Saturday News: Republicans’ “race-baiting response to Biden’s Supreme Court pledge”; “Trump Campaign Aide Among 14 ‘Alternate Electors’ Subpoenaed By January 6 Committee”; Youngkin’s “Authoritarian” “Tip Line” “Scaring People to Death”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, January 29.

• Study: Pro-Climate Menu Options Entice Diners to Go Meatless
• Peru oil spill after Tonga eruption bigger than previously thought (Ugh.)
• Iran nuclear talks enter ‘final stage’(“Negotiators are heading back to their capitals to receive political guidance for the coming weeks.”)
• EXPLAINER: Russia’s risky options beyond full Ukraine attack
• ‘This is just hysteria’: Russians unmoved by threat of Ukraine conflict (“As Russia approaches war, in Moscow it feels as if the public has barely taken note”)
• White House Warnings Over Russia Strain Ukraine-U.S. Partnership
• Exclusive: Russia moves blood supplies near Ukraine, adding to U.S. concern
• Ukraine crisis: Russian attack would be ‘horrific’, US warns
• Why China’s Olympics matter to Putin
• GOP faces divisions over siding with Ukraine against Russia (Crazy party.)
• Italian parties in disarray as presidential vote limps on
• Why Boris Johnson’s ‘Partygate’ scandal has Brits in a rage
• No peace in Myanmar 1 year after military takeover
• Charting Global Economy: Inflation Data Underscore Fed Urgency
• Goldman Sachs Predicts Fed Will Raise Rates Five Times This Year
• The latest Covid variant is 1.5 times more contagious than omicron and already circulating in almost half of U.S. states (“The omicron subvariant, known as BA.2, is 1.5 times more transmissible than the original omicron strain, according to Danish scientists.”)
• Biden Had Strategy to Beat Covid-19. Then Variants Arrived.
• Bomb cyclone prompts blizzard warnings from Virginia to Maine
• Thousands of flights canceled as 10 million under blizzard warnings along East Coast
• Analysis: Biden gets climate win with court loss on Gulf of Mexico oil leases
• Biden gives infrastructure speech after visiting Pittsburgh bridge that collapsed hours earlier
• The targets of hate can’t be left to fight back alone
• Democrats Should Take a Page From Mitch McConnell’s Book (“While some Senate institutionalists may disagree with this new normal, we would be foolish not to understand it. Qualifications are critical and must be verified. But speed is also essential. Democrats should take a page from Mr. McConnell’s book and move as quickly as possible. Senators who stoke suspense over how they will vote only create fodder for the news media to focus on divisions among Democrats, rather than on the Republicans who are already laying the groundwork to oppose this historic pick. Although Justice Breyer won’t step down until June or July, Mr. Biden should narrow his list and announce his selection as soon as possible, and Senate Democrats should move quickly to confirm her.”)
• Biden pledged to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. Right-wing media are rushing to dismiss the idea
• The race-baiting response to Biden’s Supreme Court pledge (“They know exactly what they’re doing. And we shouldn’t let them claim otherwise.”)
• You’ll Never Believe It, but Mitch McConnell Is Already Threatening to Block Biden’s SCOTUS Pick (“Who could have seen this coming other than literally everyone?”)
• White House confirms South Carolina judge is under consideration for Supreme Court
• We Still Can’t See American Slavery for What It Was
• Biden’s Federal Reserve Nominee Lisa Cook Is Facing A Racist Smear Campaign (“If confirmed by the Senate, Cook would be the first Black woman on the Fed’s board of governors.”)
• Trump facing legal, political headwinds as he eyes comeback
• Kansas man who made Biden death threat said he was ‘coming for’ the president, Secret Service alleges
• Select Committee Subpoenas “Alternate Electors” from Seven States
• Trump WH spokesman is sent subpoena by January 6 committee
• The Supreme Court’s new death penalty order should make your skin crawl (“The Court’s new death penalty order is almost too cruel to be believed.”)
• Trump Campaign Aide Among 14 ‘Alternate Electors’ Subpoenaed By January 6 Committee
• Romney tests positive for coronavirus
• The Big Redistricting Blowout
• Republicans Are Trying to Suppress More Than Votes (“The proliferation of restrictive laws—from school curriculum to the ballot box—continues.”)
