Bacon's Rebellion

  • Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Applause earned

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Look who’s crying now.

    Virginia Democrats, who launched ugly attacks on Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s religious beliefs in his second week in office and who spent the entire session bragging about how they were a “brick wall” blocking most of his initiatives, are suddenly bawling because the governor vetoed 26 bills.

    Never mind that Youngkin also signed 702 bills and amended 114.

    These are the same partisan hacks who blocked Andrew Wheeler’s appointment to serve as Virginia’s Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources because he’d been Donald Trump’s EPA chief. On top of that, these are the Democrats who shamelessly approved the appointments of soft-on-crime “bleeding hearts” to the last parole board and then watched as they began setting killers free. These vindictive lefties torpedoed four of Youngkin’s Parole Board appointments.

    Looks like these arrogant politicians, who believed they’d never have to work with another Republican governor, expected Youngkin to simply roll over and rubber stamp redundant and bad bills.

    There’s a new sheriff in Richmond and while he may be mild-mannered, Youngkin demonstrated this week that he knows how to punch back at the bullies in the General Assembly. (more…)

  • Was Virginia’s 2021 Election a Parental Pulse or a Silver Surge?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Walmart greeter Mikki in South Dakota is 99 years old.

    Yes, education was a big deal but how about inflation’s impact on fixed income retirees?

    by Chris Saxman

    Results of a newly released study by TargetSmart, “a Democratic political data and data services firm,” suggest that we should rethink the conventional wisdom and push back on the social media/cable news narratives about the 2021 election.

    NOW before everyone hits the reply button that because this is a Democratic firm and they are just trying to improperly turn the 2021 narrative to benefit Democrats in the upcoming midterms — just stop.

    The news here is WORSE for Democrats for the midterms, but kudos to TargetSmart for following the data. As the old saying goes — in order to solve a problem, you first have to admit you have a problem.

    Today’s Richmond Times Dispatch ran a Bloomberg editorial which provides context: “Piecemeal reform won’t solve U.S. retirement crisis.”

    Yet many Americans face the prospect of great financial strain and even poverty in old age, because they lack the resources to support themselves after they stop working.

    (more…)

  • Things Are Not Always As Intuitive As They May Seem

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    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Photo credit: CNBC

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Sometimes, public policy proposals can be counterintuitive.

    Virginia law authorizes health insurance companies to charge smokers up to 50% greater than the premium that would otherwise be effective. The 2022 General Assembly passed legislation that would have repealed this authorization. The bills, HB 675 (Hope, D-Arlington) and SB 422 (Edwards, D-Roanoke), passed both houses with strong bipartisan majorities.

    The Governor vetoed them.  His explanation for the vetoes was:

    Smoking and tobacco use are among the leading causes of chronic health problems that result in higher healthcare costs. This legislation would force insurance companies to recover costs associated with tobacco users by raising premiums on non-tobacco users. The ability to reduce premiums by quitting smoking is also a valuable incentive to encourage healthier habits.

    Requiring non-tobacco users to cover the increased healthcare costs associated with tobacco use is not a policy I can support.

    On its face, this explanation sounds reasonable. After all, society should discourage smoking and no one wants to subsidize unhealthful habits. (more…)

  • Free Speech Lives at the University of Virginia!

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon


    by James A. Bacon

    Former Vice President Mike Pence came to the University of Virginia last night, attended two receptions, and delivered his speech, billed as “How to Save America from the Woke Left,” without a hitch.

    The Pence event created a national stir when the editorial board of The Cavalier Daily student newspaper said that Pence should not be allowed to speak because his conservative views would prove offensive and hurtful to many. The editorial generated a tidal wave of response in support of Pence’s right to give the speech and students’ right to hear it. Seventeen faculty members of diverse political views signed a letter in defense of the speech. President Jim Ryan and Provost Ian Baucom published an op-ed in a higher-ed trade journal defending free speech.

    Political science professor Larry Sabato, perhaps UVa’s best known faculty member, has been highly critical of President Donald Trump, but he hosted a reception for Trump’s vice president in a pavilion on the Lawn before the speech. The veep attended a second reception across the Lawn, hosted by the Young America’s Foundation, which, in partnership with The Jefferson Council, underwrote the cost of the event.

