You can think about the future riding on Amtrak in California

Above, you can see our view for about 15 or 20 minutes as we were stopped on our way to an appointment in Fresno. We were late even though we left early, because of the "Bullet Train" dream which Jerry Brown had years ago, carried forward by Gavin Newsom. In front of us, you can see solar-powered (just kidding) construction equipment working on an overpass. To the right is an impressive hedge of roses, glorious in spring, planted along the highway by a farmer at the border of an orchard. This hedge will likely disappear in the future, along with much of the remaining agricultural land in California. Farmers already face a lot of hostility in the state, especially concerning access to water. We can rely on China for our food, right?

Although the "bullet train" (not planned to run at bullet speeds anymore) will largely parallel Amtrak routes, it will be much more destructive tor the surrounding countryside.

Dreams from the Past for Bullet Trains

The Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco was scheduled to open in 2017 to accommodate the "bullet trains", but even though they built the station the trains did not come.

The three-block-long behemoth was envisioned as the Grand Central Station of the West, a dynamic hub for buses and high-speed rail that would draw more than 100,000 visitors a day.
Come opening day, however, there will be no high-speed rail. Instead, for many years, the five-level showcase just south of Mission Street between Second and Beale streets will be little more than the world's most expensive bus station -- serving mainly the 14,000 transbay bus commuters who roll in and out daily on AC Transit.
That reality is starting to sink in and has city officials scrambling -- because without the big crowds that trains were supposed to bring in, there are serious questions about where all the money needed to keep the place secure, clean and well lit will come from.

Actually, they sort of had to build the station TWICE, because of dangerous flaws they discovered in the initial construction.

Back then, the project was a legacy dream for Jerry Brown.

The Orange County Register also ran an editorial about the entire High Speed Rail project. It includes some interesting information about the State's "cap-and-trade" auctions and the plans to use them to fund the project.

From the very beginning, the California High-Speed Rail Authority's business plans have been based more on hope and fantasy than on sound finance or economics. Proponents seem to have adopted the "in for a penny, in for a pound" strategy: Just grab as much money as you can, as quickly as you can, and start building. Once the track has been laid, there is less likelihood the public will mount strong enough opposition to stop the project, which might be seen as wasteful and cost even more money to tear up the track.

Cap-and-Trade. A solid plan for financing this project, now shrunken to a route from Bakersfield to Merced at a MUCH higher cost!

Bringing us up to date on California HSR

In addition to the information from the Jerry Brown era in the link above, Fox Business has recently published a piece that includes a timeline for the HSR project, as the Trump Administration pulls federal funding. A few of the points from this timeline:

1981: California works with Japanese partners to explore the feasibility of a high-speed rail corridor in Southern California.
2008: California voters approve Proposition 1A, allocating $9 billion to the California High-Speed Rail Authority for the rail's planning and construction.
2015: California holds an official groundbreaking ceremony in Fresno to mark the beginning of construction of the first 29-mile segment of the rail.

February 2024: The project's first construction package, which covers 22.5 miles in the Central Valley, reaches "substantial completion."
January 2025: Newsom joins local leaders to commemorate the start of the California High-Speed Rail Authority's Railhead Project, which they say is the first step to laying track.

So, nine years after groundbreaking in Fresno, they have substantially completed 22.3 miles of . . . something. TEN years after groundbreaking, they hold a ceremony which involves laying commemorative rails - NOT rails upon which trains can run.

July 2025: Duffy announces the termination of $4 billion in unspent federal funding by the Federal Railroad Administration for the project.

Sobering. Check out the details in the Fox Business piece.

Yesterday, a milestone in California's HSR project was celebrated in Newsweek! Not too far from where the photo above was taken.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority has completed another key infrastructure element in the Central Valley, opening the Avenue 88 Grade Separation in Tulare County.
The new overpass spans 485 feet and clears both State Route 43 and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway line, as well as the corridor for future high-speed trains.

Why It Matters
California's high-speed rail is in an awkward position. Years of delays and an inflated budget have damaged public and political faith in the project, but the past few years have seen progress—with construction happening throughout the state and tracklaying set to start later this year. To call off the project now, as many of its detractors in the White House desire, would waste years of advancement.

The Orange County Register called it years ago (see above). Make it too expensive to end the project.

"tracklaying set to start later this year". After laying "ceremonial" track in January, in Shafter.

Back to Newsweek:

What's Next
The Authority continues to push ahead with construction across four counties—Madera, Fresno, Kings and Tulare—with 29 additional structures underway. Officials say up to 1,700 workers are active on job sites each day as the agency targets completing core segments through California's interior before shifting focus to the larger metropolitan connections on both ends of the system.

Just 1700 workers active each day over four counties. And this was supposed to be a big economic boon to the region! We have noticed that there is a lot of giant diesel construction equipment which stands idle much of the time in many locations connected to this HSR project. Parts of detour routes for cars have sunk into the ground or into water, and there have already been other mishaps due to poor planning even in this "easy" part of the HSR project.

There are several interesting photos and a short video at the Newsweek link, and an opportunity for you to register your opinion on how fair the piece they published is.

* * * * *

Weekend

Gavin Newsom is ahead in polling among California Democrats. Will he need to change his social media strategy of mocking Trump?

How can he appeal to moderates?

Scoop: Third Way is circulating a memo, shared first with @playbookdc, featuring a new black list of words Dems shouldn’t use. pic.twitter.com/VhvVHZTW9C
— Adam Wren (@adamwren) August 22, 2025

Resistance:

I am triggered by this microaggression.
This is an othering of words that creates an existential threat to our democracy.
The way to overcome systems of oppression is not to subvert verbal norms but to have radical transparency in all you say such that stakeholders can speak truth to the existential threats of the patriarchy and the environmental violence that surrounds us, and thereby show true allyship via dialoguing with the communities of LGBTQ+BIPOC people, persons who immigrated, the unhoused, birthing persons and incarcerated people, and all other victims of the privileged.
This is the only way we can shift the Overton Window.

* * * * *

Music

Don't worry

* * * * *

Hope you have something nice planned for this weekend.

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Serving your mid-day open thread needs

* * * * *

Last week's thread, August 16, Thinking in new ways, or maybe letting a machine do your thinking

Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.

UPDATE: Do you have a different take?

If you ever worked in tech, you know that guy:
Brilliant engineer, can code anything, can do complex calculations in his head, believes any issue can be fully managed in an exclusively quantitative manner.
But . . .

Can't dress himself, has the emotional intelligence of a 12 year-old, constantly alienates co-workers, has a Dunning-Kruger approach to issues he's not trained on and generally makes the wrong choice on everything not involving silicon.
You know that guy?
In 2025, artificial intelligence IS THAT GUY.
And I'm not sure if it's even possible for it ever to not be that guy.

Posted by: K.T. at 11:04 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Jerry Brown, governor Moonbeam.

Posted by: no one of any consequence at August 23, 2025 11:10 AM (ZmEVT)

2 The only rail line that might - might - make sense is Southern Cal to Las Vegas. Doesn't have to be high speed, just avoiding the traffic would make it faster at normal rail speed.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 23, 2025 11:12 AM (0eaVi)

3 'You can think about the future riding on Amtrak in California'

I just hope it's California's future and not mine.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at August 23, 2025 11:12 AM (3wi/L)

4 SpaceX getting ready to roll out Ship 37 for possible launch tomorrow evening.

Posted by: pawn at August 23, 2025 11:16 AM (pL2PR)

5 This went off the rails early.

Posted by: Joe Mama at August 23, 2025 11:17 AM (2sMLA)

6 Every few years the subject of a Atlanta-Macon-Savannah high speed rail line comes up like it has recently. It would make more sense to turn the high occupancy lanes into regular lanes to reduce traffic jams, but nobody ever listens to me. Anyway, between Macon and Savannah there is not much of anything but a big ol empty freeway that never has traffic jams, so the longest part of the route makes even less sense.

Posted by: fd at August 23, 2025 11:18 AM (vFG9F)

7 This too, is the story of Communist Russia and their grand plans to build.... anything.
==========
After sitting in a drydock for the better part of a decade, a drydock that sank, BTW, with the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov (their only one) has been mothballed.

Because the engineers are workmen who originally built it are now dead and nobody knows how to fix the thing so it will operate as designed.

California's HSR boondoggle reminds me of the Kuznetsov.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at August 23, 2025 11:20 AM (Q4IgG)

8 Greetings from Fla!

Posted by: Caf at August 23, 2025 11:20 AM (wocXg)

9 Pull the (Federal) plug. If Cali wants to spend it's tax $$ on it, not my problemo

Posted by: Zeera , Damn Right I voted for all of this! at August 23, 2025 11:21 AM (9Wc6O)

10 To call off the project now, as many of its detractors in the White House desire, would waste years of advancement.
This is called the Sunk Cost Fallacy. It is a major human nature issue. And it's the cause of a great many bad decisions in life.

