Wednesday News: “MAGA Republicans aren’t isolationist. They’re pro-Putin.”; “The Great American Horror”; “The Right-Wing Lie That’s Killing Our Children”; “The Devil [Trump] Went Down to Georgia and Lost”; “Why is the right ignoring the Southern Baptist abuse scandal?”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, May 25.

• Exxon must go to trial over alleged climate crimes, court rules (“The ruling, and another crucial court decision this week, will force the company to face charges it lied about global heating”)
• Opinion | What Vaccine Apartheid Portends for the Climate Future
• The Heat Is Already On (“Thanks to human ingenuity, we’ll cope — until we can’t, because the scope of the crisis will exceed even modern society’s ability to adapt. I think of our response to changing climate as being like a rubber band that can be stretched a long way until it suddenly snaps. And then the megadeaths will begin. I wish I was being hyperbolic, but I think I’m just being realistic.” Meanwhile, many Republicans – such as Hung Cao in VA10 – are outright climate DENIERS! It’s truly incredible and disgraceful…and SHOULD BE 100% disqualifying.)
• Restoring abandoned farms could help mitigate climate change: study
• Climate Change Is the Easiest Problem to Solve at Davos (Massive investment in energy efficiency, solar, wind, energy storage…immediately!)
• Global Crises Threaten Economic ‘Perfect Storm’: Davos Update
• Putin’s real goal in Ukraine isn’t territory (“Putin isn’t just trying to take over Ukrainian land — he is trying to obliterate Ukrainian identity”)
• Russia launches new assault on eastern Ukraine towns (Putin continues to be pure evil.)
• Russia is now exposed to a historic debt default: Here’s what happens next
• Declassified US intel shows Russian blockade of Ukraine
• Scars of war seem to be everywhere in Ukraine after 3 months
• Russia Is Winning From the Global Food Crisis It Helped Create
• ‘I’m never going back’: the high-profile Russian defectors rejecting war
• Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Campaigners See No Misuse of Western Military Aid
• Ukraine war: ‘This is just the beginning, everything is still to come’
• EU cracks widen over Ukraine as Italy, Hungary urge truce
• Snake Island does job of Moskva as Russia maintains grip on Black Sea (“Russia determined to hang on to its ‘unsinkable destroyer’ as Ukraine tries to win vital landmass back”)
• MAGA Republicans aren’t isolationist. They’re pro-Putin.
• Ukraine’s Zelenskiy says will only talk directly to Russia’s Putin
• China Follows Biden Remarks by Announcing Taiwan Military Drills
• U.S. Speeds Up Reshaping of Taiwan’s Defenses to Deter China
• Canada should rethink relationship with U.S. as democratic ‘backsliding’ worsens: security experts
• China Growth Target in Tatters as Covid Zero Hammers Economy
• ‘They were shooting directly at the journalists’: New evidence suggests Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in targeted attack by Israeli forces (Anyone who did that should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and preferably locked up for many years to come.)
• Australians’ big message on climate change and politics as usual
• Australians voted for stronger action on climate change. Will they get it?
• Australia’s election was all about climate change. Here’s what it means for businesses
• North Korea fires missiles hours after Biden leaves Asia
• CPAC Hungary Was the GOP’s Ultimate Racist ‘Mask Off’ Moment
• Iran Used Secret U.N. Records to Evade Nuclear Probes
• What the latest Covid-19 variants and subvariants mean for the pandemic (“The omicron variant of Covid-19 has branched out into more transmissible and evasive versions.”)
• Climate worries galvanize a new pro-nuclear movement in the U.S. (Absolutely keep EXISTING nuclear plants open as long as possible.)
• How “America First” Crippled the Nation’s Solar Industry (“Trump’s tariffs—now Biden’s—were meant to save the sector. They undermined it instead.” Ditch them immediately.)
• What Is the Fall in the Stock Market Telling Us? (“Investors are fearful of a recession, but the White House says the economy is resilient.”)
• Justice Alito and His Allies Don’t Care to Look at the Future for American Women
• After Buffalo, Trump threatens “civil war”: Mainstream media refuses to connect the dots (The mainstream media is so abysmal when it comes to US political coverage. They simply won’t and/or can’t rise to the challenge of Trumpism/fascism.)
• Ethics law offers possible path for Trump prosecution (Good, do it already!!!)
• The Great American Horror (“If we could accept Sandy Hook, the saying went, the battle was already lost. The school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, is a reminder that it may be too late for redemption.”)
• Survivors of Parkland and Columbine shootings share their outrage over Uvalde tragedy
• Texas Massacre Is Second-Deadliest School Shooting on Record in U.S.
• Democrats assail GOP lawmakers over resistance to gun-control measures
• Biden On Texas School Shooting: ‘Why Are We Willing To Live With This Carnage?’ (Actually, “we” are not…but the NRA and GOP are!)
• Uvalde School Shooting Sparks Cries For Action Across Social Media
• Biden After Massacre: ‘Where in God’s Name Is Our Backbone?’
• Biden Demands US ‘Stand Up’ to Gun Makers After Texas Attack Leaves 19 Children Dead
• Guns Are a Threat to the Body Politic
• School massacre continues Texas’ grim run of mass shootings (In a “red” state where guns are *everywhere*)
• The Right-Wing Lie That’s Killing Our Children (“Republicans have twisted the 2nd Amendment to suit their extremist purposes, blocking sensible checks on gun ownership and enabling the unceasing procession of mass shootings”)
• Biden urges end to ‘carnage’ of gun violence after 19 children killed at Texas school
• ‘Spare me the bullshit’: Sen. Chris Murphy rips GOP colleagues after Texas shooting
• Editorial: Spare us your thoughts and prayers
• Uvalde school shooting: Teen gunman bought AR-15 style rifle day after he turned 18 (We’re the only country in the world that allows this crap.)
