Year 3 – National News Roundup

Year 3, Week 52 (January 12-18)

January 20, 2020January 21, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This week marks the pomp and circumstance leading into the Senate trial, and tomorrow we see the beginning of the Senate trial itself. I’m still not sure what kind of ride we will see, but we’re watching the GOP set up a circus and the House set up a courtroom, so there’s bound to be some clashing genres and a whole lot of inanity.

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 manager!–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:

At the time that I type this, Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo is transitioning into the trial stage of proceedings, which is going about as well as you might expect. Here’s a quick summary of the uncertainty:

Senate Trial Prep.The House voted to send along the articles of impeachment on Wednesday, and Nancy Pelosi picked House managers to prosecute–all legislators with legal experience, noting that her metric was “comfort in the court room.” Trump picked his team as well, which included…famous lawyers, I guess? Among the confusing picks: Kennith Starr, who famously prosecuted Clinton’s impeachment so hard that people compared him to Javert, and Alan Dershowitz, who was probably just ecstatic that someone believes he’s still relevant.) The Senate then took oaths of impartiality, even though several GOP Senators have informed us that they have zero intent to remain impartial, and appears to have agreed to Kamala Harris’s call for a halt in judicial review while the impeachment is pending. Today, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell released his proposed trial rules, which can more-or-less be summarized as “Who needs evidence, witnesses, or time to respond to motions? Let’s just get this over with in forty-eight hours, shall we?” All of this is particularly galling when you consider that the Government Accountability Office also released a report this week stating that the White House definitely broke federal laws when it withheld funds from Ukraine for a policy reason.

Bonkers Parnas Evidence.* As hinted above, the House released a bunch more information gleaned from Lev Parnas this week in waves, and most of it is incredibly damning–the documents hint at everything from stalking Ambassador Yovanovitch to the involvement of Devin Nunes. Rachel Maddow also had a completely bonkers interview with Parnas where he reiterated that “everybody was in the loop” (including Trump, Pence and William Barr) about all of the above. And information also leaked that Giuliani had requested a private meeting with President Zelensky, using Parnas as a broker.

We still have some Iran updates this week under Disregard of Governing Norms, but there are some new contenders as well. These are the updates:

Iran Updates.* Iran news is dying down, but we did get a few updates. Namely, the White House story shifted yet again, with Attorney General William Barr saying that the DOJ declared Soleimani a legitimate target when consulted before the bombing, and that said bombing was part of a larger strategey of ‘deterrence’ (which, frankly, is terrifying if true and terrifying if false, so we lose either way). Unsurprisingly, we also heard news that as many as ten GOP Senators may vote to limit this administration’s war powers with regards to Iran, because the White House clearly has abused the privilege.

Legalizing Bribery.* This week’s “I can’t believe I’m not making this up” award is something of a twofer, and to be fair involves news from 2017. First the Washington Post ran a story adapted from a new book about the administration titled ‘A Very Stable Genius,’ noting that Trump called our military brass “a bunch of dopes and babies” because they wouldn’t farm out our troops for money. Then other outlets took that torch and ran with it, noting that he also wanted to change laws to allow bribery of foreign officials overseas, which is kind of a fascinating precursor to the current Ukraine controversy.

Your “Normal” Weird:

2020 Election Weirdness.After Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders were in the news for an apparent rift about the electability of women in 2020, there was much to-do about how this played out on Tuesday’s debate–namely, with Elizabeth Warren pointing out that she and Klobuchar both have the most successful campaign histories of the six contenders, and with a declined handshake that everybody yelled about for way too long, given that Sanders is researching whether he could give her multiple positions in his hypothetical administration. The Iowa caucuses are coming upon us, which is probably why the New York Times issued an endorsement today–of Klobuchar and Warren, though many outlets seem to be forgetting the Warren part.

Fraught Russia With Love.* Current Russian President and all-around scary guy Vladimir Putin made some significant changes to how Russian politics work this week–namely, he replaced his resigning Prime Minister as he simultaneously changed the Russian Constitution to allow him to stay in power instead of running into a term limit in 2024. Some outlets are calling the one-two combination a January revolution, as it might allow Putin to remain in power for life, and nobody’s quite sure what his game is. That said, it definitely means nothing good for the United States.

The Bad:

Administration Attempts Governing. The administration did do some actual governing this week, and most of it was no great shakes. The biggest news as I type this is that Trump signed a partial trade deal with China, which doesn’t do everything he wanted but he’s calling it “a monumental step” anyway because the man literally lies fifteen times a day. (It does relax some sanctions, though several remain in place, and hopefully it will provide some relief for farmers and the manufacturing sector.) The administration also proposed relaxing rules about nutrition in school menus, Michelle Obama’s most significant achievement, so that fewer vegetables were required and more fast food was permitted. They did this on this past Friday, which just so happens to also be Michelle Obama’s birthday, because apparently we’re being governed by middle schoolers.

Gun Rally Rodeo. Virginia was in the news this week for a pro-gun rally to protest recently-proposed gun reform laws that caused a lot of fear and chaos before it even began. In the week leading up to the rally, the governor declared a state of emergency and the FBI arrested several men with ties to white supremacist militias who were planning to attend (some of whom were coming in from outside the country). The rally itself drew 22,000 people, many of whom were armed despite the governor’s instructions, though only one twenty-one-year-old unarmed woman was arrested.

The Good:

Equal Rights Amendment Resilience.Virginia ratified the Equal Rights Amendment this week, making it the thirty-eighth state to ratify since the legislation was passed in 1972. In fact, since the original proposal was so long ago, experts aren’t certain what happens next–we’ve reached the magic number for ratification, but there’s some disagreement about whether there was a time limit and this administration is trying to block it. We should definitely continue to watch this, but even just reaching the number for ratification is very exciting.

Recent Court Resilience.The Fifth Circuit declined to hear a case that would have reopened the question of whether fifteen-week abortions are legal in the state of Mississippi, which means the decision to strike down the law in the lower courts stands (at least for now). It’s not clear why the court declined to hear the case, but the outcome is a win, so I’m counting it nonetheless.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sure next week will be bonkers. For making it through, you deserve this elephant’s impromptu gentle hotel tour 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 good health for our household!

Year 3, Week 48 (December 15-21)

December 23, 2019December 24, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

At the time that I type this, Trump has officially been impeached by the House. A lot of people have asked me what I think of that news, but the truth of the matter is that I don’t know what to think, because nobody knows what will happen next–we’re all off the rails here, folks. We’ve never had a situation like this before.

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 Christian magazine!–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:

At the time that I type this, Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo has officially resulted in impeachment of President Trump, but it’s still chaos as usual and Congress has gone on break for the holiday. Here’s a quick summary of the uncertainty:

House Floor Vote.* On Wednesday evening, the House voted to impeach Trump on the basis of both abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The vote was almost entirely along party lines, but there were a few exceptions to the general voting trends–notably, Democratic 2020 Presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard voted ‘present,’ former GOP rep Justin Amash voted ‘yea,’ and two Democrats (Collin Peterson and Jeff Van Drew) voted ‘nay.’ Jeff Van Drew has since announced that he’s joining the Republican party.

Ukraine News Still Coming Out.* Somehow, we’re still getting fresh news about the original Ukraine-related malfeasance despite the fact that the investigation stage of the impeachment is ostensibly over. This week, Rudy Giuliani told multiple news outlets about how he ousted former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch because she would block an illegal Ukraine deal. Then newly-released documents revealed that the administration first froze aid to Ukraine only about 90 minutes after the infamous July phone call–drawing a clear line back to Trump and bribery. Needless to say, this has made next steps even more complicated, as I’ll talk about below.

