Tuesday News: Research Finds US Conservatives Display “distinctive authoritarian bent”; “The cold truth about Republicans’ hot air over critical race theory”; “What Underlies the G.O.P. Commitment to Ignorance?”; “GOP should be held accountable for deserting law and order”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, June 29.

• UN human rights chief calls for reparations over racism
• Democracies Don’t Try to Make Everyone Agree (“Marxist literary scholars and popularizers of critical race theory have one thing in common with certain GOP commentators: a tendency to see their own view of the world as the only valid one.”)
• To normalize the U.S.-Israel relationship, first acknowledge what went wrong
• South Africa’s top court sentences ex-President Jacob Zuma
• Despite Climate Concerns, Germany Bulldozes Land To Expand Coal Mines (Absolutely unacceptable and bonkers.)
• At Nearly 116 Degrees, Heat in Western Canada Shatters National Record (This is the climate crisis, and we’d better act with a sense of urgency…or else!)
• These ‘Once-in-a-Lifetime’ Events Are Now Annual
• Undeclared conflict? America’s battles with Iran-backed militia escalate, again
• Delta Variant Drives New Lockdowns in Asia and Australia
• Peru dictator’s spymaster reappears to push Fujimori’s baseless fraud claims (“Vladimiro Montesinos, known as ‘Peru’s Rasputin’, demands votes be recounted in bid to prevent Pedro Castillo winning election”)
• EXCLUSIVE U.N. expert backs probe into Iran’s 1988 killings, Raisi’s role
• U.S. Conservatives Are Uniquely Inclined Toward Right-Wing Authoritarianism Compared to Western Peers (“Global Morning Consult data reveals a distinctive authoritarian bent in the American right”)
• Tigray Rebels in Ethiopia Retake Regional Capital
• Hungary’s war on gays is a war on democracy (“Viktor Orbán’s assault on LGBT identities has become a key plank in his authoritarian rule.” Orbán is evil.)
• Hungary’s Orban may finally pay a price for attacking LGBTQ people — if the E.U. holds firm
• Toyota Defends Donating To Republicans Who Refused To Certify 2020 Election (“The automaker’s terrible excuse sparked calls for a boycott of the company.” F*** Toyota.)
• The real winner in France’s regional elections wasn’t Macron or Le Pen
• Why No One Is Sure If Delta Is Deadlier (“The variants are spreading faster, but they don’t necessarily have incentive to kill more often.”)
• Delta variant is forcing officials to rethink Covid-19 measures, even for the vaccinated
• Peer Pressure, Not Politics, May Matter Most When It Comes To Getting The COVID-19 Vaccine
• Millions of jobs and a shortage of applicants. Welcome to the new economy
• Seven Reasons to Be Extremely Optimistic About the Economy Right Now
• What Underlies the G.O.P. Commitment to Ignorance?
• Police reform negotiations in Congress are teetering on collapse. Cops may be to blame. (“A split between two factions of law enforcement has imperiled a tenuous bipartisan agreement.”)
• The Maddening Critical Race Theory Debate (“…the campaign against critical race theory is doing exactly what Rufo wanted it to: taking inchoate anger about what’s often derided as wokeness and directing it onto public education. In some ways, it’s like the campaign against sex education, where conservative activists would either cherry-pick or invent lurid anecdotes to try to discredit the whole project.”)
• General Milley, critical race theory and why GOP’s ‘woke’ military concerns miss the mark (“When it comes to developing future military leaders, Congress needs to be following Milley and Austin’s lead — not the other way around.”)
• Imagine if a Squad member called a general a stupid pig. Tucker Carlson just did.
• Pacific Northwest heat wave reaches astonishing peak on Monday
• It’s so hot in the Pacific Northwest that roads are buckling (Our climate present and future if we don’t act, urgently!)
• The brouhaha over infrastructure infighting — a typical D.C. ‘process’ story — comes to naught (“The lifetime of a kerfuffle: 48 hours.”)
• Three things that could still blow up the bipartisan infrastructure deal
• President Biden: Americans can be proud of the infrastructure deal
• How Biden and his team rushed to save him from his infrastructure blunder
• McConnell plays skunk at the infrastructure party (Of course he does.)
