Right Wing Granny

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Right Wing Granny

Tag Archives: Virginia

Reading The Writing On The Wall

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On Thursday, Legal Insurrection reported the following:

Boeing will move its Defense, Space, and Security headquarters from Arlington, VA, back to the St. Louis area.

The main headquarters will stay in Arlington.

“The move emphasizes company leadership’s commitment to being present and engaged with teammates who are designing, producing and delivering vital defense and space products and capabilities for customers in the U.S. and around the world,” according to a Boeing press release.

The company did not mention politics in the press release, but I do not believe in coincidences.

I mean, it makes sense for Boeing to place its defense headquarters in Arlington, the home of the Pentagon.

The defense headquarters called St. Louis home from 1997 to 2017 before heading to Chicago.

Then, in 2022, Boeing transferred its headquarters to Arlington during former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s term. The former governor’s efforts led to Virginia being named the best state for business in 2024.

Virginia is no longer a great state for business.

The article lists a few of the current tax proposals making their way through the legislature:

HB 378 – Imposes a 3.8% net investment income tax on individuals, trusts, and estates beginning in taxable year 2027. If enacted, HB 378 would raise VA’s top marginal income tax rate on portfolio and passive income to 9.55%.

HB 900 – Authorizes sales tax hikes in various transportation districts, imposes a new tax on each and every retail delivery in Northern Virginia (Amazon, Uber Eats, FedEx, UPS, etc.), similar to the one imposed in Minnesota by Gov. Tim Walz (D).

Then there’s HB61, which discriminates against white men when bidding on government contracts:

As one alarmed Virginian reports on X, HB61 would put white men at a distinct disadvantage when bidding on government contracts. According to the post, “For discretionary contracts under $100K, White men are barred from even being considered unless there’s literally no competition. And even then, this bill allows agencies to award contracts to women or minority-owned firms that are 5% more expensive than a bid from a business owned by a White man.”

It seems to me that HB61 would be unconstitutional based on the fact that it discriminates according to race, but a court challenge would have to decide that.

Elections Have Consequences

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Now that the Democrats have taken over the governorship and legislature of Virginia, I wonder if the voters are happy with what they are seeing.

The following list was posted on X:

Look for a massive exodus from the Commonwealth of Virginia–one of the prettiest states in the nation. Virginia is my stop-off place when coming home from New England to North Carolina. With the increase in the hotel tax, I might want to reconsider that. Taxes in Virginia are increasing, and freedom is decreasing for law-abiding citizens. Criminal penalties for robbery are decreasing. Outlawing hand-counting ballots will make it easier to cheat in elections, and expanding ranked-choice voting will simply confuse everyone.

Using Lawsuits To Provide Equal Benefits For Americans

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On Monday, The College Fix posted an article about the program in the Commonwealth of Virginia that provides in-state tuition for illegal aliens.

The article reports:

Virginia’s outgoing Attorney General Jason Miyares quickly agreed to a consent decree to resolve a Justice Department lawsuit filed against the state in late December challenging laws allowing students in the country illegally to qualify for in-state tuition and financial aid at public colleges and universities.

“In a joint court filing, Miyares and lawyers for the Justice Department asked a federal judge to declare the Virginia Dream Act invalid and bar state authorities from enforcing it. If approved, the joint consent decree order would make Virginia the fourth state to scrap its policies that allow eligible undocumented students to pay the lower in-state tuition rate,” Inside Higher Ed reported Jan. 2.

“The joint agreement came just one day after the Trump administration sued Virginia over its in-state tuition policies—the seventh such lawsuit.”

A Dec. 30 news release from the Justice Department announcing the lawsuit had stated: “These laws unconstitutionally discriminate against U.S. citizens who are not afforded the same reduced tuition rates, scholarships, or subsidies, create incentives for illegal immigration, and reward illegal immigrants with benefits that U.S. citizens are not eligible for, all in direct conflict with federal law.”

The article concludes:

Similarly, Virginia followed suit, prompting an appeal, WRIC reported: “In a Dec. 31 joint press release, the Legal Aid Justice Center, the ACLU of Virginia and the Dream Project announced that they had filed an emergency motion to intervene in a federal lawsuit that took aim at both undocumented and refugee students in Virginia.”

“The Attorney General of Virginia has abandoned his duties to defend Virginia law and the people of the Commonwealth, so we must,” said ACLU-VA Senior Immigrants’ Rights Attorney Sophia Gregg in the release. “Attorney General Jason Miyares has sided with the Department of Justice — intentionally working in secrecy and over a holiday weekend — to manufacture a predetermined outcome to deprive Virginian students of not only their futures but their day in court.”

If  you are going to give in-state tuition rates to people who are here illegally, why not just give everyone in-state tuition rates?

Elections Matter

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The City of New Bern (where I live) is currently having a run-off election for Mayor and one of our Aldermen. I am familiar with all of the candidates after having attended a number of candidate debates. The results of this election will be significant for the city. One of the mayoral candidates is boosted on the Craven County Democrat Party page as being in support of No Kings Day. The other candidate has successfully run the city since 2022. An example of the difference leadership can make can be found in the contrast between the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of Maryland.

On October 20, The Daily Signal reported:

Thanks to smart fiscal management, the Republican administration of Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears just mailed numerous Virginia households checks ranging from up to $200 and $400. 

This pleasant surprise for many of us heading into the holiday shopping season is indicative of the competent, prudent leadership that will fall by the wayside if Virginians fail to continue Richmond’s fiscally conservative leadership. 

Youngkin announced these checks—tax rebates—late last month for eligible taxpayers—up to $200 if they filed individually, and up to $400 if they filed jointly. Because of Virginia’s record job growth and capital investments under Youngkin totaling $140 billion, Virginia enjoyed surpluses for four straight years.

The article concludes:

Virginia and its neighboring state Maryland provide the perfect natural experiment in what would happen if conservatives lose the Virginia’s Governor’s Mansion. Maryland’s Democrat governor, Wes Moore, squandered outgoing Republican Larry Hogan’s budget surplus.

