Disqus - Latest Comments for Beau

Re: Virginia House Democrats Break Record with $11.5 Million in TV Reservations

Beau — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 15:36:19 -0000

It's not going to matter if the ads are the same-old, same-old. I just saw my first Spanberger ad. It was terrible.

Maybe quit texting people asking for money to pay the same failed campaign managers we've had in the past and hire some new ones.

Re: Tuesday News: “Trump Says He’s Firing First-Ever Black Woman on Federal Reserve. She Tells Him to Shove It”; “America Tips Into Fascism”; “Miyares uses office to bludg...

Beau — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 09:26:16 -0000

But we've also seen candidates -- one of whom I consider a dear friend -- declaring their candidacy for Walkinshaw's not-yet-open seat while fellow Democrats take sides endorsing one or the other.

Fairfax Democrats NEVER should have let that happen. Win this election, THEN worry about the next Braddock supervisor.

Re: Wednesday News: “Trump’s doubling of tariffs hits India, damages relationship with US”; “Trump says ‘a lot of people’ want him to be dictator: Where are you on that one?R...

Beau — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 09:24:20 -0000

You know what I don't see in any of these links?

Any attempt by Democrats to change the narrative.

When are we going to have people who stand up and point toward a more positive future? When are we going to talk about adapting to AI? When are we going to talk about restoring the rule of law and how we're going to do it instead of just complaining that Trump is demolishing it?

Trolling only goes so far. Going head-to-head only goes so far -- that's why Democrats consistently win debates and lose elections. Raising money only goes so far, or else we'd all be waving happily to President Harris right now. (Or VP Walz. What a good guy. Or any competent Cabinet member.)

We need a new vision.

Talk about climate change and clean energy.

Talk about job training to help people who are about to lose their jobs to AI.

Talk about the bipartisan immigration bill languishing in Congress.

Talk about ranked-choice voting and lessening this toxic back-and-forth between two parties that wage a war in which the public is collateral damage.

Change ... the ... narrative.

Re: Pay raises, staffing reduced as FCPS scrambles to balance budget

Beau — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 17:19:41 -0000

Thanks for the compliment.

Re: Tuesday News: “Trump Says He’s Firing First-Ever Black Woman on Federal Reserve. She Tells Him to Shove It”; “America Tips Into Fascism”; “Miyares uses office to bludg...

Beau — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 17:16:30 -0000

Nothing on the special election?

A Stewart Whitson supporter turned up at my door today. To quote the original Rocky movie: "He doesn't know it's a damn show. He thinks it's a damn fight!"

No question Walkinshaw SHOULD win. But why doesn't this site have daily reminders to get out the vote?

Re: Pay raises, staffing reduced as FCPS scrambles to balance budget

Beau — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 08:50:10 -0000

You know nothing about me except the fact that I, like many people, point out to you that you have no grasp of the facts.

For all you know, I'm a staff member at The Bulwark. Or Liz Cheney's new assistant. Or one of the many people who worked in Trump's first term who were screaming last year that the guy should never be put in power again. Or an international jewel thief.

Re: Gov. Youngkin maintains support for federal cuts and tariffs despite ‘near term’ pain in Virginia

Beau — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 08:47:48 -0000

Agreed. 100%. Well, 90% -- inflation was actually under control by 2024. It's creeping back up now.

But agreed that the Dems need to fire everyone who hid Biden's mental decline (just as the GOP needs fire everyone who's trying to cover up for Trump's obvious incoherence and inability to grasp facts) and everyone who was a paid staffer on the Biden or Harris campaigns.

Re: Gov. Youngkin maintains support for federal cuts and tariffs despite ‘near term’ pain in Virginia

Beau — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 08:45:31 -0000

Um ... no. Spanberger is the one who stood up to her own party and said, "Quit talking about nonsense like defunding police."

I mean -- they're both women, sure, so ... is that what you meant?

I think Mark Cuban wins if he runs. James Talarico maybe, but he's awfully young. Pete Buttigieg and Gretchen Whitmer are legit. I don't see Newsom having a chance.

