Friday News: Trump’s Warsaw Speech Pushed “Racial and Religious Paranoia”; “Trumpcare Is Having a Very Bad Day”; “Georgia was not the bellwether; Virginia is”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, July 7. If you can stand it, here’s Trump’s un-American Warsaw speech.

• Donald Trump’s Credibility Problem at the G-20 Summit (“At times during the Obama Presidency, such as the Syria crisis of 2013, some foreign governments wondered whether the United States had lost the desire to exert global leadership. But these doubts were nothing compared to the worldwide concerns about the quality, consistency, and motivations of American decision-making under Trump.”)
• How American Presidents Used to Speak Overseas (“The president’s speech in Warsaw was notable for its seeming indifference to the American idea.” More like “hostility to the American idea.”)
• The Racial and Religious Paranoia of Trump’s Warsaw Speech (“When the president says being Western is the essence of America’s identity, he’s in part defining America in opposition to some of its own people.”)
• Trumpcare Is Having a Very Bad Day (“Lee’s position makes it almost impossible for McConnell to find his 50 votes. Blue-state senators Susan Collins and Dean Heller already appear irretrievably opposed to anything resembling McConnell’s plan. If Lee demands that the bill let insurers charge higher prices for coverage of treatments needed by sicker people, then he drives away at least one more vote on the party’s opposite wing: Lisa Murkowski or Shelley Moore Capito, among others, have expressed reservations about yanking coverage away from people who have obtained it through Obamacare.”)
• The Trump Administration’s Own Data Says Obamacare Isn’t Imploding (Wait, you mean Republicans have been lying about the Affordable Care Act? I’m shocked! shocked!)
• Trump’s disturbing, incoherent press conference in Poland (“A gift to Vladamir Putin on the eve of their first meeting.”)
• GOP must bolster Affordable Care Act’s markets if Senate bill dies, McConnell says (That’s what these doofuses should have done in the first place!)
• Here’s what’s at stake when Trump finally meets Putin
• The Bad News From Hamburg: Nobody Is Leading The World (“Certainly not Donald Trump”)
• Rand and Donald’s wild health care ride (“Rand Paul and Donald Trump have gone back and forth on an Obamacare repeal strategy, repeatedly undermining GOP leadership’s plans.”)
• Trump has 3 options for dealing with North Korea. They’re all bad.
• Republican senator confronted by his daughters’ pediatrician over health care bill (“Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran (R) faced constituents in his rural home county”)
• Trump’s dangerous thirst for a clash of civilizations (“In Poland, the president cast himself as the crusader in chief.” The guy’s nuts.)
• How to handle an unhinged president (“Republicans and conservatives could start by refusing to play down his revolting lunacy”)
• France will ban fossil fuel-powered vehicles by 2040 (“Energy Minister Nicolas Hulot said the country wants to be the world’s ‘number one green economy.'”)
• The reason Republican health-care plans are doomed to fail (“Ted Cruz’s plan to give consumers ‘choices’ is incompatible with the insurance market.”)
• Trump has the most to win — or lose — from the G-20 summit (“The U.S. president faces a steep learning curve on the world stage.”)
• Trump affirms the Polish government’s assault on democracy (“In his Warsaw speech, the president offers support to Poland’s nationalist government in its isolationist and anti-democratic course.”)
• Andrew Cuomo Could Beat Trump (“But he’ll have to win over the left first.”)
• Senate GOP recruiting slow-going for 2018 (“Democrats say Republicans are afraid of a political environment poisoned by an unpredictable president and a widely disliked GOP health care plan.”)
• McConnell signals doubts about ObamaCare vote
• Ethics director who clashed with Trump resigns
• The Secret Goal of Trump’s Voting Commission (“It is seeking to gut the Motor Voter Act.”)
• Another Fox host suspended after report of sexual harassment (“Fox Business spokesperson says Fox Business host Charles Payne has been suspended while ‘matter is being thoroughly investigated'”)
• Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe refuses to name party’s leader (“I think there are many leaders of the Democratic Party”)
• Attorneys general – including Virginia’s – sue DeVos over delay of rule to protect students from predatory colleges
• Libertarian candidate for governor of Virginia calls for tax cut, legalization of marijuana
• Editorial: Yet again, state’s high court on the side of secrecy
• Georgia was not the bellwether; Virginia is (David Toscano: “The number of seats Democrats pick up in Virginia’s House of Delegates is a better indicator of success.”)
• Two Democrats who want to challenge Comstock say they’ve raised big bucks (“Alison Kiehl Friedman, an anti-human-trafficking activist, raised more than $400,000 in four weeks, and Lindsey Davis Stover, a veterans affairs expert, raised more than $300,000 in about 10 weeks, their campaigns said.” Interesting…)
• Lawsuit charges Virginia prisons with failing to treat Hepatitis C
• Democratic Party of Virginia names new director
• Editorial: What outside events will influence Virginia’s governor’s race?
• Convicted killer executed after Va. governor declined clemency bid (“William C. Morva’s supporters say the jury that sentenced him to death was not made aware of the severity of his mental illness.”)
• Corps gives final OK for Dominion power line over James River
• Supreme Court sides with car title lenders in appeal seeking companies’ information (“Scott Surovell, a lawyer and Democratic state senator from Fairfax County who argued the case last month before the court, called the order a disappointing decision that failed to resolve the underlying legal issues the case raised.”)
• McAuliffe anoints Berkmar Drive, talks Morva
• Editorial: Va. state troopers finally get a raise
• Virginia executes 1st inmate under more secretive protocol (“Morva’s lethal injection began about 9 p.m. after the warden read him the court order of his execution. Shortly after the drugs began flowing, his stomach moved up and down quickly several times before he became motionless.”)
• Slover Foundation is spending more on salaries – including $150K for Paul Fraim – than on library events
• Rain chances and humidity to dwindle in the coming days