Bacon's Rebellion

  • Having It Your Way

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    Or all sorts of ways, as the case may be.

    by Gordon C. Morse

    Amphibious politician. Image credit: Bing Image Creator

    Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic candidate for governor, says she’s opposed to repeal of Virginia’s right-to-work law – but, you know, maybe we can work something out.

    That appears to be the suggestion.

    The obvious retort: “She just wants to have it both ways.”

    Well, yes. You do that in politics. Having things “both ways” is a democratic ideal – at least when it comes to political positioning. What could be better?

    Early in the 20th century, Virginia lawmakers got squeezed by their personal preferences on liquid refreshments and Temperance Union crusades to legislatively cut off America’s booze supply. With so many living “wet” while voting “dry,” Virginia gave birth to the nation’s first amphibious politicians.

    So went the joke and no doubt everyone thought, heck, why can’t we have it both ways? What’s the matter with America?

    It got like that in the 1980s over the state lottery. Joseph William “Billy” O’Brien, Jr., convivially represented the Virginia Beach area in the House of Delegates from 1974 to 1992 and that man would just not give up.

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  • Right-to-Work a Distraction from Issues That Matter

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    James A. Bacon

    Oh, look, a squirrel. Image credit: ChatGPT

    by Paul Goldman

    History says Democratic voters do not believe repeal of the right-to- law is a major issue. Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic candidate for governor, should have simply said no to repeal and pivoted to far more important issues to working families. The right-to-work law is increasingly irrelevant in today’s AI revolution, which is threatening the jobs of labor and management.

    The two-party system in Virginia began in 1977. In the ensuing years, one consistent, predictive fact stands out: The gubernatorial candidate for the party of the sitting president has never received 50% of the vote. Ever. The gubernatorial candidate of the sitting president’s party has lost every election except in 2013 due in good measure to the contest featuring a three-way. The only time the winner got less than 50%.

    In 2017, Republican Donald Trump occupied the oval office. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam received nearly 54% of the vote. Therein winning by the biggest Democratic margin in 32 years. President Trump again sits in the oval office. He has lost Virginia three straight times by sizable margins. He has a net negative -20% approval rating in the public opinion polls.

    In my view, Spanberger can’t lose unless she runs the worst gubernatorial campaign in the modern era. Historical statistical analysis says she should win by between 6 to 10 percentage points, if not more. In doing so she will sweep in the Democratic ticket unless one of her running mates has a fatal flaw.

    When queried by a television reporter, Spanberger should have simply said I will not support repeal of the right to work law. Period. End of story.

    (more…)

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

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    James A. Bacon

  • Spanberger’s Right-to-Work Dodge

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Abigail Spanberger. Image credit: WRIC

    Abigail Spanberger, the Democrats’ gubernatorial hopeful, has declared that she would not sign a bill to repeal Virginia’s right-to-work law, which guarantees employees’ right to work at a company without paying dues to a union. But she’d be open to modifying it, she said.

    Here’s what she told WRIC-TV:

    “I think notably it’s important that this last General Assembly, no one even submitted a bill that would repeal the right-to-work. I support labor. I support our strong Virginia economy, but no, I don’t support a full repeal of our current right-to-work statute. Certainly, it’s an old statute. We have seen reforms and adjustments to it over the years, and recognizing that as Virginia and our economy moves forward, reforms may be necessary into the future, but no, not a full repeal.”

    Let’s dissect how she threads the needle between the expectations of her union donors and those of many Virginia voters.

    Spanberger seeks to downplay the question. No one even submitted a bill to repeal the law in the last session, she says, leading the listener to conclude that this is an abstract and theoretical issue.

    Then she says she supports labor… and a strong Virginia economy. This is boilerplate. Name a single politician who doesn’t.

    Then we get to the crucial phrase: “I don’t support a full repeal of our current right-to-work statute.”

    (more…)

  • Many Segregated Graduation Events to Choose From

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Stu, the Jefferson Council’s social media guru, notes in the X post above that the University of Virginia continues to hold identity-based graduation ceremonies: one dubbed the LGBQT Lavender Ceremony and one the Multicultural Recognition Ceremony.

    Although the Department of Education recently issued guidelines that forbid racially segregated graduation ceremonies, UVA is skirting the prohibition by changing the names and making them open to anyone: “Any graduating student is welcome to participate in these celebrations, regardless of identity.”

    One young person, possibly a UVA student, responded to the Jefferson Council tweet, by asking, “Why do you care that gay people and minorities are getting together for a party? Who cares?”

