February: Virginia Celebrates White Fragility Month

While the rest of the nation observes the Lunar New Year and Black History Month, the Commonwealth of Virginia celebrates White Fragility Month by urging parents to inform on educators who teach the actual history of the United States, which, of course, included centuries of Black enslavement, legally enforced racial segregation, and disinvestment.

Two weeks ago, as Republican Glenn Youngkin moved into the Virginia Governor’s Mansion, built by enslaved laborers in 1813, he signed a stack of executive orders, including the Orwellian “rat on teacher” edict. “Negative” books are being removed from Virginia school libraries. Maybe book bonfires will be part of the state’s 2022 high school pep rallies. Go team.

Maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to reduce the number of classes that teach civics, democracy and American history?

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) January 31, 2022

Like-minded update:

“Glenn Youngkin’s No-Guilt History of Virginia for Fragile White People,” Dana Milbank, Washington Post

More:

“Where Things Stand: Trolls Flood Youngkin’s Teacher-Reporting Tip Line, As They Should,” Nicole Lafond, TalkingPointsMemo

“‘It’s Jim Crow, it’s not reform’: Concerns raised over Virginia governor’s new ‘divisive’ learning tip line,” Jim Dowding, WAVY-TV

“A GOP proposal targeting ‘negative’ U.S. history is cause for renewed alarm,” Greg Sargent, Washington Post

Updated:

“Youngkin Rescinds Racial Equity Resources For Schools,” Margaret Barthel, DCist

Related:

“Glenn Youngkin didn’t mind if some kids got an anti-racist education: His own,” Dana Milbank, Washington Post

“From slavery to socialism, new legislation restricts what teachers can discuss,” Terry Gross, NPR

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Fairfax County Archery Program

Like many Eastern suburbs, Virginia’s Fairfax County has way too many whitetail deer munching on backyard greenery and blundering in front of moving minivans. The county’s parks department has a chosen technology to control the antlered population boom: bows and arrows. Registered bow hunters climb into tree stand blinds and shoot down at the critters, so there’s little chance of stray shots perforating the neighbors.

More:

“Hundreds of Bow-Hunters Will Reduce Fairfax’s Deer Population This Fall,” Jane Recker, Washingtonian

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Image (“Fairfax County Deer Hunt, after Atelier Disney”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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COVID-19: President Trump Urges Insurrection

Last week President Trump told governors to “call the shots” on reopening their states’ economies, then called on mobs of his followers to “liberate” states with Democratic governors, specifically the battleground states of Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia. His rabid supporters turned out at state capitals, and some of them were armed.

A photo of the Ohio protesters banging on the statehouse windows looked familiar:

“One wears a Guy Fawkes mask. Two men wear Trump-branded baseball caps. Two women, the closest to the windows, shape their mouths into the same elongated howl as Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream.’ American flags obscure some of the protesters in the back.”

“It looked awfully familiar to Michael Satrazemis, the director of photography for ‘The Walking Dead’ and director of ‘Fear the Walking Dead,’ two shows that seem a little scarier these days, since they’re about a zombie apocalypse that begins with an uncontrollable pathogen.

The visual trope is ‘classic horror,’ says Satrazemis. It plays on the common fear of claustrophobia, making the audience “\’feel the walls are closing in and the world is shrinking around you. And there’s no way out.’”

— “That Ohio protest photo looked like a zombie movie. Zombie movie directors think so, too.”Maura Judkis, Washington Post

Mr. Trump must be nostalgic for his MAGA zombie rallies, and uneasy about the likelihood that he won’t be having any rallies before November’s election.

New Fairfax County Archery Program

Like many Eastern suburbs, Virginia’s Fairfax County has way too many whitetail deer munching on backyard greenery and blundering in front of moving minivans. The county’s parks department has a chosen technology to control the antlered population boom: bows and arrows. Registered bow hunters climb into tree stand blinds and shoot down at the critters, so there’s little chance of stray shots perforating the neighbors.

Yum, venison steaks!

