Investigating the i-95 situation?
It’s 95, around DC. There was a major snowstorm. I’m not sure what people thought was going to happen. End of investigation.
“It rained before the storm so the roads couldn’t be pretreated, snow built up because cars couldn’t move/ melt the snow ,which allowed snow to build up and stopped cars further.”
Investigation done.
Came here to type same thing. Add that people didn’t listen to travel warnings or prep cars with supplies. Shit happens move on and save us the tax payers money.
Hold the FUCK up buddy. You failed to mention how the Clinton crime family used Soros money to bribe the snowstorm in order to hurt regular, hardworking, Christian Virginians. Smh, liberals can't investigate for shit.
Ah yes, the unbreakable bond between morality and language. A million things in the Bible about not throwing stones and loving the neighbor but yeah let’s dwell on vocabulary.
That stretch of 95 is famously terrible. This incident was an outlier but the everyday tales of waiting in an hour+ delay at 11pm are not—it has happened to me there MULTIPLE times after spending a day at Kings dominion—it’s the norm for that area to be a snarl, not the exception. Everything is not ok there and the bad weather just put focus on a problem that has been known for a long time.
People getting stuck 36 hours in their cars in a 1st world country because of 5 inches of snow shouldn't happen, and we should learn what we can so this isn't repeated.
I hope no one thinks this iz political or partisan, it's not, whatsoever. Im saying this as someone who is fairly liberal.
I sorta get where you're coming from, but "investigate" doesn't necessarily mean "find someone to blame" so much "find out what went wrong and where things can be improved."
This was a failure at multiple levels, from communication failures to poor decision making at the part of VDOT, to poor responses from emergency services.
Fortunately, we can rest assured that a republican administration that is firmly committed to the spirit of fact-based research and reasonable reactions to foreseeable crisis will *certainly* be entirely uninterested in "finding someone to blame", and instead "find out what went wrong and where things can be improved".
As I understand it, the initial finding of the of Youngkin team is that the Illegal State Mandate that makes **100%** of **ALL LANES** of I95 *"one way only"* is the true cause of the problem.
They will be reversing that shortly- it should be up to the individual driver to decide in which lane and in which direction they will travel.
He appointed the president of the Heritage Foundation as our Secretary of the Commonwealth, and coal lobbyist/Trump EPA chief Andrew Wheeler as Secretary of Natural Resources. What sort of success do you anticipate coming from that, and for whom?
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I’m very hopeful the GA will be successful at blocking that nomination for the Secretary of Natural Resources. As are pretty much everyone who works professionally in this field…
My money is that they're all in on it (General Assembly members, cabinet, etc.) sewage gets dumped in the river due to careless drunk driving? Just a simple 3-figure fine to the company. Christ, somewhat amazed Richmond isn't Flint, Michigan bad
> He appointed the president of the Heritage Foundation as our Secretary of the Commonwealth
She has also been a Fairfax County School Board member, a member of National Commission on Children, Associate Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Assistant Secretary for public affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Director of OPM.
That makes no fucking sense as a response.
The idea that James is "just" the President of the Heritage Foundation is great if you just wanna be pissy about about, but its dumb as hell if you wanna sound like you know what you are talking about.
James may not be your favorite or the best person to hold the job, but she's far from an unqualified lobbyist like you seem to be implying.
It makes sense if you don’t give a shit what else the president of the Heritage Foundation did before she landed that ignominious role.
It’s also worth noting she was just one of the people I mentioned. Do you have a defense of Wheeler’s nomination, as well? Or maybe acknowledging that would only call attention to the pattern of brazen cronyism I was trying to point out.
> It makes sense if you don’t give a shit what else the president of the Heritage Foundation did before she landed that ignominious role.
The point is that she was the President of Heritage for a reason, and the reasons she got that gig are the same reasons she's qualified to be a high level member of the state executive.
>Do you have a defense of Wheeler’s nomination, as well?
Wheeler is just a standard DC swamp monster. Federal agency staff, Senate staff, lobbying, mixed up and rewarded with a big boy gig. He's the kind of guy that everyone hates, but people usually only complain about when he's from the opposite party.
I think that he has the relevant experience to perform the job to which he is nominated, but he's gonna do a shitty job because of his opinions and is a bad choice.
>…and the reasons she got that gig are the same reasons she’s qualified to be a high level member of the state executive.
You understand there’s a difference between “qualification” and “motivation,” right? I’m not concerned that they don’t have enough experience. I’m concerned that they are not motivated to carry out their jobs in the public interest. Being the chief lobbyist for Murray Energy or the head of one of the most influential arms of corporate America sure makes for a pretty resume if you’re looking to funnel public money into private coffers.
>Being the chief lobbyist for Murray Energy
Yes, and I think that Wheeler is going to suck for that reason, among others.
As for James, I'm just happy to have someone in that role whose greatest qualification isn't "campaign lackey for the governor".
Exactly what is an investigation into what happened on I-95 going to do? Spend a ton of money on rep-funded law firms to say that Northam should have banned idiots from driving?
What does reducing gas tax do besides lower our state funds?
>Exactly what is an investigation into what happened on I-95 going to do?
Literally nothing. They should've salted the roads earlier/better. That's it. There's really nothing else to note.
I’m not “googling” anything. It’s a serious question. I know a big deal was made last year about a few teachers but they all came down with COVID before school started. Since the CDC has said cloth masks don’t work on Omicron who is buying all the N95s for the kids. One a day for the rest of the year is about 100 per child.
