Kudos to Matt Delaney of the Falls Church News-Press, who in coverage this week actually put ink to paper and reported the truth as to why local businesses seem to be having such a tough time getting employees.
He quotes a local business owner thusly: “Her hypothesis: People are using the applications [for employment] as proof that they are looking for jobs in order to qualify for unemployment, and then bailing on following through on the interviews. Virginia is one of the 24 states that hasn’t ended the additional $300 a week of federal unemployment benefits which is set to expire on Sept. 6.”
Whoa, whoa, whoa – you mean if you keep giving people money to not get a job, they’ll … not get a job? Apparently this is breaking news to the likes of Gov. Northam, who proudly boasts that he’ll keep the bonus bucks in place while also opining that he thinks it isn’t hurting businesses across the commonwealth. (Stick to your medical practice, governor, because as an economist you leave something to be desired.)
SPEAKING OF FALLS CHURCH: News-Press owner/publisher/editor Nick Benton’s own news articles are always, well, dang it, the journalistic equivalent of a roller coaster – you’re going to go through a lot of twists and turns, ups and downs, and are never quite sure where you are going to end up.
One of his front-page articles this week seems to suggest, if I can get through the clutter, that one of the new School Board candidates is raising eyebrows by suggesting (and how dare he…) that the Falls Church School Board as currently composed is a group of lackeys for the superintendent, teacher union and “woke” activists to the detriment of students and parents. And apparently the candidate got space in the Wall Street Journal, of all places, to make his case, which seems to have inflamed Mr. Benton.
Benton trotted out some old warhorses, like former Falls Church Mayor David Snyder (“a Republican,” the article notes, albeit kind of like David Gergen and David Brooks are Republicans, if you get my drift and I think you do) and some left-leaning activists to say that such anti-School Board commentary is horrible and will only lead to the candidate’s defeat at the polls.
Problem is, there’s not one “normie” (just plain parent or voter) quoted in the article. The quoted activists would seem to be the ones on speed-dial at the News-Press office. Scribbling down their opinions tells us exactly zippo about whether such anti-incumbent punches are actually landing with the electorate.
There is some anecdotal information that the normies have gotten fed up enough with the crap they’ve been spoon-fed by school boards across Northern Virginia over the past 18 months that change is in the air.
It will not matter in Fairfax County (no School Board elections this year) or in Arlington (just one race and it’s a foregone conclusion). But what happens in Falls Church could prove to be very telling.
Or not. (I like to cover my bases, particularly headed into a weekend…)
Politics is a pendulum. It swung too far over the past year, most professional politicians recognize, and is now swinging back. How fast that happens, we will just have to wait and see.
SHOULD HAVE BLAMED SOMEBODY ELSE: Earlier this week I blamed Arlington Public Schools for requiring masks in school buildings, even when school is not in session. It is actually the Virginia Department of Health that has imposed that requirement.
It is set to expire at the end of the month. We will see if that happens; the state health commissioner (Dr. Oliver) has Fauci-like control-the-public tendencies, so all bets are off if he will let sanity rule.
- Scott McCaffrey