Pro-Filibuster Snark

Count on Ramirez to draw a trenchant cartoon, of a car with two accelerators and no brake. This toon courtesy of Politico. 

Decoding Liberalspeak

Power Line's Steven Hayward mixes snark with truth and posts a year-end clarification of "what certain terms mean for liberals:"

• Populism: When the wrong person or cause wins a free election. (Think Brexit and Trump.)
• Racism: Any opposition to the agenda of the left.
• Democracy: Any institutional design or voting system that enables the left to get what it wants.

I find these clarifications help when forced, against my will, to listen to Biden, Schumer, Pelosi, Warren, AOC, or Sanders. Not even Democrats will listen to Harris.

Goodbye to 2021

Today we say farewell to the year 2021. On balance it hasn’t been a winner. This hasn’t been a stroll in the sunlit uplands, enjoying a light breeze and gorgeous vistas. It has been more like plodding through a dreary landscape you’d just like to get beyond.

I wish I could see nicer times ahead, but honestly I don’t. The midterm election happens in 2022 and both major parties will claim a victory by the other will be disastrous. Oddly, viewed from the perspective of where each party would like the US to be, a victory by the other is disastrous-ish. 

In other words, brace yourselves for an even more polarized polity. Regardless of who wins, many will be bitterly unhappy with the outcome. And there is no end yet in sight for Covid. With a bit of luck, you may be able to exercise something not unlike the Benedict option and shield yourself and those you care about from the worst of it.

Postscript: Surviving 2021 is not bad, some 800,000 of our peers didn't, with Covid as the (at least "contributing") cause.

Avoid Cruises?

You may have read a report, like this from CBS News, that the Center for Disease Control warns people to avoid taking cruises in the current Covid environment, regardless of one's vaccination status. Perhaps you thought they were being alarmist?

Sorry, they’re not exaggerating. Cruise ships are great places to catch communicable diseases; take it from someone who has almost certainly cruised more than you have. More often than I like, I caught something and spent half the cruise hacking and miserable. And this was before Covid-19.

The other DrC and I lectured on cruise ships for several years, and we’ve since done many cruises as passengers. Our long cruises have included Singapore to Rome, San Diego to, and around, Australia, Tahiti to Ft. Lauderdale, and multiple Pacific crossings. Pre-Covid I’d estimate my chances of getting a shipboard cold or bronchitis being about one cruise in three. At home I rarely get sick. 

This time the CDC is correct. During a plague year, do yourself a favor and don’t cruise. Probably the safest vacation travel you can do, from a disease perspective, is in an RV, eating meals you prepared, and avoiding motels and restaurants. We rarely get ill while RVing; not never but truly rarely.

Not Liking the Answers

The Guardian, a leftwing British paper, asked its readers the following question about Time's Person of the Year. Power Line has the story.

Time Magazine chose billionaire Tesla boss Elon Musk – but who would be your choice?

After the question ran for a short time, the paper closed the inquiry down with this opaque comment.

This form has been deactivated and is closed to any further submissions.

No one from the paper has gone on record but the presumption is that most of their respondents were voting for Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling. She is currently on the left's sh** list for unapologetically writing biological sex is a real thing. The left views this as being transphobic. 

The Guardian appears to have violated the old prosecutor's rule, never ask a question when you don't know in advance the answer you will get.  I guess they could have tossed the data and reported as winning somebody they actually liked. The fact they didn't suggests they believe their employees would have ratted out that subterfuge.

In Britain, people buy or subscribe to papers the way US cable TV viewers watch cable news, they buy a paper whose politics they like. Why The Guardian's progressive readers would pick Rowling is a mystery to me and probably to the paper's editors. 

The Guardian discovered what Rasmussen Reports learned when they polled about how many genders people believe exist. Three quarters of their US respondents, agreeing with Rowling, said just two.

Maxwell Guilty

The New York Post reports Ghislaine Maxwell has been convicted of sex trafficking underage victims for Jeffrey Epstein. Now things get really interesting, in the period between conviction and sentencing. 

Assuming the prosecutor is aggressive, this is the time to get Maxwell to turn state's evidence against various prominent co-abusers in return for a reduced sentence. That's assuming the 60 year old Maxwell hopes to get out of prison before dying of old age. 

It is also the time to guard against Maxwell being the recipient of the same 'tender mercy' which Epstein experienced when nobody was looking. Some people, making reference to the Clintons, call it "Arkancide."

Our 2021

At this time of year it is typical for the pundit class, of which I am a very insignificant member, to summarize the year as it ends. I will do a modified, personalized version of this here.

My 2021 began with the CA home we built in 1987 recently sold and in escrow. We had moved into our RV a couple of weeks earlier and continued to occupy it until May. Escrow closed in early February and by early March we were parked in our new winter town in Nevada, hoping to watch our new winter home be built.

