by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, June 14.
- After Decades of Losing Ice, Antarctica Is Now Hemorrhaging It (For the millionth time, I will repeat: 1) global warming is BY FAR the #1 issue facing humanity; 2) we need to get off of fossil fuels – and yes, that includes fracked gas – ASAP! That’s what “the science” is telling us, Gov. Northam.)
- Donald Trump Actually Seems to Believe He Denuclearized North Korea (“The president claims the nuclear threat is gone, but that’s not what he achieved in Singapore.” We have a “president” who is completely delusional.)
- Donald Trump shrugs off Kim’s human rights record: ‘He’s a tough guy’ (“As Fox News host presses Trump over North Korean regime, president is dismissive: ‘A lot of people have done bad things’” Absolutely disgusting.)
- The big winner of the Trump-Kim summit? China. (“China got exactly what it wanted from Trump at the North Korea summit.” Also Kim Jong Un.)
- Pressure on Michael Cohen intensifies as Mueller stays focused on the Trump attorney
- Trump brushes off Kim’s human rights record, saying a lot of others have done ‘bad things’ (Yeah, like Trump’s sons, Qusay and Uday?)
- Trump Ordered Troops to the Border, But They’re Doing Busywork (“In this ramshackle town, National Guard soldiers are doing everything from shoveling manure to changing tires. What they’re not doing: Watching the border.”)
- ‘This is the new Republican Party’ (“The final GOP holdouts to Donald Trump whimper into oblivion.”)
- Federal Reserve hikes interest rate as unemployment falls
- National Review says it’s time for Pruitt to step down from EPA (It’s long past time. Also, Pruitt should be investigated and prosecuted for whatever crimes he committed as EPA Administrator.)
- Why Is Trump Protecting Scott Pruitt? (“How has the head of the EPA withstood a deluge of corruption scandals? It all comes back to the president.”)
- Trump’s most offensive statement on North Korea (“The president ought to know better than to say North Koreans have ‘a great fervor’ for Kim Jong Un.” More like great hatred.)
- There’s no defending Trump’s North Korea performance (“The president did not simply overlook the astonishing brutality of North Korea’s regime. He heaped praise on it.” Appalling performance. He also gave away a bunch of important stuff for absolutely nothing tangible in return. The Art of the Really Really Lousy Deal.)
- Trump’s America goes full Charles Dickens (“GOP lawmakers won’t help “dreamers” because they can’t stand up to Trump”)
- Dems say Obama return from sidelines is overdue (Agreed. Our country badly needs his voice. Right. Now.)
- Trump’s Summit Spectacle Was Just a Momentary Distraction From His Bigger Problems (“Mueller is still there”)
- Maddow reveals ways in which the Saudis and UAE may have worked to help Trump’s 2016 election
- Mark Warner: ‘I was embarrassed’ by Trump’s G-7 behavior (Our entire country should have been ashamed and angry at Trump’s disgusting behavior in both Canada and North Korea.)
- It’s All Too Much, and We Still Have to Care (“What’s going on at the border is horrifying, but we can’t go numb and turn away.”)
- Sarah Sanders, Raj Shah planning to depart the White House (Nobody should EVER hire Sarah Huckster Sanders.)
- GOP senators’ frustration with Trump — and each other — boils over
- Trump’s Contempt for Coal Country (“Donald Trump claims to love coal country — but turns his back on public health”)
- Trumpism Is Just an Offshoot of the Real Cult: Modern Conservatism (“Need proof? Take a gander at Iowa’s Steve King.”)
- Primary Takeaways: A Big Win for Democratic Women in Virginia and a Sexist Narrative in North Dakota
- Fact Check: Corey Stewart, Republicans and the Fringe Right
- He’s Not a ‘Firebrand,’ and He’s Not a ‘Far-Right Activist’ (“How are reporters still struggling to call people like Corey Stewart what they are?” “He is an unapologetic public racist, and damned proud of it, who goes out of his way to associate with other unapologetic public racists, who are damned proud of it, too.”)
- Republican Voters Nominate ‘Alt-right’ Candidate for Virginia Senate (“Corey Stewart, who is associated with neo-Confederates, the ‘alt-right’ and a well-known anti-Semite, is now the Republican nominee for Senate in Virginia”)
- Virginia Republicans Nominate Pro-Trump, Pro-Confederate Corey Stewart For Senate (“Virginia Republicans took a hard-right turn in yesterday’s primary. This is likely to benefit the Democrats.”)
- Virginia’s Loss (“In nominating Corey Stewart for Senate, the state sees its reactionary fringe go mainstream.”)
