Friday News: “Big Oil’s increasing number of climate lawsuits draws parallels to Big Tobacco”; Biden claims bipartisan win with deal on infrastructure”; “Conservatives think they’ve found their new tea party” with “Critical Race Theory”; “Giuliani melts down about the suspension of his law license”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, June 25.

• First COVID-19 case could have emerged in China in Oct 2019 – study
• Fractious EU summit rejects Franco-German plan for Putin talks (“Bloc to explore sanctions instead, as gathering also holds ‘emotional’ debate over Hungary’s LGBT laws”)
• Belarus moves opposition blogger and girlfriend to house arrest
• The UK’s Covid vaccine program and delta surge means it’s now a test case for the world
• Global LNG Industry Reeling as its Image as a Climate Solution Shifts to ‘Climate Problem’ (This industry is a disaster.)
• Big Oil’s increasing number of climate lawsuits draws parallels to Big Tobacco (“Since the turn of the century, more than 2,000 climate litigation cases were found to have been filed in a trend that is widely expected to have global implications for carbon-intensive companies. Analysts believe this is merely scratching the surface of what is to be expected in the future — drawing parallels to the so-called tobacco trials of the 1950s and 1960s.”)
• North Sea Donors Gave Tories £420k as Government Considered Oil Industry’s Fate
• ‘Massive’ Methane Leaks Found Coming From Oil and Gas Sites in Europe (And that’s a massive problem!)
• Inside Clean Energy: From Sweden, a Potential Breakthrough for Clean Steel (“A Swedish partnership is cheering a milestone in its quest to make steel in a way that sharply reduces emissions.”)
• Brazil’s inquiry into Covid disaster suggests Bolsonaro committed ‘crimes against life’ (“Televised congressional investigation looks at political decisions that lead to crisis that has killed half a million”)
• The mRNA Vaccines Are Extraordinary, but Novavax Is Even Better (“The latest Novavax data confirm that it’s possible to achieve the same efficacy against COVID-19 with a more familiar technology that more people may be inclined to trust…The Novavax vaccine also has a substantially lower rate of side effects than the authorized mRNA vaccines.”)
• Biden says he is testing Putin. The answer will come in Syria.
• Japan proposes four-day workweek as idea gains purchase amid pandemic
• Doubts about China’s transparency on the pandemic origins are piling up
• Nearly all COVID deaths in US are now among unvaccinated (The unvaccinated are endangering themselves and everyone else. And for what reason?!?)
• Stock Futures Point to Best Week Since April for S&P 500 (Remember how Trump said if Biden was elected, the stock market would collapse? LOL)
• Economics in a Post-Truth Nation (“:Overall, we’re clearly in a much better place economically than we were just a few months ago. Yet according to the long-running University of Michigan survey of consumers, on average self-identified Republicans assess the economic situation much less positively now than they did before the 2020 elections.” As usual, Republicans are living in a bizarre, fact-free, right-wing echo chamber disconnected from reality.)
• Biden claims bipartisan win with deal on infrastructure (“If it passes congressional muster, it would be a significant cross-party achievement and a top goal of his administration.”)
• Biden Takes a Bow (“Finally, Infrastructure Week is for real—and bipartisanship lives!”)
• Wall Street Sees Big Wish Granted in Biden’s Infrastructure Deal
• ‘We have a deal’: Biden announces infrastructure agreement
• FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces Support for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework
• Biden says he won’t sign bipartisan bill without reconciliation bill
• Biden whisperer, longtime Washington lobbyist helps secure breakthrough in infrastructure talks
• Biden’s Infrastructure Win Ramps Up Fight Over Economic Agenda
• Infrastructure Deal Is a Win for Roads, and No Tax Hikes
• Republicans’ strategies are failing. And they don’t seem to know it. (“In sum, Biden is sailing along on the strength of his response to the pandemic. Republicans are spinning their wheels with laughably fake audits and baseless assertions of a stolen election (in which many of them were elected or reelected). They resort to race-baiting with the scary-sounding critical race theory, only to be slapped down by the highest-ranking military officer in the country. Maybe they should try something new — like offering real solutions for real problems.”)
• Biden gave a powerful eulogy for John Warner — and indicted today’s GOP in the process
• ‘We can find common ground’: Biden’s faith in bipartisanship is rewarded — at least for now
• Joe Biden Is Confirming Judges Faster Than Decades Of Past Presidents
• Biden’s biggest anti-poverty plan is about to launch. He can make it even better. (“The expanded child tax credit should be easy to get — and permanent.”)
