Tuesday News: World Needs “Green Economic Recovery”; “White House Hopes Americans Will Just Get Used to Dying of Coronavirus”; “Monument Avenue must be for everyone”; Roanoke Times Disses No-ACP Enviro Activists As “People Sitting in Trees”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, July 7.

• Governments Eye a Green Economic Recovery. Some Industries Aren’t Convinced. (“The world’s top 50 economies are putting up $583 billion to boost green efforts”)
• India Surpasses Russia In Reported Coronavirus Infections
• U.N. Predicts Rise In Diseases That Jump From Animals To Humans (Humans need to change our entire relationship with nature and animals.)
• Think Covid-19 Disrupted the Food Chain? Wait and See What Climate Change Will Do
• What’s happening in Xinjiang is genocide
• U.S. is ‘looking at’ banning TikTok and Chinese social media apps, Pompeo says
• The law that could make climate change illegal (“One of the most robust laws on climate change yet has been created in Denmark. Can legislation really make failing to act on climate change illegal?”)
• Momentum Growing Globally for Using Marine Protections to Address Climate Change
• Trump Pandemic Response Turns ‘America First’ Into America Last
• First Thing: the US is a Covid ‘leader’, but not in the way Trump thinks
• White House Hopes Americans Will Just Get Used to Dying of Coronavirus (“After the president claimed that “99%” of COVID-19 cases are ‘harmless,’ his aides are reportedly working on messaging to convince Americans that they can ‘live with the virus being a threat.'”)
• States mandate masks, begin to shut down again as cases soar
• The U.S. Is Repeating Its Deadliest Pandemic Mistake (“More than 40 percent of all coronavirus deaths in America have been in nursing homes. Here’s how it got so bad, and why there might still be more to come as cases surge in the Sun Belt.”)
• Donald Trump, the unbriefable president
• As COVID-19 Cases Surge, Fauci Says U.S. Is Still ‘Knee-Deep’ In First Wave
• Schools face tough road to fall opening
• Trump administration bars international college students if their school’s classes are all online (WTF is this crap?)
• Trump’s intel briefer breaks her silence
• The Supreme Court Declined an Invitation to Blow Up the Presidential Election (“The Electoral College is a racist, anti-democratic abomination—but faithless electors won’t fix it.”)
• The Supreme Court decides not to make the Electoral College even worse
• Trump plumbed new depths of depravity this Fourth of July
• Firms With Trump Ties, Major Nonprofits Make PPP Bailout List
• Treasury, SBA data show small-business loans went to private-equity backed chains, members of Congress (“Almost 90,000 employers also appear to have received money despite not saying how many jobs they would save”)
• Grover Norquist’s Anti-Tax Group Took Money From the Paycheck Protection Program (Beyond parody.)
• Over 5,600 fossil fuel companies have taken at least $3bn in US Covid-19 aid (Absolutely appalling.)
• U.S. Releases Names of Biggest PPP Borrowers
• Trump’s Small Biz Rescue Bailed Out Kushner’s Family, Obama’s Aides and Other Political Elite (Just imagine the reaction by right wingers if a relative of Hillary Clinton had gotten a bailout.)
• Billionaire Kanye West’s Company Gets Multimillion-Dollar PPP Loan From Trump Admin
• Contact tracing is no longer possible across the US South due to rapid coronavirus surges, health expert says
• Americans trust governors more than Trump on coronavirus, new poll finds
• Appeals court deals 2nd blow to Trump asylum policy
• The Left Has Won the Culture War, and It’s All Thanks to Donald Trump (“He came into office trying to take us back in time. Instead, he’s made Black Lives Matter more popular than it ever could have been without him.”)
• Even whites — except the right-wing media profiteers — are abandoning Trump (“A reckoning of enormous proportions seems to be coming.”)
• Trump’s immoral campaign is also incoherent
• Trump’s Approval Rating Isn’t Getting Better (“The president needs something significant to change if he wants to get re-elected. But what?”)
• What if Trump loses but insists he won? (“Unless Biden wins by an electoral college margin that no one can credibly dispute, our democracy may be imperiled as never before. We had better start thinking now about how we would handle such an electoral crisis.”)
• Trump could sink the House GOP in suburbia (“The President’s erosion among well-educated voters looms as imposing headwind to GOP hopes of recapturing the House of Representatives in November”)
• Trump Calls For NASCAR Driver Bubba Wallace To Apologize Over Noose ‘Hoax’ (NASCAR’s response: “We are proud to have Bubba Wallace in the NASCAR family and we commend his courage and leadership. NASCAR continues to stand tall with Bubba, our competitors and everyone who makes our sport welcoming and inclusive for all racing fans”)
• Trump doesn’t have a clue what America is about
• It’s Been ‘Such a Weird Year.’ That’s Also Reflected in Crime Statistics. (“In large cities across America, murders are up sharply, while other violent crimes have decreased.”)
• A twisted but revealing GOP attack on Joe Biden
• Publisher moves up release of book by Trump niece
• Former Melania Trump Confidante to Release an ‘Explosive’ Tell-All Before the Election
• While climate change divides Democrats and Republicans, renewable policy unites (“A new interactive map created by the Yale Program on Climate Communication shows the difference in responses and opinions between America’s two political parties across questions of climate change, renewable education and utility procurement.”)
