youngkin, glenn

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fleece vest guy, CRT weaponized

see parental vought cooch murdoch

merri ok

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AN 3 26

Republicans are attempting to rewrite the narrative of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, but Virginia is not letting that narrative permeate public classrooms.

The Washington Post reported Friday that the Virginia state governor will likely sign a measure that was passed by the state House of Delegates and Senate that bars any public schools from teaching that the attack was a "peaceful" protest. President Donald Trump has long maintained that the violence was peaceful. Other Republicans have referred to it as nothing more than a "tourist visit."

One lawmaker complained that the White House webpage calls January 6 "a peaceful protest, and people who instigated it were the police and National Guard,” said Delegate Dan Helmer (D).

“This is a preventative measure against a massive disinformation campaign on the part of the White House," he added.

Republicans are calling it "mind control," the report said.

"It tells us what we’re not allowed to say, and it tells us what we must say,” complained Del. Tom Garrett (R) in a floor speech. He said that the bill was "evil" and akin to "Nazi Germany" and "Soviet Russia."

In 2022, Virginia's Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin proposed new teaching requirements for those discussing the history of the U.S. around slavery and the Native Americans. Laws in Germany today bar expressions of Holocaust denialism in public.

Trump pardoned 1,500 people charged with crimes related to Jan. 6, even if they accepted their guilt.

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AN 7 25 ABBY S

'Key bellwether': Swing state governor's race could spell trouble for Trump — and the GOP - Alternet.org

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an 525

A newly surfaced recording of an April 27 conversation between Matt Moran, the top political strategist for Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and members of Republican John Reid’s campaign appears to contradict Moran’s sworn affidavit — directly challenging his claim that he never pressured Reid’s team to leave the lieutenant governor’s race.

Top Youngkin strategist breaks silence, denies Reid’s extortion claims as GOP feud continues

...

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msnbc 10 24

two states dumping sweater vest gov youngkin if discrepnancy in dmv recs; only possible b/c scotus gutted voting rts act which req pre-clearance of fuckery

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an 10 24

Republican election officials are currently being sued in multiple states for purging eligible voters just before Americans go to the polls in November. Now, one watchdog group fighting back argues the purges are part of a larger GOP strategy.

According to the Independent, voters in both Alabama and Tennessee are suing their respective secretaries of state after finding out they had been removed from voter rolls for being "non-citizens." One of the plaintiffs, 49 year-old Alabama resident James Cozzad, is a registered Republican who voted in the 2016 and 2020 elections without incident. In a lawsuit filed in federal court, Cozzad said he had been "racking my brain to try to figure out how I ended up on the list of purged voters, but I have no clue."

"It feels like they are trying to make me think I’ve broken the law — just for trying to exercise my right to vote. While I hope it was just a mistake, I think if they were just trying to verify something, they would have done so long before the election," he continued. "Now I can understand why some people feel as though their vote isn’t worth casting."

The Independent further reported that thousands more voters have been purged from the rolls in states with Republican election chiefs — including Virginia, where the Department of Justice alleges Republican Secretary of the Commonwealth Kelly Gee has also removed thousands of voters. Even though there is no evidence that non-citizens have tried to vote in the Old Dominion State, Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin bragged about kicking approximately 6,000 voters from the rolls for allegedly being illegal immigrants.

These voter purges are notably taking place during the so-called "quiet period," in which states are barred from making drastic changes to their election systems and voter rolls within 90 days of an election. Watchdog group Protect Democracy attorney Anna Dorman is arguing that Republican secretaries of state — along with GOP groups filing frivolous lawsuits in the courts — are acting in "bad faith" and that their arguments are "not strong on the merits."

"Their sole purpose is to use the legitimacy of the court system to launder conspiracy theories and make them feel more legitimate, so that if the election results don’t go the way these people want in November, they have some additional conspiracies to put forward to try to undermine peaceful transfer of power," Dorman told the Independent.

The outlet reported that GOP-aligned groups have filed nearly 100 election-related lawsuits in 2024 alone, which are largely what Protect Democracy calls "zombie lawsuits." The group uses that term to describe litigation that will almost certainly get thrown out at first glance due to there being no factual basis to plaintiffs' claims of fraudulent activity.

“They’re part of a messaging strategy, not a legal strategy,” a Protect Democracy report read. “Regardless of whether this legal strategy will get anywhere, in any courtroom, it telegraphs a clear intent to subvert the election if Donald Trump loses.”

Earlier this year, both former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) held a press conference at Mar-a-Lago to announce an initiative aimed at curbing non-citizen voting. Johnson unsuccessfully tried to include legislation that would require voters show proof of citizenship (like a birth certificate or a U.S. passport) upon registering to vote in the latest must-pass government funding bill. The Brennan Center for Justice estimated there are several million U.S. citizens who would not be able to meet that burden of proof due to difficulty locating or obtaining citizenship documents, meaning they would be disenfranchised.

Click here to read the Independent's report in its entirety.

READ MORE:['They're just coming after us': Project 2025 org is now harassing voter registration groups

snitch line crt teachers pranked

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an 9 24

For decades, Virginia was known for being a deep red state. But these days, Virginia is very much a swing state and has, according to Democratic strategists, evolved into Democrats' best state in the South.

