You never get the dystopia you expect
BY PRIYANKA ARIBINDI, BRIAN BEUTLER
& CROOKED MEDIA
Tuesday, March 27, 2018 | The Trump administration wants the 2020 Census to include a question about citizenship status for the first time in 70 years. Why is this a problem? Undocumented immigrants might be afraid to respond, even though courts have ruled that citizens and non-citizens must be counted. If immigrants are undercounted, many communities won’t get the funding or representation in Congress that they deserve. Because the Census is only conducted every 10 years, the damage would be long-lasting. This proposal is already facing legal challenges from multiple state Attorneys General as well as the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, led by former Attorney General Eric Holder.
From Brian Beutler: Part of the reason Democrats aren’t runaway favorites to capture the House in the fall is that they are still living under the gerrymandered maps Republicans drew after winning landslide majorities in the 2010 midterms, a Census year that gave them control over redistricting. This latest change to the Census is a bid to hold on to as much control over the next round of redistricting as they can, and in a way that panders to the Trumpiest faction of the GOP base. It’s antidemocratic, anti-empirical, and racist, and shouldn’t be allowed to stand.
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ANOTHER BRICK IN THE DUMB WALL | President Trump now says the Department of Defense (America’s, not Mexico’s, FYI) should pay for his border wall using tax dollars appropriated to the Pentagon for other purposes. Trump floated the plan to House Speaker Paul Ryan last week, who reportedly “offered little reaction,” which is probably what he does when the President suggests dumb ideas that Ryan is too chickenshit to oppose. Paul Ryan’s eyes must roll so hard before he fails to confront the president in private and/or in public. The truth: Trump won’t get his wall unless Congress funds it. Right now, they don’t have the votes to do that unless Trump agrees to protect the Dreamers. If Trump could maintain interest in a topic for more than the length of a cable news segment, he would make that deal. When asked about it, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded: “I can’t get into the specifics of that at this point.” Translation: “There’s no way for me to explain this without making myself and my boss look very stupid. I chose this life.” | | |
Mark Zuckerberg will testify before Congress about Facebook’s data policies and its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. This is the most hotly anticipated congressional hearing since James Comey testified that he wouldn’t do anything differently(!). Zuckerberg is famous for speaking his mind, giving us all the facts, and not getting bogged down in consultant-speak, so this should be a hoot.
A clip from Zuckerberg’s last interview got the “Ok, stop” treatment on last week’s Lovett or Leave It (29:30).
| Today Trump secured a trade deal with South Korea—the first significant deal of its kind of his presidency. According to The New York Times, the deal leverages Trump’s threat of steel and aluminum tariffs to allow for auto imports from American companies like Ford and General Motors, extend tariffs on South Korean truck exports, and reduce the amount of steel South Korea can export to the United States. The deal is expected to be formally announced as soon as tomorrow. Multiple groups of senators, including Chris Coons (D-DE) and Thom Tillis (R-NC)—the bipartisan sponsors of a bill to protect Robert Mueller—seem very concerned that Trump may have the special counsel in his sights—on what was otherwise a quiet day. It may be a coincidence, or they may have learned something behind the scenes. Either way, we’ll be watching very closely. Though, let’s be honest, we watch everything very closely. No charges will be filed against the two Baton Rouge police officers who shot and killed Alton Sterling in 2016 after an investigation determined that they acted in a “reasonable” and “justifiable" manner. Two cell phone videos documenting the officers’ roles in Sterling’s death prompted Black Lives Matter protests nationwide. Crooked contributor Brittany Packnett said it best: “Alton Sterling is a victim of gun violence too. Don’t you dare stay silent.” The NRA says it receives foreign funding, but none of it goes towards elections. The organization issued this response after reporting that suggested a Russian banker used the NRA to funnel money to the Trump campaign. Now, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) of the Senate Finance Committee is asking them to detail the media expenditures they’ve made with foreign funds in the past three years. Could be a blot on an otherwise stellar reputation. Beijing has confirmed to South Korea that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited China in his first diplomatic trip since assuming power in 2011. As North Korea’s only notable military ally, the visit to China was expected by some ahead of Kim Jong Un’s upcoming meeting with Trump. White House lawyers examined two large loans to Jared Kushner’s family business, and, in the most convincing exoneration since Devin Nunes terminated the House Russia investigation, have found no ethics or criminal law violations. In other news, Butch says Sundance didn’t do it either. The White House explained why Trump has been silent about Stormy Daniels. “I didn’t say he punches back on every topic,” said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. THEY CONSTANTLY DEFEND HIS CRAZY OUTBURSTS BY SAYING HE ALWAYS HITS BACK. Par exemple: | Mitt Romney says he’s more conservative than Trump on the issue of immigration—a reminder that Trump is a product of Republican politics, not an aberration. The city of Atlanta has been under a ransomware attack for four days, preventing it from collecting online payments of bills and fees. Hackers are demanding a ransom of $51,000 in bitcoin. You never get the dystopia you expect.
Someone made a Craigslist ad in DC seeking a lead attorney for a “difficult client” 🤔
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On Pod Save the People: “They live and die with the world ignoring their very existence.” Sen. Tammy Duckworth talks to DeRay about the gun violence that students on the South Side of Chicago endure.
Listen →
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Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has called for the Second Amendment to be repealed. Stephens, a Gerald Ford nominee, wrote the dissenting opinion in Heller v. District of Columbia, in which the Court held that the Second Amendment protected an individual’s right to bear arms outside of militia service for self defense. For the record, 1 in 5 Americans agree with him. “That simple but dramatic action would move Saturday’s marchers closer to their objective than any other possible reform. It would eliminate the only legal rule that protects sellers of firearms in the United States — unlike every other market in the world. It would make our school children safer than they have been since 2008 and honor the memories of the many, indeed far too many, victims of recent gun violence.”
Read →
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As far as marketing ploys go, the Wendy’s mixtape (complete with diss tracks) has worked on me. | Did someone forward you this email? Sign up to get What A Day in your inbox! | | |
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