Friday News: Climate “Cascade Effect”; “Coronavirus and Russia: Trump and the GOP’s Double Betrayal”; “The Children of 9/11 Are About to Vote”; “Trump Lied, People Died”; “5 Key Reasons to Stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, September 11…the 19th anniversary of the 9/11/01 attacks.

• UK, France and Germany agree to reject US demand for Iran snapback sanctions
• The poisoning of Alexei Navalny should shock the E.U. into action
• Support the Brave Protesters of Belarus (“America and Europe must make clear that they stand behind the Belarusian people’s demand for fair elections.”)
• Woodward tells how allies tried to rein in ‘childish’ Trump’s foreign policy (“On the golf course, Lindsey Graham urged restraint on Iran, while James Mattis slept in his clothes in case of emergency, book says”)
• U.S. sanctions Ukrainian lawmaker tied to Giuliani as ‘active Russian agent’
• Trump Lawyer Rudy Giuliani Worked With an “Active Russian Agent” to Discredit Joe Biden
• US charges Russian with plot to create election distrust
• Coronavirus and Russia: Trump and the GOP’s Double Betrayal (“Not since the Civil War have political leaders engaged in such treachery.”)
• Is this year’s horrific wildfire season a fluke, or the new normal?
• A Climate Reckoning in Fire-Stricken California
• Oregon wildfires: Half a million people flee dozens of infernos
• Growing public skepticism on vaccines is an indictment of Trump’s record
• Economic Rebound Becomes More Fragile With U.S. Aid on Brink
• Coronavirus news: US daily death toll from COVID-19 shoots back up over 1,000
• Mitch McConnell’s Coronavirus Relief Bill Wasn’t ‘Skinny,’ It Was Close to Emaciated (“But we don’t want to cause a panic.”)
• Trump says he misled on virus to instill calm. But he’s governed with scare tactics.
• Bob Woodward gave Trump every chance to prove himself
• Court blocks Trump order to exclude undocumented immigrants from census count
• Deepfakes are coming for American democracy. Here’s how we can prepare.
• Trump held six indoor rallies after acknowledging the coronavirus was airborne
• For a President Who ‘Needs to Touch the Flame,’ Bob Woodward Was Irresistible
• Bob Woodward on a Nightmare Presidency
• Bob Woodward Finally Got Trump to Tell the Truth About COVID-19
• Trump is destroying the Republican Party. Why won’t any of his peers speak up?
• Seven reasons to vote every Republican out of office (“They stand only for their own retention of power.”)
• This election is a referendum on Trump. That’s very bad news for him.
• As Clock Ticks, Trump Engulfs Himself in Chaotic News Cycles (“With early voting about to begin in some states, the days President Trump can afford to be consumed by crises of his own making are dwindling. But he has spent the last week in reaction mode”)
• Biden knows how to use Trump’s botched response to covid-19 to his advantage
• The most outrageous revelations in Bob Woodward’s book ‘Rage’ aren’t the ones you’ve heard about (“It’s not just lies about coronavirus. Woodward writes of the president as a man who can’t tell fantasy from reality”)
• Why Trump Might Be Scaring Off Older Voters
• Bret Baier Shuts Down Trump Campaign Spokesperson’s Lies About Woodward Tapes
• Prepare for election month, not election night
• Trump And Biden Both Got Small Convention Bounces. But Only Biden Got More Popular.
• Biden’s campaign goes full throttle: Trump lied, people died
• CNN Exclusive: Biden says Trump has ‘no conception’ of national security
• Democrats build big edge in early voting (“Democrats are amassing an enormous lead in early voting, alarming Republicans who worry they’ll need to orchestrate a huge Election Day turnout during a deadly coronavirus outbreak to answer the surge.”)
• Trump twists history of Churchill and FDR to cover up pandemic denialism (Nutjob.)
• Trump makes wild claims about revitalizing auto industry at Michigan rally (And by “wild” they mean “false,” but won’t just say that in the friggin’ headline, because…”journalism.”)
• Trump Is Living in Denial (“From the coronavirus to Russian electoral interference, the president keeps trying to paper over problems instead of addressing them.” Pathetic.)
• Trump’s Excuse for His Coronavirus Lies Is Even More Incriminating
• Republican worries rise as Trump campaign pulls back from television advertising
• Amid Flood Of News, Voters Appear Locked In On Their Presidential Choices
• Trump and Biden Head to Pennsylvania to Commemorate 9/11
• Senate Republicans scramble to contain fallout from Woodward bombshell
• This Republican Party Is Not Worth Saving (“No one should ever get a second chance to destroy the Constitution.” Exactly.)
• The Towering Lies of President Trump (“It’s simple. Everything that benefits Mr. Trump is true and everything that inconveniences him is false.”)
• Wisconsin Supreme Court temporarily blocks absentee ballots from being mailed a week before deadline
• Religious right in drive to police election amid dubious voter fraud claims (They’re not “dubious,” they’re false.)
• Trump’s Coronavirus Response Was Beyond Incompetent (“He wasn’t oblivious to the danger. He just didn’t care.”)
• Trump Takes His Pitch to Suburban Voters to Its Absurd Conclusion (“Does anybody want to have somebody from Antifa as a member, a resident of your suburb? I don’t think so.” WTF?)
• Lindsey Graham takes the fall for Trump’s disastrous Woodward interviews (Seriously, Trump must really have something embarrassing on Lindsey Graham.)
