Tuesday News: Tentative Shutdown Deal Reached, with No Funding for Trump’s Odious “Wall”; Beto vs. Racist Orange Blob on the Border; Northam “Apology Tour”; Fairfax Staffers Quit; “Of gatekeepers and drivers licenses”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, February 12.

• Maybe We’ll Do Something When the Polar Bears Attack (“No need to rush on that Green New Deal!”)
• Trump Wants to Meet With Xi ‘Very Soon’ Over Trade War, Adviser Says (“The two could get together in March, Trump adviser Conway says”)
• Tentative Border Deal in Congress Leaves Shutdown Up to Trump
• Congress Reaches Tentative Deal to Avoid Shutdown, With Wall Funding Democrats Offered in December
• Lawmakers say they have reached an ‘agreement in principle’ to avoid government shutdown (“The deal includes $1.375 billion for 55 miles of fences along the border, compared with $5.7 billion Trump had sought for more than 200 miles of walls. The deal omits a strict new cap Democrats had sought on immigrants detained within the United States — as opposed to at the border. At the same time, it limits overall levels of detention beds maintained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, although GOP aides said ICE would have enough money and flexibility to maintain its current detention levels and add more when needed.”)
• Cliff Sims, White House Tell-All Author, Sues Trump for Going After Him Over Book
• Democrat Beto O’Rourke Directly Challenges Trump: ‘Walls End Lives’ (“The potential 2020 Democratic candidate for president told supporters he would work toward policies of inclusion and diversity during a rally in El Paso, Texas.”)
• Robert Mueller has spent two years investigating Trump, and he hasn’t said a word. It’s possible he never will.
• GOP livid with Trump over ignored Khashoggi report
• Presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar refutes Trump questioning whether climate change is real (“‘Okay, that is so wrong,’ the Minnesota Democrat said on ‘Good Morning America.'” Great, but stop covering this as “both sides.” There’s only one right answer here, and obviously it’s not Trump’s.)
• Top Leader at Interior Dept. Pushes a Policy Favoring His Former Client (“David Bernhardt, the agency’s acting chief, wants to roll back endangered-species protections on a tiny fish, a change that benefits few outside a California group he once represented as a lobbyist.”)
• More than 200 Baptist ministers, deacons and others have been found guilty of sex abuse, report says (“A total of about 380 Southern Baptist leaders and volunteers have faced allegations of sexual misconduct, a newspaper investigation found.” Why does it say “more than 200” and then “about 380?”)
• Beto takes on Trump in tale of 2 mega-rallies (“The president held a campaign event in the hometown of his likely 2020 rival — and O’Rourke hit back with a speech blasting the border wall.”)
• NeverTrumpers Care About Damage to the Republican Brand, Not the Republic (“They’re about as useful as anti-vaxxers.” Agreed, they are generally useless.)
• Major Sunday shows discuss climate change and Green New Deal, but through narrow lens of political horse race (Yep, the Sunday shows continue to be a disgrace.)
• The Christian Right, Not AIPAC, Drives the GOP’s Pro-Israel Stance (Big time.)
• Top Senate Intelligence Committee Democrat fears Barr nomination could threaten Russia probe (“‘The president’s sole concern is choosing a new attorney general who will shield him from the special counsel,’ Sen. Mark Warner said.”)
• Ilhan Omar Apologizes for Statements Condemned as Anti-Semitic
• Meet the Republicans in Congress who suddenly discovered anti-Semitism (“Their condemnations of comments by Ilhan Omar don’t match with their own records.” Kind of like the Republicans in Virginia who are suddenly faux-concerned about racism.)
• Los Angeles ditches plan to invest billions in fossil fuels, Mayor Eric Garcetti says (Virginia should have ditched fossil fuel investments in the VRS a long time ago.)
• Obama warned us about the Supreme Court we have right now (“Special rights for white Christian conservatives.”)
• Republicans Keep Admitting Everything They Said About Obama Was a Lie (And also, other than lies, a lot of racist crap.)
• Former Attorney General Eric Holder Close To 2020 Decision As He Heads To Iowa
• Democratic Leadership Statement on Anti-Semitic Comments of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (“Anti-Semitism must be called out, confronted and condemned whenever it is encountered, without exception.”)
• Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA02) Coauthors Letter Calling Out Alleged “Anti-Semitism…hateful tropes and stereotypes” by Reps. Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib
• Audio: On Trumpster Radio, Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA05) Rants at Ralph Northam, “you don’t get to preach to me about white privilege, you just don’t”
• Virginia Senate, House “Party Unity” Scores Show No Particular Correlation with Ideology, District Lean
• Black leaders call for forgiveness, second chance for Northam
• State of Crisis: Scandal in Virginia
• Virginia political crisis in stalemate after impeachment threat
• If only: Northam’s missed chances to lead on race as governor (“If only the governor had been presented the opportunity to weigh in forcefully on behalf of a marginalized African-American community staring down the prospect of a giant, polluting industrial project planned for their rural area…You get the point.”)
• Here’s what historians have to say about Northam’s “indentured servants” comment (“‘I would say that this is consistent with what we have seen from Northam over the past two weeks in terms of these responses that are overlooking the anti-black racism that is foundational to slavery and the history of this country’ said Allison Page, an assistant professor of media studies at Old Dominion University who studies the representation of slavery in U.S. media culture. ‘The larger point: by saying indentured servants, it is softening the reality of the history of slavery,” she said. “Calling people who were enslaved indentured servants keeps erasing this history. … It’s minimizing these atrocities.'” Bingo!)
• Fairfax Accuser Told Friends She Was Raped by Corey Maggette (“The woman who has accused Virginia’s lieutenant governor, Justin E. Fairfax, of raping her said that a former N.B.A. player, Corey Maggette, raped her at Duke University 20 years ago and that school officials did not pursue the claim, according to a childhood friend of the woman and Facebook messages the woman exchanged with another friend.”)
• Fairfax staffers resign after 2nd sexual assault allegation; one accuser calls for public hearings
• Staffers to Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax resign following second sexual assault allegation (“The PAC employees who left are Dave Mills, who was the executive director of We Rise Together, and Courtney McCargo, a fundraiser for the PAC. Mills is the husband of state Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, who is considered a strong contender to replace Fairfax as lieutenant governor should Fairfax resign.”)
• Virginia legislators adopt tax package on fast route, after racial equity reshapes debate
• Of gatekeepers and drivers licenses (“But the bill died in one of the most demanding panels of all in Richmond: the House Courts of Justice criminal laws subcommittee. The subcommittee chairman, Majority Leader Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, is a former prosecutor who casts a skeptical eye on many proposals to ease the sanctions state law imposes. Courts committee chair Rob Bell, R-Albemarle. another former prosecutor, plays a key role on the panel, often parsing bills’ sentences clause by clause.” Gilbert and Bell are among the two worst in the Virginia General Assembly. Just horrible.)
• Ralph Northam addresses moonwalk, shoe polish questions in interview with CBS
• Ralph Northam Will Launch A “Listening Tour” About Race Amid Blackface Scandal (“Plans to recalibrate the governor’s legislative agenda to focus on race are coming into focus.”)
• Northam to attend race discussion at Virginia Union University (“In a news release, VUU said Northam’s attendance is part of the governor’s ‘apology tour’ in the aftermath of the blackface scandal.”)
• Mark J. Rozell column: The poll that saved a governor? (” By a nearly 3-1 margin Democrats in Virginia approve of the job that Northam is doing as governor. And 57 percent of Democrats say he should not step down. Who wants the governor out of office? Republicans.”)
• Editorial: Northam would be gone if Virginia had a parliamentary system (Riiiiight…but obviously we don’t.)
• General Assembly reaches deal amidst disruptions
• Virginia closer to allowing schools to start before Labor Day
• Kenny Boddye Calls For “thorough, dignified investigation into the allegations against Justin Fairfax”
• RAM worries that language in bill will kill free clinics in Virginia (“Remote Area Medical, which brings free health, dental and vision care to Virginians, said its clinics could be in jeopardy if a bill before a Virginia Senate committee on Tuesday becomes law. As written, the legislation could prevent RAM and any other charitable clinic from operating in Virginia, RAM spokesman Robert Lambert said.”)
• Richmond City Council renames Boulevard for Arthur Ashe
• D.C.-area forecast: Cold rain for another day, with some slick spots early. Drying out Wednesday.