Posted by: GWB at August 23, 2025 11:23 AM (1PcCZ)

11 Pull the (Federal) plug. If Cali wants to spend it's tax $$ on it, not my problemo
Posted by: Zeera , Damn Right I voted for all of this! at August 23, 2025 11:21 AM (9Wc6O)

Since it wasn't an interstate rail line it never should have received federal money anyway. But that never stopped a Big Gov't sort before.

Posted by: GWB at August 23, 2025 11:24 AM (1PcCZ)

12 It's a write-off Jerry.

They just write it off.

Posted by: no one of any consequence at August 23, 2025 11:24 AM (ZmEVT)

13 9 Pull the (Federal) plug. If Cali wants to spend it's tax $$ on it, not my problemo.

I think the federal plug has been pulled. There's been some screaming, but work seems to continue. Newsom has also hinted that maybe California should stop paying federal taxes over the sanctuary state issues, since California pays in more than it gets back from the feds.

Posted by: KT at August 23, 2025 11:25 AM (7vIsy)

14 Good morning KT

The scam has gone on long enough to fund lawyers, unions, bogus nature groups, for a very long time.

Posted by: Skip at August 23, 2025 11:26 AM (+qU29)

15 Blank comments so far. Is that Robin Williams? The top hatted guy looks familiar as well.

Does anyone else remember George Ryan, a (R) governor of Illinois who was sentenced to prison for providing licenses to illegals for cash?

Posted by: mustbequantum at August 23, 2025 11:26 AM (blVh+)

16 Instead of HSR, it's looking more like it will be the world's most expensive bike path, HSBP.

Posted by: From about That Time at August 23, 2025 11:27 AM (Mf0wV)

17 And here I thought Lousy-ana took forever to get a project completed.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 23, 2025 11:28 AM (omVj0)

18 I wonder if they'd sell us that bridge? Some asshat had his pump truck tank partially up and ran into the bridge crossing the river between Enumclaw and Buckley in Washington State. Closed indefinitely. This is a major route to the cascades and up to Mt Rainier skiing areas. About 25,000 cars cross it daily. The alternative now adds about 45 minutes.
No word on the driver.

Posted by: Diogenes at August 23, 2025 11:29 AM (2WIwB)

19 Rails were great, in an economy that has been dead for a hundred years. Back when rails were still being built labor was cheap, red tape trivial, steel and iron costly, and land... maybe cheap too (it certainly was when the steam tech first came out).

Now, labor is expensive, land expensive, red tape expensive, and steel cheap. Spending billions on the first three just to get cheap iron and nastalgia for the past is not prudent.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at August 23, 2025 11:29 AM (/lPRQ)

20 Comprehensive, though wide ranging post here, complete with humor, news, and music. Auditioning for ONT Host?

Posted by: Pilot Program at August 23, 2025 11:30 AM (G5+As)

21 > Does anyone else remember George Ryan, a (R) governor of Illinois who was sentenced to prison for providing licenses to illegals for cash?
---------------
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (our DMV) was caught selling Real ID licenses to illegals for $200 - $500. An estimated 1200 - 1500 illegals in KY received a Real ID this way. Several clerks in multiple county license offices were implicated.

I'd bet this is common elsewhere.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at August 23, 2025 11:30 AM (Q4IgG)

22 This is called the Sunk Cost Fallacy. It is a major human nature issue. And it's the cause of a great many bad decisions in life.
Posted by: GWB

aka sending good money after bad.

Posted by: From about That Time at August 23, 2025 11:30 AM (Mf0wV)

23 I'm sure that's Robin Williams in the video, but I don't know the fellow in the top hat.

Cool to see Bobby with a pipe, though. How old is that song? '87, '88?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 23, 2025 11:31 AM (omVj0)

24 "To call off the project now, as many of its detractors in the White House desire, would waste years of advancement." In other words, embrace the Sunk-Cost Fallacy.

Japan's bullet trains are a technological marvel.
But geography and history both came together to allow it to happen: Geography because nearly all of Japan's population lives on the narrow Pacific coastal plain, which makes serving them by train feasible. History, because we bombed Japan's infrastructure into oblivion in 1945, and so they had an opportunity to rebuild, and do it better.

Rail transportation in the US makes sense in a few narrowly defined markets, such as the Ancela trains on the east coast, or the Hiawatha train between Chicago and Milwaukee (both of which are in the black, BTW). And both of these use existing right-of-ways that they share with freight trains. The sooner we put a bullet through the California bullet-train project (I speak metaphorically, of course!) the better.

Posted by: Nemo at August 23, 2025 11:32 AM (4RPgu)

25 Some asshat had his pump truck tank partially up and ran into the bridge crossing the river between Enumclaw and Buckley in Washington State. Closed indefinitely. This is a major route to the cascades and up to Mt Rainier skiing areas. About 25,000 cars cross it daily. The alternative now adds about 45 minutes.
No word on the driver.
Posted by: Diogenes at August 23, 2025

***
Some huge truck overturned in May on an off-ramp from I-10 West to Airline Hwy., US 61. The ramp is *still* closed. No doubt there are a lot of people coming from the West Bank who need to leave the expressway there every day. And as far as I know, you can't get on the expressway headed toward the river at that point either.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 23, 2025 11:35 AM (omVj0)

26 Remember, we have the worlds worst infrastructure because we have no high speed choo choos.

Posted by: Cow Demon at August 23, 2025 11:35 AM (vm8sq)

27 Jerry Brown and Newsom can dream all they want, this epic boondoggle/outrage is 100% the doing of CA voters, who started it all via ballot proposition, and steadfastly support it through their election of reps who do nothing to stop it.

But part of coping and civic paganism is pretending to believe it's evil shadowy forces creating and enabling the decline, and not the people all around us.

Posted by: rhomboid at August 23, 2025 11:36 AM (U/Byj)

28 " To call off the [HSR] project now, as many of its detractors in the White House desire, would waste years of advancement."

Ah, the old "sunk cost" thing. By all means, keep dumping resources into a project that is clearly a loser.

Or, you could just give it to a casino in Vegas.

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at August 23, 2025 11:36 AM (w6EFb)

29 Look, passenger rail makes sense in some situations. But it requires a handful of assumptions.

1) The end points are walkable. Even if there's decent mass transit there, things have to be within walking distance. A city with a vibrant and compact downtown area makes some sense. Or someplace with a compact tourist zone (like DC).

2) Massive parking has to be available at the entry points to the system.

3) It has to be oriented on places people want to go. Not just where the politicians wish people would go, or the out-of-touch lobbyists think people want to go. It has to be somewhere that an honest case can be made for "We could make it easier on people to come here if we offered a way to do it while sitting and relaxing." And those places are fewer and further between than most of those folks want to admit.

Most of those things don't exist in America. Even the few places where #1 exists (and maybe #3), it's so much easier to drive.

And, while there are people who would love to take the train to wherever, airplanes are much quicker and provide an easier hub from which most people can then disperse to local attractions.

Posted by: GWB at August 23, 2025 11:36 AM (1PcCZ)

30 I know the guy in the top hat. Brilliant comedic actor. Was in Popeye with Robin Williams. Need to engurgle his name. BRB.

Posted by: Mikey Alpha Kilo at August 23, 2025 11:36 AM (0aYVJ)

31 In the end, the problem with AI is that it is created by people.

I already hope for the Butlerian Jihad.

Posted by: Darth Chipmunk at August 23, 2025 11:37 AM (m0WlR)

32 "Does anyone else remember George Ryan, a (R) governor of Illinois who was sentenced to prison for providing licenses to illegals for cash?"

I do. It happened when he was Illinois secretary of state. The scandal was uncovered when a truck driven by one of the illegals he'd licensed struck a van, triggering a fire that incinerated the children in the van. How many other deaths were caused by Ryan's licencees, we'll never know.

Posted by: Nemo at August 23, 2025 11:37 AM (4RPgu)

33 The hilarious part of California HSR is instead of terminating in Oakland (like the transcontinental railroad), they want to run it through a couple of the wealthiest suburbs in the United States to terminate in San Francisco. (Including the suburb JB Pritzker grew up in.)

They haven't even started to address how they are going to overcome opposition to the line, with the opposition funded by local billionaires.

Posted by: The ARC of History! at August 23, 2025 11:37 AM (xTIDn)

34 The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (our DMV) was caught selling Real ID licenses to illegals for $200 - $500. An estimated 1200 - 1500 illegals in KY received a Real ID this way. Several clerks in multiple county license offices were implicated.

