Friday News: Roy Moore “Another GOP Calamity”; “The Mary-Joseph Defense”; “Trump is the Prop 187 of America”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, November 10.

• Woman says Roy Moore initiated sexual encounter when she was 14, he was 32 (Yet ANOTHER of so many cases of a Bible-thumping, anti-LGBT, anti-choice, “moral values” Republican turning out to be a complete slimeball.
• Roy Moore: Another GOP calamity
• Alabama state auditor defends Roy Moore against sexual allegations, invokes Mary and Joseph (OK, you can’t get any “more stupider” and batshit crazier than these Alabama Republicans!)
• GOP Senators Run Away From Accused Child Molester Roy Moore (“But they are doing so with some notable wiggle room.” Also, note that they didn’t run away from the guy when he was “only” a raving bigot and extremist lunatic. Those things were fine, apparently, for these fine people.)
• 9 Key Questions About Roy Moore And The Alabama Senate Race (“One paper from researchers who looked at senators running for re-election from 1974 to 2008 estimated that scandals involving immoral behavior cost the scandal-plagued candidate 6.5 percentage points and raised his opponent’s vote share 6.5 points, for a net change of 13 points.”)
• The Mary-Joseph Defense and Other Strange Arguments From Roy Moore Loyalists (Unhinged.)
• Roy Moore’s Supporters Stand by Their Candidate, Despite Sexual-Assault Allegations
• Roy Moore Presents Republicans With a Familiar Dilemma (“A month to go before the election, a controversial outsider candidate, and a report alleging sexual impropriety—what will the GOP do this time?”)
• Breitbart’s Joel Pollak argues Roy Moore’s reported sexual relationships with teenagers were “perfectly legitimate” (Yep, that’s Breitbart for ya.)
• Trump’s craven routine in China (“Trump is an easy mark.”)
• Every country on the planet has embraced the Paris pact. Except one. (Republicans have made the United States a laughing stock and a rogue nation.)
• The Saudi crown prince’s power grab follows a strongman’s playbook (“It’s a formula of political success that’s used in Russia, China and Turkey. Is the U.S. next?”)
• Hallelujah for a good old-fashioned butt-kicking (“Tuesday’s election sent a righteous message.”)
• The GOP tax plan won’t grow the economy. Here’s what will. (“Skills, skills, skills.”)
• Louis C.K. Is Done
• Krugman: Trump and Ryan Versus the Little People
• Trump’s Voter Fraud Commission Is Imploding (Need to put “Voter Fraud” in air quotes; there is no such thing, certainly not on any significant level that bears any concern. It’s all an excuse for Republicans to suppress minority voting.)
• Former FBI counter-spy on Mueller, Trump and Putin: “Russia is winning” (Trump and his Republican enablers are letting Putin’s Russia diminish America. “Great,” huh?)
• Trump’s terrible NASA nominee and the GOP attack on science (The Republicans’ contempt for science ALONE should disqualify them from holding public office at any level in America.)
• Trump’s Trade Policies Keep Backfiring
• Early Facebook adviser: social giant exploits ‘a vulnerability in human psychology’ “That means that we needed to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in awhile because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever. … It’s a social validation feedback loop”)
• Senate Republicans Go Their Own Way on Tax Reform (“The GOP was supposed to be unified on taxes after internal divisions destroyed their health-care drive. But the party’s majorities in Congress now have two competing legislative proposals once again.”)
• A GOP Virginia lawmaker on why he sees a resistance wave coming in 2018 (Garrett is right about the “resistance wave,” but he is wildly, laughably, 180-degrees wrong about what it’s all about. Garrett needs to go in November 2018.)
• This Is The End (A conservative Republican over at The Bull Elephant writes, “We failed to lead. We failed to govern. We failed to be obedient to facts. We played politics with our country and we lost.”)
• Democrats debate how to replicate Virginia successes nationwide
• Progressive Voice: The Consequences of Elections (By Larry Roberts, one of the big “winners” of Tuesday’s election.)
• Why Virginia Is a Warning for Republicans Nationwide (“‘This is the Prop 187 effect,’ Tom Perriello, a former congressman from Virginia who challenged Northam from the left in the Democratic primary but campaigned hard for him in the general election, told me. ‘California Republicans got one good election and lost the state forever. Trump is the Prop 187 of America.’…The new activists embraced one another like, ‘holy shit, humanity may have just been saved.'”)
