by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, January 8.
Ted Cruz knows that. He also knows the Fox News Taliban Council will not allow their MAGA rubes to hear that from his lips without ordering him stoned in the town square for blasphemy. So he’s groveling for mercy.
He deserves none. https://t.co/YIze4yf89j
— Jeff Timmer (@jefftimmer) January 8, 2022
- Studies Help Show Why Omicron Is Mild, Spreads Fast
- Omicron variant disrupts vaccine makers’ ability to meet demand
- US sees image tarnished abroad post-Jan. 6 (And for very good reason.)
- South African hospital sees less serious disease, coming end of Omicron surge
- China’s real estate problems are spreading even to once-healthy developers (Not good.)
- Mystery Surrounds Absence of Kazakhstan’s Longtime Leader
- Blinken accuses Russia of ‘false narrative’ on Ukraine ahead of talks
- Kazakhstan Arrests Ex-Security Head as Putin’s Troops Bring Calm (“Calm?” Very very weird word to usse about this. More like “fear,” “repression,” etc.)
- Ukraine Is Only One Small Part of Putin’s Plans (“Mr. Putin’s design is grand: to refashion the post-Cold War settlement, in the process guaranteeing the survival of Russia’s personalized power system.”)
- Novak Djokovic puts more people than himself in danger
- How Soon Will COVID Be “Normal”? (“Even as the Omicron wave spikes, some outside experts believe that the time has come for Anthony Fauci and the White House to declare a new phase in the pandemic.”)
- America’s Omicron Wave Already Looks More Severe Than Europe’s
- ‘Morale is low’: US teachers push back on school reopenings amid Omicron wave (“Educators concerned about staffing, working conditions and testing as schools grapple with Covid safety protocols”)
- Don’t tell Republicans, but the U.S. economy is a bipartisan success story
- Behind Biden’s booming economy
- Hiring Hit Record in 2021 Despite Slower Gains in December
- Record number of Yellowstone wolves shot after roaming outside park (Unacceptable.)
- Bidens visit Colorado neighborhoods ravaged by Marshall Fire
- ‘We can’t ignore reality’: Colorado fires highlight urgency of US climate legislation
- Biden just delivered the most forceful rebuke of Trump’s coup — but what will he do about it? (“Joe Biden gave the best speech of his presidency on the anniversary of Jan. 6. So what happens now?”)
- Strategy shift: Biden confronts Trump head on after year of silent treatment (“President strikes different tone in tacit admission that ignoring the most powerful force in the Republican party is risky”)
- The rise of a pro-democracy media
- Biden’s biggest worry: Can democracy prove it is worth saving?
- No One Is Coming to Save Us From the ‘Dagger at the Throat of America’
- Pelosi Invites President Biden to Deliver State of the Union Address on March 1
- ‘We Barely Qualify as a Democracy Anymore’: Democratic Voters Fear for America
- COVID Is an Emergency. To SCOTUS’s Conservatives, It’s Also an Opportunity. (This court is a really bad joke.)
- The Supreme Court appears ready to slash Biden’s vaccine mandate for workers (Far-right activist court, with at least one seat stolen, calling into serious question the court’s legitimacy.)
- Lawyers arguing against Biden vaccine mandates test positive for COVID (Because of COURSE they do! LOL)
- Listen to Neil Gorsuch Long Enough and Your Frontal Lobes Will Turn to Guacamole (Hell, five minutes or less will do…)
- Where was Justice Neil Gorsuch’s mask?
- Capitol attack panel investigates Trump over potential criminal conspiracy
- Trump has birthed a dangerous new ‘Lost Cause’ myth. We must fight it
- Sister of murdered officer sues Facebook for radicalizing attackers (“Angela Underwood claims Facebook ‘knowingly promoted inflammatory and violent content and connected extremists’”)
- Far-right extremists shift online strategies
- Ted Cruz kisses Tucker Carlson’s feet, exposing the far right’s ugly underbelly
- Ted Cruz Grovels To Tucker Carlson, Cements New GOP Standard: No Criticism Of Jan. 6
- Ted Cruz Is So Sorry He Condemned Violent Insurrectionists, Hopes You Can Forgive Him (“Can you find it in your heart?”)
- Ted Cruz’s Own Words About Jan. 6 Come Back To Haunt Him In Damning Supercut
- The chair of the Jan. 6 panel says the committee will ask Mike Pence to appear
- Democracy is on the brink of disaster. For voters, it’s politics as usual.
- Was the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol an Act of ‘Terrorism’? (“A sharp rebuke of Senator Ted Cruz by the Fox News host Tucker Carlson has heightened a legal and semantic debate over a charged term.” How was it NOT terrorism?)
