Year 4 – National News Roundup

Year 4, Week 52 (January 10-16)

January 18, 2021January 19, 2021 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Dear reader, I bet you will be shocked–just shocked–to learn that the 52nd week of Year 4 is chockablock and much of it is twitch-worthy. I take comfort in the belief that I’m hopefully viewing a last hurrah from the most venal and corrupt administration our country has ever seen. That said, though the Trump administration is ideally ending, the NNR is not! We may do some restructuring as we adjust to the Biden administration, but one way or another, we’ll still be here. There’s too much to do to stop.

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 Independence Mall!–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:

This week’s news on Election Rejection is probably a touch better than the week of the assault on the Capitol building complex, but not by much–as we learn more about the event, a lot of disturbing information has trickled out. Here’s what I have for you:

Further Updates from the Insurrection. Though a few of the immediate consequences for Trump underlings have been pretty funny–Pompeo canceling his EU trip because officials refused to meet with him and Trump telling his team not to pay Rudy Giuliani spring to mind–much of the new updates about the attempted insurrection are far less amusing. Early in the week, Rep Mikie Sherill asserted that GOP colleagues had given “reconnaissance” tours of the site the day before the attack, and over 30 Democrats are seeking an investigation into this matter. Those reports appear supported by a Stop the Steal organizer’s statement that he had the support of three reps in Congress as he planned. Eventually, CNN aired footage of Rep Steve Cohen accusing Rep Lauren Boebert of leading such a tour the day before the attack; though he did not have concrete proof beyond saying he had seen her lead a group, that proof might not exist because reps are not required to sign their guests in. Either way, many of the people who stormed the Capitol Building have proven to have good working knowledge of the building complex; a group apparently nearly made it to the Senate chamber while Mike Pence was still there before being diverted away by a lone police officer who made himself a target. Many of the insurrectionists are also very well-trained; several off-duty members of police forces and current or former members of the U.S. military have been identified as participants. All of this, of course, sets the stage for high concern about reports of repeat attacks in the week leading up to inauguration, which I’ll talk about more below.

Further Consequences. Unsurprisingly, given the information above, consequences continue on both criminal and non-criminal fronts. At this point, eighty people have been criminally charged, with charges ranging from simple trespass to sedition, and the first indictments have been issued as well. All told, officials are investigating over one hundred and seventy people. Countless people have given FBI tips about their own family members, disgusted by the destruction and multiple deaths caused by the mob. Meanwhile, various corporations have begun to pull their donations to the 147 members of Congress who appeared to support challenging Biden’s election win, which many people are taking as tacit support of the attempted coup itself. Trump himself, meanwhile, continues to be banned from half the Internet and suffer a whole host of business consequences for his role in the storm of the Capitol building, including several contracts pulled by New York City itself.

25 to Impeachment. We knew pretty early on that impeachment proceedings would begin last Monday, and sure enough, the House formally introduced an article of impeachment for incitement of insurrection in time for last week’s news summary. That said, because Mike Pence apparently hadn’t ruled out invoking the 25th Amendment, the House decided to formally call on him to invoke it on Tuesday evening. Pence refused that night, so the House voted to impeach Trump on Wednesday, with a total of 232 yeas and 197 nays–in total, ten Republican representatives voted to impeach. (In addition to being the first time that a President has been impeached twice, it’s kind of fun to note that it was the most bipartisan impeachment in history.) Now it’s an open question when when the article will be sent to the Senate for a trial, so we’ll need to keep watching and calling. In the meantime, Trump is far from contrite about the whole thing, and just today the White House published a “1776 Report” that appears to be another direct attempt at incitement. It’s therefore pretty unsurprising that he enters his final week in office with one of the lowest approval ratings in history.

Because it’s their last chance to get them in, we also saw a great deal more Casual Disregard of Governing Norms this week. Here are the events to know:

Last-Minute Pardons and Executions. Three different federal executions were conducted in the past week, marking thirteen total federal executions in the past seven months after seventeen years without any executions at all. This would be monstrous enough to place as a priority during a pandemic, but the full context of these executions makes this particularly horrifying. Firstly, this is an incredibly high number for federal executions–in fact, a brief for one of the recent defendants notes it is more than three times the total for the past sixty years. But the part of this story that I consider most noteworthy is the fact that two of the three executions had been stayed by appeals courts, and were then summarily overturned by the Supreme Court this week. This news is bracketed by the developing story that Donald Trump has essentially been selling pardons, and in fact is expected to pardon or commute the sentences of over 100 more people before he leaves office on Wednesday. This kind of corruption seems pretty obvious on its face, but Margaret Love insightfully summarized the whole fetid ball of earwax by calling it “a basic violation of the longstanding effort to make this process at least look fair.”

Your Ordinarily-Scheduled Corruption. Naturally, we also had more news about ridiculous unnecessary expenses and cronyism, because why should this week be different from all other weeks. There was a ridiculous story about Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s toilet that apparently is disputed, so make of that what you will. But more credibility is being loaned to the news that five different anti-vaccine organizations collectively received over a million dollars in PPP loans during the pandemic, despite perpetuating mistrust of COVID vaccines and therefore potentially prolonging the pandemic. This news is particularly egregious when you consider that tens of thousands of small businesses in the United States did not get any of those loans at all.

Last Minute Policy Grabs. Unsurprisingly, the administration has also crammed through a variety of last-minute policy changes that appear designed to either make things difficult for successors, squeeze in some last-minute hate, or both. There have been a spree of final environmental rollbacks from the Department of Interior, Department of Energy, and Environmental Protection Agency, most of which will likely be undone by the Biden administration pretty promptly. The Department of Health and Human Services finalized a rule permitting social service groups to discriminate based on orientation and gender identity. And the FDA and CDC finalized a rule that essentially imposes term limits on health experts and scientists, because forcing leading health experts out is definitely a reasonable and safe thing to do in the middle of a pandemic.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Inauguration Planning. As I mentioned in the last roundup, it remains a strange and scary time as we gear up for inauguration and officials remain vigilant, concerned about potential further attacks (although none have materialized as I type this). There is still no public access to the Capitol grounds, and in fact, the National Mall will be closed along with most major public bridges all week. The many National Guard troops stationed in the complex are being vetted to prevent infiltration. There are numerous checkpoints around the city, and one of them resulted in the arrest of a guy with 500 rounds of ammunition on Friday. The Biden administration is moving many celebrations online to try to keep a festive atmosphere against this backdrop, but it’s hard to keep a grim feeling from settling in.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19. COVID news continues to be rough. Seven different House representatives have tested positive for COVID after being forced to shelter in place with colleagues who refused masks, prompting Democrats to seek $1000-per-day fines for mask infractions moving forward. Meanwhile, news broke that this administration had completely exhausted its vaccine reserve, despite its announcement that it planned to expand access to said nonexistent reserve only a few days prior. Needless to say, this has implications for President-elect Biden’s vaccine distribution plans, and comes despite a lag in vaccine distribution generally over the last few weeks. Officials are now recommending the vaccine be given to anyone over 65 in an effort to speed things up. We are also expected to cross the threshold of 400,000 deaths by tomorrow morning. In slightly more positive news, articles also started appearing about the vaccine’s excellent track record for preventing deaths–though it is not 100% effective against COVID infection, those inoculated near-uniformly experienced milder and non-lethal symptoms.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. We had a few promising court moments this week. In Pennsylvania, a federal judge ordered that a rightfully-elected state senator must be seated in the Senate, ending a multi-week standoff that echoed our Presidential spectacle and created a lot of uncertainty. And in New York, the Attorney General’s office is suing the NYPD for misconduct during the Floyd protests. They may seem like small victories, but they are worth noting.

