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Gavin Newsom decides to destroy the planet, maybe go to Washington someday [KT]

fly california.jpg

Will we even be able to fly for 100 miles now?

Good morning. Busy week in Washington. I think I might be able to add a few local details to the California-centered topic below:

Gavin Newsom decides to destroy the planet

The new California governor is surprising a lot of people by breaking with some of Jerry Brown's priorities. But his decision to abandon the Los Angeles to San Francisco run of the California high-speed rail project had to be a blow to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. No matter how much she spent on air travel during her campaign, her New Green Deal Resolution initially called for the USA to:

build out high-speed rail at a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary

And we only have 10 years to plan and implement this! Or is it 12 years?

Maybe Lindsey Graham is right. Gavin Newsom has given up on the big push for HSR in California, the fifth largest economy in the world, even with federal help! What hope is there for the planet now? How can we inspire all those countries that hate us to mobilize all their resources to reach zero carbon emissions? Like Mr. Graham says,

Let's bury the hostaet and enjoy the next 12 years because they are going to be our last, right?

What shape was the HSR project in before Newsom took office?

When we last reported on the extraordinarily expensive (but dreamy) Transbay Transit Center, it was due to open in 2017. It apparently opened for bus service in August of 2018 and closed for repairs in September of 2018, It remains closed. Cracked girders were found. After Newsom's recent announcement, backers are wondering how to pay for rail lines into the center:

Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who chairs the county Transportation Authority board, was unfazed. At this point, he said, San Francisco and the South Bay should go it alone.

"Our responsibility has always been connecting Santa Clara County to downtown San Francisco by bringing Caltrain to the Transbay Terminal, and we will continue to do that with zeal," he said. "Otherwise, we will have built the most expensive bus terminal in the history of humankind."

The shorter but more realistic link from Bakersfield to Merced would be a mere shadow of what Newsom described at the 2010 groundbreaking ceremony for the transit center, when he was mayor of San Francisco.

"We're going to be building ... something that is arguably a generation overdue," he said. "My gosh, I am sick and tired of hearing about how wonderful the transportation system is in France and Japan and 'Have you been to Shanghai?' Or, 'Do you know what they're doing in Beijing?'

"Well," the mayor continued, "finally California is going to get it right with high-speed rail, and that northern terminus will happen here."

Back in December of last year, an article was published on what the high-speed rail audit released shortly after the November election really meant. Perhaps this piece played a part in the new Governor's decision to shrink the high-speed rail project. Examples:

Auditor: "Although the Authority has secured and identified funding of over $28 billion that it expects will be sufficient to complete initial segments, that funding will not be enough to connect those segments, or finish the rest of the system--estimated to cost over $77 billion."

Translation: The Authority has succeeded in talking both the federal government and the state of California into providing billions of dollars on a failed project and yet still has no idea where the rest of the money will come from.

Auditor: "It has incrementally modified its plans for a fully dedicated high-speed rail system since 2012 and now intends to share--blend--existing transit infrastructure wherever feasible. Although blending is less costly, it subjects high-speed trains to lower speed limits and may require sharing time on the tracks with other rail operators."

Translation: All those promises made to voters about getting from San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than three hours were never serious.

Auditor: "The fact that [the Authority] has now exhausted all feasible options to use existing infrastructure raises concerns about its ability to mitigate future cost increases."

Translation: The Authority has followed Willie Brown's advice. The former Assembly Speaker, in a moment of candor, once told the San Francisco Chronicle, "In the world of civic projects, the first budget is really just a down payment. If people knew the real cost from the start, nothing would ever be approved. The idea is to get going. Start digging a hole and make it so big, there's no alternative to coming up with the money to fill it in."

Recently, homeless encampments have sprung up in Fresno on properties purchased (and sometimes cleared) by the High-speed Rail Authority, but not managed by them, apparently. So they become like downtown San Francisco, with needles and poop, plus roaming dogs. The homeless people apparently cannot be removed. There are other forlorn empty, degrading properties elsewhere in the Valley, interspersed with people trying to go on with their lives.

What will become of Jerry Brown's dream now?

Some of the few Republicans in Sacramento are not real happy about Newsom's plan for the Bakersfield to Merced route.

While Newsom, a Democrat, earned a surprising amount of praise from California lawmakers in both Washington and Sacramento for pulling the plug - at least for now - on the rail project between the state's two largest urban areas, some are calling his proposal for a high-speed line between Bakersfield and Merced an unnecessary waste of money that voters in the Central Valley don't want.

"I would support the citizens of the Central Valley putting this up to a vote again," Shannon Grove, the Republican Minority Leader of the California State Senate, told Fox News.

Newsom makes some arguments that high speed rail in the Valley would spur economic growth, but I think most people around here would rather have a reliable source of water, road repairs, etc.

There's a piece in The New Yorker that includes a pretty reasonable short historical summary of the High Speed Rail project in California after starting with this:

During his first State of the State address, this week, Gavin Newsom, California's newly sworn-in governor, covered immigration, energy, and water policy, but the remark that made the headlines was about the ghost of a long-promised train. "Let's level about high-speed rail," Newsom said in the middle of his speech, in Sacramento, turning to the subject of a bullet train connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles. "The current project, as planned, would cost too much and, respectfully, take too long." Instead, he proposed focussing on a shorter inland route, between Merced and Bakersfield, two small cities that, it's fair to say, most coastal metropolitan Californians happily visit rarely or never. . .

The news was received as a downer on par with the extinction of the space program. "This country won't experience modern rail travel for another generation--if ever," Fortune lamented on Wednesday, in an otherwise supportive editorial. On Twitter, the governor was compared with the "Simpsons" character Lyle Lanley, who absconded with the takings from a fraudulent monorail scheme. Finally, on Wednesday night, President Trump tweeted, apparently on behalf of the federal government, that he wanted back the money given for the train, which he referred to as a " 'green' disaster."

It seems to be assumed in the New Yorker article that Jerry Brown's dream is just delayed, not abandoned. Alternative modes of transportation are described, including this:

The rail connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles is expected be finished in 2033. By that point, autonomous vehicles, green in both power source and roadway efficiency, are expected to be in commercial use--not everywhere, one assumes, but almost certainly on the stretch of highway separating the headquarters of Uber, in San Francisco, and Space X, in L.A. Because autonomous cars are more predictable and more controlled--in short, more train-like--there will be another costly push to streamline existing roadways to their habits. (They can use narrower lanes, for instance.) They also have the virtue, especially in spread-out California, of carrying passengers door to door.

You will have to read the piece yourself to see if you can follow the analysis of the effects of these policies on inequality.

I may not agree with all of Dan Walters' positions, but he is an old-time reporter. Started in high school, when he was 16, and never stopped. He retired from the Sacramento Bee in 2017, but kept writing. Didn't go to J-school. I like that. Here he writes on the death, this summer, of a smaller railroad boondoggle. I heard part of discussion about the High Speed Rail project where he was a guest on radio. During the discussion, there were some suggestions that the high speed rail project was really a way to get funds for improved commuter rail in the big coastal cities all along. That's a breathtakingly awful thought. There's a catch with regard to some of that federal money, though:

When the Obama administration gave California several billion dollars for its proposed high-speed rail project last year, it attached an odd string.

The money had to be spent, the feds said, on a relatively short stretch in the San Joaquin Valley.

Why? The official explanation was that it would be the easiest and cheapest segment of a statewide system, could be a demonstration and test track, and could be used for ordinary train service if nothing else happens.

The real reason probably had much to do with building in the congressional district of a longtime bullet train booster, Democrat Jim Costa, who faced a tough 2010 re-election, although everyone denies that crass motive, of course.

The political calculus included an assumption that the transportation-starved and economically depressed region would embrace the project - a supposition that's proven to be very shaky, especially among farmers who would lose their land.

That money was popular with a lot of local politicians in the Valley, but it doesn't directly help people in the coastal power centers upgrade their rail systems. I guess they have to use state money.

What about the rest of Newsom's State of the State Address?

Reihan Salam, executive editor of National Review, writing in The Atlantic, seems to rather like some of Newsom's other priorities, such as affordable housing.

To achieve his objectives, the governor will have to make the case not just for casitas, or accessory dwelling units that can be added to existing homes, or for the occasional smattering of duplexes and townhomes in postindustrial corners of the state where NIMBYs are few and far between. He will have to make an affirmative case for a new way of life, in which Californians embrace multi-family dwellings, walkable neighborhoods, and, sacrilegious though it may sound, trading their private automobiles, or at least their second private automobiles, for increased reliance on buses, bikes, and of course, electric scooters.

That's today's voice of the National Review, I guess. At least he's not a fan of open borders.

As a resident of the Central Valley, I prefer the analysis in the City Journal. (h/t J.J. Sefton) It pours some cold water on the Green New Deal, describes fiscal woes of high speed rail even in the UKand includes this:

. . . Of the many high-speed rail lines built in the developed world, only two (Tokyo-Osaka and Paris-Lyon) have ever been profitable, and in each case highway tolls for the same routes exceed $80 one-way, making high-speed rail in those cases an economical consumer choice. California, the green heart of the resistance, has met fiscal reality; reality won.

Some greens and train enthusiasts, such as the deep-blue Los Angeles Times editorial board, have criticized Newsom's move, and others remain adamant in their support of the plane-to-train trope. But California, which has embarked on its own Green New Deal of sorts, has seen these results: high energy and housing costs, and the nation's highest cost-adjusted poverty rate, and a society that increasingly resembles a feudal social order. Attempts to refashion global climate in one state reflects either a peculiarly Californian hubris or a surfeit of revolutionary zeal.

Of course, Newsom and the bullet train's supporters justify spending billions more on the Central Valley line as a way of reviving the terribly challenged, impoverished economy of that region. Yet greens and their allies have already shown what comes of putting their ideas into practice--cutting water supplies to farmers, blocking new energy production, and leaving Route 99, the Valley's main thoroughfare, in such awful shape that it has been named the country's most dangerous highway. The Valley does not need a bullet train to nowhere. It needs, rather, policies that allow for its basic industries, such as agriculture, manufacturing, and energy, to expand and provide desperately needed jobs. Oil-rich California has been replacing in-state production for imported petroleum, to the enrichment of Saudi Arabia but to the detriment of California workers.

Gavin Newsom's Future

Dan Walters is a long-time critic of the California HSR project, and he remains a critic of Newsom's new plan:

Casting aside Brown's obvious love for a statewide system linking Sacramento and San Francisco in the north to Los Angeles and San Diego in the south, Newsom called for completing just the roughly 100-mile-long initial San Joaquin Valley segment, from Merced to near Bakersfield, and making it a high-speed system.

However, electrifying the track now under construction and buying high-speed trains to run on it would be an enormously expensive gesture for such short service. More likely, the stretch of track, when completed, will be folded into the region's existing Amtrak service.

But about the rest of the State of the State address, Walters wrote:

All in all, Newsom set an ambitious agenda for his governorship, the sort of multi-point plan that Brown had often denigrated. And in doing so, the new governor set a high mark for his political future.

Achieving all he seeks would propel him into White House contention sometime after 2020. Failing, for whatever reason, would make him a footnote in California's political history.

What do you think of his prospects for a White House race?

Music

There is already Amtrak service from Bakersfield to Merced. I personally haven't heard many folks from down in Bakersfield hankerin' for an extra-fast trip to Merced. Think politicians will ever help the train station in Bakersfield hit the big time?

Hope you have a great weekend.

Remember, This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread

Serving your mid-day open thread needs

Posted by: Open Blogger at 11:16 AM




Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Not first.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at February 16, 2019 11:13 AM (DMUuz)

2 Not second.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at February 16, 2019 11:14 AM (DMUuz)

3 Not trifecta.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at February 16, 2019 11:14 AM (DMUuz)

4 As to HSR , I've done the TGV in France, Paris Lyon and Madrid to Seville . After the first half hour, it's just another train . And I love trains. No Biggie none at all

Posted by: jay hoenemeyer at February 16, 2019 11:15 AM (3GR94)

5 Apparently, at some point you DO run out of other peoples' money.

Posted by: Gref at February 16, 2019 11:16 AM (AMIL/)

6 Merced can look forward to be flooded with rich tourists from Bakersfield, so there's that.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 11:17 AM (UGqF8)

7 AOC needs to take the Marakesh express train to Casablanca.

Posted by: Cosda at February 16, 2019 11:17 AM (2d2h5)

8

Damn good post, KT.
OK, gotta go get B'Gal operational.
Y'all try to behave.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at February 16, 2019 11:18 AM (HaL55)

9 The Merced to Bakersfield run will only work from a business standpoint if they charge for the goats and the chickens. NO FREE RIDERS!

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 11:19 AM (UGqF8)

10 build out high-speed rail at a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary

600 mph plane that makes no stops vs. 300 mph (best) ground-based that can't go full out, has to avoid obstacles, and will make numerous stops.

Sure.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at February 16, 2019 11:20 AM (oVJmc)

11 Illegal alien farm workers get too ride on the roof for free, just like in India.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 11:20 AM (UGqF8)

12 Nice touch with Ringo and Buck.

My first thought when I heard "Bakersfield to Merced" was "There's a Buck Owens or Merle Haggard song just waiting to be written there."

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 16, 2019 11:20 AM (0OWcv)

13 "The idea is to get going. Start digging a hole and make it so big, there's no alternative to coming up with the money to fill it in."
-- Willie Brown

Phrasing!

Posted by: Kamala! at February 16, 2019 11:21 AM (DMUuz)

14 Oh, and high-speed rail through the Rockies?

Through snow?
Rain?

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at February 16, 2019 11:21 AM (oVJmc)

15 14 Oh, and high-speed rail through the Rockies?

Through snow?
Rain?
Posted by: Mr. Peebles at February 16, 2019 11:21 AM (oVJmc)

--------

They'll call it The John Kasich Express.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 11:23 AM (UGqF8)

16 At 300mph, when that sucker goes off the rails there won't be anything left.

Posted by: Ben Had at February 16, 2019 11:23 AM (wBNep)

17 I have read that the U.S. freight by railroad ranks quite high. When you don't have to constantly shunt the slower freight trains onto a siding to let the faster passenger carriers by it probably does work better. Plus this is a vast land area country that needs a good system to augment shipping by waterway.

Posted by: PaleRider is simply irredeemable at February 16, 2019 11:23 AM (jUcoH)

18 Walls are old technology but trains are the future.

Ok then.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 11:24 AM (/tuJf)

19 > I have read that the U.S. freight by railroad ranks quite high.

Rail is second only to ocean transport when it comes to moving freight cheaply.

Of course, most freight doesn't care if it takes a week or even a month to get there.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 16, 2019 11:25 AM (0OWcv)

20 Gavin Newsome in the White House? It would make the Obama years seem like Springtime in America. Just look at San Fransisco where he was Mayor.

Posted by: Darth Chipmunk at February 16, 2019 11:25 AM (+S1Fy)

21 There's more than one way to "run a train", IYKWIMAITYD.

Posted by: Donkey Chompers at February 16, 2019 11:26 AM (DMUuz)

22 High Speed Bail - The rate at which California politicians back paddle away from that money hole.

Posted by: The Walking Dude at February 16, 2019 11:26 AM (cCxiu)

23 The greenie leftists have moved mountains literally to tear up and pave over all of the existing rail tracks here in New England. Only along the shore and in selected areas inland are there any tracks to speak of.

They have implemented so many 'green trails' and whatnot that a high speed rail system couldn't possibly be implemented in this entire section of the country, at least not without a heck of a lot of eminent domain proceedings.

So where exactly would these high speed rails be placed?

Posted by: squeakywheel at February 16, 2019 11:27 AM (muUop)

24 Great book, "The White Cascade, The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche" written by Gary Krist.

High speed trains can't go over or through mountain passes. Heck, low speed trains can barely make it during a winter storm.

Posted by: nurse ratched at February 16, 2019 11:28 AM (PkVlr)

25 Remind me one day to tell you about the time I had coffee with him soon after Brown appointed him to the PoliceCommission.

Can't now. On the way to Portland.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at February 16, 2019 11:28 AM (dmppM)

26 # Bring back Zepplins

Posted by: Skip. Finish the Wall at February 16, 2019 11:29 AM (/rm4P)

27 Auditor: "It has incrementally modified its plans for a fully dedicated
high-speed rail system since 2012 and now intends to
share--blend--existing transit infrastructure wherever feasible.
Although blending is less costly, it subjects high-speed trains to lower
speed limits and may require sharing time on the tracks with other rail
operators."



Translation: We'll be shifting HSR passengers to oxcarts and donkeys midway through their trip from nowhere to nowhere.

Newsom called for completing just the roughly 100-mile-long initial San
Joaquin Valley segment, from Merced to near Bakersfield, and making it a
high-speed system.

However, electrifying the track now under construction and buying
high-speed trains to run on it would be an enormously expensive gesture
for such short service. More likely, the stretch of track, when
completed, will be folded into the region's existing Amtrak service.



It's like flying the Concorde from Reagan to Dulles.





"We're going to be building ... something that is arguably a generation
overdue," he said. "My gosh, I am sick and tired of hearing about how
wonderful the transportation system is in France and Japan and 'Have you
been to Shanghai?' Or, 'Do you know what they're doing in Beijing?'
"Well," the mayor continued


Oh no, he's tired of it. Well, that's all I need to hear. Take my money now.

Posted by: pep at February 16, 2019 11:29 AM (T6t7i)

28 Well double crap.
Didn't even get to tell Backwordsboy reply in last thread.

Insomniac, think it's great you're playing. Don't worry about the disconnect thing. It'll come.
And don't be like me! Never had a lesson. Get a few and work on those rudiments!! Never have any real speed without em.

Most important advice I could give would be play to the song. If it doesn't call for much, don't do much.

Posted by: teej at February 16, 2019 11:31 AM (/SHNS)

29 > oxcarts and donkeys

Sounds like a lesbian sex act between Stacy "Tank" Abrams and Sandy OCrazyHo Kotex.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 16, 2019 11:31 AM (0OWcv)

30 # Bring back Zepplins

That's in poor taste.

Posted by: John Bonham at February 16, 2019 11:31 AM (dCRRg)

31 > Bring back Zepplins

Definitely a civilized way to travel. Slow, though, and not so good in storms.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 16, 2019 11:32 AM (0OWcv)

32 Look on the bright side, lots of Leftist grifters made a few bucks on this HSR.

Posted by: Skip. Finish the Wall at February 16, 2019 11:32 AM (/rm4P)

33 The shorter but more realistic link from Bakersfield to Merced

Here's the thing: if your stated goal is to connect SF to LA, you wouldn't go anywhere near Merced or Bakersfield, just like nobody takes 99 when going from LA to SF.

Posted by: t-bird at February 16, 2019 11:32 AM (n/eZB)

34 10
build out high-speed rail at a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary

600
mph plane that makes no stops vs. 300 mph (best) ground-based that
can't go full out, has to avoid obstacles, and will make numerous stops.


Related: Airbus is shutting down the assembly line for the A380, because, get this, nobody wants to pay for big, bloated, uneconomical transportation, when more flexible, convenient, and cheaper options exist. Boeing, FTW.

Posted by: pep at February 16, 2019 11:32 AM (T6t7i)

35 > Look on the bright side, lots of Leftist grifters made a few bucks on this HSR.

That is the real reason it's being scrapped now. All the Important People have already got their payoffs, so there's no need to spend any more money actually laying track.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 16, 2019 11:33 AM (0OWcv)

36 Even by their metric, I'd like to see is a per-passenger comparison between a transcontinental plane flight vs. transcontinental high-sped rail.

I don't see air travel burning that much more energy than dragging a train overland for 3000 miles. So even there their plan would fail.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at February 16, 2019 11:33 AM (oVJmc)

37 When it comes to wasting money, Newsom is a pussy.

Posted by: Zombie Ted "Big Dig" Kennedy at February 16, 2019 11:34 AM (ABjxW)

38 > I don't see air travel burning that much more energy than dragging a train overland for 3000 miles.

You are way wrong there.

Note that you don't see companies shipping coal and gravel by plane. There's a reason for that.



Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 16, 2019 11:35 AM (0OWcv)

39 And full rigged sailing ships, worked for hundreds of years, only a few weeks to go from Hawaii to California.

Posted by: Skip. Finish the Wall at February 16, 2019 11:35 AM (/rm4P)

40 Nobody ever said, "boy, I wish I was in Merced already!"

Posted by: t-bird at February 16, 2019 11:35 AM (oTMWb)

41
I don't see air travel burning that much more energy than dragging a train overland for 3000 miles. So even there their plan would fail.
Posted by: Mr. Peebles at February 16, 2019 11:33 AM (oVJmc)

--------

But just think of all the jobs that would be created to build the L.A. to Hong Kong causeway.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 11:35 AM (UGqF8)

42 the good "environmental" ideas get ruined because the "greenies" are really subversive commies, intent on first destroying traditional America. Well intentioned activists that originate decent concepts, tend to get pushed aside by the commie infiltrators. Co-opting movements is what commies/progs do.


