The New Dominion category archive
The Marjorie Taylor Greene New Deal 0
Aside:
Methinks David’s suggested term for posts by X Offenders is well-worth adopting.
Final Notice: Payment Due 0
At the Bangor Daily News, David Farmer reflects on the docility as Republicans fall in line (and, sometimes, fall all over themselves) to support Donald Trump. A snippet:
In reality, only a few people had the courage to oppose the powerful forces of bigotry and hate.
(snip)
Today, Republicans must decide if they will support Trump, the authoritarian, the bigot and the misogynist, the reality TV villain who handily beat the Republican primary field and is on his way to the GOP nomination.
For Democrats, it’s an easy call. There’s no risk to me or other progressive columnists or politicians for calling Trump what he is.
But it’s a different story for Republicans, fearful of the short-term political consequences of bucking their party and their nominee. They’re worried about angering an already angry Republican base, about offending donors or being labeled as disloyal — or even worse, as a RINO (Republican in Name Only).
Richard Nixon sold the soul of the Republican Party when he adopted the odious southern strategy. Now the debt collector has come to call.
Beer Is Good Food . . . 0
. . . or not.
Afterthought:
I would not have thought it possible, but beer snobs are more boring and pretentious than wine snobs, and manage to be so about so much less.
Mark Herring Is an Excellent Attorney-General 0
You can know a man by the company he keeps. You can also know a man by the company he doesn’t keep.
By any indication, Mark Herring is a great guy.
The Prince William County* Republican Thursday introduced resolutions in the House of Delegates that would direct legislative committees to consider whether aspects of Herring’s official conduct constitute impeachable offenses.
Bob Marshall, one of the most retrograde demagogues in the Virginia House of Delegates, is offended that Mr. Herring’s hate quotient is too low; in Marshall’s view, Mr. Herring ain’t hatin’ enuf on the gays.
Indeed, he ain’t hatin’ at all. The politics of hate isn’t his thing.
(Actually, I have met Mr. Herring, not that he would remember me from Adam, and he is a great guy).
Aside:
Elections matter, folks. Voting is not a right. It is a duty.
You may see only a little bit of difference between the parties, but that little bit of difference can mean a hell of a big difference in day-to-day lives. There is no better example of this than the contrast between the current and the previous administrations in Virginia.
Vote, and when you do, vote in the real world, not in some fanciful world of purists, because the world ain’t pure (and, for that matter, neither are you and I, but that’s a different tale).
Car Tax 0
The Regent’s ridiculous tax on persons who choose to save energy and money by purchasing economical vehicles has been repealed.
As near as I can figure it, the idea was that persons who chose to conserve energy should be punished because they do not have Ford F350s or Cadillac Escillades.
Or something.
Or maybe it was just nastiness for nastiness’s sake.
Virginia’s Repugnant Marriage Constitutional Amendment Overturned 0
This is good news.
Persons should not be punished for being.
A spokesman for Herring, a Democrat, in an e-mail Thursday night said Norfolk-based U.S. District Court Judge Arenda Wright Allen issued that ruling.
In her decision, Wright concluded that “Virginia’s Marriage Laws unconstitutionally deny Virginia’s gay and lesbian citizens the fundamental freedom to choose to marry.”
More at the link.
It amuses me that proponents of these laws claim they are defending marriage.
Nothing that has ever happened in a same-sex bedroom has ever affected a marriage of mine.
I cannot say the same for–oh, never mind.
More on Marriage Malice 0
Governor McAuliffe has declined Republican requests that he defend Virginia’s laws to persecute persons for being.
Monday afternoon, McAuliffe declined Del. Bob Marshall’s request for him to appoint outside counsel on a federal challenge to that law scheduled for a hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court in Norfolk.
Seeing Delegate Bob Marshall’s name in the story is no surprise. He is a weather vane, unfailingly pointing in the direction of hate-full-ness on every social issue. The forces of persecution for being are so frustrated that some are calling for impeaching Attorney-General Herring. Their discomfiture is gratifying.
If it is true that you can judge a person by the enemies he or she makes, Mr. Herring is a pretty decent fellow.
Elections matter, folks.
What Goes Around 0
Predictably, those who wish to persecute persons for being express outrage that Attorney-General Herring has jumped out of the persecution parade by deciding not to defend Virginia’s constitutional amendment against gay marriage.
They are claiming that he must, just must, defend any state law, just (as my mother used to say) because.
Mr. Herring, though, has found precedent for not doing so, deliciously citing one of their own.
Responding to such complaints, Herring said he is upholding his constitutional duty. He also said there is well-established precedent of Virginia attorneys general declining to defend certain state laws. An example he cited is Cuccinelli’s decision last year not to defend a law allowing the state to take over failing schools.
Heh, I say, heh indeed.
Snark aside, this is Virginia, not Massachusetts.
I again commend Mr. Herring for his political courage.
