Wednesday News: “The Delta Variant Presents a Grave Danger”; “Democrats vow ‘long march’ toward voting rights reforms”; “How Joe Manchin could be the guy who saved the filibuster and the Senate”; “White House Announces New Steps To Try To Curb Surging Gun Violence”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, June 23.

• Climate Change Is Destroying My Country. The Rich World Must Help. (“Islands like the Bahamas are paying the price for wealthier nations’ emissions — an injustice crying out for a global remedy.”:)
• Crushing climate impacts to hit sooner than feared: draft UN report
• Australia rejects U.N. climate warning over Great Barrier Reef status (Australia needs new leadership, badly.)
• Covid Surge in Africa Raises Fears of a Calamity Like India’s
• Microbes and solar power ‘could produce 10 times more food than plants’ (“The system would also have very little impact on the environment, in contrast to livestock farming, scientists say”)
• Ground Temperatures Hit 118 Degrees in the Arctic Circle (Totally f’ed up.)
• Saudi Operatives Who Killed Khashoggi Received Paramilitary Training in U.S.
• Euro zone business growth at 15-year high as demand unleashed -PMI
• US government seizes dozens of US website domains connected to Iran
• United States Seizes Websites Used by the Iranian Islamic Radio and Television Union and Kata’ib Hizballah
• Analysis: From game-changer to back-up: J&J’s COVID vaccine struggles in Europe
• They Relied on Chinese Vaccines. Now They’re Battling Outbreaks.
• Hong Kong’s Pro-Democracy Newspaper Apple Daily To Shut Down After Editors’ Arrests
• Apart from funding infrastructure, the rich should pay more taxes (“Politically and morally, our tax policy is unsustainable.” Absolutely, 100% agreed.)
• Can America’s Solar Power Industry Compete with China’s? One Firm Tries (“Battling heavily subsidized manufacturers, First Solar is set to build a new factory in Ohio”)
• Amazon, Others Race to Buy Up Renewable Energy (“The race to secure electricity deals for power-hungry data centers has tech companies reshaping the renewable-energy market and grappling with a new challenge: how to ensure their investments actually reduce emissions.”)
• The Delta Variant Presents a Grave Danger (“Unvaccinated Americans are approaching a perilous moment in the pandemic.”)
• Fauci declares delta variant ‘greatest threat’ to the nation’s efforts to eliminate Covid
• Nine Months After Lockdowns, U.S. Births Plummeted by 8%
• Fed Chair Powell says it’s ‘very, very unlikely’ the U.S. will see 1970s-style inflation
• Why Biden didn’t do more to avert voting rights defeat (He knew it wasn’t going to get 60 votes.)
• U.S. Democrats vow ‘long march’ toward voting rights reforms
• Senate Republicans block voting rights reform bill despite unified Democratic support (Why “despite?” In many ways, Republicans blocked this BECAUSE OF unified Democratic support for it.)
• Voting Rights Bill Will Be Blocked by the Anti-Democratic System It Seeks to Reform
• Democrats signal a shift toward accepting voter ID laws (Make sure the IDs are provided free and easily to everyone…)
• For Democrats and voting rights groups, the push for federal voting protections is far from over.
• How Joe Manchin could be the guy who saved the filibuster and the Senate
• Manchin, Schumer strike deal ahead of election bill vote (“Schumer said that if Democrats were able to start debate on the bill, something they won’t be able to do because of across-the-board Republican opposition, he would give Manchin a vote on his proposal as a substitute amendment in exchange for voting ‘yes’ on Tuesday. It would be the first amendment considered.”)
• Kyrsten Sinema accidentally reveals the huge hole in her filibuster defense (“Sinema’s claim that democracy’s future rests on the filibuster falls apart under scrutiny.”)
• They Weren’t Opposing the Bill. They Were Opposing Debating the Bill.