• McConnell has tough choices to make on deal
• Biden Takes Agenda to Rural U.S. Where Trump Affinity Runs Deep
• Obama: Trump broke ‘core tenet’ of democracy with ‘bunch of hooey’ over election
• Trump in financial and political danger as company faces possible criminal charges
• Trump attorneys meet with New York prosecutors to argue that his company should not be criminally charged over its business practices
• Trump’s Lawyers Make Late Bid to Fend Off Charges Against His Business
• Trump Organization Lawyers Make Last-Ditch Effort to Avoid New York Charges
• NY prosecutors to indict Trump Org insider – but not Trump, sources say
• Trump blasts McConnell over claims in book about election
• Book bombshells reveal depths of Trump’s 2020 delusions
• Trump’s false reality is being exposed on multiple fronts
• New Details Suggest Senior Trump Aides Knew January 6 Rally Could Get Chaotic (“White House officials worked to both contain and appease Stop the Steal leaders.”)
• Donald Trump’s January 6 (“The view from inside the Oval Office”)
• These Republicans knew the ‘big lie’ was absurd. What does that say about the rest of their party?
• Laws Aimed at Banning Critical Race Theory in K-12 Schools Are a Poorly Written, Misguided Mess
• The GOP should be held accountable for deserting law and order (“Republicans’ rhetoric is empty.”)
• What’s striking about Biden’s crime plan? It actually focuses on reducing crime.
• Bishops Try to Backpedal As Backlash to Attack on Biden Grows (“An upcoming statement aimed at denying communion to pro-choice Catholic politicians like the president is getting bad reviews in Rome and America.”)
• Nancy Pelosi Unveils Legislation Creating Select Committee On U.S. Capitol Riot (“The House speaker is considering tapping a Republican to join her appointees to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection.”)
• House GOP bristles as a Jan. 6 investigation lands in its lap (“Many Republicans want to avoid the select committee on the Capitol riot — except for the firebrands who want a seat to discredit it all.”)
• Republican Voters Largely Want to Move On From Jan. 6. The Rest of the Country Doesn’t
• Republicans are terrified of Capitol attack truths and Democrats must find out why
• Pence faces fierce resistance from GOP’s pro-Trump base
• Clarence Thomas says federal laws against marijuana may no longer be necessary
• It Sure Sounds Like Ivanka Trump Lied Under Oath to Criminal Investigators (Lock her up?)
• YouTube “permanently” bans media watchdog group Right Wing Watch — then changes its mind (“YouTube briefly bans group for reposting far-right videos — while leaving actual far-right groups untouched” YouTube apparently is comprised of a bunch of imbeciles.)
• Facebook’s value tops $1tn after judge dismisses US lawsuits (“Cases filed by FTC and state attorneys general did not give enough evidence to prove Facebook was a monopoly”)
• The FTC’s antitrust complaint against Facebook has been dismissed — for now (If Facebook isn’t a monopoly, what is?!?)
• US supreme court declines to take up bathroom case in win for trans rights (“Appeals court ruled Gavin Grimm’s constitutional rights had been violated when Virginia school said he could not use boys’ restroom”)
• Gavin Grimm Wins, Gloucester County School Board Loses Effort to Deny Trans Students Bathroom Access
• Gavin Grimm’s yearslong transgender rights battle against Gloucester ends in ‘enormous victory’ (“The Supreme Court granted victory to a Gloucester High School student who fought for years for the rights of transgender students to use the bathroom of their chosen gender identity.”)
• United Bets on Travel Revival With Biggest Ever Plane Order
• Some Proud Boys Are Moving To Local Politics As Scrutiny Of Far-Right Group Ramps Up
• The cold truth about Republicans’ hot air over critical race theory
• The right is attacking trans people as part of its “critical race theory” political tactic (“A county school board meeting exploded into chaos as members discussed trans inclusion and how to teach about race”)
• Every week, Newsmax promotes a reported sexual predator deemed a “serious threat” to the public
• Arizona county will replace voting equipment, fearful that GOP-backed election review has compromised security (This whole thing has been completely f’ed up.)
