Tuesday News: “Democrats attempt the near-impossible: Shaming Mitch McConnell”; “The Supreme Court Has Gone Off the Rails”; “Facebook’s promises of reform…a sick joke.”; Del. Dan Helmer Rips “despicable anti-Semitic attacks Glenn Youngkin is funding in Virginia”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, October 5. Exactly four weeks until election day…make sure you have a plan to vote, either early or on 11/2, Democratic up and down the ballot of course!

.@HelmerVA on the despicable anti-semitic attacks @GlennYoungkin is funding in Virginia:

"I've stood up to hate whenever I could see it and I was just stunned to see that kind of hate brought into our community… It has no place in our politics." #VAGov https://t.co/nexBlmTuYs pic.twitter.com/BaaKGZnLEi

— Manuel Bonder (@manuel_bonder) October 5, 2021

• Climate Change Is Devastating Coral Reefs Worldwide, Major Report Says (“The world lost 14 percent of its coral in just a decade, researchers found.” Wildly unacceptable. Get off of fossil fuels now!)
• Climate change is killing the world’s coral reefs as oceans warm, study shows (We need to fix this, FAST!)
• Polar Bears Are Suffering from the Arctic’s Loss of Sea Ice. So Is Scientists’ Ability to Study Them (“The melting ice is affecting the bears’ behavior and physical condition, and it has made studying them through forays out onto the ice a treacherous business.”)
• France pushing to strengthen EU’s energy independence as gas prices soar
• The End of a ‘Gilded Age’: China Is Bringing Business to Heel
• When Facebook’s Apps Went Down, the World Saw How Much It Runs on Them (The world is making a huge mistake to depend on Mark Zuckerberg and company…)
• Pandora papers: tax avoidance revelations prompt outraged denials
• The oceans are being clogged with plastic. Here’s one way to fight this ecological catastrophe. (“Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) has introduced a bill that would help. He would place a 20 cent-per-pound tax on virgin plastics sold to make single-use products. So the levy would not be placed on plastics used to produce seats or solar panels, but it would encourage companies that, say, package meals in single-use containers to seek recycled material.”)
• Everything You Need to Know About Merck’s Game-Changing Covid Pill (“The experimental medication was shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death by about half.”)
• Pfizer Covid jab ‘90% effective against hospitalisation for at least 6 months’ (“Study shows protection against severe illness stays high, but scientists say boosters key to stopping spread of infection”)
• ‘Some are just psychopaths’: Chinese detective in exile reveals extent of torture against Uyghurs
• Europe’s Gas and Power Surge to Records Amid Tightening Supply
• French Catholic clergy abused 216,000 victims since 1950 (Utterly appalling and disgraceful.)
• Nobel Prize in physics awarded to Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi
• Trio of scientists win Nobel prize for physics for climate work (“Sykuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi share award for advancing climate knowledge”)
• Taiwan president warns of ‘catastrophic consequences’ if island falls to China (“Tsai Ing-wen says Taiwan will ‘do whatever it takes to defend itself’ against an increasingly assertive Beijing”)
• On Very Serious People, Climate and Children (“If elite opinion cares so much about the future, why isn’t there any comparable consensus now about the need for climate action and spending on children? These are two of the main components of President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, and the case for both is much stronger than the case for entitlement cuts ever was.”
• The Biden People Need to Get the Tentacles of the Previous Administration Off of Immigration Policy
• Biden says he cannot promise U.S. will not breach debt-ceiling limit
• Biden’s challenge to Mitch McConnell: Go ahead, burn the place down (“Very soon, Republicans may face an incredibly stark choice.”)
• As the U.S. Hurtles Toward a Debt Crisis, What Does McConnell Want? (“Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, has a long record of tying debt ceiling increases to policy demands. But with a catastrophic default two weeks away, he has yet to make any.”)
• Politico distorts story of supposed “back-and-forth” between McConnell and Biden on debt ceiling
• Democrats want McConnell’s GOP to feel debt-ceiling pain
• Welcome to ‘Death Panels: Build Back Better Edition’ (“Republicans will try to repeat what they did on the Affordable Care Act to make Americans hate the social infrastructure bill.”)
