Friday News: “Trump’s desperate attempt to save his imploding presidency”; “Bring the Insurrectionists to Justice”; “[Social Media] Platforms Must Pay for Their Role in the Insurrection”; “From Charlottesville to the Capitol: how rightwing impunity fueled the pro-Trump mob”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, January 8.

• What Trump and His Mob Taught the World About America
• Israel’s Covid vaccine rollout is the fastest in the world. Here are some lessons for the rest of us (“Priority has been given to people aged over 60, health care workers and anyone clinically vulnerable — reported to make up around a quarter of its 9 million population.”)
• Putin Gleeful After Trumpsters’ Violent Insurrection
• Saudi Arabia’s ruler is desperate to appease Biden. He hasn’t done enough.
• A demagogue, a mob and the Sedition Caucus (“The very worst in America.”)
• Seditious Republicans must be held accountable (“There must be consequences.”)
• The Capitol Riot Crystalizes 4 Years Of American Decline (“Can Biden repair Trump’s damage?”)
• The Most Reliable Pandemic Number Keeps Getting Worse (“America reported a record number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the first week of 2021.”)
• The Capitol Riot Was an Attack on Multiracial Democracy
• Bring the Insurrectionists to Justice (By conservative Peggy Noonan.)
• Pentagon put significant restrictions on D.C. Guard ahead of pro-Trump protests (That needs to be investigated and prosecuted.)
• After Months of Lies and an Insurrection, Trump Finally Concedes: Live Updates
• Trump finally concedes Biden will become president (He should have done this as soon as the election was called. Instead, he dragged us all through weeks of anxiety and violence. F*** HIM!)
• Appeasement Got Us Where We Are (“It’s time to stand up to the fascists among us.”)
• To heal America, we must repudiate not just Trump but also his politics of demonization
• US Capitol Police officer has died following pro-Trump riot (Horrible – condolences to his family.)
• Calls grow to remove Trump as he acknowledges ‘new administration’ (“Trump promises smooth transfer of power in video message” Of course, every word this guy says is a lie, so take that with a HUGE pillar of salt.)
• Capitol Police rejected offers of federal help to quell mob
• The Capitol Invaders Enjoyed the Privilege of Not Being Taken Seriously
• Capitol Attack Leads Democrats to Demand That Trump Leave Office
• Georgia just delivered Democrats their most powerful weapon (“Control of the Senate will allow the party to deploy budget reconciliation and sidestep Republican filibusters.” Do it!)
• Tarnished by Trump: National security officials struggle to find new jobs
• Running Out the Clock on Trump Is Cowardly and Dangerous (“Forget the 25th Amendment. It’s Congress that was attacked and Congress that needs to act.”)
• Democrats inch toward second Trump impeachment after Capitol siege
• Trump finally concedes in desperate attempt to avoid impeachment
• Can Donald Trump Survive ‘Virtual Impeachment’? (“Stripped of his most powerful social media weapons, the president faces an existential crisis at a moment of maximum peril.”)
• Justice Department warns of national security fallout from Capitol Hill insurrection
• What went wrong with the protection of the U.S. Capitol
• Donald Trump’s Final Days(“The best outcome would be for him to resign to spare the U.S. another impeachment fight.” Wow, this is the hard-right Wall St. Journal editorial board?!?)
• Top Trump advisers discuss need to resist dangerous, unlawful orders
• After Riot, Business Leaders Reckon With Their Support for Trump (Anyone who supported Trump sucks.)
• As calls for impeachment grow, Trump condemns mob he incited and reverses position on election loss (“The video statement, though riddled with falsehoods, was a stark shift for a president who had told rioters ‘We love you'”)
• More than 200 lawmakers support removing Trump from office
• House Democrats eye quick impeachment vote if Pence rebuffs attempt to remove Trump from office (Do it today!)
• SCOOP: Pence opposes 25th Amendment efforts to remove Trump following Capitol riot, VP advisors tell Insider
• Democrats vow to deliver $2K checks with control of Senate
• Republican senators now regret not doing more to contain Trump (They’re just now figuring this out?!? Duuuuuuhhhhh…)
• GOP Insiders Are Finally ‘Fed Up’ With Trump (I repeat: Duuuuuhhhh….)
• Pompeo, Mnuchin among Cabinet secretaries who discussed 25th Amendment with staff, sources say
• Trump Officials Rush to Keep Him From Sparking Another Conflict—at Home or Abroad (IF this psycho’s gonna stay president for 12 more days, he needs to be neutered in terms of his powers, with nobody listening to any orders he gives.)
