by Bronson Winslow

Virginia Democrats are working to legalize suicide in the Commonwealth, with a bill already on Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s (D) desk—but the legislation won’t stop there.

If Spanberger signs HB 43 into law, it would open the door to a cultural and legal transformation that Virginia may not have the ability to reverse. The next step: state-sanctioned euthanasia.

“HB 43 has passed the General Assembly and is waiting for the governor to enact. This is step one of a two-step process to make physician-assisted suicide legal in Virginia next year,” said attorney Tim Anderson. “Part 2 comes next year. If you are old—and your kids don’t like you—you might want to think about moving out of Virginia before next year.”

Hb43 has passed the General Assembly and waiting for the governor to enact.

This is step one of a two step process to make physician assisted suicide legal in Virginia next year. Part 2 comes next year.

If you are old - and your kids don’t like you - you might want to think… pic.twitter.com/LwEaaA9cjn

— Tim Anderson (@AssocAnderson) March 12, 2026

Canada legalized assisted suicide in 2016 under its Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program. Less than a decade later, hundreds of thousands had died in the program.

As of 2024, over 76,000 Canadians had died by assisted suicide. In 2024 alone, over 16,000 people died via MAID, and assisted suicide now accounts for about 1 in every 20 deaths in Canada. The country is predicted to reach 100,000 deaths by the end of 2026.

For perspective, Canada lost 61,000 soldiers in World War I and 45,000 soldiers in World War II. Euthanasia in Canada over just ten years has resulted in the same number of casualties as both world wars combined.

Additionally, assisted suicide in Canada has become a system that targets vulnerable individuals. The MAID program is offered through the Canadian healthcare system and is widely used by the disabled, those without support, and those citing poverty, loneliness, or mental health issues. Over 42 percent of all MAID deaths are among disabled individuals.

Preventing the slippery slope

Proponents of assisted suicide like to claim that safeguards will create an ethical  system in which people can “die with dignity.”

But there is nothing ethical about killing.

Regardless of the framework, assisted suicide is a self-expanding idea. Ten years ago, Canadian officials told us the MAID program would remain a limited and highly restrictive practice. Today, it has led to as many deaths as two world wars and numerous policies that expedite death—including among those who may not be ready to die.

In many cases, patients can now obtain permission for assisted suicide in a single day. Supporters of the program have attempted to expand assisted suicide to those with metal health conditions.

The entire system creates a cheap escape from hardship and fosters a societal belief that lives are disposable. Suicide becomes more dignified than overcoming hardship.

It also places physicians in a precarious position­—one that undermines trust in medicine.

“Both euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide would undermine the medical profession by eroding the trust of patients in their physicians as caregivers. If doctors were permitted to engage in practices that harm their patients, then patients would never know if their doctors were truly acting in their best interests,” wrote Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco in Biomedicine and Beatitude: An Introduction to Catholic Bioethics.

Protecting Virginia

Democrats are running amok in the legislature. From stripping the gun rights of every Virginian, to shielding violent illegal aliens from justice and protecting child rapists—their radical agenda knows no bounds.

The push to legalize suicide is simply step one in a long, dark plan to normalize murder. We cannot allow Virginia to follow in the footsteps of Canada’s dystopia.

Bronson Winslow is an Investigative Researcher for Restoration News specializing in gun rights and criminal justice policy. He graduated from Virginia Military Institute. This column has been republished with permission from Restoration News.

“Do you think [Swalwell] should resign from Congress or face expulsion?”

MARK WARNER: “If any of these reports are true he should at least no longer be a candidate for Governor…” pic.twitter.com/nSyBV8zllX

Sen. Mark Warner isn’t old fashioned. He’s a political hack.

Willing to say that a fellow Democrat congressman who’s been accused by multiple women of sexual assault ought not run for governor of California, but refuses to say he shouldn’t be expelled from Congress.

Rep. Eric Swalwell needs more friends like Warner.

Luckily, the entire Democrat party is filled with win-at-any-cost amoral characters, so Swalwell may stay in the House of Representatives. Only the Republicans - working together as they so rarely do - can put a boot up this slimy man’s butt and kick him out.

For those who haven’t been paying attention, California has a peculiar way of staging gubernatorial elections. They run jungle primaries, where Republicans and Democrats run together and the top-two vote getters face off in the November elections.

But look at this. This is the slate running this spring:

Xavier Becerra, Democrat, former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary and former California Attorney General
Chad Bianco, Republican, Riverside County Sheriff
Steve Hilton, Republican, Fox News contributor and former adviser to conservative British prime minister David Cameron
Matt Mahan, Democrat, mayor of San Jose
Katie Porter, Democrat, former U.S. representative representing Orange County
Tom Steyer, Democrat, billionaire entrepreneur and former presidential candidate
Eric Swalwell, Democrat, U.S. representative from the Bay Area
Tony Thurmond, Democrat, state superintendent of public instruction
Antonio Villaraigosa, Democrat, former mayor of Los Angeles and former Assembly Speaker
Betty Yee, Democrat, former state Controller


Yep, that’s eight Democrats and two Republicans. And something unimaginable has happened in the polls.

Sitting down? I’ll let The New York Times tell you:

Republicans typically struggle to win statewide races in deep-blue California, but a large group of Democrats have split the state’s liberal voters, leaving two Republicans near the top of early primary polls.

Yup, as it stood last week, there was a chance that the Dems would eat each other and two GOP candidates would fight it out for the top job.

The Dem party favorite is not the unctuous Eric Swalwell, the congressman who once canoodled with a Chinese spy, but Katie Porter, the very odd woman who once dumped red hot mashed potatoes on her now ex-husband’s head.

But to partisan hacks even a domestic abuser is preferable to a Republican, so the word went out on Friday that Swalwell was a sex maniac. An open secret in Washington for at least 13 years. On Friday, out of nowhere, women miraculously materialized to accuse him of all sorts of repulsive behavior and right on cue, every leading Democrat in the country issued a statement telling Swalwell to get out of the race.

By Sunday evening Swalwell announced he was “suspending” his campaign for governor. His name will remain on the ballot, however, since it’s past the dropout deadline.

Here’s Hakeem Jeffries:

Statement on the Serious Accusations against Rep. Eric Swalwell. pic.twitter.com/9lkYqiCIGr

— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) April 11, 2026

Oh, he’s very disgusted with Swalwell. A man being accused of sexual crimes cannot remain in the race for governor of California.

But did you notice what Jeffries DIDN’T call for? He didn’t demand that Swalwell leave the House.

Dems NEED his vote and they don’t care how many women Swalwell may - or may not - have assaulted, or how many pictures of his genitals he allegedly sent to aides. This isn’t about standards, it’s about maintaining Democrat control in Sacramento.

Once you see what the Democrat Party is doing to Swalwell you almost feel sorry for the oily alleged predator.

I’m kidding of course.

by Shaun Kenney

Former Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) emerges from the mists and announces that he has more to give in the political arena, which is welcome news to Virginians who are staring down the immediate threat of the looming redistricting amendment on April 21st as well as a bevy of state amendments in November.

Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R): “I have more to give. I just do… Every morning I woke up literally bounding out of bed, ready to roll. And that was the most purposeful I’ve ever felt in my whole life — ever felt in my whole life. I’ve been out of office for six weeks. I… pic.twitter.com/KB91gbvO0v

— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) April 7, 2026

A late entry into the redistricting fight, Youngkin has hoovered in a solid six-figure donation to Virginians for Fair Maps, one of the three efforts to turn back the $50 million left-wing dark money campaign to rig the lines from non-partisan redistricting to a 10-1 Democratic gerrymander.

Meanwhile, Brian Cannon — architect of the Virginia 2021 non-partisan redistricting effort which carried the day by 2-1 margins — writes in the pages of Cardinal News how the rigged gerrymandering effort by the self-styled defenders of democracy is ill-placed and off-center:

If Texas disenfranchises Democratic voters, the answer is not for Virginia to disenfranchise Republicans. Once each side justifies its conduct by pointing to the worst behavior elsewhere, reform becomes conditional and principles become temporary. Respected Czech dissident and later president Václav Havel warned that democratic societies erode not only through dramatic coups, but through small accommodations to expedience — moments when we tell ourselves that bending the rules is necessary this time. That logic does not stop at one exception.

That is how democratic norms decay.

Anyone who quotes Vaclav Havel must be recognized.

Among Virginia Democrats, the brutal reality of the WaPo-Scharr poll showing Spanberger as the most divisive personality in modern Virginia polling is reverberating with an admixture of shock and horror among those cocooned in their own talking points.

