Election officials working under Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) have admitted to removing “nearly 3,400 qualified voters from the state’s rolls.” The Youngkin administration originally discovered the mistake at the beginning of October but grossly underestimated the number of voters affected.
Youngkin has demonstrated a Trumpian deviance in other ways also. Item: He endorsed a plaan by carpetbagger Juan Paplo Segura to charge anyone accused of dealing in Fentanyl with murder. (Which is even worse than it appears ginen the proclivity in VA to charge someone with 1 extra gram of weed with distribution.) Item: His hate mongering over trans athletes. (How many are there in Virginia, anyway?) Item: Turning bullshit claims of job losses consequential to addressing climate change into a self fulfilling prophecy by preventing Ford from building a battery manufacturing plant in the state. The list goes on.
And for their part the Democrats focus their campaign on a single issue: Abortion. As though the electorate were incapable of thinking beyond a single issue. What's worse is that they tried such an approach in the last gubernatorial election, which gave us Youngkin in the first place.
I don't live in VA, but I'm more than curious about how Youngkin's being against the Ford plant and being anti-jobs is playing there, how much media coverage it got. And if the Democrats have seized on that. There shouldn't be a Dem anywhere in VA making the case the Youngkin never actually puts America - and Virginians - first.
For that matter, in the last six years, the fact that no Dems have seized the original Big Lie - "America First" - and turned it back around on the GOP. ESPECIALLY after January 6. "Tell us, Governor/Senator/Representative, how your belief/policy/plan actually puts "America first?" Because it's actually putting your constituents, and all voters last, as we've seen time and time again..."
For that matter, EVERY Dem win/policy achievement/etc. announcement should have/be started with something along the lines of "In yet another example of actually putting Americans first, today the Biden administration announced another 15,000,000 people are eligible for student loan relief..." You probably get the idea...apologies to go off on a tangent....
I only discovered the Ford story buried in an article; as far as I can tell it has been largely ignored. The campaign (here in Northern Virginia anyway) has been one dimensional on both sides: Abortion on one hand, crime on the other. Dumb and Dumber.
That's disappointing, and not surprising. I can't fault the Dems for putting women's health care and a constitutional right stripped away front and center - it's hugely important for women (for men, too!) and has clearly made a big difference in elections since Dobbs - in "red" states, too. However, it IS possible to focus on more than one issue in your campaign messaging and strategy, especially when the threat to everything that actually made America great is under constant attack. Shame it appears they're not doing that in VA, especially...
Our local red-county Democratic Committee sent 8,000 postcards on which we pre-printed this message: "Democrats Uphold Freedoms. Freedom of choice. Freedom to read and learn. Freedom to love and marry. Freedom to worship or not. Freedom to live your life on your own terms. This is the Promise of America. Our vote is our voice."
Glenn Youngkin has always reeked of desire to become President. Every underhanded move he made to become Governor of Virginia caused a shudder to those of us following the fascistic moves of Moms For Liberty, and those aware of the motives of White Nationalism. Thank you (and the ACLU) for investigating and publicizing the corruption of removing qualified voters: "Youngkin’s Elections Department 'discovered 10,588 people on the state’s voter rolls who were ineligible to vote because of felony convictions' in late 2022." Their cheating motives are obvious--time the major news outlets caught up (now that it may be too late to vote by mail) and informed the world about the yearnings of Youngkin.
As a Virginia voter and local Democratic activist in a deeply red county, thank you for exposing Red Vest. We are in a stressful time; if Democrats turn out and take control of the General Assembly, we'll suppress Youngkin. As it should be. If the Christofascists gain full control of the GA, Gov. SnitchLine will leap into the GOP presidential race. He's Trump with a smile, as crazy as MAGA Mike but a lot richer. And far more dangerous.
I bleed blue in a deep red part of VA. I hope my vote makes a difference, but I honestly think it would take a miracle to flip my county blue.
The hatred runs deep in these parts.
I feel it every time I leave my house. Which is sad, because 15-20 years ago, these were some of the kindest, most loving people you could ever meet.
Only thing that changed was their politics -- and from there, their beliefs. They stopped seeing the good in the people around them, especially if they happen to look, act, or think different from them.
As their vision became limited, their hearts shrank too (probably from an inability to see the beauty in nuance any longer) and all of their kindness dried up to an explosive anger that they tend to unleash on the world around them.
Perception became projection.