• A Self-Pardon Won’t Save Trump (“The idea might sound good on paper, but in the real world it could backfire.”)
• Trump Prepares Pardon List for Aides and Family, and Maybe Himself (This is a massive abuse of the pardon power and shouldn’t be allowed.)
• Trump’s desperate attempt to save his imploding presidency
• The Capitol Hill Building Rioters Included White Supremacists and Conspiracy Theorists (It seems like that was most of them.)
• How Capitol Police were overrun in ‘monumental’ security failure (“Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund planned to resign and lawmakers vowed to investigate the storming of the Capitol. Late on Thursday, an officer died of injuries he sustained while confronting rioters.”)
• After inciting mob attack, Trump retreats in rage. Then, grudgingly, he admits his loss. (Trump badly needs psychological help…therapy and medications, big time.)
• Michael Cohen: I’m Certain That Trump Is Psychotic Right Now (No question; Trump’s world is crumbling and he’s completely lost his already-f’ed-up mind. And to think that 74 MILLION Americans voted for this psycho???)
• Trump’s failures this week open rifts in a Republican Party he has controlled
• Republicans warned this day would come. Then they forgot
• Republicans Splinter Over Whether to Make a Full Break From Trump (The fact that this is even a QUESTION tells you what you need to know about the GOP.)
• Haley criticizes Trump over Capitol riot, election claims in RNC speech
• The Only Strategy Left for Democrats (“After this week, the mandate is clear: Make people’s lives better. And stop trying to placate Republicans.”)
• ‘I Stepped Down Because I Saw Where This Was Heading’ (“Alyssa Farah resigned in early December as White House communications director, a position she landed after a series of roles working under some of the most conservative figures in national politics”)
• Could the Capitol Riot Become a Superspreader Event?
• Trump staffers are worrying about their next job (Get out the tiny violin?)
• What Criminal Charges May Await the Capitol Mob—and the Politicians Who Incited It (“‘I would look carefully at terroristic crimes,’ says one former prosecutor.”)
• Here come the consequences for the Capitol insurrectionists (“How law enforcement and internet detectives are identifying the Capitol rioters.”)
• Schumer Faces Impatient Left, Divided Right in New Senate Role
• Biden decries Trump mob: ‘Don’t call them protesters. They were domestic terrorists’ (Any journalist calling them “demonstrators” or whatever really needs to reconsider their choice of vocation.)
• On Far-Right Websites, Plans To Storm Capitol Were Made In Plain Sight (Also on Facebook. Time to massively rein in that company, if not completely break it up.)
• Allies Abandoning Trump (“Trump’s education and transportation secretaries were among officials who announced they were leaving in the wake of pro-Trump supporters breaching the Capitol”)
• Betsy DeVos Resigns, Citing Trump’s ‘Rhetoric’ in Capitol Riot (“Education secretary had been a longtime supporter of president; She is the second cabinet-level official to quit after Chao”
• Citing the American Revolution, Rush Limbaugh implicitly endorses political violence (Limbaugh is definitely one of the most evil people in America, possibly in all of American history.)
• Tucker Carlson: BLM activists are “thugs,” insurrectionists are merely protecting their rights (This guy’s a full-out fascist.)
• Fox News’ validation of the insurrectionist mob makes it more likely it will strike again (Seriously, is it possible to rein in Fox, within First Amendment free speech guarantees? That network is basically the equivalent of yelling FIRE, over and over again, in crowded theaters. Is that actually protected speech?)
• Now It Can Be Told: How Neil Sheehan Got the Pentagon Papers (“It was a story he had chosen not to tell — until 2015, when he sat for a four-hour interview, promised that this account would not be published while he was alive.”)
• It’s time to invoke the 25th Amendment. Trump needs to be held accountable. (“It is not enough to merely hope for a peaceful transition or that Wednesday’s events will be the last attack, writes the president and chief executive of the National Association of Manufacturers.”)
• From Charlottesville to the Capitol: how rightwing impunity fueled the pro-Trump mob
• ‘In a Dark Place’: Before Condemning Violence, Trump Spent Day Increasingly Isolated and Angry
• People at the US Capitol riot are being identified and losing their jobs (Good, now throw every single one of them in prison for a long time.)
• Believe what you saw. With all this country’s white grievance, it was inevitable. (“Until it is brought under control, the ideology that fueled the storming of our Capitol will pose a continued threat.”)
• Great damage’: Republicans recoil from Missouri Sen. Hawley
• Coons calls on Cruz and Hawley to resign (No question, neither of those fascists has any business being in the U.S. Senate.)
