anybody’s guess. At any rate, I’ll see you all soon!

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 1 (January 21–27)

Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

By gabriellah money (becca’s boots), via Wikimedia Commons

I described the news this week to someone as “chaotic petty” earlier today, which seems as good a descriptor as any — it’s shades of dirty surreality nearly all the way down, my friends. Still, that’s better than last week, so I suppose I’ll take it.

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 Medusa, unless you ask Courtland Sykes! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

There was a metric ton of news on the Russia Collusion Investigation front this week, and some of it was pretty wild. Most of it can be boiled down to updates on the Mueller investigation, one way or another:

In addition to all of those gems, this week there was also some rare movement in both directions on the Emoluments Clause issue:

Your “Normal” Weird:

The Bad:

The Good:

  • Net Neutrality Executive Orders.* Governors of Montana and New York both signed executive orders this week enforcing net neutrality in their states. Because the FCC’s decision preempts direct regulation of ISPs, both of the executive orders require state agencies to only do business with ISPs that offer neutral services. I’m genuinely really curious to see what happens to these orders legally, and I’m also excited to see states taking proactive steps to try to preserve an important process. So, thanks Montana and New York! We forgive you for Greg Gianforte and Donald Trump. For now.
  • Cleveland Indians Come Clean. The Cleveland Indians announced today that they are retiring their beloved racist caricature of a mascot from team uniforms, opting for a new depiction beginning in 2019. While it would be cool for them to stop calling themselves ‘the Cleveland Indians’ while they are at it, or possibly just fully retire the merchandise instead of continuing to sell it, I’ll take baby steps where I find them.
  • Nassar Nightmares End. Speaking of sports, this past week also concluded a notorious sentencing hearing of Larry Nassar, the doctor convicted of sexually assaulting ten adolescent athletes who presented to him for medical care from 1995 through 2018. The sentencing hearing drew more and more accounts of abuse into the open, ultimately culminating in over 150 people disclosing sexual abuse in the guise of medical care (including multiple Olympic gymnasts). He was sentenced to 40 to 175 years of incarceration for the underlying ten sexual assault on a minor convictions; this is in addition to a 60 year sentence for child pornography already handed down and a separate sentencing hearing for Michigan charges that begins on January 31. There is also a separate lawsuit pending, with over 140 plaintiffs, alleging institutional complicity on the part of Nassar’s affiliates USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University. All told, it’s truly staggering that this pattern continued for twenty years as uninterrupted as it did, and the closing of that chapter of sports practice can only be a good thing.

And that’s all the news that I have for now. If we’re following old patterns, next week will be a good news cycle. And I think we can all use some good news, so I’m gonna go ahead and hope for it. But either way, catch you next time!

National News Roundup: Week 52 (We’ve Come Full Circle!)

Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

By Polymath38 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The National News Roundup is one year old today! And what a year it’s been, ye gods. Relatedly, it’s also been quite an anniversary week — the only real bright spot is that Trump had to sulk at the White House all weekend because a government shut down forced him to skip his fancy inaugural party at Mar-A-Lago. Go ahead and drink deeply from that schadenfreude spring; we won’t judge.

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 Olympic athlete! — 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 actually did see a bit on the Russia Collusion Investigation front this week, but it was overshadowed by all the other rings of the circus happening simultaneously. Here’s what you may have missed:

There were unfortunately multiple other constitutional crisis moments this week as well, for the first time in a little while, and the remaining topics really get my goat. First we have a Separation of Powers issue:

And last but not least, this week featured another round of First Amendment Attacks, because Trump finally got around to his inane Corrupt Media Awards and also made life harder for marginalized people.