So What Now? Even though Trump has officially been impeached, we have no idea when we’ll see a Senate trial, if we even do at all. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are already getting embroiled in a Senate clash of wills–McConnell is promising “total coordination” with the guy they’re supposed to be have on trial, in direct contradiction to the pledge of impartiality he’s supposed to make when upon starting the trial. This quite understandably has Democrats pretty uneasy; Nancy Pelosi has strongly implied that she’s holding onto the impeachment articles until the Senate has set up something resembling an actual trial. Meanwhile, Trump has sent Pelosi six pages of personally-addressed vitriol and claimed that he’s not impeached because she hasn’t sent the articles, McConnell is lashing out at Pelosi too, and Democrats are pushing for witnesses again now that we’ve seen the new documents and Rudy Giuliani mess above. So what happens next is pretty much anybody’s guess.

We also saw a handful of miscellaneous Disregard of Governing Norms stories this week, though impeachment really had center stage. Here’s what I have for you:

Trump Christ Comparisons Abound. As part of the impeachment circus above, Republicans who were displeased with the proceedings compared Trump’s treatment to, among other things, the attack on Pearl Harbor and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. That last one apparently riled up some people over at Christianity Today, who wrote in an article shortly after: “The impeachment hearings have illuminated the president’s moral deficiencies for all to see. . . . None of the president’s positives can balance the moral and political danger we face under a leader of such grossly immoral character.” Naturally, Trump’s camp responded by discrediting Christianity Today as “a far left magazine” and comparing Trump to Jesus again. (I’ve tried turning reality off and back on again, but it didn’t seem to help here.)

GOP Lowlights Reel.* Even without comparing Trump to Jesus repeatedly and refusing to impeach him, this was a real banner week for the GOP. A Trump advisor was caught on tape this week saying that the GOP “traditionally” uses voter suppression to win swing states and should try a “more aggressive approach” in 2020, which is honestly kind of scary to contemplate given what suppression tactics look like already. Then Trump insinuated that a recently deceased statesman who served for 59 years was watching impeachment proceedings from hell. (No, Trump, you’re thinking of the rest of us.) And on his way out the door, former Kentucky governor and apparent sociopath Matt Bevin pardoned over 400 people, including several people convicted of serious, violent crimes such as murder and child rape. One of the pardoned people convicted of homicide, by the way, was the brother of a major donor to Bevin’s campaign.

Your “Normal” Weird:

2020 Election Weirdness.Another Democratic primary debate happened this week, which the New York Times (correctly) called “the smallest and whitest debate yet”–seven candidates took the stage, and only one of them was a candidate of color. Biden, Sanders, and Warren continue to be front runner candidates, though Buttigieg isn’t far behind, and Warren got a good soundbite about gender in. All told, right now the race is remarkable for how unremarkable it is–at the close of the year, we still don’t seem to have made much progress.

Spending Bill Updates.The spending bill I mentioned last week did pass in the Senate, and Trump signed it on Friday, avoiding another government shutdown. But he was also in the news that day because he apparently leaned on the House to remove language requiring Ukrainian aid from an earlier draft–you know, the Ukrainian aid that was literally the subject of an impeachment investigation at the time, that Ukrainian aid?–and threatened to cause another shutdown with a Presidential veto if the clause wasn’t removed. I literally cannot make this stuff up, folks.

The Bad:

Painful Immigration Updates. This was another painful week for immigration. The DHS inspector general found no CBP misconduct in the recent deaths of two Guatemalan migrant children in custody, even as news also broke that one of the children was on the floor for many hours after passing away before anyone found him. Guatemala is expected to finalize an asylum deal with the U.S. in the near future, which will require people coming up from the northern triangle to first seek asylum there before they will be eligible for U.S. asylum. (To remind folks who are less familiar with the topic, this is a very dangerous proposition for folks seeking asylum from the northern triangle, and will likely result in a lot of deaths.) And in slightly gentler news, several states informed the administration that they would continue to accept refugees despite no longer being legally required, but it’s disturbing that they’re able to make that call in the first place.

ACA Uncertainty (Again). This remains a confusing and uncertain time for the Affordable Care Act, which weathered several swipes in the past week between tax repeals in the spending package and the Fifth Circuit finding the insurance mandate unconstitutional. The court stopped short of repealing the entire thing, and the California AG, who is leading the charge to defend the Act, has indicated he plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. Needless to say, we’ll need to keep an eye on this.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. The Supreme Court decided not to review a lower court decision this week that invalidated a law issuing criminal charges for sleeping in public places, finding it to be cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Since they aren’t hearing the case, the opinion remains good law, and it has some good language about the cruelty of punishing people for having no place to live. It’s a modest step for housing stability, but a step in the right direction nonetheless.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think it was more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this mom yelling at her pundit sons on C-SPAN 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 photos of your pets!

Year 3, Week 47 (December 8-14)

December 16, 2019December 17, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Welp, another week of bonkers impeachment stuff, with some bonus other bizarre news while we’re at it. I would say the news is getting repetitive, but to be honest it remains so larger-than-life bizarre that it’s still kind of fascinating to watch. (Here’s hoping next week is quieter.)

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 House floor vote!–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 Corner:

We made it out the other side of the Judiciary Committee, which means Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo is headed to the main House floor. Here’s a quick summary of its pathway:

Tail End of Judiciary Committee.*After two articles of impeachment were issued on Tuesday, the Judiciary Committee began an extraordinary multi-day feud that showcased a staggering amount of GOP bad faith, some nasty ad hominem diversions on both sides, and more instances of the word ‘sham’ than I ever needed in my life. By 11:00PM on Thursday, at which point it became apparent that the GOP was trying to force a middle-of-the-night vote, the chairman adjourned the chamber and told everybody to try again Friday morning. Then on Friday morning the chairman immediately called a vote, and the committee passed both articles of impeachment along party lines. By Monday morning, apparently spurred by the repeated GOP arguments that Trump had committed no crimes and therefore couldn’t be impeached, the Judiciary Committee heads released a 658-page impeachment report for House review.

So What Now? At the time that I write this, a report has just been issued and the House floor vote is expected on Wednesday. (Given the current makeup of the House, it seems very likely to pass along party lines from there.) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are already getting embroiled in a Senate clash of wills, despite the fact that impeachment hasn’t landed there yet. McConnell is promising “total coordination” with the guy they’re supposed to be have on trial, which quite understandably has Democrats pretty uneasy; meanwhile, Schumer is creating a witness wish list. And Trump is apparently warming to the idea of a long trial, probably because he knows McConnell and the rest of the Senate GOP will allow him a full dog-and-pony show.

Giuliani Life Choice Coda. With everything in the mix above, you’d think that people under scrutiny would not, y’know, do more crime things in public. But common sense has apparently never met Rudy Giuliani, who did in fact continue to do the crime things in plain sight. After he returned from last week’s trip to Ukraine, Giuliani headed straight to the White House, presumably offering some more of his free legal advice to Trump (which was also in the news this past week). But he also apparently is making a documentary of his own crime times, which according to Trump he plans to give to Congress, so the visit could have been about that as well. You know, occasionally I think about the fact that Giuliani used to be a criminal prosecutor, and then my brain tries to eat itself.

We also saw a handful of miscellaneous Disregard of Governing Norms stories this week, though impeachment really had center stage. Here’s what I have for you:

To Russia with Love. Trump may not have met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yet, but he sure met with top Russian diplomat Sergei Lavrov this week–and refused to let anybody else into the room for it. This is extra awesome, by the way, because the last time he met with Lavrov behind closed doors in 2017 he disclosed classified information. So that’s definitely not concerning as we gear up for an election Russia is trying to sabotage–although Lavrov says elections didn’t come up at all when they met.

