Bacon's Rebellion

  • Cline Does DOGE

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    From L to R: Vivek Ramaswamy, Elon Musk, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Rep. Ben Cline

    by Scott Dreyer

    In his Dec. 9 emailed newsletter, Sixth District Congressman Ben Cline (R) wrote about his government-efficiency planning with Elon Musk that immediately followed the Thanksgiving holiday. Cline wrote:

    “I recently joined Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk (and his son!) to discuss transformative ideas aimed at improving government efficiency and accountability through the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). As a member of the new bipartisan DOGE caucus, I shared insights from the Republican Study Committee’s Balanced Budget Task Force report, which lays out 150 practical solutions focused on restoring fiscal responsibility, curbing wasteful spending, and cutting through the bureaucratic red tape.

    “We are fully committed to tackling government inefficiencies head-on. Together, the DOGE and our bipartisan caucus are ready to prioritize legislative efforts that will reduce our federal deficits. With innovative thinkers like Musk and Ramaswamy bringing fresh perspectives to the table, we will fight to create a more effective government that serves the American people.”

    (more…)

  • Will Helicopter Dollars Improve Virginia Schools?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Governor Glenn Youngkin is dumping money into Virginia’s public education system like a liberal Democrat. He’s not putting the funds to work in the quite same way — there’s more for accountability measures and Lab School Partnerships — but it’s hard to see a big difference.

    I don’t know if he’s just bowing to the political reality that Democrats control the General Assembly and he might as well claim credit for what Dem politicians would compel him to do, or whether he genuinely believes that dropping helicopter dollars onto the K-12 system is the best path to improvement.

    Either way, Virginia is conducting a vast and expensive public policy experiment. We’ll find out if lack of funding is really what ails public schools.

    In a press release issued last week, the Governor boasted that with additional proposals to amend the 2025-26 budget, spending on K-12 education in the Commonwealth will leap to more than $22 billion over this biennium — a 54% increase over pre-COVID levels.

    “Today’s investments address the real needs of our students and families by delivering on our commitment to unleash opportunity, raise the bar for academic excellence, and keep our children safe,” Youngkin said.

    (more…)

  • Outside Study Confirms Natural Gas Must Remain for Data Centers

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    Another analysis of the energy dilemma facing Virginia, this one commissioned by a Democrat-controlled legislative panel, has concluded that the use of natural gas to make electricity is going to have to grow over coming decades, not shrink. Virginia’s anti-hydrocarbon energy laws are doomed to fail because of the data center industry.   

    The new 150-page report takes its own look at Virginia’s future energy demand and the best mix of generation to meet it. It reaches the conclusions Dominion Energy Virginia also reached in its most recent integrated resource plan (IRP). Data centers by themselves are driving an enormous future demand curve, as Dominion claimed. The abandonment of coal and natural gas demanded by the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) creates an energy deficit, even if the data center growth proves slower than the current projections.  

    In fact, this report projects natural gas will remain necessary beyond the mandated retirement dates in the VCEA even if the data center growth doesn’t happen. It plugs the gap in some scenarios by using hydrogen in place of natural gas in thermal energy plants. But that remains an unproven, experimental technology not used at scale anywhere. An entire new very expensive infrastructure would be needed to create and transport the hydrogen to power plants.    

    Only fantasy technology can comply with the fantasy VCEA. The nuclear plants it envisions are somewhat closer to reality, but still years if not decades away. “In the absence of policy, there is still a significant role for coal and gas generation, comprising another ~30% of demand,” the consultant reports. This on a slide marked “No Data Center Growth, No VCEA.” Carbon emitting sources are even more prominent on scenarios that include the demand growth. 

    (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    From The Bull Elephant

  • Off the Interstate: Virginia Gold

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    This solitary place name marker is next to an abandoned gas station in Fauquier County. Unlike other such markers that I have written about, this one is not on a back road; it is along heavily-traveled Rt. 17 between Fredericksburg and Warrenton.

    This marker is different in another respect: It merits an official highway historical marker. That marker informs the reader that “Thomas Jefferson stated in NOTES ON THE STATE OF VIRGINIA (1782) that he found gold-bearing rock weighing approximately four pounds near this site.“ It goes on to note that 19 gold mines had been in operation in that area.

    The Division of Geology of the Virginia Department of Energy reports that “gold was mined extensively in Virginia from the early 1800s until the peak of gold production in 1849.” After large deposits of gold were discovered in California in 1848, production of gold in Virginia decreased significantly. The last recorded production was in 1947. The division has identified almost 500 former gold mine sites in the Commonwealth.

    Most of the former sites lie within a “gold-pyrite belt,” a nine-mile to sixteen-mile-wide, nearly 140-mile-long geological unit that extends from Fairfax County to southwestern Buckingham County. The largest concentration of historical gold mines are in Buckingham, Fluvanna, Louisa, Goochland, and Spotsylvania counties.

