It’s mid-October, which means it’s the season for…. the leaves to turn, I’ll bet you were thinking. Yes, but just as fun, it’s peak bird migration time as our feathered friends wing it to southward to the Sunbelt and beyond. According to the people at the BirdCast research consortium, which uses weather radar and computer algorithms to compile its estimate, a record 1.25 billion birds were in flight across the nation on Sept. 23, and the number has been exceeding a billion daily since then.
Luckily for Virginia bird watchers, the Old Dominion has been smack dab in the middle of the flight path the past few days.
While I love the birds that frequent our back yard and compete with squirrels for seeds in our bird feeder, I’m not so wild about the geese. They frequently stop at the two drainage ponds in our neighborhood and leave a slimy mess all over the walking trail. Other than that, I wish our flying friends the best of luck in their southward journeys. — JAB
Prof. Caleb E. Nelson, University of Virginia School of Law
After reading incessantly on this blog that the faculty of the University of Virginia is hopelessly progressive and woke and that students studying there will be indoctrinated in progressive ideas that are bad for the country, imagine my surprise upon learning that one of the leading originalist interpreters of the Constitution teaches at the University of Virginia.
Caleb E. Nelson is the Emerson G. Spies Distinguished Professor of Law of the University of Virginia Law School. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. As noted by the New York Times, he is regarded as “one of the most respected originalist scholars in the country.” His work has been cited in more than a dozen Supreme Court opinions, with each of the six members of the conservative majority citing him at least once.
Prof. Nelson says, directly, “I am an originalist, and if the original meaning of the Constitution compelled [an] outcome, I would be inclined to agree that the Supreme Court should respect it until the Constitution is amended through the proper processes.”
It would seem that the UVa. faculty is not as monolithic as we had been led to believe.
It’s not political violence, it’s political immaturity.
by Joe Fitzgerald
In “The Killing Joke,” the Joker has kidnapped one Batman ally and crippled another to prove the world is absurd, and wants to know why Batman isn’t laughing. Savagely grabbing the Joker, Batman replies, “Because I’ve heard it before and it wasn’t funny the first time.”
The line often pops into my head when somebody in politics does something politically stupid or something they think is politically brilliant. No, the two aren’t the same, although the joke tells itself.
We’ve heard Jay Jones’s joke before. “Shoot the lawyer twice,” was the original ending, although “shoot the political consultant twice” is one of my favorite variations. It’s not a joke about violence so much as expressing disdain for a person and then doubling down on it. No politicians were harmed in the making of this joke. Rather, it’s a joke about political opportunism and immaturity.
Jones’s opportunism first became obvious to many when he played the race card on Mark Herring. Herring had used dark makeup in a Halloween portrayal of a rap musician when he was 19. Jones, running against Herring for the attorney general nomination, said Herring, 60 by then, wasn’t sufficiently apologetic. Jones at the time was running with the endorsement of Ralph Northam, who was older than 19 when he used a character in a Klan hood for his medical school yearbook photo. No hypocrites were harmed in the making of this paragraph?
Today Richmond’s Mayor and City Council will debate (and probably vote) on whether or not to maintain the real estate tax rate at $1.20 per $100 of assessed value or lower it four cents to offer some relief to property owners and renters. The Mayor and some on Council (probably a majority) say that the city has too many needs and cutting the rate four cents will create a $17 million shortfall in the budget that will have to be adjusted midyear; some services will have to be cut back or people laid off, etc.
The city’s general fund budget grew by $50 million since last year and by $268 million since 2021. While needs have also increased (as they do every year), for a decade there has been no attempt to rein in spending or make sure the money that is spent is effective and accomplishing its mission. In that time, assessments and taxes have gone through the roof and are pricing people out of their homes, making homes and apartments more unaffordable for many. The city is not offering relief nor does it seem to be planning on offering any.
In addition, a presentation given to City Council a year ago in October 2024 outlined a dire financial situation while the Stoney administration argued against a tax rate reduction. Council was told the FY2026 budget would face a $27 million deficit and by 2030, it would rise to $149 million. That presentation showed spending would increase by an average of almost 6% per year but revenue will grow by an average of about 3%. You don’t need to be a math genius to figure out there is a problem there, but nothing was mentioned about making sure spending did not exceed revenue.