- ‘Sloppy’ wording this week? Ted Cruz actually called the Capitol assault a terrorist attack at least 17 previous times
- Ted Cruz Debases Himself for the Base
- Five myths about the filibuster
- Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson expected to run for reelection (Johnson is seriously batshit.)
- Three men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery sentenced to life in prison
- A year later, the right-wing media figures who helped spur the January 6 insurrection continue to spread disinformation
- Steve Bannon Sought Bizarre Loan as His Jan. 6 Woes Spiraled
- Amy Schneider wins $1 million on ‘Jeopardy!’ — and respect for trans Americans
- Up To 1 Million COVID Tests Expired In Florida As Gov. DeSantis Kept Mum On Surging Cases (DeSantis is completely incompetent, among his many many other flaws. Astonishingly, Glenn Youngkin has pointed to DeSantis as some sort of model governor. That does NOT bode well for Virginia.)
- Remembering Sidney Poitier, who was far more than just a symbol of racial progress
- New York City School Operations Crumble Under Omicron’s Weight
- QAnon Star Who Said Only ‘Idiots’ Get Vax Dies of COVID
- Lani Guinier, civil rights champion and Harvard law professor, dies at 71
- Sen. Tim Kaine Says He’s Optimistic About Senate Taking Up Voting Rights Bill by Martin Luther King Day; “We can’t allow the democracy destroyers to win”
- Luria to run again in 2nd District, move to Virginia Beach
- Democrat Stewart Navarre drops congressional bid after home county is drawn into Spanberger’s district
- Ken Cuccinelli endorses Jeanine Lawson for Congress in the 10th district (That says a great deal – all bad – about Lawson.)
- Rep. Donald McEachin (D-VA04) Sends Letter to Virginia State Senate Leaders Urging Them to Oppose Andrew Wheeler’s Nomination (Wheeler “has shown callous disregard for climate protections and environmental justice priorities”)
- Virginia Democrats prepare for rare confirmation fight over Wheeler (State Sen. Lynwood Lewis: “this just sends a very troubling message in the early days of [Youngkin’s] administration”)
- UPDATE: Youngkin names Kay Coles James, Shep Miller to Cabinet posts
- Williams: Youngkin’s choice to oversee Virginia’s environment is the wrong choice in the wrong climate (It also demonstrates horrendous judgement by Youngkin, who definitely appears to have a strong anti-environment, anti-science and all-around right-wingnut streak.)
- Even with ‘milder’ disease, Virginia’s latest COVID-19 surge is straining hospitals
- Virginia’s Youngkin, Miyares say they plan to challenge Biden’s coronavirus mandates (Appalling and irresponsible.)
- Gov.-elect Youngkin’s proposed CRT executive order opposes the spirit of the Virginia Constitution
- Youngkin names secretary of transportation and secretary of commonwealth (“Shep Miller serves on Virginia’s Commonwealth Transportation Board, where he has supported funding highway and rail projects. Kay Coles Jones, who has served in both state and federal government roles, will become secretary of commonwealth.”)
- New Opinion from Attorney General Mark Herring Says Virginia Can *NOT* Rescind Ratification of Equal Rights Amendment
- Virginia COVID-19 Cases Up a Massive 145,748 (!) the Past 10 Days; Hospitalizations at Highest Level (3,329) Since Pandemic Began
- With Legislature to Convene Next Week, Speaker Filler-Corn Calls For “mandatory full vaccination, including booster shots, for all members of the House and staff” (Filler-Corn also says that “for Members and staff who refuse vaccination or are unable, a mask mandate [should] be implemented”)
- For Virginia’s new House majority, masks and vaccines will be optional during session (Huge mistake by Todd Gilbert)
- Schapiro: Black pioneers, some little known, no longer footnotes in Va. history
- Legislative redistricting bringing big changes to region
- Special Election in HD89 Coming Up Tuesday; Time to Elect Democrat Jackie Glass!
- As schools reopen with omicron surging, hundreds of Richmond-area teachers absent; Chesterfield parents disappointed in lack of plans
- 6 Chesapeake schools switching to virtual learning next week because of COVID-19 outbreaks
- Chesapeake police investigating social media threats toward school board members
- Portsmouth paying Louise Lucas $300,000 to settle Confederate monument protest lawsuit
- Fairfax County can be a trailblazer for student equity
- After nearly four decades, Alexandria’s Del Pepper retires from a career of always showing up
- Sentara Healthcare pauses all non-emergency surgeries, procedures to focus on COVID-19
- DC police investigate possible 5th victim of suspected ‘shopping cart killer’
- D.C.-area forecast: Staying near or below freezing today, and a chance for some freezing rain Sunday
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