BY BRIAN BEUTLER, PRIYANKA ARIBINDI

& CROOKED MEDIA

Monday, April 8, 2019

—Millennial to Beto in local bathroom.

KIRSTJEN GETS FIRJED

President Trump has purged the leaders of the Department of Homeland Security, reportedly because he believes they were insufficiently extreme and too law-abiding when it comes to immigraton policy. This is not to be confused with the major motion picture The Purge, which was loosely based on Trump’s second term in office.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen—the face of the Trump administration’s child separation policy—resigned at Trump’s request Sunday evening. Trump also ordered his chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to fire U.S. Secret Service Director Randolph Alles, and last week withdrew the nomination of Ronald Vitiello, his designated ICE director, to go in what he called a “tougher direction.” The department’s general counsel and the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will also be leaving. (Must be nice to be able to leave a place at will, and not be detained indefinitely in a makeshift child prison.)

Trump’s policy adviser/white nationalist Stephen Miller is reportedly the architect of the purge, having persuaded Trump that different leaders would be able to reinstate illegal policies like separating children captured along the southern border from their parents, and refusing to allow migrants to seek asylum.

These racist policies have failed miserably in clear, empirical terms to accomplish Trump’s notional goal of stemming the flow of immigrants and asylum seekers into the country. But whether Miller and Trump care about the effectiveness of their policies, or only the viciousness of them, they have already demonstrated that they intend to dare Congress and the courts to stop them from doing whatever they want.

Trump announced he will install Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Kevin McAleenan as acting DHS secretary even though the law plainly forbids it. McAleenan has said he may begin separating children from parents who don’t agree to enter indefinite detention. Trump himself reportedly told border patrol agents that they should stop letting asylum seekers into the country, even if ordered to do so by a judge.

These escalating attacks on the rule of law are part of a trend since Democrats won back the House in November. Most recently, the administration has refused to defend any part of the Affordable Care Act in court and announced that it will violate the law requiring the Treasury Department to transmit Trump’s tax returns to Congress. The actions themselves may stem from weaknesses—a perceived need to mobilize the Republican base and conceal wrongdoing ahead of the election—but they are abuses of power and violations of the law. He is doing them because the new Congress has signaled he’s likely to get away with it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to annex Israeli settlements in the West Bank if he is re-elected. The West Bank is contested territory where 400,000 Israeli settlers and 2.8 million Palestinians live. Netanyahu has previously supported Israeli settlements in the area, but has never before promised formal annexation of the territory.

The shift is part of a desperate appeal to Netanyahu’s right-wing base, ahead of Tuesday’s election in which his former army chief-of-staff, Benny Gantz, hopes to unseat him. Netanyahu has similarly touted his close relationship with President Trump, who is beloved by the Israeli right for formally recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, breaking with decades of U.S. foreign policy.

Should Netanyahu win re-election, partisan divisions over the U.S.-Israel relationship are likely to widen, and the relationship itself may be permanently altered. Should he win and follow through on the annexation promise, it will kill any remaining hope of forging a two-state solution.  

A judge in San Francisco has blocked the Trump administration policy of returning asylum seekers to Mexico. Great news, and great timing.

The Trump administration has designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization—the first time the U.S. has deployed the designation against a foreign government entity. Amazingly, the Trump Organization knowingly helped the IRGC launder money in violation of U.S. sanctions until after the 2016 election. From Ben Rhodes: “Designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization only makes sense as a step toward conflict.”

Counties in states that expanded Medicaid had four fewer heart-related deaths per 100,000 residents each year compared to counties in states that didn’t expand coverage between 2010 and 2016. A good sign for states that adopted the expansion and a reminder that GOP health care policy can kill people. Pro-life!

The Chinese national who breached security at Mar-a-Lago with a malware-infected thumb drive last month also had a signal detector, dozens of other devices, and thousands of dollars in cash stashed in her hotel room. She appeared at a detention hearing in a Florida federal court on Monday, and is under FBI counterintelligence investigation. We look forward to her buddy comedy with Maria Butina.

Three black churches in a single Louisiana parish have burned in suspicious fires in the past 10 days. President Trump hasn’t said anything about it because he and his administration don’t seem to care about domestic terrorism that targets black people.

Felicity Huffman and 12 other parents implicated in the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal have agreed to plead guilty to bribery and fraud. According to an official, they face between six and 21 months in prison if they’re convicted or plead guilty. TBD on whether “Have Mercy” will work for Aunt Becky.

Eighty-one women have sued Sharp Grossmont Hospital in San Diego, CA for secretly recording thousands of womens’ gynecological surgeries with hidden cameras.

Rival gangs in Los Angeles came together for their first ceasefire in 27 years to honor the late Nipsey Hussle, marching together to Hussle’s store, where he was killed.

The United Kingdom has proposed a new watchdog agency for internet companies, along with new rules to hold them legally responsible for extreme content. The agency would also require these companies to make it easier for users to voice complaints and receive quick answers, and would impose criminal penalties and substantial fines on executives of companies that fail to comply.

This is one of the strongest actions taken by a government to regulate social media platforms. Australia passed legislation in early April to fine and/or jail social media company executives who fail to remove “abhorrent violent material” from their platforms. In New Zealand, where a white nationalist used Facebook to livestream the Christchurch massacre, the country’s privacy commissioner called the company leaders “morally bankrupt pathological liars,” whose service fueled a genocide in Myanmar. It’s even become a point of discussion in the 2020 Democratic primary, thanks to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who has proposed breaking up big tech companies and jailing or fining negligent executives.

South Bend, IN, Mayor Pete Buttigieg spoke candidly about being openly gay before an audience of LGBTQ supporters, marking the first time a serious presidential candidate has given a high-profile public address about his or her own sexual identity. Buttigieg addressed the difficulties he had coming out, as well as his faith, before reprimanding public figures who still do not accept gay rights:

"That's the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand: That if you have a problem with who I am, your quarrel is not with me. Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator."

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