The Neverending Thread for Political Shit

[beantownbubba]

I ain't nowhere smart enough to know where this is heading but what's happening in Arizona is a terrible thing from which no good can come. I won't dignify it by calling it an "audit," because it bears no resemblance to any audit I've ever heard of, to say nothing of the dictionary definition. But as a misuse of power, a twisting of logic and law and a denial of truth this is new and scary territory. If I wrote a political thriller that included something like the Arizona scenario, it would be universally rejected by every publisher on the planet as unrealistic and impossible to believe.

And for something new and different, it is conceivable that I may end up contributing to Liz Cheney's re-election campaign, an act which would have no parallel in my lifetime.

[beantownbubba]

And for something new and different, it is conceivable that I may end up contributing to Liz Cheney's re-election campaign, an act which would have no parallel in my lifetime.

Timing is everything: No sooner had I posted the above when this appeared in my inbox:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... eney-want/

[beantownbubba]

As an enthusiastic supporter of high speed long distance rail, I am posting the opposing viewpoint because I think it's useful to have multiple perspectives. But I disagree with just about all of this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... p_opinions

[LBRod]

As an enthusiastic supporter of high speed long distance rail, I am posting the opposing viewpoint because I think it's useful to have multiple perspectives. But I disagree with just about all of this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... p_opinions

High speed rail might make sense in the northeast, but it's a horrible waste of money out here in central California.

[pearlbeer]

Very difficult to understand the rationale behind the outster of Liz Cheney. She is about as "conservative" as you can get from a voting record. Her Dad is fucking Dick Cheney, who still haunts my dreams. She threw her own sister completely under the bus to maintain her "conservative values". Now she's a "RINO"?

I mean, what the actual fuck.

[beantownbubba]

Very difficult to understand the rationale behind the outster of Liz Cheney. She is about as "conservative" as you can get from a voting record. Her Dad is fucking Dick Cheney, who still haunts my dreams. She threw her own sister completely under the bus to maintain her "conservative values". Now she's a "RINO"?

I mean, what the actual fuck.

Tom Frieman called and said tell pearlbeer this:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/04/opin ... 029039208a

[beantownbubba]

As an enthusiastic supporter of high speed long distance rail, I am posting the opposing viewpoint because I think it's useful to have multiple perspectives. But I disagree with just about all of this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... p_opinions

High speed rail might make sense in the northeast, but it's a horrible waste of money out here in central California.

At least as I think about it, high speed long distance rail is for, well, long distances between well populated areas. I don't think central CA qualifies, but boy, there ought to be a 200 mph train between San Diego-LA-SF-Portland-Seattle-Vancouver w/ maybe a couple of more stops. I know greater minds than mine have been trying to get that done for decades and I don't know all the reasons it never gets done, but it sure seems like a natural.

[cortez the killer]

As an enthusiastic supporter of high speed long distance rail, I am posting the opposing viewpoint because I think it's useful to have multiple perspectives. But I disagree with just about all of this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... p_opinions

High speed rail might make sense in the northeast, but it's a horrible waste of money out here in central California.

I think there's a lot more square footage in this country even if you exclude the Northeast and Central California.

[LBRod]

As an enthusiastic supporter of high speed long distance rail, I am posting the opposing viewpoint because I think it's useful to have multiple perspectives. But I disagree with just about all of this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... p_opinions

High speed rail might make sense in the northeast, but it's a horrible waste of money out here in central California.

I think there's a lot more square footage in this country even if you exclude the Northeast and Central California.

Plenty of space, but not enough population density for HSR to be anywhere near fiscally viable.

[LBRod]

[Zip City]

Very difficult to understand the rationale behind the outster of Liz Cheney. She is about as "conservative" as you can get from a voting record. Her Dad is fucking Dick Cheney, who still haunts my dreams. She threw her own sister completely under the bus to maintain her "conservative values". Now she's a "RINO"?

I mean, what the actual fuck.

It’s Big Lie or bust in the GQP

[pearlbeer]

Very difficult to understand the rationale behind the outster of Liz Cheney. She is about as "conservative" as you can get from a voting record. Her Dad is fucking Dick Cheney, who still haunts my dreams. She threw her own sister completely under the bus to maintain her "conservative values". Now she's a "RINO"?

I mean, what the actual fuck.

