by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, January 7.
- Australia’s apocalyptic fires are a warning to the world (“The fire season shows what humanity has in store.”)
- Number Of Animals Feared Dead In Australia’s Wildfires Soars To Over 1 Billion (Absolute nightmare. This is the climate crisis…and we have to act NOW.)
- Experts confirm climate change is fueling Australia’s devastating wildfires
- Amid raging bushfire, Rupert Murdoch’s Australian media empire turns a blind eye to climate crisis
- Kangaroo Island bushfires: grave fears for unique wildlife after estimated 25,000 koalas killed
- 6.4-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Puerto Rico, Knocking Out Power
- 2,000 gigawatts of solar power needed for 100% renewables (“Stanford researchers have a plan that would balance 2,000 GW of solar capacity and 2,300 GW of wind power with 3,300 GW of battery capacity and a large amount of flexible load. Consumers would save 64% on total energy bills, partly from electrification of transportation and heating.”)
- Venezuela’s Guaidó Vows To Reclaim Legislature After Takeover By Maduro Supporters
- Iran Vows to Avenge General’s Death While Stampede Kills Dozens
- Pentagon Rules Out Striking Iranian Cultural Sites, Contradicting Trump (In general, no pun intended, the military needs to refuse to carry out unlawful orders from the president.)
- Trump Is Lurching Toward War With a Very Unqualified Team
- If deescalation with Iran is the goal, Trump is actively thwarting it
- Why Trump did it: A strategic distraction, or a spoiled child showing off his new toys?
- Khamenei Wants to Put Iran’s Stamp on Reprisal for U.S. Killing of Top General
- Iran’s Foreign Minister: U.S. Strike On Soleimani An Act Of Terrorism And War
- Trump Administration Blocks Iran’s Top Diplomat From Addressing the U.N. Security Council (WTF?)
- Boris Johnson Faces His Own Iranian Nightmare (“What happens if Donald Trump wants to go where his British allies really don’t want to follow?”)
- Israel says it has nothing to do with US ‘assassination’ of Iranian general
- Trump’s ignorance has created an international crisis
- Welcome to Trump’s war
- Trump wags the hippopotamus
- Iran leaders describe ‘nightmare’ retaliations planned for U.S. as Soleimani is finally buried
- Iraq, once a policy afterthought, has become a problem for the Trump administration
- The president didn’t threaten just Iran’s culture sites. He threatened culture. (“A line has been crossed, and not one determined just by international law or conventions on the preservation of culture. It is about the soul of a culture or a people.”)
- Trump administration begins drafting possible sanctions against Iraq following Trump’s economic threat
- What Is Trump’s Iran Strategy? Few Seem to Know
- The Breathtaking Unravelling of the Middle East After Qassem Suleimani’s Death
- “The March to War Is a Hell of a Drug”: With Trump’s Iran Conflict, the Media Is Under a Microscope
- A lesson for Kim Jong Un in the death of Qasem Soleimani
- U.S. Defense Secretary Says No Plans To Leave Iraq, Forces Being Repositioned
- Trump Administration Accidentally Declares End of War in Iraq
- The Nightmare Stage of Trump’s Rule Is Here (“Unstable and impeached, the president pushes the U.S. toward war with Iran.” It’s been a nightmare the entire time, but it’s getting worse.)
- UPDATE: Trump Still Plans to Commit War Crimes Against Iran
- Trump the Intimidator Fails Again (“Because he’s just a bully with delusions of grandeur.”)
- Bolton’s willingness to testify in Trump’s impeachment trial ramps up pressure on Senate Republicans
- Romney wants ‘to hear from John Bolton’ in impeachment trial
- John Bolton Is Willing to Sing (“Will the Senate schedule an open mic for him?”)
- McConnell has the votes to block Democrats’ witness demands in Trump impeachment trial
- Pelosi’s strategy pays off: Now bring in Bolton
- This Mitch McConnell Speech Was So Sleazy I Thought He’d Spontaneously Combust (McConnell just oozes sleaze.)
- Trump Is The Most Unpopular President Since Ford To Run For Reelection
- More Dems face debate chopping block (“Andrew Yang, Tom Steyer and Cory Booker could all miss out on next week’s debate in Iowa.”)
- Mike Pompeo Is Said to Decide Against Running for Senate in Kansas
- Mainstream news outlets need to stop taking the Trump administration’s Iran claims at face value (By the way, MediaMatters is a very valuable website, particularly given how badly the media is failing in its “normalization” of the extreme and bat**** crazy.)