My area is not the greatest for solar, but I plan to capture the 30% rebate this year, on a 10kW grid tie system. If the greenies get more control and shut down coal again, I'd have some security. It will also be a buffer against rate increases and/or the Illinois mafia trying to milk us all via taxes. But if we ever get those thorium reactors, energy gets cheap (but does our government want cheap energy, or as Obama said, "electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket").

Posted by: illiniwek at February 16, 2019 11:37 AM (Cus5s)

43 Note that you don't see companies shipping coal and gravel by plane. There's a reason for that.

Coal and gravel wouldn't put up with the small seats and crappy attitude on airplanes?

Posted by: pep at February 16, 2019 11:37 AM (T6t7i)

44 >>Note that you don't see companies shipping coal and gravel by plane. There's a reason for that.

Those aren't passengers.

Rail is great for hauling big heavy loads of freight efficiently. Not so much with passengers.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 11:37 AM (/tuJf)

45 I'm no fan of overpriced government boondoggles like the Cal. train project, and shutting it down is the right thing. But it's another symptom of a disease in our once proud nation which is: We can't do anything big any more. That many billions for a few hundred miles of rail line, even if it's built for high speeds? The elevated transit center in SanFran that's closed because the large support girders cracked is another example. Most of downtown Chicago seems to be built on girders - how was that built? Look at the military. The F-35 airplane was in development for about 20 years and is still full of problems. The Littoral Combat Ship, the Zumwalt "stealth" ship are also money pits that may never be effective combat tools compared to what other nations are fielding.

As a nation we've become the bumbling homeowner who assembled a garden shed only to have it fall over when he opened the door. We've lost something - and I give us very small chance of ever getting it back.

Posted by: George V at February 16, 2019 11:37 AM (LUHWu)

46 Go long on Merced Snow Globes and Novelty T-shirts.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 11:38 AM (UGqF8)

47 35 Yeah, why drag this Ponzi scheme out?

Posted by: Skip. Finish the Wall at February 16, 2019 11:38 AM (/rm4P)

48 You are way wrong there.



Note that you don't see companies shipping coal and gravel by plane. There's a reason for that.


Not at 300 miles an hour, they don't.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at February 16, 2019 11:38 AM (oVJmc)

49 43 Note that you don't see companies shipping coal and gravel by plane. There's a reason for that.

Coal and gravel wouldn't put up with the small seats and crappy attitude on airplanes?
Posted by: pep at February 16, 2019 11:37 AM (T6t7i)

Coal can pay its own way, and cover gravel's trip

Posted by: Roy at February 16, 2019 11:39 AM (ABjxW)

50 Look at the military. The F-35 airplane was in development for about 20
years and is still full of problems. The Littoral Combat Ship, the
Zumwalt "stealth" ship are also money pits that may never be effective
combat tools compared to what other nations are fielding.


I get your point, but to be fair, there are orders of magnitude more complexity in an F-35 than a P-51. There's no good explanation for the Zumwalt, other than hubris.

Posted by: pep at February 16, 2019 11:40 AM (T6t7i)

51 It would probably be cost-effective to ship helium by air since it requires no lift.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 11:40 AM (UGqF8)

52 Bonjour!

Posted by: The Montgolfier Brothers at February 16, 2019 11:41 AM (ZxU8C)

53 The amusing thing is Europe is not using trains the way they used to. They use these things called airplanes now for much of the travel within Europe.

Somehow this seems to have escaped the notice of our leftist betters.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 11:41 AM (/tuJf)

54 > Note that you don't see companies shipping coal and gravel by plane. There's a reason for that.


Energy cost in BTU/ton-mile:

Water: 217
Class 1 Railroad: 289
Heavy trucks: 3,357
Air: 9,600

> Those aren't passengers.

Doesn't matter. Rail is still way more energy-efficient.

People go by air because it is fast, not because it is energy-efficient.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 16, 2019 11:41 AM (0OWcv)

55 "My parents went to Merced and all I got was this lousy t-shirt"

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 11:41 AM (UGqF8)

56
Coal can pay its own way, and cover gravel's trip
Posted by: Roy at February 16, 2019 11:39 AM (ABjxW)
-----
I always thought coal and gravel were just afraid of flying.

Posted by: Weasel at February 16, 2019 11:41 AM (MVjcR)

57 Six-car, electrified, bonafide monorail!

Posted by: Lyle Lanley at February 16, 2019 11:41 AM (QLvwG)

58 I'm no fan of overpriced government boondoggles like the Cal. train project, and shutting it down is the right thing. But it's another symptom of a disease in our once proud nation which is: We can't do anything big any more.


We can do big. What we can't cover is the vig.

We cannot cover the graft.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 11:43 AM (qpKia)

59 Time to take another look at free enterprise, California?

Posted by: Cornelius Vanderbilt at February 16, 2019 11:43 AM (ZxU8C)

60 Note that you don't see companies shipping coal and gravel by plane. There's a reason for that.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 16, 2019 11:35 AM (0OWcv)


Only use locally-sourced gravel!

Posted by: Little lefty loopy Lou at February 16, 2019 11:44 AM (4HMW8)

61
The Littoral Combat Ship, the Zumwalt "stealth" ship are also money pits that may never be effective combat tools compared to what other nations are fielding.


At three hubdred million a pop the Littoral Combat Ship isn't in the same league as the Zumwalt as far as boondoggles go.

Posted by: Flawless Male Logic at February 16, 2019 11:44 AM (TAmPV)

62 We cannot cover the graft.
Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 11:43 AM (qpKia)

---------

Don't forget the hyper-regulation that requires 25 agencies to sign off on every new project.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 11:44 AM (UGqF8)

63 "As a nation we've become the bumbling homeowner who assembled a garden
shed only to have it fall over when he opened the door. We've lost
something - and I give us very small chance of ever getting it back."



We built the Hoover Dam with steam shovels, manual labor and a shitload of Model AA trucks. Yet they did on time and under budget.

Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 11:44 AM (4thlk)

64 26 # Bring back Zeppelins
Posted by: Skip. Finish the Wall at February 16, 2019 11:29 AM (/rm4P)
---
This.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at February 16, 2019 11:44 AM (kQs4Y)

65 Remember, it's all about the CFU equivalents.

Science!

Posted by: Donkey Chompers at February 16, 2019 11:44 AM (DMUuz)

66 "Note that you don't see companies shipping coal and gravel by plane. There's a reason for that" Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia


ha, yeah I was gonna say, trains are very efficient on energy. But when they are hauling light weight humans, most of the cargo is the train itself. So that would be a different calculation. (and the time/congestion factor would also matter)

Posted by: illiniwek at February 16, 2019 11:45 AM (Cus5s)

67 Bring back Zeppelins
Posted by: Skip. Finish the Wall at February 16, 2019 11:29 AM


Illuminated with very energy-efficient lighting devices, of course.

LED Zeppelins.

Posted by: Donkey Chompers at February 16, 2019 11:45 AM (DMUuz)

68 We built the Hoover Dam with steam shovels, manual labor and a shitload of Model AA trucks. Yet they did on time and under budget.
Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 11:44 AM (4thlk)

---------

There was no EPA back then, nor reams of federal environmental legislation that permit "citizens suits" to enforce them.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 11:46 AM (UGqF8)

69 We built the Hoover Dam with steam shovels, manual labor and a shitload of Model AA trucks. Yet they did on time and under budget.
Posted by: lowandslow


Minus the EPA and OSHA.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 11:46 AM (qpKia)

70 Big projects are complex. We went to the moon, but not without burning up some astronauts and almost losing another crew in transit. The space shuttle worked pretty well, except for the couple of times it didn't. Failure is part of any big endeavor.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at February 16, 2019 11:46 AM (H5knJ)

71 >>Doesn't matter. Rail is still way more energy-efficient.


It does when the comment you were replying to says this:

>>Even by their metric, I'd like to see is a per-passenger comparison between a transcontinental plane flight vs. transcontinental high-sped rail.

>>I don't see air travel burning that much more energy than dragging a train overland for 3000 miles. So even there their plan would fail.

Mr Peebles was talking about passenger travel not freight travel. Hauling 300 passengers on a train coast to coast is a different equation than hauling a mile long train full of freight.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 11:47 AM (/tuJf)

72 Bet Caligirl would trade some rail for some water.

Posted by: Golfman at February 16, 2019 11:48 AM (OE84+)

73 Donkey-Chompers want us to travel way up in the air, in a beautiful balloon. Up, up and away.

Posted by: Roy at February 16, 2019 11:48 AM (ABjxW)

74 Someone here at the HQ once linked an article that said there was only one place in the US where mass transit used less fuel than commuters driving their own cars.

That place was Phoenix, AZ, which is not the model leftist city.

Posted by: Emmie at February 16, 2019 11:48 AM (4HMW8)

75 > But when they are hauling light weight humans, most of the cargo is the train itself.

Airliners aren't weightless, either.


Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 16, 2019 11:48 AM (0OWcv)

76 I'm just trying to help Sandy O-C out, I'm not flying anywhere anytime soon

Posted by: Skip. Finish the Wall at February 16, 2019 11:49 AM (/rm4P)

77 > Mr Peebles was talking about passenger travel not freight travel. Hauling 300 passengers on a train coast to coast is a different equation than hauling a mile long train full of freight.

It's not 33 times more, or anything like it.



Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 16, 2019 11:49 AM (0OWcv)

78 Someone made the point a while back that if North America had been discovered today rather than 500 years ago, it would have stayed a wilderness because there would be no way that any of it could be legally developed.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 11:50 AM (UGqF8)

79 High speed trains can't go over or through mountain passes. Heck, low speed trains can barely make it during a winter storm.

Posted by: nurse ratched at February 16, 2019 11:28 AM (PkVlr)


Sure they can, if the rails are made of the Rearden Metal stuff that was talked about in an HBO series I saw, based on a book called "Attila Surrendered" or something like that!

Posted by: Alexandria Occasionally-Conscious at February 16, 2019 11:50 AM (AMIL/)

80 31 > Bring back Zepplins

Definitely a civilized way to travel. Slow, though, and not so good in storms.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 16, 2019 11:32 AM (0OWcv)


Hey, the government can control climate, so storms should be a piece of cake.

Posted by: rickl at February 16, 2019 11:50 AM (sdi6R)

81 "Only use locally-sourced gravel"

for building roads and such, they do tend to find local sources ... lots of limestone around. Coal as well, but some bulk items need longer hauls.

Posted by: illiniwek at February 16, 2019 11:51 AM (Cus5s)

82 The government?!? C'mon rickl, you know who controls the weather.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at February 16, 2019 11:51 AM (H5knJ)

83 Local gravel is sustainable, or something.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 11:51 AM (UGqF8)

84
>>I don't see air travel burning that much more energy than dragging a train overland for 3000 miles. So even there their plan would fail.


Trains are diesel electric and electric motors are far more efficent pulling heavy loads.

Posted by: Flawless Male Logic at February 16, 2019 11:52 AM (TAmPV)

85 The government?!? C'mon rickl, you know who controls the weather.
Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls



JJ Sefton does!

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 11:52 AM (qpKia)

86 >>It's not 33 times more, or anything like it.

Probably not. But then it also doesn't take 5 days so you have to include food, sleeping cars and other basic amenities humans need for a 5 day trip they don't need for a 5 hour flight.

My grandfather took me on the Santa Fe Super Chief from Chicago to LA when I was a kid. It was great fun for a 6 year old.

Only problem was we had to drive from NY to Chicago because there was no coast to coast train and then spend 3 days on the train. I had more time to be leisurely when I was 6.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 11:53 AM (/tuJf)

87 The chief virtue of the Clitoral Combat Ship is that you can never find it.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at February 16, 2019 11:54 AM (oVJmc)

88 The Hooterville Cannonball ran from Hooterville to Pixley and back on a forgotten, disconnected spur.

Just like Merced to Bakersfield.

Posted by: Count de Monet at February 16, 2019 11:55 AM (QLvwG)

89 It's not just about the EPA and environmentalists sabotaging government projects, it's the built in stonewalling between all government agencies. Ever see how even a small government project gets done? You got the feds handing out the money then delegating a state agency to run it and then the bureaucracy steps in. The state engineers awards the contracts and all of the sudden nothing goes right; environmental impact reports, material specs, subcontractors meeting federal guidelines, state code vs. local code, etc., etc.


It's fucking embarrassing.

Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 11:55 AM (4thlk)

90 Ronald Reagan to Gavin Newsom. Unbelievable how far California has fallen.

Posted by: Dan Smoot's Apprentice at February 16, 2019 11:56 AM (H8QX8)

91 Y'all can mock me if you like, but I believe oil/petroleum is a renewable resource. Also, I think it is one of the most efficient fuels for transportation. And so far, we don't know what good it is doing just sitting in the ground. It's probably better for the environment that we take it out of the ground and use it.

Posted by: Emmie at February 16, 2019 11:56 AM (4HMW8)

92 "Airliners aren't weightless, either.Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia


I was leaving the math up to someone else ... a quick search says plane train car ... 41, 50, 52 ... miles per gallon per passenger. Bus is the winner at 150.


I bet the cost by train for heavy cargo is the cheapest by far (excluding by ship/barge).

Posted by: illiniwek at February 16, 2019 11:57 AM (Cus5s)

93 91 Y'all can mock me if you like, but I believe oil/petroleum is a renewable resource.

---------

Yes, Dinosaurs are dying all the time.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 11:57 AM (UGqF8)

94 Looks like an Amtrak Superliner car can carry 75 passengers, and weighs 174,000 pounds, so about 2,320 pounds per passenger.

A Boeing 737-800 carries 162 passengers and weighs 91,300 pounds, for 563 pounds per passenger.

That's 4x differential in vehicle weight per passenger.

4x differential in dead weight does not come anywhere close to canceling out the 33x differential in fuel efficiency.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 16, 2019 11:57 AM (0OWcv)

95 Here's how you know hauling passengers by rail won't work: the rail companies are t doing it. They are already hauling freight all over the country all day, every day. It would cost them very little to add a passenger car to the current trains, and compete with bus service. But they don't, because the pain in the ass of hauling passengers is not worth the little bit of money you could make carrying people across the country in a week.

Posted by: Hawkpilot at February 16, 2019 11:58 AM (KCxuz)

96 High speed trains can't go over or through mountain passes. Heck, low speed trains can barely make it during a winter storm.

They just need to go faster!

Posted by: AOC at February 16, 2019 11:58 AM (oTMWb)

97 Did someone say bury a hatchet?

Posted by: LizzyBorden at February 16, 2019 11:59 AM (0tfLf)

98 Amtrak has no cross country passenger train competition and still can't make it without government subsidies.

"it mostly involves dealing with the system's 15 little-traveled longer routes that lose nearly $600 million each year."

From WaPo 2013:
https://wapo.st/2S7NyNR

We did trains in the 50's. Until air travel became superior. We aren't going backwards.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 11:59 AM (qpKia)

99 More like "devastate the American economy so that air travel is no longer is necessary." Serfs [what's left of them] building mud huts have no reason to go to Disneyland. Planet saved.

Posted by: The Poster Formerly Known as Mr. Barky at February 16, 2019 11:59 AM (RlJz8)

100 High speed trains can't go over or through mountain passes.


We'll go underground.
High Speed Subway.

Winning!!!

Posted by: Bruce at February 16, 2019 12:00 PM (8ikIW)

101 4x differential in dead weight does not come anywhere close to canceling out the 33x differential in fuel efficiency.



Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 16, 2019 11:57 AM (0OWcv)


Coefficient of friction, that pesky thing.

Posted by: Count de Monet at February 16, 2019 12:00 PM (QLvwG)

102 and the cost for train probably goes way up when considering Amtrak is only 1/3 full most of the time (or whatever it is)

Posted by: illiniwek at February 16, 2019 12:00 PM (Cus5s)

103 Ya know, Crazy Eyes-Horsey Teeth has a fixation on "running train". I guess she never experienced "flying plane". Multiple orgasms! Of course, our new muslim representatives will never know that pleasure.

Posted by: Anonymous White Male at February 16, 2019 12:00 PM (3sjI6)

104 > But then it also doesn't take 5 days

Did I not say "People go by air because it is fast, not because it is energy-efficient."? Stop trying to move the goal posts.


Peebles original statement was "I don't see air travel burning that much more energy than dragging a train overland for 3000 miles."

Which is ridiculous on its face. Sorry, but it is.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 16, 2019 12:00 PM (0OWcv)

105 We'll go underground.
High Speed Subway.

Winning!!!
Posted by: Bruce at February 16, 2019 12:00 PM (8ikIW)

Wasn't that a High Speed Subway Jussie was eating before he was lynched?

Posted by: Anonymous White Male at February 16, 2019 12:01 PM (3sjI6)

106 "More like "devastate the American economy so that air travel is no longer is necessary."

That's more like it. Much easier and right in their wheelhouse.

Posted by: Dan Smoot's Apprentice at February 16, 2019 12:02 PM (H8QX8)

107 Walls are old technology but trains are the future.



Ok then.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 11:24 AM (/tuJf)


One can get a tumor trying to figure out leftist reasoning.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at February 16, 2019 12:02 PM (9Om/r)

108 Have you looked at Amtrak schedules and fares? Driving cross-country is much more appealing. And you retain your freedom.

Posted by: t-bird at February 16, 2019 12:02 PM (f6lTY)

109 AARRGGHHH. No internet all morning until now. Finally. Maybe had to wait for the ice to melt off the cell tower?

Sad and embarrassing that the web has become such a primary tool. Especially when I only have one connection and it's down.

Tell me how Tell me how Tell me how Tell me how
Tell me how many games of Sol did I play today?

Got some household chores done, though.

Posted by: mindful webworker's frustrating Saturday morning at February 16, 2019 12:02 PM (Kvnw4)

110 High Speed Rail in America is a retarded, juice box idea.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 12:02 PM (5jrhZ)

111 Yes, Dinosaurs are dying all the time.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 11:57 AM (UGqF


Are you saying only dinosaur carcasses eventually turn into oil, but not those of any other critters?

Posted by: Emmie at February 16, 2019 12:03 PM (4HMW8)

112 And you retain your freedom.
Posted by: t-bird at February 16, 2019 12:02 PM (f6lTY)

That's the catch for the entire GND. The biggest problem it needs to solve.

Posted by: Roy at February 16, 2019 12:03 PM (ABjxW)

113 110 High Speed Rail in America is a retarded, juice box idea.
Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 12:02 PM (5jrhZ)

-------

But commies love their trains.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 12:03 PM (UGqF8)

114 >>Coefficient of friction, that pesky thing.


You are telling me!

Posted by: RBG at February 16, 2019 12:04 PM (5jrhZ)

115 111 Yes, Dinosaurs are dying all the time.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 11:57 AM (UGqF

Are you saying only dinosaur carcasses eventually turn into oil, but not those of any other critters?
Posted by: Emmie at February 16, 2019 12:03 PM (4HMW

---------

Yes. It's SCIENCE

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 12:04 PM (UGqF8)

116
But commies love their trains.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 12:03 PM (UGqF

And you know who else loved trains.

Posted by: Roy at February 16, 2019 12:04 PM (ABjxW)

117 But commies love their trains.
Posted by: Cicero

And hate straws.

A strange group, ain't they?

Posted by: Bruce at February 16, 2019 12:04 PM (8ikIW)

118 I forgot how many billions are funneled into Amtrak every year.
Makes paying for a wall chump change.

Posted by: Skip. Finish the Wall at February 16, 2019 12:04 PM (/rm4P)

119 Oh Willie Brown. California should stop his retirement pay and if he complains, just say that if he knew what they were going to pay him, he wouldn't have taken the job.

Posted by: Darth Randall at February 16, 2019 12:04 PM (p0nVR)

120 12 Nice touch with Ringo and Buck.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 16, 2019 11:20 AM (0OWcv)
---------------------------
Yes --- though Dwight Yoakam and Buck doing "Streets of Bakersfield" would have been much better!

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 12:04 PM (Rxduq)

121 Just about everyone I know that rode on Amtrak did it out of one time curiosity more than anything else.

Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 12:04 PM (4thlk)

122 Y'all can mock me if you like, but I believe oil/petroleum is a renewable resource.

Posted by: Emmie at February 16, 2019 11:56 AM (4HMW

"Abiotic genesis"....iirc. The Russians were researching this....anyone know where it's at now?

Posted by: BignJames at February 16, 2019 12:05 PM (cxHbL)

123 " Amtrak Superliner car can carry 75 passengers" add in the engines ... figure 25 passengers ... rail maintenance versus air maintenance ...

Posted by: illiniwek at February 16, 2019 12:05 PM (Cus5s)

124 121 Just about everyone I know that rode on Amtrak did it out of one time curiosity more than anything else.
Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 12:04 PM (4thlk)

Sounds like all of Donkey-Chomper's boyfriends.

Posted by: Roy at February 16, 2019 12:05 PM (ABjxW)

125 High Speed Rail in America is a retarded, juice box idea.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 12:02 PM (5jrhZ)


No kidding, especially since we should have personal Death Stars by now. We got shit rolling around on mars and these shit heads want us to return to the old west. Whats next, stage coaches?

