Tag: September 2019

This upcoming week in the Jewish calendar marks the Ten Days of Repentance, a window of time between the Jewish New Year and the Day of Atonement. Jewish people consider this a time of reflection and renewal — an opportunity to think about how individuals and communities have done wrong in the past year, and how to rectify past misdeeds. So, given the news of the past week, this must be a weird time in Jared and Ivanka’s house.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a subpoena! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

The main contents of the CCC this week are another wild round of Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo, with everything even more dialed up to 11 than before. Here’s what I have for you, and I’m sorry about the mess:

• Impeachment Inquiry Imparted.* Since two thirds of House Democrats were calling for impeachment by the time the Democrat Caucus had an emergency meeting, it was exciting (but not surprising) when Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry on Tuesday evening. Support for the movement continued to grow after the announcement, until 223 members out of the 235 member caucus were supporting the inquiry. With such broad-based support, the House Intelligence Committee was also able to issue a subpoena for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as well as Rudy Giuliani and several additional State Department employees. Around the same time, the House and Senate successfully got the whistleblower complaint released, unimpressed by the White House’s ‘transcript’ of the call (which was really just a memorandum trying to recreate it). Before a two-week recess begin, the Senate and the House intelligence committees also began setting up interviews with the whistleblower, and acting intelligence chief Joseph Maguire testified for hours before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday. (The House Intelligence Committee is working through the recess, by the way, so they will continue to do things while everyone is gone.) We also saw the resignation of our first official — Kurt Volker, special envoy to Ukraine — who is still planning to testify even though (perhaps because?) he resigned. It’s clear the impeachment train has left the station, even if we don’t fully understand where it’s going yet.

• Dirt Excavation Synopsis. Between Maguire’s testimony, the publication of the whistleblower complaint, administrative gaffes, and good ole’ investigative journalism, we learned a number of new sketchy things in the past week — much of it so confusing that the Washington Post has made you a flowchart. Here’s a handy summary of the lowlights: 1) The administration definitely froze funds to Ukraine before the July phone call, and Ukraine in turn understood that they had to deal with the Biden thing to get the funds unfrozen; 2) Rudy Giuliani did inexplicably interface with Ukraine (and muck it up in the process), despite having no official position within government; 3) Records of the phone call were moved to a secret server in an explicit cover-up attempt, which is like ten times worse than the whole But Her Emails thing (and more on that last bit below); 4) Mike Pompeo was present on the line for the infamous July phone call with Ukraine; and 5) we might be about to do this again because there’s also an IRS whistleblowing complaint.

• Administrative Anger Synopsis. The administration continued to escalate to new heights of dangerous nonsense this week as the impeachment walls closed in around them. Among the lowlights: 1) The Trump administration accidentally sending Democrats the White House talking points; 2) Trump’s early attempts at damage control, which included hinting that Mike Pence was involved and asking Nancy Pelosi if they could work something out; 3) The subsequent Trump Administration Threatens Everybody phase, which included threatening the life of the whistleblower as well as the people who gave information to them, threatening a civil war if impeachment is pursued, threatening to charge Adam Schiff with treason, and threatening to ignore subpoenas issued to Mike Pompeo and five other State department staffers; and 4) the current stage of proceedings, which appears to be Administration Investigations for Everybody — or at least, William Barr has been bugging Australia and a bunch of other countries to help him investigate our own FBI and CIA (but more on that below).

As forecast above, we also had a wild resurgence of the Russia Investigation, by which I mean this administration is investigating the Mueller investigation. I guess the best defense is a “good” unrelated offense, at least if you’re playing MAGA LSD Five Dimensional Chess. Here’s what they’ve been up to:

• Trump and Barr Bother Australia et al. Both Barr and Trump were in the news over the past few days for trying to get Australia to help him investigate the tip that led to the Mueller investigation. Though conservative outlets note that it’s not unusual to ask for outside help with investigations, it is unusual to use external countries to help discredit a political opponent. When that fact is combined with the same super-secret storage process that was used for the call to Ukraine, this starts to look an awful lot like another illegal form of interference. Incredibly, Barr followed this up with outreach to multiple other countries, including outreach to Italy as recently as last week, which means they were still doing this after impeachment was announced.

