Trumpolini's bogus pandemic stats and the flowering of the GOP's death cult.

You're entitled to your own opinion, just not your own facts.

Donald Trump rushed to reopen America – now Covid is closing in on him, by Robert Reich (The Guardian)

The surge in cases isn’t because America is doing more tests for the virus, as Trump contends. Cases are rising even where testing is declining. In Wisconsin, cases soared 28% over the past two weeks, as the number of tests decreased by 14%. Hospitals in Texas, Florida and Arizona are filling up with Covid-19 patients. Deaths are expected to resume their gruesome ascent.

The surge is occurring because America reopened before Covid-19 was contained ...

It's the very Nadir of the Know Nothings.

No, President Trump, Testing Is Not Causing Case Counts to Rise. The Virus Is Just Spreading Faster, by Charles Ornstein and Ash Ngu (ProPublica)

The Trump administration has doubled down on its claims that coronavirus case counts are up because the U.S. has increased testing. However, a closer look at graphs of testing numbers and positive cases shows that this isn’t the case for many states.

The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin bears scrutiny, given the bizarre inaccuracy of her analysis v.v. the recently contested Kentucky primary.

However, this home run travels about 535 feet.

This outcome is the triumph of Republicans’ tribal politics, in which identification with the cult and assault on the truth win out over common sense, science and even self-preservation. To be a Republican — at least in the eyes of millions of them — means to adopt illogical, anti-factual beliefs and oppositional conduct. You cannot take seriously the threats of climate change or the novel coronavirus because … well, because that is not what Republicans do, and to do otherwise would be to concede that the dreaded radical left and elites (presumably one can be both) are right. At the extremes, Republicans will engage in objectively destructive conduct to prove their point — hoarding hydroxychloroquine even if the Food and Drug Administration says the drug is ineffective or dangerous, and, of course, going without masks.

Yes, that's it.

Slick Jeffie is lobbing loads of whoppers again, this time about "his" job creation.

It's another spurious saturation-spraying piece of Jeff Gahan’s naked emperor tall-tale fiction. We’ll need to see the evidence about these “high-paying” jobs. Don’t hold your breath waiting for it.

NEW JOBS: Thanks to our public investments in infrastructure and quality of life, major companies like Sazerac, HMS Global Maritime, and American Health Network have been expanding in New Albany. That means hundreds of new high-paying jobs for residents of our River City. #GahanForMayor #MovingNAForward #NewJobs

As three friends incisively noted:

Not only is there no evidence of high paying jobs, there is certainly no proof that any investment or other action by Supreme Leader is responsible. Correlation does not imply causation. It's yet another example of Gahan’s credit-snatching campaign when 95% of the jobs in New Albany are thanks to the free market and entrepreneurial spirit.

and

Also, define “public investments.”

and

How many jobs have been lost during his reign? You have to net out the opposite direction.

News and Tribune giddy as Jeffersonville's middle class credentials are conjured by a shadowy web site operating from a bungalow in Frisco.

My first question: What is Simple Thrifty Living?

It's followed closely behind by: Why Simple Thrifty Living's methodology for the seven factors making up the rankings, as opposed to others?

Then there's: Why should Simple Thrifty Living be trusted over other sources?

Not to neglect: How does Simple Thrifty Living support itself, anyway?

You'll get a fair number of hits online with regard to Simple Thrifty Living's content, but good luck trying to go deeper and learn who or what is involved.

One of the writers is named Jack Ryder. Another is Jeff Hunter. There's Emily Jones, too. These sound a lot more like pseudonymous 1970s porn performers than purveyors of financial acumen ... but I digress.

Here's a press release from 2013: West Hall Publishing Announces New Expert-Focused Personal Finance Site Simple. Thrifty. Living.

West Hall Publishing and Consulting announced today that they have launched a new website, Simple. Thrifty. Living., focusing on personal finance and teaching everyday people how to live a full life without breaking the bank.