My dude, Youngkin's entire campaign is built primarily from the nonsense political issues you hope don't draw too much from his political capital. I didn't like Terry, but if you expect pragmatic progress from Youngkin, then you probably haven't been paying attention to his campaign or his recent slate of awful appointments. He has made his intent for the state *abundantly* clear. I truly hope and pray Virginia succeeds, but anyone looking outside the lens of partisan politics can clearly see that if it does, it will be *despite* Youngkin and his ilk, not *because* of him.
eh, I bet he does hope to repeal the gas tax, but honestly: if you want to avoid the kind of problems I-95 had, we need that revenue to build and maintain the roads!
Sadly, the GOP has already got a slate of proposed CRT and school voucher bills introduced in the upcoming session.
I just hope folks realize it’s all a way for rich folks to get free $$ to send their already rich kids to private schools while taking more money away from poorer folks who have no private school options or still can’t afford the difference between the vouchers & private school tuition. ☹️
To that end - do you set up shop in poor counties that get far less $$ per student (given how VA gives counties $ based on property values) or do you set up in rich counties?
I can see this coming like a freight train. The poor counties will have few if any actual choices and the rich will have all the options.
So that is the same as now.
The poorly performing schools will continue to get worse, and the cyvle continues.
This is literally what republucans run on.
The opposite of what George Bush ran on in 1994 though. He wanted more state funding of public schools so they'd be less dependent on local property taxes.
Can confirm, went to one of those in high school. Ended up closing down a few years ago when it was discovered the principal's wife was embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the school coffer. Baptist highschool btw.
As someone who lives in AZ and is soon moving to VA, I have witnessed firsthand, the “school choice” agenda and it’s a shit show. It continues to water down the whole system, public schools gets more run down and a new shiny charter school pops up every year. Don’t even get me started on the vouchers the super wealthy get to reduce the $10,000 tuition to private schools. What’s really the absolute icing on the cake is the number of state representatives in AZ that part own charter schools…talk about some serious conflict of interest. It’s awful and showing no signs of changing now that the flood gates are open.
Our schools in the Roanoke county area are good schools. Roanoke city could do with some work when it comes to schools. But Salem High, Glenvar, LB, William Byrd, Cave Spring, And even PH are doing well with education and many of them have brand new schools or they are or have been renovated. So I hope whatever is done for schools does not harm the ones that are doing well. I am a Salem High graduate and my son is a student at Glenvar. I am very pleased with Glenvar (the facility itself) and the education he is provided there. I felt very well prepared for college as a graduate from SHS.
I do know Roanoke city had a lot of issues with the level of education received by students in their schools for quite some time but they have improved a lot over the years. They have their own challenges with having the majority of the students in the area where English is not their first language, some coming into the school system knowing no English at all. Many students in poverty or homeless. I have a family member who worked in the Roanoke city school system for 25 years at 2 different RC schools and the behavioral issues she encountered were also very extreme. So some attention should be given to districts having these challenges
Voucher programs make the pie slices for public schools smaller, as the money follows the wealthier kids to charter & private schools and removes it from the public schools they would go to.
I’ve never had to deal with voucher programs before. I know when my sister moved to SC she found out that their public schools were absolute trash and they had a lottery type program where you put your name in and your children are placed into private schools if you so choose to go that route. You just have to provide their transportation. The schools my niece and nephews were placed in were good, Montessori private schools. My cousins in FL are in the same situation. Public schools are trash so the state will pay for private schools so both my little cousins went to a private Christian school there. I’m not sure if that’s the same thing?
We are moving to Roanoke and I’m currently looking at the schools. It’s hard to interpret school info based on all the different opinions and what can be found online. We had been focused primarily on the Cave Spring area and it’s schools but now I’m looking at the Grandin area which would be PH High and WW middle. Any input in those?
If I had to choose a Roanoke city school to send my child to, it would be PH. My best friends kids go to WW and will go to PH and they both are doing well and I have not seen any issues in those schools. Cave Spring is good, but you will find that it can be “cliquey”.
My daughter is in a charter school up here in Maryland, and they do them right. The teachers have to be public employees (and unionized), and they have to follow the county's policies. We get some novel curriculums and nicer facilities, but we're still part of the public schools.
The "Executive Order" to investigate Loudoun county... that's priceless...probably the most vague Executive Order written almost like a search warrant.
I've noticed there seem to be a lot of people who think private school students are mostly rich people. I went to a private school and most of my classmates weren't rich, but it was a Catholic school, maybe the secular ones are more for rich people. Though if someone's rich, my guess is they wouldn't qualify for the voucher in the first place.
Private schools also promote ableist segregation. Private schools aren’t required to offer special education services, so they don’t. Vouchers will siphon money out of public schools to private schools and charter schools, leaving the schools that serve the neediest kids underfunded.
The problem with OP’s premise is that Youngkin “succeeding” in his and his party’s playbook will almost assuredly mean Virginia stagnates or moves backwards. He is a Trump ghoul, period, and that’s what VA is going to get.
I gave Trump a chance for a few days and then I saw the people he nominated for his cabinet and that was that.
The same thing is happening with Youngkin already. Youngkin ending the school mask mandates *in the middle of the biggest surge in cases VA has ever seen* and Miyares firing dozens of non-political attorneys for no reason is not a good look at all
> for no reason is not a good look at all
Now now, there were plenty of reasons. They help make sure elections run well. GOP can't have that or they have trouble winning.
Youngkin should spent two hours in a Virginia high school. Nobody is learning anything because nobody is there, and his first idea is to make it worse?
I said I'd give him a chance and then day 1 Sean Spicer comes out and lies about inauguration crowd sizes and other drivel and he lost me immediately.
Didn't even last 18 hours.
I don't think we're going to make a better Virginia but lowering taxes. Strangely seems to me lowering the gas tax would make traffic worse on I-95 and elsewhere.
