Sunday News: SNL’s “Trump” Says the “Aliens” Are Laughing At Us; Bannon Under Investigation; Anti-Trump Resistance “Stronger Than Tea?”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Sunday, March 12.

• Rate of Ocean Warming Has Nearly Doubled Over Two Decades, Study Says (“The world’s oceans have warmed at twice the rate of previous decades and the extra heat has reached deeper waters, finds data stretching back to 1960.”)
• How the Dutch Stopped Being Decent and Dull (“What happens in the Netherlands could be a harbinger for other elections in Europe, and this also means that the future of the European Union is at stake.”)
• ‘So I won the popular vote?’: Baldwin as Trump rejoices as aliens destroy California in SNL opener
• New York federal prosecutor Preet Bharara says he was fired by Trump administration (“Preet Bharara, one of the most high-profile federal prosecutors in the country, said he was fired Saturday after refusing to submit a letter of resignation”)
• Texas Congressional Maps Are Struck Down for Discrimination (Good!)
• During his political rise, Stephen K. Bannon was a man with no fixed address (“The Post learned that state prosecutors in Miami have an active investigation into Bannon’s assertions that he was a Florida resident and qualified to vote in the state from 2014 to 2016. In late August, investigators subpoenaed Bannon’s lease of a Coconut Grove home and other documents. They also contacted the landlords of that home and another that Bannon leased nearby, and sought information from a gardener and handyman who worked at one of the homes, according to documents and interviews.”)
• The Dangerous Safety of College (“The moral of the recent melee at Middlebury College, where students shouted down and chased away a controversial social scientist, isn’t just about free speech, though that’s the rubric under which the ugly incident has been tucked. It’s about emotional coddling. It’s about intellectual impoverishment.”)
• Trump, in tweet, doubles down on Obamacare ‘imploding’ claim (He’s lying, and to the extent there’s any truth there, the problem is Republicans actively working to sabotage the ACA.)
• The GOP’s mind-blowing hypocrisy on the CBO (“Republicans used to praise the budget office as ‘nonpartisan.’ Then came Obamacare repeal.”)
• Fighting a ‘Deep State,’ or Attacking Civil Servants? (The latter, obviously.)
• Stronger than Tea: The anti-Trump resistance is much bigger than the Tea Party — and it has to be (“Pundits compare the anti-Trump movement to the Tea Party — but this resistance is much bigger and more organic” Yet the media’s hype of the Tea Party was orders of magnitude greater than their coverage of the anti-Trump resistance movement. Yep, it’s your supposedly “liberal media” at work yet again.)
• The People Deserve a Chance to be Heard (“So why do we get the feeling our local members of the House of Representatives — Rep. Tom Garrett of the Fifth District and Rep. Bob Goodlatte of the Sixth — want to do everything they can to avoid meeting with their constituents…?”)
• Schapiro: Federal crosscurrents roiling state campaign(“In a state that comfortably fell to Hillary Clinton — and before that, twice to Obama — the recoil to Trump has been immediate and sustained. It is concentrated in the regions of Virginia that are the least Virginian: the eastern cities and suburbs that are hives of non-native voters and the center-left impulse that peaks in presidential years. It is fueling Tom Perriello’s surprise challenge from the left to the supposedly anointed Ralph Northam for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and a burst of Democratic candidacies for Republican-held seats in the House of Delegates.” What on earth are “non-native voters?” Also, not sure Perriello is really challenging Northam “from the left,” but that’s the agreed-upon media narrative, apparently. In sum, this is a typical Jeff Schapiro column – lots of good/insightful/insider stuff, almost always a comment or two that’s just “off.”)
• Outsider for Va. governor learns it’s hard to run as a rebel, even in the Trump era (“Denver Riggleman is winning fans with populist bid, but money is short.”)
• Amid Trump resistance, Virginia Democrats see surge of candidates for House of Delegates (“As of late last week, Democrats said they had candidates running in 43 of the 66 House districts that Republicans currently represent, more than double the 21 GOP districts Democrats contested in 2015. So far, Republicans have five challengers among the 34 Democratic-held districts. Hoping to channel the energy of women’s marches and Indivisible groups into an anti-Trump wave, Democrats have challengers in all 17 GOP-held districts that went for Clinton.”)
• Editorial: Area counties aim to care for critters
• Editorial: Corey Stewart and Virginia Democrats should shape up or shut up (Quick, get the smelling salts and fainting couch ready for the Republican Times-Disgrace editorial board! LOL)
• Ramadan: Trump has fresh opportunity to revisit Virginia’s energy potential (David Ramadan has, thankfully, left the Virginia House of Delegates, but the idiocy lives on…)
• Editorial: Is Roanoke the new Portland?
• Paul Goldman column: Richmond school children need McAuliffe’s help with old buildings (He lost me at “The Trump International Hotel in Washington could be the fiscal model…”)
• More than $14 million in Virginia tax refunds issued through debit cards goes unclaimed
• Wise investment: coal community seeks economic reprieve in drones
• ‘Mean spirited’ Alexandria sewer bill sparks partisan fight (Yep, I wrote about this weeks ago.)
• Blanket of snow may be winter’s parting gift to the D.C. region
• D.C.-area forecast: Accumulating snow likely Monday night (“This could be a substantial snowstorm. But models still disagree on who sees how much.”)