Friday News: “Big Oil Faces A Reckoning Decades In The Making”; “Biden Set to Unveil $6 Trillion Spending, Infrastructure Plan”; “Fox Corp. Board Member Paul Ryan Unironically Urges Republicans To Reject Trump”; “Whatever Republicans are doing, it isn’t working”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, May 28.

• It’s getting more likely the world will reach a climate tipping point in the next five years
• Climate tipping point? ExxonMobil’s shareholder revolt and the end of the line for fossil fuels (“ExxonMobil shareholders fight back in a stunning week that makes clear the market for fossil fuels is winding down” Good – ditch fossil fuels ASAP, on an emergency basis!)
• Big Oil Faces A Reckoning Decades In The Making (They should face massive civil cases, as well as possible criminal charges.)
• A Big Climate Problem With Few Easy Solutions: Planes
• Why Big Oil should be worried after a day of reckoning
• Climate change is erasing ‘flammability barrier’ that protects high-elevation forests (Huge problem. Ditch fossil fuels as rapidly as possible.)
• Germany officially recognises colonial-era Namibia genocide
• Jane Goodall: If We Don’t Make Peace With Nature, Expect More Deadly Pandemics (“The famed primatologist spent the quarantine broadcasting to the world about the threat of climate change, zoonotic disease and biodiversity loss.”)
• Isolation Pushes Belarus’s Lukashenko Closer to Russia’s Putin
• Syria’s Assad wins 4th term with 95% of vote, in election the West calls fraudulent (Complete sham.)
• Biden’s announcement is the beginning, not the end, of a real covid origin investigation
• U.S. Is Said to Have Unexamined Intelligence to Pore Over on Virus Origins
• Trump’s Supporters Are Getting the Lab-Leak Story Backwards (They get everything backwards.)
• Brazil aerial photos show miners’ devastation of indigenous people’s land (Horrific. Bolsonaro, of course, is evil.)
• Russia Appears to Carry Out Hack Through System Used by U.S. Aid Agency
• Number of smokers has reached all-time high of 1.1 billion, study finds
• US tells Russia it won’t rejoin Open Skies arms control pact
• Microsoft says group behind SolarWinds hack now targeting government agencies, NGOs
• Prosecutors Investigating Whether Ukrainians Meddled in 2020 Election
• Europe’s ports will need $7.9 billion of investment to support offshore wind expansion, report says
• Exclusive: Evictions of Palestinians could spark further conflict, Blinken warns
• Nasa’s Mars helicopter goes on ‘stressful’ wild flight after malfunction (“Problem with camera-based navigation system saw helicopter wobble through the air in biggest tech issue Ingenuity has faced”)
• A To-Do List for the New Climate Activists on Exxon’s Board
• The Economy Is Spinning Its Wheels, and About to Take Off
• The U.S. May Never Hit the Herd Immunity Threshold. That’s OK.
• U.S. scientists expand efforts to determine when booster shots will be needed
• As Coronavirus Cases Wane, U.S. Looks Forward to a More Normal Summer
• GOP snag complicates Schumer’s China bill — again
• Robust Spending Likely Propelling Economy to Stronger Growth
• White House to propose $6 trillion budget plan in bid to reshape safety net, economy (“The budget is expected to underscore the scale of the Biden administration’s spending ambitions.”)
• Biden Set to Unveil $6 Trillion Spending, Infrastructure Plan
• Biden goes on offensive against economic critics, argues rising wages show his agenda is working
• Sicknick’s family and officers on duty Jan. 6 plead with GOP senators to back investigation
• Sen. Lisa Murkowski Says Mitch McConnell Is Blocking Jan. 6 Commission For Political Gain
• Murkowski voices frustration with GOP over Jan. 6 commission: ‘Something bad happened’
• Mitch McConnell’s Gift to Progressives (“For Democrats who want to scrap the Senate filibuster, the GOP’s move to block a January 6 commission is the perfect fight.”)
• First on CNN: Former DHS secretaries tell Senate to ‘put politics aside’ and support January 6 commission
• Mitch McConnell Saw the Insurrection Clearly and Then Decided He Liked It
• The GOP’s opposition to the Jan. 6 commission is a gift to Democrats (“Never interfere when your opponent is self-destructing.”)
• McConnell doubles down to pressure Republicans, asking for ‘a personal favor’ to block January 6 commission
• Are Democrats sleepwalking toward democratic collapse? (“I’m not sure people appreciate how much danger we’re in.”)
• American Democracy Isn’t Dead Yet, but It’s Getting There (“A country that cannot even agree to investigate an assault on its Capitol is in big trouble, indeed.”)
• Election-deniers are running for a key role in swing states. It could lead to a scary 2024.
• Whatever Republicans are doing, it isn’t working (“This is no way to win elections.”)
• Can Democrats avoid the pitfalls of 2020? A new analysis offers striking answers.
• Republicans want mini-Trumps in 2022? Democrats would be delighted. (“Republicans in the right-wing bubble may self-destruct.”)
• Biden’s list shaming GOP lawmakers draws laughter from the crowd
• Biden mocks Republicans for promoting recovery plan they voted against
• Bipartisanship is overrated, especially with these Republicans (“It’s time bipartisanship fetishists in Congress and the White House woke up to reality: This version of the GOP is never going to work with them on anything.”)
