Bacon's Rebellion

  • The Mughals, the West, and Slavery

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    James A. Bacon

    A double standard rankles in the Virginia Museum’s otherwise marvelous exhibit about the Mughal dynasty.

    Image credit: the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

    by James A. Bacon

    The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) is displaying an extraordinary exhibition of 200 paintings, manuscripts, textiles, furniture, and works of artisanship from the Mughal dynasty, which ruled the northern Indian subcontinent from 1526 to 1857. It is an impressive collection, and it sheds light on a remarkable civilization of which most Americans know little to nothing.

    The VMFA is gushing in its description of the artistic achievements of three of the most celebrated Mughal emperors: Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan.

    From the tiniest jeweled objects to the monumental wonder of the Taj Mahal, this highly sophisticated and globally connected empire produced treasures of unparalleled splendor and magnificence.  

    The extraordinary creative output of the imperial ateliers conveyed the Mughals’ great wealth and power. In addition to glorifying the emperors, these diverse artistic productions also signaled worldliness. Descendants of a Central Asian prince, these cosmopolitan emperors presided over a multicultural court that fused Indian and Iranian cultures and regarded the empire’s array of languages and religions with great interest. 

    Splendor. Magnificence. Sophistication. Worldliness. Cosmopolitan. Diverse. Multicultural. These are the words the VMFA uses to describe the dynasty.

    To anchor the Mughal timeline in a historical context with which most visitors are familiar, placards in the exhibit take note of events taking place in Europe and the Americas. Thus, we are informed that in 1607, the Virginia Company established Jamestown, and two years later an Englishman arrived in the court of Emperor Jangahir to negotiate an agreement for the East India Company.

    I found the comparative information to be useful. But then there was this: In 1619, the placard states:

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  • Beyer Kowtows to the Left

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    James A. Bacon

    But don’t be shocked if challenger Mo Seifeldein knocks off the establishment Congressman in next month’s Democratic primary.

    Don Beyer debates his four primary opponents July 1.  Photo: Arlington NOW

    by Ken Reid

    Don Beyer is a desperate man – so desperate to keep his House seat (VA-8th), the former two-term lieutenant governor, ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein under Obama, and Falls Church Volvo dealer has been taking votes and making moves to avoid becoming the next Democrat Party Old Bull to bite the dust in a primary to a more-Leftist challenger.

    Beyer has denounced President Trump’s proposed “arch” on land in Arlington, has legislation (backed by Sen. Tim Kaine lately) to rename the Robert E. Lee Mansion at Arlington Cemetery “Arlington House,” and was among the 103 House Democrats to vote to cut off all military aid to Israel. The other Virginia rep who did that was Bobby Scott (D-3rd).

    These Beyer legislative moves are designed to mollify the growing far Left base in his district, which includes the ultra-liberal communities of Arlington, Alexandria, Falls Church and inside the Beltway in Fairfax County.

    Beyer lost to Jim Gilmore for Virginia governor in 1997 and left politics, but after serving an ambassadorship under Obama, he came back in 2014, winning retiring Rep. Jim Moran’s (D) U.S. House seat.

    Beyer, who turned 76 in June, faces four opponents in the Aug. 4 Democratic Party primary but only two seem to have an outside chance of knocking him off and continuing the trend this year of Leftist Democratic Socialists unseating establishment Democrats in low-turnout primaries in Deep Blue cities.

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  • Virginia’s Competitors Should Be Thrilled We Believe Our Own Press Release

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    James A. Bacon

    by Chris Saxman

    If you run economic development for North Carolina, Florida, or Tennessee, CNBC’s #3 ranking for Virginia is good news.

    Not just because their methodology is wrong (who knows? It changes every year), but because of what it does to us — it keeps us complacent and less willing to make the necessary changes in order to be competitive.

    In 2023, Bloomberg ran a story about how in just two years 2.2 million people moved to the South.

    Click here:

    A $100 Billion Wealth Migration Tilts US Economy’s Center of Gravity South Some 2.2 million people moved to the Southeast in just over two years. That’s roughly the population of Houston.

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  • The Great Seal of Virginia Turns 250

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    James A. Bacon

    by Rich Tucker

    Virginians were busy 250 years ago this month. In Philadelphia, of course, Virginians were leading the 13 Colonies into the war that would free them from the British Empire. But others remained in Williamsburg, where the Virginia Convention was hard at work shaping what an independent state would look like.

    It ratified the Virginia Declaration of Rights, adopted the first written Constitution of Virginia, and elected Patrick Henry as the Commonwealth’s first governor. The convention also created a state seal, which has lasted just as long as the Declaration of Independence itself.

    George Wythe is credited as the leader of the committee that created the seal. He worked alongside other patriots, including George Mason, Richard Henry Lee, and Robert Carter Nicholas, to craft a timeless design. You’ve seen it on flags, driver’s licenses, and any official state document, because it is still in use today.

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  • Followup on Mail-in Ballots

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    In response to my recent article on the Postal Service and mail-in ballots, Randy Hoffman posed a good question.  In effect, his question was:  What is all the fuss about if the Postal Service is going to use a state’s list of mail-in ballots?

