On Bipartisanship

Gin and Tacos may well be my favorite blog. If you haven't yet done so, I highly suggest checking it out. Here is a recent quote, on bipartisanship:

To the extent that consensus and Both Sides handshake politics ever existed it was on issues where a brutal elite consense pervaded (segregation, for example) and so no debate was necessary. . . . . . . .

You see some ribbon threads of this today – Democrats and Republicans "coming together" to roll back Dodd-Frank and appease the financial industry. That's a terrible outcome. Just terrible. "Bipartisan" or "consensus" are not synonyms for "good" when it comes to public policy. It simply means that everyone agrees on an outcome (inevitably the status quo) and says nothing about the outcome itself. The Iraq War resolution was bipartisan. Agreeing to let Wall Street off the hook in the early Obama years was a bipartisan consensus. Spending a trillion dollars a year on the military is a bipartisan consensus. These are all idiotic and destructive ideas. If you applaud any of them simply on the basis of how good it makes you feel that no one really argued about anything and everyone shook hands and smiled and agreed, then I think you might not fully understand what politics is. This week, Congress passed a $717 Billion Pentagon spending bill without one word of debate. Everyone in Congress was no doubt very Civil about it, because they all want to roll around in the trough of money they just created. I would rather they caned each other over the head on the House floor and spent half as much on the military.

Stewards of your Tax Dollars

For at least seven years, Indiana has been controlled at all three electoral positions (Governor, House, Senate) by Republicans (including the underwhelming Mike Young). For seven years, the Indiana state legislature (including career politician Mike Young) has passed anti-abortion legislation. For seven years, the ACLU has responded to this anti-abortion legislation by filing lawsuits. For seven years, Indiana's anti-abortion laws have been struck down as unconstitutional by Indiana's courts. 

See here:

As the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky marked yet another legal victory in a challenge to an Indiana abortion law, the leaders of the organizations say they hope state lawmakers will begin to see what they say is the futility of the annual passage of abortion-restricting legislation.

On Wednesday, the 7^th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a provision in House Enrolled Act 1337 signed in 2016 by Gov. Mike Pence that required women to obtain an ultrasound 18 hours before having an abortion.

Or, if you like, see here:

 “Indiana politicians continue devising new and ever more demeaning ways to interfere with women’s constitutional rights and endanger their health,” said Jane Henegar, executive director of the ACLU of Indiana. “The ruling affirms that deeply personal decisions about abortion should be made by women in consultation with their doctors, not politicians pursuing an extreme ideological agenda.”

Finally, there is this little nugget:

 The state’s Legislative Services Agency, in its report on that bill, noted that past efforts to enact abortion restrictions have been successfully challenged by ACLU of Indiana, resulting in the state paying about $290,000 in legal fees to the plaintiffs and their lawyers.

A free piece of advice to our state legislature . . . stop picking fights that you're destined to lose. We know that you love guns and hate abortions. You don't need to spend a quarter million dollars of OUR money (in attorney fees to your arch enemy the ACLU) to prove it.

Let's just agree to disagree, OK Mike Young & Co.? I believe that determining when, whether, and under what circumstances a woman carries a child is her own fundamental right. You believe otherwise. Can we just agree to disagree? Will you please stop picking my pocket to make your point?

Classic Indiana "Legislation"

My first law job was in Chicago, and it dawned on me that the dynamic in Illinois is essentially reversed from that in Indiana. In Illinois, Chicago essentially makes all decisions for the rest of the state, and the rest of the state just has to deal with it.

Contrarily, in Indiana, it has always seemed to me that the rural portions of the state make the decisions that the people of Indianapolis (and to lesser extents, Ft. Wayne, Evansville, South Bend, etc.) just have to deal with it.

Well, today I got an email from my state Senator Mike Young (boooo!). The notable portion of the legislation he touts:

Through the program, the Indiana Department of Transportation matches up to $1 million when localities invest in road and bridge repairs. Counties with populations below 50,000 and cities and towns with populations below 10,000 receive a 75/25 percent match, while counties with populations greater than 50,000 and cities and towns with populations greater than 10,000 receive a 50/50 percent match. 

