Bacon's Rebellion

  • More Nitwittery at UVA

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    Ben Doherty. Photo credit: The Daily Progress

    by James A. Bacon

    Ben Doherty, a librarian for the University of Virginia School of Law, was arrested in May during the break-up of the pro-Palestinian encampment, one of 26 detained after defying repeated orders to disband. The trespassing charges against him were dropped, and he suffered no administrative sanction from UVA itself. But he’s still posing as a victim.

    Doherty’s beef: the law school sent him a “letter of counseling” saying that “future conduct of this kind … will very likely result in disciplinary action up to and including termination.”

    UVA insisted to The Daily Progress that the letter was not a disciplinary action. Indeed, it detailed no consequences for anything Doherty had done, but gave him fair warning of potential consequences for what he might do in the future.

    Still, Doherty interpreted the letter as an effort to “chill” his freedom to protest. “To me, it’s a written threat of termination for participating in a protest,” he told the newspaper. “It feels pretty material to me. I think they are using the idea that it’s not a disciplinary action to get away with not following the law.”

    Doherty felt his rights so threatened that he and some 30 others marched with impunity down the Lawn last week toward Madison Hall, site of President Jim Ryan’s office, proclaiming loudly, “Pro… test is a right! That is why we have to fight!”

    (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

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    James A. Bacon

    From The Bull Elephant

  • FOIA Fighter

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Walter Smith at the Henrico County courts building

    It was a quiet Monday afternoon in the Henrico County General District Court, and Walter Smith thought he might have the University of Virginia on the ropes. Smith, an attorney and retired insurance industry executive, had spent much of the previous three years using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), trying to pry open documents lending insight into UVA decision making. He had been stymied repeatedly on various grounds, including the assertion that the records he sought were exempt presidential “working papers.” But this case was different.

    This time Smith had asked for text messages between University police chief Tim Longo to the Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingely regarding a meeting President Jim Ryan had asked Longo to set up with the local prosecutor. The purpose: to discuss an April press release explaining why the University was withholding release of an independent report into the slaying of three football players in 2022. The local newspaper, The Daily Progress, had obtained the text messages through a FOIA request and published some of them, and Smith wanted to see the complete records. By the time he filed his request, however, he was told they no longer existed — even though, according to UVA’s records-retention policy, the University was supposed to keep text and email messages for three years.

    UVA attorney Robert M. Tyler took on the awkward task of explaining to Judge B. Craig Dunkum why the texts were deleted: Longo’s phone, set on Apple’s default setting, auto-deleted them. There were no sanctions in the state code spelling out a penalty for such an occurrence. 

    Dunkum accepted Tyler’s argument that the deletions were not deliberate, but he pronounced himself “troubled.” “If you can delete the records … somehow, that doesn’t seem right to me,” he said. “It rewards bad behavior.”

    (more…)

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

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    James A. Bacon

  • Spanberger Bill Brings Looming Social Security Shortfall Closer

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    By Andrew Biggs

    Virginia Rep. Abagail Spanberger, (D)

    Over 300 members of Congress from both parties, including Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rep. Abigail Spanberger, are pushing for legislation that would grant a nearly $200 billion Social Security benefits windfall to a group that neither paid for these benefits nor truly needs them. (She advocated it in the Richmond Times-Dispatch this morning.) That legislation, called the Social Security Fairness Act, is actually anything but. As costly as this bill is, the topic is so complex that many people have little idea what is happening. Here I’ll explain the issues.

    Social Security’s benefit formula works more or less as follows. When a person goes to claim benefits, Social Security’s computers look back at the earnings the person received under jobs that were covered by Social Security. The computer adds these earnings up, and divides by 35 to produce an annual average, which is then converted to a monthly average. Those Average Indexed Monthly Earnings are then run through a progressive formula in which Social Security benefits are paid equal to 90 percent of the first xx on monthly earnings, 32 percent of earnings between x and y, and 15 percent of earnings between y and the maximum amount of that’s subject to payroll taxes.

    Because of the progressivity of the benefit formula, Americans with low average earnings receive a higher “replacement rate” than those with higher average earnings. For instance, imagine a middle-income employee who earned the national average wage each year throughout their career. At retirement, they would receive a Social Security benefit equal to about 43% of their pre-retirement earnings.

    Now imagine a much lower-income worker who earned just 25% of the national average wage throughout their career. They would receive a Social Security benefit equal to about 80% of their pre-retirement earnings. In other words, the lowest earners receive about twice as much benefit per dollar contributed as does a middle-income worker.

    There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s how Social Security was designed.

    (more…)

  • Self-Absorption Is a Right! That Is Why We Need to Fight!

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    James A. Bacon

    Yesterday a group of masked protesters marched down the Lawn to the Rotunda at the University of Virginia demanding a meeting with President Jim Ryan. Spliced among their chants in support of Palestine and against Israel, they intoned the moronic slogan, “Pro… test is a right! That is why we have to fight!” View the video here.

