AMTRAK, THIS IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

Late last month, I had to be the cranky economist at the Borealis party, which should have served as a warning to Midwestern Passenger Rail advocates.  It did not take long for John Phelan of the Center of the American Experiment to fact-check that operating profit.  "The Borealis isn’t doing as well as you’ve been told."

I wasn’t the only person to notice the strange air of delirium around these data. “I’ve been covering rail transportation in the region since the 1990s,” Adam Platt wrote for Twin Cities Business a week later, “and the drumbeat of nonsense got so thick on social and mainstream media that I decided to do some of my own ciphering.” What he found presents much less cause for celebration.

Count me as another cipherer, if perhaps more optimistic about adding frequencies between Chicago and the Cities.

There are opportunities for further research here.  A return of a second train to the Cities has long been on Passenger Rail advocates' wish list, and an observation I made six years ago is germane to that research.  "That works out to about 225 passengers on each train, or three Horizon coaches and a business class car apart from peak season. The skeptics are likely to be out in force.  It doesn't help any that the "corridor" relies on an overpurposed Empire Builder subject to delay."  The Borealis as operating these days is four Horizon coaches and an Amcafe with business class seating on one end, and it might be that passengers are opting for dependability keeping those four coaches full.

An observation I offered a few days into Borealis operations remains, regrettably, germane in the dog days of summer.

With Amtrak having trouble assigning sufficient serviceable stock to protect its existing schedule, sooner or later somebody is going to take a close look at the Hiawatha and Borealis diagrams.  I had an opportunity to watch the turnarounds in Chicago on the second and third days of service.  Wednesday last week, the stock that arrived, about an hour late, on 1340 from St. Paul went out, about twenty minutes late, on the final Hiawatha to Milwaukee.  Thursday, 1340 arrived again about an hour late, and a different rake went to Milwaukee, about twenty minutes late.  I have not yet worked out the rotations by which stock for 336, which used to turn off 333 before 333 became 1333 for St. Paul, lays over in Milwaukee.  The enforced idleness of an entire rake in St. Paul, overnight, when there's plenty of time to add a sleeping car and run an overnight train for and from Chicago, also offers food for future thought.

For now, let us enjoy the opportunity to make day trips along the Mississippi River and through Wisconsin.

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to check out Business Class on the eastbound Borealis.  The Harley-Davidson riders and the Italian Air Force precision flying team were entertaining Milwaukeeans while Oktoberfest season got under way at German Fest.

I've learned my limitations, particularly on hot days, and being on an early evening departure from Milwaukee in preference to the last train out, is more my speed these days.

A PRESIDENTIAL CULT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE SERIOUS.

The Democrats have replaced Joe Biden with Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket without the benefit of any primaries, or, so far, any convention floor fights.  Democrats have been good, at least since Franklin Roosevelt, at creating a show-biz atmosphere and cult-like adoration around their candidates.  Ninety years ago, it was Happy Days are Here Again.  Today it's Brat (as in spoiled) Summer.

I don't know, perhaps "brat" is the latest street term for "sassy," er, your authentic self.  Some influencer decided that Kamala Harris's authentic self, such as it is, is brat, and the cult took shape.

Slime green, clubbing and self-awareness are dominating pop culture this season. Now “Brat summer” has made its way into politics.

“Kamala IS brat,” Charli XCX, whose album Brat came out June 7, posted on X. Hours before, President Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.

Harris’s campaign seems to be embracing the concept of Brat, adopting the bright green hue and simplistic font of Charli XCX’s album cover as the banner image for its official X account. Harris herself has not yet responded to the influx of Brat memes and fancams, but they’re flooding social media sites from X to TikTok.

Social media influencers and sorority conventions might have their role in politics. In addition, they provide cover while the memory-holing of the vice-president's record, such as it is, goes on.  "Now a tidal wave of Kamalaflage has engulfed the presidential contest, as Harris’ entire career is being miraculously expunged — or at least purified — in a craven evidence-rigging stampede by media outlets and supposedly nonpartisan scorekeepers."

SPEECH CODES ARE ALWAYS BAD.

Yesterday, somebody in the chancellor's office at Wisconsin-Milwaukee pronounced anathema on a few socially progressive elements.

UWM has temporarily suspended five student organizations associated with a coalition that posted alarming messages on Instagram. The suspensions come as part of UWM’s ongoing investigation.

A July 19 Instagram story post to the uwm4palicoalition account included intimidating language aimed at Jewish community members and organizations that support Israel. UWM strongly denounced the post, and any form of antisemitism. A subsequent Instagram post by the coalition reaffirmed their original message.

The UWM student organizations that are temporarily suspended include Students for Justice in Palestine, the Muslim Student Association, Students for a Democratic Society, Young Democratic Socialists of America and Un-PAC, all of which identified as part of the coalition in the spring.

Um, no.  Some deanlet in the office of the chancellor committed educational malpractice issuing a Statement of Concern, which includes "Where speech is not protected by the First Amendment, UWM will address it through appropriate processes, which could include student and student organization disciplinary processes. While hateful or intimidating speech is often legally protected, it conflicts with the respect and conduct we ask of each member of our community."

IT'S ANOTHER PLEASANT VALLEY SUNDAY.

Here in Status Symbol Land, and everywhere else, it's a good bet that anybody you see cutting the grass is a guy.  Once upon a time, there might have been a Dave Barry column about those domestic labor studies that made an issue of who washed the dishes or changed the baby, but those surveys left out the painting and the yard care and cleaning the gutters.  Oh, and it would do the guys no good to stew about it.  "If another person is not saying anything, and you're wondering if this might be because something is bothering that person, and you ask that person what that person is thinking, and that person says, 'Nothing,' do you accept this perfectly reasonable answer, or do you proceed to nag the person half to death?"

THE RETURN OF THE SHOW TRAIN.

Ringling Barnum's circus train tied up in 2017.  The colossal cavalcade of colorful props and performers occasionally tours on the model railroads.

During the summer, the itinerant carnivals also used to move the attractions by rail.  When Worlds of Mirth tied up, Baraboo's Circus World Museum bought the rolling stock.  Royal American used to bring what they called the World's Largest Midway to state fairs and rodeo competitions almost everywhere east of the Rockies.  Along the east coast, the James E. Strates show was the last carnival train running.  Or not.  "James E. Strates Shows parked its train after the 2019 season, skipped 2020 due to the pandemic, and since then hasn’t been able to reach a contract agreement with CSX."

THE DEMOCRATS HAVE ALWAYS DONE PRESIDENTIAL CULTS BETTER.

Common Dreams contributor Peter Bloom asks, "Is this the twilight of the cultish mythology of so-called 'Great Men'?"  He wrote that after Dementia Joe face-planted in the debate but before Donald Trump was shot at and the Democrats ran a 25th Amendment swap without invoking the 25th Amendment.

FACING STARR AND HORNUNG IN PRACTICE MAKES THE DEFENSE BETTER.

