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by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, February 19.
- Trump Delivers Blunt Warning to Venezuela Military Over Aid Impasse
- Coalition of states sues Trump over national emergency to build border wall
- Europe to Mike Pence: No, Thank You (“The Trump administration manages to turn Germans into Gaullists, ready to flirt with Russia and contemplate strategic independence.”)
- Rod Rosenstein, key figure behind Mueller inquiry, expected to step down in mid-March (“Justice department says deputy attorney general who brought in special counsel is likely to leave in mid-March”)
- Why Trump’s Emergency Mess Means Danger for the Courts (“The president’s move has already been challenged in court. Win or lose, he is almost certainly forcing an alarming judicial precedent.”)
- Roger Stone Posted A Photo Of The Judge Presiding Over His Case Next To Crosshairs (Threatening a judge? Isn’t that a crime?)
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg Returns To Supreme Court Bench After Lung Cancer Surgery (Go RBG!!!)
- Trump Has Lost His War on the War on Coal (“Actually, they are not. Coal plants have continued to close at a rapid pace under Trump.” The reasons: economics and climate change.)
- Yes, the Green New Deal is audacious. But we have no choice but to think big.
- Democrats brush off GOP ‘trolling’ over Green New Deal
- How Do Democrats Beat Trump in 2020? Barack Obama Has Some Ideas (“In meetings with more than a dozen declared and prospective candidates spanning the ideological divide from Bernie Sanders to Mike Bloomberg, Obama has reportedly pushed candidates to counter Trump’s dystopian vision of America and go after the voters who are increasingly abandoning the Democratic party” This time Sanders has to run against people like Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris. We’ll see how that works out.)
- Warren to Propose Universal Child Care Plan Funded by Wealth Tax
- Kamala Harris Says She’d Support Changing “Columbus Day” To “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” (“Harris also said in New Hampshire on Monday that she would support making Election Day a federal holiday as part of a new Voting Rights Act.”)
- Emails reveal coordination between Chao, McConnell offices (“Chao has met at least 10 times with politicians and business leaders from the state in response to requests from McConnell’s office.”)
- The Vatican finally needs to offer more than thoughts and prayers on sexual abuse
- Bernie Sanders Enters 2020 Presidential Campaign, No Longer An Underdog (“‘We began the political revolution in the 2016 campaign, and now it’s time to move that revolution forward,’ the independent senator told Vermont Public Radio in an interview airing Tuesday morning.”)
- Why Can’t Trump Build Anything? (“Infrastructure won’t happen until the Democrats regain control.”)
- Smaller tax refunds put GOP on defensive
- Trump Adds Senior Campaign Staff for 2020 Race (“New hires for president’s re-election team reflect effort to build campaign apparatus early, fend off GOP primary challenges”)
- The 10 Dems most likely to win the 2020 presidential nomination (#1 Kamala Harris, #2 Joe Biden, #3 Bernie Sanders, #4 Beto O’Rourke, #5 Elizabeth Warren, #6 Cory Booker, #7 Amy Klobuchar, #8 Sherrod Brown, #9 Kirsten Gillibrand, #10 Michael Bloomberg)
- Barack, Michelle Obama expected to refrain from endorsing in 2020 Dem primary: report
- Any Republican Senator or House Member Who Supports Donald Trump’s ‘National Emergency’ Is Dead to Me (“Some things are crystal clear, and this is one of them. A president can’t just decide something is an emergency. Republicans, show some guts for a change.”)
- Trump defies every restraint (“It’s hard to find precedent for a commander in chief as volatile, publicly egotistical and apparently oblivious to constitutional norms as this President”)
- Malia Obama Once Again Guilty of Being Cool (“Malia Obama, a normal 20-year-old person, is trending on Twitter. Why? It could be because a trash tabloid claims she has a social media account in which she mentioned Donald Trump might kind of really suck. It could be because she went on a trip and drank some rosé. It could be because she appears to use a veil of authenticity to legitimize a corrupt administration for her own financial gain. Oh wait, that’s a different First Daughter, my bad!”)
