Tag Archives: Governor Ralph Northam

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2022, Environmental Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary, voting rights

I have only two snippets tonight … one is great news, the other a horrid example of man’s inhumanity to man.  One warms my heart, the other breaks it.

Let me begin with the good …

While Georgia Governor Brian Kemp was signing a bill into law that would effectively disenfranchise over half the population of Georgia so that they will find it almost impossible to vote in next year’s election, just two states to the north, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam was preparing to sign into law a bill that does the exact opposite … ensures that every person over the age of 18 is able to vote.

The Voting Rights Act of Virginia aims to eliminate voter suppression and intimidation in the state. Virginia is the first state to enact its own version of the federal Voting Rights Act, while 43 other states are working diligently to keep minorities and the poor away from the polls.  Says the governor …

“At a time when voting rights are under attack across our country, Virginia is expanding access to the ballot box, not restricting it. With the Voting Rights Act of Virginia, our Commonwealth is creating a model for how states can provide comprehensive voter protections that strengthen democracy and the integrity of our elections. I am proud to support this historic legislation, and I urge Congress to follow Virginia’s example.”

The legislation would require local election officials to get feedback through public comment or pre-approval from the attorney general’s office in order to make any changes in voting regulations, according to a release from Northam’s office.

It also requires that local election officials provide voting materials in foreign languages as needed. Individuals who experience voter suppression will also be allowed to sue, where any civil penalties awarded will go toward a newly established Voter Education and Outreach Fund.

The bill comes after Northam restored voting rights to 69,000 former felons through executive action earlier this month.  I realize this is a controversial topic, but in my view, the former felon has paid his dues with a prison sentence, and once he gets out, he is a taxpayer and a citizen just like you or me.  If he’s going to pay taxes in this country, then he must have a voice, a vote.

My hat is off to the Virginia State Legislature and to Governor Ralph Northam for doing everything they can to protect the U.S. Constitution and the people of Virginia.  THIS is a fine example of democratic principles at work.

Now for the bad and the ugly …

Byong Choi died on February 24th at the age of 83 as a result of bone marrow tuberculosis.  He had been a hard-working accountant and restauranteur in Orange Country, California for most of his life.  Due to coronavirus restrictions, his funeral was delayed until March 19th.

The following Monday, Byong Choi’s wife, Yong, 82, received a handwritten, cursive letter at her Leisure World Seal Beach retirement community home postmarked the same date as the funeral …

Read that letter again, please … go ahead, I’ll wait.  What do you feel when you read those hate-filled words?  Broken-hearted?  Enraged?  I felt both, as I’m sure most people with an ounce of human kindness did.

The Seal Beach Police Department in the county has launched an investigation into what it calls an anti-Asian hate crime, but I have doubts the letter-writer will be caught, and if he or she is, they’ll get naught more than a slap on the wrist.  I have no doubt that this was written by one of those white people with a false sense of entitlement who believes their ugly white skin makes them somehow superior, more deserving.

This letter came just days after the shooting in Atlanta, Georgia, where 8 people were murdered, six of them women of Asian descent.  And why … why all of a sudden have fat white people taken a dislike to those of Asian heritage?  Because one person called the coronavirus the “China virus” and the “Kung Flu”, thinking he was being cute or funny.  What he did with those words were to set off a chain of events that has targeted Asian-Americans such as the Choi family, the women in Atlanta, and many others.  What he did was criminal.

People … read the damn words on the plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty …

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

And yet today, hate crimes against those of Asian, Hispanic, or Middle Eastern descent are at an all-time high.  Those people are vilified by a portion of the country’s white population.  Why?  What the hell makes them think they are better than the rest of us?  I regret to inform you that the United States is no longer the nation it once was, is no longer a port in the stormy sea for those seeking asylum or refuge.  It is time we send the Statue of Liberty back to France, for we no longer deserve it.

Pro-Life??? I Think Not.

Posted on by under Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, religion, Social commentary

Let’s make a few things clear from the start.  Those who call themselves “Pro-Life” are actually not in favour of protecting all life.  They are only anti-abortion.  Those who call themselves ‘pro-life’ support the death penalty … a barbaric procedure with the potential for taking an innocent life.  Those who call themselves ‘pro-life’ most often are also ‘pro-gun’ … guns have one purpose and one purpose only:  to take lives, to kill.  Among those who call themselves ‘pro-life’ are many who are climate change deniers, who eschew regulations to protect and repair our environment such that it may continue to support life into the next century.  Those who call themselves ‘pro-life’ are the most likely to argue against government aiding single mothers struggling to feed their children, or to pay their bills in order to keep their children alive.  So no, the pro-life movement is naught but an anti-abortion movement.  Let’s call a spade a spade.