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at February 16, 2019 12:06 PM (9Om/r)

126 Funny, I had to explain the High Speed Rail Boondoggle to a friend and his wife the other day.

...along with why we don't have High Speed Rail and a lessson on Economics thrown in there to explain that IF we needed or wanted it, we would already have it.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 12:06 PM (5jrhZ)

127 "Abiotic genesis"....iirc. The Russians were researching this....anyone know where it's at now?
Posted by: BignJames


Not sure where it's at, but the Russians aren't the only ones. We've been pumping previously "dry holes" for awhile now.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 12:06 PM (qpKia)

128 I was disappointed that that HS term paper didn't include fusion powered flying cars.

Posted by: Roy at February 16, 2019 12:07 PM (ABjxW)

129 600 mph plane that makes no stops vs. 300 mph (best) ground-based that can't go full out, has to avoid obstacles, and will make numerous stops.

Sure.
Posted by: Mr. Peebles at February 16, 2019 11:20 AM (oVJmc)

It would be instructive for these pols to make them drive I-70 west from the Mississippi. Seeing the Rocky Mountains slowly become visible from over a hundred miles out and then rise to block much of the sky might help them understand why people choose to fly. No high speed train is going to deal with those mountains safely.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 12:07 PM (uquGJ)

130 Shooter had an IL FOID despite having a prior felony conviction. Police chief says background check for FOID would not have shown conviction. Does a FOID replace NICS when buying a gun? Would NICS have shown the conviction, and stopped the sale?

Posted by: Fox2! at February 16, 2019 12:07 PM (MwFQu)

131 Just about everyone I know that rode on Amtrak did it out of one time curiosity more than anything else.

Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 12:04 PM (4thlk)

Thought about a xcountry train trip....once. 1.too slow 2.too expensive.

Posted by: BignJames at February 16, 2019 12:08 PM (cxHbL)

132 Last time I checked no one really knows how we have oil.
I mean, we HAVE oil, and we know how and where to get it, but no one knows for sure the why or how of it.

Posted by: navybrat, sometime commentater at February 16, 2019 12:08 PM (w7KSn)

133 128 I was disappointed that that HS term paper didn't include fusion powered flying cars.
Posted by: Roy at February 16, 2019 12:07 PM (ABjxW)

--------

Flying cars would only give dangerous freedom to the proles, and we can't have that in a Glorious Socialist Utopia.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 12:08 PM (UGqF8)

134 Just about everyone I know that rode on Amtrak did it out of one time curiosity more than anything else.
Posted by: lowandslow
--------

Well, myself and friends used it as the Designated Driver for drunken trips from Atlanta to New Orleans and back.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at February 16, 2019 12:08 PM (U2TY5)

135 The reason this country doesn't have HSR is because we have the freedom of choice. We chose automobile transportation a long time ago and, so far, the vast majority has never looked back.

This country used to have very efficient passenger rail service (it was envied worldwide) until the car and the airplane came along. Cars gave us more freedom and airplanes were many times faster and more direct.

This nation's railroads right now are very healthy and are moving vast amounts of commerce. Our rail freight system is the envy of the world.

Posted by: Sooner at February 16, 2019 12:09 PM (Fs5vw)

136 I can take the train from Chicago to Harrisburg PA to visit my SIL. My SIL will do this to visit us.
It's about a 24 hour trip, sometimes made longer because freight trains have priority over AMTRAK.
Or I can drive it in a little over 12 hours.

Which one to choose?

Posted by: Bruce at February 16, 2019 12:09 PM (8ikIW)

137 Here's a paper about abiotic genesis:

https://preview.tinyurl.com/y3a3ptcf

Posted by: Emmie at February 16, 2019 12:09 PM (4HMW8)

138 "Sounds like all of Donkey-Chomper's boyfriends."



Someone linked to picture of him earlier. A big ginger dofuss that probably spends half his day crying about his masculinity.

Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 12:09 PM (4thlk)

139 I laugh at Seattle while watching the Mariners play. They all enjoy the sound of the trains as they pass literally right next to the outfield wall. Hundreds and hundreds of cars carrying hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil.
And then....so sanctimoniously green.

Posted by: Diogenes at February 16, 2019 12:10 PM (0tfLf)

140 that's the link that says planes are actually a little cheaper than trains, in gallons per passenger mile. A bus is by far the best, 3x better. (not counting container ships full of chinese illegals)


https://tinyurl.com/y574cveo

Posted by: illiniwek at February 16, 2019 12:10 PM (Cus5s)

141 The only route that would begin to make sense is Manhattan to DC, with no stops in between.

If you go to LA, well, where in LA? Anywhere it is is not near where you need to go. And now you don't have a car.

Posted by: t-bird at February 16, 2019 12:10 PM (mhs6e)

142 Last time I checked no one really knows how we have oil.
I mean, we HAVE oil, and we know how and where to get it, but no one knows for sure the why or how of it.
Posted by: navybrat


Exactly. Hard to believe that the earf supported, and THAT many dinosaurs lived, for the amount of oil used since being discovered.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 12:11 PM (qpKia)

143 Margarita de Ville--

Amen about "Streets of Bakersfield." One of my top five favorite country songs. And it even has lines that applies to the left's attitude toward normals:

You don't know me, but you don't like me.
You care less how I feel.
How many of you that sit and judge me
Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

Posted by: Art Rondolet of Malmsey at February 16, 2019 12:11 PM (S+f+m)

144 >>Did I not say "People go by air because it is fast, not because it is energy-efficient."? Stop trying to move the goal posts.


I'm not. And you forgot to add in the weight of the locomotive. A passenger railcar doesn't move very fast or efficiently without a locomotive.

We have no real metrics for high speed rail which was the original metric because it doesn't exist. You must also add in the cost of the rail which also doesn't exist not to mention the land which would have to be acquired. All of those things need to be factored is as part of the cost because they do not exist whereas the planes and airports do.

I completely agree with you that trains are the most efficient way to move freight. And yes, slow speed trains are more efficient if you don't care about time.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 12:11 PM (/tuJf)

145 >>The only route that would begin to make sense is Manhattan to DC, with no stops in between.


And only if they were seperated by a wide, flat and uninhabited plain.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 12:12 PM (5jrhZ)

146 Great piece by Roger Kimball a usual.

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/321971/

Posted by: steevy at February 16, 2019 12:12 PM (BXMxN)

147 That is a good Q to leftists. How come using 500 year old windmill technology is good but using 3000 year old wall technology is bad. And on drones and the 'high tech' things. Ahem, walls are absolutely neutral and require no force to achieve their purpose. There is a reason rich people have walls around their estates. Even when the wall would cost more than hiring an armed guard the wall is for sure not going to end up shooting some kid and landing rich person with a lawsuit. Drones cant enforce a border unless they are armed and could shoot people trying to cross. Do you really want to shoot people trying to sneak into the country? How is the drone AI or human operator going to determine if its an MS-13 member or just a peasant looking to find work picking grapes? We should have a wall and a real worker visa program so dairy farmers are requesting visas, then they can pay less but they are not ducking all the non salary costs like hiring an illegal under the table allows.

Posted by: PaleRider is simply irredeemable at February 16, 2019 12:12 PM (jUcoH)

148 I am most struck by how the Greens spend these vast sums on their pet dreams when there are other, concrete problems that need to be addressed, like just fixing and maintaining the local highway.

On an international scale, think of all the money that has been wasted on trying to fight "climate change" while the need for clean water supply continues to grow.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 12:12 PM (Rxduq)

149 Separated. Needs moar coffee.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 12:12 PM (5jrhZ)

150 You don't know me, but you don't like me.
You care less how I feel.
How many of you that sit and judge me
Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?
Posted by: Art Rondolet
-------

I used walk out on the streets of Laredo.

Posted by: Ghey Young Cowboy at February 16, 2019 12:13 PM (/dN1M)

151 They have implemented so many 'green trails' and whatnot that a high speed rail system couldn't possibly be implemented in this entire section of the country, at least not without a heck of a lot of eminent domain proceedings.

You won't need that land while you are in the re-education concentration camps.

Posted by: Blue Bird of F'ing Joy at February 16, 2019 12:13 PM (lD3vL)

152 Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 12:04 PM (4thlk)

John and I looked into Amtrack for our honeymoon, just to have a completely different experience. We said "Wow, no" after finding out the price, much less the inconvenience, and went to Vegas for a week instead.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 12:13 PM (uquGJ)

153 I want to see a High Speed Train hit a moose while going flat out.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 12:13 PM (5jrhZ)

154 Do you really want to shoot people trying to sneak into the country?



Do you really want an honest answer?

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 12:13 PM (qpKia)

155 Somebody posted once here US Geological surveys (or newspaper stories about the surveys)with dire predictions of the oil supply going back to the 30's at least.

Posted by: steevy at February 16, 2019 12:13 PM (BXMxN)

156 Exactly. Hard to believe that the earf supported, and THAT many dinosaurs lived, for the amount of oil used since being discovered.
Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 12:11 PM (qpKia)

--------

I've never looked it up, but I would guess that the combined biomass of unicellular organisms in the ocean over 2.5 billion years probably exceeds the biomass of all land animals by a hefty margin.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 12:13 PM (UGqF8)

157 >>Do you really want to shoot people trying to sneak into the country?


Me? Personally?


Yes.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 12:14 PM (5jrhZ)

158 I am most struck by how the Greens spend these vast sums on their pet dreams when there are other, concrete problems that need to be addressed, like just fixing and maintaining the local highway.
-------

Here, the Progs are constantly preening over bike lanes and greenways. Meanwhile, the streets are full of potholes and trash.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at February 16, 2019 12:14 PM (/dN1M)

159 I've never looked it up, but I would guess that the combined biomass of unicellular organisms in the ocean over 2.5 billion years probably exceeds the biomass of all land animals by a hefty margin.
Posted by: Cicero

Little bastards were farting out CO2, too!

Posted by: Bruce at February 16, 2019 12:15 PM (8ikIW)

160 You don't know me, but you don't like me.
You care less how I feel.
How many of you that sit and judge me
Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?
Posted by: Art Rondolet
-------

I used walk out on the streets of Laredo.
Posted by: Ghey Young Cowboy


I stood on a corner in Winslow, Arizona.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 12:15 PM (qpKia)

161 153 I want to see a High Speed Train hit a moose while going flat out.
Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 12:13 PM (5jrhZ)


---------

I see a great idea for an episode of Mythbusters.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 12:15 PM (UGqF8)

162 Amtrak from Quincy to Chicago was useful ... but it has to be pretty close to your departure and destination for it to work, and Amtrak loses money. Same problem with commuter flights from Quincy to Chicago or St Louis ... they struggle to keep the local airline in business. Cars are nice.

Posted by: illiniwek at February 16, 2019 12:15 PM (Cus5s)

163 All Aboard the 3:13 to Honolulu.

(feckin' dimwits)

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 12:15 PM (Ct55T)

164 Anything politicians propose in Commiefornia are just pipe dreams, fantasies and poppy-cock.

In debt, overrun with ilegales and democrat is no way to go thru statehood.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at February 16, 2019 12:16 PM (Z+IKu)

165 I am most struck by how the Greens spend these vast sums on their pet dreams when there are other, concrete problems that need to be addressed, like just fixing and maintaining the local highway.


I'm sure there was a budget in the HSR somewhere for maintenance. Right?

Posted by: Bruce at February 16, 2019 12:16 PM (8ikIW)

166 Somebody posted once here US Geological surveys (or newspaper stories about the surveys)with dire predictions of the oil supply going back to the 30's at least.
Posted by: steevy
--------
Peak oil! Peak oil! They frantically chanted...years ago.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at February 16, 2019 12:16 PM (fZcn6)

167 I really dig trains and subways that work well, that are clean, whose ridership consists of normal law-abiding people. You can find them here and there - though virtually never in the US.
But I absolutely *loathe* public transit that is slow, dirty, unreliable, and perhaps worst of all, infested with bums and criminals with no effective policing in sight. That's pretty much the only type of transit democrats are capable of building due to their virtue signalling requirements.
Similarly, "walkable neighborhoods" are worthless when your walkable distance is salted with bums, crazies, and third-generation section 8 barbarians - and patrolled by hamstrung cops, if at all - and the housing prices for productive citizens are absolutely retarded due to .gov interference.

These people are literally why we can't have nice things. It's nearing the time to have a serious conversation about how to address that.

Posted by: lurker (the other one) at February 16, 2019 12:16 PM (67XdO)

168 Somebody posted once here US Geological surveys (or newspaper stories about the surveys)with dire predictions of the oil supply going back to the 30's at least.
Posted by: steevy


Peak Oil has been passed probably a dozen times.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 12:16 PM (qpKia)

169 143
...And it even has lines that applies to the left's attitude toward normals:

You don't know me, but you don't like me.
You care less how I feel.
How many of you that sit and judge me
Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?
Posted by: Art Rondolet of Malmsey at February 16, 2019 12:11 PM (S+f+m)
------------------------------------------
YES!!!

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 12:16 PM (Rxduq)

170 It's the rolling motion of the trains. Gets the ladies hot! Here's a vitamin sample for you. Vitamin E. Now that is great for the old pecker. Yeah it really keeps a pencil sharpened.

Posted by: Bob Sweet, Silverstreak at February 16, 2019 12:17 PM (QLvwG)

171 159 I've never looked it up, but I would guess that the combined biomass of unicellular organisms in the ocean over 2.5 billion years probably exceeds the biomass of all land animals by a hefty margin.
Posted by: Cicero

Little bastards were farting out CO2, too!
Posted by: Bruce at February 16, 2019 12:15 PM (8ikIW)

I looked that up for some reason ages and ages ago, and yes, oceanic microflora is by far the plurality of life on earth. No idea what the actual percentages are, but yeah.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 12:17 PM (Ct55T)

172 The only Amtrak route that consistently turns a profit is the Northeast Corridor because of the density. And even then it wouldn't make money without being heavily subsidized.

And it also sucks.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 12:18 PM (/tuJf)

173 "165
I am most struck by how the Greens spend these vast sums on their pet
dreams when there are other, concrete problems that need to be
addressed, like just fixing and maintaining the local highway.





I'm sure there was a budget in the HSR somewhere for maintenance. Right?

Posted by: Bruce at February 16, 2019 12:16 PM (8ikIW)"
...
CA has been deliberately neglecting road work for more than a generation now; remember, these were the same people who made the first HOV lanes, which were deliberately designed to foul traffic and drive commuters to public transit.

The fact that they can blow the money on stupid shit elsewhere is just a bonus.

Posted by: lurker (the other one) at February 16, 2019 12:18 PM (67XdO)

174 Population density in Europe, Japan and China is at least ten times what it is in the US.

Thus, why HSR will never work here but nominally works in those places.

Math is hard only if you are a socialist/totalitarian dipshit.

Posted by: Sharkman at February 16, 2019 12:18 PM (RIKJa)

175 You don't know me, but you don't like me.
You care less how I feel.
How many of you that sit and judge me
Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?
Posted by: Art Rondolet
-------

I used walk out on the streets of Laredo.
Posted by: Ghey Young Cowboy


I stood on a corner in Winslow, Arizona.
Posted by: rickb223
-----------

I once dialed PEnnsylvania 6-5000

Posted by: Glenn Miller at February 16, 2019 12:18 PM (fZcn6)

176 "Little bastards were farting out CO2, too!Posted by: Bruce

I wonder how much of that "dissolved" to form all that calcium carbonate. All that "deadly" carbon sure didn't stay in the atmosphere.

Posted by: illiniwek at February 16, 2019 12:18 PM (Cus5s)

177 The USA is simply too big to do all this light rail/high speed train stuff. Most of our states are bigger than these countries held up as examples of effective/efficient systems. It just can't work on our scale.

Posted by: lin-duh at February 16, 2019 12:19 PM (kufk0)

178 YES!!!
Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 12:16 PM (Rxduq)

Left him my watch and my old housekey.
Don't want folks thinkin' that i'd steal.
And I thanked him as I was leaving,
out for the streets of Bakersfield.

(doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo)

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 12:19 PM (Ct55T)

179 That Q is not directed to you Rick, its directed to the bleeding heart liberal women voters who reflexively parrot the Dem talking points.

Posted by: PaleRider is simply irredeemable at February 16, 2019 12:19 PM (jUcoH)

180 The left has orgasms over choo choos. Because they visited Europe once and think they are so hip and cool. They work in Europe because it's Europe. We left there a while ago for a reason.

Posted by: Minnfidel at February 16, 2019 12:19 PM (L3YlV)

181 We need a Manhattan Project to perfect Human Catapult Technology!

Posted by: One Named Troll at February 16, 2019 12:20 PM (H7hR5)

182 >>I wonder how much of that "dissolved" to form all that calcium carbonate.


Listened to a 'Climate Scientist' explain why 'Old CO2 is Good CO2, but new CO2 is BAD CO2.

Then I laughed at him and told him he needed to go back to school.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 12:20 PM (5jrhZ)

183 I once dialed PEnnsylvania 6-5000

Posted by: Glenn Miller at February 16, 2019 12:18 PM (fZcn6)

867-530nieeien

Posted by: BignJames at February 16, 2019 12:20 PM (cxHbL)

184 You don't know me, but you don't like me.
You care less how I feel.
How many of you that sit and judge me
Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?
Posted by: Art Rondolet
-------

I used walk out on the streets of Laredo.
Posted by: Ghey Young Cowboy


I stood on a corner in Winslow, Arizona.
Posted by: rickb223
-----------

I once dialed PEnnsylvania 6-5000
Posted by: Glenn Miller
-------------

BEechwood 4-5789

Posted by: The Marvelettes at February 16, 2019 12:20 PM (fZcn6)

185 That Q is not directed to you Rick, its directed to the bleeding heart liberal women voters who reflexively parrot the Dem talking points.
Posted by: PaleRider


:-)

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 12:20 PM (qpKia)

186 I once shot a man in Reno.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 12:21 PM (UGqF8)

187 I saw Abiotic Genesis open for the Electric Prunes in the Cow Palace, 1967!

Posted by: Gref at February 16, 2019 12:21 PM (AMIL/)

188 867-530nieeien
Posted by: BignJames at February 16, 2019 12:20 PM (cxHbL)

"Man, that chick was a total German Jenny."

"German Jenny?"

"867-530 NEIN!!!!"

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 12:21 PM (Ct55T)

189 "German Jenny?"

"867-530 NEIN!!!!"
Posted by: Warai-otoko



*snort

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 12:22 PM (qpKia)

190 Do you really want to shoot people trying to sneak into the country?

Cheaper than a wall, and you don't have to do it very often once word gets out. Hmm...glad you brought the idea up!

Posted by: t-bird at February 16, 2019 12:22 PM (n/eZB)

191 Much as I was hoping to be wrong, I figured the CPD would do its duty and bury Smollett's guilt.

Now I'm hearing that they released the Nigerians without charge and will "continue investigating based on 'new evidence.'"

So it looks like Jussie'll be riding this out, and those MAGA racists will be sipping Mai Tais on the beach with Nicole Simpson's real killer.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at February 16, 2019 12:23 PM (5aX2M)

192 Then I had a crazy-looking woman in Kansas City.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 12:23 PM (UGqF8)

193 >>Cheaper than a wall, and you don't have to do it very often once word gets out.


Free Fire Zone open to ALL Citizens who buy a permit.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 12:23 PM (5jrhZ)

194 Yes, Dinosaurs are dying all the time.

And when they do, they bury their dead several miles below the earth's surface. Sometimes to truly honor their dead, they bury them miles below the ocean bottom which is a mile below the surface.

They are weird in that way.

Posted by: Blue Bird of F'ing Joy at February 16, 2019 12:23 PM (lD3vL)

195 190 Do you really want to shoot people trying to sneak into the country?

Cheaper than a wall, and you don't have to do it very often once word gets out. Hmm...glad you brought the idea up!
Posted by: t-bird at February 16, 2019 12:22 PM (n/eZB)

Well, technically, I want my tax dollars taken to fund law enforcement officers who will do the shooting. But otherwise, Yup.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 12:23 PM (Ct55T)

196 They've been ramming the choo choo or LRT down our throats in the Twin Cities. Our roads SUCK balls because not only do they take the money from our gas tax, car sales tax, registration etc. for LRT, They divert it also to miles and miles of bike lanes that get used maybe 4-5 months of the year. We have a surplus and the new POS governor want to raise the gas tax, for roads and bridges. SMDH, dumb fucking Cidiots.

Posted by: Minnfidel at February 16, 2019 12:23 PM (L3YlV)

197 Hah. Trump using Bronco's cartel national emergency for part of the wall funding.

Bronco: You didn't build that wall. Somebody made that happen for you.

Posted by: flounder, rebel, vulgarian, deplorable, winner at February 16, 2019 12:23 PM (t6MX/)

198 Glenn Campbell like songs about cities. Wichita, Galveston, etc.

Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 12:24 PM (4thlk)

199 I have it on good authority that once upon a time, it was legal for Connecticut citizens to shoot anyone found to be crossing into the state from Rhode Island.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at February 16, 2019 12:24 PM (w54mS)

200 192 Then I had a crazy-looking woman in Kansas City.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 12:23 PM (UGqF

Hey hey hey hey.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 12:24 PM (Ct55T)

201 "I want to see a High Speed Train hit a moose while going flat out"


the can bring back the cow catcher ... but at 300 mph, the moose would end up in another county.

