Sunday News: “Don’t let Donald Trump undermine your faith in the climate fight”; “Yes, It IS a Police State. And Yes, You Can Do Something”; “In Trump’s America, stupidity is the official language”; “Earle-Sears Is Four Years Late for the Outrage Cycle”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Sunday, August 24.

• The Tiny Ocean Organisms That Could Help the Climate in a Big Way (“Scientists are exploring whether encouraging phytoplankton growth could reduce atmospheric carbon without unintended side effects.”)
• Don’t let Donald Trump undermine your faith in the climate fight (“The president’s fossil-fuel obsession can’t stop global progress, writes the former Environmental Protection Agency head”)
• Why wind farms attract so much misinformation and conspiracy theory (“If you think climate change is a hoax, you might believe wind turbines poison groundwater.” The stupidest, craziest people in the world believe this crap.)
• Trump sends letter of support on Ukraine’s Independence Day, as Zelensky says Kyiv ‘will not lose’ the war
• Pentagon Has Quietly Blocked Ukraine’s Long-Range Missile Strikes on Russia (“The Defense Department has withheld approval for attacks as the White House has sought to entice Moscow to open peace talks” Pathetic.)
• Moscow says Kyiv has struck a nuclear power plant as Ukraine marks independence day
• Ukraine drone hits Russian nuclear plant, sparks huge fire at Novatek’s Ust-Luga terminal
• Peace Talks in Ukraine All Lead to the Donbas
• Why Haven’t Sanctions on Russia Stopped the War? The Money Is Still Flowing. (Do sanctions ever work?)
• Inside Putin’s Fossil-Fueled Victory Lap in Alaska (“No sanctions, no cease-fire, no security guarantee, but plenty of fossil fuel deals brew after Trump’s cringeworthy Putin-appeasement on Ukraine”)
• Frustrated, Trump signals pause in his Ukraine peace effort
• Israel pounds Gaza City suburbs, vows to press on with offensive (What the hell is the end game? Meanwhile, famnine is growing, which is a wildly unacceptable situation.)
• Decades After Genocide, Rwanda Emerges as Aggressive Regional Power (“The tiny country has evolved from an object of sympathy into a controversial and feared powerhouse.”)
• How GOP Lawmakers Are Privately Distancing Themselves From Trump’s Tariffs (Useless – vote every one of these Republicans out of office.)
• Kilmar Abrego Garcia notified by ICE that he may be deported to Uganda (“Abrego, wrongfully deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador, now faces removal to Uganda just a day after being freed from a Tennessee jail.”)
• ICE Is Constantly Using Coast Guard Planes to Move Immigrants (“Coast Guard planes mostly used for search and rescue have done hundreds of secret ICE flights in recent weeks, including one caught on video” Inexcusable.)
• US immigrant population down by more than a million people amid Trump crackdown (Really bad – these people do jobs that most native-born Americans won’t do, but are essential, whether caring for the elderly or growing/harvesting food, etc.)
• Army base used for WWII Japanese internment now nation’s largest ICE detention center (Well THAT is appropriate – appropriately bad!)
• Pentagon plans military deployment in Chicago as Trump eyes crackdown
• Pritzker Calls Trump’s Threat to Target Chicago Next ‘An Authoritarian Grab of Major Cities’ (Just imagine the reaction if Biden had sent the military and/or National Guard to patrol “red” states/areas?)
• Mass. mom detained by ICE for 10 days over decades-old minor marijuana charge (WTF???)
• Homeland Security Dept. Says It Hasn’t Kept Text Message Data Since April (“The agency’s response to public records requests indicated potential violations of federal records laws, experts said.”)
• Higher tariffs are kicking in. Here’s what Walmart and other retailers said about their impact
• US Inflation to Edge Up as Powell Shifts on Job Market
• Businesses bringing back recession specials could be the latest sign of deteriorating consumer sentiment
• The Economics of Stagflation, Part II (“What will follow the Trump shock?”)
• When the rule of law becomes rule of lawfare (“Friday’s Bolton raid and the rebuke of Trump’s $500 million fine show what happens when justice is not impartial.”)
• Trump Ran On A Promise Of Revenge — And He’s Making Good On It (Yep, he said it over and over again. The question is, why the hell did ANYONE vote for this???)
• ‘Pattern of lawfare’: Trump is targeting opponents with mortgage fraud claims (“First Letitia James, then Adam Schiff and now president has trained his ire on Lisa Cook, threatening to fire Fed governor”)
• Yes, It IS a Police State. And Yes, You Can Do Something (“In the short term, the answer must be to use what tools remain to fight back—even at the risk of becoming the targets of the next wave of MAGA retribution.”)
• Former DHS official signals he could be next after Bolton FBI raid: ‘We expect it’
• What Americans Need to Know About the Bolton F.B.I. Search (“The rule of law depends as much on public perception as it does on following it in practice. Throughout our history, the F.B.I. has learned the hard way — a few times — that the American people need to believe in the legitimacy of federal law enforcement for it to be effective.”)
