Parking Issues Resolved

Remember RTO? The Chicken Littles were clucking about too few parking spaces at the CDC and an intolerable increase in traffic in the area. Well, that's been fixed. Seems that quite a few of the road warriors will NOT be returning to the office. Not now. Not ever. They may be out on the streets, but not in their cars. You have to wonder if sitting in traffic on the way to work was really all that bad.

Merry Go Round

DeJoy is gone, so what's the problem now? Well, it could be the mail delivery merry go round.

What? Where? When?

What"s going on here? Why does mail swirl around, maybe down the drain? Are the loops getting faster and tighter, or are they spinning out of control? Every day is a new surprise.

Political Pontificates

A trifecta of DeKalb's political pontificates held a town hall to diss and discuss shenanigans under the gold dome. Not to worry, these were Democrats one and all so the party wasn't crashed by professional rabble rousers. Unhindered, they got to lay out Their Truths. One priceless nugget regarded bills to restrict or ban machine issued traffic tickets, all managed by a for-profit private corporation. Here's the kicker: they actually support the privatization of government responsibility. That's right, and they're Democrats, who've obviously never heard of a writ of mandamus. But we get this nugget:

“Here we are pontificating about protecting our children, then we turn around and ban local communities from protecting their children by not being able to give tickets to people who speed in school communities,” Draper said. [emphasis added]

Here's the deal, outside of political echo chambers it makes no sense for private citizens, and private companies, to be issuing fines for violating laws because that is the job of our government, a government ideally beholding to our elected officials. Like them. What they ignore, perhaps willingly, is that if these local communities want to protect children, they are free, almost required, to do so, after all that IS what the police force is for. In fact these new little cities that sprang up had to provide a minimum number of services, and most chose to put police at the top of the list. And yet...here we are, Democrats wanting to privatize government.

We don't need a corporate police force when we're paying for a real one. We may need a writ of mandamus. And a recall vote.

Data Poisoning

Data poisoning started life as a Bad Thing but has been re-purposed for something that is arguably good: intellectual property protection. Zhao's work was originally applied to graphics, visual content but the technique can be used to protect written works, it just isn't clear exactly how that is done. Major news organizations are pushing cases through the court systems claiming copyright violation in data sets used to train large language models. Perhaps one approach is to use homophones, and it appears this is what the AJC has recently adopted. Think "effect" vs "affect" or perhaps even further afield. Meaning be damned. 

Isn't that "side"?

Maybe they really meant "sight" but that doesn't make much sense, which is kinda the point if you're trying to trick an LLM.

Ions? Really?

Yes, "ion" is a word, just not the right word in this instance. But again, maybe the objective is to confuse a machine rather than communicate clearly with a human. 

There are alternative explanations. Maybe the goal is to aid in detecting plagiarism, like a watermark that shines through the LLM training. Perhaps these texts were generated by an already poorly trained LLM. Or, and this is very possible, journalists may have deteriorated badly.

Hasty Retreat

Why is it that city bigwigs must run off somewhere (other than here) to talk the big talk and plan the big plans? Is that because there'll not be very many citizens OF Dunwoody there? Of course the big, if not the biggest topic was how they take more of your money. Does greed know any limits?

Apparently not.

Their biggest debate wasn't whether to pilfer your purse or not, but rather how to do it. One proposal was to simply raise the millage rate by removing the current limit by ordinance, IE: without your vote. The other was to create "special" tax district, in an effort to disguise a tax as something else. One is what we're accustomed to, politicians raising taxes, and the other a bit more clever, raising taxes by adding a new mechanism, and allowing the political prevarication of staying under the millage limit. Wait until they disclose this is not either-or and they do both. 

Unlike Atlanta where Dickens has asked for departments to report on the impact of 5%, 7.5% and 10% budget cuts, Dunwoody fixates on higher taxes. Clearly, city staffing, operational costs and mission has expanded without much in the way of  restraint. And why should there be any restrain? Spending OPM is fun, and gives staffers increasingly valuable connections. And we, as voters, have been asleep at the wheel, electing promise-breakers who are addicted to spend-then-tax. Shame on them, but not without shame on us. 

But there are other options, ones this city would consider their kryptonite, but should be up for discussion nonetheless. How about we stop giving enormous tax breaks to developers? After all we're sitting on some of the hottest property in the southeast, and they should be competing for the chance to build here. In fact, they should be paying. It's called "impact fees," and developers should be paying for the costs their, highly profitable, development imposes on existing taxpayers. Have you heard mayor or council suggest anything faintly resembling this? Didn't think so. 

