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BY BRIAN BEUTLER, PRIYANKA ARIBINDI & CROOKED MEDIA Wednesday, September 11, 2019 |
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| SCHROEDINGER'S IMPEACHMENT |
| Have House Democrats really launched impeachment proceedings against President Trump? It seems as if they really don’t want us to know!
The evidence for the existence of an impeachment inquiry is straightforward: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler insists he is conducting an impeachment inquiry. He’s made this claim in court filings and to the media. His committee will adopt new procedures on Thursday to distinguish its regular work from its impeachment-related hearings and investigations. For technical purposes, that means the House is contemplating impeachment, even if it ultimately decides not to pass articles of impeachment.
The evidence that other House Democrats aren’t taking this process seriously is also, sadly, straightforward.
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| The GOP-controlled National Labor Relations board just made it easier for employers with unionized workforces to change the terms of employee contracts even if unions don’t agree to the changes.
Since the 1940s, employers have had to negotiate changes to employment terms with their unionized workers. On Tuesday the NLRB dropped that standard, in favor of a weaker one called “contract coverage.” Under the contract coverage standard, employers are free to interpret terms of union contracts broadly, without demonstrating that their workers have agreed with those interpretations or waived their right to negotiate around those issues.
This is a big change in labor laws, and blow to unions and collective bargaining nationwide. |
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| What happens when a conspiracy theory turns out to be true?
This week on Crooked Minis: State of Conspiracy, Professor Kathryn Olmstead welcomes Kevin Kruse, professor of history at Princeton University. Together, they explore the ways the media and historical events of the 60s onwards contributed to increasing mistrust in both government and media.
They explore some of the most absurd cases of government conspiracies that ended up being true and how those revelations changed the trajectory of how Americans and politicians question the truth today.
Listen → |
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| The Supreme Court just tossed out nationwide injunctions that prevented the Trump administration from implementing its plan to deny asylum to migrants who have traveled through third countries to reach the U.S. Asylum will thus likely be denied to thousands of Central American migrants and others while the litigation challenging the rule runs its course. Terrible.
State Sen. Dan Bishop (R-NC) (the bad Dan) narrowly defeated Democrat Dan McCready (the good Dan) by about two points on Tuesday in the special election to fill the vacancy in North Carolina’s ninth House district. Sucks to lose, but this is a district Trump carried by 12 points in 2016, which isn’t a great sign for Republicans. (The best Dan is Dan Pfeiffer, who should probably run for something.)
There’d be 300,000 more jobs in the U.S. right now if it weren’t for President Trump’s trade war, and that number will likely reach 450,000 by the end of the year, barring policy changes. The figure comprises both jobs eliminated by companies struggling under the tariffs, and jobs that would have been created but haven’t been because of reduced economic activity. President Jobs is killing jobs while costing Americans $1000 a year in higher sales taxes. Democrats: put it in an ad already.
The White House announced that the FDA will ban flavored e-cigarettes. If you haven’t read about Juul’s plan to lobby black lawmakers to keep the company afloat, it’s a wild ride.
California lawmakers have passed legislation to require companies like Uber and Lyft to treat contract workers like employees, offering them basic protections like the minimum wage and unemployment insurance. The measure, which is expected to go into effect January 1, requires the companies to reclassify workers who are central to their business, and who must perform certain tasks in the course of doing their jobs. Uber has said it will not reclassify its employees, arguing that “drivers’ work is outside the usual course of Uber’s business.” Guess that’s because Uber’s core business is losing tons of money?
Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney reportedly told Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to order NOAA officials to publicly rebuke the Birmingham, AL, weather forecasters who contradicted Trump’s claim that Hurricane Dorian would likely strike Alabama. Guess who told Mulvaney to do that?
The U.S. will not grant temporary protected status to any of the 70,000 Bahamians left homeless after Hurricane Dorian, because the Trump administration doesn’t do that anymore. Awful. Here’s how to help →
Mike Pence’s scandalous stay at Trump’s golf resort in Ireland (over 180 miles away from Dublin, where his meetings were) cost taxpayers nearly $600,000. Infuriating.
Patriots wide receiver Antonio Brown was accused of three separate instances of rape and sexual assault, according a new federal lawsuit filed by Britney Taylor, a gymnast he met while at Central Michigan University, and later hired as a trainer.
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| North Carolina Republicans broke their promise not to hold any votes while House Democrats were at a 9/11 memorial, and voted to override the governor’s veto of the state budget. When you’re done sputtering with rage, there’s a lesson here for Democrats: Republicans can not be trusted, whether they’re in power or out, not even to mind the store while you go to a memorial service, because no virtue matters to them more than their own power. The good news is that if we get enough people to vote, we won’t have to deal with shit like this anymore → votesaveamerica.com |
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| On Monday, September 9, Craig McLean, the assistant administrator of NOAA’s research arm sent a note of support to all of his division’s employees to defend them from the Trump administration’s attempts to intimidate scientists into manipulating weather forecasts to save the president from embarrassment—and to announce an internal investigation of the meddling.
“The NWS Forecaster(s) corrected any public misunderstanding in an expert and timely way, as they should… My understanding is that this intervention to contradict the forecaster was not based on science but on external factors including reputation and appearance, or simply put, political. Our NOAA Scientific Integrity Policy and Code of Scientific Conduct make clear that all NOAA employees shall approach all scientific activities with honesty, objectively, and completely, without allegiance to individuals, organizations, or ideology.”
Trump has cowed a lot of people into letting him damage their institutions. It’s good to see someone buck the trend. |
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