From the AP:
A new poll finds California voters are experiencing buyers’ remorse over a proposed $68 billion bullet train project, as the number of lawsuits against the rail system grows.
Fifty-five percent of voters want to see the high-speed rail bond issue that was approved in 2008 back on the ballot, and 59 percent say they would now vote against it, according to the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times survey (lat.ms/N9tTcm) published Saturday.
Since the $9 billion borrowing plan was passed, the projected cost of the bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco has roughly doubled, and it will now share track with slower commuter and freight trains in some areas, the Times said.
A majority of voters have turned against the ambitious undertaking just as Gov. Jerry Brown is pushing lawmakers to approve the start of construction in the Central Valley later this year.
Scott Walker? How about something useful like a Jerry Brown recall election? Oh, well, not happening. If you can’t get it, sing it, I always say.
Train? Chain? This one’s easy. We just need some new lyrics. Here’s the old standard in the classic Aretha version. Buzzsawmonkey, take it away….
“How about something useful like a Jerry Brown recall election?”
And replace him with whom? Gavin “Brylcream” Newsom? Kamala Harris? To do any real good, we’d have to recall not only Brown, but all the statewide elected officials and 70% of the legislature.
The last time we had a recall, we chose Arnie. That worked out well.
The real problem here in California is the average voter, who just isn’t paying attention to all the damage being done by the fools in Sacramento, and who buy every fantasy sold them, such as high-speed trains.
Side note: I’m surprised there isn’t a petition drive underway for a ballot initiative to repeal the one that authorized this “train to nowhere.” With the current mood, it might qualify quickly.
So hows that Embrionic Stem Cell Research coming along?
Shouldn’t we have cures for Alzheimer’s and Paralysis by now?
Not being satisfied with a mere road to serfdom, Democrats are pushing High Speed Trains to Serfdom, with bribes, kickbacks and corruption for everyone!
– Commissioner Jones is more qualified than either Newsom or Harris.
And as far left as they are.
Speaking of greenies, our good buddy Johnny ***A Physicist*** (posting as “A fan of *MORE* discourse”) has surfaced at Judy Curry’s site. I’m happy to report that he’s as off-topic and off-the-wall as ever.
He’s popped up at wattsupwiththat as well
Train of Fools
—apologies to Aretha Franklin and “Chain of Fools”
Train, train, train
(Train, train train)
Train, train, train
(Train, train train)
Train, train, train
(Train, train train)
Train of fools
Four years ago
We voted for your plan
It’s time that you found out
That we don’t want your train
The price already doubled
Even though it shares track
With lots of slow traffic
Oh, you got to take it back
Train, train, train
(Train, train train)
Train of fools
You want to know where your plan is weak?
We don’t need a train
You know we like our cars
Oh, yeah
Gonna take far too long to build
Cost more money than we have
And nobody wants to ride
Oh, but your green lobby is so strong
That we’re stuck with your
Train, train, train
(Train, train train)
Train, train, train
(Train, train train)
Train, train, train
(Train, train train)
Train of fools
One of these mornings
Voters are gonna wake
But until that day
From the treasury you’ll take, oh, hey
Train, train, train
(Train, train train)
Train, train, train
(Train, train train)
Train, train, train
(Train, train train)
Train of fools
Train, train, train
Train, train, train
Train, train, train
Train of fools
And, as value added, in case they decide to go to maglev:
MagLev? Nay.
—with apologies to Rod Stewart and “Maggie May”
Wake up, MagLev, I think I’ve got something to say to you
I can’t spend as much as your proponents want me to
I know you promise me speed
But there’s really not a market need
Oh, MagLev, I don’t think I’ll try any more
I know that Congress passed a bill so it could dip into the public till
You stole my taxes and that’s what really hurts
I could have high speed just by upgrading the old track gauge
But to build you up to functioning I’d have to change everything
At first I really couldn’t wait, to ride a train that levitates
But MagLev, I don’t think I’ll try any more
If I ever have the urge to roam, if I want to go away from home
You’re a luxury I’m afraid I can do without
All I needed was a train that ran reliably
But now my mind boggles ’cause your
Cost boondoggles just wore me out
You just drained my treasury
Rode me on a rail to penury
Oh MagLev, I don’t think I’ll try anymore
If I ever have the urge to roam, if I want to go away from home
You’re a luxury I’m gonna have to do without
If I balance my books maybe I could build a regular train
Though it means I’d have to start all over from scratch again
Or let private industry see what it can develop for me
Oh MagLev, I wish I’d never seen your specs
You made a first-class fool out of me
But I’m as blind as a fool can be
You stole my taxes but I love you anyway
MagLev, I wish I’d never seen your specs
I’ll get a working train one of these days
Individual recalls are exercises in futility. California needs a “spit-it-out” law where every elected official is removed from office simultaneously, barred for ever holding another government position for life, and encouraged to leave the state through a special 100% surcharge on their California income tax.
