Thursday News: OH Race Gets Even Closer; “Taylor proves, with his deceitful support for an independent, he’s scared of Luria”; “Women Form an Insurgency to Try to Topple Republican Dave Brat”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, August 9.

• Russia Blasts New U.S. Sanctions Plan as Ruble, Stocks Slide
• Republicans Gird for House Battle as Ohio and Kansas Races Remain Close
• Ohio race just got closer after county finds hundreds of uncounted votes (“Election officials in Franklin County found 588 previously uncounted votes in a Columbus suburb. The result: O’Connor had a net gain of 190 votes, bringing the race’s margin down to 1,564…O’Connor says he’s waiting for all votes to be counted. That includes 3,435 provisional ballots and 5,048 absentee ballots, which will be tabulated by Aug. 24.”)
• Omarosa Secretly Recorded Trump and Played the Audio for People, Sources Say
• Secret recording shows GOP’s Nunes saying Rosenstein impeachment would delay Supreme Court pick
• Ahead of midterms, Trump hits a wall in efforts to curb illegal immigration (“His wall remains unfunded by lawmakers, deportations are lagging behind rates under the Obama administration, and illegal border crossings have spiked.”)
• Lackluster election results spark debate over Trump’s midterm role
• Why Trump Goes Out of His Way to Incriminate Himself (“He doesn’t mind making himself vulnerable to punishment under the law because he doesn’t believe the law is legitimate or as powerful as he is. To him, jurisprudence is just another adversary to be bullied and mowed down like Little Marco or Crooked Hillary.”)
• The Whole Republican Party Seems to Be Going to Jail Now (“The entire Trump era has been a festering pit of barely disguised ongoing corruption. But the whole sordid era has not had a 24-hour period quite like the orgy of criminality which we have just experienced.”)
• Kris Kobach Is the G.O.P. at Its Worst (“In his race to be Kansas’ next governor, Kris Kobach represents the ugliest part of today’s Republican Party. He also sounds a lot like the president.”)
• We won’t stop California’s wildfires if we don’t talk about climate change (“Putting more money toward firefighting won’t prevent another summer like this.”)
• Trump’s nonsense tweets on water and wildfires are dangerous (“There’s no shortage of water to fight fires. But there is a shortage in common sense to fight climate change.”)
• Trump, down three touchdowns at halftime, declares victory
• The path to autocracy is all too familiar (“Listen to the echoes of history.”)
• Kobach refuses to recuse himself from election recount (Kobach=Scumbag)
• The Most Powerful Publishers in the World Don’t Give a Damn (“Twitter’s Jack Dorsey is protecting Alex Jones’s publishing power in the name of ‘what serves the public conversation best.’ His reasoning is absurd.”)
• Sean Hannity thanks Jack Dorsey and Twitter for sticking up for Alex Jones (If Sean Hannity is praising you for something you absolutely know that you’re wrong – big time.)
• New York and other states are targeting the NRA’s bottom line (“Several states are examining how the NRA makes money on gun insurance policies, and New York is warning banks not to do business with the gun group.”)
• Chris Collins Is Just One of the Many Creeps Picnicking on Trump’s Lawn (“The first congressman to endorse Trump blamed ‘political opponents’ for allegedly doing crimes in the midst of the White House congressional picnic.”)
• Tribune backs out of Sinclair merger
• King Midas Just Touched Another Republican Congressman (“Chris Collins was the first member of Congress to jump into bed with Trump. Now he’s in a spot of bother.”)
• Like Father, Like Son: Trump Jr. Defiant About Russia Probe
• Stop Despairing and Do Something About Climate Change (Agreed.)
• Twitter’s stance on Infowars’ Alex Jones should be a moment of reckoning for users (“Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey issued a jarring counterargument Tuesday night to the recent wave of backlash against far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his broadcast network Infowars”)
• The Most Vulnerable Trump Clone in Congress (#4 is Dave Brat.)
• Trump-Mueller negotiations threaten to hang over midterm elections
• Dems eyeing smaller magic number for House majority (“Several GOP-held seats are almost certainly already in the bag, meaning Democrats likely need to take a smaller number of competitive seats — perhaps as few as 15 — to return to the majority for the first time since 2010.”)
• Cranky judge, flawed witness threaten Mueller’s Manafort case (This judge is awful – unprofessional, biased, etc.)
• Brett Kavanaugh’s Nomination Will Backfire on Conservatives if He’s Confirmed
• Kaine: We are still in a ‘battle between love and hate’
• Sen. Tim Kaine talks tariffs, education at Anheuser-Busch’s Williamsburg brewery
• New Virginia Poll: Kaine Up 23 Points; Dems Up 19 Points for Control of Congress; Almost Nobody Wants General Assembly to Draw District Lines
• Munley: On pipeline, Northam has abandoned us
• Editorial: Pipeline opponents and the governor are talking two different languages (This editorial is just really, really dumb.)
• Taylor proves, with his deceitful support for an independent, he’s scared of Luria
• In Virginia, Women Form an Insurgency to Try to Topple Republican Dave Brat (“The Liberal Women of Chesterfield County did not exist when Representative Dave Brat, propelled by Tea Party-infused energy, shocked the Republican establishment in 2014 and defeated the House majority leader, Eric Cantor, in a primary triumph here that presaged even greater political upheaval two years later. Now they’re all up in his grill.”)
• Red Flags Abound In OH-12 and New VCU Poll
• Mamie E. Locke column: The gun lobby is out of touch with Virginians
• Gov. Northam, City of Charlottesville Declare States of Emergency for August 10–12 Planned Events
• Gov. Ralph Northam declares state of emergency ahead of Charlottesville rally anniversary
• GOP’s Comstock Swimming Against Democratic Tide in Virginia Race(” Comstock represents an area that has all the ingredients Democrats hope to exploit this year in order to flip Republican seats and retake control of the House: a wealthy, educated suburban electorate that’s increasingly diverse.”)
• Democratic lawyer Elias asks AG Herring to investigate 2nd District petition fraud allegations and wants Shaun Brown removed from ballot
• Democrats ask state to remove Brown’s name from ballot (Absolutely, there’s no way she made the ballot legitimately, based on the forgeries and other fraud clearly committed by Scott Taylor’s people.)
• ‘This isn’t going to go away’: Political analyst speaks on controversy surrounding Rep. Scott Taylor’s staff
• More recess on the way to Northern Virginia elementary schools
• Abandon hope, all ye who use Metro: With two weeks of single-tracking and shutdowns, agency urges riders to ditch the system (“A partial Blue Line closure and round-the-clock single-tracking on a key stretch of the Orange and Silver lines will have ramifications throughout the system.”)
• Appeals court upholds conviction of ex-Norfolk Treasurer Anthony Burfoot
• Norfolk school officials don’t deserve kudos now for ending a policy they shouldn’t have started
• Heat slowly eases, but showers settle in for the weekend and beyond