Friday News: Lyin’ Ryan Has No Clue How Healthcare Works; VA GOP Attacks Northam, Perriello for Supporting $15/Hour

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, March 10.

• South Korea president Park Geun-hye ousted by court (Now, if we could only do the same for our own criminal regime.)
• Four states suing to block Trump’s new travel ban
• Trump leans on executive power in his first 50 days (Right wingers HATED this when Obama did it. Now it’s fine. Gee, wonder why. Hmmmmm.)
• President* Trump Has a Shadow Cabinet of the Dangerously Unhinged
• The effort to repeal Obamacare is the GOP’s declaration of class warfare on average Americans
• Republicans’ rushed health bill is everything they said they hated about Obamacare
• Disgraced Trump adviser Mike Flynn admits he worked as a “foreign agent” for the Turkish government
• Appearing On Russian State Television, Longtime Trump Adviser Roger Stone Pushes Trump’s Wiretap Lie
• The GOP can no longer claim it believes in fiscal responsibility (It couldn’t under Reagan or Dubya either.)
• Rex Tillerson is off to an agonizingly slow start
• The Republican health-care plan isn’t about health care at all (“It will provide hundreds of billions of dollars of tax cuts — and make it easier to make even more cuts later on.”)
• The GOP health-care plan would quietly kill the Medicaid expansion. Here’s how.
• Scott Pruitt demonstrates what climate denial sounds like (“The EPA chief flouts the responsibilities of his job.”)
• Paul Ryan just admitted he has no idea how health insurance works (“Ladies and gentlemen, meet the conservative movement’s Great Wonk.”)
• Krugman: A Bill So Bad It’s Awesome (“It has long been obvious to anyone following health policy that Republicans would never devise a workable replacement for Obamacare. But the bill unveiled this week is worse than even the cynics expected; its awfulness is almost surreal. And the process by which it came to be tells you a lot about the state of the G.O.P…they were all lying, all along — and they still are. On this, at least, Republican unity remains impressively intact.”)
• Brooks: The Republican Health Care Crackup (“The Republican plan will fuel cynicism. It’s being pushed through in an elitist, anti-democratic, middle of the night rush. It seems purposely designed to fail. The penalties for those who don’t purchase insurance are so low they seem sure to guarantee Republican-caused death spirals in the weaker markets.”)
• The Big Con (“In every respect, Trump’s proposals betray the people he promised to help the most”)
• McConnell on Mexico paying for the border wall: ‘Uh, no’
• Va. Democratic gubernatorial candidates pitch $15 minimum wage (And, of course, Virginia Republicans attack them for it. Shocker, huh?)
• Bill Clinton: Resurgent nationalism ‘taking us to the edge of our destruction’ (“Clinton urged leaders and their constituents to try to rediscover Rabin as a model, rather than continuing down the current path of politics, though ‘we are programmed biologically, instinctively, to prefer win-lose situations, us versus them.'”)
• Sources: FBI investigation continues into ‘odd’ computer link between Russian bank and Trump Organization
• In major shift, White House privately backing earlier rollback of Medicaid expansion
• McAuliffe vetoes Fowler bill on photo ID for absentee ballots
• Top Democrat Provides Update On Trump-Russia Investigation (“NPR’s Robert Siegel talks to Sen. Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia and ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, about the Congressional investigation into Russia’s influence on the U.S. election.”)
• Va. senators Kaine, Warner urge Trump not to cut $73M Chesapeake Bay cleanup
• Katy Perry, America Ferrera and Senator Tim Kaine Set to Appear at HRC Gala
• Roanoke Women’s March organizer to challenge Del. Chris Head (Djuna Osborne)
• Hampton Roads cities are lining up for $2 billion in pollution-reduction credits – for doing nothing
• Metro board advances fare hikes, service cuts; officials, advocates warn ridership decline will worsen
• Two alleged leaders of NYC gun-running ring already have convictions in Virginia; five others are fugitives (Everything about this is a disgrace.)
• Trump could stop Ingalls-built ship in its tracks
• Virginia Beach council likely will accept new arena deal without a vote or public input
• Lynchburg Tea Party warms to Riggleman
• Outer Banks’ ban on plastic bags coming to end? Lawmaker calls for repeal. (Virginia should ban them or put a tax on them to discourage their use. Plastic is nasty.)
• Editorial: Will anyone in Richmond help Wise County?
• Rep. Taylor’s first bill would outlaw housing discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity (“This may be a first for a Republican in Congress.”)
• Spring on hiatus as morning rain and snow showers usher in a new weather regime