- Far Right Confederacy Lover Wins Virginia GOP Senate Nomination
- KENNEY: There Is No ‘Conservative Case’ For the Gauleiter of Prince William County (The former Executive Director of the Virginia GOP writes: “The Republican Party of Virginia…has descended into a parody of itself, finally lifting from the dust the battle standard of Massive Resistance and waving it proudly in the hands of one man: Corey Stewart…Our chairman, John Whitbeck, is best known for his jokes about Jewish people at party gatherings…The litany of stupid and the obtuse only becomes worse…Let’s be clear about what happened. The future of the Republican Party of Virginia fought the past, and lost…For 25 years, I have believed — perhaps erroneously — that the Republican Party was the best home for my beliefs as a conservative, as a Virginian, and as a Catholic. With the nomination of Corey Stewart? That is now an impossibility…Perhaps there is no Republican Party to save?”)
- Senate GOP shuns Stewart in Virginia (“The National Republican Senatorial Committee hasn’t endorsed the divisive GOP nominee and has no plans to spend money on the race.”)
- ‘This interview is done’: Chris Cuomo and Virginia senate candidate get into epic battle over support for white nationalists (“Cuomo called out Stewart for a laundry list of every racist and bigot comment or action the Virginia candidate has ever taken.”)
- Corey Stewart’s Virginia Restoration (“Stewart, the chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, helped turn the campaign to defend Confederate monuments into a national issue, and appeared at a press conference in Charlottesville with Jason Kessler, who would later organize the white-supremacist Unite the Right rally. Stewart has described Paul Nehlen, a white-nationalist candidate for Congress in Wisconsin, as one of his ‘personal heroes,’ and has claimed that Barack Obama’s birth certificate is a forgery.”)
- Virginia Republicans just nominated an alt-right hero to run for Senate (“And for Stewart, with Trump has come an all-out embrace of neo-Confederate viewpoints and the alt-right. In 2017, he attended the ‘Old South Ball’ in Danville, Virginia, and gave a speech saying Virginia was the state of ‘Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson,’ adding that the Confederate flag ‘is our heritage, it’s what makes us Virginia, and if you take that away, we lose our identity.'”)
- Virginia Republicans Are Rallying Behind a True Bigot: Corey Stewart (“Stewart attended a rally with far-right ‘white advocate’ Jason Kessler to defend Charlottesville’s confederate statues in February 2017. Kessler went on to organize the infamous “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville last August that turned deadly when counterprotester Heather Heyer was killed in a vehicular assault. Stewart has also praised Paul Nehlen – a self-styled ‘pro-White Christian American candidate’ who staged a 2016 primary challenge of Speaker Paul Ryan in Wisconsin – as ‘one of my personal heroes.'”)
- Trumpism’s Win May Be the GOP’s Loss in Virginia (“On Tuesday, Corey Stewart won Virginia’s Republican Senate nomination on a Trumpist platform—but he still has a long road ahead as he faces incumbent Democrat Tim Kaine.”)
- How Corey Stewart Could Endanger Other Virginia Republicans (“Tellingly, though, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the party’s campaign arm, said it would not support Mr. Stewart, who lags far behind Mr. Kaine in fund-raising and has a history of cozying up to white supremacists and anti-Semites that threatens to make him an albatross for down-ballot Republicans.”)
- Why we should trust Trump and not underestimate Corey Stewart (“We should not underestimate his ability to stir anti-immigrant fears. …Don’t underestimate Corey Stewart. Don’t underestimate the damage he can do, even if he doesn’t win the election.”)
- Corey Stewart’s Senate nomination could reverberate down the ballot in Virginia (“By placing an unabashed acolyte of President Trump at the top of the ticket, Virginia Republicans have energized their base but may have complicated GOP efforts to hang on to four crucial House seats, analysts said Wednesday.” “Republican David Ramadan, a former state lawmaker, tweeted that Stewart’s win effectively handed Kaine ‘an easy re-election in November…good work…MORONS.'”)
- The Virginia GOP’s death march (“Its remaining adherents seem intent on never winning again”)
- GOP turnout declines for Virginia primaries (“Some 5.5 percent of active registered voters statewide, or 304,180 people, cast ballots in the GOP primary. In contrast, in the six of 11 congressional districts that held Democratic primaries, some 185,600 people, or 6.4 percent of registered voters, turned up, the review found…’If you extrapolate out, that looks like a 2-to-1 Democratic turnout advantage,’ said Quentin Kidd, director of Christopher Newport University’s Wason Center for Public Policy.”)
- Kaine says he’s eager to take on Stewart. GOP members of Congress are silent.
- Virginia League of Conservation Voters pushes back against Clarke appointment to SCC (Clarke is 100% unacceptable.)
- City audit found 5 developers benefited from Virginia Beach’s land-buying strategy near Oceana
- Tom Gear, former state delegate and Hampton City Council member, dies
- Courtney Lynch to resign from Henrico Board of Supervisors this month (Bizarre.)
- After calls for his firing, Virginia Beach city manager was directed to improve his communication
- Morrissey appealing revocation of law license, which is to take effect Friday
- Stoney administration entering negotiations on Richmond Coliseum redevelopment proposal
- Sunny and less humid today but heat builds late this weekend
