Bacon's Rebellion

  • UVA Board Members Call for Tuition Freeze

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Members of the University of Virginia Board of Visitors expressed strong reservations about the tuition increases approved in December and asked for a special meeting with administrators to dig deeper into the university’s finances.

    No formal action was taken, but Chief Operating Officer J.J. Davis told Bacon’s Rebellion during a break after the finance committee meeting, “That would be great.” She has held budgetary working sessions with board members in previous years, and she indicated that there would be no problem scheduling another such session in the April-May time frame.

    During the finance committee meeting, Davis outlined what she saw as major uncertainties and challenges facing UVA’s administrators as they approached a June deadline for presenting a final budget to the board for approval. The Trump administration has already announced restrictions on university overhead allowed for research grants, potentially cutting research revenues by tens of millions of dollars. She also cited questions about other federal cost-cutting initiatives as well as the “broader economic environment.” Additionally, UVA has to pay a 3% pay raise for employees authorized by the General Assembly and resolve the question of how to handle another budget buster: NCAA directives regarding the compensation of student athletes. “There are more economic headwinds than tailwinds,” she said.

    But board members weren’t particularly interested in hearing about outside forces impinging on UVA. Several expressed dissatisfaction with the high-altitude picture they’ve been getting about the University budget, and said they want a closer look at the numbers.

    (more…)

  • Mystery: Why Would Jewish UVA Students Feel Their Religion Is Not respected?

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Deputy Provost Brie Gertler posed quite the conundrum to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors this afternoon: Ninety-two percent of UVA Jewish students felt valued as individuals in 2024, according to a poll by Student Experience in the Research University (SERU). But only 52% agreed that students sharing their religious beliefs were respected on Grounds. Indeed, the percentage of Jewish students feeling the love toward Judaism had declined sharply since the previous survey in 2022.

    A similar gap existed for Muslim students, but it was much smaller. Seventy-five percent of Muslim students at UVA felt valued as individuals while only 66% perceived that Muslim students were getting respect. The percentage feeling positive vibes about their religion also declined from the previous year, though only half as much as it did for Jewish students.

    The good news, which Gertler emphasized in her presentation, is that the percentage of Jews and Muslims feeling valued and respected was slightly higher at UVA than at four peer universities (University of Berkeley, University of Michigan, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and University of Texas-Austin).

    But she was at a loss to explain how Jewish students at UVA could rate their individual experience so highly while feeling so down about the way their religion was perceived.

    What, oh, what could be going on? Was it something in the way the survey questions were worded? Or, given the fact that only a fifth or so UVA students participated in the SERU survey, could there have been some kind of self-selection bias? Or, given the inherent variability in small sample sizes — only 99 Jewish students and 90 Muslims taking part in the survey — were the numbers randomly skewed?

    No one seemed to have an answer. Let me throw this out there: Could the dizzying drop in positive vibes have been tied to the fact that the survey took place in March-April 2024, only a half year after Hamas launched its surprise terror attack on Israel? And the fact that Hamas and Israel still were locked in a war? And that pro-Palestinian groups at UVA were holding marches, demonstrations, and die-ins and accusing Israel of genocide? And that many people were blurring pro-Israel “Zionists” with Jews generally? And that dozens of UVA faculty had signed letters in support of the Palestinians? And that the student body had voted to demand UVA divest its endowment of Israeli assets and cut ties with Israeli scholars? And that antisemitic slurs were on the rise? And that many Jewish students felt so cowed that they hid signs of their ethnic identity such as stars of David?

    (more…)

  • Bacon Bits: Culture War Updates

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    James A. Bacon

    GMU free speech conundrum. The George Mason University Board of Visitors passed the following resolution on antisemitism last month after extensive debate, reports the GMU student newspaper The Fourth Estate: “This board directs the University, including all of its administrative departments, offices, schools, and academic units, to refrain from sponsoring or endorsing any organization, event, or other activity whose position or posture is antisemitic under the [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance] IHRA definition.” 

    This makes me uneasy. The IHRA definition is expansive, ranging from denying the Holocaust, accusing Jews of controlling societal institutions, or targeting the state of Israel using criteria not applied to other countries. I oppose all such forms of antisemitism, and I fully support Israel in its war against Hamas, but I’m reluctant to tell faculty (“academic units”) that they cannot condemn Israel. I find the anti-Israel pronouncements of left-wing faculty to be reprehensible. But grotesque utterances should be fought in the arena of ideas, not suppressed administratively.

