by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, August 31.
- A final Syrian showdown looms. Millions of lives are at risk. Here are the stakes.
- Trump administration to end U.S. funding to U.N. program for Palestinian refugees (Stupid as usual.)
- Trump Makes Clear EU Won’t Escape His Ire Over Trade for Long
- The Continuing Tragedy of the Separated Children (“Just because mass separations have been halted doesn’t mean that the crisis is over”)
- Did Trump just admit that he tried to fire Mueller and Sessions?
- This Is Fascism, Pure and Simple (“The Trump administration is now denying passports to American citizens. This sounds terrifying familiar.”)
- ‘Totally dishonest’: Trump asserts only he can be trusted over opponents and ‘fake news’ (Trump continues his war on fact, truth, empirical evidence and reason.)
- While Washington mourns McCain, Trump leaves town (“Supporters at the raucous rally didn’t seem to mind that Trump had been snubbed by the McCain family.”)
- Trump says Sessions will be attorney general at least until the midterms
- Graham: Trump’s handling of McCain’s death was ‘disturbing’ (How about “is?”)
- Trump the pariah to sit and sulk as Washington pays its respects to McCain (“The president will be absent for John McCain’s memorial services – a clear sign of his failure to accept the responsibilities of a head of state”)
- Asian-American Students Suing Harvard Over Affirmative Action Win Justice Dept. Support (“A broad coalition of Harvard supporters filed briefs in support of the school Thursday condemning the lawsuit and saying that it would effectively threaten diversity at all American colleges.”)
- It Was a Very, Very Good Week for Progressive Candidates
- ISIS Makes a Comeback—as Trump Opts to Stay in Syria
- At McCain’s Memorial, Tears, Laughs and Allusions to the Man Not Invited
- CNN’s Chris Cuomo hammers Republican who tries to claim Donald Trump is ‘good for black people’ because of prison reform (Yep, it’s the Cooch!)
- Sources: NBC Threatened Ronan Farrow if He Kept Reporting on Harvey Weinstein (“Ronan Farrow had already left NBC News. But a top lawyer at the network threatened to smear him if he continued to pursue the Hollywood mogul, multiple knowledgeable sources say.”)
- Trump Is a Snob Who Secretly Despises His Own Supporters
- The GOP Has No New Ideas Because Elderly Billionaires Own Its Brain (Elderly, white, bat****-crazy billionaires at that!)
- FBI arrests man who threatened to kill Boston Globe staff for criticizing Trump (“FBI says Robert Chain began a series of threatening calls after the newspaper announced it was coordinating a response to Trump’s attacks on the media”)
- This vile, unadulterated racism (“The Trump administration is denying passports to people born in the United States.”)
- This is the new GOP: Angry and afraid
- Here Are the Real World Consequences of Trump’s Crusade Against the Media (“‘Enemy of the people’ is being used in death threats to newspaper reporters.”)
- Chuck Schumer under attack for cutting deal with Mitch McConnell on judges (“Senate Minority Leader faces sharp criticism for letting Republicans reshape the judiciary without much fight”)
- Judge Rules Against Alex Jones and Infowars in Sandy Hook Lawsuit
- Trump’s Top Targets in the Russia Probe Are Experts in Organized Crime (“Some of President Trump’s favorite targets in the Russia probe have spent their careers in the Justice Department and the FBI investigating organized crime and money laundering, particularly as they pertain to Russia.”)
- It Turns Out Mike Pence Has Been Working on Being Unlikable for Decades (“Your vice president once turned in his fraternity brothers for—gasp—drinking beer.”)
- ‘A cool dude’: Republican bid to insult Beto O’Rourke on Twitter backfires (“Party tried to take down O’Rourke, Senator Ted Cruz’s challenger, by sharing an old photo of him with his former band” The Republican Party is the anti-band party? LOL)
- How Much Trouble Is Ted Cruz Really In? (Cruz is horrible.)
- Winners and losers from the new NAFTA deal
- No Ecosystem on Earth Is Safe From Climate Change (“If carbon emissions continue to grow, anyone who works with the land could face ‘unprecedented challenges.’”)