- What Is “Dirt” in 2019? (“How the jobs of opposition researchers have changed in the era of Northam, Kavanaugh, and Trump.”)
- In North Carolina, Investigators Find Ballot ‘Scheme’ in House Race
- Democratic Senator Tim Kaine Says Senate Armed Services Committee Will Fight Emergency Cuts.
- AG Mark Herring Challenges Trump’s “Contrived Declaration of National Emergency at the Southern Border”
- Ralph Northam could be forgiven. That doesn’t mean he should stay in office. (As the top comment on the WaPo says, “Said the speechwriter for the Bush administration whose chaos and destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan just keep on going.”)
- I’m willing to testify in public. Justin Fairfax should, too.
- Fairfax’s accuser criticizes lawmakers for not holding public hearing on sexual assault allegations
- GOP Virginia House Speaker Praises ‘Courageous’ Fairfax Accuser, Calls for ‘Bipartisan’ Investigation (Hahaha, from the same guy who supported Brett Kavanaugh and didn’t believe Christine Blasey Ford. Now he believes women??? Bottom line: you either consistently take women’s charges of sexual assault seriously or you don’t – regardless of whether the charges are made against a Democrat or Republican.)
- Editorial: Election funding essential to democracy
- The Furor in Virginia Has Quieted (“Public opinion might help the state’s embattled Democratic leaders survive.”)
- Video, Photos: Pro-ERA Protesters Reenact the State Seal; One Gets Arrested for Going “Semi-Topless”; Speaker Cox – Who’s Blocking a Vote on ERA Ratification – Walks Right Past
- Female protester arrested reenacting Virginia state seal
- Union Hill visit by Gore, Barber seeks to put Northam on spot
- Al Gore to visit Virginia in environmental justice tour (“Gore will hold a town hall meeting Tuesday in Union Hill, a community founded by freedmen and emancipated slaves after the Civil War.”)
- Open Letter to Ralph Northam Urges Him to Attend Meeting Tuesday with Former VP Al Gore and Rev. William Barber in Buckingham County
- Town and Benforado column: Coal ash cleanup bill an historic leap forward for Virginia
- Virginia inexplicably killed a bill that could’ve helped thousands with suspended licenses (No, it wasn’t “Virginia,” it was “Virginia Republicans on the House Courts of Justice subcommittee.” Why can’t the media report stuff accurately and precisely, including in its headlines, which are all that a lot of people read?)
- Protesters have ‘Guillotine’ for Ralph Northam, Demand He Resign (“Guillotine?” Seriously?)
- 2 arrested after Virginia Capitol fountain dyed red during march to demand Northam’s resignation
- Bill passes General Assembly raising vehicle inspection fee
- Northam hired embattled state agency director Jay DeBoer after lawmakers removed him from job
- For these four, having a beer is a crime — and they’ve gone to court to challenge that
- Inside the furious social media fight over proposed I-81 tolling
- Alcorn makes bid for Rob Bell’s seat official (“The 58th includes Greene and parts of Albemarle, Fluvanna and Rockingham counties.”)
- Convicted ex-Portsmouth councilman Mark Whitaker can run again after governor restores his rights
- Seeking global fixes for local flooding (Ultimately, the only way to solve this problem is to stop and reverse global warming.)
- Loudoun School Board moves forward in creating group to assess racial equity in LCPS
- Photos: Ann Wheeler Kicks Off Her Campaign for Board Chair to Help Flip Prince William County Completely “Blue”
- 4th Circuit hearing on Atlantic Coast Pipeline not expected until May
- Anonymous news release details ‘We profit off slavery’ vandalism at Tuckahoe Plantation
- Democrat Favored in First Virginia Election Since Scandals Broke (This is an overwhelmingly Democratic district.)
- A winter wallop on Wednesday, with heavy snow and then ice and rain
