WHY WE MIGHT GET MORE TRUMP.

Dementia Joe surely didn't disabuse us of the notion that he's the addled, angry grandpa last week, did he?  That, argues New York Times contributor Bret Stephens, might have meant the end of an appeal to normal politics.

The Biden team seems to think his numbers will improve as more Americans notice that inflation is behind them, crime is down, jobs are abundant, Republicans refuse to do anything about the border and Trump is as awful as he ever was.

Before Thursday, that might have been enough, barely, to convince Americans that the president deserved another term to “finish the job,” as he likes to say. After Thursday, millions of Americans will have even greater grounds to fear that it’s the job that might finish him.

Perhaps.  Those claims of Serious Legislation the Jarrett regency's Morale Conditioners keep trotting out are empirically empty, and the latest omnibus supplemental appropriation was a three-decker toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce.

UNWITTINGLY TRIPPED UP BY THE SAY AGGREGATION PRINCIPLE?

American Greatness contributor Christopher Roach offers an instructive perspective on the economics of household formation.  "The right should be thinking about how to use public policy to promote sustainable family life, encourage more children within marriage, and make it easier for young people to get established." A mini-dissertation follows, although regular readers will infer from the title what the message will be.

WATCH THIS SPACE.

Winter is a good season for working on the model railroad.  That's also true of the other seasons; winter, though, is when most of the swap meets take place, the layout tours go on the schedule, the new stuff has to be tuned and put into operation.

So it is with the State of Maine Northern.  There's an industrial complex a-building that features an Open Hearth steel works on the outward side of the tracks, with the General Electric River Works on the inward side.  The tracks through that complex are now in place.  From the aisle back are the Melt Shop tracks, the Material Yard tracks for the Open Hearth, the Outward Exchange Siding, the Outward and Inward Main Line tracks, the Inward Exchange Siding, and the River Works track.  There's enough switching to be done in this relatively small space to keep one occupied for several hours, more so if the full schedule of passenger trains is running.

Consider this video a preview of coming attractions for the upcoming March O Scale Meet.

There might be more new features on offer by the time that swap meet comes around. Stay tuned.

THIS WEEKEND IN LEFTIST LUNACY.

I read the lefties to calibrate my internal compass.  OK, that's right up there with reading Playboy for the articles.  Sure, there's calibration, but then there's fun.

A GEEZER A FEW APPLES SHY OF A PICNIC CLAIMS DORITOS BAG UP A FEW CHIPS SHORT OF A PORTION.

Dementia Joe couldn't bestir himself to give a Super Bowl interview, even with regime media CBS carrying the game.  His social media team, though, juiced him up enough to turn him loose to slag on a few of the usual Big Game sponsors.  "Who would have thought Biden himself would come out in defense of reasonably portioned bags of Doritos?"  Whether the issue first occurred to him the last time Hunter had the munchies is left to the reader as an exercise.  Everybody in populist-conservative social media had instant fun food.

I did not predict leaning into the aging issue with an Andy-Rooney-on-quaaludes rant about how chip bags used to be fuller. https://t.co/XnHhLLFZoD

— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) February 11, 2024

National Review contributor Dominic Pino continues with the economics lesson.

“Sports-drinks bottles are smaller, bag of chips has fewer chips, but they’re still charging us just as much,” the president said. The video shows an image of products including Gatorade and Doritos, both of which have undergone shrinkflation in recent years. But the changes in their amounts were made in 2022, when inflation was much higher than it is today. CNN had a story about ice-cream shrinkflation, which Biden also complains about, back in 2021.

It’s peculiar for the president to be recycling news stories from two or more years ago and, in doing so, draw attention to his own poor record on inflation. Companies don’t want to bother their customers with shrinkflation. Sometimes they have to, though, in response to poor monetary and fiscal policy that spurs inflation.

The Federal Reserve pursued an expansionary monetary policy for much too long during the Covid pandemic, which was out of Biden’s control. But he piled on with the American Rescue Plan Act, which included nearly $2 trillion of completely unnecessary government spending that even left-leaning economists warned would be inflationary. And as the federal government continues to run massive budget deficits, the Fed will continue to feel pressure to monetize the new debt by increasing the money supply further in the future.

Naturally, some companies redesigned their packaging to reduce the quantity of their products and cut costs. That’s what we should expect them to do in response to poor government policy that spurred inflation. For the president to now attack them for doing that, years after the fact, is bizarre.

