Thursday News: “Flunky” William Barr “torched his reputation”…Kamala Harris Demolished Him; “A Remarkable Political Moment for Climate Change”; Northam Says “I won’t sign another mandatory minimum sentence bill into law.”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, May 2.

• US hopes for Venezuela change fizzle for 3rd time this year
• Guaido’s Risky Bet in Venezuela Paid Off. Barely. (“Restoring democracy will require less brinkmanship and more international support.”)
• Iran Oil Sanctions Set Stage for U.S.-Saudi Showdown (“Riyadh and Washington face a potentially weekslong showdown over the number of extra barrels the kingdom would supply to global markets to keep crude prices stable.”)
• Barr declines to testify before House Judiciary Committee, setting stage for subpoena battle (“House Democrats threatened to try to force the attorney general to appear before the panel if he did not come voluntarily.”)
• William Barr and his horrible hearing
• William Barr torched his reputation. His testimony compounded the damage.
• James Comey: How Trump Co-opts Leaders Like Bill Barr (“Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive this president.”)
• Why Barr Can’t Whitewash the Mueller Report (“We have a system in place for our government to uncover evidence against a sitting president. And it’s working.”)
• William Barr has shamelessly corrupted the debate over the Mueller report
• 3 winners and 3 losers from William Barr’s Mueller report testimony (“Barr went to drastic lengths to protect Trump. He didn’t come off great in the process.”)
• William Barr’s ‘snitty’ slip-up gives away his game
• Moderate Democrats fret they made a ‘big mistake’ backing Barr (So dumb…not like they’re going to get any votes out of that anyway.)
• Barr Didn’t Even Try to Pretend He’s an Honest Broker for the Justice Department (“This is what happens when the nation’s top prosecutor is the president’s defense lawyer”)
• Rift opens between Mueller and Barr
• Nadler threatens contempt citation against Barr
• WATCH: Sen. Harris, showing off prosecutorial prowess, puts AG Barr on his heels (Awesome.)
• Kamala Harris Sticks the Landing (“Being a former prosecutor can come in handy when questioning the attorney general.”)
• Barr: It’s Not Obstruction of Justice If the Obstruction Works (“The attorney general’s most insanely authoritarian argument”)
• Trump’s Stonewall Is Beginning to Crack (“The dike is sprouting more leaks than the president has fingers with which to plug the expanding trickles.”)
• William Barr Must Face the House of Representatives. Then He Must Be Impeached. (“It’s the only way to get past the stonewalling to the bottom of this administration*’s corruption.”)
• William Barr Is a Flunky in Service to a Crooked Presidency* (“Mazie Hirono and Kamala Harris exposed the attorney general as just another hack among many.”)
• William Barr gave a pathetic performance
• Fox News’ Chris Wallace Calls Out His Own Network’s Opinion Hosts Over Barr Coverage (“‘We have to deal in facts,’ the “Fox News Sunday” host said when discussing special counsel Robert Mueller’s letter to Attorney General William Barr.”)
• Barr confirmed the president directed a felony in a pending case (“The attorney general just confirmed that Trump is ‘Individual 1,’ and therefore involved in a felony.”)
• Barr decided to clear Trump of obstruction before reading Mueller’s report (“We had done a lot of thinking about these issues even before we got the report.”)/li>
• Five takeaways from Barr’s testimony on Mueller
• Reimagining America (“Admitting the truth is the first step toward our country’s restoration.”)
• Trump’s deal with Democrats leaves GOP rolling its eyes
• Beto O’Rourke says he won’t take any donations from the fossil fuel sector
• Trump gets powerful new rival in Letitia James (“President Trump has a new and powerful rival in Letitia James, the first woman and the first African American to serve as New York’s attorney general.”)
