Wednesday News: “Dems Wake Up: ‘A 5-Alarm F-ing Fire”; “Caroline Kennedy warns of ‘predator’ RFK Jr.”; “Headed for technofascism”; “Musk Lackeys Have Taken Over [OPM]”; “Chaos isn’t a by-product; it’s the goal”; Kaine Warns Federal Employees Trump Will “Stiff You”

by Lowell

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

• Climate triple whammy boosted risk of LA fires, study shows (“Hot, dry conditions, a lack of rain and a longer fire-risk season are all more likely in today’s hotter climate”)
• Atomic scientists adjust ‘Doomsday Clock’ closer than ever to midnight
• WHO statement on potential global threat to people living with HIV
• State Department Permits Distribution of H.I.V. Medications to Resume — for Now
• UN aid agencies cut back operations after Trump’s 90-day funding suspension (This is insane – and almost certainly illegal.)
• Google reclassifies U.S. as ‘sensitive country’ alongside China, Russia after Trump’s ‘Gulf of America’ comments (The US is rapidly becoming a rogue, outlaw nation under Trump. Absolute disaster.)
• Zelensky’s Former Spokesperson: Ukraine Needs a Cease-Fire Now
• Russia Seizes Another Town in Ukraine in Push to Take All of Donetsk
• China’s DeepSeek Surprise (“What to make of China’s suddenly popular new AI model”)
• Trump invites Netanyahu to be first foreign leader to visit White House (That says a great deal – NOTHING GOOD! – about Netanyahu!)
• Dozens killed in India’s Kumbh festival stampede, police sources and witness say
• ‘It’s absurd’: Mexicans mock and shrug off Trump’s order to rename Gulf of Mexico (Anyone who calls it the “Gulf of America” deserves relentless mocking.)
• Fed to Hold Rates Steady and Brace for Trump
• Trump’s Tariffs Hit US Growth Before, and Threaten to Again
• ‘Headed for technofascism’: the rightwing roots of Silicon Valley (“The industry’s liberal reputation is misleading. Its reactionary tendencies – celebrating wealth, power and traditional masculinity – have been clear since the dotcom mania of the 1990s”)
• Why Trump’s funding freeze is deepening fears that he seeks unlimited power (“Trump’s spending freeze and other moves reflect his view that the presidency has almost unlimited power”)
• ‘It’s an Illegal Executive Order. And It’s Stealing.’ (“Trump wants to go around Congress and freeze enormous amounts of federal spending. Can he?”)
• D.C. federal judge temporarily blocks Trump plan to pause federal aid spending
• Donald Trump’s ‘Anti-Constitutional’ Funding Freeze Is Headed For A Blockbuster Showdown In Court (“A district court blocked Trump’s plans to freeze spending on Tuesday. That’s just the opening salvo in what could be a long court battle over presidential power.”)
• Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Administration Freeze On Federal Grants And Loans (“U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan blocked the action Tuesday afternoon, minutes before it was set to go into effect. The administrative stay pauses the freeze until Monday.”)
• Why this Nixon-inspired law says Trump can’t freeze federal funding
• A freeze on federal grants and loans has been paused. But many facets of American life are left mired in uncertainty
• Trump’s funding freeze awakens the “Resistance”
• Trump’s Federal Grant Freeze Looks Like an Assault on the Authority of Congress
• US politics live: Trump’s federal funding freeze attempt will have ‘devastating impact’, non-profits say
• ‘A 5 Alarm F-ing Fire’: Trump’s Federal Funding Freeze Is Jolting Some Dems Into Fight Mode (“‘The Senate must not be business as usual,’ warned Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as nearly two dozen Democrats cast a protest vote on a Trump nominee.”)
• New Trump memo claims authority to ignore Congress (WILDLY unconstitutional.)
• GOP steps aside as Trump assaults Congress’ power (“The president goes after the ‘power of the purse’ with nary a peep from Republican leaders.”)
• Trump Is Dismantling the System That Guards Against Government Malfeasance
• Trump’s Attempt to Usurp Congress’s Spending Power (“The White House’s withholding of federal grants, impoundment plans, and other actions, are a major attack on the separation of powers.”)
• The Reason Why Donald Trump Shut Down His Government (“Chaos isn’t a by-product; it’s the goal.”)
• Trump barrels through guardrails, daring courts and Congress to stop him (Gotta love how this Politico article doesn’t include “the media” in its headline! Do these people EVER take any responsibility for their own dereliction of duty?)
• Americans sour on some of Trump’s early moves, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
• Some Trump voters are skeptical of his opening moves to embrace fellow billionaires
• “Trump is trying to collapse our economy”: War on “woke” revealed as a war on all Americans (“Christian nationalists behind the spending shutdown aim to punish everyone, not just imaginary Marxists”)
• Russ Vought’s fingerprints are all over Trump’s new federal funding freeze (There is no way any Democrat should vote to confirm this far-right extremist/ideologue.)
• White House says Medicaid portal ‘will be back online shortly’ after Trump funding freeze blamed
• Trump fires senior labor board official in ‘unprecedented and illegal’ move (That should also be an impeachable offense.)
• Which Federal Programs Are Under Scrutiny? The Budget Office Named 2,600 of Them.
• The Trump White House has no idea what the Trump White House just did
• Trump moves to fire members of EEOC and NLRB, breaking with precedent
• ‘Insane’: Legal experts blast Trump’s ‘unbelievable’ new firings as ‘attack on the EEOC’
• Trump offering federal workers buyouts with about 8 months’ pay in effort to shrink government
• Compelling Mass Civil Servant Resignations Will Create Chaos (“Twitter is not a model for government reform”)
• Elon Musk Is Running the Twitter Playbook on the Federal Government (“The US Office of Personnel Management is telling federal workers to get in line—or get out.”)
