JOHN GALT, PERHAPS WITH LEON TROTSKY, COME FOR JOE BIDEN'S RAILROAD DEAL.

Because of the way the Railway Labor Act works, there will be no general strike of railroaders until after the November elections, although there is no guarantee that the strike has been averted by the agreement currently being voted on.

WORK-LIFE BALANCE, AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE?

The Conversation's Arianne Chernock considers the effect of a British Queen on the mindset of the women of the American High.

Elizabeth also represented something else. At a time when women were, in many cases, expected to conform to traditional roles of a housewife and homemaker, Elizabeth was ascending the throne of a powerful country. In the words of one psychologist interviewed for a 1953 Los Angeles Times article, for the first time “the women of America have found a heroine who makes them feel superior to men.”

There might have been something like that at work. Once upon a time, the Wisconsin State Broadcasting Service (we understand that, today, as Wisconsin Public Radio) had some before-and-after-school programming that was intended for kids. One of the songs I recall went something like "Men Rule the World." It might have been based on a number from a musical version of Hansel and Gretel, featuring Rudy Vallee??!?.

The radio version I recall, however, concluded  the rather triumphant recitation of assorted presidents, generals, business executives, what have you: with mention of this (at the time newly crowned) Queen of England.  That's what got Professor Chernock's attention.

When women traveled to London in 1953 – or, as second best, turned on their newly purchased television sets to tune into the coronation coverage – they were not just interested in what the queen was wearing or the dashing figure cut by Prince Philip.

They were also fixated on the fact that so much fuss was being made over a woman at all, and a powerful one at that. As U.S. ambassador to Italy Clare Boothe Luce explained at the time, this was “an assignment made to order for a woman.” Luce used this logic to convince President Dwight Eisenhower to send the journalist Fleur Cowles to the coronation as one of his official representatives.

Indeed, as Luce alluded to, there was something deliciously disruptive about Elizabeth’s reign. Against a postwar backdrop, when many American women were being urged to return to the home and take pride in the efficiency of their kitchens, here was a 25-year-old princess being elevated to a position of head of state, her every step reported and discussed. This was anomalous, and in ways that seemed to augur well for others of her sex.

Reporter John Kord Lagemann, writing in the Los Angeles Times in 1953, captured this sentiment in a piece on “America’s Queen-Crazy Women.” Elizabeth, Lagemann noted, posed a challenge to patriarchy. Case in point was her marriage. Here, he wrote, the “situation is reversed” and the woman “commands.”

The tradeoffs, and there were tradeoffs, came later.

Even as the women’s liberation movement helped shift certain conversations, the queen continued to model an alternative path forward – one in which women could travel without their children, demonstrate their command of policy, be at the center of the photograph, take responsibility and even grow old in the public eye.

I saw speculation, somewhere, that the troubles the Queen's kids had in early adulthood might have been a consequence of her early ascension to the throne, and "doing the boxes" took her away from being a mom.  It's possible, although being able to farm out most of the kid time to domestics is what upscale power couples do these days, and then, it's obligatory for tenure-track academicians, who have among the most favorable working conditions anywhere, to offer a similar gripe, only it's producing minimal publishable units, not doing the boxes, that gets in the way of being there for their spawn.

Note, also, that Queen Elizabeth was pregnant with Edward at the time of John Kennedy's murder and did not travel to Washington for that  state funeral.

All the same, one can do worse as an example of a woman professional than the late Queen.  R.I.P.

RATE YOUR DEANLETS.

Well, why not?  There is "Rate My Professor" and there have been several attempts at "Rate Your Students", and now there's what might be a futile and stupid gesture, although it could be an opportunity for the faculty to regain stewardship of the curriculum.

A new website allows faculty members, staff and graduate students to rate their university officials.

RateYourCampusAdmin.com allows anonymous faculty members to “evaluate” senior campus administrators.

“At RateYourCampusAdmin.com, you will have the power to evaluate the performance of the senior administrators on your campus, through a thoroughly researched, robust means for aggregating expert opinions about the quality of the service they deliver to your community,” the frontpage states.

The website’s home page displays a series of questions such as, “Are you tired of having little voice over the decisions on your campus?” and “Are you concerned about the spiraling costs of senior administration?”