So that’s what I have for this week, and here’s hoping it’s the last Trump week I ever send you. For making it through all of that, you deserve SeaShantyTiktok and these animals interrupting photo shoots and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more, potentially restructured, 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 a better place to put your comments!

Year 4, Week 51 (January 3-9)

January 11, 2021January 12, 2021 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

I’m sure that most of us are aware of the insurgent attack on the Capitol building complex, which interrupted electoral procedure for nearly six hours on Wednesday. It’s hard to make sense of that mob, which unquestionably perpetrated terrorism in their own nation’s seat of power, and it’s hard to make sense of Trump’s role in their organizing. It’s also a bit hard to make sense of the messy processes that followed it. I’ll do my best to lead you through the weeds, but I’m also around if anyone has questions or just needs to commiserate.

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 electoral college!–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:

Last week I said that we had unquestionably experienced the worst round yet of Election Rejection, as it literally violated federal election law. Then this week said, “HOLD MY BEER.” Here’s what I have for you:

Attempted Coup at the Capitol Building. On Wednesday early afternoon, at a rally held at the Ellipse, Trump encouraged thousands of his supporters to storm the Capitol building complex, noting that “I’m going to be watching because history is going to be made.” His armed mob of supporters then did exactly what he instructed, breaching the Capitol complex with weapons and zip ties and planting at least two explosive devices on the grounds. They forced congresspeople to shelter in place or evacuate and delayed proceedings for several hours, looting and vandalizing and threatening to execute Vice President Pence. Trump openly condoned the behavior in a video released during the assault, prompting Twitter to lock his account for 12 hours and then eventually ban him entirely. Five people died from the fray, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer who was fatally assaulted by rioters, and a sixth individual died a few days later by suicide. Virginia and Maryland ultimately sent in their national guard to deal with the chaos, and eventually Pence stepped up and ordered the DC National Guard in as well. Mayor Bowser imposed a 6pm curfew on the city and declared a state of emergency for the next fifteen days. Eventually after the mob was cleared, Congress resumed, and did finish counting the electoral college votes around 3:40am that morning. As events unfolded, news also began to trickle in that there were attacks at several other state houses on the same day insurrectionists attacked the Capitol.

Criminal Consequences. Though only thirteen arrests occurred on-site, over the past week arrests and charges have begun to trickle in–it turns out people who literally took unmasked selfies of themselves doing the crimes are easy to identify later. At the time that I type this, total arrests number at least 70 so far; those arrested include a West Virginia state representative, a guy who photographed himself stealing a congressional podium, and a man who had eleven Molotov cocktails in his truck when he was apprehended. Additionally, at least two Capitol Police officers have been suspended for their actions on the day of the attack. A federal murder probe has also begun regarding the death of the Capitol Police officer. Meanwhile, news recirculates that Trump plans to pardon himself, which is likely because federal authorities are considering bringing criminal charges against him for incitement of violence.

Social Media’s Role. One of the most stunning things about this past week’s assault is just how much it was planned in plain sight, and this has captured a great deal of attention in the past week. Almost immediately following the attack, a banning reckoning began for Trump and several prominent affiliates as social media platforms woke up and started trying to curtail white supremacist organizing. By the time of this draft, Trump and his brand have been banned from Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, Stripe, Discord, Shopify, Pinterest, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitch, and Paypal. As Twitter began citing Trump’s role in insurrection as a grounds for permanent ban, a far-right organizing platform, Parler, began gaining more attention; Apple and Google both suspended the platform in their app stores and both Twilio and Amazon suspended their hosting of the app entirely. Due to the apparently common practice on Parler of uploading state identification to “prove citizenship,” it likely also will play a role in upcoming criminal prosecutions.

Impeachment or 25th Amendment? At the time that I type this, it’s not fully certain what will happen politically in response to this week’s news, but it’s clear something is about to happen–almost immediately, several prominent Congresspeople began calling for another impeachment, invocation of the 25th Amendment, or both. By Friday, Nancy Pelosi had indicated that impeachment proceedings would begin on Monday, and sure enough, the House formally introduced an article of impeachment for incitement of insurrection earlier today. That said, Mike Pence apparently hasn’t ruled out invoking the 25th Amendment–though it may be hard to get rolling for reasons I’ll discuss below–and the House plans to formally call on him to invoke it tomorrow. (The National Association of Manufacturers has asked him as well.) If Pence refuses, which he probably will, the House will vote on the article of impeachment on Wednesday, and Pelosi likely already has the votes she needs. By this time next week, we’ll likely know a lot more about next steps, politically speaking.

Resignation Rodeo. Likely wishing to avoid a 25th Amendment discussion, several members of Trump’s cabinet and staff have resigned in the past few days. Among those who are leaving: Cabinet members such as Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf; former chief of staff and current special envoy to Northern Ireland Mick Mulvaney; and several more national security and cybersecurity officials. The departure of Chao and DeVos impacts the likelihood of success under the 25th Amendment, which requires a Cabinet majority; at present, only ten of fifteen Cabinet positions are even filled.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Inauguration Planning. Needless to say, the past week has changed a lot about inaugural planning, and it’s going to be a strange and scary week. With DC still in a state of emergency, Mayor Bowser is asking people to avoid DC for the next week, and no public access will be allowed on the grounds on Inauguration Day, though 15,000 National Guard troops will be present in the city. U.S. Secret Services is also beginning operations six days early. The FBI has put out a bulletin about armed protests being planned in all fifty states in the days leading up to Inauguration Day, and these concerns have additional credibility because of the attacks at several other sites on the same day insurrectionists attacked the Capitol.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19. It was easy to forget about COVID with everything else going on, but the pandemic is still here and it’s still very, very bad. We continue to see impact from Christmas travel in death rates, infection rates, and hospitalizations rates. At least one member of Congress tested positive after sheltering in place during Wednesday’s riot. The new variant continues to raise infection rates. Vaccine distribution also continues to evidence a number of issues: 1) Fast distribution is difficult because the vaccine must be administered within six hours of being removed from deep refrigeration, forcing health providers to either throw away expired doses or administer them to people who shouldn’t yet qualify; 2) Some people (though not many) are being found to have allergic reactions; and 3) Underfunding remains a serious logistical problem.

Black Lives Still Matter. The stark differences between police reaction on Wednesday and police actions at Black Lives Matter protests over the summer have not escaped attention over the last week, and in fact several officials have credibly claimed that it was hard to get the National Guard in place at all during the attack. Additionally this week, in Kenosha, the decision was officially made not to charge any police in the shooting of Jacob Blake. Meanwhile, there was yet another police shooting of a Black man in Minneapolis, and news also broke that a police chief who resigned in disgrace over Rayshard Brooks’s extrajudicial shooting in Atlanta has been hired to run the police department in Louisville, where Breonna Taylor was shot. Needless to say, this is an awful backdrop to the white supremacist violence earlier this week, and now is an excellent time to support Black communities and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Good:

Georgia Runoff Results. Amid the chaos of the past week, the Senate runoff election results haven’t fully sunk in, but these elections were both encouraging and the Warnock results are historic. Both Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff ultimately won their races, returning control of the Senate to Democrats and illustrating the sheer power of organizing for enfranchisement. The results mark the first time a Black American has ever served as a Senator from Georgia, and the first time Georgia has sent Democrats to the Senate floor in over twenty years. Much like the general election, it’s also worth noting that early turnout was very high, particularly among young voters.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this bird enjoying a free ride 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 4, Week 50 (December 27–January 2)

January 4, 2021January 5, 2021 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Happy 2021! To celebrate the new year, I got you a news cycle that is somehow even more 2020 than the past month combined. (The things we do for auld lang syne, amirite?)