Is it any more bizarre than FJB fancying himself the logical successor to FDR and LBJ?  Heck, he probably thinks he's from the government and he's here to help.  It is up to us, the Militant Normals, to bear witness and call attention.

Inflation isn’t a corporate conspiracy. It’s the product of poor monetary and fiscal policy. Biden says he’s beating inflation, but apparently he wants to make it an issue again, so it’s worth reminding him of the facts.

Or perhaps, as Reason's Eric Boehm might be hinting at, we're simply seeing Dementia Joe demonstrating his ability to screw things up.

As a political matter, this video is effectively a flashing sign telling voters: "Hey, did you think inflation was less bad now? Actually, it's still happening!" In what world is that helping Biden? For that matter, when was the last time the president actually bought himself a pint of ice cream or a bag of chips—with his own money, in a real grocery store? The more you think about it, the less sense this video makes. The White House should probably stop taking messaging advice from [Elizabeth "Fauxahontas"] Warren.

The time to fix inflation is before it starts. Once it gets rolling, it is difficult to control and tends to make voters (understandably) quite irritable. There's nothing Biden can do, at this point, to fix "shrinkflation," so the most powerful man in the world is reduced to looking like an out-of-touch old guy shaking his fist at the sky. That's an accurate image, but probably not the one the White House intended to send.

Mr Boehm opened his article with a similar observation about calling attention to one's policy failures.

You might expect the president, now that he's in the middle of a re-election campaign, to try to avoid anything to do with that topic. Don't remind voters of how rough the past few years have been, focus on the future, talk about the positive signals coming from the economy, and above all else don't make yourself look like an old man yelling at a cloud.

After last week Thursday, does anybody see the Leader of the Free World as anything other than an out-of-touch geezer, yelling at a cloud, or shaking his fist at the sky, or complaining that his pudding cups are smaller these days?

GOVERNMENT IS NOT THE SOLUTION TO OUR PROBLEMS.

The Washington Monthly of Charles Peters rejected the premise of that title, and yet, eleven out of twelve months they'd publish articles, many of them useful and instructive, seeking to make government less of a problem than it was.  Reason had company, for instance, objecting to occupational licensing for African hair braiders and similar specialists who might cater to a niche population.

Unfortunately, in his valedictory We Do Our Part: Toward a Fairer and More Equal America, he simply wrote another of the depressingly predictable laments common among the pundit class after Donald Trump's surprise presidential win.  Such books are always full of foreboding, retrograde attitudes are loose in the land, and Somebody Has to Do Something.  But Something almost never means acknowledging that maybe the people who preferred Mr Trump to Mrs Clinton might have been sending the pundit class a message.  You won't get that in We Do Our Part: the foreword is by the smarmy Jon Meacham and that, dear reader, is a tell, even though he advises the Professional Managerial Class types to be more respectful of the voters away from the coasts and the tony coffee houses.

In Book Review N^o. 4, I will use Mr Peters's words to refute his argument.  We might want to cut him some slack; he is of that cohort of Silent Generation relics for whom "New Deal" is to the conservative as the Rosary is to the Devil, and for whom "We Had to Do Something" is a rhetorical argument-ender.  Yes, he recognizes the snobbery, when it is convenient to do so, that emerged in Official Washington and among the Coastal Elites as an ongoing affront to Normal Americans.  But he continues to reveal that unthinking faith in Big Government, slagging at page 99 on Ronald Reagan for grousing, "Since the beginning of this country the gross national product has increased by 33 time.  In the same period the cost of government has increased 234 times."  He continues with classic question begging.  "Of course, what Reagan failed to discuss was what the federal government was doing that needed doing to justify its growth."  We Had to Do Something, didn't We?

FRIDAY short TAKES.

The pass we have come to because we've lost sight of enumerated and limited powers.  "On an older and more mature understanding of democracy – an understanding in which democracy is no synonym for raw majority rule – that objection would have weight. But because today so very many people, no less on the left than on the right, equate 'democracy' with 'almost unlimited rule by the latest electoral majority,' [John] Hasnas’s use of 'democracy' here is – sadly – accurate."

Decline is a choice.  Recognize it.  "Things are so strange, so surreal, so nihilistic in contemporary America that the chaos can only be deliberate. Chance, incompetence, and accident could not alone explain the series of disasters."

