Bacon's Rebellion

  • Don’t Let “Scarring” Hinder Economic Recovery

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Tom Barkin, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, is optimistic overall about the nation’s economic recovery. The housing market is strong. Job creation has resumed. Disposable incomes are up. And families are saving more and paying down their credit cards. 

    But he worries about “scarring” — a term that economists use to describe longer-term negative impacts that can hinder economic recovery. “Severe downturns can leave scars that, while not always permanent, take a long time to heal,” he said in a March 21st speech at the virtual Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference.

    COVID-19 lockdowns hit hit primary caregivers particularly hard by closing schools and child care facilities, putting pressure on at least one parent to stay home. Labor force participation for parents, said Barkin, is about 6 percentage points below where it was prior to the pandemic. “If parents who left the workforce don’t return, that would have long-term negative implications for our growth potential.” (more…)

  • Virginians in Cooperstown

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    James A. Bacon

    by James Wyatt Whitehead V

    On March 3rd, 1987 a long-distance telephone call came to the home of Ray Dandridge. It was a call well remembered by Mr. Dandridge in a speech given that summer in Cooperstown, New York.

    “I was resting and my wife was in the backyard. So, I answered the phone. The phone caller says, I’m trying to find Ray Dandridge. I say, I’m Ray Dandridge.  Are you Ray Dandridge the ball player?  I said, yeah. And all the sudden he said, your life has changed.  I said, what do you mean my life has changed? I said, sometimes you know you get crank calls. So afterwards, me and him and talk awhile and then he said, I’m Ed Stack, President of the Hall of Fame and you have just been elected to the Hall of Fame. I want to thank each and every member of the Veterans Committee for allowing me to smell the roses. My only question is, why did you take so long?”

    And just like that Mr. Dandridge, long time third baseman for the Negro League Newark Eagles became a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. (more…)

  • Not All Shootings Are Racially Motivated

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    As a long-time opinion writer I have one rule that I try to follow.

    I usually wait anywhere from 24 to 48 hours after a crime has been committed to weigh in.

    All too often what seems clear moments after the criminal act becomes a little more complicated once the inconvenient facts dribble out.

    Anyone else remember how dumb President Barack Obama looked in 2009 when he impulsively weighed in on the Cambridge incident involving a black Harvard professor who was arrested for disorderly conduct after cops responded to a 911 call about someone breaking into his house in the middle of the night?

    The president said the cops “acted stupidly.”

    They didn’t act stupidly. The details were far more nuanced. Obama said he “regretted” his rush to judgment and smoothed over his knee-jerk faux pas with his now-famous “beer summit.”

    There’s a lesson to learn from Obama’s mistake. (more…)

  • Candidate Suppression in Virginia

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    James A. Bacon

    Screenshot from Chase attending the pro-Trump rally at the National Mall Jan. 6.

    by James A. Bacon

    Democrats coined a highly effective phrase, “voter suppression,” to describe Republican efforts to regulate the integrity of the voting process. Maybe it’s time Republicans popularized the phrase, “candidate suppression.”

    Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, is a case in point. As the Republican Party of Virginia nears its nominating convention for statewide offices, Facebook appears to have permanently removed her official state Senate page, reports Virginia Business.

    Let me be clear: I am not a Chase fan. But the fact that her rhetoric and behavior is objectionable to many (including me) does not cancel her right to run for office and express her views. Chase leads in polls of Republican Party candidates for governor. It is is not remotely acceptable that Facebook has shut down one of her most important means of communicating with voters. (more…)

  • VCU to Study Greek Organizations. Let’s Hope This Doesn’t Go Sideways.

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    James A. Bacon

    The Delta Chi fraternity house at VCU. Credit: Flickr

    by James A. Bacon

    After a freshman died from overdrinking in a fraternity party, Virginia Commonwealth University has hired a consulting firm to investigate the university’s Greek life. The fraternity culture that led to the death of 19-year-old Adam Oakes certainly warrants looking into. But I had a sneaking suspicion as I started reading the article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch today that the investigation would not stop there.

    Indeed, my suspicions were confirmed by the fifth paragraph. “This comprehensive review of major facets of Greek life will assist us as a university community in realizing our values related to a climate of respect, care and inclusion while also promoting health and safety,” said Charles Klink, VCU senior vice provost for student affairs.

