Thursday News: Trump Threatens 1st Amendment; “Trump’s War Games”; Bannon Was in Business with Weinstein

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, October 12.

• Trump to force GOP reckoning on Iran
• Bloomberg slams Trump’s plan to force taxpayers ‘to subsidize an industry that may kill them’ (“Billionaire responds by giving an additional $64 million to anti-coal, pro-worker campaigns.”)
• “Insanity and folly”: experts on Trump’s proposal to build tens of thousands of nukes (“We now know why Tillerson called Trump a moron.”)
• Trump melts down over critical NBC article, issues threat against press freedom (“The president is explicitly threatening to suppress coverage he doesn’t like.”)
• Everything that’s been reported about deaths in Puerto Rico is at odds with the official count
• Trump’s ‘fit’ over Iran deal forced aides to scramble (Great, we have a “president” who makes policy by “fit.” This guy is completely UNfit to be president.)
• Charles M. Blow: Trump’s War Games (“Plenty of people tried to warn us about this moment, but not enough Americans took heed. To them, this was sky-is-falling hyperbole. The use of nuclear weapons was a thing of history and Hollywood.”)
• Why the Scouts’ Move Might Unite Boys and Girls, But Divide America (“Get ready for a co-ed culture war, with uniforms.”)
• Mr. Trump Alone Can Order a Nuclear Strike. Congress Can Change That. (“Time to require Trump to first get a declaration of war.”)
• Trump’s Talk of Scrapping Nafta Could Soon Become Reality (“The North American Free Trade Agreement, long a punching bag for President Trump, is edging closer toward collapse as negotiators gather for more talks. The collapse of the 1994 trade deal would send shock waves throughout the global economy, inflicting damage far beyond Mexico, Canada and the United States.”)
• The Deep Republican Roots of Trump’s Media Bashing (“As the president threatens to crack down on unfriendly news outlets, many conservatives say their goal is to ‘destroy’ the mainstream media.”)
• The EPA rips up the Clean Power Plan (“The Supreme Court has ruled that the agency must regulate carbon dioxide. Now it may try to do the minimum the courts will allow.”)
• Trump does nothing to stop 175 American deaths a day (“The president has yet to deliver a strategy to end the opioid crisis.”)
• Frank Rich: Bob Corker and the Disgrace of Republican Silence
• DNC chief attracts criticism from Dem insiders
• Trump’s Scary Strategy on North Korea (“On just the first day of a war between the United States and North Korea, according to a Stanford University assessment, one million people could be killed. Yet after my five-day visit to North Korea with three New York Times colleagues, such a nuclear war seems terrifyingly imaginable. “)
• Bannon-tied group kicks off brutal GOP primary season
• Why Is the Trump Administration So Excited About the Harvey Weinstein Scandal? (“What, exactly, is the point they are trying to establish? That Harvey Weinstein does not treat women any better than Donald Trump does? That a liberal is also capable of preying upon women? There is no standard or line Trump’s defenders can draw that does not implicate themselves. “)
• Lawmakers Plan to Release Russian-Bought Facebook Ads
• Trump just threatened to shut down news outlets critical of him. That’s what’s happened in Turkey. (“Update: Trump doubles down, calls it ‘disgusting’ that ‘the press is able to write whatever they want to write and people should look into it'”)
• Donald Trump to Sean Hannity: “You have been so great and I’m very proud of you” (So, so sick.)
• President’s lawyers may offer Mueller a meeting with Trump (“Looking to speed Mueller’s Russia probe and show openness, the president’s legal team might soon volunteer a chance for the special counsel to interview Trump.”)
• Kellyanne Conway lashes out at Hillary Clinton, says condemning Weinstein is a pro-Trump stance (God, Kellyanne Conway is so horrible.)
• How Top NBC Executives Quashed The Bombshell Harvey Weinstein Story (“Reporter Ronan Farrow ultimately took the piece to The New Yorker after facing months of opposition at his home network.”)
• APNewsBreak: Steve Bannon had ties to Harvey Weinstein (“Bannon served as chairman of a small company that distributed DVDs and home videos, and went into business in 2005 with The Weinstein Co., led by Harvey Weinstein and his brother Bob.”)
• Russia Probe Now Investigating Cambridge Analytica, Trump’s ‘Psychographic’ Data Gurus (“They were once Steve Bannon’s favorite analytics shop. Now investigators want to know if the Kremlin had a thing for Cambridge Analytica, too.”)
• Trump Just Blew Off a Deadline for Implementing Russian Sanctions He Approved
• A Plea for a President (“It is time for Barack Obama to join the Trump Resistance full-time.”)
• President* Trump Wants More Toys (“Nuclear ones.”)
• Trump and Pence’s war on black athletes has nothing to do with sports (“Mike Pence’s NFL stunt wasn’t about respect or patriotism. It was a blatant attempt to inflame the racist base” Bingo.)
• Trump’s Threats Against NBC Are Totally Empty. But They’re Still Frightening.
• Ed Gillespie Is Attempting a Trump Maneuver in Virginia (“Whether he succeeds will be a crucial test of how far racist appeals go—and what kind works.”)
• Republican AG group gives an additional $900,000 to Virginia candidate John Adams
• Virginia higher education summit highlights ties between college and economic development
• Former President Barack Obama to campaign for Ralph Northam in Richmond
• Virginia’s Gubernatorial Race: Where Things Stand With Less Than a Month to Go
• Virginia to pitch three sites in Richmond area in race for new Amazon HQ
• DeAndre Harris was attacked by racists in Charlottesville. Now he faces criminal charges. (“The situation is illustrative of why many people of color don’t trust the police.”)
• SPECIAL REPORT: Poverty and housing insecurity along Jefferson Davis Highway
• Richard Spencer Plans Return to Charlottesville (Appalling that NBC 29 interviewed this guy. The comments by folks like Coy Barefoot and Linda Perriello over on Facebook are scathing.)
• Third arrest made in beating of black man at white nationalist rally in Charlottesville (The RTD is really afraid to call them what they are, which is white supremacists, huh?)
• Editorial: Morefield’s Marshall Plan for Southwest and Southside (“Oddly, President Trump — who ran up historic margins in the region — has shown no interest whatsoever.” It’s only “odd” if you ever believed that Trump would help, which of course you should never have believed.)
• Loudoun considers, then rejects, cutting ties to Thomas Jefferson High
• Stephen Strasburg, Michael A. Taylor put Nats on their backs and force Game 5
• Damp and dreary today but weekend sunny and summer-like yet again