Bacon's Rebellion

  • Virginia’s Dreadful Nursing Homes – Part Four – Recommendations For 2026 Legislation

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    sherlockj

    Virginia’s Dreadful Nursing Homes – Part Four – Recommendations For 2026 Legislation

    by James C. Sherlock

    This series is being constructed specifically to support legislation in the 2026 General Assembly. To reiterate the legislative recommendations from Part 3:

    Recommended legislation

    Consumer protection. Right now, citizens in Virginia Beach and in other communities have no defense against poor and badly staffed nursing homes that charge too much. The good ones simply do not have nearly enough beds to support demand.

    Hospitals and insurance care managers can helpfully provide more information to patients about to transfer or to their caregivers. That should include useful information on local nursing homes, such as:

    • the latest inspection ratings and staffing ratings,
    • average nursing CMI as a proxy for cost,
    • number of beds, and
    • average occupancy.

    That does not happen broadly in Virginia. 

    Those service providers can be required by law to provide to patients facing a nursing home stay a written handout including:

    • specified CMS data tailored to hospital service areas, and
    • a written explanation of the meanings of the information.

    The law would not challenge those required to take the actions because the data do not change very often. It would provide a very necessary service to citizens.

    (more…)

  • Sanctuary Politics

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    James A. Bacon

    Here’s the kicker: “@EROWashington previously lodged two immigration detainers against Melendez-Gonzalez with Fairfax County. Fairfax County officials REFUSED to honor the detainers, releasing Melendez-Gonzalez back into the community.“

  • Virginia Dems: So Classy

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    You could respect Virginia Democrats if they would just be honest.

    Alas, it’s not in their nature and so we must endure endless gaslighting from the left as they breathlessly work to undo the constitutional amendment that the vast majority of Virginians voted for five years ago. You know, the measure that ended political gerrymandering and handed the responsibility of drawing congressional districts to a bipartisan commission.

    Virginia has 11 congressional districts. Six are Democrat and five are Republican, an indication that in this closely divided commonwealth, the districts are fair.

    As other states – without similar constitutional restrictions – rush to redraw congressional maps along political lines, Virginia’s Democratic leadership is frantically working to join in the gerrymandering frenzy while they control both chambers of the General Assembly.

    All while pretending this is simply an exercise in democracy.

    Continue reading.

  • Virginia’s Dreadful Nursing Home Choices Part 3 – Nursing Home Costs and Alternatives

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    sherlockj

    Virginia’s Dreadful Nursing Home Choices Part 3 – Nursing Home Costs and Alternatives

    by James C. Sherlock

    Nursing home costs and payments are complex subjects not often explained.

    Patients need a place for round-the-clock skilled nursing care to continue to heal from surgeries after hospital discharge. For some, their care is too complex to get at home, or their homes are not suitable for such care. They need skilled nursing facility (SNF) beds.

    The patient’s skilled nursing insurance, including but not limited to Medicare and Medicaid, pays the bill. Those with insurance co-pays pay their percentage either through a Medicare Advantage plan or something similar. The payers include the poor and middle class alike. The wealthy may or may not have other options.

    Those needing institutional long-term care (LTC) and who do not have long-term care insurance have two options: Medicaid or out-of-pocket.  It is very expensive care. Most (80%) use Medicaid even if they have to pay down assets to qualify.

    Nursing homes get the bulk of their money from those two government insurance programs. Some are demonstrably not earning what they are paid, but the government does not effectively assess value in Medicare and Medicaid payments.

    Market forces are diminished by failures of government. Not enough hospitals assist patients in understanding their limited choices.

    (more…)

  • Readers, Divine the Election Outcome

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    James A. Bacon

    An elderly woman with a headscarf gazes intently at a glowing crystal ball, surrounded by tarot cards and decorative items.
    Image credit: Grok

    Virginia’s elections are down to the wire. The election is Tuesday.

    The latest poll, by Roanoke College based on responses from 1,041 likely voters, shows Democrat Abigail Spanberger with a 10-point lead (51% to 41%) over Republican Winsome Earle-Sears in the gubernatorial race.

