Veterans Day 2016 News: “Thoughts for the Horrified”; “Trump fills the swamp with more lobbyists”; Dem Party in Disarray

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, November 11. Thanks to all who served our country honorably in the U.S. military. Also check out Stephen Colbert on how “this is all still happening…”

• The GOP’s shameful gamble on Merrick Garland pays off (“Mitch McConnell’s situational ethics are, well, unethical.” McConnell disgusts me almost more than Trump does.)
• The whole Democratic Party is now a smoking pile of rubble (“The down-ballot party has withered, and Obama’s policy legacy will be largely repealed.”)
• It’s surreal, but Trump and Obama just met in the Oval Office (Bizarre.)
• Trump’s election threatens human rights around the world (“Strongmen are betting that Trump will abandon America’s role as a promoter of freedom.”)
• The two sins that defined this election (“Donald Trump tapped into elitism and race in ways that connected with white voters.”)
• President-elect meets with Obama at White House and GOP leaders on Capitol Hill (This is a continuing nightmare.)
• Donald Trump is the American Machiavelli (“But the president-elect’s hunger for public affirmation might have worried the cynical Florentine.”)
• Trump’s lawyers seek to delay fraud case — until after he is sworn into office (Right, because he’ll be far less busy once he’s President! WTF???)
• Trump’s reliance on an ‘army of one’ faces a shift (“The president-elect is known to read little and rule by his gut. He picks people by first impressions, expects extreme loyalty and is focused on how he is perceived. To govern, he’ll have to absorb vast amounts of information about issues he’s never confronted, and his inner circle will have to expand — greatly.”)
• Leonard Cohen, singer-songwriter of love, death and philosophical longing, dies at 82 (R.I.P.)
• Trump protests surge across America (“Around the country from New York to Chicago to California, in red states as well as blue, hundreds of demonstrators marched through streets, many for the third straight night though in somewhat smaller numbers.”)
• Kaine: ‘This isn’t a time to give up’
• Trump likely to try to reverse Obama environment initiatives (This alone will make Trump’s presidency an utter disaster, quite possibly one that humanity will never be able to recover from.)
• Why did Trump win? In part because voter turnout plunged. (“In some of those states on which Trump built his victories, Republican-designed voter suppression laws, including ID mandates, limits on early voting and a reduction in polling locations, seem to have had their intended effect.” Grrrrrr.)
•  The GOP’s Attack on Voting Rights Was the Most Under-Covered Story of 2016 (“… 27,000 votes currently separate Trump and Clinton in Wisconsin, where 300,000 registered voters, according to a federal court, lacked strict forms of voter ID. Voter turnout in Wisconsin was at its lowest levels in 20 years and decreased 13 percent in Milwaukee, where 70 percent of the state’s African-American population lives, according to Daniel Nichanian of the University of Chicago.” Absolutely despicable.)
• Trump fills the swamp with more lobbyists (“He’s surrounding himself with Wall Street and D.C. insiders.”)
• The Wrong People to Drain the Swamp (“Newt Gingrich, Chris Christie and Rudy Giuliani would be poor choices for high-profile roles involving cleaning up corruption.” Or anything else.)
• Trump Recruiting Among the Lobbyists He Once Denounced (This administration is going to be a kleptocracy, among other things.)
• Just two days after Trump’s election, reports of anti-Islam attacks spike (“It’s already getting ugly.”)
• Anti-LGBT groups are absolutely giddy about a Trump presidency (“This comes as no surprise. But some Americans are still surprised.”)
• Paul Krugman: Thoughts for the Horrified (“…if you’re tempted to concede that the alt-right’s vision of the world might have some truth to it, don’t. Lies are lies, no matter how much power backs them up…Unfortunately, we’re not just talking about four bad years. Tuesday’s fallout will last for decades, maybe generations…The road back to what America should be is going to be longer and harder than any of us expected, and we might not make it. But we have to try.”)
• Denounce the Hate, Mr. Trump
• Sanders backs Ellison for DNC chairman
• Howard Dean running for DNC chief
• Clinton aides blame FBI director, media for devastating loss (They were a big part of it, no doubt, but the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party need to look themselves in the mirror, too.)
• Clinton aides blame loss on everything but themselves (“‘They are saying they did nothing wrong, which is ridiculous,’ one Democrat says.”)
• Insurgent Trump taps GOP insiders, lobbyists for transition (“Veterans of two Bush administrations and Romney transition lay the groundwork for his presidency.”)
• Pollsters tackle what went wrong (“They know they blew the election. Now they’re trying to pinpoint how it happened.” Good luck with that.)
• There Is No Trump Mandate (“Trump appears to have lost the popular vote, and he is the first presidential candidate to win the office without winning a majority of the votes since 2000.”)
• Megyn Kelly reveals Trump got Fox News debate question in advance — and he threatened her
• Colbert refuses to apologize in tour de force Trump takedown: That’s ‘what a p*ssy would say’
• Sanders: Trump administration threatening to prosecute Clinton is ‘what dictators are about’
• Justice Department: Virginia may be punishing poor by suspending driver’s licenses (“The agency filed a brief in a class-action lawsuit that called the suspensions an ‘unconstitutional scheme.”)
• Trump win shakes up 2017 race for Virginia governor (“Too close to Trump? Too distant? A first test of the GOP fallout comes to Virginia next year.”)
• Interactive maps: How Virginia’s counties and cities voted in the Presidential election
• Microsoft to expand data center in Southside Virginia
• Virginia’s liquor monopoly continues to pour higher sales, profit
• New legislative panel adds scrutiny of Virginia economic development incentives
• Light rail in Virginia Beach failed. Here’s what happens next. (Big mistake by voters, although not as big as others they made Tuesday, starting with the presidency…)
• Alexandria speeds up plans to address sewage overflow into the Potomac (“Environmental group says city is still not moving fast enough.”)
• Virginian-Pilot editorial: Winds of change blow through Portsmouth (“It is unbecoming to mine joy from someone else’s pain. So there should be no celebrating the electoral defeat of Portsmouth Mayor Kenny Wright in Tuesday’s election.”)
• Uncertainty reigns in race for Mamie Taylor’s 5th District Richmond School Board seat
• How would Trump trade proposals affect the port?
• A gusty Friday, with the coldest air this season making a brief weekend visit