Gallup has been looking at marriage rates for Democrats, Republicans, and Indepoendents since 1940. The two parties began to diverge in the early 1980s. Now the differences are striking.
I wrote below about odd people getting government jobs, people the private sector probably wouldn't hire. Let me share with you an experience I had decades ago in the federal government.
A temp employee on loan from the uni, I was located in headquarters of a modest sized agency of nearly 10k employees, housed in a branch with 5 professionals and 2 clericals. The clericals were normal, middle aged ladies with office skills. The professionals were less plain vanilla.
One odd-looking-and-acting professional appeared to have birth defects, in addition to which he was germ-phobic. His office was a sticky mess because he sprayed everything, including I believe himself with spray can Listerine, and then rubbed hand lotion over himself, presumably to counteract the drying effect of the Listerine.
He was the agency's human data base for the legality of personnel actions, adverse and otherwise. Challenge him to find an OPM reg that enabled, or prevented, some sketchy move and he normally could.
Another odd duck was a former Roman Catholic priest who'd married a United flight attendant. He'd gotten himself 'retreaded' as an Episcopal padre and was pastor of a small congregation in a DC suburb which could not afford a full-time minister. He spent half his workdays for the agency on the phone dealing with pastoral business. The agency was his "day job" but his heart was in pastoral work.
A third professional was also a former Catholic priest, now married to an ex-nun. What are the odds?
Two-and-a-half odd birds out of five should suggest why I view government employees with a jaundiced eye. Please forgive my occasional fondness for Brit slang.
Spiked runs a column ruminating on the highly unusual fact of the Teamsters' President speaking at the Republican Convention. It wanders off into deep waters trying to explain the choice. I have a theory of my own, based entirely in Teamsters self-interest.
Much of America's goods move by truck, if not from the factory all the way to the retailer, at least from a regional warehouse to the retailer. Those trucks are driven by teamsters many of whom belong to the union.
The Democrats want to basically shut down transportation based on internal combustion engines, and do everything with electricity. If they succeed, they'll do away with most trucks because electric power isn't practical for trucks, or many cars for that matter.
On the other hand rail transport powered by electricity is highly practical and much rail traffic is already powered by volts, not diesel. To get to a mostly electrified world most freight will need to move almost to the retailer's dock by rail, as it once did. Electric trucks will be an almost entirely local short-hall proposition.
When diesel trucks go away, so will many, perhaps most teamsters jobs. If any unions profit, they will be those representing railway workers, not the teamsters.
Who opposes a nearly truck-free future? Republicans. Perhaps the Teamsters need us more than we need them, if they have the sense to see the future implications of the two parties' present policies.
The private sector is ditching DEI, but government can’t let go
The article adds that universities are also dumping the DEI units. But government agencies haven't followed suit, and you might wonder why this is.
The answer is the market test. The private sector and to a lesser extent the universities are subject to market forces.
Commercial firms take their goods or services to the marketplace and offer them for sale or hire. Universities depend on students continuing to select their campus after choosing attendance over other pursuits or employment to which they may have access.
In each case the purse strings are held by the customer or student, who can choose another seller or opt to do without. DEI made firms' offerings less attractive and the dollars went elsewhere. The reaction isn't instantaneous but also doesn't take years. Plus university enrollments are down.
Government doesn't suffer the same market forces. Typically government is a monopoly provider, so the hapless taxpayer pays for the government 'service' whether or not they utilize it. You pay for the public schools with your taxes even if you choose to send your children to a private school or homeschool them.
If you really dislike what government offers you may vote for the other of our major parties, but the next election can be as long as 5+ years away in the case of senators. This lag tends to insulate them from market forces. And what do you do if neither party offers a program to your liking?
"Insulated" from market forces, government units can continue to pursue DEI policies which are racist, socialist, and anti-merit. To convince the US Army, for instance that DEI is counterproductive, they'll have to lose a war. Nations don't always survive losing wars.
In my personal experience, government units tend to hire people who are odd enough they don't have much chance in the private sector. Odd people support DEI as it makes them feel wanted, at long last.
Snide Aside: Do you remember the scene in Men in Black 2 set in the Truro post office? It's not as far fetched as you might hope.
The Union Pacific owns, maintains, and exhibits Big Boy, an example of the largest steam locomotive ever built. They house it in Cheyenne, WY, and send it out on good will tours which attract rail buffs like moths to a flame.
