Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Wild Hoss]

Crash, no one says the Russians altered the election. That's right wing spew in the media without foundation for their soft minded followers. Nearly everyone believes that the Russkies did try to influence it. I, like the vast majority of people, don't think they were successful. An attempt to undermine our democratic process is an act of war, imo. That is far more important than the election of a shithead to the Presidency. The trouble is, the POSOTUS thinks if there was interference, then his election is delegitimized, WHICH IT ISN'T. The Trumpanzees don't want to be confused with the facts. Without their phony outrage, they have all the substance of a wisp of wind. The WH has been unable to transition from Trumpworld where reality is whatever Dear Leader says it is or pays people to say it is and actual reality where the other 6 billion people on the planet live.

There is no question they altered the campaign.

Are we really going to sit here and suggest that the email leaks had no impact on the Clinton campaign? I mean...the Russians didn't do it just for kicks.

[THE_WIZARD_]

shaddup

[Wild Hoss]

Right, and there isn't the political need or will at this point. Columbus is a fairly large city land-wise and, stunningly, something like he 15th largest city in the country. I'm not sure a vote for train service could get more than 10% in an area that now leans D.

When I lived in Cleveland I could take the train. It saved me about $100/month. The trip downtown to my stop took 45 minutes. I could drive it in 25-30. The train schedule at night was awful. If I didn't leave at 5, I had to time up my departure on half-hour intervals or take a cab. I did it for 4 years until we had kids. I was pretty indifferent. I mostly hated driving the commute, but the convenience and control were great. I loved reading on the train, but when I wanted to get home fast it sucked.

And that's for a fairly suckass commute through the East Side of Cleveland on city streets that, in a lot of spots, bordered on bombed out.

I can't imagine commuting in LA or Atlanta, but then again, I can't imagine living in a city where I couldn't get to and fro my job with acceptable efficiency.

Here in KC either. There is a small light rail project up and running downtown, and its popular. It might be expanded to connect to The Plaza. That's cool.

Beyond that...the KC metro is an enormous mishmash of communities. It takes 45 minutes, on a good day, to traverse its entirety by car. The amount of dough required to buy land and lay track to connect all of that in useful fashion is incomprehensible.

Now, speedier trains between select major downtown metros? We could talk.

[crashcourse]

"An attempt to undermine our democratic process is an act of war, imo. That is far more important than the election of a shithead to the Presidency"

there are a lot of countries that should be at war with us if that's the case and we should have declared war staring in 1960 on the Russians

I agree the Russians attempting to break into our voter data banks is something that should be investigated thoroughly. I disagree that the center of said invstigation has migrated into all of our assets 17 different committies and agencies trying to find collusion and or obstruction with this administration and the Russians. its a witch hunt.

meanwhile sensitive people in sensitive places hire guys who work for them years--are banned from congressional electronic records yet still being paid by DWS until yesterday when he was fired trying to flee the country.

I imagine they'll find him with 3 bullet holes in his head and call it suicide

[Da Geezer]

If they completely exonerate the Chump campaign, will you disregard their findings for the reasons you state above?

First, they won't exonerate the Trump campaign. Please name any Special Council or Special Prosecutor that has failed to come up with criminal charges against someone. Remember, all this Sessions talk started when Meuller began to investigate Trump's finances. I suspect Trump wanted the AG to tell Meuller that Trump's finances are beyond the scope of the Russian investigation, and I suspect the AG refused.

Second, I am saying that there is an appearance of impropriety. Do you disagree with that? You are a rabid Dem. How much have you given to the party? $30,000? I bet not. Why not at least pick a never-Trump Rep just for window dressing? No, the fix is in.

[froot loops]

In infrastructure spending there is a bias towards new projects that are flashy. Politicians want ribbon cutting ceremonies. But you really get more bang for your buck in improving existing infrastructure. That costs money and doesn't really gain votes for the politicians.

It's hard to deal in counterfactuals, they should have spent a lot of money to improve the levee system in New Orleans. It got pushed off because that wasn't a high profile project. In NY, they have skimp forever on maintenance on the subway system. There has been a need for a new Soo Lock for 30 years. The current lock has had shutdowns for long stretches. There was a governmental report indicating that a prolong failure of the lock could cause the economy of the US to go into a recession because of its a single point of failure.

[froot loops]

First, they won't exonerate the Trump campaign. Please name any Special Council or Special Prosecutor that has failed to come up with criminal charges against someone. Remember, all this Sessions talk started when Meuller began to investigate Trump's finances. I suspect Trump wanted the AG to tell Meuller that Trump's finances are beyond the scope of the Russian investigation, and I suspect the AG refused.