I'd bet this is common elsewhere.
Posted by: Martini Farmer at August 23, 2025 11:30 AM (Q4IgG)

Shit. Meanwhile, I had to go visit the German Embassy in DC for help in getting my mother’s birth certificate from Germany to help her get a Real ID.

Posted by: Cow Demon at August 23, 2025 11:38 AM (vm8sq)

35 I'm back.

Bill Irwin.

Posted by: Mikey Alpha Kilo at August 23, 2025 11:38 AM (0aYVJ)

36 I already hope for the Butlerian Jihad.
Posted by: Darth Chipmunk at August 23, 2025 11:37 AM (m0WlR)

I told my classes this daily when I caught them with their cell phones out.

Posted by: Cow Demon at August 23, 2025 11:39 AM (vm8sq)

37 I think the important thing we need to remember is almost everybody initially involved with this got a good retirement package.

Posted by: Reforger at August 23, 2025 11:40 AM (pxUkb)

38 Spending the billions on road maintenance in CA would probably have yielded more tangible results. When I lived there some roads/highways were in pretty good shape while others seemed to be neglected all the time.

Probably true for a lot of areas. I know it's true here in Kentucky.

And still, most people travel by personal vehicles instead of trains, ships or planes within CONUS.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at August 23, 2025 11:40 AM (Q4IgG)

39 the "bullet train" (not planned to run at bullet speeds anymore) will largely parallel Amtrak routes

"Bullet train" speeds are no longer necessary, because studies show that the hobos and vagrants who will use a train that runs between Bakersfield to Modesto are in no particular hurry to get anywhere.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 23, 2025 11:40 AM (guGkK)

40 I thought that only the Osaka-Tokyo segment of the shinkansen, possibly the Tokyo-Kyoto also, were profitable.

The southern extension of the system to its terminus in Kagoshima was just completed not long ago, was there shortly after, brand new gleaming station. And I think it goes north all the way to Sapporo. But I think some consider that to have been an over-extension of the concept.

In any case as noted by Nemo above, other factors make fast rail travel in Japan a viable option in many cases.

Posted by: rhomboid at August 23, 2025 11:40 AM (U/Byj)

41 The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (our DMV) was caught selling Real ID licenses to illegals for $200 - $500. An estimated 1200 - 1500 illegals in KY received a Real ID this way. Several clerks in multiple county license offices were implicated.

Many Democrats were probably doing it for free.

But as predicted, now we need a REAL REAL ID because illegals got REAL ID, and REAL ID was because illegals got driver's licenses.

Marxists don't understand second-order effects, never mind third-order.

Posted by: Ian S. at August 23, 2025 11:41 AM (jbPJz)

42 Trump should start calling Newsom "Governor Bullet Train."

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 23, 2025 11:41 AM (guGkK)

43 Look, passenger rail makes sense in some situations. But it requires a handful of assumptions.

You forgot one:

0) You need a high-trust society (like Japan) or a massive police presence on the trains, otherwise they become like the Minneapolis light rail line, which is known locally as the "rape train".

Posted by: Ian S. at August 23, 2025 11:43 AM (jbPJz)

44 Snail Darter status is paramount to me!

Posted by: The Hungry Cormorant at August 23, 2025 11:43 AM (G5+As)

45 Some huge truck overturned in May on an off-ramp from I-10 West to Airline Hwy., US 61. The ramp is *still* closed. No doubt there are a lot of people coming from the West Bank who need to leave the expressway there every day. And as far as I know, you can't get on the expressway headed toward the river at that point either.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 23, 2025 11:35 AM (omVj0)

The week of Memorial Day a truck mounted crane took out the FM 928 bridge over Interstate 27. Well, enough of it, at least. TXDoT came in and took out the rest of that section so there is now a gaping hole where the bridge was. Still there even now.

Posted by: Cow Demon at August 23, 2025 11:43 AM (vm8sq)

46 Seen a picture of a beautiful bridge in the middle of nowhere, not connected to nothing.
Wonder what could be made of it?

Posted by: Skip at August 23, 2025 11:45 AM (+qU29)

47 What does it mean when you publish a list of taboo words, and those words are mostly the words you have invented to promoted and foisted on everyone for the last decade?

Well, it means you are whaleshit.

Posted by: Ray Van Dune at August 23, 2025 11:48 AM (PQOq3)

48 I'm in Cali and I called it in 2009, there will never be a train that travels on this boondoggle. If they do lay track and associated hardware, the recycling thieves will have torn it apart before even the shortened section is completed.

California's. High. Speed. Train. Will. Never. Run.

Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable a Clear and Present Danger at August 23, 2025 11:48 AM (17s+e)

49 You know what's missing from the Cali rail project? Section hand Taggart and a bunch of Chinks.

Posted by: bill in arkansas, not gonna comply with nuttin, waiting for the 0300 knock on the door at August 23, 2025 11:50 AM (gm9Sb)

50 What does it mean when you publish a list of taboo words, and those words are mostly the words you have invented to promoted and foisted on everyone for the last decade?

Well, it means you are whaleshit.

Posted by: Ray Van Dune at August 23, 2025 11:48 AM (PQOq3) ===

Don't demean whale shit. Whales shit on those people.

Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable a Clear and Present Danger at August 23, 2025 11:51 AM (17s+e)

51 32
'I do. It happened when he was Illinois secretary of state. The scandal was uncovered when a truck driven by one of the illegals he'd licensed struck a van, triggering a fire that incinerated the children in the van. '

Ryan went to jail and Newsome is still free. That sounds like a lawfare opportunity to me.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at August 23, 2025 11:52 AM (3wi/L)

52 It's like the Big Dig. Only bigger.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at August 23, 2025 11:52 AM (63Dwl)

53 I did think if Trump would have lost by now many, including some of us might be building that railroad in a gulag

Posted by: Skip at August 23, 2025 11:52 AM (+qU29)

54
You know what's missing from the Cali rail project?

Kung Fu

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at August 23, 2025 11:53 AM (63Dwl)

55 You know what's missing from the Cali rail project? Section hand Taggart and a bunch of Chinks.

When they announce that the line has been diverted to Rock Ridge, you'll know exactly what's going on.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 23, 2025 11:54 AM (guGkK)

56 53 I did think if Trump would have lost by now many, including some of us might be building that railroad in a gulag
Posted by: Skip

We're all hoping you get put on the day shift.

Posted by: Ties That Bind at August 23, 2025 11:54 AM (G5+As)

57 I did think if Trump would have lost by now many, including some of us might be building that railroad in a gulag
Posted by: Skip at August 23, 2025 11:52 AM (+qU29)

But the weather would be fantastic.

Posted by: Reforger at August 23, 2025 11:56 AM (pxUkb)

58 If HSR service ever does start in California, it will be destroyed a week later by an earthquake. Totally a coincidence, though. Don't ask me how I know this.

Posted by: The Almighty at August 23, 2025 11:56 AM (m0WlR)

59 Target of high-speed chase in LA last night was able to .... stop for gas - and got away. Last week or so a multi-vehicle car-jacking CF saw the perp(s) get away with a car switch under an overpass that everyone watching on TV news helicopter feeds was screaming about as it took place. But the fuzz didn't appear to even consider the dark car roaring back onto the freeway from the underpass - while the target pick-up just rolled, obviously empty, a few hundred feet - was now the new target.

Perfection is not a reasonable standard, but LAPD/CHP/Sheriffs are being made to look pretty sad lately.

Posted by: rhomboid at August 23, 2025 11:58 AM (U/Byj)

60 Ryan went to jail and Newsome is still free. That sounds like a lawfare opportunity to me.
=====

DLs for illegals for voting ID. Pritzker could use a check as well.

Posted by: mustbequantum at August 23, 2025 11:58 AM (blVh+)

61 "Pardon me boy, is this the Gavin Newsome Choo Choo?"
"Track 29, can I give you a shine?"

This harmless song is interrupted by the State of California due to the word shine being deemed racist.

Posted by: bill in arkansas, not gonna comply with nuttin, waiting for the 0300 knock on the door at August 23, 2025 12:00 PM (gm9Sb)

62 But the hours in a Gulag are like 16 hour work days, Sun up to sun down if they can.

Posted by: Skip at August 23, 2025 12:00 PM (+qU29)

63 Perfection is not a reasonable standard, but LAPD/CHP/Sheriffs are being made to look pretty sad lately.
Posted by: rhomboid at August 23, 2025 11:58 AM (U/Byj)

The problem appears to be that none of those agencies is run by a fat black lesbian.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 23, 2025 12:01 PM (guGkK)

64 I am glad for California's Democrat regime, and maybe even can become OK with Madmani in NYC.

Together they demonstrate how terrible monolithic machine Democrat policies are, how damaging and destructive they are to people and the world around us.

