Monday News: Under Trump, “Washington now ‘largely aligns’ with Moscow’s vision, Kremlin says”; “Warren Buffett [correctly] calls Trump’s tariffs a tax on goods, says ‘the Tooth Fairy doesn’t pay ‘em’”; “‘I’m selling the Nazi mobile’: Tesla owners offload cars after Musk’s fascist-style salutes”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Monday, March 3.

• Earth’s strongest ocean current could slow down by 20% by 2050 in a high emissions future (“Melting Antarctic ice is releasing cold, fresh water into the ocean, which is projected to cause the slowdown”)
• Senior USAID official ousted as he details problems providing lifesaving aid (“The memo contradicts claims by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that he has put in place a functioning system for exempting lifesaving assistance from the aid freeze.” Rubio is evil, btw.)
• U.S.A.I.D. Memos Detail Human Costs of Cuts to Foreign Aid
• Washington now ‘largely aligns’ with Moscow’s vision, Kremlin says
• Zelenskiy Says He’d Only Meet Trump Again for ‘Serious’ Talks
• Hegseth Orders Pentagon to Stop Offensive Cyberoperations Against Russia (Traitors.)
• France has ‘trouble understanding’ US halt on cyber operations against Russia (Because it’s that Trump is Putin’s puppet, basically a Russian asset.)
• Zelenskyy says minerals deal is ready to be signed as he seeks to move conversation on from White House spat (The Guardian is excellent overall, but they really shouldn’t refer to Trump’s and Vance’s disgraceful ambush of Zelenskyy as a “spat.”)
• Ukraine needs ‘strong support from its partners’, Zelenskyy says, after Macron suggests a month’s limited truce (“Ukraine president posts video showing damage from Russian attacks as French president urges pause in air, sea and critical infrastructure attacks”)
• Is Europe misunderstanding Trump’s position on Ukraine? (“The new administration appears to be taking a position that Ukrainian and European leaders aren’t hearing – or are trying to alter”)
• Who Will Join Europe’s ‘Coalition of the Willing’ to Help Ukraine?
• Macron Tells Figaro France, UK Working on Ukraine Truce Plan
• Senate Democrat says White House is ‘arm of Kremlin’ (No lies detected!)
• Russia gloats about shift in U.S. relations with Ukraine
• UK’s Starmer says Europe is at ‘crossroads in history’ as leaders agree to steps to Ukraine peace
• Johnson says Zelenskyy may need to resign (Mike Johnson will go down in history as one of America’s most disgraceful figures.)
• 5 key takeaways from a frenetic weekend of Ukraine diplomacy
• Europeans embrace Zelensky after he was vilified by Trump
• Bruised but upbeat: Zelensky heads home after diplomatic whirlwind
• Defiant but tactful Zelenskyy seeks to move on from White House fiasco (“Ukraine’s president says Oval Office meltdown best ‘left to history’, adding minerals deal is ready to sign”)
• Macron urges Europe to boost defense spending to over 3 percent of GDP
• Elon Musk Thinks U.S. Should Leave NATO And The United Nations (Putin’s puppet. Also insane.)
• Trump Turns Up Trade Pressure on China After Beijing Fails to Come Running
• Rubio Bypasses Congress to Send Israel $4 Billion in Arms (So…are there going to be “Free Palestine” protests on college campuses, etc. this week? If not, why not? Oh, that’s right, these people only protest against DEMOCRATS – hmmmm…)
• Israel Hardens Its Stance Toward Hamas, Emboldened by Trump
• Arab states and UN condemn Gaza aid blockade by Israel
• The Countries Fueling America’s $1.2 Trillion Goods Trade Deficit, in Charts
• Troops, Cartels and China: What Mexico Is Doing to Stave Off Tariffs
• Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico coming on Tuesday but may not be 25%, says commerce secretary
• Trump Heads Toward Tariff Barrage on Canada, Mexico, China
• Warren Buffett calls Trump’s tariffs a tax on goods, says ‘the Tooth Fairy doesn’t pay ‘em’
• The Trump administration may exclude government spending from GDP, obscuring the impact of DOGE cuts (F’ing around with economic statistics would be a MASSIVE mistake. So of course the brain-dead, horrible Trump administration is talking about doing so.)
• Trump Has Glossed Over High Prices. Republicans Worry It Will Cost Them.
• Crypto Prices Jump After Trump Announces Five Tokens for Strategic Reserve (Wildly corrupt and stupid.)
