Saturday News: "In a World on Fire, Stop Burning Things"; Biden Warns Xi; "Is Russia losing?"; "The Putin-Fox feedback loop"; "Virginia police officer pleads guilty to Jan. 6 charge"

by Lowell 

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, March 19. NOTE: We're still messing around with the migration of www.bluevirginia.us to a new server, so...hopefully things will be back to normal sometime today. For now, I'm posting this here.

• It's 70 degrees warmer than normal in eastern Antarctica. Scientists are flabbergasted.
• In a World on Fire, Stop Burning Things ("The truth is new and counterintuitive: we have the technology necessary to rapidly ditch fossil fuels. ")
• Four climate investors explain the new boom — where the money's going and risks ahead
• Shell Is Pushing to Build Offshore Wind Farms Along Brazil’s Coast ("Plan includes six projects, totaling 17 gigawatts of capacity; Shell expanding wind business as it pivots to renewable energy")
• Green Startups, Flush With Cash, Face Pressure to Make Climate Advances
• Ancient Fertilizer Biochar Is Finding a New Life As a Solution to Fight Climate Change
• Climate change is making armed conflict worse. Here’s how.
• Warning signs for US as Covid cases rise in Europe
• Belgium to Extend Life of Nuclear Reactors for Another Decade
• China reports first COVID deaths in more than a year
• Covid-19 cases are exploding in Asia. Here’s what it means for the rest of the world. ("The mutations in the omicron variant of the virus that causes Covid-19, first detected in November 2021, make it the most contagious version of the virus known to date and allowed it to evade immunity — both from vaccines and from previous infections — better than other variants. Many of the earlier omicron waves were caused by a subvariant known as BA.1. Another omicron subvariant known as BA.2 is even more transmissible and is now driving a distinct spike in new cases.")
• Is Russia losing? ("Russia’s offensive is stalled. It has taken massive casualties. We are, according to one expert, 'seeing a country militarily implode.'")
• Putin should know: Rain hell on Ukraine and it still may not fall
• The Month Companies United Against Russia’s War
• Oil, weapons and realpolitik: Why some countries want to stay on friendly terms with Russia
• Russian forces dig in near Kyiv as brutal strikes continue
• Ukraine’s Zelenskiy calls for urgent peace talks and warns of catastrophe in Mariupol ("Russia has a chance to limit the damage by engaging in ‘meaningful’ talks, says Volodymyr Zelenskiy, amid fierce shelling in the south")
• Street fighting blocks rescue at Mariupol theatre - mayor
• Ukraine’s leader warns war will cost Russia for generations
• Readout of President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Call with President Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China
• Biden warns Xi of global backlash if China helps Russia's attack on Ukraine
• Russia and China said their friendship had ‘no limits.’ It’s up to the United States to impose some.
• Ukraine conflict: Putin lays out his demands in Turkish phone call
• How Putin Bungled His Invasion of Ukraine
• Ukraine Is Wrecking Russian Tanks With a Gift From Britain
• Inside the transfer of foreign military equipment to Ukrainian soldiers
• Ukraine is getting Switchblade. It should be just the first wave of loitering munitions for Kyiv.
• Specialist Ukrainian drone unit picks off invading Russian forces as they sleep
• Putin needs a revised theory of victory that excludes the capture of Kyiv
• Support in both parties grows for providing air power to Ukraine
• Never Go Full Stalin ("Vladimir Putin said some crazy sh*t this week.")
• Putin Likens Opponents To 'Gnats,' Evoking Stalin's Dehumanizing Language ("Russian President Vladimir Putin used language that recalls the rhetoric from Josef Stalin’s show trials of the 1930s.")
• The Putin-Fox feedback loop
• Russian minister Sergey Lavrov praises Fox News' coverage of Putin's invasion of Ukraine
• The Ex-Kremlin Deputy Who Openly Opposed Putin’s War in a Mother Jones Exclusive Has Been Forced to Resign
