. . . that a good prediction, fulfilled, does not give successful predictor the right to say toljaso.
The Houston Texans will lose. Barack Hussein Obama will read another speech from his beloved TelePrompTer. The sun will rise in the east.
Add to that list Unca D's prediction that . . .
. . . the local political class would never agree to demolish the Dome. Why would they? Just because the people of Harris County voted against throwing good money after bad to upgrade it for God knows what purpose?
Get serious.
Right on cue, the Houston Chronicle -- local mouthpiece for the big spenders -- pooh-poohed the election. (Editorial, "Dome, not doomed: A bond failure at the voting booth doesn't have to be the end for the Astrodome," November 7, 2013)
Demolition was not on the ballot, don't you see?
The threat of demolition, it seems, was merely a device to scare and cajole low-information nostalgiacs into voting yes. If they had voted yes in sufficient numbers, then the people would have spoken. Since they didn't vote yes in sufficient numbers, however, never mind. (See "ratchet," below.)
Another reason for disregarding the vote, the Chronicle argues -- I'm completely sober and completely serious as I write this -- is that politically connected big spenders didn't run a good campaign.
[If] the Dome were a candidate, pundits wouldn't say that she was rejected by voters. They would say she ran a terrible ground game.
County leaders claimed that the Save the Dome effort was the "best effort." To crib a line from Mayor Annise Parker's reelection speeches: The best can get better.
Houston has seen school board candidates with better campaigns. There were billboards that urged people to save the Dome, but didn't say to vote for a proposition.
There was sthe painted truck that sat far from the crowds during Texans games. But there was no significant get out the vote, targeted mail or other hallmarks of a modern, successful campaign strategy.
Let me translate: Where was the special interest money?
Remember this next time the Chronicle goes all goo-goo on limiting campaign spending (read free speech) by conservatives. That's the trick, see: Big money for stuff the Chronicle likes, that's for the public interest. Big money for stuff (or people) you like, that's just plain wrong.
Where was the special interest money we always rely on when it's time to con the peeps into paying for a race track, football stadium, basketball stadium, baseball stadium or other good work the downtown crowd has dreamed up to keep the big wheels of county government greased and turning?
The politically connected contractors and politically connected bond firms and politically connected race and gender preference crowd and their politically connected law firms let the side down. So saith the Houston Chronicle.
Still another reason for ignoring the voters? Because they are trumped by one really classy Californian. Christopher Hawthorne, architecture critic of the Los Angeles Times, has declared the Dome "quintessentially American."
Well, then: That's that. Two words, nine syllables. They overrule thousands of Harris County rubes who voted no.
The other shoe dropped Tuesday morning in a front-pager that all but crowed: "The monster lives! He lives!" (Kiah Collier, "No rush to do anything with the Dome," November 12, 2013) Key grafs:
Although a majority of court members said prior to Election Day that demolition would be the obvious choice in the event [read if] voters turned down the event center plan [to save the Dome], not one of them is championing the tear-down.
"I'm kind of over it. I mean, I'm going to go do other things for awhile and see what happens," Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said Monday. "This really isn't the top priority in my life."
For the ugly details, read the whole story. It's well-done, actually.
Speaking of "kind of over it," is there a bigger disappointment in county government than Ed Emmett? He's smart. He understands how budgets work. He knows taxes are necessary but not a bottomless source of money. In short, he knows better. Yet he almost always sits on his hands when circumstances demand a call to action.
Anyway, the game plan now is to wait. Wait on the lawyers to figure outhow to tag the Dome with a label -- historic, landmark, monument -- that forces you and me to do what we -- joined by all the sports teams in Houston, joined by the larger market, joined by the special interests that wouldn't pay for the bond campaign, and joined finally by a majority of Harris County voters in a duly called election -- manifestly do not wish to do, which is to throw good money at a rusting structure that has no reason to exist, except to make Lisa Gray's heart go pitty-pat when she drives by.
God bless those who want to save the Dome. There's no joy in seeing it demolished. Here's a suggestion to these morally and aesthetically superior proponents: Just do it. Buy it. Save it. I'd throw in a couple of bucks, and I know others would too.
Why won't they use their own money to save the Dome? Because saving the Dome is no fun unless it can be done the way God and nature have ordained for things to be done in Harris County, which is with other people's money.
* * *
The ratchet.
Unca D often uses this figure of speech to help you understand how big government manages, always, to get bigger.
The ratchet is a mechanical device with a lever that lifts an object (or, in this case, moves it leftward) on the downstroke, the holds the gain on the upstroke.
If a figure of speech can be taken as a theory, it is the nearest thing to a unifying theory of politics in the modern progressive era.
It helps explain, for instance, why the feds love to flood states with money for this grand project or another, for a year or so, then leave it for state taxpayers to pick up the tab.
Remember how bad old Republicans cut education in Texas?
They didn't cut anything. They just didn't pick up the tab one year after a bunch of federal money had sluiced through the system. The Houston Chronicle knew this but never, not one time, clearly explained it to the dolts (as the editors sees them) who read the newspaper. The "cut" argument was just too sweet to confuse with a balanced exposition o facts.
Notice how the Chronicle harps endlessly on what a cold-hearted bastard Rick Perry is because he won't take federal money to enlarge Texas Medicaid?
Well, he's right and they're wrong, because he knows that the federal money will vaporize and leave Texans to pay the bills for a program Texas, a sovereign state, has judged -- rightly, as it happens -- to be unaffordable over the long haul. His real sin is stop the ratchet from pulling Texas away from its roots and pushing it closer to California.
The ratchet also helps explain why enacting Obamacare was righteous, but repealing it is unthinkable and, in all likelihood, unachievable. Obamacare has the same status as the Dome: Though it falls apart, rivet by rivet, on the darkling plain, it can never be demolished. All the right people agree.
Finally, the metaphor of the ratchet helps explain by the Chronicle and all other right-thinking progressives so desperately hate Ted Cruz. He not only wants to block the ratchet; he also wants to reverse its direction.
The horror! The horror!
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