Many of you are no doubt unaware of a UVA Law student group called “Friends Against Fascism.” They are not an officially sponsored UVA CIO student organization. As you see in their flier, they sponsored a tailgate October 3rd ostensibly condemning fascism in America.
The capital letters in the title spell out ANTIFA, leaving no doubt about this group’s philosophical beliefs. Although this October 3 event was not violent, it was no less abhorrent for those of us who are cognizant of the hatred ANTIFA has for our American core values. They promote discord, not civil discourse and polite debate among those with differing viewpoints, and on numerous occasions have resorted to violence during events across the nation. We don’t know if the group’s founder, Kirk Wolff, is truly an ANTIFA member or meant the reference as a facetious joke. If he did, let me tell him it’s not remotely funny.
JAG, the US military’s Judge Advocate Generals Corps located at UVA, is dedicated to legally representing our military. You’ll see in their flier that Friends Against Fascism extended a “special invitation” for them to attend the event.
Democratic nominee for Governor Abigail Spanberger told the October 9 statewide debate audience that she favors an “all of the above strategy” in addressing Virginia’s massive demand for new electricity in coming years. If she has used that phrase before in this campaign, it hasn’t made the record.
“All of the above” is a slogan more than an energy plan, and plenty of politicians in both parties are quick to use it. It is also a stock phrase used by the Republican candidate, Winsome Earle-Sears. But Earle-Sears was also clear during the debate that she embraces coal and natural gas as thermal generation fuels in “all of the above”, and Spanberger has never embraced either.
The Virginia Clean Economy Act Spanberger supports calls for both fuels to be fully eliminated by utilities and created legal impediments to building new gas plants before the final deadlines for retirement. Spanberger has said in interviews that she understands the existing gas plants are not going away soon (a brave statement of the obvious) but indicated hostility to new ones in the meantime. Building new ones is the issue.
“At this juncture, natural gas is going to be part of the energy mix into the future… However, I think when it comes to new natural gas infrastructure, that’s where we really need to be focused and sort of thinking carefully about the lifespan of those projects and whether indeed they are the most cost-effective solution.”
Traffic ticket revenue maximization and safety have been competing motivations for public officials since the dawn of the automobile age. This has certainly been the case with the enforcement of red-light laws.
The first electrified traffic signal was activated in Cleveland, Ohio in 1914. For decades after that, traffic signal compliance depended on a somewhat fortuitous combination of observation and enforcement by uniformed policemen who happened to witness an individual violation.
Things changed dramatically in 1992 when New York City began to automate enforcement by launching the first red light running camera program in the United States. Fairfax County became the first locality in Virginia to automate enforcement in 1995 when it installed red light running cameras under a temporary pilot program authorized by the General Assembly.
The pilot program used by Fairfax County lapsed in 2005 but in 2007 the General Assembly passed legislation generally authorizing Virginia’s counties, cities, and towns to install and operate red light running camera systems to enforce compliance and support the ticketing of offenders. That legislation is codified in Section 15.2-968.1 of the Code of Virginia.
It’s been one week since we learned that in 2022 Jay Jones wrote psychotic text messages that claimed he wanted to put two bullets in the head of GOP leader Todd Gilbert.
One week since the Virginia elections were turned upside down after we learned that the Democrats had nominated a murderous psycho for attorney general.
The worst part of Jones’ demented tirade? Jones claimed that Todd and his wife, Jennifer, were “breeding little fascists” and he’d like their kids to be murdered and die in the arms of their mother.
Sick beyond words.
A week later these words still cause revulsion – among normal people, anyway. And one week into this scandal the Democrats look more and more craven as they feign disgust with their nominee but stop short of demanding Jones to get out of the race for attorney general and seek the psychiatric help he so desperately needs.
At last night’s gubernatorial debate the moderators tried valiantly to get Abigail Spanberger to answer the most important question of the night: Will she continue to endorse Jay Jones for attorney general?
In response, Spanberger babbled and spouted word salads, but refused to answer.