Be Best, Greta Thunberg. Trump was also in the news this week for attacking sixteen-year-old Greta Thunberg again, presumably because she was named TIME’s 2019 Person of the Year and he is uncomfortable when we are not about him. Thunberg, illustrating why we stan royalty, immediately used his Twitter attack to clap back at him. Meanwhile, Melania Trump, who literally has a campaign about cyberbullying, publicly differentiated between Thunberg and her own child, noting that Thunberg “travels the globe giving speeches” like that somehow voids basic rules of Internet etiquette. As many outlets have noted, this is particularly annoying given her tweet about the Barron Trump non-controversy last week. But more to the point, the President of the United States is using a public platform to launch unprovoked attacks at international activists, and if we weren’t all living in the Trump Org Sponsored Bad Place that would be a major diplomatic misstep–especially with the recent United Nations climate change summit going as poorly as it did.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Disturbing Court Cases. There were several court cases that gained news attention this week for being, well, legally weird and disturbing (to use a technical term). The ACLU is trying to get the Supreme Court to hear a case involving a police officer in Louisiana who successfully sued the head of the Black Lives Matter movement–not for incitement or direct violence, but because the 5th Circuit decided merely being in charge of the movement meant he should be held liable for somebody else throwing a rock. This is pretty bizzonkers from a legal perspective, and I doubt it’s a coincidence that one of the three judges was a Trump appointee. Meanwhile, Wisconsin was in the news because a judge ordered the purge of over 200,000 voters because they didn’t respond to unsolicited and targeted mail asking them to reverify their address. (I’m not a voting rights expert, but that strikes me as pretty egregious.) And the Supreme Court made a lot of people nervous, including me, by agreeing to hear arguments on Donald Trump’s taxes in the upcoming year.

Boris Johnson Borealis.* The UK had an upset (and upsetting) election this past week, with Boris Johnson’s conservative Tory party celebrating a clear majority while Jeremy Corbyn’s more progressive Labour party suffered major losses. This is disturbing, particularly given Johnson’s recent incompetency and uncertain Brexit plans–but it can be partially contextualized by a first-past-the-post election structure, gains within the Scottish National Party and Green party, and growing dissent about Corbyn’s leadership. Unsurprisingly, Jeremy Corbyn is stepping down, and we may be looking at another bid for Scottish independence. Since the original Brexit vote was viewed as a bellwether for U.S. politics, it’s a disturbing and noteworthy development.

The Bad:

Painful Immigration Updates. We haven’t covered immigration issues in the roundup for a while, and there’s a fair amount to track, so I think it’s a good time to remind folks of some ongoing stories. The administration’s latest attack on indigent immigration, which attempts to price lawful permanent residents out of citizenship among other other major problems, is still pending–and the comment period has been extended to December 30th. If you believe this is unjust, I really encourage you to tell the government about it; there are some great click-to-comment resources out there that you can use if you’re unsure where to start! Border Patrol was also in the news for refusing to let doctors in to administer flu vaccines after several children died of flu in custody, which resulted in a three-day mass protest and four doctors’ arrests. And Buzzfeed ran an article about rampant medical negligence in ICE custody.

Americans Lack Running Water.* The Washington Post ran a story this week on the two million Americans who still don’t have running water, basing its reporting on a data analysis issued last month by the U.S. Water Alliance. It’s a civic planning issue that disproportionately impacts Native American people, who are nineteen times more likely to lack access than the general population, though Puerto Rico still has major infrastructure problems also. Though the report was issued last month, it’s encouraging to see it making its way to large outlets like the Washington Post, as it’s an issue that really should receive more attention.

The Good:

Recent Legislative Resilience. There was some decent legislative news this week. Kentucky reinstated voting rights to people who have completed nonviolent felony sentences, leaving us with only one remaining state in the country that enforces lifetime disenfranchisement for this issue. And Congress appears to have finalized an actual spending deal, four whole days before a shutdown would commence–and the bill includes $25M in gun research, which is an issue that hasn’t seen funding in over 20 years. Nothing is final until the signed version is on Trump’s desk, so there’s still plenty of time for this to go awry, but we look to be in much better shape than we were this time last year.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think it was more than enough. For making it through, you deserve Sesame Street characters’ impressions of each other 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 in the day!

Year 3, Week 45 (November 24-30)

December 2, 2019December 3, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This week had unusually little active news, comparatively speaking, and it makes me nervous–I know we had a holiday, but that doesn’t always slow things down these days. Given the upcoming impeachment schedule, it seems safe to conclude this is the calm before the storm. Let’s enjoy it while we can, before we’re all back in the desk fort.

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 Corner:

Most of this week’s Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo was about anticipated deadlines, which are just not as exciting as live testimony. That said, there are still several things to know:

Existing Impeachment Updates.* Despite the slow week, there were a few updates worth noting. Notably, the New York Times reminded us that Trump knew about the whistleblower complaint before his administration released aid to Ukraine. This is important because it implies that he already knew what he was being accused of when he had his “no quid pro quo” phone call, which was his main defense to the allegations. (Of course, Trump denies this fact, but since he literally lies twelve times per day, that isn’t exactly persuasive.) There were also deposition transcripts released that point a major finger at the Office of Management and Budget, where two officials apparently resigned because the office was withholding aid to Ukraine and there were all kinds of structural shenanigans in play.

Administrative Anger Synopsis.* Speaking of Trump lies, he’s spent a lot of time this week apparently forgetting every order he ever gave Guiliani as more damning Ukraine information comes to light, going so far as to point-blank answer questions with “You know, Rudy has other clients, other than me…” This, of course, makes perfect sense read alongside the Republican report issued this week, which asserts that Trump did order an investigation but it was legal because Ukraine is sketchy. Meanwhile, our current Secretary of State is spreading the debunked theory that Ukraine hacked our 2016 election, so that’s encouraging.

Upcoming Schedule Notes.* This past week may have been a bit quiet, but there’s a lot to watch in the upcoming week as we enter a more public phase of investigation. The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold its first impeachment hearing on Wednesday, after the Intelligence Committee report circulates internally today and votes on the report’s release tomorrow. The Judiciary Committee is giving the administration until December 6 to decide whether they want to present defending evidence. Since an appeals court has agreed to stay enforcement of the executive immunity case, there’s nothing forcing them to participate–so it’s not surprising that the administration has already declined in the most obnoxious way possible by the time I write this, a full six days before the deadline.

This week’s Disregard of Governing Norms were not impeachment-flavored for the first time in months, but they were still deeply annoying. Here’s what I have for you:

Fake Spying Claims. It’s not due out for another week, but news outlets are reporting that a forthcoming Department of Justice inspector general report is expected to find that the FBI never spied on Trump during his campaign. This, of course, does raise the question of why current Attorney General William Barr testified otherwise to Congress, if it never happened. Needless to say, this doesn’t inspire confidence in Barr, as last time I checked it is in fact against the rules of professional conduct to straight-up lie to tribunals.

Trump Oddities. We had a lot of off-the-wall behavior from Trump and Co this week that wasn’t quite constitutional crisis territory, but was plenty obnoxious. First there were Trump Jr’s instructions to the GOP base that they should pick fights with liberals at the Thanksgiving table, which wasn’t a thing in our house but my condolences if it showed up in yours. Then there was Trump’s strange trip to Afghanistan over Thanksgiving, where he claimed to be reopening talks with the Taliban and posed for selfies with stationed troops. Finally, more Stephen Miller emails got leaked, reminding people that we should maybe not have a white supremacist setting immigration policy.

Your “Normal” Weird:

2020 Campaign Weirdness. There was a lot of campaign strangeness this week, but for once, it was mostly Republican candidates in the news: 1)The Texas GOP accidentally sent the Democrats their talking points (which, embarrassingly, is not even the first time this year this has happened); 2) Trump intimated he wants his pardoned war criminals to campaign with him, apparently seeking that “I’m not just the President, I’m also a client” vibe; 3)Ilhan Omar’s GOP opponent got banned from Twitter for suggesting that Omar should be hanged; and 4) Trump has announced he won’t let Bloomberg News into his events because Mike Bloomberg announced he’s running in 2020.

