Wednesday News: “The West Is on Fire. It’s Past Time to Act on Climate Change.”; “The anti-American right”; “If Cuomo had any self-respect, he’d resign”; “Nina Turner Learns the Hard Way That Democrats Like Joe Biden”; “Youngkin can’t shake election conspiracy theories”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, August 4.

• Climate Change Could Devastate Emperor Penguins, U.S. Officials Warn (“The Fish and Wildlife Service announced a proposal on Tuesday to list the birds as a threatened species.”)
• Net zero target for 2050 is too slow, and a strategy for climate failure (Agreed; need to move it up to 2035 or whatever.)
• Don’t ask whether we should leave Afghanistan. Ask why we didn’t win. (“Leaving a war already lost is different than leaving prematurely.”)
• China Scrambles to Halt Delta Variant as Outbreak Widens
• Belarusian Olympic Athlete Who Refused to Go Home Says She Will Never Return
• Beirut marks one year since port blast with anger and mourning
• England reopened amid a Delta surge, then cases fell. Are there lessons for the U.S.?
• The Taliban Say They’ve Changed. Experts Aren’t Buying It And Fear For Afghanistan
• Blast in Afghan capital as Taliban claim attack on minister’s compound
• Analysis: Reality bites: China’s meddling cools but can’t reverse hot commodity prices
• Iran’s Rapid Oil Return Looks Less Likely After Ship Attacks
• Twists and Turns Add Doubt to Haiti’s Assassination Investigation (“Nearly a month after Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was killed, the circumstances are just as murky, with no shortage of suspects and speculation—and more new questions than answers”)
• Stop whining about solar panels — we need more now (“An all-hands-on deck approach to 100 percent renewable energy is needed”)
• One policy that could challenge a century of fossil-fuel dominance (“A clean electricity standard could be ‘the biggest change in our energy policy since the lights went on.'”)
• The West Is on Fire. It’s Past Time to Act on Climate Change.
• Cruelty toward wolves is erasing conservation efforts. It’s time to reinstate their protections. (Humans at their worst.)
• Yellen says enacting Biden’s agenda key to keeping America as ‘world’s pre-eminent economic power’
• F.D.A. Aims to Give Final Approval to Pfizer Vaccine by Early Next Month
• Delta’s peak is difficult to project, but could come this month
• When delta strikes: Latest coronavirus surges grow faster, hit record heights in Louisiana, Florida
• Where conservatives’ arguments about public health mandates go wrong (“Public health authorities have been imposing on Americans’ liberties for centuries.”)
• You Won’t Believe Who the Anti-Vaxxers Blame for the COVID Surge
• Is the Delta Variant Making Younger Adults ‘Sicker, Quicker’?
• Unvaccinated Americans not changing their behavior, report finds (“A Kaiser Family Foundation survey finds wide differences in attitudes about the Covid-19 vaccines.”)
• Biden tells governors to ‘get out of the way’ if they won’t help on vaccines (“The president — calling out Texas and Florida — criticized state measures that penalize schools and businesses for requiring masks or vaccines. He also encouraged cities to mandate vaccinations for people to enter public places.”)
• Delta infections among vaccinated likely contagious; Lambda variant shows vaccine resistance in lab
• Vaccine passports are more important than ever
• Despite all the disinformation, Americans are finally waking up to the covid-19 crisis
• Unvaccinated People Need to Bear the Burden (“Beyond limiting the coronavirus’s flow from hot spots to the rest of the country, allowing only vaccinated people on domestic flights will change minds, too.” Absolutely – no brainer!)
• Biden administration planning to announce new action to limit housing evictions
• CDC Issues Eviction Order in Areas of Substantial and High Transmission
• Biden administration preparing to offer vaccines to migrants along Mexico border
• Biden’s New Eviction Ban Eases Liberal Ire at Cost of Legal Risk
• Biden shows he’s ready to make drastic moves in Covid-19 fight — even if he’s not sure they’re legal
• New hurdle slows $1 trillion infrastructure bill (“Senate action on a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill has slowed to a crawl as lawmakers haggle over more than 250 proposed amendments to the legislation…Senators say they expect the bipartisan package to come up for a final series of votes as soon as this weekend. But the timing will depend on whether Republican senators, in particular, feel they’ve been given enough chance to make changes to the legislation. “)
• The anti-American right (“Rooting against Olympians, scoffing at Capitol police, broaching civil war — meet today’s conservative movement.”)
