Bacon's Rebellion

  • As COVID Recedes, Focus on the Other Epidemic

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    From the Fauquier Times: According to Virginia Department of Health data, the number of Virginians who died from drug overdoses in 2020 increased 41% the previous to to 2,297. Local officials attributed the surge to the COVID-19 lockdown. “The pandemic has had a devastating impact,” said Jan Brown, executive director of SpiritWorks Foundation Center for the Soul, which operates a recovery center in Warrenton. “We’ve seen more people relapsing. We’ve seen more deaths because of the isolation. People are using alone. Help can’t get to them in time.”

    Then there’s this factoid from Carol Bova’s series in Bacon’s Rebellion about the Ballad Health merger: 30% of Wise County babies are born addicted.

    More than 11,000 Virginians have died with COVID. By any other yardstick of comparison, an increase in the number of opioid deaths last year, 670, would be considered a calamity. Overshadowed by COVID, the leap in opioid deaths attracted little notice. COVID is fast receding. Will opioid addiction retreat as well? (more…)

  • That’s Our Money. Give It Back.

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    We’re rich! Really rich. Rolling in dough kind of rich.

    Perhaps you heard: Against all odds, Virginia is ending the fiscal year $500 million in the black.

    On top of that, state officials are drooling over another $4.3 billion in federal loot that is expected to drop momentarily.

    Wait. There’s more.

    Any day now, Virginia should get $6.6 billion from the feds for public schools, childcare, transportation and public health.

    Unless my little iPhone abacus is wrong, that adds up to more than $10 billion spilling out of the state coffers.

    That sound you hear is state officials clapping their hands as they decide where to blow the money. (more…)

  • We Are Losing the Soul of Our University

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    James A. Bacon

    TO: All UVA Alumni and Friends Who Care About Our University

    FROM: The Jefferson Council

    RE: We Are Losing the Soul of Our University

    DATE: May 20, 2021

    On the eve of Final Exercises at our University, we, the founding members and Board of the Jefferson Council, feel the need to send out this letter regarding very troubling developments at our beloved University. Every aspect of the legacy of UVA is under threat from our President and his hand-picked administration. They have a social justice agenda that is in many cases contrary to the values at UVA that made our institution so unique and so beloved.

    We cannot solve everything in one fell swoop. Like the adage about how to eat an elephant, the answer is one bite at a time. Therefore, we have narrowed our focus and set our goals to address four core issues at UVA that we know to have wide-spread alumni support. These four core issues of The Jefferson Council are as follows:

    1. Open Dialogue: We will fight for the University to adopt and enforce a set of principles providing for open dialogue from all parties within the University. No one should be vilified or physically abused or have their grades docked for expressing a contrary opinion on any issue, political or social.
    2. Mr. Jefferson: We will fight to protect the legacy of Mr. Jefferson as our Founder and as a Founding Father of America.
    3. The Lawn: We will fight to remove all signage from the Lawn doors and preserve the sanctity of the Academic Village.
    4. The Honor System: We will fight to resuscitate and preserve the Honor System at UVA. It has been severely weakened and will only survive with a concerted effort by the Board of Visitors, the Administration, the alumni, and the students.

    (more…)

  • Insanity Watch: Antiracism Training for Little Leaguers

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    James A. Bacon

    Photo credit: Glen Allen Youth Athletic Association

    From the Washington Free Beacon:

    Little League baseball coaches in Alexandria, Virginia, will be required to take a diversity, equity, and inclusion course this month.

    In an email to coaches on Thursday, Alexandria Little League board president Sherry Reilly announced the league’s partnership with the Positive Coaching Alliance. All Little League coaches and board members were asked to cancel practices in order to attend the Sports Can Battle Racism workshop on May 24. …

    “We want kids to have a positive youth character building experience, and resources and training that empower youth coaches and parents,” Casey Miller, spokesperson for the Positive Coaching Alliance, told the Free Beacon. “How we define culture is based on how we dive into the ‘we’ piece about that statement. What does it mean to be a part of the we? Each person, no matter what background or what they look like, should feel a part of the we.”

    Yeah, there’s that. Or… Little Leaguers could just widen their circle of friends by playing baseball.

    — JAB

  • Social Emotional Learning Standards Comments to VDOE Nearly 90% Negative

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    sherlockj

    James Lane
    Superintendent of Public Instruction

    by James C. Sherlock

    There have been two Virginia Town Hall web pages on which Virginians have commented to the VDOE on the proposed Social Emotional Learning standards for Virginia public schools.

    If I counted correctly, the current tally on the two pages is 606 against and 64 in favor. And there is still time to vote.

    On a page that closed for comments May 12, I noted last-minute ballot box stuffing, 14 yes comments between 10:30 PM and midnight on the last day of commenting. (Does the left stay up later than the center and right? Inquiring minds want to know.) Even assuming those last-minute comments were valid, that brought the totals on that web page to 497 no to SEL, 43 yes.

