by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Sunday, December 20.
- U.K. orders stricter Covid lockdown in London — ‘We cannot proceed with Christmas as planned’
- U.K.’s Hancock Says New Covid Mutation Is ‘Out of Control’ (“Emerging scientific evidence suggests the new variant — which Hancock said has also appeared in Australia and continental Europe — can spread significantly more quickly than previous strains in circulation and is behind the surge in infections in recent days.”)
- Virus Overwhelms U.S. and Europe Even as Vaccines Roll Out
- US cyber-attack: Russia ‘clearly’ behind SolarWinds operation, says Pompeo
- ‘Powerful tradecraft’: how foreign cyber-spies compromised America
- Trump Appointee Seeks to Cut Off Funding for Global Internet Access Group
- Trump Contradicts Pompeo Over Russia’s Role in Hack (Trump is Putin’s puppet.)
- Trump, contradicting Pompeo, attempts to downplay gravity of hack of U.S. government, as well as Russia’s role (#TraitorTrump
- The inside story of how Trump’s denial, mismanagement and magical thinking led to the pandemic’s dark winter
- U.S. Starts Delivery of Moderna’s Covid-19 Vaccine
- Path Cleared For $900 Billion COVID Relief Package As Fed Compromise Is Reached (“Sen. Pat Toomey drops demand for sharp restriction on emergency Fed powers.”)
- General sorry for ‘miscommunication’ over vaccine shipments
- Senators resolve Fed standoff, clearing way for stimulus deal (“Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) had proposed curbing the central bank’s ability to offer emergency loans. The compromise would give the fed more flexibility to respond to future economic calamities. With the issue now resolved, a deal on the nearly $1 trillion legislation could be near.”)
- Crushing the pandemic could pave the way for Biden’s bold agenda
- ‘Folks, we’re in crisis’: Joe Biden introduces environmental advisers (“President-elect announces racially diverse team to face ‘existential threat of our time’”)
- Defense Officials Push Proposal to Separate NSA, Cyber Command
- Congress, experts worry about potential spy agency reorganization amid hack response
- Trump is still only out for himself (“The President’s mere entertainment of invoking martial law to negate Biden’s victory shows how focused he is on his own interests while the nation is mired in crisis”)
- Trump Floats Coup Plan That’s So Wild Even Rudy Giuliani Is Terrified (“Trump’s crazies are turning on the even-crazier”)
- Heated Oval Office meeting included talk of special counsel, martial law as Trump advisers clash
- Even as Trump remains defiant, his aides are quietly starting to move on (“Aides are lining up next jobs, friends are wrangling last-minute favors and Cabinet secretaries are giving exit interviews.” “Defiant” in this case means plotting a coup. But the WaPo won’t just say that.)
- Officials increasingly alarmed about Trump’s power grab
- Trump Discussed Naming Campaign Lawyer as Special Counsel on Election Fraud (This is utterly insane.)
- Trump campaign told to preserve all documents related to Sidney Powell and Dominion Voting Systems
- Giuliani asks DHS about seizing voting machines
- Amid Vaccine Rollout and Historic Hack, Trump Remains Focused on Reversing Election
- Poll finds that Americans accept Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 election — except for the Fox News viewers
- There are flickers of hope for local journalism. So far, it’s not nearly enough. (“Increasingly under the control of corporate chains backed by private-equity firm, far too many American newsrooms are hemorrhaging staff.”)
- Pence Biographer Says That After 1/20/21, Former VP Might Become President of Liberty University
- Jim Carrey will no longer play Joe Biden on ‘SNL’ (Good; Carrey sucked at this – badly.)
- ‘Saturday Night Live’ Finds a New Joe Biden After Jim Carrey Exits (“Alex Moffat became the latest ‘S.N.L.’ cast member to portray Biden, following Carrey’s announcement that he was stepping down from the role.”)
- Rupert Murdoch Gets COVID-19 Shot While Profiting Off Vaccine Misinformation
- GOP lawmakers are showing up more frequently on Newsmax (Republicans just keep getting more and more extremist.)
- Tucker Carlson’s vaccine rant should be called out by every reputable news organization
- Fox Airs Segment Debunking Voter Fraud Claims After Legal Threat From Smartmatic (Good, keep suing these f***ers.)
- Only 1 Republican in Virginia’s congressional delegation recognizes Biden as next president (Yep, that’s been the case for days now.)
- Senator Amanda Chase Is What the Next Frontier of GOP Lunacy Looks Like (“She texts with Boogaloos. Her QAnon-linked “security” pals were busted with guns en route to a Philly vote-count. Now she’s running for governor.”)
- Editorial: Room for optimism as state budget takes shape (“Virginia appears in decent fiscal shape as state budget debate takes shape, though lawmakers must still exercise restraint.” Why the constant calls for “restraint,” whatever that means, during the middle of a pandemic, where many Virginians are in severely hurting?)
- Saturday (12/19) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +3,584 Confirmed/Probable Cases (to 302,972), +140 Hospitalizations (to 16,824), +45 Deaths (to 4,643)
- Far-Right Virginia Delegate Shares Post Railing Against a Supposed “engineered tyrannical coup d’état” Against Trump (Delegate’s post also argues: “the anger of millions of armed Americans is being stoked to stratospherically dangerous levels”)
- Top 100 Most-Viewed Blue Virginia Posts of 2020
- Virginia enrolled 45,000 fewer students this fall, but Northam’s budget protects funding for schools
- Strain on hospitals intensifies in Virginia; VCU Health deploys surge capacity plans
- Opinion: Honoring Barbara Johns amplifies an important Virginia story (Yes, but…why is Gordon Morse still writing for the Daily Press editorial page after this scandal, in which Morse wrote unsigned, pro-Dominion editorials despite starting “an ongoing, part-time speechwriting contract with Dominion Energy in 2006, according to a spokesperson for that company?” Also, why haven’t the Daily Press or Virginian Pilot addressed said scandal?)
- Video: With Special Election in Just 17 Days, Candi King Kicks Off Her HD02 Campaign
- A.E. Dick Howard column: Virginia’s 1902 Constitution: The era of disenfranchisement
- Fairfax firefighters routinely denied workers’ comp after coronavirus infections, union says
- Former Va. House of Delegates candidate facing charges after alleged abduction of Fresno 12-year-old girl (“In a national and multi-agency investigation, Fresno County Sheriff’s Department announced that 40-year-old Nathan Daniel Larson of Catlett, Virginia, was arrested and facing a misdemeanor charge of harboring a minor. He is currently in Denver County Jail.”)
- Virginia Man Arrested in ‘Extremely Disturbing’ Abduction of 12-Year-Old California Girl (“Nathan Daniel Larson of Catlett, Virginia, is a known white supremacist and advocate for pedophilia, authorities say”)
- Foul play ruled out in Fairfax Co. collapsed trench that left 1 dead
- Fight for Washington N.F.L. Team May Tighten Owner’s Grip on It (“Washington’s owner, Daniel Snyder, is working to buy out three minority partners, including one he has accused of running a smear campaign against him.”)
- Not as cold the next few days with a few flakes possible; looking stormy Christmas Eve into Christmas Day