• Harris Is Visiting The Southern Border After Trying To Keep The Focus Away From It
• ‘You don’t have to die in your seat’: Democrats stress over aging members (“At a time of deep polarization and narrow congressional majorities, the party is questioning whether it has the luxury of having so many elderly lawmakers in key offices.”)
• Americans Are Worried About Crime, But That Doesn’t Mean They’re Blaming Democrats (“It’s possible crime emerges as a wedge issue in the 2022 midterms. But so far, there’s little evidence that it is helping one party over the other.”)
• Eight Years Ago, the Supreme Court Gutted the Voting Rights Act. Widespread Voter Suppression Resulted.
• 8 Years On, John Roberts’ Disastrous Voting Rights Ruling Is Wreaking Havoc (“The Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in 2013 and brought back the old politics of the past.”)
• ‘Lean into the culture war’: House conservatives push fight against critical race theory
• Conservatives think they’ve found their new tea party
• Critical race theory is the hottest topic on Fox News. In 2021, it has been mentioned 1,860 times.
• Defund the military? GOP’s anti-woke crusade dips into dicey territory.
• While Joe Manchin Has Been in the Spotlight, Kyrsten Sinema Has Been Busy Too
• Manchin and Sinema Now Face the Weight of History
• Joe Manchin is about to extract his pound of flesh. Here’s what Biden must do now. (“The movement toward this bipartisan deal could set up an endgame in which progressives end up getting much of what they want — and Sanders ends up getting the last laugh. Yet importantly, for this to work, President Biden has to get the endgame right. Botching it would be a catastrophe, including for his own agenda and presidency.”)
• Revs. Jesse Jackson and William Barber arrested as pressure mounts to call out Manchin over filibuster
• U.S. to Search Former Native American Schools for Children’s Remains
• How to call the GOP’s bluff on its ‘election integrity’ talking point
• Red states are dangerous to Americans’ health (“The willful refusal to embrace science is killing people.”:)
• Justice Alito bristles at conservative Supreme Court’s incremental course (Alito is fanatical.)
• Homophobes don’t care about same-sex love. They object to the sex. (“LGBTQ rights aren’t just a matter of love — they’re a matter of bodily autonomy.”)
• What the hysteria over critical race theory is really all about (“Conservatives have launched a growing disinformation campaign around the academic concept. It’s an attempt to push back against progress.”)
• Trump Wanted Military to ‘Beat the F*ck’ Out of George Floyd Protesters, ‘Just Shoot Them,’ Says New Book (10s of millions of our fellow Americans voted to reelect this dictatorial thug, and Glenn Youngkin is PROUD of his endorsement!)
• Top US general rejected Trump suggestions military should ‘crack skulls’ during protests last year, new book claims
• Tucker Carlson Trashes Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: ‘He’s Not Just a Pig, He’s Stupid’
• Pence, Diverging From Trump, Says He Was ‘Proud’ to Certify Election
• Pence ‘Proud’ of Rejecting ‘Un-American’ Demand That He Overturn Election Results (It’s not just “Un-American,” it’s strongly ANTI-American to suggest overturning our democracy.)
• Trump is launching a series of ‘revenge rallies’ — and Republicans are worried
• How Did a Socialist Triumph in Buffalo? (“Walton is a woman with a working-class background and an inspiring personal story who knows how to make progressive ideas sound like common sense”)
• Wendy Davis, others sue law enforcement and Trump supporters over “Trump Train” harassing Biden bus in Texas
• Giuliani disgraced his profession — and his country — by defending the indefensible
• Rudy Giuliani skips Dominion defamation case hearing after his law license gets suspended in NY
• New York Suspends Giuliani’s Law License (There need to be many suspensions – actually revocations – of law licenses after the appalling behavior we saw following the 2020 election.)
• Trump compares Giuliani to Eliot Ness, rips NY decision (Trump, as always, is completely wrong and also batshit.)
• Rudy Giuliani melts down about the suspension of his law license, alleges vast “conspiracy” against him and Trump
• How an OAN figure’s call for mass executions is connected to the Arizona ballot “audit” (“The far-right network is continuing the election incitement that led to January 6”)
• ‘Neither I, Nor OAN, Are Suggesting Anyone Should Be Executed,’ Says Guy on OAN Who Suggested People Should Be Executed For Election Fraud (Yes, we all saw him do just that.)