YouGov/Economist: D+2 Generic Ballot

UVA’s Larry Sabato at the Center for Politics isn’t terribly chagrinned just yet and wants to see another poll reflecting the trend, but a 10-point drop in 10 weeks is reflecting a basic truth: Spanberger ran on affordability, delivered nothing, and is imposing a litany of horribles with a power grab via gerrymander at the crowning achievement.

Yet if the WaPo-Scharr numbers aren’t convincing enough, then the generic ballot numbers from YouGov/Economist might be sobering enough. Despite $4/gal gasoline and the ongoing conflict in Iran, the generic congressional ballot is a modest D+2.

Now in one sense, should these numbers hold and the Democratic gerrymander be turned back this April, it certainly broadens the playing field a bit. VA-01, VA-02, and VA-05 are certainly more defensible, but it would put Eugene Vindman in VA-07 in play and lock up his resources in Virginia as opposed to the DCCC spending it elsewhere.

On the flip side, Spanberger’s numbers now become a bit more sharpened, as a 47% approval rating may seem low, but the divisive nature and extreme opinions in the electorate give you two insights: (1) D+2 or D+5 is most likely the generic ballot in Virginia, and (2) the polarizing nature of the numbers indicates that there isn’t much room for discussion — folks are in their camps and not moving an inch, with voter intensity being the real metric of strength vs. a broader sense of popularity.

10-1 vs. 9-2?

This sets up the stage for the inevitable hard work that lies ahead. Even if the redistricting amendment goes down hard, Virginia Republicans will be fighting hard for Wittman and Kiggans while in VA-05 and VA-07 there will be at least two intramural contests to determine the Republican nominee.

As for the Democrats who all jumped into races where the lines where the democratic will of the voters is yet to be ascertained — and it’s funny how that works, isn’t it? — one suspects that they will bleed away appropriate to their stations with one or possibly two exceptions. Personally, one would love to see a contest between Dorothy McAuliffe and Eugene Vindman, as McAuliffe would clearly be the stronger candidate in VA-07, but such a contest would only be the case if the Democrats nationally recognize the fact that Vindman is a weak hand and motivating candidate among Republicans and independents alike — in a district where military veterans have a proportionately strong presence.

Which gets into the question as to why the Democrats are putting so much energy into Virginia’s redistricting effort. Certainly, the allure of picking up four seats is worth some consideration, but given the layout of the present non-partisan districts, a 9-2 scenario in a D+15 environment isn’t impossible. In fact, it would be likely — that is, if the generic ballot were D+15.

In the meantime, despite the feverish passions of hardline Democrats, the more reasonable sense of fair play among Virginians is picking up steam and looking to send a message back to the unfair and partisan efforts to “save democracy” by running roughshod over it.

Bringing things back to our friend Vaclav Havel, the only true way to reject the specter of authoritarianism is to refuse to live within the lie and confront the lies with a bit of honesty and truth. From the very beginning of the argument to the wording of the amendment, the Democrats have done nothing to “restore fairness” beyond running roughshod over their own rhetoric to obtain their true objective — POWER.

No observer of the referendum contest denies this, but it does come down to a very basic bet on decency vs. nihilism — on fair play vs. the pursuit of powercraft for its own sake.

Lest we need reminders, decency was on the ballot in November in Virginia — and decency lost. Decency is on the ballot again in April alongside another friend: consistency. For all the concerns about decency in politics today, we are about to find out if the word has any meaning within the honorable center — even if Spanberger is choosing to abandon both for temporary political position.

Shaun Kenney is editor for The Republican Standard. This column has been republished with permission from The Republican Standard and Bacon’s Rebellion.

NORFOLK, Va. – Peter G. Decker Jr. would be a hard act for anyone to follow. 

Charismatic, driven, and devilishly handsome, with a kind heart and an outgoing personality, “Uncle Pete,” as he was known and loved by thousands, rose from poverty to become one of the most powerful attorneys and business people in Hampton Roads.

He worked his way through law school in part by singing in night clubs -- think Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin -- and became one of the area’s most dynamic lawyers

If you were charged with a crime, you were wise to hire Uncle Pete, as did sheriffs, state delegates and even attorneys who were once his bitter rivals. He was nearly always better prepared than opposing attorneys, and had far more charm, and a quick wit, to sway judges and jurors.

Politicians, from governors to the mayors of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Democrat and Republican alike, relied on Uncle Pete for quiet counsel when they needed sage advice.

“He would bring people together and settle disputes before the public knew anything about them,” said former Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim. 

He invested wisely, purchasing dozens of properties from Florida to Norfolk, got rich and became perhaps the region’s greatest mover and shaker behind the scenes. He was able to do so in part because he was so generous with his money and, most especially, his time. 

He raised and gave away tens of millions of dollars to charity, especially those benefiting children. How much he raised for the St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, will never be accurately calculated, but officials said it was between $50 and $100 million. 

And his personality? Absolutely magnetic. “Who loves ya baby,” he often said as a greeting. He would hug and kiss your wife on the cheek, and you didn’t mind.  

Uncle Pete succumbed to cancer in on Feb 3, 2012. Four days later, an estimated 4,000 people jammed their way into the Norfolk Marriott Waterside to pay their respects.

“Everyone here,” said former Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf that day, her hands waving at the crowd, “I’m sure he helped all of them at one time.” 

Link to story on Celebration of Life for Peter G. Decker Jr. 

Yes, definitely a tough act to follow, but that never bothered Peter G. Decker III.

Uncle Pete’s oldest son, who bears a remarkable resemblance to his handsome father, as well as bearing his name, has practiced for 28 years at the Decker Law Firm his father founded in 1961. And he has continued in his father’s philanthropic footsteps by raising millions for local charities, and serving on just about every charitable and civic board his father served on as well.

His father was feted as Norfolk’s First Citizen by the Norfolk Cosmopolitan Club in 1998. Now, 28 years later, Pete III will receive the same award. He will be the 100th individual – the award has been given to married couples several times -- to receive the First Citizen award which honors people from all over Hampton Roads. Four of the last five winners were not Norfolk residents. 

He will accept the award on Friday, April 17, at the Norfolk Yacht and Country Club. All of the nearly 400 tickets, priced at $150 each, were sold within a week of invitations being mailed.

“We’ve never had tickets sell this fast,” said Mike O’Toole, the cosmopolitan club president and the chief deputy to Norfolk Sheriff Joe Baron.

“I have a huge waiting list. Everyone loves Pete Decker. Everyone wants to be there.”

“Little Pete,” as Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander sometimes calls him, has in a quiet way exerted nearly as much an influence as his father. Though not as charismatic or outspoken as his dad, he has become a behind-the-scenes dealmaker in these times of bitter political strife.

He has donated to both Democrats and Republicans and supports candidates from all stripes. “My dad always told me, support the person, not the party,” he said. He has brought warring sides together to settle disputes amicably and privately. 

When Judy Boone, the Ocean View real state magnate, needed an attorney to speak for her after she suffered three gunshot wounds in her home, she called on Pete III. 

His father chaired the Virginia State Board of Corrections, the Sons and Daughters of Lebanon, the Norfolk Police/Fire Trial Board and the Norfolk Airport Authority and so has Pete III, who is shepherding the airport through a $1 billion expansion.

He serves on the board of TowneBank, the Norfolk and Virginia Beach police foundations, the Norfolk Sheriff’s Foundation and half a dozen other boards where his father also served.

He was recently reappointed to the Board of Visitors at Old Dominion University, from where he, his father and wife, Dana Jo Decker, all graduated. He served a previous four-year term at ODU.

He has played a major role in the Ocean View St. Patrick’s Day Parade for decades, and has served as the parade emcee since his father passed away – Uncle Pete emceed the parade, as well as the first Norfolk Harborfest and Virginia Beach Neptune Festival. 

And he founded the Peter G. Decker Charities, named for his father, which has raised millions of dollars for children’s hospitals.

Peter G. Decker Charities website 

“Few people know just how much time he gives up for our community,” Alexander said. “Everyone knew Uncle Pete. He was flamboyant, with the open collar shirts. That’s not Pete. He’s more buttoned down. More reserved.

“But he’s just as generous.

“These committees he chairs, these are non-paid positions and yet he continues to say, ‘I’ll do it,’ whenever we ask him to serve. I don’t know where he gets the time. 

“He has his Dad’s charm and his Dad’s loving heart. Pete is a loving and caring person.”

O’Toole said the vote by the five-person selection committee was unanimous.

“Every time I’ve called him and asked him for anything,” said businessman Dennis Ellmer, who was Norfolk’s First Citizen in 2019, “he’s right there and willing to help.