    Fair question. Why do we care?

    Stu the guru responded: “It’s not about parties—it’s about public universities using taxpayer dollars to host de facto segregated events. When institutions claim to champion inclusion but separate students by race or identity, it undermines equal treatment, community cohesion, and federal civil rights law.”

    That’s a good answer. I’d like to expand upon it a bit.

    (more…)

  • Farewell, Jeff Schapiro

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    James A. Bacon

    by Gordon C. Morse

    Columnist Jeff Schapiro vacated the Richmond Times-Dispatch rather abruptly last Sunday and for a man of many words, he had little to say about it.

    Four decades of scribbling and he throws out a few lines at the end of his column, not at all dissimilar to the Woody Allen dialogue in “Crimes and Misdemeanors”:

    “He left a note. He left a simple little note that said ‘I’ve gone out the window.’ This is a major intellectual and he leaves a note that says ‘I’ve gone out the window.’ He’s a role-model. You’d think he’d leave a decent note.”

    No decent note from Schapiro. No decent note from anybody, including the paper’s editors. Just out the window.

    Management indifference to its writing corps is an established and rotten tradition at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. It appears to be the only tradition left at the paper.

    And why are we calling it the Richmond Times-Dispatch anyway? The “Hanover Times-Dispatch” would have the benefit of accuracy.

    In its heyday, now long removed, the Times-Dispatch newsroom was a sight – a floor scattered with messy desks, messy people and messy commotion. Bright, funny, purposeful writers and editors were splayed about and running a competition, it often seemed, over how many books, reports, press releases and note pads could be balanced onto a single desk without it all collapsing to the floor.

    That newsroom spawned raised voices and barked instructions, arguments and disputes, and harbored some just astounding personalities. I thought it was wonderful.

    (more…)

  • Republicans, This Is the New Virginia.

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    James A. Bacon

    Hailey Dollar, an Army veteran, mom of four… and fetishist… is seeking the GOP nomination to run for House of Delegates.

    by Ken Reid

    Hailey Dollar. Image credit: Dollar for Delegate

    The scandal involving Republican Lieutenant Governor nominee John Reid and whether he posted sexually explicit photos on social media has pretty much subsided. Governor Glenn Youngkin, whose now-former PAC leader Matt Moran triggered the scandal, has now accepted openly gay Reid as the nominee of the GOP.

    Even social conservatives who have fought against same-sex marriage and LGBTQ indoctrination rallied around Reid, although some in that camp have refused to support him, creating a problem for the Republicans who need to bring out the conservative base if they have any hopes of winning in the 2025 state elections.

    The Reid controversy was grounded in the conformity-minded, knee-jerk reactions Virginia Republicans seem to have toward “nontraditional” candidates who don’t check all the boxes on the conservative/pro Trump litmus checklist.

    My belief is that when Moran and Youngkin were presented with the so-called evidence of Reid’s allegedly posting sexually explicit images on social media (none of himself, mind you), they had the same visceral negative reaction typical of “traditional” Virginia Republican leaders, who are (like them) white Christian males.

    (more…)

  • Bacon Bits: Partial Return-to-Sanity Edition

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    James A. Bacon

    Hurricane Reid downgraded to tropical storm. The tempest over Glenn Youngkin and John Reid is still gusting and squalling but seems to petering out. We see headlines today like CNN proclaiming, “Virginia Republicans reel from party infighting over nominee for lieutenant governor,” and a WTOP article highlighting the fact that Governor Youngkin did not consult GOP party chairman Mark Peake before asking John Reid to step down as a candidate for lieutenant governor.

    It’s been a pretty dull electoral season, so expect media to prolong the drama as long as it can. But the story is losing energy. The real news today comes from Virginia Scope publisher Brandon Jarvis who reports that Attorney General Jason Miyares said, “sure,” when asked if he would appear with Reid on the campaign trail. To ensure party unity, gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears has little choice but to fall in line. And if Youngkin wants to keep his political ambitions alive, he will, too. At the end of the day, Republicans will embrace the first gay candidate for statewide office, and conservative evangelicals will decide that Reid, a culture-war conservative, is vastly preferable to any Democrat running against him.

