Bacon's Rebellion

  • Coming Soon to a 2nd Grade Classroom Near You – Critical Whiteness

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    sherlockj

    Coming Soon to a 2nd Grade Classroom Near You – Critical Whiteness

    by James C. Sherlock

    Marx believed the economic system determines the nature of social, political, and intellectual life.  The University of Virginia (Main Campus) School of Education and Human Development has established itself as a leader in Marxist thought in education.  

    This author thinks that Virginians will learn from that school’s “Critical Whiteness Study Group.  It is not helpful (nor perhaps possible) to summarize what these self-defined scholars have written, so it is quoted below.

    What is the Critical Whiteness Study Group?

    Basically, this book group is open for anyone to join our shared reading and critical discussions about disrupting white supremacy culture (e.g., racial hierarchy, white privilege, capitalism) at the root of the inequity. This is the first year of our grant funding, and we aim to meet monthly over the summer to discuss a book that addresses whiteness and disrupting white supremacy. At each meeting, we will vote on the next book to read together, beginning with Margaret Hagerman’s 2018 book “White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America,” which is a critical ethnography of ethnic-racial identity development in White, affluent children.

    Mission and Vision

    • To support emerging and established scholars committed to doing research that advances equity.
    • To deepen understanding of Critical Whiteness Studies through reading and discussion.
    • To critically examine existing research and literature that addresses white supremacy culture (e.g., How will we apply CWS to our research?  What are the commitments/next steps of extending anti-racism from personal work to community action to empirical evidence?  What are existing strategies for dismantling whiteness? And how do we research them? How does our research perpetuate or disrupt oppressive norms?).
    • To connect emerging and established scholars for potential future research collaborations.
    • To extend beyond our knowledge of individual, institutional, and systemic oppression toward research on how to address white supremacy culture.
    • To promote equitable climate at EHD and UVA by expanding the offering of equity-focused learning and collaboration opportunities.

    Well.  What to take away?

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  • The Source of All Evil: Data Centers!

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    Steve Haner

    Jefferson Forum’s President Derrick Max puts out a Sunday morning summary that only some of you probably see, and I cannot really link to it for you. But today’s email had a useful and entertaining riff on the ongoing efforts to demonize Virginia’s data center industry, a clearly coordinated hit job from the left and its media allies. The following is useful to consider as the Democratic Trifecta in charge of Virginia continues to fight over how to (not whether, but how to) punish the data centers for their unforgiveable success in meeting market demands…

    14.) Data Centers don’t damage schools. The Virginia Education Association, argues that the state’s aggressive tax incentives for data centers are draining vital resources from the K-12 education system by “costing” $212 per student because of the school’s loss of $267 million — their portion of the tax incentives granted to this industry. The authors fail to understand that data centers are one of the most significant positive revenue sources for Virginia localities. While the authors focused on the state sales tax exemption, they failed to understand that data centers contribute hundreds of millions to local budgets annually, which are the main funder of our schools. They also fail to understand that the revenue from data centers does not require expenditures for new schools and roads and other public services as data centers are a relatively low employment sector. The teacher’s union also failed to mention the investment the data centers make to improve local power grids, roads, and fiber-optic networks, providing public benefits that would otherwise have to be funded by traditional taxpayers. Give it to the left, when they hate an industry, they can count on the teachers to do their bidding – even with false data if necessary.

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  • “Death to America”

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    James A. Bacon

    The event was not registered as required by university policy. But Virginia Tech allowed it to proceed unimpeded at McBryde Hall, Room 202.

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  • Bacon Meme of the Week

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    James A. Bacon

    Close-up of crispy bacon strips laid out on a surface with a humorous caption about needing a hug or bacon, featuring a container of Denny's Bacon Salt in the corner.

  • Classrooms or Campaigns?