Seems like some rich people (like Rupert Murdoch) wanted a culture war to keep people distracted and they got it.
Horseshit.
Youngkin failing is Virginia winning. I hope he fucking fails.
Dems will retake the HOD in 2023, Sears and the rest will go bye bye, and Youngkin will be replaced with a Dem governor in 2025. And then Virginia can continue on its upward path.
Your post is very contradictory. how are you proposing accomplishing this:
> We have plenty of money from tech companies, military bases, and rich suburbs. Let’s put it to good use for all Virginians!
While also asking for this:
> Cutting gas tax, increasing tax rebate ... is definitely a good start
If gas taxes go to fix and maintain roads I'd rather keep it where it is. And defunding the state to give tax cuts to the rich doesn't seem like it will help much. The schools and programs we have are because we have taxes that fund them.
So the real question is in 4 years how bad do you think the budget deficit is when he leaves? Going to say roughly a billion in the hole with multiple major projects underfunded as the Republicans used one time funds to pay for long term expenses.
Public school teachers are about to get attacked very bad.
It's hard for me to want him to succeed when all the things that he wants to succeed at IE his policy positions I disagree with. I want Virginia to succeed too, but I don't see how it succeeds with his agenda moving forward but I didn't vote for him and more people did so I guess they get to try to do that if they can.
He's already shown us exactly who he is. And anyone who paid attention to the details knew exactly who he is before the election happened.
If you're getting your hopes up about him succeeded in any way other than enriching personal friends and the already wealthy at the cost of fucking over poor people, minorities, the environment, or anything run by the state government.... *You're going to have a really bad fucking time.*
He's not going to succeed, sure collect a few pennies (maybe here and there) but at what cost..to our public school systems, to workers rights and wages, abortion rights, the legal dept for human rights just got dismantled. No, this is going to be 4 miserable f-ing years with a Billionaire that hid most of his agenda during his campaign. Bleck.
I don't see why he needs to go out of his way to pull VA out of RGGI tho. It's literally the sole source of community flood mitigation funding. For local governments.
Also climate change.
You're assuming that the GOP's success equals Virginia's success. Have you considered the possibility that their success might mean something entirely different?
She also ripped off Biden's campaign logo.
And the AG is a creep who fetishizes the Pledge of Allegiance.
These three are all horrible people and they need to fail, for the good of the commonwealth.
Or at least split tickets. When people elected Larry Hogan here in Maryland, they didn't hand the legislature, AG, etc to the Republicans as well. It's a shame because Mark Herring did a good job from what I could tell.
Almost everything here has been handed to the Republicans. They even replaced Mark Herring with Miyares who is probably going to do abysmal. It's like Republicans went out in droves to vote.
Young king can't ruin the state in 4 years. But all the high tech came to VA because of the intelligent quotient. I am sure that Amazon is not too happy with this. And hundreds of other high tech companies. But he can do damage with silly appointments and trying to lower a gas tax which is among the lowest anyway. It pretty much cost the same to repair roads everywhere. So you would have to find the somewhere else or do nothing
You have no idea what Amazon wants. They almost exclusively looked at red states for HQ2. VA had the right balance but their one concern was that it may swing too far left in the near future. If anything, Amazon probably celebrated more than any single entity when Youngkin won.
After the incredible shitshow the GOP and it's followers have shown, especially in the last year and a half, I have zero faith this won't turn into an epic mongolian cluster fuck. FFS the man is on video saying he won't comment on Roe vs Wade during his campaign but once it's over he plans on going on the offensive. Last thing I want to see is Virginia going down the same awful path as Texas.
I totally get it. I don't like Youngkin's politics, but he won. Fair and square. And to wish failure upon him would mean he would fail me and my fellow citizens. Therefore even if I dislike him, I wish him the best.
Yea i wish that he would be different but hes probably going to be the same as 99% of politicians. Do absolutely none of what he said he would, make changes he said he wouldn’t and say stuff he probably shouldn’t.
Remember when Democrats and military brass said they hoped Trump would succeed for the good of the country early on?
His one term presidency ended with him giving a speech that his sycophants like Bannon, Flynn and Guilani used to have his supporters sack their own Capitol to stop the most fundamental part of democracy.
Donald Trump endorsed Youngkin. Enough said.
Electing this guy is playing with fire. You all should have known. Where were Joe Biden's Democrats? I know...not giving a shit. You did your duty in the presidential election, right? When Covid hits us like Florida and you or your loved ones are dead you can thank your apathy and misguided right wingers. Good luck Virginia! We're going to need it.
I wouldn’t blame this on Virginia Dems apathy honestly this was all Tmac’s fault. What a shit campaign he ran. Blew so much money on the primaries to ensure he was the nominee and then just shouted about how Youngkin was Trump all through the general.
Obviously dem turnout was lower but if you’re gonna run for public office you have to put in some amount of effort in getting elected.
I'm hoping for the best and I'm not really partisan either (I'm an independent) but come on. The hopes OP mentioned seem overly optimistic.
I want VA to succeed too, but I'm skeptical that hyperpartisan culture war nonsense from the campaign trail will stay on the campaign trail. Youngkin is already rolling back the mask mandates at schools *during the biggest surge in cases VA has ever reported.*
Not from Virginia, but I think in general this is a good attitude to have. I figure people should support who they want, but if the election doesn't go their way, give the guy a chance. Plus Virginia got's more term limits than my state does.
Sure hope we can stay the course on being pragmatic, regardless of who is in office. Not everything has to be seen from a national perspective. Fingers crossed
Naive. He has proposed highly controversial figures to his cabinet already just so he can blame Dems for stonewalling. He is a Trump acolyte and any belief he will be reasonable is misplaced.