Any faculty member who is "tired of having little voice" might have been complicit in the administrative usurpations, which began, years ago, with steps that eroded faculty authority in support of causes that many faculty members agreed with.

Perhaps such an effort will have an effect.  Otherwise, we could compile a new sheepshead deck.

I CAN STAND IN RED SQUARE AND CRITICIZE REAGAN.

That's a late Cold War era joke about freedom of speech in the Soviet Union, and it might apply, with equal force, to people who can put up twee signs about "no person is illegal" because the illegal immigrants never show up there.

Until they do.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott shipped illegal immigrants to Obamaland (Martha’s Vineyard), Chicago, New York and other deep-blue cities and blue states where Democrats prize themselves on ignoring federal immigration laws.

The two Republican governors fed President Joe Biden and the Democrats what amounts to a hideous tasting sandwich of what the puppy left behind, with extra helpings of hypocrisy sauce. This forced legacy corporate media to finally cover a subject Biden wants to avoid–his failure to maintain a secure Southern border.

Why, it's as if somebody stood in Red Square and criticized Chernenko.

ANOTHER VIDEO THE COMBINE WOULD RATHER YOU NOT SEE?

A doorbell camera recording from the Lakefront Liberal area of Chicago became material for a negative (read truthful) advertisement that You Tube deemed so distressing as to be for registered users only.

Now cell phone video has come to light suggesting that the pool deck on Carnival Sunrise is as dangerous as Water Tower Place can be.  "Various passengers shared footage of the nasty bust-up, which involved a handful of people, punching and beating on each other by the pool."

A fight between cruise passengers sailing on the Carnival Sunrise is caught on camera pic.twitter.com/DUyNSKci2J

— Parker Branton (@ParkerBranton) September 11, 2022

Cruise Law News comments,

The problem arises when the “wider audience” (a term coined by Carnival chairmen Micky Arison) finds their way onto cruise ships attracted by low prices. Add too much alcohol, and too few well-trained security guards on these budget ships, and this is what happens. Carnival security guards are often seen kicking or hitting the guests or trying to keep onlookers from videotaping the raucous conduct.

Deconstruct bourgeois norms at your peril.

A BRITISH SEAFOOD PIE, MADE IN MICHIGAN?

In George Orwell's "Keep the Aspidistra Flying," there is a picturesque visit to a street market.

From the side-street just ahead, a shade of white light cut through the mist, and there was a bellowing of street hawkers. It was Luton Road, where they have the open-air market two evenings a week. Gordon turned to his left, into the market. He often came this way. The street was so crowded that you could only with difficulty thread your way down the cabbage-littered alley between the stalls. In the glare of hanging electric bulbs, the stuff on the stalls glowed with fine lurid colours--hacked, crimson chunks of meat, piles of oranges and green and white broccoli, stiff, glassy-eyed rabbits, live eels looping in enamel troughs, plucked fowls hanging in rows, sticking out their naked breasts like guardsmen naked on parade. Gordon's spirits revived a little. He liked the noise, the bustle, the vitality. Whenever you see a street-market you know there's hope for England yet.

Those eel, though?  Probably not fit for a King.

An odd tradition – sea lamprey pie – linking the Great Lakes to Great Britain’s Royals and is expected to continue with the crowning of King Charles III.

Lampreys are considered an undesirable invasive species in the Great Lakes. They devastate native fish by latching onto them with a sucker-like mouth filled with sharp teeth.

Great Lakes state, provincial and federal governments spend millions of dollars to control them.

But baking them into a pie is a longtime tradition in the United Kingdom.

Queen Elizabeth II, who died Sept. 8 after reigning 70 years, was served the eel-like sea lamprey in 2002 to celebrate her Golden Jubilee, or 50th anniversary of being on the throne.

That's not the species of eel on offer along Luton Road.

The lamprey pie is a tradition in the U.K., spanning hundreds of years. Serving it was discontinued except for coronations in 1836, due to its high cost, according to “What’s Cooking America,” a website that documents food history.

The lamprey is baked while coated in syrup, along with some wine and spices. It is then spooned out and served on sliced white bread.

It's possible to catch a few in the Great Lakes, and prepare them for shipment overseas.