Posted by: illiniwek at February 16, 2019 12:24 PM (Cus5s)

202 All aboard the Commie Train!

Posted by: Gruesome Newsom at February 16, 2019 12:24 PM (Tyii7)

203 You don't know me, but you don't like me.

You care less how I feel.

How many of you that sit and judge me

Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

Posted by: Art Rondolet

-------



I used walk out on the streets of Laredo.

Posted by: Ghey Young Cowboy





I stood on a corner in Winslow, Arizona.

Posted by: rickb223

-----------



I once dialed PEnnsylvania 6-5000

Posted by: Glenn Miller

-------------



BEechwood 4-5789

Posted by: The Marvelettes at February 16, 2019 12:20 PM (fZcn6)

BR-549

Posted by: Junior Samples Used Cars at February 16, 2019 12:24 PM (QLvwG)

204 SMDH, dumb fucking Cidiots.
Posted by: Minnfidel at February 16, 2019 12:23 PM (L3YlV)


This, too, is the story of Seattle.

Posted by: flounder, rebel, vulgarian, deplorable, winner at February 16, 2019 12:24 PM (t6MX/)

205 Heh T-bird. Mean me sometimes thinks that if LEO would ignore reports about dead migrants vigilantes would step up, word would get out south of the border and yup problem solved. But the deep state wont ever let that happen.

Posted by: PaleRider is simply irredeemable at February 16, 2019 12:25 PM (jUcoH)

206 I used to use Amtrak for business trips, because I could walk to the station from my office and was usually going to either Chicago, or Pittsburgh or DC. First they changed the schedules so that I could walk from the office at 1 or so AM; then the agency started having meetings convenient to O'Hare instead of The Loop, and that was it for my convenience arguments.

When the staff was mostly carryovers from "real railroad" passenger crews, they had a lot of class, and the food and diner service were memorable. As gummint bean-counters became necessary, things like ISYN cleaning bathrooms, and emptying the new-fangled sewage tanks, got too expensive for them to do. So if you're starting out now, you've missed the golden era.

Real railfans (from back in the Real Ale days), hoped and prayed that one day, real railroads would see a profit to be made in restoring service. Nobody ever saw an American Euro-Rail as something that you'd enjoy. In the energy-crisis days, we thought new high-tech steam locos might replace diesel. Nobody who ever had Marx or Lionel ever thought long-distance electric was going to work. It leaks.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at February 16, 2019 12:25 PM (8ZmvG)

207 Much as I was hoping to be wrong, I figured the CPD would do its duty and bury Smollett's guilt.

Now I'm hearing that they released the Nigerians without charge and will "continue investigating based on 'new evidence.'"

So it looks like Jussie'll be riding this out, and those MAGA racists will be sipping Mai Tais on the beach with Nicole Simpson's real killer.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at February 16, 2019 12:23 PM

Word is that Jussy hired Michael Cohen's defense attorney. Hmmm, why would a victim need a defense attorney?....

Posted by: Minnfidel at February 16, 2019 12:25 PM (L3YlV)

208 Light rail! Light rail! C'mon, now, all together, Light rail! Light rail!

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at February 16, 2019 12:25 PM (w54mS)

209 The USA is simply too big to do all this light rail/high speed train stuff. Most of our states are bigger than these countries held up as examples of effective/efficient systems. It just can't work on our scale.

But if we import just a few hundred million more foreigners, then our population density will soon match India, Hong Kong and Japan so that it is possible.

Posted by: Blue Bird of F'ing Joy at February 16, 2019 12:26 PM (lD3vL)

210 "Glenn Campbell like songs about cities. Wichita, Galveston, etc."

Jimmy Webb.

Posted by: navybrat, sometime commentater at February 16, 2019 12:27 PM (w7KSn)

211
I've always thought that the HSR project was largely intended as a long-term transportation subsidy for Frisco yuppies, so that they could purchase larger homes in the Valley for the same price that they'd pay for a closet-sized apartment in the city itself.

The immense amount of graft that accompanied the construction project itself is of course, a shorter term benefit to Donk-connected businesses.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at February 16, 2019 12:27 PM (juqNl)

212 It's a common thought that Leftists hate autos just for the freedom of movement. Controlling where you can go is just a beginning of controlling your life.

Posted by: Skip. Finish the Wall at February 16, 2019 12:27 PM (/rm4P)

213 Do you really want to shoot people trying to sneak into the country?
--------------------------
No, absolutely not.
I really, really don't want to shoot anyone.

But I keep a loaded shotgun by my bed and I strongly suggest that you not try to sneak into my house.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 12:28 PM (Rxduq)

214 Get me to the Little Lupe train on time.

Posted by: Gruesome Newsom at February 16, 2019 12:28 PM (Tyii7)

215 So it looks like Jussie'll be riding this out, and those MAGA racists will be sipping Mai Tais on the beach with Nicole Simpson's real killer.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at February 16, 2019 12:23 PM

Word is that Jussy hired Michael Cohen's defense attorney. Hmmm, why would a victim need a defense attorney?....
Posted by: Minnfidel at February 16, 2019 12:25 PM (L3YlV)

They may have released the Nigerians because they already got all they needed out of them in exchange for... ? Dropping charges against them for criminal nudnik-ery? Ignoring some ICE shenanigans/Visa overstay? Who knows. But it's a possibility.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 12:28 PM (Ct55T)

216 Heh T-bird. Mean me sometimes thinks that if LEO would ignore reports about dead migrants vigilantes would step up, word would get out south of the border and yup problem solved. But the deep state wont ever let that happen.
Posted by: PaleRider


Drop 'em on their side of the border when they get within 25 ft of the border. Let Mexico deal with it.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 12:28 PM (qpKia)

217 Glen Campbell wrote. I am a lineman for the Jussie.

Posted by: Minnfidel at February 16, 2019 12:28 PM (L3YlV)

218 Light rail! Light rail! C'mon, now, all together,

One of the bigger farces VTA loses $8 every time a passenger gets on, and that's when they cut costs by pulling it with a donkey.

Posted by: t-bird at February 16, 2019 12:29 PM (mhs6e)

219 Controlling where you can go is just a beginning of controlling your life.

We find that repugnant.

Posted by: Gruesome Newsom at February 16, 2019 12:29 PM (Tyii7)

220 They may have released the Nigerians because they already got all they needed out of them in exchange for... ? Dropping charges against them for criminal nudnik-ery? Ignoring some ICE shenanigans/Visa overstay?


Email shenanigans.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 12:29 PM (qpKia)

221 7 The USA is simply too big to do all this light rail/high speed train stuff. Most of our states are bigger than these countries held up as examples of effective/efficient systems. It just can't work on our scale.
Posted by: lin-duh at February 16, 2019 12:19 PM (kufk0)


Correct. I remember bringing my German wife at the time to meet the parents. Had to drive from the OKC airport to my hometown in NW Oklahoma.

She kept saying over and over that she never realized how big this country is. She marveled at the fact that there weren't towns every three miles.

Posted by: Sooner at February 16, 2019 12:29 PM (Fs5vw)

222 But if we import just a few hundred million more foreigners, then our population density will soon match India, Hong Kong and Japan so that it is possible.

Posted by: Blue Bird of F'ing Joy at February 16, 2019 12:26 PM (lD3vL)

There's a show on PBS..."Globe Trekker"...did an episode on traveling by India's trains...I think I'd rather hitch-hike.

Posted by: BignJames at February 16, 2019 12:29 PM (cxHbL)

223 The train to Grinder Switch is running right on time...

Posted by: Charlie Daniels at February 16, 2019 12:30 PM (2kj6M)

224
They may have released the Nigerians because they already got all they needed out of them in exchange for... ? Dropping charges against them for criminal nudnik-ery? Ignoring some ICE shenanigans/Visa overstay? Who knows. But it's a possibility.
Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 12:28 PM

If I had to guess, they got Jussy's cell number off of theirs and got them to admit Jussy made it up and or paid them to do the fake assault. So in turn for that, they didn't charge them and that's why dipshit had to hire a defense attorney.

Posted by: Minnfidel at February 16, 2019 12:30 PM (L3YlV)

225 The sad modern left can't even get the trains to run on time.
Zombie Mussolini

Posted by: steevy at February 16, 2019 12:31 PM (BXMxN)

226 Posted by: Minnfidel at February 16, 2019 12:19 PM (L3YlV)

Visiting Disney World and using their public transportation told me that it will never work in the US as a whole.

Disney has the highest incentives to keep their transit routes useful, their buses and such clean, and to operate cost effectively. They are also pretty much a closed system. And it works great, as long as you only need what everyone else needs at the same time everyone else needs those things, and you have plenty of time. If you are in a wheelchair, or left something at another park and need to go back and get it, or want to stay somewhere an hour later, or are on a tight schedule because their foreign workers still have the cultural habit of not giving bad news and thus told you *of course* you could get breakfast at Point A and still have plenty of time to make your flight, except the boat *to* Point A doesn't start running until an hour before you need to leave for the airport, etc. you are going to be struggling at best. That doesn't work for 300+ million people spread over hundreds of thousands of square miles.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 12:31 PM (uquGJ)

227 There's a show on PBS..."Globe Trekker"...did an episode on traveling by India's trains...I think I'd rather hitch-hike.
Posted by: BignJames



I'd like to call OSHA.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 12:31 PM (qpKia)

228 KT, another outstanding Saturday post.


Bottom line - don't see any hope (in my lifetime) of extinguishing Teh Stupid that so damages the country and society. The economic and scientific illiteracy weaponized with authoritarian obsession in the fake religion of "green" nonsense hold all the ramparts.


The vestigial common sense - and cost - of the worst of these boondoggles constitute a practical limit to the damage. For now.


And a Nat Rev writer now burbles approvingly about the odious regimentation of life from the top down, like any airhead authoritarian NPR listener? Wow.

Posted by: rhomboid at February 16, 2019 12:31 PM (QDnY+)

229 One of the bigger farces VTA loses $8 every time a passenger gets on, and that's when they cut costs by pulling it with a donkey.
Posted by: t-bird
----------

Our local bus service loses money.

Posted by: Charlie Daniels at February 16, 2019 12:31 PM (2kj6M)

230 "Jimmy Webb"


By the Time I Get to Phoenix.

Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 12:32 PM (4thlk)

231 The train to Grinder Switch is running right on time...
Posted by: Charlie Daniels at February 16, 2019 12:30 PM

Great, now I have that stuck in my head. The South's gonna do it again...Lose a war! (ducks)

Posted by: Minnfidel at February 16, 2019 12:32 PM (L3YlV)

232 225 The sad modern left can't even get the trains to run on time.
Zombie Mussolini
Posted by: steevy at February 16, 2019 12:31 PM (BXMxN)

They can't even get the damn rails laid down within ten years of deadline.

It's like they're actively trying to suck....

Oh, right. Can't graft a check from the public fisc off of rails that are already on the ground. Silly me.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 12:32 PM (Ct55T)

233 Well if the Nigerians didn't attack Jussie it only makes sense that the police released them w/o charges. I've read nothing that makes me think he was actually attacked. Nigerian #1. "I was just following the script, I kind of wondered where the camera crew was, but thought maybe they were shooting through windows cuz of the cold"

Posted by: PaleRider is simply irredeemable at February 16, 2019 12:32 PM (jUcoH)

234 >>There's a show on PBS..."Globe Trekker"...did an episode on traveling by India's trains...I think I'd rather hitch-hike.

Now those trains maximize fuel efficiency. Of course the trains are so crowded that people actually sit on the roofs of the trains but on the other hand they only breakdown constantly.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 12:33 PM (/tuJf)

235 and that's when they cut costs by pulling it with a donkey.
Posted by: t-bird
----------

HEY! I pull TRAINS, not busses!

Hmmph!

Posted by: Alejandra de los Chompos de Burros at February 16, 2019 12:33 PM (Ct55T)

236
The USA is simply too big to do all this light rail/high speed train stuff.

Does Russia have any fast trains?

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at February 16, 2019 12:33 PM (aKsyK)

237 Merced to "near" Bakersfield! lol


"Shafter, Shafter! End of the line, all passengers please exit the train

Ground transportation is available to Wasco, Lost Hills, Buttonwillow, and Bakersfield! Parasols and bottled water are available from the friendly street vendors!"

Posted by: BJM at February 16, 2019 12:33 PM (hu22E)

238
Hi, Speed Rail!

Are you Speed Racer's cousin?

Posted by: car tunes at February 16, 2019 12:34 PM (hgEPl)

239 just saw a clip on Fox news of Joe Biden in Munich, where he was basically saying that putting up barriers on the border (in prog speak) "is not who we are." I mention this because I would swear I saw John Kenny among others applauding Biden in a very short bit of video at the end. Cuckoos of a feather blathering together.

Posted by: mallfly the friendy fox at February 16, 2019 12:34 PM (ZqRa6)

240 Amtrak gets nearly 2 billion per year

Posted by: Skip. Finish the Wall at February 16, 2019 12:34 PM (/rm4P)

241 The only words from the vile cretin Newsome that I've seen, or from the idiotic GND, are here in this post. Why I don't bother to look otherwise is amply illustrated.


The GND is *so* juvenile and illiterate it talks about eliminating air travel?


Wow.

Posted by: rhomboid at February 16, 2019 12:35 PM (QDnY+)

242 Maybe we should build a high speed rail line across the southern border. A real long one. A real quiet one.

Posted by: The Poster Formerly Known as Mr. Barky at February 16, 2019 12:35 PM (RlJz8)

243 a train from America to Guatemala would be very profitable ... if we filled it with illegals ... a free one way ticket is a revenue loser, but saves us billions in entitlements, and prevents 20 million anchor babies from voting commie.

Posted by: illiniwek at February 16, 2019 12:35 PM (Cus5s)

244 Gavin Newsom is from a generation of male politicians and public officials who talk breathlessly and weakly, like they have pnemonia and can barely push out the words. This limp dick affectation is apparently intended to signal empathy.

I hope he just spends his term evading, retreating, and redirecting attention away from himself, and does nothing much. A governor who has no new initiatives, is all talk but no action, and leaves us fuck alone is what I'm looking for. But no such lick, the unions will keep demanding more, and they will get it, until the state goes bankrupt.

Like many other progressive initiatives, the high speed rail project travesty was simply a way to loot public funds and give the money to the connected. The announcement that it's never going to be completed was inevitable and was always part of the script. Now they need to come up with some other excuse for more looting. I wondef what it will be.

Posted by: Semi-Literate Thug at February 16, 2019 12:35 PM (t5m5e)

245 Word is that Jussy hired Michael Cohen's defense attorney. Hmmm, why would a victim need a defense attorney?....
Posted by: Minnfidel at February 16, 2019 12:25 PM (L3YlV)

--------

Lanny Davis? Oh, great. That fuckin' guy.

I'd be covering my ass too, if I were him.

But why release those guys without charge, unless the "new evidence" the CPD is investigating DOESN'T point to a setup they were involved in? You'd think they'd file charges to maintain leverage on them until trial, even if they're cooperative.

Like they always do with co-conspirators.

My bet is the "new evidence" supports the Resistance narrative about Smollett's "attack."

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at February 16, 2019 12:35 PM (5aX2M)

246 There's a show on PBS..."Globe Trekker"...did an episode on traveling by India's trains...I think I'd rather hitch-hike.

Now those trains maximize fuel efficiency. Of course the trains are so crowded that people actually sit on the roofs of the trains but on the other hand they only breakdown constantly.
Posted by: JackStraw


Watching those trains roll into a station so overloaded is hilarious. Talk about life being cheap.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 12:36 PM (qpKia)

247 >>The GND is *so* juvenile and illiterate it talks about eliminating air travel?


And cars. And cows. And cow farts.

On the other hand the government will pay you if you decide you don't want to work so it's all good.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 12:36 PM (/tuJf)

248 Posted by: Sooner at February 16, 2019 12:29 PM (Fs5vw)

Even in eastern Missouri the towns are 15 miles apart, not 3, and that seemed close compared to Colorado. I suspect that was the convenient distance for stage/post changes, but don't know that for a fact.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 12:36 PM (uquGJ)

249 Happy George Washington's Birthday weekend! Time for my annual rant.

Unless
you live in one of the 26 states that celebrate "President's Day" ptooeey!, there is no such thing as President's Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The
Federal Holiday is called George Washington's Birthday. And all the
really cool states celebrate Washington, and a few add in Lincoln. My
personal belief is that we should get off for Washington and Lincoln's
birthdays. Of course this holiday is always on a Monday because people
like themselves some three day weekends so it is not always celebrated
on Washington's actual birthday. But that is nothing unusual, the MLK
day is always on a Monday too.

If you live in one of the states
that does not take a day to celebrate Grover Cleveland and Bill Clinton,
it is called George Washington's Birthday. Actually the nomenclature is
not always consistent. In Virginia is is George Washington Day. Utah
celebrates Washington and Lincoln Day. And most of the others go with a
variant of George Washington's Birthday.

It seems as if everyone
now believes the holiday is President's Day. Again, the federal holiday
is NOT called this, period. The car and bed salesmen have done their
job. Of course these hucksters are not alone. Most government officials state and federal call it president's day. I don't think this is done by accident, no sir, it is by design. It
is called subtraction by addition.


Posted by: Quint at February 16, 2019 12:29 PM (n13/j)

Posted by: Quint at February 16, 2019 12:37 PM (n13/j)

250 Don't know. Got to do with where choo-choo go.

Posted by: Mongo Newsom at February 16, 2019 12:37 PM (H7hR5)

251 You all better be nice or Gavin will get his aunt Nancy to smash your peckers with that gavel she carries.

Posted by: navybrat, sometime commentater at February 16, 2019 12:37 PM (w7KSn)

252
"near" Bakersfield.

On Bakersfield's "event horizon" - no events occur within that distance of said burg.

Trust us on this one.

Posted by: Golden State Tourist Board at February 16, 2019 12:38 PM (hgEPl)

253 Lanny Davis?


Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at February 16, 2019 12:35 PM (5aX2M)

Michael Avenetti

Posted by: BignJames at February 16, 2019 12:38 PM (cxHbL)

254 Is air travel actually more detrimental to the enviroment than rail travel? Has anyone actually done a real study (i.e. not a bullshit rubber stamp "tell us what we wanna know" leftie study)?

Even so called "light rail" need to get its power from somewhere, so unless you're running these bastards on some kind of Snowpiercer nuclear reactor car, I'd be cautious about making such sweeping assumptions.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 12:39 PM (Ct55T)

255 What is Donkey Chompers opposition to cow farts?

Is it CO2 or methane?
Because you don't get CO2 from farts.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 12:39 PM (qpKia)

256 I linked a story a few months ago about how NYC transit is bleeding money now that they don't enforce the law against turnstile jumpers.Even before this illegals would simply get on the bus,walk to the back without paying and get free rides.Bus drivers never did a thing.

Posted by: steevy at February 16, 2019 12:40 PM (BXMxN)

257 All this talk about how high speed trains can't get across the Rockies.There's a solution to that, and it even has a sub-plot. And I can tell how few of you had the gumption to bull through the first 795 pages to get to...
The Taggart Tunnel.

I have a copy of "No Way to Run A Railroad," and as ways to not run a railroad go it's not a patch on The Greatest Railroad Novel Every Written.
Have an O. Winston Link-grade BW photo of Ayn Rand at the controls of the Twentieth Century Limited, pulling through Union Station in Toledo.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at February 16, 2019 12:40 PM (8ZmvG)

258 Eliminating the private car is part and parcel of tyranny.

Posted by: Northernlurker at February 16, 2019 12:40 PM (PuNSu)

259 >>Watching those trains roll into a station so overloaded is hilarious. Talk about life being cheap.

Saw a video once of an Indian train coming into a station. A guy sitting on the roof of one of the cars reached up to steady himself on one of the cables helpfully strung up over the car.

It was a high voltage DC power line used to power the train. It did not end well for him.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 12:40 PM (/tuJf)

260 239 .....putting up barriers on the border (in prog speak) "is not who we are."........
Posted by: mallfly the friendy fox at February 16, 2019 12:34 PM (ZqRa6)
--------------------------------
Good Lord, I detest that phrase.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 12:41 PM (Rxduq)

261 Eliminating the private car is part and parcel of tyranny.

Posted by: Northernlurker at February 16, 2019 12:40 PM (PuNSu)

And as Anti-American as you can get.

Posted by: Quint at February 16, 2019 12:41 PM (n13/j)

262 Y'all can mock me if you like, but I believe oil/petroleum is a renewable resource.

Posted by: Emmie

I think you are right and the theory that hydrocarbons are made from vegetation and dinosaur/critter carcases is BS. I think the Earth just makes the stuff. How? I have no idea, but my theory has as much science behind it as the dino/leaves theory.

Mother Nature makes the shit. So why shouldn't we use it?

Posted by: Sharkman at February 16, 2019 12:41 PM (RIKJa)

263 "147 . Do you really want to shoot people trying
to sneak into the country? How is the drone AI or human operator going
to determine if its an MS-13 member or just a peasant looking to find
work picking grapes?