“Especially when it comes to children’s charities. He’s so much like his father. Generous and giving, smart and hard-working.”

Norfolk Vice Mayor Martin Thomas Jr. is a partner in the Decker firm and a close friend.

“Almost every day, someone reaches out to Pete needing help,” he said. 

“If someone needs legal help and it’s not something we specialize in, he’ll say, ‘Let’s help them, anyway.’

“His father raised him in the helping people ethos.”

Uncle Pete was one of seven children raised in poverty in Norfolk’s Lamberts Point neighborhood. His father was a junkman. His mother worked in a school cafeteria. They both immigrated to America from Lebanon and worked hard to scratch out a good but impoverished life in the New World. 

Pete and his brothers, Paul and Phil, had an easier upbringing. They were raised in affluence by Pete and Bess Decker but taught early-on that those who have much owe much to their communities. 

“Pop would take us to fundraisers when we were kids,” Decker said. 

“We’d go to a different Catholic church in Norfolk every week, and Pop would stuff the basket with obscene amounts of cash.

“We learned the importance of giving back to the community at a very young age.”

Poverty instilled in Uncle Pete a manic desire to succeed, and without those privations, it’s not surprising that Pete III was, as he put it, “not a good student for the longest time.”

After four years of attending ODU, and going to too many parties and not enough classes, he was summoned to his father’s office.

“How is school going?” his father asked. “I said, ‘Well, it could be better,’ ” Pete III responded.

“You’re damn right it could be,” his dad said. “I talked to the dean today and he said you’re close to flunking out.

“I love you, son, but you're on your own now. You're going pay for the rest of your college.”

That was all it took to turn Pete III around. 

He worked three jobs, including running the 4400 Club nightclub near ODU while also working at a gas station and a convenience store, to pay his tuition. He earned his ODU degree and eventually went to law school at George Mason. He took out student loans and for a long time in part lived off the income of his wife, who was a Norfolk school teacher. 

“We bought our first home on her salary,” he said. 

“Cutting me off was the best thing my Dad ever did for me. He did me a huge favor. I paid for all of my school from that point on. And it meant more to me.”

Life has not been without its challenges. His Norfolk home burned down two weeks before his daughter, Zoe, graduated from VCU. The family lived for a year in Ocean View while the house was being rebuilt.

He was diagnosed with kidney cancer, which required surgery, several years ago. More recently, he suffered from an autoimmune disease which is now controlled with medication.

But his family is healthy and happy. His son, Pete IV, known as “Petey,” graduated from the University of Virginia while Zoe is working with a Richmond firm.

Little Pete credits Dana Jo for quitting her job as a teacher to raise Zoe and Petey full-time.

“When I started working as a lawyer, 60- and 70-hour weeks were the norm,” he said. “I would come into the office on Sunday just to be here when the phones weren’t ringing. That was my life for the first 20 years.  

“I regret not spending more time with my kids, but thank goodness for Dana. She’s been an awesome Mom and an awesome partner.”

The couple recently celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary and have been together 37 years. Dana Jo says her husband is quietly very romantic.

When he proposed to her, he took her to New York and arranged a horse carriage ride through Central Park. He excused the driver and took over the reins and took them to a secluded spot, where he got down on his knee to pop the question at 4 a.m.

“I was on the phone with my Mom at 6 a.m.,” Dana Jo said. 

Yet being married to a Decker isn’t the world’s easiest gig.

“All of the boards he serves on, all of the fundraisers he does, it’s a lot. It wears on him,” she said.

“I want him to slow down but that’s not in his nature.   

“He’s had to put a lot of people before us and before me. We understand that.” 

“But at night,” she added with a smile, “he’s mine.”

At age 62, Pete III said he has no desire to retire. But when he does, there likely will be another attorney named Decker working at Decker Law. 

Paul Decker Jr., who enters law school in the fall, is working as a paralegal at Decker Law. As soon as he graduates, he’ll come on board as an attorney.

“It would be so cool to have Pop’s grandson working here,” Pete III said. 

Well spoken and well-liked, Decker could have a political career if he so desired. 

“I know his Dad refused any number of times to run for office,” Fraim said. “I think both of them would rather be behind the scenes. And that’s a good place for him.

“But I don’t think he would have any trouble getting elected to anything he wanted. I’ve never heard anyone say a bad word about Pete. Everyone loves Pete.”

The ceremony is special to Dana Jo for more reasons than one. Her stepfather, the late E. George Middleton Jr., was named First Citizen in 2002. He was chairman of the Norfolk School Board when the city integrated its schools.

“I know that Pete’s father will be looking down on him and will be so proud,” Dana Jo said. “So will my stepfather.” 

Bess, who was married to Uncle Pete for 50 years, is still going strong. She is president of Decker Management, which runs the properties Uncle Pete acquired, and of course, will attend on Friday, along with dozens of cousins, aunts and uncles. 

So will Paul, who is in real estate, as will Phil, who recently retired from the restaurant business.  

Uncle Pete will also be here, in spirit, said Pete III, who teared up three times when talking about his father during a 90-minute interview. 

“I am sometimes told that I have big shoes to fill,” Pete III said. “I’ve never even tried to fill those shoes. It never even crossed my mind to try to replace my Dad. They broke the mold with him. He had more compassion and energy than anyone I’ve ever known. 

“Make no mistake, the reason I’m getting this award is because of the way my Dad raised me and my Mom raised me. We had a blessed childhood and upbringing. I was given every opportunity in life, and I’d like to think I took advantage of that. 

“But Pop never let us forget where we came from, where his parents came from.”

Pete III is a phenomenal attorney in large part because of the lessons his father passed on to him, Thomas said.

“He has the ability to make every single person in a courtroom feel loved and appreciated,” Thomas said. “Even in an adversarial situation, it’s not adversarial because he’s such a good guy. That gives him such a big advantage in the courtroom.”

“When I shadowed my father,” Pete III added. “He was obviously always respectful to judges. But the most important people he interacted with were the police officers, the clerks, the maintenance people, the sheriff’s deputies. He cared about them genuinely and would get to know them and their families. He would help them if he could, even if they could not afford his help.

“It was instilled from me at a young age to treat everybody with respect and kindness. It amazes me now because I run into so many attorneys who are aloof with the people that run the system.

“My dad cared about everyone. It didn’t matter what walk of life they were from. He treated everyone with respect and kindness.”

He then stopped the interview briefly to choke back tears.  

“People often tell me that it must be tough having that name,” he continued. “But not for me. I always thought it was cool. 

“Not a week goes by when someone in the courthouse or just somewhere out and about comes up to me and tells me a story about Pop. Just overwhelmingly positive stories about my dad.

“That’s why having the name Peter G Decker III has always been a blessing to me.”

A former Virginian-Pilot reporter and columnist, Harry Minium works at Old Dominion University, where he writes for odusports.com Contact him at hminium@odu.edu

The “partner” of California Gov. Gavin Newsom - who is doing her best to torpedo her hubby’s chances of ever being elected president - reportedly killed her older sister in a gruesome golf cart accident in 1981. Here’s how it seems to have happened: During a family vacation in Hawaii, the then-six year old Jennifer accidentally backed over her 8-year-old sister, Shelley, with a cart killing her.

That’s an unspeakably horrific accident and Jennifer no doubt has some guilt over it.

Still, that’s no excuse for what she does with her sad story.

When speaking with juveniles in San Quentin prison, Jennifer tried to evoke some connection with the inmates in the way only an elite, out of touch leftist could:

She assured the felons that she was just like them, except of course she was a blonde wealthy woman. 

Hear it for yourself:

Gavin Newsome’s Wife:

I accidentally killed my sister with a golf cart. I didn’t go to jail.. I told the inmates who killed others that their murders were probably an accident too..

What a weird world we live in. pic.twitter.com/ECESKdh85f

— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) April 7, 2026

Un-freaking believable. 

In recent years, San Quentin has transitioned from a maximum security prison that housed California’s Death Row to a less restrictive prison, yet the young inmates there are uniformly bad actors.

They didn’t get there by accident.

Typically the youngest San Quentin inmates were transferred from adult court for violent felonies. Most are serving sentences of at least 25 years. Among these violent felons are first-degree murderers and armed robbers.

I checked but couldn’t find a single golf cart desperado among them.

This instinct to assume that criminals just need a little understanding or are where they are because they don’t enjoy middle-class privilege is the reason so many hairbags are back on the street. Mostly in jurisdictions run by leftists or where prosecutors are funded by George Soros.