• Why Democrats’ Most Liberal Wing Is Struggling To Have More Influence
• Rep. Joaquin Castro won’t run for U.S. Senate in 2020 (“Castro’s decision could pave the way for a contest in 2020 between Cornyn and Mary Jennings ‘MJ’ Hegar, an Afghanistan war veteran who ran a strong but losing race for Congress last year and who declared her candidacy last week.”)
• This UNC Charlotte student knocked the shooter off his feet and saved lives
• SEC Blocks More Shareholder Climate Resolutions, Citing ‘Micromanagement’ (“The Securities & Exchange Commission has more Trump appointees now, and energy and utility companies see an ally as they try to stop investors’ climate resolutions.”)
• Global Warming Was Already Fueling Droughts in Early 1900s, Study Shows (“Scientists say the surprising findings provide the clearest signal yet of how greenhouse gas emissions have led to changing soil conditions around the world.”)
• Bill McKibben: A Remarkable Political Moment for Climate Change
• No, the Green New Deal Doesn’t Ban Meat or Planes. Here’s What It Does.
• Does Facebook’s Privacy Pivot Really Mean Anything?
• New Report Shows Duke Energy’s Clean Energy Claims Don’t Match Its Fossil Fuel Investments, Fights Against Rooftop Solar
• Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine On AG Barr’s Testimony, Mueller And Venezuela
• Rep. Jennifer Wexton Amendment to Measure Economic Impact of Ocean Acidification on Chesapeake Bay Businesses Approved by Committee
• Ralph Northam: I won’t sign another mandatory minimum sentence bill into law. Here’s why. (“Piling on mandatory minimum sentences has contributed to our growing prison population over the past few decades, to the point that the United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world…According to a 2017 report by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, an agency of the federal judicial branch, black offenders are more likely to be convicted of an offense that carries a mandatory minimum sentence than individuals of other races. The commission’s findings echo other literature on the racial disparities in sentencing.”)
• How Gov. Northam Wins the Game of Thrones (“Virginia’s 2019 legislative version of the Battle of Winterfell will conclude this Friday (5/3) at midnight. That is the deadline by which Gov. Northam must roundly strike down the climate-denying fringe’s unconstitutional attempt to erase Virginia’s air pollution law.”)
• Video: At Annandale HS, Virginia LG Justin Fairfax Asks CNN’s Jim Acosta About Due Process Rights
• Want to Win in 2020? Invest in Rural Virginia in 2019.
• With infrastructure talks renewed, Rep. Ben Cline pitches funding for I-81
• Virginia State Senate Candidate, Qasim Rashid, on Death Threats: “Look, I can’t do much if someone wants to kill me…I’m running for things worth dying for”
• Video: All Hell Breaks Loose at the End of 31st State Senate District Democratic Primary Debate (Sen. Barbara Favola attacks Nicole Merlene’s campaign manager’s offensive teenage tweets from five years ago, implies that Merlene shares those views.)
• Schapiro: Cutting to the Chase on dust-up with Capitol cop (Behind a paywall, but I bet he manages to get some “both-sides-ism” in there.)
• GOP committee votes to scrap convention in Peace-Wyatt House race, but issue isn’t resolved (“In an unruly meeting at the Ashland Branch Library, a Republican Party committee voted Wednesday evening to cancel a planned convention Saturday in the nomination fight between Del. Chris Peace, R-Hanover, and Hanover County Supervisor Scott Wyatt for the seat in the 97th House District.”)
• 97th District GOP Loses Venue for Saturday’s Convention, Voting Location Unknown
• Virginia Explained: How Virginia’s history textbooks are vetted
• Why I Support Del. Alfonso Lopez in the HD49 Democratic Primary
• Editorial: Festival’s success awakens positive spirit for Virginia Beach
• Portsmouth mayor proposed a “cultural harmony” committee. The response was not harmonious. (“Racial tensions spiked after the departure of the city’s police chief, Tonya Chapman. The council put off a discussion on whether to create a panel to address the issues.”)
• Frequent injuries, low staffing persist in Hampton Roads nursing homes
• Big warm up today and Friday with possible late day storms