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  • Capping Marine Mammal Harassment Constrains Offshore Wind

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by David Wojick

    Image credit: Bing image Creator

    Prior to approving offshore wind development NOAA routinely authorized the loud noise harassment of large numbers of whales under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). New research by Professor Apostolos Gerasoulis shows that this harassment is causing a lot of whale deaths.

    For example, it is known to cause deafness which can easily be deadly. But harassment need not cause deafness to cause death. Offshore wind arrays that occupy a hundred square miles or more are typically built in low ship traffic areas with high traffic nearby. Harassment can simply cause the whales to avoid the low traffic area and spend more time in heavy ship traffic leading to an increase in deadly collisions.

    The same is true for lightly versus heavily used fishing areas where avoidance leads to increased entanglement. Ship strikes and entanglement are the two leading causes of whale deaths. Ironically the wind defenders say that increased ship strikes and entanglements show that wind is not causing increased death rates when they are actually strong evidence against wind.

    (more…)

  • UVA Has Ignored Its Longstanding Antisemitism Problem

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Joel Gardner is president of The Jefferson Council.

    by Joel Gardner

    The Daily Progress recently reported on perhaps the most staggering antisemitic incident in what has become a long list of antisemitic incidents at the University of Virginia.

    According to the story, a Jewish student had been continuously subjected to antisemitic ridicule and bullying by one of his housemates, which culminated in written threats and ultimately the alleged perpetrator brandishing a gun at him in his own room. The target of these threats courageously reported the incident to the police and the alleged offender was arrested, released on bail and reportedly suspended from classes. Another housemate who allegedly supplied the perpetrator with the gun was also suspended from classes.

    Quite an outrageous story—but one you wouldn’t know about if you hadn’t read it in the DP—because neither the UVA administration nor any of its news organs has publicly commented on it. This is not surprising since this has been the administration’s modus operandi when it comes to antisemitic behavior. Yet given the fact that three UVA students were murdered by a handgun just two years ago, one would expect a serious public reaction to this event by the administration.

    The truth is that UVA has had a longstanding antisemitism problem that was exponentially exacerbated following the brutal massacres in Israel that occurred on October 7, 2023. The fact is that UVA’s administration has watched as one serious antisemitic incident after another occurred after 10/7 without public comment as to the antisemitic nature of these incidents —
    and perhaps even worse, it has consistently refused to admit that antisemitism on Grounds is a distinct and singular problem. For proof, as one famous sports commentator in NYC used to say, “Let’s go to the videotape.”

    Continue reading.

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    From The Babylon Bee

  • Sentara’s Opportunity to Improve Hospital-to-Nursing Facility Patient Transitions

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    Courtesy of Sentara Norfolk General Hospital

    by James C. Sherlock

    Sentara Healthcare in October announced an important initiative to improve the quality and availability of primary care. It will double number of advanced practice providers (APPs) in its primary care facilities.  

    APP refers to nurse practitioners, physician assistants, clinical nurse specialists, certified registered nurse anesthetists, or certified nurse midwives.

    In order to shift administrative duties away from physicians and APPs, the teams will also include medical assistants, clinical pharmacists, and others. Hopefully the others include dietitians.

    It is a great idea.

    I have a suggestion that can leverage that investment in a way that offers to both:

    • benefit patients, hospitals and skilled nursing facilities; and
    • save a great deal of patient, payer and facility time and money.
    (more…)

  • Youngkin’s No-Lose Proposition

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Tattooed alien with guns. Image credit: Bing Image Creator

    Governor Glenn Youngkin wants to eliminate sanctuary cities in Virginia. He faces tough opposition from Democrats in the General Assembly, but I see the issue as a political winner no matter what the legislative outcome.

    The Governor announced yesterday that he plans to introduce a budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year that would withhold police and jail funding from localities that refuse to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities seeking to detain illegal immigrants already in local custody.

    Dozens of Virginia localities have adopted policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities to varying degrees. With the term “sanctuary studies” in bad odor, some have rebranded their policies as “building trust” with immigrant communities for purposes of combating crime. But the practical effect is the same.

    If Democrats want to take the pro-criminal side of the immigration debate, then they’re committing electoral suicide. Do they really want to be painted as defending the rights of violent Salvadoran MS-13 gang members like Melvin Canales Saldana — sentenced to life in prison for involvement in multiple murders — to stay in the U.S.?

    (more…)

  • Still Crucial to Shine Light on Educational Disparity

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    Barbara Johns, a participant in the Prince Edward County school walkout.

    By Chris Braunlich,

    More than 70 years ago, black and white students in Virginia received separate and very unequal educations.

    In They Closed Their Schools, author Bob Smith writes that in Farmville, a city not unlike the rest of Virginia, the white public school built after a 1939 fire “had a gymnasium, cafeteria, locker rooms, infirmary and an auditorium with fixed seats.” Moton High School, built for black students in 1939, had none of these. Constructed to accommodate 180 students, by 1950 it held 470 – so many that the school held three classes in the auditorium (“one on stage, two in the back”), and occasionally a class on the school bus. The white schools had none of that.

