Wednesday News: “Pollution responsible for one in six deaths across planet”; “Biden says ‘white supremacy is a poison’…’evil will not win'”; Extremist Insurrectionist Wins PA GOP(Q) Gov Primary; “Cawthorn’s Self-Destruction Is Complete”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, May 18.

• Pollution responsible for one in six deaths across planet, scientists warn (“Toxic air, water and soil are ‘existential threat to human and planetary health’, says global review”)
• 115 Degrees in India. 120 in Pakistan. Can We Even Call Deadly Heat ‘Extreme’ Anymore? (Uh, yes.)
• Oceans are hotter, higher and more acidic, climate report warns (Disastrous. Get off of fossil fuels on a crash basis!)
• Four key measures of climate change set records in 2021 (“Greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, ocean temperatures and ocean acidification all hit their highest recorded levels, a U.N. report found.”)
• Four countries to pledge tenfold rise in EU offshore wind power capacity
• Study Identifies Outdoor Air Pollution as the ‘Largest Existential Threat to Human and Planetary Health’
• UN floats plan to boost renewables as climate worries mount (We need to MASSIVELY accelerate deployment of solar, wind, energy efficiency and energy storage technologies, etc. Immediately.)
• Climate Change Boosted Cost of Japan Storm by $4 Billion, Study Shows (All this damage – “negative externalities,” in economics terms – should be incorporate into the price of fossil fuels.)
• The new balance of power: U.S. and allies up, Russia down
• U.N. chief expected to disclose talks on Ukraine grain exports – U.N. officials
• Europe’s push to cut Russian gas faces a race against winter
• NATO chief hails ‘historic moment’ as Finland, Sweden apply
• Mariupol: The 80 days that left a flourishing city in ruins (“More than any other Ukrainian city, Mariupol has come to symbolise the ferocious brutality of Russia’s assault and the stubbornness of Ukraine’s resistance.”)
• Ukraine hopes to swap steel mill fighters for Russian POWs
• In Ukraine, limbs lost and lives devastated in an instant
• Nearly 1,000 fighters have left Mariupol steelworks – Russia
• China cut tech exports to Russia after U.S.-led sanctions hit (“Chinese shipments of laptops, phones and other technology to Russia plummeted in March, U.S. Commerce secretary says “)
• Russia Is Losing Access to Imports
• What Mariupol’s fall means for Russia — and Ukraine (“They bought very precious time, from a tactical point of view, for Ukrainian forces to counterattack in other areas, regroup, and receive also additional weapons from the West”)
• Ukraine aid splinters the GOP
• Opinion All eyes are on Ukraine, but another crisis is brewing in Iran
• Report: In 1st, US refuelers to take part in major Israeli drill for strike on Iran
• China Eastern Black Box Points to Intentional Nosedive (“Flight data suggests someone in cockpit pushed Boeing 737-800 into near-vertical descent, according to a preliminary U.S. assessment”)
• Israel in Crisis Mode After Awful Handling of Journo’s Death (That was really, really bad.)
• North Korea on brink of Covid-19 catastrophe, say experts (“Number to have fallen ill reportedly at almost 1.5 million as country grapples with what it calls ‘fever’” This regime is a disaster in every way.)
• Orbán and US right to bond at Cpac in Hungary over ‘great replacement’ ideology (Which tells us a GREAT deal, all of it really really bad, about the “US right.”)
• Powell says the Fed will not hesitate to keep raising rates until inflation comes down
• With Plunging Enrollment, a ‘Seismic Hit’ to Public Schools (“A broad decline was already underway in the nation’s public school system as rates of birth and immigration have fallen, particularly in cities. But the coronavirus crisis supercharged that drop in ways that experts say will not easily be reversed…Now educators and school officials are confronting a potentially harsh future of lasting setbacks in learning, hardened inequities in education and smaller budgets accompanying smaller student populations.”)
• Ford might have just turbo-boosted our electric-vehicle future (“With Ford’s breakthrough, U.S. researchers and manufacturers will need to get cracking to create a robust battery industry.”)