    Uh, oh. This study will be about race like everything else at VCU is. (more…)

  • The Real Nursing Home Scandal in Virginia

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    sherlockj

    Canterbury Rehabilitation and Healthcare Richmond

    by James C. Sherlock

    Mike Martz has written three excellent columns that have appeared in the Richmond Times Dispatch starting March 19.  Headline of one: “Virginia tries to move ahead of national ‘reform agenda’ for nursing homes.”

    The gist of it was that a couple of national nursing home industry organizations have taken advantage of the public consciousness of the COVID tragedies to produce a “reform agenda” centered around significantly higher Medicaid payments.

    Unreported so far is that they also want weaker inspections. More about that below.

    We all applaud any attempt to “improve operating standards for nursing homes, initiatives to boost the facilities’ workforce, and efforts to give residents more privacy and protect them from poor-performing nursing homes” as Martz wrote. Who could oppose that?

    The financials of nursing homes lead me to agree that higher Medicaid payments will be required to accomplish those goals. But the higher payments need to be accompanied by better oversight to make sure that the money brings the desired outcomes.  (more…)

  • America Needs a Diet, Not Doughnuts

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    James A. Bacon


    by Kerry Dougherty

    Everyone loves Krispy Kreme. But let’s be honest, doughnuts are the last thing America needs right now.

    We were fat before the pandemic. We’re fatter now. And being fat puts you at a much higher risk for becoming seriously ill from from COVID.

    At first I was skeptical about a report in The New York Times that said Americans under shelter-in-place orders may have gained almost 2 pounds per month. That’s 24 pounds since last year. (more…)

  • Flag Fight

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    James A. Bacon

    by Deborah Hommer

    On March 3, 2021, the Fairfax County Planning Commission recommended
    against adopting proposed regulations governing the number, size and
    setbacks of flags and flagpoles.

    “This was a solution, looking for a problem,” said Planning Commission
    Vice Chairman John Ulfelder. “I suspect, based on a lot of comments we’ve
    received, a lot of other people perceived it the same way. If it ain’t
    broken, don’t fix it.”

    On March 9, 2021, the Board of Supervisors held approximately five hours of testimony, in which the decision was made to defer the decision for two weeks until 4:30 p.m. March 23. It’s not clear the board will see things the same way as Ulfelder.

    “This proposal didn’t come from nowhere,” said Board Chair Jeffrey C.
    McKay. “If you had only watched some of the media conversations about
    this, you would think Fairfax is the only jurisdiction that has enacted
    rules like this before. The public discussion about the zoning change got
    off the rails in a way that’s unfortunate.” (more…)

  • How to Contextualize a Confederate Statue

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    James A. Bacon

    Clarke County courthouse. Credit: Wikipedia

    by James Wyatt Whitehead V

    On March 18th, 2021, the Clarke County Board of Supervisors accepted the eight-member Monument Committee’s recommendations for the Berryville courthouse Confederate Monument. The six-point platform, approved by the committee in a seven-to-one vote, called for:

    1. Dedicating the Courthouse Green to memorials and education.  Efforts should be made to recognize the contributions of African Americans in the Civil War.
    2. Preserving the Confederate monument with contextualization added.
    3. Placing additional memorials to highlight the service of more than 90 African-American soldiers in the Union armed forces as well as the recognition of Thomas Laws, a slave and informant for the Union army.
    4. Renaming one of the courthouse buildings in honor of a noted African American from Clarke County’s past.
    5. Acquisition of the Confederate monument by Clarke County.
    6. Enlisting private groups and citizens to fund the Courthouse Green improvements.

    (more…)

  • Stars, Satellites and MOOCs

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Daniel Pipes, perhaps America’s leading Middle East scholar, has spent a lifetime teaching in the ivied halls of Harvard University, but he thinks the future of higher education will look very different from the Harvard of today. He thinks the future of higher-ed is online, and he has sketched out that view in the Wall Street Journal.

    The top institutions, suggests Pipes, will use their brand power to build national institutions, while all other colleges and universities will wither or be reborn as local affiliates. Writes Pipes:

    MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses) will finally fulfill their potential. Laurie Santos, a Yale psychology professor, already attracts nearly a quarter of the Yale student body to her lectures on “The Science of Well Being,” making it the most popular course in Yale’s 320-year history. More important, starting Saturday the course boasted a non-Yale audience of 3.4 million participants. (more…)

  • Congress to Kill Right To Work, Since GA Didn’t?