    JAB going ballistic

    Dudes, no one blocked your right to protest! You’re protesting right now, and no one is stopping you! Not only that, you’re recording your own protest and posting it online! Nothing is happening to you. No one is paying attention. No one cares. What on earth are you whinging about?

    Perhaps the marchers were alluding to the shutdown of the pro-Gaza encampment at UVA in May after students were warned repeatedly to disassemble the tent gathering and, when they refused, were broken up by state police. Several were arrested, charged with trespassing, let out of jail, had the trespassing charges dropped, and even had their infractions of the Student Code of Conduct dropped.

    Those demonstrators weren’t arrested for protesting…. which they had been doing for days. They were arrested (but never punished) for violating the same time-manner-place restrictions every other UVA student must abide by. If such drivel is what constitutes college-level thinking these days, the only demand the protesters should be making is for a tuition refund.

    — JAB

     

  • Can Virginia Survive Federal “Debt Doom”?

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    I call it “Boomergeddon.” Blogger-columnist-law school prof Glenn Harlan Reynolds calls it “Debt Doom.” Whatever you call it, the fiscal meltdown of U.S. government finances is nearly inevitable. The only meaningful questions are how long it takes to happen and how to survive it.

    Reynolds and I are hardly the only people worried about the impending deficit-induced crash. There’s a vast community of gold-bugs and crypto-jockeys who believe the same thing. But Reynolds is the first I’ve seen (other than yours truly) to explore the implications for state governments. He, like I, says it’s time now for states and businesses to prepare themselves for a collapse in federal finances and capacity.

    First a quick refresher. Uncle Sam posted a $1.8 trillion deficit in fiscal 2024 — not during a recession, not during a time of war, but during a period of peacetime economic expansion. Most of the deficit is structural, in that spending consists increasingly of entitlements and interest payments on $35 trillion in debt. The Congressional Budget Office projects that the deficit will exceed $2.8 trillion within 10 years — and that doesn’t take into account all the spending that both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have promised to enact if they get elected president. A likely trigger for crisis will come by 2033 at the latest, when the Social Security Trust Fund runs dry, payments will be cut roughly 25%, and Congress has to figure out what to do about it.

    (more…)

  • UVA to Theta Chi: Evict Brothers from Frat House. Theta Chi: No.

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    AI-generated image. Credit: Bing Image Creator

    As part of the punishment meted out for hazing infractions, the University of Virginia ordered Theta Chi fraternity to kick 10 brothers out of its Charlottesville frat house or risk having its sanction extended beyond four years. Refusing to break its leases and throw its members onto the street, the fraternity has asked the university to reconsider the sanction.

    In June the University of Virginia terminated the Fraternal Organization Agreement (FOA) with the Theta Chi fraternity for hazing offenses, including making pledges eat a concoction with habanero peppers that caused some to vomit. The decision required the fraternity to “[cease] all operations, including any acts that may be construed as the operation of an ‘underground’ organization” until the 2028-29 school year.

    An underground organization, states the Hazing Misconduct Report, “may include a group of students who in any way were affiliated with Theta Chi at the University and/or who continue to represent themselves as a successor organization to Theta Chi.”

    That included 10 students who had signed leases the previous October to live in the Theta Chi house. If they were allowed to stay, the Student Affairs office informed the fraternity, Theta Chi would be in violation of UVA’s order and the clock could be set back a year for when the fraternity would be allowed to be participate again as a university-affiliated organization.

    (more…)

  • Subramanyam’s Fire-Fighting Credentials Questioned

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Audrey Carpenter

    Suhas Subramanyam

    Despite Virginia State Senator Suhas Subramanyam’s frequent references in his campaign literature and biographical material as a volunteer firefighter and EMT in Loudoun County, he was actually recommended for termination.

    According to an internal personnel file, in November 2019 Captain Hector R. Rodriguez, Jr. of the Ashburn Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department recommended Subramanyam be fired after he failed to adequately meet department standards. Subramanyam ultimately separated from the department. He served less than two years.

    Subramanyam consistently mentions his role as a volunteer EMT and firefighter in his website, campaign literature and marketing material, crediting his time as a firefighter as the basis for his service to the community.

    (more…)

  • Now They’re Going After Shrines

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    James A. Bacon

    — The Virginia Council

    The Virginia Council is troubled by an ongoing initiative at the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park (FSNMP) to change its interpretation of Stonewall Jackson’s legacy at the Stonewall Jackson Death Site. Known to many Virginians by its old name, the Stonewall Jackson Shrine, the Death Site is the building where Jackson died after being wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville.

    In July of this year, FSNMP personnel put up hand-lettered signs at the Death Site. They questioned how Jackson’s legacy has been and should be viewed. To put it mildly, these signs cast Jackson’s legacy in a skeptical, almost disapproving manner. FSNMP has reworded those signs, but the new wording leaves the impression that FSNMP personnel are uncomfortable with how Jackson’s legacy is currently portrayed and feel that it needs to be changed. Pictures of the signs can be seen here.