Fairfax County, for example.

Jennifer also has some odd ideas about parenting that explain the left’s love affair with genital mutilation.

California Democrat Gov @GavinNewsom's wife Jennifer on parenting their sons:

"I've given our boys dolls…if I'm reading a book and the protagonist is a male, I just change the 'he' to a 'she.'" pic.twitter.com/fE7Y68b4r0

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 4, 2026

With every peek we get at the very weird and out-of-touch Newsom family the chances that the dashing Gavin will ever be president recede. 

Keep talking, Jennifer. Tell us more.

“Progressive” lawmakers in Richmond have successfully passed a draconian firearm law to accelerate gun seizures by the government without due process.

Virginia police can now enter a person’s home, confiscate their firearms, and hold them indefinitely—without a trial.

This destruction of due process stems from HB 901, a red flag expansion bill now sitting on Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s (D) desk. Red flag laws or Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs) allow a civil court to issue a warrant for the seizure of an individual’s firearms—­even if no evidence exists to support the petitioner’s claims.

“This should alarm every American,” attorney Edward Paltzik of Bochner PLLC and the National Constitutional Law Union told Restoration News. “To obtain a warrant, the government is supposed to demonstrate probable cause—evidence that a law has been broken or is about to be broken. That standard is being dangerously diluted.”

Under the measure, the power to initiate firearm seizures no longer rests solely with law enforcement and district attorneys. School administrators, therapists, social workers, community services board members, and others can now petition a court to suspend an individual’s Second Amendment rights.

Supporters pitch red flag laws as safety measures—but HB901 unquestionably violates every Virginian's constitutional rights. The bill replaces due process with mere suspicion, and constitutional protections with bureaucratic overreach.

The reality about Red Flag Laws from our FPC Policy Brief:

"Red flag laws pose serious due process concerns under every implementation to date.4 The 5th and 14th Amendments of the United States Constitution proscribe the deprivation of “life, liberty, or property without due… pic.twitter.com/Eo9XlPxVqc

— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) March 23, 2024

Long Held Plans

Following the horrific deaths of 14 students and 3 teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, red flag laws spread like wildfire across the country.

On the five-year anniversary of the shooting, former President Joe Biden pledged $231 million to states for crisis intervention projects including red flag laws. The subsidy pulls from $750 million in funding from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which Biden signed into law in June 2022.

From the beginning, gun control activists framed ERPOs as “common sense” safety tools—a means to reduce “gun violence.” But they soon became sweeping constitutional violations.

To propel red flag laws across the nation, Biden added a catch to the $231 million in crisis intervention funding. If a state wanted more money, it would need to implement red flag laws.

As a result, red flag laws ballooned from merely 6 states to 22 states in five years.

Virginia's red flag law expansion should not come as a surprise. Gov. Spanberger has been a long-time supporter of the initiative and backed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

“I have repeatedly voiced my support for and cosponsored legislation related to ERPOs,” said Spanberger in 2022.

Virginia accepted the terms of the deal and has received over $3 million in block grants as of 2025.

Maryland’s Wiley Case

One of the clearest examples of how red flag laws can go wrong is the Maryland Willey case—where a veteran was arrested and disarmed, all because a county official held a grudge.

In August 2023, the Second Amendment Foundation and one of its members, Donald S. Willey, a 64-year-old Marine Corps veteran, filed a lawsuit in United States District Court challenging Maryland’s red flag laws. Willey was allegedly harassed, stripped of his gun rights, and forced to undergo a mental health exam after the local zoning director filed a false ERPO (red flag) petition against him, according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs allege that, over two decades, Maryland authorities—particularly Dorchester County Planning and Zoning Director Susan E. Webb—harassed Willey over minor zoning issues, including alleged property violations. In 2023, after a compliance inspection and new notices, Webb and another inspector returned without notice and stapled a notice to a fiberglass boat cover, causing extensive damage.

Webb eventually filed a petition for an ERPO, falsely claiming Willey threatened her—which he steadfastly denies, according to a release.

Regardless of the truth, and without a trial in which Willey could confront his accuser, police entered Wiley’s home and removed all of his ammunition and firearms.

“This is the sort of nonsense we have repeatedly warned about,” said SAF founder and executive vice president Alan M. Gottlieb. “These so-called ‘red flag laws’ can be abused and weaponized against private citizens who have done nothing wrong. It is an outrage.”

Protecting Virginians

Supporters of red flag laws present them as proactive measures to prevent mass shootings or guns ending up in the hands of unstable individuals. However, they attempt to serve an impossible function.

ERPOs strip away due process and leave Second Amendment rights subject to the whims of any accuser. This framework allows individuals to disarm others at will, with no proof of criminal intent—even over a grudge.

Under Gov. Spanberger, red flag laws in Virginia will only expand. She has been a supporter of the initiative from the start and has shown little (read: zero) hesitation when it comes to trampling on the individual rights guaranteed by the Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments.

The radical Left will continue to normalize sweeping gun laws in the name of safety until Americans choose to stand up for the Constitution. Virginians must fight against these Orwellian laws.

Bronson Winslow is an Investigative Researcher for Restoration News specializing in gun rights and criminal justice policy. He graduated from Virginia Military Institute and previously wrote for the Daily Caller. He publishes regularly at American Greatness. 

Republished with permission from Restoration News.

Will Spanberger have the guts to veto any of the lunacy? We shall see.

The Post’s far-left readers were angered by the editorial, judging from comments attached to the piece. Clearly, The Post’s faithful readers are not used to their beloved newspaper criticizing a Democrat.

Some of us found it refreshing.

University of Virginia professor, political pundit and director of the Center for Politics Larry Sabato sees the situation as alarming for the Democrat who bested her Republican opponent by 15 percentage points.

"A drop of that margin is stunning, and it should be greatly disturbing to the governor and the governor's staff if it's repeated in other surveys," UVa Political scientist Sabato told 7News.

Not surprising when you consider Spanberger ran as a centrist but once in office swerved hard left. She immediately declared Virginia a sanctuary state for illegal aliens and ordered law enforcement to cease cooperation with ICE. She also reversed Youngkins’ decision to pull out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, guaranteeing Virginia utility bills would rise sharply. Even though Spanberger once declared herself opposed to gerrymandering and said during the campaign that she had no plans to redistrict Virginia, she is now cheerleading for the Vote Yes crowd that wants to return to gerrymandered districts.

All to hand the House of Representatives over to Hakeem Jeffries.

On top of that, she is poised to sign bills raising more than 50 fees and taxes on ordinary Virginians. Awaiting her signature are extreme gun bills that will ultimately be ruled unconstitutional.

Her quick about-face on issue after issue has outraged many Virginia voters who believe they were hoodwinked by a Marxist cosplaying as a moderate. Her far-left turn may endear Spanberger to radicals in Northern Virginia but it’s angering normal Virginians in other parts of the commonwealth.

Any wonder Virginia Democrats feel the need to pour $50 million into their return-to-gerrymandering campaign?

With national ambitions, Spanberger finds herself in a quandary. Unless she moderates her radical inclinations her approval rating will continue to plummet. But if she rebuffs Virginia’s Democrat kingmakers Louise Lucas and Don Scott, they will torpedo her ambitions.

It’s said that first impressions are lasting ones. If that’s the case, this ex-CIA’s agent’s career in politics should end when she leaves the governor’s mansion.

They aren’t like the rest of us.

For reasons no one can explain, voters in this wealthy suburb repeatedly vote for a chief prosecutor who coddles criminals and has an absolutely bizarre philosophy about crime and punishment. Elected first in 2019 and re-elected in 2023,Steve Descano is the worst commonwealth’s attorney in Virginia and it isn’t even close. Naturally, he’s backed by George Soros money.

Here is Descano’s morally indefensible theory of crime and punishment:

“If two people commit the same crime, but only one’s punishment includes deportation, that’s a perversion of justice and not a reflection of the values of Fairfax County.” - Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano’s website.

This perverse fondness for illegal aliens who have committed serious crimes - including murder - has resulted in the release of scores of illegals and lenient plea deals for others.

Normal Virginians are outraged when someone who is in the country illegally turns out to be a predator. Not Fairfax’s top prosecutor.

Fairfax prosecutors coddle illegal alien criminals and go to great lengths to keep them in their community, even as the body count rises. They also show compassion for males who sexually assault girls in public schools.

This insane attitude toward crime will spread across the commonwealth if voters approve the April 21 referendum to gerrymander congressional districts.

Five of the 11 new districts will now be anchored in Fairfax, meaning the same people who keep re-electing Descano will now spread their notoriously tolerant attitude toward criminals to the far reaches of Virginia, where normal people live.

