United States Governors 2

[fraurosena]

On 9/23/2021 at 2:34 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

“At my age, I’ll have to have great assistant coaches,” Justice assured the paper. “And to be perfectly honest, they’ll have to do the work. I’ll coach the game.”

So he’s upset his money couldn’t secure him a vanity project. 

[47of74]

Yeah CovidKristi is still out there trying to beat CovidKim and the likes of Death Satan, Abbot, and so on to become the 50th best governor in the country.

Quote

South Dakota’s attorney general said Tuesday he is reviewing concerns from state lawmakers over a meeting Gov. Kristi Noem held last year that included both her daughter and a state employee who was overseeing her daughter’s application to become a certified real estate appraiser.

“I have been contacted by concerned citizens and legislators,” Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg said in a statement. “I am actively reviewing their concerns and I will be following the steps prescribed in codified law in relation to those questions.”

Ravnsborg didn’t immediately respond to a question about what steps he might take. The attorney general is tasked under state law with issuing legal opinions to lawmakers.

The Associated Press reported Monday that Noem held the meeting shortly after the state agency had moved to deny her daughter the license last year. Noem’s daughter eventually received her license four months later. Afterward, the state employee who directed the agency was allegedly pressured to retire by Noem’s cabinet secretary. The state employee, Sherry Bren, eventually received a $200,000 payment from the state to withdraw the complaint and leave her job.

 

[Howl]

13 hours ago, 47of74 said:

Yeah CovidKristi is still out there trying to beat CovidKim and the likes of Death Satan, Abbot, and so on to become the 50th best governor in the country.

Oh, it gets better, SO. MUCH. BETTER.  Word on the street is that Governor Kristi Noem is having an affair with  WAITFORIT...............Corey F**KING Lewandowski.  The fallout will be interesting, whether true or not.  Apparently, a scumbag is outing other scumbags. 

Forget toilet paper, y'all, and stock up on popcorn.

 

[Cartmann99]

Alabama governor defends plan to use covid relief funds to build new prisons

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Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) is hitting back after criticism over plans to use coronavirus pandemic relief funds provided by the federal government to finance the construction of new prisons in the Southern state.

“The Democrat-controlled federal government has never had an issue with throwing trillions of dollars toward their ideological pet projects,” Ivey said in a statement on Tuesday. “These prisons need to be built, and we have crafted a fiscally conservative plan.”

The fallout comes after Ivey convened a special session of the Alabama legislature on Monday to address the state’s ailing prison infrastructure, which she admitted was “broken.” Using the funding in this way, she said, aimed to provide an “Alabama solution to this Alabama problem.”

The plan, backed by Ivey, to build three new prisons and renovate others will involve using up to $400 million from the state’s share of American Rescue Plan funds, according the Associated Press. Alabama has reported almost 15,000 covid-related deaths, according to the latest state data, making it one of the hardest hit parts of the country from the pandemic.

 

[RosyDaisy]

I'm ashamed I'm from Alabama.

[apple1]

14 hours ago, RosyDaisy said:

I'm ashamed I'm from Alabama.

Don't be. (My husband is from Alabama; we understand that there are many from Alabama who are NOT.LIKE.THAT. It's just unfortunate that they seem to be a minority, at least right now).

[Dandruff]

Virginia has Glenn Youngkin (R) running against Terry McAuliffe (D) for governor.  The race appears to be fairly close, which I find both surprising and disturbing.  Here's an article from last week about Youngkin:

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/virginia-governor-race-what-glenn-youngkin-says-about-trump-s-n1280283

And here's one on how the last debate went:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/virginia-gubernatorial-candidates-spar-over-race-education-vaccine-mandates-trump-n1280287

[GreyhoundFan]

RWNJ Lt. Governor attempts to out nutty the RWNJ Governor:

 

Full text under spoiler:

Spoiler

 

Pat's take is just what I was thinking:

[AnywhereButHere]

Ooops. When your publicity stunt backfires. I love it when idiots shoot themselves in the foot - or wallet as it were...

https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-lieutenant-governor-paid-out-his-first-voter-fraud-bounty-2021-10

Quote

One week after the 2020 US presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump, the lieutenant governor of Texas set a bounty of up to $1 million for anyone who could find instances of voter fraud in the US.

