Thursday News: Trump Quits Kim; GOP Utterly Disgraces Itself at Cohen Hearing; “Uncontradicted”; Beto 2020?; Ralph and Pam Northam Both Racially Clueless

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, February 28.

• Trump and Kim abruptly cut short summit after failing to reach nuclear deal (What ever happened to Trump and Kim being “in love?”)
• Trump, Kim summit collapses amid failure to reach deal
• Report: Trump No Longer Demands That North Korea Be Held Accountable for Its Nuclear Program (That’s completely bonkers.)
• Journalists questioned Kim Jong Un. For once, he answered. (“It was a stunning — and possibly unprecedented — moment.”)
• Trump on Otto Warmbier’s death: Kim Jong Un wasn’t to blame (“The American college student died after being released from a North Korean prison in 2017 in an unconscious state.” In fact, Kim Jong Un is absolutely to blame, and Trump is a disgrace for suggesting otherwise.)
• Behind Netanyahu’s Deal with the Racist Right—and How the Opposition United Against Him (“With centrist parties combining forces to oppose him, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has allied his party with acolytes of the late militant extremist Meir Kahane.”)
• Trudeau’s Ex-Attorney General: ‘Veiled Threats’ Were Made to Drop Case
• Kushner makes little headway on Mideast peace plan in Gulf
• Uncontradicted (“Republicans on the House Oversight Committee impugned the integrity of Trump’s former lawyer—but failed to defend the president from his key charges.”)
• Michael Cohen Accuses Trump of Expansive Pattern of Lies and Criminality (I hope nobody – other than Trump cultists, of course – is surprised.)
• The Republican Party Completely and Utterly Disgraced Itself at Michael Cohen’s Hearing (“Not one Republican asked a question about the specific offenses that Cohen had illuminated in his opening statement.” The Republican Party is basically abetting a criminal enterprise at this point.)
• Republicans Sink Further Into Trump’s Cesspool (“What they left out of their questioning of Michael Cohen says more about the degradation of my former party than anything they said.” Exactly. All they cared about was impugning Cohen, not getting to the bottom of Trump’s likely criminal activities.)
• Cohen tells Congress Trump knew about WikiLeaks’ plans, directed hush-money payments
• Michael Cohen issues a gripping, sobering warning on Trump’s corruption: But will it matter? (“Cohen tells Republicans that lying on Donald Trump’s behalf landed him in prison. They keep on doing it anyway”)
• Republicans can’t defend Trump against the substance of Cohen’s attacks (“All they can do is try to paint Cohen as a liar.”)
• The most revealing insight of Michael Cohen’s testimony (“Of all the things that President Trump’s former personal lawyer revealed in his remarkable day of congressional testimony Wednesday, the one that shed the greatest light was this: Trump never expected — or even really wanted — to win the 2016 election.”)
• Michael Cohen is the monster Trump created
• Michael Cohen just breached Trump’s GOP stone wall
• Trump’s inner circle sustains collateral damage in Cohen hearing (“The president’s former attorney mentioned some of Trump’s children and close business associates in his House testimony.”)
• GOP Strategy: Call Michael Cohen a Liar, Don’t Rebut His Specific Claims About Trump
• Michael Cohen’s Damning Portrayal of Trump as a Lying, Racist Crook
• Did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Just Lay Groundwork for Democrats to Subpoena Trump’s Tax Returns? (“When it was Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s turn to ask questions, she stuck to brief questions with a laser focus on Trump’s finances and taxes. Democrats have long wanted to get a hold of Trump’s tax returns but lacked a clear reason to be able to subpoena them. Ocasio-Cortez may have just handed it to them on a silver platter.”)
• Here are five felonies Trump committed — if Cohen is telling the truth (“Conspiracy to defraud the United States…Lying to the FBI and the Justice Department…Suborning perjury…Violating campaign finance laws…Bank, wire and tax fraud.”)
• Michael Cohen’s hearing was explosive — but not for what was new (“The takeaway: President Trump is a liar with a defective character — and, possibly, a criminal.”)
• The Cohen Hearing Was the Start of a Reconstruction of the American Republic (“Elijah Cummings made it plain in his closing statement: this was about reasserting democratic norms and institutions.”)
• Matt Gaetz Under Investigation by Florida State Bar Over Michael Cohen Threat
• Republicans Committed the Classic Cross-Examination Blunder (“Trump’s supporters in Congress did not successfully destroy Michael Cohen’s credibility.”)
• Cohen testimony suggests NY prosecutors pose major danger to Trump (“ANALYSIS: No matter what Mueller finds, Cohen’s statements reveal Trump has reason to worry about the wide-ranging New York probe.”)
• The Day Trump Lost Control of the Conversation (“Michael Cohen showed he learned some tricks from his former mentor.”)
• Republican Outraged When Congresswoman Calls His Trump Defense Racist
• How Cohen’s Testimony Backs Up the Case That Trump Helped Russia Attack the 2016 Election (“The issue is not collusion—it’s aiding and abetting.”)