“For eight straight years, we balanced the budget without raising taxes—in fact, we cut taxes, tolls, and fees every single year, totaling $4.7 billion in relief,” Hogan wrote in a statement in August. “When we left office, Maryland was in the strongest financial position in state history, with a record $5.5 billion surplus.”

In an about face, this year, Moore raised taxes on the backs of Maryland taxpayers instead of sending out checks.

Virginia’s choice couldn’t be more clear: prudent, abundant economic growth with conservative leadership or fiscally reckless, resource squandering, tax-raising progressive failures. My fellow Virginians: Choose wisely.

Elections have consequences.

The Supreme Court Upheld The U.S. Constitution

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On Wednesday, The Supreme Court ruled that Virginia will be allowed to remove non-citizens from its voter rolls.

The National Review reported:

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Virginia is entitled to remove noncitizen aliens from its voter rolls, siding with the commonwealth over lower courts less than a week out from the election.

The order comes two days after Virginia attorney general Jason Miyares filed an emergency application, requesting that the Court stay an injunction that ordered Virginia to restore some 1,600 suspected noncitizens who are ineligible to vote to the state’s voter rolls. A federal appeals court upheld the injunction on Sunday, quickly prompting the attorney general to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Court released the one-page order Wednesday morning, noting that liberal-leaning Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson would have denied Virginia’s emergency request for an appeal.

Governor Youngkin noted:

“This is a victory for commonsense and election fairness,” Youngkin said in a statement. “I am grateful for the work of Attorney General Jason Miyares on this critical fight to protect the fundamental rights of U.S. citizens. Clean voter rolls are one important part of a comprehensive approach we are taking to ensure the fairness of our elections.”

Our Constitution states that the right to vote in federal elections is reserved for citizens. To deny a state the right to remove non citizens from its voter rolls is contrary to that concept. This case should not have had to go to the Supreme Court, but it did, and it was ruled on correctly.

Taking One Step Toward An Honest Election

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On Monday, Just the News posted an article about a recent rule adopted by the Georgia election board.

The article reports:

The Georgia State Election Board (SEB) on Monday adopted a rule that requires the number of ballots and voters be the same before the certification of election results.

The rule ensures that counties comply with Georgia state code. It comes after Fulton County was found to have likely scanned thousands of ballots twice in a recount of the 2020 election.

“The purpose of the rule is to ensure that county superintendents and boards of elections follow the required procedures and can uniformly, properly, and lawfully fulfill their duties, and reconcile the number of ballots to the number of voters so that certification of election results accurately reflects the will of the voters in every county,” the rule reads.

“The rule is built on basic, kindergarten math,” Election Integrity Network Founder Cleta Mitchell said Monday. “Count the number of voters, confirm that the number of voters match the number of ballots. Those numbers should match and should be the same as the number of votes tabulated. The duty for election officials to certify CORRECT results is required under the statute. The rule just makes sure it happens in every county.”

…Also on Monday, the SEB voted to adopt a rule that will require all polling places have signage that states only U.S. citizens can vote.

Obviously this move will not stop all election fraud, but it might stop some of it. There are people still registered on the voter rolls of many states who were born in 1850 and still vote. There are also counties where more people than the number of registered voters vote. It’s time to fix these problems.

How Many Non-Citizens Are Currently On America’s Voting Rolls?

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On Thursday, The Federalist posted an article about one aspect of Virginia’s government that has been impacted by the election of Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin.

The article reports:

In an executive order directing state agencies to undertake election security efforts ahead of the November election, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin revealed on Wednesday that the commonwealth’s Department of Elections (ELECT) has removed more than 6,300 noncitizens from its voter rolls since his administration took office.

“All data collected by the DMV that identifies noncitizens is shared with ELECT, which uses it to scrub existing voter rolls and remove noncitizens who may have purposefully or accidentally registered to vote,” Youngkin wrote. “According to data from ELECT, between January 2022 and July 2024, records indicate we removed 6,303 noncitizens from the voter rolls.”

Virginia is one of only three states to require individuals “provide their full 9-digit Social Security number” when registering to vote, according to Youngkin.

Virginia may be one of the few states that will have an honest election in November.

The article concludes:

Youngkin further directed the state DMV to “expedite the interagency data-sharing with [ELECT] of noncitizens by generating a daily file of all noncitizen transactions, including addresses and documents.” As noted by the governor, registrars are required by Virginia law to cancel the registration of an individual who registered to vote “by falsely claiming that they are a citizen,” and must report such cases to their local commonwealth’s attorney.

“Our election security model is designed to prevent illegal votes and guarantee legal votes are accurately counted,” Youngkin wrote. “However, security procedures can only be as strong as the state and federal law which governs voting. Further strengthening of Virginia’s election security system will rely on strengthening state and federal law.”

All states need to follow this example.

Racial Harmony in the SOUTH in the 1970s?

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Author: Raynor James    raynor@cctaxpayers.com

I believe there was much racial harmony in most small cities in the American South in the 1970s. I also believe that personal stories can often illustrate and clarify more universal truths. Are you willing to make a trip with me to check out those premises?

Recently, Hal’s and my son, David Kelly, sent out a letter that started that train of thought. The subject was “SSG James Blackwell’s Passing.” It was addressed to “ALCON.” In part, the letter read, “I have the sad duty to report that SSG James Blackwell, a long-time member of the Fredericksburg [Virginia] Guard has passed away.

“I interviewed Staff Sergeant Blackwell a few years ago. He has always been an inspiration to me. He was able to shine a light where few dared to tread. You see he was one of the two first African Americans to serve our local National Guard since the 1880s. He was a civil rights trail blazer of sorts, joining the local Fredericksburg Guard in 1971. My father, B.G. Hal D. James (Va,R) and Reverend/Mayor Lawrence A. Davies set it up. Think about how hard it would have been with the Vietnam War, the antimilitary public sentiment and joining an all-white, male only military organization. They did a wonderful job in their role as mentors as you can tell from the attached photos! When I became the Battalion Commander (2009), I invited both trail breakers to attend a drill weekend one more time and gave them both honorary life membership into the Fredericksburg Guard Association.