Posted by: PaleRider is simply irredeemable at February 16, 2019 12:12 PM (jUcoH)"
...
I want a wall for humanitarian reasons so that it should rarely be necessary. But push comes to shove, if they're still finding a way over and around and don't stop when challenged - yes, light them the fuck up.
This isn't a game, and the flow of illegal votes, entitlement leeches, and fraudulent seat-apportioning headcounts needs to stop. If it doesn't stop, there is going to be war or a split.
Hell, there very well may be war or a split even if it does stop now, because of the 25-40 million illegals we already have here.

Posted by: lurker (the other one) at February 16, 2019 12:41 PM (67XdO)

264 By the time I get to Moscow, he'll be rising.

Posted by: Gruesome Newsom at February 16, 2019 12:42 PM (Tyii7)

265 I wonder if the russkis have finally put welded rails on their main routes. Back in glorious days of Soviet power, one cool thing about the trains (which are also wider than anyone else's, by a bit, and which were the *only* reliably clean public spaces in the country) was the clickety-clack. Clickety-clacking through the countryside, on a moonlit night, seeing the birch forests and lakes, was nice.

Posted by: rhomboid at February 16, 2019 12:42 PM (QDnY+)

266 Even in eastern Missouri the towns are 15 miles apart, not 3, and that seemed close compared to Colorado. I suspect that was the convenient distance for stage/post changes, but don't know that for a fact.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette



Used to be that way from Conroe south to Galveston. Thanks to carpetbaggers, it's now a solid, unbroken sea of humanity.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 12:42 PM (qpKia)

267
Does Russia have any fast trains?
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at February 16, 2019 12:33 PM (aKsyK


Same could be asked of Australia.

Posted by: Sooner at February 16, 2019 12:42 PM (Fs5vw)

268 "C'mon, now, all together, Light rail! Light rail!"

we could just cut the wings off the planes, and put the wheels on ... voila, light rail. easy peazy ... quick, someone tell AOC.

Posted by: illiniwek at February 16, 2019 12:42 PM (Cus5s)

269 Michael Avenetti
Posted by: BignJames at February 16, 2019 12:38 PM (cxHbL)

------

Nope. Neither. Looks like it's Cohen's other attorney, Monico, a former IL prosecutor.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at February 16, 2019 12:42 PM (5aX2M)

270 "Eliminating the private car is part and parcel of tyranny."

Well, God Emperor Leto II had the entire galaxy, except for the favored ones, riding in ox-carts for that very reason.

Posted by: BJM at February 16, 2019 12:43 PM (hu22E)

271 "262

I think you are right and the theory that hydrocarbons are made from
vegetation and dinosaur/critter carcases is BS. I think the Earth just
makes the stuff. How? I have no idea, but my theory has as much science
behind it as the dino/leaves theory.



Mother Nature makes the shit. So why shouldn't we use it?





Posted by: Sharkman at February 16, 2019 12:41 PM (RIKJa)"
...
Hydrocarbons have been produced in the lab given conditions and materials believed to be present at certain depths. The mechanisms are known, and "empty" oil fields have been observed refilling from the bottom.
None of this is new science - it's just non-PC science.

Posted by: lurker (the other one) at February 16, 2019 12:43 PM (67XdO)

272 The GND is *so* juvenile and illiterate it talks about eliminating air travel?

Wow.
Posted by: rhomboid at February 16, 2019 12:35 PM (QDnY+)


To be fair, only the talking points said that. But then they disappeared the talking points, and said that 1) conservatives faked them, 2) oh they were hacked, and then 3) yeah I know that the CoS is the author according to the metadata of the document and yeah we posted it on our website and emailed it to NPR and other friendly "news" outlets, but really it was just a minor typo in a draft.

As proposed in the resolution, it merely says this:

overhauling transportation systems in the United States to eliminate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector as much as is technologically feasible, including through investment in-
(i) zero-emission vehicle infrastructure and manufacturing;
(ii) clean, affordable, and accessible public transportation; and
(iii) high-speed rail;


But you have to take what they say at face value. The GND is the end product of the UN IPCC report. A report which says that if the entire earth does not achieve zero CO2 emissions by 2030, we will enter an irreversible process of heating and ocean acidification.

If they aren't trying to eliminate air travel, then they don't really mean it. They hate science and are global warming deniers. It's just a power grab.

Posted by: blaster at February 16, 2019 12:43 PM (ZfRYq)

273 Update on the CA High Speed Rail. The Governor has just announced the HSR will now only travel between Merced and Atwater. It will be a great addition to this metropolis area.

Posted by: El Cid Flyboy at February 16, 2019 12:44 PM (qM84C)

274 51 It would probably be cost-effective to ship helium by air since it requires no lift.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at February 16, 2019 11:40 AM (UGqF

How do you get your blimp back to base?

Posted by: t fna tl; fna tl;dr at February 16, 2019 12:44 PM (RCnU/)

275 Same could be asked of Australia.
Posted by: Sooner

They would, but the death toll of kangaroos would be too high.
The only alternative would be to tie the kangaroos down.

All together now....

Posted by: Bruce at February 16, 2019 12:44 PM (8ikIW)

276 Wow KT! Great summary of an extraordinary travesty!

Posted by: gp at February 16, 2019 12:44 PM (mk9aG)

277 India Rail, I believe the largest employer in the world.


Worked with some India Rail guys on projects in the former USSR. Terrific guys, knew what they were doing.

Posted by: rhomboid at February 16, 2019 12:46 PM (QDnY+)

278 Found it.

*Warning. Not for the faint of heart*

Do not touch DC power lines. Ever. Nasty stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAdHSwd8nkc

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 12:46 PM (/tuJf)

279 Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 12:39 PM (Ct55T)

*Way* too much of transportation planning is 'tell us what we wanna know' rubber stamp b.s. And TPTB *really* want the answer to be trains. All trains, all the time. It's what cost John his brand-new career in transportation planning in Colorado. He realized his section manager was *never* going to do real studies as to if running a passenger train up the mountains on I-70 was really a good plan (IOW the guy was committing fraud with the blessing of CDOT). When he told the owner of the company what was going on, the owner pulled the project but John couldn't get hired *anywhere* in Colorado in civil engineering after that because the manager had been a 20 year CDOT guy and knew everyone who did hiring in all the cities.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 12:46 PM (uquGJ)

280 Well, tan me hide when I'm dead, Ted!

Posted by: BJM at February 16, 2019 12:47 PM (hu22E)

281 ....Most government officials state and federal call it president's day. I don't think this is done by accident, no sir, it is by design. It is called subtraction by addition.

Posted by: Quint at February 16, 2019 12:37 PM (n13/j)
---------------------------------------
THIS.
And I don't see any way of correcting it.

As you say, the fed holiday actually IS George Washington's Birthday and here in VA, GW Day. But people and advertisers still call it Presidents Day.

"Subtraction by addition" --- very well said.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 12:48 PM (Rxduq)

282 "How do you get your blimp back to base?"


The passengers winding up multiple big rubber-bands for the props.

Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 12:48 PM (4thlk)

283 And that's it a hangin' in the shed.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at February 16, 2019 12:48 PM (aKsyK)

284
That group photo yesterday in which Lexi Donkey-Chompers and her ginger boyfriend appeared was chock full of tweeness and smug.

Posted by: Golden State Tourist Board at February 16, 2019 12:48 PM (hgEPl)

285 "Because you don't get CO2 from farts."

the last video I saw from Heller says methane is quickly converted to CO2 in the atmosphere. Still not a problem, and CO2 is good ... and that bandwidth is apparently already used up completely, mostly by water vapor ... lots of reasons AOC is wrong, but that is probably not one. (as I understand it)

Posted by: illiniwek at February 16, 2019 12:48 PM (Cus5s)

286 Hey, Trump's a President.

Happy President's Day, Mr. Trump!

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 12:48 PM (Ct55T)

287 Got my yearly back spasm.

And can't get any more vicodin

this is BS

Posted by: REDACTED at February 16, 2019 12:49 PM (RZ6R1)

288 For Not My President's Day, I celebrate Hillary Clinton.

Posted by: blaster at February 16, 2019 12:50 PM (ZfRYq)

289 No, he didn't know I'd go. Barry didn't know I'd go.

Posted by: Gruesome Newsom at February 16, 2019 12:50 PM (Tyii7)

290 Got my yearly back spasm.



And can't get any more vicodin



this is BS

Posted by: REDACTED at February 16, 2019 12:49 PM (RZ6R1)


We'll make you comfortable while we decide what to do.

Posted by: Gov. Ralph Coonman Northam at February 16, 2019 12:51 PM (H7hR5)

291 Got my yearly back spasm.

And can't get any more vicodin

this is BS
Posted by: REDACTED at February 16, 2019 12:49 PM (RZ6R1)


I find that margaritas work well. Just have to nurse them to maintain just a buzz level.

Posted by: blaster at February 16, 2019 12:51 PM (ZfRYq)

292 >>> Happy President's Day, Mr. Trump!

Trumpet Day is November 8th.

Posted by: fluffy at February 16, 2019 12:51 PM (dCRRg)

293 Found it.

*Warning. Not for the faint of heart*

Do not touch DC power lines. Ever. Nasty stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAdHSwd8nkc
Posted by: JackStraw


See a flash, meet God.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 12:51 PM (qpKia)

294 Wasn't Washington a slave-owner?


Case closed.


F***ing dynamite those monuments, right now.


Posted by: rhomboid at February 16, 2019 12:51 PM (QDnY+)

295 I don't really get the train fetish. Can anyone explain it? Is it just Eurolove?

Posted by: Caliban at February 16, 2019 12:52 PM (QE8X6)

296 F***ing dynamite those monuments, right now.


Posted by: rhomboid at February 16, 2019 12:51 PM (QDnY+)

Gotta make room for four Trump heads, anyway.

Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 12:52 PM (Ct55T)

297 Hey, Trump's a President.



Happy President's Day, Mr. Trump!

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 12:48 PM (Ct55T)

I think that is one way they make president's day ok to the masses other than ignorance. Half can celebrate President Trump and half can celebrate Obama. And one addendum to my previous post. Not only is the George Washington's Birthday holiday not always on the actual birthday, it is never on the actual birthday Feb. 22. I am no calendar scientist.

Posted by: Quint at February 16, 2019 12:53 PM (n13/j)

298 I'll get behind the train thing when they build them to look like this.



https://tinyurl.com/y2u53pgg

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at February 16, 2019 12:53 PM (9Om/r)

299

Peaches gets the axe

https://outline.com/gje6Fz

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at February 16, 2019 12:54 PM (aKsyK)

300 F***ing dynamite those monuments, right now.


Posted by: rhomboid at February 16, 2019 12:51 PM (QDnY+)


Governor Northam is probably sending bulldozers to Mount Vernon right now.

Fun fact: Representative Tran's district contains Mount Vernon.

Posted by: blaster at February 16, 2019 12:54 PM (ZfRYq)

301 "build out high-speed rail at a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary"

Why must air travel stop? Who says it's not necessary now? They forgot to add "for the proles".

"in which Californians embrace multi-family dwellings, walkable neighborhoods, and, sacrilegious though it may sound, trading their private automobiles, or at least their second private automobiles, for increased reliance on buses, bikes, and of course, electric scooters."

Yeah, we'll be just like China with the scooters and bikes everywhere. How many rich politicians are going to live in multi-family dwellings and trade in their cars for mass transit?

Posted by: JuJuBee, just generally being shamey at February 16, 2019 12:54 PM (zmIJL)

302 "Got my yearly back spasm."


I don't envy you. I used to have them till I quit sleeping on a bed, sleep on the floor now and haven't had one in five years.

Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 12:54 PM (4thlk)

303 295 I don't really get the train fetish. Can anyone explain it? Is it just Eurolove?
Posted by: Caliban at February 16, 2019 12:52 PM (QE8X6)

My theory, beyond simple Euroweenie wannabe fappery:

- Trains are neat. (admit it, they are)
- Neat is good.
- Anything good is mandatory.
- Anyone raising objections to The Good is an enemy of the People and must be defeated at all costs.

They don't *really* give a shit about trains, or poverty, or the environment. It's merely one more repugnant lever in their arsenal of simple machines for subjugating their neighbors.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 12:55 PM (Ct55T)

304 I don't really get the train fetish. Can anyone explain it? Is it just Eurolove?

It represents the things that control freaks love.

You depend on them totally for the means of transportation: who drives it, when it goes, when it stops, the cost, the comfort, the amenities (if any), the origination, the destination, the frequency.

Everything that they hate about the automobile is solved when you are herded on to rolling stock.

Posted by: Blue Bird of F'ing Joy at February 16, 2019 12:56 PM (lD3vL)

305 I find that margaritas work well. Just have to nurse them to maintain just a buzz level.
Posted by: blaster at February 16, 2019 12:51 PM (ZfRYq)

sounds reasonable, now if I can bend down enuff to get the blender, I'm gd

Posted by: REDACTED at February 16, 2019 12:56 PM (RZ6R1)

306 the last video I saw from Heller says methane is quickly converted to CO2 in the atmosphere.
Posted by: illiniwek



If you say so. Because Bing doesn't.
Bing shows converting co2 into methane, but not the other way around.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 12:56 PM (qpKia)

307 95 I don't really get the train fetish. Can anyone explain it? Is it just Eurolove?
Posted by: Caliban at February 16, 2019 12:52 PM (QE8X6)


Yes, that's part of it. The other is to control freedom of movement.

Again. Look up Agenda 21.

Posted by: Sooner at February 16, 2019 12:56 PM (Fs5vw)

308 Cars gave us more freedom and airplanes were many times faster and more direct.
Posted by: Sooner at February 16, 2019 12:09 PM

And that's why the progs must do away with them, right there.

Posted by: JuJuBee, just generally being shamey at February 16, 2019 12:57 PM (zmIJL)

309 THIS.

And I don't see any way of correcting it.



As you say, the fed holiday actually IS George Washington's Birthday
and here in VA, GW Day. But people and advertisers still call it
Presidents Day.



"Subtraction by addition" --- very well said.



Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 12:48 PM (Rxduq)

Yeah it's lost. All the libraries and other government buildings say they are closed for President's Day. Hell, they don't even know their own damn holidays.

Posted by: Quint at February 16, 2019 12:57 PM (n13/j)

310 >>"Got my yearly back spasm."



Gah, thaat sucks. I used to take Flexoril for that, until they decided that the pain and discomfort would be 'better' for me than using Flexoril.

Nevermind that they give it out like candy to girls who get crams.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 12:57 PM (SU2G9)

311 They don't *really* give a shit about trains, or poverty, or the environment.

Of course. As observed above, the Left spent billions of dollars ripping out railways to be replaced by walkways and bike trails.

Posted by: Blue Bird of F'ing Joy at February 16, 2019 12:58 PM (lD3vL)

312 I don't really get the train fetish. Can anyone explain it?

Once you've pulled one, things are never quite the same again...

Posted by: Sandra Flook at February 16, 2019 12:58 PM (Tyii7)

313 If you say so. Because Bing doesn't.
Bing shows converting co2 into methane, but not the other way around.
Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 12:56 PM (qpKia)

IIRC, the mechanism for CH4->CO2 in the atmosphere involves other reactive species like ozone being present.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 12:58 PM (Ct55T)

314 I don't envy you. I used to have them till I quit sleeping on a bed, sleep on the floor now and haven't had one in five years.

Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 12:54 PM (4thlk)


Mrs. REDACTED concurs

Posted by: REDACTED at February 16, 2019 12:58 PM (RZ6R1)

315 I found that the back brace cuts back spasm time WAY down.

Posted by: dagny at February 16, 2019 12:58 PM (nRWPy)

316
Why must air travel stop? Who says it's not necessary now? They forgot to add "for the proles".

They long for the "good old days" when only the affluent could afford to fly.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at February 16, 2019 12:58 PM (aKsyK)

317 give it out like candy to girls who get crams.
Posted by: garrett


And what girl doesn't like multiple cram

Posted by: Bruce at February 16, 2019 12:58 PM (8ikIW)

318 My theory, beyond simple Euroweenie wannabe fappery:

- Trains are neat. (admit it, they are)


Trains haul joos, gypsies and homos.

Yeah. Saw their fantasy movie before.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 12:59 PM (qpKia)

319 The Governor has just announced the HSR will now only travel between Merced and Atwater.

For realz? Google maps says you can cover that distance in 13 min by car. By HSR, you should probably show up 90 min early to get checked in and thru security...carry the one...this is gonna work!

Posted by: t-bird at February 16, 2019 12:59 PM (asM0l)

320 Gah, thaat sucks. I used to take Flexoril for that, until they decided that the pain and discomfort would be 'better' for me than using Flexoril.

Nevermind that they give it out like candy to girls who get crams.
Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 12:57 PM (SU2G9)

yeah, i got flexoril but the 2 day fuzz aint worth it

Posted by: REDACTED at February 16, 2019 12:59 PM (RZ6R1)

321 >>Got my yearly back spasm.

What I wouldn't give for yearly back spasms. Sounds much better than daily.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 01:00 PM (/tuJf)

322 Nostalgia for passenger trains is not just nostalgia. Rail lines used to be the main street of the wider nation, and there's a long tradition of "little guy" literature, fighting the bad big company wanting to close your spur, or cut off your milk train.

Best part? Sam Rayburn, who built the congressional power structure that LBJ used to hammer the nation, hated railroads with a white-hot passion. He was from West Texas, and was convinced that his forbears had been fooled into settling there by the ripoff rail barons. West Texas suffered some climatic reversions, and turned out not be great farm country for quite a while, while railroads still expected to make money from their services. So Rayburn waged a lifelong political war on rail, hurting them however he could and grandly subsidizing any other form of transportation that would drive them out. As passenger trains went under in the 50's, he'd celebrate.
So the desire to save something of what had been, even though passenger rail NEVER made money if you read the right balance sheets (and they were damned hard to find), was not originally a leftist venture. It was the left who were wiping the trains out. Now that they're gone, they want them back. That should have a familiar feel to it.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at February 16, 2019 01:00 PM (8ZmvG)

323 Hydrocarbons have been produced in the lab given conditions and materials believed to be present at certain depths. The mechanisms are known, and "empty" oil fields have been observed refilling from the bottom.
None of this is new science - it's just non-PC science.

Posted by: lurker


Excellent info.

Thank you.

Posted by: Sharkman at February 16, 2019 01:00 PM (RIKJa)

324 - Trains are neat. (admit it, they are)
Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 12:55 PM (Ct55T)


The infuriating part is they don't even care how neat trains are. It's just something they decided everyone needs to be doing. After a while they probably forget what the hell they were even proposing, except as a means to force everyone else to bend to their will. At that point, they don't remember or care that it had anything to do with trains, or how neat they are.

And that is there's nothing sadder than forgetting how neat trains are.

Posted by: hogmartin at February 16, 2019 01:01 PM (t+qrx)

325 Nevermind that they give it out like candy to girls who get crams.
Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 12:57 PM (SU2G9)

expand on this, IYDM

Posted by: REDACTED at February 16, 2019 01:01 PM (RZ6R1)

326 >> i got flexoril but the 2 day fuzz aint worth it


I never got the fuzz with it, but it only took one pill to kill it enough for me to stretch it out.

I also have an inversion table and I can endorse, highly, my current mattress.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 01:01 PM (SU2G9)

327 I don't really get the train fetish. Can anyone explain it?

Total control of where you are, where you can go, and when you'll get there.

Posted by: t-bird at February 16, 2019 01:01 PM (f6lTY)

328 Yeah, we'll be just like China with the scooters and bikes everywhere. How many rich politicians are going to live in multi-family dwellings and trade in their cars for mass transit?

The most recent episode of Amazon's "Grand Tour" had the former cast of BBC's "Top Gear" motor around China. One comment made was that thirty years ago transportation was donkey cart and bicycle, now millions of new autos are being added to the tens of thousands of new roadway.

So the Left are not like the Chinese Communists that support automobile travel. Our Leftists hate us to the core and wish nothing but poverty and misery on us.

Posted by: Blue Bird of F'ing Joy at February 16, 2019 01:01 PM (lD3vL)

329 there was a special on building a tunnel for trains, underwater ... Alaska to Russia ... to China from there. They went in to a lot of detail on all the problems, but we do have some major tunnels already ... maybe the Chunnel is the biggest (31 miles), idk. But no doubt, the globalists have big plans for US (and our money, and our liberties, and our borders).

Posted by: illiniwek at February 16, 2019 01:02 PM (Cus5s)

330 Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at February 16, 2019 12:58 PM (aKsyK)

This! There's no way *they* are going to be in the train cars with the proles. They'll still be flying because "important, time sensitive business", but now it will be the air travel that George Will longs for where people dress to impress and are treated like the royalty they think they are.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 01:02 PM (uquGJ)

331 Now that they're gone, they want them back. That should have a familiar feel to it.
Posted by: Stringer Davis at February 16, 2019 01:00 PM (8ZmvG)

A corollary to Chesterton's Fence:

Galbraith's Fence:

- If there's a fence there, tear it down.
- If there's no fence there, steal money from the people, use half of it to pretend to build a fence, and stick the other half in your pocket. Then complain that there's not a fence there.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 01:02 PM (Ct55T)

332 The worst is when it's so bad it takes you 20 min of excruciating pain to get to the toilet and someone has put the lid down. Then 5 more min of trying to flick it open with the end of a hairbrush, then 5 more min to ease into a sit.

