Tuesday News: “Ahead of North Korea summit, concern about Trump’s gamble”; “Michael Cohen Is Said to Have Plans to Go Negative on Trump During Testimony”; “In Virginia, Amazon faces some New York-style pushback”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, February 26.

• India strikes inside Pakistan after deadly Kashmir attack
• U.K.’s Theresa May to Consider Delay to Brexit Date (“As Corbyn backs second referendum, the pound rallies”)
• Trump’s blind spot on North Korea could sink a deal (“The president has sold Kim Jong Un on peace and prosperity. But North Korea’s record on human rights stands in the way.”)
• Ahead of North Korea summit, concern about Trump’s gamble (“Senior U.S. officials and North Korea experts are expressing mounting concerns that Trump will give away more than he gets in return.”)
• Where The U.S. Stands On North Korea Ahead Of The Trump-Kim Summit
• Will Trump Give Away Too Much to North Korea—and Get Too Little? (Almost certainly.)
• North Korea’s Kim awaits Trump in Vietnam for second summit
• Italy’s Populist Insurgents Are Collapsing (“Five Star has been humiliated in regional elections. Its coalition partners in the League are profiting, but need to get their timing right on seizing power.” Good.)
• Univision’s Jorge Ramos Temporarily Detained In Venezuela During Nicolás Maduro Interview (“Maduro’s legitimacy as president has been called into question in recent weeks.”)
• Trump Thinks He’s the Only One Who Can Fix North Korea (“In Vietnam, the U.S. and North Korean leaders will once again act as lead negotiators in nuclear talks. ‘No one really knows what it will mean to ski downhill from the top of Mt. Everest,’ wrote one expert.”)
• Michael Cohen Is Said to Have Plans to Go Negative on Trump During Testimony (“Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, is planning on portraying his onetime client in starkly negative terms when he testifies Wednesday before a House committee, and on describing what he says was Mr. Trump’s use of racist language, lies about his wealth and possible criminal conduct.”)
• House Investigators Probe Trump Contact With Matthew Whitaker
• Trump inner circle might escape Mueller charges — but still won’t be safe (“Federal prosecutors and Democratic committees are just getting started.”)
• John Kerry: Disband your climate denial panel, Mr. President (This alone should be an impeachable offense.)
• Trump’s new nominee for U.N. ambassador will be a laughingstock (“This is her stance on climate change: ‘I believe there are scientists on both sides that are accurate. … I appreciate and respect both sides of the science.’ This was widely and rightly ridiculed because, while there is a debate about what to do about global warming, there is no legitimate debate about whether global warming is real.”)
• “Earth-Shattering”: In Testimony Against Trump, Michael Cohen Preparing to Shock Lawmakers with Disclosures
• Robert Mueller Appears After Something Really, Really Big (“The trick to understanding Mueller’s intentions may lie not in his hundred of pages of previous indictments and filings, but in the material that he has omitted from them. Is the great unwritten story of Russian collusion hiding in plain sight?”)
• I’ve Got to Admit I Didn’t See the Death of Clouds Coming (“We’re doing damage to our climate we don’t even know about yet”)
• Trump’s ideology isn’t populism. It’s catastrophism. (“It is a sad thing when a president manipulates the public. It is a sad and scary thing when the president is manipulated by people with a vested interest in cultivating crisis. The worst danger of civil war or subversion comparisons is that Trump might actually believe them. And act on them.”)
• Thom Tillis: I support Trump’s vision on border security. But I would vote against the emergency.
• Trump on brink of defeat on border emergency(“Just one more Senate Republican is needed to block Trump’s emergency declaration, though even critics are reluctant to buck the president.” Yeah, but we need a veto-proof majority.)
• Senate defeats anti-abortion bill, as GOP tries to jam Dems (Republicans are waging war against women’s reproductive freedom.)
• A Republican-backed bill to protect “abortion survivors” won’t pass. It still matters. (“The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act may be part of a larger strategy for 2020.”)
• Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers Pulls National Guard From Border, Says ‘No Justification’
• Hundreds of young protesters confront McConnell over Green New Deal (“Activists condemn Republican Senate leader for ‘lining your pockets while we die in floods’ and demand climate action”)
• Bernie Sanders Raises $10 Million in Less Than a Week
• Warren creates purity test unseen in modern presidential politics (“The Massachusetts senator’s swearing off of big fundraisers and donor calls puts the rest of the Democratic field in an uncomfortable spot.”)
