Friday News: “Unhinged” Trump “Endorses Hanging Democratic Members of Congress” (and Rs are Mostly Silent); “Why Democrats are warning about Trump giving illegal orders”; “The CDC’s Website Is Anti-Vaccine Now”; “GOP barrels toward ObamaCare cliff”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, November 21.

• International Effort to Curb Emissions of a Climate Super Pollutant Falls Short, UN Report Reveals (“Methane emissions continue to climb despite a pledge by countries to curb climate pollution.”)
• Cop30 draft text omits mention of fossil fuel phase-out roadmap (“Exclusive: Summit leadership releases new text despite 29 nations threatening to block progress without commitment”)
• US Is (Officially) Gone, But Not Forgotten, at COP30 (“From fossil fuel politics to state-level climate action and intelligence monitoring, American influence remains deeply woven into the global climate talks.”)
• Asian and European Stocks Fall Over Fears of an A.I. Bubble
• A.I. Growth Has Been Eye-Popping, but Some Worry About a House of Cards
• Ukraine working with U.S. on new peace plan as details emerge (“A senior Ukrainian official on Friday urged allies to respect Kyiv’s position and stressed that it was still reviewing the proposal, whose sudden emergence has fueled unease across Europe.”)
• Europe scrambles to respond to US plan for Ukraine and ‘aggressive timeline’
• Oil prices and energy stocks fall sharply on Trump’s new Ukraine peace plan
• European Leaders to Talk With Zelenskiy on US-Russian Plan
• Trump’s growing impatience to end Ukraine war is a concern for Kyiv
• Breaking: Putin Plays His Ultimate Hand (“Trump and the Kremlin team up to reorder the world”)
• Ukraine would cede territory to Russia in draft of Trump peace plan obtained by AP (100% unacceptable, disgraceful by Trump.)
• Trump peace plan for Ukraine includes NATO-style security guarantee (Here’s a real peace plan: 1) Putin immediately withdraws ALL Russian troops from Ukraine; 2) we give Ukraine everything it needs to defend itself going forward, including membership in NATO; 3) Russia pays massive reparations and its officials face war crimes charges.)
• Zelensky ready to work with US on ‘their vision’ for ending Ukraine war
• Russian forces take Ukraine’s Kupiansk, top military official says, Ukraine denies it
• Top Ukraine security official denies accepting terms of Trump’s peace plan
• White House was unaware US ambassador to Israel met with convicted spy (“The White House was unaware of a meeting between U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Jonathan Pollard, the former U.S. Navy analyst who spent three decades in prison for spying for Israel, spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday.” WTF???)
• Anti-Hamas armed groups seek future role under Gaza peace plan
• ‘Oh my God, this is our Tanzania’: CNN investigation shows police fatally shooting protesters, signs of mass graves
• U.S. Banks Shelve $20 Billion Bailout Plan for Argentina (“Bankers are instead discussing a smaller, short-term facility to help Argentina make a roughly $4 billion debt payment in January”)
• The FBI spied on a Signal group chat of immigration activists, records reveal (“Exclusive: Agency accessed private conversations of New York ‘courtwatch’ group that was observing public hearings”)
• Trump DOJ Defies Another Court Order in Abrego Garcia Case
• Judge Rules That National Guard Deployment In DC Is Illegal, Concerned That 2,000 Troops May Become ‘Permanent’
• Judge Temporarily Blocks Deployment of National Guard in Washington
• CDC website altered to reflect RFK Jr’s belief in link between vaccines and autism (“Public health and autism specialists roundly condemn alteration to the ‘vaccine safety’ webpage”)
• The CDC’s Website Is Anti-Vaccine Now (“The agency’s revamped vaccine-safety page enshrines Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s fringe beliefs as government guidance.”)
• Our Depressing Vaccine Future Laid Bare on the C.D.C. Website
• Cassidy after CDC vaccine website change: ‘Life is lived forward’ (And looking forward, Cassidy needs to lose his seat!)