“As governor you have to make hard choices,” Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears barked at Spanberger. “Why won’t you tell Jay Jones to get out of the race?”
As the scandal unfolded, Attorney General Jason Miyares expressed, over and over, that he is most sickened by Jones’ cruel wishes for the Gilbert boys who were two and five when Jones was dreaming of their deaths.
I met with Senator Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, this summer over tacos at a restaurant in his district to discuss what’s next with Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOL) exam reform. VanValkenburg is the Chair of the Senate Public Education Subcommittee and a high school Social Studies teacher in Henrico County.
Whoever wins the Governor’s race in November, the next administration will likely be in charge of a massive 9-figure project to overhaul our assessments consistent with the 2023 work group report on assessments. That work group was convened pursuant to House Bill 585 (which was sponsored in 2022 by VanValkenburg) and conducted by the administration of Governor Glenn Youngkin.
VanValkenburg’s Philosophy on Standardized Testing
VanValkenburg is a fierce defender of standardized testing. He believes that such assessments are crucial to our state education system for the purposes of educating children to their fullest potential and for data reasons, teaching and maintaining high academic standards. In addition, he is a strong supporter of Virginia’s testing requirement for graduation for similar reasons; Virginia is one of six remaining states with such requirement.
As for the criticism standardized tests cause “teaching to the test,” he told me it’s essential that any tests be of high quality and Virginia’s tests largely are not. VanValkenburg said: “no one ever complains about teaching to the AP exam.”
From frites to fine wine, from Gothic cathedrals to water-lily murals, there are many things to admire about French culture. Perhaps the least appreciated by Americans is the fact, as I discovered after two weeks in the land of berets and escargot, that the French love their porc products as much as we do. They even have bacon memes.
Well, that may or may not be true. But a meme that has garnered Internet fame builds upon the famous saying of the 17th-century English philosopher Francis Bacon: “Knowledge Is Power: France Is Bacon”… which ultimately inspired the image above.
The French love affair with bacon precedes Internet memes by centuries and is deeply embedded in French culture. For example, bacon is widely served for breakfast. (Good news for Americans: “crispy” bacon, as opposed to flaccid, fatty, lightly cooked bacon, seems to be making inroads.)
Dominion’s Yorktown Power Station retired in 2019, adding to PJM’s supply problems.
PJM Interconnection, the organization that manages the electric grid for 13 states including Delaware, has confirmed what the Caesar Rodney Institute (CRI) has long argued: state mandates are raising bills and straining reliability. Delaware policymakers now face a choice—continue policies that risk higher costs and outages or adopt measures that keep power reliable and protect families from higher bills.
For years, PJM largely went along with state energy policies, building infrastructure and running markets around political mandates, even as costs rose and reliability weakened. As complaints over rising bills mounted, state officials began deflecting blame on PJM.
Until recently, PJM’s leaders avoided confrontation, preferring a cautious approach. That stance shifted when Aftab Khan, PJM’s executive vice president of operations, planning and security, published a commentary in Utility Dive. “We at PJM need realistic solutions, not politics, to take on energy challenges,” Khan wrote. “Some public narratives have presented an inaccurate picture of PJM’s role in cost-effectively keeping the lights on. Here are the facts.”
State policies urging 100% of electric power to come from wind and solar power have struggled to deliver consistent results. Baseload power plants, such as those operating on natural gas, coal, oil, hydropower, and nuclear energy, can run 24/7 and respond to high demand on hot or cold days. Wind and solar often underperform just when electricity is needed most. For example, according to the real-time data from Electricity Map:
Derrick Max, President and CEO of Thomas Jefferson Institute
Last night’s first and final Virginia gubernatorial debate between Winsome Earle-Sears and Abigail Spanberger had one clear loser — the approximately 446,000 Commonwealth voters who had already cast their early ballots.
For a state that has such a storied civic heritage, relying on a single, late-stage debate fails the test of responsible governance. The increase in no-excuse early voting, with a 45-day window to early vote, meant that hundreds of thousands of voters cast ballots before the candidates were scrutinized through the heat of direct, unscripted questions under the lights of a debate stage. No doubt, it seems, this is exactly what the two candidates intended.