• Putin Turned to a Chechen Warlord to Intimidate Ukraine. It Hasn't Worked.
• Nearly 10 million have fled their homes since invasion but defiant defense stalls Russian advance
• The Complexities of the Ukraine Dilemma ("The aid offered by the West may help, but it cannot relieve Volodymyr Zelensky of the terrible predicaments he must manage in the weeks ahead.")
• Putin’s Speech At Massive Rally Cut Off On State TV, Technical Glitch Blamed
• Propaganda war rages as Russians face huge pressure to back invasion
• Ukraine Update: Russia Says Used Hypersonic Missile in Strike
• Ukraine: Arnold Schwarzenegger's anti-war video trends on Russian social media
• Russia Steps up Threat to Target Arms Shipments to Ukraine
• What the Russia Invasion Teaches Us About the Right ("Contrarians aren't critical thinkers. They're gullible reactionaries, vulnerable to conspiracy theories.")
• Russia backs down on demands in Iran nuclear deal talks, making revival of 2015 pact imminent
• White House 'appalled' at Axios over Ukraine article (Axios is awful.)
• The GOP is about to come after Biden on Ukraine
• There’s a Messaging Battle Right Now Over America’s Energy Future
• Why Republicans are excited about a culture war they know they’re losing ("The fact that the world has turned against them can be mobilized into short-term victory at the polls." That's what Youngkin did.)
• Researchers warn that Christian nationalists are becoming more radical and are targeting voting
• Ginni Thomas's activism sparks ethics questions for Supreme Court justice ("The Hill" calls it "activism," when it's actually insurrectionism.)
• How low will the GOP go in taking on Ketanji Brown Jackson? Josh Hawley lets us know.
• GOP senators push misleading portrayal of Ketanji Brown Jackson's record on child porn cases
• Baseless OAN attack on Ketanji Brown Jackson echoes QAnon conspiracy theory
• What to Watch Out for During Next Week’s SCOTUS Confirmation Hearings
• Trump Campaign Owes $300,000 in Legal Fees After Another Failed NDA Case
• The Voter-Fraud Tables Turn on Mark Meadows ("North Carolina’s attorney general has requested an investigation into Trump’s former White House chief of staff’s voter registration.")
• The New York Times editorial board should retract and resign
• Why is J.D. Vance getting canceled by his fellow Republicans? ("Republicans are asking if Vance was canceled because of his controversial declaration about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Last month, Vance said, 'I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.'"
• Beware Bill Barr ("His new book shows we have as much to fear from him as Donald Trump.")
• Mo Brooks Is Learning That Loyalty to Trump Gets Him Nothing
• People's Convoy Reveals Ridiculous New Goal: ‘Take Back’ Black Lives Matter Plaza
• Mail Ballot Rejections Surge in Texas, With Signs of a Race Gap
• Dr. Oz's Heritage Is Targeted as Rivals Vie for Trump Backing ("The Senate candidate's Turkish background has emerged as a focus of David McCormick's attacks in Pennsylvania's G.O.P. primary.")
• Firing-squad executions get the greenlight in South Carolina
• Florida Republicans are living in a Trumped-up dystopia — and everyone's invited
• Disney, DeSantis and the "Don't Say Gay" bill: A Florida showdown over money, power and equality
• Alaska U.S. Rep. Don Young has died at age 88
• Virginia police officer pleads guilty to Jan. 6 charge
• State lawmakers must work out a $3 billion difference between House and Senate budgets
• Virginia's community colleges find a new leader, as Youngkin wants more focus on workforce development
• Editorial: Gas tax debate requires a more complete picture
• The General Assembly session has ended. What changes might be in store for Hampton Roads?
• Richmond School Board approves tentative plan for renovating Fox after fire last month
• Teel: 'A special season' ends for Hokies in first-round NCAA loss to Texas
• D.C.-area forecast: Warm ahead of a cold front today, with a few showers and storms possible