    Zounds, Rs and Ds still can cooperate. Virginia shows persistent signs of derangement, but we’re not ready to declare the state clinically insane. Occasional outbreaks of lucidity encourage hope. Youngkin has signed a bill allowing prosecutors to charge fentanyl dealers with involuntary manslaughter if the drugs they sell lead to an overdose death. The stiffer charge is fully justified. Anyone selling fentanyl — especially those lacing other drugs with the super-opioid — know full well the risks of overdoses but sell it anyway. They are murderous scum. Amazingly, there was bipartisan support for the measure. A Democrat, Delegate Josh Thomas, D-Prince William, wrote the House version of the bill. Youngkin signed another bipartisan bill putting restrictions on medical debt collectors. The collectors buy portfolios of debt owed to hospitals and are said to sue people aggressively and indiscriminately. Wonders never cease.

    Girls in the boys’ locker room. But then there’s this. Conservative activists have made a huge issue of trans girls (born with penises) appearing in girls’ locker rooms. How about this for a turnaround? A controversy in Loudoun County is now raging over a trans boy (born with a vagina) appearing in the boys’ locker room in a Loudoun County high school. It could be an almost humorous man-bites-dog story but for one fact: Loudoun County Public Schools has opened a Title IX investigation into the three high school boys who said they were made uncomfortable by the presence of the trans student. (WJLA’s account of this controversy is as good as any.) Every traditional indicator flashes in favor of Democrats in the fall election, but then stories like this remind the electorate that not only do Dems favor revolutionizing sex and gender roles, they want to crush anyone who fails to fall in line.

  • Tech Tackles DEI Layoffs

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    The Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources and Environment (CNRE) is eliminating the position of Director of Inclusion and Diversity and laying off the director herself. The action follows the shutting down of Tech’s central DEI office and the discharge of some of its employees.

    “The University is asking units to either eliminate the position, or to restructure the position in such a manner that it involves genuine restructuring – not just relabeling or renaming,” wrote Dean Paul Winistorfer to the college’s faculty, staff and graduate students earlier today. “Recent federal actions are placing focused scrutiny on all universities in this realm and Virginia Tech is being diligent to ensure these former DEI positions are not simply renamed or relabeled.”

    Clearly, Winistorfer eliminated the position reluctantly, describing the decision as a “difficult” one. But he was not willing to restructure the position into a new role that the college has not strategically planned for or identified as a high priority, he wrote. Also, given Trump administration cutbacks to allocations to university overhead in research contracts, the dean said, Tech is facing “significant fiscal impacts.”

    Winstorfer’s candid letter provides one of the closest looks we’ve seen yet of how Virginia’s public universities are handling Trump’s DEI mandate. Last week George Mason University’s former director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion briefed the Board of Visitors on GMU’s changes, which involved some retitling and renaming and some real cuts. At the University of Virginia, President Jim Ryan has submitted a report to the governing board but refused to release it to the public on legal grounds that have not stopped either Tech or GMU from communicating openly with their constituencies.

    (more…)

  • Why So Few Female School Superintendents? Bias, If You Believe the RTD.

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Amy Cashwell, Henrico County school superintendent. Image credit: Richmond Times-Dispatch

    It appears that there is a “disparity” between the percentage of female teachers in Virginia public schools and the percentage of female school superintendents. About 82% of classroom teachers are women, but only 40% of school division superintendents are, reports Anna Bryson with the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

    What causes that discrepancy? According to Bryson: “a quiet but persistent skepticism about whether [women] can lead and mother at the same time.”

    Bryson serves up supporting anecdotes from female school superintendents such as Amy Cashwell, who runs Henrico County Public Schools. Someone once asked Cashwell if she would be able to devote herself fully to a particular project. She looked at him with a puzzled expression.

    “Well, you have kids,” he said.

    She responded: “So do you.”

    Somehow, Cashwell still managed to become superintendent of one of Virginia’s largest school districts. It never occurred to Bryson to ask how she was able to rise in the face of societal misogyny. Or how Verletta White, who encountered similar questions, managed to become superintendent of Roanoke City Public Schools. Or how Michele Reid became superintendent of the Fairfax County school district.

    (more…)

  • Virginia’s Offshore Wind Could Face Federal Headwinds

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Listen carefully, Virginia. That sound you hear is hyperventilation from the headquarters of Dominion Power in Richmond after they saw Monday’s post on X from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

    Brass at the politically savvy energy company that provides power to 3.6 million Virginia homes were already moaning about the increased costs that MIGHT result from President Trump’s tariffs.

    Now this.

    Those of us who always thought this project was a massive boondoggle that would never live up to expectations, would wreak carnage on marine life and would inevitably make Virginia’s electricity some of  the most expensive in the country, are torn. Continue reading.