The lack of debates allows the candidates to curate their image through campaign ads and partisan talking points, rather than a direct, head-to-head comparison on the issues that truly matter. Early voters were thus denied the opportunity to see if the two candidates for Virginia’s highest office can think on their feet, know the issues, or have a vision for how to lead.
The other clear loser in last night’s debate was Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for Attorney General whose text messages wishing “two bullets” to murder then Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert – and the death of his children — were leaked by an unwitting recipient who was included accidentally in the violent text thread two years earlier. Jones then followed up the text messages with a phone call where he tried to justify his views and doubled down on his extremely violent text rhetoric.
Winsome Earle-Sears called for Jones to drop out of the race, and pressed Abigail Spanberger to do the same. Spanberger’s refusal to do so looked weak, and difficult to understand considering her clear denunciation of Jones for sending the repugnant text messages. For Jones, to have both candidates at the top of the ticket roundly denouncing his actions was a sure blow to his candidacy.
That’s the headline on the “Irons in The Fire” blog on October 6th. I won’t recap what the blogger, “Firehand,” wrote. We’ve all seen it before, over and over the past few days. It’s about Jay Jones.
What’s noteworthy is not what Firehand said. It’s where he said it from—Oklahoma. He’s not a Virginia blogger—at least according to his personal profile. Lots of people outside of Virginia have heard of the Jay Jones scandal. And they are watching how Virginia Democrats, journalists and voters respond.
I found Firehand’s blog post through Glenn Reynolds, the “Instapundit.” Reynolds isn’t a Virginian either. He’s a University of Tennessee law professor. But he’s following Jay Jones’ antics—and Virginia Democrats’ response to those antics.
Reynolds created and runs the “Instapundit” blog, one of the most popular sites in the conservative blogosphere. He also writes a weekly column for the New York Post. This week he wrote about Jones, and how Democrats are reacting. “Major national Democrats are keeping quiet about Jones’ comments, and there’s no move to force him to withdraw. Virginia Democrats, [gubernatorial candidate Abigail] Spanberger included, are circling the wagons around him after issuing token messages of disapproval.”
Then, Reynolds dropped the real bombshell. He mentioned the real reason that the Jay Jones story is grabbing serious attention far from the Old Dominion: “Why should they oust him? This sort of violent rhetoric has become the leftist norm, with Democrats habitually calling their opponents Nazis, Ku Klux Klansmen and the like.”
Del. Salam Rasoul (D-Roanoke City), who goes by the nickname “Sam,” has made a down-to-earth, squeaky-clean image a big part of his political persona. Those acquainted with him know Rasoul to indeed be a friendly, outgoing individual.
Rasoul represents House District 38 (see map), which covers most of Roanoke City.
However, when it comes to campaign finance, there is a huge gap between Rasoul’s rhetoric and reality.
In public, Rasoul makes bold claims about not being beholden to big financial donors. Rasoul took the “Big Money Out VA” pledge, whose website is found here. Their subtitle reads: Democracy Loses When Big Money Wins.”
The first paragraph of the pledge that Rasoul signed states:
“I support getting big money out of politics by amending the United States Constitution to guard against corruption and protect liberty, federalism, and the equal rights of free speech by limiting the undue influence of money in elections and government. I additionally support comprehensive campaign finance reform in Virginia.”
The Big Money Out VA webpage also shows a photo of Del. Rasoul with his trademark beaming smile and his quotation: “As the first member of the General Assembly to reject special interest PAC [Political Action Committee] donations, I am proud that my campaign is 100 percent funded by individuals only. It’s time we return the people’s power back to politics.”
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.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
About
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.
Fund the Rebellion
Shake up the status quo! Your contributions will be used to pay for faster download speeds and grow readership. Make a one-time donation by credit card or contribute a small sum monthly.
Can’t wait until tomorrow
For your Bacon’s Rebellion fix?
Enter your email address to receive immediate notifications of new posts by email.
SUBSCRIBE
Search Bacon’s Rebellion
Categories
Archives
The Jefferson Council
Protecting Thomas Jefferson’s Legacy at the University of Virginia
Forgot Your Password?
Shoot me an email and I’ll generate a new password for you.