Nonetheless, Virginia has a conservative Republican governor: Glenn Youngkin, who was booed at a Labor Day 2024 gathering in Buena Vista.

Youngkin, who is supporting Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, was speaking when members of the crowd began chanting, "We're not going back, we're not going back" — a slogan being used by Trump's Democratic rival Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Video shows some people in the crowd.

On X, formerly Twitter, Aaron Fritschner — deputy chief of staff for Rep. Don Beyer (D-Virginia) — commented, "Buena Vista, Virginia is the kind of place that hasn't always had a strong Democratic presence in election season — but at today's Labor Day parade, it was different. Watch as Glenn Youngkin, stumping for Trump, gets booed and drowned out with chants of 'We're not going back!"

The Best Places website describes Buena Vista as "moderately conservative."

Youngkin was elected governor of Virginia in 2021, but he cannot seek reelection in 2025 — as governors cannot serve two consecutive terms under Virginia state law.

Watch the videos below or at this link.

an 6 24

Youngkin was once a GOP rising star — here’s why he’s not on Trump’s short list: report

Maya Boddie

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'Losing sucks': Virginia GOP infighting ensues after governor’s failed $1.4M campaign - Alternet.org

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an 8 23 no lnx

in his determination to choose a 2024 GOP nominee other than ex-President Donald Trump, right-wing media magnate Rupert Murdoch is interested in selecting Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin,The Washington Post reports.

According to a November 2022 report from The Guardian, "Rupert Murdoch has reportedly warned Donald Trump his media empire will not back any attempt to return to the White House, as former supporters turn to the youthful Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. After the Republican Party's disappointing performance in the U.S. midterm elections, in particular the poor showing by candidates backed by Trump, Murdoch's right-wing media empire appears to be seeking a clean break from the former president's damaged reputation and perceived waning political power."

However, last month the right-wing media mogul, according to five anonymous sources interviewed byRolling Stone, expressed "doubts and frustrations," regarding the DeSantis' 2024 campaign, "in private discussions and calls, at times wondering if a 'comeback'" from the governor "is possible at this point."

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to hold office again?

According to The Post, The New York Times reports "in a story on how Fox's coverage of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis turned tougher as his presidential campaign began struggling — that Murdoch had privately told people that he would like Youngkin to enter the race."

Furthermore, the newspaper notes, "It was not known until now that" Murdoch "had personally encouraged Youngkin to jump in— although the Virginia governor is thought to be waiting for whether his party prevails in the state's November elections before making a decision on whether to run" for president.

"If no alternative to Mr. Trump breaks through, nervous Republican donors and voters will start looking for a lifeboat, and Glenn Youngkin just may prove seaworthy," Wall Street Journal editorial board member Kate Bachelder Odell wrote earlier this month, according to The Post.

However, The Post reports "some donors who've soured on DeSantis are not ready to turn to Youngkin, including top Republican donor Andrew Sabin," who "backed Trump in 2016 and 2020, planned to support DeSantis this time, soured on him in the spring and next turned next to Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina."

READ MORE: Why Glenn Youngkin’s 'political brand' is in jeopardy in Virginia: report

Sabin said, "I like him a lot, but I really would like to see him finish out his term in Virginia. Show the people of the country he's a great governor and he deserves to be president in '28."

The Postnotes:

Murdoch's support could be a great asset to any White House hopeful given his media empire's reach with conservative audiences, but it is no golden ticket. In addition, Murdoch is ultimately a pragmatist and the people familiar with the Youngkin discussions said that Murdoch could once again throw his support behind Trump. But given Fox's settlement with Dominion, the media mogul is more tentative than ever about the former president, these people said.

Still, according tot he report, despite Youngkin's "ties to the donor class and a personal fortune that Forbes put at $470 million at the time of his election, appeal to evangelicals as someone who started a church in his basement, and ability to wage MAGA culture wars in the style of the friendly dad next door," he still faces "tremendous logistical hurdles if he sticks with his plan to stay out of the race until after Virginia’s Nov. 7 General Assembly races."

Per The Post, "Filing deadlines to get on the presidential ballot will have passed in some key states by that date or soon after."

READ MORE: 'Fail': Critics blast Glenn Youngkin over claim Trump is victim just like 'parents in Virginia'

The Washington Post's full report is available at this link (subscription required).

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Trump Crushing DeSantis and GOP Rivals, Times/Siena Poll Finds ... ›

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https://www.mediamatters.org/cnn/cnn-gave-virginia-gov-glenn-youngkin-town-hall-spew-right-wing-talking-points-about-education

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https://www.alternet.org/glenn-youngkin-virginia/

word salad trans kid ~

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an 2 23

A fight over new history curriculum standards in Virginia is part of a nationwide campaign to undermine public schools and prevent educators from teaching the truth about America's inequality.

