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Jeanine’s Memes
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Forget Waldo! Where is ERIC?
by James Wyatt Whitehead, V
In 2012, seven states, including Virginia, formed the Electronic Registration and Information, Inc. (ERIC), with assistance from the Pew Charitable Trusts. Today, ERIC’s membership has risen to 32 states and the District of Columbia. ERIC’s mission is to assist states in maintaining accurate voting rolls.
Every 60 days, states that are members of ERIC send voting roll data to ERIC for analysis. Reports are generated and returned to the states who can then take any necessary action. The data sent appear to be the garden variety of voter information one would expect: who has moved in? Who has moved out? Who has died?
Security of the data seems to be of high importance to the leaders of ERIC. Membership in ERIC requires a one-time fee, plus annual dues. The budget requirements for ERIC are modest. What is not to like? ERIC provides a useful service to state election officials. Accurate voting rolls advance the common interests of all citizens.
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Unconstitutional Viewpoint Discrimination in Virginia K-12 Teacher Evaluation Standards
Daniel Gecker Esq., President of the Virginia Board of Education. Appointed to the Board of Education by Governor Terry McAuliffe and reappointed to a four year term by Governor Ralph Northam. Date of expiration of appointment – June 30, 2023 by James C. Sherlock
Progressives, in the fullness of their dogma, oppose the entire Bill of Rights.
The Bill of Rights is specifically structured to limit the powers of government, which progressives find not only unsuitable, but unimaginable.
In the Golden Age of Progressivism in Virginia, 2020 and 2021, they controlled the governor’s mansion, the General Assembly, the Attorney General’s Office and all of the state agencies.
With total control, they took flight.
They have always known what seldom occurs to conservatives not prone to offend the Bill of Rights.
With total control of state government, progressives can enact and have enacted laws, regulations and policies that violate both the federal and state constitutions.
They know it will take a decade or more for courts to push back. Meanwhile they can call opponents “haters.”
After which the worst that can happen is that nobody is held accountable. Except the taxpayers.
I just exposed unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination in the University of Virginia’s hiring process. that was implemented starting in 2020.
The same fertile progressive imagination is also present in the Board of Education’s new (in 2021) Standard 6. “Culturally Responsive Teaching and Equitable Practices performance indicators” (starting on page xv) in “Guidelines for Uniform Performance Standards and Evaluation Criteria for Teachers“(Guidelines). (more…)
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Electric Grid Reliability at Risk by 2030, PJM Says
by James A. BaconThe regional interconnection organization PJM has identified four trends that could put the reliability of the electric grid for Virginia and a dozen other member states at risk by 2030.
Dudes, that’s seven years away!
According to a new study, “Energy Transition in PJM: Resource Retirements, Replacements & Risks,” the four trends include:
- The growth rate of electricity demand is likely to continue to increase from electrification coupled with the proliferation of high-demand data centers in the region.
- Thermal generators are retiring at a rapid pace due to government and private sector policies as well as economics.
- Retirements are at risk of outpacing the construction of new resources, due to a combination of industry forces, including siting and supply chain, whose long-term impacts are not fully known.
- PJM’s interconnection queue is composed primarily of intermittent and limited-duration resources. Given the operating characteristics of these resources, we need multiple megawatts of these resources to replace 1 MW of thermal generation.
“For the first time in recent history, PJM could face decreasing reserve margins should these trends continue,” states the report. (more…)
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RVA 5×5: Calling Earl Weaver
by Jon Baliles
There are not many other cities in the country that would debate plans for multiple baseball stadiums in multiple locations over multiple decades and then, after seemingly signing off on a new stadium, roll over after being told by Major League Baseball that public monies must be spent for a batting cage in a stadium that has two years of life left in it.
But hey, this is Richmond, and that is apparently what will happen in the coming months. According to Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense, “For the Richmond Flying Squirrels to be able to play this spring, Major League Baseball is requiring that the city-owned Diamond be upgraded — at a cost of $3.5 million – to meet certain standards for pro baseball facilities. In addition to repairs to the concrete structure’s roof and supports, MLB is requiring construction of a second batting and hitting tunnel as well as renovations to both team locker rooms.”
The City has clearly been sitting on this news and has already filed the permits; the work will begin ASAP, as the season starts in just over one month. The concrete supports most definitely need looking after and refurbishment; they are old and dangerous; there was a close call when a chunk fell off of one support about 15 years ago and could have seriously injured someone. I try never to sit under one of them when I go to a game; you just never know.
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Bacon Meme of the Day
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Viewpoint Discrimination in Hiring at UVa – “Presumptively Unconstitutional”
University of Virginia Counsel James Iler by James C. Sherlock
The University of Virginia engages today in in-your-face viewpoint discrimination in hiring.