“SSG BLACKWELL, thank you for your service!” The letter was signed, “LTC David K. James (Retired), Director, Fredericksburg Guard Association Foundation.”

That letter set off a ton of memories. Lawrence Davies was a black minister who became our good friend and strong ally. May I tell you about it? It started while Hal was president of the Fredericksburg Jaycees. The Committee to name the “Young Man of the Year” came up with a list of candidates, and Lawrence was one of them. No black man had ever been nominated before, and it set off an uproar. There were people who threatened to resign if Lawrence were chosen. Hal met with the committee and instructed them to please base their decision strictly on merit. He said they had to do the right thing. Then, if that caused a problem, they’d need to figure out how to deal with that in an honorable way.

Lawrence was chosen. No one resigned. Everything was fine.

Remember the summer Washington, D.C. was almost burned to the ground? The Fredericksburg Guard was called up for riot duty. I was very worried as were others. Lawrence called Hal with an idea, and that was the birth of Fredericksburg’s Bi-racial Volunteers. Our sons and I went to the first meeting which was held in Lawrence” church, but discussion soon made it clear that it would be a good idea to have only young men as active members. As it evolved, pairs of young men (one black and one white) wearing arm bands went to outdoor events at which lots of young people were expected to congregate. They just roamed around and started conversations and “poured oil on troubled water” where needed. There wasn’t one single troubling incident in Fredericksburg that summer.

Later, Lawrence came to Hal about integrating the Jaycees and Hal sponsored Johnny Johnson, a black art professor at Mary Washington College. Johnny was accepted without any resistance. By the way, his art was beautiful, and I coveted it, but every year at the Woman’s Club art show, his prices stayed just ahead of my ability to pay.

You know about how integration of the National Guard went. No problems. Several similar things happened, and at some point, Lawrence ran for mayor of Fredericksburg. Hal and I were among his campaign workers. Not surprisingly, Lawrence won. In fact, he was Fredericksburg’s mayor for about 20 years. Lawrence wasn’t Fredericksburg’s black mayor; he was Fredericksburg’s beloved mayor of all of its people.

That’s just one little (then) city, but we knew people in lots of other towns who were having similar experiences. Then we made the big mistake of electing the flagrantly racist Barack Obama who managed to sabotage years of improvement. Things improved again with Trump. Now look at the pickle we’re all dealing with. We need prosperity and harmony!

This Day In History

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(Originally posted on December 7, 2020.)

From The American Patriot’s Daily Almanac:

Pearl Harbor

Sunday, December 7, 1941, began as a serene morning at the U.S. Navy base on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. The warships of America’s Pacific Fleet rested at anchor. Many sailors were preparing for church or relaxing, and all was quiet at Pearl Harbor.

At about 7:55 a.m. a buzz from the sky broke the calm as a dive-bomber bearing the red symbol of the Rising Sun of Japan dropped out of the clouds. Seconds later, a swarm of Japanese warplanes followed. Sirens wailed as explosions sounded across the harbor and black smoke poured into the sky.

American sailors scrambled to battle stations while the Japanese planes screamed in for the kill. The main targets were several huge battleships moored in the harbor. Antiaircraft guns roared to life, but they did little good. Bombs and torpedoes hit ship after ship: the Arizona, the Oklahoma, the California, the West Virginia, the Utah, the Maryland, the Pennsylvania, the Tennessee, the  Nevada.

Sailors fought to save their ships, their comrades, and their own lives. Much of the California’s crew abandoned ship after flames engulfed its stern. When the captain determined the battleship might be saved, Yeoman Durrell Conner hoisted the American flag from the stern. At the sight of the colors, the sailors returned to fight the fires and keep her afloat.

Despite such heroism, the attack reduced much of the fleet to smoldering wreckage. The Japanese planes disappeared into the sky, leaving 2,400 dead, 1,200 wounded, and 18 ships and more than 300 American planes destroyed or damaged.

News of the disaster left Americans stunned, but not for long. A remark attributed to Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who planned the attack, sums up the result of Pearl Harbor: “I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant and instilled in him a terrible resolve.”

A Second Chance?

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The elections last week did not go well for Republicans. There were a lot of reasons for this, some real and some made up by non-Republicans. One state that had disappointing results was Virginia–the Democrats retained control of the Senate and retook the House of Delegates. Well, that may not be the end of the story.

On Saturday, Townhall reported:

We have reports that some funny business with a Virginia Democratic state senator might give control of the upper chamber to the Republicans. The Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak wrote that there might be serious questions regarding the validity of Sen. Ghazala Hashmi’s residency. You must live in the district you’re representing, and multiple sources say Hashmi’s paperwork is inaccurate. Hashmi represented Senate District 10 but opted to run for the 15th district this cycle post-redistricting. The reason is apparent: this is a slam-dunk blue district encompassing parts of Richmond and Chesterfield County

On Saturday, The Daily Wire reported:

…Hashmi filed candidacy paperwork saying she lived in an apartment on Boulder Lake Drive in North Chesterfield in Senate District 15.

But four neighbors filed a complaint saying she actually lives outside the district on Bosham Lane in Midlothian, and they provided a spreadsheet saying they had driven by the house 62 times during the month of October to document her residency. The notes include her car being there late at night and early in the morning, and her leaving the house shortly after 8 a.m. It also includes photographic evidence.

Putting Hashmi in a particular bind, if she did live in the Chesterfield apartment, then she may have committed a felony by concealing her ownership of the Midlothian home on sworn election forms.

The Certificate of Candidacy Qualification, which she signed March 14, 2023, says, “I now reside at the address shown below in the district in which I seek office,” under which she listed the North Chesterfield apartment.