"People still want to hide the truth about Black history," Dione Archer, a resident of Richmond, Virginia, said in an interview with Our Schools. Her response came after being reminded about Virginia Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin's November 2022 unveiling of a draft revision of the state's curriculum standards for teaching history in K-12 schools. The revision was roundly criticized for 'whitewashing' American history, as education historian Diane Ravitch put it in her blog, because of its treatment of African American content (all references to Martin Luther King Jr. were deleted), its description of Native American and Indigenous peoples as "the first immigrants" to the country, and other white, Eurocentric guidelines followed by it. "I was very upset," said Archer, whose 15-year-old African American grandson attends Henrico High School in Richmond. "Politicians want to deny the truth, good or bad, about this country," she said. "I didn’t learn about Katherine Johnson [a pioneering African American mathematician who worked for NASA and was a Virginia native] until I was 67 years old. That’s horrifying to me."

This article was produced by Our Schools.

Youngkin's proposed changes to the state's history and social sciences Standards of Learning (SOL) set off an immediate firestorm among public school students, educators, and parents, according to the Washington Informer. In addition to objecting to the emphasis on promoting "white conservative ideology," critics of the proposed new guidelines also opposed them because they would eliminate mention of LGBTQ+ history from K-5 standards and "delay instruction about lynching until the 6th grade and Christopher Columbus' role in the slave trade by the 11th grade. By kindergarten, students would learn to equate citizenship to following rules," the article stated.

State lawmakers and community activists were just as appalled.

"It is important that students and educators learn and teach the truth about the many contributions of African Americans and not attempt to revise history to make others feel good," Virginia House Delegate Reverend Delores McQuinn told Our Schools. McQuinn, who’s a member of the Virginia Black Caucus and co-chair of Virginians for Reconciliation, said she was offended by the governor’s effort, stating that future generations will be the losers if these changes are implemented. "The lack of knowledge about our history is a contributing factor to the racial divisiveness in this country," she said. "We must all begin to think about racial reconciliation and how to get there. The dismissal of our history and culture will not help."

"It's been shown, especially via various in-depth examinations of textbooks used in Virginia, that many Virginia public school students have been miseducated over the years," said Rachel Levy, a teacher, parent, community leader, and 2023 candidate for the newly drawn 59th district seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. "It has created a vicious cycle of ignorance," said Levy, which a previous and highly praised standards revision—conducted by the administration of former Democratic Governor Ralph Northam in 2021—"was trying to begin to break."

The backlash over Youngkin’s proposed curriculum changes persuaded the Virginia State Board of Education "not to move forward" with his proposed draft, WRIC reported in November 2022, and in January 2023, the Youngkin administration issued a revised, shorter draft that they said "fixes errors," WRIC reported, but it still contains language that experts find concerning.

On February 2, 2023, the state Board of Education voted to advance the latest revision, but final adoption isn't expected until June 2023. Educators and public school activists continue to try to thwart Youngkin's whitewashed history curriculum from being taught in Virginia's K-12 schools. Should their efforts ultimately be successful, it may cause a brief setback for a national campaign conducted by shadowy right-wing groups and led by Republican politicians to turn public schools into political battlegrounds and undermine how teachers engage students in thinking critically about important and sometimes controversial topics.

The campaign began as a strategy to falsely target schools for teaching students about critical race theory—a concept taught in higher education that has been turned into a grab bag of complaints about efforts in schools to become more welcoming and provide more inclusive learning environments that embrace teaching diverse points of view about subjects, including the history of race, gender, and religious discrimination in the U.S. Then, the campaign swiftly moved on to efforts to ban books and limit teachers' speech in schools.

Now, this movement is trying to make an end run around the democratic process and alter school curricula that have been formally created by education experts and passed by deliberative bodies and elected officials.

'Imbued With Christian and Conservative Tenets'

"[A]t least 36 states have adopted or introduced laws or policies that restrict teaching about race and racism," according to a February 2022 article in Chalkbeat.

In 2021, Oklahoma lawmakers considered a new bill that "would limit how slavery is taught in schools and ban teaching that 'one race is the unique oppressor' or 'victim' in slavery's history," NBC News reported. In Texas, new laws considered in the state legislature "[tried] to reframe Texas history lessons and play down references to slavery and anti-Mexican discrimination that are part of the state’s founding," stated a New York Times article in May 2021. That article referred to similar efforts underway in "Republican-led states [that] seek to ban or limit how the role of slavery and pervasive effects of racism can be taught."

In Florida, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis revamped the state's approach to civics "in a new direction," Education Week reported, "[toward] an overtly patriotic approach that some educators say is imbued with Christian and conservative tenets. And all of that is occurring as Florida's law limiting classroom discussions on race—a key theme in social studies—takes effect" in the 2023-2024 school year.

In some of these efforts, state lawmakers have solicited the influence of right-wing pressure groups that seek to diminish the voices of educators and limit what schools can teach. Among those pressure groups, Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian college that led former President Donald Trump's 1776 Commission, is especially influential.

Hillsdale College, according to a three-part investigation by Salon, "has inconspicuously been building a network of 'classical education' charter schools, which use public tax dollars to teach that systemic racism was effectively vanquished in the 1960s, that America was founded on 'Judeo-Christian' principles, and that progressivism is fundamentally anti-American."

