Thanks to the reporting of the Fredericksburg Free Press, more detail is available on the case of the Spotsylvania County judge indicted on bribery charges.
As noted in an earlier article in Bacon’s Rebellion, Richard T. McGrath, chief district court judge of the 15th Judicial District, which includes Spotsylvania County, was indicted on a charge of bribery of a public official, a Class 4 felony.
One normally thinks of bribery as the giving of money or something else of value to a public official to gain some advantage. This is not the case with McGrath. Allegedly, he was seeking pay raises for the local district court staff and, in a meeting with county officials, including the chair of the Board of Supervisors, he allegedly threatened to begin dismissing traffic tickets if the staff did not get raises.
There is a new player in the struggle for the soul of the University of Virginia: Wahoos4UVA, which describes itself as a group of “proud alumni, students, parents, faculty, staff, and friends” of the University. Its stated mission is to defend UVA from an “orchestrated campaign of misinformation and political pressure.”
Who is conducting this alleged misinformation campaign? The signature-raising letter published by Wahoos4UVA refers to a “small, unrepresentative group of alumni,” which you can be certain is none other than the Jefferson Council (on whose executive committee I serve). The name of our organization, like that of Lord Voldemort, presumably is too heinous for Wahoos4UVA to actually utter.
These self-professed defenders of UVA President Jim Ryan regard the Jefferson Council as thoroughly reprehensible. Our tactics, states the letter, consist of “lies, personal attacks, and public disrespect” and “stand in direct opposition to the Honor Code and the values that define UVA.” Furthermore, asserts the letter, we circulate “false claims and distortions.”
Wahoos4UVA offers zero evidence to back up its claims. Not one lie. Not one personal attack. Not one false claim. Not one distortion. This is the kind of bilious rhetoric normally found in letters to the editor penned by cranky old men. But I feel compelled to respond, for the group does appear to be backed by significant resources — enough to set up a well-designed website, file incorporation papers in Delaware, and publish full-page ads in newspapers across Virginia — and has won instant credibility with local media. Inevitably, people will hear what they have to say.
The “overwhelming majority of alumni” are proud of the progress UVA has made under President Jim Ryan’s leadership, asserts the letter without providing the slightest documentation of what alumni think. It might be more accurate to say that an overwhelming majority of Wahoos4UVA letter signatories are proud of UVA’s progress under Jim Ryan. That the authors of the Wahoos4UVA screed assume they represent a majority tells us more how rarely they encounter divergent views in their cosseted social milieus than anything about the opinions of UVA alumni as a whole.
I’ve just come back from vacation in England and found it to be a nation of vivid contradictions offering parallels to what we’re experiencing in Virginia. The United Kingdom is torn by the same battle between wokery and tradition as the Old Dominion. Statues have fallen — most notably of Cecil Rhodes, the quintessential colonialist and imperialist, as well as assorted philanthropists who derived their wealth from slavery. But many Brits still revere their past and their memorials.
Statue of Robert Cornelis Napier
There is such a super-abundance of statuary in England that the loss of a few bronze works is scarcely noticed. One cannot walk a few blocks through London without bumping into a statue. The photo at left, which I encountered during my wanderings, honors Robert Napier, a British military engineer and commander, who fought in the Sikh wars in India, the opium wars in China, and the Abyssinian expedition of 1867-68. In the latter campaign, which he led, Napier rescued European hostages from the mad Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia. Mission accomplished, his army returned to India and left the Abyssinians to proceed with their nation-building on their own.
For all of Napier’s purported sins against non-Western peoples, his statue still stands in London free from graffiti and protesters. Contrast the fate of his memorial to that of George Rogers Clark, conqueror of the Northwest Territory, which the University of Virginia took down for shame for his role in subduing the indigenous peoples there. And let us not forget the City of Charlottesville’s dismantling of the statue of his younger brother William Clark, Meriwether Lewis, and their guide Sacagawea. Lewis and Clark warred against no one and despoiled no one of their land. The alleged offense of the statue commemorating the explorers was said be to how the artist had displayed Sacagawea in a submissive posture. Any excuse will do for tearing down the past.
