Saturday News: COVID Cases Continue to Surge; Biden Urges Patience, Unity; “What the heck are the decision desks doing?”; “The Slow-Motion Humiliation of an Empty Demagogue”; “Republicans are at each other’s throats. Democrats shouldn’t be”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, November 7.

• ‘Suspended animation’: Global media react to the long U.S. election wait
• Australia makes another massive battery play (“The state of Victoria is on track to host one of the world’s largest lithium-ion batteries. The 300 MW/450 MWh Victoria Big Battery will be constructed on the outskirts of Geelong.” Wow!)
• U.S. Sets Record for New Virus Cases for Third Straight Day (“The country also reported more than 1,000 Covid-19 deaths for the fourth straight day, the first such stretch since August”)
• McConnell and Pelosi are once again at odds over the size of a coronavirus stimulus package (Groundhog Day.)
• Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Infected With Coronavirus
• Joe Biden poised to inherit Disunited States of America
• Biden’s Team Steps Up Transition Plans, Mapping Out a White House
• Joe Biden didn’t claim victory on Friday — but he urged Americans to be patient
• The Final Gasp of Donald Trump’s Presidency
• It Sure Sounds Like Trump May Barricade Himself in the Oval Office and Refuse to Come Out If Biden Wins
• Biden inches closer to victory as Trump’s chances fade (In fact, where we stand right now is that Biden has 253 Electoral Votes that have been called by the AP, plus Nevada’s 7 EVs that obviously should have been called a couple days ago but for whatever reasons weren’t, plus Pennsylvania’s 20 EVs that are obviously going to Biden. Probably add in Georgia’s 16 EVs as well, although I agree with AP et al not to call that one yet, even though Biden’s ahead by 7k votes and growing. In sum, Biden’s actually been over 270 EVs for the past day – based on the MATH – yet AP still cowers in fear and won’t make the obvious call.)
• Biden’s nearly insurmountable math (Why “nearly?”)
• What the heck are the decision desks doing? (“Few expected the presidency to be decided on election night, but few expected the uncertainty to last this long.”)
• Biden Maintains Lead in Four Key States: Election Update (My god, the media…)
• Election 2020 live results: ‘We’re going to win this race,’ Joe Biden says as count continues
• Biden claims a ‘mandate’ to govern, calls for end to ‘partisan warfare’ (I hope Biden realizes that the “warfare” is wildly asymmetrical.)
• Joe Biden will be president, but there will be no Green New Deal
• A Bipartisan Climate Policy? It Could Happen Under a Biden Administration, Washington Veterans Say (“Biden’s 40 years of experience reaching across the Senate aisle may help him to craft a stable climate plan, though not the one that progressives hoped for.”)
• Joe Biden has won. Here’s what comes next. (“Biden will have to overcome a surging pandemic, an economic crisis, and a hostile Republican Party.”)
• Trump Wants To Fight Election, But ‘It’s Dawning On Him,’ Former Adviser Says
• The Slow-Motion Humiliation of an Empty Demagogue (“The president’s sadism ends in his own agony.”)
• The vanishing ‘red mirage’: how Trump’s election week soured
• Why CNN hasn’t called the election yet (CNN is completely full of crap. The “tell” is the fact that they haven’t called Nevada, which has been 100% certain to go to Biden for a couple days now, according to basically every political reporter and analyst in Nevada.)
• Trump Says He Will Keep Fighting as Aides Doubt Path Forward
• Advisers urge Trump to prepare for defeat — but maybe without a concession speech
• ‘My sense is that we lost’: Trump campaign aides grapple with dwindling odds
• Voters Said They’re Worried About the Climate. Many Voted for Trump Anyway. (Which is a vote to destroy the climate.)
• The election that broke the Republican Party (“By lashing themselves to the president’s desperate conspiracies of fraud, GOP officials have undermined their own legitimacy”)
• Ronna McDaniel asks for ‘time’ to produce specific claims of alleged voter fraud (Yes, like forever.)
• We Hereby Dump Trump (“When it came to planning his postelection fight, Trump was an Apprentice.”)
• As Saturday dawns, suspense is stretched in a tired nation. (That’s the media’s fault.)