The Bad:

Tax Return Stall. Shortly before the holiday, the Supreme Court issued a very short opinion that stayed implementation of a recent appeals court order regarding Trump’s tax returns. The decision effectively maintains the status quo while the Trump administration prepares a brief due Thursday, which will either convince SCOTUS to hear the case or make them toss it out the door. The interim decision isn’t designed to be any kind of final decision, and is just a pause while SCOTUS decides next steps–it ends immediately if they skip over the case, or ends when the judgment issues if they do decide to hear it. That said, the pause might be an early indication that SCOTUS wants to hear this case.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. Despite the iffy news above, we did have at least one good case this week. The House Oversight and Reform Committee is suing William Barr and Wilbur Ross over their 2020 census shenanigans, trying to get the subpoenas for information enforced. If this seems delayed to you, that’s because it is–the committee is using the lack of absolute immunity determined by the recent case brought by Don McGahn as a new basis for suit.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I swear I double-checked that there wasn’t more. For making it through, you deserve this video of a man and his raven 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 your leftover pie!

Year 3, Week 44 (November 17-23)

November 25, 2019November 26, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This week’s public hearings were absolutely bonkers, and the fallout created was no better. The next few weeks are likely to be a wild ride that requires our careful attention–I’ll keep folks posted to the extent that I’m able. And for readers who want to go over the news with a fine-toothed comb, the Impeachment Inquiry page on the WTFJHT forum remains a great resource.

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 an ethics probe!–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 Corner:

Somehow, Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo news was even more bombastic than last week, with a similarly full hearing schedule and some truly game-changing testimony. It’s a lot, so bear with me:

Tuesday: Fourteen Hours Thus.* Tuesday was a very full day, with Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, Vice Presidential adviser Jennifer Williams, former U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, and former NSC official Tim Morrison all on the roster. There were some important moments of testimony–in particular, Volker changed his testimony to say there was quid pro quo and he now sees that the Burisma Holdings investigations were really looking into Hunter Biden, which feels like foreshadowing for the rest of the week. Similarly, Vindman provided important information despite some pretty personalized antagonism.

Wednesday: Thrown Under the Bus.* Early testimony was quickly overshadowed on Wednesday when U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland shoved half the Trump administration into the path of the oncoming Impeach Express. Most notably, Sondland added Vice President Mike Pence to the list of public officials that were “in the loop” about an intentional quid pro quo campaign–and that will likely have lasting inquiry implications. Wednesday afternoon also saw testimony from Defense Department official Laura Cooper and State Department official David Hale; though less sensational, the testimony confirmed more about the timing of Ukraine receiving the quid pro quo request.

Thursday: Ukraine’s Not After Us.* On Thursday, NSC member Fiona Hill and State Department official David Holmes testified. Hill in particular took no prisoners, taking the GOP to task for advancing Russian narratives and portraying Ukraine as an enemy. Additionally, both witnesses further clarified the timeline of events and provided more evidence that Trump was in on the entire thing. Less urgently, Thursday also featured an amusing live C-SPAN call that isn’t breaking news but is worth watching anyway.

It’s Friday, Drafting Slog.* At the end of the week, the impeachment inquiry had crystallized into an extremely strong case for several impeachable offenses, and the Intelligence panel has chosen to move forward with drafting the final report despite stonewalling from several would-be witnesses. Once the Intelligence Committee findings have been summarized, the resulting report will go to the House Judiciary Committee, which will begin drafting articles of impeachment. (Intelligence Committee head Adam Schiff has indicated he expects this to happen shortly after Thanksgiving.) Meanwhile, chaos abounds as everybody tries to prep for the inevitable articles–in the Senate, both sides of the aisle are thinking about how to plan the trial, which has the White House weirdly jazzed because they hope to turn it into a kangaroo court and make Joe Biden testify.

Unsurprisingly, this week’s Disregard of Governing Norms has a lot of ties to the impeachment circus itself, but there was at least one big, unrelated story that should really be getting more press. Here’s what I have for you:

Administrative Anger Response. There were a number of eye-raising activities from the Trump camp as the week wore on, but some particular lowlights stood out: 1) Lindsey Graham appears to have launched a probe into the Bidens, presumably at Team Trump’s request; 2) Trump entertained the two moderate Republicans most likely to waver at the White House (though at least it wasn’t Camp David); 3) Trump held a scattered press conference with his new bestest bud Magic Marker Notes, prompting this Internet Ramones video and a lot of raised eyebrows; and 4) News trickled out about Pompeo’s plan to run for the Senate, which is particularly wild given the news below.

Nunes News and Pompeo Press. Giuliani associate and all-around sketchball Lev Parnas flipped to the side of impeachment this week. In the process, he disclosed that ranking Intelligence Committee member Devin Nunes was apparently involved in the Ukraine scandal his committee’s been investigating–so that was a quick trip to an ethics investigation. As one Twitter user put it, “So through weeks of hearings, while Rep Nunes sat there getting increasingly sullen and cranky and sad sack in his public statements he in fact was part of the effort the committee was investigating.” Meanwhile, an ethics group released documents further implicating Mike Pompeo, who apparently had repeated direct contact with Rudy Giuliani during the whole affair.

War Crime Pardon Party (cont). Trump’s sketchy war crimes pardon party from last week continues to pay miserable dividends, with Trump insisting that the Navy cannot remove SEAL qualification from one of the men who was pardoned. Since the Navy isn’t especially noted for being chill about pictures with corpses, and they’re also supposed to be in charge of their own qualification system, they did not take kindly to this interference. Eventually this standoff culminated in Secretary of Defense Mark Esper firing his own Navy Secretary because the man wouldn’t cede the call to Trump.

Your “Normal” Weird:

2020 Election Chaos. Well, 2020 election news remains chaotic and strange, but at least it makes good SNL fodder. Wednesday’s debate came and went, with no obvious upsets afterwards (though of course that could change at any time). In other predictable news, Mike Bloomberg finally announced his candidacy, giving people from New York yet another embarrassing politician on the national stage.

Stopgap Shuffle. Congress passed another stopgap bill via CR this week, funding our federal systems and staving off a government shutdown for now. Since Trump signed the bill on Friday, that’s November sorted. Unfortunately, the bill only lasts until 12/20, so we’ll be back here again this time next month. If this year goes anything like last year, we’re not out of the woods just yet; I’ll keep folks posted on what happens when the next deadline rolls around.

The Bad:

Corruption in the Middle East.Current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement this week saying that Israeli settlements in the West Bank somehow don’t violate international law, which reverses over four decades of official U.S. policy. Several outlets are referring to this statement as “a gift to Netanyahu,” which is both accurate and particularly galling when Netanyahu became the first sitting Prime Minister to be indicted for corruption in the same week. So essentially, we have a guy under investigation for corruption reversing four decades of established policy to give another guy under investigation for corruption the green light to continue violating an international peace treaty. Regardless of your opinion of Palestinian occupation, this type of lawlessness erodes our institutions on a very fundamental level, and it’s not okay.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. We had some awesome court cases this week, I’m happy to report. The retrial of Scott Warren, who faced criminal charges for giving food and water to migrants at the southern border, ended in another not guilty verdict–gosh, can’t imagine why juries keep refusing to convict this guy for his humanitarian aid. And just today, a federal judge issued an emphatic opinion that White House attorney Don McGahn must be compelled to testify, noting that “absolute immunity . . . simply does not exist” and “Presidents are not Kings.” (She also compared the administration’s logic to that in the George Orwell book Animal Farm, which tells you how Extremely Done this district court judge was.) And on the subpoena end, Rudy Giuliani’s firm is being investigated as part of a much broader corruption probe in Manhattan.

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 these foxes chillaxin‘ 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 reprieve from the cruelty of linear time!

Year 3, Week 43 (November 10-16)

November 18, 2019November 26, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Impeachment public hearings began this week, and I could easily write ten pages of analysis just on those two hearings alone–increasingly, it looks like Democrats are playing Battleship while Republicans are playing Deuces Wild. We’re due for a lot more of the same this upcoming week, so we’ll have to see what kind of impact the hearings have over time. In the meantime, there’s already a lot to puzzle over.