Posted by: dagny at February 16, 2019 01:03 PM (nRWPy)

333 I can also endorse my surgeon.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 01:03 PM (SU2G9)

334 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAdHSwd8nkc

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 12:46 PM (/tuJf)

whoa....just solved all his problems

Posted by: BignJames at February 16, 2019 01:03 PM (cxHbL)

335 What I wouldn't give for yearly back spasms. Sounds much better than daily.
Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 01:00 PM (/tuJf)

That i couldn't handle

I've been getting them since I was in my early 30's. Never know when or why. Down for 3-4 days.

Posted by: REDACTED at February 16, 2019 01:04 PM (RZ6R1)

336 >>The worst is when


You have to try and get socks on!

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 01:04 PM (SU2G9)

337 So sorry for your woes Redacted. Beer helps, muscle relaxer. Heat helps for spasms, maybe alternate with ice for acute period. I like arnica and then I add some kind of menthol or aspercreme product when I need more oomph. You can take your max ibuprofen or Alleve dose *and* the maximum tylenol dose. Don't go over the Tylenol but the real Ib maximum is 600 to 800 mgs, not the 400 on most labels.

I am working out prevention stuff the last year or so but that doesn't apply when in the middle of active spasm.

Posted by: PaleRider is simply irredeemable at February 16, 2019 01:05 PM (jUcoH)

338 Science says that methane all by itself is a greenhouse gas. Doesn't need to be converted to CO2.

Posted by: blaster at February 16, 2019 01:05 PM (ZfRYq)

339 >>The worst is also when

you need to row the boat filled with 2 Fat Guys and Gear 16 miles before the end of the day.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 01:05 PM (SU2G9)

340 Lots of people enjoy train travel with its more leisurely pace and the scenery, just as there's a reason why a heart going to someone on a transplant list does NOT go by train.

Posted by: JuJuBee, just generally being shamey at February 16, 2019 01:05 PM (zmIJL)

341 This! There's no way *they* are going to be in the train cars with the proles. They'll still be flying because "important, time sensitive business", but now it will be the air travel that George Will longs for where people dress to impress and are treated like the royalty they think they are.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette


If it's that important and time sensitive, telecommute. We HAVE the technology.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 01:05 PM (qpKia)

342 If there were any way high speed rail would be profitable, they'd already be built.

Look at wind power, will never be profitable (eg any return on investment after costs) except for the huge subsidies.
And they still get built.

And an airline isn't cheap.
Yet not one single solitary company in all of America--the richest county in the world with access to billions in financing-- will even dare to consider rail.

Posted by: RoyalOil, Vicroy Canadian Territories at February 16, 2019 01:06 PM (TN1P5)

343 No enviro-commie should be allowed to work more than a par five from where he/she/it lives.

Posted by: Burger Chef at February 16, 2019 01:06 PM (RuIsu)

344 If it's that important and time sensitive, telecommute. We HAVE the technology.
Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 01:05 PM (qpKia)

How the hell am I supposed to nail illegal Ecuadorian maids in my home office, huh?

Think, buddy, think.

Posted by: Generic Plutocrat 12S3A-7b at February 16, 2019 01:07 PM (Ct55T)

345 hogmartin- long ago Dennis Prager said as much as young boys love model trains it was amazing they weren't invented long before they were.

Posted by: Skip. Finish the Wall at February 16, 2019 01:07 PM (/rm4P)

346 Jerry Brown and Pete Wilson both proved that its almost impossible for an incumbent Governor of California to successfully make a nationwide campaign for President...with the almost non-stop, state-to-state travel schedule that requires.

The reason for this seems obvious but maybe not and that is that Governor of California is the second most powerful elected executive in America steering the 5th largest economy on earth with 24/7 real world power to wield and be responsible for.

A US Senator is more or less a museum piece, and governors of smaller states or even big states like Texas with a weak executive set-up can build/operate potus campaigns much easier.

Both Jerry Brown and Pete Wilson, two highly effective CA Governors, crashed and burned as potus candidates. Is this due to their own flaws, which maybe Gavin can surmount? I doubt it. Pete Wilson like him or dont like him was a raggedy-ass Marine. Jerry Brown, like him or dont like him, is a very edumacated and learned individual unlike the alcoholic bisexual adulterer trust fund baby Newsome.

Newsome's only hope is the VP spot, which almost went to then-GOP Gov George Deukmejian in 1988.
California is so reliably blue nowadays though that it doesn't make sense to pick a VP from here.

Posted by: Real Worldy at February 16, 2019 01:07 PM (D+5jX)

347 Once I learned to put on the brace at the first inkling of one, I haven't gotten to the "just shoot me" phase again.

Posted by: dagny at February 16, 2019 01:07 PM (nRWPy)

348 No enviro-commie should be allowed to work more than a par five from where he/she/it lives.
Posted by: Burger Chef at February 16, 2019 01:06 PM (RuIsu)


Closer than that. Chain is heavy.

Posted by: hogmartin at February 16, 2019 01:08 PM (t+qrx)

349 Time to spin California off as its own Republic. Before it sinks the whole country.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at February 16, 2019 01:08 PM (tFXr6)

350 I have regular back spasms, usually coordinating with days marking the death of my wife.

Posted by: Northernlurker at February 16, 2019 01:08 PM (PuNSu)

351 >>That i couldn't handle

>>I've been getting them since I was in my early 30's. Never know when or why. Down for 3-4 days.

It's not nearly as much fun as it sounds! But you learn to cope just like everything else.

Mine started in my teens and I had intimate relations with a number of chiropractors over the years. If you haven't had an MRI you might consider it to see if they can spot the cause.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 01:08 PM (/tuJf)

352 How the hell am I supposed to nail illegal Ecuadorian maids in my home office, huh?

Think, buddy, think.
Posted by: Generic Plutocrat 12S3A-7b


Since you are against the wall and for human trafficking, call 1-800-sex-slave and order a couple.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 01:09 PM (qpKia)

353 Agree on the stated reasons for the bizarre romanticized obsession with imitating certain foreign phenomena, but don't leave out the corrosive, general, ignorance-based self-loathing that crept into the whole prog/fascist/racist/"liberal" mindset during the 60s.


An illiterate contempt for things American, wed to an economic/scientific/practical illiteracy, fueled by the authoritarian impulse.

Posted by: rhomboid at February 16, 2019 01:09 PM (QDnY+)

354 illegal Ecuadorian maids

Newsletter?

Posted by: Bubba Clintoon at February 16, 2019 01:09 PM (Tyii7)

355 I also have an inversion table and I can endorse, highly, my current mattress.
Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 01:01 PM (SU2G9

-------

Anyone with back problems should have one, and use it a lot.

Also: CBD cream. Escape Artists or Mary's Medicinals are both good.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at February 16, 2019 01:10 PM (5aX2M)

356 Break out the snow shovels, the Garden thread is
NOOD

Posted by: Skip. Finish the Wall at February 16, 2019 01:10 PM (/rm4P)

357 Since you are against the wall and for human trafficking, call 1-800-sex-slave and order a couple.
Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 01:09 PM (qpKia)

What do I look like, a Republican?!?!

Posted by: Generic Plutocrat 12S3A-7b at February 16, 2019 01:10 PM (Ct55T)

358 This is my first episode of back spasm without vicodin.

Last couple of years had some left over 750 mg

That and a very dry martini, no prob

Used to hand them out candy, got a lot from my dentist.


Now nothing

Fucking BS

Posted by: REDACTED at February 16, 2019 01:10 PM (RZ6R1)

359 Posted by: REDACTED at February 16, 2019 01:04 PM (RZ6R1)

I started having problems in early 30s too. Found a big factor was crouching down pulling weeds in the flowerbeds a day or two before. Quit doing that, and quit sitting side ways to my computer (so my spinning wheel would fit) with my torso turned almost 90 degrees to type. Those two things made a huge difference. Are you doing anything that tightens your hamstrings or keeps your spine turned for a long time?

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 01:10 PM (uquGJ)

360 this is Heller on why he says Methane converts to water and CO2 ... I only know what he claims,

mostly, methane is a fuel .. it quickly oxidizes. Planets/moons that have lots of methane, don't have oxygen.

https://tinyurl.com/yykecr5z

Posted by: illiniwek at February 16, 2019 01:11 PM (Cus5s)

361 bribe money for congressional districts. sounds right for Progressives. Their next big move is the southern border. where the money flowing in does not want a wall. that would be the cartels. they bought you Beto.

Posted by: Tnuctipun revenge at February 16, 2019 01:11 PM (Wa5hI)

362 309---Yeah it's lost. All the libraries and other government buildings say they are closed for President's Day. Hell, they don't even know their own damn holidays.
Posted by: Quint at February 16, 2019 12:57 PM (n13/j)
-------------------------------
This type of thing disturbs me more than anything else, the destruction of American (and Western) culture.




Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 01:11 PM (Rxduq)

363 >>Anyone with back problems should have one, and use it a lot.




Usually pretty easy to find an almost new one on your local CList, too!

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 01:11 PM (SU2G9)

364 I also have an inversion table and I can endorse, highly, my current mattress.
Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 01:01 PM (SU2G9

-------

Anyone with back problems should have one, and use it a lot.

Also: CBD cream. Escape Artists or Mary's Medicinals are both good.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice


TENS Unit. Professional ones.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 01:11 PM (qpKia)

365 Also, excercise ball instead of a chair.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 01:12 PM (SU2G9)

366 I don't know if car culture exists among the young any more. It was a big thing when I was a teen, to get your driver's license. It represented freedom. Did young people get that brainwashed out of them? "We've got to save the planet by taking mass transit!" They believe climate change will destroy the planet by the time they're 35. They're the target audience for banning personal autos. It's not us old fogies the progs are trying to convince.

Posted by: JuJuBee, just generally being shamey at February 16, 2019 01:13 PM (zmIJL)

367 If it's that important and time sensitive, telecommute. We HAVE the technology.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 16, 2019 01:05 PM (qpKia)

Well, yes. And many businesses have gone that route, especially after 9-11. That doesn't get the pols the special treatment that they believe is theirs by right though.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 01:13 PM (uquGJ)

368 "I don't really get the train fetish. Can anyone explain it? Is it just Eurolove?"

Me neither! A lot of people love them some choochoos, and want everybody else to pay for them. Every time there's a referendum or survey, people say they want trains.

Give me my car or give me death. F&ck trains.

Posted by: gp at February 16, 2019 01:13 PM (mk9aG)

369 Good analysis, Real Worldly, except for the "successful" part as applied to Brown. First term, the state was doing fine because it was left alone to do fine - and the positive state stuff (infrastructure build-outs, etc) were still new, or happening. Could have put my first dog in the governor's chair in 1976 and the state would do fine..


Wilson sort of the same. Though he fought (and lost) some the big early battles to prevent the state's degradation (187, etc). Well, I shouldn't say lost, when comes to Prop 187. Politically, won handily. Early, key example of judicial usurpation of policy-making, with disastrous results.

Posted by: rhomboid at February 16, 2019 01:14 PM (QDnY+)

370 309---Yeah it's lost. All the libraries and other
government buildings say they are closed for President's Day. Hell, they
don't even know their own damn holidays.

Posted by: Quint at February 16, 2019 12:57 PM (n13/j)

-------------------------------

This type of thing disturbs me more than anything else, the destruction of American (and Western) culture.








Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 01:11 PM (Rxduq)

It is sad as hell. I wish I knew how to change it or make people even care.

Posted by: Quint at February 16, 2019 01:14 PM (n13/j)

371 >>I also have an inversion table and I can endorse, highly, my current mattress.

What is your current mattress?

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 01:16 PM (/tuJf)

372 295
I don't really get the train fetish. Can anyone explain it? Is it just Eurolove?

Posted by: Caliban



Long object going in and out of tunnels. Nuff said?

Posted by: pep at February 16, 2019 01:17 PM (T6t7i)

373
What is your current mattress?

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 01:16 PM


let me tell you about my mattress

Posted by: Emma Sulkowitz at February 16, 2019 01:18 PM (KCxzN)

374 Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 01:10 PM (uquGJ)

I got my first one playing basketball, couldn't stand up straight. I've been to Drs and they can't explain it. And I've always been in very good shape. It just happens and never know why

Posted by: REDACTED at February 16, 2019 01:18 PM (RZ6R1)

375 I got a Tuft and Needle (Boxed and Delivered Mattress) through Amazon last year (Prime Days).

California King for $525 delivered. I figured I would roll the dice at that price...damned if I haven't had one day of back pain from sleeping on the thing.

And I was worried as new / different mattresses tend to kill me.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 01:18 PM (SU2G9)

376 I don't know if car culture exists among the young
any more. It was a big thing when I was a teen, to get your driver's
license. It represented freedom. Did young people get that brainwashed
out of them? "We've got to save the planet by taking mass transit!"
They believe climate change will destroy the planet by the time they're
35. They're the target audience for banning personal autos. It's not
us old fogies the progs are trying to convince.

Posted by: JuJuBee, just generally being shamey at February 16, 2019 01:13 PM (zmIJL)


With all the fart cannon muffler tuner cars I see on the roads along with the newer muscle cars, I'm thinking the car culture is doing fine. Not quite as good as it was back in the day, but its still pretty good.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at February 16, 2019 01:19 PM (9Om/r)

377 I get why someone might like to ride a steam engine train for nostalgia. I also get the fun of riding the high speed rails in Europe for example. I don't think people have anything against trains per se but they are against the idea of turning this country into a a car free nation where everyone rides mass transit. It is un-American to take away people's cars. It is taking away their freedom and the American sense of adventure.

Posted by: Quint at February 16, 2019 01:19 PM (n13/j)

378 A lot of big companies are doing away with telecommuting. They want employees on site. Nobody is making a save the environment stink about it these days for some reason. More employees on the roads is ok again. Go figure.

Posted by: NCKate at February 16, 2019 01:19 PM (JyTrc)

379 >>And I was worried as new / different mattresses tend to kill me.

Me too. I've yet to find one that works for me. I'll check out the Tuft and Needle.

Airstream is actually starting to use them is some of their bigger trailers.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 01:20 PM (/tuJf)

380 "This type of thing disturbs me more than anything else, the destruction of American (and Western) culture. "

Ironically, at the very time every person on the planet has gained free access to all the greatest works of Western culture! You don't have to go to a library or a university to be a scholar. It's ALL online for free.

But its the poisoned product of evil white men, so ditch it. This hatred of Western culture is, more than anything, the end of us. I blame our dismal education system for most of it. It's dominated by union Democrat clock-punchers, lunatic critical theory crackpots, and downright evil enemies of America like Bill Ayers.

Posted by: gp at February 16, 2019 01:20 PM (mk9aG)

381 Why must air travel stop? Who says it's not necessary now? They forgot to add "for the proles".



They long for the "good old days" when only the affluent could afford to fly.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr


That's a large part of it. Also, if train travel is so superior to airplanes, why do they need to force people to use them? Just once, I'd like one of these nanny staters to be honest and say, "yeah, compared to what you have now, it's gonna suck, but tough noogies".

Posted by: pep at February 16, 2019 01:21 PM (T6t7i)

382 The only issue with the Tuft and Needle / Boxed and Shiped Mattresses is that they have very little edge support. So, sitting on the edge of the bed and putting on your shoes/socks is a bit awkward.

As are certain pages of the Kama Sutra...

But it is a decent exchange for a bed that doesn't inflict toturous pain 2-3 days a month.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 01:21 PM (SU2G9)

383 >>Me too. I've yet to find one that works for me. I'll check out the Tuft and Needle.


Well, they give you 100 days to reject it...

and I have read that when you do that they essentially tell you to donate it to charity.

If you need me to find out which one I bought, I would be happy to get you the Model / Description.

Also hear good things about the new Purple Mattress.


Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 01:23 PM (SU2G9)

384 >>Also hear good things about the new Purple Mattress.

I have too but I'm leery of buying a mattress I can't at list lie on before I buy. I probably will never find a good one for me, it's more of less bad.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 01:24 PM (/tuJf)

385 339 >>The worst is also when

you need to row the boat filled with 2 Fat Guys and Gear 16 miles before the end of the day.
Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 01:05 PM (SU2G9)

Or when you have to move a fox, a chicken and a bag of corn from one shore to the other and can only take two things at a time.

Posted by: Insomniac at February 16, 2019 01:25 PM (NWiLs)

386 The good thing is almost all offer a 90-100 day guarantee.

I think Purple charges $100 for returns, though.

I have the same experience and I was amazed that I ended up keeping let alone liking the Tuft and Needle.

But, $525 is not a big risk for a California King dropped off at your door!

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 01:27 PM (SU2G9)

387

Friday on MSNBC's "All In," Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) called on Americans to protest across the country to send President Donald Trump a message that his declaration of a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border is "fake."

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at February 16, 2019 01:27 PM (aKsyK)

388
I don't know if car culture exists among the young any more. It was a
big thing when I was a teen, to get your driver's license. It
represented freedom. Did young people get that brainwashed out of them?
"We've got to save the planet by taking mass transit!" They believe
climate change will destroy the planet by the time they're 35. They're
the target audience for banning personal autos. It's not us old fogies
the progs are trying to convince.

Posted by: JuJuBee, just generally being shamey at February 16, 2019 01:13 PM (zmIJL)

Lots of them don't even get their licenses at 16 anymore. Not too long ago that would have been unheard of. You would have to have been in traction or something if you did not get your license. And what is up with these "be patient, new driver" stickers on private cars? That crap would have got you laughed out of school. These young people today need to get off my lawn.

Posted by: Quint at February 16, 2019 01:28 PM (n13/j)

389 It's a little harder for Kids Nowadays to even afford a car, thanks to our enlightened Crush Them All policies, not their fault. And, it's trickier to hop up a car with "no user-serviceable parts inside" as the stickers say. But mostly?
There isn't really much reason to go driving around anymore.Used to be, only a smidgen of "your" music was on the radio. You had to be able to get to the sock hop, the club, the record store, and then you needed to hang out with your friends at a place where you were free to talk. You can talk anywhere now.

Ditto, "meeting girls" we used to call it. There aren't places that you drive to for that. And if you have a girlfriend, riding around in your car is much less likely to impress her than a couple of generations back.
No, what chicks really dig is... a nice commuter train ride! Now that's sexy.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at February 16, 2019 01:28 PM (8ZmvG)

390 Apparently Post Modern Jukebox is a fan of Pinky and the Brain, since they just did the theme in their style.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 01:29 PM (uquGJ)

391 380---Posted by: gp at February 16, 2019 01:20 PM (mk9aG)
------------------------------
Bullseye.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 01:29 PM (Rxduq)

392 Turning America blue:

Guy Cecil, chairman of Priorities USA, told the AP that most of the money ($30 million) will go towards litigation and that the group will begin its efforts by focusing on Texas and Georgia. "We will look at where is the biggest harm being done and where our work can have the most impact," Cecil said.

Marc Elias, a partner at the D.C. office of the Perkins Coie law firm who acted as Clinton's top campaign lawyer, and who is now the top lawyer for the presidential campaign of Kamala Harris, quietly joined the board of Priorities USA's nonprofit arm in early 2017 to help the group lead its voter-related efforts. Elias was brought in as the group began to shift its focus to fighting state-level voter identification laws.


http://tinyurl.com/y5sea4pb

Posted by: Braenyard at February 16, 2019 01:29 PM (ePWRo)

393 >> Apparently Post Modern Jukebox is a fan of Pinky and the Brain


Now do Slappy Squirrel!

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 01:30 PM (SU2G9)

394 I'm telling you, forget the mattress, sleep on the floor. A friend of mine told to do it and he was right. Haven't had a problem since. And mine were bad, curl up into a ball and bracing myself for waves of horrendous spasms for hours, followed by days of barely being able to walk like dagny described.

Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 01:30 PM (4thlk)

395 Posted by: Stringer Davis at February 16, 2019 01:28 PM (8ZmvG)

Yep, the combination of Cash for Clunkers and computerization that makes getting a beater running on your own nearly impossible made affordable higher mileage cars for teen drivers pretty much a thing of the past.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 01:32 PM (uquGJ)

396 Oh, crap.
Too senile to remember.
Now I have to figure out the fox-chicken-corn problem.
I need more coffee.
Maybe this requires a sandwich too.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 01:32 PM (Rxduq)

397 387: I want to know what group is going to challenge all the crap in the CR as being illegal. If congress is going to change immigration policy it should be a stand alone bill. I guess the one good thing is all the crap in there was being done by Barky, now its spelled out in black and white and people can choose congress critters based on will they oppose this BS and support a real solution where dairy farmers and whomever gets work visas if they have labor that lazy 21st century teens won't do but no more paying illegals under the table to skip the costs government imposes for hiring citizens.

Posted by: PaleRider is simply irredeemable at February 16, 2019 01:32 PM (jUcoH)

398 Elias was brought in as the group began to shift its focus to fighting state-level voter identification lawsenabling, promoting, and encouraging election fraud.

http://tinyurl.com/y5sea4pb
Posted by: Braenyard at February 16, 2019 01:29 PM (ePWRo)

Posted by: hogmartin at February 16, 2019 01:33 PM (t+qrx)

399 >>I'm telling you, forget the mattress, sleep on the floor.

