Bacon's Rebellion

  • Spanberger’s Backfiring Gun Stance

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Joe Thomas

    Image credit: Grok

    Who is the best gun salesperson in Virginia? Gov. Abigail Spanberger—that’s who.

    According to the FBI background check registry—more about that in a moment—there were 124,319 firearm background checks conducted just in the month of June. Wrap your head around that. That’s more privately owned firearms sold just in June than exist in the entire country of Iran—that is, unless you count the ones all the Kurds kept that were supposed to be distributed to civilians so they could stand up to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but I digress.

    What has Virginians rushing out to their local gun shops and gun shows to make sure they can defend themselves is the idea that maybe they won’t be able to very soon.

    Two Virginia judges have issued preliminary injunctions blocking the enforcement of the assault weapons ban.

    A Washington County judge granted the most recent injunction, and a Lancaster County judge issued a similar order the week before. Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones claims that these only impact Washington and Lancaster counties and not the state at large. However, the list of law enforcement officers and commonwealth’s attorneys who refuse to enforce these restrictions—calling them unconstitutional—continues to grow.

    (more…)

  • Virginia Court Halts Spanberger’s AR-15 Ban, Delivering Major Victory to Gun Owners

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    James A. Bacon

    After months of legal battle and Second Amendment uncertainty, a court order temporarily blocked Virginia from enforcing a ban on AR-15s.

    by Bronson Winslow

    Virginia gun owners secured their first major courtroom victory June 26 after a Lancaster County Circuit Court judge granted a temporary injunction against Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s sweeping ban on the sale and transfer of AR-15s.

    The injunction was secured by the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL), Gun Owners of America (GOA), and Gun Owners Foundation (GOF). Those groups argued that Virginia’s newly enacted “assault firearm” ban violates both the Virginia Constitution and the Second Amendment. The ruling delivered a timely setback to one of the most extreme gun control laws in the nation.

    “Article I, Section 13 is the commonwealth’s recognition of a pre-existing right with which Virginians were endowed by their creator, and it operates as a fixed limitation on the power of government to enact legislation affecting firearms,” the plaintiffs said in a motion.

    For now, the court’s order prevents the Virginia State Police from enforcing the law while the constitutional challenge proceeds. The law would have taken effect July 1.

    (more…)

  • PJM’s Heat Wave Warning

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    The grid runs on reality, not wishful rhetoric

    by Derrick Max

    Image credit: Grok

    The July heat wave that pushed PJM toward record electricity demand should force Virginia policymakers to confront an uncomfortable truth: the electric grid does not run on mandates, slogans or wishful thinking. It runs on power that is available when people need it.

    During this heat wave, PJM — the regional grid operator serving Virginia and all or parts of 12 other states and DC — came within striking distance of its all-time summer demand record and may well have exceeded it once emergency demand reductions are counted.

    PJM’s measured July 2 peak reached 162.3 gigawatts, just below the old 2006 record of 165.6 gigawatts. But Steve Haner, writing in Bacon’s Rebellion, noted that about 6 gigawatts of demand had been shed through emergency demand-reduction programs. Add that curtailed load back, and underlying demand likely exceeded the old record, even if the official metered peak did not.

    That distinction matters. PJM did not avoid a crisis because the needed power was comfortably supplied. It avoided it because emergency tools shaved demand at the moment of greatest stress. Grid failure is no longer a theoretical policy debate — the grid is operating near the edge. 

    (more…)

  • Meanwhile, in Richmond… America Not Feeling the Love

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    James A. Bacon

  • Roadside Islamic Rallies Coming to a Town Near You

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Muslims of different nationalities living in the United States gather to perform Eid al-Fitr prayer, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan at the Dar Alnoor Islamic Community Center in Prince William County, Virginia. Photo rendered in style of Mughal Indian art by Grok.

    by Pedro Rodriguez

    The town of Woodbridge, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C., was recently home to a public roadside march of Islamic supporters who chanted sayings in a foreign language, beat their chests, and flew flags written in Arabic.

    The scene was captured in a video posted on X.

    Amy Mek, founder of the Rise, Align, Ignite, Reclaim Foundation, described the march on social media as an organized event from the Mohammadia Center of Virginia, a group that describes itself as “a cornerstone for the Shia Muslim community in the Washington metropolitan area.”

    The Mohammadia Center of Virginia did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment.

    “Another show of force in the Old Dominion. Democrats are celebrating their demographic conquest,” Mek wrote. “Shia Muslims marched through the streets of Woodbridge yesterday in a full Ashura Juloos – flags flying, chants echoing, the whole imported ritual on public roads.”

    (more…)

  • PJM Probably Reached Record Demand Thursday

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    Steve Haner

    by Steve Haner

    A proprietary energy industry newsletter shared with Bacon’s Rebellion reports that the PJM Interconnection regional electricity grid probably set a summer record for demand on Thursday, July 2. The old peak of 165,563 megawatts in the 13-state region was seen in 2006.

    The system maintained its service by activating demand reduction programs forcing big users to shed about 6,000 megawatts of load but never issued an order for the large data centers to turn on their backup generators. With the demand reduction efforts, Thursday’s (and the weekend’s) peak was about 162,700 but if you add the shed load back in the old peak was passed. 

    A “deploy all resources” order was issued to Dominion and two other Mid Atlantic load serving entities for the first time since that was added to the emergency toolbox a decade ago.

    This new peak claim is one observer’s conclusion and not an official PJM pronouncement. That will come later. Dominion Energy may have set a new summer peak. But the numbers cited match observations I made during the five-day hot spell, constantly opening the PJM Markets and Operations website to watch for a new peak. PJM was posting emergency directives not seen since last winter’s bitter cold spell.