Unfortunately, lots of people (mainly white college educated and affluent women) just out and out refuse to learn the damn lesson.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at August 23, 2025 12:03 PM (PVITw)

65 and so it begins

No. 22 Iowa St and No. 17 Kansas State take their Big 12 rivalry to Dublin for opener Saturday, noon EST.

Posted by: toby928 at August 23, 2025 12:03 PM (jc0TO)

66 0) You need a high-trust society (like Japan) or a massive police presence on the trains, otherwise they become like the Minneapolis light rail line, which is known locally as the "rape train".

Have you heard about the train cars in Japan set aside for the exclusive use of women to prevent groping ot worse?

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at August 23, 2025 12:07 PM (ZVgZ4)

67 Dublin, 69 degrees, 85% humidity

Posted by: toby928 at August 23, 2025 12:08 PM (jc0TO)

68 I wish train travel was more efficient. It seems romantic.

Posted by: Piper at August 23, 2025 12:09 PM (OoFl2)

69 So, how was the movie in the end?

Posted by: weft cut-loop at August 23, 2025 12:12 PM (mlg/3)

70 68 I wish train travel was more efficient. It seems romantic.
Posted by: Piper

Nearly every train novel or movie involves murder at some point.

Posted by: Blood On The Tracks at August 23, 2025 12:13 PM (G5+As)

71 When I was a Little Kid, Mom and I would take the train from Warren, OH to Cleveland for some downtown shopping like at Halles or the May Company. IIRC it was only a couple bucks (I rode free) and it would drop you off at the Terminal Tower. Shop, lunch, a little more shopping, back to the station and home by 1800. I seem to remember it was Nickel Plate RR.

Posted by: bill in arkansas, not gonna comply with nuttin, waiting for the 0300 knock on the door at August 23, 2025 12:14 PM (gm9Sb)

72 I wish train travel was more efficient. It seems romantic.
Posted by: Piper at August 23, 2025 12:09 PM (OoFl2)

I try to cross the country at least twice a year, and I hate air travel.

So yes, if trains were efficient, I would travel that way. I could see the sights, without having to deal with meth raging truck drivers.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 23, 2025 12:16 PM (QVzW0)

73 Problem with train travel is a automobile, no waiting for departure time, arrival time and how to get to and from the train.
Leftists H8 that

Posted by: Skip at August 23, 2025 12:16 PM (+qU29)

74 I'm sure that's Robin Williams in the video, but I don't know the fellow in the top hat.

I think it's Kid Rock.

Posted by: Oddbob at August 23, 2025 12:17 PM (3nLb4)

75 CA could have built 5 new airports for the amount of cash blown on this multidecade con job.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at August 23, 2025 12:17 PM (mlg/3)

76 The Queen used to take the Royal Coach to Scotland at Christmastime to visit Balmoral and have the barnacles scraped off her hull.

Posted by: Hoot Mon! at August 23, 2025 12:17 PM (G5+As)

77 The game starts with an exchange of fumbles. Either jetlag or jitters are playing a roll.

Posted by: toby928 at August 23, 2025 12:18 PM (jc0TO)

78 Now a train vacation trip has at least some appeal.

Posted by: Skip at August 23, 2025 12:18 PM (+qU29)

79 I wish train travel was more efficient. It seems romantic.

When it comes to travel, those are pretty much mutually exclusive goals.

Posted by: Oddbob at August 23, 2025 12:18 PM (3nLb4)

80 You know what would be cool? Flying trains. People could go somewhere, an "Air Port", if you will, get on the train, and fly to some other location at astonishing speeds.

Posted by: toby928 at August 23, 2025 12:20 PM (jc0TO)

81 Of course now that they're giving Real ID's to illegals the rest of us legals, aka citizens, will have to jump through hoops a few years down the road to get REAL Real ID's.

And then the cycle will start again. FFS.

Posted by: Chairborne!...Desk From Above! at August 23, 2025 12:21 PM (W6d+C)

82 Trains are lovely.

But there’s nothing like driving on backroads, taking your time, stopping where you feel like it and not knowing exactly where you are all the time.

It’s liberating.

Posted by: nurse ratched at August 23, 2025 12:21 PM (mT+6a)

83 Good morning, no coffee yet.
I've thought about riding AmTrak, I've tried to book a ride on AmTrak.
AmTrak doesn't publish a schedule you have to guess what departure and arrival time they have. If you guess wrong, well, try again.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 23, 2025 12:21 PM (NUKfU)

84 I wish train travel was more efficient. It seems romantic.
Posted by: Piper

Nearly every train novel or movie involves murder at some point.
Posted by: Blood On The Tracks at August 23, 2025 12:13 PM (G5+As)

Everyone on the train dies eventually.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 23, 2025 12:22 PM (SJrOE)

85 Thx K.T. great post. If Cali wants hi-speed rail they especially the tech lords, can pay for it themselves. Upstate NY infrastructure is a mess so why should I care or pay for a Cali pie in the sky project

Posted by: Smell the Glove at August 23, 2025 12:23 PM (ncxww)

86 Trains are lovely.

But there’s nothing like driving on backroads, taking your time, stopping where you feel like it and not knowing exactly where you are all the time.

It’s liberating.
Posted by: nurse ratched at August 23, 2025 12:21 PM (mT+6a)

I agree. Unless we have to get somewhere quickly, we avoid interstates like the plague. Friggin' trucks everywhere. Idaho has been a treat, following two lane roads, often gravel, seeing amazing mountains, valleys, lakes, rivers, cool little towns. I love it here.

And we are doing it again today. A little smoky, but sunny and warm.

Posted by: Mikey Alpha Kilo at August 23, 2025 12:25 PM (0aYVJ)

87 But Leftism is always how to spend other people's money, and pocketing some of that yourself.

Posted by: Skip at August 23, 2025 12:26 PM (+qU29)

88 A major plot point in True Detective 2 is that CA's elites are all using the high speed rail line to get rich.

And...they undersold how bad the corruption is because in the real world they never actually built it...they stole ALL the money, not most of it as fiction thought...

Posted by: 18-1 at August 23, 2025 12:26 PM (sKqQm)

89 The last time I rode a train it was a troop train coming home from Grafenwoehr back in the '80's. Had us and a shitload of Bradley's and Abrams on board.

There wasn't much danger of us getting train-jacked, I guess.

Posted by: Chairborne!...Desk From Above! at August 23, 2025 12:26 PM (W6d+C)

90 How many remember Ted Kennedy's Big Dig? If a project involves even a single Democrat expect massive cost overruns and delays.

Posted by: AZ Hi Desert (Gringo fuertemente armado-Tempus belli) at August 23, 2025 12:26 PM (qQ3KT)

91 NY actually did something intelligent with a train. When the new Yankee Stadium was built Metro North put a station across the street. Taken the train from Poughkeepsie to the Stadium a number of times. No station was there for the old stadium despite the tracks being right across the street

Posted by: Smell the Glove at August 23, 2025 12:27 PM (ncxww)

92 When stationed in Germany, I rode the trains a lot. Worked very well in the densely populated Europe. But America is a much different creature. Especially out west. Two towns over might mean four hours rather than twenty minutes.

Posted by: Mikey Alpha Kilo at August 23, 2025 12:29 PM (0aYVJ)

93 Taken the train from Poughkeepsie to the Stadium a number of times. No station was there for the old stadium despite the tracks being right across the street

Posted by: Smell the Glove at August 23, 2025 12:27 PM (ncxww)

Did you pick your feet in Poughkeepsie?

Just wondering.

Posted by: Chairborne!...Desk From Above! at August 23, 2025 12:29 PM (W6d+C)

94 You wanna know why Japan Railways is one of the two only profitable rail companies in the world?

Because the Japanese government built the system and then sold off the whole thing to a private company for a fraction of the cost.

Also, the whole country is about the same size as California.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at August 23, 2025 12:29 PM (mlg/3)

95 And we are doing it again today. A little smoky, but sunny and warm.
Posted by: Mikey Alpha Kilo

I love that you and your bride enjoy Idaho. Please
plan on road tripping to Yakima in May for our little PNW meetup. It’s not nearly as grandiose as TX or NoVa, but it’s ours and we love it. It will be our 8th I think.

Posted by: nurse ratched at August 23, 2025 12:30 PM (mT+6a)

96 Now a train vacation trip has at least some appeal.
Posted by: Skip at August 23, 2025 12:18 PM (+qU29)

I once planned to take a trip on the Orient Express from Paris to Istanbul. Somehow I never got around to booking it.