Eleven months later, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has finally doled out his first reward: a sum of $25,000, the minimum being offered, to a progressive poll worker in Pennsylvania who turned in a man who voted twice, according to The Dallas Morning News.

...

Patrick's campaign spokesman told The Dallas Morning News that only the "original tipsters" would receive the prize.

Frank, however, was the original poll worker who submitted a violation by Ralph Thurman, a 72-year-old Republican man who pleaded guilty in September of this year to voting twice: once under his name and once using the name of his Democratic-aligned son.

I actually am amazed that he paid out at all. I figured he would've inserted a loophole into this farce so he wouldn't have to pay out to democrats turning in republicans. Did he really believe that the only cases of voter fraud would be from the left? 

[Cartmann99]

Reporter likely to be charged for using "view source" feature on web browser

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A St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter who viewed the source HTML of a Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website is now likely to be prosecuted for computer tampering, says Missouri Governor Mike Parson.

All web browsers have a "view source" menu item that lets you see the HTML code of the web page it is displaying.

The reporter discovered that the source code of the website contained Social Security numbers of educators. The reporter alerted the state about the social security numbers. After the state removed the numbers from the web page, the Post-Dispatch reported the vulnerability.

Soon after, Governor Parson, "who has often tangled with news outlets over reports he doesn't like, announced a criminal investigation into the reporter and the Post-Dispatch."

"If somebody picks your lock on your house — for whatever reason, it's not a good lock, it's a cheap lock or whatever problem you might have — they do not have the right to go into your house and take anything that belongs to you," Parson said in a statement.

A commenter on the Post-Dispatch story offers a more apt analogy:

A better analogy would be you're walking in the street past a neighbor's house and notice their front door wide open with no one around. You can see a purse and car keys near the door. You phone that neighbor, and tell them their door is open and their purse and keys are easily visible from the street. Would Parson consider this breaking and entering?

From the Post-Dispatch:

[A] state cybersecurity specialist informed Sandra Karsten, the director of the Department of Public Safety, that an FBI agent said the incident "is not an actual network intrusion."

Instead, the specialist wrote, the FBI agent said the state's database was "misconfigured," which "allowed open source tools to be used to query data that should not be public."

"These documents show there was no network intrusion," St. Louis Post-Dispatch President and Publisher Ian Caso said this month. "As DESE initially acknowledged, the reporter should have been thanked for the responsible way he handled the matter and not chastised or investigated as a hacker."

 

[47of74]

55 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

Reporter likely to be charged for using "view source" feature on web browser

 

Yeah last year my employer wanted me to relocate to Columbia, Missouri.  For the same rate of pay.  I wasn't about to trade one Branch Trumpvidian governor for another if they weren't going to give me a significant raise.  Not a lot of people took the company up on relocating there.  My manager was going to but found a local job and took that instead. 

[Xan]

Over on Twitter, people are tweeting a lot about how Ron DeSantis seems to be missing.  The state has a huge uptick in virus cases, no one can find testing materials, and the hospitals are overwhelmed.  Ron hasn't been seen since a couple of weeks before Christmas.

His press secretary, Christina Pushaw, first said that he was on vacation with his family and, at approximately the same time, accused news media of spreading fake news when they reported DeSantis was on vacation.  (Now, any time that anyone posts something negative to her account, they get blocked.)  Twitter is wondering if there's a "Weekend at Bernie's" situation going on or possibly he's just very ill with Covid.  Someone has posted to his Twitter account in the last couple of days with old pics and videos.  People instantly respond with the accurate dates of the pics and videos and keep asking Ron where he is.  