• Democrats see a digital breakthrough in Virginia wins (“A year after Republicans leapfrogged the Democrats’ digital capacities on the way to President Donald Trump’s election, progressive groups combined spent nearly $3 million on an innovative effort to modernize the party’s digital advertising. The effort, organized by Planned Parenthood and coordinated by veteran Democratic digital strategist Tara McGowan, reached 2.4 million Virginia voters without Northam’s campaign having to spend any money at all on digital advertising.”)
• 15 takeaways from Virginia (“Democrats can do well in middle-class and affluent suburbs. They can do really well running against Trump. Northam won by huge margins in Loudon (20 points), Fairfax (more than 35 percent) and Arlington (78 to 20 percent) counties. These professional and college-educated voters, rather than non-college educated white working class voters, may be the key to Democrats winning back the House majority in 2018…There is a price to be paid for race-baiting and xenophobia.”)
• Editorial: The unlikely influence of Bob Goodlatte (No, Goodlatte is not “mainstream”
  in any way; he’s been a disaster in Congress – good riddance.)
• Cynthia Dunbar, Ben Cline to seek Republican nod for 6th District seat (Dunbar is a right-wing extremist and complete nutjob. Which means, of course, that she fits right in to the Trumpster/Teapublican “base”
  and could very well win the nomination.)
• Democrats eager for chance to challenge Comstock (“After a evening of electoral success Tuesday, Democrats are collectively licking their chops at the portion of the House of Representatives they aim to bite off next November; few seats look more appetizing than the one held by Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-10th.” You are political toast, Barbara Comstock, whether you realize it or not yet.)
• Voters repudiate not just Trump but the white-supremacist hatred seen in Charlottesville
• Latino Victory Fund, pilloried for truck ad, says Northam win is vindication
• Democrat concedes Virginia House race; three others will decide if GOP holds majority (“Republicans have narrow leads in the remaining three contests: In District 40, Del. Tim Hugo (R-Fairfax) leads Donte Tanner by 115 votes. In District 28, Republican Robert Thomas is ahead of Joshua Cole by 86 votes. In District 94, Del. David Yancey (R-Newport News) is hanging onto his seat by just 13 votes more than Democrat Shelly Simonds. Provisional ballots are supposed to be counted by Monday, and recounts in the three remaining races cannot commence until the election results are certified shortly before Thanksgiving.”)
• Twitter attacked after it verifies account of Charlottesville rally organizer (Twitter is very useful, but in many ways it’s a cesspool. They badly need to clean up their act.)
• Goodlatte of Virginia is retiring from Congress after 13 terms (Typo: should be BADlatte – heh.)
• Father of slain TV reporter eyes run for Goodlatte’s seat
• House elections bring new diversity to Virginia (“Altogether, at least 11 new Democratic women will be joining the 100-person House, which previously had only 17 female members. With three races still too close to call Thursday, that number could still increase by one. Observers say the new diversity could represent a sea change for the chamber, control of which was still up in the air Thursday.”)
• Thirteen candidates who refused Dominion money win seats in General Assembly (Time for all-out war against this horrible company. Let’s start with an aggressive – 25% clean energy by 2025? 50% by 2035? – mandatory Renewable Portfolio Standard. Let’s throw in “decoupling” and aggressive actions on the energy efficiency front. We also need to let competition blossom, break up the Dominion monopoly, encourage distributed power, etc, etc. Oh, and of course, kill Dominion’s idiotic, environment-trashing, economically disastrous fracked-gas pipelines.)
• With Democratic gains in Virginia election, Metro and regional officials see easier path to dedicated funding
• With a loud statement, Loudoun rebukes the ugly rhetoric of politics
• Two charges dismissed against white nationalist Cantwell in Charlottesville (Typo: should be “white supremacist.”)
• This Is What Democracy Looks Like (“The messy intra-progressive fight in Charlottesville offers lessons for Democrats across the country.”)
• Williams: Metro Richmond jurisdictions must embrace change, each other
• Richmond Mayor Stoney announces major downtown redevelopment plan centered on new Coliseum
• D.C.-area forecast: Frozen wind chills today ahead of a hard freeze tonight; moderating but chilly into next week (“The January-like cold air blast eases after today and tonight, just don’t expect real warmth anytime soon”)