by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, October 19.
- Trump Tried To Look Compassionate. Instead, He Looked Like A Jerk.
- Sgt La David Johnson: soldier at the center of dispute over Trump remarks (“The 25-year-old South Florida native who was killed in Niger has been put in the spotlight after Trump reportedly made insensitive comments to his widow”)
- Trump Will Never Get Better (“Republicans need to ask themselves: Is it really worth it?”)
- It’s time to pay attention to Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people (Yeah, it’s times like this that we could use a real president, not the orange blog of idiocy we’ve got.)
- Catalonia crisis: Spain moves to suspend autonomy
- Republican National Committee backs candidate who supported criminalizing homosexuality (“What could Roy Moore say or do to prompt Republicans to break with him?” Nothing; it’s power and politics over principle every time for the grotesque Republican Party of 2017.)
- Franken meticulously dismantled Sessions’ shifting story on Russia. Then Sessions made things worse. (“Under fire for moving the goalposts, Sessions moved them yet again.”)
- Jeff Sessions Is Not Donald Trump’s Lawyer (“And that suggestion could be a license for corruption.”)
- Donald Trump’s Unseemly Condolence-Call Bragging Game (Just a horrible, horrible human being. A narcissistic maniac, even.)
- Waiting for the “Trump Slump” in the Stock Market
- Mother of Slain Soldier Says Trump Was Disrespectful (“President Trump said the soldier ‘knew what he signed up for’ during a condolence call, the mother of Sgt. La David T. Johnson said.”)
- Blow: Trump Isn’t Hitler. But the Lying …
- Trump trivializes the deaths of four soldiers
- If Republicans kill this health-care bill, they’ll prove their cowardice (You mean Republicans will prove their cowardice for the gazillionth time?)
- Trump does not possess an ounce of compassion (Nope, he’s a sociopath.)
- The enablers of Trump’s dangerous presidency (“Sorry, but all Republican politicians who take their obligations seriously must stop rationalizing the irrational and say what has long been obvious, that Trump’s way of doing business is unproductive, erratic, mean and scary. Until this happens, Republicans deserve to be seen as enablers of a dangerous presidency.”)
- National security expert Tom Nichols: “Hey, I’m unstable” is a bad look for the president (“Naval War College professor on North Korea’s likely view of Trump’s threats: Not only is he reckless, he’s stupid”)
- White House staff drafted Niger sympathy statement for Trump that was never released
- What to watch for in Senate budget debate on Thursday
- Exclusive: Dem megadonor Steyer calls on govs, mayors to support impeaching Trump
- Obamacare fix could end up in year-end package (“Republican sources say it’s only a matter of time before Congress must find some way of addressing the reeling insurance markets”)
- The coming election season will be the year of the lunatic voter (“Saying ‘macaca’ got George Allen defeated in 2006. Today it would probably get him elected” Almost seems quaint now, huh?)
- Trump falls short on ‘drain the swamp’ promises (Ya think? Duh.)
- Trump’s Unforced Error (“A series of damaging stories about the president’s methods of consoling grieving Gold Star families represent the president’s latest entirely self-inflicted wound.”)
- ‘Not stable’: Former Bush advisor says Trump is ‘psychologically and emotionally not well’ after fallen soldier incident
- Trump offered a grieving military father $25,000 in a call, but didn’t follow through
- Signaling Frustration, Senior House Republican Plans to Quit Early (“An abrupt departure by Mr. Tiberi, who is an influential member of the House Ways and Means Committee, would signal a deepening level of discontent among mainstream Republicans in Congress. Despite holding Congress and the White House, Republicans have so far failed to achieve longstanding policy goals like overhauling the tax code and repealing the Affordable Care Act.”)
- Senators Demand Online Ad Disclosures as Tech Lobby Mobilizes
- Kaine: I think Alexander-Murray will pass
- Sen. Kaine On Measure To Stabilize The ACA’s Insurance Markets
- Trump Campaign Staffers Pushed Russian Propaganda Days Before the Election (“Kellyanne Conway and Donald Trump Jr. pushed messages from an account operated from Russia’s ‘troll farm’—including allegations of voter fraud a week before Election Day.”)
- Shake-up at Democratic National Committee, Longtime Officials Ousted (“The DNC denied any retaliation, saying the changes were an effort to diversify and freshen the party’s leadership and that all the party’s officers had a chance to offer input. They touted new additions like Marisa Richmond, a millennial black transgender activist, and the first DREAMer member, Ellie Perez, to point to the DNC’s efforts at diversity.”)
- Rep. Bob Goodlatte, House Judiciary Committee members view border wall prototypes (BADlatte, disgusting as always.)
- Gillespie campaign seen as snubbing Trump operative, causing uproar
- Va. law license of GOP attorney general candidate was briefly suspended in 2011
- Poll: Dem leads by 14 in Virginia governor’s race
- Close Virginia governor polls set Democratic nerves on edge (“Democrat Ralph Northam has led narrowly in most polls, but concerns about his campaign and the ghosts of 2016 have his party feeling anxious.”)
- Northam owns stocks in Dominion, other companies with extensive interests in Virginia (I think the focus on Northam here is misguided; the real issue is that the campaign finance system in Virginia and lack of a serious ethics panel leads to a bad system for everyone.)
- KEN PERROTTE: An interview with gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam
- ‘Reeks of subtle racism’: Black Democrat omitted from campaign fliers in Virginia (What it reeks of is LiUNA being a bunch of greedy, environment-trashing idiots.)
- PAC pledges to turn out black vote for Justin Fairfax after Dems leave him off flier
- Virginia Democrat Could Make History As First Transgender State Lawmaker (I love the fact that Danica Roem could defeat possibly the most crazed, extreme anti-LGBT bigots in the Virginia General Assembly.)
- Former chamber of commerce president to run for Alexandria City Council (“Dak Hardwick, who is also a former Democratic Party chair, is the first to file candidacy papers for 2018.”)
- Richmonders flock to get Obama tickets, but can ex-president’s star power rub off on Northam?
- Anthony Flaccavento to challenge Morgan Griffith again in 2018 (“When Flaccavento previously ran for the 9th District seat, he earned 39 percent of the vote, which is 11 points better than any Democrat who has run in the district since.”)
- Editorial: Who’s best for Southwest Virginia? (The Roanoke Times editorial board used to be pretty good. What happened to it?)
- State pension plans lower unfunded liabilities by $1.1 billion
- Loudoun County mulls takeover of traffic studies from developers
- Sunny, dry and mild until a cold front approaches Monday