A reverence for tradition and tolerance for libertine madness exist side by side in England. As it happened, two notable events took place in London one day that we were there: the Trooping the Colour in honor of King Charles’ birthday and the World Naked Bike Ride.
The University of Virginia (UVA) is currently under investigation by the federal government because its administration is attempting to maintain its illegal “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) regime in secret after the Board of Visitors voted in March to dismantle it. The administration is also stonewalling the Board’s April resolution, which called for more viewpoint diversity at UVA.
To his credit, President Jim Ryan introduced a presentation at June’s Board meeting by Interim Provost Brie Gertler by saying the right things: “Viewpoint diversity is near and dear to my heart;” “John Stuart Mill was right when he wrote in ‘On Liberty’: ‘He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that;’” “the clash of ideas is key to a great education and part of the path towards following the truth wherever it might lead;” “free speech and viewpoint diversity … are the foundation for both academic freedom and effective teaching and learning, and so they are the cornerstones of any flourishing university.”
Unfortunately, what happened before and after Ryan’s encouraging words should alarm anyone committed to the true purpose of higher education: intellectual freedom, the pursuit of truth, and the promotion of virtuous citizenship.
On June 10 Teddy Gottwald, president of the Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors, wrote a letter to House Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, in response to Surovell’s statement justifying the Privileges & Elections Committee vote to block four of Governor Glenn Youngkin’s nominees to the VMI Board. The letter is somewhat old news at this point, but it didn’t get the attention it warranted, so I publish it here to keep readers apprised of developments at VMI. — JAB
Dear Senator Surovell,
Thomas E. Gottwald
Thank you for your email and letter dated June 9th. I appreciate your input regarding the governance and oversight of Virginia’s colleges and universities. It is helpful to know the concerns you expressed in your letter, and I can assure you that the VMI Board of Visitors shares your desire for good and proper governance.
The General Assembly in January chose to reject two highly qualified and capable alumni appointees to our BOV with little explanation, leaving us to wonder about the reasoning. Quintin Elliott served for more than twenty years in the Virginia Air National Guard and was later named Deputy Secretary of Transportation by Governor Northam. Clifford Foster is a highly respected financial professional who has given back to VMI extensively. Both were expected to strengthen our Board Finance Committee. The three alumni nominees in question today are all equally qualified. José Suárez is a U.S. Navy veteran, an accomplished businessman and expert on green energy. Steve Reardon is a respected lawyer who served in the US Army and Army Reserve. Jon Hartsock is a twenty-year veteran of the US Army — a combat veteran who later served with distinction in leadership positions at VMI. I respectfully take exception to any suggestion that these five individuals somehow do not possess the judgment, character, or willingness to follow good governance practices per your letter.
There’s a “sign post up ahead.” Planet car tax looms before us. Once again, we’re on a journey to a wonderous land whose boundaries are only that of imagination.
Jim Gilmore -– a cosmonaut of the first order — launched this trip in 1997, when he successfully sought Virginia’s highest elected office on the promise of kiboshing a principal revenue source for local government.
“No Car Tax,” read Gilmore’s bumper stickers. “Elect me and that goes away,” he roughly vowed.
It doesn’t get more direct than that.
Then, as now, the car tax gets vilified as the one tax that Virginians hate the very most. Where that leaves the state income tax, I’m not sure. Probably offended.
Republican Winsome Sears and Democrat Abigail Spanberger, candidates for governor, have now promised to finish what Gilmore presumably started nearly three decades ago.
You just wish both of them had read up on this a bit. They still could. It’s not too late.
Whether it’s actual violence or approved vandalism, the expression of “outrage” is the #1 means of political ascent. The ensuing antics run the gamut from tedious to terrifying — but where does this constant negativity lead us?
There are other ways …
When I first joined the House of Delegates in 2001, there were plenty of political fault lines: Rural vs. Urban, Democratic vs. Republican, Black vs. White. In the aftermath of 9/11, tempers were short and debates were always tense.