• ‘Recess Can Wait’: State Lawmakers Urge U.S. Senate To Pass Voting Rights Bill (Agreed. Stay there and get it done.)
• The fight for America’s future won’t be won or lost in Washington — it runs through the states (David Toscano: “Voting rights are in trouble — but Congress and the courts can’t save us. The real fight is in state capitals”)
• A guide to right-wing media’s “critical race theory” strategy
• Trump Reacts To Latest Tax Returns Ruling Like a Man Who Has Committed All Manner of Fraud (“It sure sounds like the ex-president has a whole bunch of stuff to hide. “)
• Trump’s latest effort to conceal his corruption requires Democrats to act (“Let’s treat Trump’s corrupt legacy as another post-Watergate moment requiring major reform.”)
• A Trump bombshell quietly dropped last week. And it should shock us all
• DOJ officials rejected colleague’s request to intervene in Georgia’s election certification: Emails
• Facebook silences the people who know its operations best
• Obama Significantly Scales Back 60th Birthday Party as Virus Cases Rebound
• Tucker Carlson’s Orban Lovefest Is a Dark Glimpse of the Future MAGA Wants (“The Fox News star broadcasts from Budapest this week, seemingly to sell his viewers on the Hungarian strongman’s depressingly familiar and deeply dangerous authoritarianism.”)
• Donations fizzle to GOP AG group involved in Jan. 6 rally
• Website Run by ‘Dumbest Man on the Internet’ Helped Fuel Trump’s Effort to Cancel Democracy (“Trump told officials that they were not ‘following the internet the way I do’ as he tried to subvert the election. He was referring in part to conspiracy site The Gateway Pundit.”)
• ‘Ignore us at your peril’: Democrats fear losing House as party leaders push to sharpen message
• Democrats are worried about the midterms. Can their agenda save them?
• House Dem campaign chief warns the majority at risk without message reboot (Jennifer Wexton, “who flipped a GOP district in 2018 and is now a co-chair of the frontline program, said she wanted to make sure ‘that we turn out every vote we turned out in 2018 and 2020’ and was confident she’d keep her seat next fall.”)
• Biden calls for Cuomo to resign after investigation finds the New York governor sexually harassed 11 women
• Andrew Cuomo Must Go. If He Won’t Resign, He Must Be Impeached.
• Andrew Cuomo is unfit for office
• Kicking Cuomo to the curb: Democrats evolve on the politics of #MeToo (“Biden and other Democrats get it: Kicking Cuomo to the curb is not just the right thing to do, it’s smart politics”)
• ‘Completely Violated’: Women Describe Cuomo’s Groping and Intimidation
• What to Know About Kathy Hochul, Cuomo’s Possible Successor (“Ms. Hochul, who has served as New York’s lieutenant governor since 2015, would become the first female governor in the state’s history if Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned or was removed from office.”)
• New York Voters React to Cuomo Report: ‘I’ve Had Enough’
• Entire NY Democratic congressional delegation now calling for Cuomo’s resignation
• Will Cuomo resign? Powerful men have a history of not backing down
• How on Earth Does Cuomo Survive This? (Hopefully he doesn’t)
• Andrew Cuomo Finds Himself Friendless
• The evidence is damning. If Cuomo had any self-respect, he’d resign
• You Should Resign, Governor Cuomo
• New details emerge about how CNN anchor Chris Cuomo advised Gov. Andrew Cuomo in sex harassment inquiry
• Chris Cuomo Completely Ignores Brother’s Scandal on First Show After Report Drops
• Missouri governor pardons Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who waved guns at protesters (Completely nuts; epitomizes today’s extremist Republican Party)
• Democratic Insider and a Republican Backed by Trump Win Ohio House Races (“The victories by Shontel Brown, a Democrat supported by the national establishment, and Mike Carey, a Republican endorsed by Donald Trump, provided a lift to the leadership of both parties.”)