If the point of higher education is to grapple with the best that has been thought and written, wouldn't it make sense to have students grapple with the best?  Otherwise, what goes on in the epistemically closed classroom isn't edifying.

Steven Pinker explains.  "[S]cholars can’t hope to understand the world (particularly the social world) if some hypotheses are given a free pass and others are unmentionable. As John Stuart Mill noted, 'He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.'"  Furthermore, think of how differently Marquette University's suspension of John "Marquette Warrior" McAdams might have turned out if the student whose complaint about a graduate teaching assistant's engagement with a question about same-sex marriages could have simply said, "Ma'am, you can't suggest I'm homophobic, that's an attempt to embarrass me.  Engage the question, or suggest it's outside the scope of the course."

There have been Approved Answers for a long time, and the deleterious consequences of Getting Them Right are clear.

Too often, American college students face a one-question test, one based not on facts, but on ideology. The test: “Are you a liberal, or conservative?”

The correct answer is, “I’m a liberal, and proud of it.” That concerns me.

However, the nature of my concern may surprise you. I’m not worried much about the students who get it wrong; for the most part, they actually get a pretty good education.

I’m worried about those who get it right. The young people that our educational system is failing are the students on the left. They aren’t being challenged, and don’t learn to think.

Students on the left should sue for breach of contract. We promise to educate them, and then merely pat them on the head for having memorized the “correct” answer!

I was Chair of Political Science at Duke for ten years. At a meeting of department heads, we heard from the chair of one our Departments of Indignation Studies.

(We have several departments named “Something-or-Other Studies.” In most cases, they were constituted for the purpose of focusing indignation about the plight of a group that has suffered real and imagined slights and now needs an academic department to be indignant in.)

At the meeting, the chair of one of those departments said, “I find that I don’t really need to spend much time with the liberal students, because they already have it right. I spend most of my time arguing with the conservative students. That’s how I spend my time in class.”

This woman was teaching conservative students how to think about arguments and evidence; how to make your arguments in a persuasive way. She was educating them.

Her liberal students? They were given that one-question test. They were just certified as already “knowing what they need to know.”

Michael Munger offered that in 2014.  Ten years later, there's a research opportunity.  The headline writers at The Atlantic, predictably, introduce Lauren Wright's article with a condescending headline, "Right-wing culture warriors ignore the value of being surrounded by ideological opponents."  Read on, though, and discover that snarking at calls for a conservative safe space is really a dig at those safe spaces maintained for the benefit of Indignation Studies students.

Conservative students, rather than being coddled, face significant intellectual and social challenges in college. These challenges impart educational advantages by forcing conservatives to defend their points of view. Liberal students, surrounded by like-minded peers and mentors, have less opportunity to grow in this way.

She's writing about what happens.

In research for a book in progress—Tested: Why Conservative Students Get the Most Out of Liberal Education—I conducted dozens of in-depth interviews with students at Princeton and other competitive schools. Of the 28 conservatives I’ve spoken with so far, more than 90 percent report attending events featuring speakers with whom they disagree, compared with less than half of the 15 liberals I’ve interviewed. Nearly all of the conservatives said that they’ve been challenged by professors or other students in classroom discussions, but just two of the liberals said the same. These reports echo national surveys, which find that conservative students are more open to speakers of any ideological bent than are liberal students, who tend to support only speakers they agree with.

Her motivation for mocking those conservative safe spaces might be that it's the conservative students who tough it out at the Ivy hothouses who are getting that chance to face Hornung and Starr. "Conservative students experience what higher education has long claimed to offer: exposure to different perspectives, regular practice building and defending coherent arguments, intellectual challenges that spur creativity and growth.  Liberal academia has largely robbed liberal students of these rewards."  What that says about the epistemic closure of the leftist faculty and their novices and postulants is left to the reader as an exercise.  Again, Michael Munger diagnosed the problem a decade ago.

Our colleagues on the left could choose to educate their liberal students, but since education requires “collision with error,” that is no longer possible. That’s because the faculty on the left were themselves educated by neglect, never confronting counterarguments, in a now self-perpetuating cycle of ignorance and ideological bigotry.

You're not going to stop Hornung and Starr by calling Lombardi icky or questioning their motives.

CHURCHES ARE FRANGIBLE.

By the criteria of the Anglican Communion, the first proper city in the United States is Milwaukee, where the first Episcopal cathedral was set up in the middle of the nineteenth century.  All Saints Cathedral and its complex, rendered in Cream City brick, are listed buildings not far from downtown.

Recall from about two weeks ago (it sure feels longer) that I mentioned St. Paul's Episcopal Church, in the shadow of Milwaukee's Lincoln High School.  That church is also a listed building, with New England's H. H. Richardson collaborating with a Milwaukee architect in its design.

Should the Spanish Armada round Whitefish Point and a lookout be atop the west tower, that signal fire means something other than a brat fry.  On last weekend's trip to Milwaukee, I had some time before Saturday's German Fest concerts got under way, and the streetcar conveniently runs close to these churches.

WATCH THIS SPACE.

I was taking videos up high for a future Trains of Summer upload, and while there took an aerial view of the West Lynn and Revere industrial complex.

At center is the Open Hearth shop of Midvale Steel, with the hot metal track below and the upper level tracks for delivering scrap, refractories, alloying additives, and coal tar, here delivered in two large tank cars.  The box cars occupy the Outward Exchange Siding, which sometimes receives transfers from the New Haven and sometimes serves as a time being track when one crew is working both sides of the Eastern Route Main Line.  The crossover at left middle between Outward and Inward tracks helps those operations. Coming closer to the camera, we see the Inward Exchange Siding, and two spur tracks serving General Electric's River Works.  That will be an access hatch in the foreground.  Two tracks of the Saugus Branch and the Lynn Common Industrial Lead are at right.

Now that the switches at West Lynn Junction, where the Saugus Branch joins the Eastern Route Main Line, are in place, there's enough headroom to work all those tracks from either the Saugus Draw or the West Lynn end, and that alone is enough to keep one or two crew members busy for several hours.  Work continues on extending trackage into the area under the garage.

WHERE IS MIKE ROYKO'S SHOCKED FACE?

In "Don't Make It Easy," Sarah Hoyt wonders whether Our Progressive Betters aren't enabling homelessness.

In fact, there has been a growing bleeding heart argument that we should just let people camp and defecate on the street, or it’s “cruel and unusual punishment.”

The cities are dealing with this the way they deal with this, and the do gooders ditto. The way the cities deal with it, is by building at great cost, houses to put these people into. The do-gooders collect money, build shelters, and generally try to make it easier on people who are in these circumstances, in the hopes they’ll pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

They seem to think the people camping on the streets, randomly attacking passerbyes, defecating and masturbating in public are doing this because housing is too expensive. Or that there isn’t enough housing. The latest renaming of “homeless” to unhoused puts the emphasis on that, making it sound like these people are really, really, really just on the streets because mysteriously there aren’t enough houses to go around.

Now, I’m not going to argue with any of you that housing and rent isn’t too expensive.