  • Desperately Seeking a Culture of Accountability

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    James A. Bacon

    Image credit: Bing Image Creator

    by Jon Baliles

    The Richmond water crisis on January 6th immediately and obviously grabbed everyone’s attention because it came on suddenly and left city residents without safe water for six days. People were scrambling for water long before the city even notified the public that afternoon. The city’s Finance Department has had challenges for years, but lately, it better resembles the flooded water plant the morning of the meltdown because it has been inundated and can not effectively deliver what it is supposed to.

    Sheila White has been the director since Mayor Stoney put her in charge four years ago, and it has been one deluge after another of mistakes and stories, from the meals tax fiasco, to 66,000 personal property tax bills sent in error, and now the inability to issue one-time real estate rebate checks (they even mailed 156 checks to addresses that don’t exist). There have been stories about poor work conditions, lack of training, et al, but former Mayor Stoney maintained last summer the department was in great shape and running like a Swiss watch.

    It is beyond time for Mayor Avula to wake up and stop believing the staffers from the Stoney administration that are still in City Hall who are telling him everything is fine. Avula needs to find someone who can come in and raise the Titanic, put the airplane back together, and has the skill to fix the Finance Department by breaking it down and building it back up again to a functioning department.

    After last week’s issue that spotlighted how Finance incorrectly canceled some of the checks that were actually written correctly and then bounced when property owners tried to cash them and also sent some checks to people who bought their houses in 2024 and were ineligible for a rebate. Skip forward a few days and Keyris Manzanares at VPM News had a forensic analysis of the latest debacle. He spoke with Daniel Wavering, who got a letter from the city’s Finance Department that he thought was a scam (which is a big hint something is wrong).

    (more…)

  • The Battle Lines Are Drawn in Manassas

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    James A. Bacon

    The third battle of Manassas. Image credit: Chat GPT

    by Chap Petersen

    On Monday, April 28, my legal team filed our appeal of the Prince William County Circuit Court’s October 31, 2024 ruling, which dismissed our lawsuit against the County Board of Supervisors for approving the Digital Gateway Project, permitting 37 massive data centers in the slice of agricultural land next to the Manassas National Battlefield.

    Our clients are Prince William County neighbors, as well as the American Battlefield Trust which fights to preserve historic sites in American history. The bases for the appeal are multifarious but share certain themes:

    1. The County Board failed to enforce its own Zoning Ordinance, i.e. by requiring the developer’s identification of lot lines, transmission infrastructure, and building locations and heights in the application;

    (more…)

  • Meet the New DEI, Same as the Old DEI

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    James A. Bacon

    GMU Board’s openness puts UVA’s to shame

    by James A. Bacon

    At a jam-packed meeting last week, the George Mason University Board of Visitors received a briefing from Sharnnia Artis, the university’s former vice president for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, on how the university is complying with a Trump administration mandate to dismantle DEI and racial preferences.

    For starters, Artis has a new title — vice president for access, compliance and community.

    And she runs the same office as before, but it has been renamed the Office of Access, Compliance, and Community.

    It’s apparent that GMU has made only superficial changes to DEI. What was refreshing about the GMU board meeting, however, is that it was held in open session — in marked contrast to the University of Virginia, where Board of Visitors deliberations have been held in closed session and veiled from the public. UVA President Jim Ryan submitted a written report to the Board, but that has been withheld from the public as well.

    (more…)

  • Virginia Vehicle Property Tax Is Highest in the Nation

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    Why are Dems fighting so hard to keep it?

    These happy, smiling people must be Democrats. I asked Bing Image Creator to generate an image from the words “car tax” and this is what it gave me. — JAB

    by Victoria Manning

    Virginians pay an average of $1,139 in annual property taxes just to own a car — the highest in the nation. In the 2025 legislative session, Republicans proposed providing car tax relief to low-income families, but Democrats killed the bill — just as they’ve repeatedly killed Republican bills that would provide tax relief for Virginians.

    Democrat Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell called Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) proposal for car tax relief “a zombie gimmick that got rejected in the 90s.”

    Democrats seem to forget the history of the issue, which heavily favors Republicans. In 1997, Jim Gilmore (R) was elected governor on a platform of getting rid of the car tax. Gilmore was able to get legislation passed in his first year to phase out the tax over five years. Then came Democrat Gov. Mark Warner in 2002, who immediately froze the car tax relief at 70 percent and then further eroded the phase-out plan into what remains in place today.

    The Democrat legislation governing the car tax is confusing, and perhaps intentionally so. As an educated Virginian, I’ve never quite understood how that monstrous bill is configured that arrives in my mailbox every year. Here is what I’ve discovered.

    (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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