• Why Republicans Won’t Support Sweeping Voting Rights Legislation Now … Or Anytime Soon
• Democrats seek way ahead after voting rights bill hits Senate roadblock
• The long process of getting Manchin to ‘yes’ (“The key is putting Republicans’ bad faith on display.”)
• Republican anti-voting hysteria isn’t winning over voters (“Only Republican voters buy their rubbish.”)
• A Bill Destined to Fail May Now Spawn More Plausible Options (“The For the People Act had little chance of testing the limits of what if anything is still possible in Washington. Oddly, it was so far from passage that it may provide some hope, because so many avenues remain to be pursued.”)
• ‘Killibuster’: Democratic angst grows as filibuster threatens agenda
• Democrats fear they are running out of time on Biden agenda
• ‘We are out of options’: 480 state lawmakers urge Congress to pass voting rights bill
• Biden is about to propose a crime plan. How about a real debate about this? (“Don’t assume the public responds to demagoguery, or that the issue is always terrible for Democrats.”)
• Biden’s strategy to combat violent crime will focus on guns, community support
• The White House Announces New Steps To Try To Curb Surging Gun Violence
• Biden’s Justice Dept may defend Trump in Capitol riot lawsuits (Uh, why?)
• Garland Says Watchdog Is Best Positioned to Review Trump-Era Justice Dept., Not Him
• Former Sen. Tom Harkin: Here’s another option for filibuster reform that could achieve compromise
• Pelosi expected to appoint select committee to investigate January 6, sources say
• Manchin-led committee puts forth sprawling energy infrastructure proposal
• The Evidence of Trump’s Pandemic Sabotage Keeps Piling Up
• The Politics of Supreme Court Retirements (“Considering politics and partisanship amid calls for Justice Stephen Breyer to step down.”)
• Sanders signals openness to adjusting SALT cap to retain key votes as he maneuvers to pass Biden’s agenda.
• To stop Republican authoritarianism, subsidize local journalism
• Sports used to lead social progress. Carl Nassib shows it’s now the other way around. (“The NFL’s Carl Nassib came out as gay, and he wants it to be no big deal. Can that happen?”)
• Austin backs change in military sex assault prosecution
• No Left Turn in Education, a leading anti-critical race theory group, frequently pushes toxic rhetoric in media
• America’s school teachers aren’t the Marxist cabal Fox News keeps depicting
• How the Decline of Murdoch’s Tabloid Empire Makes Fox News Even More Dangerous
• Arizona Republicans finally backing away from Cyber Ninjas and its dubious election “audit”
• Socialist Candidate Stuns Longtime Incumbent in Buffalo Mayor’s Race
• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sets July 8 date for special legislative session on voting bill, other issues (Ugh, here we go again…)
• So when is Trump going to turn on Gov. Ron DeSantis?
• Iowa abortion law requiring 24-hour waiting period permanently blocked by district court
• New York Primary Election Results (Eric Adams leads Maya Wiley 31.7%-22.3%; “Ranked-choice vote counts not expected until June 29”)
• NYC Democratic mayoral primary to proceed to ranked-choice counting after no candidate wins majority outright, CNN projects (Obviously.)
• The Trailer: New York mayor’s primary crashes to an end, with plenty of questions and a long wait for results. (Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report thinks it’s 90% or so likely that Eric Adams will win.)
• Yang Presidential Campaign Advisers Blame Tusk Strategies For ‘Crashing’ His Mayoral Bid
• Andrew Yang’s NYC Exit Caps Tumble From Front-Runner to Also-Ran
• Adams Leads NYC Mayoral Race Ahead of Count That May Last Week
• Scoop: Lincoln Project’s Law Firm Concludes Independent Investigation of John Weaver Allegations (“According to the memo, the investigation ‘found no evidence that anyone at The Lincoln Project was aware of any inappropriate communications with any underage individuals at any time prior to the publication of those news reports.'”)
• Former DNC chair Tom Perez launches bid for Maryland governor (“Perez becomes the eighth candidate vying for the Democratic nomination.”)
