Thursday News: “Terrifying” Irma Sets Sight on Southeast US; Trump Holds GOP “Hostage”; “Gillespie on unstable footing”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, September 7.

• Extreme Category 5 Irma crashes into Caribbean, sets sights on Florida and Southeast U.S.
• Caribbean Is Struck With Terrifying Force (“Several Islands Suffer Direct Hits by 185-M.P.H. Winds”)
• Blow: Inner Racism Revealed (Trump’s “racial hostility and white supremacy seem to have blossomed with his entry into politics and his Russia-aided election…Sometimes you simply have to call a thing a thing, and the thing here is that Trump’s inner racist is being revealed, and America’s not-so-silent racists are rising in applause.”)
• GOP livid after Trump cuts deal with Democrats (“Congressional Republicans say the move will only embolden Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi in future talks.”)
• Trump suddenly aligns with Democrats on fiscal issues, confounding GOP leaders (“The president cut a deal with Democratic congressional leaders on a short-term plan to fund the government and raise its borrowing limit this month. His surprise stance upended sensitive negotiations over the debt ceiling and other issues and further imperiled his relationships with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.).”)
• Trump offers us a glimpse behind the curtain. There’s nothing there. (“The president improvises, and his guiding principle is making himself look good.”)
• Nobody knows what Trump is doing. Not even Trump.
• President Trump is now holding the Republican Party hostage (Enjoy it, suckers!)
• Why Did Trump Shiv the GOP? (“Trump needs to dominate people. Clearly Trump felt that McConnell and Ryan are not serving him well enough or loyally enough or both. So he lashed out or tried to damage them. Schumer and Pelosi were simply the most convenient cudgels available.”)
• Donald Trump Jr. heads to Capitol to explain 2016 meeting (Republicans need to grill him.)
• Trump’s Deal Is a Nightmare Come True for the G.O.P. (“The president’s move further destabilized a volatile situation for his party, which many Republicans now believe is headed toward a reckoning it can no longer avoid.”)
• Feinstein faces growing storm on the left (“Feinstein, the oldest member of the Senate, has been the target of sustained liberal criticism since January. Her centrist brand of politics, skeptical view of single-payer health care and support for some of the president’s earliest nominees have drawn the ire of progressives who have little tolerance for Feinstein’s pragmatic approach in the Trump era.”)
• Democrats dread Hillary’s book tour (“Reliving the 2016 nightmare is the last thing the party needs right now, many say.” Agreed.)
• Verrit, the pro-Clinton ‘media platform’ that’s looking worse and worse (This is a classic “jump the shark” moment, in this case for Peter Daou.)
• Facebook Says Russians May Have Bought Political Ads
• Facebook undermines its own effort to fight fake news (“A once-touted plan to fact-check stories is being hindered by the company’s refusal to share information.”)
• Trump’s flirtation with Democrats makes Republicans nervous about 2018 (“GOP worries about whether Trump will be a reliable force for the midterms.”)
• Clinton’s score-settling frustrates Democrats (“Even some of Clinton’s allies have grown weary of her insistence on re-litigating the 2016 campaign at a time when the Democratic Party is looking to forge a new identity in the age of Trump.”)
• Trump’s surprise deal shakes up fall agenda
• Trump’s Early Christmas Gift to Democrats (“In a surprise blow to GOP leaders, the president strikes a short-term fiscal deal with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, handing them leverage ahead of the next round of negotiations in December.”)
• Why Trump’s Immigration Gambit Will Likely Backfire (“… it’s more likely Trump has triggered a process that will divide Republicans, further estrange him from the business community, and ultimately paralyze Congress, placing the issue of how to handle the ‘Dreamers’ squarely back on his desk when his six-month deadline expires.”)
• The First White President (“The foundation of Donald Trump’s presidency is the negation of Barack Obama’s legacy.”)
• Donald Trump Can’t Hide From His DACA Decision
• The Slow Death of DACA Will Be a Rolling Catastrophe That Trump Can’t Escape
• The Wrong Side of the Law (“When the Trump administration refers to the ‘rule of law,’ it really means ‘exclusion.'”)
• Virginia prepares for potential Irma impact
• Virginia among 15 states, DC that sue Trump administration over ending DACA
• Warner, Kaine urge measure condemning white nationalists
• Virginia Tech students face uncertain future as DACA provisions begin six-month wind down
• Optima Health pulling back from Virginia’s marketplace (Great job, Republicans…not!)
• At Virginia gubernatorial forum on clean water, not much daylight between candidates (Yeah, except that Gillespie is…well, muddying the waters. Heh.)
• Red Meat Virginia! One Of GOP’s Immigration Champions Turns Hawkish On Campaign Trail (“And while Republicans have moved right on immigration, Virginia has continued to drift left, driven by huge growth in Washington, D.C.’s diverse and well-educated suburbs, leaving Gillespie on unstable footing.”)
• Virginia needs a Truth and Reconciliation Commission on race (Tom Perriello: “Real progress requires revisiting not just statues, but also statutes.”)
• Obama-backed redistricting group gives $500k to help elect Northam in Virginia (“National Democratic Redistricting Committee launched its campaign efforts in Virginia”)
• Va. gubernatorial hopeful Gillespie seeks criminal justice reform beyond what GOP legislature has embraced
• Del. Lacey Putney, lying in state at Virginia Capitol, remembered as ‘statesman of all statesmen’
• In voting to remove Jackson statue, violence outweighed meaning for Charlottesville City Council
• About 100 members of VCU community rally in opposition to DACA decision
• Inmates blame Virginia women’s prison for deaths, amputation (“The Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women, which settled complaints last year on substandard health care, is still failing inmates, according to a new filing in federal court.”)
• Opinion/Editorial: Prison officials must abide by settlement
• Larry Hogan to Metro: Drop dead (Hogan proves that he is, indeed, a Republican. Maryland voters need to replace him next year.)
• Dave Matthews Band announces Charlottesville fundraising concert
• McAuliffe, Stoney announce Thomson Reuters to open downtown Richmond office, bring 60 jobs to the city
• UMW to host debates this month between General Assembly candidates from Fredericksburg region (“A four-way debate between Del. Mark Cole, R–Spotsylvania County, Green Party candidate Gerald Anderson, Democrat Steve Aycock and independent Amanda Blalock will take place on the Fredericksburg campus at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Room 411 of Lee Hall. Cole has held the 88th District seat, which includes parts of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania and Stafford counties, since 2002. The 28th District candidates vying to succeed House Speaker Bill Howell, R–Stafford will take part in a debate at 7 p.m. Sept. 21 at the same location. Democrat Joshua Cole, an assistant pastor at Union Bell Baptist Church in Stafford, will go up against Republican Stafford Supervisor Bob Thomas, a former Marine who owns a government contracting business.”)
• Editorial: Is Southwest Virginia in a death spiral? (“Southwest Virginia — defined in this report as everything from Wythe County west to the Cumberland Gap — doesn’t just face an economic crisis as coal collapses and other traditional industries decline. It also faces a demographic crisis that makes it difficult to build a new economy to replace the old one.”)
• Alexandria City Council member Timothy Lovain won’t seek reelection (“He said he wants to spend more time with his family.”)
• New state fiscal warning system flags Richmond, but reason isn’t clear
• A perfectly ‘cool’ day followed by more of the same through the weekend