    The article had focused on the federal court decision enjoining the implementation of President’s Executive Order and Postal Service regulations in the 23 states, including Virginia, that were parties to the suit.  Because I did not have a good answer to Hoffman’s question at hand, I decided to dig deeper.  Note: In Virginia, we are used to referring to absentee ballots, but Virginia law now allows “no excuse” absentee voting, although registered voters must request a ballot to be mailed in.  However, some states, such as California and Utah, send mail-in ballots to all registered voters.  For the sake of simplicity, this article will use the general term, mail-in ballots.

    The previous article dealt primarily with that portion of the President’s Executive Order that concerned how the Postal Service would deliver mailed-in ballots.  However, the Executive Order needs to be considered in its entirety to understand its possible ramifications and to understand why a large number of states challenged the Order in court.

    Section 2 of the Order directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to compile and submit to each state “a list of individuals confirmed to be United States citizens who will be above the age of 18 at the time of an upcoming Federal election and who maintain a residence in the subject State (State Citizenship List).  The State Citizenship List shall be derived from Federal citizenship and naturalization records, SSA records, SAVE data, and other relevant Federal databases.”

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  • Bacon Meme of the Week

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    James A. Bacon

  • USPS and Absentee Ballots

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    At the end of March, President Trump issued an executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security to compile a list of persons eligible to vote in a federal election in each state.  The executive order also directed the United States Postal Service (USPS) to compile a list of eligible voters and prohibited it from transmitting a mail-in or absentee ballot completed by any person not on that list.

    To implement the requirements of the Executive Order, USPS announced that it would compile a list of eligible voters from voter rolls submitted to it by states. In accordance with the provisions of the executive order, It then went on to say that it would not deliver absentee or mail-in ballots from voters that were not on those lists.

    The order was immediately challenged in federal courts. The NAACP filed a challenge claiming that the Executive Order violated the provisions of an agreement regarding absentee ballots that the federal government and the NAACP entered into several years previously. The court agreed with the NAACP, thereby negating the Executive Order. However, an appeals court overturned the district court’s order, leaving the Executive Order in place.

    On another front, California and the attorneys general from 22 other states filed suit in another federal court challenging the Executive Order on different grounds. Their suit claimed that the Executive Order was unconstitutional because it violated the separation of powers.

    The court agreed with the states. Regarding the requirement that DHS compile a list of eligible voters, the court declared “the President lacks any authority to compile voter lists for each State.” As for the USPS announcement that it would not transmit absentee ballots from voters not on its list of “enrolled voters,” the court pointed out that “the Constitution reserves the power to determine voter eligibility to the States alone.” The court issued an injunction prohibiting the government from implementing the applicable provisions of the Executive Order. The federal government asked the court of appeals to stay the court’s order pending appeal, but its request was denied.

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  • Money Isn’t the Problem With Public Education

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    James A. Bacon

    1.4 million students, lower test scores, and a 34% increase in spending. What is going on with public education?

    by Shaun Kenney

    Recent numbers from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) offer a gripping overview of the state of public education in America. Fewer children to teach, lower test scores, and a massive infusion of federal cash to hire more teachers and administrators is evaporating post-pandemic — leaving state and local governments in the lurch.

    Tosin Akintola over at Reason outlines the results:

    Still, more money hasn’t led to better student outcomes. At each grade level and across subject areas, there’s a decline in current achievement when compared to student benchmarks from 2019. In 2024, the most recent data available, only 60 percent of fourth graders and 67 percent of eighth graders were reading at or above a basic level, the lowest performance tier used by the National Center for Education Statistics.

    It doesn’t get better as students age, with just 68 percent of high school seniors reading at or above a basic level.

    Of course, this is a very high gloss look. Pushing $190 billion in temporary relief during a pandemic perhaps served to highlight problems that have been cropping up in classrooms since the introduction of the smartphone. The ubiquity of artificial intelligence has introduced a degree of pragmatism in students conditioned to produced test results rather than engage in deep learning — again, another factor not easily measured by either the NCES or NAEP.

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  • Will Mamdani’s Anti-Israel Animus Cause Heartburn for Virginia?

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    James A. Bacon

    by Paul Goldman

    Virginia does more business with Israel per capita than any other state due our unique Virginia-Israel state agency. This distinction may soon put us in the crosshairs of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. He needs a new anti-Israel attack since his campaign promise just got exposed as phony.

    Mamdani has long said the Israeli policies toward Palestinians remind him of apartheid in South Africa. He sees Palestinians as the heirs to Nelson Mandela constituents. This tells me where he is likely to go next.

    Due to recent developments in New York City, the Mayor is suffering a social media credibility gap among anti-Israel progressive Democratic voters. They powered his upset Democratic primary victory last November. 

    Candidate Mamdani’s campaign promise — that if elected, he would order the NYPD to arrest Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited the United Nations — has recently been exposed as cynical voter manipulation. He knew the Mayor of New York possessed no such authority. But he made the campaign promise anyway to get votes.