You don't know what you have until it's gone.  "By the end of the Cold War, Americans were generally living better than ever before." Now, aging hippie, or is it Silent Generation relic, Tom Engelhardt laments, "Wherever I look, nothing seems to be faintly working right." Did you look in the mirror, Tommy? "You can be nostalgic for the rebellion, and still realize that the culture you rebelled against was, overall, better than the one you replaced it with."  Yes, and when that begins to dawn on the Thirteeners, and their next-youngers, the restoration of a state of good repair can begin.  First, though, the dorm-room bull session in the White House must end.  "Foreign policy in this administration is essentially being influenced by loud, ignorant college kids."  Reality is re-asserting itself.

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

YOU'RE NOT IN IT FOR THE MONEY.

Retired Texas journalism professor Robert Jensen has suggestions for being a more cheerful academician.

Watching today’s heated debates over academic freedom and freedom of speech on campuses, I find myself sometimes itching to be back in the fight and at other times grateful that I retired five years ago. Though I’m out of the game, I find myself still intensely interested in joining the conversation. The debates of the moment are important, but my instinct from the sidelines is to offer what may seem trivial: a reminder of how much fun intellectual life can be.

The Prime Directive? Eschew Pomposity.

If it appears that I’m trying to poke fun at university professors’ self-indulgent tendency toward pomposity, I am. Since I am a university professor who occasionally can be self-indulgent and pompous, I have standing to poke fun. Frankly, we don’t poke fun at ourselves enough. That’s part of my teaching philosophy: Poke fun at myself, as often as possible, especially in front of students.

In this regard, poets perform an important service for professors. If we professors are ever tempted to claim that we have had an original insight into the human condition, we should pause and remember this: There’s at least one poet, and likely dozens, who had the insight long before we did and who expressed it far more eloquently than we could ever hope to do.

I don’t teach poetry, but I often read poetry to my class. That’s part of my teaching philosophy, to remind students that whatever the subject, poets have something important to say to us. I read to my students even though I have had no voice training and am not particularly good at reciting poetry. That’s part of my teaching philosophy, too. I think it’s healthy for students to see professors stumble. When every word we utter in class is precise and polished, it can create distance between professor and student. Students are too easily impressed by us, and they can come to believe we are our performances. Better that they see we are human beings, struggling and stumbling, so that intellectual work doesn’t appear to be something only specialists can do. Our job isn’t to be smart but to help students understand that they can be smart, too.

You eschew pomposity, dear colleague, because you are participating in a conversation in which nobody has a Final Say.

I’m more comfortable with ambiguity than when I was younger. As we age we have a choice. We can conclude that we’re right in our assertions about the world and proceed based on that assumption. Or we can conclude that we’re right and proceed based on the assumption that we’re missing something.

I have spent considerable time studying the role of news media in our culture, politics, and economy. I am confident that the assertions I make about that institution and those systems are compelling. I’m pretty sure that I’m right, and I argue strenuously that those assertions are the best way to understand journalism and society. And I also wonder about whether I’m indeed right.

Right, or still learning, it's still a pretty good gig.

I have the best job in the world. I get paid a salary that allows me to live comfortably and give back to the community. To earn this salary, I am asked to spend my time thinking, reading, writing, and talking, all things I enjoy doing even when not being paid. On occasion, I have to go to a boring meeting or file a stupid report, which can at times be annoying. But all in all, this is a really good gig. The least I can do is pay attention, be astonished, and tell about it with as much joy and passion as possible. When I do that, I think I’m a pretty good teacher, and I think I do that most every day I walk into the classroom.

And still, don't get too full of yourself.

THE FOURTH TURNING IS EMERGENT.

Sarah Hoyt sees a secular Perfect Storm brewing.

We are, facing a perfect storm. And it is worldwide. And I can’t see or feel a path through it much less what comes out at the other side.

No, this is not precisely true. I had a — not a vision — but a strong feeling; I was vouchsafed a certainty that America comes out the other end of this as America, and closer to what it was meant to be than it was in 2019. Now, like all woo woo, this might be all in my head and wishful thinking, but it was given unasked, before I knew there was any reason to ask. As it turned out, it came to me in the very last day before lockdown, in Colorado.

Sometimes this is all I hold onto in the dark of night, at 3 am, when I’m staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep or think clearly about anything.

Because I know what we’re facing, I know what we’re going through, and I understand completely there is no way back.

That sounds a lot like "saecular entropy cannot be reversed," doesn't it?  A passage from my review of The Fourth Turning is Here expands on her observation.

