Saturday News: “Pelosi Won, Trump Lost”; “The shutdown was proof of Trump’s stark incapacity for leadership”; “Trump’s Shutdown Was a Cruel Joke”; “Five takeaways from Roger Stone’s indictment”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, January 26.

• The shutdown was proof of Trump’s stark incapacity for leadership (Trump is a completely worthless – actually far worse than worthless – individual.)
• Trump lost. Period.
• Pelosi Won, Trump Lost (“The government shutdown has revealed a new dynamic in Washington: The president has met his match.” Yep, and anyone who underestimated Pelosi or wanted someone else as Speaker is…uh…not the sharpest tool in the shed, let’s just say.)
• Trump signs bill to open the government, ending the longest shutdown in history
• Post-ABC poll: Trump disapproval swells as president, Republicans face lopsided blame for shutdown (And “Trump disapproval climbs to 58 percent,” including 49 percent who STRONGLY disapprove of Trump.)
• ‘She’s not one to bluff’: How Pelosi won the shutdown battle (“Pelosi’s victory will help define her over the next two years as she clashes with Trump.”)
• ‘Complete, total surrender’: Why Trump waved the white flag (“The sudden erosion of support from Senate Republicans ultimately forced Trump’s hand.” Which proves that Senate Republicans could have ended this idiotic Trump/GOP shutdown on day #1, basically.)
• This is why Republicans were so desperate to keep Nancy Pelosi from becoming speaker again
• At Least We Got to See Trump Get Beat Like a Drum (“The president* folds on his big, beautiful, stupid wall with a no-deal deal.”)
• ‘All for nothing’: Trump’s wall retreat bewilders allies (“Before the president was done talking on Friday, a group text chain with several former Trump aides lit up with complaints.”)
• ‘Prisoner of his own impulse’: Inside Trump’s cave to end shutdown without wall
• The vindication of Nancy Pelosi (“How Pelosi delivered Trump the most humiliating loss of his presidency.” Pelosi is amazing.)
• Trump just caved. Democrats can now take control of the immigration debate.
• This is the greatest blunder of Trump’s presidency (And there have been a LOT of blunders!)
• Trump Caves on Shutdown, Is Terrible at Politics (“President releases the hostages, tries to pretend he is not humiliated”)
• Trump Caved So Hard People Are Searching What ‘Caving’ Means
• Donald Trump’s The Art of the Keel
• What did the president know, and when did he know it?
• FBI Agents Arrested Roger Stone for Free. I Would Have, Too. (“He’s given nothing to American politics but poison.”)
• What the Roger Stone Indictment Left Out: How He Helped Russia Attack the 2016 Election (“His greatest act of villainy isn’t included in Robert Mueller’s charging document.”)
• The right invents conspiracy theory about CNN footage of Stone’s arrest, Trump latches on (Demented as always)
• John Podesta: It might now be Roger Stone’s time in the barrel
• Donald Trump Reopens the Government and Gets Schooled
• Pro-Trump Media Stars Despair After Trump Caves on Shutdown (Sad!)
• Pelosi, Well, Manhandles Trump with Two Tools: ‘A Feather and a Sledgehammer” (“Se said more than once that she is respectful of the office Trump holds, ‘perhaps more respectful than he is.'”)
• End of shutdown: workers left with debts, bad credit and shattered trust (“The blase attitude of Trump administration officials is a world away from the experience of federal employees – who fear a repeat in three weeks’ time”)
• Trump’s Shutdown Was a Cruel Joke (“It revealed the folly of the president’s approach to politics.”)
• Trump Was Always Going to Fold on the Border Wall (“The president almost always caves in a tough negotiation, and he never had a real plan for using the shutdown to get $5.7 billion from Congress.”)
• Pompeo Takes U.S. Efforts to Oust Maduro to Security Council
• Roger Stone Indictment Raises More Big Questions About Russia, Trump 2016 Campaign
• Huge Trove of Leaked Russian Documents Is Published by Transparency Advocates (“…the sheer volume of the material — 175 gigabytes — and the technical challenges of searching it meant that its full impact may not be felt for some time. The volume is many times greater than the total known material stolen by Russian military intelligence from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign nearly three years ago.”)
• If Trump Was Tony Soprano… (“The gang that couldn’t conspire straight.”)
• Roger Stone says he won’t testify against Trump after Mueller indictment
• Mueller Indictment Just a Hint of Roger Stone’s Bonkers Email Abuse of Frenemy Randy Credico
• Trump and His Associates Had More Than 100 Contacts With Russians Before the Inauguration (Totally innocent! No collusion! LOL)
• Five takeaways from Roger Stone’s indictment
• 1,000 People Lost Jobs in Media This Week
• Sanders poised to announce presidential campaign: report
• Beto O’Rourke says 2020 decision could be months away
• Virginia Democrats’ Statements on “Trump’s Agreement to End Historic Government Shutdown”
• Tim Kaine isn’t apologizing for his anti-shutdown tactics (“The Virginia senator spent weeks preventing some of his colleagues from leaving Washington over the shutdown.”)
• Bloomberg attacks Trump as ‘pretend CEO,’ federal shutdown as cynical ‘stunt’
• SHAME: VA Democrats Denounce House Republicans for Blocking ERA
• Angry About Virginia House Republicans Blocking the ERA? Here’s One Thing You Can Do Right Now.
• Va. Supreme Court justice to retire, giving GOP-led legislature a chance to fill slot (“Elizabeth McClanahan to step down from seven member court in September” Oh no, not this again.)
• Effort to revive ERA bill fails in Virginia
• Video: You Don’t Get Any More Ridiculous, Idiotic than the Virginia State Senate Debate on Guns in Churches
• Coming to Jesus, armed: Virginia Senate approves guns in churches
• Dueling Videos: Del. Alfonso Lopez Accurately Describes Harm of “Trump Shutdown”; Trumpster Del. Bobby Orrock (R) Badly Needs a “Safe Space”
• Scott named to budget committee
• Sen. Bill Stanley’s driver’s license suspension repeal bill passes Senate
• Munley: Prayers to stop the pipeline
• Driving Privileges for Undocumented Individuals in Virginia Fails Despite Massive Turnout From Community Members and Advocates
• Regulators put high cost on Northam’s cap and trade plan (“State Corporation Commission staffers told a legislative hearing Thursday that the average residential customer would have to pay $7 to $12 more each month. Northam’s office disputes these numbers, saying the cost would likely be less than $1 a month.” I don’t trust the SCC as far as I can throw it.)
• “Historic” Agreement to Clean Up Coal Ash in Va.
• With a rising demand for opioid addiction treatment, how do you weed out the ‘bad actors?’
• Schapiro: McAuliffe, as White House prospect, could be crowded out in the middle
• Virginia teachers are marching on the Capitol on Monday. Here’s why.
• Fairfax sees rare primary battle for board chair amid political transformation (Here we go again with the “moderate Democrat” and “shift further to the left” crap by the Washington Post)
• Turnover on Fairfax Board of Supervisors Continues
• Siobhan Dunnavant column: Medical marijuana: Making the case at the General Assembly
• More details emerge in Newport News crash after police chase
• Portsmouth stops sending new inmates to Hampton Roads Regional Jail after feds find unsafe conditions
• Largely tranquil and mostly mild ahead of next week’s Arctic blast