• Here are the governors who hurt so many, so needlessly
• A Judge Handed the Standing Rock Tribes a Big Win in Their Dakota Access Pipeline Fight
• Tucker Carlson suggests Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who lost her legs in Iraq, hates America (Top comment on the WaPo story: “So, the party that is owned by Russian mafia billionaires, just threw our Kurdish allies under the bus, got us involved in quagmires in the Middle East we still can’t escape, sucks up to authoritarian dictators, insults our allies, STILL thinks it’s the party of patriotism?!?”)
• Fox News pitches White House’s new line: “We have to live with the virus” — and more deaths (Fox is a disgrace.)
• Fox News Claims It ‘Mistakenly Eliminated’ Trump Out of Photo With Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell (Riiiight, “mistakenly,” LOL)
• Fox News apologizes for ‘error’ of removing Trump from photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell (The entire network is a huge “error”)
• Right-Wing Media Outlets Duped by a Middle East Propaganda Campaign (“Conservative sites like Newsmax and Washington Examiner have published Middle East hot takes from ‘experts’ who are actually fake personas pushing propaganda”)
• Florida Education Commissioner mandates all schools to reopen in August
• Amy Cooper Faces Charges After Calling Police on Black Bird Watcher
• Charlie Daniels, ‘Devil Went Down to Georgia’ singer, famed fiddler and outspoken star, dies at 83
• Luria, fellow members of Congress want military policy review because of extremist, White supremacist activity
• With VA State Board of Elections Meeting Tuesday at 1 pm, PerkinsCoie and DCCC Urge Rejection of Republican Bob Good’s, Nick Freitas’ Requests for Filing Deadline Extensions
• Democrats say 2 GOP House hopefuls in Virginia should be kept off the ballot
• Evictions ramp up in Virginia as local courts decline governor’s request to continue moratorium
• Not-Great News: COVID-19 “Effective Reproduction Number” (Rt) Back (Slightly) Above 1.0 in Virginia
• Virginia reports no daily coronavirus deaths as region sees smallest case increase since April
• Monday (7/6) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +354 Confirmed/Probable Cases (to 66,102), +17 Hospitalizations (to 6,435), +ZERO Deaths (to 1,853) From Yesterday
• Detailed Federal Data Finds Major Racial, Ethnic Disparities in COVID-19 Case Rates in Virginia (For instance, in Fairfax County, rates are: 269 per 10k for Hispanics, 50 per 10k for Blacks, 23 per 10k for whites)
• Virginia still allows hospitals to move some patients to nursing homes without COVID-19 testing, despite pleas from providers
• 2021 Gubernatorial Race: Who Could Vie for the Republican Nomination?
• Virginia Commission on African-American History Education Member Maria Burgos on Culturally Proficient Schools, Racism, “White Fragility,” “Blackface,” Ralph Northam, etc. (“Gov. Northam is a perfect example of personal growth around equity”)
• Virginia Republicans Are on A Losing Streak. Could Other States Be Next?
• Armed With the Truth “No ACP” Movement Prevails
• Dominion CEO Tom Farrell #FAIL: Day After Announcement of Atlantic Coast Pipeline Cancellation, Company’s Stock Falls 11%
• Dominion Energy’s shares fall as news of canceled pipeline deal hits market
• Editorial: 7 questions about the cancellation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (Some good questions, but since this IS the Roanoke Times editorial board after all, we have to get one, gratuitous shot about “silly stunts or people sitting in trees.”)
• With the Atlantic Coast Pipeline dead, it’s time to topple remaining fossil fuel monuments (“Here’s the point for politicians everywhere, borrowed from our ongoing civil rights struggle: It’s no longer enough to say you support wind and solar power. You must be AGAINST fossil fuels…The mantra for the Democratic Party – and for Republicans when they one day wake up – should be this: No new fossil fuel projects of any kind, anywhere. Period…Virginia should adopt a statutory moratorium on all new fossil fuel infrastructure.”)
• As Busch Gardens, Water Country USA remain closed during Phase 3, state Sen. Norment decries Northam’s reopening guidelines (Norment apparently is paying no attention to what’s happening in Florida, Texas, Arizona, etc. Or he just doesn’t care.)
• Young, black, autistic and imprisoned: Matthew Rushin’s story is sadly not unique
• Majority of Charlottesville Police Department’s use-of-force was against Black suspects
• Monument Avenue must be for everyone
• Washington and Lee faculty vote to change the university’s name
• Doug Cumming column: Let’s talk about a new name for Washington and Lee University
• Lexington City Council votes to rename of Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery
• Roanoke council votes to remove Robert E. Lee memorial; public hearing set for Aug. 17
• Trump’s Washington NFL team tweet shows the controversy is about more than a team name (“Playing Native American, war-whooping and donning a headdress unites fans of all races in a ritual of mockery that remains acceptable for millions.”)
• Change the damn name already
• Northam says it’s time for Redskins to change name; Walmart, Target pull merchandise (And yet again, the media keeps using the R**skins name in headlines of articles about changing it because it’s racist. Brilliant.)
• Hot and sticky through Wednesday. Heat may briefly ease Thursday to Friday.