Why Blue States Can’t Have Nice Things In the tangle of outsourcing, no one is actually in charge.

[80zephyr]

Looks like if everyone is in charge, no one is in charge.

I just got back from Salt Lake, where I took my kids to Wheeler Farm in Murray, Utah. Originally homesteaded in the late 1800’s, the 75-acre property was preserved and turned over to Salt Lake County in the 1970’s.

It was jarring, in the best way, to see a public space so well-run. Admission is free. Kids walk right up to cows, goats, sheep, and chickens. They climb on old tractors, go on wagon rides, race through open fields.

After a busy morning, we bought $2 Uncrustables and $1.50 popsicles from the gift shop and sat for lunch. At one point, my 3-year-old wandered over to a chicken coop that had been converted into a playhouse. He was inside when a mom rushed over—her son was bleeding. He’d been nicked by a loose plank that had come down in the coop.

The mostly college-aged staff ushered the kids out and surveyed the damage. Coming from Los Angeles, I expected some level of generalized freaking out: yellow tape, an incident report, something. Instead, what happened was even stranger: one of the employees wandered out to find a nail gun and returned to fix the problem plank on the spot.

Sometimes, you can just do things.

Rest at link.

https://www.persuasion.community/p/why-blue-states-cant-have-nice-things

Mark

[scott]

It's really interesting that even the left is starting to see how it's all a grift and doesn't work.

[Newman]

It's really interesting that even the left is starting to see how it's all a grift and doesn't work.

Most surprising report of the morning:

Washington Post backs Trump | Power Line (Bill Glahn)

It’s our “man bites dog” story of the day. Fox News noticed,

Washington Post editorial slams Obama judge for blocking ‘fair and square’ GOP defunding of Planned Parenthood.

I didn’t see that one coming. The Washington Post editorial board backed Pres. Trump under the headline,

This is what judicial overreach looks like.

The case is the one John wrote about on Monday where a rogue federal district judge vetoed the decision of Congress to defund Planned Parenthood.

The Post‘s editorial is chock full of unexpected common-sense analysis,

A case out of Massachusetts is different. There, a federal judge has blocked an act of Congress — not an executive order but legislation — steering Medicaid funds away from abortion providers.

A few nuggets from the Post,

• This is the kind of lower court activism that gives the Trump administration fodder for its attacks on judges.
• The budget process is inherently political, and Congress’s tax-and-spending decisions almost always help some groups and hurt others.
• But Congress has no obligation to subsidize any group’s operation.
• But here, the GOP has targeted spending to which it objects in the constitutionally appropriate way: passing a law through Congress, despite narrow majorities.

Will wonders ever cease?