I particularly like the "Where's Waldo" references:

[47of74]

It looks like the upcoming legislative session in Iowa is going to be another Branch Trumpvidian wish list based on what CovidKim and her GQP allies are saying

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Legislative priorities will include individual income tax cuts, proposals to push unemployed Iowans back to work, and a parental bill of rights that gives parents information on what is taught in schools and opportunities to review whether books in libraries are age appropriate.

Well fuck you Kimmy.  I'm trading Iowa for a state with a competent state government.

[Cartmann99]

Spoiler

 

[GreyhoundFan]

On 1/15/2022 at 3:44 PM, Cartmann99 said:

  Hide contents

 

 

Trumpkin went on Faux (no surprise) to beat the CRT horse:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

A good article about Trumpkin: "Glenn Youngkin cares about sound bites more than solutions"

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The political scene never lacks for new stars. Far less common is a new star who is actually saying anything new. In his inaugural address Saturday, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) complained that in today’s politics “sound bites have replaced solutions — taking precedence over good faith problem-solving.” But in his first interview since taking office, Youngkin showed he won’t be changing that trend.

Early in the sit-down with “Fox News Sunday,” Youngkin discussed his first executive order: “ending the use of divisive concepts, including Critical Race Theory, in public education.” Host John Roberts asked the new governor to reply to critics pointing out that “critical race theory is not being taught in schools and that this was merely a trumped-up phony culture war.”

“There’s not a course called critical race theory,” Youngkin admitted. But, he argued, “the principles of critical race theory … exist in Virginia schools today.” Youngkin described those principles as “the fundamental building blocks of actually accusing one group of being oppressors and another of being oppressed, of actually burdening children today for sins of the past, for teaching our children to judge one another based on the color of their skin.”

Those principles may describe a theory, but not critical race theory — a law-focused set of ideas, taught mostly at college and post-college levels, which argues that racism is endemic in U.S. institutions and that even colorblind laws can reproduce racial inequalities. If Youngkin had focused his criticisms on the small share of materials produced for equity in Virginia schools that have attracted criticism from both sides of the aisle, that would show true interest in “good-faith problem solving” rather than a sound bite. Clearly, that’s not his goal.

The same superficiality was evident when Youngkin explained his second executive order, “allowing parents to make decisions on whether their child wears a mask in school.” When Roberts asked whether that would conflict with a Virginia law that schools “closely” comply with CDC guidance, Youngkin replied, “We said all along that we were going to stand up for parents because let’s just be clear, what’s happened over the last few years is that bureaucrats and politicians have absolutely stopped listening to parents.”

Were Youngkin interested in substance, he could have pointed to analyses suggesting that the benefits of masking children are uncertain. He could have cited the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization to justify lifting mask mandates for primary school-age students. But all Fox News viewers got were buzzwords.

Finally, Roberts asked Youngkin whether he would order schools to stay open, as some have called for. “There’s legislation moving through our General Assembly that in fact says absolutely that,” Youngkin replied, “that schools must be open five days a week, that, in fact, virtual learning is a tool of last resort, and right now, we need to get our kids back in school.”

Again, this may sound nice to Youngkin’s base, but whether students can be in school is almost a moot question. Virginia schools haven’t closed for political reasons, but because of too much snow and/or too few staffers. A substantive policy response would contend with those very real problems. There’s a reason that these debates over school closings didn’t flare up until the omicron variant hit, and in many cases left schools no choice but to temporarily return to remote learning. Pretending that virtual learning isn’t already a last resort is simply misleading.

But the Fox News interview, the speech and his executive orders all suggest that Youngkin cares far more for sound bites than solutions. Instead of recognizing policy nuances in “good faith,” he repeats caricatures and talking points spread in right-wing outlets. And the policies he has highlighted since taking office are warmed-over GOP orthodoxy — tax cuts, deregulation, more tax cuts, increased funding for law enforcement and still more tax cuts.