Once again, the technocrats of today have to undo what technocrats of a previous age thought was working the problem.  "Mike Royko wrote a column about the proliferation of beggars in the Loop, in which he suggested that closing the asylums and condemning the flophouses in the name of urban renewal provided the cause.  Now comes a columnist who, while not calling for a return to the days of the cuckoo's nest, suggests that people who required institutionalization required humane and helpful institutionalization."

CONTINUE TO CONCENTRATE ON THE SUBSTANCE.

Remember last week's sermon?  "Democrats are likely to offer some variant on 'finish the job' in their message [which] offers all sorts of possibilities for that micro-management of our appliances, the money printing to buy off favored constituencies, and ambivalence about nation-building wars."

SOME THINGS ARE FAR BEYOND PARODY.

As if there aren't far too many Minimal Publishable Units for a scholar to keep up with, now algorithms that never have to fear a tenure review will get in on the action.  "Taylor & Francis AI Deal Sets ‘Worrying Precedent’ for Academic Publishing."

RAILWAY PRESERVATION IS NOT EASY.

Bring money.  And your patience.  And money.  Expect internal politics.  Bring more money.  Get something fixed.  Bring more money.  Keep your patience.

Was it twenty years ago the Flying Yankee Preservation Project won a Trains Preservation Award?  The train itself was near Claremont, New Hampshire at the time, and it will soon be moving to the Conway Scenic Railroad.

Bring your patience.  "[W]ith a little help from the Yankee's friends, the train will roll again."

Expect internal politics, expect project champions to come and go, and bring more money.

Twenty years ago, we noted a Trains preservation award being presented to a group restoring the Flying Yankee streamliner.  The money was to restore to operation one of the few Winton 201A diesel engines, the prime mover that offered proof of concept for the more successful two-stroke diesels General Motors subsequently created.  We have long been hopeful that the train will run again.  Alas, the gentleman who was the principal advocate of its restoration has crossed the final summit, and some combination of New Hampshire and ferroequinologist politics has kept that from happening.  Once, it seemed like the Yankee would be the third Budd articulated train of the Thirties either restored or operable.

That the train was, by 1957, a bit clapped out as well as subject to the limitations of a fixed consist might have had something to do with its being retired. That some railway preservation societies have more will than they have wallet is a reality. I can think of a few Burlington Zephyrs of that era that are still extant but real basket cases.

Since then, one of those basket cases, the Mark Twain Zephyr, has been undergoing restoration in Wisconsin, with a realistic rollout date soon to come.  The Nebraska Zephyr set is back in service at Illinois Railway Museum, now that more conventional seat cleaning methods are again in order.  I do not know the status of the other Twin Zephyr set or the Denver Zephyr set that went to Saudi Arabia.

The Yankee?  New Hampshire currently own it, and they're looking for a serious buyer.  It seems as if we're back to the late 20th century.

Patience matters.  A number of unanticipated challenges cropped up in Spooner, and the rollout date for the augmented Mark Twain Zephyr is yet to be determined.  Work, though, goes on.  Meanwhile, in New Hampshire the serious buyer was a preservation group.

Ownership of the Flying Yankee trainset was officially transferred from the state of New Hampshire to the Flying Yankee Association preservation group today (July 24), and the train could be moved to the Conway Scenic Railroad as soon as next week.

The sale of the 1935 Budd streamliner, nearly identical to Burlington’s Pioneer Zephyr, was approved at today’s meeting of New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and the state’s executive council, the Flying Yankee Association announced.

“It is truly an exciting time to be a Flying Yankee fan,” Brian LaPlant, the association’s president, said in a press release. “This beautiful train can now be properly protected, preserved, restored, and one day returned to the rails as a reminder of New England’s historic railroading past.”

The association said it will move the train from its current location in Lincoln, N.H., to Conway in the near future, then work to construct a museum in Conway “to protect the train from the elements long-term and allow the group to begin the restoration process. This construction will be done in partnership with the Conway Scenic Railroad, along with their assistance during the restoration process and with the eventual operation of the train post-restoration.”

This is a developing story, and even if the expected transfer of the train over the Eastern Slope goes on as planned, mechanical work and interior stabilization and the like will still call for patience and money.

ADVOCACY DISGUISED AS PRESTIGE.

Robert "Bastiat's Window" Graboyes observes, "The Economics Nobel Is a Gold Disk, Not a Crystal Ball."  His essay elaborates on a point we've made with respect to other disciplines where the temptation to go from Wise Expert to Bossy Annoyance is strong.  "[M]ore than a few climate scientists have used their status in that field to make non-scientific, populist appeals to change public policy."  In Professor Graboyes's essay, it's economists using the status they have earned qua economists to make in-kind campaign contributions to the Jarrett regency.

[T]he most unhelpful piece of campaign literature this year is from the Biden side, not so much for its content, but rather because it undermines the scientific reputation of economics and the integrity of its highest honor—the Economics Nobel. It’s a letter from sixteen Nobelists arguing that, “Joe Biden’s economic agenda is vastly superior to Donald Trump’s.” The letter offers ideologically skewed ad hockery as economics and commandeers the Nobel’s prestige. (The letter is here.)

They did give Old Joe something to brag on, and presumably his party's nominee, whoever that might be, will have the same Argument from Authority to appeal to.

Biden repeatedly whispers of his endorsement by “Sixteen NOBEL prizewinning economists … … SIXXTEEEN.” His reverential tone recalls some clergyman proclaiming, “The Bible refers to God by SIXXTEEEN different names,” and the press plays the role of enraptured congregants.

Never mind that fifteen of the signatories also offered a letter to the effect that the Inflation Reduction Act would reduce inflation.  The doctoral dissertations and Minimal Publishable Units are yet to be written.  "Got that? Donald Trump’s potential deficits: bad, unproductive, inflationary. Biden’s actual deficits: good, productive, disinflationary."  James Piereson is having none of it.

In sum, the Nobel laureates praising Biden’s policies today (and criticizing Trump) are the same ones who recommended policies that ignited inflation, drove up interest rates, wrecked the housing market, ballooned the deficit and expenditures on interest, stifled economic growth, and underestimated the true costs of these policies.

Judging by their track record, when it comes to economic policymaking, these prize-winning economists have no idea what they are talking about.

And yet you can count on debate moderators and Sunday show interviewers treating those assertions as Holy Writ, with candidates who demur being hit with variations on the same gotcha question for the duration of the interview.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF DENYING COHERENT BELIEFS.

Onetime counseling student Suzannah Alexander asserts, "Psychology Has Lost Its Credibility."  That's what happens when you let trendy approaches and the pursuit of grants get in the way of objectivity.

Not only do you have the denial of reality in matters of biological sex, but in the science sector, there have been research and publication abuses, and for two decades now, a replication crisis has undermined much of the field’s scientific integrity.

While p-hacking and other poor research techniques account for some of the replication crisis, different aspects of the research issues come from a willful denial of all reality.

In a sneak peek of the 2024 revision of Research and Evaluation in Counseling, Bradley Erford spends 20 pages questioning the nature of truth, the rejection of objective reality, multiple realities, and critical theories.