    The other web page is still open until midnight on May 26. The comments visible on that site are 109 against and 21 in favor. But more than a few commenters complained that many anti-SEL comments on that page had been deleted, including their own. They may have been judged to violate commenting standards and hidden from public view rather than deleted, but we do not know right now. (more…)

  • Descano’s Unconstitutional Actions

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    James A. Bacon

    Steve Descano. Photo credit: WTOP

    by Emilio Jaksetic

    Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve T. Descano has invoked his prosecutorial discretion to issue several “criminal justice reforms.” (Copies are available here.) As part of these reforms, Descano refuses:

    (1) to prosecute any person for simple possession of marijuana;

    (2) to prosecute any person for felony larceny for any amount less than $1,500 even though the statutory threshold is $1,000;

    (3) to pursue any probation violation based on a conviction for possession of marijuana; and

    (4) to request cash bail under any circumstance (even if defense counsel requests cash bail).

    By implementing the cited policies, Descano has violated the Virginia Constitution. To reach this conclusion, it is necessary to consider: (1) the limits of prosecutorial discretion; (2) specific provisions of the Virginia Constitution that constrain all Virginia officials, including Commonwealth Attorneys; and (3) how Descano’s implementation of certain policies runs afoul of the Virginia Constitution. (more…)

  • The VMI Story You Haven’t Heard

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    The Washington Post and Northam administration have done a fine job of wrecking the reputation of the Virginia Military Institute. On the basis of a dozen anecdotes shorn from any context, the Post declared VMI guilty of “relentless racism” and elaborated upon the charge in more than 20 articles since. Declaring himself “appalled” by the Institute’s “systemic racism,” Governor Ralph Northam hired an outside firm to investigate racial discrimination at the military academy. The investigator, law firm Barnes & Thornburg (B&T), has produced preliminary and interim reports which, though refraining from drawing definitive conclusions, reinforced the association in the public mind between VMI and racism.

    The VMI leadership has been caught in a delicate situation, unwilling to respond as forcefully and openly as it might for fear of antagonizing the Northam administration and provoking political retribution. But thanks to the letter of resignation from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) tendered by Thomas G. Slater, Jr., yesterday, along with supporting documentation, the public gets the fullest, clearest expression of VMI’s defense.

    On March 22, 2021, Cedric T. Wins, then-interim superintendent of VMI, and John William Boland, president of the VMI Board of Visitors, wrote a letter to Marge Connelly, SCHEV board chair and Slater, vice chair. At the time, Slater was trying to set up a meeting in which Wins and Boland could talk to the Council about ensuring the accuracy of the final B&T report.

    That letter did two things. First, it provided context missing from the Washington Post articles, the Governor’s public statements, and the B&T preliminary and interim reports showing what VMI had been doing before the investigation began. Second, it detailed the errors and omissions in the B&T report, thus documenting what VMI contends was a need to review and provide feedback before the final report is issued on or around June 1. (more…)

  • Protect Taxpaying Virginians From Coming Inflation

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    Time for a refresher course on the Weimar Republic?

    by Steve Haner

    First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. 

    One of big financial winners with the May 1 Virginia minimum wage increase is the state itself, because the entire raise is subject to a 5% state income tax. With its low standard deduction and personal exemption amounts, Virginia squeezes income tax out of even its lowest wage workers. (more…)

  • Slater Resigns from SCHEV, Citing Political Interference from Governor’s Office

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    Thomas G. Slater, Jr. Photo credit: Hunton Andrews Kurth

    by James A. Bacon

    Thomas G. Slater, Jr., a prominent Virginia Military Institute alumnus, submitted his resignation from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) today, citing political pressure from the office of Governor Ralph Northam to bias the outcome of the VMI racism investigation by an outside law firm, Barnes & Thornburg.

    The event that precipitated the resignation was a decision by SCHEV Chair Marge Connelly to not allow the Council to discuss VMI’s request to establish a process for achieving a fair and accurate final report.

    Marge Connelly. Photo credit: SCHEV

    “I can only conclude that the current Chair and Executive Director have decided to bow to political pressure from your office and the attorney general’s office to insure that the final report by B&T supports the unfounded charges in your letter of October 19, 2020 accusing VMI of systemic racism,” Slater wrote in the letter addressed to Northam.

    After a series of Washington Post articles last fall, Northam said in that letter that he was appalled by the racism at the military academy. After he ordered an investigation, SCHEV issued a Request for Proposal. As documented by Bacon’s Rebellion, the Governor’s Office was in command of the selection process and chose Barnes & Thornburg, a Washington, D.C., law firm committed to combatting racism and social injustice. VMI officials took issue with the narrative in the firm’s preliminary and interim reports that portrayed the VMI administration as reluctant to cooperate with the investigation. (more…)

  • Vertically Integrated Health Providers/Insurers – Weak State Oversight But New Federal Authority

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    In the contest between Virginia’s disorganized attempts to oversee vertically integrated health care and health insurance businesses, Sentara being the most prominent example, and Virginia’s regional monopolies’ defenses against effective regulation and legislation, the monopolies have won.  