Been there, done that. Does nothing for me.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 16, 2019 01:34 PM (/tuJf)

400 Once upon a time cars had bench seats. The young man would drive with his left hand while his girl nestled next to him - his arm around her shoulder.

Posted by: Braenyard at February 16, 2019 01:34 PM (ePWRo)

401 Been watching modern jukebox some, didn't watch Pinky and the Brain.

I had model HO trains as a kid, no idea if my mom sold them or gave them away or has them. I could have as easily went that avenue for a hobby but didn't.

Posted by: Skip. Finish the Wall at February 16, 2019 01:34 PM (/rm4P)

402 Too senile to remember.
Now I have to figure out the fox-chicken-corn problem.
I need more coffee.
Maybe this requires a sandwich too.
Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 01:32 PM (Rxduq)


The fox always lies, but the chicken always tells the truth. And you only get to ask the corn one question.

Posted by: hogmartin at February 16, 2019 01:34 PM (t+qrx)

403 Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 01:30 PM (4thlk)

Are we talking carpeted floor, or what? I've heard some people swear by a thin futon mattress on the floor, but *some* sort of padding seems pretty necessary.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 01:35 PM (uquGJ)

404 What does the Fox weigh?

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 01:36 PM (SU2G9)

405 402---The fox always lies, but the chicken always tells the truth. And you only get to ask the corn one question.
Posted by: hogmartin at February 16, 2019 01:34 PM (t+qrx)
----------------------------------

Nooooooooooo!

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 01:36 PM (Rxduq)

406 I slept on the cold concrete in the basement for 6 months before I had my ruptured disc removed.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 01:37 PM (SU2G9)

407 Yep, the combination of Cash for Clunkers and computerization that makes getting a beater running on your own nearly impossible made affordable higher mileage cars for teen drivers pretty much a thing of the past.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 01:32 PM (uquGJ)


A commenter brought a point up the other night that I hadn't even considered. It used to be that you could walk onto a used car lot and buy, say, a car with a $12k sticker for $10k because you had cash in hand. Now, they want nothing to do with you. Why would they take $10k of your primitive earth money when they know someone will sign an 84 month note for $12k tomorrow or the next day?

Posted by: hogmartin at February 16, 2019 01:39 PM (t+qrx)

408 >>> I slept on the cold concrete in the basement for 6 months before I had my ruptured disc removed.

You must have been starving when you finally woke up.

Posted by: fluffy at February 16, 2019 01:40 PM (dCRRg)

409 "Are we talking carpeted floor, or what? I've heard some people swear by a
thin futon mattress on the floor, but *some* sort of padding seems
pretty necessary."


I use a thin 1" foam pad on a carpet floor. I understand why people would be reluctant but I used to camp a lot and slept on the ground, heck I can sleep on anything. I just used a bed because it's what we're supposed to use or something. I suggest people try it, it sure helped me.

Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 01:40 PM (4thlk)

410 https://spectator.us/deep-blob/
Read a Power line artical with a bunch of links to read, this was one of them

Posted by: Skip. Finish the Wall at February 16, 2019 01:40 PM (/rm4P)

411
KT if you're out there, thanks so much for this rundown. I'm a Californian who has donated and campaigned for sanity in my city and state to no avail. I haven't had the stomach for local news for ten years, and this is a nifty summary of some of the issues in our state.

I've also known since he first came on the scene that Newsom was aiming for the White House. Right now I think he's trying to maintain his hairline and his boyish figure so he can be in Kennedy-like shape for 2024.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at February 16, 2019 01:41 PM (13CQC)

412 #JusticeforJussie

I think it is coming.

Posted by: blaster at February 16, 2019 01:42 PM (ZfRYq)

413 Posted by: hogmartin at February 16, 2019 01:39 PM (t+qrx)

Hadn't thought of that myself, and it's going to come up since our 14 year old Cavalier is going to need replaced before long here. I guess it's a side-effect of auto manufacturers becoming their own lending agencies?

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 01:44 PM (uquGJ)

414 153 I want to see a High Speed Train hit a moose while going flat out.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 12:13 PM (5jrhZ)


You son of a bitch!

Posted by: The Moose at February 16, 2019 01:44 PM (0P3Fs)

415 Yep, the combination of Cash for Clunkers and
computerization that makes getting a beater running on your own nearly
impossible made affordable higher mileage cars for teen drivers pretty
much a thing of the past.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 01:32 PM (uquGJ)


I see some hope at a lot of the car shows and cruise nights. The kids go nuts over the cars, especially the young ones. I think a lot of this has to do with cities verses suburbs. When I started doing the cruise nights I could not believe the amount of cars people have hidden away. In just my little neighborhood within 1/8 mile of each other there is a 1969 Roadrunner, a 1970 roadrunner, a 1927 dodge, a seriously tweaked out 1930 model A, a 55 chevy, a seriously wicked 1969 charger, another 1969 charger, and a 1973 duster. Thats just my immediate area, in jersey no less. I'm amazed at the amount of cars people have tucked away. There are cruise nights every night somewhere in the area from april to october. The kids love it, so maybe there is hope.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at February 16, 2019 01:45 PM (9Om/r)

416 Pinky and the Brain (with Marice LeMarche and Rob Paulsen!).

Brain: Are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: I think so, Brain, but...me and Pippi Longstocking? What would our kids look like?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqMs9WsJg2k

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at February 16, 2019 01:47 PM (kQs4Y)

417 Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 01:40 PM (4thlk)

I like a very firm mattress, grew up with bunkbed mattresses which made dorm beds seem cushy, but don't think I could go with floor since I'm rather sway-backed and have bony hips so pressure points are a real issue.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 01:47 PM (uquGJ)

418 >>Pinky: I think so, Brain, but...me and Pippi Longstocking? What would our kids look like?


I got a friend of mine's kids addicted to Animaniacs.

They will settle for nothing else, these days.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 01:48 PM (SU2G9)

419
Now I have to figure out the fox-chicken-corn problem.
I need more coffee.
Maybe this requires a sandwich too.
Posted by: Margarita DeVille


Out fox them. Have a chicken sandwich on corn bread.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at February 16, 2019 01:49 PM (aKsyK)

420 400 Once upon a time cars had bench seats. The young man would drive with his left hand while his girl nestled next to him - his arm around her shoulder.
Posted by: Braenyard at February 16, 2019 01:34 PM (ePWRo)

and your tires always wore a bit unevenly, because you always took those right hand turns just a bit harder than the left handers....

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 01:49 PM (Ct55T)

421 That's just good proxy-parenting, Garrett. Don't forget Invader Zim.

Did you give them a drum set too?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at February 16, 2019 01:49 PM (kQs4Y)

422 >>Did you give them a drum set too?


Kazoos and Harmonicas.

They would have to leave the drums at home on long car trips!

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 01:51 PM (SU2G9)

423 In an interview with A.J. Foyt, YouTube I think,
he said he bought his first race car at a junk yard for $40.00, his father helped him rebuild it, then he took it to the track.

Posted by: Braenyard at February 16, 2019 01:52 PM (ePWRo)

424 vs. 300 mph (best) ground-based

And lets not forget sabotage-able every inch of the way.

Posted by: DaveA at February 16, 2019 01:53 PM (FhXTo)

425 Hadn't thought of that myself, and it's going to come up since our 14 year old Cavalier is going to need replaced before long here. I guess it's a side-effect of auto manufacturers becoming their own lending agencies?
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 01:44 PM (uquGJ)


I forgot to ask what the answer is, too. Maybe take the loan and then pay it off the next day with the cash you would have paid for the car? But if they're selling cars to buyers who only look at the payments and don't even know what the out the door price of the car is, I don't know how likely they are to want to work with you in the first place.

Maybe just buy face to face. Or an off-fleet car. My parents have been buying off-fleet rental Camrys from Enterprise for about 20 years and my dad is the type to have done the research and the tables and schedules and charts far in excess of all human reason.

Posted by: hogmartin at February 16, 2019 01:54 PM (t+qrx)

426 Why would they take $10k of your primitive earth
money when they know someone will sign an 84 month note for $12k
tomorrow or the next day?

Posted by: hogmartin at February 16, 2019 01:39 PM (t+qrx)


---

That's a great and tragic point.

I bought a vehicle recently. I was able to pay cash, partly because it was relatively inexpensive and partly because one of the best things my parents taught me was buy cheap initially and keep making car payments to myself every month even after I've got the car. I've been fortunate to maintain this and hopefully will pass it to my kids, but I saw first hand when I went to look at a used car on a big dealer lot that my cash was essentially meaningless to any deal.

It's not how much something costs, but how much can the payments be. $50K full size trucks are common now. Not even King Ranch or whatever (those are probably 70), and I think I saw 90 months as one of the payment options when the salesman took me into the room to give my check to the money man.

I felt very, very old when I realized where we as a society had mentally moved on the car-buying topic.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Everything I Needed to Know About Coding I Learned From RBG at February 16, 2019 01:55 PM (xyung)

427 Note that you don't see companies shipping coal and gravel by plane. There's a reason for that.

Not at 300 miles an hour, they don't.


And they do fly fish, lobster, etc.

Posted by: DaveA at February 16, 2019 01:55 PM (FhXTo)

428 I think you are right and the theory that hydrocarbons are made from vegetation and dinosaur/critter carcases is BS. I think the Earth just makes the stuff. How? I have no idea, but my theory has as much science behind it as the dino/leaves theory.

Mother Nature makes the shit. So why shouldn't we use it?

Posted by: Sharkman at February 16, 2019 12:41 PM (RIKJa)

No petroleum geologist worth his salt believes oil comes from dead dinosaurs. There simply never were enough of them. But the biomass of single-celled plants and animals in the oceans is huge, and oil all originates in rocks of marine origin.

Pollen from land-borne plants, washed out of the air by rain, and carried to sea by rivers, may make up a part of it, too.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at February 16, 2019 01:55 PM (nPGq2)

429 Posted by: Braenyard at February 16, 2019 01:52 PM (ePWRo)

That's pretty much out of the question on so many levels now-a-days. Besides cars being so much more expensive, especially with the supply of older stock purposefully contracted, even kids that *have* dads their dads are much less likely to know how to get a car running than those of a generation ago.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 01:56 PM (uquGJ)

430 Trains are diesel electric and electric motors are far more efficent pulling heavy loads.

Infinitely variable transmission of mega-torgue. You'd need too many gears on a train.

Posted by: DaveA at February 16, 2019 01:58 PM (FhXTo)

431 I'd definitely consider a new-car loan if it came with an additional rebate or the like so long as there were no prepayment penalties.

I personally think the highest value are cars around the 40K-50K mile range, but I drive all my stuff until it passes 180-200K miles and understand (and respect) that there are a lot of people who aren't comfortable with that.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Everything I Needed to Know About Coding I Learned From RBG at February 16, 2019 01:59 PM (xyung)

432 Addendum: Take the loan and pay it off entirely on the first payment date.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Everything I Needed to Know About Coding I Learned From RBG at February 16, 2019 01:59 PM (xyung)

433 Posted by: hogmartin at February 16, 2019 01:54 PM (t+qrx)

That's good to know. Pretty sure our new gently-used minivan was a rental fleet vehicle before we got it. I wrote a check for it but, as is the case with many minivans, it was *not* inexpensive even used.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 02:00 PM (uquGJ)

434 407---....It used to be that you could walk onto a used car lot and buy, say, a car with a $12k sticker for $10k because you had cash in hand. Now, they want nothing to do with you......
Posted by: hogmartin at February 16, 2019 01:39 PM (t+qrx)
------------
Worse yet, they'll actually jack UP the price if they know you're paying cash.

The only way to buy a car for cash today is to pretend you are going to finance it.
-Record everything or have a witness.
-You get them to agree to a price.
-Then you listen to their finance plans.
-Then you say "Nah" and pull out the cash.






Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 02:00 PM (Rxduq)

435 Notice how no enterprising reporter has asked Jerry Brown for his thoughts on Newsom's decision? Not newsworthy?

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at February 16, 2019 02:00 PM (GJkKh)

436 And lets not forget sabotage-able every inch of the way.

Posted by: DaveA at February 16, 2019 01:53 PM (FhXTo)

Honestly, I'm shocked this hasn't been a huge problem already. Very pleased, but shocked.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 02:01 PM (uquGJ)

437
For those of you with back problems, have you tried an inflatable mattress? Aerobed or one of those? Make it as firm or as soft as you like and you can pick one up at a big box store, give it a test run, and return it if it doesn't work.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at February 16, 2019 02:02 PM (13CQC)

438 Oil and those little creatures in the sea that eat it.

Posted by: Braenyard at February 16, 2019 02:03 PM (ePWRo)

439 419---Out fox them. Have a chicken sandwich on corn bread.
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at February 16, 2019 01:49 PM (aKsyK)
---------------------------
Now, THAT is the best solution!

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 02:04 PM (Rxduq)

440
Notice how no enterprising reporter has asked Jerry Brown for his thoughts on Newsom's decision? Not newsworthy?

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at February 16, 2019 02:00 PM (GJkKh)

=====

I reeeeeeaaally wish they'd ask AOC or her policy magicians about it.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at February 16, 2019 02:07 PM (13CQC)

441 People still associate status with cars instead of practicality. My daily driver for the past 11 years has been a 1997 Chevy 2 wheel drive pickup. It's got close to 300,000 miles on it so I started looking for a replacement. I found a 2003 Ford F-150 with 105,000 and almost no rust I bought for 1,500.00. That's less than a half a year of car payments for a vehicle that will last me another ten years.

Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 02:08 PM (4thlk)

442 Eat cornbread, raise hell.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Everything I Needed to Know About Coding I Learned From RBG at February 16, 2019 02:08 PM (xyung)

443 435 Notice how no enterprising reporter has asked Jerry Brown for his thoughts on Newsom's decision? Not newsworthy?
Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at February 16, 2019 02:00 PM (GJkKh)
--------------------------------
If only, ...... *sigh*

Doesn't advance the Narrative.
Hence, not newsworthy.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 02:08 PM (Rxduq)

444 Science says that methane all by itself is a greenhouse gas. Doesn't need to be converted to CO2.

Posted by: blaster at February 16, 2019 01:05 PM (ZfRYq)

But it will, for sure. Because the carbon and the hydrogen in the methane are just itchin' to get jiggy with some oxygen.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at February 16, 2019 02:08 PM (nPGq2)

445 At $500.00 a month car payment that Ford and a good mechanic will save you about 20 or $25,000.00 dollars.

Posted by: Braenyard at February 16, 2019 02:11 PM (ePWRo)

446 Posted by: Moron Robbie - Everything I Needed to Know About Coding I Learned From RBG at February 16, 2019 01:59 PM (xyung)

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 02:00 PM (uquGJ)


A 50kmile rental is about the sweet spot of value and condition, I think. It's already had the break-in, infant mortality, and inevitable first 18 months recalls addressed, and you know it went back for basic maintenance checks every few weeks and scheduled maintenance as needed. If you're up north, you can also look for ones that were rented out of warmer climates and never saw salt, for the cost of a transfer fee (if that's important to you).

Posted by: hogmartin at February 16, 2019 02:12 PM (t+qrx)

447 . I also get the fun of riding the high speed rails in Europe for example. "

You misspelled Disneyland...

Seriously. It's a tourist thing

Posted by: Anon a mouse at February 16, 2019 02:12 PM (NPutB)

448 Blonde Morticia at February 16, 2019 01:41 PM

Thanks for the background. I didn't know exactly what to think of Newsom when he came on the scene.

Posted by: KTbarthedoor at February 16, 2019 02:13 PM (BVQ+1)

449 Then you listen to their finance plans.
-Then you say "Nah" and pull out the cash. "

Actually, you can get a better deal by financing then paying off in the first 45 days.

Posted by: Anon a mouse at February 16, 2019 02:14 PM (NPutB)

450 Regarding rail, light or high-speed or otherwise -

Has anyone seen the movie "Singles"? A subplot is the main character is a city/state highway engineer who has the idea for a "supertrain" (light rail commuter train) that will pull riders in with "great coffee, great music...they'll park-and-ride!"

His girlfriend/fiance, a "think globally/act locally" environmental activist - who should be all aboard with the idea - that owns a gas-guzzling Chrysler (it was her dad's car) shut him down with an "I love my car."

He gets an audience with the mayor, who shuts his dream down with "people love their cars, thank you for your time."

Things haven't changed since 1992 when that movie came out, why do all these Steve Dunnes think otherwise?

Posted by: Jeff Weimer at February 16, 2019 02:15 PM (Ee9BY)

451 Become an environmental green billionaire - figure out how to safely capture and store flare gas.

Posted by: Braenyard at February 16, 2019 02:16 PM (ePWRo)

452 Didn't Newsome provide plenty of data on his abilities/mindset when he was mayor of SF? Arrogant, dumb, shameless operative in the rent-seeking, looting, race-baiting, authoritarian mob that dominates the "progressive"/"liberal" machine?

Posted by: rhomboid at February 16, 2019 02:16 PM (QDnY+)

453 The best part about cheap used cars, if you can stomach the used part, is that the decent ones reach a point where they eventually don't lose any additional value. Find a decent old Camry or Accord for $5K, keep it up, keep records, and drive it for six or seven years, and it will probably be worth at least $2K when you're ready to sell it.

I have no idea what the average car payment is these days but I'd guess somewhere around $400. If you sell it after six years for $2K you would have driven that car for about eight months of your buddy's new car payments.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Everything I Needed to Know About Coding I Learned From RBG at February 16, 2019 02:18 PM (xyung)

454 441 People still associate status with cars instead of practicality. My daily driver for the past 11 years has been a 1997 Chevy 2 wheel drive pickup. It's got close to 300,000 miles on it so I started looking for a replacement. I found a 2003 Ford F-150 with 105,000 and almost no rust I bought for 1,500.00. That's less than a half a year of car payments for a vehicle that will last me another ten years.

Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 02:08 PM (4thlk)


I think that's changing somewhat with the move to SUVs - they are more practical than an equivalent coupe or sedan. The ultimate status car 40 years ago was a 2-door coupe that is longer, heavier, thirstier, less reliable, and could only hold 4 people inside - the "personal luxury coupe" like a Thunderbird or Monte Carlo.

Posted by: Jeff Weimer at February 16, 2019 02:21 PM (Ee9BY)

455 "At $500.00 a month car payment that Ford and a good mechanic will save you about 20 or $25,000.00 dollars."


Money I use to expand my airplane and classic truck inventory. I smirk when people look at me sadly driving my everyday beaters and then envy me when they see me driving my 1929 Ford pickup or my 1964 Ford pickup.

Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 02:21 PM (4thlk)

456 I have a 20 year old SUV type car that I bought new, for full MSRP, since it was in demand at the time.
I still have it, I am the original owner and I paid cash for it, about $26k at the time.

To this day, I love driving it. It is a garage queen, 20 years , only 100k miles or so.

I wish I had sprung for the leather seats, that is my only regret.

Posted by: navybrat, sometime commentater at February 16, 2019 02:22 PM (w7KSn)

457 If you're up north, you can also look for ones that were rented out of
warmer climates and never saw salt, for the cost of a transfer fee (if
that's important to you).

Posted by: hogmartin at February 16, 2019 02:12 PM (t+qrx)


---

That's a good point and one I've never really considered since we only get salt a couple of times a year.

And I know everyone jokes about how people drive rental cars, but I've seen how most people drive their OWN cars, and I don't think it can be much worse.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Everything I Needed to Know About Coding I Learned From RBG at February 16, 2019 02:22 PM (xyung)

458 In Japan prefer the regular trains over the shinkansen - you see much more, which is a huge part of the pleasure of train travel, esp. as a visitor.


Probably inertia and the desperation to stoke demand and economic activity, but they continued the shinkansen far beyond reasonable bounds (even by distinctive Japanese circumstances WRT rail), extended it all the way to the southern tip of the southern-most main island of Kyushu.


But air travel in Japan has become much better - cheaper, more dense, more competitive - so going to Kagoshima from Tokyo, you'd be nuts to take the train. Haven't compared costs/times, but confident it wouldn't even be close.

Posted by: rhomboid at February 16, 2019 02:23 PM (QDnY+)

459 lowandslow - "airplane inventory"?


Do tell!

Posted by: rhomboid at February 16, 2019 02:24 PM (QDnY+)

460 I often regret not picking up a gently used FJ Cruiser I came across a decade or so ago. They were $25K or so new, and I'm told used ones in good shape with good titles and 100K miles are still selling for $20-25K or so.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Everything I Needed to Know About Coding I Learned From RBG at February 16, 2019 02:26 PM (xyung)

461 449---Actually, you can get a better deal by financing then paying off in the first 45 days.

Posted by: Anon a mouse at February 16, 2019 02:14 PM (NPutB)
------------------------
Yes, if there is no pre-payment penalty.
And that would definitely be the way to go if you're getting a new car with some kind of rebate deal!

