Bacon's Rebellion

  • Luria’s Curious Campaign Slogan

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Congresswoman Elaine Luria

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Iโ€™ve seen some wacky political slogans in the past: โ€œBe Bestโ€ was inane, โ€œBuild Back Betterโ€ was worse, especially considering the mess Joe Bidenโ€™s created in just 17 months.

    But the most laughable? Elaine Luriaโ€™s unofficial campaign mantra as she runs for re-election to Congress:

    “I donโ€™t care if I lose.”

    Hereโ€™s how The Washington Post reported her curious stand in one of its typical Democrat-valentines last week:

    โ€ฆthe former Navy commander has said she is unconcerned about any potential political consequences that her role in unspooling the former presidentโ€™s inaction on Jan. 6 could have in her own political future โ€” a message that, rather than whispered to confidants, she has put front and center in her campaign. (more…)

  • The Rent Is Too Damn High

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Jon Baliles

    I think RVA needs to recruit retired New York City politician Jimmy McMillan to come to Richmond and run for office. He was the straight-talker who ran for Governor of New York under the Rent Is Too Damn High Party banner in 2010 and said more genuine truths in 35 seconds at a debate introduction than many politicians say in their career.

    In the wake of COVID and all of its turbulence, it was reported this week that rent in the Richmond region is going through the roof and increasing even faster than 40-year-high inflation. WRIC reports:

    Data from rental listing site Apartment List showed that from March 2020 to May 2022, city-level rent estimates increased significantly throughout Virginia. In Glen Allen, rent grew approximately 19.5%; 25.3% in Richmond; and 26.8% in Chester.

    Rent.com reports that the increase in Richmond over last year was more than 35% (to an average of $1,512 for a one-bedroom), the 8th-highest rent for a single-bedroom in the country (the U.S. average is $1,701 per month, up 25.3%). A 2021 study by Virginiaโ€™s Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission (JLARC), revealed approximately 44% of renting households were cost-burdened in 2019, meaning more than 30% of their income was being used for rent. (more…)

  • K-3 Reading Instruction – Federal Recommendations vs. Virginia SOLs

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    This column has been withdrawn while under revision based upon updated 2017 reading SOLs. Those SOL are published on the same web page as the 2010 SOLS which are still available for download. I will remap the revised reading SOLs with the Federal model depicted and report.

  • Patrick Michaels RIP

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    Patrick Michaels

    by Bill Tracy

    Nationally known climatologist Dr. Patrick Michaels has died, and there is certainly a huge Virginia connection.ย ย Michaels considered himself to be a “lukewarmer,” denoting a belief that there is indeed a man-made (CO2) component to climate change. But, he saidย  โ€œWhat Iโ€™m skeptical about is the glib notion that it means the end of the world as we know it.โ€

    Many liberals, of course, feel that climate changeย  is in fact an immediate and dire emergency. They would label Michaels a “denier.” The Washington Post obituary seemingly took the high road and instead used the slightly less divisive word: “contrarian.”

    I was personally well aware of Pat Michaels, but mainly from his Cato Institute days. As a transplant from New Jersey, only now do I realize he was a professor at the University of Virginia for 30-years.ย  He also served a stint as Virginia’sย  state climatologist. (more…)

  • Zombie Senates

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    by

    James A. Bacon


    by Jim McCarthy

    Zombies have been depicted in ancient cultures such as that of Norse mythology (draugar) very similar to those in contemporary culture. The Roman senate with the iconic SPQR dates to 753 B.C. as an advisory body to the king composed of elders (senes, Latin root for senescent or deteriorating in age) of the society.