• How Long Will Joe Manchin Keep Believing the Senate Can Work?
• Here’s Where Wind and Solar Power Need to Grow in America
• When it comes to knowing U.S. history, we should all be ‘woke’
• Republicans Create the Doubts, Then They ‘Investigate’ Them (Republicans also create the problems, then they blame Democrats for trying to fix them, and try to block them from doing so.)
• Revealed: majority of people charged in Capitol attack aren’t in jail (White privilege strikes again.)
• The Pandemic of Anti-Semitism — Jew-hatred is wrong whether it comes from neo-Nazis or left-wing activists.
• Pollster Frank Luntz concealed his work for GOP in 2020 L.A. Times op-ed: Will media ever learn? (“Luntz embarrasses another media outlet by not revealing who’s paying him. Why do they keep falling for his act?”)
• Facebook Is Giving the Green Light to Unsupported COVID Origin Theories (Facebook is a really bad joke.)
• Facebook Is Resuming Political Contributions — But Not To Lawmakers Who Voted Against Certifying The US Election
• Fox Corp. Board Member Paul Ryan Unironically Urges Republicans To Reject Trump (Ryan is ridiculous.)
• Paul Ryan enters GOP’s civil war by criticizing Trump’s hold on party
• The power of Trump drowns out Paul Ryan (“The former House Speaker wrestled with what the GOP should stand for in a Thursday speech. But Senate Republicans are answering for him.”)
• Former House Speaker Paul Ryan urges GOP to return to Reaganism, end Trump fixation
• Paul Ryan Critiques Trump’s Grip on the Republican Party
• QAnon Now as Popular in U.S. as Some Major Religions, Poll Suggests (There are so many people in this country who display disordered, irrational thinking patterns…)
• Trump appointee on West Point Board spreads conspiracy that Biden is replacing White people of European ancestry (Fire him immediately.)
• BLM’s Patrisse Cullors to step down from movement foundation
• The New York Mayoral Election Is No Longer Andrew Yang’s To Lose (“After spending much of the race as the first choice of at least 20 percent — sometimes even 30 percent — of voters, Yang has fallen back into the teens and is roughly tied with Adams … and with Garcia, who is now polling in the double digits even according to a Yang internal poll”)
• Rep. Matt Gaetz eyes presidential run in 2024
• Idaho lieutenant governor signs ban on mask mandates while governor is out of state (So stupid.)
• Sen. Kaine introduces bill to help lower mortality rates for women of color
• House veterans committee leaders push to reform disability claims process for exposure to toxic substances (“‘We have to do more for these veterans,’ said Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Norfolk, who is chair of the committee’s disability assistance subcommittee and one of the sponsors of the bill.”)
• Opinion/Editorial: With Warner’s death, Virginia loses a statesman
• Editorial: Warner “had the touch”
• By a Nearly 2:1 Margin, Voters In Classic “Swing”/”Purple” VA07 Support the American Jobs Plan, Including Core Components Such as Transition to 100% Clean Energy (VA07 “voters express overwhelming support for a broad set of core components of the American Jobs Plan.”)
• New Numbers Continue To Show A Strong COVID Recovery Thanks To Democrats (Meanwhile, Glenn Youngkin’s willing to “look Virginians in the eye and say the aid helping them make rent and get back to work is ‘unnecessary’”)
• In Virginia, waning concerns about pandemic may mean less demand for early voting (“Starting this weekend, walk-in sites across the state will have Saturday hours and many localities will open new sites or expand weekday hours.”)
• Jennifer McClellan Announces Plan to Equitably Rebuild Health Care System
• FWIW Virginia: With 12 Days Until the 6/8 Dem Primary, McAuliffe Dominates Digital Media Spending (For LG, “Del. Sam Rasoul has the largest digital operation by far – his campaign started investing early and often on Facebook and Google, spending over 3x on the platforms as the rest of the field combined.”)
• New Report: Glenn Youngkin Opposes LGBTQ Equality in Virginia (“Youngkin does not believe in a Virginia where everyone can live, work, and raise a family without being discriminated against for who they are”)
• Virginia Is Lifting Gathering Restrictions Ahead of Memorial Day Weekend (“After over a year of social distancing, masking and avoiding crowds, Virginia will lift its ‘Commonsense’ public health restrictions Friday morning. That includes all remaining state-mandated distancing and gathering rules.”)
• Thursday (5/27) Virginia Data on COVID-19: Hospitalizations, 10-Day New COVID Cases Near Lowest Points Since Early in Pandemic
• Election officials begin $20-29M project to replace Virginia’s voter system
• Do you believe us now?
• Editorial: We know Rasoul better than any other newspaper in Virginia. Here’s what we know about him.
• Collaboration or confrontation? First CRB task force meeting with Richmond police chief runs gamut
• Virginia could see 61% increase in travel over Memorial Day weekend, AAA says
• 2 charged in fatal double shooting in Springfield were co-workers of victims’ relative
• Police arrest two men in slayings of Va. husband and wife who were Army colonels (“Police said one of the men worked with a relative of the victims.”)
• Virginia Beach will appeal court ruling that deemed its voting system illegal and discriminatory
• D.C.-area forecast: Heavy showers later today and into tonight, with some strong storms possible