• Letters from an American (“In these last days of August, with Congress on hiatus and the Epstein files looming, the Trump White House appears to be making a big move to consolidate power over the federal government, weaponize it against Trump’s opponents, and keep him in power indefinitely.”)
• Trump Gets His Revenge on John Bolton. Who’s Next?
• States vow to fight Trump official’s stop-work order on offshore wind farm (“Rhode Island and Connecticut officials say project, slated to power 350,000 homes, is essential to their climate goals”)
• The Trump Administration Dismisses the Endangered Species List as ‘Hotel California.’ But There’s Far More to the Story (“A small percentage of species protected by the law have ever recovered, but an even smaller fraction have gone extinct. With all the threats they face, including long-shrinking federal support, that’s an achievement, scientists note.”)
• Trump’s redistricting push could bring decades of Republican rule to the US House
• Williams: In Trump’s America, stupidity is the official language
• Trump’s Slavish Stupidity (“It’s going to take a long time to fix all the horrible overreaches of this president…Trump whitewashing slavery is the ultimate act of white privilege from a nepo baby who is the apotheosis of white privilege.”)
• Trump’s targeting of Black communities is not a coincidence (“For decades, he’s conflated non-whiteness with danger and crime.” Absolutely accurate!)
• Reframing Jan. 6: After the Pardons, the Purge (Garland et al had our chance, four years to bring all these people to justice, and badly failed.)
• Justice Department gave Ghislaine Maxwell ‘a platform to rewrite history,’ family of Epstein abuse survivor says (Yes, the “abuse survivor says” that, but the media could, just COULD – if it wanted to do its job – weigh in on whether or not the claim is accurate. Which, in this case, it is!)
• The Maxwell transcripts: Trump’s lawyer gives away the game (“Todd Blanche gave the convicted sex trafficker ample opportunity to disparage victims—but became laser-focused on matters related to Trump.”)
• Conservative Pundit Cornered On CNN For Touting Ghislaine Maxwell Prison Interview (“You’ve become the party of protecting pedophiles”)
• Almost all the Epstein files given to Congress were already public, Democrats say (Why does this headline need to have the “Democrats say” part, when the newspaper could, in fact, figure out if “almost all the Epstein files given to Congress were already public.” Which, of course, if the newspaper spent a few minutes checking, they’d find that those files were, indeed, already public. Intead, they hide behind “Democrats say” language. Very telling.)
• Epstein files released to Congress are mostly ‘recycled’ documents, Democrat says (And another “Democrat says” formulation.)
• Epstein Files Have Two Major Time Bombs for Trump: Author (“Timing is everything in Trumpland, and the clock is ticking, according to Trump biographer Michael Wolff.”)
• Mail-in voting backed by most Americans despite Trump push to end it
• Mamdani raises over $1M in latest NYC fundraising haul, drowning out Cuomo, Adams (For better or worse, Mamdani is probably going to be the next mayor of NY City. The good news is, he can’t help but being an upgrade from the atrocious, corrupt, etc. Eric Adams.)
• Was It Something The Democrats Said? (“The data show that many of these phrases barely exist in constituent communications, and when they do, Republicans are often the ones writing them either to lampoon Democrats or to spotlight them as proof of ‘wokeness.'”)
• A Summer Afternoon in Washington D.C. (“How it looks when a terrorizing government scares people away.”)
• Trump’s Military Occupation of DC Crashes Into Reality—Literally (“Armored vehicles running red lights, feds busting residents for pot. All coming to a city near you.”)
• CASEY: Activists rent downtown Roanoke billboard to slam Rep. Ben Cline (Cline is everything you shouldn’t want in a Congressman.)
• Paul Riley: What exactly has John McGuire done for the past 6 months?
• ODU Poll of Hampton Roads: Spanberger +21 pts. Over Earle-Sears (48%-27%); In 2021, McAuliffe Won This Area by 9 pts. Over Youngkin (Trump at a horrible 33.4%-65.7% approval in Hampton Roads; Dems up 50%-26% for House of Delegates)
• Fmr. VA Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R/Trump Voter) on Trump Deal to Give US Government 10% Share of Intel: “Isn’t government ownership of the means of production one of the basic tenants of socialism?” (“BTW, Bernie Sanders supports this, while Rand Paul opposes it. That should make your head spin.”)
• Opinion: Earle-Sears targets MAGA’s latest political demon: kids
• Earle-Sears Is Four Years Late for the Outrage Cycle (“Signgate shows that Virginia’s Republican candidate for governor has missed the moment.” “But 2025 is not 2021. And though the threat of transgender bathrooms will always loom large for the socially conservative wing of the Virginia electorate, the greatest concern facing voters in the state is the cost of living”)
• Editorial: As VWU rebrands as Batten University, its mission of service continues (“The Batten family’s generosity has helped Virginia Wesleyan University pursue its ambitious mission. As Batten University, the school’s goals remain the same.”)
• CWG Live updates: An isolated shower or storm possible today, then a beautiful workweek (“A warm and humid end to the weekend with a cool down on the way.”)