You may remember we traveled to see it in Nebraska and followed it to Cheyenne one year, when it had gone east and was headed home. This year it went to the west coast and once again we went to see it as it headed home across southern WY on its way to Cheyenne. The drive was 250 miles round trip on blue line highways and took most of a day.
We saw Big Boy streaming along the highway in a couple of places and then when it stopped for less than an hour in Kemmerer, WY. As always, that locomotive is a WOW.
To create these monsters (20 were built) the firm in upstate NY basically cobbled together two regular steam engines on one frame. It has two sets of drive wheels, two boilers, etc. We were told it normally operates with an engineer and fireman for each of the two power plants, meaning four guys in the oversized cab.
These giants were designed to pull long trains over the Rockies, which are both continental divide and backbone of North America. Kemmerer, for example, is at almost 7000 ft. elevation, that's 1.3 miles above sea level.
The big guys operated for 20 years, Big Boy's maker's plate give its inaugural year as 1941, so it worked until 1961, when it was replaced by the now-ubiquitous diesel-electric engines.
What impresses people today is that essentially no part of it is electronic, everything is hydraulic, mechanical, and analog. Engineers pull levers, turn knobs, and read gauges to keep it huffing and puffing. I suppose the lights in the cab are electric, as well as the headlight, and they probably have radio comms with the rest of the train crew, added later.
As I write this the other DrC hasn't yet posted her photos of the big guy in action and at rest. When she does, in the next day or so, they will be found here. Someone else's video here on YouTube.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned, and it is none too soon. The agency she directs protects current and former presidents and Vice Presidents plus mainstream candidates for these positions, and also takes the lead on fighting counterfeit US currency.
In allowing an assassination attempt directed at former President and current candidate Trump, her agency failed spectacularly. That anyone could get into a position to take a relatively short sniper shot at him means USSS did not do their job.
The only thing that saved Trump's life was a last second head turn to look at a chart being projected above and behind him. Relying on luck is not how to protect someone at risk. Cheatle had to go, and should have done so the very next day. The agency needs new management.
Better late than never.
If you want to think would-be assassin Thomas Crooks was a tool instead of merely a fool, go check out this story at The Gateway Pundit. They write:
Mobile ad data analysis reveals someone who regularly visited Crooks’ Pennsylvania home also visited a building in DC near an FBI office.
The Oversight Project identified nine devices linked to AD-IDs that were located at Crooks’ home and work within the last year.
Per the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project: “We found the assassin’s connections through our in-depth analysis of mobile ad data to track movements of Crooks and his associates”
I'm not enough of a tech nerd to know if what is reported means something, is some sort of weird coincidence or is a hoax.
To be honest, my own evaluation of Gateway Pundit stories is that their minimum standard of proof isn't as high as I'd like. That doesn't automatically mean something they report is wrong, merely that I will reserve judgment until it appears in places I trust more. Hat tip to Lucianne.com for the link.
Democrats whine and complain about Donald Trump's occasional overstatements and exaggerations. "He lies! He lies!" you can hear them cry.
For the last four years Democrats have lied to the nation about the physical and mental health of President Joe Biden. They swore he was fine, healthy, and on top of things while very clearly he was nothing of the sort. We saw the examples of his weakness and they claimed we were hallucinating, making things up.
The debate exposed their lies, the Potemkin false front fell flat and everyone saw their fabrication for what it was ... total bullish*t. The old guy was and is out of it. Now they've finally made dad give up the keys to the republic.
Which of these is the worse offense? Trump's exaggerations or their outright fabrication to mislead the American public? Their's is the worse offense, by a country mile, and Harris was a co-conspirator.
We live in a dangerous world, our president needs to be alert and in command. Democrats intentionally put us all at risk for their selfish reasons. If this con game isn't some kind of criminal offense, it should be.
I just took a quick scan down the topics and headlines on Lucianne.com and RealClearPolitics.com. The commentariat are all over the place, and most of their topics look like "lets throw this against the wall and see if it sticks."
The political pundit class, of which I include myself as a very minor member, base their weighty thoughts about what will occur on knowing a lot of political history and observing parallels in current politics to what did occur in the past.
We are now in the political version of terra incognita, we have no maps for this terrain. We are like an odds maker trying to predict the performance of a horse on its first race, with no track record.