    This piece discusses Virginia’s failed legislative and regulatory oversight structures. I will recommend structural changes to both to deal with the issues that fall between the cracks.

    There is, however, very recent good news.

    A new federal antitrust law gives federal courts full authority over integrated healthcare/health insurance business structures operated in restraint of trade. I will briefly describe the potential effects of that change. (more…)

  • Should Northern Virginia Join D.C. in the 51st State?

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    by

    djrippert

    State flag of New Columbia (including NoVa)?

    By Don Rippert

    Taxation without representation. The Democratic Party’s control of Congress and the White House has reopened the question of statehood for Washington, DC. This is not a new issue. The question of statehood for D.C. has been actively debated since 1980. Since the 98th Congress, more than a dozen statehood bills have been introduced. Two made it out of committee. The closest any bill came to success was a 1993 effort that was defeated 277 to 193 in the US House of Representatives. Support for D.C. statehood lies almost entirely along party lines with Democrats favoring statehood since it would yield two U.S. Senators and one Representative — all of whom would almost certainly be liberal Democrats. Republican opposition has been insurmountable over the years. Maybe a major repackaging of the idea of statehood for D.C. could break the logjam. (more…)

  • The Electrification of Everything

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    The world economy is rapidly electrifying. Driven by new technologies and the environmentalist push to decarbonize the economy, an increasing share of the energy Americans consume will come out of the electric socket, reports the Wall Street Journal in a special report. “Instead of having fuels like natural gas or oil or gasoline flow directly into our homes, offices, manufacturing facilities and cars, those fuels — and other sources of energy — will increasingly be converted to electricity first.”

    A Princeton University study finds that electrifying buildings and transportation could double the amount of electricity used in the United States by 2050, lifting electricity’s share of total energy from about 20% today to close to 50%.

    Electrification offers the ability to harness renewable power sources, primarily wind and solar, to displace carbon fuels that contribute to global warming. But it does present the challenge of maintaining the integrity of the electric grid in the face of natural disasters, cyber attacks, and other challenges. While many environmentalists consider global warming to be an existential threat to humanity, a collapse of the electric grid accounting for 50% of all energy consumption would pose an equally existential threat to human well being — within the next two or three decades, not by the end of the century. (more…)

  • Masks on Kids: State-Sponsored Child Abuse

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    If you came here expecting to find fountains of gratitude to Virginia’s governor for restoring liberties he should not have removed in the first place, you’ll be disappointed.

    Ralph Northam was prepared to keep the commonwealth’s face mask mandate in place for months, until he was blindsided by the CDC on Thursday night.

    THEY forced his hand.

    The sudden about-face from the CDC — the same clowns who just a few weeks ago were weeping about “impending doom” and who as recently as last week insisted that vaccinated people should continue to mask up in indoor settings — is a sign that they’ve been lying to us all along.

    They’ve been blowing smoke about masks. About the risk of outdoor infection. And about the fatality rate of COVID-19.

    And they’re still lying. Now they’re lying about the need for children to wear masks while the people most at risk of serious illness from the virus are vaccinated and mask-free.

    Insane. (more…)

  • UVa’s Latest Lurch Toward Leftism

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    James A. Bacon

    Malo Andre Hutson

    by James A. Bacon

    The University of Virginia has bolstered its reputation as a Leftist intellectual  monoculture with the announcement that Malo Andre Hutson, director of Columbia University’s Urban Community and Health Equity Lab, will become the new dean of the School of Architecture.

    At Columbia, Hutson belongs to both the Earth Institute and the Columbia Population Research Center. He has written about gentrification, environmental justice, and urban health, a trifecta of trendy Leftist disciplines. His latest book is entitled, “The Urban Struggle for Economic, Environmental and Social Justice.” (more…)

  • Tech Prof Corrected WHO, CDC on COVID Spread

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    Steve Haner

    Linsey C. Marr, PhD.

    by Steve Haner

    Wired has chronicled a one-year struggle by a Virginia Tech teacher and researcher, working mainly with other non-physicians, to convince the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization they were dead wrong on COVID. The kind of dead wrong that made more people dead.

    The battle was quietly won when on April 30 of this year the WHO changed its published stance and admitted that the virus causing COVID-19 was readily spreading airborne far beyond the three or six foot social distancing guidance. A few days later the CDC also changed its public stance, creating a minor media ripple rather than the wave it deserved.

    One of those we can thank is Linsey Marr, the Charles P. Lunsford Professor in Virginia Tech’s department of civil and environmental engineering. Megan Molteni’s article, “The 60-year-old Scientific Screw-Up that Helped COVID Kill,” opens with Marr participating in an April 2020 virtual conference with COVID science poohbahs around the world.  They uniformly blew off what they heard from Marr and other experts on aerosols. WHO had stated as fact that the SARS-2 bug was not spreading aerosol. (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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