Make Them Pay Their Fair Share

The drumbeat of the left. Make billionaires pay "their fair share." But...they have an exception, and that would be the equally leftist private universities. Harvard is sitting on a $53bn endowment. Yale, $42bn. Stanford and Princeton, let's call it $37bn. Now at a mere 4% yield on their endowment, Harvard is pulling in over $2.1bn per year. Rest assured, their investments return more than 4%.

Republicans want these billionaires to pay their fair share. They generously allot $200,000 in assets per student tax free (down from $500,000) and want to garner a 21% tax rate, up from 1.5%. Seems more than fair. Others want to see the rate at 35%, more in line with what the left wants other billionaires to pay. The left conveniently ignores the fact that many of these universities siphon over 50% of NIH grant funds, dumping the money in the general fund, allowing them to divert other monies into growing their endowment.

But the left remains steadfastly against these billionaires paying their fair share, suggesting the tax collected, likely only a few hundred million dollars, is "laughable." You gotta wonder how many working class stiffs paying out a few tens of thousands think their taxes are hilarious.

Frogs And Oceans

Incrementalism is an effective tool when the goal is to impose something on "the people" that the people don't really want. It looks a lot like intentionally pushing folks down the proverbial slippery slope, but more subtle. The undesirable changes need to be added much more slowly so as to be as imperceptible as possible, so that in the end no one can figure out how we came to a terrible end. What started out as a warming bath became boiling a frog, a frog that never new it was what's for dinner. 

It turns out you cannot un-boil a frog. Just cannot be done. The only option is to boil the ocean, radical, dramatic change, done with urgency and purpose, the purpose of throwing out that pot of water and the frog it cooked. Now a lot of folks will say "you can't boil the ocean" and these folks would be incrementalists, who'd much rather boil a frog and further insist that no one else should be allowed to do anything else. Then along comes someone who can, and will boil the ocean. 

That's where we are.

While we can only watch what is happening at the national level, at the local level we may, only may, have time. Maybe not, but we have a little time to find out.

There are voices on social media touting expansion of our local administrative state, advocating mission creep, costs and financial consequences be damned. Well, to be clear, there is one outspoken voice harping on "investing in ourselves" without offering any credible notion of ROI. That voice is shrill, delving into insults and ageism, often targeting the very voters who voted FOR the city referendum, without which this voice would be mute. Or at least totally irrelevant.

What's missing is a bit of history, and a decent respect for it. Before there was a City of Dunwoody, there was a marketing effort, a damn good one, to get voters to support the referendum creating the city. The Big Tent of this effort, under which all other issues were discussed was Local Control. The three rings in this big top were: zoning; police; and paving. Notice anything missing? Like parks, and interstate lanes paved in other peoples' front yards paid for with other peoples' money? What the electorate was sold was zoning to slow apartment development, police that wouldn't start every shift driving down to Buford Highway, and fixing our pothole riddled streets, backed up by the CVI study saying this could be done on $18M ($27M in 2025 dollars). That's what 81% of the voters thought they were getting, and that's what they still want. 

Now that is not what they got and what they actually approved was a mini-me of a the federal administrative state which has followed the lead in mission creep and bureaucratic expansion. And the water will slowly, inexorably heat, until we must confront the necessity of boiling our own little ocean of rancid frog stew. 

Unless we do something now.

Revenge Of The Nerds

Seems like only yesterday everyone was rightly complaining that all we had on offer to lead the free world were two white male octogenarians. Fast forward and many are now complaining about a bunch of twenty-somethings taking over the federal government and taking it down. And this truly is the revenge of the nerds, as the gray lady has outed these children, complete with pictures where available. This borders on doxxing, which has come full circle from a lib attack tool, to a neocon tool, back to the libs again. Things really are moving quickly. How long will it take for the libs to stop defending the status quo and get back to "progressivism?"

Show Some Compassion

You may be one of those cheering on the reduction in the size, employee-wise, of the federal government, but can't you show a little compassion? Have you not seen the dismissal notices? Do you not think these are harsh? A little empathy might be in order, after all, have you never received a notice from the IRS?

Urban

Initially it seemed ludicrous when Dunwoody set up a team focused on "urban renewal" both because it relabeled a suburban bettendorf and because we surely had not been urban long enough to "renew" anything. Clearly it was a money-grab going after federal funding.

