Bacon's Rebellion

  • Education Issues, Choices Facing Virginia’s Voters

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    Steve Haner

    By Derrick Max 

    Virginia’s education system is in crisis. The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores are a wake-up call: only 31% of Virginia’s fourth graders are proficient in reading and only 40% in math, and just 29% of eighth graders meet proficiency standards in both reading and math. Worse, nearly one in three Virginia students can’t demonstrate even the partial mastery in reading necessary to demonstrate grade level proficiency. 

    Yet our state Standards of Learning (SOL) tests tell a very different – and dangerously misleading – story. While NAEP exposes the truth, Virginia’s SOL tests label students “proficient” even when their skills are far below grade level. Parents are left in the dark, believing their children are on track when they are not. 

    Virginia can – and must – do better. 

    The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy’s Vision for Virginia 2025: Education Policy lays out a plan to finally hold schools accountable, restore parents’ trust, and put our students back on the path to excellence. 

    Here’s how: 

    (more…)

  • “A Weak and Ineffective Republican”?

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Todd Gilbert, in his new office as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Va. Photo credit: Roanoke Times

    Todd Gilbert may be having mixed feelings today.

    The U.S. Senate has a custom whereby a member can veto a presidential nomination for a district court judgeship or U.S. Attorney in his or her state. It is called a “blue slip” and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has said that he will keep honoring that tradition.

    President Trump, using his favorite word for something he doesn’t like, has called this custom or tradition a “hoax.” “The only way to beat this Hoax,” he wrote, “is to appoint a Democrat or, a weak and ineffective Republican. Therefore, I would never be able to appoint Great Judges or U.S. Attorneys in California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Virginia, and other places.”

    Gilbert was a long-serving member of the Virginia House of Delegates and served as Speaker from 2022-2024. He was known as one of the most conservative and outspoken Republican members. He has been nominated by Trump to be the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia. The two U.S. Senators from Virginia, both Democrats, have voiced their support for him. While awaiting his confirmation by the U.S. Senate, which has been deemed to be “as good as a done deal,” he has been appointed and sworn in as the interim U.S. Attorney for the district.

  • An Alleged Wrongful Death in Colonial Heights Revisited

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    sherlockj

    An Alleged Wrongful Death in Colonial Heights Revisited

    by James C. Sherlock

    I published in February 2025 a series of articles on a nursing home wrongful death scandal that was revealed when police swarmed Colonial Heights Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (Colonial Heights) in late December of 2024.

    The government has alleged in court that a woman, helpless with cerebral palsy and diabetes, died in late October last year after prolonged suffering from sepsis suffered as a result of criminal abuse and neglect at Colonial Heights.

    Criminal charges have been filed against 19 members of the facility staff.

    I wrote in February in Virginia’s Nursing Homes and the Courts: No charges have been filed against any corporate manager or owner in either of the two Colonial Heights cases. … Perhaps the indicted employees are not the only culprits. 

    Perhaps indeed they are not.

    I mentioned in the story that Mr. Moshe Rajchenbach holds a mortgage on Colonial Heights. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) data show he has been far more involved than that.

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  • A Word of Caution

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    It irritates me a great deal to have an AI “answer” appear whenever I try to search the internet for information. AI is so notorious for misinformation that I wonder that the Googles of the world put it out there. I customarily ignore the AI “information” that appears. However, it was impossible to ignore one that recently popped up; it was so outrageous.

    In searching for some information pertaining to a recent article on Bacon’s Rebellion, I keyed in the following question:

    Does the Fairfax County circuit court assign cases to judges on a random basis?

    Here is the answer that AI provided:

    Fairfax County Circuit Court generally assigns cases to judges on a random basis, according to the U.S District Court (Northern District of Iowa).

  • Judge Affirms Senate Dems’ Power Grab

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    James A. Bacon

    A Fairfax County circuit county judge has sided with state Senate Democrats who filed a lawsuit to prevent eight public university board members appointed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin from continuing to serve.

    The Democrats claimed that an 8-to-4 vote June 9 by a Senate subcommittee during a special session required no other action. Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares countered that rejection had to undergo a full vote of the Senate. The eight nominees could continue serving until such a vote occurred.

    “The Senate’s rejection of the Confirmation Resolution, by and through the vote of the Committee charged by the Senate with reviewing the resolution and determining whether it should advance or die in committee, constitutes the refusal of the General Assembly to confirm the Disputed Appointees,” wrote Jonathan D. Frieden in a ruling handed down today.

    “Today, the court affirmed what we have maintained all along,” said Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, head of the Privileges and Elections Committee, in a statement: “The Senate of Virginia has the constitutional authority to confirm or reject board nominees, and that authority cannot be bypassed.”

    Affected are board members of the University of Virginia, the Virginia Military Institute and George Mason University, each of which have been embroiled in battles over Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI).

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  • Virginia Democrats Get Win in Fight Over Appointments

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Fairfax circuit court has sided with the Virginia Democratic Senate in its fight with Gov. Youngkin over some of his appointments to boards of visitors of institutions of higher education. The judge issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting recent appointees to the Board of Visitors at the University of Virginia, the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), and George Mason University from taking any further action until the General Assembly confirms them. Attorney General Miyares said that he appeal the decision.

