Virginia was told by the local news media that Democrat Abigail Spanberger was a “moderate Democrat,” and enough suckers believed that spin that she was easily elected Governor over GOP candidate Winsome Sears. On the way to her “moderate” rule, Spanberger refused to condemn the Democratic candidate for Attorney General when text messages came to light in which he appeared to condone violence and murder as legitimate political tools. (He was elected too.)
Spanberger is only moderate in a political world where the middle-of-the-road Democrat cheers the death of Charlie Kirk, wants the Second Amendment repealed, thinks illegal immigrants are the salt of the earth, want men to be able to slaughter women in athletic contests by waking up one morning and deciding they are women, and think “hate speech” should be prohibited by law. Thus it is that the now Democrat-dominated Virginia legislature has filed bills that will likely reach her desk and that…
- Bans future attempts to clean up voter rolls (HB111)
- Makes it illegal for state agencies distributing federal dollars to NGOs to investigate whether they’re engaged in fraud (HB1369)
- Makes it illegal to hand-count ballots (HB968)
- Allows mail-in ballots to be counted one week after election day (HB773)
- Allows for absentee ballots to be received and counted for three days after election day (HB82)
- Eliminates the requirement that large last-minute campaign contributions have to be publicly reported at least 24 hours before election day (HB1348)
- Removes the State Board of Elections’ ability to dispatch law enforcement officers to collect vote tallies from a locality that refuses to publish them (HB1321)
- Joins the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact for allocating Virginia’s electoral college votes in presidential elections (HB965)
- Automatic restoration of voting rights for felons after they’re released from prison
- Allows for votes to be cast “electronically through the internet” (HB493)
- Creates public funding of political campaigns at the local level (HB162)
- Abolishes all mandatory minimum sentencing for rape, manslaughter, assaulting a law enforcement officer, possession and distribution of child pornography, and all repeat violent felonies (HB863)
- Makes it harder for judges to deny bail, even in the case of things like aggravated assault, armed robbery, and drug trafficking (HB357)
- Gives convicted murderers, rapists, and terrorists a chance to get out of prison early (HB853)
- Drastically reduces the criminal penalty for robbery (HB244)
- Bars prosecutors from mentioning a criminal’s prior convictions during the guilt phase of a trial, even if it’s for the same crime (HB1070)
- Transfers the Department of Juvenile Justice from the Secretary of Public Safety’s purview to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (SB21)
- Reduces the amount of time that the Commonwealth can compel a convicted criminal to pay court fees from 60 years to 10 (SB180)
- Taxpayer funding for transgender surgeries (HB1245)
- Bans most discretionary state contracting under $100K from going to businesses owned by White men and allows state 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 (HB61)
- Punishes VMI for adopting an anti-DEI stance (HB1374 & HB22)
- Abolishes all Confederate-themed license plates (HB1344)
- Eliminates the tax-exempt status for all Confederate history groups (HB167)
- Renames Columbus Day to “Indigenous Peoples Day.” (HB858)
- Makes it illegal to approach within 8ft of somebody within 40 feet of an abortion clinic (SB137)
- Enshrines the Axis narrative about January 6 and teaches it in public schools (HB333)
- Allows localities to adopt rent control measures (HB1177)
- Increases the sales tax in Northern Virginia, adds an additional sales tax for home deliveries, raises the car tax for electric vehicles, and imposes new sales taxes for streaming services, concerts, gym memberships, nail salons, barber shops, tanning beds, tattoo parlors, dry cleaners, shoe repairs, carpentry, painting, plumbing, electrical, HVAC.
But wait! There’s more!
HB 614, titled “History and social science standards and instruction; historically marginalized communities,” seeks to “ensure comprehensive, accurate, and inclusive education” for elementary and secondary school children, according to its summary.The bill mandates instructional materials and standards in history and social science courses that include “contributions, perspectives, and experiences of historically marginalized communities.” Those communitiesinclude racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants and refugees, women, individuals with disabilities, LGBTQ+ people, people from various socioeconomic backgrounds, individuals from various religious backgrounds and an open-ended, “any other group of individuals that the Board of Education deems appropriate, in order to affirm such communities and promote a more holistic understanding of history.”
It’s a DEI indoctrination bill. You know. Moderate.
[Note: WordPress went nuts this afternoon, making it impossible to have page break or add a graphic. Things returned to normal in a few hours.]
Ethics Alarms 
it is almost as if academic, media, and entertainment elites encouraged this radicalization.
To be fair, these have not reached Spanberger’s desk yet, if they ever will. There’s at least some chance she would veto them, and I don’t think she can fairly be attacked with them.
The legislators who proposed them and anyone who votes for them deserve mockery right now though.
HB 614=makes shit up, to eliminate real history.
Like the Somalian contribution to the founding of Minnesota. The Muslim contribution to the founding of hte nation, New York, New Jersy, and Boston.
Whew! What part of the state are the sponsoring legislators from? I can’t help remembering going to a Bluegrass festival at Ralph Stanley’s old home place in 1971 or so. The Stanleys hail from what I think of as Snuffy Smith country in the far southwestern end of the state. The houses are built right next to the road, and the ground goes up sharply behind the houses. You can see the family’s cow in the backyard from the road by looking over the top of the house. We went looking for beer and were told, “You boys are looking for that hi-test. You’ll have to go the next county over for that.” What must the people in southwestern Virginia think of goings on in Richmond? I wonder whether a number of counties will want to join West Virginia.
“The Stanleys hail from what I think of as Snuffy Smith country in the far southwestern end of the state.”
Sometime I’ll tell you about working down in that nape of the neck half a century ago.
PWS
Hoo Doggy!
Some fellers was standin’ ’round a dad gummed brand spankin; new Ford SEEdan, You know, kickin’ its tars ‘n’ such. And one of the fellers had the perspicacity to observe loud enough so everyone could hear, “You know, they build these cars for these roads.”
Hands: Who knows the Snuffy Smith reference?
And another favorite who’s as accurate today as he was sixty years ago? Senator Snort! A golden age of comics. Okay, who remembers … The Comics Section?
I thought I got the reference but had to search to verify. I saw Snuffy Smith on Saturday mornings while a toddler in Fairfax. I couldn’t understand any of the words & struggle with it still, forty-five years later. Dag gummint.
We talked to our son last night – who lives in a Richmond suburb – and his three-year-old was playing with a dump truck. Our son said he wished the Virginia government could be put in that dump truck.
Now comes the “getting it good and hard” part.