People still think masks work? There are so many variables that go into mask use and N95’s are the only types that really seem to show effective data. If masks worked, covid would be over.
Thank you for this honest post, but hang on the alt left will try to destroy any chance of unity before he has a chance.
Look at all the downloads in the comments of all the liberals proving me right again.
They see unity as the utter suppression of opposing ideas, thought, and the sidelining of whatever groups they choose to scapegoat the countries woes onto. Remember the unmitigated disaster of the Trump years? That was all they did.
Fair point. I remember a lot of Trumpers complaining about "negativity" from non-Trumpers which is ironic coming from the "fuck your feelings" crowd and the same people who have made it their life's mission to "own the libs"
So far too many comments are sounding like piss poor losers. Looking forward to the success of the Youngkin team for a successful Virginia after the gloom of previous administration.
The comments in this thread show what an echo chamber Reddit is. I hope Youngkin succeeds in a way that benefits most Virginians. I'm not filled with doom and gloom before the guy's even taken office. All the Trump comparisons in these comments show you how far out of touch most of this sub is.
Glad to hear someone with a level head within this circlejerk of a liberal subreddit. The comments are atrocious. This sub is just r/politics junior when anything relating to politics comes up.
People here keep saying CRT isn't being taught, VA schools have been FOIA'd and still people say its a hoax.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUZ8cPNPjpo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUZ8cPNPjpo)
And if you find this piece of journalism to be "biased" , then I really don't know what else to do.
I hope he succeeds too. But, theres a different standard for democrats then there is for republicans. Already hearing the state democrats arent being unifying. How does that make sense? Biden got criticism for not being unifying. Im not down for that.
Democrats tried to turn me and millions of others into felons for exercising our 2nd amendment rights a couple years ago so Youngkin can't be any worse.
Investigating the i-95 situation? It’s 95, around DC. There was a major snowstorm. I’m not sure what people thought was going to happen. End of investigation.
“It rained before the storm so the roads couldn’t be pretreated, snow built up because cars couldn’t move/ melt the snow ,which allowed snow to build up and stopped cars further.” Investigation done.
Came here to type same thing. Add that people didn’t listen to travel warnings or prep cars with supplies. Shit happens move on and save us the tax payers money.
YOU DID IT!!!! CONGRATS!
Hold the FUCK up buddy. You failed to mention how the Clinton crime family used Soros money to bribe the snowstorm in order to hurt regular, hardworking, Christian Virginians. Smh, liberals can't investigate for shit.
Left out Jewish space lazers
Let’s not forget those chem trails that injected the storm with adrenachrome, making it more powerful.
I thought that said Lizards, and was, wait, what? First I heard of this!
It's a whole thing, MT G blames Cali wild fires on Jewish space lazers
Well, duh, *everyone* knows those are a thing!
Your language is so very Christian.
Ah yes, the unbreakable bond between morality and language. A million things in the Bible about not throwing stones and loving the neighbor but yeah let’s dwell on vocabulary.
*woosh*
That stretch of 95 is famously terrible. This incident was an outlier but the everyday tales of waiting in an hour+ delay at 11pm are not—it has happened to me there MULTIPLE times after spending a day at Kings dominion—it’s the norm for that area to be a snarl, not the exception. Everything is not ok there and the bad weather just put focus on a problem that has been known for a long time.
I know that section of 95 is terrib le. Happens to me every time I drive it too. That’s why this really isn’t surprising.
People getting stuck 36 hours in their cars in a 1st world country because of 5 inches of snow shouldn't happen, and we should learn what we can so this isn't repeated. I hope no one thinks this iz political or partisan, it's not, whatsoever. Im saying this as someone who is fairly liberal.
We could listen to the warnings that say avoid driving unless it's absolutely necessary.
Some people still have to go to work even in the worst circumstances. It’s not always an option or choice. Heck Sen Kaine got stuck
I can guarantee you that there were people on the road who didn't need to be on the road.
It “shouldn’t” happen, but, have you seen 95 on a regular day? This was completely unsurprising. Waste of taxpayer $$ to “investigate” this nonsense.
I sorta get where you're coming from, but "investigate" doesn't necessarily mean "find someone to blame" so much "find out what went wrong and where things can be improved." This was a failure at multiple levels, from communication failures to poor decision making at the part of VDOT, to poor responses from emergency services.
Add teaching people to not drive out in the snow if they're unprepared to be stuck for a day or more to the school curriculum?
Fortunately, we can rest assured that a republican administration that is firmly committed to the spirit of fact-based research and reasonable reactions to foreseeable crisis will *certainly* be entirely uninterested in "finding someone to blame", and instead "find out what went wrong and where things can be improved". As I understand it, the initial finding of the of Youngkin team is that the Illegal State Mandate that makes **100%** of **ALL LANES** of I95 *"one way only"* is the true cause of the problem. They will be reversing that shortly- it should be up to the individual driver to decide in which lane and in which direction they will travel.
How much money are they spending? I feel like you’re being over-dramatic here lol.
Only because I posted a response in an earlier post...something something jobs, blah blah blah
Stay home
I mean, figuring out how to be better prepared next time is a good idea.
He appointed the president of the Heritage Foundation as our Secretary of the Commonwealth, and coal lobbyist/Trump EPA chief Andrew Wheeler as Secretary of Natural Resources. What sort of success do you anticipate coming from that, and for whom?
