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Bacon Meme of the Week
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New Tariffs Will Damage Virginia’s Economy
By Derrick Max,
No one can say we weren’t warned. During his debate with then Vice President Kamala Harris, President Donald Trump clearly stated, “other countries are going to finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that we’ve done for the world, and the tariff will be substantial…” Promises made, promises kept. Unfortunately.
I don’t think, however, that anyone could have imagined that “substantial” tariffs would include a baseline 10% tariff on all imported goods, and higher, individualized reciprocal tariffs on countries identified as having the largest trade deficits with the United States. Beyond these broad measures, specific sectors are also targeted, including a 25% tariff on all imported automobiles and auto parts. The tariffs also eliminate previous exemptions to the existing 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, which have been in place for some time.
The scale of these tariffs is actually beyond “substantial,” reaching levels not observed since World War II. The magnitude of the Trump Tariffs is the equivalent of bringing a bazooka to a pillow fight.
President Trump’s flag-adorned Rose Garden ceremony included a “reciprocal tariff” chart that gave the false impression that tariffs were far higher than they actually are, that the United States is on the losing end of most existing tariffs, and that the new “reciprocal tariffs” would only be half of what our trading partners are charging us.
But the tariff column on the President’s chart was completely disconnected from any actual tariff. It was really a number derived by taking the difference between imports and exports with each country, divided by that country’s exports to the US, then attributing that deficit entirely to tariffs and other protectionism. That ratio was then divided in half to produce what the administration calls a “discounted reciprocal tariff.” In other words, any country with whom we have a trade deficit is assumed to have used higher tariffs to gain that advantage and would be punished with a “reciprocal tariff” equal to a rate of half of their trade deficit — an amount that is multiple times higher than their tariffs on our goods.
The truth is, however, most deficits are caused by a country having a comparative advantage (and in some cases an absolute advantage) in producing a specific product that makes it more efficient to import than to produce, while freeing up labor and capital in our market to make other goods and services that we can either consume or export. This is the “economics 101” of all voluntary trade which applies equally to trade between nations.
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Bacon Bits: Politicians Behaving Badly
Just the kind of guy you want running your school system… Todd Stewart Williams, former vice chair of the Smyth County School Board, has pleaded guilty to using at least six male minors to produce child pornography, reports Cardinal News. Williams spent more than $10,000 buying nude images from at least six underage male victims. He did this while serving on the school board. Said acting U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Lee in a press release: “This case demonstrates that even those who are entrusted by our communities to oversee the welfare of our children may harbor intentions to exploit them, and for that reason we must be ever vigilant and responsive when our young people report abuse.”
Grow up, people! Aaron Rawls got into a big argument with his fellow Martinsville City Council members last week, and Mayor L.C. Jones ordered a deputy to escort him out of the closed session. Speaking to WSET News, Jones said he acted appropriately to “prevent something worse from happening.” Rawls hit back: “He can stop lying about members of Council and start including us in some things a bit more often and do it with reasonable notice.”
Ceasefire in GOP circular firing squad? The discord in Martinsville is small potatoes compared to Lynchburg City Council, where two Republican factions have been at odds for two years running. Despite the intra-party rancor, Republicans managed to expand their City Council majority to six-to-one in November’s elections. (That must tell you something about how weak the opposition was.) From what I can tell as an outsider, the disagreements revolve around personality clashes and personal loyalties. At last, reports the News & Advance, there are signs of a rapprochement. If Republicans want to win local elections, it does help to show they can govern. If they want to show they can govern, it helps to stop treating each other like the enemy.
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Ellis Unchained
Someone finally said it: UVA President Ryan needs to go.
Bert Ellis in the studio of The Schilling Show. Image credit: The Schilling Show by James A. Bacon
Now that he’s been booted from the University of Virginia Board of Visitors, Bert Ellis is free to speak his mind. And in an interview yesterday on The Schilling Show, a Charlottesville talk radio show, he didn’t hold back on what needs to change at UVA — starting with pushing out President Jim Ryan.