Now, I have a couple of issues with these anti-abortionists.  First of all, nobody is forcing them to have an abortion!  If I choose to have one, that is my business and nobody else’s, for this is my body … not yours.  By the same token, I certainly would not attempt to force a woman to have an abortion, even if she already had 15 children and no way to support them.  It’s her choice, plain and simple.

My second objection is that 99% of the people who oppose a woman’s right to choose, do so based on their own religious convictions.  Since I don’t share those religious convictions, their beliefs do not apply to me.  Since we have a secular government that demands a wall of separation between church and state, it is grossly unconstitutional for the government to trample my right to choose.

My third objection, of course, is that I see the anti-abortion movement, largely funded and founded by men, as a further attempt by men to dominate what they still, after all these years of the women’s movement, see as “the weaker sex”.  “Pro-life” … just one more form of bigotry, as if we needed more.  What if women were allowed to decide when a man should have a vasectomy?  Can you imagine the hue and cry?

So, these ‘pro-life’ folks held a rally over the weekend in Washington, D.C.  And guess who spoke at that rally?  Yep, none other than Donald Trump, the impeached president, the first president to speak at the annual event.  A number of his sycophants in Congress also attended, including: Steve Scalise, Chris Smith, Ralph Abraham, Warren Davidson, Bob Latta, John Joyce, Lloyd Smucker, Mike Lee, James Lankford, Brian Fitzpatrick, and Brad Wenstrup.  And let us not forget to note the presence of Kellyanne Conway, and Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar.

A few of the more ludicrous snippets from Trump’s speech*:

  • “Together we must protect, cherish, and defend the dignity and the sanctity of every human life.” (This from a ‘man’ who recently ordered the assassination of an Iranian general, that ultimately led to the deaths of 176 innocent civilians)
  • “Sadly, the far left is actively working to erase our God-given rights. Shut down faith-based charities, ban religious believers from the public square, and silence Americans who believe in the sanctity of life. They are coming after me because I am fighting for you and we are fighting for those who have no voice and we will win because we know how to win. We all know how to win. We all know how to win. You’ve been winning for a long time. You’ve been winning for a long time.” (Huh??? Is there an echo?)
  • “Nearly every top Democrat in Congress now supports taxpayer-funded abortion all the way up until the moment of birth. Last year, lawmakers in New York cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb right up until delivery.” (Um … Donnie?  That’s called ‘birth’, not abortion)
  • “But what is going on in Virginia? What is going on? The Governor stated that he would execute a baby after birth.” (No, Donnie, that is not what Governor Northam said.)
  • “Unborn children have never had a stronger defender in the White House. And as the Bible tells us, each person is wonderfully made. We’ve taken decisive action to protect the religious liberty. So important. Religious liberty has been under attack all over the world and frankly very strongly attacked in our nation.”  (Is “religious liberty” then, only for those who believe in a certain way, and to hell with the rest of us?)

Now, make no mistake – Donald Trump was not there for any reason other than to shore up his base, the right-wing evangelicals who form the largest portion of the anti-abortion movement.  This was, for Trump, nothing more or less than a campaign rally, sans maga hats.  Donald Trump is a misogynist by any definition of the word … he has a long history of abusing women, including his three wives.  He was having an affair under the very nose of his present wife as she gave birth to his youngest son.  It would not surprise me in the least to find that Donald Trump has paid for a few abortions for his many mistresses.

The “religious freedom” that Trump is speaking of is only for those evangelicals who form a large portion of his base.  It actually deprives the rest of us of our religious freedom … and in more ways than just abortion.  If his staunchest supporters had their way, LGBT people would be discriminated against, as would Jews, Muslims, atheists … just about anybody who didn’t share their views.

Separation of church and state is a concept with a purpose … the purpose being equal rights for all, not only one religious group.  When Trump speaks at an event such as the one last week, when he promises to go against the Constitution in order to appease one group to the detriment of all others, he is breaking his oath of office and he is failing in his duty to represent ALL the people of this nation.