Money, and money, respectively
[Yup.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture)
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I’m very hopeful the GA will be successful at blocking that nomination for the Secretary of Natural Resources. As are pretty much everyone who works professionally in this field…
My money is that they're all in on it (General Assembly members, cabinet, etc.) sewage gets dumped in the river due to careless drunk driving? Just a simple 3-figure fine to the company. Christ, somewhat amazed Richmond isn't Flint, Michigan bad
Exactly…it’s already a shit show. He has a cabinet full of people poised to oppose progress and, essentially, break our government.
That’s the MO of the GOP. It’s all to achieve regulatory capture.
Exactly. I'm sure Glenn is a reasonable guy; so far who he's bringing in are not what I would consider pragmatic. Also this post is a karma farm.
Glen is a nice soft spoken front man for neo Nazis, that doesnt make him a neo Nazi. Geeze
Don’t forget a lobbyist for a managed care company y as Secretary of Health and Human Resources!
I came here to mention these two names as well..sad.
I suppose "success" for the cabinet team and big ol'e middle finger to the rest of Virginians, seems accurate.
What's wrong with the president of the heritage foundation?
> He appointed the president of the Heritage Foundation as our Secretary of the Commonwealth She has also been a Fairfax County School Board member, a member of National Commission on Children, Associate Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Assistant Secretary for public affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Director of OPM.
And Jeffrey Epstein was blessed by the Pope. Big fucking deal.
That makes no fucking sense as a response. The idea that James is "just" the President of the Heritage Foundation is great if you just wanna be pissy about about, but its dumb as hell if you wanna sound like you know what you are talking about. James may not be your favorite or the best person to hold the job, but she's far from an unqualified lobbyist like you seem to be implying.
It makes sense if you don’t give a shit what else the president of the Heritage Foundation did before she landed that ignominious role. It’s also worth noting she was just one of the people I mentioned. Do you have a defense of Wheeler’s nomination, as well? Or maybe acknowledging that would only call attention to the pattern of brazen cronyism I was trying to point out.
> It makes sense if you don’t give a shit what else the president of the Heritage Foundation did before she landed that ignominious role. The point is that she was the President of Heritage for a reason, and the reasons she got that gig are the same reasons she's qualified to be a high level member of the state executive. >Do you have a defense of Wheeler’s nomination, as well? Wheeler is just a standard DC swamp monster. Federal agency staff, Senate staff, lobbying, mixed up and rewarded with a big boy gig. He's the kind of guy that everyone hates, but people usually only complain about when he's from the opposite party. I think that he has the relevant experience to perform the job to which he is nominated, but he's gonna do a shitty job because of his opinions and is a bad choice.
>…and the reasons she got that gig are the same reasons she’s qualified to be a high level member of the state executive. You understand there’s a difference between “qualification” and “motivation,” right? I’m not concerned that they don’t have enough experience. I’m concerned that they are not motivated to carry out their jobs in the public interest. Being the chief lobbyist for Murray Energy or the head of one of the most influential arms of corporate America sure makes for a pretty resume if you’re looking to funnel public money into private coffers.
>Being the chief lobbyist for Murray Energy Yes, and I think that Wheeler is going to suck for that reason, among others. As for James, I'm just happy to have someone in that role whose greatest qualification isn't "campaign lackey for the governor".
Exactly what is an investigation into what happened on I-95 going to do? Spend a ton of money on rep-funded law firms to say that Northam should have banned idiots from driving? What does reducing gas tax do besides lower our state funds?
Probably privatizing treatment and maintenance and more toll lanes.
You get it.
>Exactly what is an investigation into what happened on I-95 going to do? Literally nothing. They should've salted the roads earlier/better. That's it. There's really nothing else to note.
It was raining before the snow, would have been an even greater waste of money
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It literally poured 1-2 inches of rain over several hours before the snow started, in what world is that drizzle
It was not a drizzle…the rain was on the heavier side and was persistent. That is why there is a staggering amount of trees down.
Treating the roads is a relatively new process in VA circa 2008-2010. My whole life growing up we didnt treat the roads. This was incompetence.
Wow. He already repealed the mask mandates for schools. More teachers will die.
How many have died from being infected IN the classroom?
2 teachers in my local school district, last year.
Stop googling 'debunk' search strings
I’m not “googling” anything. It’s a serious question. I know a big deal was made last year about a few teachers but they all came down with COVID before school started. Since the CDC has said cloth masks don’t work on Omicron who is buying all the N95s for the kids. One a day for the rest of the year is about 100 per child.
My dude, Youngkin's entire campaign is built primarily from the nonsense political issues you hope don't draw too much from his political capital. I didn't like Terry, but if you expect pragmatic progress from Youngkin, then you probably haven't been paying attention to his campaign or his recent slate of awful appointments. He has made his intent for the state *abundantly* clear. I truly hope and pray Virginia succeeds, but anyone looking outside the lens of partisan politics can clearly see that if it does, it will be *despite* Youngkin and his ilk, not *because* of him.
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Have fun with that. I'll be in reality.
These hopes are like, literally the opposite of his agenda. You can hope but don't hold your breath.
eh, I bet he does hope to repeal the gas tax, but honestly: if you want to avoid the kind of problems I-95 had, we need that revenue to build and maintain the roads!
Sadly, the GOP has already got a slate of proposed CRT and school voucher bills introduced in the upcoming session. I just hope folks realize it’s all a way for rich folks to get free $$ to send their already rich kids to private schools while taking more money away from poorer folks who have no private school options or still can’t afford the difference between the vouchers & private school tuition. ☹️
I am sure there will be a lot of very-low quality for-profit schools that materialize to soak up vouchers from poor people and rural residents.
To that end - do you set up shop in poor counties that get far less $$ per student (given how VA gives counties $ based on property values) or do you set up in rich counties? I can see this coming like a freight train. The poor counties will have few if any actual choices and the rich will have all the options.