Your “Normal” Weird:

The Bad:

  • Travel Ban v. Seventy Million. The Supreme Court announced it will hear arguments on the Travel Ban 3.0, which has a lot of valid things to legally criticize to put it mildly. But the case won’t be heard until April — which means the ban will remain in effect until at least late June, which is the earliest we’re likely to get a decision. And of course, since the current version has no end date, a junk decision could mean we’re stuck with it indefinitely. (Meanwhile, we’re supposed to hear about the fate of Syrian TPS by the end of the month, and I’m sure that will be a hoot and a half too.)
  • Other Immigration Updates. This was yet another truly awful week for immigration on a lot of other fronts as well. No More Deaths, a humanitarian effort based in Tuscon, published a report alleging that Border Patrol has intentionally destroyed over 3,500 gallons of potable water left for desperate migrants, as well as food and blankets, under a policy known as ‘Prevention by Deterrence.’ (The premise of the policy is simple: If you intentionally kill enough people trying to cross the border to the United States, fewer people will try it.) The report included videos of Border Patrol engaging in this practice as recently as last year. Meanwhile, Salvadorans and Haitians with temporary protected status were informed that they need to reregister within sixty days in order to keep their status, despite the programs winding down within the next eighteen months. And as an encore, Haitians were quietly removed from the list of workers eligible for seasonal visas in agriculture, creating fewer venues of lawful residence in the United States. This was, of course, only days after Trump disparaged the country in bipartisan negotiations. These policy changes, particularly taken in tandem, paint an ugly picture: An administration trying to locate all the lawfully residing Haitians and Salvadorans while systemically removing their lawful status, so that nearly 300,000 people will be easy to round up and deport as soon as they’re eligible in 2019. We need to be watching this, y’all.

The Good:

  • Korean Olympic News.* North and South Korea announced this week that they’ll be appearing under one flag for the opening ceremony of the 2018 Olympics, which is an exciting step. In addition to potentially signaling thawing relations, it’s also likely to be soothing to the South Koreans who have been watching an increasingly bombastic display between Trump and Kim Jong-un — it suggests that their President, Moon Jae-in, has been getting more of a voice in proceedings.
  • Net Neutrality Lawsuits. Attorneys general from twenty-one states filed a lawsuit to block the net neutrality repeal this week, arguing (probably correctly) that the new rule hurts consumers and oversteps their Congressional authority. The suit was only one of many to emerge, as a plethora of entities made their displeasure with the policy known; at minimum, Mozilla and the Open Technology Institute have filed as well. It will be interesting to see whether these suits go anywhere, especially as they occur while Democrats in Congress try to use the Congressional Review Act to undo the move legislatively.
  • Gerrymandering Jettisoned Part Deux. Following on the heels of last week’s news in North Carolina, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held today that Pennsylvania unconstitutionally gerrymandered as well, with the same issue — that the districts were drawn to intentionally favor Republicans. These districts will need to be redone before the 2018 election as well, and unlike the first case, this was based on the Pennsylvania constitution, not the federal one — so the decision is not appealable to the Supreme Court. I’m really excited to see what happens from here as a result! Also, as I noted last week, tossing district divisions based on partisan intent has historically been a very hard thing to get courts to do, so it’s nothing short of amazing that it’s suddenly raining redistricting!

And that’s all the news that I have for now! It’s been a week, but at least it’s just about over, which is probably the best I can say for it. Hang in there until next time!

National News Roundup: Week 51 (January 7–13)

Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

By gabriellah money (becca’s boots), via Wikimedia Commons

The news continues to be Spectacular Spectacular this week, and not necessarily in a positive way. On the plus side, however, that appears to include some spectacularly good news, so at least it’s balanced. I’m hoping next week will be better, because hope springs eternal.

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

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

It’s a bit quieter on the Russia Collusion Investigation front this week, but there’s still a lot happening. Here are the main highlights to know:

  • Fusion GPS Transcript Release.* Diane Feinstein posted the entire transcript of the closed-door testimony of Fusion GPS’s founder, Glenn Simpson, before the Senate Judiciary Committee. (You may recall Fusion GPS and their hired associate, Michael Steele, as heavily involved in the assembly of the Pee Tape dossier — not that official news sources will call it that.) It’s all very confusing, and I say that having read both the transcript and expert analysis of it (particularly recommending Elizabeth McLaughlin’s citation-heavy analysis, though the New York Times analysis has lots of useful info also). So though it’s not precisely my area, here’s my $0.02 summary: Despite a lot of efforts to discredit Fusion GPS as a company and Diane Feinstein for releasing the transcript, I think Fusion GPS and Simpson absolutely know what they are doing, have experience investigating Russian organized crime in particular, and through Steele may have found credible indications of potential blackmail as well as collusion. We don’t have enough information at this stage to know what on Earth has actually happened, but we absolutely should be investigating this more; there’s a very real chance that Russia does indeed have kompromat and semi-consensual cooperation from a sitting President. In other words: BRING ON THE SALACIOUS SUBPOENAS.
  • Steve Bannon Brouhaha.* Steve Bannon stepped down from his position at Breitbart this week, embattled after duking it out with Trump in the social media streets all week. This probably won’t mean much at the Breitbart end, since I’m sure they have an endless supply of snakes over there. But it’s great news for the House Investigation Committee, which is trying to get Bannon to testify right now. He’s hired an attorney to help him prepare, which might mean interesting things in the next few weeks. (Well, more interesting than watching Bannon and Trump sling mud at each other, which was admittedly pretty interesting before it got old.)
  • FISA Fights.* The House reauthorized the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act this week, rejecting reforms that would better preserve civilian privacy. The Senate has voted to begin debate, and is likely to vote in the upcoming week. But weirdly, the biggest point of resistance at the moment appears to be Trump himself, who is now questioning some of the provisions — in part because Fox News is questioning them, and in part because he thinks they were used in part to create the Steele dossier. In other words, disturbingly, Trump actually might object to a sketchy thing remaining law because the sketchy thing happened to him. (It’s a shame this rare exhibit is unlikely to result in him growing some empathy, because that would be a welcome respite and fascinating to watch.)

Your “Normal” Weird:

  • Guess Who’s Running Now. (No really, your guess is probably as good as mine.) This has been a weird and confusing week for discussing people’s plans to run for office. First Oprah Winfrey gave an excellent speech at the Golden Globes last Sunday, which somehow resulted in everybody talking about whether she should run for President (though Oprah herself has indicated no plans to run). In more concrete news, Chelsea Manning filed paperwork to run for the U.S. Senate seat in Maryland this week, but has firmly issued no comment about her plans to run. And never one to be left out, Arizona’s own anti-immigration sadist Joe Arpaio announced he’s running for the Senate now that Jeff Flake’s seat will be up for grabs — but he’s enough of a media hound that he might not have even filed paperwork. So… some famous people might or might not be running for things?
  • Hawaii Nuclear Scare.* A false alarm was raised on Saturday that Hawaii had an incoming missile threat. The statement was walked back within the hour it was released, though that still was more than enough time to scare the daylights out of lots of Americans, particularly given our recent history with North Korea. It’s unclear what exactly caused the false report, but I think it’s fair to say we’re all glad to hear that it wasn’t actually true.

The Bad:

The Good:

And thus continues our Extra Extra edition news — lots of news of pretty much every type, but that’s better than news that’s uniformly bad. I’m hopeful that we’ll get some more good news next week, but I guess we’ll all find out together! Until then, keep on keepin’ on.

National News Roundup: Week 50 (December 31-January 6)

Kara HurvitzLeave a comment


Well, okay, we’re back, and so’s this administration — with a vengeance. All of them, and Sessions in particular, appear to be making up for lost time, though this season’s cast of characters still involves a lot of buffoonery — but hey, at least we know Trump is clearly having as bad of a week as the rest of us!

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

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

There was a fair amount that broke on the Russia Collusion Investigation front in the past few weeks, which we haven’t focused on specifically during the break. Here are the main highlights to know:

