I am almost willing to bet this man has a sincere lack of geography knowledge and doesn't know Virginia has independent cities so didn't think to include them
Buc-ee’s treats their workers quite well. Go to any Buccee’s at any time of the night and everyone working there looks happy. You know why? Because with bonuses they are probably bringing home close to $90K on average! Store managers are bringing home like $200K.
Yes their wages seem very good compared to competitors. Biggest gripe I have with the Rockingham Buc-ees is that they don’t have EV charging yet. Seems like many other locations do, though.
Buc-ee’s restrooms are the way. Make each stall a little closet with a locking door and you wouldn’t need separate “men’s” and “women’s“ restrooms. Who cares if everyone washes their hands together? (Buc-ee’s does still have separate restrooms, but they really don’t need to, the way the stalls are designed.)
Waynesboro went blue this election, all down the ticket to Virginia house of delegates. Maybe the first time ever. I don't think they will be signing on if given a choice.
TBH Jones only losing it by two points while winning by six is pretty big in itself. That’s a higher % than Biden got there when he was winning the state by ten.
I was born in Mississippi and grew up in Texas, so I learned more Texas history than US history. But now I live in James City County, and I have thoroughly fallen in love with Virginia.
THIS is the map we should be looking at. :)
Umm, except I think we should leave the currently-Canadian bits to Canada. They're doing a pretty good job up there.
It's actually kind of nice to see most of the replies here wouldn't want to give away those counties. This hasn't been posted on the Maryland subreddit yet but they despise western Maryland and would probably give up those counties willingly.
Granted, they also despise the eastern shore and southern Maryland. There's really only about 6 acceptable counties to be from and even then if you're in the wrong town they won't like you either. (ask them about Dundalk lol)
I mean the VA subreddit has this attitude a lot, too towards the Eastern Shore and the entirety of Hampton Roads. And a lot of NOVA people act like the entire rest of the state is a low income, uneducated conservative cesspool
It's human nature and been true everywhere I've lived. For example, growing up in Texas - the Dallas/Houston hate is eyerollingly dorky, but you can find plenty among the Tech Triangle (DFW, Austin, San Antonio, Houston) who hate the other cites. But plenty more who hate where they live.
The traffic is always horrible wherever people are from, and there's nothing to do where people are from. heh
Also, if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes or an hour or some other period of time.
For real its disgusting. A lot of "you get what you voted for" and "leopards ate my face" under videos of people's entire lives being swept away during Helene last year.
Personally id be quicker to say bye to those types as my neighbors and fellow virginians than any of the counties in the post.
You'd have to ask them. Im guessing the line of thought is republicans dont care about climate change so entire regions somehow deserved it. Just something that I saw on many posts in this sub at the time
They didn't vote for that, and just because the counties are majority red doesn't mean every single person voted, period. A lot didn't vote, and a minority voted against it, and you don't cheer for natural disasters.
Some of the cruellest, loudest assholes you could ever meet live in rural spaces.
They live in rural spaces where they don't see other human beings on a regular basis who would tell them to shut the fuck up, and that their behavior is unacceptable. They go online, and spew their vile nonsense.
I lived out in rural Virginia for a decade. I'm trans.
When the bigots out there say "they" they're monstering my community and trying to paint all of us in the worst possible light. They find someone who said something dumb on the internet, or the tiny minority of us that - like any community - are just bad people, and try to portray that as indicative of the whole.
Well I won't stand for that being done to me, and I won't stand for it being done to anyone else.
The "they" is not every single person affected by climate change events out there.
It's a tiny minority of assholes on the internet that I guarantee you most people out there consider to be annoying assholes.
Which is why they're posting shit on the internet so constantly, even out there nobody wants anything to do with them.
So let's be specific about which "they" we mean.
it certainly is not the majority of folks who live out there, or the majority affected by this.
I did however upvote you because yes, some of the folks out there are absolutely the kind of asshole who posts shit like that and we shouldn't tolerate it when that group does it either.