The form also asks, “Do you or a member of your immediately family, separately or together, hold an interest valued at more than $5,000 in real property? DO NOT INCLUDE your principal residence.” She checked “no,” and did not list the Midlothian home. Real estate records show that she and her husband have owned that — worth nearly $600,000 — since 1999.

Stay tuned.

 

Upholding The U.S. Constitution

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There are a lot of state right now that are attempting to limit the rights of American citizens to own guns. Any law that ‘infringes’ on that right is unconstitutional.

The Second Amendment states:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

On Friday, Townhall reported that a federal judge put an end to one of the attempts to limit the freedom of Americans.

The article reports:

Molon labe. The nation is facing serious domestic and foreign policy crises, making the environment ripe for liberals to pass anti-gun legislation without anyone knowing. The fight to keep our Second Amendment rights is an ongoing struggle. It’s also grounded mainly in lawyer’s work, moving gradually. It took a decade for the Supreme Court to hear oral arguments about whether we have the right to carry guns in public for self-defense. Yes, we can declare we already had that right, but the high court never addressed it until New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen in 2022. If you look through past dockets, many gun rights cases like Bruen where a writ of certiorari was denied; Wollard v. Gallagher (2013) and Drake v. Jerejian (2014) are prime examples. 

We live in a society where the pace of change is meant to be slow for our protection. So, now that Bruen has decided on this remaining question regarding gun rights expect another lengthy court battle over carry rights, may issue-shall issue protocols, and pushback from blue states who will not go willingly with the Supreme Court’s decision. To start, we have a federal judge in Virginia striking down the age limit for purchasing handguns, which has been set at 21 for years

The article concludes:

Judge Payne is right; our constitutional right to own firearms does not “vest at age 21.” After the Parkland shooting in Florida in 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, some states, like Florida and Vermont, passed anti-gun laws that increased the age to purchase all firearms to 21. It’s always been 18 to buy a long gun and 21 for a handgun. At least some class of firearm would be afforded to those upon turning the age of 18. It’s not shocking the Justice Department is going to appeal the ruling. While a small victory, it should remind us that as we deal with Joe Biden’s incompetence, high inflation, a proxy war in Ukraine spiraling out of control, a looming real estate crisis, a shaky banking system, and the debt ceiling now becoming a ticking time bomb—the fight to keep our guns and expand those rights remains critical and difficult.

This is a fight that we must continue to fight and that we must win.

Fighting The Rights Of Parents

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On Wednesday, Townhall reported the following:

Every single Democrat in the Virginia House of Representatives voted against a bill this week that would make it illegal for teachers in the state to conceal a student’s transgender “gender identity” from their parents.

Under Virginia House Bill 2432, also known as “Sage’s Law,” teachers would be required to inform parents if a student requests to move forward with “social transitions” at school, such as going by preferred pronouns and a chosen name. The legislation would also require the school to obtain at least one parent’s permission before implementing anything concerning the child’s “gender incongruence” at school, including counseling, Fox News reported. In addition, the bill clarifies that “child abuse” does not include “misgendering.” The bill passed on Tuesday with one Republican and all 47 Democrats voting against it.

As I have previously stated–gender dysphoria is a mental disease. It should be treated–not encouraged. Parents need to know if their child is suffering from a mental disease. The school has no right to keep that information from them.

The bill now moves on to the Virginia Senate.

Guard Your Parents’ Rights

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On Friday, NewsMax reported that Democrat Virginia Delegate Elizabeth Guzman has proposed a bill that would add parents who refuse to affirm their child’s gender identity or sexual orientation to the state’s definition of child abuse and neglect. What is the world? Frankly, I think that any parent who allows their under-eighteen child to undergo any medical treatment that delays puberty or any surgical procedure that will have permanent consequences should be charged with child abuse.

The article reports:

“If the child shares with those mandated reporters, what they are going through, we are talking about not only physical abuse or mental abuse, what the job of that mandated reporter is to inform Child Protective Services,” Guzman said. “And then that’s how everybody gets involved.

“There’s also an investigation in place that is not only from a social worker but there’s also a police investigation before we make the decision that there is going to be a CPS charge.”

When asked what consequences parents could face, Guzman said, “Well, we first have to complete an investigation. It could be a felony, it could be a misdemeanor, but we know that CPS charge could harm your employment, could harm their education, because nowadays many people do a CPS database search before offering employment.”

She also denied potential accusations that the legislation “is criminalizing parents,” saying, “No, it’s not. It’s educating parents because the law tells you the do’s and don’ts. So this law is telling you do not abuse your children because they are LGBTQ.”

I guess this comes down to the definition of abuse. If my child comes to me and tells me that she is a cat and I refuse to provide a litter box, is that abuse? Wouldn’t it be better to provide psychiatric counseling?

Ms. Guzman concludes:

“You know, we all have a commitment to God and for those believers out there, we know that there’s life after life, and there is going to be a conversation between that person and God and that’s what we’re after — to go by what the Bible says. It is not my job to judge anyone. It is my job to help people.”

The Bible calls us to love one another, but it also has some pretty harsh words for some of the practices Ms. Guzman is trying to protect. If you are going to use the Bible as a justification for what you are doing, you might want to read the entire book.

UPDATE:

On Saturday, The Epoch Times reported:

A Democrat Virginia state delegate has backed down from introducing a bill to expand the definition of child abuse to include inflicting “physical or mental injury” on children due to their gender identity or sexual orientation.

…On the same day, Virginia House Minority Leader Don Scott Jr. (D-Portsmouth) said that he spoke to Guzman, and she had assured him that she wouldn’t introduce the reported bill. In addition, he called the bill “unnecessary” and “a distraction” to key Congressional races in Virginia.

Stacy Langton, a Fairfax County mother of six and a Republican, has been fighting to remove obscene books in the county school libraries. She told The Epoch Times, “I would like to take this moment to thank Delegate Guzman for committing the Terry McAuliffe gaffe for the 2022 midterm elections.”

When you shine sunlight on some of the radical ideas of the Democrats, they tend to back down. We need to keep doing that.