  • Recent Collusion Developments. I wrote a bit about some of this last week, because it broke over the weekend, but it’s important enough to bear repeating: Australia learned the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton back in spring 2016 — and subsequently tipped off the FBI, jump-starting our own first federal investigation — because George Papadopolous got drunk and told them so. As Seth Abramson notes in some twitter analysis, this sheds some light on the timeline of the FBI investigation, and also potentially seriously strengthens the legal case for collusion. News also broke that Trump ordered the White House’s counsel to stop Jeff Sessions from recusing himself, which obviously didn’t pan out but sure looks like blatant obstruction of justice. And the latest news to break on this front is that Mueller is now saying he wants to interview Trump directly — in response, I’m sure, to the earlier stories.
  • Manafort Suing Mueller. This news comes straight from Bizarro World, which is a neat trick because I didn’t think anything could still faze me by early 2018: Paul Manafort is suing the Department of Justice to stop the investigation against him (or at least slow it). The complaint itself is truly stunning; it rambles about Kenneth Starr for a full two pages like it’s still 1998 and then argues that Mueller should never have been appointed because… reasons? (It’s not exactly clear on that point.) Then the whole thing concludes by arguing that Manafort being an agent of Ukraine in 2014 is somehow unrelated to the collusion claims — a claim that’s laughable on its face for about a dozen reasons — and therefore they should stop investigating it. I cannot stress enough how much this isn’t how any of this works; the established remedy in an improper criminal investigation is that the evidence found gets excluded; the investigation itself does not stop. Unsurprisingly, nobody expects this ploy to succeed; it’s just a cheap political move designed to discredit Mueller further. Honestly, if I were the judge hearing this case I would be tempted to sanction these attorneys for even filing.
  • BUT HER EMAILS! In other deeply aggravating investigation news, the FBI is investigating the Clinton Foundation for a zillionth time, and is threatening to investigate her use of emails on a private server yet again as well. Putting aside the fact that the Clinton Foundation has been investigated without result for literally years, and the fact that much more egregious breaches of protocol than a private server have happened over and over and over again in the past year without any apparent investigative progress, and the fact that the alleged behaviors happened before 2013 and there’s a five-year statute of limitations on federal felonies…you know what, actually don’t put any of that aside; they’re all valid reasons to be really annoyed about this. But it’s also totally fair to be displeased by all these fiddle strains while we’re still waiting for somebody to do literally anything about all this smoke being reported, so you can go ahead and have opinions on that aspect as well.

There were also more egregious attacks on The Free Press front than we’ve seen in a while, though honestly they’re becoming so commonplace that I worry about how normalized it’s become:

Your “Normal” Weird:

The Bad:

The Good:

And that’s what I have this week — lots of news of pretty much every type, but that’s better than news that’s uniformly bad. I’m hopeful that we’ll get some more good news next week, but you’ll hear from me about it either way! Until then, keep on keepin’ on.

National News Roundup: Week 47 (December 10–16)

Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

By Randall McNair (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

The theme of this past week’s news was largely “brace yourself for raining shoes” — and several boots and a sandal have yet to drop as I write this. This week, keep your eyes peeled for Mueller mayhem, final votes on tax reform, and personnel changes on Capitol Hill. But in the meantime, here’s some info on what has happened already.

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 FBI agent! — 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 pretty quiet on the Russia Collusion Investigation front, in part because rumors started circulating that Mueller was about to be fired — but here’s what has happened:

  • Mueller Email Adventures. Over the weekend, the Trump administration accused Mueller of unlawfully obtaining tens of thousands of emails from them because he went through the third-party General Services Administration. But as several legal experts note, public email accounts have no expectation of privacy, and it would be prosecutorial misconduct not to request the records. These claims fuel concern that the President is looking for an excuse to fire Mueller, despite his lack of authority to do so (and his claims to the contrary).
  • Text Message Kerfuffle. Some unflattering texts between two FBI agents have Republicans clamoring to have a second special investigator investigate Mueller. This appears to be a whole lot of nothing — a subordinate calling Trump an ‘idiot’ and expressing a preference for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election hardly implicates Mueller in 2017, particularly when Mueller removed the FBI agent as soon as he learned of the texts. But the story does appear to be another indication that the administration is gaining steam in a push to discredit or oust the special prosecutor.

Your “Normal” Weird:

The Bad:

The Good:

And that’s basically the news that was fit to email this week — some good, some bad, most unfinished. It’s like the Big Dig of news weeks! And speaking of unfinished, the next few weeks are going to be a bit wonky here at Roundup Center, because both Christmas and New Year’s Day fall on a Monday. The tentative plan is to issue the Christmas roundup on December 26, and I’ll check in from there on how to handle New Year’s. Until we meet again, happy holidays!

