Service

They're Just Dying To Ask You...

Who's asking? The city. You might wish they'd actually ask you if you really want those 12 foot wide interstate lanes in your front, or back yard. They don't care what you think about that. You might wonder if they want to know whether or not you want compensation for the loss of property value when they do this, against your will. Don't care about that either. 

So just what do they care about? What do they want to ask?

Yeppers. They want to know if you want anchovies on that pizza! Are we in eighth grade? Are they? Do they think it is a really good idea to treat us like we are? Who knows.

You would have thought with the Democrat's recent face-plant they'd have figured some things out. Yes, Yes, mayor and council races are officially non-partisan, but we all know what color flags they're waving, and they fit the description. One of the key reasons for their recent troubles has been their neglect of the electorate combined with a supercilious approach. They have for far too long listened to pollsters rather than constituents. They've been under the mind-control of wonks and outsiders. Otherwise we'd not have these interstate lanes in our neighborhoods and consequently no heated discussions about them. And we would not be "left behind" because we would be plotting our own path, going our own way. Not someone else's.

Maybe recalls are not practical. Maybe we will have to wait until Election Day. Either way, something must change, either people, or policies, or both.

A Christmas Miracle

Here's a thought exercise to ponder. What if Biden gets all his pardons done and dusted by Christmas Eve? Then he can resign on Christmas Day, thereby making Harris the first woman-of-color to be president of the United States and securing his place in the pantheon of identity politics. Then, Harris could grant Biden one of those pardons, the ones for all things you have done, might have done, and might yet do. Wouldn't that be a Christmas Miracle?

Flailed Authority

Stephen Sackur, host of the BBC's Hard Talk, recently interviewed Martin Baron, the (fairly) recently retired editor of the Washington Post. Just when we thought the chicken littles had been served up as chicken dinner with media pundits pivoting towards the durability of our constitution and away from chimerical existential threats, Baron parrots the pre-election punditry served up by jurassic "journalists." Between decrying all the bad things the prez-elect will do, he belabored the loss of "authority" by the dying media that was his livelihood. And how does he know what T2 will do? Because Trump said he would. Anyone who's been paying attention for the past ten years has heard many prevarications, seen enormous amounts of "fact checking," and been told time and again, by dinosaurs like Baron, that "he's a liar." But Baron, and only those like Baron, can tell his truths from his lies. There, according to Baron, lies journalistic "authority" as in authoritative, not authoritarian. Yet.

But dino-media have lost this authority with many in the public no longer seeing them as purveyors of fact and objectivity, of truth. Critics of last generation media see them as politicized propagandists, but since almost no one under the age of forty even consumes legacy "output" their ability to move the needle has gone the way of their authority. Their transition to biased influence and prevarication is being "fact checked" in the courts. George Snuffleupagus stepped in it when he declared, on air, that Trump had been found guilty of rape. Fact: he was found, in a civil suit, liable of sexual abuse. As a "journalist" Snuffleupagus should, and probably did, know better. ABC, knowing the only defense against libel is the truth, wisely dodged their day in court by agreeing to pay up $15M. Of course this further convinced the public of ABC's devotion to the left at any cost. No authority, just politics. 

Now, tee up the Des Moines Register. And their recently retired pollster. Seems the pollster, in the week before the election, concluded that Iowa flipped from Trump to Harris with Harris commanding a three point lead. The Register dutifully printed it, after all it was what they wanted to believe. The pollster was only off by about fifteen points. Now she and the Register are facing their own fact checking. In court. Accused of election interference. By the winner. They didn't lose their authority, they threw it away. Of course Baron sees this as an illegitimate attack on the Fourth Estate, wants to hide behind the First Amendment and claims the court case is an existential threat to American democracy.  Almost as if he is crying lawfare.

Sackur challenged Baron on key points, but more importantly suggested that maybe, just maybe, the media empire of the previous millennium has fallen. And it can't get up. The cause of death? Suicide. Like the dinosaurs of yore, they did not adapt to a changing environment, they pretended that their business model would endure. It didn't. So what did they do? They doubled down. When that didn't work, they decided to pick a team, a political team, one they thought would align with them, support them, giving up a broad fan base for a smaller group of fervent followers. It isn't clear it ever did work, but it certainly has failed. Perhaps having a media star, like Snuffleupagus, lie about someone he has consistently called a liar, just doesn't play well in Peoria. The Fourth Estate had become accustomed to thinking of themselves as king makers, but they have not been very good at it. Had they been, we would be seeing the close out of Hillary's second term and not T2. The media not only gave up on facts and objectivity, they replaced introspection with arrogance. After all, they are the only ones claiming media authority is even a thing. They had no clue their transparent partisanship would backfire. Maybe telling voters that their candidate is in the lead isn't the best way to get out the vote, at least not for their candidate. 