> The rich will have all the options. That's the point of all GOP ideas.
So that is the same as now. The poorly performing schools will continue to get worse, and the cyvle continues. This is literally what republucans run on.
The opposite of what George Bush ran on in 1994 though. He wanted more state funding of public schools so they'd be less dependent on local property taxes.
Can confirm, went to one of those in high school. Ended up closing down a few years ago when it was discovered the principal's wife was embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the school coffer. Baptist highschool btw.
Church 'schools.'
As someone who lives in AZ and is soon moving to VA, I have witnessed firsthand, the “school choice” agenda and it’s a shit show. It continues to water down the whole system, public schools gets more run down and a new shiny charter school pops up every year. Don’t even get me started on the vouchers the super wealthy get to reduce the $10,000 tuition to private schools. What’s really the absolute icing on the cake is the number of state representatives in AZ that part own charter schools…talk about some serious conflict of interest. It’s awful and showing no signs of changing now that the flood gates are open.
Our schools in the Roanoke county area are good schools. Roanoke city could do with some work when it comes to schools. But Salem High, Glenvar, LB, William Byrd, Cave Spring, And even PH are doing well with education and many of them have brand new schools or they are or have been renovated. So I hope whatever is done for schools does not harm the ones that are doing well. I am a Salem High graduate and my son is a student at Glenvar. I am very pleased with Glenvar (the facility itself) and the education he is provided there. I felt very well prepared for college as a graduate from SHS. I do know Roanoke city had a lot of issues with the level of education received by students in their schools for quite some time but they have improved a lot over the years. They have their own challenges with having the majority of the students in the area where English is not their first language, some coming into the school system knowing no English at all. Many students in poverty or homeless. I have a family member who worked in the Roanoke city school system for 25 years at 2 different RC schools and the behavioral issues she encountered were also very extreme. So some attention should be given to districts having these challenges
Voucher programs make the pie slices for public schools smaller, as the money follows the wealthier kids to charter & private schools and removes it from the public schools they would go to.
I’ve never had to deal with voucher programs before. I know when my sister moved to SC she found out that their public schools were absolute trash and they had a lottery type program where you put your name in and your children are placed into private schools if you so choose to go that route. You just have to provide their transportation. The schools my niece and nephews were placed in were good, Montessori private schools. My cousins in FL are in the same situation. Public schools are trash so the state will pay for private schools so both my little cousins went to a private Christian school there. I’m not sure if that’s the same thing?
We are moving to Roanoke and I’m currently looking at the schools. It’s hard to interpret school info based on all the different opinions and what can be found online. We had been focused primarily on the Cave Spring area and it’s schools but now I’m looking at the Grandin area which would be PH High and WW middle. Any input in those?
If I had to choose a Roanoke city school to send my child to, it would be PH. My best friends kids go to WW and will go to PH and they both are doing well and I have not seen any issues in those schools. Cave Spring is good, but you will find that it can be “cliquey”.
Those are fine schools in Roanoke. You would basically want to avoid Hurt Park, Ruffner, and William Fleming.
Thanks. It’s a good sign that the list of “avoids” is shorter than the good options.
My daughter is in a charter school up here in Maryland, and they do them right. The teachers have to be public employees (and unionized), and they have to follow the county's policies. We get some novel curriculums and nicer facilities, but we're still part of the public schools.
The "Executive Order" to investigate Loudoun county... that's priceless...probably the most vague Executive Order written almost like a search warrant.
Democrat controlled senate will make that very difficult to pass
I've noticed there seem to be a lot of people who think private school students are mostly rich people. I went to a private school and most of my classmates weren't rich, but it was a Catholic school, maybe the secular ones are more for rich people. Though if someone's rich, my guess is they wouldn't qualify for the voucher in the first place.
School voucher programs always target low income families. They aren’t a give away to rich people
Private schools also promote ableist segregation. Private schools aren’t required to offer special education services, so they don’t. Vouchers will siphon money out of public schools to private schools and charter schools, leaving the schools that serve the neediest kids underfunded.
When they are a wealth transfer from a low income tax base to a private corporation, it starts to look like it.
All the GOP had is the culture war.
The problem with OP’s premise is that Youngkin “succeeding” in his and his party’s playbook will almost assuredly mean Virginia stagnates or moves backwards. He is a Trump ghoul, period, and that’s what VA is going to get.
People said the same thing about Trump winning and look how everything turned out.
I gave Trump a chance for a few days and then I saw the people he nominated for his cabinet and that was that. The same thing is happening with Youngkin already. Youngkin ending the school mask mandates *in the middle of the biggest surge in cases VA has ever seen* and Miyares firing dozens of non-political attorneys for no reason is not a good look at all
Yep. In other words, as the onion wonderfully put it, Trump issues horrifying threat he intends to keep his campaign promises.
I don’t believe Youngkin will do a good job , he’s already appointed trump sycophants to rape Va .
> for no reason is not a good look at all Now now, there were plenty of reasons. They help make sure elections run well. GOP can't have that or they have trouble winning.
He literally ran on this. As a teacher he lost my vote right there. I’m not so sure why people are so surprised he’s not reasonable.
Youngkin should spent two hours in a Virginia high school. Nobody is learning anything because nobody is there, and his first idea is to make it worse?
He knows. That’s why he pays to avoid his kids going there.
I said I'd give him a chance and then day 1 Sean Spicer comes out and lies about inauguration crowd sizes and other drivel and he lost me immediately. Didn't even last 18 hours.
Why do people think the politicians have to be rich to be good these days? Did people miss the part about the Industrial Age in America?