Re: BREAKING: FCPS rejects Trump administration demand that it scrap trans-inclusive policies

Beau — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 08:42:25 -0000

I'm not sure I'd go that far. There are ways to make this work. Plenty of girls play on boys teams. Whatever accommodation is made for them, make it for trans students as well.

Re: BREAKING: FCPS rejects Trump administration demand that it scrap trans-inclusive policies

Beau — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 08:40:20 -0000

I work in public schools. I know what they're reading and being taught.

If you're offended that they're learning about Rosa Parks, that's on you.

Re: BREAKING: FCPS rejects Trump administration demand that it scrap trans-inclusive policies

Beau — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 08:39:02 -0000

If you had a child who came out to your as transgender at age 13, started going through therapy right away, started hormone therapy at age 16 and formally adopted her new gender identity -- would you rather she went into a stall in a girls bathroom (or better yet, one of the many single-toilet bathrooms in most school buildings, which teachers use regardless of gender with no problem at all), or would you rather send her into a boys' bathroom where there's a much greater chance that she'll get attacked in there than there is a chance that an actual trans girl would attack someone in a girls bathroom?

Basically -- what if it's your daughter?

I'm ambivalent about sports teams. When I grew up, we didn't have enough girls playing soccer to have girls soccer teams, so they played on boys teams and changed clothes in a side room. A lot of area football teams have girls on the team. Trans girls who have gone through male puberty have an advantage in some sports (track and field, swimming) but not so much in others. I see legitimate reasons to keep girls who have barely started hormone treatment out of the girls' 100m dash, sure. If we all start acting like grownups, we could find a solution that balances that reality with the desire to give people an opportunity to play something. (Which is what most boys deal with, anyway -- basketball teams only have 15 players, soccer teams only have 22, etc., so a lot of boys have no chance of making those teams.)

Re: BREAKING: FCPS rejects Trump administration demand that it scrap trans-inclusive policies

Beau — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 08:31:46 -0000

Name one thing that's better. Because I name 100 that are worse.

- Tariffs that he has to keep pulling back because he sees how it wrecks the stock market -- maybe EVENTUALLY he'll figure out why (inflation, duh).

- Economic figures going the wrong way. In response, firing someone who oversaw some of those numbers and replacing her with a Jan. 6er.

- Decimation of our country's scientific research, which not only is good for us in terms of our health and technology but also leads to great corporations being formed.

- A total breakdown of the rule of law, with the administration ignoring court orders to return people to at least face a hearing or a trial rather than being picked up -- by the government's own admission, by accident -- and sent to hell in El Salvador.

- Brazen corruption, once again raking in money with Secret Service staying at his properties

- Illegal firings of government oversight officials, not so coincidentally including a lot of people who dared to hold Trump and his then-ally Musk accountable for their actions

- Taking law-enforcement agents away from productive crime-fighting jobs (note that crime was DOWN under Biden, in part due to ARPA spending on police) to have them round up Iranian grandmas and New Zealanders with visas and detaining them with little contact with lawyers and families -- all at our expense.

- Shaking down universities he doesn't like because they (gasp) hired people of different backgrounds to give a broader sense of history and sociology, and because their scientific knowledge on climate change is inconvenient for him.

- Randomly firing people and STILL presenting a budget that sends the deficit soaring.

- Being a felon who was never really sentenced

- Being a sex offender who was heavily fined, and yet people forget about it

- After saying he would release the Epstein files, abruptly changing course and doing everything in his power to prevent their release (gee, wonder why).

You say TDS. I say AAACAF. Anti-authoritarian. Anti-corruption. Anti-fascist.

"Be free" indeed. Right now, our freedoms are dying. Quickly.

Re: Tuesday News: “Are we on our way to the sixth major mass extinction?”; “Now it is the Old World’s turn to rescue the United States”; Trump’s “Plot to Rig Midterm...

Beau — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 08:15:16 -0000

Ummmm ... wasn't there a Walkinshaw-Whitson forum last night? How'd it go?

I think Walkinshaw is taking this for granted. I drove out to Dulles today and saw a lot of giant Whitson signs. And Whitson's putting a lot of money into TV -- he even advertised during a WNBA game, which surely proves he doesn't know his audience and may have accidentally reminded anti-GOP voters about this election, but still, at least he's doing something. Then if you read the media coverage of their forums, Whitson is somehow coming across as reasonable while Walkinshaw just says, "but .... DOGE!"