    Democrat Ghazali Hashmi leads Republican John Reid in the race for lieutenant governor by two points (42% to 40%).

    And Republican Jason Miyares is ahead of Jay Jones in the bid for Attorney General by 8 points (46% to 38%).

    But, hey, what do pollsters know? How many ever get it right? Compare them to the all-wise, all-knowing readers and commenters who frequent Bacon’s Rebellion. This is your chance to prove how much more you know than everybody else! Post a comment and tell us who you think will win Virginia’s statewide races, and why.

    (For readers who have never commented before, click on the headline above and scroll to the bottom of the page. You need to register with the Disqus commenting platform in order to post a comment.)

    To read more about fortune telling through the reading of pig entrails, read on…

    (more…)

  • Democrat Racism and the Delusion of Moral Superiority

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    James A. Bacon

    by Stephanie Lundquist-Arora

    A smiling woman wearing a cream-colored suit stands in a legislative chamber, with an American flag in the background.

    Last week, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” panelists argued that Abigail Spanberger wasn’t dominating the Virginia gubernatorial race because of sexism. The gaffe prompted her opponent, Winsome Earle-Sears, to post on X, “Who wants to tell them?” 

    Had the shoe been on the other foot, if these political commentators overlooked a Democrat black woman running against a Republican white woman, mainstream media outlets would be conjuring up Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech for weeks. 

    Given the incessant lip service liberals have paid to “racial justice” and “equity,” such an oversight seems like blasphemy for Democrats. In truth, though, they only care about race when it’s politically expedient. 

    Case and point—four years ago, another liberal commentator on MSNBC who makes his living off racial commentary, Michael Eric Dyson, called Earle-Sears a “black mouth” for “white supremacist practices.”

    Like other black conservatives, Earle-Sears is targeted with verbal abuse from the sanctimonious “Hate has no home here” political party. Last month, Democrat Virginia state Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, went on a racist rant about Earle-Sears. She said, “All skin folks ain’t kinfolk! We don’t need somebody who looks like me in the Governor’s mansion … Don’t be fooled!” 

    (more…)

  • Virginians’ Dreadful Nursing Home Dilemmas Part Two – Virginia Beach

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    This article will explore a single geographic area, Virginia Beach, to focus on what nursing home choices mean in practice to the citizenry of Virginia’s largest city.  

    The quality of the nursing home inventory in Virginia Beach is illustrative of that of all of south Hampton Roads and much of Virginia. Offered below is an overview of the fifteen nursing homes in my city. The for-profit chain nursing homes here, eleven of 15, present an enormous challenge to citizens and to state oversight. The state is challenged because all are owned by out-of-state chains. 

    Except as noted, all facilities listed offer both skilled nursing beds certified for Medicare and long-term care beds certified for Medicaid. Many of the beds can be flexed to either purpose. Each may accept other insurance or out-of-pocket payments. 

    Virginia Beach (2) and Norfolk (2) general hospitals are all Sentara facilities. They are included among five Sentara general hospitals of the total of seven in south Hampton Roads. Both regional trauma centers are Sentara hospitals. Sentara exited the nursing home business in November of 2020, when it closed on the sale of all seven of its nursing facilities to Saber Healthcare. That healthcare system now faces the same mostly dreadful choices for patient transfers to skilled nursing after surgery as do its patients.  

    Most if not all hospitals in Virginia have contracts with nursing homes and also recommend nursing home options to patients seeking one. Some, like Sentara, are vertically integrated with insurance companies that have contracts with nursing homes.  

    Patients, and the government, have no idea what terms their nursing home contracts specify. Perhaps they should.

    (more…)

  • Redistricting Won’t Accomplish What Don Scott Wants

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    James A. Bacon

    Look at the calendar. Amending the state constitution to draw new congressional districts will be a drawn-out process.

    by Paul Goldman

    I get what Democratic Speaker Donald Scott, D-Portsmouth, wants to do. When I was Democratic Party Chair, I helped create the districts that elected the first Black member of Congress and the first female member. Partisan redistricting for sure. But that was 35 years ago. Virginians overwhelmingly voted in 2021 for non-partisan redistricting. There’s no indication they’ve had a change of heart. 