In 2022, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, a Republican, announced a partnership with Hillsdale College to "open upward of 50 new charters with Hillsdale's '1776 Curriculum,'" according to WPLN News.

In Florida, where Hillsdale is rapidly expanding its network of affiliated charter schools, the Michigan-based college was an influential force in revising the state's civics curriculum and rejecting math textbooks that included "what DeSantis called 'indoctrinating concepts,'" the Tampa Bay Times reported.

In Virginia, among the outside institutions Youngkin enlisted to assist in his effort to rewrite the state's history standards was Hillsdale College, VPM News reported. The college was asked by the Virginia Department of Education "to review a working draft of its social studies standards."

A 'Cycle of Miseducation'

By law, the Virginia Board of Education is required to review the standards in all subjects at least once every seven years. The board's last revision for history and social science was in 2015.

A previous version of the history and social science SOL was created during the administration of former Governor Ralph Northam. But the state Board of Education's vote on whether or not to adopt those standards was delayed when Youngkin appointed five new members to the board and tipped the board to a "conservative majority," according to WSET. The Northam draft included lessons on racism and on the LGBTQ+ community.

Defenders of Youngkin's version of the standards are saying that those criticizing it are distorting the revisions' intentions. "Are we mandating that our teachers tell our students that we're a racist country? No. We aren't mandating that," Republican Delegate Glenn Davis, who chairs the House Education Committee, told WTOP. "Davis said that Youngkin's version requires students to learn about the KKK, and Supreme Court cases that enshrined white supremacy, including Plessy v. Ferguson and Dred Scott—which were not required in the Northam version," WTOP reported. "All students will learn about the KKK and the inherent racism during one of the darkest periods of our nation’s history," he told WTOP. "So how is that not ensuring that our students are taught about racism and those time periods of our nation's history?"

But Levy contended, "Replacing the intended, legitimately revised standards with Youngkin's deeply flawed standards will continue that cycle of miseducation."

The revised draft of the SOL introduced in November 2022 also received pushback from the Virginia Education Association. The group’s statement on the standards read, "The standards are full of overt political bias, outdated language to describe enslaved people and American Indians, highly subjective framing of American moralism and conservative ideals, coded racist overtures throughout, requirements for teachers to present histories of discrimination and racism as 'balanced' 'without personal or political bias,' and restrictions on allowance of 'teacher-created curriculum,' which is allowed in all other subject areas."

'Turning Back the Clock'

But, as an article in USA Today reported, the debate over Virginia's history standards is even more relevant, as it comes at a time when the nation's system of public education has become increasingly more racially segregated. "Education policy experts warn that efforts to keep certain books out of the classroom or ban the teaching of sensitive topics such as race and gender risk turning back the clock to a time when segregated schools meant separate—and vastly unequal—forums for learning," the article noted.

Citing the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 ruling in the Brown v. Board of Education case that made racial segregation in schools unconstitutional and "marked a major turning point in America's attitudes about racial equality," USA Today noted that "experts [now] see the dawning of anew era of school segregation—one in which certain topics will be verboten in some districts and how and what students learn will be determined by what their schools are allowed to teach."

The USA Today article quoted Sarah Hill, a political science professor and education policy expert at California State University in Fullerton, who warned that states and school boards that refuse to teach certain kinds of topics and books they deem to be divisive will effectively segregate school experiences.

"Students will have very different educational experiences, different kinds of conversations in the classroom," Hill said. "As a result, many American children may wind up at the end of high school without a complete picture of the country's history. Many will lack, under the guise of keeping them from feeling discomfort in school, exposure to aspects of the American story that undeniably define the country. They may be denied a chance to reconcile modern events and the past and be denied the opportunity to build empathy and compassion for people they are sure to face for the rest of their lives," the USA Today article stated.

Levy's take was somewhat similar. "I don't necessarily see a direct link between school segregation and Youngkin's new history and social science standards," she said, "but I could foresee if Virginia students don't learn an accurate and full version of our shared history—they wouldn't learn, for example, about the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and segregation—that they wouldn't understand where racial and other disparities in access to power and resources come from in our society and institutions, or why and how they should be remedied."

Author Bio: Sandra Jones served as an investigative reporter for nearly two decades. She has received numerous awards for her broadcast reporting.

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no lnx

Virginia Senate Panel Rejects Trump EPA Chief For Top Virginia Environmental Post

Democratic lawmakers in the commonwealth took a first step toward defeating Andrew Wheeler's nomination as the state's secretary of natural resources.

Chris D'Angelo

02/01/2022

Democrats on a Senate committee in Virginia moved toward blocking Andrew Wheeler from being the next secretary of natural resources in the state.

Democratic state senators in Virginia took a first step Tuesday toward blocking Andrew Wheeler, Donald Trump’s controversial second head of the Environmental Protection Agency and a former coal lobbyist, from becoming the state’s top environmental official.

A Senate committee that considers gubernatorial nominees voted 9-6 along party lines to remove Wheeler’s name from a resolution approving Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) Cabinet appointments.