And so here we are. With the literal antithesis to personal freedom claiming to be a champion of it while stripping away as many rights from as many people as he can. 😞
"The hatred runs deep in these parts." Indeed it does. We've got several Confederate-loving extremists running for County and School Board. They reject economic development, new ideas, and anything that isn't the Newsmax/Faux propaganda. They claim to be Christian, but the real Christians I know vote Democratic. We have a terrific human being as our candidate running against the NRA-sponsored/owned Speaker Todd Gilbert. Gilbert will outlaw abortion and throw out all gun safety measures tomorrow if given the power. I'm hopeful that if we can exceed historic norms for Democratic turnout in an off-year, the voter-dense areas of VA will also deliver.
Youngkin reminds me of Haley. Media loves to characterize them both as "moderate," but both utilize the same Trump/Republican tactics--they just do it with an air of reasonableness.
I don’t know how many times this can be said before I start banging my head agaist the wall, but here it is again—
Republicans have no agenda other than to invoke their silly religious beliefs on the rest of us and [at the same time] cut taxes for the rich and corporations who should be paying their fair share.
They do this to protect the GOP money spigot from the same wealthy and corporate oligarches. Vote blue. They may not be perfect but at least they’re sane and give a shit about our democratic-self-rule.
Glen Youngkin is a true GQPer. He talks a moderate line until he's elected then goes for voter suppression aware that he's really in the minority. (It's also what DeSantis did in Florida.) Just think, the GQP thinks that if Trump can't run next year, Youngkin is a good bet because he APPEARs to be a centrist. (Ah, no.) But he knows he is out of step with the current attitude in Virginia. Even Idaho is considering backing up on abortion, after seeing the devastation to mothers who have a medical need.
Youngkin is getting in the way of a whole lot more than just voting rights. He supports the book bans that so many schools are pushing. He recently pardoned a parent from Loudon county (super white, super rich suburb of DC) who got unruly at a school board meeting. He is attempting to re-criminalize marijuana when it was just legalized a few years ago. He is pushing for a partial abortion ban and has made it clear that he cares more about the needs of businesses here than the people who keep them running. I could go on but you get the point.
Voter registration is key. Our team wants to register MORE voters; the other team wants to take voters off the rolls, oooops, even when they are not "cleaning" up the list. Purging voters in a democracy is not a democratic action. It is part of fascism.
So Youngkin favors "election integrity." How about politician integrity for a change? It's clear that he is doing everything in his power to skew voter roles in his favor all the while changing his position as the wind blows. Political integrity would involve having, stating clearly and living by principles that voters are then free to agree with or not. Youngkin instead changes what he says he thinks constantly and maneuvers to keep qualified voters from voting --all to keep him in power.
Columbia University has this archive of Benjamin Franklin's 1751 rant against allowing German immigrants who he says, "will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion." He goes on to complain about Africans and others, even dismissing the Swedes and others having a "swarthy Complexion" which makes him wish for more "White People".
=====
...why should the Palatine Boors [German immigrants] be suffered to swarm into our Settlements, and by herding together establish their Language and Manners to the Exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion.
24. Which leads me to add one Remark: That the Number of purely white People in the World is proportionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawny. America (exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. I could wish their Numbers were increased.
Like most of the men pictured on our paper currency -- excepting Lincoln -- Ben Franklin kept people as personal slaves.
My appreciation to all Republicans for the motivation to seek out the fore-runners of their fear- based, dehumanizing, organized racism. In 272 years they have not moved off the dime.
I am a Virginia resident, and all I can say is, thank god our state has one-term only governors. I'm counting down the days until this vulture capitalist schmuck leaves the mansion. Here is another example of how voting matters. Too many Democrats in Virginia decided Trumpkin's opponent wasn't exciting enough for them, so they sat out. If all the registered Democrats had turned out and voted, Dumpkin would still be in private life.
Republican mantra - "If you can't beat 'em, cheat 'em"
Youngkin has demonstrated a Trumpian deviance in other ways also. Item: He endorsed a plaan by carpetbagger Juan Paplo Segura to charge anyone accused of dealing in Fentanyl with murder. (Which is even worse than it appears ginen the proclivity in VA to charge someone with 1 extra gram of weed with distribution.) Item: His hate mongering over trans athletes. (How many are there in Virginia, anyway?) Item: Turning bullshit claims of job losses consequential to addressing climate change into a self fulfilling prophecy by preventing Ford from building a battery manufacturing plant in the state. The list goes on.
