Thursday News: “Don’t count on vaccine, US scientist warns, as cases pass 5m”; “Lockdown Delays Cost at Least 36,000 Lives”; “Trump’s economy is a disaster”; “Record Numbers Vote Absentee In Virginia’s Local Elections”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, May 21.

• Global report: don’t count on vaccine, US scientist warns, as cases pass 5m (“Brazil reports nearly 20,000 infections in one day; Trump says he’ll stop taking hydroxychloroquine in two days; Lufthansa in rescue talks”)
• Brazil Is The New Epicenter Of The Global Coronavirus Pandemic (“Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s denial and incompetence have led to a predictable surge in cases.” Trump’s doppelganger – extreme, incompetent, ignorant, etc.)
• Greenhouse Gas Emissions Plunge in Response to Coronavirus Pandemic (“A new study finds that carbon dioxide emissions fell as much as 17 percent, but the annual 5 percent projected for this year won’t have a long-term climate effect.” But it does tend to indicate what we *could* do if we got serious.)
• The E.U. has realized it is on its own — and is acting accordingly
• Arrested Development: Global Renewables Market to Fall for First Time in 20 Years, IEA Says (“On the whole, however, the renewables market has been remarkably resilient in the face of a global health crisis, especially compared to other energy sectors.”)
• Trump’s signal is his noise. Stop trying to distinguish between the two.
• Trump Points Finger at China’s Xi, Escalating Fight Over Virus
• Senior officials advised against Trump emergency arms sales to Saudis
• Why the US has the most reported coronavirus cases in the world (“The U.S. has so many cases because it was initially slow to respond to the outbreak and ramp up testing and other containment tools.” That’s heavily on the Trump administration.)
• It would be a shame to go back to ‘normal’ (“‘Normal’ does not seem to be good enough after all we have been through.”)
• Trump’s economy is a disaster (“Even after the pandemic subsides, it will take years to recover.”)
• AstraZeneca Gets $1 Billion From U.S. to Make Oxford Vaccine
• The voters aren’t buying Trump’s snake oil (“Reopening the economy probably won’t improve Trump’s chances.”)
• Trump Is Failing at Governing But Winning at Authoritarianism
• Pompeo’s new acting inspector general is already creating a conflict of interest
• The Ultimate Disgrace of Mike Pompeo (“The IG firing shows the sordid truth behind the secretary of state’s moralistic sneering.”)
• Trump Makes False Claim About Michigan Secretary of State and Mail Voting
• Trump Is Brazenly Interfering With the 2020 Election
• Coronavirus ‘does not spread easily’ by touching surfaces or objects, CDC now says. But it still ‘may be possible’.
• Michael Flynn’s name was never ‘masked’ in FBI document on his communications with Russian ambassador
• The shape-shifting genius of Obamagate
• Warner asks intel chief to fork over underlying ‘unmasking’ intel on Michael Flynn
• Trump Had No Idea What ‘American Carnage’ Really Looks Like
• Fauci conspicuously stops doing TV interviews as White House moves to reopen economy
• Reopening guidance for churches delayed after White House and CDC disagree
• Lockdown Delays Cost at Least 36,000 Lives, Data Show
• Trump’s promise of ‘Warp Speed’ fuels anti-vaccine movement in fertile corners of the Web
• CDC’s Redfield in the hot seat as White House looks for someone to blame
• Exclusive: US has three months to rebuild medical supplies stockpile, Obama administration scientists warn
• Supreme Court temporarily blocks Mueller grand jury material from being turned over to House
• Jared Kushner Had One Job: Solve America’s Supply Crisis. He Helped Private Companies Instead.
• Michael Cohen to be released Thursday and will serve remaining prison sentence at home
• Pelosi: ‘Morbidly obese’ was taste of Trump’s ‘own medicine’
• Warren pivots on Medicare for All in bid to become Biden’s VP (“She’s pitching herself as a governing partner to Biden, despite their past clashes over policy.”)
• Trump will lose in a landslide because of the economy, new election model predicts
• Trump’s factory tours could be putting workers, local areas at risk, say experts
• Hillary rakes in millions for Biden — but he’s still far behind Trump
• Bernie Sanders, seeking peace with Joe Biden, asks his own delegates to turn down the volume (Good. I’m liking Bernie more and more.)