That said, perhaps that IS the definition of urban: how addicted to federal dollars is the local government?

Andre Dickens, mayor of Atlanta, urban by any definition, fears the federal funding D-T's. He's worried about water infrastructure, saying "because the size of the problem is in the billions, and we can't expect local governments to repair billion-dollar infrastructure on our own financially." He should be worried as this comes across as entitlement. Here in Dunwoody, the city made a commitment to install turf on a school's field, and now is claiming unexpected poverty. The mayor quoted in the blue bag rag says, "The fact that the bond failed, we’re now in a really big period of uncertainty because we don’t have any idea if there will be federal funding for infrastructure." Wow. Grass is infrastructure. Perhaps that is what you have to call it to get your hands on OPM. 

So here's a thought exercise: what would happen if a particular local government, say Dunwoody, were instantly weened from the federal money teat? What "right-sizing" would occur? How? Would entire activities be shuttered? Everyone takes a haircut? The more dramatic the change, the more urban the government. On the upside, perhaps it would remove the outside influence of "free" money, putting an end to the political prostitution we suffer today.

Shame Shame Shame!

Been There For Days

Trojan Horse

Last year voters, the wee people, approved the referendum on HB 581 establishing a floating homestead tax exemption. In DeKalb it was a bit of a landslide garnering 52% approval. None of these voters are elected DeKalb officials or hired bureaucrats. So these folks, elected and hired, would really, really like to opt out. Which is allowed. 

But...

Opting out kicks in some procedure changes around sales taxes, of which we have a few here in DeKalb. It is really painful as the EHOST is conjoined with a SPLOST and when combined with other local sales taxes, exceeds the 2% limit that opting out would incur.

Oh, the humanity!

The county's lobbyist, yes, they have a lobbyist, is down at the gold dome trying to get a legislative loophole put in place. Nothing will deter them from getting their hands on more of your money.

Politicized

This seems to be the word of the week, at least for legacy news. They see, and say, T2 is politicizing the government, like that is a bad thing, because it checks the unchecked administrative state.

Wow.

The defense of this opaque and confusing administrative state borders on hysteria. Even members of congress aren't sure which programs in our schools are DoE or HHS, suggesting there is no meaningful oversight by the creators this alphabet soup of a government. So let's not kid ourselves, the administrative state is not a government of, by or for the American people. 

That is because it is distanced and protected from our democratically elected officeholders. Over the past 100 years, congress has created and nurtured this administrative state transferring the power and authority of the democratic republic to their creation. In so doing they have ensured that our vote doesn't matter, because in their mind, elected officials no longer matter. At least one seems to disagree, claiming that the electorate's will has authority over the administrative state.

Is this politicized, or is this democratized? Maybe this is something we should try in Dunwoody, especially if the city charter is as malleable as our little administrative state thinks it is.

The List

Now more than ever it seems folks in this country are talking past one another. This may be due to some recent events and two very different perspectives held by folks in the U.S. The dividing line seems obvious.

In the U.S. 22-23 million people are government employees, not including military personnel (soldiers), of which estimates indicate around 3 million employed directly by the federal government. The rest are state and local. This also does not include direct contractors, and certainly not grant addicted organizations funneling dollars into their payroll as this is impossible to measure. For reference there are approximately 164 million workers in the U.S., so about 13.5% of the workforce is directly employed by some government. The median pay for a government employee is $111K/yr compared to an ordinary man at $63K/yr and an ordinary woman at $53K/yr. The male/female pay disparity is not relevant to THIS diatribe, the gov/citizen IS, as the gov gets 76% more than the others. This pay disparity is one part of the great divide.

To say that these folks "work for the government" is somewhat deceptive, as we hold to the notion that we live in a democratic republic, where perhaps these employees are somehow, though somewhat indirectly, beholding to the electorate. Nothing could be further from the truth. These are employees of the administrative state, and while established by congress (by referendum for the City of Dunwoody), they operate without meaningful oversight or review. Inspectors General are not and have never been the answer, look no further than Atlanta to see what happens when one tries to do the job. The fact is, the creators of the administrative state are its fiercest defenders, having established rules making it virtually impossible to fire any government employee, under any practical circumstance, except during probation. The Musk-ovites are using this blunt tool because it is the only one the administrative statists have allowed. These job guarantees not only undermine any systemic improvements in efficacy, they ensure expansion of the state. If someone is overwhelmed by the job, the state cannot "upgrade the position" with someone more capable, they have to add personnel and associated costs. This is how Dunwoody got an Assistant City Manager. 