• Elon Musk Lackeys Have Taken Over the Office of Personnel Management (“Sources tell WIRED that the OPM’s top layers of management now include individuals linked to xAI, Neuralink, the Boring Company, and Palantir. One expert found the takeover reminiscent of Stalin.”)
• Trump administration may pull money from TSA, Coast Guard to help ICE afford costly deportations
• Trump expected to sign executive order prioritizing federal funding for school choice programs
• Stephen Miller Stuns Jake Tapper in Trainwreck CNN Interview (Stephen Miller is the worst of the worst.)
• Tulsi Gabbard, Edward Snowden and Intelligence (“Does the U.S. want a director of national intelligence who excuses mass leaking of secrets?”)
• Caroline Kennedy warns of ‘predator’ RFK Jr. in searing letter, video (RFK Jr. sounds like a sadistic, warped individual who desperately needs help.)
• The Madness of Robert F. Kennedy. Jr. (“The depth of his extremism has not been fully conveyed to the public.”)
• SCOOP: RFK Jr. Secretly Recorded Second Wife During Divorce and Acknowledged Being “Polygamous”
• RFK Jr. disparaged vaccines dozens of times in recent years and made baseless claims on race
• Trump’s Order on Transgender Troops Will Likely Ban Their Service, Again
• Trump order aims to end federal support for gender transitions for those under 19 (These decisions should be 100% made by doctors and the families of these kids – NOT by Trump!)
• Hegseth takes actions against Trump foe Mark Milley (Wildly unacceptable – this is banana republic shit.)
• The Justice Department becomes Trump’s instrument of revenge
• ‘Biden’s Book Ban Hoax’: Department of Education claims book bans are a ‘hoax’ and dismisses all complaints
• Departing the New York Times (“Despite the encomiums issued by the Times, it was not a happy departure.” Yes, the NY Times is badly, badly broken. For starters, the owner and top editors are f’ing IDIOTS – and cowards!)
• Republican congressman suggests some children receiving free school lunches should work at McDonald’s instead (Evil.)
• Trump’s funding freeze roils fears for vital projects in D.C., Maryland and Virginia
• Video: Sen. Tim Kaine Says “My friend [Howie Liebengood] would be alive if President Trump had not done what he did” on 1/6/21 (“I have waited for years to see if there might be some semblance of remorse shown by the president who inspired that attack”)
• Amid Order to Halt Federal Grants and Loans, Senators Mark Warner, Tim Kaine Demand Hold on Vought Nomination to Be OMB Director (“The laws Congress passes are not suggestions, and Mr. Vought willfully ignoring them harms the constituents of every Member of the Committee.”)
• Senators Mark Warner, Tim Kaine Blast Trump’s “Reckless and Illegal” Order to Stop All Federal Grants and Loans (“We call on the administration to immediately reverse course”)
• Dem Lawmaker Has Urgent 3-Word Warning For Federal Workers Tempted By Trump’s Offer (“Don’t be fooled. He’s tricked hundreds of people with that offer. If you accept that offer and resign he’ll stiff you just like he stiffed the contractors.”)
• Sen. Tim Kaine blasts funding freeze: ‘We’re not going to rest until we get this turned around’
• Trump’s spending pause creates chaos in Virginia
• Virginia lawmakers react to President Trump’s federal spending freeze
• Video: VA State Senate Passes Legislation to Protect Right to Contraception – After LG Winsome Earle-Sears Breaks Initial Tie Vote to Defeat the Bill (“Virginia needs a governor who will strengthen Virginia’s status as a reproductive healthcare haven in the South.”)
• Democrats use legislative tactics to force Sears to vote on contraception bill (Good – more of this!)
• Democrats on Virginia House panel nix Trump-inspired ‘no tax on tips’
• Virginia Democrats advance tax credit bills, kill Gov. Youngkin’s car tax proposal (“Votes set the stage for tax policy showdown between House and Senate.”)
• Virginia car tax credit hits dead end before Senate panel
• Virginia Senate Republicans lament death of tax cut efforts
• Federal funding freeze has Virginia lawmakers on edge
• MUST ASK: “Governor Youngkin, Lieutenant Governor Earle-Sears — do you support Trump unilaterally killing Virginia jobs you were so proud to announce?” (“Virginia reporters – Virginians need answers to these questions. Their jobs and their livelihoods are on the line.”)
• A bill to help prisoners regulate temperatures has been advancing through Virginia’s legislature
• Virginia districts face the prospect of ICE agents entering schools (“The Migration Policy Institute estimates there are more than 730-thousand school-aged children living in the U.S. without legal status, and the Trump administration has said federal agents may enter schools to take undocumented people into custody. Districts nationwide are preparing. The city of Denver has told principals to lockdown their campus if ICE agents try to come in, and San Diego schools say they won’t admit federal officers without a warrant.Here in Virginia, Sandy Hausman reports that fear has prompted some parents to keep children home, and other parents are offering to stand guard.”)
• Virginia Latino caucus members respond as Trump deportations ramp up
• NEW: Fairfax County casino bill advances to full Senate for first time
• Southwest Va. lawmakers’ proposal to ‘significantly’ cut Appalachian Power bills moves forward
• Democrat John McAuliff Announces Candidacy for Virginia’s 30th District; Taking On a Right-Wing Republican with a Pathetic 14% Legislative “Batting Average”
• Bristol seeks General Assembly help to deal with burned-out Virginia Intermont campus
• Williams: Henry L. Marsh III left an indelible mark on politics and civil rights
• Henry Marsh, first Black mayor of Richmond, dies at 91
• CWG Live updates: Mild today with gusty winds. Rain likely on Friday. (“Highs are in the mid-40s to mid-50s through the weekend with rain likely on Friday.”)