    Those buses had been discarded by the white schools, as were the textbooks, as were other supplies. Teachers were paid about 40 percent less than white counterparts. And the curriculum for black students emphasized vocational training, especially agriculture … which coincidentally allowed courses to be taught outdoors and relieve the overcrowding that forced students to be taught in “tarpaper shacks.”

    That dual system muddled along for nearly four decades until, in 1951, 16-year-old Barbara Johns shined a spotlight on it when she led students in a walk-out to demand equal education. She faced opposition not only from a white education establishment but also from an older generation of black leaders worn down by time. Her own attorneys, notably Oliver Hill, questioned the effort but ultimately the light she shone resulted in her cause becoming part of Brown v. Board of Education.

    Over time (too much time), educational inputs narrowed significantly. But educational outcomes remained lower than desired and achievement gaps remained large.

    (more…)

  • Rolling Back “Protections” — What Does That Even Mean?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Wordsmiths. Image credit ChatGPT

    “He who controls the language controls the masses,” left-wing activist Saul Alinsky famously wrote in his 1971 book, “Rules for Radicals.” A modern-day example is how cultural elites have smuggled their language about the transgender movement into popular discourse.

    Axios Richmond had this to say this morning about a change in Chesterfield County school policy: “Chesterfield School Board voted early Wednesday to roll back some protections for transgender students that have been in place since 2021.”

    The changes will (1) give parents more input about the counseling services their children receive, (2) require parental permission to call trans-identifying children by a different name, and (3) forbid the district from forcing students or staff to use a student’s chosen name or pronouns if it “would violate their constitutionally protected rights.”

    Axios has framed the issue as “rolling back protections for transgender students.”

    The reporters could have just as easily framed the issue as Chesterfield advancing the rights of parents… but didn’t.

    (more…)

  • Flyover Country’s Budget Dilemma

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Dwayne Yancey, founding editor of Cardinal News, may be the most prolific purveyor of commentary in the Old Dominion (although I try to give him a run for his money). He loves making deep dives into the data. He’s often insightful and his tone is always reasonable. I do quibble, however, with the way he has framed his commentary today.

    “Those of us who live in rural areas like to think of ourselves as independent and self-reliant,” he writes. Ironically, the data show that rural American communities are among the most dependent in the country upon government transfer payments.

    Yancey is too stout of an advocate of rural/western Virginia interests to draw the same conclusion that some of our friends on the left do: that such dependence marks residents of “red” flyover country as hypocrites. He notes correctly that the dependence upon federal largesse reflects the fact that rural populations are older than suburban/urban populations and, therefore, a higher percentage qualifies for Social Security and Medicare — which, I might add, they have been paying into their entire lives.

    “This isn’t a case of lazy, shiftless Americans milking the system so they can live on the dole, the classic tale of the “welfare queen,” Yancey says.

    (more…)

  • Index Taxes for Inflation Before Raising Legislator Pay for Inflation

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    Only part of the story, the part that best justifies a big pay increase.

    The Virginia General Assembly is maneuvering to raise its own pay to adjust for decades of inflation. To do so without showing similar consideration for the impact of inflation on Virginia taxpayers should be cause for a voter revolt. 

    No tax code indexing, no pay raise.   

    To its credit, the staff at the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) has been fair in noting the impact of inflation on Virginia’s frozen tax provisions and bracket amounts, as well as on the frozen legislative salaries. It focused on the tax code first, before producing this week’s report on legislative compensation.  

    The report recommended the first pay raise since 1988 and was reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch as the conclusion of a fiscal “watchdog.” JLARC is a creature of the legislature, producing a report commissioned by a legislative resolution. The legislators who sit on it, with Democrats now in the majority, cannot hide behind their hired staff on this one.  

    The report and its accompanying slide deck are short and worthy of review.  Most people are aware that legislators are paid a salary, but JLARC gets into the details of the full compensation General Assembly members receive for their services. To borrow a phrase from the Bard, there is no reason to sit upon the ground and tell sad tales of the poverty of legislators. Quite the contrary. 

    (more…)

  • Is Newer Necessarily Better?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Image credit: Bing Image Creator

    Governor Glenn Youngkin will propose $290 million in extra funding for new public-school construction in the 2025-26 fiscal year, the Governor’s Office announced yesterday. That will bring the total amount of construction dollars in the biennial budget to $700 million, and the total allocated since Youngkin took office in January 2022 to nearly $2 billion.

    Naturally, the Virginia Education Association says that’s not nearly enough. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, VEA President Carol Bauer said years of underinvestment and inflation mean the backlog of new school construction is increasing about $1 billion yearly. The governor’s one-time funding proposal, she said, “doesn’t even keep pace with the annual growth of our backlog, let alone make meaningful progress in reducing it.”

    Moral of the story: No amount of money is ever enough. The education lobby always wants more.

    No one is asking some basic questions: Could school districts extend the lives of existing buildings by spending more on maintenance? Do new schools even improve academic achievement? If not, what’s the need for them? Could money be spent better in other ways?

    (more…)

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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