Address some pylint issues (#1155)

* Address cyclic-import.

* Address redefined-builtin.

* Address redefined-argument-from-local.

* Address many redefined-outer-name.

* Address pointless-string-statement.

* No longer needed due to separate bugfix.

* Address useless-return.

* Address possibly-used-before-assignment.

* Add TODOs.

* Address super-init-not-called.

* Address function-redefined.

* Address unspecified-encoding.

* Clean up more imports.

.pylintrc

@@ -381,7 +381,6 @@ disable=raw-checker-failed,
         # To clean up:
         abstract-method,
         arguments-differ,
-        assignment-from-no-return,
         attribute-defined-outside-init,
         broad-exception-caught,
         broad-exception-raised,
@@ -391,10 +390,8 @@ disable=raw-checker-failed,
         consider-using-in,
         consider-using-max-builtin,
         consider-using-with,
-        cyclic-import,
         fixme,
-        function-redefined,
-        import-error,
+        import-error,  # TODO figure out why pylint cannot find the module
         invalid-name,
         keyword-arg-before-vararg,
         line-too-long,
@@ -402,30 +399,23 @@ disable=raw-checker-failed,
         no-else-raise,
         no-else-return,
         no-member,
-        no-name-in-module,
-        not-an-iterable,
-        pointless-string-statement,
-        possibly-used-before-assignment,
+        no-name-in-module,  # TODO figure out why pylint cannot find the module
+        not-an-iterable,  # TODO: needs better typing info
         protected-access,
         raise-missing-from,
-        redefined-argument-from-local,
-        redefined-builtin,
-        redefined-outer-name,
+        redefined-outer-name,  # needed for test fixtures
         simplifiable-if-expression,
         subprocess-popen-preexec-fn,
-        super-init-not-called,
         super-with-arguments,
         unexpected-keyword-arg,
         unnecessary-dunder-call,
         unnecessary-pass,
-        unspecified-encoding,
-        unsupported-assignment-operation,
+        unsupported-assignment-operation,  # TODO: needs better typing info
         unused-argument,
         unused-variable,
         use-dict-literal,
         use-list-literal,
         useless-object-inheritance,
-        useless-return,
         # Cannot remove yet due to inadequacy of rules
         inconsistent-return-statements,  # doesn't notice that fail_json() does not return