- Facebook bans ‘deepfake’ videos in run-up to US election
- Three ways the next 28 days could reset the Democratic primary
- Political prophet Allan Lichtman: How Iran attack could hurt Trump in 2020 election
- Come clean, CNN
- Tim Kaine: “How Dare We” Send Americans To War Without A Debate In Congress
- Editorial: Senators at work (“U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine are asking the right questions about Iran, and Virginia deserves answers.”)
- Picking Our 2020 Nominee: How the Convention Actually Works
- Robin Beres column: A formidable race in the 7th District (Spanberger will face on of a bunch of Republican extremists.)
- Rep. Elaine Luria discusses goals, looks ahead to 2020 elections
- Spanberger assesses her freshman year in House
- Scott Taylor Ditches Senate Campaign, Now Hoping to Win Back the Same Constituents Who Fired Him in 2018
- Beyer Denounces Trump for Aftermath of Soleimani Death
- Audio: Former Rep. Scott Taylor (R-VA02) Refers to Reps. Elaine Luria (D-VA02), Abigail Spanberger as “girls [with] national security backgrounds”)
- Va. Republican Scott Taylor will end his Senate bid to run for his old House seat
- Northam budget allows merit hikes for officials excluded last year. Will lawmakers add raises for state workers?
- With Virginia General Assembly 2020 Session Starting Wednesday…Bills, Bills and More Bills!
- Video: Governor Northam Announces Legislative Proposals to Increase Access to Voting
- Northam Backs Bills He Says Would Increase Voter Turnout
- Virginia AG Mark Herring Announces Appointment of Next Chief Deputy AG, Erin B. Ashwell
- Blue Ridge Caucus: New group strives to find common ground in General Assembly (This caucus is utterly ridiculous.)
- Advocates are gearing up to pressure lawmakers to fully fund education for another budget cycle
- Virginia officials must show they learned the lessons from Charlottesville (“This time, in the face of attempted intimidation, the right response from lawmakers is to enact sensible and widely popular gun-safety measures that Republicans were able to spike when they controlled the General Assembly. They include universal background checks for gun buyers and so-called red-flag rules that enable law enforcement to confiscate weapons from individuals deemed by a judge to pose a threat to themselves or others. Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam has also proposed sound bills to ban the sale of certain assault weapons, large-capacity magazines and devices such as bump stocks that allow guns made for civilian use to fire at military combat-style rates. Those steps, plus reinstating the state’s one-a-month limit on handgun purchases, would make Virginia a safer place for all.”)
- A Radical Housing Proposal Is Forming Strange Political Alliances In Virginia And Maryland (There’s nothing “radical” about it.)
- Gun reality vs. gun fantasy in Virginia (“Shattered glass, shattered bones, shattered lives. This the reality of gunfire in Virginia.”)
- CASEY: Don’t believe the scaremongering on gun legislation (“There’s no shortage of people wailing online and elsewhere that Virginia is on the precipice of seizing guns from law-abiding owners. Much of the hype is based on ignorance.”)
- Virginia Landowners file constitutional case against FERC & Mountain Valley Pipeline
- Could Virginia’s Right-to-Work Law Split Democrats in Richmond?
- Va. Democrats weigh Medicaid dental coverage, a cheaper marketplace and, maybe, a public option
- Del. Mark Levine Responds to Prof. Alex Keena on Redistricting Amendment
- On Redistricting, Data, Facts and Evidence Matter
- Video: Dissecting The Virginia Way
- Arlington/Falls Church Commonwealth’s Attorney Makes the Case for Decriminalization of Simple Marijuana Possession
- Carl Tobias column: Filling the Virginia state court vacancies (“Because the new assembly convenes on Wednesday, filling the vacancies will be rather expeditious, and the short delay was worth waiting to elect judges who reflect the voters’ preferences.”)
- Main organizer of Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville is being held for contempt of court
- Five Questions Answered About Farmville’s ICE Detention Facility
- ‘I Lost Hope’ A Look Inside the ICE Detention Center in Farmville
- Victims’ families want a state-mandated Virginia Beach mass shooting investigation, lawmakers say
- Richmond City Council asks Virginia for authority over Confederate monuments
- Walker to continue as Charlottesville mayor; Magill named vice mayor
- Virginia Beach City Council declares itself a Second Amendment Constitutional City
- Norfolk Southern announces round of furloughs in Roanoke
- Alexandria plans to buy Freedom House, former slave pen now home to a museum
- Wet snow this afternoon into early evening, possibly slowing rush hour
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