But, as The Virginian-Pilot reported, it may not be the end of the line for Wheeler’s nomination. His name could ultimately be added back to the resolution on the Senate floor. All it would take is a single Democrat in the narrowly divided state Senate voting with Republicans.

Tuesday’s vote adds to what has proved to be a contentious confirmation process, in which scores of current and former EPA employees urged Virginia lawmakers to vote against Wheeler, citing his record of gutting environmental rules while at the helm of the federal agency.

Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Mamie Locke called Wheeler’s nomination “dangerous for Virginia’s future.”

“Governor Youngkin has said time and time again he would like to bridge the partisan divide and work together for Virginia’s next generation,” Locke said in a statement following the vote. “However, his choice of Trump alum Andrew Wheeler for the position of Secretary of Natural Resources proves his unwillingness to bring properly qualified officials into our government.”

Youngkin tapped Wheeler to serve as his secretary of natural resources in January and, in the face of mounting public pressure, maintained he was “the most qualified person for this job.”

Democrats, who hold a 21-19 majority in the state Senate, signaled last week that they were united in their opposition and had the votes to sink Wheeler’s nomination. But one member of the party,Sen. Joseph D. Morrissey, revived what seemed like a doomed nomination, telling The Washington Post after Wheeler’s appearance before a Senate committee last week that he was “very much open” to confirming Youngkin’s Cabinet pick.

At that hearing, Wheeler defended his legacy and said he’d become a lightning rod because the press did not cover “positive things” during his tenure. He also blamed Congress for his own inaction on climate change, arguing he was “dealt a very limited hand” to confront the global threat since Congress hasn’t passed more stringent laws to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

After listening to Wheeler’s testimony, Morrissey told the former EPA chief that he was “very articulate and persuasive.”

Environmental groups accused Wheeler of trying to rewrite history.

In Virginia, governors’ Cabinet nominees typically sail through confirmation. But Wheeler, who played an outsize role in the Trump administration’s industry-friendly deregulatory push, emerged as a uniquely controversial choice. More than 150 former EPA employees; dozens of environmental groups and AFGE Council 238, a union that represents more than 7,500 EPA employees nationwide, all sent letters calling for Virginia senators to oppose Youngkin’s choice.

In response to mounting criticism, more than 130 of Wheeler’s former colleagues at EPA and elsewhere sent their own letter defending his record and dismissing previous letters as “highly biased and unsupported.”

In a statement following Tuesday’s vote, Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said thegovernor “is disappointed that the committee put partisan politics over the selection of an experienced public servant who would prioritize cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay and James River.”

RELATED...

Trump EPA Chief's Bid For Top Virginia Environmental Post Likely Doomed

EPA Union Urges Virginia Lawmakers To Reject Trump’s Former EPA Chief

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EPA Union Urges Virginia Lawmakers To Reject Trump’s Former EPA Chief

no lnx doc

EPA Union Urges Virginia Lawmakers To Reject Trump’s Former EPA Chief

Gov. Glenn Youngkin has tapped Trump lackey Andrew Wheeler for the state's top environmental post. Agency staff say it would devastate the commonwealth.

Chris D'Angelo

01/20/2022 03:25pm EST | Updated January 20, 2022

Andrew Wheeler is a former coal lobbyist who served as President Donald Trump's second EPA chief. Employees described his tenure as "demoralizing." Now, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has nominated him for the state's top environmental post.

Federal employees at the Environmental Protection Agency are fighting to keep Andrew Wheeler, Donald Trump’s controversial second head of the Environmental Protection Agency and a former coal lobbyist, from becoming Virginia’s top environmental official.

Earlier this month, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) announced Wheeler as his pick to serve as secretary of natural resources. The choice outraged state Democrats and environmental groups, who described Wheeler as “the absolute worst pick” for the post.

AFGE Council 238, a union that represents more than 7,500 EPA employees nationwide, has joined the effort to block Wheeler’s nomination. In a letter to Virginia state senators on Thursday, Marie Owens Powell, the union’s president and a longtime EPA employee, wrote that Wheeler “destroyed or weakened dozens of environmental safeguards at EPA, with the sole intention of bolstering polluting industries’ profit margins.”

They warned that Virginia could expect the same of him.

“There are few who understand more acutely the threat Mr. Wheeler poses to [the Virginia Department of Natural and Historic Resources] and the natural environment that Virginians cherish than those of us who saw first-hand the impact of Mr. Wheeler’s misguided leadership at the EPA,” the letter reads.

Public backlash to Youngkin’s nominee sets the stage for what is likely to be a contentious confirmation process. Democrats maintain a 21-19 majority in Virginia’s state Senate. As The Hill reported, two key moderate Democrats have signaled that they are unlikely to support Wheeler for the job.

Wheeler served as the EPA’s deputy administrator before taking over for his scandal-plagued predecessor, Scott Pruitt, in 2019. Wheeler helped spearhead the Trump administration’s industry-friendly agenda, dismantling numerous pollution rules and other clean air and water safeguards to the benefit of the extractive industries that he once represented as a lobbyist. Along the way, he repeatedly downplayed the threat of global climate change andsidelined scientific advisory committees.

