by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, December 31. Also see President Obama’s weekly address, in which he reflects “on the significant progress we’ve made since he took office in 2009.” It truly is amazing, especially considering that President Obama got ZERO help from Republicans (to the contrary, they worked to make him fail). So, from the majority of Americans (Obama’s approval rating is around 56% right now), thank you Barack Obama! 🙂
- Russian hack of Vermont utility shows risk to power grid, officials say (Yet Trump defends and even praises Russian dictator Vladimir Putin? WTF???)
- Trump refuses to face reality about Russia (“The U.S. cannot just ‘move on’ from Vladimir Putin’s dangerous behavior.” I mean, in a sane world, that statement alone by Trump would disqualify him from being President.)
- Thanks To Russia, 2016 Isn’t Really Going To End For Obama And Trump
- Hamilton helped elect his rival to keep an ‘unruly Tyrant’ from the presidency. If only . . . (Unfortunately, there don’t seem to be any Alexander Hamiltons around today, when we desperately need them.)
- Why celebrate the New Year? Under President Trump, 2017 could be even worse (“Signs of hope may be visible in the distance, but odds are the New Year will be even more harrowing” Personally, I’m going to celebrate “good riddance to 2016,” but with zero hope that 2017 will be better.)
- What U.S. Muslims fear from Trump
- Will Obama’s Russia Retaliation Work? (“Or is it too little, too late?” Definitely “too little, too late” for Hillary Clinton.)
- We live in a world where white supremacists get lucrative book deals (“People are angry about professional troll Milo Yiannopoulos’ $250K book deal.”)
- Cupcake defender interviews for Ag secretary job (He also called “Hillary Clinton a “c—” on Twitter.” In short, he’s PERFECT for the Trump administration! Heh.)
- What Chuck Todd gets about Trump (“Chuck Todd has interviewed Donald Trump many times, and he’s noticed something somewhat disquieting about the unquiet president-elect. The man doesn’t laugh — not in a normal, spontaneous, regular-human kind of way.”)
- Kellyanne Conway’s husband on short list for top US lawyer job
- N.C.’s outgoing GOP governor appears to make one last attempt to stick it to the Democrat who beat him (McCrory is a horrible human being.)
- Virginia liquor stores open on New Year’s Day for 1st time
- FERC issues draft environmental statement on Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (If they didn’t take the impact of fracking, methane leaks, etc. into account, the analysis was a #FAIL.)
- Garrett looks forward to ‘busiest congressional calendar in history’ (This guy absolutely should not be in Congress.)
- Virginia Beach, Norfolk want the state to create a new position to deal with flooding
- Editorial: Good riddance to 2016 (I agree with the Republican Times-Disgrace’s headlines, but not with some of their “reasoning” for why 2016 sucked. Also, see if you can find the ethnic slur they used in their editorial…)
- Murders double in a Va. county and a community scrambles for answers (“After recording 10 homicides in 2015, Prince William County has 22 so far this year.” Uh oh, what’s going on in your county, “tough guy” Corey Stewart???)
- Bill proposes formal definition of ‘severe mental illness’ for the Code of Virginia
- Promising transparency and “a new day” in Portsmouth, John Rowe is sworn in as mayor
- Norfolk Sheriff Bob McCabe announces retirement 4 months after saying he would seek reelection (“The announcement comes 6 weeks after The Virginian-Pilot revealed businessman Ronnie Boone Sr. told federal investigators he bribed the longtime sheriff. McCabe has denied wrongdoing and faces no charges.”)
- Norfolk’s next sheriff is a fixture in city law enforcement (“Col. Joseph P. Baron, currently the second in command of the Sheriff’s Office, will take over the top job when Bob McCabe steps down Feb. 1.”)
- Calm conditions to ring in the New Year, then some rain early next week