• But Her Emails (Reprise). Speaking of Butter Emails, the Trump administration has reopened the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server for a zillionth time — I guess nothing says “our actions are defensible” quite like throwing an old kernel about a political enemy into the nonsense blender and seeing what kind of soup it makes. I can’t imagine this will go anywhere, but we should keep an eye on it just the same.

• Somehow More Mueller Investigation. Politico broke a story in the last day or two that Trump lied under oath to special counsel Robert Mueller when discussing his knowledge of Wikileaks’ plans to leak Dem information during the 2016 campaign — which I guess is a nice complement to all the news above about the Mueller investigation itself. I legitimately don’t understand how the Ukraine-related impeachment inquiry keeps turning up Russia investigation news, but it clearly is, and here we are.

• NRA as a Russian Asset.* There was also a lot of information released this week about the relationship between the NRA and Russia, which was revisited this week as the result of a Senate Finance Committee report. And, of course, it’s not surprising that the NRA was also in the news for offering to help Trump fight off impeachment — if he ‘drop[ped] the games’ about supporting responsible gun legislation. Nothing says ‘definitely not guilty of colluding with Russia’ quite like ‘financially bailed out by their asset,’ amirite?

Your “Normal” Weird:

• Universal Postal Union Scare.* We had a brief scare this week when it looked like the U.S. might withdraw from the international postal scene, because Something Something Importing Fees (although it looks like it was really about China). Eventually we were able to reach a deal with the U.N. postal union, saving us from an embarrassing USPexit. Yeesh.

The Bad:

• Your Weekly Immigration Hell. Immigration news continues to be bad, although we did see some non-executive pushback this week. The Senate and House both voted to kill the emergency declaration along the southern border, which is a polite way of saying that they told Trump that his wall is bad and he should feel bad. (Of course, since he can just turn around and veto it, it’s really more of a symbolic move.) While they were doing that, the Trump administration announced they’ll let only in 18,000 refugees during FY2020, which for those of you playing the home game is the lowest refugee cap in our history, and just slightly above 10% of Obama’s number in FY2017. For an encore, the New York Times reported on Trump’s myriad violent proposals for border ‘security,’ which apparently included shooting migrants in the legs, electrocuting them, and siccing snakes and alligators on them.

The Good:

• Recent Court Resilience. For all that we had obnoxious immigration news this week, we had some good court cases as well. The administration’s bid to get to hold migrant kids indefinitely was unceremoniously shot down, though I’m sure they’ll appeal that in a hot second. Many people were brought grave satisfaction when Amber Guyger, the police officer who came into a neighbor’s house and shot him, was found guilty of murder for said shooting. And though there was an appellate court case that partially upheld the revocation of net neutrality rules, it did overturn the ban on state regulation to keep net neutrality in place.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, but there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this doggo employing hug therapy 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 ice cream, cause we still need it!

Okay folks, I suggest that you brace yourself now — this week’s Constitutional Crisis Corner is on a whole new level, and I don’t mean that in the “oh hey I progressed in Donkey Kong Country” way. (Although Trump’s Kremlin(g) impression keeps getting more transparent. Watch out for those barrels of dynamite! I’ll be under the bed.)

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a tax return! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

The Constitutional Crisis Corner now has a brand new subsection, and I suggest we all grow to love it because it’s going to be here a while. So let me be the first to welcome you to Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo, the game we all hate and will likely be stuck playing for the next month or more:

• What Whistleblowing?* Let’s start with the lead-in to the current crisis. News broke at the top of last week that the director of national intelligence was refusing to hand over a whistleblowing complaint filed on August 12 to the House Intelligence Committee, and apparently reached this conclusion after talking with the Justice Department and the White House about it. This would have been bad no matter what, but was extra terrible because the complaint had already been flagged an “urgent concern” by the Inspector General and said acting director had a legal obligation to cough it up under statute. Eventually he did agree to testify after the House Intelligence Committee threatened to sue, but by then everybody wanted to know what was up with his hinky behavior. Then the thing that was up turned out to be Trump, who was apparently speaking to the newly-elected President of Ukraine. Then we learned it was about a promise made on said phone call, which happened the day after Mueller testified. Then we learned the exact topic was investigating Joe Biden’s son, which he pushed for several times this summer and sent Giuliani abroad to set up, incentivizing the whole thing with U.S. military aid. And with that last revelation, the three rings of this month’s circus were officially in place.

