Back when Obama was president, opponents of warrantless surveillance asked this hypothetical: What if, in the future, we had a vengeful president who didn't respect the rule of law and was willing to use the incredible resources at his disposal against his political enemies?
Unimaginable, right?
Now that it has happened, the intelligence community -- which is alleged to be at odds with Trump -- is pushing for expanded authority from Congress, and there is a good chance Congress will give it to them on Thursday. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has been extremely quiet on the question of whether Trump needs more legal surveillance powers, and the House is scheduled to begin debate on the issue in the morning. There are, believe it or not, a non-trivial number of Democrats who plan to vote with Republicans on this issue. The wild card is an amendment being pushed by libertarian Republican Justin Amash and Democrat Zoe Lofgren. Background on the bill here.
2. A story we published earlier today has already led to a call from a leading senator in Puerto Rico for criminal prosecutions of officials the island's public utility. Kate Aronoff reported on a raid of a warehouse that was found to be hoarding thousands of pieces of equipment critical for the electric grid, which is still far from being restored.
The island's grid is 50-plus years old so the parts needed to repair it don't exist, and have to be manufactured from scratch. Finding this cache of material will be a big help, but it raises questions why it took armed federal agents to seize and distribute. All this is happening while Puerto Rico's governing party is attempting to gut the only regulator in charge of the utility. Her story is here.
3. In Haiti, meanwhile, a UN-backed police unit carried out a massacre that included summary executions of civilians, and there has been close to zero coverage of it. It's a brutal story, but an important one.
4. We're just over a week away from the government running out of funding. Mitch McConnell insists that the Dream Act won't be part of any bill to keep the government open, though, ultimately, it's not up to him, as he can't do it without Democrats. And Trump won't make a deal as long as he has anti-immigrant extremist Stephen Miller in his ear.Here's Aida Chavez on the latest. I think a shutdown is much more likely than people seem to think it is.
5. And remember how former Rep. Pete Hoekstra said that in the Netherlands there are "no-go zones" and politicians are being burned? He's now ambassador to the Netherlands, and reporters there sat down with him for a Q&A. One asked him about the comments and he blew it off, but the rest of the reporters wouldn't let him go. "This is the Netherlands; you have to answer questions," one said.
He's probably missing us American reporters.
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