Wednesday News: No Good Options on N. Korea; “GOP lawmakers get earful about health care”; “A cleaner Hampton River at risk” Thanks to Trump

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, July 5.

• North Korea missile launch marks a direct challenge to Trump administration
• At holiday parades and protests, GOP lawmakers get earful about health care (“In Maine and Alaska, where Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski came out loud and early against the bill, residents applauded their lawmakers. Other senators — the few who let voters know where to find them — spent the Fourth of July recess fending off protesters.”)
• Months of Russia controversy leaves Trump ‘boxed in’ before Putin meeting (So much winning! LOL)
• In Dealing With North Korea, Trump Has Few Good Options (Just as Presidents Obama and Bush had no good options. The problem is that Trump is an ignorant buffoon at the helm of state as this crisis escalates.)
• ‘Self-Restraint’ Only Thing Stopping War, U.S. General Says (“The blunt warning from the top American general in South Korea came as the South’s defense minister indicated that the North’s missile had the potential to reach Hawaii.” Actually, it’s a calculation regarding the disastrous impact on South Korea, possibly Japan, possibly the entire world, that this war would result in.)
• The greatest threat facing the United States is its own president (“The president has demonstrated himself to have zero impulse control and a tendency to damage vital international relationships with ill-considered outbursts, to trust very few of the people in his own government, and to reportedly rant and shout at staff and even at the television sets he obsessively watches.”)
• Democrats: Did Americans help Russia hack the election? (“Hillary Clinton, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, have all stoked speculation that American insiders may have helped the Russians orchestrate their wide-ranging hacking and disinformation campaign — including with guidance on which political targets to exploit and what kinds of leaked information would most resonate with swing voters.”)
• Trump Wants a Do-Over in Europe (“But the president’s upcoming trip offers ample opportunity for fresh trouble.”)
• Trump’s Risky Offshore Oil Strategy (“We investigated the BP oil spill. Our recommendations led to new rules that Mr. Trump is trying to roll back.”)
• How CNN found the Reddit user behind the Trump wrestling GIF (And right wingers go nuts, predictably.)
• Indiana GOP request for ObamaCare ‘horror stories’ goes wrong (“Many of the people respondents, however, flooded them with stories about how the healthcare system positively affected their lives.” One person commented, “the only horror in the story is that Republicans might take it away.”)
• Bizarre. Absurd. Ridiculous. Embarrassing. Trump.
• America, the diminished (“What Trump has wrought.”)
• Now more than ever, Republicans are engaged in class warfare: Isn’t it time for Democrats to fight back? (“Conservatives accused Obama (falsely) of waging class war, when they have perfected a highly deceptive version”)
• UN ambassador Nikki Haley complains about working Fourth of July, sarcastically thanks North Korea (Awwwww…the UN ambassador has to work during an international crisis.)
• Cruz plan could be key to unlocking healthcare votes
• Pressure on McConnell to deliver ObamaCare repeal
• The Type of Campaign Virginia Deserves (“Gillespie? He’s proposing the candidates subject voters to 10 — yes, 10 — debates leading up to Nov. 7, what we’d call the political equivalent of waterboarding. And his big policy statement from the weekend? He wants to liberate Virginians from ‘rinky-dink’ sparklers to celebrate the Fourth of July and repeal laws forbidding ‘real’ fireworks. No, we’re not joking.”)
• Candidate for Va. AG vows to defend the laws, whether he likes them or not (“Democrats say Adams takes after someone else: Cuccinelli. They have seized on pro bono, friend-of-the-court briefs Adams wrote supporting the rights of two organizations – the Hobby Lobby retail chain and the Little Sisters of the Poor, a group of Catholic nuns – to be exempted from an Obamacare birth-control mandate due to religious objections.”)
• Planned Execution of William Morva Stirs Mental Illness Debate
• Lester: A cleaner Hampton River at risk (“But the promise of cleaner local waterways is at risk right now. These projects in Hampton were made possible by support from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program — the very same program that President Donald Trump’s administration has proposed eliminating.”)
• At Monticello, new citizens urged to get involved and seek common ground
• Editorial: Beyer proposes a new way of electing Congress
• Editorial: Ed Gillespie is right about Virginia fireworks law (More idiocy from the Republican Times-Disgrace…)
• The Washington football team’s legal victory isn’t a win worth celebrating (“The team’s name is as hurtful and offensive as ever.”)
• Let’s hop right to it: Are we seeing more rabbits in our area this year?
• New tax credit available to Virginia farmers to help reduce food waste
• Not as hot, with showers a risk today, and remaining unsettled through Friday