During the half-hour interview, Ellis muted criticism of Governor Glenn Youngkin, who fired him for unspecified violations of the Board of Visitors code of conduct, trained his fire on the “far left” faculty and administration of the University, and described what it takes to bring about change in the face of institutional opposition.
“The governor and I agree on the mission. We disagree on how to implement the mission,” Ellis said. “The mission to me is, if we’re going to fix this university, the only way to fix it is to get rid of the president. He’s driving this thing hard left.”
Youngkin appointed him to the Board three years ago to be a change agent, Ellis said. “I want you to rattle cages,” he said the Governor told him. “I want you to take the beach and hold the beach for reinforcements until we have enough that we can blow the enemy off.” There was no ambiguity in the message, he added. “It wasn’t sneak ashore and say, pretty please may I have a spot on your beach?
Schilling asked what went wrong, giving him an opening to discuss the behind-the-scenes drama that led to his ouster, but Ellis chose simply to defend his behavior as a Board member.
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PJM Capacity Auction Costs Coming to Your Dominion Bill
By Steve Haner
Cost of one megawatt-day of PJM contracted generation capacity effective July 1. Dominion Energy Virginia has asked to increase the amount it charges customers for fuel by more than 50%, in part because the cost of that fuel has proven stubbornly high and in part because it now wants to charge us for its out-of-state capacity contracts using the same account as fuel.
The proposed increase in the fuel factor is $10.92 per month ($131 per year) on an average bill of 1,000 kilowatt hours, but of course many customers use far more kWh than that in an average month. The Rider A charge has been $20.74 per 1000 kWh since last July.
This is separate from and in addition to the company’s proposed increase in its base rates, filed on the same date. That may be the focus of a future column.
The proposed fuel change, if approved, would go into effect July 1. The annual review of the fuel charge used to be a routine and boring process but is now worth exploring.
The increase in Rider A is also separate from and in addition to the $3.22 per 1,000 kWh that Dominion is collecting for the massive deferred fuel charges incurred before 2023. That second, “securitized” fuel recovery remains in effect for several more years. The combined fuel cost as of July 1 will be just under $35 per 1,000 kWh. The sum of the two does not seem to be mentioned anywhere in the application (but could have been missed).
As this author predicted, all the 2023 election year blather about that deferral process being “bill relief” was utter nonsense, and this warning came true:
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Who’s Liberating Whom?
by Gordon C. Morse
Loved the headline over an opinion in The Washington Post last Sunday morning: “The beginning of the end of the Trump era.”
Well, that was easy. What a relief! And I was beginning to worry.
The argument contained within the Post piece, such as it is, seems to recognize that something fundamental has occurred, that the writer thought (along with his friends and colleagues, he says) that it was a sea-change of sorts. Trump über alles, but then, no, he realized he was wrong. It was just a passing Trump moment, a phase of sorts, now already hung on its depraved techniques and implausible assertions.
The Post ran this piece, in all likelihood, because it yearns for it to be true. Likely the paper put the headline on the thing, not the writer. Thus people open the paper and see that the storm has passed and a new, better day beckons. It was all just a bad dream.
The single best advice that any Democrat can receive these days? Come to grips with the world on your own. Do your own homework. Think for yourself. And, for the sake of all that’s holy, put aside most anything you find in The Washington Post or The New York Times these days.
If you want to contemplate something, consider a tipping point that could knock the Trump administration back. At that moment, public attention will turn to the Democrats in the hope that they will offer a reasonable alternative. Should that hope be frustrated by the Democrats dancing about, doing all the things they were doing prior to November, with little amendment, American political frustration will become acute.
It’s not easy to diagnose events as they occur and understand what they may mean down the road. In 1988, I was in Oxford, England, rummaging about the odds and ends of a basement church sale and spotted a post card that I’ve kept on an office bookshelf ever since.
