Bacon's Rebellion

  • Virginia Preschool Initiative Pilot – Political Conclusions Belied by the Data

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock. Updated Oct 18 at 5:38 PM

    Those who have followed my reporting know that I am passionate on the subject of helping poor children do better in Virginia’s schools. They also know of my disdain for Virginia’s hyper-political education establishment.  

    Well, the Northam administration has turned the Virginia Preschool Initiative Plus pilot into a full fledged program.

    In doing so, it has finessed the needs of the children by ignoring the results of that pilot to satisfy the political desires of the progressive education establishment. (more…)

  • Dominion and Despicable Voter Suppression

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    Steve Haner

    So it was Dominion Energy paying for campaign ads opposing gun regulation! Here is why.

    by Steve Haner

    Dominion Energy Virginia’s knowing participation in an effort to suppress the November 2 vote, aimed mainly at Western Virginia Republicans, is a truly despicable act. It should enrage all Virginians, without regard to party. This is a state-created and regulated monopoly and the $200,000 it spent on this underhanded activity was provided by captive customers.

    I further assert that in previous election cycles, as heavily as Dominion funded various candidates, this type of expense would not have been approved by the management, including the late Thomas Farrell. But Farrell is dead and the political deciders at the top now are both long-time partisan Democrats who fully understood they were paying for voter suppression.

    I would be expressing no anger whatsoever if Dominion had merely donated $200,000 directly and openly to Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe. It would have been a logical move to support a former governor who strongly backed its failed natural gas pipeline project, and now has pledged to deeply enrich the company by accelerating the transition to unreliable renewable generation instead.

    McAuliffe is nothing if not flexible. I used another word to describe his subservience to Dominion on Twitter yesterday and got blocked for 12 hours. (more…)

  • Alumni Power

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    James A. Bacon

    Image credit: Brent Nelson, Flickr

    by James A. Bacon

    The university alumni rebellion, which first took root in Virginia, is going national.

    Washington & Lee University was the first higher-ed institution in the country, to my knowledge, where alumni organized to fight the leftward drift of their alma mater. The W&L group, known as the Generals Redoubt, was followed quickly by The Jefferson Council (to which I belong) at the University of Virginia and The Spirit of VMI at the Virginia Military Institute.

    Now the W&L and UVa groups have joined with newly formed alumni organizations at Princeton University, Cornell University and Davidson College to form the Alumni Free Speech Association. While each institution has its unique, parochial issues, they share a common resolve to stand up for free speech, free expression, independent inquiry, and intellectual diversity in the face of a doctrinaire “woke” ideology that, in increasingly totalitarian fashion, dictates the permissible range of opinions people are allowed to express.

    Graduates are creating new organizations from scratch because the incumbent alumni organizations almost universally have failed to represent all of the alumni. They have been co-opted by the university presidents and turned into fund-raising arms. If the University of Virginia alumni association is any indication — and I hear the same critique of the associations at W&L and VMI — they function as rah-rah-aren’t-we-great propaganda arms for their university administrations and sugar-coat the march toward leftist orthodoxy. (more…)

  • Alumni of the World Unite!

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    James A. Bacon

    The Free Speech Wall in downtown Charlottesville

    This press release was issued today by the Alumni Free Speech Alliance, of which The Jefferson Council is a founding member. I serve as vice president-communications of the Council. — JAB

    Millions of college and university alumni around the country are dismayed by the intolerance of unpopular viewpoints at their alma maters, and many have begun to fight back.

    Alumni have organized groups at five of America’s most prestigious higher-ed institutions — Cornell University, Davidson College, Princeton University, the University of Virginia, and the Washington & Lee University – to defend free speech, academic freedom, and viewpoint diversity in college campuses. Today those groups are announcing that they have joined forces under the banner of the Alumni Free Speech Alliance to launch a national effort to mobilize alumni.

    “Free speech and academic freedom are critical to the advancement of knowledge and to the success of our colleges and universities,” said Edward Yingling, a co-founder of the Princeton alumni group. “Yet these basic principles are under attack today at schools across the country.”

    (See the column co-authored by Yingling that was published in today’s Wall Street Journal.) (more…)

  • Stronger Teacher Unions = Weaker Parents

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    Steve Haner

    Loudoun County parents pack a School Board meeting. Photo credit: Idiocracy News Media

    Allowing collective bargaining will put yet another special interest ahead of the parents who simply want a say in what is best for their children.

    by F. Vincent Vernuccio

    First published by Virginia Works and reprinted with the author’s permission. 

    Virginia parents soon could lose even more control over their children’s education.