    The nationโ€™s current politisphere has witnessed a resurrection of zombie allusions that could be applied to the countryโ€™s senates. In this regard, progress may not be our most important product, as General Electric spokes master Ronald Reagan intoned Sundays each week (1954-1962). There are probably as many measures of political progress as there are stars and constellations viewed by the Hubble telescope.ย  Yet, we cling to a concept of legislative governance by a senate with little question or consideration of the contemporary merits of the idea. (more…)

  • Carjackings by Teens Skyrocket, Resulting in More Killings

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Motor Vehicle Thefts in Virginia. Source: Crime in Virginia reports, 2017 through 2021.

    by Hans Bader

    Carjackings — especially carjackings by teens — have spiked in cities across the country over the past two years. NewsNation describes the “nationwide rise in carjackings”:

    A pastor gunned down in a carjacking outside her home in Memphis. A thief runs up a driveway with a weapon drawn in New Orleans. An Atlanta mother of three, tossed out of her car and run over with it โ€” all captured on her own Ring camera…Over the last two years, there has been a noticeable uptick in carjackings nationwide…

    Chicago โ€” a city with 40 cops on a carjacking task force โ€”had more than 1,900 last year. That number is the most in the country and the most in the Windy City in decadesโ€ฆ

    And some of the perpetrators are shockingly young.
    The pastor killed in Memphis was shot by a 15-year-old. In D.C, a 14-year-old was arrested for jacking six vehicles and trying to take a seventh.

    (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    From The Bull Elephant

  • How’s Your Climate Emergency Going? Hanging In?

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    by Steve Haner

    How is your climate emergency going so far? We seem to be hanging in well at my house.

    The media hype around this fairly typical July hot spell has been off the charts, but my favorite headline of the season appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch (home of at least one climate jeremiad per day) weeks ago: โ€œExtreme weather hits every U.S. region and wonโ€™t let up.โ€ Such an honest example of the game being played demands recognition. (more…)

  • Why Teachers Are Resigning: Student Behavior

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    Source: Chalkboard Review

    by James A. Bacon

    Why are so many teachers resigning from Virginia’s public schools? Based on widespread anecdotal evidence, I have suggested that the breakdown in classroom discipline is a major contributing factor, especially in high-poverty schools. But anecdotes are just that — anecdotal — and others blame low pay, COVID, or meddling right-wing parents. Now comes a survey of teachers in six Midwestern states who have resigned or will resign before the start of the 2022-23 school year. Among the 615 respondents, students’ “classroom behavior” is hands-down the biggest issue.

    Key findings: “319 of the 615 responders listed student behavior as their biggest reason to leave the classroom, followed by 138 for ‘progressive political activity’ and 134 for ‘salary is insufficient.’โ€

    The survey was conducted by the Chalkboard Review, which was founded in 2020 to provide a “heterodox outlet” for news and commentary from educators. By emphasizing diversity of opinion, it is safe to assume, “heterodox” is roughly synonymous with “non-Woke.” So, one must take into account the possible biases of those conducting the survey. (See the description of the methodology here.) (more…)

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    Hat tip: Janice Woolley

  • Fairfax County NAACP Gets to the Point on Literacy Instruction

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    Courtesy Success Academy

    by James C. Sherlock

    I spend a lot of ink here writing about improving the education of poor kids. ย I am not alone.

    In April of 2021, the Fairfax County NAACP wrote a letter to the Superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools asking that FCPS switch from Balanced Literacy to Structured Literacy in reading instruction in grades K-3.

    In light of the specific learning losses of this last year and the urgency to move quickly and decisively to correct the course, the Fairfax County NAACP demands that FCPS switch to an evidence-based structured literacy methodology. This must be implemented with fidelity, division wide, in the general education classroom starting in Kindergarten and continuing through 3rd grade.

    Their point is well taken.

    My search of the science-based reports on reading instruction overwhelmingly favor structured literacy, to the point that supporters of balanced literacy are hard to find in print in recent years with the exception of those who defensively point out that balanced literacy has a structured literacy component. (more…)

  • Love that Budget Surplus! Use It to Bullet-Proof State Finances.

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    There’s good news for Virginia on the fiscal front. We need to make the most of it.