So, to be clear, our Senator pushed through and now touts legislation that he presumably voted for that punishes his own constituents for having the temerity to live in a populated area, that he represents.

This is classic "kids gloving" the rural areas. Are they unable to pick up the tab for their own roads? I thought they were supposed to be "real Americans" who wanted the government to "leave them alone." I thought that Indianapolis was full of takers, per our state representatives? Why is it that the state picks up considerably more, proportionately, for roads in small counties? Add to that the fact that there are fewer people in such small counties, and we have a state government that spends considerably more per person who uses a road on rural routes than on urban ones.

Of course, it's not as though Indianapolis needs the money or anything, as anyone who's driven our pothole-riven roads will aver.

Will someone please run against this empty suit, Mike Young, and give us some real representation?

Jackassery Loves Company

So, I see that Jim Bopp (the nice man who gave us Citizens United and Bush v. Gore) has decided to put his cloven-hoof stamp on the Curtis Hill matter.

A few quotes, first from the Indiana Lawyer:

Supporters of embattled Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill have created a nonprofit to raise money for his legal defense amid allegations the Republican drunkenly groped a state lawmaker and three legislative staffers.

Indiana attorney James Bopp Jr. and former Indiana Court of Appeals Judge Linda Chezem said Monday that the nonprofit accepts tax-deductible donations for paying Hill’s legal bills. 

OK. That quote is more or less factual. Given my thoughts on Jackass Curtis Hill, I think the next quote is money:

Hill’s backers say he has been treated unfairly. 

I wonder how many of Hill's prosecutorial targets feel that his investigations into them were unfair.

By way of contrast or additional information (take your pick), here is how the Indianapolis Star covered the story:

 Jim Bopp, a high-powered Republican attorney, announced Monday the creation of Fairness for Curtis Hill, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization formed to collect tax deductible funds for Hill's defense.  

Some tax and campaign finance experts, however, questioned whether the new fund could even operate as a charitable nonprofit under the law. Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, a law professor at Notre Dame, said a 501(c)(3) charity can't benefit one person. Usually defending public officials from allegations also isn't considered charitable, he said.

Get ready for the AM Radio/Conservative Victim Complex . . . THE IRS IS TARGETING US BECAUSE WE'RE breaking the law CONSERVATIVES!!

Bopp, who is best known for representing Citizens United in a U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned restrictions on political spending by corporations, nonprofits and labor unions, said contributions to the fund will be tax exempt and will come strictly from private individuals and entities, not taxpayers.

Well, I suppose that's good news -- I don't have to pay to defend Attorney General Hands McGee.

But the contributions will also be secret, he said. The source of donations to the defense fund do not have to be disclosed publicly, unlike contributions to political campaigns.

Well, I certainly can't see anything untoward about allowing wealthy people to make undisclosed donations to high-powered political figures!

So, in sum, we have two of the most repulsive figures in Indiana politics (and unfortunately in the Indiana legal community) teaming up to provide "process" for the powerful . . . how much of this "process" has Jim Bopp or Curtis Hill ever secured for the poor, downtrodden, among us? To ask the question is to answer it.

Employee Theft

I know that there has been a lot of local consternation regarding some alleged thefts from the Town of Speedway over the past few years. The two stories I have heard, in particular, involve the Redevelopment Commission and the Fire Department. I make no present comment on the veracity of those stories. However, I do write today to hearten my fellow Sparkplugs and note that we're not alone:

Two former Indianapolis Local Public Improvement Bond Bank employees have been charged with theft and insurance fraud by the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office after being accused of taking funds totaling nearly $400,000 from the bond bank.

Jacqueline Fitzgerald, 54, is charged with six counts of theft and two counts of insurance fraud, and Monica Durrett, 56, is charged with five counts of theft and one count of insurance fraud. While employed at the bond bank, the employees are believed to have claimed inappropriate benefit leave payouts and carried insurance on ineligible dependents. Fitzgerald also allegedly received unauthorized bonuses and incentive pay.