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Bacon Bits: Narrative Busters
Selecting the facts that fit the narrative. George Mason University business school professor Brad N. Greenwood was the lead author of an academic article arguing that Black newborn babies are three times more likely to die if cared by for White doctors than Black doctors. Mainstream media jumped on the findings of systemic racial bias faster than a dog on a kitchen-counter steak. Now that study is under attack. Critics say that Greenwood and his co-authors did not adjust for the fact that high-risk, low birth-weight babies tend to be referred to specialists who happen to be predominantly White. Worse, Greenwood apparently suppressed a finding that White babies are also more likely to die if treated by White doctors. The Henrico-based Do No Harm organization obtained documents through the Freedom of Information Act showing that Greenwood wrote in the margin of a draft: “I’d rather not focus on this. If we’re telling the story from the perspective of saving black infants, this undermines the narrative.” Get the details in The Daily Caller.
From boxing gloves to brass knuckles. Governor Glenn Youngkin supposedly fired conservative businessman Bert Ellis from the University of Virginia Board of Visitors for ungentlemanly interactions with fellow board members and university administrators. But his replacement, former state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, “could prove even more confrontational,” opines Jeff Schapiro in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. As AG, Schapiro recounts, the Cooch sued his alma mater (where he had earned an engineering degree) to obtain emails written by climatologist Michael Mann relating to a research project funded with state dollars. UVA fought the Freedom of Information Act request and won in the courts. The public may have forgotten the litigation, which occurred in the early 2000s, but Cuccinelli and UVA long-timers certainly have not. Personally, I’m hoping that the Cooch will join The Jefferson Council in fighting for transparency at UVA. Ellis donned boxing gloves in his sparring with UVA officialdom. If past is prologue, Cuccinelli will wear brass knuckles. That’s just what UVA needs, though not necessarily what Youngkin wants.
Paging Steve Haner… paging Steve Haner… Dominion Energy wants to boost its base rates by 13.9%, which could add $21 a month to a typical household’s electric bill by 2027. According to press reports, Dominion blames inflation and investments needed to reliably serve growing demand by data centers. How much do Virginia’s General Assembly-mandated net-zero carbon goals figure into the increase? If only Virginia had a journalist capable of cutting through the complexity and fog….
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Fewer Students, Lower Scores, More Taxpayer Dollars
Source: Public Education Trends and 2025 Session Outlook by James A. Bacon
You’d think that with K-12 enrollment declining, the overall cost of educating Virginia’s children might start declining as well. The number of school-age children is sliding down a long slope (see graph above), and there is no indication that the exodus of 44,000 or so pupils during the COVID pandemic to private schools and home schools is about to reverse itself. Yet In his proposed biennial budget (fiscal years 2026 and 2027), Governor Glenn Youngkin asked for $600 million more, bringing the two-year total to $22 billion.
And Senate Democrats say it’s not nearly enough.
The latest argument is over how much more money to spend for “support staff” — school nurses, school social workers, school counselors, bus drivers, custodians. In other words, people who don’t actually teach. For that chunk of the biennial budget, the General Assembly budget crafted by Democrats wants to add $223 million more. Youngkin wants to dial the number down to a $85 million increase.
“We’re talking about … folks who keep our schools running,” Sen. Jennifer Carroll Foy, D-Prince William, told 8News.
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Meme of the Day
Hat tip to Paul Blumstein
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Virginia Pushes Accelerated Math Enrollment
by Todd Truitt
Virginia will have a new law taking effect next school year requiring high-performing students to be automatically enrolled in accelerated or advanced mathematics. This new law complements another recent state action by Virginia to increase enrollment in accelerated middle school math courses via changes to its accountability system.
As a result, Virginia is likely the leading state in the nation to use state-level actions to encourage local districts to offer accelerated math opportunities to middle school students who are academically ready.
Virginia’s New Advanced Math Auto-enrollment Law
Virginia’s autoenrollment law applies to students in Grades 5 – 8 who score in the top 25th percentile statewide on its standardized math exam, with the opportunity for parents to opt their child out.
The autoenrollment bill was sponsored by Virginia House of Delegates Democratic member Katrina Callsen, a former middle school math teacher, and approved by overwhelming bipartisan majorities in the Virginia legislature. Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed it into law this past week.
