PBC News & Comment: State of the Union? It’s a Big Mess!

Trump will call for unity and bipartisan cooperation, then demand money for The Wall, stoking more political conflict and division…--GOP will keep “sowing discord” with plans to demonize all immigrants with anecdotes of the few serious undocumented criminals
--Speaker Pelosi will permit hearings on Medicare for All, but her top health advisor has told health insurers not to worry
--and the Dems are united in dumping Gov. Ralph Northam, ignoring the brutal takedown engineered by anti-abortion extremists
--and a wave of unity will fill the joint session when Trump calls for removal of Maduro in Venezuela
--Pope Francis agrees to mediate as Maduro has asked, if Guiado goes along
as Maduro threatens to jail the opposition leader
--in Guardian op-ed, Maduro’s former chief of staff corrects the record in recap of the political battles in Venezuela
--and at ConsortiumNews, Patrick Lawrence argues that Russia and China can checkmate attempted regime change
--Trump inaugural committee gets subpoena from NY federal prosecutors
--as expected Mueller investigators are now probing lawyers and lobbyists Manafort hired to support Yanukovich
--Buzzfeed drops 2 megastories, one on payments to Russian lobbyist, the other is a timeline of the Trump Moscow project
--filling the swamp, Trump officially nominates former oil lobbyist to run Interior Dept.
--Centcom commander Gen. Votel tells Congress “I was not consulted” on Trump’s tweeted decision to exit Syria
--Apple is one of the world’s biggest tax cheats, just settled audit with France for about $500 million