Bacon's Rebellion

  • The Supreme Court Case that Could Raise Your Internet Bill or Let Piracy Run Amok

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A whimsical scene depicting a pirate ship sailing through the sky, connected by a blue cable extending from two large, colorful connectors. A group of three children and an adult man are observing the scene by the shore.
    Image credit; John Farmer using ChatGPT 5.2 Thinking

    by John Farmer

    Ponder this question: You run a business such as a company, university, coffee shop, or hospital that provides internet access to many people. Of course, some people use it to access pirated content, such as NFL games, movies, or songs. Are you at risk that your internet service provider (ISP) will cut off your business even though many of your users don’t break the law?

    Also, rights holders might identify and contact your business, demanding that you disconnect offending users. Must you disconnect them? Can you give the scofflaws multiple warnings before cutting them off?

    Case before the U.S. Supreme Court

    That’s what’s at stake in a case in which the Supreme Court just heard oral argument – a case with Virginia connections in which an ISP was held responsible for not cutting off customers engaged in repeated piracy and hit with a judgment for $1 billion. This case could have a major impact on the price of Internet service and perhaps on available download speeds.

    A group of record labels, including Sony Music Entertainment, brought this case against Cox Communications, an ISP, in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.

    (more…)

  • A Break in Tradition

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Jeffrey Katz, retired Chesterfield County Chief of Police and now Gov.-elect’s pick for Superintendent of State Police Photo credit: Richmond Times Dispatch

    Gov.-elect Spanberger has broken new ground with one of her agency appointments. She recently announced the appointment of Jeffrey Katz to be the Superintendent of State Police. Katz was formerly the chief of police in Chesterfield County. After retiring from that position in 2024, he joined the FBI, where he worked in the training division. Before being named chief of police by Chesterfield in 2018, he had worked in law enforcement in Florida.

    This is a big deal for the State Police. The Superintendent of State police traditionally has been someone who has come up through the ranks. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, that tradition dates back to at least 1994. Katz will replace Col. Matthew Hanley, a 20-year veteran of the State Police, whom Youngkin elevated to the position last February.

    There has been a suggestion that unease in the General Assembly about State Police’s management of its budget may have been a factor in Spanberger bringing in an outsider. After Hanley reported last fall that it was going to be a “lean” budget year and he had ordered a halt to all discretionary expenses, Democrats in the State Senate began asking for details of all aspects of the agency’s budget and spending. Bill Carrico, former State Senator and retired State Trooper and director of the Virginia State Police Association, noted that that action “put a target” on the back of the agency. Nevertheless, regarding Katz, Carrico said, “He’s a very intelligent man. I don’t think it’ll take him long to get his feet wet. I really respect the man and like him. I think he’ll do fine.”

    There is a strong culture in the State Police. Whether bringing in an outsider will result in changes in that culture remains to be seen.

  • AI and the New Cultural Revolution

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    The United States is undergoing a cultural revolution. Artificial Intelligence is giving Middle America the tools to circumvent the entertainment monopoly of the bicoastal elites. You can find content on YouTube, TikTok, Spotify, and Facebook every bit as fun and/or entrancing as anything you can see on Netflix, Apple, or network TV. Just as new media has destroyed the monopoly authority of legacy media, the legacy arbiters and gatekeepers of popular culture are losing their power to dictate what America watches and listens to. A new generation of creative artists is arising.

    Watch the AI-generated video above. It’s hilarious (at least if you’re a Lord of the Rings fan). Nothing like this ever came out of Hollywood. (Neural Derp is the brainchild of Taylor Mittelstadt of Gulf Breeze, Fla.) We’ll be seeing a lot more like this. The titans of Tinseltown should be quaking in their Guccis.

    As Andrew Breitbart famously said, politics is downstream from culture. The culture is changing. Middle America is empowered. Give it a few years, and the politics will reflect it.

    (more…)

  • John Reid Returns

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    James A. Bacon

    After his bid for lieutenant governor, John Reid is back in the talk show business. You don’t have to live within range of WRVA radio signals to hear him. You can listen to his show on YouTube.

  • Crime and Punishment in Virginia Nursing Homes

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    sherlockj

    Crime and Punishment in Virginia Nursing Homes

    by James C. Sherlock

    The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) inspectors regularly report instances of resident abuse, including battery, occasionally resulting in death. That has persisted for decades and appears undeterred by current enforcement efforts.

    The Code of Virginia (Code) is partially at fault. It makes it challenging for the state, its citizens, and local law enforcement to address dangerous deficiencies.

    Long-term residents of nursing homes are expected to die there. Many short-term residents in skilled nursing beds are supposed to get better, but often do not. They instead return to the hospital or transition to long-term care or hospice.

    Virginia law appears almost fatalistic in the face of those facts.

    Multiple Code provisions governing the reporting and investigation of potential crimes in nursing homes are rendered incoherent by the proliferation of federal and state programs and sanctions.