Sadly, the ordinary decent citizens of rural Virginia will see their votes diluted by criminal-loving Fairfax voters who care little for public safety.

Vote NO on gerrymandering.

One Steve Descano is more than enough.

The Abigail Spanberger Administration has told an energy industry publication that it plans to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative by July, in time to participate in the September and December 2026 carbon dioxide allowance auctions.

Because of the accelerated timetable, the Department of Environmental Quality will not publish a draft regulation or take any public comments before acting, the reporter for Argus Media was told.  Bacon’s Rebellion was provided with an email copy of the Argus report, which is not yet on the public website. 

It was not clear until now that the other RGGI states would let Virginia rejoin before the end of 2026. What was not reported and may not be decided yet is just how many allowances Virginia will be granted to offer in those two auctions.  Argus reported:

In addition, the agency has been working with RGGI member states to iron out the finer details of Virginia’s return to the program, such as its allowance allocation. Calling its discussions with member states “positive”, DEQ said that Virginia’s allocation “will be consistent with the prior regulation” when the state first joined RGGI in 2021.

The final two auctions of 2026 are also the final two auctions of the current three-year RGGI contract period.  Whatever allowances are granted for sale in 2026, a different and likely smaller amount will be assigned to Virginia for 2027 and beyond.  The completion of Dominion Energy’s offshore wind facility should also push down the number of allowances granted. 

By design, RGGI reduces the number of allowances steadily to discourage the use of coal, natural gas and oil to make electricity.  The shrinking supply also forces up the price generation firms must pay for allowances, an expense they pass on to customers.  Argus predicted the $25 per ton paid in the March 2026 auction could exceed $28 for the December 2026 auction.

The Argus report also noted Virginia’s soaring electricity demand due in large part to the data center explosion and said the state is a “considerable source of demand” for RGGI allowances. 

For the three years Virginia was previously part of RGGI, 2021 through 2023, the number of allowances Virginia had to sell slightly exceeded the demand from Virginia-based generation plants, meaning some of the Virginia RGGI tax revenue was being paid by plants in other states (or speculators, who also buy allowances).  Depending on the new allocation, the situation may reverse and Virginia-based generators may be paying some of the others states (or those same speculators) for allowances.

In 2025, the various electric generation units in Virginia using hydrocarbons reported more than 29 million tons of CO2 emissions, far above the likely allocation amount.  Just under 70 percent of that amount was from Dominion Energy facilities. 

One industry analyst who has been sharing data compiled from public sources has tracked how Virginia-based generation plants slowed down their operations during the three RGGI years then increased their usage again after Governor Glenn Younkgin took Virginia out of the compact.  The full chart is too large to share in a post, but you can see it here.  Portions of it have been shared with this post. 

Advocates for RGGI intentionally ignore how meaningless that all is, because Virginia is a major importer of electricity.  Many of the largest states in the PJM Interconnection are not part of RGGI, and several RGGI states are in other regional transmission organizations.  As Virginia’s hydrocarbon plants run less often, hydrocarbon plants in PJM not constrained by RGGI run more often.  The technical term for this is “leakage”.

But if your mind can accept that a 10-1 Congressional map is a sign of “fairness”, than it is easy to fool yourself into thinking that only emissions from Virginia matter in the “battle to save the planet”. RGGI isn’t really about that.  RGGI is really about the money, and apparently Virginia will begin to reap that extra revenue in September.   The impact on your power bills will follow at some point. 

Republished with permission from Bacon’s Rebellion.

Today, we have reason to worry.

According to Nick Minock of WJLA, “DHS is calling on Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Fairfax County officials not to release the alleged baby killer. ICE has lodged a detainer for his deportation.

“This cold-blooded killer murdered his own three-month-old daughter. We are calling on Governor Spanberger to commit to not releasing this barbaric animal from jail into Virginia communities,” said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “This monster should have never been allowed in our country by the Biden administration. We need cooperation from sanctuary politicians to stop criminals from being released from jail to perpetrate more crimes and create more innocent victims.”

DHS says Misael Lopez Gomez admitted that he illegally crossed the United States Southern Border in July 2023 near Albuquerque, New Mexico under the Biden Administration.

Minock reports that Misael Lopez Gomez, 28, was arrested Monday and charged with killing and abusing his 3-month-old daughter.

Emergency personnel were called to the home with reports of an “unresponsive” infant. The infant was reportedly killed by “blunt force” and there were other signs of abuse.

Unspeakable.

There have been four murders in Fairfax County this year and three were allegedly committed by illegal aliens. Two of the suspects had previous arrest records.

Remind me, again, why are Democrats determined to keep illegals in our communities?

Unfortunately for the law-abiding citizens of Fairfax County, Sheriff Stacey Kincaid does not cooperate with ICE. Neither does Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano.

Fairfax County is a cancer that’s about to metastasize if the proposed Democrat gerrymandering is approved.

Referendum billboards are springing up in rural areas that read:

“Don’t Fairfax Me. Vote NO.”

Virginia's largest county becomes a verb as 'Don't Fairfax Me' signs pop up in rural areas https://t.co/yEtUsQSPyf pic.twitter.com/JNSxfDPhGC

— Cardinal News (@CardinalNewsVA) April 1, 2026

Ketanji Brown Jackson is a dullard. Part II.

Justice KBJ: "If I steal a wallet in Japan, I am subject to Japanese laws….. in a sense, it's allegiance."

Her case for birthright citizenship: pic.twitter.com/2oEal2seWv

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) April 1, 2026

Yep, this was her argument for bestowing citizenship on the offspring of illegal aliens.

“I was thinking, I, a U.S. citizen am visiting Japan. And what it means is that if I steal someone’s wallet in Japan, the Japanese authorities can arrest me and prosecute me,” Jackson said. “It’s allegiance meaning can they control you as a matter of law. I can rely on them if my wallet is stolen to, under Japanese law, go and prosecute that person who had stolen it. So there’s this relationship, even though I’m just a temporary traveler, I’m just on vacation in Japan, I’m still locally owing allegiance in that sense.”

“Is that the right way to think about it? And if so, doesn’t that explain why both temporary residents and undocumented people would have that kind of allegiance just by virtue of being in the United States?”

No, that is not the right way to think about it, Justice. Are you SURE you went to Harvard?

If you go to Japan and steal a wallet you do not owe allegiance to Japan. And you certainly aren’t a citizen. You are a foreign thief about to be prosecuted by Japanese authorities and unceremoniously deported.

(By the way, Japan does not have birthright citizenship. For a baby to be a Japanese citizen that child must have Japanese blood and at least one parent must be a Japanese citizen.)

Following Jackson’s logic, if someone breaks into your home and refuses to leave your property, they are now a member of the family and entitled to their share of any inheritance.

It’s worth remembering that before Joe Biden put her on the Supreme Court Jackson spent eight years on the DC District Court. More of her rulings were overturned than nearly two-thirds of her peers.

Any wonder?

Look, chances were always slim that Trump’s executive order, declaring that the offspring of illegal aliens should not be granted citizenship, would be upheld by the highest court.

But Jackson’s idiotic analogy ought to fill every American with dread. This woman is 55 years old and has a lifetime appointment. She’s going to be a problem for decades.

Frankly, if this is the best argument you have for giving every illegal alien or tourist who crosses the border and drops a baby here automatic American citizenship, your side should lose.

It probably won’t. Unfortunately. But Justice Jackson did the “magic dirt” crowd (those who believe there is something miraculous about having a baby on American soil) no favors with this specious argument

According to Jackson and her ilk a wealthy Chinese communist can visit the U.S., drop a baby, take the baby back to China and in 18 years this newly minted member of the CCP can vote in American elections.

Lucky us.

Common sense should tell us that this is not what the framers of the 14th Amendment intended when they crafted an addendum to the Constitution that guaranteed citizenship to freed slaves and their offspring.

You know it. I know it. Jackson knows it. But that’s where we are.

Wait, who was it who coined the phrase, “Our Constitution is not a suicide pact”?

Well, whaddya know, that it was another Jackson: Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson. This brilliant jurist is best known for presiding over the Nuremberg trials. In a 1949 dissenting opinion in a free speech case styled Terminiello v. Chicago Jackson wrote that the U.S. Constitution is not a "suicide pact.” Jackson argued that constitutional rights, such as free speech, should not be interpreted to force the government to allow actions that destroy society or the state itself.

It’s a pity that Ketanji Brown Jackson lacks the wisdom of the earlier Justice Jackson.