    The Old Dominion closed fiscal 2022 with a $1.94 billion General Fund revenue surplus, Governor Glenn Youngkin announced yesterday. Total revenue rose 16.3% from the previous fiscal year.

    โ€œFiscal 2022 was an extraordinary year for revenues and finished strong,” Secretary of Finance Stephen Cummings said. While the state has yet to recover all the 133,000 jobs it lost during the pandemic, job growth has been strong this calendar year — 3.5%. And, while competitor states all exceed their pre-pandemic employment levels, Virginia has scored some economic-development coups — LEGO, Raytheon and Boeing most notably. Over the first four months of 2022, Virginia ranked 15th nationally among the states in employment growth.ย 

    Youngkin makes a case for giving some of the revenue surplus back to taxpayers, who are getting clobbered by 9% inflation. I’m sympathetic. Taxpayers are getting the shaft. But I have bigger concerns.

    In all likelihood, Virginia’s economic and budget surges are unsustainable. They are byproducts of economic recovery from the COVID-19 shutdowns and massive federal stimulus. The effects of COVID recovery are largely spent, and the federal stimulus is unsustainable. Washington’s political class may delude itself that it can continue ramping up deficit spending with economic impunity, but history suggests that it cannot. (more…)

  • The Great Realignment, Best-State-for-Business Reprise, Housing Drags, and Youngkin Popularity

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Chris Saxman

    If you read one article this week make it this one from Axios – The Democratic electorateโ€™s seismic shift. Just about every presentation I have given over the last 6 or 7 years begins with a statement or slide that says we are living in a historic political realignment and itโ€™s global. From the article:

    Democrats now have a bigger advantage among white college graduates than they do with nonwhite voters, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll.

    Why it matters: We’re seeing a political realignment in real time.

    Democrats are becoming the party of upscale voters concerned more about issues like gun control and abortion rights.

    Republicans are quietly building a multiracial coalition of working-class voters, with inflation as an accelerant.

    (more…)

  • VEA Wants Better Student Discipline – Dismisses Progressive โ€œReforms” as Unhelpful

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    Sometimes unions work for members.

    They always back higher pay and benefits. I back that position of the Virginia Education Association (VEA).

    On the other hand, I have opposed some things the VEA has backed in Virginia public schools — the list starts with excessively long denial of in-school education during COVID.

    But the VEA knows what is going on in Virginia classrooms, and represents their members with consistency in insisting on the need for better student discipline.

    Crucially, VEA offers a distinctly different view of the importance of student discipline than does the National Education Association or the American Federation of Teachers. The socially liberal views of the VEA stop short of ignoring chaos and fear in the halls and classrooms of the schools in which their members work.

    NEA and the AFT do not even acknowledge a school discipline problem affecting teacher retention. (more…)

  • Strange Things Are Afoot

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Jon Baliles

    The story of the July 4th Dogwood Dell Mayoral and Police Chief press conference grows stranger with each day and subsequent stories. Noted philosophers Bill & Ted may have put it best when they said: โ€œStrange things are afoot at the Circle K.โ€ (Thatโ€™s a 7-11 for all you locals).

    The July 6th press conference about preventing a July 4th mass shooting at Dogwood Dell has taken a turn for the surreal, as stories are incongruent and details are haphazard and just not adding up. Local media at all levels are trying to piece together the puzzle.

    Reporters are trying to gather details and get more information while juggling โ€œclarificationsโ€ to questions everyone has about the threat.

    WRIC reported, โ€œThe Richmond Police Department has refused to share crucial evidence to verify its claim that a mass shooting,โ€ saying it is all part of an ongoing investigation. No one knows how or why Dogwood Dell was the target because it was not mentioned anywhere in any document or filing and no one will explain. One explanation was the location was deduced because it was a major public gathering.

    This week, Crime Insider Jon Burkett had an interview on WRVA and points out several salient points: (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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