• The Trump Response(tm). Trump and his team handled these allegations about as well as you might expect, which is to say not well at all. First Trump went the denial route, saying that the complaint came from a “partisan whistleblower” (despite not knowing who filed it) and tweet-ranting that the whole thing was a “Ukraine witch-hunt.” Then Giuliani admitted his role in the whole thing on national television, so Trump pivoted to say that yeah, the July 25 phone call happened, but it was “perfectly fine and routine” despite also confirming the content of the discussion, and insisted that “someone ought to look into Joe Biden.” Then today he declared that he should get a Nobel peace prize and followed by insinuating that Joe Biden should be electrocuted, and I honestly can’t believe I’m not making any of that up.

• So Are We Impeaching, Or What?* Most analyses I’m seeing are (correctly) noting that what Trump has admitted to is definitely an impeachable offense, and in fact exactly the type of offense that the entire impeachment system is designed to address (regardless of whatever turns out to be going on with Hunter and Joe Biden). At the time that I draft this, at least 138 House Democrats are calling for impeachment, including multiple reps from centrist districts. And while Adam Schiff appears to be climbing off the fence on the topic, Nancy Pelosi is still dragging her feet. In her Sunday letter, she called the whole thing a “grave new chapter of lawlessness” and referenced a “whole new stage of investigation,” but merely demanded Congress get to see the complaint and speak to the whistleblower. (Just to remind the folks at home, under federal law Congress is supposed to see the complaint no matter what else is happening, so this isn’t much of a demand.) Pelosi is meeting with officials tomorrow, and here’s hoping she moves closer to the general vicinity of the impeachment bandwagon as a result.

Despite all of the above, we do still have some Russia Investigation news, though it sort of pales in comparison. Here’s what I have right now:

• Lewandowski Testimony. Former Trump campaign staffer Corey Lewandowski at least ostensibly attempted to testify before the House Judiciary Committee this past week, in what is widely regarded as their first official impeachment hearing on obstruction of justice — and by all accounts, he was a real peach about it. Among the lowlights: Refusing to answer questions; mocking sitting Senators; and announcing his own 2020 Senate campaign.

Just like every week, there was also a fair amount of Disregard of Governing Norms outside of the whole whistleblowing parade. Here’s what I have for you:

• Air Emission What Now.* In the latest escalation of the ongoing air emission argument Trump is having with half the automative industry, the administration is moving to revoke California’s agreement with these automakers to adhere to stricter emission standards. The state’s authority to set stricter standards dates back to 1968 and is comes from the Clean Air Act itself, which is one of many reasons this bonkers move likely isn’t legal. The revocation also impacts the thirteen other states that agreed to follow the stricter standards, so it’s not surprising that 23 states are suing in response.

• Tax Return Fight Redux.* At the top of the week,the Manhattan District Attorney subpoenaed eight years of Trump tax documents pursuant to an investigation of the Stormy Daniels payment. Ordinarily this would be good news, but Trump responded by suing the DA right back, saying that he can’t be investigated while he’s President. And a federal judge also granted an injunction to stop California from requiring tax disclosure of all 2020 Presidential candidates, setting back the tax issue even further (though it will almost certainly be appealed).

• Elaine Chao Investigation. Transportation secretary Elaine Chao is being investigated for alleged ethics violations — and for those of you playing the home game, yes, you are correctly remembering that this is Mitch McConnell’s wife. She’s supposed to turn over internal documents by September 30, so we should know more one way or the other by the time we reach that deadline.

Your “Normal” Weird:

• New National Security Adviser? Against the backdrop of everything else, it’s pretty easy to forget that John Bolton just got resign-fired, but we now have a named candidate to replace him — hostage negotiator Robert O’Brien. Apparently O’Brien has some bipartisan support, with a former Obama staffer describing him as “a good person [who] will certainly be [in] a challenging role.” The weird thing here is that Trump wants someone with bipartisan support in the first place, but hopefully O’Brien will be a tempering influence.

