Friday News: “America Declares War on Its Friends”; Trump Abuses Pardon Powers; Virginia Candidate Admits to Being Pedophile; Bill Stanley in VA-05 GOP Race

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, June 1. Virginia primaries in 11 days…make sure you vote!

• White House to Impose Tariffs on E.U., Mexico and Canada (“The tariffs are meant to make good on President Trump’s promises to protect American industry, but they’ve prompted a fierce response from allies and domestic businesses.” Completely assinine.)
• America Declares War on Its Friends (“A trade war, that is.”)
• Mariano Rajoy Ousted in Spanish No-Confidence Vote (“The vote effectively ends the political career of one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders, and could amplify political uncertainty in southern Europe.”)
• Italy’s President Clears Path for Populists to Govern (“The arrangement puts Europe’s fourth-largest economy into the hands of parties that are deeply antagonistic to the European Union, its currency and illegal migrants.” Gack.)
• Why Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs on US allies are so dangerous (“This is how trade wars start.”)
• War inside Trump trade team triggers global angst (“The president’s abrupt announcement of steep tariffs on European, Canadian and Mexican imports capped a week of whipsaw statements.”)
• https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/05/trump-wants-a-total-ban-on-german-luxury-car-imports/ (“Trump doesn’t want to see Mercedes-Benzes on Fifth Avenue any more.”)
• Trump pours kerosene on the global trade wars
• Trump to Grant Lifeline to Money-Losing Coal Power Plants (“Move would be unprecedented intervention in energy markets” Absolutely insane.)
• ‘So much for Trump as genius’: Conservative WSJ editorial drops the hammer on president’s trade blunders
• Trump fumes, but Sessions may have the upper hand (“The president continues to publicly taunt his attorney general in part because he knows firing him would only multiply his legal and political woes.”)
• ‘He Pretty Much Gave In to Whatever They Asked For’ (“Trump says he’s a master negotiator. Those who’ve actually dealt with him beg to differ.”)
• The Equal Rights Amendment’s surprise comeback, explained (“If one more state ratifies the Equal Rights Amendment, it could make it into the Constitution — maybe.”)
• Blow – On Race: The Moral High Ground (“Donald Trump, White House racist, Nazi sympathizer, alt-right hero, receiver of laurels from the former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, is the absolute last person who should be demanding an apology in this Roseanne controversy.”)
• Why Trump Isn’t Pardoning Allies Caught in the Mueller Probe – Yet
• The staggering corruption of Dinesh D’Souza’s pardon (“A conspiratorial, racist fraud gets a reprieve from the like-minded president”)
• Prosecutors interview Comey as they investigate whether McCabe should be charged
• With his pardons, Trump is turning tool of mercy into sword of retribution
• Dinesh D’Souza? Really?
• LISTEN: How Michael Cohen Protects Trump By Making Legal Threats
• Why Trump Pardoned Dinesh D’Souza—and May Pardon Martha Stewart (“For this President, everything is personal. This is why, even more than with most Presidents, we should know the details of his and his family’s financial dealings. This is where his personal interests would be most clearly on display.”)
• Clinton allies open to backing Warren for president in 2020
• MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow details exactly how Trump’s flagrant use of pardons may be ‘criminal obstruction of justice’
• Bumbled Bee (“With one word, the comedian ensured her righteous outrage about immigration would be drowned out.”)
• Chelsea Clinton resurfaces Trump meeting with Ted Nugent, who once called Hillary C-word
• White House Demands TBS Cancel Samantha Bee’s Show
• Samantha Bee apologizes for calling Ivanka Trump a vulgar word after White House condemnation
• Joy Reid’s Blog Published A Photoshopped Image Of John McCain As The Virginia Tech Shooter (Ee gads.)
• Rubio Campaign Volunteer and Ex-Florida Lawmaker Says Obama Looks Like a Monkey (Double ee gads.)
• WATCH: CNN’s Don Lemon drops the mic with blow by blow history of Trump’s extreme racism
• Teens, Social Media & Technology 2018 (“YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat are the most popular online platforms among teens. Fully 95% of teens have access to a smartphone, and 45% say they are online ‘almost constantly'” “Today, roughly half (51%) of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 say they use Facebook, notably lower than the shares who use YouTube, Instagram or Snapchat.”))
• Congressional candidate Dan Ward says staffer was fired over inappropriate comments (Good that Ward fired the guy.)
• Battle For The House: GOP Signs Of Hope, With History On Democrats’ Side (“Democrats are also looking slightly further down I-95 in the Richmond suburbs at the district held by Rep. Dave Brat. Brat shocked the political world in 2014 when he knocked off then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the GOP primary. Since then, the area’s demographics have been rapidly changing. Trump won the district by less than 6 points.”)
• Top Democrat suggests Trump may be breaking law with pardon talk (“‘The President’s ad hoc use of the pardon power is concerning enough,’ Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said on Twitter. ‘But the possibility that he may also be sending a message to witnesses in a criminal investigation into his campaign is extremely dangerous. In the United States of America, no one is above the law.'”)
• WTF, Mark Warner? (“The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee sounds like he wants to wind down its probe this year. No matter what context you put that in, that’s a terrible idea.” So first he votes for a torturer, now this? WTF is right!)
• Congressional Candidate In Virginia Admits He’s A Pedophile (“Nathan Larson, a 37-year-old accountant from Charlottesville, Virginia, is running for Congress as an independent candidate in his native state. He is also a pedophile, as he admitted to HuffPost on Thursday, who has bragged in website posts about raping his late ex-wife.”)
• Brat Race (“Candidates from the Democratic, Libertarian and Whig parties seek to unseat the 7th District GOP congressman”)
• What Expanding Medicaid Means For Healthcare In Virginia
• Why the Trump administration made it easier for Virginia Republicans to expand Medicaid
• Jill Vogel dumps on her colleagues for not supporting Medicaid Expansion budget (Vogel is right about her Republican colleagues: “To succeed in getting good measures included and then to vote against them is both negotiating in bad faith and shows a total lack of integrity.”)
• Virginia court rejects challenge to 11 legislative districts
• Democratic House candidate compares Trump to Osama bin Laden. White House calls it ‘reprehensible’ (I agree with what Ben Tribbett tweeted on this: “I wouldn’t say he compared them, just noted his opinion on what the biggest threat was at various times.” I’d add that there’s no doubt Trump is an enormous threat to the United States, and the planet.)
• Editorial: How an election in 1991 led to Virginia’s 2018 Medicaid vote
  
• Beyond Medicaid expansion, Virginia has unfinished business on health care
• Editorial: So how much is the new state budget, anyway?
• Sen. Bill Stanley says he is ‘available’ to run for Rep. Tom Garrett’s seat in 5th District (Hmmmm…okey dokey.)
• Sen. Bill Stanley says he’s seeking Republican nomination for 5th District (So he’s now the frontrunner in this race…)
• Sen. Bill Stanley: ‘I Am Making Myself Available for Nomination’
• Justin Wilson for Alexandria mayor (Wow, the ComPost’s Virginia editorial dude Lee Hockstader REALLY doesn’t like Alison Silberberg for some reason!)
• 1 dead, 1 missing after being swept away in floodwaters in Virginia (“Officials are searching for man and a woman who got out of their car near a flooding creek in Charlottesville.”)
• More localized flooding possible through tomorrow as downpours roam