    Update. Here is the final version of the GMU board resolution, the language of which differs somewhat from the draft version I quoted from The Fourth Estate. In the final version, the Board directed the University to disseminate the IHRA definition as part of a factsheet but did not formally adopt the definition for university purposes.

    The green movement as new religion. Climate change wasn’t an issue in 1st-century Judea, but it is becoming a central organizing principle for some Christian churches these days. WHRO reports that a coalition of nonprofits and community leaders are turning New Bethel Baptist Church in Portsmouth into a “resilience hub” where people can talk about addressing the impact of climate change at the local level — by planting trees, installing solar panels, setting up electric-vehicle chargers, and addressing the impact of extreme heat. Said one of the nonprofit leaders: “The church is sitting here, doing its thing just like any church. But we’re going to tap into (that) and layer on some additional programming and really enhance the church to address the needs of the community.”

    Jesus did champion the poor, but I don’t recall that urban heat-island inequities made it into the beatitudes…. and I doubt it’s high on the list of Portsmouth’s poor.

    Who started this culture war? Public affairs officials at the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Dahlgren outside of Fredericksburg have begun complying with a recent Trump administration order to remove social media and online content promoting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA). officials must take down all news articles, photos and videos published between Jan. 20, 2021, and Jan. 19, 2025, until all the content is fully reviewed and the DEI content is scrubbed, reports the Fredericksburg Free Press. The article’s headline frames the action thusly: “Culture wars reach warfighters.” Interesting.

    Didn’t the culture wars first reach warfighters when controversial DEIA content was originally posted? Have the culture wars reached Dahlgren only now that someone wishes to take it down?

  • Congratulations Inova

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    sherlockj

    Congratulations Inova

    by James C. Sherlock

    I asked the question in 2022 “Is Inova the best regional hospital system in America?“

    We have an answer.

    Inova has recently been recognized by healthcare analyst firm Press Ganey as America’s Health System of the Year. That was hardly a surprise. Inova has been great for a very long time.

    A follow-up article was posted yesterday on Becker’s Clinical Leadership “How Inova built a culture of safety — and won.” It features an interview with CEO J. Stephen Jones, MD.

    “I think that it’s easy to say you’re going to be a system. It’s hard to actually do it,” Dr. Jones said. “It’s easy to say you’re going to have a psychologically safe culture, and it’s hard to do it. But when you do it, you see the outcomes.”

    I encourage readers to check out the rest of the Beckers article. Dr. Jones offers a short master class on leadership. Northern Virginia is truly blessed by his dedication and skill and those of Inova’s 25,000 other employees.

    Congratulations.

  • Mark Warner Amends

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    James A. Bacon

    And he’s right to do so.

    by Gordon C. Morse

    Around 12:30 p.m. today, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, appeared on MSNBC with Katy Tur to discuss President Trump’s address last night before Congress and a telling moment emerged mid-way through the conversation.

    Warner has hit his stride in recent years as a member of the Senate. He has a personality built for executive postings and loved being governor. Being in the Senate obliged some adjustments and the institution itself frustrated him. I know this because he said so and often.

    But then, a few years ago, the Democrats got into the majority and Warner became chairman of the Intelligence Committee. Suddenly, he was a supremely happy guy. All his impulses favoring direct, hands-on action kicked in and his long efforts to keep matters ecumenical on the Intelligence Committee -– to avoid partisanship and focus on the national interest -– paid off. By nearly all accounts, Warner fast became a very effective chairman.

    He lost that position when the Democrats came up short in the 2024 election and doubtless that proved disappointing. But you don’t get any sense of personal deflation. Over time, Warner has developed an easy, graceful approach to on-air interviews and his seniority, even as a member of a minority, still works for him.

    So, today, Warner was sharply critical of Trump’s speech (as you would expect) and made a pointed reference to a VA facility in Fredericksburg already undercut by Trump’s federal hiring freeze.

    (more…)

  • The “Resistance” Builds

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    James A. Bacon

    This ARLNow article says it all. No need for editorial elaboration.