The counterfactually named University of Virginia Office for Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights (EOCR) declares itself responsible for:
Recruitment and Hiring: facilitating and monitoring faculty and staff recruitment and hiring and training faculty and staff regarding applicable laws and best practices for search and hiring processes.
Indeed.
EOCR has turned viewpoint discrimination into a science by “considering contributions to inclusive excellence” in hiring. Do yourself a favor. Open that page and click to open each section.
EOCR helpfully offers hiring officials and search committees phrases as “examples of what could be added” to job applications at UVa.
[Faculty] Candidates should also describe how their courses, research, and/or service have helped, or will help, students to develop intercultural competencies or otherwise advance excellence through diversity, equity, and inclusion within the institution.
Those requirements are not viewpoint-neutral because diversity, equity and inclusion as practiced at the University of Virginia are not viewpoint-neutral. The UVa DEI bureaucracy, including EOCR, is authoritarian, and proud of it.
EOCR actively tries to screen out applicants who may disagree with the University’s thought police approach to DEI. In that pursuit, they don’t just require commitment to DEI going forward.
The applicant must demonstrate previous activity.
That makes UVa a government DEI spoils/patronage system, defined as a practice to reward active supporters by appointment to government posts.
If only the University had a legal department. (more…)
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The Washington Post Reviews Progressive In-Fighting at the New York Times – A Cultural Cliff?
Eric Wemple Washington Post by James C. Sherlock
Eric Wemple, the media critic of Northern Virginia’s morning newspaper, The Washington Post, has just published an article “The New York Times newsroom is splintering over a trans coverage debate.”
I subscribe to both papers.
The review is unintentionally hilarious. The comments more so.
It provides context from the left for our debates here on hormone and surgery treatments of minors.
The New York Times is racked with internal dissent over internal dissent — a development stemming from multiple open letters sent last week to newspaper management taking issue with the paper’s recent coverage of transgender youth.
Seems there is a war among the woke over who is the most woke, and who is insufficiently so. (more…)
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Virginia Rail Safety Inspections
Courtesy Norfolk Southern by James C. Sherlock
After the Ohio disaster, it is timely to review rail safety in Virginia.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation is the federal rail safety regulator in cooperation with state authorities.
FRA’s Office of Railroad Safety employs 400 railway inspectors. Federal safety management teams are organized by railroad or type of railroad.
The FRA summary of State rail safety participation states:
state programs emphasize planned, routine compliance inspections; however, States may undertake additional investigative and surveillance activities consistent with overall program needs and individual State capabilities.
FRA both conducts and pays for training of state inspectors.
Code of Federal Regulations 49 CFR Part 212 provides state rail safety participation regulations.
Railroad Regulation represents one of the original areas of responsibility assigned to the State Corporation Commission (SCC) when it was created by the Virginia Constitution of 1902.
Virginia statutory authority is found in Code of Virginia Title 56 Chapter 13.
Virginia today has two Class I (major) railroads (Norfolk Southern and CSXT), nine Class II (short line) railroads, and more than 6,700 miles of track. (more…)
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The Bert Ellis Feeding Frenzy
Piranhas by James A. Bacon
Virginia has now entered the feeding frenzy stage of the assault on Bert Ellis’ character. Abandoning all journalistic standards of impartiality and fair play, mainstream media outlets compete with one another to publish anything they can find to compromise Ellis, a member of the University of Virginia Board of Visitors appointed by Governor Glenn Youngkin and narrowly confirmed by the General Assembly.
Following a Washington Post piece yesterday that highlighted such transgressions as referring in private correspondence to a UVa employee as a “numnut,” Virginia Public Media has joined the fray. Among the new affrights uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act is the scoop that Ellis also referred to UVa administrators as “schmucks”!
It is laughable that anyone would deem such language used in personal communications to be worth publishing — as if no one else in public service speaks this way in private. Ironically, the only thing remarkable about Ellis’ use of language is how restrained it is. It is less vitriolic, for example, than the language used by Jeff Thomas, the leftist author who filed the FOIA request and peddled his findings to the media. VPM reporter Ben Paviour quotes Thomas as accusing “these people” of “lashing out with these venomous personal attacks at innocent people.”
Venomous? Really? Ellis didn’t “lash out” or “attack” anyone — these were private communications. The victims never knew about them…until Thomas uncovered them and persuaded Paviour to publicize them!
Such are the New Rules of woke journalism.
But there’s more. Paviour included one exchange in his piece that had no business appearing in any article. The fact that he chose to include it exposes the shoddiness of his journalism. Here is what he wrote: (more…)
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Stop Coddling Bad Kids
by Kerry Dougherty
I have a new hero. I don’t know her real name but in her Southeast Washington D.C. neighborhood, they just call her “Grandma.”
Last Friday Grandma was on her way to chemo when a 15-year-old punk walked up and ordered her to hand over her car keys.