• The critics were right: “Critical race theory” panic is just a cover for silencing educators (“Republicans said they wouldn’t ban books or erase history — but that is exactly what they’re doing”)
• Art Spiegelman sees the new ban of his book ‘Maus’ as a ‘red alert’
• In J.D. Vance’s primary, nonstop Trump-worship shows the perils of populism
• NBC News tilts toward neoconservative opinion with hiring of “Trump skeptic” Stephen Hayes (They’re already got Republican Chuck Todd hosting “Meet the Press,” so…)
• Joni Mitchell joins Neil Young’s Spotify protest over anti-vax content (“Mitchell calls for her music to be removed from platform too, citing ‘irresponsible people spreading lies’”)
• Twitter says it has quit taking action against lies about the 2020 election (Pathetic.)
• Swastikas found outside Union Station in D.C.
• We Uncovered How Many Georgians Were Disenfranchised by GOP Voting Restrictions. It’s Staggering. (“Forty-five times more people were denied the right to vote by mail in 2021 than in 2020.”)
• Ex-Fox Host Gretchen Carlson Issues Ominous Warning About Former Network
• Pennsylvania court declares state’s mail-in voting law unconstitutional, in win for Republicans (WTF?)
• Washington trooper who defied state vaccine mandate and told gov to ‘kiss my a—’ dies from COVID-19
• Texas Butterfly Sanctuary Closes Due To ‘Credible Threats’ From Pro-Trump Event (Disturbing shit.)
• Grading Youngkin’s ‘tip line’ to snitch on teachers
• TikTokers spam Virginia GOP governor’s tip line for snitching on teachers
• “My email to Governor Youngkin’s ‘tip line’”: “It’s clear who is using divisive practices, and it’s not Virginia’s teachers; it’s Virginia’s governor” (“Your campaign and conduct in office is proof that, sadly, institutional racism is alive and well in the Commonwealth.”)
• Lawmaker says tip line is reminiscent of authoritarian regimes
• NEW VIDEO: Youngkin’s Appointee’s Week of “I Don’t Know” (“We are already two weeks in this administration and Secretary nominees can’t answer the basic questions”)
• New Poll Finds Youngkin at Just 44%-42% (+2 pts) Approval; In Contrast, Northam Was +18 pts in April 2018, +35 pts in December 2018 (Youngkin’s support comes *overwhelmingly* from Trump supporters, with everyone else disapproving.)
• Youngkin underwater on handling of coronavirus in Virginia: PPP poll
• ‘So broken down’: Teachers, students and families caught in the middle of Youngkin’s mask order
• Schapiro: Divide and conquer was Youngkin’s M.O. even before politics
• A perfidious practitioner of poltroonery (“I’ve made a profession for nearly 50 years of writing about goofs like the newly hatched Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, and still my jaw drops at the shit they pull as naturally as putting on their socks in the morning. The latest from this perfidious practitioner of poltroonery? An email ‘tip line’…”)
• Questions remain over Youngkin’s new tipline for ‘divisive’ practices in Virginia schools
• ‘It’s scaring people to death’: Youngkin’s tip line fuels anger from the left at agenda to reframe race education (“From the left?” Totally absurd characterization, but that’s the “mainstream media” for ya…)
• “Now we know why Jason Miyares was firing the lead lawyers at colleges last week”
• Miyares: Colleges cannot legally mandate COVID vaccines for students (“The opinion contrasts [with] the opinion of judges in other parts of the country, who have allowed vaccine mandates at colleges to continue.”)
• Shakeup on Senate Judiciary Committee (“It’s no big deal, Creigh and I are running the committee together, we are good friends and we’ve always gotten along well”)
• House panel scraps three bills to let localities raise sales tax for Virginia school renovation (That’s a *Republican*-controlled committee, of course…)
• EPA head Michael Regan stops in Chesapeake and Smithfield to highlight Biden’s infrastructure law funding
• Front of the line? Richmond seeks federal help for $1.3 billion sewer project
• ‘We don’t need a study’: Health officials can’t offer evidence to support Youngkin’s mask order
• Legislation Introduced to Designate “Ignoramus youngkinosaurus” the New State Fossil of Virginia
• House GOP blocks bill that would ban police from falsifying documents in interrogations
• Former Del. Yost scheduled for plea in embezzlement case
• Blizzard warning issued for Eastern Shore, a foot or more of snow possible; Hampton Roads likely to see bone-chilling cold
• D.C.-area forecast: Very cold with brutal wind chills today through tonight