  • John McAuliff’s Money Trail

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    James A. Bacon

    Climate Activist running for delegate is scooping up the green bucks.

    A smiling man with a beard, wearing a white shirt, stands in front of a wooden background.
    John McAuliffe

    by Kevin Mooney

    Virginia residents should expect to see their energy bills go up and the lights to go out if John McAuliff, a Fauquier County Democrat running for the Virginia House of Delegates in District 30, wins in November.

    That’s according energy policy analysts, who found radical green money throughout McAuliff’s campaign finance filings.

    McAuliff, who is running to unseat Republican incumbent Geary Higgins, has gone on record supporting the energy tax plan known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and the taxpayer subsidized green energy mandates attached to the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), also known as the Virginia Green New Deal. The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, a free market think tank, has warned against rate increases and potential blackouts if Virginia continues to embrace VCEA’s green energy mandates and if the state rejoins RGGI. 

    The money trail leading into McAuliff’s campaign indicates climate activists opposed to affordable and reliable energy sources view the candidate as a worthwhile investment. This year McAuliff has received $5,000 from the Jane Fonda Climate PAC and $4,000 from the Cabinet Climate PAC. Fonda, known in some quarters as “Hanoi Jane” for her treasonous behavior during the Vietnam War, is a Hollywood actress. 

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  • Million Dollar Job Opportunity

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    James A. Bacon

    I knew UVA’s woke administrators were well-compensated. But who knew the president was raking in about a million bucks a year?

    Logo of the University of Virginia featuring a stylized dome and columns with stars.

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Thinking about a career switch? Need to earn more money? Want to live in a mansion with a staff?

    Have I got an opportunity for you: there’s an opening in the president’s office at the University of Virginia.

    Far be it from me to pick on Virginia’s flagship university, but when I took a gander at embattled former UVA President Jim Ryan’s pay and compensation package, I was stunned.

    Whatever made me go into journalism, I wondered.

    As best I can tell, the university president’s salary is funded mostly by state money and endowments. 

    I knew UVA’s woke administrators were well-compensated. But who knew the president was raking in about a million bucks a year?

    Here’s how it breaks down: Ryan’s base salary was a whopping $912,200 with a $100,000 bonus and deferred compensation. In addition to other benefits, of course.

    “Other benefits” include a car allowance (he couldn’t afford a Ford Fiesta without help?) club memberships and a full year’s salary upon leaving office.

    In 2024, Ryan earned a $200,000 bonus for surpassing the university’s $5 billion capital campaign goal ahead of schedule. Continue reading.

  • Virginia Election Wildcard: What If Trump Wins the Nobel Peace Prize?

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    by Paul Goldman

    Close-up view of a gold Nobel Prize medal featuring the profile of Alfred Nobel.

    Just when the Virginia GOP thought it couldn’t get worse this year. They lose votes every time Trump’s name is in the newspaper. So, what happens if he gets the Nobel Peace Prize? Does he suddenly go from albatross to asset?

    Remember, the Norwegians gave the prize to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. As a long-time anti-Vietnam War protester, this disgusted me: The Nixon-Kissinger policy had intentionally extended the war for several years for political reasons, not shortened it. Nothing the Norwegians dominating the Nobel committee picking the winner might do would shock me.  

    That having been said: Looking at the history of the 111 individual winners over the years, Trump winning is not another Virginia GOP MAGA fantasy. Three sitting American Presidents have won: Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Barack Obama. The latter conceded he really hadn’t been in office long enough to do anything worthy to win the prize. 

    Wilson won for his work to create the League of Nations. Wilson never got the United States to join. Indeed, when campaigning around the country to generate support for joining the League, Wilson suffered a stroke, leaving him secretly paralyzed in the White House for the remainder of the second term. The League of Nations was a key part of the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty’s punitive anti-German terms led directly to the rise of Adolf Hitler and thus the second world war. 

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  • Restore the Battle Streamers

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    James A. Bacon

    A collection of multi-colored battle streamers with gold lettering, representing various Civil War battles, laid out on a table.

    by Donald Smith

    Summertime in Washington, D.C., is NDAA Time. NDAA, as in the National Defense Authorization Act. The federal government dispensed with proper budget procedures a long time ago. Everything it does is now funded by continuing resolutions, omnibus bills, or other confounding mechanisms. The NDAA, though, always passes because it funds the Defense Department.  Hence, crafty politicians attach anything and everything to some spot deep in the depths of the NDAA language. They know it’s a sure-fire way to get controversial matters enacted, often without most Americans knowing about it. 

    Congress created the Naming Commission through the Fiscal Year 2021 NDAA. Earlier this month, Democrat members of the House of Representatives responded to President Trump’s recent re-re-naming of Army bases by inserting an amendment into the FY 2026 NDAA. From Roll Call, on July 17th:

    The Trump administration has undone a 2022 congressionally chartered commission’s renaming of military bases and ships that had for years celebrated the Confederacy, but as of this week both the House and Senate are poised to consider at least a partial reversal of President Donald Trump’s moves.