• RFK Jr. urges people to get vaccinated amid deadly Texas outbreak
• Federal Officials Underplaying Measles Vaccination, Experts Say
• Trump’s Order to Make English Official Language Does Nothing But Embolden Xenophobia
• The Gilded Age Is Back — And That Should Worry Conservatives
• Trump Is Breaking Things We Can’t Just Fix
• Pentagon guts national security program that harnessed social science
• Trump Moves to Increase Logging in National Forests (F*** TR**P)
• ‘Full on Fight Club’: How Trump Is Crushing U.S. Climate Policy (AGain, F*** TR**P)
• Supreme Court justices tread carefully as collision with Trump looms (“Taken together, the threats from Trump and the litigation – including one case that alleges the administration is already defying federal courts – have made an institution naturally inclined to avoid to politics even more keen to keep the temperature low.”)
• Government shutdown looms as Trump tries to assert new spending powers
• AP Editor Speaks Out About Battle With Trump White House: It’s Not About ‘Gulf of America,’ It’s About ‘Something So Much Bigger’
• All or Nothing review: Michael Wolff details Trump’s bilious re-election campaign (“The president’s least favorite biographer again exposes the grotesque pettiness of Trump as he willed his way back to power” The fact that 10s of millions of Americans voted for Trump is beyond appalling.)
• FAA staff reportedly ordered to find funding for deal with Musk’s Starlink (Imagine the reaction if the Biden administration had done this with George Soros or some other huge Democratic donor???)
• ‘Democrats have been playing dead for too many years’ (“Bernie Sanders rejects a strategist’s advice to Democrats to make ‘strategic political retreat.'”)
• Centrist Dem group rails against leftist identity politics and purity tests (I definitely don’t like “Third Way,” but it’s true that identity politics – and note that it’s MAGA which does that the most, by far! – and “purity tests” are not helpful for Democrats.)
• Poll: Majorities say state of the union is not strong, and Trump is rushing change (“56% of Americans, including 65% of independents, think President Trump has been rushing to make changes without considering the impact”; “60% of residents believe most federal government employees are essential to the functioning of the United States.” Both should be 100%.)
• Democrats grapple with Trump, democracy and an argument that didn’t work
• Shake-up for Trump era gives liberal MSNBC a whiter, more centrist look
• Democrats Invite Fired Federal Workers to Trump’s Congressional Address
• ‘I’m selling the Nazi mobile’: Tesla owners offload cars after Musk’s fascist-style salutes
• ‘This Feels Like a Repeat’: Republicans Try To Get A Handle On Their Town Hall Problem (“Downplaying town hall rage is a storied tradition in Washington and something that has boded poorly for the party in power.”)
• Amid West Texas measles outbreak, vaccine resistance hardens (Idiocracy.)
• Wyden to skip Trump’s first speech to Congress, hold town hall instead (Other Dems should do similar things – hold town halls, hold a rally in front of the US Capitol, walk out of Trump’s speech, etc. No matter what, the LAST thing Dems should do is to normalize Trump, because what’s happening right now is the opposite of normal…)
• Democrats plan a different kind of response to Trump’s big speech (“Their less pugilistic approach is the latest sign the party is still coming to terms with how to confront the president.” Stupid.)
• ‘If you just came here to yell, I can leave,’ Trump-supporting Oregon congressman tells crowd of angry rural voters
• Video: On CNN, Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA10) Tells Falsehood-Spewing, Pro-Trump Pundit Defending DOGE, “this is not constitutional at all”; “You should come to my town halls…talk to some of these federal workers” (Subramanyam: “No, that’s really happening.”)
• Commentary: In fight against Trump, D.C. Dems should look to Richmond
• Enough already: Extend the length of Virginia’s regular legislative sessions (“Virginia doesn’t look anything like it did a half-century ago. It’s absurd the General Assembly tries to legislate under the same constrictions.” Agreed 100% – we badly need reform and professionalization of our General Assembly. But we almost certainly won’t get it, as legislators seem to like the current system – same thing with campaign finance.)
• Video, Speeches, Straw Poll Results for Virginia Dems’ AG, LG Candidates From Mt. Vernon Dems’ Mardi Gras Party Saturday Night (Shannon Taylor won the AG poll 163-23; Babur Lateef won the LG poll 81-39-31-26-5-4)
• The most important poll in Virginia last week wasn’t about the governor’s race (“Instead, it was the Roanoke College poll that showed consumers are increasngly pessimistic about the economy. Here’s how that pessimism plays into politics.”)
• With federal cuts looming, Northern Virginia localities face budget crunch (“In a region where 1 in 8 workers are federal civilians, uncertainty over the federal government is are leaving localities with some difficult choices ahead.”)
• ‘I don’t understand why you care’ (“Bagby, now a candidate for Dem party chair, brushes off concerns about his close relationship with VARR”)
• Probation ends in termination for Va. FEMA worker caught in mass layoffs
• ODU study finds $15 billion in damage could occur if Category 3 storm hits Hampton Roads
• Va. lawmakers approve $5.8 million relief for wrongfully convicted man
• CWG Live updates: Cold today but fast warmup follows and then rain, thunder (“Storms on Wednesday could be strong and are followed by cooler weather Thursday into the weekend.”)