Bacon's Rebellion

  • Redistricting Won’t Accomplish What Don Scott Wants

    Posted on

    by

    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

    Posted on

    by

    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

    Posted on

    by

    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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    by

    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

    Posted on

    by

    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

    Posted on

    by

    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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    by

    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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    by

    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.

  • Transgenderism and the Meltdown of Objective Reality

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A surreal landscape featuring a melting clock and a figure in a suit gazing at a dilapidated building, symbolizing the distortion of time and reality.
    Image credit: ChatGPT

    J. Kennerly Davis

    Many of the serious threats posed and damage done by the radical ideology of transgenderism are now widely recognized and openly discussed: The emotional and physical assaults on girls and women in spaces that should be safely reserved for their private use. The abject unfairness, indeed, the illegality, of boys and men competing in sporting events reserved by custom and law for girls and women. The destructive steps taken by politicized public school officials to alienate students from their parents and destroy the institution of the family. The severe medical mistreatment of confused minors by licensed professionals who supposedly have sworn to “do no harm.”

    Even worse than these is the threat posed and damage done by radical transgenderism to reason itself, our ability to think, understand, and form rational conclusions about the objective reality of the world around us.

    It is by reason, using words that have objective meanings, that we form concepts, convey information, ask questions, and construct arguments to persuade others. And it is only by empirical reasoning firmly anchored in reality that we can hope to truly understand the world around us, master its challenges, and grasp its opportunities. Without such reasoning, we cannot develop as individuals or advance as a society.

    (more…)

  • Off the Interstate: A Public Figure Honored

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Whenever I travel to anywhere west of the Blue Ridge that is south of Staunton, I take U.S. Rt. 60. Such trips usually include a stop at a restaurant at Cumberland Courthouse that serves some of the best fried oysters in the Commonwealth and at a decent price, along with lemon meringue pie. If I am going to Lexington, that two-lane road over the Blue Ridge between Amherst and Buena Vista is fun to drive, although I would not recommend using it if it is raining, at night, or during the winter.

    In 1969, U.S. Rt. 60 from Richmond to Lexington was designated by the General Assembly as “ the James A. Anderson Highway.” There are signs along the roadside at various intervals that inform motorists of that designation. Most such highway designations recall politicians whose names are familiar, but this one drew a blank for me, and I always wondered who James A. Anderson was and why he merited having a highway named for him.

    Brig. Gen. James A. Anderson was the Virginia State Highway Commissioner from 1941-1957. Before being appointed commissioner, he had a distinguished career at the Virginia Military Institute and state and federal government. 

    (more…)

  • Mississippi and Louisiana Schools’ Decade-Long Surge Past Virginia

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Todd Truitt

    A woman with blonde hair and a blue blazer smiles in front of a blue background and a flag.
    Former Mississippi and current Maryland state superintendent
    Carey Wright

    Much attention has been paid lately to what’s being called the “Southern Surge” in K-12 education on the National Assessment of Education Progress (aka, the nation’s report card or NAEP). Misinformed statements made during the recent New Jersey gubernatorial debate about Mississippi and Louisiana’s educational results have shed new light on the dearth of attention paid to it by the press and education scholars. Contrary to the statements made, Mississippi and Louisiana have been showing consistently stellar improvements on the NAEP the past decade, especially for the least advantaged
    demographics.

    After education expert Chad Aldeman analyzed the demographic subgroup data showing both Mississippi and Louisiana outperforming New Jersey, I dug into that 2024 NAEP data for Virginia (administered in January 2024). Both Mississippi and Louisiana are outperforming Virginia with not only the least advantaged demographics (Black, Hispanic, and Economically Disadvantaged), but also the most advantaged demographics (White, and Not Economically Disadvantaged) — more detailed data is at the bottom of the article. And both states are doing it while spending less money per pupil (Mississippi) than, or a comparable amount per pupil (Louisiana) as, Virginia.

    A summary table comparing the performance of Mississippi and Louisiana with Virginia on the 2024 NAEP assessments for underrepresented and advantaged groups, highlighting specific categories where they performed better.
    (more…)

  • Jason Miyares Crime Fighter V. Soft-on-Crime Jay Jones

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Attorney General Jason Miyares

    Polls are all over the place this year in Virginia. But the fact that Jay Jones is within 20 points of Attorney General Jason Miyares is not just a scandal, it’s a sign that bitter partisans in the Democrat party care more about a D after a name than public safety.