There are still unresolved policy challenges from the American Founding and from the institution of the rules-based international order.  Maybe, though, each reset of the values regime builds on the successes of the previous values regimes and there's less to reset.

This time, Neil Howe admits of the possibility that the new values regime will be emergent, subject to false starts and errors along the way, and whatever implants will sow the seeds of its own destruction.  Although commencing at page 421 he anticipates broad consensus on the goals and policies of that new values regime (think "rules-based international order" as established in 1945) at page 423 he notes, "Just as strength of community loyalty reaches its saecular flood tide, the reach of community authority surges over its usual boundaries."  And thus does the push-back begin.

From that perspective, her "aha" the day the lockdowns ended is salient. "During the corona tyranny, there were people who embraced it."  Yes, mostly the neurotics, and the push-back, which has only been further inspired by the Jarrett regency's Incompetence in Diversity staffing and policies, is well under way.  "What would we ever do without experts? What's the over-under on 'we'd do better?'"

CONNECTICUT, NOTRE DAME, NORTHERN ILLINOIS.

Each season, a different Mid-American Conference basketball team looks like a bracket buster, possibly even an at-large bid to the national tournament should the "on any given day" upset occur in the conference tournament.  This year, the smart money has been on Ball State.

The Lady Cardinals are red hot and off to a historic season. Ball State women’s basketball is sitting at a 20-2 record this year and have won their last 14 games in a row, which is the longest in school history.

Not to mention that they are undefeated in conference play, which is also a first in school history as well.

For a team that has done so much already, they are not resting on their laurels and are just as determined as ever to achieve their post season goals. When speaking to coach Brady Sallee, it is no surprise why.

“With a lot of teams, a streak like this could be overwhelming. Our group is pretty calm in general, and they don't get too high or too low with our wins and losses…we have a saying 1-0 every day so no matter what we stay consistent to that," Sallee said.

With that mentality, the team should be a formidable opponent against any team in the country as they aim to crack the top 25, and make some noise in the tournament in March.

Coach Sallee and the Cards look to add on to their historic run this season with win number 15 in a row with a victory over Northern Illinois Wednesday evening. Ball State takes on the Huskies on the road in DeKalb at 7:00 p.m..

They play the games for a reason.

The Huskies become the third team to defeat Ball State this season, joining the University of Connecticut and the University of Notre Dame, ranked nationally at No. 3 and No. 8, respectively.

“I think this is probably the best 45 minutes of basketball that we’ve played,” said NIU women’s basketball head coach Lisa Carlsen.

That's a phenomenon familiar to sailboat racers: there's that one day when the wind is right and you got the trim right and your boat-handling is on and you're in phase with the shift, and that day keeps you coming back even though you're stacking a lot of bad days, which sometimes happens to the club champion or to the America's Cup skipper.  Or if you're the prohibitive favorite to run the table in conference.

“It’s one of those nights where clearly the ball did not fall,” head coach Brady Sallee said. “We missed just about from every place you could, at the rim, threes, free throws. It was one of those nights.”

After over three minutes of play, Northern Illinois held a 10-3 lead. There’s been games in conference play this year where Ball State has fallen behind, but the second quarter is there for the Cardinals to take over.

The Huskies had a -29 point differential in the second quarter before tonight’s game, Ball State was holding a +129 point differential in the period. Wednesday, the script flipped.

That second quarter differential is from two recent games: a 20-2 second quarter at Bowling Green and a nine point lead that turned into a nine point deficit against Central Michigan.  That's the inconsistency leading to my recent grousing about mediocrity.  Sometimes, though, the kids have their moments, scoring ten of the first thirteen points to open the game, then scoring ten of the first thirteen points in overtime and taking care of the ball and making enough free throws down the stretch.  "Sallee said he doesn’t think his team lacked humility, but said it’s in moments like these where his team has to own it."

DO THE RESEARCH.

Legal Insurrection's Mary Chastain discovers a Great Wall with a gap in it.  "Chinese Nationals Fastest Growing Group of Border Crossers."  I'm not troubled by the news.

"The more onerous the legal admission procedures are, the larger is the pool of potential illegal migrants, and under some circumstances that pool will be more skewed toward people with desirable skills."  That's one of the not-yet-answered empirical questions.  Depending on your attitude toward entering the United States without proper papers, those young men from all over the world are "military age males" or "potential terrorists" or "prime-age workers."  Among the future research questions might be "what is the effect of China's one-child policy on the marriage potential for Chinese young men?"  Now pick the sub-topic: in China, in Siberia, in the United States.