“This all started in the Middle Ages when the city of Gloucester in England had to pay homage to the reigning monarch, and the city’s way of doing that was to present a pie made of lamprey,” which at that time were considered a delicacy and prized by the upper class, [Michigan Fishery Commission functionary Marc Gaden] said. The gift quickly became the city’s traditional way of showing respect to the monarchy.

Fast forward to 2002: Gaden got a call from Gloucester. Lampreys had disappeared from England, apparently because virtually every freshwater stream had a dam near its mouth, preventing lamprey from entering to spawn, and the creatures are unable to reproduce in deep water, according to the website of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.

Don't expect lakeside restaurants in the States or Canada to offer Coronation Pie this winter, though: because mercury accumulates in fish fat, and lampreys latch on to fish fat, the catch being sent to Gloucester (this one is inland: no fish-to-Gloucester jokes, please) has to be tested first to be below legal limits for mercury concentration.

FRIDAY short TAKES.

Watch Buckwheat spin developments as "anti-fascist."  "Joe Biden’s inability to resolve a labor dispute since spring only speaks to his ever-present incapacity to serve as president."  Government is the problem.  "Standing at the head of that government and lashing out at your political enemies isn't how the president of the United States convinces people otherwise. Instead, it makes an already unpopular political figure look desperate, unhinged, and potentially the very danger he insists is posed by others."  Politics divides.  "With all due respect to both the current and former presidents, which isn't much, what differentiates them, and their political organizations, isn't the degree of their adherence to the Constitution and liberal norms, it's the branding on their disdain for those things."

How many ways do Our Intellectual Betters destroy things?  "Disordered public aesthetics contribute to disordered public morals."  That's before breakfast:  "Government officials broke the world, and we’re all paying the price."  Fewer people are working now than before Fauciism began.

The weekly roundup of pithy elaborations of traditional Cold Spring Shops themes follows.

LOOK FOR THE SIMPLEST EXPLANATION.

The various coronavirus shots might make a patient's experience with the disease less bad, but I call them "shots" rather than "vaccines" because the point of a vaccination is to make the disease go away with no ill effects.

That noted, the excess deaths from other causes that insurers, and vaccine critics, have noted, are consequences of treatments deferred.

In health care we have what are referred to as “ambulatory care sensitive conditions”. That means if someone gets regular routine care for the disease or condition, they should not experience acute exacerbations that result in hospitalizations or death. This includes diseases like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease. Going to the ER or urgent care when one is experiencing symptoms, like chest pain, light headedness, failing asleep, of these diseases is also important to avoid bad outcomes. There are other conditions, cancer being the most notorious, for which early diagnosis is critically linked to a good prognosis. Early diagnosis requires regular screening and doctor visits. Now look at both the US and the Minnesota chart–what do you see.

You see the effects of the national and state terror campaigns which kept people away from health care for fear of getting CV-19. Little Timmy Walz and Jan Malcolm never missed an opportunity to terrorize people into staying in their basements and avoiding all human contact, including for necessary health care. And the EHR and claims data show that people missed all kinds of needed care, including cancer screenings, diabetes, heart disease and other routine care. And their disease got worse and some of them died. And more of these people died at home, because they didn’t go to the ER with that chest pain.

Those deaths are a direct consequence of the corona tyranny.

And there on that chart is the evidence–diabetes, heart disease and hypertension all had significant excess deaths nationally and in Minnesota. So did cancer, which was higher than the national rate in Minnesota–because Little Timmy’s terror campaign was particularly egregious and effective. Now let’s talk about the other big excess death category–dementias. Do you recall Little Timmy ordering that no one could visit nursing home residents. That is a lot of dementia patients. And the lack of any social contact literally killed them. It is euphemistically called “failure to thrive” but it means they gave up because no one cared about them.

Where a simpler explanation is possible, prefer it. "Alex Berenson et al should stop their lying about excess deaths being linked to the vaccines–when you look at it by cause, it is absolutely clear what caused these deaths."  That, dear reader, is how science works.

UPSCALE, DOWNSCALE, RESALE?