    “Amid immigration raids, a quiet resistance movement builds in Arlington”

    As fears of immigration arrests flare, a network of Arlington organizations has been quietly but rapidly mobilizing to help undocumented residents and hinder immigration enforcement. …

    Shortly after the inauguration, the Arlington County Board voted with no publicly posted documents or significant public discussion, awarding $250,000 to a local nonprofit for “humanitarian support services.” This money has since made its way to two organizations providing legal support to undocumented Arlington residents. …

    Read the whole thing. It goes without saying that progressives view the deportation efforts as racist.

    Said Eduardo Zelaya, director of Virginia organizing at CASA in Action: “This fear-mongering is purposely meant to take away our power and make it socially acceptable for hateful policies against us as Black and brown people.”

    Sure, go ahead and believe that, and see where it gets you.

    — JAB

  • The Trump Tariffs and Virginia Farmers

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Virginia soybean field. Photo credit: Virginia Soybean Association

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Virginia farmers will soon feel the effect of President Trump’s 25 percent across-the-board tariffs on all imports from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10 percent tariff on products from China.

    According to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer services, the top two export markets for Viriginia agricultural products in 2023 were China and Canada. The two countries purchased a total of $1.3 billion in agricultural products from Virginia farmers. The two top agricultural exports were soybeans and pork. Wood products and poultry were next in line.

    China has announced a 15 percent tariff on chicken, wheat, corn and cotton and a 10 percent tariff on sorghum, soybeans, pork, beef, fruits, vegetables and dairy and fish products. Canada has announced it would impose a 25 percent tariff, but has not specified the products that would be targeted. Mexico has promised a response later this week.

    Not only will Virginia farmers have to face decreasing sales due to the tariffs imposed by the other countries, they will be hit by U.S. tariffs on farm expenses. For example, potash is a key ingredient in fertilizer. According to the United States Geological Service, the United States imported ninety-three percent of the potash it consumed in 2024. For the 2020-2023 period, 79 percent of that imported potash came from Canada. (The second import source was Russia, at 11 percent.) The Trump tariff of 25 percent on that Canadian potash will largely be paid by farmers, including Virginia farmers. As Ken Seitz, the chief executive of Nutrien, a Canadian fertilizer company and the largest producer of potash in the world, said in regard to American tariffs, “The U.S. farmer will feel those impacts after the spring planting season.”

  • Team Youngkin: No More Racial Preferences in Higher Ed

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Aimee Guidera

    Virginia’s public colleges and university must act now to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination on campus, state Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera wrote Saturday in a letter to the institutions’ presidents and governing boards.

    Guidera’s letter directed the governing boards of each school to review in their next meeting all practices that could violate federal law, reports The Richmond Times-Dispatch. The letter specifically mentioned the need to end racial preferences in their school’s admissions and hiring practices.

    The University of Virginia Board of Visitors is scheduled to have an hour-and-a-half “open session” Friday afternoon. Among several other items, the agenda includes a “discussion with university leadership” on the topic of “test-optional admissions policies.”

    Guidera’s order follows a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling restricting the use of racial preferences in admissions and a January a Trump administration executive order reversing more than a dozen previous federal orders and policies.

    (more…)

  • Embrace the Musk-alypse

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    James A. Bacon

    The apocalypse: Gog and Magog laying waste.

    by James A. Bacon

    From reading the news clips yesterday, one would have thought the end of the world was at hand. Gog and Magog in the form of Elon Musk and DOGE have unleashed a cascade of horrors across the Old Dominion.

    The Washington Post sounded the alarm: “With federal cuts looming, Northern Virginia localities face budget crunch.”

    “Hampton Roads lawmakers get an earful over Trump’s federal cuts,” reports The Virginian-Pilot.

    “Officials: Trump administration’s VA hiring freeze impacting new Fredericksburg facility,” The Fredericksburg Free Press informed us.

    “Youngkin must stand up to the White House on Virginia’s behalf,” lectured The Virginian-Pilot editorial staff. “The first few weeks of the Trump administration have been harmful to Virginia and … thousands of residents and many critical institutions are threatened by the reckless and illegal actions of Elon Musk and his team.”

    Other editorials decried the local impact of cuts to the National Institutes of Health budget and rollbacks to the Inflation Reduction Act. All this in single day of journalistic coverage. Not a glimmer of hope or consolation was to be found.

    Time to get real. Here’s the choice we face: DOGE now or bond vigilantes and hyper-inflation later. The hardships Virginians and other Americans can expect from DOGE’s assault on the federal budget is nothing compared to what we’ll experience if we let the nation’s fiscal profligacy run its course.