    The House fiscal 2026 NDAA contains an amendment by Rep. Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash., that would ensure all the formerly Confederate-linked facilities, assets and streets across the U.S. military are renamed along the lines proposed by the 2022 commission to honor other warriors or certain values.

    OK, then.  If this is NDAA amendment season, then here’s another amendment Congress can enact: return Confederate battle streamers to Army National Guard unit colors.

    (more…)

  • The Last Man Standing in Prince William

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A portrait of a man with a beard, wearing a gray suit and tie, against a dark background.
    Bob Weir

    by Chap Petersen

    Last week, Prince William County Supervisor Bob Weir (R-Gainesville) died at the age of 62 of colon cancer.  It struck suddenly, as it usually does. Most of his constituents and fellow politicos had no idea he was ill until he was dead.

    Bob was a unicorn in Virginia politics. He was a small-government Republican who fought resolutely against the world’s largest companies and their plans to build endless fields of data centers in Prince William’s Rural Crescent.

    Bob first called me in the summer of 2023 to get me involved in the Digital Gateway project. He was a kindred spirit. Totally independent in words and actions. Not beholden to special interests or large donors.

    With his passing, the County loses a singular man of courage. Who will step up to replace his voice?

    The issue is not just in Prince William County; it is systemic in Virginia.

    Over the past generation, the parties have traded control of the Governor’s mansion and Assembly. But no matter which party has control, there is a “hidden hand” dictating policy in both Richmond and the hinterlands. And that flows directly from Virginia’s refusal to enact campaign finance reform.

    (more…)

  • Autumn’s Unsettling

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A diverse group of people standing in line to vote on Election Day, with a ballot box in front and a banner that reads 'ELECTION DAY' surrounded by autumn leaves.

    by Gordon C. Morse

    It’s mid-summer and hot. Let’s imagine the fall, cooler air and assume James Carville is right.

    “The Democratic Party,” he wrote in The New York Times, “is steamrolling toward a civilized civil war.”

    Carville would hold off the fight temporarily. Need more Democrats in Congress, he says. Focus on the 2026 congressional elections and seize upon President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which Carville calls “a big, steaming doggy nugget of epic proportions.”

    After that, game on.

    Virginia could easily end up being a battlefield in the coming clash and how civilized will it be? You wonder.

    Before that, a quick trivia question: Who ran Lt. Gov. Richard Davis’ 1982 campaign for the U.S. Senate?

    James Carville. He got famous later and now claims soothsayer status.

    But let’s go with it and, for the purposes of conjecture, declare Republican Winsome Sears an also-ran in her bid for governor in November. Many people have reached that conclusion and it naturally invites complacency. But I’m just postulating here.

    Because assuming that Spanberger has the fall election in the bag, you may also easily conclude that the present meager Democratic majority in the Virginia House of Delegates will become less meager.

    (more…)

  • UVA Launches Presidential Search Committee

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    With Senate Democrats warning the University of Virginia to wait until next year to appoint a new president, the Board of Visitors has embarked upon its first crucial step — selecting a 28-person search committee.

    According to a university statement released yesterday, the special committee tasked with recommending candidates to the Board of Visitors to serve as UVA’s 10th president includes “a diverse group of UVA students, faculty, staff, alumni and former and sitting members of the Board of Visitors.”

    The group will be charged with incorporating “a broad and inclusive range of perspectives from across UVA’s vibrant community as the presidential search moves forward.”

    Board members appointed by Governor Glenn Youngkin will be firmly in control of the search. Not only will nine board members serve on the committee, but Rector Rachel Sheridan will chair the group, and Vice Rector Porter Wilkinson will serve as vice chair.

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  • Youngkin Being Careful On His Way Out

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    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Governor Glenn Youngkin. Photo Credit: Associated Press

    With one foot out of the Virginia Governor’s Executive Mansion and both eyes on the White House, Gov. Glenn Youngkin is being careful not to cross Donald Trump. In recent comments he has praised Trump actions and downplayed or publicly ignored any negative effects on the Commonwealth of recent Trump initiatives.

    Tax and spending bill

    He recently lavished praise on Trump’s tax and spending bill, saying that it would result in tax relief of about $2,800 per family. Most Virginians should not start counting on that level of tax relief. What Youngkin did not say was that that figure is an average and that the actual distribution of the bill’s tax benefits is highly skewed to high-income families.

    The Tax Policy Center  largely agrees with the average tax benefit, but goes on to report, “The biggest beneficiaries would be households making between $460,000 and $1.1 million (the 95th-99th income percentile), who would get an average tax cut of $21,000, raising their after-tax incomes by 4.4 percent.” Further down the income ladder, middle-income households ($67,000-$119,000) would get an average tax cut of $1,800, which would raise their after-tax income by 2.3 percent. Lastly, the lowest -income households, those making less than $35,000, would get an average tax cut of $150, or less than one percent of their after-tax income.

    (more…)

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    A humorous text image depicting two cowboys in the desert, discussing a tree draped in bacon that turns out to be a ham bush.

    What does a bacon tree look like? And what kind of song would AI compose for “The Ballad of the Bacon Tree”?

    (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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