More:

“Deer control hunt begins in Fairfax County,” Madeleine Simon, WTOP News

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Image (“Fairfax County Deer Hunt, after Atelier Disney”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Virginia KKK Backs Trump

The Imperial Wizard of the Rebel Brigade Knights of the Ku Klux Klan has endorsed Donald J. Trump as his choice for US President. “The reason a lot of Klan members like Donald Trump is because a lot of what he believes in, we believe in,” he told Richmond WWBT’s Chris Taylor.

More:

“Virginia KKK Leader Endorses Trump: ‘What He Believes In, We Believe In,’”Katherine Krueger, TPM Livewire

Related:

“David Duke Hails Donald Trump For Thwarting The ‘Jewish Supremacists Who Control Our Country,'” Brian Tashman, Right Wing Watch

“Klan’s Trump Fans Rip ‘Liberal Media’ For Making Them Look Too ‘Racist,’” Asawin Suebsaeng, Daily Beast

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U.S. Court to Bob McDonnell: Go to Prison, Already

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has told disgraced former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell that if he wants to appeal his political corruption conviction to the Supreme Court, he can do it from the slammer.

Bob McDonnell Corruption Conviction Upheld

A three judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the political corruption conviction of disgraced former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell so, pending further appeal to the full U.S. Fourth Circuit Court, he’s going to the slammer for 2 years. He’s lucky; based on Federal Sentencing Guidelines he could have gotten at least 10 years in prison.

During the initial trial ex-Gov. McDonnell, devoted husband and father of five, explained the $150,000 in loans, vacations, golf outings and luxury goods Virginia’s First Couple took from a snake-oil salesman for promoting his dubious nostrums by blaming it all on his screaming lunatic harridan of a wife, Maureen McDonnell. That defense was not successful.

Understandably, Mr. McDonnell left his conjugal home and has been staying at the rectory of Richmond’s St. Patrick’s Church with a sympathetic priest who’s had legal problems of his own. His estranged wife, former NFL Cheerleader Maureen McDonnell, was convicted on 8 counts and sentenced to a year and a day in the hoosegow.

Due to these circumstances, Bob McDonnell is perhaps the only prominent Republican not running for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. Yet.

More:

“Official Acts,” Dahlia Lithwick, Slate

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Court: Virginia’s Racially Gerrymandered Congressional Map is Unconstitutional

On Friday a federal court panel reaffirmed an earlier decision throwing out Virginia’s map of congressional districts due to racial gerrymandering in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

“Virginia is widely believed to be one of the most gerrymandered states in the country. In 2012, Republican House candidates won just 51 percent of the votes cast in the state — but they ended up winning eight of the state’s 11 congressional districts.”

— “Virginia’s congressional map has been thrown out by judges for racial bias,” Andrew Prokop, Vox

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A Year and a Day in Prison for Maureen McDonnell

Maureen McDonnell, former NFL cheerleader and estranged wife of disgraced former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell, has been sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison for her conviction on 8 felony counts of corruption. The former First Lady of the Old Dominion accepted lavish gifts from nutritional supplement manufacturer Jonnie Williams and helped him shill his snake oil, even staging a promotional event at the state’s Executive Mansion.

Mr. McDonnell, the first Virginia governor convicted of committing a felony while in office, has been sentenced to 2 years in prison and 2 years of federally supervised release for convictions on 11 counts of political corruption. Mr. &  Mrs. McD are both on the loose while appealing their convictions, and the ex-Governor is bunking with his parish priest.

Bob McDonnell Gets 2 Years in the Big House

Disgraced former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, convicted of 11 counts of political corruption, was sentenced to 2 years in prison and 2 years of federally supervised release today. Prior to his arrest, many Republicans had proposed Mr. McDonnell for federal office, not a federal prison cell. In December the U.S. probation office had recommended at least 10 years in prison, and Pat Robertson’s charity had tried to wangle a no-prison-time community service deal.

Mr. McDonnell will enter the pokey on February 9th. His estranged wife, former NFL Cheerleader Maureen McDonnell, who was ultimately convicted on 8 federal counts, will be sentenced on January 20th. In another big Republican crime story today, Rep. John Boehner was sentenced to 2 years as House Majority Leader.

Related:

“Unforgivable: The Governor and the Teen-ager,” Evan Osnos, The New Yorker

Updates:

“Court: Ex-Virginia Gov. McDonnell will be free during appeal,”  Michael Felberbaum, Associated Press

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