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    Steve Haner

    U.S. Senator Mark Warner, savior of Virginia’s Right To Work Law?

    by Steve Haner

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

    One key goal for many of Virginia’s new progressive Democrats has been repeal of Virginia’s venerable Right To Work Law, and in 2020 they crossed one milestone by passing repeal in a key committee. But the Democratic leadership, perhaps wary of losing the bill in the Senate or angering too many moderate voters, ended the effort there and snuffed that bill. (more…)

  • Do Something “Transformational” with $6.8 Billion in COVID Relief

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    James A. Bacon

    Credit: Venomspartan on Deviant Art

    by James A. Bacon

    The $1.9 trillion COVID-relief bill just passed by Congress will shower billions of dollars upon Virginia citizens, businesses and government. State Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne expects Virginia state government to receive about $3.8 billion and local governments to get about $3 billion, for a total of $6.8 billion.

    The crazy thing, says Layne, is that Virginia made it through the COVID-19 pandemic in decent fiscal shape, so it doesn’t need the federal funds to maintain core functions of government as some other states do. Rather, he worries, legislators will be tempted to fritter away this once-in-a-lifetime bounty on pet projects or, worse, on new programs. This COVID-relief money is a one-time source of funding, he says, and it would be unwise to make financial commitments the state will have to continue honoring in subsequent years.

    Congress has limited what the states can do with the money. Virginia can’t share this manna from heaven to citizens by reducing taxes. Nor can the state use it to reduce unfunded pension liabilities. As the guardian of the state fisc, Layne would like plow the revenue into one-time capital investment projects. This is Virginia’s opportunity to do something “transformational,” he says. (more…)

  • Rich Jurisdictions Vote with Their Feet on the Virginia Department of Health

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    M. Norman Oliver M.D., Virginia Health Commissioner

    A couple of days ago Antonio Olivo broke a story  in The Washington Post that told of a law permitting Loudoun and Prince William counties to form independent health departments. It awaits Governor Northam’s signature.

    Having seen the performance of the Department of Health during COVID, they have decided they cannot depend on their state-run health districts. They are not breaking new ground, as Fairfax and Arlington Counties already made the change in 1995 and 1998 respectively.

    We have written much in this space about the dangerous shortcomings of the Virginia Department of Health exposed by COVID, including its planning, exercise, nursing home inspection, testing and vaccination programs.

    Now it appears that an increasing number of our wealthier local governments get it and want to take health district matters into their own hands. (more…)

  • Virginians’ Money and Our Tax-Exempt “Public Charity” Healthcare Monopolies

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    sherlockj

    The Business of Healthcare

    by James C. Sherlock

    A generally accepted rule of thumb for the minimum profitability required for a hospital to maintain operations and fund its future is 3%.

    Virginia’s community hospitals as a group in 2019 had an operating margin of 10%. Most of them are filed with federal and state governments as not-for-profit public charities and are untaxed at any level of government.

    I yesterday wrote a  column that disclosed 34% increases in the 2019 profitability of Virginia hospitals that were generated by taxpayer funds sent directly to the hospitals through Medicaid expansion and increases in Medicaid payments passed by the General Assembly in 2018.

    There were several good reasons for Medicaid expansion. Better access for the poor. Financial stability for rural hospitals. I was for Medicaid expansion myself, and Republican votes put it over the top. (more…)

  • More Unintended Consequences: Shutdowns, Alcohol, and Domestic Violence

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    James A. Bacon

    The good news… Rapidly declining COVID-19 cases in Virginia

    by James A. Bacon

    As the number of COVID-19 vaccinations administered in Virginia passes the two million mark, new COVID-19 cases in Virginia are falling off rapidly. We can look forward to the day when fear of the virus will be a distant memory. But the damage wrought by the virus — or, to be more accurate, wrought by the lockdowns prompted by the virus — will linger with us for years. Perhaps for  lifetimes.

    The impact on young children, compelled to learn in an online environment for which they are ill suited, has been well documented. A distressingly high percentage of students, consisting disproportionately of lower-income minorities, has fallen significantly behind academically. Whether they ever catch up is anybody’s guess. But sociologists already are speculating about the long-term cost of lower educational achievement as reflected by higher dropout rates, increased criminality, lost employment, and lower lifetime wages.

    There may be an even more insidious, more damaging effect of the lockdowns: increased domestic violence and childhood trauma. (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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