- Trump ignores lessons from John McCain’s life
- At raucous rally, Trump threatens to ‘get involved’ with Justice Department, FBI (Trump really is a menace.)
- Florida GOP gubernatorial nominee was admin of racist Facebook group (“DeSantis was one of 52 administrators and moderators of the ‘Tea Party’ group (which is not affiliated with the official Tea Party Patriots), including former Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kelli Ward and Virginia GOP Senate candidate Corey Stewart, both of whom still serve as admins.” That’s right, Corey Stewart is one of the administrators!)
- GOP Candidate Corey Stewart’s Consultant: John McCain Is a Piece of Sh*t ‘Even in Death’
- Five Republican candidates are administrators for a racist Facebook group that pushes conspiracy theories (“The candidates are: Daniel Crenshaw, running to represent Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives; Danny Tarkanian, running to represent Nevada in the House; Corey Stewart, running to represent Virginia in the Senate; Matt Rosendale, running to represent Montana in the Senate; Patrick Morrisey, running to represent West Virginia in the Senate.”)
- In Virginia, Republicans Are Showing How Dirty They’re Willing to Play (“A Democratic hopeful who once worked in the CIA is accusing a GOP super PAC of obtaining her classified federal security clearance application.”)
- Kaine to kick off 15-stop Labor Day weekend campaign swing (Great to see Tim Kaine campaigning hard and taking NOTHING for granted!)
- Editorial: Thanks to fracked gas, U.S. leads the globe in carbon reduction (I’m only including this to demonstrate, yet again, how ignorant and crazy the Republican Times-Disgrace editorial page is. In fact, energy efficiency played a huge role, as did solar and wind power. As for fracked natural gas, while it played a large role as well in U.S. CO2 emissions reductions, the problems are: 1) it also releases significant amounts of methane, a FAR more potent greenhouse gas than CO2; and 2) the fracking process is polluting and uses huge amounts of water – see Fracking is destroying U.S. water supply, warns shocking new study. So, as usual, the RTD editorial page has its head so far up its a** that it would take a team of St. Bernards weeks to find it.)
- Latest: Court denies request to stay redistricting deadline
- Advocates: As long as redistricting is in the legislature’s hands, partisan squabbling will be the result (“Both sides” false equivalency.)
- Democrats and Republicans spar over Va. House redistricting, but voting may not happen for weeks
- Democrats, GOP clash over redistricting plan (“Lawmakers left Richmond without much movement on the bill but with plenty of tense exchanges — and even opposition on the proposal from Portsmouth Democrat Del. Stephen Heretick. He wants an independent commission to draw maps and criticized his party for not fulfilling that promise.” Heretick is a heretic? LOL.)
- A security form became a political weapon. We should all be alarmed.
- Ex-CIA officer’s full personnel file released in ‘human error,’ Postal Service admits (Hmmm…that’s a hell of an “error!”)
- Federal court allows stream crossing work for Mountain Valley Pipeline (Oh great.)
- Two visions in conflict (“Doesn’t it strike anyone that we have in internal conflict here? Northam is largely silent on two giant pipelines in the western part of the state carrying the fuel that is at least partially responsible for the rise in sea-level to continue.” Massive conflict. Does Northam even understand this?)
- Special session on redistricting kicks off in Richmond (“Democrats put forth a new political map that Republicans tore apart in committee.”)
- Schapiro: For McCain, Va. marked beginnings and ends
- Editorial: Looking ahead to the 2019 elections (“The VPAP analysis shows that there are seven Republicans who hold seats in districts that went Democratic in the governor’s race — and an eighth Republican who holds a seat where the governor’s race was essentially a tie.”)
- New chief of Chesterfield schools signs on for four years with six-figure salary
- Federal immigration authorities file detainers on two Guatemalan nationals charged in Chesterfield hit-and-run crash that killed young boy (Tragic.)
- Take a good look at these Nationals. You won’t be seeing a lot of them next season.
- Still very muggy, but rain chances help keep temperatures lower for a couple of days
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