Monday News: In Trump, Republicans are “getting the anger candidate their rhetoric created”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Monday, December 28.

• Here Is Every Crazy, Insane, Terrible, Genius, Infuriating Thing Donald Trump Did This Year (That’s a loooog list of “crazy, insane, terrible,” etc.)
• Obama’s team says the GOP earned Donald Trump (“Loyalists say that after two terms of obstruction, Republicans are getting the anger candidate their rhetoric created.”)
• Iraqi Forces Say They Have Retaken Ramadi From Islamic State
• Paul Krugman: Doubling Down on W (“Trumpism has in one way worked to the G.O.P. establishment’s advantage: it has distracted pundits and the press from the hard right turn even conventional Republican candidates have taken, a turn whose radicalism would have seemed implausible not long ago.”)
• Hotline’s 2016 Senate Rankings (“The ques­tion is not wheth­er Demo­crats will pick up Sen­ate seats next year, it is al­most cer­tainly how many.”)
• Capitalists should listen to Bernie Sanders (“The economic and social world that social democrats built in Western countries is struggling to survive.”)
• These 5 charts prove that the economy does better under Democratic presidents
• The GOP has become the party from George Orwell’s nightmares
• Republican strategist: Some GOP House and Senate candidates will flee convention if Trump is the nominee (It should be a lot more than “some.” Same thing if Cruz is the nominee, by the way; that guy’s even crazier and more extreme than Trump, if that’s possible.)
• Trump blasts Virginia GOP for asking voters for loyalty pledge
• Editorial: Those mythical 25,000 offshore drilling jobs (“The source of that number is the American Petroleum Institute, not exactly a disinterested source.” As a general rule, if the study is paid for by a group that stands to gain financially from the findings of a study, do not give it one second of attention, let alone any credence.)
• Conservationists Thank Kaine, Warner For Wetlands Votes
• Spong applauds removal of Confederate flags from St. Paul’s on 60th anniversary of ministry (“That the leadership of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church elected recently to remove Confederate images from its walls delights John Shelby Spong, who oversaw the church during a watershed moment in state and local history.”)
• A Va. congregation will tear down its church to build low-income housing (Now THAT is what Christianity is supposed to be about — helping those less fortunate.)
• Kwanzaa celebrated in downtown Roanoke with fire, water, entertainment
• D.C. area forecast: Damp with fluctuating temps early this week, then shifting calm and colder