Fitzgerald and Durrett were fired from the bond bank in June 2017 after some of their alleged actions were discovered.

Both former employees had enrolled grandchildren in their employer-provided health insurance despite not being legal guardians of those children, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Fitzgerald was allegedly paid $170,000 during her last year of employment despite her annual salary being $57,523. She also arranged to be regularly paid for dozens of hours of benefit leave in addition to her normal paycheck.

Durrett also allegedly received inappropriate benefit leave pay. 

As tempting as it may be to blame Speedway's problem on something specific to Speedway, unfortunately, this problem appears to be rooted in human nature, not in Speedway.

 

Reminder - Education is Underfunded

School is getting ready to start, and we are about to be hit with a gaggle of stories about how teachers are spending their own money on school supplies for their students. I generally know these stories to be true, as I am a former school teacher. Every late July or August for 7 long years, I would go to Target or United Arts & Education to load up on school supplies for my students. My meager $16XX/month, give or take, after taxes, insurance, etc., was expected to cover the supplies without reimbursement. Generally, I'd spend between $100 and $200. This was a small amount compared to many of my co-workers.

Please understand that $16XX/month doesn't go far when rent was $550, car payment was $400, cell phone was nearly $100, power was $100, gas was $50, etc. Taking between a hundred and two hundred bucks out was a major expenditure for me; after all, I could have taken my wife out to a nice dinner for that.

Alas, I spent the money on supplies for my students, who (often in concert with their parents) often resented my efforts to increase their literacy. And there is nothing special about me, except that I was perhaps less generous than my co-workers.

Please remember this as school starts this year, and please remember to be kind and supportive toward the teachers you encounter.

Healthcare Again - Part the Billionth

Just this:

Taken daily, Truvada, the brand name for a type of pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, is up to 99 percent effective at preventing H.I.V. infection. Used as directed, it’s one of the most effective methods of preventing a viral infection ever discovered, as good as the polio vaccine, the miracle of modern medicine. When you combine PrEP’s effectiveness with the discovery that people living with H.I.V. cannot transmit the virus to others once they become undetectable, we could be on the verge of a swift end to the epidemic.

Truvada was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2012. But over six years later, the United States is failing miserably in expanding its use. Less than 10 percent of the 1.2 million Americans who might benefit from PrEP are actually getting it. The major reason is quite clear: pricing. With a list price over $20,000 a year, Truvada, the only PrEP drug available in the United States, is simply too expensive to become the public health tool it should be.

Gilead Sciences, the company that makes Truvada, maintains a monopoly on the drug domestically. In other countries, a one-month supply of generic Truvada costs less than $6, but Gilead charges Americans, on average, more than $1,600, a markup from the generic of 25,000 percent.

Infuriatingly, American taxpayers and private charities — not Gilead — paid for almost all of the clinical research used to develop Truvada as PrEP. Yet the price stays out of reach for millions, and will for at least several more years.

What to say? It's really important, apparently, that rich people continue to get richer. And if that means a few hundred thousand unnecessary deaths, well, I guess you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, huh?

Interesting . . .

I read in the "Failing New York Times" an interesting story today. You really should read it yourself. It was authored by a former White House stenographer, whose job it was to keep transcripts of conversations between the President and, well, anyone, to ensure that people accurately quoted what the President of the United States said. A few highlights:

On Friday, at a news conference with Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain a reporter asked President Trump about disparaging comments he had made about her to The Sun newspaper. He denied ever having said them and declared that recordings of the interview would vindicate him. “We record when we deal with reporters,” he said. “We solve a lot of problems with the good old recording instrument.”

Do we?

. . . . . . . 

As White House stenographers, we were among the handful of staff members who remained at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue when the administration changed. This was my first transition, but my boss had said every new administration she’d worked in since the 1980s was grateful for our help.

. . . . . . .