Because of material shortages, there wasn't much construction progress to watch, worse luck. By early May the weather in Wyoming had warmed sufficiently for us to head north. Having spent 5+ months in the RV, moving back to an actual house was a nice change.

Summer in WY was both pleasant and productive, although the other DrC dealt with several unpleasant but not serious health challenges. We added forced air HVAC to our WY place, and experienced it as a real upgrade. And friends we'd made in NV sent photos of the progress finally happening on our new house there. 

Gradually the estimated completion date slipped in stages from mid-July to the actual date in early November. We closed on our new place 12 months after we first put down earnest money on it. Thirty-six hours later the other DrC was admitted to the local hospital with a bleeding ulcer, which is serious.

She's better now, but the recuperation will take several months. We had to scrap plans to see family in CA at Christmas, which hindsight shows to be an otherwise sensible move because of Covid. 

From our conservative perspective, the political outlook was improving as 2021 ended. It is possible we will get favorable results in the 2022 midterms.

The new winter home is very nice, we're planning to get some added cabinetry built and backyard landscaping installed. We are gradually getting stuff unpacked and put away. 

As is typical, we brought too much from CA, in spite of getting rid of literally truckloads of stuff before leaving. It is amazing what you accumulate when you own a place for 33 years.

In 2022 we anticipate (hope for?) things to be less chaotic and more comfortable. We might even take a cruise in the fall, if things settle down.

Did You Know?

In an Amac article describing how minority voters, especially minority men, are beginning to vote Republican in substantial numbers, the following quote showed up. I hadn’t seen this particular claim before.

The last Democrat to win the white vote nationally was Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, when he won 62% of white votes overall.

It has been a “thing” for half a century that people of color vote Democrat. Somehow, nobody says the obverse, that whites vote Republican. 

Many Hispanics do not feel aggrieved and are beginning to vote for the GOP which believes the US is a good place, a good country, not broken. Hat tip to Stephen Green, posting at Instapundit, for the link.

A Bye-Ku for Harry Reid

Former Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has died at age 82, after a battle with pancreatic cancer. To his memory, we offer a bye-ku, a haiku of farewell.

Harry Reid is gone.

His legacy is unclear.

He was no charmer.

No Sale

The Rasmussen Reports polling organization has determined that most Americans do not accept the often-stated view there are more than two genders. 

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 75% of American Adults agree that there are only two genders, male and female. That total includes 63% who Strongly Agree. Eighteen percent (18%) disagree.

It would appear that Democrats are seriously out of step with the electorate on this issue.  

Population Shifts, Charted

Yesterday I wrote about Plague Year Numbers, today Steven Hayward of Power Line has charts which look at demographic changes - plus and minus - for the 50 states plus DC. The charts cover what took place during the 12 months from July 1, 2020, to July 1, 2021.

As you would expect, Steve's charts very much support the generalizations drawn by Michael Barone, which were the basis of yesterday's discussion. In the past year, only 2 of the 9 states which levy no personal income taxes also lost population - AK and WA. The net population gain for the 9 state group was just under half a million people, almost entirely at the expense of the other states which do tax income.

Defeats in the Culture War

Eleanor Bartow writes for The Federalist on the topic captured by her title, "13 Happenings in 2021 That I Never Would Have Believed 5 Years Ago." Essentially she bemoans the culture war we are losing. Here are her 13 titles, most self-explanatory.

 1. Men As Women
 2. Blocking Puberty
 3. Drafting Women
 4. Not Prosecuting Crime
 5. Massive Illegal Immigration
 6. Widespread Censorship
 7. Parents Labeled Terrorists
 8. President's Mental Ability Challenged
 9. Asking Athletes for Advice
10. Record Debt and Inflation
11. Covid Restrictions Continue and Some Increase
12. Major Scientific Advances Not Celebrated
13. Losing Our Lead (in space and weaponry)

I honestly disagree with #9, thinking athletes and entertainers have special insights into problems outside their field of specialization is stupid to be sure, but sadly nothing new. Since Covid didn't exist 5 years ago of course you wouldn't have believed anything about it. And since we reward politicians for government spending and punish them for raising taxes, #10 is inevitable, and also not new.

The rest? I agree. 

Dear Newcomer

Musing about the previous post-with-photo, I am reminded of a snarky sign that hung in our WY county services office in a neighboring town. It advised all who entered of the following:

We don’t care how they did it

where you used to live.

A pointed reminder that you came here because you liked here better, so don’t ask us to be like the place you left behind.

Weaponized Nostalgia

A favorite motto from our Wyoming, my apologies for the gloomy day the photo was taken.

Miserable Liberals, Happy Conservatives

Power Line's Steven Hayward, in addition to aggregating humorous content for The Week in Pictures, has a serious side on display in a column with this provocative title, "Liberals Are Miserable People." Hayward cites a Journal of Research in Personality study which finds:

Conservatives score higher than liberals on personality and attitude measures that are traditionally associated with positive adjustment and mental health, including personal agency, positive outlook, transcendent moral beliefs, and generalized belief in fairness. These constructs, in turn, can account for why conservatives are happier than liberals and have declined less in happiness in recent decades.