This brings us to The List, which in full is The Layoff List. If you work in the real world, where companies and their employees contribute to the GDP, then your name is probably somewhere on The List. Companies use this list to remove poor performers, replacing them with better hires. Jack Welch devised a scheme of stack-ranking employees, clipping off the bottom 5-10% and replacing them to improve the team. Annually. Unlike the administrative state, private employers, and their employees, must compete, the former against other businesses, and the latter against current, and future, colleagues. This competition can be a harsh mistress, with some companies shutting down entire business units, not because they aren't profitable, but because they have inadequate margins. Can you even imagine the administrative state closing a government agency because they're not getting the job done? Neither can employees of the administrative state. 

This is why ordinary, free-enterprise workers have little to no sympathy for administrative state employees, who they see as overpaid, under-productive and ineffective.They see themselves paying taxes to support government employees, and while government employees do pay taxes, everyone knows where they actually get the money to do so. What the Musk-ovites are doing might appear to the administrative state to be indiscriminate slash and burn, but to folks on The List it is standard operating procedure. Those on The List see defenders of the administrative state who advocate a "surgical approach" as employing a Deny, Defend, Depose strategy to preserve the status quo. The Musk-ovites are also foreshadowing what will come, sooner or later, to state and local levels of the administrative state. Perhaps a reduction in federal largess will precipitate some changes at that brown-beige building on Ashford Dunwoody. Don't hold your breath.

Conservative, Liberally So

The left have left the building. Intellectually at least. The Grey Lady, a reliable leftist mouthpiece, went full lunacy attempting to disparage Fork In The Road, at one point saying it was a flop because only 3% took the fork whilst the average attrition rate is 5%. Sounds like a flop doesn't it? Sentences later she weepingly declares this Fork will cause untold hardship all across America as Federal services collapse. 

Can anyone outside of the echo chamber swallow this drivel?

Then there are the boo-birds swarming around Musk and DOGE. Their criticism is priceless: "he's an unelected government employee," unaware that his mission is to eliminate all those unelected  federal employees who serve their bureaucracies but not the electorate.They work for the federal government, not for America.

On top of all this, the left, who we all know are the best educated amongst us (because they told us so), cannot seem to put together a coherent thought, let alone a logical argument. They find themselves in quite a conundrum, blindly defending the status quo of opaque bureaucracies teeming with apparatchiks. Isn't that the definition of "conservative?"

And exactly what is it they want to defend, to preserve?

A very good example is the OPM-Office of Personnel Management. Administration employees went to OPM with what one might think is a question OPM could easily answer: how many federal employees are in probationary status and where do they work? The answer? "We don't know, we'll ask around and get back to you." THAT is a prime example of the efficacy of a federal bureaucracy. The administration found the answer, and some probationers actually work at OPM, or at least did until very recently. Apparently they weren't savvy enough to join the 3%.

Water? Really?

Our new CEO is on a talking tour touting the need for water rate increases. The presentation starts out with the gloomy description of an ancient water system, recent water main breaks, and boil water advisories. Think Chamblee-Dunwoody at the Knoll. 

OK.

What's that got to do with anything, or more to the point, with that one particular something? You know, the consent decree that DeKalb will NOT meet and that will likely cost $100M in fines? Is a federal judge going to look favorably on a Water Crisis Tour when the decree covers SEWAGE? Ya think? And the CEO isn't alone calling for a water rate increase as she is being joined with local current and former politicians. 

There's a lot wrong with this.

There is the aforementioned diversion, obfuscation of the real issue: sewage. Have these politicians learned nothing from their recent spanking? We want straight talk and transparency. This leads directly to the most important issue: we need a sewage rate increase far, far more than a water increase, if we need an increase at all. Even if this is the case, this is a service, and it seems reasonable that those not using the service should not bear the burden of repairing the broken system. As it so happens, there are folks in DeKalb, even here in Dunwoody, that are not on the DeKalb sewer system. And let us not forget DeKalb's horrific history with managing these services (water and sewer) and the incredible incompetence of their billing. 

Is a rate increase the best way to handle this?

This requires asking some questions, yet to be asked, including, what would it cost to operate our water and sewer systems if they were [magically] brought up where they need to be? Is the current revenue, at the current rates, sufficient to operate such a system? If the answers are yes, then there should be no increase. If the answer is "more than sufficient," then there should be a rate decrease (don't hold your breath). If the answer is no (which will be every politician's knee-jerk response) then the rate should be increased to cover these new, ideally optimal, operating costs. 

