Bacon's Rebellion

  • Youngkin Appointees Now a Majority in Virginia University Boards

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    With the announcement of his third round of appointees to the governing boards of Virginia’s public universities, Governor Glenn Youngkin has ushered in a new era for higher education in Virginia. For the first time in his two-and-a-half years in office, he will enjoy board majorities to back his priorities of free speech, intellectual diversity and affordable cost of attendance.

    However, the nominees face confirmation by the General Assembly early next year, and more forceful advocates for change could face resistance from within universities and their Democratic Party allies in the legislature.

    Developments at the Virginia Military Institute and the University of Virginia, where Youngkin appointees enjoy support from well-organized alumni groups, especially bear watching. Old Dominion University could prove to be a wild card as well.

    At VMI the appointments represent a clear victory for traditionalists, building on the election of a new slate of board officers in May. John D. Adams, a McGuire Woods attorney from Richmond and 2017 Republican candidate for Attorney General, replaced Tom Watjen, a Northam appointee. Watjen had been a stalwart supporter of Superintendent Cedric T. Wins and the contentious effort to re-make VMI after former Governor Ralph Northam accused VMI of being systemically racist. The new board wins plaudits from alumni offended by the racism epithet, the implementation of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI), and what they view as a relaxation of standards.

    The implications of a Youngkin-appointed Board at the University of Virginia, by contrast, are unclear. UVA Rector Robert D. Hardie, a Northam appointee, has not stepped down, and there is uncertainty about how committed the new Board will be to challenging the administration of President Jim Ryan. Although Youngkin and close advisers have signaled their unhappiness with the politicized social-justice agenda at Virginia’s flagship university, the Governor declined to appoint Joel Gardner, a UVA alumnus whose passionate advocacy and deep knowledge of the University would have made him a force to be reckoned with on the Board.

    Also worth watching is Stanley Goldfarb, a University of Pennsylvania alumnus and founder of the Do No Harm organization opposed to “gender-affirming” care, DEI and racial preferences at hospitals and medical schools nationally. His appointment at ODU comes on the heels of the university’s merger with the Eastern Virginia Medical School.

    (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

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    James A. Bacon

    From The Bull Elephant

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

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    James A. Bacon

  • Governor, Pick Fighters for the UVA Board

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    James A. Bacon

    Note: The Jefferson Council released this open letter to Governor Youngkin today. He released his nominations for university board seats shortly after. — JAB

    28 June 2024
    Glenn Youngkin
    Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia

    Dear Governor Youngkin,

    You are getting close to the June 30 deadline for announcing five new nominees to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors. As of July 1, your appointees will comprise a Board majority for the first time in your two-and-a-half years in office. To leave a lasting legacy, however, you cannot nominate business-as-usual candidates.

    UVA’s rector, Robert Hardie, is a Northam-era holdover, and he works with President Ryan to set the agenda, frame the discussion, and control the flow of information of the Board. Both men support the status quo, and both will have the backing of administrators, faculty, and student leadership who are hostile to your vision for the University.

    You need to nominate fighters willing to ask hard questions and shrug when their names are dragged through the mud. Don’t appoint passive candidates to avoid stirring up controversy. They will accomplish nothing.

    You also need to set clear priorities.

    The Jefferson Council offers the following:

    Address astronomical tuition cost and administrative bloat. The cost of attending UVA is pricing out the middle class, especially for out-of-state students. You have called upon all Virginia universities to cut costs and tame tuition. Cosmetic, one-time cuts won’t accomplish your goal. (more…)

  • Lies, Damn Lies, and Presidential Debates

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Virginia played prominently in the disinformation spewed by President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in their first 2024 presidential debate last night. Biden brought up the seemingly unkillable canard that Trump referred to the White supremacists in the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville as “good people.” Meanwhile, Trump asserted that former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam said it was OK to “rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month and kill the baby.”

    Predictably, conservative news sources called out Biden for his false claim, liberal sources criticized Trump for his, and both sides ignored the failings of their preferred candidate.

    One would think that with video, transcripts, and Google searches, bad information would have a short life span. But it is a perverse characteristic of human nature to repeat a meme that confirms one’s worldview and reject evidence of its inaccuracy. This foible is a trait not only of the great unwashed but highly educated elites who presume that they know more than the hoi polloi.

    Let’s look first at the “good people on both sides” untruth, which I have blogged about before and watched with dismay as it has proven as indestructible as the Terminator.