Not just leave the state but leave the country, we don’t need them stinking up any of the other states.
If the monarchies and elites of 19th century Europe still existed, California would be the evidence they needed in order to say democracies can’t work, the common people can’t govern.
Problem being nobody in California, absolutely nobody, under the age of 65 will ever admit to being common. Common people work in factories so we ran all of them out. Common people work on farms and build houses and wash dishes so we replaced them with illegal immigrants. Common people fix roads and bridges so we stopped doing that. The “common people” who need to work moved somewhere else. Like Texas.
The high speed train was just as stupid an idea in 2008 as it is today. What has changed? Is it that voters are happy to vote for stupid spending when times are good, but not when times are bad?
It seems not enough understand that stupid government spending is often what turns good times into bad times.
Excellent stuff as always.
I hear some of these songs on the radio and I’m starting to sing them with the Buzz version in my head.
The “Big Dig” was estimated to cost $2.6 billion prior to commencement of construction. The final cost was $14.8 billion (5x the estimate). One should remember that the $68 billion for the Bullet Train is still just an initial estimate.
Once upon a time there was an governeer
Choo Choo Jerry was his name, we hear.
He had an engine and he sure had fun
He used Deficit Spending money to make his train run.
Jerry says “Love my Deficit Spending”
Charlie says “Really rings my bell!”
Charlie says “Spend it on the Choo Choo!”
Don’t know any other spending that I love so well!
Once upon a time there was an governeer
Choo Choo Jerry was his name, we hear.
He had an engine and he sure had fun
He used Deficit Spending money to make his train run.
Jerry says “Love my Deficit Spending”
Jerry says “Really rings my bell!”
Jerry says “Spend it on the Choo Choo!”
Don’t know any other spending that I love so well!
–
buggers. why hasn’t the edit function ever worked on the tatler threads?
“Driving that train, high on cocaine.
Casey Jones you better watch your speed.”
Grateful Dead
Obama hyped this high-speed train. Enough said.
“it will now share track with slower commuter and freight trains in some areas”
Will the bullet trains smash the slower trains to get ahead?
Re: Arnold. Arnold was alright as a governor though his first (post recall) administration. Not great, but about as good as you could expect from “the land of fruits and nuts.” After his 2 budget reforming propositions went down to staggering defeat (at the same time he was re-elected) in 2006 he changed. That was when he brought in a Kennedy hack as Chief-of-Staff and disassociated himself from the Republican party.
I’ve always wondered if his secret “baby Mama” showed up at this time and Arnold traded ideological “evolution” with his wife Maria Shriver (daughter of Kennedy sycophant Sargent Shriver) for her silence until the end of his second term. I don’t really know, just a suspicion.
Bottom line: don’t trust the 2003 California recall as emblematic of the process.
For 69 billion the thing should make a stop at Mars. In a few decades So. Cal. will be transporting people on box cars. So. Cal. will be the first example in American history of white flight from an entire section of a state. After it becomes Third World 2.0, they’ll be sneaking in from the 49th and 1/2 state to the rest of America.
The wonderful irony here is that the hyper-regulatory, tort-lawyer strewn, bureaucratic regulatory environment that liberals have created in California and elsewhere is in the end what’s going to kill the high-speed rail project.
You can’t get the bloated costs down because you can’t get the train’s dedicated high-speed trackage built without jumping through a myriad of bureaucratic hoops. And even then, you can’t get it built to the urban-center terminals that people who would ride the train would actually want to go because you’ve empowered the NIMBY types to hire lawyers who would tie the project up in knots to make sure their clients (who probably voted for Gov. Moonbeam now and in the 1970s) aren’t inconvenienced by any construction near their homes or properties.
I have just the answer to high-speed rail.
High-speed submarines between SF and LA! All the same speed, all the same cost, but you won’t have to go through Fresno.
Democrats want this project. It’s fat jobs for their contributors, Union Construction and Crony Contracting. The State doesn’t have the money for it. He could put funding it on the ballot and the people would kill it. Dems will try to continue to fund it from existing revenue streams. They will float tax hikes before the voters, but not for rail. They will cite the State’s pending insolvency and ask the voters to hike their own taxes under threat of the State closing the parks and libraries.
Our Senators and Congressmen, Our State Senators and Assemblymen, and our County Commisioners are an organized team. A vote for any Democrat is a vote for High Speed Rail.
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