Tag: Year 4

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Well readers, I was banking on a rapid news cycle to justify the return to our normal schedule, and I sure wasn’t disappointed! Thankfully, most of this week’s news was gentler than last week’s horrorshow, but don’t let that lull you back to sleep–we’re not out of the woods just yet.

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 landscaping company!–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!   

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Constitutional Crisis Corner:

We mostly saw some disturbing Presidential election things that landed in this section, but we also saw more Original Flavor Disregard of Governing Norms.Here’s what I have for you:  

• Concession Cancelation. Early Saturday morning, election data began to suggest a conclusive victory for Joe Biden; by mid-afternoon, the Associated Press declared Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 election.  A huge chunk of the country began celebrating in the streets, and under a normal administration, this would be the whole story–but it’s the Trump Administration, so nobody’s shocked that this somehow leads to a Constitutional Crisis Corner.  Trump is still moving forward on his bogus lawsuits as I type this, refusing to acknowledge the lack of evidence of his claimed voter fraud as he makes it extremely clear that he will not be conceding in this or any other lifetime.  To punctuate the point, his person at the General Services Administration flat-out refuses to officially affirm the election results, a necessary step for beginning the transition process.  Meanwhile, a numberof Republicans are backing his play, and the Department of Justice has authorized a probe of the 2020 election–again, despite the utter lack of evidence to suggest voter fraud was a thing.   Needless to say, though Saturday gave us a bit of a breather, we need to be watching election news very, very carefully.

• Post Office Election Sketchiness. I said I would keep folks posted on the court case where the U.S. Postal Service failed to sweep USPS locations for ballots left behind, and I do have more updates. Most notably, in addition to the USPS total failure to comply with the order, it became clear by Friday that the U.S. Postal Service processed 150,000 ballots after Election Day, and more than 12,000 were in swing states Trump is suing over. Unsurprisingly, the judge was not impressed, and hinted that he may hold officials in contempt of court.

• White House Revolving Door Still Spins. Trump may be a lame duck, but that hasn’t stopped him from venting his spleen by firing people. News began filtering down by Friday that Secretary of Defense Mark Esper was preparing a resignation letter because he expected to be fired after the election. And Esper was absolutely correct, because Trump fired him today, making him the fourth official fired in the past week. Esper’s firing is particularly disturbing because it’s believed he was let go in part due to his reluctance to deploy U.S. troops in domestic cities, which has potential implications for the two paragraphs above.

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Your “Normal” Weird:

• Other Election Updates.   Obviously I led with the biggest stuff, but there is still more election news to know, ranging from “unusual result” to “just plain weird”.  Both GA senate races are definitely going to a runoff, which will be held on January 5, and it’s honestly an open question who will hold the Senate majority as a result–an unusual result to cap an unusual year.  We also still lack conclusive Presidential tallies in several states, though Biden definitely has enough electoral college votes to win.  Of course, the lack of finality didn’t stop people from celebrating en masse, and even other countries congratulated us, which seems like something of a referendum abroad.  Nonetheless, House Democrats are already fighting about why they didn’t perform better, though they look likely to retain their majority as I type this.  And in hilarious weird news, Team Trump held a press conference outside of Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia, right between a sex shop and a crematorium–which, as Ali Davis put it, is where we all are, metaphorically speaking.  (One presumes that the team tried to book the Four Seasons Hotel and missed.)

• Et Tu, Fox News?  One incredible consequence of the past week has been absolutely no media tolerance for Trump nonsense, even in corners of traditional support.  Several networks straight-up cut away from his remarks on Wednesday or called his statements ‘lies’ or ‘falsehoods,’ which is a substantial shift in tone.  Even Fox News, frustrated by the administration’s criticism, blatantly cut away from the White House Press Secretary mid-sentence today.  “I just think we have to be very clear that she’s charging [that] the other side is welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting,” said Fox anchor Neil Cavuto as he cut the feed. “Unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance continue showing you this.”

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The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.  As I noted last week, COVID numbers look really bad–case numbers are continuing to set new records, and hospitalizations are rising quickly too.  The White House continues to have high-profile infections: Chief of Staff Mark Meadows tested positive sometime last week, apparently asking people not to disclose this fact, and as of today Ben Carson tested positive as well.  The stimulus legislation is also going nowhere as I type this, though that might change in the coming weeks. Nonetheless, we have more positive news on this front than we’ve had in a long time, because Pfizer announced their early vaccine data suggests 90% effectiveness.  (Unsurprisingly, the stock market loved this news.)  President-Elect Biden also announced his COVID-19 advisory board today, which is full of very qualified medical professionals.

• Au Revoir, Paris Agreement. The United States officially left the Paris Agreement this week, formalizing a Trump decision that has been several years in the making. Of the 200 countries that signed this agreement, we are the only ones to walk away, making the whole thing even more painful. President-Elect Biden has signaled that he will rejoin the agreement as soon as possible, but it may take time for this to occur.

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The Good:

• Promising Biden Beginnings. Despite not taking office until January at the earliest, President-Elect Biden is already moving forward on several key issues. As I mentioned above, he announced a COVID-19 task force today, and speaking as a health law professional I am very reassured by its members. He also signaled he will issue executive orders to undo damage on several critical issues upon assuming office, such as rejoining the Paris Agreement, undoing the Muslim ban, and revoking the global gag rule. Not everything can be undone by executive action, but given his extensive political experience I do trust President-Elect Biden to know exactly what can be remedied quickly.

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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 compilation of election memes 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 again!