*  Full transcript of Trump’s speech at 2020 March for Life rally

2nd Amendment Run Amok

Posted on by under Election 2018, Election 2020, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

You’ve most likely heard about the big gun rally planned at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond on Monday, but perhaps you don’t know all the who, why, and what-for of it.

Why?

You mean, apart from the fact that a handful of gun nuts care more about their right to own an arsenal than they care about their own children?  Well, pull up a chair, my friends.  After the 2018 elections when both chambers of the Virginia legislature flipped from a republican majority to a democratic one, one of the priorities was to pass some meaningful gun legislation.  Now, it wasn’t as if they were banning assault weapons, or taking away people’s guns.  The proposed legislation has only three parts:

Two things should be noted … First, 80% of the people in this country support gun regulations such as these, and Second, these are only common-sense measures … nothing that requires gun owners to give up their currently-owned guns, nothing that stops people from buying guns … simple, common-sense measures that might actually save a few lives.

But …

A group calling themselves ‘Virginia Citizen’s Defense League’, a misnomer if ever I’ve heard one, has taken umbrage.  And thus, they are planning a rally at the State Capitol that has attracted the riff-raff and gun-toting scum in and outside of the state.  The rally has drawn the attention of militia groups from as far away as Nevada and Oklahoma, including those tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League.

Others vowing to attend include individuals associated with the Light Foot Militia, some of whom were banned from Charlottesville after the “Unite the Right” rally in 2017, which ended in the death of a counterprotester. Richard B. Spencer, a prominent white nationalist who is among 24 defendants in a lawsuit over the rally in Charlottesville, also said he might attend.

So far, Virginia’s Governor Ralph Northam has declared a ‘state of emergency’ and banned guns from the capitol building and grounds, and the FBI has arrested three neo-Nazis linked to the ‘Base’, a group that aims to create a white ethnostate.  Chatter picked up on Facebook and in chat rooms by the FBI indicates that various extremist organizations are calling Monday’s rally the “boogaloo.” In the lexicon of white supremacists, that is an event that will accelerate the race war they have anticipated for decades.

These people, folks, do NOT represent the population of the United States.  They are an extreme minority, and yet …

“They are fanning the flames for this event.  They want chaos.”

The three bills will almost certainly pass the legislature, and Governor Northam has already promised to sign them into law, and yet these gun-loving people (and I use the term ‘people’ loosely here) are determined to bring chaos into the capitol.  If I had to guess, I would guess there will be violence and there will be injuries, if not deaths.

Let me quote for you the text, word for word, of that 2nd Amendment they so love …

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Twenty-seven words.  Nowhere does it say that every household should have the right to own a gun.  Nowhere does it say that people have the right to own high-powered, automatic weapons that can mow down hundreds within minutes.  Nowhere does it say that people have a right to keep an arsenal in their garages.  The framers’ language was vague, but their intent was not.  Their intent was not for John Doe to have the right to carry a gun into the grocery store and start shooting, nor for a family in the suburbs to keep a loaded pistol in their home.  People have so broadly interpreted this that any law that has the word “firearm” in it automatically riles the gun-lovers.  If I were given the task of making revisions to update the Constitution, the 2nd Amendment and the electoral college would be on the chopping block.

Now, to add insult to injury, the fool that sits in the Oval Office felt a need to ring in on the subject.  Now, as president, he might have used his office to call for calm, to call for the rally to be canceled, or to urge people to keep the protest peaceful, right?  But noooooo … he tweeted …

“Your 2nd Amendment is under very serious attack in the Great Commonwealth of Virginia. That’s what happens when you vote for Democrats, they will take your guns away. Republicans will win Virginia in 2020. Thank you Dems!”

This from the so-called “president” of a nation of 330 million people.  Keep your eye on Virginia tomorrow, my friends, because this may well be a harbinger of things to come.

P.S.

Posted on by under Global Issues, Political commentary, Social commentary

Just a short addendum to this afternoon’s post, for I have one more ‘two thumbs’ to give this evening.  This one is to Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland.  Governor Hogan has joined Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker in bringing his National Guard troops home from the Mexican border in protest of “the inhumane treatment of children”.  Nat' GuardSeveral democratic governors, including Governor Ralph Northam of Virginia have done the same, but Governors Hogan and Baker are both republicans, so this was truly an act of courage for them!  Two thumbs up for the courage of the states to have more humanity and compassion than the ‘man’ in the Oval Office!  👍👍