The resonance of Trump: "People are comparing themselves to their neighbors and feeling like they’re not getting their fair share."

As Bluegill noted on Fb ...

Real life, compounded by what David Graeber and others have referred to as bullshit jobs; bean counters and paper pushers are prioritized and rewarded over those who actually grow the beans and make the paper. In terms of human development and sustenance, that's backwards. Makes it all the more difficult to listen to people who've fully given themselves over to the "new [bullshit] economy" proclaim their superiority.

Now read this:

Confused Why Donald Trump’s Message Is Resonating? Relative Comparison Theory And Income Inequality Explain A Lot, by Benjy Boxer (Medium)

(In his speech at the Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama) rightly points out that many people have struggled, and there’s a reason why Donald Trump is successfully playing on fear and nationalism.

The majority of people reading this article on Medium probably haven’t felt the pains that Obama described, so they’re confused, like me, about the popularity of Trump. I again decided to collect data to breakdown the issues that I think are frustrating many Americans. It takes more than graphs and psychological theory to explain this, but I’m going to try. In turn, Democrats and Republicans need to recognize that and deliver real solutions to these issues, not platitudes, fear, and nationalism.

This first graph is by far the most important chart in explaining both the benefits and impact of globalization, free trade, and a changing economy to different constituencies. The greatest benefactors of the extension of the Bretton Woods System (free trade and globalization) following the end of the Cold War have been those who own capital and the poorest people in the world. Unfortunately, as money has moved from the Developed Economies to the Developing World in search of return and comparative advantage, the middle class in the United States and Europe have failed to benefit.

Many behavioral psychology studies have shown that even when your life is improving in absolute terms, you see very little psychological benefit when your life isn’t improving as quickly as your neighbor. Your absolute size of the pie is less important than your relative slice of the pie (Christian Elger and Armin Falk — University of Bonn). This is why inequality is so damaging to the national psyche.

And, a few other recent essays of relevance:

David Graeber, One: "On the phenomenon of bullshit jobs." (NAC)

David Graeber, Two: "Despair Fatigue: How hopelessness grew boring." (NAC)

What do Donald Trump voters really crave? Respect, by Chris Arnade (The Guardian)

Why Trump voters are not “complete idiots”, by Chris Arnade (Medium)

How the ‘Stupid Party’ Created Donald Trump, by Max Boot (New York Times)

There's nothing in Trumpism for me, but while the candidate himself is shallow, the vein he's tapping into is deep and needs to be understood. Democrats? Lots of neoliberal complicity there, eh?

K & I: It's like a litmus test for prejudice ... and it's got hazmat, too.

It remains difficult to for me to fathom the disgruntlement in some quarters expressed at renewed calls for the K & I to be converted into a shared use path.

Broken Sidewalk properly reiterates: "It’s time to open the K&I Bridge to pedestrians and cyclists."

A future K & I shared-use path? It's "not a priority for One Southern Indiana" unless Norfolk Southern can move the bridge to River Ridge.

Or this one from 2013.

A report on the history of the K & I Bridge.

... (Steven R.) Greseth's extensive legal research (he readily concedes it is neither legal advice nor legal opinion) succeeds in asking a whole different set of questions, which might be boiled down to this: How many, if any, of a century's worth of legal obligations is the present-day owner of the K & I now obliged to uphold?

Huckabee-voting Louisville East End suburbanites bash the notion of potential expenditures to assist mobility and interconnected neighborhoods, preferring to reserve transportation subsidies for their own auto-centric sprawl.

New Albanians are terrified that ISIS-colored refugees are in Portland, just waiting for a footpath to launch attacks on Dewey Heights.

Portlanders exactly say the same, only in reverse.

All of it remains purely theoretical, and yet already social media experts are debating policing levels, surveillance against chicanery, and all the other details barely mentioned when the Big Four's conversion was lauded as a victory for modernity.