It might be that either family prospects or employment prospects or both are better in The Land of Opportunity.

Quite a few of the Chinese nationals come from the middle class. They arrive with roller bags filled with clothes and other items.

One national took 40 days to arrive at the border: Thailand, Morocco, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

China?  They'd just as soon be rid of those guys.

However, the U.S. told around 36,000 Chinese illegal immigrants to leave. China won’t allow them to return. The U.S. cannot force China’s hand.

That means in 2023, the U.S. gave 55% of the Chinese illegal immigrants amnesty. Only 14% of those from other countries got amnesty.

I'm not sure what she means by "amnesty," being given a court date to appear in several years isn't amnesty; not being issued a work permit isn't amnesty; not knowing when the clock can start on your five years' residence before you can apply for citizenship isn't amnesty.  Nor does it do much good to suggest that it's part of a Democrat plot to import more voters.  Refugees from China might be logical voters for the politics of free minds and free markets, and a less convoluted path to legal status for immigrants, plus a less convoluted path to citizenship for people granted residency, might be the quickest way to new voters for less onerous government.

WHAT ARE THEY SMOKING IN THE SALON?

I'm referring to that online forum of leftist fantasies.  Mike Lofgren was a Republican once, but now he's reduced to drawing erudite analogies to peddle the notion that Donald Trump is the next coming of Adolf Hitler.  No, seriously.  "The GOP made the same bargain the Prussian generals made in 1933 — and the consequence is their total destruction."

ALL IS PROCEEDING AS I HAVE FORESEEN.

Let's set the Wayback Machine to last December.  "How long have I been carrying on about College Sports, Inc. realigning until there are four major conferences of sixteen teams each and the National Collegiate Athletic Association becomes irrelevant?"

Will you still read me, will you believe me, when there's thirty-four?  "SEC, Big Ten 'advisory group' stands as coded threat to NCAA: Figure it out, or we'll go off ourselves."  The money quote was nailed to Newmark's Door.

In essence, the two leagues are aiming to remodel what is left of the collegiate model. Don't like it? Well, you don't have to. If NCAA membership doesn't agree to their reforms, the SEC and Big Ten have the leverage to take their 34 teams and stage their own national championship. The networks and the market itself have told them that is possible, and it's a path which SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has already hinted at in the past.

It's always been that way, with the sports programs that think they would do better under a different set of rules seeking to defect from the Cartel in Shawnee Mission.  "They've always drawn well at home, and it used to be that Notre Dame would defect from whatever college football cartel the Oklahomas and Texases and Ohio States and Universities of Spoiled Children cobbled together, because they'd get a better division of the revenue going it alone."  And yes, the regents of the University of Oklahoma brought their own antitrust suit against the cartel managers, and won.  I lose track of whether Oklahoma are in the expanded SEC or not, there are still at least thirty football programs that want a piece of the action, and the Atlantic Coast can't figure out whether or not to concentrate on basketball.  All I know for sure is that the Mid-American will still be on the outside of whatever the four power conferences cook up.

TO REALLY SCREW THINGS UP REQUIRES A COMPUTER.

February brought in train Metra's rollout of a new, simplified fare structure, and the end of ticket agents at any of the stations, including the Chicago termini.

As rush hour crowds hurried to catch the trains at the Ogilvie Transportation Center concourse on late Thursday afternoon, two long lines slowly extended in the opposite direction.

The situation wasn’t quite as bad at the other three downtown terminals – Chicago Union Station, LaSalle Station and Millennium Station – but it was still not the most auspicious way to kick off the first day of Metra’s new fare system. As the new fares kicked in, the commuter railroad shut down all of the remaining ticket windows, so that the passengers trying to buy physical tickets now have to use ticket machines.

With the railroad having gone to virtual ticketing during the corona tyranny, and with most passengers tied to their electronic shackles on the train, to the exclusion of napping or playing cards, the idea of an application to display the tickets sounded good on paper.

Metra announced that it was closing the ticket windows at the beginning of this year, more than a month after the new fare system was approved and a few weeks after Metra signed off on the Access Pilot Program. Metra spokesperson Michael Gillis told Streetsblog at the time that the railroad needed to replace the aging credit card readers, and the ticket machines would work better for customers since they can operate around the clock. The announcement came as the sales of physical tickets dropped sharply since the start of the pandemic, to the point that sales through the Ventra app account for more than 80 percent of all ticket sales.

