From Frank Ryan, talking about the Great Blue City Experiment©:
“We will have privatized the freedom to choose while socializing the consequences of the choice.”
Then he talks about the conditions that create said consequences. Read it all.
Me? I say: Screw that “tough love” nonsense. Let the people who voted for the politicians live with the consequences of their folly, with absolutely no hope of any kind of rescue or bailout.
Let Them Sink©.
As a wise man said, “the dildo of consequences seldom arrives lubed”.
Completely unrelated, does anyone know what happened to Boomershoot Joe Huffman’s blog, the View from North Central Idaho? I am getting a “this account has been suspended” message… Ominous.
I don’t know. The site worked for me, and about five minutes ago I was able to read a letter over her signature to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her. It is essentially a “Lawyer Letter” warning them that their permit process and de facto waiting period rules are contrary to the Second Amendment. They are also given notice to retain the records. It ends by telling them that if they do not respond by 5 pm September 23, 2026, the US Department of Justice, Civil Rights division may file lawsuit against them without further notice.
It is also satisfying to see that a Lawyer Letter from the US Department of Justice includes the same wording as appears in such letters from civil lawyers, offering to enter into pre-lawsuit settlement negotiations, and expressing the hope that the State is as interested as they are in achieving a voluntary resolution in the matter.
If only we could wall off those cities a la Escape from New York to prevent the locusts from befouling other areas. We need a man like Bob Hauk!
Given that we are losing another forever war, diesel is over $6/gal, a pound of ground beef is $7, the national debt has increased (both terms, thus far) by $11 trillion, inflation and interest rates are out of control, and we have alienated our allies, lost soft power globally, family farms are being taken by his billionaire buddies, and he placed tariffs that harm the American consumer first and foremost, I am not so certain America will survive if we “live with the consequences of [our] folly.”
I am reminded of Lindsay Graham’s terrifyingly prescient comment from 2016: “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…….and we will deserve it.”
I, personally, would prefer America not sink.
Understand the impulse to let them sink, if they were at sea and far from shore that would be perfectly acceptable. However, the analogy is more one of the ship being full of rats and other vermin yet tied to the dock. When Shitcago sinks, the rats will ALL head for the untainted lands and that means they will overrun my zone of (mostly) sane folks (meaning farms=food).
So not matter what, we get to deal with the aftermath of the blue cities and states that fail.
Sigh!
Please remember that much of what is going on in blue cities and states is not a social experiment, nor is idealism, or any of that (though those factors contribute – especially in hiw they market the policies.
Most of it consists of deliberate choices specifically tailored to drive moderate and conservative voters out and lock in left wing government. This is called The Curley Effect and it has been a deliberate Democrat policy in many places since 40s and 50s. In more recent years it has become more widespread.
OK, so what about the people who voted for the party that doesn’t get power. Should they automatically be excluded from benefitting from ANY government program or service until their preferred party gains power again?
Mind that that would include the use of air travel because the ATC network is a government service. The use of the interstate network as that’s a government program. Access to police and courts as those are obviously government services.
And of course no access to any government building, no mail services, no EMS, nothing.
Let them sink. They are policy examples – the premise of American federalism is that the states serve as experimental models – what works, what does not. If we bail them out, another lesson is learned, and one that is too often learned as it is: do what I want, and let Uncle Sugar pay for the consequences.
No.
And Vonz is correct – blue states, and blue cities everywhere, have been systematically locking in Democratic control for decades, largely by paying off the constituencies that provide reliable votes with tax dollars; in effect, buying votes with your money. Government as Uncle Sugar. Why should the rest of us pay for the costs of that largess?
Bailing out a city doesn’t mean bailing out a city. It means bailing out the corrupt, incompetent, lying politicians who got the city into that mess in the first place, so that they can continue in their wicked ways for another term or two or three. It means bailing out the grossly underfunded public service unions that yield retirement packages that make Jimmy Kimmel sick with envy.