Thursday News: “Afraid? Weak? Egotistical? Attack!”; “Trump is working with the trolls”; Comstock’s BFF “Hannity is ‘injecting poison into the nation’s political bloodstream'”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, August 2.

• As midterms near, fears grow that U.S. is not protected from Russian interference
• China Says It’s Ready to Retaliate on Latest U.S. Tariff Threat
• Trump’s overture to emerging Asia drowned out by trade war
• Trump thanks North Korea’s Kim keeping word on war remains, hopes to see him ‘soon’ (Trump has been and continues to be a useful idiot.)
• Russia Attacks America’s Election System. Trump Shrugs. (“The midterms are approaching, and the president has yet to get serious about protecting the nation’s electoral system from cyberinvasion.”)
• Charles Blow: Afraid? Weak? Egotistical? Attack! (“Trump doesn’t want a free press; he wants free propaganda.”)
• Mueller Inquiry Exposes Culture of Lobbying for Foreign Money
• Trump Pushes for Interview With Mueller Against Lawyers’ Advice
• Special counsel Mueller wants to ask Trump about obstruction of justice: Sources
• Trump urges end to probe ‘right now,’ setting off new storm
• The president is flouting the law in plain sight (“A crime is still a crime, even if it’s not carried out to a successful conclusion.”)
• Scientists aren’t impressed with New York Times’ new story on climate change (“Experts label 30,000 word piece ‘historically inaccurate’ and ‘based on logical non sequiturs.'”)
• The Problem With The New York Times’ Big Story on Climate Change (“By portraying the early years of climate politics as a tragedy, the magazine lets Republicans and the fossil-fuel industry off the hook.”)
• Trump is working with the trolls (“Halting the hackers takes political will and moral commitment.”)
• The deep cynicism of Bernie Sanders’s chief strategist (“He played Paul Manafort’s game for a mere $100,000 a month.”)
• Future generations will feel only contempt (“Trump’s words suggest he has little regard for the well-being of his country and the integrity of its elections.”)
• Trump’s cynical attacks on the rule of law hurt the nation
• Manafort Trial: Prosecutors Detail Spending On Luxuries Purchased With Offshore Funds
• Sarah Sanders says Trump ‘is not obstructing, he’s fighting back.’ There’s just one problem. (“File under ‘arguments you will not hear in a court of law.'”)
• Would Brett Kavanaugh be a check on Trump if he tried to abuse his power? We need to know.
• What Is QAnon? The Conspiracy Theory Tiptoeing Into Trump World (This is beyond insane, wherever that is.)
• CNN’s Acosta: Hannity is ‘injecting poison into the nation’s political bloodstream’ (Yes, and has been doing so for years. The fact that Fox allows this scumbag on the air tells you everything you need to know about Fox.)
• Why Congress Rolls Over for Trump (“The powerful institutionalists who used to rule the House and Senate have been replaced by inexperienced partisans. And it shows.”)
• Making Sense of Obama’s Seemingly Scattershot First Endorsement List
• Fox News’ unglued Sean Hannity curses out CNN’s Jim Acosta
• It Won’t Matter, But Medicare for All Would Cost Less and Cover 30 Million More Americans (“They’ll just scream ‘$32 trillion!’ over and over.”)
• Republicans Just Voted Against Defending Our Democracy Because They Don’t Want to Defend It (“There’s no excuse—including bean-counting. The crisis is here and now.”)
• Team Trump’s Explanations for Mueller Tirade Make Less and Less Sense
• Trump vs. Koch Is a Custody Battle Over Congress
• Alex Jones: President Obama has been “having sex with 10 dudes a day” on taxpayer time (Yes, Alex Jones is a real person on our world. And people actually watch him. Speechless…)
• Laura Ingraham: Children not yet reunited with families are being protected by Trump from their drug abusing, child trafficking parents (Tough to decide who is more insane, Jones or Ingraham. And what about the people who watch them?)
• A Hell of a Performance by Paul Manafort (“Now, it’s his own image and his own narrative that he must manage, with an audience of expressionless jurors tucked away at the side of the room. And as the jury of his peers comes and goes from the room, Manafort makes a point of flashing his well-buffed smile. It’s the look of a man projecting confidence. It’s kind of convincing.”)
• What To Watch For In Today’s Tennessee Primaries (“Its non-presidential primary elections — scheduled this year for Aug. 2, which is why I’m harping on this — always take place on a Thursday, and no one seems to knows why.”)
• Trump Says You Need an ID to Buy Groceries. Shoppers Say, ‘Huh?’
• Former Ohio State wrestling coach urged Rep. Jim Jordan’s accusers to recant, texts show
• How politics led to an 8,000 percent surge in ‘Bigfoot erotica’ searches on Pornhub
• GOP Senate Candidate Consultant Demands Black ‘Leaders’ Force NFL Players to Stand for National Anthem (“Corey Stewart’s GOP Senate campaign paid more than $113,000 to Rick Shaftan’s Atlantic Media & Research company for media consulting and radio advertising, according to Federal Election Commission records”)
• Warner gets Senate approval of more funding for drone testing, including Virginia Tech
• Rep. Comstock, running for reelection, won’t vote for a government shutdown no matter how much Trump wants one (Right, so she votes 97% with Trump but won’t do the one thing that will certainly cost her reelection. Yay?)
• Scott Taylor’s campaign paid staff to help get independent opponent on ballot
• Senate votes for full $73 million funding for Chesapeake Bay Program
• Editorial: Obenshain’s name still looms large (Obenshain moved the Republican Party right, and his son Mark “Criminalize Miscarriages” Obenshain is even further to the right.)
• Jury appears deadlocked in Shaun Brown fraud case, but will reconvene Thursday (“Jurors are considering whether Brown, 59, of Hampton — a candidate in the race for a U.S. House of Representatives seat that spans from Williamsburg to Virginia Beach — should be found guilty of running a fraud that bilked a government program to feed needy children.”)
• Governor Ralph Northam Launches Grand Rounds Lectures To Battle Opioid Addiction
• On first day as UVA president, Ryan said he’ll focus on community, discovery and service
• Virginia Beach named safest metro city in America by security review company
• Richmond Public Schools recommends ousting 10 members of Carver cheating ring, license revocation
• Downpours at times through Friday. Then not as wet but hot this weekend.