Gillis indicated that Metra wouldn’t lay off any employees as part of the switch – though it should be noted that, since BNSF Line is operated by BNSF Railway under contract with Metra, the ticket agents working on that line weren’t Metra employees. He said that ticket agents would be there to help customers use the machines and provide other assistance.

For now, keeping the ticket agents employed as roving troubleshooters, the way the former cashiers at supermarkets now assist at the self-checkout, keeps them on the payroll for a while. Or perhaps longer, as it appears Metra hired the people who rolled out the Obamacare websites to install the new ticket vending machines at the downtown termini.

On the same morning changes took effect for Metra ticketing, the Ventra app, which the agency had urged riders to use as it closed most of its ticket windows, went down.

Riders began posting error messages to social media Thursday morning, with many being told they were "offline" or needed to "check internet connection." Others reported purchasing their tickets and being charged, but never receiving their tickets.

Metra confirmed around 7:15 a.m. Thursday that the app was down and "technical support is working to resolve the issue."

"Conductors have been notified of the issue and passengers may ride until the app issue is resolved," the agency tweeted.

As of today, the Ventra ticketing service seems to be working well.  Conductors and collectors still carry coin changers as inbound passengers are still able to buy one-way cash fares on the trains.

THE BUNDLES ARE TOO DARNED BIG.

Over the weekend, Utah Senator Mike Lee, a Republican, explained why he would not vote for the latest bundle, er, "supplemental appropriation."

The reporter immediately understood that my frustration was not directed at her.

Rather, it was directed at the Law Firm of Schumer & McConnell (“The Firm^TM”), which is perpetually trying to normalize a corrupt approach to legislating—in which The Firm^TM

(1) spends months drafting legislation in complete secrecy,

(2) aggressively markets that legislation based not on its details and practical implications (good and bad), but only on its broadest, least-controversial objectives,

(3) lets members see bill text for the first time only a few days (sometimes a few hours) before an arbitrary deadline imposed by The Firm^TM itself, always with a contrived sense of urgency, and then

(4) forces a vote on the legislation on or before that deadline, denying senators any real opportunity to read, digest, and debate the measure on its merits, much less introduce, consider, and vote on amendments to fix any perceived problems with the bill or otherwise improve it.

Whenever The Firm^TM engages in this practice, it largely excludes nearly every senator from the constitutionally prescribed process in which all senators are supposed to participate.

By so doing, The Firm^TM effectively disenfranchises hundreds of millions of Americans—at least for purposes relevant to the legislation at hand—and that’s tragic.

As of this afternoon's posting, that bill, which at about 350 pages, was short enough for people familiar with the drafting conventions and the law to go through it and identify all the things wrong with it, has failed for lack of enthusiasm.  Power Line's Scott Johnson saw the failure in the haste with which this thing was rushed to a vote.  "One might hazard the guess that is because the closer we look the worse it gets."

I'm with the senator in objecting to the sort of bundling that Official Washington engages in with such legislation, with some sort of immigration reform bundled with more money for nation-building wars this time, which must be passed pronto.  "The border is not secure, and attempts by Congressional leadership to act on securing the border are rebuffed with deflections that Ukraine, or perhaps Palestine (the one on the Mediterranean, not to be confused with the one in Texas or East Palestine in Ohio) come first.  So many messes, so important it is that we have another omnibus bill."

A TROUBADOR FOR TROUBLED NORMALS.

Country singer Toby Keith dies at 62.  News reports for general consumption note his "Should've Been a Cowboy" and "Red Solo Cup."  There was so much more.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum remembered Keith as someone who was "big, brash, and never bowed down or slowed down for anyone."

"His story is a distinctly American one — a former roughneck oil worker who carved out his own space in country music with a sinewy voice and an unbending will to succeed. He wrote his breakthrough songs and later formed his own record label when he felt underserved by Nashville," the statement read. "He relished being an outsider and doing things his way. Proudly patriotic, he didn’t mind if his clear-cut convictions ruffled your feathers. For three decades, he reflected the defiant strength of the country music audience. His memory will continue to stand tall."