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I’m gonna level with you all: I really hate this mad tea party ride we’re all trapped on for the week. We do have some relatively firm facts, which I will certainly report on, and I feel very confident that there was a lot of voter suppression and racism this year. Beyond that? We’re stuck reading tea leaves as I write this, even the day after a major election. And that’s hard to sit with, but I’m here if I can be a support, and I think we all deserve to have the good news first this week.

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 polling place!–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!   

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The Good:

• LGBT Representation. As I mentioned above, we may not know much, but we do know we hit some LGBT representation landmarks yesterday! In Ohio, a police officer fired for being gay became the new sheriff in her county, beating out the guy who fired her. Additionally, we know there will be at least eleven openly-LGBTQ representatives in the 117th Congress, including our first-ever openly gay Black representatives. Additionally, San Diego is poised to elect its first-ever openly gay mayor, though that region still has votes to tally. Progress!

• Substance Use and Recovery Reform. Oregon voted by referendum to pass an incredibly progressive piece of recovery legislation yesterday, and I’m really excited about it!  The referendum decriminalized personal possession of several types of narcotics and created a state-funded recovery program that will be subsidized in part by taxation of marijuana.  An Oregon official described the approach as “like taking a sledgehammer to the War on Drugs,” because the approach heavily prioritizes a public health framework for recovery rather than a criminal one.  I’m honestly really really excited to see this approach pioneered!

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Constitutional Crisis Corner:

  We did see some disturbing Presidential election things that landed in this section, but we also saw more Original Flavor Disregard of Governing Norms this week. Here’s what I have for you:  

• I Hereby Claim You Are The Worst. As foretold by prophecy, Trump didn’t even wait for election results to begin messing with them. By Tuesday night he was issuing some disturbing tweets and a preemptive acceptance of victory, which state officials simply ignored as they resumed counting on Wednesday morning. (Twitter, for its part, applied warnings to his tweets labeling them as election misinformation.) When it became clear that counting was continuing on Wednesday, and that pausing the counting would actually lose him the election, Trump pivoted to suing for recounts in three states, despite the lack of official results in those states. He also announced on Twitter that he was “hereby claiming” three states’ electoral college votes, despite absolutely no legal authority to do so. Needless to say, we knew this part of his re-election plan was coming, but that doesn’t make it fun to see in action, and I have suggestions for response below.

• Trump Tax Redux. In the wake of the election, surprise, we’re back to this again! Current news is that Deutsche Bank is now trying to sever ties with 45 after the election, apparently because they are tired of the liability he creates. This is particularly noteworthy because several of his giant loans from them become due in the next few years. And just in case we forgot, the New York Times would also like to remind us that Trump has not, in fact, paid income tax most years (despite his recent claims otherwise). As Deutsche Bank appears to be sensing, all of these things are likely to carry consequences for Trump if he’s kicked out of the Oval Office in January.

• The U.S.: Not A Party. A federal judge issued his full ruling this week explaining that Trump can’t make a defamation case go away by adding the U.S. Government as a party and then claiming sovereign immunity applies. This means E. Carroll’s lawsuit can go forward, at least for now, and we have more precedent clarifying that Trump isn’t acting in his official capacity as President when he says mean things about private citizens on the Internet. Which sure is a thing we have to build precedent about, because 2020 is the year that never stops giving.

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Your “Normal” Weird:

• Other Presidential Election Updates.   There is plenty of Presidential race news other than Trump’s twitter tantrums, of course.  In the days leading up to the election, there was a giant rush of court cases about voting laws, several of which did make their way to the Supreme Court.  At the time that I type this, outlets are estimating Joe Biden has anywhere from 253 to 264 of 270 needed electoral college votes, with several swing states still inconclusive–in North Carolina and Pennsylvania’s cases, because the Supreme Court mandated full counting of ballots in said court cases.  There was also a court case ordering the U.S. Postal Service to reverse mail collection limits and sweep USPS locations for ballots left behind–and the USPS did not comply.  It’s not fully clear what this means for the 2020 election, other than “more evidence of voter suppression,” but the case is ongoing and I’ll keep folks posted.

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The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.  Our eyes were fixed on election news this week, but COVID news remains quite bad, and it deserves our attention as well.On Friday, the United States broke a global record with a horrifying 100,000 new COVID cases in one day and over 9 million cases total. Many of these jumps are biggest in swing states, where Trump rallies have created superspreader events. Nonetheless, the administration claimed in the week leading up to the election that it “END[ED] THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC”–a truly stunning claim even from an administration known for its blatant lies–and that a daily death rate of nearly 1,000 was “almost nothing.” There is also some indication it is obfuscating which hospitals have reached capacity, as hospital admissions are also increasing. Top health official Dr. Anthony Fauci, unsurprisingly, is warning that we are reaching “a critical point” as we head into the winter, and describes the U.S. as “in a bad position” with regard to the virus. Equally unsurprisingly, Trump is already openly talking about firing Dr. Fauci, even though he can’t legally do that.

• Black Lives Still Matter. There was a lot of unrest in Philadelphia in the week leading up to the election due to the shooting of Walter Wallace Junior in front of several family members who say they were trying to de-escalate the situation. Philadelphia imposed a curfew and called in the National Guard by mid-week, but protests continued for the entire week. The situation was further inflamed when Philadelphia police seized a toddler and used him for a photo op. This contextualized Philadelphians’ unrest today after the election, when Black communities protested both voter suppression and extrajudicial shootings as one interrelated issue.