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 women’s soccer team!–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 Corner:

Another week, another very full card of Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo, which continues to dominate the news cycle. Since we had three days of testimony and six witnesses, it’s getting a bit crowded down there, so this week’s news is separated out by day:

Wednesday: Witness Back-to-Back.* The first open impeachment hearings took off at a full gallop; Ambassador William Taylor and deputy assistant to the State Department George Kent definitely did not disappoint. Taylor disclosed new information–a second phone call overheard by his aide that directly tied Trump to the push to politically pressure Ukraine–apparently brought to us by Sondland continuing the Team Trump tradition of making sensitive phone calls in crowded restaurants. (Though Taylor’s info was second-hand, a second staffer came forward and corroborated with a firsthand account the next day.) Taylor also confirmed that Trump prioritized a Biden investigation over aiding Ukraine. Meanwhile, Kent confirmed that Giuliani led a smear campaign against ousted ambassador Marie Yovanovitch as part of a larger effort to ‘gin up’ investigations. The testimony was so credible and damning that Nancy Pelosi started referring to the Ukraine push as ‘bribery’ by the next day.

Friday: Sudden Tweet Attack.* Yovanovitch testified directly in Friday’s public hearing while the aide Taylor identified, David Holmes, was in a closed door deposition doing the same. Holmes apparently gave credible enough testimony behind closed doors that he may be added to the public hearing roster, so we should keep an eye on that. In the public hot seat, Yovanovitch described experiencing a smear campaign as Trump smeared her on Twitter in real time–highlighting the difficulties faced by career staffers under Trump and making Schiff mutter about witness intimidation. All told, it was a day so bizarre and grueling for Yovanovitch that it ended with Congress applauding her when she stepped down.

Saturday: Deposition Track.* Saturday was another closed deposition, but it featured the first budget official who actually showed up to testify, and he agreed that withholding aid from Ukraine sure seemed sketchy to him. The House also released transcripts of several more depositions ahead of next week’s public hearings, which will be another packed schedule–but the whistleblower remains excused for now, despite significant GOP efforts to the contrary.

As in previous weeks, Disregard of Governing Norms somehow continues on despite the impeachment circus also happening. Here’s what I have for you:

Like a Lying Stone (cont). Professional sleazeball Roger Stone was found guilty of all seven counts at the end of his trial this week, with charges ranging from witness tampering to lying to Congress to obstruction of justice. Stone makes the sixth Trump associate convicted of actions related to the Mueller investigation, and he faces up to 50 years in prison if the sentences are consecutive–let me tell you, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer oligarch. Now that the Stone trial has rolled on by, the tea leaves are suggesting that the next Trump associate to be prosecuted will be Rudy Giuliani, and I’ll keep folks posted on that.

Stephen Miller vs SPLC. The Southern Poverty Law Center issued a report this week that analyzed emails from Stephen Miller to discuss his ties to white nationalism. The White House countered by claiming that it’s antisemitic to say that Miller is a white nationalist because he’s Jewish. It is this Jewish author’s considered opinion that it is more antisemitic to be a white nationalist, and Stephen Miller’s own emails suggest he quite clearly qualifies. So, y’know, takes one to know one.

War Crime Pardon Party. Despite everything else going on this week, Trump still found time to pardon two service men who were charged with murdering unarmed people and a third convicted of posing with a corpse. The pardons went against the advice of the Pentagon, which wanted to maintain accountability and preserve chain of command–for some reason, they thought it was important to have ‘functional military tribunals’ with ‘predictable outcomes’ that ‘prevent rampant war crimes.’ All three of the men pardoned, incidentally, were white men originally charged with murdering people of color, and in other breaking news water is wet.

Your “Normal” Weird:

2020 Election Chaos. 2020 election news continues, and continues to be weird. Bloomberg still hasn’t officially entered the race as I type this, but he sure did just so happen to apologize for his extremely unpopular stop-and-frisk policies as mayor of New York in the early 2000s. Meanwhile, Deval Patrick did formally announce he plans to run, and speaking as an MA resident who lived through the Patrick era, I cannot overstress how much this is the solution nobody needed. Completing the bland candidate trifecta, and illustrating why neither of these rich dudes’ services are required, a poll in Iowa suggests Pete Buttigieg is now leading in the primary.

Your Semi-Annual Trump Physical Nonsense. Trump visited the Walter Reed Medical Center this week, which he is passing off as part of his yearly physical–but the trip didn’t follow protocol and was several months ahead of schedule. (Good luck getting your insurance company to cover two annual physicals in a nine-month period if you’re as healthy as Trump claims to be.) Some outlets have begun opining that we need a second opinion on his health–which is probably true for a lot of reasons, honestly–but with this administration, his head could be falling off and we’d still just get an announcement that “the President is in perfect health.” So we’re unlikely to see more on the matter.

The Bad:

Immigration Updates. This wasn’t exactly a great week for immigration. ICE was in the news for holding a record number of unaccompanied minors in detention–almost 70,000, to be precise. (I don’t even know where to begin on how horrifying that is; kids aren’t supposed to be in custody long-term at all, which means ICE basically failed to do its job nearly 70,000 times in 2019.) The administration also proposed dramatic fee hikes for immigration paperwork, including the country’s first-ever asylum fees. Though the proposed asylum fee is deplorable–freedom from persecution should not have a price tag–the naturalization fee increase of 83% is also particularly noteworthy, because it would force residents to pay over a thousand dollars to experience full safety from deportation. And speaking of deportation, the DACA case went before the Supreme Court, where conservative justices appeared to signal they plan to end the program (though we’ll know more when the order issues).

Senate and School Shootings. In a stunning display of poor governing and worse timing, Senate Republicans stalled out a responsible gun law on Thursday as yet another school shooting in California killed two people and wounded four more. The proposed legislation would have required universal background checks for private gun sales, and passed in the House earlier this year. Needless to say, this remains an excellent time to call your reps and tell them to ask the Wizard for a heart and/or a brain.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. There were a fair number of good court cases again this week. A federal district court found that the U.S. violated the Fourth Amendment by searching people’s phones for no reason at U.S. ports of entry. The DC appeals court reiterated that Trump has to turn over his financial records to Congress, refusing to rehear the case, though Trump is appealing to SCOTUS on that one. Speaking of SCOTUS, they refused to dismiss a case brought by Sandy Hook parents against gun manufacturers. And in the sports world, the U.S. women’s national soccer team was also granted class status in their gender discrimination lawsuit this week, which will significantly broaden the scope of the suit. So that’s pretty exciting as well!

2019 Election Aftermath (cont). In the final gubernatorial election of the season, Louisiana’s election went to the Democratic incumbent, who threw traditional Southern shade at Trump in his victory speech (saying “As for the President, God bless his heart”). Louisiana is the second red state this month to ignore Trump’s strong endorsement and elect a blue governor–officially, even, since Kentucky’s GOP candidate conceded this week. Some analysts are supposing that these victories will cause Republicans to stop mindlessly backing him during impeachment proceedings, and we can only hope.

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 these beautiful portraits of fruit 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 reprieve from the cruelty of linear time!

Year 3, Week 42 (November 3-9)

November 11, 2019November 13, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Somehow, it simultaneously feels like the impeachment inquiry has been going for ten years and five minutes–and so far we’ve only been climbing to the top of that first roller coaster drop. This week marks a turning point in the investigation nonetheless, as we transition from closed-door testimony to public hearings and start that wild freefall chaos. I’ll do my best to keep us all hanging on, though I make no promises about how stomach-turning it’s about to become. If you want to drink from the info fire hose, I also strongly recommend the impeachment archive run by the WTFJHT community!

