George Rebane
Rural towns and big cities divide in their populations and prosperity. While bigger cities have become more prosperous, smaller towns and rural communities have suffered. The reasons are many and well summarized in an article by Paul Overberg that presents the relevant data in good graphical formats. The piece begins with –
About 1 in 7 Americans lives in rural parts of the country—1,800 counties that sit outside any metropolitan area. A generation ago, most of these places had working economies, a strong social fabric and a way of life that drew a steady stream of urban migrants. Today, many are in crisis. Populations are aging, more working-age adults collect disability, and trends in teen pregnancy and divorce are diverging for the worse from metro areas. Deaths by suicide and in maternity are on the rise.
In our little county we suffer from most of the factors presented. Unfortunately, these are data unknown to our progressive neighbors whose limited readings inform them that our problems are caused by our aging conservative population, the elimination of which will enable our return to happier days.
America has been the victim of public education’s and the media’s politically revised history for some two generations now. We have covered and debated many of these deficits within RR’s commentaries and comment streams, which present recorded evidence of how the Left’s revisionist history impacts public outlook, understanding, and mood. The beat goes on in two current movies – ‘The Crown’ and ‘The Post’. Peggy Noonan argues convincingly (here) that “we often write of the urgent need for more truth in politics. A hope for 2018 is more truth in art and entertainment, too.” This is doubly important for our tens of millions of lightly-read voters who get what little sense of history they have from the entertainment media. A damning example presented by Noonan is in Spielberg’s ‘Post’ that portrays President Nixon as the villain in the Pentagon Papers story, the subject of the movie. The bald historical fact totally destroyed by the film is that the Pentagon Papers documented the horrific lies told the American people by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, which all occurred before Nixon’s presidency and the papers make no mention of that administration. The poor schlemiels watching this movie have no clue that JFK and Johnson started and disastrously prosecuted the Vietnam War, and that Nixon ended it.
Speaking of presidential lies. More of the lightly-read are all worked up on ‘Trump’s lies’ as if these have achieved some historical pinnacle in presidential perfidy. Again, the facts of the matter are quite different when the archives are consulted instead of misconstrued. Comparing Trump’s malaprops to what continuously came out of the mouths of his Democratic predecessors, makes a joke out of present day accusations. I mean, presidents like JFK, Johnson, Clinton, and Obama told lies that resulted in deaths by the tens of thousands and/or changed the course of nations, starting with America. In that category of competition Trump’s a piker.
How come they let so many obviously stupid people pass the bar? (… and then elect them?) The latest example is NY’s Governor Cuomo. This law school graduate cum legal twit actually believes that the new tax law’s SALT provisions are unconstitutional, apparently having no idea what the constitution says about taxation and the states’ rights concerning such levies. Making such ignorant and outlandish public statements for a public figure is the equivalent of an engineer submitting a design for a bridge that violates basic physics such as the sums of vector forces and moments must equal zero (i.e. balance) at all points in the structure. If an engineer failed at that, he would find himself on the street with very poor prospects for another engineering job. Clearly, some professions – e.g. in the law and journalism – are considerably more fault tolerant of their practitioners.
Civil service reform is fundamental to draining The Swamp. By my reckoning and experience for every useful and functional civil servant, we support at least four or five who are in various forms incompetent, ignorant, stupid, spiteful, petty, crooked, terminally socialist, … . The poster-children IRS and the EPA are but two of countless government agencies, big and small, that provide employment of last resort for about two million of the nation’s otherwise unemployables. (Paying them the same wages for just staying home would be of untold benefit to the country.) Some of the hopeful across the land believe that reforming this Deep State branch of government might be a candidate for bipartisan effort for 2018. I don’t see the logic in that argument, since the Dems are totally invested in such a system to not only provide a reliable voting block, but also enforce socialist policies that may or not be supported in law or the constitution. (more here)
[30dec17 update] NPR’s daily Trump trashing focused on his NYT interview wherein he pointed out that there is no “evidence” of any “Russia collusion”. For the reporters that was enough to prove the existence of conspiratorial collusion, the evidence for which is surely forthcoming. IMHO special prosecutors should and do reveal indictable evidence when it is confirmed. Such announcements need not stop further investigation, but they do put the accused on notice so that they can begin their defense in a timely manner. But then again, we should do that only if we still believe that the accused is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, no longer a given under current American jurisprudence, especially as practiced in the media.
Vaunted money managers and financial analysts blew it again for 2017. Still have no idea why these birds are ever taken seriously. Last January their consensus was that 2017 would be a ho-hum year with markets mostly moving sideways. Turns out that the security markets, home and abroad, had a banner year. Yet smart money will be on everyone in the media sticking a mike into the faces of their favorite financial prognosticators to get another load of manure on the markets. Who says modern cultures are too sophisticated to believe in witch doctors and shamans? For these to be believed today, all they need do is wear a suit and keep a straight face.
Our hyper-progressive friends (actually our kids’ friends) sent out the annual summary of their ideological accomplishments for the past year. They are a well-to-do professional couple ensconced on the beach in one California’s tony coastal communities. Both are employed by large multi-nationals for which one of them is the exec in charge of environmental compliance (what else?). Their moral equivalent (superior?) of a Christmas card details the politically correct list of activist activities, marches, protests, concerned consumption, … in which they and their now adult offspring participated, at times travelling internationally to take part, all for the unquestioned benefit of Earth and its human interlopers. The copy and included pictures are a prideful mix of a political leaflet and a self-adulation celebrating their unabashed largess derived from the hidden engine of crass capitalism which is the mortal enemy of every public policy they celebrate and promote.
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