Tuesday News: “Rick Gates Testifies He Committed Crimes With Paul Manafort”; OH Special Election Today; “Apple banned Alex Jones’s Infowars. Then the dominoes started to fall.”; Earth Heads Towards “Hothouse State”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, August 7. Check out the video, by the way; superb job by climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann – who Ken Kookinelli persecuted relentlessly – in communicating climate change and what to do about it (unlike the defeatist, “both sides,” ridiculous NY Times Sunday magazine waste-of-space.)

• Rick Gates Testifies He Committed Crimes With Paul Manafort
• Rick Gates just testified that he committed crimes with Paul Manafort
• U.S. to Restore Sanctions on Iran, Deepening Divide With Europe (Another stupid, crazy act by the Administration From Hell.)
• Who Will Last Longer: Trump or Iran’s Theocrats? (I’m rooting for…neither!)
• Even If Emission Reduction Targets Are Met, Earth Still Heading Towards ‘Hothouse’ State (“The science,” as our fine governor likes to call it, tells us clearly that we need to get off of fossil fuels – coal, oil, natural gas – on an emergency basis – ASAP! That means no new fossil fuel infrastructure, such as natural gas pipelines. For people who for some stupid reason think this is some “niche issue” or “one issue” or whatever…my god, I don’t even know what to say about people like that.)
• Thanks To Trump, Saudi Arabia Won’t Accept Even Mild Criticism From Its Friends Now (“Instead of minimal nudging, the Trump administration has now placed the U.S. in the position of explicitly blessing repression by mimicking the president’s ‘very fine people on both sides’ thinking.”)
• Paul Manafort’s First Trial Is a Sideshow. The Next One Won’t Be.
• Manafort prosecution’s frustration with judge leads to fiery clashes
• Dems launch lieutenant governors group to compete with GOP (“Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association’s first chairman, said the 2016 election created a ‘great sense of urgency’ among Democrats to ratchet up their campaign operations in the states.” Good!)
• The Russia Meeting at Trump Tower Was To Discuss Adoption. Then It Wasn’t. How Accounts Have Shifted
• GOP fears steep losses in state legislatures (Good!)
• Donald Trump throws his eldest son under the bus: And yes, this “collusion” could be criminal (“Did Trump just set up Don Jr. to take the fall? That Trump Tower meeting could involve at least one felony”)
• The Memo: High stakes for Trump in Ohio election
• What to Watch for in Tuesday’s Elections (“The fact that Republicans are even sweating—let alone spending—in this one is a victory for Democrats. The results won’t determine which party controls Congress next year, but given the district’s significant suburban population, they’ll probably provide a strong indication.”)
• Alex Jones Gets to Declare a Real Info War Now (“And by waiting years to crack down on the conspiracy theorist, tech companies were asking for it.” They all should have, and still should, crack down big time on these “right-fringe conspiracy-laden” nuts.)
• Rick Wilson: Trump’s Tweets May Actually Be His Undoing (“The impulsive president has backed himself into a corner, and Robert Mueller knows it”)
• This Was as Grave an Attack on Our Democracy as the Russian Meddling (“Except it was waged by the vice president and Kris Kobach.”)
• Democrats, Do Not Give Up on the Senate (“The party’s odds aren’t great, but they look better all the time.”)
• A Better Way to Ban Alex Jones (“‘Hate speech’ is extraordinarily vague and subjective. Libel and slander are not”)
• Republican in Ohio Special Election Closes Race by Insulting One Third of Voters (“During his final campaign stop on Monday night, Balderson told a crowd in Zanesville, Ohio that they need to get out and vote tomorrow because ‘we don’t want someone from Franklin County representing us.'”)
• After Infowars is removed from various platforms, Alex Jones begs Donald Trump for help (Ha, of course!)
• LISTEN: Don Jr.’s Line Drops After Ingraham Asks About Conflicting Statements on Trump Tower Meeting
• Caribbean states beg Trump to grasp climate change threat: ‘war has come to us’
• Republican Pitch on Robust Economy a Hard Sell in Regions Left Behind
• Apple banned Alex Jones’s Infowars. Then the dominoes started to fall. (“Apple’s Infowars ban altered an industry overnight — and dealt a significant blow to fake news.” Get rid of all these @#$@#!ers.)