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 electoral college!–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:

Here we go again with what is unquestionably the worst round yet of Election Rejection, as it appears to literally violate federal election law. Again. Still. Here’s what I have for you:

We Found the Election Fraud. On Saturday, Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and, in a surreal, audiorecorded hour-long conversation, appears to pressure the sitting Secretary of State to “find” 11,780 votes in his favor or suffer unnamed political consequences. A transcript is available of the entire call, but you can also read or listen to some choice bananas quotes if you don’t want to wade that far in. Apparently, Trump tried calling Raffensperger 18 times before he gave in and answered the phone, which sends its own message, and I don’t blame Raffensperger for being ready with a tape recorder when he finally answered. Although the New York Times cautiously says this call “might” violate state and federal law, that underplays the seriousness of what just happened–as the GA elections board member requesting investigation has noted, the whole call is extremely textbook illegal election tampering. It’s unsurprising that the executive director of CREW, an ethics nonprofit in DC, already notes that the call constitutes another impeachable offense.

Your Ordinary Trumped-Up Election Challenges. Honestly, after that this next paragraph is going to feel like Mrs. Lincoln summarizing the play, but the other election obstruction news is still important in its own right anyway. On Wednesday, junior senator Josh Hawley announced he was going to object to the election results when they are certified later this week, and he managed to get twelve other GOP senators to join him. Vice President Mike Pence, who will be overseeing the count, has signaled that he supports this nonsense, even though he felt differently about the lawsuit to force him to change the results (which by the way, was dismissed this week as well). The objection isn’t likely to change anything–it will just force a vote on the issue–but it’s a form of grandstanding that presumably appeals to Trump’s base. At the time that I type this, enough GOP senators have gone along with this ridiculous plan for the Washington Post to start a tracker of who is doing what. Meanwhile, all ten living former Secretaries of Defense have authored an op-ed reminding the current one that he’s not supposed to get involved in a free election, which hopefully will not prove topical.

That said, we also got a bit of Disregard of Governing Norms, though nowhere near as much as last week. Here’s what I have for you:

Your Ordinarily-Scheduled Corruption. News broke this week that Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Republican Congressperson Devin Nunes, for… reasons? He’s not really being clear on the logic there, and Nunes certainly hasn’t done anything to suggest he’s worthy of a Presidential Medal of Freedom, so we’re forced to speculate. My pet theory is that it’s for the bravery Nunes showed while repeatedly suing @DevinNunesCow.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Congressional Updates. In addition to the election news above, there was a fair amount of other unusual Congressional action. After the House overwhelmingly voted to override Trump’s veto on his own defense budget, the Senate managed to function like a government for five minutes and overwhelmingly voted the same way. Then they promptly adjourned without even considering the $2,000 standalone stimulus that was passed by the House this week, because Mitch McConnell had already blocked consideration of the bill. Surprising no one, Trump continued the chaos on the topic of the $2,000 stimulus by attacking and splitting his own party. All told, the week held a strange combination of fractious interactions and rare unity.

Runoff Election Watch. Needless to say, the Georgia Senate races have taken some strange turns, and only some of them are because of Trump’s illegal campaign techniques. Early turnout has already been quite high as I type this, particularly among young voters, but there is still a large turnout expected in-person tomorrow. Both Trump and Biden are holding rallies tonight ahead of Election Day, though Trump has publicly called the Senate races “illegal and invalid”, so who knows how that rally is gonna go. And Senator Perdue started quarantining over the weekend because he was exposed to the coronavirus over the week, so here’s hoping he doesn’t show up to the Trump rally.

Bean There, Dad That. It’s not my usual fare, but popular demand has politely requested that I cover the bizarre controversy that overtook Twitter yesterday. Podcaster and insufferable blowhard John Roderick decided to share a “heartwarming” saga about his daughter’s six-hour struggle with the can opener, taking twenty-three tweets to argue that it was a great triumph for “apocalypse dads” when his hungry child eventually wrenched the can open with zero help from him. (If you are asking ‘why didn’t she just make herself a PB&J,’ as I did, his own account answers this: He informed her that “neither of us will eat another bite today until we get into this can of beans.” And by “we,” he meant “her,” because he was busy doing a jigsaw puzzle.) Needless to say, twitter rapidly informed him that HWTA, and then the backlog of racist, anti-Semitic, and sexist tweets emerged, and by the end of Sunday evening Bean Dad was so canceled that My Brother, My Brother, and Me had a new theme song.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19. This was another weird, bad week for COVID news. We’re starting to see impact from the unusually high travel rates for Christmas, and the results are not encouraging–hospitalizations continue to rise, we’ve eclipsed 20M cases, and the presence of a new, more contagious strain of COVID isn’t helping anything. Meanwhile, vaccine distribution has encountered a number of issues: 1) Several states are not following CDC guidelines; 2) In West Virginia, people were accidentally given antibodies instead of the vaccine; 3) There’s renewed concern about whether pregnant women can take the vaccine; and 4) Over 500 doses of Moderna vaccine were intentionally destroyed by a pharmacist in Wisconsin, who has since been arrested and charged with recklessly endangering safety. There was also a story about distilleries who emergency-produced hand sanitizer being charged heavy fees for their production, but thankfully that decision was reversed by Health and Human Services a day later.

The Good:

Recent COVID Resilience. We did see some positive policies relating to COVID this week, and it’s worth drawing attention to them. New York held a special legislative session to extend their moratorium on most evictions during the pandemic, which would have otherwise expired on December 31. And in Washington DC, a new law was passed this week facilitating early release for old or ill prison inmates who are particularly high-risk for COVID complications.

Recent Organizing Efforts. Employees of Alphabet Inc, the parent company of Google, also announced today that they are organizing an Alphabet Workers’ Union in conjunction with Communication Workers of America. The new union represents years of work within the company, and the Alphabet Workers’ Union already has over 400 members as I type this. This is really encouraging news, and I hope we see a cascade of organizing efforts as a result.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve these cats clearing an obstacle course 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 a time machine and a better printer!

Year 4, Week 49 (December 20-26)

December 28, 2020December 29, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

The frenetic pace of this week’s news is my fault, y’all–against all good sense, I mistakenly hoped that we’d get a quiet week over the holidays. (After four years of this, you’d think I would know better!)