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    James A. Bacon

    Virginia legislators have passed three bills this year to dilute and politicize history and civics instruction in public schools, accelerating the undeniable trend of indoctrination in the state’s public schools.

    by Stephanie Lundquist-Arora
    Published originally in IWFeatures

    Last week, a Fairfax County mother said her twin 14-year-old sons were each encouraged by two public school civics teachers to urge their parents to vote in favor of the state’s partisan gerrymandering referendum. According to the mother, the teachers used similar talking points, including urging a “yes” vote to make Virginia’s maps “as fair as they can be” and to “stop [President] Donald Trump at all costs.” 

    Those teachers are likely satisfied with their efforts to disenfranchise Virginia’s conservative and independent voters. The measure ultimately passed by a 51.5% to 48.5% margin. In Fairfax County, 69.5% of voters voted “yes,” in favor of liberally colonizing their southern neighbors. For now, the matter is in court, where multiple lawsuits are challenging the referendum as unconstitutional and unlawful. 

    Some families might have been shocked to hear that their public school teachers were behaving in such a blatantly partisan manner. Those of us in Fairfax County, however, are used to it. And the problem of inappropriate politicization in classrooms is likely to get worse with the Democratic Party controlling both the General Assembly and the governor’s office. 

    In fact, state Democrats already have introduced three new laws to bolster activist teachers’ efforts to indoctrinate public school students in leftist ideology. Beginning in academic year 2026-2027, for example, HB182 will permit students to substitute African American History courses for the World History I course or the World Geography course to satisfy history and social studies graduation requirements. 

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  • No Kings…

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    James A. Bacon

    Except when they’re coming to visit. Then we love them.

  • Lawsuit Challenges Virginia’s Abortion Amendment as Deceptive

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    James A. Bacon

    Physicians are suing to block a ballot question they say conceals the true scope of the legislation.

    A pregnant woman in a striped long-sleeve shirt and black pants gently cradles her baby bump while standing against a plain background.

    by Victoria Manning

    A group of physicians and other medical professionals along with a local voter have filed a lawsuit challenging an abortion-related constitutional amendment on Virginia’s ballot this November. The complaint alleges that the ballot question adopted by the General Assembly fails to inform voters about significant and potentially harmful provisions in the adopted legislation.

    The amendment would overturn significant aspects of Virginia regulatory authority, including overturning parental consent requirements and abortion safety standards.

    The Founding Freedoms Law Center (FFLC) filed the suit on behalf of the plaintiffs, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, the Virginia Medical Freedom Alliance, and Meagan Kade, against the Virginia Department of Elections and others. The complaint alleges the ballot language fails to notify the voters of key aspects of the legislation.

    The actual ballot question says:

    Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to (i) protect the freedom to make personal decisions about prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion, miscarriage management, and fertility care; (ii) protect doctors, nurses, and patients from being punished for these decisions; and (iii) allow for restrictions on access to abortion during the third trimester of pregnancy except when the patient’s health is at risk or the pregnancy cannot survive?

    The legal challenge alleges the ballot language “profoundly misleads by omission and misrepresentation.”

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  • Natural Gas Dominates PJM’s Future Plans

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    Steve Haner

    Projects in the new PJM interconnection queue. From the PJM news release.

    by Steve Haner

    And the winner, again, is natural gas.  The 13-state PJM Interconnection regional electricity market announced this week that it has reopened its process for adding new generation and most of the new electrons are proposed to come from natural gas. 

    The news release reports 811 applications for future connection to the regional grid, with a total faceplate energy value of 220 gigawatts. Almost half of the faceplate energy output, 106 gigawatts, would come from natural gas plants if all the applications are approved and –- the big if -– if all the plants get built.

    Nuclear projects around the region are the source of the second largest amount of new energy on the list, with about 18 gigawatts proposed. Only 15 gigawatts of solar projects made the list, supplemented by another 9 megawatts of solar combined with co-located battery storage. 

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  • After the Vote, What’s Next for Virginia’s New Rigged Maps?

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    James A. Bacon

    by Ali Ahmad

    A political cartoon depicting two groups pulling on a rope across a chasm, representing a debate over legislative maps and constitutional review. One side holds signs stating 'Our maps are final' and 'Legislative intent,' while the other side displays 'Constitutional review' and 'Fairness is mandatory.'