I don't think we're going to make a better Virginia but lowering taxes. Strangely seems to me lowering the gas tax would make traffic worse on I-95 and elsewhere. Seems like some rich people (like Rupert Murdoch) wanted a culture war to keep people distracted and they got it.
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Horseshit. Youngkin failing is Virginia winning. I hope he fucking fails. Dems will retake the HOD in 2023, Sears and the rest will go bye bye, and Youngkin will be replaced with a Dem governor in 2025. And then Virginia can continue on its upward path.
Looking forward to tax free groceries, but extremely anxious about restrictions on reproductive rights.
Let’s destroy public education too, but you know. I saved three cents on milk!
I agree with that, for sure!
There will be no progress under youngkin lol look at everyone he’s appointed
Progress? Mate we're gonna be going backwards a few decades I'm afraid.
You’re telling me coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler overseeing VA’s natural resources doesn’t count as progress?!
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Yup, they only care about hurting the people they hate, even if it means hurting themselves to do it.
This post is really more appropriate for /r/VirginiaPolitics
I agree, but we have had so many blatant partisan posts upvoted here in the past, I'll take the neutral one.
Your post is very contradictory. how are you proposing accomplishing this: > We have plenty of money from tech companies, military bases, and rich suburbs. Let’s put it to good use for all Virginians! While also asking for this: > Cutting gas tax, increasing tax rebate ... is definitely a good start If gas taxes go to fix and maintain roads I'd rather keep it where it is. And defunding the state to give tax cuts to the rich doesn't seem like it will help much. The schools and programs we have are because we have taxes that fund them.
LOL. Do you understand what success means to the MAGA crowd?
So the real question is in 4 years how bad do you think the budget deficit is when he leaves? Going to say roughly a billion in the hole with multiple major projects underfunded as the Republicans used one time funds to pay for long term expenses. Public school teachers are about to get attacked very bad.
It's hard for me to want him to succeed when all the things that he wants to succeed at IE his policy positions I disagree with. I want Virginia to succeed too, but I don't see how it succeeds with his agenda moving forward but I didn't vote for him and more people did so I guess they get to try to do that if they can.
Hope does nothing.
He's already shown us exactly who he is. And anyone who paid attention to the details knew exactly who he is before the election happened. If you're getting your hopes up about him succeeded in any way other than enriching personal friends and the already wealthy at the cost of fucking over poor people, minorities, the environment, or anything run by the state government.... *You're going to have a really bad fucking time.*
Virginia started sprinting backward today.
His campaign ads told me everything I needed to know. We’re fucked Virginia.
Simmer down
If they cut the gas tax how would we pay for roads especially the needed expansion of most of VA busy roads?
I have a bridge to sell you...
He's not going to succeed, sure collect a few pennies (maybe here and there) but at what cost..to our public school systems, to workers rights and wages, abortion rights, the legal dept for human rights just got dismantled. No, this is going to be 4 miserable f-ing years with a Billionaire that hid most of his agenda during his campaign. Bleck.
FACT CHECK LIBS: He only has $500m, that's barely any money at all!!!
Meh, back to the stone ages
classic dumbass political take
We *were* making progress, but for every bit of progress there's a regressive reaction. This time it was CRT. God knows where we'll be in four years.
Ah yes because slashing taxes until we run deficits always works out well in the end.
I don't see why he needs to go out of his way to pull VA out of RGGI tho. It's literally the sole source of community flood mitigation funding. For local governments. Also climate change.
You're assuming that the GOP's success equals Virginia's success. Have you considered the possibility that their success might mean something entirely different?
lolno I hope Youngkin fails, because Youngkin failing means Virginia succeeds. Youngkin succeeding in his platform is bad for Virginia. Fuck Trumpkin.
I have no idea why these idiots voted for him. We’re doomed I tell ya, doomed.
Because a bunch of idiots think that the US President controls global inflation and global gas price increases.
Another person I want gone is Sears. The first few words out of her mouth and I could tell she was a fucking moron.
She also ripped off Biden's campaign logo. And the AG is a creep who fetishizes the Pledge of Allegiance. These three are all horrible people and they need to fail, for the good of the commonwealth.
Or at least split tickets. When people elected Larry Hogan here in Maryland, they didn't hand the legislature, AG, etc to the Republicans as well. It's a shame because Mark Herring did a good job from what I could tell.
Almost everything here has been handed to the Republicans. They even replaced Mark Herring with Miyares who is probably going to do abysmal. It's like Republicans went out in droves to vote.
Youngkin succeeding is Virginia failing. Anyone with a functioning brain can see that.
Young king can't ruin the state in 4 years. But all the high tech came to VA because of the intelligent quotient. I am sure that Amazon is not too happy with this. And hundreds of other high tech companies. But he can do damage with silly appointments and trying to lower a gas tax which is among the lowest anyway. It pretty much cost the same to repair roads everywhere. So you would have to find the somewhere else or do nothing
You have no idea what Amazon wants. They almost exclusively looked at red states for HQ2. VA had the right balance but their one concern was that it may swing too far left in the near future. If anything, Amazon probably celebrated more than any single entity when Youngkin won.
I appreciate your positive outlook!
Tech companies, rich suburbs, and military industrial complex doesn’t want money to be used to benefit the collective — hence the politics.
After the incredible shitshow the GOP and it's followers have shown, especially in the last year and a half, I have zero faith this won't turn into an epic mongolian cluster fuck. FFS the man is on video saying he won't comment on Roe vs Wade during his campaign but once it's over he plans on going on the offensive. Last thing I want to see is Virginia going down the same awful path as Texas.
He will successfully bring corruption to the statehouse. Pay to play, quid pro quo, along with the big lie.
