Thursday News: “Venezuela Now Has Two Presidents”; “6 in 10 Americans blame Trump for shutdown”; Trump Caves to Pelosi on SOTU; “Air Safety ‘Deteriorating By The Day'”; “Another election-year GOP ploy on fossil fuel bill?”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, January 24.

• Venezuela Now Has Two Presidents Dueling for Control of Country (“The question is whether the military brass will break ranks”)
• Russia and key allies vow to stand by Maduro in Venezuela crisis (Putin, evil as always.)
• Trump says ‘All options on table’ as Venezuela crisis deepens
• Senate set to reject government funding plan it once embraced
• If Trump Gets a Ransom to End the Shutdown, He’ll Do It Again and Again
• AP-NORC poll: 6 in 10 Americans blame Trump for shutdown (“Sixty-five percent of Americans, including 86 percent of Democrats, 69 percent of independents and 33 percent of Republicans, call the shutdown a major problem…49 percent of Americans oppose the plan to build a massive wall along the Mexican border; 36 percent of the nation is in favor.”)
• White House seeks list of programs that would be hurt if shutdown lasts into March (EVERY program is being hurt, you idiots!)
• Senate shutdown votes expected to fail, potentially opening path to compromise (“The Senate plans to hold votes Thursday to end the longest government shutdown in history. Both proposals are expected to fail, but their defeat would demonstrate that what both sides are pushing for is not possible in the Senate and that some new compromise must be forged.”)
• Trump says he’ll delay State of the Union speech until shutdown ends
• Trump says he won’t give State of the Union during shutdown after being disinvited by Pelosi
• Senate Votes on Ending Shutdown Threaten a Return to Deadlock
• A Contest of Wills, and a Way Out (“Mitch McConnell and the Senate have a chance this week to move toward ending the shutdown. Will they step up?” Does Mitch McConnell EVER “step up?”)
• Don’t give in, Democrats: No matter how long it takes, they should stand firm (“The longer the shutdown drags on, the more important it becomes for Democrats not to yield on Trump’s wall”)
• Michael Cohen Cancels Testimony Before Congress Citing “Ongoing Threats Against His Family” by Trump and Giuliani
• The Fool’s Fool (“If Rudy Giuliani has a strategy for defending the president, it’s buried under layers of ineptitude.”)
• Democrats Probe Trump ‘Favoritism’ of Oil Industry in Shutdown
• ‘Master negotiator’ or ‘nonentity’? Kushner thrusts himself into middle of shutdown talks.
• Ex-Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly Calls on President to End Shutdown
• At least 5 people killed at SunTrust Bank in Sebring, Florida, police say
• What the State of the Union reveals about the Trump-Pelosi power struggle (“Pelosi is demonstrating the power that comes with controlling a chamber of Congress…She is flexing the Democratic muscle so that Trump can see what has changed. … This is important, not simply because of the current issues, but for the next couple of years…Trump views the world as a series of winner-takes-all fights, but life under divided government doesn’t fit that model”)
• “She Was a Cartoon Villain Brought to Life”: A Former Trump Aide Recalls Conway’s Leaking Tactics in the West Wing Viper’s Nest (“In this exclusive excerpt from Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House, a former Trump aide recalls the leaking, the gossiping, and the infighting that made Kellyanne Conway such a formidable player in the White House.”)
• The president is the paralyzer-in-chief. He must be stopped. (“Any deal to end this nonsense must include a measure akin to the no-more-shutdowns proposal from Sen. Mark Warner.”)
• The Trump administration finds yet another way to harm federal employees
• Biden and Beto Boosted GOP Candidates in 2018. That’s Disqualifying. (Not sure if it’s “disqualifying,” but it’s not good at all…those two guys definitely just dropped down my list.)
• Joe Biden’s Paid Speech Buoyed the G.O.P. in Midwest Battleground (Wow, that’s totally unacceptable.)
• The U.S. faces real crises. Why is Trump fixated on a fake one? (“The lack of a border wall is far down on the list.”)