Then we deal with how to get these systems to where they need to be: a one-time assessment.

One time assessment-one time investment. Like replacing your roof. You bite the bullet, get it done, and don't worry about it for the life of the roof. Fix the water system. Fix the sewer system. Don't bother us again until we're back in this situation, and don't expect us to pay out the nose every month from now til eternity. And yes, we will get back in this situation, because no matter what gets done, DeKalb will NOT maintain these systems. Anyone who thinks they will has been at the mushrooms.

Like A Good Neighbor?

Well, that is certainly NOT DeKalb County Schools. They have this annoyingly bright video sign at Austin.  They run this thing 7x24. Nonstop. And it flashes. Not seizure inducing, but annoying. Certainly it is nice for the kiddies to see their name/birthday out there for all to see. And it may be helpful for parents to get a clue about upcoming events while they sit, all but parked, waiting to drop kids off. Almost like there is no other way to let them know. Like maybe a web site, text message or email. 

Knowing that the school system is its own sovereign government you can be certain there is nothing the city can do, but is it possible to negotiate with the school? Maybe they could turn this thing off from about 6P to 6A when there really is no one around for them to "inform." Seriously, is that asking too much?

The Two Tales Of A City

Remember High School English class? Of course you do. Particularly Lit classes, where you'd read something that you'd never otherwise have read, and the teacher would want you to interpret the deeper meanings. Correctly. 

Well, we're back in High School, specifically in the cafeteria where there is a cool kids' table and everyone else, only now the "school" is virtual and it is actually a FeceBook group where the cool kids hang out. We'll label this group "D" which will become obvious soon. Now "D" started as an open group, anyone could see, anyone could comment. It is reported that a ghostly canine, residing at the rainbow bridge, actually commented on multiple occasions. Then "D" went private, members only, allegedly in anticipation of the chazerei around the November elections. Then came the flying monkeys led by HearNo, SeeNo, and SpeakNo and any monkey who crossed die Fuhrungsaffen were summarily excommunicated: no hear; no see; no speak. No longer allowed at, or even near, the cool kids' table.

This resulted in the obvious. The excommunicates created their own FeceBook group which we'll label "D-Prime" as it is a derivative of the group "D". Yes, we've jumped from High School Lit to High School Calc, but we will circle back. In "D-Prime" the monkeys are unleashed, saying and doing what they will, with the understanding they may be taken to task, perhaps with limited tact and no decorum. You lay out some bullshit and someone is likely to call bullshit on you. They may pile on, so you should proceed with caution and Nomex is advised, as this is the virtual world version of the playground where you learned social skills. You're gonna get some bumps and bruises, but you stand a chance getting smarter, stronger.

Inevitably "D" found out about "D-Prime" and die Fuhrungsaffen were pissed so they invaded "D-Prime" as "D-Prime" is open to all. You've just got to handle the heat. Turns out, the first interloper withered like a jellyfish on a hot beach because the excommunicates still didn't like the condescending, self-righteousness of the "D" monkeys, so they beat it back to the safety of their cushy, padded echo chamber, regaling die Fuhrungsaffen with the horrors of "D-Prime". Yet "D-Prime" saw an immediate surge in membership. Something was happening. Something the cool monkeys didn't understand. Because they're monkeys.

Let's get Lit. If this were something you had to read in that English class, what would this story really mean? Well, you'd have a poignant commentary on contemporary society and politics. There is one troop of monkeys that holds itself above all others believing they wield power over any and all others, and they freely share that belief. With all these others. They are the superior monkeys, or so they say, so they believe. Until a whole lot of the other monkeys quit believing. Then die Fuhrungsaffen could not deafen, could not blind, could not mute very many monkeys because they had driven them away. 

Today we call die Fuhrungsaffen Democrats.

Living With Inflation

First came Bidenomics. Now we look forward to T2 Tariffs. Looks like excessive inflation is about to be as normal as global warming. Except for a few folks. Who would that be? The 1 percenters? The Three Percenters? Nope, and nope. 

It is far worse: it is public schools.

That's right, the folks that brought you school closings and a generational setback for the children of America hold themselves above inflation, and you. Georgia passed a statewide law, by referendum approved by the public, to limit property appraisal increases to the rate of inflation. This means that local governments, including public schools, would see their revenue increases limited to the general rate of inflation. Your average working stiff is not guaranteed a raise to cover inflation, but the schools are. 

