Monday News: “This isn’t normal”; Reps. Scott, Beyer, Connolly Denied Access at Dulles

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Monday, January 30. Also, check out Rep. Bobby Scott’s Kafka-esque nightmare at Dulles Airport as he attempts to talk to someone from Customs and Border Patrol. To put it mildly, this is NOT how it’s supposed to work in the United States in America.

• Six killed after gunmen open fire at Quebec City mosque (“Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard called the shooting a ‘terrorist act,’ saying in an early morning news conference that he reacted with ‘horror and incredulity’ when he learned about the attack. He promised increased police protection for mosques and Islamic centers across the province of Quebec.”
• As Protests Grow, Trump’s Immigration Ban Provokes Crisis
• Blow: Not on Our Watch (“America will not stand for this, so if obsequious conservative politicians or lily-livered liberal ones won’t sufficiently stand up to this demagogic dictator, then the American people will do the job themselves.”)
• Krugman: Building a Wall of Ignorance (“For sheer viciousness, loose talk about tariffs isn’t going to match slamming the door on refugees, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, no less. But the tariff tale nonetheless epitomizes the pattern we’re already seeing in this shambolic administration — a pattern of dysfunction, ignorance, incompetence, and betrayal of trust.”)
• Trump: McCain and Graham ‘looking to start WWIII’ (Who knows what that even means, but one thing’s for sure — Trump is insane.)
• McCain blasts Bannon placement on National Security Council
• Early wins against Trump immigration order may not last (“Initial court rulings protect travelers caught in limbo, but a full derailing of the president’s directive will be tough.”)
• WH defends Holocaust statement that didn’t mention Jews(Indefensible. Hello Jared Kushner???)
• The danger of Steve Bannon on the National Security Council (“Trump’s travel ban is bad. His NSC shake-up might be even worse.”)
• For the media, shutting up is not an option (“No matter how much Steve Bannon wants journalists to ‘just listen for a while.'”)
• There is a second sacred wall at the CIA. Trump disrespects that one every day. (“The agency holds truth above all else. The president looked straight at its motto and lied.”)
• Trump is obsessed with trade — but it’s not a major cause of job loss (“Manufacturing’s decline began in the 1950s and ’60s, well before the onset of annual trade deficits.”)
• The war on facts is a war on democracy: Scientific community has a warning for President Trump (“In a time when facts don’t matter — and science is being muzzled — American democracy is the real victim”)
• Kaine casts Trump officials as Holocaust deniers
• Jihadist groups hail Trump’s travel ban as a victory
• It’s Unconstitutional (“Trump’s executive order is an unlawful attack on Muslims that must be struck down in its entirety.”)
• Editorial: Trump’s immigration order drags America into a cesspool
• The Travelers Trapped in Horrific Limbo by Trump’s Immigration Order (“Judicial stays couldn’t protect everyone detained at U.S. airports.”)
• The Commander Stumbles (“Trump’s first executive orders will make it harder to vanquish ISIS.”)
• Editorial: Warner, not Trump, follows Ike’s example
• A Clarifying Moment in American History (“There should be nothing surprising about what Donald Trump has done in his first week—but he has underestimated the resilience of Americans and their institutions.”)
• Former Breitbart Chief Now Writing America’s Foreign Policy: Trump Gives Stephen Bannon Place On National Security Council
• Is Steve Bannon Trying to Instigate a Constitutional Crisis?
• Poll: Trump reaches majority disapproval in eight days(The question is who the lunatics are who actually approve of this anti-American freak.)
• Gillespie backs ‘temporary pause’ on refugee resettlement; urges accommodation for those with green cards
• The Myth of Catharsis (“The notion of Trump as some sort of summer thunderstorm that will clear the air of American democracy is not only a fallacy that results from lazy thinking, it deludes the person holding that view into thinking Trump is some deus ex machina intervening out of nowhere. The fact that 63,000,000 Americans voted for him may be evidence, not that he is the some sort of harsh medicine for the ills of American democracy, but a culmination of all the underlying symptoms of its sickness.”)
• Border agents defy courts on Trump travel ban, congressmen and lawyers say (“Democrat Don Beyer says ‘we have a constitutional crisis’ over refusal to release travellers from Muslim-majority countries after judge grants temporary stay”)
• Local Congressmen Demanded To Speak With Customs And Border Protection At Dulles, Were Refused
• McAuliffe, Beyer, Connolly Condemn Trump Executive Order Banning Muslims
• Trump’s facile claim that his refugee policy is similar to Obama’s in 2011 (“First, Obama responded to an actual threat — the discovery that two Iraqi refugees had been implicated in bomb-making in Iraq that had targeted U.S. troops.”)
• Mr. Pruitt’s tepid commitment to clean up the Chesapeake Bay (“His responses muddy the waters.”)
• Trump’s travel ban provides political moment for Virginia Democrats (“Politicians and candidates reacted forcefully Sunday after some appeared less visible on Saturday.”)
• Virginia Tech President releases open letter to campus regarding travel ban
• Family with 2 kids detained at Dulles Airport, governor said
• McAuliffe Demands Answers from Federal Officials on Immigration Ban
• Trump’s order clouds futures of Virginia Tech students, faculty (“‘Being painted with the same brush as a terrorist really makes no sense,’ an Iranian student said.”
• State officials say airport violated 30-year-old policy in guaranteeing loan for People Express
• Light snowfall breaks out overnight. Cold and blustery weather for Monday.