Owens Powell, who has been with the EPA for nearly three decades and works as an underground storage tank inspector in its Philadelphia office, said the work environment at the federal agency duringWheeler’s tenure was “extremely hostile.”

“The simple rejection of scientific principles was just so demoralizing to our staff,” she said.

“It’s mind-boggling how I have to see him again, at my back door this time.”

Sharon Bethune, Virginia resident and former EPA employee

During Wheeler’s tenure, the EPA scrubbed climate change language from the agency’s website. And Wheeler questioned the results of a sobering federal climate assessment, saying some of its findings were “based on the worst-case scenario.”

Owens Powell was surprised that Youngkin tapped Wheeler for the job given what she felt was a clear and well-documented record at the EPA. If he’s confirmed, she fears he will not only cause similar damage in Virginia, but negatively impact the EPA’s ability to collaborate with the state agency, ultimately making it more difficult to confront climate change and other environmental threats.

“I couldn’t imagine that anyone would have thought he would be a good idea for this position,” she told HuffPost by phone. “It’s AFGE Council 238’s sincere hope that someone in a position of authority will stand up for sound science and the enforcement of corresponding environmental laws and reject this nomination.”

Youngkin’s office did not respond to specific questions Thursday, instead referring HuffPost to an interview the governor did with WTVR-TV in Richmond last week in which he called Wheeler “the most qualified person for this job.”

A former private equity executive, Youngkin is the first Republican governor of Virginia since 2009. One of his first actions after being sworn in Jan. 15 was to sign an executive order aimed at withdrawing Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a program that several states joined to slash greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector.

It’s a move that Wheeler, who defended Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the historic Paris climate agreement, would no doubt approve of, and one Owens Powell suspects Wheeler’s fingerprints are on. Wheeler was a member of Youngkin’s transition team.

Youngkin is sworn in as Virginia's governor on the steps of the state Capitol in Richmond on Jan. 15. A former private equity executive, he is the state's first Republican governor since 2009.

The EPA union’s letter comes less than a week after more than 150 former EPA staffers urged Virginia state lawmakers to vote down Wheeler’s nomination. In their own letter, the group said the Trump official “sidelined science” at the EPA and “pursued an extremist approach, methodically weakening EPA’s ability to protect public health and the environment, instead favoring polluters.”

Sharon Bethune is a Virginia resident, longtime former EPA employee and past vice president for civil rights at AFGE Local 3331. She shares her former colleagues’ concerns. She told HuffPost that during Trump’s term, morale at the EPA was shot, and the “destruction” Wheeler caused factored into her decision to retire in 2019 after nearly four decades at the agency.

“It’s mind-boggling how I have to see him again, at my back door this time,” Bethune said. “Right here at my back door.”

“I’m thinking about the fact that my grandchildren may not be able to benefit from some of the things I benefit from, all because we put the wrong man in office.”

Read the letter below....

===

omg

VA's Republican Gov.-Elect Youngkin taps Trump's EPA chief:
- **VA Governor-Elect Taps Trump EPA Chief For Key Post** (E&E News)
- **Youngkin nominates Trump EPA chief Andrew Wheeler for secretary of natural resources** (Washington Post/MSN):

Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin (R) on Wednesday nominated Andrew Wheeler â€” a former coal lobbyist who led a rollback of Obama-era environmental regulations as President Donald Trumpâ€™s Environmental Protection Agency chief â€” as his secretary of natural resources.

- **Trump EPA Chief Andrew Wheeler Tapped For Virginia's Top Environmental Post** (Huffington Post/Yahoo News)

New solar plants planned for Virginia's former coal fields:

===

https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/glenn-youngkin-2655516940/

son 17 yo vote 2x?

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amanda 11 21

11 21

...

Plugged-in voters understand that the solution to this problem is to elect more Democrats, to create majorities strong enough that the Joe Manchins and Kyrsten Sinemas of the world can't derail the agenda. But low information voters, the kind who are most likely to tune out during an off-year, only see that Democrats can't get squat done and so they see no reason to vote. As one Democratic pollster told the Washington Post, voters are saying, "It doesn't matter who we elect, it's all the same."

Also predictable: That Republicans would fire up some nutty culture war lies and start a racist panic (to be dropped the second it is no longer useful). They do this every time,as those of us who remember long-forgotten issues like "the caravan" and the "Ground Zero mosque," which were once treated by Republicans as the most pressing issues of our time. Republicans signaled for months ahead of time that they were going to make transphobic urban legends and this bullshit about "critical race theory"the center of the campaign. But instead of hitting back hard and fast, Democrats let the situation fester. It was only at the last minute that McAuliffe's campaign started pointing out that "critical race theory" is a pretext for what is outright government censorship, no different in its origins than the Nazi book burnings. By then, however, it was a matter of too little, too late — the Republican spin already dominated the narrative.

There's a tendency in both the mainstream media and the hot take industry of social media to reduce the complex math of elections to simplistic narratives about voters "switching" sides. But that's really not how these things work. A bunch of Biden voters didn't see a few school board tantrums on the local news and suddenly become Tucker Carlson fans. The people who have always been bigots were hella fired up. A huge chunk of the "everyone else" category that constitutes the Democratic base is demoralized and checked out.