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The Potentially Very Bad:

• Senate Race Updates. Control of the Senate is looking way tighter than we want it to, and we’ll have to sit with that for at least a week. At least five races still require voter counts as I type this, though the exact number of confirmed seats is varying from outlet to outlet. North Carolina may count through November 12, and Alaska will take at least a week as well. We may get full results sooner in Georgia, Michigan, and Arizona, particularly because some outlets are already calling the Arizona race. Compounding that long wait, several close races resulted in states staying red, and only one net gained seat (Colorado) has been confirmed by every outlet. We’re definitely stuck with Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham another term, and Susan Collins is the presumed victor in Maine as well. The Democrats may end the election season with a slight majority in the Senate, but it’s absolutely possible that they won’t, and that would make rebuilding very hard even if Biden does take the Presidency.

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What We Can Do:

• Protect the Counting Process. This one shouldn’t be a big deal, but thanks to the scary tweets that Trump has been issuing and threats to send armed federal officers into voter counting locations, it is–we need to make sure state officials actually count all valid votes under their own election laws. Some GOP officials are already breaking with Trump on this one, and Democrats are calling for every vote to be counted en masse. Several cities are seeing protests or rallies on this topic as well, advocacy tools like Count All Votes are starting to pop up, and Democracy Docket can keep you up to speed on all of Trump’s lawsuits. Especially if you live in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, or Wisconsin, please call your reps and state party to keep up pressure on this issue and find out what is being done to protect the counting process!

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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 soothing Townsend video and the world’s largest devil’s toothpaste experiment, as well as 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 Tums value pack!

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We’re at T minus one week, give or take, and all I have to show for it is an empty bottle of Tums. If you’re feeling the stress too, feel free to reach out–this is rough, and I want to support you. We’re already doing it for the antacid industry; we might as well do it for each other!

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 debate!–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!   

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Constitutional Crisis Corner:

We’re back to a mix of COVID and election news in Disregard of Governing Norms, which are two garbage tastes that don’t taste great together. Here’s what I have for you:

• Guess Who’s Coming to COVID. Five–count ’em, five–members of the Pence staff working on the Coronavirus Task Force now have tested positive for COVID-19, including Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short. Though infection can happen to any of us, the Pence team was famous for refusing to wear masks even though they were literally in charge of telling us all to wear masks, so this seems fair to file under the “disregard of governing norms” folder. Meanwhile, Pence is continuing to travel despite repeated exposure to five different COVID-positive people. I think this Twitter user speaks for us all when she notes, “If that doesn’t sum up this administration I don’t know what does.”

• Surprise, It was Iran! Probably. Voters in three states received threatening emails this week telling them to “vote for Trump or else!” from the email address “info @ officialproudboys.com,” but investigation showed that the emails had originated overseas. Eventually, the Department of Homeland Security said that Iran was responsible, and that Russia was likely interfering as well. Both Russia and Iran deny these charges, which in the before times I would say is a likely lie, but since our own President lies fifty times per day I no longer believe we have any stones to throw here.

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Your “Normal” Weird:

• Other Election Oddities (Again).   The final debate came and went on Thursday, and Trump did in fact show up even though his microphone could be muted.  (Everyone was pretty well-behaved, although Trump did say of COVID, “I take full responsibility, it’s not my fault.”)  Meanwhile, people are still worried about the U.S. Postal Service, which will be responsible for delivering millions of ballots but is still having issues even though the June changes have been recalled.  Perhaps because of this, early voting numbers are historically high, but reports of in-person voter intimidation are coming in as well.  We can probably expect things to amp up even more in the coming week.

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The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.  This section is starting to feel like Groundhog Day, because I keep having to type the same things over and over–you can probably guess the entire paragraph by now, but let’s go through it anyway.  Congress keeps failing to reach a COVID relief deal, mostly because an increasingly-zombified and distracted Mitch McConnell is too focused on Amy Comey Barrett to bother with good-faith negotiation, but Nancy Pelosi keeps saying there will be a deal anyway.  (This is your obligatory reminder that Mitch McConnell is up for re-election in his home state of Kentucky, and his opponent could use your support.)  Meanwhile, we have record-breaking infection numbers yet again, with 85,000 infections on Friday marking the highest daily instance of new cases since the pandemic began in March. The CDC has expanded its definition of “close contact” accordingly.  Though there is evidence to suggest that Trump rallies have kicked off infection spikes, we’re not alone in this struggle, as Europe is seeing a surge as well.  We can probably expect things to continue to get worse as we head into winter and outdoor gatherings become impracticable, which makes it particularly frightening that White House chief of staff Mark Meadows just straight-up abdicated responsibility for controlling the pandemic, saying, “We’re not going to.”

• SCOTUS Hearing Updates.  This story somehow got even more disturbing in the past week. On October 22, Democrats refused to show up to the committee vote as a last-ditch attempt to pause the process.  The 12 Republican members unanimously voted to move forward, and the matter proceeded to the Senate floor.  (If that last piece of news enrages you, by the way, you are not alone, and I believe it should.   Five of those GOP members are currently up for re-election, and several of the races are quite close right now; their opponents could use support.  Just sayin’.  )  Then after a couple of days of floor debate, the Senate GOP moved to limit debate on Sunday and teed up a final vote this evening–and shock of shocks, everybody but Susan Collins voted along party lines. So now Amy Comey Barrett is on the court in time to hear arguments about the Affordable Care Act in a couple of weeks, but don’t worry, Joe Biden has promised to study the damage by commission if he’s elected President!  So that will definitely be an effective form of damage control.  Oh wait, my mistake; late-breaking sources inform me that this is a terrible form of damage control that will probably get people killed.  Be prepared to call your reps and do a lot of yelling, y’all.