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 electoral college!–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:

Here we go again with yet another round of Election Rejection, as Trump refuses to wind down and the GOP refuses to deal with it. Again. Still. Here’s what I have for you:

Trumped-Up Election Challenges. Apparently Trump isn’t about to let a little thing like certified election results stop him, and with his lawsuits winding down he is pivoting to new methods. He met with several GOP members of the House this week about the possibility of challenging the electoral college votes on the Senate floor, a move Mitch McConnell has openly gainsayed as ill-advised. Meanwhile, a few other GOP lawmakers are suing Mike Pence in an attempt to get him to ignore the certified results. Pence hasn’t really been all that reassuring when talking talking about how he’ll handle that, so we should probably be keeping an eye on him along with everything else. And speaking of suing, the people that make the voting machines are suing the Trump team for defamation, since they kept bad-mouthing the product in bogus lawsuits. Meanwhile, in the week leading up to the runoff Senate elections in Georgia, it’s anybody’s guess what all of this circus will do to those elections. And finally, against all of this backdrop, President-Elect Biden is expressing concern about cybersecurity and says that he’s still not getting full briefs on national security.

That said, we also got an improbable amount of Disregard of Governing Norms–like I said, that’s on me for wanting a quiet week. Here’s what I have for you:

COVID Relief Circus. The pending COVID relief bill was an entire ride this week, I tell you what. Around this time last week, the House and the Senate both passed a final compromise version of relief legislation. Like people who expect rational thought from their fellow humans, leadership on both sides assumed that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s active participation in the negotiations meant that the White House was agreeing to the deal. This turned out to be a tactical error, as Trump promptly refused to sign the bill–blaming the amount of stimulus payment, but I suspect the provision ending surprise medical billing was his actual problem here. Since Trump took to twitter to demand $2,000 stimulus payments, House Democrats put forward an existing bill that did exactly that. Mitch McConnell, of course, was having none of that, and House GOP blocked the new bill on Thursday. Trump let unemployment benefits expire on Saturday before finally signing the dang bill on Sunday night to avoid a government shutdown. The whole thing mostly only hurt his own political party right before Georgia’s elections, and the House is still planning to vote on $2,000 stimulus payments even though he relented.

Beg Your Pardon. As was foretold by prophecy, Trump issued a bunch of pardons leading up to the holiday, and thanks, I hate it. Most of the 15 people he pardoned on Tuesday were high-profile sycophants, people who were convicted of public corruption, or both, which is hardly surprising. But in a particularly galling move, he also pardoned the Blackwater Four, who were military vets working as contractors in Iraq convicted of the unprovoked killing of seventeen civilians while there. Then on Wednesday, he pardoned another 29 people, and most of them were personal friends, underlings, or both as well. At the time that I type this, he has personally intervened for five different people involved in the Russia investigation, three Republican officials, one family member, and six officials accused of wrongful killings. It’s traditional for a President to pardon people in their last few weeks in office, but it’s also hard to overstate how incredibly not normal these pardons are.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Other Ridiculous Veto News. Speaking of refusing to sign things, Trump also formally vetoed his own defense’s spending budget this week because the bill didn’t repeal online liability protections for companies like Facebook and Twitter. At the time that I type this, the House has already overwhelmingly voted to override his veto, and the Senate is expected to go the same way.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19. Even setting aside the COVID relief bill news, COVID news was not good this week–our numbers overall nationally are slightly better than last week’s, but given the current spike that’s really not saying much. California became the first state to hit two million cases, which is not a distinction anyone wanted. The Associated Press is reporting that this year is the deadliest year in American history, and the biggest percentage jump in fatalities since the flu pandemic of 1918. And a new COVID strain was identified in the UK, prompting much of Europe to bar entry to the country. America is considering doing the same, which is a bit rich coming from us and might be pointless regardless, since we don’t know if the new strain is already here.

Nashville Bombing. Even Christmas Day this year involved terrible national news, because 2020 is nothing if not consistent. A bomb was intentionally detonated in downtown Nashville, injuring three people, destroying buildings, and causing multiple massive disruptions in and around the city during the holiday. The injury count is likely relatively low because the vehicle announced it was about to explode starting about fifteen minutes beforehand, prompting police to vacate the area. Remains near the vehicle were eventually identified as the person who detonated it, making him the only person currently identified as dying in the blast.

Black Lives Still Matter. In addition to the violence above, there was another police extrajudicial shooting of a Black man in Columbus, Ohio–which makes two in that location this month alone. Incredibly, the police officer involved in the first Columbus shooting was also in the news this week because a tape surfaced of him advocating extrajudicial violence in a church sermon. Needless to say, the community is both exhausted and incensed, and I don’t blame them.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. We had a couple of good court moments this week. A U.S. federal district court judge issued a stay of Trump’s ban on diversity training from this past autumn in California, noting that the ban was “an insult to the[] work of addressing discrimination and injustice towards historically underserved communities.” And in Georgia, a class action suit regarding the unnecessary hysterectomies of women detained by ICE has grown to over 40 plaintiffs, highlighting just how seriously the September whistleblowing complaint is being taken by advocates.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this seal getting nice pets 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 4, Week 48 (December 13-19)

December 21, 2020December 22, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Somehow, election news still isn’t over, and not just because of the Georgia election’s unprecedented early voting. I’ve outlined the latest hysterics below, which might be funny if they weren’t so unsettling. We need to continue to keep an eye on this, y’all.

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 vaccine vial!–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:

Here we go again with yet another round of Election Rejection, as Trump refuses to wind down and the GOP refuses to deal with it. Again. Still. Here’s what I have for you:

Trumped-Up Election Challenges. In the day or so after the electoral college certified, Trump was telling his base to “fight on” and was still saying the election isn’t over. It turns out we didn’t have to wonder what that meant for very long–within a day or two, he had newly-pardoned former national security advisor Michael Flynn on television saying that Trump should seize voting machines and declare martial law to force another election. Flynn was then back at the White House by Friday to discuss hiring apparently un-disgraced Sidney Powell to lead an investigation into voter fraud, which apparently involved advisors yelling and screaming at each other because that’s how they do over there. Recently-fired-slash-resigned William Barr, meanwhile, had no problem at using one of his final press conferences to dismiss Flynn’s dangerous nonsense.

That said, we also saw more Original Flavor Disregard of Governing Norms.Here’s what I have for you:

Your Ordinarily-Scheduled Corruption. Jared Kushner was in the news this week for apparently creating a shell company that paid the Trump family from campaign funds over the 2020 campaign–which, as the Washington Post op-ed notes, may or may not be legal, but is definitely sketchy. And down in Florida, Mar-A-Lago residents are suing to keep Trump from moving there full-time once he vacates the White House, anticipating that he will violate his own real estate contract before he even leaves. And, of course, several outlets are anticipating a pardon free-for-all over the next few weeks, as the Trump administration (hopefully) winds down its term.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Unexpected Political Updates. In weird and semi-political news, a beleaguered U.S. Postal Service is struggling to meet mailing demand, as the holidays plus the pandemic plus remote voting for the Georgia election create unprecedented amounts of mail. Folks can expect all kinds of delays on delivery over the next few weeks as a result, which on the plus side is a great excuse if you didn’t manage to get your holiday shopping done. (Your gifts are in the mail though, loved ones, I swear!)