• ‘Will work for pay’: Furloughed federal workers stage sit-in outside senators’ offices on Capitol Hill
• Laura Ingraham: “Because you’re a minority, you get special standards, special treatment” (One of the leading conservative voices is a racist. So are numerous others.)
• Four ways that Fox is misinforming people about Trump and the Senate GOP’s proposal to end the shutdown
• Dems increase calls of racism against Trump
• Trump’s border wall obsession frustrates conservative activists (“Even conservative activists who have made a career of restricting immigration say Trump has gotten carried away by his famous 2016 campaign promise.”)
• ‘Extraordinarily angry and very upset taxpayers’: IRS faces chaotic tax season amid shutdown
• Why Trump Still Likes Rudy (“Hard to imagine the attraction, but …”)
• Republican Senator Joni Ernst Says She Was Raped in College
• Why do people such as Lindsey Graham come to Congress? (I hate linking to George Will, but this is a good question.)
• Air Safety ‘Deteriorating By The Day’ Amid Shutdown, Union Leaders Warn (“The president of the National Air Traffic Controller’s Association has warned that he holds deep concerns for the safety and security of airlines and travelers.”)
• This Isn’t About NATO. It’s About Placating the Mad King. (“22 of Trump’s Republican allies in the House vote to leave the alliance, because what the hell.”)
• The Covington Catholic Fiasco Is the Latest Conservative Information War (“It all kicked off a decade ago, with the bad-faith witch hunt against ACORN.”)
• Google, Facebook And Microsoft Sponsored A Conference That Promoted Climate Change Denial (“The conference was backed by a group founded to spread the ‘good news’ about carbon emissions.” Completely deranged.)
• Virginia soldier killed in Afghanistan attack (“Staff Sgt. Joshua Beale was from Carrollton, Virginia”)
• Federal court hands Dems big win in Virginia redistricting case (“Under the new lines, six districts that favored GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney over President Obama in 2012 would have instead given Obama a majority”)
• The Virginia House Commerce & Labor Committee Did WHAT?
• Another election-year GOP ploy on fossil fuel bill? (“Republicans seem to think that holding onto their slim majority requires letting bills that terrify big business get to the floor, all evidently to send a message about who corporate donors need to back in the coming elections this year, when every House and Senate seat is up.”)
• House, Senate Democrats Send a Letter to Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne Highlighting the Urgent Need for Conformity to Federal Tax Code (“The General Assembly has less than one week to act before Virginians will experience a delay in receiving their tax refunds.”)
• Audio: Hard-Right Virginia Del. Margaret Ransone (R) Predicts that ERA Will Be Stopped in Full Committee on Friday
• Audio: Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA06) Returns to His “Safe Space” (Trumpster Talk Radio), Rants About Nancy Pelosi, the “Liberal, Fake Media,” the “Far-Left,” “Voter Fraud,” etc, etc.
• A District-by-District Analysis of the New Court-Ordered Lines for 2019
• A prime opportunity for prison reform
• Northam seeks clarity on unemployment rules as shutdown drags on
• ‘The devil is in the details:’ Some health groups oppose ‘Tobacco 21’ bills
• Crawshaw: Time for Virginia to ratify the ERA
• Rep. Luria, Virginia Democrat, urges Pelosi to offer Trump a vote on border security funding (“Thirty Democrats, including Reps. Wexton and Spanberger, signed a letter written by the freshman Democrat”)
• Loudoun Co. leaders discuss shutdown’s financial impact with Sen. Kaine (“An estimated 15 – 25,000 federal employees live in Loudoun County”)
• Editorial: Improving jail conditions requires vigilance
• Video: 39 Fairfax County Democratic Candidates in 52 Minutes!
• Hanover Supervisor Scott Wyatt announces bid for Del. Chris Peace’s House seat (“Wyatt previously served as his district’s chairman for the Hanover GOP committee.”)
• Roanoke council OKs pay increase for its members to take effect in 2020
• Long: Are tolls on I-81 really the answer?
• Wet with gusty downpours this morning. Then a rapid chilldown.