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 public hearing–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 Corner:

Another week, another full card of Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo–but this week both sides are beginning to take things public, which does change some dynamics. Here are the latest updates:

Impeachment Inquiry Updates.* A number of transcripts of Congressional hearings became available this week, and they are about as damning as you might expect: 1) Former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch‘s testimony outlined efforts to oust her with more specificity than her opening statement; 2)Former AmbassadorKurt Volker‘s testimony indicated that the prosecutor Biden pushed to remove never even investigated Hunter Biden; 3) Former EU Ambassador Gordan Sondham‘s initial testimony was joined by a “supplemental declaration” that reversed his earlier claim and admitted to quid pro quo, claiming prior testimony had “refreshed his recollection”; 4) National Security Council member Alexander Vindman‘s testimony further implicated Mick Mulvaney when read in full; and 5) Former John Bolton aide Fiona Hill‘s 400-page testimony revisited Bolton’s wariness of quid-pro-quo and featured a blow-by-blow of the GOP gatecrashers. The next step of the official inquiry is open Congressional hearings, which are scheduled to begin on November 13–and if the last few weeks are any indication, they will prove fascinating viewing.

Administrative Anger Synopsis.* As the House investigation pushes for more transparency, the GOP has mostly responded with varying levels of “you can’t make me.” First there’s Lindsey Graham, who has decided to deal with the transcripts above by refusing to read them. We also saw John Bolton semi-politely decline to show up for a deposition, reiterating that he’ll need a court to say it’s legal (or at least a subpoena). Meanwhile, current chief of staff Mick Mulvaney chose to hide behind the lawsuit as well, dodging a subpoena and ticking off Bolton in the process. Trump failed to talk his attorney general into holding a press conference to announce he broke no laws. And Senate Republicans want to use the impeachment inquiry to investigate the Biden family and the whistleblower, because clearly that’s the real scandal here.

As in previous weeks, Disregard of Governing Norms somehow continues on despite the impeachment circus also happening. Here’s what I have for you:

Like a Lying Stone. Roger Stone’s trial on whether he lied to Congress kicked off this week, marking the last legal moments of the Mueller era. Though it has been flying somewhat under the radar amid all the impeachment hoopla, it doesn’t appear off to a great start for Stone–he got food poisoning during jury selection and asked to be excused. Then Steve Bannon and beleaguered radio host Randy Credico testified, and Stone probably started missing the food poisoning. Oh, and poor Judge Jackson, who has already had to deal with quite a lot on this case, had to order the jury not to watch the Godfather because Credico referenced it too many times.

Trump Court Cases. Speaking of court cases, 45 currently has enough lawsuits going on for 45 people, and we saw news on a bunch of them this week. He announced his plan to appeal last week’s 2nd Circuit decision that requires him to cough up tax returns, because a case described by the ruling judge as “repugnant to the nation’s fundamental structure and constitutional values” is definitely worth the Supreme Court’s time and attention. Of course, even as he announced this, a DC federal judge dismissed his lawsuit about how he didn’t wanna cough up said tax returns and told him to go file it in New York. Meanwhile, he was personally fined $2.8M after admitting that he used Trump Foundation donations–which were supposed to go to veterans, I might add–to fund his 2016 political campaign. And E Jean Caroll, who alleges that Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room, is now suing him for defamation due to the insults he lobbed while denying her allegations.

Trump Bad Book Tour. There also has been a lot of wild news this week about how the people working directly with Trump think he’s 25th Amendment bonkers. A new book by “Anonymous,” apparently the same Anonymous who wrote an op-ed about resisting inside the Trump administration, details cabinet members desperately trying to sew the Emperor some clothes. Anonymous even claims they contemplated a mass protest resignation (though, as the news cycle would suggest, this didn’t happen). At the same time, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N Nikki Hadley promoted her own book by noting senior cabinet officials asked her to “undermine” the President for the country’s own good. Though it’s not exactly news that Trump is volatile and makes bad decisions, it does seem noteworthy that multiple people are literally on book tours about it the year before an election cycle.

Your “Normal” Weird:

2020 Election Chaos. Presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke dropped out of the 2020 election this week, conceding that he lacked momentum (and hopefully redirecting his energies towards another Senate bid). Apparently former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg decided this meant there was a vacancy, because he’s now rumored to be planning to run. Meanwhile, former Alabama senator Jeff Sessions is making a bid for his old seat, airing a Trump-friendly political ad that some pundits found painful after Sessions’s years of mistreatment as Attorney General. (I would be remiss if I did not note that Jeff Sessions, who penned some extremely appalling policy during his tenure as AG, gets very little sympathy from me personally.)

The Bad:

Climate Policy Polarization.* Trump began the process this week of formally leaving the Paris climate accords, a move which is deeply frustrating even though the withdrawal won’t be finalized for at least a year (and a subsequent President could undo it fairly quickly). The move feels particularly aggravating given a warning issued by over 11,000 scientists that our planet is facing a growing climate emergency. The scientists cautioned that policy must reflect our changing global needs in order to stave off catastrophic results, suggesting positive changes to carbon emission, population stabilization, and ecosystem disruption. So, basically, all the changes that this administration hates.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. A lot of this week’s federal court news somehow involved Trump, and thus has already been covered, but we did a few other highlights. Most notably, a federal judge blocked a ‘conscience rule’ that would have permitted medical discrimination for religious reasons–a significant victory for those of us who just want to get medical treatment in peace. In the sports world, the U.S. women’s national soccer team was also granted class status in their gender discrimination lawsuit this week, which will significantly broaden the scope of the suit. So that’s pretty exciting as well!

2019 Election Aftermath. Tuesday brought elections many places on the local and state level, and we saw some pretty interesting results! One of the biggest changes happened in Virginia, where Democrats now control all three state branches of government for the first time in over twenty years. In state elections in general, suburbs went much more blue than is traditional in many parts of the country. We also had two gubernatorial elections: Kentucky elected a Democrat governor, though the current governor is refusing to concede, and Mississippi stuck with a Republican ticketfor their own gubernatorial race. The influx of blue makes some speculate that the Equal Rights Amendment may be back on the table, since we were previously only one state shy and Virginia just painted itself blue. Needless to say, this is worth watching.

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 beluga playing fetch 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 impeachment ice cream!

Year 3, Week 41 (October 27–November 2)

November 4, 2019November 5, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

It was Halloween this week, and most of the news was appropriately scary to mark the occasion. Also, like that one type of Halloween candy you hate, impeachment news is turning up on every corner. (Seriously, there has been so much impeachment news that I had to triple-check to make sure I wasn’t somehow missing some regular news. It’s impeachment turtles and decoy policies all the way down.)

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 Twitter ban!–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 Corner:

This was another incredible week for Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo, which by this point is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the news cycle. Here are the latest updates:

Impeachment Inquiry Updates.* The top of the week featured damning firsthand testimony by Alexander Vindman, a military official who was on the infamous Ukraine call–most notably, Vindman was adamant that the official ‘transcript’ left things out and added things, and that his attempts to correct it were unsuccessful. We also received confirmation from him that the phone call was improperly moved to a highly restricted server. Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi did indeed hold the first impeachment floor vote this upcoming Thursday–which, predictably, passed the resolution put forward along party lines. The House is also trying to get John Bolton to testify, but he indicated this week that he won’t do it without a subpoena. And Tim Morrison, who was a top Russia official of the National Security Council, stepped down ahead of his own testimony, which corroborated much of Taylor and Vindman’s.

