Bacon's Rebellion

  • Deliberations in Darkness

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    UVA Board of Visitors before entering closed session last week

    by James A. Bacon

    Last week the University of Virginia Board of Visitors met to discuss one of the most contentious public-policy issues roiling American politics today: the medical treatment of transgender youth. The meeting was closed to the public, and board members were enjoined not to reveal what was said.

    The justification for keeping the deliberations secret? The meeting, prompted by an executive order from President Trump, would disclose the advice of UVA legal counsel and supposedly reveal sensitive information about UVA Medical Center business operations.

    In another recent development, UVA announced that after a year-and-a-half of withholding taxpayer-funded reports on the 2022 slaying of three UVA football players, it was finally preparing to release the documents to the public. But first, it was sharing the report with the families of the murdered students to give them “the opportunity to read the reports” and meet with University officials.

    Happy Perry, mother of D’Sean Perry, one of the murder victims, told The Daily Progress the university needn’t have bothered. Redactions blacked out a majority of the report. “There’s nothing in there. They [have] taken everything out. … There’s nothing in it that we want to know.”

    (more…)

  • Medicaid Expansion Costs in Virginia – Who Should Pay?

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    sherlockj

    Medicaid Expansion Costs in Virginia – Who Should Pay?

    by James C. Sherlock

    Update Feb 26 at 13:02:  See here for article on potential Medicaid cuts.

    Ronald Reagan was wrong, yet somewhere he is smiling.

    “No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!”

    Remember Obamacare and its Medicaid expansion?  It was signed in March of 2010.  Fifteen years ago.

    Medicare expansion covers adults younger than 65 who earn up to 138% of the federal poverty level. About 636,000 people were covered in 2023 by Virginia’s Medicaid expansion.  

    The deal features 90% federal funding.  Below is what Medicaid expansion costs.

    Virginia Medicaid Expansion Costs courtesy Virginia Medicaid

    (more…)

  • Federal Workers: No Place to Hide

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Do indignant federal workers who act as if it’s beneath their dignity to account for their work hours have any idea how petulant and entitled they seem to the rest of us?

    Click image to view video.

    Apparently not. This woman is griping that she has two days to knock out five bullet points about what she did last week. 

    Oh the pressure!

    Yet she somehow found time to get her makeup done so she could go on CNN and whine.

    Not feeling sorry for you, lady.

    Looks like working from home for years and collecting fat paychecks has insulated federal workers from the real world. Remember, the average federal wage right now is $106,462. Meanwhile, the average wage of American workers – according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics – is $65,470.

    Government workers would be wise to temper their tantrums.

    Continue reading.

  • Team Youngkin Flexes Muscles at UVA Board Meeting

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    James A. Bacon

    Image credit: ChatGPT

    by James A. Bacon

    In a special meeting called Friday, the University of Virginia Board of Visitors made it crystal clear who was in charge of setting university policy — the board, not the president. It was the most forceful assertion of board authority since the board under Rector Helen Dragas ousted former president Teresa Sullivan in 2012.

    The putative issue was how UVA should respond to an executive order from President Trump threatening the withdrawal of federal funds from institutions engaged in the “chemical and surgical mutilation” — alternatively referred to as “gender-affirming care” — of children under the age of 19. Shortly after, a federal judge in Maryland issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the restrictions.

    In response to the executive order, UVA’s administrative leadership suspended the treatment of transgenders and then, in response to the judge’s order, reversed the suspension. The primary concern expressed in the BoV resolution was not the transgender policy itself but the administration’s usurpation of authority to decide university policy.

    The resolution claimed sweeping authority, not over just the final wording of high-level policies but the process by which policies are made, and even the appointment of members to committees and task forces formed to study and make recommendations (my emphasis):

    (more…)

  • End of Watch

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    We don’t pay police officers enough.

    Then again, there isn’t enough money in the world to fairly compensate these men and women who put on the uniform and wade into the cesspools of our cities — areas most of us avoid — so we can sleep soundly in our beds at night.

    Let me ask, exactly how much money would you need to earn to risk your life making a routine traffic stop?

    Officers Christopher Reese and Cameron Girvin were murdered Friday night by a convicted felon driving a car with expired tags. Initial reports suggest he shot each officer twice before fleeing the scene and killing himself.

    “Those officers fell to the ground,” Police Chief Paul Neudigate said at a Saturday press conference. “While on the ground, defenseless, he shot them each a separate time.” Continue reading.

  • Don’t Let LaRock Rock the Boat

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    Dave LaRock

    By Ken Reid

    In “The Bull Elephant” blog last week, former State Delegate and defeated state senate candidate Dave LaRock explained why he wanted to run for Governor, noting, “I was approached by many conservatives from across the state who see the need for, perhaps, a different candidate” than Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears.”