Your New Normal:

Transition Tidings Continue. President-Elect Joe Biden nominated a few more appointees this week, and unsurprisingly they are a mixed bag. I am legitimately excited about his suggestion for Secretary of Interior, Rep Deb Haaland, who will be the nation’s first Native American to fulfill the role. I am less excited that he tapped Pete Buttigieg as Secretary of Transportation, as South Bend has a grand total of 60 busses and, apparently, a pothole problem.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19. We continue to have horrifying new records of daily death, infection, and hospitalization counts in this country, which remains in worse shape than most of the world. On the plus side, the House did manage to pass another modest COVID relief bill today per Congressional deal; the bill provides more support for unemployment, rental assistance, and childcare as well as another round of stimulus checks, and the stimulus checks might go out as soon as next week. On the less plus side, the stimulus checks in question are only $600 per person, which doesn’t contrast so favorably with the $1.4B to build Trump’s vanity wall which the bill also contains. And in unsurprising-but-horrifying news, the House subcommittee on COVID crisis released a memo illustrating that a former Trump advisor was actively trying to get people sick with COVID because he (falsely) believed it would lead to herd immunity.

From Russia, We Think (cont).* We continue to learn more about the spy campaign that targeted several U.S. agencies, and the news keeps getting worse. Our State Department retains confidence that this was an act of Russian espionage, though Trump is of course claiming it “may be China” with absolutely no evidence to support his claim. At this point, it looks like forty different organizations were targeted, hitting several different countries (although the majority of the organizations are mostly U.S.-owned). Needless to say, Russia spying on our internal emails at several different U.S. agencies, including the Commerce Department, National Security Council, and Department of Homeland Security, is not great news. This is especially true when the head of cybersecurity at DHS was just let go for saying there was no election fraud.

The Good:

Second COVID Vaccine Approved. We got a bit more positive COVID news this week, as Moderna’s vaccine was approved by the FDA as well. This vaccine also can be stored at ordinary refrigeration temperatures, which should help distribution effects considerably; the first shipments have already begun to go out as I type this. And in true Hanukkah fashion, pharmacists figured out how to get 40% more vaccine out of Pfizer’s vaccine vials, expanding access during the first phase of vaccination.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this otter enjoying an ice snack 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 mail after the holiday!

Year 4, Week 47 (December 6-12)

December 14, 2020December 15, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

The electoral college voted today, and I can’t get over how uneventful that event was–at the time that I type this, there are no faithless electors and I haven’t heard any reports of violence. Of course, we were hacked by Russia and the attorney general resigned, so there was still plenty of sensational news from the day. But the electoral college, at least, was functional.

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 electoral college!–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:

Here we go again with yet another round of Election Rejection, as Trump refuses to wind down and the GOP refuses to deal with it. Here’s what I have for you:

Trumped-Up Election Challenges. As I mentioned above, the electoral college vote today went… exactly how people expected it to, which by this point is deeply unnerving. It’s extra jarring, to be fair, because election challenges abounded the entire week beforehand. Trump asked the Pennsylvania House Speaker to overturn election results there, marking the third state he has pressured to throw out legal election results. Meanwhile, Texas sued to toss out legal election results and two dozen states countersued to stop them. (Within a few days of the suit being filed, the Supreme Court had tossed it out the door with a subtle note to Texas to stay in its own lane, and rejected a case challenging Pennsylvania’s results while it was at it.) While the case was pending, 126 GOP lawmakers urged SCOTUS to throw out election results in support of the Texas suit, and some prominent officials even began alluding to secession. Against that backdrop, it’s hardly surprising that at least one retiring Republican has officially left the party over the matter. Now that the challenge has been tossed, Trump is telling his base to “fight on,” whatever that means, and is still saying the election isn’t over.

State of Unrest. As an unfortunate corollary to the legal challenges above, we also saw a fair amount of rallies and resulting violence about the election results. In Olympia, Washington, members of the Proud Boys shot counterprotesters on two separate occasions in an eight-day period. Meanwhile, in Washington DC, four people were stabbed and Proud Boys also vandalized several prominent D.C. Black churches. Michigan also reported credible threats of violence ahead of the electoral college vote, although there are no reports of violence at the building today.

That said, we also saw more Original Flavor Disregard of Governing Norms. Here’s what I have for you:

Goodbye Barr! Apparently I still have some skill with tea leaves, because as I predicted last week Attorney General William Barr did indeed get resigned -slash-fired today. He leaves too late to prevent the execution of Brandon Bernard, but his departure may have implications for the remaining scheduled executions between now and late January. Given his methods of upholding the law while serving included acting as the President’s personal attorney on more than one occasion and lying about the contents of the Mueller report, I can’t imagine much of the country is sad to see him go.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Unexpected Political Updates. Congress did indeed pass a one-week stopgap measure this week to avoid a shutdown on Thursday, which is to be expected. What was less expected was the veto-proof majority they managed on this year’s defense spending bill so that Trump couldn’t derail it because he’s mad at Twitter. The bill passes during a low point for Trump-military relations, as veterans are currently calling for his Secretary of the VA to resign because of his mishandling of a sexual assault case.

Your New Normal:

Transition Tidings Continue. After last week’s health-related picks, President-Elect Biden appears to be continuing the trend with this week’s proposed appointments. He announced his pick for head of Veteran’s Affairs today, who is former Obama chief of staff Dennis McDonough. Much like Biden’s pick for head of DHHS, Xavier Becerra, McDonough lacks basic in-field background, and veteran organizations are frustrated by that lack. His pick for Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, is also a potentially problematic pick, as he hasn’t been retired from the military long enough to be a civilian commander in accordance with federal law. (Austin would, however, be the first Black Secretary of Defense if confirmed, and that part is awesome.) He also proposed new heads of HUD and DOA, Marcia Fudge and Tom Vilsack respectively, and both of those picks look very traditional.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19. We continue to have horrifying new records of daily death, infection, and hospitalization counts in this country. Congress is considering another modest relief bill, which first appeared to be enjoying more support than previous efforts, but negotiations looked on the verge of collapse again by Tuesday evening. The FDA did approve the Pfizer vaccine for use–more about that below–but not before Trump threatened to fire the head of the organization because it was taking too long. And Florida police raided the home of a scientist who drew attention to the state’s COVID data manipulation earlier in the summer.

From Russia, We Think.* News broke over the weekend that several government entities had been hacked, with the security breaches bearing hallmarks of Russian cyberespionage. The attacks also appear tied to a recent attack on FireEye, a cybersecurity company with many government contracts–FireEye reports that the perpetrators stole their own hacking software. Needless to say, Russia spying on our internal emails at the Commerce Department, National Security Council, and Department of Homeland Security for months is, uh, not great news, especially when the head of cybersecurity at DHS was just let go for saying there was no election fraud.

The Good:

COVID Vaccine Approved. As I mentioned above, the FDA cleared the Pfizer vaccine on Friday, and the first batch was shipped very quickly; at the time that I type this, the first recipients have already received their first shots. Naturally, people have a lot of questions about how the vaccine works and what we can expect, but this is nonetheless a monumental moment and a bright spot in what promises to be a dark winter.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve a puppy for Chanukah 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 news of your Zoom plans!

Year 4, Week 46 (November 29–December 5)

December 7, 2020December 8, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Another week of Trump temper tantrum is behind us, and I’m running out of ways to summarize the same exact news week over and over. I would apologize for boring y’all, but at least stale stories would suggest there isn’t new bad news. Mostly.

