Saturday News: “Mueller’s Indictment Ends Trump’s Myth of the Russia Hoax'”; You can do something about guns. In the voting booth.”; “$58 million Atlantic Coast Pipeline mitigation agreement draws fire”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, February 17.

• Special counsel indicts Russians in 2016 election interference (“Thirteen people are accused of working for a Russian propaganda organization and posing as Americans to support candidate Donald Trump and attack his political opponent, Hillary Clinton.” There’s almost no doubt that Clinton would be president right now without the concerted Russian attack on our democracy in support of Trump.)
• You can do something about guns. In the voting booth. (Yep, unelect anyone, overwhelmingly Republican, who is “A”-rated by the NRA.)
• Reading the Mueller Indictment: A Russian-American Fraud (“At the heart of the Russian fraud is an essential, embarrassing insight into American life: large numbers of Americans are ill-equipped to assess the credibility of the things they read. The willingness to believe purported news stories, often riddled with typos or coming from unfamiliar outlets, is a liability of today’s fragmented media and polarized politics. Even the trolls themselves were surprised at what Americans would believe.”)
• Mueller’s Indictment Ends Trump’s Myth of the Russia “Hoax”
• What Trump still doesn’t get about Russian interference in the election (Trump’s basically a traitor, not sure what else to say at this point.)
• There seems to be some there there (“Mueller’s indictment of Russians is only scratching the surface of a widespread conspiracy.”)
• Trump’s Russia ‘hoax’ turns out to be real (Duh, ya think???)
• Mueller Deflates Trump’s Claim That Russia Meddling Was a Hoax
• Mueller Still Investigating Possible Collusion, Source Says (“Indictments of 13 Russians don’t preclude further charges”)
• Inside a 3-Year Russian Campaign to Influence U.S. Voters (“Using American bank accounts and drivers’ licenses, the Russian operation worked to disparage Hillary Clinton and promote Donald J. Trump.” Now ask yourselves, why would Russia want Trump – not Clinton – to be elected president of the United States? Gee, I just can’t imagine.)
• Shooting suspect was on school rifle team that got NRA grant
• Stop Letting Russia Get Away With It, Mr. Trump (What Putin has done is very close to an act of war.)
• After the Parkland shooting, pro-Russian bots are pushing false-flag allegations again (Twitter, Facebook, the government, etc. need to crack down hard on this shit.)
• F.B.I. Fumbled Tip on Florida Suspect
  (“Bureau Was Told in January That Cruz Had ‘Desire to Kill’”)
• Exclusive: Group chat messages show school shooter obsessed with race, violence and guns (Toxic masculinity combined with guns = death and destruction.)
• Mueller levels new claim of bank fraud against Manafort
• Worries about Trump’s legitimacy resurface with Russia indictment (They’re not “worries”; the guy is completely illegitimate.)
• Five key takeaways from the Russian indictments (“The Nunes memo released on Feb. 2 had been anticipated as a possible game-changer, at least among many of the president’s supporters. Soon after it was first released, however, it became clear that its central allegations, of FBI and Department of Justice misdeeds, lacked the power to fundamentally undercut Mueller’s probe.”)
• “No collusion”? Not quite… (“Donald Trump and his conservative media allies throw themselves a little premature celebration” First of all, this proves that Trump’s legitimacy is at least shaky. Second, this absolutely does NOT show that there was no collusion between Trump’s campaign and the Russians. To the contrary, it would be very surprising if there wasn’t any.)
• The Contours of a Potential Collusion Case Are Beginning to Emerge
• Mueller Indictment Documents Russian Effort to Suppress Turnout of Nonwhite Voters
• The many women of Donald Trump could be his undoing (“President Trump could face a wave of women who are emboldened to call him out — and there may not be much he can do”)
• GOP lawmakers are gaslighting America on the gun debate (“How the pro-gun movement has destroyed our ability to debate in good faith”)
• The 3 most important words Rosenstein said about the Mueller indictment (“The deputy AG left open the possibility that collusion allegations may emerge.”)
• The NRA donated $10,000 to help train the Parkland shooting suspect to use a rifle
• Fox News guest tells blatant lie about gun show loophole, host makes no attempt to correct him (“Matt Schlapp chairs the influence American Conservative Union, hosts of the annual CPAC gathering”)
• What Mueller’s Indictment Reveals (“The special counsel detailed how a Russian effort to widen divisions in American society launched in 2014 morphed into active support for the candidacy of Donald Trump.”)
• There’s No Longer Any Doubt (“The indictment unsealed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller is unequivocal about Russian efforts to help Donald Trump become president.” Two big questions are whether there was collusion between Trump’s campaign and the Russians and also how successful this effort was in swinging the election for Trump.)
• Mueller Has the Goods Now, and Trump Knows It (“And any decision to fire Mueller or Rosenstein will (finally) have grave political consequences.”)
• What the Trump-McDougal Story Reveals About the Steele Dossier (“The president of the United States is vulnerable to blackmail.” For starters, Trump should absolutely not have a security clearance of any kind.)
• New White House security clearance policy could put ‘bull’s eye’ on Kushner (Wait, I thought Kushner would have achieved Middle East peace by now. Hahahahahahahahahaha.)
• Stephen Fincher halts U.S. Senate bid, encourages Corker to seek re-election
• North Carolina Is Dabbling with 21st Century Segregation
• Sen. Warner Hails Special Counsel Indictment Today of 13 Russians
• Democrats and Republicans mourn but disagree over guns (Republicans, of course, are totally in the pocket of the gun lobby. Throw them all out of office.)
• Of Vice and Men (“As the Burgos controversy has continued this week after Bearing Drift shined a light on the egregious Facebook post from two weeks ago, the moral bankruptcy of many Virginia Republicans continues to be astounding.”)
• Schapiro: Coattails? Now it’s Kaine’s turn (“It does not consider the larger, more intriguing notion that a House district in the heart of Virginia could – in the span of four years – dump a Republican Speaker-in-waiting, Eric Cantor, for tea party-backed upstart, Dave Brat, and then, perhaps, give him the heave for a liberal Democrat. That would not be fake news. “)
• $58 million Atlantic Coast Pipeline mitigation agreement draws fire (FINALLY a corporate media outlet, the RTD in this case, actually does its job — what a concept!)
• Editorial: Raising the felony threshold is the right thing to do. This isn’t the right way to do it. (Agreed; the restitution part has to go and the threshold should be higher, like $1,000. In short, this “bipartisan compromise” sucks.)
• Outside NRA headquarters, hundreds gather in vigil and protest (“Demonstrators demand legislative, electoral change in response to Florida mass shootings” Very simple: vote Democratic, oust anyone who’s “A” rated by the NRA from office at the first possible opportunity.)
• Some student government reps at Liberty University want to update the ‘Liberty Way’
• Fire chief in Northern Virginia announces retirement amid complaints about handling of sexual harassment
  
• White House nominates Cullen as U.S. attorney in western Virginia
• Dominion Energy CEO-led group submits lone proposal to replace Richmond Coliseum in redevelopment effort
• Rain and snow arrive this afternoon; some accumulation likely into tonight