What makes Simple. Thrifty. Living. different? Professionals from every field imaginable produce the content, from psychologists to home and garden designers. Each writer brings his or her own personal and professional experience to each article.

That helps.

Here's the corporate headquarters, according to filing information.

In short, there's almost no background available about the web site, its writers or the owners, whomever the latter might be. By extension, there's almost no way of knowing whether the website is reputable or merely internet click bait.

Another question: How does something like this "middle class family list" come to the attention of the newspaper and make the front page?

Did Mike Moore's office peddle it?

One Southern Indiana?

There's a healthy dollop of self-aggrandizement from both these entities, and the antennae fairly quiver. The usual suspects love it when media fawns over them, and it shouldn't surprise you to learn that they'll generate the feedback if necessary.

There's altogether too much crowing and not enough criteria. The newspaper needs to do better.

Can it?

Will it even try?

Jeffersonville ranked best in Indiana for middle class families, by John Boyle (The Jeffersonville Tom May Content Purveyor)

SOUTHERN INDIANA — Three local Southern Indiana communities have been ranked among the top cities to live in for Hoosier middle class families.

In a list recently released by Simple Thrifty Living, Jeffersonville topped all other Indiana cities included in the report, which was 84. Coming in fourth was Clarksville, with New Albany taking the ninth spot.

According to Simple Thrifty Living, the middle class makes up roughly 52 percent of the United States' population. The socioeconomic factors analyzed for the list "have a significant effect" on families, prompting the publication to identify the cities best-suited for the families of today.

The rankings were based on seven factors — income, real estate taxes, home value, unemployment, college education, schools and job availability. Cities were compared to others in their state, with each factor given a weighted score that totaled to 100 possible points ...

One Southern Indiana visits city council, sells $30,000 of pencils, and flies back to Abuja.

It was city council meeting night, as pushed back from the Labor Day holiday. I can't do Thursday meetings any longer, and during the days to follow, you'll be hearing about a few other changes in store; in short, I'm preparing to retire from polemics and devote full time to beer.

Seriously.

Seeing as I'm not the "cold turkey" type, we'll need to ease into polemical detachment.

Glancing at Chris Morris's coverage, I have a few questions, and I might as well ask them. Heaven knows the newspaper won't.

The full passage is reprinted below, but the shortcut: tonight was One Southern Indiana's annual pass-the-hat visit to Speed Through City.

Follow this handy * at the bottom to reminisce about a previous instance of this pageantry, which occurred eight years ago and was just as funny. According to Morris, 1Si has made good on its mission statement, which in essence is to take a commission for linking local government subsidies to corporate entities that rarely need them.

"The numbers back up their claim."

So says the reporter, but how does he know? Only because 1Si says so. Is there independent verification for these claims?

Who knows? Apparently, the reporter didn't ask.

"According to a 1si presentation, for every dollar the city of New Albany has invested into the organization’s economic development program, $4,321 has been created in new taxable capital by companies."

That's a far better return than offered by ex-Nigerian royalty. If true, then shouldn't the city of New Albany put all $3 million of its paving money into 1Si's economic development programs? I mean, we'd get lots more bang for the buck.

On second thought, strike that. Someone might mistake the satire for insider trading.

Sans snark: Is One Southern Indiana worth $30k annually? Yeah, probably. 1Si fluffed the oligarchs on the Sazerac transaction at Pillsbury, and that one's worth a finder's fee. If they can keep Wendy from purging the humanities majors, what 1Si is doing for vocational training alone probably merits the tithe.

But isn't it the job of journalists to ask questions and verify (or disprove) statistical assertions like 1Si's?

Isn't it true that the organization just about always gets a pass on matters like this because of what it says its doing?

New Albany gets two seats on 1si's Economic Development Council with donation, by Chris Morris (Tom May Lives Here)

NEW ALBANY — One Southern Indiana officials tout their work in encouraging companies to build, expand or remain in Clark and Floyd counties. And over the past 12 years, the numbers back up their claim.