And for their part the Democrats focus their campaign on a single issue: Abortion. As though the electorate were incapable of thinking beyond a single issue. What's worse is that they tried such an approach in the last gubernatorial election, which gave us Youngkin in the first place.
I don't live in VA, but I'm more than curious about how Youngkin's being against the Ford plant and being anti-jobs is playing there, how much media coverage it got. And if the Democrats have seized on that. There shouldn't be a Dem anywhere in VA making the case the Youngkin never actually puts America - and Virginians - first.
For that matter, in the last six years, the fact that no Dems have seized the original Big Lie - "America First" - and turned it back around on the GOP. ESPECIALLY after January 6. "Tell us, Governor/Senator/Representative, how your belief/policy/plan actually puts "America first?" Because it's actually putting your constituents, and all voters last, as we've seen time and time again..."
For that matter, EVERY Dem win/policy achievement/etc. announcement should have/be started with something along the lines of "In yet another example of actually putting Americans first, today the Biden administration announced another 15,000,000 people are eligible for student loan relief..." You probably get the idea...apologies to go off on a tangent....
I only discovered the Ford story buried in an article; as far as I can tell it has been largely ignored. The campaign (here in Northern Virginia anyway) has been one dimensional on both sides: Abortion on one hand, crime on the other. Dumb and Dumber.
That's disappointing, and not surprising. I can't fault the Dems for putting women's health care and a constitutional right stripped away front and center - it's hugely important for women (for men, too!) and has clearly made a big difference in elections since Dobbs - in "red" states, too. However, it IS possible to focus on more than one issue in your campaign messaging and strategy, especially when the threat to everything that actually made America great is under constant attack. Shame it appears they're not doing that in VA, especially...
Our local red-county Democratic Committee sent 8,000 postcards on which we pre-printed this message: "Democrats Uphold Freedoms. Freedom of choice. Freedom to read and learn. Freedom to love and marry. Freedom to worship or not. Freedom to live your life on your own terms. This is the Promise of America. Our vote is our voice."
Encouraging.
Read my comment. Plus. His textbook company is the only one used in Florida because he is ever bit of what he trues to hide
Apologies for the typos. 80 year old fingers on a tablet keyboard with no useful spell check
How is this not a criminal offense? Why is the DOJ not prosecuting?
Both US Senators from VA asked for an investigation. Good ol Merrick Garland has done nothing
Glenn Youngkin has always reeked of desire to become President. Every underhanded move he made to become Governor of Virginia caused a shudder to those of us following the fascistic moves of Moms For Liberty, and those aware of the motives of White Nationalism. Thank you (and the ACLU) for investigating and publicizing the corruption of removing qualified voters: "Youngkin’s Elections Department 'discovered 10,588 people on the state’s voter rolls who were ineligible to vote because of felony convictions' in late 2022." Their cheating motives are obvious--time the major news outlets caught up (now that it may be too late to vote by mail) and informed the world about the yearnings of Youngkin.
As a Virginia voter and local Democratic activist in a deeply red county, thank you for exposing Red Vest. We are in a stressful time; if Democrats turn out and take control of the General Assembly, we'll suppress Youngkin. As it should be. If the Christofascists gain full control of the GA, Gov. SnitchLine will leap into the GOP presidential race. He's Trump with a smile, as crazy as MAGA Mike but a lot richer. And far more dangerous.
I bleed blue in a deep red part of VA. I hope my vote makes a difference, but I honestly think it would take a miracle to flip my county blue.
The hatred runs deep in these parts.
I feel it every time I leave my house. Which is sad, because 15-20 years ago, these were some of the kindest, most loving people you could ever meet.
Only thing that changed was their politics -- and from there, their beliefs. They stopped seeing the good in the people around them, especially if they happen to look, act, or think different from them.
As their vision became limited, their hearts shrank too (probably from an inability to see the beauty in nuance any longer) and all of their kindness dried up to an explosive anger that they tend to unleash on the world around them.
Perception became projection.
And so here we are. With the literal antithesis to personal freedom claiming to be a champion of it while stripping away as many rights from as many people as he can. 😞
"The hatred runs deep in these parts." Indeed it does. We've got several Confederate-loving extremists running for County and School Board. They reject economic development, new ideas, and anything that isn't the Newsmax/Faux propaganda. They claim to be Christian, but the real Christians I know vote Democratic. We have a terrific human being as our candidate running against the NRA-sponsored/owned Speaker Todd Gilbert. Gilbert will outlaw abortion and throw out all gun safety measures tomorrow if given the power. I'm hopeful that if we can exceed historic norms for Democratic turnout in an off-year, the voter-dense areas of VA will also deliver.