• Authorities must get to the bottom of Postmaster DeJoy’s alleged manipulation of campaign donations
• Susan Page of USA Today criticized for hosting off-the-record event honoring Trump appointees
• Facebook is allowing a campaign to ditch face masks en masse to spread (“The posts are calling for people to burn and trash face masks on a specific day in September” Facebook is a disgrace.)
• Donald Trump explains how he watched hours and hours of Fox News in the past day (“President Donald J. Trump says he watched 8 hours of Fox programming in the past day” Fox rots your brain.)
• Fox is defending Trump’s coronavirus deception because the network is complicit (Yep, should be criminal.)
• Despite Trump’s ‘law and order’ rhetoric, protesters won’t back down
• The Children of 9/11 Are About to Vote
• Former felons have the potential to swing close 2020 races (“The expansion of felon voting rights across the U.S. in recent years has created a pool of as many as 2 million newly eligible voters.”)
• Ex-officers charged in George Floyd killing blame each other
• Sen. Tim Kaine brings up concern to NIH officials about vaccine research and development
• ICYMI: Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy and Virginia veterans blast the Trump administration’s treatment of service members as Mike Pence speaks at VMI
• GOP Super PAC Lies about Spanberger’s Record on Helping Central Virginia Constituents, Wastes Special Interest Money on Attack
• At VMI, Pence defends Trump’s support for military after report on disparaging remarks about armed forces
• AG Mark Herring Opposes Kanye West’s Motion For a Stay
• Spanberger and Freitas Debate Still Questionable
• Video: Senators Warner, Kaine Hold FB Town Hall, Rip McConnell’s “Political,” Box-Checking Exercise” on COVID-19 Relief Package
• Virginia House Democrats Advance Special Session Agenda Through House of Delegates (“House Democrats pass bills to move forward on COVID-19, police and justice reform priorities; continue work on biennial budget”)
• BREAKING: Senate of Virginia Passes Sweeping Policing Reform Package [UPDATED]
• Virginia Senate passes sweeping police reform package on party-line vote
• Virginia Senate passes sweeping police overhaul bill (“The party-line vote means the legislation will go before the House of Delegates.”)
• Top Va. law enforcement figures oppose some proposed laws, but agree fixes are needed
• Video, Highlights: Virginia State Senate Debates State Inspection of Farmville Detention Center, Omnibus Policing Reform Bill, etc.
• BREAKING: VA Senate Judiciary Committee “Passes By” Del. Jeff Bourne’s Qualified Immunity Reform Bill 12-3
• Senate panel rejects Bourne’s bill to ban qualified immunity for police
• Va Senate Policing Bill Sets Statewide Conduct Standards But Blocks Attempt To End Qualified Immunity (Yes, for now, but it sounds almost 100% certain that there will another effort to reform Qualified Immunity in the 2021 General Assembly session starting in January.)
• Bill Blocking Police Use of Military Equipment Moves to House of Delegates
• Qualified immunity reform once again voted down in Virginia legislature
• Fairfax says he will run for Va. governor in 2021 (“The Democrat, who will join a crowded field of contenders, has denied allegations of sexual assault brought by two women during the governor’s racist-photo scandal last year.”)
• Del. Glenn Davis (R-Virginia Beach) Announces for Lt. Governor; Has Basically Zero Chance of Winning VA Trumpublican Nomination (Among other problems, VAPLAN rates Davis the *least*-conservative delegate; also, Davis was Kasich’s Virginia co-chair in 2016)
• Del. Glenn Davis to make second run for Virginia lieutenant governor (“The Republican, who lived out of his campaign RV in 2017, said the pandemic will limit his travel this time.”)
• The Fight for Paid Leave (“After effort for paid sick days falters, lawmakers move toward paid quarantine leave.”)
• AG Mark Herring Sues EPA Over Failure to Protect Chesapeake Bay
• COMMENTARY: Eliminating mandatory minimums is not an ‘assault’ first responders (They *finally* printed Sen. Surovell’s response to their brain-dead, fallacious, “misleading” editorial of 9/2. As Sen. Surovell writes, “We welcome a debate on the pros and cons of a proposed new policy, but we expect today’s media to be informed and accurate. We expect better of The Free Lance–Star.” Except, sadly, we really don’t expect better of this godawful editorial board.)
• Virginia needs to stop treating its citizens like bad stepchildren
• Thursday (9/10) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +1,236 Confirmed/Probable Cases (to 130,525), +77 Hospitalizations (to 10,085), +11 Deaths (to 2,708) From Yesterday
• 5 Key Reasons to Stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline (“No one needs its dirty gas”; “MVP’s already an environmental disaster”; “MVP would be a climate bomb”; “MVP’s costs are out of control”; “MVP’s in legal trouble”)
• How DC area will honor 9/11 amid coronavirus pandemic
• State revenues flat in August, but $325 million up for fiscal year
• Hundreds of ballot drop boxes are coming to the D.C. region. Here’s what to expect. (“D.C. and Montgomery County will have 400-pound, heavy-duty boxes, while Fairfax County will have smaller, foldable containers.”)
• Senate confirms Cullen as federal judge
• U.S. attorney in Roanoke leaving to become federal judge
• Hampton Roads rejoins rest of state as Northam eases local COVID-19 restrictions
• Northam lifts extra COVID-19 restrictions for Hampton Roads
• With new COVID-19 cases in the region fluctuating, Henrico school officials look ahead to November
• Gloucester School Board asks for full federal appeals court to hear Gavin Grimm case
• Drier today and very comfortable tomorrow. Decent this weekend, overall.