Have things gotten so bad in Biden's America that upscale residents of Wisconsin's Lake District now rate a resale store just for them?  A local radio station has been running commercials for a business called designXchange [c.q.], "where discerning buyers with discriminating tastes come to find premium home decor on consignment at a value."  That "X" in the business name suggests I might have to rethink my slagging on the Thirteenth Generation as the walking, talking embodiment of crude.

DONALD TRUMP IS NOT RUNNING FOR DOG CATCHER.

He's not running for school board, either.  Those are often non-partisan elections, but it is straightforward enough to identify the candidates for school board who have been endorsed by the local teachers' unions.  Those candidates are the ones fine with keeping the schools closed, and who might not be troubled by the injection of critical studies into the elementary curriculum to the exclusion of reading and mathematics.  "[Democrats should] be held accountable for the irresponsible rhetoric and politicization that kept America out of school. It’ll be up to the rest of us to remember what Democrats want everyone to forget. And to make sure those policies stay in the dustbin of history."  Feckless.  Turf them out.

THE POTATO RUSH GOES ON FOREVER.

There will be no general strike of railroaders tomorrow.  High-stakes jawboning led to an agreement, postponing any strike until October, and the best-case outcome will be the contracts ratified with no strike.  "It means there will be no nationwide rail work stoppage beginning Friday, Sept. 16, or for the next few weeks, but the threat of a management lockout or labor strike is not over as memberships of only two of the 12 unions have so far ratified tentative agreements."  There's still conflict, and we might again be on strike watch as the month ends.

Significantly, the threat of a work stoppage is not over, as tentative agreements face ratification votes by rail union members whose mood over the past 33 months of collective bargaining between their leaders and the NCCC has been super sour.

One union’s members already have rejected a tentative agreement—the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, representing some 5% of the unionized work force affected by this round of collective bargaining over wages, benefits and work rules. The negotiating team of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen had earlier reached a tentative agreement, but a larger governing body of the union declined to authorize it being sent to the membership for a ratification vote. The sweeteners achieved by the signalmen, along with the BLET and SMART-TD, are expected to permit it now to enter the ratification process.

As the unions with tentative agreements proceed to encourage member ratification, a status quo of no strikes and no lockout will occur. What happens if some unions fail to ratify remains to be seen. There will be no bar against their engaging in a work stoppage at that time—or for the railroads to impose a work stoppage lockout.

The fraught labor relations in railroading have been a long time coming.  Once upon a time, there were hectic cycles in railroading: summer movements of ore from the Iron Range to the Lakes; the harvest rush from the Great Plains to the elevators, and then from the elevators to the flour mills or to the sea for export; the Aroostook potato rush.  There were itinerant railroaders, called "boomers," who would follow the seasonal rushes and make their living seeing the country.  During the seasonal rushes, the extra boards would turn over rapidly, with crews called "on their rest," meaning that they'd be back on duty eight hours after going off their previous run, which could last as long as sixteen (later fourteen, now twelve) hours.  The stress on crews and equipment, whether brought on by weather, deferred maintenance, or people with incompatible personalities working together, made for a gritty sort of railroad writing.

These days, though, it's all potato rush, all the time.

Over the years, I've been skeptical of efforts to make businesses in general, and railroads in particular, better by shrinking the physical plant and antagonizing shippers.  The latest effort sails under the banner of "precision scheduled railroading," but, trackside, it strikes Jeff Lusanne as just another speed-up.

It might be that even some of the managers complicit in the Permanent Potato Rush are having second thoughts about some of it.

Fifteen years ago, a Class I faced increasing demand cascading on top of an already congested system. Customers insisted on more cars, more pick-ups. Instead of first clearing and rebalancing the system and achieving fluidity before adding more equipment, the ops executives acquiesced to the salespeople and threw more cars, equipment and “best efforts” service promises into the system.

Dwell, speed, on-time origination and arrival times, train starts, cars on line and every other metric deteriorated further. The service numbers became known as “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.” A few customers received ok service most of the time, the rest was catch-as-catch-can. Finally, as congestion worsened, railroad management came up with the idea that every customer, salesperson and network ops controller was to be given an iPad so everyone could simultaneously see the location of the customer’s car(s). Customers loved it. J.D. Power’s customer satisfaction ratings soared to 9.0. Congestion hit new highs. But customers psychologically knew where their car was. What a relief! As long as that car was picked up, it became the railroad’s problem, not the customer’s. The car inched its way toward its destination, but apparently that was now okay.