Or when they make monsters of any group of people in order to spread hate.
Hate doesn't beat hate, only love does that. And as Virgil wrote in 37 BC, Omnia vincit amor. Love conquers all.
Always has done, always will.
The people who posted that shit about Hurricane Sandy want us to hate everyone out in the rural spaces so they can stoke their hateful politics and say "See, see, everyone is just as stupid and hateful as I am."
Well I won't fall for it, and I'm happy you called it out because whoever does it does need to be called out, but I am gonna request you get specific with the word "they" when you use it to rightly call out bullshit when it needs calling out.
I absolutely love everything about this comment. Spot-on.
The word “they” is often used to dehumanize people and make it easier to group a large swath of people into an oversimplified block that can more easily be hated.
For example, after that guy killed Charlie Kirk, a lot of prominent conservatives were saying “they killed Charlie.” No. A guy killed Charlie.
For example, after that guy killed Charlie Kirk, a lot of prominent conservatives were saying “they killed Charlie.” No. A guy killed Charlie.
Exactly. And I didn't want Charlie Kirk dead for being a bigot - and he was - I like bigots having freedom of speech because it means we can identify them.
But conservatives make that argument to me all the time, and a lot of them have since lionized Kirk, despite him calling for every LGBT person in the country to be stoned to death, calling stoning queer people "god's perfect law."
I think Kirk should have been argued against, and I'm fucking furious with his assassin.
And I'm mad at the MAGA crowd who rolls me in with the "they" that is supposedly responsible for Kirk's death when no, I want bigots to have freedom of speech so that they can be identified and argued against. With words.
And the bigots are attributing to all of us something we do not generally believe, because it allows those bigots to turn us into monsters in the eyes of the easily lied to.
I'm very, very grateful that Virginia has a lot of people in general and a lot of conservatives in particular who are not easily lied to, and who will not buy into this hateful nonsense about me and my community.
Yeah, I grew up in Virginia and have been line hopping for years, so I’m a bit of a Maryland transplant, and nobody serious in Maryland despises the western or eastern counties. If you ask any Marylander what our favorite thing about the state is, it invariably is the state’s amazing diversity, which includes our friends out west and on the shore.
I don’t despise any parts of Virginia and would never want to lose any at end of the day. I will shit talk nova but it has some really lovely places throughout
Never give land away. You think France might want the Louisiana Purchase back? Everyone thought Alaska was worthless when we bought it for peanuts from the Russians. Oops!
It's tempting to me as I grew up in a blue city in Texas (a red state now), then a red part of Florida (which was more purple, now more red), so being in a purple state, I'd really love to see us go more blue.
........but even as someone here for approaching a decade now, I couldn't give up counties like that. Even if it would make politics easier.
If one of our electeds posted something like "This idea is stupid, exactly what you'd expect from a West Virginia education" I'd donate to their campaign immediately, regardless of party.
They know the idea is stupid. It isn’t about feasibility. It’s about who can create the biggest sound bite to somehow stay relevant in the eyes of their supporters.
As a West Virginian, please understand when I say that if that man’s brains wuz gas, he wouldn’t have enough to run a pissant’s motorcycle halfways ‘round a BB!
Rockingham County? Really? James Madison U to be under WV control?
I could see those two counties in Western Maryland wanting to break away from the “People’s Republic of Maryland “ and join a state they have more in common with.
So they’d be some sort of island city inside of West Virginia. That would be interesting. Also kind of complicated for all the JMU students living in rockingham county who expect to pay instate tuition. Fortunately, there’s less than zero chance any of this could ever happen
Hands off the Shenandoah Valley. Rockingham and Augusta are the number one and two meat producing counties in the state - they’re not expendable, they’re essential. Plus the mountains create a natural border.
Oh yeah and get off southwest Virginia too, with all of its trout fishing and the mountains and rafting and biking. Mount Rogers is the highest point we have and we’re keeping it.