    Speaker Scott is thus understandably leery about being seen as reviving partisan redistricting. He and his allies have come up with a clever approach to the matter. The new Democratic plan is to use the power of partisan redistricting only in response to some other state doing it first to Virginia’s detriment. Thus, his constitutional proposal is one of the weirdest in American history.

    Republicans are crying their usual crocodile tears. They would do the same power grab as Scott if they were in the majority. So, I’m not impressed by their insincere Fourth of July speeches or legal opinions from the current AG, whose grasp of constitutional law seems rather sketchy.

    That being said, an honest commentator has to say the Democratic proposal is laughable as a matter of constitutional principle. What’s most amazing in this redistricting debate is the lack of understanding of the redistricting- process calendar. I think presumptive Governor Abigail Spanberger has looked at this timeline. She’s staying out of the debate for reasons which will soon be apparent from this timeline. 

    (more…)

  • Schumer Shutdown Backfires On Democrats

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    I wouldn’t want to be a Democrat right now.

    What am I saying, I wouldn’t want to be a Dem ever.

    But right now they’re in a bind.

    On one hand, Dems want to keep the government shutdown going until after Election Day. They’re counting on angry federal workers to deliver a Virginia victory. (And no, they don’t care that the workers may be out of money and ready to miss mortgage payments. Do you really think uber wealthy Democrats like Mark Warner have any idea what it’s like to struggle to pay their bills?)

    On the other hand, their ridiculous chorus of Republicans control both houses of Congress and the White House so this is their shutdown isn’t working.

    Don’t take my word for it. Here’s CNN:

    Continue reading.

  • Portsmouth Schools Used Taxpayer Resources to Promote Spanberger During Work Hours

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    James A. Bacon

    Portsmouth district leaders coordinated with campaign staff, redirected school resources, and urged teachers to attend a partisan rally with Democrats Spanberger, Hashmi and Jones on paid time.

    A group of political candidates, including Abigail Spanberger, Ghazala Hashmi, and Jay Jones, gathered at I.C. Norcom High School for a campaign event, surrounded by supporters and political banners.
    Image credit: Restoration News

    by Shelly Norden

    Internal emails reveal that Portsmouth Public Schools (PPS) administrators coordinated with the Spanberger for Governor campaign to stage a political rally inside I.C. Norcom High School during school hours on Aug. 8, the first teacher workday of the year.

    According to FOIA records obtained exclusively by Restoration News, the coordination diverted taxpayer-funded staff time and school resources away from instruction to support a partisan event.

    Photos and social media posts from campaign operatives and union officials show Democratic candidates Abigail Spanberger, Ghazala Hashmi, and Jay Jones delivering campaign speeches attacking their opponents beneath political banners hanging in the school library.

    Although division leaders later described the gathering as a closed “education roundtable,” evidence shows it was a publicly promoted political rally conducted during paid work hours inside a taxpayer-funded school.

    (more…)

  • An Issue-free Campaign for Governor Ignores Traffic Congestion

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    James A. Bacon

    Heavy traffic congestion on a major highway during rush hour, with numerous vehicles including cars and trucks occupying multiple lanes.
    Congested traffic on the American Legion Bridge. Photo credit: The Washington Post

    by Ken Reid

    I attended Gov. Youngkin’s address to the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance Friday Oct. 24 in Fairfax.

    There, for the first time that I can recall, he addressed the horrendous traffic on the American legion Bridge (ALB-495) and the fact Virginia’s extension of express toll lanes to the Potomac River will be open by early February – but there will be no corresponding increase in lane capacity on the Maryland-controlled Legion Bridge and 495 Beltway and I-270 connection, called “The Split.”