They knew what they were doing, or wanted to do, they just didn't know how to do it.

Drug Money

Drug dealers have a special way with sales: the first one's free. Free samples are used in other fields, but it is particularly effective with an addictive product. Apparently this tactic is being used at city hall (and you thought it was just prostitution), on city hall. And the drug? Money. And the cost of the drug? More money.

Sounds like a recursive call to the stupid(){...} function. Because it is.

This manifests itself in do-what-we-say grants that gets whatever-they-say started but is insufficient to cover the real and often recurring costs. But the power of addiction is strong and it seems as if everyone at city hall has that monkey on their back. That's how we came to forsake our morals, cast aside integrity and embrace our current spend-then-tax addiction. 

Makes you wonder if we can pack them all up and send them to rehab.

Transform

Please. Please just do it.

The election is over and the democrats lost. In Georgia they got their hats handed to them. So please, just give it up. It didn't work, and frankly you didn't even try. But you just cannot let it go. 

And what is "it?" Well that would "trans girls competing in AFAB sports." The republicans, who rule the gold dome, intend to pass a law keeping AFAB sports free from any Y chromosomes. Democrats, who should be munching on popcorn while watching the show just cannot transform themselves into listeners. Nope, they gotta yack it up. 

We've got an AJC-curated letter lamenting this effort as well as the AJC's public school promoter-in-chief chiming in, in the midst of a diatribe about funding. Both see this effort as a waste of valuable legislative time that could be better spent on, well, damn near anything. Joining the chorus is the reliably leftist seat on the Georgia Gang who pontificated on the very small percentage population known as trans and the vanishingly small number of those that are interested in sports. It was unclear whether this argument was, or was not, in support of the legislation. The fall back position from "doesn't affect many people" was "waste of time-better things to do" as if this is a talking point running through the left. The left have also embraced the "this hasn't happened so we don't need a law" as if democrats have never supported or passed preemptive legislation. It also ignores the fact that it has happened, in Georgia, at the college level.

This issue did not work for them in the recent elections. Apparently the trans turnout did not carry the day. Maybe democrats should embrace their own logic. The trans issues affect very, very few, while infuriating many, many more. Maybe they should be listening to a broader, more mainstream constituency. If they still have one.

Permission To Speak Freely...

...or perhaps accurately. Or, maybe not so much.

Seems the Dunwoody PD filed their usual false police report when making a prostitution bust in which they refused to properly identify the location substituting the city hall address as the scene of the crime. Now there might be some pimping and whoring going on there but there is no way there would ever be an arrest.

The Blue Bag Rag reported the location as Le Meridien hotel in their "Police Blotter" section. How do they know when the city consistently lies? Well, there was a separate arrest report that revealed the location of the sting. Apparently they put two and two together. 

Wouldn't it be nice if the city just quit lying?

What A Pair

Watching Me Watching You

Promises, Promises

The Whitehouse has recently confirmed that Joe Biden, our current president, will in fact pardon his own son of whatever crimes the poor boy has committed, admitted or been convicted of. As Gomer Pyle would say: Surprise, Surprise! Now that the election is over we are back to politics as usual, using power and privilege for personal benefit. But was Gomer right, or was that sarcasm? Let's go with the latter, after all this is the same man who went to the rail for crackers and wine, and then went out advocating for what that very church sees as a critical moral issue. One his Pope says he falls on the wrong side of. Or, keeping it secular, he also swore to uphold the constitution and then took actions he confessed he knew were unconstitutional. Wrong. Knew it. Did it anyway. Why? Because he's a politician of the worst sort. Party above morals. Party above country. 

Don't think for a minute that politicians of this ilk have been rounded up and locked in the internment camp we call Washington, D.C. We have them right here.

The folks that marketed, supported, and campaigned for passing the city referendum were, and are, politicians. And they lied. They lied when they instituted a millage rate cap saying it would not increase without passing a referendum. And they knew it. The Home Rule Act was adopted in 1965 and they knew this could be used to make significant changes to the city charter without voter approval. The cities' industry lobbying group, the Georgia Municipal Association, contends this act makes the prior "political commitment" as easily erased as the memory of a politician making such a commitment. It seems the bureaucrats at city hall are working diligently to erase any restrictions on their spend-then-tax approach to empire building. Mayor and council seem largely supportive, and why not? They are politicians.