by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, December 19.
- IHS Markit forecasts a “wild” ride” for the global PV industry in 2021 (“The firm expects 158 GW of new PV to be installed worldwide in 2021, a jump over 2020, and the U.S. and China will still dominate.”)
- Hackers’ broad attack sets cyber experts worldwide scrambling to defend networks
- Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf: ‘We Have Failed’ With Light-Touch COVID-19 Policy
- Boris Johnson is facing two hellish weeks. Critics fear his weak leadership could seriously harm the UK
- France Not Bound to Sunday Brexit Deadline at Any Cost
- Russia is behind the broad, ongoing cyber spy campaign against the U.S. government and private sector, Pompeo says
- US plans to shutter remaining consulates in Russia
- Joe Biden will face an inbox of complex foreign policy problems from the start (“The massive, ongoing hack of US federal agencies, relations with China and North Korea will be urgent issues for Biden to address”)
- What we know – and still don’t – about the worst-ever US government cyber attack
- Trump Won’t Denounce Russia’s Hack Because He’s Still Subservient to Putin
- ‘Nothing under our tree’: millions in US cope with financial misery during holiday season
- Newly Released COVID-19 Data Show Most U.S. Cities Are ‘Sustained Hotspots’
- December Is Set to Be Covid’s Deadliest Month in the U.S. by Far
- FDA Takes Additional Action in Fight Against COVID-19 By Issuing Emergency Use Authorization for Second COVID-19 Vaccine
- F.D.A. Authorizes Moderna Vaccine, Adding Millions of Doses to U.S. Supply
- The wealthy scramble for COVID-19 vaccines: ‘If I donate $25,000 … would that help me?’
- Fauci, NIH yet to get Covid vaccine despite role developing it
- Pence Said Pfizer Vaccine Distribution Was Going ‘Strong.’ States Are Calling Bullshit.
- Trump Signs Stopgap Funding Bill as Virus Relief Talks Continue (Wow, that’s the most work the loser has done in months.)
- Republicans Remember to Care About the Deficit at the Worst Possible Moment
- ‘This is ridiculous’: Congress avoids shutdown but deadlocks on stimulus (“Lawmakers will work through the weekend in an attempt to reach a deal before the Sunday spending deadline.” Politico – which loves nothing more than “both sidesism” – goes with the generic “Congress” as the villain here, instead of specifying who’s to blame – Republicans.)
- Biden to introduce team tasked with ambitious climate agenda on Saturday
- GOP senator blocks bill to provide $1,200 stimulus checks (Who the hell votes for people like Ron Johnson???)
- US government caught blindsided over sophisticated cyber hack, experts say
- Biden team says Defense Department officials halted cooperation (100% unacceptable.)
- How does your state rank on the ACEEE energy efficiency scorecard? (Virginia needs to crank this up, big time!)
- Space Force troops to be called ‘guardians’ (Seriously? WTF?)
- Abolish the Space Force
- Could Rudy Giuliani Face a Perjury Charge? (“The president’s lawyer swore to tell the truth, but…”)
- If Trump pardons himself, Biden should un-pardon him
- Was It Worth It? (” People who work for President Donald Trump typically meet one of two fates. They fail to show the unthinking loyalty he demands and get fired. Or, maybe worse, they don’t get fired—they endure the tantrums and turmoil and survive another day, binding themselves…”)
- Fire Robert Wilkie (“The Department of Veterans Affairs secretary no longer has the trust of those who served.”)
- ‘Latinx’ hasn’t even caught on among Latinos. It never will. (Time to go back to saying Hispanic or Latino…)
- Kushner OK’d Trump Campaign Shell Company That Secretly Paid Inner Circle: Report
- Lara Trump served on the board of a company through which the Trump political operation spent more than $700 million.
- Trump raised $200m from false election claims. What happens to the money now? (“The president could use the funds to ensure he and his allies remain a powerful force in US politics”)
- Biden’s recent appointments have been hits. Now for the hard one. (“He cannot settle for an unimpressive attorney general.”)
