Monday News: “Tackle climate or face financial crash, say world’s biggest investors”; “Surviving a Criminal Presidency”; Does Anyone Want Trump Chief of Staff Job?; Government Shutdown Coming?

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Monday, December 10.

• U.S. rejects language affirming the severity of global warming (“The Trump administration is resisting efforts to fight climate change at home and overseas as battle lines sharpen at an international summit in Poland.” This is wayyyy beyond appalling.)
• Surviving a Criminal Presidency (“No one is above the law in America.”)
• Shutdown Looms and Priorities Stack Up as Congress Races Toward Session’s End
• UK can withdraw Brexit notification, ECJ rules (They made a huge mistake, but they can still correct it…so correct it!)
• Wall St. Faces Stomach-Churning Swings as Economic Uncertainty Grows
• Pence Chief of Staff Nick Ayers Won’t Be Next White House Staff Chief
• Scoop: Trump considering Mark Meadows for chief of staff (Ee gads, just when you thought things couldn’t get even worse…Meadows is completely bonkers.)
• The Trump administration says it will walk away from a nuclear treaty. Then what?
• Nick Ayers, Trump’s once-likely replacement for chief of staff John Kelly, won’t take the job (“Ayers, Vice President Pence’s chief of staff, tweeted that he will leave the White House at the end of the year.” Smart guy.)
• ‘His word isn’t good’: Dems don’t trust Trump to make shutdown deal (“Kaine cast doubt on the idea that there’s even an agreement to be had with Trump: ‘For him, immigration is about waving a bloody shirt before an election. If there’s a deal, what is there for him to talk about?'”)
• ‘I can’t breathe.’ Jamal Khashoggi’s last words disclosed in transcript, source says
• Trump’s next chief of staff may be walking into a nightmare
• Greenland’s ice sheet is melting at its fastest rate in centuries (“The ice on Greenland would raise global sea levels by 20 feet if it were all to melt.”)
• Done With Michael Cohen, Federal Prosecutors Shift Focus to Trump Family Business
• Comey calls on Americans to ‘use every breath we have’ to oust Trump in 2020
• Schiff: Trump may face ‘real prospect of jail time’ (He and several members of this crime syndicate family should definitely be facing lengthy time in prison.)
• Trump ‘at center of massive fraud against Americans’, top Democrat says (“Incoming House chair Nadler promises investigations. Payments to women ‘would be impeachable offenses’”)
• Mike Pompeo swaggers his way to failure
• Are Republicans abandoning democracy? (“The GOP appears to have no problem changing the rules this year following election losses.”)
• The Ineptitude of Donald Trump’s Co-Conspirators
  
• Right to end life on Earth: Can corporations that spread climate change denialism be held liable? (“If a corporation’s propaganda destroys the world, doesn’t that conflict with our right to live?” How about individuals as well?)
• Tackle climate or face financial crash, say world’s biggest investors (“UN summit urged to end all coal burning and introduce substantial taxes on emissions”)
• Elizabeth Warren forges a 2020 machine (“The Massachusetts senator’s aides have been quietly shopping for presidential campaign headquarters space in the Boston area.”)
• GOP’s anti-democratic “red tide”: It’s ugly, but it’s nothing new (“Republicans across the country have responded to midterm defeats by trying to undo democracy. What can stop them?”)
• From pinnacle to punchline: How Trump diminished the job of his chief of staff (Trump tarnishes/ruins everything he touches.)
• Comey says Trump ‘obviously’ obstructed justice in 2017 talk about Flynn (“Former FBI Director James Comey said his first security briefing to President Donald Trump was about ‘pretty hair-raising stuff’ but that ‘he seemed pretty distracted.'”)
• The Russia Investigations: Maybe The End Is In Sight. Maybe It Isn’t
• Ex-Wisconsin GOP governor calls on Walker to reject measures curbing Dems’ power
• Cambridge Analytica’s Real Role in Trump’s Dark Facebook Campaign (“Now new data has opened a small window into Trump’s social-media machinery, and in particular the role played by the now-defunct Cambridge Analytica.”)
• Conservative Columnist Has A Wild Prediction For Trump’s Final Minutes In Office (“Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin says the president could make a major move in his last 10 minutes.”)
• Fox News Talked More About Migrant ‘Invasion’ Just Before Election Than In Past 3 Years Total (“And it appears they’re only ramping up that fearmongering rhetoric.” Notice that post-election, we barely hear about the “caravan?”)
• Massive Winter Storm Kills One, Over 300,000 Without Power in Southeast
• HOPKINS: Don’t lose sight of 2019 in the buildup for 2020 (“Though some Democrats are already focusing their attention on the 2020 presidential race, the 2019 state races are just as important”)
• Editorial: Education changes could help workers (“GOV. RALPH Northam’s recent announcement of plans for changes in Virginia’s community college system raises hope that Amazon’s much-hyped decision to build one of two additional headquarters — dubbed HQ2 — in Northern Virginia really could have benefits for the entire state.”)
• Ellerbrock: Of pipelines, people and principles (“Regarding racial disparities, the ACP plans for a massive natural gas compressor station in the Union Hill community of Buckingham County. To be located adjacent to a former plantation with numerous slaves’ graves, Dominion bought the site on the open market for $1.2 million from a wealthy white absentee landlord.”)
• Dominion asks 4th Circuit to reconsider stay of federal permit
• Promises Broken: Governor Northam’s Inaugural Address
• Cobb: It’s only downhill with casinos (The view from the religious far right…)
• Linda D. Wilkinson column: Medicaid expansion means critical role for Virginia’s free clinics (“Linda D. Wilkinson is the CEO of the Virginia Association of Free and Charitable Clinics.”)
• Big company, big dollars, small community: Dominion deal sparks dissent in community facing gas project (“Paul Wilson, a pastor who divided his time between the Union Hill and Union Grove churches, has been the figurehead of the opposition movement. In recent weeks, though, the two churches have split and Wilson now serves only Union Grove. Residents say tensions over the Dominion deal aggravated long-standing differences and contributed to the rift.”)
• Omega Protein is up for a sustainable fishing certification, but an environmental group is not having it
• A third of Hampton Roads residents say recurrent flooding is an issue in their neighborhood, according to ODU report (“Across most of the metrics ODU studied, residents showed increasing concern about flooding compared to years past.”)
• Hakim J. Lucas and Makola M. Abdullah: We commit to progress, with openness and transparency (“Dr. Hakim J. Lucas is president of Virginia Union University; Dr. Makola M. Abdullah is president of Virginia State University.”)
• The Last Gasp of Massive Resistance: Richmond’s 2019 Coliseum Scheme
• It’s time for Bruce Allen, architect of this Redskins disaster, to be shown door (Who’s a bigger disaster, George Allen or Bruce Allen? Heh.)
• Cold and calm for first half of week. Milder and wet for second half. (“Temperatures are below normal to start the week. Later this week, we could break our all-time yearly rainfall record.”)