by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, September 22.
- China Cancels Trade Talks With U.S. Amid Escalation in Tariff Threats (Trump working hard to kill the strong Obama/Democratic economy he inherited in January 2017.)
- Senate Judiciary chairman says he’ll give Kavanaugh accuser more time to decide whether to testify before committee (Awwww…that’s so generous of him! LOL)
- Republicans first said Christine Blasey Ford should be heard. Then they insulted and ignored her. (“Republicans may not want to listen, but Christine Blasey Ford deserves to be heard.”)
- At Missouri Rally, Trump Continues Attacks on Federal Law Enforcement (Very, very dangerous…the “president” attacking the rule of law itself.)
- G.O.P. Leaders Can’t Even Fake Respect for Christine Blasey Ford (“They are struggling to pretend they will fairly weigh her accusations against Brett Kavanaugh.”)
- The Magical-Thinking Defenses of Brett Kavanaugh (“CSI: Beltway. Doppelgängers. Zillow. The theories offered on behalf of the Supreme Court nominee have come to suggest a determined resistance to a changing world.”)
- Trump HUD Secretary Ben Carson claims Kavanaugh allegations are part of a centuries old socialist plot (“‘There’ve been people in this country for a very long time….who don’t like what this country represents,’ Carson told an audience of conservative activists. These forces he said, were now ‘like wet hornets’ and ‘out of control.'” Yes, Carson is absolutely insane.)
- ‘100 Kegs or Bust’: Kavanaugh friend, Mark Judge, has spent years writing about high school debauchery (These people are seriously f’ed up.)
- The stakes are sky-high in Mitch McConnell’s latest gamble (“His stonewalling on Merrick Garland may be why we got Donald Trump.” McConnell is definitely one of the most horrible and most destructive politicians in America – arguably ever.)
- A Rod Rosenstein Resignation Would Be a Disaster for Mueller and the Rule of Law
- Ed Whelan’s Batshit Theory Has Been Kicking Around in Right-Wing Circles for a While Now (“Senate Republicans can’t get out of their own way on this matter.”)
- Florence’s Floodwaters Breach Defenses at Duke Energy Plant, Sending Toxic Coal Ash Into River (Wait, you mean coal is TOXIC not “clean?” Who knew?!?)
- Watch video: Sen. Collins ‘appalled’ by Trump’s tweet criticizing Kavanaugh accuser (“The Maine senator said the president was ‘completely inappropriate’ in his tweets about Christine Blasey Ford on Friday morning.” Correct. Now don’t vote for Kavanaugh, Sen. Collins!)
- America’s Jews are watching Israel in horror (“Netanyahu is betting Israel’s future on end-times Christians, orthodox Jews and wealthy conservatives such as Sheldon Adelson.” It’s appalling.)
- PR firm helped Whelan stoke half-baked Kavanaugh alibi (“CRC Public Relations, the prominent Alexandria, Virginia-based P.R. firm, guided Whelan through his roller-coaster week of Twitter pronouncements that ended in embarrassment and a potential setback for Kavanaugh’s hopes of landing on the high court, according to three sources familiar with their dealings.” Disgraceful.)
- Is Trumponomics working? Not really. (“So is Trumponomics working? With one significant caveat, the answer is no. For one thing, Trump’s trade policy is turning out to be worse than expected. For another, the growth surge mostly reflects a temporary sugar high from last December’s tax cut. Economists are already penciling in a recession for 2020.”)
- Her name is Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. Use it. (“Whether you support Christine Blasey Ford or not, please call her by her name. Just as we treat Kavanaugh with respect when referring to him, we should afford Ford the same respect. She, like Kavanaugh, needs to be seen to be fairly heard.”)
- Ed Whelan’s Troubles Might Be Just Beginning (“[Thursday] Whelan, the president of the Ethics and & Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank, and an assertive supporter of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, took to Twitter to lay out a Hardy Boys-inspired scenario, suggesting that Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused Kavanaugh of attempted rape in high school, might have been mistaken about the identity of her alleged sexual assaulter. Using a mash-up of yearbook photos, Zillow information, Google Maps and Facebook, Whelan laid out a “case” that another man, a former classmate of Kavanaugh’s at Georgetown Prep—whom he named and provided a current photograph of—might have been the person Ford has in mind. After his wild theory received widespread criticism, Whelan deleted the tweets, and tried to walk back the accusation [Friday] morning.”)
- DOJ’s Rosenstein, allies deny he considered secretly recording Trump (“A Justice Department official said the news would have no bearing on Rosenstein’s supervision of Mueller’s probe.”)
- GOP Senate nominee: Kavanaugh accusation ‘absurd’ because they were drunk and assault attempt ‘never went anywhere’ (Yeah, no…that is NOT the way this works, idiot.)
- Grassley extends deadline for Kavanaugh accuser while complaining that he is getting ‘played’
- The Other Problem With Brett Kavanaugh’s Nomination: Privilege (“His establishment grooming, including his years at Georgetown Prep, gave him a big lift—and is still working to his advantage.”)
- Cruz, O’Rourke clash in raucous Texas Senate debate (Great job by O’Rourke against slimy, utterly unlikable extremist Cruz.)
- Five takeaways from Cruz, O’Rourke’s fiery first debate
- WATCH: Ted Cruz says Dallas cop who killed unarmed black man in his own home should not be fired (Cruz is odious.)
- The New York Times’ Rosenstein Story Is Just a Game of Telephone (“On the whole, The New York Times is an essential publication. On occasion, however, it gets played like a $5 fiddle. Friday was one of those days.” “If you were a mendacious, criminal president* with a lot to cover up and the walls closing in from all sides, isn’t this exactly the story you’d want out there as an excuse to fire Rod Rosenstein and then appoint someone who would fire Robert Mueller?”)
- Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar’s Siblings Endorse Rival in New Campaign Ads (“The Gosar siblings have grown estranged from their brother, a four-term congressman, because of his frequent conspiracy theorizing and hair-raising comments about immigrants”)
- With new Kavanaugh tweet, Trump makes Kellyanne Conway look like a fool (Kellyanne Conway is a pathological liar.)
- Yale Law Students Cover School in Posters Protesting Support of Kavanaugh (Good – more of this please!)
- So Why Did Trump Get Cold Feet About Declassifying Those Russia Probe Documents? (“Maybe it was something more than just the requests of our allies.”)
- People Are Out to Undermine President Trump (“As they should be.”)
- Puerto Rico’s grim prognosis: The island may never recover (“While power and water have finally been restored to more than 99 percent of the island’s remaining 3.2 million residents, the economy is moribund. Economic output is projected to fall 13.3 percent this year, manufacturing jobs are drying up, tax receipts are down, small businesses are shuttering, and the reconstruction boom that follows many natural disasters is stymied by the slow pace of federal aid and the fact that most Puerto Ricans had little savings or insurance before the storm. Only 15 percent had homeowners insurance, and only 1 in 3 residents has a bank account.”)
- Yale Study Finds Twice as Many Undocumented Immigrants as Previous Estimates (“Generally accepted estimates put the population of undocumented immigrants in the United States at approximately 11.3 million. A new study, using mathematical modeling on a range of demographic and immigration operations data, suggests that the actual undocumented immigrant population may be more than 22 million.”)
- So … Who Tattled on Rod Rosenstein to the New York Times?
- The Times’s big new Rod Rosenstein story has major implications for Mueller’s probe
- Republicans Had 27 Years to Prepare for Another Anita Hill Moment. They’re Still Blowing It. (“It must be a case of mistaken identity!”)
- Millions of dead chickens and pigs found in hurricane floods (“In North Carolina 3.4 million chickens and 5,500 hogs have been confirmed killed as massive lagoons are discharging fecal soup” Factory farming is evil incarnate. Do not purchase or consume “meat” from said “farms” – ever.)
- Georgetown Prep’s President Defends Its Culture, Without Mentioning Brett Kavanaugh (“The school, he argues, is being caricatured as elitist, privileged, and uncaring. In the wake of the Kavanaugh accusations, alums of such elite private schools have called them ‘bastions of misogyny,’ researchers have argued they reinforce ‘hypermasculine culture,’ and some say they ‘foster darker impulses.'”)
- Sen. Mark Warner says social media needs ‘guardrails’
- Resistance to Trump vs. bipartisanship: Starkly different missions drive Virginia congressional hopefuls
- In first faceoff, Comstock and Wexton debate taxes, tariffs and immigration (This is ridiculously bad reporting. I mean, it’s NOT an issue of Wexton SAYING that the GOP tax bill “benefits the wealthy, raises the deficit by $1 trillion a year and hurts the United States’ ability to compete with other countries,” it’s a verifiable FACT that a journalist should state as such. This type of reporting is really infuriating. Again, this is a verifiable fact – “Wexton said GOP leadership in Congress failed to reform immigration” – and this is a verifiably deceptive statement – “Comstock said she is the only member of Congress from the capital region who has never voted for a shutdown” – and should be written about as such. As it is, it’s just “she said/she said.” Blech.)
- Comstock, Wexton hit hard in first debate of Va-10 congressional race (This is also a “she says/she says” article which doesn’t tell readers which statements are factually true, which are false, etc. Why can’t/won’t reporters do that???)
- Comstock, Wexton meet face-to-face for key congressional showdown (Same deal here as the other two Comstock/Wexton debate articles I’ve mentioned. I get that these folks are on deadline and in a rush, but how about working as a team with fact checkers or something? As it is, this type of “reporting” is almost worse than worthless.)
- Live Video, Live Blog: VA-10 Debate Between Jennifer Wexton (D) and Barbara Comstock (R) (In stark contrast, Blue Virginia’s coverage of the debate called out Comstock’s b.s. and lies. Is that “objective?” I’d argue that it very much is, while the newspapers are actually biased towards the right wing for NOT calling out their lies and factually inaccurate statements.)
- Brat faces general election test from well-funded Spanberger (Behind a draconian paywall – can’t even read the intro to find out what it’s about, other than the headline.)
- Virginia’s unemployment rate was 3 percent in August, lowest since 2007
- Governor: Virginia could lead nation on offshore wind power (This is a terrible “news” article…absolutely nothing new, no context, no explanation as to why other states on the Atlantic coast are racing ahead while Virginia lags waaaaayyy behind, etc. Pathetic job, AP.)
- Kaine, Stewart Set to Debate on NBC4 Wednesday (“NBC News political director and “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd will moderate the debate at 7 p.m., and News4 Northern Virginia Bureau Chief Julie Carey and anchor Aaron Gilchrist are on the panel.”)
- Fairfax County residents going plastic-free hoping to ban single-use plastics (I ditched single-use plastic bags years ago, always have some reusable bags with me. Is this difficult? Nope, it really isn’t.)
- Warner talks tariffs with local brewers
- Police chief says Virginia law on not naming juvenile homicide victims is ‘retraumatizing’ families
- Jury recommends 40 years for Keepers; murdered teen’s mom tells court: ‘She meant everything to me’
- Florence, wet summer causes damage to Virginia farms
- Rescue cats and dogs affected by Hurricane Florence are brought to Richmond for adoption
- Hoagie Chain Taylor Gourmet Will Close All of Its Stores (“Sources say owner Casey Patten’s meeting with President Trump hurt business”)
- Not too bad today, then rain takes over once again
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