• Republicans Are Dog Whistling About Inner-City Corruption, but It’s the Suburbs That Are Actually Killing Trump
• Trump’s Legal Strategy for Challenging the Election Is One More Trumpist Fantasy (Pathetic joke.)
• With No Evidence of Fraud, Trump Fails to Make Headway on Legal Cases
• Trump Won’t Accept Defeat. Ever. (“His forever campaign is just getting started”)
• Graham says Biden ‘deserves’ a Cabinet if he wins
• Rupert Murdoch-owned US outlets turn on Trump, urging him to act with ‘grace’ (“Fox News, Wall Street Journal and New York Post all show stark change of tone as their former champion faces ‘presidential endgame’”)
• New York Post Shifts Tone on Trump as a Top Editor Plans His Own Exit (“Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid has turned critical as the president seems headed to defeat”)
• Republicans are at each other’s throats. Democrats shouldn’t be.
• Trump’s Election Lawyers Are a Very Swampy Crew
• What can President-Elect Biden get done on energy in his first 100 days? (“If there is a way that Biden is going to be able to break through to Republicans in the Senate, using the economy as catalyst for energy investment is the way to do it.”)
• Biden Can’t Be F.D.R. He Could Still Be L.B.J. (Not without the Senate.)
• Incendiary texts traced to outfit run by top Trump aide
• Time to confront the right-wing myth-makers
• Trump Will Have His Own ‘Deep State’—and His Own #Resistance
• Study Considers a Link Between QAnon and Polling Errors
• Four years too late, the TV establishment puts Trump on mute (TV “news” is just awful.)
• How Georgia Turned From Red To Purple
• Senate Majority in Balance as Perdue Re-election Race Goes to Runoff in Georgia
• Trump’s path to electoral victory is disappearing. So are his legal avenues.
• ‘It’s all over, but the crying’ for President Trump, Pennsylvania lieutenant governor says (Correct.)
• The refrain from state officials is consistent: The Trump campaign’s fraud claims are unfounded
• Why the Election Wasn’t a Biden Landslide
• Pennsylvania’s Blue Shift
• The Second the Presidency Ends—the Trump Family Grift Begins (Scamming their supporters is what they do.)
• Trump advisers are telling him it’s slipping away. There’s poetic justice here.
• Two men outside Philly vote count in Hummer with QAnon stickers face weapons charges, police say
• John Lewis’s former district may have flipped Georgia blue. It’s seen by some as divine revenge.
• Stacey Abrams’s Ground Game Puts Georgia Within Joe Biden’s Reach
• Stacey Abrams garners praise from Democrats on the verge of achieving a long-held dream: Flipping Georgia
• Trump Dumps 3 Agency Leaders In Wake Of Election
• Trump Demoted FERC Chairman Chatterjee After He Expressed Support for Carbon Pricing (“‘It was totally worth it and I would do it again,’ said Chatterjee, who had been a steadfast supporter of fossil fuels.”)
• Republicans are amplifying the president’s lies. This has never been more dangerous.
• Fox News Hits a Dangerous New Low
• Rudy Giuliani: from hero of 9/11 to leader of Trump’s last stand (So pathetic.)
• Trump Fundraising for Legal Challenges Would Also Pay Down Debt
• Georgia announces recount after presidential race too close to call
• Why Democrats lost Latino voters along Texas border: ‘They relied on loyalty’
• Steve Bannon Loses Lawyer After Suggesting Beheading of Fauci (The fact that Bannon was a top aide to President Trump tells you all you need to know…)
• Fox News propagandists and GOP leaders are pushing the country toward the abyss
• No more thinking about politics after this? Think again.
• Actually, VPAP, We Had ONE Election in Virginia; But In Many Ways It Was Two Wildly Different Electorates! (“Heck, even some deep-“blue” jurisdictions were ‘red’ if you look ONLY at Election Day – and not the massive # of early – votes.”)
• How Did the Polls Do in Virginia? (“Cygnal did very well; Swayable and SurveyMonkey were WAY too bullish on Dems; CNU did well on VA02; VA05 polling badly missed; Garin-Hart-Yang were far too bullish on Wexton”)
• Biden’s wins in Chesterfield, Virginia Beach extend Democrats’ dominance in population centers
• Spanberger pushes Democrats toward center after party’s unexpected losses in House (This headline is wildly misleading. In fact, if you look at where people stand on the issues, Democrats are already very much in the majority/”center” of American politics.)