    (more…)

  • Charlottesville Gas Study Not Pointing To Elimination. Yet.

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    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    Charlottesville is one of three Virginia municipal governments that still owns and operates a natural gas distribution utility. With the current political hostility to all forms of hydrocarbon energy, the future of that utility is under debate and its customers will soon have a chance to speak up.

    The listening sessions follow other stakeholder sessions and a presentation earlier this year to Charlottesville City Council. It included some recommendations about the future of the utility, but notably not any path toward eliminating it. Not yet anyway. (more…)

  • Some Homeless Deserve Compassion, Others Don’t

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule this week on a case that will determine if local governments can criminalize the homeless for sleeping in public, even when shelters are unavailable, reports The Virginian-Pilot. Citing National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) figures, the newspaper notes that there were nearly 6,000 homeless people in Virginia on any given night in 2018, including nearly 1,500 in Hampton Roads.

    Bing image creator: homeless encampment in the style of Hogarth

    Unsurprisingly, the Pilot devotes much of its story to quoting advocates of compassion for the homeless.

    “We cannot arrest and punish our way out of homelessness,” said Isabel McLain, director of policy and advocacy for the Virginia Housing Alliance. “We have to provide affordable housing and support services for people to be healthy and stable. Housing someone in a jail does nothing for improving their life and it cost the state a lot of money as well.”

    “I think it’s a tragedy that we have gotten to the point in this country that we want to criminalize people who are unable to pay for housing,” said Antipas Harris, chief executive director of the Urban Renewal Center in Norfolk. “It is a travesty for humanity.”

    Utter nonsense. It’s worth making two points regarding indiscriminate compassion for the homeless.

    (more…)

  • A Curious Appointment

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Banci Tewolde, newly-appointed director of the Dept. of General Services Photo credit: Richmond Times Dispatch

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Governor Youngkin has appointed Banci Tewolde as director of the Dept. of General Services (DGS). She will fill the vacancy created by the sudden departure last December of Joe Damico, who had served as deputy director for 16 years and as director for the last six years. It is a curious appointment for a complex agency that is in the middle of a turf battle between the governor and the legislature.

    DGS does not have a high public profile, but, within state government, it is well-known and its operations affect every state agency in some way. 

    Tewolde is an attorney. Her career in Virginia includes serving on the staff of the Norfolk sheriff. From there, she joined the state Attorney General’s office as an Assistant Attorney General. Her duties included providing legal advice to agencies in the public sector, particularly the Dept. of Corrections, and representing them in court. She became a protégé of Marla Decker, the Deputy Attorney General for criminal issues.

    After Bob McDonnell, the Attorney General for whom Tewolde was working, was elected Governor, he appointed Decker as Secretary of Public Safety.  Tewolde soon followed as McDonnell appointed her to coordinate the development of his statewide re-entry initiative and she was assigned to Decker’s office.

    Toward the end of McDonnell’s term, Tewolde transferred to the Dept. of Planning and Budget (DPB) and was named the manager of the section that oversees the budget development of agencies in the public safety area. [Disclosure:  For the last several years in which I was a budget analyst in DPB’s Public Safety Section, Tewolde was the manager.]

    (more…)

  • Youngkin Tackles Maternal Health Disparities the Right Way

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Governor Glenn Youngkin has launched an initiative to address disparities in maternal healthcare outcomes, and he’s doing it right. Rather than presupposing what the problem is and what the solutions are, he is resurrecting the Task Force on Maternal Health Data Quality Measures to do a deep dive into the data to find out how outcomes can be improved.

    African-American, indigenous and Hispanic women, as well as women in rural and underserved communities, suffer higher mortality rates during pregnancy and in post-childbirth. The question is why. It is commonly said that “systemic racism” is to blame. If so, then part of the solution logically entails subjecting doctors and nurses to bias training, finding physicians for pregnant women who “look like them,” and pursuing other race-based remedies.

    But what if the different outcomes are more closely tied to socioeconomic status, distance from medical offices, or the patients’ own behavior?

    (more…)

  • Virginia Dems Find Enemies to the Left

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    At Virginia’s Democratic Party convention three days ago, Senator Tim Kaine wrapped up the proceedings with a good old-fashioned bashing of the party’s political opponents.

    “Democrats like building. Republicans like to tear down,” he told the party faithful, as reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

    “There is a battle between those who stand up and stand together and those who would tear us apart, and we are faced with the greatest teardown artist in the history of American politics,” he said, referring to former President Trump.

