Wednesday News: “The Age of Fire and Fury”; “Athletes Who Are the Same Size as Donald Trump”; “Do Virginia Republicans know they lost last year’s elections?”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, January 17.

• Trump Is Transparent About His Health—So Why Not His Finances?
• One of the Largest Magazines in Europe Just Hit Trump With an Amazing Cover (“The Age of Fire and Fury”)
• Now I Don’t Know What to Believe (“He has incredible genes, I just assume.”)
• Athletes Who Are the Same Size as Donald Trump (“Trump was measured at 6’3″ and weighed in at 239 pounds. If this was the NFL combine, teams would be lining up to sign him as a tight end or a linebacker. You can’t teach size, the old adage goes.” Yep, Trump’s just like Mike Trout, Jay Cutler, Anthony Rizzo, etc. Riiiiight.)
• Steve Bannon Will Tell All to Robert Mueller, Source Says (“Trump’s one-time chief strategist and current frenemy may have been tight-lipped with Congress. He won’t be that way with the special counsel.”)
• Fine, Trump Doesn’t Have Dementia. He’s Just a Moron. (And a racist.)
• Doctor Calls Trump’s Health Excellent; No Cognitive Issues
• Trump is making the racist subtext text
• In Colorado, a glimpse of renewable energy’s insanely cheap future (“Even with storage, new renewables beat existing coal.” One of the only glimmers of good news these days is on the clean energy front. That’s worth celebrating.)
• Fox News shelved story on Trump and porn actress Stormy Daniels before election (Not a real news network; it’s right-wing propaganda, end of story.)
• Congressional Republicans think Donald Trump’s sloth and ignorance is a feature, not a bug (“A weak, easy-to-manipulate president is what they want.”)
• Bannon Refuses to Testify About Trump, Citing ‘Novel’ Definition of Executive Privilege
• Tom Cotton and President* Trump Deserve Each Other (“Neither man deserves a place in our politics.” Nope.)
• This Isn’t How You Defend the President* Against Charges of Racism (“Joni Ernst name-checks Trump’s love affair with Norway.” Ernst is bonkers and apparently an idiot as well.)
• Three million more people are uninsured. Thanks, President Trump. (Making America Uninsured Again!)
• Ignore the president. Vote on the DACA deal. (“Sens. Graham and Durbin made a compromise. Now it should pass.”)
• This way madness lies (“In trying to cover for the president, Kirstjen Nielsen denies the obvious and attempts to defend the indefensible.”)
• Mr. President, stop attacking the press (John McCain: “Trump’s ‘fake news’ jabs give dictators implicit permission to target reporters for arrest and worse.”)
• Republicans give potential Trump challengers a free pass in 2018 (“The GOP has failed to recruit strong candidates against a slate of potential Democratic reelection opponents.”)
• Republicans fear midterm pain from Mueller probe (Yet again, Republicans put partisanship and politics over patriotism.)
• House Republicans coalesce behind plan to avert shutdown (“Ryan won GOP support for his short-term government funding bill after including provisions to target Obamacare.”)
• Democrats face make-or-break moment on shutdown, Dreamers
• Intel Dem decries White House ‘gag order’ after Bannon testimony
• ‘Total free-for-all’ as Bannon clashes with Intel members
• Majority of National Park Service advisory board resigns amid protest
• Dems flip Wisconsin state Senate seat
• Jeff Flake’s Empty Words (“Until the senator is willing to oppose his own party’s agenda, his anti-Trump speeches are meaningless.” Agreed.)
• Trump seems likely to kill any immigration compromise: So now what?
• Remembering The Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan
• GOP activist from Virginia quits Republican Party over Trump’s remarks (“A young Republican activist from Northern Virginia who was seen as a potential rising star quit the party Tuesday, citing President Trump’s “appalling comments” about Haitian immigrants and what he called a nativist streak in his home state.” Good for Kyle McDaniel; now time for scores more Virginia Republicans to quit. See his resignation letter here.)
• Editorial: State GOP’s signals: Digging in their heels (“In the opening days of the session, however, Republican leaders appear intent to leverage their slim majorities to maximum advantage…Yet to Gilbert, Obenshain and their colleagues, giving voice to these ideas — priorities backed in November by 1.4 million Virginians — is akin to waving a red cape in front of a Republican bull. That’s an entirely unreasonable position, and one that’s deeply disappointing to the millions who hoped a change in leadership could bring a new spirit of cooperation to Richmond.”)
• Odes to new era of bipartisanship give way to finger-pointing as General Assembly session nears one-week mark (As I predicted, Republicans are not – never – interested in actual bipartisanship, only a “my way or the high way” ersatz version.)
• Do Virginia Republicans know they lost last year’s elections? (“The state House should be wiser than their Senate peers.”)
• That was quick: Va. Republicans say new governor is off to a bad start (“After inaugural lovefest, Democrat Northam draws fire from GOP leaders.” What a bunch of “snowflakes.”)
• Va. Democrats kill hospital bill after GOP senator rebuffs them on Medicaid (“Democrat says Medicaid expansion would help the shuttered Southwest Virginia hospital.”)
• New poll says 83 percent of Virginians support Medicaid expansion (And guess who’s blocking the will of the 83%? Hint: it rhymes with shmepublicans.)
• Opinion/Letter: Kaine right on pipeline rehearings (Absolutely.)
• Former candidate Gillespie headed to Harvard for spring semester (Enron Ed’s apparently going to teach Harvard students about the art of “the swamp” and also about running a race-baiting, vicious, scurrilous, dishonest campaign for governor.)
• A. Barton Hinkle column: Northam can lead bipartisan reform to make health care more accessible (Posted for completeness only; Hinkle is a right wingnut, don’t really care what advice he has to offer to Gov. Northam. And no, repealing COPN is NOT the answer; Medicaid expansion is.)
• State lawmaker files bill to remove Virginia’s Robert E. Lee statue from U.S. Capitol
• Editorial: A memo to Virginia’s new Secretary of Commerce and Trade
• 6 AM UPDATE: Snow slowly spreading across Va.; Richmond area should pick up 1 to 3 inches today
• Cold today with light snow this morning, and then a welcome warming trend