Tuesday News: BADlatte et al Gut Ethics Office; Trump Tweets About N. Korea; Vogel/Reeves Email Scandal Heats Up

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, January 3.

• Warming crushes global records again in 2016 (“Make America dust again: Trump’s team of deniers aims to restore America to the 1930s.”)
• With No Warning, House Republicans Vote to Gut Independent Ethics Office (“There was no advance notice or debate on the measure.” And no recorded vote. This is not – repeat NOT! – democracy.)
• House Republicans gut their own oversight (“‘Evidently, ethics are the first casualty of the new Republican Congress,’ Nancy Pelosi says.”)
• Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu questioned in corruption probe (Note the common thread with so many of these right wingnuts? Yep, corruption.)
• Trump and Conway’s transition of contradictions (“To have some hope of unity, there needs to be some measure of honesty.” Well that ain’t happening…)
• In political Washington, 2017 will be the year of the chicken (“A year of glib fibbers who mute their consciences to support the new president.”)
• Trump’s America is not the only ‘real’ America (“Should liberals hang their heads in shame? No way, as the conservative majorities in Congress will soon find out.”)
• Dems, GOP get ready for showdown on Obamacare
• Trump: North Korea will be stopped (First off, Trump needs to stop tweeting about this stuff. Second, how’s he going to stop North Korea, short of war?)
• House Republicans secretly vote to gut Office of Congressional Ethics (“The rules were pushed by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte.” Typo in there: should be “BADlatte.” Heh.)
• Back to The Auction House (“So who voted for it and who didn’t? If you live in a Republican district by all means call your member of Congress and find out. It’s called Rep. Goodlatte’s proposal to put the OCE under the authority of the Ethics Committee.”)
• Donald Trump and the Russian election hack: Why is he resisting all the evidence? (“Maybe Trump is Putin’s tool, or is being blackmailed. But isn’t it more likely he’s just an insecure little creep?”)
• Joe Scarborough against the world (“To many political journalists, Scarborough and Brzezinski’s presence at Mar-A-Lago confirmed their suspicions: The co-hosts were far too cozy with Trump, trading favorable coverage for access.”)
• Donald Trump’s “carbon bubble” economy is bound to pop — the only question is how bad it will be
• Democrats Can Learn From the Tea Party (“It’s a simple playbook: organize locally and play defense.”)
• ‘A lie, is a lie, is a lie’: Dan Rather shreds WSJ editor for reluctance to call out Trump’s bullsh*t
• The Media Outlets Poised To Become Trump’s Personal Propaganda Machine
• EXCLUSIVE: Details emerge around Vogel/Reeves email flap (Gotta love Republicans…not.)
• McEachin takes office Tuesday as Richmond’s congressman
• Court-imposed election map paved way for new Virginia congressmen (With nonpartisan districts, there’s little doubt that Dems would control the House of Representatives.)
• Hearing on challenge to Ricky Gray execution set for Tuesday
• Virginia Holocaust Museum co-founder Mark Fetter dies at 65
• Richmond school worker urges Stoney on day one: ‘Just do everything you can’
• A smokescreen for bigotry: Disguising anti-Muslim bias with land-use objections (“Sewage lines, traffic patterns and zoning ordinances. Meet the instruments of bigotry in America today. It’s happened three times in Virginia already, cases where development regulations and mundane municipal laws have been used to smokescreen surging Islamophobia.”)
• Forum with all 22nd District candidates to be held Wednesday
• Editorial: Want to save the coalfields? Here are some ideas
• So you want to donate to a charity? Finding a responsible one in Virginia can be daunting.
• Wet and warmer today, but winter returns later this week