Wednesday News: Barack Obama’s Farewell Address; Sessions Smooth Talks Senate; Salacious Info on Trump

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, January 11. Also check out President Obama’s Farewell Address. I certainly don’t share his optimism at this point, given what we’ve been through the past few months, but I will miss him greatly and thank him (and Michelle of course) for his tremendous service to our country!

• Intelligence chiefs briefed Trump and Obama on unconfirmed claims Russia has compromising information on president-elect
• Obama in farewell: ‘Yes, we can. Yes, we did.’ (“The president used his farewell speech in his home town of Chicago to defend his imperiled legacy and press a broad, optimistic vision for the country that seems more divided than ever.”)
• Republicans want to fight climate change, but fossil-fuel bullies won’t let them
• Jeff Sessions has made his case to be the attorney general. Now the Senate will hear from supporters and detractors. (“Fifteen witnesses, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), are slated to testify at the second day of Sessions’s confirmation hearing.”)
• Jeff Sessions shed his offensive past in his confirmation hearing. Was it an act? (“Despite what protesters had to say, Sessions sounded more MLK than KKK in his confirmation hearing.” Let’s hope he’s had a late-in-life conversion away from racism and bigotry more broadly. Count me as highly skeptical.)
• Trump confronts firestorm over Russia allegations (“The president-elect lashes out at allegations that Russia could have compromising information about him as ‘fake news.'” Trump would certainly know about “fake news,” as he’s the master of creating it.)
• Kremlin Says Trump Claims Are “Fake” And Aimed At Damaging US–Russian Relations (“The statement was released after an unverified document, published by BuzzFeed News, alleged Russia had been ‘assisting’ the president-elect for years.”)
• Barack Obama’s Farewell Address Was Hopeful, Unconvincing (“This optimism was offered despite the election of Donald Trump, a successor with no government experience who made his political bones questioning Obama’s very legitimacy as an American citizen and legal president in appeals to the basest racist instincts in American society.”)
• Trump to square off with press after Russia bombshell (“The president-elect has not held a news conference in 168 days, breaking from 40 years of precedent.” Yeah, remember when Village Idiot Chris Cillizza was ranting and raving about HILLARY not holding news conferences – and about her other non-“scandals”?!? Those were the days…)
• 13 questions for Trump’s news conference
• Tim Kaine weighs in on Obamacare, Sessions and Tillerson
• Franken catches Sessions lying about his civil rights record (“The attorney general-designate claimed he’d personally litigated cases. He did not.”)
• Coretta Scott King: Jeff Sessions would ‘irreparably damage’ my husband’s work (“Martin Luther King, Jr.’s late widow wrote in fervent opposition to Sessions’ 1986 nomination to the bench. Until today, her testimony was lost to time.”)
• Jeff Sessions Smooth-Talks the Senate
• Taking Note: Time to Grill Rex Tillerson on Climate Change
• Vaccine skeptic Robert Kennedy Jr. says Trump asked him to lead commission on ‘vaccine safety’ (What is it with Trump and science deniers? Ugh.)
• This new poll has all kinds of bad news for Donald Trump
• Republicans, Facing Pressure, Delay Hearings for 4 Trump Cabinet Nominees
• Torture Allegations Shadow Rex Tillerson’s Time at Exxon Mobil (“His former company is being sued for its alleged role in unprovoked shootings and arbitrary detention of Indonesian people.”)
• The Nimble Nominee (“Under tough questioning, Jeff Sessions stuck to portraying himself as an unbiased defender of the law – with one revealing exception.”)
• Seven Questions Senators Had Better Ask Rex Tillerson at His Hearing
• Sorry, Trump voters: Those factory jobs aren’t coming back — because they don’t exist anymore (“Thanks to robots, the glory days of manufacturing are gone — but in a better world, we don’t even need those jobs”)
• Jeff Sessions has bad news for Dreamers: Trump plans to throw DACA immigrants to the wolves (Appalling, cruel, stupid, bigoted…the Trump administration in a nutshell.)
• The Obamacare merry-go-round: Repeal, delay, replace, repeat — where it ends, nobody knows! (“Hapless Republicans have floated at least four nonsensical repeal plans — Obamacare might just survive them all”)
• Schapiro: For Kaine, health care, Cabinet fights are campaign do-over
• Virginia hospitals face uncertainty in Washington and Richmond
• McAuliffe replaces parole board chairwoman in effort to speed reforms
• McClellan, Peake win Senate elections; GOP retains control of chamber
• Editorial: The 2017 General Assembly: It begins (Cue foreboding music…lol.)
• With governor’s race in full swing, lawmakers return to Richmond for final session of McAuliffe era
• Virginia legislative session begins Wednesday (Oh joy. LOL)
• A freshman Delegate has a school discipline reform idea
• McAuliffe promises to “lean in” on ethics, voting bills
• Latest: Democrat concedes 22nd District Senate race
• Loudoun School Board Rejects Specific LGBT Protection Language (#FAIL)
• Jennifer McClellan wins Virginia’s 9th Senate District election (The only question in this race was how large a margin McClellan won by.)
• Rocky Holcomb wins special election representing Virginia Beach in House of Delegates (“Turnout in the race was around 7% as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the City Registrar Donna Patterson. She says that is actually a pretty good turnout for a special election during inclement weather.” Perhaps so, but still utterly pathetic turnout.)
• What happens to most of the money Chesapeake collects from developers? It gets stuck in the bank.
• Forecast: Cloudy, mild and proably a bit wet (“Cloudy skies will prevail as temperatures climb into the upper 40s or lower 50s. Rain early and possibly again by sunset.”)