Friday News: “Auto workers strike after contract talks with US car giants fail”; “Romney and the right’s terrorist veto”; “Republicans Are Putting Democracy on Life Support”; “The Rage of the Toddler Caucus on Capitol Hill”; Republican VA Delegate Indicted in Felony Hit-and-Run Case

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, September 15.

• Six Gen Zers Are Taking 32 Nations to Court Over Weak Climate Policies
• Rainforest carbon credit schemes misleading and ineffective, finds report (“System not fit for carbon offsetting, puts Indigenous communities at risk and should be replaced with new approach, say researchers”)
• Exxon minimized climate change internally after conceding that fossil fuels cause it (This type of behavior is sociopathic at the minimum, really should be criminal.)
• New files shed light on ExxonMobil’s efforts to undermine climate science
• Global climate protests demand world leaders phase out fossil fuels
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to visit Washington next week
• Ukraine claims ships hit in Sevastopol attack represent ‘irreparable loss’ to Russia
• Shuffle of Russian military chiefs preceded death of Wagner boss Prigozhin
• House GOP grows skeptical on Ukraine: ‘It’s not just the Freedom Caucus’ (These people are f’ed.)
• Tension Between Ukraine and Ally Poland Over Grain Exports Vexes EU
• China’s Property Market Crisis Is Trouble for the Whole World
• China Economy Shows More Signs of Stability on Policy Boost
• China’s economy shows signs of stabilising but property slump threatens outlook
• Li Shangfu: speculation grows over fate of China’s missing defence minister (“Li Shangfu, who has not been seen for two weeks, is under ‘house arrest’, claims US ambassador to Japan”)
• Bodies of Libya flood victims wash up on beaches 60 miles away
• A historic court hearing in Israel might cause a constitutional crisis
• Hungary’s Orbán calls for less climate panic, more babies (This guy is a fascist.)
• As UAW poised to strike, White House prepares emergency aid for suppliers
• Workers are on strike at all 3 Detroit auto makers for the first time in their union’s history (“About 13,000 U.S. auto workers have stopped making vehicles and headed for the picket lines. Their leaders have been unable to bridge a giant gap between union demands in contract talks and what Detroit’s three automakers are willing to pay.”)
• Auto workers strike after contract talks with US car giants fail
• Joe Biden’s “Pro-Union” Promise Is Being Fiercely Tested in Detroit
• Right-wing media are spewing COVID misinformation as new wave surges
• Half of Americans interested in getting updated COVID shot -Reuters/Ipsos poll
• Republicans Are Putting Democracy on Life Support (“The authors of How Democracies Die are back with a new book that tackles the threat of minority rule—and how our political institutions can be reformed.”)
• Republicans Don’t Mind the Constitution. It’s Democracy They Don’t Like.
• ‘It will take years to recover’ from Tuberville blockade, top Navy nominee says
• Biden planning speech on threats to democracy in coming weeks, sources say
• Kevin McCarthy stares down another right-wing revolt
• The House GOP’s plan is to blow up all the plans (“There were agreements in place to avoid a government shutdown. Republicans didn’t care.”)
• The Rage of the Toddler Caucus on Capitol Hill (“Not even a Biden impeachment can soothe them out of a government shutdown.”)
• McCarthy Pulls Back Pentagon Spending Bill, Inching Closer to a Shutdown
• Judge severs Trump’s Georgia election interference case, and 16 others, from trial starting in October
• Trump’s New York Fraud Trial in Limbo After His Legal Gambit Works
• Judge temporarily halts NY fraud trial against Trump, pending appeal
• “Meet the Press” booking Trump for first show with new host is how FASCISM is normalized
• ‘They did it to me’: Trump says Biden impeachment inquiry might be motivated by revenge (Completely false and deranged.)
• The indictment of Hunter Biden isn’t really about gun charges (“Prosecutors are moving aggressively because the plea deal fell apart. But why did it fall apart?”)
• Americans sharply divided over whether Biden acted wrongly in son’s businesses, AP-NORC poll shows (That’s heavily the fault of the political media for its horrendously bad, irresponsible reporting on this story.)