    That’s because Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, upon election in November 2022, announced the public-private-partnership his predecessor, Larry Hogan, worked out with former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam was “not equitable.”  This, despite the fact, the $6 billion project won approval from the Federal Highway Administration and Maryland Board of Public Works that very month, and the winner of the bid, Transurban, was ready to break ground to meet up with Virginia’s “495 Next” project.

    The neophyte Moore, who never held elected office before, was pretty much conned by environmental groups and politicians like socialist Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich into thinking using toll lanes was bad for poor people – although they do exist on other roads in Maryland

    You can read the details of this saga in this Virginia Mercury article I wrote in September:   

    Youngkin and his Transportation Secretary, Shep Miller, never intervened when Moore made his intentions known in December 2022, nor before March 2023 when Transurban pulled out of the project, in part because Moore denied them an extension to get things ready to build.  

    But at the NVTA breakfast Friday, Youngkin announced he was going to send a team of experts to Annapolis to try to convince Moore that the P3 approach is the only way to provide new capacity on 270/495. The Free State faces a $3 billion deficit due to poor fiscal policies and a loss of jobs and people, and there is not $6 billion available from the feds to build this without tolls.

    (more…)

  • Jones’ Advice on Inflicting Pain Implemented by Warner, Kaine

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    Steve Haner

    Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA

    “Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.”

    That was former Delegate Jay Jones’ deep political insight, seeking to justify his assertion that the children of the Speaker of the House should die so Democrats could prevail. 

    Is that not exactly what Virginia Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner are now putting fully into action? Which is worse, truly? A text that emerges from a fevered brain that probably (we hope) was just ugly words, or weeks and weeks of standing by as the federal government and its workforce dissolves? I submit Kaine and Warner’s actions are worse than Jones’ words. 

    Sen. Tim Kaine, D- VA

    They are doing it to gain a victory for big government spending and the growing middle-class dependency on government financial entitlements. They are doing it, they think, to put pressure on President Trump, but they cannot be that stupid to think he really cares as he jets around the world. And they are doing it in part to help cement Abigail Spanberger’s victory and win a larger Democratic majority in the House of Delegates.

    The personal pain they inflict is of no concern to them.

    They are also doing this, of course, because they can. They have now voted thirteen times to directly prevent passage of a continuing resolution but are getting no more heat for it than if they were routine votes. The docile Virginia media is on their side if it covers the votes at all.

    They can also do this because the toothless and feckless Republican Party poses absolutely no threat to either of them, certainly not to Warner, who is on the ballot again next year. They think they are winning this standoff. They are not. The imperial presidency of Trump and some future president with authoritarian tendencies will simply grow stronger. It is true that both sides in Congress are being blamed, but that just means Congress as an institution is losing what little respect and credibility it still had.

    — SDH

  • Miyares Plays Fast and Loose with Truth

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Attorney General Jason Miyares

    Before 2020, offenders convicted of felonies and incarcerated in Virginia prisons were eligible for up to 4.5 days credit toward their sentences for every 30 days served.  They did not automatically receive these credits; violation of prison rules or violent behavior could result in a reduction of “earned sentence credits.”

    The 2020 General Assembly enacted legislation that expanded these sentence credits for some offenders.  Depending on their behavior and participation in rehabilitation programs, these inmates could earn up to 15 days credit per 30 days served.  The exceptions, the offenders who were not eligible for the expanded sentence credits, were those convicted of any of a long list of violent offenses, including murder, malicious assault, robbery, rape and other sexual offenses, and kidnapping.  The “enhanced earned sentence credits” (EESC) were to be applied retroactively.  The legislation had a delayed effective date, July 1, 2022, to provide the Department of Corrections (VADOC) time to reprogram its sentence calculation programs.

    In his attempts to kill the legislation or modify it through budget amendments, Gov. Glenn Youngkin was able to delay the full implementation of the EESC provisions until July 1, 2024.  Attorney General Jason Miyares also attacked the legislation and tried to restrict it through interpretation.  Twice the Virginia Supreme Court  rejected his interpretations.