• House Plans Vote on Baby Formula Legislation Wednesday
• Joe Biden says ‘white supremacy is a poison’ after Buffalo shooting (“President attacks those who promote racist conspiracy theory ‘for power, political gain and for profit’ but says ‘evil will not win’”)
• A woman who takes on neo-Nazis sees ominous signs in mass shooting (“Amy Spitalnick, who sued Charlottesville white supremacists and won, sees a dark struggle ahead.”)
• Democrats are crafting a response to Buffalo. What will the right do?
• The Buffalo massacre shows how far social media sites still have to go
• U.S. sues to compel casino mogul Steve Wynn to register as agent of Chin
• Pentagon now reports about 400 UFO encounters: ‘We want to know what’s out there’
• Trump appointed State Department official met with election deniers on January 6
• Justice Dept. Is Said to Request Transcripts From Jan. 6 Committee (“The committee has interviewed more than 1,000 people so far, and the transcripts could be used as evidence in potential criminal cases or to pursue new leads.”)
• Trump and his associates just had a very bad day thanks to a cascading series of Justice Department moves (I’ll believe Trump et al had a “bad day” when they’re in prison. So far, they’ve mostly avoided any serious accountability for their many, many crimes.)
• Republican Senate candidates promote ‘replacement’ theory (In a sane country, that would be an automatic disqualifier.)
• Why The GOP’s Grievance Politics Might Not Turn Off Conservative Latino Voters
• Jackson’s first Supreme Court clerks include judiciary workplace reform advocate
• The Supreme Court green-lights political corruption — again (The Supreme Court is an utter disgrace. Also illegitimate.)
• The Supreme Court’s History of Protecting the Powerful
• What You Need to Know For the Post-Roe World (“How to get abortion pills, for one thing.”)
• Primaries Show Enduring Allure of ‘Stop the Steal’ for Republican Voters (“The Republicans who did best were those who most aggressively cast doubt on the 2020 election results and campaigned on restricting voting further.”)
• Trump Has Uncorked a ‘Toxic Blend of Extremist Orientations’
• Disturbing primary elections show how the GOP normalizes extremism
• Republicans have only themselves to blame for unelectable ‘big lie’ candidates (Let’s hope they’re unelectable!)
• 2 winners and 2 losers from the Pennsylvania and North Carolina primaries (“The takeaways from the biggest primary night yet were anything but clear.”)
• Victories by Mastriano, Budd show potency of Trump’s false stolen election claims in GOP (“Incomplete results showed that Trump’s influence over the movement he started was uneven, winning some but not all the races where he backed a candidate”)
• The Far-Right Bloc Is Now Coherent Enough to Bring the Rest of the Republican Party to Heel
• Takeaways: Election denier wins, bad behavior dooms Cawthorn
• Madison Cawthorn’s Self-Destruction Is Complete
• Idaho Gov. Brad Little Defeats His Own Lieutenant Gov In Contentious Primary
• Five takeaways from the Pennsylvania, North Carolina primaries
• ‘Beware what you wish for’: 5 takeaways from a key primary night (“Mastriano rises, Cawthorn falls and progressives are back in business.”)
• Pennsylvania primary: Trump-backed TV doctor in cliffhanger vote count
• Two Trump-backed candidates win U.S. election primaries, but two fall short
• Doug Mastriano, a far-right 2020 election denier, is Pennsylvania Republicans’ choice for governor.
• Are Republicans Now Going to Endorse Doug Mastriano? (“The winner of tonight’s GOP primary for the governorship of Pennsylvania bused supporters to the Capitol on January 6th, was photographed on the Capitol grounds, and ever since has sought to use his limited political powers as a Pennsylvania state senator to overturn the election.” 100%, WILDLY unacceptable.)
• Republicans Just Chose Their Candidate for PA Governor. He Could Cause a Constitutional Crisis in 2024.
• Pennsylvania Senate candidate Fetterman has heart procedure after stroke
• John Fetterman Wins Pennsylvania Democratic Primary by Throwing Out the Democratic Playbook
• John Fetterman (D-Vibes) (“Even if you don’t know a single policy he supports, chances are good that you know what John Fetterman looks like. Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor is larger than life at 6 foot 8, distinctively bald with a salt-and-pepper goatee, draped in a baggy shirt or hoodie.”)