    Between Friday March 6th and Tuesday April 21st, a narrow majority of Virginia voters went to the polls (or to their mailboxes) and voted in favor of the disenfranchisement of rural Virginia, as part of a national effort to make New York Representative Hakeem Jefferies the Speaker of the House next year.

    Of course, without shamefully deceptive ballot language and tens of millions of dollars of outside money, the vote easily could have gone the other way. And while it’s over, it has yet to be certified, and when, or even if, that happens is an open question.

    Legal

    Monday April 27 saw the long-awaited oral arguments at the Supreme Court of Virginia (SCOVA) in Scott v. McDougle (named after the Democrat Speaker of the House and the Republican Senate Leader).

    I corresponded with Zachary Werrell, an attorney and author who is an expert in both Virginia law and politics. Werrell noted that both sides received tough questions and cautioned against reading too deeply into courtroom dynamics or trying to parse the intensity of the justice’s questions to each side.

    He did note, however, that both of the justices who did ask questions were “locked onto” two key issues:

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  • Virginia Supremes Deny Emergency Appeal to Certify Gerrymander

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    James A. Bacon

    by Scott Dreyer

    On April 28, the State Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal from Attorney General Jay Jones to certify the ballots from the April 21 yes/no gerrymandering election. This means, instead of the high court now greenlighting an acceptance of the results from the controversial election, they will continue to deliberate before issuing their opinion, thus keeping the final result unknown for now.

    As reported here, on April 21, a preponderance of late-reporting “yes” votes from Fairfax County pushed the “yes” side to victory, with a margin somewhat over 80,000.

    Map showing the results of the April 21 Gerrymander Election in Virginia, with blue counties indicating 'Yes' votes and red counties indicating 'No' votes.
    Results from April 21 Gerrymander Election. Blue is Yes, Red is No. Note how the areas poised to gain the most power, voted Yes: NoVa, Richmond, UVA area. (map/Del. Wren Williams’ Facebook page)

    However, on April 22, Judge Jack Hurley in Tazewell County issued an injunction banning the state from certifying the ballots. In the case he heard, RNC v. Koski, Hurley objected to what he described as the “biased” wording of the ballot question as well as state laws the “yes” side broke to bring the issue to a vote. (In contrast to many other Roanoke-area media outlets that gave scant or zero coverage to Judge Hurley’s ruling, The Roanoke Star covered the important story here.)

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  • Let Your Rage Fuel You

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Here are four words I never thought I’d utter: Abigail Spanberger was right.

    During the campaign she urged Virginia to be fueled by rage. Well, after watching the patently illegal shenanigans by the “10 effing 1” Democrat crowd I’m feeling the rage and it’s fueling my desire to see Southern states go scorched earth on congressional redistricting.

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  • Maintaining the Narrative: Lies by Omission

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    James A. Bacon

    Question: Has a Virginia newspaper, TV station or public radio station yet reported on the DOJ allegations against the Southern Poverty Law Center funding of racist groups?

    An elderly man wearing glasses and a visor sits at a desk cluttered with newspaper clippings and tools. He holds a newspaper with the headline 'SPLC funded Unite the Right Rally,' looking serious and concerned.
    Image credit: Copilot

    Copilot: No Virginia-based newspaper, TV station, or public radio outlet has yet published coverage of the DOJ’s April 2026 indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

    As of late April 2026, searches across The Richmond Times-Dispatch, Virginian-Pilot, Roanoke Times, WVTF Public Radio, VPM News, and WRIC 8News show no articles, broadcasts, or press releases referencing the DOJ’s allegations that the SPLC funded or paid informants within racist or extremist groups.