(more…)
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Three Former Rectors Defend Former Hospital CEO
by James A. Bacon
Three former rectors of the University of Virginia have written a letter defending Craig Kent, the UVA Health system CEO who resigned in February after an investigation into alleged abuses at the UVA Medical Center.
“We have a strong impression that there may be just a very small handful of doctors who, for entirely personal reasons, have for some years fomented discontent at UVA,” UVa’s past three rectors wrote in a March 7 letter, according to The Daily Progress. “And have done so with utter disregard for the damage they might be doing to the reputations of UVA and their fellow physicians.”
Discord between hospital administrators and physicians at UVA long preceded Kent’s arrival in 2020, but got worse when Kent tried to impose far-reaching structural changes needed to survive the COVID epidemic and make the health system more competitive in the long run, said the rectors, who include Frank “Rusty” Conner III, Jim Murray Jr. and Whitt Clement.
The letter represents a serious argument made by serious people. The rectors join others — health system board member and electronics-retailer Bill Crutchfield and neurosurgeon-scientist Neal Kassell — who have argued that Kent was unjustly maligned.
The UVA Health system board (which overlaps significantly with the UVA Board of Visitors) hired an outside law firm, Williams & Connolly, to investigate the allegations against Kent and Medical School Dean Melina Kibbe. The board met in closed session February to discuss the findings and took no action. But Kent submitted his resignation after the meeting. Kibbe did not.
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Drive a Stake Through the Heart of Wokeness in Public Schools
by Kerry Dougherty
Do you need another reason to get your kids out of public school?
Here ya go: Fox News reports that a Fairfax County high school, home to what was once the best school system in the country, just saw its hallways decorated with ABCs for Women’s History month.
Naturally, the display was oozing with wokeness.
Just when we thought we’d seen the end of Pride flags in class, trans teachers and tampons in boy’s bathrooms, we get slapped in the face with a reminder that the public school system is determined to indoctrinate kids into leftist orthodoxy and will not go down without a fight.
That includes a display that many students and parents found offensive, but the superintendent of schools called “thoughtful.”
West Springfield High School is celebrating women with an evil alphabet display that begins “A is for Abortion,” with an illustration of a positive pregnancy test and a coat hanger.
Actually, it’s perfect. To the left that’s all women are: creatures who crave abortion and view pregnancy and children as impossible burdens.
The most vile candidate for public office can garner a heap of liberal suburban white woman votes as long as he or she proclaims unbridled love for abortion.
Conversely, there’s no quicker way to lose the “educated” women’s vote than to say something crazy, such as “life begins as conception” or “let’s limit legal abortions to 15 weeks.”
There was more in this women’s alphabet.
H stood for Hope and guess whose picture was on this letter? Yep, presidential loser Kamala Harris. Continue reading.
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Jeanine’s Memes
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Bacon Meme of the Week
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Youngkin Veto of AI Bill Praised by Louisiana Group
Reprinted from the Pelican Tech & Innovation Center
Artificial intelligence (AI) is progressing rapidly and powering solutions previously unimaginable. At the same time, AI legislation is on the rise and a patchwork of state restrictions looms over the momentum of innovators and US leadership. This Monday, HB 2094, the High-Risk Artificial Intelligence Developer and Deployer Act, was vetoed by Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-VA). HB 2094 epitomized the perils of restrictive legislation and Governor Youngkin’s prudent courage is an investment in Virginia’s future.
HB 2094 sought to regulate “high risk systems,” technology that is involved in important decisions like hiring and loans. Companies could be held accountable for the decisions their AI makes, and must go to great lengths before, during, and after using their technology to ensure compliance. The sheer amount of paperwork involved in enforcing and following this law was enough to make it unworkable. Furthermore, the legislation was inconsistent in its application; not all businesses using tech to make high risk decisions were included.
The Center for Data Innovation provided an example that captures the contradictions within HB 2094:
Consider that an insurer who uses AI to determine who gets a home loan would likely not be subject to the bill’s requirements but a housing association using AI to screen tenants would be. Both decisions affect access to housing and both sectors are already subject to anti-discrimination oversight. Drawing a bright line between them makes no sense.