Getting racists to stop being fired up by race-baiting is probably a lost cause. So Democrats have to figure out how to outnumber them — and that requires getting their own people energized. The first step is to give would-be Democratic voters something to vote for,especially when there's no cartoon villains like Trump for people to vote against.

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Progressives on Virginia loss: Corporate Democrats have only themselves to blame

Jake Johnson and Common Dreams November 03, 2021

After Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe—a conservative whose campaign was flush with billionaire cash—fell to Republican private equity mogul Glenn Youngkin in Virginia's closely watched gubernatorial race on Tuesday, establishment Democrats wasted no time pinning the blame on progressives.

The finger-pointing started days before the polls opened in Virginia, a state that has trended blue in recent years and that President Joe Biden won by 10 percentage points in 2020.

Several conservative Democrats, including Sens. Mark Warner of Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana, suggested leading up to the contest that progressive lawmakers' refusal to allow a bipartisan infrastructure bill to pass the House without simultaneous approval of a broader reconciliation package could be at least partially to blame for a McAuliffe loss.

"I've got to tell you, in Virginia, where we've got a gubernatorial race tomorrow, that would have really helped Terry McAuliffe a lot if we had been able to notch that win," Warner—who, like McAuliffe, previously served as Virginia's governor—said in an appearance on MSNBC, referencing Democrats' inability to secure an infrastructure vote last week amid progressive opposition.

Warner expressed the same sentiment on Fox News hours before the Virginia results were reported. "I think it would have helped Terry McAuliffe in Virginia," the senator said of a vote on the $550 billion bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Tester, for his part, said of his progressive colleagues: "We haven't gotten anything done. That says enough about their strategy."

The blame game resumed almost immediately following McAuliffe's narrow defeat to Youngkin, a millionaire backed by former President Donald Trump and now the first Republican to win statewide office in Virginia since 2009. Politico reporter Heather Caygle tweeted after the race was called that Democratic members of Congress "are already texting me blaming progressives for [the] 'debacle' in Virginia."

Progressives were quick to push back on that narrative, characterizing it as baseless and self-serving on the part of a Democratic establishment that threw its weight behind McAuliffe—the former chair of the Democratic National Committee—in the Virginia gubernatorial primary earlier this year.

Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of Indivisible, noted that "progressives have been earnestly working to deliver on Biden's full agenda. It's conservative Dems who've ensured that every day for the last several months, the headlines are about how we aren't delivering paid leave, prescription drug reform, elder care, or voting rights."

"Did progressives literally have a press conference yesterday for the sole purpose of declaring that a deal was not close? No, that was Joe Manchin," Greenberg continued. "Progressives were busy trying to pass Biden's agenda. As far as I'm aware, progressives also did not choose McAuliffe over a new generation of rising Black women leaders, nor did they run his campaign and choose his messaging, nor did they write his debate lines."

"I don't want to play the blame game. I'd rather be focusing on what to do next (hint: pass Biden's agenda)," Greenberg added. "But folks have been working overtime to seed this narrative before the election was even over and it's important that we be clear: it's a ridiculous red herring."

Other prominent progressives also weighed in.

Warren Gunnels, majority staff director for Senate Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), tweeted that "maybe, just maybe, the 'debacle' in Virginia could have been avoided if we had a Congress that listened to the overwhelming majority of Americans and passed progressive policies like paid family leave and expanding Medicare instead of bowing down to wealthy campaign contributors."

Charles Idelson of National Nurses United lamented that "any time a Democrat loses, the party establishment, with the help of the corporate media, always blames progressives, no matter how weak or 'centrist' the losing candidate is, and no matter how much the Dem conservatives block reforms that would help the vast majority of people."

Writing for The Daily Beast late Tuesday, Democratic strategist Max Burns observed that Youngkin's campaign "centered around the bogeyman of 'Critical Race Theory,'" not the lack of a timely vote on a bipartisan infrastructure package that Trump and other Republicans have trashed.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, made a similar point earlier this week. "I've watched all the attack ads on Terry McAuliffe and not a single one has talked about [infrastructure] not passing," she said Monday. "They've all been about other things."

In his Daily Beast column, Burns argued that "the worst thing that could possibly happen... is for the party's conservatives to read McAuliffe's loss as a sign that Americans are turned off by the Democratic agenda."

Alluding to fears that the Virginia race is a harbinger for Democratic performance in the 2022 midterm elections, Burns wrote that "there's one simple trick to averting a Democratic bloodbath next year: Do what voters say they want."

"A Vox/Data for Progress poll conducted last month found 71% of voters support raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans, and six-in-ten support Biden's signature spending plan at the full $3.5 trillion. These aren't mere 'suggestion' numbers—they're supermajorities. Democrats ignore those clearly stated wishes at their own electoral peril."

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https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/glenn-youngkin-2655355138/

A billionaire Trump donor who funded a group that marched on the Capitol ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot is bankrolling a dark-money group boosting Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin's attacks on Democratic opponent Terry McAuliffe.