• Trump administration proposes opening waters off California and Florida to oil drilling (INSANE.)
• GOP barrels toward ObamaCare cliff as prospects dim for subsidy extensions
• Rick Scott releases Obamacare subsidy alternative (“His approach would create Trump Freedom Accounts for states that choose to get a waiver.” Batshit.)
• Middle Class Is Buckling Under Almost Five Years of Persistent Inflation (“Workers are growing tired of an economy in which everything seems to get more expensive.”)
• Refusing to Buy Trump’s Economic Lies (“His increasingly transparent BS isn’t working as Americans struggle to make ends meet”)
• How billionaires took over American politics (Appalling.)
• Federal Workers Ask Judge To Block Trump’s ‘Loyalty’ Question On Job Applications (“One federal employee said in a court filing that they ‘cannot in good conscience pretend to agree with President Trump’s policies.'”)
• Outrage after Trump accuses Democrats of ‘seditious behavior, punishable by death’
• Why Democrats are warning about Trump giving illegal orders
• Trump says Democrats’ message to military is ‘seditious behavior’ punishable by death
• ‘HANG THEM’: Trump Boosts Message Calling For Executing Democrats In Congress (If this isn’t one of your top headlines – preferably THE top headline – in your paper today, basically WTF are you even doing???)
• Trump accuses Democrats of ‘seditious behavior, punishable by death,’ for urging military to ignore illegal orders
• Democratic hawks defiant after Trump accuses them of ‘seditious’ act (Bizarre framing, focused on Dems being “defiant” but not on the fact that Trump is evil, dangerous, unhinged, needs to be impeached immediately, etc.)
• Democrats fear political violence after Trump accuses Congress members of ‘seditious behavior, punishable by death’
• Right-wing media figures are calling a recent video from Democratic lawmakers “treason” and “sedition”
• Trump Endorses Hanging Democratic Members of Congress
• Vance pleads for ‘patience’ on the economy in sharp departure from Trump’s rhetoric (LOL)
• Vance says Americans need patience on prices but says ‘We hear you’ on affordability concerns
• President Piggy (“This is what consequence-free misogyny looks like.”)
• Karoline Leavitt Defends Trump’s ‘Quiet, Piggy’ Insult By Suggesting We Should Be… Grateful? (How does Leavitt live with herself?)
• Scoop: Mike Johnson wants changes after being outflanked on Epstein files (“Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is weighing a crackdown on House discharge petitions, just days after one forced President Trump’s hand on the Epstein files.”)
• Suddenly, Steve Bannon isn’t interested in transparency around Epstein anymore (“Steve Bannon was loud about Epstein disclosure — until emails revealed his own very cozy relationship”)
• The House is scrambling to avoid a censure death spiral
• Congressional Republicans Begin to Look Beyond Trump
• Poll: Voters support partisan gerrymandering to win the midterms
• Short on Cash, D.N.C. Took Out $15 Million Loan in October
• In reversal, Coast Guard again classifies swastikas, nooses as hate symbols
• Dick Cheney’s Long, Strange Goodbye (“On seeing Rachel Maddow at the former Vice-President’s funeral, while Donald Trump threatened Democrats on social media with death by hanging.”)
• What the Cheney funeral says about current U.S. and GOP politics (“Those sitting in the pews summoned images of a bygone era when raw partisanship was not what defined leadership.” Stupid – that is NOT the problem right now; the problem is we have a wannabe dictator, a corrupt scumbag, etc. as our president, and that the REPUBLICAN PARTY just goes along with him. Of course, Karen Tumulty is the same person who wrote puff pieces about Glenn Youngkin, so…)
• Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot ranks him as world history’s greatest human (Musk, of course, is the opposite of that. So much for Grok…)
• Elon Musk Could ‘Drink Piss Better Than Any Human in History,’ Grok Says
• Elon Musk’s Grok AI tells users he is fitter than LeBron James and smarter than Leonardo da Vinci
• 5 things to watch as Mamdani, Trump meet at the White House
• Cory Mills Was Caught With Sex Workers Before Mission to Afghanistan in 2021, Sources Say (Republican Congressman.)