We carried a microphone and two recorders at all times, and let them run until the last reporter had left the room, just in case a reporter yelled a question over his shoulder with one foot out the door. Should the press actually misquote the president, we were there, armed with an official transcript of what the president did or did not say.

But now, we were faced with a president who didn’t want to be recorded.  

. . . . . . . 

Mr. Trump likes to call anyone who disagrees with him “fake news.” But if he’s really the victim of so much inaccurate reporting, why is he so averse to having the facts recorded and transcribed?

President Trump did criticize Theresa May to The Sun. We know because it was recorded.

It’s clear that White House stenographers do not serve his administration, but rather his adversary: the truth. 

As a self-righteous jackass who has done more than perhaps one person to put this horse's ass in the White House said a few months ago, "Lordy, I hope there are tapes."  (And that very much includes the infamous "pee tape.")

I guess when you lie every time your lips move . . . . .

Those Pence Brothers . . . They're Just so Nice!

Ugh! I think I need to go punch myself in the face just for writing that headline! Hopefully anyone who has ever read this blog recognizes the sarcasm in the title.

Anyway, this recently came to my attention:

Vice President Mike Pence turns nostalgic when he talks about growing up in small-town Columbus, Indiana, where his father helped build a Midwestern empire of more than 200 gas stations that provided an upbringing on the “front row of the American dream.”

The collapse of Kiel Bros. Oil Co. in 2004 was widely publicized. Less known is that the state of Indiana — and, to a smaller extent, Kentucky and Illinois — are still on the hook for millions of dollars to clean up more than 85 contaminated sites across the three states, including underground tanks that leaked toxic chemicals into soil, streams and wells.

Indiana alone has spent at least $21 million on the cleanup thus far, or an average of about $500,000 per site, according to an analysis of records by The Associated Press. And the work is nowhere near complete.

Well, I mean, what's $21m when you're a "christian first, conservative second, and Republican third" here in Indiana? It's not like you're some selfish school kid who wants to, you know, eat lunch or something. Million-dollar pollution problem? Great! Poor kids want lunch? Feed 'em to Rokita!

Kiel Bros. has paid for only a fraction of the overall effort.

OK. So here we are, the Pence family business has imposed tens of millions of dollars on us, the taxpayers, and people are still willing to believe in his so-called "fiscal conservatism." I tell you what, next time I'm looking for someone to get my spending under control, I'm not just going to let him (or her) do my spending for me!

In a statement, Pence’s older brother Greg Pence — who was president of Kiel Bros. when it went bankrupt and is now running for Congress as a Republican — distanced himself from the cleanup costs.

“Greg Pence has had nothing to do with Kiel Bros since 2004. This is another attempt by the liberal media to rehash old, baseless attacks,” campaign spokeswoman Molly Gillaspie said. 

A few things: first off, I forgot that the Pence brothers were multiplying . . . God help us! 

Second, Ms. Gillaspie, perhaps you weren't aware that underground pollution plumes take decades to develop. In fact, I'll bet that someone on one of the Pence teams has already acknowledged this:

Pence spokeswoman Alyssa Farah called the findings “a years old issue” that the vice president has addressed before. She did not elaborate.

So, what is it? Did the pollution occur during the Pence family's "stewardship" of Kiel Bros. or did it occur after? Maybe before? All I've seen is blah blah blah liberal media blah blah blah old blah blah blah liberal media blah blah baseless.

The fact that the company stuck taxpayers with the lion’s share of the cleanup bill rankles some observers, especially in light of the family’s reputation as budget hawks critical of government spending.

You don't say. It's like I've seen this tragicomedy before.

 Greg Pence, who is seeking the vice president’s old congressional seat, has total assets worth $5.7 to $26 million.

