#Virginia #Project2029 — As you know, we try not to comment on state policy, unless it has a bearing on national policy. And in this case, we believe it does.

We have many subscribers who live in Virginia where, as you know, the Democrats just won the trifecta after four years of Republicans holding the Governor's office.

And the legislative agenda of the first week is…something to behold.

HB244 significantly reduces penalties for a number of robbery offenses and makes it easier to classify robbery offenses as lower crimes. HB853 gives murderers, rapists, and even terrorists more chances to get out of prison early (really). HB863 abolishes mandatory minimum sentences for certain offenses, including rape and child pornography.

HB968 prohibits counting election ballots by hand. And, of course, the Democrats are pushing a statewide redistricting that would significantly reduce Republican representation.

HB259 creates a Minnesota-style system for funding child care centers.

HB61 discriminates against White men in government contracting. For discretionary contracts under $100K, White men are barred from even being considered unless there’s literally no competition. And even then, this bill allows agencies to award contracts to women or minority-owned firms that are 5% more expensive than a bid from a business owned by a White man.

A cursory review of the political news out of Virginia suggests that these bills are not messaging bills from random delegates, but that they have moderate-to-good odds of passage.

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer and affluent white female liberal, along with her Attorney General who fantasizes about murdering Republicans and her families, are basically the incarnation of the contemporary Democratic Party.

And so, if you're looking for a way to divine how the Democratic Party might govern if it wins a trifecta at a national level in 2028, you could do worse than look at Virginia.

And the best answer, to quote Chateaubriand, is that they have "learned nothing and forgotten nothing."

Spanberger campaigned as a moderate, but the agenda is anything but. Without exaggeration, it is an agenda straight out of Venezuela: capture the political system, use corruption and handouts to create favorable clienteles, and eliminate opposition.

#DC — Speaking of: Washington, DC has now gone 407.5 hours without a homicide. Based on MPD crime data, Washington, DC’s current homicide-free stretch is the longest since 2013. Thank you President Trump!

#Approps — The Senate has finally moved a significant piece of the fiscal puzzle, clearing a three-bill "minibus" that covers Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy-Water, and Interior-Environment with a robust 82-15 bipartisan majority. Coming on the heels of the longest partial government shutdown in our history, this package represents a necessary, if late, attempt to restore some semblance of regular order. For those of us watching the administration's broader agenda, the Energy-Water components are particularly telling; they reflect a deliberate push toward energy dominance, even as appropriators rejected some of the most aggressive cuts to scientific research proposed by the White House. It is a classic Washington dance: the administration signals a radical shift in methodology and implementation, while the Senate reasserts its constitutional power of the purse to protect legacy priorities like NASA and the NSF.

The underlying reality of this 2025-2026 landscape is a fundamental change in how the Executive Branch operates—less about the traditional "NGO blob" and more about key, trusted personnel driving outcomes. We are seeing this play out in real-time as the House advances its own "America First" funding bills for National Security and the State Department, which carry the unmistakable signature of Secretary Rubio’s strategic realignment, with a 16% reduction in spending in those specific areas.

Looking toward the end of the month, the path forward for the remaining six bills—including the heavy hitters of Defense, Homeland Security, and Labor-HHS—remains fraught. The recent shooting by an ICE agent in Minnesota has, as expected, provided an opening for Democrats to stall the Homeland Security bill over accountability measures, potentially forcing us into yet another stopgap CR.

#Immigration — The Senate Judiciary Committee’s recent post-mortem on Operation Allies Welcome has laid bare a staggering systemic failure in the vetting of nearly 100,000 Afghan evacuees, with officials admitting that 1,300 nationals were processed before any biometric data or background checks were even initiated. Senator John Cornyn underscored the resulting national security vacuum, noting that the National Counter Terrorism Center has identified 2,000 individuals with terrorist ties among the parolees, while the government has simultaneously lost track of many evacuees across 176 communities. Beyond these security lapses, Senator Josh Hawley raised alarms regarding the potential diversion of tens of millions in taxpayer funds to "pro-terrorist organizations," a charge that further complicates the optics of the upcoming vote on nearly $6 billion in continued refugee funding. Worth bearing in mind: the Refugee and Entrant Assistance budget remains historically bloated, having skyrocketed from under $2 billion in FY2021 to nearly $9 billion under the Biden administration.

#Coal #AllOfTheAbove #MineBabyMine — The National Coal Council met yesterday for the first time since 2021 and everyone knew you. The Biden amin revoked the NCC charter as a part of their transition away from coal. The DOE renewed their charter over the summer and the council will begin making policy recommendations going forward. WV will remain red.

#AI — Apparently, Elon Musk is convinced that building data centers in space is the future of AI.

#AmericanManufacturing — Taiwan committed $500 billion for United States domestic chip production as a part of a trade deal inked last week.

#Immigration #ICE — It's important to keep in mind that the reason why we are seeing controversial headlines and images out of Minnesota is because it is a sanctuary state, which means ICE must conduct its own raids rather than rely on local law enforcement. Recently, none other than Matt Yglesias explained very well how this works and why it's a bad idea.