    The irony of Kaine’s remarks, at least as reported by the RTD, is that he had nothing to say about the pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had disrupted the convention earlier in the day. A group of banner-carrying protesters had walked down the main aisle as a woman screeched — and I mean screeched — “Democrats, Democrats, can’t you see? Gen-o-cide is your legacy!”

    (more…)

  • VCEA Fans and Foes Both See Failure Looming

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    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    There is a growing recognition that the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) as written is going to fail. Both those who strongly believe in its goal of ending the use of hydrocarbon fuels, and those who consider that idea nothing but fool’s gold, see major problems on the horizon. 

    There is also a large middle group that would like to see less reliance on hydrocarbons, and greater reliance on wind and solar for generating needed electricity but see danger in totally abandoning reliable natural gas. Sadly, most Virginians are not paying any attention at all. They should.   (more…)

  • The Battle Over African-American History

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    James A. Bacon

    “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” — George Orwell

    by James A. Bacon

    One version of “unwhitewashed” history.

    The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is working on revisions to an advanced-placement course on African-American history, and the forces of wokeness are agitating to preserve the ideological framework they wrote into the course description four years ago. In short, they seek to ensure that the full four centuries of the African-American experience in Virginia is interpreted through the prism of systemic racism.

    That’s not the spin on the story you’ll read in The Washington Post, of course. In an article published today the Post accuses the Youngkin administration of foisting its worldview on K-12 school students by, among other things, “striking some references to ‘white supremacy’ and ‘systemic racism.’”

    There was plenty of racism and oppression in Virginia’s past, to be sure, and the course doesn’t shy away from any of that, according to evidence in the Post’s own article. What’s at issue is the conceptual framework for thinking about race, slavery, Jim Crow, civil rights, and contemporary race relations. The wokesters, who approach history as the playing out of intersecting forms of oppression, aren’t content to have teachers present their ideology as one way to think about race relations. They want the course to reflect their viewpoint throughout.

    (more…)

  • A Taste of His Own Medicine or Hypocrisy at its Greatest

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    State Sen. John McGuire and Donald Trump

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    State Sen. John McGuire (R-Goochland) is an ardent and vocal supporter of Donald Trump, who constantly questions the integrity of the electoral process and still peddles the lie that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen. McGuire attended the Jan.6 “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C.

    McGuire challenged incumbent U.S. Rep. Bob Good in the Republican primary for Fifth Congressional District. According to the latest unofficial results reported by the Virginia Department of Elections, McGuire leads Good by 346 votes out of more than 62,000 votes cast.

    U.S. Rep. Bob Good (R-Fifth District)

    As reported by the Virginia Political Newsletter, Good is not accepting the results. In an e-mail to his supporters, Good, without citing specifics, said, “Unfortunately, we are finding much to question and challenge during this canvassing process — This election must not be certified. … We must prevent this election from being certified, due to the many concerns about its integrity.”

    McGuire’s response: “Rather than accept his fate and the will of the people, Bob Good has chosen to undermine the integrity of Virginia voters,” said Sean Brown, a consultant for McGuire’s campaign.  “His antics now are beneath the dignity of a soon to be former elected official.”

  • Jeanine’s Memes

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    James A. Bacon

    From the Bull Elephant

  • Another Learning Skill Abandoned

    Posted on

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Can your grandkids read this?
    Courtesy of National Archives

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Recently, I was listening to a story on NPR about the cyberattack of a company that provides software to auto dealerships across the country for managing sales and other services. This incident had significantly slowed activity in approximately 15,000 dealerships.

    Besides contemplating the implications of businesses in all parts of the country relying on the same software platform, thereby increasing their vulnerability, I was struck by the comment made by one dealer being interviewed. He said that they were relying on handwritten notes for sales, repair instructions, etc. However, they had to be particular about how they prepared those notes because none of the employees under the age of 30 could read cursive.

    Based on my experiences with my grandchildren, this did not come as a great revelation. But it underscored the fact that we are raising generations, including future historians, who will not be able to read the originals of the journals, personal letters, and official documents that comprise so much of the basis our past. There will likely be a need for persons trained in reading and “translating” cursive writing.

    Some will dismiss this as the nostalgic longing of an old fart for the past.  Most of the important documents have been transcribed digitally and more are being done so every day. Besides, hardly anyone can read that fancy handwriting from the past now, anyway. (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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