    For his entire legal career Jason Miyares has been fighting criminals. His opponent has a soft spot for them.

    That’s frightening.

    Jones has a record of voting against the police and in favor of criminals when he was in the House of Delegates.

    Former Delegate Jay Jones

    According to Del. Carrie Coyner, Jones once told her he was fine with a few cops dying in the line of duty if it would persuade others to practice restraint when dealing with criminals.

    According to Virginia Scope:

    “Coyner said… we had a pretty heated conversation about public policy and pain involving qualified immunity. I served on the Courts Committee for a short period of time. A bill to remove qualified immunity for police officers, which protects police officers from personal liability in their line of duty and their line of work, and he believed that they should not have qualified immunity, and he was trying to convince me to agree with that, and I said, ‘No, police officers have to make a split second decision about whether or not to shoot a gun to protect themselves or protect others. And if they’re having to think about, will this strip my whole family of everything … are they going to be able to make that split-second decision?’ And I said, ‘I believe that people will get killed. Police officers will get killed.’ And he said, ‘Well, maybe if a few of them died, that they would move on, not shooting people, not killing people.’ And I said, ‘that’s insane.’

    So cops ought to take a few bullets to teach them a lesson? Is that what Virginia wants in its top prosecutor? Continue reading.

  • The Constitutional Amendment Democrats Should Be Pushing

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Paul Goldman

    House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, has done independent minded challengers to the political status quo like me a real “solid.” Inadvertently, of course, since I have been one of his leading critics.

    I admire Don’s political skills. His daring takedown of the previous Democratic Speaker is textbook Machiavelli. The man is a stone gamer. He has exceptional political talent not to be underestimated. Presumptive governor-elect Abigail Spanberger just got a tutorial. She’s long claimed to be against super-partisan redistricting. But she dares not criticize the Speaker. Her staff says governors play no role in redistricting. That may true now. But not if he is successful in changing the Constitution. They know that. Even if the media doesn’t. 

    John F. Kennedy said, “to whom much is given, much is asked.” Virginia gave Don a second chance. He could never have been Speaker in any other state.

    He needs, therefore, to repay the debt by making sure the poor children in Virginia get at least one fair chance. This is a defining moment.

    (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A humorous meme comparing expectations of the future from the 1980s with the reality of 2025, featuring a character looking surprised and a pizza box with instructions.

    See more memes at The Bull Elephant

  • Democrats Rush Back to Gerrymander Virginia, If We Let Them

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    By Chris Braunlich,

    Green = majority voted yes. Only in Arlington County did a majority of voters opposed the 2020 constitutional amendment to ban gerrymandering of Virginia election districts.

    You have to be pretty confident – no, make that “arrogant” – to tell 2,770,704 Virginia voters that you’re willing to stick it to them.

    But that’s exactly what Virginia House and Senate Democratic leaders appear ready to do at 4:00 pm on Monday, all in the cause of enhancing political power and rejecting the voters’ will.

    In 2020, Virginia approved a change to the highly partisan redistricting process in Virginia, with more than 2.7 million voters (66 percent of the vote) approving a Constitutional Amendment placing redistricting in the hands of a bipartisan Redistricting Commission. If the Commission fails to agree on new maps, the amendment threw the issue into the hands of the Virginia Supreme Court to decide.

    Thanks to the voters’ decision to support the amendment, that’s exactly what happened when redistricting last took place. The result is a General Assembly with a 21-19 Democratic majority in the Senate and a 51-49 Democratic majority in the House of Delegates.

    Of Virginia’s 11 Members of Congress, 54.5 percent (six) are Democrats, having gained 51.8 percent of the votes for Congress. Five Members of Congress (45.5 percent) are Republican, having won 48.2 percent of the four million votes cast for Congress.

    All in all, Virginia’s district lines produced elected officials that are about as evenly matched as they could possibly be.

    But that’s not good enough for Democrats in the General Assembly.

    (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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