| Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... |
by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, April 21.
- Justin Trudeau Vows To Strengthen Gun Control Laws After Canada’s Deadliest Shooting (“The Canadian prime minister said Monday that his government would soon move forward with legislation to ban assault-style weapons.”)
- Coronavirus very likely of animal origin, no sign of lab manipulation: WHO
- Oil crash hits stocks, dollar gains as investors shun risk
- North Korea’s Kim getting treatment after cardiovascular procedure: report
- US monitoring intelligence that North Korean leader is in grave danger after surgery
- Singapore Seemed to Have Coronavirus Under Control, Until Cases Doubled (“The spread suggests that it is unrealistic for the United States, Europe and the rest of the world to return to the way they were anytime soon, even if viral curves appear to flatten.”)
- Oil Meltdown Spreads Beyond Expiring Contracts as WTI Slumps 42%
- What the Negative Price of Oil Is Telling Us (“We’re in a deflationary moment that surpasses anything seen in most people’s lifetimes.”)
- WHO warns that few have developed antibodies to Covid-19 (“Herd immunity hopes dealt blow by report suggesting only 2%-3% of people have been infected”)
- Oil is getting crushed again with one futures contract down 90% to record low under $2
- U.S. Oil Costs Less Than Zero After a Sharp Monday Selloff
- Trump to Temporarily Halt Immigration Into the U.S. Amid Coronavirus Crisis (WTF???)
- A Drastic Move to Seal the Country Off From the World (“It was not immediately clear what legal basis President Trump would use to justify shutting down most immigration.”)
- Trump’s reckless incitement to ‘liberate’ states endangers lives
- Dr. Fauci Warns Protests May ‘Backfire’: Economy Can’t Recover Until People Do
- White House, GOP face heat after hotel and restaurant chains helped run small business program dry
- Anger mounts after corporations tap small-business relief funds
- Banks warn that new small-business funding could evaporate in 2 days
- Coronavirus stimulus money will be wasted on fossil fuels (“Oil and gas companies were already facing structural problems before Covid-19 and are in long-term decline.”)
- Yahoo News/YouGov coronavirus poll: Most Americans reject anti-lockdown protests (“An overwhelming majority of Americans, Republicans included, are rejecting right-wing protests — encouraged by President Trump — to immediately “reopen” the country in the midst of the world’s largest and deadliest coronavirus outbreak, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.”)
- Company With Ties To Trump Receives Millions From Small Business Loan Program
- The Right Sends In the Quacks (“Covid-19 highlights the conservative reliance on fake experts.”)
- Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force Increasingly Ignores Trump (“The president encouraged protests against his own administration’s public health policies. And his team greeted it with a collective shoulder shrug.”)
- How Abortion, Guns and Church Closings Made Coronavirus a Culture War (“Flattening the curve is now one of the most contentious issues in politics.”)
- Surgeon general gets pushed to sidelines, sparking questions
- US anti-lockdown rallies could cause surge in Covid-19 cases, experts warn (“Epidemiologist predicts ‘new epidemic surge’ as protesters across the US flout social distancing measures”)
- To Paraphrase Another President: ‘Is Our Media Learning?’ (“Let’s see how we’re all covering a series of protests that are approximately as spontaneous as the Rose Parade.”)
- Conservative activist family behind ‘grassroots’ anti-quarantine Facebook events
- Fox News Is Desperately Trying to Turn Coronavirus Protests Into the Next Tea Party
- The tea party is back — and endangering lives
- Journalists are tasked with reporting the truth. So what to do when Trump lies? (“Broadcast media should consider either taping the briefings and airing only newsworthy excerpts, or providing some means of fact-checking Trump’s statements in real time. Split the screen, if necessary. Cut away altogether when things go completely off the rails.”)f
- We Are Living in a Failed State (“The coronavirus didn’t break America. It revealed what was already broken.”)
- Promotion, praise, and a ton of coverage: How Fox News embraced protests against coronavirus safety measures (Fox, plus right-wing media in general, are a big part of why America is broken.)
- Matt Drudge draws Trump’s ire, setting off a potentially substantial split between the conservative media power player and the president
- Most rate Trump’s coronavirus response negatively and expect crowds will be unsafe until summer, Post-U. Md. poll finds
- Cable news outlets fail us in a time of crisis (“Stop covering the same old Trump stories.”)
- Fact check: Trump falsely describes his travel history during briefing with more inaccuracies
- The lying liars vs. competent governors (“Republicans are clinging to easily debunked lies.”)
- Pulling back the curtain on the not-all-that-pro-life movement
- Time to get real: Restrictions will be with us for months (“It is time to level with America.”)
- A Biden Presidency Could Be Better Than Progressives Think (“Campaign promises matter, and his platform shows a distinct leftward drift.”)
- Biden raised campaign-best $46.7 million in March
- Democrats dream of Biden’s perfect running mate: An Obama
- ‘I’d Take Her In A Heartbeat’: Joe Biden Says He Would Pick Michelle Obama To Be His Vice President
- Bloomberg’s final bill: $1 billion for a 104-day campaign
- ‘Another nail in an almost closed coffin’: Trump faces his next coronavirus test (“Trump’s advisers recognize his bumpy rollout of coronavirus testing represents a major vulnerability in an election year.”)