• 5 takeaways from Democrats’ infighting over reconciliation (“Much of the press can’t (or refuses to) keep up with a more complicated story”)
• Democrats attempt the near-impossible: Shaming Mitch McConnell (“The Kentucky senator has likely set yet another brutal precedent that will further polarize the business of governance”)
• Are Democrats Dysfunctional Or Just Disagreeing? (“At this point, signs point to policy disagreements, not dysfunction.”)
• Democrats face tough choices on trimming spending package
• If Democrats must scale down their ambitions, they should prioritize investments in the young and the future
• The Memo: Biden stuck in middle of tricky Democratic fight
• Schumer Sets Up Vote on Debt Ceiling After Saying It Must Be Raised by End of Week
• What if I Told You Last Week Was Very Good for the Democrats?
• Biden administration reverses Trump rule barring federally funded family planning clinics from abortion referrals
• Inside the Right’s Plan to Rebrand Sex Ed as ‘Child Porn’ (“Their new tactics include harassing school boards and calling the cops on librarians.”)
• Scoop: U.S. Chamber backs off BIF
• Three bad takes about Biden and his agenda (“Biden ran on precisely what he is attempting to enact.”)
• Big Oil Is Lying Like Mad to Keep Methane Pollution Fees out of Budget Bill (“In private, lobbyists admit there’s no financial incentive to curb releases.” Evil.)
• Manchin breaks with party leaders over strategy on debt ceiling and Biden’s economic package
• MAGA politics has broken federalism. For the country’s sake, we need to repair it — carefully.
• Trump Reportedly Isn’t Announcing for 2024 Yet Because Aides Told Him He’s a Loser
• Ken Griffin, Top GOP Donor, Rules Out Backing a Trump Rerun
• New Trump Super PAC Formed in the Wake of Misconduct Accusations
• What Happens When Local Election Administrators Believe Trump’s Big Lie? (VERY dangerous.)
• The Supreme Court Has Gone Off the Rails
• Non-Partisan, Non-Hack Supreme Court Gets to Work
• Victory in the right’s 40-year quest to remake U.S. law is at hand
• Crews race to avert ‘ecological disaster’ after California oil spill (“‘When oil gets into these wetlands, it’s impossible to clean up entirely,’ one expert said.”)
• Pence Says He ‘Parted Amicably’ With Trump After Supporters Tried to Hang Him (Beyond parody.)
• Trumpers stand up for Kyrsten Sinema, suggest bathroom protesters should be “deported” (“Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller play-act chivalry in Sinema’s defense — but can’t avoid gratuitous racism”)
• Kyrsten Sinema and the amnesia of the Great Civility Debate
• What’s Wrong With Kyrsten Sinema?
• Democratic Voters Drive Decline in Sinema’s Popularity in Arizona
• It’s time to stand up to Facebook (“Will we respond to a business model based on hate and disinformation?”)
• Facebook can decide to be honest on its own — or Congress can force it to be
• Facebook Documents Whistleblower to Face Senate Panel
• Zuckerberg apologies have been a staple for Facebook. Now it offers defiance instead. (“The company has deployed its executives to mount a public defense while quibbling with the allegations from a whistleblower”)
• Facebook’s promises of reform aren’t reassuring. They’re a sick joke. (“As long as the social media giant makes money off garbage, it’s going to be part of the problems it decries.”)
• Facebook whistleblower to take her story before the US Senate
• Facebook is letting Trump’s PAC run ads implying he is the “true president” (“Since August 12, Facebook has earned at least $175,000 in revenue on ads from Trump’s PAC, even though he is suspended from the platform”)
• Whistleblower to Congress: Facebook products harm children and weaken democracy (“A former Facebook employee will compare the social network to big tobacco at a Senate hearing on Tuesday, saying the company has hidden what it knows about the harms of its products.”)
• Here’s What Facebook Says Triggered the Massive Outage on Its Apps
• Facebook Is Fragile
• Zuckerberg Loses $7 Billion in Hours as Facebook Plunges
• Facebook blames “faulty configuration change” for nearly six-hour outage
• Users Turn to Twitter During Facebook Crash. Jokes and Venting Ensue.
• Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Were Down: Here’s What to Know
• John Eastman’s coup memo was the result of the Fox-Trump feedback loop
• Group files complaint with California bar association against John Eastman, lawyer who advised Trump on election challenges (Obviously disbar this insurrectionist…and all others.)
