by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, October 18.
- China’s GDP Grows at Slowest Rate Since the Early 1990s
- Boris Johnson Sells Brexit Deal to Parliament Before Knife-Edge Vote
- European Union’s Message to U.K.: Just Leave Already
- Massive Gun Battle Erupts In Mexico Over Son Of Drug Kingpin ‘El Chapo’
- Mainstream media are portraying Trump’s Syria deal as a cease-fire, while Fox News praises it as a win, but experts say it’s neither (The media f***s up yet again.)
- Fighting Flares in Syria Despite Hours-Old Cease-Fire (“Sporadic clashes, drone strikes and artillery shelling resumed overnight and increased into Friday morning”)
- Turkey’s Victory Over Donald Trump (“The Turkish president got what he wanted — as did Russia and Iran.”)
- ‘Not a ceasefire’: Turkish leader says it’s a ‘pause’ after Pence touts agreement
- Islamic State sees a chance to re-emerge as Turkey batters Kurds (This is largely Trump’s fault.)
- In ‘Cave-In,’ Trump Cease-Fire Cements Turkey’s Gains in Syria
- Fighting in Kurdish-held Syrian town despite cease-fire
- Trump’s Capitulation to Erdogan Is Complete
- Mulvaney Sends Trump Defense on Ukraine Aid Into Disarray (“Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, said that the Trump administration withheld nearly $400 million in military aid to pressure Ukraine. His comments, which he tried to take back later in the day, undercut President Trump’s repeated denials of a quid pro quo.”)
- Republicans worried by Mulvaney’s confirmation Trump sought exchange of favors with Ukraine
- Mick Mulvaney’s comments on Trump and Ukraine couldn’t have been clearer (“Yes, Mick Mulvaney said, Mr. Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine, money that had been appropriated by Congress and was desperately needed to resist Russian aggression, in order to induce the government of Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate a conspiracy theory about the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) during the 2016 election. In other words, the president was using U.S. aid as leverage to advance his personal political agenda.”)
- GOP Senator Breaks With White House Over Ukraine Quid Pro Quo (“‘You don’t hold up foreign aid that we had previously appropriated for a political initiative,’ Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said.”)
- Trump unhappy with Mulvaney’s press briefing in which he acknowledged quid pro quo, source says
- Republicans dismiss impeachment inquiry even after Mulvaney admits quid pro quo
- Mick Mulvaney Has Conservatives Asking: WTF Are You Doing?
- Trump awards G-7 summit to his Miami-area golf resort (“The decision to host the gathering of world leaders at the Trump National Doral Miami is without precedent in modern American history — the president used his public office to direct a massive contract to himself.” Totally corrupt, also almost certainly unconstitutional and impeachable.)
- Trump’s Doral G-7 Self-Deal Is Worthy of Impeachment All on Its Own
- Trump’s Most Shameless Act of Profiteering
- Climate crisis will not be discussed at G7 next year, says Trump official (Appalling of course.)
- ‘Get over it’: Mulvaney puts Trump at the center of controversies about emoluments and Ukraine (“In saying that President Trump personally intervened to award a summit to his own company, and that the president used military aid as leverage to push a Ukrainian investigation into Democrats, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney embraced a Trumpian tactic: saying the previously unsaid — and potentially illegal — part out loud.”)
- Impeachment is now a slam dunk (“If one believes that clear and convincing evidence of impeachable acts and additional reminders of President Trump’s grotesque corruption are required to propel impeachment forward, then Thursday may be a significant turning point in the impeachment story.”)
- Plum Line: Trump’s hosting of the G-7 is corrupt. Here’s how Democrats can step up.
- We’ve Reached the Smash-and-Grab Portion of Trump’s Presidential Grift (“The president is looking to stuff his pockets ahead of a clean getaway.”)
- Schiff: Mulvaney comments on Ukraine aid have made things ‘much, much worse’
- Trump is spinning out of control. We must stop pretending otherwise.