Nearly a decade after going under, Kiel Bros. sites still ranked among the top 10 recipients of state money for such cleanups in Indiana in 2013, the last year for which the petroleum industry has reliable spending data for the company. That was out of more than 230 companies seeking cleanup money that year, including major gas station chains with a substantially larger presence in the state.
Founded as an oil distributor by businessman Carl Kiel in 1960, the company expanded into the gas station business. Pence’s father, Edward, joined in the early years and, by the mid-1970s, rose to corporate vice president.
Mike Pence says he worked for the business — which mostly operated under the name Tobacco Road — starting at age 14. But it was his brother who took over after Edward Pence’s 1988 death and eventually became president.

Just so we're clear: the Pence family made a ton of money running this company. This company cut costs by polluting our air and water. Now we get to pay to not be poisoned while the Pence family gets to go and bring their special sauce to the nation as a whole.

 When an underground tank leaks, companies are liable for the damage, but Indiana has been especially amenable to using public money to pay for heavily contaminated soil to be excavated and for high-powered pumps to suck toxic liquid and vapor from the soil.

The state’s payout limit was $2 million per site until Mike Pence signed a 2016 law as governor, increasing it to $2.5 million. In 2016, Indiana paid out nearly two-and-a-half times the national average per incident, according to records.

I for one can't imagine why the state can't afford to do such trivial things as reform its child welfare issues, after a mere 15 years of studying the issue.

Pence 2018: Starve the kids and poison the water!

"You didn't build that"

I recall the presidential election of 2012 and how infuriating it was to me to hear people argue, in what seemed self-evidently bad faith, that Barack Obama's statement, "you didn't build that," somehow robbed all individuals of their own accomplishments. Personally, I always viewed that statement as essentially stating that "while you did something impressive, your accomplishment rests on the prior achievements of others, public and private." It reminded me of my father's saying that each generation stands on the shoulders of the preceding generation.

Anyway, all of this is to hype a great article I read in Vox on Sunday. A few quotes, but I highly encourage anyone to click through and read the entirety:

I went to public schools through eighth grade. My parents were able to save for some of my college costs through a plan that provides tax relief for those savings. I stayed on my parent’s health insurance until I was 26 under the Affordable Care Act. I have received the earned income tax credit, targeted at those with low or moderate income. I took out federal student loans to go to law school. I am enrolled in an income-based repayment plan currently as I pay them back and have also signed up for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. The way we discuss our successes as individual accomplishments and valorize some as “self-made” fails to acknowledge such systems of support.

This sounds very familiar . . . it could almost have been written by yours truly.

To be sure, I worked tremendously hard. . . . . But, I don’t think I’ve ever worked as hard as a mom who works multiple jobs for a minimum wage. Hard work is not enough. There are structures that impact success.

I agree. I earn vastly more now than I did as a public high school teacher. That is not to suggest that I work vastly harder.

When it comes to wealth in this country, we no longer have a scarcity problem. We have a distribution problem. The world produces enough food to feed everyone, we have approximately five vacant homes for each homeless person in the US and the US spends twice as much on health care as other developed countries.

All of this is to argue that when we discuss redistribution in this country, we ignore how opportunity is distributed at our own peril. My own father was the president of a fortune 500 company as I made my way through adolescence. To argue that this did not provide me more opportunities than other, less fortunate, people my age is to bury one's head in the sand. 

Like most people, I make no apology for my success (limited though it may be). I worked very hard for it and continue to work hard for it. However, I would be maximally misguided and misleading to suggest that I don't owe anyone, both public and private, for the opportunities with which I have been blessed. 

On Healthcare - Part One Billion

I have had heartburn problems for quite some time. It used to only hit me infrequently and has gotten worse since I've aged. I recently saw a doctor for this (great guy, I might add) and he quickly diagnosed the issue and wrote me a prescription.

My wife went to Kroger to fill this prescription and found out it was not covered by our health insurance (for which I pay about as much per month as our family mortgage). Without health insurance coverage, this particular medication for heartburn/acid reflux, goes for $3,000 for a thirty (30) day supply.

The pharmacy aide pointed out that this same medication can be had over the counter for about $12.

Our system of healthcare is indefensible.