“I have a gun,” he said.
“Baby, you’d better shoot me because you’re not taking my car,” she shot back.
A struggle ensued — Grandma’s hand was sliced by the keys — but she screamed for help and help arrived. Her grandson and some other neighborhood boys heard the commotion, and ran to her defense.
The would-be car jacker was taken away in an ambulance.
Score one for the good guys. And for Grandma.
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For Your Consideration: An Intellectual Freedom Protection Act
by James C. SherlockI offer for your consideration the text of a draft Intellectual Freedom Protection Act proposed this morning by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
FIRE is the leading American voice supporting academic freedom, free speech and due process. In doing so they defend democracy itself.
They are what the ACLU was before that organization abandoned the field as an impartial supporter of civil liberties to pick a side.
FIRE defends left and right equally.
I have below eliminated the preamble of the draft law for brevity. Lawyers can find the legal precedents referenced in the preamble here. (more…)
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General Assembly: Status of Selected Issues
by Dick Hall-SizemoreThe General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn on Saturday, February 25. Time to check on the status of some issues that have been discussed on this blog.
Budget bill. The budget bill contains not only the usual appropriations, but also all those tax cuts proposed by the Governor. There is activity behind the scenes, but, so far, no public hint that any sort of compromise is near.
Utility bills. One major utility regulation bill has been passed, but the others are in conference. I will defer to Steve Haner to comment on these as he deems fit.
SCC judgeships. Last year, the General Assembly could not agree on a person to fill a vacant SCC judgeship. The House supported one person; the Senate favored another. In late 2020, one of the two sitting judges, Judith Jagdmann, announced her retirement with a year left on her appointment. That left two vacancies, seeming to solve the problem: Each legislative house could have its own favorite. But, there was a fly in the ointment. ne vacancy, Jagdmann’s, was only for the year left on her term. The other vacancy was for a full six years. Who was going to get the short straw? Another impasse. (more…)
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Richmond’s Crime-Infested Neighborhoods, Terrible Public Schools and Equity
What would MLK say? by James C. Sherlock
It’s Black History Month. Even in Richmond.
As a contribution, I am going to review the facts on the ground in Richmond — in its most crime-ridden neighborhoods and its worst public schools.
Which are overwhelmingly Black. And co-located.
In a city with a Black mayor and a Black school board. And a Black Commonwealth’s Attorney, Colette Wallace McEachin, who, since 2019,
has helped to make Richmond a safe, just and equitable city for all, including victims, witnesses and offenders.
Her office offers many alternatives to incarceration for most non-violent offenders.
She really wrote that. And she has “worked toward dismantling “the school to prison pipeline.” Excellent news.
But, in the real world, Richmond schools and many neighborhoods are beyond tragic.
That doesn’t mean order cannot be restored. Or that poor Black children from dangerous neighborhoods can’t learn.
NYC charter schools have proven for years that Black kids from the very same type of disadvantaged, dangerous neighborhoods that some of the Richmond kids call home can succeed at the highest level.
It just means the Richmond kids from tough neighborhoods don’t learn.
We are going to look at what are measured as the 10 most crime-ridden neighborhoods in Richmond, where the kids from these neighborhoods go to school, and the performance of those schools.
And see what we see.
It is a nightmare. (more…)
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Break out the Smelling Salts. Bert Ellis Called Someone a “Numnut”
Image credit: Washington Post by James A. Bacon
And the hit jobs just keep on coming!
After maligning Virginia Military Institute alumni dissident Matt Daniel two days ago, The Washington Post aims its guns today on Bert Ellis, a conservative alumnus and member of the University of Virginia Board of Visitors, with the publication of text messages obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. They were private communications. Like everyone else in the universe, Ellis expressed himself with candid language he would not have used in the public domain.
Make sure you’re sitting down. You might want to take a dose of anti-anxiety pills. Ellis actually called people “numnuts.”
He also had the temerity to express dissatisfaction with the Ryan administration’s obsessive focus on race, including its Diversity, Equity & Inclusion initiatives.
In truth, there is remarkably little that is worthy of note in Ellis’ text messages. Yet the Post quotes Jeff Thomas, the leftist chronicler of Virginia politics who obtained the FOIA documents, as asserting that the documents “demonstrate Governor Youngkin’s Board appointees are ignorant reactionaries consumed by hatred and neo-Confederate fantasies.”
The text messages demonstrate no such thing. Ellis has never been consumed by the destruction of Civil War statues or the assault on Southern heritage. Rather, he has lamented the trashing of Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers. There is nothing in the text messages to suggest the existence of “neo-Confederate fantasies” — nor, for that matter, the notion that he is “consumed by hatred”… unless you consider calling someone a “numnut” an indicator of unquenchable animus. (more…)