• Black Lives Still Matter. This was another bad week for racial justice. An officer in Illinois opened fire on a car apparently without provocation, killing Black teen Marcellis Stinnette and hospitalizing driver Tafara Williams. The grand jury on the Breonna Taylor case was in the news again for confirming that no homicide charges were even offered, while the charged officer gave an interview saying the case “wasn’t a race thing.” And to cap everything off, Jared Kushner went on television to claim Black Americans just need to try harder in order to be successful. So, y’know, real banner week all around.

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The Good:

• MAGA2020!. This one is less “good news” and more “it has been a terrible week and here is your schadenfreude,” but this week was truly painful and we all can have little a schadenfreude, as a treat. A Dutch ethical hacker who had successfully broken into Trump’s Twitter account in 2016 went ahead and did so again this week, taking screenshots to prove it, and his claim has been treated as credible by Dutch authorities. This repeat performance was feasible because Trump’s password–and I truly cannot believe I am not making this up–was ‘MAGA2020!’ and he disabled two-step authentication. So, uh, that happened.

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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 cat and window cleaner friendship and this autumn elephant holiday, as well as 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 Tums value pack!

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I read my intro from last week as I began drafting this evening and had a good, long laugh–apparently, I thought that week’s news cycle was particularly accelerated. (Oh you sweet summer Kara.) Needless to say, we’ve all aged a hundred years since I wrote that, and news stories are flying incredibly fast. Daily summaries like WTFJHT remain particularly helpful as we all try to make sense of the chaos.

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 rose garden!–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!   

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Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Given everything going on, nobody is talking about Trump’s tax returns anymore, which is itself a new low for Disregard of Governing Norms–but the current chaos on this front is so bad that it might not even matter.  Here’s what I have for you:

• COVID in the White House. News broke at about 1:30AM Thursday night that Melania and Donald Trump had tested positive for COVID-19–apparently for the second time that day, though we didn’t learn this until much later. At first he was expected to remain at home, but he was eventually taken to Walter Reed hospital on Friday afternoon with fever and congestion, and we later learned he was given supplemental oxygen as well as an experimental antibody cocktail before the transfer. By the next day, he was being given Remdisivir and dexamethasone, both of which can potentially signal serious health complications. Now, you might be reading this and thinking, “That’s an awfully fast onset of severe symptoms,” which is certainly what I thought at the time, but it turns out the news has a response for that! First Chris Wallace admitted that Trump had dodged the on-site test at Tuesday’s debate, and then on Saturday Trump’s own doctor said that he was doing well “just 72 hours into his diagnosis” on Saturday–which, for those of you doing the home game, was definitely not 72 hours after early Friday morning. Though his doctor later insisted he misspoke, it appears increasingly likely that Trump had probably been COVID-positive by the time of the debate, whether he knew it or not, and it would also appear that he is seriously sick as I type this. Nonetheless, he took a trip around the hospital on Sunday, and was discharged from the hospital a few hours ago, even though many experts agree on the increased risk of the second week of infection. The administration is adamant that Pence will not be taking the reins anytime soon, despite the many difficulties of Trump governing while all of the above is happening.

• GOP Superspreading. Trump was far from the only high-profile member of the GOP to test positive for COVID this week, and it’s looking increasingly likely that the Rose Garden event for Supreme Court nominee Amy Comey Barrett on Saturday was a superspreading event, although the White House refuses to use contact tracing for it. (Coney Barrett herself apparently had COVID this summer, and has not tested positive at this time.) At the time that I type this, eleven high-profile people who were present on Saturday have tested positive, and fifteen people affiliated with the White House have contracted the virus overall. Among those on the list: 1) Trump advisor Hope Hicks; 2) former counselor Kellyanne Conway; 3) campaign manager Bill Stepien; 4) former NJ governor Chris Christie; 5) WI senator Ron Johnson; 6) Utah senator Mike Lee; 7) NC Senator Thom Tillis; and 8) White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnaney. Additionally, IA Senator Chuck Grassley was also present and refused to get tested, so he might be positive as well, and there were also several outbreaks at the Secret Service training center. Joe Biden is still testing negative at the time that I type this, though he could still be in an incubation period.

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Your “Normal” Weird:

• Election Oddities (Again).    With everything going on, it’s easy to forget that the first Presidential debate on Tuesday was less than a week ago–and the entire country watched Trump fail to condemn white supremacy, instead telling the Proud Boys to “stand down and stand by.”  (The hate group, for their part, immediately made it clear that they’ll be taking these statements as a set of marching orders.) There was also news about a massive Trump campaign strategy to deter Black Americans from voting in 2016, as well as news about a massive gubernatorial strategy now to make dropping off ballots in Texas increasingly difficult for marginalized voters. And, of course, people are starting to wonder what it will mean for the election if Trump isn’t able to run, given that voting has already begun in many states.

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The Bad:

• COVID and Congress.  All of the COVID news above has implications for the legislative branch as well.  In relief news, the House passed a second COVID relief bill, with Nancy Pelosi meeting with Steven Mnuchin since Trump is, uh, indisposed right now.  Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has postponed the Senate’s return by two weeks, calling everyone back on October 19–but he still wants to have confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett on October 12 as originally planned.  The astute of readers may note that two of the infected GOP senators are on the Senate Judiciary Committee, while four more were present at the Comey Barrett event on Saturday–and the whole committee is only nineteen members. If Democrats refuse to participate and any GOP members are still quarantining on Monday, the committee may not have quorum to proceed, and Mitch McConnell may learn it’s nice to want things.