Why am I not surprised?

The disciplines of psychology and psychiatry, unfortunately, aren't yet well-enough developed to be able to assess such claims in a systematic way.  We're a century or so away from eugenics and sterilization, three score and ten years or so away from frontal lobotomies, and forty years ago Leonid Brezhnev's Soviet Union had regime psychiatrists diagnosing dissidents as schizophrenic, in order to make the dissenters go away whilst claiming the corrective labor camps were for more conventional criminals alone.  There is a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for neuroses and psychoses, but the committee that revises it responds to Popular Sentiment.  That is not the behavior of scholars confident in their paradigm.

Current academic thinking is complicit in some sort of experiment against reality, but I'm not sure which experiment that is.

It will not end well, either for the discipline, or for the people offered bad advice from allegedly credentialed experts.  "[O]nce academicians lose sight of the distinction between the positive and normative and attempt to make the world on the basis of will alone, or, worse, the latest fads and fashions suggest that anything goes, the academy is done for."

Alas, the scholars and practitioners of counseling are not simply racking up Minimal Publishable Units nor estimating angels on the heads of pins, they are wrecking real lives on the basis of sloppy thinking.  "One must wonder what they mean when they call something 'evidence-based.'"  Isn't that a lapse in the theorizing?  If there is no objective reality, or if everyone's daydreams become one of those multiple realities, what are the rules of evidence?

I HOPE THERE'S ENOUGH SPRECHER IN THE FRIDGE.

Tell me the Democrats haven't just eased the sitting president out of office and made the sitting vice-president the interim president without the formality of invoking the 25th Amendment.  Yes, Old Joe made a trip to the Lyndon Johnson presidential library today, where he offered some new end runs around the Constitution, the better to keep Democrats in power, because it's only democracy when they win.

ARE YOU READY FOR OKTOBERFEST?

The Oshkosh air show will wrap up this weekend, with some of the aerial acts performing Saturday in the Milwaukee Lakefront air show.  There will be a lot of Harley riders in Milwaukee as well.  Oh, and German Fest is the official kickoff of the Oktoberfest season in Wisconsin.

Dear reader, let's get the weekend started with a performance by Luftwaffenmusikkorps 2 complete with material that would not be out of place during a Fifth Quarter after a Badger victory.

Find yourself an Oktoberfest and go to it.

FRIDAY SHORT TAKES.

Biden off the ticket, Harris selected, not elected.  Buckle in.

The Second American Revolution will remain bloodless if the Left allows it to be.

Unfortunately, they have a well established record of instigating the opposite.

Here’s a small sample of what they mean when they talk about “saving democracy.”👇 pic.twitter.com/5dctmxOlDM

— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) July 3, 2024

Who knew party primaries could backfire so?  "This existential threat to democracy consists in the fact that today there's too damn much democracy in our political system."  We are witnessing history.  "Biden Endorses Kamala to Ride the Bomb Down Instead of Him."  Won't you please come to Chicago?  "Democratic politics felt like a game rigged by insiders to favor a candidate of their choice, and to isolate that candidate from the risk associated with campaigning."  Hubert Humphrey nods.

Four years ago, Democrats also rigged the game.  "Biden and Harris came into office with some cards to play but decided to govern from the far left instead of from the center. Biden’s support has predictably collapsed."  Yes, the normies noticed.  "Biden had deceitfully promised to conduct a healing campaign and a unifying presidency. But once in the White House, his extreme agendas proved the most divisive and far-left in nearly a century."  Democrats are out of touch with voters.

Let the reckoning begin.  "'Fundamentally transforming' this country has not improved it but instead drained it of its identity, independence, cohesiveness, and perpetual optimism."  We'll see how long the Kamala cult lasts among the giddy late adolescents.  Let wiser heads prevail.  "Yes, their problem isn’t that Joe is unfit. Their problem is that too many people noticed."  The Donks will pretend the valley girl is competent.  "The same party that lied about Joe Biden without compunction or remorse now wants you to credit everything it is going to tell us about the marvelous, heretofore unappreciated qualities of Kamala Harris."  And enough people might be fooled that she'll be sworn in.  "Why would Americans vote for this clown car party/team, whoever ultimately ends up as their nominee? They've already proved they don't care about Americans."  I want Democrats out of national office for a generation, but will be happy with continued gridlock.  "Our reserves of contempt are insufficient to do justice to the production they have brought us."  Conservatives told the truth about Biden.

The weekly round-up of mostly pithy elaborations on traditional Cold Spring Shops themes follows.

SUMMERTIME IS FOR WORKING ON THE RAILROAD.

It's Christmas in July, and yes, I'm giving thought to the upcoming Festive Season vintage train video.

The layout on the main level, which offers lots of switching possibilities, continues to take shape.  The first tracks more or less completed are the powered display track looping the basement up high, and having a train running reliably whilst work goes on on the workbench helps to pass the time away.

The upper level power supply is remote controlled with a kill switch on a lanyard I keep with me.  Wouldn't want anything derailed and dragging up that high.  Look for more workbench pictures in the upcoming days.  The train you see in the video, which has fewer jump cuts than a Biden social media post, stayed on the rails for the duration of that evening's workbench session.

I DOUBT THAT HE REASSURED ANYBODY.

Has it been less than a week since I weighed in on the sham that has been the Biden presidency?

Biden is establishmentarian who will govern as centrist. Strike 1. ⚾️

Voters remorse tied to "laptop is 🇷🇺 disinformation.
Strike 2. ⚾️⚾️

Basement strategy seemed prudent during pandemic and era of mean tweets, revealed as hiding the decline.
Strike 3. ⚾️⚾️⚾️ #BidenIsAFailure https://t.co/6PWr2M24zT

— Stephen Karlson (@StephenKarlson) July 19, 2024

I was willing to give Our President the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he figured out that he could go on for another five or six months, but that betting against the actuarial tables for four more years gave him pause.

I'm continuing yesterday's post that observed, "In the presence of continued Official Obfuscation, or perhaps simple incompetence, the conspiracy buffs have a free field."  Our President's recent decision not to seek a second term, followed by a lid lasting a day, and into that information vacuum came the tinfoil hat brigade.  "Into the void left by the amazing disappearing president appeared all manner of theories about what is going on. Some wilder than others. Was the president faking his Covid? Did Biden even sign his own announcement? Is he much sicker than his aides and doctors are letting on? Is he even. . . alive?"

Let's say that when he went on the air, allegedly around 8 pm Washington time, the fears of the conspiracy buffs were not assuaged.  "Appearing very frail, the president addressed the nation from the Oval Office in what was billed as an explanation of why he abruptly stepped aside as the Democratic Party nominee."  You don't have to search far, dear reader, to find observations about the background light (the talk might have been recorded at the Oval Office set, not the real Oval Office) or about what might be recent scars.

A REAL BIG BOY PRESS CONFERENCE.

