From The Bull Elephant
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Jeanine’s Memes
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A Naval Officer Prepares to Repel Boarders
Lt. Ron DeSantis by James C. Sherlock
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced he has put $8 million in his new budget to transport illegal immigrants to other states and D.C.
He listed Delaware and Martha’s Vineyard as potential destinations.
This of course will be Florida’s response to the Biden administration flying 70 planeloads of illegals into the state in the middle of the night.
BTW, do we know if Virginia got any of those flights? We really don’t know how many of these flights from the border, just like the flights from Afghanistan, landed and disgorged their passengers in Virginia. Therefore we have no idea what the impact is and will be. We don’t know that because Northam does not want to know or tell us.
Gov. DeSantis did and is speaking up about what he will do about it.
Excuse the schadenfreude, but it will be huge fun seeing dark blue Delaware and Massachusetts put state troopers on their borders to block entry of buses full of illegal immigrants.
I can’t wait.
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It’s Silly Season
by Dick Hall-SizemoreThe Richmond Times Dispatch reports that Governor Northam will include $27.4 million in his budget bill for a new Center for Firearm Violence Intervention and Prevention in the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS). What a dumb proposal!
Setting aside the obvious politics surrounding the subject matter, as a budget analyst, I would ask, “What in the world are they going to spend $27.4 million on?” In his remarks, the Governor talked about collecting data on gun violence and analyzing it. OK. I am always in support of gathering data. So, add two or three well-trained analysts and statisticians to DCJS’s existing research center. Now we are down to about $27 million. What is that to be used for? There was some vague reference to providing resources to localities and community-based organizations, but no explanation as to what that means.
And why do you need a “Center”? That is just more bureaucracy. (more…)
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The Woke Never Rest: Public Health Edition
Image credit: Yenon at Deviant Art by James A. Bacon
The forces of Wokeness are like a zombie horde. They keep coming, and coming… and coming. You might have thought that the November election that turned Virginia from Blue to Red, driven in large measure by voter revulsion to “social justice” initiatives seeping into schools, universities and every nook and cranny of government, might have knocked some sense into the Woke. But, no, they keep coming back.
The latest is a proposal by Virginia Commonwealth University to create a school of public health. As the Richmond Times-Dispatch describes the proposal, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed gaps in the U.S. healthcare industry, which VCU stands ready to address. Additional focus on public health can extend lives, lower health disparities, and keep people out of hospitals, Dr. Art Kellermann, CEO of VCU Health, says in the article.
The school would cobble together existing departments such as biostatistics, health behavior, and epidemiology to create a fifth school in VCU Health Sciences. The Board of Visitors unanimously approved the new school Friday. Now the proposal goes to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV).
The idea doesn’t sound unreasonable on the face of it. Indeed, a multi-disciplinary approach to health might have helped Virginia weather the COVID epidemic better than it did. As with the federal government, Virginia health policy has been driven by an obsessive focus on COVID statistics at the expense of other health indicators such as mental health, substance abuse, suicides, and preventive medicine. In theory, a VCU school of public health could have advocated a holistic approach to the epidemic.
But probably not.
The RTD article suggests that a primary focus of the new school will be rectifying “health disparities.” (more…)
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Finally, There Are Redistricting Maps Up for Final Consideration
Congressional district map proposed by Va. Supreme Court special masters (The bubbles represent comments made by members of the public on Supreme Court interactive map) by Dick Hall-Sizemore
The two special masters appointed by the Virginia Supreme Court to assist in redistricting have accomplished in about a month what the Virginia Redistricting Commission (“the Commission”) was unable to do in about nine months: produce single draft maps for the Congressional districts, the Senate districts, and the House of Delegates districts.
The draft maps and a long memo from the special masters explaining the process they used and the reasons for their recommendations can be found here.
An objective examination of the maps will lead to the conclusion that they are significantly more logical and sensible than the current maps or ones considered by the Commission. The districts are compact to the extent practicable and follow lines that make sense from a communities-of-interest perspective. There are no odd-shaped districts that really stand out. Any bulges or sudden incursions into adjoining districts are the result of the population equality requirement. Splitting of counties and cities is kept to a minimum. (more…)
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Emil Faber Weeps
by Walter SmithThe statue of Emil Faber, founder of Faber College (of Animal House fame), bears a quote, “Knowledge is good.” The reigning philosophy at the University of Virginia, by contrast, seems to be, “Only some knowledge is good.”
By way of introduction, let us note that the University of Virginia Alumni Association this fall conducted a survey that gauged the opinions of UVa alumni on a wide range of topics relating to the university. Of the approximately 25,000 alumni solicited, 1,319 responded. Among other highlights, the survey revealed that respect for university founder Thomas Jefferson and the Honor System has waned among younger alumni. The association published the findings in Virginia magazine.