Meanwhile, Democrats have already declared their candidacies for Walkinshaw's "open" seat on the Board of Supervisors. Love you both, but my goodness ... walk before you run!

I can't find fundraising figures, but it doesn't matter. If fundraising made the difference, we'd all be relaxing as the Harris Administration was making sensible decisions.

2024 should've been the wakeup call. Is it going to come a lot earlier than this?

Re: BREAKING: FCPS rejects Trump administration demand that it scrap trans-inclusive policies

Beau — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 18:11:48 -0000

The opposite of "asleep."

Re: BREAKING: FCPS rejects Trump administration demand that it scrap trans-inclusive policies

Beau — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 18:11:05 -0000

"Fed rules," sure.

The whims of a hateful power-mad trust-fund baby in his late 70s who bullied his way back into the White House? No.

Re: BREAKING: FCPS rejects Trump administration demand that it scrap trans-inclusive policies

Beau — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 18:10:25 -0000

That's not what happened -- unless you think they spent a ton of money on signs with inspirational quotes.

Re: BREAKING: FCPS rejects Trump administration demand that it scrap trans-inclusive policies

Beau — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 18:09:23 -0000

That's not how this works.

Reasonable accommodation sometimes just means that one of the one-person bathrooms in a building is all-gender. There's only one person in there at a time. Nothing to worry about.

Trophies? Pretty rare. Hormone therapy really changes the body quite a bit. I'm sure there'll eventually be some reasonable rules once the grownups are in charge again -- a certain length of time to be on hormone therapy, for example.

Re: BREAKING: Police find body in pond near Tysons Galleria

Beau — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 19:45:19 -0000

I'm extremely confused.

So the driver of the vehicle in a single-vehicle crash left the scene somehow and was then found dead in a nearby pond? Is that what police think happened here?

Re: Gov. Youngkin maintains support for federal cuts and tariffs despite ‘near term’ pain in Virginia

Beau — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 19:43:42 -0000

You should read more and assume less.

Re: Pay raises, staffing reduced as FCPS scrambles to balance budget

Beau — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 19:43:14 -0000

Former classroom monitor (just for the end of 2020-21 for the re-opening), now substitute teacher.

If you call $20.21 an hour while dealing with misbehaving elementary schoolers "bloat," well, whatever floats your boat.

Re: Pay raises, staffing reduced as FCPS scrambles to balance budget

Beau — Wed, 14 May 2025 08:35:46 -0000

Define “woke political nonsense.” Be specific.

Re: Pay raises, staffing reduced as FCPS scrambles to balance budget

Beau — Wed, 14 May 2025 08:35:10 -0000

Tell me you have no idea what a classroom monitor does without telling me you have no idea what a classroom monitor does.

Classroom monitors made it possible to re-open schools. Period. Are they necessary now? Maybe not, though cutting special ed lead teachers makes me nervous. It helps to have multiple people in a classroom so the disruptive kids don’t ruin it for everyone else.

Re: Pay raises, staffing reduced as FCPS scrambles to balance budget

Beau — Wed, 14 May 2025 08:32:48 -0000

People are getting fired from jobs that had long been deemed safe. That’s not a question of who’s getting their “way” — it’s just reality.

Re: Gov. Youngkin maintains support for federal cuts and tariffs despite ‘near term’ pain in Virginia

Beau — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 16:16:18 -0000

In fairness, he seems to have stopped coloring his hair. Or combing it.

Re: Gov. Youngkin maintains support for federal cuts and tariffs despite ‘near term’ pain in Virginia

Beau — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 16:14:59 -0000

Under the current budget proposals, trillions will be added to the national debt.

That includes $1 trillion for defense -- which I guess would be good for Northern Virginia but would immediately spend all the money they think they're saving (hint -- they're not).

If we want to tackle the debt, maybe we could raise taxes on billionaires and cut corporate welfare. You'd get way more bang for your buck doing that than you will by putting your faith in DOGE.