Finally, a serious recession occurred. The congestion problem was solved! Thank God for economic crises!

But you can always have a congested railroad, if you trim enough (that is, until you've effectively liquidated the railroad.) "All this conveniently bring us to the most valuable capital resource in achieving good service: Labor. Think about it: How would you like to work under conditions where you didn’t know when you go to work, when you get off, and have to spend 12-14 hours getting rest at the away-from-home hotel room?"  It's been more like eight hours, and that's the outer bound: all the checking in, washing up, talking to the family, comes out of that "rest" time.  No surprise that the crews are cranky.  Wall Street, meanwhile, might not be as understanding as these men think.

When you encounter today’s problems of congestion and pinch points, look first for an operating solution. If it becomes obvious you need to make a capital investment to extend a siding, add a crossover or rebuild yard receiving and departure tracks, then make it. Alternatively, you may find that adding a job at a location that moves cars faster, reduces dwell time, car-hire and congestion will actually saves you money. If it costs money, spend it. It may well reduce assets needed or be a one-time expense or capex.

Wall Street will understand spending money to restore operational integrity and enhance growth and pricing. (Wall Street will understand saving money, for sure!) Your workers can go back to doing their jobs. And customers will have a system that works.

I'll believe it when I see it.

I've long been suspicious of the latest attempt to "improve rail service" by offering less of it.  "[P]erhaps precision scheduled railroading is hype.  I fear that it's dressing up the false economy that downsizing or right-sizing or re-engineering or whatever you call it these days with a more positive sounding name."  The core concept of precision scheduled railroading is simple enough.  "A parked freight car is not making money for the railroad or moving goods for the shipper."  But it's possible to have fewer freight cars clogging the yards if there are fewer freight cars on the railroad.  "If those cars don't show up as promised, the shipper well might go to trucks."  I've long called attention to the folly of focusing on short-term returns to the detriment of the long-term health of the company, and that's particularly salient when you're dealing with a railroad running locomotives good for twenty years, freight cars good for forty, viaducts good for over a century, and tunnels that might be there forever.

Although the negotiators have their agreement, the membership still votes.

Early reactions suggest that some union members are furious with the newly released agreement and plan to oppose its ratification. The Washington Post's Lauren Kaori Gurley observed that responses from rail workers have been a mixture of "optimism and deep skepticism."

One unnamed rail worker bluntly told Jonah Furman of Labor Notes that "it's a garbage deal."

"Everyone hates it so far," the worker added. "It does nothing for me. I'll vote no. This has been a complete waste of time."

If those sentiments are common, late September might be interesting.  The machinists' reservations, note, do not involve the attendance requirements and subject-to-call provisions the operating crews have been seeking to change.

My Chicago Boyz colleague David Foster marshalled additional links on the freight railroads.

SHE SOUNDED OFF ABOUT THE WRONG LEGACIES.

The Internet might be the closest thing on earth to St. Peter's Permanent Record that the nuns at St. Gregory the Great warned their charges of.  Apparently, a younger Liz Truss, now Tory prime minister of Great Britain, was once upon a time a firebrand for Britain's Liberal Democrats.

'We Liberal Democrats believe in opportunity for all.

'I was being interviewed by Newsnight earlier this afternoon and we were filmed asking members of the public what they thought about the Monarchy.

'We came across a group of three people. I'd say they were around 50, 60 [years of age]. [They] looked fairly middle class, rather smart and in fact rather reactionary to be perfectly frank.

'We asked them they're opinion of the Monarch, do you know what they said? They said: 'Abolish them. We've had enough'.'

She also went on to say during the same speech that she agreed with former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown on the Monarchy.

'I agree with Paddy Ashdown when he said: 'Everybody in Britain should have the chance to be a somebody,' she said in Brighton.

'But only one family can provide the head of the state. We Liberal Democrats believe in opportunity for all. We do not believe people are born to rule.

'We believe in referenda on major constitutional issues; we do not believe people should be born to rule, or that they should put up and shut up about decisions which affect their everyday lives.'

Asked when she realised she did not want to scrap the monarchy, she told reporters in Peterborough today: 'Almost immediately after I'd made that speech.