    • VDH personnel conduct federal and state inspections and investigate tips received on its complaints hotline and portal. The reports often cite violations of federal law that include evidence of crimes, including abuse, battery, or even manslaughter.
    • The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has long been authorized by federal law to respond to those citations by sanctioning violators through administrative actions, such as fines or suspensions of new admissions. As of July 1, 2025, VDH also has sanctioning authorities.
    • The Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) operates an Adult Protective Services (APS) program. APS investigates reports of abuse, neglect, or exploitation of adults aged 60 and older or incapacitated adults ages 18 to 59 submitted on its own hotline and portal .

    Those parallel programs have not proven sufficient to mitigate recurring dangers to nursing home residents and, indeed, appear to be part of the problem.

    (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

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    James A. Bacon

    A humorous meme with four panels: Top left shows a demolished building labeled 'Privately Funded Ballroom'. Top right features Bart Simpson using a telescope, captioned 'Legacy Media'. Bottom left displays a sign for 'Quality Learning Center' with the label 'Tax Payer Funded Billion Dollar Fraud Operation'. Bottom right features Bart Simpson again, appearing casual.

    See more memes at The Bull Elephant.

  • Dominion Describes Efforts to Limit Turbine Radar Interference

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    Charybdis loaded with blades, towers and nacelles for CVOW

    Dominion Energy Virginia’s team building its offshore wind facility spent years working with the U.S. Navy and the air defense agency NORAD on ways to mitigate the problems that would be caused by the 836-foot-tall turbines, reaching several agreements, the utility has told a federal court.

    The company – meaning ultimately the company’s customers – agreed to pay NORAD $250,000 for some upgrades to its systems to mitigate interference, and an additional sum to upgrade the electrical circuits for a Navy radar installation in Norfolk. 

    As recently as two weeks before the Trump Administration issued a stop-work order to the utility on December 22, the company and the Navy were actively planning how to use the first installed turbines as test platforms to better understand their impact on various radar and undersea sensing technologies.

    “Never did these long-time or recent discussions indicate that (Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind) was incompatible with national security or that an agency order halting CVOW activities was forthcoming,” Dominion executive Grant T. Hollett wrote in an affidavit filed with the U.S. District Court in Norfolk, which has been asked to overrule the Trump Administration order.

    Yet the company must have understood that the government was about to reverse its approvals. The order from the Department of the Interior was issued on Monday, December 22 and the next day the company filed its 186-page petition with the U.S. District Court. This petition to vacate the order or issue a temporary restraining order, also shared with the Virginia State Corporation Commission, is clearly the result of weeks if not months of preparation. 

    (more…)

  • Spanberger Cabinet Picks Much Different from Youngkin’s

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    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger

    Despite stocking her transition team with individuals unfamiliar with Virginia politics and issues, Gov.-elect Spanberger has not followed Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s path of bringing in non-Virginians and persons unfamiliar with government and the Virginia legislature to fill out her Cabinet. Instead, she has, so far, surrounded herself with Cabinet members who have extensive experience with Virginia government and the General Assembly, in particular. 

    Here are her announcements so far:

    Secretary of Finance—Mark Sickles. Sickles is a long-time member of the House of Delegates from Fairfax County, first elected in 2003. He has been a member of the House Appropriations Committee since 2015 and vice-chair since 2024. In addition to his long experience on the Appropriations Committee, he has been a member of the budget conference committee since 2018. Health care has been one of the primary issues he has focused on, serving as chair of both the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Resources and the full House Committee on Health, Welfare, and Institutions, as well as on the Joint Subcommittee on Health Care. In addition to these legislative assignments, he serves on the House Rules and Privileges and Elections Committees and is chair of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.

    Del. Mark Sickles (D-Fairfax) Photo credit: Washington Post

    The Secretary of Finance oversees the development of the biennial budget that the Governor presents to the General Assembly. Included among the agencies that report to him are the Departments of Planning and Budget, Taxation, Accounts, and Treasury.

    Comment: Spanberger probably could not have found anyone with a deeper knowledge and understanding of the General Assembly and the budget process. The Commonwealth will be facing major budget challenges in Medicaid and social services resulting from the provisions of the recent federal tax and spending legislation. Sickles’ background in these areas will be invaluable. His main challenge will probably be having to pivot from a legislative perspective to representing the executive branch.

    (more…)

  • Officer-Involved Shootings on the Rise in 2024

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    James A. Bacon

    Line graph depicting officer-involved shootings in Virginia from 2019 to 2024, showing trends in incidents, injuries, and fatalities.

    The number of officer-involved shootings in Virginia increased to 45 in 2024, nearly double the rate recorded in 2019, according to the Virginia State Police Crime in Virginia 2024 report. The number of fatal shootings, 31, was two-and-a-half times higher than five years previously.

    The Crime in Virginia report classifies every one of the shootings as either “justified” or “pending.”

    One of two things (or perhaps both) seems likely: Either police are playing faster and looser with their guns, or the public’s interactions with the police are getting increasingly contentious. Either way, the trend is disturbing and bears looking into.

    In the old days, when legacy media actually had resources to follow stories like this, someone would have dug into the numbers. No longer. The Washington Post compiled a database of fatal shootings, which can be found here. Shootings in 2024 are included, but that is the last year. The newspaper stopped updating the database in 2025 and apparently has no plans to resume it.