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 02:27 PM (Rxduq)

462 Notice how no enterprising reporter has asked Jerry Brown for his thoughts on Newsom's decision? Not newsworthy?

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at February 16, 2019 02:00 PM (GJkKh)

=====

I reeeeeeaaally wish they'd ask AOC or her policy magicians about it.
Posted by: Blonde Morticia at February 16, 2019 02:07 PM (13CQC)


That, too.

But Newsom, been in office what, less than two months, and pulls the plug on Jerry Brown's signature project, a project he'd been crowing about for eight years.

That's got to hurt. It'd be like Hillarhoid pulling the plug on Obamacare a month or two into her (mercifully non-existent) term.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at February 16, 2019 02:27 PM (GJkKh)

463 "I think that's changing somewhat with the move to SUVs - they are more practical than an equivalent coupe or sedan"



I think we had this discussion on AoSHQ not to long ago. Besides Ford making a Mustang no U.S. manufacturer is even making cars, all SUVs and trucks. It's just going to be the foreign companies making fewer and fewer cars.


But by status I meant expensive vehicles to impress and keep up with the neighbors.

Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 02:27 PM (4thlk)

464 A friend of mine has a really expensive Audi.
If he gets a flat tire he has to get 4 new tires.
No idea why.

Posted by: navybrat, sometime commentater at February 16, 2019 02:29 PM (w7KSn)

465 As for car payments:

A few years ago, I owned a '98.5 Audi A4 V6 Quattro outright. It was a wonderful driving car. I was driving it 650 miles per week. It needed new wheel bearings, ignition switch, and front suspension in the last year I owned it - ~$2600. It was due for a new clutch ($2k) and timing belt/water pump ($3K) in the next year. It got ~25MPG on premium gas. About $140 per week in fuel.

I traded it on a new Chevy Cruze Eco, at ~$300/mo payment. It got 40+ MPG on regular. It cost about $70 per week in fuel. I saved enough in fuel cost *alone* to almost cover the note, and evaded all future maintenance costs. I made money getting that new car. It met my needs and exceeded my expectations.

YMMV of course.

Posted by: Jeff Weimer at February 16, 2019 02:30 PM (Ee9BY)

466 I'm surprised at how many of the little fastback SUVs like the Mercedes GLC I'm seeing these days. I never would've thought that style would catch on.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Everything I Needed to Know About Coding I Learned From RBG at February 16, 2019 02:31 PM (xyung)

467 "Do tell!"


Three flying. Wittman Tailwind for traveling fast, Bowers Fly-Baby biplane to have the wind in my hair and Piper PA-11 Cub to enjoy just flying a Cub. Plus four other projects waiting for me to finish.

Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 02:31 PM (4thlk)

468 But by status I meant expensive vehicles to impress and keep up with the neighbors.

Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 02:27 PM (4thlk)

Well, yeah, but even the status-conscious are getting away with fundamental frivolity like the personal luxury coupe.

Posted by: Jeff Weimer at February 16, 2019 02:31 PM (Ee9BY)

469 Yes, if there is no pre-payment penalty."

Indeed. Check first.

Posted by: Anon a mouse at February 16, 2019 02:31 PM (NPutB)

470 But by status I meant expensive vehicles to impress and keep up with the neighbors.
Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 02:27 PM (4thlk)


Money well spent. /sarc

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at February 16, 2019 02:32 PM (GJkKh)

471 464 A friend of mine has a really expensive Audi.
If he gets a flat tire he has to get 4 new tires.
No idea why.
Posted by: navybrat, sometime commentater at February 16, 2019 02:29 PM (w7KSn)


Because he's been conned?

Next they'll try to convince that if it needs new windshield wipers he's got to get a new car.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at February 16, 2019 02:34 PM (GJkKh)

472 Re: dropping car lines

IIRC the fuel economy standards changing to some sort of "footprint" classification was a big driver in killing off car manufacturing and only selling (cough) environmentally friendly (cough) trucks and SUVs. Which is especially funny because CAFE standards were what killed off station wagons in the 70s and brought on the gas guzzling SUVs.

Unintended consequences, how do they work?

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Everything I Needed to Know About Coding I Learned From RBG at February 16, 2019 02:34 PM (xyung)

473 Next they'll try to convince that if it needs new windshield wipers he's got to get a new car."

Have you priced blades, muffler bearings, and blinker fluid lately?

Posted by: Anon a mouse at February 16, 2019 02:35 PM (NPutB)

474 A 50kmile rental is about the sweet spot of value and condition, I think. It's already had the break-in, infant mortality, and inevitable first 18 months recalls addressed, and you know it went back for basic maintenance checks every few weeks and scheduled maintenance as needed.

By coincidence, we're just about (in the next couple days) to do exactly as you suggest, and turn our 1999 Taurus over to a beer can manufacturer.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at February 16, 2019 02:36 PM (GJkKh)

475 I think it has something to do with the sensors in the tires.
Why someone needs sensors in their tires is beyond me...
He's got way stupid "F U" money, tho'.
He is one of these guys that couldn't stop making $ if he tried. Patents, partnerships, rental properties etc.
I really hate him

Posted by: navybrat, sometime commentater at February 16, 2019 02:36 PM (w7KSn)

476 Posted by: Moron Robbie - Everything I Needed to Know About Coding I Learned From RBG at February 16, 2019 02:34 PM (xyung)

The "footprint" regs killed off station wagons because they were less fuel efficient than the sedans they were based on. "SUVs" are station wagons in truck drag (less onerous FE regulation) and they are currently killing it.

Posted by: Jeff Weimer at February 16, 2019 02:37 PM (Ee9BY)

477 A friend of mine has a really expensive Audi.
If he gets a flat tire he has to get 4 new tires.
No idea why.
Posted by: navybrat, sometime commentater at February 16, 2019 02:29 PM (w7KSn)


Probably the Quattro, right? You're not supposed to run a tire with different tread depth than the others on most or all AWD vehicles, it wrecks something in the drivetrain. For whatever reason, manual transmission Subarus don't have this problem, just the automatics.

Posted by: hogmartin at February 16, 2019 02:37 PM (t+qrx)

478 As a F-1 fan for over 20 years know their tires are a set, and a 1/4 psi pressure is a big difference. But seriously doubt a road car makes a difference in tire sets.

Posted by: Skip. Finish the Wall at February 16, 2019 02:37 PM (/rm4P)

479 Have you priced blades, muffler bearings, and blinker fluid lately?
Posted by: Anon a mouse at February 16, 2019 02:35 PM (NPutB)


Blinker fluid is an outrage, more expensive than Scotch. And don't get me started on muffler bearings.

But in all seriousness, why are wiper blades so ^%$# expensive?

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at February 16, 2019 02:38 PM (GJkKh)

480 From Vista Cruiser to Suburban; Bam.

Posted by: Braenyard at February 16, 2019 02:38 PM (ePWRo)

481 I think it has something to do with the sensors in the tires. "

Nah. Sensors last long enough. I'm guessing someone in the service department is telling him that having different diameter ties (worn vs new) will damage his awd system.

Posted by: Anon a mouse at February 16, 2019 02:39 PM (NPutB)

482 I think I read where some fancy AWD systems have such tight computing requirements that anything more than something like 1/8th inch variance in any of the tires will throw off (read as: screw up) the amount of torque sent to the wheels, so I could certainly imagine a case where a set of tires with 20K would be incompatible with one new replacement.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Everything I Needed to Know About Coding I Learned From RBG at February 16, 2019 02:39 PM (xyung)

483 Probably the Quattro, right? You're not supposed to run a tire with different tread depth than the others on most or all AWD vehicles, it wrecks something in the drivetrain. For whatever reason, manual transmission Subarus don't have this problem, just the automatics.

Posted by: hogmartin at February 16, 2019 02:37 PM (t+qrx)


They have 3 differentials in them (front, rear, and center) and that could cause gear wear problems. Audi center diffs are a special "torsen" version and they have tight tolerances.

Posted by: Jeff Weimer at February 16, 2019 02:41 PM (Ee9BY)

484 You'd need too many gears on a train.
Posted by: DaveA at February 16, 2019 01:58 PM


Not to mention the union would start demanding those expensive Hurst shifters on even the yard goats!

Posted by: Duncanthrax at February 16, 2019 02:41 PM (DMUuz)

485 Re blinker fluid, check this compilation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmJKnXD6KIg

The first one is great. "Did you show him the coupon?"

LOL

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at February 16, 2019 02:42 PM (GJkKh)

486 Here's a forum thread on stackexchange re: running tires with different tread depths on an AWD. Short answer, if it has to apply a different speed to one tire - but not the others - at long highway speeds, it can potentially overwork the differential over time.

http://tinyurl.com/y2naohg5

If his isn't an AWD then I have no idea why all four would have to be replaced.

Posted by: hogmartin at February 16, 2019 02:44 PM (t+qrx)

487 For whatever reason"

It's the awd clutch pack. The idea is that a difference in rotation will engage awd. It will, but it takes a pretty good size difference in diameter to make a damaging speed differential

Posted by: Anon a mouse at February 16, 2019 02:44 PM (NPutB)

488 If you buy a really solid car, the high mileage may mean little. I am on my fifth BMW. The only one I bought (leased) new was the first one, which wasn't a good car. Since then, we've bought used ones, the last one with nearly 100K miles. At that mileage, these cars are only well-broken-in. Really. All have been a delight to drive and we've owned them all for years for basically the cost of maintenance.

Re: the expensive Audi. We used to joke that the "minimum BMW spending unit" was $1000. That was 15 or so years ago when we had mechanics work on them. Since we started doing our own work? Not so much.

And ours were trustworthy mechanics.

Posted by: Art Rondolet of Malmsey at February 16, 2019 02:44 PM (S+f+m)

489 Wifey has a Honda civic and I will be damned if I can put new wiper blades on it.
I took it to the dealer to have it done (thinking I was ready to turn in my man card) and THEY couldn't even get it done in any kind of timely manner. After 90 minutes I looked in on them and 3 guys were arguing about how to do it, 2 guys had hands on the wipers and still couldn't get them installed...

Posted by: navybrat, sometime commentater at February 16, 2019 02:45 PM (w7KSn)

490 "But in all seriousness, why are wiper blades so ^%$# expensive?"


And they forgot how to make them also, I think I have to change them more often than I change my oil.

Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 02:46 PM (4thlk)

491 They have 3 differentials in them (front, rear, and center) and that could cause gear wear problems. Audi center diffs are a special "torsen" version and they have tight tolerances.
Posted by: Jeff Weimer at February 16, 2019 02:41 PM (Ee9BY)


Do you have any idea why that would only be the case for an automatic? Because if my Jewbaru were the auto instead of the 5-speed, it would have the same requirements, but the stick-shift is explicitly mentioned in the manual as not being affected. I've always been a little curious why that is. 2009 Impreza 2.5i, if that matters.

Posted by: hogmartin at February 16, 2019 02:47 PM (t+qrx)

492 I met an attorney for the railroad a few years ago on vacation. He said the ONLY reason CA wanted the high speed rail payment at that time was to get the federal $3 billion. And it wasn't necessarily to be used on the tracks. It was a shell game.

Posted by: PJ at February 16, 2019 02:48 PM (qlTN9)

493 Posted by: PJ at February 16, 2019 02:48 PM (qlTN9)

So it was purposeful fraud? If that can be proved at all it will make clawing back the money much easier.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 16, 2019 02:51 PM (uquGJ)

494 490---And they forgot how to make them also, I think I have to change them more often than I change my oil.
Posted by: lowandslow at February 16, 2019 02:46 PM (4thlk)
-------------------------------
I simply do not understand this.
I can remember going a couple of years on a set.
Seems as if they go bad every 6 mos now.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 02:52 PM (Rxduq)

495 Do you have any idea why that would only be the case for an automatic? "

Sure. Manual tranny uses a viscous coupling (fluid as the connecting material). A slight difference in rotational speed simply isn't enough to lock it up. Older Ferguson based systems required a significant speed difference to engage awd...

Posted by: Anon a mouse at February 16, 2019 02:53 PM (NPutB)

496 And they forgot how to make them also"

Newer ones are more flexible, so they do a better job at first, but don't last as long... it's a tradeoff...

Posted by: Anon a mouse at February 16, 2019 02:56 PM (NPutB)

497 Pets is nood.

Posted by: PaleRider is simply irredeemable at February 16, 2019 02:57 PM (jUcoH)

498 Clean your blades with amonia. Old becomes newish, again.

Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 02:58 PM (SU2G9)

499
I didn't know exactly what to think of Newsom when he came on the scene.

Posted by: KTbarthedoor at February 16, 2019 02:13 PM (BVQ+1

=====

I think virtually any California who aims for any prominence can be assumed to have an eye on the White House. When he lost the gubernatorial election in 2010, there was a sense he was finished, and his palpable bitterness and envy of Obama convinced me more than ever that he was mad he had fallen off the ladder.

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/opinion/20dowd.html

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at February 16, 2019 03:00 PM (13CQC)

500 Sure. Manual tranny uses a viscous coupling (fluid as the connecting material). A slight difference in rotational speed simply isn't enough to lock it up.
Posted by: Anon a mouse at February 16, 2019 02:53 PM (NPutB)


Viscous coupling in the differential, or at the clutch? Because I looked at the box of scrap left over when the throwout bearing stopped throwing out, and it looked like a real enough surface-to-surface clutch plate. But I know less about AWD powertrains than I do about powertrains in general, which is saying a lot, so I could have been mistaken.

Posted by: hogmartin at February 16, 2019 03:00 PM (t+qrx)

501 498 Clean your blades with amonia. Old becomes newish, again.
Posted by: garrett at February 16, 2019 02:58 PM (SU2G9)
----------------------------
Ahhhhh. Hmmm.
I will try that.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at February 16, 2019 03:00 PM (Rxduq)

502
any *Californian*

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at February 16, 2019 03:00 PM (13CQC)

503
actually, make that *any California politician*

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at February 16, 2019 03:01 PM (13CQC)

504 I've had really good luck with the cheapo $7 wipers from Costco. Goodyear, I think. But since I stopped going there I experimented a bit because ours weren't lasting, either. I ended up going with some Michelins that had some "80 billion wipes!" or some such thing at the top. They're fine, but they're no $7 Costco Goodyears.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Everything I Needed to Know About Coding I Learned From RBG at February 16, 2019 03:04 PM (xyung)

505 https://youtu.be/OqMs9WsJg2k
Pinky and the Brain post modern jukebox, it found me

Posted by: Skip. Finish the Wall at February 16, 2019 03:10 PM (/rm4P)

506 Viscous coupling in the differential"

Si. Auto trans Subies use a variety of other systems...

Posted by: Anon a mouse at February 16, 2019 03:18 PM (NPutB)

507 Careless Whisper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVXziMFEqX0

Posted by: Braenyard at February 16, 2019 03:19 PM (ePWRo)

508 464 A friend of mine has a really expensive Audi.
If he gets a flat tire he has to get 4 new tires.
No idea why.
Posted by: navybrat, sometime commentater at February 16, 2019 02:29 PM (w7KSn)

Treadwear would be my guess.

Or, he's just a goofball.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 16, 2019 03:20 PM (Ct55T)

509 Generally when you get cracks that follow the weld bead line it's because of inadequate preheat of the material. Also they could have used dye penetrant testing of those weldments before they were installed. I think that the cracks were detectable before the beams were put up.

Somewhere in the engineering chain some process was skipped. Why is another problem. Think the FSU bridge collapse or Oroville Dam spillway...a lot of problems can be avoided if you plan ahead for what could go wrong.

Posted by: torabora at February 16, 2019 03:25 PM (toSWz)

510 #508 Hopefully he doesn't use cocaine. Just sayin'

Posted by: torabora at February 16, 2019 03:29 PM (toSWz)

511 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has nominated President Donald J. Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Posted by: Braenyard at February 16, 2019 03:34 PM (ePWRo)

512 Braenyard, that's amusing. I assume the nomination was for his Nork stuff?


Abe-san and Teh Donald are pretty tight. First foreign leader he hosted, and first he hosted in FL.


Abe is not that popular in Japan, in light of what a good national leader he actually has been. Japan's lucky he was around when the US put a ridiculous affirmative action intern in the WH for 8 years.

Posted by: rhomboid at February 16, 2019 03:41 PM (QDnY+)

513 And it's official - I now feel very small in the presence of lowandslow. Three planes! More on the way. Yikes.


Next he'll tell us he lives on one of those properties on the Chesapeake I've seen where a few houses share a grass strip behind/between them, with approaches over the bay. Beautiful.

Posted by: rhomboid at February 16, 2019 03:42 PM (QDnY+)

514 Where have I been? From the BBC:

India has imposed a swathe of economic measures on Pakistan after the attack, including revoking Most Favoured Nation trading status and raising customs duty to 200%.

- India will 'completely isolate' Pakistan

Posted by: Braenyard at February 16, 2019 03:55 PM (ePWRo)

515 Article didn't say why.

"I'll probably never get it, but that's OK, Trump said. "They gave it to Obama. He didn't even know what he got it for."

Posted by: Braenyard at February 16, 2019 04:01 PM (ePWRo)

516 Yep, things are heating up again between South Asia's two least friendly neighbors.


In random other news, Breaking911 twatters has an amazing video shot by a truck driver of part of the pile-up on I-70 this week. As it occurred - must have been very bad visibility - the vehicles just keep coming in, trying to brake, and crashing (though not at injury speeds, to my eye) as he shoots the scene out the side of his cab.


Continuing: Breaking911 also reports Aurora IL police say gunman bought gun legally in 2014 ..... well, "legally" because of yet ANOTHER failure in the background check system, that missed a 1995 felony conviction.


By my very rough/off the cuff count, that makes all of the most recent "mass shooting incidents" (well, the most covered ones) cases of legally purchased firearms, with a FAILURE of the background check system, OR a massive sustained guvamint effort that in effect allowed prohibited persons from buying legally (Parkland FL nutcase kid). Texas church shooter (USAF debacle). And 2 others I can't remember right now. I just recall that after all these incidents, it emerged the shooter used a "legal" firearm they had no right to get under the '68 act.

Posted by: rhomboid at February 16, 2019 04:03 PM (QDnY+)

517 But:

Congressmen Nominate Trump for 2019 Nobel Peace Prize

A group of 18 House lawmakers signed a letter formally nominating President Donald Trump for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to bring peace to the Korean Peninsula on May 1, 2018.

http://tinyurl.com/y42twqme

Posted by: Braenyard at February 16, 2019 04:06 PM (ePWRo)

518 Needless to say I don't give a rat's posterior about the Nobel, but I guess it's nice.


Clock is running and some key stuff is slipping, if not in reverse (domestically).


If Trump's going to be a speed bump, not a change in direction (current odds thereof: 3/1), I want him to at least be a yuuuge and luxurious speed bump, giving sane people a few more miles with the US before considering other options.

Posted by: rhomboid at February 16, 2019 04:10 PM (QDnY+)

519 https://nyti.ms/2TSAg9J
*******
Patrick Caddell, Self-Taught Pollster Who Helped Carter to White House, Dies at 68 - The New York Times

Posted by: Ralph(COONMAN0Northam at February 16, 2019 04:35 PM (BqBId)

520 "I'll probably never get it, but that's OK, Trump said. "They gave it to Obama. He didn't even know what he got it for."



Posted by: Braenyard at February 16, 2019 04:01 PM (ePWRo)


---

Ha. No, everyone knew what he got it for.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Everything I Needed to Know About Coding I Learned From RBG at February 16, 2019 04:41 PM (xyung)

521 RIP, Pat.

Posted by: Braenyard at February 16, 2019 04:56 PM (ePWRo)

522 Pat actually seemed reasonable in his politics, often harshly criticized Democrats for actions.
RIP

Posted by: Skip at February 16, 2019 04:58 PM (/rm4P)

523 Raymond Arroyo @RaymondArroyo
11h
BREAKING: As expected, disgraced former Cardinal McCarrick is defrocked by @Pontifex. But the question Arch. Vigano raised remains: who knew of McCarrick's misdeeds, promoted him, and why?

Posted by: Ralph(COONMAN0Northam at February 16, 2019 05:02 PM (BqBId)

524 DHS should put AOC on the terrorist watch list.
Just to keep her honest.

Posted by: Neo at February 16, 2019 05:03 PM (e8kgV)

525 McConnell Ryan teamed up to be Trump's huckleberries.

Posted by: torabora at February 16, 2019 05:55 PM (toSWz)

526 If not for the weirdos that inhabit the SF Bay area Newsom would already be a footnote.

So we get stuck with 100 miles of fossil fuels train that will run on time many times a day with no passengers and water diversion that delivers water at high prices and wrecks an estuary.

He's an idiot.

Posted by: torabora at February 16, 2019 06:06 PM (toSWz)

527 California for decades made political hay out of tearing out rails " Rails to Trails". Big ribbon cutting ceremonies. Created.jobs for law enforcement riding herd on criminals lurking on the trails.

Posted by: torabora at February 16, 2019 06:10 PM (toSWz)

528 Trump asked that Newsom give the money back.

Coumo went to DC begging for money to get NY state out of hock.

Newsom ought to give the excess taxpayer money to Coumo.

The US Constitution says nothing about the federal government bailing out states just because they run out of money.

Posted by: AzDesertRat at February 17, 2019 01:43 PM (/2TXu)

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