Good Things Are Happening In Virginia

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Elections have consequences. Virginia is one of the most recent examples of that fact.

On Saturday, The Epoch Times reported the following:

Virginia took a sharp turn on transgender student policies with new guidelines released on Sept. 16.

According to the new guidelines, public schools cannot affirm a student’s gender without parents’ written requests. In addition, bathroom and locker room use is to be based on students’ sex, defined as the biological sex at birth. Student sports participation should be sex-based as well unless federal laws require otherwise.

The new policies are is a complete reversal of the previous guidelines, which define transgender as a student’s “self-identifying term.” Those rules, which took effect in March 2021 under former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, ask schools to consider not disclosing a student’s gender identity to the parents “if a student is not ready or able to safely share” it with their family.

The new policies have common ground with the previous rules with regard to ensuring a safe learning environment without bullying, discrimination, or harassment for students. It lists the First and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution as primary evidence.

The new guidelines will enter a 30-day public comment period around Sept. 26 and take effect after the state superintendent approves the final version.

The Democrat response was predictable:

Virginia Del. Marcus Simon (D-Fairfax), who introduced the state House bill that became a 2020 law and the basis of the 2021 rules, said in a tweet on Sept. 16: “These new policies are cruel and not at all evidence-based. … If enacted, these policies will harm Virginia children. Stop bullying kids to score political points.”

Was it harmful to Virginia children when young girls were sexually assaulted in the restrooms at their schools?

The article concludes:

Clint Thomas, a father to Loudoun County schoolchildren, echoed Fight for Schools’ sentiment. He has two daughters, both studying in Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS). Caroline, the elder daughter, is a high school senior and was on the school’s soccer team.

He’s also a plaintiff in a lawsuit against LCPS administrators and school board members, filed by America First Legal (AFL), a nonprofit conservative legal group, on his and 10 other parents’ behalf. At the end of June, the defendants were sued for “promoting secret gender transitions” and “forcing children to change in locker rooms with members of the opposite sex,” according to AFL.

“Virginia is returning to a focus on parents’ rights in education with its 2022 revision to model policies,” Thomas told The Epoch Times. “It feels so good as a father of children in LCPS to know our state Department of Education is returning to sanity when it comes to the basic rights of girls and women in our schools and athletic competitions.”

It’s unclear whether school districts will face budgetary consequences if they don’t follow the requirements. Porter didn’t respond to a question by The Epoch Times about the potential ramifications of noncompliance.

When ordinary citizens get involved, good things happen.

Let’s Not Follow California’s Example

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On Thursday, California Air Resources Board approved a regulation banning new sales of gas-powered vehicles. On Saturday, Red State posted an article about one of the consequences of that law.

The article reports:

On Friday, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and legislators in the Republican-controlled lower chamber vowed to take action to block the CA rules from coming to fruition in their state. Governor Youngkin addressed Virginians in a statement.

“In an effort to turn Virginia into California, liberal politicians who previously ran our government sold Virginia out by subjecting Virginia drivers to California vehicle laws. Now, under that pact, Virginians will be forced to adopt the California law that prohibits the sale of gas and diesel-fueled vehicles. I am already at work to prevent this ridiculous edict from being forced on Virginians. California’s out of touch laws have no place in our Commonwealth.”

In a statement, House Speaker Todd Gilbert added:

“House Republicans will advance legislation in 2023 to put Virginians back in charge of Virginia’s auto emission standards and its vehicle marketplace. Virginia is not, and should not be, California.”

The article notes that the law putting Virginia on California’s standards is set to take effect in 2024, but the California law banning gasoline vehicles does not take effect until 2035, so there is some time to work this out.

The article also notes that can manufacturers will no longer be making the Dodge Charger and the Dodge Challenger. Meanwhile, there is no an electric Mustang. I object.

Starting Off With A Bang

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On Sunday, The Conservative Review posted an article about Glenn Youngkin, the newly-sworn-in Governor of Virginia.

The article reports:

The new Republican leadership in Virginia — Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, and Attorney General Jason Miyares — went scorched earth upon entering office, which officially happened Saturday.

Youngkin signed a host of executive orders fulfilling key campaign promises, while Miyares fired more than two dozen staff members in the AG’s office the day before taking office.

The article lists some of the executive orders signed by the Governor:

The first order Youngkin signed “delivers on his Day One promise to restore excellence in education by ending the use of divisive concepts, including Critical Race Theory, in public education.”

…The second order empowers parents to decide whether their children wear face masks at school, the fourth order initiates an investigation into the alleged wrongdoing by the Loudoun County School Board regarding sexual assaults, the sixth order declares Virginia open for business, orders seven and eight address human trafficking and anti-Semitism, and order nine begins the process to withdraw Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

Meanwhile, Youngkin’s two executive directives cut “job killing regulations” by 25% and rescind the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for state employees.

“It’s Day One, and we are going to work just like we promised,” Youngkin said in a statement.

There were also some changes made by the new Virginia Attorney General:

On Friday, Miyares informed 30 staff members in the Virginia attorney general’s office, including 17 attorneys, that they would not have a job in his office, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

“During the campaign, it was made clear that now Attorney General-elect Miyares and Attorney General Herring have very different visions for the office,” a spokeswoman for Miyares told the newspaper. “We are restructuring the office, as every incoming AG has done in the past.”

Miyares has pledged to be tough on crime.

If the individual states are considered laboratories for the federal government (which was the intention of our Founding Fathers), it will be interesting to see what impact the changes in Virginia (and their probable success in improving the quality of life in the Commonwealth of Virginia) will have on other blue states.

I Guess It Just Depends On How You Look At It

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Yesterday The Daily Wire posted an article that highlighted something odd the President did after the Virginia election.

The article reports:

President Joe Biden refused to take any ownership in his party getting blown out in Virginia’s elections on Tuesday night when asked about the matter during a press conference on Wednesday, and he suggested that it was going to be harder to win moving forward because Donald Trump is not on the ballot.

