by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, January 5.
- No Deal Out Of ‘Contentious’ Shutdown Meeting At The White House (Trump is Mr. “Art of NO Deal”)
- Trump claims support from past presidents for the wall: Clinton, Bush and Obama beg to differ
- Trump Referred to Shutdown as ‘Strike’ in Profanity-Laced Meeting With Democratic Leaders (“The president also dropped three f-bombs and claimed Democrats wanted him impeached.”)
- Trump threatens years-long shutdown for border wall (It’s long past time for Congressional REPUBLICANS – note, I didn’t say “Congress,” thus lumping “both sides” falsely together – to stand up to Trump.)
- Tax refunds, food aid could be shutdown’s early casualties
- While federal workers go without pay, senior Trump administration officials are poised to get $10,000 raises
- Democrats Are Unified on the Shutdown. Republicans Aren’t. (“Donald Trump and his border wall are both unpopular. The GOP knows it.”)
- McConnell Hunkers Down on the Sidelines as Shutdown Grinds on
- The Market’s Tantrum Turns to Joy, But Now What?
- Senate throws hundreds of Trump nominees into limbo (“Under the rules of the Senate, Trump has to renominate the picks in order to get them considered for confirmation during the new session of Congress. Though not a fatal decision, it will force senators to eat up precious time by sending them back through the committees before they can be brought to the floor for a final vote.”)
- The President* Is More Than a Few Sandwiches Short of a Picnic (“How much longer can anyone pretend?”)
- A simple way to prevent government shutdowns (“By extension, we could eliminate government shutdowns forever by enacting an automatic CR: a law that says that in the event that Congress fails to authorize funding for the government, things will just keep going along the way they’ve been.”)
- Trump says he is considering using emergency powers to build wall (Of course, there is absolutely no “national emergency,” other than in Trump’s fever swamp of a “brain”)
- Mueller grand jury extended for up to 6 months
- Why Trump Will Probably Cave to Nancy Pelosi (“He knows that his base will buy any victory he claims, and it’s likely that the hard-liners at Fox News, including Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, will get with the program as well when there’s no other way out.”)
- A freshman, a viral video and a profanity revive Trump impeachment talk. (“House Democrats spent two years trying to tamp down discussions of impeachment. Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s remark gave the president an opening” First off, Democrats need to wait until the Mueller investigation is in and all the evidence is examined before considering a move towards impeachment. Second, unless Senate Republicans are willing to vote to convict, which is HIGHLY/EXTREMELY unlikely, impeachment isn’t going to oust Trump from office. Third, I’m not a big fan of the use of extreme profanity by our elected officials. Fourth, having said that, of course Trump has said as bad or worse over the years, and Republicans didn’t seem to care, so spare us the faux “outrage”)
- Lawmaker’s Vow to Impeach Trump, With an Obscenity, Upends Democrats’ Strategy (“Republicans pounced at the Michigan congresswoman’s remarks to paint the majority as a power-hungry bloc intent on destroying the Trump presidency.”)
- Hundreds of TSA screeners, working without pay, calling out sick at major airports
- It’s About Time Democrats Said Something Without Worrying About What the Maniac President* Might Say (“Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez say what they mean. Nancy Pelosi can handle that.”)
- Dems livid after Tlaib vows to ‘impeach the motherf—er’ (“Party leaders fear such explosive talk only gives ammunition to the GOP.” I agree, this was really undisciplined and really not smart.)
- WSJ editorial shreds Trump’s Afghanistan claims (“A Wall Street Journal editorial published Friday ripped into President Donald Trump for comments he made about the Soviet Union’s decadelong war in Afghanistan, blasting his ‘reprehensible’ recollection of the conflict and his ‘slander’ of U.S. allies.”)
- Here’s why Trump’s praise of the Soviet Union for invading Afghanistan is dangerous (“The president discounts the massive toll the decade-long Soviet occupation took on the Afghan people.”)
- DHS presents a PowerPoint on the ‘crisis’ on the border full of false, fear-mongering claims (“The only existing immigration crisis was created by the government.” Correct.)
- Supreme Court will hear two challenges to partisan gerrymandering(“This will end badly.”)
- Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton and the sexist hypocrisy of the the ‘likability’ media narrative. Here we go again. (“In other words, Warren’s expressed desire to potentially become America’s most powerful politician has changed the calculus. After all, Hillary Clinton was a popular secretary of state; Warren is a popular senator. Research bears this out.”)
- Talking About Elizabeth Warren’s Likability is a Way to Tell Women to Sit Down and Shut Up (“Women are expected to be effortless, so the fact that Warren and Clinton—who have little else in common—are so evidently hard-working is considered damning instead of an asset.”)
