My Sept. 26 Virginia Mercury column is an appreciation for the life of Virginia’s unforgettable “sin lobbyist,” Charlie Davis. Rest In peace, Charlie. #virginiapolitics #vorginiagovernor #tobacco
https://www.virginiamercury.com/2023/09/26/appreciation-sin-lobbyist-charlie-davis/?fbclid=IwAR2H72zFh-5uZSvdoBwvCUU69x92VXZWpiIkZsTcPKZPvuIG2WED5pd83Mg_aem_Ad-VQ6uxQD66mN_crYeZOGZRr2EjkwxXLisVdfJZimD1czwKuEkL_IzE_Ot4w1G4c8A

The clock's ticking. The government will default on its debt in two weeks without fast agreement by Biden and the House GOP. History's largest economy becomes history's biggest deadbeat and the economic pain soon engulfs the planet.

My May 15, 2023 Virginia Mercury column.
https://www.virginiamercury.com/2023/05/15/virginia-has-a-lot-at-stake-if-the-debt-ceiling-isnt-resolved/
#recession #Biden #mccarthy #GetItDone

Tennessee embarrassed itself on a global scale earlier this month by expelling two Black legislators for disrupting House of Representatives proceedings. Now both have been reappointed to their seats, returning as national heroes, the governor has ordered stronger background checks, and the GOP-led House reeks of Jim Crow. The state of my birth has made me appreciate Virginia, my state of choice, all the more.
https://www.virginiamercury.com/2023/04/17/a-heartbreaking-spectacle-in-my-native-tennessee-made-me-appreciate-virginia-all-the-more/

Today a judge ordered a jury trial in Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News.

This follows a string of separate lawsuits against networks OAN and Newsmax.

Defamation law may be one of our most effective weapons against right-wing media lies.

Newspapering news just keeps on getting worse.
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/03/the-scale-of-local-news-destruction-in-gannetts-markets-is-astonishing/

Isle of Wight County has forfeited any moral or intellectual claim to having a public school system for this white supremacist falsehood.
https://www.windsorweekly.com/2023/03/10/isle-of-wight-county-schools-bans-teaching-on-systemic-racism/?eId=44444444-4444-4444-4444-444444444444&eType=EmailBlastContent

My Virginia Mercury column for 3/13/23 on limitations and downsides of legislation requiring people to provide personally identifying data proving they’re over 18 to online pornographers. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7041038769268871168-s_Sm?utm_source=post_nba&utm_medium=member_ios&utm_campaign=share_via

Don’t you love if when the neofascist right begin to eat their own?
Tucker Carlson's scorn for Trump revealed in court papers https://apnews.com/article/96c305cf4046aaf373130876940fd06e

Did anyone really expect that today's GOP would reject even the notion of white supremacy and white nationalism, much less its practice, and risk RINO-ism? The base of the party is precisely that: white-nationalist, white supremacist. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/oversight-committee-republicans-won-t-sign-democrats-letter-denouncing-white-supremacy/ar-AA18ikqw?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=7e8623ee9e2b4f9f9de04a8041e23870&ei=63

@jeff the temptation is understandable. Posting on Mastodon too often is met with the online equivalent of chirping crickets. I agree that the practice of duplicate posts isn’t quite fair and I’m not going to do it, but until Mastodon gains critical mass, the temptation will remain.

@rvawonk another potato-headed Rooskie Nazi.

@mapache_tico What a miserable, dimwitted cow. Arkansas will be an even more hopeless tick-infested backwater than it is now by the time this slack-jawed moron is done defiling the governor’s office.

Why do we think a legislature in 2023 can work on the same timeline it did in the Eisenhower Administration and expect to address problems, trends and tech-driven changes that would have been considered science fiction back then?

My Virginia Mercury column for Feb. 28, 2023.

https://www.virginiamercury.com/2023/02/28/another-session-with-vital-work-left-undone-virginia-outgrows-its-part-time-legislature/

@rbreich just hoping the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit breaks Fox, Hannity, Carlson and the other Hitler Youth and they live out the rest of their days eating government cheese and living in a van down by the river.

It's a common hustle among major pro sports franchises who put the arm on taxpayers to build opulent new playpens for their lucrative teams: socialize the costs, privatize the profits. Virginia (and Virginians) should not be forced to finance a new stadium for Dan Snyder and his football team.

My Virginia Mercury column for Feb. 21, 2023.

#nflfootball #generalassembly #virginia #washingtondc #taxes

https://www.virginiamercury.com/2023/02/21/why-sen-chap-petersen-is-right-va-shouldnt-build-dan-snyder-a-stadium/

Waaaay beyond creepy.

What was once the party of fiscal restraint and limited government continues to beclown and marginalize itself with this ill-conceived initiative in Virginia.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/02/14/youngkin-menstrual-data-abortion-virginia/

Specifically, Biden's dealing with the worst kind of white trailer trash -- the kind too stupid to know how stupid they are.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-played-the-state-of-the-union-perfectly-but-the-raucous-gop-proved-he-s-dealing-with-a-whole-new-kind-of-opposition/ar-AA17eiED?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=ba1e0dd9cb0b401bbfff705a32fb56bc

When someone lets the school dunce believe she's the valedictorian. Like a cruel joke. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-presiding-over-house-leaves-viewers-physically-ill/ar-AA17cuDA?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=91846366b38a46caabee359b9b05162f