It was a clear First Amendment case and Jackson displayed appalling ignorance of the meaning of free speech.

She was appointed by the virtue signaling mid-wit, Joe Biden, who wanted to be the president to appoint the first black woman to the Court, and the best he could find was Jackson, a left-wing activist.

Jackson was confirmed by a 53-47 vote. All Democrats voted for her and they were joined by three Republicans: Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney.

As a lone extremist on the court, which is comprised of six conservatives, two liberals and her, Jackson serves as a living, breathing cautionary tale against the appointment of far-left radicals.

During her senate confirmation hearing Jackson famously said she couldn’t define the word “woman” because she wasn’t a biologist. The correct follow-up would have been to ask if she could define the word dog without being a veterinarian.

Alas, that didn’t happen. And her apparent stupidity proved no barrier to her appointment.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson couldn’t define “a woman”.

Jackson: ”I can’t. I’m not a biologist.” pic.twitter.com/doAp6urP5G

— Taya (@travelingflying) March 8, 2026

The issue decided by the court this week in Chiles v. Salazar was an over-reaching Colorado law that forced therapists to engage in gender affirmation of confused youngsters and prohibited them from helping children accept their sexuality using what’s known as “conversion therapy.” That’s an unfortunate term, suggesting that trans is a natural state and therapists are trying to wrench kids away from their entirely normal desire to change sexes, when exactly the opposite is true.

Jackson prefers a system were therapists are forced to pretend that men can become women and vice versa. That’s compelled speech and a scary concept.

Newsweek explained yesterday’s ruling this way:

Colorado’s law at the center of the Chiles v. Salazar Supreme Court case bars licensed counselors from engaging in “conversion therapy” with minors, broadly defined to include any talk therapy that seeks to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, while expressly allowing counseling that affirms identity exploration or gender transition. In a major First Amendment ruling, the Supreme Court said that distinction amounts to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination when applied to speech‑only therapy, holding that states may not dictate which perspectives counselors can express to willing clients—even in the name of regulating professional conduct—without meeting the Constitution’s most demanding free‑speech standards.

This decision is so common sense that both liberals and conservatives came together. Only the sole loon objected.

Last year, in another 8-1 decision, Jackson argued that the president should not be allowed to reduce the federal workforce. Jackson’s dissent was so bizarre that Sonia Sotomayor wrote a separate concurrence, taking aim at Jackson’s flawed arguments.

Jackson is what happens when far-left ideologues gain power.

We cannot let that happen.

A blatant Democrat gerrymander is causing Zoomers to get active in politics.

Virginia is the latest in a large line of states pursuing mid-decade redistricting efforts. That's where the similarities end.

Unlike states whose state legislatures draw congressional lines, Virginia has a bipartisan redistricting commission formed of 16 citizens and lawmakers whose proposed maps require a supermajority of legislators in the General Assembly. 

This commission was given the power to draw congressional maps after a 2020 amendment was approved by the vast majority of Virginians. The result of the commission has been clear: Virginia's current Congressional districts were given an A rating for partisan fairness by the Princeton Gerrymandering Project. 

The partisan apportionment lines up with recent statewide partisan results. Six out of the eleven districts are held by Democrats (55%), and five out of the eleven districts are held by Republicans (45%). That meshed with 2024 presidential election results, when Kamala Harris won 52% of the commonwealth's vote, while Donald Trump captured 46%.

Despite the clear results of this commission to bring fair representation to Virginians, state Democrats are determined to recapture power for themselves with a constitutional amendment transferring power from the commission to the legislature. This special election is slated for April 21st. 

The maps proposed by legislative Democrats constitute one of the most radical gerrymanders in the country. The new maps would very likely shift the commonwealth's congressional representation from 6 Democrats and 5 Republicans to 10 Democrats and 1 Republican. 

The language used for the special election itself has emerged as a point of concern. The ballot question includes the language that the redistricting effort is to "temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections." This language has so confused voters that signs have emerged at early voting locations stating that election workers are not allowed to discuss the proposed amendment on the ballot. 

It is not simply that the map is radically partisan, or that the ballot language is confusing, but also that the newly elected Democratic Governor, Abigail Spanberger, stated during her campaign that she had no plans to redistrict. Not only is this campaign to redistrict radical, but it is built on lies. 

Young Virginians are Waking Up

The new maps could affect Virginia colleges in a major way. Liberty University and Hampden-Sydney College, where I am a student, would be taken from a district that currently leans Republican to two districts that now lean Democratic. James Madison University and Virginia Tech would be drawn out of their current firmly Republican districts, into the same Democratic district as Liberty University. 

From the radical nature of the redistricting to the broken campaign promises to how it impacts their colleges, young Virginians are mobilizing against the redistricting amendment. 

As President of the Hampden-Sydney College Republicans, I know this firsthand. In February, with the backing of my club membership, I penned a letter to the editor of the Farmville Herald signaling our opposition to the redistricting effort that would affect our historic college firsthand. 

Students from across the commonwealth are rallying to our cause with support from Virginia's Turning Point Action Gen-Z Coalition. Coalition Co-Chair Andrew McKnight told me they "[want] the commonwealth and the country to know that Gen Z is conservative." He also described some of the activities the group is undertaking: "We're activating young people on campuses across the commonwealth to protect fair representation in Congress through door knocks and on-campus voter drives."

Students at James Madison University, Virginia Tech, and the University of Virginia also signaled their opposition to the redistricting attempt. Students shared their concerns about how the maps pack students together like widgets, the future of bipartisanship in the commonwealth, and how the special election might take advantage of politically uniformed students.

The opposition displayed by students is simply a microcosm of a larger trend across the commonwealth. In a March 17th special election, Republicans overperformed by 22 points compared to the last general election in a special election in Virginia House District 98. Many point to the radical redistricting attempt as a mobilizing factor for Republican voters. 

Leftist groups have poured money into advertisements and efforts in an attempt to will the amendment to pass, with George Soros-connected Fund for Policy Reform contributing $5 million earlier this month. 

Virginians are faced with two paths. 

On the one hand, Virginians can allow ourselves to be used as pawns in a national political fight and allow our votes to be sold to the highest bidder—a billionaire New York leftist. 

On the other hand, Virginians can continue a centuries-old tradition that keeps us above the fray, upholds our founding principles, and refuses to allow our voices to be bought by a Hungarian-born billionaire. 

Zoomers know this. They are tired of being used, lied to, and manipulated for political gain. Gen Z is already undergoing a massive rightward shift. Now in 2026, we are leading the fight against Virginia's unfair redistricting attempt. 

The stance of young Virginians should stand as a warning to those who might pursue similar actions. My generation will not be duped, bought, or used as a chess piece in a political game.

Republished with permission from Restoration News.

Then again, you can’t expect people who don’t know what a woman is to know what a king is either.

His name is Donald Trump and he was elected. Trump won the popular vote. Trump won the electoral college. Trump won every swing state, soundly beating the day-drunk Dems selected to replace the zombie they first nominated and then stabbed in the back.

When Trump beat Hillary in 2016, the left was seething. To show their anger they knitted pink vagina hats, put them on their heads and took to the streets.

They looked like a bunch of nuts and accomplished, well, nothing.

Ten years later, they emptied the nursing homes - apparently banned people of color - and filled the sidewalks with 70, 80 and 90-year-old white people struggling to hold aloft “No Kings” signs.

You could almost smell the Ben-Gay.

It's amazing. Every No Kings video I see, every pic, are all old white geezers. Paid useful idiots who don't care about politics. It's all about the Benjamins.https://t.co/4If2HMr5dh

— BiscuitFella (@BiscuitFella) March 29, 2026

Bruce Springsteen headlined the St. Paul No Kings protest. He was joined by Jane Fonda, Joan Baez and Bernie Sanders.

Average age of this line-up: 83.

Lucky no one broke a hip.

The Villages retirement community in Florida have turned out in huge numbers for No Kings. William Steiner, our Villages correspondent, says that the turnout is twice as big as last year's. pic.twitter.com/ILpVagymm9

— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) March 28, 2026

Hey, it’s a free country, we may not have a king but we do have the First Amendment and we have the right to chant silly slogans on sunny Saturday afternoons.

It’s the American way.

Yet there were some alarming signs over the weekend, too. Some of these geriatric hippies were showing signs of radicalization - or dementia. Red flags with hammers and sickles were raised in Times Square and protesters were chanting "there is only one solution, communist revolution." In Salt Lake City, protesters were wearing red berets with the hammer and sickle insignia.

Apparently some of the protesters want to swap an elected president for a communist dictator.

Make it make sense.