    (more…)

  • No Queens: Stop Tyranny in Virginia

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    From pot to pork, the Democrats’ budget will cost every Virginia adult an extra $3,880.

    by Victoria Mannning

    Virginia’s state motto, “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” or “Thus Always to Tyrants,” declares that virtue and just governance always defeat tyranny. Yet Virginia Democrat leaders have become the tyrants.

    Led by Gov. Abigail Spanberger, they ignore the Constitution and use the budget to pass sweeping marijuana laws, give themselves a hefty raise, and waste hard-earned taxpayer dollars on DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) pork.

    On July 1, some of the most extreme legislation in Virginia’s history takes effect. Democrats have solidified their long-standing goal of disarming law-abiding citizens by adopting broad anti-Second Amendment laws to tighten control over Virginians. They also used budget negotiations to implement dangerous marijuana laws that failed to pass in the regular legislative session.

    The final pork-laden biennial budget totals $207 billion, a staggering $24 billion increase from 2024. With roughly 6.7 million people aged 18 and older in the state, that amounts to $3,880 more per adult compared to former Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s budget.

    Thomas Jefferson must be turning over in his grave.

    Senator Louise Lucas’ pot shops

    For weeks, Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee Chair Louise Lucas claimed she wouldn’t approve the budget unless it included an elimination of tax breaks for data centers. Lucas even went on a “data center listening tour” across the state, referring to Spanberger as a “data center diva.” Yet when the final, agreed-upon bill was released, the tax exemption remained—alongside 149 new pages of legislation authorizing retail marijuana.

    (more…)

  • The Left Tinkles on America’s Birthday Party

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Did anyone else’s spidey senses go off the minute they saw this Reuter’s photo that the corporate media labels “chilling”?

    Lemme get this straight: These white supremacists took the metro to a downtown D.C. march this weekend and a freelance photographer just happened to be in the same rail car where a lone black woman was also riding? Oh, and this is the only metro car in the world with no ads or signage?

    Sorry. This looks staged. Prove me wrong.

    Reuters published the photo and the left engaged in the usual theatrics.

    Anyone else remember the last time the media told us to be frightened because the Patriot Front was out and about? Continue reading.

  • Jeanine’s Memes

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    See more memes at The Bull Elephant.

  • A Birthday Letter to America

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Chap Petersen

    Image credit: Grok

    A long time ago, I was a freshman at an elite New England college, just graduated from Fairfax High School. (“F-A-I-R-F-A-X-R-E! B-E-L-S, Oh yes! Those Rebels are best!”).

    On a gorgeous fall morning in 1987, I was taking a class in Colonial American history, when the topic turned to the American Revolution. The professor asked the class whether it was truly a “revolution” or merely a reordering of the pre-Marxist power structure.

    Of course, I fell for the bait. The American Revolution was different, I opined. It changed the world by basing government on democracy, not aristocracy.

    The professor laughed and pulled a nickel out of his pocket. This is the home of Thomas Jefferson, he declaimed, the author of American liberty. He then passed it around the class, so everyone could examine Jefferson’s modest abode.

    The point was clear: Jefferson was not a “democrat” in any modern sense. He was a gentleman planter, a slaveowner. The Revolution he spawned was a myth.

    In the past five years, as I’ve done research for my upcoming book, I’ve confirmed what I had suspected that morning:

    My learned Marxist professor was not just wrong — he was spectacularly wrong.

    (more…)

  • Three Founders. One Day. One Destiny.

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by David Botkins

    On July 4, 1826, Americans gathered across a still‑young republic to celebrate a milestone some believed we’d never reach: the fiftieth anniversary of independence. Church bells rang. Cannons fired. Citizens reflected on how far the country had come since that audacious summer in 1776.

    Then the news spread. Thomas Jefferson was dead. Hours later came another report. John Adams was dead as well.

    Two architects of the American experiment, gone on the same day the nation marked its birth. Five years later, on July 4, 1831, James Monroe — another president, another founder — also died.

    Three Founders. Three presidents. One date.

    Whether one sees coincidence, providence, or simply one of history’s remarkable convergences, the symbolism is hard to ignore. The timing reads like a passing of the torch from the founding generation to the nation they helped create.

    Jefferson gave America its language of liberty. Adams gave the cause its fierce defense. Monroe guided the republic through its formative years and left a foreign‑policy doctrine that shaped American statecraft for generations. Their personalities clashed. Their visions diverged. Yet each devoted himself to an unprecedented experiment in self‑government.

    (more…)

  • Happy 4th!

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

  • Virginia as California — but with 98% Humidity

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

  • Golf, Data Centers and the Water Crisis

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    From Rod D. Martin on X:

    US golf courses use 531 billion gallons of water per year. That’s down from 759 billion gallons per year in 2005 and is 0.5% of total annual water withdrawals in this country. And somehow, the country manages to not look like the Sahara Desert.

    Meanwhile, data centers – the things actually powering the future instead of your uncle’s 18th hole mulligan – use somewhere between 17 and 70 billion gallons annually. That’s 0.017% to 0.070% of total withdrawals.

    Or, for the math-challenged among us, roughly 3-14% of what the golf courses are using.

    Sure, plopping a massive data center in the middle of nowhere without proper planning and infrastructure can stress local water systems. That’s called “basic engineering,” folks, not some apocalyptic thirst apocalypse.

    But these lurid headlines screaming that AI is going to suck the rivers dry and leave us fighting over the last drop like Mad Max at a Buc-ee’s? Read the whole post.

  • Catch and Release

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Footnote: The X post should describe Arevalo as an alleged rapist.

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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