2022 Virginia General Assembly “Batting Averages”…Presented with the Usual Slew of Caveats

I've been unable to post at the www.bluevirginia.us site (WordPress) most of today (3/18/22), as the site is being migrated to a new - and hopefully better - server (don't ask! LOL), so I'm posting this here at the old bluevablog.blogspot.com site for now. Desperate times call for desperate measures and all that...haha.  Anyway, VPAP is out with its annual legislators' "batting averages," as you can see in the following screenshots. But first, see here for all the usual caveats:

• These numbers can be *highly* misleading if you look at them the wrong way, or as in the case of VPAP, they can be misleading if you fail to present the numbers with explanation, important context, etc. as VPAP indeed fails to do. 
• Also, as Cindy Cunningham explained back in 2019, “There are many, many ways that a legislator might end up with a low ‘batting average’ on the VPAP scorecard. The legislator might, in fact, put in lots of ill-conceived bills–ideas that haven’t really been thought through very well, poorly designed plays.” 
• Or, “a legislator might also end up with a low score by putting in lots of controversial or partisan bills.” 
• “On the flip side, a sure way to get a high score is to put in a lot of relatively sleepy little bills–clean up some badly-worded or vague section of the code, solve some minor local problem, be the patron of one of the many, many bills that are voted through unanimously – ‘in the uncontested block.'”
• “Lastly, a legislator may get a high score for having a good sense of what can or cannot pass, for working hard with stakeholders and other legislators before and during the process to tweak the language so that it will have as little opposition as possible, for being willing to amend on the fly as needed. Think of this as playing good, smart, fundamentally sound baseball.” 
• “But just like a win-loss record is a poor measure of how your pitcher did, and how ‘advanced sabermetrics’ are far more revealing, this VPAP ‘batting average’ is a poor metric for how our legislators did.”
• Also worth looking at, along with the % of patroned bills passed, is how many bills each legislator put in, and how many total bills passed. Thus, clearly having a 100% batting average is not nearly the same thing if you patroned one or two bills that passed versus, let’s say, 40-50 bills, of which perhaps half or two-thirds passed. And again, one really needs to look at how complex, “significant,” etc. each bill is, as well as how much time/effort was required of the patron to get it passed, how much help they had in doing so, etc.
• Finally, it’s important to keep in mind that different members of the General Assembly have different roles. Thus, someone in leadership might spend a big chunk of their time…well, leading! As opposed, that is, to worrying as much about their own bills. Or maybe they try to do both. But regardless, the point is, again we’re somewhat comparing apples/oranges/bananas here.
• With all those caveats, there’s an argument that, perhaps, “batting averages” and statistics like the following aren’t even worth presenting. Or maybe they’re worse than nothing, as they could be misleading? I’d argue that, yes, that’s all true, if you just take the “batting averages” alone, and don’t do some serious “advanced sabermetrics,” as Cindy notes. In short, I’d use the following numbers to *start* a conversation, most definitely not to *end* it. With that…here are the numbers, with a few things that jumped out at me (above each graphic)…

Overall, in the 2022 General Assembly, 40% of introduced bills ended up passing - down from 57% last year and 45% in 2020. By party, Republicans passed 42% of their introduced bills, while Democrats passed 39%. Men passed 43% of their introduced bills, while women passed 35% of theirs. And those with the most seniority (16+ years) passed a whopping 52% of their introduced bills, while those with just 0-4 years in office passed just 26% (!) of their introduced bills (*huge* difference there). Finally, note the contrast from last year, when Democrats had a "trifecta" (control of the House of Delegates, State Senate and governorship), and when the highest legislative batting averages skewed heavily "blue," with the lowest - including Amanda Chase, Kirk Cox, Glenn Davis, etc. at zero - skewing heavily "red." This time around, with divided government, it's more of a mixed bag...

Worth noting: six of the top ten "batting averages" are Republicans, with Sen. Janet Howell and Del. Clint Jenkins the leading Democrats at 3/3 (100%) and 1/1 (100%), respectively - although both had very few introduced bills - and Sen. Todd Pillion and Del. Barry Knight the leading Republicans at 11/11 (100%) and 6/6 (100%). (Also with high "batting averages" - House Majority Leader Terry Kilgore at 21/26 (81%), Republican Del. Tommy Wright at 8/10 (80%), Democratic Del. Rip Sullivan at 11/14 (79%), Democratic Sen. Monty Mason at 18/23 (78%), etc.

The lowest "batting averages" were a mix of Democrats and some really far-right Republicans. For instance, far-right Delegates Marie March and Dave LaRock only saw 5% and 6%, respectively, of their introduced bills pass. Also-far-right Del. Tim Anderson and Sen. Amanda Chase actually passed NONE of their introduced bills, which is even worse considering that they both introduced a lot of bills (23 each). Also at 0% were Delegates Michelle Maldonado (0/5) and Candi King (0/6), although neither introduced many bills. Also under 10% were hard-right Del. Nick Freitas (at just 4/43, or 9%), Democratic freshman Del. Nadarius Clark (9%), Democratic Del. Wendy Gooditis (9%), Democratic Del. Kelly Fowler (5%), Democratic Del. Kaye Kory (5%), and Democratic Del. Alfonso Lopez (3%). Again, consider all the caveats noted at the top of this piece as you evaluate these "batting averages." Finally, note that for whatever reasons, three delegates (Democrats Ken Plum and Lamont Bagby; Republican Speaker Todd Gilbert)  introduced no bills at all.