Shortly after the Al-Qaeda raids on the United States, he wrote "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)."  Undoubtedly, the sort of conscience-cowboy who would "contextualize" a raid with jet aircraft or a Hamas raid on a music festival would cringe at the sentiments, and the lyrics.  The troops at his live concerts were of a different frame of mind.  As are the people who continue to support Donald Trump, all the warnings from the coastal cosmopolitans notwithstanding.  Why are the people who consider themselves educated so stupid about being smart?

John "Bravo Blue" Lucas recommends his "American Soldier."

He notes,

I thought that the words of “American Soldier,” which Toby co-wrote, were particularly appropriate for the battalion’s wives and families at that difficult time. Listen and read the complete lyrics below. Please, don’t just skim them — read, re-read and reflect on the love that went into the composition and singing of this song.

That post continues, "So, thank you Toby Keith. You are a patriot who will be missed." R.I.P.

I'D ROLL THEM OUT SHAMEFACEDLY TOO.

Streetsblog contributor Roger Rudick looks at the new, single-level Venture cars now running on the San Joaquin trains.

New train cars started rolling on Amtrak's San Joaquin, the state-supported service that connects Oakland and the Central Valley, just before the Christmas break. Unfortunately, Amtrak passengers on these cars discovered they had nothing to eat.

But more on that later.

It's worth noting that the roll-out of the new "Venture" cars pictured in the lead image was done with no fanfare.

That, we shall presently see, is the reason for no fanfare.  "Compared to the bi-levels they are replacing, they are more brightly lit, with high ceilings. There are nice, wide passageways between the cars. They're also quieter, with a smoother ride. And there are easily accessible AC and USB plugs between every seat."  How things have changed in forty years.  The looks I'd get when I'd snag one of the seats on an Amcoach that had an electrical outlet (provided then for use by the car cleaner) and plug in my Model 100.  Now everybody is bringing a computer along.  But those California Service bilevels weren't as friendly to the mobility-challenged.

The new seats are firm and comfortable, but bizarrely narrow. I didn't have anyone sitting next to me, by if I centered my body in the seat my shoulder was partially in the seat next to me. There's also only a single, narrow arm rest between the seats. When the train is packed (and I ride them enough to know they do get packed, especially on weekends and around the holidays), medium-to-large people will literally be rubbing shoulders.

"The narrower seats provide for wider aisles that can be comfortably navigated by a wheelchair user. This feature along with the automatic doors and accessible vestibule area allow for passengers in wheelchairs access to the entire trainset," wrote the San Joaquin's David Lipari, in an email to Streetsblog. "The San Joaquin Joint Power Authority (SJJPA) and Caltrans have prioritized this sort of access as it is in line with our mission to provide access to as many Californians as possible."

So far, only the coach cars have been delivered.  There might be more wheelchair access on the new trains.  Then there's the food service.

The older trains accommodate wheelchair-bound patrons by keeping the wheelchair seating area near the accessible bathroom. As to accessing the rest of the train, where is someone in a wheelchair -- or not in a wheelchair -- going to go?

Well, the cafe car of course. Which brings us back to the food issue: there is no cafe car.

Keep in mind someone riding end-to-end, from Jack London Square to Bakersfield, will be on the train for six and a half hours. Many people in Bakersfield connect to a bus to Los Angeles and other Southern California destinations.

I'm going to refrain from piling on here: had somebody in California built the high-speed section from Glenview to Bakersfield first, using conventional tracks north and south, there would be through service between Oakland and Los Angeles now.  The food service, when it comes?

That means one could be traveling for over nine hours, assuming the train and connecting buses are on time, without any way to buy food.

"The Venture Cars are being phased into operation with certain car types entering into service ahead of others. One of the final car types to be deployed will be Vending Cars, each of which will include vending machines," explained Lipari.

That's a significant downgrade from the full-length cafe cars that currently run on the older San Joaquin trainsets. That car offers drinks, coffee, and a range of food.

Time for a history lesson.  "And here the raison d'etre for Amtrak included discontent with automat cars on Southern Pacific (and some Burlington trains) and Buffeteria cars replacing the full dining cars on the Hiawatha." Until recently, there were those prepackaged meals for sleeper passengers on the Empire Builder and California Zephyr, there is no food service on the Milwaukee trains, even the morning and evening runs that once had a lunch-lounge car, so an automat car on Southern Pacific metals under Amtrak auspices, why not?

EDUCATIONAL MALPRACTICE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.

I hold the position that university officials be circumspect in issuing statements about Matters of Public Import.  At the time, I noted, "Too often, those statements make the professional protest communities within the university comfortable with their prejudices."