    Miyares has made his opposition to the EESC a major part of his campaign for re-election.  In a guest commentary in Cardinal News in July, he asserted, “because of Virginia’s early release program, 53 Virginians were murdered.”  During the debate between candidates for Attorney General, he upped his claim, declaring, “Seventy Virginians are dead today, dead today, because a felon that was supposed to be behind prison [sic] got out early.” 

    Seventy people killed by offenders released earlier than originally intended.  That’s a shocking number; one that could call for reform of EESC.

    Except it isn’t true.

    (more…)

  • Virginians’ Dreadful Nursing Home Dilemmas Part One – Assessing the Information

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    sherlockj

    Virginians’ Dreadful Nursing Home Dilemmas Part One – Assessing the Information

    by James C. Sherlock

    Disclaimer. The author is a member of the Virginia Nursing Home Oversight and Accountability Advisory Board established under Governor Youngkin’s Executive Order 52.  Nothing in this series should be taken to represent the opinions of the Commonwealth or that Board.

    This series will explore the dreadful and dangerous choices faced by many who seek nursing homes in Virginia. It will illuminate those choices in various regions of the state in consecutive articles.

    Too many facilities should be avoided, but there are simply not enough decent choices in many areas to support local nursing home demand. Those choices and competition generally are limited purposely by Virginia’s Certificate of Public Need (COPN) law.

    For years I have offered testimony in this space based upon excellent Virginia Department of Health (VDH) reports of inspections. Many describe terrible conditions and the resulting human tragedies. Those conditions are cited by VDH inspectors in the reports as violations of the federal Social Security Act and federal regulations for its enforcement. Virginia law and regulations for nursing homes are in every case less demanding than federal counterparts, so are in practice useless. Federal money and therefore federal supremacy are involved.

    The widespread negative publicity generated by the results of the December 2024 raid on Colonial Heights Rehabilitation and Nursing Center raised public awareness of the problem. That in turn resulted in the 2025 General Assembly passing decades-needed additional regulatory authority and funding for hiring of additional inspectors by the Virginia Department of Health (VDH).

    The highly accelerating trend of individual complaints to VDH on nursing homes is another result of that publicity. Both are welcome.

    The dilemma for Virginians is posed mostly by out-of-state for-profit chains whose breakneck growth since early 2000 has led to their dominance in many geographic areas. That growth continued with the closing in September 2025 on the purchase of seven nursing facilities from Newport News-based Virginia Health Services (VHS) by Brick, New Jersey-based Marquis Health Services.

    Rapid discharges of patients from hospitals to skilled nursing beds are driven by government and private insurers to lower the total cost of treatment. That treatment is underwritten by Medicare. That policy makes good sense as policy.  It bends the overall insurance cost curve downwards.

    The long-term care beds are paid for primarily by Medicaid reimbursements.

    The unwritten assumption of government policies is that there are sufficient capably staffed beds to accept them. That assumption is demonstrably untrue in many communities in Virginia and elsewhere.

    The methodology described below will be used in this series for assessment of the options for seekers of nursing homes in several Virginia locations.

    (more…)

  • Virginia Dems Convene “Return to Gerrymandering” Session

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Let’s be clear about what’s going on in Richmond right now with the sham “Jay Jones” Special Session.

    Democrats, desperate to get Jay Jones off the front pages and Winsome Earle-Sears off the campaign trail, are staging an unprecedented 11th-hour session of the General Assembly to try to ram through a Return-To-Gerrymandering constitutional amendment.

    With one week left until Election Day these panicked partisans have scrubbed Jones’ name from Abigail Spanberger’s campaign bus and sent their nominee for governor barnstorming through Virginia while Earle-Sears — who actually has a job — is forced to stay in the capital to preside over the Senate.

    They’ve seen the polls. They know their candidates are in trouble. These Chicago-style machine Democrats are willing to do anything to get a win.

    The lieutenant governor is also prohibited from raising funds while the General Assembly is in session, so supporters of Winsome Earle-Sears should flood the Republican PACs with money to keep her ads on TV.

    Especially this one:

    Continue reading.

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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