• Nydia Velázquez, a New York Trailblazer in Congress, to Retire Next Year (“Ms. Velázquez, 72, a 16-term congresswoman, said it was time for a new generation of Democrats to step forward.”)
• Virginia Democratic Leaders Condemn Trump’s “beyond the pale,” “unhinged, dangerous, and un-American” Death Threats Against Democratic Lawmakers “who encouraged servicemembers to follow the law” (Virginia Republicans, meanwhile, are SILENT.)
• Trump calls for death penalty for Democrats: Republicans respond with silence (“We’re not hearing from, for instance, Ben Cline or John McGuire, our two local Republican congressmen; Cline’s latest public pronouncement is him bragging about recognizing a constituent on the occasion of his 100th birthday; McGuire posted thanks to the Virginia Chamber of Commerce for lunch. They’re worthless.”)
• Video: Sen. Mark Warner Raises the Alarm About Trump’s “Dangerous” Attacks on National Security, Politicization of US Intelligence Community and Federal Law Enforcement (“We are watching in real time an administration strip away the guardrails that have protected this country for generations”)
• Video: Del. Marcus Simon Discusses in Detail the Thinking, Process, Republicans’ “completely bogus arguments” Against, etc. Regarding a New VA Redistricting Amendment in 2026 (Bottom line: VA Dems are trying to “address a very specific threat to democracy,” namely Trump “encourag[ing] [red] states to…unfairly draw their maps to steal an election for him in 2026.”)
• The Politics Hour: U.S. Rep James Walkinshaw on what’s ahead for Virginia
• Former Navy pilot seeks to challenge Wittman
• Pope & Schapiro: The Spanberger transition
• Va. Dems eye affordable housing policy ahead of General Assembly session
• Spanberger and senators get a dour economic forecast: Virginia is trading high-wage jobs for lower-wage ones (“The governor-elect and Senate Finance Committee also heard about how artificial intelligence is eliminating many entry-level jobs and making it harder for young adults to enter the workforce.”)
• Youngkin touts yet another data center project: The guy doesn’t get it, does he? (Youngkin: “Virginia is the data center capital of the world, and I am thrilled that CleanArc has selected Caroline County as the site to invest $3 billion for their newest data center campus”)
• CleanArc Data Centers invests whopping $3 billion in Caroline County
• Richmond Audio Hack
• Radio IQ hacked, broadcasts ‘offensive material’ in Richmond
• Starbucks workers protesting in Richmond, temporarily close some stores
• Head of Va. homeless shelter admits to embezzling funds to buy tattoo, antiques (“Kia A. Player requested government funds to run a homeless shelter in Richmond. She spent some of the money on travel excursions and furniture for herself.”)
• Details emerge on inmate who police say killed Virginia corrections officer
• Kempsville High School assistant principal arrested, charged with making threats against ICE and police (“Two Virginia Beach men are accused of threatening ICE and local law enforcement.”)
• Virginia’s second-largest city is finally building a pool; it shouldn’t have taken so long (“Public pools provide opportunities for people of all races and income levels to learn how to swim, prevent drowning, and acquire a skill that will last a lifetime, writes columnist Roger Chesley.”)
• Questions remain in dispute over Jim Ryan’s exit at UVA
• Psychologist says UVA shooter was not legally insane
• She used ChatGPT to win the Virginia lottery and then donated every dollar (“Carrie Edwards, a Virginia retiree, won $150,000 in a Powerball drawing using numbers recommended by ChatGPT, then donated the jackpot to three charities she holds dear”)
• CWG Live: Clouds and rising rain chances, especially tonight; clearer by Saturday afternoon (“A quarter to a half inch of rain may fall into tomorrow morning. Sunday and Monday are looking sunny.”)