by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, March 22.
- Britain will not leave the E.U. next week after European leaders allow a short Brexit reprieve (I love this paragraph: “After she was dismissed from the room, leaders talked and talked, disinviting May from a dinner of duck à l’orange to keep hammering out a deal. The Bulgarian ambassador to the European Union tweeted a photo of a scrum of senior officials clustered in a corridor, some of them crouching on the ground, as they fought back and forth over the details.”)
- E.U. Approves Brexit Extension, but Chaotic Departure Still Looms
- In Golan Heights, Trump Bolsters Israel’s Netanyahu but Risks Roiling Middle East
- Trump just made a highly controversial decision about Israel — again
- Trump lends a helping hand to Netanyahu on the campaign trail (“Analysis: The president’s call for the U.S. to recognize Israeli control of the Golan Heights will be popular across the political spectrum.”)
- North Korea quits liaison office in setback for South after new U.S. sanctions
- New Zealand Broadcasts Muslim Call To Prayer Nationwide After Terrorist Attacks
- James Comey: What I Want From the Mueller Report (“I am rooting for a demonstration to the world that the United States justice system works.”)
- Letter from deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein offers potential road map to special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe
- Adam Schiff: Don’t hide Mueller, FBI findings on Trump. Protect America and rule of law.
- Fed’s New Abnormal Marks a Watershed Moment in a Low-Rate World
- Boeing’s ‘Optional’ Safety Equipment on the 737 Max Is a Monument to Corporate Greed (“You pay extra for legroom, not systems that will keep your plane from falling out of the sky.”)
- Under Trump, America increasingly loses its global lead
- Jared Kushner used WhatsApp to message foreign contacts in White House: Cummings
- By Donald Trump’s Standards, Jared and Ivanka Should Be in Jail (“The whole ‘lock her up’ thing applies to the first daughter and son-in-law too, right?”)
- Sackler family: 500 cities, counties and tribes sue owners of Oxycontin maker (“Vast lawsuit accuses family of helping to create ‘worst drug crisis in American history’”)
- Tucker Carlson and the “Debate Guy” Racket (“How the Fox News host pulled off the longtime, lucrative ruse that his heinous opinions don’t matter.”)
- Fox viewers think Trump’s the best president, and that’s far from their worst misconception (“A recent study suggests frequent viewers of the cable news channel live inside a ‘FoxHole’ of misinformation and lies.”)
- Fox “news side” anchor Shannon Bream is keynoting a fundraiser for a Koch-linked group alongside Ron DeSantis (Totally illegitimate “news” network. No Democrat should ever go on there.)
- Moderate Democrats Under Pressure As Party’s Left Grabs Attention (My god, how many iterations of this assinine corporate media narrative-creation effort are we going to get? It’s kinda like the 2,000th interview with Trump supporters who still support Trump or whatever.)
- Trump’s own economists now agree: GOP tax cuts are failing to spark growth (“After many predictions of glorious growth from the GOP’s tax cuts, officials admit economy is slowing down”)
- Judge Blocks Wisconsin Republicans’ Power Grab, Rules “Extraordinary Session” Convened Illegally
- Trump’s Redundant Executive Order on Campus Speech (“The president’s much-anticipated directive doesn’t do much.” Jerry Falwell was on the NewsHour last night talking about this, and…man, that guy is batsh** crazy!)
- Flooding in Midwest could be historic, National Weather Service says
- The Governor of Kentucky Is Just One of Many Morons Who Expose Their Kids to Epidemic Disease (“Matt Bevin proudly sent his nine kids to chickenpox parties.”)
- Matt Bevin’s anti-vaccination stunt is not about “personal choice”: It’s much darker than that (“Bevin’s anti-choice, anti-vaccine views show a pattern of deeply troubling attitudes toward women and children”)
- For Trump, attacking McCain is a way to appeal to his political base (That tells you all you need to know about Trump’s deplorable base.)
- Marine Corps commandant says deploying troops to the border poses ‘unacceptable risk’
- Profiles in Chickenshit From the Grand Old Party as Trump Spits on John McCain’s American Greatness
- Why should a Republican stay in a party that has gone off the moral rails? (“We are headed into a time of political testing, when the right words from a responsible conservative might turn some crucial tide.”)
