Friday News: “National Emergencies Are for Autocrats”; “We have a national emergency, all right. Its name is Donald Trump.”; Election of Teresa Chafin to VA Supreme Court Shows MASSIVE Double Standard

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, February 15.

• Brexit chaos: Theresa May loses yet another Brexit vote (The UK seems hell-bent on destroying itself.)
• Trump Plans $8 Billion for Border Wall Invoking His Own Authority (Totally unacceptable. Can you even *imagine* the reaction by the right wing if Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton had done this???)
• ‘Off the rails’: Inside Trump’s attempt to claim victory in his border wall defeat
• Trump shocks GOP with emergency declaration (“Senate Republicans were stunned to learn Trump is ignoring their warnings against such a move.” Why would they be surprised? It’s authoritarian, bat***-crazy Donald Trump, after all.)
• Want to Challenge Trump’s Border ‘Emergency’? Get in Line
• National Emergencies Are for Autocrats (“Trump’s proposed executive order to build his border wall is the clearest sign yet he’s abusing the presidency.”)
• Pelosi warns GOP: Next president could declare national emergency on guns (Could also do so on the climate crisis, on crumbling national infrastructure, on protecting voting rights from GOP assault, or any number of issues.)
• National emergency will be blocked by courts temporarily, DOJ warns White House (Given that there’s no emergency, it’s insane to allow the president to declare one. If this is allowed, then basically ANY president could declare a “national emergency” for just about anything. That’s NOT how our democracy is supposed to work.)
• We have a national emergency, all right. Its name is Donald Trump.
• No ‘Emergency’ Will Allow Trump to Build His Wall (“There’s no escape clause in the Constitution that lets him defy Congress.”)
• House Democrats to challenge Trump’s emergency declaration; Republicans divided on action (Republicans worthless as usual.)
• Trump Will Declare a National Emergency. What Happens Next? (“Congress has tools to override the president’s declaration, but opponents most likely do not have the votes to overcome a veto.”)
• An emergency declaration by Trump will lead to lawsuits. Lots of them.
  