It went out of business. I guess I wasn't the only one.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 23, 2025 12:30 PM (guGkK)

97 You wanna know why Japan Railways is one of the two only profitable rail companies in the world?

Because the Japanese government built the system and then sold off the whole thing to a private company for a fraction of the cost.

Also, the whole country is about the same size as California.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at August 23, 2025 12:29 PM (mlg/3)

And the trains run on rice wine for heaven's SAKE.

Posted by: Chairborne!...Desk From Above! at August 23, 2025 12:31 PM (W6d+C)

98 Train systems work ok when you can really use them as a pure spoke and wheel system.

Everyone lives in crowded housing areas and everyone works in a crowded industrial/commercial area. This tends to explode the cost of housing and reduce its quality while also pushing corporations towards large conglomerates.

The better answer, considering how big our country is, is to space things out so road networks are sufficient. Really there is no need for cities any more anyway.

Posted by: 18-1 at August 23, 2025 12:32 PM (sKqQm)

99 Part of the fun of the 64-65 World's Fair was the subway special that takes you there. The opening of Shea Stadium in 64 coincided with the World's Fair and brand new station and new subway cars. The fact that it took more than a century for Metro-North to service the Yankees is criminal! But then, most Yankee fans are criminals.

Posted by: Meet The Mets! at August 23, 2025 12:33 PM (G5+As)

100 Can I just say 0T that is is increasingly obvious which businesses have AI when you call and which do not , and I realize a real person cannot answer the phone all the time , but Good grief, it's annoying when "Machine answering Betty" does not understand what your issue is. Bah!

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 23, 2025 12:33 PM (2GCMq)

101 I love that you and your bride enjoy Idaho. Please
plan on road tripping to Yakima in May for our little PNW meetup. It’s not nearly as grandiose as TX or NoVa, but it’s ours and we love it. It will be our 8th I think.
Posted by: nurse ratched at August 23, 2025 12:30 PM (mT+6a)

Oh yes. We missed the one this year only because we were still unpacking and getting steeled. Next year for sure. My company actually has an office in Wenatchee, and I am working on a project in Leavenworth. Me and the fam have been to Leavenworth, it's a cool town.

Posted by: Mikey Alpha Kilo at August 23, 2025 12:33 PM (0aYVJ)

102 I wish train travel was more efficient. It seems romantic.
Posted by: Piper

It's nice if you have days to waste and a vehicle waiting for you once you get to your destination.
We had a guy on our paintball team who would travel to big games all over the US via Amtrak. He loved it. But he was semi-retired and he didn't have time constraints.

Posted by: rickb223 at August 23, 2025 12:35 PM (zXOsD)

103 Really need to get the tractor out and run it around the yard, but can't find motivation

Posted by: Skip at August 23, 2025 12:36 PM (+qU29)

104 The week of Memorial Day a truck mounted crane took out the FM 928 bridge over Interstate 27. Well, enough of it, at least. TXDoT came in and took out the rest of that section so there is now a gaping hole where the bridge was. Still there even now.
Posted by: Cow Demon at August 23, 2025 11:43 AM (vm8sq)

I'm wondering what the average number of bridge accurate in the US per year and if that has changed?

Posted by: Diogenes at August 23, 2025 12:36 PM (2WIwB)

105 I laugh at the romance part... if the rider numbers were as forecast, the TSA would be just the beginning of the worsening...

Posted by: man at August 23, 2025 12:39 PM (tubbA)

106 But what are they doing about all the poop in the streets in every city in California? The new trains and stations will have the poop problem too.

Posted by: Lemmiwinks at August 23, 2025 12:40 PM (LAhxf)

107 Bring back the Wagon Train. That was romantic.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at August 23, 2025 12:40 PM (63Dwl)

108 OT: Having an abortion more than doubles the chances of mental illness serious enough to require hospitalization. Another piece in the puzzle of how the left got where it is.

https://tinyurl.com/2hkd9xbu

Posted by: Ian S. at August 23, 2025 12:41 PM (QZThv)

109 @93 chairborne, no I go through there quickly. It's gotten nasty enough that I'm not sure Popeye Doyle could handle it

Posted by: Smell the Glove at August 23, 2025 12:41 PM (ncxww)

110 Posted by: Smell the Glove at August 23, 2025 12:41 PM (ncxww)

Heh.

Posted by: Chairborne!...Desk From Above! at August 23, 2025 12:42 PM (W6d+C)

111 Bring back the Wagon Train. That was romantic."

Ah, dysentery...

Posted by: man at August 23, 2025 12:43 PM (tubbA)

112 The hilarious part of California HSR is instead of terminating in Oakland (like the transcontinental railroad), they want to run it through a couple of the wealthiest suburbs in the United States to terminate in San Francisco. (Including the suburb JB Pritzker grew up in.)

They haven't even started to address how they are going to overcome opposition to the line, with the opposition funded by local billionaires.

Posted by: The ARC of History!
===

Be more cost effective to run a free city bus express from the hood to the nice shopping centers that the upper class frequent.

Number one cause of retail mall death.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at August 23, 2025 12:44 PM (/lPRQ)

113 It's nice if you have days to waste and a vehicle waiting for you once you get to your destination.
We had a guy on our paintball team who would travel to big games all over the US via Amtrak. He loved it. But he was semi-retired and he didn't have time constraints.

There are YT videos of cross-country Amtrak trips. Fabulous scenery a lot of the time and no dealing with illegal truckers, but the chances of arriving on time seem basically zero because they share tracks with freight and freight has priority.

Posted by: Ian S. at August 23, 2025 12:44 PM (QZThv)

114 Trains are lovely.

But there’s nothing like driving on backroads, taking your time, stopping where you feel like it and not knowing exactly where you are all the time.

It’s liberating.
Posted by: nurse ratched at August 23, 2025 12:21 PM (mT+6a)

***

Until you pull into a small town gas station and some dude is sitting on a crate playing a banjo and drooling a bit.

Posted by: Diogenes at August 23, 2025 12:46 PM (2WIwB)

115 Do you have a different take?
==
The hunger for AI is just digital idolatry.

Posted by: Methos at August 23, 2025 12:47 PM (zLwRl)

116 Bring back the Wagon Train. That was romantic.
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr.

And most cost effective in that economy too.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at August 23, 2025 12:48 PM (/lPRQ)

117 Until you pull into a small town gas station and some dude is sitting on a crate playing a banjo and drooling a bit.
Posted by: Diogenes at August 23, 2025 12:46 PM (2WIwB)

Best way to combat that is pull out a few of your teeth, and get out of the vehicle playing your OWN banjo.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 23, 2025 12:48 PM (aIUZW)

118 The hunger for AI is just digital idolatry.

Everyone wants a computer that speaks English so that Signourney Weaver can repeat what it says, like in Galaxy Quest.

Posted by: Ian S. at August 23, 2025 12:49 PM (QZThv)

119 OT: Having an abortion more than doubles the chances of mental illness serious enough to require hospitalization. Another piece in the puzzle of how the left got where it is.

https://tinyurl.com/2hkd9xbu
Posted by: Ian S. at August 23, 2025 12:41 PM (QZThv)

Begs the question, which comes first, the chicken or the insane egg carrier?

Posted by: BurtTC at August 23, 2025 12:49 PM (aIUZW)

120 Please take a moment in silent prayer for rickb223 as he laid his wife to rest this morning.

May The Lord give he and his comfort and peace today, the hardest of days.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at August 23, 2025 12:49 PM (Zz0t1)

121 My Ex had never been on a train. Back in the early 80s I called up for a compartment from Youngstown to DC to visit her Mom and bring back a car she wanted to sell (no rust, big bucks in Ohio). The trip/ordeal with two kids was about 36 hours, big bucks, and an uncertainty regarding schedule. Drove down in six hours, she drove the kids back and I followed in her Mom's car.

Posted by: bill in arkansas, not gonna comply with nuttin, waiting for the 0300 knock on the door at August 23, 2025 12:51 PM (gm9Sb)

122 Begs the question, which comes first, the chicken or the insane egg carrier?

The study adjusted for pre-existing mental illness.

Posted by: Ian S. at August 23, 2025 12:56 PM (QZThv)

123 Please take a moment in silent prayer for rickb223 as he laid his wife to rest this morning.

May The Lord give he and his comfort and peace today, the hardest of days.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at August 23, 2025 12:49 PM (Zz0t1)

I'm so sorry.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 23, 2025 12:57 PM (aIUZW)

124 Sponge that is sad, will do

Posted by: Skip at August 23, 2025 12:57 PM (+qU29)

125 Can I just say 0T that is is increasingly obvious which businesses have AI when you call and which do not , and I realize a real person cannot answer the phone all the time , but Good grief, it's annoying when "Machine answering Betty" does not understand what your issue is. Bah!