• In Virginia’s Vote For Biden, Democrats See Blue Wave Wobble While Republicans Spy Hope (This headline – and the thrust of the article – are really weird, given that “Some 2.3 million voters chose Biden, compared to about 2 million who voted for Clinton four years earlier. Among Republicans, votes for Trump rose from 1.8 million last presidential election to 1.9 million this year.” Yet the reporter spins it as “Republicans spy hope?” Alrighty.)
• Eviction-Related Protections Amendment to Be Considered by General Assembly Monday
• Friday (11/6) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +1,568 Confirmed/Probable Cases (to 188,770), +71 Hospitalizations (to 12,936), +? Deaths (to ?) (“Highest single-day increase in cases since 10/8, second-highest since 8/7”)
• Dominion Energy Highlights Move From Natural Gas to Offshore Wind in Q3 Earnings Call (“With sale of interstate gas business to Berkshire Hathaway, Dominion is focused on regulated utilities and gigawatt-scale clean energy ambitions, CEO says.”)
• Schapiro: National politics intrude on Va.’s Never Never Land (“This past Tuesday, Chesterfield — an Old South farm county-turned-white flight Richmond suburb-turned multihued, polylingual hotbed of come-here’s from other states and countries — tipped to Joe Biden over Donald Trump. It was the first time since 1948, when it fell to Harry Truman, that a Democrat carried Chesterfield for the presidency.”)
• Two Virginia men arrested with guns outside Pennsylvania Convention Center, where mail-in ballots were being counted (“Two men arrested in Philadelphia were visible participants of right-wing rallies and supporters of state Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, who is running for governor.”)
• Far-Right VA State Sen. Amanda Chase (R) Claims “There Is No Connection” Between Her and the “individual believed to be connected to the [PA Convention Center] incident” (Chase: “I denounce any attempt to plot an attack on the Philadelphia Convention Center.”)
• Virginia School Districts Head in Different Directions When It Comes to COVID-19
• Chesapeake men face charges in Philadelphia after driving to convention center with guns, police say (“Philadelphia Police Department had received word Thursday from the FBI in Norfolk that ‘individuals with firearms were en route to the Convention Center area operating a silver Hummer truck.’ An AR-style rifle and ammunition was later found inside the truck.”)
• State supreme court focuses on retroactivity of statues law during Charlottesville hearing
• Richmond’s Commonwealth’s Attorney Refuses to Reopen Marcus-David Peters Investigation
• In new review, Richmond prosecutor reaffirms police shooting of Marcus-David Peters was justified (“After reviewing anew the death of Marcus-David Peters, who in 2018 was fatally shot by a Richmond police officer while in a mental health crisis, Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette W. McEachin reached the same conclusion as her predecessor: that the shooting was justified.”)
• Five major initiatives to follow in Stoney’s second term
• Trammell pulls ahead of Wentz in updated unofficial Richmond City Council election results
• Williams: For Richmond’s progressives, the energy on the streets must place elected officials in the seats (“There’s no runner-up prize in Richmond’s mayoral election. And Alexsis Rodgers was playing to win.” She really was.)
• Richmond’s mayor took down Confederate monuments this summer. That move may have vaulted him to another term in office.
• Expansion of Massive, 629-Acre Landfill Owned by Waste Management in Charles City County Poses “[clear] threats to the health and safety of the residents”
• Editorial: Lynchburg goes blue. How did that happen?
• Virginia county removes Civil War monuments in front of its courthouse (“Fairfax County will donate a trio of memorials marking the Civil War’s first land battle to the state and two other entities.”)
• Loudoun Election Staff Clears Up Theory Causing Voters to Worry Ballots Weren’t Counted
• Editorial: What we know, what we don’t, about Roanoke’s historic council election
• Fairfax families file lawsuit over Thomas Jefferson High School admissions changes
• “It finally felt like the administration was truly listening”: William & Mary athletes overjoyed by reinstatement
• D.C.-area forecast: Multiple days of highs in the 70s are still to come