Since 2006, 164 new projects have been announced which have resulted in 13,639 jobs, with 2,361 of those jobs based in New Albany. Also during that time, more than $500 million in payroll has been added either by existing or new companies.

According to a 1si presentation, for every dollar the city of New Albany has invested into the organization’s economic development program, $4,321 has been created in new taxable capital by companies.

In order to continue that work through its economic development programs, those same officials asked the New Albany City Council for $30,000 for 2019 at Thursday’s meeting. The donation also will give the city two seats on 1si’s Economic Development Council, and will give the city’s logo a proper location on advertising materials.

The request, on the first two readings, passed unanimously. The money will come out of the Economic Development Income Tax fund should it pass a third reading.

Last year the council appropriated the same amount to be used for a more specific program, 1si’s talent development initiative.

---

* In 2010, the question was whether the city would be giving $75,000 to 1Si, and some of us thought the money would be better spent by ourselves, for ourselves.I sarcastically (!) offered to serve as intermediary.

I’d like to submit a bid, billable to my consulting company, Potable Curmudgeon, Inc.

I’ve already asked Pete at Digital Resource Center in downtown New Albany to help with the estimate.

We’ll be publishing a couple hundred glossy ringed binders filled with testimonials, pie graphs, statistics, and artfully retouched 1Si press releases. Sleekly professional, though not ostentatious, their design will befit the buttoned-down aspirations of self-respecting Southern Indiana CEOs, each of whom can be counted upon to strategically place the unopened binder on one corner of their desks, where its multi-colored ubiquity will attest to the veracity of the contents.

The beauty of Potable Curmudgeon Inc.’s plan, which we’re calling “Res ipsa loquitur, Southern Indiana,” is that its existence is definitive proof of its value. The binders will serve as unimpeachable evidence of economic development success. Why? Because the binder says so.

Can we prove any of it? Of course … you DO have a binder in your hands, right? What more proof do you need?

If the city council acts today, Potable Curmudgeon Inc. will extend a remarkable 50% reduction to just $35,000 for regional economic development, renewable each and every year, and with binders available in a wide range of different colors to satisfy the interior décor of local corporate headquarters.

Except green.

For some reason, it’s just not a popular color around here.

Distraction kills: "We all know what’s going on, but we don’t have a breathalyzer for a phone."

When you're walking, the scale of the problem quickly becomes evident.

In a sad auto-centric world, it's important for walkers and bicyclists to at least have the safety mechanism of making eye contact with drivers.

Eye contact can't be made through tinted windows, or when their heads are down gazing at phones.

Smartphones Are Killing Americans, But Nobody’s Counting, by Kyle Stock, Lance Lambert, and David Ingold (Bloomberg)

Amid a historic spike in U.S. traffic fatalities, federal data on the danger of distracted driving are getting worse.

 ... Over the past two years, after decades of declining deaths on the road, U.S. traffic fatalities surged by 14.4 percent. In 2016 alone, more than 100 people died every day in or near vehicles in America, the first time the country has passed that grim toll in a decade. Regulators, meanwhile, still have no good idea why crash-related deaths are spiking: People are driving longer distances but not tremendously so; total miles were up just 2.2 percent last year. Collectively, we seemed to be speeding and drinking a little more, but not much more than usual. Together, experts say these upticks don’t explain the surge in road deaths.

There are however three big clues, and they don’t rest along the highway. One, as you may have guessed, is the substantial increase in smartphone use by U.S. drivers as they drive. From 2014 to 2016, the share of Americans who owned an iPhone, Android phone, or something comparable rose from 75 percent to 81 percent.

The second is the changing way in which Americans use their phones while they drive. These days, we’re pretty much done talking. Texting, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are the order of the day—all activities that require far more attention than simply holding a gadget to your ear or responding to a disembodied voice. By 2015, almost 70 percent of Americans were using their phones to share photos and follow news events via social media. In just two additional years, that figure has jumped to 80 percent.