I lose track of what the lesser British political parties are, although it's possible that when "Labour" means "Socialist," "Liberal Democrat" might introduce some Scottish Enlightenment leavening into what otherwise might be the Hubert Humphrey position.  Moreover, inasmuch as Head of State is more ceremonial than substantive, why not make it hereditary?

Subsequently, she grew up.

When she was quizzed by the BBC's Nick Robinson on her former wish to abolish the Monarchy, she said: 'I think it's fair to say that when I was in my youth I was a professional controversialist and I liked exploring ideas and stirring things up.

'And I came from a left-wing background as I said my mother was in the campaign for nuclear disarmament.

'There are very few people at my school or who I met on a regular basis in fact, I could count them on one hand who you'd describe as right-wing.

'So I thought at the time, this is a totally different way of life, it doesn't represent the type of society I want to live in.

'And I began to understand more about why Britain is successful and part of our success is the constitutional monarchy that supports a free democracy.'

Britons have difficulties understanding U. S. politics, in part because there is no libertarian tradition as we understand it there.  What they have in common with the United States is too much confidence in credentialed elites.  Funnily, though, the credentialed elites don't like being called out on it.

Republicans have a “longstanding contempt for knowledge and expertise” in fields that include “history, public health, climate change, or ecology.” While writing her essay calling for denunciation of half of the country, [Michigan comparative literature professor Silke-Maria] Weineck argued that “colleges are not, in fact, left-wing institutions.”

“Rather, they are hierarchical operations largely dedicated to reproducing a social order that benefits the upper-middle class, liberals and conservatives alike,” she wrote.

She wrote that Republicans are “ready to wage open war with colleges, intent on confiscating the social capital they wield” and this “is a moment of considerable peril.”

Perhaps because universities are failing at their mission, but I digress.  Do the hundred or so institutions that claim to be in the U. S. News top 20 stand in opposition to the social order, or are they complicit in it?

The point of social hierarchy and aristocracy is to sustain a class system that makes the rest of us feel inferior. Those at the top of the social hierarchy hand out tokens for loyal service, including the Order of the British Empire (OBE). The monarchy is the bedrock of hereditary rule and inherited wealth. This caste system filters down from the Nazi-loving House of Windsor to the organs of state security and the military. It regiments society and keeps people, especially the poor and the working class, in their “proper” place.

The British ruling class clings to the mystique of royalty and fading cultural icons as James Bond, the Beatles and the BBC, along with television shows such as “Downton Abbey” — where in one episode the aristocrats and servants are convulsed in fevered anticipation when King George V and Queen Mary schedule a visit — to project a global presence. Winston Churchill’s bust remains on loan to the White House.

Funnily, author Chris Hedges uses his own credentials to suggest a tablemate at an Oxford event would otherwise have treated him badly.

I sat next to a former MP who asked me two questions I had never been asked before in succession. “When did your family come to America?” he said, followed by “What schools did you attend?” My ancestors, on both sides of my family, arrived from England in the 1630s. My graduate degree is from Harvard. If I had failed to meet his litmus test, he would have acted as if I did not exist.

That might say more about Mr Hedges than about his dinner companion.  Never mind that the Credentialed Intelligentsia have made a hash of public policy, and would have done so no matter whether the United Kingdom had a monarchy or not.

Meanwhile, new prime minister Truss is not off to the best policy start. "With each household and business able to offload its cost of high energy consumption on to taxpayers, each household and business will be shielded from the reality of energy scarcity."  Liberal Democrats (in the sense of Hubert Humphrey) would likely approve, though, of stipends to people confronting high fuel prices.

WHAT WERE THE GROUNDS FOR DIVORCE?

Kurt Schlichter is one of the more colorful voices of the populist right, and he's written a series of novels that he hopes will persuade people an actual national divorce, with a cold or hot civil war, will be unpleasant.  The three most recent are, in his alternative chronology, Crisis, fifth in the series, which is where the unpleasantness began; The Split, sixth in the series (a seventh is in preparation), which has the first settling of scores within the sections, predating Indian Country and the revision of borders as well as predating People's Republic, the first of the series, foreshadowing the contradictions to which woke imagination is all too subject to; and Collapse, published fourth, hints at some sort of resolution, if brought about by rough men with rifles and tanks.  Between People's Republic and Collapse was Wildfire.