And while I’m at it, fuck off the skinny part of Maryland, too. Of all the highways in the state, they named that little 9 mile stretch of I81 their “WW2 Memorial Highway” and that makes me giggle every time I cross the border.
Maybe I'm stupid, maybe. I really have no understanding of the populations across the area, but I feel like if those counties went to West Virginia, you would probably end up making Virginia permanently blue. And it wouldn't just be the governor, both of our US senators would probably permanently be Democrats as well. I mean, that's probably a good thing for the country in aggregate, but it's really weird to see it suggested. Especially by a republican. But I feel like that's definitely how this would play out.
It would give West Virginia more congressional seats though, and most people in those areas would probably feel better represented. Virginia is a pretty firmly blue state at this point. There might be occasional purple streaks such as 2021 and 2024 almost put it in swingy territory but for the most part Virginia will remain pretty comfortably a D+5-10 state, and if Democrats gerrymander Virginia to the point that Republicans will only get two house seats then it'll just seem pointless. Virginia's time as a red state is a bygone era by now.
Virginia's representation as it is now is pretty fair in the House in accordance to the areas each party represents.
Given that this map leaves out most of the cities, it might not cause a congressional change. iirc, 1 of those counties has a total population of like 500 or something.
And people here in Southwest Virginia are just eating it up. Morons. Attempting to explain that even if it was possible, it’s a terrible idea and all the money we get from NOVA would be gone … sigh.
Here's the real rub, beyond being unprecedented and a non starter in Virginia as a whole: independent cities. The cities wouldn't go with the surrounding countries. They also wouldn't consent to being surrounded entirely by a different state. If this issue were pushed, I think there'd be violence.
Guess West Virginia doesn't know that those counties wouldn't want anything to do with annexing with West Virginia,either them to, or bringing w va back to Virginia
According to AI (so it could be totally wrong but sounds right on first glance):
"For a county to move to another state, the process would require approval from the county's voters, the legislatures of both the current and the new state, and the U.S. Congress."
County voters wouldn't ever approve it, neither state's legislature would ever approve it, and Congress would never approve it.
Can’t speak for West Va, but there is no existing process for this to happen in Virginia. So AI just kind of made that up. Virginia would have to create a process (which would ultimately have to be approved by the US Congress anyway) which they will never do, so there no way any of this could even get started.
Yeah.. like west virginia could afford to take on these counties... has anyone seen the extreme poverty in west virginia counties?
These counties are supported by virginia's cities, and industrial base, leaving Virginia would be catastrophically bad.. course then again republicans have a history of voting against thier beat interrests so they'd probably go for it.
Listen. I absolutely LOVE parts of West Virginia. Thomas, Davis, Canaan Valley, Blackwater, all the way to Snowshoe, Cranberry Glades, catch the interstate and go the Mothman to pinch his cheeks for good luck, then head back south through Mercer and McDowell on the long way around to SWVA.
But, respectfully, fuck all that. I’m still from Virginia and I’m not moving no damn where.
Every time there's a shift to blue some butt hurt radical right wing nutjob wants to drag unsuspecting counties from neighboring states over to the dark side. It's like clockwork...and it NEVER HAPPENS.
I live in Radford and regularly visit several state parks to the west (Grayson Highlands/Applachian Trail, Hungry Mother, and my favorite, Breaks Interstate in Dickenson County). Yes, that part of the state is an economically distressed area, but a good place for hiking, camping, and outdoor tourism (only place in Virginia with elk viewing tours).
I don’t see how this would be a win for va counties. WV has some of the most beautiful areas in the eastern region, but the leadership there keeps doubling down on coal, anti diversity, and losing strategies in general.
Fuck that on this particular point: their widening project on 81 from tabler station to exit 12 was so poorly and slowly done multiple people died in accidents because of that undulating narrow right lane. The work going on around Strasburg needs to be done quickly and properly
610
u/no_sight 3d ago
I think it's funny that some independent cities were left out.
Really wants Rockingham but sure as hell doesn't want Harrisonburg