Hello and welcome to Regulator , a newsletter for Verge subscribers about tech politics, tech influence, and tech shenanigans in Washington, DC. (If you’re not a subscriber, you can get on board here .) We’re back after a two-week hiatus, during most of which I was gallivanting in the Netherlands for a family wedding, and a trip to the Heineken Experience, which is, truly, an ~experience~ .

Before I left, I asked everyone in Washington to please chill out while I was gone. This clearly did not happen, and I have returned to a political landscape that can be best described as that meme from Community where the room is on fire .…