A Wonderful Man with a Wonderful Family

It seems that my lone reader has given me some pushback on my assessment of Judge Kavanaugh and what we can expect in the New Gilded Age Lochner Court that is certainly coming.

Rather than put words into the proverbial mouth of my wonderful reader, I would prefer to quote the comment in full:

Now boo hoo Tabletop Joe Trump’s puck seems to me like a wonderful man who has a wonderful family . Are you a religious man Tabletop Joe ? Everyone needs religion , whichever religion you choose ... that’s just my opinion and not growing up Catholic but having converted I can say this is a very admirable attribute , looks like he is very giving to the community of his time talent and treasure....

Where to begin with this?

Boo Hoo Tabletop Joe
For starters, let's make clear that the people who Judge Kavanaugh and modern Republicans want to hurt generally doesn't include me. I will benefit from their tax cuts (minimally) and, as a white male, their decreasingly covert racism isn't directed at me. Therefore, save your boo hoos for someone else.

Wonderful Man/Wonderful Family
As to the "wonderful man who has a wonderful family," that's fine and great. Some would say the same about me, even if they think my ideas are the worst thing in the world. Curtis Painter, I'm sure, also has a lovely family, but that doesn't mean that I want him to play QB for the Indianapolis Colts. I only care about a football player's football playing (to put a comically fine point on it). Similarly, I care about a judge's approach to the law, not his approach to his own family. However kind he is in person is irrelevant to me because it is such a longshot that I will ever get to meet him personally as to be effectively impossible. However, his jurisprudence will affect me (and you).

On judicial philosophy, I am given to understand that he doesn't believe in the exclusionary rule and wants to eliminate that. For the uninitiated, the exclusionary rule states that the government can't use evidence against you if they violated your rights and illegally obtained it. It's the thing that keeps the police from breaking into your house, for example.

Further, I have no illusion that a Justice Kavanaugh will be the 5th vote to overturn, either explicitly or sub silencio, Roe v. Wade. Now, I've had plenty of conversations with so-called conservatives who tell me that abortion doesn't bother them as long as it's not a 3rd trimester abortion. To them, I would say that you should actually, you know, read Roe v. Wade. However, to save you some time, I'll summarize: the state has no business getting between a woman and her doctor in the 1st trimester; the state has an interest in getting involved during the 2nd trimester to protect the mother's life; the state has an interest in getting involved during the 3rd trimester to protect the baby's life. There it is. Apparently Judge Kavanaugh believes that the government knows better than a woman and her doctor what is proper for her. These are not easy decisions, and it appears that this judge does not believe that determining what grows inside one's own body is a fundamental right. I disagree.

Judge Kavanaugh has also written about how he believes that a sitting president can't be indicted. I'm sure that had nothing to do with Donald Trump's selection of him, though. I'm likewise sure that it will never come up because the Mueller investigation is one with which Donald Trump has fully supported, as he is concerned that our nation's elections be free of foreign interference, right?

Religion
My commenter believes that "everyone needs religion." I disagree. If you are happily ensconced in your faith, I am happy for you. If you are happily ensconced in atheism, I am similarly happy for you. I do not believe that everyone needs religion. Regrettably, too many people use religion as a justification for their own desire to look down on others, to judge others, and to exclude others. It is those who use religion for such profane purposes that put so many people off from religion. It kind of reminds me of when I was young and couldn't stand Phish for no reason other than the band's fans were just intolerable.

Everyone does not need religion.

Time, Talent, and Treasure
I too give my time and talent for good causes. I do some pro bono legal work, and I play in two rock n' roll bands that donate a lot of money to charity and no money back to me. That doesn't make my ideas the right ones for public policy, and it doesn't do so for Judge Kavanaugh, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Elizabeth Warren, or anyone else.

Elected representatives are our employees. Just like I don't really care how giving my paralegal is in her own community if she can't do her job to my liking, I don't care how giving my representatives are in their community if they don't do their jobs to my liking. While I recognize that a judge doesn't represent me, he is supposed to represent the law.