• Black leaders in Rhode Island divided over Sen. Whitehouse’s family ties to exclusive club
• 153 people resigned or were fired from a Texas hospital system for refusing to get vaccinated
• VIDEO: Sen. Mark Warner Says “Very Close to Reaching a Deal” on Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill That “I believe will be firmly backed by the Biden White House” (On the “For the People Act,” Sen. Warner says “there is nothing more important to our democracy…that after January 6th…is under assault”)
• Funeral for Sen. John W. Warner to be held at Washington National Cathedral (“Biden expected to speak at the funeral for the five-term senator from Virginia.”)
• Spanberger tries to bridge divide over unemployment with plan to help newly hired workers
• New Report Finds Solar PV, Onshore and Offshore Wind Costs Continuing to Fall, Making Virginia’s Transition to 100% Clean Energy a Glaringly Obvious Call (Offshore wind costs down 48% in 10 years; utility-scale solar PV costs down 85% between 2010 and 2020…and falling.)
• DPVA: “Donald Trump’s Hand-Picked Candidate is Afraid to Debate Terry McAuliffe” (Meanwhile, “McAuliffe says he has committed to five upcoming debates before the election”)
• Governor Northam Announces Plans to Replace 1887 Time Capsule on Monument Avenue (“Virginians are invited to submit artifacts for a new capsule that will be installed when the statue is removed”)
• Virginia’s marijuana reform needs work, some say. So a delegate and a defense lawyer will discuss the new law.
• Tuesday (6/22) Virginia Data on COVID-19: Hospitalizations, New COVID Cases At Lowest Points Since March 2020
• Republicans Reveal Virginia House Democrats They’re Targeting For Defeat This Fall; Let’s Make Sure We Reelect ALL Of Them! (The RSLC also puts out a new ad that’s filled with lie after lie after lie…)
• With a federal windfall incoming, Virginia should require school districts to build to green standards (“…new or renovated schools should be required to meet the highest standards for energy efficiency, including windows, insulation and HVAC. New construction should also be all-electric, as should most renovated buildings. This maximizes taxpayer savings on energy costs over the lifetime of the building, supports the goal of healthy indoor air, and is consistent with Virginia’s commitment to phase out fossil fuels.”)
• Virginia’s oyster industry squeaks through the pandemic
• Petition to recall state Sen. Louise Lucas over role in Portsmouth’s Confederate monument protest gets 4,600 signatures (“For a circuit court to remove an elected official by petition, signatures must be from registered voters in the 18th district and at least 10% of the total number of votes casted in the 2019 election for the senator’s seat.”)
• Video: Chaos Erupts, Loudoun County School Board Meeting Suspended After Former State Sen. Dick Black (Far-Right R) Rants Against “Critical Race Theory,” Teachers Who “call boys girls, and girls boys” (VA Dems call out Glenn Youngkin for “egging them on”)
• Unruly Crowd Interrupts Loudoun County School Board Meeting on Transgender Policy
• Loudoun School Board Meeting Crowd Erupts, Public Comment Session Halted
• Loudoun Co. School Board halts comment period on transgender policy following raucous crowd
• Editorial: Why are vaccination rates in Southwest and Southside so low? (I generally don’t post the Roanoke Times’ laughably bad editorials, but with this one, I just wanted to note that they manage to write a LOT of words on this subject without ever mentioning Donald Trump or Trump supporters. That takes some real skill! LOL)
• While Virginia Celebrates Vaccination Milestone, Many Communities Lag Behind
• Officer claims Fairfax Co. prosecutors withholding evidence, asks stun gun case be dismissed
• Williams: Last week was all about the Prize; this week, failures from Richmond and Chesterfield
• Pro-Trump Delegate Dave LaRock Asks for Break After Paperwork Delay (Nah.)
• Del. Dave LaRock’s spot on the ballot in question over paperwork issue
• Alexandria City Manager Mark Jinks to retire by end of year
• D.C.-area forecast: Midsummer magnificence today and Thursday, then gradually warmer and more humid