    It was a pleasant spring evening, and throngs of students were hanging out on the Lawn, but there was no unpleasantness to be seen. The University had created an area where protesters could gather, which a modest number did, but they were peaceful and barely noticed by the hundreds of visitors as they lined up for security checks outside Old Cabell Hall. (more…)

  • Youngkin Vetoes Bill Because It Weakened SCC

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    Applause Earned

    by Steve Haner

    Reliance on the controlling phrase “in the public interest” helped get an energy bill vetoed by Governor Glenn Youngkin (R), bringing a rare call from a governor to maintain the independent oversight of the State Corporation Commission. Recent governors of both parties happily signed bills with the phrase into law over and over.

    Senate Bill 347 was a pretty bad bill from the start. It applied to only one company, Dominion Energy Virginia. The company is already under orders from the General Assembly to stress and increase energy efficiency with its customers (often adding the costs onto the rest of us). But the bill went deep into the weeds, calling for specific “energy efficiency savings targets for customers who are low-income, elderly, disabled, or veterans of military service,” according to the summary. Under its current management, Dominion just loves to mix identity politics with ways to make money for its shareholders.

    Here’s what Youngkin put in his veto explanation:

    Although this legislation has the commendable goal of promoting energy efficiency, the requirements included in this legislation could, through an arbitrary declaration of the public interest, increase energy costs on Virginians. As a result, the Commonwealth’s energy policy moves further away from a cost-effective, all-of-the-above strategy with strong regulatory oversight administered by the SCC.

    Energy policy should be established by the General Assembly but not at the expense of consumer protection and strong regulatory oversight through the constitutionally-established SCC. Public interest declarations unnecessarily restrict the constitutional authority of the SCC and should be used rarely, if ever.

    (more…)

  • Where Are The Parents?

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Shoe-tying lesson in a Fairfax County school  Photo credit: Washington Post

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    A story in today’s Washington Post enraged me, amused me, and filled me with admiration.

    It starts off with a first-grade teacher in Fairfax County. She had expected that her incoming students last fall would be behind in reading and math due to the pandemic. She was surprised that they also could not perform basic tasks such as tying their shoes, cutting along a dotted line with scissors, squeezing a glue bottle to release an appropriately-sized dot, or simply twisting a plastic cap off and on.

    My reaction was: WHERE ARE THE PARENTS? Isn’t it enough that you expect the school to teach your kids reading, writing, and arithmetic? You also want the teachers to teach your kids how to tie their shoes and cut along a dotted line? Are these the parents who are demanding that the schools allow parents to be more involved in schools? They need to become more involved in their kids first. (more…)

  • Pill-Popping Nurse Gets Three Years in Prison

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    If there’s a special ring in hell for those who prey on children — and I hope there is — there should also be a place reserved for those who hurt the elderly.

    Consider the monstrous acts of Janeen Bailey, a 57-year-old LPN with 25 years of nursing experience who stole painkillers from elderly patients in two long-term care facilities and used the drugs to relieve her own discomfort while they writhed helplessly in pain.

    According to news reports, Bailey told investigators she believed the patients could cope with their own pain better than she could with hers because she was working and they were not. The nurse allegedly suffered from back pain.

    Bailey denied she was an addict.

    She pleaded guilty to two counts of tampering with a consumer product.

    Seriously?

    That’s the most serious charge prosecutors could concoct? (more…)

  • VCEA Could Raise APCo Power Bills by Half

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    by Steve Haner

    Compliance with the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act will result in a 49% increase in monthly costs by 2035 for residential customers of the Appalachian Power Company, according to a State Corporation Commission staff analysis. That’s a $57 increase on a typical 2020 residential bill of $117.

    Rates on the largest industrial users are likely to climb 76% in the same period.  In later years additional costs adding to bills are probable, as the company works toward its 2050 mandatory goal of carbon-free electricity generation.

    Appalachian serves about 500,000 customer accounts in western Virginia, with most of the generation it uses to serve them located outside Virginia. It is not proposing the same level of investment in new renewable generation as the larger Dominion Energy Virginia, which serves the bulk of Virginia, now focused on its $10 billion offshore wind proposal. Yet the long-term rate impact of VCEA for Appalachian customers is still substantial.

