by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, December 24.
- How the U.S. Misread China’s Xi: Hoping for a Globalist, It Got an Autocrat
- Pompeo Weighs Genocide Designation for China
- U.K., EU Set to Announce Brexit Trade Deal After Compromise
- On cusp of Brexit trade deal, EU and UK haggle over fish
- Rocket Attack on U.S. Embassy in Baghdad Largest in a Decade, General Says
- The World’s Most Loathed Industry Gave Us a Vaccine in Record Time
- ‘Our blood is cheaper than water’: anger in Iraq over Trump pardons
- Blackwater’s Bullets Scarred Iraqis. Trump’s Pardon Renewed the Pain.
- New Virus Strain’s Transmissibility to Cause More Deaths: Study
- Special Report-How a British COVID-19 vaccine went from pole position to troubled start
- The U.S. has vaccinated just 1 million people out of a goal of 20 million for December (That’s not gonna cut it.)
- White House coronavirus task force no longer proactively sending reports to states
- If Trump Really Wants to Kill the Relief Bill, Congress Can’t Stop Him (Yet another stupid aspect of our system…the “pocket veto”)
- Trump’s attack on Covid relief bill could lead to government shutdown, lapse in unemployment aid
- McConnell, GOP Face Double Split With Trump Over Relief, Defense
- House Democrats will try to pass $2,000 stimulus checks after Trump voices support
- Trump’s Pardons Make the Unimaginable Real (“He may now attempt what no one thought a president would ever try.”)
- The Triumph of Kleptocracy (“With Donald Trump’s pardon of Paul Manafort, kleptocracy has successfully waited out its enemies.”)
- With His Pardons of Stone and Manafort, Trump Completes His Cover-Up (“These acts don’t just protect his former aides; they protect Trump.”)
- Trump Completes Russiagate Cover-up by Pardoning Paul Manafort (“Still not a hoax”)
- Trump Gives Clemency to More Allies, Including Manafort, Stone and Charles Kushner (Massive abuse of the pardon power.)
- The Treasonous Pardon of Paul Manafort (“Trump, Russia, and the swamp won. America lost. — For four years we’ve been force-fed the preposterous dual notions that Donald Trump intended to ‘drain the swamp’ and that any suggestion his campaign colluded with Russia in its interference in the 2016 election was a media hoax.”)
- Trump vowed to drain the swamp. Then he granted clemency to three former congressmen convicted of federal crimes.
- Trump’s Very Swampy Pardon of a Ben Carson Crony
- ‘Complete clusterf—’: Trump leaves Washington in limbo
- Republicans scramble to prevent year-end legislative disaster
- Trump Corrupted the Presidential Pardon. Biden Must Repair It. (“There are clear ways to reform the pardon process to work as the founders intended.”)
- The President*’s Rage and Lust for Vengeance Will Not Be Contained
- A President Unhappy, Unleashed and Unpredictable
- Trump’s last-minute outburst throws pandemic relief effort into chaos
- Republicans just voted to defund the police
- Trump is trashing the government on his way out. Biden is confident he can fix it.
- Trump grows more erratic with final days of presidency in sight (“The President is wielding his executive powers with rancorous effect as he desperately seeks to grasp hold of the spotlight”)
- Trump may be fading faster than you think (“Republicans need to think beyond January.”)
- Pence Should Remove Trump From Office on Sunday (Sure, but Pence doesn’t have any principles or balls.)
- How Trump’s pardons could get even more bizarre
- This Steaming Pile of Filthy Pardons Stinks Just Like Trump (“Finally, Trump has found a presidential power that suits his authoritarian predilections: unfettered, unaccountable, descended from kings.”)
- Inside Trump and Barr’s Last-Minute Killing Spree
- ‘This Is Just What Jared Does’: Kushner Bails on Trump’s Mission to Destroy the 2020 Election (“The president’s son-in-law has developed a reputation in Trumpland for being conspicuously absent when things turn rocky.”)
- Giuliani told to preserve all records as lawyers for Dominion warn legal action is ‘imminent’
- The president and Congress need to fix their relationship
- No president has ever misused the pardon power as thoroughly as Trump has
- Erik Prince Now Owes the President* a Favor
- Tensions intensify between Biden and Pentagon over stalled transition briefings
- Biden team’s multibillion-dollar school testing plan takes shape (“The proposal under consideration calls for the federal government to cover the cost of providing tests to K-12 schools throughout the country.”)
