Saturday News: Trump Tax Plan a Bonanza for the Richest; Price Out, What About Trump?; VA Tech Students Protest Nazi Teacher

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, September 30.

• The numbers are in: Trump’s tax plan is a bonanza for the rich, not the middle class (“Multi-millionaires get more than $700,000 back. The poorest fifth gets $60.” Completely unacceptable.)
• Trump: Our response to Puerto Rico is “incredible.” San Juan mayor: “People are dying.”
• HHS Secretary Price quits after criticism over charter flights (Good riddance, but 1) he still owes the taxpayers a LOT of money; 2) there are other members of Trump’s cabinet – Pruitt, Zinke, Mnuchin, etc. – who are even more corrupt than Price.)
• After Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico Still Has a Financial Crisis to Deal With (“And President Trump doesn’t seem likely to let the island forget it.”)
• Swamp rises around administration that vowed to drain it (That “vow” was always a Big Lie.)
• San Juan mayor slams Trump administration’s comments on hurricane response
• Lost weekend: How Trump’s time at his golf club hurt response to Maria (Just imagine the reaction if Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton had done this.)
• Veterans Affairs chief and his wife went to Europe. The government paid for her flight and meals. (This guy needs to go too.)
• There’s Always Infrastructure (“The Republican tax plan is already in trouble.” It’s an abomination, it should be more than “in trouble.”)
• Trump’s Puerto Rico revelations: Surrounded by “big water” (Alrighty then.)
• A Quarter of Americans Could See a Hike Under Trump’s Tax Plan, Early Analysis Says (“By 2027, 30 percent of taxpayers earning between $50,000 and $150,000 and 60 percent of those making between $150,000 and $300,000 would owe more to the government. Meanwhile, nine in 10 members of the top 1 percent would get a tax cut.”)
• Tom Price resigns over private jet scandal — but Trump’s golf trips cost taxpayers far more (“Tom Price resigned over $1 million in travel costs, but Trump’s golf trips cost taxpayers at least $180 million”)
• Tom Price Resigns: A Private-Plane Flight Into Trump Oblivion (“It is not as though the plane escapade is out of character for other members of the Administration. So what made Price too much for Donald Trump?”)
• Trump Still Owns the Soul of the G.O.P. (“The lesson of Roy Moore’s victory in Alabama is that the Republican establishment has lost the Party to the Trumpist right.”)
• Trump scrambles to contain Puerto Rico crisis (He’s just worried about the political fallout, not the people of Puerto Rico.)
• The Iran deal is working. Here’s how we know. (“If we walk away from the agreement, we’d be back where we were before, only way worse.”)
• So about that ‘sexual revolution in the Republican Party’. . . (“Roy Moore’s win proves the late Hugh Hefner was wrong: The base is still wedded to a hard-right biblical philosophy.”)
• The Trump Fog Machine (“Do you remember what monstrous, contemptible or demonstrably false thing Donald Trump said one year ago? Six months ago? O.K., last week? Probably not. The effect of this presidency-by-horrors is to induce amnesia in the public, as if we’d all been given a memory-loss drug.”)
• Megyn Kelly: It’s the media’s fault you hate my terrible show (LOL)
• Rick Perry proposes sweeping new steps to help struggling coal and nuclear plants (Completely assinine, just as one would expect from Secretary “Whoops.”)
• Perry proposes law to force Americans to buy dirtier, costlier power (“Energy Secretary ignores his own grid study to make good on his threats to punish renewables”)
• GOP unsure how to deal with voters angry over health care (How about work on making it better? I know, crazy idea! LOL)
• NSA warned White House against using personal email (Again, imagine if Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton had done this!)
• Officials Expressed Concerns White House Counsel Would Quit Over Donald Trump-Jared Kushner Meetings
• Kelly struggling to make sense of Kushner’s West Wing role (“Trump has also questioned whether having his family members in the West Wing is creating too much noise.”)
• Trump Says His Tax Plan Won’t Benefit the Rich—He’s Exactly Wrong (“When the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center analyzed the proposal, it found that the vast majority of benefits would go to corporations and the top 1 percent of earners.” Really? Trump voters wanted THIS???)
• Trump’s Response to Puerto Rico Is Not an Aberration (“Another day, more bumbling cruelty.”)
• Dear President* Trump: People Are Laughing at You (“Laughs. Big laughs. Ocean laughs.”)
• The incumbent’s a liberal hero. His opponent’s a conservative stalwart. Voters are just tuning in. (“Virginia attorney general’s race has drawn what’s likely to be record campaign cash, but candidates are still introducing themselves with five weeks until Election Day.”)
• George W. Bush coming to Virginia to raise money for Ed Gillespie
• Gillespie rolls out ‘Kill, Rape, Control’ attack ad against Northam (Disgusting.)
• PFAW Slams Ed Gillespie’s Bigoted Anti-Immigrant Ad in Virginia
• Northam And Gillespie Sharpen Their Positions Ahead Of Virginia Gubernatorial Election (This is fine, except for the ridiculous statement, “Both candidates are moderates.” Gillespie is not a “moderate” in any way/shape/form.)
• Dominion official causes stir among pipeline opponents with talk of extension into South Carolina (This corrupt company is completely out of control, out of hand, and should be out of commission.)
• USNS Comfort leaves Virginia to help in Puerto Rico
• McAuliffe drops $1 million-plus on Virginia races (“McAuliffe is planning on Saturday to transfer $100,000 more to Virginia House of Delegates campaigns and the state Democrats’ coordinated campaign”)
• Virginia needs a governor who can keep standing up to the NRA (Yep, and that most certainly is NOT Ed Gillespie.)
• Virginia Sheriffs’ Association chief says McAuliffe canceled meeting over Gillespie endorsements
• Protesters cut off Virginia Tech president during state of university speech (“Virginia Tech President Timothy Sands’ second annual state of the university speech Friday was temporarily interrupted by a group of students who criticized the school for employing a man they allege to be a white supremacist.” Wait, “allege?” Can this newspaper not simply look at the guy’s social media postings, which are filled with neo-Nazi crap, Holocaust denial slime, etc? Also, why is Virginia Tech not taking any action???)
• Worried the Dems are ignoring rural Virginia, local party chairman briefly resigns in protest
• VT President Sands gives State of the University address (“One member of the crowd asked ‘why do you let Mark Neuhoff, a neo-nazi teach at Virginia Tech?’…President Sands acknowledged the issues are over one person’s comments, who’s associated with the school, but wouldn’t name the person.”)
• Black Lives Matter flag planned to counter Confederate flag
• Photographer files complaint against Rep. Garrett (“A photographer has filed a federal complaint against U.S. Rep. Tom Garrett, R-Buckingham, for using one of his photos in a 2016 campaign ad without permission. Todd Bigelow, a California-based photographer, claims Garrett ’s campaign used a copyrighted photo from 1994 showing people climbing the Mexican border wall.”)
• COLUMN: Rappahannock Electric plans to double monthly access charge
• Man charged with hate crime after racist signs left at Dumfries church
• They may be small donations, but they have a lot to say
• Fairfax pushes back against proposed English requirement for child care workers
• Cool breezes today, then even more spectacular on Sunday and beyond