- Trump’s ‘socialist’ rhetoric is lazy name-calling from a lazy thinker (“Trump wants to make ‘socialism’ a boogeyman, in the hopes of confusing and freaking out the public.”)
- Florida Republicans are trying to thwart both justice and the will of the people
- 9 Reasons a Biden–Abrams Ticket Is a Brilliant Idea for Both Biden and Abrams
- Why in the Name of God Would Stacy Abrams Run as Joe Biden’s Vice President? (“A report says Biden is floating the idea of promising to run with Abrams as his VP. That would guarantee Abrams makes one friend and 18 enemies on every debate stage.”)
- Don’t Make Health Care a Purity Test (I agree with Paul Krugman: “There are multiple ways to achieve universal coverage.”)
- Trump eyes Stephen Moore for Fed governor: Bloomberg News (Horrible idea, of course.)
- Rep. Jennifer Wexton’s idea for heading off government shutdowns (“I think the only way we can stop shutdowns is to get rid of the concept of essential employees. If we had to go a couple days without air traffic control, without transportation security, without border patrol, shutdowns wouldn’t take place” Agreed.)
- FWIW Virginia: “No Question” New House of Delegates Map “Puts Some Republican Incumbents In a Vulnerable Position – and It Looks Like Their Campaigns Are Ready to Take [That] Seriously”
- Governor Northam Signs Legislation Increasing Access to Health Coverage for Individuals with Autism
- Video: Del. Toscano on Rising Stars in the House of Delegates, Political Aftermath of the Northam/Fairfax/Herring Situations, ERA, Climate Change, Confederate Statues, etc.
- Virginia pension fund in trouble if market meltdown hits
- Editorial: Slashing bay funds would harm recovery progress
- Former congresswoman Giffords works to help Democrats win Va. General Assembly on gun issue (“The gun-control group headed by former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords plans to endorse Democrats in two key Republican-held districts in Virginia on Friday, part of an effort to help the party regain control of the General Assembly in the fall. The Giffords group said it will support Dan Helmer in his Fairfax County race against Del. Tim Hugo (R-Fairfax), and Del. John Bell (D-Loudoun) in his bid to fill retiring Republican Sen. Richard H. Black’s Loudoun County seat.”)
- Can we make our politics less vicious and dumb? Or has the horse left the barn? (“Of course, it’s not like the Virginia GOP are acting like models of statesmanship on their Twitter account. The party that put Corey Stewart forward as its candidate for U.S. Senate is currently hosting a NCAA-style bracket contest for ‘most disgraceful Democrat.'”)
- Hospitals take financial hit under Medicaid work requirements, study found
- Northam meets with African-American leaders in Danville (“Gov. Ralph Northam met with local African-American leaders for a roundtable about issues in Danville on Wednesday in an event that was billed as closed to the press. The Danville Register & Bee gained entry, however. Accompanied by several members of his staff including Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth Traci DeShazor, a Danville native, the governor told a group at Bibleway Cathedral his priority was to listen.”)
- Northam signs bill allowing schools to open before Labor Day
- An online threat of violence shuts down all Charlottesville schools
- Editor of The Virginian-Pilot, Daily Press leaves amid restructuring (“Marisa Porto had been both editor and publisher of the Daily Press since 2016 and editor of The Virginian-Pilot since shortly after Tribune bought The Pilot in May 2018 for $34 million from the Batten family.”)
- Hampton Roads Regional Jail too slow to address problems feds found, advocates say
- Trump’s Southern Wall Is Going To Cost Us Virginia Jobs, Company Profits, and Corporate Tax Income
- Pipeline opponents meet with German environmental activists (“Environmental activists from Germany, who have organized mass mobilizations against coal mining operations in their country, are meeting this week with opponents of the Mountain Valley Pipeline.”)
- Northam vetoes switchblade bill allowing out-of-state buyers
- Online threat shuts Charlottesville schools for second day (“State and federal authorities declined to describe the threat, but images circulating on Reddit and other social media sites referred to a racist meme posted on 4chan.”)
- Editorial: Will Amazon bring jobs to Southwest Virginia?
- Washington Metro’s safety oversight is back in hands of local authorities
- VIDEO: This Is What ‘Seclusion’ Looks Like At One Fairfax County School
- James Toscano: College affordability within reach
- Spits of rain and snow grains possible today, with winds lasting through tomorrow
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