    Accordingly, to save his credibility, I believe he will therefore soon champion a different anti-Israeli policy — boycotting the country — which defined his initial political activism.

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  • Pumped Storage Energy Facility May Help Meet Virginia’s Power Needs

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    James A. Bacon

    by Rich Tucker

    Virginia’s need for plentiful, reliable energy is increasing every year. Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin developed an “all of the above” program during his administration to tap into any available source of power. That included promoting technologies such as a fusion plant in Chesterfield. While the technology hasn’t been proven commercially yet, it shows potential to be the power source of the future.

    In October, Democrat Gov. Abigail Spanberger plans to unveil the 2026 Virginia Energy Plan to describe energy trends, identify challenges and opportunities across the energy system, and identify strategies that span 10 years and fit “the 2045 net-zero carbon energy economy for all sectors.”

    This week, Spanberger rolled out one piece of her plan, a statewide “Switch Together” program, which will promote the use of solar panels on residential homes. “By using the power of the free market, leveraging the Commonwealth’s buying power, and cutting out middlemen, we are creating significant discounts for families and businesses,” the governor said in a news release. She said the program could save a family more than $6,000 on the installation of solar panels.

    Another potential project is a pumped storage hydroelectric plant under development in Wise County. Pumped storage uses gravity to generate electricity by moving water from one reservoir to another.

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  • Virginia’s Tenants’ Rights Law: Marxist Mission Creep

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Why is it that leftists hate landlords?

    Is it the second syllable – “lords” – in the name? The fact that they are landowners? Or is it that landlords make fat, juicy targets when the left tries to gin up divisions between the so-called haves and have nots?

    Why do I ask?

    Well, in New York City, Zohran Mamdani’s vilification of landlords was the cornerstone of his mayoral campaign. One of his first actions in office was to pressure the city’s Rent Guideline Board to freeze the rent on about 1 million properties beginning October 1.

    Did they also freeze the utility bills on these frozen rentals? The city taxes? Insurance?

    Of course not.

    The evil landlord is expected to eat those skyrocketing costs because as everyone knows, all landlords are heartless fat cats who sit around at night, counting their money.

    What Mamdani doesn’t seem to know is that the best way to ensure that there is a shortage of rental units is to create an environment where there is no return on investments for the owners.

    NYC-style landlord targeting is beginning in Virginia where Democrats are crowing about the tenants’ rights measures they passed in the last session.

    As of July 1, tenants in Virginia now have 14 days – up from the current 5 – to squat in a rental unit before a landlord can begin eviction measures for non-payment. Continue reading.

  • Trickle Down Unaffordability

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    James A. Bacon

    Rising electricity costs impact local government cost structure. Are higher property taxes coming next?

  • Arlington Tops National Fitness Rankings

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    James A. Bacon

    Bikers along the W&OD trail make the turn on Simpson Circle next to Route 9, just west of Leesburg, Virginia. (Tracy A Woodward/The Washington Post)

    by Rich Tucker

    Things are really shaping up in the commonwealth. Arlington was selected again this year as the nation’s fittest city by the American College of Sports Medicine.

    “Arlington, Virginia, continues its long-standing position as the nation’s fittest city, reflecting strong performance across multiple indicators including physical activity levels, access to parks and recreational facilities, and supportive transportation infrastructure,” the group said.

    The American College of Sports Medicine’s index measures personal health behaviors, chronic disease outcomes, community infrastructure, and environmental factors to “provide a comprehensive picture of how well cities promote fitness and well-being.”

    Arlington is noted for its network of bike and pedestrian pathways that make it easy to get around by biking, walking, or running.

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  • Nominated!

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    James A. Bacon

    I am delighted to announce that my soon-to-be-published novel, “Trogs” has been nominated for the Prometheus Best Novel Award. Established in 1979, the Prometheus Awards recognize the best in libertarian-oriented science fiction and classic fiction.

    “Trogs,” the sequel to “Dust Mites,” is scheduled for release Sept. 8. Set in the year 2075, both novels chronicle the stirrings of a second American revolution in colonies on the Moon.

    There are several steps on the way to winning the award. I’ll keep Bacon’s Rebellion readers posted as to my progress — assuming I progress, that is. (If I don’t make the cut, I’ll just drop the subject!) — JAB

    Learn more about the Prometheus Awards here.

  • This Explains a Lot…

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    James A. Bacon

    No wonder state/local politics has become nationalized in the Old Dominion.

Now Available

Book cover of 'Dust Mites: A Second American Revolution' by James A. Bacon, featuring astronauts planting a flag with a blue and white emblem on a lunar landscape, with Earth visible in the background.
For sale on Amazon.com

The year: 2075. The American colonies on the Moon are getting restless under Washington’s tyrannical rule….

This second edition of “Dust Mites” has a snazzy new cover, includes helpful lunar maps, and is 5,000 words tighter than the original. The sequel, “Trogs,” is scheduled for publication this summer.

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Bacon’s Rebellion is Virginia’s leading politically non-aligned portal for news, opinions and analysis about state, regional and local public policy. Read more about us here.

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