Second, I am saying that there is an appearance of impropriety. Do you disagree with that? You are a rabid Dem. How much have you given to the party? $30,000? I bet not. Why not at least pick a never-Trump Rep just for window dressing? No, the fix is in.

All of this is because they were meeting with Russians and lied about all of these meetings. If the meetings were in the up and up, they should have disclosed it. They certainly aren't acting like innocent people. He is the one that fired Comey and gave an absolutely ridiculous excuse that no smart person bought.

[WM Wolverine]

Absolutely nothing is transparent in this administration, Froot. In fact, Trump's administration is going out of their way to make a lot of things that were transparent in the government confidential.

[Da Geezer]

One of Obama's infrastructure initiatives was rail. The Feds had projects they wanted done and if the State the project was in wanted to match the Feds contribution, off we went. In Ohio they wanted to build a rail connecting Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. The cost to the state was something like $250M. Kasich told them hell no. At that point I knew I could vote for the guy

True.

The whole light rail debate here is missing a couple components, though.

1. About 25 years ago, a movement toward what was called "smart growth" began. I was in Boulder CO when the county board banned the subdivision of properties in what would be called the suburbs of Boulder, allegedly trying to get people to move downtown. Rail was a big part of the plan, and a high cost of gasoline was crucial to the sales pitch. Cities like SF and Portland did the same thing. In each city, the middle-class and poor were displaced by progressive Yuppies.

2. The US differs from Europe in that gasoline is cheap here. The country owes a debt to frackers for keeping us from becoming like Europe, Remember, Obama warned us that energy would cost "much more" and we would have to adjust. Another way Americans are exceptional is that they value personal liberty above equality. When the cost of driving a car is equal to that of light rail, Americans would prefer the flexibility of the auto.

3. Let's not forget that Obama embarked on an "infrastructure" plan for "shovel-ready" projects in 2009. Congress appropriated $ 840 Billion for the plan. It turned out that the majority of the money found its way to green energy projects owned by Democrats. I think now the Rs want their day at the trough.

4. This is a big country. We have lots of land. Americans, particularly those in the middle of the country, still desire suburban homes on a fair chunk of land. If those in urban areas want light rail, or want to get rid of the poor by driving up inner-city real estate values, let the urbanists vote to do so using their own money. We all know that won't happen.

[Wild Hoss]

Absolutely nothing is transparent in this administration, Froot. In fact, Trump's administration is going out of their way to make a lot of things that were transparent in the government confidential.

As has been mentioned here before, if there really is nothing to the Russia ties then the best outcome for Trump, and the GOP, is for the investigation to run its course and die a very public and futile death. The admin is most certainly not taking that approach however, which leaves open a few possibilities.

There is something there, and the President is doing a terrible job of managing the situation.

There is nothing there, but the Admin wants it appear that there is, as some sort of misdirection.

There is nothing there, but the President is a whackjob with such a rampant, yet fragile, ego, that he cannot abide being questioned.

I just cannot buy the middle option, that this is some type of carefully orchestrated theater. There is nothing else in this administration?s performance to indicate that kind of competence is remotely possible.

I could be sold on the third option, but there is an awful lot of circumstantial evidence piling up against it.

So I believe it is the first option...but what ?something? turns out to be has a wide array of possibilities. Trump is a paranoid egomaniac, so there?s no telling how inconsequential the hills he chooses to die might actually be. Or he could be up to his whitey-tighties in Russian debt. :shrug:

[WM Wolverine]

There has to be validity to the working or colluding with the Russians, even if it's like you say, a minuscule issue. Most people don't go to the great lengths and countless denials the Trump administration has went to and all the resignation/firings in his administration, to cover up a small incident. Trump is a much different beast that what we've ever experienced in the US, he doesn't want transparency on anything large or small.

[Wild Hoss]

I hear you...but the Trumps are one creepy, weird group of folks. They are definitely not most people. Thank goodness.

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[hack]

If things were working the way the Founders intended, we’d be haranguing about tax reform in here.


There's no real tax reform unless they do the border tax or they kill Obamacare and redirect the savings to rich people and corporations. You can't get below a headline 27%/28% corporate rate without one of those two things. The border tax turned out a non-starter, so they're doing "health-care reform" first. If they don't do this, then Trump can do a minor fixed-period tax cut without all the hard work of actually reforming the tax code, which is needed if done right.

Or, at least, that's how I recall it from the last time I looked.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Run for office Hoss...

[hack]

Run, Wiz. In any direction. Don't stop.