Monday News: Trump Supporters Refuse to Admit Their Hero’s “Sheer Awfulness”; Gillespie Will Have Uphill Race

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Monday, May 1.

• Krugman: On the Power of Being Awful (“One basic principle I’ve learned in my years at The Times is that almost nobody ever admits being wrong about anything — and the wronger they were, the less willing they are to concede error…Now, sure enough, it turns out that Trump is ignorant and temperamentally unqualified to be president. But if you think his supporters will accept this reality any time soon, you must not know much about human nature. In a perverse way, Trump’s sheer awfulness offers him some political protection: His supporters aren’t ready, at least so far, to admit that they made that big a mistake.”)
• Blow: Trump’s Degradation of the Language (“It is a jumble of incomplete thoughts stitched together with arrogance and ignorance. America is suffering under the tyranny of gibberish spouted by the lord of his faithful 46 percent…This is one of the most heinous acts of this man: the mugging of the meaning, the disassembling of rhetoric until certainty is stripped away from truth like flesh from a carcass. Degradation of the language is one of Trump’s most grievous sins.”)
• Congress reaches deal to keep government open through September (“Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) boasted that they were able to force Republicans to withdraw more than 160 unrelated policy measures, known as riders, including those that would have cut environmental funding and scaled back financial regulations for Wall Street.”)
• Emboldened but Divided, Democrats Look to 2020 (“In a largely leaderless party, two distinct groups are emerging, defined mostly by age and national stature.”)
• Trump Discards Obama Legacy, One Rule at a Time (“The president has used an obscure law as a regulatory wrecking ball, signing 13 bills to erase Obama-era rules. In the law’s 21-year history, it had been used successfully only once before”)
• Trump starts dismantling his shadow Cabinet (“Tensions have been rising between Cabinet officials and White House advisers embedded at their agencies.”)
• Biden keeps 2020 options open (“The former vice president and his staff have been planning a strategic timeline in the event he decides to run.”)
• Miami GOP seeks unicorn candidate to save Dem-trending Ros-Lehtinen seat
• Trump’s ‘Very Friendly’ Talk With Duterte Stuns Aides and Critics Alike (Duterte should be in prison and…well, so should Trump, for a bunch of reasons.)
• Trump’s populism has nothing to do with helping the people who voted for him (“The only area in which the president continues to exhibit populist tendencies is his nativist attitudes.”)
• Mr. Trump should not undo the protection of precious public land
• Trump’s Tax Cuts May Be More Damaging Than Reagan’s (“I witnessed our first experiment in supply-side economics and how it blew up the deficit.”)
• America Could Look Like North Carolina by 2020. Yikes. (“Republicans in the Tar Heel State are attacking the courts, the environment, voting rights, protesters, and immigrants. They’re giving us a glimpse of America under four years of Trump.”)
• Bret Stephens’ First Column for the New York Times Is Classic Climate Change Denialism (He needs to be fired ASAP or people need to cancel their subscriptions.)
• Donald Trump thought being president “would be easier” — and so did his deeply ignorant voters (“What can you even say? The profound political illiteracy of roughly half our electorate brought us to this” “Idiocracy” comes to mind yet again.)
• Donald Trump and the NRA: A festival of racial fear and dark fantasy
• Will We Look Back On All This 100-Day Trump Coverage And Laugh?
• The Climate March’s Big Tent Strategy Draws a Big Crowd (“But will it make a difference?”)
• Sources: Sebastian Gorka to leave White House (The guy is evil, so good riddance, but as long as Trump’s still president, we’re still going to have huge problems in the White House…)
• An interview suggests Trump doesn’t know what’s in his health bill (“Either the president doesn’t understand the proposal — or isn’t telling the truth about it.” Both?)
• GOP faces make-or-break moment on Obamacare repeal (“This week may be the last, best chance to get it done in the House.”)
• Priebus: Trump Considering Amending or Abolishing 1st Amendment (These people would be extremely dangerous if they were in any way competent, also if Democrats weren’t fiercely resisting.)
• New York Times editor pens weak, vague response to critics of Bret Stephens’s op-ed on climate change (Disgraceful.)
• Stiffer rioting penalties vetoed by Va. Gov. McAuliffe (“McAuliffe wanted the bill to also include riots against a person’s race, religion, color, sexual orientation or national origin.”)
• Meet the Man Who Might Have the Toughest Race in 2017 (We need to kick slimy “Enron Ed”‘s sorry behind.)
• Editorial: Should we have more run-off elections? (Yes.)
• McDonnell on the Rolex: ‘I’m a Seiko and Timex guy’ (Barf.)
• Virginia Democratic chair said Trump victory awakened her party
• Virginia: Will the center hold? (This narrative that Democrats have a “centrist” candidate – Ralph Northam – and a “leftist challenger” – Tom Perriello – is wildly oversimplified.)
• Todd Culbertson column: Presidential search makes U.Va. ask tough questions
• Republican incumbent in Chesterfield-majority district facing Democratic opponent for fourth time in his 25-year tenure
• Richmond City Council resumes budget deliberations Monday. Here’s what they’ve agreed to cut so far and what they’re still debating
• Summit in Hampton strives to unite, energize local Democrats (“Vanda Jaggard felt encouraged and inspired as she walked out of Sunday’s Democratic and Activists Summit in Hampton, where 200 Hampton Roads Democrats gathered to promote party unity and find ways to work together to support their causes and win elections. “)
• April was warmest ever recorded in Washington area (No. More. Fossil. Fuel. Infrastructure. Period.)
• Dulles Airport sets record high, D.C. and BWI tie for hottest on record
• Trending cooler this week, with a couple stormy stretches