It doesn't do us any better to have the deanlets or the senior administrators issuing statements that set off the professional protest communities.  Somebody within the diversity boondoggle at Northern Illinois University issued a Statement on Protesting and Messaging re: Israel and Palestine Conflict and we will see that nothing good came of it.

The university acknowledges that members of the NIU community with ties to Israel and/or Palestine are feeling immeasurable loss, pain and frustration as a result of the ongoing and deadly conflict. Whether we gather in community or in protest, the university appeals to all Huskies to use their voices and knowledge to drive change in ways that welcome people to listen, learn and support solutions that are positive and just.

NIU is committed to freedom of expression and open discussion in all matters of public interest. The university is further committed to assuring all members of the university community have the broad latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge and learn. Freedom of expression is everyone’s right and warrants great responsibility. While freedom of expression leaves space for all to engage without expectation of a changed mindset, it is our hope that individuals will recognize that activities that fuel division and conflict do not bring communities together or foster peace.

The first paragraph is the predictable Boilerplate Language of Concern.  Years ago the crew at Dartmouth Review put together an "Administrative Boilerplate" column in which you pick from among such words to compose such Perfect Liberal Verbiage.  The second paragraph is pathetic, there is still a free speech zone on campus, and the university once won the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education's Speech Code of the Month dishonor (and now, as the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, why is Northern Illinois not even even in the current roundup of speech policies, and what happened to the Free Speech widget?)

WHEN YOU'RE USED TO DIRIGISME, COPING WITH MARKET TESTS IS DIFFICULT.

The Green Bay Packers hired Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley as defensive coordinator.

Hafley comes to the Packers after working as the head coach for Boston College for the past four seasons (2020-23), where he led the Eagles to bowl eligibility in three of his four years. In 2021, the defense ranked No. 3 nationally in passing yards allowed (173.5 per game) and also were top-30 nationally in total defense, red-zone defense, first downs allowed, third-down percentage, team passing efficiency and defensive touchdowns.

Prior to his time at Boston College, Hafley was the co-defensive coordinator/secondary coach for Ohio State in 2019. In addition, Hafley boasts significant NFL coaching experience.

Hafley spent seven seasons as an NFL assistant coach, working as a defensive backs coach for the San Francisco 49ers (2016-18) and Cleveland Browns (2014-15). Hafley’s first stint in the NFL was as an assistant defensive backs coach for Tampa Bay in 2012 and then was the secondary/safeties coach for the Buccaneers in 2013.

His Eagles also rated a "Goodbye, Chestnut Hill" last August during Bill Baker's retirement tour.  But the strongest football teams in Illinois play on Saturday, at least until November, rather than Sunday.

FRIDAY short TAKES.

How destructive is the MBA?  Let Maha count the ways.  "I saw variations of it when I was in publishing. What essentially happens is that the people who occupy the big offices and make the big decisions that impact how the work gets done are nearly always people with backgrounds in finance or marketing but no hands-on experience making the product. And they make stupid decisions that hobble productivity. The problems caused are not necessarily bad enough to sink the company, but it does hold the company back. And nearly always everybody who has worked for very long in the production, editorial, and manufacturing departments could tell you how workflow and cost efficiency could be improved, but the Big Shots don’t listen. From time to time they’d hire consultants who’d swoop around for a day or two and then make more stupid decisions that had to be undone eventually because deadlines were being missed. I saw it over and over again in the industry."  Downsizing is a false economy, too.

FJB ≠ uFDR + (1-u)LBJ,  0 < u < 1.  "The Democrats have more power now than they’ve had since before the Civil War. Since then, they haven’t had the opportunity to build the kind of empire they wanted. Thanks to the threat of Trump and the rise of extreme wealth on the Left, that dream is now a reality. They control almost everything."  No, all their opponents have to do is not be crazy, and they're botching that, bigly.  Dementia Joe's defenders have at best faint praise.  "I’m not sure two massive spending packages are comparable to the Great Society. Or that young voters know who Lyndon Johnson was and are familiar with that slogan. But Biden has been able to get quite a lot done considering the constraints of our current situation."  Yes, for arbitrary values of "get done."  "Adam Smith famously observed that there is a great deal of ruin in a nation. President Biden and his team are testing the limits. Query whether there is also a great deal of disgrace in a nation. Witness the witless Karine Jean-Pierre’s comments on the killed service members. She perfectly represents the White House on whose behalf she speaks."

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