The Bad:

• Your Weekly Immigration Hell. Despite the chaotic nature of the week, the Trump administration still found time to make things worse for migrant families. The biggest news is that they reached a deal to send asylum seekers to El Salvador, which is incredibly ill-advised because conditions there are so unsafe that a huge number of credible asylum claims come from El Salvador. ICE was also in the news for announcing that they expect to re-up the number of detained families again this summer, rededicating some facilities to family use — although maybe we’ll get lucky, and this administration will be too distracted to follow through on that.

• The Jungle 2019. Just over a hundred years after Upton Sinclair published ‘The Jungle,’ apparently we forgot everything, because Trump’s new USDA rules allow pork slaughterhouses to essentially self-police. Though the administration says it’s an attempt to “modernize” standards, which haven’t been adjusted in over 50 years, the changes would reduce the number of food inspectors onsite by over 40%. It’s hard to see that as a good thing, particularly when this administration is so fond of deregulating first and considering safety later — I have a feeling I’ll gain some company on Team Eating No Pork Products when these changes go into effect.

The Good:

• Climate Strikes Again.* Teen climate change activist Greta Thunberg testified before Congress this past week, and definitely took no prisoners, reminding Congress to listen to experts on this incredibly important issue. Thunberg’s testimony was timed alongside an international climate strike on Friday, which she also helped organize, with millions of people participating in over 150 countries. In New York and many other places, students successfully petitioned for amnesty from truancy, and a huge number of businesses either closed shop or gave their employees paid time off so that they could participate. Then Thunberg filed a legal complaint with the U.N. and read the entire assemblage for filth, passionately outlining their history of inaction. The massive action here illustrates just how much societies around the world care about making real changes, and I really hope our world leaders are listening.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, but there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this lil big cat playing with autumn leaves 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 ice cream, cause we still need it!

It has been another long week, and increasingly it’s easy to forget there was ever any other kind. Here’s hoping that next week is better than this one, because I’m here to tell you I prefer fewer constitutional crises with my breakfast cereal.

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

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

We’re starting to see more movement on the Russia Investigation, though as with all things we see pushback whenever we see progress. Here’s what I have right now:

• Impeachment Investigation Update.* As predicted at the top of the week, the House Judiciary panel did pass a resolution to officially start its impeachment investigation on Thursday. Needless to say, Nancy Pelosi was not impressed, but the committee is already negotiating Jeff Sessions’ testimony, so that train is pretty clearly leaving the station whether she’s on it or not.

• McCabe is the New Comey. Apparently not satisfied with the Inspector General’s report on James Comey, the Justice Department announced this week that they are authorizing an indictment of Andrew McCabe, because Reasons. Given the overt political connotations of this move, as well as the larger history, we should definitely keep an eye on it.

There was also a fair amount of Disregard of Governing Norms, and some of it is pretty extreme. Here’s what I have for you:

• Kavanaugh Hell Comeback.* After the New York Times released a new piece on Brett Kavanaugh’s history of sexual assault at Yale, his sketchy past regained the public eye — and more to the point, the gaps in the FBI investigation from last summer did too. In light of the new allegations, Trump is saying the DOJ should ‘rescue’ him and Democrats are saying that Kavanaugh should be impeached. It’s honestly kind of an open question what happens next, especially with a Democrat-controlled House.

• This Week’s Trump Malfeasance. In a shocking turn of events, Trump was horrifying again this week. First there was more news about his behavior at the G-7 Summit, where he called the Egyptian President “my favorite dictator.” And he also called homeless populations in California “a disgrace to our country,” apparently while considering just razing tent cities as a solution to the problem. For the icing on the rotted cake, he’s also considering monitoring people with mental health issues because something something NRA funding. (And this is where I remind the audience that folks living with mental health issues are far more likely to be victims of violent crime than to perpetrate it — the most reliable marker for gun violence is a history of domestic violence, not mental health issues.)

• Yet More White House Staff Shuffle. One of this week’s weirder stories is Trump tweet-firing national security adviser John Bolton, which Bolton claims happened just after he tried to resign — and neither side is backing down about whose idea it was. At any rate, outlets are also reporting that Trump has been calling former adviser H.R. McMaster and telling him he misses him, so I guess we’ll see if he’s offered the job again.

