As the 2025 Virginia campaign season winds to a close, not surprisingly we had rallies by Democratic and Republican candidates yesterday. The main Democratic rally, with somewhere between 7,000 and 8,000 in attendance, was in Norfolk, starring former President Barack Obama – see here for video, highlights, etc. And, as you can see from that Norfolk rally, Democrats are focused on moving Virginia forward, making Virginians’ lives better, fighting back against the assault on democracy coming from Donald Trump and Republicans, working to realize – as former President Obama said – “this nation’s true revolutionary spirit…that ‘we the people’ means what we say…our commitment to a common creed…that’s what made us special.” Great stuff, in other words.

In SHARP contrast, see below for a couple video snippets from last night’s Republican rally in Purcellville. First, here’s VA GOP Lt. Governor nominee John Reid, who was a far-right/MAGA radio host (not just a generic “radio personality” or whatever the media whitewashes him as) for many years:

“And Ghazala, outside of her basement, I don’t know where she’s been. That’s why I had to do the world’s first artificial intelligence debate, which I hope you
watched. And the weird thing was the AI bot was kind of better than her in real life, I think. But she has beaten me up because she’s raised $8 million from the same people who are supporting Zohran Mamdani in New York. And you know, I’m a nice guy. I don’t like to be mean. But you know what that means? The socialists and the radical Islamists who are on the march in America are behind Zohran Mamdani in New York and they’re behind Ghazala Hashmi in Virginia. We cannot let that be successful in this state.”

Not subtle at all here; just blatant, nasty Islamophobia. Note the link that Reid draws between Ghazala Hashmi and Zohran Mamdani (exaggerated pronunciation, clearly to emphasize the “foreign” nature of Zoh-ran MAMDANI’s name), as well as the fear mongering about “socialists” and “‘radical Islamists who are on the march in America.” Of course, “radical Islamists” aren’t in any way/shape/form “on the march in America,” but even if that were the case – which, again, IT IS NOT – how on earth does that make a liberal Democrat (and super-nice person) like Ghazala Hashmi a “radical Islamist” – or a “socialist” for that matter? Anyway, you can see what Reid’s doing here, and it ain’t pretty.

Next, we’ve got Glenn Youngkin, who the media ASSURED us constantly in 2021 (and beyond) was a “nice guy in a sweater vest,” a “suburban dad” and a “moderate” – all of which was absurd at the time, but has gotten far more ridiculous as we’ve watched Youngkin’s inner MAGA/Trumpist/far-right-extremist side emerge over the past four years.  And that hard-right transition is exemplified by Youngkin’s ugly speech last night. Check it out, below.

“…to demonstrate that we are going to reject political violence and we’re going to send Jay Jones back where he belongs, which possibly could be jail. That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to reject Abigail Spanberger and send her back where she belongs, which  is…how about back home? Just go back home!  And we are gonna reject Ghazala Hashmi, because she is the most liberal leftist member of our General Assembly. And I got to tell you what folks, I don’t want her anywhere. I don’t even want her in the state. This is what we have to get done.”

Again, that is just UGLY – nativist, Islamophobic, xenophobic, authoritarian, you name it. Yet, disturbingly, THIS is what the party that used to be led by people who held out America as a beacon of liberty, a “shining city on the hill” which welcomed people from all over the world, etc. has morphed into. Implying that Ghazala Hashmi isn’t just as American as every other American because of her name? religion? ethnicity? To the contrary, as Hashmi said in her response to last night’s Republican viciousness (see her statement, below):

“I have lived in Virginia for over 30 years; my daughters were born and raised right here in Richmond. I am not surprised — but will not be deterred — by the bigotry from our Governor. Ghazala Hashmi is an American name. On Tuesday, we will show him what Virginia stands for.”

And as State Senator Schuyler VanValkenburg put it:

“Sad to see the @GovernorVA saying things like this. We can fight passionately about the issues without questioning how much we love (or belong) in Virginia. A campaign that knows it’s going to lose is resorting to rhetoric that is beneath them.”

