Thursday News: Anyone Who Votes for GOP’s Tax Monstrosity Must Lose Next November; Trump Makes It Easier to Kill Elephants and Lions; “Virginia Moves to Join RGGI”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, November 16.

• Two more women describe unwanted overtures by Roy Moore at Ala. mall (Yet leading Virginia Republicans like Corey Stewart keep saying they support Moore. Sick.)
• Trump to allow imports of African elephant trophies (Definitive proof, for anyone who ever doubted it, that Trump is a sociopath and all-around heinous excuse for a human being. As is anyone who would travel to Africa to kill an elephant.)
• ‘Bernie Bernstein’ wants the world to know his name (“In his latest venture, the so-called journalist has been soliciting dirt in Alabama on Roy Moore.”)
• What Is Going to Happen to Zimbabwe Now? (“The ouster of Robert Mugabe could lead to a better future, or more death.”)
• Republicans turn their irresponsible tax bill into monumentally unwise social policy (“Eliminating Obamacare’s individual mandate would raise premiums and lead to millions more Americans lacking health insurance.”)
• The GOP is trading 13 million people’s health care for corporate tax cuts (“Is this really who we are as a nation?” No, but it IS who Republicans are.))
• Republicans: Enrage your colleagues (“Say ‘no’ to a tax bill that would impose real sacrifice on your constituents.”)
• The Republican tax plan’s five worst dangers (“It would make the deficit far worse and touch off forces that could undermine American policy and stability.”)
• The GOP’s Options For Getting Rid Of Roy Moore Are All Potentially Undemocratic
• GOP muscling tax bill through House; hits senator roadblock
• House Is Poised to Pass Tax Bill in Step Toward Overhaul (Any Republican who votes for this needs to be ousted next November.)
• Senate Republicans’ new $2,000 child tax credit helps them — but doesn’t really help the poor
• GOP’s Roy Moore dilemma reflects a much bigger crisis for conservative politics (“Republicans want to ditch Moore in the worst way. But because of their past choices, they’re stuck with him”)
• White-on-White Voting (“When an area is more than 85 percent white, support for President Trump skyrockets — and that makes all the difference.”)
• How Trump walked into Putin’s web
• Kristof: Billionaires Desperately Need Our Help!
• Inside the Breitbart Embassy, Where Steve Bannon Entertains Elites and Plots His Populist Takeover
• Why Ron Johnson’s Opposition Is a Body Blow for the Trump Tax Cuts
• In Bonn, Trump’s Answer to Global Warming? Drill, Baby, Drill! (Yes, Trump not only wants to make it easier to kill elephants and lions, he also wants to destroy any chance for a habitable planet. Sociopath or psychopath? Both?)
• Blow: Moore, Trump and the Right’s New Religion (“There are religious people, and many are on the right, but the idea of religiosity as an organizing principle for conservatives has passed. Trump helped kill it. This incarnation of conservatism has burned its cross and erected the golden calf of Trumpism in its place. Trump is the right’s new religion.”)
• Karl Rove Has Seen the Enemy and He Is Steve Bannon
• Democrats Are Giddy About Tax Reform (“They have the GOP bill right where they want it.”)
• How Doug Jones could pull off a stunner in Alabama
• Republicans see rising Dem odds in Alabama (“A National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) poll conducted days after the allegations against Moore became public showed him trailing Democratic candidate Doug Jones by 12 points.”)
• Republican governors fear a 2018 midterm wipeout after Virginia loss
• House Dems introduce articles of impeachment against Trump
• GOP leaders weigh drastic plan to save Alabama Senate seat (“The move, one of several long-shot options under consideration, would seek to trigger a new election.” Anything but democracy for the GOP.)
• Democrats Are Shockingly Unprepared to Fight Climate Change (“When Waxman-Markey failed, the pan-Democratic consensus fell apart with it.”)
• Donald Trump Is Thirsty for Respect (“In a speech billed as a ‘major statement,’ the president had little to offer but a summary of his Asia trip.”)
• Kaine calls for eliminating superdelegates (I have mixed feelings about superdelegates.)
• Fox News viewers declare war on Shepard Smith for debunking Uranium One conspiracy (“Smith carefully explained to viewers that Uranium One wasn’t a real scandal, hours before Sean Hannity played it up”)
• Fox News faces advertiser problem following Sean Hannity’s public fight with Keurig (Advertisers need to stay away from this right-wing propaganda network.)
• The Senate Is Getting Ready to Erode Obama’s Landmark Wall Street Law
• Will Washington State Pass the Nation’s First Carbon Tax? (“After Democrats take Olympia, environmentalists push big action on climate.” Virginia should look at a revenue-neutral carbon tax, with all the revenues going back to everyone who earns under,
  let’s say, $150k per year or whatever.)
• Virginia Moves to Join RGGI Carbon-trading Market (“Virginia regulators are ready to consider a proposal to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in the Northeast, becoming the 10th state in the nation’s largest carbon-trading market.”)
• Groups appeal Atlantic Coast Pipeline approval
• N.C. Utilities Commission asks feds for a ‘rehearing’ on ACP
• Fight over 55 uncounted ballots could swing Virginia state House (Actually not true; those 55 ballots are NOT enough to swing HD-28. However, they might help get Democrat Joshua Cole that he might win in a recount.)
• Editorial: The 6th and 9th aren’t gerrymandered (Yeah, for the most part they really aren’t. Now the 5th and 10th, on the other hands…)
• Menhaden vote a mixed bag for Virginia (“The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission decided at an annual meeting in Linthicum, Md., to lower the Chesapeake Bay reduction fishery cap by 41.5 percent, from 87,216 metric tons to 51,000 metric tons. This pleases Virginia conservationists, but not the reduction fishery.”)
• How to ensure a Tim Kaine victory in 2018 (“Who among the Republican survivors of the Tuesday Night Massacre will challenge Stewart?” Yeah, maybe Gillespie will run again and lose…again.)
• Gun control groups say Virginia election means ‘enthusiasm gap’ has closed (“Exit polls showed gun policy ranked as the second most important issue in the governor’s race, and voters motivated by guns were evenly split between Democrat Ralph Northam and Republican Ed Gillespie.”)
• Ralph Northam’s win tells Democrats they shouldn’t fear the gun lobby
• Colleges urged to close gap between degrees and job skills
• Scott Blackburn column: Wave election possible because of Virginia’s campaign finance laws (Hahahahahaha. This guy works for the “Institute for Free Speech,” whose president was Executive Director of the faaar-right, anti-government “Club for Growth” for 12 years, among other right-wing activities. I love how the RTD doesn’t let readers know who leads this innocently named “Institute for Free Speech.”)
• Half a day late, 55 ballots land with disconcerting thud in tight Va. House race (“‘There is no possible way … that these ballots should not have been available to us on Election Day,’ Stafford County’s registrar wrote.”)
• Democrats file federal lawsuit demanding Stafford County accept 55 absentee ballots rejected in close House race
• Henrico School Board member convicted of DUI
• Editorial: Democrats earned a majority in the House of Delegates (“Pending recounts in a handful of extremely tight races, the Republicans hold a 51-49 edge in the House. But Democrats received far more votes on Nov. 7 — almost 1.3 million, compared to fewer than 1.1 million for Republicans.”)
• CASEY: Democrats’ email spooks ‘blue wave’ voter
• Richmond state senator steps forward to help carry schools initiative through General Assembly
  
• D.C.-area forecast: Mild but windy today, and the next cold blast arrives Sunday