Then there's the entity that should be on the nationalization chopping block, Norfolk Southern. Frequent blog reader A was struck by this passage in Marcus Green's WDRB article.

"Norfolk Southern's K & I Bridge exists today for a single purpose -- to provide safe transport for freight trains over the Ohio River,” (spokesman Dave) Pidgeon said in a statement. “NS generally does not support recreational trails next to active rail lines because of serious safety concerns, and we remain focused on providing safe, efficient and reliable freight transportation to our customers in Louisville and southern Indiana."

The railroad acknowledges that some want the span open to the public, but “ultimately the K&I Bridge is privately owned and operated for the single purpose of safely moving freight trains which carry ... both hazmat and non-hazmat cargo,” Pidgeon said. “We not only have safety concerns about public access along active right-of-way but also serious, prohibitive concerns about security and liability.”

Our reader brings the hammer down:

Perhaps someone could remind Norfolk Southern spokesperson Dave Pidgeon that the “both hazmat and non-hazmat cargo” already passes through both New Albany and Portland and Crescent Hill and St. Matthews and Anchorage ... That's a piss-poor reason to suggest folks can't walk the bridge. The railroad"s "hazmat and non-hazmat cargo” already passes within a very few feet of homes and children's bedrooms along the rail right-of-way.

It would be almost as interesting to know the contents of Norfolk Southern's hazmat cargo as it would the lead content of Indiana American's water supplies.

Broken Sidewalk properly reiterates: "It’s time to open the K&I Bridge to pedestrians and cyclists."

Their pearls of wisdom never cease.

Broken Sidewalk echoes the WDRB piece by Marcus Green, referenced at NAC on February 1. While linking to Green's excellent work last week, I couldn't resist exposing One Southern Indiana's non-stance, with our presumed vanguard asleep at the wheel unless Southern Indiana's auto-centric oligarchy is directly involved.

I suppose we must give some credit to Wendy Dant Chesser some credit for knowing whence her meal ticket originates. It's just a shame so many small and genuinely local independent businesses are duped along the way to help underwrite the propaganda.

But I seem to have digressed.

Back to the uniformly excellent Branden Klayko.

It’s time to open the K&I Bridge to pedestrians and cyclists; Railroad company has stymied efforts to date, but leaders continue conversion push.

... There’s an opportunity to create a shared-use path for cyclists and pedestrians along the Kentucky & Indiana (K&I) Bridge linking Louisville’s Portland neighborhood with the flourishing New Albany. A group of dedicated leaders from Kentucky and Indiana has been steadily pushing to open a former automobile lane closed in the ’70s on the bridge to create a 13-mile waterfront loop between the K&I and its Big Four counterpart.

Interestingly, when this topic was raised on Facebook, it took a turn I wasn't expecting.

Yes! Lets make a connection to the highest violent crime area in Louisville. Great!

To which I replied:

You might be interested to know that Portland residents express qualms for precisely the same reason.

Thus ensued a lengthy back 'n' forth, and for once, I found myself dumbfounded. How could it be that given New Albany's (shall we say) eternally transitional nature, there are people here worried about criminals crossing a pedestrian bridge from Portland?

As for the neglected area around the bridge approach on the New Albany side, surely we're the culpable ones. The city of New Albany has not invested in this area for 40 years, since the automotive lane was shut; when vehicular access was removed, the Vincennes corridor and surrounding neighborhood began dying, and successive City Hall regimes did and said nothing.

A useful K & I would be instrumental in rectifying this, whether via private or public investment, and probably both.

A friend provides the appropriate conclusion.

Maybe we should be build a wall.....REALLY? I don't see a pedestrian bridge drastically increasing crime. I don't see a criminal taking a hike across a pedestrian bridge to break into a downtown New Albany home or establishment. It's not like we are Manhattan over here. There is a bridge, the Sherman Minton, that already gives criminals easy access. I think we need to embrace each other's redevelopment efforts.

Unless, of course, such an embrace is prohibited by ordinance -- or One Southern Indiana.