“I see a path forward,” Youngkin proclaimed Saturday, “to a new and better day.” It’s hard to see him navigating that path, though, while offering nothing but the same old tripe.

 

[47of74]

Another Republican former governor making an ass of himself.

Quote

Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory said last year that not receiving an offer to teach at Duke University upon leaving the governorship was "blacklisting" and comparable to the refusal to serve Black Americans at lunch counters in the 1960s during segregation.

McCrory, who is now running for US Senate in a Republican primary, instead took a job as a local radio host where he made the comments, which were reviewed by CNN's KFile as part of a look at the rhetoric he used after leaving office in 2017. McCrory was the governor of North Carolina from 2013 to 2017.

"The head of the policy school called me up and said, 'Governor, we've got some problems. We've got some alumni and big donors that don't want you to come back to Duke to be a part of this public policy school,'" said McCrory in January 2021, referring to a job at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy.

"You know what I said to him, I said, 'If I come back to the, if I come back to the campus, will you serve me at the lunch counter?' And I meant it."

Yeah, sure the school official did.  Why don't you shut the fuck up McCrory and stop making yourself look like a racist idiot?

[GreyhoundFan]

Trumpkin's executive order allowing parents to opt-out of mask mandates isn't going quite like he expected. "More than half of Virginia school districts are defying Youngkin’s mask-optional order"

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About a week after announcing his executive order making masks optional in schools throughout Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) said on a radio show that school districts statewide had rushed to comply.

“The reality is it’s about 25 out of our 130 school systems across Virginia who aren’t recognizing the rights of parents today,” Youngkin told conservative host John Fredericks on Monday, adding that the noncompliant districts were prioritizing “bureaucrats and politicians over the rights of parents.”

But a Washington Post analysis shows that the majority of Virginia public school districts — enrolling more than two-thirds of the state’s students — have opted to disobey Youngkin’s mask-optional order. As of Wednesday, two days after the order was supposed to take effect, 69 districts, or 53 percent, are still requiring masks for all students inside schools. Cumulatively, those districts enroll 846,483 students, or about 67 percent of the state’s public school student population. The divide falls along partisan lines, although not perfectly: Almost every district that opted to make masks optional is in a locality that voted for Youngkin in the 2021 gubernatorial election.

The widespread defiance suggests Youngkin will have enormous difficulty in enforcing his mask-optional mandate, which is already the subject of two lawsuits: one from parents in Chesapeake, and one from seven school boards that oversee some of the state’s largest, most prominent school districts. A hearing on the second suit is scheduled for next week. Youngkin has said he will use every tool at his disposal to carry out his order as those cases wind through the court system, and his spokeswoman did not rule out disciplining disobedient districts by yanking their state funding.

It also raises serious doubts about the viability of Youngkin’s intense focus — both on the campaign trail and in his first days as governor — on the nation’s education culture wars, including his push for greater parental control over every aspect of education, from masking to which books appear on library shelves to the content of curriculums.

“These findings lay bare the absurdity of the governor’s claims that he is listening to the parents,” said Mark Rozell, the dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. “Most disagree with what he is doing. He seems to be listening primarily to the parents of a particular political stripe — the ones who made the most noise in the heat of a political campaign but in no way represent a consensus among parents of public school children.”

Asked about The Post’s analysis, Youngkin said in a statement, “If localities want to have a mask mandate, they absolutely are able to. However, parents have a right to opt out. They know what is best for their kids.”

Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter added, “Localities are fighting over something they already have the ability to do and Virginia has continually sidestepped the importance of parent and student rights. Governor Youngkin is simply giving students and parents an opt-out of mask mandates.”

Youngkin’s directive took effect for districts across Virginia on Monday. Even in the suburban D.C. localities where officials promised to keep the mask mandate in place and sued to protect their authority to do so, initial reporting suggested the day went smoothly for students and teachers. In Loudoun County, a politically divided and wealthy suburb, small groups of parents showed up to two campuses with maskless children Monday and stayed outside picketing when administrators isolated those students.