I am hopeful too
Youngkin reminds me of Haley. Media loves to characterize them both as "moderate," but both utilize the same Trump/Republican tactics--they just do it with an air of reasonableness.
Youngkin and Haley are mere poseurs.
Youngkin, the numbers guy, is pretty terrible at numbers. Last year: https://www.vpm.org/news/2022-10-28/youngkins-top-elections-official-accepts-responsibility-for-errors. Earlier this year: https://richmond.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/local-school-divisions-short-201-million-in-aid-because-of-state-error/article_6138b1e2-a0f1-11ed-8b54-87263b50295e.html
And his GoP house of Delegates held up passing the state budget until last month. We have a June 30 year end
I don’t know how many times this can be said before I start banging my head agaist the wall, but here it is again—
Republicans have no agenda other than to invoke their silly religious beliefs on the rest of us and [at the same time] cut taxes for the rich and corporations who should be paying their fair share.
They do this to protect the GOP money spigot from the same wealthy and corporate oligarches. Vote blue. They may not be perfect but at least they’re sane and give a shit about our democratic-self-rule.
Glen Youngkin is a true GQPer. He talks a moderate line until he's elected then goes for voter suppression aware that he's really in the minority. (It's also what DeSantis did in Florida.) Just think, the GQP thinks that if Trump can't run next year, Youngkin is a good bet because he APPEARs to be a centrist. (Ah, no.) But he knows he is out of step with the current attitude in Virginia. Even Idaho is considering backing up on abortion, after seeing the devastation to mothers who have a medical need.
Youngkin is getting in the way of a whole lot more than just voting rights. He supports the book bans that so many schools are pushing. He recently pardoned a parent from Loudon county (super white, super rich suburb of DC) who got unruly at a school board meeting. He is attempting to re-criminalize marijuana when it was just legalized a few years ago. He is pushing for a partial abortion ban and has made it clear that he cares more about the needs of businesses here than the people who keep them running. I could go on but you get the point.
Voter registration is key. Our team wants to register MORE voters; the other team wants to take voters off the rolls, oooops, even when they are not "cleaning" up the list. Purging voters in a democracy is not a democratic action. It is part of fascism.
So Youngkin favors "election integrity." How about politician integrity for a change? It's clear that he is doing everything in his power to skew voter roles in his favor all the while changing his position as the wind blows. Political integrity would involve having, stating clearly and living by principles that voters are then free to agree with or not. Youngkin instead changes what he says he thinks constantly and maneuvers to keep qualified voters from voting --all to keep him in power.
An old story with deep founding-father roots.
Columbia University has this archive of Benjamin Franklin's 1751 rant against allowing German immigrants who he says, "will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion." He goes on to complain about Africans and others, even dismissing the Swedes and others having a "swarthy Complexion" which makes him wish for more "White People".
=====
...why should the Palatine Boors [German immigrants] be suffered to swarm into our Settlements, and by herding together establish their Language and Manners to the Exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion.
24. Which leads me to add one Remark: That the Number of purely white People in the World is proportionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawny. America (exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. I could wish their Numbers were increased.
======
http://www.columbia.edu/~lmg21/ash3002y/earlyac99/documents/observations.html
[[quote is near the bottom of the long page]]
Like most of the men pictured on our paper currency -- excepting Lincoln -- Ben Franklin kept people as personal slaves.
My appreciation to all Republicans for the motivation to seek out the fore-runners of their fear- based, dehumanizing, organized racism. In 272 years they have not moved off the dime.
I am a Virginia resident, and all I can say is, thank god our state has one-term only governors. I'm counting down the days until this vulture capitalist schmuck leaves the mansion. Here is another example of how voting matters. Too many Democrats in Virginia decided Trumpkin's opponent wasn't exciting enough for them, so they sat out. If all the registered Democrats had turned out and voted, Dumpkin would still be in private life.
he knows he can't win because of his stand on abortion... so he cheats.. help Virginia
Might as well add the 27,000 voters purged from ohio too. Grr. https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/vote/ohio-secretary-state-frank-larose-purges-nearly-27000-people-voting-rolls/95-5bcc6ca7-ecb0-4c57-8833-2480affdbf6b