by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, New Year’s Day 2019.
- Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil’s far-right leader to take office (We have a big, big problem in Brazil.)
- Kim Jong-un warns of change in direction on denuclearisation (And in North Korea.)
- Trump to Allow Months for Troop Withdrawal in Syria, Officials Say
- Japan: Stop Slaughtering Whales (“There is no commercial, cultural or scientific justification for killing these magnificent creatures.” Agreed. Same with Iceland and any other country that does this, by the way.)
- Hope for a Green New Year (“Democrats can’t pass legislation yet, but they can get ready for 2021.”)
- Stocks in the U.S. Close Worst Year Since 2008 (#MAGA! LOL)
- America, Meet Your (Acting) Secretary of Defense (“With no military experience and just a year and a half in government, the former Boeing executive Patrick Shanahan has yet to develop a foreign-policy vision of his own.” This is an enormous step down from Jim Mattis – and a dangerous one.)
- Pelosi challenges McConnell with shutdown plan (“Republicans are expected to reject the Democrats’ proposal, which doesn’t include a funding boost for Trump’s wall.”)
- Trump: ‘No choice’ on continuing government shutdown (Another big lie. In fact, this shutdown could easily end in a couple days if Trump would stop being a nut.)
- Uncertainty takes hold at Pentagon amid Mattis’s exit and Trump’s murky orders (“Defense Secretary Jim Mattis quietly closed out his two-year run with a note to personnel urging them to ‘hold fast, alongside our allies, aligned against our foes.'”)
- Democrats’ shutdown strategy ushers in new era of divided rule — and a dare to Trump (“The House Democrats’ plan to pass measures to reopen nearly all of the government will force President Trump and Senate Republicans to take their deal or prolong the shutdown.”)
- Video: On Last Day of 2018, Sen. Elizabeth Warren Kicks off Campaign for President 2020
- Warren’s jump into the presidential campaign kicks 2020 race into high gear
- Who isn’t running for the Democratic presidential nomination? (“At this point, by some counts, as many as 30 potential Democratic candidates either have expressed interest in taking the plunge or have significant constituencies urging them to do so. If you thought the 2016 GOP debates were crowded, just wait. This year, Democrats may have to debate in shifts, or perhaps stand on risers like a choir.”)
- Don’t blame the rats abandoning the U.S.S. Trump
- Trump jabs at Warren: ‘Ask her psychiatrist’ if she can win in 2020 (The guy in the White House who desperately needs psychiatric help strikes again…)
- The Top Ten Democrats for 2020 (#1 Beto O’Rourke, #2 Bernie Sanders, #3 Joe Biden, #4 Kamala Harris, #5 Elizabeth Warren, #6 Sherrod Brown, #7 Cory Booker, #8 Amy Klobuchar, #9 Michael Bloomberg, #10 Kirsten Gillibrand)
- 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates Are Lining Up. Who Matches the Moment? (“That question, more than anything, is what looms over Ms. Warren’s candidacy: Would she be the president today if she had run in 2016, as some liberal activists and admirers urged her to? Mr. Sanders ended up filling the void on the populist left and ran a surprisingly strong campaign against Hillary Clinton.”)
- Trump claims there’s a 10-foot wall around the Obamas’ D.C. home. He is wrong. (Yet another whopper – aka, LIE – from Trump.)
- Federal employee union sues Trump administration over government shutdown
- The Government Shutdown Will Continue as Long as Trump Thinks It Benefits Him
- The political trends that will define 2019 (“The calendar says 2019 — but it’s already 2020”)
- “Gridlock, Bitterness, and Posturing”: What New Horrors Await Trump in 2019? (“We can’t predict much, but we can point to five major headaches that will afflict Donald Trump and the rest of us in the year ahead.”)
- New Year 2019: US military apologises for bomb tweet (“US Strategic Command, which oversees America’s nuclear arsenal, has apologised for a tweet that said it was ready to ‘drop something much, much bigger’ than New York’s Times Square ball.” Hahaha, hilarious! Not.)
- Trump Appeals for Border Wall in New Years Eve Fox Interview: ‘It is Not Old Fashioned,’ It’s Like the Wheel
- David Hogg mocks Laura Ingraham as radio show ends: ‘Happy new year’
- The Media’s Post-Advertising Future Is Also Its Past (“Why the news is going back to the 19th century…It seems safe to say that, going forward, media organizations will get by on some combination of subscription, patronage, and auxiliary revenue from sources such as events and licensed content. Whatever happens, advertising will almost certainly play a lesser role.”)
- California Pet Stores Will Only Be Allowed to Sell Rescue Animals From Now On (Hello, Virginia?)
- Sen. Warner on Trump signing Ashanti Alert Act
- Terry McAuliffe’s presidential audition tape (Just no.)
- Sens. Warner, Kaine, etc. Urge Trump to Reverse Course, Raise Pay for Federal Employees
- No More $5,000 In “Amazon Purchases” Every Quarter; Fixing Virginia’s Embarrassingly Broken Campaign Finance System
- New Year resolutions: Our 2019 mission (How about doing some actual reporting? I check the Daily Press every morning, and the pickings are usually slim in terms of Virginia political news.)
- Medicaid expansion in Virginia is set to start in the new year
- A plastic straw ban and a Confederate name change: New laws in the D.C. region in 2019 (“Here’s a look at laws taking effect Jan. 1 in the District, Maryland and Virginia.”)
- Editorial: 19 questions for 2019
- Year in Review of what happened in Virginia politics (This is really lame.)
- A long and winding road to a distracted driving bill?
- A foretaste of some likely G.A. snark in Norment note to NoVa chamber
- State environmental officials are inching closer to imposing a ‘pollution diet’ on James River toxins
- Editorial: Region poised for progress as 2019 begins (“Yet, cross Hampton Roads, the wheels are already turning on some of the most important developments residents can expect to see unfold in 2019.” I think they mean “across.”)
- Letters, Jan. 1, 2019: ACP will disproportionately affect minority population
- A casino, fried chicken and a “bombogenesis”: The biggest news of 2018 in South Hampton Roads
- WAVY’s 11th-hour contract fight with Cox cable ends with agreement
- Noon Year’s Eve celebration at Science Museum of Virginia doesn’t quite go down as planned
- Breezy today, with increased sunshine; more rain to come this week
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