Now consider a previous survey. In March 2018, in response to a request from a working group of UVa’s deans, the Board of Visitors approved the expenditure of $80,000 to conduct the 2017-18 University Climate Survey. “Climate Survey,” for your edification, has no connection to global warming. It is an academic term of art for measuring how schools are doing in their core missions. Many universities conduct similar surveys and publish them on their websites. Here is the University of Richmond’s. Here is Wake Forest’s. Here is UVa’s 2015 survey conducted shortly after the infamous Rolling Stone rape story.
You will not find a copy of the 2018 survey. The UVa administration has suppressed it. I tried to obtain the summary document through the Freedom of Information Act. UVa denied my request. I filed suit in Henrico County General District Court. I lost the initial round, but the fight is not over. (more…)
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Protecting Stable Governance — Virginia vs. the Federal Government
by James C. Sherlock
James Madison An opinion piece by Catherine Rampell in The Washington Post was headlined, “No one in their right mind would design a government that works like ours.”
She meant that her preferred changes to American governance were stymied by Senate rules. The “no one in their right mind” was a tell. Anyone who disagreed with her was not sane. I don’t think I abuse the term by calling her dogmatic — carried forward by a religious zeal.
The target of her outrage, though she did not name him, was James Madison. See The Necessity of the Senate in the Federal Government, James Madison, Federalist 62, 1788. (more…)
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The Lord-of-the-Flies Generation
by James A. BaconSchool districts across the country are reporting a surge of student “misbehavior” this fall as schools return to in-person learning, reports the Wall Street Journal. Educators attribute increasing disorder in classrooms and hallways to the isolation resulting from prolonged distance learning during the previous two school years.
Some time ago, I postulated based on anecdotal evidence that Virginia schools were experiencing more disciplinary issues this fall than in previous years. The State Board of Education made no mention of the issue in its 2021 report on the Conditions and Needs of Public Schools, and the trend has largely escaped the notice of Virginia media. However, the WSJ article confirms that the “downstream” effects of the COVID shutdowns include not just the well- documented collapse in standardized test scores but disruptions to classroom discipline.
The WSJ article focuses on how educators in schools in the Dallas, Texas, area are dealing with the misbehavior. It turns out that Texas educators are using the same jargon of Social Emotional Learning and relying upon the same practices that are prevalent in Virginia now. Fewer suspensions. More counseling. More discussion circles and teaching kids how to communicate. (more…)
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Now California Will Control Virginia’s Auto Sales
A BMW model qualified as zero emissions by the California Air Resources Board. You see more and the subsidies California provides buyers here. By Steve Haner
First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy.
Virginia’s automotive sales market is now officially controlled in Sacramento, with the likelihood that no new internal combustion engines can be sold in the Commonwealth after 2035.
The Virginia Air Pollution Control Board, acting not with discretion but on orders from the General Assembly, voted on December 2 to adopt Advanced Clean Cars Program regulations that delegate ultimate control to the California Air Resources Board. Virginia will simply follow Sacramento’s lead in dictating that an ever-increasing percentage of new car sales be certified as low emission or zero emission by the CARB.
Legally it would be similar to Virginia being forced to comply with federal regulations, except these rules will come from and be amended by California and its governor, regulators and legislature. Who in Virginia gets to vote for them? No one.
Legislation in 2021 directed the Air Pollution Control Board to adopt these rules with no deference to the regulatory processes. If you missed the usual public notices or hotly-contested public hearings, it may be because they didn’t happen. Media coverage has also been sparse. (more…)
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A Sociological Mystery: Why Are Black Women Dropping Out of the Workforce?
by James A. Bacon
Ever-alert to unexplained sociological phenomena, Bacon’s Rebellion has taken note of a just-published Brookings Institution article based on the November 2021 jobs report. Unemployment is declining for most major demographic groups — Whites, Asians and Hispanics, both men and women, and even for Black men. But the unemployment rate increased in November for Black teens and, most alarmingly in the minds of the Brookings authors, for Black women.
“Between October and November, the labor force participation rate for Black women dropped to 60.3%, effectively erasing the impressive gains reported in August,” reports Brookings. “This reversal in labor force participation is unique to Black women, as women in other racial-ethnic groups continued to regain their footing in the workforce.”
Don’t dismiss the possibility that we’re looking at an anomalous one-month blip that signifies nothing in the long run. But for purposes of discussion, let’s accept Brookings’ premise that there is reason to be worried. How do we explain Black women (and not Black men) dropping out of the workforce? (more…)
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Law Enforcement Shortages Come to Small-Town Virginia
by James C. SherlockThe Town of Leesburg had a population of 49,157 as of July 1, 2021. Its police force has an authorized strength of 90 sworn officers. Twenty-one of those positions are vacant.