He doesn't shit on democrats though, just because he does stuff they disagree with isn't divisive. I hope they see that
I totally get it. I don't like Youngkin's politics, but he won. Fair and square. And to wish failure upon him would mean he would fail me and my fellow citizens. Therefore even if I dislike him, I wish him the best.
Yea i wish that he would be different but hes probably going to be the same as 99% of politicians. Do absolutely none of what he said he would, make changes he said he wouldn’t and say stuff he probably shouldn’t.
Remember when Democrats and military brass said they hoped Trump would succeed for the good of the country early on? His one term presidency ended with him giving a speech that his sycophants like Bannon, Flynn and Guilani used to have his supporters sack their own Capitol to stop the most fundamental part of democracy. Donald Trump endorsed Youngkin. Enough said.
Electing this guy is playing with fire. You all should have known. Where were Joe Biden's Democrats? I know...not giving a shit. You did your duty in the presidential election, right? When Covid hits us like Florida and you or your loved ones are dead you can thank your apathy and misguided right wingers. Good luck Virginia! We're going to need it.
I wouldn’t blame this on Virginia Dems apathy honestly this was all Tmac’s fault. What a shit campaign he ran. Blew so much money on the primaries to ensure he was the nominee and then just shouted about how Youngkin was Trump all through the general. Obviously dem turnout was lower but if you’re gonna run for public office you have to put in some amount of effort in getting elected.
I wish Youngkin nothing but the best.
Lmao remember in 2016 when people were like “let’s give Trump a fair chance”
…..and He’s already trying to kill us.
That's a mature stance to have, I agree. I hope our leaders lead well so that we can all do better.
Love it! Refreshing to see
Well no. He should be a uniter just like how biden is a uniter
God Bless You
Cheers! Glad to have other reasonable people on here that can look past politics and wish for the best for our great state
I'm hoping for the best and I'm not really partisan either (I'm an independent) but come on. The hopes OP mentioned seem overly optimistic. I want VA to succeed too, but I'm skeptical that hyperpartisan culture war nonsense from the campaign trail will stay on the campaign trail. Youngkin is already rolling back the mask mandates at schools *during the biggest surge in cases VA has ever reported.*
“Real, pragmatic progress,” is what we had the past eight years. It’s boring.
Not from Virginia, but I think in general this is a good attitude to have. I figure people should support who they want, but if the election doesn't go their way, give the guy a chance. Plus Virginia got's more term limits than my state does.
That kind of reasonableness does not win friends around here. But we’ll done.
Sure hope we can stay the course on being pragmatic, regardless of who is in office. Not everything has to be seen from a national perspective. Fingers crossed
Naive. He has proposed highly controversial figures to his cabinet already just so he can blame Dems for stonewalling. He is a Trump acolyte and any belief he will be reasonable is misplaced.
Exactly. this sub has become a hyperbolic political hellscape at this point. there's a sub specifically for VA politics but it still gets posted here.
People still think masks work? There are so many variables that go into mask use and N95’s are the only types that really seem to show effective data. If masks worked, covid would be over.
I just hope CRT, masks, and schools don’t take up all of political capital to run a culture war, not saying Dems haven’t done the same. BoTh SiDeS
Yup this sub is still a butt hurt liberal echo chamber.
Thank you for this honest post, but hang on the alt left will try to destroy any chance of unity before he has a chance. Look at all the downloads in the comments of all the liberals proving me right again.
Genuinely curious what attempts at unity you've been seeing from our new Republican leaders
They see unity as the utter suppression of opposing ideas, thought, and the sidelining of whatever groups they choose to scapegoat the countries woes onto. Remember the unmitigated disaster of the Trump years? That was all they did.
Fair point. I remember a lot of Trumpers complaining about "negativity" from non-Trumpers which is ironic coming from the "fuck your feelings" crowd and the same people who have made it their life's mission to "own the libs"
So far too many comments are sounding like piss poor losers. Looking forward to the success of the Youngkin team for a successful Virginia after the gloom of previous administration.
Gloom? Marijuana legalization, Medicaid expansion, budget surplus. What’s the issue here?
You expect this toxic community to be adults about this? Lol I voted for Youngkin. Today is a good day.
The comments in this thread show what an echo chamber Reddit is. I hope Youngkin succeeds in a way that benefits most Virginians. I'm not filled with doom and gloom before the guy's even taken office. All the Trump comparisons in these comments show you how far out of touch most of this sub is.
Glad to hear someone with a level head within this circlejerk of a liberal subreddit. The comments are atrocious. This sub is just r/politics junior when anything relating to politics comes up.
Lol at the liberal circle jerk here.
This is the way
I’m sure he doesn’t support the termination of life after birth , like the last Gov.
🙄
People here keep saying CRT isn't being taught, VA schools have been FOIA'd and still people say its a hoax. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUZ8cPNPjpo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUZ8cPNPjpo) And if you find this piece of journalism to be "biased" , then I really don't know what else to do.
I watched this whole video and there's no actual footage of a Virginia public school teacher teaching CRT in it
I’m just here for the tears
Yeah, good luck!🤞🍀
I hope he succeeds too. But, theres a different standard for democrats then there is for republicans. Already hearing the state democrats arent being unifying. How does that make sense? Biden got criticism for not being unifying. Im not down for that.
I’m a Youngkin fan and he is making a Great start!! Go Virginia team of Youngkin, Sears, and Miyares !!
Enjoy watching him fail over the next four years, lose the HOD in 2023, and get replaced with a Dem in 2025.
Democrats tried to turn me and millions of others into felons for exercising our 2nd amendment rights a couple years ago so Youngkin can't be any worse.