• North Carolina Remembers 9/11.* The North Carolina GOP was in the news yet again for sketchy practices, only a week or two after the latest judicial order to fix their incredibly gerrymandered maps. This time, the charming practice in question was holding a vote during a 9/11 memorial service so that they could override the governor’s budget veto while all the Dems were elsewhere. (Before you ask, yes, that is the same governor they tried to legislatively hamstring before he even took office.) Since North Carolina’s government has often been a bellwether for what kind of chaos we can expect on the national level, we should pay attention to this kind of cheap tactic.

Your “Normal” Weird:

• Purdue Declares Bankruptcy.* Purdue Pharma — the major pharmaceutical company widely regarded as responsible for sparking the opiate crisis — filed for bankruptcy this week. This may be an attempt to get out of the $1.2B settlement they agreed to a week or two ago, but it also might simply be true that their many lawsuits have bankrupted them. Either way, it almost certainly marks the end of the company, which brings grim satisfaction to many people touched by the opiate epidemic.

The Bad:

• Your Weekly Immigration Hell. The Supreme Court issued a ruling this week on an asylum-related injunction, and Elena Kagan and I are fighting now. In a 7–2 decision, they gave the Trump administration authority to resume denying asylum applications to people who traveled through Mexico without applying there while the case makes its way through the court system. This new rule violates existing federal legislation, and it’s going to get people killed, and I’m honestly really upset about it.

• Synagogue Fire. A historic 119-year-old synagogue burned down this week in Minnesota, marking the destruction of the last historic prayer center of its kind in the region. Reports differ on whether it was arson or an accident, but the main suspect is not being charged with a hate crime. Even so, the fire is a painful loss felt more keenly because of the political atmosphere of 2019.

The Good:

• Stores Take a Stand (continued). Modern businesses again expressed opinions about gun law reform this week, this time with a letter to Congress signed by CEOs of 145 different companies. The letter called the Senate’s current inaction “simply unacceptable,” urging them to enact existing House bills requiring expanded background checks and stronger red flag laws. We’ll see if anything comes of this, but even if it doesn’t, the sheer number of companies indicates that public sentiment is not in McConnell’s court here.

• Recent Court Resilience. This was a good week for New York court cases, I tell you what. Another emoluments suit survived a standing challenge this week, with the Second Circuit appeals court reinstated a case the district court had dismissed. Meanwhile, the Manhattan District Attorney has subpoenaed Trump’s tax documents from the past eight years pursuant to a criminal investigation of the Stormy Daniels payment. This is a big deal, because the Congressional subpoenas are tied up with lawsuits and the Manhattan case potentially has a lot more jurisdiction to obtain them. I’m excited to see what happens on this!

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can all agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this excited pup going down a slide 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 ice cream, cause we’re gonna need it!

This week was a day shorter than normal, and yet somehow still managed to nonetheless squeeze in two weeks’ worth of burning garbage. It’s kind of a neat magic trick, except for the part where, y’know, it sucks.

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 energy-efficient light bulb manufacturer! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

We’re starting to see more movement on the Russia Investigation, and I’m excited to see what the House does now that it’s returning! Here’s what I have right now:

• Impeachment Investigation Update.* With the House resuming this week, the Judiciary Committee plans to vote on formalizing the whole impeachment inquiry thing sometime this week — it’s a necessary initial step for real impeachment proceedings, and has only been done twice before in our history. With a majority of House Democrats now favoring impeachment, it will be very interesting to see what is done with this vote.

There was also a fair amount of Disregard of Governing Norms, and some of it is pretty extreme. Here’s what I have for you:

• Trump and the Taliban.* Trump announced via Twitter this week that he invited the Taliban to come talk at Camp David this week, only a few days before the eighteenth anniversary of 9/11. In true Trump form, he also wanted praise for refusing to let the Taliban in after they took credit for killing 12 Americans, ignoring the fact that he never should have been offering them entry in the first place. Then Pompeo tried to convince us that this is super normal and every President invites terrorists over for tea — and I think this Twitter user speaks for us all when she says, “I am really thankful that Obama eliminated Bin Laden before Trump became best friends with him.”

• Primary Blues. Despite the fact that more Republican candidates have announced they plan to run in 2020, Republicans in four states are canceling their presidential primaries ahead of the election season. Needless to say, challengers aren’t exactly thrilled with this, and though I’m loathe to agree with Joe Walsh on absolutely anything I do agree with his observation that this is something a mob boss would do.