The NBC affiliate in Green Bay invited female Trump voters to a focus group inside the National Railroad Museum.  "We'll Have A Woman President 'When There's A Competent One'." Sorry, Kamala Harris, not you!

Here's a real Big Boy press conference!https://t.co/TLp9skcaN1

— Stephen Karlson (@StephenKarlson) July 25, 2024

When the camera pulls back, Big Boy 4017 looks on, and interviewer Elise Jordan has her back to Gresley Streak Dwight D. Eisenhower, back from England's Grand Gathering of the Streaks.

Let's say that the focus group isn't likely to be swayed by anything the vice president does to reach out to swing voters.

THE NATIONAL DEAN'S LIST IS IN.

The Northern Illinois women's basketball team are on it, once again.

The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team was named to the Women's Basketball Coaches Association Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll on Wednesday. The Huskies had the fourth-highest team grade point average in NCAA Division I with a 3.811 GPA.

This is the fourth consecutive year NIU has ranked in the top 10 of the WBCA Division I Academic Top 25. In 2023 the Huskies were third in the nation in team GPA. NIU has been in the WBCA Academic Top 25 Honor Roll in each of the last six years.

A year ago, the team posted the third-highest team grade point average.  In the season just concluded, they had nine players named as academic all-Mid-American selections.  Joining Northern Illinois in the national top ten were the Northern Iowa, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Drake, and Toledo programs.

On the court, "The kids can play with the best of the Mid-American, for whatever that's worth, but they're inconsistent."  Perhaps, though, they're paying attention in their recruiting.

I've sometimes heard the coach talking about other teams having "length and athleticism" after something like that happens.  Case in point: two regular season losses to Miami of Ohio, whose season ended on the first day of the conference tournament.  If one can identify the qualities of length and athleticism, one can recruit for that.

Here's an introduction to the new kids coming through the transfer portal.

Northern Illinois University women's basketball head coach Lisa Carlsen announced on Tuesday the addition of transfers Kiylynn Dawkins, Marta Hermoso and Maria Serracanta for the 2024-25 season.

All three of these players add size and experience to our roster," Carlsen said. "Having players come into our program with international experience is a boost. Kiylynn adds depth and experience at the forward position while being versatile and athletic. Marta can stretch the floor offensively from the forward spot. Maria has great length for a guard and is effective in the open court."

I continue to have my reservations, we'll see how the team performs in the opening month or so of the season, which coincides with the beginning of the winter swap meet and Festive Season train seasons.

DUMB.

Some things I can't make up.

BNSF Railway Police have accused a 17-year-old railroad enthusiast of purposely derailing a coal train and filming it in Nebraska this spring.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that railroad police have referred the case to the Lancaster County Attorney’s Office recommending that the teenager be charged with felony criminal mischief after allegedly tampering with a switch that resulted in a derailment. On April 21, a loaded coal train went through the switch, derailed and struck a parked rail car on a track adjacent to the main line. The derailment resulted in an estimated $350,000 in damage.

The teenager allegedly filmed the derailment as it happened and later posted it on YouTube.

After the derailment law enforcement reviewed security cameras and found that someone had driven up to the switch and thrown it before the train arrived. That person then left and set up a camera near the crossing before the train arrived. After the derailment, the 17-year-old showed the video to railroad employees and identified himself as an enthusiast.

Good grief, Charlie Brown.  As if train-watchers aren't already perceived as a little off, and as if railroaders don't have enough things to worry about in the course of a long day's work.

CONCENTRATE ON THE SUBSTANCE.

Before the Democrats ham-handedly eased Our President into retirement, Common Dreams contributor and Indiana political scientist Jeffrey Isaac mused, "We are experiencing a perfect storm of democratic crisis."  He wrote that column before the Republicans convened in Milwaukee, prefacing the perfect storm passage with "It is certain that Trump and the GOP will play [being shot at] for all it is worth during next week's four day Republican national convention in Milwaukee. Meanwhile Joe Biden's candidacy totters amidst worries about his age and mental acuity, opening up real divisions within the Democratic party that need somehow to be closed."  It appears as though the Democrats are quickly promoting the vice president, whilst avoiding either the controversy of invoking the 25th Amendment or the reality of a death in office.  I repeat, it was an unforced error to keep the sitting president incommunicado rather than to have him claim to be able to finish his term yet acknowledging the remorseless logic of the actuarial tables.  Perhaps he'll provide clarity this evening.

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE.

Portland State sociologist.  Need I say more?  "Dependence on Bottled Water Worsens Social Inequality."  That link goes to audio.  The transcript offers about what you'd expect.

As a sociologist, I study the causes and the social and environmental effects of the rapid growth of bottled-water consumption in the U.S. and beyond.

Studies show that low-income, Black, and Latino households in the U.S. distrust their tap water more – and consume more bottled water– than do white and upper-income households.

The vast majority of U.S. tap water in fact meets all safety standards. Only 7 to 8 percent of water systems experience any health-related violations in an average year, but those systems disproportionately serve low-income communities and residents of color. Meeting a family’s full drinking and cooking needs with bottled water can cost thousands of dollars per year—vastly more than tap water—thus widening economic and racial inequality.

One major cause of U.S. tap water problems is a 45-year disinvestment trend. Federal spending on water infrastructure has fallen nearly 80 percent in real terms since the late 1970s–pushing the fiscal burden onto cities and states, and leading to deferred maintenance and aging pipes.

Many critics argue the federal government needs to reinvest in public water infrastructure. One current Congressional proposal to do so is the WATER Act, which would allocate $35 billion per year to improve water systems—an amount that is less than the $46 billion Americans spent last year to buy bottled water.

The sociologist concentrates on failures of local water authorities in Flint, Michigan and Jackson, Mississippi, neither of those communities known to have sewer socialists in their governments.  "The point of a price system is precisely to enable people to calculate the valuations on water."

Nor am I confident in the ability of Uncle Sugar to do the job any better.  "I know I sound like a broken record sometimes, but maybe there would be fewer things broken by government if government didn't sic its Wise Experts on people in the first place."  Additionally, if Uncle Sugar buys Flint or Jackson or anyplace else new water mains without making provisions to maintain them, while the local governments don't think like sewer socialists and price the water and sewer service, the day will come when those mains wear out, and there's no money to replace them until some future Congress acts, and the story of widening economic and racial inequality will go on and on.

Where infrastructure assets are valuable, market tests exist to price them.

SLOWLY THEY LEARN.

Local Passenger Rail advocates did a lot of crowing after a recent Milwaukee Business Journal article with a misleading headline.  "Amtrak's new Twin Cities-Chicago route through Milwaukee turns a profit in first 11 days."  Read the article, and you see an essential word omitted.

The twice-daily Borealis was built as an expansion of the current Empire Builder service which connects Chicago with the Twin Cities on its way to Seattle. Borealis’ 411-mile route takes about 7 hours and 20 minutes, compared with Empire’s nearly 8-hour journey.

The route is sponsored by the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois. A federal grant was to provide 90% of the first year operating costs. In its brief history, the St. Paul-to-Chicago route is one of only two Amtrak state-supported routes — out of 30 nationwide — to turn an operating profit this year; revenue for May was $600,000, vs. expenses of $500,000.