Finally, the increase in fatalities has been largely among bicyclists, motorcyclists, and pedestrians—all of whom are easier to miss from the driver’s seat than, say, a 4,000-pound SUV—especially if you’re glancing up from your phone rather than concentrating on the road. Last year, 5,987 pedestrians were killed by cars in the U.S., almost 1,100 more than in 2014—that’s a 22 percent increase in just two years.

It comes down to what is deemed acceptable. In my lifetime, attitudes toward driving intoxicated have become vastly more responsible -- drivers still drink and drive, but compared to 50 years ago, it's better.

“I use the cocktail party example,” he explained. “If you’re at a cocktail party and say, ‘I was so hammered the other day, and I got behind the wheel,’ people will be outraged. But if you say the same thing about using a cell phone, it won’t be a big deal. It is still acceptable, and that’s the problem.”

ORBP: "Massive expense, big tolls, fewer cars than ever. Even if way down the road these bridges fill up, this project is a financial boondoggle of epic proportions."

From 2011.

I'll lead with Aaron Renn's answer to a question asked in the comments section.

The toll revenue from the system is being split 50/50 between Indiana and Kentucky. Previous analysis indicated that 80% of the tolls will be paid by Indiana residents, so that’s who is paying for the project, ultimately.

One Southern Indiana is delighted. Evidently not a single humanities major was consulted.

Conversely ...

Louisville Spent $2.4 Billion on New Bridges While Traffic Fell Sharply (Urbanophile)

The initial figures are in and the new Louisville bridges are on track to be as big a failure as predicted.

This memo goes out to One Southern Indiana: "Handing Out Tax Breaks to Businesses Is Worse Than Useless."

With a courtesy copy to Mr. Duggins.

Handing Out Tax Breaks to Businesses Is Worse Than Useless, by Richard Florida (CityLab)

A new study exposes the futility of the $45 billion that states spend on economic development incentives.

Even before being sworn in as President, Donald Trump jumped up and down at the chance to showcase the great deal he and Vice-President Mike Pence made to keep a Carrier plant in Indiana. The company pocketed $7 million in tax breaks in exchange for about 800 jobs. But the broad consensus among economists who study the subject is that such business incentives do little to alter the location decisions of companies. In fact, they’re often worse than ineffective—they’re counterproductive. My own take on this site is that they are a useless waste of taxpayer dollars.

Timothy Bartik of the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, who is perhaps the leading student of incentives and economic development, has a new report that provides the most detailed assessment of incentives across states and their effects on economic development. His database contributes a useful tool for state and local economic developers and others to take a hard look at incentives, what they cost, and whether they are worth it or not.

Stop me if you've heard this one before.

Basically, states hand over the money to companies and then do not even follow up to see if they are working or not. As Bartik puts it:

Incentives are still far too broadly provided to many firms that do not pay high wages, do not provide many jobs, and are unlikely to have research spinoffs. Too many incentives excessively sacrifice the long-term tax base of state and local economies. Too many incentives are refundable and without real budget limits. States devote relatively few resources to incentives that are services, such as customized job training. Based on past research, such services may be more cost-effective than cash in encouraging local job growth.

"NHTSA reports record-low level of drunk-driving deaths."

Although the source is a typically self-serving Beer Institute press release, the news therein is welcomed, nonetheless. Perhaps some day it will appear in the 'Bamaggregator.

NHTSA reports record-low level of drunk-driving deaths (at BeerPulse)

(Washington, DC) – Drunk-driving deaths fell to a record-low level in 2011, according to recent data released by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Fatalities in crashes involving drunk drivers declined to a record-low level in 2011, down 2.5 percent since 2010 and down 53 percent since first measured in 1982.

In 2011, the overall number of highway fatalities fell 1.9 percent from the previous year, to the lowest level in more than six decades ...

 ... While Americans drove fewer miles in 2011 than in 2010, the nearly 2 percent drop in roadway fatalities significantly outpaced the corresponding 1.2 percent decrease in vehicle miles traveled. In addition, updated Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) information released shows 2011 also saw the lowest fatality rate ever recorded, with 1.10 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 2011, down from 1.11 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 2010.