Friday News: Congress Votes to End Brief Government Shutdown; “Fraudulence of the Fiscal Hawks”; Market “Correction” Continues; Slimy Dominion Bill Moves Ahead

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, February 9.

• Government shutdown to end as House passes sweeping spending bill (“The House vote came just after 5 a.m., about three hours after the Senate cleared the legislation on a vote of 71 to 28, with wide bipartisan support…But action did not come soon enough to avoid a brief government shutdown — the second in three weeks — thanks to a one-man protest from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who delayed the Senate vote past midnight to mark his opposition to an estimated $320 billion addition to the federal budget deficit.”)
• House Passes Budget Deal to Raise Spending and Reopen Government (“The bill, already approved by the Senate, will reopen the government and will provide additional funds for the military and disaster relief for the victims of last year’s hurricanes and wildfires.”)
• Krugman: Fraudulence of the Fiscal Hawks (“This week Republicans, having just enacted a huge tax cut, cheerfully agreed to a budget deal that, according to independent experts, will push next year’s deficit up to around $1.15 trillion — bigger than in 2012. True, this won’t quite match 2012’s red ink as a percentage of G.D.P.; but this time none of the deficit will be a result of a depressed economy.”)
• With Budget Deal, G.O.P. Tosses Out the Economics Textbooks (Between the idiotic tax cut and now this spending increase, Congress has injected a massive fiscal stimulus into the economy at a time of essentially “full employment.” If you know literally ANYTHING about economics, you know that’s not what you’re supposed to do.)
• No Longer a ‘Blip’: Stocks Skid Yet Again
• Stock market slide gathers pace with big sell-offs on Wall Street and Asia
• What Just Happened? Six Views on How the Correction Finally Came
• Why Didn’t the White House See Domestic Violence as Disqualifying? (I mean, the “president” is a sexual predator, so…)
• Blow: Lie, Exploit and Destroy (“Donald Trump has a particular skill, one rooted in his weaknesses: Because he eschews intellectualism for intuition, because he prefers to watch rather than to read, he has honed his talent for reflexive reductionism…My sense is that absolutely nothing will be beyond the pale for Trump. He will lie, exploit and destroy. If you think he’s dangerous now, you haven’t seen anything yet.”)
• White House domestic violence scandal isn’t being covered by Fox News (“For more than 12 hours, Rob Porter’s name wasn’t mentioned a single time.” Alternate right-wingnut universe.)
• Yet again, the Olympics are an economic and environmental disaster (“Here’s what’s going on behind the scenes.”)
• Pence keeps lying about supporting ex-gay therapy as his feud with gay Olympian escalates (“Pence’s history of supporting conversion therapy isn’t ‘fake news.'”)
• CNN interviews a literal Nazi who is Republican House candidate (“The state and national Republican parties have disavowed him as a candidate, so what was he doing on CNN?” They love the freak show.)
• The Great Republican Power Grab (“Electing judges, as a practice, is a bad idea that should be done away with nationwide. Still, forcibly removing a judge for making decisions that offend the governing party is, to put it gently, not tolerable in a democracy. It’s a profound threat to the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers. And yet, thanks to the turbocharged gerrymandering the state’s Republicans managed to pull off seven years ago, they have a large enough majority to do it.”)
• Top Trump Aides Are Said to Have Long Known About Abuse Accusations
• The federal government technically shut down again (“By midnight Friday, Congress had failed to fund the government for the second time in three weeks.” Yep, this is Republican “governance.”)
• Knight in Tarnished Armor (“John Kelly arrived at the White House a hero. The Rob Porter scandal exposes him as a disgrace.”)
• The Party of Carter Page (“How Devin Nunes and the GOP ended up defending a Putin apologist.”)
• “He Was F—ing Pissed”: With Rob Porter Gone, the Heat on John Kelly Is Increasing (“Trump is not happy with the chaos; Jared and Ivanka are trying to right the ship; and even Hope Hicks, one of the president’s closest confidants, is in trouble.”)
• The dumbest shutdown ever
• George W. Bush: There’s clear evidence Russia ‘meddled’ in 2016 election
• The Memo: Knives come out for Kelly
• Frustrated Republicans accuse Paul of forcing pointless shutdown
• McConnell tees up immigration debate
• Chuck Todd: It’s difficult to take the level of ‘crazy’ of this White House (Wait, wasn’t it Chuckles who said it was bad to talk about Trump being crazy?)
• Fox News executive VP rails against diversity of US Olympians: “Darker, Gayer, Different”
• Fox News reported that a border patrol agent was murdered. It turns out they were wrong. (“Fox ran with the rumor that Rogelio Martinez was killed by undocumented immigrants. The FBI has ruled out that possibility.”)
• CBO Finds Budget Deal Will Cost $320 Billion
• Yeah, Give ICE Spying Powers. That Should Go Well. (“Immigration and Customs Enforcement is already way out of control.”)
• The Whole Fish Is Rotten, Not Just Rob Porter (“John Kelly should follow him out the door.”)
• I Called Around. I Spoke to Generals. None of Them Want a Parade. (“President Trump’s proposed ego boost is as stupid as it is costly.”)
• Fox News Hypes ‘Questionable’ Texts From Mark Warner That Republicans Read Months Ago (“A week after the WikiLeaks founder tried to DM Sean Hannity with ‘news about Warner,’ another Fox star tried to gin up scandal about the Senate intel committee vice chairman.” Fox is a pox on America.)
• Fox publishes senator’s leaked text messages less than two weeks after Julian Assange promised “news about Warner” to Hannity (“Assange promised “news about Warner” to a fake Sean Hannity account via “other channels” just weeks ago”)
• Warner Wants Russia Probe to Delve Deeper With Tech Companies
• Editorial: Kaine bill could help military families (“It’s no secret that military life is hard on families, with frequent separations and moves from base to base. It’s not just the service members. It’s their spouses and whole families who sacrifice.”)
• How one Virginia lawmaker wanted to get rid of daylight saving time and lost (“Virginia lawmaker Del. Nick Freitas called daylight saving time ‘horrible time oppression.'” Hahahahaha. What a nut.)
• Dominion bill advances in Va. House, Senate as consumer advocates renew warnings
• Va. House panel kills bills to ban anti-LGBT discrimination in housing and jobs
• Northam, Republicans reach bipartisan deal on criminal justice reform bills (“Under the agreement, Republicans will support legislation to increase the felony level, which has been unchanged since 1980, from $200 to $500. In return, Northam agreed to support Republican efforts to increase collection of restitution on behalf of crime victims, something the previous Democratic governor refused to sign into law.”)
• Has Metro’s ridership turnaround arrived? Not yet, budget staff says
• Bills: Dominion’s grip stifles innovation (“Dominion is attempting to pass legislation that would allow it to pocket up to $1 billion in past consumer overcharges, and could give it leeway to bill ratepayers twice for renewable energy projects and grid modernization.”)
• Virginia GOP offers Metro less than the Democrats, but there’s room to bargain (“A bipartisan majority on the Senate Finance Committee voted 9 to 4 in favor of a Democratic-sponsored bill that includes tax increases in Northern Virginia and offers the agency $154 million a year. Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R-James City) was one of the ‘yes’ votes.”)
• Virginia unlikely to pass ERA ratification this session, legislators say (“Four bills tied up in committee; only one will get a hearing”)
• Major Democratic donor in Virginia aims to counter Dominion donations with his own money
• Bill to study heavier trucks on Virginia roads gets rolling
• Editorial: Seeds of marijuana reform begin to bud, slowly
• Dry and mild today, then a damp streak of days ahead