by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, December 28. Also, check out the video below of last night’s PBS NewsHour discussion of Trump’s visit to the troops in Iraq. As White House Correspondent Yamiche Alcindor – who is superb, by the way – put it, “The president simply is not telling the truth there. he president saying that it’s been over a decade since service members and troops have gotten a pay raise, that’s not true. The service members and troops have been getting pay races every year since at least the last decade. It’s usually been around 1 percent. The president is also saying that they’re going to get a 10 percent raise. Reporting shows that there’s going to be a 2.6 percent raise. It’s a lot different, about 7 percent difference there. So the president is misleading the troops here. And this is a pattern for this president. When he gets in front of big crowds, he likes to tell falsehoods. He likes to exaggerate things. And, here, he’s doing just that.” As historian Michael Beschloss put it, Trump’s behavior in Iraq was “obscene”
- Trump: Unpaid Shutdown Workers Are Mostly Dems, So Screw ’Em (“The president is apparently fine with federal employees losing their paychecks if they play for the other side.”)
- 2018 Was A Milestone Year For Climate Science (If Not Politics)
- 2018 Was a Year of Deadly Climate Disasters and an ‘Ear Splitting Wake-Up Call’
- Climate and energy news in 2018 actually wasn’t all bad (“Three big trends are helping us address the climate crisis: better technology, cheaper technology, and more ambitious policies.”)
- Trump’s year of chaos in 2018 promises yet another
Mueller closes in: what will the Trump-Russia inquiry deliver in 2019?- More Americans blame Trump for government shutdown: Reuters/Ipsos poll
- Dems’ New Year’s resolution: Stiff Trump on the wall and reopen the government (“Democratic leaders think the president is playing a losing hand and will be under pressure to relent.”)
- Shutdown likely to extend into 2019 as Congress punts on budget, border votes
- Trump’s visit to Iraq prompts concerns about politicization of military (It was wildly inappropriate, also filled with outright lies to the troops, such as about their pay. As always, Trump is a complete disgrace.)
- Cell signal puts Cohen outside Prague around time of purported Russian meeting
- Democrats’ quest to topple Trump gets real in January. Here’s why. (“The party’s surprisingly quiet (so far) but wide-open nominating contest is about to get a lot noisier come the New Year as candidates begin the money chase.”)
- Report Puts Michael Cohen in Prague and Trump-Russia Collusion on the Table
- Politicizing the Military Is Uniformly Wrong (“Trump’s visit to U.S. troops was marred by overtly political rhetoric. That’s not normal—but his defenders don’t care.”)
- CNN’s Don Lemon Airs 2013 Clip of Trump Saying Obama Should Be Fired Over Shutdown: ‘Priceless’
- Who’s afraid of the MAGA mob? Only Trump.
- House Democrats scooping up staff, lawyers to power Trump investigations
- Has the GOP retreated into a world of make-believe? The shutdown debate will tell us. (Actually, we’ve known that for a long time. Among other things, broad swaths on the right in this country deny or minimize climate science – and science in general – which in and of itself should disqualify them from holding public office.)
- The Inevitability of Impeachment (“Even Republicans may be deciding that the president has become too great a burden to their party or too great a danger to the country.”)
- Presidential Historian Michael Beschloss Lambastes Trump’s Speech to Troops: ‘Obscene’
- Stocks Rise as Wall St.’s Roller Coaster Stages Late-Day Rally
- ‘Completely Bizarre’ Stock Moves Leave Traders Scratching Heads
- The Republican Party as Presently Constituted Must Be Torn Down to Its Foundations (“Our new environmental reality was not inevitable. It is, in many cases, the result of public policy.”)
- The Insurmountable Obstacle to a Compromise on Trump’s Wall (“building a giant wall across the southern border is not a rational policy solution to any of those (putative) problems…a giant wall isn’t even a rational means of combating illegal border crossings…Trump did not propose the construction of a border wall because he wanted to minimize illegal immigration, but rather, because he wanted to establish himself as the most hawkish nativist in the 2016 Republican primary.”)
- The Memo: Trump puts isolationism at center stage
- Powell Has Lot to Lose and Little to Gain in Sit-Down With Trump
- Bad Faith, Pathos and G.O.P. Economics (“On professionals who sold their integrity, and got nothing in return.”)
- The Chart That Shows the Price Tag for Trump’s Obamacare Sabotage (“If you’re middle class and looking for insurance through the health law, chances are you’re paying a penalty courtesy of the G.O.P.”)
- ‘What Obama had, he has that’: Jeffries’ stock rises as Pelosi successor (“The newly elected Democratic Caucus chairman could one day be the first African-American speaker — if he can get past some hurdles in his own party.”)
- Nauert faces questions about qualifications at UN (There’s no question…she’s totally unqualified for this job.)
- Claire McCaskill’s Bitter Farewell (“The outgoing Missouri senator has no right to take potshots at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives.” Pathetic.)
- Richard Overton, Nation’s Oldest World War II Veteran, Dead At 112
- Stop treating federal employees like bargaining chips, Mr. President (By Senator Mark Warner.)
- A 400-year first: Filler-Corn breaks many barriers as new Democratic leader in Virginia’s House (“It’s a historic step for Filler-Corn, taking over the office suite of the minority leader of the Virginia House of Delegates — the first time in 400 years that a woman has held such a position…She also will become the first delegate from Northern Virginia to ascend to a top House leadership post in about 40 years, as well as the first Jew.”)
- Before leaving office, Rep. Bob Goodlatte blocked a bill intended to help abused Native American women (Good to see the WaPo finally catch on to this story.)
- BREAKING: Virginia Delegates David Toscano, Paul Krizek Ditch Dirty Dominion $$$; Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney Sticks with It
- Waiting for scrutiny of Amazon’s headquarters plans? It could happen in 2019.
- Governor Northam Releases Report Providing Roadmap for the Offshore Wind Supply Chain
- Virginia Del. Nick “Freaky” Freitas (Far-Right Republican) Strikes Again, Compares People from Blue States to “Locusts” Eating Red States’ “Crops”
- The Latest from the HD86 Democratic Nomination Contest (1/12/19): Kofi Annan, Ibraheem Samirah, Chad Thompson, Mike O’Reilly
- Republican lawmaker Dickie Bell won’t seek re-election to Virginia General Assembly
- ‘The true authentic heart of America’: Bristol is named the best small town to visit in Virginia
- EDITORIAL: Extend length of short-term policies
- Paasch: Virginia can use validation of Arizona’s child-friendly law to support Virginia’s children and families
- Dare County could change law to make it easier to confiscate chained dogs that are left alone
- Ex-Hampton Roads Regional Jail guard could be charged with felony assault of inmate
- Virginia to again consider marijuana decriminalization
- Study: Tech trees provide $30 million value
- Hampton Eagle Scout-candidate enhances Sulcata tortoise habitat
- Flooding downpours possible today, then a brighter and drier weekend
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