Most assume Harris will be the new nominee, but there are Democrat heavy hitters including Barack Obama who have made it clear they prefer someone with more gravitas. Taking no chances Trump forces pivoted immediately to attacking Harris, all the while wondering if they're wasting money doing so if her party dumps her.
Hat tip to Jerry Lee Lewis for my title.
Proposed revisions to the Dictionary of Official Democratic Party Terminology.
Democracy = governmental units headed by member(s) in good standing of the Democratic Party.
Fascism = all other governmental units.
Argument in favor of this change: In English, definitions tend to evolve to keep pace with common usage.
Concerning the Biden decision to suspend his campaign for the Democrat nomination, conspiracy theories are already flying thick and fast. One of my favorites is that he didn't do it at all, but that it was done for him, in spite of his wishes. Ludicrous, of course, imagine him being unwilling to disavow something done without his approval.
I'm fully prepared to believe he was coerced into dropping out by Pelosi and Obama, among others. The donor cash dried up and the chorus of those telling him he was damaging the party to which he'd given his life got overwhelming.
Expect him to issue blanket pardons to all members of his family, likely including himself, after the election and before leaving office. I would, in his shoes, just for spite.
Yahoo Finance reprints a SmartAsset article entitled "The Surprisingly High Cost of Being a Middle-Class American." Hat tip to the other DrC for the link. Here is a key passage.
The Pew Research Center describes the middle class as an individual who generates between two-thirds and doubles the median U.S. household income, which was $65,000 in 2021, according to the most recent numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. Using those numbers, a middle-class income would be any household that makes approximately $43,350 to $130,000.
I'd add to that financial yardstick another measure. To a substantial degree being middle class in the U.S. means accepting a middle class set of values, attitudes, and behaviors. I haven't seen an up-to-date set of these listed, but at one time whether or not one swore and casually shared racist humor or stereotypes could distinguish lower from middle class membership.
I'll give you a humorous example from a long ago sociology class. I can still remember the prof smirking as he said it.
If two married couples go out for an evening and take one car, you can tell their social class by their seating pattern. If the men sit in front and the women in back they are lower class. If each couple sits together, one in front, the other in rear, they are middle class. If each man sits with other's wife they are upper class.
All of this a result of the middle class being historically the most moral and concerned with appearances of the three classes.
Hey, there, irony fans. President Joe Biden, a man notoriously fond of ice cream, suspended his campaign for the Democratic Party 2024 presidential nomination today.
Today is also National Ice Cream Day. What a lovely coincidence. It almost feels like a sick sort of karma, doesn't it?
Obama writes a generous and thankful letter to President Joe Biden praising his selfless decision to take himself out of the presidential nomination race, CBS News has the text of that letter.
What is fascinating is that the letter pointedly does not mention Vice President Kamala Harris. This fact is the letter's most notable quality. CBS observes:
Obama did not name or endorse Vice President Kamala Harris to be the nominee, even though Mr. Biden said she had his "full support and endorsement."
As a black former president, Obama is very nearly the only prominent Democrat who can diss Kamala Harris without being accused of racism. And he definitely has dissed her, by his omission. Obama writes:
We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead. But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges.
If you know any Democrats, give them your sympathy. Theirs is a party in disarray.
Rachel Maddow told an interviewer a month or so ago that, should Trump be elected, she feared being put in an internment camp. Given the current state of play she should be negotiating with her network to do her show from an overseas location for a few months.
You know she's done no such thing, don't you? Crying wolf again, or perhaps the right modifier is "without interruption."
A variety of political pundits and players (here, here) have made the argument that, if Joe Biden is not strong enough to be President for four more years, he isn't strong enough to be President from now until Jan. 20 of next year - 6 months. This is obvious nonsense, even if Kamala Harris now wishes it were true.
Had he continued to run for the nomination Biden would have spent the next 3+ months both running for office and serving as president. simultaneously. That is tough for anyone, and particularly tough for an octogenarian.
Do we have any sign that Joe Biden will do a worse job during his final 6 months than he did during the prior 6 months? Not really.
Without the added burden of travel and campaigning Joe should be able to finish out his elected term. In doing so he will fulfill a campaign promise of being a (one-term) "bridge" between the old Democratic Party and the younger generation of Democrats.
The argument for Biden resigning now is to shackle Harris with the unaccustomed presidential duties, making it harder for her to campaign. Advantage - Trump.
