by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, August 7.
It’s time. Thank you to the committee for your confidence. It’s an honor to serve alongside those who represent the best of America. We will see this mission through. #Jan6Committee pic.twitter.com/zPzXYNu2wS
— Denver Riggleman (@RepRiggleman) August 7, 2021
- Climate change: New report will highlight ‘stark reality’ of warming
- Tokyo feared Games would spread COVID; numbers suggest that didn’t happen
- Kevin Durant Leads U.S. Men’s Basketball To Gold Medal With Win Over France (“Kevin Durant has led the U.S. men’s basketball team to their fourth consecutive Olympic basketball gold medal with a 87-82 win over France.”)
- Fires Rampage Through Forests in Greece; Thousands Evacuated
- China’s Export Growth Slows as Global Risks Cloud Outlook
- China’s Sweeping Crackdown on Big Tech Is a Wake-Up Call for the U.S.
- China’s Export Machine Still Hums Despite Covid-19, Extreme Weather
- Tucker Carlson’s fawning new Orban interview shows the right’s dream future (“Behold the future that Carlson and his fellow travelers want for America.” Don’t vote Republican unless and until this party fundamentally changes. It could take many years.)
- Carlson Tells Orban the Only Threat to Democracy Is Biden (“Tucker’s authoritarian dream future, on display in Hungary”)
- Tucker Carlson’s Self-Loathing International Tourism
- Tucker Carlson Has a New Hero
- Resurgent Taliban take provincial capital, kill Afghan govt spokesman
- Iran denies role in tanker attack, says seeks Gulf security
- Why scientists are talking about viral load and the delta variant (“What sets delta apart, experts say, is how much virus is produced by those who are infected — a measure known as viral load.”)
- Alarm as US Covid cases above 100,000 a day for first time since February
- Doctors say it’s crucial to protect kids against the Delta variant
- Vaccination Persuasion Has Run Its Course
- Evidence mounts that delta variant is dangerous for kids
- The Kindergarten Exodus: How the Pandemic Hurt U.S. Enrollment
- Is “Hot Vax Summer” a Total Bust?
- Delta Variant Disrupts Rebound in Travel and Leisure
- Biden officials weigh using regulatory powers to spur vaccine mandates
- Highly Vaccinated States Keep Worst Outcomes in Check
- Dow rises 100 points, closes at record high after jobs report shows strong economic recovery (Trump, of course, said the stock market would collapse if Biden were elected president. LOL)
- GOP lawmakers who called Biden relief plan ‘reckless’ silent as job numbers grow (“Republican lawmakers who previously had plenty to say about ‘disappointing’ job growth are silent in the wake of the July jobs report.”)
- Biden skips victory lap after strong jobs report, warns of economic threat from Covid delta variant
- July’s great jobs report comes with an enormous, delta-shaped asterisk
- Education Department Announces ‘Final Extension’ Of Student Loan Payment Freeze
- Biden extends pause on student loan payments to 2022
- U.S. Senate meets on Saturday to consider $1 trillion infrastructure bill
- Republicans renew intraparty battle over trillion-dollar spending (“The infrastructure bill already had the potential to be a big primary issue given opposition to the measure from former President Trump, who has called senators backing it ‘RINOs,’ or Republicans-in-name-only. The fact that the measure has moved forward anyway has widely been interpreted as a sign GOP senators are tuning Trump out on the issue.”)
- Don’t Be Fooled By Mitch McConnell’s Sudden Bout of Bipartisanship (“If this bill is signed into law, the Democrats will still need to face hard reality: This will be their last major bipartisan piece of legislation.”)
- A Pyrrhic Victory in a Broken Senate
- GOP Senate candidates align with Trump in bashing bipartisan infrastructure bill
- How a Trump environmental lawyer tried to weaponize the Justice Department to help the President (“Jeffrey Clark, a Donald Trump-appointed environment law chief at the Justice Department at the center of the former President’s efforts to overturn the election, received a high-level intelligence briefing around New Year’s 2021 that did little to stop his efforts to prove foreign interference had cost Trump reelection.”)
- Homeland Security warns of ‘increasing but moderate’ threat of violence from Trump conspiracy
- Secret Service Agent’s Brother Takes First Plea Deal For Assaulting Cops On Jan. 6 (“Scott Fairlamb, an MMA fighter who is the son of a New Jersey state trooper, entered a guilty plea Friday.”)
- Where Are the Far-Right Fringe Groups Now? (“They’re being prosecuted now for crimes that they committed the same way that anyone else would be,” a counterextremist expert says. “That’s a rude awakening for a lot of these people.”)
- Men from New Jersey and Washington state are first to plead guilty to assaulting police in Jan. 6 Capitol riot (“Scott K. Fairlamb and Devlyn D. Thompson face what they acknowledged in plea agreements could be three to five years in prison under sentencing guidelines.” Decades would be better.)
- Every lost life on Jan. 6 should be mourned. But the rioters on Jan. 6 were not heroes or martyrs.
- Cryptocurrency brawl bogs down infrastructure bill, as Yellen and White House fight changes
- Cryptocurrency negotiators at ‘impasse’ over tax reporting rules (“The bill’s lead negotiators, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Republican Rob Portman of Ohio, joined with Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., on an amendment late Thursday that would exclude ‘proof-of-work’ miners and wallet developers from new requirements that those facilitating cryptocurrency transactions must report information on trades to the IRS for tax enforcement purposes.”)
