by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, August 30.
- What’s Next for Brexit? Six Possible Outcomes (“While it is widely thought that Mr. Johnson is using the threat of an unruly exit as a negotiating tactic, it is also possible that he actually means what he says.”)
- Boris Johnson’s Plan to Suspend Parliament Survives Early Court Test (“Judge rejects emergency request, but schedules more hearings”)
- Leaked Draft of UN Climate Report Says Warming Oceans Are ‘Poised to Unleash Misery’
- Outlook For The Great Barrier Reef Is Now ‘Very Poor,’ Australian Government Says (“Climate change remains the greatest threat to the Australian natural treasure, and things are not looking good.”)
- Greta Thunberg Ups Climate Pressure Ahead of UN Summit: ‘This Has to Be a Tipping Point’ (“‘They cannot continue to ignore this,’ the climate activist says of world leaders.”)
- Hong Kong Police Warn of More Arrests After Sweep of Activists (“Joshua Wong among pro-democracy leaders arrested on Friday”)
- Macron’s gamble to get Iran and the U.S. to talk didn’t pay off. Here’s why.
- Exclusive: Amid crisis, China rejected Hong Kong plan to appease protesters – sources
- Trump’s trade war could get him kicked out of office
- Erdogan Considers Russian Fighter Jets in Snub to Trump
- Aides Admit Trump Was Faking Those “Phone Calls” with China (“The president was reportedly ‘eager to project optimism that might boost markets,’ which should hearten the Chinese.”)
- The World Can’t Ignore Kashmir. We Are All in Danger. (“If the world does nothing to stop the Indian assault on Kashmir and its people, two nuclear-armed states will get ever closer to a direct military confrontation.”)
- After ignoring climate at G7, Trump gets back to work killing the planet (“Trump belittled the climate crisis in Biarritz. Now he’s back at his real job: Gutting regulations, smoochin’ Putin”)
- Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn (“Trump’s EPA is rolling back methane rules because it’s run by climate deniers” Dementers.)
- Trump has no trouble gutting the law to build his wall
- The Trump Administration Now Wants to Deport Children With Cancer (“The administration quietly eliminated a program that allowed severely ill undocumented immigrants and their families to remain in the United States for medical care” Evil.)
- Fracking may be a bigger climate problem than we thought (Which is just one of the reasons why it’s crazy to build new fracked-gas pipelines, like the ACP and MVP. Sadly, it doesn’t appear that folks like Terry McAuliffe get that at all.)
- Trump’s Personal Assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, Steps Down (“Ms. Westerhout’s abrupt and unexpected departure came after Mr. Trump learned on Thursday that she had indiscreetly shared details about his family and the Oval Office operations she was part of at a recent off-the-record dinner with reporters staying at hotels near Bedminster, N.J., during the president’s working vacation, according to one of the people, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss White House personnel issues.” Tell-all book coming?)
- Trump “accidentally” signals affinity with white nationalists in new campaign logo (“This time, the instigating incident is the discovery that a fan video tweeted by Donald Trump featured a logo — a lion’s face built out of red stripes and blue stars — that was apparently, um, ‘borrowed’ from a white supremacist group so unhinged that it managed to get banned from Twitter, a site that is always reluctant to boot fascists.”)
- Hurricane Dorian is days away from striking Florida, and could be a monster storm by landfall
- ‘It’s a big deal’: Trump takes giant leap in space command launch (“President detailed operations in ceremony, including defending against Chinese and Russian anti-satellite weapons, and promised space force will soon follow”)
- Trump is as ignorant about voters as he is about everything else (“The mistake here is assuming that Jews vote primarily or exclusively based on the president’s views of Israel, and that when they vote for Democrats they are signaling a lack of concern about Israel. As for the latter, it’s entirely possible, if not probable, that Jews who voted for Hillary Clinton thought she would be better for the health of the long-term U.S.-Israel relationship. And judging from Trump’s and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apparent effort to make Israel into a partisan issue in favor of Republicans, therefore putting at risk support from Democrats, those Clinton voters were prescient.”)
- Why white evangelicals should panic (“The largest problem evangelicals currently face is the massive sell-off of evangelicalism among the young.”)
- Donald Trump has an ethanol problem (“Trump doesn’t have farmers’ support like he thinks he does.”)
- The Frauding of America’s Farmers (“Trump’s biggest supporters are his biggest victims.”)
- Fix the Electoral College — Or Scrap It
- The Washington Post’s Latest Fact Check of Bernie Sanders Is Really Something (The WaPo fact check at its worst is all about nitpicking.)