    (more…)

  • Youngkin Commutes Killer’s Sentence

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Well, this is a turnabout! Steve Descanos, the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s attorney much maligned in Bacon’s Rebellion for being woke and soft on crime, secured a guilty verdict in a trial involving the killing of an unarmed man. Two days after the offender was sentenced by the presiding judge, Governor Youngkin commuted his sentence.

    The case involved a Fairfax County police officer who shot and killed a man suspected of having stolen a pair of sunglasses from a Tysons Corner Center store. The shooting occurred at night as the police were pursuing the suspect. After an investigation and viewing the officer’s body cam footage, the Fairfax County police chief fired the officer, saying the his actions did not meet the department’s use-of-force protocols.

    This was not the first time that the officer had drawn his gun on suspected shoplifters. It had happened at least twice before. In both those instances, no one got shot. Charges were subsequently dropped against the suspects.

    Descanos secured an indictment for involuntary manslaughter, but the trial jury, after viewing the body cam footage, instead found the defendant guilty of the lesser charge of reckless handling of a firearm. Last Friday, the judge sentenced the offender to three years in prison. After spending two nights in jail, he walked free on Sunday following Youngkin’s commuting his sentence.
    Youngkin explained his decision by saying that the sentence exceeded the state’s sentencing guidelines. “I am convinced that the court’s sentence of incarceration is unjust,” he said.

    Think about this. Youngkin, who did not attend the trial and did not hear the testimony, chose to substitute his judgment for that of an experienced judge who oversaw the trial and who had reviewed the presentence reports prepared by experienced probation officers.

  • Medicaid Yet Again – Skyrocketing Costs of New Therapies

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    sherlockj

    Medicaid Yet Again – Skyrocketing Costs of New Therapies

    By James C. Sherlock

    The featured image above is from my friends at AARP.  We continue to work together to improve Virginia nursing homes.  

    Basic Medicaid and CHIP, which I support, are threatened by soaring costs. 

    I have recommended bringing Medicaid expansion home to the states to fund to protect the basic program at the federal level while addressing unsustainable federal borrowing.

    This piece will address the increasing slope of the medical cost curve driven by new therapies very expensive to develop and to furnish through insurance.  

    Speaking frankly, the quickest way to lower therapy costs is to shut off the supply of new drugs.  Once current ones age out of protected status, costs would indeed drop.  But few will wish to go down that road with such therapies as individually-tailored cancer vaccines on the horizon.  

    A pessimist would say that since everyone eventually dies of something, it is not clear that life- and quality-of-life-extending therapies would actually lower the costs of medical care in the long run.  

    An optimist would point to the outsized costs of chronic diseases and take a different view.

    But all of that is just jabber.  

    We begin this discussion knowing that government insurers will be pressured to cover the costs of new therapies.  By the loudest voices.  Including those of everyone who feels that they or their loved ones will be advantaged by the new drug.

    But commercial insurers will not be so pressured, because individuals and businesses are cost sensitive.

    Which brings us to the costs of GLP-1 drugs as a canary in the coal mine for Medicaid costs.

    (more…)

  • The Day the Masks Came Off

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    James A. Bacon

    by Chap Petersen

    Image credit: Bing image Creator

    March 1 is an anniversary I remember well.

    That was the day in 2022 that SB 739 took effect on an emergency basis, ending COVID19 restrictions in Virginia public schools — two years after they began. 

    In a nutshell, it allowed children ages 5-18 to attend school without a mask over their face. Amazingly they survived and are still with us. 

    This memory has been swept under the rug by those responsible: the media, the legal system, the politicians. Because, let’s face it, these “health” policies made no sense at the time and they had an enormous negative impact on our children which is still being felt. But back to the story at hand …

    In the 2021 session, SB 1303 had formally reopened schools in Virginia after they had been closed for a year in reaction to COVID19. That victory was a massive struggle for many of us. Wrongly, we thought the war had been won over COVID19 shutdown policies. 

    In August 2021, Governor Northam — who had watched from the sidelines during the debate of SB 1303 — announced that all schools must impose a mask mandate on children, even as retail stores and restaurants were transitioning to normal status. 

    (more…)

  • A Homework Assignment – Nursing Facility Neglect and Abuse

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    I read two comments on my local Nextdoor blog this morning. They reminded me that most people know nothing about nursing homes or about what to do if they or their loved ones are abused or neglected.