The Post analysis is based on a review of the websites and social media accounts for all 131 Virginia school districts listed by the Virginia Department of Education as operational for the 2021-2022 school year. Where school district information on masking was unavailable, The Post contacted districts or relied on local media coverage, or both. Enrollment counts are drawn from 2021-2022 data gathered and published by the Virginia Education Department, and localities’ results in the gubernatorial election are taken from The Post’s coverage.

The Post analysis found that 58 districts, or 44 percent, have so far agreed to make masks optional in obedience to Youngkin’s order. Cumulatively, those districts enroll 397,108 students, according to Virginia Education Department data, representing 32 percent of all public school students in the state.

Four districts in Virginia either have yet to decide about masking — some have school board votes planned for Thursday — or have not published any information on the issue, leaving their stance unclear. The Post has contacted these districts and will update its database when answers emerge.

Republican-leaning districts showed more willingness to comply with Youngkin’s masking order: In 98 percent of cases where school districts opted to make masks optional, their locality went for Youngkin in the election.

“This breakdown clearly shows how partisan the issue of education has become” during the pandemic, said Todd Belt, director of George Washington University’s graduate school political management program. “The original issue with schools — reopening — wasn’t terribly partisan. But issues surrounding schools became more partisan with the flap over critical race theory and as vaccine skepticism has become more politically polarized.”

Still, districts in Republican-leaning, Youngkin-voting localities also make up the majority — 57 percent — of districts that voted to keep requiring masks in schools. This suggests that Republican school systems and parents may be less willing to follow Youngkin’s lead on masking than the governor might have expected, and it confirms previous polling statewide that indicated that most Virginians support masks as a common-sense pandemic safety measure.

A September 2021 Washington Post-Schar School poll found that 66 percent of public school parents in Virginia supported mask mandates for teachers, staff and students, similar to 69 percent of registered voters overall. The poll also showed that left-leaning Virginians were far more likely to agree with mask requirements: 96 percent of self-identified Democratic voters and 66 percent of independent voters supported school mask mandates, while Republicans were more divided, with 45 percent in support and 51 percent opposed.

Youngkin won in part by campaigning against such mandates, with exit polls showing he performed best with voters who believe that parents should have a lot of say over what their children learn in school,which has become a conservative rallying cry nationwide. But exit polls also revealed little difference in how parents and non-parents voted in Virginia, suggesting Youngkin did not hold uniquely strong appeal with mothers and fathers.

Nationally, a Monmouth University poll from November found that 61 percent of Americans said face masks should be worn by students, teachers and staff in schools in their state, while 34 percent opposed the idea.

Frederick Hess, a senior fellow and director of education policy at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said he thinks Youngkin should stay the course on his masking policies, while vigorously fighting back against the two lawsuits challenging the executive order.

Both suits make essentially the same argument: that Youngkin’s mask-optional order violates the Virginia constitution because it usurps school districts’ constitutionally granted power to oversee school systems. The lawsuits also contend that Youngkin’s order goes against a state law, passed in summer 2021, that requires school districts to comply with federal health guidance “to the maximum extent practicable.” Current guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend masking inside schools for everyone over the age of 2, regardless of vaccination status.

The suit filed by parents is before the Virginia Supreme Court, while the suit filed by the seven school boards is before the Arlington County Circuit Court, which will hold its first hearing on Feb. 2. It is unclear what will happen next. Youngkin and his top officials have said they are confident the Supreme Court will intervene in the governor’s favor and have urged parents to listen to their principals until that happens.

As the courts churn along, Hess said, Youngkin should focus on making his “best arguments” — built on research and science — to Virginia parents and school officials about why they should listen to him. Despite the lawsuits and the opposition from school districts, Hess said, he does not think the governor’s masking order was “a political stumble, not at all,” adding that things could look very different in a few months if the omicron variant of the coronavirus is running less rampant.

