Wednesday News: “The Malignant Cruelty of Donald Trump”; “A Presidential Smear”; “Millions of Amy Coopers”; “The Biden vs. Trump contrast has never been so stark”; “No shoes, no shirt, no mask, no service”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, May 27.

• EU Plans $823 Billion Fiscal Stimulus Package to Fund Recovery
• Coronavirus live news: WHO sounds alarm over surge of Covid-19 cases in Latin America (“Longest official mourning period in Spain’s democracy; unrest grows in UK PM’s party over Dominic Cummings lockdown breach; WHO says Americas are new Covid-19 epicentre. Follow the latest updates”)
• Two of the World’s Biggest Economies Plan Major Stimulus Efforts (“Japan and Europe, early victims of the pandemic that recently began to reopen after long shutdowns, bucked forces of austerity to enact aid plans. Asian nations are balancing reopening against new infections. China’s virus apps may outlast the outbreak, and that’s stirring privacy fears. About a dozen U.S. states are seeing an uptick in new virus cases, deviating from the national trend of staying steady or seeing decreases.”)
• The Amazon Will Soon Burn Again (“The rainforest and its Indigenous groups face existential threats, while criminals act as if they have license to plunder.” This is a HUGE and URGENT problem.)
• Trump’s latest travel ban targets Brazil
• Hong Kong police arrest 300 as thousands protest over security laws
• House Set to Back China Sanctions Amid Rising Tensions With U.S.
• Don’t Expect A Quick Recovery. Our Survey Of Economists Says It Will Likely Take Years.
• Antibody tests for Covid-19 wrong half the time, CDC says
• SpaceX’s launch tomorrow heralds a new era of human spaceflight (“The U.S. returns to space Wednesday, but the flight’s significance goes beyond patriotic notions.”)
• New research rewrites history of when Covid-19 took off in the U.S. — and points to missed chances to stop it
• Trump Team Killed Rule Designed To Protect Health Workers From Pandemic Like COVID-19
• The Malignant Cruelty of Donald Trump
• Twitter labels Trump’s tweets with a fact-check for the first time (That’s the bare minimum Twitter could do. By the way, Facebook is godawful as well.)
• Bombshell report: Facebook has known that it is fomenting extremism for years — and refuses to stop (Yep, Facebook is a disaster.)
• Trump doubles down on conspiracy theory about woman’s death, ignoring grieving widower’s plea for peace
• Timothy Klausutis’s Full Letter to Jack Dorsey, and Twitter’s Response
• A Presidential Smear (From the right-wing Wall St. Journal editorial board: “Donald Trump sometimes traffics in conspiracy theories—recall his innuendo in 2016 about Ted Cruz’s father and the JFK assassination—but his latest accusation against MSNBC host Joe Scarborough is ugly even for him. Mr. Trump has been tweeting the suggestion that Mr. Scarborough might have had something to do with the death in 2001 of a young woman who worked in his Florida office when Mr. Scarborough was a GOP Congressman.”)
• An ‘Avalanche of Evictions’ Could Be Bearing Down on America’s Renters(“The economic downturn is shaping up to be particularly devastating for renters, who are more likely to be lower-income and work hourly jobs cut during the pandemic.”)
• Justice Department Closing Insider-Trading Investigations Into Three U.S. Senators (WTF???)
• Republican Group Gives Trump A Harsh Reminder Of His Biggest Coronavirus Blunder (“The president’s most infamous prediction about the pandemic gets put into a harsh spotlight as the death toll approaches 100,000.”)
• US lets corporations delay paying environmental fines amid pandemic (What a bunch of crap.)
• The revenge of mask-wearing Americans (“Republicans wound up on the wrong side of no-brainer behavior.”)
• Memorial Day showed how risky reopening is (“We pay a terrible price for lack of self-discipline.”)
• Grenell to join Trump campaign (Disgraceful.)
• Trump’s 2016 campaign brass warns he’s in trouble in 2020
• “This Is So Unfair to Me”: Trump Whines About His COVID-19 Victimhood as Campaign Flails (What a whiny little loser.)
• Trump’s New Campaign Slogan Is a Confession of Failure “‘Transition to Greatness’ is a corporate-style euphemism that tries to spin a collapse as a success”)
• Hell hath no fury like a president suckered
• Soledad O’Brien on Why ‘The New York Times’ Is Failing Us Under Trump (“You’re trained to not highlight it as crazy, so you see in the political media people reporting, The president attacked a woman today, and it normalizes it. They haven’t figured out the way to frame and show people that this is very abnormal. There’s an obligation to hold people accountable, and it’s one of the reasons I name names, because we have jobs that pay really well—for political media people, and television people and people who work for The New York Times especially—and we have an obligation to be more transparent, and when you screw up to explain how you screwed it up. But we constantly see this false equivalence or both sides-ing, and it’s so frustrating.”)