• ‘She’s not racist’: House Republicans dismiss furor over Stefanik immigration ad (She may or may not be PERSONALLY a racist, but her public persona certainly is.)
• Madison Cawthorn’s Self-Destruction Is Complete
• Madison Cawthorn Loses Primary After Brutal Barrage Of GOP Attacks
• Dems question whether Maloney can run DCCC while battling freshman colleague
• The Jolt: Where in the world is David Perdue?
• Elon Musk Does Not Care About Spam Bots
• As Musk Tweets, Advisers Plug Away to Keep Twitter Deal on Track
• Twitter Board Says It Plans to Enforce Musk Merger Agreement
• Musk Has a Bigger Problem Than Twitter Bots: A Huge Debt Burden
• Analysis: Elon Musk can’t easily give Twitter the boot over bots
• Elon Musk says Twitter deal ‘cannot move forward’ without more information.
• Tucker Carlson Attempts to Distance Himself From Buffalo Shooting Suspect Who Basically Spewed His Racist Commentary Verbatim
• Fox News suddenly goes quiet on ‘great replacement’ theory after Buffalo shooting (“Suspect was allegedly motivated by the theory, but network has barely mentioned gunman’s reasoning, even after Tucker Carlson pushed the concept in more than 400 of his shows” Fox should face liability and/or other consequences, such as being dropped from cable TV providers’ standard packages.)
• A pro-Trump film suggests its data are so accurate, it solved a murder. That’s false
• White supremacists are convicted of training for a civil war in Michigan
• Sen. Mark Warner: “Today marks the 68th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education…I’m proud to honor Barbara Johns today and to keep pushing for equality on other fronts, too.”
• Video: On the Baby Formula Shortage, Sen. Tim Kaine Says “The good news is we’re going to solve it, but we’ve got to do it as quickly as we can”
• Spanberger calls on House leaders to advance bill to boost law enforcement pay, hiring
• Scott sees WIC waivers as way to ease infant formula shortage (That would be Rep. Bobby Scott.)
• Wittman: We must unleash American energy independence (I’m linking to this simply to say that Rob Wittman is wrong about everything, a fossil fuel industry tool, etc. Don’t listen to this insurrectionist doofus on ANY subject. And let’s go all out for a rapid transition to CLEAN energy!).
• Far-Right Extremist Rep. Bob Good (R-VA05) Has Been Endorsed by a Rogue’s Gallery of Extremists and Insurrectionists (One texted Mark Meadows on 11/7/20: “Dude, we need ammo. We need fraud examples. We need it this weekend.” Another “said that supporters of abortion rights are worse than Adolf Hitler.”)
• Governor Youngkin Announces Violent Crime Tasks Force: Fails To Address Number One Reason for Rise in Violent Crime – Guns(Also note that the Virginia State Police’s own stats show that “Virginia experienced a 1.9% decrease in violent crime offenses [in 2020] compared to 2019.”)
• Virginia lawmakers dodge questions on whether budget might include new policy on skill games
• Roanoke and New River valleys’ delegates: Va. state budget deal coming soon
• Virginia 10-Day New COVID-19 Cases Down 86% Compared to 1/19, But Creeping Up Steadily; Hospitalizations Down to 390 From ~4,000 in January, But Also Increasing (10-day new cases (28,828) hit highest point since February 23)
• Editorial: The loss of a sailor (“The training accident death of a sailor this month reminds Hampton Roads of its special and deep connection to the military.”)
• Thrash talk: Heavy-metal-loving Virginia legislator co-hosts ‘Liquid Metal’ radio show on SiriusXM
• ‘There’s literally blood everywhere’: Richmond students find school halls covered in blood (WTF?)
• More than 5,000 Newport News homeowners received a real estate tax bill by mistake
• Virginia mom suing biracial son’s school over CRT curriculum says it ‘totally changed his perspective’ on race (Right-wing media is promoting this crap. So typical.)
• A Changing Virginia (“The new book, ‘Bellwether,’ by a former mayor of Charlottesville recounts Virginia’s recent political transformation.”)
• D.C.-area forecast: Splendid sunshine and 70s today, then heating up into the weekend