• America’s Hands Are Full of Blood (Thanks to the NRA and the GOP…and anyone who supports either of those.)
• 19 students, at least 2 adults dead in Texas elementary school shooting
• Governor Abbott, People Told You This Would Happen
• ‘When will this end?’: rage over US gun violence after second mass shooting in 10 days
• Pelosi responds after archbishop denies her Holy Communion for supporting abortion rights
• Opinion Why is the right ignoring the Southern Baptist abuse scandal?
• No Atheist Has Done This Much Damage to the Christian Faith (“Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention reportedly chose to protect their denomination by hiding abuse—and then attempted to destroy the victims.”)
• Biden has a new executive order on policing, 2 years after George Floyd was killed
• ‘Great Replacement Theory’ isn’t about voting. It’s about whiteness.
• Fort Bragg to be renamed Fort Liberty among Army bases losing Confederate names: Exclusive
• Jen Psaki joins MSNBC
• White nationalists thank Tucker Carlson for mainstreaming their “great replacement” conspiracy theory following Buffalo massacre (“American Renaissance, VDare, David Duke praise ‘heroic,’ ‘incredible’ Fox star for making their message ‘the new Republican consensus'”)
• Beyond Trump, Trumpism is the winner in midterm primaries
• Brian Kemp Humiliates Donald Trump (and David Perdue) in Georgia
• Donald Trump recalibrates his standing in GOP after primary setbacks
• As Trump loses kingmaker status, he becomes more dangerous
• The Beclowning of David Perdue (“How he went from respected Georgia businessman to a twice-losing errand boy for Donald Trump.”)
• 6 takeaways from primaries in Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas
• ‘We’re going to go f—ing scorched-earth’: How Brian Kemp crushed Trump in Georgia
• Stacey Abrams Makes Republicans Freak Out
• Takeaways: Trump’s big defeat; election denial backfiring
• Trump endorsements collapse in Georgia
• Herschel Walker, Raphael Warnock to face off in crucial Georgia Senate race (Herschel Walker is WILDLY unsuited and unqualified to be in the US Senate. Raphael Warnock needs to defeat him by a wide margin!)
• Georgia Democrats signal brutal ad campaign against Herschel Walker as high-stakes Senate race begins
• Raffensperger declares victory over election denialism in Georgia GOP Secretary of State’s race
• Katie Britt, Rep. Mo Brooks headed to a runoff in Alabama GOP Senate primary
• Texas AG Ken Paxton defeats George P. Bush in GOP primary in bid for re-election (Paxton is evil, and George P. Bush sold his soul to the devil.)
• Is this how the Bush dynasty ends? (Let’s hope!)
• The Worst Lawyer in Texas Just Put an End to the Bush Dynasty
• Brad Raffensperger, targeted by Trump, wins Ga. GOP primary for secretary of state
• The Devil Went Down to Georgia and Lost (“Trump spent the past two years working to exile Brian Kemp and Brad Raffensperger from the GOP, but he couldn’t do it.”)
• Why conspiracy theorist extraordinaire Marjorie Taylor Greene just easily won her primary
• 5 GOP candidates in Michigan ineligible after fraud, election office says
• Republicans May Have Sabotaged Their Best Chance to Beat Gretchen Whitmer
• Crypto billionaire says he could spend a record-breaking $1 billion in 2024 election
• EXCLUSIVE: ISIS Plotting To Assassinate George W. Bush In Dallas
• Here are the investors putting $1 billion into Trump Media.
• Just the Past Few Days in VA GOP Extremism: Anti-Muslim Hate, Fauci Should Be “Jailed,” Climate Science Denial, the “Big Lie,” Banning Books, etc.
• VA10 GOP Nominee Hung Cao Says It’s an “Honor” to Be Endorsed by Sen. Tom Cotton. Let’s Take a Peek at “Trump Loyalist” Cotton’s Far-Right Record. (You name the topic, Cotton is extreme…)
• Navy needs to expand mental health services for USS George Washington, Luria and Scott say
• Cao Outlines Campaign Issues, Eyes Education, Infrastructure (Weak, lazy article, but at least mentions – unlike the WaPo! – *some* of Cao’s many, many extremist views. As for the WaPo, seriously, we’d be better off if they didn’t cover Virginia at all, rather than the pathetic way they do so now…)
• Virginians React to Yet ANOTHER Horrific Mass Shooting in America, This Time of Students and a Teacher at an Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas (As usual, the problem is not “both sides” or “Congress” generically, it’s the political *right* in this country.)
• State lawmakers could finally vote on a budget proposal next week
• A closer look at Youngkin’s model for new lab schools that could cost millions
• Virginia 10-Day New COVID-19 Cases Down 83% Compared to 1/19, But Near 3-Month High; Hospitalizations Down to 472 From ~4,000 in January, But Also Increasing (10-day new COVID cases at highest level since February 17)
• Virginia official says staffers are leaving mental health facilities to work at Chick-fil-A
• Editorial: Southwest Virginia and the promise of telework
• Law banning ‘gay panic’ defense tested as former Tech football player goes to trial in slaying (“The attorneys for Isimemen Etute asked Judge Mike Fleenor to disregard a Virginia law that bars the use of a person’s perceived gender or sexual orientation as a criminal defense.”)
• Student, 18, stabbed to death in fight near Alexandria City HS
• D.C.-area forecast: A stray shower through tomorrow; showers and storms likely Friday