• Emoluments Again.* We appear to have once again reached that magical time when people suddenly start remembering the Emoluments Clause is a thing, and again start looking into the money that Trump is making off of our government hand over fist. The latest this week is a new investigation into Trump’s previously-failing resort in Scotland, which has prompted a disproportionate number of stopovers at the nearest airport — including multiple military flights, even though it’s standard procedure to refuel at air bases. So the Air Force and the House are now looking into that, and we can add them to the pile of multiple other emoluments actions.

Your “Normal” Weird:

• Further EPA Deregulation Adventures.* In apparent response to resistance from automakers on proposed deregulation of emissions rules, the Justice Department is now investigating those automakers for antitrust violations. Apparently confident in the persuasive power of petty abuses, they then went ahead and relaxed light bulb efficiency rules too. The new rules create more costs for literally everyone, and on the heels of the automotive stuff I can’t overstate how wild this all is. It’s like if an amusement park decided it was too much work to use seat belts on roller coasters, and then when park-goers stopped riding them, the park responded by threatening to slash coaster enthusiasts’ tires and taking the seat belts off of Ferris wheels.

The Bad:

• Your Weekly Immigration Hell. This week was a little bit lighter than previous weeks on the immigration front, but that really isn’t saying much. The military has started defunding over a hundred Pentagon projects to divert moneys to the border wall, with most of the projects being quality-of-life supports such as daycares and schools. (Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is trying to talk European allies we’ve alienated into footing the bill for said projects.) Meanwhile, the Trump administration is considering severely cutting our refugee program for a third year in a row, and one of the plans on the table is admitting no refugees at all in FY20. So that’s fun and definitely legal.

• Dorian Aftermath. Throughout the tail end of the week, Hurricane Dorian (and the administration’s reaction to it) remained very concerning. As I mentioned on Tuesday, it passed through the Caribbean as a Category 5 storm that took at least 43 lives and left 70,000 people in need of aid. (The hurricane also hit Florida, the Carolinas, and Canada, though nowhere near as hard). Though we’ve historically permitted open travel for Bahamans with a passport and clean criminal record, people started reporting that Bahamans were being ordered off of Florida-bound boats, because an overnight policy change means trips now require a visa. Meanwhile, news sites are still covering the ongoing saga of Trump’s weird lies about Dorian hitting Alabama — though, to be fair, there’s plenty there that’s very concerning. In particular, NOAA being told to lie to back 45 up isn’t great, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross threatening to fire people if they didn’t comply is even worse.

• Straight Pride Parade Brutality (continued). As the aftermath of the Straight Pride Parade unfolds, we continue to see distortion of proper due process that is very concerning. As I mentioned last week, the judge hearing criminal charges issued bail conditions barring people from the city, and followed that up by rejecting the District Attorney’s motion to dismiss charges against the majority of protesters. For an encore, the same judge held a prominent immigration attorney in contempt when she read precedent about case dismissals into the record while defending one of the protesters in court. District Attorney Rollins has moved for interlocutory appeal of the motion to dismiss, and the appeals justice found the BMC judge in error today. Folks, especially as an attorney who practices in the Boston area, I really can’t overstress how bizarre and bad I find this entire story — none of this should be considered normal, and I’m not surprised that the decision was immediately overturned.

The Good:

• Success in Hong Kong. The extradition bill in Hong Kong, which sparked many months of dedicated protest, was finally taken off the table this week by leader Carrie Lam. The protesters are nonetheless holding strong, calling for more bedrock political reform that would allow the region to retain its autonomy and curtail police brutality. Both the withdrawal of the bill and the protesters’ convictions are really powerful reminders of how civil unrest can protect important liberties.

• Stores Take a Stand. This week, Walmart announced that it is going to stop selling handguns and their associated ammunition in its stores, and also will ask customers to stop carrying guns in the stores entirely. The change comes on the heels of several mass shootings over the past few months, including two recent shootings that occurred within Walmart’s stores. Shortly after Walmart made its announcement, Kroger announced that they were following suit on the whole “don’t carry guns here please” thing. Both companies are also asking Congress to enact better gun reform laws, though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell keeps passing the buck on voting. And the NRA is already trying to froth up gun owners about this, because the Second Amendment definitely protects your right to bear arms in a Walmart.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can all agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this American woodcock rocking out 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 ice cream, cause we’re already out!