• Nina Turner Learns the Hard Way That Democrats Like Joe Biden (“The lefty hopeful blew a race for Congress when it turned into a referendum on her disdain for party leaders.”)
• What Does Progressive Darling Nina Turner’s Loss in Ohio Say About the Democratic Party? (“We don’t want to over-extrapolate from one result, especially as other races in recent memory have gone progressives’ way. But messing with Jim Clyburn remains a bad idea.”)
• Five takeaways from the Ohio special primaries
• New York City is expected to require proof of vaccination for indoor dining and fitness.
• As Coronavirus Rages In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis Melts Down Over Ice Cream (Total douchebag.)
• Arizona Officials Fed Up With Election “Audit”
• Passenger Arrives Taped to a Seat and Is Charged With Assaulting Flight Attendants
• AG Mark Herring Joins 22 Attorneys General In Calling On Congress To Urgently Pass Legislation to Safeguard Democracy
• Inside Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin’s long career at Carlyle
• Video: DPVA, Mayor Levar Stoney Highlight Glenn Youngkin’s Dangerous Economic Agenda (“Glenn’s agenda would be beyond damaging to our economy — to communities and families across Virginia”)
• Virginia’s Youngkin can’t shake election conspiracy theories (“When it comes to the ridiculous ‘reinstatement’ theory, Marjorie Taylor Greene’s line was more responsible than Glenn Youngkin’s line. It’s a bad sign.”)
• Editorial: Youngkin’s economic plan is pretty disappointing (It’s complete crap.)
• Former Trump national security advisor is coming to Virginia to campaign for a congressional candidate (Yep, it’s Michael Flynn, yet again showing how completely unhinged and dangerous today’s Republican Party is.)
• Over 100 Rural Virginia Leaders Endorse Terry McAuliffe
• New Digital Ad: “Johnny” Features Clarke County Farmer, Johnny Hardesty, Focuses on Terry McAuliffe’s Robust Record on Agriculture
• Virginia Eviction Protections Could Be Extended as Filings Rise
• State budget, politics collide as House rejects amendments, Senate set to act on 142
• The Va. House GOP came up with a spending plan. It lasted 2 minutes. (Good riddance.)
• Virginia House Republicans pitch alternate plan for federal relief money with an eye toward elections
• Greenhouse gas pact will open door to weatherization for Virginia households
• Gov. Northam, Dr. Fauci hold ‘tele-townhall’ to discuss importance of COVID-19 vaccine
• Tuesday (8/3) Virginia Data on COVID-19: With Delta Now Dominant, Hospitalizations At Highest Level Since Late May, 1-Day New COVID Cases (+1,403) Highest Since 4/17; 10-Day New Cases (+9,639) Highest Since 5/1
• Virginia Beach delegate candidate Tim Anderson campaigned against COVID relief funds, but received nearly $750K for his businesses
• Hala Ayala For LG on Winsome Sears “doubl[ing] down on her extreme views and join[ing] ‘Audit the Vote’ protesters outside of the State Capitol today”
• Miyares, Sears don’t plan to attend ‘election integrity’ rally at Liberty University
• Lawmakers ask SCC to analyze Dominion rates with an eye on refunds for customers
• Governor Northam Announces Five New Historical Markers Highlighting Asian American and Pacific Islander History in Virginia
• Liberal Virginia prosecutors’ ouster sought by petition (Ridiculous.)
• Pentagon police officer dies in stabbing outside metro entrance, assailant shot dead (Ugh, horrible.)
• CDC has enacted a new ban on evictions until Oct. 3. Here’s what that means for Hampton Roads.
• Prince William police chief: Use of force has ‘disproportionate impact’ on Black residents
• Richmond NAACP, civic leaders consider litigation, recall campaign as mayor and school board remain divided over George Wythe
• ‘We just want to get ahead of this variant’: Hungry? Bring your vax card – some Richmond eateries asking patrons to show proof
• Split Roanoke County School Board votes against K-5 mask mandate
• D.C.-area forecast: Continued cool for August before heating up Friday into the weekend