- Unlike Trump, Biden believes in climate change — and his nominees prove it
- Joe Biden’s 5 Tech Priorities
- 737 MAX: Boeing ‘inappropriately coached’ test pilots, say senators
- How the media should cover the post-Trump Republicans (“Enough carrying water for Republicans’ fake outrage.”)
- ‘He called me kiddo’: Jill Biden says Wall Street Journal essay was ‘such a surprise’ (The surprise is that even a far-right editorial cesspool like the Wall Street Journal would publish this steaming pile…)
- A return to fake right-wing outrage: Without Trump, Republicans run back to sexist resentments
- MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Is Throwing Down Big Money to Fuel Pro-Trump Election Challenges (Definitely do NOT buy a “MyPillow” product ever.)
- Lou Dobbs Airs Stunning Fact-Check of His Own Election Conspiracies After Company Threatens Legal Action
- NYT returns Peabody after finding “significant falsehoods” in podcast
- Democratic organizers set their sights on Asian American voters to win control of the Senate
- Judge skewers GOP over suit targeting newly registered voters in Georgia
- Schools, caught by pandemic and confronting systemic racism, jettison testing for admissions
- ‘Truly, Truly Evil’: Tucker Carlson Slammed For Sowing Doubt About COVID-19 Vaccines )(“The Fox News host faced fierce backlash on social media for saying people should react ‘nervously’ to the ‘glitzy entrance’ of the coronavirus vaccine.”)
- Rush Limbaugh’s deranged 2020: From denying the pandemic to supporting a coup (Who’s more evil, Hannity or Limbaugh? Tough call.)
- Cline: 6th District voters get what they vote for (“For the record, I have voted ‘conservative’ all my life, and for the most part, those votes have gone to Republican candidates. The current Republican Party no longer represents the conservative values that it once espoused, and should not, in my opinion, continue to receive the support of true conservative voters.”)
- In Virginia, a post-Trump crucible for the GOP (“The question for Virginia Republicans, who have not won a statewide race since 2009, is whether they’d like to reverse their drift to the radical right and become competitive again. If the GOP nominates Ms. Chase, it is almost certainly doomed in a state that President-elect Joe Biden carried by 54 percent to 44 percent.”)
- ‘Netflix for solar’: Virginia finalizing rules for solar subscription program
- New UVA COVID-19 Report: “the post-Thanksgiving surge is large”; With “Christmas, Hanukkah and other winter holidays, it could be a long, cold winter”
- As Virginia closes in on 300,000 total COVID-19 cases, UVA model projects an additional 400,000 in 2021
- Friday (12/18) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +3,295 Confirmed/Probable Cases (to 299,388), +181 Hospitalizations (to 16,684), +45 Deaths (to 4,598)
- Virginia Hospitals Adjust, Adapt to New Vaccine Plans
- Virginia to get about 100,000 fewer doses of COVID-19 vaccines in December, health department says
- Polls of 13.1k-Member “Joe Biden for Virginia” FB Group: Terry McAuliffe Leads 2021 Governor’s Race, “Don’t Know/Other/Undecided” Leads for Lt. Governor; Mark Herring Leads by Wide Margin for AG
- Aliscia Andrews Exploring Run for GOP Lieutenant Governor
- Unions back endorsements of Carroll Foy with $350,000 for her gubernatorial campaign
- Editorial: 3 questions for the 2021 candidates for governor
- Schapiro: Virginia’s GOP convention doesn’t have to be a disaster (Alrighty…)
- Virginia must end cash bail
- In Richmond, the case of the state senator and the judge draws attention to lax ethics rules (“Virginia’s ethics rules are notoriously lax, and they lean on the individual legislator’s sense of right and wrong”)
- Fairfax County School Board Chooses “Holistic Review” as New Admissions Policy for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (“TJ”)
- Wildlife Center of Virginia Sees Record Number of Patients
- How Do You Stop Racism? First, You Have to Recognize It, State Official Tells VMI Board.
- Arlington Co. to try demand-based parking prices
- Still chilly this weekend, but warming up a bit next week