The Loudoun Times posted an article that headlined the town’s vaccine mandate as a potential contributor, but a close reading of the article showed that is not the case, at least not provably. Most vacancies existed before the mandate. Many losses since the mandate were scheduled retirements. Other officers did not cite the mandate as the cause of their departures. So, maybe the mandate contributed, but not much.
What, then, are the issues? (more…)
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Add Affordability to List of Higher-Ed Priorities
Higher-ed governance is a Rubik’s Cube of complexity. by James A. Bacon
Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin has an opportunity to restore Virginia’s public universities as beacons of free speech, free inquiry and intellectual diversity by making strategic appointments to Boards of Visitors over the next four years. As he refines his vision for higher education, he should also prioritize making Virginia colleges and universities more affordable and accessible — through productivity and cost-cutting, not bigger state subsidies.
Both of these goals — freedom/intellectual diversity and affordability — are inter-related. A major reason higher-ed institutions have become so expensive is the profusion of costly bureaucracy over the years. Increasingly, Virginia’s four-year higher-ed institutions are run by unaccountable, self-perpetuating oligarchies that have allowed administrative positions to proliferate. As it happens, many of those positions are designed to advance a social-justice agenda that enforces stifling ideological conformity.
Traditionally, the political class has addressed the affordability issue by increasing financial aid: making it easier for students and parents to borrow and providing targeted financial aid for lower-income students — in other words, by dumping more money into the system. Universities have never been forced to engage in spending discipline, and as a result the cost of attendance — not just tuition but fees, room and board — has escalated far faster than the cost of living. The massive accumulation of student debt has created a national social crisis, and college remains as unaffordable as ever. (more…)
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Youngkin to Withdraw From RGGI, End Carbon Tax
The RGGI member states. By Steve Haner
First published by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy.
Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin told a business audience Wednesday afternoon that he intends to withdraw Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. His decision came two days after Dominion Energy Virginia filed a petition to increase the RGGI tax on its bills by 83% next year.
“RGGI describes itself as a regional market for carbon,” Youngkin told a meeting of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce. “But it is really a carbon tax that is fully passed on to ratepayers. It is a bad deal for Virginians. It is a bad deal for business and as governor, I will withdraw us from RGGI by executive action. I promised to lower the cost of living in Virginia and this is just the beginning.”
The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy sought to dissuade the state from joining RGGI and imposing this carbon tax and has reported often on the development and imposition of Dominion’s bill adder to collect it. We applaud this decision, knowing that Youngkin may face a struggle to implement it.
Virginia has been part of the interstate tax, cap and trade compact for a year now. Every large electrical generating facility in the state must buy allowances in a multi-state auction equal to the number of tons of carbon dioxide its operations will emit. With the only large fleet of Virginia coal and gas generators, this is basically about Dominion Energy Virginia and its 2.6 million customer accounts. (more…)
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New Praxis Circle Contributor: Jim Bacon
Praxis Circle is a community building worldviews to renew free society. We do this primarily through our online content and interviews of expert thought leaders on worldview topics. Today, we are thrilled to welcome as our newest Contributor a very familiar person to all regular Bacon’s Rebellion readers—founder, editor, and publisher James A. Bacon himself!What to say about Jim? At his core, he is a dedicated Virginian. Jim graduated from the University of Virginia, obtained a masters at John Hopkins University, and promptly began his journalism career in southwest Virginia. He eventually settled in Richmond as editor of Virginia Business magazine where he became the editor-in-chief as well as its publisher.
After feeling bureaucratically stifled while witnessing the internet’s revolutionary explosion of news & opinion, Jim started Bacon’s Rebellion in 2002 as an email newsletter. It has since developed into a highly regarded online news portal and is consumed by thousands of Virginians as their primary source for state and local news as well as balanced editorial opinion.
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The Memory (Hole) Project
by Walter Smith“And when memory failed and written records were falsified—when that happened, the claim of the Party to have improved the conditions of human life had got to be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again could exist, any standard against which it could be tested.” — George Orwell, “1984”
Charlottesville City Council recently voted to give the city’s Robert E. Lee statue to The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. The “Jefferson Center” (a deceptive name for a school that hates Jefferson) proposes to melt the statue and remold it into a new piece of public art that “expresses the city’s values of inclusivity and racial justice. … Our hope … is to create something that transforms what was once toxic in our public spaces into something beautiful and more reflective of our entire community’s social values.”
According to WINA News Radio, The Memory Project of the Democracy Initiative of the University of Virginia and other persons and entities, including the George Soros Open Society Foundations are listed as the first sponsor of this initiative. (more…)
