by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, December 19. Good luck to Democrat Shelly Simonds in her recount this morning for Virginia House of Delegates in HD-94; Simonds just needs 10 votes to tie and 11 votes to win (and move the House of Delegates to a 50-50 tie)!
- The GOP Tax Bill Was Manifestly Corrupt Long Before the ‘Corker Kickback’
- Tax Bill Lets Trump and Republicans Feather Their Own Nests (Massively corrupt.)
- Krugman: Passing Through to Corruption
- A Fatal Derailment in Washington State
- The Republican tax bill got worse: now the top 1% gets 83% of the gains (“In its last year, the bill raises taxes on more than 53 percent of Americans.”)
- The Latest: Turkey joins criticism of US veto on Jerusalem (Trump is succeeding in isolating the United States and making us far less “great again.”)
- US Isolated On UN Security Council As Allies Condemn Trump’s Jerusalem Action
- Cohen: Trump’s National Security Strategy Is a Farce
- Strategic Confusion (“Donald Trump’s new National Security Strategy will baffle allies and delight foes.”)
- FBI warned Trump in 2016 Russians would try to infiltrate his campaign
- The Senate’s Russia Investigation Is Now Looking Into Jill Stein (“The Senate Intelligence Committee has asked Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s campaign to turn over documents. Stein is expected to release them publicly as well, according to a former campaign staffer.”)
- President touts ‘America First’ strategy, casts China and Russia as competitors (This “strategy” is nonsensical.)
- Trump team’s meeting with Mueller’s office poised to ratchet up tensions
- Demoralized I.R.S. Faces Monumental Task With New Bill
- Prepaying State and Local Taxes Could Save You Money
- Final GOP tax bill has a bit more relief for middle class, but wealthy remain biggest winners
- Trump’s ticket to survival: Ban all the words (“Why stop at seven?”)
- Welcome to The Trump Family Swamp (“Ivanka’s store inside Trump Tower is the family’s latest effort to cash in on the presidency.”)
- Seven dirty words, according to the Trump administration
- Bob Corker’s suspicious yes on the tax bill (Corrupt Corker.)
- Trump thrives in destructive chaos (Yep, and it’s Michael Gerson’s party and ideology that helped bring us to this point.)
- Yet another baseless attack on Mueller’s team
- Trump talked about rescinding Gorsuch’s nomination (Even Gorsuch wasn’t far-right enough for Trump?)
- Tax bill whacks liberal big cities (“‘This is the screw-New Jersey bill,’ the mayor of Piscataway said.”)
- House rolls the dice in spending bill fight
- Public radio normalizes Trump’s misleading response to deadly train crash(“This is how the media normalizes the abnormal.”)
- Media keep calling the GOP’s corporate tax bill a “win” for Trump (“The extraordinarily unpopular bill is built on lies and ignores what we know about economics”)
- Sen. Tim Kaine push for sexual harassment claims nixed by Office of Compliance
- Kaine’s bid for Senate harassment data rejected
- Trump’s national security plan can be summed up in four words: America against the world
- These are the obscure Trump staffers who are systematically dismantling the federal government (“An October OMB leak revealed eight staffers taking an axe to domestic policy.”)
- Why Is Bob Corker Backing the Tax Bill? (“The Republican senator backs a bill he once opposed.” Whatever the reason, Corker is horrible.)
- Author Brian Klaas: Is Trump an “aspiring despot” or a “bumbling showman”? Yes!
- Video: Right-wing media call Mueller’s investigation a coup against Trump (“Since Robert Mueller was appointed as special counsel, right-wing media have worked overtime to delegitimize the investigation” These people are demented and dangerous.)
- Once a presidential hopeful, Sen. Mark Warner returns to the spotlight with the Russia probe (“‘I’m concerned by a president who seems to lack the empathy that’s part of his job whether he likes it or not, at moments of crisis to try to bring the nation together,’ Warner told CNBC.”)
- Tim Kaine says a larger naval fleet presents an ‘enormous’ opportunity for Virginia
- Gov. Terry McAuliffe builds two-year budget around Medicaid expansion
- Progressives in Va. riled up by Northam’s comments on Medicaid, bipartisanship (“Blue Virginia blogger Lowell Feld said that Northam’s clarifications ‘sure sounded like strong support for Medicaid expansion. Good to see. As always, of course, the devil’s in the details.'”)
- On claims of bipartisanship, Northam has earned the benefit of the doubt (Eye roll at the naivete.)
- McAuliffe again proposes Medicaid expansion in budget
- Democracy by the numbers (“If one recount swings to the Democrats — say, if Ms. Simonds gains a dozen votes, or if those 147 citizens in Northern Virginia are more blue than red — it becomes an even split, which means no more strict party-line votes. Ties are not broken in the House. If the vote is 50-50, the legislation fails.”)
- Va. Republicans cool to McAuliffe’s Metro tax plan, Medicaid expansion (Of course they are…)
- Virginia GOP Lawmakers Concerned over CHIP Reauthorization
- Chesapeake Bay water quality at near-record high (“But the group cautioned it’s an uphill battle to get the steeper reductions in agricultural and urban runoff needed for the remaining 60 percent of the bay to achieve healthy water quality.” Gotta keep at it!)
- Editorial: New factory helps Beach to diversify local economy
- Goochland sheriff reiterates belief that pit bulls killed woman, says foul play ‘narrative doesn’t fit’
- Charlottesville police chief resigns in wake of critical report on handling of white-supremacist rally
- Speakers at council meeting question police chief’s retirement
- Warmest day of workweek, with lots of sunshine — but expect rain by the holiday weekend