• Appalling Immigration Updates.  Despite Trump’s hospitalization, we still had an influx of impressively bad and occasionally weird immigration news.  The administration announced that only 15,000 people maximum would be admitted as refugees for Fiscal Year 2021, which for context is only slightly over one-tenth of the number admitted in Obama’s final year–definitely a historic low in every sense of the term.  We also started to hear about ICE raids planned in sanctuary jurisdictions yet again, though it’s unclear whether that will move forward with everything else going on.  And just before she tested positive, tapes leaked of Melania Trump dropping f-bombs about both concern about migrant children and, improbably, Christmas. 

•  Black Lives Still Matter.  Information about the Breonna Taylor grand jury proceedings was released this week at a grand juror’s request, and unsurprisingly, the records show that homicide charges were not even presented as an option.  Meanwhile, protests continue in Portland, where a local police officer drove his motorcycle into a protester and the total arrest toll has crested 1,000 people.  Also, the Proud Boys did indeed show up in droves to join the fray, as discussed in last Tuesday’s debate–and speaking of Proud Boys, gay twitter co-opted their hashtag this week in glorious retaliation for the hate group’s recent everything.  In other positive news, California passed a law this week establishing a path towards reparations for Black Americans impacted by our history of slavery.

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The Good:

• Recent Court Resilience. There were a few bright spots from a court perspective this week, though much of the news was a hot mess. The judge who blocked the administration’s attempts to curtail census counting has issued a clarifying judgement making it extra super-duper clear that yes, the census counting must continue until October 31 despite everything going on. And in Florida, a movement in response to a recent court decision has donors supporting re-enfranchisement efforts for those convicted of crimes, including paying court fees so that people are eligible to vote. It’s a coalition effort that is making a real difference for the collective re-enfranchisement of a very marginalized group–one that had been denied the right to vote for life for a long time before the right was granted by majority referendum. Especially in 2020, it means a lot to see groups pushing back against court efforts to overrule that collective will.

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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 turtlesukkah and an eventual better government.  I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less chaotic) 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 caffeine because I will obviously need it!

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We’re in the middle of yet another apocalypse multipack as I type this, with much of the West Coast in crisis and the rest of us not exactly thriving either. It gets overwhelming very quickly, but I’m here if I can help. Your good friend Comfort Food is here also.

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 technical glitch!–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!   

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Constitutional Crisis Corner:

We continue to see an uptick in Disregard of Governing Norms, which is another thing we can expect to increase as we get closer to the election.  Here’s what I have for you:

• Your Regularly Scheduled Illegality. We had a lot of overt illegality again this week. First, in a stunning show of “l’etat, c’est moi,” the Justice Department has intervened on 45’s personal defamation case against a woman who alleges he raped her. For folks playing the home game, this is a really big deal–it’s a pretty blatant signal that the Department of Justice has been co-opted into Trump’s personal law service, which is not the role it is supposed to serve. A senior Department of Homeland Security official also alleged in a whistleblowing complaint this week that he was instructed to stop reporting on Russian interference in the 2020 election, because it “made the President look bad.” (Which does in fact do, but if that was this administration’s motivation I’ll eat my laptop.) And also in sketchy election news, the administration has signaled it may host a campaign event at the White House on Election Day, which would be a very blatant violation of the Hatch Act as well. Of course, this is hardly surprising given the giant indoor campaign rally he held this week, addressing thousands of people in clear violation of Nevada law.

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Your “Normal” Weird:

• Election Oddities (Again).  There was a significant amount of odd election news even discounting the sketchy Trump shenanigans listed above.  In Florida, a federal appeals court blocked the re-enfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of denizens with criminal records who cannot afford to pay court fines.  In slightly more positive Florida news, Mike Bloomberg also promised to spend at least $100M in the state to help Joe Biden’s campaign–and though he said he would support the campaign of whoever wins, this kind of donation from a former candidate has got to be an election first.  And the Fourth Circuit is considering a North Carolina law that would require voters to show ID, which has been enjoined by state courts already and hopefully will remain enjoined through the November election.

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The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.*    Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell’s laughably inadequate new COVID response bill was introduced in the Senate this week, where it promptly failed in a matter of days.  The situation at schools remains messy, with many remote learners experiencing tech glitches and colleges struggling to quarantine infected students or sending them back to their hometowns.  Meanwhile, the administration’s obvious interference with the vaccine process has prompted many pharmacy CEOs to take a voluntary pledge that they will engage in safe practices.  And finally, a newly-released tell-all book says Trump has known exactly how deadly COVID would be since March, despite leading the public to believe otherwise.   

• Black Lives Still Matter.  There is still news on the Black Lives Matter front for another week, though it’s mostly aftermath from the previous week.  In Rochester, the Police Union President and Mayor are both arguing about which one of them should resign, while several officers and the Chief of Police have stepped down.  Meanwhile, a witness to the shooting says the suspect shot by police in Portland, Oregon last week was never arrested or even warned before he was fatally shot.

• Fire Crisis on the West Coast. We’re experiencing an unprecedented rate and range of wildfire all along the American West coast, from Los Angeles to Seattle, and it’s only the beginning of fire season. At the time that I type this, over five million acres have burned, and more than two dozen people have died. In many places, the entire sky is orange, and air quality is dangerously poor along points on the entire coast. These unprecedented fires are not a coincidence; data shows that climate change is causing increasingly dangerous conditions–though of course, Trump is claiming the opposite.