That intent of AI, and IVR in general, is to get people to hang up so you don't have to answer their actual question

Posted by: 18-1 at August 23, 2025 12:58 PM (sKqQm)

126 OT: Having an abortion more than doubles the chances of mental illness serious enough to require hospitalization. Another piece in the puzzle of how the left got where it is.

https://tinyurl.com/2hkd9xbu
Posted by: Ian S. at August 23, 2025 12:41 PM (QZThv)

Begs the question, which comes first, the chicken or the insane egg carrier?
Posted by: BurtTC
===

Some powerful hormones either way that do not want to be disrupted.

Old tropes about cray-cray women who lost infants, miscarriage, crib death, whatever and do weird things like push baby carriages. Might mess them up more knowing they chose that.

Then you got the abortion docs - they might literally get off on killing babies in the womb. Same with 'sex-change' doctors. Are they sick sadistic psychopaths or sincerely but mistakenly trying to 'help'?

Distinction without a difference. Maybe even worse if they really believe they are helping.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at August 23, 2025 12:58 PM (/lPRQ)

127 But what are they doing about all the poop in the streets in every city in California?

Guy at corner store this week REEKED of fermented urine. The stink lingered after he left.

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at August 23, 2025 12:58 PM (bjaqF)

128 Please take a moment in silent prayer for rickb223 as he laid his wife to rest this morning.

May The Lord give he and his comfort and peace today, the hardest of days.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at August 23, 2025 12:49 PM (Zz0t1)

Already prayed for rick and his wife, will do so again.

Posted by: Ian S. at August 23, 2025 12:58 PM (QZThv)

129 120 Please take a moment in silent prayer for rickb223 as he laid his wife to rest this morning.

Prayers

Posted by: It's me donna at August 23, 2025 12:59 PM (VE6XX)

130 72
'So yes, if trains were efficient, I would travel that way. I could see the sights, without having to deal with meth raging truck drivers.'

There is no meth in my method of driving, sir!

Posted by: Rajinder Singh at August 23, 2025 12:59 PM (3wi/L)

131 Can I just say 0T that is is increasingly obvious which businesses have AI when you call and which do not , and I realize a real person cannot answer the phone all the time , but Good grief, it's annoying when "Machine answering Betty" does not understand what your issue is. Bah!

That intent of AI, and IVR in general, is to get people to hang up so you don't have to answer their actual question
Posted by: 18-1

It seems the Amazon AI support is incapable of comprehending that the wrong product they sent is worth nothing compared to the cost of their shipping and my time to take it UPS for return.
If I ever get the wrong product from them again I'll just tell them the box was empty. Then put a hold on the credit charge if I have to.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at August 23, 2025 01:02 PM (/lPRQ)

132 Then you got the abortion docs - they might literally get off on killing babies in the womb. Same with 'sex-change' doctors. Are they sick sadistic psychopaths or sincerely but mistakenly trying to 'help'?

Distinction without a difference. Maybe even worse if they really believe they are helping.

"Sex change" has an obvious motivation: that patient becomes a permanent reliable patient. The medical equivalent of software switching from ownership to a yearly license: you get guaranteed income. That's why all of the even-more-liberal European countries banned it first, because it's so expensive it was cutting into the graft built into their socialized medical systems.

Posted by: Ian S. at August 23, 2025 01:02 PM (QZThv)

133 Amtrak does show the schedule but you have to get into the booking the ride part. Amtrak is nice, up and down the West Coast. It had spotty service across the Midwest.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at August 23, 2025 01:03 PM (kUxzU)

134 Begs the question, which comes first, the chicken or the insane egg carrier?
-----------
The study adjusted for pre-existing mental illness.
Posted by: Ian S. at August 23, 2025 12:56 PM (QZThv)

I don't question the results of the study, just that this is such a complex issue, and would require a lot more study to better understand cause and effect.

That being said, I don't doubt abortion causes a great deal of distress in those who choose it. And no doubt much of that distress goes unmeasured by such outcomes as hospitalizations.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 23, 2025 01:04 PM (SJrOE)

135 The banjo isn't the problem. Neither is it's player.

Posted by: DaveA at August 23, 2025 01:04 PM (PMJuY)

136 129 120 Please take a moment in silent prayer for rickb223 as he laid his wife to rest this morning.

I am praying.

Posted by: Still lurking up north, read some, don't comment much at August 23, 2025 01:05 PM (kTd/k)

137 I don't question the results of the study, just that this is such a complex issue, and would require a lot more study to better understand cause and effect.

I don't disagree. It's notable that it was a 17 year study of 1.2 million though, so they certainly tried to cover everything. Also notable that it was done in Quebec, because there's no chance of being allowed to study that in the US.

Posted by: Ian S. at August 23, 2025 01:07 PM (QZThv)

138 Oh, you are missing a VERY BIG PIECE of this entire boondoggle. (whispers) EMINENT DOMAIN (you leaned in for the whisper and I shouted it...that way no one forgets)...and the acquisition of private land (based on "public necessity").

With what you know now about how the California politicians operate in securing private land through nefarious (and opportunistic ways such as fires, safety factors, flora and fauna preservation, flooding etc.) do you really think that land acquisition isn't a part of the current motivation? Maybe it wasn't for Jerry Brown, but it sure as sh*t is for the walking hair gel.

Posted by: Orson at August 23, 2025 01:09 PM (dIske)

139 It seems the Amazon AI support is incapable of comprehending that the wrong product they sent is worth nothing compared to the cost of their shipping and my time to take it UPS for return.

I once ordered a four pack of heat lamp bulbs for a terrarium. Half of them arrived broken. Amazon sent a replacement but only after I shipped back all four. Return shipping had to have cost them more than their margin on the order.

Posted by: Oddbob at August 23, 2025 01:09 PM (3nLb4)

140 Distinction without a difference. Maybe even worse if they really believe they are helping.
Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at August 23, 2025 12:58 PM (/lPRQ)

People wonder about the pedos, and how they can justify their actions. Apparently there are some who at least claim that sex with children is a purifying act, that leads to something or other.

I think it's all of the same cloth. Abortions, gender mutilation, pedophilia, it's about consuming the most precious, and vulnerable of the species.

It's evil, regardless of the rationalization behind it.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 23, 2025 01:09 PM (aIUZW)

141
I voted against the 2008 referendum to fund high speed rail. It was obvious that there was no need for it. Somehow it passed anyway -- perhaps the usual deceptive official description of the ballot measure played a part.

That same election, I voted against a stem cell initiative -- same reason, no need for it. But it passed:l.

I did not vote on Proposition 8, the amendment to
the state constitution that defined marriage as between man and woman. That passed, on the basis of minorities voting for it. Afterwards, the queers had riots, and doxxed and targeted anyone who had supported it, and a queer judge eventually overturned it -- most likely unlawfully. If I had it to do over, I would have voted in favor of it. The queers talked me into that.

Posted by: Semi-Literate Thug at August 23, 2025 01:09 PM (ES1Rb)

142 .
At another spot on the train path, we find "whoopsie" I just spilled my scalding coffee all over myself:

https://tinyurl.com/B00shee2

Posted by: Marooned at August 23, 2025 01:10 PM (kt8QE)

143 Years ago, when the kids were little, we took Amtrak from Lee's Summit (burb of KCMO) to Jefferson City (Capitol).
The observation car window was so scratched up, it wasn't worth being in the car.
I've been told it has changed for the better.
The best part was seeing all those small towns from a different perspective. Usually the oldest parts of each town and burg.

Posted by: MkY at August 23, 2025 01:10 PM (cPGH3)

144 I think it's all of the same cloth. Abortions, gender mutilation, pedophilia, it's about consuming the most precious, and vulnerable of the species.

It's evil, regardless of the rationalization behind it.

As Bill Gates said, kill a few billion and then there can be paradise. And it's absolutely demonic. The number of non-religious (even atheist) commentators who have come to that conclusion in the last 5 years is pretty striking.

Posted by: Ian S. at August 23, 2025 01:11 PM (QZThv)

145 Amtrak does show the schedule but you have to get into the booking the ride part. Amtrak is nice, up and down the West Coast. It had spotty service across the Midwest.
Posted by: Notsothoreau at August 23, 2025 01:03 PM (kUxzU)

I looked into a cross country trip. Getting a private berth is much more expensive than air travel.