But that is not enough. The law offers taxing agencies a means to opt-out of these appraisal increase limits. They have to post public notice that they will do this which some might think would name and shame them. Some would be wrong as the folks running these systems have no shame. They are greed incarnate.

And it isn't as if their revenue is really capped at inflation. Not all properties are subjected to this limitation and those that are mark-to-market upon sale. But they will tolerate no restriction on their current or future revenue. They will claim they need the money to address the pandemic learning setbacks which were largely of their own making, and given free rein at the time they would have made it even worse. And no, they don't think you're stupid, they know you are. After all they probably educated you.

Just remember this the next time you vote for a school board member or an eSPLOST.

Follow The Science

But watch out for the scientists.

Research, particularly research conducted inside the academy, is informally known as a "publish or perish" reality. Want tenure? Pump out those papers. Want a promotion or a raise? Keep 'em coming. 

And so they do.

To be very clear, just any old publication will not do. No vanity press here, these need to be accepted by peer-reviewed publications, and it should come as no surprise there is a pecking order to these publications. Some are just more prestigious than others. What seems to be consistent across the board is the review process.

Authors will tell you this process is burdensome, unnecessarily so, and feel some reviewers provide annoying criticisms, demanding fixes, because, well, just because they can. What is increasingly clear is this process does very little to ensure the scientific integrity or veracity of the research work. It should come as no surprise that once a prestigious journal publishes, they tend to turn a deaf ear to outside peers who find fault, scientific fault, research fault, with the publication. 

In one case, retraction of seriously flawed work took six years. In this time the paper was cited almost 150 times. Damage done. And lest you think this is an unusual or rare occurrence, Retraction Watch's database has 55,000 retractions of which over 450 are CoVid-19 research papers. So, if you are going to "follow the science" you need to read these papers with a bit more critical eye than the reviewers.

Little Oaths Of Loyalty

Remember the Whiz Quiz? They still do that don't they? You know, all that drug-free workplace stuff government funded and business implemented. What Fourth Amendment?

Then came wave after wave of progressive dogma. Safe spaces. Trigger warnings. Pronoun of the moment (smart folks settled on "it"). Political correctness. Heckler vetoes. The chill of self-censorship. All leading to universal, mandatory diversity statements to ensure fealty, the bending of all sheaves to a god of the established elites' making. 

And now we have an administration, an executive branch, demanding loyalty to that administration to retain or obtain a job. They are even checking prior social media activity. Sounds familiar doesn't it? It is more than just the similarity to the academy, but to prior administrations. The tools of that trade are no more different today than four years ago. The similarities are frightening and any differences seem manufactured, and only important to boo-birds. 

What would have been nice, what could be, are voices from the Fourth Estate that decry suspicion-less pre-employment drug testing, mandatory diversity statements, and pledges of political loyalty with equal fervor.

They Have Known For Some Time

With Jimmy Carter's passing much praise has been heaped on his legacy. Much well deserved. One item of note is his elevation to the status of "climate warrior" because he had solar panels installed on the White House. Which he did. He also championed (beltway-speak for "spent money on") solar energy research, with quite a few GT-EES researchers on the job market when Reagan took office. But was he really a climate warrior? Did he know something? Yes he did. But so did most of his predecessors and all who came after. How did this happen?

A good place to start is around 200 years ago. That's right, the 1820's. This is when Fourier, better known for his transform, theorized about a process we now call the greenhouse effect. This became more concrete in the 1850's when a scientist determined, empirically, that CO2 and moisture had just the heat retention effect that Fourier predicted. These results were presented in the U.S., but roundly ignored in Europe. This particular scientist had three crippling qualities: she was female; she was an amateur; and she was American. Not until several years later, when her results were reproduced by a European male did this become generally accepted. So, before the United States was 100 years old. 

To be fair, at this point in time, most inquiry regarded where we were in the current Ice Age and where that was headed. Yes, we are still in an Ice Age. This was Tyndall's line of investigation in 1859 with a focus on identifying the specific gases involved in atmospheric heat retention. This was after Foote's work and she was never credited and yet he identified the same gas as she. In 1896, Arrhenius, a Swede, create the first of what we would now call a "climate model," which estimated our current global temperature rise with frightening accuracy. 

So. For well over 125 years we've known. Well, at least the best and brightest have. You know, like our scientists and world leaders. Creme de la creme. Teddy Roosevelt knew. So did Franklin. And Churchill. And Kennedy, who preferred a man on the moon over a stable climate. And Johnson. And Reagan. Eisenhower. Obama. Yes, even Jimmy Carter. They all knew. They all had other things on their to-do lists. 