• George Pell: cardinal found guilty of child sexual assault (“Vatican treasurer, the third most senior Catholic in the world, convicted on five charges in Australian court case “)
• Trump Bypassed Lawmakers to Build His Wall. Here’s How They Are Fighting Back. (“The politics of this are much more lethal than one thinks.”)
• Chuck Todd on NBC’s 2020 Debate Plans, Why He ‘Can’t Quit’ Rudy Giuliani and Won’t ‘Ban’ Kellyanne Conway (Chuck sucks.)
• EPA official agreed to help former colleague’s husband find ‘senior’ position at the agency (In a normal administration, this would be a significant scandal. In this corrupt cesspool, it’s practically ignored.)
• Senator to Agencies: What Are You Doing to Secure Health Tech? (“Sen. Mark Warner wants to develop a wide-ranging strategy to combat cybersecurity vulnerabilities targeting America’s health care sector.”)
• Laura Ingraham’s new podcast is a total disaster (“After ending her 17-year radio show, Fox News host Laura Ingraham started a new podcast in January 2019. The change of format and venue did not reduce Ingraham’s use of racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, anti-LGBTQ, and generally hateful rhetoric. Here are some examples from her first episodes that clearly show that Ingraham and her guests intend to continue shepherding listeners through a nightmarish wormhole of hatred and bigotry.”)
• In Virginia, Amazon faces some New York-style pushback (“The ‘For Us, Not Amazon’ coalition is calling for transparency from Amazon and politicians over their plans for the East Coast headquarters.”)
• Video: Terry McAuliffe Says He’s “Very Concerned” with Situation in Virginia; Reiterates that Northam, Fairfax Should Resign; Says “Green New Deal” Has Great “Aspirational” Goals but Somewhat “Unrealistic”; Tired of “Litmus Tests”; etc.
• How Terrible Was the 2019 Virginia General Assembly Session? With Republicans Like Kirk Cox and Tommy Norment in Charge…Take a Guess!
• BREAKING: US Court of Appeals for 4th Circuit DENIES “En Banc” Rehearing Requested by Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC
• Court won’t revisit ruling that tossed Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s permit to cross Appalachian Trail
• Editorial: 2019 General Assembly (In this editorial, the Republican Times-Disgrace manages to call Del. Kathy Tran’s inarticulate comments about her abortion rights bill a “scandal,” while also failing to mention Tommy Norment’s racism scandal, and calling Democrats a “pack of hyenas.” So…no, it doesn’t seem like this editorial board is getting significantly better under new leadership.)
• Editorial: We appraise this year’s General Assembly session
• CASEY: Big business ‘stampede’ could raise costs for residential electric customers (“Walmart and some other big companies want to quit buying their electricity from Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power. But if big electric customers save money via lower-cost providers, the rest of us are likely to wind up paying more.”)
• Ken Blackwell column: Rural Spotsylvania is no place for massive solar power station (Note that in the RTD’s identification of this guy, they fail to mention that he’s a far-right-wing activist who is currently a Senior Fellow for Family Empowerment with The Family Research Council. Massive #FAIL by the Republican Times-Disgrace.)
• Virginia’s biggest proposed solar project is also among its most contentious local land use fights (“If passed, the Spotsylvania and Keydet projects would more than double Virginia’s solar capacity, adding 840 megawatts to the 656 megawatts it recorded in 2018. And, according to Menahem, this is only the beginning.”)
• Massive solar power plant possibly coming to Northern Virginia (“…a public hearing on the plan is set for Tuesday afternoon.”)
• Faaaar-Right, Rabidly Anti-LGBTQ Del. Dave LaRock (R-HD33) Promotes Dangerous Petition Claiming Transgender Equality Would “Endanger Our Children!”
• Sentara, Optima donated $5.5 million to support Medicaid expansion, food banks across Virginia
• BREAKING: Republican Supervisor Pat Herrity (Springfield District) Announces He Will NOT Run for Fairfax County Board Chair
• VCU hosts panel discussion on blackface amid scandals surrounding Northam, Herring
• Virginia one of the toughest places to get a driver’s license
• EDITORIAL: No excuse for killing license suspension bill
• Anti-Semitic vandalism found at Va. elementary school (“Police are investigating an act of anti-Semitic vandalism on a playground canopy at Mt. Daniel Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia.”)
• Apparent swastikas found at three sites in past week in Virginia
• Record rainfall causes flooding and mudslides in Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia
• D.C.-area forecast: Calm through Thursday, but wintry precipitation may return Friday morning