Friday News: “Mueller Plunges Across Trump’s Red Line”; Kaine to Push Public Option; “Pipeline Payday”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, August 4.

• Special Counsel Robert Mueller Impanels Washington Grand Jury in Russia Probe
• Mueller using grand jury in federal court in D.C. as part of Russia investigation
• Mueller’s Grand Jury Means the Trump-Russia Probe Has Kicked Into High Gear
• Mueller Plunges Across Trump’s Red Line
• Recess just started for Congress, and it’s not going to be much fun for Republicans (“By their own accounts, Republicans have failed to enact their ambitious agenda despite controlling Congress and the White House. Obamacare is still around and the party’s pledged tax overhaul has stalled, leaving the GOP with no major accomplishments for lawmakers to highlight to constituents.”)
• Senators unveil two plans to protect Mueller’s Russia probe from presidential interference (“Two bipartisan pairs of senators detailed legislation that would prevent President Trump from firing Robert Mueller without cause, by making any decision to get rid of a special counsel subject to the approval of a panel of three federal judges.”)
• ‘This deal will make me look terrible’: Full transcripts of Trump’s calls with Mexico and Australia (Obviously, Trump shouldn’t be holding any elective office, but the fact that he’s PRESIDENT is simply insane. Anyone who voted for him or campaigned for him is responsible for this disaster.)
• Australia’s Prime Minister Slowly Realizes Trump Is a Complete Idiot
• Krugman: Obamacare Rage in Retrospect (“It’s certainly not encouraging to realize how easily many Americans were duped by right-wing lies, pushed into screaming rage against a reform that would actually improve their lives. On the other hand, the truth did eventually prevail, and Republicans’ inability to handle that truth is turning into a real political liability. And in the meantime, Obamacare has made America a better place.”)
• Trump is delusional about his popularity
• Republicans Agree on Need to Agree (“After years of partisan fighting over the health care law, Democrats and Republicans now admit that they will probably have to work together to make many of its much-needed fixes.”)
• Exclusive: top FBI officials could testify against Trump
• Trump is losing, and the weakest among us will pay the price (“With his poll numbers falling and his agenda stalled, Trump returns to his campaign’s darkest roots.”)
• Trump’s Plan To Cut Legal Immigration Could Hurt The Economy
• As Mueller investigation intensifies, Trump unleashes angry rant on Russia probe (“There were no Russians in the campaign. There never were.” Yeah, tell it to the judge…)
• Trump rallies his base against Russia investigation (“The president uses an event in West Virginia to level a spirited attack on the same day the special counsel impaneled a grand jury to look into election interference.”)
• GOP lawmakers square off against Trump (“Senate Republicans spent the past week boxing in the president on Russia, health care and Robert Mueller.”)
• Senate blocks Trump from making recess appointments over break
• Somebody in the White House Thought We Needed to Know This Stuff. Remember That. (“The Trump administration is leaking like a sieve, and we’re better for it.”)
• Trump’s Calls With World Leaders Were Way More Bonkers Than Previously Reported
• Dems lead GOP by 14 points in generic House ballot
• The Republicans Go Home (“GOP senators will spend the next five weeks facing their constituents and their legislative failures. That’ll be fun.”)
• Trump’s spectacle is outrageous, but not entirely new: He’s the ultimate fulfillment of consumer capitalism (“Trump embodies the triumph of spectacle over reality more than any previous president, but he’s no anomaly”)
• EPA head Scott Pruitt wants to quit enforcing environmental laws — but there’s a way to make him do his job (“Trump’s EPA chief tries to dodge regulations — but activists and courts are working to hold him accountable”)
• DOJ’s Move To Target Affirmative Action A ‘Big Red Flag’ For Politicized Staffing
• John Kelly Quickly Moves to Impose Military Discipline on White House
• For the New Far Right, YouTube Has Become the New Talk Radio
• Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? (It’s way beyond just smartphones…)
• Pipeline Payday: How Builders Win Big, Whether More Gas Is Needed or Not (“According to Michael Hirrel, a former antitrust attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, the pipeline is an illegal monopoly. Hirrel, who owns a second home at a resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains where the pipeline would cross, filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission in 2016 alleging the pipeline violates U.S. antitrust laws. Dominion Energy and Duke Energy, the lead investors in the project, declined to comment.”)
• Tim Kaine plans to push public option when health care talks resume
• Tim Kaine Weighs in on Anticipated Unite the Right Rally
• Warner: Leaks of Trump transcripts were “disgraceful”
• Planned Parenthood to spend $3M on Virginia governor’s race
• Ed Gillespie Would Defund Planned Parenthood In Virginia (Completely unacceptable but not surprising from this guy.)
• UVa’s Bob Gibson to Moderate Lieutenant Governor Debate With Vogel, Fairfax
• Vice President Pence to fundraise for Gillespie in Virginia governor’s race (“Gillespie has more openly embraced the White House after his narrow primary win.”)
• Why Virginia Needs Ralph Northam (“Time and again, Ralph Northam has led the movement for a safer and more progressive Commonwealth. He’s the right man to build on the record of Governor McAuliffe and chart a course towards a better future. Washington can’t bring back yesterday, no matter how much they talk about it. If we elect Ralph Northam in November, Virginia can build a better tomorrow.”)
• Virginia panel tasked with developing carbon regulation gets to work (Priority #1 should be a massive push to make Virginia as energy efficient as possible. Then, no new fossil fuel infrastructure – including the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley Pipeline monstrosities – would be needed in the least bit, not that they’re even needed now.)
• Virginia governor ‘heartbroken’ at death of year-old family dog, Guinness (That sucks.)
• Another federal lawsuit filed over Dominion’s James River transmission line
• Editorial: A judge who got it wrong gets it right (“In a case concerning state Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, Yoffy had found that the state’s Freedom of Information Act applies to the General Assembly as a whole, but not to individual lawmakers. This contradicts the plain meaning of the law’s text, and Yoffy did the right thing when he recognized as much.”)
• Editorial: Sales tax holiday not much to celebrate
• UPDATED: After weeklong outage, North Carolina islands get power back
• For decades, these residents could park on the street outside their homes. That changed Thursday. (“A one-block, dead-end street in Arlington fights restrictions sparked by one now-withdrawn complaint.”)
• Nearby residents shocked by captive-family case in Spotsylvania
• Wild mushrooms attracting new stalkers, businesses
• Steamy heat and storm chances for one more day; beautiful this weekend