Was there anything they could do? No, there really wasn't. So, has there really been a climate crisis? Not according to Mirriam-Webster, who defines a crisis  as an inflection point, where some action, some change is imminent. Things are indeed happening, but immediacy is not part of the conversation. Probably because there isn't much we can, and even less that we will, do. Not anything that will make a significant impact. Now that the issue has become a political bludgeon all that will happen is folks will beat their opponents over the head while spouting copious hot air. 

Now we all know.

A Different Reality

The era of delusional presidents is upon us. Perhaps a bombastic Trump led the way, but Biden, or his caregiver, is intent on going where others fear to tread. His ignoring of the Constitution has left the world wondering just what, as a career politician, he won't ignore. To the Constitution and SCOTUS he's now added Congress. See, when Congress kicked off the drive to ratify the ERA, they set a time limit. When it wasn't ratified before the limit expired, Congress extended the limit. It still was not ratified within the limit. Then, along came Trump, and three other states ratified long after both deadlines had lapsed. In the intervening years several states have rescinded or sunsetted their ratification, some objecting to changing the rules once the game was started. These changes are a bit smarmy, but may not violate the Constitution. 

None of that matters to Biden. He wants everyone to join him in complete dementia and just pretend that the ERA has been added to the Constitution, a Constitution he has shown little regard unless it suits him in the moment. This is not that moment.

Again, Ginsburg shows the way, supporting the ERA, but also acknowledging that the best way to handle the missed deadlines is to start over, noting that if you count a late-comer on the plus side, you can hardly dismiss those who've changed their minds. The problem is that while the original text would likely receive prompt ratification, the radical left will not tolerate that text, and that's a shame.

In The Crosshairs

The "Police Blotter" is one of the best features of the Blue Bag Rag, but it could do with a layout change. Since the Wally Whirled Freak Show folded tent and left town, Shoplift Nation has targeted, well, Target. And they're hitting them up multiple times a week. Just recently they got hit on December 19, December 21 and December 26 (Happy Boxing Day). Maybe there should be a section in the Police Blotter dedicated to "shrinkage" at Target. This need not be permanent as Target is likely to follow the trail blazed by Wally despite having superior Loss Prevention personnel and procedures. 

And these perps do bring entertainment to the community. First, they ain't from around here. Not sure if that is a comfort (your neighbors aren't thieves) or a concern (we're being attacked from without). We're talking Marietta, Clarkston, Lawrenceville and Duluth. What, do these places have no Target? And before you get all "It's MARTA" about it, in at least one of the cases the perps drove cars, a Genesis G70. How may Targets did they drive past to get here? Or, did they stop at every one?

Then, it is somewhat interesting that, at least in these three cases, all the perps are women. In a couple of cases they didn't act alone. One woman brought her kid, a four year old boy. Never too young to learn. The perp was hauled off to jail but not before granny came for the kid and the perp's personal effects. 

Lady Genesis had a crew of three (all women) of which two were arrested. This crew was particularly interesting in that the car was searched, drugs were found as were checkbooks, credit cards and IDs belonging to someone other than these three ladies. Oh, and a handgun on the front seat. Here's the kicker: the driver claimed complete ignorance of the contraband saying it wasn't even her car. You gotta wonder if the car was stolen, and if so, why the Flock didn't descend upon it. With all this, only two of the three were arrested because the third woman wasn't on the Target security footage, but she probably had to Uber home because the car was impounded as the driver had no license. 

Stepping back a bit, you really have to wonder what it is about Dunwoody that attracts thieves. They ARE making quite the trip to get to a Dunwoody Wally Whirled or Target. Do they know something we don't? Maybe Loss Prevention should be a bit more introspective. 

Third Time Is The Charm

The Chicken Littles seem to be over their malaise and are back to sowing Trump Terror. This isn't about T2, which is on the launching pad, but the prospect of T3.

Wait...what?

Yep. They're scared of a T3 and they're touting the plan that makes this possible. It is as if without Trump to tear down they'd have no reason to live. Is this really possible and just what is this plan?

Well, it is possible, but highly improbable, which will become obvious when you consider the plan. The plan is simple in design. Trump runs as Veep with someone else topping the ticket, they win, and upon inauguration the new Prez resigns elevating Trump to the oval office. 