- Alabama’s Republican governor apologizes for wearing blackface in college, refuses to resign (Let’s see how much coverage this story gets compared to the Northam-in-blackface story. My guess – a lot, lot less, because in this case it’s a Republican, and most people don’t expect any different from them.)
- Exposed for 1967 blackface skit, Alabama governor issues written statement rather than face cameras (“It is a striking document, by turns conciliatory and minimizing of her responsibility. Throughout, she is adamant that she is no longer the sort of person who would shoe-polish her face to help college kids laugh at a perverse denigration of black people.”)
- Trump’s Fox criticism puts the network’s entire con in jeopardy
- Five takeaways from Justice IG report on Comey (“The Justice Department declined to pursue charges against Comey over his handling of the memos after the inspector general passed his findings to Barr.”)
- Oil and Gas Bankruptcies Grow as Investors Lose Appetite for Shale (“Smaller drillers, which account for sizable part of U.S. oil production, are struggling to pay off hefty debt burdens”)
- North Carolina congressional do-over watched for clues to 2020 (“Normally there would be little suspense over who would win the special election in the state’s 9th congressional district on Sept. 10. The area has elected Republicans to U.S. Congress for decades, and Trump won the presidential vote there in 2016 by nearly 12 percentage points. But both political parties say they expect the House contest to be close after Democratic candidate Dan McCready lost by a slim margin last year before state officials ruled that the election was tainted by an absentee-ballot fraud scheme that benefited his Republican opponent, Mark Harris.”)
- Warren lovefest ending as 2020 competitors fear her rise (“Rival campaigns say she’s gotten a free ride, but her allies warn that attacks will only backfire.”)
- Joe Biden Dismisses Report That He Told False War Story (“After The Washington Post reported that Mr. Biden had conflated several stories into one anecdote, the former vice president insisted the contours of the tale were accurate.”)
- Did Gillibrand’s push for Al Franken’s resignation doom her 2020 White House run? (“The New York senator was but one of many politicians who called for his resignation. But she might have paid the price for it.”)f
- Women voters spell trouble for Trump in 2020
- What’s next for 2020 Dems who didn’t make the September debate?
- Democratic congressman: Trump worried about hurricane hitting Florida because it’s ‘not an island full of people of color’ (“‘Well, part of it is that Florida could be a swing state in 2020. And part of it is Florida is not an island full of people of color. We have seen him again and again pick on anywhere color is involved,’ Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on ‘The Situation Room’ when asked about Trump’s change in tone.”)
- Beto O’Rourke Coming to Campaign for Virginia Democratic Candidates in Fairfax Station, Roanoke County, Bland County
- O’Rourke schedules events at Champion, Jefferson School (“After announcing on Wednesday that he would visit the college towns of Blacksburg and Charlottesville, O’Rourke’s campaign said the former Texas congressman would join Amy Laufer, the Democratic nominee in the 17th Senate District, at a canvass kickoff at Champion Brewing Company at 8:45 a.m. Saturday. According to a canvass sign-up, the two candidates will knock on doors in Albemarle County after the launch.”)
- Dels. Herring and Aird, Sen. Surovell endorse Kamala Harris for president
- BREAKING: Dominion Rakes in $277.3 Million in Overearnings and Will Increase Annual Bills by Nearly $400 (“Since 2015, Dominion has accrued over $1.3 billion in excess profits”)
- Dominion made $277 million extra last year — but no refunds are coming
- Editorial: Restoring the Bay
- Virginia Medicaid director steps down after leading program expansion
- Dominion Announces Largest Electric School Bus Initiative In the Country
- Dominion Energy Will Buy Virginia Electric School Buses… If They Can Use The Batteries
- FWIW Virginia Analyzes Dem, GOP Email Lists, Conversion Funnels
- Virginia State Police Open Investigation Into Fairfax County Board Member Jeff McKay (“Virginia State Police are investigating Fairfax County Board of Supervisors member Jeff McKay. This comes three months after a political opponent filed an ethics complaint alleging McKay swapped a political favor for a real-estate deal. The investigation was authorized Aug. 8 by Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring and it’s currently in the preliminary stages, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity.”)
- Most of the 1619 commemoration ceremonies are over. What happens now?
- Roanoke’s mayor cites the hard work behind building region’s economy, improving city
- Virginia town struggles to come to grips with triple slaying (Horrible.)
- UVa announces sale of alcohol at football games
- Tolerable heat today and a decent holiday weekend ahead
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