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The Good:

• Recent Court Resilience. We had a few promising court cases this week. A federal court refused to let the Trump administration drop undocumented people from the census (again), ruling that it would violate the Fourteenth Amendment and federal law. And a different federal judge blocked the U.S. Postal Service from sending voting disinformation to denizens of Colorado, finding that the state would suffer irreparable harm if the mailer went out.

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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 pigfren taking the subway and an eventual better government.  I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully more tolerable) 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 comfort food, I’m running out!

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Well, if I had been foolish enough to hope that the news would improve during my break, I certainly would have been disappointed. We continue to scrape the bottom of the existential barrel, and this isn’t going to let up as we move towards November. My advice is to just go ahead and invest in ice cream now, 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 census!–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!   

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Constitutional Crisis Corner:

We seem to be seeing an uptick in Disregard of Governing Norms, which is another thing we can expect to increase as we get closer to the election.  Here’s what I have for you:

• Your Regularly Scheduled Illegality. By this point, the Trump administration blatantly breaks laws so often that the question isn’t whether they did anything illegal this week, it’s simply a matter of what. The first story of the week, unsurprisingly, involves Postmaster General Louis DeJoy yet again. This time, he’s in the news for pressuring workers at his former company to donate to GOP campaigns, which would then be ‘rewarded’ with reimbursement bonuses. (For those of you playing the home game, this is pretty obviously illegal even in a private context, as it appears to be a way around campaign contribution limits). Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is already calling for an investigation, which Trump doesn’t appear to be blocking. To be fair on that last point, though, Trump may be distracted by this week’s failed attempt to end the Census early, which is the second illegal activity of the week. I say “failed” because a federal judge ended up weighing in on this one, issuing a restraining order that keeps the administration from changing anything before a hearing can happen mid-September.

• Trump vs the Military. Trump managed to sink his relations with the American military even further this week, which is rather impressive all things considered. First the Atlantic ran a story that Trump referred to fallen soldiers as “losers” and “suckers” when refusing to visit an American military cemetery in Paris in 2018. An AP reporter confirmed the story, and so did the National Security correspondent at Fox News. Trump then responded by calling for the Fox News staffer to be fired. Folks, I know it’s 2020 and we get inured to a lot of nonsense, but I want to take a step back and really look at that last detail for a moment–a sitting U.S. President called for a journalist to be fired because she publicly confirmed sources on a story about him that she didn’t even write. (Needless to say, Fox supported its correspondent on this one.) The whole thing also made more people notice the administration’s attempt to cut funding to a military newspaper, the Stars and Stripes, which Trump announced would be walked back.

• “Anti-American” Diversity Training. Because the first two paragraphs weren’t enough for one week, the Trump administration also announced by memorandum that federal employers may not conduct diversity trainings, which the memorandum refers to as “anti-American propaganda.” The memo also instructs federal agencies to come up with a list of all training contracts that include the terms “critical race theory” or “white privilege.” Y’all, if I were reading this in a story, I would be really mad about how lazy and one-dimensional this was.

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Your “Normal” Weird:

• Election Oddities (Again).  Other than a bright spot when Ed Markey won the Democratic primary here in Massachusetts, this week was a surreal nightmare on the election front.  Trump decided to fight mail-in voting by suggesting to his supporters that they should try to vote multiple times, presumably because there will definitely be evidence of voter fraud if his followers create it.  This left officials in multiple states scrambling to remind constituents that this is, in fact, illegal.  It is also closely related to the current Russian tactic for interfering with our election, shocking no one.

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The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.*   COVID news is a bit more mixed than usual today, which might be attributed to the approaching election as well.  The CDC issued a nation-wide eviction moratorium, which will prevent nonpayment evictions until the end of the year.  And new studies confirm that steroids can help people who become severely ill due to COVID infection.  But Trump has refused to work with the WHO to develop and distribute a vaccine, and yet his CDC is telling states to prepare for its distribution as early as October–which, incidentally, is a good six months before the WHO thinks vaccines will be ready.  Meanwhile, FEMA is saying it will no longer fund cloth masks for schools, despite the increasing chaos at college campuses.  Finally, at least one federal official has started advocating for a herd immunity strategy, which is both ignorant and evil from a public health perspective–at this point, any time you see a news outlet call an approach or statement “controversial,” you can just go ahead and assume that’s news code for “this is in some way terrible.”

• Black Lives Still Matter.  This was another rough week for brutality against Black Americans.  In Rochester, New York, a video was released from March that showed police fatally suffocating 41-year-old Daniel Prude with a “spit hood.”  Prude was apparently one of several Americans who have been injured or killed by this type of restraint, and he’s also one of many Americans killed by police while in mental health crisis.  Meanwhile, Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend is suing the Louisville police for misconduct.  And in Portland, police fatally shot a man suspected of shooting a conservative counterprotester, rather than apprehending him alive.

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The Good:

• No More ICE Academy (for now). This week, ICE announced that it will be postponing its plans for a vigilante group in Chicago it was calling a “Citizens Academy.” Though ICE is claiming the postponement was due to COVID, it seems equally likely that the sustained advocacy campaign against the project had something of an effect. Either way, we now don’t have to worry about this particular form of threat until the spring, and I’ll take it.

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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 otter and kitten grabbing a catnap and an eventual better government.  I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully more tolerable) 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!

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I don’t know about the rest of y’all, but I’m finding our current heat wave and current news cycle to be a match made in hell. It’s rough right now, but I’m here if anyone needs anything–albeit from at least six feet away and in front of an air conditioner.

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 rose garden!–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!   

