Author: Dick Hall-Sizemore
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A Blue Tsunami
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Yep, the polls were wrong. Democrats won much bigger than any predictions. Not only did Spanberger win by over 14 points, Hashmi won by almost 10, and Jones, despite his texting scandal, had a comfortable margin of six points. In the biggest surprise, Democrats flipped 13 House seats. Even Don Scott, Speaker…
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Miyares Plays Fast and Loose with Truth
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Before 2020, offenders convicted of felonies and incarcerated in Virginia prisons were eligible for up to 4.5 days credit toward their sentences for every 30 days served. They did not automatically receive these credits; violation of prison rules or violent behavior could result in a reduction of “earned sentence credits.” The 2020…
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Off the Interstate: A Public Figure Honored
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Whenever I travel to anywhere west of the Blue Ridge that is south of Staunton, I take U.S. Rt. 60. Such trips usually include a stop at a restaurant at Cumberland Courthouse that serves some of the best fried oysters in the Commonwealth and at a decent price, along with lemon meringue pie. If…
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This Is What America Has Come To Under ICE
by Dick Hall-Sizemore For all those Bacon Rebellion commenters who are so anxious to praise and support ICE, you would be well served to read George Will’s latest column. Will is not a progressive; not a radical left-winger; not even a Democrat. He is a bona fide conservative. As evidence of his credentials, he was…
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Virginia General Assembly to Consider Redistricting to Increase Democratic Representation in Congress
Both houses of the General Assembly are planning to convene on Monday, Oct. 27. The notices went out to the members today. Technically, this will be a reconvening of the 2024 Special Session I, which never adjourned sine die. As reported by the Virginia Political Newsletter, the main item of interest will be Virginia getting…
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Trump Policies Hurt Virginia Farmers
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The 2025-2026 soybean harvest and market began in September with Virginia soybean farmers having lost their biggest customer as a result of Trump’s tariff policies. In 2023 (the latest year for which figures are available), soybeans were Virginia’s top agricultural export at over $1.4 billion. Exports to China accounted for $784 million (56…
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“No Kings” Demonstrations in Virginia
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Thousands of Virginians participated in “No Kings” demonstrations yesterday to protest actions of the Trump administration. Crowd-size estimates are always tricky to judge. Organizers tend to exaggerate turnout; police departments have begun to shy away from providing estimates; often, press reports do not identify the source of the estimates. With those caveats in…
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UVa to Trump: No Thanks
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The University of Virginia has declined to sign the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” proposed by the Trump administration. In exchange for agreeing to a long list of terms, institutions signing the contract were offered “allowance for increased overhead payments where feasible, substantial and meaningful federal grants, and other federal…
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A Protege of Clarence Thomas at UVa. ?!
by Dick Hall-Sizemore After reading incessantly on this blog that the faculty of the University of Virginia is hopelessly progressive and woke and that students studying there will be indoctrinated in progressive ideas that are bad for the country, imagine my surprise upon learning that one of the leading originalist interpreters of the Constitution teaches…
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Opportunity or Faustian Bargain?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore (Author’s Note: The following article is unusually long, even by my standards. The subject is a federal policy document recently sent to the University of Virginia and eight other institutions of higher education. The document is ten pages long and contains numerous provisions which could have a significant impact on higher education…
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Government Shutdown Threatens to Upend Governor’s Race
By Chris Braunlich For more than a half century, it has been the case that Virginia elects a Governor who is from the opposite party as the President elected the year before. With one exception. In 2013, the year after Barack Obama’s re-election, Virginians sent Democrat Terry McAuliffe to the Governor’s Mansion. The background to…
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Off the Interstate: A National Monument to a Virginia-born Slave
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Nestled among the commercial development and luxury homes along Smith Mountain Lake along Rt. 122 between Bedford and Rocky Mount is a National Monument to a slave born in Virginia. Booker T. Washington was born in 1856 in the community of Hale’s Ford in Franklin County. His enslaved mother, Jane, was the…
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The Pediatrician-in-Chief
by Dick Hall-Sizemore At his press conference last week, President Trump railed at length against giving young children multiple vaccinations at once. In his view, doctors were pumping all this stuff into those “beautiful bodies.” At times, he alluded to 80 vaccines, as if children were being given every vaccine available. At other times, he…
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Another Virginia Trump Nominee Runs Afoul of Trump
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Poor Donald Trump. His appointments as U.S. Attorney in Virginia are proving to have too much independence and integrity. First there was Todd Gilbert in the Western District. Now, there is Erik Seibert in the Eastern District. Seibert’s office was overseeing the investigation of Letitia James, New York Attorney General, for mortgage fraud regarding…
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Signs of the Times
by Dick Hall-Sizemore This weekend I spent time in the center of Virginia. That would be that area west of I-95, south of I-64, and east of the Blue Ridge–encompassing Powhatan, Buckingham, Cumberland, Campbell, Bedford, and Franklin counties. Some I just passed through on the main highway (Rt. 60); others I spend more time in…