• Hunter Biden indicted on firearms charges
• Behind the scenes, Ron DeSantis is making things worse for Kevin McCarthy
• Double standard? Democrats say Trump gets free pass on his age (Trump’s about the same age as Biden, and in FAR worse shape physically and mentally.)
• How the ‘MAGA doom loop’ is already threatening Trump’s 2024 chances (“MAGA Republicans are responding to election losses by redoubling their attacks on democracy.”)
• Romney biography reveals McConnell text on January 6
• Enough with the Mitt Romney adulation! The GOP hasn’t been a serious “policy” party in decades (“‘Traditional’ Republican views on everything from taxes to abortion failed, clearing a path for a Trumpist takeover”)
• Mitt Romney and the right’s terrorist veto (“…the threat to U.S. democracy is actually much deeper than the author and his subject describe. It is not only elected leaders but journalists, prosecutors, judges, election workers, bureaucrats, and random people who in recent years have faced threats of physical violence from right-wing extremists after becoming the targets of the right-wing media’s most dishonest and incendiary members.”)
• ‘You sell yourself so cheap?’ Romney’s stark indictment of GOP cowardice.
• Planned Parenthood to resume providing abortions in Wisconsin
• Wisconsin Republicans vote to fire elections director, who may not leave the job (Authoritarianism.)
• Republican David McCormick plans to run for US Senate again in Pennsylvania, sources tell AP
• Romney retirement sets off Utah GOP scramble
• Kim Davis is ordered to pay $100,000 to same-sex couple she denied marriage license
• Alex Jones spent over $93,000 in July. Sandy Hook families who sued him have yet to see a dime (Lock him up!)
• Video: Check Out “The energy and response ahead of VP Kamala Harris’s visit to Hampton University this morning” (VP Harris will speak about “key issues that disproportionately impact young people across America – from reproductive freedom and gun safety to climate action, voting rights, LGBTQ+ equality, mental health, and book bans.”)
• Vice President Kamala Harris kicks off college tour at Hampton University
• NEW AD: Majority Project Lays Out The Consequences if MAGA Extremists Get Total Control (“One vote could make the difference between whether or not MAGA Republicans take total control of Virginia, giving them the power to ban abortion, weaken gun laws, and put the middle class at risk”)
• Gov. Glenn Youngkin took Altria jet to Hamptons fundraiser, flight records suggest
• Youngkin signs budget with hoopla and no nod to defeats
• Why Virginia Republicans Should Be Scared of National GOP’s Government Shutdown Gambit
• Virginia begins reforming its school accreditation system
• Youngkin signs Virginia budget offering tax reductions, major new spending
• ICYMI: Virginia Republicans Scrub Websites of Extreme Abortion Stances (“Anti-abortion Republicans will stop at nothing to ban abortion entirely, so it makes sense that they’d try to solicit votes through deception.”)
• New data: child poverty rates in Virginia are ticking up
• Commentary: ‘It is the law’? Youngkin’s model policies for trans students are anything but
• Pope & Schapiro: A scandal, a pardon, and a deal
• Video: At Last Night’s HD65 Debate, Democrat Josh Cole Defends Freedom to Choose, While His Far-Right Opponent Declares, “Everybody is not concerned or worried about women’s rights” (The choice in this race really couldn’t be clearer – go Josh Cole!)
• Loudoun schools delayed probe of high-profile sex assault for months
• Loudoun school sex assault investigation unsealed by judge
• Independent Report of Loudoun Schools Sexual Assault Cases Released by Judge
• 4 Henrico candidates discuss environment at forum
• FOIA Friday: Spotsylvania closed meeting and Fauquier records withholding
• Del. Fariss indicted on two felony charges in hit-and-run case (“The charges stem from an alleged hit-and-run that injured a woman he was seeing romantically and led her to obtain a protective order against him.”)
• Much of the maligning of Susanna Gibson is rooted in misogyny (“I think she’s right that there is a very real, sustained effort to silence and diminish the voices and experiences of women”)
• Blacksburg startup’s goal: power electric vehicles with local materials, including one that comes from coal
• Roanoke judges submit recusal amid claims that one traded legal help for sex
• D.C.-area forecast: Seasonably warm with ample sunshine through Saturday