MORE SCENES FROM THAT SIMMERING INSURGENCY.

County fairs are places to get a sense of the discontent with the Jarrett regency.

The flag-sellers were present at the Walworth (Wisconsin) County Fair.

Vendors were also offering merchandise at the DeKalb (Illinois) "Sandwich Fair" (which might be the oldest county fair in the neighborhood.)

Salty tee shirts are also available.  This is one of the tamer.

To paraphrase a line from Mitch "Shot in the Dark" Berg, the county fair is "sort of like Normal America's daycamp," although sometimes the campers camp over.

Families whose kids participate in the 4-H show circuit probably spend a lot of time on the road, and having an air-conditioned motor home to chill out in, rather than pitching a tent or sleeping in the show barns with the animals has its attractions.  We'll have to look at the 4-H efforts before we tap too many kegs, now that Oktoberfest is upon us.

Don't even think of making off with this collector of vintage engines's stuff.

Yeah, there's somebody who would be all in on sensible regulation of so-called assault weapons.

EARNING THE RIGHT SORT OF ENDORSEMENT.

Queen Elizabeth's final official act was to ask Liz Truss to form a Government.  Some of the Governed would like to withdraw their consent. "[Boris Johnson is] replaced by a climate-wrecking, handout-refusing, redistribution-opposing, Brexit ideologue PM in Liz Truss. Buckle up, it's going to be a rough ride."  If this is the environmentalist wacko version of a "rough ride," sign me up. "Tax cuts for the rich. No attempt at wealth redistribution. Renewed fracking. More oil and gas drilling." What's your alternative, punishing productive people for being productive, and hoping Vladimir Putin or whoever might succeed him will sell that oil and gas more cheaply?

If you're Jeremy Corbyn, perhaps you party like it's 1947:

"The first act of Liz Truss' premiership should be taking immediate action to tackle the cost of living crisis that is pushing millions into poverty," he said. "This must be a wealth tax and bringing energy companies, water, mail and rail into public ownership."

Corbyn also called for a commitment to give workers a raise in the country, stop the push to privatize the National Health Service, and end the "appalling treatment of refugees fleeing war."

No. Just say no.

GOING OUT OF SERVICE.

Thanks for your attention.  It's the end of summer, and time to tend to a few things in the carbarn.

The Friday short Takes post of September 9 is annulled.

A TRENCHANT PARKINSONISM.

That's the same C. Northcote Parkinson best known for "Work expands to fill the available time."  He also once wrote, "The car would be a splendid vehicle if nobody else possessed one.  Once made common to all it changes our way of life dramatically and for the worse."  It appears as though Streetsblog's version of Friday short Takes has come to the same conclusion: "Friday’s Headlines Are Quitting Cars."  In particular, the speed and cheap mobility was only there when few people possessed one.  "The worldwide love affair with the car, which promised consumers convenience, status and freedom, is over. The reality from Hotan to Hull and Lagos to Lahore is that the car is now a social and environmental curse, disconnecting people, eroding public space, fracturing local economies, and generating sprawl and urban decay."  Replacing the internal combustion engines with fuel cells or batteries ultimately does nothing about the congestion.  Where is this era's traction promoters?

THE PROBLEM WITH DEMOCRACY IS THAT WE ASK TOO MUCH OF IT.

There is no such thing as a "collective will."

A Real Clear Public Affairs essay by Hillsdale political philosopher Ronald J. Pestritto concludes with an observation about limited government, "[R]ights-based theories of government limit the state’s sphere of action, thus limiting the ability of the people to implement their collective will and consequently representing something less than a real democracy."  You know, dear reader, where I'm going to go with this.  The key is in Mr Pestritto's characterization of Wilsonian-style political thought, a few paragraphs earlier.  "While early American conceptions of national government had carefully cir­cumscribed its power due to the perceived threat to individual liberties, progressives argued that history had brought about an improvement in the human condition, such that the will of the people was no longer in danger of becoming factious."  As. If.

Yes, and as if presidential salaries didn't depend on the occupant of the office believing that he could channel that will.