Biden did not dispute the outcome of the elections, saying that “we all have an obligation to accept the legitimacy of these elections.”

“I was talking to Terry to congratulate him today,” Biden said, referring to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, who lost to Republican Glenn Youngkin. “He got 600,000 more votes than any Democrat ever has gotten. We brought out every Democrat [inaudible] there was. More votes than ever has been cast for a Democratic incumbent — I mean, not incumbent — a Democrat running for governor. And no governor in Virginia has ever won when he is of the same — where he or she is the same party as the sitting president.”

The statement about the legitimacy of the elections leads me to wonder if the Democrats were willing to give up Virginia in order to cover up their cheating in New Jersey. There are already stories coming out of New Jersey about voting machines that would not let people vote for the Republican candidate.

The idea that it is going to be harder to win moving forward because Donald Trump is not on the ballot is interesting. Frankly, I don’t think Donald Trump is the problem. It is becoming more obvious that whether you like him or not, Donald Trump’s policies worked–the economy grew, the middle class grew, wages were higher, and gasoline prices and inflation were lower. Also, our borders were secure. None of those things are currently true. As the rising gasoline and food prices begin to impact American families, Donald Trump may be the least of the Democrat party’s worries.

A Surprising Endorsement

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Yesterday Breitbart reported that the Hampton Roads Black Caucus (HRBC) endorsed Republican Glenn Youngkin in Virginia’s gubernatorial race.

The article reports:

Youngkin noted the other two statewide Republican candidates, Winsome Sears for lieutenant governor and Jason Miyares for attorney general, also garnered HRBC endorsements.

The article concludes:

The HRBC endorsement falls in line with Youngkin’s assessment in April — as he discussed his potential path to victory on a previous radio appearance with Breitbart News — that he was seeing “strength” in the Hampton Roads area.

“Mathematically, we can win a reasonable chunk of Northern Virginia back,” he said. “We don’t have to win fully Northern Virginia, 51 percent. We just have to get her back from the 70–30 to close to 60–40, and then with the strength that we have across our red counties, and, oh by the way, the strength we’re seeing in Hampton Roads and suburban Richmond, we’re going to win this November.”

The HRBC website states the caucus is “a non-partisan organization solely committed to supporting candidates who support our missions and initiatives.”

This is an unusual endorsement, but it actually makes sense. Candidate Youngkin has stated that he believes parents have a role to play in determining what is taught in our schools. Youngkin has promised to work to improve Virginia schools. Much of the black population has realized that the key to wealth in America is education and there is a  need to improve the schools their children attend. Children who do not get a good educational foundation are limited in what they will be able to accomplish. Youngkin has also promised to address the tax increases that Terry McAuliffe put in place when he was governor. I suspect there are many people in Virginia looking for a change of direction in their state and this endorsement is an indication of that.

The Quote Of The Week

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It’s only Wednesday, and I have already found the quote of the week. It’s found in today’s Washington Examiner.

Here is the quote:

“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” McAuliffe (Virginia’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe) said in response to Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin, who argued parents should be more involved in the decisions of local school districts. “I’m not going to let parents come into schools, and actually take books out, and make their own decision.”

Theoretically school boards are answerable to the voters who elect them. Many of those voters are parents with children in the schools. As far as taking books out, that depends. On August 3rd, CBN reported on a parent reading passages from books in a school library to the school board. The passages would be considered pornographic by most people. Why are we exposing our children to this? Shouldn’t the books involved be removed?

The article concludes:

None of this should come as a surprise to parents familiar with the public school system and the educators in control of it. These people want to use education as a means to turn impressionable young children into the next generation of leftist activists, and they have become increasingly hostile to any parental attempts to stop it. Parents who protest the teaching of critical race theory in schools have been smeared as “racists.” And parents who oppose the transgender ideology and the way in which it has been implemented into public schools are intentionally kept in the dark by educators and even risk losing custody of their children if they try to push back.

How children are raised and what they are taught is entirely up to the parents, not to the education establishment and its leftist enablers. McAuliffe, if elected, would clearly aim to crack down on parental rights so public schools can fill students’ heads with whatever they wish without facing any consequences. Is that the kind of governor Virginians want?

It might be a good idea to bring the children of the next generation up with the values that made this country great–not expose them to things that are simply not healthy.

 

Making American Students Less Competitive

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The Federalist is reporting today that the Commonwealth of Virginia is revamping its school curriculum to improve equity in education. Notice the word ‘equity’ instead of ‘equality.’

The article reports:

The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is eliminating accelerated math courses before 11th grade to “[i]mprove equity in mathematics learning opportunities.”

Loudoun County school board member Ian Serotkin announced Tuesday that the “Virginia Mathematics Pathways Initiative (VMPI),” is a “a sweeping initiative by the Virginia Department of Education to revamp the K-12 math curriculum statewide over the next few years” by “eliminat[ing] ALL math acceleration prior to 11th grade.”

“That is not an exaggeration, nor does there appear to be any discretion in how local districts implement this” Serotkin wrote. “All 6th graders will take Foundational Concepts 6. All 7th graders will take Foundational Concepts 7. All 10th graders will take Essential Concepts 10. Only in 11th and 12th grade is there any opportunity for choice in higher math courses.” 

The VDOE website says that in addition to improving equity, the change will “[e]mpower students to be active participants in a quantitative world.” 

However, a Loudon parent told Fox News Thursday that the initiative would actually “lower standards for all students in the name of equity.”

“These changes will have a profound impact on students who excel in STEM-related curriculum, weakening our country’s ability to compete in a global marketplace for years to come,” the parent said.

VDOE spokesperson Charles Pyle told Fox News the VMPI would “support increased differentiated learning opportunities within a heterogeneous learning environment.” 

Delegate candidate for Virginia’s 50th House District, Mike Allers, told The Federalist that VDOE “didn’t level the playing field —they destroyed it.” 

It’s time to remember that all children are not academically equal and denying accelerated classes to students who can handle them will not make slower students smarter. It will simply make smarter students frustrated and possibly cause them to lose interest. This is a really bad idea.