  • Left-Wing Money Paid For Deadly 2017 Charlottesville “Hate Rally”

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    James A. Bacon

    A street filled with a large crowd of people participating in a march, with buildings on either side and a banner above reading 'Diversity Makes Us Stronger'.
    Counter-protesters near Emancipation Park during the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally. Image courtesy of Anthony Crider / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

    by Scott Dreyer

    On April 21, when many Virginians were focused on the gerrymander election, the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) made a bombshell announcement: The innocuously-named Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which for decades has posted a “Hate Map” where they targeted many right-wing individuals and groups, often including those holding pro-life, biblical, and/or conservative views, was charged with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

    In sum, the accusation from a grand jury claims the SPLC ran a kind of massive shell game. The SPLC portrayed themselves to the public and their donors as a left-wing group fighting what they branded as “hate,” but in fact they were funneling more than $3 million of their donor’s cash to the very right-wing groups they claimed to fight, so that those right-wing groups would become more visible, which would further frighten and outrage SPLC donors to give more money, so that the SPLC could then give to more right-wing groups, in a never-ending cycle.

    One of the most high-visibility cases involves $270,000, which the SPLC allegedly paid to a member of the online leadership chat group that planned the 2017 so-called “Unite the Right” hate rally in Charlottesville.

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  • How the Southern Poverty Law Center Con Infiltrated Every Power Pillar in the U.S.

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    James A. Bacon

    We can finally stop pretending cries of ‘racism’ are anything more than failed leftist political talking points.

    by Beth Brelje

    When the Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) last week on 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering, it revealed how urgently the Left has perpetuated the myth of American racism to stoke public unrest and steer politics. But the indictment doesn’t tell the entire story of how—under the guise of fighting racism—SPLC infiltrated the highest levels of government.

    Imagine a fire department that sets lots of fires, then asks for donations to fight this “big fire problem.” That’s how Steve Cortes, founder of the League of American Workers and former advisor to Donald Trump, described the disgraced SPLC’s actions in a call with Restoration News.

    IRS Form 990 for Southern Poverty Law Center, indicating gross receipts of $339,397,303 for the calendar year 2023.

    Although the $339 million, tax-exempt nonprofit has gotten rich and powerful claiming otherwise, the United States is not inherently racist.

    “The demand for racism from the Left far exceeds the actual supply,” Cortes told Restoration News. “So, what does the Left do in lieu of actual racism? It concocts it. It devises, and engineers, and gins up, and in some cases just completely lies about purported racism in American society.”

    SPLC took donor funds collected to fight for “racial justice” and “dismantle white supremacy,” and gave huge payments to the very extremist groups it said it was fighting, the DOJ indictment alleges.

    Extremist partners move politics

    After the DOJ followed a trail of documents and bank records, it concluded that “between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million in donated funds to individuals who were associated with various violent extremist groups including: Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, Unite the Right, National Alliance, National Socialist Movement, Aryan Nations affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, National Socialist Party of America (American Nazi Party), and American Front,” according to a DOJ statement.

    The deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” event in Charlottesville, Virginia was stoked by SPLC, the indictment shows. The rally is remembered for the images of men marching with flaming tiki lamps, and for killer James Alex Fields Jr. accelerating his car into a crowd of people, murdering Heather Heyer and injuring 30 other protesters. Fields got life in prison after pleading guilty.

    (more…)

  • Vacationing on Sharp’s Island

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    James A. Bacon

    by Jon Baliles

    Apologies for being away from the keyboard, but when dealing with and reading and writing about the City of Richmond, everyone deserves (and needs) a little R&R now and then. So while I am away, take a visit to Sharp’s Island in the middle of the James River just west of the Mayo Bridge and south of Mayo Island. It is a one-acre piece of sand and rock that was purchased by avid outdoorsman Andy Thompson and 10 other local families in 2019. Richmond BizSense had a great story about it that year in which Thompson said:

    When recruiting friends to purchase the island, Thompson said reactions generally fell into one of two categories.“It’s almost like a personality test,” he said.

    “Some people are like, ‘Case closed, I’m in.’ Then some people are like, ‘What’s wrong with you? Why would you buy an island?’ It’s hilarious the reactions you get.”

    (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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