- Donald Trump’s weird tales: His call to “liberate Virginia” is even worse than you think (“Trump’s call to ‘liberate Virginia’ from gun safety echoes one of the craziest, nastiest lies of his presidency”)
- Trump is insane: And it’s time for leading Democrats to say that out loud (“Rational Americans already understand that our president is mentally ill. Will Democrats ever speak truth to power?”)
- The Supreme Court’s Decision Striking Down Split Jury Verdicts Is Weirder Than It Looks (“The justices are shadowboxing over abortion, racism, and the battles to come.”)
- America ‘has been abused by this president,’ former RNC chairman Michael Steele says
- Smithfield Foods Is Blaming “Living Circumstances In Certain Cultures” For One Of America’s Largest COVID-19 Clusters (This company is horrible in pretty much every way.)
- Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan credits his wife, Yumi, with helping secure coronavirus tests from South Korea —
- Trump has almost nothing to lose. That’s why he wants to reopen the economy.
- In Georgia and elsewhere in South, governors begin lifting coronavirus restrictions (Crazy.)
- Georgia’s reopening is a high-stakes public health bet — and will likely please Trump (Kemp is a mouth-breathing imbecile.)
- America doesn’t want another Tea Party (“Don’t let Fox News fool you. 81 percent of Americans do not share the views of anti-quarantine protesters.”)
- Televangelist Pat Robertson: COVID-19 is punishment for marriage equality
- Top Democrat: Trump’s politicization of US intelligence will be paid for with American lives (“Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said he had been ‘particularly troubled’ by reports of Trump forcing the ouster of top intelligence leaders, including the intelligence community’s inspector general, Michael Atkinson, who alerted Congress of a whistleblower complaint about Trump’s conduct toward Ukraine, and two directors of national intelligence.”)
- Polling Numbers – as Well as Science – Do Not Support Anti-Lockdown Protests
- Tim Kaine: Pentagon must improve virus response (“The crisis aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt shows the Defense Department’s inadequate handling of COVID-19 within the military, writes U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine.”)
- “Reopen VA Rally” Set for Wednesday in Richmond. Check Out Its Absurd “Talking Points If Approached by Media”
- Monday (4/20) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +453 Confirmed Cases (to 8,990), +78 Hospitalizations (to 1,500), +23 Deaths (to 300) From Yesterday
- Just When You Thought the VA GOP Couldn’t Get Any More Insane, They’re Basically Like, “Oh Yeah? HOLD MY BEER!” (VA GOP goes totally “LIBERATE,” also makes fun of Gov. Northam’s “Eastern Shore drawl”)
- Live Video, Highlights: Gov. Ralph Northam’s Monday (4/20) Virginia COVID-19 Briefing
- Why we’re taking a budgetary ‘timeout’ in Virginia
- Virginia GOP: Stay-at-home order is about attacking gun rights, not protecting health
- Virginia GOP’s inaccurate release blasting ‘tyrannical’ shutdowns took text from viral social media post
- Virginia creates group to make sure state has enough coronavirus tests available
- Virginia to expand coronavirus testing in state prisons (“As of Sunday, 139 inmates and 50 Department of Corrections staffers had tested positive for COVID-19. One inmate has died.”)
- General Assembly to reconvene to consider measures affected by coronavirus (“The General Assembly will reconvene Wednesday in Richmond to consider Gov. Ralph Northam’s legislative recommendations, including proposals to move the date of the May municipal elections and changes to the budget.”)
- However lawmakers feel about gambling, they should allow proceeds to be used for school facilities
- Editorial: Liberate Virginia? Why should we trust politicians over doctors? (It’s not an issue of “trust[ing] politicians” vs. doctors, it’s an issue of Trump and many Republicans being wildly irresponsible. Of course, the Roanoke Times editorial board won’t just say that.)
- Virginia’s prison system said it was doing ‘everything it can’ to keep COVID-19 at bay. Cases are exploding. (“In the 21 days since the first three inmates at a women’s prison in Goochland tested positive, 170 people in the state’s care have tested positive in six prisons. One has died — a 49-year-old woman being held on charges of drug manufacturing and larceny who the department otherwise would not identify. And Virginia’s juvenile prison system, which is managed by a different state agency, is now the site of the country’s worst outbreak in a youth detention facility.”)
- Keystone XL ruling could futher delay Mountain Valley Pipeline permit (Good. Delay it forever.)
- Petersen: It’s quiet in Virginia (Chap sounding like a Republican here: “The pandemic cannot go on forever, but its legacy will last far longer — if we fail to heed our own laws and freedoms.”)
- Some State Democrats Want May Elections to Take Place in June Instead of November
- Three Democratic senators back shorter delay for Virginia’s May elections
- D.C., Maryland and Virginia should not allow construction work to continue
- Fairfax Co. schools move away from Blackboard amid distance learning woes (“We recognize that our students and teachers need a reliable system for virtual learning; therefore, we are going to move away from Blackboard Learn 24-7 as a tool for face to face instruction”)
- Region’s business leaders make concerns known | Chamber notes
- Besides cutting spending, Northam’s budget tackles a Hampton Roads seabird problem
- Aboard the USNS Comfort: What Hampton Roads medical workers have been doing in New York
- Loudoun County leaders voice concerns, challenges amid COVID-19 pandemic
- A Michigan family is recovering from the coronavirus. A Sandbridge rental company wants them to still come to Virginia Beach or forfeit their money.
- Richmond councilwoman apologizes for racist home decor
- Morning showers and gusty afternoon thunderstorms before turning cooler