My big takeaway about Judge Kavanaugh is that he will use the Court not to protect the weak from the whims of the powerful but rather to protect a privileged, wealthy minority from the whims of democracy.

Taking the Ball and Running

I love Indianapolis as a whole nearly as much as I love Speedway. It constantly perplexes me, however, that there isn't much that's particularly memorable about Indianapolis, food wise. For a long time, I have believed that perhaps that is because Indianapolis is a test market for regional or national restaurant corporations; they test new concepts here and have sufficient budget to both be able to fail without financial catastrophe while simultaneously setting an artificially high bar for survival for local concepts.

Recently, I read a great piece in the Urbanophile that made me question whether I had thought this entirely through. The piece discusses the diverging fortunes of Nashville Hot Chicken and Hoosier Breaded Pork Tenderloin.  I highly encourage anyone to click through and read the entire article. A few snippets should you forego the opportunity to click through:

First, about Nashville "Hot" Chicken:

In other words, it’s possible that this dish has been around a while in some form in the local black community, but what we know today as the Nashville hot chicken is from the 70s or 80s. A Midwestern reader with longstanding family ties to Nashville told me a while back that at least through the 1990s he never heard hot chicken mentioned there. I read that Nashville hot chicken is now supposedly popular around the south, but having spent extensive time in Alabama 10-15 years ago, I never once came across it there.

I have no reason to doubt this analysis, but then again I'm not from the South. I don't recall ever hearing about Nashville Hot Chicken until just a few years ago, though.

Now, as to the Hoosier Tenderloin:

the pork tenderloin is fairly ubiquitous in Central Indiana, where it is on practically every bar and grill menu. 

I can attest to that. I don't know how long the pork tenderloin has been ubiquitous in Indianapolis, but it's been at least the entire time I've lived here (since 2003).

The question, of course, is:

Why was Indianapolis unable to do with the tenderloin what Nashville did with hot chicken?

His answer, essentially, is that Indianapolis doesn't even try.

I again and again see that Southern cities start with little to nothing, and yet what they do have they treat as the greatest things of all time. As illustrated by Nashville hot chicken, they’ve also looked at their often neglected black community as a source of local cultural identity.

The Midwestern cities not only fail at this consistently, they typically don’t even try. There are tons of regional food products in the Midwest – Chicago style dogs, St. Louis pizza, etc. – but other than Chicago’s deep dish pizza, they have been dramatically underexploited in the marketplace even as these cities say that they are very keen to raise their brand profiles.

Interesting.

Being a litigator (and thus having nothing whatsoever to do with tourism, or the friendlier side of humanity generally) I don't really know what to say about this. Nonetheless, it is worth considering. It also gets me a-thinking about what it is, aside from racing, that Speedway hangs its hat on. I get that the 500 is, in the immortal words of Joe Biden, "a big f**kin' deal." Nonetheless, what is the "thing" about Speedway during the other 350 or so days per year? Food? Festivals? Sport? Music?

Shameful

When I last lived in Ft. Wayne (2013-2014), I heard constantly about how the "good conservative folks of Northeastern Indiana" would do this and that, would always act politely, gathered the facts before acting hysterically, etc. This was always pointed out in juxtaposition to Obama (a nation turns its lonely eyes to you Barack Obama). Among the things that the "good conservative folks of Northeastern Indiana" have been doing lately, apparently, is this:

Fort Wayne's Planned Parenthood Health Center is closing effective today after several years of increased harassment and intimidation.

“I'm pretty angry about this,” said Christie Gillespie, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky. “This is not how decent and compassionate people behave. These are actions of harassment and intimidation that are done in the name of faith, religion and Jesus.

“It's an awful day for the Fort Wayne community. We will be back stronger.”

The Fort Wayne location at 3914 W. Jefferson Blvd. does not perform abortions and has four employees.

Gillespie said the community is losing a trusted health care provider that conducted tests for early diagnosis of cervical, testicular and breast cancer, provided birth control options and tested for sexually transmitted diseases.