    Parents frustrated with school curriculum and other education issues throughout the state have earned national attention. But as that frustration boils over into school board recall petitions and the race for governor, one policy change that could limit parental and voter choice is being overlooked: public sector collective bargaining.

    A new law in Virginia gives local governments and school boards the power to permit government unions to have a monopoly on representing public employees. If school boards pass the law, they will be forced to negotiate with these union officials.

    This will put an extra, unaccountable unelected layer of bureaucracy between parents, teachers and schools.  (more…)

  • Virginia Elections: Endanger Kids, Lose Your Seat

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    I tried to warn you that kids would get hurt. I tried to warn the governor.

    On February 2, 2020 we published “Insane Bill Will Endanger Kids” after Democrats in the General Assembly passed HB257, reversing a law that had compelled school principals to report cases of sexual battery, stalking, assault and battery and threats against school personnel and schools themselves.

    What could possibly go wrong when the very people with an interest in making their schools look safe — principals — were allowed to sweep crimes under the school desks?

    I begged the governor not to sign this pile of legislative fecal matter, but he did on March 12.

    Of course he did. This is just one more part of the left’s soft-on-crime, perps-first agenda.

    Now this: At least two girls were sexually attacked in Loudoun County public schools and the alleged rapist was transferred between schools. The public only found out when the outraged father of one girl went public. (more…)

  • McAuliffe Lets the Cat out of the Bag

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    Current Virginia law and Terry McAuliffe cannot coexist.

    “A parent has a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education, and care of the parent’s child.”

    Code of Virginia § 1-240.1. Rights of parents.

    “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

    Terry McAuliffe, Sept 28, 2021

    Let’s walk that forward. Progressives all over Virginia and the nation were horrified. They consider McAuliffe’s words to be dogma. But they wish he hadn’t exposed it so publicly. 

    During an election bid.

    So, now that the cat’s out of the bag, let’s experiment with changes to  § 1-240.1. Rights of parents and see what it takes to make it comport with progressive thinking. (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

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    James A. Bacon

    From the Bull Elephant

  • Save the Jackson Arch

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    James A. Bacon

    By Donald Smith

    This past summer, Washington and Lee University decided to keep Robert E. Lee’s name as part of the college’s name. Sentiment to keep Lee’s name was strong in and around Lexington.  “Retain The Name” signs were commonplace.  It’s not too late to trot those signs out again, to retain — or save, actually — another prominent name in Lexington and Virginia’s history — Stonewall Jackson.

    Jackson’s name is carved into one of the arches at the Virginia Military Institute’s Old Barracks. The arch is commonly referred to as “Jackson Arch.” This past May, the VMI superintendent recommended that Jackson’s name be removed from the arch, and the Board of Visitors concurred. The stated reason: “certain venerations to the ‘Stonewall’ persona were overstated within the context of his contributions to VMI.”

    Removing a sign is one thing — as long as you can remove it intact and undamaged. But what if you can’t remove it intact? (more…)

  • Virginia Likely to Reinstate Parole for Murderers

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Hans Bader

    Senator Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond, predicts that Virginia’s senate will vote to bring back parole in 2022 — “across the board,” meaning for even the most serious crimes, such as murder. Restoring parole could increase the number of murders, rapes, and robberies in Virginia. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports:

    A movement to reinstate parole in Virginia could hinge on the outcome of election results next month. Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe has indicated willingness to support expanded parole …. While many Democrats support reinstating parole broadly in Virginia, Republicans generally oppose it. The Democrats hold a 55-45 seat edge in the House of Delegates. … The issue will be debated in next year’s General Assembly session.

    “I will be introducing a bill that will reintroduce parole across the board,” said Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond. “I think it will pass [the] Senate Judiciary [Committee] and … the full body.” Democrats control the Senate 21-19. Senators are not up for election until 2023. But Morrissey said he predicts a possible roadblock to parole expansion in the House, where he thinks Republicans will make gains in the Nov. 2 election. … Virginia created parole in 1942 and abolished it in 1995, passing a “truth in sentencing” law among other criminal justice measures in an effort to reduce high crime rates…. (more…)

  • Last Local? Harrisonburg’s City Races Could Still Top the Ballot

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    James A. Bacon

    by Joe Fitzgerald

    I barely recognized Mark Obenshain (the Republican state senator from Harrisonburg — ed.) the last time I saw him, and had to tell him who I was. Odd, because we used to run into each other regularly at Keister Elementary, at one time our shared precinct.