• Under cover of pandemic, Trump taking major steps toward autocracy: Where’s the media? (“In the last week, Trump’s administration has tried to assert and consolidate total power. Who’s telling the people?”)
• Trump has ‘legal responsibility’ to wear coronavirus mask during Ford factory visit, Michigan attorney general says
• The President Still Has No Clothes (“The coronavirus has made Trump’s deficiencies more apparent. We still don’t quite know what to do with him.”)
• G.O.P. Voters Back QAnon Conspiracy Promoter for U.S. Senate (Disturbing…Republicans continue their slide into John Birch Society territory.)
• The Pandemic Has Pushed Biden to the Left. How Far Will He Go?
• Gosh, what could be behind the right’s hatred of Stacey Abrams? (“Racism is never far below the surface.”)
• Fox News spins NBC report to blame Obama over Trump refusing to hold portrait ceremony for the former president (Of course…)
• Researchers: Nearly Half Of Accounts Tweeting About Coronavirus Are Likely Bots (Twitter should remove them all.)
• At least 4 states combined results from two tests, possibly providing a misleading picture of coronavirus spread (Virginia broke this out days ago, actually.)
• White House’s Own Data Crunchers: Southern Counties About to Get Hit Hard
• These before and after images show how much a Michigan dam failure drained a lake
• Matt Lauer, You Were Canceled for a Reason (“Go away”)
• Kaine, Warner co-sponsor bill aimed at helping SNAP recipients, restaurants
• U.S. EPA boss calls Chesapeake Bay lawsuit as ‘frivolous’ (One of the *last* people on earth to listen to is Andrew Wheeler.)
• AG Mark Herring Announces Over $550 Million Settlement with Nation’s Largest Subprime Auto FInancing Company
• Results from “Virginia’s First ‘Social Distancing’ Election”
• Video: Economic and Revenue Briefings for the Virginia General Assembly’s “Money Committees”
• Live Video, Highlights: Gov. Ralph Northam’s Wednesday (5/20) Virginia COVID-19 Briefing
• Editorial: Quality, not quality, critical on influential state body (“As talk swirls about expand membership on the State Corporation Commission, it’s the quality of those members which matters most.”)
• Record Numbers Vote Absentee In Virginia’s Local Elections
• Why Dominion Energy (D) is a Good Stock to Buy Now (The “expand natural gas business” part is unacceptable. Virginia legislators will need to take action, in 2021, to strengthen the Virginia Clean Economy Act to force Dominion to change course on this front. )
• How Dominion Energy Plans to Launch an Offshore Wind Empire (“Dominion is just weeks from installing the second U.S. offshore wind project, and it’s happening during a pandemic.”)
• Some Nursing Homes Still Face Medical Supply Shortages
• Thousands from coronavirus hot spots flocked to Maryland and Virginia as parts of the states reopened
• Virginia Nearly Reaches 10,000 Test Goal, Roanoke Officials Concerned About Low Numbers There
• It’s becoming easier to get a coronavirus test in the DMV. Here are some options.
• Wednesday (5/20) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +763 Confirmed/Probable Cases (to 32,908), +75 Hospitalizations (to 3,979), +33 Deaths (to 1,074) From Yesterday
• Del. Cia Price Responds to Sen. Chap Petersen’s Comments on Canceling Elections and Trump: “This is gaslighting. And it should be beneath a sitting Senator.”
• What happened in Staunton? Massive turnout flips Queen City from blue to red
• Want to be a “contact tracer”? What Virginia wants in 1,000 people who will help track coronavirus.
• Two Virginia sites linked to environmental battles placed on 2020 ‘most endangered’ list
• COVID-19 Benefits: Should Virginia Provide Them to Undocumented Immigrants?
• How secure is your child’s data in Virginia’s virtual classrooms?
• This $4B road project had a bird problem. Dogs are helping fix it
• George Mason University raises tuition, despite coronavirus pandemic (They can’t just ask their pals, the Koch brothers, for more money? LOL)
• Snead and Hobbs win new terms on Hampton City Council; newcomer Bowman lands third seat (“A large percentage of all ballots cast were absentee.”)
• Duncan to remain on RRHA payroll into next month despite starting out-of-state job May 4 (“Outgoing Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority CEO Damon E. Duncan has already started a new full-time job, but he will remain on the payroll in Richmond for another month.”)
• Arlington County 2020 Summer Camps Canceled
• Clouds dominate yet again today. We add rain on Friday before drying out this weekend.