As the mother of three very different students (obviously all grown-up now), I am really upset by this thinking. One of my children has an art degree, one is an electrical engineer, and one is a lawyer. The electrical engineer took accelerated math and science throughout high school. Without those courses, she would have been bored to tears. If you had put the lawyer in any one of those accelerated math or science courses, she would have been thoroughly discouraged. The daughter with the art degree always got “A’s” in art courses and any math she could draw. They were three totally different kinds of students. Holding one back would not have helped the others. Putting a child in an accelerated class in a subject that is not his strength is also not helpful. One size does not fit all, and the Commonwealth of Virginia is making a serious mistake here if it wants its students to be competitive with students in other areas of the nation.

The Truth Eventually Comes Out

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John Solomon posted an article at Just the News today that details some of the recent court decisions involving questionable practices that were instituted during the 2020 election.

The article reports on activities in a number of battleground states:

The latest ruling came this month in Michigan, where the State Court of Claims concluded that Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s instructions on signature verification for absentee ballots violated state law.

…In neighboring Wisconsin, the state Supreme Court handed down a significant ruling in December when the justices concluded that state and local election officials erred when they gave blanket permission allowing voters to declare themselves homebound and skip voter ID requirements in the 2020 elections.

In a case challenging the practice in Dane County, one of Wisconsin’s large urban centers around the city of Madison, the state’s highest court ruled that only those voters whose “own age, physical illness or infirmity” makes them homebound could declare themselves “indefinitely confined” and avoid complying with a requirement for photo ID.

…Meanwhile in Virginia, a judge in January approved a consent decree permanently banning the acceptance of ballots without postmarks after Election Day, concluding that instructions from the Virginia Department of Elections to the contrary in 2020 had violated state law. An electoral board member in Frederick County challenged the legality of the state’s instruction and won though the ruling came after the election.

The article concludes:

Several more legal challenges remain in states, as well as two audits/investigations of voting machine logs that are pending in Georgia and Arizona. And while there has been no proof the elections were impacted by widespread fraud, there are still significant disputes over whether rule changes and absentee ballot procedures in key swing states may have been unlawful.

In addition, the Thomas More Society’s Amistad Project on election integrity is pursuing litigation over whether hundreds of millions of dollars donated by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and routed to local election officials in several battleground states may have unlawfully influenced the election, according to the project’s director, Phill Kline.

“We’re expanding our litigation,” Kline told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Wednesday. “I still have suits that are active in Michigan and Georgia on this, and you’ll see us take new action in Wisconsin. And we will renew action in Pennsylvania. And, and our involvement in Arizona will take a little bit of a different tack, but will involve this. The Arizona legislature is going to do an audit and we want this within the scope.”

There is some value in the lawsuits being pursued–hopefully they will put states on notice not to be involved in similar actions in the future. Assuming that we manage to stop HR1 in Congress (a law that will end any common sense regulations on voting), these lawsuits provide a template for filing whatever lawsuits are necessary to preserve election integrity in the next election. The lawsuits just need to be filed well in advance of the election (as soon as election laws are violated).

This Might Explain Some Of The Problems In Chicago

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Yesterday Breitbart posted an article about Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.

The article reports:

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has dropped over 25,000 felony cases, including charges of murder and the alleged hate crime hoax from former Empire star Jussie Smollett, according to an analysis released by the Chicago Tribune on Monday.

The article quotes the Chicago Tribune:

During Foxx’s first three years as the county’s top prosecutor, her office dropped all charges against 29.9% of felony defendants, a dramatic increase over her predecessor, the Tribune found. For the last three years of Anita Alvarez’s tenure, the rate was 19.4%.

In all, a total of 25,183 people had their felony cases dismissed under Foxx through November 2019, up from 18,694 for a similar period under Alvarez.

[…]

For the three-year period analyzed, Foxx’s office dropped 8.1% of homicide cases, compared with 5.3% under Alvarez, the Tribune found. Under Foxx, the office dropped 9.5% of felony sex crime cases; the rate was 6.5% for Alvarez.

The article at Breitbart continues:

In a statement to the Tribune, Foxx, who is up for reelection in November, said of the figures: “It is always eye-opening to be able to look at our own data and compare it to my predecessor’s past. I can’t reconcile what her decision-making was, and how they chose to (dismiss) cases in the past. But I will say that this administration has been clear that our focus would be on violent crime and making sure that our resources and attention would go to addressing violent crime.”

If you are trying to make sense out of this, you might want to look at one of the contributors to Foxx’s reelection campaign.

In February 2020, The Chicago Sun Times reported:

A political action committee founded by liberal billionaire philanthropist — and Donald Trump nemesis — George Soros kicked $2 million to a committee supporting Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx in her re-election bid against three Democratic primary challengers.

A mega donor to Democrats and liberal causes, the hedge fund operator’s Democracy PAC transferred $2 million into the Illinois Justice and Public Safety PAC on Wednesday.

The justice and public safety PAC has so far spent $571,359.30 on mail, media and website production costs opposing Bill Conway, one of Foxx’s primary challengers.

George Soros is on a mission to undermine to government of America in order to further plans for a one-world government. He has funded the campaigns of a number of District Attorneys and State Attorneys General in order to do that. His campaign contributions were a major part of the Democrats’ takeover of the Virginia government in the last election. That takeover has brought restrictive gun laws and other problems. George Soros is an American citizen and can legally donate to campaigns both as an individual and through Political Actions Committees (PACs). I have no doubt he will continue to do so until Americans get wise to what he is attempting to do.

The Consequences Of Overreach

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Since electing Democrats to the governorship and legislature, Virginia has passed multiple anti-gun laws. The governor has also created very strict lockdown rules due to the coronavirus. Evidently not all Virginians are thrilled with the leftward lurch of their state.

Yesterday The Daily Caller reported that in Staunton, Virginia, a city that is usually considered a Democrat stronghold, voted for three Republican candidates for city council–replacing three Democrats, despite increased voter turnout.