    The SCC will hold hearings later this month on Appalachian’s proposed VCEA compliance plan, its second such annual review (the docket is here.) (more…)

  • Grandparents Ask Supreme Court for Justice

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon


    Recommendation to readers: Be sure to delve deep enough into the story to read Asra Nomani’s personal story. She describes the values to which Asian-Americans owe their academic success. — JAB

    by Asra Q. Nomani

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — This past Friday, Dr. Mridula Kumari, 71, walked up the stairs to the U.S. Supreme Court, and soaked in the festive atmosphere on the sidewalk off 1st Avenue S.E. A band played, as children danced and women clapped, pumping their hands in the air to the beat, one woman in New Balance sneakers carrying a bag that read, “Our Rights. Our Future. Our Power. Our Courts.”

    As war waged across the world in Ukraine, a people trying to defend their future, their rights, their nation, Dr. Kumari understood well the power of those words. The courts can protect the rights of the citizenry. The courts can pave a path to a better future. The courts can empower the citizenry.

    She hoped these protections would also be extended to her granddaughter: a first-generation American and a seventh grader in Fairfax County Public Schools, across the Potomac River in the northern Virginia suburbs of the nation’s capital. As the daughter of immigrants from India, her granddaughter faces a new racism in America: an anti-Asian admissions process to schools, including Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a school fondly known as TJ. (more…)

  • What Is It About Adam Ebbin?

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Sen. Adam Ebbin
    Photo credit: Washington Post

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Governor Youngkin seems to have it in for state Senator Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria.

    Of the 26 bills from the 2022 Session that the Governor vetoed, nine (35 percent) were bills sponsored by Ebbin. (Midnight yesterday was the deadline for the Governor to take action on bills passed in the last session.) From another perspective, the Governor vetoed all of Ebbin’s bills that passed, with one exception, which he sent back with amendments.

    It is not that Ebbin’s passed bills were highly controversial and the Governor’s vetoes are an expression of partisan disagreement. Of the nine bills vetoed, four passed both houses unanimously.    The most opposition that any of the nine bills encountered in the Republican-majority House of Delegates was 28 votes against one of them.

    The reasons given by the Governor for these vetoes have not been posted yet on LIS.  Several were duplicates of other bills, which ordinarily might be a valid reason for a veto, especially if the patron of the other bill was a member of the party of the Governor. However, there were lots of bills which had duplicates and those of Ebbin seem to have been the only ones vetoed. In addition, the duplicate to one of Ebbin’s bills (SB 278) was HB 450, sponsored by a Democrat and which the Governor returned to the General Assembly for an amendment. (more…)

  • Dissident Alumni Open a New Front in the Higher-Ed Culture Wars

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    A Saturday meeting of the VMI Alumni Association, convened to elect a new board of directors, broke up in acrimony and confusion. In a series of votes, dissident alumni voted to remove the existing board and replace it with a hybrid slate comprised of some old board members and some new. But association President Sam Stocks declared the votes in violation of the association’s bylaws, and the meeting concluded with no new board being chosen.

    The fracas reflects deep divisions within the Virginia Military Institute alumni community since The Washington Post, former Governor Ralph Northam, and the Northam-instigated Barnes & Thornburg report declared VMI guilty of “systemic racism.” The Northam-anointed superintendent, Cedric Wins, is implementing recommendations of the report by building up Diversity, Equity & Inclusion programs that some traditionalist alumni fear are antithetical to the hallowed Rat Line and Honor Code. Dissident alumni perceive that the VMI Alumni Association has sided with Wins in the ongoing controversies and has not been transparent in its activities.

    The aborted Saturday election has significance beyond VMI. Dissident alumni groups — including The Jefferson Council at the University of Virginia and the General’s Redoubt at Washington & Lee University here in Virginia — are organizing around the country. There is a widespread sentiment that established alumni associations have been captured by university administrations, function mainly as fund-raising arms for their institutions, and, as self-perpetuating cliques, are unresponsive to the concerns of conservative alumni.

