Saturday News: “So It’s a Sham”; Republicans Are Now “Accomplices to the President’s Cover-Up”; “Time to throw the constitutional arsonists out of office”; Jim Cramer Says Fossil Fuels “In the Death Knell Phase…They’re Done”; “A year after blackface calamity, Northam moves light years ahead”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, February 1.

“I’m done with fossil fuels. They’re done,” @MadMoneyOnCNBC‘s @JimCramer says after oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron reported Q4 earnings this morning. “We’re in the death knell phase.” https://t.co/rdcmoeRGMB pic.twitter.com/yl8iP7hpMi

— CNBC (@CNBC) January 31, 2020

• China Travel Restrictions Expand After Cases Jump: Virus Update
• The European Union’s Double Crisis of Legitimacy (“It isn’t sufficiently democratic, and there’s no push to penalize authoritarian member states.”)
• Trump Administration Adds Six Countries to Travel Ban
• Trump imposes travel restrictions, mandatory quarantines over coronavirus outbreak
• Trump’s expanded travel ban is a grave foreign policy mistake
• Trump Told Bolton to Help His Ukraine Pressure Campaign, Book Says
• With Trump’s Impeachment Trial, Republicans Have Convicted Themselves
• By denying witnesses, Republicans made clear even a smoking gun would not be enough
• Voting to acquit this noxious criminal is the point of no return for the Republican Party (“Today Republicans make it official: Out of sheer lust for power, they’ve rejected democracy and basic decency”)
• In Senate trial, Trump may have gained power but lost political case (“Analysis: It’s hard for the president to cast himself as the victim of a system that looks rigged by him — especially after GOP senators say he’s guilty.”)
• Republicans march over the impeachment cliff – taking their self-respect with them
• Why four key Republicans split — and the witness vote tanked
• Final impeachment vote postponed to Wednesday amid internal GOP spat
• Democrats Vow Trump Probes to Go On After Impeachment Trial Ends
• Pelosi Statement on Senate Vote to Block Witnesses and Documents (“The Senate Republicans’ vote against calling witnesses and compelling documents in the impeachment proceedings makes them accomplices to the President’s cover-up.”)
• A Dishonorable Senate (“Republican legislators abdicated their duty by refusing to seek the truth.” Completely. Every one of them richly deserves to lose their seat.)
• The cringing abdication of Senate Republicans
• Republicans defeat Democratic bids to hear witnesses in Trump trial
• Republicans Now Say Trump Did What He Was Accused Of — They Just Don’t Care
• Alexander Says Convicting Trump Would ‘Pour Gasoline on Cultural Fires’ (Brilliant, eh?)
• Carl Bernstein Predicts Chilling Aftermath Of McConnell’s ‘Violence To The Constitution’ (“The famed Watergate journalist accused the GOP senate majority leader of setting a dangerous precedent.”)
• Trump’s Impeachment and the Degrading of Presidential Accountability (“The President will see an acquittal—which was preordained by the highly partisan Senate—as license for further abuse.”)
• The 6 most ridiculous excuses Senate Republicans have for acquitting Trump
• Senate Republicans falsely suggest they already heard impeachment witnesses
• GOP senators seek to acquit Trump without condoning conduct
• What Democrats must do when impeachment is over (“The first thing they can do is invite John Bolton to testify in an open hearing before either the Intelligence Committee or the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House (and if he declines the invitation, subpoena him). The fact that Senate Republicans stopped him from testifying in the impeachment trial doesn’t mean he’s barred from opening his mouth forevermore. So let’s hear what he has to say.”)
• Lamar Alexander Just Gave Democrats What They Wanted (“If removing Trump from office was never a realistic outcome of impeachment, then securing Republican condemnation of the president’s behavior was the most the House could have hoped to achieve.”)
• Here’s what we’ve learned from Trump’s impeachment trial (We’ve learned that the entire Republican Party is as bad or worse than we all thought it was.)
• ‘Real National Security Consequences’ if Trump’s Acquitted
• Lamar Alexander Ushers in the Age of Fearful Men
• Rudy Giuliani Isn’t the ‘Hand Grenade’ That Blows Everything Up. John Bolton Is.
• Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch Has Retired From Foreign Service
• The 2020 choice for ex-Republicans (“It’s time to throw the constitutional arsonists out of office.”)
• Hillary Clinton Slams Bernie Sanders for Not Working to Unite Democrats in 2016
• DNC members discuss rules change to stop Sanders at convention
• DNC overhauls debate requirements, opening door for Bloomberg
• Election Update: Is Klobuchar Having A Last-Minute Surge In Iowa?
• Sanders faces mounting attacks from anxious moderates as Iowa vote nears
• Does It Matter Who the Democrats Choose? (“In terms of actual policy, probably not very much.” Yep, which is why it should all be about picking the ticket that has the best shot of beating Trump.)
• Behind Bernie’s rise: A $50 million spending surge — and more where that came from
• Mark Zuckerberg Should Not Be in Control of Facebook (If and when Democrats take power again, they need to crack down *big time* on Facebook, up to and including breaking it up.)
• Press Watch: Dean Baquet interview makes clear New York Times still ruled by both-sides-ism (This guy’s a disaster.)
• ‘They’re Done’: CNBC’s Jim Cramer Says Fossil Fuel Industry ‘In the Death Knell Phase’
• Is Natural Gas Really Helping the U.S. Cut Emissions? (“Methane leaks throughout the supply chain make the ‘cleaner’ fuel more damaging to the climate than government data suggests.”)
• ‘Bragawatts’: Have We Reached Peak Solar Size? (“The number of very large solar projects is growing in the U.S. market. How big can they get?”)
• Sen. Warner invites Chesapeake man to State of the Union (“Terry ‘Bean’ White got health insurance through Virginia’s Medicaid expansion, which could be at risk due to a Republican lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act.”)
• Sens. Warner, Kaine, Scott and Luria push for funds to reduce coastal storm surge in Norfolk
• Whitt Clement, Lisa Guthrie and Danny Plaugher column: Governor Northam’s transportation omnibus keeps Virginia moving in the right direction
• Video: House Committee Debate, Vote in Favor of Offshore Wind Bill Raises Serious Questions, Concerns
• Virginia House of Delegates Removes Barriers to Voting
• Video: Far-Right Virginia State Senator Jokingly (?) Suggests Re-Ceding Arlington Back to D.C.; Hilarity (Well, Sort Of) Ensues
• Virginia AG Sues in Next Step of Equal Rights Amendment Battle
• The Future of Newspapers in Virginia (“What’s happening is that these few financial companies have decided that they’re going to own as many newspapers as they can, milk them for what they’re worth and then at some point probably shut out the lights and throw the keys on the table. Last year, Warren Buffet declared the newspaper business toasts=. We are in an end stage of the newspaper business as we know it.”)
• Virginia Monuments Prove to Be a Topic of Debate for Lawmakers in Richmond
• A year ago, a racist photo nearly brought down Virginia’s governor. What has changed — and what hasn’t? (“The chain of scandals set off by the photo threatened to topple Virginia’s top three Democrats and give more power to the GOP. That’s not what happened.”)
• Schapiro: A year after blackface calamity, Northam moves light years ahead
• The Time to Act is Now: Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy Calls on State, Federal Agencies to Revoke Pipeline Permits
• Virginia teachers back collective bargaining rights along with push for school funding
• Thank You for Voting to Protect Virginia Consumers from Predatory Lenders
• Officials warn of possible N. Virginia measles exposure
• Levine’s guardianship visitation bill killed by Virginia Bar Association opposition
• Devereaux: Rural Virginia needs Medicare for All
• Future of Navy Hill bill uncertain; House speaker says reappearance is administrative error
• Sen. Tim Kaine on Del. Chris Hurst traffic stop: “I did not remember the law that way” (“I didn’t realize that a legislator could not be arrested for an offense. So might I have known that 15 years ago? Maybe, but I was surprised by it and I don’t think that should be the law.”)
• Leaders of a Filipino megachurch with a Virginia Beach branch forced members into sham marriages, feds say
• Roanoke chief marks the end of his 39-year police career
• Feds turned down robbery prosecution for man later accused of killing Newport News police officer
• Scattered showers possible this afternoon into evening; major warming by Monday