- Jan. 6 select committee hires former GOP Rep. Denver Riggleman as adviser
- Former Republican congressman to join staff of January 6 committee (That’s Denver Riggleman)
- “People do not trust that Facebook is a healthy ecosystem” (Because it’s not.)
- Facebook Cares About Privacy—But Only If You’re an Advertiser (“The social giant kicked off researchers studying how political ads can encourage targeted voter suppression, leaving citizens with little insight into how they’re manipulated on the platform.”)
- Facebook Killed Research Into Capitol Riot to Protect Itself—Not Users
- A Black Army vet toured a house with his real estate agent and teen. Police surrounded the home and handcuffed them. (Totally unacceptable.)
- Arkansas judge blocks state from enforcing mask mandate ban
- President of country’s largest LGBTQ rights group ensnared in Cuomo scandal (“Some are calling for Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David to step down over actions described in an investigative report about New York’s embattled governor.”)
- 7 Out Of 10 New York State Voters Say Cuomo Should Resign, Quinnipiac University New York State Poll Finds; 55% Think Cuomo Should Be Charged With A Crime
- Woman who accused Andrew Cuomo of groping files criminal complaint
- The last act in Cuomo’s father-son tragedy
- Obama Birthday Party: Who’s Still Invited?
- Sturgis Motorcycle Rally revs up, drawing thousands and heightening delta superspreader fears
- Why Ron DeSantis is more dangerous than Trump (“There should be a special place in hell — or potentially in prison — for politicians who put their political goals ahead of the health and safety of our children. That is exactly what Gov. Ron DeSantis is doing in Florida…” And that’s what Glenn Youngkin apparently wants to do here in Virginia.)
- As Covid Surges in Florida, DeSantis Refuses to Change Course (DeathSantis is vying for the title of Worst Governor in America, yet Glenn Youngkin thinks he’s the greatest!)
- Florida Board of Education approves private school vouchers for families unhappy with mask mandates (Disgraceful.)
- Conor Lamb Gets In, and a Crucial Senate Fight Takes Shape in Pennsylvania
- Hometown hospital cuts ties with Minnesota Vikings QB Kirk Cousins over vaccine comments (Cousins is, at best, an imbecile.)
- Sen. Kaine: Bipartisan infrastructure bill ‘is going to pass tomorrow’ (“Sen. Kaine also addresses Taliban advancements in Afghanistan, explains why he thinks repealing the 2002 Iraq AUMF is long overdue, and urges the White House to declassify whatever material they can in response to a demand from Americans affected by 9/11 to release evidence that could link Saudi leaders to the attack.”)
- DCCC: With QAnon Favorite Michael Flynn Showing Up This Weekend, VA02 GOP Primary Quickly Becoming a Messy Race to the Far Right (Meanwhile, “Jen Kiggans has still yet to say whether Joe Biden won the 2020 election”)
- New Polling Finds Virginia Voters Strongly Support the PRO Act’s Worker Protections
- Video: DPVA Chair Susan Swecker Calls Out Glenn Youngkin’s Upcoming Insurrectionist-Sponsored “Election Integrity” Rally (“Glenn’s not a leader, he’s a Donald Trump loyalist who will peddle his lies at the expense of our democratic values and Americans’ lives.”)
- Audio: Glenn Youngkin Says He’d Emulate FL Gov. Ron DeSantis and Ban Mask Mandates in Virginia; Also Spews Out Conspiracy Theory and Rants About “Critical Race Theory” (Youngkin falsely claims that Gov. Northam is “trying to open up avenues for schools not to be open”)
- Between the GOP and the governor’s mansion: A bigger, bluer Northern Virginia (“This fall’s governor’s race could reveal whether Virginia has undergone a lasting political realignment or merely experienced an anti-Trump spasm.”)
- Youngkin’s tricky dance with ‘election integrity’ complicates run for Virginia governor (That headline really sucks…”tricky dance?” Using the phrase “election integrity” without indicating in the headline that it’s really voter suppression and ratf***ing our democracy? Ugh.)
- Virginia budget deal reached with compromise on law enforcement pay, DMV walk-in service
- Negotiators strike deal on spending Virginia’s $4.3 billion in federal coronavirus aid (“The General Assembly will take up the compromise Monday.”)
- Schapiro: Democrats behaving as a majority party should
- Virginia Flip-A-District Friday, Volume IV: Michelle Maldonado, Linwood Blizzard, Katie Sponsler, Marcus Simon, Schuyler VanValkenburg, Betsy Carr
- Friday (8/6) Virginia Data on COVID-19: With Delta Now Dominant, Hospitalizations At Highest Level Since Mid-May, 1-Day New COVID Cases (+1,855) Highest Since 4/13; 10-Day New Cases (+13,646) at Late-April Levels
- VDH: Delta variant surges in Virginia, hitting unvaccinated ‘especially hard’
- Virginia seeing ‘significant increase’ in coronavirus delta variant infections
- “The sham of the Virginia Partisan Redistricting Commission is becoming clearer and clearer every day.” (This is “like watching a massive train steaming down towards a baby toddling on the tracks and just a couple people desperately trying to pull the brakes.”)
- Fairfax, Prince William join Loudoun in requiring face masks in county facilities (No brainer.)
- Masks to be mandatory inside UVa buildings beginning Monday
- Hampton University wiping some student debt with federal relief money
- Interview with Democratic Nominee for Chesapeake Commonwealth’s Attorney, Shelly Wood
- Roanoke and Botetourt counties change course, approve school mask mandates
- D.C.-area forecast: Today’s rain focuses south and east of the city, then heat builds into next week