Administrative Anger Synopsis.* This week saw yet more poor behavior on the GOP side, and it’s getting hard to separate the misconduct of the administration from the bad behavior it causes in others. The early lowlight was definitely a smear campaign against Vindman, which insinuated that he was a double-agent due to his familial ties to Ukraine. But that got overshadowed quickly by bonkers Nunes news, which featured one of his aides feeding Trump Ukraine-related information without authorization, another aide trying to out the whistleblower, and Nunes himself calling reporters ‘assassins.’ Meanwhile, a canny aide to John Bolton filed a lawsuit asking the court to tell him whether to answer House subpoenas, and several more White House officials just straight-up refused to testify. Then Trump accused Schiff of altering transcripts, following his playbook of accusing other people of things he himself does. Finally, a number of Senate Republicans have started taking the demonstrably false stance that quid pro quo isn’t illegal, which is probably because Trump started bribing GOP senators with campaign funds contingent on their impeachment messaging.

As in previous weeks, Disregard of Governing Norms somehow continues on despite the impeachment circus also happening. Here’s what I have for you:

Goodbye, New York. Trump went ahead and declared himself a resident of Florida this week, saying the quiet part out loud as he did so and insinuating that it was for tax reasons. New York’s governor responded by publicly tweeting, “He’s all yours, Florida” and noting that it was “not like [Trump] paid taxes here anyway.” As if to punctuate the point, the Second Circuit decided today that yes, Trump does have to surrender tax documents to Manhattan’s District Attorney. So that will be a fun jurisdiction argument next week.

Your “Normal” Weird

Twitterpated. Jack Dorsey, the owner of Twitter, announced this week that he wants to ban all political ads from the platform during the 2020 election. This would probably be more noteworthy if Dorsey didn’t routinely let Trump treat Twitter like his own propaganda service, unleashing about 11,000 belligerent tweets in the past three years–though disturbingly, the proposal is still more than Facebook is doing to curb the destructive role social media plays in misinformation spread. It’s hard not to be frustrated with both platforms right now; Twitter is like that aunt at Thanksgiving dinner who keeps feeding her husband beers but still remains marginally better than your uncle, who has been yelling slurs all night.

The Bad

California Wildfires Rage. Trying to stay ahead of the dangerous dry season, California planned electricity shut-offs for a million of its residents. Unfortunately, this didn’t prevent massive wildfires, which firefighters are struggling to contain particularly in the northern part of the state. Throwing, well, gasoline on the fire, Trump is now threatening to cut federal aid to the state–because when there’s a natural disaster, you can definitely fix things by just refusing to do anything to fix it. Not one to take that sitting down, California’s governor promptly replied: “You don’t believe in climate change. You are excused from this conversation.”

Immigration Updates. Immigration news was a bit quieter than average this week, but there was still badness for the books: namely, the administration appears to have extended temporary protected status for El Salvador in exchange for an agreement that curtails asylum claims. Ordinarily, this would be good news, but the administration was responsible for ending the program in the first place, TPS provides less protection than asylum does, and there’s no guarantee the administration won’t be Lucy with the football again in a year. About the best thing I can say is that other vulnerable TPS populations got pulled along for the ride, resulting in a new January 2021 termination date for Haiti, Sudan, Honduras, and Nicaragua as well.

Adoption Discrimination Rule. The Trump administration released a proposed rule this week that would permit adoption agencies to refuse to serve LGBT families, effectively rolling back protections put in place by the Obama administration. The proposal has already been implemented in South Carolina, which got a waiver granted back in the spring, and the ACLU filed a lawsuit around the same time. Since the proposed rule will be subject to a comment period once it officially publishes, which could be as early as next week, now seems a fine time to remind folks that anybody can submit public comments and we’ve seen them have a real effect on other policies in the past year.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. It may have been a strange week, but it was a decent one for court cases. The ACLU successfully curtailed an Alabama law that would fully ban abortion this week, making the procedure again legal in all 50 states. (This is a mixed blessing, since the pro-life strategy at play involves getting the case before the Supreme Court, but it’s still better than leaving the law in effect.) A North Carolina court ruled that the gerrymandered maps cannot be used in the 2020 election, following the blueprint set by Justice Kagan in her SCOTUS dissent as they did so. And a federal court blocked the Trump rule that predicated visas on health insurance, forcing the administration to pause implementation of the new rule for at least a month.

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 studies about rats driving tiny cars 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 court injunctions of 45’s policies!

Year 3, Week 39 (October 13-19)

October 21, 2019October 22, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Well folks, by this point the shark has gone home, having performed several weeks of jumping support and concluded he’s not making enough overtime. But there is some new badness to know, and impeachment remains a persistent, high-stakes tug-of-war we all have to keep watching. So here we all are.

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 Pierre Delecto!–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:

With everything else going on, Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo took a bit of a backseat compared to the past few weeks, but there was still plenty of bananas news nonetheless. Here are the latest updates:

Impeachment Inquiry Updates.* This was a very active week for the House, y’all. After intense testimony from an aide about John Bolton’s disgust with the whole Ukraine business, House Democrats are considering bringing him in to get the story straight from the subpoenaed horse’s mouth. In the meantime, they spoke with Mike Pompeo’s adviser Michael McKinley, who confirmed that he resigned over the Ukraine shenanigans too–pushing a few Republicans to begin muttering impeachment support sentiment. Also, yet another Giuliani associate was arrested in an airport. And exiting Secretary of Energy Rick Perry joined Rudy Giuliani, Mike Pence, and half the OMB in the Refusing Subpoenas Club, which probably has seven yachts and won’t let Ben Carson in.

Administrative Anger Synopsis. White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney just went ahead and said the quiet part out loud in a press conference this week, straight-up telling reporters that the White House withheld aid to Ukraine until they agreed to investigate the hacking of DNC servers in 2016, but to “get over it” because “there is going to be political influence in foreign policy.” He later walked back his incredible remarks, but given that we all watched him open the bag and unceremoniously dump the cat out on camera, I doubt it will be very effective. Apparently Trump agrees, because he started pressing Republicans anew a few days later.

Between Syria and the G-7 scandal that unfolded in real time, Disregard of Governing Norms had another miserably active week as well. Here’s what I have for you:

Shameful Withdrawal from Syria (cont).* News involving Syria continues for a third week and also continues to be awful. As news trickled in about war crimes committed by Turkey during the aggression, Trump defended the actions with ethnic cleansing rhetoric at a Dallas rally. We also learned that a few weeks ago, Trump sent a negotiation letter to Turkey that was so bad that people thought it was fake, and one author staged a dramatic reading with his cat. We did see marginally more success from Mike Pence’s negotiations, which resulted in a ‘ceasefire’ that Turkey claims is no such thing ordering Kurdish forces to leave the region or face consequences. While Kurdish sources report that Turkey is already violating the agreement, whatever you choose to call it, the White House is withdrawing threat of sanctions despite Senate opposition to the move on the theory that the cease-fire has the situation covered. An unimpressed Congress passed a resolution condemning the withdrawal of troops, and Dems who tried to meet with the White House on the issue ended up walking out in disgust before the meeting even ended.

Impressive Emoluments Attempt. In the most blatant emoluments violation we’ve seen to date, Trump tried to award himself the 2020 G-7 contract this past week, announcing that the international summit would be hosted at his own resort. He did eventually walk this back amid bipartisan backlash, but I seriously cannot overstress what a big deal it is that he even tried. Seriously y’all, back in the 1970s Jimmy Carter had to give up his family peanut farm to be President–this type of personal enrichment is not normal or acceptable, regardless of Trump’s gaslighting tweets otherwise.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Pierre Flagrante Delecto. An intrepid reporter at the Atlantic this week managed to track down Mitt Romney’s secret twitter account, which he…mostly used to read about politics and occasionally respond to tweets as a relatively polite Internet rando. Given how benign this story is, it’s a bit fascinating that Twitter went totally bonkers over it–though to be fair, ‘Pierre Delecto’ is a pretty excellent nom de tweet.

The Bad:

Black Lives Still Matter. Twenty-eight-year-old Fort Worth denizen Atatiana Jefferson was fatally shot by police in her own home while she was playing video games with her nephew, continuing a disturbing trend of police shootings during wellness checks. The shooting also occurred only a few weeks after a cop in nearby Dallas was convicted of murder for shooting a neighbor in his home while off-duty. The police officer in this case has been charged with murder as well, and has resigned from the force, but we need to be taking more proactive steps to address these completely preventable atrocities.