The Republican-aligned Restoration PACthis week launched attacking McAuliffe, who served a previous term as governor, over crime rates. (Virginia's unusual term limits restrict governors to one term, but does not bar them from running again after leaving office.) The PAC has spent $1.767 million funding ads against McAuliffe, making it by far the largest independent expenditure group in the race.

The group is funded almost entirely by Republican mega-donor Richard Uihlein, co-founder of the Wisconsin shipping supply giant Uline. Uihlein contributed $24.5 million to the group in the 2020 election cycle, making up 97% of its funding, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. He put another $1.5 million into the group in May, according to FEC filings.

Uihlein and his wife Liz are among the biggest Republican donors in the country, having given more than $65 million to former President Donald Trump,Republican candidates and conservative groups since 2019. The Uihleins have also contributed $4.3 million over the past five years to theTea Party Patriots, including $800,000 in October 2020, making them by far the group's biggest donors.

The Tea Party Patriots participated in the "March to Save America" rally that preceded the Capitol riot and were one of 11 groups listed as part of the "#StopTheSteal coalition," according to WBEZ. The group also contributed to Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., who was accused by "Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander of helping plan the rally, which Brooks has denied. Tea Party Patriots also contributed to Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who led objections to the certification of Electoral College results in the Senate.

Restoration PAC last month also gave $942,000 to Women Speak Out Virginia — 2021, a PAC affiliated with the anti-choice Susan B. Anthony List that launched a $1.4 million campaign to attack McAuliffe on abortion.

Uihlein's foundation also contributed $275,000 to Trump booster Charlie Kirk's Turning Point Action between 2014 and 2016. The group was listed as a participant in the Capitol protest and Kirk took credit for "sending 80+ buses full of patriots to DC to fight for this president" in a since-deleted tweet.

Turning Point Action also previously received $50,000 from the Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative dark-money group that helped Trump fill federal courts with conservative judges and is pushing to restrict voting. The group also funds the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), giving it $2.1 million last October and a total of $12.7 million since 2014. RAGA's fundraising arm, the Rule of Law Defense Fund, sent out robocalls urging supporters to "march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal" on Jan. 6.

The Judicial Crisis Network has multiple legal aliases it uses for other initiatives, including The Concord Fund and Free to Learn Action.That latter group has launched a $1 million ad campaign focused on "critical race theory" in schools, an issue Youngkin and other conservatives have seized on. The group is spending $1 million attacking McAuliffe for arguing that parents should not dictate school curricula.

The Judicial Crisis Network is also closely aligned and shares staff with the Judicial Education Project and its Honest Elections Project, a conservative initiative pushing voting restrictions. The Judicial Education Network is almost entirely funded by the Donors Trust, a dark-money group backed by the Koch network. Donors Trust in 2019 gave more than $20 million to at least a dozen groups who would later question the results of the election. Last year, the Honest Elections Project announced a six-figure ad campaign stoking fears of a "brazen attempt to manipulate the election system for partisan advantage" before the election even happened.

Youngkin has tried to walk a fine line on Trump's election lies as he tries to solidify his Republican base without alienating independent and suburban voters in the increasingly blue state. He refused to acknowledge President Biden's election victory while seeking the Republican nomination, doing so only after he had already triumphed over Republican rivals. And while Youngkin has said he would have voted to certify the election results, he is nonetheless calling for an "audit" of voting machines in Virginia (something the state already does) and boosting election conspiracy theorists.

Youngkin, the former CEO of the private equity firm the Carlyle Group, is also the primary funder of Virginia Wins, contributing $1 million to back Republican candidates in down-ballot races. The PAC has funneled tens of thousands to candidates who attended the Stop the Steal rally, organized transportation for others to attend the event, defended Capitol rioters or pushed election conspiracy theories, Mother Jones reported on Thursday.

Youngkin did not respond to a request for comment.

"It's no surprise that some of the most powerful, pro-insurrection dark money forces are rushing to Glenn Youngkin's side in this campaign," Manuel Bonder, a spokesman for the Virginia Democratic Party, said in a statement to Salon. "They are supporting Youngkin because he's all in on their agenda — and they have full confidence that if elected, Glenn will do exactly what Donald Trump says. He belongs nowhere near the governorship."

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masquerade?

https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/glenn-youngkin-2655336430/

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undercover jrnlist windsor

"Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio confided in her that Donald J. Trump would soon announce he was running again for president in 2024," Gabriel reports. "Glenn Youngkin, the Republican nominee for governor of Virginia, revealed to her that he could not publicly press his anti-abortion agenda for fear of losing independent voters….Her encounter in December 2020 with Tommy Tuberville, then a senator-elect from Alabama, elicited the first real evidence that some Republicans in the Senate would reject the Electoral College votes certifying Mr. Biden's victory — a move based on groundless claims of fraud."

Windsor, according to Gabriel, hasn't been shy about saying outrageous things she doesn't actually believe in the hope that Republicans will agree with them. For example, she once told far-right Republican Cecil Bell, Jr. — who serves in the Texas House of Representatives — "This is a Christian state, and Democrats are not Christian." Bell wasn't the least bit offended:

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