“There’s always a natural temptation to try and judge these things in the moment, but we know the way these debates play out in politics,” he said. “What matters is where the dust settles.”

Stephen Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington, predicted no dust will be settling anytime soon, though.

Farnsworth said he thinks Youngkin’s mask-optional order on his first day in office, coupled with two other executive orders focused on education — one that banned critical race theory, and one that vowed an investigation of the embattled Loudoun County Public Schools system — clearly signal that the governor wants to lean into the education culture wars. And that will spell trouble for Youngkin’s fledgling administration and parents, teachers and schoolchildren across the state, he said.

“Expect the angry confrontations in schools to continue and perhaps to worsen,” Farnsworth said. “Few things are more likely to generate long-term rifts within communities than conflicting rules relating to something as important as the best way to protect the health and safety of children.”

He added: “It didn’t have to be this way.”

 

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

WV's governor achieves peak stupidity:

 

[Dandruff]

On 1/27/2022 at 8:03 AM, GreyhoundFan said:

Trumpkin's executive order allowing parents to opt-out of mask mandates isn't going quite like he expected. "More than half of Virginia school districts are defying Youngkin’s mask-optional order"

Seems he's already alienating many.  Pity things weren't obvious enough before the election.  I hope that the court cases unambiguously uphold safety, and that everyone's watching.

By what I consider to be similar logic to the mask opt-out, should parents have the right to allow teenagers to drive drunk?  At high speed?  How much public endangerment is OK?

I believe schools/staff are considered to be in loco parentis while children are attending.  If Trumpkin is trying to override that, then what else should schools no longer consider themselves responsible for?

[GreyhoundFan]

5 minutes ago, Dandruff said:

Seems he's already alienating many.  Pity things weren't obvious enough before the election.  I hope that the court cases unambiguously uphold safety, and that everyone's watching.

By what I consider to be similar logic to the mask opt-out, should parents have the right to allow teenagers to drive drunk?  At high speed?  How much public endangerment is OK?

I believe schools/staff are considered to be in loco parentis while children are attending.  If Trumpkin is trying to override that, then what else should schools no longer consider themselves responsible for?

Sadly, it was obvious before the election, but the Dem candidate made an unforced error in one of the debates and Trumpkin seized on it, riding the CRT bogeyman train to the governorship.

And the anti-maskers don't see it as public endangerment, they see it as "muh rights". Their rights should end at the point where they infect or hurt others.

The courts SHOULD overturn his EO because the law in Virginia is that school systems are to follow CDC guidance, which indicates masks are a necessity in schools. However, who knows? If it gets all the way to SCOTUS, I'm sure the reich wing justices will stand by Trumpkin.

[Becky]

One of my "cardinal rules" of commenting is not to compare anyone with Nazis, unless they are an actual Nazi, but I make an exception here - I wonder if teaching about Nazi encouragement of collaborating informants will be permitted?  Youngkin sets up hotline for parents to report "divisive concepts" being taught in schools:

https://dcist.com/story/22/01/27/virginia-gov-youngkin-sets-up-email-tip-line-to-report-teachers-schools/

I cannot believe what is happening in this country.  

[Audrey2]

2 minutes ago, Becky said:

One of my "cardinal rules" of commenting is not to compare anyone with Nazis, unless they are an actual Nazi, but I make an exception here - I wonder if teaching about Nazi encouragement of collaborating informants will be permitted?  Youngkin sets up hotline for parents to report "divisive concepts" being taught in schools:

https://dcist.com/story/22/01/27/virginia-gov-youngkin-sets-up-email-tip-line-to-report-teachers-schools/

I cannot believe what is happening in this country.  

The students will know about this. Can you imagine how many middle and high school and even upper elementary School students who are really upset with their teacher will create a story and convince their parents to call the hotline to get the teacher fired? 

[GreyhoundFan]

This op-ed isn't just about Trumpkin, it's about the whole GQP. It's an excellent read, but be forewarned that you will likely get angry. I was shouting at my screen for much of it.