Losing Elijah Cummings. This week also saw the passing of twelve-term Congressional rep Elijah Cummings, who led the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Despite the health issues which ultimately took his life, Cummings apparently spent his last hours signing subpoenas for an investigation into ICE practices from his hospital bed, which seems very in keeping with the congressman’s legacy. We lost a compassionate legislator with true integrity this week, and much of the country mourns with Maryland.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. We did see one promising court case this week, specifically about the ongoing modern poll tax fight in Florida between Republican legislators and civil rights advocates. A federal judge ruled that while the case is pending, people convicted of felonies must be allowed to vote even if they owe court fees–poverty is not supposed to be a bar to civic engagement. The attempted legislation impacts nearly 1.5 million disenfranchised people, so this is a pretty big deal even though the case is still pending.

One Giant Step for Womankind. NASA saw its first all-female spacewalk this week, which is pretty exciting! Women have been strolling through space since 1984, and there have been fifteen total female spacewalkers in modern history–contrary to Trump’s apparent belief–but we didn’t have the equipment for simultaneous trips until very recently. (Fourteen of those women have been American, by the way, so that’s a nice thing about our country we can hold onto while we stare at the rest of 2019.)

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 a visit from this desert tortoise 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 fewer accidental naps!

Year 3, Week 38 (October 6–12)

October 15, 2019October 21, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Another week, another mess of chaos passing for government. The news continues to be dominated by bizarre dog-and-pony nonsense and impeachment horrorshow, but we’ve also added tragedy in Syria to the fray — and all stories are rapid-cycling at a rate that makes September look positively sedate. (I like a good Tilt-a-Whirl, but this is ridiculous.)

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 Captain Kangaroo! — 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:

Okay, we have yet another wild round of Whistleblowing Ukraine Biden Bingo, which is the gift that just keeps on giving:

Impeachment Inquiry Updates.* The House committees have been very busy in the past week after the White House made it abundantly clear that they were not going to ‘play ball,’ as it were. Democrats subpoenaed both the Secretary of Defense and head of the Office of Management and Budget, frustrated by the White House’s snitches-get-stitches attitude, and it made underlings start talking — within a few days they had some really useful testimony. And to cap off the week, two sketchy Giuliani associates were arrested at the airport holding one-way tickets to not-here — I hope Rudy collected that $500K from them upfront. And though it’s not actually House-related, I thought y’all might want to know that Penzy’s Spices has spent over $90K on Facebook impeachment ads, making it (as Washington Post notes) the highest spender not named Trump and the official NNR spice brand. (They didn’t pay us to say that, though, because they already spent that money calling for impeachment.)

Dirt Excavation Synopsis.* As mentioned above, House reps and reporters have been busy, and there has been a lot of new information this week. Here’s what we learned: 1) Giuliani tried to get Tillerson to kill prosecution of his client in 2017, because hey, not like he prosecuted people for a decade or anything; 2a) Deutsche bank doesn’t have any Trump financial records, because 2b) Deusche bank may have destroyed said Trump financial records; 3) Former Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch believes she was let go because Trump didn’t like her anti-corruption policies; and 4) Then-current national security adviser John Bolton didn’t like Giuliani’s approach to Ukraine, calling the troll himself “a hand grenade [who would] blow everybody up” and the general approach “a drug deal.”

Administrative Anger Synopsis. Just like every other week, the administration and allies are full of dangerous nonsense about the impeachment inquiry, which is starting to branch out in both scope and speakers. Among the lowlights: 1) A GOP lawmaker calling the entire thing a ‘malicious kangaroo court’ and assuming that Captain Kangaroo presides over said court; 2) Trump sharing a fake video that showed him shooting members of the media at a Florida resort; 3) Trump holding a horrifying rally in Minneapolis that featured slagging on Somali refugees, spread baseless rumors about Ilhan Omar, and some new lies about Syria; 4) the Trump administration calling the entire inquiry ‘a seditious conspiracy’; and 5) Mike Pence, Rudy Giuliani, and the OBM all refusing to answer subpoenas pursuant to the inquiry.

As the situation in Syria worsens, Disregard of Governing Norms has become its own mushroom cloud of misery — it’s definitely back to a fully-blown subsection. Here are this week’s developments, with the caveat that military aid is pretty far outside my wheelhouse:

Shameful Withdrawal from Syria (cont).* The situation in Syria is chaotic and unpredictable after Trump went ahead and withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, just as he forecast, while Turkey went on to strike the hell out of our Kurdish allies, also forecast. Experts warned that this action could lead to a resurgence of ISIS, and we definitely did see hundreds of ISIS prisoners escape in the chaos (to say nothing of the solid we’re currently doing the terrorist group in terms of recruitment fodder). But we also watched desperate Kurdish fighters handle border protection by allying with Assad forces, which gives the Russia-backed Syrian government free rein in a region that had successfully held them back for seven years. And, of course, none of this even touches on the horrifying conditions that were created by the strike, which Trump initially justified with false and distracting claim that Kurdish people didn’t fight at Normandy. While people expressed disapproval and frustration at the horrorshow above, Trump announced he was ordering a full withdrawal from Syria, because Murrica. But almost immediately after, he decided to also sanction Turkey, ordering a fifty percent increase tariff on steel and a suspension of trade negotiations while he withdraws said troops. (Go ahead, try to find a coherent foreign policy in this paragraph. I dare you.)

Christian ‘Leadership.’ It’s nowhere near the same caliber of bonkers as the above paragraph, but Pompeo also made minor headlines this week for being allergic to the Establishment clause and giving a speech on being a Christian leader. This is a pretty disturbing disruption of separation of church and state, which is never popular with the evangelical set but is, in fact, in the Constitution.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Saudi Arabia Troop Shuffle.* In what I’m sure is just a wacky coincidence, on the same week that Trump announced full withdrawal from Syria he also announced that the United States is sending a comparable number of troops to Saudi Arabia. Since they’re ostensibly helping hold off Iran, this wouldn’t be that strange, except that his whole justification for the Syrian removal was getting troops out of the Middle East, and also Saudi Arabia is apparently paying us. So… uh… that’s a thing that’s happening.

The Bad:

Your Weekly Immigration Hell. No matter what else is going on, the Trump administration finds time to be terrible to immigrants. As he forecast in Minneapolis, Trump’s newest thing is that he wants to give cities the ability to refuse to house refugees. (He actually wrote an executive order on this a couple of weeks ago, around the same time that he announced the U.S. would only accept 18,000 refugees in FY2020.) This is likely to face challenges just like the ones I’m outlining below, so we’ll want to keep an eye on it; the rest of the immigration news is thankfully much better this week.

Power Outages in CA.* Northern California experienced widespread planned blackouts this week in an effort to avoid wildfires caused by high winds, leaving 2.5 million people without power in total. This is an unprecedented planned outage that seems likely to become a new normal under global warming, and therefore deserves our attention. Though nobody enjoys being without power, the blackouts are particularly hard on people living with disability, who often need electricity for medical reasons. It’s the state’s hope that this is better than another raging fire, but we’ll have to see how everyone is doing when the outages end.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. This week has been a chaotic nightmare, but at least we’ve had some really good court results. At the time that I type this, eight different courts have issued injunctions pausing new rules that would penalize indigent immigrants, with one judge calling the rules “repugnant to the American dream.” This new rule set was supposed to go into effect today, and the injunctions are a major advocacy win on this issue. A federal court also held this week that Trump couldn’t divert military funding for his vanity wall, because this was an illegal appropriation of funds. And a federal appeals court also ordered Trump to turn over financial records, which is how we learned that Deutsche didn’t have them in the first place.

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 intrepid pupper 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 stability in Syria!