• Mike Pompeo Is the Worst Secretary of State Ever
• Ex-Pompeo staffers asked to sign letter against ‘smear campaign’
• These 16 companies are funding the GOP’s war on voting (Comcast, National Association of Realtors, Deloitte LLP, Credit Union National Association, Lockheed Martin, etc.)
• Anti-Lockdown Protesters Now Calling for Dems to Die (“The head of Cowboys for Trump says a good Democrat is a dead one. And protesters in Kentucky hanged the governor in effigy.”)
• Right-wing media attack Joe Biden for wearing a mask
• The Biden vs. Trump contrast has never been so stark
• Joe Biden Looked Good in His Mask
• Joe Biden has a plan for that (“Not a joke, folks: He’s running on a transformative policy agenda.”)
• Trump calls mask wearing ‘politically correct,’ Biden calls him a ‘fool’
• Biden blasts Trump for mocking face masks
• Trump takes his war on masks to new heights
• California DA launches investigation into Tara Reade testimony (“The Monterey County District Attorney’s office has launched an investigation into whether Tara Reade lied on the witness stand while acting as an expert witness.”)
• North Carolina throws convention threat back at Trump and GOP (“The state’s health department is asking the Republican Party for a plan on how it can pull off a 50,000-person event safely.” Hint: it can’t.)
• 4 Minneapolis cops fired after video shows one kneeling on neck of black man who later died (Charges coming?)
• Another unarmed black man has died at the hands of police. When will it end?
• White Woman Is Fired After Calling Police on Black Man in Central Park
• Millions of Amy Coopers (“They could be your boss or your neighbor or your teacher, if disturbed on the wrong day.”)
• I’m a public defender in Manhattan. The Central Park video is all too familiar.
• Cooped up: A shameful Central Park encounter demands all New Yorkers be better people
• After Crowding at Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri Officials Urge Quarantine
• “We’re surging:” Alabama reports largest COVID-19 increases to date (What’s happening in Alabama could happen in a lot of states.)
• Members Of Congress Call On President Trump To Cancel July 4th Event, Citing Health Risks
• Senator John Warner Endorses Congresswoman Elaine Luria for Reelection
• Video: VA GOP U.S. Senate Candidate Says “Yelling COVID-19, COVID-19, COVID-19” is “Psychological Terrorism”
• Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy Announces Candidacy for Virginia Governor (“If elected, Carroll Foy will be the first African-American woman to become governor in the United States.”)
• Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy begins run for governor, says she is the ‘right leader’ for Virginia
• Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy announces bid in Virginia governor’s race
• ‘The status quo isn’t working’: Carroll Foy launches run for Va. governor
• Governor Northam Announces Face Covering Requirement and Workplace Safety Regulations
• Live Video, Highlights: Gov. Ralph Northam’s Tuesday (5/26) Virginia COVID-19 Briefing (Northam announces face masks order)
• Editorial: No shoes, no shirt, no mask, no service
• Assessing Higher Education in a Post-Pandemic Virginia
• Huge percentages of absentee voters in May show state must prepare for the same this fall
• Virginians now required to wear masks, but enforcement of the new mandate remains unclear
• AG Mark Herring Fights Trump Administration’s Attempts to Intimidate Immigrant Communities
• Unprecedented Number of Virginia State Representatives Score an “A” On Sierra Club Legislative Scorecard
• More than 1,000 COVID-19 cases confirmed in Virginia prisons; death toll rises to six
• Tuesday (5/26) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +1,615 Confirmed/Probable Cases (to 39,342), +56 Hospitalizations (to 4,325), +28 Deaths (to 1,236) From Yesterday
• Mask Up Virginia – With LOVE to Stop the Coronavirus!
• Northern Virginia prepares for cautious reopening
• Chesapeake Bay blue crab numbers are down but still in healthy range
• What does all the coronavirus data mean? Fairfax Co. Health Dept. explains
• Transgender student Gavin Grimm’s battle over bathroom access returns to court
• Republican Who Used to Represent Staunton in the Virginia General Assembly Analyzes Last Tuesday’s Surprising Election Results (Chris Saxman says it was overwhelmingly local issues, does *not* mean Virginia’s going red this November)
• Cleon Long to file for recount in City Council race against Pat Woodbury after boost from provisional ballots
• Editorial: Leadership key to port’s success (“Replacing John Reinhart, the CEO of the Virginia Port Authority, is a task that leaves Gov. Ralph Northam no margin for error.”)
• Arlington Restaurants Can Expand Outdoor Seating to Sidewalks and Parking Lots (“The county will start taking Temporary Outdoor Seating Applications on Wednesday.”)
• Virginia Beach cancels July 4th fireworks at Oceanfront and Mount Trashmore
• The Virginian-Pilot switching to Richmond printing facility, eliminating 132 jobs
• More clouds today but mostly dry; humid Thursday and Friday with a chance of showers and storms (“Tropical moisture streams in from the south tonight, setting the stage for a rather warm and humid Thursday and Friday, before drier air arrives this weekend.”)