But we also created mechanisms to survive, not just politically but socially. Through those gatherings, we forged friendships and eventually partnerships which crossed boundaries and got things done.
This trashing of Levar Stoney’s over his loss should be a cautionary tale to Democrats and commentators. Is everyone becoming infected with the Trump gloating and belittling disease? One of the most damaging aspects of the MAGA crowd is the joy they take kicking people when they’re down. Indeed, they take so much joy in it, they can’t wait to kick people down, so then they can stomp them again.
There was a time when real Democrats, indeed Americans, knew we were better than that. Gloating is a sign of weakness, not character. There was a time when we didn’t see politics as a zero-sum game: when the only way to feel happy was when someone else felt miserable. Is this where we’re heading? Maybe it’s where we already are.
No one in RVA publicly fought Mayor Stoney on key issues more than yours truly. I led the three voter referendums fights he lost: in 2017 on education, in 2021 on the Casino and in 2023 on the Casino again. On Stoney’s I’ll-fated Navy Hill project, the key proponent sent his top paid people to see me and basically promised me whatever I wanted if I would stop trying to defeat it. I said, no way, Stoney is wrong on this one.
Indeed, in the second Casino referendum, the key proponent came to me and offered me several million dollars in stock options if I would just give Stoney a break and not try to defeat him on it. That’s true — a lot of people know it. I even asked my son what I should do. It’s ultimately your money I said. He told me to follow my conscience and hell with the money. Stoney got crushed on that one too.
But I didn’t gloat. As people in Richmond know, eventually the pro-casino forces played the antisemitic card against me. Called me a Judas Jew. The pro-Casino side lost 62 to 38. I didn’t go out gloating on their loss either. But I was surprised no members of the Jewish community came to my defense. People don’t think I’m the proper kind of Jew I guess.
All of which gets me to ask what the hell is happening to our country? This identity politics simply isn’t working. One would think the election of Donald Trump not once but twice would prove it.
The North Carolina legislature has retreated from its aggressive targets to reduced hydrocarbon-fueled electricity in the state, eliminating the goal of being 70% carbon free by 2030. Strong Republican majorities in both chambers supported Senate Bill 266 last week, but so did some Democratic legislators.
That smattering of Democratic support could weigh on Democratic Governor Josh Stein as he considers a veto. The final version of the bill leaves in place the ultimate target of the full elimination of carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, and there are other important regulatory changes in the bill, touted by supporters as the Power Bill Reduction Act.
This follows a decision in Maryland, approved by its Democratic governor, to authorize additional use of natural gas for generation in that state. There are glimmers of energy sanity in both Virginia’s northern and southern neighbors. Virginia retains its laws mandating expensive wind and solar energy buildouts and prohibiting new natural gas. The weather in the next two weeks is going to prove again that reliable hydrocarbon plants keep the air conditioning running, not solar.
North Carolina’s legislature passed the emissions reduction targets in 2021, one year after the Virginia General Assembly placed similar mandates in the Virginia Code. The North Carolina target for 2030 of 70% is far more aggressive than those for that year in the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA).
Dwayne Yancey, editor of the Cardinal News, also has a newsletter, West of the Capital. In his latest edition of the newsletter he reports that there were a significant number of precincts in Southwest Virginia in which no one voted in the Democratic primary. No early votes; no voters showing up on Election Day. In others, there were just a handful of voters. According to results posted by the Virginia Dept. of Elections, in Scott County, for example, there were only 122 votes cast for Lieutenant Governor in the entire county. The Gate City precinct had the most voters–28. That must have been a really long day for the officers of election in those precincts!
If he were running the campaigns of either party (which he assures readers he is not doing) Yancey says his advice would be–visit some of those areas. For the Democratic candidates, such a visit would be to encourage the few remaining Democratic voters in the area to turn out in November so as to cut into the Republicans’ margins in the Southwest. For the Republican candidates, such a visit could serve to thank Southwest Virginia voters for their support and encourage them to turn out in November to help offset Democrats’ advantage in urban areas.