Understand "operating profit" as "above the wheels" costs: the fares cover crew salaries, fuel, and if the food service is properly managed, the contribution margin from the dining department is positive.  If the train does not require extended operating hours at any staffed stations (that is, where Amtrak or the locals staff the station), that's a phenomenon we ought to expect.  It's one of the strongest arguments for multiple frequencies.

Yes, in an ideal world, the 200 mile markets ought have hourly trains, and the 2000 mile corridors ought to have at least two train pairs, spaced by twelve hours or so, in order that each community with train service has at least one train during business hours, and the possibility of a round trip of a hundred miles or so on the same day.  I write "at least," as an East Coast service to Charleston, Savannah, and Florida has all sorts of possibilities for multiple trains, and at Christmas we can wish for the restoration of Chicago to Florida service.  In addition, the Passenger Rail operators and the freight railroads ought look for mutually beneficial ways to upgrade both the passenger and freight capacity.

A Fast Company report purports to read all sorts of Promising Things into that second frequency.

The Amtrak Borealis, a new rail line connecting Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul, has only been operating for about a month, but already thousands of passengers have taken the trip. That ridership has exceeded Amtrak’s expectations—and hints at the growing desire among Americans to travel by train.

Amtrak’s Borealis launched on May 21. In June, the line’s first full month of service, it saw more than 18,500 riders. That averages about 300 passengers a day, in each direction. That’s close to maximum capacity, though because not every passenger rides the full length of the route, Amtrak can sell the same seat multiple times, which makes counting total capacity a bit tricky. Trains are also resizable, so Amtrak could add more capacity over time, if the contracts and equipment availability allow.

That total ridership exceeded Amtrak’s forecasts—which Ray Lang, vice president of Amtrak State Supported Service, says were already “very optimistic”—by 2,900 passengers. “What that really means,” he adds, “is that there’s a strong demand for short-distance corridor trains in the United States to provide that transportation option for travelers that don’t want to drive or fly.”

There are opportunities for further research here.  A return of a second train to the Cities has long been on Passenger Rail advocates' wish list, and an observation I made six years ago is germane to that research.  "That works out to about 225 passengers on each train, or three Horizon coaches and a business class car apart from peak season. The skeptics are likely to be out in force.  It doesn't help any that the "corridor" relies on an overpurposed Empire Builder subject to delay."  The Borealis as operating these days is four Horizon coaches and an Amcafe with business class seating on one end, and it might be that passengers are opting for dependability keeping those four coaches full.

The figures do not indicate how much of the traffic is between Chicago and Milwaukee — the Borealis operates in place of one of the prior Hiawatha round trips on that portion — and how much is on the newly served Milwaukee-St. Paul segment. Eastbound ridership may occasionally be bolstered by passengers accommodated on the new train instead of a late-running Empire Builder. That could well be the case today (July 8), when the Borealis’ on-time 11:50 a.m. departure put it at least 90 minutes ahead of the eastbound Builder, projected to be almost 5 hours behind its scheduled 8:50 a.m. departure because of “earlier track maintenance and mechanical issues,” according to Amtrak’s website.

For what it's worth, Amtrak have shown the westbound Borealis sold out at Chicago the last two times I have shopped for Milwaukee round trips.  For further expansion of the corridor, my suggestions for the Twin Cities service, as principles for any other Regional Rail service, stay the same.

Once upon a time, Burlington served the same end cities with two Zephyr sets, quickly turning the arriving Morning Zephyr as the leaving Afternoon Zephyr, although in later years a combination of federal speed limits and less sharp operating ended that practice.  The Milwaukee Road had a tradition of good timekeeping that has continued on Canadian Pacific, although there were four Skytop Lounges and four Super Domes assigned to the Twin Cities Hiawathas as each train set was turned overnight.

With Canadian Pacific seeming to be poised to acquire Kansas City Southern and its lines into Mexico, though, there is the possibility, if the professionals get their act together, to use some of that infrastructure money to restore that second track in places through Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well as to upgrade the existing track and restoring free rein to 110.

Additional frequencies on any corridor, if the contracting freight railroads go along with it, reduce the fully-allocated-cost burden on each train, and they have the potential, provided the stock arrives dependably, to improve the utilization of the rolling stock.  The current Borealis schedules have actually worsened utilization on the Wisconsin services.  I repeat an impression from the early days of the new service.

With Amtrak having trouble assigning sufficient serviceable stock to protect its existing schedule, sooner or later somebody is going to take a close look at the Hiawatha and Borealis diagrams.  I had an opportunity to watch the turnarounds in Chicago on the second and third days of service.  Wednesday last week, the stock that arrived, about an hour late, on 1340 from St. Paul went out, about twenty minutes late, on the final Hiawatha to Milwaukee.  Thursday, 1340 arrived again about an hour late, and a different rake went to Milwaukee, about twenty minutes late.  I have not yet worked out the rotations by which stock for 336, which used to turn off 333 before 333 became 1333 for St. Paul, lays over in Milwaukee.  The enforced idleness of an entire rake in St. Paul, overnight, when there's plenty of time to add a sleeping car and run an overnight train for and from Chicago, also offers food for future thought.

That third frequency between Chicago and the Cities makes sense, and if Minnesotans start looking at what Great Northern and Northern Pacific once offered to Fargo, Grand Forks, and Winnipeg, the same principles of frequency and dependability might yield that operating profit.  Sometime Power Line contributor John Phelan raises points about restoring train service to Duluth that, while being negative toward the trains, reinforce the value of frequency and dependability.

The report showed that 6,600 passengers used the Borealis over those 11 days in May, so it had 600 riders daily. Operating Revenue was $600,000 over that period and Operating Expenses were $500,000 so Adjusted Operating Earnings — profit, if you like — was $100,000. The Wisconsin Association of Railroad Passengers reports daily ridership numbers for June of 618, with 330 going west and 288 going east.

It has been suggested that this data make the case for further trains running the route.

This only makes sense, however, if the extra service will generate extra travelers rather than simply shifting them from existing services. What has happened to ridership on the Empire Builder (St. Paul to Chicago) or the Hiawatha Service (Milwaukee to Chicago) on the stretches now served by the Borealis? More data is needed.

Others have suggested that this data make the case for building the Northern Lights Express, the proposed passenger train service between Minneapolis and Duluth.

This is simply absurd. There is a massive difference in the viability of a passenger train service running between the 3rd and 15th largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States by Gross Domestic Product — Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul — and one running between the 15th and 184th largest — Minneapolis/St. Paul and Duluth.

The Amtrak numbers show this. Out of 30 Amtrak-state supported routes nationwide, the Borealis was one of only two which turned an operating profit.

Very few of the state-supported routes offer multiple frequencies, and those heavier loadings eastbound than westbound are intriguing.  Wouldn't you expect to see more substitutions away from eastbound Builders that have all of the High Plains to lose time covering?  But the logic of adding frequencies on already served routes argues for additional trains to the Cities or into the Red River Valley before a single train is added for the Twin Ports.

