Tuesday News: Trump Gets Off to a Stupid Start in 2018; “Five fights facing Congress in 2018”; “States can fix Republicans’ Obamacare mess”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, January 2.

• Deadly Iran Protests Prompt Warning of Harsher Response
• North Korea’s Overture Could Divide South Korea and U.S.
• Trump Starts 2018 by Threatening Pakistan’s Aid, Calling for “Change” in Iran
• What Is Fueling the Protests in Iran? (“And what, if anything, should the U.S. do about it?”)
• Krugman: Can the Economy Keep Calm and Carry On? (“But for whatever reason, investors are currently in what-me-worry mode. And let’s hope that they’re right — that by the time stuff happens, we’ll actually have non-delusional people in charge.”)
• Trump’s Full Plate In 2018: Legislative Agenda, Midterm Elections, North Korea
• Trump won the war on Christmas! Now he laughs at global warming (“Over the holiday weekend, Trump made clear he believes two of the dumbest lies of all time. Is he fit for office?” Of course not.)
• The World in 2018 – What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (“As Steve Mollman points out, if 2018 passes without a war or a deal, that will mark the United States and the world having de facto accepted North Korea as the world’s 9th nuclear weapons state.”)
• Congress faces January logjam
• 1968 and the Making of Modern America (“One of the most momentous years in U.S. history began a half-century ago today. Join us in exploring it for the next 12 months, starting with these newspaper clippings to whet your appetite.”)
• Five fights facing Congress in 2018
• Congress heads toward showdown over ‘Dreamers’
• Trump made it seven hours in 2018 before creating an international incident on Twitter (“Happy New Year!” Oh yeah, this is gonna be greeeeaaaat! LOL)
• Which 2020 Democrat Won 2017? (“Spoiler: None of the them.”)
• Warren positions for potential 2020 run (“The Massachusetts senator has made a series of under-the-radar moves last year that would help her if she challenges Donald Trump.”)
• 4 things that were supposed to happen by 2018 because Trump was elected (““Everybody’ was supposed to have health insurance”…America was supposed to be ‘respected again’…The deficit was supposed to ‘go away rapidly;…Trump was supposed to have quit Twitter” — Nope, nope, nope and nope.)
• America’s own Cultural Revolution (“Cults of personality, banned words, calls for purges — sound familiar?”)
• We need to change the way we talk about North Korea (“Something is wrong when the rhetoric from Pyongyang is no more belligerent than what we hear around Washington.”)
• Democrats are already campaigning for 2020 — and so is Trump
• States can fix Republicans’ Obamacare mess (“They should pass their own individual mandates that apply within their borders.”)
• Exclusive: Va. knew of issues with voting in wrong House districts before 2017 election (“Leaders of Virginia’s Department of Elections, House Speaker Bill Howell and Fredericksburg’s Electoral Board knew there were problems with voters assigned to the wrong House districts in the Fredericksburg area since at least early 2015, documents and interviews show. That is more than two years before the Nov. 7 election to replace Howell that is now mired in a federal lawsuit that could help decide which party controls the Virginia House of Delegates.”)
• Dorothy McAuliffe column: Virginia puts end of childhood hunger in sight
• Editorial: State shouldn’t expand DNA collection (“The Virginia State Crime Commission recently voted in favor of collecting DNA samples from people convicted of a number of misdemeanors, including shoplifting, and storing that information for future use.”)
• Jonathan Bernstein: Lessons for democracy in Virginia’s tie vote (“THERE IS ONE OBVIOUS LESSON from the improbable outcome in a legislative race in Virginia this month: Single votes really can determine election outcomes.”)
• Clues to how a Sterling resident went from ‘classic teenage boy’ to accused Islamic State sympathizer (“Relatives of Sean Andrew Duncan, 21, are struggling to reconcile the man they had believed him to be with the one federal agents say he had become.”)
• More snow in forecast for Hampton Roads; cold forces some schools to open later
• Deep freeze eases slightly for two days, then the next brutal Arctic wave arrives