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Constitutional Crisis Corner:

On the Disregard of Governing Norms front, we have graduated from COVID concerns (though there’s plenty of that) to extrajudicial detention stories that are frankly terrifying.  Here are the things to know:

• News Out of Portland. News out of Portland, Oregon is pretty extreme, and we need to be talking about it. As is true in many cities, protests there have been ongoing since the George Floyd murder–about fifty days all told, by the time that I write this. Protesters already had a lot of stories about tear gas being abused and police brutality in the city. But this week, they also began reporting that unmarked vans containing military personnel were snatching people off the street to take into custody, in sudden and unpredictable patterns that looked more like abduction than law enforcement. Incredibly, CBP has since confirmed this allegation, and government officials signaled that we can expect this pattern to continue and even spread to other cities. This statement was made despite a pending lawsuit, the obvious hostility of city officials, and mounting evidence that the federal agents have no training. This is all incredibly alarming, and we need to be acting on it immediately.

• Messed Up Trump Response: COVID Edition. Of course, we also had a lot of Trump-flavored COVID news this week (and let me tell you, that is not a quality product). In addition to the smear campaign against Fauci, which I think we talked about last week, hospitals were ordered to give COVID data to the Department of Health and Human Services instead of the CDC, which had been previously keeping track. This was promptly followed by the disappearance of said data, which did eventually reappear after considerable complaint but will not be updated further by the CDC.  It also coincided with news that the CDC was prevented from testifying before Congress, and as other countries get their outbreaks under control, it becomes more and more starkly apparent just how badly the United States has handled this crisis. Needless to say, all of this has experts really worried

• Rose Garden Campaign Speech.   I wasn’t quite sure where to put this one, but since it’s certainly disregarding governing norms, I might as well put it here:  Trump gave a campaign re-election speech at a press conference from the Rose Garden this week, which in case anybody is keeping track is a pretty strong no-no.  (To be fair to Trump, the speech was pretty incoherent and also went on for sixty-three straight minutes, so I guess it’s possible he flat-out forgot where he was somewhere in there.)  Among his claims and insinuations about Joe Biden:  Joe Biden is getting dementia; Joe Biden is “a gift to the Chinese Communist party”; Joe Biden “wants to kill American energy.”  You know, the level of gravitas we associate with Rose Garden speeches throughout history.

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Your “Normal” Weird:

• Election Oddities (Again).  There was a fair amount of unusual election news this week.  Jeff Sessions lost his primary in Alabama, which feels fitting but does illustrate the strange times we live in.  After considerable back-and-forth the RNC will be scaled back when it’s held in Jacksonville next month (but more on the COVID news that prompted this below).  Perhaps the oddest news, though, is that Trump has already replaced his campaign manager, which reflects his unusually low polls as well as his high turnover rate in general. 

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The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.*  COVID news remains a mess on both national and state levels.  We continue to break records about daily infection rates, and death rates are rising again as well. Unemployment rates are still rising too, with over a million new claims filed for the seventeenth week in a row.  Despite this news, a lot of workers are about to run out of benefits, because this is the last week of the extra $600 created by federal legislation. The Senate is expected to debate and/or vote on some version of the Heroes Act this week to respond, but current drafts include horrorshow provisions about forcing schools to reopen and shielding businesses from consequences if they make workers sick.  And though more and more franchises are requiring that their customers wear masks, Georgia’s governor has forbidden municipalities from requiring them, and is even suing Atlanta for ignoring his utterly bananas decree and requiring masks in public anyway.

• Black Lives Matter News.  We touched on some of the biggest BLM news above, but there were some other things to know as well.  Demonstrators in Louisville were charged with felonies for protesting Breonna Taylor’s murder, though the police that actually murdered her have not been arrested, let alone charged.  A town near Seattle declared writing “Black Lives Matter” in chalk a crime as well.  Meanwhile, the military issued a broad rule apparently intended to remove confederate flags, which was probably so broad to avoid backlash from Trump, who keeps insisting those flags are a point of Southern pride. 

• Confounding Shooting.  The household of the judge assigned to an Epstein-related Deutsche Bank civil case was attacked this week when a shooter showed up at their door dressed like a FedEx employee.  Judge Salas’s son was killed in the attack, and her husband remains in critical condition.  Confusing things further, the believed assailant was found dead this morning, about two hours away from the site of the shooting, and appearing to have shot himself.  Said assailant was a self-described “antifeminist” who had brought a case in front of her last year, but hadn’t had any contact with her since–and the shooting occurred the day after Judge Salas was assigned the Deutsche case, with no recent threats issued against her.  I’m sure you don’t need me to point out how incredibly sketchy this entire story is, but uh… this entire story is incredibly sketchy and disturbing, no matter what was motivating the shooter.  

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The Good:

• Recent Court Resilience. The several schools that are suing Trump over his student visa power move have had a good past few days.  First seventeen state Attorneys General joined in, which I’m sure were welcome reinforcements.  Then said reinforcements got results, when the administration announced it was rescinding the decision rather than face numerous lengthy court battles.  And in semi-positive-but-better-than-expected news, the gun-toting married couple that brandished weapons at protesters in St Louis a few weeks ago are now facing criminal charges (though their case is being diverted to a civil court). 

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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 self-examining cat friend and an eventual better government.  I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully more tolerable) 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 ice cubes and Mr. Freeze memes!

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Everything is still a giant mess–honestly, Trump planning a rally on Juneteenth in Tulsa feels like a pretty succinct summary of where we are as a country.  But as always, pecan resist, and we keep pushing for a more just world. I’m here if anyone needs anything.