THE COVER-UP INEVITABLY MAKES MATTERS WORSE.

I'm continuing yesterday's post that observed, "In the presence of continued Official Obfuscation, or perhaps simple incompetence, the conspiracy buffs have a free field."  Our President's recent decision not to seek a second term, followed by a lid lasting a day, and into that information vacuum came the tinfoil hat brigade.  "Into the void left by the amazing disappearing president appeared all manner of theories about what is going on. Some wilder than others. Was the president faking his Covid? Did Biden even sign his own announcement? Is he much sicker than his aides and doctors are letting on? Is he even. . . alive?"

That post raises several serious points.

[T]o me, at least, the surge in conspiracy theories isn’t as worrying as the fact we hadn’t seen the president in five whole days.

After all, if Biden isn’t well enough to face the American people, is he really well enough to “continue to perform all his presidential duties,” as his doctor claims? And with Biden isolating and Kamala booting up her own presidential campaign, who is actually running this country?

You would think a Democratic Party facing accusations of an elite subversion of the primary process would want maximum transparency right now. Instead, Biden has passed the torch in a way that seems seedier and more suspicious than it needed to.

Maybe Joe Biden knows all this. Maybe he is sulking. Maybe he is fully aware that his absence only makes his party look worse, and he’s reveling in the schadenfreude. But even after Biden pops up again, the case of the missing president will be another example of those in power complaining about a lack of public trust while finding new ways to make the problem worse.

I disagree with the notion that the president "runs the country."  There is nothing in Article II about running the country, and I don't have to ask permission to run out to White Hen when I stop for pop on a road trip.

THANKS YET ANOTHER MILLION.

 Cold Spring Shops started operating in September 2002.

I'm not sure how good the Google visit counters are; we recorded our millionth view in April 2016.

Our two millionth view arrived in August 2020.

As of the middle of April the Google visit counter had us at three million views.

It's been counting up rather quickly lately, with the four millionth view coming in sometime today.

I'm not sure how much of it is people actually engaging the posts.

If you are reading and engaging with the posts, thank you.

Perhaps you've found intellectual ammunition.

Perhaps I've encouraged you to look at something differently. 

Perhaps you've resolved not to take risks crossing railroad tracks.

Perhaps I've rubbed you the wrong way.

I surely am not lacking for material to carry on about.

Thanks again for looking in.  Enjoy.

LET'S HEAR IT FOR TRANSPARENCY.

The two preceding posts call attention to what happens when People In Authority either obfuscate or simply foul up.  In the presence of continued Official Obfuscation, or perhaps simple incompetence, the conspiracy buffs have a free field.

So here’s a wild thought:

We still haven’t heard from Joe. But let’s just assume he’s in poor health. COVID or whatever. But he was already a fading old man.

What if he dies while they’re trying to get him healthy enough to address the public?

Think how THAT would look.

— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) July 22, 2024

The immediate comments get further down various rabbit holes.

Our President, in the past half hour or so, did weigh in remotely while his vice president, the putative Democrat nominee now, was firing up the staff to continue the job.

The best thing for Republicans to do might be to call attention to what "continue the job" entails rather than to get into personalities, no matter how annoying the lady's voice and laughter are.  More on that later this week.

THE JACKAL AND GENERAL WALKER.

In April, 1963, former general Edwin Walker, whose superiors requested his resignation after he briefed troops under his command with unauthorized materials from the John Birch Society, and who was subsequently charged with insurrection for organizing a protest against Air Force veteran James Meredith enrolling at, and desegregating by so doing, the University of Mississippi, was working on his taxes when somebody shot at him.  One legend has it that he shifted his focus at just the right time: the reality is more prosaic.  The guy who took a shot at him didn't see the window sash divider through his telescopic sight, and the general suffered only minor injuries as the cladding shattered on the latching mechanism and the slug was deflected enough to flatten in the wallboard.  Had the general closed the shades after dark, which is elementary personal security, whether against real or imagined enemies or Peeping Toms or prowling cat-burglars, or for the aesthetic reason that interior light reflected off exterior windows back into the house is distracting, the guy who took the shot might have moped off unfulfilled.  The post that follows will take a long and winding road back to General Walker's door, with lots of free associations and digressions.

JOE BIDEN BOWS OUT.

What was it, two weeks ago his handlers promised a Big Boy Press Conference, complete with a list of reporters to call on?

That's not a big boy.  To ferroequinologists, this is a Big Boy.

Gastronomes might know the precursor of the Big Mac.

Did you know Kamala Harris likes cheeseburgers?  You know, that sesame seed bun in three segments brings to mind the three circles of your basic Venn Diagram.  You also know that her enjoyment of cheeseburgers comes with a word salad.

Kamala Harris, lest Americans think otherwise, conceded she loves cheeseburgers. She didn’t seem too proud of it: “I mean just to be very honest with you; I love cheeseburgers from time to time. Right. I mean I—I just do,” she said, before gesturing toward the incentives and educational programs she’d institute to encourage moderation in eating. CNN’s Erin Burnett pushed Harris: Would she change the dietary guidelines “to reduce red meat specifically?” Because she is a woman of courage, Harris admitted: “Yes, I would.”

We have much to look forward to, don't we?

Over the weekend, I was getting my fill of warbirds enroute to Oshkosh and savoring some hard-fought Brewer wins over the Twins.  Wireless connectivity meant that as people were queueing to walk through a B-29 the news of Mr Biden opting not to stand for re-election was rippling along the flight line.  As if July hasn't brought all sorts of surprises already.

The issue isn't Mr Biden's physical state alone.  Stephen "Vodka Pundit" Green summarizes the stakes.  "Whoever ends up being the Democrat nominee will be every bit as radical as Joe Biden—or worse. If Democrats win in November, we'll be looking at record inflation, a massive increase in the national debt, wide-open borders, more violence nationwide, and increased radicalization of K-12 and higher education."  I repeat, because repeat I must, and I will repeat it again, an observation from before the switcheroo: "In particular, should the Democrats swap out the current figurehead for a new figurehead carrying out the policy preferences of the Jarrett regency, the Libertarians and Republicans had best have policy-based arguments, whether building on Professor Cowen's points or on their own work, ready to go."

Although the party establishment seems to be concurring on promoting the current vice-president to the top of the ticket, Common Dreams contributor Richard Eskow alludes to internal struggles within the Democrat coalition.

I do dislike being gaslit. Most people do. Biden’s allies have been gaslighting voters for too long, creating distrust that could doom Democratic candidates up and down the ballot. And they’re not the only ones being gaslit. So is Biden himself. Like an aging pugilist in an old movie, he’s being manipulated by people who have put their own interests above his. They’ve let Biden think he can still win. That’s cruel. It’s even crueler to keep pushing him into appearances where he says things like, “By the way, I’m proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, first black woman, to serve with a black president.”