And the thought of riding next to some smelly hobo for hours does not appeal to me.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 23, 2025 01:11 PM (aIUZW)

146 Bring back the baby shaker ap.

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at August 23, 2025 01:12 PM (bjaqF)

147 As Bill Gates said, kill a few billion and then there can be paradise. And it's absolutely demonic. The number of non-religious (even atheist) commentators who have come to that conclusion in the last 5 years is pretty striking.
Posted by: Ian S. at August 23, 2025 01:11 PM (QZThv)

The Georgia Guidestones were not just a suggestion.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 23, 2025 01:13 PM (aIUZW)

148 The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (our DMV) was caught selling Real ID licenses to illegals for $200 - $500. An estimated 1200 - 1500 illegals in KY received a Real ID this way. Several clerks in multiple county license offices were implicated.

I'd bet this is common elsewhere.
Posted by: Martini Farmer at August 23, 2025 11:30 AM (Q4IgG)

Since the stated purpose of Real ID was to thwart terrorism, charge those monkeys with treason for aiding and abetting terrorism, and hang them.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 23, 2025 01:13 PM (1w94Y)

149 133 Amtrak does show the schedule but you have to get into the booking the ride part. Amtrak is nice, up and down the West Coast. It had spotty service across the Midwest.
Posted by: Notsothoreau
------------

I have spent hours trying to find a schedule, I've called their telephone numbers with the same result. All I get is insert departure time, insert date,; We do not have a departure on that date, insert another time.
Please, tell me the secret to an actual schedule.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 23, 2025 01:14 PM (NUKfU)

150 The observation car window was so scratched up, it wasn't worth being in the car.
I've been told it has changed for the better.

As I said, you can see YouTube videos of every route Amtrak has now. The cars are in better condition than that, just not as good as you see in Japan or parts of Europe.

Probably the cleanest and best-operated American train I've seen (on video) is the Alaska Railroad. I want to go ride it for real sometime, because the scenery is incredible.

Posted by: Ian S. at August 23, 2025 01:14 PM (QZThv)

151 Nuther observation re: trains in the Midwest... most train tracks west of Sedalia were laid out prior to the towns even being built, and so most those little towns "downtown" are catty-whompus. Laid out according to the tracks, not compass points.

Posted by: MkY at August 23, 2025 01:14 PM (cPGH3)

152 Nuther observation re: trains in the Midwest... most train tracks west of Sedalia were laid out prior to the towns even being built, and so most those little towns "downtown" are catty-whompus. Laid out according to the tracks, not compass points.

There's a small town in, I think, KY or TN where the train tracks are just in the middle of the main road through the downtown. They have non-parallel parking spaces on both sides of the street so you can duck out of the way if the train comes.

Posted by: Ian S. at August 23, 2025 01:18 PM (QZThv)

153 A bit nervous this morning. Grandson of Diogenes is taking the SAT today.
Fingers crossed!

Posted by: Diogenes at August 23, 2025 01:21 PM (2WIwB)

154 It only took 6 years to build the trans continental RR!

Posted by: Cicero Skip at August 23, 2025 01:21 PM (JcXvW)

155 I think the very worst part about this whole High Cost Rail debacle, is that in its original form, it made 'some' sense... ie high speed transportation between Los Angelas and the San Fransico. The endpoints were both high population areas, where there MIGHT be enough travelers between them to make some economic sense.

But... Bakersfield to Merced? There is literally nothing in Merced, not even a good bar. There is no destination that will bring passengers.

And Bakersfield? Grew up near Merced, and I can't think of anyone ever who told me 'I have to go to Bakersfield for...'

Oh, and both Merced and Bakersfield, as well as Fresno in the middle? They are spread out urban areas, with no real downtowns or business districts. You need a CAR to get around them... so you'll ride a train for a couple of hours, then have to wait in line to get your rental car... for a trip that I can drive my truck in 2.5 hours.

Posted by: Romeo13 at August 23, 2025 01:23 PM (mP0Kj)

156 It only took 6 years to build the trans continental RR!
Posted by: Cicero Skip at August 23, 2025 01:21 PM (JcXvW)

Bring back the coolies!!!

Posted by: Diogenes at August 23, 2025 01:23 PM (2WIwB)

157 Trains are lovely.

But there’s nothing like driving on backroads, taking your time, stopping where you feel like it and not knowing exactly where you are all the time.

It’s liberating.
Posted by: nurse ratched at August 23, 2025 12:21 PM (mT+6a)

Exactly. Both train travel and air travel mean that you have to bend your schedule to that of the transport medium. With airlines, at least your are only hostage to their timetable for a few hours. I expect a train trip from Seattle to Corsicana would take 5 days, if it could be done at all. As a road trip? Maybe 3 days, and you could pick your route, and pick the scenery you want to marvel at, and the quaint bistros in which to dine.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 23, 2025 01:23 PM (1w94Y)

158 It's not so much 'kill' as blue-screen them.

Posted by: billg and the WEFers at August 23, 2025 01:25 PM (0sNs1)

159 I only recently learned, probably from one of the mid morning threads that the key purpose of these big infrastructure projects is not to build the infrastructure but just to send government money to selected cronies who will then give some percent of it back to the politicians.

The country would be in much better economic shape if we just turned a blind eye to politicians and agency directors directly scooping up funds vs them pushing these BS projects to get their few percent of the billions for the 'infrastructure" in kickbacks.

Posted by: PaleRider at August 23, 2025 01:27 PM (bP/i4)

160 I've done a lot of driving across the Canadian prairies and there's not a lot to see apart from the odd tree. Although there is an Al Capone tour in Moose Jaw.

Posted by: Still lurking up north, read some, don't comment much at August 23, 2025 01:27 PM (kTd/k)

161 Pushing safety experts aside and giving freight train cos. insurance relief; passenger cars could be attached to the end of freight trains.
The companies would make a profit and passengers would have a quicker ride.
Wouldn't need a station, just have Uber meet you at the stop.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 23, 2025 01:27 PM (NUKfU)

162 2 The only rail line that might - might - make sense is Southern Cal to Las Vegas. Doesn't have to be high speed, just avoiding the traffic would make it faster at normal rail speed.
Posted by: OrangeEnt
+++
It's already in the works. Brightline, which runs high speed trains from Miami to Orlando while continually losing money has started a new venture called Brightline West.

They plan to run high speed trains between Vegas and LA.
www.brightlinewest.com

Posted by: Florida Peasant at August 23, 2025 01:28 PM (Lo97M)

163 Playing my own banjo got me in trouble.

Posted by: Harvey W. at August 23, 2025 01:29 PM (0sNs1)

164 My grandfather used to travel fairly extensively on business but he hated to fly. If there was an alternative he was taking it.

When I was a kid he had a project in Los Angeles. This is in the before times when LA was a mythical wonderland. He and my grandmother took my mom, my sister on me on the Santa Fe Super Chief from Chicago to LA. It's hard to overstate what an incredible thing that was for a 7 year old kid.

Completely impractical and awesome.

Posted by: JackStraw at August 23, 2025 01:29 PM (viF8m)

165 The practical thing that AI can't do is exercise judgement.

And it has no soul.

Posted by: Beverly at August 23, 2025 01:31 PM (Epeb0)

166 A bit nervous this morning. Grandson of Diogenes is taking the SAT today.
Fingers crossed!
Posted by: Diogenes at August 23, 2025 01:21 PM

If two commenters comment on the Art Thread at the same time, but there is no dog in the painting, who's comment reigns supreme?

Posted by: AoSHQ version of the SAT at August 23, 2025 01:31 PM (0sNs1)

167 If two commenters comment on the Art Thread at the same time, but there is no dog in the painting, who's comment reigns supreme?
Posted by: AoSHQ version of the SAT at August 23, 2025 01:31 PM (0sNs1)

The answer is 6.

Posted by: SAT Answer Book at August 23, 2025 01:34 PM (2WIwB)

168 Planty flowery insectified thread is up

Posted by: kallisto at August 23, 2025 01:35 PM (dCxaZ)

169 They plan to run high speed trains between Vegas and LA.
www.brightlinewest.com
Posted by: Florida Peasant at August 23, 2025 01:28 PM (Lo97M)

It depends where they plan to locate the stations. LV is growing so far south along I 15 that there aren't many places left to place it. You put it too far away from the strip, and it'll be inconvenient. You put it closer, you'll have to demolish current sites. And where is the LA terminus? Doesn't say, but it would need to be near Disney and the studios. Getting off in Fontana still puts you quite a way away. I doubt it'll go all the way to the beaches.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 23, 2025 01:36 PM (0eaVi)

170 I've done a lot of driving across the Canadian prairies and there's not a lot to see apart from the odd tree. Although there is an Al Capone tour in Moose Jaw.
Posted by: Still lurking up north, read some, don't comment much at August 23, 2025 01:27 PM (kTd/k)

The Western Development Museums in Speedy Creek and Saskatoon are pretty cool. Also Cypress Hills, a little island of landscape that escaped glaciation.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 23, 2025 01:36 PM (1w94Y)

171 And it has no soul.
Posted by: Beverly at August 23, 2025 01:31 PM (Epeb0)

To be fair, neither has the accounting department

Posted by: Kindltot at August 23, 2025 01:36 PM (rbvCR)

172 Across Texas, it’s easy to tell the train towns (founded post 1870’s) from the towns founded before. The older towns are all built on the classic town square design, with the Courthouse at the center, and the town radiating out from it. Train towns are all long and narrow, with the businesses lined up along a main road with the tracks right behind them.