  • Bacon Meme of the Day

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A cartoon depicting a group of people in a fiery setting, with a devil figure overseeing them. The characters look frustrated, and a speech bubble says, 'Smell that bacon? They're not really cooking some; they just pipe the smell in to torment us more.'

  • About Those Hate Crime Numbers…

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Line graph depicting the number of hate crimes in Virginia by ethnic victim classification from 2000 to 2024, showing trends for Anti-Black, Anti-White, Anti-Hispanic, Anti-Jewish, and Anti-Muslim categories.

    The officially reported tally of hate crimes against Jews spiked to 84 in 2024, while the number against Blacks increased slightly from an already high level to 136, according to data from the Virginia State Police Crime in Virginia 2024 report.

    As the report itself notes, however, these numbers should be viewed with caution. “Because of the difficulty of ascertaining the offender’s subjective motivation, bias is reported only if the investigation reveals sufficient information to lead a reasonable and prudent person to conclude that the offender’s actions were motivated, in whole or in part, by bias against race, religion, disability, ethnicity or sexual orientation. “

    In other words, what constitutes a “hate crime” is in the eyes of the beholder. Take the City of Charlottesville, for example. While the University of Virginia was in the throes of highly agitated pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli agitations in the first half of 2024, UVA Jews cited numerous antisemitic incidents. For purposes of compiling data, however, the City of Charlottesville reported only one anti-Jewish hate crime.

    Another example: Fairfax County. In 2019, county police reported 14 anti-Black and 2 anti-Hispanic hate crimes. In 2024, the numbers had surged to 73 anti-Black hate crimes and 21 anti-Hispanic crimes. Without the 59-crime increase in anti-Black incidents and 19-crime increase in anti-Hispanic incidents over those five years, the statewide numbers would have shown declines in such crimes.

    (more…)

  • Happy Recovering-from- New-Year’s-Eve Day

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A group of individuals sitting together in a dimly lit setting, wearing party hats and holding festive items, portraying a celebratory atmosphere.
    Grok imagines hungover Jamestown settlers recovering from New Years Eve

  • Back to Zero-Sum Racial Politics

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Bye-bye Diversity, Opportunity and Inclusion.

  • Trump Administration Sues UVA for Offering In-State Tuition to Illegal Aliens

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Exterior view of the Rotunda at the University of Virginia, showcasing its iconic architecture at dusk.

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Imagine, for a moment, you’re the parent of an exceptional North Carolina high school senior. She worked hard. Her grades are excellent. Her test scores are top tier.

    She applies to and is accepted at Virginia’s prestigious flagship, the University of Virginia. The cost of in-state tuition for a first-year student ranges from roughly $16,500 to $27,000 while the cost to out-of-state students is more than $66,000.

    That discrepancy is to be expected. State-supported schools always offer reduced tuition to in-state kids.

    But UVa goes way beyond that. The university founded by Thomas Jefferson offers in-state tuition and enhanced financial aid to ILLEGAL ALIENS who live -illegally – in the commonwealth. If they attended high school here for two years these illegals are treated as preferred students.

    Make it make sense.

    Yesterday, the Department of Justice announced that it had filed suit in the Eastern District of Virginia, asking a federal judge to bar the state from enforcing the policy.

    The suit claims that UVa’s policy “is not only wrong, but illegal.”

    “In Virginia and nationwide, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi in a news release. “This Department of Justice will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country.”

    If that North Carolina girl can’t get in-state tuition, why should someone who is in the country illegally get preferential treatment? Continue reading.

  • School Division’s Legal Bills Continue to Swell

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A pile of burning U.S. dollar bills engulfed in flames, emitting smoke against a dark background.

    by Stephanie Lundquist-Arora

    Even Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, Virginia Senate president pro tempore, knows the last thing Fairfax County needs is more money. Earlier this month, Sen. Lucas posted on X, “I’m getting sick and tired of localities in Northern Virginia (especially Fairfax) spreading misinformation about being underfunded by the Commonwealth of Virginia. It’s time to correct the record and stop these lies.”

    Sen. Lucas explains that Fairfax County commissioned a study with the Weldon Cooper Center at the University of Virginia, which inaccurately found that Virginia’s largest county only gets 50 cents back on each tax dollar raised by the Commonwealth. The liberal senator continues, “This is false and is a number derived by only counting money we send the county directly, not services used by all.”

    In the X thread, Lucas points to the irony that the center Fairfax County is paying to conduct the “study” finds exactly what is most convenient for the argument that they are entitled to more money from the state. She concludes  the thread by stating, “We will not be bullied or lied to by the richest community in the Commonwealth that is constantly begging us for more funding.”

    While the county’s leaders ask state officials for more money, they continue to tax many Fairfax residents, particularly seniors on a fixed income, out of the county. As property taxes have increased by about 65% in the last decade, and an incredibly unpopular 4% food tax will be implemented in January, county leaders continue to increase their own salaries. The Board of Supervisors chairman, Jeff McKay, also enjoys a taxpayer-funded car. Fairfax County’s residents further cover Chairman McKay’s car tax, gas, auto insurance, E-ZPass, oil changes, and car washes. 

    (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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