Based on Biden's words and deeds, we have a pretty good idea of what he believes about the proper size and scope of government. He thinks politicians selected by "the People" can do whatever they want, provided they do not impinge on the specific freedoms that he values. When it comes to abortion, contraception, and same-sex marriage, the majority does not rule. But when it comes to nearly everything else, the people's will—or, more realistically, Biden's perception of it—prevails.

Trump, by contrast, seems to have few firm beliefs. The "extreme MAGA ideology" that Biden perceives is not based on a coherent set of political principles. It is based on one man's erratic impulses. And more than anything these days, it is based on Trump's conviction that he actually won reelection in 2020.

We have much to look forward to.

If the Republican Party's always inconsistent defense of limited government was not enough to discredit its supposed devotion to constitutional principles, the fact that it has now organized itself around Trump's self-flattering delusions decisively proves that it stands for nothing worth defending. The Democratic Party, meanwhile, has always been willing to ditch the Constitution when it proved inconvenient.

Assuming that Trump runs for president in 2024 and Biden seeks reelection, voters will again be confronted by a choice between an old man who is manifestly unqualified for the job and an old man whose long political career has taught him nothing about the limits of government power and the fallible judgments of the people who wield it. While a willingness to accept the outcome of a free and fair election is a minimum qualification for the presidency, voters should demand more than that.

Unfortunately, implicit in the opportunity to vote for somebody is the reality that somebody, rather than "none of the above" will be elected, and insufficiently many voters show a tendency to defect from the Nash equilibrium binary choice.  Thus, we find ourselves with what looked like the least bad choice still being a bad choice.

Joe Biden isn’t the solution for what ails the American soul. He’s not even really the main disease of what ails the American soul. Joe Biden is a demagogue who floated to the top of a morass that has been building for decades, and who only sees the problem to the extent that it benefits or harms Biden’s interests.

Presidents give "bully pulpit" speeches, no matter how bullying or how incoherent, because We The People have given them cause to do so.

[Thursday] night’s speech was nothing more than soulless demagoguery by a soulless demagogue desperately trying to distract from his failures at command-economy machinations and Afghanistan over the past year-plus.

But even this is just a symptom of the problem plaguing the soul of America. Biden may not even be that far off of it, but he’s pointing his finger at the wrong end of Pennsylvania Avenue. The real problem plaguing America is a creeping authoritarianism that Biden is all too happy to indulge — when it suits him. But he didn’t start it, and to the extent he gets away with it, the blame doesn’t entirely fall on him.

That blame falls on Congress. It falls on a compliant media in bed with one political party almost without exception. And, to some extent, it falls on us.

Yes, there's a Cult of the Presidency, and yes, the tendency of long standing for Congress to defer to the administrative state, which presidents generally are happy to go along with, because their Cabinet appointees then get to pick the deputy assistant secretaries who hire the managers. Personnel is policy. And the institutional memory becomes institutional sclerosis.

AT THIS FOR TWENTY YEARS?

The Cold Spring Shops opened on September 5, 2002.  It's been my platform to vent or sound off or tell stories.  Thank you for looking in.  I don't know if I've changed any minds; perhaps I've prevailed on some people to check their premises.  My own thinking on some things has shifted over the years, but that's consistent with betting on emergence, isn't it?

SUMMER'S END.

The Beach Boys used to be the soundtrack of summer in that part of the country that has seasons.  Californa, for a short time, seemed to be the land of endless summer, and hassle-less cruising.  Even before the first hippies showed up in San Francisco, though, the ominous signs were there.

[Time] chose to celebrate the Palisades High Class of 1965 as representing the youth of the future.  If you want the more perfect paradigm of being born on third base and thinking you'd hit a triple, that might be the place to look, and at that time, upscale southern California was still the Beach Boys' California, and the future looked bright.  Two years later came the Summer of Love, and that might have been California's first (of what would become many) E-T-T-S moment.  For that matter, the ten-year retrospective on the class of 1965 was kind of sad, actually, tales of opportunities lost.

It's since gotten so bad that Johnny Rotten gripes about Venice Beach being trashed and we don't think of hearts being left in San Francisco any more.  The Beach Boys have a new wish.

There are still a few county fairs to go to, and Oktoberfest season is in full swing.