True, but the sad thing is this is EXACTLY who Glenn Youngkin – and his role models like Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, etc. – are.  In two days, Virginians have a GREAT opportunity to send a loud-and-clear message that we strongly, without equivocation, REJECT the unAmerican viciousness national and Virginia Republicans are spewing out there. So make sure you vote Democratic up and down the ballot, and remind everyone you know to do the same. As former President Obama said yesterday: “If nothing else, the last 9 months should have cured us of that idea [that elections don’t matter.]…elections DO matter – and they matter for you!”

Matthew Boedy was targeted by Turning Point USA in 2016 and listed on its “professor watchlist” after speaking up against allowing concealed guns on college campuses. As one of the foremost experts on Turning Point USA and its founder and CEO Charlie Kirk, Boedy exposes their role in perpetuating Christian nationalism in the United States and the threat to democracy they pose. With a background in journalism, an MFA in creative writing, and a PhD in rhetoric, he is a dynamic and experienced scholar whose first book, Speaking of Evil, explored the evolving rhetoric surrounding evil. Boedy currently teaches rhetoric and composition courses at the University of North Georgia and lives in Gainesville, Georgia, with his wife and two daughters.

About his book, The Seven Mountains Mandate: Exposing the Dangerous Plan to Christianize America and Destroy Democracy:

“A sobering assessment of the evolution of Christian nationalism.” –Publishers Weekly

Exposing the decades-long plan to radically transform America, from Bill Bright and Loren Cunningham’s 1975 “seven mountains” vision to Charlie Kirk’s 2020 praise of Donald Trump for embracing it, The Seven Mountains Mandate reveals how prosperity preachers and political operatives are destroying democracy under Trump’s second administration.

The movement to install a populist strongman in the White House with a game plan for enforcing right-wing policies and catering to evangelical Christians started well before Donald Trump’s first candidacy. For decades, a well-funded network of religious and political operatives has been quietly working to dismantle democracy and replace it with Christian theocracy. Their strategy? The seven mountains mandate—a plan to seize control of seven key pillars of American society and reshape the nation.

Scholar Matthew Boedy exposes how this movement—driven by prosperity preachers, extremist politicians, and right-wing power brokers—laid the groundwork for Trump’s presidency and is now advancing its agenda under his second administration. From local school board elections to billion-dollar megachurches, this multipronged effort is reshaping the country in ways most Americans don’t even realize. Discover what has motivated the key players in this movement, how they’ve operated, and what is the unprecedented role of millennial “kingmaker” Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA and the new face of Christian nationalism and the seven mountains movement, who believes that “we finally have a president who understands the seven mountains of cultural influence.”

Today’s news is so much more than the scattershot orders of an extreme administration. With Project 2025 policies in motion, the seven mountains movement is closer than ever to its goal of turning America into a Christian nationalist state. Leaders of this movement have been playing a long game, undermining democracy to establish a theocracy, but it’s not too late to halt their progress and reverse the tide. This book reveals what’s happening behind the scenes—and what you can do to stop it.

“How long? Not long.”

“How long will justice be crucified, and truth bear it?”
“I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because ‘truth crushed to earth will rise again.’
“How long? Not long, because ‘no lie can live forever.’
“How long? Not long, because ‘you shall reap what you sow.’
“How long? Not long:
“ ‘Truth forever on the scaffold,
“Wrong forever on the throne,
“Yet that scaffold sways the future,
“And, behind the dim unknown,
“Standeth God within the shadow,
“Keeping watch above his own.’ “
——  Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., “How Long? Not Long,” March 25, 1965

My friend was focused on the lengths the administration and MAGA Congress are going to keep the Epstein scandal files hidden. I noted that innocent people never try to hide the truth, while guilty people will do anything and everything to hide it. “How long,” he asked, “do you think they can keep it hidden?” My mind went to James Russell Lowell’s poem, “The Present Crisis,” that King often quoted.

https://poets.org/poem/present-crisis

The investigation into the series of crimes we know collectively as “Watergate” seemed to take forever, when I was young. On October 30, 1973, right after the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre,” the House Committee on the Judiciary began holding hearings on the multiple resolutions to impeach Nixon. For seven months, Republicans fought tooth and nail to protect the president. If one watches those hearings – right up to the vote to put the resolution to a full House vote, many Republicans were as obnoxious as those we witness today.