The article reports:

Republican candidates Mark Robertson, Amy Darby, and Steve Claffey all joined incumbent Andrea Oakes in a four-seat GOP sweep, WHSV reported. The three incoming council members replaced Democratic incumbents Erik Curren, Ophie Kier, and James Harrington all almost doubled their vote totals from 2016, yet still lost.

…“Democrats got their voters out better than they have in a May cycle in years,” Graham wrote. “Republicans got turnout more akin to, not quite a presidential year, but approaching gubernatorial.”

Graham cited gun control legislation in the state as well as COVID-19 lockdowns as key turnout drivers for Republicans in the city.

The article concludes:

Nearby Wayesboro also put two conservatives, Lana Williams and Bruce Allen, on their city council to “give conservatives a working majority,” Graham reported.

“Bottom line is that the strategies worked, flipping both from D to R, but the change in Staunton is stunning almost beyond words,” Graham opined. “A city that voted for Barack Obama, twice, voted for Hillary Clinton, voted for Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam, even gave a solid majority to Jennifer Lewis in her 2018 congressional run against Ben Cline, is now controlled by Republicans.”

The results of these elections are one of the reasons the Democrats are pushing so hard for voting by mail. Voting by mail makes it very easy to commit voter fraud. The Democrats know that the policies of the House of Representatives and various state governors are not popular and are trying to find a way to defeat President Trump, hold the House, and retake the Senate.

Follow The Money And Be Prepared

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I think most Americans would agree that George Soros is not a positive influence on the American political scene. His money can be found buying influence and supporting candidates for election that bring chaos into our legal system. He is working hard to continue these efforts.

The Washington Free Beacon reported the following yesterday:

A powerful donor club cofounded by liberal billionaire George Soros quietly established two big-money entities to help its effort to inject $275 million into the 2020 election.

The Democracy Alliance, a coalition of deep-pocketed Democratic donors, launched the Strategic Victory Fund super PAC in March. The PAC appears to be aimed at state-based initiatives and can collect and spend unlimited sums on political advertisements. The group also created the Strategic Victory Fund nonprofit arm, which supplied the PAC’s initial $500,000 deposit.

Democracy Alliance helps set the Democratic agenda and Vox has called it the “closest thing that exists to a ‘left-wing conspiracy’ in the US.” The two new groups appear to be part of the $275 million anti-Trump strategy its board approved in February of 2019. The strategy includes supporting state-based organizing in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, and Virginia. It would also work to elect more progressive politicians at the state and local levels while building a candidate pipeline. The network additionally pinpointed at least 25 rural communities to build infrastructure and leadership for “civic engagement and progressive agenda development.”

Both the PAC and the nonprofit were incorporated by North Carolina attorney Michael Weisel, who also incorporated other Democracy Alliance efforts, including its Committee on States. Gara LaMarche, president of Democracy Alliance, confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon that the super PAC and nonprofit are part of the organization’s 2020 efforts. Scott Anderson, executive director of Strategic Victory Fund, was previously the executive director of the Committee on States. Anderson did not respond to a request for comment.

The Strategic Victory Fund’s dark money nonprofit arm funds the Organizing Together 2020 campaign, a large-scale effort to better position Democrats to take on Trump. Organizing Together was launched to boost Democratic campaign infrastructure in the battleground states of Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The campaign, which consists of a coalition of 14 liberal groups, is co-chaired by Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo, New Mexico governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, and former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe. The total cost of its efforts is estimated to run between $20 and $60 million.

North Carolina is a battleground state. Residents need to be prepared for a barrage of anti-Trump ads (twisting the truth wherever possible) and lots of negative letters to editors and bots on social media. This is a time when voters need to rely on their own research rather than what they are being told. This will probably be the most expensive presidential campaign in history and hopefully will prove that money can’t buy elections.

Losing Our Constitutional Rights One At A Time

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As we celebrate Resurrection Day tomorrow, most of us won’t be gathered in our churches to celebrate. In some places we won’t even be able to do celebrations reminiscent of drive-in movies where we gather in our cars and listen to the sermon on our car radios (with the windows up even). That is an unnecessary restriction that some states have imposed and that the citizens of those states are tolerating. We really need to rethink this.

Meanwhile, The Washington Examiner reported yesterday that Governor Northam of Virginia has signed several pieces of gun control legislation into law.

The article reports:

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed several pieces of gun control legislation into law, including mandating background checks on every gun sale, ordering reporting of lost and stolen firearms, and reinstating the state’s former one-handgun-purchase-a-month policy.

…Following Virginia Democrats’ takeover of both chambers of the state legislature in the 2019 elections, the party put forth a slew of gun control measures to be considered in the 2020 legislative session.

The signing of the slate of bills comes nearly three months following the rally of over 20,000 gun rights activists in the Virginia Capitol to protest the legislation. The gun laws will go into effect on July 1.

The article mentions two of the laws that did not pass:

Two major gun control bills, the assault weapons ban and magazine capacity limits, were proposed and debated while Virginia lawmakers were in session but, ultimately, failed to pass both chambers of the state legislature. However, supporters of the bills have advocated to bring them back in the next session.

Northam also proposed amendments to legislation currently being debated in the Virginia state legislature’s upper and lower chambers.

Senate Bill 35 and House Bill 421 would enable municipalities to regulate firearms in public buildings, parks, recreation centers, and during permitted events. Senate Bill 479 and House Bill 1,004 would bar individuals subject to protective orders from possessing firearms, require them to turn over their firearms within 24 hours, and would require them to certify to the court that the weapons were turned in.

The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

That right was put in there to protect Americans from an overreaching government.–not to make sure they could go hunting. We are at the point where government overreach is here. Hopefully the laws signed by the Governor will be overturned by the Supreme Court, but the laws like this need to be stopped long before they get to the Supreme Court. I am hopeful that the people of Virginia will embrace their history and remove this Governor from office in the next election.