Conservatives are more satisfied with their lives, in general and in specific domains (e.g., marriage, job, residence), report better mental health and fewer mental and emotional problems, and view social justice in ways that are consistent with binding moral foundations, such as by emphasizing personal agency and equity.

What isn't clear is the direction of causation. Does conservatism cause happiness, or are happy people simply conservative because they have few complaints about the status quo? Long time readers of COTTonLINE know I have argued conservatives are those who have figured out how to make the preexisting conditions "work" and are more or less comfortable.

Plague Year Numbers

Michael Barone has been a student of American electoral politics for most of my adult life and, I expect, for most of his as well. Writing for the Washington Examiner, he shares some interesting statistics, links in the original.

The census estimates confirm reports of people fleeing crowded central cities starting at just about the time of the April 1 census. That’s apparent in the states with the nation’s four largest metropolitan areas: New York’s population declined 365,000 (-1.8%), California’s was down 300,000 (-0.8%) and Illinois’s down 141,000 (-1.1%).

Altogether, 20 states lost population, from high-education Massachusetts (-0.6%) to climate-ideal Hawaii (-0.9%). Both were high-lockdown locales. 

At the other end of that spectrum, percentage growth was highest in the Rocky Mountain West: Idaho (+3.4%), Utah (+2.2%), Montana (+1.8%), and Arizona (+1.7%). And in Texas (+1.3%). That’s a big deal, because it’s the second-largest state, with a population over 29 million. Its 2020-21 population increase was 382,000, accounting for 86% of the national increase.

The 25 states that voted for former President Donald Trump increased their populations by 1,049,000, while the 25 states plus D.C. that voted for President Joe Biden saw their populations fall by 607,000. If you set aside the eight marginal states, which no candidate carried by 5% or more, you find the solid Trump states gaining 694,000 people, the marginal states gaining 544,000, and the solid Biden states losing 796,000.

The nine states with no state income tax ... gained 782,000 people, while the other 41 states plus D.C. lost 340,000.

Barone paints an interesting picture, one we must for now consider a rough draft of what our future will resemble. He extracts the above data from Census Bureau estimates. 

White Christmas, Seen from Afar

Up home Wyoming is having a white Christmas, today's high will not go above freezing. In Nevada we are having dry weather in the mid-50s, you'd want a light jacket.

Gentle Christmas Humor

Ed Driscoll posted this at Instapundit, and it reminded me of several other such occurrences.

Other favorites of mine include some which were written by a preacher's kid, many years ago. He (or she?) heard dad preaching every Sunday and misunderstood those sonorous tones. Dad spoke of "the King Eternal" and the kid heard "the kinky turtle." Dad also read the hymn title, "Gladly, the cross I'd bear" and the kid heard "Gladly, the cross-eyed bear." During burials the dad spoke the phrase "and the Holy Ghost" which the kid heard as "in the hole he goes."

I have my own examples as well, my mother-in-law misheard her mother describe a roller coaster as a "cynic grayway." Her mom probably said "scenic railway," an old-fashioned name for coasters. 

My own parents pronounced the words "pin" and "pen" identically, like "two" and "too." It wasn't until I married a phonics teacher that I came to understand they are correctly pronounced differently, and actually learned to do so when I (rarely) make the effort. It still seems stilted to me.

A Hack, Shared

I have a Christmas ‘present’ for you, in the form of a hack which costs you nothing and is worth much. I learned it quite by accident, as I will explain.

Most spam calls these days utilize a mechanism which makes them appear to come from the area code where your phone number suggests you live. And of course they don’t tell you the identity of the caller.

Our cell phones have a northern CA area code, where we no longer have a winter home. Our phone directories contain the numbers of everyone in that area we would want to receive calls from. So when we get a call from the old area code with no name shown, we simply don’t answer the call. 

Translation: we get call screening for free, because our phones reflect an area code where we do not live. My understanding is that your cell provider will give you any area code of your choice. Choose one where you do not live or have friends and any calls from that area will be spam and can be ignored.

Merry Christmas, One and All

COTTonLINE wishes our readers a very Merry Christmas. Be of good cheer and stay healthy as this plague year ends. Be safe on the highways and byways and, if you are flying, any landing from which you can walk away is a good one.

We ordered our Christmas cards in November, they were shipped to our town in early December, and for entirely incomprehensible reasons were sent back to the East Coast vendor with the notice that our post office had never heard of us. The vendor notified us of the cards return this morning. 

This mixup occurred in spite of the fact that the Post Office was putting mail (and occasional packages) with the same address in our P.O. Box nearly every day. 

If you anticipated a Christmas card from the DrsC, it will be along a few days after Christmas. I expect that is when the last minute replacements I bought this afternoon will finally be delivered.