This is perfectly legal, and as the left is about to learn, it is because words matter. See, the constitution prevents someone from being elected more than two times to the presidency. It does not place a limit on the number of times someone can serve in that office. The left, notorious for word salad and semantic gymnastics will contend that somehow, the word elected subsumes the meaning of the word serve. Might be true in their partisan minds but not in a court of law, primarily because of legal precedence. Genuflect to stare decisis. The precedent is priceless because it is Joe Biden. See, Papa Joe ran, and was elected, to the US Senate when he was 29 years old, too young to serve, but between being elected and sworn in, he turned 30 years old, old enough to serve. Clearly there is an undeniable constitutional distinction between elected and serve, a distinction that cuts both ways. 

So, it is technically possible for Trump to serve a third term but it is practically impossible. For so many reasons.

It requires that Trump be on a ticket that can win, one where top of ticket can overcome what is likely to be significant Trump Fatigue in the electorate. That's one hell of a candidate.

Such a candidate who can carry that burden across the finish line will inevitably be equipped with an enormous ego. Hell, losers are blessed with egos that would overflow the Benz. Even Biden now thinks he should not have dropped out with his ego telling him he could have snatched victory from the jaws of dementia. Does anyone with any political acumen really believe there exists a politician, were they to win the White House, that would willingly relinquish the presidency?

Another political reality is there are Republicans who feign loyalty (for their own benefit) but secretly look forward to a post-Trump political landscape. Everyone knows politicians are windsocks interested in themselves, their wealth, their power, and little else. 

So yeah, the fear-mongers have identified a legitimate path to T3, but only an idiot can be fooled into taking it seriously.

Slap Happy New Year

The year end edition of the Blue Bag Rag included self-congratulatory back slapping by the mayor and some New Year's resolution from Top Cop 2.0. Only a politician can tout spending money as an "accomplishment" when most of us have tightened our belts and success, for us, looks like fiscal prudence. But hey, this is government. 

One "accomplishment" the mayor and TC2 both spoke to was the "Real-Time Crime Center" serving as a "sports bar" where cops get to watch crime as it is happening. Wonder if they get popcorn. The mayor declared this a "game changer" without any reference to exactly what that game might be, who keeps score and who is the ref. Yet the claim is this expenditure "improves emergency response and aids in crime prevention and investigation." Wow. "Improves" in no way suggests a metric for emergency response consequently providing no assurance that this "improvement" is adequate. Relativism is the tool of political obfuscation. "Aids in crime prevention?" How so? We'll never know. Investigation? Sure, video evidence is admissible. 

TC2 chimes in with commitments to further integrate RTCC with "community safety programs" (we'll ignore the "regional partners" we're subsidizing with this effort). To what community safety does he refer? Certainly not community patrolling for enforcement of traffic laws. But maybe they'll get a kick out of watching red light runners on the big screen. TC2 hopes to ensure this system's "benefits" extend across all neighborhoods and businesses. The "benefit" seems to be "surveillance" so we, the taxpayers, should expect a bill for more cameras. Coming to a street corner near you. 

Maybe if they spent less money and time with their high tech (and soon to be outdated) toys and more on time-tested conventional police work, where community engagement means police patrolling our streets to keep us, and our children, safe, we might be better off. We will probably never know because it will probably never happen.

It's A Roundabout!

Is this part of the problem?

Seems like this package went round and round between Palmetto and the Distribution Center in Atlanta. It was a book, not a hot potato. 

How Long?

The city's recent concrete drop in the village raises an interesting question. You see, at one point, the city required anyone making what the city considered major building reno widen the sidewalks in front to meet Shining PATH Foundation requirements. Hence the patchwork (incrementalism?) you see on Village Parkway in front of a law office and the Jiffy Lube X-Fit. They showed their mercenary bent when the condo developer balked at wide sidewalks on the other side of the parkway. 

Still, you have to wonder. The city dropped some concrete in front of the PNC bank on Mt. Vernon, a road in the Shining PATH's crosshairs and this was the Wide Side, as it was before. A few yards further west, in front of the Wells Fargo bank, we see a Narrow Side dropped. 

Lost Opportunity

Hmmmm... Why didn't they do the Wide Side? Was it because it wasn't in a resident's yard? Perhaps they'll claim it was replacing what was there. Or maybe they'll invoke their long abandoned eco-creds claiming they didn't want to disturb those wonderful shrubs. And yet, rather than replace a fallen tree, which had previously been there, they decided to 'crete over the hole. 

Could Have Had A Tree