    This Virginia Council is concerned, because of a pattern that we Virginians have seen played out across the Commonwealth in the past few years: an attempt by elites and activists to object to any positive mention of any Confederate in the public sphere. It is time to push back. Enough is enough. 

    (more…)

  • Elon Musk Stirs the Pot

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Mark Coakley, Henrico County registrar Photo credit: Richmond Times-Dispatch

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    They won’t let it go. On Oct. 6, Elon Musk reposted a tweet from November 2023 claiming that there was election fraud in Henrico County in the 2020 election. According to the tweet, “election integrity leaders” had discovered that, in ten Henrico precincts, more people voted than there were registered voters in those precincts. Based on this work, an “expert” concluded that there were 15,572 fraudulent votes in Henrico alone.

    How could this have happened without election officials or party observers somewhere along the line noticing? For example, how could 1,260 people vote in the Spottswood precinct when there were only 1,120 registered voters in that precinct, and nobody notice the discrepancy? The answer is that it did not happen.

    A local community newspaper, the Henrico Citizen, contacted the county registrar for an explanation. To get the numbers they did, the “election integrity leaders” somehow aggregated the number of persons voting in person in each precinct with the number of absentee votes per precinct. The result was that more than 100 percent of the registered voters voted in some precincts.

    (more…)

  • Academic Excellence Slipping at T.J.

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Source: Virginia Department of Education Build-a-Table database

    In 2021 the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology changed its standards with the goal of admitting more “marginalized” minorities. Scrapping its rigorous admissions test, Fairfax County imposed wholistic criteria which, according to the school’s Wikipedia page, incorporate “grade point average, a math- or science-related problem-solving essay, a student portrait sheet demonstrating skills and character, and details about a student’s socio-economic background….”

    The immediate result was a decline in the percentage of Asian-American students from 73% to 54%.

    A secondary result was a tumble in T.J.’s national ranking from the No. 1 high school in the country to No. 14.

    Perhaps the most disturbing result has been a fall-off in academic excellence. The number of semifinalists recognized by the National Merit Scholarship plummeted from 157 in 2020 to 81 for the 2025 award, according to the UnHerd blog.

    The same slide in performance is captured in the percentage of T.J. Students who scored “Advanced” on their math and science Standards of Learning (SOL) scores from around 90% pre-COVID to the mid-40s in 2023-24, the most recent academic year for which the SOLs were tested. (See the table atop this post.)

    (more…)

  • The Local Car Tax: Still Hated, Still a Target for Repeal

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    by

    Steve Haner

    By Kimberly Pinter and Callahan Burton

    Governor Gilmore was right. His “No Car Tax” slogan resonated with all Virginia vehicle owners and catapulted him to the Virginia Governor’s mansion in 1997 with 56% of the vote.

    The tax is universally hated and perceived as unfair. You pay good money for a car (plus sales tax!), more to insure it and fill up the tank, and even more to maintain it (and perform mostly unnecessary annual inspections). And then you’re hit with an annual tax for the pleasure of owning the vehicle. Worse, Virginians pay the highest car tax rate in the country, with an average effective rate of 4.05% and average annual bill of $1,011. No wonder young people are moving out of the commonwealth.

    Car Tax Day for commonwealth residents has similar significance as April 15 does to all Americans nationwide. It is a day that every Virginia car owner dreads. It is the day when the locality where you live demands its pound of flesh simply because you own a car.

    Why, in 2024, are we still paying this tax? What happened to Governor Gilmore’s promise?

    (more…)

  • Availability of Surgery in Virginia Jeopardized by Reforms in Neighboring States

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    sherlockj

    Availability of Surgery in Virginia Jeopardized by Reforms in Neighboring States

    By James C. Sherlock

    The essential debate on COPN (Certificate of Public Need law) in Virginia has boiled down to imaging and ambulatory surgery centers, and whether those services should be regulated under the program

                                     Kate Masters, Virginia Mercury, 2020

    Fast forward to last week. Your author visited his orthopedic surgeon to begin a process he had been putting off – the replacement of his left knee.

    That surgeon’s orthopedic group is located in a very large facility in Virginia Beach near the Norfolk boundary.

    • Because of COPN, that practice does not even have MRI capability. They must send patients elsewhere, and patients must schedule yet another appointment for MRIs in order for the surgeons to complete their diagnoses;
    • They conduct their surgeries in Sentara facilities. For the entirely compelling reason that, thanks to COPN, there is nowhere else to do them.

    Old news, you may say.

    But repealing the imaging and ambulatory surgery center provisions of COPN just got more urgent. Four more southeastern states, including neighboring North Carolina and Tennessee, are doing so. Maryland already has.

    Surgeons, like all of us, will go where they are welcome.

    (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    From The Bull Elephant

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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