Gillespie said the tactics used by Allen County Right to Life and other area groups go far beyond protesting outside the facility.

Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky provided copies of a mailer sent to Fort Wayne neighborhoods where a Planned Parenthood nurse practitioner worked.

It included her name and picture and said “There are killers among us.” It said the woman enabled “child killing by coordinating abortions off site.” It also gave her home address.

Absolutely disgusting and shameful. If, as they say, you are judged by the company you keep, then this list of people should be judged for keeping company with Allen County Right to Life and its shameful tactics.

NOTE: I haven't even addressed the fact that Fort Wayne Planned Parenthood (a) does not provide abortions but (b) provides no/low-cost STD screening. Perhaps someone can explain to me how these so-called "right to life" groups are targeting abortion and not conducting the so-called "war on women" with these kinds of tactics directed at clinics that don't provide abortions?

Labor Shortage BS

How many times have you heard some financial-news type (i.e. Jim Cramer) talk about how there's a "skills gap" or a "skilled labor shortage," and the government has to do SOMETHING BIG RIGHT NOW to fix that problem (never mind that the "something big right now" tends to involve training workers after the same Jim Cramer types bitch and moan over having to pay taxes for schools, but I digress).

Anyway,  with the seemingly never ending Obama Recovery driving unemployment down to 4%, you would think that sooner or later wages would start to rise. For the record, lets look at inflation adjusted wages over time:

Source

This is what Americans have been making, adjusted for inflation, for about 50 years. Note the low point in those wages? Yeah, that's about the time I turned 18. Wages then picked up pretty quickly until about 2000, at which point they essentially flattened out until the recession, picked back up, and have more or less stayed constant.

While that wage growth is pathetic, it certainly has redounded to the benefit of someone. I wonder who:

Source

A few things jump out at me from looking at these two graphs. First, they're not a perfect overlay. Second, the wealth share going to the top 1% appears to have at least doubled and nearly tripled since approximately 1970.

In light of this background, I give you a recent blurb from Slate, which I would highly recommend:

Corporate executives and Wall Street types come up with all sorts of reasons why it’s supposedly dangerous to let the unemployment rate drop too low. They talk about how the economy might “overheat,” leading to a dreaded bout of inflation. They may talk about “worker shortages” that make it hard to find the right talent.

But in the end, most of this is just verbiage meant to skirt the real concern: Companies are worried that if unemployment falls far enough, they’ll have to pay workers more, and that will cut into their profits. With the official jobless rate at 4 percent, that’s already beginning to happen at some companies, the Wall Street Journal reports today. Ten percent of companies in the S&P 500 have claimed that higher wages hurt their earnings in the first quarter, it notes. Goldman Sachs is predicting that “every percentage-point increase in labor-cost inflation will drag down earnings of companies in the S&P 500 by 0.8%.”

. . . . . . .

 This, of course, is considered a nightmare. “At the end of the day, I haven’t heard this many CEOs talk about shortages in skilled labor and wage increases to attract talent in a long time—in at least a decade,” one money manager told the paper.

Keep that quote in mind the next time you read an overwrought article about ill-defined “worker shortages.” C-suiters have created an entire coded language that lets them spin a strong labor market as a threat to the economy, when in reality it mostly just poses a marginal threat to their bottom line. A CEO can go on CNBC and say that his company is coping with a “labor shortage” without seeming like a self-interested capitalist, when in reality, he’s just trying to explain why a healthy economy is bad for his shareholders.

So, the next time you hear about worker shortages, ask whoever brings them up to point out where the wages are skyrocketing. After all, if the world desperately needed someone who was able to work on a Tuttle-Tut Machine and only one guy knew how, his wages would be astronomical. If, on the other hand, there were plenty of people who knew how to work on Tuttle-Tut Machines but they demanded a decent wage, perhaps the owners of the Tuttle-Tut Machine Shop would start making noise about how the public needs to shoulder the cost of training more Tuttle-Tut Mechanics, simply as a way to drive down the wages and increase the shop's bargaining power.

Food for thought.