    That was back when all politics was still local in Harrisonburg. There could be an Obenshain barn sign stored in a shed at a city elementary school and a Democratic official – that would be me – could roll his eyes and entertain the possibility it was donated for art projects. As an election judge, formally closing the polls, I could find Mark and one other guy chatting outside on a cold Election Day and just tell them, instead of making a loud declaration.

    The big change from all politics being local began when Suzanne and the now-retired registrar took various actions to prevent or slow student registration in 2008. But as late as 2010 I could still see Mark outside the polls at Keister and note that it was the last local election for 12 years.

    I sort of remember thinking he was one of the few people who would get it. With local elections moved from May to November, the congressional year without a Senate or Presidential race was the only time local issues and city council candidates might dominate the ballot. (more…)

  • Shootings Are Spiking? Let’s Blame COVID!

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    U.S. Senator Mark Warner. Photo credit: WTVR

    by James A. Bacon

    It came as a big surprise to U.S. Senator Mark Warner to hear about the spike in violence occurring in the City of Richmond. The Senator, who last lived in the city when he was governor in 2006, met with what WTVR-TV describes as a gathering of government and community leaders.

    During the meeting, VCU Medical trauma surgeon Michael Aboutanos said that VCU is experiencing a 121% increase in gunshot-wound victims from across the metro Richmond area. “This is a serious issue,” he said, “One we cannot ignore.”

    “I didn’t think I realized the numbers were that astronomical,” Warner said.

    The murder rate, which passed the 60 mark this month, has not yet reached levels seen during the crack-cocaine epidemic, when murders in the 1980s routinely exceeded 100, giving Richmond one of the highest homicide rates (as a percentage of population) in the United States. But it is more than double that of the low-water mark of 31 homicides achieved in the post-crack year of 2008. (more…)

  • Dying for a Photo Op

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    James A. Bacon

    Lieutenant H. J. Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates

    This post has been excerpted from a longer column published in The Republican Standard. — JAB

    by Shaun Kenney

    Two things have always bothered me about Charlottesville 2017.

    First, that the political Left never mentions that three people died that day. Yes, we all know the name of Heather Heyer.

    But you never see the left or the media mention Jay Cullen and Berke Bates.

    Why?

    They don’t mention Cullen or Bates because they were Virginia State Police officers who died in the line of duty.

    That leads me to the second thing that has bothered me ever since. (more…)

  • The Emerging “Lost Generation” of Students

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    Source: Virginia Department of Education

    by James A. Bacon

    Virginia schools, like schools across the country, experienced an educational meltdown during the COVID-19 epidemic. The relatively comforting news is that, according to Virginia Department of Education, Virginia’s graduating seniors significantly out-performed their peers nationally. Fifty-six percent of Virginia test takers met all four of the college-readiness benchmarks — English, Reading, Math and Science — compared to 25% nationally.

    Here’s what Superintendent of Public Instruction James Lane had to say about the results: “Given the impact of the pandemic on participation, the latest ACT results represent a snapshot of achievement during a challenging year. But even so, the ACT – like the more widely taken SAT – shows that Virginia students continue to demonstrate a much higher level of college readiness than their peers nationwide.”

    Arguably, the ACT scores show no such thing, a point I’ll get around to making in a moment. But let’s pause and consider the implication of that fact that only 56% of test takers showed across-the-board college readiness. That’s out of the mere 9% of Virginia high school seniors who took the test — presumably those who are most serious about attending college. What does it say about the quality of education when only 56% of those students are fully college ready?

    Janet Godwin, CEO of the nonprofit ACT organization, sounded downright pessimistic in the ACT press release summarizing the national results (my bold face): (more…)

  • Who Will Guard the Guards?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Michael Fruitman and Jim McCarthy

    Emily P. Newman is a member of the Virginia State Bar (VSB), admitted, i.e., licensed to practice, in 2012.

    Publicly available information reveals that Ms. Newman was a staffer in Congress and in the administration of Donald Trump up to the time of the election of Joe Biden. It is unclear precisely when Newman separated from federal employment. However, on November 25, 2021, she signed onto a federal lawsuit in Michigan, listing her participation as “of counsel” along with eight other attorneys and identifying the Texas office address of Sidney Powell (of Kraken fame) as hers. The Michigan proceeding was one of four federal actions in which Newman participated. The complaint sought to invalidate Michigan’s vote for presidential electors committed to Biden. It was later amended to request emergency injunctive relief and signed by the identical group of attorneys.

    The group of nine attorneys in the Michigan legal action were members of the bar in eight state jurisdictions (DC, GA, MD, MI, NJ, NV, NY, and VA). Federal Judge Linda Parker’s decision opened with a clear statement of attorney responsibility. Read the full decision, entered August 25, 2021, here.

    (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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