It's a wake-up call in more ways than one.
Time for some shit you need to know.
Well, another big shake-up in the administration, the head of U.S.
Border Patrol, the agency tasked with securing the nation's frontiers and increasingly tapped by the Trump administration for immigration operations in America, announced the resignation of its head yesterday, not in a jar.
the head of the department.
Michael Banks decision announced in a Fox News interview and later confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security is the latest leadership shakeup of officials implementing
Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.
It comes as the Republican administration appears to be recalibrating its approach to its centerpiece policy of mass deportations.
Banks was quoted as saying in a report, it's just time.
I feel like I got the ship back on course.
And that he was referring to the previous chaos at the southern border.
Banks said it was time to enjoy.
What was he taking?
What was he leaving to enjoy, Parker?
What do you think?
Time with this family.
Bingo.
Once again, we went right off the script.
Time to enjoy family and life.
In a statement, the U.S.
Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott thanked banks for his service, then showed him the door.
No, he said, during one of the most challenging periods for border security, the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Because as you know, the president was in China, the most talked about summit in the history of man, so much so that there's really nothing to report from there today.
But that's.
neither here nor there.
It's not clear yet who's going to replace banks.
He led the agency at the forefront of Trump's high-profile immigration enforcement efforts.
He kept a lower profile.
Yeah, I didn't know who this guy was.
He's one of the few people in the administration who was not out in front of cameras all the time.
He wasn't Gregory Bovino.
He wasn't Tom Holman.
So that was it.
CPB is one of the federal agencies that participated last year in a series of immigration enforcement operations carried out primarily in cities governed by Democrats.
An effort that triggered a spike in arrests and led to fatal shootings of two U.S.
citizens in Minneapolis this year at the hands of federal immigration officers.
Banks resignation takes place two months after Mark Wayne Mullen, a former Republican senator from Oklahoma, became head of Homeland Security.
DHS oversees CPB.
CBP and U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement known as ICE.
So another shake-up, another department head moving on to stay with their family.
I wonder what all these Republican people did beforehand.
They must not have spent any time with their families and now it's just coming back to haunt them because that's the reason they all give for leaving.
Even here in Wisconsin, that's Robin Voss and...
the Mayhew that was there, part of their reason too, everybody who wants to spend time with their family.
That's how you know, that's how you know it's true, because most people, they're like, I spend plenty of time with my family.
I need to go to work to get away from my family.
Maybe that's just me, who knows?
Other stuff you need to know?
Sure, this is closer to home.
Pardon me.
After repeatedly recessing a special session called by Governor Evers to take up a proposal that would bar partisan gerrymandering in Wisconsin, the Republican-controlled legislature quietly closed the session, packed up their bags, and went home.
Evers called for the legislature to convene in a special session on April 14th to begin the multi-year process that if cleared, if it cleared the legislature would give Wisconsin voters final say on a constitutional amendment to ban partisan gerrymandering in the state.
It's way past time for that to happen.
And yet...
It did not.
Rather than immediately reject Evers' request, though, as they've done multiple times before, Robin Voss and Devin LeMayhew opted to keep the session open.
But after repeatedly recessing the session over the last month to keep it open, the Senate formally ended the session late Wednesday while the Assembly adjourned Thursday morning.
So guess what?
Nothing getting done right now.
The adjournments come after the bipartisan deal seeking to infuse millions of funding.
That big spending thing passed the assembly did not pass the Senate.
On the day the gerrymandering session began, both GOP leaders said leaving the session open would allow for more public input on the matter and for both sides to reach a workable solution.
Voss said at the time, he hoped the governor would, quote, meet face to face with us to discuss our ideas on how to accomplish this goal.
Evers said there was nothing to negotiate on the matter.
You remember, we talked about this when it was happening.
So yeah, they had the special session, but neither side wanted to budge because the Republicans, you know, they're still upset that the Supreme Court changed the maps.
Democrats are happy to appoint because of fair maps, but they want to have the maps redrawn and then they want it to be no more redrawing to gerrymander.
This is the way it is.
So.
We will see.
The governor's office reiterated his stance last week that there was nothing at the time that needed to be discussed.
So that's that.
And the session was adjourned.
Evers' proposal did not lay out any specific process by which maps would be drawn.
Rather, it seeks to enshrine in the state constitution a prohibition on gerrymandering or the process by which one political party draws boundaries designed to benefit that party.
The state constitution does give the governor the power to call a special session, but the legislature is not required to act, and so they did not.
Now, if that's one of the things, as a Democrat, as we were talking about before, that you're optimistic of the possible trifecta,
in November and Democrats taking control.
Maybe that will maybe that will get pushed forward.
But for right now it is done.
We were complaining a little bit about the NFL before and Christmas games and Frank having to watch the Bears Packers game in some sketchy internet connected house in Michigan.