Perhaps the most nonsensical protest this weekend was in London where British radicals showed their solidarity with American leftists by hosting a No Kings protest outside the U.S. Embassy.

That’s right. A No Kings protest in a country that literally has a king.

Seriously, where were these “freedom-loving” folks were when the government ordered millions of Americans to take an experimental vaccine or lose their jobs, when they closed churches, synagogues and schools, told people how many guests the could have in their own houses, forced people to wear masks and condemned old folks to die alone in quarantined nursing homes?

Oh,right. They were busy turning in their neighbors for hosting a party.

Those dictatorial covid orders stomped on a multitude of civil liberties, yet the left didn’t object. In fact, they clamored for more. They were the ones shouting at those of us who didn’t wear masks to cover our faces, they were the ones who wanted to put the unvaccinated into camps and deny them health care. They cheered when young families were tossed from flights because their 2-year-olds pulled off their face diapers.

Throwback to when Jimmy Kimmel said unvaccinated people shouldn't get ICU beds in hospitals: "Rest in peace, wheezy."

This guy should've been suspended ages ago. pic.twitter.com/z1TSj2pbVG

— Media Research Center (@theMRC) September 18, 2025

Oh, this crowd of aging lefties is fine with kings.

As long as it’s one of them.

by Ken Reid

There are various reasons for defeating the April 21 referendum to allow the Democrat-controlled General Assembly to redraw Virginia’s 11 U.S. house districts to give them a 10-1 advantage vs. 6-5 in the Nov. 3 congressional midterm elections.

One issue, which has gotten scant attention, is the confusion caused for candidates who want to run for House of Representatives.

Under Virginia law, to qualify to run for U.S. House, a candidate must, in part, secure the signatures of 1,000 qualified voters of that district on double-sided paper petition forms.

Well, who knows what the districts will be?

Democrats think they solved that with a provision inserted into House Bill 29, a budget bill, which extended the June primary to August 4, and petition and filing forms deadline to May 26. Governor Abigail Spanberger signed it into law.

In addition, HB29 grandfathers signatures candidates gathered before April 21 in the existing House districts. The law reads, “a signature collected prior to the date that the results of the April 21, 2026, special election are certified shall be accepted and be counted towards the required number of signatures if it is the signature of a qualified voter of the Commonwealth.”

This means if the referendum passes, any signatures gathered after April 21 must be from residents of the district where the candidate is running. There is no requirement for candidates to live in the district they wish to run in, but signatures must be from “qualified voters in the district” if gathered after April 21.

This is not so easy.

For one, candidates seeking to be on a Republican or Democrat primary ballot have their petitions and filing forms reviewed by the district committee of their respective party, not a local registrar or the State Board of Elections.

Because candidates cannot file petitions until May 1, this means the district committees have only 25 days to verify the signatures and addresses are valid. According to Ballotpedia, seven Democrats and five Republicans are interested in running in the 7th district, yielding 7,000 and 5,000 signatures, respectively, that have to be reviewed by volunteers in 25 days.

It would have been wise to allow candidates to file whenever they gathered the 1,000, but my guess is the Democrats devised these tight deadlines to thwart competition.

I had a text exchange about this with Julie Perry, who is running for U.S. House in the 10th as a Republican.

She has 600 signatures of the 1,000 needed and is concentrating on Loudoun because the county is entirely in the old and new 10th.

However, she said the uncertainty over districts “is having a massive impact on fundraising. People are hesitant to donate.” But she says she is fortunate she has volunteers in Loudoun to gather signatures and is about to hire some folks to help.

Hiring professional firms to gather signatures can cost thousands. If you have never carried petitions for a candidate, as I did for myself three times, and other candidates, you do not know what a challenge this can be.

I conservatively estimate it can take 5 minutes per voter to explain why they are signing and getting them to sign, date it, provide their address and last four digits of their Social Security number (which is voluntary). Multiply that by 1,000, and you’re looking at 83 hours of time. And this doesn’t include the time wasted on people who won’t sign your petitions out of fear they will wind up on promotional lists, or won’t sign because they don’t know enough about the candidate. Many won’t sign a petition for the opposite party’s candidates, although it’s not a vote.

As such, there is a very high refusal rate in this exercise.

Given the May 26 deadline, it will be hard for many candidates to qualify for the primary ballot, except incumbents and challengers with money. Ballotpedia lists a number of announced candidates; no Republicans for the 3d and 4th districts.

I have to believe the Democrat chieftains in the General Assembly who cooked up this gerrymandering were fully aware these deadlines would discourage people from running for office, particularly Republicans and would-be challengers to Democrat incumbents.

The other problem is this – if the redistricting passes, millions of Virginians will have to get new voter registration cards—costly given we have 6 million registered voters in the state.

Finally, the Democrats claim this is all about “fairness” to counter the mid-decade gerrymandering by Texas and other red states to give Republicans an edge in House races.

But what is fair about dividing Fairfax and Prince Wiilliam County into five House districts and giving them that much clout in Congress at the expense of the rest of Virginia?

Fairfax County has 1.3 million residents, but it has never been divided into more than three congressional districts.

Prince William County is only slightly larger in population than Loudoun County or Virginia Beach, but under the Democrats’ map, Loudoun remains entirely in the 10th and Virginia Beach entirely in the 2nd. Richmond city is divided into the 3d and 4th districts under the redistricting, thus giving that city of only 200,000 two representatives. How fair is this?

It sure would have been nice if the State Supreme Court had decided on the legality of the April 21 referendum before it went to the voters.

Ken Reid, a resident of the Tysons/Falls Church area in Fairfax County, served 10 years in local elected office in Loudoun County and in recent months has been fighting antisemitism in the DC region as DC/MD/VA chapter leader for the group, EndJewHatred.com.

Republished with permission from Bacon’s Rebellion.

by Shaun Kenney

Tension between Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger and the renegades in the Democratic-controlled General Assembly is flaring up yet again, only this time it isn’t taxing data centers to death but taxing Virginia’s patience:

With less than one month to go, nearly a dozen Democratic state lawmakers, strategists and candidates say Spanberger — Virginia’s popular Democratic governor who cruised to victory by double-digits last November — needs to step up more assertively to sell the referendum to voters. And they’re warning that she’ll bear the brunt of the blame if the effort fails.

It’s not that she’s doing nothing: Spanberger has endorsed the referendum and launched an ad supporting it this week, her first of the campaign, as POLITICO first reported. But critics say it’s the bare minimum for an effort that is supposed to be a top Democratic priority as the party works to counter GOP-led states that are redrawing their own maps.

Of course, this shibboleth of blame shifting — Republicans did it first, Democrats are responding — just isn’t playing out for the precise reason that it just ain’t true.

If the question around redistricting is who is playing with the lines, or more precisely whether playing with the lines is a reaction to bad form on the opposite side, then the answer — and indeed, the blame — lies with New York Democrats, whose effort to gerrymander their congressional seats so as to remove a lone Republican in Staten Island was blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court this March.

So much for who threw the first punch.

Beyer: Unfair in Virginia; totally fair for America?

Then we get into the unfairness-for-fairness-sake argumentation from Virginia Democrats, who argue that such extremes are “temporary” in the face of other extremes, that democracy can be interrupted for democracy’s sake pace Scott Surovell, and that — in the words of Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA):

“It’s not a done deal by any means,” said Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va. “We have to effectively make the case that even though this seems unfair in Virginia, it’s totally fair for America, for those of us who believe that taking back the House is the most significant thing we can do to stop Donald Trump.”

The problem isn’t in Republican states, but in Democratic states where unfairness has prevailed so long that Democrats cannot recognize the word fair anymore. To wit, this is one of many examples of what Democrats call fairness:

40% of Connecticut votes Republican. Does anyone see proportionality or fairness in Connecticut? Move forward to other states such as Maryland and Illinois, whose gerrymandered seats in Democratic strongholds are literally chokepoints designed to crush non-Democratic voices.

Then there’s the text of the actual amendment, a patently unconstitutional phrasing which the Virginia Supreme Court in what could only be termed as a profile in cowardice by punting on any ruling until after the April vote.

Restoring fairness? Only in the New England definition of the term.

Monoculture from people who preach diversity aside, the real purpose of the amendment is plain for anyone to see. It would almost be refreshing if Democrats were simply honest about their aims.

Yet Virginia Democrats have more to worry about than bringing sporks to a knife fight (good line, Beth Macy). If the special election in Virginia Beach is any indicator, the April referendum might say redistricting, but it is quickly becoming a lack of confidence vote in Virginia Democrats.