- Biden Declares Political Center Alive and Well (Hmmmm…)
- Black Doctor Dies of Covid-19 After Complaining of Racist Treatment
- Will Renewables Finish Ahead of Coal in 2020?
- Has Donald Trump finally split the Republican party? (“With only a few more weeks before Biden takes over, significant segments of the party are finally breaking with the president”)
- Biden insists he’s ready for a ‘punch in the mouth’ from Republicans
- A conversation with Joe Biden: Realism meets unbridled optimism
- EXCLUSIVE: A deputy to Eric Trump helped build a campaign shell company to protect the president from grift.
- No One Knows How to Get Trump to Leave the White House in January (“The Secret Service reportedly doesn’t have a plan if an outgoing president refuses to budge, while White House staffers are getting mixed signals about their own departures next month.”)
- Twitter Will Reset @POTUS Account To 0 Followers After Biden Transition (Why?)
- Ghislaine Maxwell wanted to divorce husband ‘to protect him’, lawyers say (“Maxwell’s lawyers have asked for her release on a $28.5m bail package, and pointed to her marriage as a reason she wouldn’t flee”)
- Trump attorneys risk disciplinary action over wave of election suits (Disciplinary action should have happened already.)
- Oops! Trump stomps all over David Perdue’s dishonest TV messaging
- Trump’s call for $2K checks puts squeeze on Georgia GOP senators (“Now, pressure is on Loeffler and Perdue to back Trump after the two candidates touted their support for the relief aid and accused Democrats of obstructing a deal. Their Democratic opponents were quick to endorse Trump’s call for more aid.”)
- Georgia elections chief seeks to end no-excuse absentee voting (That, of course, is an attempt at voter suppression.)
- Activist posing as Smithfield CEO hoaxes Fox’s Maria Bartiromo (“It was a halting imitation of a big-time CEO, but Matt Johnson pulled it off.”)
- What happened to Maria Bartiromo?
- Fox News management failures invited legal threat from Smartmatic
- Andrew Yang Files Paperwork to Run for New York City Mayor
- Warner: ‘I look forward’ to overriding Trump’s veto of defense bill partly over Confederacy issue (“The state’s senior senator said the president is playing a ‘unconscioable’ political game with the nation’s military by sending the bill back”)
- Kaine, Warner respond to Trump’s veto of defense bill
- Trump Cult Member, Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA06), Voted YES on Massive Federal COVID-19 Relief/Appropriations Bill Monday Night; Immediately and Obediently Flips When Trump Changes Position
- George Allen’s Former Chief of Staff: “This photo is for all those who have said COVID is a hoax” (Jay Timmons: “While screaming about liberty and individual rights, here is what you have stolen from our family, and what you are stealing from others”)
- Jaime Harrison’s Dirt Road PAC Partners With DPVA To Launch Voter Registration Effort Ahead Of Virginia’s 2021 Election
- Lawmakers propose fixes for Virginia’s beleaguered unemployment insurance program
- Northam orders backlogged unemployment claims to be paid, offers payroll tax relief
- Wednesday (12/23) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds Highest 1-Day and 3-Day New Case Totals; Highest Hospitalizations
- A Virginia judge reconsiders the portraits of judges — virtually all White — lining his courtroom walls
- Pandemic intensifies paid sick leave debate in Virginia as new session draws near
- ICU Beds Filling Up Nationally; How Do Virginia’s ICUs Look?
- Schapiro: For Northam, a Christmas without peer (Pretty funny in parts, but this is just flat-out false: “They’d be running first in independently drawn seats they tried killing via Twitter.”)
- New Report Suggests a Long Recovery from COVID-19 Ahead for Virginia
- More than 4,600 new coronavirus cases reported in Virginia, setting new record
- First Richmond-area health workers receive Moderna vaccine, Virginia sees highest daily number of new COVID-19 cases yet
- Appalachian Power says customers aren’t in danger of disconnection, despite notices
- Appealing Bad Rulings (“Lawmakers to consider expanding appeals court, providing new oversight and scrutiny to judges”)
- Eagles Imperiled in Virginia (“Basically what happens is when a hunter is hunting, the lead fragments into tons and tons of little pieces, and even a fragment the size of a grain of rice would be enough to kill an eagle”)
- Richmond, Henrico Health Districts Hold First COVID-19 Vaccine Event
- ‘This happens all the time’: Innocent man handcuffed, detained by Virginia Beach police speaks out
- Whatever happened to: Roanoke-area food banks are recovering from early pandemic stresses
- Warm and wet today, stormy and windy tonight and bitter cold on Christmas Day
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