    Now, there is a campaign to get him the 10,000 signatures by April 3 to challenge Sears in the Republican state primary on June 17.

    Without a doubt, a lot of Virginia Republicans are not happy with Sears being a holdout on supporting President Trump’s re-election – and her failure to quickly endorse him in February 2024 when he all-but-secured the GOP presidential nomination. A number of party regulars also wonder if she can raise the money and run a winning campaign to defeat former U.S. Rep Abigail Spanberger, the presumed Democrat nominee.

    I personally would have preferred A.G. Jason Miyares running for governor and Sears for Lt. governor.

    However, Dave LaRock is not the right alternative to Sears, largely because he broke the Republican Pledge – which we activists are required to sign – support all Republican nominees on the ballot. LaRock, out of sour grapes because he lost a primary for state senate in June 2023 to Timmy French (District 1), waged a write-in campaign for himself in the November 2023 election.

    (more…)

  • Biden Dumped 20,000 Unaccompanied Minors in Virginia

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    James A. Bacon

    by Victoria Manning

    School districts across the Commonwealth are sanctuaries for illegal aliens. They openly defy Virginia law that requires schools to notify law enforcement when any person enrolling a pupil fails “to present a certified copy of the pupil’s birth record.” The number of English language learners has skyrocketed in Virginia schools—including nearly half of the student population in two school districts.

    Every student in Virginia must provide proof of age by presenting a certified birth certificate upon enrollment in school. Otherwise, they must provide an affidavit explaining the inability to produce the birth record. Those affidavits must be promptly turned over to law enforcement, but it appears districts around the state have chosen not to follow that law.

    The number in Virginia have exploded.

    The number of English language learners in each school district is astounding—a statewide increase of more than 25,000 from 2021 to 2024. Even though nearly half of Harrisonburg’s students are English language learners, they have provided no reports to law enforcement regarding students not having certified birth certificates. The Migration Policy Institute estimates that 41 percent of babies born in developing countries go unregistered and therefore cannot get a birth certificate.

    2023, the Office of Refugee Resettlement lost track of over 85,000 unaccompanied minors. Out of that group, 70 percent were males ages 15 or older. Many of the so-called minors crossing the border are considered adults in their own nations, and some are hardened criminals. In El Salvador, the term adult is defined as someone who has reached puberty. In Honduras, the age of criminal responsibility is 12.

    In June 2024, the Biden administration admitted they do not seek criminal history information on minors under 18.

    Continue reading.

  • Data Centers Escape Assembly Session Unscathed

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    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    Microsoft data center in Boydton

    Despite great public angst and political theater, the data center industry has emerged from the 2025 General Assembly unscathed. Virginians will continue to compete with Internet and cloud customers from all over the country and the world for electricity, as the data centers continue to proliferate here.  

    One bill dealing with the land use considerations of siting future plants did pass, House Bill 1601. The final substitute version is focused on a site assessment the utility will have to provide localities before adding a new data center with a 100-megawatt peak demand. Plenty of existing and planned projects will not meet that high threshold. It is a paper tiger bill, with a Senate companion paper tiger.

    A second successful bill merely directs the State Corporation Commission to do something it already has the power to do and was probably already planning to undertake. The approved version of House Bill 2084 reads:

    …no later than July 1, 2027, the State Corporation Commission (the Commission) shall, under its existing authority, determine whether the Phase I or Phase II Utility is using rates, tolls, charges, or schedules that contain reasonable classifications of customers. In making this determination, the Commission shall consider whether new or separate customer classifications are reasonable. (Appalachian Power is “Phase I” and Dominion “Phase II”).

    A third bill that sailed through the Assembly with far too little attention was one the data center industry must like, House Bill 2644 and Senate Bill 1197. They probably should be on the “veto bait” list of bad energy bills discussed Friday. They allow member-owned electric cooperatives to make deals with a data center with more than 90 megawatts of demand on an unregulated basis.

    (more…)

  • Gaza Gala: This Sunday at UVa

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Let’s speak plainly today, shall we?

    Charlottesville — and the once-great university there, UVa — is preparing to host a Palestinian-fest on Sunday. It’s being billed as a “charity banquet” sponsored by the radical Students For Justice in Palestine, or SJP. 

    In case you’re unfamiliar with the SJP, the organization was founded at Berkeley (so you know it’s good) and became active and energized on many college campuses after the Hamas terror attacks on October 7, 2023.