He renewed his standing offer: “My previous offer still stands: If any statewide candidate visits Lee County and sends a photo, I’ll run it here. Last week, we had a photo of Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares, who had a law enforcement roundtable in Pennington Gap in Lee County.”
State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, Democratic nominee for Lt. Governor Photo credit: AP
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
The biggest story from the Democratic Primary contest for Lieutenant Governor was that the folks that know Levar Stoney the best, the citizens of Richmond where he was mayor for eight years, are the ones who kept him from winning the nomination for Lieutenant Governor.
State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (Chesterfield) won the nomination in a six-candidate race with 27.39 percent of the vote. Stoney was close behind with 26.64 per cent. (The source of all election data is the website of the Virginia Dept. of Elections.) Looking at the actual votes, Hashmi beat Stoney by 3,600 votes statewide. Her margin in Richmond over Stoney was 10,509 votes. Without that margin in Richmond, Hashmi would have lost.
There is anecdotal evidence that Richmond voters blamed Stoney for the water problems that occurred shortly after he left the mayoral office and left the city without water for a week and made national news. There were other controversies, as well.
Taken together, the list of statewide office candidates is remarkable, strong proof of how far Virginia has come in 50 years. Consider:
Both gubernatorial candidates are women (Spanberger; Earle-Sears)
Half of the combined tickets are women (Spanberger; Earle-Sears; Hashmi)
Two came to America as children (Earle-Sears (Jamaica); Hashmi (India))
One is the son of immigrants (Miyares (Cuba))
Only two are non-Hispanic whites (Spanberger; Reid)
I served as an officer of election yesterday in my home precinct.
It was a quiet day. There were periods lasting ten minutes or more when there were absolutely no voters in the polling place. Then several people would come in and then there would be another quiet period. Between 4:30 and 6:00, there was a steady stream of voters, but no one had to wait more than two or three minutes.
In all, 305 people submitted ballots in the machine and there were a couple of provisional voters. There are a little over 4,100 registered voters in the precinct.
The precinct, Lakeside, is one of the larger ones in the county. It is a traditional middle class community. Lots of relatively small houses—ranchers and Cape Cods—built in the 1950s and 60s. There are a couple of older, well kept-up apartment complexes. The precinct borders the city of Richmond on the Northside and lies between the subsidized housing areas of eastern Henrico and the newer, larger, expensive subdivisions of the West End, Glen Allen, and Short Pump areas.
“Political violence” reared its ugly head in the Saturday shooting deaths of Minnesota State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the wounding of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife – all of them shot at their respective homes outside Minneapolis.
Shooting any human being and killing them is heinous, but being a former elected office holder myself, who got a few death threats in my 10 years serving Loudoun County, VA, these shooting incensed me because I understand what office holders have to deal with in their daily lives – which the news media and social media never seem to care about until there is a tragedy.
As of this writing, we don’t know the motive of the suspect Vance Boelter, who was captured late Sunday. I already see social media posts from conservatives saying he must have been a liberal because there were “No Kings” fliers in his car, and that he was appointed to a state commission by two Democrat governors. Liberal media are reporting he had materials in the car he ditched indicating he was a right winger – another example of how we need to “tone down the rhetoric” – as if the Left is not guilty of this.
Both views miss the point. This is just another continuing pattern of political violence in this nation and it’s broader and bigger than the recent killings of Israeli embassy staffers in DC, or attempted burning of 15 Jewish marchers for the hostages in Boulder, CO.
Professor Robert Pape, who studies political violence at the University of Chicago, told CNN’s Michael Smerconish on a podcast June 2: “We have become a tinderbox of a nation and we find volatile individuals motivated by events that happen in the world, and their attack will be supported by the community, but also motivated by the feeling there is no peaceful way to express their outrage.”
The year: 2075. The American colonies on the Moon are getting restless under Washington’s tyrannical rule….
This second edition of “Dust Mites” has a snazzy new cover, includes helpful lunar maps, and is 5,000 words tighter than the original. The sequel, “Trogs,” is scheduled for publication this summer.
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