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 hunting rule–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!   

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Constitutional Crisis Corner:

Though our focus is mostly elsewhere right now, we did see a lot of Disregard of Governing Norms–and these things are definitely related, because this administration is still using unrest to consolidate power.  Here are the main things to know:    

• Regulation Free-For-All. The regulatory free-for-all continues for another week, with this administration chucking protections for several more groups in the span of the week. A lot of eyes are on their attempt to undo protections for transgender people and abortion in the ACA, which the administration released on the anniversary of the Pulse Massacre because of course they did. But they also finalized a rule that allows all kinds of egregious hunting practices in Alaska, which I take rather personally as an avid bear fan. And we should all pay attention to the proposed changes to asylum issued today, which would effectively cement severe curtailment of asylum claims first constructed during the COVID crisis.

• Messed Up Trump Response: BLM Edition. Of course, with all of the racial discourse and protest gripping the nation, it’s inevitable that we now have a Busted Things Trump is Doing subsection about it. He’s rumored to be giving a speech on racial unity this week–apparently written by actual white nationalist Stephen Miller–so that’s sure to be a party. Meanwhile, he definitely is advancing conspiracy theories about the elderly man in Buffalo who was assaulted by police on camera, and thanking the “S.S.” for doing a ‘GREAT JOB’. And as I mentioned above, he scheduled his first rally at the site of a massive racial massacre on the anniversary of emancipation, and when faced with criticism he changed the date but not the location. He also flat-out refused to change military bases named for Confederate generals, which put him at odds with his own party as well as the military he commands.

• Flynn Flyover. It almost feels quaint to discuss governmental malfeasance that doesn’t involve life or death by this point, but we nonetheless have more news on the Flynn trial. More specifically, the briefs to discuss dismissal were due this week, and the guy arguing against dismissal had a lot to say about the idea–one gets the impression that as a former judge, he takes the entire thing rather personally. I think my favorite was the part where he called the Department of Justice’s actions “a gross abuse of prosecutorial power,” but I’m also partial to his observations that they “abdicated . . . responsibility” and “everything about this is irregular.” At this rate, I hope the hearing on July 16 is televised.

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Your “Normal” Weird:

• Other Election Oddities (Again).   Every week of election news is weird, but this past week was a whole other level of train wreck.  Georgia’s primary did not exactly go smoothly, with new voting systems malfunctioning left and right and lines so long it prompted an independent investigation.  The GOP condemned “the current President” because they just straight-up didn’t update their copy from 2016 when rolling out the official 2020 platform, which leaves the talking points as stale as you might expect as they gear up for their convention. Speaking of RNC news, the latest rumor is that the new destination will be Jacksonville, but that hasn’t been finalized (which feels pretty par for the course, given the rest of this paragraph). And in order to attend the first Trump rally on June 20, supporters have to sign a waiver saying they won’t sue if they get coronavirus there.

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The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.*    COVID news continues to get worse on the national stage.  Hospitalization rates are rising in several states, as are other signs of increased communal transmission–and three states have their highest-ever rates right now.  Nonetheless, experts say we’re not experiencing a second wave because we’re still in the first one.  And despite Lancet’s retraction last week, the FDA has ended emergency authorization to use hydroxychloroquine, probably because other trials concluded the same thing.  Several research publications are now writing about the efficacy of masks, presumably to get more people wearing them.  On the economy front, the Dow dropped precipitously on Thursday as the Fed left interest rates low and people worried about a COVID resurgence.  There were also about 1.5 million new unemployment claims, suggesting some people are still being pushed out of the workplace even with states reopening.

• Black Lives Matter News.   There was some progress on racial justice issues this week, but we are still seeing significant violence as well.  In Atlanta, a man was shot and killed by police when a sobriety test went south; the officer was fired and the chief of police resigned, but as of yet there are no charges.  In Ohio, an investigation is being opened after a woman died from teargas complications.  And the Washington Post reports there have been nineteen documented instances of people driving cars into protest crowds, normalizing what was a shocking action only three years ago in Charlottesville.

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The Good:

• Recent Racial Justice Action. There has been a lot of positive action in the past week. The House held a hearing on police violence, accepting testimony from George Floyd’s brother, and legislation for reform has been introduced both there and in the Senate. People are increasingly losing their patience for racist symbols, with NASCAR banning the confederate flag at all events and the Senate proving receptive to renaming military bases. (Several monuments have been removed as well, by officials or otherwise.) Public opinion has also created pushback in other ways: an Ohio legislator was fired for his racist remarks; a top general apologized for appearing in the Lafayette Square photo op; more companies are refusing to let police use their facial recognition software; and over a thousand former DoJ employees have called for an investigation into Barr related to his clearing protesters with teargas. And Minneapolis continues to move forward with planning to disband their police force.

• Recent Court Resilience. SCOTUS dropped a lot of promising orders today, though some of them were baffling. They declined to hear a case challenging California protections for immigrants, which leaves those protections in place contrary to this administration’s aims. They also declined to hear cases challenging gun legislation based on the Second Amendment. But the biggest piece of news of the day was a 6-3 decision written by Justice Gorsuch, of all people, that concludes Title VII protects workers from being fired, disciplined, or denied opportunities due to sexual orientation or gender identity. This is a huge win for the LGBTQ+ movement, and it may have a number of other implications (which I’ll try to write about in the near future).

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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 goat kids visiting elephants and this new Ben and Jerry’s flavor and an eventual better government.  I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully more tolerable) 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 to review court opinions!