But the NFL is also being issued with a subpoena by the Florida Attorney General.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeyer has issued a subpoena to the National Football League as his office investigates whether the organization has committed potential civil rights violations related to its Rooney rule and other employment practices, policies and programs.
Oh man.
Mr. Uthmeyer, who had previously threatened possible enforcement actions against the league in March, if it did not suspend the 23 year old rule, set the subpoena along with a letter to NFL.
Executive Vice President and lead attorney Ted Ulyat on Wednesday.
The subpoena commands commands the league.
Boy, that's even more than rebuke strongly.
they come the subpoena commands the league to appear at the attorney general's office in tallahassee florida on june 12th it also requests extensive documents including quote all diversity reports coaching census data or demographic surveys that reflect race and sex of coaching staffs of the teams from 2017 to the present now if you are not familiar the rooney rule
mandates that teams interview at least two external minority candidates for head coach, general manager and coordinator positions, and at least one minority candidate for the quarterback's coach role.
Roger Goodell, who is the NFL commissioner, he was speaking at a league meeting in Phoenix last month.
He acknowledged the evolving political landscape surrounding diversity initiatives in the US.
Oh yeah, we know some people do not like DEI.
They don't like the snowflakes who want people included.
But that's all right.
He maintained, he maintained that he did not believe there should be any legal issues with the league's policy.
He said, quote, the Rooney rule has been around a long time.
We've evolved it, changed it.
We'll continue to do that.
And then the FBI did not come or the FBI, the NFL did not comment on the subpoena yesterday.
So are on Wednesday.
However, in a letter sent to Mr. Uthmeyer on May 1st, the league stated, the NFL's pursuit of top tier talent led to the adoption of the Rooney Rule in 2003.
Importantly, the Rooney Rule does not impose any hiring quotas or mandates, and it does not license clubs to consider race or sex in making hiring decisions.
Hiring decisions for NFL teams are made by the individual clubs, not the league, and those decisions are based on merit.
You host a sports show on Saturdays,
early
morning.
Make the call.
You make the call?
Make the call, yes.
Make the call.
Just make the call.
What are your thoughts on the subpoena, on the Rooney Rule?
Well, now, I know people, not joke, but it's kind of obvious.
Sometimes you can tell a team is interviewing somebody just because they need to.
Because of the Rooney Rule.
Yeah.
Because they need to.
You know, there's still an imbalance.
I think of coaches, but there are I think more so in the NFL than anywhere else You're held to that standard of you win or you leave.
So if you're not qualified, they're not hiring there.
The NFL is never gonna hire somebody Just because sure just because of a DEI hire because there's too much money riding on this There's too much revenue for the league for the teams for the cities
And they're quick to let people go if they don't cut the
mustard.
Sure.
I think what's odd about this is that it does no harm, right?
Like the Rooney Rule is just you interview.
Frankly, it probably does more good than I can even imagine harm because it's just you're opening your horizons to possibly having new people.
Exactly.
That's what I was going to say.
You might
find a diamond in the rough and you'd be able to do that.
we will see how this how this plays out but it's you know people want to hire it it's again it's you're giving just because i didn't get a job means you gave it to somebody else who didn't deserve it no maybe you didn't deserve it
Or maybe it did deserve it and just went to somebody else.
That's the luck of the draw.
A lot of qualified people don't get jobs.
All right, one final piece of stuff you need to know.
The Supreme Court yesterday allowed women to continue to access the abortion pill, mythoprestone, through telehealth visits, maintaining the status quo, while officials in Louisiana continue to push for limiting availability of the drug in lower courts.
The conservative Supreme Court imposed a pause on a May 1st decision from the 5th U.S.
Circuit Court of New Orleans.
Orleans that abruptly required women to obtain the drug through in-person visits.
The focus is now going to return to the New Orleans based appeals court, which will decide the merits of Louisiana's challenge.
The court did not explain their reasoning, which it doesn't have to in these shadow docket cases, nor did it disclose the vote count.
Clarence Thomas and Alito were the ones who did.
say no, they dissented.
The court's unreasoned order granting stays in this case is remarkable.
Alito wrote in his dissent.
What is at stake he added is the perpetuation of a scheme to undermine our decision over turning Roe v. Wade four years ago.
Yes, that's what people are trying to do.
You know why?
Because the majority of this country is for choice.
That doesn't mean they're for abortion.
They're for a woman being able to make her own decisions for her health and her body, along with her doctor.
And that is nothing for the courts to get involved in.
It's something for that woman and her doctors to decide.
And in the end, those are the people who have to either live with... Well, they have to live with their decisions, one way or another.
So...
It's not the court's job.
And yes, this is a way for women to access health care that you tried to take away with overturning Roe v. Wade.
Now, I know there's people who are cheering on that decision and are very mad about the Supreme Court decision yesterday to keep pushing.
And listen, if that's you and you're upset about this, it's still going to work its way through the lower courts.
And it'll probably get to the Supreme Court again.