• Hawley should resign. Silent enablers must now publicly condemn Trumpism. (By the St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• Major Josh Hawley donor calls for him to be censured by the U.S. Senate
• Danforth calls his support of Hawley the ‘worst mistake’ of his life (No doubt, Hawley is the absolute dregs, along with Ted Cruz and a few others.)
• Simon & Schuster Cancels Plans for Senator Hawley’s Book
• Chicago Police Union President Defends Those Who Stormed The U.S. Capitol (100% unacceptable.)
• ‘This is going to come back and bite ‘em’: Capitol breach inflames Democrats’ ire at Silicon Valley (It’s long past time to take direct aim at Facebook, etc. and seriously rein those f***ers in. Their current business model poses a serious threat to our society and democracy.)
• Platforms Must Pay for Their Role in the Insurrection (“Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have spent years fomenting and enabling yesterday’s violence at the Capitol”)
• Social media is finally pulling the plug on Trump. We still must fight the lies. (Way too little, way too late. Democrats need to take serious action against Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• ‘One small act of compassion in Tommy’s honor’: Kind deeds follow the death of Rep. Raskin’s son (“People are signing up to fulfill Tommy’s final wish by doing good deeds, large and small, in his name.”)
• Video: Sen. Mark Warner Says Senior FBI Officials Repeatedly Reassured Him That They Were Prepared For Yesterday’s Threat – “They Were Flat Wrong”
• Sen. Tim Kaine: “The sun is up on a new day. But there must be accountability for yesterday.” That Includes the 25th Amendment or Congress Voting Trump Out.
• Sen. Tim Kaine: “The attack on the Capitol was an attack on all Americans…[We] must stand together if we are to restore our democracy.” (Yesterday, “goaded” by Trump, “right-wing insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol”)
• Divide deepens in Virginia GOP as Democrats renew calls for Trump’s early ouster
• Yes Virginia, four of your congressmen voted to overturn the will of voters (They are seditionists and have no business holding public office. Ever. Period.)
• Virginia lawmakers call for Trump to be removed from power now, saying the president supported ‘domestic terrorism’ (And then try him for sedition and treason, among other things.)
• SW Virginia Dem Committees Call Upon Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA06), Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA09) to “Immediately Resign” After Failing to Uphold Their Oaths of Office
• Virginia NAACP: “Representatives Ben Cline, Bob Good, Morgan Griffith, and Robert Wittman…must directly respond to the Black Virginians they represent”
• Virginia Democrats in House, Senate join calls for Trump’s removal
• Two Virginia Republicans Defend Their Votes on Electoral College Objections (Indefensible. Just STFU.)
• Atlantic Coast Pipeline details plans for officially wrapping up canceled project (It’s long past time for the Mountain Valley Pipeline to be cancelled as well.)
• Virginia health facilities were tipped off to COVID-19 inspections in advance, state inspector general says
• Gov. Northam’s Key Budget Policy Choices: Proposed Amendments to the 2020-2022 Budget
• Thursday (1/7) Virginia Data on COVID-19: New Cases Hit 2-Day, 3-Day, 10-Day Record Highs; Hospitalizations Hit Record High of 3,000
• Editorial: There is no time for calm. Virginia must improve its COVID-19 vaccine capabilities.
• Amanda Chase Supports Rioters over Police (This is particularly striking because it is by hard-right Republican Mick Staton, who is the son in law of FAR-right Republican former Sen. Dick Black)
• ’The sooner he is out, the better’ tweets Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on President Trump
• Large Coalition of Fairfax County Legislators Join House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn in Endorsing Terry McAuliffe for Governor
• Hunter Mill (Fairfax County) Democratic Committee Straw Polls: Jennifer Carroll Foy and Jennifer McClellan Tied for Lead in Governor’s Race; Sam Rasoul Leading for LG; Mark Herring Leading AG Race
• Does Virginia Need a Right-to-Work Law? State Lawmakers Will Have to Decide (Nope, get rid of it.)
• Local activists not surprised by siege of Capitol
• Richmond judge Cavedo and former Senate candidate Gade settle defamation suit; Gade retracts statements
• Levar M. Stoney column: City of Richmond and Virginia needs for COVID-19 Relief Fund won’t end in 2021
• Transgender Homeless People Struggle to Find Shelter in Richmond. This Bill Would Help.
• Studies Out of VT Predict Hotter Mountains & Wetter Coasts
• UVA Hosts Democracy Dialogues After Extremists Invade the Capitol
• Chillier and mostly cloudy with wintry mix showers possible today