    The effort by dissident VMI alumni to gain control of the VMI alumni association represents a new front in the campus culture wars. This is the first time, to my knowledge, that conservative alumni have ever tried to take control of an association. And, in my estimation, it won’t be the last. (more…)

  • Forming a More Perfect Legislature

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    The Nebraska statehouse, home to the only state unicameral legislature in the United States.

    by Jim McCarthy

    Recently, Bacon’s Rebellion (BR) hosted an article and discussion concerning part- versus full-time legislators as members of the General Assembly. The topic arose from the failure of the General Assembly to conclude its session business without agreement on a state budget. The online conversation favored opposition to full-time legislator positions that might develop into a professional (permanent) elected class of citizens serving over extended periods of time.

    While preservation and conservation are hallmarks of political conservatism, there are times when those criteria or values may be compromised by a nostalgia that displaces reason and critical evaluation. BR by its own terms (see its About page) proclaims:

    The rules of governance, by which citizens hold these entities accountable, must be constantly updated. And leaders of these institutions must be subject to continual scrutiny.

    The entities, naturally, include government. It may also be acknowledged that the processes of democracy and republicanism are not mutually exclusive or objects of binary choices. Classically, republicanism means representative government. There’s a simpler, more elegant solution to creating a more efficient, effective, and democratic legislature: a unicameral body. (more…)

  • Racist Rant Results in Resignation

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    When a shockingly racist 2021 Facebook post from Hampton Electoral Board Chair David Dietrich surfaced late last week the reaction from his fellow Republicans — from Gov. Glenn Youngkin to the Hampton GOP chief — was swift and unequivocal.

    Resign, they said, or we will remove you from the board.

    “As governor, I serve all Virginians,” Tweeted Youngkin on Saturday. “I won’t accept racism in our Commonwealth or our party. The abhorrent words of a Hampton Roads official are beyond unacceptable and have no place in Virginia. It’s time to resign.”

    Dietrich reportedly resigned within the hour.

    13NewsNow reported that the Hampton GOP, “shared a screenshot of the post, in which Dietrich used racist language to criticize the U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and retired Army Lieutenant General Russel L. Honoré.” (more…)

  • Such Words Have “No Place in Virginia”

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Governor Glenn Youngkin did the right thing by demanding the resignation of David Dietrich, a Hampton Republican Party official serving on the city electoral board, for making a racist Facebook post.

    In accusing certain senior military officials of persecuting “conservative, freedom-loving Americans,” Dietrich referred to them as “nothing more than dirty, stinking N—–s.” If they want a Civil War, they’ll get one, he added. “Perhaps the best way to pull us back from the brink is a good public lynching.”

    Republican Party officials, from Governor Youngkin on down, have condemned the remark. “We unequivocally condemn all forms of racism and bigotry,” said Hampton GOP Chairman Philip Siff.

    “As governor, I serve all Virginians. I won’t accept racism in our Commonwealth or our party,” Youngkin tweeted yesterday. “The abhorrent words of a Hampton Roads official are beyond unacceptable and have no place in Virginia. It’s time to resign.” (more…)

  • Virginia’s COVID Performance Rates a D

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Source: The Committee to Unleash Prosperity

    by James A. Bacon

    Virginia performed worse than 35 other states during the COVID-19 recession, based on an analysis that encompasses mortality rates, economic performance and educational performance. The Commonwealth fared better than average in health outcomes, worse than average in economic performance, and near the bottom in school closures. The overall ranking: D.

    Nationally, there was little correlation, however, between the stringency of economic and school-related COVID lockdowns and health outcomes, finds the study, “A Final Report Card on the States’ Response to COVID-19,” published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The authors were Phil Kerpen, Stephen Moore, and Casey B. Mulligan, all well-known free-market economists.

    Former Governor Ralph Northam, a physician, can take some comfort in the fact that Virginia under his watch performed better than most other states in the COVID-related mortality rate when adjustments were made for age and the prevalence of obesity and diabetes risk factors in the population — 10th best in the nation.

    However, when the perspective shifts to “all cause excess deaths,” which captures the mortality effects of lockdown policies such as higher drug and alcohol deaths, suicides, and foregone medical treatments, Virginia’s national ranking falls to 19th. (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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