• Everything You Need To Know About The Ohio 12th Special Election (“Just like in Georgia’s 6th District and Pennsylvania’s 18th District, Democrats in Ohio’s 12th District picked as their nominee a fresh-faced 30-something: Franklin County Recorder Danny O’Connor. And just like in Georgia and Pennsylvania, Republicans chose a 50-something veteran of state politics: state Sen. Troy Balderson… Stretching north and east of the state capital of Columbus, the 12th District encompasses Ohio’s wealthiest county (Delaware) and well-to-do suburbs like Dublin and New Albany. It is the classic home of the country-club Republican”)
• Massive wildfire rages after becoming largest in California’s history
• Democrats aim to reach a new kind of swing voter (“From Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Michelle Obama, Democrats are making a push simply to get people to show up at the polls.”)
• Scientists mock Trump’s tweet on wildfires as ‘comedically ill-informed’ and ‘unmitigated crap’ (“Trump’s climate denial is ‘a crime against the planet’ warns climatologist.” Agreed; same for anyone who denies climate science or is a self-proclaimed “skeptic.”))
• Republican gerrymandering wall is starting to crumble (“So gerrymandering is not dead, and there is a very real risk that the Supreme Court will invigorate it if Judge Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed to replace Justice Kennedy. For the moment, however, the GOP’s death grip on U.S. House redistricting is starting to crumble.”)
• CNN’s Don Lemon responds to Trump’s attacks on him and LeBron James with epic takedown: ‘Who is the real dummy?’
• MSNBC forced into 7-second delay after GOP strategist’s expletive-filled rant (“GOP strategist Rick Wilson was abruptly muted for seven seconds during an appearance on MSNBC after going on an expletive-filled rant about President Trump and his supporters on Monday morning.”)
• In a strikingly ignorant tweet, Trump gets almost everything about California wildfires wrong (We’ve gone from the president – Barack Obama – who was brilliant, curious, and always well informed to the one – Cheeto Mussolini – who’s…well, absolutely NONE of those things.)
• Here’s How a Mile of Chicago’s River Became a Wildlife Haven (Cool story; let’s do this everywhere we can!)
• William D. Ruckelshaus: Only one other president has ever acted this desperate
• Don’t all campaigns try to work with hostile states and porn stars? No. They. Don’t.
• Trump’s rally rhetoric is going to get somebody killed (“As the walls close in, Trump lashes out.”)
• Blue Ridge Caucus: Kaine releases first TV ad of U.S. Senate race
• USDA aims to boost water, soil health in more than 1 million acres of the Chesapeake Bay watershed (“Officials plan to help farmers use environmentally friendly methods, develop technology to identify best practices and consult with thousands of people.”)
• Transparency will keep Dominion plans in the light (“Dominion should also quantify why it is spending ratepayers’ dollars and in what order.”)
• CASEY: Bigfoot stomps into a Virginia congressional campaign (“One could imagine many key issues in the 5th Congressional District campaign: Healthcare, the rise of white nationalism, gas pipelines and immigration. Instead we have Bigfoot and his sexual proclivities.” And you know what? The media has paid the Bigfoot Erotica story a million times more attention than it has to 5th CD debates about immigration, gas pipelines, etc. It’s called “clickbait.”)
• Names of dead man and voter who moved show up on petition Rep. Scott Taylor’s staff gathered for independent candidate
• Richmond resident Rick Gates says he lied for years at Manafort’s request and stole from him in the process
• Judges vacate two permits for Atlantic Coast Pipeline
• Pipeline opponents cautiously optimistic after work halt (“Many wonder what will happen next”)
• Marine Vet Launches Run for State Senate (“Ashburn resident Kyle Green today formally announced his plans to seek the Democratic nomination in the 13th District state Senate race next year.”)
• Dead man’s name on Brown petitions Taylor staff filed
• Could flooding and sea level rise cost Hampton Roads a military base?
• Bob Goodlatte May Be the First Member of Congress to Disclose Owning Bitcoin (“Goodlatte, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, owns as much as $80,000 in cryptocurrency. His son is an angel investor in cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase.”)
• In this subdivision, lawns must be mowed. But what about meadows? (Anything that feeds bees, butterflies, etc. should absolutely NOT – repeat NOT! – have to be mowed. If anything, there should be incentives to grow pollinator/wildlife-friendly habitat, and disincentives to grown harmful-to-the-environment monocultures like lawns.)
• Editorial: Arthur Ashe deserves an entire Boulevard in Richmond
• Trial on hold for Chesapeake man charged with trying to kill Sen. Louise Lucas
• Carver principal and 5 others resign from Richmond Public Schools after test cheating investigation
• Hot and humid, with storm chances increasing Wednesday