• Cohen accused the president of all these felonies (“Trump’s longtime ‘fixer’ claims the president committed bank fraud, tax fraud, and campaign finance violations, among other things.” In the timeline that should have been, Hillary Clinton of course would be president, while Trump and a bunch of his associates, like Don Jr., would be in prison for many many years.)
• Michael Cohen’s Testimony Is the First Hearing in President Trump’s Impeachment
• ‘He Is a Racist, He Is a Con Man, and He Is a Cheat’ (“Nixon was bad, but nothing compared to Michael Cohen’s portrayal of ‘gangster’ Trump.”)
• Trump vs. Cohen: The Breakup of a New York Relationship
• Trump blasts Cohen, but ‘impressed’ with collusion comments (So let’s get this straight: according to Republicans, Cohen is a liar, except when he exonerates Trump, at which point he’s totally telling the truth.)
• Why Michael Cohen — who lied to Congress before — gave such effective testimony this time (“The president’s former lawyer appeared with a mountain of damning evidence and no incentive to lie.”)
• Sources: Beto O’Rourke won’t challenge John Cornyn for Senate, paving way for presidential bid
• Beto O’Rourke Says He Has ‘Made a Decision’ on a Presidential Run
• As Biden weighs 2020 bid, Democrats ask: ‘Does he meet the moment?’
• The 2020 Endorsement Primary (“Which Democratic candidates are receiving the most support from prominent members of their party?”)
• Climate deniers reveal true fear about Green New Deal: That it will force Republicans to the left (“Green New Deal-lite.”)
• The Supreme Court Just Served Up a Slice of Humanity, Courtesy of John Roberts (“In a Death Row case, the Court carved out a new dimension to the Eighth Amendment.”)
• Clip of Meadows saying send Obama back to ‘Kenya or wherever’ resurfaces after clash with Tlaib (Shocked that Meadows is a virulent racist.)
• Va. Senator Mark Warner Says He Will Sponsor D.C. Statehood Legislation
• Va. Senator Mark Warner Is Sponsoring D.C. Statehood Legislation For The First Time (Good!)
• House Passes Most Significant Gun Bill In 2 Decades (“The legislation mandates background checks be performed on all gun sales, including firearm purchases made privately. The Senate is unlikely to take it up.”)
• First lady Pam Northam under fire for handing out piece of cotton during tour of Executive Mansion slave quarters
• Virginia’s First Family Just Can’t Stop Being Racist (At best, they are racially clueless.)
• For Some Bizarre Reason, Jeff Schapiro Decides to Attack “Evil Twin” Kaine. Even More Bizarre, It Was Apparently Triggered by Kaine Writing a Column Calling for Action Against Racism.
• Virginia first lady under fire for handing cotton to African American students on mansion tour (“Northam’s office and one other parent of a child who was present said the first lady did not single out the African American students and simply handed out the cotton to a group. But the incident highlights the scrutiny and doubt that envelop the governor as he tries to push past racist incidents from his past and ignore continued calls for his resignation.”)
• William Limpert column: Pipelines put health and environment at risk – and we don’t need them anyway (Not only do we not need them, they are a massive waste of money that would be FAR better spent on energy efficiency.)
• Barry DuVal column: A vote to revoke MVP water certification will hurt Virginia’s business climate (This op-ed is written by the head of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. ‘Nuff said.)
• Water Control Board Must Assess Impact of Variance 006 on Mountain Valley Pipeline Erosion and Sedimentation Plans
• A failure to act by the water board on Mountain Valley Pipeline will allow more violations (Bingo.)
• Landon: Rescinding MVP approval would hurt Virginia (This guy is president of the Virginia Oil and Gas Association. Ignore.)
• CASEY: The death of a legislation almost everyone expected would pass (“All the way through this year’s General Assembly session, it appeared 2019 was finally the year Virginia would outlaw the use of hand-held cellphones while driving. That bill died on a last day in a manner that left many puzzled. But there may be a way to bring it back.”)
• Hundreds pack into contentious Spotsylvania meeting on solar project; supervisors delay decision (“Opposition at the local level has largely stemmed from the gated Fawn Lake community that sits directly adjacent to the more than 6,000 acres that sPower plans to transform into a 1.8 million–panel solar farm. More than two-thirds of the land has been actively logged by Riveroak Timberland for several decades, and the company has explicitly stated that it intends to sell its holdings and will not continue logging them — a point raised by many speakers Tuesday who support the project.”)
• Dominion fires up new 500,000-volt power line over James River
• Loudoun schools ban anti-LGBT discrimination
• Norfolk sheriff’s jailing of immigration detainees draws picketers at City Hall
• Private meetings, public squabbles and “making faces”: Norfolk School Board divisions are plain to see (“Four new members were elected to the board last year, and the battle lines were drawn almost immediately. At stake are policies that govern 30,000 students’ education — and the future of the superintendent.”)
• Editorial: Richmond School Board’s refusal to share full budget is shameful
• D.C.-area forecast: Mixed precipitation and snow are likely late tonight into early Friday