Posted by: Tom Servo at August 23, 2025 01:37 PM (PfGa7)

173 I have heard that years, ok it was decades, ago traveling by railroad was quite a bit faster than driving.

Commiecrats gush over the European rail travel but I have read that that comes at the cost of not having decent rail freight service vs the U.S. so they end up having way more trucks on their roads compared to us.

I think its better to have the freight tied to a given route and let people pick their own routes and times.

Posted by: PaleRider at August 23, 2025 01:38 PM (bP/i4)

174 There are not going to be any high speed trains built in this country, no matter how much money is thrown at them. It’s fantasy 19th century tech that has no place in a 21st century world.

Posted by: Tom Servo at August 23, 2025 01:41 PM (PfGa7)

175 They plan to run high speed trains between Vegas and LA.
www.brightlinewest.com

Posted by: Florida Peasant at August 23, 2025 01:28 PM (Lo97M)

They better make sure the return leg to LA is pre-paid up front.

Posted by: Chairborne!...Desk From Above! at August 23, 2025 01:42 PM (W6d+C)

176 They better make sure the return leg to LA is pre-paid up front.
Posted by: Chairborne!...Desk From Above! at August 23, 2025 01:42 PM (W6d+C)

They say stops in Apple Valley, Hesperia, and Rancho Cuke a monga! Then link to city buses. Yeah, like I'd ride an LA Metro bus...,.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 23, 2025 01:43 PM (0eaVi)

177 Go to the three lines at the top and click on Plan. Then Explore All Routes. Choose the route you want and it should show actual times

Posted by: Notsothoreau at August 23, 2025 01:44 PM (kUxzU)

178 So if a high speed train leaves Vegas going to LA at 120mph, and another leaves Merced going 90mph, how soon with the first house get rebuilt in Palisades?

Posted by: Diogenes at August 23, 2025 01:45 PM (2WIwB)

179 >>There are not going to be any high speed trains built in this country, no matter how much money is thrown at them. It’s fantasy 19th century tech that has no place in a 21st century world.

The northeast corridor, from Boston to DC with a major stop in NYC, is the busiest and most profitable part of Amtrak. When I was living in Boston and often commuting to NYC it was fantastic. The Back Bay station was a couple blocks from my condo and drops you off in Midtown Manhattan. Easy peasy.

X number of years ago they decided to add a "high speed" version called Acela. The only problem was it ran on the exact same tracks as the normal train. It skips some of the stations along the way and cranks up the top speed a bit but it really wasn't that different.

That's a route that could benefit from a high speed train but it will never happen. Nobody is going to pay for the rails necessary to carry those speeds.

Posted by: JackStraw at August 23, 2025 01:50 PM (viF8m)

180 Train travel on Amtrak, if you had flexibility about departures, arrivals and travel time, was better than air travel because you didn’t have TSA at the train station. TSA tried to get control of train travel too but were officially rebuffed by Amtrak, which has its own police force. But when COVID came there was nothing worse than Amtrak when it came to enforcing petty, nonsensical rules with the threat of dropping you and your bags off in the next station, usually Podunk in the state of Nowhere. They have since backed off of that but the masks when pulled off showed that Amtrak is an arm of the federal government, for good or ill.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at August 23, 2025 01:54 PM (ZVgZ4)

181 >>>174 There are not going to be any high speed trains built in this country, no matter how much money is thrown at them. It’s fantasy 19th century tech that has no place in a 21st century world.
Posted by: Tom Servo
-------------

There are places that high speed or even freight speed (70/80mph)
have a place but they are always corrupted by graft. That CA to LV non-stop is very sensible w/many upsides.
But just like the Houston to Dallas, which is also sensible as a straight line non-stop was turned into a circuitous route around the state.

The original idea of a straight line between two big city business hubs that would take less time and be more convenient than flying was turned into ride time consuming, graft crap trap, no one would ride, that would ruin farm land and disrupt the state.
Thank goodness Trump killed it.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 23, 2025 01:54 PM (NUKfU)

182 I’ve travelled on an Amtrak train from New York City to Montréal, not on an Acela train, that got up to 120 mph as measured by my GPS app on my iPad on the straight passages of track.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at August 23, 2025 01:58 PM (ZVgZ4)

183 Back to the sun.

https://tinyurl.com/3bjzaskc

Posted by: JackStraw at August 23, 2025 02:03 PM (viF8m)

184 Nood - pretty flowers!

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at August 23, 2025 02:04 PM (ZVgZ4)

185 Completely impractical and awesome.
Posted by: JackStraw at August 23, 2025 01:29 PM (viF8m)

And there you have the embodiment of modern train travel in America.

Posted by: GWB at August 23, 2025 02:06 PM (1PcCZ)

186 We are going to Portugal this Fall, and the plan includes a last day trip train ride from Faro to Lisbon. Anyone know anything about Portuguese trains? I am familiar with Germany, wife knows the Italian rail system, neither of us know crap about Portugal. How is the train system?

Posted by: Lincolntf at August 23, 2025 02:07 PM (vV6n9)

187 Go visit according to hoyt dot com and ask her.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at August 23, 2025 02:17 PM (ULPxl)

188 At two years old, I rode the City of New Orleans from Chicago to Memphis. Grandma took me along (I think my mom was pregnant). Clear memory of the sheets on the berth as absolutely crisp and smelling wonderful, and the books grandma bought. I don't know how the other passengers tolerated a crazy toddler, but those books, endlessly repeated, started my reading.

Posted by: mustbequantum at August 23, 2025 02:33 PM (blVh+)

189 OPEN THREAD...

" Rick Wilson Declares President Trump a ‘Sick Pedophile’ "

More projection.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at August 23, 2025 02:34 PM (/lPRQ)

190 Bwahahahaha!!!!
Someone threw a green dildo on the field at the Titans-Viqueens game.
I wonder if the cheerleaders screamed?

Posted by: Diogenes at August 23, 2025 02:40 PM (2WIwB)

191 @Diogenes, I don't like the whole green dildo phenomenon, but it is kind of hilarious to see it leak over into the NFL. Maybe the WNBA has a chance. I'm picturing some grizzled old Green Bay fan, scratching his beard and ruminating out loud about "those dang green dick toys that saved our season" in 2048.

Posted by: Lincolntf at August 23, 2025 02:59 PM (vV6n9)

192 >>At two years old, I rode the City of New Orleans from Chicago to Memphis.

https://tinyurl.com/mpck2rmk

Posted by: JackStraw at August 23, 2025 03:00 PM (viF8m)

193 High Speed Rail is intended to starve the roads of maintenance and new construction. The state religion says driving is a sin.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at August 23, 2025 03:32 PM (RIvkX)

194 "In 2025, artificial intelligence IS THAT GUY."

That's because AI was programmed BY THAT GUY!!!

Posted by: Mr. Right at August 23, 2025 04:00 PM (qbYk4)

195 For less money than they've (er) wasted they could have built rail with stations at L.A., San Francisco, and Sacramento only. I could be running today and generating income. Profitable? Quen sabe. But it would be functional, have riders and generate cash flow.

Assuming they keep thugs off of it.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 23, 2025 04:03 PM (NUKfU)

196 Here it is:

Dildos on the Court

youtube.com/watch?v=NmBpKuOouj8

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 23, 2025 04:15 PM (DS3M8)

197 A creative genius could find a way to smuggle a giant green inflatable with small drone prop to push it through the goal posts.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at August 23, 2025 04:32 PM (/lPRQ)

198 Skip must be taking a nap.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 23, 2025 04:33 PM (DS3M8)

199 My son is that guy. It's called "autism".

Posted by: 370H55V I/me/mine at August 23, 2025 07:05 PM (wPOv3)

200 Like I said, AI is like the autistic version of computers, 25% of the time is amazing and 75% retard.

Posted by: Kenneth King Neil at August 23, 2025 08:05 PM (/g9JB)

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