    The American Jewish Committee describes the SJP this way:

    In the days following Hamas’ terror attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, SJP chapters on multiple campuses led protests and other actions that openly praised Hamas terrorists and the death of innocent Israeli citizens. People participating in these protests also bullied, intimidated, and harassed Jewish and pro-Israel students on campus, behavior which is consistent with SJP activities more broadly. This led to several American universities suspending or banning SJP and affiliated groups from their campuses.

    Oh, the fun these terror-supporting folks will have! If you’re going to the Gaza gala remember to don your best formal wear or preferably, your “cultural attire,” which I assume means a bedazzled Palestinian scarf and a ski mask. 

    Continue reading.

  • Waking up to Woke

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Rip van Winkle awakens to Drag Queen Story Hour. Image credit: ChatGPT

    by Joe Fitzgerald

    The nearest analogy might be the spelling bee. No double-elimination, no second tries. One wrong and you’re out.

    That’s what woke means to some of us.

    Defenders of wokeness will tell you, with some sincerity, that its goal is the comfort and safety of everyone. So you eat up the first five minutes of every meeting reciting pronouns as the price you pay for not mis-gendering someone later in the meeting. It also makes everyone feel good about themselves before the meeting gets started.

    And if the party of Trump and Youngkin spends the first five minutes of their meeting discussing how to eat your political lunch, that’s the price you pay for virtue. Extremists in the party of Biden and Harris are probably ready to call me transphobic. Six different ways. And they’ll spend another five minutes of the meeting saying it.

    Morris Udall once described an endless legislative session this way. “Everything had been said, but not everybody had said it.” That’s the story of discussion in the only party left to pull us out of the mire. Everybody in it is really good at talking to each other.

    (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

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    James A. Bacon

    From The Bull Elephant

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

  • Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Report

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Picture credit: New York Times

    Below are two instances of waste, fraud, and abuse of federal funds that have been recently identified and dealt with in Virginia:

    Hurricane Helene aid—The Virginia Creeper Trail and the tourist revenue associated with it are important to the town of Damascus and the rest of Washington County in southwest Virginia. Hurricane Helene destroyed a significant portion of the trail. Congress included $660 million in recent legislation for repairs to the trail.

    Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) recently told Cardinal News that the money “is not flowing. I am very worried that this money is either part of on-off freeze or just a completely screwed up bureaucracy that has now eliminated people and can’t do its job.”

    Sen. Warner is not the only one concerned about how the funding for the trail has seemed to stop. Vice-President J.D. Vance was in Damascus about a month ago and commented on the slow response. According to Cardinal News, the Vice-President said that the administration needed to figure out what was causing delays.

    In the meantime, five technicians with the U.S. Forestry Service responsible for repairing walking trails, campgrounds, and other recreational facilities damaged by Hurricane Helene have been fired.

    (more…)

  • Do No Harm

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    sherlockj

    Do No Harm

    By James C. Sherlock

    One translation of the Hippocratic Oath reads:

    “I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is (harmful).”

    That will prove cold comfort to the thousands of Virginia patients subjected to unnecessary danger, pain, indignities and death at the hands of Virginia’s worst nursing homes.

    Virginia hospitals, with a discharge signed by a doctor, transport patients to nursing facilities every day. Government data richly reproduced in this and previous BR series on Virginia’s nursing homes show many of those facilities to be dangerous.

    The proper response to anyone enquiring about who could have predicted the twin tragedies charged as crimes at Colonial Heights Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center (Colonial Heights) is: “Anyone charged to oversee nursing homes and the health and safety of patients”.

    (more…)

  • Key Energy Issues of Customer Cost, Reliability Often Ignored

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    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    The Virginia General Assembly has approved a long list of bills to reinforce its previous commitment to ending the use of hydrocarbon fuel in Virginia.  It ignored warnings that natural gas is essential for energy security from the regional electricity marketplace, the Virginian who now chairs the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and even its own hired expert.

    Governor Glenn Youngkin now has the final say and should apply his veto vigorously.    

    Most of the bills passed on party line votes, with Youngkin’s fellow Republicans opposed, but not all of them. What is true for all is that none of the bills were subject to any formal written analysis of their ratepayer impact from either the State Corporation Commission (SCC) or the newly reconstituted Commission on Electric Utility Regulation (CEUR).   

    When CEUR was revived by the legislature, one of its promised roles was to provide that impact analysis.  Instead, it has become a cheerleader for some of the worst ideas now before the Governor, but no one should be surprised.   

    For its part, the SCC’s impact statements often focused on its own bills to raise a utility consumption tax by up to $4 million per year to pay for all the staff and outside experts it will need to add.  Maybe if the Governor vetoes enough of the bills that add to the SCC’s workload, he can also veto the two bills raising their utility tax.    

    (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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