• A Trump-Made Emergency (“The president decides that fulfilling a campaign promise is more important than respecting the separation of powers.” Also, again, there’s no emergency!)
• Trump Keeps Doubling Down On The Same Failed Strategy(“If Trump follows through on the emergency declaration, he’ll be doing something that large majorities of Americans oppose — and he’ll be doing it at right as his job approval ratings had begun to rebound following the partial government shutdown in December and January. Indeed, the act of declaring a national emergency to build a wall is even more unpopular than the wall itself — and the wall isn’t popular.”)
• The New Republican Strategy for Dealing with the Emergency That Is Trump: Pray (“No one these days, not even the loyal Republican guard on Capitol Hill, can predict what Trump, increasingly cornered by the results of a midterm election that handed Democrats control of the House of Representatives, will do or say. There is no Team Trump from the President’s point of view, only a leader and his followers, yet the entire Trump Presidency is an extended reminder of the fact that it’s awfully hard to follow if you don’t know where the leader wants you to go.”)
• Republicans distance themselves from Trump’s border wall ’emergency’ (“A future president may use this exact same tactic to impose the Green New Deal.” And in the case of climate change, it actually WOULD be an emergency!)
• Trump’s presidency enters a new imperial phase — and Mitch McConnell just rolls over (McConnell continues to be a disgrace. He’s gotta go in 2020 – c’mon Kentucky!)
• Ex-RNC Chair Michael Steele Warns GOP On Trump’s Emergency: You Will Rue This (“He said Republicans will have ‘no credence, no authority’ to block future national emergencies by a Democratic president.”)
• The Senate’s Russia Probe Is Facing a Reckoning (“Meanwhile, the Democratic-led House committee is gearing up for a reinvigorated inquiry.”)
• Winners and losers in the border security deal (WINNERS: Speaker Pelosi, “Women as leaders on a powerful committee,” Federal workers; LOSERS: Trump, House conservatives, “Federal contractors and women programs”)
• 2020 Democrats split on spending deal (Booker, Gillibrand, Harris and Warren voted no.)
• Andrew McCabe’s disturbing account of working for Sessions and Trump (“It’s a startling portrait that suggests that the Trump administration’s reputation for baseness and dysfunction has, if anything, been understated and too narrowly attributed to the president.”)
• The Senate confirms Bill Barr as attorney general (“There are still outstanding questions about how much of the Mueller report he’s actually willing to share.”)
• GOP Looks to Turn Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal on Democrats
• Why Does the Catholic Church Keep Failing on Sexual Abuse?
• Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Headquarters (“The tech giant canceled its plan to build a campus in Queens after facing fierce opposition from lawmakers and unions opposed to the nearly $3 billion in government incentives. The company had said the deal would have created over 25,000 jobs, but it stirred a debate that touched on rising costs of living and the city’s very identity.”)
• Amazon to New York: Drop dead (“They assumed their consumer popularity translated into a free ticket to gentrify and instead got their lunch handed to them”)
• The Useful Idealism of the Green New Deal (“Democrats need a sweeping vision for a post-Trump world.”)
• ‘I feel bad for him at this point’: Democrats starting to dismiss Schultz (“Democratic National Committee members said their fears are eased by what they’ve seen so far from the billionaire coffee magnate.” The guy’s a complete joke.)
• Amazon To Pay $0 In Federal Taxes In 2019: Report (“The tech giant reportedly used various tax breaks and credits to claim a $129 million rebate on $11 billion in profits last year.”)
• Pay raise for federal employees would be retroactive; senior appointees also would benefit
• The left’s quest for purity could destroy potentially worthy leaders (“Northam’s situation presents genuine conundrums. How can we balance a policy of no tolerance toward bigotry with one that allows for growth and redemption? And if progressives believe that life circumstances and cultural factors play a part in bringing out the worst or best in an individual, should we not apply that understanding across the board?”)
• Spanberger introduces legislation to prevent future government shutdowns
• Kaine on continuing Virginia political scandals
• Virginia scandals’ fallout to test special election (“Republicans anxious to see if public disgust translates to boost in Delegate race”)
• Progressives in Virginia have no good choices. Black women know how that feels.
• Second Fairfax accuser is intensely private single mother
• Virginia officials caught off guard by Amazon-New York split
• Democrats hope for a nationalized Virginia election this fall (“Richmond chaos could threaten state legislative takeover but big-picture trends still favor team blue”)
• Editorial: State budget deal raises question of balance (“In Virginia, you cannot struggle too much, cannot labor too hard, cannot pray too often, to be ignored.”)
• On 1-year anniversary of Parkland shooting, Virginia Democrats highlight failed gun reform bills
• Amazon decision to scrap NY plan leaves Virginia poised for prospect of more jobs
• Governor Northam Sends Letter Outlining Priorities to Budget Conferees, Stresses “Greater Focus on Issues of Equity”
• Virginia’s only African-American budget negotiator opts out of meeting with Northam
• Northam’s Apology Tour Is Too Little, Too Late For Many Of Va.’s Young Black Leaders
• Federal court approves Virginia redistricting plan
• BREAKING: “Big Win for Voting Rights in Virginia”; Federal Court Orders State to “Immediately Implement” New House of Delegates Map
• Judge Teresa Chafin, sister of Sen. Ben Chafin, elected to Virginia Supreme Court (“The whole Puckett affair seems to show there’s a double standard…I don’t think there’s too much of a difference between the two situations.” Bingo: it’s fine if you’re a Republican, terrible if you’re a Democrat.)
• Growth in data centers overpowers Virginia’s renewable energy gains
• BREAKING: Virginia Del. Hala Ayala Proposes Rule Change to Try to Force Floor Vote on ERA Ratification [UPDATE – GOP Hell-Bent on Stopping ERA Floor Vote]
• One weird trick advocates hope will get a floor vote on the ERA. (Parliamentarians hate her!) (Del. Hala Ayala “filed a proposed change to House rules yesterday that, if approved by a simple majority, would allow the full body to vote on the ratification resolution despite the fact that it never made it out of subcommittee…House Majority Leader Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, shot back with his own proposed rule change that would essentially preempt Ayala’s by raising the threshold for approval to a two-thirds majority vote.”
• Senate committee kills bill to make Election Day a school holiday in Virginia (Republicans strike again!)
• Inside the Virginia Capitol, a legislative duel over the ERA
• State Water Control Board to Discuss Mountain Valley Pipeline 401 Certification at Special Board Meeting on 3/1/19
• Water Control Board sets meeting to reconsider Mountain Valley Pipeline water certification
• Loudoun County Dems Vote to Condemn Anti-Semitic Comments by 86th House of Delegates District Nominee; Call for Resignation of Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment
• Laufer, ex-city School Board member, to run for 17th District Senate seat (This is a district in which Ralph Northam received 49% of the vote in 2017, so it’s definitely competitive. Glad to see Amy Laufer throwing her hat in the ring!)
• A Jew defends Samirah against charges of anti-Semitism
• It makes no sense for Richmond and Annapolis to be dictating school calendars
• Plowman Elected to Circuit Court Judgeship (“Loudoun Commonwealth’s Attorney James E. Plowman won’t be returning for a fifth term in 2020. Instead, he’ll be taking a seat on the other side of the courthouse bench.”)
• The Latest: Arlington says it’s sticking to its Amazon plans
• D.C.-area forecast: Warmth rules until later tonight, then some light snow or rain possible Saturday