• Timeline: What We Know So Far About What Led Up To The Surfside Condo Collapse
• Hell By the Sea
• Miami condo collapse prompts questions over role of climate change (“Experts suggest vulnerability of south Florida to rising seas could lead to destabilization of further buildings”)
• Death toll hits 11 in Champlain condo collapse on fifth day of search for 150 missing
• Condo owners were facing assessments for $15 million in repairs (“Owners in the Surfside tower that collapsed last week were facing assessments with payments set to begin a week after the building’s deadly fall”)
• Two days before condo collapse, a pool contractor photographed this damage in garage
• L.A. County urges everyone to wear masks indoors as Delta variant spreads (There’s no good reason not to wear masks indoors…indefinitely.)
• Brown launches write-in campaign for mayor as others eye the race (“Byron W. Brown on Monday launched an unprecedented write-in campaign to reclaim the mayor’s office he apparently lost in the June 22 Democratic primary as an increasingly chaotic situation surrounds the victory of newcomer India B. Walton.”)
• Annapolis dedicates memorial to 5 killed in newsroom shooting
• Inside Gun-Surrendering Criminal Mark McCloskey’s Very Sad St. Louis Rally (“Noted local criminal Mark McCloskey played host to a barbecue/political rally on Sunday afternoon, drawing tens of admirers to the sweltering parking lot of a closed outlet mall in St. Louis County to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the time he pulled a gun on a crowd of people who otherwise would never have noticed or cared he existed.”)
• Local advocates call for Va. Sen. Kaine to act on immigration reform (Of course, in the US Senate, it requires 60 votes…which means have to get 10 Republicans. Good luck.)
• The Progressive Agenda Is Being Thwarted by Manchin, Sinema…and Mark Warner? (“Why a blue-state Democrat is standing in the way of labor protections and higher taxes on the rich.” The labor protections legislation requires 60 votes, which the Senate isn’t even close to having…)
• Rob Catron, consultant on Scott Taylor’s campaign, charged
• Spanberger Bill Reversing 1991 AUMF Likely to Pass House
• Virginia Chapter of the National Organization for Women Political Action Committee Endorses Terry McAuliffe for Governor
• Video: At Rally in Henrico, VA Republicans Vow to Recriminalize Marijuana, Stop Efforts Toward Achieving Equity, Not Allow Schools to Teach About the History of Race in This Country, etc.
• Is Youngkin’s Ad Buy Sensible? It Depends …
• Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin campaigns in Henrico (And lies. A lot.)
• Monday (6/28) Virginia Data on COVID-19: Hospitalizations, New COVID Cases At Lowest Points Since March 2020
• Stream crossings continue to muddy the waters for Mountain Valley Pipeline (“In the latest delay, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality was given until Dec. 31 to consider a water quality certification.”)
• Video: After Testimony In Support of Body/Dashcams, Augusta County Supervisors “Joke”: “Can we dress Tracy up as a monkey and send him down the street?” (Jennifer Lewis: “Until y’all organize, vote, run for office, support candidates, this is who you’ll get representing you.”)
• Asian American businesses accuse Virginia of discrimination in ban on electronic skill games
• Virginia’s new law makes it illegal to release balloons (“Intentional releases of nonbiodegradable balloons will be illegal in Virginia, and offenders will face a civil fine of $25 per balloon.”)
• The Week Ahead: Marijuana Becomes Legal In Virginia
• Unlike some hunting dogs, ‘right to retrieve’ debate keeps on coming back
• Meet the new state official supporting the rollout of green banks in Virginia (“As program manager for energy efficiency and financing at Virginia’s Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, Bettina Bergöö is responsible for helping localities set up lending programs for clean energy projects.”)
• Charlottesville Greyhound patrons kicked to the curb: Bus station demoted to a stop on Ridge Street
• ‘This is just the beginning’: After tumultuous virtual year, RPS projects 85% graduation rate – a 14 percentage point increase from last year
• D.C.-area forecast: Very hot into Wednesday before a stormy late week and cooler temperatures