No budget yet — but plenty of time to campaign for redistricting?

Meanwhile, the cognoscenti in Richmond seem to have passed over unnoticed and unmentioned that at present, we do not have a state budget.

That’s right — the Democrats sent everyone home without having passed a state budget, a condition actively placing every locality in limbo as they have to set their budgets not knowing how Richmond will reciprocate and with collective bargaining on the horizon should Spanberger sign the legislation in to law — on top of over $6 billion in state tax increases and over 25 separate bills on gun control.

Yet despite their distance on any reconciliation bill, Virginia Democrats are doing their best to hide their differences on this and many other issues. Going back on our word on data centers is causing more than just a mild rift. The $1 billion distance between House and Senate Democrats on the budget is an equal rift. Complaints from progressives about liberals — particularly Spanberger’s appetite to push progressive policies — mimics the complaints among Democrats in Washington about their willingness to do more than simply change who holds the keys to power.

More glaring is the appetite of moderates and centrists to undo the hard work of non-partisan redistricting — in short, the effort to remove the political from what ought to be fair play and good process.

In the past, Virginia Democrats simply cannot help themselves — the monoculture becomes fair because it is what Democrats have come to expect. The late William F. Buckley Jr.’s observation — that the left often claims to want to give a hearing to other views only to be shocked and offended to discover that there are indeed other views — rings true more often than not.

That there might actually be an entire group of people out there that does not participate in their circles, share their values, and simply wishes to be left alone seems to mystify these world builders who rush forward with the intensity of a sub-IQ homeowners association demanding absurdly green grass and carefully trimmed hedges, with five regulations to compensate for the inadequacies of the previous regulation. Should anyone squirm, they move across the spectrum from problematic to antagonistic to finally hostis humanis generis — and God forbid they have enough votes to upend the busybodies who move from church to school to HOAs and finally to school boards, city councils, and General Assemblies with the self-confident and most dangerous belief of them all — that they simply know better than you do.

Turning back redistricting still long road for Republicans in November

Of course, all of this could very well be academic. Perhaps Virginians unite across the political spectrum in the interest of fair play and common decency and turn back the effort to destroy non-partisan redistricting. Does it mean that Republicans are out of the woods? Hardly so — Rob Wittman will still face a strong challenger in Shannon Taylor in VA-01, Jen Kiggans will square off yet again against former Rep. Elaine Kuria in VA-02, and John McGuire will have to defend his seat against both a primary insurgency from within and former Rep. Tom Perriello from without.

At present, the midterm generic ballot appears to be about half of what it was in 2018 where Republicans nationwide were hammered. Should Virginia Democrats sweep all three contested seats, the $30 million they intend to spend in April may be for naught — but the stark reality of a 9-2 Virginia congressional delegation under the present seats isn’t impossible.

It’s not 10-effing-1. But it is still 9-freaking-2.

Either way, November is a long ways off yet. April may prove to be a referendum on the dysfunction and unfairness of Democratic power plays — yet even with a repudiation of politicized lines, the question still remains whether or not Virginia Republicans can win a heads-up fight against Virginia Democrats.

Of course, if we are keeping to spork/knife metaphors, save the sharp sticks for political debate. Good process is multifunctional and multifaceted. Nonpartisan redistricting might not have the highest functional use, but then again — neither do sporks. They are ostensibly fair and mediocre, mundane and boring, useful and not all at once — which if we are a fan of good rules and fair process, the present method of redistricting passed the test in a 2:1 margin.

Nonpartisan lines sound like a good grounding for the political. Ranked choice voting might be another recommendation if we are truly looking for diversity in our democracy, but then again — as thinkers such as Hannah Arendt and Simone Weil remind us — the nature of political parties is at core totalitarian. No small wonder why Virginia Democrats are demanding the monoculture now.

Just ask New England Republicans how it is working out for them.

Shaun Kenney, former senior advisor to former Attorney General Jason Miyares, publishes the Republican Standard blog. This column was republished with permission from The Republican Standard and Bacon’s Rebellion.

Jimmy Kimmel: "Before he was elected to the Senate, Markwayne Mullin was plumber. That's right. We have a plumber protecting us from terrorism now."

The elitism of Hollywood summarized in one moment. 👇pic.twitter.com/2rQUQwlPit

— CJ Pearson (@Cjpearson) March 25, 2026

“Trump’s got a whole new generation of thinkers lined up, including his newly confirmed secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne ‘Chuck Mike Bruce Dave’ Melon — Mullin. Maybe melon’s better,” Kimmel said. “He’s the now former senator of Oklahoma. Before he was elected to the Senate, Markwayne Mullin was a low-level MMA fighter and a plumber. That’s right. We have a plumber protecting us from terrorism now. It worked for Super Mario. Why not Markwayne?”

“But honestly — I mean, if Trump is going to keep picking these unqualified people to run the department, why not have more fun with it? I mean, next time instead of Markwayne, how about Lil Wayne for Homeland Security? At least we can get a concert out of it, right?”

And the left wonders why the working class has abandoned the Democrat Party.

Don’t you just love Kimmel’s  sneering elitism? I’m sure that crack about plumbers got big belly laughs in faculty lounges, while ordinary decent people looked at each other and wondered,  “What’s wrong with a plumber?”

“The elites too often look down their noses at blue collar, middle America. They try to demean a man by calling him a plumber. As if plumbing is something to be ashamed of or is somehow a lesser profession than a court jester turning tricks on late night commentary (comedy is dead). But even just calling a U.S Senator and cabinet secretary a plumber doesn’t do justice to a man, who built a successful business in a highly competitive environment that provides jobs for several plumbers actually and others that then feed many families,” Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., wrote.

Exactly. 

Look, Jimmy Kimmel was never funny. Not when he hosted “The Man Show” from 1999-2004 and treated women like sleazy sex objects and not Wednesday night when he mocked the new Secretary of Homeland Security for being a tradesman.

Truth is, Markwayne Mullin’s father owned a plumbing business, his dad fell ill when Markwayne was 20 and attending Missouri Valley College on a wrestling scholarship. He dropped out of college to take over the struggling business which was $500,000 in debt. 

Not only did Markwayne run the little six-man shop, he turned it into a major HVAC business that now employs 300 people. That’s 300 families with food on the table thanks to Mullin’s ingenuity.

Mullin returned to college, graduated from Oklahoma State and is presently worth an estimated $66 million.

This is probably a good place to mention that Jimmy Kimmel is a college drop out. He got an “honorary”” degree from UNLV in 2013, which means absolutely nothing.

He’s a bitter, unfunny, late-night talk show host.

Kimmel isn’t the only one in Hollywood or in politics who routinely sniggers at the working class.

The vapid superiority that drips from their lips at awards ceremonies has turned those events into unwatchable leftist struggle sessions. Then there was Hillary dismissing Trump supporters “deplorable” in 2016 and Obama mocking rural Americans whom he derided for  “clinging to their Bibles and their guns.”

Members of America’s royal left routinely express their disdain for normal, hard-working  Americans. They mock us for wanting lower taxes while they push for boys in girls’ bathrooms. They rub our noses in their twisted notions about gender, parade their mentally ill, mutilated children around like designer accessories, insist that illegal immigration is good for America and they shrug when illegal gangbangers kill American girls. They also ignore the urban hellscape that their soft-on-crime policies have created. 

What do these swells care about the working class? They have private security, they live in gated communities, they can easily move to low-tax states when the government takes too much of their wealth.

But you know what? When they have a car problem, they call a mechanic. When they build a mansion, they hire carpenters. And when a plumbing problem presents itself they call a plumber.

Unlike the Jimmy Kimmels of the world, the American working class knows how things work and can fix them.

We can live happy Iives without snarky late-night comics. We wouldn’t last long without plumbers.

“After reading The Times-Dispatch's report about Rouse’s federal lawsuit, Sautter wrote in an email to the RTD that Rouse’s lawyer overstated Sautter's conclusions.”

“My diagnosis was mild cognitive impairment with additional concerns regarding headaches, mood and sleep, but not to the level of being ‘totally and permanently disabled,'” said Sautter. “I understand that this is the attorney’s opinion, but I am writing to (The Times-Dispatch) to say that this is a mischaracterization of my opinion.”

If the definition of total disability is the inability to work, Rouse doesn’t seem to fit that description. Either that, or he isn’t working in Richmond, just occupying a seat and collecting a paycheck. Like Joe Biden in the White House.

At the risk of sounding hopelessly naive, Virginians have a right to expect basic honesty from those who represent them in Richmond.

What are the chances we’re getting that from Senator Rouse?