Wednesday News: Health Care “Procedural Madness” in Senate; John McCain’s “Tragic Contradictions”; Trump vs. Rule of Law

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, July 26. Also, check out the video, in which Sen. John McCain says all kinds of things we can all agree with…except that he just voted in contradiction of pretty much all of them. WTF???

• Senate Votes Down Broad Obamacare Repeal
• First GOP health care bill fails, with many more votes to come (“The Senate GOP’s Affordable Care Act replacement plan did a face plant on Tuesday night, with nine Republicans and all Democrats voting against it. But it was only the first vote of what’s sure to be a long process, and its failure wasn’t a surprise.”)
• House punishes Russia, blocks Trump from waiving penalties
• As Senate starts debate to topple the ACA, even senators don’t know where it will lead
• Britain Sees Brexit’s Threats More Clearly (“As negotiations progress, hopes for a painless divorce and new opportunities for a ‘global Britain’ wither.”)
• Intelligence Agencies Say North Korean Missile Could Reach U.S. in a Year (Luckily, we have the super-competent, level-headed President Trump, who will most certainly solve this problem in a non-disastrous way. Oh wait…)
• Senators on hot mic: Trump is ‘crazy,’ ‘I’m worried’
• The ugly way Trump’s rise and Putin’s are connected (“An important chunk of the money that has pumped up the New York luxury real estate market was money originally siphoned off from the Russian state.”)
• Trump escalates attacks on Sessions, but attorney general said to have no plans to resign (Can you even imagine Barack Obama – or George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, whoever – publicly attacking their own attorney general???)
• This is not okay (“WHEN PRESIDENT TRUMP attacked Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a tweet Tuesday for not aggressively investigating Hillary Clinton, most attention focused, understandably, on the implications for Mr. Sessions. Yet even more alarming than the president’s assault on his own attorney general is Mr. Trump’s return to the ‘lock her up’ theme of his 2016 campaign. We need to recall, once again, what it means to live under the rule of law.”)
• Jeff Sessions Is Growing ‘Pissed’ at Trump, His Allies Say. And He Doesn’t Plan to Quit.
• Capitol Hill staff prevent journalists from reporting on health care protesters (Our sad/scary descent into banana republic status continues…)
• 5 GOP senators who promised to be principled on health care and then caved when it was time to vote
• For America, It Looks Like Chaos. For Trump, It’s Just Tuesday. (“The president makes a mess, then makes it worse. It’s what he’s always done.”)
• How the GOP brought Obamacare repeal back from the dead (“Every step of the way has been agonizing, and Tuesday was no exception.”)
• Tough road ahead for McConnell on ObamaCare
• The Senate Health Care Vote and John McCain’s Tragic Contradictions (“In voting to keep the Obamacare repeal alive, the Arizona senator participated in the sort of cynical politics that he then inveighed against on the Senate floor.”)
• McCain’s Sorkinesque Speech After Advancing a Bill That Could Kill Thousands Was a Joke
• A Look at the Procedural Madness Ahead As the Senate Messes With Your Health Insurance (“To recapitulate: Two of the three most likely outcomes of this whole crazy Senate process would be somewhat anti-climactic — passage of a “skinny repeal” or failure to pass anything.”)
• Parliamentarian Shovels More Dirt On Senate GOP O’care Replacement
• The Strange, Slow-Motion Defenestration of Jeff Sessions (“Why is President Trump badmouthing his attorney general, why doesn’t he just fire him, and what does he hope to accomplish by pushing him out?”)
• So Do We Know Where the Secretary of State Is? (“Rex Tillerson is ‘taking a little time off.'”)
• What the Hell Has Happened to the Senate? (“The bizarre process we just witnessed is the culmination of tribalism, the continued degradation of norms, and Mitch McConnell.”)
• Trump’s Insecurity Is a Threat to Our Security (“The president’s worries about his own illegitimacy have caused a rift with intelligence agencies.”)
• Why Russia Revelations Never Seem To Change Anything (“Our system is designed for stasis — and a powerful presidency…Scandal coverage doesn’t change the political environment”)
• John McCain gives stirring speech denouncing the health bill he just voted to advance (“He gave the impression he loathed everything about the bill, but he didn’t use his power to actually stop it.” Pathetic.)
• The Price of John McCain’s Republican Loyalty (“He has a terminal illness. He’s on government healthcare. But he’s a Republican.”)
• John McCain Doesn’t Know What He’s Voting for, Either (“This is crazier than anything we could have imagined, even in January.”)
• GOP scrapes out a health care win, for now — but the Trump alliance is headed for disaster (“Republicans still might not pass anything — and they’re starting to realize the guy in the White House is toxic”)
• John McCain is no maverick: The man who inflicted Sarah Palin on us kowtows to Trump
• Trump Has Turned America’s Reputation for Fighting Corruption Into a Joke
• In 1968, Utility Companies Learned About Climate Change—and Did Nothing (And guess who’s on the list? Yep, Dominion, formerly VEPCO)
• Why President Trump suddenly hates his attorney general (“The Trump-Sessions feud isn’t about personalities. It’s about whether the AG should protect him and go after his opponents.”)
• What’s next for the Senate Republicans’ effort to repeal Obamacare, in one flowchart (“The road is very narrow, but it’s not impossible.”)
• Ed Gillespie launching TV ads in race for governor (“Television ads from Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie will begin airing Wednesday in markets across Virginia, according to a news release.”)
• Democrats Go ‘All-In’ for Virginia Governor’s Race (“The Democratic National Committee is sending $1.5 million and several top staffers to Virginia to boost gubernatorial nominee Ralph Northam, whose war chest was depleted after a tough primary campaign, an official told NBC News.”)
• Va Senators Warner, Kaine speak out on Senate ACA vote
• While The Democratic Party Is Trying To Reinvent Itself, Tim Kaine Is Just Doing Tim Kaine (“The former vice presidential nominee has no interest in 2020 and is just happy being a senator from Virginia again. Even if you don’t know who he is.”)
• The Trump administration’s dismal forecast for the Chesapeake Bay (“We should be protecting the Chesapeake watershed more, not less.”)
• America discovers what the coal companies left behind in Appalachian Virginia (“Coal companies exported wealth while leaving behind ripped-apart mountains, polluted water and generations of sick and disabled people.”)
• National money pours into Virginia governor’s race (“Two national groups stroked seven-figure checks after Gillespie and Northam debate.”)
• Schapiro: Debate spotlights Virginia’s vanishing political middle (Peak “Both Sides-ism” from Jeff Schapiro. So typical of the corporate media.
• He was brought to Northern Virginia as a toddler, deported at 19. He died in an overheated tractor-trailer trying to return. (“Frank G. Fuentes, who graduated from a Fairfax County high school two years ago, is one of 10 dead in the San Antonio smuggling case.”)
• Change J.E.B. Stuart High School’s name (“The school board is set to vote Thursday on whether to rename the Falls Church school. The matter has been the subject of intense debate over the past two years, mirroring the struggles of other jurisdictions and institutions confronting the intertwined issues of history, identity, and the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow segregation.”)
• Dominion CEO remark prompts Richmond School Board members to ask for more transparency in superintendent search process
• Editorial: Beach takes wrong path on City Hall debate
• ‘He wasn’t anybody you’d want to stop’: Witnesses describe the ax and knife-wielding suspect
• Pretty pleasant today; hotter tomorrow before storm risk returns