- Our Republic Is Under Attack From the President
- Gordon Sondland says Giuliani pushed Ukraine probes at Trump’s direction
- Mattis responds to Trump criticism: ‘I guess I’m the Meryl Streep of generals’
- 7 Unhinged Moments From Trump’s Dallas Rally (WTF is wrong with the people who attend these things?!?)
- The guardrails are off the Trump presidency
- National media outlets fail to call Trump hosting G-7 at his Doral resort the blatant corruption that it is (And yet ANOTHER massive f’up by the media.)
- Trump’s “Nervous Nancy” tweet shows his problem with powerful women
- Why Trump’s latest ‘very serious meltdown’ matters
- Forget Trump’s “Meltdown”—Follow the Testimony
- “I have no idea”: Pelosi shuts down Senate Republicans’ impeachment timeline (“Mitch McConnell has floated the idea of holding a Senate impeachment trial after Thanksgiving.”)
- Perry to Resign as Energy Secretary
- Elijah Cummings was the keeper of the nation’s conscience
- As long as he had breath, Elijah Cummings spoke out
- As Trump Fumes, GOP Advances Real Party Goal of Making the Federal Judiciary Great Again
- Poll: Only a Minority of Republicans Are Sure Trump Is Innocent
- Democrats, Avoid the Robot Rabbit Hole (Paul Krugman: “The automation obsession is an escapist fantasy.” “Yang has based his whole campaign on the premise that automation is destroying jobs en masse and that the answer is to give everyone a stipend — one that would fall far short of what decent jobs pay. As far as I can tell, he’s offering an inadequate solution to an imaginary problem, which is in a way kind of impressive.”))
- Defiant Zuckerberg Says Facebook Won’t Police Political Speech (Facebook is a disaster, needs to be broken up.)
- The Comeback Kid? (“Bernie Sanders is not ready to give this thing to Elizabeth Warren yet”)
- Andrew Yang Is Full of It
- Judge rules DOJ improperly redacted court filing related to Mueller probe
- Sen. Warner introduces legislation to provide visas to Kurds who worked with US forces in Syria
- Virginia Board of Education seeks nearly $1 billion in new K-12 funding
- Gov. Northam Awards $6M in New School Security Equipment Grants
- TargetSmart Launches Early Vote Dashboard for VA Election
- FWIW Virginia: With 19 Days to Go, Republicans “Going Negative”
- ‘This needs to go’: Why couples challenged Virginia’s racial marriage license disclosure requirement
- Alec Baldwin Coming to Campaign for Virginia Democrats Next Tuesday
- Alec Baldwin will be in Chesterfield, Fredericksburg and Fairfax next week to canvass for Democratic candidates
- Help! I’m Being Blackmailed! Oh, Actually, It’s Just Illegal Campaign Materials.
- Long-Time Voter Turnout Guru Frank O’Leary Looks at Absentee Ballot Numbers, Sees a Potential “Super Record Year” in Arlington
- Defeated GOP Del. Chris Peace’s father-in-law starts PAC to support write-in effort (“If there’s a significant split among GOP voters, the usually safe Republican seat could conceivably fall to Democrat Kevin Washington. With control of the General Assembly at stake and House Republicans trying to defend a paper-thin majority, the GOP can ill afford to lose the Hanover-anchored district that includes New Kent County and part of King William County.”)
- Virginia pension contribution rates likely to rise as investment returns decline
- Opinion/Editorial: Confinement questioned at Va. prisons
- Loudoun’s General Assembly Candidates Talk Equal Rights, Partisanship
- Former delegate Alan Diamonstein — powerful lawmaker from Newport News — dies at 88
- Former VA House Democratic Caucus Chair, Former DPVA Chair Alan Diamonstein Dies at 88
- Richmond middle school teacher fired for calling student racial slur
- Roanoke schools Superintendent Rita Bishop to retire at school year’s end
- Amazon’s HQ2 isn’t the only reason sellers are holding out
- Tropical system could bring rain to Va. after hitting the Gulf Coast this weekend
- Breezy and cool today, with some patchy frost possible in outer suburbs tonight
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