by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Sunday, May 8. Happy Mother’s Day, mom! 🙂 Also, in case you missed my comments on President Obama’s Howard University commencement address yesterday, I definitely encourage you to watch it.
- Republican Party Unravels Over Trump’s Takeover
- Ross Douthat: The Conservative Case Against Trump (“Trump is actively campaigning as a Caesarist, making his contempt for constitutional norms and political niceties a selling point. And given his mix of proud ignorance and immense self-regard, there is no reason to believe that any of this is just an act.”)
- Few challenge Trump as he piles up Four-Pinocchio whoppers (“Most politicians will drop a talking point if fact checkers have demonstrated that it is false. But Donald Trump makes such statements repeatedly, and TV hosts rarely question him when he does it.” Anyone in the corporate media who fails to do this should be fired, immediately.)
- Hillary Clinton is going to be exonerated on the email controversy. It won’t matter. (Agreed; the right wing will never stop their crusade against the Clintons.)
- We Need to Talk About Climate Change (“Tragedies like the Fort McMurray fire make it more important, not less.”)
- DNC chair: Trump is ‘misogynist of the worst order’ (“Wasserman Schultz used Mother’s Day to underscore Trump’s standing among female voters.”)
- Obama takes stock of America’s racial progress (“Racism persists. Inequality persists. Don’t worry — I’m going to get to that. But I wanted to start, Class of 2016, by opening your eyes to the moment that you are in. If you had to choose one moment in history in which you could be born, and you didn’t know ahead of time who you were going to be — what nationality, what gender, what race, whether you’d be rich or poor, gay or straight, what faith you’d be born into — you wouldn’t choose 100 years ago. You wouldn’t choose the fifties, or the sixties, or the seventies. You’d choose right now. If you had to choose a time to be, in the words of Lorraine Hansberry, “young, gifted, and black” in America, you would choose right now.”)
- A polarizing name change at George Mason (“Rechristening the university’s law school after Justice Scalia could ideologically brand it.”)
- Schapiro: Trump taking the fun out of being a swing state (“Virginia could be boring and quiet this year – thanks to a politician who isn’t either: Donald Trump.”)
- State works to help registrars verify felons’ voting rights restored
- Sloan: McDonnell conviction discourages political corruption
- Democrats officially pick Dittmar in 5th District (Go Jane!)
- Casey: Railroad deal played governments off each other (“State of Virginia taxpayers are paying Norfolk Southern Corp. nearly $2 million in a deal that sent 165 high-paying Roanoke jobs to Norfolk and 253 more to Atlanta. Does that seem right?” No, it doesn’t.)
- Donald Trump receives lukewarm support at local GOP meeting (“Enthusiasm for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was lukewarm at the 1st District GOP Committee’s convention Saturday in Fredericksburg.”)
- Bristol Virginia Utilities shows culture of corruption, entitlement and greed
- Why isn’t Norfolk International Airport better? It’s actually doing pretty well, experts say
- One of the largest oak trees in Virginia is endangered by construction. Can Chesapeake save it?
- Alex Ovechkin helps Capitals save season with Game 5 victory over Penguins
- A sunnier and breezy Mother’s Day; bleaker again to start the workweek
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