"Glenn Youngkin’s No-Guilt History of Virginia for Fragile White People"

Quote

History has come alive for Trumpist Republicans. They’re rewriting it every day.

This week, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), in a tweet deriding Anthony Fauci, claimed to quote the 18th-century French philosopher Voltaire. The quote was actually uttered by a neo-Nazi pedophile.

But Massie’s, er, Enlightenment is a footnote compared with the historical revisionism Republican governors are attempting. Florida’s Ron DeSantis proposes a law (variations of which have been enacted in 10 states) to prohibit public schools from making (White) children “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race.” Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin opened a tip line so parents can report teachers mentioning anything “divisive.” The clear intent and likely effect of such actions: excise any reference to America’s racist past. Just in time for Black History Month!

So how would history sound denuded of anything potentially distressing for White kids? We don’t have to guess, because we’ve already been there. I have an actual 7th-grade textbook used in Virginia’s public schools from the 1950s through the 1970s — when Virginia began moving toward the current version of history: the truth.

I therefore present these verbatim excerpts from the textbook (“Virginia: History, Government, Geography” by Francis Butler Simkins and others), shared with me by Hamilton College historian Ty Seidule, author of “Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause.” Let’s call it “Glenn Youngkin’s No-Guilt History of Virginia for Fragile White People.”

“A feeling of strong affection existed between masters and slaves in a majority of Virginia homes. … It was to [the master’s] own interest to keep his slaves contented and in good health. If he treated them well, he could win their loyalty and cooperation. … The intelligent master found it profitable to discover and develop the talents and abilities of each slave. … The more progressive planters tried to promote loyalty and love of work by gifts and awards.”

“Many Negroes were taught to read and write. Many of them were allowed to meet in groups for preaching, for funerals, and for singing and dancing. They went visiting at night and sometimes owned guns. … Most of them were treated with kindness.”

“The tasks of each [house slave] were light. … They learned much about the finer things of life. The house servants took a great deal of pride in their comfortable positions. …The field hands … were given a rest period at noon, usually from one to three hours. Those who were too old or too sick to work in the fields were not forced to do so. … The ‘task system’ … gave them free hours after they finished their daily tasks. … The planter often kept a close eye upon [the overseer] to see that the slaves were not overworked or badly treated.”

“Each slave was given a weekly ration consisting of three or four pounds of pork and plenty of corn meal and molasses. To this food were added the vegetables, fruits, hogs and chickens which the slaves were allowed to raise for themselves. … When a slave was sick, tempting food was often carried to him from the master’s table. … At [Christmas,] extra rations and presents were given the slaves.”

“Male field hands received each year two summer suits, two winter suits, a straw hat, a wool hat, and two pairs of shoes. … Often the members of the master’s family would hand down to their favorite slaves clothing which they no longer needed. … [The slaves] loved finery.”

“Every effort was made to protect the health of the slaves. … It was the duty of all mistresses to give sick slaves the same care they gave their own children.”

“The house servants became almost as much a part of the planter’s family circle as its white members. … A strong tie existed between slave and master because each was dependent on the other. … The regard that master and slaves had for each other made plantation life happy and prosperous.”

"[The slaves] liked Virginia food, Virginia climate, and Virginia ways of living. Those Negroes who went to Liberia … were homesick. Many longed to get back to the plantations. … It must be remembered that Virginia was a home as much beloved by most of its Negroes as by its white people. Negroes did not wish to leave their old masters.”

“Life among the Negroes of Virginia in slavery times was generally happy. The Negroes went about in a cheerful manner making a living for themselves and for those for whom they worked. … They were not worried by the furious arguments going on between Northerners and Southerners over what should be done with them. … The negroes remained loyal to their white mistresses even after President Lincoln promised in his Emancipation Proclamation that the slaves would be freed.”

There you have it. Historically wrong and morally bankrupt — but for tender White minds, discomfort-free.

 

[Cartmann99]

Spoiler