• OAN Goes Full Fascist, Calls for Mass Executions Over ‘Election Fraud’
• Derek Chauvin to Be Sentenced Today for Murder of George Floyd (“Mr. Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer, may choose to speak at his hearing. He could face decades in prison.” The rest of his life sounds about right for torturing George Floyd to death.)
• Derek Chauvin: ex-police who murdered George Floyd to be sentenced Friday (“Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s defence attorney, has argued for only probation, while prosecutors urged a 30-year prison sentence” 30 years actually sounds light for what Chauvin did.)
• Congressmen Squirm as ‘World-Class Sleazeball’ Gaetz Continues to Roam
• Billionaire Peter Thiel amasses $5bn tax-free nest egg in retirement account (Our tax laws are badly broken.)
• Greg Abbott Has Jumped Aboard the White History Matters Bandwagon
• More than 50 unaccounted for in deadly Surfside, Florida, building collapse, official says
• DeSantis signs bill requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with state (Sounds like a third-world dictatorship.)
• Ron DeSantis Goes After Free Thought at Colleges
• Even Michigan Republicans Have Had Enough
• The Trailer: “The new Democratic Party”: What we learned (and what we don’t know yet) from New York’s primary (“Voter turnout hit a 32-year high”; “The de Blasio coalition fractured, which helped Adams.”; “The left’s down-ballot focus may pay off”)
• Sen. Mark Warner: This is the ‘largest investment in infrastructure in our lifetime’
• Bipartisan infrastructure deal shows ‘America’s leadership is back,’ Sen. Warner says
• Sen. Mark Warner looks to the late Sen. John Warner as inspiration for bipartisan infrastructure deal
• Senators Warner, Kaine Go To Bat For Virginia’s Minor League Baseball Teams
• Letter From 70 U.S. House Members – Including Don Beyer (D-VA08), Jennifer Wexton (D-VA10), Gerry Connolly (D-VA11) – Urges President Biden To Reverse Harmful Trump-Era Israel Policy
• Rep. Bob Good apparently called ‘racist’ as he questioned Biden official on critical race theory (“Good was addressing Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in a House committee hearing”)
• How Should Virginia Allocate $4.3 Billion in Federal Funds From the American Rescue Plan? A Special Session of the General Assembly Will Consider This Question, Starting 8/2…
• NEW AD: Scared Glenn Youngkin “Ducking” Debates with Terry McAuliffe
• McAuliffe commits to five debates in Virginia governor’s race, Youngkin to one (Youngkin has no positions on the issues, no record of accomplishments as an elected official, no clue how to thread the needle between being an all-out Trumpist Republian and a…whatever he is, etc, etc. No wonder why he doesn’t want to debate.)
• Statewide Democratic ticket campaigns together for first time (“Gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, lieutenant governor candidate Hala Ayala, and attorney general candidate Mark Herring toured the William H. Talley III Center for Workforce Development at John Tyler Community College in Chester.”)
• Black mothers in Virginia have worse health outcomes. Advocates want bias training for doctors, but can it narrow the gap?
• Gov. Northam announces Virginia’s first Children’s Ombudsman
• FWIW Virginia: Far-Right Republican Del. Dave LaRock Pushes Dangerous and Irresponsible Vaccine Misinformation
• Appalachian Power seeks rate increase to prolong the lives of 2 coal plants (Nope, just shut them down and replace them with energy efficiency and solar.)
• In this rural Virginia district, a young Republican turns toward Trump in faceoff against BLM supporter (Clickbait article.)
• Turmoil erupts in school district after claims that critical race theory and transgender policy are being pushed (And yet again, the media fails to put the word “FALSE” before “claims” in the headline.)
• Loudoun County School Board appeals judge’s injunction requiring reinstatement of teacher
• KKK group leaves fliers in Ashburn, Leesburg; second such incident in 2021
• Editorial: ODU pledged to do better after Blake Bailey allegations. But now is the time for action. (“Allegations of sexual assault against a former visiting professor demand more than promises to do better from Old Dominion University.”)
• Portsmouth’s election boss is retiring after 28 years behind the scenes of democracy
• Roanoke Valley’s animal shelter, overstuffed with pets, seeks community help
• Richmond’s 2020 Temperatures Above Average, Again
• Former House candidate Fox charged with felony theft of a vehicle (“Richard Fox also served in a leadership position within the Albemarle County Republican Committee”)
• Virginia baseball team’s season ends with late-night loss to Texas in College World Series (“Virginia’s season of improbable comebacks finally ended late Thursday night.”)
• D.C.-area forecast: Mugginess returns by tonight. Heat wave starts this weekend.