- Police: 3 dead, 4 injured in bowling alley shooting
- Beto O’Rourke Says He’s “Supportive of the Concept” of a Green New Deal (“The former congressman is the latest potential 2020 contender to flirt with the sweeping climate policy.” There’s no doubt we need *something* like a “Green New Deal,” the only questions are the details and political realities.)
- Sean Hannity warns that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will stop rich people from buying boats and “taking expensive vacations” (Untrue of course. What Ocasio-Cortez was talking about was something like the tax code we had for much of the 20th century in this country, where the super-rich theoretically paid a very high marginal tax rate above certain very high – millions – income levels.)
- Clinton buddy McAuliffe: 50% chance I’ll challenge Trump in 2020 (“He also discussed his claim that Democratic presidential candidates should avoid ‘dishonest populism,’ asserting he was not referring to Warren, when pressed by Melber, who noted she was currently the only candidate in the race.”)
- Terry McAuliffe Is Right (If the conservative National Review says you’re “right,” you’re almost certainly wrong.)
- Trump denies that Jim Webb is under consideration for Defense secretary (Trump, in his usual style: “The story in the New York Times regarding Jim Webb being considered as the next Secretary of Defense is FAKE NEWS. I’m sure he is a fine man, but I don’t know Jim, and never met him. Patrick Shanahan, who is Acting Secretary of Defense, is doing a great job!”)
- The Trump-Centric Case for Jim Webb as Defense Secretary
- NY Times’ Maggie Haberman: Chances of Defense Secretary Jim Webb ‘not high’
- Kaine, Warner call for vote on bills to reopen government
- Rep. Wexton (D-Va.) displays transgender flag outside Capitol Hill office (Go Jennifer Wexton!)
- Dem rep asks for asks for pay to be withheld during shutdown (“Freshman Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) sent a letter Thursday to the House chief administrative officer asking for her pay to be withheld as a partial government shutdown drags on into a third week.”)
- Rep. Luria asks for her pay to be withheld during shutdown
- Virginia NAACP Files Powerful Comments on Dominion’s Proposed Union Hill Compressor Station (“This ‘appears to be a deliberate effort by the applicant, Dominion Energy, to erase the historic African American community of Union Hill from the record'”)
- “The inaccurate data provided by DEQ and ACP is further example of erasure of the Black community, and it is textbook environmental racism.”
- Virginia attorney general says condition of schools responsibility of localities
- Sensing an opening, Virginia governor revives push for gun control
- Governor Northam Announces Legislative Proposals to Combat Gun Violence and Improve Safety in the Commonwealth
- Save our Chincoteague Ponies, Stop the Pipelines
- Va. House Republicans buck Northam with plan to maximize Trump tax savings (Do Republicans EVER want to invest in education, the environment and other important priorities? Of course not – they just want to give people, particularly those who don’t need the money, tax cuts – Republicans’ answer to everything including the common cold.)
- Virginia Republicans say taxpayers would save $440 million under their plan (We have pressing needs for that $440 million, including schools, environmental protection, and transit)
- Schapiro: Ahead of legislative session, both parties squeezed by the base (Behind the RTD’s firewall, but just based on the title – “both parties,” ugh – I have a feeling I’m not going to like this one.)
- USPS IG clears conservative group of wrongdoing in Spanberger file release (“At least 6 other former employees had their files improperly released after FOIA requests, IG found”)
- The FBI must wake from its deep slumber on the death of Bijan Ghaisar (Absolutely, this was totally outrage.)
- Apex buys four solar projects in Virginia
- Bob Marshall column: Don’t waste time trying to resurrect the Equal Rights Amendment (Can someone please explain why newspapers feel the need to constantly give space to an extremist, bigot and all-around nutjob like “Sideshow Bob” Marshall? I’m losing track of how many variants of this assinine op-ed we’ve been subjected to in recent weeks.)
- Tim Kaine takes the stage at Pearl Street Warehouse
- “Disrespectful”: Hampton Roads anglers are hoping Virginia puts a stop to roping fish (“Culling, called roping in saltwater circles, can bloat the striper’s stomach to make it heavier, but also tear apart its jaw and potentially drown it.” Barbaric.)
- ACLU writes governor concerning Virginia Department of Corrections employee breast feeding
- After resolution of federal lawsuit, Culpeper’s first mosque is on course for 2020
- Push to make Northern Neck Ginger Ale Virginia’s official soft drink
- Gray skies and occasional rain today, but a sunnier end to the weekend tomorrow