    I urge readers to post the following as a public service on Nextdoor and your favorite social media:

    Definitions of abuse and neglect in Nursing Homes:

      • Abuse: Willful infliction of injury, unreasonable confinement, intimidation, or punishment resulting in physical harm, pain, or mental anguish. Nursing home abuse can include physical harm, emotional distress, and other mistreatment inflicted upon elderly residents by caregivers, staff members, other residents, or visitors.
      • Neglect: Failure to provide goods and services necessary to avoid physical harm, mental anguish, or mental illness.

    There are three sources of recourse for anyone having an abuse or neglect complaint with a nursing facility:

    1. For an immediate threat response dial 911.

    2. Virginia has a 24-hour elder abuse hotline at (888) 832-3858, or make an online report 

    3. Even if you have done 1. or 2. above, please contact the Virginia Dept. of Health Complaint Unit at vdh.virginia.gov/licensure-an. VDH licenses all nursing homes and is required by federal law to investigate reports of patient neglect and abuse. Their nurse-led inspector teams are understaffed but good at what they do, and will get to it. The most threatening situations will get a fast response.

    You might save a life.

  • A Good Week for FERC and America’s Energy Reliability

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    FERC Chairman Mark Christie

    by Steve Haner

    The new chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission used the Trump Administration’s order to have agency employees report their activities as a chance to show off. Late last week the chairman issued a four-page letter of accomplishments on behalf of his staff, a list that might be a good month, not a good week, at some other agency or department. 

    The Chairman of FERC now, of course, is Virginia’s own Mark Christie, previously a member and sometimes chairman of our State Corporation Commission. The letter should also reassure those Americans who are hoping to see the new administration take a new direction in energy policy, one accepting of hydrocarbons and focused on energy reliability. 

    Whether Christie answering on behalf of all his employees and fellow commissioners satisfies the request from the Department of Government Efficiency, time will tell. The substance of the report, however, with its focus on natural gas projects likely would have infuriated many in the previous Biden Administration.   

    He reports that between February 14th and 24th, FERC: 

    “Issued the following Orders under Sections 3 and 7 of NGA (Natural Gas Act) to ensure that pipeline infrastructure needed to ensure plentiful supplies of natural gas at reasonable prices are in place:  

    (more…)

  • Medicaid – Again

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    sherlockj

    Medicaid – Again

    by James C. Sherlock

    Featured image courtesy of Cato Institute.  It is worth a close look by those who suggest there is no room for federal budget reductions.

    On the morning of Feb. 25th, I posted a column a week ago that asked whether Virginia should pay the full cost of Medicaid expansion.

    That same evening, the budget outline for FY 2026 passed by the House of Representatives on Feb. 25 will need major savings from federal contributions to healthcare. The resolution’s sponsors intend to:

    “Achieve $8.7 trillion of savings over 10 years by strengthening Medicare for
    seniors, making Medicaid work for the most vulnerable, ending cradle-to-
    grave dependence, and lowering interest costs.”

    To the charge that the budget resolution will kick poor people off of Medicaid, the sponsors have offered a peremptory response:

    Our budget does not include policies that reduce benefits or remove Medicaid enrollees from the program. Rather, the budget refocuses Medicaid on the most vulnerable and empowers states with flexibility so they can tailor their Medicaid programs to their populations.

    So that clearly portends state funding of Medicaid expansion. 

    I quote below the Social Security Act provision on Medicaid appropriations.

    “Sec. 1901. [42 U.S.C. 1396] For the purpose of enabling each State, as far as practicable under the conditions in such State, to furnish

    (1) medical assistance on behalf of families with dependent children and of aged, blind, or disabled individuals, whose income and resources are insufficient to meet the costs of necessary medical services, (emphasis added) and

    (2) rehabilitation and other services to help such families and individuals attain or retain capability for independence or self-care, there is hereby authorized to be appropriated for each fiscal year a sum sufficient to carry out the purposes of this title.

    The sums made available under this section shall be used for making payments to States which have submitted, and had approved by the Secretary, State plans for medical assistance.”

    It is difficult to square appropriations for Medicaid expansion with that statute.

    As pointed out in my previous article, Medicaid expansion alone, unreformed, will cost the federal government $1.7 trillion over the next ten years. Not for basic Medicaid for poor children and adults, but rather for its expansion to cover single, healthy adults earning up to 138% above the poverty level.

    (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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