• The California oil spill could endanger birds and sea life for years, experts say (GET OFF OF FOSSIL FUELS ASAP!)
• Steve Bannon Doubles Down On His ‘Shock Troops’ Government Takeover Threat (“Bannon ups numbers of ‘troops’ that will ‘deconstruct’ the state once a Republican is back in the White House from 4,000 to 20,000.”)
• Wisconsin GOP mimics Orwell’s Thought Police
• Pandora papers reveal South Dakota’s role as $367bn tax haven
• On Right-Wing Radio, Glenn Youngkin Says He Will “Stand Up” for the Right of Unvaccinated Teachers to Infect Students (“Glenn’s pattern of anti-vaccine rhetoric is disqualifying”)
• Ahead of the Supreme Court Hearing on Roe v. Wade, Glenn Youngkin Spent the Weekend With Top Allies Amanda Chase and The Family Foundation
• Andrew Yang Is Now Too ‘Outsider’ for Our Two-Party System (“Leaving the Democratic Party and declaring himself an independent probably won’t help Yang get his ideas enacted, but maybe it will sell more books.” What did anyone ever see in this asshole?)
• DLCC Calls on Candidates, VA GOP, RSLC to Condemn Series of Racist and Anti-Semitic Mailers in Virginia Legislative Races
• Youngkin cozies up to anti-LGBTQ extremists ahead of governor’s election
• Virginia’s election may show the potency of vaccine mandates as public policy
• In Stark Contrast to Glenn Youngkin and the Statewide GOP Ticket’s Demagoguery and Race Baiting, Former LG Bill Bolling (R) Engages Seriously, In Good Faith, on “Critical Race Theory” (“If by Critical Race Theory you mean a full and complete teaching of our nation’s history, then I’m all for that.”)
• The most vulnerable communities in Virginia are threatened by the vaccine gap. Closing it will require repairing decades of broken trust
• Monday (10/4) Virginia Data on COVID-19: With Delta Now Dominant, Hospitalizations (1,832) Near Highest Level Since Mid February, 10-Day New Cases (+27,225) Near Highest Since Mid February
• Hospitals battling the COVID-19 surge sought state help for weeks. They haven’t gotten it. (“Internal emails show Northam administration won’t reinstate previous emergency waivers”)
• ‘We’re sort of stuck:’ Va. Redistricting Commission divided over race as deadline looms (“With an Oct. 10 deadline approaching to finish new General Assembly maps, race remains one of the toughest dividing lines left for the commission to overcome, one that could potentially derail its efforts to reach consensus and send a proposal to the legislature for an up-or-down vote.”)
• Ahead of Public Comment, What Do Analysts See in Virginia’s Draft Redistricting Proposals?
• Editorial: Redistricting deadline looms (The Daily Press editorial board pushed hard for this fatally flawed mess. Great job, guys!)
• Changes to SNAP Mean More Benefits Are on the Way to Virginia Families
• A State Law Keeping Some People Out of Jobs Due to Past Convictions to be Challenged in Federal Court
• After Years of Right-Wing Del. Kirk Cox, VA66 Deserves and Needs a Candidate Like Katie Sponsler to Represent Them the Way They Should Be Represented in Richmond
• Gov. Northam Announces $714m Manufacturing Investment in Wythe County; Expected to Create 2,500 New Jobs – “the largest job creation for Southwest Virginia in a generation”
• Guzman and Cole stand behind support of Green New Deal policies
• After mail ‘surge’ many worry about the long-term issues
• Protect Our Water; Tell the State Water Control Board to Deny Mountain Valley Pipeline’s Clean Water Act Section 401 Application
• Walk-in service at Virginia’s DMV offices restarts Tuesday
• Richmond Public Schools raises graduation rate to 78.8%; final tally below earlier projections
• Washington Football Team head trainer placed on administrative leave after law enforcement search of facility
• Hanover School Board hasn’t adopted new transgender policies weeks after state law required it
• Suffolk schools to investigate whether teacher asked girl who died to walk sick children to nurse
• Roanoke Councilman Jeffrey faces new charges of defrauding city
• D.C.-area forecast: Stalled pattern with plenty of clouds, some humidity and a daily chance of showers