Sunday News: Alec Baldwin as Bill O’Reilly and Donald Trump; “59 Missiles Don’t Equal a Foreign Policy”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Sunday, April 9.

• White House struggles to show how airstrike in Syria fits broader policy (They have no clue.)
• Donald Trump’s Russia scandal: What you need to know (and what you should avoid)
• Hillary Clinton, Free to Speak Her Mind (“As a person, I’m O.K. As an American, I’m pretty worried.”)
• Trump tells Bannon, Kushner to work out differences, officials say
• 59 Missiles Don’t Equal a Foreign Policy
• Baldwin as Trump: I love my supporters — it’s like they found a finger in their chili and kept eating
• WATCH: SNL destroys Pepsi for their ‘tone-deaf’ Kendall Jenner Black Lives Matter soda commercial
• Trump plans centrist push and Priebus is on board (I’ll believe it when I see it. Also, let’s see how “centrist” is defined.)
• MSNBC host’s conspiracy theory: What if Putin planned the Syrian chemical attack to help Trump? (Lawrence O’Donnell goes off the deep end.)
• Republicans on Capitol Hill leave town with most of their agenda stuck in limbo
• How Jeff Sessions wants to bring back the war on drugs (Screw that.)
• How on Earth Does an Ad Like Pepsi’s Get Approved? (“The backlash-provoking spot likely came out of a months-long, multimillion-dollar process that offered producers plenty of opportunities to spike it.”)
• Donald Trump, Inevitable Hawk (“The 45th president’s worldview was eventually going to lead him into military conflict.”)
• U.S. Navy sends strike group toward Korean peninsula (Hmmmm.)
• Hardline cleric Raisi to take on Rouhani in Iran’s presidential election
• Gillespie wins BIG in three Virginia straw polls (Still no sign of Corey Stewart or Frank Wagner gaining any ground, either in straw polls or real polls.)
• Pipeline politics stir Virginia governor’s race as Perriello credits ‘people-powered campaign’ for state’s turn toward additional water reviews
• Kaine raises $2.9 million after his failed campaign for vice president (“The one-term senator does not have a GOP challenger — yet.”)
• Editorial: Time to move forward on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (Including this from the Republican Times-Disgrace just to say that we should do the exact OPPOSITE of anything these nuts recommend. On any subject, with very rare exceptions when a blind squirrel finds an acorn.)
• Editorial: Mark Warner’s moment
• Schapiro: GOP about-face on ethics as much about Trump as Gillespie (This headline is wildly misleading; the GOP has not – repeat NOT – in any way done an “about-face on ethics.” At most, “Enron Ed” Gillespie has proposed a few minor tweaks to Virginia’s utterly inadequate system of “legalized corruption.”)
• In beautiful, struggling SWVA, Perriello pitches a populist liberalism
• Poindexter won’t face primary opponent, challenger to run as independent
• After “long journey to legal vindication,” Bob McDonnell seeks to reclaim place in public life, salve family ties (“With his career as an elected official in the rearview mirror, the former governor is focused on 4 jobs, paying off $27 million in legal bills, and dealing with a marriage and family relationships strained by the public corruption case.”)
• A decade after tragedy, Virginia Tech seeks balance in remembering, moving forward
• Perriello returns to Bristol during gubernatorial campaign
• Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney’s first 100 days: 95 public appearances, an assertive City Council, and two small stumbles
• What Metro can learn from the Atlanta subway’s effort to win riders (“The partial collapse of Interstate 85 north of downtown Atlanta on March 30 provided officials of the city’s MARTA system an unprecedented opportunity to win over new riders. They made the most of it.”)
• D.C.-area forecast: Sunday spring bliss begins a warming trend into the work week