Thursday News: DREAMer Deal?; “The Missing Pieces of Medicare For All”; Samantha Bee Takes on Tuggin’ Ted

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, September 14.

• ‘The generators gave up’: 8 die after air conditioning fails at Fla. nursing home following Hurricane Irma
• Trump, top Democrats agree to work on deal to save ‘dreamers’ from deportation (“At a dinner late Wednesday, the president and Democratic leaders in Congress agreed to work out an agreement that would protect the nation’s ‘dreamers’ from deportation and enact border security measures that don’t include building a physical wall, according to people familiar with the meeting.”)
• Blow: Trump’s Selective Devotion to Law and Order
• Trump Hasn’t Dismantled Obama’s Legacy Yet — And May Not Ever (“Obama’s legacy seems pretty safe right now. Maybe that’s why the former president looks so chipper whenever he emerges in public.”)
• It’s mid-September and Republicans still can’t pass a budget (“This is really an intraparty fight about tax reform”)
• Donald Trump is making the single-payer push inevitable (“By destabilizing ACA marketplaces, he’s leaving Democrats nowhere to go but left.”)
• Bernie Sanders’s Bill Gets America Zero Percent Closer to Single Payer (“The barrier to single payer is that the American health-care system has been built, by accident, around employer-based insurance…Designing a single-payer system means not only covering the uninsured, but financing the cost of moving the 155 million Americans who have employer-based insurance onto Medicare.”)
• The Missing Pieces of Medicare For All (“The new plan from Senator Bernie Sanders needs a tax policy not just to fund it, but to dictate how it works.”)
• Sanders enjoys big moment with single-payer unveiling (“Financing options include a 7.5 percent income-based premium to be paid by employers, a 4 percent income-based premium to be paid by households, changes to the estate tax and a new tax on the top 0.1 percent of Americans based on income.”)
• Trump’s voter-fraud propagandist cooks up extremely fuzzy math
• Treasury Secretary Mnuchin requested government jet for European honeymoon
• The Hapless Smear Campaign Against Jim Comey (“The White House is making legal arguments about the former FBI director that barely pass the laugh test.”)
• The Flynn Family Appears to Be a Major Piece of Robert Mueller’s Puzzle
• The Expanding Investigation Into Michael Flynn (“The former national-security adviser worked on, but allegedly failed to disclose, a plan to work with Russia to build nuclear reactors in the Middle East.”)
• The White House is engaged in a coordinated attack on James Comey that Hannity and Trump’s lawyer have been pushing for months
• How Russia-linked groups used Facebook to meddle in 2016 election (“‘They are using these new social media sites, which is kind of a wild, wild West with very few rules, to influence the election,’ said Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.”)
• Sanders destroys norm of DOJ independence, lays out case for political prosecution of Comey (“I think that’s pretty clean and clear that that would be a violation.”)
• Trump ethics watchdog moves to allow anonymous gifts to legal defense funds (“In a reversal of internal policy, the Office of Government Ethics says funds benefiting aides caught up in Russia probes may accept anonymous gifts from lobbyists.”)
• Trump Says Jump. His Supporters Ask, How High? (“Many Republican voters appear to be ready to follow the president wherever he goes.” Lemmings.)
• Blow: Dispatch From the Resistance (“Good people of good conscience are seeking to do what Trump only gave lip service to, and in his way bastardized. We, patriots, will not stop resisting this destruction. It is we who will Make America Great Again by trying to limit the damage Trump can do to us until he feels the reckoning of the damage he has done to himself.”)
• Hillary Clinton Looks Back in Anger
• Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Actually Kind of Agree on the Future of the Democratic Party
• The Racist Map Wins (“The Supreme Court’s conservatives just ensured that Latino votes still won’t count in Texas.”)
• Kushner’s White House role ‘crushed’ efforts to woo investors for NYC tower (Sad! Heh.)
• Martin Shkreli jailed after Facebook post about Hillary Clinton (This guy is completely unhinged.)
• Why Does Virginia Hold Elections In Off-Off Years? (“While setting Virginia on the off-off-year calendar may have been a simple accident of history, keeping it there hasn’t been. And to a certain extent, Virginia historians and political analysts say the off-off-year election schedule has worked to the benefit of incumbent politicians and political machines who have been resistant to change in the commonwealth.”)
• Sen. Warner asks FTC to probe Equifax data, security practices after hack
• Kaine favors public option for health insurance reform
• Two senators, a piano and a harmonica: The key to bipartisan harmony?
• Everytown, gun control group, turns on spigot in Virginia elections with $1 million (“Group bankrolled by Michael Bloomberg is aiding Northam, Herring in the swing state”)
• Editorial: The Diminishing Virginia GOP (“Virginia Republicans lack a clear set of heavy hitters who could yank control of the party back from the Stewart wing — and yank control of the state back from Democrats.”)
• Editorial: Which candidate is best on rural broadband?
• Voting machine overhaul is necessary, and General Assembly should get off its duff
• Number of fully accredited Virginia schools grows
• Draft Richmond to D.C. rail study out, but controversy remains on whether to send route through or around Ashland
• Revenue-sharing pact among topics at House candidate forum (“Del. Steven Landes, R-Weyers Cave, and Democrat Angela Lynn, candidates for the 25th District, went first at the forum, which was hosted by the Senior Statesmen of Virginia. Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, and Democrat Kellen Squire, both running for the 58th District, spoke next.”)
• Pipeline foes gather near DEQ’s regional office in Roanoke for prayers, protest
• Sullivan: Protesters desecrated sacred ground by shrouding Jefferson statue
• Woman charged in Kessler news conference violence
• Richmond police plan weapons ban at pro-Confederate protest Saturday on Monument Avenue
• Money is lined up for HRBT expansion
• Passing showers amount to little through Friday, then a warm weekend