Saturday News: Misleading, Untrue, Cherrypicked, “Nothingburger” Nunes Memo Released, “Now What About Trump’s Tax Returns?”; The Last Thing We Need with Dominion Is a “Mediator”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, February 3.

• Trump escalates his war with U.S. law enforcement after memo release (“The president hinted openly that he might yet fire senior officials over claims of bias against him.”)
• We’ve Got the Memo. Now What About Trump’s Tax Returns? (“Since Republicans are now on board with greater transparency, surely they’ll be eager to release more information to the public.”)
• Trump’s Allies Fanned Flames of Outrage (“The memo’s release mattered less than the choreographed effort by House Republicans and top White House officials to push a highly contentious theme. By Friday, it was obvious that the memo had become part of a proxy fight for the battle that the White House is now waging to discredit the Russia investigation.”)
• Nunes’ memo promises much and delivers nothing remotely credible
• The Nunes memo won’t stop Robert Mueller (“The whole world knows of four omitted facts that shred the memo’s tissue-thin conspiracy theory to ribbons.”)
• Carry on doing your jobs, Mr. Wray and Mr. Rosenstein
• U.S. history, abridged by Devin Nunes
• The Nunes memo is a giant, damaging distraction (“It does nothing to discredit the special counsel’s investigation and does little to show abuse of surveillance law.”)
• The Backward Logic of the Nunes Memo
• How democracies die, explained (“The problems in American democracy run far deeper than Trump.”)
• Man who sold Las Vegas gunman ammunition charged with making armor-piercing bullets (Let me guess, Republicans will defend people’s need for armor-piercing bullets?)
• The GOP could lose 40 House seats this November (“When it comes to making predictions, [former Rep. Tom] Davis [R] is very specific: “A good night for Republicans is losing 12 seats. … A bad night is 40 seats.'” I’d say that’s wildly optimistic, actually.)
• Stocks Soared 21% in a Year. Then This Week Happened. (“U.S. stocks ended their worst week in two years, as investors worried about rising interest rates. The catalyst for Friday’s fall of more than two percent appeared to be a report that showed the strong United States economy might finally be translating into rising wages for American workers.”)
• U.S. Added 200,000 Jobs in January; Here’s the Takeaway (Think back to the dire straits we found ourselves in back in February 2009 and say “thank you President Obama and thank you Democratic Congress!”)
• Black unemployment rose sharply in January, as Trump bragged about record lows (“Whoops.”)
• The Nunes Memo Undermines the Right’s Trump-Russia Conspiracy Theory
• Why Were the Democrats So Worried About the Nunes Memo? (“The Nunes Memo is shoddy and slanted, but it is not explosive. Nothing in it diminishes, for example, the relevance of the larger Mueller investigation.”)
• G.O.P., Dominant in Statehouses, Braces for the Democrats (“Republicans have dominated state governments for almost a decade, but Democrats are exploiting President Trump’s unpopularity in an effort to make inroads in 2018.”)
• The most important part of the GOP memo is all the things it does not say (“What’s missing is a lot more telling than what is there.”)
• Trump’s first comments on the GOP memo reveal what this is really about (“You figure that one out.”)
• Even If You Take the Nunes Memo Seriously, It Makes No Sense (“A former Whitewater investigator takes apart the document roiling Washington.”)
• David Brooks’ dangerous political advice for Democrats
• ‘That’s it?’ Comey rips House committee over memo
• The Surprise in the Nunes Memo (“The controversial document raises some interesting questions—but also undermines the political argument it was intended to buttress.”)
• Thoughts on the Nunes Memo: We Need to Talk About Devin (“At the end of the day, the most important aspect of the #memo is probably not its contents but the fact that it was written and released at all. Its preparation and public dissemination represent a profound betrayal of the central premise of the intelligence oversight system…It was a heavy blow to a system that has served this country well for decades, and it is one that will not be forgotten any time soon.”)
• The Nunes Memo Proves One Thing, And It’s The Opposite Of What It Tries To Prove (“The Trump-Russia investigation didn’t start with the Steele dossier.”)
• Memo release is Trump’s scramble to torch threats to himself – and his circle (“By seeking to discredit investigators, Trump may only deepen his predicament – ensnaring his family members and closest aides” Bunch of criminals.)
• Why Devin Nunes’s Memo Would Never Hold Up in Court (“And why Robert Mueller will keep plowing straight ahead.”)
• ‘Nothingburger’ Doesn’t Do This Memo Justice (“Devin Nunes, everybody.”)
• MLB was right to push for an end to Chief Wahoo. Now it’s football’s turn.
• Nunes memo is ‘unprecedented’ attempt to impugn FBI, Warner says
• Activists push Kaine at Fairfax County NAACP community event (“Kaine says that he would like to just pass a clean Dream Act, but the bill currently does not have the support it would need to pass both the House and the Senate.”)
• Cureton: Give Virginians an alternative to predatory lenders
• Some military spouses have a hard time finding jobs. Sen. Tim Kaine has a bill to help. (Nice work!)
• Northam, Dominion call in mediator from VCU to help negotiate controversial rate bill (Is this a parody or something?)
• When is a license plate more than a license plate? When it has the word “gun” on it (“Virginia legislature argues over anti-gun violence slogan”)
• As partisan battles rage across the river, Virginia can set a new tone (#1, they aren’t “partisan battles” in Congress. #2, Virginia Republicans have zero interest in “a new tone.” #3, the “Virginia Way” is a corrupt cesspool that needs to be consigned to the dust bin of history. #4, Virginia Democrats need to focus on winning back the House and Senate, period.)
• Stonewall Jackson was my great-great-great grandfather. Virginia should stop ‘honoring’ him.
• Proposed Virginia grid upgrade comes without firm price tag
• Editorial: Virginia lawmakers would prefer to keep their slush funds, thank you (Actually, this was not killed by generic “lawmakers,” but by REPUBLICAN “lawmakers.” Why is this so hard for the corporate media to get right?)
• Erosion control plans for Mountain Valley Pipeline to get additional state review
• An inmate was in pain but medical staff thought he was fine, officials say. He died the next day. (“Hampton Roads Regional Jail faces another lawsuit over an inmate death.”)
• An explanation of the proposed meals tax increase in Richmond
• Sunny and chilly today, then icy mix may cause some trouble on a wet Super Bowl Sunday