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 dubious election lawsuit!–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:

Here we go again with yet another round of Election Rejection, as Trump refuses to wind down and the GOP refuses to deal with it. Here’s what I have for you:

Trumped-Up Election Challenges. Election tantrums continue for another week even though, as I mentioned last week, all six of the states where Trump tried to contest results have certified their election results for Biden. Trump brought another lawsuit in Wisconsin, though it’s unclear how he expects the judge to do anything when the state has already certified, and engaged in lengthy video rants. But the biggest Trumpian effort of the week was his hissy fit in Georgia, where he ostensibly was stumping for the special election scheduled on January 5. In true Trump fashion, he instead used the opportunity to lie about winning his own election, pressure Georgian officials to throw out the election results, and have his team file yet another lawsuit. This move doesn’t exactly distance him from his former lawyer Sidney Powell, who along with fellow bonkers attorney Lin Wood spent the week telling Georgian Republicans not to vote unless the state refuses to acknowledge Biden’s win. Against that backdrop, it’s depressing but hardly surprising that over 200 Republican elected officials refuse to acknowledge Biden’s victory, and Trump is demanding the names of those 25 Republicans that did. Meanwhile, election officials worry about staff safety, particularly after armed protesters surrounded the home of Michigan’s Secretary of State.

That said, we also saw more Original Flavor Disregard of Governing Norms. Here’s what I have for you:

Goodbye Barr? Between investigating potential pardon abuses and loudly proclaiming that there was no election fraud, Attorney General William Barr appears to be suddenly out of sync with Trump all over the place. (This may or may not be related to Trump pardoning Flynn, which almost certainly was not what Barr wanted to happen.) Unsurprisingly, outlets are already starting to report that Trump is less than thrilled about this. If Trump fires his sitting Attorney General (again) in the two or so months he has left, or Barr leaves on his own, that may derail the spate of executions currently scheduled to occur before Biden is sworn in. It’s worth keeping an eye on this and seeing how it develops.

Your Ordinarily-Scheduled Corruption. Despite his busy anti-stumping schedule, Trump managed to find plenty of time to be sketchy this week. News broke that he is now allegedly looking into pardoning his three oldest children and Rudy Giuliani, the former of whom have not even been charged with a crime yet, although Ivanka was deposed in an AG investigation this week. He also threatened to veto defense spending unless Congress repealed legislation that protects tech companies from lawsuits. And finally, yet more people were fired from the Pentagon and replaced with loyalists; resident scary COVID advisor Scott Atlas also left a week early, although nobody seems too sad about the latter’s departure.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Unexpected Political Updates. There’s a lot of weird political news floating around right now, and I’m not sure what to make of all of it. Since the tentative stimulus package definitely won’t be ready before December 10, Congress will vote on a one-week stopgap measure this week to avoid a shutdown on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Georgia runoff election is taking all kinds of strange turns, including one of the candidates refusing to show up for the campaign debates on Saturday. (Incidentally, if you’re reading this from Georgia, today is the last day that new voters can register, and early voting begins next week.) Additionally, the Trump administration passed changes this week that make the citizenship exam harder and more Republican, presumably for funsies since Biden can start rolling that back only six weeks after it goes into effect.

Your New Normal:

Transition Tidings Continue. There was a bit more Biden transition news this week, though not as much as previous weeks. He announced a plan to ask everyone to wear a mask for 100 days, which hopefully is not the sum total of his COVID messaging (although the CDC is finally admitting it’s important). He also announced several picks for top health-related positions: He is asking former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to reprise the role for his administration, asking Mass General Hospital’s head of its infectious disease division, Rochelle Walensky, to run the CDC, and he plans to tap current California AG Xavier Becerra as his Secretary of Health and Human Services. The first two are solid picks, but I have concerns about Becerra’s selection to head DHHS, which is an extremely broad agency that runs everything from the FDA to the CDC to Medicare and Medicaid to NIH. Health experts are saying the agency should have a health professional at the helm during the COVID crisis, and though Becerra has considerable experience litigating the Affordable Care Act, he has no background in healthcare or human services. He would, however, be the first Latino person to hold the position.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19. Unfortunately, COVID news remains bad. At the time that I type this, infections are still rising and so are death rates, with both reaching a new all-time high on Wednesday. Experts remain extremely concerned about the coming winter, and the director of the CDC has gone on the record as saying that it may be the worst period in American public health history. In response to the growing infection rates, California issued new stay-at-home guidance, tying the restrictions to ICU capacity. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has invited 900 people to his house for a holiday party, and Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for COVID. In vaccine news, Bush, Clinton, and Obama have agreed to take the vaccine publicly once it becomes available, trying to forestall mistrust of the development process, and experts recommend people get the vaccine even if they’ve already had a COVID infection. Congress is considering another modest relief bill, which appears to be enjoying more support than previous efforts and might actually pass. And finally, new research analysis suggests that many people do not remain contagious for longer than seven days, which has resulted in the CDC shortening their recommended period for self-isolation in cases of exposure.

The Good:

Recent Government Resilience. By this point, we know not to expect much from the executive branch, but we did see a few bright spots in both the judicial and legislative branches this week. Arizona Democrat Mark Kelly was sworn in this week, giving Arizona two Democrat senators for the first time in nearly sixty years, and the House voted to decriminalize marijuana (though that bill is likely DOA in the current Senate). On the judicial side, a federal district judge reinstated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, ordering the administration to accept first-time applications. Though DACA’s position remains precarious, this is still a step in the right direction.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this Star Wars version of Carol of the Bells 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 holiday chocolate!

Year 4, Week 45 (November 22-28)

November 30, 2020December 1, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This week saw an improbable amount of news, given the holiday in the middle–several things snuck in under the turkey radar while most people weren’t paying attention. (The National News Roundup was paying attention. You’re on notice, SCOTUS.)

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 ill-advised partial recount!–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:

Here we go again with another round of Election Rejection, but it’s tentatively looking like Trump is running out of steam. Here’s what I have for you:

Trumped-Up Election Challenges. The cockroach metaphor remains apt for another week as courts fumigate Trump’s election claims, with the 3rd Circuit throwing extra rat poison on Giuliani’s arguments and the PA Supreme Judicial Court mopping up any remaining aftermath. The last-minute Wisconsin recount is also over, and in the end only resulted in 86 more votes for Biden. At this point, all six of the states where Trump tried to contest results have certified their election results for Biden. With the certification game more-or-less over, Trump has pivoted to lashing out at staff again and saying that he’ll step down if the electoral college votes for Biden. It’s tempting to believe we’re truly out of the woods, but his clear and conditional capitulation makes me think he’s got some kind of bananas scheme in place regarding elector appointments.

That said, we also saw more Original Flavor Disregard of Governing Norms. Here’s what I have for you:

Pardoning a Turkey. As we were waiting for final word on whether Attorney General William Barr would be allowed to drop Michael Flynn’s criminal charges, Trump went ahead and pardoned Flynn via tweet on Wednesday. Though the move isn’t especially surprising, it does highlight the close relationships between Flynn and Trump, as Flynn’s attorney was handling Trump’s election challenges until she was fired sometime last week. Flynn is not the first Russia investigation associate pardoned by Trump–that honor goes to Roger Stone–but unlike Stone, Flynn still had an active legal case. Ironically, since he accepted a pardon, Flynn now effectively has admitted his guilt again, which was the very thing Barr was trying to avoid.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Unexpected Political Updates. There were a handful of other noteworthy political stories this past week as well. In “I can’t believe this happened, even though it needed to” news, Senator Diane Feinstein announced that she is stepping down as the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee after alienating half her party with her handling of the Comey Barrett hearing. Along a similar vein, the Washington Post reports that the NRA straight-up told the IRS about its executives misappropriating funds in 2019–great news in the long run, but you don’t often see a nonprofit just admit its executives were stealing money. It will be very interesting to see what, if anything, happens in the wake of both of these stories.

