STUFF THAT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN, ACCORDING TO THE RIGHT-WING MEDIA

If you get into an argument with a right-winger on pretty much any subject having to do with domestic politics -- racism, gun control, the economy -- you'll be told that Chicago is an out-of-control urban hellscape and therefore definitive proof that liberal/Democratic policies are a miserable failure.

So this wasn't supposed to happen:

CHICAGO -- A year after this city, the third largest in the United States, drew national notice for its staggering number of homicides, killings have slowed here....

In 2012, Chicago witnessed more than 500 killings.... As of Dec. 30, Chicago had reported 413 homicides, a 17 percent drop from the same period a year before and the fewest killings to date since 1965, city officials said.

Shootings were also down by about 24 percent in 2013 from a year earlier, and reports of crimes over all had dropped by about 16 percent....

But didn't the FBI tell us that Chicago is "officially America's murder capital," as a Fox News story reported in September? Well, actually, the FBI report cited by Fox didn't designate an official murder capital at all. And if you want to know how Chicago compares...

... a Yale University analysis says that despite Chicago's grim numbers, the city's crime rate is not exceptional when compared with other large cities. It ranks Chicago 19th, with violent crime levels similar to those of Houston or Minneapolis, and half that of Detroit or St. Louis.

****

Also not supposed to happen? A population increase in Jerry Brown's California:

The United States population grew only 0.72 percent last year, to 316,128,839 in July from 313,873,685 a year earlier, according to figures released Monday by the Census Bureau....

There was strong growth ... in California....

The largest population increases over the year were in Texas (387,397 people), California (332,643) and Florida (232,111).... California this year became the first state to top 38 million residents, with a population of 38,332,521....

You may recall that in the early part of 2013, Fox became obsessed with the notion that California taxes were going to provoke a mass exodus from the state, after golfer Phil Mickelson said that he might become a California tax exile. "California Residents, Businesses Consider Bailing on Golden State Over Taxes," screamed one Fox story that featured a prominent picture of Mickelson; Fox also published "Look Out, Mr. Obama, a Tax Revolt Has Begun in America Led by Mickelson & Woods," an op-ed by Obama conspiracy theorist Wayne Allyn Root, which cited as evidence not only Mickelson's musings about relocation, but the departure of Tiger Woods from California in ... um, 1996.

(Mickelson, by the way, did put his California house on the market for about $7 million, though as of a couple of weeks ago he and his family were still California residents.)

Oh, and the states in the bottom 15 in terms of population growth for 2013 include Wisconsin, Kansas, Mississippi, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Mexico -- all with right-wing/tea party governors. So what's the pattern?