Statistics can lie. Especially when professional liars use them. As I recently wrote about, governments made up of liars and criminals is what we have. And they are very good at making statistics lie.
Consider this recent claim (sent by a friend from a Twitter feed):
Last week on @MSNBC, @nytdavidbrooks said there’s demand for conspiracy theories on the right because “blue cities are thriving” and “people left behind in the rural parts of America feel threatened”. What? Mr. Brooks: Who exactly is thriving in “blue cities”? pic.twitter.com/MxD30DOU0X
Indeed, what universe are all these thriving “blue cities” found in? Certainly not North America, and apparently not anywhere else in the Free World.
If that were the truth, please, someone, explain something to me. Why are all areas of the West that I know well being overrun by refugees: economic, social, cultural, and medical, from these big blue cities in California, southern Arizona, western Washington, Minnesota, and elsewhere? Why is real estate and home construction going crazy in the Four Corners – even with the insane lockdown drama by Luhan Gresham (NM), Polis (CO), and even Herbert (UT)? Ditto for the Black Hills despite Gordon (WY)? (Although Noem is the exception to the rule in SD?) Why are we and many friends getting call after call asking us if we want to sell our houses?
Because bad as even rural areas in states like New Mexico and Colorado are, they are far, far better off than the stinking urban areas: Seattle, Portland, SanFran, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Tucson, and more? Not to talk about NYC and Baltimore and DC and Philidelphia and Chicago and Atlanta and Memphis.
And literally getting worse by the day. The “great cities” (starting with NYC) are dying.
And consider this:
Biden-voting counties equal 70% of America’s economy. What does this mean for the nation’s political-economic divide?
Most notably, the stark economic rift that Brookings Metro documented after Donald Trump’s shocking 2016 victory has grown even wider. In 2016, we wrote that the 2,584 counties that Trump won generated just 36% of the country’s economic output, whereas the 472 counties Hillary Clinton carried equated to almost two-thirds of the nation’s aggregate economy.
A similar analysis for last week’s election shows these trends continuing, albeit with a different political outcome. This time, Biden’s winning base in 509 counties encompasses fully 71% of America’s economic activity, while Trump’s losing base of 2,547 counties represents just 29% of the economy. (Votes are still outstanding in 28 mostly low-output counties, and this piece will be updated as new data is reported.)
Of course, even in those “Biden” counties, how many of the Street Mob that voted for Biden-Harris (not counting the fake votes) are part of that economic activity? Other than receiving welfare and stimulus payments and marching for “equality” and “against fascism”?
But more important, how much of that economic activity in those big urban areas is generated by products – goods and even services – produced in those “low output” counties.
We can start with food – sure, it is only “10%” of the Fifty States’ economy, according to the statistics. Let us see how those 509 counties would do if the remaining 2,547 counties STOPPED growing food and sending it to the processing plants (mostly probably in those 509 Biden counties) and then on to all those Biden lotus-eaters and the elites in those cities.
And how much power and energy: oil, natural gas, coal, solar, hydro, and wind – comes from those 2,547 counties? For that matter, how much WATER comes from those? Where does Los Angeles’ water come from? Where does New York City’s water come from? It is NOT urban areas that voted (usually by very tiny majorities, even with all the cheating) for Creepy Uncle Joe and Kammie the Commie.
To say nothing of other commodities and raw materials: metals, cloth, paper (yes, even toilet paper), and virtually every other input into manufacturing and processing in those blue jurisdictions.
But the media, academia, the deep state bureaucrats, and especially the politicians, know how to lie. And how to make statistics lie.
And use those lies to rule us, to steal away our money and our liberties, and to persuade far too many people they are doing it all for our own good.
Look at the lies and the statistics for yourself. Don’t trust whoever says it – and don’t trust all those “fact-checkers.
Enough is enough.
The Price of Liberty 
End of cities – end of civilization?
The days are short and dark. Over at Agora, Jim Rickard has published his end-of-year commentary. Here is his blurb from his frequent email.
The End Of Cities Means The End Of Economic Growth. We’re Getting There
I realize that Jim did NOT specifically call this an end of civilization, but the implication is there. That which does not grow, dies. Without a viable economy, our society, and therefore our civilization, dies.
Overall with a whimper, punctuated now and then by moments of sheer terror, blood and fire. But mostly, things just slow down and stop working.
The Christmas RV bombing in Nashville is an example: the bomb was placed (intentionally or not) next to an AT&T facility. Knocking out one fairly unremarkable building in downtown Nashville triggered days and days of breakdown of communications over a large chunk of territory. Not ALL of it, of course. But AT&T is a big company and a big contractor for other companies and for government agencies. As I understand, there was impact on landlines, cellular service, radio communications for emergency response, and more.
Only the perp died at the scene: three or six people were injured. A few million dollars in damage was done.
But the indirect effects and costs? Impossible to ever do more than estimate, it is a massive hit. How many people REALLY died because 9-1-1 centers couldn’t dispatch medics and ambulances in a timely manner? How many MORE will die prematurely because of the juxtaposition of Pandemic Panic, a major holiday shutdown, stress from uncertain conditions, and this attack? How many millions of dollars will be lost because of MORE closed offices and business, and scared tourists going to Memphis or New Orleans instead of Nashville? How much time and money will be wasted on investigating this suicide vandal/arsonist to the nth degree?
Now consider Jim’s thoughts. Now deep in the second (or is it third?) wave of Lockdown, seeing more and more of their lives and fortunes frittered away, how many more businesses will shutter? How many more people will pull their stakes and head out? How many more stupid city and State governments do MORE stupid things to further crush their economies and societies?
As 2020 has already proven, change – BAD changes – can come very, very quickly. And as actions cascade onto one another, we cannot easily predict the results.
Western Civilization and American Civilization is highly centralized. Here in the Fifty States, can we understand what might happen if just a half-dozen mega-cities melt down. Economically, socially, politically? What if we lose New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Seattle? Even for a short time?
The effects will be staggering. Supply chains will break down MORE. Financial matters may screech to a halt. Millions will lose jobs, often permanently.
To some, it will seem like the end of the world as we know it. For many, not just in those urban areas, it may be the end of their world: death, disease, poverty, are all likely results.
But I do not think it will be that way. I think that there are enough people with enough sense and guts to work around those big urban cores. Small cities will replace these dinosaurs, and more. Western civilization may ultimately collapse, but its replacement will already exist. There may be an interregnum but I do not see a dark age.
Nasty, but not fatal to most of us.
And the outcome? A realization that liberty is the only option, and that megacities are a bad idea. I can live with that. And I think you can, too.
The darkness of the Biden Collapse might only be a prelude to a darker Harris Collapse. But that will just be the darkness of a bad night before a bright, new dawn. Not just for the Fifty States, but for the world.