Resist ornament sewn by Benn Kessler


National News Roundup: Week 46 (December 3–9)

Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

FORTEPAN / Saly Noémi, via Wikimedia Commons

I’ll be honest, y’all, I’m running out of ways to say “this week sucked.” But Amy Siskind and I agree: This week gives your vacuum cleaner a run for its money. (Although to be fair, you should probably throw that thing away anyway; it hasn’t been working the same since the Great Staircase Incident of ‘03.)

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

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

This week was a bit quieter on the Russia Collusion Investigation front, though there were a few stories:

Your “Normal” Weird:

The Bad:

The Good:

So that’s what happened this past week; hopefully next week will be better, though I’ll be back with another roundup either way. And seriously, get rid of that vacuum cleaner.

National News Roundup: Week 45 (November 26-December 2)

Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Ernest Blaikley, via Wikimedia Commons

You know how sometime in the last few months, there has probably been a point when I have said “comfort food at the ready” and then you read the news and thought “Wait, that wasn’t so horrible, maybe I’ve become inured to the true terribleness of our situation by my cocoon of low expectations”? This week, I am sad to report, will not be that week — it’s less “comfort food at the ready” and more “Sorry your friend Lando Collins sold you out but at least the carbonite makes the hurting stop.” If you get a moment, I really recommend reviewing materials on trauma resilience, emotional first-aid, and self-care this 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, but not the merger kind! — 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 saw multiple really big stories on Russia Collusion Investigation front, though what will result from them remains to be seen. Here are the two main highlights:

Your “Normal” Weird:

The Bad:

The Good:

  • An Australian Proposal. During a floor debate on codifying same-sex marriage in Australian Parliament (which was passed by referendum recently), an Australian lawmaker proposed to his long-term partner, who was watching from the gallery. The Australian House says this is the first time a marriage proposal of any type has happened on the floor, and it’s pretty cool that the first time it happened was in this context! Also, I want to live in a country where the Deputy Speaker’s response to something like this happening on the floor is “I should note for the Hansard that that was a yes, a resounding yes.”
  • AMT Owed. I’m not yet sure if this counts as good, or just hilarious, but New York Magazine reported today that the Senate accidentally screwed up a really major provision of the Tax Reform bill they just passed — which means the House can’t vote on the bill as-is without seriously angering donors. More specifically, here’s what apparently happened: An older version of the bill abolished the corporate Alternate Minimum Tax entirely, but in order to court hold-outs McConnell had to add a lot of expensive provisions. Since the bill can’t add more than 1.5 trillion to the debt in order to use the reconciliation process (and avoid a filibuster), one of the drafters put the AMT back into the draft. Only problem is, they forgot to lower it at all even though the whole point of this exercise was to create tax breaks, so they lowered the regular tax rate to 20% and then set the minimum tax rate at 20%! Obviously, going back to the drawing board means more opportunities to get moderate Senators and House members off-board. But even if we don’t see major gains from this, it’s still some good, good schadenfreude.

And that’s what I have this week — I’m super sorry about it all. But maybe Lando Collins will join the Rebel Alliance by Episode 6, if we can hold on that long…

National News Roundup: Week 43 (November 12–18)

Kara HurvitzLeave a comment


I would classify this week as a trash can fire rather than a full-blown dumpster fire, which is about the best I can say for it. You can only smell the noxious fumes from a room or two away, and the fire will be out soon. Next week is a new 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 postal worker! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

It was yet another vaguely surreal week on the Russia Collusion Investigation front. We didn’t see as much big news, but we’re still dealing with aftermath of a lot of different interrelated developments:

Your “Normal” Weird:

The Bad:

The Good:

And that’s what I have this week, in its inane, vaguely obnoxious mediocrity. Next week will be a new week, and I’m hoping it will be a good one (but I’ll accept anything shy of terrible). Either way, you’ll be hearing from me again soon!