Your New Normal*:

*Increasingly, I struggle with where to put news about the Biden administration, because much of it isn’t clear-cut enough to be considered ‘good,’ but it isn’t Trump or pandemic levels of bad. And yet it’s not weird, because, well, it’s an overt bid to make things “normal” again. I don’t believe a return to our previous political reality is achievable, but I’m creating a new section to highlight Biden’s choices and reflect that agenda.

Transition Tidings. President-elect Biden continues to name his cabinet staff picks, though many of those choices need to be confirmed by the Senate once he is inaugurated. In the past week, he has named a foreign policy team, including a proposed Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary of State, Director of National Intelligence, and National Security Advisor. He also officially nominated his chosen secretary of treasury this week, which made the stock market very happy. And as I type this, he also just announced the first all-female White House communications team. Some of his choices have obvious issues, which we can expect to see highlighted at Senate confirmation hearings, but I’ll address those once they become front-and-center.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19. In the awful COVID news bucket, infections are still rising and so are death rates; additionally, hospitalization reached a new all-time high on Sunday, with 93,238 total COVID patients reported. At the time that I type this, we have literally seen two million new cases in the past two weeks and four million new cases in the past month. Though the CDC more-or-less begged people not to travel for Thanksgiving, given those numbers, the TSA reports that they saw about one million people per day in the days leading up to the holiday. It may be a few weeks before we see how all of that travel has impacted the pandemic, particularly because less testing was likely done over the holiday, but it seems likely we can anticipate yet another spike in many places.

SCOTUS Sea Change. Very early in the morning leading into Thanksgiving, the Supreme Court released an anonymous 5-4 opinion stating that the governor of New York was being prevented from limiting in-person religious gatherings in COVID red zones. This would be concerning enough, given the rapid rise of COVID-related deaths, but as an attorney I really want to stress that this opinion was rife with inconsistencies, bizarre arguments, and legal irregularities that appear to usher in a scary new age for SCOTUS cases. Among the irregularities to note: 1) They granted an injunction, which is designed to be an emergency remedy when harm is imminent, for religious groups that were no longer in red zones; 2) The decision overturned decisions that were issued only a few months before, which is an incredibly fast window to overturn precedent; 3) There were six different opinions written for this decision, which is an unusually high number of separate opinions even for a court known for routinely writing concurrences and dissents; 5) The decision was written anonymously despite the fact that there were six different opinions written and the other five were all signed, leaving only a few justices as the possible author of the per curium opinion. (I’ve seen legal scholars speculate that Amy Comey Barrett probably wrote this opinion, and I think they’re likely correct.) I would disagree with this opinion even if it illustrated none of these irregularities, but the fact that they are there suggests that court processes may be breaking down at the highest level right now in this country. We need to be watching the court’s activity over the next couple of months very, very carefully, especially given the court’s pending case about census apportionment, and we should brace ourselves now for potential fallout.

The Good:

Positive Pandemic Updates. There is still some positive COVID news this week, mostly regarding vaccines. Pfizer might start distributing its first doses as soon as mid-December, and Moderna is now seeking FDA authorization as well–so it might not be far behind. The technology used in both vaccines, which modifies viral RNA, also has a whole host of other promising applications for public health. In other vaguely positive pandemic news, workers are organizing to seek hazard pay at many major retail establishments in light of the risk created by this year’s holiday season. And finally, new research analysis suggests that many people do not remain contagious for longer than seven days, which may result in the CDC shortening their recommended period for self-isolation in cases of exposure.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve these Canterbury Park corgi races 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 uninterrupted sleep!

Year 4, Week 44 (November 15-21)

November 23, 2020November 24, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

I have been doing these roundups every week for nearly four straight years now. I like to think that makes me something of a scholar of Trump era news cycles. And it is with this caveat in place that I inform you that, even by our modern standards, the news this week was bananas. Of course, most of it was also still corrupt and terrible. The news was rotted bananas, y’all.

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 golf course!–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:

Unsurprisingly, we all saw yet another week of Election Rejection, and the second verse began worse than the first. Here’s what I have for you:

Trumped-Up Legal Challenges. Despite (or perhaps due to) the underprepared vaudeville act Trump calls a legal team, his challenges to the election results remain like cockroaches–numerous, unwanted, and improbably resistant to pest control. In Michigan, we had over a week of high drama while the administration abandoned its clownish lawsuit in favor of persuading board officials to refuse to certify voting results in Wayne County. In light of public outcry, the board officials walked that back and certified, only to double down by “rescinding” those signatures after receiving encouragement from Trump personally. Finally, after nearly a week of this, a final vote to certify was held today, and that’s the ballgame for official results in Michigan. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, Trump keeps losing court cases faster than I lose pen caps–he even lost the one case he had previously won, which allowed ballots with facial defects to be tossed in Allegany County, because it was remanded by the state supreme court. Perhaps it’s unsurprisingly, in light of this, that he also requested a recount in two counties in Wisconsin, both of which skew heavily blue, and by the end of the week he had graduated to trying to get ballots discounted there. In Georgia, a lengthy and expensive hand count came down in Biden’s favor, so Trump went ahead and requested another recount, by a less reliable method, at taxpayer expense. Also, an independent witness came forward and corroborated the Georgia Secretary of State’s account of Lindsey Graham asking him to throw out legally-cast ballots, but with everything else going on we all just kind of forgot about it by the end of the week. Needless to say, these prolonged Presidential attacks on our democratic process are not normal and they do lasting damage to the fabric of our government.

Transition Trials. Given how the paragraph above was going for him, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Trump also spent the week delaying transition as much as possible. His vaccine team refused to brief President-Elect Biden for another week, and he also implemented a bunch of foreign policy changes that seem designed to make President-elect Biden’s life difficult when he assumes control of the White House. For most of the week, he continued to instruct his head of the General Services Administration to refuse to begin the transition, and she only relented in apparent response to his tweets this evening. By this point, everybody from Republican national security experts to a giant group of CEOs to Chris Christie were telling Trump to give it up already, but he still hasn’t actually conceded the election as I type this.

That said, we also saw more Original Flavor Disregard of Governing Norms.Here’s what I have for you:

Fire and the Hole. We saw a continuation of sketchy personnel changes this week, as Trump fired the head of cybersecurity for saying we had a safe election–truly a stunning thing for a sitting President to do. But I would be remiss if I didn’t also give a shoutout to Trump’s decision to skip the G-20 event on global pandemic preparedness this weekend to go play golf in Virginia, as well as his decision to tweet about the election during the portion he did attend. Seriously, I know that we’re inured to his awful behavior by this point, but we unquestionably have the most COVID cases in the world, which I’ll talk more about below, and he literally skipped the world summit about it to go play golf.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Other Election Updates. Trump’s legal team was its own weird this week, featuring everything from impressive lack of legal knowledge to Rudy Giuliani’s melting hair dye to firing one malpracticing attorney but not another. Meanwhile, over 235 organizations are urging President-elect Biden to cancel student loans as a form of economic stimulus on his first day of office. President-elect Biden continues to name his cabinet staff picks, which makes an odd juxtaposition with Trump’s constant terminations, and Biden is expected to give more names tomorrow.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19. COVID news falls into two different extremes this week, so I have separated it out accordingly. In the awful news bucket, the U.S. has now surpassed 250,000 deaths from COVID-19, and over 85,700 people were hospitalized today–which is a new pandemic record. Additionally, nearly 12.5 million cases have been reported as I type this, with rates rising in every state but Hawaii; this marks a one million case increase since past Sunday. The CDC is more-or-less begging people not to travel for Thanksgiving, but the TSA reports they’ve already screened about 2 million people in airports. Meanwhile, several forms of federal economic protection are ending at the end of the year, even though several states are shutting down again and we can expect several more months of economic hardship.