Tom Frieman called and said tell pearlbeer this:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/04/opin ... 029039208a

It's a good piece, read it yesterday. I guess I'm just having a hard time accepting the raw level of cynicism required to accept the current situation. There is no policy, there is no agenda...burn it down and fuck the libs. Win at all costs, because, winning.

Look at me! Wanting, needing and expecting more from the Republican Party!??! The reality is just really goddamn depressing.

[beantownbubba]

Any government funded project is subject to fraud, waste, inefficiency, cost overruns, etc etc and the bigger the project the bigger the risks. If I didn't believe it before, I live in the state where the $2 Billion "Big Dig" became a $14.2 Billion fiasco (but the end result is great; thank you taxpayers of America) and where the new local high school ended up costing over $200 Million (and this in a small city that is generally very well managed; the result was ok but not the taj mahal it should have been for that cost, and no we didn't need or want a taj mahal). It would be folly or stupidity to argue otherwise and I won't. But saying that says nothing about whether the actual project is a good idea, it's just a fact of life. Whether it's a fact that should put the kibosh on all government spending is a different discussion.

Our experience with the coronavirus will certainly have long lasting effects on this country. Whether it "institutionalizes" remote work as the primary way that businesses are run is very much an open question. See for example Jaime Dimon's (JPMorganChase chairman) response to the statement "but workers prefer not to commute" by saying "so what?". It's an important concern that certainly ought to be taken into account and we should know how things are likely to play out well before any federal high speed rail project breaks ground. OTOH, I am not nearly so sure as the speakers in the video that high speed rail travel is primarily for the benefit of business travelers. I don't have stats at my fingertips but neither did the speakers, or they weren't sharing them.

The rest of the arguments were imho unpersuasive at best.

[oilpiers]

As an enthusiastic supporter of high speed long distance rail, I am posting the opposing viewpoint because I think it's useful to have multiple perspectives. But I disagree with just about all of this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... p_opinions

High speed rail might make sense in the northeast, but it's a horrible waste of money out here in central California.

At least as I think about it, high speed long distance rail is for, well, long distances between well populated areas. I don't think central CA qualifies, but boy, there ought to be a 200 mph train between San Diego-LA-SF-Portland-Seattle-Vancouver w/ maybe a couple of more stops. I know greater minds than mine have been trying to get that done for decades and I don't know all the reasons it never gets done, but it sure seems like a natural.

West coast geography is not conducive to high speed rail. People from LA would have to get to Bakersfield in order to access it. People are not going to do that. And I don't believe it would go into the legit Bay Area either. it is a 3 step process to get from LA to SF via that plan, and would take hours. There are dozens of flights daily between So Cal and Bay area. Flights are about 90 minutes and cheap.

[beantownbubba]

West coast geography is not conducive to high speed rail. People from LA would have to get to Bakersfield in order to access it. People are not going to do that. And I don't believe it would go into the legit Bay Area either. it is a 3 step process to get from LA to SF via that plan, and would take hours. There are dozens of flights daily between So Cal and Bay area. Flights are about 90 minutes and cheap.

Well if the railroad can't go into LA and SF, for argument's sake at least closer to the center of the cities than LAX and SFO, then this exercise really is a waste of time. I did not realize that Bakersfield is supposed to be the station for LA. That's a non-starter & I can't believe they got as far as they did on that basis.

[bovine knievel]

I see no reason why a high speed rail cannot share space with the I5 corridor

[chuckrh]

I see no reason why a high speed rail cannot share space with the I5 corridor

Stop making sense!

[oilpiers]

I see no reason why a high speed rail cannot share space with the I5 corridor

It takes an hour to drive the 55 miles from LAX to the 15 with little traffic. Rarely is there little traffic. California is almost exclusively hills and mountains. The exception is central Cal., and that is not close to any coastal city. Plus, I have never spoken to a local who would ever consider driving an hour or 2 to catch a train to SF. Heck, it often took me 2 and a half hours to drive 50 miles to get to a Dodger game. I can make the 100 miles from Louisville to see a Reds game in 90 minutes.