How long? Not long, for we actually have three men in particular who have a plan to expose the toxins in those files with the disinfectant of light. The first is a remarkably talented man, Rep. Jamie Raskin. I note that early on, he connected the Epstein scandal files with those highly classified documents the felon hid at mar-a-lago.

Judge Eileen Cannon has not released the prosecutor’s report on that, because the case could be re-filed once the felon leaves the White House. Mr. Smith’s report on the felon’s insurrection has been released. More recently, we have seen Hakeem Jeffries speak about the Mr. Smith’s second report. This is not a coincidence, for Jeffries understands the manner in which the truth will slowly come to the surface. He knows that the maga republicans are in much the same position as those attempting to protect Nixon, which at the exact same time, damaged their positions in the upcoming mid-term elections.

And now the third man is speaking out, though with restraints. House MAGAs have requested that he speak to them in private. His legal team responded by informing them that Mr. Smith would speak to them in an opening hearing, if the DOJ agrees that he can testify without a threat of sharing information from his second report. Smith would be happy to answer any and all questions from a joint House & Senate public hearing. It is, of course, highly unlikely that either the republicans or especially the DOJ will agree to those conditions.

How long? Not long, because those mid-terms are coming up, and the Democratic Party will soon control that branch of the federal government. This is not to dismiss the severe damage that the administration is doing to our society. Indeed, we see the extreme efforts that Mike Johnson takes to not swear in Adelita Grijalva, purely to protect the felon. Yet in protecting the puppeteer, puppet Johnson ensures his party’s defeat next November.

Like every other good person in this country, I wish that we could have the immediate gratification of seeing shit stains like the felon tried and incarcerated. Yes, I surely do. But as an old man who remembers Watergate, I know I have to be patient. Our turn is coming up, right around the bend. So stay strong, for the truth is straight ahead.

 

 

 

 

Shocking! Study Shows Tea Party Was Decades In The Making, A Creature Of The Tobacco Industry & The Koch Brothers

A new academic study confirms that front groups with longstanding ties to the tobacco industry and the billionaire Koch brothers planned the formation of the Tea Party movement more than a decade before it exploded onto the U.S. political scene. Far from a genuine grassroots uprising, this astroturf effort was curated by wealthy industrialists years in advance. Many of the anti-science operatives who defended cigarettes are currently deploying their tobacco-inspired playbook internationally to evade accountability for the fossil fuel industry’s role in driving climate disruption.

The study, funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institute of Health, traces the roots of the Tea Party’s anti-tax movement back to the early 1980s when tobacco companies began to invest in third party groups to fight excise taxes on cigarettes, as well as health studies finding a link between cancer and secondhand cigarette smoke. Published in the peer-reviewed academic journal, Tobacco Control, the study titled, ‘To quarterback behind the scenes, third party efforts’: the tobacco industry and the Tea Party, is not just an historical account of activities in a bygone era. As senior author, Stanton Glantz, a University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) professor of medicine, writes:

“Nonprofit organizations associated with the Tea Party have longstanding ties to tobacco companies, and continue to advocate on behalf of the tobacco industry’s anti-tax, anti-regulation agenda.”

However, the Quarterback study reveals that in 2002, the Kochs and tobacco-backed CSE designed and made public the first Tea Party Movement website under the web address www.usteaparty.com. Here’s a screenshot of the archived U.S. Tea Party site, as it appeared online on Sept. 13, 2002:

CSE describes the U.S. Tea Party site, “In 2002, our U.S. Tea Party is a national event, hosted continuously online, and open to all Americans who feel our taxes are too high and the tax code is too complicated.” The site features a “Patriot Guest book” where supporters can write a message of support for CSE and the U.S. Tea Party movement. Sometime around September 2011, the U.S. Tea Party site was taken offline. According to the DNS registry, the web address www.usteaparty.com is currently owned by Freedomworks. The implications of the UCSF Quarterback report are widespread. The main concern expressed by the authors lies in what they see happening overseas as the Tea Party movement expands internationally, training activists in 30 countries including Israel, Georgia, Japan and Serbia.

Here’s a link to the full article.

https://www.desmog.com/2013/02/11/study-confirms-tea-party-was-created-big-tobacco-and-billionaires/

And will he take Republican candidates with him?