The Good:

COVID Vaccine Updates. There was also promising news this week about vaccines, which are starting to look like a concrete reality. In the wake of the Moderna vaccine announcement last week, some news outlets began to note that Dolly Parton personally donated $1M to its early research efforts because she is friends with one of the researchers, which is kind of cool. In more health-related news, Pfizer released full results of its trial 3 study, saying its vaccine is 95% effective in the general population and that the company is seeking FDA approval this week. Additionally, a third vaccine has been found 90% effective, and it is significantly cheaper than the first two. Health officials estimate that distribution may begin for essential workers as soon as mid-December. It will take time for full distribution of any approved vaccine, and many health professionals still want more data before accepting an injection, but having three potential vaccines is excellent news.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this goat hug queue 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 favorite Brussel sprout recipe!

Year 4, Week 43 (November 8-14)

November 16, 2020November 17, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

It’s impressive how quickly the news seems to find new routines–only a week after we got tentative election results, pretty much every day now follows a script. I don’t much care for the script, mind, because it involves blatant autocracy and a dangerous pandemic. But one has to respect the quick adjustment.

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 hand count!–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:

Folks, I think it’s fair to say we officially have a new Constitutional Crisis Corner after the last week and a half, and thanks Trump, I hate it. Everybody say hello to Election Rejection, the constitutional crisis we all knew was coming:

Transition Trials. When Trump signaled that he wasn’t going to accept a peaceful transfer of power, he apparently meant that quite literally, because this administration has been refusing all attempts at transition and just straight-up planning like they’re not going anywhere for the last week and a half. The General Services Administration still hasn’t begun a Presidential transition as I type this, which may end in the Democrats suing them if they don’t give a reason by Wednesday. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo referenced “a smooth transition to a second Trump administration” and the White House told officials to move forward with next year’s budget plan. The administration also instructed staff not to comply with Biden’s transition team, which means President-elect President-elect Biden is not getting intelligence reports and the State Department is intercepting his messages from world leaders. Top medical official Dr. Anthony Fauci publicly expressed concern about the lack of COVID transition, prompting our President-elect to warn that this obstruction could kill people–and he’s absolutely right. Officials have also become concerned that Trump might disclose state secrets out of spite if he is forced out.

Trumped-Up Legal Challenges. As final information trickles in about the 2020 election, it becomes glaringly obvious that Trump’s refusal to transition is both dangerous and baseless. Official records show that President-elect Biden likely flipped five states and won a total of 290 electoral votes even before Georgia’s recount was concluded. Trump had brought lawsuits in several states on the theory that there was widespread voter fraud, but no evidence of that materialized and eventually every lawsuit had either been conclusively lost or dropped. The Supreme Court has not weighed in at the time that I type this, and it’s very possible they never will. Meanwhile, Attorney General William Barr is still investigating nonexistent voter fraud even though a major federal witness recanted and the DOJ’s top prosecutor for election crimes, Richard Pilger, has quit in protest. And news broke this afternoon that South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham asked Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensberger, to throw out entire county batches of legally-cast ballots during the recount, which Raffensberger doesn’t even have legal authority to control. This shows no signs of abating anytime soon, even though some GOP officials have indicated that they think Biden should receive briefings.

That said, we also saw more Original Flavor Disregard of Governing Norms.Here’s what I have for you:

White House Revolving Door Still Spins. Following Secretary of Defense Mark Esper’s firing last week, several additional Department of Defense officials resigned, and now we have yet more scary staff changes in the Pentagon. The Department of Homeland Security has seen forced resignations as well, and officials describe the staff changes as purging employees who are suspected of incomplete loyalty. The new acting officials are all staunch Trump loyalists, which matches the reports out of the Department of Homeland Security. Needless to say, this has a lot of bad implications during a time of transition, and even if we otherwise transition smoothly it will create confusion to have high turnover just before a new administration comes in. It’s also likely not a coincidence that the administration announced it wants to sell unprecedented arms to the United Arab Emirates in the same week.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Other Election Updates. We saw less scary election updates as well, but many of them were still strange. Georgia confused everybody by conducting a hand recount of all of its ballots, which is both more expensive and less accurate than other methods of recount, and Trump can still demand another recount when it ends. This is particularly baffling, as I noted above, because Biden definitely won this race even if Trump somehow flips Georgia back. Meanwhile, Corey Landowski, who was part of the crew at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, has tested positive for COVID, which means we might continue to see infection among campaign officials even after the campaign has ended. And in comparatively benign election news, President-elect Biden has named his chief of staff, which will be longtime aide Ron Klain.

Affordable Care Act Arguments. The Supreme Court heard arguments about the Affordable Care Act this week, shortly after both a pivotal election and a new justice’s appointment to the bench. The oral arguments appeared to suggest that the court is considering removing the insurance mandate and retaining the rest of the law, which would make legal sense given previous precedent on the matter but suggests that new appointments are not necessarily creating drastic changes on this issue. Nonetheless, it’s 2020 and politics are pretty wild, so we can’t fully predict what is about to happen (and during a pandemic, this case could impact a lot of people). We’ll want to keep an eye on this.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19. I know I say this every week, but no seriously, COVID keeps getting worse. Infection rates have risen 81% in the past 14 days, and on Friday we saw 184,000 new infections in one day. Over 68,000 people were hospitalized on the same day. Things are so bad, in fact, that Doctors Without Borders is coming here, considering our pandemic response to be an international health disaster. Unfortunately, things will probably get worse before they get better, especially if people aren’t careful over the Thanksgiving holiday. Several states are restricting business or social activities in response to the surges in infection, and we may see more of that in the coming weeks. In more positive news, early data suggest that Moderna’s COVID vaccine is almost 95% effective, which makes two different vaccines with promising results. Distribution will be difficult since the scale of distribution is unprecedented, but first responders might begin to receive vaccines as soon as next month.

Protests and Violence. This wasn’t a great week for protest news. On Saturday, Washington DC hosted a “Million MAGA March” that ultimately resulted in a stabbing as well as twenty people arrested, and featured Proud Boys marching in merch that read “Stand back and stand by.” An FBI report was also released documenting a stark rise in hate crime murders in the past year. Against these backdrops, it’s disturbing to learn that the governor of Florida wants to expand “stand your ground” law to cover protests–the proposed change would almost certainly make stabbings like the one in DC more common as well as creating immunity for them.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. We did see a promising federal court case this week. A federal judge ruled that Chad Wolf was unlawfully appointed to head the Department of Homeland Security, and concluded that his decision to refuse DACA applications was therefore unlawful as well. It’s likely that President-elect Biden planned to reinstate DACA when he assumed office, but this will create continuity for DACA recipients, and is a nice piece of news regardless.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this tiny gator chasing a laser pointer 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 sunlight in my living room!