[bovine knievel]

I see no reason why a high speed rail cannot share space with the I5 corridor

It takes an hour to drive the 55 miles from LAX to the 15 with little traffic. Rarely is there little traffic. California is almost exclusively hills and mountains. The exception is central Cal., and that is not close to any coastal city. Plus, I have never spoken to a local who would ever consider driving an hour or 2 to catch a train to SF. Heck, it often took me 2 and a half hours to drive 50 miles to get to a Dodger game. I can make the 100 miles from Louisville to see a Reds game in 90 minutes.

I don’t see why hills or mountains would prevent it from happening. If there was arterial routes (not necessarily HSR) to run folks East or West, I see it as a viable option. Growing up in the east East Bay Area, we’d always drive 45 mins to an hour to catch BART to the Oakland Coliseum or downtown SF.

[Clams]

I nominate Bovine for Secretary of Transportation!

[beantownbubba]

Our experience with the coronavirus will certainly have long lasting effects on this country. Whether it "institutionalizes" remote work as the primary way that businesses are run is very much an open question. See for example Jaime Dimon's (JPMorganChase chairman) response to the statement "but workers prefer not to commute" by saying "so what?".

The implied threats are pretty obnoxious and not as subtle as the author presumably thinks, but beyond that, a further indication that remote work may not become as universally established as some assume.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... e302460be6

[bovine knievel]

I nominate Bovine for Secretary of Transportation!

[oilpiers]

I see no reason why a high speed rail cannot share space with the I5 corridor

It takes an hour to drive the 55 miles from LAX to the 15 with little traffic. Rarely is there little traffic. California is almost exclusively hills and mountains. The exception is central Cal., and that is not close to any coastal city. Plus, I have never spoken to a local who would ever consider driving an hour or 2 to catch a train to SF. Heck, it often took me 2 and a half hours to drive 50 miles to get to a Dodger game. I can make the 100 miles from Louisville to see a Reds game in 90 minutes.

I don’t see why hills or mountains would prevent it from happening. If there was arterial routes (not necessarily HSR) to run folks East or West, I see it as a viable option. Growing up in the east East Bay Area, we’d always drive 45 mins to an hour to catch BART to the Oakland Coliseum or downtown SF.

High speed rail needs to be as straight and level as possible.You cannot get anywhere over 30 miles in greater LA in under 45 minutes. BART has nothing to do with it, as LA has no extensive public rail system.

[Zip City]

Our experience with the coronavirus will certainly have long lasting effects on this country. Whether it "institutionalizes" remote work as the primary way that businesses are run is very much an open question. See for example Jaime Dimon's (JPMorganChase chairman) response to the statement "but workers prefer not to commute" by saying "so what?".

The implied threats are pretty obnoxious and not as subtle as the author presumably thinks, but beyond that, a further indication that remote work may not become as universally established as some assume.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... e302460be6

Office culture? Is that supposed to be a thing that people are missing?

[beantownbubba]

Office culture? Is that supposed to be a thing that people are missing?

Just one reader's take on it, but I think she's using "office culture" as not quite accurate shorthand for that mix of inspiration, guidance/mentoring, experience/wisdom, teamwork/leveraging a mix of skills, experience and energy, and the exchange of ideas that makes a good business productive and successful. And while she doesn't say so, I think she's particularly concerned w/ the level of informal supervision and guidance that comes with positive interactions in an office setting

[beantownbubba]

Oh, and she obviously cares a lot more about what managers are missing (i.e. control) than what workers are missing.

[beantownbubba]

The implied threats are pretty obnoxious and not as subtle as the author presumably thinks

Ooops. Nope, not nearly as subtle as the author may have liked. Just because they call it "free speech" doesn't mean it's free. The last sentence is a beauty.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... p_opinions

[beantownbubba]

it is conceivable that I may end up contributing to Liz Cheney's re-election campaign, an act which would have no parallel in my lifetime.

A different perspective. I don't know that it will change my mind, but it's all true.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/08/opin ... 029039208a

[beantownbubba]

it is conceivable that I may end up contributing to Liz Cheney's re-election campaign, an act which would have no parallel in my lifetime.

A different perspective. I don't know that it will change my mind, but it's all true.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/08/opin ... 029039208a

[beantownbubba]

A busy day on the Times opinion pages.

I love paradox and internal contradictions, whether of capitalism or otherwise. Plus these 2 columns have more in common than is apparent from an initial perusal. And you gotta love "Talent is universal, while opportunity is not."

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/08/opin ... 029039208a

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/08/opin ... 029039208a