The greater gaslighting is still out there, for the Libertarians and Republicans to point out.  The Democrats papered over those divisions selling Mr Biden as some sort of centrist, which proved to be nonsense within a month of his taking office; and they will point to the money printing and legislation passed by the margin of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema as Great Accomplishments, never mind that there will be more crumbled infrastructure at the end of the fiscal year than there was at its beginning; and Ms Harris is unable to credibly offer the corporatist wing of her coalition anything without the communist wing raising hell.

YOU CAN BUILD AN AIRCRAFT AT HOME, BUT YOU'D BETTER BE CURRENT WITH THE NOTAMS.

A headline out of Milwaukee sounds more lurid than it was.  "NORAD F-35 intercepts aircraft inside of RNC restricted airspace."  That happened the day after my train ride to see the convention sights.

Reality is less exciting.

The aircraft was traveling from northwest Indiana to Oshkosh when it flew through the restricted area in rural Walworth County near East Troy.

The pilot was escorted out of the area by a North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) F-35 jet. The jet caught the aircraft 24 miles southwest of Milwaukee.

Workers at the Jasper County, Indiana, airport, where the pilot took off from, said he came in for gas and left. The plane was a single-propeller Vans RV-6A kit aircraft. WISN 12 News tracked down its tail number, registered to a private owner in Atlanta. The owner could not be reached for comment Thursday.

NORAD would not comment on the interception specifically.

This week, the air space around Oshkosh is some of the world's busiest, with the home builders, the vintage warbirds, the entrepreneurs, and the air show professionals attending clinics, churning up the air, and sometimes cutting up jackpots.  The Harleys are converging on Milwaukee, and German Fest starts the Oktoberfest season this Friday.

TOASTING THE CONVENTION COVERAGE WITH A SPRECHER.

Prosit!  "Brian Kilmeade goes behind the scenes at Sprecher Brewing Co. to learn about the brewing process and sits down with Rebellion Brewing Company to talk patriotism and the small business climate."

Brian Kilmeade tours Wisconsin breweries | https://t.co/NXmywnFhjK

— Stephen Karlson (@StephenKarlson) July 19, 2024

If the embed doesn't work, for the next few days it should play at the Fox News link.

Note that only the pop is being bottled, all beer is now in cans.

Not too long ago, we teased the Morning Joe hosts for quaffing Milwaukee Ice, and for a local craft brewer to tease Donald Trump.  "Milwaukee being the Beer City, it's not surprising that a local craft brewer, MobCraft, in the shadow of Boys' Tech, came up with a limited run '(Not So) Horrible City IPA.'"  There is still Sprecher in the cooler, and it will likely continue to come in handy as the populists running as Republicans try to win this thing, while the faction fight among the Democrats has another month to run until the convention in Chicago.

FRIDAY short TAKES.

A lot can happen in a week.  "After the incident in Pennsylvania, even Trump’s worst enemies cannot deny that some would rather see him dead than re-elected."  I thought Rush Limbaugh used the expression "drive-by media" ironically.  "The same media that tried to place at least some blame for Gabby Giffords being shot on Sarah Palin because Palin’s PAC used crosshairs to say they were targeting various vulnerable candidates cannot try to pretend that they played no role in suggesting Trump was dangerous."  What goes around ... "Well, New Republic, recently someone took you up on your argument that Trump was “damn close enough” to Hitler and so he likewise chose to “fight”— albeit with a semi-automatic rifle."

Assassination Porn and the Sickness on the Left

If we were leftists and we were to use leftist tropes to editorialize the recent attempt on Trump’s life, then we would frame the assassination attempt in the following way:

We have witnessed for years blatant exceptions to the…

— Victor Davis Hanson (@VDHanson) July 14, 2024

Bourgeois norms mean calling individuals to account.  "Routine accusations that such-and-such political leader is a fascist, or Hitler, or a communist, or a dictator are not making things better for anyone. But words do not have some hypnotic power to induce others to commit violence. As always, when a deranged person takes up a gun and attacks someone, we should blame that individual—not other people's words."  Once the punishment cycles of a grim strategy outcome begin, restoring a state of good repair is hard.  "One senses that perhaps various authorities are belatedly sensing danger and deciding that perhaps better to dial it back, before going too far in outraging the normies. Straws perhaps … but is the cold fury of normal citizens finally being felt?"

The weekly round-up of mostly pithy elaborations on traditional Cold Spring Shops themes follows.

SQUISH, SQUISH, SQUISH.

During the just-concluded Republican National Convention (and I hope I have heard the last reference to an "RNC Convention," now I must brace myself to those "MAC Conference" references) there was a gathering of Wisconsin's Never Trumpers, of which there have long been many.  It merited coverage by the regime media in the form of the paper that has played its own role in killing democracy in darkness.  "On the edge of despair with the GOP convention’s last Never Trumpers."

Michael Steele strode to the front of the room at the historic Pabst brewery on Wednesday to hoots and hurrahs. Not so long ago, the silver-tongued former lieutenant governor of Maryland was running the show at the Republican National Convention as the GOP’s national chairman. But when he tried to rile up a crowd of Republican fans with a simple “What’s up?” all he got was tepid nervous laughter. “Really?” he said.

The reaction seemed worrisome for a gathering of Never Trumpers who are typically glad to find a place — any place — where they can be both openly conservative and openly disdainful of the man being nominated just a few blocks down the street. But some of them also aren’t sold on the Democratic nominee, so a diagnosis was in order. Steele seemed disheartened that his fellow travelers weren’t exactly fired up to beat the man atop the GOP ticket.

“I don’t know what the hell is wrong with anybody in this room right now,” Steele said.

“I don’t know what the hell your problem is. I don’t know why you have questions or doubts. I don’t understand why anybody outside this room is sitting here wondering, ‘What am I going to do in November?’”

It came to this, dear reader, when these Never Trumpers decided that punishing the party for nominating Donald Trump meant not voting for any Republican.  How well did that turn out for them?

Haven't the Establishment Pundits inflicted enough pain on us already?

Not somebody who suggested the way to punish Republicans who were too Trump-friendly is to vote for Democrats, no way. That is to say, S. E. Cupp, and the Bulwark types, and George Will. The pompous, bow-tied, Chicago Cub and American Flyer fan is still at it, still trying to shame the Trumpian elements of the Republican coalition.

Mr Will recognized, dimly, what his advocacy brought.  Follow the link if you want.  It's this message I want to reinforce.  "Dear reader, if you're uneasy about that sort of Republican ...  and your choice is between a Trumpian showboater and a Squad-adjacent Democrat, reject the false binary, and don't let those irritated rumps on the extreme get your vote.  There might be libertarians or socialists or free-soilers elsewhere on the ballot."

The Democrats' irritated rump is still inside the party, and the tussles between them and the corporatists over whether Dementia Joe should be replaced, and if so, with whom and on what platform, have been entertaining, and there might be a post on that show.  These days, the Republicans' irritated rump includes the Never Trumpers gathering at the Pabst brewhouse, as well as the likes of failed presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and former president George Bush.